Black-headed Weaver (Ploceus melanocephalus) [XC154206]
by Bram Piot from Kidaho, Burera, North, Rwanda (call)
Black-headed Weaver (Ploceus melanocephalus) [XC266226]
by Bram Piot from brazo del este, sevilla, andaluc\u00eda, Spain (call, song)
Subspecies
Has been thought possibly to form a superspecies with Juba Weaver (Ploceus dichrocephalus). May hybridize with Northern Brown-throated Weaver (Ploceus castanops) in Uganda. Both sight records and specimens of probable hybrids exist, and hybrid was previously described as a separate species, Victoria Masked-Weaver (Ploceus victoriae). Has hybridized with Northern Masked Weaver (Ploceus taeniopterus) in north-eastern DRCongo.
Proposed subspecies fischeri (described from Mwanza, in north-western Tanzania) synonymized with dimidiatus.
The following 5 subspecies are recognised:
melanocephalus (Linnaeus, 1758) - Southern Mauritania, northern and south-western Senegal, Gambia, southern Mali and south-western Niger.
capitalis (Latham, 1790) - Western Guinea-Bissau, eastern Guinea, Burkina Faso, north-eastern Ghana, northern Togo, Nigeria (on major rivers), northern Cameroon, south-western Chad and northern Central African Republic.
dimidiatus (Salvadori & Antinori, 1873) - South-eastern Sudan, western Eritrea, north-eastern DRCongo, Uganda, south-western Kenya and north-western Tanzania.
duboisi Hartlaub, 1886 - Eastern PRCongo, southern Central African Republic, south-western Sudan, central and south-eastern DRCongo and northern Zambia.
fischeri Reichenow, 1887 - Eastern DR Congo, Uganda, western Kenya, north-western Tanzania and northern Zambia.