This species, Africa's most widespread member of the genus Corvus, occurs from Sub-Saharan Africa, specifically Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Sudan, Somalia Eritrea, Zambia and Zimbabwe down to the Cape of Good Hope and on the large island of Madagascar, the Comoros islands, Aldabra, Assumption Island, Cosmoledo, Astove Island, Zanzibar, Pemba and Fernando Po. It inhabits mainly open country with villages and towns nearby. It does not occur in the equatorial rainforest region. It is rarely seen very far from human habitation, though it is not as tied to the urban way of life as the house crow (Corvus splendens) of Asia, and may be encountered far from human habitation in Eritrea.


The nest is usually built in tall, isolated trees, though sometimes smaller specimens are used, depending on availability. The cross supports of telephone poles are also frequently used, and both sexes build the nest. A clutch of 3–6 eggs is laid from September to November (depending on latitude) and are pale green spotted with various shades of brown. The eggs are normally covered when the incubating female leaves the nest. Incubation is 18–19 days and the young are usually fledged by around 45 days. Both sexes rear the young.


Peridea basitriens, the oval-based prominent, is a species of moth in the family Notodontidae (the prominents). It was first described by Francis Walker in 1855 and it is found in North America.
The MONA or Hodges number for Peridea basitriens is 7919.


The Pacific swallow (Hirundo tahitica) is a small  passerine bird in the swallow family. It breeds in tropical southern Asia and the islands of the south Pacific. It is resident apart from some local seasonal movements. This bird is associated with coasts, but is increasingly spreading to forested uplands. The hill swallow was formerly considered conspecific.
This species is a small swallow at 13 cm. It has a blue-black back and crown with browner wings and tail, a red face and throat, and dusky underparts. It differs from the barn swallow and the closely related welcome swallow in its shorter and less forked tail.
The Pacific swallow builds a neat cup-shaped nest, constructed with mud pellets collected in the beak, under a cliff ledge or on man-made structures such as a building, bridge or tunnel. The nest is lined with softer material, and the clutch is two to three eggs. It is similar in behaviour to other aerial insectivores, such as other swallows and the unrelated swifts. It is a fast flyer and feeds on insects, especially flies, while airborne.


Osmia bicornis (synonym Osmia rufa) is a species of mason bee, and is known as the red mason bee due to its covering of dense gingery hair. It is a solitary bee that nests in holes or stems and is polylectic, meaning it forages pollen from various different flowering plants. These bees can be seen aggregating together  and nests in preexisting hollows, choosing not to excavate their own. These bees are not aggressive; they will only sting if handled very roughly and are safe to be closely observed by children. Females only mate once, usually with closely related males. Further, females can determine the sex ratio of their offspring based on their body size, where larger females will invest more in diploid females eggs than small bees. These bees also have trichromatic colour vision and are important pollinators in agriculture.


O. bicornis is found in England, southern Scotland (possibly northern Scotland, as well), Wales, Ireland, mainland Europe, Sweden, Norway, North Africa, Georgia, Turkey, and Iran.  Of the 11 species identified of Osmia in England, O. bicornis is both the largest and most common species present.
O. bicornis occupies a variety of nesting sites within nature and in sites of human construction. These bees have been known to nest in key holes, empty snail shells, plant stems, and empty beetle hollows.  O. bicornis occupies the old shells of these three species: Helix nemoralis, Helix hortensis, and Helix pomatia and the nests of Anthophora species. Additionally, these bees make their nests in such sites as sandy banks, decaying trees planted in clay soil like the willow tree, old-mortared walls, flint stone holes, garden shed fifes, and window frame holes and cracks.
The maximum foraging distance for O. bicornis is about 600 m, though generally high plant density around the nests allow bees to forage closer to the nest and for a shorter duration.


Although these bees may be seen into late June, they are most active during the spring and early summer. Each year, one generation of bees is formed, making an appearance during the spring. About one week after eggs are laid in the brood cells, the eggs hatch and larvae develop through the summer. The larvae then enter the pupal stage upon spinning cocoons, in which the anterior collar, nipple area, and outer meshwork of the cocoon are spun simultaneously. The adults then hibernate through the winter in the cocoons and finally emerge as mature bees in the spring. The eggs hatch after about one week; the larvae start spinning a cocoon about one month after hatching. The bees become adults in fall, but stay quiescent until next spring.
During cocoon formation, the larva uses saliva to encompass the faecal material and cell. The anterior part of the cocoon is composed of a domed collar and a central, domed nipple region, and the larva weaves salivary "silk" threads in a circular pattern in this region. The larva also uses its digestive contents to form smears on the cocoon, leading to hardening of the cocoon and a colour change to a dark, red-brown. In this stage, in which the organism becomes classified as an imago, the metabolic rate of the imago declines because it must have enough food to survive the winter. Both the imago's body weight and fat body weight decrease.
Male larvae are placed in front of the females within the nest, allowing the males to emerge first in the spring. Specifically, female eggs are laid in inner brood cells, while male eggs are laid in the outer brood cells. Upon emergence, females fly around for about eight weeks. These bees store mostly pollen moistened with a small amount of nectar, which is eaten by the larvae during the summer before they rest through the winter in a cocoon.


Adults have a curved bill which is completely black and white wing bars. The adult male has a deep yellowish orange head with black on the face and throat; they are black on the back, wings and tail, orange on the underparts. The adult female is olive-green on the upper parts, yellowish on the breast and belly. Their calls consist of whistling and wheets, while their song is a mixture of both.
Their breeding habitat is open areas with trees, especially palms, across the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The nest is a tightly woven pouch attached to the underside of a leaf or tree branch. Sometimes their nest is filled with the egg of a Brown-headed cowbird which is parasite bird that lays its eggs in other birds nests for that species to take care of.
These birds migrate in flocks south to Mexico's southwestern coast; they are permanent residents in Baja California Sur, the Mexican east coast, and Belize. Some may over-winter near feeders. They can also be found in Southern California neighborhoods, but are rare in the winter.
They forage in trees and shrubs, also feeding from flowers. It is a nectar robber because it pierces the base of the flower, and does not assist in pollination. These birds mainly eat insects, nectar and fruit, and will also visit hummingbird feeders and bird feeders for seeds.


Diet and Feeding
The Hooded Oriole's diet consists of insects, berries, and nectar. Hooded Orioles are acrobatic feeders, often hanging upside down to get the nectar from flowers and to catch their prey. This species feeds on a variety of insects, but may especially favor caterpillars, beetles, wasps, and ants. Hooded Orioles forage for food slowly, gathering insects from foliage in the trees and feeding on berries, along with sometimes oranges or other citrus. They also probe flowers for nectar, and may take insects there as well. They are common visitors to insect and hummingbird feeders.
Voice and Song
The song of the Hooded Oriole tends to be short and abrupt. The notes are rapid and lack the whistling nature of many other oriole species, and often sound nasal and whiny in nature.
There is a high amount of variation both geographically and individually within the song of the Hooded Oriole. Each male also sings many different types of songs. The Hooded Oriole has been known to include mimicry in its song, notably in Arizona some individuals have included the songs of the Gila Woodpecker and the Ash-throated Flycatcher.
Common Calls of the Hooded Oriole include a whistled wheet or sweet sound. A chatter call is given as an alarm, somewhat similar to that of the Baltimore Oriole or Bullock's Oriole. The individual notes of the Hooded Oriole's chatter are given more quickly however, and it creates a shriller sound. Juveniles commonly give a soft chut and a harsher chuck or chet, however these have also been observed being given by adults.
Nesting and Young
Males arrive at their nesting sites in the last weeks of March and set up breeding territories. The breeding season lasts from April to July in Texas, May to August in Arizona, April to mid-August in California, and May to August in Baja California.
Recent reports state that the nests are constructed and secured on the undersides of palms and banana plants. Location and structure materials vary geographically. Arizona nests are often made of grasses and located in taller trees. Meanwhile, California Nests are made from palm fibers and located on the underside of palm plants. The Hooded Oriole's nest is basket shaped, and much deeper than its relatives.
Female Hooded Orioles lay a clutch of 3-5 eggs. The eggs are generally white, but can range into a pale blue with darker splotches. The eggs are incubated for 12-14 days, and the nestlings take about 14 days to fledge. This species is also commonly parasitized by the Brown Headed Cowbird and the Bronzed Cowbird.


Cyrtepistomus castaneus, the Asiatic oak weevil, is a species of oriental broad-nosed weevil in the beetle family Curculionidae. It is found in North America.


Adults are on the wing from mid-summer onwards. Males often patrol small territories over water but females only visit water when ready to mate. Copulation soon follows the arrival of the female, and the pair flies around the pond in tandem, investigating sites for egg-laying. The female begins ovipositing while still linked to the male and often continues to lay after he has flown off. The eggs are laid in mats of willow roots, among floating driftwood, on bits of floating board and on living, but horizontal, Helenium stems. By this time, the male is no longer aggressive towards other males, and several females use the same sites for egg deposition.
This species has been much studied, and its behavior is fairly typical of damselfly behavior. The adults hatched over an extended period and first appeared at a study site in Oklahoma in mid-summer. Males visited water on about 40% of their adult days while females merely did so on 20%, both spending the rest of the time elsewhere, mostly in woods. The males arrived at water earlier in the day than females and start patrolling areas, stationing themselves about 2 metres (6 ft) from adjoining males. They darted at invaders and successfully drove them off in most instances although no physical contact occurred. Peak activity was around midday. The arrival of a female in the patrolled territory was greeted with immediate copulation lasting about 16 minutes, with no preliminary display or courtship. There followed a phase of 25 minutes while they explored the pond, an ovipositing phase with the pair in tandem lasting about 60 minutes followed by a further 20 minute egg-laying period by the female alone. Females avoided further sexual activity by flying rapidly away. Marked males had an apparent life expectancy of about 8 days and females 7, though the oldest marked male lived for 33 days. By late afternoon, all the damselflies had departed.


The blue-fronted dancer (Argia apicalis) is a species of damselfly in the family Coenagrionidae, native to parts of North America. It was first described by the American zoologist Thomas Say in 1840. It is a common species with a wide range and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern".


The blue-footed booby (Sula nebouxii) is a marine bird native to subtropical and tropical regions of the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is one of six species of the genus Sula – known as boobies. It is easily recognizable by its distinctive bright blue feet, which is a sexually selected trait. Males display their feet in an elaborate mating ritual by lifting them up and down while strutting before the female. The female is slightly larger than the male and can measure up to 90 cm (35 in) long with a wingspan  up to 1.5 m (5 ft).
The natural breeding habitats of the blue-footed booby are the tropical and subtropical islands of the Pacific Ocean. It can be found from the Gulf of California south along the western coasts of Central and South America  to Peru. About half of all breeding pairs nest on the Galápagos Islands. Its diet mainly consists of fish, which it obtains by diving and sometimes swimming under water in search of its prey. It sometimes hunts alone, but usually hunts in groups.
The blue-footed booby usually lays one to three eggs at a time. The species practices asynchronous hatching, in contrast to many other species whereby incubation begins when the last egg is laid and all chicks hatch together. This results in a growth inequality and size disparity between siblings, leading to facultative siblicide in times of food scarcity. This makes the blue-footed booby an important model for studying parent–offspring conflict and sibling rivalry.


The blue-footed booby is a specialized fish eater, feeding on small schooling fish such as sardines, anchovies, mackerel, and flying fish. It will also take squid and offal. The blue-footed booby hunts by diving into the ocean after prey, sometimes from a great height, and can also swim underwater in pursuit of its prey. It can hunt singly, in pairs, or in larger flocks. Boobies travel in parties of about 12 to areas of water with large schools of small fish. When the lead bird sees a fish shoal in the water, it signals to the rest of the group and they  all dive in unison, pointing their bodies down like arrows.
Plunge diving can be done from heights of 10–30.5 m (33–100 ft) and even up to 100 m (330 ft). These birds hit the water around 97 km/h (27 m/s) and can go to depths of 25 m (80 ft) below the water surface. Their skulls contain special air sacs that protect the brain from enormous pressure. Prey are usually eaten while the birds are still under water. Individuals prefer to eat on their own instead of with their hunting group, usually in the early morning or late afternoon.  Males and females fish differently, which may contribute to why blue-foots, unlike other boobies, raise more than one young. The male is smaller and has a proportionally larger tail, which enables the male to fish in shallow areas and deep waters. The female is larger and can carry more food. Both the male and female feed the chicks through regurgitation.


The blue-footed booby lays one to three eggs in one nest at a time, although 80% of nests only contain two eggs.  Eggs are laid five days apart. After the first egg is laid, it is immediately incubated, which results in a difference in chick hatching times. The first chick hatches four days before the other, so it receives a four-day head start in growth compared to its younger sibling. This asynchronous hatching serves many purposes. First, it spaces out the difficult time period in rearing during which newborn chicks are too feeble to accept regurgitated food. In addition, it reduces the chance that parents will suffer total brood loss to predators such as the milk snake.
Asynchronous hatching may also reduce sibling rivalry. Experimentally manipulated synchronous broods produced more aggressive chicks; chicks in asynchronous broods were less violent. This pattern of behavior arguably occurs through a clearly established brood hierarchy in asynchronously hatched siblings. Although asynchronous hatching is not vital for the formation of brood hierarchies (the experimentally synchronous broods established them, as well), it does aid in efficient brood reduction when food levels are low. Subordinate chicks in asynchronous broods die more quickly, thus relieving the parents of the burden of feeding both offspring when resources are insufficient to properly do so.


The blue-footed booby is distributed among the continental coasts of the eastern Pacific Ocean from California to the Galápagos Islands south into Peru. It is strictly a marine bird. Its only need for land is to breed and rear young, which it does along the rocky coasts of the eastern Pacific.
A booby may use and defend two or three nesting sites, which consist of bare black lava in small divots in the ground, until they develop a preference for one a few weeks before the eggs are laid. These nests are created as parts of large colonies. While nesting, the female turns to face the sun throughout the day, so the nest is surrounded by excrement.


The blue-footed booby is on average 81 cm (32 in) long and weighs 1.5 kg (3+1⁄4 lb), with the female being slightly larger than the male. Its wings are long, pointed, and brown in color. The neck and head of the blue-footed booby are light brown with white streaks, while the belly and underside exhibit pure white plumage. Its eyes are placed on either side of its bill and oriented towards the front, enabling excellent binocular vision. Its eyes are a distinctive yellow, with the male having more yellow in its irises than the female. Blue-footed booby chicks have black beaks and feet and are clad in a layer of soft white down. The subspecies S. n. excisa that breeds on the Galápagos Islands is larger than the nominate subspecies and has lighter plumage especially around the neck and head.
The Peruvian booby is similar in appearance, but has grey feet, whiter head and neck, and white spots on its wing coverts. The ranges of the two species overlap in the waters of northern Peru and southern Ecuador.
Since the blue-footed booby preys on fish by diving headlong into the water, its nostrils are permanently closed, and it has to breathe through the corners of its mouth. Its most notable characteristic is its blue-colored feet, which can range in color from a pale turquoise to a deep aquamarine. Males and younger birds have lighter feet than females. Its blue feet play a key role in courtship rituals and breeding, with the male visually displaying his feet to attract mates during the breeding season.


Neptis columella, the short banded sailer, is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in South and Southeast Asia.


The sooty-headed bulbul can be found in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, southern China, Hong Kong, Macao, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. In China, the species is mainly limited to the south of the country, corresponding to the extent of the palaeotropical ecoregion, but the species has been recorded as far north as Shanghai in the east and Chengdu in the west. The bird has a disjunct distribution broken into two subpopulations by the Malay Peninsula, where it does not seem to occur between Prachuap Khiri Khan province in Thailand in the north, and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia in the south.


