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Gulls
Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the subfamily Larinae. They are most closely related to terns and Skimmer (bird), skimmers, distantly related to auks, and even more distantly related to waders. Until the 21st century, most gulls were placed in the genus ''Larus'', but that arrangement is now considered polyphyletic, leading to the resurrection of several genera. An older name for gulls is mews; this still exists in certain regional English dialects and is cognate with German , Danish ', Swedish ', Dutch ', Norwegian ', and French '. Gulls are usually grey or white, often with black markings on the head or wings. They normally have harsh wailing or squawking calls, stout bills, and webbed feet. Most gulls are ground-nesting piscivores or carnivores which take live food or scavenge opportunistically, particularly the ''Larus'' species. Live food often includes crustaceans, molluscs, fish and small birds. Gulls have unhinging jaws that provide the flexibility to c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Black-backed Gull
The great black-backed gull (''Larus marinus'') is the largest member of the gull family. It is a very aggressive hunter, pirate, and scavenger which breeds on the coasts and islands of the North Atlantic in northern Europe and northeastern North America. Southern populations are generally sedentary, while those breeding in the far north (northern Norway, northwest Russia) move farther south in winter. A few also move inland to large lakes and reservoirs. The adult has a white head, neck and underparts, dark blackish-grey wings and back, pink legs and the bill yellow with a red spot. Taxonomy The great black-backed gull was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', and it still bears its original name of ''Larus marinus''. The scientific name is from Latin. ''Larus'' appears to have referred to a gull or other large seabird. The specific name ''marinus'' means "marine", or when t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sabine's Gull
Sabine's gull ( or ) (''Xema sabini'') is a small gull. It is usually treated as the only species placed in the genus ''Xema'', though some authors include it with other gulls in a wide view of the genus ''Larus''. It has also been known historically as fork-tailed gull or xeme (from the genus name). It breeds in colonies on arctic coasts and tundra, laying two or three spotted olive-brown eggs in a ground nest lined with grass. Sabine's gull is pelagic outside the breeding season. It takes a wide variety of mainly animal food, and will eat any suitable small prey. Taxonomy Sabine's gull was formally described in 1819 by the naturalist Joseph Sabine under the binomial name ''Larus sabini''. Sabine based his description on specimens that had been collected by his brother Captain Edward Sabine who had accompanied Captain John Ross's on a voyage to look for the Northwest Passage. The birds were found breeding on low-lying islands off the west coast of Greenland in July 1818. Sabi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wader
245px, A flock of Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to foraging, forage for food crawling or burrowing in the mud and sand, usually small arthropods such as aquatic insects or crustaceans. The term "wader" is used in Europe, while "shorebird" is used in North America, where "wader" may be used instead to refer to long-legged wading birds such as storks and herons. There are about 210 species of wader, most of which live in wetland or coastal environments. Many species of Arctic and temperate regions are strongly migratory, but tropical birds are often resident, or move only in response to rainfall patterns. Some of the Arctic species, such as the little stint, are amongst the longest distance migrants, spending the non- breeding season in the southern hemisphere. Many of the smaller species found ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swallow-tailed Gull
The swallow-tailed gull (''Creagrus furcatus'') is an equatorial seabird in the gull family, Laridae. It is the only species in the genus ''Creagrus'', which derives from the Latin ''Creagra'' and the Greek ''kreourgos'' which means butcher, also from ''kreas'', meat; according to Jobling it would mean "hook for meat" referring to the hooked bill of this species. It was first described by French naturalist and surgeon Adolphe-Simon Neboux in 1846. Its scientific name is originally derived from the Greek word for gull, "Glaros" and via Latin ''Larus'', "gull" and ''furca'' "two-tined fork". It spends most of its life flying and hunting over the open ocean. The main breeding location is in the Galápagos Islands, particularly the rocky shores and cliffs of Hood, Tower and Wolf Islands, with lower numbers on most of the other islands. It is more common on the eastern islands where the water is warmer. It is the only fully nocturnal gull and seabird in the world, preying on squid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Herring Gull
The European herring gull (''Larus argentatus'') is a large gull, up to long. It breeds throughout the northern and western coasts of Europe. Some European herring gulls, especially those resident in colder areas, bird migration, migrate further south in winter, but many are permanent residents, such as in Ireland, Great Britain, Britain, Iceland, or on the North Sea shores. They have a varied diet, including fish, crustaceans, as well as some plants, and are also scavengers, consuming carrion and food left by or stolen from humans. Taxonomy Their scientific name is from Latin. ''Larus'' appears to have referred to a gull or other large seabird and ''argentatus'' means decorated with silver. The taxonomy of the herring gull/lesser black-backed gull is contentious, with different authorities recognising between two and eight species. This group has a ring species, ring distribution around the Northern Hemisphere. Most adjacent populations interbreed; however, adjacent terminal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seabird
Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding ecological niche, niches have resulted in similar adaptations. The first seabirds evolved in the Cretaceous geological period, period, while modern seabird families emerged in the Paleogene. Seabirds generally live longer, Reproduction, breed later and have fewer young than other birds, but they invest a great deal of time in their young. Most species nest in Bird colony, colonies, varying in size from a few dozen birds to millions. Many species are famous for undertaking long annual bird migration, migrations, crossing the equator or circumnavigating the Earth in some cases. They feed both at the ocean's surface and below it, and even on each other. Seabirds can be highly pelagic, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larus Pacificus Bruny Island
''Larus'' is a large genus of gulls with worldwide distribution (by far the greatest species diversity is in the Northern Hemisphere). Many of its species are abundant and well-known birds in their ranges. Until about 2005–2007, most gulls were placed in this genus, but this arrangement is now known to be polyphyletic, leading to the resurrection of the genera ''Chroicocephalus'', ''Ichthyaetus'', '' Hydrocoloeus'', and ''Leucophaeus'' for many other species formerly included in ''Larus''. They are in general medium-large birds, typically pale grey to black above and white below and on the head, often with black markings with white spots ("mirrors") on their wingtips and in a few species also some black on the tail. They have stout, longish bills and webbed feet; in winter, the head is often streaked or smudged dark grey. The young birds are brown, and take three to five years to reach adult plumage, with subadult plumages intermediate between the young and adult. The taxo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Gull
The little gull (''Hydrocoloeus minutus''), is a species of gull belonging to the family Laridae which is mainly found in the Palearctic with some small colonies in North America. It breeds on freshwater lakes and marshes, and spends winters at sea. It is the smallest species of gull in the world, and the only species in the monospecific genus ''Hydrocoloeus''. Taxonomy The little gull was first formally described as ''Larus minutus'' in 1776 by the German ornithologist Peter Simon Pallas with its type locality given as Berezovo, Tobolsk in Siberia. In 1829, Johann Jakob Kaup proposed the genus ''Hydrocoloeus'' for this species, and George Robert Gray later formally designated ''Larus minutus'' as the type species of the genus. Kaup had also included ''Larus plumbiceps'' Meyer, 1822 in his genus ''Hydrocoloeus''; this is a synonym of ''Chroicocephalus cirrocephalus'' (grey-headed gull). ''Hydrocoloeus minutus'' is the binomial accepted for this species and it is classified i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ross's Gull
Ross's gull (''Rhodostethia rosea'') is a small gull, the only species in its genus, although it has been suggested the genus should be merged with the closely related '' Hydrocoloeus'', which otherwise only includes the little gull. This bird is named after the British explorer James Clark Ross. Its breeding grounds were first discovered in 1905 by Sergei Aleksandrovich Buturlin near the village of Pokhodsk in northeastern Yakutia, while visiting the area as a judge. The genus name ''Rhodostethia'' is from Ancient Greek ''rhodon'', "rose", and ''stethos'', "breast". The specific ''rosea'' is Latin for "rose-coloured". Description This small bird is similar in size and some plumage characteristics to the little gull. It is slightly larger and longer winged than the little gull, and has more pointed wings and a wedge-shaped tail. Its legs are red. Summer adults are pale grey above and white below, with a pink flush to the body feathering, and a neat black neck ring. In winte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kleptoparasitism
Kleptoparasitism (originally spelt clepto-parasitism, meaning "parasitism by theft") is a form of feeding in which one animal deliberately takes food from another. The strategy is evolutionarily stable when stealing is less costly than direct feeding, such as when food is scarce or when victims are abundant. Many kleptoparasites are arthropods, especially bees and wasps, but including some true flies, dung beetles, bugs, and spiders. Cuckoo bees are specialized kleptoparasites which lay their eggs either on the pollen masses made by other bees, or on the insect hosts of parasitoid wasps. They are an instance of Emery's rule, which states that insect social parasites tend to be closely related to their hosts. The behavior occurs, too, in vertebrates including birds such as skuas, which persistently chase other seabirds until they disgorge their food, and carnivorous mammals such as spotted hyenas and lions. Other species opportunistically indulge in kleptoparasitism. Strate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mobbing (animal Behavior)
Mobbing in animals is an anti-predator adaptation in which individuals of prey species cooperatively attack or harass a predator, usually to protect their offspring. A simple definition of mobbing is an assemblage of individuals around a potentially dangerous predator. This is most frequently seen in birds, though it is also known to occur in many other animals such as the meerkat and some bovines. While mobbing has evolved independently in many species, it only tends to be present in those whose young are frequently preyed upon. This behavior may complement cryptic adaptations in the offspring themselves, such as camouflage and hiding. Mobbing calls may be used to summon nearby individuals to cooperate in the attack. Konrad Lorenz, in his book '' On Aggression'' (1966), attributed mobbing among birds and animals to instincts rooted in the Darwinian struggle to survive. In his view, humans are subject to similar innate impulses but capable of bringing them under rational cont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
