Our zoo has been breeding weaverbird since 1996, then we obtained a group of these birds from Farmy Aves, these birds have been imported. The group consisted of several adult males and females as well as large number of young birds, amongst these, later was shown were mainly male birds.

Family of weaverbirds (Ploceidae) consists in total from 143 kinds, majority of these live in Africa. Willage Weaver (Ploceus cuculatus) belongs to the most common group, which extends from Senagal to South Africa. Willage Weaver is a very large and striking bird (15 - 18 cm). The male in its nesting splendour is yellow on the back with black head, chestnut brown nape and yellow edging to the black wings and tail. The underneath of his body is yellow. The female colour is mainly olive green turning into brown, with light yellow belly. The young birds and male are of a similar colouring to the female outside the nesting period.
This bird lives mainly in thinly forested areas, bush and savannah, but in a cultivated countryside. It nests in large colonies sometimes up to several hundred pairs, often near settlements or near water but also can be found in city streets. He looks for tall trees and bushes to build his nest in, sometimes he also builds his nest in reeds above water. The male builds round nest with fly in opening which points downwards, usually at the end of branches. The male builds several nests. During mating period, he hangs himself underneath the nest and with shrieking noise and fluttering wings, he lures the female to the nest. The female adjusts inside the chosen nest and lays 2 - 3 eggs. The eggs can be white or different shades of blue, pink or brown. In the wild, the bird nests from beginning of the rainy season until November. Several nesting colonies of the two kinds of weaverbird are known, for example P. cuculatus and P. melangaster or P.c. and P.velatus …
During the first attempts to breed and bring up the bird during the 1997 and 98, we placed the whole group into an outside, partially covered aviary, situated on the south side and protected from the north by a wall. In the group, we had 20 - 25 males and 6 - 8 females. The great changes to the weather conditions played big part in the failure of the breeding programme, the young birds often got too cold and died usually within one week from the hatching. A large number of males, that did not play part in brining up of the young, was found unsuitable. The male birds squabbled amongst each other and damaged finished nests, sometimes even with young birds and at the same time consumed a large portion of the live food (as stated further) at the expense of the young.
The following year we separated the breeding group with the same number of males and females into the internal aviary with the possibility to fly in an outside aviary. During the next breeding session, it proved better to reduce the number of males. The other males are placed during the summer season into the exhibition part of the zoo, in an outside aviary. In wintertime, the birds are moved into the over-wintering accommodation with the possibility of flight.
The males from the exhibition are exchanged with the mating males this takes place at the beginning of the breading season. Depending on the increasing outside temperature the males activity in building nests starts to intensify, this usually happens during the second part of May and beginning of June. During this time, and also during the whole nesting season, it is necessary to supply suitable fresh grass for the nest building. The most suitable ones were certain kinds of tulfted sedge (Carex gracilis) or sedge (Carex brizoides). They build their nests mainly in the internal part of the aviary the nests in the outside aviary are never finished.
The female covers the chosen nest herself. In the nest, we usually find 2 eggs of green-blue colour, exceptionally there can be even 4 eggs. The incubation period takes approximately two weeks. The young birds stay in the nest for about three weeks before they fly out.
Apart from the breeding season, the birds are fed mainly with mixture of grain with large amount millet and chopped fruit (mainly apples). Before nesting takes place, we offer sprouted grain, and a mixture for insect eating birds with a certain amount of fruit. It appeared that when chopped insects and crickets of medium size (these we supplied from our own resources), were offered several times a day the survival rate of the young was higher. During the nesting period, we offer the birds an egg mixture, suitable for insect eating birds, millet in spikes, and different kinds of grasses in spikes. Flour beetles appeared not to be suitable food, as the weaverbird has problems digesting their hard chitinus cuticles. The bird feeding tables have been position in several places, so that the females have sufficient number of feeding places mainly access to insects, so that they can feed their young, before the males take the food.
In 2001, we put together a group of five males and six females, 3 of the females were young birds from the brood in 1999 and 2000. The brood came from four females approximately 20 fertilised eggs, from which 15 fledglings hatched. Six young died within a week, and nine young were brought up.
During the summer period, the brood of the young birds repeatedly had salmonella - salmonella ent. (probably from the internal environment - the outside flight is available to freely living birds, the feed appeared to be without problem after investigation). When treated with Clamoxyl, four of the young fledglings and two adult males died. One female had to be destroyed after she became blind. No other health problems appeared in our zoo during breeding of weaverbirds.

In connection with the autumn cooler weather, the male birds loose their interest in building nests. This behaviour seems to be the same in birds that are in an outside aviary as well as in the birds that are kept in the indoor aviary. Also the young hatched birds show to be less active. This inactivity we add to insufficient amount of chopped insects. The year 2001 had a very short nesting season; this was due to radical change in the temperature in September, the weather turned very cold and the young birds hatched did not survive.

.

Jitka Králíčková, ZOO Ohrada

Willage Weaver - male

 

Willage Weaver - female

 

Young birds after leaving nest