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White-winged Crossbill
The two-barred crossbill or white-winged crossbill (''Loxia leucoptera'') is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It breeds in the coniferous forests of North America and the Palearctic. Taxonomy The two-barred crossbill was 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 the crossbills in the genus ''Loxia'' and coined the binomial name ''Loxia leucoptera''. Gmelin specified the locality as Hudson Bay and New York. The specific epithet ''leucoptera'' is from Ancient Greek ''leukopteros'' meaning "white-winged" (''leukos'' means "white" and ''pteron'' means "wing"). Gmelin based his account on the "white winged crossbill" that had been described in 1783 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his multi-volume work ''A General Synopsis of Birds''. Latham had examined a specimen in the Leverian Museum in London. Two subspecies are recogn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johann Friedrich Gmelin
Johann Friedrich Gmelin (8 August 1748 – 1 November 1804) was a German natural history, naturalist, chemist, botanist, entomologist, herpetologist, and malacologist. Education Johann Friedrich Gmelin was born as the eldest son of Philipp Friedrich Gmelin in 1748 in Tübingen. He studied medicine under his father at University of Tübingen and graduated with a Master's degree in 1768, with a thesis entitled: ', defended under the presidency of Ferdinand Christoph Oetinger, whom he thanks with the words '. Career In 1769, Gmelin became an adjunct professor of medicine at University of Tübingen. In 1773, he became professor of philosophy and adjunct professor of medicine at University of Göttingen. He was promoted to full professor of medicine and professor of chemistry, botany, and mineralogy in 1778. He died in 1804 in Göttingen and is buried there in the Albanifriedhof, Albani cemetery with his wife Rosine Louise Gmelin (1755–1828, née Schott). Johann Friedrich Gm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leverian Collection
The Leverian collection was a natural history and ethnographic collection assembled by Ashton Lever. It was noted for the content it acquired from the voyages of Captain James Cook. For three decades it was displayed in London, being broken up by auction in 1806. The first public location of the collection was the Holophusikon, also known as the Leverian Museum, at Leicester House, Westminster, Leicester House, on Leicester Square, from 1775 to 1786. After it passed from Lever's ownership, it was displayed for nearly twenty years more at the purpose-built Blackfriars Rotunda#James Parkinson and the Leverian collection, Blackfriars Rotunda just across the Thames, sometimes called Parkinson's Museum for its subsequent owner, James Parkinson (c. 1730–1813). At Alkrington Lever collected fossils, shells, and animals (birds, insects, reptiles, fish, monkeys) for many years, accumulating a large collection at his home at Alkrington, near Manchester. Admittance to the collection was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east. Europe shares the landmass of Eurasia with Asia, and of Afro-Eurasia with both Africa and Asia. Europe is commonly considered to be Boundaries between the continents#Asia and Europe, separated from Asia by the Drainage divide, watershed of the Ural Mountains, the Ural (river), Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Greater Caucasus, the Black Sea, and the waterway of the Bosporus, Bosporus Strait. "Europe" (pp. 68–69); "Asia" (pp. 90–91): "A commonly accepted division between Asia and Europe ... is formed by the Ural Mountains, Ural River, Caspian Sea, Caucasus Mountains, and the Black Sea with its outlets, the Bosporus and Dardanelles." Europe covers approx. , or 2% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface (6.8% of Earth's land area), making it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alaska
Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the northernmost, westernmost, and easternmost (the Aleutian Islands cross the 180th meridian into the eastern hemisphere) state in the United States. It borders the Canadian territory of Yukon and the province of British Columbia to the east. It shares a western maritime border, in the Bering Strait, with Russia's Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas of the Arctic Ocean lie to the north, and the Pacific Ocean lies to the south. Technically, it is a semi-exclave of the U.S., and is the largest exclave in the world. Alaska is the largest U.S. state by area, comprising more total area than the following three largest states of Texas, California, and Montana combined, and is the seventh-largest subnational division i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hispaniolan Pine
''Pinus occidentalis'', also known as the Hispaniolan pine, Hispaniola pine or , is a pine tree endemic to the island of Hispaniola (split between the Dominican Republic and Haiti). Ecology It is the eponymous species of the Hispaniolan pine forests ecosystem, in which it constitutes a majority of the biomass present. Another endemic species, the Hispaniolan crossbill The Hispaniolan crossbill (''Loxia megaplaga'') is a crossbill that is endemic to the island of Hispaniola (split between Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and the only representative of the ''Loxia'' genus in the Caribbean. Taxonomy & evoluti ... (''Loxia megaplaga''), feeds almost exclusively on the cones of ''P. occidentalis''. References occidentalis Flora of the Dominican Republic Flora of Haiti Taxa named by Olof Swartz Endemic flora of Hispaniola {{conifer-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hispaniolan Crossbill
