Owl
How old are nocturnal birds they are also predators to rodents, bats and, of course mice
they also communicate doing hoot
Solar Panel Systems in Perth WA
If you are looking for the best solar panels in the region of Perth WA, then this is the right place you are looking for!
We have got solar panels systems for residential as well as commercial purposes
and ranging from 5 KW to 10 KW.
Click on the links below:
https://www.solarpanelcostprice.com.au/9kw-solar-power-system/
https://www.solarpanelcostprice.com.au/10kw-solar-panel-systems/
Moths I've found
In this blog post, I'll be showing some of the moths I've found lately. Moths are such interesting creatures! Many people overlook moths, which is sad! Here are some of my favourites I've found:
- Grape leaffolder, Desmia maculata/funeralis
based on the white patch on its abdomen.]]
- Io Moth, Automeris io
- Chickweed Geometer, Haematopis grataria
- Southern Emerald, Synchlora frondaria
- Blackberry Looper, Chlorochlamys chloroleucaria
- Snowy Urola, Urola nivalis
- Tersa Sphinx, Xylophanes tersa
- Pandorus Sphinx, Eumorpha pandorus
Those are the only pics I have that are .PNGs. I'll upload the other pics soon!
Cheers guys.
- -Michelle
Hummingbird taxonomic changes
IN this blog post, I'll be charting all of the taxonomic changes to the hummingbird family.
First off, this is a very daunting task because there are so many genera and species of hummingbirds. Even though we know, what a hummingbird is and what is not, that still does not mean changes won't take place!
The latest changes are based on Taxonomy in Flux, as well as H&M-4 (Dickinson and Remsen, 2013). For the sake of TiF, I'll be using the arrow (→) symbol, so it'll look like I'm not copying Boyd.
- The hummingbird subfamilies Florisuginae and Phaethornithinae now each have two tribes: Florisugini, Topazini and Eutoxerini and Phaethornithini, respectively.
- Polytimini is elevated to subfamily status. It takes the name Polytiminae.
- Trochilinae loses two …
Why become a VEGAN today? Please read this and discover the horrible truth of mankind
Curious about why people become vegetarians? Do you tease these kinds of people for being "weak"? Well why not take a look into the matter as to why people convert to diets of little to no meat. Some people claim to be animal lovers; however, they don't seem to realize that they're harming an animal every time they take a bite out of their chicken legs or hamburgers. Yes, meat can be tasty - and I am guilty of having eaten meat in the past in my youth; however, discovering the truth of where our meat comes from is just...horrifying.
Imagine being trapped into a tiny cage and being forcefed fattening food even when you're full. Or being trapped with millions of others in a tiny warehouse where feces collect and trampling occurs. And let's no…
Who's that bird? It's Augur Buzzard!
(This is Michelle editing for YellowToad, because of his lack of laptop.)
Today, on TV, I saw a Dos Equis commercial. Like usual, I just watched and thought nothing of it...
Until...
I saw one of my favourite birds of prey, the Augur Buzzard! This bird is beautiful! I'm so glad they picked it to be in a commercial. What a wonderful and amazing bird of prey. It's rare to see such beautiful and rare(-ish) birds in commercials.
You can view the video here.
Also, this isn't the first time birds have been in commercials or TV. A Black-throated Magpie-Jay was on an episode of the Big Bang Theory.
(Still trying to ID them). A vulture and a hawk were in a Travelers Insurance commercial.
EDIT: They are Black Sparrowhawk and Cape Vulture!
Hornbill and Toucan Wiki
I have never edited here before, but I came here to see if anyone would help with my new wiki the hornbill and toucan wiki. (There is currently only one page that is not the main page)
HBW Alive: species that aren't split
Here, I will list any species on HBW Alive that aren't split!
Species on HBWA: species that they should have
- Black-throated Loon: Pacific, Arctic
- Darter: Oriental, Australasian, African
- Greater Flamingo: American, Greater
Chem Blog - The Periodic Table
The periodic table is a strange thing - it's a chart filled with jumbles of letters and strange words all around. There's hundreds of those things known as "elements" plastered all over that strange chart, but what could they mean and what are they?
