Life Amid the Palms

Baya Weaver Bird Sits Atop a Nest in a Palm Tree

These creative birds are up in palm trees building a substantial home for their mate & offspring.

What's amazing about this bird, is the way it prepares for nestlings.

They build their nest up high in tall palms or thorned trees. They're also routinely attached to palm frond petioles that extend out over water.

The Male Baya Weaver Bird

The purpose for the height is keeping away predators, which may find the nests grueling to reach. Still, sometimes lizards or rodents manage to get there. Crows are the most common successful predator. It's easier if you can fly!

These birds make a hanging nest attached to their chosen tree. They particularly like the tallest palm trees of the area. All of which grow upward from 70ft/21m to 100ft/30m. Like:

• Coconut Palm Trees (Cocos nucifera)
• Toddy Palms (Phoenix sylvestris)
• Giant Fishtail Palm (Caryota gigas)
• Or the Nibung Palm (Oncosperma tigillarium). 

Male Baya Weaver Checking Out a Palm Tree for His Possible Nest Construction

They're residents in India and Southeast Asia, where they find tall palms in suitable climates.

Even though they look for tall trees to build their nests, they fly into grasslands, farmlands & scrub forests. Looking for seeds & insects to scoop into their cone-shaped beak. While flying around with their flocking buddies.

Baya Weavers are about the size of an average sparrow. Very sociable & animated within their own flock.

Female Baya Weaver is Not as Colorful as a Male

Male Baya Weavers choose their nesting site within a colony of about 20-30 other nests.

A Colony of Baya Weavers Nesting in a Palm Tree

They build nests with strips torn from palm fronds. Adding in rough grasses and rice plant leaves. Weaving & knotting them all together.

The most intelligent Baya Weavers add mud & dung globs to help impress a lady! But its practical purpose is strength, so storms won't destroy it during Monsoon season.

Such Talent! The Male Has Begun Construction

Males pause construction midway to begin looking for a mate.

It's Time to Vie For Female Attention

Once a connection is made with a female, the male gets back to nest work & constructing the tube-like entrance. He'll make over 500 trips back and forth to gather needed materials, over around 18 days.

He's About to Restart His Nest-Building Project