Temporal page (November 26, 2001)

<keywords> Amami thrush, nest, predator, food resource, forest habitat

Summary

The first nesting records of critically endangered Zoothera major.

Mikio Takashi1, Katsunori Fujimoto2, Kazunori Kawaguchi1, Hidemi Kawaguchi1, and Ken Ishida1,3

1. Amami Ornithologists' Club, Naze, Kagoshima 894-0026, Japan
2. Amami Forest Management Office, Rinyacho, Naze, Kagoshima 894-0015, Japan
3. University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan (corresponding author, ishiken@uf.a.u-tokyko.ac.jp)

Z. major is endemic only to Amamioshima, a small island, southwest Japan. We found a nest with two naked nestlings of Z. major on April 29 and another with two eggs on May 11, 2000. The first author observed and recorded the nestling behavior with a video camera, for 325 minutes of five days and 1705 minutes of eleven days, respectively. Both nests were constructed under the closed canopy. The former one located at a 1.8m height fork of Ilex goshiensis tree, and the two youngs fledged on May 12. The latter was located on a 1.6m height bed beside a large lock, and. the These two well grown nestlings were attacked by a Jungle Crow, Corvus macrorhynchos, on June 2. All the nestlings were mostly fed earth worms. A well developed forest habitat with abundant earth worms in a humid ground is significant for the survival of this critically endangered species, with a little more than 50 singing birds in the early breeding season. Predation by the Jungle Crow, which intrudes much more into the severely fragmented natural forest with forest clear cut and road construction should be also prevented.

Informal English mirror paper: Original Paper is in Japanese with English summary.