The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia Encyclopedia World Factbook Columbia Gazetteer American Heritage Coll. It includes a number of so-called goldfinches and waxbill finches that are actually weaver birds, rather than true finches of the family Fringillidae. The weavers are named for the highly complex woven nests built by many species, though others build only crude nests, and the parasitic widow weavers build no nests at all.
Most weavers are sedentary, noisy, gregarious, and polygynous, with elaborate courtship rituals.
The weaver group is divided into the buffalo, sparrow, typical, and widow weavers. Of the 35 sparrow weavers the best known, and in fact one of the most widely distributed and familiar small birds in the world, is the English sparrow native to Europe, W Asia, and N Africa. These birds build untidy domed nests with side entrances. Of the 100 or more African and Asian typical weavers, the small quelea, only 5 in. Weaver birds are classified in the phylum Chordata , subphylum Vertebrata, class Aves, order Passeriformes.