The flight period of the black-veined white is between April and July. The adults are quite social and their abundance varies greatly from year to year. The eggs are laid on the food plant, usually a member of the rose family Rosaceae and often on trees and bushes (Malus domestica, Malus micromalus, Pyrus communis, Pyrus serotina, Sorbus intermedia, Sorbus hybrida, Sorbus aucuparia, Crataegus monogyna, Crataegus oxyacantha, Crataegus jozana, Prunus spinosa, Prunus padus, Prunus ssiori, Betula spp., Salix phylicifolia, Chaenomeles lagenaria).
The eggs are laid in groups of 30 to 100. They take about three weeks to hatch. The caterpillars tend to remain in a group with a communal larval web. This species has one generation each year. The caterpillars overwinter communally in a webbing tent with entwined leaves. Caterpillars feed close together on the leaves of the food plant at first, before dispersing in the later developmental stages to other parts of the tree.
The pupal stage lasts about three weeks.


Junonia natalica, the Natal pansy or brown pansy, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in the Afrotropical realm.
The wingspan is 45–50 mm in males and 48–55 mm in females.
The larvae feed on Asystasia gangetica and Phaulopsis imbricata.


The red-billed quelea is mostly found in tropical and subtropical areas with a seasonal semi-arid climate, resulting in dry thornbush grassland, including the Sahel, and its distribution covers most of sub-Saharan Africa. It avoids forests, however, including miombo woodlands and rainforests such as those in central Africa, and is generally absent from western parts of South Africa and arid coastal regions of Namibia and Angola. It was introduced to the island of Réunion in 2000. Occasionally, it can be found as high as 3,000 m (9,800 ft) above sea-level, but mostly resides below 1,500 m (4,900 ft). It visits agricultural areas, where it feeds on cereal crops, although it is thought to prefer seeds of wild annual grasses. It needs to drink daily and can only be found within about 30 km (19 mi) distance of the nearest body of water. It is found in wet habitats, congregating at the shores of waterbodies, such as Lake Ngami, during flooding. It needs shrubs, reeds or trees to nest and roost.
Red-billed queleas migrate seasonally over long distances in anticipation of the availability of their main natural food source, seeds of annual grasses. The presence of these grass seeds is the result of the beginning of rains weeks earlier, and the rainfall varies in a seasonal geographic pattern. The temporarily wet areas do not form a single zone that periodically moves back and forth across the entirety of Sub-Saharan Africa, but rather consist of five or six regions, within which the wet areas "move" or "jump". Red-billed quelea populations thus migrate between the temporarily wet areas within each of these five to six geographical regions. Each of the subspecies, as distinguished by different male breeding plumage, is confined to one or more of these geographical regions.
In Nigeria, the nominate subspecies generally travels 300–600 km (190–370 mi) southwards during the start of the rains in the north during June and July, when the grass seed germinates, and is no longer eaten by the queleas. When they reach the Benoue River valley, for instance, the rainy season has already passed and the grass has produced new seeds. After about six weeks, the birds migrate northwards to find a suitable breeding area, nurture a generation, and then repeat this sequence moving further north. Some populations may also move northwards when the rains have started, to eat the remaining ungerminated seeds. In Senegal migration is probably between the southeast and the northwest.
In eastern Africa, the subspecies aethiopica is thought to consist of two sub-populations. One moves from Central Tanzania to southern Somalia, to return to breed in Tanzania in February and March, followed by successive migrations to breed ever further north, the season's last usually occurring in central Kenya during May. The second group moves from northern and central Sudan and central Ethiopia in May and June, to breed in southern Sudan, South Sudan, southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya, moving back north from August to October.
In southern Africa, the total population of the subspecies Q. quelea lathamii in October converges on the Zimbabwean Highveld. In November, part of the population migrates to the northwest to northwestern Angola, while the remainder migrates to the southeast to southern Mozambique and eastern South-Africa, but no proof has been found that these migration cohorts are genetically or morphologically divergent.


Flocks of red-billed queleas usually feed on the ground, with birds in the rear constantly leap-frogging those in the front to exploit the next strip of fallen seeds. This behaviour creates the impression of a rolling cloud, and enables efficient exploitation of the available food. The birds also take seeds from the grass ears directly. They prefer grains of 1–2 mm (0.04–0.08 in) in size. Red-billed queleas feed mainly on grass seeds, which includes a large number of annual species from the genera Echinochloa, Panicum, Setaria, Sorghum, Tetrapogon and Urochloa.
One survey at Lake Chad showed that two-thirds of the seeds eaten belonged to only three species: African wild rice (Oryza barthii), Sorghum purpureosericeum and jungle rice (Echinochloa colona). When the supply of these seeds runs out, seeds of cereals such as barley (Hordeum disticum), teff (Eragrostis tef), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), manna (Setaria italica), millet (Panicum miliaceum), rice (Oryza sativa), wheat (Triticum), oats (Avena aestiva), as well as buckwheat (Phagopyrum esculentum) and sunflower (Helianthus annuus) are eaten on a large scale. Red-billed queleas have also been observed feeding on crushed corn from cattle feedlots, but entire maize kernels are too big for them to swallow. A single bird may eat about 15 g (0.53 oz) in seeds each day. As much as half of the diet of nestlings consists of insects, such as grasshoppers, ants, beetles, bugs, caterpillars, flies and termites, as well as snails and spiders.
Insects are generally eaten during the breeding season, though winged termites are eaten at other times. Breeding females consume snail-shell fragments and calcareous grit, presumably to enable egg-shell formation. One colony in Namibia, of an estimated five million adults and five million chicks, was calculated to consume roughly 13 t (29,000 lb) of insects and 1,000 t (2,200,000 lb) of grass seeds during its breeding cycle. At sunrise they form flocks that co-operate to find food. After a successful search, they settle to feed. In the heat of the day, they rest in the shade, preferably near water, and preen. Birds seem to prefer drinking at least twice a day. In the evening, they once again fly off in search of food.


Natural enemies of the red-billed quelea include other birds, snakes, warthogs, squirrels, galagos, monkeys, mongooses, genets, civets, foxes, jackals, hyaenas, cats, lions and leopards. Bird species that prey on queleas include the lanner falcon, tawny eagle and marabou stork. The diederik cuckoo is a brood parasite that probably lays eggs in nests of queleas. Some predators, such as snakes, raid nests and eat eggs and chicks.
Nile crocodiles sometimes attack drinking queleas, and an individual in Ethiopia hit birds out of the vegetation on the bank into the water with its tail, subsequently eating them. Queleas drinking at a waterhole were grabbed from below by African helmeted turtles in Etosha. Among the invertebrates that kill and eat youngsters are the armoured bush cricket (Acanthoplus discoidalis) and the scorpion Cheloctonus jonesii. Internal parasites found in queleas include Haemoproteus and Plasmodium.


The red-billed quelea (/ˈkwiːliə/; Quelea quelea), also known as the red-billed weaver or red-billed dioch, is a small—approximately 12 cm (4.7 in) long and weighing 15–26 g (0.53–0.92 oz)—migratory, sparrow-like bird of the weaver family, Ploceidae, native to Sub-Saharan Africa.
It was named by Linnaeus in 1758, who considered it a bunting, but Ludwig Reichenbach assigned it in 1850 to the new genus Quelea. Three subspecies are recognised, with Quelea quelea quelea occurring roughly from Senegal to Chad, Q. q. aethiopica from Sudan to Somalia and Tanzania, and Q. q. lathamii from Gabon to Mozambique and South Africa. Non-breeding birds have light underparts, striped brown upper parts, yellow-edged flight feathers and a reddish bill. Breeding females attain a yellowish bill. Breeding males have a black (or rarely white) facial mask, surrounded by a purplish, pinkish, rusty or yellowish wash on the head and breast. The species avoids forests, deserts and colder areas such as those at high altitude and in southern South Africa. It constructs oval roofed nests woven from strips of grass hanging from thorny branches, sugar cane or reeds. It breeds in very large colonies.
The quelea feeds primarily on seeds of annual grasses, but also causes extensive damage to cereal crops. Therefore, it is sometimes called "Africa's feathered locust". The usual pest-control measures are spraying avicides or detonating fire-bombs in the enormous colonies during the night. Extensive control measures have been largely unsuccessful in limiting the quelea population. When food runs out, the species migrates to locations of recent rainfall and plentiful grass seed; hence it exploits its food source very efficiently. It is regarded as the most numerous undomesticated bird on earth, with the total post-breeding population sometimes peaking at an estimated 1.5 billion individuals. It feeds in huge flocks of millions of individuals, with birds that run out of food at the rear flying over the entire group to a fresh feeding zone at the front, creating an image of a rolling cloud. The conservation status of red-billed quelea is least concern according to the IUCN Red List.


The roadside hawk (Rupornis magnirostris) is a relatively small bird of prey found in the Americas. This vocal species is often the most common raptor in its range. It has many subspecies and is now usually placed in the monotypic genus Rupornis instead of Buteo.


The roadside hawk's diet consists mainly of insects, squamates, and small mammals, such as young common marmosets and similar small monkeys which are hunted quite often. It will also take small birds, but far less often than generalists such as the related but larger white-tailed hawk, or bird specialists like the more distantly related aplomado falcon. Mixed-species feeding flocks it encounters when hunting in open cerrado habitat are not particularly wary of it: they watch it lest the hawk come too close, but consider them hardly more of a threat than the diminutive American kestrel.


The roadside hawk is common throughout its range: from Mexico through Central America to most of South America east of the Andes cordillera. It is found from the northern Caribbean coast of South America south to the northeastern parts of Argentina. With the possible exception of dense rainforests, the roadside hawk is well adapted to most ecosystems in its range. It is also an urban bird, and is possibly the most common species of hawk seen in various cities throughout its range—or perhaps just the most conspicuous one, as it becomes aggressive when nesting and has been recorded attacking humans passing near the nest.


Calotes calotes, the common green forest lizard, is an agamid lizard found in the forests of the Western Ghats and the Shevaroy Hills in India, and Sri Lanka.


