Giant elster
| Giant elster | ||||||||||||
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Giant Magpie ( Lonchura fringilloides ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Lonchura fringilloides | ||||||||||||
| ( Lafresnaye , 1835) |
The giant elster ( Lonchura fringilloides ), also called cowl elster , is one of the African bird species of the finch family . Together with the Kleinelsterchen and the Glanzelsterchen , it was previously classified in the genus of the Elsterchen ( Spermestes ). Today it is counted together with these species as a bronze male.
No subspecies are distinguished.
description
Giant elsters reach a body length of 11.5 to 12 centimeters, a wing length of 57 to 64 mm and a tail length of 33 to 40 mm. The beak is chunky and 15 to 16 mm long. The species has no sexual dimorphism .
The head, throat, neck, rump, and the upper tail-coverts of the giant elster are black with a bluish green sheen, the rest of the upper side is dark brown, the underside of the body is white. The strong beak is black-blue on top, light blue-gray on the underside with a blackish tip. The eyes are dark brown, the legs blue-gray to blackish.
Young birds are dark brown on the upper side of the body, the upper tail-coverts and the tail are brown-black. Nestlings show two parallel horseshoe-shaped drawings in the throat. The one on the outside is wider than the one on the inside.
Distribution area, habitat and way of life
The giant elster occurs in tropical Africa south of the Sahara on the edge of rain, secondary and gallery forests as well as in bamboo thickets, on banks overgrown with bushes and abandoned or neglected cultivated land. The range is not closed, the bird is nowhere common. In West Africa it has become a cultural successor and colonizes rice fields. In addition to rice grains, grass seeds, especially millet and various herbs are eaten. Giant magpies look for food less on the ground than other magpies. They are sociable and often spend the night in reeds in shared sleeping nests, a behavior that is unique among the fine finches. Your call is a double sound that sounds like "piu piu" or "djü djü".
Reproduction
The breeding season falls in the rainy season, in Central Africa breeding takes place all year round. Giant elsters are free breeders. Their round nest with a side entrance is usually built five to eleven meters above the ground in bamboo thickets or on trees at the edge of the forest. It consists of blades of grass or coarser material and looks quite dissolute. The female lays between four and six white-shelled eggs. They are incubated for about 13 days. The young birds leave the nest after three weeks and are then fed by the adults for another three weeks. At the age of three months, the plumage begins to change color to an old age dress.
source
- Heinrich Dathe : Handbook of the bird lover. Volume 2, VEB Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag.
Individual evidence
- ↑ BirdLife Factsheet , accessed July 23, 2010
Web links
- Spermestes fringilloides inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013.1. Listed by: BirdLife International, 2009. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings for Magpie Mannikin (Spermestes fringilloides) in the Internet Bird Collection