Papuan hornbill
| Papuan hornbill | ||||||||||
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Papuan maple bird, male |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Rhyticeros plicatus | ||||||||||
| ( JR Forster , 1781) |
The Papua hornbill ( Rhyticeros plicatus ) and Papua New hornbill written or Papua New Year bird called, is a species of bird in the family of hornbills , which is found in South Asia. Several subspecies are currently differentiated for this species, but some authors consider them to be island forms. Like all hornbills, it is a cave breeder.
The population of the Papuan maple bird was classified in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2016 as “ Least Concern (LC) ” = “not endangered”.
features
The Papuan hornbill reaches a body length between 60 and 65 centimeters. The beak in the males reaches a length between 18.3 and 24 centimeters. In the females, the beak is smaller and has a length of 15 to 16.8 centimeters. The weight of this hornbill species is between 1500 and 2000 grams. The sexual dimorphism is comparatively strong for a hornbill.
Characteristics of the male
The male's neck and head are reddish-brown, the color varies depending on the subspecies or island shape from a honey yellow to a strong orange-red. The body plumage and wings are black, the plumage on the top of the body shimmers metallic green. The tail is white. The beak is pale yellow with a dark red-brown base. The beak horn is also dark red-brown with a strong corrugation on the upper side of the horn. The bare skin around the eye is pale blue, the eyelids are flesh-colored. The bare throat patch is white with a bluish tinge, the eyes are red to red-brown, the feet and legs are black.
Features of the female and young birds
The adult females are smaller than the males and have black head and neck plumage. The eyes are brown and not red or maroon like the male.
In the young birds, both sexes initially show a body plumage that resembles the male. Adolescent females later molt into the dark neck and head plumage, as is typical for adult females.
Young birds are also initially characterized by a smaller beak and a barely developed beak horn. The beak is pale yellow with a brown tint at the base of the beak. The bare skin of the face is pale blue, the eyes are gray-brown.
Characteristics of the individual subspecies or island forms
The Papuan hornbill occurs in addition to New Guinea on a number of islands to the west and east of New Guinea. The individual island populations differ from one another by their body size and the color of the cervical and head plumage in the male. Basically the forms with a dark red-brown neck plumage are found in the west of the distribution area. In the east of the range, Papuan hornbills are largest. The neck and head plumage of the males is the lightest here, the tint here reaches a honey-yellow color.
The following subspecies are distinguished.
- R. p. plicatus (Forster, 1781) - The nominate form lives on Seram and Ambon . The male has strong red-brown neck and head plumage.
- R. p. ruficollis (Vieillot, 1816) - West of New Guinea and the adjacent islands of Morotai , Halmahera . Bacan , Kasiruta , Obi Islands , Misool , Salawati , Batanta , Gam and Waigeo . The head and neck of the male are golden reddish brown.
- R. p. jungei Mayr, 1937 - East of New Guinea. The head and neck of the male are colored red gold.
- R. p. dampieri Mayr, 1934 - Islands of the Bismarck Archipelago . The head and neck of the male are yellowish in color.
- R. p. harterti Mayr, 1934 - Western Solomon Islands ( Buka , Bougainville , Fauro and Shorland). The head and neck of the male are colored golden yellow.
- R. p. mendanae Hartert, 1924 - Southern Solomon Islands ( Choiseul , Vangunu , Malaita and Guadalcanal ). The head and neck of the male are intensely golden yellow in color.
Distribution area
The range of the Papuan maple bird is the east of Indonesia. The distribution right here from 24 islands of the Moluccas in the west over New Guinea to the Bismarck archipelago and the Solomon Islands in the east.
The Papuan hornbill colonizes evergreen primary and secondary forests in this range. It colonizes forests in the lowlands and occasionally occurs at altitudes of 1500 meters. In some regions of its distribution area it is still common. In New Guinea it is not considered common anymore. It is particularly heavily hunted in eastern Papua New Guinea and is believed to have died out on the deforested areas of the island of Ambon.
Way of life
The Papuan hornbill lives solitary, in pairs or in small groups. However, occasionally several hundred birds of this species rest in communal nocturnal resting places and in the early morning hours it can occasionally be observed that up to 45 individuals leave these nocturnal resting places together.
The Papuan hornbill lives mainly on fruits, but has already been seen catching crabs on a beach.
The reproductive biology of the Papuan maple has not been conclusively investigated. As is typical for hornbills, however, it is a cave breeder that nests in tree hollows.
Papuan hornbill and human
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The Papuan hornbill plays a major role in the traditional rituals of the Iatmul , but also of other ethnic groups in Papua New Guinea. The Iatmul are a large ethnic group in Papua New Guinea. Their settlement area lies along the middle Sepik . Carved representations of the head and beak can often be found on house altars or on roof ridges. Some men even used the Papuan maple's beak as a penis sheath . The sharp lower beak was also used as a spearhead.
The Papuan hornbill is revered by the people's hunters, among other things, because it is said to be able to chop off the heads of fruit pigeons. It is hunted for food and as a trophy. The skeletonized bird's head is often worn as an ornament, and killing a Papuan maple bird has long been considered comparable to killing an enemy and played a similar role in the ritual of manhood.
literature
- Mark Cocker, David Tipling: Birds and People . Jonathan Cape, London 2013, ISBN 978-0-224-08174-0 .
- W. Grummt , H. Strehlow (Ed.): Zoo animal keeping birds. Verlag Harri Deutsch, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-8171-1636-2 .
- Alan Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1995, ISBN 0-19-857729-X .
Web links
- Rhyticeros plicatus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2012. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2012. Accessed October 30, 2016th
- Calls of the Papuan maple on Xeno-Canto
Single receipts
- ↑ a b Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes . P. 225.
- ↑ Rhyticeros plicatus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2016 Posted by: BirdLife International, 2016. Retrieved on 3 October 2017th
- ↑ a b c Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes . P. 226.
- ↑ a b Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes . P. 224.
- ↑ Cocker, Tipling: Birds and People . P. 328