Lonchura malacca
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
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 →
Call0:12
India · 2012
© vir joshi · XC105865 · CC BY-NC-ND 2.5
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Horton Plains National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 2 | Caroni Swamp | 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago | |
| 3 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 4 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 5 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 6 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 7 | Los Haitises National Park | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 8 | Chitwan National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 9 | Royal Bardia National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 10 | Palo Verde National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 11 | Lago de Yojoa | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 12 | Manuel Antonio National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 13 | Kanha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 14 | Carara National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 15 | Bandipur National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 16 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 17 | Bandhavgarh National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 18 | Satpura National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 19 | Sinharaja Forest Reserve | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 20 | Cerro Azul Meámbar National Park | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 21 | Sundarbans National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 22 | Jim Corbett National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 23 | Braulio Carrillo National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 24 | Keoladeo National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vijayawada | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Tamluk | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Vasai-Virar | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Surat | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Kolkata | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Thiruvananthapuram | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Ponnani | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | San Pedro Sula | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 9 | Jamshedpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Chattogram | 🇧🇩 Bangladesh |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Tricolored Munia sighting in Horton Plains National Park on a given day, based on 306 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 20th most-seen of the 102 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August
In that month about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Tricolored Munia in Horton Plains National Park on a given day, against about 30% in June, the lowest month.
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.
Yes
Of the 24 parks where we can rate Tricolored Munia sightings, Horton Plains National Park has the highest daily chance: about 50%. Next come Caroni Swamp (Trinidad and Tobago, about 20%) and Yala National Park (Sri Lanka, about 20%).
Same genus: Lonchura
The closest relatives of the Tricolored Munia that you can see in Horton Plains National Park (genus Lonchura, Typical Munias and Mannikins) are Black-throated Munia (about 10%) and Nutmeg Mannikin (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Tricolored Munia is recorded against all the birds logged in Horton Plains National Park (306 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.
