Dovetail
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Swallowtail moth ( Merops hirundineus ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Merops hirundineus | ||||||||||||
| Lichtenstein , 1793 |
The swallowtail pint ( Merops hirundineus ) is a species of bird from the bee-eater family (Meropidae). It breeds in the savanna forests of sub-Saharan Africa .
features
Like other bee-eaters, the swallowtail hermitage is an extremely colorful, slender bird; the color of his plumage and his clearly recognizable forked tail make him unmistakable. With a green base color, it has a yellow throat, a blue ring collar and a black eye stripe. The beak is also black. It reaches a length of 20–22 cm including the long, green or blue tail feathers. The two sexes are alike. The females are a little paler, the ring collar is narrower and the tail is less forked. The neck of young birds is whitish, the ring collar is missing and the tail is less forked. In Merops hirundineus heuglini , the ring collar is a little darker blue than in the subspecies further south .
Way of life
Unlike most other bee-eaters, the mongoose-tailed moth prefers wooded areas. You can just approach it. As the name suggests, bee-eaters prefer to feed on insects, especially bees , wasps and hornets , which are captured from high-seat hunting in the air. The pancake has a predilection for honey bees . The birds often hunt in troops and there are communal roosts.
Reproduction
Swallowtail spiders nest in pairs or in very small colonies on sandy river banks or on similarly flat ground. Here at the end of the dry season they dig a relatively long tunnel in which they lay 2 or 4 spherical white eggs. They fledge before the first rain begins.
Systematics
There are four subspecies:
- Merops hirundineus chrysolaimus Jardine & Selby , 1830 - East Senegal to North Central African Republic .
- Merops hirundineus heuglini ( Neumann , 1906) - Northeast Zaire , North Uganda , South Sudan and Southwest Ethiopia .
- Merops hirundineus furcatus Stanley , 1814 - South Zaire, North Tanzania and Southeast Kenya to Angola and Mozambique .
- Merops hirundineus hirundineus - South Angola, Southwest Zambia and West Zimbabwe to southern South Africa (Cape Province).
literature
- Clive Barlow, Tim Wacher, Tony Disley: Birds of the Gambia and Senegal. Christopher Helm Publishers, Incorporated, 2005, ISBN 0-7136-7549-7 .
Web links
- Merops hirundineus inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2011.1. Listed by: BirdLife International, 2009. Retrieved July 20, 2011.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Swallow-tailed Bee-eater (Merops hirundineus) in the Internet Bird Collection
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Clive Barlow, Tim Wacher, Tony Disley: Birds of the Gambia and Senegal. Christopher Helm Publishers, Incorporated, 2005, ISBN 0-7136-7549-7 .
- ↑ Terry Stevenson, John Fanshawe: Birds of East Africa. Christopher Helm Verlag, 2004, ISBN 978-0713673470 , p. 230.
- ↑ Nigel Redman, John Fanshawe, Terry Stevenson: Birds of the Horn of Africa: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Socotra. Christopher Helm Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-0713665413 , p. 246.
- ↑ Videos, photos and sound recordings of Swallow-tailed Bee-eater (Merops hirundineus) in the Internet Bird Collection