In Hong Kong, the sooty-headed bulbul, whilst not a rarity, is markedly less common than the red-whiskered and light-vented bulbuls. Unlike these two species, it appears to prefer dryland agricultural areas above other habitats, but can also be found in fire-damaged and degraded hill shrubland.


The wingspan is 20–25 mm. The color of the forewings and hindwings is yellow to ochre brown (occasionally light). The forewings and hindwings are covered with brown or white serrated crossbars. There are usually three or four distinct white crossbars, which may be bordered by a black line. The wing margin is black and wavy. The yellowish eggs are round, only slightly flattened at the pole. The surface shows a large mesh. There are warts on the intersections. The caterpillars are greenish to slightly brownish with obvious segment incisions. The dorsal line is darker than the body color. The lateral line, on the other hand, is often brighter. The head is usually light brown and relatively small. The pupa is reddish brown with a short cremaster, consisting of two small bristles. The thoracic area and the wings have a brownish-greenish hue.


The species shows no preferences for special biotopes. It flies both in forest and open lands, as well as in wet and dry places. On herbaceous forest edges, however, there is a higher density of moths. In the Alps it is found up to 1,600 metres above sea level. It is common, but in very different numbers from year to year.
The moths fly from June to August.
The larvae feed on various low-growing plants such as chickweed, sorrel and other species from the family Polygonaceae.


Camptogramma bilineata, the yellow shell, is a colourful moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It can be found in Europe and east across the Palearctic to the Altai Mountains.


The  black-faced bunting (Emberiza spodocephala) is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae.
The genus name Emberiza is from Old German Embritz, a bunting. The specific spodocephala is from Ancient Greek spodos, "ashes", and kephalos, "headed".
It breeds in southern Siberia across to northern China. It is migratory, wintering in north-east India, southern China and northern south-east Asia. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe.
The black-faced bunting breeds in dense undergrowth along streams and rivers in the taiga zone, and lays four or five eggs in a ground or tree nest. Its natural food consists of seeds, and when feeding young, insects. It winters close to water in agricultural or other open bushy habitats.
This bird's general appearance and terrestrial feeding habits give the impression of a dunnock with a bunting's bill. It is similar in size to a reed bunting at about 16 cm long. The breeding male has a dark grey head with a mix of yellow green and black between the bill and eye. The upperparts are brown and heavily streaked with black, except on the rump. The rump is brown and the tail is also a dark brown. The underparts are yellowish white with some fine dark brown flank streaks. The stout bill is pink.
Females and young birds have a weaker head pattern, with olive-grey cheeks and a weak creamy white supercilium. The underparts are creamy yellow heavily streaked with dark brown.
The bird's call is like a tzii or tzee. It sound very "metallic" and it is a very short and not exactly a song at all. It nests on trees or on the ground and lays about four to five eggs.


The crested barbet feeds on insects, other birds' eggs and fruits and sometimes mice.


It is found in forests, savannah, suburban gardens, woodland thickets and watercourses in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.


They nest in a hole in a tree or a log in a suburban garden. They are monogamous and territorial during breeding. Territory size varies according to their habitat. One to five eggs are laid at daily intervals between September to December. Incubation lasts between 13 and 17 days, beginning with the second or third egg and mainly by the female. The young hatch naked and blind. They are fed insects by both parents. Faecal material is removed regularly. They fledge after about 31 days. Up to five broods have been recorded in a breeding season.


Helophilus fasciatus (Walker, 1849), the narrow-headed marsh fly, is an abundant species of syrphid fly observed throughout the United States and Canada. Hoverflies can remain nearly motionless in flight. The adults are also known as flower flies for they are commonly found on flowers, from which they get both enegy-giving nectar and protein rich pollen. The larvae of this genus are associated with wet decaying organic material, particularly accumulations of decaying vegetation in ponds and mud and farmyard manure or silage. The adults of this species lays eggs on vegetation overhanging water. The larvae hatch and drop into the water.


The squirrel cuckoo (Piaya cayana) is a large and active species of cuckoo found in wooded habitats from northwestern Mexico to northern Argentina and Uruguay, and on Trinidad. Some authorities have split off the western Mexican form as the Mexican squirrel-cuckoo (Piaya mexicana).


The squirrel cuckoo is found in woodland canopy and edges, second growth, hedges and semi-open habitats from sea level to as high as 2,500 m (8,200 ft), although it is uncommon above 1,200 m (3,900 ft).
This species’ English name derives from its habit of running along branches and leaping from branch to branch like a squirrel. It normally flies only short distances, mainly gliding with an occasional flap.
It feeds on large insects such as cicadas, wasps and caterpillars (including those with stinging hairs or spines), and occasionally spiders, small amphibians and reptiles, such as small lizards, rarely taking fruit. Its non-flying prey is typically taken off the foliage with a quick lunge, but wasps may be caught on the wing. Squirrel cuckoos are often observed to forage peacefully alongside small mammals such as common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) during the dry season for cocoa beans. In particular, they can be seen to attend army ant columns together, picking off prey flushed by the ants, and occasionally will join mixed-species feeding flocks.
The nest is a cup of leaves on a twig foundation, hidden in dense vegetation 1–12 m (3.3–39.4 ft) high in a tree. The female lays two white eggs.
The squirrel cuckoo is plentiful in most of its range and appears to be quite tolerant of human disturbance, as long as woodland remains. Compared to many cuckoos in the world, it is relatively bold and conspicuous, although it is most often encountered skulking about within vegetation. Owing to its wide range, it is considered a species of Least Concern by the IUCN.


This large and extremely long-tailed cuckoo is 40.5–50 cm (15.9–19.7 in) long and weighs 95–120 g (3.4–4.2 oz). The adult has mainly chestnut upperparts and head, becoming paler on the throat. The lower breast is grey and the belly is blackish. The central tail feathers are rufous, but the outer are black with white tips. The bill is yellow and the iris is red. Immature birds have a grey bill and eyering, brown iris, and less white in the tail. It resembles the little cuckoo, but that species is smaller and has a darker throat.
There are a number of subspecies with minor plumage variations. For example, P. c. mehleri, one of the South American subspecies, has mainly brown (not black) outer tail feathers. Additionally, the subspecies from Mexico, Central America, and northern and western South America have a yellow eye-ring, but this is red in the remaining part of South America.
It makes explosive kip! and kip! weeuu calls, and the song is a whistled wheep wheep wheep wheep.


Changeable lizards eat mainly insects such as crickets, grasshoppers, ants and small vertebrates, including rodents and other lizards including common house geckos and day geckos. They have teeth which are designed for gripping prey and not tearing it up. So prey is swallowed whole, after it is stunned by shaking it about. Sometimes, young, inexperienced changeable lizards may choke on prey which are too large. Changeable lizards also occasionally consume vegetable matter.


The native range of the species includes SE Iran, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China (South) (Yunnan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Hainan Island), India (including the Andaman Islands), Indonesia (Sumatra), Malaysia (Western), Maldives, Mauritius (Reunion, Rodrigues), Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Thailand, Vietnam  (including Pulo Condore Island). It has been introduced to Brunei, Celebes, Oman, Seychelles, Singapore and United States. The lizards were introduced to Singapore from Malaysia and Thailand in the 1980s. In Singapore, they are a threat to the native Green-Crested Lizard.
The Changeable Lizard is relatively common and found in a wide range of habitats. They appear to adapt well to humans and are thus not endangered. They are commonly found among the undergrowth in open habitats including highly urban areas. However, in China people regularly kill them due to which they are becoming rarer.


