Papuan Moorhen
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Papuan Moorhen ( Gallinula tenebrosa ) |
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| Gallinula tenebrosa | ||||||||||
| Gould , 1846 |
The Papuan moorhen ( Gallinula tenebrosa ) is a species of bird from the railing family that occurs from Indonesia to Australia and has also been observed as a random visitor in New Zealand. There are three subspecies.
The IUCN specifies the population of the Papuan moorhen to be safe ( least concern ).
features
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The Papuan moorhen reaches a body length of 35 to 40 centimeters. The wingspan is 55 to 65 centimeters. The weight varies between 350 and 700 grams.
Papuan pond fowl are dark gray to black in color with a deep brown back. The tail is white on the lower sides. The beak and the front plate above it are bright red, the tip of the beak is yellow. The red shield has a signaling function in the event of internal disputes. The legs have a scarlet band over the intertarsal joint . The species differs from the pond rail ( Gallinula chloropus ) by the lack of white stripes on the flanks. In addition, the nominate subspecies is slightly larger with a length of 36 centimeters, while the subspecies Gallinula tenebrosa neumanni from Northern New Guinea reaches a similar size. The females are slightly smaller than the males. Young animals are less strong and sometimes brownish in color.
distribution
The Papuan moorhen occurs in Australasia south of the Wallace Line to Tasmania . In Australia it can be found in all Australian states, but the main distribution is along the east and south-east coasts as well as Tasmania. Another Australian distribution center is the southwest of Western Australia. On Flores , Sumba and in the south of Borneo the species occasionally occurs as an errant .
The following three subspecies are distinguished:
- G. t. frontata Wallace, 1863 - Sulawesi across the Sula Islands , the south of the Moluccas, the Lesser Sunda Islands to the west and south-east of New Guinea
- G. t. neumanni EJO Hartert, 1930 - North of New Guinea
- G. t. tenebrosa Gould , 1846 - Australia and Tasmania.
Little research has been done on the migratory behavior of the Papuan moorhen. It's presumably a partial puller .
Way of life
The preferred habitat of the Papuan Moorhen are freshwater lakes, ponds and overgrown marshland. The species is mainly found in the lowlands, but on Sulawesi also at altitudes of up to 1000 meters.
Papuan moorhens are diurnal and eat both on land and in the water, ranging from grass, seeds and fruits to aquatic plants, molluscs and insects to bird droppings and carrion. In Australia, the animals gather in large swarms in May and July, which occasionally can contain up to 100 individuals. From July onwards, territorial groups of two to seven, usually four, individuals form from these swarms for breeding, with one to three males per female. Older animals stay together longer as a group than younger ones and achieve greater breeding success.
They breed on freshwater lakes, on rivers, in swamps and at artificial water points. The territorial groups often build several nests before deciding on one in which the female lays the eggs. Occasionally nests are created above the ground in dense shrubs , in the forks of trees or in climbing plants, but the typical nest location is a leaf shape directly on the water, which is up to 20 meters away from the shore. The clutch size varies between five and 18 eggs. Large clutches are believed to be due to two or more females laying eggs in a nest. Average clutches have 8 to nine eggs.
Systematics
Some authors question whether the Papuan moorhen and the pond claw actually represent separate species. These indicate that distinguishing features such as the color of the skin are partly age-dependent and that white stripes occasionally appear on the flanks of the Papuan moorhen too. The Handbook of the Birds of the World , on the other hand, indicates that both species occur simultaneously in Wallacea .
literature
- Bruce M. Beehler, Thane K. Pratt: Birds of New Guinea; Distribution, Taxonomy, and Systematics . Princeton University Press, Princeton 2016, ISBN 978-0-691-16424-3 .
- PJ Higgins (Ed.): Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds , Volume 2, Raptors to Lapwings, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1993, ISBN 0-19-553069-1 .
Web links
- Gallinula tenebrosa inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved February 6, 2014.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Higgins (Ed.): Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds . Volume 2, p. 600.
- ↑ a b c Handbook of the Birds of the World on the Papuan Moorhen accessed on June 5, 2017.
- ↑ Camille E. Crowley, Robert D. Magrath: Shields of open: signaling competitive ability in the dusky moorhen, Gallinula tenebrosa . In: Australian journal of zoology . tape 52 , no. 5 , 2004, p. 463-474 (English).
- ^ A b Les Christidis, Walter Boles: Systematics and taxonomy of Australian birds . CSIRO Publishing, 2008, ISBN 978-0-643-06511-6 , pp. 125 .
- ^ JA Leach: An Australian Bird Book: A Complete Guide to the Identification of Australian Birds . Kessinger Publishing, 2005, ISBN 978-1-4179-8449-7 , pp. 23 .
- ↑ a b Sand-dee Waybill: Our Australian Feathered Friends . Lulu.com, 2007, ISBN 978-0-9803021-4-1 , pp. 55 .
- ↑ a b Higgins (Ed.): Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds . Volume 2, p. 601.
- ^ A b Morten Strange: A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Indonesia . Princeton Field Guides. Princeton University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-691-11495-8 , pp. 93 .
- ↑ Higgins (Ed.): Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds . Volume 2, p. 602.
- ^ ST Garnett: The Social Organization of the Dusky Moorhen, Gallinula tenebrosa Gould (Aves: Rallidae) . In: Australian Wildlife Research . tape 7 , no. 1 , 1980, p. 103-112 (English).
- ↑ Higgins (Ed.): Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds . Volume 2, p. 605.
- ↑ Higgins (Ed.): Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds . Volume 2, p. 606.