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Tachymarptis Melba MHNT ZOO 2010 11 159 RdN Meknès
''Tachymarptis'' is a genus of bird in the swift family, Apodidae. It contains the Alpine swift (''Tachymarptis melba'') of Eurasia and Africa and the mottled swift (''Tachymarptis aequatorialis'') of Africa. They are large swifts with relatively broad wings, a large head, a medium-length forked tail and white in the underparts.Chantler, Phil & Gerald Driessens (2000) ''Swifts: A Guide to the Swifts and Treeswifts of the World'', 2nd ed., Pica Press, East Sussex. They are often included in the genus ''Apus'' but they are larger than other members of that genus, their nestlings have a different foot structure and they host different species of feather lice. The species placed in ''Tachymarptis'' are not deeply nested inside ''Apus''Päckert, Martin; A. Feigl, M. Wink & D.T. Tietze (2011Molecular phylogeny and historical biogeography of swifts (Apodidae: ''Apus'', ''Tachymarptis'') 5th IBS conference, 7‐11.01.2011, Irakleion, Crete, Greece. but represent a monophyletic sister linea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alpine Swift
The alpine swift (''Tachymarptis melba'') formerly ''Apus melba'', is a species of swift found in Africa, southern Europe and Asia. They breed in mountains from southern Europe to the Himalaya. Like common swifts, they are migratory; the southern European population winters further south in southern Africa. They have very short legs which are used for clinging to vertical surfaces. Like most swifts, they never settle voluntarily on the ground, spending most of their lives in the air living on the insects they catch in their beaks. Taxonomy and systematics The genus name is from the Ancient Greek ''takhus'', "fast", and ''marptis'', "seizer". The specific name ''melba'' comes from ‘melano-alba’ or ‘mel-alba’, the two colours that Linnaeus referred to these in his description. A total of ten sub-species are currently recognised (see distribution below). Description and biology This is a large swift measuring 20–22 cm in length with a wingspan of 54–60 cm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Austin Roberts (zoologist)
Austin Roberts (3 January 1883 – 5 May 1948) was a South African zoologist. He is best known for his ''Birds of South Africa'', first published in 1940. He also studied the mammalian fauna of the region: his work ''The mammals of South Africa'' was published posthumously in 1951. The 7th edition of ''Roberts' Birds of Southern Africa'' which appeared in 2005, is the standard work on the region's birds. Biography Roberts, son of Alfred Roberts (church minister) and Marianne Fannin (naturalist and flower artist), was born in Pretoria and grew up in Potchefstroom, South Africa. He gained much of his early knowledge of zoology from Thomas Ayres (1828–1913), one of South Africa's first amateur ornithologists. Ayres taught Roberts to skin birds and small mammals as well as the importance of keeping accurate records on every specimen. He also encouraged Roberts to study birds systematically. Roberts worked as a clerk in the Potchefstroom branch of Standard Bank from 1901 to 1903 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mottled Swift
The mottled swift (''Tachymarptis aequatorialis'') is a species of bird in the swift family, Apodidae. It is one of two species in the genus '' Tachymarptis'' together with the alpine swift (''T. melba'').Chantler, Phil & Gerald Driessens (2000) ''Swifts: A Guide to the Swifts and Treeswifts of the World'', 2nd ed., Pica Press, East Sussex. It occurs widely in eastern Africa and locally in western Africa. It is found in Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Jali Makawa noted that the Alomwe people hunted these swifts by swirling long bamboo poles above them to swat the swifts down. Makawa and C.W. Benson tasted these birds and found them palatable. References External links * Mottled swift Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family (taxonomy), family. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus. :E.g. ''Panthera leo'' (lion) and ''Panthera onca'' (jaguar) are two species within the genus ''Panthera''. ''Panthera'' is a genus within the family Felidae. The composition of a genus is determined by taxonomy (biology), taxonomists. The standards for genus classification are not strictly codified, so different authorities often produce different classifications for genera. There are some general practices used, however, including the idea that a newly defined genus should fulfill these three criteria to be descriptively useful: # monophyly – all descendants ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swift (bird)
