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Little Bronze Cuckoo
The little bronze cuckoo (''Chalcites minutillus'') is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It was formerly placed in the genus '' Chrysococcyx''. It is a common brood parasite of birds form the genus '' Geryone.'' This cuckoo is found in Southeast Asia, New Guinea and some parts of Australia, where its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest. It is the world's smallest cuckoo. The pied bronze cuckoo was formerly considered to be a subspecies. Other common names for the little bronze cuckoo include the red-eyed bronze cuckoo and the malay green cuckoo. It has 11 subspecies which are generally recognized. Description As the world's smallest cuckoo, the little bronze cuckoo measures 15-16 centimeters (5.9-6.3 in) in length and weighs 14.5-17.0 grams (0.51-0.60 oz). The females are slightly larger than the males. The generation length of the Little Bronze Cuckoo is approximately three years. The little bronze cuckoo is characterized by i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gould
John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist who published monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould (illustrator), Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter, Joseph Wolf and William Matthew Hart. Because of his 1840s seven-volume series ''The Birds of Australia (Gould), The Birds of Australia'' and its updates he has been considered the father of bird study in Australia, and the Gould League in Australia is named after him. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Gould's work is referenced in Charles Darwin's book, ''On the Origin of Species''. Early life John Gould was born in Lyme Regis, the first son of a gardener. Both father and son probably had little education. After working on Dowager Lady Poulett's glass house, his father obtained ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brush Cuckoo
The Sahul brush cuckoo (''Cacomantis variolosus''), formerly known as the brush cuckoo, is a member of the cuckoo family. It is native to Malesia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and northern and eastern Australia. It is a grey-brown bird with a buff breast. Its call is a familiar sound of the Australian and Indonesian bush. Taxonomy Eight subspecies are recognised: * ''C. v. major'' Salvadori, 1880 – north Moluccas ( Morotai to Obi Islands) * ''C. v. tymbonomus'' ( Müller, S, 1843) – Rote Island, Timor and Wetar (east Lesser Sunda Islands) * ''C. v. infaustus'' Cabanis & Heine, 1863 – New Guinea and most satellite islands * ''C. v. obscuratus'' Stresemann & Paludan, 1932 – Numfor ( Geelvink Bay islands, northwest New Guinea) * ''C. v. variolosus'' ( Vigors & Horsfield, 1827) – northeast Western Australia to south Victoria (north, east Australia) * ''C. v. macrocercus'' Stresemann, 1921 – New Ireland, New Britain and satellites (east Bismarck Archipelago) * ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brood Parasitism
Brood parasitism is a subclass of parasitism and phenomenon and behavioural pattern of animals that rely on others to raise their young. The strategy appears among birds, insects and fish. The brood parasite manipulates a host, either of the same or of another species, to raise its young as if it were its own, usually using egg mimicry, with eggs that resemble the host's. The strategy involves a form of aggressive mimicry called Kirbyan mimicry. The evolutionary strategy relieves the parasitic parents from the investment of rearing young. This benefit comes at the cost of provoking an evolutionary arms race between parasite and host as they coevolve: many hosts have developed strong defenses against brood parasitism, such as recognizing and ejecting parasitic eggs, or abandoning parasitized nests and starting over. It is less obvious why most hosts do care for parasite nestlings, given that for example cuckoo chicks differ markedly from host chicks in size and appearance. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parasitism
Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson characterised parasites' way of feeding as "predators that eat prey in units of less than one". Parasites include single-celled protozoans such as the agents of malaria, sleeping sickness, and amoebic dysentery; animals such as hookworms, lice, mosquitoes, and vampire bats; fungi such as honey fungus and the agents of ringworm; and plants such as mistletoe, dodder, and the broomrapes. There are six major parasitic strategies of exploitation of animal hosts, namely parasitic castration, directly transmitted parasitism (by contact), trophicallytransmitted parasitism (by being eaten), vector-transmitted parasitism, parasitoidism, and micropredation. One major axis of classification concerns invasiveness: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melaleuca Quinquenervia
''Melaleuca quinquenervia'', commonly known as the broad-leaved paperbark, paper bark tea tree, punk tree or niaouli, is a small- to medium-sized tree of the myrtle Family (biology), family, Myrtaceae. It grows as a spreading tree up to tall, with its trunk covered by a white, beige and grey thick papery bark. The grey-green leaves are egg-shaped, and cream or white bottlebrush-like flowers appear from late spring to autumn. It was first formally described in 1797 by the Spaniards, Spanish naturalist Antonio José Cavanilles. Native to New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea and coastal eastern Australia, from Botany Bay in New South Wales northwards into Queensland, ''M. quinquenervia'' grows in swamps, on floodplains and near rivers and estuaries, often on silty soil. Description ''Melaleuca quinquenervia'' is a small to medium sized, spreading tree which usually grows to a height of high and a spread of but is sometimes as tall as . Young growth is hairy with long and short, soft ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sclerophyll
Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short Internode (botany), internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct sunlight. Sclerophyllous plants occur in many parts of the world, but are most typical of areas with low rainfall or seasonal droughts, such as Australia, Africa, and western North and South America. They are prominent throughout Australia, parts of Flora of Argentina, Argentina, the Cerrado biogeographic region of Geography of Bolivia, Bolivia, Geography of Paraguay, Paraguay and Flora of Brazil, Brazil, and in the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub, Mediterranean biomes that cover the Mediterranean Basin, California chaparral and woodlands, California, Chilean Matorral, Chile, and the Cape Province of South Africa. In the Mediterranean basin, Quercus ilex, holm oak, cork oak and olives are typical hardwood tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including ''Corymbia'' and ''Angophora'', they are commonly known as eucalypts or "gum trees". Plants in the genus ''Eucalyptus'' have bark that is either smooth, fibrous, hard, or stringy and leaves that have oil Gland (botany), glands. The sepals and petals are fused to form a "cap" or Operculum (botany), operculum over the stamens, hence the name from Greek ''eû'' ("well") and ''kaluptós'' ("covered"). The fruit is a woody Capsule (botany), capsule commonly referred to as a "gumnut". Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are Indigenous (ecology), native to Australia, and every state and territory has representative species. About three-quarters of Australian forests are eucalypt forests. Many eucalypt species have adapted to wildfire, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South Australia to the west. Its coast borders the Coral Sea, Coral and Tasman Seas to the east. The Australian Capital Territory and Jervis Bay Territory are Enclave and exclave, enclaves within the state. New South Wales' state capital is Sydney, which is also Australia's most populous city. , the population of New South Wales was over 8.3 million, making it Australia's most populous state. Almost two-thirds of the state's population, 5.3 million, live in the Greater Sydney area. The Colony of New South Wales was founded as a British penal colony in 1788. It originally comprised more than half of the Australian mainland with its Western Australia border, western boundary set at 129th meridian east in 1825. The colony then also includ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South East Queensland
South East Queensland (SEQ) is a Bioregion, bio-geographical, Megalopolis, metropolitan and Statistics, statistical Regions of Queensland, region of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland in Australia, with a population of approximately 4.0 million people out of the state's population of 5.5 million. The area covered by South East Queensland varies, depending on the definition of the region, though it tends to include List of places in Queensland by population, Queensland's three largest cities: the capital city Brisbane; the Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast; and the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Sunshine Coast. Its most common use is for political purposes, and covers and incorporates 11 Local government in Australia, local government areas, extending from Shire of Noosa, Noosa in the north to the Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast and New South Wales border in the south (some sources include Tweed Heads, New South Wales which is contiguous as a conurbati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wetland
A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially in the soils. Wetlands form a transitional zone between waterbodies and dry lands, and are different from other terrestrial or aquatic ecosystems due to their vegetation's roots having adapted to oxygen-poor waterlogged soils. They are considered among the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as habitats to a wide range of aquatic and semi-aquatic plants and animals, with often improved water quality due to plant removal of excess nutrients such as nitrates and phosphorus. Wetlands exist on every continent, except Antarctica. The water in wetlands is either freshwater, brackish or saltwater. The main types of wetland are defined based on the dominant plants and the source of the water. For example, ''marshes'' ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mangroves National Park
Mangroves National Park (also or Muanda Marine Reserve) is a protected area and Ramsar wetland in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the country's only marine park and is notable for its mangrove forests. It provides protection to the endangered manatee population situated at the mouth of the Congo River. These mangroves are distinct from the ones found in South Asia. They form a separate type of mangrove forests, which are typical to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The park was established in 1992. Geography At in size, the park is DR Congo's smallest protected area. Flora and fauna In addition to the manatee, the area supports hippopotamuses, crocodiles, snakes, and Southern reedbuck The southern reedbuck, rietbok or common reedbuck (''Redunca arundinum'') is a diurnal antelope typically found in southern Africa. It was first described by Pieter Boddaert, a Dutch physician and naturalist, in 1785. It is placed in the genu .... The bushbuck may also be pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seasonal Tropical Forest
Seasonal tropical forest, also known as moist deciduous, semi-evergreen seasonal, tropical mixed or monsoon forest, typically contains a range of tree species: only some of which drop some or all of their leaves during the dry season. This tropical forest is classified under the Walter system as (i) tropical climate with high overall rainfall (typically in the 1000–2500 mm range; 39–98 inches) and (ii) having a very distinct wet season with (an often cooler “winter”) dry season. These forests represent a range of habitats influenced by monsoon (Am) or tropical wet savanna (Aw/As) climates (as in the Köppen climate classification). Drier forests in the Aw/As climate zone are typically deciduous and placed in the Tropical dry forest biome: with further transitional zones ( ecotones) of savannah woodland then tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands. Distribution Seasonal (mixed) tropical forests can be found in many parts of the tropical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
