King widow
| King widow | ||||||||||||
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Male of the king widow in splendid dress |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Vidua regia | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1766) |
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The king widow ( Vidua regia ) is an African species of bird from the family of widow birds (Viduidae). Like all widow birds, it is an obligatory brood parasite that has its offspring raised by host parents. The pomegranate reef , a species of the finch family , is almost exclusively parasitized .
features
The females of the king widow reach a body length of up to 11 centimeters, the males in their splendid dress, including the greatly elongated four central control feathers, reach a body length of between 31 and 24 centimeters. The extended control springs take up 21 to 24 centimeters. The average body weight is 13.8 grams for the females and 14.5 grams for the males.
The female and the male in the plain dress are colored yellow-brown with dark stripes on the top and white and yellow-brown on the underside. In the splendid dress , the male is colored black on the head and on the rest of the top of the body and rump. The sides of the head, the neck and the underside of the body are colored golden yellow. After the breeding season , the long feathers fall out during the moult .
It can be confused with the Dominican widow, a widow bird that is also widespread in sub-Saharan Africa . The males of both species show a similar distribution of black body plumage in the breeding dress. The simplest distinguishing feature is that the extended control feathers of the Dominican widow taper to a point. The extended control feathers of the king widow, on the other hand, are spatulate-shaped at the end. The underside of the body of the Dominican widow is also white and not yellow like that of the king widow. The females are also very similar to those of the Dominican widow. However, they have a less well-developed dark eye stripe, not such a pronounced dark ear cover and their beak is dark red.
The nestlings are similar to those of the pomegranate, but they are not bluish on the rump, as is the case with the nestlings of the host bird species. The throat drawing, however, is very similar. Young birds show a similarity to the young birds of the host bird only up to the 24th or 25th day of life. This is followed by a very rapid moult in the plumage of the adult birds.
Occurrence
The king widow lives in subtropical savannas in parts of southern Africa.
behavior
Outside the breeding season, the birds gather in large flocks to forage and sleep in tall trees. The king widow hops back and forth while looking for food and pushes soil aside to reveal seeds and grains.
Reproduction
The breeding period varies with the area of distribution. In the Transvaal the breeding season of the king widow falls from December to May, in Botswana it falls in the month of February and in Namibia April is the high point of the breeding season for the king widow.
During the courtship season, the male shows off his long tail during singing flights to attract females.
The king widow is a breeding parasite , the main host of which is the pomegranate tiger. The pomegranate has an average weight of 10 grams, so that the king widow has a clear weight advantage over the host bird. The eggs are white and thus resemble those of the host bird. The eggs are also 13 percent heavier than those of the host birds. The female lays four to five eggs in different nests, rarely two or more in the same nest. The young king widows resemble the young pomegranate trildes in their throat markings and their begging cries, so it is not necessary to remove the host bird's eggs. The adult king widow often imitates the song of the garnet reindeer.
literature
- Horst Bielfeld : Knowing and caring for 300 ornamental birds. Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-8001-5737-2 .
- Paul A. Johnsgard: The Avian Brood Parasites - Deception at the Nest . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1997, ISBN 0-19-511042-0 .
Web links
- Vidua regia in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed January 30 of 2009.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings for Vidua regia in the Internet Bird Collection