Image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Periodic_table_%28polyatomic%29.svg/500px-Periodic_table_%28polyatomic%29.svg.png
Every letter/duo of letters you see on the table represents a unique element. Elements are defined to being "substances or compounds that are at their simplest forms". In other words, they're weak materials that can combine with each other to form more stronger compounds.
Elements are all around us from the air we breathe in to the things we eat! Earth's atmo…
My first or second vireo!
Today I saw a vireo. However, the poor thing had died from an unknown cause. It possibly hit a radio tower not too far from where I found it. This radio tower is quite tall and I'm not sure if it's lit up at night. Many birds migrate at night, and they might strike buildings and radio towers, if they can see the light.
I noticed it lying in the grass. Ants were crawling on it and I could see some of its bones. Which is sad, gruesome but interesting. I find dead birds to be interesting for some reason. I get to study them up close, which is something I can't do and probably never will (never getting my degree in bio and need to get over the grossness of organs). :-/
At first, I wasn't sure what it was. I then noticed it was green! I then saw …
The beginning
I'm just curious, so I'll just begin my first blog post like this. Definitely enjoying the All Birds Wiki experience! Let's make this Wiki grow!
Hm...today, I've seen House Sparrows, Rock Pigeons, American Robins, Ring-billed Gulls, and possibly a Mourning Dove. Must try to find more birds soon!
End of my blog..for now. XD
WantedPages
(Strange, I thought I had already written this. :P)
A downside to the huge dinosaur and shark templates is that they fill up Special:WantedPages, "pushing off" locations, which makes it harder to know which ones to work on.
Taxonomy for dummies, part 1
Stop and look around you, look at the different objects on your desk. Now, you want a way to organise them into different drawers, no? For example, pens go in one drawer while pencils go in another. Now you've organised them!
Well, scientists have a way of doing this, but with living things. It is called taxonomy, or the study of classifying living things. Taxonomy makes it easier for scientists to know the relationships between, let's say a tree and a cat.
For starters, here's an easy mnemonic that anyone can memorise.
Dumb Kids Prefer Candy Over Fancy Green Salad (Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species).
So, let's classify some birds. The birds are arranged in the table below. Did you know that all of these birds are act…
RIP Sunny
Tonight, I lost a best friend, Sunny. She was my only friend when I had no friends. She brought joy to me. I would love her and she would love back.
Life is so precious... I refuse to believe animals don't have souls. What a terrible thing to think.
I will miss you, my beautiful baby.
RIP Sunshine 2001?-2012. Flying with Shadow and Dexie.
Easy way to ID birds
I'll try and make this as easy as possible...
Various bird heads and plumages. Do you know these birds?
Yellow-throated Vireo and Pine Warbler: convergent evolution?
. Note how similar their colouration is.]] . Note that this only applies to the male Pine.]]
I was noticing an illustrations in one of my books... how the Yellow-throated Vireo and Pine Warbler look remarkably similar! But why might this be? I have a theory, but I have no idea if it's true, convergent evolution.
What is it? It is when two or more species evolve in separate areas and look similar to each other or when species evolve similar characteristics (bats, birds, pterosaurs and insects all fly). There are several examples, including meadowlarks and longclaws, penguins and auks, flying squirrels and sugar gliders, Thylacine and grey wolf, swifts and swallows, etc.
I find it funny how Wikipedia doesn't even mention the two looking so similar.…
Audobon Birds app
- Title: Audubon Birds - A Field Guide to North American Birds
- Authors: ??
- Publisher: Green Mountain Digital
- Publication date: 2010
- Format: App
- Page count: N/A
- ISBN: N/A
This is a great app by Audubon. When it first loads, a beautiful Snowy Egret pops up. I have this app on my Nook, though I wish you didn't need wifi to load the pictures.
There are seven options on the "front page". The browse by shape option is pretty cool! Some examples are Hummingbirds, Owls, Tree-clinging birds, and Duck-like birds.
The glossary and "encyclopedia" is nice! I quite enjoy it...
Pros
- Quick reference
- You can add your bird sightings to it
- A few taxonomic mistakes, but doesn't effect the quality
- Nice glossary
- Describes the birds well
Cons
- You need wifi in order to access pictur…
WHY WHY WHY WHY
Warning: angry me up ahead...
I was looking up the diet of the Crested Guan when I stumbled upon this website..
http://www.globalspecies.org/
I thought "hey, I'm going to check out the Aves section...."
