Watery Chloropète

The watery Chloropète , also called Chloropète of the marshes , watery Jaunerolle and Jaunerolle of the marshes ( Chloropeta gracilirostris ) is a bird of Africa of the family of the Sylviidae. It is one of the qualified species of endemic of the papyrus.

Description

The watery chloropète is a bird of small size (14 cm) with the back of color brown-olive to brown-russet-red and the yellow belly with nuances olive on the breast piece and the sides.

Behavior

Food

This bird nourishes small insects.

Subspecies and distribution

There exist two subspecies of watery Chloropète:

Chloropeta gracilirostris gracilirostris (Ogilvie-Grant, 1906): Burundi, is Democratic republic of Congo, west of the Kenya, Rwanda, northern west of the Tanzania, west of the Uganda
Chloropeta gracilirostris bensoni (Amadon, 1954): mouth of the Luapula river in Zambia, and perhaps in the adjacent zones of the Democratic republic of Congo.

Habitat

More often heard that considering, this bird is generally observed only or couples some in the marshes and marshes, or in edge of the African big lakes. It is generally in the summit part of the papyruses, and occasionally in the reeds.

Statute and safeguarding

This species is threatened by disappearance of its habitat, must with the drainage of the marshy zones, the demographic expansion, the invasion of the marshes by the Jacinthe of water and by the destruction of the papyruses by the human ones and the fires. Actions aiming at protecting the marshes with papyrus are in hand in Rwanda and on the Kenyan part of the Lake Victoria.

Its population, which is declining, is estimated at less than 10.000 individuals, on a surface of very parcelled out distribution, which justifies the classification of this species by the IUCN in the category CONSIDERING C2a (vulnerable).

Philately

Zambia emitted a stamp with the effigy of this bird in 1988.

Photographs and vidéos

of C. gracilirostris on the site African Bird Club
photo Gallery on ARKive
on IBC (C.g.gracilirostris, Uganda)

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