Carrizal peacock

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Carrizal peacock
Systematics
Order : Passerines (Passeriformes)
Subordination : Songbirds (passeri)
Superfamily : Passeroidea
Family : Cardinals (Cardinalidae)
Genre : Amaurospiza
Type : Carrizal peacock
Scientific name
Amaurospiza carrizalensis
Lentino & Restall , 2003

The Carrizal peacock ( Amaurospiza carrizalensis ) is a rare songbird from the cardinals family . The species was only discovered in 2001 and scientifically described in 2003.

description

The Carrizal Pfäffchen reaches a length of 12 centimeters. The male is shiny blue-black with isolated soot-black feathers and a lighter blue shoulder. The under wing coverts and axillary feathers are white. The dark gray beak is large and conical. The female has light buff feathers and an olive-gray beak.

distribution

According to the current state of knowledge, the Carrizal monkey is endemic to the river island Isla Carrizal in the Río Caroní , a tributary of the Orinoco in Venezuela .

Way of life

Little is known about the way of life. The well-known specimens were observed in the bamboo thicket and apparently ate beetles.

Danger

The Carrizal-Pfäffchen was initially only known from three individuals (two males, one female), who were collected in July 2001 in a bamboo grove on the river island Isla Carrizal in the Río Caroní . The Tocoma dam project of the Edelca electricity works along the Rio Caroní and the Río Caura cleared the bamboo stocks on Isla Carrizal and destroyed the terra typica. The species was then considered lost until a few specimens were rediscovered on the Rio Caroni during an expedition in 2007/2008. Due to the destruction of the habitat in the basin of the Rio Caroni, the species is listed by the IUCN in the category “critically endangered”.

Systematics

The genus Amaurospiza has long been classified in the Ammern family . However, based on DNA analysis in 2007, it was found that they are more closely related to the Cardinals . Therefore, the genus was transferred from the American Ornithologists' Union to the Cardinalidae family in 2008 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ N&MA Check-list Committee Proposals 2008-B (PDF; 170 kB)

literature

Web links