Munia ri Munia

"Chalat musafir moh liyo re pinjare wali Munia"... if you are an Indian, specially one from the north I will wonder if you have not heard this bhojpuri song from the famous Raj Kapoor movie "Teesri Kasam". Ever wondered who this Munia is? Read on ...

Munias, Finches or Nutmegs, these are birds little smaller than house sparrows that are also called Silver Bills because of their silver colored beaks. They flock together in groups and two such groups are regular visitors to my backyard and they actually are two different types of Munias.

Spotted Munia or the Spice Finch

This bird loves the dried bamboo perch in my backyard that has lot of greenery around. I often find 3 of them playing around often along with other birds specially a group of plain Munias that I am going to describe next. I have posted a solo picture as this has better details of the bird. It can be easily identified as it has a distinct spotted breast that are actually scales, has a brown head, neck and back. The beak in shape is peculiar of Munias, short and wider at the base, silvery black in color.

Plain Munia

I find these birds very playful and fond of each other. I do not remember seeing them alone. They are always full of activity and watching them is fun. You can once again notice the peculiar Munia beak. The breast is white and back is dull shade of brown with darker contours. The end of the tail also is a darker shade of brown. Here are two pictures of these birds that I could capture with very distinct backgrounds.

Before I sign off ... If you have never heard the song mentioned in the beginning, check it out at Chalat Musafir, and those from the Remix generation can enjoy this recent version Munia Ri Munia.