Lobelia nectar bird
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Lobelia nectar bird ( Nectarinia johnstoni ) |
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| Nectarinia johnstoni | ||||||||||||
| Shelley , 1885 |
The lobelia nectar bird ( Nectarinia johnstoni ) also called malachite nectar bird , is a songbird (Passeri) from the order of the passerine birds (Passeriformes) from the family of the nectar birds (Nectariniidae).
description
The male becomes 25 to 30 centimeters long with its elongated tail feathers, the female reaches a length of 14 to 15.5 centimeters. The color of the males is metallic green, the face and the rump are black with two long tail feathers. The female is inconspicuously gray. Both sexes change their plumage outside of the breeding season and have a scarlet point on the side of the neck, from which the English name is derived (Scarlet-Tufted-Malachite-Sunbird). Both sexes carry a pair of pectoral tufts of feathers, the females significantly smaller than the males. The length of the tufts of feathers is a sign of status, the males thus defend inflorescences from lobelia, whose nectar serves as food. The long, thin beak is curved downwards. The voice sounds like a bitter, rasping "Tschiiip-Tschiip".
Occurrence
The lobelia nectar bird lives in moorlands in the mountainous regions of East Africa. In Kenya it occurs in the Mount Kenya massif and on the Aberdare Range , in Uganda in the Ruwenzori Mountains and the Virunga volcanoes , in Tanzania on Kilimanjaro and the Livingstone Mountains and on the Nyika Plateau in Malawi .
nutrition
It feeds on the nectar of lobelia ( Lobelia deckenii , Lobelia telekii ) of giant Senezien ( Senecio brassica ), the Proten ( Protea kilimandscharia ) and volkensii Aloe . This nectar often makes up barely a fifth of the diet. The menu also includes insects (mosquitoes, butterflies), spiders and small snails.
Way of life
In the morning you can often see this bird bathing in streams. In the afternoon it usually wanders into deeper regions of the mountain slopes and at night often looks for shelter in tree hollows or old nests between dead leaves.
literature
- John G. Williams, Norman Arlott: Birds of East Africa. Reprinted Edition. Harper Collins Publishers, London 1992, ISBN 0-00-219179-2
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Gottfried Mauersberger, Das Urania Tierreich , Vögel Volume 3, 1974, page 452
- ↑ KC Tsang, LK Wang, YC Wee: The olive-backed sunbird, Cinnyris Jugularis Linnaeus, 1766 and its pectoral tufts. Nature in Singapore 2008 1: pp. 207-210. ( PDF, online , see Discussion)
- ↑ John R. Krebs, Nicholas B. Davies: An introduction to behavioral ecology. Blackwell Publishers, 1993, ISBN 978-0632035465 , p. 172. ( Preview at books.google.de, English, accessed on January 29, 2010)
- ^ Matthew R. Evans: Nectar and flower production of Lobelia telekii inflorescences, and their influence on territorial behavior of the scarlet-tufted malachite sunbird (Nectarinia johnstoni). In: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 57, 1996, p. 89, doi : 10.1111 / j.1095-8312.1996.tb01831.x .
- ^ Oscar Uhlworm, FG Kohl: Botanisches Centralblatt ; Referring body for the entire field of botany. Without specifying the first publication, reprint at Bibliobazaar, 2009, ISBN 978-1115671668 , p. 189. ( Preview at books.google.de, accessed on January 29, 2010. Unfortunately, Google access is quite nonsense.)
Web links
- Nectarinia johnstoni onthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . Retrieved January 16, 2010.
- derberg.com , accessed January 17, 2010
- ITIS Report , accessed January 17, 2010
- birdlife.org , accessed January 17, 2010