Munias, parrotfinches, waxbills and allies | Estrildidae

Prachtvinken | Estrildidos

None of the species living wild here belongs to this region naturally: they are escaped and released cage birds from Africa and tropical Asia that have settled mainly on the Pacific islands and in a few warm lowlands of the mainland, where they live on seed along roadsides, in reed fringes and on rough grassland. They are very small birds with a short, thick bill, often coral-red or silver-grey and gleaming as if waxed; the plumage is finely barred or scattered with white spots. Half-ripe grass seeds are picked from the head and husked one by one in the bill. The nest is a dense ball of grass with a short entrance tube; outside the breeding season a separate, rougher ball is built in which the group sleeps packed close together. The nestlings carry a fixed pattern of dark spots inside the mouth and shining beads at the corners of the gape that catch what light there is in the dark nest and show the parents where to feed. The male sings so quietly that he is audible only at very close range, holding a grass stem in his bill and dancing on the perch.