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Speculum Feathers
The speculum is a patch, often distinctly coloured, on the secondary wing feathers, or ''remiges'', of some birds. Examples of the colour(s) of the speculum in a number of ducks are: * Common teal and green-winged teal: Iridescent green edged with buff. * Blue-winged teal: Iridescent green. The species' common name comes from the sky-blue wing coverts. * Crested duck and bronze-winged duck: Iridescent purple-bronze, edged white. * Pacific black duck: Iridescent green, edged light buff. * Mallard: Iridescent purple-blue with white edges. * American black duck: Iridescent violet bordered in black and may have a thin white trailing edge. * Northern pintail: Iridescent green in male and brown in female, both are white on trailing edge. * Gadwall: Both sexes have white inner secondaries. * Yellow-billed duck: Iridescent green or blue, bordered white. Bright wing speculums are also known from a number of other birds; among them are several parrots from the genus Gen ...
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Flickr - Law Keven - Happy Feathery Friday
Flickr ( ) is an image and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was previously a common way for amateur and professional photographers to host high-resolution photos. It has changed ownership several times and has been owned by SmugMug since April 20, 2018. Flickr had a total of 112 million registered members and more than 3.5 million new images uploaded daily. On August 5, 2011, the site reported that it was hosting more than 6 billion images. In 2024, it was reported as having shared 10 billion photos and accepting 25 million per day. Photos and videos can be accessed from Flickr without the need to register an account, but an account must be made to upload content to the site. Registering an account also allows users to create a profile page containing photos and videos that the user has uploaded and also grants the ability to add another Flickr user as a conta ...
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Mallard
The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa. It has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa. Belonging to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae, mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes. Males (drakes) have green heads, while the females (hens) have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent purple or blue feathers called a speculum on their wings; males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers. The mallard is long, of which the body makes up around two-thirds the length. The wingspan is and the bill is long. It is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks, weighing . T ...
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Amazona
Amazon parrots are parrots in the genus ''Amazona''. They are medium-sized, short-tailed parrots native to the Americas, with their range extending from South America to Mexico and the Caribbean. ''Amazona'' is one of the 92 genera of parrots that make up the order (biology), order Psittaciformes and is in the family (biology), family Psittacidae, one of three families of true parrots. It contains about thirty species. Most amazons are predominantly green, with accenting colors that depend on the species, and they can be quite vivid. They feed primarily on seeds, Nut (fruit), nuts, and fruits, supplemented by leafy matter. Many amazons have the ability to mimic human speech and other sounds. Partly because of this, they are popular as pets or companion parrots, and a small industry has developed in breeding parrots in captivity for this market. This popularity has led to many parrots being taken from the wild to the extent that some species have become threatened. The United Sta ...
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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 ...
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Parrots
Parrots (Psittaciformes), also known as psittacines (), are birds with a strong curved beak, upright stance, and clawed feet. They are classified in four families that contain roughly 410 species in 101 genus (biology), genera, found mostly in tropics, tropical and subtropics, subtropical regions. The four families are the Psittaculidae (Old World parrots), Psittacidae (African and New World parrots), Cacatuidae (cockatoos), and Strigopidae (New Zealand parrots). One-third of all parrot species are threatened by extinction, with a higher aggregate extinction risk (Red List Index, IUCN Red List Index) than any other comparable bird group. Parrots have a generally pantropical distribution with several species inhabiting temperateness, temperate regions as well. The greatest biodiversity, diversity of parrots is in South America and Australasia. Parrotsalong with Corvidae, ravens, crows, jays, and magpiesare among the most #Intelligence and learning, intelligent birds, and the abil ...
