Monk caterpillar
| Monk caterpillar | ||||||||||||
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Left male, right female; Drawing by John Gould |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Edolisoma tenuirostre | ||||||||||||
| ( Jardine , 1831) |
The monk crawler catcher ( Edolisoma tenuirostre ) is a Singvogelart from the family of cuckooshrike (Campephagidae). It can be found on the Sulawesi archipelago up to the Solomon Islands and occasionally in New Guinea or Western Australia.
features
The monk's caterpillar reaches a body length of 22 to 25 cm. The adult male is predominantly slate gray with a somewhat widened black eye stripe that can extend to the throat and down to the ear covers (variable pattern).
The flight feathers have dark centers and light edges. The adult female is grayish-brown. The elytra and wing feathers have dark centers. The skull and neck are a bit grayish-brown, more of a cream color. The tail is a bit darker and well developed. The sides of the neck and the chest are banded differently in black. The dark banding extends over the flanks and sides to the middle of the abdomen. The plumage of juvenile and half-grown birds is greyish-brown and adapts to the plumage of adult birds with increasing age. The change in plumage color is most clearly visible in male offspring .
Habitat and way of life
The habitat of the monk caterpillars is mostly an open field and meadow landscape, which should be equipped with high bushes, trees or individual large boulders. The monk caterpillar uses these raised points as a hide and observation point. Probably the species prefers forest edge habitats with high boundary lines.
The monk caterpillar catcher is a resident and rather shy. You can hear him by his high-pitched, shrill singing rather than seeing him. Outside of the breeding season it is rather quiet. Its food consists of insects, such as beetles, caterpillars and cicadas, which it mainly catches in trees, bushes or on the ground directly in front of the trees, bushes.
Reproduction
The nest of the monk caterpillar catcher has a diameter of only 7.5 cm and consists of small twigs, cobwebs and is camouflaged with lichen. It is usually built on a horizontal, forked branch.
While the female sits on a single egg, the male will defend the nest and territory from intruders and bring food to the female.
literature
- Bruce M. Beehler & Thane K. Pratt: Birds of New Guinea: Distribution, Taxonomy, and Systematics Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 2016, ISBN 978-0691164243 .
- del Hoyo, J., Collar, N. & Kirwan, GM (2017). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, DA & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. Retrieved from [1] May 2017.
- Taxonomic Serial Number: TSN 178503; avibase | List of species
Web links
- Edolisoma tenuirostre inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017.1. Listed by: BirdLife International, 2016. Retrieved November 5, 2017.
- avibase | List of species
- Illustration style picture