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Riverina Plains Important Bird Area
The Riverina Plains Important Bird Area comprises some 10,668 km2 of agricultural grassland in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Much of the site lies roughly between Hay, Jerilderie and Hanwood, straddling, but with most of it lying south of, the Murrumbidgee River. It adjoins the Murrumbidgee Red Gums IBA. Birds The site has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it contains most of the habitat suitable for plains-wanderers in the Riverina. It also has good populations of other grassland birds, including brown songlarks, Australian pipits, banded lapwings and singing bushlarks, as well as the arid biome restricted inland dotterel The inland dotterel (''Peltohyas australis'') is an Endemism, endemic bird of the arid Australian interior. It forms loose flocks in sparsely vegetated Desert pavement, gibber plain and claypans in the day where it loafs in the shade and eats sho ....BirdLife International. (2011) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grassland
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceous plant, herbs. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica and are found in most ecoregions of the Earth. Furthermore, grasslands are one of the largest biomes on Earth and dominate the landscape worldwide. There are different types of grasslands: natural grasslands, semi-natural grasslands, and agricultural grasslands. They cover 31–69% of the Earth's land area. Definitions Included among the variety of definitions for grasslands are: * "...any plant community, including harvested forages, in which grasses and/or legumes make up the dominant vegetation." * "...terrestrial ecosystems dominated by herbaceous and shrub vegetation, and maintained by fire, grazing, drought and/or freezing temperatures." (Pilot Assessm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plains-wanderer
The plains-wanderer (''Pedionomus torquatus'') is an atypical species of wading bird, the only representative of family Pedionomidae and genus ''Pedionomus''. It is endemic to Australia. Its historic range included much of eastern Australia, including Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory, but in recent years, it has become endangered with remaining known populations concentrated in the Riverina region of New South Wales and western Queensland. Description The plains-wanderer is a quail-like ground bird, measuring 15–19 cm. It is such an atypical bird that it is placed in an entire family of its own, Pedionomidae. The adult male is light brown above, with fawn-white underparts with black crescents. The adult female is substantially larger than the male, and has a distinctive, white-spotted black collar. They have excellent camouflage and will first hide at any disturbance. If approached too closely, they will run rather than fly, at wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inland Dotterel
The inland dotterel (''Peltohyas australis'') is an Endemism, endemic bird of the arid Australian interior. It forms loose flocks in sparsely vegetated Desert pavement, gibber plain and claypans in the day where it loafs in the shade and eats shoots of shrubs. It is most often encountered at night when it forages on roads for insects. The relative remoteness of its habitat means that it is not well studied. The most detailed observations of the species were made by the South African arid-zone ornithology specialist Gordon Maclean in the 1970s. Alternate English names include Australian plover, inland plover, desert plover and prairie plover. Description The inland dotterel is a medium-sized plover with a distinctive cryptic plumage. Males and females are similarly sized: in length, a wingspan of a weight of , and a short bill . It is unlikely to be confused with any other species when found in its normal habitat. Its upperparts are a rich sandy buff, mottled with dark brown. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biome
A biome () is a distinct geographical region with specific climate, vegetation, and animal life. It consists of a biological community that has formed in response to its physical environment and regional climate. In 1935, Tansley added the climatic and soil aspects to the idea, calling it ''ecosystem''. The International Biological Program (1964–74) projects popularized the concept of biome. However, in some contexts, the term ''biome'' is used in a different manner. In German literature, particularly in the Walter terminology, the term is used similarly as '' biotope'' (a concrete geographical unit), while the biome definition used in this article is used as an international, non-regional, terminology—irrespectively of the continent in which an area is present, it takes the same biome name—and corresponds to his "zonobiome", "orobiome" and "pedobiome" (biomes determined by climate zone, altitude or soil). In the Brazilian literature, the term ''biome'' is sometimes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desert Climate
The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk'') is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert climates are dry and hold little moisture, quickly evaporating the already little rainfall they receive. Covering 14.2% of Earth's land area, hot deserts are the second-most common type of climate on Earth after the Polar climate. There are two variations of a desert climate according to the Köppen climate classification: a hot desert climate (''BWh''), and a cold desert climate (''BWk''). To delineate "hot desert climates" from "cold desert climates", a mean annual temperature of is used as an isotherm so that a location with a ''BW'' type climate with the appropriate temperature above this isotherm is classified as "hot arid subtype" (''BWh''), and a location with the appropriate temperature below the isotherm is classified as "cold a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Singing Bushlark
