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Spinus (genus)
''Spinus'' is a genus of passerine birds in the finch family. It contains the North and South American siskins and goldfinches, as well as two Old World species. The genus name is from the Ancient Greek ''spínos'', a name for a now-unidentifiable bird. All of the species in the genus, except for the Tibetan serin, were formerly included in the genus ''Carduelis''. They were moved to the resurrected genus ''Spinus'' based on phylogenetic studies of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences. The Tibetan serin was formerly placed in the genus ''Serinus''. The Eurasian siskin and the Tibetan serin are the only species from the Old World included in the group. The genus ''Spinus'' was introduced in 1816 by the German naturalist Carl Ludwig Koch with the Eurasian siskin (''Spinus spinus'') as the type species. Evolution and phylogeny The Tibetan serin is an outgroup within ''Spinus'', having been the first to diverge. The remainder of the genus can be divided into three monophyle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Goldfinch
The American goldfinch (''Spinus tristis'') is a small North American bird in the finch family. It is migratory, ranging from mid-Alberta to North Carolina during the breeding season, and from just south of the Canada–United States border to Mexico during the winter. The only finch in its subfamily to undergo a complete molt, the American goldfinch displays sexual dichromatism: the male is a vibrant yellow in the summer and an olive color during the winter, while the female is a dull yellow-brown shade which brightens only slightly during the summer. The male displays brightly colored plumage during the breeding season to attract a mate. The American goldfinch is a granivore and adapted for the consumption of seedheads, with a conical beak to remove the seeds and agile feet to grip the stems of seedheads while feeding. It is a social bird and will gather in large flocks while feeding and migrating. It may behave territorially during nest construction, but this aggression is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lesser Goldfinch
The lesser goldfinch (''Spinus psaltria'') is a very small songbird of the Americas. Together with its relatives the American goldfinch and Lawrence's goldfinch, it forms the New World goldfinch clade in the genus '' Spinus''. As is the case for all three New World goldfinches (and some of their siskin relatives), lesser goldfinch males have a black forehead, which females lack. Males in this species vary strikingly in back color across their range, from green in western North America to black from Texas south to South America. Five subspecies are often recognized. Taxonomy The lesser goldfinch was formally described by the American zoologist Thomas Say in 1822 under the binomial name ''Fringilla psaltria''. The specific epithet ''psaltria'' is Ancient Greek for a female harpist. The type locality is Colorado Springs, Colorado. The lesser goldfinch is now placed in the genus '' Spinus'' that was introduced in 1816 by the German naturalist Carl Ludwig Koch. Five subspecies are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carduelinae
The cardueline finches are a subfamily, Carduelinae, one of three subfamilies of the finch family Fringillidae, the others being the Fringillinae and the Euphoniinae. The Hawaiian honeycreepers are now included in this subfamily. Except for the Hawaiian honeycreepers which underwent adaptive radiation in Hawaii and have evolved a broad range of diets, cardueline finches are specialised seed eaters, and unlike most passerine birds, they feed their young mostly on seeds, which are regurgitated.Newton, 1973, p. 31 Besides this, they differ from the other finches in some minor details of their skull. They are adept at opening seeds and clinging to stems, unlike other granivorous birds, such as sparrows and buntings, which feed mostly on fallen seeds. Some members of this subfamily are further specialised to feed on a particular type of seed, such as cones in the case of crossbills. Carduelines forage in flocks throughout the year, rather than keeping territories, and males defend the ... [...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] |
Thick-billed Siskin
The thick-billed siskin (''Spinus crassirostris'') is a species of finch in the family Fringillidae. Found in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru, its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forests and subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland. Description The thick-billed siskin has an adult length of between . The bill often has a silvery base and is noticeable thicker than other related siskins. The male closely resembles the hooded siskin (''Spinus magellanicus'') and has a black head and throat, greenish-yellow upper parts (sometimes streaked with dark markings) and bright yellow underparts. It differs from the hooded siskin in having a whitish-grey midbelly. The immature male has a black head but is otherwise less conspicuous than the mature male, being more greyish-olive above and greyish below. The female is similar but lacks the black head and is altogether much duller in appearance, more greyish-olive, with paler underparts. Distribution and hab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pine Siskin
The pine siskin (''Spinus pinus'') is a North American bird in the finch family. It is a migratory bird with an extremely sporadic winter range. Taxonomy The pine siskin was formally described in 1810 by the American ornithologist Alexander Wilson under the binomial name ''Fringilla pinus''. The specific epithet ''pinus'' is the Latin word for a "pine-tree". The type locality is Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The pine siskin is now placed in the genus '' Spinus'' that was introduced in 1816 by the German naturalist Carl Ludwig Koch in 1816. Three subspecies are recognised: * ''S. p. pinus'' ( Wilson, A, 1810) – Alaska, Canada and west, northeast USA * ''S. p. macropterus'' ( Bonaparte, 1850) – northwest and central Mexico * ''S. p. perplexus'' Van Rossem, 1938 – south Mexico to Guatemala Description These birds are fairly small, being around the same size as the widespread American goldfinch. In both sexes, total length can range from , with a wingspan of and weigh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mixed-species Foraging Flock
