Faucet (bird)

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water tap
Male of the water tap (Gallicrex cinerea) in splendid dress

Male of the water tap ( Gallicrex cinerea ) in splendid dress

Systematics
Sub-stem : Vertebrates (vertebrata)
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Crane birds (Gruiformes)
Family : Rallen (Rallidae)
Genre : Gallicrex
Type : water tap
Scientific name of the  genus
Gallicrex
Blyth , 1852
Scientific name of the  species
Gallicrex cinerea
( Gmelin , 1789)
Females in the first plain dress

The faucet ( Gallicrex cinerea ) is a relatively large bird from the family of the Rails . Its distribution extends from the Indian subcontinent eastward through central and eastern China to the south of the Russian Far East and southward to the Malay Peninsula and also includes Sumatra and the Philippines . It is a line bird or short-distance migrant that breeds in swamps, rice fields or bank vegetation and feeds primarily on plant seeds, but occasionally also on animals. The species attracts attention during the breeding season with its loud calls and is therefore one of the most well-known bird species among the local population. The males perform an arenabalz and sometimes have fierce fights. The tap is not endangered and is therefore listed by the IUCN in the "least concern" category.

The faucet is the only species of the genus Gallicrex that differs from most rails by its pronounced sexual dimorphism and mediates osteologically between the pond rails ( Gallinula ) and the keel rails ( Amaurornis ).

description

The size of the faucet is roughly between the moorhen and the purple hen . Males reach 41–43 cm, females 31–36 cm body length. The wing length is between 175 and 224 mm in the male and between 163 and 192 mm in the female. The conical beak is strong with a high base and an elongated forehead that protrudes over the head in the male in splendid dress . The beak, including the forehead shield, measures 41–65 mm in males and between 32 and 43 mm in females. The species is reminiscent of representatives of the genus Gallinula , but is long-necked and slender with relatively long legs and toes. It shows an unusually pronounced sexual dimorphism in size and plumage color for Rallen . Subspecies are not described.

In the male in splendid plumage, a horn-shaped forehead shield is pronounced, which protrudes backwards over the head. Like the base of the upper beak and two lateral spots on the base of the lower beak, it is vivid red. The red color runs out into the yellow of the rest of the beak and becomes paler there towards the tip. The iris is light red to reddish brown. The head and neck are gray-black to black. The remaining upper side including shoulder plumage, umbrella feathers and most of the upper wing coverts is black, gray-black or very dark black-brown. The individual feathers are lined with light ash-gray to ocher-colored, which gives the top a scaly appearance. The expression is very variable, but most birds show a division into gray hems on the back and small arm covers as well as more brownish to ocher colored hems from the lower back to the upper tail covers . The underside is slate black and appears banded due to the fine gray lace hems. The banding fades through wear of the plumage and is only coarser and more permanent on the flanks. The lower abdomen is whitish, the lower tail-coverts are finely striated black across a beige background. The wings and the control springs are predominantly black-brown with partly lighter edges. The outer ceilings and the outer flags of the outermost hand wing and the outermost feather of the thumb wing are white and form a white leading edge of the wing. The black under wing-coverts are banded by whitish borders. Legs and feet are dull red to bright red.

In the female, the frontal shield is small and triangular and, like the beak, yellowish in color. The iris is yellow to yellow-brown. The crown and center of the neck are dark brown to black brown. They form a diffuse cap that stands out from the matt ocher-beige head and neck sides. The stripe above the eyes is usually a little lighter, the area under the eye, except for the ear covers, is darker. The top is dark brown to black-brown with black feather shafts and sometimes an ash-gray tint. The individual feathers are lined with beige to ocher, which makes the top look flaky. The hems are narrower on the lower back and the upper tail ceilings. The upper wing-coverts are often a bit lighter or sometimes grayer in the basic tone. The underside is predominantly beige to ocher brown or darker, often with diffuse white spots and lightened white towards the chin and throat. The sides of the chest are browner, the flanks gray-brown and the middle of the abdomen whitish. On this ground there is a fine, irregular, dark brown transverse banding that sometimes extends to the front and sides of the neck. The under tail-coverts are beige to yellowish brown with fine dark banding. The wings are dark brown with an ash gray outer edge, the umbrella feathers are lined with beige to ocher and the inner flags are lighter colored. As with the male, the front edge of the wing is white. The lower wings are gray-brown with light-colored tips. The control feathers are dark brown with light brown edges. The legs and feet are dull greenish brown in color.