It is an insectivore and the male gets a bright red throat in the breeding season.
It measures over 10 cm (3.9 in) in length snout-to-vent. Total length including the tail is up to 37 cm (14.5 in).
Two small groups of spines, perfectly separated from each other, above each tympanum. Dorsal crest moderately elevated on the neck and anterior part of the trunk, extending on to the root of the tail in large individuals, and gradually disappearing on the middle of the trunk in younger ones. No fold in front of the shoulder, but the scales behind the lower jaw are much smaller than the others; gular sac not developed. From thirty-nine to forty-three series of scales round the middle of the trunk. The hind foot (measured from the heel to the extremity of the fourth toe) is not much longer than the head in the adult, whilst it is considerably longer in the young. The coloration is very variable, sometimes uniform brownish or greyish-olive or yellowish. Generally broad brown bands across the back, interrupted by a yellowish lateral band. Black streaks radiate from the eye, and some of them are continued over the throat, running obliquely backwards, belly frequently with greyish longitudinal stripes, one along the median line being the most distinct; young and half-grown specimens have a dark, black-edged band across the inter-orbital region.
The ground-colour is generally a light brownish olive, but the lizard can change it to bright red, to black, and to a mixture of both. This change is sometimes confined to the head, at other times diffused over the whole body and tail. A common state in which it may be seen (as stated by Mr. Jerdon) is, seated on a hedge or bush, with the tail and limbs black, head and neck yellow picked out with red, and the rest of the body red. Jerdon and Blyth agree that these bright, changeable colours are peculiar to the male during the breeding-season, which falls in the months of May to early October.
C. A. L. Guenther mentioned that Mouhot had collected in Siam one of those fine variations of colours, which, however, appear to be infinite. It has the usual cross streaks between the eyes and the radiating lines continent of India to China; it is very common in Ceylon, not extending into the temperate zone of the Himalayas. Ceylonese specimens are generally somewhat larger; one of them measured 16 inches, the tail taking 11 inches. It is found in hedges and trees; it is known in Ceylon under the name of "Bloodsucker", a designation the origin of which cannot be satisfactorily traced; in the opinion of Kelaart, the name was given to it from the occasional reddish hue of the throat and neck. "Roktochosha (রক্তচোষা)" is also a local name in the Bengali language, which also translates to "bloodsucker". The female lays from five to sixteen soft oval eggs, about 5/8 of an inch long, in hollows of trees, or in holes in the soil which they have burrowed, afterward covering them up. The young appear in about eight or nine weeks. In a hot sunny day a solitary Bloodsucker may be seen on a twig or on a wall, basking in the sun, with mouth wide open. After a shower of rain numbers of them are seen to come down on the ground and pick up the larva and small insects which fall from the trees during the showers. Changeable lizards escape danger by darting to the nearest tree. If the predator comes even closer, they will scale to the side of the tree facing away from the predator and very swiftly dart up the tree. The predator looks behind the tree only to see that the lizard is up in the branches.
During the breeding season, the male's head and shoulders turns bright orange to crimson and his throat black. Males also turn red-headed after a successful battle with rivals. Both males and females have a crest from the head to nearly the tail, hence their other common name, "crested tree lizard".
Changeable lizards are related to iguanas (which are found only in the New World). Unlike other lizards, they do not drop their tails (autotomy), and their tails can be very long, stiff and pointy. Like other reptiles, they shed their skins. Like chameleons, changeable lizards can move each of their eyes in different directions.


Males become highly territorial during breeding season. They discourage intruding males by brightening their red heads and doing "push-ups". Each tries to attract a female by inflating his throat and drawing attention to his handsomely colored head. Oviparous; about 10—20 eggs are laid, buried in moist soil. The eggs are long, spindle-shaped and covered with a leathery skin. They hatch in about 6–7 weeks. They are able to breed at about 1 year old.


During the breeding season 82% of the population can be found in Canada and 18% in the United States. In Canada the summer range extends from southeastern Yukon to Nova Scotia. In the United States the range extends from northern Minnesota to northern Pennsylvania, east to Long Island, New York. It also nests in the high Appalachians as far south as Georgia. In winter the Canada warbler's range extends from Guyana to northwestern Bolivia around the northern and western side of the Andean crest.
In both summer and winter seasons the Canada warbler inhabits moist thickets. During the breeding season the bird "nests in riparian thickets, brushy ravines, forest bogs, etc. at a wide range of elevations and across a variety of forest types. In the northwestern parts of its range it frequents aspen forests; in the center of the range, it is found in forested wetlands and swamps; and in the south it occupies montane rhododendron thickets."
In the winter it prefers mid- and upper-elevation habitats. In northern Minnesota a study found that Canada warblers inhabited the shrub-forest edge, rather than marture forests or open fields with shrub. In New England the Canada warbler was found to be "disturbance specialists" moving into patches of forests recovering from wind throw or timber removal. Because of its preference for low-height foraging in deciduous forests, it may be bounded at higher elevations as suitable habitat disappears and suffer competition from the black-throated blue warbler which prefers similar habitats.
Two accidentals have been observed in Europe. The first a moribund male caught in Sandgerði, Iceland on September 29, 1973. The second was a first winter, probably female observed for five days in October 2006 in County Clare, Ireland.


The Canada warbler is one of the last birds to arrive at the breeding grounds and one of the first to leave. They may spend only two months there. They fly at night along a route generally south and west to the Texas coast, then to southern Mexico. The arrive at the winter grounds in northwestern South America in late September to early October.


The Canada warbler eats insects for the most part, including beetles, mosquitoes, flies, moths, and smooth caterpillars such as cankerworms, supplemented by spiders, snails, worms, and, at least seasonally, fruit. It employs several foraging tactics, such as flushing insects from foliage and catching them on the wing (which it does more frequently than other warblers), and searching upon the ground among fallen leaves. When they occasionally hover glean, males tend to fly higher than females on breeding grounds. In the tropics of South America, it forages in mixed flocks with other birds, usually 3–30 feet above ground in denser foliage.


At least 60–65% of the population nests in boreal forests in Canada, the Great Lakes region of the United States, New England and through the Appalachians. The birds are at least seasonally monogamous. Sightings of pairs during migration in Panama have led to the conclusion that they are permanently monogamous. This conclusion, however, is contradicted by the sexes' wintering at different elevations.
Males arrive at the breeding grounds in the first two weeks of May. Females build the nests on or very close to the ground in dense cover. The nests are made up of root masses, hummocks, stumps, stream banks, mossy logs, and sometimes leaf litter and grass clumps. Moss covering is frequent.
The female lays four to five eggs and incubates for about 12 days. The chicks remain in the nest for about 10 days after hatching and are dependent on their parents for two to three weeks after they leave the nest.
The age at which the young leave the nest is not known. Once independent they spend almost all their time in the understory, on the ground or in bushes. The post-juvenile bird undergoes a partial moult involving all body feathers and wing coverlets. This may be completed before the first migration.
The oldest known specimen was a male found in Quebec in 1982 at least 8 years old, having been banded in 1975.


The Canada warbler is sometimes called the "necklaced warbler," because of the band of dark streaks across its chest. The adults have minimal sexual dimorphism, although the male's "necklace" is darker and more conspicuous and also has a longer tail. Adults are 12–15 cm (4.7–5.9 in) long, have a wingspan of 17–22 cm (6.7–8.7 in) and weigh 9–13 g (0.32–0.46 oz).
The chest, throat and belly of the bird is yellow, and its back is dark grey. It has no wingbars or tail spots, but the underside of the tail is white. It has a yellow line in front of its eye in the direction of the beak, but the most striking facial feature is the white eyerings or "spectacles." Immature specimens have similar coloration as adults but duller and with less pronounced facial features.


The adults grow up to 40–45 millimetres (1.6–1.8 in) long. Their dimensions on average are larger than in Orthetrum coerulescens.
The thorax and the abdomen are pale blue in males, yellowish-brown or greyish-brown in females. Young males are brownish. The abdomen is relatively flattened  and shows a thin middorsal black line and distinct points on each segment. The wings are hyaline, with yellow or pale brown pterostigma. The wingspan reaches 66–70 millimetres (2.6–2.8 in).


This 'skimmer' is present in most of Europe and the range extends to Mongolia and North Africa.
It occurs in Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Republic of Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Portuga, Romania, Russia, Serbia; Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and Ukraine.