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Yellow-billed Duck
The yellow-billed duck (''Anas undulata'') is a 51–58 cm long dabbling duck which is an abundant resident breeder in southern and eastern Africa. This duck is not migratory, but wanders in the dry season to find suitable waters. It is highly gregarious outside the breeding season and forms large flocks. Description These are mallard-sized mainly grey ducks with a darker head and bright yellow bill. The wings are whitish below, and from above show a white-bordered green speculum. Sexes are similar, and juveniles are slightly duller than adults. The north-eastern race is darker and has a brighter bill and blue speculum. It is a bird of freshwater habitats in fairly open country and feeds by dabbling for plant food mainly in the evening or at night. It nests on the ground in dense vegetation near water. Rarely, it is found in suburban areas, in close proximity to golf courses, parks and lakes or dams. The clutch numbers between six and twelve eggs. The male has a teal- ...
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Gadwall
The gadwall (''Mareca strepera'') is a common and widespread dabbling duck in the family Anatidae. Taxonomy The gadwall was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. DNA studies have shown that it is a sister species with the falcated duck; the two are closely related to the three species of wigeons, and all of them have been assigned to the genus '' Mareca''. There are two subspecies: * ''M. s. strepera'', the common gadwall, described by Linnaeus, is the nominate subspecies. * ''M. s. couesi'', Coues's gadwall, extinct 1874, was formerly found only on Teraina, a coral atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The specific name ''strepera'' is Late Latin for "noisy". The etymology of the word ''gadwall'' is not known, but the name has been in use since 1666. Description The gadwall is long with a wingspan. The male is slightly larger than the female, weighing on average against her . The breeding male is patterned grey, with ...
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Northern Pintail
The pintail or northern pintail (''Anas acuta'') is a duck species with wide geographic Range (biology), distribution that breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and North America. It is bird migration, migratory and winters south of its breeding range as far as the equator. Unusually for a bird with such a large range, it has no geographical subspecies, although the possibly conspecific duck Eaton's pintail is considered to be a separate species. This is a large duck, and the long central tail feathers of the male give the species its English and scientific names. Both sexes have blue-grey bills and grey legs and feet. The drake is more striking, with a thin white stripe running from the back of its chocolate-coloured head down its neck to its mostly white underparts. The drake also has attractive grey, brown, and black markings on its back and sides. The hen's plumage is more subtle and subdued, with drab brown feathers similar to those of other fe ...
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Pacific Black Duck
The Pacific black duck (''Anas superciliosa''), commonly known as the PBD, is a dabbling duck found in much of Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and many islands in the southwestern Pacific, reaching to the Caroline Islands in the north and French Polynesia in the east. It is usually called the grey duck in New Zealand, where it is also known by its Māori name, . Taxonomy The Pacific black duck was Species description, formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's ''Systema Naturae''. He placed it with all the other ducks, geese and swans in the genus ''Anas'' and coined the binomial nomenclature, binomial name ''Anas superciliosa''. Gmelin based his description on the "Supercilious duck" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham (ornithologist), John Latham in his ''A General Synopsis of Birds''. The naturalist Joseph Banks had provided Latham with a ...
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Secondary Wing Feather
Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those on the tail are called rectrices ( or ), singular rectrix (). The primary function of the flight feathers is to aid in the generation of both thrust and lift, thereby enabling flight. The flight feathers of some birds perform additional functions, generally associated with territorial displays, courtship rituals or feeding methods. In some species, these feathers have developed into long showy plumes used in visual courtship displays, while in others they create a sound during display flights. Tiny serrations on the leading edge of their remiges help owls to fly silently (and therefore hunt more successfully), while the extra-stiff rectrices of woodpeckers help them to brace against tree trunks as they hammer on them. Even flightless birds still reta ...
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Bronze-winged Duck
The bronze-winged duck (''Speculanas specularis'') also known as the spectacled duck, is a dabbling duck and the sole member of its genus ''Speculanas''. It is often placed in ''Anas'' with most other dabbling ducks, but its closest relative is either the crested duck or the Brazilian duck, which likewise form monotypic genera. Together they belong to a South American lineage which diverged early from the other dabbling ducks and may include the steamer ducks. Named after the "bronze" speculum this species is also known as "pato perro" or "dog-duck" after the harsh barking call of the female. The bronze-winged duck lives among forested rivers and fast-flowing streams on the lower slopes of the South American Andes, in central and southern Chile and adjacent parts of Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest cou ...
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