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Altai Falcon
The Altai falcon (''Falco cherrug altaicus''?) is a large falcon of questionable taxonomic position. It is often considered to be a subspecies of the saker falcon (''Falco cherrug''). It used to have a high reputation among Central Asian falconry, falconers. It is uncertain whether the bird is a saker subspecies or a hybrid. Distribution and taxonomy The Altai falcon breeds in a relatively small area of Central Asia across the Altai Mountains, Altai and Sayan Mountains. This area overlaps with the much larger breeding area of the saker falcon ''(Falco cherrug)''. It appears that Altai falcons are either natural hybrids between sakers and gyrfalcons ''(Falco rusticolus)'', or rather the descendants of such rare hybrids backcrossing into the large population of sakers. So far, molecular genetic studies cannot prove or falsify the hybrid hypothesis. Gyrfalcons are rare winter vagrants to the Altai falcon's range. The high altitude cold grasslands of the region constitute habitat i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Menzbier
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Menzbier (Russian: Михаил Александрович Мензбир; 23 October 1855 – 10 October 1935) was a Russian ornithologist. Based in Moscow, he was a founding member of Russia's first ornithological body, the Kessler Ornithological Society. One of his major areas of work was on the taxonomy of birds of prey. Menzbier was a professor of comparative anatomy at Moscow University from 1886 until 1911, when he resigned in protest against the oppressive treatment of students there. Following the Russian Revolution in 1917 he became Rector of the University. As well as being a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Menzbier was elected an honorary member of the British Ornithologists' Union and the Deutsche Ornithologen-Gesellschaft, and a corresponding member of the Zoological Society of London, of the Société zoologique de France and the American Ornithologists' Union. He is commemorated in the names of Menzbier's marmot and the Menzbi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hierofalco
The hierofalcons are four closely related species of falcon which make up the subgenus ''Hierofalco'': * Lanner falcon, ''Falco biarmicus'' * Laggar falcon, ''Falco jugger'' * Saker falcon, ''Falco cherrug'' * Gyrfalcon, ''Falco rusticolus'' The black falcon of Australia is occasionally considered allied to the hierofalcons: indeed it seems fairly close to them (Wink et al. 2004). They represent members of their genus which are similar to species like the peregrine falcon in outward appearance, but usually with more phaeomelanins which impart reddish or brown colors, and generally more strongly patterned plumage reminiscent of hawks. Their undersides usually have a lengthwise pattern of dark blotches, lines or arrowhead marks. They hunt usually in level flight, more like goshawks than peregrines with their dive attack or hobby (bird), hobbies with their acrobatic pursuits. Recent DNA sequence data studies have confirmed that the hierofalcons are a monophyletic group—and, inci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petr Sushkin
Petr Petrovich Sushkin (russian: Петр Петрович Сушкин; 27 January 1868 – 17 September 1928) was a Russian ornithologist who specialised on comparative anatomy, and evolution of birds, particularly of the birds of prey. Sushkin was born in Tula, Russia, in a merchant family. He studied at the Tula Classical Gymnasium (1877-1885) graduating with a silver medal before going on to Moscow University in 1885. He graduated in 1890 and joined the staff of the Leningrad Zoological Museum in 1898. He studied ornithology under Mikhail Menzbier and his dissertation in 1897 was on the morphology of the skeleton of birds, specifically of the kestrel. He conducted surveys in the Ufa province in 1891 and Kazakhstan in 1898. His studies on the birds of southeastern Russia, Siberia and the Altai Mountains were published in several monographs. Sushkin visited European museums from 1899 to 1900 and worked on his doctoral dissertation on the birds of prey. He became a professor at M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species have subspecies, but for those that do there must be at least two. Subspecies is abbreviated subsp. or ssp. and the singular and plural forms are the same ("the subspecies is" or "the subspecies are"). In zoology, under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, the subspecies is the only taxonomic rank below that of species that can receive a name. In botany and mycology, under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, other infraspecific ranks, such as variety, may be named. In bacteriology and virology, under standard bacterial nomenclature and virus nomenclature, there are recommendations but not strict requirements for recognizing other important infraspecific ranks. A taxonomist decides whether ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saker Falcon
The saker falcon (''Falco cherrug'') is a large species of falcon. This species breeds from central Europe eastwards across the Palearctic to Manchuria. It is mainly migratory except in the southernmost parts of its range, wintering in Ethiopia, the Arabian peninsula, northern Pakistan and western China. The saker falcon is the national bird of Hungary, the United Arab Emirates, and Mongolia. Taxonomy and systematics This species belongs to the close-knit hierofalcon complex. In this group, there is ample evidence for rampant hybridization and incomplete lineage sorting which confounds analyses of DNA sequence data to a massive extent; molecular studies with small sample sizes can simply not be expected to yield reliable conclusions in the entire hierofalcon group. The radiation of the entire living diversity of hierofalcons seems to have taken place in the Eemian interglacial at the start of the Late Pleistocene, a mere 130,000–115,000 years ago; the saker falcon represents ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Falconry
