During the summer, the black stork is found from Eastern Asia (Siberia and northern China) west to Central Europe, reaching Estonia in the north, Poland, Lower Saxony and Bavaria in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy and Greece in the south, with an outlying population in the central-southwest region of the Iberian Peninsula (Extremadura and surrounding provinces of Spain, plus Portugal). It is migratory, wintering in tropical Africa and Asia, although certain populations of black storks are sedentary or dispersive. An isolated population exists in Southern Africa, where the species is more numerous in the east, in eastern South Africa and Mozambique, and is also found in Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Botswana and less commonly Namibia.
Most of the black storks that summer in Europe migrate to Africa, with those from western Germany and points west heading south via the Iberian Peninsula and the rest via Turkey and the Levant. Those flying via Spain spend winter in the Falémé River basin of eastern Senegal, Guinea, southern Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and western and central Mali, while those flying via the Sinai end up in northern Ethiopia, the Kotto River basin in the Central African Republic, the Mbokou river basin in Chad and northeastern Nigeria. Black storks summering in western Asia migrate to northern and northeastern India, ranging mainly from Punjab south to Karnataka, and Africa. They are occasional visitors to Sri Lanka. Those summering further east in eastern Russia and China winter mainly in southern China, and occasionally in Hong Kong, Myanmar, northern Thailand, and Laos. They were first recorded in western Myanmar in 1998.
The black stork prefers more wooded areas than the better-known white stork, and breeds in large marshy wetlands with interspersed coniferous or broadleaved woodlands, but also inhabits hills and mountains with sufficient networks of creeks. It usually inhabits ponds, rivers, edges of lakes, estuaries and other freshwater wetlands. The black stork does inhabit more agricultural areas in the Caspian lowlands, but even here it avoids close contact with people. Its wintering habitat in India comprises reservoirs or rivers with nearby scrub or forest, which provide trees that black storks can roost in at night. In southern Africa it is found in shallow water in rivers or lakes, or swamps, but is occasionally encountered on dry land.
After disappearing from Belgium before the onset of the 20th century, it has returned to breed in the Belgian Ardennes, Luxembourg and Burgundy, France, by 2000. It appears to be increasing in numbers in Spain and Portugal, where the population was estimated at 405 to 483 pairs in 2006. The black stork is a rare vagrant to the British Isles, turning up in the warmer months—particularly in spring—generally in the south and east. Sightings have become more common since the 1970s as its breeding range moves northwards. It has been recorded in Scotland six times between 1946 and 1983, including from Shetland, Orkney and the Highlands, as well as the Scottish Borders (Peebles). It is not abundant in the western parts of its distribution, but more densely inhabits eastern Transcaucasia. Further east, it has been recorded from locations across Iran, though little is known about its habits there; breeding has been recorded from near Aliabad in Fars province, Khabr National Park in Kerman province, Karun river in Khuzestan province, Qaranqu River in East Azarbaijan province, and Aliabad river in Razavi Khorasan province. The population has declined in Iran due to draining of wetlands. East of the Ural Mountains, the black stork is patchily found in forested and mountainous areas up to 60°‒63° N across Siberia to the Pacific Ocean. South of Siberia, it breeds in Xinjiang, northwestern China, northern Mongolia south to the Altai Mountains, and northeastern China south to the vicinity of Beijing. In the Korean Peninsula, the black stork is an uncommon summer visitor, no longer breeding in the south since 1966. Birds have been seen in the northeast but it is not known whether they breed there. Similarly it has been seen in the summer in Afghanistan, but its breeding status is uncertain.


Migration takes place from early August to October, with a major exodus in September. Some of the Iberian populations, and also those in southern Africa, are essentially non-migratory, though they may wander freely in the non-breeding areas. A broad-winged soaring bird, the black stork is assisted by thermals of hot air for long-distance flight, although is less dependent on them than is the white stork. Since thermals only form over land, the black stork, together with large raptors, must cross the Mediterranean at the narrowest points, and many black storks travel south through the Bosphorus, as well as the Sinai and Gibraltar. The trip is around 5,667 km (3,521 mi) via the western route and 7,000 km (4,300 mi) via the eastern route, with satellite tracking yielding an average travel time of 37 and 80 days respectively. The western route goes over the Rock of Gibraltar or over the Bay of Gibraltar, generally on a southwesterly track that takes them to the central part of the strait, from where they reach Morocco. Many birds fly around the Sahara next to the coast. About 10% of the western storks choose the passage Sicily – Cap Bon, Tunisia.
Spain contains several important areas—Monfragüe National Park, Sierra de Gredos Regional Park, National Hunting Reserve in Cíjara, Natural Park of the Sierra Hornachuelos and Doñana National Park—where black storks stop over on the western migration route. Pesticide use has threatened birdlife in nearby Doñana. Further south, Lake Faguibine in Mali is another stopover point but it has been affected by drought in recent years.


A wary species, the black stork avoids contact with people. It is generally found alone or in pairs, or in flocks of up to 100 birds when migrating or during winter.
The black stork has a wider range of calls than the white stork, its main call being a chee leee, which sounds like a loud inhalation. It makes a hissing call as a warning or threat. Displaying males produce a long series of wheezy raptor-like squealing calls rising in volume and then falling. It rarely indulges in mutual bill-clattering when adults meet at the nest. Adults will do so as part of their mating ritual or when angered. The young clatter their bills when aroused.
The up-down display is used for a number of interactions with other members of the species. Here a stork positions its body horizontally and quickly bobs its head up from down-facing to around 30 degrees above horizontal and back again, while displaying the white segments of its plumage prominently, and this is repeated several times. The display is used as a greeting between birds, and—more vigorously—as a threat display. The species' solitary nature means that this threat display is rarely witnessed.


The black stork breeds between April and May in the Northern Hemisphere, with eggs usually laid in late April. In southern Africa, breeding takes place in the months between September and March, possibly to take advantage of abundant water prey rendered easier to catch as the rivers dry up and recede—from April and May in Zimbabwe, Botswana and northern South Africa, and as late as July further south.
Pairs in courtship have aerial displays that appear to be unique among the storks. Paired birds soared in parallel, usually over the nest territory early in the mornings or late afternoons with one bird splaying the white undertail coverts to the sides of the narrowed black tail and the pair calls to each other. These courtship flights are difficult to see due to the densely forested habitat in which they breed. The nest is large, constructed from sticks and twigs, and sometimes also large branches, at an elevation of 4–25 m (13–82 ft). The black stork prefers to construct its nest in forest trees with large canopies where the nest can be built far from the main trunk—generally in places far from human disturbance. For the most part, deciduous trees are chosen for nesting sites, though conifers are used as well. A 2003 field study in Estonia found that the black stork preferred oak (Quercus robur), European aspen (Populus tremula), and to a lesser extent Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), and ignored Norway spruce (Picea abies), in part due to the canopy structure of the trees. Trees with nests averaged around 25.6 ± 5.2 metres (84 ± 17 ft) high and had a diameter at breast height of 66 ± 20 centimetres (26.0 ± 7.9 in). Furthermore, 90% of the trees chosen were at least 80 years old, highlighting the importance of conserving old-growth forests. A 2004 field study of nesting sites in Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli National Park in north-eastern Greece found that it preferred the Calabrian pine (Pinus brutia), which had large side branches that allowed it to build the nest away from the trunk, as well as black pine (Pinus nigra) and to a lesser extent Turkey oak (Quercus cerris). It chose the largest trees in an area, generally on steeper ground and near streams. Trees chosen were on average over 90 years old. In the Iberian peninsula it nests in pine and cork oak (Quercus suber).

In steeply mountainous areas such as parts of Spain, South Africa and the Carpathian Mountains it nests on cliffs, on large boulders, in caves and under overhanging ledges. The black stork's solitary nests are usually at least 1 km (0.6 mi) apart, even where the species is numerous. Although newly constructed nests may be significantly smaller, older nests can be 1–2 m (3.3–6.6 ft) in diameter. In southern Africa, the black stork may occupy the nests of other bird species such as hamerkop (Scopus umbretta) or Verreaux's eagle (Aquila verreauxi) and commonly reuses them in successive years. They are repaired with earth and grass, and lined with leaves, moss, grass, animal fur, paper, clay and rags.
 In a clutch, there are two to five, or rarely even six large oval grey-white eggs, which become soiled during incubation. They can be 64–70 mm (2.5–2.8 in) long and 50–53 mm (2.0–2.1 in) wide, averaging about 68 mm (2.7 in) in length and 52 mm (2.0 in) in width. The eggs are laid with an interval of two days. Hatching is asynchronous, and takes place at the end of May. Incubation takes 32 to 38 days, with both sexes sharing duties, which commence after the first or second egg is laid. The young start flying by the end of July. Fledging takes 60 to 71 days, after which the young joins the adults at their feeding grounds. However, for another two weeks, the young continue to return to the nest, to be fed and to roost at night.
At least one adult remains in the nest for two to three weeks after hatching to protect the young. Both parents feed the young by regurgitating onto the floor of the nest. Black stork parents have been known to kill one of their fledglings, generally the weakest, in times of food shortage to reduce brood size and hence increase the chance of survival of the remaining nestlings. Stork nestlings do not attack each other, and their parents' method of feeding them (disgorging large amounts of food at once) means that stronger siblings cannot outcompete weaker ones for food directly, hence parental infanticide is an efficient way of reducing brood size. This behaviour has only rarely been observed in the species, although the shyness of the species and difficulties in studying its nesting habits mean that it might not be an uncommon phenomenon.
Ringing recovery studies in Europe suggests that nearly 20% of chicks reach the breeding stage, around 3 years, and about 10% live beyond 10 years and about 5% beyond 20 years. Captive individuals have lived for as long as 36 years.


The black stork mainly eats fish, including small cyprinids, pikes, roaches, eels, budds, perches, burbots, sticklebacks and muddy loaches (Misgurnus and Cobitis). It may feed on amphibians, small reptiles, crabs, mammals and birds, and invertebrates such as snails, molluscs, earthworms, and insects like water beetles and their larvae.
Foraging for food takes place mostly in fresh water, though the black stork may look for food on dry land at times. The black stork wades patiently and slowly in shallow water, often alone or in a small group if food is plentiful. It has been observed shading the water with its wings while hunting. In India, it often forages in mixed species flocks with the white stork, woolly-necked stork (Ciconia episcopus), demoiselle crane (Grus virgo) and bar-headed goose (Anser indicus). The black stork also follows large mammals such as deer and livestock, presumably to eat the invertebrates and small animals flushed by their presence.


