What is this bird? (1 Viewer)

[deltaboy]

Recently I found a very nice tiny bird (smaller than a sparrow). It has light brown feathers on top. The lower body has very nice white circles with a black dot inside each circle. It seems to like grass field and hop very fast and disappear into tiny obstacles very fast.

This tiny group that I saw may not last very long because there are lots of construction (new buildings) going on in that area.

Thank you.

 

[Gretchen]

Hi, welcome to the bird forum!

I'm not at all sure about the bird you are describing, but it reminded me of this bird, which I've seen in Thailand, and might be in Singapore. Click here for the scaly breasted munia, and you may look at some other pics in this set to see if any look better. Just a kind of guess - others will probably know more.

I'm afraid this corner of the forum doesn't get a lot of traffic. If you don't find get more answers, you can try reposting your question on the ID forum - they discuss birds from all over.

Hope you enjoy the forum.

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

I'd agree that this sounds like Scaly-breasted Munia, which is fairly common in Singapore.

 

[deltaboy]

Yes. this is it. Thank Gretchen and Andrew for the kind information. I will now search and learn more about this bird and its habits.. Didn't know its quite common in SE Asia. I saw it around River Valley where there are lots of construction going on and many trees were sadly cut down. Deep inside St Thomas Hill used to be a "mini forest", but its gone now. Thanks.

 

[Gretchen]

I happened across these birds in a park (or actually zoological gardens) and found them very attractive with their scaly breast. They also had rather unique behavior in the way they perched closely together in the branches of some low bushes - seemed even more communal than sparrows. Glad you have figured out what they were - hope you can come across them again!