Amandava | |
---|---|
Male red avadavat (Amandava amandava) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
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 |
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]
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]
The genus contains three species: [7]
Image | Common Name | Scientific name | Distribution |
---|---|---|---|
Red avadavat or red munia | Amandava amandava | Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan | |
Green avadavat or green munia | Amandava formosa | central India, around southern Rajasthan, specifically around Oriya village, central Uttar Pradesh, southern Bihar and West Bengal | |
Orange-breasted waxbill or zebra waxbill | Amandava subflava | south of the Sahara in Africa |
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.