Avise's Birds of the World

Lesser Masked Weaver
Ploceus intermedius

Native Range: Africa

Notes: a pale-eyed weaver in which the breeding males show a black face and forehead whereas nonbreeding males and females (pictured below) lack these black features and are much drabber; the nest, made of woven grasses, looks like an upside-down gourd suspended from reeds or tree branches, with a tube-like opening at the bottom that the bird enters from below.