Kilombero Weaver Ploceus burnieri Scientific name definitions

13 cm; male 17–21 g, female 14–17 g. Male breeding has yellow head, washed tawny-orange on forehead and crown, lores, cheek, chin and throat black with chestnut-orange margin, forming bib on upper breast; mantle and back olive-green, rump yellow, tail olive-green; upperwings grey-brown, remiges with narrow yellow edges, wing-coverts with yellow tips (forming bars on closed wing); neck and underparts yellow, with orange wash on chest; iris deep brown; bill black; legs brownish-grey to dusky pinkish. Male non-breeding apparently not described. Female breeding has forehead, crown and nape olive-brown with darker feather centres, narrow pale buff supercilium; mantle and back dull olive, more heavily streaked than crown, rump plain brown with greenish tinge and only faint streaking, tail olive-green; wings grey-brown, paler margins on wing-coverts; cheek, ear-coverts, chin and throat buffy yellow, breast rich buff, belly, flanks and undertail-coverts whitish-buff, thighs buff; upper mandible dark grey, lower mandible dusky orangish. Female non-breeding undescribed. Juvenile undescribed.

SC Tanzania (R Kilombero floodplain).

VULNERABLE. Restricted range species: present in Kilombero Floodplain Secondary Area. Locally common. Has very small global range, limited to area of less than 1500 km² in seasonally flooded grasslands of R Kilombero floodplain, where distribution patchy. Habitat threatened by expanding agriculture, grazing and increase in cultivation, also by burning in order to clear fields and to promote new grass growth for livestock; plans for further large-scale sugar cane cultivation a potential threat, as is expansion of rice-growing in the area. Possible adverse effects of increased use of fertilizer and pesticides not studied, but could be significant. Because it has such a small total range, this species could suffer a drastic population decline; its numbers should be monitored.