South bush owl
| South bush owl | ||||||||||
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South bush owl |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Ptilopsis granti | ||||||||||
| ( Kollibay , 1910) |
The Südbüscheleule or Southern Weißgesichtseule ( Ptilopsis granti ) is a diminutive kind from the family of authentics owl (Strigidae).
etymology
The generic name is derived from the Greek words πτιλον ptilon 'feather' and οψις opsis 'face'. The species name is dedicated to the Scottish ornithologist William Robert Ogilvie-Grant , who was the first to perceive the southern white-faced owl as an independent taxon . (see taxonomic history ).
Characteristics and behavior
It reaches a body length of 24 to 28 centimeters, a wingspan of 60 to 66 centimeters (individual wing length approx. 20 centimeters) and a weight of 190 to 275 grams. Males are usually a little smaller and lighter than females.
Outwardly, the southern white-faced owl is very similar to its sister species, the northern white-faced owl ( Ptilopsis leucotis ): The plumage is generally brownish-gray, the face light gray to white with a conspicuous black border. The ear tufts (giving the genus its name) are also striking and long. In a large part of the cover plumage, the feathers have a dark shaft and a dark horizontal dash of the flag. The wing and tail feathers are characterized by a pattern of wide light and dark horizontal stripes. It differs from its northern sister species mainly acoustically, through its different reputation.
Like most owls , the southern white-faced owl is nocturnal .
In case of danger, the southern white-faced owl either fluff itself up to appear larger (with slightly larger enemies), or it freezes, stretches, lays all plumage close to the body (including the head plumage, which, among other things, is responsible for the typically broad and flat " Owl face "is responsible) and draws the eyes together to narrow slits, so that their body, supported by the plumage, resembles a stump of a branch (in the case of significantly larger enemies).
Life expectancy in the wild is approx. 8 years and in captivity approx. 10 years, in exceptional cases up to 30 years.
distribution and habitat
The southern white-faced owl is distributed over large parts of sub-Saharan Africa south of the equator. It prefers open, but still with trees and bushes, of savannahs and light dry forests and avoids deserts and dense forests.
nutrition
As food, it preyes on large insects and their larvae , spiders , scorpions , small reptiles , birds and small mammals . Like in fact all owls, she is an outright hide hunter, whose sense of sight and hearing is very highly developed.
Reproduction
The southern white-faced owl is strictly monogamous . Eggs are preferably laid in July and August. The clutch, which consists of two to four eggs, is incubated in a tree hole or in abandoned nests of small birds of prey for about 30 days. In this species of owl, the male animal also breeds at times. For the first few weeks after hatching, the chicks are fed exclusively by the male.
Systematics and taxonomic history
The southern white-faced owl was named as the subspecies Pisorhina leucotis granti I by the German ornithologist Paul Kollibay in 1910 with the intention of eliminating nomenclature problems . Kollibay gave the new name because the epithet Erlangeri II used by William Robert Ogilvie-Grant in 1906 for this subspecies he recognized was already in 1904 by Victor von Tschusi zu Schmidhoffen to a subspecies of the same genus ( Pisorhina scops erlangeri ) of the scops owl ( today Otus scops ) was taken.
According to kinship analyzes based on comparisons of the mitochondrial gene cytochrome b, the white-faced owls are more closely related to the eared owls ( Asio ) III than to the scops owls ( Otus ), in which they were kept until the 1990s. Therefore they are now placed in their own genus ( Ptilopsis ) IV .
The taxonomic status of the southern white-faced owl is still unclear today. Traditionally it is still considered a subspecies of the white-faced owl ( Ptilopsis leucotis , formerly Otus leucotis ). The demarcation as a separate species was made because the calls within the subspecies Otus leucotis granti were found to have such a high geographical variability as was otherwise within the species Otus leucotis as a criterion for distinguishing between subspecies. The separation as a separate species is not generally recognized.
Remarks
- IIFull trinomal in Ogilvie-Grant: Scops leucotis erlangeri , although at this point in time it was warned that Scops Savigny , 1809 as the name for the owl genus, was a younger homonym of Scops Brünnich , 1772, which means the hammer head ( Scopus Brisson , 1760) (Kollibay erroneously assumed homonymy with a fish species). Although it is unclear whether Brno ego use of the name "Scops" given the similarity with Brisson "Scopus" just a mistake and was not intended as a nomenclatural act, it was Savigny's name at the beginning of the 20th century already a synonym of Otus and is generally recognized as such today.
- IIIAs early as the beginning of the 20th century, authors placed the white-faced owls in the Asio genus .
- IV Ptilopsis was built in 1851 by Johann Jakob Kaup for the north bush owl (today Ptilopsis leucotis ) and the Philippines-necked owl (today Otus megalotis ) and was meanwhile considered a younger synonym of Otus .
literature
- Claus König, Friedhelm Weick: Owls of the World. Christopher Helm Publishers, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-7136-6548-2 , p. 233 ff.
- Josep del Hoyo , Andrew Elliott, Jordi Sargatal: Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 5: Barn-owls to Hummingbirds. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 1999, ISBN 978-8-4873-3425-2 .
Web links
- Ptilopsis granti in the Red List of Threatened Species of IUCN , 2015. Posted by: BirdLife International,, 2014.
- Ptilopsis granti - southern white-faced owl , animaldiversity.org (English)
- Ptilopsis granti (Southern white-faced scops-owl, White-faced owl) , biodiversityexplorer.org (Iziko Museums) (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ James A. Jobling: Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm, London 2010, ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4 . , P. 323.
- ↑ a b c d e Paul Kollibay: Pisorhina leucotis granti nom.nov. Ornithological monthly reports. 18th year, 1910, pp. 148–149 ( archive.org )
- ↑ Michael Wink, Petra Heidrich: Molecular systematics of owls (Strigiformes) based on DNA sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. Pp. 819-828 in RD Chancellor, B.-U. Meyburg (Ed.): Raptors at Risk - Proceedings of the 5th World Conference on Birds of Prey and Owls, August 1998, Midrand, South Africa. World Working Group on Birds of Prey and Owls, 2000, ISBN 0-88839-478-0
- ↑ Michael Wink, Hedwig Sauer-Gürth, Marc Fuchs: Phylogenetic Relationships in owls based on nucleotide sequences of mitochondrial and nuclear marker genes. Pp. 517-526 in RD Chancellor, B.-U. Meyburg (Ed.): Raptors Worldwide - Proceedings of the 6th World Conference on Birds of Prey and Owls, May 2003, Budapest, Hungary. World Working Group on Birds of Prey and Owls, 2004, ISBN 963-86418-1-9
- ↑ Donald A. Turner, David J. Pearson: Systematic and taxonomic issues concerning some East African bird species, notably those where treatment varies between authors. Scopus. Vol. 34, 2015, pp. 1–23 ( online )
- ^ Anton Reichenow: About Scops Sav. and Pisorhina Kaup. Ornithological monthly reports. 8th year, 1900, p. 68 ( BHL )
- ^ Witmer Stone: On the generic names of the North American owls. The Auk. Vol. 20, No. 3, 1903, pp. 272-276, doi: 10.2307 / 4069790
- ^ Johann Jakob Kaup: Defense of my system of falcons and owls against the Conspectus of Prince Ch. Bonaparte. Natural history archive. Vol. 17, 1851, pp. 75-115 ( BHL ), p. 106.