White-tailed epee wings

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White-tailed epee wings
White-tailed epee wings

White-tailed epee wings

Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Sailor birds (Apodiformes)
Family : Hummingbirds (Trochilidae)
Genre : Epee wing ( Campylopterus )
Type : White-tailed epee wings
Scientific name
Campylopterus ensipennis
( Swainson , 1822)

The white-tailed rapier wing ( Campylopterus ensipennis ) is a species of bird from the hummingbird family (Trochilidae). The range of the species includes parts of Trinidad and Venezuela . The IUCN classifies the population as “ Near Threatened ”.

features

The white-tailed epee wing reaches a body length of about 12 to 13 cm, with the males having a weight of about 9.5 to 10.5 g. The females are a little lighter. The male has a black curved bill. The top is glittering green, with a small white dot behind the eye. The underside also glitters green, but the throat is blue with a shimmering purple tint. The shafts of the outer three hand wings are thicker and flattened. The tail is square, the central control feathers are dark bronze green, the outer three tail feathers are black towards the trunk and two thirds white from the body. Females are similar to males, but the underside is light gray with round green spots on the flanks. The throat spot is dull blue and much smaller than that of the male. Young birds are similar to females.

Behavior and nutrition

They get their nectar from flowering bromeliads , heliconias , from the palicourea genus , which belongs to the red family, and from bananas . They also visit the flowers of the woolen tree plants of the genus Bombax and Renealmia alpinia . In more open forest areas you can also see them in the crowns of blooming Inga trees. As a trapliner, they regularly fly to very specific, scattered flowers in quick succession, but also to very scattered individual nectar sources. They argue with other territorial hummingbirds e.g. B. the genus Colibri , the bronze-tailed sapphire hummingbird or the copper rump amazilie . Insects chase them in flight. Typically, they start the hunt from the surrounding seating. An observational study from 1997 suggests that territorial behavior is more related to Lek polygyny than foraging. Females rarely move in the territory of the males. Mostly they are in the lower to middle strata when searching for food .

Vocalizations

The male's constant, relatively loud, two-syllable call sounds like chink , a tone that is uttered at a frequency of about 1 tone / second. They sit 2 to 6 meters above the ground in the interior of the forest.

Reproduction

Two to four specific males court at specific leks all year round . Up to four females and strange males visit the courtship area per day. The cup-like nest is relatively large, has a diameter of 50 to 55 mm, a height of 70 to 350 mm and an inner depth of 26 mm. They mainly build this from moss, but also from thin plant fibers and twigs, bordered by leaves of monocotyledonous (monocotyledonous) plants, thin roots and palm thorns. They build this on horizontal branches at heights between 1.75 and 11 meters above the ground. Often these are only about 15 meters away from flowing water. For example, nests were found in single and dicotyledonous trees, Bambusa vulgaris or palm plants of the genus Bactris , which are located in the forest interior. These are between 30 and 675 meters away from the Lek. The clutch consists of two eggs with a size of 16.2 by 10.4 mm. The hatching occurs exclusively by the female. The breeding season is not yet known. The female searches for food about 1.27 times per hour to feed the chicks. Feeding then takes between 0.25 and 1.2 minutes. The females defend their brood vigorously against intruders and predators, such as the red-tailed shadow hummingbird ( Glaucis hirsutus ), the Trinidad motmot ( Momotus bahamensis ) and the red-tailed squirrel ( Sciurus granatensis ). On Tobago the breeding season is from February to April, i. H. in the dry season. Nothing is known about the breeding season in northeastern Venezuela.

distribution and habitat

Distribution area of ​​the white-tailed sword wing

The white-tailed sword wing lives in mountain forests, old secondary vegetation, gaps in the forest and on plantations at altitudes between 400 and 2000 meters. In the northeast of Venezuela they are mostly to be found at 1000 and 1600 meters.

migration

The migration behavior of the white-tailed epee wing has not been researched. But it seems likely that there There is, for example, seasonal high-altitude migration on Tobago, as most of the breeding reports were observed in March at low altitudes, while it actually does not occur there in December.

Etymology and history of research

William Swainson described the white-tailed epee wing under the name Trochilus ensipennis . Swainson did not know exactly where the type specimen came from. Only later was the species assigned to the genus Campylopterus introduced by Swainson in 1827 . This word is derived from the Greek »kampylos καμπύλος « for »curved, curved« and »-pteros, pteron πτερο « for »-fluted, wing«. The species name is a Latin word formation from "ensis" for "sword" and "-pennis, penna" for "-wing, feather".

literature

  • Thomas Züchner, Guy Maxwell Kirwan, Christopher J. Sharpe in: Josep del Hoyo , Andrew Elliott, Jordi Sargatal, David Andrew Christie , Eduardo de Juana: White-tailed Sabrewing (Campylopterus ensipennis). In: Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive . Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
  • Floyd E. Hayes, Theodore O. Garnett, Mavis V. Bernard, Angelle L. Bullard, Dale. R. Hardy, Davley-Ann D. Wilson, Delamae. J. Wilson, Victor L. Joseph, DK St. Louis: Behavioral ecology of territorial male White-tailed Sabrewings (Campylopterus ensipennis): evidence for lek polygyny . In: El Pitirre . tape 10 , no. 1 , 1997, p. 27–28 (English, bu.edu [PDF; 6.3 MB ]).
  • Floyd E. Hayes, Neville A. Trimm, Bryan Sanasie, Richard P. ffrench: Breeding Biology of the White-Tailed Sabrewing at Tobago, West Indies . In: Journal of Field Ornithology . tape 71 , no. 4 , 2000, pp. 597-605 , JSTOR : 4514528 (English).
  • James A. Jobling: Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm, London 2010, ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4 .
  • William Swainson: Zoological illustrations, or, Original figures and descriptions of new, rare, or interesting animals: selected chiefly from the classes of ornithology, entomology, and conchology, and arranged on the principles of Cuvier and other modern zoologists . tape 2 . Printed by R. and A. Taylor for Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy; and W. Wood, London 1822 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • William Swainson: On several Groups and Forms in Ornithology, no hitherto defined . In: The Zoological journal . tape 3 , no. 11 , 1827, pp. 343-363 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).

Web links

Commons : White-tailed Epee Wings ( Campylopterus ensipennis )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f g Thomas Züchner u. a.
  2. Floyd E. Hayes (1997) et al. a., p. 28.
  3. Floyd E. Hayes (2000) and a., p. 597.
  4. a b Floyd E. Hayes (2000) and a., p. 600.
  5. Floyd E. Hayes (2000) and a., p. 599.
  6. Floyd E. Hayes (2000) and a., p. 601.
  7. ^ William Swainson (1822), plate 107 & text.
  8. ^ William Swainson (1827), p. 358
  9. James A. Jobling, p. 87
  10. James A. Jobling, p. 146.

Remarks

  1. He assigned the gray-breasted rapier wing ( Campylopterus largipennis ( Boddaert , 1783)) (Syn: Trochilus latipennis) and the redtail rapier wing ( Campylopterus falcatus ( Swainson , 1821)) to the new genus .