Eurasian Golden Oriole

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Oriolidae
Genus:	Oriolus
Species:	O. oriolus
Binomial name
Oriolus oriolus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Infraclass:	Eutheria
Superorder:	Laurasiatheria[1]
Order:	Chiroptera Blumenbach, 1779

Bat

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Bat (disambiguation).

Bat Temporal range: 52–0 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N Early Eocene – Recent
Townsend's big-eared bat, Corynorhinus townsendii
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Infraclass:	Eutheria
Superorder:	Laurasiatheria[1]
Order:	Chiroptera Blumenbach, 1779
Suborders
See article
Worldwide distribution of bat species

Bats are mammals of the orderChiroptera ( /kaɪˈrɒptərə/; from the Greek χείρ - cheir, "hand"^[2] and πτερόν - pteron, "wing"^[3]) whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustainedflight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such asflying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, gliderather than fly, and can only glide for short distances. Bats do not flap their entire forelimbs, as birds do, but instead flap their spread-outdigits,^[4] which are very long and covered with a thinmembrane or patagium.

Bats represent about 20% of all classified mammal species worldwide, with about 1,240 bat species divided into two suborders: the less specialized and largely fruit-eating 'megachiroptera', or flying foxes, and the more highly specialized and echolocating 'microchiroptera'.^[5] About 70% of bats are insectivores. Most of the rest are frugivores, or fruit eaters. A few species, such as the fish-eating bat, feed from animals other than insects, with the vampire batsbeing the only parasitic mammalian species. Bats are present throughout most of the world, performing vital ecological roles of pollinating flowers and dispersing fruit seeds. Many tropical plant species depend entirely on bats for the distribution of their seeds. Bats are important in eating insect pests, reducing the need for pesticides. The smallest bat is the Kitti's hog-nosed bat, measuring 29–34 mm (1.14–1.34 in) in length, 15 cm (5.91 in) across the wings and 2–2.6 g (0.07–0.09 oz) in mass.^[6][7] It is also arguably the smallest extant species of mammal, with the Etruscan shrew being the other contender.^[8] The largest species of bat are a few species of Pteropus and thegiant golden-crowned flying fox with a weight up to 1.6 kg (4 lb) and wingspan up to 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in).^[9]

BATS.

Kingdom:

Animalia

Phylum:

Chordata

Class:

Mammalia

Infraclass:

Eutheria

Superorder:

Laurasiatheria^[1]

Order:

Chiroptera
Blumenbach, 1779

Townsend's big-eared bat, Corynorhinus townsendii

Kingdom:

Animalia

Phylum:

Chordata

Class:

Mammalia

Infraclass:

Eutheria

Superorder:

Laurasiatheria^[1]

Order:

Chiroptera
Blumenbach, 1779

See article

Worldwide distribution of bat species

SnowdropGalanthus nivalis is the best-known and most widespread representative of the genus Galanthus. It is native to a large area of Europe, stretching from the Pyrenees in the west, through France and Germany to Poland in the north, Italy, Northern Greece, Ukraine, and European Turkey. It has been introduced and is widely naturalised elsewhere. Although it is often thought of as a British native wild flower, or to have been brought to the British Isles by the Romans, it was probably introduced around the early sixteenth century and is currently not a protected species in the UK.

Common Snowdrop
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
clade:	Angiosperms
clade:	Monocots
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Amaryllidaceae
Subfamily:	Amaryllidoideae
Genus:	Galanthus

White backed Vulture

 Ipomoea purpurea (blue)
Positive qualities: Sparkling vital force, awake and refreshed; in touch with natural life rhythms 
Patterns of imbalance: Dull, toxic, or “hung over,” inability to fully enter the body, especially in the morning; addictive or erratic living habits that deplete life force

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Morning GloryFlower Essence Services (FES)

I so enjoy gazing out at the beautiful deep blue Morning Glory flowers as I wake each morning. The stupendous blue color of these bounteous blossoms grows richer as we shift into late summer and autumn. These flowers echo the sky which also turns from the milky, hazy blue of summer to the deeper azure colors of autumn. The Morning Glory flower drinks in the essence of the heavenly morning and then its mission is finished, with the petals deflated and folded inward by late morning. In Nature’s Flower Clock, Morning Glory exudes the prana of being alive to all that is rising to greet the light, to all that celebrates the dawning new possibilities of life. This upward movement of the light - even when the earth herself is turning toward the gravity of autumnal darkness - is an amazing alchemy. And herein lies its healing signature.

