HOME





Uniform Swiftlet
The uniform swiftlet (''Aerodramus vanikorensis''), also known as the Vanikoro swiftlet or lowland swiftlet, is a gregarious, medium-sized swiftlet with a shallowly forked tail. The colouring is dark grey-brown, darker on the upperparts with somewhat paler underparts, especially on chin and throat. This species is widespread from the Philippines through Wallacea, New Guinea and Melanesia. It forages for flying insects primarily in lowland forests and open areas. It nests in caves where it uses its sense of echolocation, rare in birds, to navigate. Taxonomy The uniform swift was formally described in 1832 by the French naturalists Jean Quoy and Joseph Gaimard from a specimen collected on the island of Vanikoro in the Solomon Islands. They coined the binomial name ''Hirundo vanikorensis''. This swiftlet is now placed in the genus ''Aerodramus'' that was introduced in 1906 by Harry C. Oberholser. Twelve subspecies are recognised: * ''A. v. aenigma'' (Riley, 1918) – north, cent ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Jean René Constant Quoy
Jean René Constant Quoy (10 November 1790 in Maillé, Vendée, Maillé – 4 July 1869 in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, Rochefort) was a French naval surgeon, zoologist and anatomist. In 1806, he began his medical studies at the school of naval medicine at Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, Rochefort, afterwards serving as an auxiliary-surgeon on a trip to the Antilles (1808–1809). After earning his medical doctorate in 1814 at Montpellier, he was surgeon-major on a journey to Réunion (1814–1815). Along with Joseph Paul Gaimard, he served as naturalist and surgeon aboard the ''Uranie'' under Louis de Freycinet from 1817 to 1820, and on the ''French ship Astrolabe (1817), Astrolabe'' (1826–1829) under the command of Jules Dumont d'Urville. In July 1823 he and Gaimard presented a paper to the Académie royale des Sciences on the origin of coral reefs, taking issue with the then widespread belief that these were constructed by coral polyps from bases in very deep water and arguin ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Banggai Islands Regency
The Banggai Archipelago () is a group of islands located at the far eastern end of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. It makes up a regency (''kabupaten'') of Central Sulawesi Province of Indonesia, created on 4 October 1999 by splitting the existing Banggai Regency into a residual Banggai Regency situated on the mainland of Sulawesi (capital, Luwuk) and a new Banggai Islands Regency (''Kabupaten Banggai Kepulauan'') then comprising the entire archipelago (with its capital at Banggai town). On 14 December 2012 a splitting of the Banggai Islands archipelago took place with the removal of the more southerly seven districts (including Banggai Island itself, together with smaller islands to its southwest and southeast) from the 13-year-old regency to form a separate Banggai Laut Regency. The reduced Banggai Islands Regency thus consists of the main island of Peleng, together with various small offshore islands, of which the largest is Bangkalan Island off the north coast of Peleng. It cov ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Louisiade Archipelago
The Louisiade Archipelago is a string of ten larger volcanic islands frequently fringed by coral reefs, and 90 smaller coral islands in Papua New Guinea. It is located 200 km southeast of New Guinea, stretching over more than and spread over an ocean area of between the Solomon Sea to the north and the Coral Sea to the south. The aggregate land area of the islands is about , with Vanatinai (Sudest) being the largest. Rogeia, Samarai and Sariba lie closest to New Guinea, while Misima, Vanatinai, and Rossel islands lie further east. History The islands were discovered by a Spanish expedition led by Luis Váez de Torres in 1606, that was part of the Fernandez de Quiros fleet which had sailed from South America in search of Australia. The Torres expedition visited various islands including Basilaki Island, which he named ''San Buenaventura'' in July 1606. It is possible that Malay and Chinese sailors also visited the islands earlier. More than a century later, i ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

D'Entrecasteaux Islands
