White-browed Moorhen
| White-browed Moorhen | ||||||||||||
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White-browed Moorhen |
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| Amaurornis cinerea | ||||||||||||
| ( Vieillot , 1819) |
The white-browed moorhen ( Amaurornis cinerea ) is a type of rail that is now part of the Amaurornis genus . Originally it was assigned to the genus of the moorhens ( Porzana ). It is a small, slender and long-legged species of railing that occurs from the Philippines to Australia. Due to their eye-catching and high-contrast facial coloring, they are not to be confused with any other type of rail.
The stock situation of the white-browed moorhen is given as harmless ( least concern ). No subspecies are distinguished.
Appearance
The white-browed moorhen reached a body length of 17 to 20 centimeters, of which 4.7 to 5.2 centimeters are on the tail. The wing measures 8.4 to 9.1 centimeters. The beak length is 1.7 to 2.2 centimeters. They weigh between 40 and 62 grams. There is no gender dimorphism .
Adult birds
The forehead and part of the head are gray in freshly molted white-browed moorhens, in contrast, with white-browed moorhens with worn plumage, black, so that a black cap forms, which merges into a gray neck. A black line runs from the base of the lower mandible over the eye to the crown of the head. The black line is emphasized by the short and roughly triangular stripe that runs from the base of the beak to the end of the eye and another white stripe that runs below the eye. The ear covers, the lower cheeks, the sides of the neck, and the throat are gray. The back neck is olive gray. The rest of the top of the body is olive gray with darker feathers. The tail, part of the wing covers and the control feathers are dark brown. The underside of the body is predominantly whitish, only the flanks are gray-brown and the sides of the chest and neck are gray.
The upper beak is olive-brown and turns yellow-green at the tip. There is also a narrow red band at the base of the beak. The lower bill is entirely greenish yellow. The iris and the orbital ring are red. The legs and feet are greenish to gray-brown.
Fledglings
Fledglings are similar to adult birds. However, the forehead, crown, neck and eye stripes are brown, the cheeks, the ear covers and the sides of the neck are light brown. They have a similarly patterned plumage as the adult birds, but are less contrasting in color.
Distribution area and habitat
The white-browed moorhen is found in the Philippines, the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia, the Mariana Islands , the Palau Islands , the Carolines , Polynesia (from Samoa to New Caledonia), the lowlands of New Guinea and in northern Australia. It also breeds on islands of the western Torres Strait , Melville Island and the Groote Eylandt .
On mainland Australia, white-browed moorhens occur disjointly in a region that stretches from the Kimberley in the west to Townsville in the east. The migration behavior of this type of rail has not yet been conclusively investigated. In parts of the Australian range, however, the white-browed moorhen can only be found in the rainy season.
The habitat of the white-browed moorhen are wetlands in tropical regions with monsoon rains or pronounced wet and dry seasons. It is particularly common where there is a pronounced floating plant zone.
Way of life
The white-browed moorhen lives solitary, in pairs or in small family groups. It is generally most active in the early morning and late evening hours, but it also looks for food during the day. It looks for its food preferentially in the floating plant zone, it is only rarely found in drier bank areas. It looks for higher vegetation areas even if it is slightly alarmed. The flight is fluttering, feet drooping. It can swim, but does so comparatively rarely. The food spectrum includes leaves, seeds and invertebrates. These are picked by floating plants and the water surface. You are very fond of reputation. Their most frequent call is a chika - chika - chika , which can still be heard from several hundred meters.
Reproduction
Reproductive biology has so far been little researched. The nest is built in the bank vegetation and made of coarse grass and reeds. The inside of the nest is laid out with finer plant material. The clutch usually consists of four eggs. White-browed moorhens observed in New Guinea were laid one day apart. The brood was started as soon as the clutch was complete.
Systematics
The white-browed moorhen is still often assigned to the genus of the moorhens ( Porzana ). In a molecular biological study by Slikas et al. from 2002, however, several clades were visible within the moorhens of the genus Porzana . This knowledge was followed by a division of this genus and corresponding nomenclature measures. These have not yet been finally confirmed, but have since been included in well-known monographs and lists. The white-browed moorhen was assigned to the genus Amaurornis ,
literature
- Bruce M. Beehler, Thane K. Pratt: Birds of New Guinea; Distribution, Taxonomy, and Systematics . Princeton University Press, Princeton 2016, ISBN 978-0-691-16424-3 .
- PJ Higgins (Ed.): Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds , Volume 2, Raptors to Lapwings, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1993, ISBN 0-19-553069-1 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Handbook of the Birds of the World zum Weißbrauen-Moorhuhn accessed on May 31, 2017.
- ↑ a b c d e Higgins (Ed.): Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds . Volume 2, p. 567.
- ↑ Higgins (Ed.): Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds . Volume 2, p. 570.
- ↑ a b Higgins (Ed.): Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds . Volume 2, p. 568.
- ↑ Higgins (Ed.): Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds . Volume 2, p. 569.
- ↑ Beth Slikas, Storrs L. Olson & Robert C. Fleischer: Rapid, independent evolution of flightlessness in four species of Pacific Island rails (Rallidae): an analysis based on mitochondrial sequence data. Journal of Avian Biology, 33, 1, pp. 5-14, 2002
- ^ EC Dickinson & JV Remsen, Jr. (Eds.): The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. 4th edition, Vol. 1. Non-passerines. Aves Press, 2013, pp. 149-161 ISBN 978-0-9568611-0-8