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Bates's Swift
Bates's swift (''Apus batesi'') is a species of small swift in the family Apodidae which is found in western Africa. Description Bates's swift is a small, slender swift with a deeply forked tail which is often held closed to form a point. It has a glossy black plumage with an indistinct pale patch on the throat. It is normally silent but makes a high-pitched trill near the nest. They are 14 cm in length. Distribution Bates's swift is found from Liberia and Guinea then patchily eastwards to Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon, south to Gabon and the northern Congo. Its presence in Sierra Leone is unconfirmed, as are reports from the eastern democratic Republic of Congo. Habitat Bates's swift is a rainforest species and is found in areas close to cliffs and crags. Habits Bates's swift forages above the canopy of the rainforest using a fluttering flight, with short periods of gliding occasionally interrupting the rapid wing beats. It may be seen singly, or in small flocks and in mix ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Bowdler Sharpe
Richard Bowdler Sharpe (22 November 1847 – 25 December 1909) was an English people, English zoologist and ornithology, ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his career he published several monographs on bird groups and produced a multi-volume catalogue of the specimens in the collection of the museum. He described many new species of bird and also has had species named in his honour by other ornithologists including Sharpe's longclaw (''Macronyx sharpei'') and Sharpe's starling (''Pholia sharpii''). Biography Richard was born in London, the first son of Thomas Bowdler Sharpe. His grandfather, Reverend Lancelot Sharpe was Rector of All Hallows Staining. His father was a publisher on Skinner Street and was best known for being the publisher of ''Sharpe's London Magazine'', an illustrated periodical (weekly but monthly from 1847). His care from the age of six was under an aunt, Magdalen Wallace, widow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mottled Spinetail
The mottled spinetail (''Telacanthura ussheri'') is a species of swift in the family Apodidae. It is found in Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots .... References External links * Mottled spinetail Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds mottled spinetail Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa mottled spinetail Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{apodiformes-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birds Of The African Tropical Rainforest
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight Bird skeleton, skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the bee hummingbird to the common ostrich. There are over 11,000 living species and they are split into 44 Order (biology), orders. More than half are passerine or "perching" birds. Birds have Bird wing, wings whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the Flightless bird, loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemism, endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apus (genus)
The bird genus ''Apus'' comprise some of the Old World members of the family Apodidae, commonly known as Swift (bird), swifts. They are among the fastest birds in the world. They resemble swallows, to which they are not related, but have shorter tails and sickle-shaped wings. Swifts spend most of their life aloft, have very short legs and use them mostly to cling to surfaces. Taxonomy The genus ''Apus'' was erected by the Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1777 based on tautonymy and the common swift which had been given the binomial name ''Hirundo apus'' by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758. The name ''Apus'' is Latin for a swift, thought by the ancients to be a type of swallow with no feet (from Ancient Greek α, ''a'', "without", and πούς, ''pous'', "foot"). Before the 1950s, there was some controversy over which group of organism should have the genus name ''Apus''. In 1801, Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc, Bosc gave the genus name ''Apus'' to the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Africa
West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo, as well as Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom Overseas Territories, United Kingdom Overseas Territory).Paul R. Masson, Catherine Anne Pattillo, "Monetary union in West Africa (ECOWAS): is it desirable and how could it be achieved?" (Introduction). International Monetary Fund, 2001. The population of West Africa is estimated at around million people as of , and at 381,981,000 as of 2017, of which 189,672,000 were female and 192,309,000 male.United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2017). World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision, custom data acquired via webs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Latimer Bates
George Griswold Latimer Bates (March 21, 1863, Abingdon, Illinois US – January 31, 1940 Chelmsford UK), LL.D., British Ornithologists' Union, M.B.O.U. was an American natural history, naturalist. He lived in central Africa and travelled widely, collecting specimens of natural history from which numerous new species were described. As many as 62 new species of mammals, reptiles and amphibians were described from his collections, including the Goliath frog, the hairy frog, and the Goliath shrew Goliath shrew, ''Crocidura goliath''. He published a ''Handbook of the Birds of West Africa'' (1930) and was compiling a catalogue of the birds of Arabia. Life and work Bates was born near Abingdon, Illinois. He went to school where he learned Latin and became interested in languages. He got an interest in natural history from his teacher Leanna Hague who took the class on botanical trips. He went to study at Lincoln, Illinois, and then transferred to Knox College (Illinois), Knox College ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Swift
