Red avadavats have long vocalizations used as location calls. Females have a shorter, softer version of the call, and use it less often. Both males and females of the species use voclizations during mating displays. At the start of the breeding season, males change their plumage from brown to red. When red avadavats are displaying aggressive behaviors they will use a shrill call. A higher pitched call is used when members of the species perceive danger to their young. Young learn songs from their fathers while in the nest.
Communication Channels: visual ; acoustic
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
According to the IUCN Red List red avadavats are an animal of least concern because of their large population size and large geographic range.
US Migratory Bird Act: no special status
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
State of Michigan List: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
There are no known adverse affects of Amandava amandava on humans.
Red avadavats are popular cage birds. Common names in the pet trade are strawberry finch or strawberry waxbill. The name originates from the scarlet red of the neck, chest, and underbelly, as well as their white spots.
Positive Impacts: pet trade
Because red avadavats feed on seeds and small insects, they likely have a role in seed dispersal as well as pest control. They are also prey for larger predators. There is little additional information on the roles red avadavats have on the ecosystem.
Ecosystem Impact: disperses seeds
Red avadavats feed on a variety of food sources. In captivity red avadavats prefer seeds from sprouting millet. When feeding young, they prefer ant larvae and pupae, centipedes and caterpillars. They are known mainly as ground feeders.
Animal Foods: insects
Plant Foods: seeds, grains, and nuts
Primary Diet: herbivore (Granivore ); omnivore
Red avadavats can be found throughout southern and southeastern Asia, from India to the Malay Peninsula and surrounding islands. These birds have been successfully introduced to the Philippines, Japan, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii.
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Introduced ); oriental (Introduced , Native ); oceanic islands (Introduced )
Red avadavats are found in grassy areas, such as jungle clearings, gardens, and meadows. They also frequent sugarcane fields and areas near bodies of water, such as marshes. Red avadavats are accustomed to tropical temperatures and will lose plumage intensity in cooler, dryer environments.
Habitat Regions: tropical ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland
Wetlands: marsh
Other Habitat Features: agricultural ; riparian
No information could be found on lifespan in natural or captive environments.
Red avadavats are about 10.16 centimeters in length (3 to 4 inches).
Males and females molt into breeding plumage each year. During the breeding season males have a deep red crown and back, and there are white streaks under the eyes. The sides of the head, down the breast and the undersides are scarlet. The wings, tail overfeathers, and flanks are dark red with white spots. The tail feathers are black. The beaks of the males are red. When females go into the breeding season they often molt and the chest and underbelly become a brighter yellow-orange.
At the end of the breeding season, males begin to molt to a plumage that resembles the coloration of females. The color of the underbelly ranges from a creamy tan to creamy yellow, and there are black streaks under the eyes. The crown, back, wings and tail are dark brown with fewer white spots than males in breeding season. Juveniles of this species are dull grayish brown all over. This is the first molt from the nestling stage. Nestlings are marked by dark skin and down, and have markings around the mouth.
Red avadavats have been introduced into many countries as a cage bird. Under poor conditions, plumage coloring loses its intensity. When they are kept at warm temperatures (40 degrees Celsius), kept in sunlight, and fed appropriately, the plumage will remain bright.
Range length: 10.16 (high) cm.
Average wingspan: 49 mm.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; homoiothermic; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: sexes colored or patterned differently; male more colorful
To protect against predation, red avadavats stay in large groups, especially during the non-breeding season. Also, when they are alarmed, they move their tails from side to side and at a down angle. During the non-breeding season, brightly colored males lose their plumage and become brown, much like the females. This brown plumage may serve as camouflage during the dry season. Both breeding and non-breeding birds use a shrill call if they perceive danger, warning other group members. There is little information on predators of red adavavats.
Anti-predator Adaptations: cryptic
Male red avadavats use their bright red plumage in addition to a mating dance to attract females. The dance begins with males, a grass stem or feather in their mouth, deeply bowing with feathers erect. Usually the birds sing and hop between bows. Both males and females display. When the birds have paired, they separate from the larger group to build a nest. Red avadavats are monogamous within a breeding season, but no information could be found on potential life long monogamy.
In captive birds, males who are paired will mimic a display similar to begging of fledging young followed by an attack if a female or other bird comes too close. Females will display aggression against other females as well as brown males if a male in breeding plumage is present.
