Congotoko
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Congotoko ( Horizocerus granti ) |
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| Horizocerus granti | ||||||||||
| ( Hartert , 1895) |
The Kongotoko ( Horizocerus granti , Syn. : Tockus hartlaubi granti ) is a bird art that the hornbills belongs (Bucerotidae) and in the western sub-Saharan Africa occur. Like all hornbills, the Congotoko is also a cave breeder. The female walls herself up in the nest cavity and is fed by the male during the breeding season.
features
The Congotoko reaches a body length of up to 32 centimeters and weighs between 88 and 135 grams. The gender dimorphism is not very pronounced.
Characteristics of the males
The males have a black neck and head. A wide white stripe runs from above the eye to the neck. The front neck is dark gray, the individual feathers have white tips. The back and tail are black. Of the ten control springs, all but the middle four have white tips. The underside of the body is pale gray and brightens towards the lower abdomen. The wings are black with a metallic sheen. The outer hand wings have small white spots in the center. The wing covers and the inner arm wings have white feather tips. The beak is black with a red tip and an almost completely red ridge. The ridge of the beak is poorly developed and ends abruptly on half of the beak. The orbital ring is gray to black, the bare throat patch is flesh-colored. The eyes are red-brown with a gray outer ring, the feet and legs are black.
Characteristics of the females and young birds
The females correspond to the males in the body plumage, but are somewhat smaller overall. The featherless skin of the face is washed over blue. The beak is black with a brown tip, the ridge of the beak is only slightly pronounced. The iris is deep red with a gray ring.
The young birds resemble the adult females in their beak color and the largely lack of a beak ridge.
Possible confusion
The dwarf toko and the magpie toko also occur in the distribution area of the Kongotoko .
The Dwarf Toko is much more vocal and differs from the Western Hartlaub Toko by its red beak and red-brown plumage. The Magpie Toko is much larger than the Western Hartlaub Toko, has a white underside and parts of the beak are cream-colored.
The distribution area of the Congotoko borders on that of the Western Hartlaub Tokos , the subspecies of which the Congotoko was long considered. The western Hartlaub toko lacks the white spots on the wing covers, in the male the beak is black except for the red tip of the beak. The female of the western hard-leaf toko has a completely black beak without a brown tip.
Distribution area and habitat
The Congotoko occurs in Zaire , in the east of the Congo , in the south of Sudan, in the west of Uganda and the Central African Republic as well as in the north of Angola.
The Congotoko is a forest-dwelling bird species that occurs mainly in the evergreen forests of the lowlands. It also colonizes gallery forests , but prefers densely grown primeval forests and is only very rarely found in secondary forests. A couple occupies a territory of twenty to thirty hectares.
Way of life
The Congotoko usually lives in pairs or in small family groups of up to eight animals. It lives mainly in the upper and middle treetops and prefers trees that are overgrown with climbing plants. It mainly eats insects that it catches in the air. Occasionally, however, it also comes to the ground to catch insects that are scared off by wandering ants . He also follows groups of monkeys in order to benefit from the insects they scare off.
The reproductive behavior has so far only been insufficiently researched. The Congotoko breeds in natural tree hollows at a height of 9 to 25 meters above the ground. The female seals the entrance to the cave from the inside except for a narrow gap through which she and later the young birds are fed by the male. The male carries prey individually in his beak and usually looks for food within a radius of 100 meters around the nest.
The female leaves the breeding cave before the young birds have fledged and then takes care of the young birds together with the male. The young birds stay with their parents for about a month after they fled.
literature
- W. Grummt , H. Strehlow (Ed.): Zoo animal keeping birds. Verlag Harri Deutsch, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-8171-1636-2 .
- Alan Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1995, ISBN 0-19-857729-X .