The Natural Union of Fringillidae is a massive, orderly nation, ruled by Carduelinae with an iron fist, and remarkable for its disturbing lack of elderly people, anti-smoking policies, and hatred of cheese. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 3.698 billion Fringillidaeans are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The enormous, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized government is primarily concerned with Defense, although Law & Order, Spirituality, and Administration are also considered important, while Education and Welfare receive no funds. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Pyrrhula. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 87.5%.

The strong Fringillidaean economy, worth 554 trillion finches a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is an enormous, deeply entrenched, quite specialized black market in Arms Manufacturing, Uranium Mining, Woodchip Exports, and Beef-Based Agriculture. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is an impressive 150,035 finches, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 472,904 per year while the poor average 36,389, a ratio of 13.0 to 1.

The consumption of vegetables is illegal, raindances intended to summon storms instead attract tourists, the Coast Guard is pioneering a quixotic program to train fish, and punk rockers smash it up and then clean it up. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive police force. Fringillidae's national animal is the chaffinch, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to toxic air pollution, and its national religion is Fringilla.

Fringillidae is ranked 170,531^st in the world and 104^th in Middle Earth for Largest Trout Fishing Sector, scoring -14.75 on the Nemo Depletion Efficiency Index.