Chestnut Munia
Lonchura atricapilla
They are highly social and often form massive flocks, sometimes numbering in the thousands during the rice harvest season.
- Scientific name
- Lonchura atricapilla
- Taxonomy
- Animalia › Chordata › Aves › Passeriformes › Estrildidae › Lonchura
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- stable
- Biome
- wetland
- Habitat
- Marshes, reedbeds, rice paddies, and tall grasslands.
- Diet
- Primarily seeds, especially rice and various wild grasses.
- Range
- India, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam
- Size
- 11-12 cm in length; weight 10-14g
- Lifespan
- 5-8 years
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Habitat loss due to drainage of wetlands, capture for the pet trade, and agricultural pesticide use.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless. These social birds are easily spooked; maintain a distance of 5-10 meters to observe flocking behavior. No risk of injury or irritation to humans.
The chestnut munia ( Lonchura atricapilla ), formerly considered as a subspecies of the tricoloured munia, is also known as black-headed munia .It is a small passerine bird. This estrildid finch is a resident breeding bird in Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Hawaii.
Photo: Tareq's Photography, CC-BY-SA, via iNaturalist
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