Chestnut Munia's Breeding Ground | The Juvies Are Out!

One of the perks of living in a province surrounded by nature is the presence of our winged friends. I am not sure if they consider us their friends but I do. Next to my husband's office is a shrub which blossoms randomly, its flowers are aromatic but we don't know its name, it has small white flowers, we are however not sure when it's going to bear flowers, we are often surprised when the area smells really good and then we knew, the shrub had flowers, the next day, the flowers fall and we will have to guess again when is the next batch.

But there's more interesting with this shrub - Chestnut Munia

This is locally called Maya but in some areas in the Philippines, it is called Mayang pula because of its red patch. This little bird was formerly the national bird of the country but was given to the Philippine Eagle in the year 1995. I remember back in my younger years, my grandmother would often tell me about it as the national bird.

There are around four Maya living in our little shrub. They had used this as their breeding area, either they will make new nests or would just fix the old ones then reuse them. Currently, there are four nests that are still intact in the shrub.

Lately, we noticed them back, my husband had been observing them and then realized, they are breeding once again!

Do you notice that another nest in the right has a bird inside? It has been sitting there for weeks, I am sure it is incubating some eggs under it. In fact, it is very alert, it would often look here and there when we pass by the nest. Its next is placed in a lower part of the shrub so it was easy for us to peak and check.

However, we avoid doing so that the bird won't be alarmed, as much as possible, we wanted it to be calm and relaxed while in our premises.

It has been a few weeks already since the time that they had come back, before the storm came, on a very early morning, we spotted juveniles were out perching in the branches, two of them and the matured ones were there too, looking right and left, I bet they were protecting the young ones!

Mayas are small birds, around 11-12 centimeters in length, thus, it is indeed understandable that they like shrubs because they can hold on to their branches well! The wind was swaying the shrub but they were not moved! They even swayed together with it.

These type of bird feeds on grain and other seeds. We have noticed that there are many seeds growing in the area where the shrub is located so I guess these are brought by the birds. I always adore watching them in the morning and even any time of the day when they perch and make songs out of their chirp and tweets.

The juveniles are lighter in color, their short bodies are really cute to behold, as I observe them, I realized these matured ones, the parents are teaching the little ones how to fly, perhaps the first lesson was how to hop from one branch to the other.

Parents, may it be birds or human beings are the same, they have the responsibility to train their young ones, to ensure that they are ready to face the world, to become the best that they can be, that they can develop the natural instincts of spreading their wings, letting go of their nests, and just fly, soar high!

I have always said this before, we can truly learn a lot from nature. Thanks to these Chestnut Munia for not only giving me a sight to cherish but also a lesson to keep in the heart as a parent.

By the way, these images were all captured with my Panasonic Lumix GX85 paired with the Super Takumar 105mm f2.8 lens. It was definitely challenging to take these photos with a manual lens, true enough, wildlife photography requires the best autofocus lens but I was happy with the outcome of these manual clicks.

Now, the next thing to look after would be that sole mama bird in the lower nest, we will have to wait until it gets out of the nest and brings its little ones out to see the world. I believe there will be more chirping, Matti, my baby boy would surely love to watch the juveniles soon!