Swamp deer
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Fawn-Breasted Waxbill ( Estrilda paludicola ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Estrilda paludicola | ||||||||||||
| Heuglin , 1863 |
The swamp deer ( Estrilda paludicola ) is an African species from the finch family . There are several subspecies for this species.
description
The swamp fawn has a body length of nine to ten centimeters. The male of the swamp deer has a brownish-gray head and neck. On the back, this brownish gray gradually turns into a light olive brown. The rump and the upper tail-coverts are bright crimson. The cheeks and the ear covers are pale gray. The throat and chin are creamy white. The chest and flanks are yellowish cream in color. The under tail-coverts are brownish beige. The beak is red. The legs and feet are dark brown.
The females are similar to the males, but are paler overall. The young birds are also similar to the adult birds, but are more brownish on the forehead. The body plumage is more dull.
Distribution area and way of life
The swamp deer occurs in tropical Africa. Its distribution area extends from the east of the Central African Republic , from the south of Sudan and from Ethiopia to the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo , Uganda , west Kenya to the west and interior of Tanzania . It can also be found in northern Zambia and Angola . There are six subspecies in this large distribution area. Five of the subspecies are isolated from each other due to the fragmented distribution area. Only the distribution areas of the subspecies Estrilda paludicola paliducola and E. p. roseicrissa border each other.
The habitat of the swamp fawn are high stands of grass and reeds on standing and flowing waters as well as on the edge of gallery forests. It is also found in sparse myrobalanic forests and on the edge of localities. In Ethiopia it has an altitude distribution of up to 1800 meters and in Uganda up to 2000 meters.
Way of life
After the breeding season, the swamp fawn is socialized in schools that can contain more than thirty individuals. Occasionally, it is also associated with wavy branches and orange cheeks. The food of the swamp rild are predominantly small seeds. Grass seeds, which the swamp deer both picks from the fruit stands and ingests from the earth, are of particular importance.
The breeding season varies depending on the distribution area and usually falls in the second half of the rainy season. The courtship has not yet been observed in the field. The nest is a ball nest with a side entrance and is built in tufts of grass. As with the related species, a cock's nest is occasionally built on the actual nest, which is the same size as the actual nest, but is usually somewhat more fragile. The clutch consists of four to five white-shelled eggs. The breeding period has only been observed in captive birds and was 12 to 13 days. The nestlings fledge after an average of 20 days.
Systematics
The marsh stalks used to be placed on the orange cheek . This taxonomic classification has been abandoned, however, since the distribution area of these two species partially overlaps and they occur unmixed side by side. Some authors summarize the swamp safflower with the anambra safflower to form a super species .
attitude
It is believed that they were only introduced to Europe in 1957: A single swamp deer was discovered under several orange cheeks held by the Cologne Zoo . It cannot be ruled out that swamp astronauts were previously marketed as orange cheeks without being recognized. To date, marsh stalks are only occasionally found in the bird trade and have been completely absent for years. They are bred by a small circle of keepers.
literature
- Peter Clement , Alan Harris, John Davis: Finches and Sparrows. An Identification Guide. Christopher Helm, London 1993, ISBN 0-7136-8017-2 .
- C. Hilary Fry , Stuart Keith (Eds.): The Birds of Africa. Volume 7, Christopher Helm, London 2004, ISBN 0-7136-6531-9 .
- Jürgen Nicolai (Ed.), Joachim Steinbacher (Ed.), 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
- ↑ Clement et al., P. 370.
- ↑ Nicolai et al., P. 232.
- ↑ Fry et al., P. 293.
- ↑ Nicolai et al., P. 232
- ↑ Fry et al., P. 293.
- ↑ Nicolai et al., P. 231.
- ↑ AVIBASE for Anambraastrild , accessed on June 18, 2010.
- ↑ Nicolai et al., P. 233.
Web links
- BirdLife Factsheet , accessed June 18, 2010.
- Estrilda paludicola inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved September 20, 2013.