Tiger finch
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Male tiger deer ( Amandava amandava ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Amandava amandava | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
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The tiger finch ( Amandava amandava ), also tiger elephant or spotted elephant , is a species of the finch family . It is native to southeast Asia, but occurs as a prisoner refugee in many parts of the world.
description
With a body length of 9-10 cm, the tiger finch is about the size of a golden cockerel . It shows a pronounced sexual dimorphism in the breeding dress , outside the breeding season the male looks similar to the female. The pointed, short beak is colored bright red in all adult clothes and has a dark line along the upper beak. The iris is red, red-brownish or orange in color, the feet are flesh-colored to brownish.
The male shows an intense red on the face, sides of the neck and underside in the brood plumage, interspersed with white spots on the flanks. The reins are dark and under the eye there is often a line of fine white dots. The top of the head and neck are a little darker red and tinted olive. The back and shoulders are brownish red with fine white spots on the shoulder feathers that grow larger towards the wings. The wing plumage is dark brown to blackish with partly reddish brown fringes and white tips on arm covers and umbrella feathers. The rump and the tail-coverts are red with pink to white spots. The control feathers are black-brown and show white tips underneath. The lower belly and tail-coverts are dark brown to black with a reddish shade.
The female is earthy to gray-brown on the top, beige on the underside and tinged with light orange on the flanks. The reins are dark, the dotted line under the eye light beige. The shoulder and wing feathers are warm brown and show fine beige tips on the arm covers and umbrella feathers. The rump and the upper tail-coverts are red like in the male, the spots are usually less noticeable. The tail is brown-black to black. The male in the resting plumage hardly differs, however the spots on the upper tail-coverts and on the arm coverts are larger and the face is grayish, the throat white-gray. Red tips appear on the lower abdomen and under tail-coverts, which become more during the breeding season.
The youth dress also resembles that of the female. However, the red plumage is missing and the tips of the arm covers form a double band on the folded wing. The beige tips of the umbrella feathers are wider. The beak is dark to black-brown. The male tiger finch is the only fine finch species that does not immediately change to the breeding dress in the first year, but to the resting dress.
Distribution area and habitat
The tiger finch is widespread from central Pakistan to Vietnam , as well as on Java and the Lesser Sunda Islands . Three subspecies are described.
- A. a. amandava ( L. 1758) - central and western Pakistan to southern Kashmir and India with the exception of the south and east coast; north to the Himalayas and east to Bangladesh
- Aa punicea ( Horsfield 1821) - Guangdong Province and Hainan Island as well as Vietnam , Cambodia , southeast Thailand , Java and Bali
- Aa flavidiventris ( Wallace 1864) - Myanmar to the province of Yunnan and possibly eastern Guizhou as well as to Timor , Flores , Sumba , Roti and Lombok
Within their range, tiger finches live in grass and reed stands, also in the bushes on paths and field edges as well as in gardens. Breeding attempts and successful breeding of escaped tiger finches are documented in Germany and neighboring countries. In Spain (since 1978), Portugal (since the 1990s) and in Italy (since 1983) the tiger finch is established as a neozoon and is spreading.
Way of life
The tiger finch is primarily an inhabitant of reeds and moist tall grass on the banks of water bodies. It is also found in grass-covered clearings in the rainforest and has also been observed in sugar cane fields and the grassy bushes between rice fields. It has also opened up human settlement space and can be observed in villages and gardens. The breeding season varies depending on the distribution area. It generally falls during the second half of the rainy season. In contrast to this, on Flores it is in the dry season. They are very sociable birds. The partners of a year stay together all year round and nestle against each other while resting. Outside of the breeding season they can be observed in larger groups, which show a pronounced social plumage care among each other.
The nest is hidden low above the ground. It is usually well hidden and rounded. The clutch consists of four to seven eggs. Nests with fourteen eggs have also been found. Presumably these are cases in which two females laid in the same nest. The breeding season is eleven days. Both parent birds are involved in the rearing of the young birds.
attitude
Tiger finches have been kept as ornamental birds in Europe for a long time. The French ornithologist Vieillot looked after them as early as the 18th century . In Asia the keeping of tiger finches is going back even longer. Some of them are imported to Europe in very large numbers. To this day they are among the popular species of finches, even if they are no longer kept as numerous as was the case in the past.
supporting documents
literature
- P. Clement, A. Harris, J. Davis: Finches and Sparrows , Helm Identification Guides, London 1993/1999, ISBN 0-7136-5203-9
- Horst Bielfeld : The finch book. All species, their keeping, care and breeding. Eugen Ulmer Verlag Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-8001-7327-1 .
- Bauer, H.-G. & F. Woog (2008): Non-native and naturalized bird species (neozoa) in Germany, part I: occurrence, population size and status . Ornithological Station 46: 157-194.
- 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
Web links
- Amandava amandava in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed January 31 of 2009.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Amandava amandava in the Internet Bird Collection