Kammblässhuhn

Bestimmung

The red-knobbed coot is largely black except for the white frontal shield. It is 35–42 cm (14–17 in) long, spans 75–85 cm (30–33 in) across the wings. Males weigh 770–910 g (27–32 oz), females are slightly smaller and weigh 455–790 g (16.0–27.9 oz). The sexes are alike. As a swimming species, it has partial webbing on its long strong toes. The juvenile is paler than the adult, has a whitish breast, and lacks the facial shield; the adult's black plumage develops when about 3–4 months old, but the white shield is only fully developed at about one year old, some time later.<p>A good view is necessary to separate this species from the Eurasian coot, with which its range overlaps in northwesternAfrica and southern Iberia. There are two tiny red knobs at the top of the facial shield, which are not visible at any great distance and are only present in the breeding season; the black feathering between the shield and the bill is rounded, whereas in Eurasian it comes to a point; and the bill has a bluish grey tinge. In flight, the red-knobbed coot lacks the white trailing edge to the secondaries of the Eurasian coot.

Taxonomie

The red-knobbed coot was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other coots in the genus Fulica and coined the binomial name Fulica cristata. Gmelin based his account on the earlier descriptions by the French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon and the English ornithologist John Latham, neither of whom had included a binomial name. They gave the type locality as Madagascar. The genus Fulica had been introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. The genus name is the Latin word for a Eurasian coot. The specific epithet cristata is from Latin cristatus meaning "crested" or "plumed". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

Wissenschaftlicher Name

Fulica cristata

Autorität

Gmelin, JF, 1789

Ordnung

Gruiformes

Familie

Rallidae

Gattung

Fulica

Verbreitung und Lebensraum

Zugverhalten

Standvogel

Verhalten

Zugverhalten: Standvogel.

Schutzstatus

Bestandstrend: rückläufig.

Bestandstrend

rückläufig