Marsh tits are monogamous and often pair for life; one pair stayed together for six years. In Europe, hybridisation with the willow tit has been recorded twice.
The nest site is in a hole, usually in a tree but sometimes in a wall or in the ground. Nestboxes may be used. Old willow tit holes may be used and enlarged further. Marsh tits do not usually excavate their own nest holes, though they may enlarge the hollow, carrying the chips to a distance before dropping them. The hole may be within a centimetres or two of the ground or high as 10 m (33 ft). Inside the hole, a nest of moss is made and lined with hair and sometimes a few feathers; 20 cm (7.9 in) of moss is used in damp holes, but much less in dry ones.
Between five and nine white and red-speckled eggs are laid late in April or in May, measuring 16 mm × 12 mm (0.63 in × 0.47 in) and weighing 1.2 g (0.042 oz) each, of which 6% is shell. The eggs are incubated by the female for 14–16 days; incubation begins before the clutch is complete, meaning that the chicks hatch over a period of around two days. She sits closely and gives a typical tit "hissing display" if disturbed. The male helps to feed and care for the young and brings nearly all the food for the first four days after hatching. The altricial, downy chicks fledge after 18–21 days. The fledglings are fed by their parents for a week and become independent after a further 1–7 days. The family stays together for between 11 and 15 days after the first flights of the juveniles. Second broods have been recorded, though they are extremely rare in Britain; most are replacement clutches.
A study of marsh tits in Białowieża Forest, Poland, looked at which factors affected birds' choice to re-occupy a nest hole used the previous year. It found that 35.5% of available holes were used again the following year, and that holes where a brood had failed were less likely to be re-used. A study in Bourton Woods, Gloucestershire, England, found that nestboxes were used by marsh tits in successive years in only 20% of cases.


Under cold winter conditions, adults can undergo diapause, a period of delayed sexual maturation to maximize survival. The diapause morph is based upon the length of the day that the larvae experienced during the development stage of the life cycle. The diapausing morph is more commonly observed in P. c-album butterflies inhabiting south Europe, North Africa, and Asia. The threshold for the photoperiod triggering diapause is primarily due to autosomal genes but may also be influenced by sex-linked genes and/or parental effects. Females tend to enter a diapause based on a photoperiod that is intermediate to the parents, and males are more likely to enter diapause than females. This indicates that males and females have evolved different optimal lifecycles. Females profit from larger body size, because it is correlated with fecundity whereas male fitness is not related to size.


This species only produces one generation per year making them a univoltine, which means that this species only breeds once per year and will only produce one set of offspring.
L. coridon is monophagous, which means that they only feeds on one specific species of plant. The larvae or caterpillars of this species feed on the leaves of horseshoe vetch (Hippocrepis comosa).
When they are ready they pupate on the ground within the leaf litter of the host plants.
The caterpillars are attend by several different ants of the genera Myrmica, Lasius, Formica, Plagiolepis, Tetramorium, Aphaenogaster and Tapinoma.
This butterfly is usually seen on the wing from June to October.
In the research into the effects of trophic interaction and fragmentation it was found that there are no known parasitoids that are specialized to this species, but there are other parasitoids that are related to other species that are part of the family Lycaenidae which will sometimes predate this species. It could be a viable option that the parasitoids that did predate upon this species became extinct due to the fragmentation of their habitat in the past.


As of 2005, Mammal Species of the World recognizes 22 subspecies of raccoons. Four of these subspecies living only on small Central American and Caribbean islands were often regarded as distinct species after their discovery. These are the Bahamian raccoon and Guadeloupe raccoon, which are very similar to each other; the Tres Marias raccoon, which is larger than average and has an angular skull; and the extinct Barbados raccoon. Studies of their morphological and genetic traits in 1999, 2003 and 2005 led all these island raccoons to be listed as subspecies of the common raccoon in Mammal Species of the World's third edition. A fifth island raccoon population, the Cozumel raccoon, which weighs only 3 to 4 kg (6.6 to 8.8 lb) and has notably small teeth, is still regarded as a separate species.
The four smallest raccoon subspecies, with a typical weight of 1.8 to 2.7 kg (4.0 to 6.0 lb), live along the southern coast of Florida and on the adjacent islands; an example is the Ten Thousand Islands raccoon (Procyon lotor marinus). Most of the other 15 subspecies differ only slightly from each other in coat color, size and other physical characteristics. The two most widespread subspecies are the eastern raccoon (Procyon lotor lotor) and the Upper Mississippi Valley raccoon (Procyon lotor hirtus). Both share a comparatively dark coat with long hairs, but the Upper Mississippi Valley raccoon is larger than the eastern raccoon. The eastern raccoon occurs in all U.S. states and Canadian provinces to the north of South Carolina and Tennessee. The adjacent range of the Upper Mississippi Valley raccoon covers all U.S. states and Canadian provinces to the north of Louisiana, Texas and New Mexico.
The taxonomic identity of feral raccoons inhabiting Central Europe, Causasia and Japan is unknown, as the founding populations consisted of uncategorized specimens from zoos and fur farms.


The prothonotary warbler breeds in hardwood swamps in extreme southeastern Ontario and eastern United States. It winters in the West Indies, Central America and northern South America.
It is a rare vagrant to western states, most notably California.


Great-tailed grackles originated from the tropical lowlands of Central and South America, but historical evidence from Bernardino de Sahagún shows that the Aztecs, during the time of the emperor Ahuitzotl, introduced the great-tailed grackle from their homeland in the Mexican Gulf Coast to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in the highland Valley of Mexico, most likely to use their iridescent feathers for decoration. In more recent times, great-tailed grackles expanded their breeding range by over 5,500% by moving north into North America between 1880 and 2000, following urban and agricultural corridors. Their current range stretches from northwestern Venezuela and western Colombia and Ecuador in the south to Minnesota in the north, to Oregon, Idaho, and California in the west, to Florida in the east, with vagrants occurring as far north as southern Canada. Their habitat for foraging is on the ground in clear areas such as pastures, wetlands and mangroves, and chaparral. The grackles' range has expanded with agricultural and urban settings.


There are two distinct clusters in steenbok distribution. In East Africa, it occurs in central and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. It was formerly widespread in Uganda, but is now almost certainly extinct there. In Southern Africa, it occurs in Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and probably Lesotho.


The walleye  (Sander vitreus, synonym Stizostedion vitreum), also called the yellow pike or  yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relative of the European zander, also known as the pikeperch. The walleye is sometimes called the yellow walleye to distinguish it from the blue walleye, which is a subspecies that was once found in the southern Ontario and Quebec regions, but is now presumed extinct. However, recent genetic analysis of a preserved (frozen) 'blue walleye' sample suggests that the blue and yellow walleye were simply phenotypes within the same species and do not merit separate taxonomic classification.
In parts of its range in English-speaking Canada, the walleye is known as a pickerel,  though the fish is not related to the true pickerels, which are a member of the family Esocidae.
Walleyes show a fair amount of variation across watersheds. In general, fish within a watershed are quite similar and are genetically distinct from those of nearby watersheds. The species has been artificially propagated for over a century and has been planted on top of existing populations or introduced into waters naturally devoid of the species, sometimes reducing the overall genetic distinctiveness of populations.


The eastern mole is native to Canada (Ontario), Mexico, and the United States, and has the widest range of any North American mole. In the United States, the species is found from southern South Dakota and southern Wisconsin to eastern Massachusetts and south to the tip of Florida and Louisiana and west to Nebraska, Kansas, and central Texas. It is absent from the Appalachian Mountains, most of Canada, and northern New England.
The species is found in the southern tip of Ontario, and northern Tamaulipas, Mexico. Its distribution, however, is patchy. Colonies in southwestern Texas and Coahuila and Tamaulipas, Mexico, are isolated and small.
The species prefers well-drained, loose, sandy or loamy soil, and avoids heavy clay, stony or gravelly soils, and very dry or very wet soils. It frequents pastures, open fields, meadows, and thin woods. In some marginal areas, human activities such as the building of roads and golf courses often provide beneficial habitat due to higher quality soils and adequate moisture.


It is found in the southeastern United States, except for mountainous areas, and is also found northward along the Atlantic coast, through the Mid-Atlantic states, into southern New England, including eastern Massachusetts. It is found in inland states such as Pennsylvania and New York, but only as far westward as the Appalachian Mountains, and the Hudson River Valley in New York.


S. j. jarowii is found in the United States in the states of Arizona and New Mexico, and it is found in Mexico in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora, northern Tamaulipas, and western Zacatecas. The subspecies S. j. lineolateralis is found only in Mexico in the states of Durango and Zacatecas.


Scoparia biplagialis, the double-striped scoparia moth, is a moth in the family Crambidae. It was described by Francis Walker in 1866. It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from Alabama, Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Manitoba, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Quebec, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
The length of the forewings is 6–8 mm. The ground colour of the adults varies from uniform brownish grey to pale grey or even strongly marked with black transverse patches. Adults are on wing from June to August.


Locally common in Britain and Ireland on waste ground.


It is endangered in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, threatened in Vermont, as historical in Rhode Island, and as threatened in Connecticut.


The potato has been an essential crop in the Andes since the pre-Columbian Era. The Moche culture from Northern Peru made ceramics from the earth, water, and fire. This pottery was a sacred substance, formed in significant shapes and used to represent important themes. Potatoes are represented anthropomorphically as well as naturally.
During the late 19th century, numerous images of potato harvesting appeared in European art, including the works of Willem Witsen and Anton Mauve.
Van Gogh's 1885 painting The Potato Eaters portrays a family eating potatoes. Van Gogh said he wanted to depict peasants as they really were. He deliberately chose coarse and ugly models, thinking that they would be natural and unspoiled in his finished work.
Jean-François Millet's The Potato Harvest depicts peasants working in the plains between Barbizon and Chailly. It presents a theme representative of the peasants' struggle for survival. Millet's technique for this work incorporated paste-like pigments thickly applied over a coarsely textured canvas.


