Chestnut-breasted Mannikin
Brown Chest Schilffink ( Lonchura castaneothorax )
The Brown Chest Reed Finch ( Lonchura castaneothorax ), also called Brown Chest nun, is a species of finches. We distinguish several subspecies.
Description
The Brown Chest - Schilffink achieved grown a body length 9-11 inches. The beak is light gray. The face mask is black, the black iris surrounds a light eye ring. The top of the head to the neck is light gray. The chest is just like the upper wing ceiling from light brown to russet color. The light body base is set off by a dark band of the chest. The body sides are cuckoo white and dark gray. The females are similar to males, they are only slightly colored matt.
Juveniles are dark brown on the body top. The wings and the tail feathers are gray-brown with lighter brown seams. The sides of the head are brown with whitish shaft strokes. The body bottom is isabellweißlich, the front chest and the sides of the body pass something into rusty brown.
The singing of the brown breast Schilffink is creaking and twittering.
Distribution and habitat
The distribution area of the brown chest Reed Finks ranges from New Guinea to the northwest and east of Australia. There, the distribution area extends into the region to Sydney. In New Caledonia and the New Hebrides, this type is naturalized. The habitat of the brown chest Reed Finks are the wet lowlands near rivers and lagoons in the north- west and in northern Australia. He also colonized extensive wetlands, the sativa Oryza, a wild rice species are covered. Characteristic of the brown breast Schilffink are seasonal migrations. With the onset of the rainy season between October and November, he moves inland and with the onset of dry season he wanders back to the coast. The Brown Chest - Schilffink benefited from the increasing irrigation and has developed into a pronounced culture follower.
In Queensland, the nutmeg bronze males imported there from Asia has become a strong competitor of this type and partially displaces the brown breast Schilffink.
Food
The food of brown chest Reed finches consists in large parts of its range from the seeds of wild rice. Increasingly, however, play barley, rice and other seeds, cultivated as fodder crops such as Sudan grass (Sorghum vulgare) and elephant grass, a role. In Queensland, he has become a characteristic bird of the sugar cane fields and in northern New South Wales, it is often observed in barley fields. If it occurs in large numbers on, it can be a dedicated agricultural pest. He devoured half-ripe rice and barley and can cause great damage mainly by the bending of stalks cause.
During the rainy season the brown breast Schilffink also eats insects. Especially flying termites play an important role. The Brown Chest - Schilffink looking to eat only rarely on the floor but lands wherever possible on grass and corn stalks just below the ear and then picks with neck stretched the seeds from the Fruchtähre.
Reproduction
Outside the breeding season occurs the brown breast Schilffink on in particularly large numbers that hold tight. In the north- west and to the north of Australia, it is very commonly associated with the Gilbnonne. However, Brown Chest Reed finches are a gregarious species throughout the year and often breed together with other couples in a grass or reed in hand, the distance between the nests occasionally is only half a meter. After the breeding season the young birds form their own flocks.
The breeding season falls across much of the range in the second half of the rainy season. In regions with extensive, irrigated agricultural land, the propagation time may be due to the long-standing offer of half-ripe seeds extend well into the dry season. In the Sydney region, there are year-round except for the months of June and July nests.
Brown Chest Reed finches are free breeders that build their nests in tall grass or reeds between vertical Ständeln. As nesting material they use grasses, plants wool and plant fibers. Occasionally, they use up to 79 centimeters long grass blades, which are built into the nest wall. Some of these blades run around the nest. It will be installed between two hundred and three hundred of these blades of grass. The female lays four to six eggs. Incubation period is about 13 days.
System
The genus assignment within the family of finches is still controversial. Some authors assign this type of finch species nuns, others see them because of the revenge pattern in young birds at the Bronze males ( as Lonchura castaneothorax ) loaded correctly.
Attitude
Brown Chest Reed finches are among the pet birds held in Europe for a long time. The first examples were shown in 1860 at the London Zoo. Already at the end of the 1870s, they were among the most common birds imported into Germany and were at the beginning of the year up to the Australian export embargo in 1960 imported regularly and in large numbers. Decorated in Europe stocks are now relatively small, although the species is to grow as simple.