Red-necked falcon
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The red-necked falcon (Falco chicquera) is a bird of prey in the falcon family with two disjunct populations, one in India and the other in Africa. This medium-sized falcon has bluish grey wings and upper body, a chestnut red cap with short chin straps passing through the eye. The primary feathers of the wing are black and a single black band at the tip of the tail are distinctive. The Indian subspecies Falco chicquera chicquera also known as the red-headed merlin or red-headed falcon is found mainly in the open plains of the India Subcontinent although it is thought to have occurred further west in southeastern Iran. The subspecies Falco chicquera ruficollis found in sub-Saharan Africa is sometimes treated as a full species, the rufous-necked falcon (Falco ruficollis), on the basis of its well-separated geographic range and distinctive pattern. It appears very similar to the Indian form but has dark barring on the upperparts, a rufous breast band, and black moustachial and eye stripes. As in most falcons, the females are larger and falconers in India called the female turumti and the male as chatwa. They hunt in pairs mostly at dawn and dusk, capturing small birds, bats and squirrels.
DescriptionEdit
Template:Infobox bird The red-necked falcon is a medium-sized, long-winged species with a bright rufous crown and nape. It is on average Template:Convert in length with a wingspan of Template:Convert. The wings and upper parts are bluish grey and the tail has narrow bars, a broad subterminal black band tipped with white. The wingtip does not reach the tip of the tail at rest.<ref name=pcr /> The second and third primaries are the longest and almost equal in length while the first is a fourth the length. The first two primaries are notched.<ref name=fbi1 /> The legs, ceres and eyering are yellow. The tip of the bill is black while the basal portion is greenish yellow. The voice of this species is a shrill ki-ki-ki-ki. The sexes are similar except in size, males are smaller than females as is usual in falcons. Young birds are buff below with less extensive barring and duller upper plumage.<ref name=fbi2>Template:Cite book</ref>
SubspeciesEdit
The adult of the African subspecies Falco chicquera ruficollis (a full species, F. ruficollis, in many treatments) first described by William Swainson<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in 1837 has a white face apart from black on the moustachial stripe. The upperparts are pale grey, with black primary wing feathers and the broad tail band. The underparts are white with dark barring on the underwings, lower breast, belly and undertail. There is a rufous foreneck band (not present in the Indian form). West African males are known to weigh between 139 and 178 grams, while females are found between 190 and 305 grams. The particularly large African birds from south of the Zambezi River are often separated as subspecies Falco chicquera horsbrughi, which was described by J. W. B. Gunning & Austin Roberts in 1911 on the basis of a single specimen,<ref name=wink2000 /> but the size variation may be clinal and the subspecies may not be valid.
The Asian nominate subspecies Falco chicquera chicquera has rufous moustachial stripes, lacks the buff breast band, and is less extensively barred than the African form.
