The plant has two varieties:
Amsinckia menziesii var. intermedia - common fiddleneck, intermediate fiddleneck
Amsinckia menziesii var. menziesii - Menzies' fiddleneck


Amsinckia menziesii var. intermedia (common fiddleneck, or intermediate fiddleneck) is one of the common fiddlenecks of western North America, distributed from Alaska and Canada through the Western United States to Mexico. Like other members of the genus, it has a terminal flowering whorl somewhat shaped like the head of a violin or fiddle, hence the name fiddleneck.  The flowers are yellow-orange, orange, or dark yellow.
In Australia, the species has become a common weed of cultivated areas in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. In the British Isles, it is an introduced species naturalised particularly in the east of the country and recorded in the wild since 1910.
Its seeds, while inedible to humans due to their high pyrrolizidine alkaloid content, are the favorite food of Lawrence's goldfinch during that Californian bird's nesting season of spring and early summer.


Amsinckia tessellata is a species of fiddleneck known by the common names bristly fiddleneck, tessellate fiddleneck, checker fiddleneck, and devil's lettuce.
The plant is native to dry regions of western North America, more specifically eastern Washington and Idaho, much of California and the Great Basin, to southwest New Mexico (U.S.) and northwest Sonora and Baja California in Mexico, usually below 6,000 feet (1,800 m) elevation.
It is a common plant in many types of habitats, including chaparral, oak woodland, xeric scrub, temperate valleys, disturbed areas, and deserts including the Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert.


Amsinckia tessellata is an 8–24 inches tall bristly annual herb similar in appearance to other fiddlenecks.
Its coiled inflorescence holds yellow to orange tubular flowers up to a centimeter wide at the corolla, which often has fewer than five lobes. Calyx lobes are not uniform in width and may be fused below the middle. The bloom period is March to June.


The Mormon cricket (Anabrus simplex) is a large insect that can grow to almost 8 cm (3 inches) in length. It lives throughout western North America in rangelands dominated by sagebrush and forbs. Despite its name, the Mormon cricket is actually a shieldbacked katydid. It takes its name from Mormon settlers in Utah, who encountered them while pushing westward, and for the prominent role they play in the miracle of the gulls.
Although flightless, the Mormon cricket is capable of traveling up to two kilometers a day in its swarming phase, during which it is a serious agricultural pest and traffic hazard.


Mormon crickets have variable coloration. The overall color may be black, brown, red, purple or green. The "shield" (pronotum or modified prothorax that covers vestigial wings) behind the head may have colored markings. The abdomen may appear to be striped. Females have a long ovipositor, which should not be mistaken for a stinger. Both sexes have long antennae.
Mormon crickets may undergo morphological changes triggered by high population densities, similar to those seen in locusts. The most noticeable change is in coloration: solitary individuals typically have green or purple coloration, while swarming individuals are often black, brown or red.


Mormon cricket eggs hatch mostly in the spring after they are laid, although in some areas eggs may take as many as five years to hatch. Hatching begins when soil temperatures reach 4 °C (40 °F). The nymphs pass through seven instars before reaching the adult stage, typically taking 60 to 90 days.
Breeding begins within 10 to 14 days of reaching the adult stage. The male passes to the female a large spermatophore which can be up to 27% of his body weight. The spermatophore is mostly food for the female to consume but also contains sperm to fertilize her eggs. This nuptial gift causes swarming-phase females to compete for males, a behavior not seen in solitary-phase females.
The female lays her eggs by thrusting her ovipositor deep into the soil. Each female can lay over one hundred eggs, with individual eggs having the appearance of a grain of rice with a gray to purplish color.


The Mormon cricket exists in populations of relatively low density throughout most of its range. At certain times and places, however, population explosions or infestations occur in which large numbers of the crickets form roving bands. These bands may include millions of individuals and be found with densities of up to 100 individuals per square meter. These infestations may last years or even decades, and are characterized by a gradual increase and then decrease in population. The factors that trigger these infestations are poorly understood, but are thought to be weather-related.
Research published in 2006 shows that Mormon crickets move in these migratory bands, firstly to find new sources of the critical nutrients of protein and salt, and secondly to avoid being eaten by hungry crickets approaching from the rear. The Mormon cricket's cannibalistic behavior may lead to swarm behavior because crickets may need to move constantly forward to avoid attacks from behind.
When a large band crosses a road, it can create a safety hazard by causing distracted revulsion on the part of the driver, and by causing the road surface to become slick with crushed crickets. The crickets also can cause devastation to agriculture.


The Mormon cricket shows a marked preference for forbs, but grasses and shrubs such as sagebrush are also consumed. Mormon crickets also eat insects, including other Mormon crickets (especially individuals that have been killed or injured by automobiles or insecticides). Cannibalistic behavior may be a result of protein and salt deficiency; swarming behavior may in turn be a strategy to avoid predation by other Mormon crickets.
During an infestation Mormon crickets can cause significant damage to crops and gardens.


Mormon crickets are preyed upon by a wide variety of birds and mammals. These predators include California gulls, crows, coyotes and various rodents. There are no predators that specialize on Mormon crickets, which may be explained by the cricket's migratory habits and large population fluctuations. Gordius robustus, a species of horsehair worm, is a parasite of the Mormon cricket, as is Ooencyrtus anabrivorus.
The most common chemical control method used is carbaryl (typically sold as "Sevin Dust") bait. This bait kills both the Mormon crickets that eat the bait, and the crickets that eat crickets that have eaten the bait. Insecticides applied directly to crops may kill the insects, but due to the large size of swarms, this method usually does not save the crop from being destroyed.
As Mormon crickets are flightless, physical barriers may be effective. Barriers should be at least two feet high and made of a smooth material. Residents of some small towns have used boom boxes and sound systems playing hard rock music in attempts to divert the moving swarms away from crops and houses.
Another method for the control of Mormon crickets is the use of a biopesticide based on the fungus Nosema locustae. N. locustae is a naturally occurring microbe the spores of which kill orthopterans by interfering with the digestive system. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, its use has no adverse effect on humans or the environment.


Mormon crickets appear in some traditional Native American diets. A journal documenting an 1846 journey along the Oregon Trail describes an encounter with the crickets and notes their cannibalistic behavior:
The ground, for a strip of about four miles, was covered with black crickets of a large size. I saw some that were about three inches in length, and measuring about three-fourths of an inch in diameter; but the common size were two inches in length and one-half or five-eighths of an inch in diameter; their legs were large in proportion to the size of their bodies. Some were singing on stalks of wild sage; others crawling in every direction. Our teams made great havoc among them; so numerous were they that we crushed them at every step. As soon as one was killed, others of them would alight upon it and devour it.
In 2003, officials in Utah, Idaho and Nevada said that year's infestation might be the worst in recent history.


Anacamptis coriophora, the bug orchid, is a species of orchid, found in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Near East to Iran.


Originally this was identified as Orchis coriophora ssp fragans (Pollini) K.Richt. and even today some authorities like Delforge use the original name to present it as the new species Orchis fragrans Pollini. However the large databases at Kew, World Ckecklist etc. agree that the correct and accepted name for this taxon is Anacamptis coriophora (L.) R.M.Bateman, Pridgeon & M.W.Chase without any distinction being made between sub species.


The species is found in Southern Europe and Northern Africa (Spain, Turkey, Serbia, Cyprus, Lebanon, Aegean Islands, ...), and favors dry and stony ground.


Anacamptis pyramidalis, the pyramidal orchid, is a perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the genus Anacamptis of the family Orchidaceae. The scientific name Anacamptis derives from Greek ανακάμτειν 'anakamptein' meaning 'bend forward', while the Latin name pyramidalis refers to the pyramidal form of the inflorescence.


This hardy plant reaches on average 10–25 centimetres (3.9–9.8 in) of height, with a maximum of 60 centimetres (24 in). The stem is erect and unbranched. The basal leaves are linear-lanceolate with parallel venation, up to 25 centimetres (9.8 in) long, the cauline ones are shorter and barely visible on the stem. The arrangement of hermaphroditic flowers in a compact pyramidal shape is very distinctive and gives the orchid its common name. The colour of the flower varies from pink to purple, or rarely white, and the scent is described as "foxy".  The flowers have six tepals, being three small sepals and three petals. Two small petals are on the sides, while the third and lower (labellum)  is large and trilobate. At the back of the flower there is a tubular spur of about 1.5 centimetres (0.59 in) long, while the labellum bears two lateral small flaps. The flowering period extends from April through July.


Anacamptis pyramidalis requires a sunny spot on diverse soils: loamy or clay. It can even grow on very alkaline soil. It can be found on meadows, in grassland, sand dunes, maquis as well as dry and well exposed slopes, at an altitude of 0–1,600 metres or more (0–5,250 ft approx.)  above sea level.
In the UK, Anacamptis pyramidalis is one of the most successful orchid species on roadside verges, and colonises other disturbed habitats like airfields, quarries and reservoirs.
This orchid is native to southwestern Eurasia, from western Europe through the Mediterranean region eastwards to Iran. In Germany, it is rare and was declared Orchid of the Year in 1990 to heighten awareness of this plant.
This orchid is especially common on the Isle of Wight in the South of England, and was designated the county plant in 2008. On the Isle of Wight, it favours growth in chalky or sandstone-rich soil, and thus can easily be found on the Downland and cliffs to the west and south of the island.


The flowers are pollinated by butterflies and moths. To ensure the fertilization, their morphology is well adapted to the proboscis of Lepidoptera, especially Euphydryas, Melanargia, Melitaea, Pieris and Zygaena species. The mechanism by which its pairs of pollinia attach themselves to an insect's proboscis was discovered by Charles Darwin and described in his book on the Fertilisation of Orchids.
Anacamptis pyramidalis has been suggested to form mycorrhizal relationships with Rhizoctonia, Fusarium and Papulaspora species.


