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Brood Parasites
Brood parasitism is a subclass of parasitism and phenomenon and behavioural pattern of animals that rely on others to raise their young. The strategy appears among birds, insects and fish. The brood parasite manipulates a host, either of the same or of another species, to raise its young as if it were its own, usually using egg mimicry, with eggs that resemble the host's. The strategy involves a form of aggressive mimicry called Kirbyan mimicry. The evolutionary strategy relieves the parasitic parents from the investment of rearing young. This benefit comes at the cost of provoking an evolutionary arms race between parasite and host as they coevolve: many hosts have developed strong defenses against brood parasitism, such as recognizing and ejecting parasitic eggs, or abandoning parasitized nests and starting over. It is less obvious why most hosts do care for parasite nestlings, given that for example cuckoo chicks differ markedly from host chicks in size and appearance. One ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
(Molothrus Bonariensis) E ( Zonotrichia Capensis )
Cowbirds are birds belonging to the genus ''Molothrus'' in the Family (biology), family Icteridae. They are of New World origin, but some species not native to North America are invasive there, and are obligate brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other species. The genus was introduced by English naturalist William Swainson in 1832 with the brown-headed cowbird (''Molothrus ater'') as the type species. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek , meaning "struggle" or "battle", with , meaning "to sire" or "to impregnate". The English name "cowbird", first recorded in 1839, refers to this species often being seen near cattle. Species The genus contains six species: One Extinction, extinct species, ''Molothrus resinosus'', is known from fossil remains recovered from the Talara Tar Seeps of northwestern Peru, and likely went extinct during the late Quaternary. It may have been a close associate of Pleistocene megafauna communities, and may have gone exti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parasite
Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson characterised parasites' way of feeding as "predators that eat prey in units of less than one". Parasites include single-celled protozoans such as the agents of malaria, sleeping sickness, and amoebic dysentery; animals such as hookworms, lice, mosquitoes, and vampire bats; fungi such as Armillaria mellea, honey fungus and the agents of ringworm; and plants such as mistletoe, dodder, and the Orobanchaceae, broomrapes. There are six major parasitic Behavioral ecology#Evolutionarily stable strategy, strategies of exploitation of animal hosts, namely parasitic castration, directly transmitted parasitism (by contact), wikt:trophic, trophicallytransmitted parasitism (by being eaten), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red-winged Blackbird
The red-winged blackbird (''Agelaius phoeniceus'') is a passerine bird of the family Icteridae found in most of North America and much of Central America. It breeds from Alaska and Newfoundland south to Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, and Guatemala, with isolated populations in western El Salvador, northwestern Honduras, and northwestern Costa Rica. It may winter as far north as Pennsylvania and British Columbia, but northern populations are generally migratory, moving south to Mexico and the Southern United States. Claims have been made that it is the most abundant living land bird in North America, as bird-counting censuses of wintering red-winged blackbirds sometimes show that loose flocks can number in excess of a million birds per flock and the full number of breeding pairs across North and Central America may exceed 250 million in peak years. It also ranks among the best-studied wild bird species in the world. The red-winged blackbird is sexually dimorphic; the male i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brown-headed Cowbird
The brown-headed cowbird (''Molothrus ater'') is a small, obligate brood parasitic icterid native to temperate and subtropical North America. It is a permanent resident in the southern parts of its range; northern birds migrate to the southern United States and Mexico in winter, returning to their summer habitat around March or April. Taxonomy The brown-headed cowbird was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1775 in his '' Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux'' from a specimen collected in the Carolinas. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-colored plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the ''Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle'', which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name, but in 1783, Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name ''Oriolus ater'' in his catalogue of the ''Planches Enlumin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chalk-browed Mockingbird
The chalk-browed mockingbird (''Mimus saturninus'') is a bird in the family Mimidae. It is found in Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, Suriname, and Uruguay. Taxonomy and systematics The chalk-browed mockingbird has four subspecies: the nominate ''Mimus saturninus saturninus'', ''M. s. arenaceus'', ''M. s. frater'', and ''M. s. modulator''. Description The chalk-browed mockingbird is long and weighs . Males are slightly larger than females. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a dark brown crown, a broad white supercilium, a blackish line through the eye, and white cheeks. Their upperparts are brownish with some darker streaks; the rump is buffier. Their wings are blackish and show two obscure bars when folded. The tail is also blackish; most feathers have white tips and the outermost have white edges. The underside of their body is white from the throat to the vent, though the breast has a gray tinge and the flanks are buffy with faint dark streaks. The juvenile is bro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern House Wren
