Nutmeg Mannikin

Overview
Nutmeg Mannikin: Small finch with chestnut-brown upperparts and dark-scaled white underparts. Head is richer brown and bill is heavy and dark. Forages on the ground or hangs from stems to eat seeds. Native to Southeast Asia where they have been popular as cage birds. AKA Spice Finch.

Range and Habitat
Nutmeg Mannikin: Resident from India to Taiwan, south to Sri Lanka, and through southeast Asia to East Indies and Philippines. Introduced and established in Hawaii (widespread on all main islands); also introduced to Australia. Preferred habitats include reed beds, rank grass, scrub areas, grasslands, orchards, and cultivated lands, often near human habitation.

INTERESTING FACTS

Many colonies started from escaped caged birds.
The Nutmeg Mannikin is also known as Ricebird, Scaly-breasted Munia, and Spotted Munia.
There usual diet is half ripe seeds but they have become quite good scavengers in urban areas.
They flick their tail and wings constantly.

The Nutmeg Mannikin has a vast, and generally estimated, range reaching up to between 1 million and ten million square kilometers. This bird can be found in its native habitats in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Province of China, Thailand, and Vietnam and has been introduced in a number of other locations, including Australia, the US and Japan among others. The global population of this bird is estimated, and the bird is described as “common” in its native habitats. Currently, it is not believed that the population trends for this bird will soon approach the minimum levels that could suggest a potential decline in population. Due to this, population trends for the Nutmeg Mannikin have a present evaluation level of Least Concern.