Lo and behold, look what I stumbled upon when I saw under the Ciconiiformes section.
Let's just say, this outdated taxonomy is from the early 90s. Yep. It's Sibley-Monroe. In fact, you can check it out here: no. 7, no. 8 and no. 9
- Accipitridae (Kites, Hawks & Eagles)
- Alcidae (Auks)
- Anhingidae (Anhingas, darters)
- Ardeidae (Herons, Bitterns)
- Burhinidae (Stone-curlews, Thick-knees)
- Charadriidae (Plovers)
- Chionididae (Sheathbills)
- Ciconiidae (Storks)
- Diomedeidae (Albatrosses)
- Falconidae (Caracaras, Falcons)
- Fregatidae (Frigatebirds)
- Gaviidae (Loons)
- Glareolidae…
Disabling stupid achievements
Because for some reason, this appears to be happening...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A60Y4NdCYAAwh2Z.png:large
Yeah, it's very annoying. >:(
~Mich
October: Guess the bird!
Time for you to guess the bird! Good luck!
The name does not have to be specific and I can give you a hint, if needed, but only one a day.
And try not to cheat...
I bought a new book!
Le gasp... Michelle has bought a new book?!
Yes, yes. I did! I haven't gotten a new book in a while now (don't recall the last time I did!).
It's called Universe: The Definitive Visual Guide. It's similar to the Bird: The Definitive Visual Guide, except it's about astronomy. It's also set up in the same way.
Excellent book! Wonder if they'll come out with a revised edition? This one was published in 2008. A lot of things have changed since then.
Ignoring that, if you want to know about Monoceros, the unicorn, you can turn to page 377. The page shows the two major deep space objects, the Cone Nebula and Rosette Nebula. Also, it tells about the mythology of Monoceros. Neat! Someone painstakingly drew pictures to help people to know what the constell…
Animal Diversity Web has a new layout, but...
Warning: some anger ahead... you have been warned.
I was just noticing today that ADW has a new layout, but...
Their bird taxonomy is severely outdated. No joke. Even Wikipedia is more advanced. They're in the freaking dark ages of bird taxonomy (aka the nineties).
But this isn't the freaking NINETIES. Nineties was thirteen years ago (if you count the current date).
Why are you still using this OLD TAXONOMY, ADW? It looks ridiculous.
- 1 Palaeognaths
- 2 Neognaths
- 2.1 Galloanserae
- 2.2 Neoaves
Here's what it looks like:
- Struthioniformes: cassowaries, emus, kiwis, ostriches, and rheas.
- Apterygidae: kiwis
- Casuariidae: cassowaries
- Dinornithidae: moas
- Dromaiida: eemus
- Rheidae: rheas
- Struthionidae: ostrich
- Tinamiformes: tinamous.
I'll admit, I was a little reluctant to s…
Ten flags collected!
If you look at the front page and scroll down, you can see what I mean.
Looks like there's ten flags now!
That's awesome! Keep it up! :)
Thanks, Mich
Review:The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America
- Title: The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America
- Authors: Donald Stokes and Lilian Stokes
- Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
- Publication date: 2010
- Format: Softcover
- Page count: 791
Do you like or love to bird? Don't know the difference between Hairy Woodpecker or Downy Woodpecker? Don't know what the mantle is? Well, this is definitely the book for you!
This book is beautiful. I don't even know how to describe it. Most pages have four photographs a page, but some have anywhere from two to six or more.
The types of birds are colour-coded. For example, American sparrows and buntings are dark green. It is colour-coded like Birds of Maharashtra. This is a nice, quick reference! I don't know very many books quite like this.
There is also a qui…
Review: Common mistakes in bird books
WARNING: some sarcasm in this. You have been warned.
It's time for my first review - common mistakes in bird books.
I'm mostly using books about North American birds. If I had more books about birds from other continents, they would be in this blog post.
- 1 Number 1: Loons at the beginning of the book
- 1.1 Books with this in it:
- 2 Number 2: Grebes near loons
- 2.1 Books with this in it:
- 3 Number 3: Finches, icterids, warblers, sparrows, etc. in ONE family?!
- 4 References
This is a no-no! Ducks, Geese and Swans (Anatidae) evolved before loons - they are further down the "tree"!
