Chamaeleo dilepis is a large chameleon, reaching a total length (including tail) of 35 cm (14 in). Colouring ranges through various shades of green, yellow, and brown. There is usually a pale stripe on the lower flanks and one to three pale patches higher on the flanks.


Chamaeleo dilepis has a very wide distribution, occurring throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa from as far north as Ethiopia and Somalia to a western extreme of Cameroon, and as far south as northern South Africa. It inhabits coastal forest, moist or dry savannah, woodland and bushy grasslands, and may also venture into rural and suburban areas.


The adult female flap-necked chameleon lays 10-40 eggs in a hole dug in soil. The eggs take 10–12 months to hatch. The diet of C. dilepis includes a variety of invertebrates, although large individuals may take geckos and other chameleons. The species is itself commonly preyed on by snakes such as the boomslang and the twig snake.


Chamaeleo dilepis does well in captivity. It is mostly active during the day. When this species is in captivity, it is very important to create an environment very much like its natural climate. It may be fed a diet including crickets, mealworms, wax worms, and other locally caught insects. Its estimated life expectancy is 5–8 years.


The flap-necked chameleon is in heavy demand for the international pet trade, being the third most highly traded chameleon species. More than 111,000 individuals were exported between 1977 and 2011, mostly to the USA. No detrimental effects on the total population size have been observed so far, although more in-depth studies have been recommended. The species is currently classified as Least Concern by the IUCN.


Chamaenerion latifolium (formerly Epilobium latifolium, also called Chamerion latifolium) is a species of flowering plant in the evening primrose family known by the English common names dwarf fireweed and river beauty willowherb. It has a circumboreal distribution, appearing throughout the northern regions of the Northern Hemisphere, including subarctic and Arctic areas such as snowmelt-flooded gravel bars and talus, in a wide range of elevations. This is a perennial herb growing in clumps of leaves variable in size, shape, and texture above a woody caudex. The leaves are 1 to 10 centimeters long, lance-shaped to oval, pointed or rounded at the tips, and hairy to hairless and waxy. The inflorescence is a rough-haired raceme of nodding flowers with bright to deep pink, and occasionally white, petals up to 3 centimeters long. Behind the opened petals are pointed sepals. The fruit is an elongated capsule which may exceed 10 centimeters in length.
This arctic plant provides valuable nutrition for the Inuit, who eat the leaves raw, boiled with fat, or steeped in water for tea, the flowers and fruits raw, and as a salad with meals of seal and walrus blubber. The leaves and shoots are edible, tasting much like spinach, and is also known in the Canadian tundra as River Beauty.
It is the national flower of Greenland with the Greenlandic name niviarsiaq ("young girl").


Charadra deridens (laugher or marbled tuffet moth) is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba in Canada, through most of the United States except the south-western states.
The wingspan is 38–48 mm. Adults are on wing from May to August in the north. They have an extended season in Florida.
The larvae feed on the leaves of beech. Other recorded hosts include birch, elm, maple and oak.


The Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) is a small cosmopolitan shorebird (40-44 g) of the family Charadriidae that breeds on the shores of saline lakes, lagoons, and coasts, populating sand dunes, marshes, semi-arid desert, and tundra. Both male and female birds have pale plumages with a white underside, grey/brown back, dark legs and a dark bill, however additionally the male birds also exhibit very dark incomplete breast bands, and dark markings either side of their head, therefore the Kentish plover is regarded as sexually dimorphic
Charadrius alexandrinus has a large geographical distribution, ranging from latitudes of 10º to 55º, occupying North Africa, both mainland, such as Senegal, and island, such as the Cape Verde archipelago, Central Asia, for example alkaline lakes in China, and Europe, including small populations in Spain and Austria. Some populations are migratory and often winter in Africa, whereas other populations, such as various island populations, do not migrate. Its common English name comes from the county of Kent, where it was once found, but it has not bred in Britain since 1979.
Kentish plovers are ground-nesting birds, often with a preference for low, open, moist nesting sites away from thick vegetation and human activity. They use a number of materials to build their nests, mainly consisting of shells, pebbles, grass and leaves in a small scrape in the ground. Like most plovers, the Kentish plovers are predominantly insectivores, feeding on a large range of arthropods and invertebrates depending on the environment, by using a run and stop method.


The Kentish plover is in a state of taxonomic flux.
Until 2009, the Kentish plover species was universally thought to include the North American snowy plover species, however a novel genetic research paper suggested that they were in fact separate species. In July 2011, the International Ornithological Congress (IOC), and the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) pronounced the snowy plover as a separate species Charadrius nivosus.
The white-faced plover (Charadrius dealbatus) was also split and a paper was published about a possible split from the Kentish plover, the Hanuman plover.


The subspecies Charadrius alexandrinus seebohmi was proposed to be split as the Hanuman plover, in December 2020. The discoverers stated in a webinar that the scientific name will likely not be Charadrius seebohmi. It was named after the chain of islands along the Palk Strait, said to be built by Hanuman, the monkey god in Hinduism.


The Kentish plover is a small shorebird weighing around 40 g as an adult. Both male and female birds have black bills and dark legs, however adults have dimorphic plumage. During the breeding season, males have a black horizontal head bar, two incomplete dark breast-bands on each side of their breast, black ear coverts and a rufous nape and crown (although there is some variation between breeding populations), whereas the females are paler in these areas, without the dark markings. In the early breeding season, it is easy to distinguish between males and females since the ornaments are very pronounced, but as the breeding season progresses, the differences between the two sexes decrease. Moreover, males have longer tarsi and longer flank feathers than females. Longer flank feathers are thought to be an advantage for incubation and brood care, as the quality of feathers is associated with heat insulation.
There are multiple significant predictors of plumage ornamentation in Kentish plovers. Firstly, the interaction between the advancement of the breeding season and rainfall seem to affect ornamentation. Male ornaments become more elaborated over the course of a breeding season in regions with high rainfall, whereas in regions with low rainfall, male ornaments become lighter. Secondly, the interaction between the breeding system and the sex can predict the degree of plumage ornamentation. In polygamous populations, the sexual ornaments are more pronounced, generating a stronger sexual dimorphism than in monogamous populations. The difference is especially witnessed in males, whereby the ornaments are darker and smaller in polygamous populations compared to monogamous populations, where males have lighter and larger ornaments. This is thought to be the result of a trade-off between the size and intensity of the ornaments.


Kentish plovers have an extremely wide geographical distribution and their habitats vary not just spatially but environmentally too. They are known to reside and breed in multiple types of habitat, from desert with ground temperatures reaching 50 °C to tundra. The distribution of this species’ breeding areas covers Europe, Asia and Africa,). In Europe, populations are typically found in the west; although there was once a breeding population in Hungary, Kentish plovers no longer breed there. In Africa, populations are found on the southern coast of Senegal and along the Northern coast of the Mediterranean, and the Red Sea coast. The breeding area continues along the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bahrain in the Middle East. Small populations can be found on islands too, such as the Cape Verde archipelago, the Canary Islands, and the Azores. It is a rare vagrant in Australia. Some populations do not migrate, such as the Maio (Cape Verde) population, however other populations can migrate reasonable distances, for example, plovers that spend winter in North Africa have been known to migrate to Turkey and Greece in the spring. Some birds breeding in western Europe are not known to travel very far, just within Europe, however some do travel, mainly to Western Africa.


The breeding habitats are most commonly alkali lake shores, wetlands, salt marshes, and coastland, which is fitting with the results of a study that investigated what makes an environment suitable for a breeding habitat for the Kentish plover. By analysing four variables of all known nests, the study found that plovers prefer to nest in areas of low elevation, low vegetation, high moisture and places faraway from human activity and settlements,.

There have been observations of parents moving their chicks from poor food areas to better food areas, with chicks subsequently growing stronger in the high food areas. This suggests that parents strategically move their chicks and change habitats. Moving young has benefits: protection from predators, obtaining more food, avoiding competition for food and space, avoiding potential infanticide due to competition, and avoiding territory defences from others. However, this is a trade-off as there are also costs to moving young: moving expends a lot of energy, especially in young, therefore chick growth may be stunted as energy is used on movement rather than growth, the chance of mortality due to starvation or predation increases whilst moving through open areas and the area of high food may have a lot of predators in it already. Overall, chick growth and brood survival benefit from moving to a higher food area, therefore increasing reproductive success of parents, hence why the parents move their chicks. The study also found that the larger and heavier females were more likely to move chicks, perhaps because they could defend their chicks from neighbouring parents


The Kentish plover has an especially flexible breeding system, including both monogamous and polygamous behaviours within populations. It is known that breeding pairs return to breed with each other the following year, however mate changes have also been observed both between and within breeding seasons.
Along with mate changes, EPF's (extra pair fertilisations) are also witnessed in some populations, by females copulating with extra-pair males (EPP- extra pair paternity), or males copulating with extra pair females, who then lay their eggs in the male's nest (QP- quasi-parasitism). A theory as to why such EPC's occur is that this mechanism evolved to avoid the deleterious effects of inbreeding. This is supported by a study by Blomqvist et al., showing that EPC's are more common when a breeding pair are more closely related to each other. Another theory is that females may seek out EPC's with high quality males to get the ‘good genes’ for their sons, following the ‘sexy sons’ hypothesis. The breeding season of Kentish plovers lasts on average between 2 and 5 months and varies in the time of year dependent on the particular population. Breeding pairs can replace failed clutches more than once per breeding season, with the same or a different mate, and both males and females can parent more than one brood, due to mate change and EPC's as mentioned above. The courtship displays also vary between populations of plovers, especially between socially monogamous and polygamous populations, for example in polygamous populations the time spent courting is significantly higher for both males and females than in monogamous populations. Courtship displays include active gestures such as flat running, building nest scrapes (small shallow cavities in the ground that are later built into nests), and fighting/running to defend a breeding territory (mainly by males)


Kentish plovers inhabit sandy areas or salt-marshes in close proximity to water. Inland populations can be found near alkaline or saline lakes, ponds or reservoirs. The populations inhabiting the coastal regions can be found in semi-desert habitats i.e. on barren beaches, near lagoons and sand extractions on beaches or dunes.
Kentish plovers are territorial shorebirds; the male usually has a territory and attracts females with courtship displays. The parents are actively defending their nest territories from predators by chasing, fighting or posturing them. When approached by predators in close proximity to the nest, the Kentish plovers quickly run away from the nest and start doing distraction displays to focus the predator's attention on themselves and lure them away from the nest. These displays include calling or crawling on the ground flapping their wings. Males tend to be more aggressive than females, but females performing riskier defensive behaviors than males. When a plover's territory has been invaded, it invades a neighboring family's territory. This is when fights between males frequently occur because the plovers see their broods threatened. During such fights, it occurs that chicks get injured or even killed. When approached by a predator, chicks usually try to find a spot where they can hide, crouch down and stay motionless to remain unseen. When they are older, they try to run away with their parents.


Kentish plovers either nest solitarily or in a loose semicolonial manner. They are ground-nesting birds that lay their eggs in small shallow scrapes prepared by the male during courtship on the bare ground. Selection of the breeding ground is essential for the survival of nests and broods; nests are placed near the water on bare earth or in sparse vegetation; often on slightly elevated sites in order to have a good view of the surroundings to spot predators from a distance or near small bushes, plants or grass clusters, where the eggs are partly sheltered from predators. Nests are filled with nest material i.e. pebble stones, small parts of shells, fish bones, small twigs, grass and other debris. The modal clutch size comprises three eggs, although some nests are already completed with one or two eggs. In fresh or incomplete nests, the eggs tend to be fully exposed, but as the incubation period progresses, the amount of nest material increases and the eggs become practically completely covered. During the incubation period, the Kentish plover recesses for variable periods of time mainly to forage or to perform other activities essential for self-maintenance. To compensate for the resulting lack of presence and increased predation risk, they use nest materials to cover and hence camouflage the eggs and keep them insulated. Kentish plovers regulate the amount of nest material actively. This was shown experimentally in a study by increasing or decreasing the amount of nest material artificially. Within 24hrs, the plovers had restored the amount of nest material back to original. This is of advantage because nest materials help a good insulation of eggs, therefore preventing egg temperature fluctuations )  (hence avoiding embryo hypothermia) and reducing the energetic costs of incubation for the parents. By regulating the amount of nest material, the Kentish plovers balances the advantages i.e. insulation and anti-predator defence and the disadvantages of nest material i.e. overheating. Incubation is the process by which the eggs are kept at optimal temperature i.e. between 37 °C and 38 °C for the embryonic development of birds with most of the heat deriving from the incubating bird. Kentish plover eggs are incubated for 20–25 days by both sexes; females mostly incubate during the day whilst males incubate during the night. Female Kentish plovers usually lose mass during the day, which is unexpected since they get relieved by the males for a variable amount of time. The loss would be much higher if the females were to incubate alone. This loss is a cost of incubation due to the depletion of fat stores and the evaporation of water.


Parental care is variable within birds and the Kentish plover has a slightly different mechanism to other shorebirds. As discussed above, both parents incubate the eggs, however both parents do not always stick around once the eggs have hatched. It is not unusual for one parent to leave the chicks after a variable amount of time; this is referred to as brood desertion. Brood desertion is the ‘termination of care, by either one or both parents, before the offspring are capable of surviving independently’  and usually occurs after one week of the brood being accompanied by both parents. Brood desertion has been observed in both males and females, however females desert the brood significantly more frequently than males.
Studies have shown that both the male and female Kentish plover can provide adequate care for their brood on their own, so it is not the differences in the ability of the parents that determines which parent deserts the brood and which stays to care for the chicks. However, studies have also shown that after desertion females have a larger chance of breeding success than males, potentially due to many Kentish plover populations maintaining a male-biased OSR (operational sex ratio - the ratio of males actively breeding to females). Therefore, is it hypothesized that the amount of reproductive success gained by desertion is what actually determines who deserts the brood,. In short, males and females can care for their brood equally, however females gain more by deserting their brood than males, resulting in a higher amount of female desertion over male. The non-deserting parent can continue to brood their chicks up to 80% of the time for over 20 days after hatching, as precocial young are vulnerable and exposed to external temperatures.
If the parent bird feels that the eggs or chicks are under attack, then it will feign injury in order to divert attention towards itself.


Kentish plovers either forage individually or in loose flocks of 20-30 individuals (outside the breeding season), and occasionally can incorporate into larger flocks of up to 260 individuals of multiple species. Their main source of food consists of miniature aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates such as insects and their larvae (e.g. beetles, grasshoppers or flies), molluscs, crustaceans, spiders and marine worms. They are obligate visual foragers and often feed at the shoreline of lakes, lagoons or ponds in invertebrate-rich moist-soil areas. They forage by looking, stopping or running and then pecking to catch the prey, but also probe the sand to search for prey, or catch flies by holding their mouths open. The Kentish plover's capability of identifying cues for prey is influenced by light, wind and rain. At night, their ability of finding prey might be restricted, but plovers have been shown to have a good nocturnal vision due to their large eyes and enhanced retinal visual sensitivity,.


The Kentish plover is classified as least concern on the Red List because it has a very large population range.
The global population size of the Kentish plover is continuously declining although for some populations the trends are unknown. The European population is estimated at 43,000-70,000 individuals, forming around 15% of the global population (estimated at 100,000-500,000 individuals).


A major threat to this species is habitat loss and disturbance. Human activity such as tourists walking through protected areas, pollution, unsustainable harvesting and urbanisation can destroy nesting sites. Plover populations can also be affected by rural human activity, for example fishermen walking through protected plover breeding sites, bringing large numbers of dogs with them- a known predator of plover eggs. Breeding birds respond to human disturbance disproportionately when dogs are present, as these situations are interpreted in a context of greater risk of predation. Natural predators are also a problem, as many of these predators appear to thrive unnaturally well in the presence of plover breeding grounds, such as the brown-necked raven (Corvus ruficollis) in Maio, Cape Verde, the White-tailed Mongoose (Ichneumia albicauda) in Saudi Arabia, and the Grey Monitors (Varanus griseus) in Al-Wathba Wetland Reserve. It is thought that the high amount of prey available to these predators attracts them into the breeding grounds- an effect named the 'honey pot', Global warming and climate change also plays a role in the decline of areas available for plovers to breed and reside in. It is known that the Kentish plover prefers to build its nests on low-elevated land close to water, and a study untaken in Saudi Arabia discovered that 11% of nests in the study site were in fact below sea level, therefore rising sea levels are predicted to have disastrous consequences for these low-sitting nests,.


The Kentish plover is currently on the Annex I of the EU Birds Directive and Annex II of the Bern Convention.
Conservation actions proposed to protect the species include the conservation of their natural habitat by creating or elaborating protected areas at breeding sites. This is essential to stop pollution, land reclamation and urbanisation. Human interaction should be controlled and kept at a minimum.


The little ringed plover (Charadrius dubius) is a small plover. The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek kharadrios a bird found in river valleys (kharadra, "ravine"). The specific dubius is Latin for doubtful, since Sonnerat, writing in 1776, thought this bird might be just a variant of common ringed plover.


Adult little ringed plovers have a grey-brown back and wings, a white belly and a white breast with one black neckband. They have a brown cap, a white forehead, a black mask around the eyes with white above and a short dark bill. The legs are flesh-coloured and the toes are all webbed.
This species differs from the larger ringed plover in leg colour, the head pattern, and the presence of a clear yellow eye-ring.


Their breeding habitat is open gravel areas near freshwater, including gravel pits, islands and river edges across the Palearctic including northwestern Africa. They nest on the ground on stones with little or no plant growth. Both males and females take turns incubating the eggs.
They are migratory and winter in Africa. These birds forage for food on muddy areas, usually by sight. They eat insects and worms.


Three subspecies recognized.
C. d. curonicus J. F. Gmelin, 1789 - from Eurasia, Russian Fareast, Japan, Korea, China to North Africa. Winter spends in Sahara, Sri Lanka, to Indonesia and China.
C. d. jerdoni (Legge, 1880) - from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan to South East Asia.
C. d. dubius Scopoli, 1786 - from the Philippines, New Guinea to Bismarck Archipelago.


The little ringed plover is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.


The common ringed plover or ringed plover (Charadrius hiaticula) is a small plover that breeds in Arctic Eurasia. The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek kharadrios a bird found in ravines and river valleys (kharadra, "ravine"). The specific hiaticula is  Latin and has a similar meaning to the Greek term, coming from  hiatus, "cleft" and -cola, "dweller" (colere, "to dwell").


Adults are 17–19.5 cm (6.7–7.7 in) in length with a 35–41 cm (14–16 in) wingspan. They have a grey-brown back and wings, a white belly, and a white breast with one black neckband. They have a brown cap, a white forehead, a black mask around the eyes and a short orange and black bill. The legs are orange and only the outer two toes are slightly webbed, unlike the slightly smaller but otherwise very similar semipalmated plover, which has all three toes slightly webbed, and also a marginally narrower breast band; it was in former times included in the present species. Juvenile ringed plovers are duller than the adults in colour, with an often incomplete grey-brown breast band, a dark bill and dull yellowish-grey legs.
This species differs from the smaller little ringed plover in leg colour, the head pattern, and the lack of an obvious yellow eye-ring.


There are three weakly defined subspecies, which vary slightly in size and mantle colour; they intergrade where their ranges meet:
C. h. psammodroma – Salomonsen, 1930: breeds in Iceland, Greenland, northeast Canada; winters in west Africa. It is intermediate in size and colour.
C. h. hiaticula – Linnaeus, 1758: breeds from temperate western Europe north to central Scandinavia; resident or short-distance migrant to southwest Europe. It is the largest and palest subspecies.
C. h. tundrae – (Lowe, 1915): breeds in Arctic northern Scandinavia and Asiatic Russia; winters in Africa and southwest Asia. It is the smallest and darkest subspecies.
C. h. hiaticula and C. h. tundrae are among the taxa to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.


