Indian Silverbill

About the Indian Silverbill

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.

The Indian silverbill was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed the species with the crossbills in the genus Loxia and coined the binomial name Loxia malabarica.

The specific epithet is from the Malabar region on the southwestern coast of India. Linnaeus specified the locality as India but this was restricted to the Malabar region by E. C. Stuart Baker in 1926. The Indian silverbill is now placed with the African silverbill in the genus Euodice that was introduced by Ludwig Reichenbach in 1862. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

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