Black-fronted ringed plover

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Black-fronted ringed plover
Black-fronted Ringed Plover (Elseyornis melanops)

Black- fronted Ringed Plover ( Elseyornis melanops )

Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Plover-like (Charadriiformes)
Family : Plover (Charadriidae)
Genre : Elseyornis
Type : Black-fronted ringed plover
Scientific name
Elseyornis melanops
( Vieillot , 1818)
Black-fronted ringed plover, Australia
Black-fronted ringed plover
Black-fronted plover

The black- headed ringed plover ( Elseyornis melanops ) is a species of bird from the plover family (Charadriidae) within the order of the plover-like .

It is the only species of the monotypical genus Elseyornis . The species was first described in 1818 by Louis Pierre Vieillot as Charadrius melanops .

features

anatomy

The black-fronted plover becomes 16 to 18 centimeters long and weighs 30 to 35 g. The wingspan is 33 to 35 cm. There is no gender dimorphism .

Adult birds

The black-fronted ringed plover has a conspicuous pattern on the front body and can therefore hardly be confused with other species. The top of the head is mostly brown with light brown dots. This is followed by a white stripe above the eyes and a white neck. A wide black eye stripe runs from the beak over the face to the neck. There is a junction with the eye stripe on the other half of the face. The forehead and the middle of the front upper head are also black, the lower part of the face, chin and throat are white.

The lower body is white, a black, V-shaped chest band that narrows along the upper sides of the chest and extends to the nape of the neck. Mantle and outer shoulder feathers are dashed yellow-brown to light brown and dark brown. The arm and hand wings are darker with a short white wing band at the base of the inner hand wings. The inner shoulder feathers are colored red-brown to purple and form a dark shoulder patch. The rump and the upper tail-coverts are colored red-brown, the tail is black with white edges. The long legs are cream to orange or pink. The bare red eye ring that surrounds the eye with a black-brown iris is striking . The beak is red with a black tip.

Fledglings

When young, the plumage is noticeably paler and less patterned. The facial drawing is dark brown and blurred into a white-gray stripe over the eyes. The underside is white, the chest band is weak and grayish. The top is light brown and looks flaky because of the light feather edges. The shoulder strap is missing. The black at the tip of the beak is more extensive and the edge is not clearly separated from the rest of the beak color. The eye ring is either invisible or thin and pale pink.

The dark chest band is easy to see in flight. The top of the tail is black with a white border. The feet do not protrude beyond the tip of the tail in flight.

Way of life

The black-headed ringed plover occurs singly, in pairs or in groups of up to 100 birds in freshwater. Its diet consists of molluscs , crustaceans , insects and occasionally seeds . It breeds in the Australian spring and summer, between July and May. The nest is a shallow hollow in the ground, sometimes lined with twigs, mussel shells or stones. Distracting behavior is shown towards intruders in the breeding area. An adult bird, pretending to be injured with one or both wings hanging down, runs loudly in front of the intruder and leads him away from the brood.

Habitat and Distribution

Freshwater bodies of all kinds are populated, even far inland, for example swamps, lakes and reservoirs. Occasionally, the black- fronted plover can also be seen in brackish or salty wetlands. The subsoil does not matter, it occurs both on muddy surfaces and on scree banks. In Australia it is common everywhere except in western central Australia. It is also found on the surrounding islands such as Kangaroo Island and the Torres Strait Islands . In New Zealand , the black-headed plover has established itself as a breeding bird after natural immigration, both on the North and South Island.

literature

  • Geering, Agnew, Harding: Shorebirds of Australia . CSIRO Publishing, 2007, ISBN 0643092269

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Kerrylee Rogers, Tim Ralph: Floodplain Wetland Biota in the Murray-Darling Basin. CSIRO Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-0643096288 , p. 184.

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