Ploceus superciliosus
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10%
The compact weaver (Pachyphantes superciliosus) is a species of bird in the family Ploceidae. It is the only species placed in the genus Pachyphantes. It has a highly discontinuous distribution from Senegal to Liberia, east to Ethiopia and south to Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The compact weaver was formally described in 1873 as Hyphantornis superciliosus by the English ornithologist George Ernest Shelley based on specimens collected in West Africa. The specific epithet is Latin meaning "haughty" or "eyebrowed" from supercilium meaning "eyebrow". The compact weaver is now the only species placed in the genus Pachyphantes that was introduced for the species by Shelley in 1896. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek παχυς/pakhus meaning "large" or "thick" with ὑφαντης/huphantēs meaning "weaver". A molecular genetic study of the weaverbirds published in 2017 found that the compact weaver was sister to clade containing the fodies in the genus Foudia. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland. ��2�... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kibale National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 2 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 3 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 4 | Bwindi Impenetrable National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brazzaville | 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo | |
| 2 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Compact Weaver sighting in Murchison Falls National Park on a given day, based on 19 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 304th most-seen of the 424 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Compact Weaver in Murchison Falls National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February to December, the lowest months. That is one of Murchison Falls National Park's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain against 190 mm in October.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Compact 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.
3rd of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Compact Weaver sightings, Murchison Falls National Park ranks 3rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Kibale National Park (Uganda, about 10%) and Queen Elizabeth National Park (Uganda, about 10%).
Same genus: Ploceus
The closest relatives of the Compact Weaver that you can see in Murchison Falls National Park (genus Ploceus, Typical Weavers) are Black-headed Weaver (about 30%), Little Weaver (about 30%) and Vitelline Masked-Weaver (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Compact Weaver is recorded against all the birds logged in Murchison Falls National Park (19 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
