Amblyospiza albifrons
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The thick-billed weaver (Amblyospiza albifrons), or grosbeak weaver, is a distinctive and bold species of weaver bird that is native to the Afrotropics. It belongs to the monotypic genus Amblyospiza and subfamily Amblyospizinae.
They have particularly strong mandibles, which are employed to extricate the seeds in nutlets and drupes, and their songs are comparatively unmusical and harsh. Their colonial nests are readily distinguishable from those of other weavers, due to their form and placement, and the fine strands used in their construction.
They habitually fan and flick their tails. The generic name Amblyospiza was coined by Carl Jakob Sundevall in 1850 and means "blunt, finch", referencing the very large bill, while the specific name albifrons refers white forehead of the males. The thick-billed weaver was formally described as Pyrrhula albifrons in 1831 by the Irish zoologist and politician Nicholas Aylward Vigors from the collection of Henry Ellis, the specimens of which were attributed to Algoa Bay and environs in the Eastern Cape. Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mombasa | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 4 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 5 | Zanzibar City | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 6 | Yaoundé | 🇨🇲 Cameroon | |
| 7 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 8 | Harare | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 9 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 10 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Grosbeak Weaver sighting in Pretoria on a given day, based on 270 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 18th most-seen of the 177 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and March
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Grosbeak Weaver in Pretoria on a given day, against about 30% in January and April–June, the lowest months. Those are among Pretoria's wettest months, with about 80 mm of rain a month against almost none in July.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Grosbeak Weaver sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 11
Of the 11 cities where we can rate Grosbeak Weaver sightings, Pretoria ranks 2nd at about 40%. The best odds are in Mombasa (Kenya, about 50%).
Same family: Ploceidae
The closest relatives of the Grosbeak Weaver that you can see in Pretoria (family Ploceidae, Weavers and Allies) are Southern Masked Weaver (about 70%), Red Bishop (about 30%) and Village Weaver (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Grosbeak Weaver is recorded against all the birds logged in Pretoria (270 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