- (one of the few books I have about non-NA birds).
Again, this is is silly. Grebes are actually more related to flamingos than loons! Loons are more related to penguins!
(Pretty much the same …
The Sciences
I've worked on Chemistry articles, and Locations (maybe an "edit track" should be created for Category:Locations?
My wiki, All Birds is in the spotlight...?!
.]] No one told me.
I didn't know.
Really, I'm surprised. Especially all of pages just have...
...in them.
Thank you....
....:')
April 23: Underappreciated Bird of the Day
April 22's Underappreciated Bird of the Day is the Yellow-bellied Eremomela. This bird is from Africa. They are a small bird (3.75") in the Cisticolidae family. They are mainly grey with a yellow breast. Other eremomelas sadly, seem to be underappreciated as well. Probably because of their plainness - which is sad. :(
Spread the love! Use the hashtag #UBOTD on Twitter. :) Thanks!
April 22: Underappreciated Bird of the Day
April 22's Underappreciated Bird of the Day is the Silverbird. This Old World flycatcher has a grey back with an orange breast. Sadly, I don't have a picture of one on here. I can't find any free images of them. You can view pictures of them here.
Spread the love! Use the hashtag #UBOTD on Twitter. :) Thanks!
April 21: Underappreciated Bird of the Day
April 21's Underappreciated Bird of the Day is the Scaly-throated Honeyguide. This neat bird is from Africa. I only have one book with this bird - Birds of Kenya. It mentions that it's inconspicuous - which could be why it's not a popular bird!
Spread the love! Use the hashtag #UBOTD on Twitter. :) Thanks!
[[Category:Underappreciated Bird of the Day|]]
April 20: Underappreciated Bird of the Day
April 20's bird is the Mugimaki Flycatcher. As far as I know, I only have one book with this neat Old World flycatcher; however, it is a book with NA birds - it's a vagrant. It is related to the European Pied Flycatcher.
Spread the love! Use the hashtag #UBOTD on Twitter. :) Thanks!
April 19: Underappreciated Bird of the Day
April 19's Underappreciated Bird of the Day is the Hepatic Tanager. It resembles a Summer Tanager but it is not as bright. Males are red while females are yellow. This bird is from North and South America. I have at least three books with this bird. This bird deserves more mentions.
Spread the love! Use the hashtag #UBOTD on Twitter. :) Thanks!
Underappreciated Bird of the Day
Today's UBOTD is the Red-tailed Tropicbird. This beautiful bird rarely gets a mention in bird books. I don't know the exact number, but I have at least five books where it's at least mentioned, but at least a couple of them don't have a picture.
Devonshire Birds of the Week; Underappreciated Bird of the Day
This week's bird is . A beautiful bird related to the Oriental Darter. It is the regional bird of Frost. It sometimes lives with , which is smaller.
Today's is the Lesser Roadrunner. This bird is not as well known as the Greater Roadrunner. It is found in Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras. It is smaller than the Greater.
Need project leaders!
We need some project leaders. I highly doubt anyone else's going to edit this wiki, but I just thought I'd ask.
- Biology: Rainbow Shifter
- Palaeontology: Rainbow Shifter
- Taxonomy: Me
- Phylogenetics: Me
- Science-related books: Me
- Earth sciences: Me
- Astronomy: Rainbow Shifter
- Chemistry: YellowToad
- Physics: KingsIndian?
- Maths: KingsIndian?
- Locations: 77topaz
- Habitats: 77topaz
- Mollusca: 77topaz
What is a dinosaur?
- 1 What is a dinosaur?
- 2 Dinosaur ancestors
- 3 What are some examples of dinosaurs?
- 4 What is a saurischian?
- 5 What is an ornithischian?
- 6 What isn't a dinosaur?
- 7 References
Dinosaurs are "upright limbed, open hip socketed and grasping handed ornithodirans (dinosaurs, pterosaurs and their closest relatives), and is composed of the most recent common ancestor of Iguanadon and Megalosaurus and all of its descendants ."
Dinosaurs evolved from Dromomeron and Lagerpeton and eventually evolved into animals such as Marasuchus and then, dinosaurs.
