Reed Cormorant
Microcarbo africanus
A small, speckle-backed cormorant that is common and widespread in fresh water. The adult is blackish with a short black crest above the bill. Immatures are brownish with paler underparts. Although they share the same habitat with Great Cormorant, Long-tailed Cormorants can be separated by their much smaller size, red eyes, and proportionately longer tails. Generally, Long-tailed Cormorant avoids the marine habitats of the similar-looking Crowned Cormorant, which has a larger crest, an unspeckled back, and a shorter tail.
识别特征
This is a small cormorant, 50–55 cm (20–22 in) in overall length with a wingspan of 80–90 cm (31–35 in). It is mainly black, glossed green, in the breeding season. The wing coverts are silvery. It has a longish tail, a short head crest and a red or yellow face patch. The bill is yellow.<p>The sexes are similar, but non-breeding adults and juveniles are browner, with a white belly. Some southern races retain the crest all year round.
分类信息
The reed cormorant 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 the genus Pelecanus and coined the binomial name Pelecanus africanus. Gmelin based his description on the "African shag" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. The reed cormorant is now one of five small cormorants placed in the genus Microcarbo that was introduced in 1856 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte.<p>Two subspecies are recognised:
- 学名
- Microcarbo africanus
- 命名信息
- (Gmelin, JF, 1789)
- 目
- Suliformes
- 科
- Phalacrocoracidae
- 属
- Microcarbo
分布与栖息地
This is a common and widespread species, and is not considered to be threatened. It breeds on freshwater wetlands or quiet coasts.
- 迁徙
- Resident species
行为
The reed cormorant can dive to considerable depths, but usually feeds in shallow water. It frequently brings prey to the surface. It takes a wide variety of fish. It prefers small slow-moving fish, and those with long and tapering shapes, such as mormyrids, catfishes, and cichlids. It will less frequently eat soles (which can be important in its diet locally), frogs, aquatic invertebrates, and small birds.<p>Two to four eggs are laid in a nest in a tree or on the ground, normally hidden from view by long grass.
保护状况
- 种群趋势
- declining
照片
分布
其他鸟类
Amazonian Tyrannulet
Inezia subflava
Small flycatcher with a long tail often held cocked. Has an olive-brown back, yellow underparts, and two white wingbars. Note the broad white eye-ring “spectacles”. Always found near water, for example in shrubby vegetation at lake edges, and especially on river islands. Forages in the understory. Sings an intermittent series of fast high “pit-chew” notes, often in a duet.
Rufous-vented Tapaculo
Scytalopus femoralis
A fairly common cloud forest tapaculo found in the eastern Andes of northern and central Peru. Adult is gray with brown bars on the lower underparts. Young birds are browner and extensively marked with buff bars and scales. Similar to Trilling Tapaculo and Junin Tapaculo, and identification should be based on range and voice. Rufous-vented Tapaculo gives sharp chips and low frog-like notes, either alone or in an accelerating series. Inhabits forest understory and usually tough to see.
Mistle Thrush
Turdus viscivorus
Rather large thrush, gray-brown above and whitish below with rather rounded dark spots; tail has small white corners, lacking in appreciably smaller Song Thrush. In flight, looks rather pale and grayish overall, especially when compared with dark brownish Song Thrush. Found in a variety of wooded habitats, including parks and moorland with hedges and taller trees. Often feeds on larger lawns and grassy verges, often well away from cover. Sweet and rich-sounding warbled song is similar to that of Eurasian Blackbird, and very unlike Song Thrush. Dry rattle calls are distinctive.
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