Red Avadavat

The red avadavat, red munia or strawberry finch is a sparrow-sized bird of the family Estrildidae, found in the open fields and grasslands of tropical Asia and popular as a cage bird because of the colourful plumage of breeding males. It is easily identified by its rounded black tail and a bill that is seasonally red, with white spots on the red body and wing feathers; the rump is red. The breeding male is red on most of the upper parts except a black eye stripe, lower belly and wings, the non-breeding male is duller but keeps the red rump, and the female is duller with less white spotting (Wikipedia, general species account).

Pairs stay together in the breeding season and the usual clutch is about five or six white eggs. The species name amandava and the common name avadavat derive from the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, from where these birds were exported into the pet trade in the past. It gives a distinctive low single-note pseep call, often in flight.