Speckled arborebird
| Speckled arborebird | ||||||||||||
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Spotted arborebird ( Chlamydera maculata ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Chlamydera maculata | ||||||||||||
| ( Gould , 1837) |
The spot Laubenvogel ( Chlamydera maculata ) is a in the dry forests east australia spread of bird from the family of Bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchidae). It feeds on berries, seeds and insects. Compared to the three-gang bowerbird , which only occurs in New Guinea , this species has been relatively well researched due to its distribution in Australia.
With a body length of up to 29 centimeters, the spotted arborebird is one of the larger representatives in the bowerbird family and is one of the species of this family whose courtship behavior includes the construction of an arbor by the male. Unlike many bowerbirds, there is no sexual dimorphism . No subspecies are distinguished for this species. The distribution area of the spotted arborebird overlaps to a small extent along the Cape River with the gray bowerbird . Natural hybrids occasionally occur between these two species.
Spotted arborebirds are very long-lived and take several years to reach sexual maturity. Due to the intelligence they show when building their arbors, they are counted among the most intelligent of the birds. The IUCN classifies the population of the gray bowerbird as safe ( least concern ).
features
With a body size of about 29 cm, the spotted bower bird is a medium-sized bower bird and is quite slim and compact.
The colors and markings of the spotted arborebird are individually different, which is due to wear and tear of the plumage. The head is colored light russet with dark dots. A brownish sickle-shaped ring follows in the neck. Some feathers on the nape are elongated and pink to mauve in color. These neck feathers can be bristled. The side of the bird's body is colored dark brown with an amber-colored speckled pattern, while the underside is light cream colored with a slightly darker blocking. The beak is black, the eyes dark brown and the legs are olive-brown in color.
There is no sexual dimorphism , the females are on average only slightly smaller than the males. The body weight of the males is 125 to 150 g, that of the females is between 124 and 162 g.
South Australian populations have slightly paler neck plumage, a reddish belly, and a paler gray-black beak. However, this deviating appearance does not justify the description of a separate subspecies, but is a directed variation of the characteristic expression and the underlying genetic range of variation of a species (so-called Kline ).
voice
The call of the spotted arborebird are rattling tones, similar to those that occur with the gray bower bird . As with other bowerbirds, the bowerbird also imitates the calls and instrumental sounds of other birds and mammals. The spotted arborvid mimics, among other things, the meowing of cats, the barking of dogs, the noise that cattle make when they break through bushes or when mammals run through dry leaves and branches, the metallic buzzing of fence wires when emus run against them, and chopping wood , Whip-cracks and the whirring of the white-tailed pigeon .
Similar to the gray bower bird, breeding females and males in arcades imitate the calls of raptors when they feel threatened by a predator. Most often they imitate the calls of the wedge tailed harrier ( Haliastur sphenurus ). But detected are imitations of the cries of the wedge-tailed eagle , Grauscheitelsäblers ( Pomatostomus temporalis ), Neuhollandkrähe ( Corvus coronoides ), flute bird , hood Liests , slaty-Crow shrike , black-throated crows Strangler ( Cracticus nigrogularis ) Gimpelhähers ( Struth Idea cinerea ), which eat all the young birds and eggs .
distribution and habitat
The spotted arborebird is widespread in the arid and semi-arid regions of the eastern half of the Australian continent. The distribution area extends from the Rockhampton region of the Australian state of Queensland in a westward direction along the catchment area of the Georgina River and Eyre Creek and in a southward direction through the interior of New South Wales to the extreme southeast of the Australian state of South Australia and the extreme northwest from Victoria . The southern limit of distribution of this species represents the catchment area of the Murray River . The distribution area of the spotted arborebird does not overlap with that of the externally similar drip arborebird . The distribution areas of the two species have a gap of around 100 kilometers between 137 ° and 138 ° east.
