Foudia madagascariensis
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The red fody (Foudia madagascariensis), also known as the Madagascar fody in Madagascar, red cardinal fody in Mauritius, or common fody, is a small bird native to Madagascar and introduced to various other islands in the Indian Ocean. It is a common bird within its restricted range, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern".
In 1760, the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the red fody in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Madagascar. He used the French name Le cardinal de Madagascar and the Latin Cardinalis Madagascariensis. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the red fody. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Loxia madagascariensis and cited Brisson's work. This species is now placed in the genus Foudia that...
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mantadia National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 2 | Berenty Reserve | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 3 | Ankarana National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 4 | Ranomafana National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 5 | Ankarafantsika National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antananarivo | 🇲🇬 Madagascar |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pairi Daiza | 🇧🇪 Belgium | |
| 2 | Leipzig Zoological Garden | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 3 | Zürich Zoo | 🇨🇭 Switzerland | |
| 4 | Parc des oiseaux | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 5 | Bronx Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Chester Zoo | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 7 | Cotswold Wildlife Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 8 | Warsaw Zoo | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 9 | Zoologischer Garten Leipzig | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 10 | Wildlands | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | |
| 11 | Tiergarten Straubing | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 12 | herpetarium warszawskiego ZOO | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 13 | akwarium warszawskiego ZOO | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 14 | Löbbecke Museum und Aquazoo | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 15 | Wolfgang-Köhler-Primaten-Forschungszentrum | 🇩🇪 Germany |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Madagascar Fody sighting in Ankarana National Park on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 12th most-seen of the 40 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Madagascar Fody sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Madagascar Fody sightings, Ankarana National Park ranks 3rd at about 30%. The best odds are in Mantadia National Park (Madagascar, about 40%) and Berenty Reserve (Madagascar, about 30%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Madagascar Fody that you can see in Ankarana National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Madagascar Magpie-Robin (about 60%), Crested Drongo (about 60%) and Madagascar Bulbul (about 60%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Madagascar Fody is recorded against all the birds logged in Ankarana National Park (17 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
