Blood Waxwing

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Blood Waxwing
Bombycilla japonica.jpg

Blood Waxwing ( Bombycilla japonica )

Systematics
Order : Passerines (Passeriformes)
Subordination : Songbirds (passeri)
Superfamily : Bombycilloidea
Family : Bombycillidae
Genre : Waxwings ( bombycilla )
Type : Blood Waxwing
Scientific name
Bombycilla japonica
( Siebold , 1824)

The blood waxwing or Japanese waxwing ( Bombycilla japonica ) is a passerine bird in the waxwing family from Northeast Asia. The first description of the species comes from Philipp Franz von Siebold , who set it up in 1824.

description

The blood waxtail reaches a body length of about 18 centimeters and a weight of 54 to 64 grams. Its plumage is mostly gray, reddish-brown on the upper side, a little grayer and more colorless than the waxwing ( Bombycilla garrulus ). The underside is pinkish-yellow-brown with a distinct yellow spot on the middle of the abdomen. A black eye stripe extends to the rear end of the otherwise orange to pink-brown, erectable hood , the throat is black. On the gray tail there is a narrow black band and a red terminal band, the under tail-coverts are maroon. The arm wings and the outside flags of the hand wings are gray, on the shoulder feathers there is a broad red band and at the tips of the arm wings a narrow red stripe.

In contrast to other waxwing species, it has no red wax tips on the wing covers. While the handwings of the waxwing have yellow tips, the tips of the handwings on both flags of the waxwing are broadly white. In one-year-old animals, the white tip is limited as a short line to the outer plumes and does not extend to the inner plumes.

The short beak is black, the iris dark reddish-brown, the feet black-gray.

There is no clear difference between males and females ( sexual dimorphism ). In annual males and adult females, the features overlap. Some, possibly older, females show male characteristics. Males have a cherry-red terminal spot one to six millimeters in diameter at the tip of the tassels, which females lack or are partially present in some, possibly older females. The under-tail-coverts of the males turn cherry red, the females lack the red hue.

The call of the species is a high trill, there is no actual chant. Blood waxwings often occur in mixed schools with the waxwings ( Bombycilla garrulus ), from which they differ in their slightly smaller size and the lack of wax platelets. In addition, the tail tip of the waxwing is yellow and the red-brown stripe on the wings is missing.

distribution

The blood waxwing only breeds in Far Eastern Russia , in the area west of the Sea of Okhotsk , on the Lower Amur and in the northeastern People's Republic of China . It winters in Japan and irregularly in northeast China and further south to Shandong , in Korea and, by chance, in Taiwan . The exact distribution is difficult to determine because local population sizes vary widely. This is because the birds wander in flocks in large areas in search of food.

Individual birds come as far as Hong Kong and central China, but observations in Europe are very likely to be traced back to captive refugees.

Habitat and way of life

Blood Waxwing breeds in mixed forests and in with conifer -covered taiga with berries supporting undergrowth . In winter it occurs in deciduous and mixed forests and, if there are fruit-bearing trees, in open areas, parks and gardens. Waxwings ( Bombycilla garrulus ) also overwinter in these habitats , which are often followed by a small number of bloodwaxwings.

nutrition

It feeds mainly on fruits and berries, also eats buds in spring and insects in summer, during brood.

Reproduction

Mating occurs late in the boreal summer. To lay eggs, the female builds a small nest, which is usually located on thin outer branches of tall trees. She cushions this with plant fibers. Two to seven gray-blue eggs are laid in the nest between June and July and are then incubated for 12 to 16 days. The nestling duration of the young is 16 to 25 days, which both parents provide with food.

Danger

The blood waxwing is endangered by habitat loss and hunting for the wild bird trade. On the Red List of Threatened Species of IUCN it is already out as "near threatened" (near threatened).

Sources and evidence

literature

  • Mark A. Brazil (1991) The Birds of Japan , Christopher Helm, London
  • John MacKinnon & Karen Phillipps (2000) A Field Guide to the Birds of China , Oxford University Press, Oxford

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ blood waxwing ( Bombycilla japonica ) at Avibase; accessed on March 30, 2013.
  2. ↑ a b c M.JP van Oijen, CS Roselaar: Notes on types and early specimens of Bombycivora japonica von Siebold, 1824, and of Bombycilla phoenicoptera Temminck, 1828 In: Zoological Mededelingen 81, 1-17, 2007, pp 251- 258. On-line
  3. ^ A b c d e Mark Brazil: Birds of East Asia. 2009, Helm Field Guides, ISBN 978-0-691-13926-5 , p. 312.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Bombycilla japonica in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2011.1. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Retrieved July 13, 2011 ..

Web links

Commons : Waxwing  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files