Pictorella Munia

About the Pictorella Munia

The pictorella mannikin, pictorella munia, or pictorella finch (Heteromunia pectoralis) is small brown and grey finch with a grey bill and distinctive scaly white breast plate which is endemic to northern Australia. It is a seed-eater found in pairs and small flocks in dry savannah and subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland.

The pictorella mannikin was formally described in 1841 by English ornithologist John Gould based on a specimen that had been collected in northwestern Australia by John E. Dring who had been a crew member on the third voyage of HMS Beagle. Gould coined the binomial name Amadina pectoralis. When in 1842 Gould described and illustrated the finch in the third volume of his book The Birds of Australia he instead placed the species in the genus Donacola. The pictorella mannikin is now the only species placed in the genus Heteromunia that was introduced by Gregory Mathews in 1913. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek ἑτερος/heteros meaning "different" or "another" with the genus name Munia that had been introduced in 1836 by Brian Houghton Hodgson. The specific epithet pectoralis is Latin meaning "of the breast" or "pectoral". The species is... Wikipedia →