Weavers (Ploceidae)

Village Weaver (Ploceus cucullatus) - HBW 15, p. 165

French: Tisserin gendarme German: Dorfweber Spanish: Tejedor Común
Other common names: Black-headed Weaver(!), Spotted-backed Weaver; Layard's (Black-headed) Weaver (nigriceps); Mottled Weaver (collaris)

Taxonomy: Oriolus cucullatus Statius Müller, 1776, Senegal.
May form a superspecies with P. grandis. Hybridizes with P. nigerrimus. Race nigriceps sometimes considered to represent a separate species. Proposed races bohndorffi (described from Stanley Falls, in DRCongo), frobenii (from Lomami, in DRCongo) and graueri (from N end of L Tanganyika) synonymized with nominate, femininus (from SE Rwenzori, in Uganda) with abyssinicus, paroptus (from Sokoke, in coastal Kenya) with nigriceps, and dilutescens (from S Mozambique) with spilonotus. Five subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

cucullatus ( Statius Müller, 1776) - S Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, and S & SW Mali S to Liberia and Ivory Coast, E to S Chad, N Gabon, NE PRCongo, Central African Republic and most of DRCongo; also Bioko I (Fernando Póo).
collaris Vieillot, 1819 - S Gabon, S PRCongo, W DRCongo and W Angola.
abyssinicus ( J. F. Gmelin, 1789) - SW, S & E Sudan, N, W & C Ethiopia, C Eritrea, Uganda and NW Kenya.

See all 5 subspecies

cucullatus ( Statius Müller, 1776) - S Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, and S & SW Mali S to Liberia and Ivory Coast, E to S Chad, N Gabon, NE PRCongo, Central African Republic and most of DRCongo; also Bioko I (Fernando Póo).
collaris Vieillot, 1819 - S Gabon, S PRCongo, W DRCongo and W Angola.
abyssinicus ( J. F. Gmelin, 1789) - SW, S & E Sudan, N, W & C Ethiopia, C Eritrea, Uganda and NW Kenya.
nigriceps ( E. L. Layard, 1867) - SE Somalia, S Kenya, Tanzania, SE DRCongo, E Angola, Zambia, Malawi, NE Namibia (Caprivi region), N & SE Botswana, Zimbabwe and N Mozambique.
spilonotus Vigors, 1831 - S Mozambique, Swaziland and E South Africa; occasional in Lesotho.