Lonchura cucullata
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
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.
The bronze mannikin was formally described in 1837 by the English naturalist William Swainson and given the binomial name Spermestes cucullata. The specific epithet is from Late Latin cucullatus meaning "hooded". The type locality is Senegal.
Two subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
Recording0:31
Botswana · 2020
© Dewald du Plessis · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:06
Gabon · 2021
© bureaubenjamin · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:11
South Africa · 2021
© Errol Douwes · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brazzaville | 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo | |
| 2 | Maputo | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | |
| 3 | Yaoundé | 🇨🇲 Cameroon | |
| 4 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 5 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 6 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Abuja | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 8 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 9 | Mombasa | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 10 | Harare | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Bronze Mannikin sighting in Dakar on a given day, based on 34 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 82nd most-seen of the 152 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March and December–January
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Bronze Mannikin in Dakar on a given day, against under 5% in October, the lowest month. Those are among Dakar's driest months, with about 10 mm of rain a month against 190 mm in August.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Bronze Mannikin sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
27th of 33
Of the 33 cities where we can rate Bronze Mannikin sightings, Dakar ranks 27th at about 10%. The best odds are in Brazzaville (Republic of the Congo, about 80%), Maputo (Mozambique, about 70%) and Yaoundé (Cameroon, about 70%).
Same family: Estrildidae
The closest relatives of the Bronze Mannikin that you can see in Dakar (family Estrildidae, Waxbills and Allies) are African Silverbill (about 50%) and Red-billed Firefinch (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Bronze Mannikin is recorded against all the birds logged in Dakar (34 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
