Madagascar paradise flycatcher
| Madagascar paradise flycatcher | ||||||||||||
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Madagascar paradise flycatcher |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Terpsiphone mutata | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1766) |
The Madagascar Paradise Flycatcher ( Terpsiphone mutata ) is a species of bird from the monarch family that is endemic to Madagascar and the Comoros . It is also called the Red Breast Paradise Flycatcher.
description
The Madagascar Paradise Flycatcher is a small bird and weighs only 13 grams. He shows a strong gender dimorphism . Females are rust-red, the head above the eyes is black. Around the eyes they have a zone of bare, blue skin less than a millimeter wide. In the male, the bare, blue ring around the eyes is up to three millimeters wide. Its tail has a length of up to 27 centimeters due to the middle white, long feathers. They come in two color forms, one rust-red and one with black and white plumage. In rare cases there are also females whose middle tail feathers are up to six centimeters longer than the other tail feathers.
Distribution and subspecies
The Madagascar paradise flycatcher has six subspecies, four of which inhabit one of the four Comoros islands.
- Terpsiphone mutata mutata , Madagascar
- Terpsiphone mutata singetra , Madagascar
- Terpsiphone mutata comorensis , Grande Comore
- Terpsiphone mutata pretiosa , Mayotte
- Terpsiphone mutata voeltzkowiana , Mohéli
- Terpsiphone mutata vulpina , Anjouan
On Madagascar and the closest island of Mayotte both color forms appear in male birds, on the other islands only the rust-red color. The birds inhabit forests of all kinds including secondary forests , plantations, and gardens. In the central highlands they go up to heights of 2000 meters.
nutrition
The paradise flycatcher feed on small flying insects such as mosquitoes, butterflies and moths. Like all monarchs, they have small bristles on the base of their beak, which form a kind of basket when the beak is open.
Reproduction
Madagascar Paradise Flycatchers breed during the rainy season from September to January. Both parents build the cup-shaped nest from thin blades of grass and cobwebs, which is six to seven centimeters in diameter. It is usually built in shrubs and trees at heights of one to four meters. Nest building takes between three days and a week. Usually three eggs are laid. The eggs are white with small brown dots, their dimensions are 13-14 mm x 18-19 mm. Both parents incubate for 14 to 16 days, the young leave the nest after ten to eleven days. Most pairs have two broods per season.
literature
- RA Mulder, R. Ramiarison: Terpsiphone mutata, Madagascar Paradise Flycatcher. In: Steven M. Goodman, Jonathan P. Benstead, Harald Schütz: The Natural History of Madagascar. University of Chicago Press, ISBN 022-630307-1 .
Web links
- Videos, photos and sound recordings on Terpsiphone mutata in the Internet Bird Collection
- Terpsiphone mutata inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved February 2, 2014.