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Hoopoe
Hoopoes () are colourful birds found across Africa, Asia, and Europe, notable for their distinctive "Crest (feathers), crown" of feathers which can be raised or lowered at will. Two living and one extinct species are recognized, though for many years both extant species were lumped as a single species—''Upupa epops''. In fact, some taxonomists still consider the species to be Biological_specificity#Conspecific, conspecific. Some authorities also keep the African and Eurasian hoopoe together but split the Madagascar hoopoe. The Eurasian hoopoe is common in its range and has a large population, so it is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. However, their numbers are declining in Western Europe. Conversely, the hoopoe has been increasing in numbers at the tip of the South Sinai, Sharm el-Sheikh. There are dozens of nesting pairs that remain resident all year round. Taxonomy The genus ''Upupa'' was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Eurasian Hoopoe
The Eurasian hoopoe (''Upupa epops'') is the most widespread species of the genus '' Upupa''. It is a distinctive cinnamon coloured bird with black and white wings, a tall erectile crest, a broad white band across a black tail, and a long narrow downcurved bill. Its call is a soft "oop-oop-oop". The Eurasian hoopoe is native to Europe, Asia and Africa. It is migratory in the northern part of its range. Some ornithologists consider the Madagascar hoopoes as a subspecies. The African hoopoe, subspecies ''U. e. africana'' has sometimes been treated as a separate species. Taxonomy The Eurasian hoopoe was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. He cited the earlier descriptions by the French naturalist Pierre Belon and by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner, both of which had been published in 1555. Linnaeus placed the Eurasian hoopoe with the northern bald ibis and the red-billed chough in the genus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Upupa Antaios
The Saint Helena hoopoe (''Upupa antaios''), also known as the Saint Helena giant hoopoe or giant hoopoe, is an extinct species of hoopoe (family Upupidae) known exclusively from an incomplete subfossil skeleton. Once endemic to the island of Saint Helena, it was last seen around 1550, likely driven to extinction by various aspects of human activity. Description The Saint Helena hoopoe was a large bird, with heavier and more robust skull and leg elements than the Eurasian or common hoopoe ('' Upupa epops''), of which it is a likely descendant. In opposition, the distal wing bones were much smaller than those of modern hoopoes. This and other clues indicate that it was almost certainly flightless. A height cannot be estimated based upon the incomplete skeleton; however, a likely weight range of 101–145 grams has been posited, using several skeletal aspects from the chest region comparable to the common hoopoe (which weighs 46–89 grams). Coloration and markings are unknown, bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight Bird skeleton, skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the bee hummingbird to the common ostrich. There are over 11,000 living species and they are split into 44 Order (biology), orders. More than half are passerine or "perching" birds. Birds have Bird wing, wings 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 Flightless bird, loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemism, endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Upupa Marginata
The Madagascar hoopoe (''Upupa marginata'') is a species of hoopoe in the family Upupidae. It was previously considered a subspecies (''Upupa epops marginata'') of the hoopoe, but was split due to its vocalisations and small differences in plumage. Some taxonomists still consider all three species conspecific. Some authorities also keep the African and Eurasian hoopoe together, but split the Madagascar hoopoe. It is endemic to Madagascar, where its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forest. It is a common bird and the International Union for Conservation of Nature considers its conservation status to be of least concern. Description The adult Madagascar hoopoe is about long and weighs . It has a long, decurved bill, and cinnamon-coloured plumage, the wings being boldly barred in black and white. The tail is black and a long, cinnamon crest with black-tipped feathers can be raised when the bird is alarmed. The wings are broad and rounded; the characteristic flight ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
A & C Black
A & C Black is a British book publishing company, owned since 2002 by Bloomsbury Publishing. The company is noted for publishing ''Who's Who'' since 1849 and the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' between 1827 and 1903. It offers a wide variety of books in fiction and nonfiction, and has published popular travel guides, novels, and science books. History The firm was founded in 1807 by Charles and Adam Black in Edinburgh. In 1851, the company purchased the copyrights to Sir Walter Scott's ''Waverly'' novels for £27,000. The company moved to the Soho district of London in 1889. During the years 1827–1903 the firm published the seventh, eighth and ninth editions of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. This was purchased from Archibald Constable after his company's failure to publish the seventh edition of the encyclopedia. Adam Black retired in 1870 due to his disapproval of his sons' extravagant plans for its ninth edition. This edition, however, would sell half a million sets and w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Clade
