Patch breast wren stimalia
| Patch breast wren stimalia | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Spotted wren stimalia ( Elachura formosa ), drawing by John Gerrard Keulemans |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the family | ||||||||||||
| Elachuridae | ||||||||||||
| Alström et al., 2014 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Elachura | ||||||||||||
| Oates , 1889 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Elachura formosa | ||||||||||||
| ( Walden , 1874) |
The Spotted Chest Wren Stimalia ( Elachura formosa , Syn . : Spelaeornis formosus ) is a small songbird species that occurs from eastern Nepal via Bhutan , mountainous northeast India, northeast Bangladesh , north and west Myanmar to southeast China, Laos and north Vietnam .
description
The spotted chest wren stimalia reaches a head-trunk length of 10 cm. The head, neck and the upper body sides are matt brown-gray and patterned with small, white dots. The upper wings and the tail are rust-brown and banded with narrow black stripes. The underside is light brown and patterned with small blackish dots and lines as well as white spots. The iris is brown, the beak and legs are horn-colored. The sexes cannot be distinguished from the plumage. Fledglings are darker and show more white spots.
The song of the speckled wren stimalia consists of a thin, faltering, very high, elongated sounding "ti-ti-ti-i tit-si-ii ti-ti-ti-i tit-si-ii ..." or "tit -tit-ti -i-tit-tit tsii-ii-tit-tit ti-i-ii-tsii "with an indistinct, hard-to-hear" si-ii "and" sii-ii ". It may also emit a “put-put-put…” -like trill.
habitat
The spotted wren stimalia lives in undergrowth and thickets in damp, temperate and subtropical deciduous forests, evergreen forests and rhododendrons . Their habitat, often near streams or in steep gorges, is characterized by intense fern cover, mossy rocks and trunks of fallen trees. The altitude distribution extends on the Indian subcontinent from 300 to 2400 m; in south-east China the species occurs at altitudes from 1100 to 2150 m and in south-east Asia at altitudes from 480 to 2000 m. It feeds mainly on insects.
Reproduction
The breeding season is in April and May. The dome-shaped nest, made of grass, thin roots and leaves and densely lined with feathers, is built on the ground hidden in the undergrowth or between fallen leaves. The clutch consists of three to four eggs, which are white with a few reddish-brown spots.
Systematics
The spotted wren stimalia was described in 1874 by the Scottish ornithologist Arthur Hay under the name Troglodytes formosus (family wrens (Troglodytidae)). Type locality is the Indian Darjeeling . Later the species was assigned to the genus Spelaeornis in the family of the Timalien (Timaliidae). A more recent phylogenetic study places the species in a basal position within the Passerida with no recent relatives. The authors of the study therefore established the monotypic family Elachuridae for the species. A population recently discovered in Laos that lacks the white patches on the chest and throat may be a separate subspecies.
literature
- Alström P., Hooper DM, Liu Y., Olsson U., Mohan D., Gelang M., Hung LM, Zhao J., Lei F. & Price TD 2014. Discovery of a Relict Lineage and Monotypic Family of Passerine Birds. Biology Letters. 10 (3) doi: 10.1098 / rsbl.2013.1067
- Collar, N., Robson, C. & de Juana, E. (2007). Spotted Wren-babbler ( Elachura formosa ). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, DA & de Juana, E. (eds.) (2013). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (Retrieved from http://www.hbw.com/node/59471 on March 19, 2014).
Web links
- Elachura formosa in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2012. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2012. Accessed March 20, 2014.