Pterocles Orientalis – Wikipedia, Free Encyclopedia

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The ganga of orta o simply ortega ( Pterocles orientalis ) [ 2 ] It is a kind of bird of the Pteroclididae family of southern Eurasia and North Africa.

Description [ To edit ]

Ortega male in an illustration of 1838.

Illustration with an ortegas couple ( A. Oh. arenarius ) of 1905.

The Ortega bargain is a robust bird with a head similar to that of the pigeons and long and wide wings. It measures 30 to 39 cm long and weighs between 300 and 615 g. [ 3 ] It presents a clear sexual dimorphism, although both sexes have blacks and blacks the belly and wings flight feathers, this feature being very evident in flight. The male has the head, neck and upper gray chest, except for a black spot in the throat framed by orange cinnamon tones that extend along the sides of the neck and the lower part of the cheeks. The rest of the upper parts are grayish brown spotted with yellowish motorcycle. The bottom of the chest is a wide pink ocher strip framed by a blacklist on the top and black of the belly. Instead, the female has the upper ocher color parts, with a dense and fine black veiled even in the pyleus, the neck and the upper part of the chest, although at the bottom of the chest it also has the black line and the ocher band Pink, and have a small blacklist on the front of the neck, where males have the base of the black triangle. [ 4 ] ​

Its song is a “chürrr’r’re-ka” slightly descending, and that from afar resembles the snort of a horse. [ 4 ] ​

The subspecies present only in Asia is larger and lighter tones that is also present in Europe and Africa. The males have the most yellow and grayish upper parts than those of the Western subspecies. Females can be clearer in the lower parts, but are often indistinguishable.

The Ortega easily differs from the Iberian Ganga ( Pterocles alchata ) for its larger size, its black belly, and for the absence of elongated feathers in the tail and black eye lists.

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Taxonomy and etymology [ To edit ]

Pterocliformes are birds adapted to arid terrain, of heads similar to those of pigeons, but with more robust and chood. Its taxonomy has been controversial. Initially they were classified within Galliformes, but their similarities are due to adaptive convergence to terrestrial media. Subsequently they were included in Columbiforms, but they are currently considered a separate family.

La Ganga Ortega was scientifically described by Carlos Linneo in 1758 in the tenth edition of his work System of nature , [ 5 ] With the name of Tetrao Orientalis . [ 6 ] Subsequently it was transferred to the genre Pterocles , created by Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1815.

The etymology of the name of its genre Pterocles comes from the Greek term pteron which means “wing”, and the termination -cell “Notable for.” [ 7 ] On the other hand, the name of its species, orientalis In Latin it means “oriental.”

Two subspecies are recognized: [ 8 ] ​

  • A. Oh. arenarius (Pallas, 1775) – It extends through Central Asia.
  • A. Oh. oriental (Linnaeus, 1758) – Despite its contradictory name, the nominal subspecies occupies the western zone of its distribution area: the Iberian Peninsula, Fuerteventura and North Africa and the Middle East to the West of Iran.

Distribution and habitat [ To edit ]

It has a scattered distribution; It is present in the Iberian Peninsula, and in North Africa, reappears in Anatolia, and the Middle East, in addition to Fuerteventura and Cyprus. [ 9 ] It also extends through the steppes of Central Asia, [ 4 ] From Kazakhstan to the south of Iran, Afghanistan and northwest of China (Xinjiang) and the northwest of India. [ 9 ] ​

Inhabits arid areas and plains with little vegetation, such as plain steppes and poorly injured half -deserts. It is not threatened globally and its population is estimated between 500,000-4,000,000 individuals, [ first ] Although it is in decline due mainly to the abuse of herbicides and insecticides.

Behavior [ To edit ]

They are gregarious birds that are found in plains with low and dispersed vegetation, although they avoid the areas that completely lack vegetation, unlike the Iberian bargains. They feed mainly with seeds. They are nomads and partially migratory, and their robust wings allow them a quick and direct flight. They usually concentrate on abbreviations at dawn.

They nest in a slight depression of the soil. Its set is usually composed of three greenish eggs with brown spots that camouflage themselves on the ground. Both members of the couple incubate the eggs and take care of the nest -sheds, but only males are responsible for bringing water, soaking the specialized feathers of their chest in drinking fountains, and thus the chicks do not risk approaching the water where it is more Probable the presence of predators.

References [ To edit ]

  1. ↑ a b BirdLife International (2012). ‘ Pterocles orientalis » . Red list of threatened species from the IUCN 2013.2 (in English) . ISSN  2307-8235 . Retrieved on April 8, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Bernis, f; Of Juana, e; Del Hoyo, J; Fernández-Cruz, M; Ferrer, X; Sáez-Royuela, R; Sargatal, j (1998). «Names in Spanish of the birds of the world recommended by the Spanish Society of Ornithology (Fourth Part: Pterocliformes, Columbiformes, Psittaciform and Cuculiformes)» . Ardeola . Handbook of the Birds of the World (Madrid: SEO/BirdLife) 45 (1): 87-96. ISSN  0570-7358 . Retrieved on April 9, 2015 .
  3. ↑ John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses . CRC Press (1992), ISBN 978-084993-4258-5.
  4. ↑ a b c Mullarney, k.; Svensson, l.; Zetterström, d; y Grant, P.J. (2003). Bird and Europe . Editorial Omega. ISBN 84-282-1218-X .
  5. ↑ Sonoms. «Birds of the World — current valid scientific avian names.» (in English) . Retrieved on April 8, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Charles Linnaeus. The system of nature by the kingdoms of the three natures, according to classes, orders, genera, species, with characters, differences, synonymous, places Volume tenth reformed 1758 Holmiæ, printed directly. Lawrence Salvii (Salvio Publ.) P. 161.
  7. ↑ James A. Jobling. Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Bloomsbury Publishing p. 322 ISBN 1408125013
  8. ↑ Frank Gill y David Donsker. Coursers, noddies, gulls, terns, auks & sandgrouse Archived May 6, 2014 at Wayback Machine. . IOC World Bird List version 5.1.
  9. ↑ a b Clements, J. F. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World, 6th Edition . Cornell University Press. Downloadable from Cornell Lab of Ornithology

external links [ To edit ]

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