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Common Swift
The common swift (''Apus apus'') is a medium-sized bird, superficially similar to the barn swallow or Common house martin, house martin but somewhat larger, though not stemming from those passerine species, being in the order Apodiformes. The resemblances between the groups are due to convergent evolution, reflecting similar contextual development. The swifts' nearest relatives are the New World hummingbirds and the Southeast Asian treeswifts. Its scientific 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"). Swifts have very short legs which they use primarily for clinging to vertical surfaces (hence the German name ''Mauersegler'', literally meaning "wall-glider"). They never settle voluntarily on the ground where they would be vulnerable to accidents and predation, and non-breeding individuals may spend up to ten months in continuous flight. Taxonomy The co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within city limits,Barcelona: Población por municipios y sexo – Instituto Nacional de Estadística. (National Statistics Institute) its urban area extends to numerous neighbouring municipalities within the province of Barcelona and is home to around 5.3 million people, making it the fifth most populous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giovanni Antonio Scopoli
Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (sometimes Latinisation of names, Latinized as Johannes Antonius Scopolius) (3 June 1723 – 8 May 1788) was an Italians, Italian physician and natural history, naturalist. His biographer Otto Guglia named him the "first anational European" and the "Carl Linnaeus, Linnaeus of the Habsburg monarchy, Austrian Empire". Biography Scopoli was born at Cavalese in the Val di Fiemme, belonging to the Prince-Bishopric of Trent, Bishopric of Trent (today's Trentino), son of Francesco Antonio, military commissioner, and Claudia Caterina Gramola (1699-1791), a painter from a patrician family from Trentino. He obtained a degree in medicine at University of Innsbruck, and practised as a doctor in Cavalese and Venice.Newton, Alfred 1881. ''Scopoli's ornithological papers.'' The Willoughby SocietyScanned version/ref> Much of his time was spent in the Alps, Plant collecting, collecting plants and Entomology, insects, of which he made outstanding collections. He spent two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caledonian Forest
The Caledonian Forest is the ancient (old-growth) temperate forest of Scotland. The forest today is a reduced-extent version of the pre-human-settlement forest, existing in several dozen remnant areas. The Scots pines of the Caledonian Forest are directly descended from the first pines to arrive in Scotland following the Late Glacial; arriving about 7000 BC. The forest reached its maximum extent about 5000 BC, after which the Scottish climate became wetter and windier. This changed climate reduced the extent of the forest significantly by 2000 BC. From that date, human actions (including the grazing effects of sheep and deer) reduced it to its current extent. The forest exists as 35 remnants, as authenticated by Steven & Carlisle (1959) (or 84 remnants, including later subjective subdivisions of the 35) covering about or . The Scots pines of these remnants are, by definition, directly descended from the first pines to arrive in Scotland following the ic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RSPB
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a Charitable_organization#United_Kingdom, charitable organisation registered in Charity Commission for England and Wales, England and Wales and in Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Scotland. It was founded in 1889. It works to promote bird conservation, conservation and protection of birds and the wider Natural environment, environment through public awareness campaigns, petitions and through the operation of Nature Reserve, nature reserves throughout the United Kingdom. In 2021/22 the RSPB had revenue of £157 million, 2,200 employees, 10,500 volunteers and 1.1 million members (including 195,000 youth members), making it one of the world's largest wildlife conservation organisations. The RSPB has many local groups and maintains 222 nature reserves. History The origins of the RSPB lie with two groups of women, both formed in 1889: * The Plumage League was founded by Emily Williamson at her house in Didsbury, Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nest Box
A nest box, also spelled nestbox, is a man-made enclosure provided for animals to nest in. Nest boxes are most frequently utilized for birds, in which case they are also called birdhouses or a birdbox/bird box, but some mammals such as bats may also use them. Placing nestboxes or roosting boxes may also be used to help maintain populations of particular species in an area. Nest boxes were used since Roman times to capture birds for meat. The use of nest boxes for other purposes began in the mid-18th century, and naturalist August von Berlepsch was the first to produce nest boxes on a commercial scale. Nest boxes are getting more attention because increasing industrialization, urban growth, modern construction methods, deforestation and other human activities since the mid-20th century have caused severe declines in birds' natural habitats, introducing hurdles to breeding. Nest boxes can help prevent bird extinction, as it was shown in the case of scarlet macaws in the Peru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Białowieża Forest