The swifts are a family, Apodidae, of highly aerial birds. They are superficially similar to swallows, but are not closely related to any passerine species. Swifts are placed in the order Apodiformes with hummingbirds. The treeswifts are closely related to the true swifts, but form a separate family, the Hemiprocnidae. Resemblances between swifts and swallows are due to convergent evolution, reflecting similar life styles based on catching insects in flight. The family name, Apodidae, is derived from the Greek ἄπους (''ápous''), meaning "footless", a reference to the small, weak legs of these most aerial of birds.Jobling (2010) pp. 50–51.Kaufman (2001) p. 329. The tradition of depicting swifts without feet continued into the Middle Ages, as seen in the heraldic martlet. Taxonomy Taxonomists have long classified swifts and treeswifts as relatives of the hummingbirds, a judgment corroborated by the discovery of the Jungornithidae (apparently swift-like hummingbird-relati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mottled Swift
The mottled swift (''Tachymarptis aequatorialis'') is a species of bird in the swift family, Apodidae. It is one of two species in the genus '' Tachymarptis'' together with the alpine swift (''T. melba'').Chantler, Phil & Gerald Driessens (2000) ''Swifts: A Guide to the Swifts and Treeswifts of the World'', 2nd ed., Pica Press, East Sussex. It occurs widely in eastern Africa and locally in western Africa. It is found in Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Jali Makawa noted that the Alomwe people hunted these swifts by swirling long bamboo poles above them to swat the swifts down. Makawa and C.W. Benson tasted these birds and found them palatable. References External links * Mottled swift Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apus (genus)
The bird genus ''Apus'' comprise some of the Old World members of the family Apodidae, commonly known as swifts. They are among the fastest birds in the world. They resemble swallows, to which they are not related, but have shorter tails and sickle-shaped wings. Swifts spend most of their life aloft, have very short legs and use them mostly to cling to surfaces. Taxonomy The genus ''Apus'' was erected by the Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1777 based on tautonymy and the common swift which had been given the binomial name ''Hirundo apus'' by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758. The name ''Apus'' is Latin for a swift, thought by the ancients to be a type of swallow with no feet (from Ancient Greek α, ''a'', "without", and πούς, ''pous'', "foot"). Before the 1950s, there was some controversy over which group of organism should have the genus name ''Apus''. In 1801, Bosc gave the small crustacean organisms, known today as ''Triops,'' the genus nam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Feather Louse
A bird louse is any chewing louse (small, biting insects) of order Phthiraptera which parasitizes warm-blooded animals, especially birds. Bird lice may feed on feathers, skin, or blood. They have no wings, and their biting mouth parts distinguish them from true lice, which suck blood."Bird louse" on Encyclopædia Britannica. Almost all domestic birds are hosts for at least one species of bird louse. Chickens and other poultry are attacked by many kinds of bird lice. Bird lice usually do not cause much harm to a bird unless it is unusually infested as in the case of birds with damaged bills which cannot preen themselves properly. A blood-consuming louse that infests Galápagos Hawks imore numerous on hawks without territories possibly because those individuals spend more time looking for food and less time preening than hawks with territories. In such cases, their irritation may cause the bird to damage itself by scratching. In extreme cases, the infestation may even interfere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek Language
Greek ( el, label=Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy (Calabria and Salento), southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor, and the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet, which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer, ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting impo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apodidae
The swifts are a family, Apodidae, of highly aerial birds. They are superficially similar to swallows, but are not closely related to any passerine species. Swifts are placed in the order Apodiformes with hummingbirds. The treeswifts are closely related to the true swifts, but form a separate family, the Hemiprocnidae. Resemblances between swifts and swallows are due to convergent evolution, reflecting similar life styles based on catching insects in flight. The family name, Apodidae, is derived from the Greek ἄπους (''ápous''), meaning "footless", a reference to the small, weak legs of these most aerial of birds.Jobling (2010) pp. 50–51.Kaufman (2001) p. 329. The tradition of depicting swifts without feet continued into the Middle Ages, as seen in the heraldic martlet. Taxonomy Taxonomists have long classified swifts and treeswifts as relatives of the hummingbirds, a judgment corroborated by the discovery of the Jungornithidae (apparently swift-like hummingbird-relati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
