Bronze Mannikin (Spermestes cucullata)
About the Bronze Mannikin
The bronze mannikin or bronze munia (Spermestes cucullata) is a small passerine (i.e. perching) bird of the Afrotropics. This very social estrildid finch is an uncommon to locally abundant bird in much of Africa south of the Sahara Desert, where it is resident, nomadic or irruptive in mesic savanna or forest margin habitats. It has an estimated global extent of occurrence of 23,600,000 km2 (9,100,000 sq mi). It is the smallest and most widespread of four munia species on the African mainland, the other being black-and-white, red-backed and magpie mannikin. It co-occurs with the Madagascar mannikin on the Comoro Islands, and was introduced to Puerto Rico. Especially in the West Africa, it is considered a pest in grain and rice fields. It is locally trapped for the pet bird trade.
A real field recording of the Bronze Mannikin. Press play and focus on the rhythm and pitch of each phrase.
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Our streaming copies are mirrored from the original xeno-canto file and transcoded to 96 kbps mono — a modification, so we note it here; the licence for each recording is named in its credit below.
1 recording on this page · licensed CC BY-SA ×1 · mirrored on this server, free for commercial reuse · recorded in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Puerto Rico and elsewhere · xeno-canto lists 56 recordings for this species in total.
Similar species
- Black-and-white MannikinSpermestes bicolorprofile
- Grey-headed SilverbillSpermestes griseicapillaprofile
- Magpie MannikinSpermestes fringilloidesprofile
- Red-backed MannikinSpermestes nigricepsprofile
Species grouped by shared genus, family and range.