Scarlet Weaver

Scarlet weaver with long beak

The most striking feature is its long orange-red beak. The male has a red head, red breast and red mantle during the breeding season, making it particularly conspicuous at that time. Outside the breeding season, both males and females have a yellow head. The beak is red-orange. The underside and flanks are white. The young resemble the females.

Habitat

The scarlet weaver is found in Africa south of the Sahara. The main residential areas are Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, United Republic of Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It likes to live in deciduous trees, especially in Miombo forests. It also lives in savannas, scrubland and gardens and often on farms. The sociable bird likes to live in colonies.

It has natural enemies, including snakes and the shikra. It mainly feeds on arthropods. In addition, it eats seeds and fruit. It obtains most of its food from trees and shrubs, but it also picks spiders from their webs. Seeds, fruit and the berries of medlars are also on its menu. Its range is 160,000 square kilometers. In most parts of this range it is frequently encountered. Only in a few regions is it rarely or sparsely found.

Breeding

The male scarlet weaver usually mates with several females during the breeding season. The male builds the nest alone, preferably under the canopy of an African baobab tree. However, windmill blades, telephone wires and the edges of thatched roofs are also used for nest building. The nest is bottle-shaped with a vertical entrance hole. It is made of twigs, grasses, leaves and vines. Inside it is lined with feathers, dry grass, broad leaves, bark fibers and foliage. The scarlet weaver often nests near other weavers, even near the African hawk-eagle. The breeding season is from July to February, with the peak from September to November. The female lays one to four eggs, which are incubated for 12 to 13 days, mostly by the female. After hatching, the chicks are fed by both the male and the female. The chicks leave the nest after about 17 days.