Stone hen
| Stone hen | ||||||||||
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Stone hen |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Alectoris graeca | ||||||||||
| ( Meisner , 1804) | ||||||||||
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The rock partridge ( Alectoris graeca ) is a bird art from the family of pheasant-like (Phasianidae) used to order the chicken birds heard (Galliformes). It is a shy ground bird that runs skillfully and persistently and can be observed all year round on stony, grassy, sunny mountain slopes (avoids north-facing locations). During the winter half-year it stays at lower altitudes.
description
The stone hen is between 32 and 37 cm long with a wingspan of 46 to 53 cm. The weight of the males is between 550 and 850 g, that of the females between 410 and 720 g.
The plumage is blue-gray on the top, neck and chest. The area on the cheeks and throat is white and edged with a black throat and headband. The feathers of the flanks are banded yellow-red-brown and black, the underside is rust- yellow , the wings are blackish-brown with yellowish-white shafts and lined with rust-yellow, the outer control feathers rust-red; the eye is red-brown, the beak red, the foot pale red. The species is very similar to the chukar and red chicken . It differs from the red chicken in the black border of the white throat spot. This is clearly set off in the stone fowl. In the case of the chukar chicken, unlike the stone chicken, the throat spot is not white, but cream-colored.
Startled stone fowl usually fly downhill with a roaring noise. You call a shrill and lined up pitschi , which is followed by a witu . During the courtship season, the male stone hen recites long stanzas that change from a beginning tsik or zük to a tri-wet ... tri-wet . In very excited birds they are combined with a series of high-pitched crowing sounds. The call then sounds like ka kriwä ka wet wet .
Distribution area and way of life
The stone chicken currently lives in the Alps , Italy , Turkey , Greece and the Middle East . In the area of the Alps it also occurs in Germany.
After a breeding record from the Allgäu Alps in 1979 and a breeding season observation there in 1984, it was not until 2002 that a stone grouse was observed again in Bavaria in Werdenfelser Land . In the following years, breeding season observations were made regularly in the Bavarian Alps , so that it is assumed that areas are regularly occupied.
One variety lives across North Asia. It inhabits sunny, somewhat grassy scree slopes between the wood and snow line , in the south also the plain of rocky soil. The stone hen is characterized by agility, cleverness and fighting spirit, runs and climbs very well, flies easily and quickly, only rears up in an emergency, feeds on all kinds of plant matter and small animals and also eats the tips of young grain . With this behavior, it is largely similar to the Chukar chicken , but the species differ in their reputation, which sounds more like kakabi, kakabit, kakabe with the stone chicken .
In winter it lives in larger groups, in spring the pairs isolate, and in June or July the female lays 12 to 15 yellowish-white, brown-dashed eggs in a hollow under bushes or overhanging rocks , which it incubates in 26 days.
Subspecies
Three subspecies are described within the range of the stone grouse:
- A. g. saxatilis , which is widespread in the Alps and the High Apennines and as far as Slovenia . This subspecies is also known as the Alpine stone chicken .
- A. g. whitakeri , which occurs in Sicily
- A. g. graeca is the nominate form and comes on the Balkan front
In the past, stone fowl and chukar fowl were described as one species. In the meantime, however, it has become established that both forms are independent species. The main reason for this was the very different vocal repertoire of the two species.
The stone hen as game, farm and domestic animal
The stone chicken is very easy to tame and is true to its owner and location, which is why it has become a pet in some countries in India , China , Afghanistan , Turkey and other southern countries . The animals are also bred for eggs and meat, driven to pasture , roam free in the house and garden and are also used for fighting games . Because of their pleasant song, they are kept in very narrow, conical cages . In Greece and Turkey it is believed that they offer protection against sorcery .
supporting documents
literature
- Heinz-Sigurd Raethel : Quails, Partridges, Steinhühner, Frankoline and relatives , Reutlingen publishing house, Reutlingen 1996, ISBN 3-88627-155-2
- Steve Madge , Phil McGowan and Guy M. Kirwan : Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse - A Guide to the Pheasants, Partridges, Quails, Grouse, Guineafowl, Buttonquails and Sandgrouse of the world , Christopher Helm, London 2002, ISBN 0-7136-3966 -0
Web links
- Alectoris graeca in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed on December 19 of 2008.
- Entry at the Swiss Ornithological Institute
- Feathers of the stone hen
Individual evidence
- ^ Svensson, Grant, Mullarney, Zetterström: The new cosmos bird guide. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1999
- ↑ PJK Mc Gowan, Guy M. Kirwan: Rock Partridge (Alectoris graeca) (1994/2014), in: J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, AD Christie, E. de Juana (eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive , Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2014
- ↑ Hans-Heiner Bergmann; Hans-Wolfgang Helb; Sabine Baumann: The voices of the birds of Europe - 474 bird portraits with 914 calls and chants on 2,200 sonograms , Aula-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-89104-710-1 ; P. 78. This source has been used for the onomatopoeic description of the voices.
- ↑ Thomas Rödl, Bernd-Ulrich Rudolph, Ingrid Geiersberger, Kilian Weixler, Armin Görgen: Atlas of the breeding birds in Bavaria. Distribution 2005 to 2009 . Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2012, p. 57