Spiraea tomentosa, commonly known as steeplebush, meadowsweet, or hardhack, or eastern hardhack, is a flowering plant native to the eastern United States and Canada.


The masked booby is found across tropical oceans between the 30th parallel north and 30th parallel south. In the Indian Ocean it ranges from the coastlines of the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa across to Sumatra and Western Australia, though it is not found off the coast of the Indian subcontinent. Off the Western Australian coastline it is found as far south as the Dampier Archipelago. In the Pacific, it ranges from Brisbane eastwards. It is found in the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean south to Ascension Island. In the eastern Pacific off the coast of Colombia and Ecuador, the masked booby is replaced by the Nazca booby. A vagrant was rescued in 2015 in Newport, Oregon.
In the Atlantic, Caribbean birds occasionally wander north to warm southern Gulf Stream waters off the eastern seaboard of the United States, with single records from Island Beach in New Jersey and New York. There are summer records from Delaware Bay, and Worcester County, Maryland, as well as waters off the coast of Spain.
During the monsoon season (midyear), the masked booby is an occasional vagrant along the western coast of India, with records from Kerala, Karnataka, and Maharashtra states. It is a vagrant to the Caroline Islands north of New Guinea.


New England aster is native to most of the central and northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, from Manitoba south to Louisiana and east to Maine. It is absent from much of the far southeastern United States and from boreal regions in North America. There are isolated populations to the west of the main range, such as in New Mexico and in the Black Hills of South Dakota.


The golden tanager is found in the Venezuelan Coastal Range in Venezuela and in the Andes in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia at elevations of 700–2,500 m (2,300–8,200 ft), but is most common at elevations of 1,000–1,500 m (3,300–4,900 ft). It inhabits humid montane evergreen forest, as well as forest edges and nearby secondary growth.


Breeding in T. lepidus occurs in late spring or early summer. Males are territorial in spring and fight in the breeding season. The female lays up to 22 eggs in June and July about three months after mating, hiding them under stones and logs or in leaf litter or in loose damp soil. It tends to lay fewer, larger eggs in dry areas. The eggs hatch in eight to 14 weeks. The lizard is sexually mature at two years of age.


Greater kudus reach sexual maturity between 1 and 3 years of age. The mating season occurs at the end of the rainy season, which can fluctuate slightly according to the region and climate. Before mating, there is a courtship ritual which consists of the male standing in front of the female and often engaging in a neck wrestle. The male then trails the female while issuing a low pitched call until the female allows him to copulate with her. Gestation takes around 240 days (or eight months). Calving generally starts between February and March (late austral summer), when the grass tends to be at its highest.
Greater kudus tend to bear one calf, although occasionally there may be two. The pregnant female kudu will leave her group to give birth; once she gives birth, the newborn is hidden in vegetation for about 4 to 5 weeks (to avoid predation). After 4 or 5 weeks, the offspring will accompany its mother for short periods of time; then by 3 to 4 months of age, it will accompany her at all times. By the time it is 6 months old, it is quite independent of its mother. The majority of births occur during the wet season (January to March). In terms of maturity, female greater kudus reach sexual maturity at 15–21 months. Males reach maturity at 21–24 months.


The tropical kingbird (Tyrannus melancholicus) is a large tyrant flycatcher. This bird breeds from southern Arizona and the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas in the United States through Central America, South America as far as south as central Argentina and eastern Peru, and on Trinidad and Tobago. Birds from the northernmost and southern breeding areas migrate to warmer parts of the range after breeding.


Acanthopagrus australis, the yellowfin bream, also known as sea bream, surf bream, silver bream or eastern black bream, is a species of marine and freshwater fish of the porgy family, Sparidae. It is a deep-bodied fish, occasionally confused with Acanthopagrus butcheri (black bream), but is generally distinguished by its yellowish ventral and anal fins. It is a popular target for recreational fishermen due to its capacity to fight well above its weight coupled with its table quality.


The breeding range of the northern goshawk extends over one-third of North America and Asia each and perhaps five-sixths of Europe, a total area of over 30,000,000 km² (12,000,000 sq mi). Densities in western and central Europe were recorded at 3–5 pairs per 100 km² (39 sq mi). In boreal Sweden, numbers vary from 1 to 4.5 pairs per 100 km² (39 sq mi), while in similar habitat in Alaska there were 0.3 to 2.7/100 km² (39 sq mi). An average of only 1 pair per 100 km² (39 sq mi) would give world population of 600,000 breeding birds, likely at least half as many immature and other non-breeders. Recent study found 145,000–160,000 in Europe or 1 pair/60 km² (23 sq mi) to 1 pair/54 km² (21 sq mi). The total population of northern goshawks in the world probably ranges well over a million. The total European populations, estimated at as many as 160,000 pairs, makes it the fourth most numerous raptor in the continent, after the common buzzards (>700,000 pairs), Eurasian sparrowhawk (>340,000 pairs) and common kestrel (>330,000 pairs). The most populated countries by goshawks in Europe were Sweden (an estimated 10,000 pairs), Germany (8,500 pairs), Finland (6,000 pairs) and France (5,600 pairs). The highest densities of breeding pairs per 100 km² (39 sq mi) of land were in The Netherlands, Latvia and Switzerland, although this is biased due to the small land area of these countries. Russia has a roughly estimated 85,000 pairs of northern goshawk. In North America, there are a broadly estimated 150,000–300,000 individuals. In North America, most western populations at mid-latitudes have approximately 3.6–10.7 pairs100 km² (39 sq mi). A total of 107 nesting territories (1991–1996) were located on a 1,754 km² (677 sq mi) study area on the Kaibab Plateau, AZ, resulting in a density of 8.4 pairs/100 km² (39 sq mi). The estimated density in Pennsylvania (1.17 pairs/100 km² (39 sq mi)) suggests that eastern populations may occur at lower densities than western populations, but densities of eastern populations may increase as these populations recover. Typically, populations at far northern latitudes may occur at lower densities than those of southwestern and western populations in North America. Although median densities was similar, populations are overall much denser in Europe than in North America. The hotspots of density for goshawks in Europe lie in east-central Europe (around Poland) and in west-central area (the Netherlands/West Germany). Per the IUCN, the global population is estimated to consist of 1 million to nearly 2.5 million birds, making this one of the most numerous species in its diverse family (the red-tailed hawk and black kite both may have a similar global population size, whereas the Eurasian sparrowhawk and common buzzard are possibly slightly more numerous than goshawks despite their smaller ranges).
Mortality rates for first-year goshawks is often considerably higher than older birds. In studies from Gotland, Sweden, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany and the Netherlands, 40–42% of first-years died. By the second year, mortality rates drop to 31–35%, based on ring studies from the Netherlands and Finland. Based on studies from Gotland, Finland and the southwestern United States, annual mortality for adults is 15–21%, however, feather results indicate that annual mortality for adult goshawks is up to 7% higher in Europe than in North America. In many parts of the range, especially Europe, historic populations decreased regionally due to human persecution (especially shooting), disturbance and epidemic loss of habitat, especially during the 19th century and early 20th. Some states, like Pennsylvania, paid $5 bounties on Goshawks in the 1930s. From 1880 to 1930, an estimated 3,000–5,500 goshawk were being killed annually in Norway when bounties were offered. Shooting rate lowered later, causing the average number of goshawks shot to drop to 654 to for the period 1965–1970. Northern goshawks continue to be persecuted in Norway, shown by the high turnover rate of breeding females in Telemark County, revealed by DNA analysis of moulted feathers.   In Finland, where the species was not legally protected, 4,000–8,000 goshawks were being killed annually from 1964 to 1975. Most goshawks shot are incautious juveniles, with 58% of juvenile mortality in Germany and 59% from the Netherlands being killings by humans. Increase of pheasant releases in Vendsyssel, Denmark from 6,000 to 35,000 since 1994 has resulted in fewer goshawks as they often hunt the pheasants in winter and are shot, legally, by the region's gamekeepers. As recently as about 5 years before that, intentional killing by humans continued as the main cause of mortality for goshawks on Gotland, Sweden, causing 36% of deaths. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the northern goshawk was extirpated in the 19th century because of specimen collectors and persecution by gamekeepers, but in recent years it has come back by immigration from Europe, escaped falconry birds, and deliberate releases. The goshawk is now found in considerable numbers in Kielder Forest, Northumberland, which is the largest forest in Britain. Overall there are some 620 pairs in Britain.
In the 1950s–1960s declines were increasingly linked with pesticide pollution. However, in early 1970s pesticide levels in the United States for goshawks were low. Eggshell thinning has not been a problem for most populations, although California eggshells (weight and thickness index) pre-1947 (pre-DDT) to 1947—1964 (DDT in use) declined some 8-12%. In Illinois, migratory goshawks during the winter of 1972-1973 invasion year contained less organochlorine and PCB residues than did other raptors, however, these birds were probably from nonagricultural, northern forests. Higher DDT levels seemed to have persisted quite recently in Europe. This was the case in Germany, especially in former East Germany where DDT was widely available until 1988, having been largely discontinued elsewhere after the 1970s. Goshawks, which had increased in The Netherlands after World War II due to less persecution, new woodlands and increased pigeon numbers, were found to have suddenly crashed from the late 1950s on. It was later revealed that this was due to DDT, the number of breeding pairs decreasing 84% from 1958 to 1963. As opposed to DDT, the main contaminant found to have reduced goshawks in Scandinavia during the 20th century were methyl mercury seed dressings used to reduce fungal attack in livestock.
Seemingly the remaining persistent conservation threat to goshawks, given their seeming overall resilience (at the species level) to both persecution and pesticides, is deforestation. Timber harvests are known to destroy many nests and adversely regional populations. Harvest methods that create extensive areas of reduced forest canopy cover, dropping to cover less than 35-40%, may be especially detrimental as cases of this usually cause all goshawks to disappear from the area. However, the mortality rates due to foresting practices are unknown and it is possible that some mature goshawks may simply be able to shift to other regions when a habitat becomes unsuitable but this is presumably unsustainable in the long-term. In harvest forests of California, where overstory trees are frequently removed, goshawks have been found to successfully remain as breeding species as long as some mature stands are left intact. Despite the decline of habitat quality and the frequent disturbances, this region's goshawks breeding success rates somewhat improbably did not reduce. Similarly, a study from Italy and France shows that goshawks only left woodlots when the canopy was reduced by more than 30%, although the European goshawk populations have long been known to be adaptable to some degree of habitat fragmentation.  Based on habitat usage studied in New Jersey and New York, this adaptability is not seen everywhere, as here nests were further from human habitation than expected on the basis of available habitat, an observation suggesting that disturbance regionally can reduce habitat quality. Similarly, studies from the American southwest and Canada have indicated that heavily logged areas caused strong long-term regional declines for goshawks. In Arizona, it was found that even when the nests were left intact, the noisy timber harvest work often caused failure of nesting during the incubation stage, and all nesting attempts that were occurring within 50 to 100 m (160 to 330 ft) of active logging failed, frequently after parents abandoned the nest. Other noisy activity, such as camping, have also caused nests to failure. Wildlife researchers and biologists do not seem to negatively affect goshawk nests, as they aware to keep forays to the nest brief and capture of adult goshawks for radio-tagging was found to not harm their success at raising broods.
In North America, several non-governmental conservation organizations petitioned the Department of Interior, United States Fish & Wildlife Service (1991 & 1997) to list the goshawk as "threatened" or "endangered" under the authority of the Endangered Species Act. Both petitions argued for listing primarily on the basis of historic and ongoing nesting habitat loss, specifically the loss of old-growth and mature forest stands throughout the goshawk's known range. In both instances, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service concluded that listing was not warranted, but state and federal natural resource agencies responded during the petition process with standardized and long-term goshawk inventory and monitoring efforts, especially throughout U.S. Forest Service lands in the Western U.S. The United States Forest Service (US Dept of Agriculture) has listed the goshawk as a "sensitive species", while it also benefits from various protection at the state level. In North America, the goshawk is federally protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 by an amendment incorporating native birds of prey into the Act in 1972. The northern goshawk is also listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).


