Montezuma front bird
| Montezuma front bird | ||||||||||||
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Montezuma fronted bird ( Psarocolius montezuma ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Psarocolius montezuma | ||||||||||||
| ( Lesson , 1830) |
The Montezuma front bird ( Psarocolius montezuma , Syn .: Gymnostinops montezuma ) is a Central American songbird from the starling family.
features
The plumage of the male is mostly chestnut brown, with a black head and body. The tail feathers are yellow, with two darker inner feathers. The bare cheeks are blue with pink flaps of skin. The iris is brown and the long bill is black with a red tip. The female looks similar to the male, but has smaller flaps of skin. The young birds are less colorful. While the female weighs only 230 g at 38 cm in length, the up to 50 cm long male weighs up to 520 g.
behavior
The Montezuma front bird looks for small vertebrates, large insects, nectar and fruits such as bananas in small to larger groups in trees.
Occurrence
This resident bird lives in the lowlands on the Caribbean coast from southeast Mexico to central Panama , but not in El Salvador and southern Guatemala . On the Pacific coast , it can be seen in Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica . There he inhabits the treetops and edges of forests and old plantings.
Breeding biology
The Montezuma-fronted bird breeds in colonies with around 30 nests, but 172 nests have also been counted in one colony. Each colony is dominated by a male who mates with most of the females after an elaborate courtship. In a 60–180 cm long hanging nest, the female lays two white to beige, darkly speckled eggs that are incubated for 15 days. The young birds fledge at 30 days.
swell
- Steve NG Howell, Sophie Webb: A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America . Oxford University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-19-854012-4 .
- Alavaro Jaramillo, Peter Burke (Illustrator): New World Blackbirds: The Icterids . Christopher Helm Publishers, 1999, ISBN 0-7136-4333-1 .
- FG Stiles, Alexander F. Skutch: A guide to the birds of Costa Rica . Cornell University Press, 1990, ISBN 0-8014-9600-4 .
Web links
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Psarocolius montezuma in the Internet Bird Collection
- Psarocolius montezuma inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved February 2, 2014.