Dangling star
| Dangling star | ||||||||||||
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Wandering tree monster ( Dendrocitta vagabunda ) in Kozhikode |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Dendrocitta | ||||||||||||
| Gould , 1833 |
The dangling star ( Dendrocitta ) are a genus of corvids (Corvidae). The genus includes seven species, all of which are found in Southeast Asia . Baumelstern live in forests or semi-open landscapes and spend most of the day in the branches of trees, where they feed on their fruits and flowers. They also eat small vertebrates, insects and carrion.
features
Baumelstern are medium-sized corvids with a stocky trunk and long to very long tails. They all have short, strong and curved beaks and relatively short, thin legs. The smallest representative of the genus, the Andamanenbaumelster ( D. baylei ) measures 32 cm from head to tail and weighs 90-130 g, the Wanderbaumelster , the largest species, has a head-to-tail length of 46 to 50 cm and a weight of 90 up to 130 g.
The color spectrum of the tree magpie plumage is limited to a limited palette of shades and patterns that occur in different forms in all species of the genus. The face and throat are usually deeply black or brown in color. An exception to this is the Borneo tree elster ( D. cinerascens ), where only the forehead and eyebrows are black. The back of the head and neck are gray or white, except for the Andamanenbaumelster and the Wandering Baumelster. In some species, this gray color extends down to the upper forehead and chest or back, in others only to the back of the head and the side of the neck. The back and shoulders are colored red to varying degrees, the belly is white, gray, ocher or red-brown. The under tail coverts are reddish in most species and yellowish only in the wandering tree magpie. All dangling stars have black hand wings and covers , some species show a white spot at the base of the hand wings. With the exception of the Wandering Baumelster, all Baumelstern have black arm wings. The arm covers are white in the Wandering Baumelster, gray in the Masked Magpie ( D. frontalis ). The tail consists of twelve heavily tiered feathers. It is completely black in the masked and Andaman tree monsters. In all other species, only the tips of the control feathers are darkly colored, while their base is gray. The beak, wax skin and legs of all Baumelstern are dark gray, the color of the iris ranges between dark red-brown and red.
Systematics and taxonomy
Research history
The scientific name for the tree star, Dendrocitta , is made up of the Greek terms dendron ( δένδρον ) for tree and kitta ( κίττα ), a name for the magpie ( Pica pica ). Author of the genus is John Gould , who published its first description in 1833 in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London . Gould separated the genus from that of the real magpies ( Pica ), in which today's Baumelstern were placed. He justified this with the rather weak legs of the Baumelstern compared to the real magpies. At the same time, he distinguished the genus from the closely related rocket-tailed star ( Crypsirina ) by pointing out the slightly different beak morphology. He determined the white-bellied tree elster ( D. leucogastra ) as a type .
External system
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Relationships of the Baumelstern according to Ericson et al. 2005.
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The dangle stars are part of an early radiation of corvids in Southeast Asia, the result of which, in addition to the genus Dendrocitta, are the mountain crows ( Pyrrhocorax ), the rocket-tailed star ( Crypsirina ), the mourning magpie ( Platysmurus leucopterus ) and the ladder- tailed star ( Temnurus temnurus ). All five genera are native to Southeast Asia, with the mountain crows also populating the rest of the Palearctic . The dangle stars are in the basal group of the genera that occur exclusively in Southeast Asia, while the mountain crows form the sister taxon to all other genera.
Internal system
The genus of the tree star includes the following species:
- Andaman tree magpie ( Dendrocitta bayleyi )
- Borneo tree elster ( Dendrocitta cinerascens )
- Graubrust tree Elster ( Dendrocitta formosae )
- Masked tree monster ( Dendrocitta frontalis )
- White-bellied magpie ( Dendrocitta leucogastra )
- Sumatra tree monster ( Dendrocitta occipitalis )
- Wandering tree monster ( Dendrocitta vagabunda )
The Borneo tree monster is occasionally listed in older literature as a subspecies of the Sumatra tree monster.
Andaman tree magpie ( D. baylei )
Borneo tree monster ( D. cinerascens )
Gray breasted magpie ( D. formosae )
Masked tree monster ( D. frontalis )
White-bellied Magpie ( D. leucogastra )
Sumatra tree monster ( D. occipitalis )
swell
literature
- Per GP Ericson, Anna-Lee Jansen, Ulf S. Johansson, Jan Ekman: Inter-generic Relationships of the Crows, Jays, Magpies and Allied Groups (Aves: Corvidae) Based on Nucleotide Sequence Data . In: Journal of Avian Biology 36, 2005. pp. 222-234.
- John Gould: On a new Genus in the Family of Corvidæ . In: The Transactions of the Zoological Society 1 (1), 1833. pp. 87-90. ( Online )
- Steve Madge , Hilary Burn: Crows & Jays . Princeton University Press , Princeton 1994, ISBN 0-691-08883-7 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Gould 1833 , p. 89.
- ↑ Madge & Burn 1994 , p. 116.
- ↑ a b Madge & Burn 1994 , p. 112.
- ↑ a b Madge & Burn 1994 , pp. 34-37.
- ↑ Gould 1833 , pp. 87-89.
- ↑ a b Ericson et al. 2005 , p. 232.