White-rumped Munia

The white-rumped munia is a small waxbill finch 10–11cm long, with a stubby grey bill and a long, pointed black tail. It is brown above and on the breast and paler below, with a white rump. The sexes are almost impossible to tell apart, though males have a bulkier head and bill. It is not closely related to the true finches or sparrows. Its domesticated descendant, the society or Bengalese finch, is kept worldwide as a pet and used as a model animal in research (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives in open woodland, grassland and scrub and adapts well to farmland, where it can be a local pest of millets and similar grains. It is drab and rather reclusive, keeping to dense undergrowth, so it is not always conspicuous even where common (Wikipedia, general species account).