The red wattlebird is predominantly a nectar-feeder, foraging mostly in trees; in particular, climbing along branches (rather than the trunk) and probing flower-heads with its bill. One study in Bondi State Forest in southern New South Wales revealed that the species foraged at a height of 5.9 ± 5.8 m (19 ± 19 ft). They seldom look for food on the ground, though do so to feed on shrubs such as the cats paw (Anigozanthos humilis). The red wattlebird prioritises visiting flowers that produce a lot of nectar, such as those of eucalypts, banksias, grasstrees (Xanthorrhoea), and emu bushes (Eremophila). It often prefers plants with easy access to nectar, rather than those with tubular flowers (and thus difficult-to-access nectar). The red wattlebird seeks out yellow flower-heads of holly-leaved banksia (Banksia ilicifolia), which have much higher nectar content than the more mature red flower-heads. The species forages much more often in native than exotic plants, though the introduced coral tree (Erythrina) is popular. In addition to nectar, it takes insects and other small creatures, usually by hawking, and it also feeds on berries and other fruit. A field study in the Mount Lofty Ranges found that it spent twice as much time feeding on nectar compared to insects.
One field study found that red wattlebirds foraged for longer periods when nectar concentrations in flowers were low, and consumed fewer insects at this time. However, this could have been because the temperature was lower and hence insects were less active. In Gingin, Western Australia, 97% of red wattlebirds at a site of two mixed kangaroo paw species were observed feeding on a single species at its peak flowering: cats paw in August and red-and-green kangaroo paw (A. manglesii) in September, with very few visits to the other species or hybrids.
In central New South Wales, the red wattlebird forages more often on the foliage of the grey gum (Eucalyptus punctata) over other trees, though it does also show some preference for narrow-leaved ironbark (E. crebra), if grey gum is not present. Red wattlebirds tend to oust noisy friarbirds (Philemon corniculatus) where both species are present. The red wattlebird often forages alongside the New Holland honeyeater (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae), little friarbird (P. citreogularis), western and little wattlebirds, rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus), purple-crowned lorikeet (Glossopsitta porphyrocephala), satin bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus), pied currawong (Strepera graculina), and crimson rosella (Platycercus elegans), though they generally chase other nectar-feeding birds away from a horde of eucalypt flowers.
A field study, conducted in winter 1978 on Kangaroo Island, found red wattlebirds to be territorial around a rich source of nectar, namely a large cup gum (Eucalyptus cosmophylla), driving off smaller honeyeaters. This indicated that the species would exclude other species, if food was scarce. In New England National Park, red wattlebirds would be more aggressive when there were moderate amounts of nectar in groves of flowering banksias, but were less so at lean or abundant times.
The red wattlebird has a brush-tipped tongue, with a  17 mm (5⁄8 in) long segment bearing around 120 individual bristles. It feeds by placing the bill in a flower and inserting the tongue into its nectar chamber, drawing the nectar up by capillary action. The bristles increase the surface area of the tongue available for the uptake of nectar.


The nests of red wattlebirds are often parasitized by the pallid cuckoo (Cacomantis pallidus), and less commonly by the Pacific koel (Eudynamys orientalis). Nest predators include the brown goshawk (Accipiter fasciatus), black falcon (Falco subniger), pied currawong (Strepera graculina), Australian raven (Corvus coronoides), common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), domestic cat, and snakes.
Isospora anthochaerae is an Apicomplexan parasite that has been isolated from the red wattlebird in Western Australia, from oocytes collected from faecal samples. Species of bird louse that have been recorded on the red wattlebird include Menacanthus eurysternus, and members of the genera Brueelia, Myrsidea and Philopterus.


Red wattlebirds are adversely impacted by land and undergrowth clearing, and have vanished from some habitats thus altered. Despite this, they are classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, as they occur over a wide range, have a large population, and the population decline is not rapid. Red wattlebirds are regularly killed by cats and dogs, as well as being hit by cars on roads. In 1924 in northern Victoria, the red wattlebird was described as very wary, on account of being highly regarded (and shot) for its meat. Indeed, it was shot widely for food or sport, or because it was held to be a pest of vineyards or orchards. On occasion, red wattlebirds have raided vineyards and orchards for grapes, stone fruit, figs, olives, loquats, apples, pears, and berries, which they puncture and extract the juice or flesh from.
The red wattlebird has been kept as an aviary bird in Sydney. It is not difficult to look after, but can be very aggressive to other cage birds. Grevillea 'Robyn Gordon' is a useful companion shrub as it bears flowers all year round.


Beruldsen, Gordon (2003). Australian Birds: Their Nests and Eggs. Kenmore Hills, Queensland: self-published. ISBN 978-0-646-42798-0.
Ford, Hugh A. (2001). "Family Meliphagidae honeyeaters and Australian chats" (PDF).  In Higgins, Peter J.; Peter, Jeffrey M.; Steele, W.K. (eds.). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 5: Tyrant-flycatchers to Chats. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. pp. 457–61. ISBN 978-0-19-553258-6.
Higgins, Peter J.; Peter, Jeffrey M.; Steele, W. K., eds. (2001). "Anthochaera carunculata Red Wattlebird" (PDF). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 5: Tyrant-flycatchers to Chats. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. pp. 463–81. ISBN 978-0-19-553258-6.
Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
Latham, John (1790). Index Ornithologicus, Sive Systema Ornithologiae: Complectens Avium Divisionem In Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, Ipsarumque Varietates (Volume 1) (in Latin). London: Leigh & Sotheby.
Salomonsen, F. (1967). "Family Meliphagidae, Honeyeaters".  In Paynter, R.A. Jnr. (ed.). Check-list of birds of the world (Volume 12). Vol. 12. Cambridge, Mass.: Museum of Comparative Zoology. pp. 338–450.
Shephard, Mark (1989). Aviculture in Australia: Keeping and Breeding Aviary Birds. Prahran, Victoria: Black Cockatoo Press. ISBN 978-0-9588106-0-9.
Vigors, N.A.; Horsfield, T. (1827). "A description of the Australian birds in the collection of the Linnean Society; with an attempt at arranging them according to their natural affinities (Part 1)". Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. 15 (1): 170–331. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.1826.tb00115.x. The title page of the issue has the year 1826.
White, John (1790). Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales with Sixty-five Plates of Non-descript Animals, Birds, Lizards, Serpents, Curious Cones of Trees and Other Natural Productions. Vol. 1790. London: J. Debrett.


The little wattlebird (Anthochaera chrysoptera), also known as the brush wattlebird, is a passerine bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae. It is found in coastal and sub-coastal south-eastern Australia.


The little wattlebird was formally described by ornithologist John Latham in 1801 under the binomial name Merops chrysoptera. The species is now placed in the genus Anthochaera that was introduced by Nicholas Aylward Vigors and Thomas Horsfield in 1827. The generic name Anthochaera derives from the Ancient Greek anthos 'flower, bloom' and khairō 'enjoy'; the specific epithet chrysoptera derives from Ancient Greek khrysos 'gold' and pteron 'wing'.
The International Ornithologists' Union recognise three subspecies:
A. c. chrysoptera (Latham, 1801) – eastern and southeastern Australia
A. c. halmaturina (Mathews, 1912) – Kangaroo Island (South Australia)
A. c. tasmanica (Mathews, 1912) – Tasmania
The western wattlebird (A. lunulata) was at one time considered as the subspecies A. c. lunulata.


The little wattlebird is a medium to large honeyeater, but the smallest wattlebird. The appearance is similar to the yellow wattlebird and the red wattlebird. The little wattlebird lacks the wattles, which characterise other members of the genus. Juveniles are duller with less streaking and have a browner eye.
Calls include a strident cookay-cok, a raucous fetch the gun, a mellow guttural yekkop, yekkop and many squeaky, musical lilting notes. The alarm call is a kwock or shnairt!.


The little wattlebird is found in banksia/eucalypt woodlands, heathlands, tea-tree scrub, sandplain-heaths, lantana thickets, wild tobacco, parks and gardens.


Little wattlebirds feed on nectar obtained with a long, brush-tipped tongue, adapted for probing deep into flowers. They also feed on insects, berries, and some seeds. Most feeding is done perched, but some insects are caught in mid-air. Birds may feed alone or in groups.


These two subspecies belong to the species Anthophora californica:
Anthophora californica albomarginata  Timberlake, 1937
Anthophora californica californica Cresson, 1869


The starburst anemone or sunburst anemone (Anthopleura sola) is a species of sea anemone in the family Actiniidae. The sunburst anemone was formerly considered the solitary form of the common aggregating anemone, but was identified as a separate species in 2000.


Anthoxanthum odoratum, known as sweet vernal grass, is a short-lived perennial grass that is native to acidic grassland in Eurasia and northern Africa. It is grown as a lawn grass and a house plant, due to its sweet scent, and can also be found on unimproved pastures and meadows. The specific epithet odoratum is Latin for 'odorous'.


Anthoxanthum odaoratum is a short-lived perennial grass that grows in tufts with stems up to 70 cm (28 in) tall. The leaves are short and broad, 3–5 mm (0.12–0.20 in) wide, and glabrous to loosely hairy. It flowers in late spring and early summer, i.e. quite early in the season, with flower spikes of 4–6 centimetres (1.6–2.4 in) long and crowded spikelets of 6–10 mm (0.24–0.39 in), oblong shaped, which can be quite dark when young. The lower lemmas have projecting awns. The ligules are quite long, up to 5 mm (0.20 in), blunt, with hairy fringes around the side.
The scent is particularly strong when dried, and is due to coumarin, a glycoside, and benzoic acid – it smells like fresh hay with a hint of vanilla. The seed head is bright yellow in color.
Anthoxanthum odoratum is experiencing parapatric speciation in areas of mine contamination.


Anthoxanthum odoratum is native to Europe and temperate parts of Asia, but is widely introduced and naturalised so that distribution is now Circumpolar Wide-temperate. It is ubiquitous at the 10 km square level in Britain.


It is grown by scattering seed on tilled ground in the spring through fall, germinating in 4 to 5 days. It prefers sandy loam and acidic conditions (a low pH). As an agricultural grass it has a low yield, but can grow on land too acidic for other grasses.