Calotes calotes is a considerably large species of agamid, measuring 50 to 65 cm (19.5 to 25.5 in) in length, including the tail.
The length of head is one and a half times the size of its breadth, the snout is a little longer than the orbit. The lizard has a concave forehead, swollen cheeks and smooth, unequal upper head-scales. The canthus rostralis and the supraciliary edge both are sharp. A row of 8 or 9 compressed spines, divided into two groups, is above the tympanum, the diameter of these is less than half that of the orbit. C. calotes has 9 to 11 upper and as many lower labials. The body is compressed, the dorsal scales are large and usually feebly keeled, but sometimes smooth. These scales point backwards and upwards and are as large as or a slightly smaller than the ventrals, which are strongly keeled and mucronate. 30 to 35 scales cover the middle of the body. The gular pouch is not developed, the gular scales are feebly keeled, they are nearly as large as the ventrals. A short oblique fold is in front of the shoulder and is covered with small granular scales. The nuchal and dorsal crests are continuous, composed of closely set lanceolate spines with smaller ones at the base. In adult males the height of the crest on the neck equals or exceeds the diameter of the orbit, on the back it gradually diminishes in size. The Limbs are moderate, the third and fourth fingers are nearly equal, however the fourth toe is distinctly longer than third toe. The hind-limb reaches to the front of the eye or further. C. calotes has a very long and slender tail.
The lizard has a bright green dorsal coloration, usually with 5 or 6 white, cream or dark green transverse stripes; however these are changeable. Often the stripes continue on to the tail. The head is yellowish- or brownish-green whereas the male develops a bright red head and throat in the breeding season. The underside is a pale green, the tail is light brown. Young and immature sometimes have a whitish dorso-lateral stripe. A half-grown example in the British Museum, no. 74.4.29.836, has a broad vertebral stripe of buff with elongated dark brown spots. It roosts on green foliage bearing trees like Azadirachta indica. Though very little knowledge is available in roosting ecology of the species.


The blue-and-yellow tanager (Rauenia bonariensis) is a species of bird in the tanager family Thraupidae.
It is found in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, extreme northern border Chile, and Andean Peru and Ecuador. Some southern region birds migrate northeastwards in the austral winter into eastern Bolivia and northeastern Argentina; also Paraguay where the birds are only migratory non-breeding residents.
Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical moist montane forest, subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland, and heavily degraded former forest.
This species was formerly placed in the genus Thraupis. It was moved to Pipraeidea based on the results of a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014. It was moved to Rauenia based on the study published in 2020. It is monotypic in that genus.


The adult butterfly has a wingspan of 54–62 mm (2.1–2.4 in), and exhibits seasonal polyphenism.


The caterpillars of Junonia almana feed on a variety of plants, including Hygrophila auriculata, Phyla nodiflora and species in the genera Acanthus, Barleria and Gloxinia.
"Cylindrical. Head blackish, slightly hairy. Body pale ochreous-brown, with a dorsal, subdorsal and lateral blackish line, and a row of small-ringed spots below the latter; second segment anteriorly with a transverse reddish stripe; second, third and fourth segments posteriorly with a transverse blackish stripe; second to last segment armed with a dorsal, subdorsal, and two lateral rows of short, fine-branched spines." (Frederic Moore quoted by C. T. Bingham)


J. almana is found in India, Sri Lanka and South East Asia, and eastwards to China and Japan.


The common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, Cuculiformes, which includes the roadrunners, the anis and the coucals.
This species is a widespread summer migrant to Europe and Asia, and winters in Africa. It is a brood parasite, which means it lays eggs in the nests of other bird species, particularly of dunnocks, meadow pipits, and reed warblers. Although its eggs are larger than those of its hosts, the eggs in each type of host nest resemble the host's eggs. The adult too is a mimic, in its case of the sparrowhawk; since that species is a predator, the mimicry gives the female time to lay her eggs without being attacked.


The common cuckoo's diet consists of insects, with hairy caterpillars, which are distasteful to many birds, being a specialty of preference. It also occasionally eats eggs and chicks.


Essentially a bird of open land, the common cuckoo is a widespread summer migrant to Europe and Asia, and winters in Africa. Birds arrive in Europe in April and leave in September. The common cuckoo has also occurred as a vagrant in countries including Barbados, the United States, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Indonesia, Palau, Seychelles, Taiwan and China. Between 1995 and 2015, the distribution of cuckoos within the UK has shifted towards the north, with a decline by 69% in England but an increase by 33% in Scotland.


The common cuckoo is 32–34 centimetres (13–13 in) long from bill to tail (with a tail of 13–15 centimetres (5.1–5.9 in) and a wingspan of 55–60 centimetres (22–24 in). The legs are short. It has a greyish, slender body and long tail, similar to a sparrowhawk in flight, where the wingbeats are regular. During the breeding season, common cuckoos often settle on an open perch with drooped wings and raised tail. There is a rufous colour morph, which occurs occasionally in adult females but more often in juveniles.
All adult males are slate-grey; the grey throat extends well down the bird's breast with a sharp demarcation to the barred underparts. The iris, orbital ring, the base of the bill and feet are yellow. Grey adult females have a pinkish-buff or buff background to the barring and neck sides, and sometimes small rufous spots on the median and greater coverts and the outer webs of the secondary feathers.
Rufous morph adult females have reddish-brown upperparts with dark grey or black bars. The black upperpart bars are narrower than the rufous bars, as opposed to rufous juvenile birds, where the black bars are broader.
Common cuckoos in their first autumn have variable plumage. Some have strongly-barred chestnut-brown upperparts, while others are plain grey. Rufous-brown birds have heavily barred upperparts with some feathers edged with creamy-white. All have whitish edges to the upper wing-coverts and primaries. The secondaries and greater coverts have chestnut bars or spots. In spring, birds hatched in the previous year may retain some barred secondaries and wing-coverts. The most obvious identification features of juvenile common cuckoos are the white nape patch and white feather fringes.
Common cuckoos moult twice a year: a partial moult in summer and a complete moult in winter. Males weigh around 130 grams (4.6 oz) and females 110 grams (3.9 oz). The common cuckoo looks very similar to the Oriental cuckoo, which is slightly shorter-winged on average.


Gryllus bimaculatus is widely used by suppliers of live crickets for feeding to pet and zoo animals.


Gryllus bimaculatus is a species of cricket in the subfamily Gryllinae. Most commonly known as the two-spotted cricket, it has also been called the "African" or "Mediterranean field cricket", although its recorded distribution also includes much of Asia, including China and Indochina through to Borneo.  It can be discriminated from other Gryllus species by the two dot-like marks on the base of its wings.
The species is popular for use as a food source for insectivorous animals like spiders and reptiles kept as pets or in zoos. They are easy to raise and do not require prolonged exposure to cold in order to complete their life cycle.


These crickets hide under logs, in grasses, and in crevices. They also create homes by digging holes in the ground or live in holes created by other animals.  Males are territorial and will fight off other males, but allow any number of females to coexist in the same shelter.


The northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), also known as the peewit or pewit, tuit or tew-it, green plover, or (in Ireland and Britain) pyewipe or just lapwing, is a bird in the lapwing subfamily. It is common through temperate Eurosiberia.
It is highly migratory over most of its extensive range, wintering further south as far as North Africa, northern India, Nepal, Bhutan and parts of China. It migrates mainly by day, often in large flocks. Lowland breeders in westernmost areas of Europe are resident. It occasionally is a vagrant to North America, especially after storms, as in the Canadian sightings after storms in December 1927 and in January 1966.
It is a wader that breeds on cultivated land and other short vegetation habitats. 3–4 eggs are laid in a ground scrape. The nest and young are defended noisily and aggressively against all intruders, up to and including horses and cattle.
In winter, it forms huge flocks on open land, particularly arable land and mud-flats.


The northern lapwing is a 28–33 cm (11–13 in) long bird with a 67–87 cm (26–34 in) wingspan and a body mass of 128–330 g (4.5–11.6 oz). It has rounded wings and a crest. It is also the shortest-legged of the lapwings. It is mainly black and white, but the back is tinted green. The male has a long crest and a black crown, throat and breast contrasting with an otherwise white face. Females and young birds have shorter crests, and have less strongly marked heads, but plumages are otherwise quite similar.
This is a vocal bird in the breeding season, with constant calling as the crazed tumbling display flight is performed by the male. The typical contact call is a loud, shrill "pee-wit" from which they get their other name of peewit. Displaying males usually make a wheezy "pee-wit, wit wit, eeze wit" during their display flight; these birds also make squeaking or mewing sounds.
It feeds primarily on insects and other small invertebrates. This species often feeds in mixed flocks with golden plovers and black-headed gulls, the latter often robbing the two plovers, but providing a degree of protection against predators.
Like the golden plovers, this species prefers to feed at night when there is moonlight.
The northern lapwing is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.


National surveys of England and Wales have shown a population decline between 1987 and 1998, and since 2009 the northern lapwing has had red list conservation status in the United Kingdom. The numbers of this species have been adversely affected by intensive agricultural techniques. In the lowlands this includes the loss of rough grassland, conversion to arable or improved grassland, loss of mixed farms, and switch from spring- to autumn-sown crops. In the uplands, the losses may have been due to increases in grazing density. Natural England gives grant aid to help restore lapwing habitat within its Environmental Stewardship Scheme. The organisation suggests an option within this scheme called 'Fallow plots for ground-nesting birds'. Uncropped plots at least 2 ha (4.9 acres) in size provide nesting habitat and are located in suitable arable fields, which provide additional foraging habitat. Locating the plots within 2 km (1.2 mi) of extensively grazed grassland will provide additional foraging habitat. The plots are cultivated in the spring to produce a rough fallow, which is retained without the input of fertiliser or pesticides. In addition to agricultural intensification and land-use change, predation of nests and chicks contributes to wader declines, including of lapwing. By radio-tagging lapwing chicks, and using automatic radio tracking systems, the timing of chick predation can be revealed, which provides additional insights in to the importance of different predators. Lapwing chicks are predated both in the day and at night, with mammalian predators having the greatest impact.
In Armenia, the population decline and loss of breeding habitats was also documented; the threats are thought to be intensification of land use and hunting, but further investigations for threat clarification are required. In the Middle East, the northern lapwing is threatened by overhunting as it is shot in the masses by it winter migration routes. Several photos surfacing from the region show tens of Northern lapwings, alongside other migratory birds including the threatened European turtle dove and European golden-plover killed in unsustainable and unnecessary numbers.


