Dark-backed Weaver (Ploceus bicolor) [XC660726]
by Ruben Foquet from Mutinondo Wilderness area, Northern Province, Zambia (call, song)
Dark-backed Weaver (Ploceus bicolor) [XC346314]
by Frank Lambert from Rondo Retreat (Lower garden), Kakamega Forest, Kenya (song)
Subspecies
Subspecies stictifrons intergrades with nominate in southern Mozambique-north-eastern South Africa. Numerous subspecies have been described, based chiefly on minor differences in coloration: thus, proposed subspecies analogus (described from Jele, in Cameroon) is synonymized with tephronotus, albidigularis (from northern Angola) with amaurocephalus, and sylvanus (from eastern Zimbabwe highlands) with stictifrons; and in South Africa lebomboensis (from extreme northern KwaZulu-Natal) and sclateri (from R Mkuze east of Ubombo, in north-eastern KwaZulu-Natal) are likewise treated as synonyms of stictifrons, and subspecies pondoensis (from St John's, in north-eastern Eastern Cape) is regarded as a synonym of nominate. Critical assessment of these apparently fragmented populations is required.
The following 8 subspecies are recognised:
tephronotus (Reichenow, 1892) - South-eastern Nigeria (Obudu Plateau), Cameroon, Bioko I (Fernando Póo), Gabon and western PRCongo.
amaurocephalus (Cabanis, 1880) - Western and north-eastern Angola and southern DRCongo (Kasai region).
mentalis (Hartlaub, 1891) - Southern Sudan, north-eastern DRCongo, Uganda and western Kenya.
kigomaensis (Grant, CHB & Mackworth-Praed, 1956) - Western Rwanda, Burundi, eastern and south-eastern DRCongo, Zambia and extreme south-western Tanzania.
kersteni (Hartlaub & Finsch, 1870) - Southern Somalia, coastal Kenya, eastern Tanzania (south to to R Rufiji) and Zanzibar.
stictifrons (Fischer, GA & Reichenow, 1885) - Coastal Tanzania (southern from Kilwa), southern Malawi, eastern Zimbabwe and Mozambique south to north-eastern South Africa (northern KwaZulu-Natal).
bicolor Vieillot, 1819 - Southern Mozambique south to southern South Africa (Eastern Cape).
sylvanus Clancey, 1977 - Eastern Zimbabwe and adjacent western Mozambique.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet