Bullfinch
| Bullfinch | ||||||||||||
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Desert bullfinch of the Canarian subspecies Bucanetes githagineus amantum |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Bucanetes githagineus | ||||||||||||
| ( Lichtenstein , 1823) |
The desert bullfinch ( Bucanetes githagineus ), or desert trumpeter , is a species of finch that inhabits deserts and semi-deserts south of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. The sometimes quite fragmented occurrence extends from the Canary Islands to northern Pakistan . There has been a small breeding population in southern Spain for several decades, and east of the Mediterranean the species also appears to be spreading northwards.
The desert bullfinch is characterized by a very distinctive reputation, a nasal trumpet, from which the common name desert trumpeter comes.
description
Appearance
The desert bullfinch is somewhat smaller than a linnet , but in terms of its proportions it resembles a greenling due to its powerful head and neck .
Like the bullfinch, its beak is short and strong. The upper beak shows a steeply arched ridge, the lower beak a pronounced Gonys angle, as the lower edge runs very straight parallel to the upper edge below the rounded front part. In the male, the beak is bright orange to dark red in the breeding plumage. In the female and also in the male when resting, the beak is rather pale orange to horn-colored. The beak of this year's young birds is yellowish brown. The dark eye is set off by an implied light ring.
The body plumage is predominantly sand-colored and without any noticeable markings, with the spectrum of tones ranging from almost gray areas on the sides of the head to very warm, almost caramel-colored areas on the neck and chest area to dark ocher-colored to almost black-gray large plumage on the wings and tail. In the brood plumage, the plumage of the male appears with the reddish-colored tips of the small plumage on the front head, on the chest and back and the cover plumage of the wings, partly with an intense pink tinge. This color is also found especially on the outside of the tail and on the rump.
The tail is forked and quite short, which is one of the reasons why the wings appear long when the bird is sitting, but rather short and blunt when in flight. The legs are light brown horn-colored to orange-red.
The desert bullfinch is unmistakable within Europe; elsewhere it can also be confused with other types of “stone bullfinch” (see systematics), for example in Turkey with the Mongolian bullfinch.
voice
The voice is the most characteristic and, in many languages, the eponymous feature of this species. It is mainly characterized by squeaking nasal sounds. The severity of these sounds ranging from a rather voiceless, elongated Quetschlaut to tones that sound like they would with a pitch pipe or a Kindertröte generated. In the case of the latter sounds, which are particularly typical and noticeable, usually several main frequencies oscillate, so that the impression of polyphony arises.
The singing usually consists of a long trumpet, introduced by soft squeaking and purring sounds. Sometimes this is also part of a more complex stanza. In addition, there is also another form of singing, a bunting-like stereotypical, melodic trill, which is mostly repeated and which is described as "dwii dwii tsch-tsch-tschäarr".
The repertoire of calls is diverse. In addition to a high “zik”, it includes a whole range of different nasal sounds from metallic to whirring and a sparrow-like chirping in young birds.
behavior
The desert bullfinch is diurnal and primarily searches for food on the ground. It is quite gregarious, so outside the breeding season you can often see troops of 10-20 individuals looking for food. He also spends a lot of time near settlements.
On the ground, the bird is usually quite inconspicuous due to its color. He moves hopping, striding or running, in between he stands up straight to get an overview. He also shows this upright posture when securing from stones, rocks or walls. It is practically never to be found in bushes or trees, it only settles on herbs to search for food, which are sometimes bent over to get to the seeds.
Changes of location on the ground take place in low flight, with troops often with simultaneous departure. In the event of disruptions, longer distances are usually overcome in a higher flight, which, like most finch species, is arched. It is noticeable here that, unlike other finch species, it often relies on its camouflage and presses itself against the ground, while other species fly off, for example in groups of several species.
The desert bullfinch seeks water points to drink during the day, especially in the morning and evening hours. These can be several kilometers away from the usual place of residence. To get water, he also flies into rock holes or wells.
