Silk singer

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Silk singer
37-090505-cettis-warbler-at-Kalloni-east-river.jpg

Silk warbler ( Cettia cetti )

Systematics
Order : Passerines (Passeriformes)
Subordination : Songbirds (passeri)
Superfamily : Sylvioidea
Family : Singer are related (Cettiidae)
Genre : Cettia
Type : Silk singer
Scientific name
Cettia cetti
( Temminck , 1820)
Silk warbler in the Albufera Nature Park on Mallorca
Distribution area of ​​the silk warbler. Orange: breeding areas. Blue: areas are cleared in winter

The silk warbler ( Cettia cetti ) is a small insectivorous songbird from the superfamily of warbler relatives (Sylvioidea). According to recent comparisons of the DNA , the species over the genus and its name is type of the family Cettiidae with currently 32 species.

description

Silkworms are 13-14 cm long inconspicuous songbirds. According to their external characteristics, they can be confused with the Reed Warbler or the Reed Swirl , but appear more compact than these due to their short neck. The beak is pointed, the tail is broad, the wings are strongly rounded. The upper side is red-brown to brownish, the underside dirty gray-white with brownish tones in the area of ​​the flanks and belly, the eye stripe is narrow and looks washed out, but is longer than that of the reed warbler and reed warbler. Both sexes are outwardly the same.

voice

The clearest characteristics are the unmistakable chants, which are performed in series of sudden, loud metallic outbursts that end just as abruptly. Although the name Cettia cetti refers to the Italian zoologist Francesco Cetti , it can also be understood onomatopoeic , as the birds are rhythmic to her Sing specific epithet Cetti , which is pronounced 'chetty': “The hit? What is the name of the? … Cetti, Cetti-Cetti… that's it. ”Wherever they are annual birds, the males sing all year round, although less in July and August.

Habitat and nutrition

Silkworms inhabit dense shrubbery near the water with cover plants such as reeds , willows , bamboo , papyrus , hawthorn , blackberries and nettles . They feed mainly on insects and their larvae , spiders , small snails and other smaller molluscs, but also occasionally eat plant seeds. Although they rarely leave the dense, humid tangle of vegetation along watercourses, canals or ditches, they climb low in bushes to feed and run on the ground.

Breeding biology

Silkwanger's eggs

In summer, the male spends the majority of the time marking his territory acoustically from cover against rivals and thereby attracting up to three females. It moves very lively in the bushes, often twitches its wings and tail and stilts its tail like a wren does. The male dies at the same time up to three brood marriages in his territory. He does not participate in nest building and hatching business. In Europe there is usually one brood in mid-April and a second in June. To do this, the female builds a bowl-shaped nest from stalks with an outer diameter of about 9 cm and a height of 7-13 cm at a height of less than half a meter in the vegetation. The female alone incubates three to five oval, dark orange to brownish red eggs for 13-17 days. The male occasionally takes part in the rearing of the young birds, which fledge after 14-16 days.

Distribution areas

Silkworms are annual birds in the Mediterranean area. They occur in Morocco , Spain , from southern France via Italy , Greece and Western Asia to northern Iran and northern Afghanistan and reach Kazakhstan and Central Asia in the east . In the Caucasus they are breeding birds and migrate westward in winter.

Breeding advances

Although they are resident birds in Europe , their distribution areas are regularly expanded to Central Europe. Starting from southern France, the silk warbler regularly increased its range to the north. In 1973 the first broods were noticed in Great Britain, in 1975 the first brood occurrences in Germany and Switzerland. In 1977 60 breeding pairs were found in the Netherlands, then 10–20 breeding pairs annually until 1983. In all these cases, however, the populations became extinct again. It is known from ringing projects that these breeding advances come from young animals and that the breeding attempts are always preceded by mild winters. In this respect, these breeding advances of the silk warbler can be taken as bioindicators for the climatic conditions in Central Europe or provide indications of climatic changes.

Relationship / systematics

The recent studies on the origin and classification of Sperlingsvögel ( Passeriformes ) based on the comparison of DNA - sequences of the genes of myoglobin intron  II, of the cell nucleus and cytochrome b of the mitochondria . As expected, these investigations have confirmed that the genus Cettia belongs to the superfamily Sylvioidea, but not the special proximity to the outwardly similar reed warblers ( Acrocephalus ) and the swirls ( Locustella ). Likewise, no direct common ancestor with the genus Bradypterus could be confirmed, with which the silk warblers were previously grouped to the bush warbler. Rather, the genus Cettia is now a type genus of the family Cettiidae with currently 32 species.

literature

  • Svensson, Grant, Mullarney, Zetterström: The new cosmos bird guide. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-440-07720-9
  • Anne Puchta, Klaus Richarz: Steinbach's great bird guide. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-8001-4490-5
  • Hans Bub, Harald Dorsch: Cistensänger, Seidensänger, Schwirle and Reedsänger . 1st edition. Neue Brehm-Bücherei No. 580, A. Ziemsen Verlag, Lutherstadt Wittenberg 1988, ISBN 3-7403-0020-5 . 92 illustrations. 221 p. 8 °, paperback / paperback

Web links

Commons : Silk singer Cettia cetti  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b P. Alström, PGP Ericson, U. Olsson, P.Sundberg: Phylogeny and classification of the avian superfamily Sylvioidea . Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 38 (2), 2006, pp. 381-397. doi: 10.1016 / j.ympev.2005.05.015
  2. ↑ Josep del Hoyo, Andrew Elliott, Jordi Sargatal (eds.): Handbook of Birds of the World (Volume 11: Old World Flycatchers to Old World Warblers). Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2006, ISBN 84-96553-06-X
  3. ^ J. Fuchs, J. Fjeldså, RCK Bowie, G. Voelker, E. Pasquet: The African warbler genus Hyliota as a lost lineage in the Oscine songbird tree: Molecular support for an African origin of the Passerida . Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 39 (1), 2006, pp. 186-197. doi: 10.1016 / j.ympev.2005.07.020
  4. ↑ a b [1] at IOC World Bird List
  5. ↑ a b birds-online.ch
  6. ^ A b Svensson, Grant, Mullarney, Zetterström: The new cosmos bird guide. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1999
  7. ↑ Hans Bub, Harald Dorsch: Cistensänger, Seidensänger, Schwirle and Rohrsänger . 1st edition. Neue Brehm-Bücherei No. 580, A. Ziemsen Verlag, Lutherstadt Wittenberg 1988.
  8. ^ Robert A. Robinson, Stephen N. Freeman, Mark J. Grantham, Dawn E. Balmer: Cetti's Warbler Cettia cetti: analysis of an expanding population: Capsule Productivity in the UK Cetti's Warbler population is constant, but overwinter survival has become increasingly dependent on winter temperatures . In: Bird Study , Volume 54, Issue 2 July 2007, pages 230–235