Gardening birds

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Gardening birds
Cottage gardener with arbor in the background

Cottage gardener with arbor in the background

Systematics
Subclass : New-jawed birds (Neognathae)
Order : Passerines (Passeriformes)
without rank: Eupasseres
Subordination : Songbirds (passeri)
Family : Bowerbirds ( Ptilonorhynchidae )
Genre : Gardening birds
Scientific name
Amblyornis
Elliot , 1872

The gardener birds ( Amblyornis ) are a genus of bower birds . They are also sometimes referred to as gardening arborebirds .

There are four species of this genus. They occur exclusively in New Guinea and sometimes populate very remote mountain regions. All show courtship behavior, which includes the construction of an arbor by the male and are classified by the IUCN as not endangered ( least concern ).

Compared to the Chlamydera species occurring in Australia or the silky arboreal bird , the species belonging to this genus have been relatively little researched due to the less accessible distribution area in New Guinea. For example, the diet and reproduction details in the red-crested gardener are still unclear. The yellow-crowned gardener was scientifically described in 1895 on the basis of some bird hides, but living individuals were not observed until 1982 in the Foja Mountains . It was not until 2005 that some individuals were also able to be photographed.

Position within the bowerbird family

The Amblyornis species are closely related to the column gardener , the only representative of the genus Prionodura , and the two species of the genus Archboldia . All species of these three genera build arbors, namely of the “ maypole ” type .

Characteristics of the genus

Yellow-headed gardener male as the motif of an Indonesian postage stamp

The species of the genus Chlamydera are small bower birds with a body size between 24 and 26 centimeters. The golden hood gardener is the largest representative of this genus with his body length of up to 26 centimeters.

The beak is strong and dark in color in all species. In three species it is slightly shorter than the head and only slightly longer in the yellow-crowned gardener, which has so far only been little studied . The end of the tail plumage is slightly rounded, the control feathers are somewhat stepped and comparatively short in relation to the body length. The wings are short and rounded compared to the body size. The number of arm swing is 12. The length of the legs is about 37 percent of the wing length, which is average compared to the species within the bowerbird family.

The gender dimorphism is hardly pronounced in the cottage gardener . In the other three species, the adult male has a feather bonnet that stands out from the rest of the body's plumage. The two sexes correspond in height.

Species and their respective distribution area

Map of New Guinea

The following four types are distinguished:

  • Yellow-crowned gardener ( Amblyornis flavifrons ) - Occurrence in the area of ​​the Foja Mountains north of the Mambaramo Basin and west of the provincial capital Jayapura in the north of western New Guinea . The habitat of the yellow-crowned gardener are mountain rainforests, which are dominated by araucarias , lithocarpus , beeches and stone beeches . Yellow crown gardeners usually stay in the middle to lower treetop area. Apart from the arboriculture males, they rarely come to the ground.
  • Golden hood gardener ( Amblyornis macgregoriae ) - occurrence in seven subspecies, which are native to western New Guinea west of the Weyland Mountains and in Papua New Guinea in the Adelbert Mountains, the Huon Peninsula and Mount Bosavi at an altitude of 1600 to 3300 m above sea level. The distribution area of ​​the golden hood gardener partially overlaps that of the red hood gardener, who otherwise occurs at lower altitudes.
  • Cottage gardener ( Amblyornis inornata ) - found in western New Guinea. The cottage gardener settles here in four disjoint regions. On the Vogelkop , the hut gardener populates the Tamrau Mountains in the northwest and the Arfak Mountains in the northeast, separated by the Kebar Valley . In the Arfak Mountains, the hut gardener occurs at altitudes between 1200 and 2000 meters, in the Tamrau Mountains, on the other hand, between 1460 and 1830 meters. Further northeast of the Vogelkop Peninsula, it occurs in the Wondiwoi Mountains on the Wandammen Peninsula (elevation range 1160 to 2075 meters). Two other distribution areas are in southwest New Guinea. Cottage gardeners populate mountains in the Fakfak administrative district , where it occurs between 1000 and 1300 meters above sea level, and the Kumawa Mountains .
  • Red- crested gardener ( Amblyornis subalaris ) - Found on the southeastern peninsula of New Guinea. The distribution area extends from the northwest of Port Moresby over the Milne Bay to Mount Suckling .

Reproduction

Yellow crown gardener (head profile and top of the head of the male)

The males of all species are believed to be polygynous , that is, they mate with several females. This polygamy is certain in the more intensely studied species, but it is suspected in the little-researched yellow-crowned gardener.