The oriental pied hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) is an Indo-Malayan pied hornbill, a large canopy-dwelling bird belonging to the family Bucerotidae. Two other common names for this species are Sunda pied hornbill (convexus) and Malaysian pied hornbill.
The species is considered to be among the smallest and most common of the Asian hornbills. It has the largest distribution in the genus and is found in the Indian Subcontinent and throughout Southeast Asia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. The oriental pied hornbill's diet includes fruit, insects, shellfish, small reptiles and, sometimes, small mammals and birds including their eggs.


The oriental pied hornbill is a medium size frugivore with a head-to-tail length of 55–60 cm and a wingspan of 23–36 cm. The bill measures 19 cm for males and 16 cm for females. It can weigh between 600 g and 1,050 g, averaging 900 g for males and 875 g for females. The plumage of the head, neck, back, wings and upper breast is black with a slight green sheen. The tail is black with white tips on all the feathers except the central feathers (rectories). The plumage of their lower breast, lower abdomen, thighs, under-wing and all the tips of the wings except the three basal secondaries and two outer primaries is white, as is the circumorbital skin around the eyes and on the throat skin. A blue tinge can sometimes be noticed on the throat of adults. Casques of mature A. albirostri are laterally flattened “cylinders”, which may form a protruding horn. Males and females are similar in coloration. Males can be distinguished from females by their larger body size, yellow bill, which has a black base, and bright red eyes. Females have a slightly smaller body size, a yellow bill and casque with a partly black, browned patched mandible, and grayish-brown eyes. Juvenile A. albirostris resemble the adults, but have an undeveloped casque and a smaller bill. Their black plumage lacks the green gloss found on adults.
The calls of the oriental pied hornbill have been described as crowlike sounds, braying sounds or harsh crackles and screeches


The oriental pied hornbill is found in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, ranging across Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Eastern and Northern India, Indonesia, Laos,  peninsular Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand, Tibet, Vietnam and the Sunda shelf islands. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. Within these regions, A. albirostris occupies various habitat types, which include dry and semi-evergreen forests, dry and moist deciduous forests, subtropical broadleaf forests, secondary forests, plantations and woodlands.


Hornbills are predominantly frugivores. The oriental pied hornbill's diet consists of wild fruits such as figs (Ficus spp.), melanoxylon berries, rambutans, palm fruit, papaya and fruits of liana plants. It will also take large insects (grasshoppers), small birds (finches) small reptiles (lizards and snakes), amphibians such as frogs, fish, and bats. Its diet differs slightly between the breeding and non-breeding season. During the non-breeding season, oriental pied hornbills feed more on non-fig fruit such as small sized berries, drupes, arillate capsules and lianas (woody vines), however the availability of these food items is lower in the breeding season, which suggests that the species increases its habitat range during that time. They also tend to feed in flocks during the non breeding season. When foraging for food, they tend to select a few common species of fruit trees. They show a preference towards trees belonging to the families Annonaceae, Meliaceae and Myristicaceae. Other target species include Rourea minor, Polyalthia viridis, Cinnamomum subavenium, Trichosanthes tricuspidata, and many others. Feeding on a diversity of fruits ensure that nutritional requirements are met. In the non-breeding season fruits that are selected for are generally sugar rich, while lipid-rich fruits and invertebrates are highly selected for during the breeding season.
Oriental pied hornbills are important large seed dispersers, promoting seedling recruitment by translocating the seeds of the fruits they feed on. Few other bird species outside the hornbill family have large enough gape widths to allow them to disperse large seeds to special microsites or open habitats. Seed dispersal behavior of hornbills thus helps shape forest communities, and disruption of this animal-plant interaction may have significant impacts on the reshaping of forest communities.


The species has an extremely wide range and appears to be the hornbill species most adaptable to habitat alterations; it is thus not currently considered to be threatened. What declines in oriental pied hornbill population have been reported are mainly caused by legal and illegal logging, which decreases the availability of suitable nesting and fruiting trees. A. albirostris are subject to some hunting pressure (casques are sold as souvenirs) and are popular as pets in some areas. It has also been noted that the species has been almost completely extirpated from southern China. In Singapore, the local population went locally extinct in the 1960s, but bounced back in the 1990s and hornbills are now widespread around the island.
Conservation efforts such as captive breeding and reintroduction are currently in practice. Breeding in captivity has so far shown a low success rate. In some areas such as Cambodia, artificial nests made from iron tanks are installed in nesting sites to provide alternative nesting sites for hornbills when natural nest-site availability is low and to aid reintroduction.


The green-breasted mango (Anthracothorax prevostii) is a hummingbird from tropical America. The scientific name of this bird commemorates the French naturalist Florent Prévost.


Adults of this medium-sized hummingbird species are 11–12 cm in length. Males average 7.2 g, females, 6.8 g. The longish black bill is slightly decurved. The tail in both sexes has dark central feathers. In adult males, the outer tail feathers are deep magenta to wine purple tipped with black. In females and juvenile males, the outer tail feathers are broadly banded in magenta and iridescent dark blue, with narrow white tips on the outer 3–4 feathers.
The adult male has glossy bright green upperparts. His throat and chest have a relatively narrow matte black central area, bordered with blue-green. The flanks are bright green, and the black of the chest tapers onto the belly.
Females and immature males have bronze-green upperparts and largely white underparts with a dark central stripe that changes from black at the chin to blue-green on the throat. Immature birds of both sexes usually show some gray or buff feather edges on the head and wings and are mottled with cinnamon to rusty brown along the edges of the white breast-belly stripe. Immature females have less extensive magenta in the outer tail feathers than adult females or immature males.
The call of the green-breasted mango is a high-pitched tsup, and the song is a buzzing kazick-kazee-kazick-kazee-kazick-kazee-kazick-kazee.
This species is very similar to the closely related black-throated mango. Although the male green-breasted mango has less extensive black on the underparts, this and other plumage differences are not always easy to confirm in the field because the birds appear all-black. The females of the two species can be almost inseparable, although green-breasted has more extensively coppery upperpart tones than its relative.


This species breeds from eastern and southern Mexico south through Central America, including some near-shore islands, to Costa Rica. In western and central Panama, it is replaced by the possibly conspecific Veraguan mango Anthracothorax veraguensis. Disjunct populations occur along the northern coast of South America from extreme northeastern Colombia through northernmost Venezuela, in the upper Cauca River Valley of southwestern Colombia, and on the coastal slope of southwestern Ecuador and extreme northwestern Peru.
The species is partially migratory, occupying its breeding range in northeastern Mexico (southwestern Tamaulipas and eastern San Luis Potosí to southern Veracruz and extreme western Tabasco) from late February through September. Other movements are poorly understood, but the wide separation of populations in South America suggests a species-wide propensity to travel and/or a more continuous distribution during periods when South America's climate was warmer and drier.
Young birds are responsible for the majority of occurrences in the United States. The first green-breasted mango documented north of Mexico was photographed in coastal Texas in September 1988. The species has since become an increasingly frequent vagrant and extremely rare resident in the lower Rio Grande Valley of southern Texas.
Only three individuals have been documented in the U.S. outside Texas, all visiting feeders at private homes: a juvenile male in Concord, North Carolina in November 2000, a juvenile male in Beloit, Wisconsin first identified in September 2007, and a juvenile bird, possibly a male, in Dublin, Georgia, in October 2007.  Neighbors of the Wisconsin bird's hosts report that the bird had been visiting their feeders since late July. On November 5, 2007, the Beloit green-breasted mango was captured to prevent its death from winter weather.  Against the advice of hummingbird experts, the bird was transferred from the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of the Wisconsin Humane Society to the Brookfield Zoo, near Chicago, which elected to confine the bird permanently with five hummingbirds already in its Perching Bird House.
The species inhabits tropical deciduous forest, open landscapes with scattered large trees, orchards, gardens, and cultivated areas, but its distribution is spotty and often localized.
Like all hummingbirds, it feeds on insects and other invertebrates and nectar. Prey is often taken in mid-air but may also be gleaned from vegetation or stolen from spider webs (a behavior known as kleptoparasitism). Favorite nectar sources include the flowers of large trees such as Inga, Erythrina, and Ceiba or kapok.
The female green-breasted mango lays two white eggs in a tiny cup nest on a high, thin, and usually bare, branch. The exterior of the nest is camouflaged with chips of lichen and other plant fragments. Incubation by the female is 16 to 17 days, and the nestling period lasts another 24.
At a green-breasted mango nest on San Andrés Island (Caribbean), it was noted that the tree was beset with Pseudomyrmex stinging ants. This was also noted at a black-throated mango nest in Cuyabeno Faunistic Reserve, Ecuador. It is likely that the ants would deter predators, but it is not known whether the birds deliberately select such trees for nesting.


The green-breasted mango has been evaluated by the World Conservation Union, a.k.a. International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) and categorized as a species of Least Concern.
The species is not currently protected in the U.S. under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Proposed revisions to the act, published in the Federal Register on August 24, 2006, would extend protection to this and 85 other species of accidental or casual occurrence in the United States, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. The revisions had not been approved as of November 2007, which allowed the capture and permanent captivity of the Wisconsin green-breasted mango to proceed without federal approval.


Anthriscus sylvestris, known as cow parsley, wild chervil, wild beaked parsley, Queen Anne's lace or keck, is a herbaceous biennial or short-lived perennial plant in the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae), genus Anthriscus. It is also sometimes called mother-die (especially in the UK), a name that is also applied to the common hawthorn. It is native to Europe, western Asia and northwestern Africa. It is related to other diverse members of Apiaceae, such as parsley, carrot, hemlock and hogweed.  It is often confused with Daucus carota, another member of the Apiaceae also known as "Queen Anne's lace" or "wild carrot".


