This weaver lives in Sudan and South Sudan around the Nile basin. Males have a black hood and cinnamon-colored body, and the species feeds on plant seeds.
The male has a black hood over much of the head and throat, cinnamon-chestnut underparts and back, and yellow on parts of the belly and wings.
It mainly eats plant seeds, and arboreal seed foraging is also reported.
Breeding was recorded in September 1961 and 1963 at Es Suki and Shaseina, southeast of Sennar, Sudan. Nests were suspended above water in tall sorghum stands, supported between two or three stems about 1.5–2.1 m high. Grass blades and strips torn from sorghum leaves formed a tightly woven, globular to vertically kidney-shaped nest with a deep cup, a dome, and a side entrance near the top. Clutches contained two or three eggs. Four colonies were located, but the nests could not be counted; the author estimated hundreds in each. Males displayed on sorghum stalks or around nests.
During a Khartoum State survey from April 2012 to May 2015, Cinnamon Weaver was recorded on one occasion at the Bahri sewage ponds; the authors listed it as breeding locally.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.