Golden chicken

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Golden chicken
Ruby-gold Grouse (Regulus calendula)

Ruby-gold Grouse ( Regulus calendula )

Systematics
Subclass : New-jawed birds (Neognathae)
Order : Passerines (Passeriformes)
Subordination : Songbirds (passeri)
without rank: Passerida
Family : Regulidae
Genre : Golden chicken
Scientific name of the  family
Regulidae
Vigors , 1825
Scientific name of the  genus
Regulus
Cuvier , 1800

The Firecrest ( Regulus ) is a species-poor species of birds , which today mostly as a separate family is considered Regulidae and six species includes. Golden chickens are very small, mostly tree-dwelling songbirds that feed mainly on insects and arachnids. They occur in large areas of the temperate zones of the northern hemisphere. None of the family species are currently considered endangered.

The Latin name Regulus means Little King or Prince .

description

The golden chickens are among the smallest passerine birds and have body sizes in the range between 8 and 11 cm and a body weight of 4 to 8 g. The sexes did not differ in size. The wings and tail are medium in length in all species with a wingspan of 15 cm. The beak of the golden cockerel is short and tapering like a needle. The plumage of all species is quite similarly gray-greenish with often smaller light markings on the wings. In all species, at least the males have a typical, colored, often golden yellow ( red in the ruby- gold cockerel ) parting, which gives the genus its name . In courtship and territorial behavior, the vertex can be raised like a comb. The sexual dimorphism is low in most species, but especially in the plumage in the head area.

distribution and habitat

Indian Goldcap (
Regulus satrapa ) in North Carolina

Golden chickens are common over large parts of the Holarctic . Two species of the genus live over large parts of North America . The remaining species live in Eurasia and small areas of North Africa , with some species being island endemics. The typical habitat of many species are conifers, but some species are also common in deciduous trees and park and garden landscapes. The bond to the conifers is differently pronounced (strong in the winter golden cockerel to low in the Madeira golden cockerel, which inhabits heaths and laurel forests ). Mostly they inhabit the crown area of ​​the trees, where they can be observed in their typical, very agile way foraging for food.

Food and subsistence

Due to the small size and the highly agile way of life, the golden chickens have an extremely high metabolic rate, which means that the birds are looking for food for practically the entire waking time. The diet of all species consists almost exclusively of arthropods , which are small in size according to the size of the birds. The forage is picked up on twigs and leaves or captured in short, leaping hunting flights.

The high metabolic rate means that if there is a lack of food available, golden chickens lose weight very quickly and can starve to death within hours. In corresponding habitats, this leads to a high mortality rate, especially in winter when branches and leaves are icy or snowy.

External system

Earlier, the Firecrest were because of their superficial similarity to species of warblers ( Phylloscopus the large family of Warblers () Sylviidae attributed in the old sense). However, through recent research, this family has proven to be a mere reservoir for externally similar, but not always closely related species ( wastebin taxon ). In the case of the golden cockerel, too, it has meanwhile been shown on the basis of molecular genetic findings that there is no closer relationship to the warblers. More recent studies have shown, however, that the golden cockerel should no longer even be placed in the superfamily of the Sylvioidea . A suspected relationship with the tits (Paridae) has molecular genetics also not shown, the Firecrest could closer contrast with the treecreepers relatives be related (Certhioidea).

species

Female Golden Grouse ( R. regulus teneriffae ) on Tenerife
Madeira gilded beetle ( Regulus madeirensis )

As things stand today (2018), the family has one genus, six species and a total of around 28 subspecies. A distinction is made between the following types:

The North American ruby- gold cockerel differs from the other species both in body size (9–11 cm) and in the ruby-red color of the "crown", and in some cases it was placed in its own genus ( Corthylio ). In particular, there is no particularly close relationship to the Indian gold cockerel, the other North American gold cockerel species with which it has large parts of the distribution area in common.

The Canary Islands gold cockerel ( Regulus regulus teneriffae ) was sometimes also listed as a separate species. Genetic studies of the various subspecies of the golden grouse have shown that this splitting off is problematic as it would make the rest of the subspecies group paraphyletic . In addition, it has been shown that the golden chickens that live on the Canaries actually belong to two clearly distinguishable subspecies. In addition to the above-mentioned subspecies, the subspecies R. r. ellenthalerae described. The species status of the endemic Madeira golden cockerel, on the other hand, has been confirmed by recent research.

Others

Ludwig Bechstein's fairy tale Golden Cockerel from 1847 describes it as the smallest European bird; it belongs to the "sex of the wrens".

supporting documents

literature

  • Joseph del Hoyo, Andrew Elliot, David Christie (Eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 11: Old World Flycatchers to Old World Warblers. . Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2006, ISBN 978-84-96553-06-4 .
  • Hans-Günther Bauer, Einhard Bezzel and Wolfgang Fiedler (eds.): The compendium of birds in Central Europe: Everything about biology, endangerment and protection. Volume 2: Passeriformes - passerine birds. Aula-Verlag Wiebelsheim, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-89104-648-0 .

Web links

Commons : Golden Chicken ( Regulus )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Golden Chicken  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Single receipts

  1. a b c d del Hoho et al. P. 345 ff.
  2. Bauer et al., P. 287
  3. Per Alström, Per GP Ericson, Urban Olsson, Per GP Sundberg: Phylogeny and classification of the avian superfamily Sylvioidea . In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . tape 38 , no. 2 . CSIRO Publishing, 2006, p. 381–397 , doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2005.05.015 ( sciencedirect.com [accessed January 10, 2018]).
  4. P. Beresford, FK Barker, PG Ryan, TM Crowe: African endemics span the tree of songbirds (Passeri): Molecular systematics of several evolutionary "enigmas". In: Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 272, 2005, pp. 849-858. (PDF)