The Architect bird, Baya Weavers

August 2017.

Chawand Village, 

Udaipur District, 

Rajasthan.  

I am inclined to write about Baya Weavers because this is a common bird with uncommon skills and intelligence.

I am posted at Chawand village, in Udaipur district of Rajasthan for my two-year fellowship journey. One weekend morning I stumbled upon a nearby lake in pursuit of my usual birdwatching hobby.

Within minutes of arriving there in an August morning, I noticed small birds spinning around in circles.

I happened to notice trajectory of one bird. He (bird) got my attention because it was shuttling between one tree to another tree in particular. Just a quick googling right there helped me to know their name. "Baya Weavers" (Thookanam Kuruvi - Tamil)

Baya weavers are one such bird we often come across while travelling outskirts of the city. Most of us would have seen their hanging nest on high trees. Knowing about their life would be worth interesting and hence spending your time reading this blog also is assumingly worth too.

 

Subtle Intelligence 

Baya Weavers are extremely intelligent birds. These birds are well known for their meticulous architecture skills (Of course it is so explicit & obvious out there). The way they twist and twin their threads to build better living space is so stunning and would outsmart any other bird species. Presuming everyone must have seen this bird on anyone of their travel; a few might have stopped to notice them.  Very few might have taken extra few seconds to wonder about this amazing architecture. And hardly few might have bothered to know how their life must be in those tiny space.

I found myself that they needed to enforce no discipline. Their discipline has evolved like an arrow that they do not divert from what they need to build. 

Do you know why they build their nest often over water?

To protect themselves from predators. Their nests are usually found above water or high spaces to protect themselves from predators. Look how intelligent they are. They are able to comprehend what is good and bad for their families. If it is to be believed, Baya weavers stick fireflies to their nest to light up the interior at the night.

But I've also noticed that one bird constantly attempting to shift his nest from one place to another

Do you know why he is transferring his nest from one tree to another tree? 

The male Baya invites his mate to the nest by showing off his nest building skills; if he fails to impress his female partner, he abandons the existing nest and rebuilds it better to impress her again. 

The curved red line indicates that a bird changing his nest from one tree to another.
The straight red line indicates how alert they are to avoid predators to reach them by building their nest high above waters. 

I myself have inspected one of their nest. To put this way, they actually have a living room and a private room also known as a bedroom, where they lay eggs. Research says that nests are waterproof and capable of resisting storms and strong winds.

You can see one nest resting on my wall. This is an abandoned nest collected from a farm field. 

 Baya and their nest

Ok, let's take a quick stumble on their efforts and numbers.

They have a colony of nests, which might contain 20-30 nests. Interesting facts: Males birds known to make 500 trips to construct a complete nest.

Thriving in urban areas

Because of its intelligence; they still try to evolve in this increasingly unfavourable condition and environment. The one good thing about evolution is it has built every being with good survival instincts.

Because of the strong survival instinct, Baya Weavers have found their new home in the high wires.

These little birds are truly masters at building structures of their nests.  Watching them at work is, well, mind-blowing. The next time you see a bird building a nest, just remember what some birds are capable of creating in a matter of few weeks. These tiny species are capable of making wonders. Like they say happiness lies in small things!!