The Sparrow Weaver Project

After my master's thesis, I worked for six months as a field research assistant for Dr. Andrew Young, University of Exeter, worked in South Africa. I was part of The Sparrow Weaver Project which conducts its annual field season at the Tswalu Kalahari Game Reserve in the Kalahari Desert. I myself did not manage my own project here, but was responsible for maintaining the project together with 3 colleagues. There are about 40 cooperative breeding colonies of the Mahali weaver (Plocepasser mahali). The scientific focus of the working group is also on the study of life history theory, which is why I was able to further deepen the knowledge I had acquired in my master's degree.

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The Mahali weaver is a mostly inconspicuous, sparrow-sized bird with a distribution area from Central to South Africa. A population consists of individual cooperative breeding groups with 2 to 12 individuals each. It is noteworthy that only the dominant breeding pair fathers offspring and is supported by helpers. The strikingly woven nests are typical of this species, with Mahali weavers also using them for sleeping. These nests greatly facilitate data collection, as individuals are easily caught at night and nests can be specifically checked with the help of cameras during the day. An automated RFID system was implemented while I was working there. The birds are individually tagged with transponders and the cooperative care behavior can be monitored externally by means of antennas attached to the nests. Each bird is given an individual combination of 3 colored rings and a metal ring to distinguish them during visual observations by field workers, for example to monitor group dynamics.