Adults can be encountered from mid June through late August in the immediate vicinity of quiet rivers or close to stagnant and shallow waters, lying on a well sunny ground. Sexually mature males defend a 'territory' on the waterfront by making short inspection flights, in order to chase away other males.
These skimmers commonly mate at rest, usually on the ground. Female lays the eggs on the surface of shallow water, touching it only with her abdomen while flying, sometimes accompanied by the male, that keeps other males at a distance.
The larvae are ferocious predators. They live buried in fine soil material (fine sand, silt, etc.), in unshaded places in shallow water. They overwinter and develop in two or three years.


They can be encountered from July through September feeding on flowers, with a preference for flowers appearing cyan or blue to bees eyes and for composite flowers or aggregated inflorescences.
Among the most visited families there are Caprifoliaceae (Knautia arvensis), Asteraceae (Jacobaea vulgaris, Solidago canadensis, Solidago virgaurea, Centaurea scabiosa, Echinops spp.),  Lamiaceae (Thymus serpyllum, Pycnanthemum spp.), Crassulaceae and Liliaceae. Furthermore they also visit Veronica spicata (Scrophulariaceae), Eryngium planum (Apiaceae), Jasione montana (Campanulaceae).
These massive solitary wasps dig in search of larvae of beetles (Cetoniidae species, especially Cetonia aurata, as well as Scarabaeidae species). Then they parasitize the larvae and lay eggs in them for feeding their offspring.


This species is present in most of mediterranean and central Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm, in the Near East, and in North Africa.


Idia rotundalis, the chocolate idia or rotund idia moth, is a litter moth of the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Francis Walker in 1866. It is found from southern Canada to Florida and Texas.
The wingspan is about 20 mm. There is one generation in the north and two or more generations in the south.
Larvae feed on detritus, including dead leaves.


The Cape sugarbird (Promerops cafer) is one of the eight bird species endemic to the Fynbos biome of the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa.


The Cape sugarbird is a specialist nectar feeder when it comes to feeding off Proteaceae. Its long, sharp beak is used to reach the nectar of a variety of species of protea with its long brush-tipped tongue. The staple diet of this sugarbird is nectar; however, it will also eat spiders and insects. The characteristic strong winds in the Cape may make feeding off protea heads difficult, but the Cape sugarbird has adapted to this with the development of sharp claws.


The Cape sugarbird is distributed throughout most of the fire driven ecosystem of the Fynbos in South Africa, the dominant vegetation type of the Cape Floral Region where there are flowering proteas and ericas. It is most common in areas that have not burnt recently, and almost absent from recently burnt areas. It is also found in gardens in summer when most proteas are not in flower, but urban birds are associated with greater stress measures. With a large population and extensive range, the Cape sugarbird is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.


The African jacana (Actophilornis africanus) is a wader in the family Jacanidae, identifiable by long toes and long claws that enable them to walk on floating vegetation in shallow lakes, their preferred habitat. Jacanas are found worldwide within the tropical zone, and this species is found in sub-Saharan Africa.  For the origin and pronunciation of the name, see Jacanidae.


African jacanas feed on insects and other invertebrates picked from the floating vegetation or the surface of the water.


African jacanas are conspicuous and unmistakable birds. They can measure 23 to 31 cm (9.1 to 12.2 in) long. As in other jacanas, females average larger than males. Males can weigh from 115 to 224 g (4.1 to 7.9 oz), averaging 137 g (4.8 oz) and females from 167 to 290 g (5.9 to 10.2 oz), averaging 261 g (9.2 oz). Alongside the similarly-sized Madagascar jacana, this appears to be the heaviest jacana species. They have chestnut upperparts with black wingtips, rear neck, and eyestripe. The underparts are also chestnut in the adults, only in juveniles they are white with a chestnut belly patch. The blue bill extends up as a coot-like head shield, and the legs and long toes are grey.


The wingspan is 32–34 mm. The length of the forewings is 13–15 mm. Forewing greyish ochreous, sometimes uniformly washed with brownish; the lines and stigmata dark grey, the latter with pale annuli; submarginal line luteous preceded by a dark grey shade; hindwing dirty pale grey in male, darker in female, and darker in both sexes in the brown suffused forms: - the form sericea Speyer, from Holland and Germany, is described as having narrower silky grey forewings; -in [now full species levis Stgr.], from W. Turkestan and Asia Minor, the yellower ochreous tint is predominant and the dark markings are conspicuous but in some pale examples from Segovia, Spain- ab. ochrea ab. nov. [Warren] the dark markings tend to become effaced, the head, thorax, and forewings being pale yellow ochreous - amurensis Stgr. indicates small dark examples from Ussuri, Amurland.
Similar to and confused with Hoplodrina octogenaria and Hoplodrina blanda. Certain identification requires dissection of the genitalia.See Townsend et al.


The moth flies in two generations from early May to mid-October.
Larva clay coloured, darker dorsally: the dorsal line itself fine and white with dark edges; the subdorsal also fine and pale; laterally a pale dark edged serrate line containing the spiracles. The larvae are polyphagous feeding on various herbaceous plants including Beta vulgaris, Cynara scolymus, Medicago sativa and Taraxacum officinale.


Hoplodrina ambigua, the Vine's rustic, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in the western Palearctic realm (central Europe, south Europe North Africa, Russia to Urals, south-west Siberia, Tuva, Altai Mountains, Tajikistan, Turkestan and in the Near East – Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan).


Hemideina crassidens, commonly known as the Wellington tree wētā, is a large, flightless, nocturnal insect in the family Anostostomatidae. This wētā species is endemic to New Zealand and populates regions in the southern half of North Island/Te Ika a Maui and the north-west of the South Island/Te Wai Pounamu. They forage arboreally during the night and are most likely polyphagous. There is obvious sexual dimorphism in adults. Individuals are reliant on tree cavities for refuge, social interactions and mating.
The conservation status of H. crassidens is "not threatened".


Being a tree wētā, H. crassidens spend most of their time foraging arboreally. They are generally herbivorous, feeding on the leaves, fruit and flowers of a wide range of trees and shrubs. However, polyphagy is common among wētā species and it is likely that H. crassidens supplement their diet with animal matter. Individuals have been documented feeding on living or recently dead invertebrates.


Hemideina crassidens is endemic to New Zealand. Populations are distributed between the Ruapehu district and Wellington district of the North Island, and in the  Westland district of the South Island. A closely related native tree wētā, Hemideina thoracica, is widely distributed in the northern two-thirds of the North Island New Zealand. It has been suggested that H thoracica competitively excludes H. crassidens from warmer northern regions of the North Island. On Mt Taranaki, H. crassidens is found only at elevations above ~700 m asl, and H. thoracica is found lower down the slopes where temperatures are slightly warmer.
Hemideina crassidens is a nocturnal and arboreal. This species uses holes in tree branches to hide during the day. They usually live in tree holes, suggesting a reliance on forest. However, many extant tree wētā populations occupy scrub habitats or even use rock refuges when trees are not available.


Hemideina crassidens is a polygynous insect in which males guard females that reside in tree cavities termed 'galleries'. Galleries are used for breeding and males compete for control of them and access to the females within. Male head size is an indicator of combative ability as the head is used as weaponry in combat for dominance and control of a harem. In cases where the gallery is sufficiently large, multiple males can occupy a single gallery, suggesting that a dominant male defends a harem rather than a gallery per se. Males can avoid combat by facing off, opening their jaws and assessing the gape of their opponent's mandibles. In a non-violent contest the male whose mandibles span the furthest is considered dominant. Small headed males can mate by wandering nocturnally and copulating with females outside of a gallery, or by sneaking into a gallery occupied by a dominant male and copulating with females within. A small headed male is able to control a harem within a gallery if the entrance is too small for large headed males to fit through.
Most matings and ovipositions occur over the summer and autumn. Females lay their eggs vertically in the soil approximately 10mm under the surface. Hatching occurs in spring and individuals take about 18 months to become mature, reaching sexual maturity in the following summer. Hemideina crassidens do not show any parental care. Their normal lifespan is about 3 years, with about 18 months as immatures.


