Ploceidae is a family of small

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s, many of which are called weavers, weaverbirds, weaver finches, or bishops. These names come from the nests of intricately woven vegetation created by birds in this family. In most recent classifications, the Ploceidae are a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

that excludes some birds that have historically been placed in the family, such as some of the sparrows, but which includes the monotypic subfamily Amblyospizinae. The family is believed to have originated in the mid-

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

. All birds of the Ploceidae are native to the Old World, most in Africa south of the Sahara, though a few live in tropical areas of Asia. A few species have been introduced outside their native range.

Taxonomy and systematics

The family Ploceidae was introduced (as Ploceïdes) by Swedish zoologist

Carl Jakob Sundevall Carl Jakob Sundevall (22 October 1801 in Högestad – 2 February 1875) was a Sweden, Swedish zoologist. Sundevall studied at Lund University, where he received a Ph.D. in 1823. After traveling to East Asia, he studied medicine, graduating as a ...

in 1836. Phylogenetic studies have shown that the family is

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to ref ...

to a clade containing the families Viduidae and Estrildidae Their common ancestor lived in the middle

around 18 million years ago. A 2017

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study by Thilina de Silva and collaborators, as well as an expanded study by the same group published in 2019 have indicated that the genus '' Ploceus'' as currently defined is

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

. A cladogram based on these results is shown below.

Genera

The family includes 15 genera with a total of 122 species. For more detail, see list of Ploceidae species.

Description

The males of many species in this family are brightly coloured, usually in red or yellow and black. Some species show variation in colour only in the breeding season. These are seed-eating birds with rounded conical bills.

Distribution and habitat

The weaverbird colonies may be found close to bodies of water.

Behaviour and ecology

Weavers are named for their elaborately woven nests. The nests vary in size, shape, material used, and construction techniques from species to species. Materials used for building nests include fine leaf fibers, grass, and twigs. Many species weave very fine nests using thin strands of leaf fiber, though some, like the buffalo-weavers, form massive untidy stick nests in their colonies, which may have spherical woven nests within. The sociable weavers of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

build apartment-house nests, in which 100 to 300 pairs have separate flask-shaped chambers entered by tubes at the bottom. The sparrow weavers live in family units that employ cooperative breeding. Most species weave nests that have narrow entrances, facing downward. Many weaver species are gregarious and breed colonially. The birds build their nests together for protection, often several to a branch. Usually, the male birds weave the nests and use them as a form of display to lure prospective females.

Relationship to humans

They sometimes cause crop damage, notably the red-billed quelea, reputed to be the world's most numerous bird.

Gallery

File:Under Construction - Weaver Bird.jpg, A nest in the early stages of construction File:Weaverbirds at West Bengal.jpg, Weaverbirds at

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

File:Sporopipes squamifrons 1838.jpg, Adult '' Sporopipes'' at its spherical grass nest, placed in a shrub File:Nids de Plocepasser mahali (Namibie) (3).jpg, '' Plocepasser'' nest in Namibia, for year-round occupation. File:2010-09-25 09-03-47 Namibia Hardap Isabis.jpg, Communal '' Philetairus'' nests in central Namibia File:Pseudonigrita-arnaudi-Nest.JPG, '' Pseudonigrita'' nest in Kenya, with entrance below File:Black-breasted Weaver Ploceus benghalensis by Dr. Raju Kasambe 03.jpg, Black-breasted weaver nest suspended from grass, India File:Ploceidae.jpg, A baya weaver on his unfinished nest, northern India File:Nests_in_Palmyra_Palm_tree.jpg, Nests of a baya weaver colony suspended from a palm tree, India File:Red-billed Quelea (Quelea quelea) (6041539514).jpg, Male '' Quelea'' at nest concealed in thorny '' Senegalia'' shrub File:Euplectes orix -Pretoria, South Africa -male weaving nest-8 (1).jpg, Red bishop constructing a nest in reeds, South Africa File:Weaver bird nests at Ifaty (3445328641).jpg, Nests of a colony of Sakalava weavers, Madagascar File:GambiaGeorgeTown043 (12249665914).jpg, Spherical

village weaver The village weaver (''Ploceus cucullatus''), also known as the spotted-backed weaver or black-headed weaver (the latter leading to easy confusion with ''Ploceus melanocephalus, P. melanocephalus''), is a bird species in the family Ploceidae ...

nests suspended from a palm tree, West Africa File:Tisserin Etosha.jpg, A southern masked weaver building his nest, Namibia File:ASC Leiden - van de Bruinhorst Collection - Somaliland 2019 - 4530 - A detail of the nest of weaver birds hanging from a tree.jpg, Hanging nest, Hargeysa, Somaliland, July 2019.