Red fody centre of the territory before courtship commences, with nests being stered together in loose colonies. The nest is globular with a side entrance and porch or short tube. It is constructed, mostly by the male, out of rootlets, tendrils, grasses and other long strands of vegetation, woven together. The nest takes around eight days to build, and many get abandoned if the male fails to attract a mate. Red fody The red fody ("Foudia madagascariensis"), sometimes known as the Madagascar fody, red cardinal fody or common fody, is a small bird native to Madagascar and introduced to various other islands
Réunion fody were bright red. Back and tail were brown. The belly was pale. The head of the females and the juvenile males was brown. Neck and wings were red. The throat was pale brown. The Réunion fody was once described as abundant and as pest that destroyed entire crops. It was last seen shortly after 1672. The reason for its extinction might be the predation by rats. A type of fody on Réunion was previously mentioned as "Foudia bruante" by Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller in the work "Planches Enluminées" in 1776. But after a hypothesis by Cheke and Hume "Foudia bruante"