Weavers in UK Zoos.

Nanook

Nanook

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
There are generally not many weavers in zoos these days, I know of a few such as London Zoo`s Weaver aviary near the entrance, a handful at Marwell and some Red Bishop Weavers (males) at Paultons Park, a few at Cotswolds Wildlife Park which are mainly males and of a mixed flock.
Does anyone know of any others ??
In particular does anyone know if there are any Red-Billed Queleas in UK collections please ??
 
There are quite a few at Chester in a walkthough aviary. I'll see if I can find out the species.

Village weavers, I believe.
 
London's aviary is long gone; Colchester has a flock mixed with Tortoises in the Kingdom of the Wild building.
 
The ones I am familiar with are the ones at Colchester (an indoor, glass-windowed exhibit shared with leopard tortoises) and Tropical Wings (a standard outdoor aviary also home to Madagascan teal, Cochin-Chinese red junglefowl and white-cheeked turaco. Both collections keep the village weaver bird.
 
Weavers in UK Zoos

Paignton's Red-billed Weavers were declining the last time I heard of them. Sometimes regarded as a 'weaver', Madagascar Fodies are breeding well at Durrell Wildlife Park in Jersey. Not UK, not a weaver......
This is a group tat will inevitably die out in Europe without sustained efforts at propagation.
Just remembered, Newquay are breeding Golden Bishops ('Napoleon Weavers' to bird fanciers).
If one or two species can be saved in UK collections, it's as much as can be hoped for -- perhaps Village Weavers and one other?
 
FBBird said:
This is a group tat will inevitably die out in Europe without sustained efforts at propagation.
Just remembered, Newquay are breeding Golden Bishops ('Napoleon Weavers' to bird fanciers).
If one or two species can be saved in UK collections, it's as much as can be hoped for -- perhaps Village Weavers and one other?
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I can remember a time when Bird Dealers' lists and Pet Shops holding large stocks of Foreign birds had Weavers Galore, particularly 'Red Bishop' Napolean, Quelea etc but the lack of breeding combined with import restrictions has made that a thing of the past. The same for Whydahs and many of the African waxbill species. These seem much rarer nowadays and only in the hands of some fanciers who keep them going by breeding (waxbills that is- the Whydahs are even more difficult to breed as they are polygamous and must be in very low numbers nowadays captive-wise).
 
Nanook said:
In particular does anyone know if there are any Red-Billed Queleas in UK collections please ??
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One UK collection holds Red-headed Quelea - Welsh Mountain Zoo - whilst 5 hold Red-billed Quelea.

FBBird said:
Sometimes regarded as a 'weaver', Madagascar Fodies are breeding well at Durrell Wildlife Park in Jersey. Not UK, not a weaver......
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The Madagascar Fody is in pretty decent numbers at Amazon World, Blackbrook and Chester.
 
There are some specialist breeders working with Ploceidae and getting decent results. Golden Bishops are considered by those people an easy species to breed. Whidah from the genus vidua are very difficult. Fodies are actually easy to breed and will be among the species that will spread further over collections.
 
Pertinax said:
I can remember a time when Bird Dealers' lists and Pet Shops holding large stocks of Foreign birds had Weavers Galore, particularly 'Red Bishop' Napolean, Quelea etc but the lack of breeding combined with import restrictions has made that a thing of the past. The same for Whydahs and many of the African waxbill species. These seem much rarer nowadays and only in the hands of some fanciers who keep them going by breeding (waxbills that is- the Whydahs are even more difficult to breed as they are polygamous and must be in very low numbers nowadays captive-wise).
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Absolutely, the ban on imports of many finches has not only caused some species to die out in UK collections but equally push up the price of any that are UK bred to ridiculous levels. Of course the ban has its benefits too, and it does encourage many keepers to actively try to breed from the stock they have, instead of simply replacing the birds, very cheaply, as once before. Though with many weavers in particular breeding them is often not easy, even now there are still many more males than females available in collections.
 
lamna said:
There are quite a few at Chester in a walkthough aviary. I'll see if I can find out the species.

Village weavers, I believe.
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Many thanks, I think the Village Weaver seems to be the most numerus species left in collections, years ago the Masked and half-masked etc used to be very commonly seen.
 
Nanook said:
any idea of numbers ?
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Sorry, Nanook, I don't have those figures - BUT this might be as good a place as any to remind people that, although the ISIS Species Holdings are no longer freely available on-line, if anyone is interested in a particular species they can go to Home, news@isis.org, and ask the technical support staff to forward the details of zoo holdings for that taxon.
(Of course, this depends on the zoos keeping their ISIS records up to date...)
 
MikeG said:
Sorry, Nanook, I don't have those figures - BUT this might be as good a place as any to remind people that, although the ISIS Species Holdings are no longer freely available on-line, if anyone is interested in a particular species they can go to Home, news@isis.org, and ask the technical support staff to forward the details of zoo holdings for that taxon.
(Of course, this depends on the zoos keeping their ISIS records up to date...)
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Thanks for that Mike.
 
Pertinax said:
I can remember a time when Bird Dealers' lists and Pet Shops holding large stocks of Foreign birds had Weavers Galore, particularly 'Red Bishop' Napolean, Quelea etc but the lack of breeding combined with import restrictions has made that a thing of the past. The same for Whydahs and many of the African waxbill species. These seem much rarer nowadays and only in the hands of some fanciers who keep them going by breeding (waxbills that is- the Whydahs are even more difficult to breed as they are polygamous and must be in very low numbers nowadays captive-wise).
Click to expand...

There has always been more Weavers kept in private collections than in public zoos, not in huge numbers, but certainly more variety in those species kept. Even today the situation is very similar, less in zoos more held privately, though less weavers are kept generally overall of course.
I heard of some Golden-backed Weavers (a new species to me) available recently, there are still a small number of weavers coming into the UK probably via other private collections in Europe ?
I have personally kept a few species, the Speckle-Fronted Weaver was the most interesting weaver species I`ve kept before.
 
Welsh Mountain has a number of Village Weavers, with some a mystery to me (I posted a photo of one such on the WMZ gallery). Paradise Park also has them. Lotherton has Napoleon Weavers as does Sewerby - oh, and Tropiquaria (it may have at least one other species too). Sewerby also had Red-billed Queleas and Red Bishops until recently.
 
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