Cosley Zoo
Cosley Zoo is an AZA-accredited zoo located in Wheaton, Illinois. It is a facility of the Wheaton Park District and open year-round. The zoo, which is situated on of land, is built on the site of a historic train station and consists of domestic animals, as well as wildlife that is native to North America. The zoo holds various youth-directed programs, including a Junior Zookeepers program, birthday parties/facility rentals, and holiday events. Local impact Cosley Zoo, the DuPage County Forest Preserve, and other local partners have teamed up in an effort to increase the population of the Illinois state endangered Blanding's turtle. Eggs are incubated and hatched at a partner facility, then some arrive at Cosley Zoo where they will be reared for about a year before being released back in to a DuPage County wetland. The zoo has helped rear and release more than 4,000 Blanding's turtles since becoming involved with the head start component of the Blanding's Turtle Recovery Proje ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wheaton, Illinois
Wheaton is a suburban city in Milton and Winfield Townships and is the county seat of DuPage County, Illinois. It is located approximately west of Chicago. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 52,894, which was estimated to have decreased to 52,745 by July 2019, making it the 27th most populous municipality in Illinois. History Founding The city dates its founding to the period between 1831 and 1837, following the Indian Removal Act, when Erastus Gary laid claim to of land near present-day Warrenville. The Wheaton brothers arrived from Connecticut, and in 1837, Warren L. Wheaton laid claim to of land in the center of town. Jesse Wheaton later made claim to of land just west of Warren's. It was not long before other settlers from New England joined them in the community. In 1848, they gave the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad three miles (5 km) of right-of-way, upon which railroad officials named the depot Wheaton. In 1850, ten blocks of land ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Blue Jay
The blue jay (''Cyanocitta cristata'') is a passerine bird in the family Corvidae, native to eastern North America. It lives in most of the eastern and central United States; some eastern populations may be migratory. Resident populations are also in Newfoundland, Canada; breeding populations are found across southern Canada. It breeds in both deciduous and coniferous forests, and is common in residential areas. Its coloration is predominantly blue, with a white chest and underparts, and a blue crest; it has a black, U-shaped collar around its neck and a black border behind the crest. Males and females are similar in size and plumage, and plumage does not vary throughout the year. Four subspecies have been recognized. The blue jay feeds mainly on seeds and nuts, such as acorns, which it may hide to eat later; soft fruits; arthropods; and occasionally small vertebrates. It typically gleans food from trees, shrubs, and the ground, and sometimes hawks insects from the air. Blue ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Screech Owl
Screech owls are typical owls (Strigidae) belonging to the genus ''Megascops'' with 23 living species. For most of the 20th century, this genus was merged with the Old World scops owls in ''Otus'', but nowadays it is again considered separately based on a range of behavioral, biogeographical, morphological, and DNA sequence data. Screech owls are restricted to the Americas. Some species formerly placed with them are nowadays considered more distinct (see below for details). Description Similar to other owls, the screech owl females are larger than the males of their species. They have a compact size and shape. They are small and agile, and about 7 to 10 inches tall and have a wingspan around 18 to 24 inches. They have prominent, wide-set feather tufts with bright yellow/green eyes. They have different brownish hues with whitish, patterned underside. This coloration helps them get camouflage against the tree bark. Ecology and behavior Screech owls hunt from perches in semi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sandhill Crane
The sandhill crane (''Antigone canadensis'') is a species of large crane of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia. The common name of this bird refers to habitat like that at the Platte River, on the edge of Nebraska's Sandhills on the American Great Plains. Sandhill Cranes are known to hangout at the edges of bodies of water especially in the Central Florida region. This is the most important stopover area for the nominotypical subspecies, the lesser sandhill crane (''A. c. canadensis''), with up to 450,000 of these birds migrating through annually. Taxonomy In 1750, English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the sandhill crane in the third volume of his ''A Natural History of Uncommon Birds''. He used the English name "The Brown and Ash-colour'd Crane". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a preserved specimen that had been brought to London from the Hudson Bay area of Canada by James Isham. When in 1758 the Swedish natu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Redhead (bird)
The redhead (''Aythya americana'') is a medium-sized diving duck. The scientific name is derived from Greek ''aithuia'', an unidentified seabird mentioned by authors including Hesychius and Aristotle, and Latin ''americana'', of America. The redhead is long with an wingspan. Redhead weight ranges from 2.0 to 2.5 lbs (907-1134 g), with males weighing an average of 2.4 lbs (1089 g) and females weighing an average of 2.1 lbs (953 g). It belongs to the genus Aythya, together with 11 other described species. The redhead and the common pochard form a sister group which together is sister to the canvasback. The redhead goes by many names, including the red-headed duck and the red-headed pochard. This waterfowl is easily distinguished from other ducks by the male's copper coloured head and bright blue bill during the breeding season. Taxonomy and phylogeny Taxonomy The redhead is in the family Anatidae (ducks, swans, geese) and genus ''Aythya'' (diving ducks). There are current ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Red-tailed Hawk
