White-headed Munia
Lonchura maja
Striking small, chunky songbird with pale head, rich cinnamon-brown body, and heavy silvery bill. Sexes essentially identical. Like other munias, most frequently found in rice fields and grasslands, frequently near human habitation. Sometimes associates with other munia species. Native to Indonesia and introduced to parts of Japan and Singapore.
Identification
Smallish (11 cm), white headed brown finch. Similar to the chestnut munia but paler brown and entire head and throat white. Young birds are brown on upperparts with underparts and face buff. Iris-brown; bill-grey; feet-pale blue. Voice: high-pitched 'pee-pee'.
Taxonomy
The white-headed munia was formally described in 1766 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Loxia maja. Linnaeus cited George Edwards's "The Malacca Gros-beak" and Mathurin Jacques Brisson's "Le Maia de la Chine". The English naturalist John Ray used the word "Maia" for a Cuban bird in 1768. Linnaeus specified the locality as East India. This was amended to Malacca in 1924. The white-headed munia is now placed in the genus Lonchura that was introduced by the English naturalist William Henry Sykes in 1832. It is treated as monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
- Scientific name
- Lonchura maja
- Authority
- (Linnaeus, 1766)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Estrildidae
- Genus
- Lonchura
Range and habitat
Malay peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Bali and Celebes. In Java and Bali this is a fairly common and widespread bird up to 1500 m.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: stable.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
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