Cow parsley is an upright herbaceous (non-woody) perennial, growing to 60–170 centimetres (24–67 inches) tall. The stems are hollow, striate (striped with parallel, longitudinal lines), furrowed, and green in colour with flushes of purple, with a diameter up to 1.5 cm (0.59 in). It has tiny hairs on the stem, rachis, and leaf stalks which are difficult to see but can easily be detected by touch. The petioles clasp the stem around the base and are broad and flattened with a downy margin. The rachis has a deep grooved channel.
The leaves are triangular, 2–3 pinnate, roughly 30 cm wide and 45 cm long, green, and fern-like or feathery in appearance with hair on the underside. The lowest primary division is much smaller than the rest of the leaf.
The flowers are arranged in compound umbels on short pedicels (<1 cm) with a ring of short, stout hairs at the apex. There are downy oval bractioles with red pointy tips on the umblets, arranged on 4–10 rays 1.5–3 cm long. The rays are glabrous (smooth and hairless), with no bract present. Peduncles are similar in length to rays, more or less glabrous and furrowed. Each flower has 5 white petals, 2 stamens and 2 styles with an enlarged base forming a swelling at the apex of the ovary (stylopodium).
The main stem meets the roots in a single primary taproot which can branch further below the surface. From the roots lateral rhizomes can form.
Flowering time – April to early June.


Cow parsley grows in sunny to semi-shaded locations in meadows and at the edges of hedgerows and woodland. It is a particularly common sight by the roadside and with its frothy early-flowering white blooms is regarded as the most important springtime landscape wildflower in Britain. However, the plant is also sufficiently common and fast-growing to be considered a nuisance weed in gardens.  Cow parsley's ability to spread rapidly by means of rhizomes and to produce large quantities of seeds in a single growing season has made it an invasive species in many areas of the United States. Vermont has listed cow parsley on its "Watch List" of invasive species, while Massachusetts has banned the sale of the plant. It is classed as a Class B Noxious Weed in the State of Washington since 1989, where its sale is also banned. In Iceland, cow parsley has been classified as an alien invasive species.


All aboveground parts of the cow parsley plant are edible, with a flavour sharper than garden chervil and described as grassy parsley, with a hint of licorice or aniseed. However, it is suspected of being mildly toxic according to some sources. The plant is invasive and spreads easily along roads, and the edges of woods and fields, so it is not cultivated but instead foraged in the wild from February to November. However extreme caution is advised when foraging cow parsley because it is easily confused with other species of the Apiaceae family, such as the deadly poison hemlock, hemlock water-dropwort and fool's parsley. Because the plant's flavour is considered unremarkable and the risk is great, foraging cow parsley in the wild is usually strongly discouraged.


The blue crane (Grus paradisea), also known as the Stanley crane and the paradise crane, is the national bird of South Africa. The species is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN.


The blue crane is a tall, ground-dwelling bird, but is fairly small by the standards of the crane family. It is 100–120 cm (3 ft 3 in – 3 ft 11 in) tall, with a wingspan of 180–200 cm (5 ft 11 in – 6 ft 7 in) and weighs 3.6–6.2 kg (7.9–13.7 lb). Among standard measurements, the wing chord measures 51.4–59 cm (20.2–23.2 in), the exposed culmen measures 8–10 cm (3.1–3.9 in) and the tarsus measures 20.5–25.2 cm (8.1–9.9 in). This crane is pale blue-gray in color becoming darker on the upper head, neck and nape. From the crown to the lores, the plumage is distinctly lighter, sometimes whitish. The bill is ochre to greyish, with a pink tinge. The long wingtip feathers which trail to the ground. The primaries are black to slate grey, with dark coverts and blackish on the secondaries. Unlike most cranes, it has a relatively large head and a proportionately thin neck. Juveniles are similar but slightly lighter, with tawny coloration on the head, and no long wing plumes.


Blue cranes are birds of the dry grassy uplands, usually the pastured grasses of hills, valleys, and plains with a few scattered trees. They prefer areas in the nesting season that have access to both upland and wetland areas, though they feed almost entirely in dry areas. They are altitudinal migrants, generally nesting in the lower grasslands of an elevation of around 1,300 to 2,000 m and moving down to lower altitudes for winter.


Of the 15 species of crane, the blue crane has the most restricted distribution of all. Even species with lower population numbers now (such as Siberian or whooping cranes) are found over a considerable range in their migratory movements. The blue crane is migratory, primarily altitudinal, but details are little known.
The blue crane is partially social, less so during the breeding season. There is a strict hierarchy in groups, with the larger adult males being dominant. They overlap in range with three other crane species but interactions with these species and other "large wader" type birds are not known. They are relentlessly aggressive to various other animals during the nesting season, attacking non-predatory species such as cattle, tortoises, plovers and even sparrows. Humans are also attacked if they approach a nest too closely, with the aggressive male having torn clothes and drawn blood in such cases.


Blue cranes feed from the ground and appear to rarely feed near wetland areas. Most of their diet is comprised by grasses and sedges, with many types fed on based on their proximity to the nests. They are also regularly insectivorous, feeding on numerous, sizeable insects such as grasshoppers. Small animals such as crabs, snails, frogs, small lizards and snakes may supplement the diet, with such protein-rich food often being broken down and fed to the young.


The breeding period is highly seasonal, with eggs being recorded between October and March. Pair-formation amongst groups often starts in October, beginning with both potential parents running in circles with each other. The male then engages in a "dance" flings various objects in the air and then jumps. Eventually, a female from the group and the male appear to "select" each other and both engage in the dance of throwing objects and jumping. After the dance, mating commences in around two weeks.
In a great majority of known nests, two eggs are laid (rarely one or three). Both males and females will incubate, with the male often incubating at night and, during the day, defending the nest territory while the female incubates. The incubation stage lasts around 30 days. The young are able to walk after two days and can swim well shortly thereafter. They are fed primarily by their mothers, who regurgitates food into the mouths. The chicks fledge in the age of 3–5 months. The young continue to be tended to until the next breeding season, at which time they are chased off by their parents.


While it remains common in parts of its historic range, and approx. 26 000 individuals remain, it began a sudden population decline from around 1980 and is now classified as vulnerable.
In the last two decades, the blue crane has largely disappeared from the Eastern Cape, Lesotho, and Swaziland. The population in the northern Free State, Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and North West Province has declined by up to 90%. The majority of the remaining population is in eastern and southern South Africa, with a small and separate population in the Etosha Pan of northern Namibia. Occasionally, isolated breeding pairs are found in five neighbouring countries.
The primary causes of the sudden decline of the blue crane are human population growth, the conversion of grasslands into commercial tree plantations, and poisoning: deliberate (to protect crops) or accidental (baits intended for other species, and as a side-effect of crop dusting).
The South African government has stepped up legal protection for the blue crane. Other conservation measures are focusing on research, habitat management, education, and recruiting the help of private landowners.
The blue crane is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.
Since October 2021, the Blue Crane has been classified as Moderately Depleted by the IUCN.


The blue crane is culturally significant to the Xhosa people, who call it indwe (flag). Traditionally, when a man distinguished himself in battle or otherwise, he was often decorated by a chief with blue crane feathers in a ceremony called ukundzabela. Men so honoured, who would wear the feathers sticking out of their hair, were known as men of ugaba (trouble)—the implication being that if trouble arose, they would reinstate peace and order.
It is also of significance to the Zulu people, whose kings and warriors wore a single or many feathers as a headdress.
Because of the association with warriors and heroism, the Isitwalandwe Medal was created to honour those who had "made an outstanding contribution and sacrifice to the liberation struggle", that is, those who resisted the apartheid regime in South Africa (1949–1991) in various ways. Isitwalandwe means "the one who wears the plumes of the rare bird", or blue crane.
The blue crane is also the national bird of South Africa.


The demoiselle crane (Grus virgo) is a species of crane found in central Eurosiberia, ranging from the Black Sea to Mongolia and North Eastern China. There is also a small breeding population in Turkey. These cranes are migratory birds. Birds from western Eurasia will spend the winter in Africa while the birds from Asia, Mongolia and China will spend the winter in the Indian subcontinent. The bird is symbolically significant in the culture of India, where it is known as Koonj or Kurjaa.


The demoiselle is 85–100 cm (33.5–39.5 in) long, 76 cm (30 in) tall and has a 155–180 cm (61–71 in) wingspan. It weighs 2–3 kg (4.4–6.6 lb). It is the smallest species of crane. The demoiselle crane is slightly smaller than the common crane but has similar plumage. It has a long white neck stripe and the black on the foreneck extends down over the chest in a plume.
It has a loud trumpeting call, higher-pitched than the common crane. Like other cranes it has a dancing display, more balletic than the common crane, with less leaping.
The demoiselle was so named by Queen Marie Antoinette, for its delicate and maiden-like appearance.


The demoiselle crane lives in a variety of different environments, including desert areas and numerous types of grasslands (flooded, mountain, temperate and tropical grassland) which are often within a few hundred metres of streams or lakes. However, when nesting, they prefer patchy areas of vegetation which is tall enough to conceal them and their nests, yet short enough to allow them look out for predators whilst incubating their eggs.
Demoiselle cranes have to take one of the toughest migrations in the world. In late August through September, they gather in flocks of up to 400 individuals and prepare for their flight to their winter range. During their migratory flight south, demoiselles fly like all cranes, with their head and neck straight forward and their feet and legs straight behind, reaching altitudes of 16,000–26,000 feet (4,900–7,900 metres). Along their arduous journey they have to cross the Himalayan mountains to get to their over-wintering grounds in India. Many die from fatigue, hunger and predation from golden eagles. Simpler, lower routes are possible, such as crossing the range via the Khyber Pass. However, their presently preferred route has been hard-wired by countless cycles of migration. At their wintering grounds, demoiselles have been observed flocking with common cranes, their combined totals reaching up to 20,000 individuals. Demoiselles maintain separate social groups within the larger flock. In March and April, they begin their long spring journey back to their northern nesting grounds.
In Khichan, Rajasthan in India, villagers feed the cranes on their migration and these large congregations have become an annual spectacle.
The demoiselle crane is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.