More than 12 species of parasitic helminth have been recorded from black storks with Cathaemasia hians and Dicheilonema ciconiae reported to be the most dominant. The juvenile black stork, although having a less diverse helminth population, is parasitized more frequently than the adult. A species of Corynebacterium—C. ciconiae—was isolated and described from the trachea of healthy black storks, and is thought to be part of the natural flora of the species. A herpes virus is known from black storks. Birdlice that have been recorded on the species include Neophilopterus tricolor, Colpocephalum nigrae, and Ardeicola maculatus. A diverse array of predatory mesostigmatid mites—particularly the genera Dendrolaelaps and Macrocheles—have been recovered from black stork nests. Their role is unknown, though they could prey on parasitic arthropods.


Since 1998, the black stork has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species. This is because it has a large range—more than 20,000 km² (7,700 mi²)—and because its population is thought not to have declined by 30% over ten years or three generations and thus is not a rapid enough decline to warrant a vulnerable rating. Even so, the state of the population overall is unclear, and although it is widespread, it is not abundant anywhere. Black stork numbers have declined for many years in western Europe, and the species has been extirpated as a breeding bird from the northwestern edge of its range, including the Netherlands and the Nordics (for example, small numbers used to breed in Denmark and Sweden, but none verified after the 1950s). The population in India—a major wintering ground—is declining. Previously a regular winter visitor to the Mai Po Marshes, it is now seldom seen there, and appears to be in decline in China overall. Its habitat is changing rapidly in much of eastern Europe and Asia. Various conservation measures have been taken, including Wetlands International's Conservation Action Plan for African black storks, which focuses on improving the wintering conditions of the birds which breed in Europe. It is protected by the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Hunters threaten the black stork in some countries of southern Europe and Asia, such as Pakistan, and breeding populations may have been eliminated there. The black stork vanished from the Ticino River valley in northern Italy, with hunting a likely contributor. In 2005, black storks were released into the Parco Lombardo del Ticino in an attempt to re-establish the species there.
Since October 2021, the black stork has been classified as Moderately Depleted by the IUCN.


Cicuta bulbifera, commonly known as the bulb-bearing water-hemlock, is a plant native to North America and one of four species in the poisonous genus Cicuta. Tiny bulbils form in the leaf joints in the upper part of the plant, giving the plant its scientific and common names. Cicuta bulbifera can be distinguished from Cicuta douglasii by its narrow leaflet segments (less than 1/4 of an inch wide) and its bulbil-bearing upper leaf axils.


This native perennial plant reaches 1.5–3.5 feet (46–107 cm) tall with limited branching. The stems are light green to slightly reddish, glabrous, and glaucous from epicuticular wax. The compound, alternate leaves are green, also glaucous (excluding petioles), and up to 1 by 0.5 feet (30 by 15 cm), becoming smaller as they ascend the stems. Lower leaves are bipinnate, while the upper leaves are often simple-pinnate. The petioles of the lower leaves are long, but those of the shorter leaves are much shorter or even absent. Leaflets (pinnae) are up to 3 inches (7.6 cm) long and 0.33 inches (0.8 cm) across; they are linear to lanceolate-linear, dentate, and sometimes cleft into narrow lobes. The axils of the upper leaves often have sessile clusters of ovoid bulbils, capable of giving rise to new plants. The root system consists of a cluster of elongated fleshy roots.
The stems terminate into compound umbels of small white flowers, each of which spans about 2–4 inches (5.1–10.2 cm) across and comprises about 8 umbellets, themselves each composed of some 16 flowers. The entire inflorescence is bractless, although a small sessile leaf may occur near the base of it. Flowers are about ¹⁄₈ inch (3.2 mm) across and consist of 5 white petals, 5 stamens, 2 styles, and an ovary. The blooming period occurs during late summer to early fall and lasts about a month. There is no noticeable floral scent. Each seed is contained in a fruit of the same size as the original flower that is somewhat flattened, egg-shaped, and slightly notched at its apex.


Cicuta bulbifera is native to North America and has a wide range of distribution from Newfoundland and Labrador to British Columbia in Canada, to Virginia, Indiana, Nebraska and Oregon in the United States.
A perennial, it reproduces by its seeds and bulbils. It grows along the edges of marshes and lake margins, in bogs, wet meadows, shallow standing water and along slow-moving streams. It can also grow on hummocks and floating mats, on partially submerged rotting logs, and is even known to grow on beaver dams. This species is normally found in high-quality wetlands.


All plant parts are highly poisonous to humans and livestock. The tuberous roots, stem base, and young shoots are especially toxic. Livestock poisoning from Water Hemlocks is the most common in dry areas of the western United States, where grazing animals are drawn to low areas for green forage during dry spells.
The poisonous properties of C. bulbifera are similar to those of other members of the genus Cicuta. The roots and rootstalks are the most poisonous parts of the plant, but apparently all parts of the plant may contain some of the poison, especially in the early stages of growth. Ingestion of a small portion of the root is enough to kill an adult. Some would list these plants as the most poisonous naturally occurring North American genus of leafy plants.


Poisoning from these plants has been reported a number of times in human beings. Children and adults have consumed the roots mistaking them for parsnips or other roots, often with fatal results. Most cases of poisoning however occur in early spring. The quantity of C. bulbifera necessary to cause death varies with the season and age of the plant. A piece of root about the size of a walnut is enough to cause the death of a cow.


The symptoms of poisoning by C. bulbifera in human beings include pain in the stomach, nausea, violent vomiting, diarrhea, dilated pupils, labored breathing, foaming at the mouth and rapid convulsions. In animals the first symptom is generally frothing at the mouth followed by uneasiness and pain, succeeded by violent intermittent convulsions in which the animal kicks while throwing its head back.


Some suggested treatment is to give an efficient emetic, followed by a cathartic. If free vomiting is promptly produced, the patient is likely to recover. For cattle, injections of morphine have been recommended to treat convulsions and pain, but the convulsions are often uncontrollable.


Cicuta maculata is a highly poisonous species of flowering plant in the carrot family known by several common names, including spotted water hemlock, spotted parsley, spotted cowbane, and the suicide root by the Iroquois. It is native to nearly all of North America, from northern Canada to southern Mexico.


Cicuta maculata is a rhizomatous perennial herb producing a hollow erect stem that can reach a height of 1.8 meters (6 feet). The long leaves are made up of several lance-shaped, pointed, serrated leaflets. Each shiny green leaflet is 2 to 10 centimeters (1 to 4 inches) long and the entire leaf may be up to 40 cm (16 in) long. The inflorescence of white flowers is similar in appearance to other species in the carrot family. It is a compound umbel with many clusters of flowers. The dry tan-brown fruit is a few millimeters long.
The poisonous plant is occasionally mistaken for parsnips, due to its clusters of white tuberous roots.


The confusion with parsnips can be fatal as Cicuta maculata is extremely poisonous. It is considered to be North America's most toxic plant.
Cicuta is fatal when swallowed, causing violent and painful convulsions. Though a number of people have died from water hemlock poisoning over the centuries, livestock have long been the worst affected (hence the name "cowbane"), causing death in as little as 15 minutes.
The chief poison is cicutoxin, an unsaturated aliphatic alcohol that is most concentrated in the roots. Upon human consumption, nausea, vomiting, and tremors occur within 30–60 minutes, followed by severe cramps, projectile vomiting, and convulsions. Occasional long-term effects include retrograde amnesia. Ingestion of water hemlock in any quantity can result in death or permanent damage to the central nervous system.


Cicuta virosa, the cowbane or northern water hemlock, is a poisonous species of Cicuta, native to northern and central Europe, northern Asia and northwestern North America.


It is a perennial herbaceous plant which grows up to 1–2 m tall. The stems are smooth, branching, swollen at the base, purple-striped, and hollow except for partitions at the junction of the leaves and stem. In cross section the stems have one flat side and the other sides are rounded. The leaves are alternate, tripinnate, only coarsely toothed, unlike the ferny, lacy leaves found in many other members of the family Apiaceae. The flowers are small, white and clustered in umbrella shaped inflorescences typical of the family. The many flowered umbellets have unequal pedicels that range from 5 to 11 cm long during fruiting. An oily, yellow liquid oozes from cuts to the stems and roots. This liquid has a rank smell resembling that of parsnips or carrots. The plant may be mistaken for parsnip due to its clusters of white tuberous roots.
It grows in wet meadows, along streambanks and other wet and marshy areas.


Scholars dispute whether a hemlock of the genus Cicuta or the genus Conium served in ancient Greece as a state poison, administered as a method of capital punishment. The Greek philosopher Socrates drank a cup of some kind of hemlock infusion at his execution in 399 BC. Cicuta virosa is however primarily a northern European species, rare or absent from the Mediterranean region, making its use in Greece unlikely. See Poison hemlock for more information.
The dose of hemlock used for Greek executions was not always immediately fatal, and sometimes it proved necessary to administer a second cup of the poison.
...having drunk all the Hemlock juice, the quantity was found insufficient and the executioner refused to prepare more unless he was paid 12 drachmas.
—from an account of the execution of Phocion in 318 BC
Considering the extreme toxicity of Cicuta virosa, this passage provides further evidence that it was not the species of hemlock used.
In the past, this plant has had a number of colorful names, including Mackenzie's water hemlock, Beaver-poison, Children's-bane, Snakeweed and Musquash-poison.


The plant contains cicutoxin, which disrupts the workings of the central nervous system. In humans, cicutoxin rapidly produces symptoms of nausea, emesis and abdominal pain, typically within 60 minutes of ingestion. Poisoning can lead to tremors and seizures. A single bite of the root (which has the highest concentration of cicutoxin) can be sufficient to cause death. In animals the toxic dose and the lethal dose are nearly the same. One gram of water hemlock per kilogram of weight will kill a sheep and 230 grams is sufficient to kill a horse. Due to the rapid onset of symptoms, treatment is usually unsuccessful.


Cicuta virosa fossil fruit halves are described rare in the Pliocene of Europe but common in the Pleistocene interglacial floras  of the East European Plain.


