The rain season is the best time to find these lovely little birds. Restricted to a fairly small range and being threatened by loss of suitable breeding habitat help to make them sought after.
They are fairly easy to take note of as they are very active in their breeding colonies. I often see them in colonies of up to 20 pairs. Birds fly in and out and vocalize a lot. I have started seeing more nesting birds in small groups of 2-3 pairs. Possibly an indication of the increasing difficulty in finding suitable habitat?
The male is strikingly golden whereas the female have more of the traditional colors of a sparrow.
Here is the female bringing some nesting material. From what I have observed it is only the males that build the nest and it is up to the females to accept or reject. I often see empty nests in a colony so obviously not all nests pass inspection. The female seem to be the one to patch up the inside if the nest.
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