Eptianuro Naranja

Identificación

The orange chat (Epthianura aurifrons) is endemic to Australia. Orange chats are usually 10–12 cm (3.9–4.7 in) in length, 10–12 g (0.35–0.42 oz) in weight and have an average wingspan of 19 cm (7.5 in). The orange chat is a small ground songbird with relatively long, broad, rounded wings and a short, square-ended tail. The orange chat is potbellied in shape with long thin legs, a short slender straight bill and a brush-tipped tongue. Male feathers are mostly a deep, warm, cadmium yellow with an orange overtone, and this colour is strongest on the crown and breast. Males' lores and throat are black, their rump is a golden orange with a tail finely tipped with white. Female chats are mottled in grey-brown with underparts being a softer fawny yellow. Orange chats do not have any seasonal differences in plumage.<p>Bird species similar to and often confused with the orange chat are the yellow chat and the crimson chat; these birds are similar in size and shape. Orange chats have straighter and on average shorter bills. The adult male orange chat is rarely mistaken for another species with its vivid orange colouration and black throat patch. The male yellow chat is coloured almost as brightly as the orange chat but without such a warm orange overtone, being rather an intense lemon yellow. The grey-brown mottled females and immatures have yellow uppertail-coverts and a yellow underbody distinguishing them from the crimson chat. However, they are still similar in appearance to the female yellow chat.<p>Orange-breasted, orange-fronted, golden-fronted or bush chat; orange-fronted nun or tang; bush or saltbush canary.

Taxonomía

Género: Epthianura; familia: Meliphagidae; orden: Passeriformes.

Nombre científico

Epthianura aurifrons

Autoridad

Gould, 1838

Orden

Passeriformes

Familia

Melifágidos

Género

Epthianura

Distribución y hábitat

Orange chats are strongly nomadic within the arid and semi-arid zones of Australia that they inhabit. They are found mainly in the interior with some sightings in the northern tropics, and very occasionally they reach the coastal areas of South and Western Australia. The orange chat mostly occurs in dry, low-lying, saline environments that are rarely flooded such as sparsely vegetated gibber plains, salt pans, salt lakes, or claypans. They mainly inhabit low, treeless chenopod shrublands dominated by saltbush, bluebush or samphire, with either open or continuous shrub cover. They are sometimes recorded in other open or shrubby habitats, often near wetlands: low mulga, low buloke woodland; open acacia scrubland; dongas (steep-sided gullies) vegetated with tall shrubs or small trees including mulga, dead finish, belah or sugarwood; grassland; or sedgeland. The orange chat has occasionally been recorded in mallee woodlands and on farmlands, including areas over-run by scotch thistle.<p>The orange chat is nomadic, but less so than the crimson chat, and moves around irregularly. Movements are often determined by weather conditions, which will affect the availability of food in an area. During droughts or dry spells, the orange chat will be absent or nearly so from normal habitats and will sometimes be recorded towards the periphery of their usual range.<p>According to the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme, of the 90 orange chats banded in Australia from 1953–97, none have been recovered.

Migración

Nómada

Comportamiento

Patrón migratorio: Nómada.

Conservación

Tendencia poblacional: estable.

Tendencia poblacional

estable