There are some notable varieties, which are sometimes treated as subspecies – and as they seem to be limited to certain regions, this may be correct:
Anacamptis pyramidalis var. tanayensis (Chenevard) Soó in Keller – Tanay Pyramidal Orchid - Flowers darker and smaller. Fribourg and Valais cantons (Switzerland).
Anacamptis pyramidalis var. urvilleana (Sommier & Caruana Gatto) Schlechter – Maltese Pyramidal Orchid, an endemic orchid from Malta with smaller and paler flowers flowering 4–6 weeks before Anacamptis pyramidalis.
Anacamptis pyramidalis var. sanguinea (Druce) Kreutz – Western Irish Pyramidal Orchid. -Inflorescence rounder, plant smaller overall. County Galway to County Kerry (Ireland)
The variety alba can be found anywhere in the Pyramidal Orchid's range; its flowers are white.


The pyramidal orchid was voted the County flower of the Isle of Wight in 2002 following a poll by the wild flora conservation charity Plantlife.


Anacridium aegyptium var. rubrispinum Bei-Bienko, 1948 - Anacridium rubrispinum Bei-Bienko, 1948


This quite common species is present in most of Europe, the Afrotropical realm, eastern Palearctic realm, the Near East, and North Africa, and recently seen in Cape Town, South Africa.


These grasshoppers inhabit trees and shrubs, scrub land, maquis, and orchards in warm and bright environments, at an elevation from sea level to 1,500 m.


Anacridium aegyptium is one of the largest European grasshoppers. The adult males grow up to 30–56 mm (1.2–2.2 in) long, while females reach 46–70 mm (1.8–2.8 in) in length. Their bodies are usually gray, brown, or olive-coloured, and their antennae are relatively short and robust. The tibiae of the hind legs are blue, while the femora are orange. The hind femora have characteristic dark marks. They are easily identifiable also by the characteristic eyes with vertical black and white stripes. Their pronota show a dorsal orange stripe and several white small spots. The wings are clear with dark marks.


This species is a folivore, essentially feeding on leaves of various plants. It is a solitary species, not harmful to crops. Adults can mainly be encountered in August and September, but they are active throughout the year. After mating, these grasshoppers overwinter as adults. Spawning occurs in spring just under the soil surface and the nymphs appear in April. These grasshoppers undergo several molts. The nymphs have the appearance of the adults, their color varies from yellow to bright green and ocher and the wings are absent or small, as they are gradually developed after each molting.


Anageshna is a monotypic moth genus of the family Crambidae described by Eugene G. Munroe in 1956. Its only species, Anageshna primordialis, the yellow-spotted webworm, was described by Harrison Gray Dyar Jr. in 1907. It is found in the US states of Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
The wingspan is about 11 mm. Adults are on wing from August to November.
Hosts plants are unknown.


Anagrapha falcifera, the celery looper, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by William Kirby in 1837. It is found in North America from Newfoundland, Labrador and southern Canada to Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, Arizona, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.
The wingspan is 35–40 mm.
The larvae feed on beets, blueberries, clover, corn, lettuce, plantain, viburnum and other low plants.


Anania hortulata, the small magpie, is a species of moth of the family Crambidae. It is found in Europe and North America.
The wingspan is 24–28 millimetres (0.94–1.10 in)
The head and thorax are deep ochreous-yellow, black-spotted. Forewings are yellowish-white,
markings blackish ; base blackish, with two ochreous-yellow marks ; a suffused costal streak ; lines thick, first irregular, second tending to form spots, curved, narrowest below middle ; small orbicular and large round discal spots, touching costal streak ; a terminal fascia tending to form spots, edge parallel to second line. Hind wings with colour, second line, and terminal fascia as in forewings ; a blackish discal spot. The larva is whitish ; dorsal line dull green, white-edged ; head and plate of 2 black.
The moth flies from June to July depending on the location.
The larvae feed on Stachys, mint and nettle.


Anaphalis margaritacea, commonly known as the western pearly everlasting or pearly everlasting, is an Asian and North American species of flowering perennial plant in the family Asteraceae.


A. margaritacea grows erect up to about 90 centimetres (3 feet) tall, with narrow, alternate leaves up to 12.5 cm (5 inches). The undersides of the leaves are densely covered in tiny hairs. The stems are dry and brittle. The whitish to yellowish flower grows to about 6 millimetres (1⁄4 in) across as part of a corymb inflorescence, the most conspicuous part of which is the numerous pearly white bracts that surround the disc florets. It blooms between June and September.
The plant is dioecious, meaning the pollen-producing (male) and seed-producing (female) flowers are borne on separate plants.


Varieties and subspecies
Anaphalis margaritacea var. cinnamomea (DC.) Herder ex Maxim.
Anaphalis margaritacea subsp. japonica (Maxim.) Kitam.
Anaphalis margaritacea var. margaritacea
Anaphalis margaritacea var. yedoensis (Franch. & Sav.) Ohwi


The species' common name 'pearly everlasting' comes from the pearly white bracts.


It is widespread across most of Canada and the United States, as well as northwestern Mexico. Asian populations are found in China, the Russian Far East, Japan, Korea, northern Indochina, and the Himalayas. The species is reportedly naturalized in Europe though not native there. It prefers dry, sunny climates, but is hardy to temperatures well below freezing.


The leaves are host to the caterpillars of the American painted lady butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis) and the painted lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui).


The leaves and young plants are edible when cooked.


Anaplectoides prasina (green arches) is a species of moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in both the Palearctic and Nearctic realms.


The wingspan is 40–50 mm. Green, variously tinged with dark green or blackish; a green-tinged cream coloured or whitish blotch between the reniform stigma and outer line; stigmata dark green edged with black; inner and outer lines black, conversely edged with white, or whitish green, or concolorous; hindwing fuscous with a paler fringe. — In jaspidea Bkh. the pale patch beyond the reniform stigma is wanting and the stigmata are blacker; ab. pallida Tutt represents the extreme pale form, the whole wing being whitish green, in which the white patch beyond the reniform is absorbed, and the lines and shades are distinct only in the costal half of wing; — ab. suffusa Tutt is a rare form in which the green tints are superseded by red brown with the area round the stigmata blackish; — in albimacula Hornmz., from the Bukowina, the ground colour is a mixture of dark and light grey, with the patch beyond the reniform clear white, or filled in with grey; — lugubris Petersen from Esthland is dark brownish grey with only slight traces of green or white colouring.
The moth flies from May to August depending on the location.
The larva is purplish brown, with a pale dorsal line intersecting a row of blackish dorsal blotches; spiracular line pale, with a dark edge above.
The larvae are broad generalists, known to feed on both herbaceous plants and hardwoods. Caterpillars are known to be found on plants including blueberries, hazelnut, maples, and raspberry plants.


The pintail or northern pintail (Anas acuta) is a duck species with wide geographic distribution that breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and North America. It is migratory and winters south of its breeding range to the equator. Unusually for a bird with such a large range, it has no geographical subspecies if the possibly conspecific duck Eaton's pintail is considered to be a separate species.
This is a large duck, and the male's long central tail feathers give rise to the species' English and scientific names. Both sexes have blue-grey bills and grey legs and feet. The drake is more striking, having a thin white stripe running from the back of its chocolate-coloured head down its neck to its mostly white undercarriage. The drake also has attractive grey, brown, and black patterning on its back and sides. The hen's plumage is more subtle and subdued, with drab brown feathers similar to those of other female dabbling ducks. Hens make a coarse quack and the drakes a flute-like whistle.
The northern pintail is a bird of open wetlands which nests on the ground, often some distance from water. It feeds by dabbling for plant food and adds small invertebrates to its diet during the nesting season. It is highly gregarious when not breeding, forming large mixed flocks with other species of duck. This duck's population is affected by predators, parasites and avian diseases. Human activities, such as agriculture, hunting and fishing, have also had a significant impact on numbers. Nevertheless, owing to the huge range and large population of this species, it is not threatened globally.


This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Anas acuta. The scientific name comes from two Latin words: anas, meaning "duck", and acuta, which comes from the verb acuere, "to sharpen"; the species term, like the English name, refers to the pointed tail of the male in breeding plumage.
Within the large dabbling duck genus Anas, the northern pintail's closest relatives are other pintails, such as the yellow-billed pintail (A. georgica) and Eaton's pintail (A. eatoni). The pintails are sometimes separated in the genus Dafila (described by Stephens, 1824), an arrangement supported by morphological, molecular and behavioural data. The famous British ornithologist Sir Peter Scott gave this name to his daughter, the artist Dafila Scott.
Eaton's pintail has two subspecies, A. e. eatoni (the Kerguelen pintail) of Kerguelen Islands, and A. e. drygalskyi (the Crozet pintail) of Crozet Islands, and was formerly considered conspecific with the Northern Hemisphere's northern pintail. Sexual dimorphism is much less marked in the southern pintails, with the male's breeding appearance being similar to the female plumage. Unusually for a species with such a large range, northern pintail has no geographical subspecies if Eaton's pintail is treated as a separate species.
A claimed extinct subspecies from Manra Island, Tristram's pintail, A. a. modesta, appears to be indistinguishable from the nominate form. The three syntype specimens of Dafila modesta Tristram (Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1886, p.79. pl. VII), the extinct subspecies, are held in the vertebrate zoology collections of National Museums Liverpool at World Museum, with accession numbers NML-VZ T11792 (male immature), NML-VZ T11795 (female adult) and NML-VZ T11797 (female adult). The specimens were collected by J. V. Arundel in Sydney Island (Manra Island), Phoenix Islands in 1885 and came to the Liverpool national collection via Canon Henry Baker Tristram's collection which was purchased in 1896.


