Mr Weaver fails to attract a mate….

One of our favourite garden activities here in Pretoria is watching our resident weaver bird build a nest, in a desperate attempt to attract a mate. Basically, the male weaver skillfully creates an incredibly intricate round ball of a nest, stripping the tree of its leaves at the same time, and then madly displays (hanging upside down and shrieking) everytime the female he has his eye on comes anywhere close. This whole episode took place in our garden over the course of a weekend – the lady bird did come and have a look, even entering the nest at one point. But sadly she obviously wasn’t impressed because the next day, Mr Weaver totally destroyed his own masterpiece, leaving it in shreds on the floor (and in our pool, which is directly below his chosen tree).

He had another go a couple of weeks later, but was very half-hearted and didn’t even bother to finish it this time. The pair now seem to have disappeared altogether so either he’s given up completely or – which is what I hope has happened – he has built another nest in a more desirable area and they have happily settled down to have baby Weavers together. Here is a photo montage of the action:

Well, you can’t say he hasn’t tried at least!

Update: Since I originally wrote this post, Mr Weaver has made (and destroyed) about four more nests. Mrs Weaver is still around and has occasionally shown real interest im his latest creation. But it appears her standards remain too high as he is in the middle, once more, of tearing apart a nest that we thought looked pretty complete!