D'Entrecasteaux Islands () are situated near the eastern tip of New Guinea in the Solomon Sea in Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. The group spans a distance of , has a total land area of approximately and is separated from the Papua New Guinea mainland by the wide Ward Hunt Strait in the north and the wide Goschen Strait in the south. D'Entrecasteaux Islands show signs of volcanism. Description The three principal islands, from northwest to southeast, are Goodenough Island, Goodenough (Nidula), then across Moresby Strait to Fergusson Island, Fergusson (Moratau), the largest of the three, and across Dawson Strait to Normanby Island (Papua New Guinea), Normanby Island (Duau). In addition there are numerous small islands and reefs. Sanaroa Island, Sanaroa and Dobu Island, Dobu are the most significant of the smaller islands, while Sori or Wild is named for Challenger expedition, HMS ''Challengers artist, John James Wild. The highest peak in the group is the Mount Vineuo ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Carl Eduard Hellmayr
Carl Eduard Hellmayr (29 January 1878 – 24 February 1944) was an Austrian ornithologist. Biography Hellmayr was born in Vienna and studied at the University of Vienna, although he did not complete his degree. After his studies he worked in Vienna, Munich, Berlin, Paris, Tring (England), and Chicago. He spent the years 1905–1908 studying Baron Rothschild's private collection of natural history specimens at Tring, near London. There he received guidance from the German ornithologist Ernst Hartert. In 1908, Hellmayr was appointed Curator of the Bird Department at the Bavarian State Museum, which he had helped organize in 1903 and where he became a specialist in Neotropical birds, studying Johann Baptist von Spix's collection of Brazilian birds. In 1922, he was made Curator in Zoology at the Field Museum in Chicago. He stayed there until 1931. His books included 13 of the 15 volumes of the ''Catalogue of Birds of the Americas'' (1918–1949), a work initiated by Hellmayr's pre ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Yapen
Yapen (also Japen, Jobi) is an island of Papua (province), Papua, Indonesia. The Yapen Strait separates Yapen and the Biak Islands to the north. It is in Cenderawasih Bay off the north-western coast of the island of New Guinea. To the west is Mios Num Island across the Mios Num Strait, and to the east Kurudu Island. Off the southeast coast of Yapen are the Amboi Islands and to the southwest are the Kuran Islands. Together these islands form the Yapen Islands Regency within the province of Papua. It is populated with communities of Yobi, Randowaya, Serui, and Ansus. Its highest point is . First recorded sighting by Europeans is by Spanish navigator Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón, Álvaro de Saavedra who landed on 24 June 1528 when trying to return from Tidore to New Spain. It was then charted as ''Paine'' within the ''Islas de Oro'' (Golden Islands in Spanish), as they called Yapen and the present day Schouten Islands, Schoutens. In 1545 it was visited by Yñigo Ortiz de Retez, ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Aru Islands Regency
The Aru Islands Regency () is a group of about 95 low-lying islands in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia. It also forms a list of regencies and cities of Indonesia, regency of Maluku (province), Maluku Province, with a land area of . At the 2011 Census the Regency had a population of 84,138;Biro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. the 2020 Census produced a total of 102,237,Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021. and the official estimate as at mid 2023 was 108,834. Some sources regard the archipelago as part of Asia, while others regard it as part of Melanesia. Geography The Aru Islands are the easternmost archipelago in Maluku province, and are located in the Arafura Sea south of West Papua (province), New Guinea and north of Australia. The total area of the islands is 6,426.77 km2 (2,481.39 sq mi). The largest island is Tanahbesar (also called Wokam); Dobo, the chief port of the islands, is on Wamar, just off Tanahbesar. The other five main islands are Kola Island, Ko ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Gregory Mathews
Gregory Macalister Mathews CBE FRSE FZS FLS (10 September 1876 – 27 March 1949) was an Australian-born amateur ornithologist who spent most of his later life in England. Life He was born in Biamble in New South Wales the son of Robert H. Mathews. He was educated at The King's School, Parramatta. Mathews made his fortune in mining shares and moved to England in 1902. In 1910, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were William Eagle Clarke, Ramsay Heatley Traquair, John Alexander Harvie-Brown and William Evans. Ornithology Mathews was a controversial figure in Australian ornithology. He was responsible for bringing trinomial nomenclature into local taxonomy, however he was regarded as an extreme splitter. He recognised large numbers of subspecies on scant evidence and few notes. The extinct Lord Howe Pigeon was described by Mathews in 1915, using a painting as a guide. At the time, he named it ''Raperia godmanae'' after Alice Mary God ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Cenderawasih Bay