The northern pintail is a fairly large duck with a wing chord of 23.6–28.2 cm (9.3–11.1 in) and wingspan of 80–95 cm (31–37 in). The male is 59–76 cm (23–30 in) in length and weighs 450–1,360 g (0.99–3.00 lb), and therefore is considerably larger than the female, which is 51–64 cm (20–25 in) long and weighs 454–1,135 g (1.001–2.502 lb). The northern pintail broadly overlaps in size with the similarly widespread mallard, but is more slender, elongated and gracile, with a relatively longer neck and (in males) a longer tail. The unmistakable breeding plumaged male has a chocolate-brown head and white breast with a white stripe extending up the side of the neck. Its upperparts and sides are grey, but elongated grey feathers with black central stripes are draped across the back from the shoulder area. The vent area is yellow, contrasting with the black underside of the tail, which has the central feathers elongated to as much as 10 cm (3.9 in). The bill is bluish and the legs are blue-grey.
The adult female is mainly scalloped and mottled in light brown with a more uniformly grey-brown head, and its pointed tail is shorter than the male's; it is still easily identified by its shape, long neck, and long grey bill. In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the drake pintail looks similar to the female, but retains the male upperwing pattern and long grey shoulder feathers. Juvenile birds resemble the female, but are less neatly scalloped and have a duller brown speculum with a narrower trailing edge.
The pintail walks well on land, and swims well. In water, the swimming posture is forward leaning, with the base of the neck almost flush with the water. It has a very fast flight, with its wings slightly swept-back, rather than straight out from the body like other ducks. In flight, the male shows a black speculum bordered white at the rear and pale rufous at the front, whereas the female's speculum is dark brown bordered with white, narrowly at the front edge but very prominently at the rear, being visible at a distance of 1,600 m (0.99 mi).
The male's call is a soft proop-proop whistle, similar to that of the common teal, whereas the female has a mallard-like descending quack, and a low croak when flushed.


This dabbling duck breeds across northern areas of the Palearctic south to about Poland and Mongolia, and in Canada, Alaska and the Midwestern United States. Mainly in winters south of its breeding range, reaches almost to the equator in Panama, northern sub-Saharan Africa and tropical South Asia. Small numbers migrate to Pacific islands, particularly Hawaii, where a few hundred birds winter on the main islands in shallow wetlands and flooded agricultural habitats. Transoceanic journeys also occur: a bird that was caught and ringed in Labrador, Canada, was shot by a hunter in England nine days later, and Japanese-ringed birds have been recovered from six US states east to Utah and Mississippi. In parts of the range, such as Great Britain and the northwestern United States, the pintail may be present all year.
The northern pintail's breeding habitat is open unwooded wetlands, such as wet grassland, lakesides or tundra. In winter, it will utilise a wider range of open habitats, such as sheltered estuaries, brackish marshes and coastal lagoons. It is highly gregarious outside the breeding season and forms very large mixed flocks with other ducks.


Both sexes reach sexual maturity at one year of age. The male mates with the female by swimming close to her with his head lowered and tail raised, continually whistling. If there is a group of males, they will chase the female in flight until only one drake is left. The female prepares for copulation, which takes place in the water, by lowering her body; the male then bobs his head up and down and mounts the female, taking the feathers on the back of her head in his mouth. After mating, he raises his head and back and whistles.
Among the earliest species to breed in the spring, northern pintails typically form pairs during migration, or even while still on wintering grounds. Breeding takes place between April and June, with the nest being constructed on the ground and hidden amongst vegetation in a dry location, often some distance from water. It is a shallow scrape on the ground lined with plant material and down. The female lays seven to nine cream-coloured eggs at the rate of one per day; the eggs are 55 mm × 38 mm (2.2 in × 1.5 in) in size and weigh 45 g (1.6 oz), of which 7% is shell. If predators destroy the first clutch, the female can produce a replacement clutch as late as the end of July.
The hen alone incubates the eggs for 22 to 24 days before they hatch. The precocial downy chicks are then led by the female to the nearest body of water, where they feed on dead insects on the water surface. The chicks fledge in 46 to 47 days after hatching, but stay with the female until she has completed moulting.
Around three-quarters of chicks live long enough to fledge, but not more than half of those survive long enough to reproduce. The maximum recorded age is 27 years and 5 months for a Dutch bird.


Pintail nests and chicks are vulnerable to predation by mammals, such as foxes and badgers, and birds like gulls, crows and magpies. The adults can take flight to escape terrestrial predators, but nesting females in particular may be surprised by large carnivores such as bobcats. Large birds of prey, such as northern goshawks, will take ducks from the ground, and some falcons, including the gyrfalcon, have the speed and power to catch flying birds.
It is susceptible to a range of parasites including Cryptosporidium, Giardia, tapeworms, blood parasites and external feather lice, and is also affected by other avian diseases. It is often the dominant species in major mortality events from avian botulism and avian cholera, and can also contract avian influenza, the H5N1 strain of which is highly pathogenic and occasionally infects humans.
The northern pintail is a popular species for game shooting because of its speed, agility, and excellent eating qualities, and is hunted across its range. Although one of the world's most numerous ducks, the combination of hunting with other factors has led to population declines, and local restrictions on hunting have been introduced at times to help conserve numbers.
This species' preferred habitat of shallow water is naturally susceptible to problems such as drought or the encroachment of vegetation, but this duck's habitat might be increasingly threatened by climate change. Populations are also affected by the conversion of wetlands and grassland to arable crops, depriving the duck of feeding and nesting areas. Spring planting means that many nests of this early breeding duck are destroyed by farming activities, and a Canadian study showed that more than half of the surveyed nests were destroyed by agricultural work such as ploughing and harrowing.
Hunting with lead shot, along with the use of lead sinkers in angling, has been identified as a major cause of lead poisoning in waterfowl, which often feed off the bottom of lakes and wetlands where the shot collects. A Spanish study showed that northern pintail and common pochard were the species with the highest levels of lead shot ingestion, higher than in northern countries of the western Palearctic flyway, where lead shot has been banned. In the United States, Canada, and many western European countries, all shot used for waterfowl must now be non-toxic, and therefore may not contain any lead.


The northern pintail has a large range, estimated at 41,900,000 km² (16,200,000 sq mi), and a population estimated at 4.8–4.9 million individuals. The IUCN has categorised the northern pintail as not being threatened globally, however it is endangered in Europe.
In the Palaearctic, breeding populations are declining in much of the range, including its stronghold in Russia. In other regions, populations are stable or fluctuating.
Pintails in North America at least have been badly affected by avian diseases, with the breeding population falling from more than 10 million in 1957 to 3.5 million by 1964. Although the species has recovered from that low point, the breeding population in 1999 was 30% below the long-term average, despite years of major efforts focused on restoring the species. In 1997, an estimated 1.5 million water birds, the majority being northern pintails, died from avian botulism during two outbreaks in Canada and Utah.
The northern pintail is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies, but it has no special status under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which regulates international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants.


https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&taxon_id=6951&user_id=wayne_fidler
The white-cheeked pintail (Anas bahamensis), also known as the Bahama pintail or summer duck, is a species of dabbling duck. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under its current scientific name.


It is found in the Caribbean, South America, and the Galápagos Islands. It occurs on waters with some salinity, such as brackish lakes, estuaries and mangrove swamps.
There are three subspecies:
A. b. bahamensis—lesser Bahama pintail—in the Caribbean, and a vagrant to southern Florida
A. b. rubirostris—greater Bahama pintail—in South America; it may be partly migratory, breeding in Argentina and wintering further north.
A. b. galapagensis—Galápagos pintail—in the Galápagos Islands


Like many southern ducks, the sexes are similar. It is mainly brown with white cheeks and a red-based grey bill (young birds lack the pink). It cannot be confused with any other duck in its range.


The chestnut teal (Anas castanea) is a dabbling duck found in Australia. It is protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974.


The chestnut teal was described by the English naturalist Thomas Campbell Eyton in 1838 under the binomial name Mareca castanea. The specific epithet castanea is from the Latin castaneus for "chestnut-coloured" or "chestnut-brown".
A large molecular phylogentic study that compared mitochondrial DNA sequences from ducks, geese and swans in the family Anatidae found that the chestnut teal is a sister species to the Sunda teal (Anas gibberifrons) that is endemic to Indonesia.


The chestnut teal is darker and a slightly bigger bird than the grey teal.
The male has a distinctive green coloured head and mottled brown body. The female has a brown head and mottled brown body. The female is almost identical in appearance to the grey teal.
The female chestnut teal has a loud penetrating "laughing" quack repeated rapidly nine times or more.


The chestnut teal is commonly distributed in south-eastern and south-western Australia, while vagrants may occur elsewhere. Tasmania and southern Victoria are the species’ stronghold, while vagrants have been found as far north as New Guinea and Lord Howe Island, and as far south as New Zealand.
The chestnut teal prefers coastal estuaries and wetlands, and is indifferent to salinity. This bird is an omnivore.


Chestnut teals form monogamous pairs that stay together outside the breeding season, defend the nest site and look after the young when hatched. Nests are usually located over water, in a down-lined tree hollow about 6–10 m high. Sometimes nests are placed on the ground, among clumps of grass near water. The young hatch and are ready to swim and walk within a day.


The red-billed teal or red-billed duck (Anas erythrorhyncha) is a dabbling duck which is an abundant resident breeder in southern and eastern Africa typically south of 10° S. This duck is not migratory, but will fly great distances to find suitable waters. It is highly gregarious outside the breeding season and forms large flocks.


The red-billed teal was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other ducks, geese and swans in the genus Anas and coined the binomial name Anas erythrorhyncha. Gmelin based his description on the "Crimson-billed duck" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham specied the type locality as the Cape of Good Hope. The genus name Anas is the Latin word for a duck. The specific epithet erythrorhyncha combines the Ancient Greek eruthros meaning "red" with rhunkhos meaning "bill". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.


The red-billed teal is 43–48 centimetres (17–19 in) long and has a blackish cap and nape, contrasting pale face, and bright red bill. The body plumage is a dull dark brown scalloped with white. Flight reveals that the secondary flight feathers are buff with a black stripe across them. The sexes are similar, but juveniles are duller than adults.
This is a quiet species, but the displaying male has a whzzt call, whereas the female has a soft mallard-like quack.
The red-billed teal is a bird of freshwater habitats in fairly open country and is an omnivore. It feeds by dabbling for plant food, or foraging on land mainly in the evening or at night. It nests on the ground in dense vegetation near water.
This is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.


