Chestnut-breasted Mannikin

Overview

The chestnut-breasted mannikin, also known as the chestnut-breasted munia or bully bird, is a small brown-backed munia native to Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. It has also established introduced populations in French Polynesia and New Caledonia.

Identification

• Small size with a black face and greyish crown and nape.
• Broad ferruginous breast bar above a white belly.
• Brown-backed plumage.

Habitat

Found in reed beds, rank grasses bordering rivers, swamps, mangroves, and grassy woodlands in Australia, and drier areas in New Guinea. It is also present in cane fields, cereal crops, pastures, and gardens, particularly in introduced ranges like French Polynesia.

Diet

Eats seeds of cereal crops, with a distinct liking for barley seed, which has led to the local name barley bird. Also feeds on Paspalum longifolium, bullrush millet, Sorghum species, feral millet, and wild sugar cane.

Did you know?

John Gould observed that it much resembles the European Bearded Tit in the alertness with which it passes up and down the upright stems of reeds, a habit for which its lengthened and curved claws seem well adapted.