The flower essence of Morning Glory pulls us out of the darkness of lethargy- the groggy heaviness t...See More— Morning Glory (10 photos).......

Azure Kingfisher Common Kingfisher Classification Kingdom : Animalia Phylum : Chordata Class: Aves Order : Coraciiformes Family : Alcedinidae Genus : Alcedo Species : A. atthis Zoological name : Alcedo atthis Found In Corbett National Park, Bandhavgarh National Park and Sunderbans National Park in India. Physical appearance : Common Kingfisher is 17 cm in length and weigh around 30- 34 g. Their wingspan is 30 inches long. Their underparts are bright orange in colour with the white bib. Their wings are bluish green and the tail is bright blue in colour. They have blue head with the white mark on either side of it. They have short legs which are colored in orange. The wings and tails are short while the bill is long and pointed. Presence in India : Common Kingfisher is mostly found in the state of Haryana in India Common Kingfisher can also be spotted in the Corbett National Park, Bandhavgarh National Park and Sundarbans National Park in India. Habitat : Common Kingfisher prefers to live near streams, slow flowing rivers, ponds and lakes. Diet : Common kingfisher feeds on aquatic insects, small fish and prawns. They mostly hunt during the morning or evening hours. Reproduction : Common Kingfisher usually mate during the spring season. Males try to attract the females with the fish in their beaks. The females lay 6 – 7 eggs. Eggs are incubated for about 20 days. Fledging period rests from 23 -27 days. They do-not build nests, they place their eggs on a litter of fish bones and disgorged pellets. Both the males and females bring food for the young ones and take care of them. Young ones are somewhat blue to pale red in colour. Most of the Kingfishers are territorial. Conservation status : Least concern. They are present in large numbers. They are usually found near the streams, lakes and pounds. Their population has seriously declined due to the cold weather. Lifespan : The lifespan is of 7 years.
A. a. ruficollaris
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Coraciiformes
Family:	Alcedinidae
Genus:	Alcedo
Species:	A. azurea

Kingfisher ordinary

Alcedo atthis [1]

( Linnaeus , 1758)

Systematics

Adorable Birds in 80 HD Photos That Will Amaze You

Writen by Alexandru / 0 Comments

You will see adorable birds in 80 hd photos that are maybe the best you can find on the internet. Some of these photos can win important prizes because are brilliant. In one photo, we have a small bird with a fish in her mouth. But wat is so outstanding in that photo ? We can see the fish’s eye and one water droplet  falling from him. Amazing details !

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For more Wood Duck photos, visit the Photo Gallery

Latin: Aix sponsa
Average length: M 20", F 19"
Average weight: M 1.5 lbs., F 1.4 lbs.

Description: Male wood ducks have a crested head that is iridescent green and purple with a white stripe leading from the eye to the end of the crest, and another narrower white stripe from the base of the bill to the tip of the crest. The throat is white and the chest is burgundy with white flecks, gradually grading into a white belly. The bill is brightly patterned black, white and red. The legs and feet are a dull straw yellow and the iris is red. The male call is a thin, high, rising "jeeeeee." Female wood ducks have a gray-brown head and neck with a brownish, green, glossed crest. A white teardrop shaped patch surrounds the brownish-black eye. The throat is white and the breast is gray-brown stippled with white, fading into the white belly. The back is olive brown with a shimmer of iridescent green. The bill is blue-gray and the legs and feet are dull grayish-yellow. Females utter a drawn-out, rising squeal, "oo-eek," when flushed, and a sharp "cr-r-ek, cr-e-ek" for an alarm call.

Breeding: Wood ducks breed across most of the central and eastern United States, southeastern Canada and along the Pacific coast from California to British Columbia. The highest breeding densities occur in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. In recent decades, the breeding range has expanded westward into the Great Plains region following development of wooded riparian corridors. Wood ducks prefer riparian habitats, wooded swamps and freshwater marshes. Females nest in tree cavities or nest boxes and lay an average of 12 bone-white eggs.

Migrating and Wintering: In the eastern and western United States, 30-75 percent of wood ducks are permanent residents. Migratory wood ducks use the Atlantic Flyway from New Brunswick to Georgia and south to eastern Texas and the West Indies. The western migratory birds use the Pacific Flyway from British Columbia to the Central Valley of California. Both populations winter over southern portions of their respective breeding ranges, with small numbers south to central Mexico. No clearly defined migratory path exists for interior birds, though they seem to converge south of Kentucky along the Mississippi River floodplain. Generally, wintering habitat differs little from habitats used at other times of the year. Wood ducks predominantly use forested wetlands with a variety of hardwood tree species. Wood ducks are resident in Cuba and are scarce winter visitors to Mexico and Bermuda. They occasionally winter in the Cayman Islands (Scott and Carbonell, 1986).

