Dot amaranth
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Spotted amaranth ( Lagonosticta rufopicta ) |
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| Lagonosticta rufopicta | ||||||||||||
| ( Fraser , 1843) |
The spotted amaranth ( Lagonosticta rufopicta ), also known as the little spotted amaranth or spotted tiger , is an African species within the finch family . There are two subspecies for this species. In the literature it is occasionally placed in a superspecies with the brown rump amaranth .
description
The spotted amaranth reaches a body length of ten centimeters and thus belongs to the smaller species of finch. In the males, the sides of the head, the reins and the forehead are pink. The top of the head and the neck are gray-brown and the back and the wings are earth-brown. The upper tail coverts are red. The reddish breast shows numerous small crescent-shaped spots, each single spot is finely lined with dark. The beak is red with the ridge and center of the lower beak dark brown. The female resembles the male, but is paler and duller on the red plumage. The young birds are dull gray-brown.
It is typical of the dot-shaped amaranth - like all Amaranten - that very pronounced tail movements accompany all movements and calls of the bird. However, it is characteristic of the species that the tail is only flicked sideways and, when excited, is additionally fanned out.
Distribution and way of life
The distribution area of the Pünktchenamaranten extends in a wide band from the savannah areas of Senegal and Gambia through Upper Guinea and Cameroon to the northwest of Uganda and the south of Sudan . The distribution area of the nominate form Lagonosticta rufopicta rufopicta extends from Senegal to the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo . The distribution area of the subspecies Lagonosticta rufopicta lateritia extends from the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to southern Sudan , western Ethiopia , Uganda and Kenya .
The habitat of the Pünktchenamaranten are savannahs with high grass stocks and bushes on river and stream banks. It has also opened up human settlement space and occurs near farms and towns and is very trusting. Its diet consists mainly of small seeds with a diameter of one to two millimeters. To his favorite food is one of the crabgrass .
The breeding season varies depending on the location, but typically falls in the second half of the rainy season. The nests are usually built at a low height above the ground in tufts of grass or in bushes. The clutch contains four white eggs that are incubated by both sexes for thirteen to fourteen days. The nestling period is seventeen to nineteen days.
The brood parasite of the dot marant is the Wilson Atlas widow ( Vidua wilsoni ).
attitude
The first import of Pünktchtenamaranten took place in 1876 by the animal dealer Fockelmann . Later, individual birds only came to Germany at greater intervals. Pünktchenamarante are still one of the rarely kept ornamental bird species. Since they prefer free areas for feeding, where they look for seeds on the ground, spacious aviaries are the most suitable housing for spotted marants.
supporting documents
literature
- Jürgen Nicolai (Ed.), Joachim Steinbacher (Ed.), Renate van den Elzen, Gerhard Hofmann, Claudia Mettke-Hofmann: Prachtfinken - Afrika , Series Handbuch der Vogelpflege, Eugen Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8001- 4964-3
Single receipts
Web link
- Lagonosticta rufopicta inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013.2. Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2014.