Cigaritis lohita, the long-banded silverline, is a species of lycaenid or blue butterfly.


Male. Upperside blackish-brown tinted with violet-blue. Forewing sometimes with some of the bands of the underside visible through the wing, the violet-blue with some gloss in certain lights merging into the black costal and outer marginal borders. Hindwing with the blue colour more distinct and somewhat more glossy, covering the whole surface of the wing except the costal space and the abdominal fold which are broadly pale blackish-brown, outer marginal line black, a fairly large anal orange patch, a black spot in the anal lobe, a small one between the tails, each with some silvery scales; tails black, tipped with white. Cilia of both wings grey. Underside yellowish-white, bands very dark red, with more or less disconnected silvery lines inside them. Forewing with a sub-basal bar from the costa connected with a short streak from the base, another from the costa across the middle of the cell, both with some suffused blackish below them, an outwardly oblique bar from the costa across the end of the cell to the sub-median vein, with a small blackish narrow and inwardly bent short bar in continuation, two short bars from the costa meeting hindwards, and a sub-marginal even band which ends close to the end of the oblique band in a similar manner, a marginal even band, these two bands so close together as to leave but a thin line of the ground colour between them, marginal line black, with an inner fine pale thread. Hindwing with the marginal bands and lines as in the forewing, and four bands at fairly equal distances apart, all rather broad, leaving but narrow spaces of the ground colour between them; the first is basal, continued hindwards in the form of a curved streak close along the abdominal margin, the other three are ante-medial, medial, and post-medial, all arising from the costa, the two inner ones touching the end of the basal streak and the ends of each other on the upperside of the anal orange spot, the post-medial band narrows gradually hindwards and touches the medial band at vein 2; the anal orange patch is about the size it is on the upperside, and contains two similar black spots and silvery scales. Antennae black, with white dots at the sides, club with a red tip; frons black, with a white stripe on each side; head and body above and below concolorous with the wings, legs greyish white, without markings.
Female, like the male above and below, the violet-blue tint on the upperside somewhat paler and duller, the colour of the wings in some examples more brown.
— Charles Swinhoe, Lepidoptera Indica. Vol. IX
The wingspan of Cigaritis lohita reaches 27–32 millimetres (1.1–1.3 in).


This species has been recorded on: Coffea liberica (Rubiaceae), Dioscorea species (Dioscoreaceae) Glochidion rubrum (Euphorbiaceae), Hiptage benghalensis (Malpighiaceae), Litchi species (Sapindaceae), Xylia species and Peltophorum species (Leguminosae) as well as on Psidium guajava (Myrtaceae).


This species can be found in China, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Sumatra, Java, Peninsular Malaya and Vietnam.


The white-throated dipper (Cinclus cinclus), also known as the European dipper or just dipper, is an aquatic passerine bird found in Europe, Middle East, Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent. The species is divided into several subspecies, based primarily on colour differences, particularly of the pectoral band. The white-throated dipper is Norway's national bird.


The white-throated dipper was described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Sturnus cinclus.
The current genus Cinclus was introduced by the German naturalist Moritz Balthasar Borkhausen in 1797. The name cinclus is from the Ancient Greek word kinklos that was used to describe small tail-wagging birds that resided near water. Of the five species now placed in the genus, a molecular genetic study has shown that the white-throated dipper is most closely related to the other Eurasian species, the brown dipper (Cinclus pallasii).
There are 14 subspecies of which one is now extinct (with †):
C. c. hibernicus Hartert, 1910 – Irish dipper – Ireland and west Scotland
C. c. gularis (Latham, 1801) – British dipper – Scotland (except west), north, central and west England and Wales
C. c. cinclus (Linnaeus, 1758) – Northern white-throated dipper – north Europe, west and central France and north Spain, Corsica and Sardinia
C. c. aquaticus (Bechstein, 1797) – Central European dipper – central and south Europe
† C. c. olympicus Madarász, 1903 – Cyprus
C. c. minor Tristram, 1870 – northwest Africa
C. c. rufiventris Tristram, 1885 – west Syria and Lebanon
C. c. uralensis Serebrovski, 1927 – Ural Mountains
C. c. caucasicus Madarász, 1903 – Turkey to the Caucasus, north Iran and north Iraq
C. c. persicus Witherby, 1906 – southwest Iran
C. c. leucogaster Bonaparte, 1850 – south-central Russia, northwest China south to Afghanistan and north Pakistan
C. c. baicalensis Dresser, 1892 – south-central and southeast Siberia
C. c. cashmeriensis Gould, 1860 – west and central Himalayas
C. c. przewalskii Bianchi, 1905 – east Himalayas, south Tibet and west China


The white-throated dipper is about 18 centimetres (7.1 in) long, rotund and short tailed. The head of the adult (gularis and aquaticus) is brown, the back slate-grey mottled with black, looking black from a distance, and the wings and tail are brown. The throat and upper breast are white, followed by a band of warm chestnut which merges into black on the belly and flanks. The bill is almost black, the legs and irides brown. C. c. cinclus has a black belly band. The young are greyish brown and have no chestnut band.


The male has a sweet wren-like song. During courtship the male sings whilst he runs and postures, exhibiting his snowy breast, and when displaying he will take long and high flights, like those of the common kingfisher, accompanied by sharp metallic calls clink, clink, different from the normal zil.


The white-throated dipper is closely associated with swiftly running rivers and streams or the lakes into which these fall. It often perches bobbing spasmodically with its short tail uplifted on the rocks round which the water swirls and tumbles.
It acquired its name from these sudden dips, not from its diving habit, though it dives as well as walks into the water.
It flies rapidly and straight, its short wings whirring swiftly and without pauses or glides, calling a shrill zil, zil, zil. It will then either drop on the water and dive or plunge in with a small splash.
From a perch it will walk into the water and deliberately submerge, but there is no truth in the assertion that it can defy the laws of specific gravity and walk along the bottom. Undoubtedly when entering the water it grips with its strong feet, but the method of progression beneath the surface is by swimming, using the wings effectively for flying under water. It holds itself down by muscular exertion, with its head well down and its body oblique, its course beneath the surface often revealed by a line of rising bubbles.
In this way it secures its food, usually aquatic invertebrates including caddis worms and other aquatic insect larvae, beetles, Limnaea, Ancylus and other freshwater molluscs, and also fish and small amphibians. A favourite food is the small crustacean Gammarus, an amphipod shrimp. It also walks and runs on the banks and rocks seeking terrestrial invertebrates.
The winter habits of the dipper vary considerably and apparently individually. When the swift hill streams are frozen it is forced to descend to the lowlands and even visit the coasts, but some will remain if there is any open water.


The white-throated dippers first breed when they are one year old. They are monogamous and defend a territory. The nest is almost invariably built either very near or above water. It is often placed on a rocky ledge or in a cavity. Man-made structures such as bridges are also used. The nest consists of a dome shaped structure made of moss, grass stems and leaves with a side entrance within which is an inner cup made of stems, rootlets and hair. Both sexes build the main larger structure but the female builds the inner cup. The eggs are laid daily. The clutch can contain from 1-8 eggs but usually 4–5. The eggs are smooth and glossy white and are 26 mm × 18.7 mm (1.02 in × 0.74 in) with a calculated weight of 4.6 g (0.16 oz). They are incubated by the female beginning after the last or sometimes the penultimate egg has been laid. The male will bring food to the incubating female. The eggs hatch after around 16 days and then both parents feed the altricial and nidicolous nestlings. For the first 12–13 days they are brooded by the female. Both parents remove the faecal sacs for the first 9 days. The chicks fledge at around 22 days of age but the parents continue to feed their young for another week but feeding can continue for 18 days. If the female has started a second clutch then only the male parent feeds the fledglings. One or two broods are reared, usually in the same nest. When disturbed, the young that hardly feathered will at once drop into the water and dive.
The maximum recorded age of a white-throated dipper from ring-recovery data is 10 years and 7 months for a bird ringed in Finland. Within the United Kingdom and Ireland the maximum age is 8 years and 9 months for a bird ringed and recovered in County Laois, Ireland.


The first detailed description of the white-throated dipper, dating from c.1183,  is that of Gerald of Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis), the twelfth-century cleric, historian and traveller, in his book Topographia Hibernica, an account of his travels through Ireland in 1183–86. Gerald, a keen observer of wildlife, describes the dipper accurately, but with his notorious tendency to believe anything he was told, which so often detracts from the value of his work, states that it was an aberrant variety of the common kingfisher. The true kingfisher, according to Gerald, did not occur in Ireland in the 1180s, although it was widespread there by the eighteenth century.


Cramp, Stanley;  et al., eds. (1988). "Cinclus cinclus Dipper". Handbook of the Birds of Europe the Middle East and North Africa. The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Vol. V: Tyrant Flycatchers to Thrushes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 510–524. ISBN 978-0-19-857508-5.


The American dipper (Cinclus mexicanus), also known as a water ouzel, is a stocky dark grey bird with a head sometimes tinged with brown, and white feathers on the eyelids that cause the eyes to flash white as the bird blinks. It is 16.5 cm (6.5 in) long, has a wingspan of 23 cm (9.1 in), and weighs on average 46 g (1.6 oz). It has long legs, and bobs its whole body up and down during pauses as it feeds on the bottom of fast-moving, rocky streams. It inhabits the mountainous regions of Central America and western North America from Panama to Alaska.


The American dipper was described by the English zoologist William John Swainson in 1827 and given the binomial name Cinclus mexicanus. The type locality is Temascaltepec de González in Mexico.
There are five subspecies:
C. m. unicolor Bonaparte, 1827 – Alaska, west Canada and west USA
C. m. mexicanus Swainson, 1827 – north and central Mexico
C. m. anthonyi Griscom, 1930 – southeast Mexico, southwest Guatemala, east Honduras and northwest Nicaragua
C. m. dickermani Phillips, AR, 1966 – south Mexico
C. m. ardesiacus Salvin, 1867 – Costa Rica and west Panama


This species, like other dippers, is equipped with an extra eyelid called a nictitating membrane that allows it to see underwater, and scales that close its nostrils when submerged.  Dippers also produce more oil than most birds, which may help keep them warmer when seeking food underwater.
The song consists of high whistles or trills peee peee pijur pijur repeated a few times. Both sexes of this bird sing year round.


