A field study seldom plays out with the linearity of a shot arrow. It usually resembles a meandering novel replete with digressions and back stories. A seeming departure from the main plot may actually build it. Translating that into plain and practical avian terms, knowing a species more meaningfully may mean knowing another, at least superficially.
A few days ago, at the Karapakkam patch, a tricoloured munia ( Lonchura malacca ) would not abandon a self-imposed task despite approaching footsteps. Its peripheral vision trained on the human presence, the bird was sussing out thin twigs with an evident sense of urgency. It finally had a long twig torn from a slender plant and flapped away to attend to its joint building project with its lady love. Of course, one assumes this was a male tricoloured munia — probably served an ultimatum — as males of the species are believed to be merchandisers of nest-building material.
The tricoloured munia is known to be seen in conjunction with the streaked weaver ( Ploceus manyar) during the breeding season. When one of the two species is seen gathering nest material, there are birders who instinctively look for the other. Usually, the gregarious tricoloured munia would be the first-seen, prompting a search for the streaked weaver which is known to stand birders up.
On that day and the following one, this writer’s search for the streaked weaver ended in failure. However, in preceding weeks there had been observations from this patch in Karapakkam — a couple of them with photos — of the streaked weaver on eBird suggesting possible nesting activity by the species.
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In Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan (Volume 10) , Salim Ali and S Dillon Ripley suggest that tricoloured munia pairs have the pesky habit of poking their beak into streaked weavers’ private affairs, inviting themselves to the latter’s nesting colonies, even testing the build-quality of the nests, installed amidst reeds.
These munias are however a tolerable presence, and relations do not plummet and turn frosty to the point that these munias are considered a nuisance.
Tri-coloured munias would build their nests in the reeds too, not too far from nesting colonies of streaked weavers, but in a scattered fashion.
The handbook points out that during the breeding season, increase in the numbers of streaked weavers at a patch would witness a corresponding spurt in tricoloured munias. It suggests that the more streaked weavers you see, the more tricoloured munias are on the way.
However, in reality, birders work backwards, guessing that the elusive streaked weavers are around breeding, making that guess when they sight breeding pairs of tricoloured munias.
V Santharam, ornithologist, is familiar with the idea of streaked weavers being scarcely sighted, certainly in south India.
“That may be the case for Chennai and surrounding areas. It may be different in other places. However, I generally think that the habitat for streaked weavers has shrunk, with swamps being targeted for development.”
Santharam elaborates: “The streaked weaver occurs in certain localities and is a habitat-specialist. Unlike the other weaver birds that occur in agricultural lands, including slightly drier areas, the streaked weaver is found in more swampy areas overrun with reeds. It requires a lot more water — Pallikaranai with its reeds is suitable for this species. It is restricted to that kind of a habitat.”
In contrast, the tricoloured munia veers towards a more generalist stance when it comes to habitat preferences.
“We have records of the tricoloured munia in Rishi Valley where we do not get the streaked weaver at all. Compared to the other munias, the tricoloured munia also likes to be in more damp habitats, especially where you find a lot of sugarcane cultivation, even in wild places like Pallikaranai.”
And that is how its paths cross with the streaked weaver’s.