Fire tail amadine
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Fire tail amadine ( Stagonopleura bella ) |
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| Stagonopleura bella | ||||||||||||
| ( Latham , 1802) |
The fire tailed amadine ( Stagonopleura bella ) is an Australian songbird from the finch family . No subspecies are distinguished for this species.
features
The 10 to 13 cm long and 14 g heavy fire tailed amadine is a small stocky bird and thus slightly smaller than the diamond finch . There is no sexual dimorphism .
The plumage is mostly olive-brown. The white breast shows fine, dark dots. The head has a black mask with pale blue circles under the eyes and a thick, red beak. The hull is purple. The legs and feet are pink. The wings are short and rounded and the tail is short and rounded. The fledglings are less colorful with a smaller eye mask and a blackish beak.
Occurrence and way of life
The fire tailed amadine is endemic to southeast Australia. The range extends from Newcastle to Kangaroo Island . Most common, however, it is a bird on Tasmania and other islands. He lives in coastal heaths , forests and scrub, never far from water. In general, the fire tailed amadine is very shy. In Tasmania, however, it also breeds in gardens and parks. In the big city of Hobart , the fire tailed amadine can even be found in front gardens.
The fire tailed amadine is a resident bird and only undertakes local migrations. Outside the breeding season, they are seen in small groups of up to twelve birds. In New South Wales , Australia , they occasionally join swarms of thorns . The flight is very straightforward and often very fast. This is especially true when crossing open clearings in a relatively dense forest area.
The fire tailed amadine feeds mainly on grass seeds and seeds of the casuarina and the tea tree . Occasionally small insects and snails complement the diet. To search for food they usually go to the ground, whereby the birds can hop over long distances at high speed. In the event of danger, they silently press themselves to the ground and can then hardly be seen due to their plumage color.
Reproduction
In the breeding season from October to January, the fire-tailed amadine nests in the dense foliage near the ground. The nest is built from thin blades of grass and padded with feathers. It is bottle-shaped with a long tunnel-shaped entrance on the side that leads to the breeding chamber.
Both parent birds build the nest, incubate the five to eight eggs for around 20 days and feed the chicks, which leave the nest after 20 days. After a further four weeks, they become independent and reach sexual maturity at nine to twelve months.
attitude
Fire-tailed amadines do not play an essential role in European bird keeping and are only rarely kept in Australia. The first European import was a pair that came to the London Zoo in May 1870 . They are considered to be very difficult to keep and are completely unsuitable for keeping in cages.
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 .
Web links
- Birds in backyards
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Stagonopleura bella in the Internet Bird Collection
- Stagonopleura bella inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved November 24, 2013.