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Estrildid Finch
Estrildidae, or estrildid finches, is a family (taxonomy), family of small seed-eating passerine birds of the Old World tropics and Australasia. They comprise species commonly known as munias, mannikins, firefinches, parrotfinches and waxbills. They are gregarious and often colonial seed predation, seed eaters with short, thick, but pointed bills. They are all similar in structure and habits, but vary widely in plumage colours and patterns. All estrildids build large, domed nests and lay five to ten white eggs. Many species build roost nests. Some of the firefinches and pytilias are hosts to the brood parasitism, brood-parasitic indigobirds and indigobird, whydahs, respectively. Most are sensitive to cold and require warm, usually tropical, habitats, although a few, such as the eastern alpine mannikin, mountain firetail, red-browed finch, and the genus ''Stagonopleura'', have adapted to the cooler climates of southern Australia and the highlands of New Guinea. The smallest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red-browed Finch
The red-browed finch (''Neochmia temporalis'') is an estrildid finch that inhabits the east coast of Australia. This species has also been introduced to French Polynesia. It is commonly found in temperate forest and dry savannah habitats. It may also be found in dry forest and mangrove habitats in tropical regions. The species is distinguished by the bright red stripe above the eye and bright red rump. The rest of the body is grey, with olive wing coverts and collar. Juveniles do not have red brow marks and lack olive colouration on the collar and wing coverts. The adults are long. Taxonomy The red-browed finch was first described by the English ornithologist John Latham (ornithologist), John Latham in 1801 under the binomial name ''Fringilla temporalis''. It is one of four species in the genus ''Neochmia''. Alternate names include red-browed firetail, Sydney waxbill and redbill. The species was once allied to genus ''Emblema (bird), Emblema''. There are three noted subspecies: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Java Sparrow
The Java sparrow (''Padda oryzivora''; Japanese: 文鳥, ''bunchō''), also known as the Java finch, Java rice sparrow or Java rice bird, is a small passerine bird. This estrildid finch is a resident breeding bird in Java, Bali and Bawean in Indonesia. It is a popular cage bird, and has been introduced into many other countries. Taxonomy The Java sparrow was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' under the binomial name ''Loxia oryzivora''. The specific epithet combines Latin ''oryza '' meaning "rice" with ''-vorus'' meaning "eating". Linnaeus based his description on the "Padda or Rice-bird" that had been described and illustrated in 1743 by the English naturalist George Edwards in his ''A Natural History of Uncommon Birds''. Edwards believed that his specimens had come from China but mentions the common name "Java sparrow". The species was reclassified to the genus ''Padda'' in 2020. Description ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stagonopleura
''Stagonopleura'' is a genus of small seed-eating birds in the family Estrildidae that are native to Australia. The species are similar in appearance, with short red bills, brown upperparts, red rumps and uppertail coverts, and barred or spotted underparts. The informal name of firetails refers to the rich crimson colour at the rump, a prominent characteristic of the genus. Taxonomy The genus ''Stagonopleura'' was introduced by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach in 1850. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek ''stagōn'' meaning "spot" with ''pleura'' meaning "side" or "flank". The type species was designated as the diamond firetail in 1851 by Jean Cabanis Jean Louis Cabanis (8 March 1816 – 20 February 1906) was a German ornithologist. He worked at the bird collections of the Natural History Museum in Berlin becoming its first curator of birds in 1850. He founded the ''Journal für Ornithologie .... Species The three species in the genus are: Reference ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Locust Finch
The locust finch or locustfinch (''Paludipasser locustella'') is a species of waxbill found in south-central and south-eastern Africa. It is the only species in the genus ''Paludipasser''. It is sometimes placed in the genus ''Ortygospiza''. Taxonomy The locust finch was first formally described in 1909 by the English naturalist and entomologist Sheffield Airey Neave with the type, a subadl male, being collected at the Upper Luansenshi River, north-east of Bangweolo, Northern Rhodesia, i.e. Zambia. Neave placed in the monotypic genus ''Paludipasser'' within the waxbill family Estrildidae but it has been placed in the same genus as the quailfinch, ''Ortygospiza''. Description The locust finch is similar to the quailfinch but males have a red face, throat and breast with rufous wings and black body with white spots but with a plain back belly. The females also have rufous wings and lack the white face markings of female quailfinches while immatures have black and brown stre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clades
