Black-bellied Amaranth
| Black-bellied Amaranth | ||||||||||||
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Black-bellied Amaranth |
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| Lagonosticta rara | ||||||||||||
| ( Antinori , 1864) |
The black- bellied amaranth ( Lagonosticta rara ), also called rare amaranth or black-bellied amaranth , is an African species from the finch family. Two subspecies are distinguished for the species.
description
The black-bellied amaranth has a matt burgundy plumage. The reins of the eyes, the rump and the tail-coverts are scarlet. The eyes are dark brown, the tail is blackish, with the sides of the lower mandible being coral red. The plumage of the females is brownish.
Distribution and way of life
The black-bellied amaranth occurs in a broad band from the east in the southeast of Senegal to the west of Kenya. The subspecies L. r. forbesi occurs from southeast Senegal via Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone and the savannah areas of Nigeria. The distribution area of the nominate form L. r. rara stretches from northern Cameroon to the far north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, southwest Sudan, Uganda and western Kenya.
Black-bellied marants live individually or in pairs and can also be observed in family groups and larger swarms after the end of the breeding season. Occasionally it is associated with the dark red amaranth . Their habitat are grasslands of the northern Guinea savannah as well as rocky terrain and loose bushland. They are also found in gallery forests and on cultivated land. Their diet consists mainly of grass seeds as well as insects and other small organisms during the breeding season. The breeding season in Nigeria falls between July and November, while in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo it falls between September and November. The clutch consists of three to four eggs. Both sexes breed.
The breeding parasite of the black-bellied marant is the Cameroon widow ( Vidua camerunensis ).
attitude
The black-bellied amaranth was first imported in 1903. After that it remained a rarity in the trade for a long time. It is only in the last few years that black-bellied marants have entered the market regularly. They have been bred regularly by a circle of lovers for some time.
supporting documents
literature
- Jürgen Nicolai , Joachim Steinbacher (eds.); Renate van den Elzen, Gerhard Hofmann, Claudia Mettke-Hofmann: Magnificent finches - Africa. Series Manual of Bird Care. Eugen Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8001-4964-3 .
Single receipts
Web links
- Lagonosticta rara inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013.1. Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved October 9, 2013.