The white-headed munia was formally described in 1766 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Loxia maja.

[2] Linnaeus cited George Edwards's "The Malacca Gros-beak" and Mathurin Jacques Brisson's "Le Maia de la Chine".

[7] The white-headed munia is now placed in the genus Lonchura that was introduced by the English naturalist William Henry Sykes in 1832.

Like other munias form large flocks during rice harvest but spread out in pairs during breeding season.

Four to five, occasionally six, white eggs are laid in a typical munia ball-shaped grass nest.