The yellow-billed teal  (Anas flavirostris) is a South American species of duck. Like other teals, it belongs to the diverse genus Anas; more precisely it is one of the "true" teals of subgenus Nettion.  It occurs in Argentina, the Falkland Islands, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Brazil. It has also established itself in South Georgia, where it was first recorded breeding in 1971, and has been recorded as far east as Tristan da Cunha. It inhabits freshwater wetlands, preferring palustrine habitat to rivers. Considering its wide range and local abundance, it is not considered threatened by the IUCN.


The namesake bill is bright yellow with a black tip and a black band along the ridge of the culmen.

The species is somewhat similar to the larger yellow-billed pintail, but has a darker head, shorter neck and plain grayish sides.


Mitochondrial DNA sequence data is most similar to that of the very different-looking green-winged teal. Apart from the mystifying relationship with the red-and-green-headed teals, it altogether most resembles the Indian Ocean radiation of teals. However, the yellow-billed teal's unicolored underside and namesake bill are unique, as is to be expected from a species that evolved half a world apart from Bernier's or the grey teal.
This species is also unique among its relatives in some aspects of its post-copulation behavior: After dismounting, the drakes stretch themselves up high and swim around and alongside the females.
Traditionally, there are 2 subspecies:
Sharp-winged teal, Anas flavirostris oxyptera (Meyen, 1834) – highlands of central Peru to northern Chile and Argentina.
Chilean teal, Anas flavirostris flavirostris (Vieillot, 1816) – southern South America as far north as southern Brazil and northern Argentina. Also in the Falkland Islands.
Previously, this species and the Andean teal formed the superspecies speckled teal, but increasingly taxonomists consider the two species distinct.


The mottled duck (Anas fulvigula) or mottled mallard is a medium-sized species of dabbling duck. It is intermediate in appearance between the female mallard and the American black duck. It is closely related to those species, and is sometimes erroneously considered a subspecies of the former.
Along the Gulf of Mexico coast, the mottled duck is one of the most frequently banded waterfowl. This is due in part to the fact that it is mostly non-migratory. Approximately one out of every 20 mottled ducks is banded, making it an extremely prized and sought after bird among hunters.


There are two distinct subspecies of the mottled duck. One subspecies, the Gulf Coast mottled duck (A. f. maculosa), lives on the Gulf of Mexico coast between Alabama and Tamaulipas (Mexico); outside the breeding season, individual birds may venture as far south as Veracruz. The other, the Florida mottled duck (A. f. fulvigula), is resident in central and southern Florida and occasionally strays north to Georgia. The same disjunct distribution pattern was also historically found in the local sandhill cranes. Individuals of both subspecies were introduced into South Carolina in the 1970s and 1980s, where the birds of mixed ancestry have greatly expanded in range, extending through the Atlantic coastal plain of Georgia into northeastern Florida.


The adult mottled duck is 44 to 61 cm (17–24 in) long from head to tail. It has a dark body, lighter head and neck, orange legs and dark eyes. Both sexes have a shiny green-blue speculum (wing patch), which is not bordered with white as with the mallard. Males and females are similar, but the male's bill is bright yellow, whereas the female's is deep to pale orange, occasionally lined with black splotches around the edges and near the base.
The plumage is darker than in female mallards, especially at the tail, and the bill is yellower. In flight, the lack of a white border to the speculum is a key difference. The American black duck is darker than most mottled ducks, and its wing-patch is more purple than blue. The behaviour and voice are the same as the mallard.
Mottled ducks feed by dabbling in shallow water, and grazing on land. They mainly eat plants, but also some mollusks and aquatic insects. The ducks are fairly common within their restricted range; they are resident all-year round and do not migrate. The breeding habitat is coastal marshes. The nest is built on the ground amongst vegetation, such as bull-rush and marsh grass.
Measurements:
Male:
Length: 19.7–22.5 in (50–57 cm)
Weight: 30.9–43.8 oz (880–1,240 g)
Wingspan: 32.7–34.3 in (83–87 cm)
Female:
Length: 18.5–21.0 in (47–53 cm)
Weight: 24.7–40.6 oz (700–1,150 g)
Wingspan: 31.5–327.2 in (80–831 cm)


The Floridian population, which occurs approximately south of Tampa, is separated as the nominate subspecies Anas fulvigula fulvigula and is occasionally called the Florida mottled duck or Florida mallard. It differs from the other subspecies, the Gulf Coast mottled duck (A. f. maculosa) (etymology: maculosa, Latin for "the mottled one"), by being somewhat lighter in color and less heavily marked; while both subspecies are intermediate between female mallards and American black ducks, the Florida mottled duck is closer to the former and the Gulf Coast mottled duck closer to the latter in appearance; this is mainly recognizable in the lighter head being quite clearly separated from the darker breast in Gulf Coast mottled ducks, but much less so in Florida mottled ducks. As the subspecies' ranges do not overlap, these birds can only be confused with female mallards and American black ducks however; particularly female American black ducks are often only reliably separable by their dark purple speculum from mottled ducks in the field.
mtDNA control region sequence data indicates that these birds are derived from ancestral American black ducks, being far more distantly related to the mallard, and that the two subspecies, as a consequence of their rather limited range and sedentary habits, are genetically well distinct already.
As in all members of the "mallardine" clade of ducks, they are able to produce fertile hybrids with their close relatives, the American black duck and the mallard. This has always been so to a limited extent; individuals of the migratory American black ducks which winter in the mottled duck's range may occasionally stay there and mate with the resident species, and for the mallard, which colonized North America later, the same holds true. Genetic tools have been developed in order to robustly classify hybrids and to assess and monitor the genetic dynamics of introgression between the Florida mottled duck and the mallard.
While the resultant gene flow is no cause for immediate concern, habitat destruction and excessive hunting could eventually reduce this species to the point where the hybridization with mallards would threaten to make it disappear as a distinct taxon. This especially applies to the Florida mottled duck, in the fairly small range of which rampant habitat destruction due to urbanization and draining of wetlands has taken place in the last decades; this, in combination with climate change affecting the Everglades, could be sufficient to cause the Florida mottled duck to decline to a point where hunting would have to be restricted or prohibited. At present, these birds too appear to be holding their own, with a population of 50,000-70,000 individuals. While hybridization is common, double white bars above and below the speculum are not a sufficient indicator of hybridization and therefore should not be used to determine genetics.


The yellow-billed pintail (Anas georgica) is a South American dabbling duck of the genus Anas with three described subspecies.


The yellow-billed pintail was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the ducks, geese and swans in the genus Anas and coined the binomial name Anas georgica. Gmelin based his description on the "Georgia duck" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. The naturalist Joseph Banks had provided Latham with a drawing of the duck from South Georgia. The genus name Anas is the Latin word for a duck.
Three subspecies are recognised:
† A. g. niceforoi Wetmore & Borrero, 1946 – east-central Colombia (extinct)
A. g. spinicauda Vieillot, 1816 – south Colombia to south Argentina, south Chile and Falkland Islands
A. g. georgica Gmelin, JF, 1789 – South Georgia


The yellow-billed pintail has a brown head and neck. The bill is yellow with a black tip and a black stripe down the middle.

The tail is brownish and pointed. The upper wing is grayish-brown, and the secondaries are blackish-green. The rest of the body is buffish brown with varying size black spots. The species is sometimes confused with yellow-billed teal, but can be differentiated by the yellow stripes on its bill, its larger size and its tendency not to form large groups.


The range includes much of South America, the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. The nominate and smallest subspecies, the South Georgia pintail A. g. georgica, is thought to number between 1000 and 1500 pairs, and is found only in South Georgia.  The Chilean, or brown, pintail A. g. spinicauda is widespread on the South American mainland from extreme southern Colombia southwards, as well as in the Falkland Islands, and numbers well over 110,000.  Niceforo's pintail A. g. niceforoi, formerly found in central Colombia, is believed to be extinct, having been last recorded in 1952 (and described only in 1946).  Their habitat ranges from high elevation lakes and marshes to low elevation lakes and rivers and coasts in open country.


Nests are formed on the ground and lined with grass and down. They hide their nests in vegetation close to water. They lay 4 to 10 eggs in a clutch.


In high altitude populations of yellow-billed pintail, hemoglobin has a higher affinity for oxygen than in lower altitude populations, which can be attributable to substitutions in their beta-globin gene. These substitutions are shared by speckled teal because of introgressive hybridization between the two species. Gene flow between populations also suggests that yellow-billed pintails that are heterozygous for the βA hemoglobin subunit may be able to acclimate to high altitudes more efficiently than those that are homozygous for the βA hemoglobin subunit.


The Indian spot-billed duck (Anas poecilorhyncha) is a large dabbling duck that is a non-migratory breeding duck throughout freshwater wetlands in the Indian subcontinent. The name is derived from the red spot at the base of the bill that is found in the mainland Indian population. When in water it can be recognized from a long distance by the white tertials that form a stripe on the side, and in flight it is distinguished by the green speculum with a broad white band at the base. This species and the eastern spot-billed duck (A. zonorhyncha) were formerly considered conspecific, together called the spot-billed duck (A. poecilorhyncha).


This duck is around the same size as a mallard and has a scaly patterned body with a green speculum bordered by white. At rest the white stripe stands out and the long neck and the bill with yellow tip and orange red spots at the base are distinctive in the nominate subspecies. The red spots at the base of the bills are absent in haringtoni. It measures 55–63 cm (22–25 in) in length and 83–95 cm (33–37 in) across the wings, with a body mass of 790–1,500 g (1.74–3.31 lb). These are mainly grey ducks with a paler head and neck and a black bill tipped bright yellow. The wings are whitish with black flight feathers below, and from above show a white-bordered green The male has a red spot on the base of the bill, which is absent or inconspicuous in the smaller but otherwise similar female. The male does not have an eclipse plumage.  The legs and feet are bright orange to coral red. Juveniles are browner and duller than adults.
The eastern spot-billed duck is darker and browner; its body plumage is more similar to the Pacific black duck. It lacks the red bill spot, and has a blue speculum.
Both males and females undergo a complete post-breeding moult, dropping all their wing feathers simultaneously.


