The Madeira firecrest is a small passerine bird endemic to the island of Madeira. It is a member of the kinglet family, but was previously classified as a subspecies of the common fire crest. The species name madeirensis is derived from the island on which this bird is found.
About Madeira firecrest in brief
The Madeira firecrest is a small passerine bird endemic to the island of Madeira. It is a member of the kinglet family, but was previously classified as a subspecies of the common fire crest. The Madeiran bird has green upperparts, whitish underparts and two white wingbars. It has a distinctive head pattern with a black eye stripe, short white supercilium, and a crest that is mainly orange in the male and yellow in the female. The female builds a spherical nest from cobwebs, moss and small twigs, and she incubates the eggs and broods the chicks on her own. Both parents feed the young. This species forages for insects and other small invertebrates in tree heath, laurisilva and other woodland. The calls of both species include high-pitched fine vocalisations zuu zu-zi-zi, although it also has a shrill wheez and a whistled peep. This kinglet usually hops with its body held horizontally, and its flight is weak and whirring, with occasional jinking.
The species name madeirensis is derived from the island on which this bird is found. It was first described by English naturalist Edward Vernon Harcourt in 1851. Until recently, it was considered to be a sub species, R. i. madeirenis, of thecommon firecest R. ignicapillus. A phylogenetic analysis based on the cytochrome b gene showed that the MadeirAn form is distinct at the species level from the firecRest nominate subspecies. The split was accepted by the European Rarities Committees in 2003, but some authorities, such as the Clements, have not yet recognised the new species. The International Ornithological Congress’ recommended name for this species was madeiracrest, but this has been changed to \”Madeircrest’
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This page is based on the article Madeira firecrest published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
