Grauer's broadbill

Grauer's broadbill (Pseudocalyptomena graueri), also known as the African green broadbill, is a species of bird in the family Eurylaimidae, and is monotypic within the genus Pseudocalyptomena.[3] Its name commemorates the German zoologist Rudolf Grauer who collected natural history specimens in the Belgian Congo.[4]

Grauer's broadbill
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Eurylaimidae
Genus: Pseudocalyptomena
Rothschild, 1909
Species:
P. graueri
Binomial name
Pseudocalyptomena graueri

Taxonomy

Baron Walter Rothschild, who described this species, considered it to be a flycatcher only superficially similar to the Asian broadbills of the genus Calyptomena, hence the name pseudo- or "false" Calyptomena.[2] It is currently regarded as an actual broadbill, one of only a few African representatives of a primarily Asian family.

Description

It is bright green with a blue throat and vent and a small bill, quite unlike those of other broadbills. Adults have finely black-streaked buff crowns and narrow black eyestripes.[2]

Habitat and range

It occurs in tropical moist montane forest, and is endemic to the Albertine Rift Mountains of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. In Uganda it is a rare resident at 2,100 to 2,200 metres in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.[5] Density is probably less than one individual per km2.[1]

Diet

Grauer's broadbill feeds on seeds and fruit, flowers and flower buds, and some invertebrates.[1]

Status

This species is rare, but currently protected only in part of its range. It is threatened by deforestation and habitat degradation, particularly as its currently known distribution overlaps with areas that have seen massive human population influxes in the recent past. It has been classified as vulnerable by the IUCN.[1]

gollark: They belong in the firey pits of hell with the rest of their kin.
gollark: Perhaps. But I mostly encounter... *inkjets*.
gollark: The majority of printers I've encountered have been *pure evil*.
gollark: I don't trust printers.
gollark: I'm at least decently confident it would be *quite hard* for unauthorized people to get access. And paper isn't easily backupable or searchable, doesn't support embedding images and videos, doesn't have good linking support, and can be lost easily.

References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Pseudocalyptomena graueri". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Rothschild, H. (1909). "Description of a new bird from Africa". Ibis. 51 (4): 690–691. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919x.1909.tb05277.x.
  3. Thomas M. Brooks; John D. Pilgrim; Ana S. L. Rodrigues & Gustavo A. B. Da Fonseca (2005). "Conservation status and geographic distribution of avian evolutionary history". In Andy Purvis; John L. Gittleman & Thomas Brooks (eds.). Phylogeny and Conservation. Conservation Biology. 8. Cambridge University Press. pp. 267–294. ISBN 978-0-521-82502-3.
  4. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael (2003). Whose Bird? Men and Women Commemorated in the Common Names of Birds. London: Christopher Helm. p. 94.
  5. Britton, P. L., ed. (1980). Birds of East Africa: their habitat, status and distribution. Nairobi: East Africa Natural History Society. pp. 112.

Further reading
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.