Buffalo head shrike
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Buffalo head shrike ( Lanius bucephalus ) |
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| Lanius bucephalus | ||||||||||||
| Temminck & Schlegel , 1847 |
The buffalo head shrike , often also the Japanese shrike ( Lanius bucephalus ) is a member of the genus Lanius within the family of the shrike (Laniidae). The medium-sized species occurs in a relatively small area in eastern Siberia and Japan . The mainland populations are largely migratory birds, whose wintering areas are mainly in southern China. In addition to the nominate form , a second subspecies is recognized, but very little is known about its distribution.
features
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With a total length of 20 centimeters, the buffalo head shrike is slightly larger than a red backed shrike and, with an average weight of 50 grams, considerably heavier than this. Males are compact, large-headed, strikingly colorful-looking stranglers, females are much more inconspicuous.
The forehead, crown and neck are reddish brown, the back is mouse gray. The throat is very light, sometimes almost white. This light color darkens and turns beige-brown to the rump. The flanks are light, often intense, reddish to orange-brown and partly darkly wavy. A black, widening face mask runs from the massive, black-brown strangler's beak to the neck; it has a fine white border on the top. The brown-black eyes are not completely covered by it. The wings are blackish-brown, as are the large wing covers. The arm wings and the wing coverts are bordered quite conspicuously light brown. The white bases of the wings of the hand are visible as a small white casement window when the bird is sitting, and as a clear crescent-shaped white markings when it is flying. The stepped tail is reddish-brown at the base, then gray-black as it continues. There are a few white spots on the outer control springs. Legs and toes are gray-black.
The sexes do not differ in size and weight, but clearly in the color of the plumage. Females are generally paler in color, the gray parts of the plumage on the back and shoulders are missing. Furthermore, females have no black face mask and no white wing mirror. The flanks as well as the belly are intensely dark wavy and banded. In older females, the noticeable banding fades a little, their plumage becomes more contrasting and then more closely resembles that of the males.
Fledglings resemble younger females, but are generally darker in color than these. They are deeply wavy in the head, neck and back area as well as on the entire underside. The reddish brown tail has a distinct black subterminal band. The white casement window is already developed in male young birds.
Buffalo head shrike fly in a straight line with very fast wing beats. The cross-country flight is slightly curved.
voice
The singing is a kind of persistent chatter that is typical of stranglers. The species-specific sounds are pressed and rough, cha and chug elements are often heard. In addition, melodic passages and pure whistling tones can also be heard. Like most shrikes, buffalo head shrike imitate ambient noises , cicada chirps and bird calls, which in Japanese probably led to the name bird with the hundred tongues . Singing elements of the thick-billed singer are used particularly frequently . In addition, the buffalo head shrike has a number of harsh and croaking calls.
Possible confusion
Adult males of the red-tailed shrike ( Lanius cristatus ) found in the same area of distribution are very similar to the buffalo head shrike; However, they are slightly smaller, and above all less massive, and not gray on the back, but reddish-brown in color. The tail of the red-tailed shrike is not gray-black, but reddish-brown, the white wing mirror is only indistinctly visible or is completely absent. Females and juveniles of the two species can hardly be distinguished in field ornithology. Both sexes of sympatric occurring Tiger shrike ( Lanius tigrinus ) are easy to determine the mouse-gray head and neck.
distribution and habitat
The buffalo head shrike is a breeding bird on the East Asian mainland of the Primorye area and northeastern China up to about 50 ° north. To the south, its range includes the Korean Peninsula and the coastal area and the hinterland of Liaoning . The existence and distribution of an isolated population in Gansu is not fully understood. Furthermore, most of the islands of the southern Kuril Islands , the southern half of Sakhalin and the large Japanese islands are populated; on many small islands south of mainland Japan incubates the way. The south-eastern breeding grounds are located on about 1,000 kilometers from Honshu remote Ogasawara Islands . The buffalo head shrike shares large parts of this distribution area with the tiger shrike and the red-tailed shrike, without mixed breeds having become known to date .
Like all species of the genus Lanius , the buffalo head shrike also lives in open landscapes with bushes and individual trees. However, it also penetrates into closed forests if it finds large, open spaces that have been created by clearing or forest fires. It occurs in larger gardens and parks and often breeds in loose, river-accompanying trees. Buffalo head shrike are mainly breeding birds of the lowlands and coastal plains, but occur in the Japanese Alps up to over 2700 meters; Breeding sites from such high altitudes are also known from southern China.
In winter quarters, buffalo head shrugs colonize similar habitats as in the breeding season, but are increasingly found in gardens and parks, in bamboo groves and in reeds during this time.
Buffalo head shrike are territorial both during and outside of the breeding season. Little information is available on the size of the area. In central Japan, around one pair per hectare was counted in favorable areas. However, the breeding densities seem to be subject to very large fluctuations from year to year.
hikes
Most of the mainland populations, as well as the buffalo head shrike that breed on Sakhalin, the Kuriles and Hokkaido, are migratory birds with wintering areas on the southern Japanese islands and in southern China to Guangdong . However, some of these remain in the breeding area or only undertake small-scale vertical migrations. Most leave the breeding grounds between mid-August and mid-September and return there in early April. Buffalo head shrike migrate at night.
Food and subsistence
The food of the buffalo head shrike consists primarily of insects. It also prey on vertebrates and invertebrates such as spiders , worms and millipedes . The composition of the insect prey is varied and depends on the prevailing supply; larger prey are preferred. Beetles , singing cicadas and crickets predominate, but butterflies and caterpillars , ants , bees and wasps as well as flies also play a not insignificant role. On vertebrates he preyed on small birds and young birds, mice , shrews and voles , as well as lizards , frogs and occasionally fish .
The buffalo head shrike is a hide hunter. It spies its prey from a control room and, after a short and largely silent glide, hits it on the ground. Smaller prey animals are swallowed immediately, larger ones are brought to a feeding place and prepared there for consumption. Red-headed shrike spear larger insects as well as vertebrates in thorn hedges or pinch them in branch forks. In this way, stocks are created throughout the year.
Territorial and antagonistic behavior
Buffalo head shrugs claim and defend territories of different sizes throughout the year, which consist of the nest bearer, some waiting areas and the hunting area in between. The non-migrating males remain in their area throughout the year, which becomes the territory of the breeding pair during the breeding season; Outside of the breeding season, females occupy their own territories that border on the breeding territory, but can also be located at some distance from it. If the territories border one another, they are mostly largely united during the breeding season. If the pair incubates twice, the pair territories exist for about 150 days a year. The migrating populations again occupy their own territories in the winter quarters. These are vigorously defended against conspecifics and other shrike species. The buffalo head shrike usually flies towards intruders close to the ground and attacks them directly if they do not immediately retreat. During the breeding season, the buffalo head shrike is also very aggressive towards other bird species, especially crows and thrushes .
Breeding behavior
Buffalo head shrike become sexually mature at the end of their first year of life; Most females breed for the first time at this age, but annual males are often unmated. Except for the northernmost populations, the species breeds twice a year. Clutches lost early are replaced even with second broods, so that fresh clutches were found at the end of July. Buffalo head shrugs lead a largely monogamous seasonal partnership, in which out-of-pair copulation should not be uncommon. Reparations from last year's partners are relatively common at up to 30 percent.
Courtship and nest building
Where the species is standing bird, the courtship begins in late winter. The migrating buffalo head shrike courtship from the beginning of April, but many return to the breeding area already paired, so that the courtship in these can be quite inconspicuous. As with most species of the genus Lanius , the male's slow territorial flight, the singing performed from exposed waiting areas, as well as courtship feeding and showing a favorable nest location are the most important courtship elements. The nest is built mainly by the female in about 4–6 days; the participation of the males varies from person to person, but is usually low. Nest carriers are bushes or trees of different kinds; in the Primorye area it is often planted in wild apple trees. Often it is also found in bamboo thickets or largely impenetrable thorn bushes. The nests can be built just a few centimeters above the ground, but also at heights of up to 4.5 meters. The nest itself is a massive, thick-walled bowl that is built from dry stems and from such torn strips of bast and stalks. The inside is covered with soft materials such as feathers, plant and animal wool and wood chips. The nest diameter can be up to 160 millimeters.
