Salvadori's Weaver Ploceus dichrocephalus Scientific name definitions

13 cm; 18–20 g. Male breeding has blackish-brown head turning to bright maroon on nape and neck, mantle and back greenish-yellow, rump bright yellow; tail olive-green, rectrices with yellow fringes; upperwing olive-brown, remiges with narrow yellow edges, tertials and wing-coverts with broad yellow margins; dark bib on throat blends into rich orange-chestnut on breast and flanks; centre of belly, thighs and undertail-coverts yellow; iris deep red-brown to red; bill black; legs brownish-pink. Male non-breeding and female have forehead, crown and nape dull olive-brown, mantle and back olive-brown with indistinct dark streaks, rump light brown; wings and tail olive-green, remiges and rectrices with narrow yellow margins, inner webs of remiges broad yellow, wing-coverts with yellow-buff margins; buff supercilium, light brown cheek and ear-coverts; chin and throat whitish, breast white with buffy wash, belly , flanks, thighs and undertail-coverts dull white with buffy wash; iris brown, dark brown upper mandible, light brown lower mandible. Juvenile resembles female, but with browner upperparts, buffy wash on underparts.

Riverine bush in Kenya and Somalia; in Ethiopia savanna, even in semi-desert areas, and Acacia-Commiphora thornbush. Below 1500 m.

Presumed resident.

Diet seeds, probably also insects. Generally in pairs and small groups.

Song described as rambling and unmusical, with squeaky, snoring and buzzing notes.

Breeds in Mar in Ethiopia. Probably polygynous. Colonial, nesting in small groups in trees or reeds. Nest oval, with virtually no entrance tunnel, woven from grass, lined with fine grass, suspended from tip of branch or at side from a single reed. Clutch 2 eggs, pale greenish-blue or greyish-green, spotted with brown and lilac, size 20·5 x 14·5 mm (one egg from Ethiopia). No other information.

Not globally threatened. Restricted range species: present in Jubba and Shabeelle Valleys EBA. Locally common; uncommon in Somalia. No known breeding records for Kenya or Somalia. Very little known; occurs in sparsely populated regions. Present in Babelle Elephant Sanctuary, in Ethiopia, and recorded in Balcad Nature Reserve, in Somalia.