Crested dwarf fishermen
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Crested dwarf fisherman ( Corythornis cristatus ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Corythornis cristatus | ||||||||||||
| ( Pallas , 1764) |
The malachite kingfisher ( Corythornis cristatus , Syn. : Alcedo cristata ), also Malachite Kingfisher called, is a bird art belonging to the kingfishers belongs (Alcedinidae).
He lives in inland waters, ie rivers, lakes and wetlands, and in Africa south of the Sahara , from Senegal and Ethiopia to South Africa , is widespread.
features
It becomes 13 to 14 centimeters long. The parting is striped ultramarine blue and black. He usually wears his eponymous cobalt blue feather hood on. The blue of the parting extends to the eyes. The back is ultramarine blue, the throat white, the sides and belly orange. The different blue of the bonnet and the crown and the back are an unmistakable characteristic of the species. The beak of the young birds is blackish, that of the adult birds is red.
Way of life
nutrition
Like the native kingfisher , the crested dwarf fisherman is a shock diver and can be found in all types of water, often also in mangroves . It prefers sitting areas that are less than 1 m above the water and, compared to other kingfisher species with which it shares its habitat, rather shallower water areas for hunting. The malachite kingfisher feeds on small fish and large freshwater insect larvae ( dragonfly larvae ), but also captured freshwater crabs and freshwater shrimp, frogs and tadpoles and occasionally small lizards and terrestrial insects such as locusts or mantis .
Utterance
His reputation is a sharp, but not very loud teep, teep . The chant is described as ii-tiii-cha-cha, chui chui tuiichui chui with a concluding giggle.
Reproduction
The crested dwarf fisherman breeds in self-dug caves in sandy banks. Both adult birds take part in the digging work. For the construction of their breeding caves they prefer sandy sediments with a moderate proportion of clay and silt fractions. The choice represents a compromise between the ease with which the ground can be worked by the birds and the stability of the completed breeding cave ("Heneberg compromise").
The females lay 2–4 eggs, which are incubated in the burrow for 15–16 days. The hatched young birds remain in the breeding cave for a further 16–17 days. In other sources the clutch size is given as 3–6 eggs. The breeding season can stretch over 4–6 months and individual pairs can breed several times per season.
literature
- John G. Williams, Norman Arlott : Birds of East Africa. Harper Collins Publ., London 1993, ISBN 0-00-219179-2 .
- Frieder Sauer : African birds (Sauer's natural guide). Fauna-Verlag, Karlsfeld 1985, ISBN 3-923010-05-2 .
Web links
- Corythornis cristatus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2016 Posted by: BirdLife International, 2016. Retrieved on August 2018th
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Alcedo cristata in the Internet Bird Collection
- Video: breeding biology of the dwarf crested fisherman . Institute for Scientific Film (IWF) 1993, made available by the Technical Information Library (TIB), doi : 10.3203 / IWF / D-1845 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d C. H. Fry, K. Fry & A. Harris: Kingfishers, Bee-eaters and Rollers. 344 pp., A&C Black Publishers, 2010 ISBN 978-0-7136-5206-2 (reading sample)
- ↑ C. Bonnington, D. Weaver & E. Fanning: The habitat preference of four kingfisher species along a branch of the Kilombero River, southern Tanzania. In: African Journal of Ecology , Vol. 46, pp. 424–427, 2007. (digitized version )
- ↑ R. Libois & A. Laudelout: Food niche segregation between the Malachite Kingfisher, Alcedo cristata, and the Pied Kingfisher, Ceryle rudis, at Lake Nokoué, Benin. In: Ostrich , Vol. 75, pp. 32–38, 2004. (digitized version)
- ↑ R. Kisasa Kafutshi & JA Komanda: The impact of soil texture on the selection of nesting sites by the Malachite Kingfisher (Alcedinidae: Alcedo cristata Pallas 1764). In: Ostrich , Vol. 82, No. 3, pp. 243–246, 2011. (digitized version)
- ^ I. Smalley, R. Blake-Smalley, K. O'Hara-Dhand, Z. Jary & Z. Svircev: Sand martins favor loess: How the properties of loess ground facilitate the nesting of sand martins / bank swallows / uferschwalben ( Riparia riparia Linnaeus 1758). In: Quaternary International , Vol. 296, pp. 216–219, 2013. (digitized version )
- ↑ R. Kisasa Kafutshi: Contribution à l'étude de la biology de reproduction du Martin-Pêcheur huppé Alcedo cristata. In: Malimbus , Vol. 34, pp. 92–101, 2012. (digitized version )