In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the red fody in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Madagascar. He used the French nameLe cardinal de Madagascar and the Latin Cardinalis Madagascariensis. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the red fody. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial nameLoxia madagascariensis and cited Brisson's work. This species is now placed in the genusFoudia that was introduced by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach in 1850. The type species was subsequently designated as the red fody. The species is monotypic. The Englishword "fody" and the name of the genus Foudia are from the Madagascan name for the red fody Foudi or Fodi.
Description
The red fody is about in length and weighs. The male of the species is bright red with black markings around each eye. Its wings and tail are olive-brown. Its underparts are also red, which distinguishes it from other fodies in areas where it has been introduced. The female fody's upper parts are olive-brown and its underparts are greyish brown.
Distribution and habitat
It is a common bird found in forest clearings, grasslands and cultivated areas, but not in dense forest. In Madagascar it is regarded as a pest of rice cultivation. It has been introduced to other areas of the Indian Ocean, included the Amirantes, Comoros, Seychelles, Mauritius and Réunion.
Ecology
The red fody feeds largely on seeds, especially grass seeds, and insects, but several other foodstuffs are also taken; these include fruit, nectar, household scraps and copra. Outside the breeding season, this bird is gregarious. As the breeding season approaches, males establish territories, about in diameter. The birds are monogamous, and the male starts building the nest in the centre of the territory before courtship commences, with nests being clustered together in loose colonies. The nest is globular with a side entrance and porch or short tube. It is constructed, mostly by the male, out of rootlets, tendrils, grasses and other long strands of vegetation, woven together. The nest takes around eight days to build, and many get abandoned if the male fails to attract a mate.
Impact on native birds
In different parts of its introduced range, this species show different impacts on native birds. Both the endangered Mauritius fody and the Rodrigues fody have been affected by the competition for resources on their respective islands.
