Amandava
Genus of birds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Amandava is a genus of the estrildid finches. These birds are found in dense grass or scrub in Africa and South Asia. They are gregarious seed-eaters with short, red bills. In earlier literature, amadavat and amidavad have been used.[2] The name amandava, along with amadavat and amidavad are all corruptions of Ahmedabad, a city in Gujarat, India from where the first few specimens of the red munia Amandava amandava were obtained.[3]
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| Amandava | |
|---|---|
| |
| Male red avadavat (Amandava amandava) | |
.jpg) | |
| orange-breasted waxbill (Amandava subflava) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Estrildidae |
| Genus: | Amandava Blyth, 1836 |
| Type species | |
| Amandava punctata = Fringilla amandava[1] Blyth, 1836 | |
| Species | |
|
A. amandava | |
Taxonomy
The genus Amandava was introduced in 1836 by the English zoologist Edward Blyth for the red avadavat. The genus in mentioned in a footnote to a page of an edition of Gilbert White's The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne that Blythe edited.[4] The name is derived by tautomony with the binomial name Fringilla amandava introduced for the red avadavat by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. The word amandava is a corruption of Ahmedabad, a city in the Indian state of Gujarat.[5] The genus Amandava is sister to the genus Amadiva containing two African finches.[6]
Species
The genus contains three species:[7]
| Common name | Scientific name and subspecies | Range | Size and ecology | IUCN status and estimated population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red avadavat or red munia
Male
|
Amandava amandava (Linnaeus, 1758) |
Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan | Size: Habitat: Diet: |
LC
|
| Green avadavat or green munia
|
Amandava formosa (Latham, 1790) |
central India, around southern Rajasthan, specifically around Oriya village, central Uttar Pradesh, southern Bihar and West Bengal |
Size: Habitat: Diet: |
VU
|
| Orange-breasted waxbill or zebra waxbill
|
Amandava subflava (Vieillot, 1819) |
south of the Sahara in Africa | Size: Habitat: Diet: |
LC
|
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The two avadavats, which are very closely related, are found in tropical South Asia, and the waxbill in Africa. Various members of this genus are sometimes placed in Sporaeginthus.
