Sparrow eggs
| Sparrow eggs | ||||||||||
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Sparger eggs ( Gyps rueppelli ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Gyps rueppelli | ||||||||||
| ( Brehm , 1852) |
The sparrow's egg ( Gyps rueppelli , named after Eduard Rüppell ) is a bird of prey from the subfamily of Old World vultures (Aegypiinae). The species holds the high-altitude flight record among birds.
Appearance
The sparrow egg looks stocky, especially when in flight. It reaches a wingspan of 240 cm and with a body length of 101 cm and a body height of 85 cm (standing) a weight of 6 to 9 kg. The broad, creamy-white edged feathers on the body and on the wing covers give the otherwise brown, full-grown bird a spotted ( sparrowed ) appearance. The head, neck and feet are feathered white. The yellow beak and the pale yellow eye in the adult are characteristic (young birds have a dark brown iris ). There are two white bands on the underside of the wing. The featherless, white-rimmed shoulder patches on the upper chest are particularly noticeable.
Way of life
This Old World is very sociable and usually comes in large gatherings before, both on carrion as well as a bathing and drying feathers courts and the sailing flight above the savannah in search of food. It is often associated with white-backed vultures . Sparrow eggs are colony breeders that breed on rugged ledges or in rock caves. The clutch , consisting of only one white egg, greenish in some areas with pale brown spots, is incubated for 55 days. The feeding period of the nestlings is 150 days, the young bird fledged at 3 months. The nest and the nestlings fed with carrion are endangered by vultures . Sparrow eggs are likely to live in monogamy for life, a couple often using the same breeding grounds for several years. Sexual maturity is reached after 5–7 years. This species of vulture primarily eats muscle meat and the intestines of large ungulates, and only very occasionally does it eat meat from smaller animals that weigh less than 20 kg. The sparrow eggs can only be found on larger carcasses . The sparrow egg can eat up to 20% of its own body weight in one go, which makes it difficult for it to start on the plain, so that it often needs a longer run-up. Life expectancy is 30–40 years.
distribution
The sparrow egg lives south of the tropic, from the Atlantic in Senegal to Ethiopia, and south to central Tanzania.
habitat
The habitat is Africa's open dry savannah. It also lives on rocks if there is enough carrion from animals weighing more than 20 kg, but it is not found in primeval forests and deserts. Sparrow eggs can fly amazingly high. On November 29, 1973, a sparrow's egg collided with a commercial aircraft in the airspace over the Ivory Coast - at an altitude of 11,274 m. With this he holds the high altitude flight record for birds.
Hazardous situation
The sparrow egg is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN in the Red List of Threatened Species as " Critically Endangered " . The global inventory is currently suffering from a sharp decline that is likely to continue. The greatest threats are the loss of habitat due to agricultural land changes and the associated persecution by humans, as well as the loss of food supply by wild ungulates.
literature
- Reinhard Künkel (report and photos): Sperbergeier: The corpse servants . In: Geo-Magazin. Hamburg 1978, 11, pp. 118-132. Informative, scientific experience report. ISSN 0342-8311
photos
Web links
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Gyps rueppellii in the Internet Bird Collection
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/wilson/v086n04/p0461-p0462.pdf
- ↑ Wolfgang Baumgart: Europe's vultures - flying giants on the upswing; Ornithology Collection; AULA publishing house; Wiebelsheim; 2001.
- ↑ Gyps rueppelli in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015.4. Listed by: BirdLife International, 2015. Retrieved March 2, 2016.