The greater sand plover (Charadrius leschenaultii) is a small wader in the plover family of birds. The spelling is commonly given as "greater sandplover" or "greater sand-plover", but the official British Ornithologists' Union spelling is "Greater Sand Plover". The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek kharadrios a bird found in ravines and river valleys (kharadra, "ravine"). The specific leschenaultii commemorates the French botanist Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour.


It breeds in the semi-deserts of Turkey and eastwards through Central Asia. It nests in a bare ground scrape. This species is strongly migratory, wintering on sandy beaches in East Africa, South Asia and Australasia. It is a rare vagrant in western Europe, where it has been recorded as far west as Iceland.  It has been spotted twice in North America, the most recent being on May 14, 2009, in Jacksonville, Florida.


There are three subspecies: The nominate, C. l. columbinus and C. l. scythicus. The last was known as C. l. crassirostris until it was established that this name is pre-occupied by a subspecies of Wilson's plover, C. w. crassirostris.


Its food consists of insects, crustaceans and annelid worms, which are obtained by a run-and-pause technique, rather than the steady probing of some other wader groups.
Its flight call is a soft trill.
The greater sand plover is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.


The white-fronted plover or white-fronted sandplover (Charadrius marginatus) is a small (45-50 g) shorebird of the family Charadriidae that inhabits sandy beaches, dunes, mudflats and the shores of rivers and lakes in sub-saharan Africa and Madagascar. It nests in small shallow scrapes in the ground and lays clutches of one to three eggs. The species is monogamous and long-lived, with a life expectancy of approximately 11 years. The vast majority of pairs that mate together stay together during the following years of breeding and retain the same territory. The white-fronted plover has a similar appearance to the Kentish plover, with a white fore crown and dark bands connecting the eyes to the bill.


The average white-fronted plover weighs approximately 45-50 g, and the two sexes differ slightly in plumage coloration. Adult male plovers show a white forecrown and supercilium, with a dark band crossing the mid crown, with the rest of the crown a sandy grey colour. The face is mainly white, with a blackish brown stripe running from behind the eye to the ear coverts. The mantle, back, and rump is light greyish brown, with pale brown to grey fringing feathers. The upper covert and central feathers of the tail are black, and the lateral feathers are white. Primaries and secondaries are dark brown with white shafts, bases, and inner webs. White-fronted plovers also have a pale dusky-brown lateral patch on the upper breast, and white underparts, occasionally with a washed chestnut lower breast and upper belly. The eyes are brown, the bill is black, and the legs are pale grey, green-grey, or pale green/olive.
Adult females have a similar appearance to adult males, however the black crown band is less defined and not as thick, and may even be absent in some cases.
Juveniles have similar markings to adult females, but always lack the crown band altogether, and there is no black colouration on the head- lores are brown. The lateral breast patch is very variable between individuals of this species.


The voice of a white-fronted plover is often a gentle piping wit, woo-et, twirit, and tirit-tirit, as well as pi-peep. When a plover is defending a territory, a harsh chiza-chiza can be heard, followed by a purrr or squeak. When the incomplete egg set is visited, a croo sound is called, and during incubation a short clirrup sound or clup is made when alarmed. Other alarm calls consist of kittup and chirrrt. Adult courtship is a sharp krewwwwww, and freshly hatched chicks often call a tsick, to get the attention of their parent.


The white-fronted plover is endemic to sub-saharan Africa, and occurs at varying densities from Senegambia and Somalia to South Africa. The species is present along the entire South African coast and is also found inland, near large lakes and rivers. It also inhabits Madagascar. In Madagascar, breeding populations are resident on all coasts, and also inland. A genetic study reported genetic differentiation between Madagascar and the mainland population.


The white-fronted plover forages during both day and night, using the typical plover run-stop-search technique. This consists of running around, stopping suddenly to peck at an item and then running again. Prey can be pecked from the surface of water, or caught with shallow jabs, inserting less than half of the bill into the substratum. Another method used to forage is foot-trembling, which involves vibrating the toes on substratum to disturb small insects or force invertebrates to the surface. This has not been reported in the Madagascan populations. Other feeding techniques include flying up to catch insects, and feeding on insects that wash up on shore after getting caught in water. The main prey of the white-fronted plover are sand flies, grasshoppers, termites, mosquito pupae, fairy shrimp, gastropods, bivalves, isopods, crabs, and other small crustaceans and worms.
Plovers mainly forage in the upper half of the intertidal zone on sandy beaches, along high water lines and flooded depressions of dunes in summer. In winter, they forage lower on the shore. They often follow the waves in and out, foraging on the freshly wetted ground. They prefer foraging during low tide, but also in kelp wrack at high tide. In the middle of the day, they often stop foraging to preen.
Some individuals defend their feeding territories year round, while others forage in non-territorial flocks, sometimes in mixed-species flocks with sanderlings (Calidris alba) and curlew sandpipers (Calidris ferruginea).


The white-fronted plover is a monogamous solitary breeder with a life expectancy of approximately 11 years. It is usually found in pairs or in small flocks,  but can also appear in larger flocks during the breeding season. For example, a flock of 375 individuals was observed in Namibia. Mates generally stay faithful to each other for a long period of time, however 'divorce' has been recorded in some cases. Plovers that have lost mates have been observed to acquire new mates, without losing their territory. This monogamy may be due to a reduced availability of alternative breeding options or possibly high costs of  divorce.
Courtship displays include male plovers performing an upright posture accompanied by high stepping movements, while females lower their head. A few shallow nest scapes may be created in the breeding territory before choosing the final nest site.
The white-fronted plover is very defensive of its territory. If an intruder invades the territory, the bird puffs out its plumage and chases away the intruder while uttering buzzing calls.


Breeding pairs may have one breeding territory close to the high water mark that they are able to feed in, or have two territories that are defended, one for feeding and one for nesting. Nesting territories have an average size of 1.6 ha, and nests can be as close as 16.2 m to each other. The size and boundaries of these territories do not appear to differ much between years of breeding, and site fidelity was recorded as 97.3% for pairs that stayed together between years. Territories are defended against neighbouring birds of the same species, and can also be defended against other species that are in the vicinity, such as sanderlings and Kittlitz's plover (Charadrius pecuarius). Defensive behaviour often consists of low-level aerial attack, running at the intruder with lowered head, or aggressive forward-hunched postures. Non-territorial birds also exist, and as long as they keep to 'ordinary' behaviour pattens (feeding at a specific point and then flying away to a roosting site), the territorial birds appear to tolerate them.


The typical white-fronted plover nest consists of a small shallow scrape in sand, gravel, or shingle, depending on the environment, and is sometimes lined with shell fragments, pebbles, seaweed or twigs. However scrapes are most commonly unlined. Nests are generally more than 70 m above the high water mark. They are often built among beach debris or near dune vegetation. Scrapes are created by the bird pushing its breast into the ground, slowly rotating whilst kicking backwards. Pairs may create more than one crape before choosing one to nest in, as scrape building often overlaps with courtship. 1-3 eggs are laid, with mean clutch size varying for different populations. In South Africa, mean clutch size is 2.05; in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi, it is 2.53 eggs. Egg laying dates vary between populations, which nest all year round on the coast but only from December to January in inland Namibia. Eggs are laid at 2-7 day intervals and are pale cream coloured, pointed ovals marked with fine blackish brown points and lines. The average dimensions of a white-fronted plover egg are 32.1 x 22.8 mm. Before the clutch is complete, the pair often visit the nest together, and occasionally straddle the egg, however no incubation is undertaken before the final egg is laid. During this joint behaviour, ‘croo’ calls are made.


Incubation is assumed to start at clutch completion (however this is not confirmed). The incubation period lasts for approximately 27–29 days, but can last up to 33 days. Both sexes incubate the nest during the day, and partly or fully cover the eggs with sand during the day in response to an approaching threat. Egg covering was not found to occur during normal breaks in incubation of the nest but only in response to a threat, and rarely at night. It is therefore hypothesised that egg covering is not related to temperature and insulation of eggs, but rather to predation avoidance. It is thought that the male undertakes the majority of incubation during the night. If a clutch is lost, it is highly likely that a pair will re-lay eggs.


The fledging period of chicks is approximately 35–38 days, and the proportion of hatched chicks that actually fledge is estimated to be 28%. If a predator or threat is near, adults with chicks or eggs near hatching date will perform distraction displays such as ‘rodent running’ and ‘injury feigning’. ‘Rodent running’ consists of the adult running fast, with a low head and a low spread tail, similar to a fleeing rodent. Injury feigning consists of the individual running or cowering on the ground whilst flapping one or both wings, with a partly spread tail. Chicks feed for themselves immediately after hatching, however parents can lead chicks to foraging areas up to 2.2 km from the nest.
The annual adult survival rate for white-fronted plovers is 89-92%. This species is considerably longer lived than their northern relatives.


The white-fronted plover is classified as Least Concern by the IUCN due to its extremely large range, large population size, and while total population is decreasing, it appears not to do so at a threatening rate. The Madagascar population is estimated at 5,000–15,000 individuals (coastal surveys from Analalava to Tolagnaro yielded a total count of 1,457 individuals at 119 different locations), the global population at 73,500–103,500. Low  nesting success  may  be  partially compensated by multiple clutching and repeat nesting after egg loss, but overall there are too few data to reliably estimates population trends.


The main threat to the white-fronted plover is habitat loss due to wetland degradation or destruction. In Zimbabwe and southern Mozambique, an extensive recession of the species’ inland range has taken place due to changes to river morphologies resulting from dam constructions. Key wetland sites in southern Africa, such as Walvis Bay in Namibia, have been subject to degradation because of the reclamation of wetlands for the development of suburbs, ports and roads. In Ghana, coastal erosion as well as proposed development involving drainage and land reclamation constitute a big threat for wetlands used as breeding habitat.
Major causes of nest loss in some regions are flooding due to spring tides and disturbance from tourists or off-road vehicles that drive through the breeding sites.


