Cape longclaw
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The Cape longclaw or orange-throated longclaw (Macronyx capensis) is a passerine bird in the family Motacillidae, which comprises the longclaws, pipits and wagtails.[1] It occurs in Southern Africa in Zimbabwe and southern and eastern South Africa. This species is found in coastal and mountain grassland, often near water.[1]
Taxonomy
In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the Cape longclaw in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected from the Cape of Good Hope. He used the French name L'alouette du Cap de Bonne Espérance and the Latin Alauda Capitis Bonae Spei.[2] Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.[3] When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson.[3] One of these was the Cape longclaw. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Alauda capensis and cited Brisson's work.[4] The specific name capensis denotes the Cape of Good Hope.[5] The species is now placed in the genus Macronyx that was introduced by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1827 with the Cape longclaw as the type species.[6][7]
Two subspecies are recognised:[8]
- M. c. capensis (Linnaeus, 1766) – southwest, south South Africa
- M. c. colletti Schou, 1908 – southeast Botswana and Zimbabwe to Mozambique and east South Africa
Description
The Cape longclaw is a 19–20 cm long.[1] The adult male has a grey head with a buff supercilium and a streaked blackish back. It has a bright orange gorget, black breast band and otherwise yellow underparts. The female is duller, having a yellow throat and much weaker breast band. The juvenile has a dirty yellow throat, indistinct breast band, and yellowish white underparts.[1]
The Cape longclaw is usually found in pairs throughout the year. It feeds on the ground on insects and some seeds. The song is a musical cheewit cheewit, the contact call is tsweet, and there is also a mewling alarm call. Typically not found in larger groups than two, a breeding pair or more often singly.[1] Another behavioural characteristic is the tendency of birds to stand on top of stones, anthills or large grass clumps. While doing so birds stand upright with their breast extended.[1]
This species has a striking resemblance to the unrelated icterid meadowlarks, grassland birds of the Americas. This is presumably due to convergent evolution.
References
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen.
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- Sinclair, Hockey and Tarboton, SASOL Birds of Southern Africa, Template:ISBN
External links
- Cape/Orangethroated Longclaw - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds.