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Orange-bellied Fruit Dove
The orange-bellied fruit dove (''Ptilinopus iozonus'') is a small (21 cm in length) pigeon with mainly green plumage, distinguished by a large orange patch on the lower breast and belly, a small lilac shoulder patch, pale yellow undertail coverts, and a grey terminal band on the tail. Taxonomy and systematics Subspecies * ''P. i. humeralis'' – Wallace, 1862: * ''P. i. jobiensis'' – Schlegel, 1873: * ''P. i. pseudohumeralis'' – Rand, 1938: * ''P. i. finschi'' – Mayr, 1931: * ''P. i. iozonus'' – Gray, 1858: Distribution and habitat The dove is found in New Guinea, the Aru Islands and western Papuan islands where it inhabits lowland rainforest, secondary forest and mangroves. It has been recorded from Boigu Island, Queensland, Australian territory in northern Torres Strait. Behaviour Feeding The dove eats the fruit from forest trees, mainly Ficus, figs. Breeding The dove lays a single egg on a platform of small sticks high in a forest tree. References [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Robert Gray
George Robert Gray (8 July 1808 – 6 May 1872) was an English zoology, zoologist and author, and head of the Ornithology, ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum, London for forty-one years. He was the younger brother of the zoologist John Edward Gray and the son of the botanist Samuel Frederick Gray. George Gray's most important publication was his ''Genera of Birds'' (1844–49), illustrated by David William Mitchell and Joseph Wolf, which included 46,000 references. Biography He was bornon 8 July 1808 in Little Chelsea, London, to Samuel Frederick Gray, naturalist and pharmacologist, and Elizabeth (née Forfeit), his wife. He was educated at Merchant Taylor's School. Gray started at the British Museum as Assistant Keeper of the Zoology Branch in 1831. He began by cataloguing insects, and published an ''Entomology of Australia'' (1833) and contributed the entomogical section to an English edition of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pigeon
Columbidae is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with small heads, relatively short necks and slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They feed largely on plant matter, feeding on seeds ( granivory), fruit ( frugivory), and foliage ( folivory). In colloquial English, the smaller species tend to be called "doves", and the larger ones "pigeons", although the distinction is not consistent, and there is no scientific separation between them. Historically, the common names for these birds involve a great deal of variation. The bird most commonly referred to as "pigeon" is the domestic pigeon, descendant of the wild rock dove, which is a common inhabitant of cities as the feral pigeon. Columbidae contains 51 genera divided into 353 species. The family occurs worldwide, often in close proximity to humans, but the greatest diversity is in the Indomalayan and Australasi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Mainland Australia, Australia by the wide Torres Strait, though both landmasses lie on the same continental shelf, and were united during episodes of low sea level in the Pleistocene glaciations as the combined landmass of Sahul. Numerous smaller islands are located to the west and east. The island's name was given by Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez during his maritime expedition of 1545 due to the perceived resemblance of the indigenous peoples of the island to those in the Guinea (region), African region of Guinea. The eastern half of the island is the major land mass of the nation of Papua New Guinea. The western half, known as Western New Guinea, forms a part of Indonesia and is organized as the provinces of Pap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aru Islands
Aru or ARU may refer to: Education * Alpha Rho Upsilon, a defunct fraternity in the United States * Anglia Ruskin University, a university in England * Ardhi University, a Tanzanian public university Places * Aru Islands Regency, a group of islands and the regency in the Moluccas * Aru, Democratic Republic of Congo, a town in Ituri province * Aru, Harju County, village in Kuusalu Parish, Harju County, Estonia * Aru, Saare County, village in Saaremaa Parish, Saare County, Estonia * Aru, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, village in Gachsaran County, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, Iran * Aru, Basht, village in Basht County, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, Iran * Aru, Damavand, village in Damavand County, Tehran Province, Iran * Aru, Firuzkuh, village in Firuzkuh County, Tehran Province, Iran * Aru, Jammu and Kashmir, village in India * Aruba, IOC and UNDP country code ARU Sports * Fabio Aru, Italian cyclist * Army Rugby Union, organizational body for rugby union i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropical rainforests or temperate rainforests, but other types have been described. Estimates vary from 40% to 75% of all biotic community, biotic species being Indigenous (ecology), indigenous to the rainforests. There may be many millions of species of plants, insects and microorganisms still undiscovered in tropical rainforests. Tropical rainforests have been called the "jewels of the Earth" and the "medicine chest (idiom), world's largest pharmacy", because over one quarter of natural medicines have been discovered there. Rainforests as well as endemic rainforest species are rapidly disappearing due to #Deforestation, deforestation, the resulting habitat loss and air pollution, pollution of the atmosphere. Definition Rainforests are cha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mangrove
