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Village Weaver Was a Wet-Season Indicator in a Nigerian Savanna Bird Community

Village weaver perched among wetland vegetation at Lake Chivero, Zimbabwe
Research · Ecology

Bird surveys in a protected savanna woodland in north-central Nigeria found a clear seasonal shift in the local bird community, with village weavers among the species most strongly associated with the early wet season.

Researchers surveyed the Federal University Lokoja Zoo and Conservatory in Kogi State using line transects between February and May 2025, covering the late dry season and the onset of the wet season. In a line-transect survey, observers follow fixed survey lines and record the birds encountered along them. They recorded 562 birds from 66 species and measured vegetation structure along the same transects.

Village weaver increased with the rains

The village weaver (Ploceus cucullatus) was one of four species identified as significant wet-season indicators. The indicator analysis identifies species that are both relatively frequent and abundant in one season compared with the other; it does not mean the species occurs only in that season. Its mean abundance value in the seasonal comparison rose from 0.30 in the dry season to 1.37 in the wet season—about 4.6 times higher—and it was also among the species that contributed most consistently to the difference between the two seasonal bird communities. The authors emphasise that this contrast was produced by moderate shifts across several species rather than by one taxon dominating the change.

Shrubs shaped the wider bird community

Across the whole bird community, species richness and Shannon diversity were higher in the wet season, while total abundance did not change significantly. Shannon diversity combines how many species are present with how evenly individuals are distributed among them. Shrub density was the most consistent positive predictor of richness, abundance and diversity, whereas greater canopy cover was negatively associated with abundance and diversity. The authors suggest that the village weaver’s wet-season association likely coincided with greater food availability and breeding activity after the rains began. Because sampling covered the transition into the wet season rather than a full annual cycle, they note that year-round surveys could reveal stronger seasonal contrasts.

Sources and image credit

  1. Abdullahi, A. A., Egilla, D. T., Bello, B. S., & Atabo, L. O. (2026). Seasonal and Environmental Drivers of Bird Community Composition in a Tropical Savannah Landscape. African Journal of Ecology, 64(6), e70210.Primary peer-reviewed study, first published 4 August 2026. Weekly line-transect surveys from February to May 2025 at the Federal University Lokoja Zoo and Conservatory in Kogi State, Nigeria, recorded 562 birds from 66 species. Village weaver was one of four significant wet-season indicator species; its mean abundance in the SIMPER comparison was 0.30 in dry-season samples and 1.37 in wet-season samples, and it contributed consistently to seasonal community dissimilarity.

Image: Derek Keats — male village weaver (Ploceus cucullatus) at Lake Chivero, Harare, Zimbabwe, photographed 24 September 2015; originally published on Flickr and available via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Representative species image; not a bird from the Nigeria study. · CC BY 2.0 · Source

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