The Green Avadavat Amandava formosa is a species of estrildid finch found in central India, around southern Rajasthan, central Uttar Pradesh, southern Bihar and West Bengal, south to southern Maharashtra/northern Kerala and northern Andhra Pradesh.

Identification

The Green Avadavat is approximately 10cm long with a distinctive green-and-yellow avadavat, dark flank bars and reddish bill. Females are duller with indistinctly barred flanks. Both sexes have pale tips to wing-coverts and tertials. It is also identified that individuals may be dyed green by trappers. Its voice song is high-pitched warble, ending with prolonged trill with weak seee and swee notes.

Threats

The Green Avadavat has been traded as cage-birds in domestic markets since the late 19th century. An average annual of 2,000-3,000 Green Avadavat are smuggled out of India to Europe and America. This species is vulnerable to stress, and a high mortality has been noted in trapped birds. Most of its natural grassland habitats are being destroyed by farmers for agriculture purposes and further degraded by increased in usage of pesticides and insecticides. Therefore, this species has faced a rapidly declining population.

Conservation measures

Green Avadavat is legally protected in India, and trades have been banned since 1981. It is currently being conserved in four protected areas, the Desert National Park and Tal Chhapar Sanctuary, both in Rajasthan, Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh and Melghat Sanctuary in Maharashtra. There are some conservation measures being proposed such as to identify locations of the remaining populations, followed by investigation of its ecological requirements and tolerance of habitat degradation to establish its current distribution and population status. And upgrading the species's legal protective status to Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act (1972) and CITES Appendix I.