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Zapornia
''Zapornia'' is a recently revalidated genus of birds in the rail family Rallidae; it was included in ''Porzana'' for much of the late 20th century.Garcia-R, Juan C.; Gibb, Gillian C. & Trewick, Steve A. (2014): Deep global evolutionary radiation in birds: Diversification and trait evolution in the cosmopolitan bird family Rallidae. ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol.'' 81: 96–108.PDF fulltext/ref> These smallish to tiny rails are found across most of the world, but are entirely absent from the Americas except as wind-blown stray birds (which are regularly encountered on the Atlantic coasts however). A number of species, and probably an even larger number of prehistorically extinct ones, are known only from small Pacific islands; several of these lost the ability to fly in the absence of terrestrial predator (biology), predators. They are somewhat less aquatic than ''Porzana'' proper, inhabiting the edges of wetlands, reedbelts, but also drier grass- a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baillon's Crake
Baillon's crake (''Zapornia pusilla''), also known as the marsh crake, is a small waterbird of the family Rallidae. Distribution Their breeding habitat is sedge beds in Europe, mainly in the east, and across the Palearctic. They used to breed in Great Britain up to the mid-19th century, but the western European population declined through drainage. There has been a recovery in north-western Europe in recent years, with the recolonisation of Germany and the Netherlands, and breeding suspected in Britain; an Irish record in 2012 was the first there since the 1850s. They nest in a dry location in wet sedge bogs, laying 4–8 eggs. This species is migratory, wintering in east Africa and south Asia. It is also a resident breeder in Africa and Australasia. There is a single North American record of this species on Attu Island in September 2000. Subspecies There are at least five subspecies of Baillon's crake: * '' Zapornia pusilla affinis'' in New Zealand * ''Zapornia pusilla pal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Crake
The little crake (''Zapornia parva'') is a very small waterbird of the family Rallidae. ''parva'' is Latin for "small". This species was long included in the genus ''Porzana''. Its breeding habitat is reed beds in Europe, mainly in the east, and just into western Asia. This species is migratory, wintering in Africa. At in length, they are slightly smaller than the spotted crake, from which they are readily distinguished by the lack of dark barring and white spots on the flanks. The little crake has a short straight bill, yellow with a red base. They have green legs with long toes, and a short tail which is barred black and white underneath. Unlike other ''Zapornia'' crakes, this species has strong sexual dimorphism: Adult males have mainly brown upperparts and blue-grey face and underparts. They resemble the sympatric Baillon's crake (''Z. pusilla''), which has strongly barred flanks and is a little smaller. Females have buff underparts, and are grey only on the face; they a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rallidae
Rails (avian family Rallidae) are a large, Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan family (biology), family of small- to medium-sized terrestrial and/or semi-amphibious birds. The family exhibits considerable diversity in its forms, and includes such ubiquitous species as the crakes, coots, and gallinule; other rail species are extremely rare or endangered. Many are associated with wetland habitats, some being semi-aquatic like waterfowl (such as the coot), but many more are wading birds or shorebirds. The ideal rail habitats are marsh areas, including rice paddy, rice paddies, and flooded fields or open forest. They are especially fond of dense vegetation for nesting.Horsfall & Robinson (2003): pp. 206–207 The rail family is found in every Terrestrial animal, terrestrial habitat with the exception of dry desert, Polar climate, polar or freezing regions, and Alpine climate, alpine areas (above the snow line). Members of Rallidae occur on every continent except Antarctica. N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porzana
''Porzana'' is a genus of birds in the crake and rail family, Rallidae. Its scientific name is derived from Venetian terms for small rails. The spotted crake (''P. porzana'') is the type species. Taxonomy The genus ''Porzana'' was erected by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816 with the spotted crake (''Porzana porzana'') as the type species. The genus unites the typical "crakes" found essentially anywhere in the world except desert and polar regions. It contains 3 living species. In addition, a large number of prehistorically extinct species known only from fossil or subfossil remains have been discovered. The genera '' Coturnicops'', ''Crex'' (including ''Crecopsis'') and '' Laterallus'' have been suggested to be closely related. However, molecular phylogenetic analyses have confirmed the suspicion, raised in the late 20th century in the first cladistic studies of morphology, that the "genus" ''Porzana'' is rather an evolutionary grade, consisting of an as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amaurornis