The northern house wren (''Troglodytes aedon'') is a very small passerine in the wren family Troglodytidae. It is found in southern Canada, the USA and Mexico. It occurs in most suburban areas in its range. It formerly included many subspecies resident in South America and in the Caribbean that are now considered as separate species. The name ''troglodytes'' means "hole dweller", and is a reference to the bird's tendency to disappear into crevices when hunting insects or to seek shelter. Taxonomy The northern house wren was formally described in 1809 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot under the current binomial name ''Troglodytes aedon''. The specific epithet is from the Ancient Greek ''aēdōn'' meaning "nightingale". The type locality was designated as New York City by Harry Oberholser in 1934. An earlier specific name, ''domestica'' in the combination ''Sylvia domestica'', was introduced in 1808 by the American ornithologist Alexander Wilson. This was rarely ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shiny Cowbird
The shiny cowbird (''Molothrus bonariensis'') is a passerine bird in the New World family Icteridae. It breeds in most of South America except for dense forests and areas of high altitude such as mountains. Since 1900 the shiny cowbird's range has shifted northward, and it was recorded in the Caribbean islands as well as the United States, where it is found breeding in southern Florida. It is a bird associated with open habitats, including disturbed land from agriculture and deforestation. Adults are sexually dimorphic. Males are all black with a purple-blue iridescence. The female is smaller, with dull brown plumage that is sometimes paler on the underparts. Females of the species can be distinguished from the female brown-headed cowbird by their longer, finer bills and flatter heads. The shiny cowbird's diet consists mainly of insects, other arthropods and seeds, and they have been recorded foraging for grains in cattle troughs. Like most other cowbirds, it is an obligate bro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marsh Warbler
The marsh warbler (''Acrocephalus palustris'') is an Old World warbler currently classified in the family Acrocephalidae. It breeds in temperate Europe and the western Palearctic and winters mainly in southeast Africa. It is notable for incorporating striking imitations of a wide variety of other birds into its song. The marsh warbler breeds in a variety of mostly damp habitats, but in Africa winters mainly in dry, well-vegetated areas. It is common over much of its breeding range and expanding its distribution in some areas. However, in Britain it is now virtually extinct as a breeding bird, though the reasons for its decline are unclear. This insectivorous warbler can be easily confused with several close relatives, but the imitative song of the male is highly distinctive. Taxonomy The marsh warbler was formally described in 1798 by the German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein under the scientific name ''Motacilla s. Sylvia palustris''. The type locality is Germany. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Reed Warbler
The great reed warbler (''Acrocephalus arundinaceus'') is an insectivorous bird in the family Acrocephalidae. It is a medium-sized passerine bird and the largest of the European warblers. It breeds throughout mainland Europe and the Western Palearctic and migrates to sub-Saharan Africa in the winter. It favours reed beds during the breeding season, while living in reed beds, bush thickets, rice fields, and forest clearings during the winter. It exhibits relatively low sexual dimorphism, and the sexes are similar in appearance. This species mates both polygynously and monogamously. Taxonomy The great reed warbler was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. He placed it with the thrushes in the genus '' Turdus'' and coined the binomial name ''Turdus arundinaceus''. He specified the type locality as Northern Europe. Linnaeus based his entry on the ''Turdus musicus palustris'' or ''Bruch Beiden Rohr D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mimic
In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. In the simplest case, as in Batesian mimicry, a mimic resembles a model, so as to deceive a dupe, all three being of different species. A Batesian mimic, such as a hoverfly, is harmless, while its model, such as a wasp, is harmful, and is avoided by the dupe, such as an insect-eating bird. Birds hunt by sight, so the mimicry in that case is visual, but in other cases mimicry may make use of any of the senses. Most types of mimicry, including Batesian, are deceptive, as the mimics are not harmful, but Müllerian mimicry, where different harmful species resemble each other, is honest, as when species of wasps and of bees all have genuinely aposematic warning coloration. More complex types may be bipolar, involving only two species, such as when the mod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adaptation
In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the population during that process. Thirdly, it is a phenotypic trait or adaptive trait, with a functional role in each individual organism, that is maintained and has evolved through natural selection. Historically, adaptation has been described from the time of the ancient Greek philosophers such as Empedocles and Aristotle. In 18th and 19th-century natural theology, adaptation was taken as evidence for the existence of a deity. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace proposed instead that it was explained by natural selection. Adaptation is related to biological fitness, which governs the rate of evolution as measured by changes in allele frequencies. Often, two or more species co-adapt and co-evolve as they develop adaptations tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cuckoo Eggs Mimicking Reed Warbler Eggs
Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae ( ) family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes ( ). The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals, and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separated as distinct families, the Centropodidae and Crotophagidae, respectively. The cuckoo order Cuculiformes is one of three that make up the Otidimorphae, the other two being the turacos and the bustards. The family Cuculidae contains 150 species, which are divided into 33 genera. The cuckoos are generally medium-sized, slender birds. Most species live in trees, though a sizeable minority are ground-dwelling. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution; the majority of species are tropical. Some species are migratory. The cuckoos feed on insects, insect larvae, and a variety of other animals, as well as fruit. Some species are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other species and giving rise to the terms " cuckoo' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