The snowy plover (Charadrius nivosus) is a small wader in the plover bird family, typically about 5-7" in length. It breeds in the southern and western United States, the Caribbean, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. Long considered to be a subspecies of the Kentish plover, it is now known to be a distinct species.
Parts of or entire beaches along the Central California coast are protected as nesting sites for the snowy plover and completely restricted to humans. UC Santa Barbara and the Vandenberg Space Force Base are two organizations leading the effort for beaches near them.


Genetic research published in 2009 strongly suggested that the snowy plover is a separate species from the Kentish plover, and by July, 2011, the International Ornithological Congress (IOC), and the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) North American committee have recognized them as separate species. Other taxonomic committees are reviewing the relationship.
Physically, snowy plovers are shorter-legged, paler and greyer above than their Old World sister species, and breeding males lack a rufous cap. The eye mask is also poorly developed or absent.


The snowy plover breeds on sandy coasts and brackish inland lakes, and is uncommon on fresh water. It nests in a ground scrape and lays three to five eggs.
Breeding birds in warmer countries are largely sedentary, but northern and inland populations are migratory, wintering south to the tropics.
In North America, the snowy plover breeds from Texas and Oklahoma west to California and up the coastline to Oregon and Washington. The coastal form's primary breeding concentration is in central and southern California.


Coastal snowy plovers will hunt both close to the water's edge, as well as in drier, sandier areas. Inland birds favor damp, wetter environments. Food is typically obtained by a run-and-pause technique, though birds have been known to probe sand and chase insects near carcasses. The species primarily feeds on invertebrates, such as crustaceans, worms, beetles, and especially flies.


On March 5, 1993 the western snowy plover was listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. As of June 19, 2012, the habitat along the California, Oregon, and Washington Coasts have been listed as critical. In 2016, risk assessments by the IUCN listed the snowy plover as near threatened and found that the species had an overall decreasing population trend.  In many parts of the world, it has become difficult for this species to breed on beaches because of disturbance from the activities of humans or their animals.


The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) is currently endeavoring to rehabilitate snowy plover populations by protecting beaches along the central California coastline that runs along part of the university campus. UCSB has had some success in encouraging reproduction; the university also often trains students and other volunteers to watch over protected beaches during the daytime to ensure no one disturbs nesting grounds. But even with the conservation efforts, their population is slowly dwindling, it's estimated that only about 2,500 western snowy plovers breed along the Pacific Coast.


The beaches lining Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Central coast of California are also home to several protected areas where breeding has been successful in recent years.  Access to these beaches is limited to certain times of the year, and very specific areas are open to keep the bird protected.  Most of these beaches are only open to military personnel and their families.


The red-capped plover (Charadrius ruficapillus), also known as the red-capped dotterel, is a small species of plover.
It breeds in Australia. This species is closely related to (and sometimes considered conspecific with) the Kentish plover, Javan plover, and white-fronted plover.


Red-capped plovers have a white forehead and underparts. Their upperparts are mainly grey-brown. Adult males have a rufous or reddish-brown crown and hindneck. Adult females have a paler rufous and grey-brown crown and hindneck, with a pale loreal stripe. The upperwing of Charadrius ruficapillus shows dark brown remiges (flight feathers) and primary covert feathers with a white wingbar in flight. Its length is 14–16 cm (5.5–6.3 in) and its wingspan is 27–34 cm (10.6–13.4 in); it weighs 35–40 g (1.2–1.4 oz).
Breeding plumage shows a red-brown crown and nape with black margins. Non-breeding plumage is duller and lacks the black margins.


The red-capped plover is widespread in Australia; it is a vagrant to New Zealand, although it bred there for some time in small numbers from 1950–1980. The species occupies a range of coastal and inland habitats, including estuaries, bays, beaches, sandflats, and mudflats; inland saline wetlands. It is also found in inland wetland areas with bare ground.


The red-capped plover feeds mostly on small invertebrates, especially molluscs, crustaceans, and worms.


The red-capped plover is a seasonal breeder on the coasts of Australia, but breeds in response to unpredictable rains inland. The plover nests on the ground close to wetlands; the nest is a small depression in the ground, with minimal or no lining. The clutch of two pale yellowish-brown eggs are speckled with black spots. The Incubation period is 30 days; incubating is mainly done by the female. Upon hatching, the young are open-eyed, mobile, and relatively mature (precocial); they flee the nest shortly after birth (nidifugous).


With a large range and no evidence of significant population decline, this species' conservation status is of Least Concern.


Charaxes bernardus, the tawny rajah, is a butterfly that belongs to the rajahs and nawabs group, that is, the Charaxinae group of the brush-footed butterflies family. This species can be found in India, China, Indomalaya, and onwards to Indonesia.


Charaxes bernardus has a wingspan of about 7–9 centimetres (2.8–3.5 in). The upperside of wings is reddish brown or pale brown-orange, with dark brown/black speckles at the wings tips and small black marks at the margin of the hindwings. On the underside of the wings there are irregular wavy or tawny brown speckles and whitish zigzag bands. Males and females are very similar in appearance.


Known food plants of this species include:
Aglaia lawii, Aglaia roxburghiana (Meliaceae), Cinnamomum camphora, Litsea glutinosa, Litsea populifolia (Lauraceae), Sapium sebiferum (Euphorbiaceae), Adenanthera pavonina, Paraserianthes falcataria (= Falcataria moluccana), Tamarindus indica (Leguminosae), and Acronychia penduculata (Rutaceae).


Chasmanthe floribunda is a species of flowering plant in the iris family which is known by the common name African flag. This plant is endemic to Cape Province in South Africa, but it has been introduced to other areas of similar climate, and is considered to be naturalized in California, Algeria, Australia, Argentina, and St. Helena.
Chasmanthe floribunda is a perennial herbaceous plant sprouting from a corm and producing clumps of long, narrow leaves. It erects one thin, tall stem which may approach a meter in height. Atop the stem is a spike inflorescence holding 20 to 40 flowers in neat vertical rows. The flower is a curving tube with a long upper lobe curving down over smaller lobes. From the mouth of the flower protrude the stamens with their large, hanging anthers, and the style. The flower is generally bright orange-red or scarlet on the upper lobe and yellow to orange in the lower lobes.
Chasmanthe emerges from the ground in autumn in the Western Cape, South Africa, after the first winter rains. It is frequented by sunbirds, which feed on the nectar it provides at this time of year. It flourishes and flowers in both sun and shade.
Varieties
Chasmanthe floribunda var. duckittii G.J.Lewis ex L.Bolus
Chasmanthe floribunda var. floribunda – Yellow cobra lily


Chasmanthium latifolium, known as northern wood-oats, inland sea oats, northern sea oats, and river oats is a species of grass native to the central and eastern United States, Manitoba, and northeastern Mexico; it grows as far north as Pennsylvania and Michigan, where it is a threatened species.  The species was previously classified as Uniola latifolia (André Michaux).


Chasmanthium latifolium is a warm-season, rhizomatous, perennial grass with stems about 1 m [3 feet] tall. The plant typically grows in wooded areas and riparian zones.


It is used in landscaping in North America, where it is noted as a relatively rare native grass that thrives in partial shade; the plant is recommended for USDA hardiness zones 3–9 in acidic sands, loams, and clays.


It is a larval host plant for the Northern Pearly-Eye, and its seeds are food for birds and mammals.  It is also eaten by the caterpillars of the pepper and salt skipper, Bell's roadside skipper, and bronzed roadside skipper butterflies.


Chauliodes pectinicornis known as Summer fishfly. is a species of fishfly from North America.


C. pectinicornis has a wide distribution in the eastern Canada and United States, from Maine in the north-east to Alachua, Liberty and Santa Rosa counties in Florida to the south-east, and as far west as Kansas.


C. pectinicornis was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1763 work Centuria Insectorum.
Synonyms: Linnaeus 1763
Hemerobius pectinicornis, Hemerobius virginiensis, Semblis pectinicornis, Chauliodes virginiensis.


Chauliognathus basalis, the Colorado soldier beetle, is a species of soldier beetle in the family Cantharidae. It is found in North America.


The goldenrod soldier beetle or Pennsylvania leatherwing (Chauliognathus pensylvanicus) is a species of soldier beetle (Cantharidae).


The species is native to North America, and is one of the most common species of soldier beetle in the Midwest.


Chelone glabra, or white turtlehead, is a herbaceous species of plant native to North America. Its native range extends from Georgia to Newfoundland and Labrador and from Mississippi to Manitoba. Its common name comes from the appearance of its flower petals, which resemble the head of a tortoise. In fact, in Greek, chelone means "tortoise" and was the name of a nymph who refused to attend the wedding of Zeus and was turned into a turtle as punishment. Its natural habitat is wet areas, such as riparian forests and swamps.
Its classification at the family level has in the past been controversial, but as a result of DNA sequence studies, it is now regarded as belonging to family Plantaginaceae (the plantain family). In early taxonomic treatments the species was divided into a number of subspecific categories but more recent studies indicate no morphological or genetic basis for these taxonomic categories.


This species has opposite, simple leaves, on stout, upright stems. The flowers are white, borne in late summer and early fall.
It is the primary plant on which the Baltimore checkerspot butterfly will lay its eggs (although the butterfly to some extent will use a few other species).
Chelone glabra is a popular browse plant for deer. It is also a foodplant for the sawflies Macrophya nigra and Tenthredo grandis (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae), and a flea beetle in the genus Dibolia (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) has also been shown to feed on it.


It has been used as a method of birth control by Abenaki people.


The Australian wood duck, maned duck or maned goose (Chenonetta jubata) is a dabbling duck found throughout much of Australia. It is the only living species in the genus Chenonetta. Traditionally placed in the subfamily Anatinae (dabbling ducks), it might belong to the subfamily Tadorninae (shelducks); the ringed teal may be its closest living relative.


The Australian wood duck was first described by the English ornithologist John Latham in 1801 under the binomial name Anas jubata.
The flightless New Zealand species Chenonetta finschi (Finsch's duck) which was formerly believed to constitute a monotypic genus (Euryanas) has been determined to belong to Chenonetta. It became extinct before scientists could properly survey the New Zealand avifauna, but possibly as late as 1870 (based on a report of a flightless goose caught in Opotiki.)


