Protect chicks, weaver birds against venomous snakes

The venomous snake approached the young bird’s nest, suddenly receiving a fierce “return”. (Source: Sohu)

Having the opportunity to visit Ngala private reserve in South Africa, tourist Georgie Lawless accidentally witnessed firsthand the scene of weaver birds “determined” to respond to a very poisonous snake when it tried to approach the nest of young birds.

It’s a green boomslang snake with deadly hind fangs. It is also one of the most venomous snakes in Africa.

It soon discovered the target, so it hung on the tree to approach. Meanwhile, the adult birds continuously rush to peck to stop the predator.

Half of the body is twisted around the bird’s nest, the other half, the snake tries to bite back the birds. At one point it was bitten and almost fell to the ground, but in the end it still won.

It burrowed its head into the nest, rummaged for food and took all that was inside, and quickly escaped. Seeing this, the weaver birds had to retreat.

Weaver bird is considered one of the most exotic birds in nature. The birds average only 14 cm in length and weigh less than 30 g, but can work together to build nests up to 4 m tall and weigh a ton.

Their nests are made of dry grass, are enormous in size, become inhabited by whole flocks and even last for a hundred years.

This bird often chooses thorny trees like acacia to make it difficult for predators to reach. However, in this case, the sharp spines of the acacia tree can’t “make it difficult” for extremely venomous snakes like boomslang.

In particular, this snake has pretty good eyesight on par with humans.

The boomslang snake, scientifically known as Dispholidus typus, is famous for its ability to camouflage like tree branches when hunting. It can stand upright and is almost motionless in trees.

This species mainly feeds on small amphibians such as lizards and toads, occasionally eating some small mammals, birds and bird eggs by swallowing.

The venom of the boomslang snake is so dangerous that a single bite can cause respiratory failure, heart failure and muscle paralysis to death.