Iquitos mosquito catcher

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Iquitos mosquito catcher
Systematics
Order : Passerines (Passeriformes)
Subordination : Songbirds (passeri)
Superfamily : Certhioidea
Family : Mosquito catcher (Polioptilidae)
Genre : Polioptila
Type : Iquitos mosquito catcher
Scientific name
Polioptila clementsi
Whitney & Alonso , 2005

The Iquitos mosquito catcher ( Polioptila clementsi ) is a rare, little-researched songbird from the mosquito catcher family . The species was only described in 2005 and is named after the American ornithologist James F. Clements . It is native to Peru. Its closest relative is the cayenne mosquito catcher ( Polioptila guianensis ), which is found in Guyana .

description

The Iquitos mosquito catcher reaches a length of 12 centimeters. It is light gray with a thin black beak. The iris is black and surrounded by a striking interrupted white eye ring. The legs are black. The throat and chest are uniformly gray. The belly, under tail and under tail covers are whitish. The tail has white edges. The males differ from the males of most other mosquito catchers by the lack of black color on the top of the head.

habitat

The Iquitos mosquito catcher is endemic to a 19 km² wooded area that is known as the “white-sand rainforest” due to the nature of the soil. It lives in different tree layers between 15 and 30 meters.

status

So far, 15 pairs have been detected in the Reserva Nacional Allpahuayo-Mishana 25 km west of Iquitos in the Loreto department in Peru . BirdLife International estimates the total stock at 50 to 250 copies. The main threat is illegal deforestation within the reserve for charcoal, firewood and construction timber, as well as the agricultural use of the area around Iquitos. In order to make the population aware of the threat to the species, the student group CANATURA (Club Amigos de la Naturaleza) organized a festival in Iquitos in November 2006, at which the Iquitos mosquito catcher was named the city's official bird.

literature

  • Whitney, Bret M. and José Alvarez Alonso. A new species of Gnatcatcher from white-sand forests of northern Amazonian Peru, with revision of the Polioptila guianensis complex The Wilson Bulletin Vol. 117 No. 2 pp. 113-127, 2005.
  • Erik Hirschfeld: The Rare Birds Yearbook 2008 , MagDig Media Ltd., 2007. Shrewsbury ISBN 978-0-9552607-3-5

Web links