Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Dartford Warbler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dartford Warbler | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservation status | ||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||
| Sylvia undata (Boddaert, 1783, Provence, France ) |
The Dartford Warbler, Sylvia undata, is an typical warbler which breeds in the warmer parts of south west Europe and northwest Africa. Its breeding range lies west of a line from southern England to the heel of Italy. It is a mainly resident breeder, but there is some limited migration.
Like many typical warblers, this species has distinct male and female plumages. The male of this small Sylvia has a grey back and head, reddish underparts, and a red eye. The reddish throat is spotted with white. The female is paler below, especially on the throat, and a browner grey below. The song is a distinctive rattling warble.
It probably forms a superspecies with Tristram's Warbler and this in turn seems close to Marmora's Warbler and the Balearic Warbler (Helbig 2001, Jønsson & Fjeldså 2006). Altogether, this group of typical warblers bears an uncanny resemblance to the Wrentit, the only species of Sylviidae from the Americas (compare Wrentit with Dartford Warbler photo linked below). Still, the Wrentit is less closely related to the genus Sylvia than to the parrotbills (Cibois 2003, Pasquet 2006). Its visual similarity to the Dartford Warbler group is an astounding example of convergent evolution between birds closely related enough to already share many similarities evolving half a world apart in similar Mediterranean shrub habitat.
This small, 13 cm, passerine bird breeds in heathlands often near coasts, with gorse bushes for nesting. Like its relatives, the Dartford Warbler is insectivorous, but will also take berries. The nest is built in low shrub, and 3-6 eggs are laid.
Dartford Warblers were named for Dartford Heath in NW Kent, where the population became extinct in the early 20th century. They almost died out in the UK in the severe winter of 1962-3 when the national population dropped to just 10 pairs. They recovered in some areas but numbers are once again on the decline. However this species can recover well because of repeated nesting and a high survival rate for the young.
- BirdLife International (2004). Sylvia undata. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 09 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- Cibois, Alice (2003): Mitochondrial DNA Phylogeny of Babblers (Timaliidae). Auk 120(1): 1-20. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2003)120[0035:MDPOBT]2.0.CO;2 HTML fulltext without images
- Helbig, A. J. (2001): Phylogeny and biogeography of the genus Sylvia. In: Shirihai, Hadoram: Sylvia warblers: 24-25[verification needed]. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.. ISBN 0691088330
- Jønsson, Knud A. & Fjeldså, Jon (2006): A phylogenetic supertree of oscine passerine birds (Aves: Passeri). Zool. Scripta 35(2): 149–186. doi::10.1111/j.1463-6409.2006.00221.x (HTML abstract)
- Pasquet, Eric; Bourdon, Estelle; Kalyakin, Mikhail V. & Cibois, Alice (2006). The fulvettas (Alcippe), Timaliidae, Aves): a polyphyletic group. Zoologica Scripta 35, 559–566. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2006.00253.x (HTML abstract)
- Chelmarsh Ringing Group: Photo of hand-held Dartford Warbler. Retrieved 2007-APR-26.
