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Currawong Avenue Reserve
Currawongs are three species of medium-sized passerine birds belonging to the genus ''Strepera'' in the family Artamidae native to Australia. These are the grey currawong (''Strepera versicolor''), pied currawong (''S. graculina''), and black currawong (''S. fuliginosa''). The common name comes from the call of the familiar pied currawong of eastern Australia and is onomatopoeic. They were formerly known as crow-shrikes or bell-magpies. Despite their resemblance to crows and ravens, they are only distantly related to the corvidae, instead belonging to an Afro-Asian radiation of birds of superfamily Malaconotoidea. They are not as terrestrial as the magpie and have shorter legs. They are omnivorous, foraging in foliage, on tree trunks and limbs, and on the ground, taking insects and larvae (often dug out from under the bark of trees), fruit, and the nestlings of other birds. They are distinguishable from magpies and crows by their comical flight style in amongst foliage, appe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Currawong
The black currawong (''Strepera fuliginosa''), also known locally as the black jay, is a large passerine bird endemic to Tasmania and the nearby islands within the Bass Strait. One of three currawong species in the genus ''Strepera'', it is closely related to the butcherbirds and Australian magpie within the family Artamidae. It is a large crow-like bird, around long on average, with yellow irises, a heavy bill, and black plumage with white wing patches. The male and female are similar in appearance. Three subspecies are recognised, one of which, ''Strepera fuliginosa colei'' of King Island, is vulnerable to extinction. Within its range, the black currawong is generally sedentary, although populations at higher altitudes relocate to lower areas during the cooler months. The habitat includes densely forested areas as well as alpine heathland. It is rare below altitudes of . Omnivorous, its diet includes a variety of berries, invertebrates, and small vertebrates. Less arboreal t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Bowdler Sharpe
Richard Bowdler Sharpe (22 November 1847 – 25 December 1909) was an English zoologist and ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his career he published several monographs on bird groups and produced a multi-volume catalogue of the specimens in the collection of the museum. He described many new species of bird and also has had species named in his honour by other ornithologists including Sharpe's longclaw (''Macronyx sharpei'') and Sharpe's starling (''Poeoptera sharpii''). Biography Richard was born in London, the first son of Thomas Bowdler Sharpe. His grandfather, Reverend Lancelot Sharpe was Rector of All Hallows Staining. His father was a publisher on Skinner Street and was best known for being the publisher of ''Sharpe's London Magazine'', an illustrated periodical (weekly but monthly from 1847). His care from the age of six was under an aunt, Magdalen Wallace, widow of the headmaster at Gramm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bushshrike
The bushshrikes are smallish passerine birds. They were formerly classed with the true shrikes in the family Laniidae, but are now considered sufficiently distinctive to be separated from that group as the family Malaconotidae, a name that alludes to their fluffy back and rump feathers. Like their shrike-like relatives, the helmetshrikes, the bushshrikes have arisen in Africa in relatively recent times. The family is endemic to sub-Saharan Africa but completely absent from Madagascar, where the vangas are their closest relatives. They are found in scrub or open woodland, and less often in marshes, Afromontane or tropical forest. They are similar in habits to shrikes, hunting insects and other small prey from a perch on a bush. Although similar in build to the shrikes, these tend to be either colourful species or largely black; some species are quite secretive. Some bushshrikes have flamboyant displays. The male puffbacks puff out the loose feathers on their rump and lower back ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shrike
Shrikes () are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of 34 species in four genera. The family name, and that of the largest genus, ''Lanius'', is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also known as butcherbirds because of their feeding habits. The common English name shrike is from Old English , alluding to the shrike's shriek-like call. Distribution, migration, and habitat Most shrike species have a Eurasian and African distribution, with just two breeding in North America (the loggerhead and northern shrikes). No members of this family occur in South America or Australia, although one species reaches New Guinea. The shrikes vary in the extent of their ranges, with some species, such as the great grey shrike, ranging across the Northern Hemisphere; to the Newton's fiscal, which is restricted to the island of São Tomé. They inhabit open habitats, especially steppe and savannah. A few species of shrikes are forest dwell ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peltops
''Peltops'' is a genus of birds in the family Artamidae. It contains two species that are endemic to the island of New Guinea. The species have also had the common name of shieldbill. Taxonomy The genus ''Peltops'' was introduced by the German zoologist Johann Georg Wagler in 1829. The type species is the lowland peltops. The name is from the Greek ''pelte'' meaning small shield and ''ops'' meaning face. The genus was once placed with the monarch flycatchers, but molecular and morphometric studies place it closer to the butcherbirds, possibly as a sister taxon to this group. The genus is placed in its own subfamily, Peltopsinae. The genus contains two species: Description ''Peltops'' are smaller than the butcherbirds, and have a less massive but still large bill. The mountain peltops is the larger species, at , whereas the lowland peltops is slightly smaller at . The hooked bill is the same size in both species, making it proportionally larger in the lowland peltops. Distrib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian Magpie
