Masked Weaver

BigAl · December 24, 2007

I chanced upon this Masked Weaver building a nest, within easy shooting distance of the road. The weaving is quite intricate.

...and then once in a while a passing female pops along to see how things are going with the building. If the nest is ready, and she's ready to mate, she will accept his nest. If she's not ready, she rips the nest to pieces. This female seemed quite keen...

(sorry I missed getting her head in focus folks :cry)

Jack'll do · December 24, 2007

Quite an industrious little fellow. Wonderful capture. Love to see a photo when the nest is completed if you can.

dallas · December 24, 2007

Great shots Al. The images are right on the money, and show us a fascinating mating ritual. Thanks for the interesting series.

Maestro · December 24, 2007

Beautiful shots! I love the eye contact!

Ann McRae · December 24, 2007

Very pretty bird - and great shots. Thanks for sharing as I'd not heard of this species or nest behavior before. Particularly like #3 and #6.

ann

Harryb · December 25, 2007

Excellent Al

, great colors in the shots. Now we expect a F/U on the progress of the nest.

dbaker1221 · December 25, 2007

excellent series Al:ivar

BigAl · December 25, 2007

Jack'll do wrote:

Quite an industrious little fellow. Wonderful capture. Love to see a photo when the nest is completed if you can.

Thanks John! I'll try and pop around to the reserve this weekend to see if his nest was accepted. They used to be plentiful in suburbia, but they are such easy targets for kiddies (and not so kiddies) with BB guns :cry

BigAl · December 25, 2007

dallas wrote:

Great shots Al. The images are right on the money, and show us a fascinating mating ritual. Thanks for the interesting series.

Thanks William!

bfjr · December 25, 2007

2nd to last one

the winner here, well to my eyes

kdog · December 26, 2007

Awe, a love story with a happy ending.

Great behavorial shots of a very pretty bird!

-joel

BigAl · December 26, 2007

Maestro wrote:

Beautiful shots! I love the eye contact!

Thanks Stephen!

BigAl · December 26, 2007

Ann McRae wrote:

Very pretty bird - and great shots. Thanks for sharing as I'd not heard of this species or nest behavior before. Particularly like #3 and #6.

ann

Thanks Ann! The behaviour is common in quite a few of our yellow weavers.

BigAl · December 26, 2007

Harryb wrote:

Excellent Al , great colors in the shots. Now we expect a F/U on the progress of the nest.

Thanks Harry! Unfortunately, the nest is in a reserve some distance away, so can't get there every day. I will definitely pop around on Sunday again to see if the nest is still in one piece.

BigAl · December 26, 2007

dbaker1221 wrote:

excellent series Al:ivar

Thanks Dave! Bigma still rules

BigAl · December 27, 2007

bfjr wrote:

2nd to last one

the winner here, well to my eyes

Thanks Ben! Appreciate the comment!

BigAl · December 27, 2007

kdog wrote:

Awe, a love story with a happy ending.

Great behavorial shots of a very pretty bird!

-joel

Thanks Joel!

mepaparazzi · December 28, 2007

The birdy actually looks proud of his creation!

Even you should be! Super pics!

Dennis Kaczor · December 29, 2007

Nice series done here and I like the looks of this bird, it kind of reminds me of a raccon with that black face. Nice shots.

BigAl · December 29, 2007

mepaparazzi wrote:

The birdy actually looks proud of his creation!
Even you should be! Super pics!

Thanks for your kind words!

BigAl · January 3, 2008

Not sure how manay people go back to old threads, but rather than starting a new one, I decided to wake this one up to show what the completed nest looks like:

Normally the male will build as many as he can to attract as many females as possible:

The one on the left here is more or less where the weaver was building in the pics at the start of the thread. Unfortunately, there was no activity at the nests, so I assume they have been deserted without any breeding taking place :cry

[BTW, these pics were salvaged as per this thread]

JavaLover · January 3, 2008

Thanks for the update! Very cool series.

raptorcaptor · January 3, 2008

Great set Al! We used to have several weavers in our garden when I was a kid. Fun to watch.

riddim_maker · January 3, 2008

The first thing that came to mind when I saw these was WOW!
Great behavioral depiction and awesome images to match
especially #3

jwear · January 3, 2008

great stuff Al happy new year

BigAl · January 4, 2008

JavaLover wrote:

Thanks for the update! Very cool series.

Thanks for commenting!

BigAl · January 4, 2008

raptorcaptor wrote:

Great set Al! We used to have several weavers in our garden when I was a kid. Fun to watch.

Thanks Glenn! You're right, they are fun to watch - bet you still miss it

BigAl · January 4, 2008

riddim_maker wrote:

The first thing that came to mind when I saw these was WOW!
Great behavioral depiction and awesome images to match
especially #3

Thanks Russ - appreciated!

BigAl · January 4, 2008

jwear wrote:

great stuff Al happy new year

Thanks Jeff - to you too! Maybe this is my year of the eagle

Masked Weaver

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