---
title: "What the sources say about the Sociable Weaver | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "48 claims from the Sociable Weaver profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it."
image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/sociable-weaver-1.webp"
canonical: "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/sociable-weaver/sources/"
---

# What the sources say about the Sociable Weaver (*Philetairus socius*)

> 48 claims from the Sociable Weaver profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it. A "..." marks a cut in a quote and [brackets] an insertion.

Profile: [Sociable Weaver](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/sociable-weaver/)

## Sociable Weaver. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.

https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/sociable-weaver

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| with some still standing more than a century later | Some sociable weaver nests have remained occupied for over 100 years! |
| one shared straw mega-nest big enough for hundreds of birds | providing a home for 10 to 400 birds! (note: 400 rounds to 'hundreds') |
| Termites and other insects (about 80% of the diet), plus grass seeds | Insects make up 80 percent of their diet, and juicy harvester termites are a favorite. The rest of the sociable weaver diet is seeds from grasses. |
| colonies build the world's largest bird nest | Record holder: the sociable weaver is the builder of the largest tree nests in the world. |
| an insulated haystack that can weigh several tons | Some sociable weaver nests weigh several tons and can get so heavy they knock down the supporting tree. |
| shelter hundreds of birds | providing a home for 10 to 400 birds! (note: 400 rounds to 'hundreds') |
| At 14 centimeters tall and just 24 to 32 grams | Height: 5.5 inches (14 centimeters) tall / Weight: .8 to 1.13 ounces (24 to 32 grams) |
| stretch more than 6 meters wide and close to 3 meters tall, packed with over 100 separate chambers | The largest sociable weaver nests are over 20 feet (6 meters) wide and close to 10 feet (3 meters) tall, with more than 100 individual nesting chambers. |
| home to as many as 400 birds | providing a home for 10 to 400 birds! |
| The whole thing can weigh several tons, heavy enough to bring down the tree holding it up | Some sociable weaver nests weigh several tons and can get so heavy they knock down the supporting tree. |
| Some of these mega-nests have stayed occupied, and constantly added to, for more than a hundred years | Some sociable weaver nests have remained occupied for over 100 years! |
| constantly added to | Weaver nests need constant care because of the nature of the materials used. Weavers continually add more material to keep the nest intact. |
| Straw spikes guard the tunnel entrances | Sharp spikes of straw protect the entrance tunnels from predators. |
| chicks raised with extra helpers survive better than chicks raised by their parents alone | Studies have shown that chicks raised with helpers have a better chance at surviving than those raised by the parents alone. |
| About four-fifths of a weaver's diet is insects, especially harvester termites, with grass seeds making up the rest | Insects make up 80 percent of their diet, and juicy harvester termites are a favorite. The rest of the sociable weaver diet is seeds from grasses. |
| most never take a drink, getting all the moisture they need from their food | Most never take a drink, getting all the moisture they need from their food: bugs. |
| The materials need constant care, so the weavers keep adding more to hold the nest together | Weaver nests need constant care because of the nature of the materials used. Weavers continually add more material to keep the nest intact. |
| some nests have stayed in continuous use for more than a hundred years | Some sociable weaver nests have remained occupied for over 100 years! |
| Sociable weavers do not migrate, and a chick may never leave the nest it hatched in | Sociable weavers do not migrate; in fact, chicks may never leave the nest. |
| a fledgling might just move into an empty chamber nearby | Fledgling chicks might just move to an empty nesting chamber nearby. |
| It relies completely on the weavers' nest for its own home, often nesting side by side with the weavers | The South African pygmy falcon relies completely on the sociable weavers' nest for its own home, often nesting side by side with the sociable weavers. |
| even though it is also one of their predators | Other predators include the honey badger and pygmy falcon. |
| which also preys on the weavers | Other predators include the honey badger and pygmy falcon. |
| A Sparrow-Sized Bird, a Six-Meter Nest | this sparrow-sized critter (note: six-meter half: 'The largest sociable weaver nests are over 20 feet (6 meters) wide', claimed in the body) |
| Colonies of these little brown birds | The sociable weaver is a common little brown bird in the Kalahari region of southern Africa. |
| one shared, haystack-like mass with a roof of twigs and chambers of dry grass | From a distance, the sociable weaver nest may resemble a haystack hanging in a tree. ... Large twigs form the roof of the nest and dry grasses create the separate chambers. |
| the weavers continually add material to keep it intact | Weavers continually add more material to keep the nest intact |

## Philetairus socius. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2024: e.T22718731A263786878.

https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2024-2.rlts.t22718731a263786878.en

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Least Concern | IUCN Red List category: Least Concern (LC). (note: read via GBIF's copy of the Red List for IUCN taxon 22718731, because iucnredlist.org refuses scripts; per the writer brief this taxon's category could not be confirmed by script for the 2024 assessment and needs a hand check against the Red List page itself) |