This duck is a resident throughout Pakistan and India in freshwater wetlands. They tend to avoid very large patches of open water and prefer medium-sized wetlands with vegetation cover. Some individuals may however migrate as a bird ringed at Bharatpur in Rajasthan on 5 December 1969 was recovered near Novosibirsk in August 1970. It is quite gregarious outside the breeding season and forms small flocks. The northernmost populations have expanded their range northwards by more than 500 km since the early 20th century, possibly in reaction to global warming.


It is a bird of freshwater lakes and marshes in fairly open country and feeds by dabbling for plant food mainly in the evening or at night. The breeding season varies with rainfall and water condition but is July to September in northern India and November to December in southern India. Multiple broods may be raised. It nests on the ground hidden within in vegetation near water, and lays 8-14 eggs. Nests have sometimes been seen on tree branches covered by creepers. Incubation begins after the last egg is laid (allowing the chicks to hatch simultaneously) and the young hatch after about 24 days. The chicks are black with a yellow back and resemble those of mallards but with a wider eyestripe.
Both the male and female have calls similar to that of the mallard.  Mallards and eastern spot-billed ducks have been known to hybridize in the wild in eastern Russia and their genetic closeness has been examined in many studies. Indian spot-billed ducks feed on plants, including crops such as rice, as well as invertebrates including snails. Through snails such as Lymnaea luteola, they also get infected by cercarian trematodes such as Echinoparyphium bagulai. Adult trematodes emerge from the duck after about 21 days. Other trematodes recorded in the species include Psilochasmus oxyurus while helminths include Opisthorchis obsequens, Notocotylus babai, N. linearis, Echinoparyphium clerci, Amidostomum skrjabini, and Hymenolepis wardlei.
They are seen isolated from other species and usually in pairs or small groups and when disturbed they can take off easily and nearly vertically from the water. They were hunted extensively in British India, noted for their excellent taste. When shot at, especially when in moult, they are known to dive and remain underwater to evade capture. A local name for it was "gheret-pai" or "garam-pai". In southern India, a method of hunting involved using floating bundles of rushes on which the hunters lay in wait. Natural predators of the ducks include birds of prey and terrestrial predators including pythons and otters.


The American black duck (Anas rubripes) is a large dabbling duck in the family Anatidae. It was described by William Brewster in 1902. It is the heaviest species in the genus Anas, weighing 720–1,640 g (1.59–3.62 lb) on average and measuring 54–59 cm (21–23 in) in length with an 88–95 cm (35–37 in) wingspan. It somewhat resembles the female and eclipse male mallard in coloration, but has a darker plumage. The male and female are generally similar in appearance, but the male's bill is yellow while the female's is dull green with dark marks on the upper mandible. It is native to eastern North America. During the breeding season, it is usually found in coastal and freshwater wetlands from Saskatchewan to the Atlantic in Canada and the Great Lakes and the Adirondacks in the United States. It is a partially migratory species, mostly wintering in the east-central United States, especially in coastal areas.
It interbreeds regularly and extensively with the mallard, to which it is closely related. The female lays six to fourteen oval eggs, which have smooth shells and come in varied shades of white and buff green. Hatching takes 30 days on average. Incubation usually takes 25 to 26 days, with both sexes sharing duties, although the male usually defends the territory until the female reaches the middle of her incubation period. It takes about six weeks to fledge. Once the eggs hatch, the hen leads the brood to rearing areas with abundant invertebrates and vegetation.
The American black duck is considered to be a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It has long been valued as a game bird. Habitat loss due to drainage, global warming, filling of wetlands due to urbanization and rising sea levels are major reasons for the declining population of the American black duck. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has been purchasing and managing the habitat of this species in many areas to support the migratory stopover, wintering and breeding populations. The Atlantic Coast Joint Venture also protects habitat through restoration and land acquisition projects, mostly within their wintering and breeding areas.


American ornithologist William Brewster described the American black duck as Anas obscura rubripes, for "red-legged black duck", in his landmark article "An undescribed form of the black duck (Anas obscura)," in The Auk in 1902, to distinguish between the two kinds of black ducks found in New England. One of them was described as being comparatively small, with brownish legs and an olivaceous or dusky bill, and the other as being comparatively larger, with a lighter skin tone, bright red legs and a clear yellow bill. The larger of the two was described as Anas obscura by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1789 in the 13th edition of the Systema Naturae, Part 2, and he based it on the "Dusky Duck" of Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant. The current scientific name, Anas rubripes, is derived from Latin, with Anas meaning "duck" and rubripes coming from ruber, "red", and pes, "foot".
Pennant, in Arctic Zoology, Volume 2, described this duck as coming "from the province of New York" and having "a long and narrow dusky bill, tinged with blue: chin white: neck pale brown, streaked downwards with dusky lines." In a typical obscura, characteristics such as greenish black, olive green or dusky olive bill; olivaceous brown legs with at most one reddish tinge; the nape and pileum nearly uniformly dark; spotless chin and throat; fine linear and dusky markings on the neck and sides of the head, rather than blackish, do not vary with age or season.


The American black duck weighs 720–1,640 g (1.59–3.62 lb) and measures 54–59 cm (21–23 in) in length with a 88–95 cm (35–37 in) wingspan. This species has the highest mean body mass in the genus Anas, with a sample of 376 males averaging 1.4 kg (3.1 lb) and 176 females averaging 1.1 kg (2.4 lb), although its size is typically quite similar to that of the familiar mallard. The American black duck somewhat resembles the female mallard in coloration, although the black duck's plumage is darker. Males and females are generally similar in appearance, but the male's bill is yellow while the female's is dull green with dark marks on the upper mandible, which is occasionally flecked with black. The head is brown, but is slightly lighter in tone than the darker brown body. The cheeks and throat are streaked brown, with a dark streak going through the crown and dark eye. The speculum feathers are iridescent violet-blue with predominantly black margins. The fleshy orange feet of the duck have dark webbing.
Both male and female American black ducks produce similar calls to their close relative, the mallard, with the female producing a loud sequence of quacks which falls in pitch.
In flight, the white lining of the underwings can be seen in contrast to the blackish underbody and upperside. The purple speculum lacks white bands at the front and rear, and rarely has a white trailing edge. A dark crescent is visible on the median underwing primary coverts.
Juveniles resemble adult females, but have broken narrow pale edges of underpart feathers, which give a slightly streaked rather than scalloped appearance, and the overall appearance is browner rather than uniformly blackish. Juvenile males have brownish-orange feet while juvenile females have brownish feet and a dusky greyish-green bill.


The American black duck is endemic to eastern North America. In Canada, the range extends from northeastern Saskatchewan to Newfoundland and Labrador. In the United States, it is found in northern Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Connecticut, Vermont, South Dakota, central West Virginia, Maine and on the Atlantic coast to North Carolina.
The American black duck is a habitat generalist as it is associated with tidal marshes and present throughout the year in salt marshes from the Gulf of Maine to coastal Virginia. It usually prefers freshwater and coastal wetlands throughout northeastern America, including brackish marshes, estuaries and edges of backwater ponds and rivers lined by speckled alder. It also inhabits beaver ponds, shallow lakes with sedges and reeds, bogs in open boreal and mixed hardwood forests, as well as forested swamps. Populations in Vermont have also been found in glacial kettle ponds surrounded by bog mats. During winter, the American black duck mostly inhabits brackish marshes bordering bays, agricultural marshes, flooded timber, agricultural fields, estuaries and riverine areas. Ducks usually take shelter from hunting and other disturbances by moving to brackish and fresh impoundments on conservation land.


The American black duck is an omnivorous species with a diverse diet. It feeds by dabbling in shallow water and grazing on land. Its plant diet primarily includes a wide variety of wetland grasses and sedges, and the seeds, stems, leaves and root stalks of aquatic plants, such as eelgrass, pondweed and smartweed. Its animal diet includes mollusks, snails, amphipods, insects, mussels and small fishes.
During the breeding season, the diet of the American black duck consists of approximately 80% plant food and 20% animal food. The animal food diet increases to 85% during winter. During nesting, the proportion of invertebrates increases. Ducklings mostly eat water invertebrates for the first 12 days after hatching, including aquatic snowbugs, snails, mayflies, dragonflies, beetles, flies, caddisflies and larvae. After this, they shift to seeds and other plant food.


The breeding habitat includes alkaline marshes, acid bogs, lakes, ponds, rivers, marshes, brackish marshes and the margins of estuaries and other aquatic environments in northern Saskatchewan, Manitoba, across Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic Canadian Provinces, plus the Great Lakes and the Adirondacks in the United States. It is partially migratory, and many winter in the east-central United States, especially coastal areas; some remain year-round in the Great Lakes region. This duck is a rare vagrant to Great Britain and Ireland, where over the years several birds have settled in and bred with the local mallard. The resulting hybrid can present considerable identification difficulties.
Nest sites are well-concealed on the ground, often in uplands. Egg clutches have six to fourteen oval eggs, which have smooth shells and come in varied shades of white and buff green. On average, they measure 59.4 mm (2.34 in) long, 43.2 mm (1.70 in) wide and weigh 56.6 g (0.125 lb). Hatching takes 30 days on average. The incubation period varies, but usually takes 25 to 26 days. Both sexes share duties, although the male usually defends the territory until the female reaches the middle of her incubation period. It takes about six weeks to fledge. Once the eggs hatch, the hen leads the brood to rearing areas with abundant invertebrates and vegetation.
The American black duck interbreeds regularly and extensively with the mallard, to which it is closely related. Some authorities even consider the black duck to be a subspecies of the mallard instead of a separate species. Mank et al. argue that this is in error as the extent of hybridization alone is not a valid means to delimitate Anas species.
It has been proposed that the American black duck and the mallard were formerly separated by habitat preference, with the American black duck's dark plumage giving it a selective advantage in shaded forest pools in eastern North America, and the mallard's lighter plumage giving it an advantage in the brighter, more open prairie and plains lakes. According to this view, recent deforestation in the east and tree planting on the plains has broken down this habitat separation, leading to the high levels of hybridization now observed. However, rates of past hybridization are unknown in this and most other avian hybrid zones, and it is merely presumed in the case of the American black duck that past hybridization rates were lower than those seen today. Also, many avian hybrid zones are known to be stable and longstanding despite the occurrence of extensive interbreeding. The American black duck and the local mallard are now very hard to distinguish by means of microsatellite comparisons, even if many specimens are sampled. Contrary to this study's claims, the question of whether the American haplotype is an original mallard lineage is far from resolved. Their statement, "Northern black ducks are now no more distinct from mallards than their southern conspecifics" only holds true in regard to the molecular markers tested. As birds indistinguishable according to the set of microsatellite markers still can look different, there are other genetic differences that were simply not tested in the study.
In captivity studies, it has been discovered that the hybrids follow Haldane's Rule, with hybrid females often dying before they reach sexual maturity, thereby supporting the case for the American black duck being a distinct species.


