Pseudonigrita arnaudi
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The grey-capped social weaver (Pseudonigrita arnaudi) is a sparrow-like liver-colored bird, with a pale grey crown, a dark grey bill, a whitish eye-ring, horn-colored legs, with some black in the wing and a light terminal band in the tail, that builds roofed nests made of straws, breeds in colonies in thorny Acacia trees, and feeds in groups gathering grass seeds and insects. Male and female have near identical plumage. DNA-analysis confirms it is part of the weaver family. It is found in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.
The French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte described the grey-capped social weaver as Nigrita arnaudi in 1850. He chose the specific epithet to honor Joseph Pons d'Arnaud, the French explorer who had collected a specimen around 1841 near Juba on the White Nile, and sent it to the French Museum of Natural History. In 1903, the German zoologist Anton Reichenow assigned the species to his newly erected genus Pseudonigrita, because he considered P. arnaudi and P. cabanisi related to weaverbirds (Ploceidae), while the other species Nigrita bicolor, N. canicapillus, N. fusconota and N. luteifrons are negrofinches assigned... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ruaha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 2 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 3 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 4 | Masai Mara National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 5 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 6 | Amboseli National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 7 | Tsavo West National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 8 | Nairobi National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 9 | Tarangire National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 10 | Samburu National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 11 | Tsavo East National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Gray-headed Social-Weaver sighting in Tsavo East National Park on a given day, based on 7 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 309th most-seen of the 345 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Gray-headed Social-Weaver in Tsavo East National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Gray-headed Social-Weaver sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
11th of 11
Of the 11 parks where we can rate Gray-headed Social-Weaver sightings, Tsavo East National Park ranks 11th at under 5%. The best odds are in Ruaha National Park (Tanzania, about 50%), Serengeti National Park (Tanzania, about 40%) and Kidepo Valley National Park (Uganda, about 20%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Gray-headed Social-Weaver is recorded against all the birds logged in Tsavo East National Park (7 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.