The American dipper is usually a permanent resident, moving slightly south or to lower elevations if necessary to find food or unfrozen water. The presence of this indicator species shows good water quality; it has vanished from some locations due to pollution or increased silt load in streams.


The American dipper defends a linear territory along streams. In most of its habits, it closely resembles its European counterpart, the white-throated dipper, Cinclus cinclus, which is also sometimes known as a Water Ouzel.


The American dipper's nest is a globe-shaped structure with a side entrance, close to water, on a rock ledge, river bank, behind a waterfall or under a bridge. The normal clutch is 2–4 white eggs, incubated solely by the female, which hatch after about 15–17 days, with another 20–25 days to fledging. The male helps to feed the young. The maximum recorded age from ring-recovery data of an American dipper is 8 years and 1 month for a bird ringed and recovered in South Dakota.


It feeds on aquatic insects and their larvae, including dragonfly nymphs, small crayfish, and caddisfly larvae. It may also take tiny fish or tadpoles.
Its habit of diving underwater in search of food can infrequently make it the prey of large salmonids like bull or Dolly Varden trout.


The American dipper, previously known as the Water-Ouzel, was the favorite bird of famous naturalist John Muir. He dedicated an entire chapter in his book 'The Mountains of California' to the Ouzel stating "He is the mountain streams' own darling, the humming-bird of blooming waters, loving rocky ripple-slopes and sheets of foam as a bee loves flowers, as a lark loves sunshine and meadows. Among all the mountain birds, none has cheered me so much in my lonely wanderings, —none so unfailingly. For both in winter and summer he sings, sweetly, cheerily, independent alike of sunshine and of love, requiring no other inspiration than the stream on which he dwells. While water sings, so must he, in heat or cold, calm or storm, ever attuning his voice in sure accord; low in the drought of summer and the drought of winter, but never silent."


The violet-backed starling (Cinnyricinclus leucogaster), also known as the plum-coloured starling or amethyst starling, is a relatively small species (17 cm) of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is the only member of the genus Cinnyricinclus. This strongly sexually dimorphic species is found widely in the woodlands and savannah forest edges of mainland sub-Saharan Africa. It is rarely seen on the ground, but instead found in trees and other locations away from the ground.


The violet-backed starling was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1775 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.  Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Turdus leucogaster in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The type locality is Benin in West Africa. The violet-backed starling is now the only species placed in the genus Cinnyricinclus that was introduced by the French naturalist René Lesson in 1840. The violet-backed starling was designated as the type species by the English naturalist George Robert Gray in 1855. The genus name is combines Cinnyris, a genus of sunbirds that had been introduced by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1816, and the New Latin cinclus meaning "thrush". The specific leucogaster is from the Ancient Greek  leukos meaning "white" and gastēr meaning "belly".
Three subspecies are recognised:
C. l. leucogaster (Boddaert, 1783) – Senegal and Gambia to Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania
C. l. arabicus Grant, CHB & Mackworth-Praed, 1942 – east Sudan to northwest Somalia and the Arabian Peninsula
C. l. verreauxi (Finsch & Hartlaub, 1870) – south DR Congo to west Tanzania south to Botswana, northeast South Africa and Mozambique


The violet-backed starling is a sexually dimorphic species with adults reaching a length of about 18 cm (7 in). The male has an iridescent violet head and back and pure white underparts. The female has a thrush-like appearance with brown, boldly-streaked upper parts and white, heavily-streaked underparts. Both sexes have yellow irises and black bills and legs.


The violet-backed starling is a common bird in Sub-Saharan Africa, occurring in most locations with the exception of the dense rainforest of the Congo Basin, and the more arid parts of southwestern Africa. It is found in open woodland, gallery forests, forest verges and clearings. In the Chyulu Hills of Kenya, it occurs at altitudes of up to 2,100 m (6,900 ft).


The diet of the violet-backed starling includes fruits, seeds and arthropods. It sometimes hawks for insects in a manner similar to flycatchers. It largely feeds in the canopy, seldom foraging on the ground. The nest is usually located in a crevice in a tree within a few metres of the ground. Nesting material includes green leaves and dung. The female will incubate the clutch of two to four eggs (these are pale blue with reddish/brown spots) for 12–14 days. The male will help feed chicks until they fledge after about 21 days.


The greater double-collared sunbird (Cinnyris afer) (formerly placed in the genus Nectarinia), is a small bird in the sunbird family.


The sunbird breeds in southern South Africa. It is mainly resident, but partly migratory in the northeast of its range.  It is common in gardens, fynbos, forest edges and coastal scrub.


The sunbird is usually seen singly or in pairs. Its flight is fast and direct on short wings.


It lives mainly on nectar from flowers, but takes some fruit, and, especially when feeding young, insects and spiders. It has the habit of hovering in front of webs to extract spiders. It can hover like a hummingbird to take nectar, but usually perches to do so.


The Greater Double-Collared Sunbird makes a shrill whistle and click: Wrew wrew wrew ch ch.


The  purple sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus) is a small bird in the sunbird family found mainly in South and Southeast Asia but extending west into parts of the Arabian peninsula. Like other sunbirds they feed mainly on nectar, although they will also take insects, especially when feeding young. They have a fast and direct flight and can take nectar by hovering like a hummingbird but often perch at the base of flowers. The males can appear all black in harsh sunlight but the purple iridescence is visible on closer observation or under good light conditions. Females are olive above and yellowish below.


This small sunbird has a relatively short bill, a dark and short square ended tail with distinctive sexual dimorphism. Less than 10 cm long they have a down-curved bill with brush-tipped tubular tongues that aid in nectar feeding. The male is glossy metallic bluish to purplish  black on the upper parts with the wings appearing dark brown. The breeding male also has underparts of the same purplish black, but non-breeding males may show a central streak of black on yellow underparts. (Birds in this eclipse plumage were once designated as a species, C. currucaria.) In the breeding plumage, the male can be confused with the syntopic Loten's sunbird which has a long bill and a distinctive broad maroon band on the breast. Breeding males will sometimes show their yellow pectoral tufts in displays. There is a patch of bright blue on the shoulder of breeding males. The maroon shine on the feathers of the collar around the neck is visible mainly during the breeding seasons.
Females are olive brown above with a yellowish underside. There is a pale supercilium beyond the eye. There is a darkish eye stripe. The throat and breast are yellow, becoming pale towards the vent. The outer tail feathers are tipped in white both in the male and female.
The young are just like females in plumage, however, the males get black feathers as they become adults.
They are seen in pairs or small groups and aggregations may be found in gardens with suitable flowers. They feed mainly on nectar but also take fruits and insects. Groups of as many as 40 to 50 individuals have sometimes been noted.


The species is distributed widely from West Asia through the Indian subcontinent and into Southeast Asia. They are resident birds in most parts of their range and do not move large distances. They are found in thin forest and garden land, including those in dense urban areas. Local movements are, however, noted especially in the drier parts of northwestern India and Pakistan where they are said to arrive in large numbers before summer.
The nominate subspecies is distributed in India east of the desert region and south of the Himalayas extending to the west and south of India and Sri Lanka. They are found mainly on the plains but going up to 2400 m in southern India and up to 1700 m in the Himalayas. The race brevirostris is found in the dry zone from the Arabian Peninsula into Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan until the dry zone of Rajasthan and Gujarat. These may, however, winter south near Goa. This form has a slight tinge of green in the pectoral yellow tufts. The race intermedius extends from the border of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh northwards into Bangladesh, Myanmar and Indochina.
The movements of these birds are not well understood. A male ringed in Bharatpur was recovered in Dehra Dun, 350 km north.


Circaea canadensis, known as eastern enchanter's nightshade, Canada enchanter's nightshade, broad-leaved enchanter's nightshade, is a perennial herbaceous plant found in forests of eastern North America. It is very similar to its sister species, Circaea lutetiana, and was formerly considered conspecific (part of the same species).


The western marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus) is a large harrier, a bird of prey from temperate and subtropical western Eurasia and adjacent Africa. It is also known as the Eurasian marsh harrier.
Formerly, a number of relatives were included in C. aeruginosus, which was then known as "marsh harrier". The related taxa are now generally considered to be separate species: the eastern marsh harrier (C. spilonotus), the Papuan harrier (C. spilothorax) of eastern Asia and the Wallacea, the swamp harrier (C. approximans) of Australasia and the Madagascar marsh harrier (C. maillardi) of the western Indian Ocean islands.
The western marsh harrier is often divided into two subspecies, the widely migratory C. a. aeruginosus which is found across most of its range, and C. a. harterti which is resident all-year in north-west Africa.


The western marsh harrier is 48 to 56 cm (19 to 22 in) in length, has a wingspan of 115 to 130 cm (45 to 51 in) and a weight of 400 to 650 g (14 to 23 oz) in males and 550 to 800 g (19 to 28 oz) in females. It is a large, bulky harrier, larger than other European harriers, with fairly broad wings, and is sexually dimorphic. The male's plumage is mostly a cryptic reddish-brown with lighter yellowish streaks, which are particularly prominent on the breast. The head and shoulders are mostly pale greyish-yellowish. The rectrices and the secondary and tertiary remiges are pure grey, the latter contrasting with the brown forewing and the black primary remiges at the wingtips. The upperside and underside of the wing look similar, though the brown is lighter on the underwing. Whether from the side or below, flying males appear characteristically three-colored brown-grey-black. The legs, feet, irides and the cere of the black bill are yellow.
The female is almost entirely chocolate-brown. The top of the head, the throat and the shoulders have of a conspicuously lighter yellowish colour; this can be clearly delimited and very contrasting, or (particularly in worn plumage) be more washed-out, resembling the male's head colours. But the eye area of the female is always darker, making the light eye stand out, while the male's head is altogether not very contrastingly coloured and the female lacks the grey wing-patch and tail. Juveniles are similar to females, but usually have less yellow, particularly on the shoulders.
There is a rare hypermelanic morph with largely dark plumage. It is most often found in the east of the species' range. Juveniles of this morph may look entirely black in flight.


