White-headed Buffalo-Weaver (Dinemellia dinemelli boehmi) - 3 July 2013. Tarangire National Park, Manyara Region, Tanzania.

The buffalo part of its name comes from its habit of following Cape Buffalo and foraging on disturbed insects. This striking weaver in the Ploceidae family is the sole member in the genus Dinemellia. Like other weavers they build elaborate woven nests. This is a fairly social species and the nests are often together in colonies. Here one can see evidence of a prebasic molt where older brownish feathers are being replaced with new blackish ones on the back and tail. This is the southern race in which the upperparts are black. In the north, the nominate race has the upperparts dusky brown.

IOC calls this species "White-headed Buffalo Weaver" without the last hyphen, a name also used by Clements prior to the 4th edition in which the hyphen was introduced.

Digiscoped with Panasonic DMC-LX5 | Nikon FieldScope III | 30XWA | hand-held (no adapter).
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