Weaver Birds

A while ago, I told our family about a bird here that the kids were fascinated by, so I thought I would post this video that shows one of them busy feeding her chicks. They are called weaver birds or sometimes weaver finches and there are several varieties here. The ones we see the most are bright yellow and black and we understand that the colors are more vivid during breeding seasons. The male weavers build these elaborately woven nests with the narrow, tube entrances facing down to discourage other birds from raiding the nests. The completed nests are used to attract the females, so I suppose the guy has a good incentive to be a good builder. They build from leaf fibers, grass, and twigs, and while these are very neatly woven, there is another variety that builds really messy nests that are quite a bit bigger. We most always see the nests in groups so in this spot there were probably twelve or fourteen nests grouped together for safety. You can hear the little chicks in this video and we understand that there is sometimes more than one group of chicks in a single nest.