Striped cuckoo

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Striped cuckoo
Striped Cuckoo (Tapera naevia)

Striped Cuckoo ( Tapera naevia )

Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Cuckoo birds (Cuculiformes)
Family : Cuckoos (Cuculidae)
Subfamily : Ground Cuckoo (Neomorphinae)
Genre : Tapera
Type : Striped cuckoo
Scientific name of the  genus
Tapera
Thunberg , 1819
Scientific name of the  species
Tapera naevia
( Linnaeus , 1766)

The striped cuckoo ( Tapera naevia ) is a cuckoo species of the Neotropics . He is the only representative of the genus Tapera .

features

The striped cuckoo reaches a body length of 26 to 29 cm. There is no gender dimorphism .

Adult birds are predominantly brown on top with beige and black stripes. The head wears a blackish hood, which is interspersed with reddish-brown feathers. The eye is surrounded by a featherless, yellow skin ring. The iris is brownish to greenish in color, the bill brown with an orange-brown base. The over-eye stripe is white, the fine beard stripe is black. The underside is predominantly whitish with a distinct, black dash on the sides of the throat and chest. The lower abdomen is white. The enlarged thumb wing stands out conspicuously from the folded wing . Legs and feet are colored gray-brown.

Young birds are generally more reddish in color. The hood is black with beige spots. There are also beige spots on the back and the upper wing coverts. The underside is colored beige and has fine black dashes. There are fine dark spots on the white lower abdomen.

distribution

The striped cuckoo occurs in South and Central America . The distribution area extends from Mexico along the Andes to Argentina and Brazil . Due to the large distribution area and the frequency of the species, the IUCN does not consider it to be endangered ( least concern ). The population size is estimated at 500,000–4,999,999 individuals. In addition, the inventory trend appears to be positive.

Way of life

Striped cuckoos live in forests with dense undergrowth, in tropical rainforests , mangrove forests , the restinga and in bushy succession areas .

Striped cuckoos rarely fly, mostly they move on the ground. The main food is insects such as B. dragonflies , cockroaches , beetles and caterpillars , but fruits are also eaten. The food is mainly collected from the ground. To do this, the striped cuckoo sways back and forth and suddenly sets up its large alula. This probably scares the prey, which it then picks from the ground.

In contrast to most other species of ground cuckoo, the barred cuckoo is a breeding parasite . The most common hosts are pottery birds (Furnariidae). The female cuckoo stays for about a week near the host parents she has chosen and waits for the tonnest to be built. Then the female tries to enter the nest through the tunnel-shaped entrance or destroys one side of the closed nest. Usually the nest is repaired by the host birds after they have laid their eggs. The cuckoo cubs hatch after about 15 days. Young birds belonging to the host parents are killed by pecking their beak and transported out of the nest by the parents. The cuckoo cub leaves the nest after about 16-18 days by destroying the outer walls of the clay nest, as it is usually too big for the normal entrance.

Subspecies

According to the IOC World Bird List, two subspecies are recognized. The subspecies T. n. Excellens is lighter and has a longer, stronger bill than the nominate form .

literature

  • Johannes Erritzøe , Clive F. Mann, Frederik Brammer, Richard A. Fuller: Cuckoos of the World (Helm Identification Guides) . Christopher Helm Publishers Ltd, London 2012, ISBN 978-071-366-034-0 .
  • Robert B. Payne: The Cuckoos (Bird Families of the World No. 15). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005, ISBN 0-19-850213-3 .
  • Robert B. Payne: American Striped Cuckoo (Tapera naevia). In: Josep del Hoyo , Andrew Elliott, David Christie: Handbook of the Birds of the World . Volume 4: Sandgrouse to Cuckoos. Lynx Edicions 1997, p. 605.
  • Philip Lutley Sclater: List of additional species of Mexican Birds, obtained by by M. Auguste Sallé from the environs of Jalapa and S. Andres Tuxtla . In: Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London . tape 25 , no. 341 , 1857, pp. 201-206 ( online [accessed August 11, 2013]).

Web links

Commons : Striped Cuckoo ( Tapera naevia )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Payne p. 183
  2. ↑ a b c Payne (1997), see literature
  3. ↑ Erritzoe et al. P. 116
  4. ↑ Tapera naevia in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2013. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2012. Accessed June 26, 2013.
  5. ^ Payne, p. 185
  6. ↑ Erritzoe et al. Pp. 116-117
  7. ↑ Hoatzin, turacos, cuckoos