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Anarhynchus
The wrybill or (in Māori) ngutuparore (''Anarhynchus frontalis'') is a species of plover endemic to New Zealand. It is the only species of bird in the world with a beak that is bent sideways in one direction, always to the right (in the crossbills, e.g. ''Loxia pytyopsittacus'', the tips of the upper and lower mandibles cross because they are bent sideways in opposite directions, sometimes left over right and sometimes right over left). A 2015 study found it to be within the ''Charadrius'' clade, with other New Zealand plovers its closest relatives; the nearest being the New Zealand dotterel or New Zealand plover (''Charadrius obscurus''), and then the double-banded plover or banded dotterel (''Charadrius bicinctus''). It lays its eggs among the rocks along rivers and distracts intruders by pretending to be in distress and moving away from its clutch. It is rated as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species. Taxono ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wrybill
The wrybill or (in Māori) ngutuparore (''Anarhynchus frontalis'') is a species of plover endemic to New Zealand. It is the only species of bird in the world with a beak that is bent sideways in one direction, always to the right (in the crossbills, e.g. ''Loxia pytyopsittacus'', the tips of the upper and lower mandibles cross because they are bent sideways in opposite directions, sometimes left over right and sometimes right over left). A 2015 study found it to be within the ''Charadrius'' clade, with other New Zealand plovers its closest relatives; the nearest being the New Zealand dotterel or New Zealand plover (''Charadrius obscurus''), and then the double-banded plover or banded dotterel (''Charadrius bicinctus''). It lays its eggs among the rocks along rivers and distracts intruders by pretending to be in distress and moving away from its clutch. It is rated as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species. Taxono ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wrybill Eggs 2
The wrybill or (in Māori) ngutuparore (''Anarhynchus frontalis'') is a species of plover endemic to New Zealand. It is the only species of bird in the world with a beak that is bent sideways in one direction, always to the right (in the crossbills, e.g. ''Loxia pytyopsittacus'', the tips of the upper and lower mandibles cross because they are bent sideways in opposite directions, sometimes left over right and sometimes right over left). A 2015 study found it to be within the ''Charadrius'' clade, with other New Zealand plovers its closest relatives; the nearest being the New Zealand dotterel or New Zealand plover (''Charadrius obscurus''), and then the double-banded plover or banded dotterel (''Charadrius bicinctus''). It lays its eggs among the rocks along rivers and distracts intruders by pretending to be in distress and moving away from its clutch. It is rated as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species. Taxono ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Double-banded Plover
The double-banded plover (''Charadrius bicinctus''), known as the banded dotterel or pohowera in New Zealand, is a species of bird in the plover family. Two subspecies are recognised: the nominate ''Charadrius bicinctus bicinctus'', which breeds throughout New Zealand, including the Chatham Islands, and ''Charadrius bicinctus exilis'', which breeds in New Zealand's subantarctic Auckland Islands. Taxonomy A 2015 study found its closest relatives to be two other plovers found in New Zealand, the New Zealand dotterel (''Charadrius obscurus'', also called the New Zealand plover) and the wrybill (''Anarhynchus frontalis'', which the study found to be in the ''Charadrius'' clade). Description The double-banded plover is distinguished by a dark, grey-brown back with a distinctive white chest and a thin band of black situated just below the neck running across the chest along with a larger brown band underneath. During breeding season, these bands are more dominantly shown on the males ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plover
Plovers ( , ) are a widely distributed group of wading birds belonging to the subfamily Charadriinae. Description There are about 66 species in the subfamily, most of them called "plover" or "dotterel". The closely related lapwing subfamily, Vanellinae, comprises about 20 species. Plovers are found throughout the world, with the exception of the Sahara and the polar regions, and are characterised by relatively short bills. They hunt by sight, rather than by feel as longer-billed waders like snipes do. They feed mainly on insects, worms or other invertebrates, depending on the habitat, which are obtained by a run-and-pause technique, rather than the steady probing of some other wader groups. Plovers engage in false brooding, a type of distraction display. Examples include pretending to change position or to sit on an imaginary nest site. Species list in taxonomic sequence The International Ornithological Committee (IOC) recognizes these 45 species of plovers and dotter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemic Birds Of New Zealand
Many of New Zealand's birds are endemic to the country, that is, they are not found in any other country. Approximately 71% of the bird species breeding in New Zealand before humans arrived are widely accepted as being endemic. There is also a smaller group of species are not fully endemic, but are breeding endemic, in that they breed only in New Zealand, but migrate or range elsewhere. Population status symbols are those of the Red List published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.''The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species''. Version 2017-1 . Accessed 23 May 2017 The symbols and their meanings, in increasing order of peril, are: = least concern = near threatened = vulnerable = endangered = critically endangered = extinct Endemic Bird Areas BirdLife International has defined the following Endemic Bird Areas (EBAs) in New Zealand: * Auckland Islands * Chatham Islands * North Island of New Zealand * South Island of New Zealand In addition the follo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area, covering . New Zealand is about east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland. The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and then developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beak
