Japan cassin
| Japan cassin | ||||||||||
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Japanese cassin ( Gallinago hardwickii ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Gallinago hardwickii | ||||||||||
| ( JE Gray , 1831) |
The Japanese cassin ( Gallinago hardwickii ) is a medium-sized species from the family of the snipe birds (Scolopacidae), the range of which extends over northern Japan and the surrounding areas. The wintering areas are in eastern Australia and Tasmania . It is classified as Least Concern by the IUCN .
description
The Japanese snipe is a large, strongly built snipe and with a length of 28–30 cm larger than a double snipe . The beak, which is greenish-brown at the base and becomes blackish towards the tip, is quite long at 66–77 mm. Compared to similar species, it is quite long-winged and long-tailed. The wing length is between 157 and 168 mm, the tail length between 58 and 68 mm. Despite the length of the wing, when the bird is seated, it is almost completely covered by the umbrella feathers , at most the longest hand wing protrudes a little. The tail, on the other hand, clearly protrudes beyond the folded wing. The relatively long legs are greenish in color. The iris is dark brown. The sexes hardly differ, but the male has on average longer outer control feathers and the female a longer beak. No geographical variation is known.
The Japanese cassin is very similar to the two smaller types of pike cassins and forest cassins . It shows the typical stripe pattern on the head and back. The head pattern is made up of a beige crown, dark brown crown, beige over-eye stripe , dark eye stripe and reins as well as dark dotted lines that condense on the otherwise light-colored ear covers. The throat is whitish, the neck and chest are dashed brown, with the dashed lines merging into a coarser pattern of banded feathers on the sides of the chest and flanks. The banding continues on the under tail-coverts. The back of the chest and lower abdomen are white. The shoulder and back feathers are blackish brown in the centers with rust-brown markings. Yellowish beige hems form a striped pattern on the top. The upper side of the wing is predominantly dark brown to blackish with yellowish beige lined and partly banded arm covers, a narrow, light wing band, which is formed by the tip hems of the large arm covers and the inner hand covers and a discreet, light rear edge on the arm wings. The under wing-coverts are almost completely banded on a whitish background and relatively finely dark brown.
The control springs are similar to those of the forest cassin. While the middle ones show a pattern of a very dark brown base, a wide rust-brown band on the distal quarter, a dark brown subterminal band and a yellowish-beige to whitish end hem, the outer, rather narrow control feathers on a dark gray-brown background are pointed and broadly banded. The outermost 4–6, the following 6–8 mm, are 20 mm from the tip.
The Japanese cassin differs from the common snipe in that it has banded under wing coverts, the very narrow, greyish rear edge of the wing and the rein stripe, which is narrower at the base of the beak than the very wide above the eye stripe.
Spreading and migrations
The brood distribution of the Japan Cassin is concentrated in Japan, where the species occurs on Hokkaidō , in northern and central Honshū and possibly Kyushu . It was also found in the east of the Primorye region , in the south of Sakhalin and on the southern Kuril Islands of Kunashir and Shikotan .
The Japanese cassin is a migratory bird that winters in eastern Australia and Tasmania. Train observations in intermediate areas such as Taiwan , the Philippines and New Guinea are rare. The first birds arrive in the winter quarters in August, leave them in February and early March and arrive in the breeding areas from early April. Occasional winter observations have been made from northwest Australia, New Guinea and New Zealand .
habitat
The preferred habitat is not swamps, but rather drier heaths and bog areas, some of which are surrounded by light tree populations. The altitude distribution extends from the plain to 1200 m or even higher in areas free of snow during the breeding season.
The most important habitats on Hokkaidō include drier places in the coppice forest with dense undergrowth and cultivated land such as pastures , rough meadows or young forest cultures. In several cases the species was found on areas that were overgrown with the bamboo grass Sasa nipponica and sparse stands of the Japanese imperial oak . At coastal lakes it occurs in habitats with bamboo growth, stocks of the Mongolian oak ( Quercus mongolica ) and the wine rose or the Asian butterbur ( Petasites japonicus ). In lower mountain areas, young, 2-3 m high plantations of the Japanese lark are populated in over 900 m stands of Ermans birch .
Reproduction
The breeding season is between April and early August. The nest is tightly hidden in the vegetation. The clutch usually consists of 4 eggs about 44 × 33 mm in size.
literature
- Peter Hayman , John Marchant, Tony Prater: Shorebirds: An identification guide. , Houghton Mifflin Company , Boston 1986, ISBN 0-395-37903-2 .
- Y. Fujimaki, IJ Skira: Notes on Latham's Snipe, Gallinago hardwickii, in Japan , Emu No. 84, 1984, pp. 49–51, ( PDF )
- Stephen Message, Don Taylor: Waders of Europe, Asia and North America , Helm Field Guides, Christopher Helm, London 2005 (corrected new edition 2007), ISBN 978-0-7136-5290-1
Individual evidence
Web links
- Gallinago hardwickii in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2012. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2009. Accessed October 21, 2012th
- Gallinago hardwickii photos in the Oriental Bird Club image database , accessed October 17, 2012
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Gallinago hardwickii in the Internet Bird Collection