Mearnsia

Philippines Swift ( Mearnsia picina )

Mearnsia is a small bird genus in the family of sailors ( Apodidae ). The two members of the genus are medium-sized glider with a very glossy plumage. Both species are endemic species of the Philippines sailor is found only on the south-eastern islands of the Philippines, the Papua New Guinea sailors only.

Features

These are sailors medium size with a body length of about 14 (Philippines sailor ) or 11.5 centimeters ( Papua sailors ). Both species of the genus have a very shiny plumage of Papua glider is almost completely black except for the strongly contrasting bright throat patch and a white area on the underside of the wing -coverts. The Philippines sailor is glossy black, only the underside is almost completely white.

In both types the quills of feathers protrude as "tail spines " on the flags, which is typical for the representatives of the tribe Chaeturini. These thorns are but compared to other types of relatively thin and with only about one millimeter in length shorter than that of all other species of this tribe.

System

First, the species of this genus were slammed by most authors of the genus Chaetura. David Lack supported, however, 1956, the separation of the Philippines and Papua sailor in a separate genus, and this position was verified and accepted by later authors.

The following types are attributed to the genus:

• Philippines Swift ( Mearnsia picina )
• Papua Swift ( Mearnsia Kookaburra )