TaxonomyEdit
The species was described on the basis of a specimen obtained by François Levaillant from Chandernagore in Bengal where he was told it went by the name of Chicquera.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> This local name was probably attributed to this species by mistake as the name probably referred to a shikra.<ref name=phillott>Template:Cite journal</ref> Levaillant did not use binomials but called it Le Chicquera and François Marie Daudin gave it the binomial Falco chicquera in 1800.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Early authors placed it in the genus Aesalon along with the merlin and later in the genus Lithofalco. Others have placed it in the genus Chicquera or Hypotriorchis.<ref name=fbi1>Template:Cite book</ref>
Studies of molecular sequence divergence in the cytochrome b gene suggest that the African and Indian forms are distinctive due to separation for as long as 0.9 million years. With non-overlapping ranges they are often treated as full species.<ref name=wink2000>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=wing1998>Template:Cite book</ref>
Habitat and distributionEdit
In Africa, the red-necked falcon is found in semi-desert, savannah and other dry open country with some trees, but also riverine forest. It often perches and makes use of the crowns of Borassus palms (Borassus aethiopum) for breeding. They are mostly resident but may make nomadic movements in response to weather. In India, they are found in open habitats and is not found in dense forests or high hills. The nominate subspecies is believed to have occurred west until Iran although no records exist from there since 1970.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> They were recorded breeding in 1911 by Nikolai Zarudny.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> It is a winter vagrant in northern Sri Lanka<ref name=pcr>Template:Cite book</ref> where it was first recorded by E.L. Layard.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
BehaviourEdit
The red-necked falcon usually hunts in pairs, often at dawn and dusk, sometimes utilizing a technique in which one of the pair flies low and flushes up small birds while the other follows higher up and seizes the prey as it flushes from cover. They fly with a fast and dashing flight.<ref name="Ali & Ripley 1978">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Radcliffe 1871">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=subbi>Template:Cite journal</ref>
It prefers to prey on birds found in open areas and some of the species it has been recorded to hunt are Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus), house sparrow (Passer domesticus), white-browed wagtail (Motacilla madaraspatensis), rosy starling (Sturnus roseus), chestnut-tailed starling (Sturnus malabaricus), Indian cuckoo (Cuculus micropterus), Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus), little ringed plover (Charadrius dubius), ashy-crowned finch-lark (Eremoptrix griseus), besides robins, quails, babblers, swifts, bulbuls, pipits, larks (mainly Calandrella, Alauda, Galerida sp.), pied cuckoo (Clamator jacobinus), rock dove (Columba livia), collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto), laughing dove (Streptopelia senegelensis), brown crake (Lanius cristatus), tailor bird (Orthotomus sutorius), brown shrike (Lanius cristatus), white-breasted kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis), little stint (Calidris minuta), plain martin (Riparia paludicola) and pied bushchat (Saxicola caprata). In addition mice, lizards, large insects are also taken.<ref name=nao2007>Template:Cite book</ref> In one study in Bangladesh, adults fed mainly on small sparrow sized birds (72%) and Pipistrellus bats (28%).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> They may sometimes pirate prey obtained by other medium-sized raptors.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Prey may sometimes be cached and eaten subsequently.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
The red-necked falcon drinks water where available during the afternoons. This has been observed both in India and in Africa, where it sometimes visits waterholes.<ref name=nao2011 />
The breeding season in India is January to March. In Zambia, the breeding season begins in August. Pairs may indulge in courtship feeding in which the female feeds the male, an unusual behaviour that has also been noted in captivity.<ref name=subbi /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> This falcon usually reuses the old tree nest platforms, particularly of corvids, or lays its 3-5 eggs in a nest that it builds on the fork of a tall tree or in the crown of a palm tree. In Africa, they have been known to reuse the nests of pied crows (Corvus albus), African fish eagles (Halieaetus vocifer) on Acacia apart from building their own nest in Borassus palms. In India, the nest is often placed in a large mango tree (Mangifera indica) and concealed inside foliage. The nest territory is well-guarded and crows and kites driven away.<ref name=fbi2 /> This falcon has been documented to nests in trees amidst dense human population.<ref name=nao2011>Template:Cite journal</ref> The clutch consists of two to four eggs which are incubated only by the female which begins after the last egg of the clutch is laid. The eggs hatch after about 32 to 34 days and the newly hatched young are covered in white down and are brooded by the female for a week. The male brings food which is torn by the female and fed to the chicks. The young fledge in about 35 to 37 days in Africa and up to 48 days in India.<ref name=nao2011 /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In falconryEdit
The turumti was a favourite among Indian falconers who would fly it especially at the Indian roller which would make evasive aerial manoeuvres that entertained the onlookers.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> These falcons were caught using a bal-chatri, as they not only captured prey in the air like other falcons, but will also pursue on the ground and thereby could get entangled in the horsehair nooses.<ref name=phillott/> Turumta was a name used in Iran for the merlin.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Parasites and diseasesEdit
Captive birds can be affected by Newcastle disease virus,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> as well as many parasites including Trichomonas (in subsp. ruficollis)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and nematodes such as Cyrnea eurycerca.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- Red-necked falcon - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds.