La Tour du Valat

Institut de recherche pour la conservation des zones humides méditerranéennes

Titre :	Breeding and roosting behind waterfalls: Evolutionary aspects of the exceptional behaviour of the Brazilian Great Dusky Swift Cypseloides senex
Auteurs :	Josef H. Reichholf, Auteur
Type de document :	Article
Dans :	Ornithologischer Anzeiger (43(1) May 2004)
Article en page(s) :	49-54
Résumé :	Great Dusky Swifts, Cypseloides (Aerornis) senex, nest and roost behind waterfalls in subtropical and tropical South America. This exceptional behaviour may not be simply the result of a step by step approach to the falls from the sides but it could be interpreted differently according to the ecological conditions during the Pleistocene era when water discharge of the rivers there was much lower than at present and also more seasonal. Swifts by their very nature have a number of predispositions for the use of waterfalls and coping with increasing amounts of water pouring over the falls should not have posed too big a problem for them. A striking convergence is found in the Southeast Asian Swiftlets of the Collocalia-group with the Waterfall Swiftlet Collocalia (Hydrochous) gigas, to which the evolutionary model presented here for the Great Dusky Swift is applicable likewise.

Lundi , mardi et jeudi de 9h à 12h et de 13h à 17h00 : ouverture au public ...