Weavers are very atractive birds with ( mostly ) bright colors and a very intresting behaviour. Therefor it's not strange that they are kept in most zoos but in 9 out of 10 zoos only one species can be seen : the Village Weaver. Last week I was suprised to find a nice colony of Taveta Golden Weavers ( Ploceus castaneiceps ) at Hagenbeck Hamburg and this make me ask which other species are being kept in colony's in zoos ( in several zoos I've found single ( or a few ) animals of different forms but if kept in a colony, they are much more intresting ). I already checked Zootierliste and they list about 35 different species for Europe but I was wondering which species are kept in nice colonies and also I would be intrested to know about the sithoation in America, Asia and maybe even in Australia (?). So which species and howmany ????
Jurong has a decent breeding colony of Baya Weaver (Ploceus philippinus) at the Asian aviary. The other species in the collection are not breeding (Yellow Bishop, Village Weaver, Chestnut Weaver)
in New Zealand you've got the Madagascar fody which is still reasonably common but you won't see it in any zoo. There may still be red bishops around but probably not. (Finch/waxbill stocks in NZ were basically propped up by regular imports from Australia and when bird imports were banned most species declined quickly). In Australia (but, again, you'd be hard pressed to find any in the zoos) you've still got Madagascar and Comoro fodies, and orange, red (grenadier) and yellow (Napolean) bishops.
In the 1960's era in the UK, I remember that both Weavers and Whydahs of a number of species were regularly and cheaply available both from bird-dealers and private bird keepers. They seem far less obtainable nowadays and much more expensive. I guess there have been restrictions on imports of the wild birds, and as they don't breed very freely in private birdkeepers' aviaries, they have become much scarcer and prices have increased as a result. The same is true of other African species like many of the tiny Waxbills. It would be interesting to know if there is a similar pattern in the Zoos.
A number of European zoos seem to be making an effort to breed weavers now that imports are restricted. Rhiene, Rotterdam, Cotswold and Paradise Park have breeding colonies of black-headed weavers. Frankfurt have Social weavers. Durrell and Zurich have Madagascar fody and Newquay has a breeding colony of Golden bishops. There are surely quite a few more. Tree nesting weavers need a good supply of GREEN grass and the Bishops naturally nest in reed beds, so require tall grasses and a pool. If you get the management right they are not that difficult, perhaps as they were cheap and freely available in the past few people bothered. Red and Golden bishops are still widely available in Europe as they have colonised parts of Spain and Portugal and are trapped there. The same thing applies to Common waxbills and Red avadavats.
Thanks to all, this is exactly the information I was looking for ! By the way, no weavers at all in the US ?
the Northern Red Bishop there is also at Oasi di Sant'Alessio, near Pavia and in the Genoa's Biosfera there are another species of weavers (i don't know which)
Blackduiker Los Angeles has had a very successful breeding colony of Black-headed Weavers for many years. I recently provided several photos of them in the ZooChat Photo Gallery. They've also been exhibiting the White-headed Buffalo Weaver in more recent years.
Oregon zoo as far as I know has at least one red bishop, and possibly their flock of Southern masked weaver birds in Vollum aviary. I saw at least one of them on my last visit. Woodland Park Zoo also has a Southern masked weaver flock. Tautphaus Park Zoo has Taveta Golden Weaver and White-headed Buffalo Weaver I think Oakland Zoo may also have taveta golden weavers. That's all the zoos in the states that I can think of off the top of my head that have weaver birds.
Lasaiza and found they have a nice colony of Speke's weavers, a species I had never seen before. In the Tropical free-flight aviary a nice group of Madagascar Fodies were flighing around.
Vogelcommando, Burger's in Arnhem breeds madagascar fodies like hell. To be fair foudia species differ a bit from Ploceus and Euplectes. If you want to know more about weaver breeding in general drop me a message .
At my visit to the Binder Park Zoo today they had both northern red bishops and taveta weavers in their walk through african aviary.
To bring an old thread to new live : Safaripark Beekse Bergen has no less then ( at least ) 4 species: Village weaver - large colony in the African village near the elephants Black-headed weaver - colony in the new aviary near the tigers Red-billed quelea - colony in the same aviary as the Black-headed weavers Vieillot's black weaver - a group of 20 males was obtaoned 2014 from a privat keeper and are housed free-flighing in the Crocodile - Hippo House. Don't know if they have obtained females in the meantime but on Zootierliste this species is not mentioned for any European collection. From all 4 species I've placed already several photos in the Safaripark Beekse Bergen Gallery.
From what I've seen, taveta golden weavers are the most common in the US. I see them frequently, anyways. The San Diego Zoo recently received some black headed weavers from Los Angeles, but I think they are the only holders. Bronx and Louisville have Madagascar fody, and Bronx has quite a few of them (around 40!). I also see white headed buffalo weaver frequently. I'd say that white headed and taveta golden are the most common. After that, it's a mashup. Only one zoo has a successful colony of sociable weaver- the San Diego Zoo.
Not at a zoo but even so worth mentioning is the Blue-billed ( or Gray's ) malimbe ( Malimbus nitens ) which I saw ( and photographed ) at the Dutch Softbill Society's show for a couple of weeks. ( see Netherlands - other Gallery https://www.zoochat.com/community/d...ae97351c9d5aedf5105863f678f58d.jpg?1478629175 ) Malimbes are very rarely kept at Zoos and birdparks
Not a weaver - but whydah's were mentioned earlier in this thread. They are about the only obligate nest parasites that could be potentially established in captivity. I gather that pintailed whydahs are actually naturalized in California, where they parasitize the equally introduced Spice Finch - does anyone have any more on this?