American Ornithologists' Union (2000). "Forty-second supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds" (PDF). Auk. 117 (3): 847–858. doi:10.1642/0004-8038(2000)117[0847:FSSTTA]2.0.CO;2.
Banks, Richard C.; Cicero, Carla; Dunn, Jon L.; Kratter, Andrew W.; Rasmussen, Pamela C.; Remsen, J.V. Jr.; Rising, James D.; Stotz, Douglas F. (2005). "Forty-sixth supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds" (PDF). Auk. 122 (3): 1026–1031. doi:10.1642/0004-8038(2005)122[1026:FSTTAO]2.0.CO;2.
Clarke, R.; Prakash, V.; Clark, W.S.; Ramesh, N.; Scott, D. (1998). "World record count of roosting harriers Circus in Blackbuck National Park, Velavadar, Gujarat, north-west India" (PDF). Forktail. 14: 70–71.
Cramp, Stanley, ed. (1980). "Circus aeruginosus Marsh Harrier". Handbook of the Birds of Europe the Middle East and North Africa. The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Vol. II: Hawks to Bustards. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 105–115. ISBN 978-0-19-857505-4.
Merkord, Christopher L.; Rodríguez, Rafy; Faaborg, John (2006). "Second and third records of Western Marsh-Harrier (Circus aeruginosus) for the Western Hemisphere in Puerto Rico" (PDF). Journal of Caribbean Ornithology. 19 (1): 42–44.
Verma, Ashok (2002). "A large roost of Eurasian Marsh Harriers Circus aeruginosus at Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, India" (PDF). Forktail. 18: 150–151.


The hen harrier (Circus cyaneus)  is a bird of prey. It breeds in Eurasia. The term "hen harrier" refers to its former habit of preying on free-ranging fowl.
It migrates to more southerly areas in winter. Eurasian birds move to southern Europe and southern temperate Asia. In the mildest regions, such as France and Great Britain, hen harriers may be present all year, but the higher ground is largely deserted in winter.
The northern harrier was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the hen harrier.


In 1758 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the hen harrier in the first volume of his Gleanings of Natural History. He used the English name "The blue hawk". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a bird that had been shot near London. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he placed the hen harrier with the falcons and eagles in the genus Falco.  Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Falco cyaneus and cited Edwards' work. The hen harrier is now placed in the genus Circus that was introduced by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède in 1799. The genus name Circus is derived from the Ancient Greek kirkos, referring to a bird of prey named for its circling flight (kirkos, "circle"). The specific epithet cyaneus is from Latin and means "dark blue". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
The hen harrier was formerly considered to be conspecific with the northern harrier.


The hen harrier is 41–52 cm (16–20 in) long with a 97–122 cm (38–48 in) wingspan. It resembles other harriers in having distinct male and female plumages. The sexes also differ in weight, with males weighing 290 to 400 g (10 to 14 oz), with an average of 350 g (12 oz), and females weighing 390 to 750 g (14 to 26 oz), with an average of 530 g (19 oz). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 32.8 to 40.6 cm (12.9 to 16.0 in), the tail is 19.3 to 25.8 cm (7.6 to 10.2 in) and the tarsus is 7.1 to 8.9 cm (2.8 to 3.5 in). It is relatively long winged and long tailed.
The male is mainly grey above and white below except for the upper breast, which is grey like the upperparts, and the rump, which is white; the wings are grey with black wingtips. The female is brown above with white upper tail coverts, hence females, and the similar juveniles, are often called "ringtails". Their underparts are buff streaked with brown. Immatures look like females but with less distinct barring, dark brown secondaries dark brown and less-streaked belly.
The female gives a whistled piih-eh when receiving food from the male, and her alarm call is chit-it-it-it-it-et-it. The male calls chek-chek-chek, with a more bouncing chuk-uk-uk-uk during his display flight.


This medium-sized raptor breeds on moorland, bogs, prairies, farmland coastal prairies, marshes, grasslands, swamps and other assorted open areas. A male will maintain a territory averaging 2.6 km² (1.0 sq mi), though male territories have ranged from 1.7 to 150 km² (0.66 to 57.92 sq mi).
These, are the one of the few raptorial birds known to practice polygyny – one male mates with several females. Up to five females have been known to mate with one male in a season. A supplementary feeding experiment on the Orkney islands showed that rates of polygyny were influenced by food levels; males provided with extra food had more breeding females than 'control' males that received no extra food.
The nest is built on the ground or on a mound of dirt or vegetation. Nests are made of sticks and are lined inside with grass and leaves. Four to eight (exceptionally 2 to 10) whitish eggs are laid. The eggs measure approximately 47 mm × 36 mm (1.9 in × 1.4 in). The eggs are incubated mostly by the female for 31 to 32 days. When incubating eggs, the female sits on the nest while the male hunts and brings food to her and the chicks. The male will help feed chicks after they hatch, but does not usually watch them for a greater period of time than around 5 minutes. The male usually passes off food to the female, which she then feeds to the young, although later the female will capture food and simply drop into the nest for her nestlings to eat. The chicks fledge at around 36 days old, though breeding maturity is not reached until 2 years in females and 3 years in males.
In winter, the hen harrier is a bird of open country, and will then roost communally, often with merlins and marsh harriers. There is now an accepted record of transatlantic vagrancy by the northern harrier, with a juvenile being recorded in Scilly, Great Britain from October 1982 to June 1983.


This is a typical harrier, which hunts on long wings held in a shallow V in its low flight during which the bird closely hugs the contours of the land below it. Northern or hen harriers hunt primarily small mammals, as do most harriers. Up to 95% of the diet comprises small mammals. However, birds are hunted with some regularity as well, especially by males. Preferred avian prey include passerines of open country (i.e. sparrows, larks, pipits), small shorebirds and the young of waterfowl and galliforms. Supplementing the diet occasionally are amphibians (especially frogs), reptiles and insects (especially orthopterans). The species has been observed to hunt bats if these are available. Larger prey, such as rabbits and adult ducks are taken sometimes and harriers have been known to subdue these by drowning them in water. Harriers hunt by surprising prey while flying low to the ground in open areas, as they drift low over fields and moors. The harriers circle an area several times listening and looking for prey. Harriers use hearing regularly to find prey, as they have exceptionally good hearing for diurnal raptors, this being the function of their owl-like facial disc. This harrier tends to be a very vocal bird while it glides over its hunting ground.


Little information is available on longevity in hen harriers. The longest-lived known bird is 16 years and 5 months. However, adults rarely live more than 8 years. Early mortality mainly results from predation. Predators of eggs and nestlings include raccoons, skunks, badgers, foxes, crows and ravens, dogs and owls. Both parents attack potential predators with alarm calls and striking with talons. Short-eared owls are natural competitors of this species that favor the same prey and habitat, as well as having a similarly broad distribution. Occasionally, both harriers and short-eared owls will harass each other until the victim drops its prey and it can be stolen, a practice known as kleptoparasitism. Most commonly, the harriers are the aggressors pirating prey from owls.


This species has a large range. There is evidence of a population decline, but the species is not believed to be approaching the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e., declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). It is therefore classified as "least concern". In the United Kingdom, however, hen harrier populations are in a critical condition, due to habitat loss and illegal killing on grouse moors. In 2012 only 617 pairs remained, representing a fall of 20% from 2004.


In some parts of Europe people believed that seeing a harrier perched on a house was a sign that three people would die. Unlike many raptors, hen harriers have historically been favorably regarded by farmers because they eat predators of quail eggs and mice that damage crops. Harriers are sometimes called "good hawks" because they pose no threat to poultry as some hawks do.


The hen harrier is a bird of open habitats such as heather moorland and extensive agriculture. However, much of its range, particularly in Ireland and parts of western Britain, has been (and continues to be) afforested, predominantly with non-native conifers such as Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) from North America. Hen harriers nest and forage in commercial forestry when it is young, before the canopy closes (typically at between 9–12 and years old), but do not make much use of thicket and subsequent growth stages, which typically comprise between 2⁄3 and 3⁄4 of the commercial growth cycle. Where forests replace habitats that were used by hen harriers they will therefore tend to reduce overall habitat availability. However, where afforestation takes place in areas that were previously underutilised by hen harriers, it may increase the value of such areas to this species in the long-term. Areas dominated by forestry may remain suitable to hen harriers provided that a mosaic of age classes is maintained within the forest, such that areas of young, pre-thicket forest are always available.


The northern harrier (Circus hudsonius) is a bird of prey. It breeds throughout the northern parts of the northern hemisphere in Canada and the northernmost USA.
The northern harrier migrates to more southerly areas in winter with breeding birds in more northerly areas moving to the southernmost USA, Mexico, and Central America. In milder regions in the southern US, they may be present all year, but the higher ground is largely deserted in winter. This bird inhabits  prairies, open areas, and marshes.
The northern harrier was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the Eurasian hen harrier.


In 1750 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the northern harrier in the third volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. He used the English name "The Ring-tail'd Hawk". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a bird collected near the Hudson Bay in Canada and brought to London by James Isham. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he placed the northern harrier with the falcons and eagles in the genus Falco. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Falco hudsonius and cited Edwards' work. The northern harrier is now placed in the genus Circus that was introduced by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède in 1799. The genus name Circus is derived from the Ancient Greek kirkos, referring to a bird of prey named for its circling flight (kirkos, "circle"). The specific epithet hudsonius is from "Hudson Bay", the type locality. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
The northern harrier was formerly considered to be conspecific with the hen harrier.


The northern harrier is 41–52 cm (16–20 in) long with a 97–122 cm (38–48 in) wingspan. It resembles other harriers in having distinct male and female plumages. The sexes also differ in weight, with males weighing 290 to 400 g (10 to 14 oz), with an average of 350 g (12 oz), and females weighing 390 to 750 g (14 to 26 oz), with an average of 530 g (19 oz). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 32.8 to 40.6 cm (12.9 to 16.0 in), the tail is 19.3 to 25.8 cm (7.6 to 10.2 in) and the tarsus is 7.1 to 8.9 cm (2.8 to 3.5 in). It is relatively long winged and long tailed, having the longest wing and tail relative to its body size of any raptor occurring in North America.
The northern harrier has been split from the hen harrier by some taxonomists based on genetic analysis. It breeds in North America and its closest relative is the Cinereous Harrier (C. cinereus). The male's plumage is darker grey than that of the hen harrier and the female is also darker and more rufous. The adult male is sometimes nicknamed the "Grey Ghost", because of his striking plumage and spectral aura.
The female gives a whistled piih-eh when receiving food from the male, and her alarm call is chit-it-it-it-it-et-it. The male calls chek-chek-chek, with a more bouncing chuk-uk-uk-uk during his display flight.


