Built to impress

QHANS LINDE from Durbanville writes: There’s a weaver that nests in our backyard every year. This year he built a double-storey nest. Is this common?

ABird expert LUKAS NIEMAND says: This is a southern masked-weaver building a new nest below an empty one. Usually the male will destroy the nest after the breeding season, but here the male has used the old nest as a foundation. It looks like he started constructing the new nest on top of the old one, judging by the green materials on top, but since the connecting point is rather thin, he opted to build the new nest underneath because it required less skill. This behaviour isn’t common but has been recorded.