The Mauritius fody (''Foudia rubra'') is a rare species of bird in the weaver family. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the island of

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

. It is classified by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

as being

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

. It is also on the United States' Endangered Species List with an endangered status.

Taxonomy

The Mauritius fody was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist

Johann Friedrich Gmelin Johann Friedrich Gmelin (8 August 1748 – 1 November 1804) was a German natural history, naturalist, chemist, botanist, entomologist, herpetologist, and malacologist. Education Johann Friedrich Gmelin was born as the eldest son of Philipp F ...

in his revised and expanded edition of

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

's ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...

''. He placed it with the buntings in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Emberiza The buntings are a group of Old World passerine birds forming the genus ''Emberiza'', the only genus in the Family (biology), family Emberizidae. The family contains 44 species. They are seed-eating birds with stubby, conical bills. Taxonomy Th ...

'' and coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

''Emberiza rubra''. Gmelin specified the

location In geography, location or place is used to denote a region (point, line, or area) on Earth's surface. The term ''location'' generally implies a higher degree of certainty than ''place'', the latter often indicating an entity with an ambiguous bou ...

as the French colony of the Isle de France, now

. The specific epithet is from

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

meaning "red". Gmelin based his account on a hand-colour engraving by

François-Nicolas Martinet François-Nicolas Martinet (1731 - c. 1800) was a French engineer, engraver and naturalist. Although trained as an engineer and draftsman, he began to produce engravings for books and it later became his primary profession. Martinet's year of b ...

that depicted both the male and female birds. The Mauritius fody is now one of eight species placed in the genus '' Foudia'' that was introduced in 1850 by the German naturalist

Ludwig Reichenbach Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach (8 January 1793 – 17 March 1879) was a German botanist, ornithologist and illustrator. It was he who first requested Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, Leopold Blaschka to make a set of glass marine invertebrate m ...

. The species is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

: no

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

are recognised.

Description

This bird is long. Breeding males are olive brown with a red head, breast and rump patch and black lores. Females, non-breeding males and juveniles are olive brown with white wing bars and a brown bill.

Distribution and habitat

The bird lives in several types of forest, including degraded areas, as well as

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

s. Stands of Japanese cedar (''Cryptomeria japonica'') have replaced native vegetation and now provide protection against predators.Garrett, L. (2009)
Mauritian Wildlife Foundation Mauritius Fody Recovery Programme Annual Report 2008-09.
It feeds on insects like grasshoppers, beetle larvae, caterpillars, and also spiders. Berries are eaten regularly by some individuals. It feeds on

nectar Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...

regularly, using its specialised brush-tipped tongue.Mauritius fody on ''Weaver Watch''
/ref> The bird is a weaver, the male and female cooperating to weave each nest, from material such as grass, moss and small twigs.

Status

The Mauritius fody is threatened by the loss of its habitat and predation from introduced predators. Beginning in the 1970s much of its habitat was lost when the land was cleared for plantations. By 2001 there were perhaps no more than about 100 breeding pairs.Mauritius Fody.
Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. September 12, 2011. Nests are raided by predators, especially the

black rat The black rat (''Rattus rattus''), also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus ''Rattus'', in the subfamily Murinae. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is n ...

(''Rattus rattus'') and the

crab-eating macaque The crab-eating macaque (''Macaca fascicularis''), also known as the long-tailed macaque or cynomolgus macaque, is a cercopithecine primate native to Southeast Asia. As a synanthropic species, the crab-eating macaque thrives near human settlem ...

(''Macaca fascicularis''). This is currently the main cause of the bird's decline. Some areas of intact habitat have high nest predation, but areas of low nest predation may be poor habitat. The

common myna The common myna or Indian myna (''Acridotheres tristis''), sometimes spelled mynah, is a bird in the Family (biology), family Sturnidae, native to Asia. An omnivorous open woodland bird with a strong territorial instinct, the common myna has ada ...

has also been observed preying on nests. Nest failure may occur when it is infested with tropical nest fly. The larvae of the fly attack the chicks, latching on and feeding on their blood, causing dehydration and

anemia Anemia (also spelt anaemia in British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen. This can be due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin availabl ...

in the chicks. Conservation efforts include the control of rats and macaques. A

captive breeding Captive breeding, also known as captive propagation, is the process of keeping plants or animals in controlled environments, such as wildlife reserves, zoos, Botanical garden, botanic gardens, and other Conservation biology, conservation facilitie ...

program carried out by the Mauritan Wildlife Foundation has produced many chicks. Eggs are removed from nests in the wild and hatched in captivity as the wild pairs produce and rear another clutch simultaneously. Nests are treated for tropical nest fly. Supplemental food and water are given. The population has increased recently due to conservation programs establishing sub-populations on offshore islands. Due to these conservation efforts the species was downlisted from critically endangered to endangered in 2009.

Île aux Aigrettes Ile aux Aigrettes is an islet off the south-east coast of Mauritius. It functions as a nature reserve and a scientific research station. It is also a popular visitors attraction—both for tourists and for Mauritians. Geography It has an area of ...

, an islet off the main island of Mauritius, is now home to a number of Mauritius fodies and other threatened species that have been translocated there.

References

External links

images and movies of the Mauritius fody ''(Foudia rubra)''
ARKive.
Mauritius fody species text
on Weaver Watch
Mauritius fody breeding photos.
Wildlife Preservation Canada. {{Taxonbar, from=Q967513 Birds described in 1789 Endemic birds of Mauritius Foudia Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin