Run chicken (type)
| Run chicken | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Roosters ( Turnix sylvatica ) |
||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Turnix sylvatica | ||||||||||
| ( Desfontaines , 1787) |
The Laufhühnchen ( Turnix sylvatica ), also Rostkehl fight quail called, is a bird art from the family of Laufhühnchen in the order of Regenpfeiferartigen .
features
The run chicken is small and very much like a quail . It differs from this one by the longer beak and the longer legs. Its body is rounded and compact, the neck is very short and the head is small. Its wings are wide and about 8 to 10 centimeters long, the tail is short and wedge-shaped. The bird's legs start far back on the body and have three short clawed toes. It has large, yellow eyes and a thin, slightly curved beak. The nostrils are roughly in the middle of the upper bill. The top of the body and the tail are dark brown with a dark scale pattern, the hand wings are black-brown and the coverts are spotted with black on a yellow-brown background. In the neck and forehead, predominantly reddish colors dominate. The face is light brown and covered with small, dark spots. The chicken has a light gray throat, which is separated from its face by a dark gray band. The neck and the flanks are spotted black, the spots become larger and more crescent-shaped towards the bottom. Sometimes there is also a red-brown shadow on the back of such a spot . The chest and front neck are striped orange. The belly of the chicken is white in color. The bird's beak is dark gray, the legs are yellow to yellowish gray. The male is generally smaller and paler than the female, young birds are light brown and mottled dark. The run chicken weighs 40 to 60 grams and reaches a body length of 15 (males) to 19 (females) centimeters.
Way of life
The chicken lives shy and withdrawn in pairs or in groups of up to five animals. Each group (or each pair) has a territory. It seldom flies and it flies badly, and there is a whirring noise during the flight. If danger threatens, the bird lies down on the ground, if this does not help, it runs away in a zigzag and only flies when it is hopeless to run away. The chicken eats mostly seeds. It only searches for food during the day and scratches its feet on the ground. The female calls huu-huu-huu muffled and reverberating during courtship at dusk and on clear starry nights .
The mating season varies considerably depending on the distribution area : in southern Europe and large parts of Africa it extends over spring, in south Asia over the rainy season , and in east Africa over January. A female usually mates with several males and then looks for a suitable nest location. The nest consisting of twigs and stalks has a diameter of 20 centimeters and is built in a hollow in the ground between bushes and tall grass . It is padded with grass and leaves. The female lays four to five reddish-white and gray-spotted eggs. They weigh five to six grams and are 25 by 20 millimeters in size. The clutch is incubated initially by the female and later mainly by the male for 12 to 14 days, which is very short for a young that is fully developed when hatching. The young animals flee the nest and follow their parents after just a few days. At the age of two weeks they are able to fly, after three weeks they leave their parents and are sexually mature after just a few months. There can be several broods in a year.
Habitat and Distribution
The run chicken has a wide range . It includes China , Taiwan , South Asia , Southwest Asia , the Arabian Peninsula , Africa south of the Sahara and North Africa . There were also individual populations in southern Spain and Portugal , but here it has been lost since 1981 and has been considered extinct in Europe since 2018. It lives in open, bush-rich areas such as bushland, savannahs and on the edges of forests . Sometimes it also inhabits very dry areas such as deserts and steppes in Asia it can also be found in rain and monsoon forests . It occurs up to an altitude of 2400 meters. The run chicken is a resident bird in its entire range .
Subspecies
The following subspecies are distinguished:
- Turnix sylvatica alleni ; South East Asia
- Turnix sylvatica arenaria ; South East Asia
- Turnix sylvatica dussumier ; Middle East, South Asia
- Turnix sylvatica davidi ; China, South Asia, Taiwan
- Turnix sylvatica mikado ; China, South Asia, Taiwan
- Turnix sylvatica bartelsorum ; Bali, Java
- Turnix sylvatica sylvatica ; North Africa, formerly also southern Europe
literature
- Dr. Theo Jahn: Brehm's new animal encyclopedia. Verlag Herder KG, Freiburg im Breisgau Special edition for Prisma Verlag GmbH, Gütersloh 1982, ISBN 3-570-08606-2
- Barthel & Dougalis: What is flying there? Franckh-Kosmos Verlags GmbH & Co. KG, Stuttgart 2006
- Hakan Delin, Lars Svensson : Birds. Franckh-Kosmos Verlags GmbH & Co., Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-440-09711-0 .
supporting documents
- ↑ Daniel Lingenhöhl: Species extinction: First European bird species extinct since the giant alkali , on: Spektrum.de, November 16, 2018. Accessed November 19, 2018
Web link
- Turnix sylvaticus inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved January 14, 2014.