The Australian wood duck is widespread in Australia, including Tasmania. The Australian wood duck is found in grasslands, open woodlands, wetlands, flooded pastures and along the coast in inlets and bays. It is also common on farmland with dams, as well as around rice fields, sewage ponds and in urban parks. It will often be found around deeper lakes that may be unsuitable for other waterbirds' foraging, as it prefers to forage on land. It has been recorded as a vagrant in New Zealand, although in 2015 and 2016 a pair successfully bred there.


The most common call is a loud, rising croaky gnow sound by the females, and the male call is the same except smoother, shorter and higher than the females. Staccato chattering is also present in flocks.


Australian wood duck is widespread in its range. This species has benefited from agriculture developments, with creation of dams and pools. It is classified as a game bird, and killed by licensed hunters. This species is not threatened, and numbers are stable.


Australian wood duck nests in cavities in trees or in nest-boxes above or near water. Nests are made with a pile of down.


This duck nests in a tree cavity laying 9–11 cream-white eggs, similar to the Mandarin ducks. The female incubates them while the male stands guard. Once the ducklings are ready to leave the nest, the female flies to the ground and the duckling will leap to the ground and follow their parents. The males also secure their ducklings closely along with the females.


The Australian wood duck eats grasses, grains, clover and other herbs, and occasionally, insects. It is rarely seen on open water, preferring to forage by dabbling in shallow water, or in grasslands and crops.


The Australian wood duck can be distinguished from pygmy geese, Nettapus spp, which are smaller, have bold white face markings and are usually seen on water. Whistling ducks, Dendrocygna spp, have longer legs and necks, larger more duck-like bills and tend to walk more upright. When flying, the Australian wood duck is the only duck with white secondary feathers and dark wingtips.


The latticed heath (Chiasmia clathrata) is a moth of the family Geometridae, belonging to the subfamily Ennominae, placed in the tribe Macariini. The genus was erected by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.


This species can be found throughout Europe, the Near East, North Africa, and east through Russia, Siberia, Amur River, northern Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Korea to Japan. It is a fairly common species in the British Isles. These moths inhabit a range of open areas, including grassland, moorland, and waste ground.


Chiasmia clathrata has a wingspan of 20–25 mm. In this rather variable species the background colour of the wings varies from yellowish to white, with a network of brown lines (hence its common name). These lines vary in thickness and sometimes the wings are almost entirely dark brown.


The final instar larva is pale green with white lines, including a strong lateral line and thin dorsal lines along the body. Abdominal segments A1 through A5 have a strong white line across the rear end of each segment that ends just above the lateral line.


In the British Isles there are one or two generations annually, with adults seen at any time from May to September. These moths are diurnal but they can also be observed at night where they are attracted to artificial light. Larvae feed on bedstraws (Galium mollugo, Galium verum) and various legumes such as clovers (Trifolium medium, Trifolium pratense), trefoils, lucerne (Medicago sativa)  and meadow vetchling, primarily in June and July and from mid-August through September, though in Ireland and northern Britain larvae occur in July and August. The species overwinters as a pupa.


Chilades lajus, the lime blue, is a small butterfly found in India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Hainan, Mangulam Island, Sulawesi and the Philippines that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family.


Wet-season form: Male has a bluish-purple upperside. Forewing has base and basal half of costa flushed with pale blue; costa and termen edged by a slender dark brownish-block even line, beyond which along the termen the cilia are brown, at base, white outwardly. Hindwing: costa somewhat broadly dusky black; a slender black conspicuous anteciliary line, beyond which the cilia are white traversed medially by a brown line; dorsum broadly pale brown, two subterminal pale-bordered black spots in interspace 1, and one similar spot in interspace 2, often obsolescent and barely indicated.
Underside: grey. Forewing: a transverse broad lunule on the discocellulars and a transverse discal series of six spots dark brown, the lunule and each of the discal spots edged with white; the posterior four spots of the discal series elongate and each obliquely placed, the anterior two round and curved inwards; a subterminal series of transverse elongate spots with an inner series of lunules dusky brown, both series edged inwardly and outwardly with white; finally, an anteciliary slender black line. Cilia white, medially traversed by a dark brown line. Hindwing: the following jet-black spots slenderly encircled with white: a transverse subbasal series of four and a subcostal spot somewhat larger than the others in the middle of interspace 7; below the latter a catenulated (linked like a chain) line of slenderly white-edged dusky-brown spots, including the lunular spot on the discocellulars, crosses the wing, and beyond these opposite the apex of the cell are three similar discal spots, the middle one elongate; the terminal markings consist of an inner continuous subterminal series of dusky lunules, bordered inwardly and outwardly with white, an outer subterminal series of inwardly conical dusky-brown spots, and a slender anteciliary black line. The posterior two spots of the outer line of subterminal markings are also black. Cilia white. Antennae black, the shafts obscurely ringed with white; head, thorax and abdomen brown, the head, thorax and base of the abdomen with a little blue scaling; beneath: the palpi, thorax and abdomen white.
Female upperside: dark brown. Forewings and hindwings from their bases outwards to a varying extent shot with bright iridescent blue, this colour not extended on either wing to the costa, termen or dorsum. Hindwing: in addition a curved postdiscal series of whitish lunules very often obsolescent, in some specimens entirely wanting; followed by a subterminal series of black, narrowly white-encircled spots that are often obscure and in some specimens do not reach the apex. Anteciliary black lines and cilia as in the male. Underside: precisely similar to that of the male. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in the male.
Dry-season form: Closely resemble specimens of the wet-season brood, but can always be distinguished by the somewhat paler ground colour of the upperside, while on the underside both sexes bear a large nebulous brown patch on the hindwing posteriorly. Sometimes the ground colour on the underside is much paler, almost white, especially in the female.


Food plants include Glycosmis arborea.
"Pale green at all stages, on the shade or the young leaves of the lime and pummelo bushes on which it feeds. When full-grown it is about seven-sixteenths of an inch in length, onisciform as usual; the head "black, smooth and shining, with a somewhat dark green dorsal line down the body, the whole surface but very slightly shagreened and covered with extremely fine and short downy hairs. The constriction between the segments slight. There are traces of two pale subdorsal lines, and there is a pale lateral line below the spiracles. The usual extensile organ on the twelfth segment short. This larva has no distinctive markings by which it can be easily recognized; it is altogether a very plainly coloured and marked insert. I have found it common in Calcutta during the rains, the ant which attends it betraying its presence. The latter has been identified by Dr. A. Forel as Camponotus rubripes, Drury (sylvaticus Fabr.), subspecies conpressus, Fabr." (Lionel de Nicéville quoted in Bingham)


"Green; of the usual Lycaenid shape, with a dorsal and lateral series of somewhat obscure conjoined brownish spots on the upperside. Attached to the underside of the leaves of its food-plant in the usual manner." (de Nicéville.)


Chilocorus stigma, commonly known as the twice-stabbed ladybug, is a native resident of the United States and Canada but does not live west of the Sierra Nevada. It also has been introduced to Hawaii. It is shiny black, and there is one red spot on each elytron. The remainder of the body is black as well, but the abdomen is either yellow or red. It is sometimes confused with the "two-stabbed lady beetle", Chilocorus orbus, which is widespread in California.


C. stigma mainly lives within terrestrial/arboreal habitats, primarily feeding on aphids found in these habitats as well as scales (such as pine needle scale, beech bark scale and Florida red scale) and mealybugs. It is a beneficial insect, and is useful in both natural wood stands and commercial forests such as orchards and citrus groves. It is beneficial against non native species. An introduced Hemlock pest, the elongate hemlock scale (Fiorinia externa Ferris), which has been doing considerable damage to Hemlock trees throughout North America, can be moderately controlled by the presence of C. stigma. C. stigma is currently not a lady beetle that can be sold for commercial use in orchards or on farms.


C. stigma usually completes two lifecycles a year in Canada and the North United States but may complete several lifecycles a year further down South. They overwinter in ground litter during the colder months.  C. stigma has been shown, like other ladybeetles, to be susceptible to the use of insecticides diminishing its population in the wild.  In order to preserve the benefits of this insect, pesticide users are encouraged to use natural alternatives to pesticide in order to curb the decline of C. stigma.


The chromosomes (karyotype) of Chilocorus stigma vary from one individual to another, in both the number of chromosomes (aneuploidy) and their structure (chromosomal polymorphism).  The variability occurs as a result of chromosome fusions or disassociations.


Chiloglottis cornuta, commonly known as the green bird orchid, is a species of orchid found in south-eastern Australia and in New Zealand, including many of its offshore islands. It has two broad leaves and a single green or pinkish flower with six to eight rounded, flattened green, reddish or blackish calli on the labellum.


Chiloglottis cornuta is a terrestrial, perennial, deciduous, herb with two elliptic leaves 60–100 mm (2–4 in) long and 20–30 mm (0.8–1 in) wide on a petiole 5–10 mm (0.2–0.4 in) long. A single green to reddish flower 13–16 mm (0.5–0.6 in) long and 25–30 mm (0.98–1.2 in) wide is borne on a flowering stem 40–100 mm (2–4 in) high. The dorsal sepal is lance-shaped to egg-shaped, 13–16 mm (0.5–0.6 in) long and 5–7 mm (0.2–0.3 in) wide. The lateral sepals are 10–12 mm (0.4–0.5 in) long, about 3 mm (0.1 in) wide and curve forwards. There is a glandular tip about 1 mm (0.04 in) long on the sepals. The petals are linear to lance-shaped, 10–12 mm (0.4–0.5 in) long, about 3.5 mm (0.1 in) wide and spread widely apart from each other. The labellum is heart-shaped, 9–12 mm (0.4–0.5 in) long and 7–8 mm (0.28–0.31 in) wide with six to eight rounded dark red, green, reddish or blackish calli. The column is erect, almost as long as the dorsal sepal with broad wings on the upper half. Flowering occurs from November to February.


Chiloglottis cornuta was first formally described in 1844 by Joseph Dalton Hooker from a specimen collected near "Campbell's Island" and the description was published in Flora Antarctica. The specific epithet (cornuta) is a Latin word meaning "bearing horns".


The green bird orchid grows in moist places in sheltered forest in far south-eastern New South Wales, eastern Victoria, far south-eastern South Australia and in Tasmania. In New Zealand it occurs on both the North and South Islands and on Stewart, Chatham, the Antipodes, Campbell and Auckland Islands.


The striped burrfish or simply burrfish (Chilomycterus schoepfi) is a member of the porcupinefish family Diodontidae.


Chilopsis is a monotypic genus of flowering plants containing the single species Chilopsis linearis. It is known commonly as desert willow or desert-willow because of its willow-like leaves, but it is not a true willow – being instead a member of the catalpa family.
It is a shrub or tree native to the southwestern United States and Mexico. It is commonly seen in washes and along riverbanks.


Ranging from 1.5 to as much as 8 meters in height, it can take the form of a shrub or small tree. The linear, curved, deciduous leaves are 10 to 26 cm long and just a few millimeters wide.
The generic name is derived from the Greek words χεῖλος, (cheilos), meaning "lip," and ὄψις (opsis), meaning "resembling," referring to the flowers. They occur in a terminal panicle or raceme, blooming in May through September. About two to four flowers at a time are open in each inflorescence. The calyx is about 8–14 mm, slightly inflated, and varying shades of purple, while the corolla is 2–5 cm, and with colors ranging from lavender to light pink. The throat and lower lip has a pattern of yellow ridges and purple lines, and the margins are crinkled. It is pollinated primarily by large bees in the family Apidae, such as carpenter bees, bumblebees, Anthophora, and Centris. The fruit is a linear pod up to 35 cm long, containing numerous winged seeds.
There are two subspecies:
Chilopsis linearis subsp. linearis. Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, western Texas, Mexico.
Chilopsis linearis subsp. arcuata. Nevada, California, Baja California.


As a phreatophyte, it is well adapted to ephemeral desert washes and sandy streams. It can be found through much of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It is usually found below 5,000 feet (1,500 m).


Chilopsis linearis is cultivated for its large, showy flowers, and tolerance of hot, dry climates. Although the natural growth is a very irregular shape, it can be readily pruned into a conventional tree shape. A number of cultivars have been selected. Some, such as 'Rio Salado', have dark purple or magenta flowers.
Chilopsis may survive temperatures as low as 10 degrees F (-12 °C).
Chilopsis is closely related to the genus Catalpa and hybrids can be made between the two genera. The nothogeneric hybrid between Chilopsis linearis and Catalpa bignonioides has been named × Chitalpa tashkentensis. It originated in a botanic garden at Tashkent in Uzbekistan.
Parts of the plant have been used in traditional medicine. It has been used to treat fungal infections such as candidiasis and athlete's foot, as well as wounds and cough.
The wood was used to make bows and baskets.


Chimaphila maculata (spotted wintergreen, also called striped wintergreen, striped prince's pine, spotted pipsissewa, ratsbane, or rheumatism root)  is a small, perennial, evergreen herb native to eastern North America and Central America, from southern Quebec west to Illinois, and south to Florida and Panama.


It has dark green, variegated leaves 2–7 cm (0.8–2.8 in) in length, and 6–26 mm (0.2–1.0 in) in width. The variegation of the leaves arises from the distinct white veins contrasted with the dark green of the leaf.
The stems emerge from creeping rhizomes, growing 10–25 cm (4–10 in) tall. The nearly round flowers, which appear in late July to early August, are found on top of tall stalks. They are white or pinkish and are insect pollinated. The flowers mature to small (6–8 mm (0.24–0.31 in) in diameter) capsules bearing the seeds of the plant, which are dispersed by the wind.


It can be found in sandy habitats, well-drained upland forests, oak-pine woods, and similar mesic habitats. It is very tolerant of acidic soil.


"The Creek Indians called it 'pipsisikweu' – which means 'breaks into small pieces' – after the supposed ability to break down gallstones and kidney stones. ... Native Americans used its leaf tea to treat rheumatism and stomach problems, and crushed leaves were applied as a poultice to sores and wounds."


Spotted wintergreen is endangered in Canada, as there are four living populations in southern Ontario, and there is one extremely small extant population in Quebec.
It is endangered in Illinois and Maine. In New York it is considered Exploitably Vulnerable.


Chimaphila menziesii, known by the common names little prince's pine and Little Pipsissewa,  is a species of perennial wildflower in the heath family.


This plant is found scattered throughout the mountains of western North America where it grows in the understory of coniferous forests.  It is native to the Western United States and Southwest Canada.


Chimaphila menziesii is a short flower with a slender reddish stem not exceeding 15 centimeters. The leaves are lance-shaped and a leathery rich green with light veins and tiny widely spaced teeth along the edges.
The inflorescence atop the stem produces hanging flowers on long stalks. Each flower is white to dark pink, with spreading petals around a thick center. A ring of stamens with large tubular anthers surrounds an ovary with a large buttonlike stigma. It is similar to, but smaller than, its relative the prince's pine, Chimaphila umbellata.


The plant was used to make treatments to break up kidney stones or gallstones; the name Pipsissewa likely derives from the Cree word pipsisikuweu ('it breaks into little pieces').


Chimaphila umbellata, the umbellate wintergreen, pipsissewa, or prince's pine, is a small perennial flowering plant found in dry woodlands, or sandy soils. It is native throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere.
It grows 10–35 cm tall, and has evergreen shiny, bright green, toothed leaves arranged in opposite pairs or whorls of 3–4 along the stem. Leaves have a shallowly toothed margin, where the teeth have fine hairs at their ends. The flowers are white or pink, produced in a small umbel of 4–8 together.


Although it has green leaves year-round, it receives a significant portion of its nutrition from fungi in the soil (that is, it is a partial myco-heterotroph, which is not surprising as related plants, such as Pyrola, are partial or full myco-heterotrophs).


There are four subspecies:
Chimaphila umbellata subsp. umbellata – Europe, Asia
Chimaphila umbellata subsp. acuta – southwestern North America
Chimaphila umbellata subsp. cisatlantica – northeastern North America
Chimaphila umbellata subsp. occidentalis – northwestern North America


Some Plateau Indian tribes used a boil of prince's pine to treat tuberculosis.
The twentieth century Appalachian folk healer Clarence "Catfish" Gray, "Man of the Woods", credited pipsissewa with curing his own heart problems and included it in his 15 herb cure-all "bitters."
It is used as a flavoring in candy and soft drinks, particularly root beer.
The roots and leaves of Chimaphila umbellata can be boiled to create tea.
Recent investigations show the anti-proliferative effect of Chimaphila umbellata in human breast cancer cells (MCF-7).


"Pipsissewa" is a Cree name meaning "It-breaks-into-small-pieces".


Chioides albofasciatus, the white-striped longtail, is a species of dicot skipper in the family of butterflies known as Hesperiidae. Chioides albofasciatus is found in Central America and North America.
The MONA or Hodges number for Chioides albofasciatus is 3874.


Chionanthus virginicus (white fringetree) is a tree native to the savannas and lowlands of the southeastern United States, from New Jersey south to Florida, and west to Oklahoma and Texas.


It is a deciduous shrub or small tree growing to as much as 10 to 11 metres (33 to 36 ft) tall, though ordinarily less. The bark is scaly, brown tinged with red. The shoots are light green, downy at first, later becoming light brown or orange. The buds are light brown, ovate, acute, 3 millimetres (0.12 in) long. The leaves are opposite, simple, ovate or oblong, 7.5 to 20 centimetres (3.0 to 7.9 in) long and 2.5 to 10 centimetres (0.98 to 3.94 in) broad, with a petiole 2 centimetres (0.79 in) long, and an entire margin; they are hairless above, and finely downy below, particularly along the veins, and turn yellow in fall. The richly-scented flowers have a pure white, deeply four-lobed corolla, the lobes thread-like, 1.5 to 2.5 centimetres (0.59 to 0.98 in) long and 3 millimetres (0.12 in) broad; they are produced in drooping axillary panicles 10 to 25 centimetres (3.9 to 9.8 in) long when the leaves are half grown, in mid- to late May in New York City, earlier in the south.
It is usually dioecious, though occasional plants bear flowers of both sexes. The fruit is an ovoid dark blue to purple drupe 1.5 to 2 centimetres (0.59 to 0.79 in) long, containing a single seed (rarely two or three), mature in late summer to mid fall.


The species name was originally cited by Linnaeus as Chionanthus virginica, treating the genus as feminine; however, under the provisions of the ICBN, the genus is correctly treated as masculine, giving the species ending as virginicus. Other English names occasionally used in the Appalachians include Grancy Gray Beard and Old Man's Beard.


Although native in the southeastern United States, it is hardy in the north and is extensively planted in gardens, where specimens are often grown with multiple trunks. The white flowers are best seen from below. Fall color is a fine, clear yellow, a good contrast with viburnums and evergreens.  It prefers a moist soil and a sheltered situation. It may be propagated by grafting on Ash (Fraxinus sp.). The wood is light brown, sapwood paler brown; heavy, hard, and close-grained.


The dried roots and bark were used by Native Americans to treat skin inflammations. The crushed bark was used in treatment of sores and wounds.


In 2014, white fringetrees in Ohio were reported to be hosting infestations of the emerald ash borer, an insect native to Asia that has become a highly destructive invasive pest of ash trees in North America. Since then, emerald ash borer has been found in white fringetrees in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, indicating to researchers that white fringetrees are being utilized by emerald ash borers throughout the range where the species overlap. Symptoms of infestation include crown dieback and epicormic sprouting.


Chionodes mediofuscella, the black-smudged chionodes moth, is a moth of the family Gelechiidae. It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from Nova Scotia to Florida and from British Columbia to Colorado, Arizona and northern California.
The forewings are pale yellowish with a dark brown spot along the costa. There is a blackish-brown dot at the angle on the fold and another above it. The hindwings are shining pale grey.
The larvae feed on Ambrosia trifida.


