Réunion fody might be just a colour morph of the red fody which was introduced to Réunion about 100 years after the discovery of "Foudia delloni". Réunion fody The Réunion fody ("Foudia delloni") is an extinct bird species from the family of weavers. It was endemic to the Mascarene island of Réunion. This bird was first mentioned in a report by traveller Gabriel Dellon and a second time in 1674 by Dubois. The species, of which no museum specimen exist was formally described as new species by Anthony Cheke and Julian Pender Hume in the Book "Lost Land of the Dodo" in
Red fody "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 was introduced by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach in 1850. The type species was subsequently