The apex nest predators of the American black duck include American crows, gulls and raccoons, especially in tree nests. Hawks and owls are also major predators of adults. Bullfrogs and snapping turtles eat many ducklings. Ducklings often catch diseases caused by protozoan blood parasites transmitted by bites of insects such as blackflies. They are also vulnerable to lead shot poisoning, known as plumbism, due to their bottom-foraging food habits.


Since 1988, the American black duck has been rated as least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species. This is because the range of this species is extremely large, which is not near the threshold of vulnerable species. In addition, the total population is large, and, although it is declining, it is not declining fast enough to make the species vulnerable. It has long been valued as a game bird, being extremely wary and fast flying. Habitat loss due to drainage, filling of wetlands due to urbanization, global warming and rising sea levels are major reasons for the declining population. Some conservationists consider hybridization and competition with the mallard as an additional source of concern should this decline continue. Hybridization itself is not a major problem; natural selection makes sure that the best-adapted individuals have the most offspring. However, the reduced viability of female hybrids causes some broods to fail in the long run due to the death of the offspring before reproducing themselves. While this is not a problem in the plentiful mallard, it might place an additional strain on the American black duck's population. Recent research conducted for the Delta Waterfowl Foundation suggests that hybrids are a result of forced copulations and not a normal pairing choice by black hens.
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has continued to purchase and manage habitat in many areas to support the migratory stopover, wintering and breeding populations of the American black duck. In addition, the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge has purchased and restored over 1,000 acres of wetlands to provide stopover habitat for over 10,000 American black ducks during fall migration. Also, the Atlantic Coast Joint Venture has been protecting the habitat of the American black duck through habitat restoration and land acquisition projects, mostly within their wintering and breeding areas. In 2003, a Boreal Forest Conservation Framework was adopted by conservation organizations, industries and First Nations to protect the Canadian boreal forests, including the American black duck's eastern Canadian breeding range.


The Pacific black duck (Anas superciliosa), commonly known as the PBD, is a dabbling duck found in much of Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and many islands in the southwestern Pacific, reaching to the Caroline Islands in the north and French Polynesia in the east. It is usually called the grey duck in New Zealand, where it is also known by its Maori name, pārera.


The Pacific black duck was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other ducks, geese and swans in the genus Anas and coined the binomial name Anas superciliosa. Gmelin based his description on the "Supercilious duck" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. The naturalist Joseph Banks had provided Latham with a drawing of the duck from New Zealand. The genus name Anas is the Latin word for a duck. The specific epithet superciliosa is from Latin meaning "supercilious" or "eye-browed", a reference to the prominent supercilium or eye-stripe.
Two subspecies are now recognised:
A. s. pelewensis Hartlaub & Finsch, 1872 – island black duck, breeds on the southwest Pacific islands and northern New Guinea
A. s. superciliosa Gmelin, JF, 1789 − Australasian duck, breeds in Indonesia, southern New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand, where it is known as the grey duck or pārera.
A third subspecies, rogersi from Australia, has sometimes been recognised but it not distinguishable either genetically or phenotypically from the nominate race.


This sociable duck is found in a variety of wetland habitats, and its nesting habits are much like those of the mallard, which is encroaching on its range in New Zealand. It feeds by upending, like other Anas ducks.
It has a dark body, and a paler head with a dark crown and facial stripes. In flight, it shows a green speculum and pale underwing. All plumages are similar. The size range is 54–61 cm; males tend to be larger than females, and some island forms are smaller and darker than the main populations. It is not resident on the Marianas islands, but sometimes occurs there during migration. The now-extinct Mariana mallard was probably originally derived from hybrids between this species and the mallard, which came to the islands during migration and settled there.
Like its relatives the mallard and American black duck, the Pacific black duck is one of a number of duck species that can quack, with the female producing a sequence of raucous, rapid quacking which decreases in volume.


The nest is usually placed in a hole in a tree, but sometimes an old nest of a corvid is used and occasionally the nest will be placed on the ground. The clutch of 8–10 pale cream eggs is incubated only by the female. The eggs hatch after 26–32 days. The precocial downy ducklings leave the nest site when dry and are cared for by the female. They can fly when around 58 days of age.


The Pacific black duck is mainly vegetarian, feeding on seeds of aquatic plants. This diet is supplemented with small crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic insects. Food is obtained by 'dabbling', where the bird plunges its head and neck underwater and upends, raising its rear end vertically out of the water. Occasionally, food is sought on land in damp grassy areas.


The Pacific black duck has declined sharply in numbers in New Zealand and several Australian islands due to competition from and hybridisation with the introduced mallard. Rhymer et al. (1994) say their data "points to the eventual loss of identity of the grey duck as a separate species in New Zealand, and the subsequent dominance of a hybrid swarm akin to the Mariana Mallard." Studies of their three species of parasitic feather lice support this prediction. This same impact is occurring in many areas of Australia, Tasmania and Adelaide in particular.
It was assumed that far more mallard drakes mate with grey duck females than vice versa based on the fact that most hybrids show a mallard-type plumage, but this is not correct; it appears that the mallard phenotype is dominant, and that the degree to which species contributed to a hybrid's ancestry cannot be determined from the plumage. The main reasons for displacement of the grey duck seem to be physical dominance of the larger mallards, combined with a marked population decline of the grey duck due to overhunting in the mid-20th century.


The yellow-billed duck (Anas undulata) is a 51–58 cm long dabbling duck which is an abundant resident breeder in southern and eastern Africa.  This duck is not migratory, but wanders in the dry season to find suitable waters. It is highly gregarious outside the breeding season and forms large flocks.


These are mallard-sized mainly grey ducks with a darker head and bright yellow bill. The wings are whitish below, and from above show a white-bordered green speculum.  Sexes are similar, and juveniles are slightly duller than adults. The north-eastern race is darker and has a brighter bill and blue speculum.
It is a bird of freshwater habitats in fairly open country and feeds by dabbling for plant food mainly in the evening or at night. It nests on the ground in dense vegetation near water.  Rarely, it is found in suburban areas, in close proximity to golf courses, parks and lakes or dams. The clutch numbers between six and twelve eggs.
The male has a teal-like whistle, whereas the female has a mallard-like quack.
There are two subspecies of the yellow-billed duck: A. undulata rueppelli (northern yellow-billed duck) and A. undulata undulata (southern yellow-billed duck).  The yellow-billed duck is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies. The southern nominate subspecies is declining due to competition and hybridization with feral mallards (Rhymer 2006).


Male and female yellow-billed ducks have a statistically significant difference in life spans. Male ducks live for 4 years and 4 months on average while female ducks only live for just over 3 years. As such the difference in survival rate is statistically significant as well. 79% of males survive any given year while only 72% of females do. While the juvenile survival rate is highly variable year to year, on average 67% of juveniles survive. Highest mortality for the yellow-billed duck occurs in the summer months with December typically having the highest death rate out of any month of the year closely followed by January.


The male yellow-billed duck performs multiple displays of courtship, similar to many other African ducks. The number of courtship displays the yellow-billed ducks perform is greater than many other African ducks. Ornithologists have noted seven major displays of courtship similar African ducks perform; most species do not perform all seven, however, the yellow-billed duck will engage in all seven forms of courtship. The lack of sexual dichotomy and generally bland plumage may be the driving factor for the elaborate displays of courtship.


While yellow-billed ducks are protected by the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds Agreement, the species can be hunted as long as lead shot is not used. Hunting seasons for the yellow-billed duck are planned so as not to overlap with the breeding season, which is around July. However, the exact breeding season varies annually based on the climate. Hunting is a major cause of death for the yellow-billed duck with past analysis showing over 25% of duck deaths were due to shooting.


In the mid-20th century, mallards were introduced to Africa and as the invasive population size has grown, concerns over possible hybridization with the yellow-billed duck have occurred. This fear is fueled by other examples of invasive mallards causing localized extinction of other native ducks around the world because of hybridization.
The fear of possible hybridization between mallards and yellow-billed ducks has been exacerbated by casual observations that suggest possible hybridization of the yellow-billed duck with other native ducks is occurring, however, no genetic tests have been done to shine additional light on these morphological observations to confirm if these individuals are truly hybrids.
Even when genetics have been used, it is still difficult to understand if hybridization is occurring. If hybridization between mallards and yellow-billed ducks is occurring is still debated. Two recent (2019 and 2020) DNA sequencing studies reached opposite conclusions on if hybridization between mallards and yellow-billed ducks is happening. Nevertheless, scientists agree that changes to the gene pool of yellow-billed ducks from possible hybridization, even in the long term, is likely to be negligible. This is because even if mallard and yellow-billed duck hybridization is occurring, introgression is mainly occurring to the mallards’ gene pool, keeping the yellow-billed ducks genetics fairly intact.