The whiskered tern (Chlidonias hybrida) is a  tern in the family Laridae. The genus name is from Ancient Greek khelidonios, "swallow-like", from khelidon, "swallow". The specific hybridus is Latin for hybrid; Peter Simon Pallas thought it might be a hybrid of white-winged black tern and common tern, writing "Sterna fissipes [Chlidonias leucopterus] et Hirundine [Sterna hirundo] natam”.
This bird has a number of geographical races, differing mainly in size and minor plumage details.
C. h. hybrida breeds in warmer parts of Europe and the Palearctic (northwestern Africa and central and southern Europe to southeastern Siberia, eastern China and south to Pakistan and northern India). The smaller-billed and darker C. h. delalandii is found in east and south Africa, and the paler C. h. javanicus from Java to Australia.
The tropical forms are resident, but European and Asian birds winter south to Africa and the Indian Subcontinent. A tagged whiskered tern was spotted at Manakudi Bird Sanctuary, Kanniyakumari District of Tamil Nadu, India in the month of April 2021.
This species breeds in colonies on inland marshes, sometimes amongst black-headed gulls, which provide some protection. The scientific name arises from the fact that this, the largest marsh tern, show similarities in appearance to both the white Sterna terns and to black tern.


The size, black cap, strong bill (29–34 mm in males, 25–27 mm and stubbier in females, with a pronounced gonys) and more positive flight recall common or Arctic tern, but the short, forked-looking tail and dark grey breeding plumage above and below are typically marsh tern characteristics. The summer adult has white cheeks and red legs and bill.  The crown is flecked with white in the juvenile, and the hindcrown is more uniformly blackish, though in the winter adult this too is flecked with white.  The black ear-coverts are joined to the black of the hindcrown, and the space above is mottled with white, causing the black to appear as a C-shaped band.  The sides of the neck are white; this sometimes continues across the nape.  The collar is less sharply defined.  All through the year the rump is pale grey.  In the juvenile, the mantle (279 mm) has a variegated pattern.  The feathers of the back and scapulars are dark brown, with prominent broad buff edgings and often subterminal buff bars or centers.  There is usually an admixture of new gray feathers, especially on the mantle, quite early in the fall.  The mantle is silvery-gray in the adult.
The call is a characteristic krekk.
In winter, the forehead becomes white and the body plumage a much paler grey. Juvenile whiskered terns have a ginger scaly back, and otherwise look much like winter adults. The first winter plumage is intermediate between juvenile and adult winter, with patchy ginger on the back.
The whiskered tern eats small fish, amphibians, insects and crustaceans.


The white-winged tern, or white-winged black tern (Chlidonias leucopterus or Chlidonias leucoptera), is a species of tern in the family Laridae. It is a small species generally found in or near bodies of fresh water across much of the world, including Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The genus name is from Ancient Greek khelidonios, "swallow-like", from khelidon, "swallow".
The name 'white-winged tern' is the standard in most English-speaking countries; in the United Kingdom, this name is also the one used by the formal ornithological recording authorities, but the older alternative 'white-winged black tern' is still frequent in popular use.


Like the other "marsh" terns (Chlidonias), and unlike the "white" (Sterna) terns, these birds do not dive for fish, but fly slowly over the water to surface-pick items and catch insects in flight. They mainly eat insects and small fish.  In flight, the wing-beats are shallow and leisurely.
The white-winged tern is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.


BirdLife International (2016). "Chlidonias leucopterus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22694782A86772583. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22694782A86772583.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
(in Swedish) Alexandersson, H. (1979) En hybridisering mellan vitvingad tärna Childonias leucopterus och svarttärna Childonias niger på Öland 1978 Calidris 8: 151-53
(in Dutch) Van IJzendoorn, E. J. (1980) Broedgeval van Zwarte Childonias niger × Witvleugelstern C. leucopterus Dutch Birding 2: 62-65
Vinicombe, Keith (1980) Tern showing mixed characters of Black Tern and White-winged Black Tern British Birds 73(5): 223-25
Davis, A. H. (1980) Tern showing mixed characters of Black and White-winged Black Tern British Birds 75(12): 579-80
Bergquist, Lee (23 May 2016). "White-winged tern — last seen in Wisconsin in 1873 — spotted in Manitowoc". The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 24 May 2016.


The black tern (Chlidonias niger) is a small tern generally found in or near inland water in Europe, Western Asia and North America. As its name suggests, it has predominantly dark plumage. In some lights it can appear blue in the breeding season, hence the old English name "blue darr". The genus name is from Ancient Greek khelidonios, "swallow-like", from khelidon, "swallow": another old English name  for the black tern is  "carr (i.e. lake)  swallow". The species name is from Latin niger "shining black".


Adults are 25 cm (10 in) long, with a wingspan 61 cm (24 in), and weigh 62 g (2+1⁄8 oz). They have short dark legs and a short, weak-looking black bill, measuring 27 mm (1+1⁄16 in), nearly as long as the head. The bill is long, slender, and looks slightly decurved. They have a dark grey back, with a white forewing, black head, neck (occasionally suffused with grey in the adult) and belly, black or blackish-brown cap (which unites in color with the ear coverts, forming an almost complete hood), and a light brownish-grey, 'square' tail. The face is white. There is a big dark triangular patch in front of the eye, and a broadish white collar in juveniles. There are greyish-brown smudges on the ides of the white breast, a downwards extension of the plumage of the upperparts. These marks vary in size and are not conspicuous. In non-breeding plumage, most of the black, apart from the cap, is replaced by grey. The plumage of the upperparts is drab, with pale feather-edgings. The rump is brownish-grey.
The North American race, C. n. surinamensis, is distinguishable from the European form in all plumages, and is considered by some to be a separate species.
In flight, the build appears slim. The wing-beats are full and dynamic, and flight is often erratic as it dives to the surface for food; similar to other tern species.
Its call has been described as a high-pitched "kik";  the sound of a large flock has been called  "deafening".


Hybridisation between this species and white-winged black tern has been recorded from Sweden and the Netherlands. Two juvenile birds at Chew Valley Lake, England, in September 1978 and September 1981, were also believed to be hybrids; they showed mixed characters of the two species, specifically a combination of a dark mantle (a feature of white-winged black) with dark patches on the breast-side (a feature of black tern, not shown by white-winged black).


Their breeding habitat is freshwater marshes across most of Canada, the northern United States and much of Europe and western Asia. They usually nest either on floating material in a marsh or on the ground very close to water, laying 2–4 eggs.
In England  the black tern was abundant in the eastern Fens, especially in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire,  until the early nineteenth century.  The English naturalist  Thomas Pennant   in 1769 referred to   "vast flocks"  of black terns  "whose calls are almost deafening."  Extensive drainage of its breeding grounds wiped out the English population by about 1840. Intermittent attempts by the black tern  to recolonise England have proved unsuccessful, with only a handful of English breeding records, and one in Ireland,  in the second half of the twentieth century.
North American black terns migrate to the coasts of northern South America, some to the open ocean. Old World birds winter in Africa.
Unlike the "white" Sterna terns, these birds do not dive for fish, but forage on the wing picking up items at or near the water's surface or catching insects in flight. They mainly eat insects and fish as well as amphibians.


The upland goose or Magellan goose (Chloephaga picta) is a sheldgoose of the shelduck-sheldgoose subfamily of the Anatidae, the biological family that includes the ducks and most duck-like waterfowl such as the geese and swans. Sheldgeese resemble true geese and display similar habits, yet they are more closely related to shelducks and ducks. The two recognized subspecies of upland goose are the continental picta subspecies and the insular (island) leucoptera subspecies.
This species nests and breeds close to water (rivers, ponds, oceans) either on the ground or near it among vegetation, usually in grasslands or coastal meadows in the Falkland Islands or in southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego at the beginning of the austral summer. Population estimates suggest the insular subpopulations are stable, but continental populations show a recent decline in abundance. Upland geese are herbivores, specializing in plant leaves, stems and seeds.


The upland goose was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the other ducks, geese and swans in the genus Anas and coined the binomial name Anas picta. Gmelin based his description on the "Painted goose" that had been included by English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. The species had been observed on the Isla de los Estados (Staten Island) during one of Captain James Cook's voyages to the Pacific Ocean and Latham had seen drawings in the collection of the naturalist Joseph Banks. The upland goose is now placed with four other species in the genus Chloephaga that was introduced in 1838 by the English naturalist Thomas Campbell Eyton. The genus name comes from the Ancient Greek khloē meaning "grass" and -phagos meaning "-eating". The specific epithet picta is from Latin pictus meaning "painted.
There are strong morphological and genetic similarities between the bird fauna of the Falkland Islands and southern South America, and most native bird species are usually present in both insular  and continental populations. The biogeography of the region suggests that these similarities exist because in the geological past, birds from the continent might have reached the Falkland Islands either across a former land connection, during periods of lowered sea levels, or through long-distance dispersal. Genetic analyses place the Magellan goose as a sister taxa to the kelp goose.


Two subspecies of upland goose are recognised. The smaller mainland form, picta, also known as the lesser Magellan goose, is found from central Chile and south-central Argentina south to Tierra del Fuego. The larger insular form, leucoptera or greater Magellan goose, is indigenous to the Falkland Islands, located to the east of the southern part of South America.


Upland geese males are similar to other sheldgeese, notably the Kelp Goose (C. hybrida) due to their predominantly white plumage, while females resemble the Ruddy-headed Goose (C. rubidiceps) due to their similarly barred breast plumage. This species is 60–72.5 centimetres (23.6–28.5 in) long.
Greater Magellan geese (leucoptera subspecies) are the largest birds of the Chloephaga genus. Males typically weigh 3.5–4.5 kg (7.7–9.9 lbs) and females range from 2.9 to 3.5 kg (6.4–7.7 lbs). Lesser Magellan geese (picta subspecies) males weigh 2.7–3.6 kg (6.0–7.9 lbs) on average and females 2.9–3.5 kg (6.4–6.8 lbs).
Upland geese display strong sexual dimorphism in their plumage. Males have white heads and breast plumage with black legs, whereas females have reddish-brown heads and breast plumage with yellow-orange legs. However, two interbreeding morphs exist for males. One morph causes black-barred breast plumage while the other causes white breast plumage. A greenish-bronze speculum is also located on the inner secondary flight feathers of the adult male.
Upland geese molt both their primary and secondary feathers in ponds or sheltered sea inlets, usually between late November and early January. Molting frequency depends on breeding success to some degree, since most adults that molt have either not yet mated or failed to breed. Some greater Magellan geese skip this molt, retaining their ability to fly during the austral summer. While unusual, skipping this important process might have energetic advantages, since molting season can be very nutritionally taxing.
In Chapter VI of On the Origin of Species, author Charles Darwin noted that the upland goose has webbing between its toes that appeared to be "rudimentary in function, though not in structure", and concluded that this was a vestigial anatomical feature in this bird.


Upland geese usually live in small, scattered groups on most pasture types (temperate grasslands, arid lowland scrubs), favouring areas with short green grasses. However, recent land use changes towards crop fields and managed pastures have forced them to adapt to and colonize such modern landscapes.


Upland goose breed in southern Patagonia or their native islands during the austral summer. They are monogamous, although divorce can occur, and generally return to breed in the same territory every year. After approximately two years from birth, females can start to lay eggs, and usually do so near their birthplace. Males begin breeding later and tend to settle farther away from where they were born. This sexual difference in dispersal distances causes the sex ratio of young to become biased towards the dispersing sex due to the inherent resource constraints of crowding. Therefore, upland geese tend to display a male-biased sex ratio. They breed non-colonially in densely-vegetated areas, generally in September and October on the mainland, and in November on the Falkland Islands. A large population of this species breeds in the New Island Nature Reserve, which was created in collaboration with Falkland Conservation.
Males attract females through a courtship display in which they whistle loudly, to which the female responds with softer cackles. As they are monogamous and territorial, a violent fight may break out if a male encroaches on another's territory. Males have been found injured or dead after these fights.
The simple nest is either on the ground or within 1.5 m of it, usually concealed by dense vegetation, and often located near water. A clutch consists of 5-8 eggs which are incubated for about 1 month. When the chicks hatch, they are covered in greyish-brown down. They don't remain in the nest for more than a day, quickly going to a nearby water source or feeding area, and are able to feed themselves from birth. They fledge in 9–10 weeks and reach maturity in 3 years.


The upland goose is primarily a herbivore, feeding mostly of seeds, leaves, stems, and other plant matter. They are very gregarious, and flocks of thousands of birds can be found grazing in one pasture alone. They are considered pests by farmers due to the fact that they eat on the pastures that are used for cattle and sheep, and because they claim that upland geese significantly decrease crop yield. However, a recent study claims that while sheldgeese do reduce wheat cover, they do not reduce overall wheat yield and they might even provide an ecosystem service through weed grazing.


The European greenfinch or simply the greenfinch (Chloris chloris) is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.
This bird is widespread throughout Europe, North Africa and Southwest Asia. It is mainly resident, but some northernmost populations migrate further south. The greenfinch has also been introduced into Australia, New Zealand, Uruguay, and Argentina.


The greenfinch was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under the binomial name Loxia chloris. The specific epithet is from khloris, the Ancient Greek name for this bird, from khloros, "green".
The finch family, Fringillidae, is divided into two subfamilies, the Carduelinae, containing around 28 genera with 141 species and the Fringillinae containing a single genus, Fringilla, with four species. The finch family are all seed-eaters with stout conical bills. They have similar skull morphologies, nine large primaries, 12 tail feathers and no crop. In all species the female bird builds the nest, incubates the eggs and broods the young. Fringilline finches raise their young almost entirely on arthropods, while the cardueline finches raise their young on regurgitated seeds.
A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2012 found that the greenfinches are not closely related to other members of the genus Carduelis. They have therefore been placed in the resurrected genus Chloris that had originally been introduced by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1800, with the European greenfinch as the type species.


The European greenfinch is 15 cm (5.9 in) long with a wingspan of 24.5 to 27.5 cm (9.6 to 10.8 in).  It is similar in size and shape to a house sparrow, but is mainly green, with yellow in the wings and tail. The female and young birds are duller and have brown tones on the back. The bill is thick and conical. The song contains a lot of trilling twitters interspersed with wheezes, and the male has a "butterfly" display flight.
Male greenfinch birds exhibit higher degrees of fluctuating asymmetry. The development of bones of males may be more easily disrupted than that of females.


Woodland edges, farmland hedges and gardens with relatively thick vegetation are favoured for breeding. It nests in trees or bushes, laying 3 to 6 eggs.
This species can form large flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixing with other finches and buntings. They feed largely on seeds, but also take berries.


Breeding season occurs in spring, starting in the second half of March, until June, with fledging young in early July. Incubation lasts about 13–14 days, by the female. The male feeds her at the nest during this period. Chicks are covered with thick, long, greyish-white down at hatching. They are fed on insect larvae by both adults during the first days, and later, by a frequently regurgitated yellowish paste made of seeds. They leave the nest about 13 days later, but they are not able to fly. Usually, they fledge 16–18 days after hatching. This species produces two or three broods per year.
In Australasia, the European greenfinch's breeding season is from October to March.


The protozoal parasite Trichomonas gallinae was known to infect pigeons and raptors, but, beginning in Great Britain in 2005, carcasses of dead European greenfinches and common chaffinches were found to be infected with the parasite. The disease spread and in 2008, infected carcasses were found in Norway, Sweden and Finland and a year later in Germany. The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain. In Great Britain, the number of infected carcasses recovered each year declined after a peak in 2006. There was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches from around 4.3 million to around 2.8 million, but no significant decline in the overall number of common chaffinches. A similar pattern occurred in Finland where, after the arrival of the disease in 2008, there was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches but only a small change in the number of common chaffinches.


The Amazon kingfisher (Chloroceryle amazona) is a resident breeding kingfisher in the lowlands of the American tropics from southern Mexico south through Central America to northern Argentina.


The first formal description of the Amazon kingfisher was by the English ornithologist John Latham in 1790 under the binomial name Alcedo amazona. The current genus Chloroceryle was erected by Johann Jakob Kaup in 1848. The species is monotypic.


The Amazon kingfisher resembles the green kingfisher which shares its range, but it is much larger than its relative, and three to four times as heavy. It is 30 cm (12 in) in length and weighs 98–140 g (3.5–4.9 oz). It has the typical kingfisher shape, with a short tail and long bill. It is oily green above, with a shaggy crest and a white collar around the neck. It lacks the white markings on the wings shown by green kingfisher.
Males have white underparts apart from a broad chestnut breast band and some green streaks on the flanks. Females have white underparts with green patches on the side of the chest and green flank streaks. Young birds resemble the adult female, but have white spots on the wings. These birds often give a harsh teck call. The rarely heard song, given from a tree top, is a whistled see see see see.


This large kingfisher breeds by streams. The unlined nest is in a horizontal tunnel made in a river bank, and up to 1.6 m (5.2 ft) long and 10 cm (3.9 in) wide. The female lays three, sometimes four, white eggs.
Amazon kingfishers are often seen perched on a branch or rock close to water before plunging in head first after their fish prey. They also feed on insects and amphibians. They are the most likely American green kingfisher to be seen on large rivers.


Chlorochroa ligata, the conchuela bug, is a species of stink bug in the family Pentatomidae. It is found in Central America and North America.


Chlorochroa sayi, or Say's stink bug, is a species of stink bug in the family Pentatomidae.  It is found in North America.


Chlorogalum pomeridianum, the wavy-leafed soap plant, California soaproot, or Amole, is the most common and most widely distributed of the soap plants, soaproots or amoles, which make up the genus Chlorogalum of flowering plants. It is occasionally known as the "wild potato", but given the plant's lack of either resemblance or relationship to the potato, this name is not recommended.
It is found in most of California from the coasts to the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, and in the Klamath Mountains in southwestern Oregon, but not in either state's desert regions. Wavy-leafed soap plant grows on rock bluffs, grasslands, chaparral, and in open woodlands.


Like all the soap plants, Chlorogalum pomeridianum is a perennial that grows from a bulb, which is brown, between 7 and 15 cm in diameter, slightly elongated, and covered in thick, coarse fibers.  The leaves grow from the base of the plant, and can be from 20 to 70 cm long and 6 to 25 mm wide.  As the plant's name indicates, their edges are generally wavy, though this is not always particularly noticeable.
The flowers are borne on a long stem, normally longer than the leaves, and are from 15 to 30 mm long.  The six petals (actually only three of them are petals in the technical sense; the other three are sepals) are up to 35 mm long and curving.  They are typically white but have a noticeable mid-vein which can be purple or green.  The six stamens are large and noticeable, and yellow or orange.  The flowers are hermaphrodites (having both female and male parts).
They open only in the late afternoon or evening, remaining open during the night but closing by the morning.  Pollination is by evening- or night-flying insects.


Three varieties are recognized:
Chlorogalum pomeridianum var. divaricatum — endemic to some coastal regions of California (the Central Coast and southern parts of the North Coast), found only  at elevations below about 100 metres (330 ft).
Chlorogalum pomeridianum var. minus — endemic to the inner north and outer south Pacific Coast Ranges of California, and the San Francisco Bay Area.  This variety has a less fibrous bulb than the others. On the CNPSInventory of Rare and Endangered Plants of California.
Chlorogalum pomeridianum var. pomeridianum,  Nomlaki language: shlā — found throughout the range of the species.
The basionym of the species was Scilla pomeridianum.  It has also been known as Laothoe pomeridiana.


The green honeycreeper (Chlorophanes spiza) is a small bird in the tanager family. It is found in the tropical New World from southern Mexico south to Brazil, and on Trinidad. It is the only member of the genus  Chlorophanes.