A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen and remove salt, allowing them to tolerate conditions that kill most plants. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse due to convergent evolution in several plant families. They occur worldwide in the tropics and subtropics and even some temperate coastal areas, mainly between latitudes 30° N and 30° S, with the greatest mangrove area within 5° of the equator. Mangrove plant families first appeared during the Late Cretaceous to Paleocene epochs and became widely distributed in part due to the plate tectonics, movement of tectonic plates. The oldest known fossils of Nypa fruticans, mangrove palm date to 75 million years ago. Mangroves are salt-tolerant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boigu Island, Queensland
Boigu Island (also known as Malu Kiyay or Malu Kiwai) is the most northerly inhabited island of Queensland and of Australia. It is part of the Top Western group of the Torres Strait Islands, which lie in the Torres Strait separating Cape York Peninsula from the island of New Guinea. The mainland of Papua New Guinea is only away from Boigu. Boigu has an area of . Boigu Island is also the name of the town and locality on the island within the Torres Strait Island Region. Boigu is predominantly inhabited by indigenous Torres Strait Islanders. In the , the population of the island was 199, of whom 189 people or 95% of the population identified as Indigenous Australians. It is the largest and only inhabited island of the Talbot Islands group (). Language and affiliations The language of Boigu is that of the Western and Central Islands of the Torres Strait. The specific dialect is Kalau Kawau Ya, also spoken on the islands of Dauan and Saibai. The people of the three islands co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller islands. It has a total area of , making it the list of countries and dependencies by area, sixth-largest country in the world and the largest in Oceania. Australia is the world's flattest and driest inhabited continent. It is a megadiverse countries, megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and Climate of Australia, climates including deserts of Australia, deserts in the Outback, interior and forests of Australia, tropical rainforests along the Eastern states of Australia, coast. The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south-east Asia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Period, last glacial period. By the time of British settlement, Aboriginal Australians spoke 250 distinct l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torres Strait
The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes ( Kalaw Lagaw Ya#Phonology 2, [ˈzen̪ad̪ kes]), is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost extremity of the Australian mainland. To the north is the Western Province (Papua New Guinea), Western Province of Papua New Guinea. It is named after the Spanish navigator Luís Vaz de Torres, who sailed through the strait in 1606. History Pre-colonisation The islands of the Torres Strait have been inhabited by humans for at least 2,500 years and possibly much longer. The various Torres Strait Islanders, Torres Strait Islander communities have a unique culture and long-standing history with the islands and nearby coastlines. Their maritime-based trade and interactions with the Papuans to the north and the Australian Aborigines, Australian Aboriginal communities have maintained a steady cultural diffusion among the th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ficus
''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family (biology), family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The common fig (''F. carica'') is a temperate species native to southwest Asia and the Mediterranean region (from Afghanistan to Portugal), which has been widely cultivated from ancient times for its fruit, also referred to as figs. The fruit of most other species are also edible though they are usually of only local economic importance or eaten as bushfood. However, they are extremely important food resources for wildlife. Figs are also of considerable cultural importance throughout the tropics, both as objects of worship and for their many practical uses. Description ''Ficus'' is a pantropical genus of trees, shrubs, and vines occupying a wide variety of ecological niches; most a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ptilinopus
The fruit doves, also known as fruit pigeons, are a genus (''Ptilinopus'') of birds in the pigeon and dove family (Columbidae). These colourful, frugivorous doves are found in forests and woodlands in Southeast Asia and Oceania. It is a large genus with over 50 species, some threatened or already extinct. Taxonomy The genus ''Ptilinopus'' was introduced in 1825 by the English naturalist William Swainson with the rose-crowned fruit dove (''Ptilinopus regina'') as the type species. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek words meaning "down feather" with meaning "foot". The many species of this genus can be further grouped by geography and by certain shared characteristics. The fruit doves of the Sunda Islands and northern Australia, such as the pink-headed fruit dove and banded fruit dove, have comparatively longer tails than other species, and are notable for their solid colouration on the head, neck and breast, with a black band across the belly. Another grouping can be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
