Western Plantain-eater
Crinifer piscator
Unusual gray turaco with a long tail and bushy crest. White bars in the outer wing are conspicuous in floppy flight. Found in savanna, woodland, shrubby cultivation, and gardens. Usually in small groups. Loud and vocal. The call is a series of yelps that accelerate and become louder, usually given in a wild duet or chorus. Very similar to Eastern Plantain-eater, but there is very little overlap in range; Western can be distinguished by the lack of white in the tail and the black-spotted rather than barred back.
识别特征
The western plantain-eater (Crinifer piscator), also known as the grey plantain-eater or western grey plantain-eater, is a large member of the turaco family, a group of large arboreal passerine-like birds restricted to Africa. This species is a resident breeder in open woodland habitats in tropical west Africa. It lays two or three eggs in a tree platform nest. These are common, noisy and conspicuous birds, despite lacking the brilliant colours of relatives such as the violet turaco. They are 50 cm long, including a long tail. Their plumage is mainly grey above spotted with brown. The head, erectile crest, neck and breast are brown streaked with silver. The underparts are whitish, heavily streaked with brown. The western plantain-eater has a thick bright yellow bill and shows a white wing bar in flight. The sexes are identical, but juveniles have a black woolly head without silver streaking. This bird is similar to the closely related eastern plantain-eater. The latter species has white tail bars, and lacks the chest bars and dark wing feather shafts of its western relative. This species feeds on fruit, especially figs, seeds and other vegetable matter. The Western plantain-eater has a loud cow-cow-cow call, which is very familiar in west Africa.
分类信息
The western plantain-eater was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1770 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in Senegal. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Falco piscator in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The western plantain-eater is now placed in the genus Crinifer that was erected by the Polish zoologist Feliks Paweł Jarocki in 1821. The generic name combines the Latin crinis meaning "hair" and -fer meaning "bearing". The specific name piscator is Latin for "fisherman.<p>The American ornithologist James L. Peters rejected the identification of Daubenton's plate with the western plantain-eater and instead used the specific epithet africanus that had been proposed by John Latham in 1790: "To recognize Daubenton's plate as representing Phasianus africanus Latham requires more imagination than I am capable of using." The plate may instead depict the African fish eagle.
- 学名
- Crinifer piscator
- 命名信息
- (Boddaert, 1783)
- 目
- Musophagiformes
- 科
- Musophagidae
- 属
- Crinifer
分布与栖息地
- 迁徙
- Resident species
行为
Migration pattern: Resident species.
保护状况
Population trend: stable.
- 种群趋势
- stable
照片
分布
鸟叫声
其他鸟类
Rufous-crowned Prinia
Prinia khasiana
Very long-tailed prinia of hilly and montane areas, descending to foothills in winter. Note rufous crown, warm brown upperparts and sides, and gray cheeks and pale belly. Breeding adult’s white moustache stripe, black throat and chest are unmistakable. Non-breeding has prominent white brow, pale throat, and finely streaked chest. Favors scrubby, open areas. Non-breeding plumage somewhat similar to Striated Prinia, but Rufous-crowned has unstreaked upperparts and white eyebrow. Song is a repetitive series of “plik” notes. Call is a mournful, descending “piuu”.
Little Bee-eater
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A small, mostly grass-green bee-eater with a canary-yellow throat separated from buff underparts by a black line across the throat. Singles and pairs occupy grassy savanna and wetland edges. They often perch lower than 1.5 m above the ground, and dart around hunting flying insects, then returning to the same small twig. Calls include a sibilant “s-lip” and other high-pitched notes. The Blue-breasted Bee-eater is slightly larger and has a white patch on the cheek. The much larger Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater has burnt orange underparts, and it prefers highland forest above 1800 m.
Mussau Monarch
Symposiachrus menckei
A striking pied monarch, mostly white with a black facial crescent, a black ear spot, and black wings spotted with white. Tail black with white outer corners. Prefers primary forest but tolerates scrubby regrowth and garden edges. Most common calls include a variety of scolding, harsh chattering notes.
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