Readers’ wildlife photos

We continue today with Ephraim Heller’s big safari in Africa. Today, in part 7, he concentrates on birds; Ephriam’s IDs and captions are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Brief introduction: Continuing with my virtual safari, these photos were taken in Tanzania in April 2025. Most are from the Serengeti National Park with a few from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. On today’s agenda are some random cool birds: weavers, parrots, and secretarybirds.

Weaverbirds (Ploceidae) are a family of old world birds that take their name from their intricately woven nests. The family includes 15 genera with a total of 122 species. I photographed just two species.

Here is a male Vitelline masked weaver (Ploceus vitellinus) refurbishing a nest from a previous season. You can see the strands of fresh green grass that he has added to the old grass:

I find these nests to be miniature feats of engineering. Here you can see a male constructing a new nest.

The male constructs multiple nests hoping that a female will find one of these to be acceptable and choose to mate with him. The female flies from nest to nest making assessments, much as a human female will investigate a prospective mate’s bachelor pad. Here is a female emerging from the premises — I don’t know if this one passed the test:

And here is a male Speke’s weaver (Ploceus spekei) building its nest. They are colony nesters and nests built in previous seasons are visible in the background. The species is named for John Hanning Speke (4 May 1827 – 15 September 1864), an English explorer and army officer who made three exploratory expeditions to Africa. He is most associated with the search for the source of the Nile and was the first European to reach Lake Victoria:

Next up are the parrots. First, a Meyer’s or brown parrot (Poicephalus meyeri). They are commonly bred for the pet trade. They are relatively quiet and small and are able to learn dozens of words:

The Meyer’s parrot nests in tree cavities, but occasionally peek out to say hello (I took this photo on a previous trip in the Maasai Mara reserve in Kenya, but it seems apropos here):

Much to my surprise but obvious when you look carefully, Fischer’s lovebird (Agapornis fischeri) is a small parrot. These tiny, adorable birds are a popular pet bird, but they do not do well in captivity. The term lovebird arose from the strong bonds that mates make with one another. When separated, the physical health of each individual will suffer. Mates like to be in physical contact as much as possible. Note the chick being fed in one of the photos:

I include this photo of a Secretarybird (Sagittarius serpentarius) just because it’s amazing to see them kill snakes (which I’ve only seen in nature documentaries) and because I like the image. Secretarybirds specialise in stomping their prey until it is killed or immobilised. If you haven’t seen them hunt, here is a short video (not mine):

JAC: I’m adding a video of a secretarybird stomping a snake to death: