I fondly remember my granddad always complaining about the weavers making his lawn dirty with leaves just after he finished cutting the grass. He had a big oak tree in the front of his yard, and the weavers just loved to pick the leaves from the new growth to get to the twigs, which they will use for building their nests. He would ask me and my brother, still impressionable and very young to get the slingshot and chase them away. This rarely worked as the lawn would be full of leaves by the next morning.
But one thing always stuck out for me, the bright yellow of the weavers. The yellow flood as they came in their droves filled the oak tree. Their calling and chirping brings back fond memories.
This week, I was lucky to witness these beautiful birds visit our camp sight, sitting in the tree just outside my tent. I obviously grabbed camera as quickly as possible and took some close up photographs of this very colourful bird (the photographs below) and his wife, which is still beautiful but just a little less colourful.
As this is camping grounds, there is constantly food that gets dropped on the grass. The birds love this, as they flock around these patches of grass where morsels of food might have fallen. I think this was some porridge of the previous campers, and the weavers literally flocked in their numbers to eat some of what had fallen. (At the end of the post, I share a video of where I worked and the drove of birds flocked within a meter from me.)
The female is not as colourful as the males. But they have their own beauty. I think these are all southern marked weavers but I am not sure. It is such a stark contrast between the male and female that you might have thought that it is two different species of birds.
But the yellow male looks so beautiful. Especially when the sun falls perfectly on its eye. I have never seen them this up close, with my fond memories always being from a distance. Now, for the first time I have seen them from up close. I was lucky that they sat still for long enough so that I could capture them!
As you can see with the friend below, it looks like it might still be a juvenile or young male. The dark yellow and dark black is not as clearly separated yet as with the previous photograph. But maybe it’s a different species of weaver, I am not 100% sure.
And with the weaver friend below that I captured on photograph, it looks like an almost matured male. I think I caught three different males here! As you will see with the video below, there is really just so many of them in one go! As a photographer, I just point, hope my autofocus works, and press the shutter button.
Here is the short video just to illustrate how many of these friends visit at once!
I really hope that you enjoyed this assortment of color right outside of my tent. I wish I could share this beautiful moment more fully with you. For now, I can only share the photographs and video!
Happy birding, and keep well.
All of the writings in this post are my own. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300.
