|
Geopelia
''Geopelia'' is a genus of small, long-tailed doves in the family Columbidae. They are native to South-east Asia and Australasia and are most often found in open country and scrubland. They feed mainly on seeds which they find by foraging on the ground. They typically lay two eggs in a simple nest of twigs and grass. Their plumage is mostly greyish-brown with a pattern of spots or bars. The zebra dove and diamond dove are commonly kept in captivity. The genus was introduced in 1837 by the English naturalist William Swainson with the zebra dove (''Geopelia striata'') as the type species. The name of the genus combines the Ancient Greek ''geō-'' meaning "ground-" and ''peleia'' meaning "dove". The genus contains five species: * Diamond dove, ''Geopelia cuneata'' * Zebra dove, ''Geopelia striata'' * Peaceful dove, ''Geopelia placida'' (sometimes treated as a subspecies of ''G. striata'') * Barred dove, ''Geopelia maugeus'' (sometimes treated as a subspecies of ''G. striata'') * B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peaceful Dove
The peaceful dove (''Geopelia placida'') is a pigeon native to Australia and New Guinea. The peaceful dove is closely related to the zebra dove of south-east Asia and the barred dove of eastern Indonesia. Until recently, the three were classed as a single species, ''Geopelia striata'', known as peaceful dove or zebra dove. Description The bird is a relatively small pigeon and varies in length from 19 to 21 centimetres (7.6 to 8.4 inches). The peaceful dove has a pink-grey breast with chequered grey-brown wings. Thin striations of black appear around the neck and nape area and descend down the back. The eye is greyish-white and a blue-grey ring surrounds the eye that tapers off and joins the beak/cere. The juveniles are paler and less striated. They also have a duller eye ring. The nape is similar to that of the bar-shouldered dove in that the nape feathers are striated but differs in that the bar-shouldered dove does not have striated throat feathers like the peaceful do ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bar-shouldered Dove
The bar-shouldered dove (''Geopelia humeralis'') is a species of long tailed dove native to Australia and Southern New Guinea. It is protected under the ''National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974''. It is a medium-sized pigeon varying in size from . Its voice is a distinctive and melodious "cook-a-wook" or "coolicoo". Description The dove has a blue-grey breast with chequered brown-bronze wings. The nape is similar to that of the peaceful dove in that the nape feathers are striated but differs in that the bar-shouldered dove does not have striated throat feathers like the peaceful dove. Furthermore, the nape feathers are copper in colour. These doves are also often confused with the introduced and common spotted turtle dove. The eye ring tends to be grey but red-brown when breeding. The juveniles are duller in colour. Doves are often found in pairs, groups or large loose flocks and are seen commonly feeding on the ground feeding on seeds. Flight is direct and swift and wings wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diamond Dove
The diamond dove (''Geopelia cuneata'') is a resident bird in Australia. The pigeon predominantly exists in areas near water but which are lightly arid or semi-arid in nature, being Central, West and Northern Australia. They are one of Australia's smallest pigeons along with the peaceful dove. They have been spotted occasionally in Southern Australia in parks and gardens when the centre of Australia is very dry. Taxonomy and etymology English ornithologist John Latham first described the diamond dove in 1801. The common name "diamond" is a reference to the white speckles on its wings. Description They are small pigeons with a length of 19 to 21 centimeters or 9 to 11 inches. Regardless of sex, they have white spots and black edges on their wings, red eyes and orange eye-rings. The sexes look similar except the female's eye ring is less vivid and has more of a brown colour to the plumage. The male's head, neck, and breast are light blue-grey. The bill is a dark grey colour. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barred Dove
The barred dove (''Geopelia maugeus''), also known as temminck's zebra dove or the lesser sunda dove is a small dove that is native and endemic to the Lesser Sunda Islands in Indonesia and East Timor. It is closely related to the zebra dove of southeast Asia and the peaceful dove of Australia and New Guinea. Description The bird is a relatively small pigeon and varies in length from 23 to 25 centimeters (9.1 to 10.2 inches). It is generally greyish with a black-barred pattern over most of its underparts and the breast. Its orbital skin is yellowish. Distribution and Habitat It inhabits scrubs, cultivated lands, and woodland edges in lowland areas. The barred dove is found on Sumbawa, Flores, Sumba, Wetar, Alor, Timor, the Tanimbar Islands, the Kei Islands, and other small islands. It lives at elevations between 0 - 1400 meters above sea level. They are found in dry, open habitat with some shrub cover or along the edge of dry woodland areas. Similar Species It is sometimes co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Columbidae
Columbidae is a bird Family (biology), family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the Order (biology), order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with small heads, relatively short necks and slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They Herbivore, feed largely on plant matter, feeding on seeds (granivore, granivory), fruit (frugivore, frugivory), and foliage (folivore, folivory). In colloquial English, the smaller species tend to be called "doves", and the larger ones "pigeons", although the distinction is not consistent, and there is no scientific separation between them. Historically, the common names for these birds involve a great deal of variation. The bird most commonly referred to as "pigeon" is the domestic pigeon, descendant of the wild rock dove, which is a common Urban wildlife, inhabitant of cities as the feral pigeon. Columbidae contains 51 genera divided into 353 species. The family occurs worldwide, often in close p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Swainson
William Swainson Fellow of the Linnean Society, FLS, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (8 October 1789 – 6 December 1855), was an English ornithologist, Malacology, malacologist, Conchology, conchologist, entomologist and artist. Life Swainson was born in Dover Place, St Mary Newington, London, the eldest son of John Timothy Swainson, an original fellow of the Linnean Society of London, Linnean Society. He was a cousin of the amateur botanist Isaac Swainson.Etymologisches Worterbuch der botanischen Pflanzennamen by H. Genaust. Review by Paul A. Fryxell ''Taxon'', Vol. 38(2), 245–246 (1989). His father's family originated in Lancashire, and both his grandfather and father held high posts in Her Majesty's Customs, his father becoming Collector at Liverpool. William, whose formal education was curtailed because of an speech impediment, impediment in his speech, joined the Liverpool Customs as a junior clerk at the age of 14."William Swainson F.R.S, F.L.S., Naturalist and Arti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus. :E.g. ''Panthera leo'' (lion) and ''Panthera onca'' (jaguar) are two species within the genus ''Panthera''. ''Panthera'' is a genus within the family Felidae. The composition of a genus is determined by taxonomy (biology), taxonomists. The standards for genus classification are not strictly codified, so different authorities often produce different classifications for genera. There are some general practices used, however, including the idea that a newly defined genus should fulfill these three criteria to be descriptively useful: # monophyly – all descendants of an ancestral taxon are grouped together (i.e. Phylogeneti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South-east Asia
Southeast Asia is the geographical southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Australian mainland, which is part of Oceania. Southeast Asia is bordered to the north by East Asia, to the west by South Asia and the Bay of Bengal, to the east by Oceania and the Pacific Ocean, and to the south by Australia and the Indian Ocean. Apart from the British Indian Ocean Territory and two out of 26 atolls of the Maldives in South Asia, Maritime Southeast Asia is the only other subregion of Asia that lies partly within the Southern Hemisphere. Mainland Southeast Asia is entirely in the Northern Hemisphere. Timor-Leste and the southern portion of Indonesia are the parts of Southeast Asia that lie south of the equator. The region lies near the intersection of geological plates, with both heavy seismic and volcanic activities. The Sunda plate is the main plate of the region, featuring a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australasia
Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologically, where the term covers several slightly different but related regions. Derivation and definitions Charles de Brosses coined the term (as French ''Australasie'') in ''Histoire des navigations aux terres australes'' (1756). He derived it from the Latin for "south of Asia" and differentiated the area from Polynesia (to the east) and the southeast Pacific ( Magellanica). In the late 19th century, the term Australasia was used in reference to the "Australasian colonies". In this sense it related specifically to the British colonies south of Asia: New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia, Victoria (i.e., the Australian colon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