The silvereye or wax-eye (Zosterops lateralis) is a very small omnivorous passerine bird of the south-west Pacific. In Australia and New Zealand its common name is sometimes white-eye, but this name is more commonly used to refer to all members of the genus Zosterops, or the entire family Zosteropidae.
In New Zealand, the silvereye was first recorded in 1832. It arrived in greater numbers in 1856, and it is assumed that a migrating flock was swept eastwards by a storm. As an apparently self-introduced bird it is protected as a native New Zealand species. Its Māori name, tauhou, means "stranger" or more literally, "new arrival".


The silvereye feeds on insect prey and large amounts of fruit and nectar, making them occasional pests of commercial orchards.


The silvereye is native to Australia, New Zealand and the south-west Pacific islands of Lord Howe, New Caledonia, Loyalty Islands, Vanuatu, and Fiji. It is common to abundant throughout the relatively fertile south-west and south-east parts of Australia (including Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands), and through the well-watered coastal zone of tropical Queensland, including Cape York Peninsula
The silvereye is liable to be found in any vegetated area, apart from open grasslands, within its distribution range, including forest, scrub, horticultural blocks and urban gardens.


Silvereyes breed in spring and early summer (mainly between September and December), making a tiny cup of grass, moss, hair, spiderweb, and thistledown, suspended from a branch fork in the outer reaches of small trees or shrubs.  They lay two to four pale blue eggs, and two (or sometimes three) broods may be raised during each breeding season. The eggs hatch after about 11 days, and the young fledge after another 10 days.  The juveniles are independent at 3 weeks and able to breed at 9 months.
In late summer silvereyes gather into flocks and many Australian birds migrate, making their way north along the coast and ranges, foraging busily during the day with much calling and quick movement through the shrubbery, then flying long distances through the night.
Most of the Tasmanian population crosses the Bass Strait (an astonishing feat for 12 cm birds weighing only a few grams) and disperses into Victoria, New South Wales, and south-eastern Queensland. The populations of these areas tend to head further north; while the northernmost birds remain resident all year round. In western Australia they have been recorded moving between the mainland and offshore islands.
Silvereyes are omnivorous with a diet that includes insects, berries, fruit and nectar. In New Zealand they take fruit from native trees including kahikatea, and rimu. When food is scarce in winter they will take a wide variety of foods from bird tables, ranging from sugar water through bread and cooked meats, to solid lumps of fat.


A small bird 11 to 13 cm in length and around 10 g in weight, it has a conspicuous ring of white feathers around its eye.  There are a number of plumage variations depending on the sub-species.  Generally it has olive-green wings and either a grey or olive-green back, a lighter coloured throat - yellow or grey, flanks that range from chestnut to pale buff, and an undertail that may be white or yellow. Within Australia there are seasonal migrations and the ranges of the sub-species overlap.  The other islands within its range tend to host only a single sub-species each so only one plumage variant is seen.


This species breeds from eastern Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago south to Bolivia and Argentina. The southern subspecies M. m. solitarius migrates to Venezuela and the Guianas from March to September during the austral winter. It is found at the edges of forests and cocoa plantations. Common across its wide range, this species is not considered threatened by the IUCN.


Streaked flycatchers eat a range of food items, mostly large insects (such as cicadas, locusts and beetles), but also lizards and berries. It perches on a high watchpoint from which it sallies forth to catch insects in mid-flight or off plants using a range of aerobatic maneuvers, and occasionally gleans prey from the vegetation. The wintering southern migrants seem to include a considerable amount of fruit in their diet, for example those of Tamanqueiro (Alchornea glandulosa) which they sometimes eat in quantity; fruit are typically ripped off in mid-hover. It occasionally follows mixed-species feeding flocks, pouncing from up in the trees on prey flushed by birds in the undergrowth.


The nest is an open cup of twigs and grasses placed in a tree hollow or sometimes a bromeliad. The female builds the nest and incubates the typical clutch of two or three creamy-white eggs, which are marked with red-brown spots, for 16–17 days to hatching. Both sexes feed the chicks, which fledge in a further 18–21 days.


The streaked flycatcher is 22 cm (8.7 in) long, weighs 43 g (1.5 oz) and has a strong black bill. The head is brown with a concealed yellow crown patch, white supercilium and dusky eye mask. The upperparts are brown with darker brown streaks on the back, rufous and white edges on the wings, and wide chestnut edges on the rump and tail. The underparts are yellowish-white streaked with brown.
Sexes are similar, but immature birds are brown where the adult is black. M. m. solitarius has black rather than brown streaking above and below. The streaked flycatcher is a conspicuous bird, with a noisy sqEEE-zip call.
It is very similar in appearance to the less widespread sulphur-bellied flycatcher. The streaked flycatcher has a heavier bill, lighter yellow belly, pink basal half of the lower mandible and creamy (not white) superciliary.


Austrolestes leda is an Australian species of damselfly in the family Lestidae,
commonly known as a wandering ringtail.
It is found across eastern Australia where it inhabits slow and still water.
Austrolestes leda is a medium-sized to large damselfly, the male is light blue and black.


The spur-winged lapwing breeds around the eastern Mediterranean, and in a wide band from sub-Saharan west Africa to Arabia. The Greek and Turkish breeders are migratory, but other populations are resident. The species is declining in its northern range, but is abundant in much of tropical Africa, being seen at almost any wetland habitat in its range. The spur-winged lapwing is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.
In eastern and southern Africa the species has seen a range increase, entering Zambia for the first time in 1999 and spreading south and west.


This species has a preference for marshes and similar freshwater wetland habitats. The food of the spur-winged lapwing is insects and other invertebrates, which are picked from the ground.
It lays four blotchy yellowish eggs on a ground scrape. The spur-winged lapwing is known to sometimes use the wing-claws in an attack on animals and, rarely, people, who get too close to the birds' exposed offspring.


Microcentrum retinerve is a species in the family Tettigoniidae ("katydids"), in the order Orthoptera ("grasshoppers, crickets, katydids"). A common name for Microcentrum retinerve is "lesser angle-winged katydid".Microcentrum retinerve is found in North America.


Argia sedula, the blue-ringed dancer, is a species of narrow-winged damselfly in the family Coenagrionidae. It is found in Central America and North America.
The IUCN conservation status of Argia sedula is "LC", least concern, with no immediate threat to the species' survival. The population is stable.


Anser anser, the greylag goose, is a member of the waterfowl family Anatidae. It was first described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 as Anas anser, but was transferred two years later to the new genus Anser, erected by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson, where it is the type species. Two subspecies are recognised; A. a. anser, the western greylag goose, which breeds in Iceland and northern and central Europe; A. a. rubrirostris, the eastern greylag goose, which breeds in Romania, Turkey, and Russia eastwards to northeastern China. The two subspecies intergrade where their ranges meet. The greylag goose sometimes hybridises with other species of goose, including the barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) and the Canada goose (Branta canadensis), and occasionally with the mute swan (Cygnus olor). The greylag goose was one of the first animals to be domesticated; this happened at least 3,000 years ago in Ancient Egypt, the domestic subspecies being known as A. a. domesticus. As the domestic goose is a subspecies of the greylag goose they are able to interbreed, with the offspring sharing characteristics of both wild and domestic birds.


Greylag geese are largely herbivorous and feed chiefly on grasses. Short, actively growing grass is more nutritious and greylag geese are often found grazing in pastures with sheep or cows. Because of its low nutrient status, they need to feed for much of their time; the herbage passes rapidly through the gut and is voided frequently. The tubers of sea clubrush (Bolboschoenus maritimus) are also taken as well as berries and water plants such as duckweed (Lemna) and floating sweetgrass (Glyceria fluitans). In wintertime they eat grass and leaves but also glean grain on cereal stubbles and sometimes feed on growing crops, especially during the night. They have been known to feed on oats, wheat, barley, buckwheat, lentils, peas and root crops. Acorns are sometimes consumed, and on the coast, seagrass (Zostera sp.) may be eaten. In the 1920s in Britain, the pink-footed goose "discovered" that potatoes were edible and started feeding on waste potatoes. The greylag followed suit in the 1940s and now regularly searches for tubers on ploughed fields. They also consume small fish, amphibians, crustaceans, molluscs and insects.
Greylag geese tend to pair bond in long-term monogamous relationships. Most such pairs are probably life-long partnerships, though 5 to 8% of the pairs separate and re-mate with other geese. Birds in heterosexual pairs may engage in promiscuous behavior, despite the opposition of their mates.
Homosexual pairs are common (14 to 20% of the pairs may be ganders, depending on flock), and share the characteristics of heterosexual pairs with the exceptions that the bonds appear to be closer, based on the intensity of their displays. Same-sex pairs also engage in courtship and sexual relations, and often assume high-ranking positions in the flock as a result of their superior strength and courage, leading some to speculate that they may serve as guardians of the flock. The sexual preference of the birds is generally flexible, as more than half of widowers re-pair with a bird of the opposite sex.
The nest is on the ground among heather, rushes, dwarf shrubs or reeds, or on a raft of floating vegetation. It is built from pieces of reed, sprigs of heather, grasses and moss, mixed with small feathers and down. A typical clutch is four to six eggs, but fewer eggs or larger numbers are not unusual. The eggs are creamy-white at first but soon become stained, and average 85 by 58 millimetres (3+3⁄8 by 2+5⁄16 in). They are mostly laid on successive days and incubation starts after the last one is laid. The female does the incubation, which lasts about twenty-eight days, while the male remains on guard somewhere near. The chicks are precocial and able to leave the nest soon after hatching. Both parents are involved in their care and they soon learn to peck at food and become fully-fledged at eight or nine weeks, about the same time as their parents regain their ability to fly after moulting their main wing and tail feathers a month earlier. Immature birds undergo a similar moult, and move to traditional, safe locations before doing so because of their vulnerability while flightless.
Greylag geese are gregarious birds and form flocks. This has the advantage for the birds that the vigilance of some individuals in the group allows the rest to feed without having to constantly be alert to the approach of predators. After the eggs hatch, some grouping of families occur, enabling the geese to defend their young by their joint actions, such as mobbing or attacking predators. After driving off a predator, a gander will return to its mate and give a "triumph call", a resonant honk followed by a low-pitched cackle, uttered with neck extended forward parallel with the ground. The mate and even unfledged young reciprocate in kind.
Young greylags stay with their parents as a family group, migrating with them in a larger flock, and only dispersing when the adults drive them away from their newly established breeding territory the following year. At least in Europe, patterns of migration are well understood and follow traditional routes with known staging sites and wintering sites. The young learn these locations from their parents which normally stay together for life. Greylags leave their northern breeding areas relatively late in the autumn, for example completing their departure from Iceland by November, and start their return migration as early as January. Birds that breed in Iceland overwinter in the British Isles; those from Central Europe overwinter as far south as Spain and North Africa; others migrate down to the Balkans, Turkey and Iraq for the winter.


