66. Speke’s Weaver Weavers are very sociable: there is one type, not in this part of Africa but endemic to Southern Africa, called the Sociable Weaver, which builds enormous permanent communal nests that can occupy an entire tree, house over one hundred pairs of birds at any one time and last for a hundred years. But even when they build individual nests, usually many do so in the same tree: at breeding time, when males are frantically building and trying to attract mates, their combined ‘swizzling’ and chattering noises can be deafening. Speke’s Weaver also builds and lives in large colonies, like bird villages. There are obvious advantages in living in such social communities: there are more pairs of eyes to notice and warn of the approach of snakes or rodents or other predators such as hawks – the African Harrier-Hawk regularly dines on succulent fat weaver chicks which it scoops out of their nests. More birds also make more noise that just might discourage uninvited guests. And even if a predator does succeed in getting among the nests, the chances of any individual nest being robbed decrease with the size of the group. Birds of AFRICAMA House 137