Manchurian Rail
| Manchurian Rail | ||||||||||||
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Mandschurrale ( Coturnicops exquisitus ), |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Coturnicops exquisitus | ||||||||||||
| ( Swinhoe , 1873) |
The Manchurian Rail ( Coturnicops exquisitus ) is a rare, very small species of bird from the rail family about which very little is known. It breeds in the southeastern Transbaikalia , in the southern Ussuri region and in the east of Heilongjiang and winters in Japan , Korea and the southeast of China. It is classified by the IUCN as 
(= Vulnerable ).
description
The Mandschurrale is 13 cm long and only about the size of a sparrow. The wing length is between 75 and 81 mm. The species is similar to the slightly larger North American yellow gal , to which it is closely related. As with this one, the largely white arm wings are noticeable in flight. The 12-14.5 mm long upper beak is dark brown, the lower beak greenish yellow. The iris is brown. Legs and feet are light brownish flesh-colored with darker joints and claws. There is no gender dimorphism .
The upper side of adult birds in breeding plumage is overall dark black-brown. The individual feathers show wide, cinnamon-colored hems and a narrow white cross band. The drawing is finer and more diffuse on the head and neck, coarser and more distinct from the back to the tail and forms a streaky pattern. Reins and eye stripes are diffuse brown-black, the sides of the head are gray-brown with whitish spots. The chin and upper throat are whitish, the lower throat, front neck, sides of the neck, chest, flanks and lower tail-coverts are dull ocher to yellowish beige in color with white banding and darker brown centers, which are particularly noticeable on the flanks and thigh fletching. The center of the chest is lightened, the lower chest and belly are white. The small upper wing coverts are olive-beige to isabel-colored and finely spotted with white to banded. The middle and large upper wing coverts are the same as the top, but the hems are lighter colored cinnamon. The wings of the hand are predominantly matt beige-brown to gray-brown with lighter edges. The outer vane of the outermost is mostly whitish, the inner ones show a lighter inner vane, whitish shaft lines and whitish spots in the apical part of the inner vane. The arm wings are brown-beige at the base, but white in the distal half with brownish spots on the outermost and innermost arm wings. The screen springs correspond to the color of the top. The axillary feathers and under wing coverts are white.
The plain dress is similar to the brood dress. The nape and sides of the neck are finely spotted with white, the throat is cream-colored. Some rough dark spots extend across the chest. Possibly the white color of the arm wings is less extensive. Immature birds resemble adult birds in plain dress. The youth clothes have not yet been described.
voice
For a long time nothing was known about the vocal expressions, in the literature a vocal similarity to the yellow bale was assumed. Sound recordings were made for the first time in June 2016. The singing (audio sample) is therefore a relatively quiet, short “purr” with a falling pitch. The same bird responded to the playback with a sound dummy with a similar, but strongly drawn out call (audio sample).
Distribution and existence
The distribution of the Manchurian Rail is limited to the southeast of Transbaikal, the south of the Ussuri region and eastern Heilongjiang. The species has only recently been found as a breeding bird in a few places, such as the Zhalong nature reserve and Lake Chanka . BirdLife International estimates the population at around 2,500 to less than 10,000 adult birds, which would correspond to a total of around 3500-15000 individuals. The species is threatened by the increasing drainage and agricultural use of wet grasslands and swamps, the population is presumably in decline. The IUCN therefore lists the Manchurian Rail in the vulnerable category.
hikes
The winter quarters of this type extend over the main islands of Japan, Korea and the Ryūkyū Islands to the Chinese provinces of Fujian and Guangdong , with both winter evidence and migration observations being very rare. Sparse evidence of migrants comes from Beidaihe in China, for example , and a bird was discovered in 1989 at Lake Poyang . Further observations are available from Liaoning , Shandong , Sichuan and possibly Hebei . Little is known about phenology either . At the end of April, the species was identified as a migrant at Lake Chankasee; in China, the observations were between the end of September and mid-October and the last May decade. Evidence in Japan was between August 4 and May 16, with most between October and April.
Way of life
The Manchurian Rail breeds in wet meadows and short-grass swamps. On the train she can be found in swamps, wet grassland and rice fields. Almost nothing is known about eating habits and reproduction. In 1906 a clutch of three eggs was collected, which are oval, matt-glossy and strongly yellow-brown spotted on a beige background. The dimensions are around 29 × 21 mm.
Systematics
The Manchurian Rail is closely related to the somewhat larger North American Yellow Gall ( Coturnicops noveboracensis ). Some authors regard them as a subspecies of the yellow bale, but mostly both are now combined as separate species in a superspecies . The species is monotypical .
literature
- Barry Taylor, Ber van Perlo: Rails - A Guide to the Rails, Crakes, Gallinules and Coots of the World , Pica Press, The Banks, Mountfield 1998, ISBN 1-873403-59-3
Individual evidence
- ↑ Taylor / Van Perlo (1998), p. 183, see literature
- ↑ Wieland Heim: AmurBirdProject 2016: Week 9 , Amur Birding, June 12, 2016 and Chris Sharpe: available recordings of rare and threatened Swinhoe's Rail ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , HBW alive, June 24, 2016
- ↑ Tom Wulf: XC321489 · Mandschurenralle · Coturnicops exquisitus (MP3) xeno-canto.org. June 9, 2016. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
- ↑ Alex Thomas: XC321495 · Mandschurenralle · Coturnicops exquisitus (MP3) xeno-canto.org. June 14, 2016. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
- ↑ Barry Taylor, Chris Sharpe: Swinhoe's Rail (Coturnicops exquisitus) (6/2016), section Voice , in: J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, AD Christie, E. de Juana (eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2016
Web links
- Coturnicops exquisitus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2012. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed June 1, 2013.
- BirdLife International: Species Factsheet - Swinhoe's Rail ( Coturnicops exquisitus ) . Retrieved June 1, 2013.
- Photos of Coturnicops exquisitus in the Oriental Bird Club image database , accessed June 1, 2013
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Coturnicops exquisitus in the Internet Bird Collection