Village Weaver

The Village Weaver is a large weaver with a strong beak. During reproduction, the sexual dimorphism is well marked. The nuptial male is remarkable for its colours, which vary according to the subspecies. The male of the ssp type cucullatus is darker than the others. It has a head covered with a hood, black on the face and sides, and chestnut on the nape. The black of the throat descends to a point on the upper chest while the chestnut of the nape outlines a collar under the hood. The strong black beak merges into the black face. The iris of the eye is bright red.
On the very contrasting upper parts yellow and black are found in equal proportions. The wings and tail, quite short, are of a brown-olive green with yellow edges on the feathers. The legs are pink.
The lower parts are a yellow more or less washed with chestnut. Most often it is the top of the chest, at the contact of the black tie, and the flanks that are the most coloured. The belly and undertail coverts can be golden yellow. Some very marked males have their undersides entirely of a pronounced chestnut-orange.
The males of the other subspecies are recognized by the aspect of the head. In the Abyssinian male of the Horn of Africa, the chestnut is much less marked. In nigriceps, from the centre-east, the nape is yellow. In collaris, from the centre-west, the nape is black, so that the hood is entirely black and contrasts well with the yellow of the rest of the body. Finally, in spilonotus of the south of the continent, the crown and nape are yellow and the chestnut tone is absent. The non-nesting male resembles the female, except for the male collaris which has no inter-nuptial plumage.
The nuptial female, smaller than the male, has much paler and much less contrasting plumage. The top and sides of the head are olive with an intercalated yellow eyebrow.The beak is two-tone, with the upper mandible blackish and the lower greyish with a horn base. The iris is red.
The upper parts are a fairly cold grey-brown, tinged with olive and spotted with darkness. The wings are dark olive-brown with yellowish edgings on the remiges and coverts, the tail is olive.
The undersides are yellow, often bright yellow at the level of the throat and upper chest and less yellow further away, sometimes whitish tinged with yellow, with either individual or subspecies-related variations. The legs are pink. Some females can have male-type feathers scattered in the plumage.
The inter-nuptial female is less yellow underneath. The chest and flanks are grey-beige, the belly and undertail white.
The juvenile resembles the female, but its beak is light and its iris brown. The immature is intermediate between the juvenile and the adult of its sex.