Within the family Accipitridae, the Eurasian sparrowhawk is a member of the large genus Accipiter, which consists of small to medium-sized woodland hawks. Most of the Old World members of the genus are called sparrowhawks or goshawks. The species' name dates back to the Middle English word sperhauk and Old English spearhafoc, a hawk which hunts sparrows. The Old Norse name for the Eurasian sparrowhawk, sparrhaukr, was thought to have been coined by Vikings who encountered falconry in England. English folk names for the Eurasian sparrowhawk include blue hawk, referring to the adult male's colouration, as well as hedge hawk, spar hawk, spur hawk and stone falcon.
The Eurasian sparrowhawk was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 landmark 10th edition of Systema Naturae, as Falco nisus, but moved to its present genus by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. The current scientific name is derived from the Latin accipiter, meaning 'hawk' and nisus, the sparrowhawk. According to Greek mythology, Nisus, the king of Megara, was turned into a sparrowhawk after his daughter, Scylla, cut off his purple lock of hair to present to her lover (and Nisus' enemy), Minos.
The Eurasian sparrowhawk forms a superspecies with the rufous-chested sparrowhawk of eastern and southern Africa, and possibly the Madagascar sparrowhawk. Geographic variation is clinal, with birds becoming larger and paler in the eastern part of the range compared to the western part. Within the species itself, six subspecies are generally recognised:
A. n. nisus, the nominate subspecies, was described by Linnaeus in 1758. It breeds from Europe and West Asia to western Siberia and Iran; northern populations winter south to the Mediterranean, Northeast Africa, Arabia and Pakistan.
A. n. nisosimilis was described by Samuel Tickell in 1833. It breeds from central and eastern Siberia east to Kamchatka and Japan, and south to northern China. This subspecies is wholly migratory, wintering from Pakistan and India eastwards through Southeast Asia and southern China to Korea and Japan; some even reach Africa. It is very similar to, but slightly larger than, the nominate subspecies.
A. n. melaschistos was described by Allan Octavian Hume in 1869. It breeds in mountains from Afghanistan through the Himalayas and southern Tibet to western China, and winters in the plains of South Asia. Larger and longer-tailed than nisosimilis, it has dark slate-coloured upperparts, and more distinct rufous barring on the underparts.
A. n. wolterstorffi, described by Otto Kleinschmidt in 1900, is resident in Sardinia and Corsica. It is the smallest of all the subspecies, darker on the upperparts and more barred below than the nominate subspecies.
A. n. granti, described by Richard Bowdler Sharpe in 1890, is confined to Madeira and the Canary Islands. It is small and dark.
A. n. punicus, described by Erlanger in 1897, is resident in Northwest Africa north of the Sahara. It is very similar to nisus, being large and pale.


The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a small bird of prey with short, broad wings and a long tail, both adaptations to manoeuvring through trees. Females can be up to 25% larger than males and weigh up to twice as much. Marked size difference in this direction is unusual in higher vertebrates but typical in birds of prey, and most marked in birds of prey which hunt birds.
The adult male is 29–34 cm (11–13 in) long, with a wingspan of 59–64 cm (23–25 in) and a mass of 110–196 g (3.9–6.9 oz). He has slate-grey upperparts (sometimes tending to bluish), with finely red-barred underparts, which can look plain orange from a distance; his irides are orange-yellow or orange-red. The female is much larger at 35–41 cm (14–16 in) long, with a wingspan of 67–80 cm (26–31 in), and a mass of 185–342 g (6.5–12.1 oz). She has dark brown or greyish-brown upperparts, and brown-barred underparts, and bright yellow to orange irides. The juvenile is warm brown above, with rusty fringes to the upperparts; and coarsely barred or spotted brown below, with pale yellow eyes; its throat has dark streaks and lacks a mesial (midline) stripe.
The Eurasian sparrowhawk's pale underparts and darker upperparts are an example of countershading, which helps to break up the bird's outline. Countershading is exhibited by birds of prey which hunt birds and other fast-moving animals. The horizontal barring seen on adult Eurasian sparrowhawks is typical of woodland-dwelling predatory birds, while the adult male's bluish colour is also seen in other bird-eating raptors, including the peregrine falcon, the merlin and other Accipiters.
A study, using stuffed bird models, found that small birds are less likely to approach common cuckoos (a brood parasite) which have barred underparts like the Eurasian sparrowhawk. Eurasian reed warblers were found to be more aggressive to cuckoos which looked less hawk-like, meaning that the resemblance to the hawk (mimicry) helps the cuckoo to access the nests of potential hosts.
The Eurasian sparrowhawk's small bill is used for plucking feathers and pulling prey apart, rather than killing or cutting. Its long legs and toes are an adaptation for catching and eating birds. The outer toe is "fairly long and slender"; the inner toe and back toe are relatively short and thick. The middle toe is very long and can be used to grasp objects, while a protuberance on the underside of the toe means that the digit can be closed without leaving a gap, which helps with gripping.
The flight is a characteristic "flap-flap-glide", with the glide creating an undulating pattern. This species is similar in size to the Levant sparrowhawk, but larger than the shikra (the calls are however different); the male is only slightly larger than the merlin. Because of the overlap in sizes, the female can be confused with the similarly-sized male northern goshawk, but lacks the bulk of that species. Eurasian sparrowhawks are smaller, more slender and have shorter wings, a square-ended tail and fly with faster wingbeats. A confusion species in China is the besra, although A. n. melaschistos is considerably larger.
In Great Britain, Eurasian sparrowhawks living further north are bigger than their more southerly counterparts, with wing length (the most reliable indicator of body size) increasing by an average of 0.86 mm (0.034 in) in males, and 0.75 mm (0.030 in) in females, for each degree further north.


A widespread species throughout the temperate and subtropical parts of the Old World, the Eurasian sparrowhawk is resident or breeds in an estimated global range of 23,600,000 km² (9,100,000 sq mi) and had an estimated population of 1.5 million birds in 2009. Although global population trends have not been analysed, numbers seem to be stable, so it has been classified as being of least concern by IUCN. The race granti, with 100 pairs resident on Madeira and 200 pairs on the Canary Islands, is threatened by loss of habitat, egg-collecting and illegal hunting, and is listed on Annex I of the European Commission Birds Directive. It is one of the most common birds of prey in Europe, along with the common kestrel and common buzzard. The Norwegian and Albanian populations are declining and, in many parts of Europe, Eurasian sparrowhawks are still shot. However, this low-level persecution has not affected the populations badly. In the UK, the population increased by 108% between 1970–2005, but saw a 1% decline over 1994–2006. In Ireland it is the most common bird of prey, breeding even near the city centre of Dublin, where it frequents parks and large gardens.
This species is prevalent in most woodland types in its range, and also in more open country with scattered trees. Eurasian sparrowhawks prefer to hunt the edges of wooded areas, but migrant birds can be seen in any habitat. The increased proportion of medium-aged stands of trees created by modern forestry techniques have benefited Accipiter nisus, according to a Norwegian study. Unlike its larger relative the northern goshawk, it can be seen in gardens and in urban areas and will even breed in city parks if they have a certain density of tall trees.
Eurasian sparrowhawks from colder regions of northern Europe and Asia migrate south for the winter, some to north Africa (some as far as equatorial east Africa) and India; members of the southern populations are resident or disperse. Juveniles begin their migration earlier than adults and juvenile females move before juvenile males. Analysis of ringing data collected at Heligoland, Germany, found that males move further and more often than females; of migrating birds ringed at Kaliningrad, Russia, the average distance moved before recovery (when the ring is read and the bird's whereabouts reported subsequently) was 1,328 km (825 mi) for males and 927 km (576 mi) for females.
A study of Eurasian sparrowhawks in southern Scotland found that ringed birds which had been raised on "high grade" territories were recovered in greater proportion than birds which came from "low grade" territories. This suggested that the high grade territories produced young which survived better. The recovery rate also declined with increased elevation of the ground. After the post-fledging period, female birds dispersed greater distances than did males.


