Orange crown weavers

[Chihuahua]

The orange crown weaver caught my eye when I was looking at the finch farm site... does anyone have any info tips or experience on them? Any knowledge about these neat birds is appreciated!

[w.l.]

Damn all these fanciful names used by traders!
I had to look up what species they meant.
Well, it's probably the Northern Red Bishop from West Africa.
I have a few myself. Male in breding color is a stunning bird, but will only look like that for half the year or so, the rest of the year looks like the females or young birds. Because of this, it's hard to buy sure females. Supposed females could be out of color males, young males, or even belong to other species.
But ideally, you should buy 2-3 females with one male.
They are not easy to breed and require an aviary as they are very lively birds.
They are also among the more peaceful weavers and can be kept with finches.
They love livefood and sprouted seeds in addition to the usual dry seed mix.

The Napoleon weaver aka Yellow-crowned Bishop is also commonly available from imports, and is somewhat smaller and cheaper. Much of the above applies to it, too.
http://www.birdsexpress.net/yellow-crowned-bishop.html

For some reason weavers are not really popular with hobbyists, but I find them very interesting - get some!

[Chihuahua]

Thank you! I don't have an aviary but I hope to build one.

That yellow crowned bishop is hilarious.. I love it's fro

[w.l.]

I'd say an aviary for weavers should be at least ca 1.5x1x1.5 meters in size.
In small cages they quarrel a lot more and tend to pluck feathers.
Otherwise, their unique weaving activity makes them very interesting in addition to the breeding males' beauty.