Hi

The White-browed Sparrow-Weaver has become a common bird in Nairobi, and 
to date 99 PHOWN records have been submitted for this species from 
Nairobi. Of these records, 5 records noted small spiders and their webs 
near or over the weaver nests. The small number of records of spider 
webs and weaver nests suggests that the association may be fortuitous, 
but even so it raises interesting questions. For example, do the spiders 
cause the weavers to leave or are the spiders only able to colonise a 
tree where the sparrow-weavers have already left? In one case, there was 
a relatively small spider web near a weaver nest, and the weaver colony 
was still active (http://weavers.adu.org.za/phown_vm.php?vm=2409), while 
in other cases the spider webs were extensive but it is not known if 
weavers were present.

View all the spider-weaver records at 
http://weavers.adu.org.za/phown_query.php?ask=spider.

The spiders are probably social spiders but this group includes many 
families. More records are needed, the spiders need to be identified, 
and observations on these associations are needed!

Dieter

-- 
Dr Dieter Oschadleus	
doschadleus@gmail.com (or Dieter.Oschadleus@uct.ac.za)

Bird-ringing Coordinator, SAFRING
Animal Demography Unit      tel: (021) 650-2421
University of Cape Town	   NEW fax: (021) 650-3301 (Zoology)
Rondebosch 7701 RSA	
SAFRING  http://safring.adu.org.za
Weavers  http://weavers.adu.org.za