The green avadavat or green munia (Amandava formosa) is a species of Estrildid finch with green and yellow on the body, a bright red bill and black "zebra stripes" on the flanks. They are endemic to the Indian subcontinent and were formerly popular as cagebirds. The name "avadavat" is a corruption of the name the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India, which was a centre of bird trade. They have a restricted distribution and populations are threatened by the bird trade.
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The red avadavat (Amandava amandava), red munia or strawberry finch, is a sparrow-sized bird of the family Estrildidae. It is found in the open fields and grasslands of tropical Asia and is popular as a cage bird due to the colourful plumage of the males in their breeding season. It breeds in the Indian Subcontinent in the monsoon season. The species name of amandava and the common name of avadavat are derived from the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India, from where these birds were exported into the pet trade in former times.
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Munias of Mount Abu (Rajasthan, India) with special emphasis on Green Avadavat Amandava formosa. Indian Birds 1(4): 77-79. central Uttar Pradesh, southern Bihar and West Bengal extending south to southern Maharashtra and northern Andhra Pradesh. Some records are from further south from Wynaad in northern Kerala but it is unclear if these are wild populations.
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The red avadavat were earlier included in the genus Estrilda by Jean Delacour. This placement was followed for a while but morphological, behavioural, biochemical and DNA studies now support their separation in the genus Amandava. The Estrildinae are thought to have evolved somewhere in the Indian plate and moving into the African and Pacific regions and it has been estimated that the red munia diverged from the green munia about 9 million years ago.
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Birds at the zoo include grey parrot, speckled pigeon, black-necked stork, black-headed ibis, budgerigar, dusky eagle owl, Eurasian eagle owl, Lady Amherst pheasant, ostrich, bar-headed goose, grey heron, Himalayan griffon, kalij pheasant, Black kite, sarus crane, Oriental pied hornbill, silver pheasant, Hyacinth macaw, white pelican, blue-and-yellow macaw, sulphur crested cockatoo, love bird, scaly-breasted munia, red avadavat, satyr tragopan, Reeve's pheasant, zebra finch, rose-ringed parakeet, white stork, ruddy shelduck, cockatiel, lesser adjutant, common emerald dove, emu etc.
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Landscape with Exotic Birds and two Dogs His bird paintings featured an array of exotic species such as cockatoos, macaws, and mynas, which were likely to have been imported to European menageries at the time. He mixed them with familiar European birds such as great and blue tits, European green woodpeckers and Eurasian jays. He would often highlight a painting with a bird of red plumage, such as a scarlet ibis, red avadavat or northern cardinal. Numerous birds were usually crowded into his landscapes; an exception was the highly regarded Two Icelandic Falcons, painted around the end of the 17th century or early 18th.
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The area is home to large numbers of coconut trees and mangroves. It is also the foraging and roosting area for several bird species like Lesser sand plover, Curlew sandpiper, Little stint, Gull billed tern, Brown headed Gull, Black headed Gull, Heuglin’s Gull, Blue-tailed bee-eater, Lesser Flamingoes, Greater Flamingoes, Purple moorhens, Eurasian Curlew, Ruddy Shelduck, Common Shelduck, Eurasian Coots, Spot-billed bucks, Pheasant tailed Jacana, Bar tailed Godwits, Black tailed Godwit, Ruff, Marsh sandpipers, Scaly breasted Munia, Tri-colored Munia, Red Avadavat, Indian Skimmer, the Asian Desert Warbler, the Bristled Grassbird, Caspian Plover and many more. Also, one can see as many as 800-900 flamingoes at Panje coastal village during the months of October–March. Last year, two rare wetland birds of the species Red-necked Phalarope were seen at Panje after a gap of 15 years.
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