Southern Cordonbleu
Uraeginthus angolensis
A small gray-brown and powder-blue waxbill with a blue-gray bill. The male is bright with extensively blue underparts, while the female is paler, often with a grayish belly. Pairs and small flocks are resident in dry savanna, cultivation, and rural villages close to permanent water for drinking. The species may disperse during drought. It frequently gives a loud and distinctive high-pitched “tsee-tsee-tsee” call, especially when flushed. The similar male Red-cheeked Cordonbleu has a diagnostic red cheek patch and pinkish bill, but hybrids have been recorded.
识别特征
The blue waxbill has powder-blue face, breast, rump, and flanks with pale brown upperparts. The female is paler than the male and the blue is confined to the rump, tail, head, and upper breast, with the rest of the underparts being buffy brown. They measure 12–13 cm in length.<p>The call is a soft 'seee-seee', often repeated as bird flits through the lower parts of bush and scrub.
分类信息
The blue waxbill was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Fringilla angolensis. Linnaeus based his description on the "Blue-Belly'd Finch" that had been described and illustrated in 1750 by the English naturalist George Edwards in his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. Edwards had viewed a caged bird in London that had come from Angola. This species is now placed in the genus Uraeginthus that was introduced by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1851.<p>Three subspecies are recognized:
- 学名
- Uraeginthus angolensis
- 命名信息
- (Linnaeus, 1758)
- 目
- Passeriformes
- 科
- Estrildidae
- 属
- Uraeginthus
分布与栖息地
The blue waxbill occurs in southern Africa from Cabinda and the Congo to Kenya and Tanzania in the east south to northern South Africa. It may have been introduced to the islands of São Tomé and to Zanzibar.<p>The blue waxbill occurs in a variety of habitats but generally prefers well-watered and semi-arid savanna, particularly where umbrella thorns Vachellia tortilis grow, also occupying natural growth in cultivated land, mopane Colosphermum mopane and forest edges.
- 迁徙
- Resident species
行为
Both sexes build the nest, an oval-shaped structure with a short entrance tunnel on the side, constructed of grass stems and inflorescences and lined with feathers. The nest is normally placed among the foliage of a bush or tree, especially umbrella thorn and sickle bush Dichrostachys cinerea. They often choose to build the nest near the nest of a wasp such as Belonogaster juncea; there is no evidence that wasps deter nest predators, but the birds may use the presence of wasp nests as a way of working out whether there are arboreal ants Pseudomyrmex spp in the tree, as if present they would deter nesting by any wasps or birds. Blue waxbills may also re-use the old nests of other birds, such as scarlet-chested sunbird, spectacled weaver or black-chested prinia, sometimes building a new structure on top of the original.<p>They breed all year round but egg laying usually peaks in January, two months on from the onset of the rains in southern Africa. The clutch size is between 2–7, incubation is carried out by both sexes and takes 11–12 days. Both parents feed the chicks on green grass seeds and termites, until they fledge after 17–21 days. They are capable of fending for themselves a week after fledging, becoming fully independent a week later.<p>The blue waxbill mainly eats grass seeds, which are taken from the inflorescences. This is supplemented with termites and other insects. They have also been recorded eating the fallen fruits of Boscia albitrunca. They are normally seen in pairs or family parties, but do form larger flocks which often mix in with flocks of other estrildid finches.
保护状况
- 种群趋势
- stable
照片
分布
鸟叫声
其他鸟类
Pale Thrush
Turdus pallidus
Although not actually pale, this brownish songbird is one of the plainer thrushes in its range. Found in areas of open woodland and scrubland; less tied to extensive forests than other thrushes, particularly in the winter, when it may often be found near reedbeds and in thickets. Sexes similar, both earthen-brown above, paler below, with grayish head, but male has darker ash-gray face, female a dingy white throat. White tail corners obvious in flight.
Solitary Sandpiper
Tringa solitaria
Medium-sized shorebird. Gray above and white below, with fine white speckling on wings and bold white spectacles. Note dark underwing and dark rump in flight. Smaller and shorter-legged than Lesser Yellowlegs, with duller greenish legs. Often alone, but multiple individuals may gather loosely in appropriate habitat. Tips body like Spotted Sandpiper, but less constantly and not as quick and dramatic. Breeds around ponds and marshes in the boreal forest; uses old songbird nests in trees, unlike most other shorebirds. In migration and winter, mostly seen on small bodies of water like muddy ponds, lake edges, and slow-moving streams. Extensive winter range throughout Central and South America. Listen for piercing, high-pitched “tsee-weet!” call.
Gundlach's Hawk
Astur gundlachi
A secretive raptor of wooded habitats including mangrove swamps. Though this species sometime soars, its flight is usually powered by several rapid flaps followed by a brief glide. In flight, note the long rounded tail, short rounded wings, and a large head that protrudes well in front of the wings. Adults are barred orange below while immatures are streaked brown. The similar Sharp-shinned Hawk is somewhat smaller in body and head and has a shorter, squared-off tail. Migrant Sharp-Shinned Hawks from North America are scarce within this species’ range, and are best told by structure and size. Resident Sharp-shinned Hawks, which share this species’ range are conveniently barred gray below. Immature Sharp-shinned Hawks can also be distinguished from Gundlach’s by their narrow, but distinct white eyebrow. The Broad-winged Hawk is somewhat similar, but it is much shorter tailed and somewhat longer winged. The common call is an emphatic “eh-eh-eh-eh-eh…,” with the first couple notes quieter than rest.
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