Chestnut Munia

The chestnut, or black-headed, munia is a small estrildid finch 11–12 cm long, sexes alike, with races differing slightly in intensity of colour; the bill is silvery grey, the eye chestnut and the legs grey, and some races have a black belly. Before 1995 it was the national bird of the Philippines, where it is known in Tagalog as mayang pula, red maya, because of the brick-red patch on the lower back, visible only when it flies. It is a resident breeding bird in Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, and in Hawaii (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is a small gregarious bird that feeds mainly on grain and other seeds. The nest is a large domed grass structure in a bush or tall grass, in which four to seven white eggs are laid. SoIB 2023 lists it as a resident of grassland and scrub that eats plants and seeds, without a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).