Black-necked Weaver

About the Black-necked Weaver

The black-necked weaver (Ploceus nigricollis) is a resident breeding bird species in much of central Africa from Cameroon in the west to Kenya and southern Somalia in the east. The species was formally described in 1805 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot, who named it Malimbus nigricollis. The description was based on a specimen that had been collected near Malimbe, now Malembo, in the Cabinda Province of Angola. The species epithet nigricollis combines the Latin words Latin words, niger meaning "black" and collis meaning "necked".

There are two subspecies recognized: P. n. nigricollis – (Vieillot, 1805): Found from eastern Cameroon to southern Sudan, western Kenya, north-western Tanzania, southern Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola. Also on the island of on Bioko

P. n. melanoxanthus – (Cabanis, 1878): Found from southern Ethiopia and southern Somalia to central and eastern Kenya and north-eastern Tanzania The black-necked weaver was formerly considered to be conspecific with the olive-naped weaver. The two species differ in plumage and in the colour of the iris. A molecular study published in 2019 found that the two... Wikipedia →