This species has a Palearctic distribution. The nominate subspecies breeds in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Baltic States, northern Russia, Poland, eastern Hungary and Romania. It also breeds locally in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and North Macedonia. The eastern race extends eastwards across a broad swathe of Asia to China. European birds migrate southwards to the Mediterranean region and North Africa. Asian birds migrate to Azerbaijan, Iran, Pakistan, northern India, Bangladesh and eastward to China. In North America, there are both feral domestic geese, which are similar to greylags, and occasional vagrant greylags. Greylag geese seen in the wild in New Zealand probably originated from the escape of farmyard geese, and a similar situation has occurred in Australia, where feral birds are now established in the east and southeast of the country.
In their breeding quarters, they are found on moors with scattered lochs, in marshes, fens and peat-bogs, besides lakes and on little islands some way out to sea. They like dense ground cover of reeds, rushes, heather, bushes and willow thickets. In their winter quarters, they frequent salt marshes, estuaries, freshwater marshes, steppes, flooded fields, bogs and pasture near lakes, rivers and streams. They also visit agricultural land where they feed on winter cereals, rice, beans or other crops, moving at night to shoals and sand-banks on the coast, mud-banks in estuaries or secluded lakes. Large numbers of immature birds congregate each year to moult on the Rone Islands near Gotland in the Baltic Sea.
Since the 1950s, increases in winter temperatures have resulted in greylag geese, breeding in central Europe, reducing their winter migration distances.  Wintering grounds closer to home can therefore be exploited, meaning that the geese can return to set up breeding territories earlier the following spring.
In Great Britain, their numbers had declined as a breeding bird, retreating north to breed wild only in the Outer Hebrides and the northern mainland of Scotland. However, during the 20th century, feral populations have been established elsewhere, and they have now re-colonised much of England. These populations are increasingly coming into contact and merging.
The greylag goose has become a pest species in several areas where its population has increased sharply. In Norway, the number of greylag geese is estimated to have increased three- to fivefold between 1995 and 2015. As a consequence, farmers' problems caused by goose grazing on farmland have increased considerably. This problem is also evident for the pink-footed goose. In the Orkney islands the population has increased dramatically: there were 300 breeding pairs, increasing to 10,000 in 2009, and 64,000 in 2019. Due to extensive damage caused to crops, the hunting season for the greylag goose in the Orkney islands is now most of the year.


The greylag is the largest and bulkiest of the grey geese of the genus Anser, but is more lightly built and agile than its domestic relative. It has a rotund, bulky body, a thick and long neck, and a large head and bill. It has pink legs and feet, and an orange or pink bill with a white or brown nail (hard horny material at tip of upper mandible). It is 74 to 91 centimetres (29 to 36 in) long with a wing length of 41.2 to 48 centimetres (16+1⁄4 to 19 in). It has a tail 6.2 to 6.9 centimetres (2+7⁄16 to 2+11⁄16 in), a bill of 6.4 to 6.9 centimetres (2+1⁄2 to 2+11⁄16 in) long, and a tarsus of 7.1 to 9.3 centimetres (2+13⁄16 to 3+11⁄16 in). It weighs 2.16 to 4.56 kilograms (4 lb 12 oz to 10 lb 1 oz), with a mean weight of around 3.3 kilograms (7 lb 4 oz). The wingspan is 147 to 180 centimetres (58 to 71 in). Males are generally larger than females, with the sexual dimorphism more pronounced in the eastern subspecies rubirostris, which is larger than the nominate subspecies on average.
The plumage of the greylag goose is greyish brown, with a darker head and paler breast and belly with a variable amount of black spotting. It has a pale grey forewing and rump which are noticeable when the bird is in flight or stretches its wings on the ground. It has a white line bordering its upper flanks, and its wing coverts are light coloured, contrasting with its darker flight feathers. Its plumage is patterned by the pale fringes of the feathers. Juveniles differ mostly in their lack of black speckling on the breast and belly and by their greyish legs. Adults have a distinctive 'concertina' pattern of folds in the feathers on their necks.
The greylag goose has a loud cackling call similar to that of the domestic goose, "aahng-ung-ung", uttered on the ground or in flight. There are various subtle variations used under different circumstances, and individual geese seem to be able to identify other known geese by their voices. The sound made by a flock of geese resembles the baying of hounds. Goslings chirp or whistle lightly, and adults hiss if threatened or angered.


There are two subspecies. The subspecies L. v. virens is found in the south of the range in Spain, southern France, Sardinia and North Africa. L. v. vestalis is found in the north in northern France, Italy, and across central Europe. It is not found in northern Europe or in the United Kingdom. It is a damselfly of still waters and is found in lakes, ponds, ditches and bogs with abundant vegetation.


Lestes virens is a species of damselfly in the family Lestidae, the spreadwings. It is known commonly as the small spreadwing or small emerald spreadwing. It is native to much of Europe and western and central Asia.


The flight period is generally from June to September, but it may start as early as April in the south of its range. L. virens lives in the dense vegetation on the edge of ponds where it feeds, mates, and lays eggs. It is a univoltine species. After mating the female lays its eggs above water on plant stems, the eggs go through a period of rapid development and then enter diapause. They overwinter as developed eggs and then the larvae emerge in spring. The larvae develop very quickly.


Isochaetes beutenmuelleri, the spun glass slug moth, is a moth of the family Limacodidae. It is found in the United States from New York to Florida and west to Colorado and Texas. The name comes from the appearance of their pupal stage, when they are very nearly transparent, and covered in spiny hairs containing poison that can cause dermatitis, as is not uncommon for other so-called stinging caterpillars.
Their wingspan is 19–24 mm. The forewings are yellowish with vague orange-brown lines and shading. The sharpest marking is a circular brown spot at the midpoint between the postmedial line. Females are larger than males and they have a thicker and more blackish spot. Adults are on wing from June to August.
The larvae feed on oak and beech.


Erynnis tristis, the mournful duskywing, is a species of spread-wing skipper in the butterfly family Hesperiidae. It is found in Central America, North America, and South America. It is mottled brown with a white fringe on the hind wings. It appears similar to the funereal duskywing, but the mournful duskywing is more likely to appear in urban areas. The larva feed on young oaks while adults nectar from a variety of wild and garden flowers.
The MONA or Hodges number for Erynnis tristis is 3953.


The blunt-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia sila) is endangered. It is no longer present throughout most of its former range as the habitat has been significantly altered by farming, urban development, overgrazing, oil wells, mining, reservoirs, and off-road vehicle use. This habitat alteration continues. However, there are no specific conservation concerns for the long-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia wislizenii ).


The long-nosed leopard lizard preys on small lizards such as Aspidoscelis Costatus, in addition to insects and sometimes rodents, like all members of the family. This lizard also is cannibalistic, eating smaller leopard lizards when the opportunity arises. On occasion, it will eat the young leopard lizards as they hatch, but the adults are usually not active during the time period when most young hatch from their eggs. This allows the young time to grow and become more of a contender with the larger adults.  Its long nose usually makes its jaw quicker and better for catching vertebrate prey. This species utilizes stalking and ambush techniques when hunting. As an ambush predator, it lies in wait in the shadows underneath a bush or small tree, where its spotted pattern blends, waiting for its prey to come within capture range. When prey is sufficiently close, it uses a rapid pouncing movement to capture the prey in its strong jaws.  The long-nosed leopard lizard has been documented to jump up to two feet (60 cm) in any direction, including into the air, in order to catch prey.
"More than one leopard lizard has been found choked to death by the size of the prey it attempted to swallow."
Some predators of long-nosed leopard lizards include a number of birds, snakes, coyotes, badgers, and the kit fox.


The specific name or epithet, wislizenii, is in honor of the German-American surgeon and naturalist Frederick Adolph Wislizenus, who caught the first specimen near Santa Fe, New Mexico.


The long-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia wislizenii)  is a species of relatively large North American lizard in the family Crotaphytidae. Gambelia wislizenii ranges in snout-to-vent length (SVL) from 8.3 to 14.6 cm (3+1⁄4 to 5+3⁄4 in). It has a large head, a long nose, and a long round tail that can be longer than its body. It is closely related to the blunt-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia sila), which closely resembles the long-nosed leopard lizard in body proportions, but has a conspicuously blunt snout. The species G. wislizenii, once considered part of the genus Crotaphytus, is under moderate pressure because of habitat destruction but is categorized as "least concern".


The long-nosed leopard lizard prefers to inhabit arid and semiarid plains growth, like bunch grass, alkali bush, sagebrush, creosote bush, and other scattered low plants.  The ground can be hardpan, sand, or even gravel with rocks that may often be used as basking sites.  G. wislizenii prefers flat areas with open space for running, avoiding densely vegetated areas. It is found from near sea level to around 6,000 feet (1,800 m). Its range includes the western part of the United States from Oregon to Idaho in the north, south to northern Mexico in Baja California, Sonora, Coahuila, and Zacatecas and Casa Grande, Arizona. In San Diego County, it occurs east of the Peninsula Ranges within the Lower Colorado Desert. It is found in desert flats and lower foothills with little vegetation.


