Tricolored Munia

The tricoloured munia is a small gregarious bird which feeds mainly on grain and other seeds. It inhabits wet grassland habitats. It may also be found in tropical lowland moist forest habitats.

The Tri-colored Munia has been introduced to parts of Europe, South America, North America, and Oceania accidentally or with purpose. In cases of the latter, it is due to its status as an ornamental species, though it is unknown when they were brought to those countries. But in the 1940s, they were imported to Venezuela because, according to Dr. Fernandez, birdkeepers wanted to breed them with local finches. The birdkeepers were interested in their song, but then the Munia were released into the wild when it was discovered that they could not sing. While the Munia were being imported to Venezuela, the father of Dr. Fernandez, who goes by the same name, believed that they would become established and pests if they were continuously released by birdkeepers who did not want them. The survival rate of maturing Munias in Venezuela became close to those of the local bird species, allowing there to be a "population explosion" in the coming decade. Initially, the Munias struggled to survive during the dry seasons in the reedbeds and marshes at the edges of Lago de Valencia, Venezuela due to drought conditions. The lake shrunk, acting as a water source for a city, and rice fields in the south could not provide much relief, being a seasonal crop. …