Maya

The Bird Called Maya

By MindLeaks,

This the first of my ancient articles. I made some update of this post to fix inaccuracies.

I never thought that a bird like maya, with its previous high status as our national bird, would be wrongly identified by many people. Even to the people whom I considered as very educated. Most of these people reside in the city, the place where only a handful of these fine birds would venture. The misidentification of these birds is partly due to the false information by the media that largely funneled to these people where it has a strong presence.

I came to realize this widespread mistake when I happen to wonder about the name of the particular brown bird so abundant in every Philippine urban areas. A friend of mine from negros call this bird guryon. In our place when I was a child, we call it citybirds or lovebirds, because it is very common in the city and we often seen it flying in pairs or in groups. Personally though, I do think it was a wrong name, it is not even in our local dialect. When I asked my girlfriend (now my wife) about the name of these birds in their dialect (My mother tongue is Cebuano from Mindanao while my wife is Hiligaynon from Capiz) she readily answered that the bird’s name is maya. I was surprised! I admit that the brown bird (in the image above) is as small as maya but it is nowhere the same in appearance. The real maya has a black head and somewhat dark red in its body.

At that time, after our conversation, I thought that maybe it was just a misidentification of my I have known maya long before I saw this kind of bird and had read some school books with a description of its habitat when I was a child. What I had learned from my parents, grandparents and the old people in our place is that our former national bird is look like the image in the left. Those references coincided very well with the habitat of maya that I have known, the flock of birds I have always seen crowding in the rice fields, often feasting on our precious rice and then quickly fly if someone comes near. They are mostly the reason why the rice fields contains a long colorful ribbon called banderitas, like the one we see in streets during fiesta, designed to sway even in a little breeze, and a human-sized scarecrow made of straws. Rice fields are the favorite place of maya, in sharp contrast with the birds in the city sidewalks, buildings, parks and plazas and others. I am pretty sure that the bird in the first picture is not a maya. Not even its relative.

wife, but in the early week of February 2007 she informed me that one of the Philippine leading newspaper, the Philippine Star, January 21, 2007 issue, in the article intitled “Ohh Baby, Baby It’s A Wild Bird” by Ann Corvera, posted a picture of what seem to be a city bird in our topic, like the one in the first image. The caption as what I had read, roughly states that the bird in the picture, the Eurasian Tree Sparrow in English, is locally called maya. Eventhough the caption never said anything about this bird being our former national bird the term “maya” is enough for the readers to consider it is the former national bird. This mistake is a big disappointed for me as I was expecting to hear or read only truthful information from our leading newspapers. I hope they would spend a little time researching about their topics before posting or publishing anything in their papers.

In my part, I did some digital research. Browsing the net for this interesting birds I stumbled on the images of old stamps of the Philippines and I found this picture (see the picture). On its leftmost side “National Bird (maya)” is printed. Obviously, the bird in the picture is nowhere look like the Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus). It has a darker head and redder body than the foreign Tree Sparrow. Further search confirmed that many people mistakenly identified the Eurasian Tree Sparrow as the former Philippine national bird called maya. There are even an article in Wikipedia with similar mistakes (this is probably corrected by now). The maya is actually belong to Munia family (Lonchura sp.), probably three species or more of these birds can be seen in most part of the Philippines. The bird in the picture is the Black-headed Munia (Lonchura atricapilla).

Maya

One of the most widely spread misinformation in the Philippines is the identity of our formal national bird. Before the Philippine Eagle was declared as the official national bird of the Philippines in 1995, the title previously belonged to the Philippine maya.

Everyone thinks it's the brown bird...

When I was a child, I was told all of those tiny brown birds were all mayas. Everyone around me thought the same. My friends, family, and teachers, all of them thought the brown birds were mayas. Unfortunately what I was taught was incorrect. These brown animals, the most widely seen bird species in the country, is not actually endemic to the Philippines. It's found all over Europe and Asia and was introduced here. The official name of this bird is the Eurasian Tree Sparrow or Passer montanus.

The real maya stands out -- it's red in color

Thankfully this morning, in my backyard in Bacolod, Philippines, a real maya bird visited my garden. This was the first time I've ever captured a real maya bird on a DSLR. He was looking to build his nest and something in my garden attracted him. Soon there were two of them looking around for building material.

The Philippine maya is otherwise known as the Black-headed Munia also known as Chestnut Munia (Lonchura atricapilla). While it's family is found throughout Asia, the maya bird subspecies particularly belongs to the Philippines. It's called Lonchura atricapilla jagori.

When they are young, the color of their feathers are brown but when they mature, they turn red.

So there you have it, you have now been given truth. Spread it out and help educate the masses! Teach your friends, relatives, and children the correct information. If you are Pinoy, you should at least know your former national bird wasn't an introduced species by foreigners.

Labels: finch, maya bird, philippine bird watching, philippine national bird, philippines birds, sparrow

Maya is the Filipino common name for the Eurasian tree sparrow, Passer montanus. This widely distributed Passeriformes species is just introduced to the country, but has adapted very well to its conditions. It is now arguably the most familiar bird in urban areas in the Philippines. As a result it is confused by most locals with maya pula, or the Black-headed Munia (Lonchura atricapilla), as the former national bird of the Philippines.
Species Profile

The Tree Sparrow's length is 12.5 to 14 cm. Its plumage is basically brown, black and white, with the adult's crown and nape colored chestnut, while the chin and throat are black. On the white cheeks are ear-coverts there is a triangular black patch, while two distinct narrow white bars cross the brown wings. The legs are pale brown and the irides hazel. Both male and female species look practically alike.

The young closely resemble their parents, but just appear to be duller. Also, their face pattern appear to be less distinct. The breast and belly are also browner than in the adult.

The Tree Sparrow's voice sounds more shrill compared to the House Sparrow. Their bird call is a shorter chip, and the song, consisting of modulated chirps, is more musical.

Habitat and Distribution

The bird is naturally a rural species in Europe, its place of origin. However it is a popular urban bird in parts of Asia, particularly in the Philippines, where it is commonly found perched along electric wires. Its nesting habits seem to be unscrupulous, and colonies will settle in tree hollows, disused quarries, and even human structures. Their nests are composed of hay, grass, wool, or other material, then lined with feathers. The bird lays four to six eggs.

The Tree Sparrow has a large global population, with an estimated 52,000,000-96,000,000 individuals in Europe alone. The total size has not yet been quantified. For this reason the IUCN has evaluated the bird's conservation status as of Least Concern.

Habitat and Distribution

The bird is naturally a rural species in Europe, its place of origin. However it is a popular urban bird in parts of Asia, particularly in the Philippines, where it is commonly found perched along electric wires. Its nesting habits seem to be unscrupulous, and colonies will settle in tree hollows, disused quarries, and even human structures. Their nests are composed of hay, grass, wool, or other material, then lined with feathers. The bird lays four to six eggs.

The Tree Sparrow has a large global population, with an estimated 52,000,000-96,000,000 individuals in Europe alone. The total size has not yet been quantified. For this reason the IUCN has evaluated the bird's conservation status as of Least Concern.