In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, 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 taxon, 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 Taxon, taxa that are not clades; that is, taxa that are not Monophyly, monophyletic. Some of the relationships between organisms that the molecul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Coraciiformes
The Coraciiformes are a group of usually colourful birds including the kingfishers, the bee-eaters, the rollers, the motmots, and the todies. They generally have syndactyly, with three forward-pointing toes (and toes 3 & 4 fused at their base), though in many kingfishers one of these is missing. The members of this order are linked by their "slamming" behaviour, thrashing their prey onto surfaces to disarm or incapacitate them. In the past, Coraciiformes encompassed all anisodactyl (including syndactyl) members of the Cavitaves. This means that the birds currently classified in Leptosomiformes ( cuckoo-roller) and Bucerotiformes ( hornbills, hoopoes and allies) were formerly classified in Coraciiformes. This is largely an Old World order, with the representation in the New World limited to the dozen or so species of todies and motmots, and a mere handful of the more than a hundred species of kingfishers. The name Coraciiformes means " raven-like". Specifically, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Systema Naturae
' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomenclature, was partially developed by the Bauhin brothers, Gaspard Bauhin, Gaspard and Johann Bauhin, Johann, Linnaeus was the first to use it consistently throughout his book. The first edition was published in 1735. The full title of the 10th edition (1758), which was the most important one, was ', which appeared in English in 1806 with the title: "A General System of Nature, Through the Three Grand Kingdoms of Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals, Systematically Divided Into their Several Classes, Orders, Genera, Species, and Varieties, with their Habitations, Manners, Economy, Structure and Peculiarities". The 10th edition of Systema Naturae, tenth edition of this book (1758) is considered the starting point of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Kingfisher
Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly coloured birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species living in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, but also can be found in Europe and the Americas. They can be found in deep forests near calm ponds and small rivers. The family contains 118 species and is divided into three subfamilies and 19 genera. All kingfishers have large heads, long, sharp, pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails. Most species have bright plumage with only small differences between the sexes. Most species are tropical in distribution, and a slight majority are found only in forests. They consume a wide range of prey, usually caught by swooping down from a perch. While kingfishers are usually thought to live near rivers and eat fish, many species live away from water and eat small invertebrates. Like other members of their order, they nest in cavit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Onomatopoetic
Onomatopoeia (or rarely echoism) is a type of word, or the process of creating a word, that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Common onomatopoeias in English include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''meow'', ''roar'', and ''chirp'', among other sounds such as '' beep'' or ''hiccup''. Onomatopoeia can differ by language: it conforms to some extent to the broader linguistic system. Hence, the sound of a clock may be expressed variously across languages: as ' in English, in Spanish and Italian (see photo), in Mandarin, in Japanese, or in Hindi, Urdu, and Bengali. Etymology and terminology The word ''onomatopoeia'', with rarer spelling variants like ''onomatopeia'' and ''onomatopœia'', is an English word from the Ancient Greek compound ὀνοματοποιία, ''onomatopoiía'', meaning 'name-making', composed of ὄνομα, ''ónoma'', meaning "name"; and ποιέω, ''poiéō'', meaning "making". It is pronounced . Words ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek Dark Ages, Dark Ages (), the Archaic Greece, Archaic or Homeric Greek, Homeric period (), and the Classical Greece, Classical period (). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athens, fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and Ancient Greek philosophy, philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Homeric Greek, Epic and Classical periods of the language, which are the best-attested periods and considered most typical of Ancient Greek. From the Hellenistic period (), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek, which is regar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