Adult birds in plain dress are similar to females in breeding dress. In the male, the frontal shield is greatly reduced, in the female it is often hardly present. Birds in the first simple dress also resemble the female, but often appear more beige to yellow-brown overall.

Mauser

Little is known about the moulting of this species. Presumably the wings are all thrown off at the same time. In November, a bird in Shandong was found to have very advanced moulting of the body plumage while the wings were still complete.

behavior

The faucet is crepuscular and mostly lives very hidden. At times, however, it can be easily observed when it leaves cover to search for food at dusk, when it is cloudy or in bad weather. The animals usually walk slowly with far reaching steps and with regular bobbing of the short tail. When excited, the head is stretched up and the tail is struck excitedly. Usually the bird runs back shortly afterwards into the protective vegetation, from which it seldom strays far. In flight the species often looks awkward with fast wing beats and drooping legs, but the animals also fly powerful and briskly over longer distances. Faucets can swim well and sometimes cross larger areas of water, lying on the water like ducks.

voice

The faucet catches the eye during the breeding season with its loud, rhythmic series of calls, which can be heard mostly in the morning and in the evening, sometimes through the night and sometimes during the day. They consist of three different elements, which are presented in series with short interruptions. First the male utters 10–12 times kok-kok-kok with his head upright , then he lowers his head and also makes 10–12 times, deeply metallic utumb-utumb-utumb… as well as a 5–6 klak when standing upright -klak-klak… . This is followed by a pause or immediately afterwards another series of calls. The call activity usually extends over half an hour to a full hour. Outside the breeding season, the species is very silent.

distribution

The brood distribution of the faucet extends over large parts of the Orientalis and protrudes from the south a little into the Eastern Palearctic . The westernmost occurrences are in Pakistan in Sindh and in northeast Punjab . From there the area extends south of the Himalayas south-east over India (except western Rajasthan ), large parts of Nepal , Bangladesh , Myanmar , Thailand , Laos , Vietnam and Cambodia to the north of Malaysia . It also includes Sri Lanka , the Maldives , Andaman and Nicobar Islands , Sumatra and the Philippines . To the east of the Himalayas, the northern border of the area runs in an arc through the Chinese provinces of Sichuan , Shaanxi , Shanxi , Hebei and, in the northeast, includes a small part of Inner Mongolia , Liaoning , Jilin , the south of Heilongjiang , the Korean peninsula and the south of the Primorye region . The tap is also found in Hainan , Taiwan , Jejudo and the Ryūkyū Islands .

hikes

While the water tap in the southwest half of its range is stationary or line bird , the birds in the northeastern part migrate southwards. It is unclear exactly where the boundary between migrating populations and those remaining in the breeding area runs. The wintering areas extend south over the Great Sunda Islands to the more western of the Lesser Sunda Islands . The species also rarely winters in Japan, including the Pacific islands to the south.

In northern Pakistan, the birds arrive in the breeding areas from mid-May, have completely occupied the breeding areas by the beginning of July and then move south-eastwards after the breeding season. The move will be completed in September. In Nepal the species is found between June and September. In India and southern Pakistan, the water tap is a resident bird that does not leave its breeding ground in water-rich areas, but sometimes roams far around during the monsoons. In northern China and Korea, most birds migrate south in winter, but there also appears to be some evidence of overwintering. In Korea the species can be found between April and November. In Myanmar there are only isolated winter records and it is also a migratory bird in northern Thailand, but it is a resident bird in the southern part of the country. Oversummer can occur south of the distribution area.

habitat

The faucet populates swamps with reeds or high grass, floodplains, rice fields, irrigated sugar cane plantations or the overgrown banks of canals, rivers, ditches, ponds or lakes. Sometimes it is also found in brackish swamps . In Vietnam, the species also adopts small, isolated ponds with bank vegetation in the bushland, and locally it can also be found in fairly dry places. In India, the breeding grounds in rice fields are already occupied when the rice plants are still very low and offer little cover; In Pakistan, the species initially occupies habitats with tall riparian vegetation, before later moving to rice fields and flooded grassland to breed. It is mostly found in the lowlands, but is found on the train at heights of up to 1230 m.

nutrition

The tap feeds mainly on plant seeds and young shoots , but occasionally also on worms , small molluscs such as water snails, crustaceans , aquatic insects and their larvae, small grasshoppers and tadpoles . Small fish were also accepted as food in captivity. The stomach contents of a bird killed on Shumshu in 1966 consisted of sedge seeds . It has been observed that with a quick nibbling motion of the beak, the birds completely scrape the seeds off the ears.

