Red head amadine
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Red head amadine ( Amadina erythrocephala ) |
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| Amadina erythrocephala | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The red head amadine ( Amadina erythrocephala ), also known as paradise amadine, is an African species from the finch family . It is a species whose social behavior depends on its habitat. In extremely arid regions, redhead amadines have a very strong need to socialize and are in many ways reminiscent of Australian fine fin cards. In the more humid regions of the distribution area, group cohesion is somewhat looser. There also single pairs or small groups without connection to a swarm are observed.
description
Red-headed amadines reach a body length of up to fourteen centimeters and thus belong to the rather large species of finch.
The male has a red head and face color. The back is dusty gray to gray-brown, the rump is banded slightly dark across. In some individuals the feathers even have red feather hems at this point. The wings are gray-brown, with the small upper wing-coverts having light feather tips. The large elytra - apart from the palm - also have small whitish tip spots. The wings have narrow, light outer hems, the arm wings even have wide white lace hems. The throat is whitish to light gray. The breast is whitish with a scaly black-brown transverse banding. On the back of the chest, front stomach and sides of the body, redhead amadines have large, white teardrop spots that are bordered in black due to the drawing of the feathers.
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The red head and face color is missing in the female. The corresponding places are pinnate gray-brown in her. The light spots on the underside are also much smaller and less strongly set off in the female than in the male.
In both sexes, the eyes are brown, the beak is pale horn-colored, and the legs and feet are flesh-colored.
The plumage shows great individual and age variability. Nevertheless, two subspecies are distinguished. The subspecies Amadina erythrocephala dissata differs from the nominate form A. e. erythrocephala by a richer and more intense red in the male. The dorsal plumage is also significantly grayer and the females are overall purer brown-gray than in the nominate form.
Way of life
The breeding season of the red headed amadines depends on the rainfall, as this determines the food supply. Correspondingly, this species of finch breeds irregularly.
Red headed amadins very rarely build their own nests, but prefer to breed in the empty nests of sparrows and weavers. Be used, among other things, the nests of Cape Sparrow , rust Sperling , Masked Weaver , buffalo weaver and in rarer cases, from the little swift . The nesting site is chosen jointly by the males and females. Usually two to six pairs go looking for nesting sites together. The birds seem to recognize each other personally, as foreign pairs not belonging to this flock are immediately driven away. The members of such a brood community often sit next to each other to groom or scratch each other. Such breeding communities are part of a swarm, at least in the distinctly arid regions, to which they do not give up the connection even during the breeding season.
Red-headed amadins show a pronounced need to socialize, especially in arid regions. In the Kalahari, breeding communities have been observed that brood at distances of several kilometers from a watering hole. A flock of non-breeding adult and young birds stayed at the waterhole permanently. The members of the various breeding communities stayed with the swarm when they were not breeding, clustering or feeding. They also accepted that they had to cover long distances to feed the young birds. This also applied if there was sufficient food in the immediate vicinity of the nest.
The clutch of the red head amadine consists of two to seven, but mostly four to five eggs. They are incubated for twelve to fourteen days. Both parent birds breed and often sit together in the nest at night. The nestling period is 22 to 25 days. The young birds are independent after another three weeks. In the first few days they are still in the nest tree or in its immediate vicinity. While the parent birds are looking for food, the young birds sit almost immobile inside the treetop or a dense bush. They react immediately to the returning parent birds with loud begging cries. In the evening they are brought back to the nest by the parent birds to spend the night together.
Distribution area and habitat
The distribution area of the red head amadine is southwest Africa. The habitat are semi-deserts and thorn-bush steppes. After the breeding season, the species roams widely within the distribution area.
Apart from the African silver beak, the red-headed amadine penetrates the farthest of all African finches into semi-desert-like biotopes. However, she always stays near water. It occurs in the Kalahari , on the edge of the deserts in Botswana and in dry sand steppes with very isolated groups of trees and shrubs. In the Kalahari, flocks of red headed amadines, comprising hundreds of birds, can be seen near waterholes. The red head amadine, however, prefers somewhat more densely overgrown tree and thorn bush steppe in the rest of its range. It also colonizes open cultivated land, but behaves quite shyly towards people.
attitude
It is not known when red head amadines were first imported into Europe, but the first import certainly took place in the 18th century. Louis Pierre Vieillot is considered to be the one who probably already bred this species successfully in the second half of the 18th century. In the 19th century they were shown at exhibitions in France, England and Holland several times. In Germany, red-headed amadins seem to have been kept as ornamental birds only in the second half of the 19th century. Since the beginning of the 20th century, they have been on the market with little interruption, albeit not as frequently as the bandamadines belonging to the same genus .
For a species-appropriate keeping in aviaries is necessary, otherwise they are considered easy to keep birds that are also very trusting. Depending on the population, size of the aviary, plants and hiding places, however, they show incompatible behavior during the breeding season.
supporting documents
literature
- Horst Bielfeld : Knowing and caring for 300 ornamental birds. Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-8001-5737-2 .
- Jürgen Nicolai (Ed.), Joachim Steinbacher (Ed.), Renate van den Elzen, Gerhard Hofmann, Claudia Mettke-Hofmann: Prachtfinken - Afrika , Series Handbuch der Vogelpflege, Eugen Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8001- 4964-3
Web links
- Videos, photos and sound recordings on Amadina erythrocephala in the Internet Bird Collection
- Amadina erythrocephala inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved November 24, 2013.