Butorides
''Butorides'' is a genus of small herons. It contains four similar species, the striated heron ''Butorides striatus'', the lava heron ''Butorides sundevalli'', the green heron ''Butorides virescens'' and the little heron ''Butorides atricapilla''. They are closely related, and some authorities have considered them all to be subspecies of just one species; when treated so, the merged species is called green-backed heron. The name ''Butorides'' derives from Middle English ''Butor'' (" bittern") and the Ancient Greek suffix ''-oides'', "resembling". Adults of the extant species are among the smallest herons, ranging in length from , and have a dark grey to blackish back and wings (sometimes with greenish or bluish iridescence), a black cap, and short legs; the legs are yellow most of the year, but flush bright orange-red during pre-breeding courtship. The species have different underpart colours; white to grey or orange-buff in striated heron, and very dark grey in lava heron, a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Green Heron
The green heron (''Butorides virescens'') is a small heron of North and Central America. ''Butorides'' is from Middle English ''butor'' "bittern" and Ancient Greek ''-oides'', "resembling", and ''virescens'' is Latin for "greenish". It was long considered conspecific with its sister species the striated heron (''Butorides striata''), and together they were called " green-backed heron". Birds of the nominate subspecies (no matter which taxonomic arrangement is preferred) are extremely rare vagrants to western Europe—for example, a sighting in Pembrokeshire in 2018 was only the second recorded sighting in Wales; individuals from the Pacific coast of North America may similarly stray as far as Hawaii. Description The green heron is relatively small; adult body length is about . The neck is often pulled in tight against the body. Adults have a glossy, greenish-black cap, a greenish back and wings that are grey-black grading into green or blue, a chestnut neck with a white lin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Striated Heron
The striated heron (''Butorides striata'') also known as mangrove heron or little green heron, is a small heron, about 44 cm tall. It is mostly sedentary and noted for some interesting behavioural traits. The breeding habitat is in South America and the Caribbean. The striated heron was formerly considered to be conspecific with the little heron that is found in the Old World tropics from west Africa to Japan and Australia. Taxonomy The striated heron was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. He placed it with the other herons in the genus '' Ardea'' and coined the binomial name ''Ardea striata''. Linnaeus specified the locality as Suriname. The specific epithet is from Latin ''striatus'' meaning "striated". The striated heron is now one of four closely related species placed in the genus '' Butorides'' that was described in 1852 by the English zoologist Edward Blyth. This bird was long cons ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Little Heron
The little heron (''Butorides atricapilla'') is a small heron, about 44 cm tall. It is mostly sedentary and frequents both fresh and salt water habitats. It is found in the Old World tropics from west Africa to Japan and Australia. The little heron was formerly considered to be conspecific with the striated heron. Taxonomy The little heron was formally described in 1804 by the Swedish naturalist Adam Afzelius based on a specimen collected in Sierra Leone, West Africa. He placed the new species with the herons in the genus '' Ardea'' and coined the binomial name ''Ardea atricapilla''. The specific epithet is Latin meaning "black-haired". The little heron is now one of four species placed in the genus '' Butorides'' that was introduced in 1852 by the English zoologist Edward Blyth. The little heron was formerly considered to be conspecific with the striated heron (''Butorides striata''). A molecular phylogenetic study of the genus ''Butorides'', submitted in 2023 as a mast ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lava Heron
The lava heron (''Butorides sundevalli''), also known as the Galápagos heron, is a species of heron endemic to the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador. It is considered by some authorities — including the American Ornithological Society and BirdLife International — to be a subspecies (or even just a colour morph) of the striated heron (''B. striata''), and was formerly " lumped" with this species and the green heron (''B. virescens'') as the green-backed heron. Description The adult is slate-grey to black, which allows it to blend in with the hardened lava. The back feathers typically have a silvery sheen and it has a short crest on its head. When breeding, the heron has a black beak and bright orange legs, but these fade to grey after the breeding season. File:Galapagos Striated Heron imported from iNaturalist photo 261543157 on 3 December 2024.jpg, Young juvenile swallowing a bird, San Cristóbal Island. File:Striated heron (Butorides striata sundevalli) juvenile.jpg, Older juve ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Heron
Herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 75 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genus ''Botaurus'' are referred to as bitterns, and, together with the zigzag heron, or zigzag bittern, in the monotypic genus ''Zebrilus'', form a monophyletic group within the Ardeidae. Egrets do not form a biologically distinct group from herons, and tend to be named differently because they are mainly white or have decorative plumes in breeding plumage. Herons, by evolutionary adaptation, have long beaks. The classification of the individual heron/egret species is fraught with difficulty, and no clear consensus exists about the correct placement of many species into either of the two major genera, ''Ardea (genus), Ardea'' and ''Egretta''. Similarly, the relationships of the genus, genera in the family are not completely resolved. However, one species formerly considered to c ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ardeidae
Herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 75 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genus '' Botaurus'' are referred to as bitterns, and, together with the zigzag heron, or zigzag bittern, in the monotypic genus ''Zebrilus'', form a monophyletic group within the Ardeidae. Egrets do not form a biologically distinct group from herons, and tend to be named differently because they are mainly white or have decorative plumes in breeding plumage. Herons, by evolutionary adaptation, have long beaks. The classification of the individual heron/egret species is fraught with difficulty, and no clear consensus exists about the correct placement of many species into either of the two major genera, '' Ardea'' and ''Egretta''. Similarly, the relationships of the genera in the family are not completely resolved. However, one species formerly considered to constitute a separ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean. The region includes Middle America (Americas), Middle America (comprising the Caribbean, Central America, and Mexico) and Northern America. North America covers an area of about , representing approximately 16.5% of Earth's land area and 4.8% of its total surface area. It is the third-largest continent by size after Asia and Africa, and the list of continents and continental subregions by population, fourth-largest continent by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. , North America's population was estimated as over 592 million people in list of sovereign states and dependent territories in North America, 23 independent states, or about 7.5% of the world's popula ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Thomas Ignatius Maria Forster
Thomas Ignatius Maria Forster (9 November 1789 – 2 February 1860) was an English astronomer, physician, naturalist and philosopher. An early animal rights activist, he promoted vegetarianism and founded the Animals' Friend Society with Lewis Gompertz. He published pamphlets on a wide variety of subjects, including morality, Pythagorean philosophy, bird migration, Sati (practice), Sati, and "phrenology", a term that he coined in 1815. Life Forster was born in London, on 9 November 1789, the eldest son of Thomas Furly Forster of Walthamstow, who was a botanist, and follower of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He did not have the conventional classical literary education, but learned some science from his uncle Benjamin Meggot Forster. The Great Comet of 1811 aroused his interest in astronomy, a science which he continued to pursue, and eight years later, on 3 July 1819, he himself discovered a new comet. He declined a fellowship to the Royal Society in 1816 as he disliked some of the rule ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ardeola
Pond herons (''Ardeola'') are herons, typically long with an wingspan. Most breed in the tropical Old World, but the migratory squacco heron occurs in southern Europe and the Middle East and winters in Africa. The scientific name comes from Latin ''ardeola'', a small heron (''ardea''). These pond herons are stocky species with a short neck, short thick bill, typically buff or brownish back, and coloured or streaked fore neck and breast. In summer, adults may have long neck feathers. ''Ardeola'' herons are transformed in flight, looking very white due to the brilliant white wings. Their breeding habitat is marshy wetlands. They nest in small colonies, often with other wading birds, usually on platforms of sticks in trees or shrubs. Two to five eggs are laid. These herons feed on insects, fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lac ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Early Pleistocene
The Early Pleistocene is an unofficial epoch (geology), sub-epoch in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, representing the earliest division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. It is currently estimated to span the time between 2.580 ± 0.005 annum, Ma (million years ago) and 0.773 ± 0.005 Ma. The term Early Pleistocene applies to both the Gelasian, Gelasian Age and the Calabrian (stage), Calabrian Age. While the Gelasian and the Calabrian have officially been defined by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) to effectively constitute the Early Pleistocene, the succeeding Chibanian and Tarantian ages have yet to be ratified. These proposed ages are unofficially termed the Middle Pleistocene and Late Pleistocene respectively. The Chibanian provisionally spans time from 773 ka to 126 ka, and the Tarantian from then until the definitive end of the whole Pleistocene, c. 9700 BC in the 10th millennium BC. Notes {{Ge ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |