The grey-headed silverbill is gregarious, moving in small flocks and often mixing with African silverbill.
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The grey-headed silverbill wanders widely, influenced by weather and shifting availability of sources of water.
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The grey-headed silverbill is commonly found in dry savanna habitat but never too far away from water.
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The African silverbill (Euodice cantans) is a small passerine bird formerly considered conspecific with the Asian species Indian silverbill, (Euodice malabarica). This estrildid finch is a common resident breeding bird in dry savanna habitat, south of the Sahara Desert. This species has also been introduced to other countries such as Portugal, Qatar and United States.
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In early literature, African silverbill (Euodice cantans) and Indian silverbill (E. malabarica) were treated as conspecific. In 1943, Jean Théodore Delacour firmly united both species in his revision of the Estrildinae. However, in 1964, James M. Harrison first studied the two in a strictly comparative manner and concluded that they were two separate species.
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The African silverbill is currently trapped for the cage bird trade. However, its numbers and its considerable range mean that this is unlikely to have any impact on the species' survival.
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The grey-headed silverbill feeds mostly on grass seeds. But it has been suggested that the species also feed on insects which are more a source of moisture than dry seeds.
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The Indian silverbill or white-throated munia (Euodice malabarica) is a small passerine bird found in the Indian Subcontinent and adjoining regions that was formerly considered to include the closely related African silverbill (Euodice cantans). This estrildid finch is a common resident breeding bird in the drier regions of the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent. It has also been introduced into many other parts of the world and has become established in some areas. They forage in small flocks in grassland and scrub habitats.
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The African silverbill is tame and sociable, often found perching in trees in dense flocks, touching one another. However, it is a particularly inactive bird, sitting huddled together for a long period of time. It stays in flocks all year round and usually breeds in loose colony.
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A palila (Loxioides bailleui) in The Ibis 1879 Birds described in 1879 include the grey-headed silverbill, Macquarie rail, flame bowerbird, Cockerell's fantail, rufous-vented niltava, slaty cuckooshrike, Makira dwarf kingfisher, black-billed turaco, dusky-backed jacamar, buff-bellied tanager and the Santa Marta sabrewing, Rodrigues starling.
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The African silverbill is approximately in length with a long black pointed tail. The adult has a stubby silver-blue bill, finely vermiculated light-brown upper parts, whitish underparts, black rump and black wings. The sexes are similar, but immatures lack the vermiculations. This species has a tseep call and a trilling song.
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The grey-headed silverbill is a stocky bird with a grey head studded with white dots. Its body is greyish-brown with partly black wings and tail and a white rump. The juvenile can be told by its white rump. Adult male is approximately 11.5 cm in length with wing length 6.5 cm.
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Little is known about this species and genus. Transmission is presumably by the orofaecal route. This species is found in the duodenum and small intestine of both the Indian silverbill (Lonchura malabarica) and the scaly breasted munia (Lonchura punctulata). The sporulation time has been estimated to be 24–48 hours at 31 degrees Celsius.
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The African silverbill feeds mostly on grass seeds, picked from the ground but also taken from the growing plants if available. It will cling to grass stems to take seeds from the inflorescences. It seems that it feeds mainly on vegetable matter and rearing its young on seed as well. However, it has been recorded to take aphids from water mint (Meinertzhagen 1954).
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The grey-headed silverbill (Spermestes griseicapilla), also known as pearl- headed mannikin, is a species of estrildid finch found in eastern Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, and Tanzania. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 400,000 km². It is now usually placed in the monotypic genus Odontospiza as Odontospiza caniceps. It is sometimes placed in the genus Lonchura.
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African and Indian silverbill are now usually considered distinct species in the Genus Euodice, and the two races of black-throated munia are often also split. The munias are popular in the bird trade and many freed or escaped birds have formed feral colonies in different pockets across the world. The red munia Amandava amandava and green munia Amandava formosa also take the name munia, but are in the genus Amandava.
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Foraging on the ground (India) The adult Indian silverbill is 11–11.5 cm long and has a conical silver-grey bill, buff-brown upperparts, white underparts, buffy flanks and dark wings. The tail is black and the wings are dark contrasting with a white rump. The sexes are similar, but immatures have buff underparts and a shorter tail. The tail appears pointed as the length of the feathers reduces from the centre outwards.
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The nest of the African silverbill is usually built in the form of a roundish bundle of grasses. It is lined with soft fibres and sometimes feathers, and may be placed in a thick bush or hedge or amongst the creepers on a house. The male is recorded in the wild as collecting all the nesting material (Meinertzhagen 1954), while the female only shares in construction. The clutch varies from three to six oval, smooth white eggs.
