I recently visited Warina Lakes Innisfail NorthQueensland and managed a couple of snaps of what I later identified from My Field Guide Birds of North Queensland ( Gregory & Matsui ) mainly due to white spots on the breast as A Scaly- breasted Mannikin. During filing I looked at some earlier images of a Finch taken at Tyto Wetlands Ingham roughly 150 kms south of Warina which I had never identified to my satisfaction. Cross checking with both the Birdlife Tyto Wetlands Guide and the Innisfail District Guide I found a Nutmeg Mannikin referenced. This bird is not listed as such in Gregory & Matsui .Using the Slater field guide to Australian Birds I found the Nutmeg Mannikin with a reference to Spice Finch which on viewing illustrations appears to be my Scaly Breasted Mannikin. The images at Warina of an Adult bird and those taken at Tyto of Juveniles. Is someone able to advise me of either a possible number of names for the same bird or some name change that has taken place or even alternative illustration reference where I might sort out this issue . Any help would be much appreciated

Hi Geoffrey

As I understand it there are two Mannikin species in coastal north Queensland. These are the Chestnut Breasted Mannikin (native from NNSW across to the Kimberleys) and the Nutmeg Mannikin (introduced to the mainland north east coast, but a natural vagrant to Ashmore Reef). The Nutmeg (Lonchura punctulata) is an Asian species, and also goes under the names Spice Finch and Scaly-Breasted Munia. According to Wikipedia there are 11 subspecies of L punctulata.

If anyone out there is more across the details I would be happy to be corrected on these facts!

Simon