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Message: <blockquote data-quote="l_raty" data-source="post: 3775031" data-attributes="member: 24811">Golden-naped & Yellow-legged WeaversFishpool LDC, Collar NJ. 2018. On the validity of the Golden-naped Weaver Ploceus aureonucha and the Yellow-legged Weaver P. flavipes, with comments on forest ‘nuthatch-weavers’. ABC Bulletin, 25: 159-179.<a href="https://www.africanbirdclub.org/bulletins/abc-bulletin-252-september-2018/validity-golden-naped-weaver-ploceus-aureonucha-and-yellow" target="_blank">Summary. </a> Propositions are tested that Golden-naped Weaver Ploceus aureonucha (known from seven specimens) represents undescribed immature plumage stages of Yellow-mantled Weaver P. tricolor or, alternatively, a hybrid between P. tricolor and Vieillot’s Black Weaver P. nigerrimus, and that Yellow-legged Weaver P. flavipes (known from nine specimens) is a hybrid between P. nigerrimus and Maxwell’s Black Weaver P. albinucha. Morphological and morphometric evidence from all museum specimens of both contested species was compared with equivalent data from the putative parents, as well as from several other selected forest weaver species. Plumages of P. aureonucha grouped by sex and age prove to be consistent, but descriptions of them have varied confusingly. Its smaller size and much shorter tail than those of the proposed parent species render a hybrid origin for P. aureonucha entirely implausible. Moreover these differences, and the fact that the entire sequence of age-related plumages is known in P. tricolor, discredit the proposition that P. aureonucha is an immature P. tricolor. The nasal structure of P. flavipes, combined with its yellow legs, speaks for its taxonomic authenticity, while the case for a hybrid origin founders not just on these characters but also on the far greater size of of P. nigerrimus, one of the supposed parents. The geographical restriction of both taxa, when the suggested parent species are much more widely spread, further undermines the hybrid hypothesis. Mensural data show that forest ‘nuthatch-weavers’ have distinctively long hind toes and claws as well as narrow bills, modifications likely to be associated with their specialised foraging behaviour. Despite some field observations to the contrary, measurements indicate that P. aureonucha is unlikely to be a nuthatch-weaver</blockquote>

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