The Fleckenlaubenvogel mainly inhabits forest areas along flowing waters within open savannas. They are also found in parks, on orchards and in the gardens of secluded farms.
food
Like other bowerbirds, the spotted arborebird covers most of its food requirements with fruits. There are also different proportions of seeds, berries, nectar and leaves. Fruits that are particularly popular include those of the cedar tree , Capparis mitchellii , the naturalized Peraunian pepper tree , Myoporum acuminatum , wax trees and emus bushes .
Spotted arborebirds also eat grasshoppers, caterpillars, moths, beetles, ghosts and ants. In dry seasons or in the seasons when the supply of fruits is low, they also eat seeds. The seeds of Brachychiton populneus then play a special role in its diet .
Nestlings are fed almost exclusively with insects by the females.
Reproduction
The males of the spotted arborebird are polygynous , that is, they mate with several females. The female builds the nest on her own, incubates the nest on her own and raises the young birds on her own. The males woo the females with the construction of arbors, which, like the silky-bowerbird , the sericulus species and the other species of the genus Chlamydera, belong to the "avenue" type. As with other species of bowerbird, this arbor is adorned with decorative objects and the walls of the arbor is partly painted.
Arbors
Adult males begin building the arbor long before they are able to successfully fertilize a female. Some males start building an arbor in April, but more typical is in July and August, at the end of the Australian winter. The males stay near their arbors until December or January. During these months they spend an average of 54 percent of the day in porticoes. Of the time they spend nearby, 34 percent of them are building, expanding, or repairing their arbor. 10.4 percent of the time they show courtship activities while conspecifics are actually nearby. 1.5 percent of the time they court without a companion being around. They spend 54 percent of the time sitting near the arbor.
The male builds short arbor avenues from branches and dry grass in a north-south direction. These usually stand on a platform made of blades of grass and twigs. In some of the arbors examined near Charters Towers , Queensland, these arbors consisted almost exclusively of blades of grass; the male only built branches on the two outermost walls of the arbor. There was only a rudimentary platform, the arbor was almost at ground level. The grasses used in the buildings examined in the Australian state of New South Wales almost exclusively belonged to Andropogon sericeus , a grass of the genus Andropogon native to Australia .
The arbors of the spotted arborebird can be very long. One arbor had an unusual length of 2.1 meters, but arbors with a length of about one meter are more typical. The typical platform height is 15 centimeters.
Decorating the arbor
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The ends of the arbor are decorated with bleached bones, stones, snail shells and also glass in green and white. The inner walls of the arcade are occasionally decorated with the white plastic rings of milk cartons and the so-called pull tabs of tin cans . The number of jewelry objects can be very large. More than 1,350 small bones were found in one arbor, and around 1,900 snail shells in another. Individual arbors are also decorated with yellow flowers or eggshell remains of the emu. Pine seeds and small branches have also been found.
Both in the specialist literature and in popular scientific writings there are numerous reports that the spotted arborebird, like the silky arborist, remove jewelry, keys and the like from houses, vehicles and tents. Tweezers and a glass eye are among the more obscure objects that were stolen by the spotted arborebird.
Spotted arborebirds paint the inside walls of their arbors. Both arbors with a colored line at a height of about 10 to 20 centimeters and those with a spot of color in the middle of the arcade on the side walls were found. The color is made up of chewed blades of grass mixed with saliva. The paint is applied with short, lateral movements of the beak with the beak. Occasionally, the spotted arborvitae also takes the blades of grass in its beak.
Courtship
The male attracts the females with its bright red patch on the neck and with hissing and chirping calls.
Nest, clutch and rearing of the young birds
The breeding season falls from August to January. A breeding female was observed on the Clarence River in New South Wales as early as July, and a female was breeding on the Moonie River in early March.
The Fleckenlaubenvogel builds a loose, plate-shaped nest from twigs and stems on horizontal branches or in mistletoe balls of trees. It is usually between two and twelve meters above the ground. The nest underlay is so sparse that eggs and nestlings can be made out from below.
The clutch consists of one to three eggs. The usual clutch size is two eggs. The eggs have a gray-green to isabel-colored base color with black and dark brown scribbles. An egg is about 10.6 percent of the body weight of a female. The female breeds alone. The length of the breeding season is unknown.
