Balearica Explained
The bird genus Balearica (also called the crowned cranes or Balearic cranes) contains two extant species in the crane family Gruidae: the black crowned crane (B. pavonina) and the grey crowned crane (B. regulorum).
The species today occur only in Africa, south of the Sahara Desert, and are the only cranes that can nest in trees. This habitat is one reason the relatively small Balearica cranes are believed to closely resemble the ancestral members of the Gruidae.
Like all cranes, they eat insects, reptiles, and small mammals.
Taxonomy
The genus Balearica was erected by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the black crowned crane (Balearica pavonina) as the type species.[1] [2] [3] The name is from the Latin Baliaricus for "of the Balearic Islands".[4]
The crane family (Gruidae) is divided into the subfamily Gruinae of typical cranes and the subfamily Balearicinae of crowned cranes.[5]
Fossil record
Crowned cranes seem to have been more widespread prehistorically. Compared to the true cranes, genus Grus, which were always common in the Holarctic and adjacent regions, the present genus appears to have had a more Atlantic distribution, ranging into Europe and North America; it is not known from the fossil record of Asia, as none have yet been discovered.
- Balearica rummeli (Early Miocene of Germany) – formerly Basityto
- Balearica excelsa (Early–Middle Miocene of France) – formerly Grus and Ornithocnemus
- Balearica exigua (Miocene of Nebraska)
Notes and References
- Book: Peters . James Lee . James L. Peters . 1934 . Check-list of Birds of the World . 2 . Harvard University Press . Cambridge, Massachusetts . 154 .
- Book: Brisson, Mathurin Jacques . Mathurin Jacques Brisson . 1760 . Ornithologie, ou, Méthode contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, especes & leurs variétés . 1 . French, Latin . 48 . Paris . Jean-Baptiste Bauche .
- Book: Brisson, Mathurin Jacques . Mathurin Jacques Brisson . 1760 . Ornithologie, ou, Méthode contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, especes & leurs variétés . 5 . French, Latin . 511 . Paris . Jean-Baptiste Bauche .
- Book: Jobling, James A. . 2010. The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm . London . 978-1-4081-2501-4 . 66 .
- Web site: The Cranes: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan: Evolution and Classification . U.S. Geological Survey . 1 February 2013 . 27 March 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140320012330/http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/cranes/evol.htm . 20 March 2014 .