Troops often spend the night in shared sleeping areas that are sought out shortly before sunset. People also often rest at lunchtime. When the sun is very strong, troops seek the shade, for example on buildings or rock walls. Sometimes very large societies can be observed, for example in Tripolitania between 300 and 500 specimens huddled in the shadow of an overhanging rock face. Even in winter there are larger gatherings, these are mostly concentrated in places with a rich supply of food or water such as grain fields, oases or busy transport routes of grain trucks and the like. Ä. The swarm sizes are usually between 50 and 200 individuals, but swarms of up to 1700 or, in individual cases, several 1000 specimens at the beginning of the 20th century have also been observed. The socialization with other species is more of a coincidence.
distribution
The desert bullfinch inhabits stony and rocky deserts and semi-deserts in the southwest of the Palearctic . He avoids the pure sandy desert areas and prefers hills and mountains. These habitat requirements led to a highly fragmented distribution area that has large gaps, especially in the area of the Libyan desert .
It stretches from the eastern Canary Islands ( La Gomera was only settled in the 1980s) to the edge of the Indus plain in northern Pakistan . On the southern edge of the Sahara, it extends into the Aïr , Tibesti and Ahaggar mountain ranges . In the north, the distribution extends here to the North African coastal mountains and east of Gibraltar even to southern Spain . There are other occurrences in continental Europe in Turkey , Azerbaijan and Armenia .
A large occurrence on the Red Sea extends into Sudan to around the 20th north latitude, island-like occurrences also occur further south. The closed area extends in the north to the edge of the Egyptian rocky desert and extends along the eastern Mediterranean region to southern Turkey .
On the Arabian Peninsula , the southern limit of distribution is also at least 20 ° North, and more southern regions may also be populated. Since almost only winter observations are available from there, brood distribution is uncertain. In the eastern part, too, the distribution is only poorly known, here the Iranian highlands in particular are populated as far as southern Turkmenistan and Chitral .
hikes
The desert bullfinch is a stationary bird or barnacle that usually overwinters in the breeding areas with sufficient access to drinking water. It tends to have irregular and spontaneously occurring dispersions . Persistent drought or cool weather in higher areas sometimes lead to the abrupt abandonment of breeding areas, to the relocation of entire populations or to nomadic wandering. The tendency towards this is particularly pronounced after the breeding season. Sometimes one can also speak of fixed wintering places for certain populations. The inhabitants of the southern Spanish interior winter z. B. with great regularity on the local coast, that of the east Egyptian desert areas in the grain-growing areas of the Nile Valley and that of the Negev in Wadi Arava .
As part of the spreading tendencies in south-western Europe, there was also more and more evidence in more northern parts of Europe, individual observations are even available from Scandinavia or the British Isles .
Inventory development
Since the end of the 1960s, there have been repeated settlements north of the former limit of distribution in the southwestern Mediterranean region, for example in Morocco and Tunisia . Evidence has increased on Malta , the Pelagian Islands , Pantelleria and Sicily since then. This was also the case in southern Spain in Cádiz , Gibraltar and Almería , where initially larger troops of up to 60 specimens were identified and finally the first evidence of breeding was provided. In the completely forest-free and semi-desert areas around Almería, which are among the driest areas in Europe, a fairly stable population was able to establish itself, growing until the 1990s. During this time, the bullfinch spread to the east as far as the coastal sierras of the province of Murcia . Further settlements in the surrounding regions only lasted a short time. Since the species generally tends to nomadic behavior and spontaneous spreading, further area expansion, as in the 1970s and 1980s on the Canary Islands and in Israel in the course of the agricultural development of desert areas, cannot be ruled out.
After a decline in the 1990s, the Canarian population seems to be quite stable with 10,000–20,000 breeding pairs (1997–2003), the Spanish population was estimated at 300–500 bp in 1992 and is apparently fluctuating slightly. Other European populations are estimated at 200 to 800 breeding pairs in Turkey, 50 to 100 in Armenia and 10 to 100 breeding pairs in Azerbaijan. The stocks on the northern edge of the Sahara seem to be heavily exposed to the weather at times.
There is no inventory data on the non-European occurrences, the exact distribution of which is in some cases still unclear. The worldwide population is estimated by the IUCN at around 21,000–43,000 specimens and classified as not endangered.
