Bennett cassowary
| Bennett cassowary | ||||||||||||
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Bennett cassowary, drawing from Gatherings of a naturalist in Australasia by George Bennett (1860) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Casuarius Bennetti | ||||||||||||
| Gould , 1857 |
The dwarf cassowary ( Casuarius bennetti ) is a large flightless bird art from the family of Casuariidae . Bennett cassowaries live in the highlands of New Guinea , in primary and secondary forests up to heights of 3000 meters, in northeast New Guinea, where other cassowary species are absent, also in lowland forests. They are also found on Yapen and New Britain , where they may have been introduced by humans. According to the IUCN, the bird's populations are potentially at risk.
features
With a body length of 100 to 110 cm and a weight of 17 kg, the Bennett cassowary is the smallest of the three types of cassowary. Its plumage is solid black, the legs are gray. The bare, featherless neck is mostly blue and may have some red markings. Skin flaps on the neck are missing. The helmet-like outgrowth on the head covered with horn tissue is lower than in the other species and dark gray. Young birds have brown plumage. Seven subspecies have been described, but they lack special characteristics for validity . Possibly they differ in the size and pattern of the featherless neck areas.
Way of life
Bennett cassowaries feed on fallen fruits, mushrooms, invertebrates and small vertebrates. They breed in both the rainy and dry seasons and usually build their nests between the stilt roots of large trees. The three to five eggs are only incubated by the male for about seven weeks. The male then also tends the young birds.
literature
- Josep del Hoyo et al .: Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Ostrich to Ducks. Lynx Edicions, 1992, ISBN 84-87334-10-5 .
Web links
- Casuarius bennetti in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed November 24 of 2009.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings for Dwarf Cassowary ( Casuarius bennetti ) in the Internet Bird Collection