Red fody 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 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
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