Population: Reliable estimates of wood duck populations do not exist due to the difficulty of surveying birds in forested habitat, though data from the Breeding Bird Survey (1966-1994) and Christmas Bird Count (1959-1988) indicate increasing populations in nearly all regions of North America.

It is difficult to answer the question: "What is a Bonobo?" Bonobos are complex beings with profound intelligence, emotionality, and sensitivity. It's like asking the question: "What is a human?" And, how do you answer? Philosophers, scientists, and mystics have been trying to figure it out for thousands of years!

Biologically speaking, bonobos are the closest you can get to being human without being human. Bonobos look more like humans than other apes, and display many behavioral similarities as well. Bonobos and people share more than 98% of the same genetic make-up (DNA). Bonobos and their cousins the chimpanzees, are more closely related genetically to us than they are to gorillas! But, like gorillas, they dwell only in the equatorial forests of central Africa, the cradle of humanity itself.

Bonobos are great apes, along with chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas. Because we share so many characteristics with these simian species, some scientists contend that humans should be classified as apes too. Indigenous people who have dwelled among bonobos in the Congo forest have many legends about how bonobos and man were brothers in the distant past. They tell stories about how bonobos showed people what foods to eat in the forest, how a bonobo saved a man who needed help, how bonobos themselves are trying to become human.

These apes have fascinated indigenous people of Africa for hundreds, even thousands of years, yet to most of the world's population, they have been known to exist only for the span of one lifetime. Bonobos were not discovered by scientists until 1933, and even then, not alive, but in the Tervuren Museum in Belgium, identified by means of a skull. Classified as Pan paniscus, bonobos have been studied in the wild and in captivity for about 30 years, since the mid-1970s. They dwell in the tropical forests of the Congo Basin south of the Congo River. Bonobos are found in only one country: the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire), a resource-rich region ravaged by years of war.

Although more research is needed to determine current populations, we do know that that their numbers have been decimated during the war. Urgent help is needed.

Wednesday 22 August 2012

A bonobo shows he is capable of making stone tools for a particular purpose, in a similar way to early humans. Scientists at the University of Haifa, Israel, sealed food inside logs for bonobo Kanzi, who created tools by knapping flints and used them to chop, drill and scrape – managing to get food out of 24 logs

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Two new Philippine owl species. Top left: Cebu hawk owl, Ninox rumseyi. Bottom right: Camiguin hawk owl, N. leventisi.

1. Image courtesy of the Oriental Bird Club. Original painting by John Gale.
2. 
   
3. 
4. The Philippine Archipelago is filled with a tremendous variety of living things, and hundreds of new species have been discovered recently on the islands. The most recent addition to this roll call of biodiversity are not one, but two species of owls that are new to science.
5. The discoveries were confirmed by Pam Rasmussen, assistant professor of zoology and assistant museum curator of mammalogy and ornithology atMichigan State University in East Lansing. Publishing the discovery of two new bird species in one scientific paper is so rare that Professor Rasmussen and other researchers couldn't recall the last time it happened, according to the MSU press release.
6. Professor Rasmussen, who is first author on the paper, led the international team, which included individuals from BirdLife International, the Oriental Bird Club, the Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation and Birdtour Asia.
7. These owls are found on the Philippine islands of Camiguin Sur and Cebu, for which they are being named

Cattle EgritThe Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) is a cosmopolitanspecies of heron (familyArdeidae) found in the tropics, subtropics and warm temperate zones. It is the only member of the monotypicgenus Bubulcus, although some authorities regard its two subspecies as full species, the Western Cattle Egret and the Eastern Cattle Egret. Despite the similarities in plumage to the egrets of the genus Egretta, it is more closely related to the herons of Ardea. Originally native to parts of Asia, Africa and Europe, it has undergone a rapid expansion in itsdistribution and successfullycolonised much of the rest of the world.

It is a white bird adorned with buff plumes in the breeding season. It nests in colonies, usually near bodies of water and often with other wading birds. The nest is a platform of sticks in trees or shrubs. Cattle Egrets exploit drier and open habitats more than other heron species. Their feeding habitats include seasonally inundated grasslands, pastures, farmlands, wetlands and rice paddies. They oftenaccompany cattle or other large mammals, catching insect and small vertebrateprey disturbed by these animals. Some populations of the Cattle Egret are migratoryand others show post-breeding dispersal.

