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Cuculidae
Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes . The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separated as distinct families, the Centropodidae and Crotophagidae respectively. The cuckoo order Cuculiformes is one of three that make up the Otidimorphae, the other two being the turacos and the bustards. The family Cuculidae contains 150 species which are divided into 33 genera. The cuckoos are generally medium-sized slender birds. Most species live in trees, though a sizeable minority are ground-dwelling. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution; the majority of species are tropical. Some species are migratory. The cuckoos feed on insects, insect larvae and a variety of other animals, as well as fruit. Some species are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other species and giving rise to the metaphor ''cuckoo's egg'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crotophagidae
The Crotophaginae are a small subfamily, within the cuckoo family Cuculidae, of four gregarious bird species occurring in the Americas. They were previously classified as a family Crotophagidae. The subfamily is notable for the development of cooperative breeding where several females lay eggs in a communal nest. It contains the three anis and the guira cuckoo. Among the anis, there is considerable variation in nesting habits. One species, The greater ani (''Crotophaga major'') lays 2 or 3 eggs, while the groove-billed ani (''C. sulcirostris'') lays seven. However the smooth-billed ani (''C. ani'') will share one nest between several females, with up to 29 eggs in one nest. Incubation takes 15 days for this species. Systematics Four species make up the subfamily, namely the guira cuckoo (''Guira guira'') and the three members of the genus ''Crotophaga'' known as anis. Study of the cranial osteology and mitochondrial DNA yield the same phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malkoha
Malkohas are large birds in the cuckoo family Cuculidae Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes . The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separa .... The group name is derived from the Sinhala word for the red-faced malkoha; meaning flower-cuckoo. These are all tropical species. {, class="wikitable" , - ! Image !! Scientific name !! Common Name !! Distribution , - , , , ''Dasylophus superciliosus'' , , Rough-crested malkoha , , northern Philippines , - , , , ''Dasylophus cumingi'' , , Scale-feathered malkoha , , northern Philippines , - Cuculidae ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fan-tailed Cuckoo
The fan-tailed cuckoo (''Cacomantis flabelliformis'') is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is found in Australia, Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. Taxonomy Six subspecies have been recognised: * ''Cacomantis flabelliformis excitus'' (Rothschild & Hartert, 1907) – Mountains of New Guinea. * ''Cacomantis flabelliformis flabelliformis'' ( Latham, 1802) – Eastern Australia from Cape York through to southern South Australia; south-western Western Australia. * ''Cacomantis flabelliformis meeki'' (Rothschild & Hartert, 1902) – Solomon Islands including Santa Isabel, Kolombangara, Guadalcanal and Bellona. Originally designated ''Cacomantis meeki''. * ''Cacomantis flabelliformis pyrrhophanus'' (Vieillot, 1817) – New Caledonia including the Loyalty Islands. * ''Cacomantis flabelliformis schistaceigularis'' (Sharpe, 1900) – Vanuatu. * ''Cacomantis flabelliformis simus'' ( Peale, 1848) – Fiji. Description The fan-tailed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Koel
The true koels, ''Eudynamys'', are a genus of cuckoos from Asia, Australia and the Pacific. They are large sexually dimorphic cuckoos that eat fruits and insects and have loud distinctive calls. They are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other species. Taxonomy The genus ''Eudynamys'' was introduced in 1827 by the English naturalists Nicholas Vigors and Thomas Horsfield. The name combines the Ancient Greek ''eu'' meaning "fine" with ''dunamis'' meaning "power" or "strength". The type species was designated as the Pacific koel by George Robert Gray in 1840. A molecular genetic study by Sorenson and Payne (2005) found that the closest relative of ''Eudynamys'' is the dwarf koel (''Microdynamis parva''), and beyond that the thick-billed cuckoo (''Pachycoccyx audeberti''). They found that the long-tailed cuckoo (''Urodynamis taitensis'') of New Zealand and the Pacific, which had earlier been placed in ''Eudynamys'' as ''E. taitensis'' and sometimes called the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cosmopolitan Distribution
In biogeography, cosmopolitan distribution is the term for the range of a taxon that extends across all or most of the world in appropriate habitats. Such a taxon, usually a species, is said to exhibit cosmopolitanism or cosmopolitism. The extreme opposite of a cosmopolitan species is an endemic one, being found only in a single geographical location. Qualification The caveat “in appropriate habitat” is used to qualify the term "cosmopolitan distribution", excluding in most instances polar regions, extreme altitudes, oceans, deserts, or small, isolated islands. For example, the housefly is highly cosmopolitan, yet is neither oceanic nor polar in its distribution. Related terms and concepts The term pandemism also is in use, but not all authors are consistent in the sense in which they use the term; some speak of pandemism mainly in referring to diseases and pandemics, and some as a term intermediate between endemism and cosmopolitanism, in effect regarding pandemism as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Otidimorphae