The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals. A beak is used for eating, preening, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food, courtship, and feeding young. The terms ''beak'' and ''rostrum'' are also used to refer to a similar mouth part in some ornithischians, pterosaurs, cetaceans, dicynodonts, anuran tadpoles, monotremes (i.e. echidnas and platypuses, which have a beak-like structure), sirens, pufferfish, billfishes and cephalopods. Although beaks vary significantly in size, shape, color and texture, they share a similar underlying structure. Two bony projections – the upper and lower mandibles – are covered with a thin keratinized layer of epidermis known as the rhamphotheca. In most species, two holes called ''nares'' lead to the respiratory system. Etymology Although the word "beak" was, in the past, generally restricted to the sharpened bills o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lupin
''Lupinus'', commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet etc., is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centers of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centers occur in North Africa and the Mediterranean. They are widely cultivated, both as a food source and as ornamental plants, but are invasive to some areas. Description The species are mostly herbaceous perennial plants tall, but some are annual plants and a few are shrubs up to tall. An exception is the ''chamis de monte'' (''Lupinus jaimehintoniana'') of Oaxaca in Mexico, which is a tree up to tall. Lupins have soft green to grey-green leaves which may be coated in silvery hairs, often densely so. The leaf blades are usually palmately divided into five to 28 leaflets, or reduced to a single leaflet in a few species of the southeastern United States and eastern South America. The flowers are produced in dense or open whorls on an erect spik ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broom
A broom (also known in some forms as a broomstick) is a cleaning tool consisting of usually stiff fibers (often made of materials such as plastic, hair, or corn husks) attached to, and roughly parallel to, a cylindrical handle, the broomstick. It is thus a variety of brush with a long handle. It is commonly used in combination with a dustpan. A distinction is made between a "hard broom" and a "soft broom" and a spectrum in between. Soft brooms are used in some cultures chiefly for sweeping walls of cobwebs and spiders, like a "feather duster", while hard brooms are for rougher tasks like sweeping dirt off sidewalks or concrete floors, or even smoothing and texturing wet concrete. The majority of brooms are somewhere in between, suitable for sweeping the floors of homes and businesses, soft enough to be flexible and to move even light dust, but stiff enough to achieve a firm sweeping action. The broom is also a symbolic object associated with witchcraft and ceremonial magic. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Willow
Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known as willow, but some narrow-leaved shrub species are called osier, and some broader-leaved species are referred to as sallow (from Old English ''sealh'', related to the Latin word ''salix'', willow). Some willows (particularly arctic and alpine species) are low-growing or creeping shrubs; for example, the dwarf willow (''Salix herbacea'') rarely exceeds in height, though it spreads widely across the ground. Description Willows all have abundant watery bark sap, which is heavily charged with salicylic acid, soft, usually pliant, tough wood, slender branches, and large, fibrous, often stoloniferous roots. The roots are remarkable for their toughness, size, and tenacity to live ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gorse
''Ulex'' (commonly known as gorse, furze, or whin) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The genus comprises about 20 species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are native to parts of western Europe and northwest Africa, with the majority of species in Iberia. Gorse is closely related to the brooms and like them has green stems and very small leaves and is adapted to dry growing conditions. However it differs in its extreme thorniness, the shoots being modified into branched thorns long, which almost wholly replace the leaves as the plant's functioning photosynthetic organs. The leaves of young plants are trifoliate, but in mature plants they are reduced to scales or small spines. All the species have yellow flowers, generally showy, some with a very long flowering season. Species The greatest diversity of ''Ulex'' species is found in the Iberian Peninsula, and most species have narrow distributio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clutch (eggs)
__NOTOC__ A clutch of eggs is the group of eggs produced by birds, amphibians, or reptiles, often at a single time, particularly those laid in a nest. In birds, destruction of a clutch by predators (or removal by humans, for example the California condor breeding program) results in ''double-clutching''. The technique is used to double the production of a species' eggs, in the California condor case, specifically to increase population size. The act of putting one's hand in a nest to remove eggs is known as "dipping the clutch". Size Clutch size differs greatly between species, sometimes even within the same genus. It may also differ within the same species due to many factors including habitat, health, nutrition, predation pressures, and time of year. Clutch size variation can also reflect variation in optimal reproduction effort. In birds, clutch size can vary within a species due to various features (age and health of laying female, ability of male to supply food, and abundan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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