Akepa clothes birds
| Akepa clothes birds | ||||||||||||
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Oahu Akepakleidervogel ( Loxops wolstenholmei ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Loxops | ||||||||||||
| Cabanis , 1847 |
The Akepa clothes birds ( Loxops ) are a genus of small clothes birds . There are two recent and two extinct species.
etymology
The scientific name Loxops is derived from the Greek words loxos = "crossed over" and ops = "face".
features
The Akepa clothes birds reach sizes up to 10 centimeters and have short, conical, finch-like beaks, whose crossed tips represent an adaptation to the seed pods of the Koa acacias and to the leaf buds of the Ohia trees. They occasionally drink nectar with their tubular tongue. However, their main diet consists of insects. The long tail is notched quite deeply at the tip. The plumage is two-colored, but the degree varies between species. The call is a high-pitched whistling tone, the singing consists of different trills.
Systematics
In the past two types and three subspecies were distinguished. However , in 2001 the American ornithologist Harold Douglas Pratt was able to demonstrate on the basis of DNA analyzes that all taxa of this genus are to be regarded as separate species, so that the genus Loxops currently includes the following species:
- Hawaiian Akepa hawk bird ( Loxops coccineus ), distribution: Hawaii
- Kauai Akepa hawk bird ( Loxops caeruleirostris ), distribution: Kauai
- Maui Akepa hawk bird ( Loxops ochraceus ), distribution: Maui, extinct. Not proven since 1988.
- Oahu Akepakleidervogel ( Loxops wolstenholmei ), distribution: Oahu, extinct. The last pair was observed in 1903; an unconfirmed sighting is said to have taken place in the 1930s.
When it was first described scientifically by Scott Barchard Wilson , the Kauai Akepakleidervogel was placed in the monotypical genus Chrysomitridops . In 1950 Dean Amadon transferred this taxon as a subspecies of the Hawaiian Akepakleidervogel in the genus Loxops and synonymized both genera.
literature
- Harold Douglas Pratt : The Hawaiian Honeycreepers . Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-854653-5 .
- Harold Douglas Pratt: Drepanididae (Hawaiian Honeycreepers) In: Del Hoyo, J .; Elliot, A. & Christie D. (Editors). (2010). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 15: Weavers to New World Warblers . Lynx Edicions, ISBN 978-84-96553-68-2
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Pratt, HD, and TK Pratt. 2001. The interplay of species concepts, taxonomy, and conservation: lessons from the Hawaiian avifauna. Studies in Avian Biology 22: p. 68-80.