quelea

[kwee-lee-uh]

noun

1. any of several African weaverbirds of the genus Quelea, especially Q. quelea red-billed quelea, noted for its vast flocks that destroy grain crops.

Word History and Origins

Origin of quelea¹

1925–30; < New Latin: genus name (1850; earlier as a species name), perhaps alteration of Medieval Latin qualea quail

Example Sentences

In 2019, the Kenyan government is thought to have killed eight million quelea which had invaded the Mwea Irrigation Scheme, the country's largest rice-growing project.

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The professor wants more traditional, environmentally friendly methods - such as scaring or trapping and eating the birds - to be employed instead to contain the quelea.

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The latest quelea invasion in Kisumu, amounting to some 10 million birds, has already decimated 300 acres of rice fields.

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Rose Nekesa's rice field in western Kenya has been invaded by huge swarms of the voracious red-billed quelea bird.

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Increased cereal crop production throughout Africa may have also increased the quelea populations as there is a larger source of food for their super-nomadic populations.

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