A small, yellow-eyed masked-weaver with a plain green back. The breeding male has a black face mask extending to a point on the upper breast, without a chestnut wash around the mask. Female and juvenile are duller, with a buff wash on the breast and a lightly streaked back. A fairly common resident throughout open savanna and semi-arid areas, often nesting colonially near ant and wasp nests. Many similar-looking weavers do not overlap in range with Heuglin’s: the larger Village and Vitelline Masked-Weavers have red eyes, and Lesser Masked-Weaver has a black (not yellow) forehead.