Compact weaver
Species of bird
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The compact weaver (Pachyphantes superciliosus) is a species of bird in the family Ploceidae. It is the only species placed in the genus Pachyphantes. It has a highly discontinuous distribution from Senegal to Liberia, east to Ethiopia and south to Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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| Compact weaver | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Ploceidae |
| Genus: | Pachyphantes Shelley, 1896 |
| Species: | P. superciliosus |
| Binomial name | |
| Pachyphantes superciliosus (Shelley, 1873) | |
| Synonyms | |
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Ploceus superciliosus | |
Taxonomy
The compact weaver was formally described in 1873 as Hyphantornis superciliosus by the English ornithologist George Ernest Shelley based on specimens collected in West Africa.[2][3] The specific epithet is Latin meaning "haughty" or "eyebrowed" from supercilium meaning "eyebrow".[4] The compact weaver is now the only species placed in the genus Pachyphantes that was introduced for the species by Shelley in 1896.[5][6][7] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek παχυς/pakhus meaning "large" or "thick" with ὑφαντης/huphantēs meaning "weaver".[8] A molecular genetic study of the weaverbirds published in 2017 found that the compact weaver was sister to clade containing the fodies in the genus Foudia.[9] The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.[7]
Distribution and habitat
Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland.
