The monsoons at Kabini have several surprises in store!

Baya Weaver (Ploceus philippinus)

For instance, the fascinating pendulous retort-shaped nest of the Baya Weaver, a bird species, can be sighted during this time. This is a rather sophisticated structure, with a central nesting chamber and a long vertical tube that leads to a side entrance into this chamber. Hanging from a branch, its interesting appearance attracts the attention of everyone around.

Baya Weaver (Ploceus philippinus)

However, the nest is built with a very subtle motive – that of attracting none other than the female of the species! Building the nest is an arduous task; taking the Baya Weaver bird about 18 days of continuous labour! The moment the nest is half complete, it is on display for the female! The male of the species signals to the female by flapping its wings and calling out to her while in the nest.

Baya Weaver (Ploceus philippinus)

The female, remarkably, has a wide choice of nests to choose from! Her selection of nests interestingly, is based on two criteria: structure and location of the same. What’s amazing is that the building of the nest is only completed after mating, and the female cares for her young ones in it. Following mating, the male Baya Weaver bird typically courts other females at other such ‘partially’ constructed nests and fascinatingly, raises a huge family in its surroundings.

A strange intra-species ‘brood parasitism’ is observed among these birds, where the females may lay their eggs in the nests of other birds if they do not have their own. The Baya Weaver birds have a gregarious nature, typically nesting in colonies of up to 30, close to sources of food and nesting material.

Hence the monsoon visitors of Kabini can look forward to a magnificent sighting! This is surely a sight not to miss!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 16th, 2010 at 6:06 pm and is filed under Birds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.