Desert Prince

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Desert Prince
Scotocerca inquieta, Israel.jpg

Desert prinie ( Scotocerca inquieta )

Systematics
Order : Passerines (Passeriformes)
Subordination : Songbirds (passeri)
Superfamily : Sylvioidea
Family : Scotocercidae
Genre : Scotocerca
Type : Desert Prince
Scientific name of the  family
Scotocercidae
Fregin , Haase , Olsson & Alström , 2012
Scientific name of the  genus
Scotocerca
Sundevall , 1872
Scientific name of the  species
Scotocerca inquieta
( Cretzschmar , 1827)
Clutch of the desert prince ( Scotocerca inquieta saharae ) in the MHNT collection

The desert prince ( Scotocerca inquieta ) is a songbird species from the superfamily Sylvioidea of ​​warblers relatives. According to the more recent system, this species is the only member of the Scotocercidae family . The distribution area extends over Africa and Southwest Asia. The rather small bird inhabits semi-deserts and desert edges, where it prefers bush-rich areas and rocky, rugged terrain. The desert prinine is usually a resident bird, but local migratory movements outside the breeding season are possible.

description

The desert prinie is a small, stocky looking bird, 10-11.5 cm in length with a relatively large head, which is often found scurrying around in the bushes, often raising, waving and fanning its tail in the wren manner. The adult bird weighs 6–10 g.

Noticeable on the head plumage are a wide, pale eye stripe and a thin black eye stripe. The vertex shows a fine but distinct dark longitudinal stripe. The plumage on the upper side is generally gray-brown and slightly darker. The underside of the body is whitish with reddish flanks, the chest is finely dashed in gray. The tail is graduated and dark gray in color. The young birds are generally less contrasting. The legs are relatively long, with the flesh-colored tarsus almost 20 mm long.

Gender and age-specific differences are weak. The West African subspecies differ, however, by a significantly lighter iris, slightly longer legs and a not quite as far-reaching light over-eye stripe.

voice

The song of the desert prinie is quite conspicuous and in the case of the nominate form can be represented as "sit-sit-diedel-duut-duut". The song of the West African subspecies is clearly different and appears abbreviated in comparison.

behavior

The main food source of the desert prinie consists of insects, but seeds are also eaten, especially in winter. The food is searched for on the ground, with piles of leaves, gravel and caves being searched.

The desert prinie builds its nest in low bushes at a height of up to 1.5 m. The nest has a spherical structure and is made of grass and small twigs. Inside, the nest is padded with feathers, fur and plant material. The nest has one or two openings. In the event that there are two openings, one of the two is used exclusively as an exit.

The clutch comprises an average of three to five, in exceptional cases only two eggs. The breeding season is around two weeks, and the young birds stay in the nest for another two weeks before they fledge.

Habitat

Desert prinline in a typical habitat

The desert prinline mainly inhabits open landscapes with a (semi) desert character that have loose dry vegetation with bushes, especially wadis that are more densely overgrown than the surrounding desert. Scree fields on slopes and ravines that contain shrubbery are also considered as habitats.

Distribution and internal systematics

The desert prinie has a large distribution area, being quite rare in some areas and common in others. Since no specific hazard potentials are known, the species is classified by the IUCN as globally harmless ( Least Concern ) despite the apparently slightly decreasing total population .

Eight subspecies are currently specified, which are divided into two clearly separated parts of the range of the species. The individual distributions of the subspecies are listed below.

The following six subspecies, among them the nominate form, are all found east of the Nile:

  • Scotocerca inquieta inquieta , (Cretzschmar, 1830) - Egypt , Israel and the northern Arabian Peninsula to the Persian Gulf .
  • Scotocerca inquieta grisea , Bates, 1936 - Western Saudi Arabia , Eastern Yemen, and Oman .
  • Scotocerca inquieta buryi , Ogilvie-Grant, 1902 - Southern Saudi Arabia and Western Yemen.
  • Scotocerca inquieta striata , (WE Brooks, 1872) - south-central Iraq , southern Iran , Pakistan and southern Afghanistan .
  • Scotocerca inquieta montana , Stepanyan, 1970 - Mountains in north-eastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan , western Tajikistan and northern Afghanistan.
  • Scotocerca inquieta platyura , (Severtsov, 1873) - The plains of northern Turkmenistan, southern Uzbekistan, and south-western Tajikistan.

The following two subspecies can be found east of the Libyan Desert . They can also be distinguished most clearly from the other subspecies morphologically and in terms of song, and some authors have recently introduced them as a separate species with the name Saharaprinie ( Scotocerca saharae , Loche, 1858).

External systematics

The species was traditionally placed in the family of the stalksingers (Cisticolidae). A series of molecular genetic investigations that have been carried out within the subfamily Sylvioidea since 2006 and that re-established the relationships in this group to a large extent, showed that this was only a superficial morphological similarity. Instead, the investigations reveal a probable relationship as shown in the following cladogram. The desert prinie is therefore the sister taxon of the silk warbler relatives (Cettiidae). As far as we know today, both groups together are the closest relatives of the tailed tits.



 Tailed tits (Aegithalidae)


   

 Singer are related (Cettiidae)


   

 Desert prinie (Scotocercidae)




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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b http://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/crombecs/ IOC World Bird List: Wren-babblers, crombecs, bush warblers, Streaked Scrub Warbler, yellow flycatchers, hylias
  2. ↑ a b P. Ryan: Streaked Scrub-warbler ( Scotocerca inquieta ) . In: J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, DA Christie & E. de Juana (eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive . Lynx Edicions, Barcelona ( hbw.com [accessed November 27, 2016]).
  3. ↑ a b c H. Shirihai and L. Svensson: Handbook of Western Palearctic Birds Volume I Passerines: Larks to Warblers . Helm, London 2018, ISBN 978-1-4729-3757-5 , pp. 418-422 .
  4. ^ A b Nik Borrow and Ron Demey: Birds of Western Africa . A & C Black, 2001, ISBN 0-7136-3959-8 , pp. 635 .
  5. ^ DW Snow, CM Perrins: The Birds of the Western Palearctic Concise Edition Volume 2 Passerines . Oxford University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-19-854099-X , pp. 1241-1242 .
  6. ^ Mark Beaman and Steve Madge: The Handbook of Bird Identification for Europe and the Western Palearctic . Christopher Helm, 1998, ISBN 0-7136-3960-1 , p. 648-649 .
  7. ^ IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
  8. ^ Scotocerca inquieta (Cretzschmar, 1830) . Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) ( https://www.itis.gov ) - ( itis.gov [accessed November 27, 2016]).
  9. ↑ Per Alström, Urban Olsson and Fumi Lei: A review of the recent advances in the systematics of the avian superfamily Sylvioidea . In: Chinese Birds . tape 4 , no. 2 , 2013, p. 99-131 , doi : 10.5122 / cbirds.2013.0016 ( researchgate.net [PDF]).
  10. ↑ P. Alstrom, J. Fjeldsa, S. Fregin, U. Olsson: Gross morphology betrays phylogeny: the Scrub Warbler Scotocerca inquieta is not a cisticolid . In: Ibis . tape 153 , 2011, p. 87-97 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1474-919x.2010.01093.x .
  11. ↑ Silke Fregin, Martin Haase, Urban Olsson, Per Alström: New insights into family relationships within the avian superfamily Sylvioidea (Passeriformes) based on seven molecular markers. In: BMC Evolutionary Biology. 12 (1), 157, 2012, pp. 1-12.

Web links

Commons : Wüstenprinie  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files