Natural predators of the Eurasian sparrowhawk include the barn owl, the tawny owl, the northern goshawk, the peregrine falcon, the golden eagle, the eagle owl, the red fox, the stone marten and the pine marten.


The Eurasian sparrowhawk breeds in well-grown, extensive areas of woodland, often coniferous or mixed, preferring forest with a structure neither too dense nor too open, to allow a choice of flight paths. The nest can be located in the fork of a tree, often near the trunk and where two or three branches begin, on a horizontal branch in the lower canopy, or near the top of a tall shrub. If available, conifers are preferred. A new nest is built every year, generally close to the nest of the previous year, and sometimes using an old wood pigeon (A. n. melaschistos frequently uses the old nests of jungle crows) nest as a base; the male does most of the work. The structure, made of loose twigs up to 60 cm (2.0 ft) long, has an average diameter of 60 cm (24 in). When the eggs are laid, a lining of fine twigs or bark chippings is added.
During the breeding season, the adult male Eurasian sparrowhawk loses a small amount of weight while feeding his mate before she lays eggs, and also when the young are large and require more food. The weight of the adult female is highest in May, when laying eggs, and lowest in August after the breeding cycle is complete. A study suggested that the number of eggs and subsequent breeding success are dependent on the female maintaining a high weight while the male is feeding her.
Sexual maturity is reached at between 1–3 years. Most Eurasian sparrowhawks stay on the same territory for one breeding season, though others keep the same one for up to eight years. A change of mate usually triggers the change in territory. Older birds tend to stay in the same territory; failed breeding attempts make a move more likely. The birds which kept the same territories had higher nest success, though it did not increase between years; females which moved experienced more success the year after changing territory.


The Eurasian sparrowhawk population in Europe crashed in the second half of the 20th century. The decline coincided with the introduction of cyclodiene insecticides – aldrin, dieldrin and heptachlor – used as seed dressings in agriculture in 1956. The chemicals accumulated in the bodies of grain-eating birds and had two effects on top predators like the Eurasian sparrowhawk and peregrine falcon: the shells of eggs they laid were too thin, causing them to break during incubation; and birds were poisoned by lethal concentrations of the insecticides. Sub-lethal effects of these substances include irritability, convulsions and disorientation. In west Germany, around 80% of nests before the 1950s produced young, but only 54% were successful in the 1960s and '70s.
In the United Kingdom, for example, the species almost became extinct in East Anglia, where the chemicals were most widely used; in western and northern parts of the country, where the pesticides were not used, there were no declines. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds bought its Coombes Valley nature reserve in Staffordshire because it was the only Eurasian sparrowhawk breeding site left in the English Midlands.
In the UK, the use of cyclodienes as seed dressings for autumn-sown cereals was banned in 1975 and the levels of the chemicals present in the bird population began to fall. The population has largely recovered to pre-decline levels, with an increase seen in many areas, for example northern Europe. In Sweden, the population also decreased drastically from the 1950s, but recovered again once organochlorines were banned in the 1970s.
In the UK, the failure rate at the egg stage had decreased from 17% to 6% by the year 2000, and the population had stabilised after reaching a peak in the 1990s. A study of the eggs of Dutch Eurasian sparrowhawks found that contamination with Dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) – a "very persistent compound" produced when DDT breaks down – continued into the 1980s, though a decline in the number of clutches with broken eggs during the 1970s suggested decreasing levels of the chemical.
Body tissue samples from Eurasian sparrowhawks are still analysed as part of the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme conducted by the UK government's Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Although the average liver concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in Eurasian sparrowhawks were lower in birds that died in 2005 compared to those that died in 2004, there was not a significant or consistent decline in residues between 2000–2005.


The Eurasian sparrowhawk's adaptation for feeding on birds has brought it into conflict with humans; in the 19th century it was described as "the great enemy of small quadrupeds and birds, and often very destructive to young chicks in poultry-yards in the breeding season" and "very destructive to partridges." Writing for gamekeepers in 1851, T. B. Johnson recommended that: "The nest of this bird should be diligently sought ... and destroyed, shooting the parent birds first, if possible."
It was written in 1870 that "The sparrowhawk is perhaps only the true enemy of the game-preserver; though at the same time it is probable that if the good and evil it does were justly weighed, the balance would be in favour of the hawk, its favourite quarry being the wood pigeon, which is now increasing to an extent injurious to agriculture." Parish records of the 18th century for Aldworth, Berkshire, in southern England, show that payments were made for 106 Eurasian sparrowhawks' heads, at the same time as efforts were being made to control the numbers of sparrows.
The species suffered heavy persecution by 18th-century European landowners and gamekeepers, but withstood attempts to eradicate it. For example, on the estate at Sandringham in Norfolk, 1,645 'hawks' were killed between 1938 and 1950, with 1,115 taken between 1919 and 1926 at Langwell and Sandside in Caithness, Scotland.
The population was able to quickly replace lost birds – there is a high proportion of non-breeding, non-territorial birds able to fill vacant territories. The habitat conserved with gamebirds in mind also suited this species and its prey; gamekeepers' more successful efforts to wipe out the northern goshawk and pine marten – predators of the Eurasian sparrowhawk – may have benefited it. The population increased markedly when this pressure was relaxed, for example during the First and Second World Wars.
In the United Kingdom, research into the effect of predators on bird populations has been "a contentious issue," with "perceived conflict between the interests of nature conservationists and those involved in game shooting." Declines in the populations of some British songbirds since the 1960s have coincided with considerable changes in agricultural practices and also large increases in the numbers of Eurasian sparrowhawks and European magpies. When the Eurasian sparrowhawk population declined because of organochlorine use, there was no great increase in the populations of songbirds. In a 1949–1979 study of 13 passerine species breeding in a 40-acre (16-hectare) oakwood at Bookham Commons, Surrey, England, none was present in significantly greater numbers when Eurasian sparrowhawks were absent from the wood.
Many studies, mostly short-term, failed to find an effect on songbird populations caused by predatory birds such as Eurasian sparrowhawks. But analysis of long-term, large-scale national data from the UK's Common Bird Census demonstrated that the declines in farmland songbird populations since the 1960s are unlikely to have been caused by increased predation by Eurasian sparrowhawks and magpies. The results of the study indicated that patterns of year-to-year songbird population change were the same at different sites, whether the predators were present or not. Another study, which examined the effects of predators – including the Eurasian sparrowhawk and introduced grey squirrel – on UK passerine populations, found that "whilst a small number of associations may suggest significant negative effects between predator and prey species, for the majority of the songbird species examined there is no evidence that increases in common avian predators or grey squirrels are associated with large-scale population declines."
Racing pigeon owners in Great Britain have said for many years that Eurasian sparrowhawks and peregrine falcons "cause serious and escalating losses" of pigeons and some have called for these birds of prey to be killed or removed from areas surrounding homing pigeon lofts.
In Scotland, a two-year study published in 2004, and funded by Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Homing Union (SHU), found there was "no evidence that birds of prey cause major losses of racing pigeons at lofts or during races." It reported that 56% of racing pigeons were lost each year but that the proportion taken by Eurasian sparrowhawks – "often blamed for major losses" – was less than 1%, with at least 2% taken by peregrine falcons. The study was carried out by the Central Science Laboratory; researchers worked with SHU members who provided data, information on pigeon rings found at peregrine falcon nests and pigeon carcasses.
From January to April 2009, the Scottish Government conducted a trial translocation of Eurasian sparrowhawks from around racing pigeon lofts in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Kilmarnock, Stirling and Dumfries. The trial, which cost £25,000, was supported by the Scottish Homing Union, representing the country's 3,500 pigeon fanciers. The experiment was originally scheduled for early in 2008 but was postponed because it would have impinged on the birds' breeding season. It was criticised by the government's own ecological adviser, Dr Ian Bainbridge, the government body Scottish Natural Heritage and organisations including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The findings, released in January 2010, showed that only seven Eurasian sparrowhawks had been removed from the area from five pigeon lofts. One hawk returned twice to the area of the loft, while new birds began to visit two other lofts. The report found that "The quantity and quality of the observational data collected meant that it was impossible to draw any firm conclusions" and the government stated that "no further research involving the trapping or translocation of raptors" would take place, while the SHU maintained that it was "very optimistic that licensed trapping and translocation could at last provide some protection."
Eurasian sparrowhawks are an effective urban adapter species in the UK and are thus non-threatened, however, recent search has suggested that they are prone to colliding with man-made structures when hunting such as buildings.


The Eurasian sparrowhawk has been used in falconry for centuries and was favoured by Emperor Akbar the Great (1542–1605) of the Mughal Empire. There is a tradition of using migrant Eurasian sparrowhawks to catch common quail in Tunisia and Georgia, where there are 500 registered bazieri (sparrowhawkers) and a monument to bazieri in the city of Poti. Eurasian sparrowhawks are also popular in Ireland. At Cap Bon in Tunisia, and in Turkey, thousands are captured each year by falconers and used for hunting migrant common quails. Although they were formerly released at the end of the season, many are now kept because of the scarcity of migrants.
In 17th century England, the Eurasian sparrowhawk was used by priests, reflecting their lowly status; whereas in the Middle Ages, they were favoured by ladies of noble and royal status because of their small size. The falconer's name for a male Eurasian sparrowhawk is a "musket"; this is derived from the Latin word musca, meaning 'a fly', via the Old French word moschet.
"An austringer [falconer] undertaking to train a sparrowhawk should be in no doubt that he is taking on one of the most difficult hawks available." A female Eurasian sparrowhawk is considered a bad choice for a novice and the male is very difficult and demanding, even for an experienced handler. They have been described as "hysterical little hawks" but are also praised as courageous and providing "sport of the highest quality." Philip Glasier describes Eurasian sparrowhawks as "in many ways superior to hunting with a larger short-wing [hawk]" and "extremely hard to tame." They are best suited for small quarry such as common starlings and common blackbirds but are also capable of taking common teal, Eurasian magpies, pheasants and partridges. A 19th century author remarked that this species was "the best of all hawks for landrails", now known as corn crakes. In 1735, the Sportsman's Dictionary noted that "... she will serve in the winter as well as in the summer, and will fly at all kind of game more than the falcon. If a winter sparrowhawk prove good, she will kill the pye, the chough, the jay, woodcock, thrush, black-bird, fieldfare, and divers[e] other birds of the like nature."


