Bird Watching - Spotted Munia

Spotted Munia

As the name suggest, this beautiful bird is recognized by the distinct scale-like feather markings on the breast and belly. The adult is brown above and has a dark conical bill. Back of the bird and the wings are having reddish brown color, Near the throat and around the beak the color is much brighter then the back.

Local Names: Telia Munia, seenabaz (Hindi)
                    Chuttiatta (Malayalam)
                    Nellu Kuruvi, Tinna Kuruvi (Tamil)

Spotted Munia is a small bird of around 11cm with a big head, a large conical bill, and the striking brown ‘scale' pattern on a white breast and flanks, which gives it its unusual name. Its upper parts are a plain brown, the rump often has a greyish tinge and the face and throat is a lovely chocolate brown. They have a seed diet and their conical beaks and thick tongues help in de-husking seeds from heads of grass. (“Birds of Western Ghats, Konkan and Malabar” -Satish Pande)

I am enjoying the sight of Munia in our garden nowadays. Its lock down time for the rest of the world and the birds are happily enjoying their freedom. :)

It is such a joy to watch them building their nest. it took more than a week for this tiny creature to built its nest, flying briskly to pick the materials and fly back in seconds, working non stop for hours. it was a pleasure watching them. 

I was so excited with all the bird activity around and got some nice pictures.

The lovely, intricate, lacy pattern of feathers is so beautiful, but the bird is extremely restless and for that reason it was very difficult to capture it..

Luckily they were on the mission of building their nest, so i could observe them and had more chances to try my luck on getting the perfect  picture.

 Pictures:

TVH Taus, Chennai (2020)