Nestlings fledge after about 20 to 21 days. A female observed near Charters Towers no longer hovered around 12 to 13 days old nestlings, but shaded them from the sunlight with outspread wings. At the time the temperature in the shade was 34 ° C. The nestlings were mainly fed animal food, with around 41 percent fruit. The majority of the insects brought to the nest by the female were grasshoppers or crickets. Some of them were so large that the female had already removed their wings, legs and often the head. Other animal food brought in by the female included the larvae and eggs of various arthropods that the female had previously sought in the canopy of surrounding eucalyptus and acacia trees. The females observed rarely moved more than 150 to 250 meters from the nest and always remained in sight.
Defense of the nest
Females defend the nesting tree against conspecifics, observed females initially imitating the calls of potential predators such as the wedge-tailed harrier and Haubenliest and actively chasing after their conspecifics. They behave differently when potential nest robbers approach the nesting tree. A female reacted to the approach of a Haubenliests, in which she remained completely calm for five minutes and only after his disappearance quietly imitated the typical call for Haubenliests. The females also try to seduce predators by flying to the ground and trying to attract the attention of the predator through various behaviors and thereby distracting them from the brood or the nestlings: Typical is a hopeless hopping on the ground, in which the neck is stretched far forward, the feathers bristled and the wings spread.
Life expectancy
The ringing of arborebirds did not provide sufficient data until 2004 to make statements about the age that arborebirds reach on average. Since various sexually mature males but individual arbor spaces occupied for five to six years, it is clear that the birds have reached at least an age between eleven and 13 years due to their late onset of sexual maturity.
Various hawks and sparrowhawks are among the predators of adult arboreal birds . The hawk falcon has also been observed successfully killing a spotted arborvitae near an arbor.
Spotted arborist and man
Spotted arborebirds are shown comparatively often in zoological gardens. The offspring is seldom successful. The Amsterdam Zoo held a spotted arboreal bird as early as 1870, acquired another in 1882 and finally a pair in 1888. The bird, kept from 1870, learned to speak several words and also mimicked noises from its surroundings.
literature
- Bruce M. Beehler, Thane K. Pratt: Birds of New Guinea; Distribution, Taxonomy, and Systematics . Princeton University Press, Princeton 2016, ISBN 978-0-691-16424-3 .
- Clifford B. Frith, Dawn. W. Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-854844-3 .
- Peter Rowlalnd: Bowerbirds . Csiro Publishing, Collingwood 2008, ISBN 978-0-643-09420-8 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Handbook of the Birds of the World zum Fleckenlaubenvogel , accessed on April 9, 2017
- ↑ a b Rowland: Bowerbirds . P. 82.
- ↑ a b Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 404.
- ↑ Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 403.
- ↑ Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 405.
- ↑ Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive, Chlamydera maculata ( Online , accessed November 11, 2016)
- ↑ Rowland: Bowerbirds . P. 80.
- ↑ a b Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 407.
- ↑ a b Rowland: Bowerbirds . P. 81.
- ↑ Rowland: Bowerbirds . P. 88.
- ↑ Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 406.
- ↑ a b c d Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 408.
- ↑ a b c d Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 409.
- ↑ Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 412.
- ↑ Rowland: Bowerbirds . P. 84.
- ↑ a b Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 413.
- ↑ a b c d e Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 414.
- ↑ Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 415.
Web links
- Chlamydera maculata in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2012. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2012. Accessed May 31, 2013.
- BirdLife International: Species Factsheet - Spotted Bowerbird ( Chlamydera maculata ) . Retrieved May 31, 2013.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Spotted Bowerbird (Chlamydera maculata) in the Internet Bird Collection
- Spotted Arborvitae ( Chlamydera maculata ) at Avibase; accessed on May 31, 2013.
- Chlamydera maculata in the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS). Retrieved May 31, 2013.
- xeno-canto: Sound recordings - Spotted Bowerbird ( Chlamydera maculata )