Maxwell's Black Weaver Ploceus albinucha Scientific name definitions

13–15 cm; 25–30 g. Nominate race has plumage black, with glossy upper­parts, nape feathers with white bases, showing as pale patch (especially when plumage worn); iris white to greenish-white; bill black; legs brown. Sexes alike. Juvenile is dark brown to blackish above, lacking gloss, dull charcoal-grey below, iris brown, bill brown. Race maxwelli has completely black nape feathers, immature is washed with yellow below; holomelas adult is like previous, juvenile grey below as in nominate.

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Lowland evergreen forest, also near villages surrounded by secondary forest, and often in vicinity of rivers and creeks. Mainly lowlands; to 850 m in Cameroon.

No information; presumed resident.

Diet insects, including grasshoppers (Orthoptera) and caterpillars (Lepidoptera); also berries, and nectar from flowering trees. Of 13 stomach samples, twelve contained insect remains, two also fruit. Forages at various levels. Hawks insects in canopy, then foraging mostly singly; at lower levels in small parties, usually fewer than twelve individuals together, but up to 20 in PRCongo. Also joins mixed-species flocks. Assembles at large, noisy roosts in evening.

Soft swizzling call may represent song. Contact call  when in flocks "chick chick".

In W Africa, active nests in Feb in Sierra Leone, fledglings seen Nov–Dec in Liberia and Ghana, and birds with enlarged gonads in Mar in Cameroon; breeds Feb and Jun–Aug in DRCongo. Probably polygynous. Colonial, with 20–500 nests in colony; sometimes in mixed colonies with P. nigerrimus and P. cucullatus, less often with P. aurantius; in Nigeria, not found in association with P. cucullatus. Nest a rough ball, entrance below and almost no tunnel, constructed from thin creepers or woven from strips of banana (Musa) leaves, placed at tip of pendulous branch generally high in crown of tree, more than 10 m above ground; colony of 20 nests in Sierra Leone was directly below nest of Crowned Eagle (Stephanoaetus coronatus). No other information.

Not globally threatened. Uncommon to locally fairly common; rare in Uganda. Possibly vulnerable to destruction of forest habitat. In villages, young in nesting colony sometimes harvested for food.