Strawberry Finch

When we decided to start our new year with a visit to Keoladev National Park at Bharatpur, I had not anticipated finding Red avadavat at KNP. My finger had been itching to click this beauty for quite some time but I did not have a decent encounter with this bird in recent past. 
But on 01st Jan, 2014, Mr. Pritam Singh, my guide at KNP led me to a place adjacent to the main road with a small clearing and some shrubs where a pair of Red avadavat (commonly known as Laal Munia or Strawberry Finch) (Amandava amandava) were hopping on tall grass. 
I was with my wife and kids and we all enjoyed watching this for sometime. Then we picked our cameras and clicked some pictures. As more people started to come we slipped away keeping in mind the security of these birds as we realized their nest was in a shrub and we did not want over-enthusiastic people to disturb them or harm their nest.
This picture is of the male red avadavat. These are sparrow-sized bird of the Estrildidae family. It is found in the open fields and grasslands of tropical Asia and is popular as a cage bird due to the colourful plumage of the males in their breeding season. It breeds in the Indian Subcontinent in the Monsoon season. This small finch is easily identified by the rounded black tail and the bill that is seasonally red. The rump is red and the breeding male is red on most of the upper parts except for a black eye-stripe, lower belly and wings. There are white spots on the red body and wing feathers. The non-breeding male is duller but has the red-rump while the female is duller with less of the white spotting on the feathers.

• Date

  26-09-2023