The singing bush lark or Horsfield's bush lark (''Mirafra javanica'') is a species of lark which inhabits grassland throughout most of Australia and much of Southeast Asia. It was described by the American naturalist Thomas Horsfield. Taxonomy The singing bush lark was formally described in 1821 by the American naturalist Thomas Horsfield from a specimen collected on the island of Java. He placed the lark in the genus ''Mirafra'' and coined the binomial name ''Mirafra javanica''. The singing bush lark is one of 100 species of larks of the rather large and fairly diverse family, Alaudidae. They are small to medium-small passerines, usually with rather drab, brownish plumage. Predominantly an Old World family, the species are distributed widely across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Indian subcontinent but the singing bush lark is the only species occurring naturally in Wallacea, New Guinea and Australia. The alternate shortened name "bush-lark" can also refer to many of the other sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banded Lapwing
The banded lapwing (''Vanellus tricolor'') is a small to medium-sized shorebird, found in small parties or large flocks on bare ground in open grasslands, agricultural land and open savannah. It is native to Australia and in the past considered as a game bird for hunting. Population estimate is 25 000 - 1 000 000. Other names include banded, black-breasted, brown flock and plain plover. Taxonomy Lapwings belong to the family Charadriidae ( plovers) and sub-family Vanellinae. Biochemical evidence suggests that plovers are holophyletic, meaning that all modern plovers, and no other taxa, share the same common ancestor. It has been suggested that most plovers originated from the Southern Hemisphere and evolved under arid and semi-arid conditions. There are 25 extant species of lapwings. Africa has the most species of lapwings, while North America has none. Australia has two native species, the masked lapwing and the banded lapwing. The masked lapwing is split into ''Vanellus mil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian Pipit
The Australian pipit (''Anthus australis'') is a fairly small passerine bird of open country in Australia and New Guinea. It belongs to the pipit genus ''Anthus'' in the family Motacillidae. Description It is a slender bird, 16 to 19 cm long, and weighs about 40 grams. The plumage is pale brown above with dark streaks. The underparts are pale with streaks on the breast. There is a pale stripe over the eye and dark malar and moustachial stripes. The long tail has white outer-feathers and is often wagged up and down. The legs are long and pinkish-brown while the bill is slender and brownish. It has a sparrow-like ''chirruping'' call and a drawn-out ''tswee'' call. Taxonomy The Australian pipit was formerly grouped with other pipits as Richard's pipit ''Anthus novaeseelandiae''. This species was split into Richard's, African, Mountain, Paddyfield and Australasian pipits. Many authors further split the Australasian pipit into two species: Australian pipit (''Anthu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International. There are over 13,000 IBAs worldwide. These sites are small enough to be entirely conserved and differ in their character, habitat or ornithological importance from the surrounding habitat. In the United States the program is administered by the National Audubon Society. Often IBAs form part of a country's existing protected area network, and so are protected under national legislation. Legal recognition and protection of IBAs that are not within existing protected areas varies within different countries. Some countries have a National IBA Conservation Strategy, whereas in others protection is completely lacking. History In 1985, following a specific request from the European Economic Community, Birdlife International dr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riverina
The Riverina () is an agricultural list of regions in Australia, region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, a climate with significant seasonal variation and an ample supply of water for irrigation. This combination has allowed the Riverina to develop into one of the most productive and agriculturally diverse areas of Australia. Bordered on the south by the state of Victoria, Australia, Victoria and on the east by the Great Dividing Range, the Riverina covers those areas of New South Wales in the Murray River, Murray and Murrumbidgee River, Murrumbidgee drainage zones to their confluence in the west. Home to Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal groups including the Wiradjuri people for over 40,000 years, the Riverina was colonised by European ethnic groups, Europeans in the mid-19th century as a grazing, pastoral region providing beef and wool to markets in Australia and beyond. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding important sites for birds, maintaining and restoring key bird habitats, and empowering conservationists worldwide. It has a membership of more than 2.5 million people across List of BirdLife International national partner organisations, 116 country partner organizations, including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Wild Bird Society of Japan, the National Audubon Society, and American Bird Conservancy. BirdLife International has identified 13,000 Important Bird Area, Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas and is the official International Union for Conservation of Nature's IUCN Red List, Red List authority for birds. BirdLife International has established that 1,375 bird species (13% of the total) are threatened with extinc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