Falconry is the hunting of wild animals in their natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. Small animals are hunted; squirrels and rabbits often fall prey to these birds. Two traditional terms are used to describe a person involved in falconry: a "falconer" flies a falcon; an "austringer" (Old French origin) flies a hawk (''Accipiter'', some buteos and similar) or an eagle ('' Aquila'' or similar). In modern falconry, the red-tailed hawk (''Buteo jamaicensis''), Harris's hawk (''Parabuteo unicinctus''), and the peregrine falcon (''Falco perigrinus'') are some of the more commonly used birds of prey. The practice of hunting with a conditioned falconry bird is also called "hawking" or "gamehawking", although the words hawking and hawker have become used so much to refer to petty traveling traders, that the terms "falconer" and "falconry" now apply to most use of trained birds of prey to catch game. Many contemporary practitioners still use these words in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Altai Mountains
The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The massif merges with the Sayan Mountains in the northeast, and gradually becomes lower in the southeast, where it merges into the high plateau of the Gobi Desert. It spans from about 45° to 52° N and from about 84° to 99° E. The region is inhabited by a sparse but ethnically diverse population, including Russian people, Russians, Kazakh people, Kazakhs, Altai people, Altais, Mongol people, Mongols and Volga Germans, though predominantly represented by indigenous ethnic minorities of semi-nomadic stock. The local economy is based on bovine, sheep, horse animal husbandry, husbandry, hunting, agriculture, forestry, and mining. The Altaic languages, Altaic language family takes its name from this mountain range. Etymology and modern names ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sayan Mountains
The Sayan Mountains (russian: Саяны ''Sajany''; mn, Соёны нуруу, ''Soyonï nurû''; otk, 𐰚𐰇𐰏𐰢𐰤, Kögmen) are a mountain range in southern Siberia, Russia (Buryatia, Irkutsk Oblast, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Tuva Republic and Khakassia) and northern Mongolia. In the past, it served as the border between Mongolia and Russia. The Sayan Mountains' towering peaks and cool lakes southwest of Tuva give rise to the tributaries that merge to become one of Siberia's major rivers, the Yenisei River, which flows north over 3,400 kilometres (2000 mi) to the Arctic Ocean. This is a protected and isolated area, having been kept closed by the Soviet Union since 1944. Geography Western Sayan At 92°E the Western Sayan system is pierced by the Ulug-Khem (russian: Улуг-Хем) or Upper Yenisei River, and at 106°, at its eastern extremity, it terminates above the depression of the Selenga-Orkhon Valley. It stretches almost at a right angle to the Western Sayan fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gyrfalcon
The gyrfalcon ( or ) (), the largest of the falcon species, is a bird of prey. The abbreviation gyr is also used. It breeds on Arctic coasts and tundra, and the islands of northern North America and the Eurosiberian region. It is mainly a resident there also, but some gyrfalcons bird migration, disperse more widely after the breeding season, or in winter. Individual Vagrancy (biology), vagrancy can take birds for long distances. Its plumage varies with location, with birds being coloured from all-white to dark brown. These colour variations are called Polymorphism (biology), morphs. Like other falcons, it shows sexual dimorphism, with the female much larger than the male. For centuries, the gyrfalcon has been valued as a Falconry, hunting bird. Typical prey includes the ptarmigan and waterfowl, which it may take in flight; it also takes fish and mammals. Taxonomy and etymology The gyrfalcon was Species description, formally described by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
György Almásy
György Ede Almásy de Zsadány et Törökszentmiklós ( Felsőlendva (now Grad, Slovenia), 11 August 1867 – Graz, 23 September 1933) was a Hungarian Asiologist, traveler, zoologist and ethnographer. His son, László Almásy, was an aviator, Afrologist and soldier. Life His father, Ede Almásy, was a founding member of the Hungarian Geographical Society. György Almásy studied for a law doctorate at the University of Graz, as customary for his status in society. After university he worked in Budapest as a civil servant, but after leaving his profession he returned home to manage his estate. He was interested from the beginning in zoology and, within that, ornithology. He published a book with István Chernel as co-editor. His first more serious journey was taken to the Danube delta to study ornithology. On 3 December 1891 he married Ilona Pittani, by whom he had three children: Györgyike, born in Borostyánkõ on 25 September 1892 and married to Antal Gyömörey de Gyöm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Falco (genus)
Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene. Adult falcons have thin, tapered wings, which enable them to fly at high speed and change direction rapidly. Fledgling falcons, in their first year of flying, have longer flight feathers, which make their configuration more like that of a general-purpose bird such as a broad wing. This makes flying easier while learning the exceptional skills required to be effective hunters as adults. The falcons are the largest genus in the Falconinae subfamily of Falconidae, which itself also includes another subfamily comprising caracaras and a few other species. All these birds kill with their beaks, using a tomial "tooth" on the side of their beaks—unlike the hawks, eagles, and other birds of prey in the Accipitridae, which use their feet. The largest falcon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Falconry
Falconry is the hunting of wild animals in their natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. Small animals are hunted; squirrels and rabbits often fall prey to these birds. Two traditional terms are used to describe a person involved in falconry: a "falconer" flies a falcon; an "austringer" (Old French origin) flies a hawk (''Accipiter'', some buteos and similar) or an eagle ('' Aquila'' or similar). In modern falconry, the red-tailed hawk (''Buteo jamaicensis''), Harris's hawk (''Parabuteo unicinctus''), and the peregrine falcon (''Falco perigrinus'') are some of the more commonly used birds of prey. The practice of hunting with a conditioned falconry bird is also called "hawking" or "gamehawking", although the words hawking and hawker have become used so much to refer to petty traveling traders, that the terms "falconer" and "falconry" now apply to most use of trained birds of prey to catch game. Many contemporary practitioners still use these words in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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