Bar-winged Weaver

English Name Bar-winged Weaver Photographers Sally Fuhri/Elna Louw Location In Captivity at House 5, Cons Camp – see notes on Cherpy below. Elna’s General Notes Not much is known about Bar-winged Weavers. They are endemic to South Central Africa and only found in Zambia, Angola and far southern DRC. They belong to the Bird Species Ploceus angolensis and the Bird Family Ploceidae which includes Weavers, Malimbes, Bishops, Widowbirds and Fodies. They are mainly dark brown and white with diagnostic white wing bars, a creamy coloured mantle, yellow rump and white undertparts. Sexes are alike. Their habitat is Miombo woodland and dry riverine forest. They creep along branches, much like a nuthatch (who can creep upside down) looking for food by probing the bark. Their status is “Uncommon”.

Elna’s Notes on Cherpy Cherpy was a survivor from a fallen tree at the Lumwana Cons Camp. He was still a baby. He spent his first couple of weeks at the Fuhri's and then came to us. He was identified by Jez Simms as a Bar-winged Weaver. Jez was very excited when he first saw Cherpy at our house because they are not very common and very little is known about them. I fed Cherpy on Pro‑Nutro cereal (mixed with a little water) - (Wholewheat & Apple was his favourite flavour – also the wholewheat is good in aiding digestion), fruit, little bits of jam, flying ants and moths. In the beginning we fed him with our finger by pushing the cereal down his beak but he soon started wanting to pick it from your finger so that didn’t work too well anymore as he wasn’t getting enough in to satisfy his hunger. I then started feeding him by putting the cereal into a syringe and pushing that down his beak. It was very time consuming as he wanted to eat about every 90 minutes. Luckily he called when he was hungry and I could then just go and feed him. During the last two months, he started feeding himself totally so I could leave the cereal in his cage with his other snacks and only needed to check on his food a few times a day. He went off the cereal and fruit/jam completely about a month ago and only wanted the flying ants and moths. Every time there were some flying ants around, Piérre, myself, the gardeners and the Wolfenden kids would run about outside, catching flying ants. I would then freeze the “left overs” if we had too many for that day so I could use them on the days when none were available. Cherpy used to eat them straight from the freezer. I called it his “ice lollies”. Finding moths were much easier as we have a big light outside in the back yard to which hundreds of moths are attracted every night so I just went outside around 06h00 every morning and caught enough moths to feed him for the day. The last couple of weeks he consumed at least around 30 moths and about 20 flying ants per day. He has a healthy appetite! It was always interesting (and a bit gory) watching him eating a moth. He would grab it (it had to be a live one – he was not interested in dead moths) and hold it down with one claw while perched on a branch or the cage perch. He would then start eating the moth from its backside – pulling out the insides in long strings – how gross is that! He would then discard the wings and head. I only once saw him swallowing a wing – maybe he does that every so often to aid digestion. The flying ants he would usually turn around and swallow it whole, backside first – never head first. Probably doesn’t like the eyes looking at him! When he still used to eat the fruit and jam, he never drank any water. He only started drinking small amounts of water once he went off the fruit – probably because he didn’t get the moisture from the fruit juices anymore. He also liked to take the occasional bath – usually inside his drinking water bowl. When I started releasing his moths on the verandah for him to catch by himself, he often seemed to try and catch them in flight – usually not succeeding but I’m sure that will come with practice out in the wild.

He is like a little “Jack‑in‑the‑Box” – always moving, moving, moving. He only sat still when he was sleeping. He is a very curios and inquisitive little fellow, not scared of anything new you put in the cage – immediately checking it out. I was sitting down one day writing and he jumped onto the pen, sitting there checking out what I was doing from the top of the pen. He would hang upside down to check things out from underneath and sometimes turn his head upside down looking in under something. He also liked to hang from the clothes line on the verandah and probed everything in sight. His beak is his best tool. He uses his beak very interestingly – he would try and open things with his beak – not only probing but literally “wedging” things apart. For instance, if you held your thumb and forefinger together he would put his beak in between your finger tips and try to force them apart. He did that with everything – lifting the newspaper at the bottom of his cage, lifting the items I put in his cage to keep him busy, etc. I used to hide some of his flying ants under a piece of newspaper, tree bark or inside a little cup or something for him to find (it kept him busy and taught him to find his own food).

The most obvious physical attributes must be the diagnostic bars on the wings and his long toes and nails. He obviously needs those to be able to hang upside down and run downwards on tree trunks. Physical changes over the 3 months he spent with us included starting to fly (he’s a very strong and quick flyer), growing slightly in size, the beak becoming slightly longer and a little bit more downward curved and the beak and feet starting to colour slightly towards black during the last 3 weeks - it was always just a buffy/pinkish colour. Plumage colours have not changed at all – he is the same colouring as he was when he first arrived. My guess is that he must be between 5 and 6 months old now. He does however still have that little “fluffy bits” on his wings but that could be because his diet when staying with us was not 100% correct. He would also during the last week or so sometimes still ask for food (like he did as a baby) but I thought it also might have been because his diet here with us was inadequate for his needs. The flying ants did seem to fill him up more than the moths thought. Cherpy arrived on 19 September 2007 and was released on 16 December 2007. It has now been just over a week since his release and unfortunately we haven’t seen him again.