Asian Golden Weaver

Common name for a weaverbird with the scientific name Ploceus hypoxanthus. It is distributed across mainland Southeast Asia and Indonesia, and it natural habitat includes open country, grasslands, flooded lowlands, such as swamps and marshlands, arable land, typically in close proximity to water. Males in breeding plumage are yellow with large black patches on the side of the head and throat, a black tail, and black streaked upperparts. They have a thick grey-blackish bill, which is almost as deep as it is long with no obvious forehead and thus bulkier than that of Baya Weavers (fig.). Akin to the latter, female Asian Golden Weavers have a pale bill, while the blackish streaked upperparts run from the tail to the top of the head of which the sides are a speckled dark brown, darker than in female Baya Weavers (fig.), and with a faint supercilium, while the underparts are a faded tawny-buff. Non-breeding males are similar to females but often have a tinged yellow below or above the supercilium. Asian Golden Weavers often breed in small colonies and usually build their nests attached to vegetation over water, usually in reeds or bulrushes about a meter above the surface. The nest is initially built by the male but eventually the female aids in its completion. Unlike the hanging retort shaped nests with their elongated tubular entrance of Baya Waevers, the nest of the Asian Golden Weaver is a rounded structure with a side entrance, but likewise woven from thin strips of grass or palm leaves. In Thai, the Asian Golden Weaver is known as nok jaab thong (นกจาบทอง) or nok krajaab thong (นกกระจาบทอง), meaning ‘golden weaverbird’. See also TRAVEL PICTURES. 回