The breeding season of G. wislizenii extends from May to June with a single clutch of 5–6 eggs being laid usually in June or July, which hatch in the late summer months of July or August. During mating no pair bond is formed between adults.  A single clutch is usually laid per year but in the warmer climates towards the south, it is possible for a female to lay up to two clutches per year. Birthing and egg-laying occur in a burrow, although no nest structure is formed.  Egg incubation is estimated to be between five and seven weeks. Young emerge in August, when adult activity is coming to an end.  The timing of the juvenile emergence coinciding with the cessation of adult activity may aid in the prevention of cannibalism.


The hook-billed kite (Chondrohierax uncinatus), is a  bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as kites, eagles, and harriers. It occurs in the Americas, including the Rio Grande Valley of Texas in the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and tropical South America.
It is a mid-sized, slender raptor with an invariably striped belly and banded tail but there is probably more individual variation in color and in size of bill than in any other species of diurnal raptor. Birds from beneath can look blackish or gray (especially males) and brown or brick-red (females) variously. This renders species identification at times extremely difficult. The downcurved hook at the tip of the beak is apparent on perched and low-flying birds. Weight can range from 215 to 397 g (7.6 to 14.0 oz) and length is 38–51 cm (15–20 in).
Tree snails are a vital component of the hook-billed kite’s diet. The density of their population within a region is proportional to the presence of tree snails. It has also been observed that the beak of the hook-billed kite has adapted in size and shape between different regions of their territory in response to the species of tree snail available to them. However, terrestrial snails, frogs, salamanders, lizards, small mammals, crabs, spiders, caterpillars, and insects are also taken. When it finds a tree snail it holds it with its talon and uses its beak to pry open the shell. The nest, a flimsy platform of sticks, is built by both sexes. The hook-billed kite lays two to three buff-white eggs marked with red-brown. Incubation is by both sexes. Semialtricial young stay in the nest 35–45 days and are fed by both sexes. This raptor is often considered sluggish and retiring, preferring to perch inside leafy canopy when not flying.
The critically endangered Cuban kite, C. wilsonii, is considered by some authors to be a subspecies of the hook-billed kite.


The greater painted-snipe (Rostratula benghalensis) is a species of wader in the family Rostratulidae. It is found in marshes in Africa, South Asia and South-east Asia.


They feed on insects, crustaceans, molluscs and seeds.


Not a vocal species; the male at times utters a shrill trill, while the female makes a guttural ook sound as well as hissing noises during breeding displays.
Usually found close to the fringes of reed beds along shorelines of marshes, swamps, ponds and streams.
Solitary or in pairs, sometimes in groups of up to 12. Rather shy and retiring, skulking close to the vegetation so that it can retreat to cover if disturbed. When flushed, flies like a rail with legs dangling. Bobs hindquarters on landing and sometimes when walking. Probes for food in the mud. The female initiates courtship and may mate with more than one male. The male incubates the eggs and takes the parental care.


The larvae of subspecies Morpho helenor achillaena have been recorded as feeding on Genipa americana, Inga, Machaerium oblongifolium and Platymiscium.


Morpho helenor, the Helenor blue morpho or common blue morpho, is a Neotropical butterfly found throughout Central and South America from Mexico to Argentina. It is a species group that may or may not be several species. Many subspecies have been described.


The Knysna dwarf chameleon (Bradypodion damaranum) is a species of dwarf chameleon in the Bradypodion ("slow footed") genus that is endemic to South Africa. It is a forest dweller, found only in a limited range in the afromontane forests near Knysna, South Africa, and in certain surrounding areas.


The normal habitat of Bradypodion damaranum is Fynbos and Afromontane Forest; it is often found in gardens.


The toco toucan occurs in northern and eastern Bolivia, extreme south-eastern Peru, northern Argentina, eastern and central Paraguay, and eastern and southern Brazil (excluding southern Rio Grande do Sul, the dry regions dominated by Caatinga vegetation and coastal regions between Ceará and Rio de Janeiro). Other disjunct populations occur along the lower Amazon River (Ilha de Marajó west approximately to the Madeira River), far northern Brazil in Roraima, coastal regions of the Guianas and it has been recently registered in north-west Uruguay. It only penetrates the Amazon in relatively open areas (e.g. along rivers). It is resident, but local movements may occur.
It is, unlike the other members of the genus Ramphastos, essentially a non-forest species. It can be found in a wide range of semi-open habitats such as woodland, savanna and other open habitats with scattered trees, Cerrado, plantations, forest-edge, and even wooded gardens. It is mainly a species of lowlands, but occurs up to 1,750 m (5,740 ft) near the Andes in Bolivia. It is easily seen in the Pantanal.


The toco toucan eats fruit using its bill to pluck them from trees, but also insects, frogs, small reptiles, small birds and their eggs and nestlings. The long bill is useful for reaching things that otherwise would be out-of-reach. It is typically seen in pairs or small groups. In flight it alternates between a burst of rapid flaps with the relatively short, rounded wings, and gliding. Nesting is seasonal, but timing differs between regions. The nest is typically placed high in a tree and consists of a cavity, at least part of which is excavated by the parent birds themselves. It has also been recorded nesting in holes in earth-banks and terrestrial termite-nests. Their reproduction cycle is annual. The female usually lays two to four eggs a few days after mating. The eggs are incubated by both sexes and hatch after 17–18 days. These birds are very protective of themselves and their chicks.


The toco toucan has conspicuously contrasting plumage with a mainly black body, a white throat, chest and uppertail-coverts, and red undertail-coverts. What appears to be a blue iris is actually thin blue skin around the eye. This blue skin is surrounded by another ring of bare, orange skin. The most noticeable feature, however, is its huge bill, which measures from 15.8 to 23 cm (6+1⁄4 to 9 in) in length, which is yellow-orange, tending to deeper reddish-orange on its lower sections and culmen, and with a black base and large spot on the tip. It looks heavy, but as in other toucans it is relatively light because the inside largely is hollow. The tongue is nearly as long as the bill and very flat. This species is the largest toucan and the largest representative of the order Piciformes.  The total length of the species is 55–65 cm (21+1⁄2–25+1⁄2 in). Body weight in these birds can vary from 500 to 876 g (1 lb 1+5⁄8 oz to 1 lb 14+7⁄8 oz), with males averaging 723 g (1 lb 9+1⁄2 oz) against the smaller female, which averages 576 g (1 lb 4+3⁄8 oz). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 22 to 26 cm (8+1⁄2 to 10 in), the tail is 14.1 to 17.9 cm (5+9⁄16 to 7+1⁄16 in) and the tarsus is 4.8 to 6.5 cm (1+7⁄8 to 2+9⁄16 in). Other than the size difference, there are no external differences between the sexes. Juveniles are duller and shorter-billed than adults. Its voice consists of a deep, coarse croaking, often repeated every few seconds. It also has a rattling call and will bill-clack.


The rufous-crowned sparrow (Aimophila ruficeps) is a small American sparrow. This passerine is primarily found across the Southwestern United States and much of the interior of Mexico, south to the transverse mountain range, and to the Pacific coast to the southwest of the transverse range. Its distribution is patchy, with populations often being isolated from each other. Twelve subspecies are generally recognized, though up to eighteen have been suggested. This bird has a brown back with darker streaks and gray underparts. The crown is rufous, and the face and supercilium are gray with a brown or rufous streak extending from each eye and a thick black malar streak.
These sparrows feed primarily on seeds in the winter and insects in the spring and summer. The birds are often territorial, with males guarding their territory through song and displays. Flight is awkward for this species, which prefers to hop along the ground for locomotion. They are monogamous and breed during spring. Two to five eggs are laid in the bird's nest, which is cup-shaped and well hidden. Adult sparrows are preyed upon by house cats and small raptors, while young may be taken by a range of mammals and reptiles. They have been known to live for up to three years, two months. Although the species has been classified as least concern, or unthreatened with extinction, some subspecies are threatened by habitat destruction and one may be extinct.


This bird is found in the southwestern United States and Mexico from sea level up to 9,800 feet (3,000 m), though it tends to be found between 3,000 and 6,000 feet (910 and 1,830 m). It lives in California, southern Arizona, southern New Mexico, Texas, and central Oklahoma south along Baja California and in western Mexico to southern Puebla and Oaxaca. In the midwestern United States, the sparrow is found as far east as a small part of western Arkansas, and also in a small region of northeastern Kansas, its most northeastern habitat. The range of this species is discontinuous and is made up of many small, isolated populations. The rufous-crowned sparrow is a non-migratory species, though the mountain subspecies are known to descend to lower elevations during severe winters. Male sparrows maintain and defend their territories throughout the year.
This sparrow is found in open oak woodlands and dry uplands with grassy vegetation and bushes. It is often found near rocky outcroppings. The species is also known from coastal scrublands and chaparral areas. The rufous-crowned sparrow thrives in open areas cleared by burning.


This sparrow feeds primarily on small grass and forb seeds, fresh grass stems, and tender plant shoots during autumn and winter. During these seasons, insects such as ants, grasshoppers, ground beetles, and scale insects as well as spiders make up a small part of its diet. In the spring and summer, the bird's diet includes a greater quantity and variety of insects.
The rufous-crowned sparrow forages slowly on or near the ground by walking or hopping under shrubs or dense grasses. Though it occasionally forages in weedy areas, it is almost never observed foraging in the open. It has occasionally been observed feeding in branches and low shrubs. During the breeding season, it gleans its food from grasses and low shrubs. However, normally the species obtains its food by either pecking or less frequently scratching at leaf litter. This bird tends to forage in a small family group and in a limited area.
It is unknown whether this species obtains all of the water it needs from its food or if it must also drink; however, it has been observed both drinking and bathing in pools of water after rain storms.


The rufous-crowned sparrow is a smallish sparrow at 5.25 inches (13.3 cm) in length, with males tending to be larger than females. It ranges from 15 to 23 g (0.53 to 0.81 oz) in weight and averages about 19 g (0.67 oz). It has a brown back with darker streaks and gray underparts. Its wings are short, rounded, and brown and lack wingbars, or a line of feathers of a contrasting color in the middle of the bird's wing. The sparrow's tail is long, brown, and rounded. The face and supercilium (the area above the eye) are gray with a brown or rufous streak extending from each eye and a thick black streak on each cheek. The crown ranges from rufous to chestnut, a feature which gives it its common name, and some subspecies have a gray streak running through the center of the crown. The bill is yellow and cone-shaped. The sparrow's throat is white with a dark stripe. Its legs and feet are pink-gray. Both sexes are similar in appearance, but the juvenile rufous-crowned sparrow has a brown crown and numerous streaks on its breast and flanks during the spring and autumn.
The song is a short, fast, bubbling series of chip notes that can accelerate near the end, and the calls include a nasal chur and a thin tsi. When threatened or separated from its mate, the sparrow makes a dear-dear-dear call.


Scathophaga stercoraria is sexually dimorphic, with an average lifespan of one to two months. The adult males are bright golden-yellow with orange-yellow fur on the front legs. Females are a little duller in color, with pronounced green-brown tinges, and no brightly colored fur on the front legs. The adults range from 5 to 11 mm in length, and the males are generally larger than the females. The physical features of separate S. stercoraria populations can vary greatly, due in part to the range of locations in which the species is found. Generally, they are located in cooler temperate regions, including North America, Asia, and Europe. They may also favor higher altitudes, such as the Pyrenees and Swiss Alps.


The adults mainly prey on smaller insects—mostly other Diptera. They can also consume nectar and dung as additional sources of energy. In a laboratory setting, adult S. stercoraria can live solely on Drosophila and water. Females spend most of their time foraging in vegetation and only visit dung pats to mate and oviposit on the dung surface. Both males and females are attracted to dung by scent, and approach dung pats against the wind. Males spend most of their time on the dung, waiting for females and feeding on other insects that visit the dung, such as blow flies. In the absence of other prey, the yellow dung fly may turn to cannibalism. The larvae are coprophagous, relying on dung for nutrition.


As well as being an easy meal for a great many bird and bat species, these flies are also preyed upon by other insects. Much competition exists between larvae of different species within a dung pat. Other insect species may also use the pats as hunting grounds. These include robber flies and clown beetles.


Scathophaga stercoraria breeds on the dung of many large mammals, but generally prefers fresh cattle dung. The operational sex ratio on these pats is very male-biased and competition is high. Females are small and have limited precopulatory choice. Copulation lasts 20–50 minutes, after which the male attempts to guard the female from other males. Both males and females often mate with multiple partners. Reproductive success depends on a variety of factors, including sperm competition, nutrition, and environmental temperature.


Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville described the rubber boa in 1835. The generic name Charina is from the Ancient Greek "graceful" or "delightful", and the specific name bottae honors Dr. Paolo E. Botta, an Italian ship's surgeon, explorer, and naturalist.
The family Boidae consists of the nonvenomous snakes commonly called boas and consists of 43 species. The genus Charina consists of two species, both of which are found in North America.  There is debate on whether the southern rubber boa should be a separate species or a subspecies (Charina bottae umbratica).  A study published in 2001 concluded there is enough evidence to indicate that the proposed independent species, Charina umbratica, is a separate species based on its geologically separate genetic nature and morphological differences.


Rubber boas feed primarily on young mammals such as shrews, voles, mice, etc. When they encounter nestling mammals, they try to consume the entire litter and fend off the mother with their tail. This is why they often have extensive scarring on their tails. Rubber boas have also been known to prey on snake eggs, lizard eggs, lizards, young birds, young bats, and there have even been instances of them eating other snakes.


Rubber boas are one of the smaller boa species, adults can be anywhere from 38 to 84 cm (1.25 to 2.76 ft) long; newborns are typically 19 to 23 cm (7.5 to 9.1 in) long. The common name is derived from their skin which is often loose and wrinkled and consists of small scales that are smooth and shiny, these characteristics give the snakes a rubber-like look and texture.  Colors are typically tan to dark brown with a lighter ventral surface but sometimes olive-green, yellow, or orange.  Newborns often appear pink and slightly transparent but darken with age.  Rubber boas have small eyes with vertically elliptical pupils and short blunt heads that are no wider than the body.  One of the most identifiable characteristics of rubber boas is their short blunt tails that closely resemble the shape of their head.  Rubber boas appear quite different visually than any other species that share the same range (except maybe for the southern rubber boa) and thus are usually easy to identify.


Rubber boas have been known to inhabit a wide variety of habitat types from grassland, meadows and chaparral to deciduous and conifer forests, to high alpine settings.  They can be found at elevations anywhere from sea level to over 10,000 feet (3,000 m).  They are not as tolerant of higher temperatures as other snake species and cannot inhabit areas that are too hot and dry, but can live in areas that are surprisingly cold, especially for a snake.  Rubber boas also spend a large amount of time under shelter (rocks, logs, leaf litter, burrows, etc.) and thus must live in habitats that can provide this, as well as adequate warmth, moisture, and prey.  It is also thought that rubber boas maintain a relatively small home range as many individuals are often captured in the same vicinity year after year, although individuals may occasionally migrate due to competition, lack of prey, or other pressures.


Rubber boas are viviparous (give birth to live young) and can have up to 9 young per year, although litters of 1-5 are much more common. Rubber boas are less prolific than many snakes found in the US and Canada with females only reproducing on average once every four years. Mating occurs shortly after reemergence from brumation in the spring, and young are born anywhere from August to November later that year.


The taiga bean goose (Anser fabalis) is a goose that breeds in northern Europe and Asia. This and the tundra bean goose are recognised as separate species by the American Ornithological Society and the International Ornithologists' Union, but are considered a single species by other authorities (collectively called bean goose). It is migratory and winters further south in Europe and Asia. The taiga and tundra bean goose diverged about 2.5 million years ago and established secondary contact ca. 60,000 years ago, resulting in extensive gene flow.


The taiga bean goose is a rare winter visitor to Britain. There are two regular wintering flocks of taiga bean goose, in the Yare Valley, Norfolk and the Avon Valley, Scotland. A formerly regular flock in Dumfries and Galloway no longer occurs there.
The taiga bean geese Anser fabalis fabalis wintering in Europe are considered to migrate across three different flyways: Western, Central and Eastern; which has been confirmed by stable isotope analysis of their flight feathers.


The length ranges from 68 to 90 cm (27–35 in), wingspan from 140 to 174 cm (55–69 in) and weight from 1.7–4 kg (3.7–8.8 lb). In the nominate subspecies, males average 3.2 kg (7.1 lb) and females average 2.84 kg (6.3 lb). The bill is black at the base and tip, with an orange band across the middle; the legs and feet are also bright orange.
The upper wing-coverts are dark brown, as in the white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons) and the lesser white-fronted goose (A. erythropus), but differing from these in having narrow white fringes to the feathers.
The voice is a loud honking, higher pitched in the smaller subspecies.
The closely related pink-footed goose (A. brachyrhynchus) has the bill short, bright pink in the middle, and the feet also pink, the upper wing-coverts being nearly of the same bluish-grey as in the greylag goose. In size and bill structure, it is very similar to Anser fabalis rossicus, and in the past was often treated as a sixth subspecies of bean goose.


Found in most of the continental United States,  New York State. Quebec in Canada, Bermuda, Mexico, and some parts of the Neotropical Americas, and the West Indies.


Formica obscuripes (the western thatching ant) is a species of ant in the family Formicidae. It is native to North America. It produces large mounds covered by small pieces of plant material. The number of adult workers per colony may be as high as 40,000. F. obscuripes feeds upon a number of insect species, consumes nectar from homopterous insects they tend, and occasionally eats plant tissue.  In the Blue Mountains of Oregon, F. obscuripes has demonstrated the capacity for polydomy.  A supercolony in a four-hectare study area near Lehman Hot Springs consisted of 210 active nests with an estimated population in excess of 56 million ants.


F. obscuripes creates distinct, dome-shaped mounds composed of varying materials found in the nest's surrounding environment. This composition is primarily vegetation and is commonly called "thatch". The mounds are typically constructed in areas devoid of cover to expose the nest to sunlight. The size of these mounds is highly variable and is mostly determined by the age and health of the colony. The height ranges from 1 to 18 inches (15–45 cm), although nests of larger heights are not uncommon, and can extend down to 4 ft (1.2 m) in the ground, with chambers present in both the thatched mound and the soil. The condition of the thatched mound is in a constant state of change due to activities by the ants and changes in the environment.
To prevent plants from shading the nest, the ants may chew off the bark at the base of plants growing on or nearby the mound. Formic acid is then sprayed into the open layer eventually killing and felling the plants.


Their breeding habitat is open ground on beaches or flats across northern Canada and Alaska. They nest on the ground in an open area with little or no plant growth.
They are migratory and winter in coastal areas of the southern United States, the Caribbean and much of South America. They are extremely rare vagrants to western Europe, and have been found in Tierra del Fuego and the Isles of Scilly. Their true status may be obscured by the difficulty in identifying them from the very similar ringed plover of Eurasia, of which it was formerly considered a subspecies.


Semipalmated plovers forage for food on beaches, tidal flats and fields, usually by sight. They eat insects (such as the larvae of long-legged and beach flies, larvae of soldier flies and shore flies, mosquitoes, grasshoppers and Ochtebius beetles), spiders, crustaceans (such as isopods, decapods and copepods) and worms (such as polychaetes). They also consume small molluscs including bivalves and gastropods, including snails such as coffee bean snails and Odostomia laevigata. These opportunistic feeders also feed on berries or seeds from grasslands or cultivated fields. This bird resembles the killdeer but is much smaller and has only one band. Since the semipalmated plover nests on the ground, it uses a "broken-wing" display to lure intruders away from the nest, in a display similar to the related killdeer.


This species weighs 22–63 g (0.78–2.22 oz) and measures 14–20 cm (5.5–7.9 in) in length and 35–56 cm (14–22 in) across the wings. Adults 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 Dalmatian pelican is found in lakes, rivers, deltas and estuaries. Compared to the great white pelican, the Dalmatian is not as tied to lowland areas and will nest in suitable wetlands with many elevations. It is less opportunistic in breeding habitat selection than the great white, usually returning to a traditional breeding site year after year unless it becomes completely unsuitable. During the winter, Dalmatian pelicans usually stay on ice-free lakes in Europe or jheels (seasonal lakes) in India. They also visit, typically during winter, inshore areas along sheltered coasts for feeding.


This pelican feeds almost entirely on fish. Preferred prey species can include common carp (Cyprinus carpio), European perch (Perca fluviatilis), common rudd (Scardinius erythropthalmus), eels, catfish (especially silurids during winter), mullet and northern pike (Esox lucius), the latter having measured up to 50 cm (20 in) when taken. In the largest remnant colony, located in Greece, the preferred prey is reportedly the native Alburnus belvica. The Dalmatian pelican requires around 1,200 g (2.6 lb) of fish per day and can take locally abundant smaller fish such as gobies, but usually ignore them in lieu of slightly larger fish. It usually forages alone or in groups of only two or three. It normally swims along, placidly and slowly, until it quickly dunks its head underwater and scoops the fish out, along with great masses of water. The water is dumped out of the sides of the pouch and the fish is swallowed. Occasionally it may feed cooperatively with other pelicans by corralling fish into shallow waters and may even cooperate similarly while fishing alongside great cormorants in Greece. Occasionally, the pelican may not immediately eat the fish contained in its gular pouch, so it can save the prey for later consumption. Other small wetlands-dwellers may supplement the diet, including crustaceans, worms, beetles and small water birds, usually nestlings and eggs.


Among a highly social family in general, Dalmatian pelicans may have the least social inclinations. This species naturally nests in relatively small groups compared to most other pelican species and sometimes may even nest alone. However, small colonies are usually formed, which regularly include upwards of 250 pairs (especially historically). Occasionally, Dalmatian pelicans may mix in with colonies of great white pelicans. Nesting sites selected are usually either islands in large bodies of water (typically lagoons or river deltas) or dense mats of aquatic vegetation, such as extensive reedbeds of Phragmites and Typha. Due to their large size, these pelicans often trample the vegetation in the area surrounding their nests into the muddy substrate and thus nesting sites may become unsuitably muddy after around three years of usage.
The nest is a moderately-sized pile of grass, reeds, sticks and feathers, usually measuring about 1 m (3.3 ft) deep and 63 cm (25 in) across. Nests are usually located on or near the ground, often being placed on dense floating vegetation. Nests tend to be flimsy until cemented together by droppings. Breeding commences in March or April, about a month before the great white pelican breeds. The Dalmatian pelican lays a clutch of one to six eggs, with two eggs being the norm. Eggs weigh between 120 and 195 g (4.2 and 6.9 oz). Incubation, which is split between both parents, lasts for 30 to 34 days. The chicks are born naked but soon sprout white down feathers. When the young are 6 to 7 weeks of age, the pelicans frequently gather in "pods". The offspring fledge at around 85 days and become independent at 100 to 105 days old. Nesting success relies on local environmental conditions, with anywhere from 58% to 100% of hatchlings successfully surviving to adulthood. Predation on Dalmatian pelicans is relatively poorly known despite the species' threatened status. The nesting sites often insure limited nest predation, though carnivorous mammals which eat eggs and nestlings can access nests when water levels are low enough for them to cross, as has been recorded with wild boars (Sus scrofa) destroying nests in Bulgaria. Golden jackals (Canis aureus) are also known to access and destroy nests when water levels are too low and the same is possibly true of other canids such as foxes, gray wolves (Canis lupus) and dogs (C. l. familiaris), not to mention other predatory animals such as potentially Eurasian lynxes (Lynx lynx). Some eagles may attack pelicans at colonies, although this is not verified. Large gulls are known to be virulent predators of Dalmatian pelican eggs in Russia, Albania and Turkey. Sexual maturity is thought to be obtained at three or four years of age.


This huge bird is by a slight margin the largest of the pelican species and one of the largest living flying bird species. It measures 160 to 183 cm (5 ft 3 in to 6 ft 0 in) in length, 7.25–15 kg (16.0–33.1 lb) in weight and 245 to 351 cm (8 ft 0 in to 11 ft 6 in) in wingspan. Its median weight is around 11.5 kg (25 lb), which makes it perhaps the world's heaviest flying bird species, although the largest individuals among male bustards and swans may be heavier than the largest individual Dalmatian pelican. More recently, six male Dalmatians were found to average 10.4 kg (23 lb) and four females 8.7 kg (19 lb), around the same average weight as the great white pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus) and slightly lighter than mean body masses from other huge birds such as the trumpeter swan (Cygnus buccinator) or Andean condor (Vultur gryphus). A mean estimated body mass for the Dalmatian pelican of 10.9 kg (24 lb) was also published, around the same mass as the aforementioned largest swan and condor. It is either the heaviest or one of the heaviest birds native to Europe, its closest rival in mass being mute swans (Cygnus olor), which weighs on average around 10.1 kg (22 lb), followed closely by the cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus) (whose average weight is not known) and the whooper swans (Cygnus cygnus), averaging at just shy of 9.5 kg (21 lb), and the great white pelican. These same five species are probably rank as the largest flying birds in Asia as well, alongside the Himalayan vulture (Gyps himalayensis). It also appears to have one of the largest wingspans of any living bird, rivaling those of the great albatrosses (Diomedea ssp., in particular the two largest species, the wandering albatross and southern royal albatross) and the great white pelican. These four species are the only modern birds with verified wingspans that range over 350 cm (11 ft 6 in).
The somewhat similar-looking great white pelican broadly overlaps in size but has greater size sexual dimorphism: female great whites can be noticeably smaller than female Dalmatians but male individuals of the two species are essentially the same size and weight. However, the Dalmatian differs from this other very large species in that it has curly nape feathers, grey legs and silvery-white (rather than pure white) plumage. In winter, adult Dalmatian pelicans go from silvery-grey to a dingier brownish-grey cream colour. Immature birds are grey and lack the pink facial patch of immature white pelicans. The loose feathers around the forehead of the Dalmatian pelican can form a W-like-shape on the face right above the bill. In the breeding season it has an orange-red lower mandible and pouch against a yellow upper mandible. In winter, the whole bill is a somewhat dull yellow. The bill, at 36 to 45 cm (14 to 18 in) long, is the second largest of any bird, after the Australian pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus). The bare skin around the eye can vary from yellow to purplish in colour. Among standard measurements, compared to the great white pelican, the Dalmatian's tarsus is slightly shorter, at 11.6 to 12.2 cm (4.6 to 4.8 in), but its tail and wing chord length are notably larger, at 22 to 24 cm (8.7 to 9.4 in) long and 68 to 80 cm (27 to 31 in), respectively. When the Dalmatian pelican is in flight, unlike other pelicans, its wings are solid grayish-white with black tips. It is an elegant soaring bird. When a whole flock of Dalmatian pelicans is in flight, all its members move in graceful synchrony, their necks held back like a heron's.
The Dalmatian pelican is often silent, as most pelicans tend to be, although it can be fairly vocal during the mating season, when it may engage in a wide range of guttural, deep vocalisations, including barks, hisses and grunts.


Adults emerge once a year to mate, in mid-June to mid-July. Mating occurs in the middle of the day, and females lay eggs late in the day. As with all of Saturniidae, the adults do not feed. Their mouthparts have been reduced.
Females are stout bodied, yellow orange with a silver-white spot and faint black line across the forewing. There is also a line across the hindwing. Males are much smaller, and red brownish, but also have the white spot and pale lines. Both are speckled with black spots. Wingspan 3–5 cm.


Larvae are gregarious in the early instars and often do not disperse much in the late instars. The fifth instar is black with yellow-orange stripes on its side, and prominent spiny horns on the second segment of the thorax, about 5 cm long. Smaller spikes occur on the remaining segments. They feed on oaks in August and September.


The species lives in eastern North America, from the edge of the Great Plains to the east coast and from southern Ontario to central Georgia, Alabama and eastern Texas. They are found in northern Florida, but are more common in the north.


Firebugs generally mate in April and May. Their diet consists primarily of seeds from lime trees and mallows (see below). They can often be found in groups near the base of lime tree trunks, on the sunny side.
They can be seen in tandem formation when mating which can take from 12 hours up to 7 days. The long period of copulating is probably used by the males as a form of ejaculate-guarding under high competition with other males.


The firebug, Pyrrhocoris apterus, is a common insect of the family Pyrrhocoridae. Easily recognizable due to its striking red and black coloration, it may be confused with the similarly coloured though unrelated Corizus hyoscyami (cinnamon bug, squash bug) (see comparison). Pyrrhocoris apterus is distributed throughout the Palaearctic from the Atlantic coast of Europe to northwest China. It has also been reported from the US, Central America, and India, and is also found in Australia. It has been reported as recently expanding its distribution northwards into mainland UK and eastward on to the coast of the Mediterranean sea.

They are frequently observed to form aggregations, especially as immature forms, containing from tens to perhaps a hundred individuals.


Elymnias hypermnestra, the common palmfly, is a species of satyrine butterfly found in South and Southeast Asia.


The winter wren (Troglodytes hiemalis) is a very small North American bird and a member of the mainly New World wren family Troglodytidae. It was once lumped with the Pacific wren (Troglodytes pacificus) of western North America and the Eurasian wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) of Eurasia under the name winter wren.
It breeds in coniferous forests from British Columbia to the Atlantic Ocean. It migrates through and winters across southeastern Canada, the eastern half the United States and (rarely) north-eastern Mexico. Small numbers may be casual in the western United States and Canada.
The scientific name is taken from the Greek word troglodytes (from "trogle" a hole, and "dyein" to creep), meaning "cave-dweller", and refers to its habit of disappearing into cavities or crevices while hunting arthropods or to roost.


