Popular for nest construction, Pennesteum
grasses are planted in the aviary
diffi culties encountered to establish these
guys in the fi rst place, I must be honest
and say mine have bred like there’s no
tomorrow. The current bloodlines would
appear no more diffi cult to breed than
Grenadier Weavers, dare I say.
I must also admit to only having them in
the aviary this season, so it could just be
beginners’ luck but, regardless, I’ll give you
a brief rundown on what they are eating
and where they are kept (with a little
help courtesy of my ‘phone a friend’ Allen
Oliver who has much more experience
than me with this species).
HOUSING
When contemplating adding Napoleons
to my new aviary, I consulted with Allen
to determine his recommended stocking
density for these guys. Given the aviary is
11m x 12m in what is roughly an L-shape,
he suggested three males and fi ve females.
As is usually the case, one of the males
assumed dominance from day one and
still ‘owns’ the aviary currently. One of
the other sub-dominant males has also
produced a few chicks, so all is good and
there have been no overt acts of aggression
between any of the males so far. Allen
suggests adding in a young male every
season and retiring one of the more mature
males so that they learn from the dominant
male in readiness for their turn with the
gals! We do this for all the weaver species
that we run in our aviaries.FEEDING
Our Napoleons are fed on the Clifton Finch
Mix from Elenbee Seeds™ as their basic
fare and have shown a liking for both
their Clifton Tonic Mix™ and Greens N’
Grains™ mixes as well.
In the live food stakes, they are fed
mealworms, crickets and fl y larvae and
pupae. They take live food at any time
but their consumption when chicks are
being fed is not as high as species like the
Golden Song Sparrow. Mind you, don’t ever
let the aviary run out because they are very
insistent when the bowl is empty and they
have mouths to feed. Whenever available,
I empty the contents of a number of moth
traps into the aviary and they eagerly hunt
these—if they can beat the Chaffi es to
them of course! I also added two Vinegar
Fly cultures into the aviary as the Red-
cresteds appeared to love them, but I have
also seen the Napoleons actively hawking
the fl ies when feeding young. Crickets of
any size are consumed.Napolean Weaver juvenile
BREEDING
As is common to all the Euplectes weavers
that we keep, the males have an eclipse
(dull, non-breeding) plumage and a
nuptial plumage. Males generally start to
assume their yellow nuptial plumage from
November onwards down here—much
later than the Grenadier Weaver and well
before the Orange Bishop. As with all
weavers, this is accompanied by a lot of
hissing, puffi ng up and female chasing.
The courtship display has to be seen to
be believed. If you can imagine a weaver-
sized bumble-bee intensely fl ying through
the undergrowth, then you have it in one.
Males puff themselves up and hunt the
females through the grasses and shrubs.
This courtship is a tad on the boisterous
side, which is why Allen does not
recommend keeping them in with the more
timid fi nches, and why mine are in with the
two robust species.
Allen removes his youngsters during
the winter months. He stated that once
the males go out of colour there is no
aggression between the adults and their
young male siblings. He also suggested
that leaving one or two young females in
the aviary was a good move as it allowed
them to ‘learn their trade’ from the more
experienced older breeding females.
Unlike the more common Grenadier,
once a male Napoleon commences nest-
building, you know that it will be used for
hatching and rearing chicks as he appears
loath to waste his time building rings and
trying to ‘entice’ females to give it their
tick of approval. That might explain the
more aggressive nature of this species—
‘I’ve built it, you use it!’
Now, before looking at the nest
construction, I’ll wade into the pair versus
trio debate that has ‘raged’ around the
traps forever. If you get a good male you
will be laughing, but if that lone male
doesn’t feel any ‘pressure to perform’
then he may do nothing. The perceived
pressure due to proximity of another male
presence—whether in the same aviary or
an adjacent one—is sometimes all that is
needed for breeding to commence. This
is particularly true for the Orange Bishop.
Mind you, I would not advocate placing
another male into a breeding colony of
any weaver species during the breeding
season. The best/safest time is when they
are out of colour.
Aggression around breeding time would
see the Napoleon fi t nicely between
the Grenadier and the Orange Bishop,
and mine have been faultless. (Mind
you they are only in with Red-cresteds
and Chaffi nches.) I have also seen them
chasing Diamond Sparrows around in one
person’s aviary, so I guess it’s the usual rule
for any fi nch species, that you need to treat
each pair on their merits when it comes
to aggression. I did see a male front the
Red-crested male, but the noise the latter
emitted convinced the weaver that this
was not an easy mark, so best be off!This live feed set-up using two Resun®
AF-2005 Automatic Fish Feeders ensures
regular live food supply