Five-color nun
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Five-color nun ( Lonchura quinticolor ) |
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| Lonchura quinticolor | ||||||||||||
| ( Vieillot , 1807) |
The five-color nun ( Lonchura quinticolor ), also known as the five-color nutmeg bird, is a species from the finch family . Several subspecies are distinguished.
description
The five-color nun reaches a body length of 11.5 to 12.5 centimeters. There is no sexual dimorphism .
The head is light chestnut brown, with the sides of the head showing fine, whitish shaft lines. The throat is often somewhat darker than the rest of the head plumage. The rear rump, the upper tail-coverts and the hems of the tail feathers as well as the middle pair of tail feathers are orange to straw yellow. The rest of the top of the body is yellowish brown. The chest and the front underside of the body are white, while the thighs, the coverts and the back of the body are black. The eyes are dark brown with a light gray rim. The beak is pale slate gray and lightens to a horn-colored tone at the base. The legs and feet are lead gray. Young birds differ from the adult birds by their reddish-brown upper body. The underside of the body is yellowish brown in them.
Distribution and way of life
The distribution area of the five-color nun are the islands of Lombok , Sumbawa , Flores , Alor , Sumba , Timor , Sermata and Babar . The species is nowhere considered common. Their habitat is grassland and rice fields up to an altitude of 1,200 meters. The way of life of the five-color nun has so far been little researched in the field, presumably it does not differ from that of other nun species.
To date, reproductive behavior has only been observed in birds that have been kept in human care. Nest building is very quick and the birds prefer to use coarse, broad-leaved material. The nest is usually set up free-standing in dense undergrowth and tufts of reeds. The clutch size is usually five to six eggs. Both parent birds are involved in the incubation of the eggs. The incubation period is fourteen to sixteen days. The young birds are continuously hovered by the parent birds during their first ten days of life , after which a parent bird usually spends the night in the brood nest. The young birds are usually independent after two to three weeks. The juvenile moult begins when the young birds are two months old and is completed in three to four months.
attitude
Five-color nuns were first introduced to Europe in the summer of 1939 by a collector from the London Zoological Garden . Another import took place only in 1976. The first breeding succeeded in 1980. Five-color nuns were then imported several times in large numbers, but as a not particularly colorful species, the five-color nun was only bred to a small extent.
supporting documents
literature
- Jürgen Nicolai (Ed.), Joachim Steinbacher (Ed.), Renate van den Elzen, Gerhard Hofmann: Prachtfinken - Australia, Oceania, Southeast Asia. Eugen Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3249-4 .
- Peter Clement , Alan Harris, John Davis: Finches and Sparrows. An Identification Guide. Christopher Helm, London 1993, ISBN 0-7136-8017-2 .
Single receipts
Web link
- Lonchura quinticolor inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Endangered Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved October 9, 2013.