Mascarene bird of flight
| Mascarene bird of flight | ||||||||||||
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Mascarene flight bird ( Hypsipetes borbonicus ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Hypsipetes borbonicus | ||||||||||||
| ( JR Forster , 1781) |
The Réunion Bulbul ( Hypsipetes borbonicus ), also called Réunionbülbül referred to, is a bird art from the kind of escape birds , on the island Reunion is endemic.
description
It looks similar to the Mauritiusbülbül , but is slightly smaller at 22 cm. It is mostly ash gray with a black hood . The iris is strikingly white. The bill and feet have an orange-red tint.
Way of life
It is primarily a fruit eater and especially in February and March it comes from the high altitudes, where it occurs in the secondary forests, into the valleys and feeds on the ripe guavas . Nectar, insects and small lizards enrich his diet. During the southern summer the female lays two eggs in a cone-shaped nest.
Danger
Its population has fallen sharply due to competition with the Rotohrbülbül and poaching. In the early days of Réunion, it was hunted and served on festive occasions as a delicacy comparable to the ortolan . As recently as the 1970s, the country's hunting and nature conservation authorities classified it as a hunting bird. It is also kept as a cage bird.
literature
- Staub, France (1976), Birds of the Mascarenes and Saint Brandon , LABAMA HOUSE, Port Louis, Mauritius
Web links
- Hypsipetes borbonicus inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017.1. Listed by: BirdLife International, 2016. Retrieved July 10, 2017.