The demoiselle crane is known as the Koonj /Kurjan(कूंज,कुरजां کونج, ਕੂੰਜ) in the languages of North India, and figure prominently in the literature, poetry and idiom of the region. Beautiful women are often compared to the koonj because its long and thin shape is considered graceful. Metaphorical references are also often made to the koonj for people who have ventured far from home or undertaken hazardous journeys.
The name koonj is derived from the Sanskrit word kraunch, which is a cognate Indo-European term for crane itself. In the ancient story of Valmiki, the composer of the Hindu epic Ramayana, it is claimed that his first verse was inspired by the sight of a hunter kill the male of a pair of demoiselle cranes that were courting. Observing the lovelorn female circling and crying in grief, he cursed the hunter in verse. Since tradition held that all poetry prior to this moment had been revealed rather than created by man, this verse concerning the demoiselle cranes is regarded as the first human-composed meter.
The flying formation of the koonj during migrations also inspired infantry formations in ancient India. The Mahabharata epic describes both warring sides adopting the koonj formation on the second day of the Kurukshetra War.
In Pashto this bird is called (Zaanray), like Urdu where koonj is used for beautiful person the Pashto word Zaanray also used for beautiful person.


The African pipit (Anthus cinnamomeus) is a fairly small passerine bird belonging to the pipit genus Anthus in the family Motacillidae. It is also known as the grassveld pipit or grassland pipit. It was formerly lumped together with the Richard's, Australasian, mountain and paddyfield pipits in a single species, Richard's pipit (Anthus novaeseelandiae), but is now often treated as a species in its own right.


It occurs in grassland and fields in Southern, Central and East Africa, south-east of a line from Angola through the DRCongo to Sudan. It is also found in south-western Arabia. There is an isolated population in the highlands of Cameroon which is sometimes considered to be a separate species: Cameroon pipit (Anthus camaroonensis).


Zimmerman, Turner, and Pearson (1999) call it "the common East African pipit," but BirdLife International has lumped the African pipit with Richard's pipit, and therefore has given it no separate conservation status.


The olive-backed pipit (Anthus hodgsoni) is a small passerine bird of the pipit (Anthus) genus, which breeds across southern, north central and eastern Asia, as well as in the north-eastern European Russia. It is a long-distance migrant moving in winter to southern Asia and Indonesia. Sometimes it is also called Indian pipit or Hodgson's pipit, as well as tree pipit owing to its resemblance with the tree pipit. However, its back is more olive-toned and less streaked than that species, and its head pattern is different with a better-marked supercilium.
The genus name Anthus is from Latin and is the name for a small bird of grasslands. The specific hodgsoni commemorates English diplomat and collector Brian Houghton Hodgson.


The meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis) is a small passerine bird, which breeds in much of the Palearctic, from southeastern Greenland and Iceland east to just east of the Ural Mountains in Russia, and south to central France and Romania; an isolated population also occurs in the Caucasus Mountains. It is migratory over most of its range, wintering in southern Europe, North Africa, and south-western Asia, but is resident year-round in western Europe, though even here many birds move to the coast or lowlands in winter.


The meadow pipit was formally described by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Alauda pratensis. The type locality is Sweden. The meadow pipit is now the type species of the  genus Anthus that was introduced in 1805 by German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein. The species is monotypic; no subspecies are recognised.
The generic name Anthus is the Latin name for a small bird of grasslands mentioned by Pliny the Elder, and the specific name pratensis means "of a meadow ", from pratum,  "meadow". The name "pipit", first documented by Thomas Pennant in 1768, is onomatopoeic, from the call note of this species.  Old folk names, no longer used, include "chit lark", "peet lark", "tit lark", and "titling"; these refer to its small size and superficial similarity to a lark.


This is a widespread and often abundant small pipit, 14.5–15 cm (5+1⁄2–6 in) long and 15–22 g (0.53–0.78 oz) weight. It is an undistinguished-looking species on the ground, mainly brown above and buff below, with darker streaking on most of its plumage; the tail is brown, with narrow white side edges. It has a thin bill and pale pinkish-yellow legs; the hind claw is notably long, longer than the rest of the hind toes. The call is a weak tsi-tsi. The simple repetitive song is given in a short song flight. Birds breeding in Ireland and western Scotland are slightly darker coloured than those in other areas, and are often distinguished as the subspecies A. p. whistleri, though it intergrades clinally with nominate A. p. pratensis found in the rest of the species' range.
It is similar to the red-throated pipit A. cervinus, which is more heavily streaked and (in summer only) has an orange-red throat, and to the tree pipit A. trivialis, which is slightly larger, less heavily streaked, and has stronger facial markings and a shorter hind claw. The song of the meadow pipit accelerates towards the end while that of the tree pipit slows down.


The paddyfield pipit or Oriental pipit (Anthus rufulus) is a small passerine bird in the pipit and wagtail family. It is a resident (non-migratory) breeder in open scrub, grassland and cultivation in southern Asia east to the Philippines. Although among the few breeding pipits in the Asian region, identification becomes difficult in winter when several other species migrate into the region. The taxonomy of the species is complex and has undergone considerable changes.


This is a large pipit at 15 cm, but is otherwise an undistinguished looking bird, mainly streaked grey-brown above and pale below with breast streaking. It is long legged with a long tail and a long dark bill. Sexes are similar. Summer and winter plumages are similar. Young birds are more richly coloured below than adults and have the pale edges to the feathers of the upper parts more conspicuous with more prominent spotting on the breast. The population waitei from north-western India and Pakistan is pale while the population malayensis from the Western Ghats is larger, darker and more heavily streaked with the nominate rufulus intermediate.
In winter some care must be taken to distinguish this from other pipits that winter in the area, such as Richard's pipit, Anthus richardi and Blyth's pipit, Anthus godlewskii. The paddyfield pipit is smaller and dumpier, has a shorter looking tail and has weaker fluttering flight. The usually uttered characteristic chip-chip-chip call is quite different from usual calls of Richard's pipit (an explosive shreep) and Blyth's pipit (a nasal pschreen). The tawny pipit has less streaking on the mantle and has a black loreal stripe and a longer tail. The Western Ghats population can appear very similar to the Nilgiri pipit.


Some of the subspecies in the group were formerly treated as a subspecies of the Australasian pipit Anthus novaeseelandiae and the grouping has been in state of flux. Considerable colour and morphological variation with age and latitude make the species difficult to identify from museum specimens. Six subspecies are now included in this species.
rufulus described by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1818 – found in most of Indian Subcontinent (except for the north-west, north and extreme south-west) east to southern China, south to southern Thailand and Indochina
waitei described by Hugh Whistler in 1936 (not always recognized) is found in the dry zone of the north-western part of the Indian Subcontinent
malayensis described by Thomas Campbell Eyton in 1839 is the dark form of the wet zone of the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka
lugubris described by Viscount Walden in 1875 – found in Philippines; possibly also northern Borneo.
albidus described by Erwin Stresemann in 1912 – found in Sulawesi, Bali and the western Lesser Sundas (Lombok, Sumbawa, Komodo, Padar, Rinca, Flores, Sumba).
medius described by Wallace in 1864 – found in the eastern Lesser Sundas (Sawu, Roti, Timor, Kisar, Leti, Moa, Sermata).
Some authorities consider paddyfield pipit to be a subspecies of Richard's pipit, A. richardi.


A widespread species found in open habitats, especially short grassland and cultivation with open bare ground. It runs rapidly on the ground, and when flushed, does not fly far.
The paddyfield pipit breeds throughout the year but mainly in the dry season. Birds may have two or more broods in a year. During the breeding season, it sings by repeating a note during its descent from a short fluttery flight, a few feet above the ground. It builds its nest on the ground under a slight prominence, a tuft of grass, or at the edge of a bush. The nests are woven out of grass and leaves and are normally cup shaped. Exposed nests are sometimes domed or semi-domed, the long grass at the back and sides extending over the top. Nests are lined with finer grass or roots and sometimes with a little dry moss, bracken or other material at the base of the nest. The usual clutch is three or four eggs with greenish ground colour and numerous small brown specks at the larger end. When disturbed near the nest, the birds flutter nearby with weak tsip-tsip-tsip calls. Parent birds may also feign injury to distract predators. Mites are known to cause scaly leg lesions. It feeds principally on small insects but consumes larger beetles, tiny snails, worms etc. while walking on the ground, and may pursue insects like mosquitoes or termites in the air.
A species of Haemoproteus, H. anthi, has been described from this species.


The water pipit (Anthus spinoletta) is a small passerine bird which breeds in the mountains of Southern Europe and the Palearctic eastwards to China. It is a short-distance migrant; many birds move to lower altitudes or wet open lowlands in winter.
The water pipit in breeding plumage has greyish-brown upperparts, weakly streaked with darker brown, and pale pink-buff underparts fading to whitish on the lower belly. The head is grey with a broad white supercilium ("eyebrow"), and the outer tail feathers are white. In winter, the head is grey-brown, the supercilium is duller, the upperparts are more streaked, and the underparts are white, streaked lightly with brown on the breast and flanks. There are only minor differences among the three subspecies, the sexes are almost identical, and young birds resemble adults. The water pipit's song is delivered from a perch or in flight, and consists of four or five blocks, each consisting of about six repetitions of a different short note.
Water pipits construct a cup-like nest on the ground under vegetation or in cliff crevices and lay four to six speckled grey-ish white eggs, which hatch in about two weeks with a further 14–15 days to fledging. Although pipits occasionally catch insects in flight, they feed mainly on small invertebrates picked off the ground or vegetation, and also some plant material.
The water pipit may be hunted by birds of prey, infested by parasites such as fleas, or act as an involuntary host to the common cuckoo, but overall its population is large and stable, and it is therefore evaluated as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).


The family Motacillidae consists of the wagtails, pipits and longclaws. The largest of the three groups is the pipits, genus Anthus, which are typically brown-plumaged terrestrial insectivores. Their similar appearances have led to taxonomic problems; the water pipit and the buff-bellied pipit were both formerly considered subspecies of the European rock pipit. Of these, the rock pipit is the more closely related to the water pipit, based on external and molecular characteristics. Other near relatives are the meadow, red-throated and rosy pipits.
The water pipit was first described by Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae in 1758 as Alauda spinoletta (characterised as A. rectricibus fuscis : extimis duabus oblique dimidiato-albis). The current genus Anthus was created for the pipits by German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein in 1805. Anthus is the Latin name for a small bird of grasslands, and the specific spinoletta is a local dialect word for a pipit from the Florence area of Italy.
There are three recognised subspecies of the water pipit:
Anthus spinoletta spinoletta, (Linnaeus, 1758), the nominate subspecies, breeds in the mountains of southern Europe from the Pyrenees eastwards to northwestern Turkey, and on Sardinia and Corsica.
Anthus spinoletta coutellii, Audouin, 1828, breeds in the mountains of Turkey other than the northwest, the Caucasus, northern Iran and Turkmenistan.
Anthus spinoletta blakistoni,  R. Swinhoe, 1863, breeds in mountains across Asia from southern Russia east to central China.
A possible fourth race from the northwestern Caucasus, Anthus spinoletta caucasicus, cannot be reliably separated from A.s. coutellii. The latter form is itself a potential new species, based on genetic data, appearance and a characteristic flight call.


