White-headed Munia

How to identify

Field marks

1. Entire head and throat white
2. Upperparts, flanks and wings chestnut-rufous
3. Belly black, tail blackish-brown
4. Bill gray

Male, female and young

Differences between the sexes are subtle: the male has a whiter head that whitens further with age; the juvenile has cinnamon-tinged upperparts and a pale yellowish-brown face and underparts.

Voice

High-pitched chirps.

Similar species

Tricolored Munia

This species has paler rufous plumage than Tricolored Munia, with the entire head and throat white.

Chestnut Munia

The juvenile is almost impossible to distinguish from a juvenile Chestnut Munia.

Where and when it's recorded

Busiest months: September–December · Most records: Singapore, Indonesia, China

White-headed Munia has been recorded at 187 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 9 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Long ValleyHong Kong (China)314 records
2. Marina EastSingapore296 records
3. Taman Botani Negara Shah AlamMalaysia226 records

Countries and regions with the most records

SingaporeIndonesiaChinaMalaysiaVietnamThailandUnited Arab EmiratesGuadeloupe

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The white-headed munia (Lonchura maja) is a small passerine bird belonging to the estrildid finch family. This species is often confused with, and referred to as, the Pale-headed munia (Lonchura pallida) which can be differentiated by tan coloured flanks which are lighter than the brown wings and also by the absence of the black belly.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions