Southern nutcracker

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Southern nutcracker
Nucifraga hemispila perched in Picea smithiana, Rara Lake, Nepal (crop).jpg
Nucifraga hemispila hemispila in western Nepal
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Corvidae
Genus: Nucifraga
Species:
N. hemispila
Binomial name
Nucifraga hemispila
Vigors, 1831
Synonyms

Nucifraga caryocatactes hemispila

The southern nutcracker (Nucifraga hemispila) is a passerine bird in the crow family Corvidae. It was formerly considered to be conspecific with the northern nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes) and the Kashmir nutcracker (Nucifraga multipunctata) under the English name "spotted nutcracker".

Contents

Taxonomy

Nucifraga hemispila owstoni, Taiwan 9030Yu Shan Guo Jia Gong Yuan Xing Ya .jpg
Nucifraga hemispila owstoni, Taiwan

The southern nutcracker was formally described in 1831 by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Vigors under the binomial name Nucifraga hemispila. [2] He specified the type locality as just "the Himalayas"; however, research into Vigors' travels has been able to restrict the locality to the Shimla and Almora districts of northern India. [3] [4] The genus name Nucifraga is the Latin name given to the northern nutcracker by the English naturalist William Turner in 1544, as a translation of the German name Nussbrecher meaning "nut-breaker". [5] The specific epithet hemispila combines the Ancient Greek ἡμι-/hēmi- meaning "half-" or "small" with σπιλος/spilos meaning "stain" or "spot". [6] The southern nutcracker was formerly considered to be conspecific with the spotted nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes), that now renamed in its revised narrower ciscumscription as northern nutcracker. It is here treated as a separate species based on differences in morphology and vocalisation, as well molecular genetic analysis. [7] [8]

Four subspecies are accepted: [8]

Description

The southern nutcracker is similar in size to the northern nutcracker, about 33 cm long. It is largely brown, with limited white spotting on the face and upper breast, plain brown lower breast and back, unmarked black wings, and white lower belly and under-tail coverts; for comparison, both the northern nutcracker and the kashmir nutcracker have extensive and larger white spots on the entire breast and back. The tail is black with white outer corners. The bill is stout and black, the legs also black. [9]

Ecology and behaviour

It occurs primarily in pine forests, with particular preference for Chinese white pine (Pinus armandii), blue pine (Pinus wallichiana), and other related white pines in Pinus subgenus Strobus, the seeds of which it caches and distributes in a manner similar to other nutcrackers; it will also use other conifers such as spruce in the event of cone crop failure in its preferred species. [10]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clark's nutcracker</span> Species of bird

Clark's nutcracker, sometimes referred to as Clark's crow or woodpecker crow, is a passerine bird in the family Corvidae, native to the mountains of western North America. The nutcracker is an omnivore, but subsists mainly on pine nuts, burying seeds in the ground in the summer and then retrieving them in the winter by memory. The bird was described by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, with William Clark first observing it in 1805 along the banks of the Salmon River, a tributary of the Columbia River.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern nutcracker</span> Species of bird

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black bulbul</span> Species of bird

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montezuma quail</span> Species of bird

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pale-headed rosella</span> Species of bird

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-eared fairy</span> Species of hummingbird

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spot-backed antbird</span> Species of bird

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Kazinag National Park is a national park in Baramulla city of the Baramulla district in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir notified under Wild Life Protection Act 1972. It is part of a proposal for a trans-Karakoram peace park with Pakistan. The area of Kazinag National Park is 160 square kilometres, and it was commissioned in 1992. The national park is located on the north bank of the Jhelum River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kashmir nutcracker</span> Species of bird

The Kashmir nutcracker or large-spotted nutcracker is a passerine bird related to the northern nutcracker and southern nutcracker. Until recently, it was considered a subspecies of the former. It is found in the western Himalayas.

References

  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Nucifraga hemispila". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T103727443A104100871. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T103727443A104100871.en . Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  2. Vigors, Nicholas Aylward (1831). "Nucifraga hemispila". Proceedings of the Committee of Science and Correspondence of the Zoological Society of London. 1 (18): 8.
  3. Ticehurst, Claud B.; Whistler, Hugh (1924). "On the type-locality of certain birds described by Vigors". Ibis. 66 (3): 68–473 [471]. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1924.tb05337.x.
  4. Mayr, Ernst; Greenway, James C. Jr, eds. (1962). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 15. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 258.
  5. Jobling, James A. "Nucifraga". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  6. Jobling, James A. "hemispila". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  7. de Raad, J.; Päckert, M.; Irestedt, M.; Janke, A.; Kryukov, A.P.; Martens, J.; Red’kin, Y.A.; Sun, Y.; Töpfer, T.; Schleuning, M.; Neuschulz, E.L.; Nilsson, M.A. (2022). "Speciation and population divergence in a mutualistic seed dispersing bird". Communications Biology. 5 (1): 429. doi: 10.1038/s42003-022-03364-2 . PMC   9085801 . PMID   35534538.
  8. 1 2 Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (August 2024). "Crows, mudnesters, birds-of-paradise". IOC World Bird List Version 14.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  9. del Hoyo, Josep (2020). All the birds of the world. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. p. 556. ISBN   978-84-16728-37-4.
  10. Lanner, Ronald M. (1996). Made for each other: A symbiosis of birds and pines. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   0-19-508-903-0.