This is apparently an example of the largest nest on earth. Home to as many as 500 birds, it’s a sociable weaver’s nest, a feature of the drier, south-western parts of South Africa; the southern Kalahari and northern Cape Karoo.
A natural architectural phenomenon, the structures are so big, with as many as 100 ‘chambers’, that they can collapse the trees and the telegraph poles they’re built in and around. The chambers face the ground, making it more difficult for the Cape cobra or boomslang (tree snake) and the pygmy falcon to hunt them.
Having seen so many of these nest though my life, I had a sudden yen to know which trees the nests are built on, and google threw up Acacia erioloba, Boscia albitrunca and Aloe dichotoma as answers. This is the acacia erioloba, on Witsand Nature Reserve, same place as last week’s image of the Springbok.
https://www.witsandkalahari.co.za/
hashtags:
#witsand #kalahari #sociableweaver #africanstorybook #angusbegg #immedia #northerncape
#witsandnaturereserve #SAT #southafricantourism #northerncapetourism
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