Sylviettas

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Sylviettas
Brown-bellied sylvietta (Sylvietta brachyura)

Brown-bellied sylvietta ( Sylvietta brachyura )

Systematics
Order : Passerines (Passeriformes)
Subordination : Songbirds (passeri)
without rank: Passerida
Superfamily : Sylvioidea
Family : Macrosphenidae
Genre : Sylviettas
Scientific name
Sylvietta
Lafresnaye , 1839

The Sylviettas ( Sylvietta ), formerly sometimes referred to as the nuthatch warblers, are a genus of songbirds from the Macrosphenidae family (Bulbulas and Sylviettas), which occurs with eleven species in sub-Saharan Africa. They were originally thought to be representatives of the warbler-like (Sylviidae), but a genetic study from 2008 found that the Macrosphenidae and Sylviidae families are not closely related.

features

The Sylviettas are small, very short-tailed songbirds. They are similar to members of the genus Eremomela from the family of Halmsängerartigen (Cisticolidae), their feet and their beaks are however stronger. The top is mostly gray. The underside and face are tan, yellow, or reddish. The tail barely extends over the rather long upper tail-coverts and the closed wing tips often exceed the length of the tail. The wings are rounded. The sixth (P6), seventh (P7) and eighth (P8) hand swing springs are more or less the same length. The length of the tenth hand swing spring (P10) is more than half the length of the ninth hand swing spring (P9). The rather long, thin beak is slightly curved downwards.

Habitat and way of life

The Sylviettas inhabit dry woodland, dry savanna forest, lowland and mountain rainforests, and woodland dominated by trees of the genus Brachystegia . They are monogamous and loyal to the territory. The usually bag-shaped nest hangs down from a thin branch of a shrub. It is made of grass and fibers and is tied together with cobwebs. The outer layer is decorated with cocoons, seeds, bits of bark and flowers. Sylviettas live individually, in pairs or in groups. Their diet consists of invertebrates, including insects, caterpillars and eggs, winged termites, spiders, and small worms.

Species and their distribution

Traditionally, nine types are distinguished. However, the HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World , BirdLife International and the IUCN support the species status of two other taxa , the lendusylvietta ( Sylvietta chapini ) and the white-faced sylvietta ( Sylvietta leucopsis ).

  • Green-mantled Sylvietta ( Sylvietta virens ) Distribution: Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria.
  • Yellow sylvietta ( Sylvietta denti ) Distribution: Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria.
  • White- browed Sylvietta ( Sylvietta leucophrys ) Distribution: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya.
  • Lendusylvietta ( Sylvietta chapini ) - at times considered as a subspecies of the white-browed Sylvietta. Distribution: Lendu Plateau in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Only known of three specimens collected in 1941 and 1942. Possibly extinct.
  • Brown-bellied sylvietta ( Sylvietta brachyura ) Distribution: Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Mali, Ivory Coast, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Guinea, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia , Somalia.
  • Short-beaked Sylvietta ( Sylvietta philippae ) Distribution: Somalia, Ethiopia
  • Red-eared Sylvietta ( Sylvietta ruficapilla ) Distribution: People's Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Angola, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique.
  • Red Goose Sylvietta ( Sylvietta whytii ) Distribution: Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe.
  • Isabellsylvietta ( Sylvietta isabellina ) Distribution: Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya.
  • White-faced sylvietta ( Sylvietta leucopsys ) - at times considered as a subspecies of the brown-bellied sylvietta. Distribution: Ethiopia, Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania.
  • Long-billed sylvietta ( Sylvietta rufescens ) Distribution: Angola, South Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique and Swaziland.

Sylviettas can form hybrids with each other . In 1944 , the British ornithologist Constantine Walter Benson discovered a hybrid of the brown-bellied sylvietta ( Sylvietta brachyura ) and the red-bellied sylvietta ( Sylvietta whytii ) in southern Ethiopia .

literature

  • Josep del Hoyo , Nigel Collar, David A. Christie, Andrew Elliott, Lincoln DC Fishpool, Guy M. Kirwan and Peter Boesman: HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 2: Passerines. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2016, ISBN 978-84-96553-98-9 .
  • Emil K. Urban , C. Hilary Fry and Stuart Keith : The Birds of Africa. Thrushes to puffback flycatchers. Volume 5. Academic Press, London 1997, pp. 335-351.
  • David Pearson: Sylvietta In: Handbook of the Birds of the World Volume 11: Old World Flycatchers to Old World Warblers. Pp. 687-689
  • Jerry W. Huntley & Gary Voelker: A tale of the nearly tail-less: the effects of Plio-Pleistocene climate change on the diversification of the African avian genus Sylvietta In: Zoologica Scripta, April 2017. doi : 10.1111 / zsc.12240

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grzimek's animal life
  2. ^ A b Josep del Hoyo, Nigel Collar, David A. Christie, Andrew Elliott, Lincoln DC Fishpool, Guy M. Kirwan and Peter Boesman: HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World Volume 2 (Passerines) . Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, ​​2016. ISBN 978-84-96553-98-9
  3. ↑ Ulf Johansson, Jon Fjeldså; Rauri CK Bowie: Phylogenetic relationships within Passerida (Aves: Passeriformes): A review and a new molecular phylogeny based on three nuclear intron markers . In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . 48, 2008, pp. 858-887.
  4. ^ A b c d Emil K. Urban, C. Hilary Fry and Stuart Keith: The Birds of Africa. Thrushes to puffback flycatchers. Vol. 5. Academic Press, London, 1997. pp. 335-351
  5. ^ David Pearson: Sylvietta In: Handbook of the Birds of the World Volume 11: Old World Flycatchers to Old World Warblers. Pp. 687-689
  6. ^ IOC World Bird List
  7. ^ CW Benson: Notes on the Birds of Southern Abyssinia In: Ibis 88 (2), 1946: p. 180-205. doi : 10.1111 / j.1474-919X.1946.tb03476.x

Web links

Commons : Sylviettas ( Sylvietta )  - collection of images, videos and audio files