The red-tailed hawk (''Buteo jamaicensis'') is a bird of prey that breeds throughout most of North America, from the interior of Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies. It is one of the most common members within the genus of ''Buteo'' in North America or worldwide. The red-tailed hawk is one of three species colloquially known in the United States as the " chickenhawk", though it rarely preys on standard-sized chickens. The bird is sometimes also referred to as the red-tail for short, when the meaning is clear in context. Red-tailed hawks can acclimate to all the biomes within their range, occurring on the edges of non-ideal habitats such as dense forests and sandy deserts.Preston, C. R. (2000). ''Red-tailed Hawk''. Stackpole Books. The red-tailed hawk occupies a wide range of habitats and altitudes, including deserts, grasslands (from small meadows to the treed fringes of more extensive prairies), coniferous and deciduous forests, agricultur ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Northern Pintail
The pintail or northern pintail (''Anas acuta'') is a duck species with wide geographic distribution that breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and North America. It is migratory and winters south of its breeding range to the equator. Unusually for a bird with such a large range, it has no geographical subspecies if the possibly conspecific duck Eaton's pintail is considered to be a separate species. This is a large duck, and the male's long central tail feathers give rise to the species' English and scientific names. Both sexes have blue-grey bills and grey legs and feet. The drake is more striking, having a thin white stripe running from the back of its chocolate-coloured head down its neck to its mostly white undercarriage. The drake also has attractive grey, brown, and black patterning on its back and sides. The hen's plumage is more subtle and subdued, with drab brown feathers similar to those of other female dabbling ducks. Hens make a coarse ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mallard
The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa. This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae. Males have purple patches on their wings, while the females (hens or ducks) have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent blue feathers called a speculum on their wings; males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers. The mallard is long, of which the body makes up around two-thirds the length. The wingspan is and the bill is long. It is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks, weighing . Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varyi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Killdeer
The killdeer (''Charadrius vociferus'') is a large plover found in the Americas. It was described and given its current scientific name in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. Three subspecies are described. The killdeer's common name comes from its often-heard call. Its are mostly brown with rufous fringes, the head has patches of white and black, and two black bands cross the breast. The belly and the rest of the breast are white. The nominate (or originally described) subspecies breeds from southeastern Alaska and southern Canada to Mexico. It is seen year-round in the southern half of its breeding range; the subspecies ''C. v. ternominatus'' is resident in the West Indies, and ''C. v. peruvianus'' inhabits Peru and surrounding South American countries throughout the year. North American breeders winter from their resident range south to Central America, the West Indies, and the northernmost portions of South America. The nonbreeding habit ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Red-shouldered Macaw
The red-shouldered macaw (''Diopsittaca nobilis'') is a small green South American parrot, a member of a large group of Neotropical parrots called macaws. The species is named for the red coverts on its wings. It is the smallest macaw, being in length - similar in size to the ''Aratinga'' parakeets. It is native to the tropical lowlands, savannah, and swamplands of Brazil, the Guianas, Bolivia, Venezuela, and far south-eastern Peru. It has two distinct subspecies, the noble macaw and the Hahn's macaw, and a possible poorly distinct third subspecies that has longer wings, but is otherwise similar to the noble macaw. The Hahn's subspecies is named for German zoologist Carl-Wilhelm Hahn, who in 1834 began compiling ''Ornithologischer Atlas oder naturgetreue Abbildung und Beschreibung der aussereuropäischen Vögel'' (Engl: Ornithological Atlas or natural depiction and description of birds from outside Europe). Red-shouldered macaws are frequently bred in captivity for the pet trad ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Great Horned Owl
The great horned owl (''Bubo virginianus''), also known as the tiger owl (originally derived from early naturalists' description as the "winged tiger" or "tiger of the air"), or the hoot owl, is a large owl native to the Americas. It is an extremely adaptable bird with a vast range and is the most widely distributed true owl in the Americas. Its primary diet is rabbits and hares, rats and mice, and voles, although it freely hunts any animal it can overtake, including rodents and other small mammals, larger mid-sized mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates. In ornithological study, the great horned owl is often compared to the Eurasian eagle-owl (''Bubo bubo''), a closely related species, which despite the latter's notably larger size, occupies the same ecological niche in Eurasia, and the red-tailed hawk (''Buteo jamaicensis''), with which it often shares similar habitat, prey, and nesting habits by day, thus is something of a diurnal ecological equivalent. The gr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gray Catbird
The gray catbird (''Dumetella carolinensis''), also spelled grey catbird, is a medium-sized North American and Central American perching bird of the mimid family. It is the only member of the "catbird" genus ''Dumetella''. Like the black catbird (''Melanoptila glabrirostris''), it is among the basal lineages of the Mimidae, probably a closer relative of the Caribbean thrasher and trembler assemblage than of the mockingbirds and ''Toxostoma'' thrashers. In some areas it is known as the slate-colored mockingbird. Taxonomy The name ''Dumetella'' is based upon the Latin term ''dūmus'' ("thorny thicket"; it thus means approximately "small thornbush-dweller" or "small bird of the thornbushes". It refers to the species' habit of singing when hidden in undergrowth. The specific name ''carolinensis'' is New Latin for "from the Carolinas". The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1766 edition of ''Systema naturae''. His original name ''Muscicapa carolinensis'' reflected ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |