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White-backed Mousebird
The white-backed mousebird (''Colius colius'') is a large species of mousebird. It is distributed in western and central regions of southern Africa from Namibia and southern Botswana eastwards to Central Transvaal and the eastern Cape. This mousebird prefers scrubby dry habitats, such as thornveld, fynbos scrub and semi-desert. This bird is about long, with the tail comprising approximately half the length, and weighs . The upper parts, head, prominent crest and breast are grey apart from a white back stripe flanked by two broad black stripes and a dark red, or maroon, transverse band at the base of the tail. The white is not visible unless the wings are at least partly open, such as when the birds are alighting, or sometimes in hot weather. The belly is buff in colour. The bill is bluish white with a black tip, and the legs and feet are red. The speckled mousebird can be distinguished from this species by its differently coloured beak, legs and upperparts. The white-backed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms. He is known as the "father of modern Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy". Many of his writings were in Latin; his name is rendered in Latin as and, after his 1761 ennoblement, as . Linnaeus was born in Råshult, the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. He received most of his higher education at Uppsala University and began giving lectures in botany there in 1730. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published the first edition of his ' in the Netherlands. He then returned to Sweden where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on several journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants and animals. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nectar
Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists, which in turn provide herbivore protection. Common nectar-consuming pollinators include mosquitoes, hoverflies, wasps, bees, butterflies and moths, hummingbirds, honeyeaters and bats. Nectar plays a crucial role in the foraging economics and evolution of nectar-eating species; for example, nectar foraging behavior is largely responsible for the divergent evolution of the African honey bee, ''A. m. scutellata'' and the western honey bee. Nectar is an economically important substance as it is the sugar source for honey. It is also useful in agriculture and horticulture because the adult stages of some predatory insects feed on nectar. For example, a number of parasitoid wasps (e.g. the social wasp species '' Apoica flavissima'') ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birds Of Southern 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. Bird ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colius
''Colius'' is a genus of mousebirds in the family Coliidae. The four species are widely distributed in Africa. Two other African mousebirds are placed in the genus '' Urocolius''. The genus ''Colius'' was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the white-backed mousebird (''Colius colius'') as the type species. The genus contains the following four species: A fossil species, ''Colius hendeyi'', was described from Early Pliocene remains found at Langebaanweg in South Africa. Some Miocene taxa from France were previously assigned to ''Colius''. Of these, only the Middle Miocene ''"Colius" palustris'' might plausibly belong there,Mlíkovský (2002) but it is more often separated in ''Necrornis''. In younger lineages like Passeriformes, extant genera (e.g. '' Menura'' and ''Orthonyx'') were around by then, though it must be remembered that simply because two taxa are of same taxonomic rank they do not need to be of the same age. All that can be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colius Colius White-backed Mousebird Dorsal Plumage 8425s
''Colius'' is a genus of mousebirds in the family Coliidae. The four species are widely distributed in Africa. Two other African mousebirds are placed in the genus ''Urocolius''. The genus ''Colius'' was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the white-backed mousebird (''Colius colius'') as the type species. The genus contains the following four species: A fossil species, ''Colius hendeyi'', was described from Early Pliocene remains found at Langebaanweg in South Africa. Some Miocene taxa from France were previously assigned to ''Colius''. Of these, only the Middle Miocene ''"Colius" palustris'' might plausibly belong there,Mlíkovský (2002) but it is more often separated in ''Necrornis''. In younger lineages like Passeriformes, extant genera (e.g. '' Menura'' and '' Orthonyx'') were around by then, though it must be remembered that simply because two taxa are of same taxonomic rank they do not need to be of the same age. All that can be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colius White-backed Mousebird Feeding On Duranta Berries 9861
''Colius'' is a genus of mousebirds in the family (biology), family Coliidae. The four species are widely distributed in Africa. Two other African mousebirds are placed in the genus ''Urocolius''. The genus ''Colius'' was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the white-backed mousebird (''Colius colius'') as the type species. The genus contains the following four species: A fossil species, ''Colius hendeyi'', was described from Early Pliocene remains found at Langebaanweg in South Africa. Some Miocene taxa from France were previously assigned to ''Colius''. Of these, only the Middle Miocene ''"Colius" palustris'' might plausibly belong there,Mlíkovský (2002) but it is more often separated in ''Necrornis''. In younger lineages like Passeriformes, extant genera (e.g. ''Menura'' and ''Orthonyx'') were around by then, though it must be remembered that simply because two taxa are of same taxonomic rank they do not need to be of the same age. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cotoneaster
