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Condor
Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua ''kuntur''. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere. They are: * The Andean condor (''Vultur gryphus''), which inhabits the Andean mountains. * The California condor (''Gymnogyps californianus''), currently restricted to the western coastal mountains of the United States and Mexico and the northern desert mountains of Arizona in the United States. Taxonomy Condors are part of the family Cathartidae which contains the New World vultures, whereas the 15 species of Old World vultures are in the family Accipitridae, that also includes hawks, eagles, and kites. The New World and Old World vultures evolved from different ancestors. They both are carrion-eaters and the two groups are similar in appearance due to convergent evolution. Description Both condors are very large broad-winged soaring birds, the Andean condor being ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
California Condor
The California condor (''Gymnogyps californianus'') is a New World vulture and the largest North American land bird. It became extinct in the wild in 1987 when all remaining wild individuals were captured, but has since been reintroduced to northern Arizona and southern Utah (including the Grand Canyon area and Zion National Park), the coastal mountains of California, and northern Baja California in Mexico. Although four other fossil members are known, it is the only surviving member of the genus ''Gymnogyps''. The species is listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as Critically Endangered, and similarly considered ''Critically Imperiled'' by NatureServe. The plumage is black with patches of white on the underside of the wings; the head is largely bald, with skin color ranging from gray on young birds to yellow and bright orange on breeding adults. Its wingspan is the widest of any North American bird, and its weight of up to nearly equals that of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andean Condor
The Andean condor (''Vultur gryphus'') is a giant South American Cathartid vulture and is the only member of the genus ''Vultur''. Found in the Andes mountains and adjacent Pacific coasts of western South America, the Andean condor is the largest flying bird in the world by combined measurement of weight and wingspan. It has a maximum wingspan of and weight of . It is generally considered as the largest bird of prey in the world. It is a large black vulture with a ruff of white feathers surrounding the base of the neck and, especially in the male, large white patches on the wings. The head and neck are nearly featherless, and are a dull red color, which may flush and therefore change color in response to the bird's emotional state. In the male, there is a wattle on the neck and a large, dark red comb or caruncle on the crown of the head. The female condor is smaller than the male, an exception to the rule among birds of prey. The condor is primarily a scavenger, feeding on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Condor Flying Over The Colca Canyon In Peru
Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua ''kuntur''. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere. They are: * The Andean condor (''Vultur gryphus''), which inhabits the Andean mountains. * The California condor (''Gymnogyps californianus''), currently restricted to the western coastal mountains of the United States and Mexico and the northern desert mountains of Arizona in the United States. Taxonomy Condors are part of the family Cathartidae which contains the New World vultures, whereas the 15 species of Old World vultures are in the family Accipitridae, that also includes hawks, eagles, and kites. The New World and Old World vultures evolved from different ancestors. They both are carrion-eaters and the two groups are similar in appearance due to convergent evolution. Description Both condors are very large broad-winged soaring birds, the Andean condor being shor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New World Vulture
The New World vulture or condor family, Cathartidae, contains seven extant species in five genera. It includes five extant vultures and two extant condors found in warm and temperate areas of the Americas. The "New World" vultures were widespread in both the Old World and North America during the Neogene. Old World vultures and New World vultures do not form a single clade, but the two groups are similar in appearance due to convergent evolution. Vultures are scavenging birds, feeding mostly from carcasses of dead animals without apparent ill effects. Bacteria in the food source, pathogenic to other vertebrates, dominate the vulture's gut flora, and vultures benefit from the bacterial breakdown of carrion tissue. Some species of New World vulture have a good sense of smell, whereas Old World vultures find carcasses exclusively by sight. A particular characteristic of many vultures is a bald head, devoid of feathers. Taxonomy and systematics The New World vultures compr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the bee hummingbird to the ostrich. There are about ten thousand living species, more than half of which are passerine, or "perching" birds. Birds have whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gymnogyps
''Gymnogyps'' is a genus of New World vultures in the family Cathartidae. There are five known species in the genus, with only one being extant, the California condor. Fossil species *''Gymnogyps amplus'' was first described by L. H. Miller in 1911 from a broken tarsometatarsus. The species is the only condor species found in the La Brea Tar Pits' Pit 10, which fossils date to "a Holocene radiocarbon age of 9,000 years." The smaller, modern California condor may have evolved from ''G. amplus''. *''Gymnogyps howardae'' was described from the Late Pleistocene ( Lujanian) asphalt deposits known as the Talara Tar Seeps, near Talara, northwestern Peru. It lived about 126,000-12,000 years ago. *''Gymnogyps kofordi'' was described based on a right tarsometatarsus. *''Gymnogyps varonai'' is known from fossils found in the late Pleistocene to early Holocene tar seep deposits in Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colca Canyon
The Colca Canyon is a canyon of the Colca River in southern Peru, located about northwest of Arequipa. With a depth of about 1000 - 2000 m (3300 - 6600 ft) (whereas bottom is at cca 2000 m and edges are at 3000 - 4000 metres above the sea level), it is one of the deepest canyons in the world. Its length is about . The Colca Valley is a colorful Andean valley with pre-Inca rooted inhabitants, and towns founded in Spanish colonial times, still inhabited by people of the Collagua and the Cabana cultures. The local people maintain their ancestral traditions and continue to cultivate the pre-Inca stepped terraces, called andenes. It is Peru's third most-visited tourist destination with about 120,000 visitors annually. History The Quechua-speaking Cabanas, probably descended from the Wari culture, and the Aymara-speaking Colleagues, who moved to the area from the Lake Titicaca region, inhabited the valley in the pre-Inca era. The Inca probably arrived in the Colca Valley ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plumage
Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, there can be different colour morphs. The placement of feathers on a bird is not haphazard, but rather emerge in organized, overlapping rows and groups, and these are known by standardized names. Most birds moult twice a year, resulting in a breeding or ''nuptial plumage'' and a ''basic plumage''. Many ducks and some other species such as the red junglefowl have males wearing a bright nuptial plumage while breeding and a drab ''eclipse plumage'' for some months afterward. The painted bunting's juveniles have two inserted moults in their first autumn, each yielding plumage like an adult female. The first starts a few days after fledging replacing the ''juvenile plumage'' with an ''auxiliary formative plumage''; the second a month or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quechua Language
Quechua (, ; ), usually called ("people's language") in Quechuan languages, is an indigenous language family spoken by the Quechua peoples, primarily living in the Peruvian Andes. Derived from a common ancestral language, it is the most widely spoken pre-Columbian language family of the Americas, with an estimated 8–10 million speakers as of 2004.Adelaar 2004, pp. 167–168, 255. Approximately 25% (7.7 million) of Peruvians speak a Quechuan language. It is perhaps most widely known for being the main language family of the Inca Empire. The Spanish encouraged its use until the Peruvian struggle for independence of the 1780s. As a result, Quechua variants are still widely spoken today, being the co-official language of many regions and the second most spoken language family in Peru. History Quechua had already expanded across wide ranges of the central Andes long before the expansion of the Inca Empire. The Inca were one among many peoples in present-day Peru who already spok ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Bustard
The great bustard (''Otis tarda'') is a bird in the bustard family, the only member of the genus ''Otis''. It breeds in open grasslands and farmland from northern Morocco, South and Central Europe, to temperate Central and East Asia. European populations are mainly resident, but Asian populations migrate farther south in winter. It has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1996. Portugal and Spain now have about 60% of the world's population. It became extinct in Great Britain when the last bird was shot in 1832. Recent attempts to reintroduce it into England have met with some success and there is a population of 40 birds on Salisbury Plain, a British Army training area. Here the lack of public access allows them the freedom needed as a large ground-nesting bird. Taxonomy and etymology The genus ''Otis'' was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. Linnaeus placed four species in the genus but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kori Bustard
The kori bustard (''Ardeotis kori'') is the largest flying bird native to Africa. It is a member of the bustard family, which all belong to the order Otidiformes and are restricted in distribution to the Old World. It is one of the four species (ranging from Africa to India to Australia) in the large-bodied genus '' Ardeotis''. In fact, the male kori bustard may be the heaviest living animal capable of flight. This species, like most bustards, is a ground-dwelling bird and an opportunistic omnivore. Male kori bustards, which can be more than twice as heavy as the female, attempt to breed with as many females as possible and then take no part in the raising of the young. The nest is a shallow hollow in the earth, often disguised by nearby obstructive objects such as trees. Taxonomy English naturalist William John Burchell described the kori bustard in 1822. The specific epithet ''kori'' is derived from the Tswana name for this bird – ''Kgori''. Two subspecies are currently rec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carrion
Carrion () is the decaying flesh of dead animals, including human flesh. Overview Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters (or scavengers) include crows, vultures, condors, hawks, eagles, hyenas, Virginia opossum, Tasmanian devils, coyotes and Komodo dragons. Many invertebrates, such as the carrion and burying beetles, as well as maggots of calliphorid flies (such as one of the most important species in ''Calliphora vomitoria'') and flesh-flies, also eat carrion, playing an important role in recycling nitrogen and carbon in animal remains. Carrion begins to decay at the moment of the animal's death, and it will increasingly attract insects and breed bacteria. Not long after the animal has died, its body will begin to exude a foul odor caused by the presence of bacteria and the emission of cadaverine and putrescine. Some plants and fungi smell like decomposing carrion and attract insects ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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