The rich and rare biodiversity in Cyprus. The Cyprus biodiversity includes 1908 plants, 780 seashells, 250 fishes, more than 7.000 insects, 410 birds including migratory, 31 mammals, 9 snakes, 11 lizards,three amphibians, 120 land snails, fungi estimated 5-8 thousandand and three turtles.These numbers continually increase as a result of researc. Also see All about Cyprus.
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Showing posts with label Birds of Cyprus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birds of Cyprus. Show all posts
The common rock thrush (Monticola saxatilis), formerly rufous-tailed rock thrush or rock thrush, is a chat belonging to the family Muscicapidae. It was formerly placed in the family Turdidae. The scientific name is from Latin. Monticola is from mons, montis "mountain", and colere, "to dwell", and saxatilis means "rock-frequenting", from saxum, "stone" .
It breeds in southern Europe across central Asia to northern China. This species is strongly migratory, all populations wintering in Africa south of the Sahara. It is an uncommon visitor to northern Europe. Its range has contracted somewhat at the periphery in recent decades due to habitat destruction. For example, in the early 20th century it bred in the Jura Krakowsko-Częstochowska (Poland) where none occur today, but it is not considered globally endangered.
This is a medium-sized but stocky thrush 17–20 cm in length. The summer male is unmistakable, with a blue-grey head, orange underparts and outer tail feathers, dark brown wings and white back. Females and immatures are much less striking, with dark brown scaly upperparts, and paler brown scaly underparts. The outer tail feathers are reddish, like the male
This species breeds in open dry hilly areas, usually above 1500 m. It nests in rock cavities, laying 4–5 eggs. It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, berries and small reptiles. The male common rock thrush has a clear and tuneful song
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_rock_thrush
Photos and video Cape Apostolos Andreas 10/4/2018 by George Konstantinou
The blue-cheeked bee-eater (Merops persicus) is a near passerine bird in the bee-eater family, Meropidae. The genus name Merops is Ancient Greek for "bee-eater", and persicus is Latin for "Persian".
It breeds in Northern Africa, and the Middle East from eastern Turkey to Kazakhstan and India. It is generally strongly migratory, wintering in tropical Africa, although some populations breed and live year-round in the Sahel. This species occurs as a rare vagrant north of its breeding range, with most vagrants occurring in Italy and Greece.
This species, like other bee-eaters, is a richly coloured, slender bird. It is predominantly green; its face has blue sides with a black eye stripe, and a yellow and brown throat; the beak is black. It can reach a length of 31 cm (12 in), with the two elongated central tail feathers adding another 7 cm (2.8 in). Sexes are mostly alike but the tail-streamers of the female are shorter.
This is a bird which breeds in sub-tropical semi-desert with a few trees, such as acacia. It winters in open woodland or grassland. As the name suggests, bee-eaters predominantly eat insects, especially bees, wasps and hornets, which are caught in the air by sorties from an open perch. However, this species probably takes more dragonflies than any other food item. Its preferred hunting perch is telephone wires if available.
Blue-cheeked bee-eaters may nest solitarily or in loose colonies of up to ten birds. They may also nest in colonies with European bee-eaters. The nests are located in sandy banks, embankments, low cliffs or on the shore of the Caspian Sea. They make a relatively long tunnel of 1 to 3 m (3.3–9.8 ft) in length in which the four to eight (usually six or seven), spherical white eggs are laid. Both the male and the female take care of the eggs, although the female alone incubates them at night. Incubation takes 23–26 days.
The call sounds 'flatter' and less 'fluty' than the European bee-eater.
Two subspecies are recognized:
Merops persicus persicus - Breeds in Asia, winters in East and Southern Africa
Merops persicus chrysocercus - Breeds in North Africa, winters in West Africa.
This species is closely related to blue-tailed bee-eater, M. philippinus of East Asia, and the olive bee-eater of Africa, and has been treated as being the same species (conspecific)
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-cheeked_bee-eater
Photos and video Oroklini 24/3/2018 by George Konstantinou
The bimaculated lark (Melanocorypha bimaculata) breeds in warm temperate countries eastwards from Turkey into central Asia. It is the eastern counterpart of its relative, the calandra lark.
The bimaculated lark was originally placed in the genus Alauda. The current genus name, Melanocorypha is from Ancient Greek melas, "black", and koruphos a term used by ancient writers for a now unknown bird, but here confused with korudos, "lark". "Bimaculate" and the specific bimaculata are from New Latin bimaculatus, "two-spotted". The alternate name calandra lark should not be confused with the species of the same name. The alternate name Eastern calandra lark is also used for a subspecies of the calandra lark.
This is a large, robust lark, 16–18 cm in length. It is an undistinguished looking species on the ground, mainly streaked grey above and white below, and with two small black patches on the breast sides, which give this species its name. It has a white supercilium.
In flight it shows short broad wings, which are grey-brown below, and a short tail with a white tip, but not white edges. The wing and tail patterns are distinctions from its more westerly relative.
