Beach Stone-curlew

Rifftriel ( Esacus giganteus)

The Rifftriel ( Esacus giganteus ) is a species of bird in the family of stone curlews and the order of the Charadriiformes.

Features

The Rifftriel is a powerfully built bird. His body is elongated, the chest sticks out far. His neck is long and thin. His powerful, angular head wearing a huge, crescent-shaped beak. The legs are thin and long. The heel joint is very large. The bird has three long and a short toe. About the vertices and on the eyes depending runs a black ribbon to the neck. Between these bands, the plumage is white as well as the throat. On the chin there is a small black line. At these borders on the front of the neck of a long, beige stain. The front body of the Rifftriels is brown, the belly is white to beige. His cock and primaries have a dark color, his lower arm springs are gray. Pull over the arm wing from wrist to two white and dark gray stripes framed. The beak is black, the beak shaft and the legs are yellow. The underwings are white. The Rifftriel reaches a length of 55 centimeters.

Way of life

The Rifftriel is daytime in the shade or in shallow water. At night and at dawn he goes in search of food. He walks along the beach, watching for its prey such as crabs, clams, worms and other invertebrates. Especially often the bird is to be found in mangroves. Danger threatens her he only runs away. This bird rarely flies and bad. Its nest is a body formed by pressure trough on the beach next driftwood washed items and Tang The young are precocial.

Habitat and Distribution

The Rifftriel occurs at tropical beaches, mangroves and coral reefs. It is native to the northern and eastern coasts of Australia, New Caledonia and on the Malay Archipelago and the Philippines.

System

The species is also performed under the protonyms Esacus magnirostris ( Erstbeschreiber Vieillot 1818), Burhinus giganteus or oedicnemus magnirostris. The IUCN provides him Andrew (1992 ) together with the Krabbentriel (E. recurvirostris ) in the genus Esacus, since Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993) proposed consolidation of the genus Esacus not included with the genus Burhinus that the two types be clearly distinguishable by their powerful beaks, the black and white face markings and the simplified back design from all other species of the genus Burhinus.

Swell