The water pipit is 15–17 centimetres (5.9–6.7 in) long and weighs 18.7–23 grams (0.66–0.81 oz). The adult of the nominate race in spring plumage has greyish-brown upperparts, weakly streaked with darker brown, and pale pink-buff underparts fading to whitish on the lower belly. There may be some faint streaking on the breast and flanks. The head is grey with a broad white supercilium. The outer tail feathers are white, and the legs, bill and iris are dark brown or blackish. In non-breeding plumage, the head is grey-brown and the supercilium is less distinct. The upperparts are more streaked, and the underparts are white, marked lightly with brown on the breast and flanks.
The sexes are similar although the female has, on average, a greyer head. Young birds resembles the non-breeding adult, but are browner and more streaked above with prominent streaking on the underparts. A. s. coutellii is smaller than the nominate subspecies and the white of the outer tail feathers has a hint of grey. It is paler and more heavily streaked above, and in summer plumage the underparts' colour covers a larger area and has a rusty tint. A. s. blakistoni is large, pale and less strongly streaked.
The water pipit has a complete moult between July and September, although there is considerable individual variation in timing. There is a partial pre-breeding moult, mainly between January and March, but with much variability in timing. This moult typically involves replacing the head, body and some wing feathers, but the extent is again variable. Very occasionally, females may moult into what looks like non-breeding plumage, rather than the expected brighter garb. The chicks start to gain juvenile plumage as soon as a month after hatching, and most have completed the transition to near-adult appearance by September. The first pre-breeding moult is similar to that of the adult, but may be less complete or even absent.
The water pipit is closely related to the Eurasian rock pipit and the meadow pipit, and is rather similar to both in appearance. Compared to the meadow pipit, the water pipit is longer-winged and longer-tailed than its relative, and has much paler underparts. It has dark, rather than pinkish-red, legs. The water pipit in winter plumage is also confusable with the Eurasian rock pipit, but has a strong supercilium, greyer upperparts, and white, not grey, outer tail feathers; it is also typically much warier. The habitats used by European rock and water pipits are completely separate in the breeding season, and there is little overlap even when birds are not nesting. There is also little mixing with breeding meadow pipits, although since 1960 some overlapping territories have been found where the species coexist.
The European rock pipit's subspecies Anthus petrosus littoralis in summer plumage is particularly close in outward appearance to the water pipit. The rock pipit normally has a bluer tint to the head, streaking on the breast and flanks, and buff outer tail feathers, and the songs are also different. The species mostly occupy different habitat types even when they occur in the same general area.


The water pipit's song is delivered from a perch or in flight, and consists of four or five blocks, each consisting of about half a dozen repetitions of a different short note. In comparison, the European rock pipit's song is a sequence of about twenty tinkling cheepa notes followed by a rising series of thin gee calls, and finishing with a short trill. The call of the water pipit is a single or double sharp "dzip" or similar, slightly harsher than soft sip sip sip of the meadow pipit or the shrill pseep of the European rock pipit. The short, thin fist flight call is intermediate between the sip of the meadow pipit and the rock pipit's feest. The differences between the calls of the pipit species are very subtle, and not diagnostic in the absence of other evidence. The flight call of the subspecies A. s. coutellii is shorter and more buzzing than that of the nominate race.


The breeding range of the water pipit is the mountains of southern Europe and Asia from Spain to central China, along with the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica.
The water pipit is predominantly a mountain species in the breeding season, found in alpine pasture and high meadows with short grass and some bushes or rocks. It is typically found close to wetter areas and often on slopes. It breeds between 615–3,200 metres (2,020–10,500 ft) altitude, mostly 1,400–2,500 metres (4,600–8,200 ft). It migrates relatively short distances in autumn to lower ground, typically wintering on coastal wetlands, marshes, rice fields and similar habitats. Although most birds move to lowlands, some may remain at up to 2,000 metres (6,600 ft). Nominate A. s. spinoletta winters mainly in western and southern Europe and in northwestern Africa; in western Europe some birds show fidelity to the same wintering site, returning each year. Birds in Spain appear to move only lower down the mountains in which they breed. A.s. coutellii winters at lower altitudes near its breeding areas and also in the Arabian Peninsula and northeast Africa. A.s. blakistoni winters in Pakistan, northwest India and southern China.
Water pipits leave their breeding sites from mid-September, although the eastern subspecies may start moving south before then. The spring migration starts in February and March, with arrival on the breeding grounds in April and May. The water pipit has been recorded as a vagrant in Belarus, Gibraltar and Latvia, and on islands including the Canaries, Iceland, Malta and Svalbard.


The water pipit is a much less approachable bird as compared to the European rock pipit. It is warier than its relative and if approached it flies some distance before landing again, whereas the rock pipit typically travels only a short distance, close to the ground, before it alights.


The water pipit is mainly monogamous, although both sexes may deviate from this occasionally. The male has a display flight in which he climbs to 10–30 metres (33–98 ft), flies in an arc and glides back down, singing throughout. The female constructs a cup nest from grass and leaves which is lined with finer plant material and animal hairs. The nest is hidden in vegetation on the ground, sometimes in a hollow. The normal clutch is four to six eggs laid from the end of April to early July. Eggs are greyish white with darker grey or brownish speckles mainly at the wider end, and they measure 21 by 16 millimetres (0.83 in × 0.63 in) and weigh 2.7 grams (0.095 oz) of which 5% is shell.
The eggs are incubated by the female for 14–15 days to hatching. Chicks are fed initially by the male, both parents sharing the duty after a few days when the female does not need to brood so often, and they fledge in a further 14–15 days. There may be two broods in a year.
In a Swiss study of the nominate subspecies, 76% of eggs hatched, and 58% of chicks fledged. Birds of the race A. s. blakistoni in the Tian Shan hatched 90% of their eggs, and hatchlings survived to fledging in 47% of the nests. In the latter study, early nests were more likely to fail because less plant cover made them more likely to be found by predators. Neither the average lifespan nor the maximum age of survival are known.


The water pipit's feeding habitat is damp grassland, rather than the rocky coasts favoured by the Eurasian rock pipit. The water pipit feeds mainly on a wide range of invertebrates, including crickets and grasshoppers, beetles, snails, millipedes and spiders. Barkflies, true flies, caterpillars and homopterans can form a large part of the diet of fledglings. Birds close to snow fields take insects specialised for that habitat such as the springtails Isotoma saltans (the glacier flea) and I. nivalis, and the scorpion fly Boreus izyemalis.
Birds normally forage alone or in pairs; in bad weather, foraging is more frequent and involves longer flights, and may be concentrated around marmot burrow entrances. Prey items average 8.3 millimetres (0.33 in) in length and are mainly hunted on foot, although flying insects are occasionally caught in the air. Some plant material is taken, and one study on the border of Czechoslovakia and Poland found that 75% of the diet by volume consisted of algae, specifically Ulothrix zonata, despite large numbers of insects being available.
In areas with acidic soils, there is less calcium available, potentially leading to thinner egg shells. In such locations, pipits are more likely to select snails and similar prey with calcium-rich shells than is the case in limestone terrain.


The water pipit is hunted by birds of prey including the Eleonora's falcon, and eggs and young may be taken by terrestrial predators including stoats and snakes. As with other members of its genus, the water pipit is a host of the common cuckoo, a brood parasite. Eggs of cuckoos that specialise in parasitising pipits are similar in appearance to those of their hosts.
A new species of feather mite, Proctophyllodes schwerinensis, was discovered on the water pipit, which is also a host to the fleas Ceratophyllus borealis and Dasypsyllus gallinulae. Along with other Motacillidae species, the water pipit is a host of the protozoan parasite Haemoproteus anthi.


Estimates of the European breeding population of the water pipit vary widely, but may be as high as two million pairs, which would suggest a global population of tens of millions of individuals spread over 3.7 millionsquare kilometres (1.4 millionsq mi). The range is discontinuous due to the mountain habitat this species uses, but the population is considered overall to be large and stable, and for this reason the water pipit is evaluated as a species of least concern by the IUCN.
Breeding densities (in pairs per ten ha) have been recorded as 2.4 in the Jura Mountains, 3.0–3.6 in the Alps and 4.5 in the Tatra Mountains of Poland.


The tree pipit (Anthus trivialis) is a small passerine bird which breeds across most of Europe and the Palearctic as far East as the East Siberian Mountains. It is a long-distance migrant moving in winter to Africa and southern Asia. The scientific name is from Latin: anthus is the name for a small bird of grasslands, and the specific  trivialis means "common".


The tree pipit was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Alauda trivialis. Linnaeus noted that the species occurred in Sweden. The specific epithet trivialis is Latin meaning "common" or "ordinary" from Latin trivium meaning "public street". The tree pipit is now placed in the genus Anthus that was introduced in 1805 by the German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein.
Two subspecies are recognised:
A. t. trivialis (Linnaeus, 1758) – breeds across Europe to southwest Siberia, north Iran and Turkey, east Kazakhstan, southcentral Siberia, Mongolia and northwest China; winters in India and Africa
A. t. haringtoni Witherby, 1917 – breeds in northwest Himalayas; winters in central India


This is a small pipit, which resembles meadow pipit. It is an undistinguished-looking species, streaked brown above and with black markings on a white belly and buff breast below. It can be distinguished from the slightly smaller meadow pipit by its heavier bill and greater contrast between its buff breast and white belly. Tree pipits more readily perch in trees.
The call is a strong spek, unlike the weak call of its relative. The song flight is unmistakable. The bird rises a short distance up from a tree, and then parachutes down on stiff wings, the song becoming more drawn out towards the end.
The breeding habitat is open woodland and scrub. The nest is on the ground, with 4–8 eggs being laid. This species is insectivorous, like its relatives, but will also take seeds.


mid-September to mid-April: lives in sub Saharan Africa
mid April to beginning of May: migrates and arrives in countries such as the United Kingdom
beginning of May to August: breeding season, two broods
August to mid September: flies back to Saharan Africas


They breed in habitats with a wooded component, including Lowland heath and coppice.  They are found mostly in open birch woodland on the boundary with moorland, or open structured oak woodland – therefore heavy thinning is required to produce a gappy character.  They prefer low canopy medium-sized trees, where there is low-growing scrub and bramble less than 2 metres high, so that horizontal visibility is relatively high.  They like a mosaic of grass and bracken, but not very grazed short turf, so light to moderate grazing is preferred.  Glades are also valuable, and streams are preferred.
Once they have arrived they nest on the ground amongst grass or heather tussocks. They forage on invertebrates found in the ground vegetation.
They need scattered trees as song perches.


