Panther birds
| Panther birds | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the family | ||||||||||||
| Pardalotidae | ||||||||||||
| Strickland , 1842 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Pardalotus | ||||||||||||
| Vieillot , 1816 |
The panther birds ( Pardalotus ) are a genus of very small, colorful passerine birds that are native to Australia and Tasmania . It is the only genus of the family of the same name ( Pardalotidae ) and consists of four species. The scientific name "pardalotus" comes from the Greek and means "spotted". The habitat includes open woodland and forests that are predominantly dominated by eucalyptus .
features
The panther birds reach body lengths of 8.5 to 12 cm. Their bodies are small to very small, egg-shaped and stocky. The wings are long and pointed. The tail is short. The beak is short and strong. The head is big. The neck is short and thick. The legs are of medium length, the feet are strong. The plumage is colorful, usually with a white or yellow stripe over the eyes . The cap is black with white dashes or spots. The wings show a white speckled pattern and the body is tinted yellow in places.
Reproduction
Panther birds nest in holes in the ground or in trees. Your three to five eggs are incubated for 14 to 16 days. After about 25 days, the young birds fledge.
species
- Spotted panther bird ( Pardalotus punctatus )
- Red- browed panther bird ( Pardalotus rubricatus )
- Striped Panther Bird ( Pardalotus striatus )
- Tasman panther bird ( Pardalotus quadragintus )
Systematics
The Panther birds are the honey-eaters (Meliphagidae), paint birds (Dasyornithidae), the season tails (Maluridae) and acanthizidae related (Acanthizidae) and with these sometimes summarized to the superfamily Meliphagoidea. At times the family consisted of 16 genera with around 70 species, 15 of these genera are currently included in the family of the South Sea warblers. Panther birds and South Sea warblers are so different that priority is given to splitting them into two families.
literature
- Christopher Perrins: The Great Encyclopedia of Birds. Orbis-Verlag, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-572-00810-7 .
- Ken Simpson, Nikolas Day: Field Guide to the Birds of Australia a Book of Identification. 1984, ISBN 0-74703-023-5 .
- John Woinarski : Family Pardalotidae (Pardalotes). In: Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 13: Penduline-Tits to Shrikes. 2008, ISBN 978-84-96553-45-3 .
Web links
- World Bird Names Family Pardalotidae
- Integrated Taxonomic Information System Pardalotus
Individual evidence
- ^ F. Keith Barker, Alice Cibois, Peter A. Schikler, Julie Feinstein & Joel Cracraft: Phylogeny and diversification of the largest avian radiation . In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . tape 101 , no. 30 , 2004, pp. 11040-11045 , doi : 10.1073 / pnas.0401892101 , PMID 15263073 ( pnas.org [PDF]).