Single-color stilt rail
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Monochrome stilt rail ( Mesitornis unicolor ) |
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| Mesitornis unicolor | ||||||||||
| ( Des Murs , 1845) |
The single-color stilt claw ( Mesitornis unicolor ) is a ground-living bird from the family of the stilt claw (Mesitornithidae). The species is endemic to Madagascar .
distribution and habitat
Single-color stilt claw : orange;
Monias stilt claw : blue
The distribution area extends from Tolagnaro in the southeast of the island to the Marojejy National Park in the northeast. In the dry west of the island there is no single-color stilt rail. Their habitat is the humid forests of eastern Madagascar, especially areas with closed canopies and only sparse soil vegetation, especially on steep slopes. Most of the known habitats are located in remote, evergreen and little disturbed forests with closed canopy. The single-color stilt rail is most common in areas below 100 m above sea level. At Ranomafana it also lives at heights of up to 1200 m, at Perinet at heights of 900 m and at Marojejy at heights of 700 m. Since the forests of Madagascar are being cleared to a large extent and the habitat of all stilt claws is disappearing, the single-color stilt claw is classified as endangered by the IUCN, like all species of the Mesitornithidae family .
Appearance
The streamlined body becomes about 30 cm long. The weight of a female examined was 148 g. Both sexes are almost monochrome brownish in color and are similar in size and fletching. The head is sometimes a pinkish-gray tint. The underside of the head and throat are whitish to reddish brown. A whitish stripe of variable intensity and size extends from the eye to the sides of the neck. The beak of the monochrome stilt claw is the shortest and least curved of all stilt claws. The upper bill is dark brown, the lower bill yellow and brown at the base of the beak. The big eyes are brown, legs and feet are greenish-brown. The neck can be stretched far forward and then appears slender.
From the gray-throated claw ( Canirallus kioloides ) found in the same habitat , the single-color stilt claw can be easily distinguished by its slimmer appearance, more stooped posture, longer tail and less gray head. It differs from the short-footed stilt rail ( Mesitornis variegata ), which occurs sympatric with it in one area, in the lack of a conspicuous pattern and the red-brown underside of the head. There is no information about seasonal variations in the fletching.
Breeding behavior
Like other stilt claws, the single-color stilt claw breeds during the rainy season from late November to December. The shallow nest is built at a height of one to two meters in the forks of sloping trees and can thus be reached without the birds having to fly. It is made of twigs and is lined with grass. The eggs are incubated by the female. The chicks are red-brown.
food
Little is known about the diet of the single-color stilted claw. Their food spectrum overlaps with that of the gray-throated claw. It eats small invertebrates and seeds. The stomach of a captured bird contained snails, spiders, cockroaches , leaf beetles , proboscis , click and scarab beetles, and ants. When looking for food, the birds run slowly across the forest floor in twos or threes.
swell
- Josep del Hoyo , Andrew Elliot, Jordi Sargatal : Handbook of the birds of the world. Volume 3: Hoatzin to Auks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 1996, ISBN 8487334202 .
Web links
- Videos, photos and sound recordings too Mesitornis unicolorin the Internet Bird Collection
- Mesitornis unicolor in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2013.1. Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved October 16, 2013.