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Lesser Striped Swallow
The lesser striped swallow (''Cecropis abyssinica'') is a large swallow. It breeds in Sub-Saharan Africa from Sierra Leone and southern Sudan south into eastern South Africa. It is partially migratory with South African birds wintering further north. West African birds leave the north of the breeding range in the dry season. Habitat This is a bird of wooded, mainly lowland habitats. The lesser striped swallow prefers less open habitats, and is replaced in montane grassland by the greater striped swallow, ''Hirundo cucullata''. It is common and often found around human habitation. Description The lesser striped swallow is 15–10 cm long. It has dark blue upperparts with a red rump and a rufous-chestnut crown, nape and sides of the head. The underparts are white with dark streaking, and the upper wings and underwing flight feathers are blackish-brown. The underwing coverts are tawny. The blackish tail has very long outer feathers; these are slightly longer in the male than t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masai Mara Game Reserve
Maasai Mara, also sometimes spelled Masai Mara and locally known simply as The Mara, is a large national game reserve in Narok, Kenya, contiguous with the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. It is named in honor of the Maasai people, the ancestral inhabitants of the area, who migrated to the area from the Nile Basin. Their description of the area when looked at from afar: "Mara" means "spotted" in the local Maasai language, due to the many short bushy trees which dot the landscape. Maasai Mara is one of the most famous and important wildlife conservation and wilderness areas in Africa, world-renowned for its exceptional populations of lion, leopard, cheetah and African bush elephant. It also hosts the Great Migration, which secured it as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa, and as one of the ten Wonders of the World. The Greater Mara ecosystem encompasses areas known as the Maasai Mara National Reserve, the Mara Triangle, and several Maasai Conservancies, including Ko ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greater Striped Swallow
The greater striped swallow (''Cecropis cucullata'') is a large swallow that is native to Africa south of the equator. Taxonomy The greater striped swallow was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his '' Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux'' from a specimen collected in the Cape of Good Hope district of South Africa. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the ''Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle'' which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name ''Hirundo cucullata'' in his catalogue of the ''Planches Enluminées''. The greater striped swallow is now one of nine species that are placed in the genus ''Cecropis'' that was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1826. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birds Of Sub-Saharan Africa
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the bee hummingbird to the ostrich. There are about ten thousand living species, more than half of which are passerine, or "perching" birds. Birds have whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming. Birds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cecropis
''Cecropis'' is a genus of large swallows found in Africa and tropical Asia. The red-rumped swallow's range also extends into southern Europe, and (in small numbers) into Australia. This genus is frequently subsumed into the larger genus ''Hirundo''. The swallow family consists of 74 bird species which typically hunt insects in flight. The two river martins have long been recognised as very distinctive, and are placed in a separate subfamily, Pseudochelidoninae, leaving all other swallows and martins in the Hirundininae. DNA studies suggest that there are three major groupings within the Hirundininae subfamily, broadly correlating with the type of nest built. The groups are the "core martins" including burrowing species like the sand martin, the "nest-adopters", with birds like the tree swallow which use natural cavities, and the "mud nest builders". The ''Cecropsis'' species construct a closed mud nest and therefore belong to the latter group. It is believed that the evolutiona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Female
Female (Venus symbol, symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ovum, ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the Sperm, male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and males are results of the anisogamous reproduction system, wherein gametes are of different sizes, unlike isogamy where they are the same size. The exact mechanism of female gamete evolution remains unknown. In species that have males and females, Sex-determination system, sex-determination may be based on either sex chromosomes, or environmental conditions. Most female mammals, including female humans, have two X chromosomes. Female characteristics vary between different species with some species having pronounced Secondary sex characteristic, secondary female sex characteristics, such as the presence of pronounced mammary glands in mammals. In humans, the word ''female'' can also be used to refer to gender i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rock Overhang