The Australian magpie (''Gymnorhina tibicen'') is a black and white passerine bird native to Australia and southern New Guinea. Although once considered to be three separate species, it is now considered to be one, with nine recognised subspecies. A member of the Artamidae, the Australian magpie is placed in its own genus ''Gymnorhina'' and is most closely related to the black butcherbird (''Melloria quoyi''). It is not closely related to the European magpie, which is a corvid. The adult Australian magpie is a fairly robust bird ranging from in length, with black and white plumage, gold brown eyes and a solid wedge-shaped bluish-white and black bill. The male and female are similar in appearance, but can be distinguished by differences in back markings. The male has pure white feathers on the back of the head and the female has white blending to grey feathers on the back of the head. With its long legs, the Australian magpie walks rather than waddles or hops and spends mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Butcherbird
Butcherbirds are songbirds closely related to the Australian magpie. Most are found in the genus '' Cracticus'', but the black butcherbird is placed in the monotypic genus '' Melloria''. They are native to Australasia. Taxonomy Together with three species of currawong and two species of peltops, butcherbirds and the Australian magpie form the subfamily Cracticinae in the family Artamidae. (Despite the name of the Australian magpie, this family of birds is not closely related to European magpies, which are members of the family Corvidae.) Description Butcherbirds are large songbirds, being between in length. Their colour ranges from black-and-white to mostly black with added grey plumage, depending on the species. They have a large, straight bill with a distinctive hook at the end which is used to skewer prey. They have high-pitched complex songs, which are used to defend their essentially year-round group territories: unlike birds of extratropical Eurasia and the Americas, both ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Ornithologists’ Union
The International Ornithologists' Union, formerly known as the International Ornithological Committee, is a group of about 200 international ornithologists, and is responsible for the International Ornithological Congress and other international ornithological activities, undertaken by its standing committees. International Ornithological Congress The International Ornithological Congress series forms the oldest and largest international series of meetings of ornithologists. It is organised by the International Ornithologists' Union. The first meeting was in 1884; subsequent meetings were irregular until 1926 since when meetings have been held every four years, except for two missed meetings during and in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. Meetings See also * '' Birds of the World: Recommended English Names'', a book written by Frank Gill Frank Gill may refer to: * Frank Gill (Australian footballer) (1908–1970), Australian rules footballer with Carlton * Frank ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clade
A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, the equivalent Latin term ''cladus'' (plural ''cladi'') is often used in taxonomical literature. The common ancestor may be an individual, a population, or a species (extinct or extant). Clades are nested, one in another, as each branch in turn splits into smaller branches. These splits reflect evolutionary history as populations diverged and evolved independently. Clades are termed monophyletic (Greek: "one clan") groups. Over the last few decades, the cladistic approach has revolutionized biological classification and revealed surprising evolutionary relationships among organisms. Increasingly, taxonomists try to avoid naming taxa that are not clades; that is, taxa that are not monophyletic. Some of the relationships between organisms ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woodswallow
Woodswallows are soft-plumaged, somber-coloured passerine birds in the genus ''Artamus''. The woodswallows are either treated as a subfamily, Artaminae, in an expanded family Artamidae (also including the subfamily Cracticinae), or as the only genus in that family (with the butcherbirds, currawongs, and allies placed in a separate family, Cracticidae). The generic name, which in turn gives rise to the family name, is derived from the Ancient Greek ''artamos'', meaning butcher or murder. The name was given due to their perceived similarity to shrikes. A former common name for the group was "swallow-starlings". The woodswallows have an Australasian distribution, with most species occurring in Australia and New Guinea. The ashy woodswallow has an exclusively Asian distribution, ranging from India and Sri Lanka through South East Asia to China, and the most widespread species is the white-breasted woodswallow, which ranges from Peninsular Malaysia through to Australia in the south and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jon Edward Ahlquist
Jon Edward Ahlquist (27 July 1944 –7 May 2020 ''The Huntsville Times,'' 9–10 May 2020.) was an American molecular biologist and ornithologist who has specialized in . He has collaborated extensively with , primarily at . By ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Sibley
Charles Gald Sibley (August 7, 1917 – April 12, 1998) was an American ornithologist and molecular biologist. He had an immense influence on the scientific classification of birds, and the work that Sibley initiated has substantially altered our understanding of the evolutionary history of modern birds. Sibley's taxonomy has been a major influence on the sequences adopted by ornithological organizations, especially the American Ornithologists' Union. Charles Sibley is of no known family relation to renowned bird artist and prolific author of numerous bird identification guides David Sibley. Life and work Educated in California (A.B. 1940; Ph.D. 1948 in Zoology, University of California, Berkeley. Minor fields: Paleontology, Botany), he did his first fieldwork in Mexico in 1939 and 1941, then in Solomon Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, and the Philippines during World War II while on leave from the U.S. Navy, in which he was Ensign to Lieutenant in the Communication ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