The pale-breasted thrush (Turdus leucomelas) is a species of bird in the family Turdidae.
It is found in a wide range of wooded habitats in eastern and northern South America, from Brazil, Colombia to Uruguay, with localized population in the west.
This bird seems to have adapted to humans and is very common in human inhabited parts of its range, often nesting in garden shrubs and small trees.  In Suriname it is locally known as "Boontjedief," which means "bean thief" in Suriname Dutch, presumably based on its habit of picking off legumes left out to dry in the sun. In proper Dutch it is called "Vaalborstlijster." It is also known as "Bonka" in Sranan tongo.
In appearance it is similar to the American robin in size and shape, but it lacks the red chest and is more uniformly brown. Its song and feeding habits are also very similar to its distant cousin. In most of its range, it is more likely to be confused with the creamy-bellied thrush. Unlike the creamy-bellied thrush, the pale-breasted thrush has a clear contrast between the head and mantle, and it lacks blackish lores.
It eats mostly fruits, but also worms, insects and lizards.


The white-browed coucal or lark-heeled cuckoo (Centropus superciliosus), is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is found in sub-Saharan Africa. It inhabits areas with thick cover afforded by rank undergrowth and scrub, including in suitable coastal regions. Burchell's coucal is sometimes considered a subspecies.


This bird breeds in small colonies in heavily vegetated areas of freshwater lakes across Europe, much of Asia down to New Guinea, and most of Africa. Most birds move to more open or coastal waters in winter, but it is only migratory in those parts of its range where the waters freeze. Outside of breeding season, it moves into more open water, occasionally even appearing on the coast in small bays.


The little grebe is an excellent swimmer and diver and pursues its fish and aquatic invertebrate prey underwater. It uses the vegetation skilfully as a hiding place.
Like all grebes, it nests at the water's edge, since its legs are set very far back and it cannot walk well. Usually four to seven eggs are laid. When the adult bird leaves the nest it usually takes care to cover the eggs with weeds. This makes it less likely to be detected by predators. The young leave the nest and can swim soon after hatching, and chicks are often carried on the backs of the swimming adults. In India, the species breeds during the rainy season.


The females are often found running up and down black locust trunks in search of wounds in which to lay their eggs in the fall. Both sexes are most common from late day to dusk. Adults feed on pollen of goldenrods of the genus Solidago. They lay eggs in crevices and near wounds of the locust tree. The eggs hatch and the larvae spend the winter hibernating within the bark. Once winter ends, the larvae burrow into the tree trunk and start to tunnel. These tunnels are around 10 cm (3.9 in) long by 7 mm (0.28 in) wide, and serve as a primary infection site for wind-borne spores of the fungus Phellinus robiniae, which causes a damaging heart rot disease of Robinia species, causing them to be more susceptible to wind damage. The larvae overwinter within the tree and then pupate in late July and early August, and adults start to emerge in late August and throughout September.  Adults are generally active from August through October.


Megacyllene robiniae, commonly known as the locust borer, is a species of longhorn beetle endemic to eastern North America. It is a serious pest of Robinia pseudoacacia, the black locust tree, with which it is sympatric.


"BEAUTIFUL IN YELLOW AND BLACK: THE LOCUST BORER, MEGACYLLENE ROBINIAE". Retrieved 2020-11-30.
"Locust Borer, Megacyllene robiniae". Retrieved 2020-11-30.
Keeler, Harriet L. (1900). Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 97–102.
"Locust Borer Megacyllene robiniae (Forster)". Archived from the original on 2008-10-25. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
"Species Megacyllene robiniae - Locust Borer - Bugguide.net". Retrieved 2020-11-30.
"ITIS (Integrated Taxonomic Information System) Standard Report Page: Megacyllene robiniae". Retrieved 2008-12-18.
Kaufman, Kenn; Eaton, Eric R. (2006). Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Books. pp. 180–181. ISBN 978-0-618-15310-7.
Sinclair, Wayne A.; Lyon, Howard H. (2005). Diseases of Trees and Shrubs, 2nd Edition. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-4371-8.
Milne, Lorus; Milne, Margery (1980). National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects & Spiders. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. pp. 594. ISBN 0-394-50763-0.
Evans, Arthur V. (2007). "Beetles, Order Coleoptera". Field Guide to Insects and Spiders of North America. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. p. 207. ISBN 978-1-4027-4153-1.
Data related to Megacyllene robiniae at Wikispecies
Media related to Megacyllene robiniae at Wikimedia Commons


New Zealand and Australia.
Juveniles will occasionally migrate across to south-east Australia and the Northern parts of Tasmania.  Breeding populations in Australia are only observed in the Bass Strait, on Flinders and Cape Barren Islands.


White-fronted terns are carnivorous, fishing mainly in coastal waters. However, on the odd occasion they will head inland a few kilometres, following rivers and creeks to find food. Their diet is predominantly smaller fish such as smelt and pilchards while also including larval fish. Their preference when feeding at sea is for shoaling fish, that are being forced to the surface in large groups by kahawai and kingfish. When feeding, they will dive from 3 to 10 m above the surface into the shoal of fish, just entering the water in a very shallow dive. They can feed like this off the coast in huge flocks that are made up of hundreds to thousands of birds. They will feed alongside other birds such as gannets, shearwaters and gulls. When diving for fish, they are highly efficient. Their forked tails and adept flying skills allow for great movement above the water surface.


As of 2016, the conservation status of white-fronted tern is at risk/in decline. Even with a large population, there is a predicted decline in the coming years. Numbers are falling due to predation by several introduced mammalian species. Adults are attacked and killed by cats, mustelids, ferrets and stoats. These same predators will also target the eggs and chicks, while rats and hedgehogs put further pressure on white-fronted tern by going for eggs and chicks exclusively. Despite living and breeding in groups with large numbers that are tightly packed together, it seldom offers them any extra protection from the intruding attackers.
Red-billed gulls and black-backed gulls are the only native species that will prey on white-fronted tern, though they only go for eggs and chicks. They often nest near the white-fronted tern, which may be a contributing factor for this behaviour. Skuas are also well known to attack them in the air as they return from the sea with fish. They will intimidate them while flying until they drop the fish and catch it before losing it to the sea.


White-fronted terns can be found in a variety of coastal habitats. With large flocks preferring coastal waters, harbours, bays and estuaries where they are content to live on either sand, shell or shingle ground. Occasionally living on the stony banks of Canterbury's braided rivers.
Not confined to just main coastal areas, white-fronted terns frequent coastal cliffs, offshore rock-stacks and small islands.
White-fronted terns can also be found on human-made structures. as in Tauranga Harbour, where breeding pairs have taken up residence on disused concrete support structures.


Shortly after courtship, the pair will choose a spot for their nest. No real effort goes into nest-building, it can be directly onto bare ground or in a rocky area. The nest site may already have a nest-like shape to it, but sometimes small stones can be brought in to furnish the bottom of the hollow. Nests are tightly packed together, sometimes with less than a metre between them. In large breeding colonies there may be hundreds of nests. Laying in breeding colonies is synchronised, with large numbers of females laying on the same day. Some variations occur and are due to the age of the adults, with older birds laying earlier in the season. They will lay 1–2 eggs and on rare occasions, 3. The brown speckled eggs vary in their pale base colour, which can range from green, through blue to brown. The size of an egg is on average 46 × 33 mm. The clutch is cared for by both male and female, with an incubation period of approximately 24 days. Adults will continue to join the colony and lay eggs from October–January.


