One evening, as I was strolling along the Kabini, I chanced upon a small inlet that was well- wooded with small trees and bushes with branches overhanging the water. It was here that I stumbled upon a colony of Baya Weavers.

A Baya Weaver Colony!

The male Baya Weaver is a polygamist. He has a unique system of his own that involves a lot of hard work. At the beginning of the breeding season, usually with the start of the monsoons, he starts work on a wonderful retort-shaped nest. These nests are usually built on trees standing in or overhanging the waters. The building parties of the nests consist of ten to fifty birds and are comprised exclusively of males.

When the nest reaches a certain stage, the females, who until now have been absent from the colony, come visiting. They hop from nest to nest subjecting each to careful scrutiny.

A Female Baya Weaver: Perched Pensively?

Once a nest is ‘approved’, the female moves in and accepts its builder as her husband. After adding the finishing touches to the nest together, the female proceeds to lay her eggs. At this time, the male flies off to commence another nest close by, which in turn is approved by another female. In this manner, the male finds himself the devoted husband of three to four wives and father of an equal number of families.

Vikram Nanjappa

Vikram Nanjappa likes to be described as an interested and well-informed amateur. He draws his inspiration from the band of men called the Orientalists, most of whom were amateurs. By profession, they were soldiers and administrators. However, today, they are remembered as giants of scholarship. Like them, his field of enquiry is ‘Man and Nature; (with an emphasis on Nature) whatever is performed by the one or produced by the other’. He currently resides in Bangalore and freelances as a writer and photographer. He can be contacted at nanjappavikram@yahoo.co.in.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 7th, 2011 at 5:41 pm and is filed under Birds, Destinations, Nature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.