Systematics
Geographic variation
Overall, from east to west, there is a slight change in the plumage color, towards more pink and darker head and back areas. Four subspecies are distinguished, but they differ only slightly:
- B. g. amantum ( Hartert , 1903) - Canary Islands
- B. g. zedlitzi ( Blyth , 1847) - Sahara, Mauritania and southern Morocco to Tunisia
- B. g. githagineus ( Lichtenstein , 1823) - Egypt and Sudan
- B. g. crassirostris ( Neumann , 1907) - Middle East to Central Asia
External system
The systematics of the four types of “stone finch”, desert bullfinch ( githagineus or githaginea ), Mongolian bullfinch ( mongolicus ), white-winged bullfinch ( obsoleta ) and red-winged bullfinch ( sanguinea ) is controversial. Some authors, including Sibley & Monroe (1990), combine all species in the genus Rhodopechys ; a proposed combination in the genus Bucanetes would violate the priority principle. Other authors, however, provide for a subdivision into the genera Bucanetes (desert and Mongolian bullfinch), Rhodopechys (red-winged bullfinch) and Rhodospiza (white-winged bullfinch).
The classification of the four species in the genus Rhodopechys would, according to the British ornithologist Guy M. Kirwan (2005, see literature), easily evade clarification of the taxonomic relationships and the relationship of the individual species to one another or to other taxa such as the genus Carpodacus or the burton pennant ( Callacanthis burtoni ). Kirwan proposes a detailed molecular genetic investigation and expects a split of the genus Bucanetes . In this case he introduces a new genus Eremopsaltria for the Mongolian bullfinch .
There have been at least two genetic tests since then. The first from 2006 denies that the white-winged bullfinch is closely related to the other Rhodopechys species and identifies it or an extinct sister species as the ancestor of the genus Carduelis . The second from 2008 confirms a close relationship between desert and Mongolian bullfinches and places them in a group of related species that inhabit arid habitats in different climatic zones, along with the rose- bellied bullfinch ( Leucosticte arctoa ) and the thin-billed bullfinch ( Carpodacus nipalensis ). Belonging of the red winged gimp to this group is not excluded.
For the desert bullfinch, depending on the systematic classification, the synonyms Bucanetes githagineus , Rhodopechys githaginea or Rhodopechys githagineus are in the room. Following the IUCN and the Avibase database and including the results of the aforementioned investigations, the bullfinch is listed here as Bucanetes githagineus .
habitat
The desert bullfinch inhabits dry habitats that are particularly low in precipitation and consist predominantly of rock and rubble and, at best, have barren, steppe-like vegetation. These can be stone and rock deserts or dried out river valleys, rocky gorges, erosion valleys and rocky slopes. There must be suitable water points in the vicinity, these can also be slightly brackish. Outside the breeding season, the bullfinch likes to stay near settlements and uses arable land as a food source.
Settlement density
Since the species shows almost no territorial behavior and often breeds in small clusters, nests can be very close together. Sometimes the distance is only half a meter. The settlement density is usually rather low over a large area, so between 2200 and 2500 breeding pairs were found on 500 square kilometers in Israel, which would correspond to a density of 0.05 bp./10 ha, including species-typical collections with a higher settlement density, this is probably far below that .
food
The bullfinch feeds mainly on seeds or other parts of plants. Here, pioneer plants that are typical for its habitat , especially goosefoot and knotweed , cruciferous vegetables , certain Salvia species or grasses seem to play a role, but preferences cannot be identified. In some cases, the food supply can be very one-sided due to the local conditions. In wintering areas such as the Nile Valley, crops such as wheat or millet can make up a large part of the diet. Animal food is apparently of little concern.
Reproduction
The desert bullfinch probably leads a monogamous seasonal marriage and usually breeds once, less often twice a year. The breeding period is between mid-February and early June.
The pairing takes place in the troops before the breeding season. At the beginning of the breeding season, the male performs his song from low waiting areas or in singing flight. The courtship behavior consists of nodding in a bent position, which can also be observed when singing on the floor, as well as touching the beak when the partners are standing in parallel. The male presents to the female in an upright position and with partly raised plumage, lowered wing tips and spread tail, some previously collected stalks ("Halmbalz"). With sharp “dwick” calls, it presents the pink areas such as belly and rump. The female meets this initially with a threatening pose, later also in a crouched position. In the ritualized process of the copula, the male strides towards the female with a raised beak and spread wings and then flutters in a twist onto the female's back.