Ottleya rigida, synonyms Lotus rigidus and Acmispon rigidus, is a flowering plant in the pea family (Fabaceae), native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It is known as shrubby deervetch or desert rock-pea. It is found in the Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert.


The migrant hawker (Aeshna mixta) is one of the smaller species of hawker dragonflies.  It can be found away from water but for breeding it prefers still or slow-flowing water and can tolerate brackish sites. The flight period is from July to the end of October. A. mixta occurs in North Africa, southern and central Europe to the Baltic region.


The calls of the red-winged blackbird are a throaty check and a high slurred whistle, terrr-eeee. The male's song, accompanied by a display of his red shoulder patches, is a scratchy oak-a-lee, except that in many western birds, including bicolored blackbirds, it is ooPREEEEEom. The female also sings, typically a scolding chatter chit chit chit chit chit chit cheer teer teer teerr.


The mushroom was first described by Persoon in 1800 as Agaricus praecox.  In 1889 Fayod devised the new genus Agrocybe and made A. praecox the type species.
The Latin epithet praecox ('early') is related to the word "precocious" and refers to the fact that this species often appears early in the year.
A 1990 study by Timothy Flynn and O. K. Miller finds that A. praecox is one of four species which are indistinguishable using superficial characteristics but which can be separated through their habitat and location.  If this proposal is accepted, the cluster consists of A. molesta and three other species which do not yet have proper names, but which are referred to as "Flynn & Miller Species I–III".  The three provisional species correspond to the older names A. acericola, A. elatella, A. praecox, and A. sphaleromorpha combined; and their synonyms.  According to the traditional system, various detailed morphological characteristics can be used to choose between the species, but such is variation amongst individuals that it is difficult to achieve a consistent identification in this way.
The following table summarizes the names of species which are closely related to A. praecox.  Note that Index Fungorum has been used as a reference throughout.


Aloe vera (/ˈæloʊ(i) vɛrə, vɪər-/) is a succulent plant species of the genus Aloe. It is widely distributed, and is considered an invasive species in many world regions.
An evergreen perennial, it originates from the Arabian Peninsula, but grows wild in tropical, semi-tropical, and arid climates around the world. It is cultivated for commercial products, mainly as a topical treatment used over centuries. The species is attractive for decorative purposes, and succeeds indoors as a potted plant.
It is used in many consumer products, including beverages, skin lotion, cosmetics, ointments or in the form of gel for minor burns and sunburns. There is little clinical evidence for the effectiveness or safety of Aloe vera extract as a cosmetic or topical drug. The name derives from Latin as aloe and vera ("true").


The caterpillars grow to about 25 mm long. In color, they vary from light green to a dark brownish green. Light green caterpillars have white lines running down the body from the head to the tip of the abdomen while the darker caterpillars have a black stripe the length of their back. Larvae have three pairs of legs on their thorax and three pairs of prolegs on their abdomen. The first pair of prolegs is much smaller than the last two pairs. The pupa is wrapped in a silk cocoon and is buried just beneath the surface of the ground.
Adult males have a 25–35 mm wingspan. The  forewings are glossy brown and crossed with irregular white bands. The females are brownish gray, wingless, and 10–12 mm long. Eggs are grayish brown with a dot and ring on the top and are less than 1 mm in diameter.


The long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum) is a mole salamander in the family Ambystomatidae. This species, typically 4.1–8.9 cm (1.6–3.5 in) long when mature, is characterized by its mottled black, brown, and yellow pigmentation, and its long outer fourth toe on the hind limbs. Analysis of fossil records, genetics, and biogeography suggest A. macrodactylum and A. laterale are descended from a common ancestor that gained access to the western Cordillera with the loss of the mid-continental seaway toward the Paleocene.
The distribution of the long-toed salamander is primarily in the Pacific Northwest, with an altitudinal range of up to 2,800 m (9,200 ft). It lives in a variety of habitats, including temperate rainforests, coniferous forests, montane riparian zones, sagebrush plains, red fir forests, semiarid sagebrush, cheatgrass plains, and alpine meadows along the rocky shores of mountain lakes. It lives in slow-moving streams, ponds, and lakes during its aquatic breeding phase. The long-toed salamander hibernates during the cold winter months, surviving on energy reserves stored in the skin and tail.
The five subspecies have different genetic and ecological histories, phenotypically expressed in a range of color and skin patterns. Although the long-toed salamander is classified as a species of Least Concern by the IUCN, many forms of land development threaten and negatively affect the salamander's habitat.


The ancestral origins for this species stem from eastern North America, where species richness of ambystomatids are highest. The following biogeographic interpretation on the origins of A. macrodactylum into western North America is based on a descriptive account of fossils, genetics, and biogeography. The long-toed salamander's closest living sister species is A. laterale, a native to northeastern North America. Ambystomatidae was isolated to the southeast of the mid-Continental or Western Interior Seaway during the Cretaceous (~145.5–66 Ma). While three other species of the Ambystomatidae (A. tigrinum, A. californiense, and A. gracile) have overlapping ranges in western North America, the long-toed salamander's closest living sister species is A. laterale, a native to northeastern North America. It has been suggested that A. macrodactylum speciated from A. laterale after the Paleocene (~66–55.8 Ma) with the loss of the Western Interior Seaway opening an access route for a common ancestor into the Western Cordillera. Once situated in the montane regions of western North America, species had to contend with a dynamic spatial and compositional ecology responding to the changes in altitude, as mountains grew and the climate changed. For example, the Pacific Northwest became cooler in the Paleocene, paving the way for temperate forest to replace the warmer tropical forest of the Cretaceous. A scenario for the splitting of A. macrodacylum and other western temperate species from their eastern counterparts involves Rocky Mountain uplift in the late Oligocene into the Miocene. The orogeny created a climatic barrier by removing moisture from the westerly air stream and dried the midcontinental area, from southern Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico.
Ancestors of contemporary salamanders were likely able to disperse and migrate into habitats of the Rocky Mountains and surrounding areas by the Eocene. Mesic forests were established in western North America by the mid Eocene and attained their contemporary range distributions by the early Pliocene. The temperate forest valleys and montane environments of these time periods (Paleogene to Neogene) would have provided the physiographic and ecological features supporting analogs of contemporary Ambystoma macrodactylum habitats. The Cascade Range rose during the mid Pliocene and created a rain shadow effect causing the xerification of the Columbia Basin and also altered ranges of temperate mesic ecosystems at higher elevations. The rise of the Cascades causing the xerification of the Columbia Basin is a major biogeographic feature of western North America that divided many species, including A. macrodactylum, into coastal and inland lineages.


The body of the long-toed salamander is dusky black with a dorsal stripe of tan, yellow, or olive-green. This stripe can also be broken up into a series of spots. The sides of the body can have fine white or pale blue flecks. The belly is dark-brown or sooty in color with white flecks. Root tubercles are present, but they are not quite as developed as other species, such as the tiger salamander.
The eggs of this species look similar to those of the related northwestern salamander (A. gracile) and tiger salamander (A. tigrinum). Like many amphibians, the eggs of the long-toed salamander are surrounded by a gelatinous capsule. This capsule is transparent, making the embryo visible during development. Unlike A. gracile eggs, there are no visible signs of green algae, which makes egg jellies green in color. When in its egg, the long-toed salamander embryo is darker on top and whiter below compared to a tiger salamander embryo that is light brown to grey above and cream-colored on the bottom. The eggs are about 2 mm (0.08 in) or greater in diameter with a wide outer jelly layer. Prior to hatching—both in the egg and as newborn larvae—they have balancers, which are thin skin protrusions sticking out the sides and supporting the head. The balancers eventually fall off and their external gills grow larger. Once the balancers are lost the larvae are distinguished by the sharply pointed flaring of the gills. As the larvae mature and metamorphose, their limbs with digits become visible and the gills are resorbed.
The skin of a larva is mottled with black, brown, and yellow pigmentation. Skin color changes as the larvae develop and pigment cells migrate and concentrate in different regions of the body. The pigment cells, called chromatophores, are derived from the neural crest. The three types of pigment chromatophores in salamanders include yellow xanthophores, black melanophores, and silvery iridiophores (or guanophores). As the larvae mature, the melanophores concentrate along the body and provide the darker background. The yellow xanthophores arrange along the spine and on top of the limbs. The rest of the body is flecked with reflective iridiophores along the sides and underneath.
As larvae metamorphose, they develop digits from their limb bud protrusions. A fully metamorphosed long-toed salamander has four digits on the front limbs and five digits on the rear limbs. Its head is longer than it is wide, and the long outer fourth toe on the hind limb of mature larvae and adults distinguishes this species from others and is also the etymological origin of its specific epithet: macrodactylum (Greek makros = long and daktylos = toe). The adult skin has a dark brown, dark grey, to black background with a yellow, green, or dull red blotchy stripe with dots and spots along the sides. Underneath the limbs, head, and body the salamander is white, pinkish, to brown with larger flecks of white and smaller flecks of yellow. Adults are typically 3.8–7.6 cm (1.5–3.0 in) long.


