Snowy Sheathbill

Identificazione

A snowy sheathbill is about 380–410 mm (15–16 in) long, with a wingspan of 760–800 mm (30–31 in). It is pure white except for its pink, warty face; its Latin name translates to "snow white".<p>Sheathbills spend 86% of their day hunting for food and the other 14% resting.

Tassonomia

The snowy sheathbill 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 in a new genus Vaginalis and coined the binomial name Vaginalis alba. Gmelin based his description on the "white sheath-bill" that had been described and illustrated in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Lathamin his A General Synopsis of Birds . Latham erroneously believed that the bird was found in New Zealand. The type locality was designated as the Falkland Islands by Baron Bradford and Charles Chubb in 1912. The snowy sheathbill is now placed in the genus Chionis that was introduced in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster. The genus name is from the Ancient Greek khiōn meaning snow. The specific epithet albus is Latin meaning "white". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

Nome scientifico

Chionis albus

Autorità

(Gmelin, JF, 1789)

Ordine

Caradriformi

Famiglia

Chionidae

Genere

Chionis

Areale e habitat

The snowy sheathbill lives in Antarctica, the Scotia Arc, the South Orkneys, and South Georgia. Snowy sheathbills living very far south migrate north in winter.

Areale riproduttivo

AN : Antarctic Pen. and satellites, South Shetland, South Orkney, and South Georgia is.

Areale non riproduttivo

to coastal sc Chile and ec Argentina to Cape Horn and Falkland Is.

Migrazione

Migratori completi

Comportamento

Comportamento migratorio: Migratori completi.

Conservazione

Tendenza della popolazione: stabile.

Tendenza della popolazione

stabile