An overhang is a rock face or artificial climbing wall with a slope of more than 90°, i.e. it slopes beyond the Vertical direction, vertical. Particularly severe overhangs that reach, or nearly reach, the horizontal plane, horizontal, are referred to as a roof. In climbing, overhangs and especially roofs place special demands both in terms of technique and equipment as well as the constitution of the climber. With increasing steepness the loading on arm and hand muscles increases, because the feet can support less and less of the body weight. Rest points where the muscles can be relaxed, especially no-hands rests, are rarely found in overhangs. Climbing techniques to tackle overhangs include placing the Center of mass, body's centre of mass as close as possible to the rock and striving for the highest possible body tension. Many climbing techniques such as the foothook are almost exclusively used in overhangs and roofs. For a long time in Alpine climbing, roofs were almost alwa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rufous
Rufous () is a color that may be described as reddish-brown or brownish-red, as of rust or oxidised iron. The first recorded use of ''rufous'' as a color name in English was in 1782. However, the color is also recorded earlier in 1527 as a diagnostic urine color. The word "rufous" is derived from the Latin ''rufus'', meaning "red", and is used as an adjective in the names of many animals—especially birds—to describe the color of their skin, fur, or plumage. See also * List of colours: N–Z *Lists of colours These are the lists of colors; * List of colors: A–F * List of colors: G–M * List of colors: N–Z * List of colors (compact) * List of colors by shade * List of color palettes * List of Crayola crayon colors * List of RAL colors * List of X ... * References {{Shades of brown Bird colours Shades of brown Shades of red ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lesser Striped Swallow (Cecropis Abyssinica) 2008 02 27
The lesser striped swallow (''Cecropis abyssinica'') is a large swallow. It breeds in Sub-Saharan Africa from Sierra Leone and southern Sudan south into eastern South Africa. It is partially migratory with South African birds wintering further north. West African birds leave the north of the breeding range in the dry season. Habitat This is a bird of wooded, mainly lowland habitats. The lesser striped swallow prefers less open habitats, and is replaced in montane grassland by the greater striped swallow, ''Hirundo cucullata''. It is common and often found around human habitation. Description The lesser striped swallow is 15–10 cm long. It has dark blue upperparts with a red rump and a rufous-chestnut crown, nape and sides of the head. The underparts are white with dark streaking, and the upper wings and underwing flight feathers are blackish-brown. The underwing coverts are tawny. The blackish tail has very long outer feathers; these are slightly longer in the male than ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montane Grassland
Montane grasslands and shrublands is a biome defined by the World Wildlife Fund. The biome includes high elevation grasslands and shrublands around the world. The term "montane" in the name of the biome refers to "high elevation", rather than the ecological term which denotes the region below treeline. This biome includes high elevation (montane and alpine) grasslands and shrublands, including the puna and páramo in South America, subalpine heath in New Guinea and East Africa, steppes of the Tibetan plateaus, as well as other similar subalpine habitats around the world. The plants and animals of tropical montane páramos display striking adaptations to cool, wet conditions and intense sunlight. Around the world, characteristic plants of these habitats display features such as rosette structures, waxy surfaces, and abundant pilosity. The páramos of the northern Andes are the most extensive examples of this habitat type. Although ecoregion biotas are most diverse in the And ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville
Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville, also known as F. E. Guerin, (12 October 1799, in Toulon – 26 January 1874, in Paris) was a French entomologist. Life and work Guérin-Méneville changed his surname from Guérin in 1836. He was the author of the illustrated work ''Iconographie du Règne Animal de G. Cuvier 1829–1844'', a complement to the work of the zoologists Georges Cuvier and Pierre André Latreille, ''Le Règne Animal'', which illustrated only a selection of the animals covered. Cuvier was delighted with the work, saying that it would be very useful to readers, and that the illustrations were "as accurate as they were elegant". He also introduced silkworms to France, so they could be bred for the production of silk. Guérin-Méneville founded several journals: ''Magasin de zoologie, d’anatomie comparée et de paléontologie'' (1830), ''Revue zoologique par la Société cuviérienne'' (1838), ''Revue et Magasin de zoologie pure et appliquée'' (1849), and ''Revue de ... [...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] |
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini. It also completely enclaves the country Lesotho. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World, and the second-most populous country located entirely south of the equator, after Tanzania. South Africa is a biodiversity hotspot, with unique biomes, plant and animal life. With over 60 million people, the country is the world's 24th-most populous nation and covers an area of . South Africa has three capital cities, with the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government based in Pretoria, Bloemfontein, and Cape Town respectively. The largest city is Johannesburg. About 80% of the population are Black South Afri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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