Despite of our residence being a favourite singing ground for Magpie robins, nestling sites for Philippines glossy starlings and sleeping tree for Yellow vented bulbuls and happy nectar hunting for Olive backed sunbird, I still miss the Munias.
Munias or pipit as we Malays call them come in a variety of plumage pattern and of course standard common English names.
I have not seen munias flocking in large numbers any more, not like in the sixties where they were so common that nobody bothered to disturb them, except may be me.
I used to catch them when they were still in their downs in their ball-shaped nests. They were then placed in a very simple self-made bird cage.
An uncle taught me to build the cage using stems of reeds found nearby my house.
The munias that I used to know and fell in love with included the striking White headed munias (pipit uban), Scaly breasted munias (pipit tuli) and the elegant Tricoloured (black, brown and white) munias.
I still find rarely a few scaly breasted munias harvesting love grass seeds by the roadsides, but I have never come across Tricoloured and White headed munias anymore.
Where have you been my sweet munias?
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4 comments:
I had never heard of a Munia. I "googled" it and saw that they are similar to what we call a Finch...but more colorful.
My favorite bird in our area is the Carolina Wren.
I remember those munias, when my parents planted 5 acres of paddy, and they swarmed in to have a good meal! My dad had to engage someone with a gun to shoot and scare them away!
Perhaps as we progress and import rice from Thailand, these munias would not have found enough grass seeds minus the paddy for them to exist in big quantities as before!
Ginnie,
Munias are not that colourful as other jewels of the forest. They are just cute and used to flock in great numbers.
When I was in Georgia, we all loved the Cardinals.
Lee,
Watching them flocking in great numbers gave me great satisfaction. Not anymore!
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