The song is like a harder version of that of calandra lark.
The bimaculated lark is found from west-central Turkey to southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, north-eastern Iran and northern Afghanistan. It is also found in northern Israel, Lebanon, western Syria and northern Iraq. It is mainly migratory, wintering in northeast Africa, and ranges widely throughout the greater Middle East to Pakistan, India and Tibet. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe.
This is a bird of stony semi-desert and higher altitude cultivation. Its nest is on the ground, with 3-4 eggs being laid. Food is seeds and insects, the latter especially in the breeding season. It is gregarious in winter.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimaculated_lark
The bird is the nominate Great Grey Shrike excubitor . This is the first record of the nominate Great Grey Shrike in Cyprus The great grey shrike, northern grey shrike, or northern shrike (Lanius excubitor) is a large songbird species in the shrike family (Laniidae). It forms a superspecies with its parapatric southern relatives, the southern grey shrike (L. meridionalis), the Chinese grey shrike (L. sphenocerus) and the loggerhead shrike (L. ludovicianus). Within the great grey shrike species itself, there are two subspecies. Males and females are similar in plumage, pearly grey above with a black eye-mask and white underparts.
Breeding takes place generally north of 50° northern latitude in northern Europe and Asia. Most populations migrate south in winter to temperate regions. The great grey shrike is carnivorous, with rodents making up over half its diet.
The great grey shrike occurs throughout most temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Generally, its breeding range is limited to areas north of 50° northern latitude in Eurasia. In the high mountains of the Altai-Tian Shan region, it ranges south perhaps as far as 42° northern latitude. Its northern limit is generally 70° northern latitude. It is only found as a vagrant in Iceland, the British Isles, the Mediterranean region (excluding the Iberian Peninsula and perhaps Romania but including Cyprus), and Korea. There do not appear to be breeding records from the entire Kamchatka Peninsula; in Switzerland, the present day Czech Republic and southern Germany small populations were found in the mid-20th century but have declined or even disappeared since then.
Except for the subspecies bianchii which is largely all-year resident, and subspecies excubitor in the temperate European parts of its range with their mild maritime climate, the species is a short-distance migrant. The migrations are triggered by scarcity of food and therefore, according to prey population levels, the winter range might little extend south beyond the breeding range, or be entirely parapatric to it. The populations of the Central Asian mountains mostly migrate downslope rather than southwards. Females are more prone to migration than males; they do not appear to migrate, on average, longer or shorter distances than males, and consequently are the dominant sex in many parts of the winter range. Birds leave for winter quarters a more or less short time after breeding – July to October, with most birds staying to September – and return to nest mainly in March/April, but some only arrive in May. In recent decades, the number of birds remaining on the breeding grounds all year has been noted to increase e.g. in Fennoscandia, whereas for example borealis seems to be as rare a winter visitor in northern Ohio as it was a century ago.
The preferred habitat is generally open grassland, perhaps with shrubs interspersed, and adjacent lookout points. These are normally trees – at forest edges in much of the habitat, but single trees or small stands at the taiga-tundra border. In steppe, it will utilize any isolated perch, be it fence posts, power lines or rocks. In general, some 5–15 perching sites per hectare habitat seem to be required. It avoids low grassland with no lookouts and nesting opportunities (trees or large shrubs), as well as dense forest with no hunting ground. Apart from grassland, the birds will utilize a variety of hunting habitats, including bogs, clearings or non-industrially farmed fields. Breeding birds appear to have different microhabitat desires, but little detail is known yet
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_grey_shrike
INTRODUCTION:
Like other Laniidae, the Great Grey Shrike has highly specialized feeding behaviour, unique among passerines. Its scientific name means “sentinel butcher”, referring to this behaviour.
It hunts by watching for prey from high, exposed perches. Once it is detected, the bird drops down on to it after a brief hovering. These prey, both large insects and small vertebrates, are killed with the strong, hooked bill. Then, the victim is impaled on thorns or barbed wire used as meat hooks. The Great Grey Shrike kills a large variety of prey, including small mammals and birds, various small vertebrates and invertebrates and large insects.
The Great Grey Shrike is not currently globally threatened throughout the wide range in Northern Hemisphere, in North America and Eurasia. Seven subspecies share this large territory.
DESCRIPTION OF THE BIRD:
Biometrics:
Length: 24-25 cm
Weight: 48-80 g
The Great Grey Shrike adult has pale grey upperparts with variable bluish wash, including top of head and nape to lower back. Rump and uppertail-coverts are pale grey too, but slightly paler. The upperwing is black with white bar across primary bases, and a smaller white patch at secondary bases. Flight feathers and tertials have white tips. The scapulars are white. The long, graduated tail is black with white outer rectrices.
The underparts are white, including chin and throat. The bird may have a weak pink tinge on breast in fresh plumage.