This medium-sized raptor breeds on moorland, bogs, prairies, farmland coastal prairies, marshes, grasslands, swamps and other assorted open areas. A male will maintain a territory averaging 2.6 km² (1.0 sq mi), though male territories have ranged from 1.7 to 150 km² (0.66 to 57.92 sq mi).
These are one of the few raptorial birds known to practice polygyny – one male mates with several females. Up to five females have been known to mate with one male in a season. The nest is built on the ground or on a mound of dirt or vegetation. Nests are made of sticks and are lined inside with grass and leaves. Four to eight (exceptionally 2 to 10) whitish eggs are laid. The eggs measure approximately 47 mm × 36 mm (1.9 in × 1.4 in). The eggs are incubated mostly by the female for 31 to 32 days. When incubating eggs, the female sits on the nest while the male hunts and brings food to her and the chicks. The male will help feed chicks after they hatch, but does not usually watch them for a greater period of time than around 5 minutes. The male usually passes off food to the female, which she then feeds to the young, although later the female will capture food and simply drop into the nest for her nestlings to eat. The chicks fledge at around 36 days old, though breeding maturity is not reached until 2 years in females and 3 years in males.


This is a typical harrier, which hunts on long wings held in a shallow V in its low flight during which the bird closely hugs the contours of the land below it. Northern or hen harriers hunt primarily small mammals, as do most harriers. Preferred prey species can include voles, cotton rats and ground squirrels. Up to 95% of the diet comprises small mammals. However, birds are hunted with some regularity as well, especially by males. Preferred avian prey include passerines of open country (i.e. sparrows, larks, pipits), small shorebirds and the young of waterfowl and galliforms. Supplementing the diet occasionally are amphibians (especially frogs), reptiles and insects (especially orthopterans). The species has been observed to hunt bats if these are available. Larger prey, such as rabbits and adult ducks are taken sometimes and harriers have been known to subdue these by drowning them in water. Harriers hunt by surprising prey while flying low to the ground in open areas, as they drift low over fields and moors. The harriers circle an area several times listening and looking for prey. Harriers use hearing regularly to find prey, as they have exceptionally good hearing for diurnal raptors, this being the function of their owl-like facial disc. This harrier tends to be a very vocal bird while it glides over its hunting ground.


Little information is available on longevity in northern harriers. The longest lived known bird is 16 years and 5 months. However, adults rarely live more than 8 years. Early mortality mainly results from predation. Predators of eggs and nestlings include raccoons, skunks, badgers, foxes, crows and ravens, dogs and owls. Fledglings are also predated regularly, especially by great horned owls. Both parents attack potential predators with alarm calls and striking with talons. Short-eared owls are natural competitors of this species that favor the same prey and habitat, as well as having a similarly broad distribution. Occasionally, both harriers and short-eared owls will harass each other until the victim drops its prey and it can be stolen, a practice known as kleptoparasitism. Most commonly, the harriers are the aggressors pirating prey from owls.


This species has a large range, and there is evidence of a population decline, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e., declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). It is therefore classified as "least concern".


Some Native American tribes believe that seeing a hawk on your wedding day is a sign of a long, happy marriage. Unlike many raptors, hen or northern harriers have historically been favorably regarded by farmers because they eat mice that damage crops and predators of quail eggs. Harriers are sometimes called "good hawks" because they pose no threat to poultry as some hawks do. Heavy pesticide use in the 1970s and 1980s caused a decline in harrier populations.


Cirsium altissimum is a North American species of plants in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. Common name is tall thistle or roadside thistle. The species is native to the eastern and Central United States, with a range extending from Massachusetts west to North Dakota and south to Texas and the Florida Panhandle.
Cirsium altissimum is, as the name implies, a tall herb, sometimes reaching as much as 400 cm (160 inches or 13 1/3 feet). It is a biennial or perennial, blooming only once before dying. Leaves are toothed or shallowly lobed, with fine spines along the edge. Sometimes there is only one flower head but more often more, with pink or purple (rarely white) disc florets but no ray florets. Flowers bloom June to October. The species grows in prairies, open woodlands, and disturbed sites.


Cirsium arvense is a perennial species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native throughout Europe and western Asia, northern Africa and widely introduced elsewhere. The standard English name in its native area is creeping thistle. It is also commonly known as Canada thistle and field thistle.
The plant is beneficial for pollinators that rely on nectar. It also was a top producer of nectar sugar in a 2016 study in Britain, with a second-place ranking due to a production per floral unit of (2609±239 μg).


A number of other names are used in other areas or have been used in the past, including: Canadian thistle, lettuce from hell thistle, California thistle, corn thistle, cursed thistle, field thistle, green thistle, hard thistle, perennial thistle, prickly thistle, setose thistle, small-flowered thistle, way thistle, and stinger-needles. Canada and Canadian thistle are in wide use in the United States, despite being a misleading designation (it is not of Canadian origin).


Cirsium arvense is a C3 carbon fixation plant. The C3 plants originated during Mesozoic and Paleozoic eras, and tend to thrive in areas where sunlight intensity is moderate, temperatures are moderate, and ground water is plentiful. C₃ plants lose 97% of the water taken up through their roots to transpiration.
Creeping thistle is a herbaceous perennial plant growing up to 150 cm, forming extensive clonal colonies from thickened roots that send up numerous erect shoots during the growing season. It is a ruderal species.
Given its adaptive nature, Cirsium arvense is one of the worst invasive weeds worldwide. Through comparison of its genetic expressions, the plant evolves differently with respects to where it has established itself. Differences can be seen in their R-protein mediated defenses, sensitivities to abiotic stresses and developmental timing.


Cirsium arvense is placed in the subtribe Carduinae, tribe Cardueae of the family Asteracae. Unlike other species in the same genus it is dioecious, although male plants sometimes produce bisexual flowers. It also differs from other native North American species in having large roots and multiple small flower heads on a branched stem.


Its underground structure consists of four types, 1) long, thick, horizontal roots, 2) long, thick, vertical roots, 3) short, fine shoots, and 4) vertical, underground stems. Though asserted in some literature, creeping thistle does not form rhizomes. Root buds form adventitiously on the thickened roots of creeping thistle, and give rise to new shoots. Shoots can also arise from the lateral buds on the underground portion of regular shoots, particularly if the shoots are cut off through mowing or when stem segments are buried.


Every plant species has a unique floral fragrance. The fragrance that C. arvense emits attracts both pollinators and florivores containing compounds that attract each respectively. Non-native honeybees are shown to have the highest visitation rate, following other bee species in the genera Halictus and Lasioglossum. Hover flies are also commonly seen pollinating the flower heads of this plant. Florivores such as beetles and grasshoppers are commonly seen as well. The compounds found in the fragrance may not be in the highest abundance but they are highly attractive. P-anisaldehyde is found in less than 1%, yet it attracts pollinators such as honey bees. This is thought to be the result of additive and synergistic effects from the blend increasing the attraction to the plant. After pollination, it can be seen that fragrance emission decreases in C.arvense. This is regulated through a regulatory feedback mechanism depending on the pollination status of the plant. This mechanism has only been observed in pistillate plants for dioecious C. arvense. Fragrance emission increases with age.
The fragrance contains several compounds that attract diverse insects. Looking at certain butterflies species, it can be seen that the fragrance blend is highly attractive to them, being sensitive to their antennae. High antennal response are seen in consequence to the phenylacetaldehyde as well as the terpenes (oxoisophoroneoxide, oxoisophorone, and dihydrooxoisophorone) found in the blend. This was seen in both natural plants emitting the fragrance and emitting the scent synthetically. It is believed that general arousal can be stimulated through exposure of a single compound, whereas the accumulated exposure of all the compounds influence the foraging behaviour of the butterflies.


The inflorescence compound cyme is 10–22 mm (0.39–0.87 in) in diameter, pink-purple, with all the florets of similar form (no division into disc and ray florets). The flowers are usually dioecious, but not invariably so, with some plants bearing hermaphrodite flowers. The seeds are 4–5 mm long, with a feathery pappus which assists in wind dispersal. One to 5 flower heads occur per branch, with plants in very favourable conditions producing up to 100 heads per shoot. Each head contains an average of 100 florets. Average seed production per plant has been estimated at 1530. More seeds are produced when male and female plants are closer together, as flowers are primarily insect-pollinated. The plant can bloom from seed in a year then subsequently the seeds produced can emerge in the following year.


Variation in leaf characters (texture, vestiture, segmentation, spininess) is the basis for determining creeping thistle varieties. According to Flora of Northwest Europe the two varieties are:
Cirsium arvense var. arvense. Most of Europe. Leaves hairless or thinly hairy beneath.
Cirsium arvense var. incanum (Fisch.) Ledeb. Southern Europe. Leaves thickly hairy beneath.
The Biology of Canadian Weeds: Cirsium arvense list four varieties:
Cirsium arvense var. vestitum (Wimm. & Grab). Leaves gray-tomentose below.
Cirsium arvense var. integrifolium (Wimm. & Grab). Leaves all entire or the upper leaves entire and the lower stem leaves shallowly and regularly pinnatifid or undulating.
Cirsium arvense var. arvense. Leaves shallowly to deeply pinnatifid, often asymmetrical.
Cirsium arvense var. horridum (Wimm. & Grab). Leaves thick, subcoriaceous, surface wavy, marginal spines long and stout.


The species is widely considered a weed even where it is native, for example being designated an "injurious weed" in the United Kingdom under the Weeds Act 1959. It is also a serious invasive species in many additional regions where it has been introduced, usually accidentally as a contaminant in cereal crop seeds. It is cited as a noxious weed in several countries; for example Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. Many countries regulate this plant, or its parts (i.e., seed) as a contaminant of other imported products such as grains for consumption or seeds for propagation. In Canada, C. arvense is classified as a primary noxious weed seed in the Weed Seeds Order 2005 which applies to Canada's Seeds Regulations.


