Tricolored Munia

Tricolored Munia

Lonchura malacca

Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR
Daily sighting probability <5% · Rare
at Carara National Park

In 3 days ~10%

137 Verified sightings at Carara National Park From 2019 to 2026
1,422 In all 24 parks
March Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Tricolored Munia

The tricoloured munia (Lonchura malacca) is an estrildid finch, native to Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and southern China. The species has also been introduced to the Caribbean, in Trinidad, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Venezuela. This species, like the chestnut munia has been known as the black-headed munia. Immature birds have pale brown upperparts, lack the dark head found in adults, and have uniform buff underparts that can be confused with immatures of other munias such as the scaly-breasted munia.

The tricolored munia was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1766 in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Loxia malacca. Linnaeus mistakenly specified the locality as China, Java and Malacca. This was corrected by E. C. Stuart Baker in 1926 as Belgaum in the state of Karnataka in southwest India. The specific epithet malacca is a geographical misnomer; the species does not occur on the Malay Peninsula. The tricolored munia is now placed in the genus Lonchura that was introduced by the English naturalist William Henry Sykes in 1832. This species was formerly treated as conspecific with the... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Call0:12

India · 2012

© vir joshi · XC105865 · CC BY-NC-ND 2.5

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Horton Plains National Park 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
~50%
2 Caroni Swamp 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
~20%
3 Yala National Park 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
~20%
4 Wilpattu National Park 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
~10%
5 Minneriya National Park 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
~10%
6 Udawalawe National Park 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
~10%
7 Los Haitises National Park 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
~10%
8 Chitwan National Park 🇳🇵 Nepal
~10%
9 Royal Bardia National Park 🇳🇵 Nepal
~10%
10 Palo Verde National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
<5%
11 Lago de Yojoa 🇭🇳 Honduras
<5%
12 Manuel Antonio National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
<5%
13 Kanha National Park 🇮🇳 India
<5%
14 Carara National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
<5%
15 Bandipur National Park 🇮🇳 India
<5%
16 Nagarhole National Park 🇮🇳 India
<5%
17 Bandhavgarh National Park 🇮🇳 India
<5%
18 Satpura National Park 🇮🇳 India
<5%
19 Sinharaja Forest Reserve 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
<5%
20 Cerro Azul Meámbar National Park 🇭🇳 Honduras
<5%
21 Sundarbans National Park 🇮🇳 India
<5%
22 Jim Corbett National Park 🇮🇳 India
<5%
23 Braulio Carrillo National Park 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
<5%
24 Keoladeo National Park 🇮🇳 India
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Vijayawada 🇮🇳 India
~20%
2 Tamluk 🇮🇳 India
~10%
3 Vasai-Virar 🇮🇳 India
~10%
4 Surat 🇮🇳 India
~10%
5 Kolkata 🇮🇳 India
~10%
6 Thiruvananthapuram 🇮🇳 India
~10%
7 Ponnani 🇮🇳 India
~10%
8 San Pedro Sula 🇭🇳 Honduras
~10%
9 Jamshedpur 🇮🇳 India
~10%
10 Chattogram 🇧🇩 Bangladesh
~10%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Tricolored Munia in Carara National Park?

Rare

Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Tricolored Munia sighting in Carara National Park on a given day, based on 137 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 280th most-seen of the 414 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Tricolored Munia in Carara National Park?

Any time of year

In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Tricolored Munia in Carara National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.

What time of day is best to see a Tricolored Munia?

Between 7 and 10 am

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Tricolored Munia sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Is Carara National Park the best place to see a Tricolored Munia?

14th of 24

Of the 24 parks where we can rate Tricolored Munia sightings, Carara National Park ranks 14th at under 5%. The best odds are in Horton Plains National Park (Sri Lanka, about 50%), Caroni Swamp (Trinidad and Tobago, about 20%) and Yala National Park (Sri Lanka, about 20%).

Which relatives of the Tricolored Munia live in Carara National Park?

Same order: Passeriformes

The closest relatives of the Tricolored Munia that you can see in Carara National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Great Kiskadee (about 60%), Tropical Kingbird (about 50%) and Rufous-backed Wren (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.

Where does the Tricolored Munia sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Tricolored Munia is recorded against all the birds logged in Carara National Park (137 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.

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