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Showing posts with label Scaly-breasted Munia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scaly-breasted Munia. Show all posts

Tuesday, 18 December 2012

Pretty Tree Birds


The cooler weather and reduced food resources make our resident birds a lot more active these days. Although most of the birds are common residents here, they always give me a great pleasure to watch.  

The good looking Azure-winged Magpie is one of my favourites. 





Plain Prinia can always be seen and heard in the grassland, 




as well as on fruit trees.



The Scaly-breasted Munia 



and the White-rumped Munia are regular visitors of the grass field too.






The Oriental Magpie Robins are abundant and the male



is slightly more elegant looking than the female. 




The pretty Japanese White-eye, on the other hand, is rarely found on the ground. Being a very sociable bird, it is often seen in flocks.   




The winter migrants are plentiful too. The tiny long distance traveler Yellow-browed Warbler is everywhere but very difficult to photograph as it is extremely active.  





The Black-browed Reed Warbler is much bigger in size and related to the Eurasian Reed Warbler.



This is the first time I have spotted this Pied Wheatear who posed long enough for me to take a couple of shots.



  The sighting of the colourful Daurian Redstart makes the recent dull winter days more bearable. 




The Christmas holiday season is coming and I wish everyone Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Thank you for your kind support and interest in Hong Kong wildlife stories.


Sunday, 1 April 2012

Scaly-breasted Munia Closeup


I saw three juvenile Scaly-breasted Munias feeding on the ground who took no notice of my presence at all, giving me the opportunity to get several closeup shots. 

Unlike the adult birds, the brown colour of the immature birds is not as dark, and the bill is not as black. 





The younger juvenile birds don’t even have many of the scaly marks.






While feeding happily, these 3 birds came so close to my camera that I was able to take these portraits. I find them extremely cute!    










More Photos at Google+

Wednesday, 29 February 2012

Dinner Time----Scaly-breasted Munia


Unlike the wintering waders, the Scaly-breasted Munia (Spotted Munia) is a Hong Kong resident.   






The size of the Scaly-breasted Munia is slightly smaller than that of a Sparrow and they mainly feed on seeds. 





   When I was passing an open grassland a couple of days ago, I saw a flock of Scaly-breasted Munias foraging for grass seeds. Watching these little birds feeding made me think that they might be much more intelligent than we have given them credit for. See if you agree with me after viewing the following pictures.
 
   To overcome the fact that most single grass stems were not strong enough to support their body weight, they grabbed several stems together with both feet for stable support.









    If a seed stem was too far away to reach, one of the feet would be used to grab/hold it.






    The youngsters are fast learners too. These juvenile birds were doing a very good job as well.






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