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Africa’s Social Weaverbirds Take Communal Living to a Whole New Level

These birds make huge nests in South African deserts to survive boiling summer days and freezing nights.

The nests of most song­birds are small and hidden, made by one bird or a pair, and func­tion only to hold, hide, and pro­tect one clutch of eggs and young. Those of the sociable weav­ers of the Na­mib and Kala­hari des­erts of southern Africa do much more. They are the world’s largest and most pop­ulated tree hous­es, weighing up to a ton or more and ranging up to 20 feet wide and 10 feet tall. One of these communal homes contains a hundred or more nesting chambers, or apartments. They’re refurbished and reused, with residents adding new ones over successive gen­era­tions, often for more than a century. Each generation inherits, builds on, and profits from the environment created by its predecessors.

Unlike most weaverbirds, sociable weav­erbirds don’t “weave.” Their nests look like huts, complete with a sloping thatched-grass roof that sheds rain. The struc­ture grows as the birds add new apart­ments, insert­ing dry grasses into the bot­toms and sides. Each of the hundred or more breeding pairs tends to its own com­part­ment. The couples line the interior with soft downy plant material and construct a private entrance—a 10-inch-long, one-inch-wide passageway—out of downward-pointing spiky straws that keeps out snakes. With dozens and dozens of entrances packed closely together, the underside of the communal home has a honeycomb appearance.

These last two images came from Google. Click on headline to read more.