Black-headed Weaver

Description:

The sparrow sized weaver. The breeding male (pics 1 - 4) is bright yellow with a yellow-green mantle, and the characteristic, almost round, black face mask. The mask extends to the crown, but leaves the nape yellow - called the 'nuchal collar', this characteristic helps differentiating this bird from Golden-backed and Juba weavers. The eye is black (differentiating this weaver from Village weaver whose eye is red; or yellow-eyed masked weavers) and the bill is black. A female and non-breeding male (pics 5 & 6) are rather sparrow-like in colours, with some more yellow on face, chest and wing covers. In these last two photos, I must admit that I'm not totally sure about the ID, as females and non-breeding males of various species of weavers looks more or less similar. I opted for this one because there were three male Black-headed Weavers around during the two days I was observing them.

Habitat:

Seen in a marshy ground in urban area, on reed vegetation, during the seasonal floods.

Notes:

Shot from far away in declining light, with a max zoom on my Powershot, which explains low quality of shots... Sorry about that, but it was a lifer for me...