Black-throated Munia

The black-throated munia, or Jerdon's mannikin, is a small finch about 12cm long with a long black tail, dark brown upperparts with pale shaft streaks and a blackish face and bib. The Sri Lankan form has scaly patterning on the underparts and vent. Its scientific name commemorates the zoologist Edward Frederick Kelaart (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is a small, gregarious resident of the hills of south-west India, the Western and Eastern Ghats and Sri Lanka, feeding mainly on seeds in open hill woodland and cultivation. The nest is a large domed structure of grass in a tree or in creepers on a house, holding three to eight white eggs. SoIB 2023 treats it as endemic to the Indian subcontinent and resident with a moderate range, finds its trends uncertain, and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).