Scaly-breasted Munia (Lonchura punctulata)
Order: PASSERIFORMES
Family: ESTRILDIDAE Munias
Scientific name: Lonchura punctulata
English name: Scaly-breasted Munia
Characteristic: Size 11 cm. A small brown bird with a distinctive long pointed tail, dark brown chin and throat, with brown scale-like spots on sides of breast and flanks. A young bird is plain brown all over.
Distribution: India, China, Myanmar, Taiwan, the Philippines, Sulawesi, the Sundas, Sumatra, Java, Bali and SE Asia.
Habitat: Secondary growth, scrub forest, orchards, grass fields and paddy fields.
Habit: Stays in pairs or small parties, foraging on the ground, on grass stems or among the undergrowth in open grounds for frass seeds, rice seeds, ripe berries and small insects. Roosts in dense colony at night among grass tussocks and in sugarcane field. It breeds in the rainy season, between May-September, a female lays a clutch of 5-7 eggs that requiring an iucubation period of 16 days.
Status: An abundant resident.
