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Vogelkop Bowerbird
The Vogelkop bowerbird (''Amblyornis inornata''), also known as the Vogelkop gardener bowerbird, is a medium-sized, bowerbird of the mountains of West Papua (New Guinea). Description The birds are about 21–35 cm in length, with the females being slightly smaller. They are mainly olive brown in colour, though somewhat paler below, without ornamental plumage. This makes the species one of the dullest-coloured members of the bowerbird family with, however, one of the largest and most elaborate bowers. Bower The bower is a cone-shaped hut-like structure some 100 cm high and 160 cm in diameter, with an entrance usually propped up by two column-like sticks. A front "lawn" of some square meters area is cleaned of debris and laid out with moss. On this, and in the entrance of the bower, decorations such as colourful flowers or fruit, shining beetle elytra, dead leaves and other conspicuous objects are collected and artistically arranged. Males go to great lengths to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hermann Schlegel
Hermann Schlegel (10 June 1804 – 17 January 1884) was a German ornithologist, herpetologist and ichthyologist. Early life and education Schlegel was born at Altenburg, the son of a brassfounder. His father collected butterflies, which stimulated Schlegel's interest in natural history. The discovery, by chance, of a buzzard's nest led him to the study of birds, and a meeting with Christian Ludwig Brehm. Schlegel started to work for his father, but soon tired of it. He travelled to Vienna in 1824, where, at the university, he attended the lectures of Leopold Fitzinger and Johann Jacob Heckel. A letter of introduction from Brehm to gained him a position at the Naturhistorisches Museum. Ornithological career One year after his arrival, the director of this natural history museum, Carl Franz Anton Ritter von Schreibers, recommended him to Coenraad Jacob Temminck, director of the natural history museum of Leiden, who was seeking an assistant. At first Schlegel worked mainly o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bowerbird
Bowerbirds () make up the bird family Ptilonorhynchidae. They are renowned for their unique courtship behaviour, where males build a structure and decorate it with sticks and brightly coloured objects in an attempt to attract a mate. The family has 27 species in eight genera. These are medium to large-sized passerines, ranging from the golden bowerbird at and to the great bowerbird at and . Their diet consists mainly of fruit but may also include insects (especially for nestlings), flowers, nectar and leaves in some species. The satin and spotted bowerbirds are sometimes considered agricultural pests due to their habit of feeding on introduced fruit and vegetable crops and have occasionally been killed by affected orchardists. The bowerbirds have an Austro-Papuan distribution, with ten species endemic to New Guinea, eight endemic to Australia, and two found in both. Although their distribution is centered on the tropical regions of New Guinea and northern Australia, some sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western New Guinea
Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, or Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the Melanesian island of New Guinea which is administered by Indonesia. Since the island is alternatively named as Papua, the region is also called West Papua ( id, Papua Barat). Lying to the west of Papua New Guinea and considered a part of the Australian continent, the territory is almost entirely in the Southern Hemisphere and includes the Schouten and Raja Ampat archipelagoes. The region is predominantly covered with ancient rainforest where numerous traditional tribes live such as the Dani of the Baliem Valley although a large proportion of the population live in or near coastal areas with the largest city being Jayapura. Within five years following its proclamation of independence in 1945, the Republic of Indonesia (for a time part of the United States of Indonesia) took over all the former territories of the Dutch East Indies except Western New Guinea, acco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hut (dwelling)
A hut is a small dwelling, which may be constructed of various local materials. Huts are a type of vernacular architecture because they are built of readily available materials such as wood, snow, ice, stone, grass, palm leaves, branches, hides, fabric, or mud using techniques passed down through the generations. The construction of a hut is generally less complex than that of a house (durable, well-built dwelling) but more so than that of a shelter (place of refuge or safety) such as a tent and is used as temporary or seasonal shelter or as a permanent dwelling in some indigenous societies.Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press 2009 Huts exist in practically all nomadic cultures. Some huts are transportable and can stand most conditions of weather. Word The term is often employed by people who consider non-western style homes in tropical and sub-tropical areas to be crude or primitive, but often the designs are based on t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moss
Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hornworts. Mosses typically form dense green clumps or mats, often in damp or shady locations. The individual plants are usually composed of simple leaves that are generally only one cell thick, attached to a stem that may be branched or unbranched and has only a limited role in conducting water and nutrients. Although some species have conducting tissues, these are generally poorly developed and structurally different from similar tissue found in vascular plants. Mosses do not have seeds and after fertilisation develop sporophytes with unbranched stalks topped with single capsules containing spores. They are typically tall, though some species are much larger. ''Dawsonia'', the tallest moss in the world, can grow to in height. There are a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elytra
