Bird of the Week – Redbilled buffalo weaver
The tribal name is mabonyana and in Afrikaans die buffelwewer.
THE redbilled buffalo weaver is a vagrant to Zululand and a summer visitor to Southern Mozambique, Kruger Park and the Limpopo valley.
Found in small flocks, they forage on the ground by walking or hopping.
They roost communally in large stick nests in trees, dispersing by day and assembling by night. These weavers like semi-arid savanna to dry bushveld, especially with large trees like baobabs. Westwards, the camelthorn acacia tree is the favourite.
Their preferred food includes insects, seeds and fruit.
The male call is a loud ‘lookatit, lookatit, lookatit’ and the female a musical ‘chwee chwee’.
The breeding season is from October to April. Three to four dull greenish-white eggs are laid. The incubation is 11 days and they are nestlings for 20 to 23 days.
The tribal name is mabonyana and in Afrikaans die buffelwewer.
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