Identification
Male distinctive in breeding plumage, with extensive yellow forehead and black face, nape, and upper breast. Dark brown above with blackish streaks and dirty white below. Often the black on breast can be replaced with a pale throat, forming a black necklace, partial or complete, of variable width. Non-breeding males often show a much reduced breast band with dark patches on either side. Female and juvenile are brown and white, like females of other weavers, with a buffy eyebrow above a thin, dark eye-stripe. Nests communally. Breeding song is a series of low-pitched buzzes, not as loud as Baya Weaver’s. Mostly found close to water, near tall grass and reeds.