White-rumped Munia

The white-rumped munia is a small waxbill finch 10–11cm long, with a stubby grey bill and a long, pointed black tail. It is brown above and on the breast and paler below, with a white rump. The sexes are almost impossible to tell apart, though males have a bulkier head and bill. It is not closely related to the true finches or sparrows. Its domesticated descendant, the society or Bengalese finch, is kept worldwide as a pet and used as a model animal in research (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives in open woodland, grassland and scrub and adapts well to farmland, where it can be a local pest of millets and similar grains. It is drab and rather reclusive, keeping to dense undergrowth, so it is not always conspicuous even where common. It ranges from the Indian subcontinent through South-east Asia to southern China, Taiwan and Sumatra, and has become naturalised in parts of Japan. In India it is resident with a large range; SoIB 2023 finds its trends stable and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).