The Otidimorphae is a clade of birds that contains the orders Cuculiformes (cuckoos), Musophagiformes (turacos), and Otidiformes (bustards) identified in 2014 by genome analysis. While the bustards seem to be related to the turaco The turacos make up the bird family Musophagidae ( "banana-eaters"), which includes plantain-eaters and go-away-birds. In southern Africa both turacos and go-away-birds are commonly known as loeries. They are semi-zygodactylous: the fourth ( ...s, other genetic studies have found the cuckoos to be closer to the bustards than the turacos are. References Neognathae {{bird-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Turaco
The turacos make up the bird family Musophagidae ( "banana-eaters"), which includes plantain-eaters and go-away-birds. In southern Africa both turacos and go-away-birds are commonly known as loeries. They are semi-zygodactylous: the fourth (outer) toe can be switched back and forth. The second and third toes, which always point forward, are conjoined in some species. Musophagids often have prominent crests and long tails; the turacos are noted for peculiar and unique pigments giving them their bright green and red feathers. Traditionally, this group has been allied with the cuckoos in the order Cuculiformes, but the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy raises this group to a full order Musophagiformes. They have been proposed to link the hoatzin to the other living birds, but this was later disputed. Recent genetic analyses have strongly supported the order ranking of Musophagiformes. Musophagidae is one of very few bird families endemic to Africa, one other being the mousebirds, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bustard
Bustards, including floricans and korhaans, are large, terrestrial birds living mainly in dry grassland areas and on the steppes of the Old World. They range in length from . They make up the family Otididae (, formerly known as Otidae). Bustards are omnivorous and opportunistic, eating leaves, buds, seeds, fruit, small vertebrates, and invertebrates.del Hoyo, J. Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. (editors). (1996) ''Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 3: Hoatzin to Auks''. Lynx Edicions. There are 26 species currently recognised. Description Bustards are all fairly large with the two largest species, the kori bustard (''Ardeotis kori'') and the great bustard (''Otis tarda''), being frequently cited as the world's heaviest flying birds. In both the largest species, large males exceed a weight of , weigh around on average and can attain a total length of . The smallest species is the little brown bustard (''Eupodotis humilis''), which is around long and weighs around on average. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', "dawn") and (''kainós'', "new") and refers to the "dawn" of modern ('new') fauna that appeared during the epoch. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope Carbon-13, 13C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in comparison with the more common isotope Carbon-12, 12C. The end is set at a major extinction event called the ''Grande Coupure'' (the "Great Break" in continuity) or the Eocene–Oligocene extinction event, which may be related to the impact of one or more large bolides in Popigai impact structure, Siberia and in what is now ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bird Migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many species of bird migrate. Migration carries high costs in predation and mortality, including from hunting by humans, and is driven primarily by the availability of food. It occurs mainly in the northern hemisphere, where birds are funneled onto specific routes by natural barriers such as the Mediterranean Sea or the Caribbean Sea. Migration of species such as storks, turtle doves, and swallows was recorded as many as 3,000 years ago by Ancient Greek authors, including Homer and Aristotle, and in the Book of Job. More recently, Johannes Leche began recording dates of arrivals of spring migrants in Finland in 1749, and modern scientific studies have used techniques including bird ringing and satellite tracking to trace migrants. Threats to migratory birds have grown with habitat destruction, especially of stopover and wintering sites, as wel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cuckoo's Egg (metaphor)
A cuckoo's egg is a metaphor for brood parasitism, where a parasitic bird deposits its egg into a host's nest, which then incubates and feeds the chick that hatches, even at the expense of its own offspring. That original biological meaning has been extended to other uses, including one which references spyware and other pieces of malware. History The concept has been in use in the study of brood parasitism in birds since the 19th century. It first evolved a metaphoric meaning of "misplaced trust", wherein the chick hatched of a cuckoo's egg incubated and raised by unknowing victim parents will first begin to starve and outgrow them as it or they kill off the birds' legitimate offspring. The first well known application to spycraft was in the 1989 book '' The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage'' by Clifford Stoll, in which Stoll deployed a honeypot to catch a cyber hacker that had accessed the secure computer system of the classified U.S. go ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_(Tauraco_persa).jpg "Click for more on -> Otidimorphae")
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