In biology, a clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach to taxonomy adopted by most biological fields. The common ancestor may be an individual, a population, or a species (extinct or extant). Clades are nested, one in another, as each branch in turn splits into smaller branches. These splits reflect evolutionary history as populations diverged and evolved independently. Clades are termed ''monophyletic'' (Greek: "one clan") groups. Over the last few decades, the cladistic approach has revolutionized biological classification and revealed surprising evolutionary relationships among organisms. Increasingly, taxonomists try to avoid naming taxa that are not clades; that is, taxa that are not monophyletic. Some of the relationships between organisms that the molecular biology arm of cladistics has revealed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Per Alström
''Per'' Johan Alström (born 9 April 1961) is a Swedish Professor of ornithology. He does research in Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, systematics, and evolution, with birds in Asia as a specialty. Alström works at the Department of Ecology and Genetics (Animal Ecology) at Uppsala University and at the Swedish Species Information Centre at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala. He has previously worked as e.g. Curator of Ornithology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, and been a guest researcher at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town and a visiting professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing. He is chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Swedish Taxonomy Initiative and the Committee for Swedish Animal Names and Swedish focal point for thGlobal Taxonomy Initiativeunder the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the internatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Most Recent Common Ancestor
A most recent common ancestor (MRCA), also known as a last common ancestor (LCA), is the most recent individual from which all organisms of a set are inferred to have descended. The most recent common ancestor of a higher taxon is generally assumed to have been a species. The term is also used in reference to the ancestry of groups of genes (haplotypes) rather than organisms. The ancestry of a set of individuals can sometimes be determined by referring to an established pedigree, although this may refer only to patrilineal or matrilineal lines for sexually-reproducing organisms with two parents, four grandparents, etc. However, in general, it is impossible to identify the exact MRCA of a large set of individuals, but an estimate of the time at which the MRCA lived can often be given. Such ''time to most recent common ancestor'' (''TMRCA'') estimates can be given based on DNA test results and established mutation rates as practiced in genetic genealogy, or by reference to a non- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viduidae
The indigobirds, whydahs and cuckoo-finch make up the family Viduidae; they are small passerine birds native to Africa. These are Finch, finch-like species which usually have black or indigo predominating in their plumage. The birds named "whydahs"The yellow-mantled widowbird was the type species of its genus, and was originally named from the city of Ouidah in Benin. Nowadays the name whydah (i.e. Ouidah) is however applied to the long-tailed species of the Viduidae. have long or very long tails in the breeding male. All are obligate brood parasites, which lay their eggs in the nests of songbird species; most indigobirds use firefinches as hosts, whereas the paradise whydahs choose pytilias and the cuckoo-finch parasitises cisticolids. Unlike the cuckoos and honeyguides, the indigobirds and whydahs do not destroy the host's eggs. Typically, they lay 2–4 eggs in with those already present. The eggs of both the host and the victim are white, although the indigobird's are sli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sister Taxon
In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and taxon B are sister groups to each other. Taxa A and B, together with any other extant or extinct descendants of their most recent common ancestor (MRCA), form a monophyletic group, the clade AB. Clade AB and taxon C are also sister groups. Taxa A, B, and C, together with all other descendants of their MRCA form the clade ABC. The whole clade ABC is itself a subtree of a larger tree which offers yet more sister group relationships, both among the leaves and among larger, more deeply rooted clades. The tree structure shown connects through its root to the rest of the universal tree of life. In cladistic standards, taxa A, B, and C may represent specimens, species, genera, or any other taxonomic units. If A and B are at the same taxonomic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
