Lonchura malacca
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Tricolored Munia sighting in Minneriya National Park on a given day, based on 81 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 88th most-seen of the 155 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Tricolored Munia in Minneriya National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April, 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.
5th of 24
Of the 24 parks where we can rate Tricolored Munia sightings, Minneriya National Park ranks 5th at about 10%. 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%).
Same genus: Lonchura
The closest relatives of the Tricolored Munia that you can see in Minneriya National Park (genus Lonchura, Typical Munias and Mannikins) are Nutmeg Mannikin (about 20%) and White-rumped Munia (about 20%), 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 Minneriya National Park (81 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.