The long-toed salamander is an ecologically versatile species living in a variety of habitats, ranging from temperate rainforests, coniferous forests, montane riparian, sagebrush plains, red fir forest, semiarid sagebrush, cheatgrass plains, to alpine meadows along the rocky shores of mountain lakes. Adults can be located in forested understory, hiding under coarse woody debris, rocks, and in small mammal burrows. During the spring breeding season, adults can be found under debris or in the shoreline shallows of rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds. Ephemeral waters are often frequented.
This species is one of the most widely distributed salamanders in North America, second only to the tiger salamander. Its altitudinal range runs from sea level up to 2,800 meters (9,200 ft), spanning a wide variety of vegetational zones. The range includes isolated endemic populations in Monterey Bay and Santa Cruz, California. The distribution reconnects in northeastern Sierra Nevada running continuously along the Pacific Coast to Juneau, Alaska, with populations dotted along the Taku and Stikine River valleys. From the Pacific coast, the range extends longitudinally to the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Montana and Alberta.


Like all amphibians, the life of a long-toed salamander begins as an egg. In the northern extent of its range, the eggs are laid in lumpy masses along grass, sticks, rocks, or the mucky substrate of a calm pond. The number of eggs in a single mass ranges in size, possibly up to 110 eggs per cluster. Females invest a significant amount of resources into egg production, with the ovaries accounting for over 50% of the body mass in the pre-breeding season. A maximum of 264 eggs have been found in a single female—a large number considering each egg is approximately 0.5 millimeters (0.02 in) in diameter. The egg mass is held together by a gelatinous outer layer protecting the outer capsule of individual eggs. The eggs are sometimes laid singly, especially in warmer climates south of the Canada and US border. The egg jellies contribute a yearly supply of biological material that supports the chemistry and nutrient dynamics of shallow-water aquatic ecosystems and adjacent forest ecosystems. The eggs also provide habitat for water molds, also known as oomycetes.


As adults, long-toed salamanders often go unnoticed because they live a subterranean lifestyle digging, migrating, and feeding on the invertebrates in forest soils, decaying logs, small rodent burrows or rock fissures. The adult diet consists of insects, tadpoles, worms, beetles and small fish. Salamanders are preyed upon by garter snakes, small mammals, birds, and fish. An adult may live 6–10 years, with the largest individuals weighing approximately 7.5 grams (0.26 oz), snout to vent lengths reaching 8 cm (3.1 in), and total lengths reaching 14 cm (5.5 in).


The life history of the long-toed salamander varies greatly with elevation and climate. Seasonal dates of migration to and from the breeding ponds can be correlated with bouts of sustained rainfall, ice thaw, or snow melt sufficient to replenish the (often) seasonal ponds. Eggs may be spawned at low elevations as early as mid-February in southern Oregon, from early January to July in northwestern Washington, from January to March in southeastern Washington, and from mid-April to early May in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta. The timing of breeding can be highly variable; of notable mention, several egg masses in early stages of development were found on July 8, 1999 along the British Columbia provincial border outside Jasper, Alberta. Adults migrate seasonally to return to their natal breeding ponds, with males arriving earlier and staying longer than females, and some individuals have been seen migrating along snow banks on warm spring days. Gender differences (or sexual dimorphism) in this species are only apparent during the breeding season, when mature males display an enlarged or bulbous vent area.


The time of breeding depends on the elevation and latitude of the salamander's habitat. Generally, the lower-elevation salamanders breed in the fall, winter, and early spring. Higher-elevation salamanders breed in spring and early summer. In the higher climates especially, salamanders will enter ponds and lakes that still have ice floating.
Adults aggregate in large numbers (>20 individuals) under rocks and logs along the immediate edge of the breeding sites and breed explosively over a few days. Suitable breeding sites include small fish-free ponds, marshes, shallow lakes and other still-water wetlands. Like other ambystomatid salamanders, they have evolved a characteristic courtship dance where they rub bodies and release pheromones from their chin gland prior to assuming a copulatory mating position. Once in position, the male deposits a spermatophore, which is a gooey stalk tipped with a packet of sperm, and walks the female forward to be inseminated. Males may mate more than once and may deposit as many as 15 spermatophores over the course of a five-hour period. The courtship dance for the long-toed salamander is similar to other species of Ambystoma and very similar to A. jeffersonianum. In the long-toed salamander, there is no rubbing or head-butting; the males directly approach females and grab on, while the females try to rapidly swim away. The males clasp the female from behind the forelimbs and shake, a behavior called amplexus. Males sometimes clasp other amphibian species during breeding and shake them as well. The male only grabs with the front limbs and never uses his hind limbs during the courtship dance as he rubs his chin side to side pressing down on the female's head. The female struggles but later becomes subdued. Males increase the tempo and motions, rubbing over the female's nostrils, sides, and sometimes the vent. When the female becomes quite docile the male moves forward with his tail positioned over her head, raised, and waving at the tip. If the female accepts the males courtship, the male directs her snout toward his vent region while both move forward stiffly with pelvic undulations. As the female follows, the male stops and deposits a spermatophore, and the female will move forward with the male to raise her tail and receive the sperm packet. The full courtship dance is rarely accomplished in the first attempt. Females deposit their eggs a few days after mating.


While the long-toed salamander is classified as least concern by the IUCN, many forms of land development negatively affect the salamander's habitat and have put new perspectives and priorities into its conservation biology. Conservation priorities focus at the population level of diversity, which is declining at rates ten times that of species extinction. Population level diversity is what provides ecosystem services, such as the keystone role that salamanders play in the soil ecosystems, including the nutrient cycling that supports wetland and forested ecosystems.
Two life-history features of amphibians are often cited as a reason why amphibians are good indicators of environmental health or 'canaries in the coal mine'. Like all amphibians, the long-toed salamander has both an aquatic and terrestrial life transition and semipermeable skin. Since they serve different ecological functions in the water than they do in land, the loss of one amphibian species is equivalent to the loss of two ecological species. The second notion is that amphibians, such as long-toed salamanders, are more susceptible to the absorption of pollutants because they naturally absorb water and oxygen through their skin. The validity of this special sensitivity to environmental pollutants, however, has been called into question. The problem is more complex, because not all amphibians are equally susceptible to environmental damage because there is such a diverse array of life histories among species.
Long-toed salamander populations are threatened by fragmentation, introduced species, and UV radiation. Forestry, roads, and other land developments have altered the environments that amphibians migrate to, and have increased mortality. Places such as Waterton Lakes National Park have installed a road tunnel underpass to allow safe passage and to sustain the migration ecology of the species. The distribution of the long-toed salamander overlaps extensively with the forestry industry, a dominant resource supporting the economy of British Columbia and the western United States. Long-toed salamanders will alter migration behaviour and are affected negatively by forestry practices not offering sizable management buffers and protections for the smaller wetlands where salamanders breed. Populations near the Peace River Valley, Alberta, have been lost to the clearing and draining of wetlands for agriculture. Trout introduced for the sport fisheries into once fishless lakes are also destroying long-toed salamander populations. Introduced goldfish prey on the eggs and larvae of long-toed salamanders. Increased exposure to UVB radiation is another factor being implicated in the global decline of amphibians and the long-toed salamander is also susceptible to this threat, which increases the incidence of deformities and reduces their survival and growth rates.
The subspecies Ambystoma macrodactylum croceum (Santa Cruz Long-toed Salamander) is of particular concern and it was afforded protections in 1967 under the US Endangered Species Act. This subspecies lives in a narrow range of habitat in Santa Cruz County and Monterey County, California. Prior to receiving protections, some few remaining populations were threatened by development. The subspecies is ecologically unique, having unique and irregular skin patterns on its back, a unique moisture tolerance, and it is also an endemic that is geographically isolated from the rest of the species range. Other subspecies include A. m. columbianum, A. m. krausei, A. m. macrodactylum and A. m. sigillatum.


As a type of honey bee, Apis cerana must collect and store around a third of its nectar in a concentrated form in order to ensure an adequate supply for consumption during the harsh winter. The nest is multi-combed and somewhat insulated, allowing the species to achieve optimal nest temperatures and thereby optimize foraging at early hours. The nest itself is a simple vertical comb made from wax secreted by workers, while the thermoregulation is generated by fanning and water evaporation from water collected in the field. This large-scale storage tactic requires the construction of a stable and sturdy comb structure for such honey storage. However, as the production of beeswax for a comb is an energetically expensive endeavor, colonies do not generally build the entire structure very early on. Instead, the colony builds a smaller set of combs that satisfies the initial storage needs. Upon moving into the new nest, the colony will then continue to enlarge the combs until there are enough storage units to sufficiently account for all of the required honey. In general, the initial set of combs may account for around 20,000 cells, while the final, completed structure may contain up to 100,000. These nests are typically large enough to host around 6,000 to 7,000 individuals and are found in a wide range of external environments.


The western honey bee or European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bees worldwide. The genus name Apis is Latin for "bee", and mellifera is the Latin for "honey-bearing" or "honey carrying", referring to the species' production of honey.
Like all honey bee species, the western honey bee is eusocial, creating colonies with a single fertile female (or "queen"), many normally non-reproductive females or "workers", and a small proportion of fertile males or "drones". Individual colonies can house tens of thousands of bees. Colony activities are organized by complex communication between individuals, through both pheromones and the dance language.
The western honey bee was one of the first domesticated insects, and it is the primary species maintained by beekeepers to this day for both its honey production and pollination activities. With human assistance, the western honey bee now occupies every continent except Antarctica. Western honey bees are threatened by pests and diseases, especially the Varroa mite and colony collapse disorder. There are indications that the species is rare, if not extinct in the wild and as of 2019, the western honey bee is listed as "Extinct" on the IUCN Red List, while also acknowledging "Data Deficient". Numerous studies indicate that the species has undergone significant declines in Europe; however, it is not clear if they refer to population reduction of wild or managed colonies. Further research is required to enable differentiation between wild and non-wild colonies in order to determine the conservation status of the species in the wild, meaning self sustaining, without treatments or management.
Western honey bees are an important model organism in scientific studies, particularly in the fields of social evolution, learning, and memory; they are also used in studies of pesticide toxicity, especially via pollen, to assess non-target impacts of commercial pesticides.


