Kabylenkleiber
| Kabylenkleiber | ||||||||||||
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Kabylenkleiber ( Sitta ledanti ), male |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Sitta ledanti | ||||||||||||
| Vielliard , 1976 |
The Kabylenkleiber ( Sitta ledanti ), which was only recognized as a separate species in 1975, is an endemic songbird in the mountain forests of north-east Algeria . The no more than 1000 individuals live in oak forests at 350–1200 m altitude or in mixed forests up to 2000 m altitude. The distribution area is limited due to the small extent of the forests in this region.
features
At 11.5 to 12.5 cm, the Kabylenkleiber is slightly smaller than the Kleiber . The plumage is blue-gray above and pink-beige below, the throat is somewhat lighter. Males have a black front part and a blue-gray rear part. The black eye stripe is separated from the vertex by a narrow white eye stripe. Females have a gray crown and a gray eye stripe.
behavior
The Kabylenkleiber feeds on insects and seeds, which it also hoards. It breeds in self-made tree holes or old woodpecker holes.
Discovery story
The specific epithet ledanti reminds of the discoverer of this bird species. The Kabylenkleiber was observed on October 5, 1975 by the Belgian ecologist Jean-Paul Ledant, who was employed as a forest assistant at the Institut National Agronomique. The 24-year-old was part of an expedition to investigate the summit area of Djebel Babor , a mountain of the Lesser Kabylia in northern Algeria. The mountain forest in this region was a relic site that contained, among other things, Numidian firs , Atlas cedars and, at lower altitudes, Portuguese oaks . During the investigations near the summit, Ledant observed a nuthatch. Ledant initially found no faith among his companions with his observation, since to their knowledge no nuthatches could be found in Algeria. Another attempt to find the nuthatch in December 1975 was in vain because of the bad weather. Ledant and his colleague Paul Jacobs were successful on a third expedition in April 1976. Their observations were so clear that a few months later a report appeared in a special issue of the French ornithological journal Alauda , which officially described the species and named it after its discoverer Ledant named. Before the first report of the discovery appeared in the French newspaper Le Monde in July 1976 , the nuthatch was also detected in June 1976 by the Swiss ornithologist Eric Burnier near the summit.
A forest area with a diameter of 2.5 kilometers was initially identified as the core area of the Kabyle body; the population was estimated at only 80 individuals. It was not until June 1989 that another population of the species with a larger distribution area was found in another forest area of the Lesser Kabylia. In 1987, two more populations were discovered in two other forest areas, five and 30 kilometers away, respectively. The population has now been estimated at just under a thousand individuals. Part of the population also lived in the area of the Taza National Park .
literature
- Dominic Couzens : Rare Birds - Survivors, Evolution Losers and the Lost. Haupt Verlag, Bern 2011, ISBN 978-3-258-07629-4 .
- Lars Svensson , Peter J Grant: The new cosmos bird guide. Kosmos-Naturführer, ISBN 3-440-07720-9 .
- G. Thielcke, AW Diamond, H. Stern, RL Schreiber: Save the bird world. Ravensburger Verlag ISBN 3-473-46160-1 .
- Jacques Vielliard: La Sitelle kabile . In: Alauda . tape 44 , no. 3 , 1976, p. 351–352 ( bibliotheques.mnhn.fr ).
Web links
- Sitta ledanti in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed on January 1 of 2009.
- BirdLife Species Factsheet | English website