English            -                 White Monjita

Portuguese    -                  Noivinha

latin                -                  Xolmis Irupero 

I photographed the White Monjita on a hot, bright sunny day in the Pantanal, along the dirt road MS 184. (2259.5km from Vila Velha) Once again and this is what I love about wildlife photography, the  White Monjita wasn’t the “target species”. We had pulled over to photograph something else and as I was photographing another bird the White Monjita flew into a tree beside me. It posed for a couple of photos then flew away. This is the aspect I love about wildlife photography, you just don’t know what you will photograph. The White Monjita was what they call in the birding world, “a lifer” for me, which is a species that I had never seen or documented before.

* The White Monjita is a small bird of up to 18 cm in length and weighs around 30g. 

*  Adult White Monjita have pure white plumage except for the black primary flight feathers.

* It is often a silent bird, but sometimes will let out a weak “ghik” and a plaintive “piew”.

* It is found in central Bolivia south to central Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil. A separate and isolated population is found in eastern Brazil.

* The White Monjita frequents open and semi-open grassland, savannahs, pastures with scattered trees and bushes. 

* Some legends talk about the White Monjita as the soul of God. For this reason, it is never kept as a caged bird.

* It is also known as “the Ghost bird”. In addition to its pure white plumage, it often perches on head stones in graveyards.

*  The White Monjita has a diet of insect which it flies out and hovers over potential prey before pouncing on it on the ground, or by directly sallying to the ground to make its catch.

* The female lays 3-4 eggs which are incubated for 12-14 days. The nestlings fledge around 17 days after hatching. 

 * The White Monjita is parasitised by the Shiny Cowbird. 

* The White Monjita is not globally threatened. Rare to fairly common or common within its range of the Pantanal, Paraguay and Argentina; It is rare though in eastern Brazil. On the IUCN red list, it is classified as a species ”of least concern”.