Bangladesh, Bhutan (B), Cambodia, China (mainland), India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore (B), Sri Lanka, Taiwan (China), Thailand, Vietnam.
Introduced to Japan (B).
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
White-rumped Munia (Lonchura striata) [XC447338]
by Albert Lastukhin from Tambon Mae Win, \u0e2d\u0e33\u0e40\u0e20\u0e2d \u0e41\u0e21\u0e48\u0e27\u0e32\u0e07, Chang Wat Chiang Mai, Thailand (call)
White-rumped Munia (Lonchura striata) [XC733978]
by Ray Tsu \u8bf8\u4ec1 from Tianlin Community, Shanghai, China (flight call)
Nest
Large, domed, composed of grass located in a bush, tree or grass.
Subspecies
Has been thought to form a superspecies with Javan Munia (Lonchura leucogastroides).
All subspecies apart from nominate sometimes considered a separate species, but the two forms appear to intergrade in south-eastern India. Taiwan population sometimes separated as subspecies phaethontoptila, but appear hardly different from swinhoei, and therefore included within latter. Proposed subspecies explita, a replacement for preoccupied sumatrensis (described from Tanjong Kassan, in Sumatra), is treated as a synonym of subsquamicollis.
The following 7 subspecies are recognised:
striata (Linnaus, 1766) - Western and north-eastern peninsular India, and Sri Lanka.
acuticauda (Hodgson, 1836) - Northern India (eastern from Uttarakhand) and southern Nepal eastern in Himalayan foothills to Bangladesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Myanmar (except south), north-western Thailand, northern Laos and north-western Vietnam (western Tonkin).
fumigata (Walden, 1873) - Andaman Is.
semistriata (Hume, 1874) - Nicobar Is.
subsquamicollis (Baker, ECS, 1925) - Southern Myanmar (Tenasserim), Thailand (except north-west), central and southern Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia south to Singapore, Sumatra and Bangka I.
swinhoei (Cabanis, 1882) - Southern and south-eastern China (eastern from Yunnan), north-eastern Vietnam (eastern Tonkin), Hainan I and Taiwan.
explita (Chasen, 1940) - Sporadic but locally common on Sumatra and Bangka I.