Sakalava Weaver
Ploceus sakalava
Chunky, big-billed weaver of dry country. Yellow-hooded breeding male is distinctive. Both sexes have pink bare skin around the eye. Madagascar endemic that is found in the north and west at low and middle elevation. Preferred habitats include open forest, scrub, plantations, savannah, and villages. Very social weaver that is almost always found in flocks, sometimes mixed with other birds, and which nests in bustling colonies. The nest is a messy hanging orb. Song is a complex, high-pitched series of scolding and sizzling notes. Call is a husky “chert.” Female and non-breeding male similar to fodies, but separated by larger size, bigger bill, pink facial skin, and different facial pattern.
Identification
Mco pgoujujijoolxujyn <p>The adult male has a yellow head and upper breast during the breeding season, with a pale grey belly and light and brown wings with white wing-tips. The male has distinctive red eye-rings and silver bill extending with a 'V' shape into the forehead. The non-breeding male has a dark brown head and pale grey breast, flanked with white.<p>The female has the appearance more of a house sparrow with pale almost white breast and duller slightly pink bill. The female also has a red eye-ring and sometimes small flashes of red around the eye.
Taxonomy
The Sakalava weaver was first described by Gustav Hartlaub in 1861, based on a specimen collected by Victor Sganzin during an expedition in 1831–32 on Madagascar. The species epithet sakalava is derived from the Sakalava, whose name means 'people of the long valleys'. The first English name was given to the bird only in 1891 by James Sibree, who named it Sakalava Weaver-bird. Sakalava weaver has been designated the official name by the International Ornithological Committee (IOC). Another English name that is sometimes used is Sakalava Fody. Local names in the Malagasy language include fodibeotse, fodisahy, tsiaka, draky and zaky.<p>Based on recent DNA-analysis, the genus Ploceus is almost certainly polyphyletic. If all species currently included in the genus would remain and the genus would be made monophyletic, it would have to encompass the entire subfamily Ploceinae. The Ploceinae can be divided into two groups. In the first group, the widowbirds and bishops (genus Euplectes) are sister to a clade in which the genera Foudia and Quelea are closest relatives and which further includes the Asiatic species of Ploceus, i.e. P. manyar, P. philippinus, P. benghalensis, P. megarhynchus, (and P. hypoxanthus, although untested). Since Georges Cuvier picked P. philippinus as the type species, these five species would logically remain assigned to the genus Ploceus.<p>Basic to the second group is a clade consisting of both species sofar included in Ploceus that live on Madagascar, P. nelicourvi and P. sakalava, and these are morphologically very distinctive from the remaining species. These two species could in future be assigned to the genus Nelicurvius that was erected by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1850, but which was merged with Ploceus later on. This second group further contains the genera Malimbus and Anaplectes, and all remaining Ploceus species.
- Scientific name
- Ploceus sakalava
- Authority
- Hartlaub, 1861
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Ploceidae
- Genus
- Ploceus
Range and habitat
It is found in small flocks. Its natural habitat is the dry lowland forests and scrubland of the north, west and south of Madagascar. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: stable.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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