Cenderawasih Bay (, "Bird of Paradise Bay"), also known as Sarera Bay () and formerly Geelvink Bay (), is a large bay in northern Province of Papua, Central Papua and West Papua, New Guinea, Indonesia. Geography ''Cenderawasih Bay'' is a large bay to the northwest of the Indonesian province of Papua, north of the province of Central Papua, and east of the province of West Papua, between the Bird's Head Peninsula and the mouth of the Mamberamo River. The bay is more than 300 kilometers wide. The coastline from Manokwari, in the northwest of the bay, to Cape d'Urville at the mouth of the Mamberamo is more than 700 kilometers long. To the south, the Wandammen Peninsula heads north into the bay. Important places along the coast are Manokwari, Ransiki, Wasior and Nabire. The Wamma River, Tabai River, Warenai River, and Wapoga River empty into the Bay. History The Dutch name of the bay was after the frigate ''De Geelvink'' with which Jacob Weyland sailed through t ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Biak
Biak is the main island of Biak Archipelago located in Cenderawasih Bay near the northern coast of Papua (province), Papua, an Indonesian province, and is just northwest of New Guinea. Biak has many atolls, reefs, and corals. The largest population centre is at Kota Biak (Biak City) on the south coast. The rest of the island is thinly populated with small villages. Biak is part of the Biak Islands (''Kepulauan Biak''), and is administered by Biak Numfor Regency. Geography Biak covers an area of The island is long and wide at its widest point. The highest point is approximately 740 meters elevation, located in the northwest of the island. The island of Supiori Island, Supiori lies close to the northwest, separated from Biak by a narrow, shallow channel. The smaller Padaido Islands lie south and southeast of Biak. Collectively Biak, Supiori, the Padaido Islands, and the island of Numfor to the southwest are known as the Schouten Islands, also called the Biak Islands or Geelv ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Numfor
Numfor (also Numfoor, Noemfoor, Noemfoer) is one of the Biak Islands (also known as the Schouten Islands) in Papua (Indonesian province), Papua province, northeastern Indonesia. It was the site of conflict between Empire of Japan, Japanese and the Allies of World War II, Allied forces during World War II, and was a major airbase for both sides. Geography The island is located on the northern side of large Cenderawasih Bay (formerly Geelvink Bay) of New Guinea, New Guinea island. Approximately oval shaped, it has an area of . It is mostly surrounded by coral reefs, with the exception of some points on the southeastern coast. Also found on the southeastern coast are low, steep cliffs. Most of the interior is composed of Biak–Numfoor rain forests, forest. The island is jurisdictionally within the Biak Numfor Regency of Papua province. It has a population of 9,336 people in 2010 census covering 5 districts. History The first sighting by Europeans was by the Spanish navigator Á ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Raja Ampat Islands
Raja Ampat (), or the Four Kings, is an archipelago located off of the northwest tip of Bird's Head Peninsula (on the island of New Guinea), Southwest Papua , Southwest Papua province, Indonesia. It comprises over 1,500 small islands, cays, and shoals around the four main islands of Misool, Salawati, Batanta, and Waigeo, and the smaller island of Kofiau. The Raja Ampat archipelago straddles the equator and forms part of Coral Triangle, the Coral Triangle, an area of Southeast Asian seas containing the richest marine biodiversity on earth. The Coral Triangle itself is an approximate area west-southwest of the Philippines, east-northeast and southeast of the island of Borneo, and north, east and west of the island of New Guinea, including the seas in between. Thousands of species of marine organisms, from the tiniest cleaner shrimp and camouflaged pygmy seahorses to the majestic cetaceans and whale sharks, thrive in these waters. Administratively, the archipelago is part of the prov ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]