Control methods include cutting at flower stem extension before the flower buds open to prevent seed spread. Repeated cutting at the same growth stage over several years may "wear down" the plant.
Growing forages such as alfalfa can help control the species as a weed by frequently cutting the alfalfa to add nutrients to the soil, the weeds also get cut, and have a harder time re-establishing themselves, which reduces the shoot density.
Orellia ruficauda feeds on Canada thistle and has been reported to be the most effective biological control agent for that plant. Its larvae parasitize the seed heads, feeding solely upon fertile seed heads.
The weevil Larinus planus also feeds on the thistle and has been used as a control agent in Canada. One larva of the species can consume up to 95% of seeds in a particular flower bud. However, use of this weevil has had a damaging effect on other thistle species as well, include some that are threatened. It may therefore not be a desirable control agent. It is unclear if the government continues to use this weevil to control Canada thistles or not.
The rust species Puccinia obtegens has shown some promise for controlling Canada thistle, but it must be used in conjunction with other control measures to be effective. Also Puccinia punctiformis is used in North America and New Zealand in biological control. In 2013, in four countries in three continents, epidemics of systemic disease caused by this rust fungus could be routinely and easily established. The procedure for establishing this control agent involves three simple steps and is a long-term sustainable control solution that is free and does not involve herbicides. Plants systemically diseased with the rust gradually but surely die. Reductions in thistle density were estimated, in 10 sites in the U.S., Greece, and Russia, to average 43%, 64%, and 81% by 18, 30, and 42 months, respectively, after a single application of spores of the fungus.
Aceria anthocoptes feeds on this species and is considered to be a good potential biological control agent.


Applying herbicide: Herbicides dominated by phenoxy compounds (especially MCPA) caused drastic declines in thistle infestation in Sweden in the 1950s. MCPA and clopyralid are approved in some regions. Glyphosate is a non-selective herbicide that can be used when the plant has grown a few inches tall, where the herbicide can be absorbed by the leaf surfaces.
Crop tolerance and weed control ratings were conducted in the spring of 2012, and the Prepass herbicide by DOW AgroSciences was found to be most effective at controlling the species as a weed problem in alfalfa fields.


Like other Cirsium species, the roots are edible, though rarely used, not in the least because of their propensity to induce flatulence in some people. The taproot is considered the most nutritious part. The leaves are also edible, though the spines make their preparation for food too tedious to be worthwhile. The stalks, however, are also edible and more easily despined. Bruichladdich distillery on Isle of Islay lists creeping thistle as one of the 22 botanical forages used in their gin, The Botanist.
The feathery pappus is also used by the Cherokee to fletch blowgun darts.


Cirsium eriophorum, the woolly thistle, is a herbaceous biennial species of flowering plant in the genus Cirsium of the family Asteraceae. It is widespread across much of Europe. It is a large biennial plant with sharp spines on the tips of the leaves, and long, woolly hairs on much of the foliage. The flower heads are large and nearly spherical, with spines on the outside and many purple disc florets but no ray florets.


A tall, biennial plant, C. eriophorum reaches heights of 50 to 150 cm (20 to 60 in). The strong, branched stem is densely woolly hairy but has no wings. The stiff leaves are usually pinnate with strong, yellow spines; the lowest leaves are up to 80 cm (30 in) long. The leaf margins are rolled over and the underside of the leaf is felted with white hair. The inflorescence is cymose with a few large flowers with a diameter of up to 7 cm (3 in). These are globular and densely covered with woolly hair. They contain many tubular florets, with long purple tubes and purple stamens, each with a spiny bract covered with white wool through which a spine projects.  The flowers are rich in nectar and attract bees, flies, beetles, butterflies and moths.


Cirsium eriophorum has a Central and Western Europe distribution. Its range extends from Upper Volga and the Balkans to the Netherlands, France and Britain. It typically grows in grassland, scrubland and open woodland on chalk, limestone or alkaline clay soils, including the disturbed ground caused by quarrying. In Britain, it grows up to about 310 m (1,000 ft) and is largely confined to central and southern England.


The young leaves of C. eriophorum can be eaten raw, and the young stems can be peeled and eaten raw or cooked, after being soaked in water to remove their bitterness. The flower buds can be used in a similar way to artichokes but smaller, and an edible oil can be extracted from the seeds. The pappus can be used as tinder for lighting fires.
The plant is hardy and can be easily grown in a sunny position in the garden, in a wildflower meadow or in dappled shade in a woodland garden. It flowers between July and September.


Cirsium horridulum, called bristly thistle, horrid thistle,  yellow thistle or bull thistle, is a North American species of plants in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. It is an annual or biennial.  The species is native to the eastern and southern United States from New England to Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma as well as to Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Bahamas.
Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859) described var. megacanthum as "one of the most terribly armed plants in the genus."
Cirsium horridulum is a biennial herb up to 250 centimetres (100 in) tall, with a large taproot and fleshy side roots that sometimes sprout new shoots. Leaves are up to 40 centimetres (16 in) long with thick, sharp spines along the edges. There are usually several flower heads, also with sharp spines, Luma apiculata each head with disc florets but no ray florets. Flower color varies from one plant to the next: white, yellow, pink, red or purple.
Varieties
Cirsium horridulum var. horridulum - from Maine to Guatemala
Cirsium horridulum var. megacanthum (Nutt.) D.J.Keil - from the Florida Panhandle to Texas and Oklahoma
Cirsium horridulum var. vittatum (Small) R.W.Long - from North Carolina to Louisiana


It is endangered in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. It is listed as threatened in Rhode Island.


The Cirsium genus is listed as a noxious weed in Arkansas and Iowa.


The Houma people make an infusion of the leaves and root of the plant in whiskey. They use it as both as an astringent, and drink it to clear phlegm from lungs and throat. They also eat the tender, white hearts of the plant raw. The Seminole use the spines of the plant as darts for their blowguns.


It is a larval host to the little metalmark and the painted lady butterflies. Its flowers are popular for their nectar and pollen with butterflies and bumble bees.


Cirsium occidentale, with the common name cobweb thistle or cobwebby thistle, is a North American species of thistle in the family Asteraceae.


Cirsium occidentale is a biennial plant forming a taproot. It may be short or quite tall, forming low clumps or towering to heights approaching 3 meters (10 feet). The leaves are dull gray-green to bright white due to a coating of hairs, and the most basal ones on large plants may be nearly 0.5 m (1+1⁄2 ft) in length. The petioles are winged and spiny and the leaves are toothed or edged with triangular lobes.
The inflorescence at the top of the whitish stem holds one to several flower heads. Each head is sphere-like, covered in large phyllaries with very long, spreading spines which are laced, often quite heavily, in fibers resembling cobwebs.
The head is packed with disc florets which may be white to blood red to shades of purple. The largest flower heads exceed 8 centimeters (3 inches) in diameter. The heads do not open in synchrony, perhaps allowing greater likelihood of being pollinated.


There are several varieties, which differ from each other in range and form:
Cirsium occidentale var. californicum — California thistle
Cirsium occidentale var. candidissimum — snowy thistle
Cirsium occidentale var. compactum — compact cobwebby thistle; a short, clumpy California endemic that grows only along the coast of the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Coast of California
Cirsium occidentale var. coulteri — Coulter's thistle
Cirsium occidentale var. lucianum — Cuesta Ridge thistle; a California endemic from the Santa Lucia Range
Cirsium occidentale var. occidentale — cobwebby thistle
Cirsium occidentale var. venustum


The plant is widespread and fairly common across most of California: in its mountain ranges, valleys, and the Mojave Desert; and in the western Great Basin region in western Nevada, southern Oregon, and southwestern Idaho.
Unlike many introduced thistles, this native species is not a troublesome weed.


It is a larval host to the California crescent, mylitta crescent, and the painted lady butterfly.


Cirsium oleraceum, the cabbage thistle or Siberian thistle, is a species of thistle in the genus Cirsium within the family Asteraceae, native to central and eastern Europe and Asia, where it grows in wet lowland soils.
Cirsium oleraceum is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 1.5 m tall, the stems unbranched or with only a very few branches. The leaves are broad and ovoid, with a weakly spiny margin, being pinnatipartite. The flowers are produced in dense flower heads which are 2.5–4 cm diameter, pale yellow, but sometimes tinged pink.
Its specific epithet oleraceum means "vegetable/herbal" in Latin and is a form of holeraceus (oleraceus).


For cooking:
In salads the young stems and leaves are edible, and cultivated for food in Japan and India.


Cirsium scariosum is a species of thistle known by the common names meadow thistle, elk thistle and dwarf thistle. It is native to much of western North America from Alberta and British Columbia south to Baja California. There are also isolated populations on the Canadian Atlantic Coast, on the Mingan Archipelago in Québec.
Cirsium scariosum is a variable species growing in a variety of habitat types. It is made up of several geographic races, most of which have been previously classified as species. The races intergrade but their morphologies can also be quite different. This is generally a biennial or perennial herb. It takes three main forms, a stemless, flat rosette with a cluster of flower heads in the center, a mounding form with a short, erect stem, or a fully erect form reaching up to 200 cm (79 in) in height. When there is a stem it is usually fleshy, ridged, and woolly in texture. The leaves are sharply toothed or cut into toothed lobes, lined with spines, and up to 40 centimetres (16 inches) at their longest near the base of the plant. The inflorescence holds several flower heads, each up to 4 centimeters long and 5 cm wide. The flower head is lined with phyllaries which may have spines and teeth and filled with white to purple disc florets but no ray florets. The fruit is a compressed achene a few millimeters long topped with a pappus which may be 3 centimeters in length.
Varieties
Cirsium scariosum var. americanum - California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming, Baja California
Cirsium scariosum var. citrinum - California, Baja California
Cirsium scariosum var. coloradense - Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming
Cirsium scariosum var. congdonii - California, Nevada
Cirsium scariosum var. robustum  - California, Oregon
Cirsium scariosum var. scariosum - Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming
Cirsium scariosum var. thorneae - Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Colorado
Cirsium scariosum var. toiyabense- Nevada, Oregon, Idaho


Cirsium undulatum is a species of thistle known by the common names wavyleaf thistle and gray thistle. It is native to much of central and western North America from British Columbia east to Manitoba and south as far as the State of Durango in Mexico. It has also been found outside of its native range as an introduced species.
Cirsium undulatum is widespread and found in many habitat types. It is a perennial herb exceeding 200 cm (79 in) in height. The stem branches a few times toward the top of the plant if at all. The leaves are very wavy along the edges and usually cut into shallow toothed lobes. The longest near the base of the plant are up to 30 centimetres (12 inches) long. The inflorescence holds one or more flower heads each up to 5 centimetres (2.0 inches) long and wide. The head is lined with spiny phyllaries of different shapes. The flowers in the head are white to lavender to pink and up to 5 centimetres (2.0 inches) long. The fruit is an achene a few millimeters long with a pappus which may be up to 4 centimeters in length.
Cirsium undulatum has been shown to have its seed production reduced by an exotic weevil Larinus planus which was released to control Canada thistle.


