Green Avadavat Amandava formosa Scientific name definitions

10 cm. Male is olive-green above , rump greenish-yellow, tail glossy black; yellow below, brightest on undertail and its coverts, flanks barred black and white ; iris brown, eyering grey; bill red; legs pinkish. Female is similar to male but duller, dull grey-green above, with throat greyish-white, breast greyish-buff, lower breast to undertail-coverts yellowish-white, flanks weakly barred; bill blackish above, red below. Juvenile is olive-grey above, and buffy white below, darkest on breast, undertail-coverts whitish; bill black, becoming red at base.

C India from S Rajasthan, S Uttar Pradesh and S Bihar S to Maharashtra, N Andhra Pradesh and Odisha; records farther S to Kerala presumably refer to escapes (1 Santharam, V.S. (2000). Comments on the bird list of Thattakad Bird Sanctuary, Kerala. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 97(2): 284–285. Close ).

Tall grass and low bushes, open dry woodland, sugar-cane fields, mango orchards, Lantana scrub, boulder-strewn scrub; typically near water.

Resident.

Small grass seeds, small insects. Forages mostly on ground . Gregarious; occurs in flocks in non-breeding season, sometimes mixing with A. amandava.

Calls include distinctive squeaky "swee, swee" and "chip"; song a prolonged twitter ending with loud trill.

Breeding records in May–Jan. Semi-colonial, in small groups. Male displays on ground and on perch, holds a stem in bill, fluffs nape, rump and belly feathers, bows or turns head to female, brushes the stem against her breast; the two perch in parallel, heads touching; if display successful, male pecks female's nape, she quivers tail, and partners copulate. Nest built by both sexes, a large ball, with short neck around entrance tunnel, made from coarse grass, lined with finer grass, sited 1–2 m above ground, often in reeds, sometimes attached to sugar-cane leaves. Clutch 5–6 eggs; incubation by both sexes, period 11–12 days; nestling sparsely covered with natal down, has narrow white gape-flange with black spots (gape-flanges dull grey at fledging), pale palate with four small black spots (including double medial spot) and two more spots behind these, tongue has two black spots and black tip, lower mandible bill has short black crescent; begging young swings head upside-down and moves it from side to side, raises wing on side away from parent; fledging period 18–21 days; young independent 1–2 weeks after fledging.

VULNERABLE. Scarce to very locally quite common; decreasing. Formerly locally common or even abundant, but has declined rapidly; still fairly common around Mt Abu, in Rajasthan . In the past, a small colony in E Pakistan (near Lahore), believed to have originated from escaped cagebirds. Was apparently always patchily distributed. Main cause of decline is widespread trapping for the cagebird trade, this exacerbated by loss and degradation of habitat through agricultural intensification. Trapping has already eliminated several populations. Has been traded since late 19th century, and is one of the most popular cagebirds in domestic markets; every year, minimum of 2000–3000 individuals smuggled out of India to Europe and North America; high mortality of trapped birds noted. Recent observations of up to 2000 birds of this species in markets, suggesting that sizeable populations still exist in other areas, but presumably in rapid decline. On Mt Abu, this species is trapped by local tribal communities also for use in medicinal preparations. In addition, widespread destruction and alteration of scrub and grassland likely to contribute to declines. Increased usage of pesticides a potential threat, and increased frequency of fires may have adverse impact on some populations.