Images of village weaver nests- 2008These are the raw images used in our texture analysis of weaverbird nests. Images are of the completed nests of: six Village weavers (Ploceus cucullatus) collected in June and July 2008, from, Laminga Village, Jos, Nigeria. The filename indicates which male build the nest (M), which of that males nests the image is of (N) and which face of the nest the image is of (e.g. front). So an image of the front of Male 1’s, second nest would be: M1N2frontVillage-weaver_2008.zipImages of Southern-masked weaver nests -2008These are the raw images used in our texture analysis of weaverbird nests. 15 Southern Masked weavers (P. velatus) from Botswana (Atholl Holme 11-KO, Gaberone) photographed in November and December 2008. The filename indicates which male build the nest (M), which of that males nests the image is of (N) and which face of the nest the image is of (e.g. front). So an image of the front of Male 1’s, second nest would be: M1N2frontSouthern-masked-weaver_2008.zipImages of Southern-masked weaver nests- 2009These are the raw images used in our texture analysis of weaverbird nests. Images are of the completed nests of 7 Southern Masked weavers (P. velatus) from Botswana (Atholl Holme 11-KO, Gaberone) photographed in November and December 2009. The filename indicates which male build the nest (M), which of that males nests the image is of (N) and which face of the nest the image is of (e.g. front). So an image of the front of Male 1’s, second nest would be: M1N2frontSouthern-masked-weaver_2009.zip

In nature, many animals build structures that can be readily measured at the scale of their gross morphology (e.g. length, volume and weight). Capturing individuality as can be done with the structures designed and built by human architects or artists, however, is more challenging. Here, we tested whether computer-aided image texture classification approaches can be used to describe textural variation in the nests of weaverbirds (Ploceus species) in order to attribute nests to the individual weaverbird that built them. We found that a computer-aided texture analysis approach does allow the assignment of a signature to weaverbirds' nests. We suggest that this approach will be a useful tool with which to examine individual variation across a range of animal constructions, not just for nests.