Widow wagtail
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Widow wagtail ( Motacilla aguimp ) |
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| Motacilla aguimp | ||||||||||||
| Temminck , 1820 |
The widow wagtail ( Motacilla aguimp ) is a songbird species from the family of stilts and pipiters . It is widespread in large parts of Sub-Saharan Africa , southern Egypt, and parts of Sudan and Ethiopia , where it occurs almost everywhere in open habitats. It is often found near settlements and bodies of water, in desert areas even only there. The species is widespread, common, and is classified as not threatened by the IUCN .
description
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The widow wagtail is 19-20.5 cm larger and more compact than a white wagtail , although the wing length of 84-102 mm and the tail length of 83-93 mm are similar. The 17–19 mm long beak is longer and stronger than that of the white wagtail. A sexual dimorphism is usually only very slight, some females cannot be distinguished from males at all.
The male subspecies M. a. Vidua large parts of the upper side are soot-black, from which a long, wide stripe over the eyes , a crescent-shaped spot on the sides of the neck, and white chin and throat stand out. The latter are separated from the white underside by a wide, sickle-shaped chest band. Large parts of the wing are also white. The edge covers are black like the upper side, the rest of the arm covers are predominantly white with mostly invisible black bases and partly visible black feather centers on the middle arm covers. Only the large inner arm covers are black with a wide, white hem. The coverts and the alula are predominantly black and partly lined with white, the under wing coverts are white. The black to black-brown umbrella feathers are broadly lined with white. The wings are blackish with white bases and tips, the inner hand and arm wings also have a white border on the inner flag. On the outstretched wing, the white wings form a broad band. On the folded wing, the hems form a wedge-shaped, white field, and the base of the wings forms a band of varying dimensions. The four inner pairs of control springs are predominantly black, the fourth sometimes narrowly lined with white and the two outer pairs almost completely white.
In the case of many females, the top is lighter in the summer dress to a dark slate gray, some individuals do not differ from the males. In winter plumage, the males resemble the females in summer plumage, but usually have a slightly darker head that is clearly separated from the rest of the top. The females are even lighter gray to brown-gray on the upper side in winter than in summer and the color of the back often gradually changes into the darker color of the head. In the youth dress, the black areas in the adult clothes are matt gray-brown, the white areas are dirty white to gray-beige. The middle arm covers have dark shaft stripes. Birds of both sexes in their first winter dress can hardly be distinguished from the females in winter dress, but often still show some feathers from their youthful dress.
voice
The singing of the widow wagtail is subject to a very large individual range of variation. For one thing, it can be very simple and monotonous. It then consists of simple elements, some of which are not dissimilar to the call and which are presented in short stanzas. There are pauses of different lengths between the stanzas. B. wi Tschu witschu witschu… wi wi tchu wi wi Tschu… wi lü wi lü can be paraphrased. Another form of singing is very varied and melodic. This contains fluting, rattling, nasal sounds reminiscent of the desert bullfinch , phrases reminiscent of the singing of the siskin , imitations of other species and calls woven in during long pauses. The speed is partly also very variable.
The typical call is a loud metallic chink or cheep . It differs significantly from the corresponding calls of the wagtail. A thin tsiep or tsiup can also be heard. The calls are also lined up in excitement.
Distribution and existence
The widow wagtail inhabits large parts of sub-Saharan Africa . Deposits further north are found in southern Egypt on small islands in Lake Nasser and along the Blue and White Nile in Sudan and Ethiopia. In the southern part of Africa it is only absent in the southern and southwestern desert areas. Here the distribution area extends from Sierra Leone and southern Mali eastward to the south of Sudan and to the north-west and east of Kenya . The species occurs southwards to Angola , to northern and eastern Botswana and in the eastern part of South Africa. In addition, the area extends along the Oranje and Vaal as far as Namibia .
There is no inventory data, but the species is described as frequent within its range. Only in West Africa are the occurrences more dispersed. The widow wagtail is therefore not regarded as threatened (“least concern”) by the IUCN .
Geographic variation
Two subspecies are recognized. The nominate form , which is widespread in eastern South Africa and westward to Namibia, differs from the subspecies M. a. vidua through a black area on the flanks and the sides of the chest, which, however, can often be covered by the wings. In the worn plumage, the sides of the breast are often spotted black. In addition, the chest band is wider and the neck spot and the eye stripe are less extensive. However, there are also vidua individuals who exhibit these characteristics and there appears to be a zone in northeastern South Africa where both subspecies mix.
- M. a. vidua Sundevall , 1850
- M. a. aguimp Temminck , 1820
habitat
The habitat requirements are similar to those of the wagtail, but in desert areas the species is more tied to human settlements and water resources. In the rainforest belt, the widow wagtail occurs in settlements, on farms and clearings as well as along roads or other aisles. The altitude distribution usually extends up to 1500 m, in East Africa the species occurs in villages and at mountain huts but also occasionally at altitudes of 2500–3000 m.
hikes
In general, the species is a resident bird , but locally there are minor dismigrations outside of the breeding season . Concentrations are usually smaller than in the white wagtail and rarely contain more than 10–20 individuals, even if flocks of up to 100 birds have been observed.
Systematics
Until the 1960s, numerous authors treated the widow wagtail as a subspecies of the white wagtail. Like Mamula wagtail ( Motacilla maderaspratensis ) and Japanese wagtail ( Motacilla grandis ), they are seen today as a separate species that forms a super species with the wagtail and the aforementioned species . Investigations of the nuclear DNA from 2001 and 2002 as well as comparative investigations regarding plumage color and voice confirm this view and also place the Mekong wagtail ( Motacilla samveasnae ) , which was only described in 2001, in this monophyletic group. Investigations of the mitochondrial DNA lead to different results and separate the widow wagtail from the black and white stilts of Eurasia. The more recent findings do not support a species status for the two subspecies or a separate genus Aguimpa , as suggested at times.
literature
- Per Alström, Krister Mild: Pipits and Wagtails of Europe, Asia and North America , Christopher Helm, London 2003, ISBN 0-7136-5834-7
Web links
- Motacilla aguimp in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2009. Retrieved on December 27 of 2010.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Motacilla aguimp in the Internet Bird Collection
- BirdLife species factsheet , accessed December 27, 2010
- xeno-canto: sound recordings - African Pied Wagtail ( Motacilla aguimp )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Audio sample of the widow wagtail on xeno-canto.org; Mp3 file; 367 kB