---
title: "Chestnut Munia"
description: "Lonchura atricapilla — Birds. The chestnut munia or black-headed munia (Lonchura atricapilla) is a small passerine."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/chestnut-munia
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Chestnut Munia

> Lonchura atricapilla — Birds. The chestnut munia or black-headed munia (Lonchura atricapilla) is a small passerine.

- Scientific name: *Lonchura atricapilla*
- Category: `birds` (Birds)
- Habitats: unknown
- iNaturalist observations: 4568
- Wikidata: [Q766579](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q766579)
- iNaturalist taxon: [72989](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/72989)

## Names

- en: Chestnut Munia
- de: Schwarzkopfnonne
- es: Capuchino cabeza negra
- fr: Capucin à tête noire
- pl: Mniszka czarnogłowa

## Countries with the most observations

US (1077), PH (681), TW (637), MY (604), ID (352), SG (287), TH (264), PW (73), HK (51), IN (42), BN (36), VN (26)

## Summary

The chestnut munia or black-headed munia (Lonchura atricapilla) is a small passerine. It was formerly considered conspecific with the closely related tricoloured munia, but is now widely accepted as a separate species. This estrildid finch is a resident breeding bird in Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and Hawaii. It also has been introduced to all the Greater Antilles and Martinique in the Caribbean.
Before 1995, it was the national bird of the Philippines, where it is known in Tagalog as mayang pula ("red maya…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut_munia

## Photo

![Chestnut Munia](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/chestnut-munia/medium.jpg)

Photo: Zoltán Stekkelpak · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/202600621

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/chestnut-munia?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).