Sociable Weaver (Philetairus socius) Fact Sheet: Diet & Feeding

Insectivorous and granivorous (from Maclean 1967; Maclean 1973e)

• Insects and seeds compose nearly the entire diet
• Insects
• Harvester termite (Hodotermes mossambicus)
• Dominant dietary staple
• Eaten year-round
• Moths and butterfly larvae
• Small grasshoppers
• Adult wasps and moths occasionally eaten
• Seeds
• Prefer green grass seeds with a high water content

Uncommonly eaten foods (from Maclean 1967; Maclean 1973e)

• Soft fruit and portions of flowers and grass stems

Feeding (from Maclean 1967; Maclean 1973e unless otherwise noted)

• Feed in flocks
• Stand on the ground to gather food, most often
• Capture insects in flight on occasion
• Perch on flower to eat at times
• Move forward in a ‘leap-frog’ fashion
• Birds behind fly over those in front to land at the head of the flock
• Seeds picked off the ground, typically
• Flick bill to uncover seeds covered with sand
• Husk grass seeds before being swallowed
• Crack larger seeds (e.g. legumes) before eating
• Harvester termites unearthed from soil cones and swallowed whole
• Flick cones with the bill to break open and gain access
• Other terrestrial insects
• Adult grasshoppers
• Beak captures and manipulates adult grasshoppers
• Hold prey by the abdomen and beat its head and thorax on the ground before consumption
• Insect larvae
• Picked from the ground or dug (with the beak) from soil burrows
• Swallow small larvae whole or ‘pulp’ larger larvae
• Dismember large beetle larvae
• Flying insects
• Uncommonly capture food while in flight

Drinking

• Rarely (if ever) drink from water sources in the wild (Maclean 1967; Maclean 1973e)

Birds travel to feeding locations together and feed as a flock on the ground. Seeds and insects are plucked off the ground with the beak; the feet are often seen kicking loose soil to expose buried food.

Image credit: © CraftOlogy from Flickr. Some rights reserved.

Maclean (1967)
Maclean (1973e)