''Cotoneaster'' is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, native to the Palaearctic region (temperate Asia, Europe, north Africa), with a strong concentration of diversity in the genus in the mountains of southwestern China and the Himalayas.Flora of China''Cotoneaster''(includes most of the world's ''Cotoneaster'' species) ''www.efloras.org'' They are related to hawthorns (''Crataegus''), firethorns (''Pyracantha''), photinias (''Photinia''), and rowans (''Sorbus''). Depending on the species definition used, between 70 and 300 different species of ''Cotoneaster'' are described, with many apomictic microspecies treated as species by some authors, but only as varieties by others.Bean, W. J. (1976). ''Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles'' 8th edition. John Murray . The majority of species are shrubs from tall, varying from ground-hugging prostrate plants to erect shrubs; a few, notably ''C. frigidus'', are small trees up to tall and trunk diameter. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Halleria Lucida
''Halleria lucida'' (also known as tree fuchsia, umBinza or notsung) is a small, attractive, evergreen tree that is indigenous to Southern Africa. It is increasingly grown as an ornamental tree in African gardens. Appearance This tree has lush, glossy, bright-green foliage on arching and drooping branches. It is often multi-stemmed and can eventually reach a height of over 15m. The way that the dense foliage droops from the hanging branches gives the tree a willowy appearance. ''Notsung'' is unusual in producing its flowers and fruit, not from the tips of its branches like most flowering trees, but from its trunk, exhibiting what is known in botany as cauliflory. This characteristic is also found in other Southern African trees such as Stamvrug. The orange or purple flowers are rich in nectar and bi-sexual. The small, fleshy fruits are edible (but do not taste particularly good). It is a member of the Snapdragon family. Distribution The natural range of this tree extends thr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Citharexylum
''Citharexylum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the verbena family, Verbenaceae. It contains shrub and tree species commonly known as fiddlewoods or zitherwoods. They are native to the Americas, ranging from southern Florida and Texas in the United States to Argentina. The highest diversity occurs in Mexico and the Andes. The generic name is derived from the Greek words κιθάρα ('' kithara''), meaning " lyre", and ξύλον (''xylon''), meaning "wood," referring to the use of the wood in the sounding boards of string instruments. Several species, especially '' C. caudatum'' and '' C. spinosum'', are cultivated as ornamentals. ;Species # ''Citharexylum affine'' D.Don - from northern Mexico to Nicaragua # ''Citharexylum alainii'' Moldenke - Dominican Republic # ''Citharexylum albicaule'' Turcz. - Cuba # ''Citharexylum altamiranum'' Greenm. - northeastern Mexico # ''Citharexylum andinum'' Moldenke - Bolivia, Jujuy Province of Argentina # ''Citharexylum argutedenta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seed
A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosperm plants. Seeds are the product of the ripened ovule, after the embryo sac is fertilized by sperm from pollen, forming a zygote. The embryo within a seed develops from the zygote, and grows within the mother plant to a certain size before growth is halted. The seed coat arises from the integuments of the ovule. Seeds have been an important development in the reproduction and success of vegetable gymnosperm and angiosperm plants, relative to more primitive plants such as ferns, mosses and liverworts, which do not have seeds and use water-dependent means to propagate themselves. Seed plants now dominate biological niches on land, from forests to grasslands both in hot and cold climates Climate is the long-term weather p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mousebird
The mousebirds are birds in the order Coliiformes. They are the sister group to the clade Eucavitaves, which includes the Leptosomiformes (the cuckoo roller), Trogoniformes (trogons), Bucerotiformes (hornbills and hoopoes), Piciformes (woodpeckers, toucans, and barbets) and Coraciformes (kingfishers, bee-eaters, rollers, motmots, and todies). This group is now confined to sub-Saharan Africa, and it is the only bird order confined entirely to that continent, with the possible exception of turacos which are considered by some as the distinct order Musophagiformes, and the cuckoo roller, which is the only member of the order Leptosomiformes, and which is found in Madagascar but not mainland Africa. Mousebirds had a wider range in the Paleogene, with a widespread distribution in Europe and North America during the Paleocene. Description Mousebirds are slender greyish or brown birds with soft, hairlike body feathers. They are typically about in body length, with a long ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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