The little swift (''Apus affinis''), is a small species of Swift (bird), swift found in Africa and southwestern Asia, and are vagrants and local breeders in southern Europe. They are found both in urban areas and at rocky cliffs where they build nests in a way typical of all members of the order Apodiformes. The genus name ''Apus'' is Latin for a swift, thought by the ancients to be a type of swallow without feet (from Ancient Greek α, ''a'', "without", and πούς, ''pous'', "foot"). The Latin specific ''affinis'' means similar to or related to, but in this case the species that the little swift supposedly resembles is not clear from the description. A population formerly considered to be an eastern subspecies of little swift is now separated as a distinct species, the house swift (House swift, ''Apus nipalensis''). Description Little swifts are readily identified by their small size. Their wingspan is only 33 cm compared to 42 cm in the case of common swift. Their pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Swift
The house swift (''Apus nipalensis'') is a species of swift in the family Apodidae. It is found in Japan, Nepal, and Southeast Asia. It is capable of flying long distances by alternately shutting off hemispheres of its brain in-flight. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the little swift, under the name ''Apus affinis subfurcatus.'' Description The house swift looks quite similar to the little swift. It is a small bird, but a medium-sized swift, with a wingspan of 12.5-14.5 cm. Its body size ranges from 14 to 16 cm and weighs approximately 20-35 g. This species has a dark, slightly forked tail. Other than the white rump band and white throat-patch, the house swift has a black plumage, darker than the little swift. Taxonomy The name ''Apus nipalensis'' has two parts. ''Apus'' is the genus for swifts, and comes from the Latin word for the swift, or swallow with no feet. ''Nipalensis'' means from Nepal. Currently, there are four subspecies of the house swift: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horus Swift
The Horus swift (''Apus horus'') is a small bird in the swift family Apodidae that is found in sub-Saharan Africa. Horus, whose name this bird commemorates, was the ancient Egyptian god of the sun, son of Osiris and Isis. Taxonomy The Horus swift was formally described in 1869 by the German explorer and ornithologist Theodor von Heuglin under the binomial name ''Cypselus horus''. The specific epithet is from Ancient Egyptian mythology: Horus was the god of the sun. This species is now one of 20 swifts placed in the genus ''Apus'' that was introduced in 1777 by the Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli. The species is treated as monotypic. The subspecies ''A. h. fuscobrunneus'' and ''A. h. toulsoni'' were formerly recognised but are now considered to be Polymorphism (biology), colour morphs of the nominate subspecies, nominate form. Description The Horus swift is long and quite bulky. It appears entirely blackish except for a white patch on the chin and a white rump. It has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White-rumped Swift
The white-rumped swift (''Apus caffer'') is a species of swift. Although this small bird is superficially similar to a house martin, it is not closely related to that passerine species. The resemblances between the swallows and swifts are due to convergent evolution reflecting similar life styles. Description This long species has, like some relatives, a short forked tail and long swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerang. It is entirely dark except for a pale throat patch and a narrow white rump. It is similar to the closely related little swift, but is slimmer, darker and has a more forked tail and a narrower white rump. Call This is a quiet species compared to little swift, but a twittering trill is sometimes given. Habits Like other swifts they have very short legs that they use only for clinging to vertical surfaces. They never settle voluntarily on the ground, and spend most of their lives in the air, feeding on insects that they catch in their beaks. Like ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clade
In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach to taxonomy adopted by most biological fields. The common ancestor may be an individual, a population, or a species (extinct or Extant taxon, extant). Clades are nested, one in another, as each branch in turn splits into smaller branches. These splits reflect evolutionary history as populations diverged and evolved independently. Clades are termed ''monophyletic'' (Greek: "one clan") groups. Over the last few decades, the cladistic approach has revolutionized biological classification and revealed surprising evolutionary relationships among organisms. Increasingly, taxonomists try to avoid naming Taxon, taxa that are not clades; that is, taxa that are not Monophyly, monophyletic. Some of the relationships between organisms that the molecul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lesser Striped Swallow
The lesser striped swallow (''Cecropis abyssinica'') is a large swallow. It breeds in Sub-Saharan Africa from Sierra Leone and southern Sudan south into eastern South Africa. It is partially migratory with South African birds wintering further north. West African birds leave the north of the breeding range in the dry season. Habitat This is a bird of wooded, mainly lowland habitats. The lesser striped swallow prefers less open habitats, and is replaced in montane grassland by the greater striped swallow, ''Hirundo cucullata''. It is common and often found around human habitation. Description The lesser striped swallow is 15–10 cm long. It has dark blue upperparts with a red rump and a rufous-chestnut crown, nape and sides of the head. The underparts are white with dark streaking, and the upper wings and underwing flight feathers are blackish-brown. The underwing coverts are tawny. The blackish tail has very long outer feathers; these are slightly longer in the male than t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
