Brown teardrop cone
| Brown teardrop cone | ||||||||||||
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Brown twinspot ( Clytospiza monteiri ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Clytospiza | ||||||||||||
| Shelley , 1896 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Clytospiza monteiri | ||||||||||||
| ( Hartlaub , 1860) |
The brown pearfish ( Clytospiza monteiri ), also called Monteiros pearfish , is a species from the finch family and the only recent representative of the genus starfish . No subspecies are distinguished for the species.
description
The brown teardrop cone reaches a body length of twelve centimeters. The males have a slate-gray head and neck. They have an elongated spot on their gray throat that extends from the chin to the goiter area. The underside of the body is light brown with dense white teardrop spots. The under tail-coverts are dark brown and cross-banded with white. The back and the wings are brown, the upper tail-coverts are red. The tail is red, with the outer tail feathers tinged with red. The eyes are red to red-brown. The edge of the eyelid is bluish. The beak is black and lightens to a bluish shade at the base of the beak.
The females resemble the males. With them, only the red throat patch in the male is white.
Distribution and way of life
The brown driftwood occurs in the wet savannah areas north and south of the Central African lowland forest. Their habitat is humid grasslands overgrown by bushes as well as thickets and grass clearings in forests. They have also opened up human habitat and are found in gardens and on overgrown cultivated land. They live there in pairs or in small family groups of up to ten individuals and usually stay near the ground. The diet consists of grass seeds and seeds. It is supplemented by insects, mainly termites and spiders.
The breeding season varies depending on the location and falls at the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the dry season. As a rule, they do not build nests. They take advantage of the abandoned nests of other birds, including those of purple tresses , small lobsters and spur cuckoos . The nests are only lined inside with hair, plant material and snake skins. Both parent birds breed.
attitude
The brown teardrop was first introduced in Europe by Carl Hagenbeck in either 1873 or 1880. Thereafter, this species does not appear to have been imported into Europe again until the late 1950s. It has been imported more frequently in recent years. So far, however, breeding successes are still relatively rare. They need well-planted, spacious indoor aviaries for their well-being.
literature
- Jürgen Nicolai (Hrsg.), Joachim Steinbacher (Hrsg.), Renate van den Elzen, Gerhard Hofmann, Claudia Mettke-Hofmann: Prachtfinken - Afrika , Series Handbuch der Vogelpflege, Eugen Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8001- 4964-3 .
Individual evidence
Web links
- BirdLife Factsheet , accessed June 14, 2010
- Clytospiza monteiri inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2014.