Smooth-necked black horse

Smooth-necked black horse
Smooth-necked black horse (Geronticus calvus)
Systematics
Class : Birds (aves) Order : Pelecaniformes Family : Ibises and spoonbills (Threskiornithidae) Genre : Geronticus Type : Smooth-necked black horse
Scientific name
Geronticus calvus
( Boddaert , 1783)

The southern bald ibis or Glattnackenibis ( Geronticus calvus ) is a rare Ibis , who lives in southern Africa. The IUCN specifies that the smooth-necked rapids are at risk ( vulnerable ).

Appearance

The smooth-necked black horse is 80 centimeters long and weighs around 1.3 kilograms. Together with the bald ibis , to which it resembles in many ways, it forms the genus Geronticus . Compared to the northern bald ibis, it has a lighter face, and it lacks the feather head on the back of the head.

The plumage is black and shiny steel green. The bare face and throat are whitish. The beak and the bare parting are bright red.

distribution

Smooth-necked black horses only live in the mountainous regions of southern South Africa, in Lesotho , South Africa and Swaziland , especially in the Drakensberg . Smooth-necked black horses prefer high grasslands between 1200 and 1850 m with short grasses.

food

Smooth-necked sausages eat caterpillars, beetles, grasshoppers and other insects, as well as snails and worms as well as small dead mammals, lizards and birds.

behavior

Smooth-necked black horse in the nest

They are colony breeders like most ibises. In June they return to their colonies, which often only have two to five, but sometimes several dozen nests. The females lay two or three eggs between the beginning of August and the end of September. The young smooth-necked bites are able to fly at two months.

Today there are only about 7,000 to 10,000 smooth-necked black horses.

Video

Smooth-necked black horse

Play media file

Smooth-necked black horse

literature

• W. Grummt , H. Strehlow (Ed.): Zoo animal keeping birds. Verlag Harri Deutsch, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-8171-1636-2 .

Web links

Commons : Geronticus calvus  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Geronticus calvus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed September 18 2016th
• Videos, photos and sound recordings on Geronticus calvus in the Internet Bird Collection

Single receipts

1. ↑ Geronticus calvus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed September 18 2016th
2. ↑ W. Grummt, H. Strehlow (Ed.): Zoo animal keeping birds . Verlag Harri Deutsch, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-8171-1636-2 . P. 105