The Forestry Commission offers grants under a scheme called England's Woodland Improvement Grant (EWIG); as does  Natural Englands Environmental Stewardship Scheme.


Anticlea elegans, formerly Zigadenus elegans, is also known as mountain deathcamas, elegant camas or alkali grass. It is not a grass (though its leaves are grass-like), but belongs to the trillium family, Melanthiaceae.
It has white lily-like flowers and two-pronged, greenish-yellow glands on each petal (the shape of which can help in distinguishing it from other members of the genus).  It is widely distributed throughout North America and occurs in many habitats.  Plants on the western side of the continent tend to be smaller in size than their eastern counterparts, but have more densely clustered flowers.  The plant is extremely poisonous.
Meriwether Lewis, while on the course of his expedition in 1806, collected a specimen near the Blackfoot River.


Anticlea vasiliata, the variable carpet moth or early carpet, is a moth of the  family Geometridae. The species was first described by Achille Guenée in 1857. It is known from the northern part of the United States and southern Canada, from Newfoundland and Labrador to Maryland, west to California, north to British Columbia.
The wingspan is about 30 mm. It can be distinguished by the combination of a short dark streak at the apex and a protruding double loop mid-way along the postmedial line on the forewings. There usually is a white spot halfway along the subterminal line. Adults are on wing from April to June.
The larvae feed on Rubus idaeus and Rosa carolina.


The brolga (Antigone rubicunda), formerly known as the native companion, is a bird in the crane family. It has also been given the name Australian crane, a term coined in 1865 by well-known ornithologist John Gould in his Birds of Australia.
The brolga is a common, gregarious wetland bird species of tropical and south-eastern Australia and New Guinea. It is a tall, upright bird with a small head, long beak, slender neck, and long legs. Its plumage is mainly grey, with black wing tips, and it has an orange-red band of colour on its head. The brolga's courting dance is similar to that of other cranes and is well recognized by Australians. The nest is built of wetland vegetation, either on an elevated piece of land or floating on shallow water in marshland, and usually two eggs are laid. Incubation takes 32 days, and the newly hatched young are precocial. The adult diet is omnivorous and includes plant matter, invertebrates, and small vertebrates.
Although the bird is not considered endangered over the majority of its range, populations are showing some decline, especially in southern Australia, and local action plans are being undertaken in some areas. It has featured on the Queensland coat of arms since 1977 and was formally declared as the bird emblem of the state in 1986.


When first described by the naturalist George Perry in 1810, the brolga was misclassified as a species of Ardea, the genus that includes the herons and egrets. It is, in fact, a member of the Gruiformes—the order that includes the crakes, rails, and cranes, and a member of the genus Antigone. Ornithologist John Gould used the name Grus australasianus when he wrote about it and noted it to be widespread in the north and east of Australia. He also recorded that it was easy to tame, and that James Macarthur had kept a pair at his home in Camden. Calling it the Australian crane, he mentioned that its early colonial name had been native companion. The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union made brolga, a popular name derived from Gamilaraay burralga, the official name for the bird in 1926.
In 1976, it was suggested that the brolga, sarus crane (Antigone antigone), and white-naped crane (Antigone vipio) formed a natural group on the basis of similarities in their calls. This was further confirmed by molecular studies of their DNA. These also showed that the brolga is more closely related to the white-naped crane than it is to the morphologically more similar sarus crane.
The brolga was formerly placed in the genus Grus, but a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2010 found that the genus, as then defined, was polyphyletic. In the resulting rearrangement to create monophyletic genera, four species, including the brolga, were placed in the resurrected genus Antigone that had originally been erected by German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach in 1853
Two subspecies were suspected to exist: A. r. argentea found in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and western Queensland and A. r. rubicunda, occurring in New Guinea, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. However, mitochondrial analyses have shown both populations sharing haplotypes indicating that they are a single taxon, though microsatellite markers show limited gene flow between the two populations.


The brolga is a tall bird with a large beak, a long and slender neck, and stilt-like legs. The sexes are indistinguishable in appearance, though females are usually a little smaller. The adult has a grey-green, skin-covered crown, and the face, cheeks, and throat pouch are also featherless and are coral red. Other parts of the head are olive green and clothed in dark bristles. The gular pouch, which is particularly pendulous in adult males, is covered with such dense bristles as to make it appear black. The beak is greyish-green in adult birds, long and slender, and the irises are yellowish-orange. The ear coverts appear as a grey patch of small feathers surrounded by red naked skin and the body plumage is silvery-grey. The feathers on the back and the wing coverts have pale margins. The primary wing feathers are black and the secondaries grey. The legs and feet are greyish-black. Juveniles lack the red band and have fully feathered heads with dark irises. A fully grown brolga can reach a height of 0.7 to 1.4 m (2 ft 4 in to 4 ft 7 in) and has a wingspan of 1.7 to 2.4 m (5 ft 7 in to 7 ft 10 in). Adult males have an average body mass of 6.8 kg (15 lb) with females averaging 5.66 kg (12.5 lb). The weight can range from 3.6 to 8.7 kg (7.9 to 19.2 lb). Extreme heights of up to 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) in male brolga have been reported but presumably need confirmation. Per a manual of avian body mass, the brolga is the heaviest flying bird regularly found in mainland Australia, averaging slightly higher in body mass than other large resident species such as black swan, Australian pelican and the Australian population of the sarus crane (as well as much heavier on average than the biggest flying land birds such as the very sexually-dimorphic Australian bustard and wedge-tailed eagle), although heavier birds such as wandering albatross may be seen as marine vagrants off the mainland.
The brolga can easily be confused with the sarus crane, but the latter's red head-colouring extends partly down the neck, while the brolga's is confined to the head. The brolga is more silvery-grey in colour than the sarus, the legs are blackish rather than pink, and the trumpeting and grating calls it makes are at a lower pitch. Additionally, in Australia, sarus crane distribution is limited to north-eastern areas, compared to the more widespread distribution of the brolga.


Brolgas are widespread and often abundant in north and north-east Australia, especially north-east Queensland, and are common as far south as Victoria. They are also found in southern New Guinea and as rare vagrants in New Zealand and the northern part of Western Australia. The population in northern Australia is estimated at between 20,000 and 100,000 birds and in southern Australia, 1,000 birds. The number of individuals in New Guinea is unknown. Until 1961, brolgas were thought to be the only species of crane in Australia, until the sarus crane was also located in Queensland.
Brolga movements in Australia are poorly understood, though seasonal flocks are observed in eastern Queensland in nonbreeding areas regularly, and a few coastal populations are suspected to move up to 500 km (310 mi) inland. Little is known of the movements and habitats of the New Guinea populations.
Further south, in Victoria and New South Wales, rainfall is spread more evenly throughout the year and the driest season lasts from December to May. At this time, southern populations congregate in inland flocking areas, which include upland marshes, the edges of reservoirs and lakes, pastures, and agricultural land. When rain arrives in June and July, they disperse to the coastal freshwater marshes, shallow lakes, wet meadows, and other wetlands where they breed. In south-west Victoria, breeding sites during and immediately after spring are freshwater wetlands, while freshwater, brackish and saline wetland sites used for flocking during the autumn.
Queensland has the greatest numbers of brolgas, and sometimes flocks of over 1,000 individuals are seen. The bird is the official bird emblem for the state and also appears on its coat of arms. Breeding pairs and flocks are distributed across several floodplains along the Gulf of Carpentaria. Brolgas here preferentially use two grassland-dominated regional ecosystems (2.3.1 and 2.3.4), though over 30% of the cranes share four additional Eucalyptus-dominated woodland regional ecosystems with sarus cranes. Brolga numbers were highest in floodplains where grassland habitats dominated, and the largest flocks were also found in grassland habitats.


Brolgas' social unit is very similar to that observed in sarus cranes. In breeding areas, breeding pairs defend territories against other brolgas, and when breeding efforts are successful, remain in territories with one or two chicks. Nonbreeding birds that constitute young birds of past years, as well as adults that likely do not yet have breeding territories, are also found in breeding areas, likely throughout the year. In the nonbreeding season, they gather into large flocks, which appear to be many self-contained individual groups rather than a single social unit. Within the flock, families sometimes remain separate and coordinate their activities with one another rather than with the flock as a whole. In south-western Queensland, 26–40% of all crane sightings were breeding pairs and families in the Gilbert and Flinders river floodplains. Flocks were relatively rarer, but birds in flocks in the Flinders river floodplain comprised 80% of all brolgas counted. In south-west Victoria,  distinct breeding (spring) and flocking (autumn) seasons are noted.
When taking off from the ground, their flight is ungainly, with much flapping of wings. The bird's black wingtips are visible while it is in the air, and once it gathers speed, its flight is much more graceful and it often ascends to great heights. Here, it may be barely discernible as it wheels in great circles, sometimes emitting its hoarse cry.


