Cape Weaver

About the Cape Weaver

The Cape weaver (Ploceus capensis) is a species of bird in the weaver family, Ploceidae, found in southern Africa. In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the Cape weaver in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected from the Cape of Good Hope. He used the French name Le carouge du Cap de Bonne Espérance and the Latin Xanthornus Capitis Bonae Spei. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the Cape weaver. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Oriolus capensis and cited Brisson's work. The specific name capensis denotes the Cape of Good Hope. This species is now placed in the genus Ploceus that was erected by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1816. The species is monotypic.

The Cape weaver is a stocky 17 cm long bird with streaked olive-brown upperparts and... Wikipedia →