Taman Merkeda (Independence Park) opened again to the public last week and it seems that there are some new residents. I exercise here in the mornings with the Garden Ladies, and we have been distracted by watching weaver birds visiting their nest in a nearby field. So today I brought my camera along to see if I could get a few photos.
The tree with the nest was down hill from where we exercise, so I knew that it would be hard to see the large nest once I got closer as it would be hidden by the a fence (nest is far bottom right of photo). But this week we had seen birds starting to build a new nest and this you can just about see in the photo below. So, I stepped carefully through the extra long wet grass towards the tree, watched by my friends in case of snake attack, wishing I’d put insect rebellant on today!
Let me show you the variety of weaver bird nests I came across today. The nests are built by the yellow-headed male of the species (Ploceus philippinus) using strips of long lalang grass. We assume that the absence of humans from the park for months has allowed the grasses to grow, thus providing nesting material and a habitat for the bird’s lunch. In the photo below, you can see the start of the nest next to the collection of seed pods.
My friends had previously spotted a host of nests on trees further along the main path in the park, but had thought these nests were empty, so I continued towards those.
The new nests are quite green in colour. In the photo below you might just make out the bird at the top of the nest. I did have a zoom lens on my camera today, but it does not have the reach of a lens used by true ‘birdies’, so apologies for the quality of the photos here.
This nest is quite brown, so I think it was no longer in use.
This was my favourite nest as it was beautifully lit by the morning sun. I longed for a bird to appear here but it was not to be. The long tube at the bottom is the entrance route and I assume the bulge on the right is where the birds sit safely inside.
I had seen weaver birds’ nests when driving around Namibia in 2014, and they too came in different shapes. I was told that birds often build decoy nests to deter snakes.
This photo above is a nest belonging to the social weaver birds, so within this mass of thatch are many smaller nests.
Back in Taman Merdeka I discovered that those empty nests were not all empty, but I could not get very close because of a ditch in the way. I could not see this ditch for all the long grass, so after nearly falling over I decided to retreat to the pathway. You should be able to see in the photo below that the bird is adding fresh green grass to the old brown-coloured nest beneath.
This weaver bird in the photos below was singing so I think it was trying to attract a mate. This would explain why the yellow feathers on top of his head are raised here, whereas when he was busy building (see photo above) the yellow feathers were flat against his head.
If you would like to see more of Taman Merdeka, please click here.
Click here to return to Travels in Malaysia 2020.
Click here to return to Helen Gray’s homepage.