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 by building arbors, which, like the column gardener, belong to the “maypole” type. In comparison to the golden hood gardener and the yellow crown gardener , the arbor of the red hood gardener together with the hut gardener is one of the comparatively more complex constructions. Both of the latter types build a maypole, which is arched by a hut-like construction.

Arbor and arbor construction

The golden hood gardener's maypole, which is considered to be one of the simpler constructions among gardening birds, reaches a height of 30 centimeters to 3 meters and has a diameter between 20 and 50 centimeters. It is erected on a slender tree trunk (alternatively a tree fern) that is one to five meters high. The construction consists of numerous small branches that are placed on top of each other. The moss platform around the maypole has a diameter of about one meter. It is closed off by a raised edge of moss that is about 22 centimeters wide and 5 to 75 centimeters higher than the moss platform.

Depiction of the hut gardener's arbor from 1921

The cottage gardener , on the other hand, has two different arbor designs. The populations living in southwest New Guinea build a maypole that corresponds to that of the golden hood gardener in its basic principle. The maypole, however, has an average height of two meters. In this species, too, a moss platform surrounds the maypole. The arbors of the north-western populations of the hut gardener follow the principle of a central maypole , but it is covered by a hut-like roof with an opening to a large central threshing floor. In the Arfak Mountains, these entrances measured between 18 and 38 centimeters and were between 20 and 28 centimeters high. A few arbors found in the Arfak Mountains also had a second, smaller entrance in the arbor roof. The central element is often 60 to 90 cm high and the floor area measures up to 1.5 m in diameter. A particularly large arbor in the Tamrau Mountains was supported by two tree saplings and covered an area of ​​3 by 2 meters. The height was 1.5 meters.

The arbor of the red-crested gardener is considered to be the most complex construction within the genre. A hut-like structure of branches is located above the comparatively low maypole. The entire construction is between 60 and 80 centimeters high and between 90 and 120 centimeters wide. The hut-like structure opens up to a small platform at the front, to the left and right of which there is a tunnel-like entrance to the hut, each 10 to 12 centimeters wide.

Ornament of arbor

A decoration of the arbor has also been observed in all gardening birds. Due to the remoteness of their respective areas of distribution, man-made decorative objects, which are more common in the bowerbirds widespread in Australia, are very rare. As a rule, they only use objects that occur in their natural environment.

The red-crested gardener, for example, uses numerous blue, purple, mauve, red, yellow and cream-colored fruits, flowers and leaves to decorate his arbor. These are usually placed on the maypole. Larger fruits, flowers, leaves as well as the wing of beetles, pieces of tree resin and mushrooms are deposited in front of the hut and also on the roof of the hut. The individual jewelry objects are often sorted according to their color. In addition to fruits, the cottage gardener also uses flowers, feathers, insect wings, resin , berries and mushrooms to decorate their arbor. In the south-western populations, a preference for blue jewelry objects could be demonstrated and that the number of blue jewelry objects has an influence on the success of mating. In 16 of the huts gardener's observations in the Arfak Mountains , only eight of the males mated with a female. The three most successful males accounted for 60 percent of all matings. They differed from the unsuccessful males by the size of their arbor and, compared to the other males, had built in more blue decorative objects.

Painting the arbor

A painting of the arbor, which has been proven in some other species of bowerbird, has not yet been clearly demonstrated in gardening birds. A male of the golden hood gardener was observed chewing up whitish leaves and then hanging them on the ends of the branches from which the maypole was constructed.

Nest and brood

Nothing is known about the breeding biology of the yellow crown gardener . Not even a nest of this type has yet been found. Presumably, however, the breeding business is no different for him than for the other gardening birds: the female builds a bowl-shaped nest in the crowns of screw trees , in tree ferns and in tree sprouts. The nest is located a little above the ground - it is often only two to three meters. The clutch consists of a single egg. The female feeds the nestlings with fruits and insects such as singing cicadas and ants.

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 .

Single receipts

  1. Rowland: Bowerbirds . Pp. 114-116.
  2. Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 287.
  3. Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 297.
  4. First photo of the yellow-crowned gardener from 2005 , accessed on April 18, 2017
  5. a b c Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 275.
  6. Handbook of the Birds of the World zum Rothaubengärtnerl , accessed on April 17, 2017
  7. Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 298.
  8. a b Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 289.
  9. Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 290.
  10. Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 277.
  11. a b c Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 288.
  12. Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 280.
  13. Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 292.
  14. Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 295.
  15. Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 281.
  16. Frith: The Bowerbirds - Ptilonorhynchidae . P. 299.

Web links

Commons : Amblyornis  - collection of images, videos and audio files