Six black-headed weaver birds (Ploceus melanocephalus ) are settling into their new home next to the giraffes within Into Africa.
These seed-eating birds originate from sub-Saharan Africa and live in a wide range of open or semi-open habitats including woodland and human habitation, and frequently form large, noisy colonies in towns and villages.
Weaver birds, also known as weaver finches, get their name because of their elaborately woven nests, which vary in size, shape, material, and construction techniques. Usually, the male will weave the nest and then hang from the entrance calling and flapping his wings to attract a female.
The nests and material used vary with each different weaver subspecies. Black-headed weavers tend to build large coarsely woven nests made of grass and leaf strips with a downward facing entrance which is suspended from a branch in a tree. Whilst buffalo weavers create large untidy stick nests, and sparrow weavers build apartment-house nests, in which 100 to 300 pairs have separate flask-shaped chambers entered by tubes at the bottom.