A Morning Surprise: Village Weaver!
I had plans to go birding this morning but I woke up too late. As I was puttering around the kitchen, making coffee, I was complaining to myself about sleeping in.
I decided to put a positive spin on my attitude and said to myself “you know what, you were meant to stay here because you are going to see something special today”.
That very second, I looked out the window at one of the platform feeders. And there it was. That “something special”. I wasn’t sure what I was looking at but this dark
burgundy color on the nape caught my eye right away and I knew I had never seen any bird with that! I headed outside with the Samsung Galaxy(kicking myself I didn’t have my DSLR ready)and took a video of him. Immediately I saw that his eye was really red. Like blood red. Kind of freaky actually. Later, I searched for him in books. Nothing. Thank goodness for google!
Turns out it is a Village Weaver from the Northern part of Africa. Chances are he came up from the Caribbean though where he has been introduced on the island of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico.
I searched for Florida sightings but all I found was one sighting in Pinelles county in 1998. Now, we have one in Broward! I hope he sticks around so I can get some pictures of him.
What an exciting find! #375 on my Life List!
Girl Birder 