A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species that join each other and move together while foraging. These are different from feeding aggregations, which are congregations of several species of bird at areas of high food availability. While it is currently unknown how mixed-species foraging flocks originate, researchers have proposed a few mechanisms for their initiation. Many believe that nuclear species play a vital role in mixed-species flock initiation. Additionally, the forest structure is hypothesized to play a vital role in these flocks' formation. In Sri Lanka, for example, vocal mimicry by the greater racket-tailed drongo might have a key role in the initiation of mixed-species foraging flocks, while in parts of the American tropics packs of foraging golden-crowned warblers might play the same role. Composition Mixed-species foraging ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sociality
Sociality is the degree to which individuals in an animal population tend to associate in social groups (gregariousness) and form cooperative societies. Sociality is a survival response to evolutionary pressures. For example, when a mother wasp stays near her larvae in the nest, parasites are less likely to eat the larvae. Biologists suspect that pressures from parasites and other predators Natural selection, selected this behavior in wasps of the Family (biology), family Vespidae. This wasp behaviour evidences the most fundamental characteristic of animal sociality: parental investment. Parental investment is any expenditure of resources (time, energy, social capital) to benefit one's offspring. Parental investment detracts from a parent's capacity to invest in future reproduction and aid to Family, kin (including other offspring). An animal that cares for its young but shows no other sociality traits is said to be ''subsocial''. An animal that exhibits a high degree of social ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paraphyly
In taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In contrast, a monophyletic group (a clade) includes a common ancestor and ''all'' of its descendants. The terms are commonly used in phylogenetics (a subfield of biology) and in the tree model of historical linguistics. Paraphyletic groups are identified by a combination of synapomorphies and symplesiomorphies. If many subgroups are missing from the named group, it is said to be polyparaphyletic. The term was coined by Willi Hennig to apply to well-known taxa like Reptilia ( reptiles) which, as commonly named and traditionally defined, is paraphyletic with respect to mammals and birds. Reptilia contains the last common ancestor of reptiles and all descendants of that ancestor, including all extant reptiles as well as the extinct synapsids, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hooded Siskin
The hooded siskin (''Spinus magellanicus'') is a small passerine bird in the finch family (Fringillidae), native to South America. It belongs to the putative clade of neotropical siskins in the genus '' Spinus sensu lato''. There are 11 subspecies, including the Santa Cruz hooded siskin (''S. m. santaecrucis'') of central and eastern Bolivia. This subspecies is sometimes considered to be a separate species. Description Hooded siskins are 10 to 14 cm in length. The male is largely green above and yellow below with a black head. It has a narrow yellow collar and a yellow rump. The tail is black with yellow sides to the base and the wings are black with a broad yellow band. Females are duller with a green-brown head, yellow-green breast and sides and a whitish belly. The twittering song may be uttered from a perch or in flight. It is varied and fast, and may contain imitations of other birds. Distribution and ecology It inhabits woodland, savannas, scrubland, farmland, par ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in 2009 by the International Union of Geological Sciences, the cutoff of the Pleistocene and the preceding Pliocene was regarded as being 1.806 million years Before Present (BP). Publications from earlier years may use either definition of the period. The end of the Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period and also with the end of the Paleolithic age used in archaeology. The name is a combination of Ancient Greek grc, label=none, πλεῖστος, pleīstos, most and grc, label=none, καινός, kainós (latinized as ), 'new'. At the end of the preceding Pliocene, the previously isolated North and South American continents were joined by the Isthmus of Panama, causing Great American Interchang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great American Interchange
The Great American Biotic Interchange (commonly abbreviated as GABI), also known as the Great American Interchange and the Great American Faunal Interchange, was an important late Cenozoic paleozoogeographic biotic interchange event in which land and freshwater fauna migrated from North America via Central America to South America and vice versa, as the volcanic Isthmus of Panama rose up from the sea floor and bridged the formerly separated continents. Although earlier dispersals had occurred, probably over water, the migration accelerated dramatically about 2.7 million years ( Ma) ago during the Piacenzian age. It resulted in the joining of the Neotropic (roughly South American) and Nearctic (roughly North American) biogeographic realms definitively to form the Americas. The interchange is visible from observation of both biostratigraphy and nature (neontology). Its most dramatic effect is on the zoogeography of mammals, but it also gave an opportunity for reptiles, amphibia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
