Foudia madagascariensis
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% 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... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mantadia National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 2 | Berenty Reserve | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 3 | Ranomafana National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 4 | 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 Berenty Reserve on a given day, based on 81 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 29th most-seen of the 63 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Between 6 and 9 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.
2nd of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Madagascar Fody sightings, Berenty Reserve ranks 2nd at about 30%. The best odds are in Mantadia National Park (Madagascar, about 40%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Madagascar Fody is recorded against all the birds logged in Berenty Reserve (81 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.
