Cave consecration
| Cave consecration | ||||||||||||
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Harrier ( Polyboroides typus ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Polyboroides typus | ||||||||||||
| A. Smith , 1829 |
The cave harrier ( Polyboroides typus ) is an African bird of prey from the hawk family . It is also known under the name of the African snake cattle.
features
The cave harrier reaches a size of 51 to 68 cm, a wingspan of 118 to 152 cm and a weight of 500–950 g. The wings are unusually wide. The plumage is gray (gray-blue), the wings have black spots on top and the tips of the wings are extensive black. The tail shows a wide white band in the middle and a narrow white end band on a black background. The belly, lower tail coverts, the leg plumage and the under wing coverts are finely banded slate gray and white. The bare face with the wax skin is yellow-orange with a touch of pink, the beak is slate gray. The cave harrier has a hood on the back of the head, making the head look angular. The long, yellow legs are very mobile, the tarsometatarsus can be moved 70 ° backwards and 30 ° to the side. Females and males differ only slightly in size. Young birds are variably light brown to dark brown and have a gray face. After three years they are colored and can no longer be distinguished from adult birds.
distribution
The cave consecration can be found almost all over Africa south of the Sahara as well as in Sudan and Ethiopia in sparse forests, tree and shrub savannas. Consecration occurs up to an altitude of 3000 meters.
Way of life
The cave harrier feeds on lizards , snakes , insects , small mammals, bird eggs and young, as well as on the fruits of the oil palm . It finds its prey from a deep search flight, jogging, walking or by systematically searching trees. It preyes young birds in tree hollows or nests as follows: With one leg it holds on to a nest or cave opening and sticks its head in to look for prey, then the harrier pokes the nest with its free foot and fishes the nestlings out . It also preyed on bats in crevices and tree hollows ; hence the name.
Harriers nest in the tops of trees, sometimes in crevices. The nest consists of branches, twigs and parts of plants for padding. The female lays one or two light brown, darkly speckled eggs. They are 56 by 44 mm. The eggs are hatched by both sexes for 35–36 days. Usually the male provides food, the female divides the prey for the young. The birds fledge after 45 to 55 days and stay close to their parents for some time.
literature
- Wilhelm Eigener: Large colored animal lexicon . Georg Westermann Verlag, 1982
- J. Ferguson-Lees, DA Christie: Raptors of the World. Christopher Helm, London, 2001, ISBN 0-7136-8026-1 , pp. 134-135 and 474-476
- Philip Whitfield: The Great Illustrated Animal Lexicon . RM Buch und Medien Vertrieb GmbH, Gütersloh 1999
Web links
- Polyboroides typus onthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species .
- Videos, photos and sound recordings on Polyboroides typus in the Internet Bird Collection