Dandruff
| Dandruff | ||||||||||||
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Dandruff |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Sporopipes frontalis | ||||||||||||
| ( Daudin , 1800) |
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The scaly head ( Sporopipes frontalis ) is a species of bird from the family of weaver birds (Ploceidae). It occurs with three subspecies in dry areas of Africa . Its distribution area extends from Senegal to Ethiopia and northern and central Tanzania . The distribution area is disjoint (not related).
features
The scalp is a small, sparrow-like, grayish bird that reaches a length of 11.5 to 13 centimeters. The crown and forehead are dotted black and white. The neck is brown, the back ash-gray, the underside whitish-gray. The eyes are brown, the beak horn-colored, legs and feet brownish-pink. The neck of the young birds is yellow-brown.
The dandruff can be confused with the brown cheek mahali , which differs from the dandruff in that it has a chestnut brown skull and chestnut ear covers.
Vocalizations
It has several calls, including a “tsip-tsip-tsip-tsip” during the flight, as well as a thin, somewhat faster “tsitsitsi tea-tea-tea-tea-tea-tea”.
Distribution and subspecies
The distribution of the scalp extends over large parts of sub-Saharan Africa . It stretches from Mauritania to Ethiopia and Eritrea and southward, leaving out the Congo Basin , to central Tanzania. Three subspecies are described, of which S. f. emini occurs in East Africa, from Sudan and Ethiopia to northern and central Tanzania.
Way of life
Scale heads live in bushland and open savannah between 400 and 2000 m altitude, especially in arid areas. They are relatively common in the vicinity of villages. In the Sahel , they are particularly common in areas with acacias and toothbrush trees. They look for their food on the ground and are often associated with fine finches . Their diet consists of seeds and, to a lesser extent, small insects. On the floor, they hop around. Outside the breeding season, the birds wander around in small groups, usually five to ten and rarely twenty individuals.
Reproduction
When they breed, they build large, untidy nests of grass in low acacias that have a porch-like porch over the entrance. They either breed individually or in small colonies. The breeding pairs are monogamous, in the immediate vicinity of the nest the female is the more dominant partner bird. The male only slips into the nest in their absence. Males kept in captivity are very aggressive at the time of pair formation and peck male conspecifics on the neck and beard strip.
The nest is a ball nest with a side entrance. The outer nest material, which mostly consists of dry blades of grass, is only loosely built, the actual nest hollow is laid out with finer plant material. In the north of their range, the clutch usually consists of only two eggs; further south, clutches usually consist of three to four eggs. The eggs are pale gray with dark spots. In the case of scaly heads kept in captivity, only the female brooded. The tree hop is one of the species of birds that occasionally invade the nests to eat the eggs.
literature
- C. Hilary Fry and Stuart Keith (Eds.): The Birds of Africa. Volume VII. Christopher Helm, London 2004, ISBN 0-7136-6531-9 .
- Dale A. Zimmerman, Donald A. Turner, David J. Pearson: Birds of Kenya & Northern Tanzania. A & C Black Publisher, 1996, ISBN 0713639687
- JG Williams, N. Arlott: Birds of East Africa. Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 0-00-219179-2
Individual evidence
Web links
- Sporopipes frontal in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2009. Retrieved on October 1 of 2010.
- Avibase: Scale heads ( Sporopipes frontalis )
- Videos, photos and sound recordings on Sporopipes frontalis in the Internet Bird Collection