An elytron (; ; , ) is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs (Hemiptera) such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true bugs, the forewings are called hemelytra (sometimes alternatively spelled as "hemielytra"), and in most species only the basal half is thickened while the apex is membranous, but when they are entirely thickened the condition is referred to as "coleopteroid". An elytron is sometimes also referred to as a shard. Description The elytra primarily serve as protective wing-cases for the hindwings underneath, which are used for flying. To fly, a beetle typically opens the elytra and then extends the hindwings, flying while still holding the elytra open, though many beetles in the families Scarabaeidae and Buprestidae can fly with the elytra closed (e.g., most Cetoniinae; ). In a number of groups, the elytra are reduced to various degrees, (e.g., the beetle families Staphylinidae and Ripiphoridae), or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satin Bowerbird
The satin bowerbird (''Ptilonorhynchus violaceus'') is a bowerbird endemic to eastern Australia. A rare natural hybrid (biology), intergeneric hybrid between the satin bowerbird and the regent bowerbird is known as Rawnsley's bowerbird. Description Mature males have violet-blue eyes and are uniformly coloured black, however, light diffraction by the surface texture of the feathers results in an almost metallic sheen giving a deep shiny blue appearance. Immature males are coloured and marked the same as females and are often mistaken for them. Females might be mistaken for the green catbird or spotted catbird with distinctively green/brown or otherwise entirely brown upper body and lighter under body with a distinct reticulated or scalloped pattern, but with very striking blue eyes. Distribution The satin bowerbird is common in rainforest and tall wet sclerophyll forest in eastern Australia from southern Queensland to Victoria (Australia), Victoria. There is also an isolated po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fashion
Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion industry as that which is ''trending''. Everything that is considered ''fashion'' is available and popularized by the fashion system (industry and media). Given the rise in mass production of commodities and clothing at lower prices and global reach, sustainability has become an urgent issue among politicians, brands, and consumers. Definitions The French word , meaning "fashion", dates as far back as 1482, while the English word denoting something "in style" dates only to the 16th century. Other words exist related to concepts of style and appeal that precede ''mode''. In the 12th and 13th century Old French the concept of elegance begins to appear in the context of aristocratic preferences to enhance beauty and display refinement, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mimicry
In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. Often, mimicry functions to protect a species from predators, making it an anti-predator adaptation. Mimicry evolves if a receiver (such as a predator) perceives the similarity between a mimic (the organism that has a resemblance) and a model (the organism it resembles) and as a result changes its behaviour in a way that provides a selective advantage to the mimic. The resemblances that evolve in mimicry can be visual, acoustic, chemical, tactile, or electric, or combinations of these sensory modalities. Mimicry may be to the advantage of both organisms that share a resemblance, in which case it is a form of mutualism; or mimicry can be to the detriment of one, making it parasitic or competitive. The evolutionary convergence between groups is driven by th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indigenous Peoples
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original peoples. The term ''Indigenous'' was first, in its modern context, used by Europeans, who used it to differentiate the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the European settlers of the Americas and from the Sub-Saharan Africans who were brought to the Americas as enslaved people. The term may have first been used in this context by Sir Thomas Browne in 1646, who stated "and although in many parts thereof there be at present swarms of ''Negroes'' serving under the ''Spaniard'', yet were they all transported from ''Africa'', since the discovery of ''Columbus''; and are not indigenous or proper natives of ''America''." Peoples are usually described as "Indigenous" when they maintain traditions or other aspects of an early culture that is assoc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odoardo Beccari
Odoardo Beccari (16 November 1843 – 25 October 1920) was an Italian botanist famous for his discoveries in Indonesia, particularly New Guinea, and Australia. He has been called the greatest botanist to ever study Malesia. His author abbreviation is when citing a botanical name. Life Youth and education (1843–1864) Odoardo Beccari was born in Florence as the third child of Giuseppe di Luigi Beccari and the first child of Antonietta Minucci. After he lost his mother in early infancy and his father in 1849, he was brought up by a maternal uncle Minuccio Minucci. From 1853–1861, he attended the prestigious secondary school Real Collegio in Lucca. Here, one of his teachers was abbot Ignazio Mezzetti (1821–1876), a passionate collector of botanical specimens, who inspired him to pursue botany and assemble a herbarium. He later named the genus Mezzettia in his honor. In August 1861, he commenced his studies at the University of Pisa. Here he quickly captured the attent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arfak Mountains
The Arfak Mountains is a mountain range found on the Bird's Head Peninsula in the Province of West Papua, Indonesia. The term "arfak" came from the language of the coastal Biak people, meaning "inferior." This is due to how big the mountains are compared to other lowland areas found in this region. Located in the east and central regions of the Bird's Head Peninsula, these mountains rise steeply from the sea, with little or no coastal plain surrounding them. Mount Arfak, at , can be viewed from the provincial capital, Manokwari, and is the highest point in West Papua and the Bird's Head Peninsula. Since Dutch colonial times the range has been one of the most frequently explored and best known regions of West Papua for bird watching. Along with the Tamrau Mountains in the north, the two ranges have been divided by the grassy Kebar Valley, which is the heartland of many indigenous people, with a variety of backgrounds. Found near the town of Manokwari, the mountains are an important ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
