Sociable weaver Facts
Sociable weaver Facts
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| Interesting Sociable weaver Facts: |
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| Sociable weaver can reach 5.5 inches in length and 0.92 to 1.13 ounces of weight. |
| Sociable weaver is brown bird. It has black chin and white cheeks. Belly is creamy or white colored. White, black and brown feathers on the backs and wings create scale-like appearance. |
| Sociable weaver has strong, conical beak. Legs, feet and beak are bluish grey in color. |
| Sociable weaver eats various types of insects (it prefers termites) and seed. |
| Sociable weaver does not drink water. It absorbs all the moisture it needs from the food. |
| Sociable weaver lives in large groups (colonies) composed of hundreds of birds. |
| Sociable weaver builds huge haystack-like nest that can reach 13 feet in height and 23 feet in length. Nest is usually located in the trees or on top of some other tall structure such as telephone pole. When looking from above, nest looks like a honeycomb thanks to numerous entering holes. |
| Nest is made of various types of branches, twigs, leaves, fur and cotton. Social weavers constantly improve and add new material to the nest to ensure stability and longevity of the created structure. |
| Colony of sociable weavers usually consists of 100 to 300 pairs of birds. Each pair occupies one round chamber inside the nest. Nest protects birds from cold, heat and predators. |
| Some species of lovebirds and finches reproduce inside the nest of sociable weavers. Large birds such as owls and vultures build their own nests on the roof of sociable weavers' nest. |
| Sociable weavers tolerate other birds because they can alert colony of weavers about upcoming danger and guide them toward the new source of food. |
| Main predators of sociable weavers are boomslangs and Cape cobras. |
| Southern populations of social weavers reproduce all year round. Northern populations reproduce from December to August. |
| Female lays 2 to 6 eggs that hatch after incubation of two weeks. Both parents and young siblings participate in rearing of chicks. Sociable weavers also provide food for unrelated chicks in the colony. Young birds are ready for the independent life at the age of 14 to 16 days, but they stay within the colony. Sociable weavers reach sexual maturity at the age of 16 to 18 weeks, but they usually start to breed at the age of 2 years. |
| Lifespan of sociable weaver in the wild is unknown. |
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