The Hispaniolan crossbill (''Loxia megaplaga'') is a crossbill that is endemic to the island of Hispaniola (split between Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and the only representative of the ''Loxia'' genus in the Caribbean. Taxonomy & evolution It was formerly regarded as conspecific with the two-barred crossbill (''L. leucoptera''), from which it is now assumed it evolved. There is general acceptance that the origin of ''L. megaplaga'' can be traced to southern populations of ''L. leucoptera'' that were stranded on the highest pine-forested mountains in Hispaniola (the highest in all of the Caribbean) when the glaciers and vast temperate coniferous forests started receding northward after end of the last glacial period at the beginning of the Holocene, some 10,000 years ago. The distance that now separates both species is of thousands of kilometers (from the Caribbean to the northern U.S. and Canada), making the story of the Hispaniolan crossbill an interesting one from an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caribbean
The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America to the west, and South America to the south, it comprises numerous List of Caribbean islands, islands, cays, islets, reefs, and banks. It includes the Lucayan Archipelago, Greater Antilles, and Lesser Antilles of the West Indies; the Quintana Roo Municipalities of Quintana Roo#Municipalities, islands and Districts of Belize#List, Belizean List of islands of Belize, islands of the Yucatán Peninsula; and the Bay Islands Department#Islands, Bay Islands, Miskito Cays, Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina, Corn Islands, and San Blas Islands of Central America. It also includes the coastal areas on the Mainland, continental mainland of the Americas bordering the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hispaniola
Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of Caribbean islands by area, land area, after Geography of Cuba, Cuba. The island is Dominican Republic–Haiti border, divided into two separate Sovereign state, sovereign countries: the Spanish-speaking Geography of the Dominican Republic, Dominican Republic () to the east and the French language, French and Haitian Creole–speaking Geography of Haiti, Haiti () to the west. The only other divided island in the Caribbean is Saint Martin (island), Saint Martin, which is shared between France () and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Netherlands (). At the time of the European arrival of Christopher Columbus, Hispaniola was home to the Ciguayo language, Ciguayo, Macorix language, Macorix, and Taíno Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, native pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scottish Crossbill
The Scottish crossbill (''Loxia scotica'') is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It is endemic to the Caledonian Forests of Scotland, and is the only terrestrial vertebrate species endemic to the United Kingdom. The Scottish crossbill was confirmed as a unique species in August 2006, on the basis of having a distinctive bird song. The genus name ''Loxia'' is from Ancient Greek ''loxos'', 'crosswise', and ''scotica'' is Latin for 'Scottish'. The Scottish Gaelic name for a crossbill is ''Cam-ghob'', which means 'crooked beak'.' History and current status The British Ornithologists Union first classed the Scottish crossbill as a separate and distinct species in 1980, but some ornithologists believed there was insufficient scientific research for its status. It was considered to be possibly a race of either the red crossbill or the parrot crossbill, both of which also occur in the Caledonian Forest. RSPB research showed that Scottish crossbills have quite dis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parrot Crossbill
The parrot crossbill (''Loxia pytyopsittacus'') is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It breeds in pine forests in northern and northeastern Europe. Taxonomy The parrot crossbill was formerly described in 1793 by the German naturalist Moritz Balthasar Borkhausen under the binomial name ''Loxia pytyopsittacus''. The type locality was designated as Sweden by Ernst Hartert. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. The genus name ''Loxia'' is from Ancient Greek ''loxos'' meaning "crosswise"; the specific epithet ''pytyopsittacus'' combines ''pitus, pituos'' meaning "pine" with ''psittakos'' meaning "parrot''.'' The crossbills are characterised by the mandibles crossing at their tips, which gives the group its English name. Some pine-feeding populations currently assigned to red crossbill in southern Europe may possibly be better referred to either this species or alternatively to new species in their own right, but as yet, research into them i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Crossbill
The red crossbill or common crossbill (''Loxia curvirostra'') is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. Crossbills have distinctive mandibles, crossed at the tips, which enable them to extract seeds from conifer cones and other fruits. Adults are often brightly coloured, with red or orange males and green or yellow females, but there is wide variation in beak size and shape, and call types, leading to different classifications of variants, some of which have been named as subspecies. The species is known as "red crossbill" in North America and "common crossbill" in Europe. Description Crossbills are characterized by the mandibles crossing at their tips, which gives the group its English name. Using their crossed mandibles for leverage, crossbills are able to efficiently separate the scales of conifer cones and extract the seeds on which they feed. Adult males tend to be red or orange in colour, and females green or yellow, but there is much variation. Identif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Covert Feather
A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are small feathers behind the bird's eye which cover the ear opening (the ear of a bird has no external features). Tail coverts The uppertail and undertail coverts cover the base of the tail feathers above and below. Sometimes these coverts are more specialised. The "tail" of a peacock is made of elongated uppertail coverts. Wing coverts The upperwing coverts fall into two groups: those on the inner wing, which overlay the secondary flight feathers, known as the secondary coverts, and those on the outer wing, which overlay the primary flight feathers, the primary coverts. Within each group, the feathers form a number of rows. The feathers of the outermost, largest, row are termed greater (primary-/secondary-) coverts; those in the next row are the median (primar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
