Happy Worker's Day 2020...
3 photos of 3 stages of "house development".
This groovy little weaver was captured about a year or so ago at Lake Kariba, and there's quite a story to him too. We patiently watched him built his little structure, starting with a single knot, then into a wreath-like circle, going off every few minutes to grab a few more bits of grass & twigs, and arrange them meticulously into a perfect nest; the whole process took about two days. I thought the nest was beautiful, but his lady clearly did not approve, and so the third day was spent tearing down his masterpiece he had worked so hard on. (I'll need to raid my hardrive again to see if I have any photographs of the destruction, which ended in just a few scraps of grass hanging from the branch.) We went home from our Kariba holiday soon after, but would have loved to see if the same little guy would have started another home in that same tree.
Did you know: (info taken from Chris Jek / Barcroft animals)
"Males usually build between five to 10 nests, and wait for a female to visit them and pick it up or not. However, if a nest is not occupied by a female after a few days, the male will destroy the nest and build another one, as females only pick up freshly build nests. One single male may built more than 50 nests in one breeding season.â