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Brachypteraciidae
The ground rollers are a small family of non-migratory near-passerine birds restricted to Madagascar. They are related to the kingfishers, bee-eaters and rollers. They most resemble the latter group, and are sometimes considered a sub-family of the true rollers. Description Ground rollers share the generally crow-like size and build of the true rollers, ranging from in length, and also hunt reptiles and large insects. They are more terrestrial than Coracidae species, and this is reflected in their longer legs and shorter, more rounded wings. They lack the highly colourful appearance of the true rollers, and are duller in appearance, with striped or flecked plumage. They are much more elusive and shy than their relatives, and are normally difficult to find in the Malagasy forests. Often the hooting breeding call is all that betrays their presence. These birds nest as solitary pairs in holes in the ground which they excavate themselves, unlike the true rollers, which rarely n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scaly Ground Roller
The scaly ground roller (''Geobiastes squamiger'') is a species of bird in a monotypic genus in the near-passerine family Brachypteraciidae. It is endemic to eastern Madagascar. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest. The scaly ground roller is found at elevations below , and one of the few birds of Madagascar to reside in lowland rainforest. Morphology Scaly ground rollers grow to between . The head is covered with a black and white scaly pattern. It is a copper brown color and has green wings, with white tips. The center of the tail is reddish-brown, and has blue tips and black marks. The underside is pale, with black crescents. Its gray bill is thick and long, and its legs are pink in color. Ecology and behavior The diet of the scaly ground roller mostly consists of invertebrates it collects from the ground but it does also eat vertebrates it can find. It has been reported to chiefly eat earthworms ('' Pheretima'' sp.) and centipedes ('' Scolo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Long-tailed Ground Roller
The long-tailed ground roller (''Uratelornis chimaera'') is a species of bird in the ground roller family Brachypteraciidae, placed in the monotypic genus ''Uratelornis''. Endemic to arid spiny forests near the coast in southwestern Madagascar, this ground roller occurs at extremely low population densities throughout its habitat. This species requires shade and a deep layer of leaves on the ground, and it is absent from parts of the spiny forest lacking these features. It has no recognized subspecies, and its closest relative is the scaly ground roller. The long-tailed ground roller is the only ground roller to definitively display sexual dimorphism (differences in plumage or size between sexes). It is a medium-sized bird with a plump silhouette and a long tail. The upperparts are dark brown with black streaks while the underparts are light gray. The white throat is framed by black malar stripes and a black breastband, and a white stripe is present at the base of the bill. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short-legged Ground Roller
The short-legged ground roller (''Brachypteracias leptosomus'') is a species of bird in the ground roller family Brachypteraciidae. It is the only living species in the genus ''Brachypteracias'' and is endemic to Madagascar. It is threatened by habitat loss. Taxonomy and systematics The short-legged ground roller is the only extant species in the genus ''Brachypteracias'', although a fossil species, '' Brachypteracias langrandi'', has been described. The short-legged ground roller is more arboreal than other ground rollers, and may represent the ancestral form of the family.Langrand, O. (2017). Ground-rollers (Brachypteraciidae). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from http://www.hbw.com/node/52276 on 20 March 2017). The genus ''Brachypteracias'' once included the scaly ground roller, but a 2001 study of the DNA of the family found that the two are not cl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ampoza Ground Roller
The Ampoza ground roller (''Brachypteracias langrandi'') was a species of bird in the ground roller family Brachypteraciidae. It is known only from a single humerus fossil discovered in 1929 in southwest Madagascar. Little is known about the species, but it is suggested that the bird's habitat becoming more arid was a contributing factor in its demise. Taxonomy and systematics The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ... ''brakhupteros'', meaning short-winged.Jobling, J. A. (2017)''Brachypteracias'' in Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.) (2017). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from www.hbw.com). Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pitta-like Ground Roller
The pitta-like ground roller (''Atelornis pittoides'') is a species of bird in the ground roller family Brachypteraciidae. The species is monotypic, having no subspecies. It is endemic to Madagascar. The species was described by Frédéric de Lafresnaye in 1834. The specific name ''pittoides'' is a reference to its resemblance to the pittas, an unrelated family of passerine birds. Description The pitta-like ground roller is a small and slender member of the family, long and weighing . It has a cobalt-blue head with a black mask and a white and throat, which is bordered in blue. The upperparts are bronzy green and the belly is white with buff flanks, and the breast and back have a rufous band. Distribution and habitat The pitta-like ground roller is endemic to the eastern half of Madagascar, from the extreme north to the southern edge, and has the widest distribution of any member of the family. It also has a wider range of habitats that it is prepared to occupy, being found in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atelornis Pittoides -Zurich Zoologischer Garten-8a
''Atelornis'' is a small genus of birds in the ground-roller family Brachypteraciidae. The genus is endemic to Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa .... Species There are two species: Bird genera Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Jacques Pucheran {{Coraciiformes-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brachypteracias
''Brachypteracias'' is a small genus of birds in the ground-roller family Brachypteraciidae. The genus is endemic to Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa .... Species There are two species: Bird genera Bird genera with one living species {{Coraciiformes-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atelornis
''Atelornis'' is a small genus of birds in the ground-roller family Brachypteraciidae. The genus is endemic to Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa .... Species There are two species: Bird genera Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Jacques Pucheran {{Coraciiformes-stub ... [...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 so l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naturalis Biodiversity Center - ZMA
Naturalis Biodiversity Center ( nl, Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit Naturalis) is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, Netherlands. It was named the European Museum of the Year 2021. Although its current name and organization are relatively recent, the history of Naturalis can be traced back to the early 1800s. Its collection includes approximately 42 million specimens, making it one of the largest natural history collections in the world. History The beginnings of Naturalis go back to the creation of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (abbreviated RMNH, National Museum of Natural History) by Dutch King William I on August 9, 1820. In 1878, the geological and mineralogical collections of the museum were split off into a separate museum, remaining distinct until the merger of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie with the Rijksmuseum van Geologie en Mineralogie (abbreviated RGM) in 1984, to form the Nationaal Natu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point. Because a species' potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "reappears" (typically in the fossil record) after a period of apparent absence. More than 99% of all species that ever lived on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, are estimated to have died out. It is estimated that there are currently around 8.7 million species of eukaryote globally, and possibly many times more if microorganisms, like bacteria, are included. Notable extinct animal species include non-avian dinosaurs, saber-toothed cats, dodos, m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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