The adult Cattle Egret has few predators, but birds or mammals may raid its nests, and chicks may be lost to starvation, calcium deficiency or disturbance from other large birds. This species maintains a special relationship with cattle, which extends to other large grazing mammals. The cattle egret removes ticks and flies from cattle and consumes them. This benefits both species, but it has been implicated in the spread of tick-borne animal diseases....Wikipedia

RUDDY SHELDUCK Scientific Name: Tadorna ferruginea Marathi Name(s): चक्रवाक, सर्जा, ब्राह्मणी बदक Hindi Name(s): सुरखाब, चकवा Alternate Name(s): Brahminy Duck The Ruddy Shelduck is a bird of open country, and it will breed on cliffs, in burrows, tree holes or crevices distant from water, laying 6-16 creamy-white eggs, incubated for 30 days. It is usually found in pairs or small groups and rarely forms large flocks. However, moulting and wintering gatherings on chosen lakes or slow rivers can be very large. It is a distinctive species, 70 cm long with a 135 cm wingspan. It has orange-brown body plumage and a paler head. The wings are white with black flight feathers. It swims well, and in flight looks heavy, more like a goose than a duck. The male has a black ring at the bottom of the neck in the breeding season summer, and the female often has a white face patch. INFO IN MARATHI: पसरवलेल्या पंखांसकट चक्रवाकाची लांबी १३५ सें. मी. इतकी भरते. चक्रवाक नर हा केशरी बदामी रंगाचा असतो, तर डोक्याचा व मानेचा रंग थोडा फिकट होत जातो. त्याच्या मानेभोवती काळे वर्तूळ असते. पंखामध्ये काळे, पांढरे, हिरवे असे पट्टे असतात आणि शेपूट काळी असते. मादी बर्‍यापैकी नरासारखीच दिसते पण रंगाने ती फिकट असते. पण ओळखण्यासाठी मुख्य फरक म्हणजे तिच्या मानेभोवती काळे वर्तूळ नसते. चक्रवाकहे स्थलांतरीत बदक आहे. हिवाळ्यात दक्षिण भारताचा प्रदेश वगळता साधारणपणे संपूर्ण भारतात ते आढळते. हे पक्षी तलावात जोडीने किंवा लहान थव्याने विहार करतात. त्यातही तलावांच्या किनार्‍याकडे राहणे जास्त पसंत करतात. हे पक्षी इतर बदकांच्या मानाने जमिनीवर जास्त व्यवस्थीत चालू शकतात.

RUDDY SHELDUCK

Scientific Name: Tadorna ferruginea
Marathi Name(s): चक्रवाक, सर्जा, ब्राह्मणी बदक
Hindi Name(s): सुरखाब, चकवा
Alternate Name(s): Brahminy Duck

The Ruddy Shelduck is a bird of open country, and it will breed on cliffs, in burrows, tree holes or crevices distant from water, laying 6-16 creamy-white eggs, incubated for 30 days.
It is usually found in pairs or small groups and rarely forms large flocks. However, moulting and wintering gatherings on chosen lakes or slow rivers can be very large.
It is a distinctive species, 70 cm long with a 135 cm wingspan. It has orange-brown body plumage and a paler head. The wings are white with black flight feathers.
It swims well, and in flight looks heavy, more like a goose than a duck. The male has a black ring at the bottom of the neck in the breeding season summer, and the female often has a white face patch.

INFO IN MARATHI:

पसरवलेल्या पंखांसकट चक्रवाकाची लांबी १३५ सें. मी. इतकी भरते. चक्रवाक नर हा केशरी बदामी रंगाचा असतो, तर डोक्याचा व मानेचा रंग थोडा फिकट होत जातो. त्याच्या मानेभोवती काळे वर्तूळ असते. पंखामध्ये काळे, पांढरे, हिरवे असे पट्टे असतात आणि शेपूट काळी असते. मादी बर्‍यापैकी नरासारखीच दिसते पण रंगाने ती फिकट असते. पण ओळखण्यासाठी मुख्य फरक म्हणजे तिच्या मानेभोवती काळे वर्तूळ नसते.
चक्रवाकहे स्थलांतरीत बदक आहे. हिवाळ्यात दक्षिण भारताचा प्रदेश वगळता साधारणपणे संपूर्ण भारतात ते आढळते. हे पक्षी तलावात जोडीने किंवा लहान थव्याने विहार करतात. त्यातही तलावांच्या किनार्‍याकडे राहणे जास्त पसंत करतात. हे पक्षी इतर बदकांच्या मानाने जमिनीवर जास्त व्यवस्थीत चालू शकतात.