There are two main branches of dinosaurs:
- The Ornithischians ("bird-hipped dinosaurs"), which became extinct;
- The Saurischians ("lizard-hipped dinosaurs"), which are survived by birds
Many people think pterosaurs, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaur…
Introduction to birds, part one (for beginners)
There are ways to classify birds. This is the easiest way:
- Non-passerines. They are birds such as Bald Eagle, Red-necked Grebe, Greater Roadrunner, Anna's Hummingbird, Belted Kingfisher, Red-headed Woodpecker, American Oystercatcher, etc.
- Passerines. They are birds such as Loggerhead Shrike, Violet-green Swallow, Wood Thrush, Red-throated Pipit, Siberian Rubythroat, Scarlet Tanager, etc.
The non-passerines and passerines can be further classified into other things as well.
Non-passerines:
- Birds such as emus, cassowaries, ostriches, kiwis, rheas and smaller quail-like birds known as tinamous are more ancient birds, they are also known as ratites (say RAA-tite) or palaeognaths (say pay-LE-oh-nath) (or Palaeognathae ; say PAY-lee-oh-NATH-ay).
- Birds such …
What is your favourite shorebird?
So, I'm just wondering... What is your favourite shorebird?
Me? Well...
I quite love the Black Turnstone. They're a handsome little bird, with their black and white plumage.
I also love the Wrybill. They're a strange bird. The only bird with its bill turned sideways.
The stilts and avocets are beautiful as well.
Introduction to birds, part ten
- 1 Passeriformes
- 1.1 Tyranni (suboscines)
- 1.1.1 Acanthisittidae
- 1.1.2 Calyptomenidae
- 1.1.3 Sapayoidae
- 1.1.4 Philepittidae
- 1.1.5 Eurylaimidae
- 1.1.6 Pittidae
- 1.1 Tyranni (suboscines)
Anyone wanna teach me some maths?
So yeah, I don't know much about it!
I'm really dumb in maths!
Someone wanna help me?
The only thing I can do is count, add, subtract, multiply and divide!
Oh yeah, if you want to teach me something, the best way is a BLOG post! Thanks!
A new project (again)
So yeah...
I was thinking: why not let a bunch of science nerds contribute?
Basically, if you know anything about astronomy, chemistry, maths, physics, palaeontology; you can contribute.
I know it's a bird wiki, but still. Birds are a part of science. They are made up of DNA and their pigments form chemical compounds.
Go science nerds, feel free to edit what you know. Teach me (or us) something new. But make it EASY to understand. And do not use Wikipedia. They make things WAAAAAAAAAAAAY too complicated.
So what if it ain't about birds? Don't come complaining to me. I don't think people realise how related the sciences are. I know it's a bit goat rope, but still. Astronomy is my second favourite science. And guess what. There's already an astro…
List of genera that are complete
Meaning they have pages, not necessarily having any content. This may take a while.
- Aquila
- Icthyophaga (just needs a page about the genus itself)
Introduction to birds, part nine
- 1 Cathartiformes
- 1.1 Cathartidae
- 2 Accipitriformes
- 2.1 Sagittariidae
- 2.2 Pandionidae
- 2.3 Accipitridae
- 3 Coliiformes
- 3.1 Coliidae
- 4 Leptosomiformes
- 4.1 Leptosomidae
- 5 Trogoniformes
- 5.1 Trogonidae
- 6 Bucerotiformes
- 6.1 Upupidae
- 6.2 Phoeniculidae
- 6.3 Bucorvidae
- 6.4 Bucerotidae
- 7 Coraciiformes
- 7.1 Meropidae
- 7.2 Brachypteraciidae
- 7.3 Coraciidae
- 7.4 Todidae
- 7.5 Momotidae
- 7.6 Alcedinidae
- 8 Piciformes
- 8.1 Galbulidae
- 8.2 Bucconidae
- 8.3 Megalaimidae
- 8.4 Lybiidae
- 8.5 Capitonidae
- 8.6 Semnornithidae
- 8.7 Ramphastidae
- 8.8 Indicatoridae
- 8.9 Picidae
- 9 Cariamiformes
- 9.1 Cariamidae
- 10 Falconiformes
- 10.1 Falconidae
- 11 Psittaciformes
- 11.1 Strigopidae
- 11.2 Cacatuidae
- 11.3 Psittacidae
Continued here...