The eastern spot-billed duck or Chinese spot-billed duck (Anas zonorhyncha) is a species of dabbling duck that breeds in East and Southeast Asia. This species was formerly considered a subspecies of the Indian spot-billed duck and both were referred to as the spot-billed duck (A. poecilorhyncha). The name is derived from the yellow spot on the bill.


The eastern spot-billed duck was described by the English biologist Robert Swinhoe in 1866 under its current binomial name Anas zonorhyncha. The name of the genus Anas is the Latin word for a duck. The specific epithet zonorhyncha is derived from the classical Greek words zōnē meaning "band" or "girdle" and rhunkhos meaning "bill".
Historically, the eastern spot-billed duck was usually considered as a subspecies of the Indian spot-billed duck (A. poecilorhyncha). The American ornithologist Bradley Livezey in a morphological study of the dabbling ducks published in 1991 proposed that the eastern spot-billed duck should be promoted to species status. Subsequently, fieldwork conducted at Hong Kong in southern China found that although both the eastern spot-billed duck and the Indian spot-billed duck (subspecies A. poecilorhyncha haringtoni) bred in the region at the same time, mixed pairs were only very rarely observed. Base on this observation, the American Ornithologists' Union recognised the eastern spot-billed duck as a separate species in 2008. Most taxonomists now treat the eastern spot-billed duck as a separate species. There is also some degree of hybridization with the mallard in the wild in eastern Russia with a tendency for a greater ratio of male eastern spot-billed ducks to mate with female mallards than the other way round.


This duck is around the same size as a mallard and has a scaly patterned body with a blue speculum. At rest the long neck and the bill with the yellow tip are distinctive. It measures 55–63 cm (22–25 in) in length and 83–95 cm (33–37 in) across the wings, with a body mass of 790–1,500 g (1.74–3.31 lb). These are mainly grey ducks with a paler head and neck and a black bill tipped bright yellow. The wings are whitish with black flight feathers below, and from above show a white-bordered green. The male does not have an eclipse plumage. Juveniles are browner and duller than adults. The legs and feet are bright orange.
The eastern spot-billed duck is darker and browner than the Indian spot-billed duck; its body plumage is more similar to the Pacific black duck. It lacks the red bill spot, and has a blue speculum.
Both males and females undergo a complete postnuptial moult, dropping all their wing feathers simultaneously.


The eastern spot-billed duck is migratory, wintering in Southeast Asia. It is quite gregarious outside the breeding season and forms small flocks. The populations in Japan and the Russian Far East have expanded their range northwards by more than 500 km since the early 20th century, possibly in reaction to global warming.
It is a bird of freshwater lakes and marshes in fairly open country and feeds by dabbling for plant food mainly in the evening or at night. The breeding season varies with rainfall and water condition but normally between April and July. It nests on the ground in vegetation near water. The clutch is usually 7-9 eggs. Incubation begins after the last egg is laid (allowing the chicks to hatch simultaneously) and the young hatch after about 24 days. The chicks are black with a yellow back and resemble those of mallards but with a wider eyestripe.
Both the male and female have calls similar to the mallard, with females producing a loud quack, and males a deeper, quieter sound.


The Asian openbill or Asian openbill stork (Anastomus oscitans) is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. This distinctive stork is found mainly in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It is greyish or white with glossy black wings and tail and the adults have a gap between the arched upper mandible and recurved lower mandible. Young birds are born without this gap which is thought to be an adaptation that aids in the handling of snails, their main prey. Although resident within their range, they make long distance movements in response to weather and food availability.


The Asian openbill was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in Pondichery, India. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.  Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Ardea oscitans in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The Asian openbill is now placed in the genus Anastomus that was erected by the French naturalist Pierre Bonnaterre in 1791. The genus name Anastomus is from the Ancient Greek αναστομοω anastomoō meaning "to furnish with a mouth" or "with mouth wide-opened". The specific epithet oscitans is the Latin word for "yawning".


The Asian openbill stork is predominantly greyish (non-breeding season) or white (breeding season) with glossy black wings and tail that have a green or purple sheen. The name is derived from the distinctive gap formed between the recurved lower and arched upper mandible of the beak in adult birds. Young birds do not have this gap. The cutting edges of the mandible have a fine brush like structure that is thought to give them better grip on the shells of snails. The tail consists of twelve feathers and the preen gland has a tuft. The mantle is black and the bill is horn-grey. At a distance, they can appear somewhat like a white stork or Oriental stork. The short legs are pinkish to grey, reddish prior to breeding. Non-breeding birds have a smoky grey wings and back instead of white. Young birds are brownish-grey and have a brownish mantle. Like other storks, the Asian openbill is a broad-winged soaring bird, which relies on moving between thermals of hot air for sustained flight. They are usually found in flocks but single birds are not uncommon. Like all storks, it flies with its neck outstretched. It is relatively small for a stork and stands at 68 cm height (81 cm long).


The usual foraging habitats are inland wetlands and are only rarely seen along river banks and tidal flats. On agricultural landscapes, birds forage in crop fields, irrigation canals, and in seasonal marshes. Birds may move widely in response to habitat conditions. Young birds also disperse widely after fledging. Individuals ringed at Bharatpur in India have been recovered 800 km east and a bird ringed in Thailand has been recovered 1500 km west in Bangladesh. Storks are regularly disoriented by lighthouses along the southeast coast of India on overcast nights between August and September. The species is very rare in the Sind and Punjab regions of Pakistan, but widespread and common in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia. It has recently expanded its range into southwestern China.


During the warmer part of the day, Asian openbills soar on thermals and have a habit of descending rapidly into their feeding areas. Groups may forage together in close proximity in shallow water or marshy ground on which they may walk with a slow and steady gait. The Asian openbill feeds mainly on large molluscs, especially Pila species, and they separate the shell from the body of the snail using the tip of the beak. The tip of the lower mandible of the beak is often twisted to the right. This tip is inserted into the opening of the snail and the body is extracted with the bill still under water. Jerdon noted that they were able to capture snails even when blindfolded. The exact action being difficult to see, led to considerable speculation on the method used. Sir Julian Huxley examined the evidence from specimens and literature and came to the conclusion that the bill gap was used like a nutcracker. He held the rough edges of the bill as being the result of wear and tear from such actions. Subsequent studies have dismissed this idea and the rough edge of the bill has been suggested as being an adaptation to help handle hard and slippery shells. They forage for prey by holding their bill tips slightly apart and make rapid vertical jabs in shallow water often with the head and neck partially submerged. The gap in the bill is not used for handling snail shells and forms only with age. Young birds that lack a gap are still able to forage on snails. It has been suggested that the gap allows the tips to strike at a greater angle to increases the force that the tips can apply on snail shells. Smaller snails are often swallowed whole or crushed.  They also feed on water snakes, frogs and large insects. When foraging on agricultural landscapes with a variety of habitats, Asian openbills preferentially use natural marshes and lakes (especially in the monsoon and winter), and irrigation canals (especially in the summer) as foraging habitat.


The breeding season is after the rains, during July to September in northern India and Nepal, and November to March in southern India and Sri Lanka. They may skip breeding in drought years. The Asian openbill breeds colonially, building a rough platform of sticks often on half-submerged trees (often Barringtonia, Avicennia and Acacia species), typically laying two to four eggs. The nesting trees are either shared with those of egrets, cormorants and darters, or can be single-species colonies like in lowland Nepal. Nesting colonies are sometimes in highly disturbed areas such as inside villages and on trees located in crop fields. In lowland Nepal, 13 colonies found in an agricultural landscape had an average colony size of 52, ranging from 5 nests to 130 nests. The majority of these colonies were located on Bombax ceiba trees, with much fewer located on Ficus religiosa and Dalbergia sissoo tree species. Asian openbills preferred trees that were much taller and bigger than trees that were available on the landscape, and selectively used wild and native tree species entirely avoiding species that were important for resources such as fruits (e.g. Mangifera indica) despite such trees being much more common. Religious beliefs have secured important trees such as Ficus species, and agro-forestry has secured the most preferred species, Bombax ceiba, that Asian openbills prefer to locate colonies in lowland Nepal. The nests are close to each other leading to considerable aggressive interactions between birds on neighbouring nests. Both parents take turns in incubation, the eggs hatching after about 25 days. The chicks emerge with cream coloured down and are shaded by the loosely outspread and drooped wings of a parent.
Initiation of nests in lowland Nepal was highly synchronized, with colonies started during July and August. Breeding success at nests in these colonies was impacted by proximity of colonies to human habitation, and the progression of the breeding season. Colonies closer to human habitation had lower success, and colonies initiated later during the breeding season (when flooding of the rice fields had reduced to allow ripening of the crop) had lower success. Number of chicks that fledged from colonies located on trees in agricultural landscapes in lowland Nepal were similar to that observed in a protected, mangrove reserve in eastern India suggesting that agricultural areas are not always detrimental to large waterbirds such as Asian openbills.
Nesting openbills in Nepal took an average of 27 minutes to return to nests with food for nestlings and fledglings. The time taken to find food was most impacted by the location of wetlands around colonies, and the progression of the breeding season. Adults look the least time to return with food earlier in the season when the dominant rice crop was most flooded, and time increased as the rice ripened along with the drying out of the fields.
Like other storks, they are silent except for clattering produced by the striking of the male's bill against that of the female during copulation. They also produce low honking notes accompanied by up and down movements of the bill when greeting a partner arriving at the nest. Males may sometimes form polygynous associations, typically with two females which may lay their eggs in the same nest.


Young birds at the nest are sometimes preyed on by imperial, steppe and greater spotted eagles. Chaunocephalus ferox, an intestinal parasite, is a trematode worm found in about 80% of the wild populations in Thailand while another species Echinoparyphium oscitansi has been described from Asian openbills in Thailand. Other helminth parasites such as Thapariella anastomusa, T. oesophagiala and  T. udaipurensis have been described from the oesophagus of storks.
In colonial India, sportsmen shot the openbill for meat, calling it the "beef-steak bird" (although this name was also used for the woolly-necked stork).


