Red avadavat: Amandava amandava

Red avadavat: Amandava amandava
Red munia

Manna Dey planted a munia inside my head while giving voice to the side character of a rustic gawaiyya in a Hindi film of late 60s or early 70s, set to music provided by Shankar-Jaikishen and with lyrics penned by Shailendra: the munia has been chirping in my mind since.

Everybody has enjoyed the song I refer to which begins with a chorus that goes - chalat musaafir moh liya re pinjde waali muniyaa, and the verse going something like ud ud baithi halwaiya dukaniya - but the true beauty of the bird and song as a whole was revealed to me when I first realized what a Red munia, or Red avadavat, or Lal munia was.

I’ve seen this bird aplenty growing up – on the grasslands and fields that dotted the ancient Aravalli range that once existed as Delhi’s spine. I just didn’t know then that this bird was Red munia.

Among those who relish keeping birds in a cage, the munia is popular due to the splash of colours and its beautiful song. I don’t know why they’d want to do that. They’re missing the dance. The elaborate mating rituals. Be that as it may, even when caged, the munia’s song is so happy. Take my word for it, it is quite something else when the munia sings as a free bird…lilting…matching the sine-wave curve of its flight-dance. The song reaches the ears far before the eye spies the tiny bird. The morning brightens in an instant and all one can do is switch off all engines one has running in and around, and submit one’s silence to be overwritten by the uplifting melody of the munia’s song. And this remarkable natural rhythm and melody has been captured in the song I mentioned before. To my level of awareness in such matters, it is the best attempt at recreating the soul of a munia’s song in one created by man.

This male Red avadavat was with his group, a gawaiyya of the scenic fields of Dhalipur village on the Uttarakhand-Himachal Pradesh border, belting out a carefree song among the reeds of standing bajra; flitting - singly and as a group - from stalk to stalk and into the bushes. Savannahs, low bushes, fileds in cleared areas of forests are their theatre. I must have spent almost an hour sitting engrossed in the cool aromatic moist-earth field, listening to their song, observing their ways, absorbing the experience.

The sun wended its way up, crunching underfoot the dewy coolness of dawn, and I, almost reluctantly, knowing I had to move on, lifted my camera to take a snapshot of this common, carefree, dancing minstrel of happy songs.

The munias are an old fascination and their song and dance flipped back many pleasant pages – my attention was the minimum I could give in return. Keep them free.

Red avadavat: Amandava amandava

Synonyms: Red munia; Lal munia (Hindi) Incidentally, Lal not only refers to the red colour but also stands for boy in rural Hindi belt. Breeding plumage of the male is brilliantly red, with spots and for the rest of the year they are duller. Breeding seasons vary from place to place and molting begins accordingly.

Gender: Male.

IUCN Status: Least Concern.

Photographed at Dhalipur village, near Aasan Barrage, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India on 8.11.2014

Camera used: Nikon D5100 DSLR with Tamron 150-600mm Lens