Whitehead nun
| Whitehead nun | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bald nun ( Lonchura maja ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Lonchura maja | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1766) |
The bald nun ( Lonchura maja ) is a species of the finch family . No subspecies are distinguished.
description
The Weißkopfnonne reaches a body length of up to eleven centimeters. There is no sexual dimorphism .
The head and neck of both sexes are white. The throat and the back of the neck are tinged with brown, the back and the wings are dull chestnut brown. The rump and the upper tail-coverts are yellowish-red-brown in some individuals, otherwise a bit reddish chestnut-brown. The tail feathers are black-brown with a red-brown border. The front breast is washed out brownish and then turns black. The black of the underside of the body extends to the under tail coverts. The female is usually a little paler and less pure white on the head than the male. The beak is strong and light blue-gray.
The young birds have a yellow-brown skull. The underside of their body is cinnamon brown.
Distribution area and habitat
The distribution area of the white-headed nun is the Malay peninsula from the south of Thailand to Singapore and Sumatra with the offshore islands as well as Java and Bali . The whitehead nun is naturalized on the Leeward Islands of the Antilles . In Singapore, the bald nun has been increasingly displaced by the nutmeg bronze male in recent years .
The diet of the bald nun consists mainly of grass seeds. In addition, this fine finch also eats insects. The habitat are rice fields, grass and weed wilderness at low altitudes. It is also found in gardens.
The breeding season in Java falls at the end of the rainy season. The nest is built low in the grass or in bushes. The clutch consists of four to six eggs.
attitude
The whitehead nun was probably held for the first time by Karl von Reichenbach , who reported on this species as early as 1861. From the 1870s to the First World War, it was very regular in trade. It was imported again in large numbers from 1950 onwards. Today it is one of the species that are very often imported in bulk. The breeding rate is correspondingly low.
supporting documents
literature
- Jürgen Nicolai (Ed.), Joachim Steinbacher (Ed.), Renate van den Elzen, Gerhard Hofmann: Prachtfinken - Australia, Oceania, Southeast Asia. Eugen Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3249-4 .
- Peter Clement, Alan Harris, John Davis: Finches and Sparrows - An Identification Guide . Christopher Helm, London 1993, ISBN 0-7136-8017-2 .
Web links
- BirdLife Factsheet , accessed June 27, 2010
- Lonchura maja inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Endangered Species . Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved September 7, 2013.