ahmedabad like we have surnames that define our region place or trade in gujarat some of our feathered friends in the state have similarly acquired names that define the city where they belong to there are a least five birds that are either commonly sighted some rare and are brand ambassadors of gujarat cities and towns they belong to they include birds that boast of peculiar piping song to birds that are known for their laughter and still others who can hunt like the kathiawar kings from cambay surat kathiawar ahmedabad these birds carry a tinge of their respective regional attitude a small cagewhich was a common household pet and sold in city markets till 70 years ago the amadavat or the red avadavat or red waxbills whose latin name estrilda amandava is derived from ahmedabad they are small cagebirds and have red beaks spotted with red and white no bigger than measles these birds are natives of india sri lanka nepal bangladesh and pakistan and were introduced by traders across to 12 countries which includes us spain and china ornithologists w frayer noted in one of his research papers in 1935 they did not seem to be unhappy like most of the cage birds there for their wants are small give them dry seed and clean water and they will look on the bright side of things it is their happy disposition that owe their popularity as pets for they have no accomplishments and are as silly and uninteresting as birds can be very much an amdavadi frayer notes that amadavat had a little piping song so sweet though feeble but one must put their hand to their ears to catch the sound and the rest of the birds would sing to a note of one syllable which they repeat about 35 times in a minute when they are in good spirits then there is the indian spotted dove called the streptopelia s suratensis from surat which was first identified as a surti in 1873 this dove is long tailed buff brown with a whitespotted black collar patch on the back and sides of the neck they are a confiding bird running about freely in gardens and villages searching for fallen grain and seeds generally hunting in couples and constantly calling to one another in the softest and sweetest of coos the laughing dove from cambay or khambat too owes its name to the small gujarat town technically called the streptopelia s cambayensis this dove is a reddishbrown and has blue markings on its wings a white edge on its long tail purplish legs and a black bill its call has a musical bubbly quality like laughterdifferent from the cooing sound of most doves then from khambat there is indian black robin or saxicoloides f cambaiensis the males have an allblack back they are commonly found in open scrub areas and often seen running along the ground or perching on low thorny shrubs and rocks then from kathiawad