Indian bamboo chicken

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Indian bamboo chicken
Indian bamboo chicken, nominate form (Bambusicola f. Fytchii)

Indian bamboo chicken, nominate form ( Bambusicola f. Fytchii )

Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Chicken birds (Galliformes)
Family : Pheasants (Phasianidae)
Genre : Bamboo chickens ( Bambusicola )
Type : Indian bamboo chicken
Scientific name
Bambusicola fytchii
Anderson , 1871

The Indian bamboo chicken or yellow-browed bamboo chicken ( Bambusicola fytchii ) is a Hühnervogel art from the family of pheasant-like . It is native to northeast India , eastern Bangladesh , the Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan and the north of Myanmar , Thailand , Laos and Vietnam , where it inhabits semi-open, bush and woody landscapes at medium altitudes. The species is not threatened.

The specific epithet honors the British Lieutenant General Albert Fytche , who was Plenipotentiary General in Burma in the year of the first description .

description

The Indian bamboo chicken is between 25 and 30 cm tall. The rather long, wedge-shaped tail makes up between 9 and 13 cm. A sexual dimorphism is barely marked, the tap is however slightly larger and carries a powerful spur to the barrel. The wing length is between 129 and 156 mm, the weight between 250 and 400 g. The 18–20 mm long beak is black-brown in the rooster, a little lighter in the hen. The iris is brown to yellowish brown, the legs and feet are olive brown.

From the reddish-brown top of the head and neck, a beige stripe over the eyes is set off, which is narrowly black behind the eye in the male and dark red-brown in the female. The vivid ocher-yellow color of the lower ear covers, chin and throat runs into the color of the chest on the front neck, which has strong, chestnut-brown spots on a whitish background. These can also be found on the olive-gray plumage of the front back, the shoulders and the wing covers, where they partly flow into black feather centers that are also lined with white. The rear back, rump and upper tail-coverts are scrawled dark on an olive-gray background. The underside and the flanks are whitish and have a black, heart-shaped mark behind the wide hem. This is missing in the middle of the stomach. The wings are red-brown. The outer control feathers are indistinct on a reddish-brown background, the middle ones on a beige background with more contrasting dark cross-bands.

The youth dress is similar to that of the hen, but is much more dull red-brown on the parting and shows more gray-brown spots and a rather gray breast.

distribution

The distribution of the Indian bamboo chicken extends south of the Brahmaputra through the east Indian states of Assam , Meghalaya , Manipur , Mizoram , Nagaland and the east of Arunachal Pradesh south to the east of Bangladesh. To the north, the area extends to Yunnan and Sichuan and, in another arm, southward to northern Myanmar, north-western Thailand and from northern Laos to Tonkin in Vietnam.

The species is classified by the IUCN as not threatened (“least concern”), but could be endangered in the long term by habitat loss and hunting. While it is scattered in China, it appears to be common in Myanmar, and stocks may even have increased in Thailand. In Bangladesh there are probably only residual deposits.

Geographic variation

Two subspecies are described, of which B. f. hopkinsonii is slightly larger than the nominate form , is more beige than white on the underside and grayer on the top.

  • B. f. hopkinsoni Godwin-Austen , 1874 - Assam and Arunachal Pradesh southwards to eastern Bangladesh and eastwards to northern Myanmar
  • B. f. fytchii Anderson , 1871 - from Sichuan and Yunnan southwards to the eastern center of Myanmar, northwestern Thailand and northern Vietnam

Way of life

The Indian bamboo grouse colonizes secondary vegetation and forest edge habitats at altitudes between 500 and 3000 m. It occurs in grassy wetlands, in bamboo trees and in semi-open landscapes with willow and oak stands. It is not uncommon to find it near settlements.

The species is usually found in associations of 5–6 individuals, which are probably families. These stick together over the winter and dissolve in northeast India from March. The males then occupy a territory with loud calls. The breeding season begins in April or May and lasts at most into July. The nest is a dug out of the vegetation that is only covered with a few stalks. The clutch consists of 5–6 light to brown beige eggs, which are incubated for 18–19 days. The rooster is not involved in the breeding business, but is probably involved in raising young.

The food consists of buds, saplings, berries and insects and is mainly searched in the morning and evening by digging on the ground.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Madge, p. 275, p. literature

Web links

Commons : Indian Bamboo Chicken  - Collection of images, videos and audio files