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Chickadees
The chickadees are a group of North American birds in the family Paridae included in the genus '' Poecile''. Species found in North America are referred to as chickadees; species found elsewhere in the world are called tits. They are small-sized birds overall, usually having the crown of the head and throat patch distinctly darker than the body. They are at least 6 to 14 centimeters (2.4 to 5.5 inches) in size. Their name reputedly comes from the fact that their calls make a distinctive "chick-a-dee-dee-dee", though their normal call is "fee-bee", and the "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" call is an alarm call. The number of "dees" depends on the predator. The chickadee (specifically the black-capped chickadee ''Poecile atricapillus'', formerly ''Parus atricapillus'') is the official bird for the US state of Massachusetts, the Canadian province of New Brunswick, as well as the cities of Calgary, Alberta, and Regina, Saskatchewan. The chickadee is also the state bird of Maine, but a spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black-capped Chickadee
The black-capped chickadee (''Poecile atricapillus'') is a small, nonmigratory, North American passerine bird that lives in deciduous and mixed forests. It is a member of the Paridae family (biology), family, also known as tits. It has a distinct black cap on its head, a black bib underneath, and white cheeks. It has a white belly, buff sides, and grey wings, back, and tail. The bird is well known for its vocalizations, including its ''fee-bee'' call and its ''chick-a-dee-dee-dee'' call, from which it derives its name. The black-capped chickadee is widely distributed throughout North America, ranging from the northern United States to southern Canada and all the way up to Alaska and Yukon. It feeds primarily on insects and seeds, and is known for its ability to Hoarding (animal behavior), cache food for use during the winter. The hippocampus of the black-capped chickadee grows during the caching season, which is believed to help it better remember its cache locations. The black- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paridae
The tits, chickadees, and titmice constitute the Paridae, a family of small passerine birds which occur mainly in the Northern Hemisphere and Africa. Many were formerly classified in the genus ''Parus''. Eurasian and African members of this family are referred to as "tits", while North American species are called either "chickadees" ( onomatopoeic, derived from their distinctive "chick-a dee dee dee" alarm call) or "titmice". The name titmouse is recorded from the 14th century, composed of the Old English name for the bird, ''mase'' (Proto-Germanic ''*maison'', Dutch ''mees'', German ''Meise''), and tit, denoting something small. The former spelling, "titmose", was influenced by ''mouse'' in the 16th century. Emigrants to New Zealand presumably identified some of the superficially similar birds of the genus ''Petroica'' of the family Petroicidae, the Australian robins, as members of the tit family, giving them the title tomtit, although, in fact, they are not related. Thes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
The chestnut-backed chickadee (''Poecile rufescens'') is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae, native to western North America. Taxonomy In the early 20th century, Joseph Grinnell hypothesized that the chestnut-backed chickadee diverged from the boreal chickadee (''Poecile hudsonicus'')'','' because both species inhabited similar coniferous forest environments. Grinnell noted that the main differences between the boreal chickadee and the chestnut-backed were in the shade and tone of their respective brown coloration. He drew parallels between the varied chickadee characteristics using the fact that some bird species become smaller and more vibrantly brown as their habitat becomes more humid. Modern molecular phylogenetic studies have confirmed that the chestnut-backed chickadee is sister to the boreal chickadee. More recent research regarding the population distribution of the chestnut-backed chickadee suggests that the genetic fragmentation of the chestnut-backed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carolina Chickadee
The Carolina chickadee (''Poecile carolinensis'') is a small passerine bird in the tit (bird), tit family (biology), family Paridae. Taxonomy The Carolina chickadee was often placed in the genus ''Parus'' with most other tits, but mtDNA cytochrome b, cytochrome ''b'' DNA sequence, sequence data and Morphology (biology), morphology suggest that separating ''Poecile'' more adequately expresses these birds' relationships. The American Ornithologists' Union has been treating ''Poecile'' as distinct genus since 1998. Although it and the black-capped chickadee most likely diverged about 2.5 million years ago, the birds still Hybrid (biology), hybridize in the areas where their ranges overlap. The offspring of mated pairs of hybrid chickadees suffer from lower hatching success, and a male bias sex ratio, consistent with Haldane's rule. Description Adults are long with a weight of , and have a black cap and bib with white sides to the face. Their underparts are white with rusty brow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bird
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] |
Mexican Chickadee
