Sakalava Weaver Ploceus sakalava Scientific name definitions

15 cm; 20–28 g. Male breeding has sharply demarcated yellow head to upper breast ; feathers of mantle and scapulars grey-brown with ill-defined darker centres, fringed paler brown in fresh plumage, rump broadly grey; upperwing and tail dark brown, with narrow paler edges on remiges and rectrices, broader light cinnamon-buff to pale buff fringes on tertials and greater coverts, median coverts with buffy-white tips forming wingbar; lower breast , belly and flanks grey, undertail-coverts dull white; iris deep brown, bare reddish skin around eye; bill light blue-grey; legs dusky pinkish. Male non-breeding has head grey, bare skin around eye pale pink, bill pale grey. Female has grey head with lores paler greyish-buff, cheek and long supercilium rusty, and grey and rusty double stripe separating cheek from throat; in other respects resembles non-breeding male, but underparts paler, with whitish throat and undertail-coverts, some buff on sides. Juvenile resembles female, but paler, particularly on head, with pale horn-coloured bill. Races very similar to each other: minor separated from nominate primarily by its smaller size.

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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.

Primarily granivorous, diet including some rice (Oryza); also insects and spiders (Araneae) taken regularly, especially when feeding young; feeds also on flowers of Alluaudia. Gleans insects from tree branches; collects fallen or discarded rice on ground .

Male has repetitive "chee-chee" song while fluttering wings. Flight call "treeyoo".

Timing may be determined by local rainfall, Sept–Oct in N Madagascar and Nov–Apr in W; in more arid SW irregular, starting as early as Aug or as late as Dec. Apparently primarily monogamous, some males perhaps polygynous. Colonial , with 10–120 nests at a site, and up to 40 nests in single tree. Nest built by both sexes, retort-shaped, entrance extended into tunnel 17–40 cm long, woven from grass, leaf stems and strips of palm leaf, lined with soft plant fibres, placed 2–25 m above ground and usually in palm or tree, including boabab (Adansonia) and exotic Gyrocarpus americanus, either attached directly to twigs or suspended by short woven "rope"; sometimes below nest of Pied Crow (Corvus albus), Black Kite (Milvus migrans), Madagascar Buzzard (Buteo brachypterus) or Madagascar Fish-eagle (Haliaeetus vociferoides), or suspended from thatched roof of village house; males sleep in unoccupied nests during breeding season; nests may be used by Madagascar Bibfinch (Lepidopygia nana). Clutch 2–4 eggs, plain greenish-blue, average size 20·5 x 15·1 mm; incubation by female, chicks fed by both male and female feed, no information on duration of incubation and nestling periods. Nests often preyed on by Madagascar Harrier-hawk (Polyboroides radiatus), and record of eggs taken by common brown lemur (Eulemur fulvus) at colony on forest edge.