Cirsium vulgare, the spear thistle, bull thistle, or common thistle, is a species of the Asteraceae genus Cirsium, native throughout most of Europe (north to 66°N, locally 68°N), Western Asia (east to the Yenisei Valley), and northwestern Africa (Atlas Mountains). It is also naturalised in North America, Africa, and Australia and is an invasive weed in some areas. It is the national flower of Scotland.
The plant provides a great deal of nectar for pollinators. It was rated in the top 10 for most nectar production (nectar per unit cover per year) in a UK plants survey conducted by the AgriLand project which is supported by the UK Insect Pollinators Initiative. Marsh thistle, Cirsium palustre, was ranked in first place while this thistle was ranked in sixth place. It also was a top producer of nectar sugar in another study in Britain, ranked third with a production per floral unit of (2300 ± 400 μg).


It is a tall biennial or short-lived monocarpic thistle, forming a rosette of leaves and a taproot up to 70 cm long in the first year, and a flowering stem 1–1.5 m tall in the second (rarely third or fourth) year. It can grow up to 1.8 metres (5 ft 11 in) tall. It sometimes will function as an annual, flowering in the first year. The stem is winged, with numerous longitudinal spine-tipped wings along its full length. The leaves are stoutly spined, grey-green, deeply lobed; the basal leaves grow up to 30 centimetres (12 in) long, with smaller leaves on the upper part of the flower stem; the leaf lobes are spear-shaped (from which the English name derives). The inflorescence is 2.5–5 cm diameter, pink-purple, with all the florets of similar form (no division into disc and ray florets). The seeds are 5 mm long, with a downy pappus, which assists in wind dispersal. As in other species of Cirsium (but unlike species in the related genus Carduus), the pappus hairs are feathery with fine side hairs.


Spear thistle is designated an "injurious weed" under the UK Weeds Act 1959, and a noxious weed in Australia and in nine US states. Spread is only by seed, not by root fragments as in the related creeping thistle C. arvense. It is best cleared from land by hoeing and deep cutting of the taproot before seeds mature; regular cultivation also prevents its establishment.
Despite this label, the plant has beneficial qualities beyond its very high nectar production. It produces seeds eaten by the American goldfinch, down from seed pods that is used by those birds for nesting material, and serves as a host plant for the Painted lady butterfly. The monarch butterfly and other larger-sized butterflies can feed easily from the flowers due to their large size. Some farmers, due to its usefulness as part of the natural food chain, may find it useful to allow it to grow in beetle banks. The supports for pollinators and pest-eating birds could outweigh its drawbacks. In areas where it does not form monocultures it may also be welcome as a part of a meadow landscape.


Common names include bull thistle, Scots, Scottish, or Scotch thistle, and common thistle.


The stems can be peeled (removing their spiny surfaces) and then steamed or boiled. The tap roots can be eaten raw or cooked, but are only palatable on young thistles that have not yet flowered. The dried florets steeped in water are used in rural Italy for curdling goats' milk in preparation for making cheese.


The plant features in some Scottish ceremonies such as the "Riding of the Marches", held annually in Langholm in July. The 1992 specimen measured six feet in length
Spear thistle is also the emblem of Newton Regis in England.


Cisseps fulvicollis, the yellow-collared scape moth, is a species of the family Erebidae and subfamily Arctiinae. It was described by Jacob Hübner in 1818.


This moth is active during late spring and summer in fields and forest edges throughout Canada south to Texas and Florida.


The caterpillar is yellow, brown or black with sparse long, soft, pale setae. It has dark stripes on its back and sides surrounded by yellow or orange stripes.


It is widespread in North America, including the southeastern US, where the Virginia ctenucha (Ctenucha virginica) is absent.


Cisthene plumbea, the lead-colored lichen moth, is a moth of the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Richard Harper Stretch in 1885. It is found in eastern North America, from southern New Jersey south to northern Florida, west to Wisconsin and Texas.
The wingspan is 17–21 mm. Adults are on wing from June to September. There are two generations per year in most of its range. In Louisiana, there are three annual generations.
The larvae feed on lichen.


Cisthene tenuifascia, the thin-banded lichen moth or three-banded lichen moth, is a moth of the family Erebidae. It was described by Leon F. Harvey in 1875. It is found in Mexico and from Arizona to Florida, North Carolina and Oklahoma. Strays can be found further north.
The length of the forewings is 7–9 mm. Adults have a yellow-orange strip along the inner margin of the forewing. They are on wing from March to October and have been recorded sugaring on Baccharis sarothroides and Baccharis salicifolia.
The larvae feed on lichens and algae.


The zitting cisticola or streaked fantail warbler (Cisticola juncidis) is a widely distributed Old World warbler whose breeding range includes southern Europe, Africa (outside the deserts and rainforest), and southern Asia down to northern Australia. A small bird found mainly in grasslands, it is best identified by its rufous rump; as well, it lacks any gold on the collar and the brownish tail is tipped with white. During the breeding season, males have a zigzagging flight display accompanied by regular "zitting" calls that have been likened to repeated snips of a scissor. They build their pouch nest suspended within a clump of grass.


The zitting cisticola was described by the naturalist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1810 and given the binomial name Sylvia juncidis. The type locality is Campofelice di Roccella in Sicily. The current genus name Cisticola is from Ancient Greek kisthos, "rock-rose", and Latin colere, "to dwell". The specific juncidis is also from Latin and is a diminutive of iuncus, "reed".
Across their wide distribution range, several variations in populations have been noted and as many as 18 subspecies are recognized. They differ slightly in calls, plumage and size and some have been considered full species in some taxonomic treatments. The nominate form is found in southern France, Greece, Turkey, Sicily, Corsica and Egypt while western Portugal and Spain have cisticola. The population in Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Iran is neuroticus while the northern and eastern African population is uropygialis and perennius (further south). Gabon, Angola, and southern Africa are home to terrestris. The population in the Western Ghats of India, salimalii, does not show seasonal tail length variation as in cursitans of the plains of India and dry-zone of Sri Lanka, which has a longer tail in the non-breeding season. Population malaya is found in southern Southeast Asia, tinnabulans further north in southern China while brunniceps is found in Korea and Japan. Other populations include nigrostriatus (Philippines), constans (Sulawesi), fuscicapilla (east Java), leanyeri (northern Australia), normani (northwest Queensland) and laveryi (northeast Australia).
This genus is sometimes split off with various other southern warbler genera and given family status as the Cisticolidae. This species was previously known as the fan-tailed warbler, but the current name gives consistency with the many tropical cisticola species, as well as avoiding confusion with an American species also named the fan-tailed warbler.


The zitting cisticola is 10 to 12 cm (3.9 to 4.7 in) in length. It is brown above, heavily streaked with black markings. The underparts are whitish, and the tail is broad, white-tipped and flicked frequently, giving rise to the alternative name for the species. The adult males have less crown streaking and more back marking than the females, but there are no great differences between the sexes or the eighteen geographical races. The absence of a nuchal collar separates it from the golden-headed cisticola (Cisticola exilis). In the non-breeding season, they tend to skulk within the grass and can be hard to spot.


Cistus albidus, the grey-leaved cistus, is a shrubby species of flowering plant in the family Cistaceae, with pink to purple flowers, native to south-western Europe and western north Africa.


Cistus albidus grows up to 1 m (3 ft) tall. Its leaves are oblong to elliptical in shape, usually 2–5 cm (0.8–2.0 in) long by 0.5–2 cm (0.2–0.8 in) wide. They have three prominent veins and are densely covered with short hairs, producing a greyish-white appearance. The flowers are arranged in cymes of one to seven individual flowers, each 4–6 cm (1.6–2.4 in) across with five purple to pink petals and five sepals.


Cistus albidus was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 in Species Plantarum (p. 524). The specific epithet albidus means "whitish", referring to the leaves and shoots.
A 2011 molecular phylogenetic study placed C. albidus as the sister to Cistus creticus in the purple and pink flowered clade (PPC) of Cistus species. C. creticus is found largely in the eastern Mediterranean, and the distributions of the two species show little overlap. They are able to hybridize, producing the fertile hybrid C. × canescens.
The sister group to both species is C. heterophyllus.


Cistus albidus is native to the west of Southern Europe and western North Africa, particularly around the Mediterranean, including Portugal, Spain, the Balearic Islands, France, Corsica, Italy, Sardinia, and Morocco.


Cistus monspeliensis is a shrub with narrow evergreen leaves and a hairy, glandular, sticky surface. The leaves are linear to lance-shaped, green, with a rugose, wrinkled upper surface, up to 5 centimeters long. In cultivation, C. monspeliensis attains a height of around one meter and a width of 1.5 metres.
The plant's inflorescence is generally a panicle of 2 to 8 flowers, each with five sepals and five white petals.


It is mainly distributed throughout the western Mediterranean Basin (Portugal, including Madeira; Spain, including the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands; Morocco; southern France, including Corsica; Italy, including Sardinia and Sicily; Malta; Algeria; Tunisia) but it is also present in Croatia; Serbia; Albania; Montenegro; Greece and Cyprus.
The plant has been reported elsewhere as an introduced species, and in California as an invasive species.


Cistus monspeliensis belongs to the white and whitish pink flowered clade of Cistus species.


The trifoliate orange, Citrus trifoliata or Poncirus trifoliata, is a member of the family Rutaceae. Whether the trifoliate oranges should be considered to belong to their own genus, Poncirus, or be included in the genus Citrus is debated. The species is unusual among citrus for having deciduous, compound leaves and pubescent (downy) fruit.
It is native to northern China and Korea, and is also known as the Japanese bitter-orange, hardy orange or Chinese bitter orange.
The plant is a fairly cold-hardy citrus (USDA zone 6) and will tolerate moderate frost and snow, making a large shrub or small tree 4–8 m (13–26 ft) tall. Because of its relative hardiness, citrus grafted onto Citrus trifoliata are usually hardier than when grown on their own roots.