The Baya Weaver (Ploceus philippinus) is a weaverbird found across the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Flocks of these birds are found in grasslands, cultivated areas, scrub and secondary growth and they are best known for their hanging retort shaped nests woven from leaves. These nest colonies are usually found on thorny trees or palm fronds and the nests are often built near water or hanging over water where predators cannot reach easily. They are widespread and common within their range but are prone to local, seasonal movements mainly in response to rain and food availability.
Description
These are sparrow-sized (15 cm) and in their non-breeding plumage, both males and females resemble female house sparrows. They have a stout conical bill and a short square tail. Non-breeding males and females look alike, dark brown streaked fulvous buff above, plain (unstreaked) whitish fulvous below, eyebrow long and buff coloured, bill is horn coloured and no mask. Breeding males have a bright yellow crown, dark brown mask, blackish brown bill, upper parts are dark brown streaked with yellow, with a yellow breast and cream buff belo.
Behaviour and ecology
Baya Weavers are social and gregarious birds. They forage in flocks for seeds, both on the plants and on the ground. Flocks fly in close formations, often performing complicated manoeuvres. They are known to glean paddy and other grain in harvested fields, and occasionally damage ripening crops and are therefore sometimes considered as pests.They roost in reed-beds bordering waterbodies. They depend on wild grasses such as Guinea Grass (
Panicum maximum) as well as crops like rice for both their food (feeding on seedlings in the germination stage as well as on early stages of grain) and nesting material. They also feed on insects (including butterflies), sometimes taking small frogs, geckos
] and molluscs, especially to feed their young. Their seasonal movements are governed by food availability. Their calls are a continuous
chit-chit-... sometimes ending in a wheezy
cheee-eee-ee that is produced by males in a chorus. A lower intensity call is produced in the non-breeding season.
Breeding
The breeding season of the Baya Weavers is during the monsoons. The breeding condition is initiated by environmental characters such as day length and comes to an end after summer although this termination is not influenced by short day length as in temperate birds. They nest in colonies typically of up to 20-30, close to the source of food, nesting material and water. Baya Weavers are best known for the elaborately woven nests constructed by the males.