The species was first described by the English ornithologist John Latham in 1801 under the binomial name Vultur audax. The genus Vultur is today used only for a completely unrelated bird of the New World vulture family, the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus). The specific scientific name for the species audax, is derived from the Latin audac, meaning “bold”, indicative of the perceived disposition of these raptors, perhaps when hunting (although ironically this species is in general highly wary otherwise and even “timid” towards humans). At one time, the wedge-tailed eagle was classified in it is own monotypical genus Uroaetus, perhaps due to its unique form. However, this species is clearly quite similar, in many respects of morphology, appearance, behaviour and life history, to other species in the Aquila genus. The eagles of the Aquila genus are part of the subfamily Aquilinae, within the larger Accipitridae family. The subfamily is commonly referred to as booted eagles or sometimes as true eagles. These species may be distinguished from most other accipitrids by the feathering covering their legs, regardless of distribution. With some 39 or so species, the Aquilinae is distributed on every continent, excluding Antarctica.
Via a variety of phylogenetic testing, largely via Mitochondrial DNA and Nuclear DNA genes, it has been determined that the wedge-tailed eagle clusters with certain other Aquila eagles. The species found to share the most genetic similarities is the Verreaux's eagle (Aquila verreauxii) of Africa. However, the Gurney's eagle (Aquila gurneyi), a mostly allopatric but outwardly fairly similar eagle is clearly a very close relation of the wedge-tailed eagle and the two are likely sister species, most likely originating from the same radiation across the Indo-Pacific region. These species, the wedge-tailed, Gurney's and Verreaux's eagles, form a clade or a species complex with the well-known golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), the most widely distributed species in the entire accipitrid family, as well as outwardly dissimilar (smaller and paler-bellied yet also powerful) eagles like the Bonelli's eagle (Aquila fasciata), the African hawk-eagle (Aquila spilogaster) and the Cassin's hawk-eagle (Aquila africanus), the latter three having once been considered members of a different genus. Beyond the aforementioned species, the four other Aquila species while outwardly similar to eagles such as golden and wedge-tailed eagles, being large, dark and brownish with long wings, are thought to form a separate clade based on genetic testing and are paraphyletic from the members of what can be called the golden eagle clade. Other related outliers from, currently from outside the Aquila genus, are the small-to-mid-sized Clanga or spotted eagle species and the widely found and quite small Hieraeetus eagles. One member of the latter genus contains the only other widely found Aquilinae eagle in Australia, the little eagle (Hieraaetus morphnoides).


This species is native to Europe:
North-western and central Europe with Alps and Carpathians
Netherlands
Austria
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Poland
Switzerland. One of the most frequent species of land snails in Switzerland, can be very abundant, up to 20 adults per square meter.
eastern Pyrenees, Spain
Norway
Iceland
Faroe Islands
the British Isles: Great Britain and Ireland In Britain the species suffered slightly from intensive farming and the continuous destructions of suitable uncultivated refuges. It is rare in Ireland.
Kaliningrad
Finland. In Finland, it has become so common in the Porvoo region east of Helsinki, that it is locally called the "Porvoo snail".
Estonia
Latvia
scattered to Serbia
Bulgaria It is rare in Bulgaria.
western Ukraine
Arianta arbustorum is introduced to North America, but is only known from Canada, where established populations are known from Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Prince Edward Island.
This species has not yet become established in the US, but it is considered to represent a potentially serious threat as a pest, an invasive species which could negatively affect agriculture, natural ecosystems, human health or commerce. Therefore, it has been suggested that this species be given top national quarantine significance in the USA.


The shell is usually brown with numerous pale yellowish rows of spots and usually with a brown band above the periphery, occasionally yellowish, reddish or with greenish hue, weakly striated and with fine spiral lines on the upper side. The shell has 5-5.5 convex whorls with deep suture. The last whorl is slightly descending near the aperture. The aperture is with prominent white lip inside. The apertural margin is reflected. Umbilicus is entirely covered by the reflected columellar margin.
The width of the shell is 18–25 mm. The height of the shell is 12–22 mm. Dimensions are locally variable.
The shell shape is globular in most present-day populations, but originally is believed to have been depressed in the Pleistocene, before lowlands were invaded and shells became globular, re-invading mountain regions except some isolated spots among glaciers.
The animal is usually black.


Arianta arbustorum lives in forests and open habitats of any kind. It requires humidity. It lives also in disturbed habitats (not in Ireland where it is restricted to old native woodland). It may locally tolerate non-calcareous substrate, in north Scotland also on sandhills. In the Alps up to 2700 m, in Britain 1200 m, in Bulgaria 1500 m.
It feeds on green herbs, dead animals and faeces.
If snails hatched more than 50 m distant from each other, they are considered isolated since they would not move more than 25 m (neighbourhood area 32–50 m), usually they move about 7–12 m in a year, mostly along water currents.
This species of snail makes and uses calcareous love darts during mating. Reproduction is usually after copulation, but self-fertilization is also possible. The size of the egg is 3.2 mm. Maturity is reached after 2–4 years. The maximum age up to 14 years.
Angiostrongylus vasorum has successfully experimentally infected this snail.


Armillaria mellea is widespread in northern temperate zones. It has been found in North America, Europe and northern Asia, and It has been introduced to South Africa. The fungus grows parasitically on a large number of broadleaf trees.  It fruits in dense clusters at the base of trunks or stumps.


Arundina graminifolia is a terrestrial, perennial orchid with reedy stems, forming into large clumps growing to a height between 70 cm and  2 m.
The plaited linear leaves are oblong lanceolate, with a length of 9 to 19 cm and a width of 0.8 to 1.5 cm. The apex is acuminate. There are amplexicaul (clasping the stem) sheathing stipules.
This orchid blooms in summer and autumn, showing rather open clusters of showy terminal flowers, ten at the most. They bloom in succession on the terminal racemes, which are 7 to 16 cm long. These flowers, 5 – 8 cm in diameter, are a rosy lilac and white disk with a purple lip. The bracts are wide triangular and surround the main stalk of the flower cluster.  The occasional fertilized seed pods contain minute powdery seeds, and small plants often develop near the cane ends after flowering, and likely aid in propagation if allowed to reach the soil.
With only 200 of the plant to be recorded growing naturally in Singapore, the species is close to extinction there, largely caused by the destruction of its natural habitat, namely the rainforests and mangrove forests. The remaining plants, commonly called Tapah weeds, can be found in the secondary forests or at the forest fringes.  It is however very common in road cuts and other disturbed areas in full sun in Sarawak, East Malaysia, where it often is the most common flowering plant to be seen along the roadsides.
It is invasive on the big island of Hawaiʻi and common there in mid-mountain areas.


In North America, Circaea alpina is distributed throughout all of Canada and North Carolina through Maine and New Mexico through Washington. In Eurasia, the range of C. alpina includes Northern Europe south to Albania and Bulgaria and east to Korea and Japan.  C. alpina prefers a moist, upland habitat. It is generally found in forests or near streams from sea level to 3,000 metres (10,000 ft).


This subspecies can be distinguished by the mucron or tip of the utricles. In this subspecies the mucron is short, no more than 20 µm long.
Codium fragile subsp. atlanticum is known to have arrived in the southwest of Ireland around 1808. From there it may have spread by rafting or floating in the sea. Approximately 30 years later, it was found in Scotland. It is thought to have originally come from the Pacific Ocean near Japan.
Since 1840, when it was first discovered in Scotland, it has spread the entire length of Britain, including Shetland. Between 1949 and 1955 it is known to have spread between Berwick-upon-Tweed and St. Andrews, Fife, a distance of 80 km. Populations of this algae occur mostly in northern Britain. Elsewhere in Europe it is found in several places, including Norway, Netherlands, France, Spain and the Azores.
This species displaces the native Codium tomentosum.
Codium fragile subsp. atlanticum is used as food in the Far East.


The olive-sided flycatcher is distributed throughout North and South America. Its breeding habitat ranges from California to New Mexico, all the way up to central Alaska, then across Canada (except for most of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut) and through a portion of northeastern US. Its non-breeding habitat is mainly in the northern part of South America and a small area in Central America.
Their breeding habitat is mainly in open areas or edges of boreal, coniferous forests or temperate western forests, in areas up to 10,000 feet in elevation (e.g., in the Rockies), and always near water. They can also nest in cities or on farms. In their non-breeding habitat, olive-sided flycatchers use similar habitats as their breeding habitats such as open areas and forest edges, but do not need water proximity as much as in their breeding habitat. They are also associated to habitats with very tall trees. Two forest habitats used by olive-sided flycatchers in the winter are tropical montane and tropical lowland evergreen forests.


The longevity of the greater earless lizard is typicality 3 years, but records of individuals surviving five reproductive seasons in the wild have been documented. Both males and females reach adult size in a year, attaining maturity and  mating before their second winter. Mating occurs from April to August, peeking in late April to early July. Gravid females often exhibit pink, orange, or yellow colors on their throats and sides. In one study gravid females were only found in May and June. Multiple clutches, up to four a year, are scattered over a wide area, with clutch size ranging from 2 to 9 eggs, average 3–5. Older females produce larger clutches than young females. One study reported finding single eggs buried in the sand on three occasions but never locating a clutch. The incubation period is about 50 days. The hatchlings emerge June to October with reports of sizes varying from 20–25 mm. to 26–31 mm. snout–vent length.