''Amaurornis'' is a genus of birds in the rail family Rallidae. The species in this genus are typically called bush-hens. A monotypic subtribe, Amaurornithina, was proposed for this genus. Taxonomy The genus ''Amaurornis'' was erected by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach in 1853 with the plain bush-hen (''Amaurornis olivacea'') as the type species. The name comes from the Greek ''amauros'', meaning "dusky" or "brown" and ''ornis'', meaning "bird". The New Guinea flightless rail was sometimes included in this genus, but more often held to constitute a distinct monotypic genus ''Megacrex''. The first cladistic studies of rails, based on morphology (biology), morphology, strongly suggested that ''Amaurornis'' as traditionally defined is not monophyletic, and that several species placed here are in fact closer to the small crakes traditionally placed in ''Porzana''. This was subsequently confirmed by molecular data. However, these smallish species are probably not close to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slender-billed Flufftail
The slender-billed flufftail (''Sarothrura watersi'') is a species of bird in the family Sarothruridae. It is found in highlands of eastern Madagascar. Its natural habitats are swamps and arable land. It is threatened by habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease .... References External linksBirdLife Species Factsheet. slender-billed flufftail Endemic birds of Madagascar slender-billed flufftail Taxa named by Edward Bartlett Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Gruiformes-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilson Bulletin
''The Wilson Journal of Ornithology'' (until 2006 ''The Wilson Bulletin'') is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Wilson Ornithological Society. Both the society and its journal were named after American ornithologist Alexander Wilson. The journal consists of ornithological studies, short communications on bird observations, and book reviews. Most of the work disseminated through the journal is conducted in the Western Hemisphere. Abstracting and indexing The journal is abstracted and indexed in: * Science Citation Index Expanded * Scopus * Academic Search Ultimate * BIOSIS * GEOBASE * CAB Abstracts See also *List of ornithology journals The following is a list of notable journals and magazines relating to birding and ornithology. The continent and country columns give the location where the journal or magazine is published and may not correspond with its scope or content. See ... References External links * BioOne''The Wilson Bulletin'' Vol. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clade
In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach to taxonomy adopted by most biological fields. The common ancestor may be an individual, a population, or a species (extinct or Extant taxon, extant). Clades are nested, one in another, as each branch in turn splits into smaller branches. These splits reflect evolutionary history as populations diverged and evolved independently. Clades are termed ''monophyletic'' (Greek: "one clan") groups. Over the last few decades, the cladistic approach has revolutionized biological classification and revealed surprising evolutionary relationships among organisms. Increasingly, taxonomists try to avoid naming Taxon, taxa that are not clades; that is, taxa that are not Monophyly, monophyletic. Some of the relationships between organisms that the molecul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cladistic
Cladistics ( ; from Ancient Greek 'branch') is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived characteristics ( synapomorphies) that are not present in more distant groups and ancestors. However, from an empirical perspective, common ancestors are inferences based on a cladistic hypothesis of relationships of taxa whose character states can be observed. Theoretically, a last common ancestor and all its descendants constitute a (minimal) clade. Importantly, all descendants stay in their overarching ancestral clade. For example, if the terms ''worms'' or ''fishes'' were used within a ''strict'' cladistic framework, these terms would include humans. Many of these terms are normally used paraphyletically, outside of cladistics, e.g. as a ' grade', which are fruitless to precisely delineate, especially when ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phylogenetic
In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical data and observed heritable traits of DNA sequences, protein amino acid sequences, and morphology. The results are a phylogenetic tree—a diagram depicting the hypothetical relationships among the organisms, reflecting their inferred evolutionary history. The tips of a phylogenetic tree represent the observed entities, which can be living taxa or fossils. A phylogenetic diagram can be rooted or unrooted. A rooted tree diagram indicates the hypothetical common ancestor of the taxa represented on the tree. An unrooted tree diagram (a network) makes no assumption about directionality of character state transformation, and does not show the origin or "root" of the taxa in question. In addition to their use for inferring phylogenetic pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laterallus
''Laterallus'' is a genus of birds in the rail family Rallidae. These small, relatively short-billed terrestrial rails are found among dense vegetation near water in the Neotropics, although a single species, the black rail, also occurs in the United States. Taxonomy The genus was erected by the English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1855 with the rufous-sided crake (''Laterallus melanophaius'') as the type species. The genus name is a portmanteau of ''Rallus lateralis'', a synonym of the binomial name for the rufous-sided crake. The authors of a molecular genetic study published in 2019 proposed that the yellow-breasted crake, the dot-winged crake, and the flightless Inaccessible Island rail should be moved to this genus. Additional changes to the content of the genus were made based on the molecular phylogenetic study by Emiliano Depino and collaborators that was published in 2023. Species The genus contains 11 species: * Speckled rail, ''Laterallus notatus'' (formerly pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