Mating System: monogamous
Red avadavats breed in the second half of the rainy season and into the following dry season. Breeding months vary regionally. Males begin molting into their bright red plumage as the breeding season begins. Out of the breeding season, males often do not entirely lose their red plumage before beginning molting for the breeding season. Breeding pairs have between 4 to 6 eggs in a clutch. The eggs take around 11 days to hatch; hatchlings take around 20 days to fledge.
Breeding interval: Red avadavats breed once a year.
Breeding season: Breeding can occur from January to April, varying regionally.
Range eggs per season: 4 to 6.
Average time to hatching: 11 days.
Average fledging age: 20 days.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; oviparous
The eggs of Amandava amandava are incubated by both parents during the day. Females usually take over at night. Before fertilization, both males and females collect grass and sticks to create a nest. The nest is lined with soft feathers, tree cotton (found inside seed pods of trees of genus Bombax) and grass. Parents exhibit aggressive behaviors if another bird of the same or a different species gets too close to the nest. Both parents feed nestlings. If females produce another clutch before the first set of young are able to care for themselves, males will take charge of feeding the young.
Parental Investment: altricial ; pre-fertilization (Provisioning, Protecting: Female); pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Male, Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Male, Female, Protecting: Male, Female)
Introduced breeder.
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.[2][3]
The red avadavat was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Frigilla amandava.[4] Linnaeus based his description on "The Amaduvads Cock and Hen" that has been described and illustrated in 1738 by the English naturalist Eleazar Albin.[5] Linnaeus specified the locality as East India but this was restricted to Kolkata (Calcutta) by E. C. Stuart Baker in 1921.[6][7] This species is now placed in the genus Amandava that was introduced in 1836 by the English zoologist Edward Blyth.[8][9]
The red avadavat were earlier included in the genus Estrilda by Jean Delacour. This placement was followed for a while but morphological,[10] behavioural, biochemical[11] and DNA studies now support their separation in the genus Amandava.[12][13][14]
Three subspecies are recognised:[9]
This small finch is easily identified by the rounded black tail and the bill that is seasonally red. The rump is red and the breeding male is red on most of the upper parts except for a black eye-stripe, lower belly and wings. There are white spots on the red body and wing feathers. The non-breeding male is duller but has the red-rump while the female is duller with less of the white spotting on the feathers.[15][16]
Red avadavats are found mainly on flat plains, in places with tall grasses or crops, often near water.[15] The species has four named subspecies. The nominate subspecies is called amandava and is found in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan; the Burmese form is called flavidiventris (also found in parts of China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam);[6] the population further east in Java is called punicea and in Cambodia, decouxi.[17][18][7][19]
Introduced populations exist in several locations worldwide: southern Spain,[20] Brunei, Fiji,[21] Egypt,[22] Malaysia, the United States, Bahrain, Guadeloupe, Iran, Italy, Réunion, Malaysia, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Martinique, Portugal, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and Hawaii.[23][24][25]
This finch is usually seen in small flocks,[26] flying with rapid wingbeats and descending into grass clumps where they are hard to observe. Pairs stay together during the breeding season.[27] These birds produce a distinctive low single note pseep call that is often given in flight. The song is a series of low notes.[28] Birds of a flock will preen each other, ruffling their head feathers in invitation.[29] They feed mainly on grass seeds but will also take insects such as termites when they are available.[30]
They build a globular nest made of grass blades. The usual clutch is about five or six white eggs.[31]
The beak begins to turn red in May and darkens during November and December. The beak then turns rapidly to black in April and the cycle continues.[32] These seasonal cycles are linked to seasonal changes in daylength.[33]
Two ectoparasitic species of bird lice (an ischnoceran, Brueelia amandavae, and an amblyceran, Myrsidea amandava) have been identified living on them[34] and a paramyxovirus has been isolated from birds kept in Japan.[35][36]
Though the current conservation status of Red avadavat is Least Concern (LC), it has become increasingly uncommon in at least part of Southeast Asia. In Thailand, they are described an uncommon to rare resident.[37] In Cambodia, Red avadavats were already "exported by the thousands" to Vietnam in the 1920s, described as "uncommon and irregular" in the early 1960s, and populations are now considered to be low and of concern, yet significant numbers were still found in the merit release trade in 2012.[38]
Red avadavat (male) from Dhaka, Bangladesh
Red Munia (male) at New Town, Kolkata marshland
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.