Tanganyika Masked-Weaver Ploceus reichardi Scientific name definitions

14 cm. Male breeding has black forehead, lores, cheek, ear-coverts, chin and throat, black extending to a point on breast; crown dark chestnut-brown to behind eye, hindcrown and nape golden-yellow, mantle and back greenish-yellow, rump golden-yellow, tail greenish; upperwing brownish, remiges with narrow yellow margins, wing-coverts with broad yellow edges and yellow tips; breast and flanks chestnut-brown, thighs, centre of belly and undertail-coverts golden-yellow; iris red; bill black; legs brown. Female breeding has greenish-yellow upperparts, light streaking on head and mantle; yellow below, orange wash on breast; iris brown, bill and legs brown. Non-breeding plumages apparently undescribed. Juvenile resembles female.

Local in W Tanzania and extreme NE Zambia.

Swamps with papyrus (Cyperus papyrus), bulrushes (Typha) and Phragmites reeds, sometimes far from dry land; roosts in swamps.

Presumed resident.

Diet mainly grass seeds. Forages in woodland with termitaria; presumably takes termites (Isoptera).

Song described as unmusical mixture of chattering and chirps with occasional trill. Also "click", "chuck" and rapid "chut-chut" calls.

Breeds in Apr in Tanzania; probably Dec in Zambia. Probably polygynous. Males territorial, in colonies with up to 150 nests. Nest retort-shaped without entrance tunnel, tightly woven by male from narrow strips of grass blades, with distinct ceiling of grass strips, bowl lined with fine grass panicles and some feathers; suspended from bushes over water, or attached at side to single grass or reed stalks, 1·5-3 m above ground or water level. Clutch 2–3 eggs, either bluish with dark brown spots or greyish-olive with diffuse darker markings, average size of seven eggs 20·4 x 13·8 mm (Tanzania); no information on incubation and nestling periods. Some colonies in bushes were destroyed by feeding elephants.

Not globally threatened. Restricted range species: present in South-west Tanzanian Swamps Secondary Area. Very poorly known species, with apparently limited distribution. Current status at L Rukwa (Tanzania) uncertain; much of the area now falls within declared game reserves. Local people formerly collected nestlings for food; no information on whether this practice continues.