White-headed Munia – feeding juveniles

Observed a small social group of 3 adults and 3 juveniles White-headed Munia (Lonchura maja maja) this morning. The usual clutch size is 4-5 (Wells 2007); on this occasion here were only 3 juveniles.

Some observations on feeding of juveniles:

1. I have seen a number of these feeding episodes over the years and juveniles will usually mob and chase the adult.
2. These three juveniles were fed only grass seeds; no animal prey feeding was observed. One of the main grass seed fed today was Cynodon dactylon (Bermuda grass).
3. The juveniles will call out constantly for food and these calls will reach a frenzy when the adult approaches.
4. The adult will collect a number of grass seeds in the beak and then feed more than one juvenile. Due to the small size of the items, food is placed directly into the beak of juveniles.
5. I am fairly certain only one of the adults was involved in feeding the juveniles. The other two were feeding self but together as a social group. I wonder if it was the adult female doing all the feeding? Wells (2007) says both parents “tend nestlings and fledglings”.

References:

1. Wells, D.R. (2007). The birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula: Vol. 2 (Passarines). Christopher Helm, London.
2. Peter Clement, Alan Harris, John Davis. Finches and Sparrows: An identification Guide. Princeton University Press. 1993.

Amar-Singh HSS (Dato’ Dr)

Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia

Are you are wondering why so many of Amar’s contributions? See HERE.

Location: Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia

Habitat: Overgrown graveyard

Date: 13th July 2020

Equipment: Equipment: Nikon D500 SLR with Nikon AF-S Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR, handheld with Rode VideoMic Pro Plus Shotgun Microphone