Brolgas are omnivorous and forage in wetlands, saltwater marshes, and farmlands. They tear up the ground with their powerful beaks in search of bulbs and edible roots. Northern populations have a very varied diet, with minimal contribution of vegetation. They also eat the shoots and leaves of wetland and upland plants, cereal grains, seeds, insects, mollusks, crustaceans, frogs, and lizards. In saltwater marshes, they may drink saline water and they have glands near their eyes through which they can excrete excess salt. Isotopic analyses of molted feathers in their breeding grounds along the Gulf of Carpentaria showed their diet to be diverse across multiple trophic levels, with minimal contribution of vegetation. Analyses showed strong niche separation between brolgas and sarus cranes by diet. Their diet in dry season flocks at Atherton Highlands likely are very different owing to the largely agricultural landscape.


Brolgas are monogamous and usually bond for life, though new pairings may follow a death of one individual. A feature of a bonded couple is the synchronous calling, which the female usually initiates. She stands with her wings folded and beak pointed to the sky and emits a series of trumpeting calls. The male stands alongside in a similar posture, but with his wings flared and primaries drooping, which is the only time when sex can be differentiated reliably. The male emits one longer call for every two emitted by the female.
Brolgas are well known for their ritualised, intricate mating dances. The performance begins with a bird picking up some grass and tossing it into the air before catching it in its bill. The bird then jumps a metre (yard) into the air with outstretched wings and continues by stretching its neck, bowing, strutting around, calling, and bobbing its head up and down. Sometimes, just one brolga dances for its mate; often they dance in pairs; and sometimes a whole group of about a dozen dance together, lining up roughly opposite each other before they start.
The brolga breeds throughout its range in Australia and New Guinea. The start of the breeding season is largely determined by rainfall rather than the time of year; thus, the season is February to May after the rainy season in the monsoonal areas, and September to December in southern Australia. It is unclear whether all breeding pairs leave breeding territories to join flocks during the dry season or return the subsequent breeding season, and this behavior may vary with location. In food-rich habitats, nests can be quite close together, and in Queensland, are found in the same area as those of the sarus crane. The nest, which is built by both sexes, is a raised mound of uprooted grass, and other plant material sited on a small island in shallow water, or occasionally floating. Sometimes, the birds make hardly any nest, take over a disused swan nest, or simply lay on bare ground. Nests were initiated between November and February in the Gilbert and Flinders River basins, and tracked rainfall episodes in each river basin.
A single brood is produced per year. The clutch size is usually two, but occasionally one or three eggs are laid about two days apart. The dull white eggs are sparsely spotted or blotched with reddish brown, with the markings being denser at the larger end of the egg. They measure 95 by 61 mm (3.7 by 2.4 in), though larger eggs were found in a clutch of three eggs. Both sexes incubate the eggs, with the female sitting on the nest at night. Hatching is not synchronised, and occurs after about 32 days of incubation. The newly hatched chicks are covered with grey down and weigh about 100 g (3.5 oz). They are precocial and are able to leave the nest within a day or two. Both parents feed and guard the young. The chicks fledge within 4–5 weeks, are fully feathered within 3 months, and are able to fly about 2 weeks later. When threatened, they hide and stay quiet, while the parents perform a broken-wing display to distract the predator. The adults continue to protect the young for up to 11 months, or for nearly 2 years if they do not breed again in the interim. Breeding pairs maintain discrete territories within which they raise chicks. Territory sizes in Victoria, south-eastern Australia, ranged between 70 and 523 hectares, and each crane territory had a mix of farmland and wetlands. Families roosted in wetlands at night, and moved an average distance of 442 m to and from these night roosts. Each family used multiple wetlands within their territories, either switching between them, or using wetlands sequentially. Breeding success of territorial pairs (estimated as percentage of pairs that successfully fledged at least one chick) was 59% in the Gilbert River basin and 46% in the Flinders River basin (using a total of 80 pairs located on territories), with 33% of all successful pairs fledging two chicks each.


The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists the brolga as being of "least concern" because it has a large range and a population of more than 10,000 individuals. Although the population may be declining slowly, this is not at a rate that would warrant the brolga being included in a more vulnerable category. Brolgas are not listed as threatened on the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. However, their conservation status varies from state to state within Australia. For example, the brolga is listed as threatened under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (1988).
 Under this Act, an Action Statement for the recovery and future management of this species has been prepared. It is also included in the 2007 advisory list of threatened vertebrate fauna in Victoria where it is listed as vulnerable.
The suspected chief threats faced by the brolga, particularly in the southern part of its range, are habitat destruction particularly spread of blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus) into breeding habitats, the drainage of wetlands, collision with powerlines, burning and grazing regimes, spread of invasive species, and harvesting of eggs. It is more secure in the north-eastern part of its distribution range as the floodplains of Queensland are mostly unsuitable for farming and much of it is in private ownership, but development activities that change or reduce habitat diversity, especially in the Gulf Plains, can have unknown impacts on their populations. Wind farms are an emerging threat, and research on movement and habitat use by breeding pairs and chicks show the importance of locating turbines away from wetlands important for night roosting.
Conservation measures being undertaken include international cooperation, legal protection, research, monitoring, habitat management, education, and the maintenance of captive flocks for propagation and reintroduction. Although the bird breeds well in the wild,  breeding it in captivity has proved to be much more problematic.


Antigonon leptopus, commonly known as coral vine, queen's wreath,Coralita, Cadena de Amor (in the Philippines), bee bush (in many Caribbean islands) or San Miguelito vine, is a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family, Polygonaceae. It is a perennial that is native to Mexico. It is a vine with pink or white flowers (Antigonon leptopus 'alba' ).


This plant is listed as a category II invasive exotic by Florida's pest plant council.
Invasion of A.leptopus on Caribbean island St.Eustatius significantly increased arthropod abundance and caused biotic homogenization. Specifically, uninvaded arthropod communities were distinctly different in species composition between developed and natural sites, while they became undistinguishable after A.leptopus invasion. Moreover, functional variables were significantly affected by species invasion... Invaded communities had higher community‐weighted mean body size and the feeding guild composition of invaded arthropod communities was characterized by the exceptional numbers of nectarivores, herbivores, and detritivores. Taxa indicated as omnivorous (e.g., ants) that seem intrinsically generalistic appear to primarily suffer from A. leptopus invasion and may be particularly sensitive to the habitat structural effects of A.leptopus. Increased coverage of A. leptopus leads to a significant decrease in the abundance of predatory lizards of the genus Anolis. Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.15091


Antigonon leptopus is a fast-growing climbing vine that holds on via tendrils, and is able to reach over 7 metres in length. It has cordate (heart-shaped), sometimes triangular leaves 25 to 75 mm long. The flowers are borne in panicles, clustered along the rachis. Producing pink or white flowers from spring to autumn, it forms underground tubers and large rootstocks. It is a prolific seed producer. The seeds float on water. The fruit and seeds are eaten and spread by a wide range of animals such as pigs, racoons and birds. The tubers will resprout if the plant is cut back or damaged by frost.


Antigonon leptopus was prepared for consumption by the aboriginal inhabitants of Baja California in a way somewhat reminiscent of preparing popcorn.  The seeds were toasted by placing them in a flat basket made of flexible twigs torn into strips and woven to make a solid surface. On top of the seeds were placed live coals, and with both hands the basket was shaken so that the coals came up against the seeds, toasting them, but not burning the basket. When the toasting was finished, the burned-out coals were removed. Using this method, a major portion of the seeds burst open, exposing a white meal. Afterwards, the seeds were separated from the husks from which they had emerged by dextrously tossing them into the air with the basket, in the same way, that wheat is winnowed in Spain. The seeds were then ground and the resulting meal was eaten. Alternatively, the seeds could be boiled and made into fried cakes. and  it is use for making  tea. It is good for the  common  flu (influenza) and period pains and many  other symptoms.


Antirrhinum majus, the common snapdragon (often - especially in horticulture - simply "snapdragon"), is a species of flowering plant belonging to the genus Antirrhinum. The plant was placed in the family Plantaginaceae following a revision of its prior classical family, Scrophulariaceae.
The common name "snapdragon", originates from the flowers' reaction to having their throats squeezed, which causes the "mouth" of the flower to snap open like a dragon's mouth. It is widely used as an ornamental plant in borders and as a cut flower. It is perennial but usually cultivated as an annual plant. The species has been in culture since the 15th century.


There are five subspecies:
Antirrhinum majus subsp. majus. Southern France, northeast Spain.
Antirrhinum majus subsp. cirrhigerum (Ficalho) Franco. Southern Portugal, southwest Spain.
Antirrhinum majus subsp. linkianum (Boiss. & Reut.) Rothm. Western Portugal (endemic).
Antirrhinum majus subsp. litigiosum (Pau) Rothm. Southeastern Spain.
Antirrhinum majus subsp. tortuosum (Bosc) Rouy. Throughout the species' range.


It is an herbaceous perennial plant, growing to 0.5–1 m tall, rarely up to 2 m. The leaves are spirally arranged, broadly lanceolate, 1–7 cm long and 2-2.5 cm broad. The upper glandular stalk is stalk-round, sometimes woody to the middle. The opposite leaves are simple, elliptic or ovate to broad-lanceolate, sometimes linear and usually bleak. Leaflets are missing.
The flowers are produced on a tall spike, each flower is 3.5-4.5 cm long, zygomorphic, with two 'lips' closing the corolla tube lobed divided into three parts and is purple red, almost 5 cm long. Wild plants have pink to purple flowers, often with yellow lips. Most 8 to 30 short stalked flowers are in an inflorescence together; the inflorescence axis is glandular hairy. The crown is 25 to 45 (rarely to 70) millimeters long and in different colors (red, pink, orange, yellow, white). The "maw" of the crown is closed by protuberance of the lower lip, one speaks here of "masked", and everted baggy at the bottom. There is a circle with four stamens. The plants are pollinated by bumblebees, and the flowers close over the insects when they enter and deposit pollen on their bodies. Calyx is up to 8 mm long, with sepals of equal length, oblong to broad.
The ovary is supreme. The fruit Is an ovoid capsule 10–14 mm diameter shaped like a skull, containing numerous small seeds.


It is native to the Mediterranean region, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern France, and east to Turkey and Syria. They often grow in crevices and walls.