For the most part insects and spiders are its food, but in winter large pupae and some seeds are taken.


The winter wren nests mostly in coniferous forests, especially those of spruce and fir, where it is often identified by its long and exuberant song. Although it is an insectivore, it can remain in moderately cold and even snowy climates by foraging for insects on substrates such as bark and fallen logs.
Its movements as it creeps or climbs are incessant rather than rapid; its short flights swift and direct but not sustained, its tiny round wings whirring as it flies from bush to bush.
At night, usually in winter, it often roosts, true to its scientific name, in dark retreats, snug holes and even old nests. In hard weather it may do so in parties, either consisting of the family or of many individuals gathered together for warmth.


The male builds a small number of nests. These are called "cock nests" but are never lined until the female chooses one to use. The normal round nest of grass, moss, lichens or leaves is tucked into a hole in a wall, tree trunk, crack in a rock or corner of a building, but it is often built in bushes, overhanging boughs or the litter which accumulates in branches washed by floods. Five to eight white or slightly speckled eggs are laid in April, and second broods are reared.


Small tail is often cocked above its back, and short neck gives the appearance of a small brown ball. Rufous brown above, grayer below, barred with darker brown and gray, even on wings and tail. The bill is dark brown, the legs pale brown. Young birds are less distinctly barred. Most are identifiable by the pale "eyebrows" over their eyes.
Measurements:
Length: 3.1–4.7 in (7.9–11.9 cm)
Weight: 0.3–0.4 oz (8.5–11.3 g)
Wingspan: 4.7–6.3 in (12–16 cm)


This butterfly is seasonally variable. The upperside of the summer form's hindwings are all black, whereas the winter forms hindwings are reddish orange. The underside of both forms is striped with dark and light brown. There is a silvery comma mark in the middle of the hindwing in both forms. Its wingspan is 4.5–6.4 cm (1.8–2.5 in).


This butterfly seldom visits flowers, but rather feeds on sap, rotting fruit, salts and minerals from puddling, and dung.


Polygonia comma, the eastern comma, is a North American butterfly in the family Nymphalidae, subfamily Nymphalinae.


Russula brevipes is a species of mushroom commonly known as the short-stemmed russula or the stubby brittlegill. It is widespread in North America, and was reported from Pakistan in 2006. The fungus grows in a mycorrhizal association with trees from several genera, including fir, spruce, Douglas-fir, and hemlock. Fruit bodies are white and large, with convex to funnel-shaped caps measuring 7–30 cm (3–12 in) wide set atop a thick stipe up to 8 cm (3 in) long. The gills on the cap underside are closely spaced and sometimes have a faint bluish tint. Spores are roughly spherical, and have a network-like surface dotted with warts.
The mushrooms of Russula brevipes often develop under masses of conifer needles or leaves of broadleaved trees, and fruit from summer to autumn. Forms of the mushroom that develop a bluish band at the top of the stipe are sometimes referred to as variety acrior. Although edible, Russula brevipes mushrooms have a bland or bitter flavor. They become more palatable once parasitized by the ascomycete fungus Hypomyces lactifluorum, a bright orange mold that covers the fruit body and transforms them into lobster mushrooms.


Fully grown, the cap can range from 7 to 30 cm (3 to 12 in) in diameter, whitish to dull-yellow, and is funnel-shaped with a central depression. The gills are narrow and thin, decurrent in attachment, nearly white when young but becoming pale yellow to buff with age, and sometimes forked near the stipe. The stipe is 3–8 cm long and 2.5–4 cm thick. It is initially white but develops yellowish-brownish discolorations with age. The mushroom sometimes develops a pale green band at the top of the stipe. The spore print is white to light cream.
Spores of R. brevipes are egg-shaped to more or less spherical, and measure 7.5–10 by 6.5–8.5 µm; they have a partially reticulate (network-like) surface dotted with warts measuring up to 1 µm high. The cap cuticle is arranged in the form of a cutis (characterized by hyphae that run parallel to the cap surface) comprising interwoven hyphae with rounded tips. There are no cystidia on the cap (pileocystidia).
The variant R. brevipes var. acrior Shaffer has a subtle green shading at the stipe apex and on the gills. R. brevipes var. megaspora has spores measuring 9–14 by 8–12 µm.


The caterpillars are white with black spots and have numerous black spikes along their body. Adult butterflies are monomorphic of medium size with long wings. On the dorsal side, the wings are black with narrow white and yellow stripes, with a similar pattern on the ventral side, but paler and with red spots. The wingspan ranges from 72 to 100 mm.


Heliconius charithonia, the zebra longwing or zebra heliconian, is a species of butterfly belonging to the subfamily Heliconiinae of the family Nymphalidae. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1767 12th edition of Systema Naturae. The boldly striped black and white wing pattern is aposematic, warning off predators.
The species is distributed across South and Central America and as far north as southern Texas and peninsular Florida; there are migrations north into other American states in the warmer months.
Zebra longwing adults roost communally at night in groups of up to 60 adults for safety from predators. The adult butterflies are unusual in feeding on pollen as well as on nectar; the pollen enables them to synthesize cyanogenic glycosides that make their bodies toxic to potential predators. Caterpillars feed on various species of passionflower, evading the plants' defensive trichomes by biting them off or laying silk mats over them.
Mass spraying of naled has decimated the zebra longwing population in Miami-Dade County, Florida. There has been mass collapse of the colonies with impacts on the balance of the ecosystem. Further studies are needed to evaluate any potential for recolonization.


The adults are unusual among butterflies in that they eat pollen as well as sip nectar. This ability contributes to their longevity—they can live up to 3 months as adults in the wild and 4–5 months in the lab. The behavior facilitated the evolution of aposematism and mimicry among Heliconius species. Butterflies that feed on pollen are more distasteful to predators, more brightly colored, and show superior mimetic diversity to those that do not.
Adult butterflies choose their home ranges based on collections of pollen plants. An adult collects pollen by inserting its proboscis into the flower while making particular movements to secure adhesion to the pollen grains. Digestion occurs immediately after ingestion when the pollen makes contact with saliva, and amino acids are dissolved. Optimal amino acid intake occurs through abundant saliva production and gentle and slow mastication. During the night, the butterflies digest pollen since optimal nutritional resources are obtained while resting or sleeping.
Pollen feeding is correlated with higher overall fitness. Individuals that feed on pollen live longer than those that feed only on nectar or sugar water. Females carry more pollen than males since nutrients such as amino acids from pollen are needed for egg production. Oogenesis is greatly affected by pollen intake. When pollen is absent in the diet, oviposition rates decrease and lifetime fecundity, or the number of eggs produced, drops significantly.
Pollen feeding also correlates with unpalatibility to predators. Amino acids from pollen are used as precursors to synthesize cyanogenic glycosides that are stored in larval and adult tissues, accounting for their toxicity. When pollen availability is low, adult butterflies recycle cyanogenic glycosides they synthesized previously. With less expectation of pollen quality, females reallocate their cyanogens to reproductive input, as larvae benefit the most from cyanogenesis; a lack of amino acids in adult diet does not necessarily correlate with reduced cyanogenic defense.
The caterpillar feeds on yellow passionflower (Passiflora lutea), corky-stemmed passionflower (Passiflora suberosa), and two-flower passionflower (Passiflora biflora). Larvae regulate their nutritional input to an equal protein-carbohydrate ratio. They feed on the Passiflora plants on which their mother laid their eggs. Passiflora plants have trichomes, structures that reduce herbivore attack physically or chemically. H. charithonia larvae can avoid the effects of trichomes, being able to free themselves from the entrapment of a trichome by pulling their legs from the hold of the trichome hook, and laying silk mats on the trichomes, providing a surface to walk on more easily, and they remove the tips of the trichomes by biting them. Trichome tips are found in the faeces of these individuals. Larvae often try to avoid areas where trichome density is highest by staying on the under surface of the leaves.


The sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis) is a species of large crane of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia. The common name of this bird refers to habitat like that at the Platte River, on the edge of Nebraska's Sandhills on the American Great Plains. This is the most important stopover area for the nominotypical subspecies, the lesser sandhill crane (A. c. canadensis), with up to 450,000 of these birds migrating through annually.


Adults are gray overall; during breeding, their plumage is usually much worn and stained, particularly in the migratory populations, and looks nearly ochre. The average weight of the larger males is 4.57 kg (10.1 lb), while the average weight of females is 4.02 kg (8.9 lb), with a range of 2.7 to 6.7 kg (6.0 to 14.8 lb) across the subspecies. Sandhill cranes have red foreheads, white cheeks, and long, dark, pointed bills. In flight, their long, dark legs trail behind, and their long necks keep straight. Immature birds have reddish-brown upperparts and gray underparts. The sexes look alike. Sizes vary among the different subspecies; the average height of these birds is around 80 to 136 cm (2 ft 7 in to 4 ft 6 in). Their wing chords are typically 41.8–60 cm (16.5–23.6 in), tails are 10–26.4 cm (3.9–10.4 in), the exposed culmens are 6.9–16 cm (2.7–6.3 in) long, and the tarsi measure 15.5–26.6 cm (6.1–10.5 in). Wingspan is 78.7 in (200 cm).
These cranes frequently give a loud, trumpeting call that suggests a rolled "r" in the throat, and they can be heard from a long distance. Mated pairs of cranes engage in "unison calling". The cranes stand close together, calling in a synchronized and complex duet. The female makes two calls for every one from the male.
Sandhill cranes' large wingspans, typically 1.65 to 2.30 m (5 ft 5 in to 7 ft 7 in), make them very skilled soaring birds, similar in style to hawks and eagles. Using thermals to obtain lift, they can stay aloft for many hours, requiring only occasional flapping of their wings, thus expending little energy. Migratory flocks contain hundreds of birds, and can create clear outlines of the normally invisible rising columns of air (thermals) they ride.
Sandhill cranes fly south for the winter. In their wintering areas, they form flocks over 10,000. One place this happens is at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, 100 mi (160 km) south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. An annual Sandhill Crane Festival is held there in November.