The Mexican chickadee (''Poecile sclateri'') is a small songbird, a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is still often placed in the genus ''Parus'' with most other tits, but mtDNA cytochrome ''b'' sequence data and morphology suggest that separating ''Poecile'' more adequately expresses these birds' relationships (Gill ''et al.'', 2005). The American Ornithologists' Union had been treating ''Poecile'' as distinct genus for some time already. Adults are 12.5–13.5 cm long with a wingspan of 18–21 cm and a weight of 7.5–11 g. Both sexes have a black cap, white cheeks, and a short black bill. Their backs and flanks are gray and they have paler grayish underparts. Similar in appearance to the black-capped chickadee and mountain chickadee, the Mexican chickadee can be distinguished by its longer black bib, which extends from its chin down onto its upper breast. A whitish band below the bib extends down the center of the belly. It is a permanent residen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poecile
''Poecile'' is a genus of birds in the tit (bird), tit family Paridae. It contains 15 species, which are scattered across North America, Europe and Asia; the North American species are the chickadees. In the past, most authorities retained ''Poecile'' as a subgenus within the genus ''Parus'', but treatment as a distinct genus, initiated by the American Ornithologists Union, is now widely accepted. This is supported by mtDNA cytochrome b, cytochrome ''b'' sequence analysis. The genus ''Poecile'' was erected by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1829. The type species was subsequently designated as the marsh tit (''Poecile palustris'') by English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1842. The name ''Poecile'' is from Ancient Greek ''poikilos'' "colourful". A related word ''poikilidos'' denoted an unidentified small bird. It has traditionally been treated as feminine (giving name endings such as ''cincta''); however, this was not specified by the original genus author Johann Jak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boreal Chickadee
The boreal chickadee (''Poecile hudsonicus'') is a small passerine songbird in the tit (bird), tit family (biology), family Paridae. It is found in the boreal forests of Alaska, Canada and the northern United States and remains within this range all year. This bird is known for its high pitched trill patterns used in communication with other birds and food storage habits in preparation for winter months. Description Adults are long with a weight of . They have grey-brown upperparts with a brown cap and greyish wings and tail; their face is mainly grey with white on the sides. Their underparts are white with brown on the flanks and a black throat. They have a short dark bill, short wings and a long notched tail. Their flight consists of brief gliding patterns followed by fast and bouncy wing beats as they travel through the air. Vocal communications The call is a husky ''tsee-day-day'', as well as a high pitched trill sound, ''dididididididi'' a variant on the call which gives ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animal
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Biology, biological Kingdom (biology), kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are motility, able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a hollow sphere of Cell (biology), cells, the blastula, during embryonic development. Animals form a clade, meaning that they arose from a single common ancestor. Over 1.5 million extant taxon, living animal species have been species description, described, of which around 1.05 million are insects, over 85,000 are molluscs, and around 65,000 are vertebrates. It has been estimated there are as many as 7.77 million animal species on Earth. Animal body lengths range from to . They have complex ecologies and biological interaction, interactions with each other and their environments, forming intricate food webs. The scientific study of animals is known as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cache (biology)
Hoarding or caching in animal behavior is the storage of food in locations hidden from the sight of both conspecifics (animals of the same or closely related species) and members of other species.Vander Wall, Stephen B. (1990) Food Hoarding in Animals. University of Chicago Press. Most commonly, the function of hoarding or caching is to store food in times of surplus for times when food is less plentiful. However, there is evidence that a certain amount of caching or hoarding is actually undertaken with the aim of ripening the food so stored, and this practice is thus referred to as ‘ripening caching’. The term hoarding is most typically used for rodents, whereas caching is more commonly used in reference to birds, but the behaviors in both animal groups are quite similar. Hoarding is done either on a long-term basiscached on a seasonal cycle, with food to be consumed months down the lineor on a short-term basis, in which case the food will be consumed over a period of one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grey-headed Chickadee
The grey-headed chickadee or Siberian tit (''Poecile cinctus''), formerly ''Parus cinctus'', is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread resident breeder throughout subarctic Scandinavia and the northern Palearctic, and also into North America in Alaska and the far northwest of Canada. It is a conifer specialist. It is resident, and most birds do not migrate. It is a fairly large tit, 13.5–14 cm long with a weight of 11–14.3 g. The head is dark brown with white cheeks, the mantle brown, the wing feathers blackish with pale fringes, and the underparts whitish with pale brown flanks. Ecologists in Folldal, Hedmark, Norway found that the Siberian tits accounted for only 1% of all tit individuals in lichen-dominated pine forest in 2011 as opposed to 64% in 1982. This dramatic reduction is attributed to the interspecies competition with the willow tits and great tits, decreased vegetation due to climate change, and logging of old-growth trees which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