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The species was earlier placed in the genus Lonchura but some authors suggested their placement in the genus Euodice. The placement was much debated but subsequent studies confirmed that it is closely related to the African silverbill (now Euodice cantans) and the two form a clade that is well separated from other Lonchura finches. A molecular phylogeny study identifies the separation of the species from the nearest common ancestors of Euodice cantans (of Africa) and Stagonopleura guttata (of Australia) around 11 million years ago.
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An Idehan Ubari oasis lake, with native grasses and date palms Other animals include the monitor lizards, hyrax, sand vipers, and small populations of African wild dog, in perhaps only 14 countries and red-necked ostrich. Other animals exist in the Sahara (birds in particular) such as African silverbill and black-faced firefinch, among others. There are also small desert crocodiles in Mauritania and the Ennedi Plateau of Chad."Desert-Adapted Crocs Found in Africa", National Geographic News, 18 June 2002 The deathstalker scorpion can be long.
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It feeds mainly on seeds, but also takes insects and has been known to visit nectar bearing flowers, such as those of Erythrina trees. This munia was described as Loxia malabarica by Linnaeus who placed it along with the crossbills. Subsequently, they were included in the genera Uroloncha and Aidemosyne and later in the genus Lonchura into which many of the estrildid finches were included by Jean Delacour in his 1943 revision. The species earlier included Lonchura cantans, the African silverbill, which is found in the dry savannah habitats south of the Sahara Desert.
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It is a member of the estrildid finch family. Many authorities call it a domestic form of the white-rumped munia (known in aviculture as the striated finch), at least probably, though some state that it originated as a hybrid of this species with others in the genus Lonchura. A DNA study found that it was more closely related to the white-rumped munia but not belonged to Indian muniya family than either bird is to the finch, the chestnut-breasted munia, or the "Silver Bill" (presumably the silverbill), indicating that it originated from the white-rumped.
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A nest of Camponotus ants in the forest Apart from heritage, the area is one of the few recluses for bird watchers and nature enthusiasts. Resident or visiting birds include the Indian peafowl, grey heron, Eurasian golden oriole, purple sunbird, Asian koel, Brahminy starling, Indian silverbill, grey- breasted prinia, crested honey buzzard, white-throated kingfisher, rufous treepie, Indian paradise flycatcher, Eurasian sparrowhawk, red-wattled lapwing, cattle egret, common moorhen, white-breasted waterhen, grey francolin and the Jacobin cuckoo, a migrant from Africa that breeds in this forest. The forest also conserves natural habitat for the nilgai, golden jackal, snakes and a large variety of butterflies.
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In the early 1970s, Françoise Lajunias dite Delord (born January 30, 1940), a former student at the Paris Conservatory of Dramatic Art and presenter of performances at the Bobino music hall, received as a gift - at the Salon de l'Enfance, with a subscription to a children's newspaper - a pair of African silverbill, a species of African passerine. Shortly after, having acquired for them a bird cage on the Quai de la Mégisserie where she clicked, she returned there to get two grey Zebra finch, then two white. Its collection of birds grows to reach four hundred individuals. In 1980, faced with the impossibility of housing them all in Paris, she moved with her husband, the conjurer Jacques Delord, and their two children, Delphine and Rodolphe, to Saint-Aignan-sur- Cher, where she opened a bird park in a place called Beauval, on either side of a small tributary of the Cher, le Traine-Feuilles.
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Kongur Wetland Kongur is a freshwater wetland located in Tirupur District, Tamil Nadu, India. Some of the birds which can be seen here are painted stork, Oriental ibis, common sandpiper, Indian spot-billed duck, common coot, rosy starling, little cormorant, cattle egret, intermediate egret, little egret, southern coucal, rose-ringed parakeet, white-breasted kingfisher, pied kingfisher, darter, little grebe, spotted owlet, Indian roller, ashy prinia, common hoopoe, common moorhen, common myna, pied wagtail, grey wagtail, pied bushchat green bee-eater, black-winged kite, Asian koel, pond heron, black drongo, pied cuckoo, blue-faced malkoha, Indian robin, purple sunbird, purple- rumped sunbird, white-headed babbler, common flameback, open-bill stork, greater egret, grey heron, Eurasian collared dove, glossy ibis, rock pigeon, white-breasted waterhen, Indian paradise flycatcher, paddy-field pipit, Indian silverbill, northern shoveller. In 2012 two greater flamingos arrived here as winter visitors. A huge number of babool trees attract birds for roosting.
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