A very small, sandy-colored finch-like weaver with a scaly crown, a pale pink bill, and a black moustache on a white throat that gives it a fierce-looking expression. Small groups are resident and nomadic in grassy arid savanna, where there are trees and scrub nearby in which to build their untidy oval grass nests. The species sometimes gives a soft, reedy “cheet-cheet-cheet” flight call. The Sociable Weaver is much larger than the Scaly Weaver, with a blue-gray bill.