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Estrildidae
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Lonchura
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- Black Munia
© Richard Jeffers
- Black Munia
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- Black Munia

Black Munia Lonchura stygia Scientific name definitions

Robert B. Payne
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated March 15, 2019

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Originally Appeared in

HBW Alive

Field Identification

10–11 cm; 10–12 g. Male plumage is almost entirely glossy black, wing feathers dark brown edged black, lower rump, uppertail-coverts and fringes of rectrices yellow to orange; iris dark brown, orbital ring grey; bill short, pale grey; legs grey. Female similar, but upperparts brownish-black, without gloss, rump darker chestnut-yellow. Juvenile is grey-brown above, fine white streaks on crown, whitish throat, creamy white breast and belly, bill grey; begin to show some black plumage at c. 12 weeks of age, complete adult plumage may not appear until 6 months.

Systematics History

Monotypic.

Subspecies

Monotypic.

Distribution

Trans-Fly region (from Bian R E to L Daviumbu; recently recorded at Kiunga (1) ), in lowland S New Guinea.

Habitat

Savannas, marshes and riverine grasses, low wet grassland, tall grasses and reedbeds, often on floating mats of rice grass in lagoons and swamps; visits standing rice crops.

Movement

Resident.

Diet and Foraging

Seeds of grasses, including rice and Echinochloa. Takes both unripe and ripe seeds, on the stem or when fallen to ground. Agile, climbs stems and clings to seeding heads; sometimes clings to one stem and uses bill to pulls seeding head of another stem. Forages generally in small flocks of up to 20 birds; sometimes with other waxbill species, often in company of L. nevermanni.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Contact calls a quiet "tyu tyu" and a soft "quet quet"; loud call of male "teeu! teeu!", of female "tseeu! tseeu!"; another is "quit! quit!" by male and "tuwit! tuwit!" by female. Song a quiet series of burbling notes and lacking drawn-out "weeee", duration 2–3 seconds.

Breeding

No information on season. In courtship display, male stands upright, bill pointing forwards or slightly downwards, bobbing up and down (sometimes feet leave perch). Nest a covered mass with entrance hole on one side, made from dry, flat grass blades, lined with dry heads of fruiting grass (with seeds removed), built low down in tall, dense grasses on floating islet of grass. Clutch 4–6 eggs; incubation period 15 days; nestling skin pink, usually without down (sometimes tufts on back), gape-flange bluish-white to white, bordered and lined black, palate pinkish-white at hatching (yellow at 10 days), palate bar incomplete at hatching (complete by day 10), two short lines behind the bar, tongue has black band and black tip; nestling period 21–23 days.

Conservation Status

Conservation status on Birdlife LC Least Concern
Not globally threatened. Currently considered Near-threatened. Restricted range species: present in Trans-Fly EBA. Locally common to scarce. Thought to have a rather small global population, and probably declining owing to trapping and habitat degradation. Although said to be locally common, in flocks of up to 20 individuals, it is certainly less numerous than L. nevermanni, which is sympatric in much if range; in W (Papuan) part of range, only one was located in four months of fieldwork. Possibly threatened by destruction of reedbeds caused by introduced rusa deer (Cervus timorensis), also by encroachment of woodland on grasslands. In dry season, many concentrate at sources of drinking water, then susceptible to trapping for cagebird trade; in Aug 1993 total of 250 exported from Merauke Airport, and since 1998 more than 1200 imported into European Union countries. Proposed conservation measures for this munia include fieldwork to assess population size, regular monitoring at well-known sites, investigation of its comparative abundance in different habitats, and control of trade.
Distribution of the Black Munia - Range Map
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  • Year-round
  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the Black Munia

eBird and Macaulay Library

Recommended Citation

Payne, R. B. (2020). Black Munia (Lonchura stygia), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.blamun1.01
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