John Spear Jr., age 11, of Helena, Mont., for his question:

ARE THERE MANY KINDS OF WEAVERBIRDS?

A weaverbird is a small bird that usually weaves a hanging nest. There are about 275 different kinds of weaverbrids living in most parts of the world. In the United States, the familiar house sparrow or English sparrow is a weaverbird.

Weaverbirds eat seeds and grain. When sitting in trees, they chatter continually. Most females and young members are plainly covered but the males are generally brightly colored during the mating season.

The sociable weaver of South Africa builds an umbrella shaped community roof of grass and sticks in a tree. The roof is often as large as an African hut. The underside of the roof is divided into compartments, each occupied by a pair of birds. As many as 95 individual nests have been counted under one roof. The female lays three or four speckled, gray purple eggs.

The Java sparrow weaves a grass nest with a side opening. The female lays six or more white eggs.

The bays, which lives in India and Sri Lanka, builds a flask shaped nest with a long, tubular shaped entrance.