Rüppell's Weaver

Rüppell's Weaver is a medium-sized weaver with dimorphic plumage. As with many of these birds, the breeding male's plumage is predominately yellow. The head is bright yellow with a dark chestnut face surrounding the large black beak and including the distinctive red-rimmed eye. The chestnut may diffuse slightly to a yellowish hue in some males. The nape is tinged with green, transitioning to the yellow-green mantle and back lightly streaked with olive-brown. The rump is yellow. The tail and wing feathers are dark olive-brown, broadly edged with yellow. All underparts are yellow-buff. Legs range to flesh coloured. The non-breeding male is very different, resembling the female but distinct by its red iris. The female has nothing in common with the breeding male but morphology; she is slightly smaller. The head is a dull yellowish green and the dark eye stands out. A faint pale eyebrow can sometimes be seen, emphasized by a scarcely defined postocular line. The bill is pinkish-horn-coloured with the upper mandible slightly darker. No hint of a male's mask. The mantle and back are grey-beige and clearly streaked with blackish-brown. The rump is green-olive. The grey-olive rectrices have yellowish edges. The wing feathers are dark brown, bordered with yellowish in the remiges and buff in the tertials and coverts. The whitish tips of the darker median coverts form a fairly distinct wing bar. Underparts are dull white with a slightly lemon chest. The juvenile resembles the female but with a more ochre-washed chest. Its bill is pink. If male, he will first develop a faintly marked pale-chestnut facial mask while the chin remains yellow.