The 2025 Botswana Journals, Ch. 38 , The Weavers

    The busiest place at Mashatu Lodge in Botswana isn't the lodge.    Nor is it the front lawn, even if it is your birthday and the staff comes out with a cake and sings to you.

    It isn't the water station where guests can fill their water bottles before going out on a game drive.

    Not the museum, or the gift shop, or the swimming pool.

    Nope.   The busiest, most frenzied place from early morning until into the evening was a tree in the courtyard where dozens of small yellow birds called weavers were building nests that hung from branches.

The weavers were in the tree in the center.

    Sometimes, hanging from other nests.   

    This is the kind of busy, and this is a small part of the tree in question.

    The Lesser masked weavers are differentiated from the several species with face masks by the extent of the mask, eye, and leg colors.

    The photos below are all Lesser masked weavers.

    Males, such as the one shown here, build the nests.  The females inspect them.   If the females don't approve, the male will build another nest, often deconstructing the old nest to begin again.

 If the female likes the nest, she will line it with soft materials and lay eggs.     Then the male builds more nests for more females.

   

    And so it begins, with a loop of grass attached to a slender limb or another nest.

The nest begins to take shape. with each blade of grass.

    Notice the thin blade of grass in its bill.

    Then, the nursery chamber begins to take shape.

    More material is needed.

    A female shows an interest.   She is the ultimate building inspector.

    The entrance tunnel is at the bottom 

    Once completed, the male hangs from the bottom of the tunnel and flutters its wings to attract females.

The advertising begins.....

...continues with a flutter....

...and a look to see if any gal is interested.

 

    A male with a completed nest awaits the building inspector.   Lesser masked weavers are colony nesters.  Instead of building a solitary nest far from others, they build many nests in the same tree.

    I'm sure you can imagine that with all those birds, one must avoid standing under the tree, and especially with one's mouth open.  That is why, when walking to my cottage room, I walk against the building where I am protected by the overhanging roof eave, as there is another tree over the walk with lots of weavers in it.

Other weavers we saw on this trip.

Cape Weaver. LIFER

Southern Masked Weaver

Southern Masked Weaver, female.

Red-billed Buffalo weaver.  LIFER

Village Weaver LIFER

White-browed sparrow weaver.