## White, Bartholomew & Howell (1975). The Thermal Significance of the Nest of the Sociable Weaver Philetairus socius: Winter Observations. Ibis.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1474-919x.1975.tb04205.x

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| the biggest nest structure made by any bird on Earth | The Sociable Weaver of southern Africa builds the largest of all birds' nests. |
| easing the impact of low outside temperatures on the birds is one clear job it does | One readily demonstrable function served by this enormous nest is the amelioration of the impact of low environmental temperatures. |

## Bartholomew, White & Howell (1976). The Thermal Significance of the Nest of the Sociable Weaver Philetairus socius: Summer Observations. Ibis.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1474-919x.1976.tb02027.x

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| air outside a nest swinging from 16°C to 33.5°C | Air temperatures outside the nest ranged from 16 to 33.5°C |
| the temperature inside an occupied chamber moved by only seven or eight degrees, staying inside the birds' comfort zone | temperatures in occupied chambers varied over a range of only 7 or 8°C and remained well within the zone of thermal neutrality for a passerine bird of this size |
| The main way a colony keeps its chambers in that comfortable band is by changing how many birds sleep in each one at night | The principal mechanism for maintaining chambers within the zone of minimal energetic cost is changes in the number of birds in the nest chambers at night. |
| even the largest nests don't stop a Cape cobra in the warm season, and one snake may eat the eggs and chicks in every chamber of a large nest | Even the largest nests, however, do not prevent predation during the warm season by snakes such as the Cape Cobra, which may consume all the eggs and young in all the chambers of a large nest. |
| Researchers counted up to five adults sharing a single chamber on winter nights, while in summer no more than two roosted together even though almost every chamber was occupied | In winter we found up to five roosting adults per chamber, with some chambers left empty. In the same nest in summer we found no more than two adults per chamber but virtually all chambers were occupied. (note: 'single chamber' restates the quote's 'per chamber') |

## van Dijk et al. (2014). Cooperative investment in public goods is kin directed in communal nests of social birds. Ecology Letters.

https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12320

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Semi-arid Acacia savannas of the Kalahari region, southern Africa | the semi-arid Acacia savannahs of southern Africa that are associated with the Kalahari ecosystem |
| A Cooperative With Hundreds of Roommates | Sociable weavers live in colonies varying in size from five to over 300 individuals (note: heading rounds the 5-300+ range to 'hundreds') |
| A single nest can shelter a colony of five to more than 300 birds | Sociable weavers live in colonies varying in size from five to over 300 individuals that occupy a communal nest (note: 'single' reflects the quote's 'a communal nest' (one nest per colony)) |
| Males who help build it tend to be more closely related to the colony members around them than males who don't build at all | nest-building males have higher local relatedness to other colony members than do non-building males (note: 'the colony members around them' carries the quote's 'local relatedness'; 'at all' restates 'non-building') |
| the sociable weaver lives in the semi-arid acacia savannas of southern Africa's Kalahari | the semi-arid Acacia savannahs of southern Africa that are associated with the Kalahari ecosystem |
| A whole colony shares one nest | communal nests |

## Paquet et al. (2013). Maternal Effects in Relation to Helper Presence in the Cooperatively Breeding Sociable Weaver. PLoS ONE.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0059336

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Weavers are relatively long-lived: the oldest one on record made it to 16 | These weavers are relatively long-lived (the oldest bird recorded was 16 years old (note: corroborated by cooperative-2014's 'Sociable weavers may live up to 16 years') |

## Paquet et al. (2015). Antagonistic effect of helpers on breeding male and female survival in a cooperatively breeding bird. Journal of Animal Ecology.

https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12377

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| females breeding with more helpers survive better themselves | females had a higher survival probability when breeding with more helpers |
| males with more helpers actually survive worse | male survival probability decreased with increasing number of helpers |

## Rymer, Thomson & Whiting (2014). At home with the birds: Kalahari tree skinks associate with sociable weaver nests despite African pygmy falcon presence. Austral Ecology.

https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.12152

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| roosts and nests nowhere else | a potential predator, the pygmy falcon (Polihierax semitorquatus), which exclusively uses weaver nest colonies for roosting and nesting |
| Kalahari tree skinks are more abundant in trees with a weaver nest than without one | We tested whether skinks were more abundant in trees containing sociable weaver nests ... We found a significant positive association between the presence of weaver nests and skink abundance. |
| take refuge in the nest when threatened | When threatened with predation, skinks preferred to take refuge in nests. |

## Lowney, Flower & Thomson (2020). Kalahari skinks eavesdrop on sociable weavers to manage predation by pygmy falcons and expand their realized niche. Behavioral Ecology.

https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/araa057

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| eavesdrop on the weavers' own alarm calls to know when trouble is near | Playback of weaver alarm calls caused skinks to increase vigilance and flee, confirming that skinks eavesdrop on weavers. |