Asian Golden Weaver

 The Asian Golden Weaver (Ploceus hypoxanthus) is a small passerine bird that is a member of the weaver family Ploceidae. It is native to tropical Southeast Asia, where it can be found in countries such as Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. This bird is known for its striking golden plumage, and males are particularly striking during breeding season, when they develop bright orange plumage on their head and breast. They are typically found in lowland forests, but can also be found in nearby cultivated areas. They build nests that are made of woven grasses and hanging from branches of trees or bushes.

Appearance

The Asian golden weaver is a medium-sized bird with yellow and black upper parts, along with yellow underparts. The breeding male is generally bright yellow with a black mask. Females, non-breeding males, and young birds are dull-colored and difficult to distinguish from the Baya Weaver, with their thicker bills being the only thing that sets them apart.

Video Asian Golden Weaver

It is widely believed that Asian golden weavers are monogamous and form pairs. They breed in small colonies, and the nest is initially created by the male, and completed with the assistance of the female. Their nest is a rounded structure with a side entrance and woven from thin strips of grass or palm leaves. Nests are firmly attached to vegetation over water or very swampy ground, often less than 1 m above the surface, usually in reeds or bulrushes. Sometimes nests are placed in trees or shrubs, and then higher than 2 m above the ground. The female lays from 2 to 3 eggs, and these eggs often have a greyish-white color. While being grown, the eggs can also grow to an average size of 188 mm by 13.5 mm. Incubation is done by the female only, and upon hatching, the chicks are fed mainly by the female, with occasional assistance by the male.

Introduction

The Asian Golden Weaver was formally named by Anders Erikson Sparrman, a Swedish naturalist. Although Sparrman sailed around the world with James Cook, starting from Cape Town, on Cook's second expedition to the Pacific (1772-1775), they did not visit islands as far north as Sumatra. After the voyage Sparrman returned to Cape Town in July 1775 and practiced medicine. In 1776 he returned to Sweden and published a Catalogue of the Museum Carlsonianum (1786-89), in which he described many of the specimens he had collected in South Africa and the South Pacific, some of which were new to science. He wrote a Latin description of the Asian Golden Weaver.

Sparrman described and painted the Asian Golden Weaver, and listed the collector as Claes Fredrik Hornstedt, a Swedish naturalist.

Hornstedt visited Batavia [=Jakarta] in Java from July 1783 to July 1784. He returned to Sweden with a large collection of natural history objects. In Sweden he replaced Sparrman as curator of the museum of the Royal Academy of Sciences (KVA), Stockholm, in 1787-88 (Rookmaaker 1989). Rookmaaker suggested that Hornstedt did not visit Sumatra, but received specimens from local collectors, even though he presents no evidence of this and Sumatra is relatively close to the adjacent island of Java.

Latham (1801) noted that a bird was brought alive from Sumatra and kept by Count Carlson (in Museum Carlsonianum).