Fairy birds
| Fairy birds | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Elven blue bird ( Irinea puella ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the family | ||||||||||||
| Irenidae | ||||||||||||
| Jerdon , 1863 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Irena | ||||||||||||
| Horsfield , 1821 |
The fairy birds (Irena) are a genus from the order of the passerine birds (Passeriformes). They stand alone in the monogenic family Irenidae .
Fairy birds are medium-sized tree dwellers, which are characterized by very long upper and lower tail coverts. They have shiny blue and black plumage. The females are usually duller and greener in color and their irises are deep red.
The nests of the fairy birds consist of a flat branch base that is built into a fork of a branch. The clutch usually consists of two to three shiny olive-colored and brown-spotted eggs.
Two species are assigned to the genus:
- Elven blue bird or turquoise siren ( Irena puella )
- Cobalt Siren ( Irena cyanogaster )
literature
- Christopher M. Perrins : The Great Encyclopedia of Birds. From the English, Orbis-Verlag, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-572-00810-7 .
Web links
Commons : Irena - collection of images, videos and audio files