The greater earless lizard native to the arid environment of the Chihuahua Desert, extending into western areas of the Tamaulipan mezquital, and the northeastern margins of the Meseta Central matorral, as well as the semi-arid Edwards Plateau and Central Great Plains in Texas, and the Arizona transition zone (between the Sonoran Desert and Arizona Mountains forests) in the west.
Within these ecoregions it typically occupies open scrubland and areas of sparse vegetation, with rocks and boulder. Limestone ledges and outcrops near streams with boulders and crevices, and dry gulches, arroyos, and canyons with alluvium deposits of silt, sand, gravel, and rocks are often preferred, but it is not strictly limited to these areas. Gentle to moderate slopes of limestone and gravel and hills of granite and igneous rock are also habitat for the lizard. Plants identified in association with greater earless lizards include honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa), creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens), sotol (Dasylirion), lechuguilla (Agave lecheguilla), prickly pear cactus (Opuntia), leatherstem (Jatropha dioica), and candelilla (Euphorbia antisyphilitica).
The color of an individual lizard often bears a striking correlation to the prevailing colors of the rocks and substrates where it lives: e.g. specimens from Llano County, Texas have been noted for their rusty brown color similar to the red granite characteristic of much of the Llano Uplift. Cophosaurus can be locally abundant and among the most common species of herpetofauna in some areas, and yet absent from seemingly appropriate habitat other areas.


"Quinx" are among the world's most abundant peridomestic mosquitoes, earning the nickname "southern house mosquito". The species' place of origin is uncertain. It may have been native to the lowlands of West Africa, or to Southeast Asia. Cx. quinquefasciatus is now found throughout subtropical and tropical areas worldwide, including the Americas, Australia and New Zealand, except for exceedingly dry or cold regions. Thomas Say described the species as "exceedingly numerous and troublesome". It rests in trees and high places.


The Noongar People of the South-West of Australia call the black swan Kooldjak along the West and South-West coast, Gooldjak in the South East and it is sometimes referred to as maali in language schools.


Cylindropuntia echinocarpa is native to the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico, where it can be found the Sonoran Desert, the Mojave Desert, and Colorado Desert in California and other states.
It commonly occurs in desert dry wash, creosote bush scrub, Joshua tree woodland, and pinyon-juniper woodland communities. It ranges from Mono County to Baja California Peninsula.


In Māori mythology the kahikatea is a child of Tāne, the god of forests and birds, and Hine-wao-riki. It served as an important source of wood for the making of tools, of dye, and of food from its berries. To collect the latter, Māori had to climb sometimes more than 100 ft (30 m) to reach them.
19th century British ethnographers Richard Taylor, Eldson Best, and William Colenso all recorded the fruit of kahikatea being eaten, and that it was given its own name: koroī. Best described berries being collected in a basket and then hoisted down using a cord. J. H. Kerry-Nicholls and William Colenso both recorded a blue or black dye being obtained from the soot of burning the kahikatea's resin or heart wood, called kāpara or māpara. This was described as then being used in tattooing. This resin was also used as chewing gum.
The wood could be made into canoes, called waka, but Best recorded that because of the softness of the wood they were far inferior to those made from tōtara. The heartwood was far stronger and R. H. Matthews described it as being used in tools and weapons such as spears. Medicinal applications were described by W. H. Goldie, who recorded the leaves being used to cure "internal complaints" as a decoction or in a steam bath.


It is native to the Southwestern United States,  California, and northern to central Mexico, where it grows in dry regions such as deserts.


The black woodpecker is a fairly widely distributed woodland species and can successfully breed in most areas where extensive woodland is left. At one point, when much of Europe and Asia was deforested, this species declined and in some areas is still struggling today, including in the Pyrenees. They normally require mature trees and ample stands of dead trees to sustain a viable breeding population. However, with the restoration of some forested areas, black woodpeckers have increased in some parts of Europe. They are occasionally considered a nuisance species due to their damage to power lines, communication poles and houses, occasionally resulting in woodpecker mortality due to electrocution or being culled by humans. The main cause of nesting failures appears to be predation. Their main natural predator is the pine marten (Martes martes), which feeds on eggs, nestlings and brooding females and then often takes over the nest hole of the woodpeckers for its own. Other than the marten, there are notably few known natural predators of black woodpeckers. Western jackdaws (Corvus monedula) are notably regular usurpers of this species' nest holes and a potential predator of eggs and small nestlings. A few of the larger birds of prey that can hunt in woodlands may prey on black woodpeckers. Among those recorded are Ural owls (Strix uralensis), Eurasian eagle-owls (Bubo bubo), northern goshawks (Accipiter gentilis), common buzzards (Buteo buteo) and golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos).


The black-winged kite breeds at different times of the year across its range. Although nesting has been noted throughout the year in India, they appear not to breed in April and May. Males establish territories and defend them from competition. Females move into the territories of males. Studies in Africa found that males were more numerous than females. Courtship is noisy and involves chases and once the pair is formed they copulate frequently. The nest is a loose platform of twigs in which 3 or 4 eggs are laid. The female spends more effort in the construction of the nest than the male. The eggs are pale creamy with spots of deep red. Both parents incubate but when the chicks hatch, the male spends more time on foraging for food. Females initially feed the young, sometimes hunting close to the nest but will also receive food from the male. After fledging the young birds continue to be dependent for food on the male parent for about 80 days, initially transferring food at perch and later in the air. Young birds have reddish brown feathers on the upperparts and on the breast. The reddish colour is derived from porphyrins and is thought to provide the young birds some camouflage. Once breeding is complete females often move on to new territories sometimes deserting before the young fledge, leaving males to feed and raise the young. Both males and females show considerable nomadism. Unlike most birds of prey, they are capable of raising multiple broods in a year, and young birds are known to disperse widely, adaptations that helps them utilize periodic rodent population surges. Their opportunistic breeding capabilities are also accompanied by irregular patterns of moult. Young birds show "arrested" moult, retaining feathers for a season and then rapidly moulting them in a serial descendent pattern, where more than one primary feather is moulted at the same time. The adult plumage is found after two years.
Their prey includes grasshoppers, crickets and other large insects, lizards, and rodents. Injured birds, small snakes and frogs have also been reported. The black-winged kite flies slowly during hunting like a harrier, but it will also hover like a Kestrel. It has on rare occasions been known to hunt prey in flight. Perches are used for hunting and for feeding but large prey may sometimes be handled on the ground. In southern Africa, they appear to favour roadside verges for foraging and are sometimes killed by collisions with vehicles.
These birds roost communally with groups of 15 to 35 (larger numbers in Europe) converging at a large leafy tree. They are extremely silent and the calls recorded include a high-pitched squeal or a soft whistle. They call mainly during the breeding season and at the roost site.
A species of nematode, Physaloptera acuticauda, has been recorded as a parasite of the species in South Africa. A trematode species, Neodiplostomum elani,  has been described from a black-winged kite type host from Chandigarh. A feather louse Degeeriella elani is known from the species.
The soft feathers of black-winged kites can lead to adherence with some grass seeds which may be dispersed by the species. However such seeds can pose the risk of entangling their wings.


The sea otter is the heaviest (the giant otter is longer, but significantly slimmer) member of the family Mustelidae, a diverse group that includes the 13 otter species and terrestrial animals such as weasels, badgers, and minks. It is unique among the mustelids in not making dens or burrows, in having no functional anal scent glands, and in being able to live its entire life without leaving the water. The only living member of the genus Enhydra, the sea otter is so different from other mustelid species that, as recently as 1982, some scientists believed it was more closely related to the earless seals. Genetic analysis indicates the sea otter and its closest extant relatives, which include the African speckle-throated otter, European otter, African clawless otter and oriental small-clawed otter, shared an ancestor approximately 5 million years ago.
Fossil evidence indicates the Enhydra lineage became isolated in the North Pacific approximately 2 million years ago, giving rise to the now-extinct Enhydra macrodonta and the modern sea otter, Enhydra lutris. One related species has been described, Enhydra reevei, from the Pleistocene of East Anglia. The modern sea otter evolved initially in northern Hokkaidō and Russia, and then spread east to the Aleutian Islands, mainland Alaska, and down the North American coast. In comparison to cetaceans, sirenians, and pinnipeds, which entered the water approximately 50, 40, and 20 million years ago, respectively, the sea otter is a relative newcomer to a marine existence. In some respects, though, the sea otter is more fully adapted to water than pinnipeds, which must haul out on land or ice to give birth. The full genome of the northern sea otter (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) was sequenced in 2017 and may allow for examination of the sea otter's evolutionary divergence from terrestrial mustelids.


Eranthis hyemalis, the winter aconite, is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, native to calcareous woodland habitats in France, Italy and the Balkans, and widely naturalized elsewhere in Europe.


The gray whale is traditionally placed as the only living species in its genus and family, Eschrichtius and Eschrichtiidae, but an extinct species was discovered and placed in the genus in 2017, the Akishima whale (E. akishimaensis).  Some recent studies place gray whales as being outside the rorqual clade, but as the closest relatives to the rorquals. But other recent DNA analyses have suggested that certain rorquals of the family Balaenopteridae, such as the humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, and fin whale, Balaenoptera physalus, are more closely related to the gray whale than they are to some other rorquals, such as the minke whales. The American Society of Mammalogists has followed this classification.
John Edward Gray placed it in its own genus in 1865, naming it in honour of physician and zoologist Daniel Frederik Eschricht. The common name of the whale comes from its coloration. The subfossil remains of now extinct gray whales from the Atlantic coasts of England and Sweden were used by Gray to make the first scientific description of a species then surviving only in Pacific waters. The living Pacific species was described by Cope as Rhachianectes glaucus in 1869. Skeletal comparisons showed the Pacific species to be identical to the Atlantic remains in the 1930s, and Gray's naming has been generally accepted since. Although identity between the Atlantic and Pacific populations cannot be proven by anatomical data, its skeleton is distinctive and easy to distinguish from that of all other living whales.
Many other names have been ascribed to the gray whale, including desert whale, devilfish, gray back, mussel digger and rip sack. The name Eschrichtius gibbosus is sometimes seen; this is dependent on the acceptance of a 1777 description by Erxleben.