Sociable Weaver Project

A great week together in Portugal for our sociable weaver winter meeting! 🐥🐥🎉🏔️

Ended perfectly with trying to spot the Iberian wolf at Sierra de la Culebra in Spain 🐺🐾

Great #ASABWinter2025 conference in Edinburgh! Proud to be presenting our sociable weaver acoustics and social network results from two of our PhD students! 🎉
@asab.org

Exciting new database on cooperative breeding out now! 🪺

A big congratulations to everyone involved! 🎉

It's great to see sociable weavers featured in this cross-species effort to understand cooperation!

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

@co-breed.bsky.social

Parenthood - Everything you need to know about the wildlife series from filming locations to featured species and more Sir David Attenborough returns to narrate amazing stories of dedication, ingenuity and sacrifice, as animal parents embark on the greatest challenge of all - raising their young

The BBC #Parenthood series joined us in Benfontein to film infanticide in sociable weavers for Ep. 3: Grassland🪺

It shows how complex (and sometimes brutal) parenthood can be!
Huge thanks to everyone involved for capturing incredible footage and sharing these stories🎉
www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...

Building & vigilance observations assistant applications are OPen estimated closing date : 2025-07-25 The Sociable Weaver Project is offering a position for a motivated field assistant with a keen interest in animal behaviour that will be in…

🚨Field assistant job in South Africa working with sociable weavers for nest building observations🚨

😎Experienced in behavioural observations?
🪹🪶Enjoy studying nest building and birds?

Find more information below! Applications close: 25/07/2025
sociableweaverproject.com/recruitment/...

Congratulations to @nicolasjsilva.bsky.social for publishing another chapter from his PhD! 🎉🪶

We show how deep learning can reveal differences across sexes in a seemingly monomorphic species 🐦🐦

Check it out here:
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...

#AnimalBehaviourJournal

Feeding station and breeding monitoring assistant applications arE OPEN estimated closing date : 2025-06-08 The Sociable Weaver Project uses several automatic feeding stations to collect data on social network associations. These feeding stations …

🚨Field assistant job in South Africa working with sociable weavers 🚨

🔌Experienced in electronics?
🏷️Enjoy working with RFID technology?
🪶Like working with birds?

Find more information below!
Applications close on 08/06/2025

sociableweaverproject.com/recruitment/...

#fieldwork #ornithology

Fascinating talk from Helga Fourie from CIBIO Portugal at the #ASABSpring2025 conference: Proximity promotes social partner choice in weaver birds.
#asab

Field managers applications ARE OPEN estimated Closing date : 2025-04-20 Every year, the Sociable Weaver Project hires 2 field managers to oversee different aspects of the project’s fieldwork and monitor re…

🐦 We are recruiting two field managers to work with us in South Africa on the fantastic sociable weaver system 🐦

Tasks include breeding monitoring and overseeing the field team activities 🪶

Deadline for applications: 20/04/2025

For more information:
sociableweaverproject.com/recruitment/...

In this paper, we compared three approaches: (1) strict time-window, (2) co-occurrence, and (3) arrival time methods to define associations for house sparrows on Lundy Island, UK, and Broken Hill, Australia; great tits in Wytham Woods, UK; and sociable weavers in Benfontein National Park.

A evolução no dia a dia – e a urgência de a ensinar no ensino básico Em Portugal, muitos alunos chegam ao ensino superior sem uma compreensão sólida do conceito de evolução e sem conseguir aplicá-lo a questões do dia a dia.

To celebrate Darwin Day, we support the call for strengthening the teaching of evolution at schools in Portugal! 🪶

Em modo de celebrar o dia de Darwin, queremos mostrar o nosso apoio no ensino da matéria de Evolução no ensino em Portugal!

www.publico.pt/2025/02/12/c...

And congratulations to Dr Erwan Harscouet for his comparative work on sexual selection in nest building and song across weaver species!🪹🎶

Well done to Nico and Erwan for their excellent work!

🎉This December, we celebrate the brilliant PhD defenses of two theses on sexual selection in weavers! 🎉

Congratulations to Dr Nicolas Silva for his work on sexual selection in genetically monogamous and monomorphic sociable weavers!🐦💡

🔌Interested in fieldwork and electronics?🔋

We need a tech-savvy bird enthusiast to manage our RFID feeding stations for sociable weavers!

🗓️ Start: Early Jan 2025

Experience with electronics is needed for this position

For more information see here:
sociableweaverproject.com/recruitment/...

🚨Job opening🚨
We are hiring two managers to help with data collection and oversee fieldwork on sociable weavers in South Africa!
Includes breeding monitoring

🗓️ Start: Feb 2025
📅 Apply by: End of Nov

Applications until the end of November:
sociableweaverproject.com/recruitment/...

Sociable weaver nests & pygmy falcons stealing the show at Tswalu & the KRC! 🤩

Big thanks to Robert Thomson, Sithabile Khumalo, Lesedi Moagi, Marta Manser, Tim Clutton-Brock and Walt Jubber for hosting Rita Covas. It was a fantastic trip in all ways!