Corsican nuthatch
| Corsican nuthatch | ||||||||||||
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Corsican nuthatch ( Sitta whiteheadi ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Sitta whiteheadi | ||||||||||||
| Sharpe , 1884 |
The Corsican nuthatch ( Sitta whiteheadi ) is a species of songbird that lives endemically in the tall pine forests of Corsica . The total population consists of only 2000 breeding pairs. Forest fires and predators such as the great spotted woodpecker pose a threat to the population .
features
The 12 cm long Corsican nuthatch is smaller than the nuthatch . The head is small and has a fairly short beak. The plumage is blue-gray on the top and gray-beige on the underside, only the throat is slightly whiter. The male has a black crown and a black eye-stripe, which is divided by a white over-eye stripe. In the female, the vertex and the eye stripe are gray. The young birds are a little less colorful than the adults.
voice
His voice is comparatively nasal and muffled. It ranges from a fine “pupupupu” to a louder, rising “pui” to a less frequent “qui, qui, qui” that sounds thinner than the similar call of the Kleibers.
behavior
The bird feeds on insects and seeds, especially the black pine , which it also gathers. Like other species of nuthatch, the Corsican nuthatch can walk down tree trunks. In mostly self-made tree hollows in pines up to 300 years old, 5 - 8 red speckled white eggs are incubated.
literature
- Lars Svensson , Peter J. Grant, Killian Mullarney, Dan Zetterström: The new cosmos bird guide. Kosmos, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 978-3-440-07720-7 .
- Roger Peterson, Guy Montfort, PAD Hollom: The Birds of Europe. 9th edition. Paul Parey, Hamburg / Berlin 1970, ISBN 3-490-05518-7 .
Web links
- Sitta whiteheadi in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed January 30 of 2009.