White-billed Buffalo Weaver
Bubalornis albirostris (Vieillot, 1817)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
White-billed Buffalo-Weaver - Baringo - Kenya_NH8O0246
Francesco Veronesi from Italy · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The white-billed buffalo weaver (Bubalornis albirostris) is a resident breeding bird species in most of Africa south of the Sahara Desert.
This common weaver occurs in open country, especially cultivation and scrub. It is a communal breeder, building massive untidy stick nests in tree colonies, each of which may have several spherical woven nests within. Two to four eggs are laid.
The white-billed buffalo weaver is large and stocky, commonly measuring 23 to 24 centimeters. The adult is mainly black with white flecking on the back and wings. The conical bill is very thick, and appears more so because it is surmounted by a white frontal shield. The bill is white in breeding males.
The adult female and non-breeding male are similar, but the bill is black. Young birds are dark brown in plumage.
The white-billed buffalo weaver is a gregarious species which feeds on grain and insects. This is a noisy bird, especially in colonies, with a range of cackles and squeaks.
Wikipedia contributors, White-billed buffalo weaver; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T11:53:25.721867+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Bubalornis albirostris (Vieillot, 1817)
- Name authority
- (Vieillot, 1817)
- Common name
- White-billed Buffalo Weaver
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Ploceidae
- Genus
- Bubalornis
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAves
- orderPasseriformes
- familyPloceidae Sundevall, 1836
- genusBubalornis A. Smith, 1836
- speciesBubalornis albirostris (Vieillot, 1817)
Close classified relatives
No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=558943 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:NKLJ. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.