The cup-shaped nest is usually built on the ground in depressions between stones, occasionally in the protection of stones, rocks or bushes or in niches of rock faces or walls. Sometimes a substructure is made from twigs or brooded in nests by other songbirds. The nest usually consists of coarse parts of plants such as stalks or stems and is lined with plant wool, roots or animal hair. With a diameter of about 8 to 11 cm and a height of 5 cm, it has a 3.5 cm deep hollow with a diameter of 6 cm.
The clutch consists of 4-6 short or pointed oval eggs with dimensions of about 15 × 20 mm. They are finely dark red-brown with fine subspots on a pale light blue background, coarsely speckled at the blunt end and at most matt-glossy. One egg is laid every day. Incubation is carried out by the female, beginning with the last egg, and, like the nestling period, takes 13 to 14 days. Feed both males and females. As with other bullfinches, lateral throat pockets are formed during the breeding season, which enable the transport of food in large quantities over longer distances.
After 21 to 28 days, the young birds become independent.
literature
- Urs N. Glutz von Blotzheim , KM Bauer : Handbook of the birds of Central Europe. Volume 14 / II: Passeriformes. Part 5: Fringillidae - Parulidae. AULA-Verlag 1997, ISBN 3-923527-00-4 , pp. 1035-1052.
- J. Manrique, M. Yanes in: WJM Hagemeijer, MJ Blair: The EBCC Atlas of European Breeding Birds - their distribution and abundance. T & AD Poyser, London 1997, ISBN 0-85661-091-7 , p. 735.
- LA Portenko, J. Stübs in E. Streseman et al .: Atlas of the distribution of Palearctic birds. Delivery 5 (1976, PDF ).
- Guy M. Kirwan , SMS Gregory: A new genus for the Mongolian Finch Bucanetes mongolicus (Swinhoe, 1870.) . Bull. Brit. Orn. 2005, Cl. 125, pp. 68-80.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 1037f, s. literature
- ↑ http://www.anillamiento.net/guia/details.php?image_id=1874
- ^ Harrison (1978), in Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 1041, p. literature
- ^ Willcox (1978), in Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 1048, p. literature
- ↑ Manrique & Yanes, p. literature
- ↑ Manrique & Miralles (1988) in Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 1044, p. literature
- ↑ a b Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 1044, p. literature
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from November 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.storakarlso.se/deutsch/vogeln/raritaten.asp ( Memento from August 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/BirdsInEuropeII/BiE2004Sp8847.pdf
- ↑ J. Zamora, E. Lowy, V. Ruiz-del-Valle, J. Moscoso, JI Serrano-Vela, J. Rivero-de-Aguila, A. Arnaiz-Villena: Rhodopechys obsoleta (desert finch): a pale ancestor of greenfinches (Carduelis spp.) according to molecular phylogeny , Berlin / Heidelberg 2006, Journal of Ornithology, Vol. 147, No. 3, ISSN 0021-8375 , pp. 448-456
- ↑ A. Arnaiz-Villena, J. Moscoso, V. Ruiz-del-Valle, J. Gonzalez, R. Reguera, A. Ferri, M. Wink, J. Ignacio Serrano-Vela: Mitochondrial DNA Phylogenetic Definition of a Group of 'Arid-Zone' Carduelini Finches , The Open Ornithology Journal, 2008, 1, 1–7 doi : 10.2174 / 1874453200801010001 ( PDF )
- ↑ Avibase website
- ↑ Cano & König (1971) in Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 1046, p. literature
- ↑ Shirihai (1996) in Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 1047, p. literature
- ↑ a b Panow & Bulatowa (1972) in Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 1050, p. literature
- ^ Harrison (1978) in Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 1050, p. literature
- ↑ García (1972) and Makatsch (1976) in Glutz v. Blotzheim, p. 1047, p. literature
Web links
- Desert bullfinch in Israel
- Desert bullfinch at a watering hole in Oman
- Bucanetes githagineus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed on 19 November, 2008.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Rhodopechys githaginea in the Internet Bird Collection
- Feathers of the bullfinch