Reproduction

The faucet is believed to be monogamous . There are up to two annual broods. The start and duration of the breeding season vary depending on the geographical location. In India and Pakistan the species breeds during the monsoon months from July to September, in Sri Lanka breeding birds have been found in both January and February and in May and possibly from July to August. In the rest of the distribution area, the breeding season usually begins between May and July. Breeding also took place in the Philippines in September. On the Ryūkyū Islands, the faucet broods in August and clutches were found on Sumatra in December.

At the beginning of the breeding season, the males establish a territory and behave very belligerently towards neighboring rivals. This often leads to bitter arguments in which the birds jump in the air, attack each other with their claws and try to grab the opponent by the neck and press them down. However, serious injuries are rare, the animals mostly get away with scratches and the loss of neck feathers. On the island of Bolshoi Pelis in the Rimsky-Korsakov archipelago , it was observed that a rooster built a small arena by trampling down the vegetation in a larger area.

The nest is built in the reed beds, in the bank vegetation or between rice plants. It is a relatively large, spherical or bowl-shaped, untidy-looking structure made of sedges, rushes, rice leaves or blades of grass. It stands low above the up to a meter deep water between the stalks or on a bulten. First, the vegetation at the nest location is pressed down until it forms a platform. This is then filled with stalks and leaves. The vegetation is sometimes bent down like a roof to hide the nest. A small ramp made of bent stalks can lead up to the nest. The dimensions of a nest on Bolshoi Pelis were 26 cm in diameter and 18 cm in height, or 32 cm with the roof. The trough had a diameter of 19 cm and was 12 cm deep.

The clutch usually consists of 3–6, more rarely up to 10 elongated oval and shiny eggs, which are speckled or stained on a whitish, beige, yellowish-green or light brick-red background. The red-brown spots are relatively dense and elongated and are often concentrated at the blunt end. The dimensions are about 42 × 31 mm, the weight about 22.5 g. The clutch is incubated by the female for between 24 and 25 days before the young hatch relatively simultaneously.

Duration

Although the world population of the tap has presumably decreased overall, the species is not threatened and is listed by the IUCN in the “least concern” category. Stock estimates are only available from a few countries. In Pakistan the faucet is a rare multiplier, but in the south of Sindh it occurs very regularly due to the increased rice cultivation. In Nepal it occurs sporadically as a breeding bird during the monsoons, but could be more common than assumed. In Sri Lanka it is now described as rare, but is common in Thailand and relatively common in central and eastern China. There, as in Korea, the breeding population is estimated at between 100 and 10,000 breeding pairs and in Taiwan at less than 100,000 breeding pairs. In the far east of Russia the species is very rare, on Sumatra it seems to breed only irregularly.

use

Due to the aggressiveness of the males during the breeding season, fights with taps used to be held in Bangladesh. Some of the animals were very popular and expensive. The eggs were taken from the nest in the wild, placed in a coconut half and tied in front of the stomach. In this way, they hatched within 24 days.

literature

  • Barry Taylor, Ber van Perlo: Rails - A Guide to the Rails, Crakes, Gallinules and Coots of the World , Pica Press, The Banks, Mountfield 1998, ISBN 1-873403-59-3
  • Roald L. Potapov, Vladimir E. Flint (ed.): Galliformes · Gruiformes , Vol. 4 (1987/1989) in Valerij D. Il'ičev, Vladimir E. Flint (ed.): Handbook of Birds of the Soviet Union , A Ziemsen Verlag, Wittenberg Lutherstadt (1985–1989), ISBN 3-7403-0027-2

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Taylor (1998), p. 454.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Taylor (1998), p. 455.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Taylor (1998), p. 457.
  4. ↑ a b c Taylor (1998), p. 455 f.
  5. ↑ a b Taylor (1998), pp. 455-457.
  6. ↑ a b c Potapov et al. (1989), p. 319 f.
  7. ↑ BirdLife Species Factsheet , accessed July 7, 2013
  8. ^ SD Ripley: Rails of the World , Boston 1977, referenced in Taylor (1998), p. 457.

Web links

Commons : Faucet ( Gallicrex cinerea )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files