Strangler crows
Strangler crows | ||||||||||||
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![]() Flute bird ( Gymnorhina tibicen ) |
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Systematics | ||||||||||||
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Scientific name | ||||||||||||
Cracticinae | ||||||||||||
Chenu & Des Murs , 1853 |
The strangler crows (Cracticinae), also known as flute birds , are a subfamily of the passerine birds (Passeriformes). The strongly built crow-like birds are common from Australia , Tasmania to New Guinea . Their closest relatives are the swallow starlings ( Artamus ), with whom they form the family Artamidae .
features
The plumage is usually black, white or gray in color. Their beaks are strong, with the crow's shrike the tip of the beak is curved like a hook. In some species there is a pronounced sexual dimorphism . Shrike crows grow to be 25 to 53 centimeters long.
nutrition
Strangler crows are omnivores and feed on insects , small land vertebrates , fruits or seeds. Crow shrike, which also feed on small mammals and birds, either clamp them in a fork of a branch or skewer them like shrike (Laniidae) in order to keep them for a while and to be able to split them up more easily.
Reproduction
Shrike crows build their nests of twigs, dry grass and small roots in forks of branches. They lay two to five, blue-green, gray-green, or brownish spotted eggs that are incubated for about twenty days. The young birds fledge after four weeks in the nest. Of the Australian species, the mangrove shrike ( Cracticus quoyi ) breeds from September to February. The main breeding season for the other Australian species is from August to December.
Genera and species
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Crow shrike ( Cracticus )
- Papuan crow shrike ( Cracticus cassicus )
- Louisiana crow shrike ( Cracticus louisiadensis )
- Black-backed crow's shrike ( Cracticus mentalis )
- Black-throated crow's shrike ( Cracticus nigrogularis )
- Mangrove Shrike ( Cracticus quoyi )
- Gray-backed crow shrike ( Cracticus torquatus )
- Silverback shrike ( Cracticus argenteus )
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Gymnorhina
- Flute bird ( Gymnorhina tibicen )
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Peltops
- Forest peltops ( Peltops blainvillii )
- Mountain peltops ( Peltops montanus )
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Strepera
- Tasman strangler crow ( Strepera fuliginosa )
- Thick-billed shrike crow ( Strepera graculina )
- Black strangler crow ( Strepera versicolor )
literature
- Joseph del Hoyo, Andrew Elliot, David Christie (Eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 14: Bush-shrikes To Old World Sparrows. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2009. ISBN 978-84-96553-50-7 .
- Christopher Perrins: The Great Encyclopedia of Birds. Orbis-Verlag, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-572-00810-7 .
- Simpson &, Day: Field Guide to the Birds of Australia a Book of Identification. ISBN 0-7470-3023-5 .
Web links
- Integrated Taxonomic Information System Cracticidae