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Hawking (birds)
Hawking is a feeding strategy in birds involving catching flying insects in the air. The term usually refers to a technique of sallying out from a perch to snatch an insect and then returning to the same or a different perch, though it also applies to birds that spend almost their entire lives on the wing. This technique is called "flycatching" and some birds known for it are several Family (biology), families of "flycatchers": Old World flycatchers, monarch flycatchers, and tyrant flycatchers; however, some species known as "flycatchers" use other foraging methods, such as the grey tit-flycatcher. Other birds, such as Swift (bird), swifts, swallows, and nightjars, also take insects on the wing in continuous aerial feeding. The term "hawking" comes from the similarity of this behavior to the way Hawk, hawks take prey in flight, although, whereas Bird of prey, raptors may catch prey with their feet, hawking is the behavior of catching insects in the bill. Many birds have a combine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Green Figbird
The green figbird or Timor figbird (''Sphecotheres viridis'') is a species of bird in the family Oriolidae. It is Endemism, endemic to forest, woodland, mangrove, and scrub on the Indonesian islands of Rote Island, Roti and Timor. It is moderately common, so is considered to be of least concern by BirdLife International and the IUCN. Taxonomy and systematics Formerly, some authorities have classified the green figbird in the genus ''Oriolus''. It has sometimes included the two other figbirds as subspecies, in which case the combined species simply was known as "figbird", but today, all major authorities consider them as separate species.Higgins, P. J., L. Christidis, & H. A. Ford (2008). Family Oriolidae (Orioles). pp. 692-731 in: del Hoyo, J., A. Elliott, & D. A. Christie. eds. (2008). ''Handbook of the Birds of the World.'' Vol. 13. Pendulin-tits to Shrikes. Lynx Edicions. Dickinson, E. C. (editor) (2003). ''The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World.'' 3r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apus Apus 01
Apus is a small constellation in the southern sky. It represents a bird-of-paradise, and its name means "without feet" in Greek because the bird-of-paradise was once wrongly believed to lack feet. First depicted on a celestial globe by Petrus Plancius in 1598, it was charted on a star atlas by Johann Bayer in his 1603 ''Uranometria''. The French explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille charted and gave the brighter stars their Bayer designations in 1756. The five brightest stars are all reddish in hue. Shading the others at apparent magnitude 3.8 is Alpha Apodis, an orange giant that has around 48 times the diameter and 928 times the luminosity of the Sun. Marginally fainter is Gamma Apodis, another aging giant star. Delta Apodis is a double star, the two components of which are 103 arcseconds apart and visible with the naked eye. Two star systems have been found to have planets. History Apus was one of twelve constellations published by Petrus Plancius from the ob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brown Boobook
The brown boobook (''Ninox scutulata''), also known as the brown hawk-owl, is an owl which is a resident breeder in south Asia from India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal east to western Indonesia and south China. This species is a part of the larger grouping of owls known as typical owls, Strigidae, which contains most species of owl. The other grouping is the barn owls, Tytonidae. Taxonomy The brown boobook was formally described in 1822 by Stamford Raffles from a specimen collected in Sumatra under the binomial name ''Strix scutulata''. The specific epithet is from Latin ''scutulatus '' meaning "diamond-shaped". The brown boobook is now placed with the other boobooks in the genus ''Ninox'' that was introduced by the English naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1837. Nine subspecies are recognised: * ''N. s. lugubris'' ( Tickell, 1833) — north, northeast, central India and Nepal * ''N. s. burmanica'' Hume, 1876 — northeast India to south China, Indochina and Thail ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Screech Owl
The western screech owl (''Megascops kennicottii'') is a small owl native to North and Central America, closely related to the eastern screech owl. The scientific name commemorates the American naturalist Robert Kennicott. Description Length averages , wingspan , and weight . Weight ranges from .''CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses'' by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), . Females are larger than males and northern populations are notably larger than southern populations. Adults are larger than whiskered screech owls, with larger feet and a more streaked plumage pattern. There are several morphs: brown Pacific, grey Pacific, Great Plains, Mojave, and Mexican. All have either brown or dark gray plumage with streaking on the underparts. There is no red morph. This brown and gray streaky coloring allows the owl to camouflage with trees and hide from predators. They have a round head with ear tufts, yellow eyes, and a yellowish bill. Their appearance is quite similar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bee-eater
The bee-eaters are a group of birds in the family (biology), family Meropidae, containing three genera and thirty-one species. Most species are found in Africa and Asia, with a few in southern Europe, Australia, and New Guinea. They are characterised by richly coloured plumage, slender bodies, and usually elongated central tail feathers. All have long down-turned Beak, bills and medium to long wings, which may be pointed or round. Male and female plumages are usually similar. As their name suggests, bee-eaters predominantly eat flying insects, especially bees and wasps, which are caught on the wing from an open perch. The insect's stinger is removed by repeatedly hitting and rubbing the insect on a hard surface. During this process, pressure is applied to the insect's body, thereby discharging most of the venom. Most bee-eaters are Social animal, gregarious. They form Bird colony, colonies, nesting in burrows tunnelled into vertical sandy banks, often at the side of a river or i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australasia
Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologically, where the term covers several slightly different but related regions. Derivation and definitions Charles de Brosses coined the term (as French ''Australasie'') in ''Histoire des navigations aux terres australes'' (1756). He derived it from the Latin for "south of Asia" and differentiated the area from Polynesia (to the east) and the southeast Pacific ( Magellanica). In the late 19th century, the term Australasia was used in reference to the "Australasian colonies". In this sense it related specifically to the British colonies south of Asia: New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia, Victoria (i.e., the Australian colon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Honeyeater
The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, miners and melidectes. They are most common in Australia and New Guinea, and found also in New Zealand, the Pacific islands as far east as Samoa and Tonga, and the islands to the north and west of New Guinea known as Wallacea. Bali, on the other side of the Wallace Line, has a single species. In total, there are 186 species in 55 genera, roughly half of them native to Australia, many of the remainder occupying New Guinea. With their closest relatives, the Maluridae (Australian fairy-wrens), Pardalotidae (pardalotes), and Acanthizidae (thornbills, Australian warblers, scrubwrens, etc.), they comprise the superfamily Meliphagoidea and originated early in the evolutionary history of the oscine passerine radiation. Although honeyeaters look and behave very much like other nectar-feeding passerines aroun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lewis's Woodpecker
Lewis's woodpecker (''Melanerpes lewis'') is a large North American species of woodpecker which ornithologist Alexander Wilson named after Meriwether Lewis, one of the explorers who surveyed the areas bought by the United States of America as part of the Louisiana Purchase and first described this species of bird. Taxonomy Lewis's woodpecker was described and illustrated in 1811 by the American ornithologist Alexander Wilson in his ''American Ornithology; or, the Natural History of the Birds of the United States''. Wilson based his description on some bird skins that had been collected on an expedition across the western portion of the United States led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1803–1806. Wilson coined the English name "Lewis's woodpecker" and the binomial name ''Picus torquatus''. Unfortunately, the specific epithet was preoccupied by the ringed woodpecker, ''Celeus torquatus'' ( Boddaert, 1783) and so in 1849 the English zoologist George Robert Gray coined ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Pied Flycatcher
The European pied flycatcher (''Ficedula hypoleuca'') is a small passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family. One of the four species of Western Palearctic black-and-white flycatchers, it bird hybrid, hybridises to a limited extent with the collared flycatcher. It breeds in most of Europe and across the Western Palearctic. It is migratory, wintering mainly in tropical Africa. It usually builds its nests in holes on oak trees. This species practices Polygyny in animals, polygyny, usually bigamy, with the male travelling large distances to acquire a second mate. The male will mate with the secondary female and then return to the primary female in order to help with aspects of child rearing, such as feeding. The European pied flycatcher is mainly insectivorous, although its diet also includes other arthropods. This species commonly feeds on caterpillars, flies, spiders, ants, bees and similar prey. The European pied flycatcher has a very large range and population size and s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spotted Flycatcher
The spotted flycatcher (''Muscicapa striata'') is a small passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family. It breeds in most of Europe and in the Palearctic to Siberia, and is migratory, wintering in Africa and south western Asia. It is declining in parts of its range. This is an undistinguished looking bird with long wings and tail. The adults have grey-brown upperparts and whitish underparts, with a streaked crown and breast, giving rise to the bird's common name. The legs are short and black, and the bill is black and has the broad but pointed shape typical of aerial insectivores. Juveniles are browner than adults and have spots on the upperparts. Taxonomy The spotted flycatcher was described by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764 and given the binomial name ''Motacilla striata''. The genus name ''Muscicapa'' comes from the Latin ''musca'', a fly and ''capere'', to catch. The specific epithet ''striata'' is from the Latin ''striatus'' meaning striated. There ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European islands by area, largest European island, and the List of islands by area, ninth-largest island in the world. It is dominated by a maritime climate with narrow temperature differences between seasons. The island of Ireland, with an area 40 per cent that of Great Britain, is to the west – these islands, along with over List of islands of the British Isles, 1,000 smaller surrounding islands and named substantial rocks, comprise the British Isles archipelago. Connected to mainland Europe until 9,000 years ago by a land bridge now known as Doggerland, Great Britain has been inhabited by modern humans for around 30,000 years. In 2011, it had a population of about , making it the world's List of islands by population, third-most-populous islan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