On the head, we can see a narrow black mask extending from bill base through lores and eyes to rear of ear-coverts. There is a very narrow, white supercilium, sometimes absent.
The strong, hooked bill is black. The eyes are dark brown. Legs and feet are blackish.
Male and female are similar, but males have more contrasting markings than females. The female may show a weak barring on the breast. She is usually slightly duller.
The juvenile is usually browner than adults, with indistinct vermiculations on upperparts and underparts. In autumn, it resembles adult female, but it retains some weak barring on breast and flanks, and pale-edged greater coverts.
Immature
SUBSPECIES AND RANGE:
The Great Grey Shrike has seven subspecies that differ in plumage and body size.
L.e. borealis breeds in NE Canada. It is present in S Canada and most of W and C USA outside breeding season.
This race is similar to nominate with more conspicuous white supercilium, less white on upperwings and greyer underparts densely vermiculated dark. The juvenile is darker and browner than nominate.
L.e. excubitor (described above) breeds in N, C and NE Europe, E to NW Siberia. Present outside breeding season in S Scandinavia, Britain, W and S France, E to Asia Minor, Caucasus and Transcaspia.
L.e. sibiricus breeds in C and E Siberia, E to Kolyma Basin, Anadyrland and Chukotsk Peninsula, S to L Baikal, N Mongolia and SE Russia. It winters in SC Siberia, Mongolia, NE China and Ussuriland.
This race has ochre tinge above and some vermiculations below.
L.e. homeyeri breeds in SE Europe and SW Siberia. It winters in SW and C Asia.
This one is paler than nominate, with mostly whitish rump and uppertail-coverts. The supercilium is more conspicuous. There is more extent of white in wings and tail.
L.e. mollis breeds in CS Russia and NW Mongolia. Outside breeding season, it occurs in N China too.
This race is darker than “sibiricus” and has smaller white wing patch, buffer underparts with more vermiculations.
L.e. funereus occurs in E Kazakhstan and S Tien Shan.
This one is the largest. It is darker than “mollis” with more heavily vermiculated underparts.
L.e. bianchii breeds on Sakhalin Island and Kuril Islands. It winters in N Japan (Hokkaido).
This race is small, similar to “sibiricus” but paler and greyer, and less vermiculated below.
HABITAT:
The Great Grey Shrike frequents various types of open areas where it breeds, from semi-desert to farmland, heathland, scrub, bogs, and partly forested tundra and coastal dunes, all with scattered trees, scrub and bushes used as perches from which they hunt.
Outside breeding season, it can be found in similar habitats, but with more meadows.
From http://www.oiseaux-birds.com/card-great-grey-shrike.html
Photos and video alaminos 18/2/2018 by George Konstantinou
Cyprus' 16th Red-breasted Merganser that was discovered by John East in Akrotiri. 05/12/2017
The red-breasted merganser (Mergus serrator) is a diving duck, one of the sawbills. The genus name is a Latin word used by Pliny and other Roman authors to refer to an unspecified waterbird, and serrator is a sawyer from Latin serra, "saw".
The red-breasted merganser was one of the many bird species originally described by Linnaeus in the landmark 1758 10th edition of his Systema Naturae, where it was given the binomial name of Mergus serrator.
The adult red-breasted merganser is 51–62 cm (20–24 in) long with a 70–86 cm (28–34 in) wingspan. It has a spiky crest and long thin red bill with serrated edges. The male has a dark head with a green sheen, a white neck with a rusty breast, a black back, and white underparts. Adult females have a rusty head and a greyish body. The juvenile is like the female, but lacks the white collar and has a smaller white wing patch.
The call of the female is a rasping prrak prrak, while the male gives a feeble hiccup-and-sneeze display call.
Red-breasted mergansers dive and swim underwater. They mainly eat small fish, but also aquatic insects, crustaceans, and frogs.
Its breeding habitat is freshwater lakes and rivers across northern North America, Greenland, Europe, and Asia. It nests in sheltered locations on the ground near water. It is migratory and many northern breeders winter in coastal waters further south.
The fastest duck ever recorded was a red-breasted merganser that attained a top airspeed of 100 mph while being pursued by an airplane. This eclipsed the previous speed record held by a canvasback clocked at 72 mph
The common rock thrush (Monticola saxatilis), formerly rufous-tailed rock thrush or rock thrush, is a chat belonging to the family Muscicapidae. It was formerly placed in the family Turdidae. The scientific name is from Latin. Monticola is from mons, montis "mountain", and colere, "to dwell", and saxatilis means "rock-frequenting", from saxum, "stone" .
It breeds in southern Europe across central Asia to northern China. This species is strongly migratory, all populations wintering in Africa south of the Sahara. It is an uncommon visitor to northern Europe. Its range has contracted somewhat at the periphery in recent decades due to habitat destruction. For example, in the early 20th century it bred in the Jura Krakowsko-Częstochowska (Poland) where none occur today, but it is not considered globally endangered.
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