The white-fronted tern is described as an average-sized bird. Its dimensions are 35–43 cm (14–17 in) in length, with a wingspan between 79 and 82 cm (31 and 32 in); the male weighs on average 130 g (4.6 oz). Females are marginally smaller, but this is difficult to determine when observing individuals in the wild.
Breaking down their monochromatic colouring, the white-fronted tern's lightest features are its all-white body, tail and underwing, with the upper side of the wings a light silvery grey hue. Through the breeding season there can be a faint pink coloration on the breast, but this is not always visible. The darkest features are the beak, black cap, eyes, feet and the shadowing on the outermost edge of the wingtips. The long ebony-like bill is slender and comes to a sharp point that dulls in colour at the tip. The crown is jet black, interrupted by a variably narrow white band between forehead and bill. The black cap continues over the crown and finishes at the nape. Inky black round eyes sit within the cap. The legs are stumpy with a deep burgundy black tone. A defining feature of the white-fronted tern is its forked tail, most recognisable when in flight and commonly drawing comparisons with a swallow's tail. In the breeding season, the outermost feathers of the tail lengthen, accentuating the already deep fork.
The black cap of non-breeding adults retreats towards the top of the forehead and above the eyes, while at the same time losing some of its intensity. Immature white-fronted terns are similar but have speckles of white through the cap. Along with a slight coloration on the wings and tail, which appear as a brownish cream.
The juvenile plumage is very pronounced with flecks of light to dark grey and warm milky browns on the upper side of the wing, back, and mantle. the cap is incomplete and mottled, having dark black markings in front of and behind the eyes.


The heath fritillary (Melitaea athalia) is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found throughout the Palaearctic from western Europe to Japan, in heathland, grassland, and in coppiced woodland. Its association with coppiced woodland earned it the name "woodman's follower" in parts of the UK. It is considered a threatened species in the UK and Germany, but not Europe-wide or globally.


Heath fritillaries have a wingspan of 39–47 mm. The upperside is predominantly dark brown and orange brown, with the orange-brown spots delineated by dark brown (along and across the wing veins); there is a white fringe to the wings through which the dark brown extends. The upperside of the body is a similar dark brown to the colour on the wing, and the base of both wings is dark brown. The underside shows bands of red and (off-)white, again with each vein dark brown and each colour delineated by dark brown. The pattern of white spots at the base of the hindwing (visible at rest) is diagnostic for identification.
These wing patterns are very similar to the appearance of Melitaea cinxia. However, the dark brown bands on underside of the wings are more distinct in the heath fritillary than in M. cinxia.


Across its range (see "Subspecies and variation" below), subspecies M. a. athalia shows a protracted flight period from mid-May to mid-August. In favourable localities and/or favourable seasons, a partial second brood has been recorded from mid- or late August to September. In the UK, the flight period is from the end of May to the beginning of July (in the south-west) and early June to early August (in the south-east).
Fennoscandian subspecies M. a. norvegica flies in June–July, precise timing being affected by the season.
In southern Europe, subspecies M. a. celadussa flies in a single brood at high altitude in June and July. Below the subalpine level, however, it is bivoltine, flying in May–June and late July–August—except for f. nevadensis in the Sierra Nevada, which is univoltine.


The band-backed wren (Campylorhynchus zonatus) is a small songbird of the wren family.
The band-backed wren is a resident breeding species from south-central Gulf Coast Mexico to northwestern Ecuador. It occurs in five disjunct areas, the central region being in southern Central America, in Costa Rica and northern Panama. The next two regions are northern Colombia adjacent to Panama, and 800 km to the south in northwestern Ecuador.


This large wren breeds in lowlands and foothills from sea level up to 1700 m altitude in thinned forest or open woodland, scrub, second growth and groves around houses. It mainly occurs on the Caribbean side of the Central American mountain ranges.  Its large spherical nest has a wide side entrance and is constructed 2 – 30 m high in a tree or shrub, often hidden amidst bromeliads. The female alone incubates the three to five unmarked or lightly brown-spotted white eggs for about two weeks to hatching, and the young fledge in about the same length of time again. After breeding, families sleep together in dormitory nests like those used for breeding throughout the year.
The adult band-backed wren is 16.5 cm long and weighs 29 g. It has a brown-grey crown, black nape, and the rest of the upperparts and tail are heavily barred with black, tawny and white. The breast and throat are white, heavily spotted with black, and the belly is cinnamon. Young birds have duller upperparts and off-white to buff underparts.
This species has a short rasping zek call. The song is a mix of dry chatters, splutters and gurgles.
The band-backed wren forages actively in family groups of 4-12 birds. It eats mainly insects, spiders and other invertebrates.


The only European grapes that are natively resistant to phylloxera are the Assyrtiko grape which grows on the volcanic island of Santorini, Greece, although it is not clear whether the resistance is due to the rootstock itself or the volcanic ash on which it grows; and the Juan Garcia grape variety, autochthonous to the medieval village of Fermoselle in Spain. The Juan Garcia variety remained—untouched by phylloxera—sheltered on the vineyards planted on the man-made land terraces along the mountainous skirts on the gigantic and steep Duero Arribes / Douro River Canyon, where the microclimatic conditions discourage the growth of phylloxera.
To escape the threat of phylloxera, wines have been produced since 1979 on the sandy beaches of Provence’s Bouches-du-Rhône, which extends from the coastline of the Gard region to the waterfront village of Saintes Maries de la Mer. The sand, sun and wind in this area has been a major deterrent to phylloxera. The wine produced here is called "Vins des Sables" or "wines of the sands".  In the same department, where the canal irrigation system built by the Romans still partly persists to this day, winter flooding is also practiced where possible, for instance south of the city of Tarascon. Flooding the vineyards for 50 days kills all the nymphs that overwinter in the roots or the bark at the bottom of the plant.
Some regions were so blighted by phylloxera that they never recovered, and instead the producers switched crops entirely. The island of Mallorca is one example, where almonds now substitute for vines.


Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae (Fitch 1855) belong to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs); originally described in France as Phylloxera vastatrix; equated to the previously described Daktulosphaera vitifoliae, Phylloxera vitifoliae. The insect is commonly just called phylloxera (/fɪˈlɒksərə/; from Ancient Greek: φύλλον, leaf, and ξηρός, dry).
These almost microscopic, pale yellow sap-sucking insects, related to aphids, feed on the roots and leaves of grapevines (depending on the phylloxera genetic strain). On Vitis vinifera, the resulting deformations on roots ("nodosities" and "tuberosities") and secondary fungal infections can girdle roots, gradually cutting off the flow of nutrients and water to the vine. Nymphs also form protective galls on the undersides of grapevine leaves of some Vitis species and overwinter under the bark or on the vine roots; these leaf galls are typically only found on the leaves of American vines.
American vine species (such as Vitis labrusca) have evolved to have several natural defenses against phylloxera. The roots of the American vines exude a sticky sap that repels the nymph form by clogging its mouth when it tries to feed from the vine. If the nymph is successful in creating a feeding wound on the root, American vines respond by forming a protective layer of tissue to cover the wound and protect it from secondary bacterial or fungal infections.
Currently there is no cure for phylloxera and unlike other grape diseases such as powdery or downy mildew, there is no chemical control or response. The only successful means of controlling phylloxera has been the grafting of phylloxera-resistant American rootstock (usually hybrid varieties created from the Vitis berlandieri, Vitis riparia and Vitis rupestris species) to more susceptible European vinifera vines.


The black-throated mango (Anthracothorax nigricollis) is a hummingbird species native to South America and Trinidad and Tobago.


It breeds from Panama south to northeastern Bolivia, southern Brazil and northern Argentina. It is also common on both Trinidad and Tobago. It is a local or seasonal migrant, with some birds moving up to 1000 miles, although its movements are not well understood.
It inhabits open country, gardens and cultivation. Though it will adapt to human activity, it seems less of a generalist than for example the gilded sapphire (Hylocharis chrysura) or the sapphire-spangled emerald (Amazilia lactea).
The food of this species is nectar, often taken from the flowers of large trees. This hummingbird is also notably insectivorous, often hovering in open areas to catch flying insects. It appears to be somewhat picky regarding favorite foodplants and often does not visit ornamental plants popular with many other hummingbirds, such as Erythrina speciosa or Stifftia chrysantha; certain ornamental Bignoniaceae like the fountain tree (Spathodea campanulata) seem more to this bird's liking. They also feed off of the flowers of Palicourea crocea. While feeding, it has been observed to dominate over a glittering-bellied emerald (Chlorostilbon lucidus) and to be displaced by a gilded hummingbird, both considerably smaller species.
The black-throated mango's breeding season lasts almost year-round in most of its range. It builds a tiny cup nest on a high, thin, and usually bare branch. For this it uses fluff like seed down, cladding the outside with lichen. Nests are maybe 35–40 mm wide and 25–30 mm tall on the outside and some 25 mm wide and 10–15 mm deep inside. The two all-white eggs measure c.15 by 9.5 mm. They are incubated by the female for 16 or 17 days, and fledging takes another 24.
At a black-throated mango nest in Cuyabeno Faunistic Reserve, Ecuador, it was noted that the tree was beset with Pseudomyrmex stinging ants. This was also noted at a green-breasted mango nest on San Andrés Island in the Colombian Caribbean. It is likely that the ants would deter predators, but it is not known whether the birds deliberately select such trees for nesting.