Anavitrinella pampinaria, the common gray, is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Achille Guenée in 1857. It is found in most of North America except the Arctic regions, south to Mexico.
The wingspan is 23–34 mm. The color of the forewing varies from medium gray to light yellowish-gray with heavy dark gray or black mottling. The first abdominal segment forms a pale whitish band, bordered proximally by a black line. This black line extends onto the base of the hindwing and onto the forewing, then curves forward but usually breaks before reaching the costa. The postmedial line is wavy and toothed. The subterminal line is white, scalloped or zigzagged. The hindwing color and pattern is similar to that of the forewing.
Adults are on wing from April to October.
The larvae feed on Malus, Fraxinus, Trifolium, Pyrus, Populus and Salix species. The larvae are light brown and mimic twigs. The head is flat-faced, mottled with tan, white, black and occasionally pink. There are often black spots forming a dark blotch to either side of the triangle.


They frequently fly high up into the sky in search of prey, which includes butterflies, other Odonata and tadpoles; small prey is eaten while flying. They breed in a variety of aquatic habitats from large ponds to dikes, but they require a plentiful supply of vegetation in the water. The females lay the eggs into plants such as pondweed, and always lay alone. The larvae are very aggressive and are likely to influence the native species composition of colonized freshwater ecosystems. The adult male is highly territorial, and difficult to approach. In the summer months emperor dragonflies are frequent visitors to gardens, being especially prevalent in the southern counties of Great Britain.


Anchusa arvensis is a plant species of the genus Anchusa. Its common names include small bugloss and annual bugloss.


This is a hairy annual herb which may reach half a meter in height. It bears small blue tubular flowers, four nutlets per flower, and one seed per nutlet. Leaves are very bristly and warty-looking, which differentiates it from similar species like Pentaglottis sempervirens and Myosotis arvensis.


The plant is native to Europe, and is found elsewhere.
Anchusa arvensis is found in arable field margins, sandy heaths, disturbed ground.
In the UK it is a declining species with patchy distribution, however conservation status as of 2005 is least concern.
Anchusa arvensis flowers April to September in the UK.


Anchusa officinalis, commonly known as the common bugloss or alkanet, is a plant species in the genus Anchusa.
The plant provides a great deal of nectar for pollinators. It was rated in the top 10 for most nectar production (nectar per unit cover per year) in a UK plants survey conducted by the AgriLand project which is supported by the UK Insect Pollinators Initiative.


This species is similar to the rarer A. spinolae, with differences including a shining, impunctate propodeum and a pair of yellow spots on the female's scutellum.


Ancistrocerus antilope is present in all Canadian provinces and all continental U. S. states except Alaska, Alabama, and Florida, as well as Europe to Siberia.


The European potter wasp or European tube wasp (Ancistrocerus gazella) is a species of potter wasp. As an imago (adult), the female collects as many as 20 caterpillars for each nest, which consists of a single cell. Her larval offspring then feed on these inside the nest, which is sealed with mud arranged by her. As adults, they eat nectar and aphid honeydew. Males cannot sting, and the sting of a female is not painful. They can be found on windows, foraging for nectar on flowers, or searching out small cracks or holes in which to nest.


This wasp is native to Europe, its range including Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Austria, Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria. In the British Isles it occurs in England, as far north as Stockton-on-Tees, in Wales and at scattered locations in Ireland. It also occurs in Morocco. It is found in a variety of habitats where there is suitable sandy and clay soil, such as river banks, coastal areas, parkland, open woodland and urban areas.
The species became established in Auckland, New Zealand in 1987, and is now found even in Otago (near the country's southern extremity).


In late spring, the wasps emerge from their over-wintering sites and feed on nectar and pollen from such plants as sea-holly, bramble, hogweed and thistles. After mating, the females search for suitable nest sites; these are usually cavities in plants such as hollow stems, pith cavities of dead twigs or the disused tunnels made by wood-boring insects. Inside these tubes, the cells are arranged linearly, with a clay partition between them. The female lays an egg in the first cell and then stocks it with several paralysed caterpillars, before sealing it with a clay plug. Further cells are made in a similar manner. Each wasp egg hatches in a few days and the larva takes ten or twelve days to consume its supply of caterpillars. After a short rest, or an extended period of diapause, depending on the time of year, the larva spins a cocoon and the adult emerges about a fortnight later. It moistens the clay plug to soften it before emerging into the open.


Ancyloxypha numitor, the least skipper, is a North American butterfly in the family Hesperiidae. They have a weak, Satyrinae-like flight.


The least skipper's rounded wings and slender body are distinctive. Their checkered antennae have no hooks. Males lack stigmata. The upper sides of the forewings are dark brownish black sometimes having a patch of orange. The hindwing is orange with a broad dark brownish-black band surrounding the orange area completely. The underside of the wings is orange with the hindwing discal area being a little bit darker. The hindwing veins are whitish. Its wingspan ranges from 17 to 26 mm.


There are four similar species in the least skipper's range. They are the European skipper (Thymelicus lineola), the tropical least skipper (Ancyloxypha arene), the orange skipperling (Copaeodes aurantiaca), and the southern skipperling (Copaeodes minima).
The European skipper has more pointed wings than the least skipper, the antennae are short and not checkered, and the upper side of the wings is mostly orange or reddish orange with thin black wing margins. Males also have very thin, black stigmata near the costal forewing edge.
The tropical least skipper has more orange on the upper side of the wings than the least skipper, and the underside of the wings has very small black marginal spots.
The orange skipperling is almost all bright orange on the upper side except for the basal areas being black. Males have black stigmata, and females usually have some black below the forewing cell.
The southern skipperling is smaller than the least skipper (it is also the smallest skipper in the United States) and the underside of the hindwing has a white ray which runs the width of the hindwing from the basal area to the margin.


The least skipper favors damp or wet habitats with tall grasses.


To find females, males will patrol through stands of grass. Females lay their eggs singly on the host plant. The pale yellow eggs will soon form an orange-red ring round the middle. The larvae make a nest by rolling up a single blade of grass or by using silk to tie together multiple leaves. The variable larva is grass green with four white pairs of distinct wax glands along the subventral area of the abdomen. The head is either brown or tan and is usually darker in the center. The collar has a white stripe and a black stripe. The cream pupa has brownish colored markings. It overwinters as a larva in the third or fourth instar. It has two to four broods per year.


Host plants of the least skipper include:
Cogongrass, Imperata sp.
Rice cutgrass, Leersia oryzoides
Cultivated rice, Oryza sativa
Panicum sp.
Bluegrass, Poa sp.
Setaria sp.
Cordgrass, Spartina sp.
Marsh millet, Zizaniopsis miliacea


Andricus kingi, the red cone gall wasp, is a species of gall wasp in the family Cynipidae.
This species induces galls on various white oak species, such as the valley oak Quercus lobata.


The sombre greenbul (Andropadus importunus) is a member of the bulbul family of passerine birds. It is a resident breeder in coastal bush, evergreen forest and dry shrub land in eastern and southern Africa.  It is the only member of the genus Andropadus.


Eighteen species of greenbuls originally described in the genus Andropadus were re-classified to the genera Arizelocichla, Stelgidillas and Eurillas in 2010. This has left Andropadus as a monotypic genus with the sombre greenbul remaining as its sole extant species.
The sombre greenbul was originally described in the genus Turdus and was later re-classified to the genus Andropadus. Alternatively, some authorities classify the sombre greenbul in the genus Pycnonotus. Alternate names for the sombre greenbul include the sombre bulbul, southern sombre bulbul and southern sombre greenbul.


Four subspecies of the sombre greenbul are recognized:
Zanzibar sombre greenbul (A. i. insularis) - Hartlaub, 1861: Originally described as a separate species. Includes Frick's greenbul which was also originally described as a separate species. Found from southern Ethiopia and southern Somalia to eastern Tanzania
Transvaal sombre greenbul (A. i. importunus) - (Vieillot, 1818): Found from the highlands of northern South Africa and western Eswatini south along coast to Western Cape
Endoto sombre greenbul (A. i. oleaginus) - Peters, W, 1868: Found in southern Zimbabwe, southern Mozambique and lowland northern South Africa
A. i. hypoxanthus - Sharpe, 1876: Found in south-eastern Tanzania to central Mozambique, central Zimbabwe and south-central Zambia


The sombre greenbul is 15–18 cm long, with mainly dull greyish olive-green plumage, paler on the underparts than above. There are variations in colour based on habitat range. Individuals located in southern Africa tend to be plain, olive-green. To the north, birds are yellower with greener upper parts. It has a white iris. The sexes are similar in plumage, but juveniles are even duller than the adult and have dark, grey eyes. There is no colour distinction among sexes. The subspecies A. i. hypoxanthus is much yellower below than the nominate subspecies.
The sombre greenbul is a vocal species, and the most typical call is a monotonous, ringing phrase starting with a penetrating single whistle weeeewee, followed by a jumbled chortle and ending off with a rather plaintive, drawn-out whistle willy. If agitated, a call of peeet peeet peeet repeatedly is likely to be heard.


The sombre greenbul is a common bird, which tends to stay hidden in foliage and is more often heard than seen. It is usually found in pairs or small groups foraging for insects, fruit and small snails.


Andropogon gerardi, commonly known as big bluestem, is a species of tall grass native to much of the Great Plains and grassland regions of central and eastern North America. It is also known as tall bluestem, bluejoint, and turkeyfoot.


Andropogon gerardi was formally named in 1792 by Fulgenzio Vitman. It was named for French botanist Louis Gérard, who had first described the plant from specimens that had been cultivated in Provence, France.
Kew's International Plant Names Index and USDA Germplasm Resources Information Network reject the spelling gerardii and provide reasoning for gerardi as being the correct spelling for the specific epithet of this taxon. Andropogon gerardii still makes appearances in various literature, including other USDA publications.