Antirrhinum majus to some extent can survive frost as well as higher temperature, but does best at temperatures around 17–25 °C. Nighttime temperatures around 15–17 °C encourage growth in both the apical meristem and stem of A. majus. The species is able to grow well from seeds, flowering quickly in 3 to 4 months. It is also able to be grown through cutting.
Though perennial, the species is often cultivated as a biennial or annual plant, particularly in colder areas where it may not survive the winter. Numerous cultivars are available, including plants with lavender, orange, pink, yellow, or white flowers, and also plants with peloric flowers, where the normal flowering spike is topped with a single large, symmetrical flower. The cultivars ’Floral Showers Deep Bronze’
and ‘Montego Pink’
have gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.
The trailing (creeping) variety is often referred to as A. majus pendula (syn. A. pendula, A. repens).
It often escapes from cultivation, and naturalised populations occur widely in Europe north of the native range, and elsewhere in temperate regions of the world.
Past common names for Antirrhinum majus include: great snapdragon, lion's-mouth, rabbit's mouth, bonny rabbits, calf-snout, toad's mouth, bulldogs, and lion's-snap.


In the laboratory it is a model organism, for example containing the gene DEFICIENS which provides the letter "D" in the acronym MADS-box for a family of genes which are important in plant development. Antirrhinum majus has been used as a model organism in biochemical and developmental genetics for nearly a century. Many of the characteristics of A. majus made it desirable as a model organism; these include its diploid inheritance, ease of cultivation (having a relatively short generation time of around 4 months), its ease of both self-pollination and cross-pollination, and A. majus's variation in morphology and flowering color. It also benefits from its divergence from Arabidopsis thaliana, with A. thaliana's use as a common eudicot model, it has been used to compare against A. majus in developmental studies.
Studies in A. majus have also been used to suggest that, at high temperatures, DNA methylation is not vital in suppressing the Tam3 transposon. Previously, it was suggested that DNA methylation was important in this process, this theory coming from comparisons of the degrees of methylation when transposition is active and inactive. However, A. majus's Tam3 transposon process did not completely support this. Its permission of transposition at 15 °C and strong suppression of transposition at temperatures around 25 °C showed that suppression of the transposition state was unlikely to be caused by the methylation state. It was shown that low temperature-dependent transposition was the cause of the methylation/demethylation of Tam3, not the other way around as previously believed. It was shown in a study that decreases in the methylation of Tam3 were found in tissue that was still developing at cooler temperatures, but not in tissue that was developed or grown in hotter temperatures.
Antirrhinum majus has also been used to examine the relationship between pollinators and plants. With debate as to the evolutionary advantages the conical-papillate shape of flower petals, with arguments suggesting the shape either enhanced and intensified the color of the flower or aided in orienting pollinators through sight or touch. The benefit that A. majus brought was through an identification of a mutation at the MIXTA locus that prevented this conical petal shape from forming. This allowed testing of the pollination plants with and without conical petals as well as comparisons of the absorption of light between these two groups. With the MIXTA gene being necessary in the formation of conical cells, the use of the gene in breeding of Antirrhinum was crucial, and allowed for the tests which showed why many plants produced conical-papillate epidermal cells.
Another role A. majus played in examining the relationship between pollinator and plant were in the studies of floral scents. Two of A. majus's enzymes, phenylpropanoids and isoprenoids, were used in the study of its floral scent production and the scent's effect on attracting pollinators.


Antirrhinum majus may suffer from some pests and diseases.


Antirrhinum majus suffers mostly from fungal infections.
Anthracnose: A disease caused by fungi of the genus Colletotrichum. This disease targets the leaves and stem causing them a yellow with a brownish border to the infected spot. It is recommended to destroy infected plants and space existing ones farther apart.
Botrytis: Also known as Grey Mould, this infection occurs under the flower of A. majus. Botrytis causes wilting of the flower's spikes and causes a light browning of the stem below the cluster of flowers. Botrytis causes quick and localized drying and browning in the flower, leaves, and shoots of A. majus. In warmer weather, Botrytis becomes more severe. Treatment of Botrytis involves cutting off the infected stock and clearing the surrounding area of A. majus from any of this debris.
Pythium: Wilting in the plant may be caused by a Pythium species fungal infection if the plant is receiving adequate water.
Rust: Another fungal disease that A. majus is susceptible to is rust. It can first be seen on the plant as light-green circles, on the stem or underside of its leaves, that eventually turn brown and form pustules. Rust may cause A. majus to bloom prematurely, sprout smaller flowers, and begin decomposition earlier.
Stem rot: A fungal infection, it can be seen as a cottony growth on the stem, low, near the soil. If infected, it is suggested the plant be destroyed.


Apamea amputatrix, the yellow-headed cutworm, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in most of North America, north to the Arctic.


This wingspan is about 40 mm. The moth flies from April to October depending on the location.
The larvae feed on a wide range of host plants, including vegetable crops.


Apamea monoglypha, the dark arches, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Johann Siegfried Hufnagel in 1766. It is a common, sometimes abundant, European species. It is found in most of Europe except northernmost Fennoscandia and the southern parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Greece. The species is also found in Anatolia, Turkestan, Western Asia and Central Asia, Siberia and Mongolia. In the Alps it is found up to heights of 2,500 meters. The smaller subspecies sardoa is found on Sardinia and Corsica.
This species has a wingspan of 46 to 54 mm, the forewings varying from pale greyish brown to almost black and cryptically patterned. All but the darkest individuals usually have an obvious black mark close to the dorsum and a pale zigzag subterminal line. The hindwings are whitish with darker venation and a dark shaded band at the margin. The larva is dull whitish grey or dark grey; dorsal line pale: lateral line broadly pale; tubercles large and black; head and thoracic plate brown black.


Forewing varying from whitish ochreous, through pale and dark grey to brownish grey, dark brown and black; a black streak from base below cell, another above inner margin near base, and a third, more strongly marked, along submedian fold between the claviform stigma and outer line; inner and outer lines pale, with dark edges; claviform small, dark edged; upper stigmata large, of the ground colour or paler, with pale rings and dark outlines; the orbicular varying in shape, generally oblique and elongate, sometimes shortened, and more rarely rounded; submarginal line pale, zigzag, preceded by black wedge-shaped marks, the terminal area, except at apex, darker; inner margin usually marked with white scales, developed beyond outer line into a more or less prominent pale patch reaching submedian fold; hindwing dirty greyish, with darker cell spot and veins, with a broad fuscous marginal border preceded by a dark outer line; — ab. pallida Fuchs is wholly whitish ochreous, with all the black streaks plain, the stigmata black edged; the central area and the terminal washed with brownish grey; hindwing whitish with an ochreous grey faintly marked border — in intacta Petersen the usual pale patch beyond outer line on inner margin is absent, the whole wing being suffused with grey or grey brown; — ab. obscura Th. Mieg. represents a suffused brown or grey-brown form; — infuscata Buch. White is a northern form with the markings more or less obscured and hidden by blackish suffusion, of which brunnea Tutt is a brown black offshoot; the extreme form of this, when all markings are lost in an intense black suffusion, is aethiops Tutt; in all these dark-suffused forms the hindwing is much darker, especially in the terminal.
This moth flies at night. In the British Isles it is active from June to August with a second brood sometimes emerging in September and October. It is attracted to light, sugar and many nectar-rich flowers.
The larva feeds at the roots of various grasses including tussock grasses, orchard grass, ryegrass, reed grasses, and fescues such as sheep's fescue. This species overwinters as a larva.


The parthenice tiger moth (Apantesis parthenice) is a moth of the  family Erebidae. It is found in south-eastern Canada, and the eastern United States. The moths are common in fields and woodland edges from June to late September. The moth is nocturnal and is attracted to light sources.
The wingspan is about 7.5 cm (3 in). The fore wings and the thorax are black, with a complex network of bold white veining and white margins. The hind wings and abdomen are orange-pink with black patches. The brightly striped pattern of the wings has inspired the common name of tiger moth. Their bodies are stout and furry.
Caterpillars of the species are dark with contrasting bright markings and covered with stiff hairs. They are toxic like the adults. Many species of tiger moths contain toxic substances, so the bright patterns of both adults and larvae serve as a warning to predators. Contact with the hairy bodies of these caterpillars can cause skin irritation. Tiger moths have a well-developed hearing organ, or tympanum, on each side of the thorax. The larvae feed on various low-growing plants, including dandelion, Vernonia, and thistles.
This species was formerly a member of the genus Grammia, but was moved to Apantesis along with the other species of the genera Grammia, Holarctia, and Notarctia.


Apatelodes torrefacta, the spotted apatelodes, is a moth in the family Bombycidae or Apatelodidae (if this family is considered valid). The species was first described by Smith in 1797. It is found in North America from Maine and southern Ontario to Florida, west to Texas, and north to Wisconsin.
The wingspan is 32–42 mm. Adults are on wing from May to August. There are two generations per year in the south and one in the north.
The larvae feed on Fraxinus, Prunus, Acer and Quercus species.


"Species Apatelodes torrefacta - Spotted Apatalodes - Hodges#7663". BugGuide. February 21, 2006. Retrieved December 3, 2009.


It is present in most of Europe and across the Palearctic to Japan. However, it is absent from the European Mediterranean islands and the southernmost regions, from the majority of Spain and Portugal, southern Italy and Greece, as well as Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Poland, northern Germany and the British Isles).
This species belongs to a group of 35 European butterflies for which ecologists had sufficient data to assess the possible movements of their range in Europe. Of these 35 butterflies studied, Apatura ilia was an exception - it is the only species that has seen the northern limits of its area move slightly down to the south while its southern limit remained stable.


The Florida scrub jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens) is one of the species of scrub jay native to North America. It is the only species of bird endemic to the U.S. state of Florida and one of only 15 species endemic to the continental United States. Because of this, it is keenly sought by birders. It is known to have been present in Florida as a distinct species for at least 2 million years, and is possibly derived from the ancestors of Woodhouse's scrub jay.
It measures 23 to 28 cm (9.1 to 11.0 in) in length, and weighs from 66 to 92 g (2.3 to 3.2 oz), with an average 80.2 g (2.83 oz). The wingspan of the jay is 33–36 cm (13–14 in). It has a strong black bill, blue head and nape without a crest, a whitish forehead and supercilium, blue bib, blue wings, grayish underparts, gray back, long blue tail, black legs and feet.