Clutch and brood
The laying period of the resident birds begins at the end of February, that of the migrating populations at the earliest at the end of the first decade of April. The clutch consists of 4–7 eggs on a yellowish-white, but occasionally also on a greenish or pink-tinted background at the blunt end with gray and brown spots. Second or additional clutches contain fewer eggs than first clutch, often only two. The eggs are laid every day and only incubated by the female in about 15 days. During this time it is supplied with food by the male, but leaves the nest for a short time to search for food and defecate . In large clutches, the chicks hatch at intervals of up to two days, so that there can be considerable developmental differences in the first days of the nestling period. The nestlings already have largely complete juvenile plumage after 10 days and fledged after an average of 14 days. At the beginning of the nestling period, the male alone brings the food to the nest, where it usually passes it on to the female, but also feeds the young himself. When the feathers of the chicks open and the young are no longer constantly fiddled, the female also leaves the nest for a long time and takes part in the foraging. After leaving the nest, the young remain in the vicinity of the nest for up to four weeks and are also fed by their parents for some time there. In the case of first broods, the female starts building the second nest soon after the young birds have fled out, so that the male is almost exclusively responsible for managing the young birds.
Systematics
The buffalo head shrike is one of at least 26 species of the genus Lanius . Their representatives are widespread in Africa, Europe and Asia. In North America there are only two species, in South America and Australia the genus is not represented. The radiation probably came from Africa, where 11 species still have the greatest biodiversity. East Asia is also home to a considerable number of at least 8 species.
Within this genus, the buffalo head shrike is probably most closely related to the red-tailed shrike ( L. collurio ), the Isabelline shrike ( L. isabellinus ) and the sister species chess shrike ( Lanius schach ) and red-tailed shrike ( Lanius cristatus ).
In addition to the nominate form L. b. Which occurs in most of the distribution area . bucephalus becomes the subspecies L. b. sicarius ( Bangs & JL Peters , 1928) that breeds in the west of Gansu Province. The dorsal plumage of this subspecies is a little darker gray, the wing surface is very small, often completely covered. The female plumage is even more conspicuous than that of the nominate form, darkly wavy and sparrowed.
Stock situation
The IUCN does not list the buffalo head shrike at any risk level. Harris & Franklin describe the species as common regionally , but also see population declines in some areas, especially in increasingly anthropogenic landscapes on Hokkaido. In Japan the buffalo head shrike is often kept as a cage bird. It is not uncommon for the species to be parasitized by the cuckoo ( Cuculus canorus ) and the hoofed cuckoo ( Cuculus saturatus ) .
There are no reliable sources on life expectancy. The oldest ringbird found was 2 years and 7 months old.
literature
- Tony Harris & Kim Franklin: Shrikes & Bush-Shrikes. Helm identification Guides, London 2000, pp. 184-186, plate 8, ISBN 0-7136-3861-3 .
- Evgenij N. Panov: The stranglers of the Palearctic. Die Neue Brehm-Bücherei Vol. 557. Westarp-Wissenschaften, Magdeburg 1996, pp. 118–128, ISBN 3-89432-495-3 .
- Satoshi Yamagishi, Isoa Nishiumi, Chikashi Shimoda: Extrapair fertilization in monogamous Bull-headed Shrikes revealed by DNA Fingerprinting. In: The Auk . 109 (4) 1992, pp. 711-721.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Panov (1996) p. 127
- ↑ bathrobe's cjvlang.com: Birds of East Asia and Mainland Southeast Asia: Laniidae
- ↑ a b Panov (1996) p. 121
- ↑ a b Panov (1996) p. 119
- ↑ Harris (2000) pp. 184f
- ↑ a b c Harris (2000) p. 185
- ↑ a b c d Harris (2000) p. 186
- ↑ Panov (1996) p. 123
- ↑ Yamagishi et al. (1992) p. 711
- ↑ a b Panov (1996) p. 124
- ↑ Panov (1996) p. 11f
- ↑ Muzeum i Instytut Zoologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk: Wei ZHANG et al .: Taxonomic status of eight Asian shrike species (Lanius): phylogenetic analysis based on Cyt b and CoI gene sequences , In: ACTA ORNITHOLOGICA Vol. 42 (2007) No. 2 , p. 125 (PDF 422kB)
- ↑ Lanius bucephalus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2011. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2009. Accessed November 14, 2011th