Black Bearded Bird (African Bearded Bird)
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Black Bearded Bird ( Gymnobucco bonapartei ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Gymnobucco bonapartei | ||||||||||
| Hartlaub , 1854 |
The mourning Barbet ( Gymnobucco bonapartei ) is a bird art from the family of the African barbets. The species is not identical to the olive-backed bearded bird ( Capito aurovirens ), which belongs to the American bearded family and is sometimes also called the black bearded bird.
The bearded bird occurs in Africa on both sides of the equator. Several subspecies are distinguished. The IUCN classifies the bearded bird as not endangered ( least concern ).
Appearance
The males of the nominate form reach a wing length between 7.6 and 8.5 centimeters. The tail length is 3.8 to 4.7 centimeters. The beak becomes between 1.5 and 1.8 centimeters long. Females are only slightly larger. Otherwise there is no sexual dimorphism . Overall, the bearded bird is a small, strongly built bird.
Males and females have a gray-black forehead and a gray-black front parting. Both have individual yellowish-brownish spots. The rest of the head is gray-brown. The chin and throat are gray. The top of the body is brown with reddish-brown feather shafts. The tail is relatively short and green-brown to green-gray. The underside of the body is also brown and becomes darker towards the under tail coverts. The feathers have pale spring shafts on the chest. The beak is brown-black to deep black, with the beak base tending to be a little darker. Some stiff bristles arise at the base of the beak. In the nominate form, the featherless region around the eyes is brownish-pink. The eyes are red to brown. The legs and feet are dark brown. Young birds have a plumage similar to that of the adult birds, but are darker brown and the beak is paler. The subspecies G. b. cinereiceps has creamy white to yellow eyes and a more gray throat.
There is a possibility of confusion with other species from its genus: the bearded bird differs from the bald-headed bird and the bristle- bearded bird in that it has a darker beak. The black-whiskered bird differs from the soot-whiskered bird by its overall somewhat more striped plumage and, at least in the east of its range, by its lighter eyes.
Distribution area and habitat
The bearded bird is an inhabitant of the forests of the lowlands. In the east of its distribution area it also occurs at altitudes of up to 2450 meters. The distribution area extends from western Cameroon through the south of the Central African Republic, the south of Sudan and western Kenya to Angola, the DR Congo , Burundi and western Tanzania.
Way of life
The bearded bird is a very common bird in the region and, apart from the immediate region around villages, where the bearded bird is the more common bird, the most common type of bearded beard. It colonizes primary forest and dense secondary forest , overgrown plantations and also occurs near the village if the villages are in forests. It is a very socially living bird that stays in small to large flocks while foraging for food. Aggressive interactions often occur within these associations. Typical aggression behaviors include opening the beak and lifting the wings. The tail is spread and the head carried very high. The bristle-bearded mustaches of other species can also belong to the groups. The bearded bird also often nests in the same tree as other species of its genus.
The food spectrum consists mainly of fruits. He also eats insects like wasps, grasshoppers, dragonflies and beetles. While foraging for food, it often attacks other species of bearded bird, such as the yellow-spotted bearded bird and the spotted bearded bird , if they are found on the same fruiting trees. The bearded bird is a cave-breeder who builds its own nesting hole in the dead branches of trees. However, it only defends the immediate vicinity of its nesting hole and tolerates other breeding birds in the same tree. Reproductive biology has not yet been fully explored. However, it is known that a clutch consists of four eggs on average.
supporting documents
literature
- Lester L. Short, Jennifer FM Horne: Toucans, Barbets and Honeyguides - Ramphastidae, Capitonidae and Indicatoridae. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001, ISBN 0-19-854666-1 .
Individual evidence
Web links
- Gymnobucco bonapartei inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved September 15, 2013.