The Chestnut-breasted Mannikin is a thick-set brown finch with a grey crown, black face and a heavy grey bill. It has a chestnut brown breast divided from white underparts by a black bar. The rump and tail are golden orange, with a black undertail. Females are paler than males and young birds are uniformly olive-brown above, pale below with a brown-buff chest and no black face or chest bar. Like other finches, this species is a very social bird and is most often seen in flocks.
Not Threatened
The Chestnut-breasted Mannikin is a thick-set brown finch with a grey crown, black face and a heavy grey bill. It has a chestnut brown breast divided from white underparts by a black bar. The rump and tail are golden orange, with a black undertail. Females are paler than males and young birds are uniformly olive-brown above, pale below with a brown-buff chest and no black face or chest bar. Like other finches, this species is a very social bird and is most often seen in flocks.
10-12 cm, 14 g
Taxonomy: Amadina castaneothorax Gould, 1837, New South Wales, Australia. Often hybridizes with L. flaviprymna in NW Australia; in New Guinea sometimes interbreeds with L. caniceps. In captivity has hybridized with 25 estrildid species, mainly other members of genus. Proposed race assimilis, described from Eureka (Northern Territory), in N Australia, is synonymized with nominate. Five subspecies recognized. (source: Handbook of the Birds of World)
Subspecies and Distribution:
- * uropygialis Stresemann & Paludan, 1934 - NW New Guinea (E side of Geelvink Bay). * hoschmai Junge, 1952 - W New Guinea (Wissel Lakes and R Araboe E into highlands). * sharpii ( Madarász, 1894) - N & NE New Guinea from Humboldt Bay area E, including Manam I, to Astrolabe Bay. * ramsayi Delacour, 1943 - SE New Guinea E from Bereina area (Gulf of Papua), also D'Entrecasteaux Archipelago. * castaneothorax ( Gould, 1837) - N Western Australia (from Derby and Kimberley) E to Melville I, Gulf of Carpenteria and N Queensland (Cape York Peninsula), thence S along coast to E New South Wales.
It is found in reed beds, long grasses, swamps and mangroves.
Feeds on grass seeds, usually on the stalk rather than from the ground. It will also eat winged termites at the beginning of breeding season.
The Chestnut-breasted Mannikin nests in colonies, with the nests close together in grass clumps, sugar cane or reeds, less than 2 m from the ground. The rounded nest is made from green or dried grass blades and is lined with fine grasses. It lacks an entrance tunnel but the entrance may have a hood. Both parents build the nest, incubate the eggs and feed the young, but only the female stays in the nest overnight. Breeding season: Spring and autumn in south; with rains in north Clutch size: Four to six Incubation: 13 days Time in nest: 22 days