Białowieża Forest is a large forest complex on the border between Poland and Belarus. It is one of the last and the largest remaining part of the immense primeval forest that once stretched across the European Plain. The forest is home to more than 800 European bison, Europe's heaviest land animal. UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme designated the Polish Białowieża National Park, Biosphere Reserve as ' in 1976, and the Belarusian Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park, Biosphere Reserve as ' in 1993. In 2015, the Belarusian Biosphere Reserve spanned , subdivided into transition, buffer and core zones. The forest has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an EU Natura 2000 Special Area of Conservation. The World Heritage Committee, through its decision of June 2014, approved the extension of the UNESCO World Heritage site "Belovezhskaya Pushcha / Białowieża Forest, Belarus, Poland", which became "Białowieża Forest, Belarus, Poland". It straddles the border bet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old-growth Forest
An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines primary forests as naturally regenerated forests of native tree species where there are no clearly visible indications of human activity and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed. One-third (34 percent) of the world's forests are primary forests. Old-growth features include diverse tree-related structures that provide diverse wildlife habitats that increases the biodiversity of the forested ecosystem. Virgin or first-growth forests are old-growth forests that have never been logged. The concept of diverse tree structure includes multi-layered canopies and canopy gaps, greatly varying tree heights and diameters, and diverse tree species and classes and sizes of woody debris., the world has of primary forest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Swifts
Common may refer to: As an Irish surname, it is anglicised from Irish Gaelic surname Ó Comáin. Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally common land, now a park in London, UK * Common Moss, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Lexington Common, a common land area in Lexington, Massachusetts * Salem Common Historic District, a common land area in Salem, Massachusetts People * Common (rapper) (born 1972), American hip hop artist, actor, and poet * Andrew Ainslie Common (1841–1903), English amateur astronomer * Andrew Common (1889–1953), British shipping director * John Common, American songwriter, musician and singer * Thomas Common (1850–1919), Scottish translator and literary critic Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Common'' (film), a 2014 BBC One film, written by Jimmy McGove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apus Apus Flock Flying 1
Apus is a small constellation in the southern sky. It represents a bird-of-paradise, and its name means "without feet" in Greek because the bird-of-paradise was once wrongly believed to lack feet. First depicted on a celestial globe by Petrus Plancius in 1598, it was charted on a star atlas by Johann Bayer in his 1603 ''Uranometria''. The French explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille charted and gave the brighter stars their Bayer designations in 1756. The five brightest stars are all reddish in hue. Shading the others at apparent magnitude 3.8 is Alpha Apodis, an orange giant that has around 48 times the diameter and 928 times the luminosity of the Sun. Marginally fainter is Gamma Apodis, another aging giant star. Delta Apodis is a double star, the two components of which are 103 arcseconds apart and visible with the naked eye. Two star systems have been found to have planets. History Apus was one of twelve constellations published by Petrus Plancius from the ob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apus Apus MHNT ZOO 2011 11 159 Le Louvres Paris
Apus is a small constellation in the southern sky. It represents a bird-of-paradise, and its name means "without feet" in Greek because the bird-of-paradise was once wrongly believed to lack feet. First depicted on a celestial globe by Petrus Plancius in 1598, it was charted on a star atlas by Johann Bayer in his 1603 ''Uranometria''. The French explorer and astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille charted and gave the brighter stars their Bayer designations in 1756. The five brightest stars are all reddish in hue. Shading the others at apparent magnitude 3.8 is Alpha Apodis, an orange giant that has around 48 times the diameter and 928 times the luminosity of the Sun. Marginally fainter is Gamma Apodis, another aging giant star. Delta Apodis is a double star, the two components of which are 103 arcseconds apart and visible with the naked eye. Two star systems have been found to have planets. History Apus was one of twelve constellations published by Petrus Plancius from the ob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boomerang
A boomerang () is a thrown tool typically constructed with airfoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight, designed to return to the thrower. The origin of the word is from Australian Aboriginal languages, an Aboriginal Australian language of the Sydney region. Its original meaning, which is preserved in official competitions, refer only to returning objects, not to throwing sticks, which were also used for hunting by various peoples both in Australia and around the world. However, the term "non-returning boomerang" is also in general use. Various forms of boomerang-like designs were traditionally and in some cases are still used by some groups of Aboriginal Australians for hunting. The tools were known by various names in the many Aboriginal languages prior to Colonisation of Australia, colonisation. The oldest surviving Aboriginal boomerang, now held in the South Australian Museum, was found in a peat bog in South Australia, d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
