The subspecies of Village Weaver found in southern Africa has a yellow crown, but black-crowned or black-headed males are sometimes reported. Known records are listed below.
Table: records of Village Weaver with black head, in South Africa
| Record | Date | Location/Notes | Web links |
| 1-3 | 1962-2001 | Some early records – published in print | |
| 4 | 3 November 2001 | farm Bospoort near Warmbad – Kobie Raijmakers | |
| 5 | 2 October 2010 | Roodekopjes near Brits – Alan Brooks | |
| 6 | 12 November 2010 | Swebeswebe near Ellisras – Kobie Raijmakers | |
| 7 | 14 December 2010 | Welgevonden Main Gate (-24.203333,27.900278) – Shaun McCartney
Shaun writes: “It was feeding with about a dozen of the local variety. We observed it for the length of 2 x Windhoek lagers and 1x Jamieson- It was late afternoon (between 17h30 and 19h00). I was in the company of Gerhard Lorist, an accomplished Birder, who noticed the difference between the two. The following day (and on subsequent days) Gerhard returned to try and photograph the bird but it was AWOL.” ========================= |
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| 8 | 2 October 2011 | Welgevonden – Nikki McCartney – with several males of the normal yellow-crown
She writes: “Here is another photo of the northern subspecies of the Village Weaver taken at Welgevonden yesterday, Sunday 2 October. It was taken in our garden near the main gate. I have been keeping an eye on the Village Weavers in our garden since we moved into the house and this is the first time I have seen it since we saw it at the beginning of this year at the main gate. ========================= |
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| 9 | 15 October 2011 | Darvill, Pmb – Mark Brown
Mark Brown and his team of ringers caught an adult male Village Weaver with a partial black crown at their regular ringing at Darvill on 15 October. There was definitely no head moult. Mark and Dominic Rollinson didn’t think there was enough enough black on the bird’s head to make it subspecies Ploceus cucullatus nicriceps. It could just be an aberrant bird – possibly some males carry genes for black on their heads. ========================= |
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| 10 | 23 October 2011 | near Bathurst – Robin Teifel
Bird ringer Robin Teifel caught this male Village Weaver with an unusually dark head on 23 October 2011. It was caught in his garden (26 52’51″E and 33 30’05″S) just outside of Bathurst in the Eastern Cape. The dark eye indicates that this is a young male. Young males may have some grey on the head, but this is the darkest grey head I have seen. It will be interesting to see if this individual develops a black head as an adult. ========================= |
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| 11 | 25-26 July 2013 | near Roodeplaat – Rob Geddes
Psted on the Weavers facebook page last week. Rob Geddes photographed several Village Weavers at a bird feeder near Roodeplaat, Pretoria (-25.590167, 28.332083), on 25-26 July 2013. One of the males had a black head, representing the nigriceps subspecies. ========================= |
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| 12 | 3 March 2019 | Zwartkloof N.R. Bela Bela – Christa Moller
Christa Moller emailed photographs of a Village Weaver male at Zwartkloof N.R. Bela Bela, Limpopo Province, South Africa. The male had a black head, resembling the subspecies nigriceps. Christa first noticed the male at the bird feeder on 03/03/2019 and again on 04/03/2019. Christa did not observe this male in the fever tree where the normal plumaged Village Weavers are nesting. ========================= |
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| 13 | 23 Dec 2023 | Lake Panic Skukuza – Mark Brown
Interesting Village weaver at Lake Panic Skukuza today weavers breeding at Lake Panic- hundreds. Village, Lesser Masked and the odd Thick-billed
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