Wattled Starling
Creatophora cinerea
A medium-sized gray-brown starling with dark wings and tail and a whitish rump. The pale bill and lemon-yellow facial skin in females and non-breeding males is subdued, but breeding males often acquire long, fleshy, dangling black wattles and canary-yellow naked skin on the head. This nomad always tends to be in groups, and breeds opportunistically in colonies. It occurs irregularly and is irruptive in short grasslands and open savannas; at any given location it may number in the thousands in some years, and be absent in others. It may associate with large mammals, capturing insects that they flush. Both sexes give a variety of squeaks and hissing notes.
识别特征
The wattled starling is 21 cm long, with a short tail and pointed wings. It has mainly grey plumage except for a white rump, and black flight feathers and tail. The breeding male has a white shoulder patch and a distinctive head pattern, with unfeathered yellow skin, and black forehead and throat wattles. The extent to which these seasonal features develop increases with the age of the bird and some old females may show a weaker version of this plumage.<p>The non-breeding male has a feathered head except for a small yellow patch behind the eye. There are no wattles, but there is a black moustachial stripe. The white shoulder patch is much reduced. The female and juvenile plumages are similar to the non-breeding male, but the flight feathers and tail are brown.<p>The black flight and tail feathers and white rump make this species unmistakable in flight.<p>This species has a range of wheezing or grating calls comparable to those of the common starling, but the most familiar is a wheezing ssreeeeo.
分类信息
- 学名
- Creatophora cinerea
- 命名信息
- (Meuschen, 1787)
- 目
- Passeriformes
- 科
- Sturnidae
- 属
- Creatophora
分布与栖息地
- 迁徙
- Resident species
行为
The wattled starling is a colonial breeder, and may share its colonies with the Cape weaver. It always nests in trees or bushes, including acacias and eucalyptus at between 1 and 10 m above the ground. The globular nest is made from twigs and lined with grass or feathers. The two to five, usually three or four, eggs are pale blue, immaculate or with some brown spots, and are laid before the dome of the nest is completed. Both sexes build the nest, incubate the eggs and feed the young.<p>The eggs hatch after 11 days, and the chicks leave the nest in another 13–16 days. They cannot fly, and suffer heavy predation from large birds of prey.<p>Breeding is linked to an abundant insect supply, and colonies will be abandoned, even with chicks in the nest, if, for example, locust swarms are destroyed by control measures.<p>The wattled starling is highly gregarious and will form large flocks, often with other starlings. Its reedbed roosts, which can be huge, may also be shared.<p>Like other starlings, the wattled starling is an omnivore, taking a wide range of invertebrates seeds and berries, but its diet is mainly insects including many locusts, leading to the local name "locust bird".[citation needed]<p>It will scavenge at rubbish heaps, and frequently perches on livestock, feeding on insects disturbed by the animals and also removing ectoparasites.
保护状况
- 种群趋势
- stable
照片
分布
鸟叫声
其他鸟类
Capped Heron
Pilherodius pileatus
This gorgeous medium-sized heron is uncommon but widespread in lowlands of South America, barely extending into eastern Panama. Not likely to be mistaken: combination of silvery back, buffy neck and belly, black cap, and blue lores (sometimes radiant turquoise!) help distinguish this species from other herons. Also note the long white plumes on the back of the head. Occurs around swamps, forested ponds, and rivers, usually singly.
Blue Whistling-Thrush
Myophonus caeruleus
Large, found along streams in forested hills and mountains. Dark purple with tiny silvery spots on head, back, and wings. Bill color varies with range: dark in central and eastern China and parts of mainland Southeast Asia, bright yellow in populations elsewhere. Frequently fans tail while standing on an exposed perch such as a waterside rock or overhanging branch. True to its name, it does whistle: a long piercing note that carries well over the sound of rushing water.
Tibetan Sand-Plover
Anarhynchus atrifrons
Medium-sized plover with a pale throat, brown back, and white belly. Breeding adults have a black mask and a bright orange chest and neck; males average brighter than females. Non-breeding and immature birds are brownish above and white below, with a variable white forehead and eyebrow. Compare with slightly larger Greater Sand-Plover; Tibetan is proportionally smaller-headed and darker-legged, and its shorter bill has a slight bulge at the tip. Smaller Kentish Plover can be similar in non-breeding plumage; Tibetan is taller and longer-legged, without Kentish’s strong white neck band. Very difficult to distinguish from Siberian Sand-Plover, especially nonbreeding and immature birds, though identification can often be presumed by range. In breeding plumage, note the more extensive black mask of Tibetan, typically lacking the white spot on the forehead of Siberian. In nonbreeding plumage, look for a generally broken breast band and clean white flanks in Tibetan. In areas of overlap many birds best left unidentified. Breeds on margins of high-elevation lakes and rivers in China and Mongolia; winters on coastal mudflats, beaches, and inland lakes from Africa to Indonesia.
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