Yellow-headed rockhopper

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Yellow-headed rockhopper
Yellow-headed rockhopper

Yellow-headed rockhopper

Systematics
Order : Passerines (Passeriformes)
Subordination : Songbirds (passeri)
without rank: Passerida
Family : Rockhopper (Picathartidae)
Genre : Rockhopper ( Picathartes )
Type : Yellow-headed rockhopper
Scientific name
Picathartes gymnocephalus
( Temminck , 1825)

The yellow-headed rockhopper ( Picathartes gymnocephalus ), also called the white-necked wilted crow, is an endemic member of the rockhopper genus in West Africa .

Appearance

The birds have a black back, the belly and neck are white. The wings, beak, and tail feathers are black. The legs are colored gray. The featherless head is conspicuously bright yellow or slightly orange, in the rear part a large, black spot is visible on both sides. There is no such thing as sexual dimorphism . The young animals do not differ from the adult birds except for the yellow neck area. The animals weigh about 200-250 grams and are about 28-41 cm long.

Distribution and way of life

Yellow-headed rockhopper on the forest floor

The species is distributed in the Guinean forests of West Africa from Liberia , Sierra Leone , Guinea , the Ivory Coast to Ghana . The yellow-headed rockhopper searches for invertebrates, crustaceans, frogs and lizards on the ground. There it moves by hopping.

Distribution map of the Gelbkopf-Felshüpfer (pink) and the closely related Buntkopf-Felshüpfer (green)

The birds are usually very quiet and only occasionally chuckle, croak or moan. In the event of danger, however, they emit a rough alarm call ( chirrrr ). Their natural enemies are mainly snakes and birds of prey.

Reproduction

The bowl-shaped nests of these colony breeders consist of mud and plant fibers that are glued to a rock wall or a cave ceiling. The female lays 1–2 white eggs with brown and gray spots. The incubation period is between 20 and 25 days. After hatching, the young remain in the nest for up to 26 days and their parents only feed them with small animals such as insects and worms. Occasionally, conspecifics destroy nests that are too close to their own nesting site.

Hazards and protective measures

The yellow-headed rock hop is listed as endangered ("vulnerable") by the IUCN . The population is highly fragmented and the population density is low. The few known breeding colonies are isolated from one another, the progressive clearing of the rainforest increases the isolation and the species' habitat is also reduced. The main threats include the conversion of its habitat into agricultural land, as well as logging and the expansion of mining in the region. Occasionally birds are caught or their eggs are collected. To protect the species, among other things, breeding colonies are designated as protected areas and guarded during the breeding season.

literature

  • Christopher M. Perrins (Ed.): The FSVO encyclopedia birds of the world. Translated from the English by Einhard Bezzel. BLV, Munich / Vienna / Zurich 2004, ISBN 978-3-405-16682-3 , p. 515 (title of the English original edition: The New Encyclopedia Of Birds. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003).
  • Christopher M. Perrins: The Great Encyclopedia of Birds. From the English, Orbis-Verlag, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-572-00810-7 , pp. 275, 277.
  • Joseph Michael Forshaw (ed.), David Kirshner: Encyclopedia of the Wildlife: Birds. Translated from the English by Derek Vinyard. Orbis, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 978-3-572-01378-4 , p. 190.
  • The great world empire of animals Publisher: Planet Media AG, Zug 1992, page: 342,343 ISBN 3-8247-8614-1
  • David Burnie (Ed.), Mariele Radmacher-Martens: Animals: The large picture encyclopedia with over 2,000 species. Translated from the English by Gabriele Lehari. Dorling Kindersley, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-8310-2232-8 , p. 354.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Aalen, Frederick HA; Grainger, Matthew J .; Hibert, Fabrice; Hoffmann, Michael; Mallon, David P .; McGowan, Philip JK; Vliet, Nathalie van: An IUCN situation analysis of terrestrial and freshwater fauna in West and Central Africa (=  Occasional Paper of the IUCN Species Survival Commission . Volume 54 ). 2015, ISBN 978-2-8317-1721-0 , pp. 14 .
  2. ↑ White-necked Rockfowl BirdLife Species Factsheet

Web links

Commons : Yellow-headed rockhopper ( Picathartes gymnocephalus )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files