It is 10.2 cm long and weighs 7.2g. The longish black bill is slightly decurved. The tail in both sexes has dark central feathers, the outer tail being wine-red tipped with black.
The male has glossy bright green upperparts. His throat and chest are matt black, bordered with blue-green. The flanks are bright green, and the black of the chest tapers onto the belly.
The female black-throated mango has bronze-green upperparts and white underparts with a black central stripe. Immature birds show some grey or buff feather tips on the head and wings, and have brown around the eyes.
The call of the black-throated mango is a high-pitched tsiuck, and the song is a buzzing hsl-hsl-hsl-hsl-hsl-hsl-hsl.
It is very similar to the closely related green-breasted mango. Although the male black-throated mango has more extensive black on the underparts, this and other plumage differences are not always easy to confirm in the field because the birds appear all-black. The females of the two species can be almost inseparable, although the black-throated lacks the more extensively coppery upperpart of its relative.


The greater scaup (Aythya marila), just scaup in Europe or, colloquially, "bluebill" in North America, is a mid-sized diving duck, larger than the closely related lesser scaup. It spends the summer months breeding in Alaska, northern Canada, Siberia, and the northernmost reaches of Europe. During the winter, it migrates south to the coasts of North America, Europe, and Japan.
Drake greater scaup are larger and have more rounded heads than the females; they have a bright blue bill and yellow eyes. Their heads are dark, with a green gloss; the breast is black, the belly white and the wing shows a white stripe. The females are mostly brown, again with white on the wing. They have dull blue bills and white on the face.
Greater scaup nest near water, typically on islands in northern lakes or on floating mats of vegetation. They begin breeding at age two, but start building nests in the first year. The drakes have a complex courtship, which takes place on the return migration to the summer breeding grounds and concludes with the formation of monogamous pairs. Females lay a clutch of six to nine olive-buff-colored eggs. The eggs hatch in 24 to 28 days. The down-covered ducklings are able to follow their mother in her search for food immediately after hatching.
Greater scaup eat aquatic molluscs, plants, and insects, which they obtain by diving underwater. They form large groups, called "rafts", that can number in the thousands. Their main threat is human development, although they are preyed upon by owls, skunks, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, and humans. Greater scaup populations have been declining since the 1980s; however, they are still listed as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List.


The greater scaup dive to obtain food, which they eat on the surface. They mainly eat molluscs, aquatic plants, and aquatic insects. During the summer months, the greater scaup will eat small aquatic crustaceans. There is a report of four greater scaups in April near Chicago swallowing hibernating leopard frogs (a species with a body length about 5 centimetres, or 2.0 in), which they dredged out of a roadside freshwater pond. In freshwater ecosystems, the greater scaup will eat seeds, leaves, stems and roots, along with sedges, pondweeds, muskgrass, and wild celery. Owing to the greater scaup's webbed feet and weight, it can dive up to 6 metres (20 ft) and stay submerged for up to a minute, allowing it to reach food sources that are unobtainable to other diving ducks.


Common predators of the greater scaup are owls, skunks, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, and humans. Greater scaup often find themselves entangled in fishing nets, thus large numbers of them drown in nets each year. Greater scaup can catch avian influenza, so future outbreaks have the potential to threaten greater scaup populations.
Although the greater scaup faces numerous threats, the most significant challenge to their survival is habitat degradation caused by a mix of human development and runoff. Greater scaup, when moulting and during the winter, are threatened by escalated levels of organochloride contaminants. Oil and sewage pollution also threaten this duck. Since 80% of the greater scaup population winters in the urbanized part of the Atlantic Flyway, these ducks are subject to high levels of organic contaminates, along with increased levels of heavy metals in foods and habitat.
A joint group of American and Canadian scientists researching scaup migration across the Great Lakes found that 100% of female greater scaup, and 77% of female lesser scaup, had escalated levels of selenium in their bodies. Selenium is an occurring semimetallic trace element that occurs naturally in some soils and minute amounts are necessary for animal life. However excessive selenium can cause reproductive harm and is highly toxic. On their migration across the Great Lakes, greater scaups are at risk of ingesting selenium by eating the invasive zebra mussels, which can render a hen infertile. This sterilization of hens is causing the population to decrease.
In a study of 107 scaup, they all had traces of iron, zinc, manganese, copper, lead, cadmium, cobalt and nickel in their tissue samples with varying concentrations of metals in different types of tissues. Further analysis revealed that the kidneys had the highest levels of cadmium, the liver had the highest levels of copper and manganese, the liver and the stomach had the highest levels of zinc, and the lungs and liver had the highest levels of iron. There was no difference in concentration when comparing genders.


The greater scaup has a circumpolar distribution, breeding within the Arctic Circle both in the Old World (the Palearctic) and in North America (the Nearctic). It spends the summer months in Alaska, Siberia, and the northern parts of Europe. It is also found in Asia and is present in the Aleutian Islands year round. The summer habitat is marshy lowland tundra and islands in fresh water lakes. In the fall, greater scaup populations start their migration south for the winter. They winter along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America, the coasts of northwest Europe, the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, the coast of Japan, Yellow Sea and East China Sea. During the winter months, they are found in coastal bays, estuaries, and sometimes inland lakes, such as the lakes of Central Europe and the Great Lakes.
In Europe, the greater scaup breeds in Iceland, the northern coasts of the Scandinavian peninsula, including much of the northern parts of the Baltic Sea, the higher mountains of Scandinavia and the areas close to the Arctic Sea in Russia. These birds spend the winters in the British Isles, western Norway, the southern tip of Sweden, the coast from Brittany to Poland, including all of Denmark, the Alps, the eastern Adriatic Sea, the northern and western Black sea and the southwestern Caspian Sea.
In North America, the greater scaup summers in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ungava Bay, Hudson Bay, Lake Winnipeg, northern Yukon, northern Manitoba, and northern Saskatchewan. It winters along the coasts of North America from northern British Columbia south to the Baja Peninsula and from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick south to Florida, as well as the shores of the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico.


The adult greater scaup is 39–56 cm (15–22 in) long with a 71–84 cm (28–33 in) wingspan and a body mass of 726–1,360 g (1.601–2.998 lb). It has a blue bill and yellow eyes and is 20% heavier and 10% longer than the closely related lesser scaup. The male has a dark head with a green sheen, a black breast, a light back, a black tail, and a white underside. The drake or male greater scaup is larger and has a more rounded head than the female. The drake's belly and flanks are a bright white. Its neck, breast, and tail feathers are a glossy black, while its lower flanks are vermiculated gray. The upper wing has a white stripe starting as the speculum and extending along the flight feathers to the wingtip. Legs and feet of both sexes are gray. The adult female has a brown body and head, with white wing markings similar to those of the male but slightly duller. It has a white band and brown oval shaped patches at the base of the bill, which is a slightly duller shade of blue than the drake's. Juvenile greater scaup look similar to adult females. The greater scaup drake's eclipse plumage looks similar to its breeding plumage, except the pale parts of the plumage are a buffy gray. Distinguishing greater from lesser scaups can be difficult in the field. The head of the greater tends to be more rounded, and the white wing stripe is more extensive. The bill is also tends to be larger and wider, often with a large black nail at the tip. The North American subspecies nearctica typically has a higher forehead and reduced white on the wings, intermediate between the European marila and Lesser Scaup.


Adults are brownish orange, with white and black spots on the bottom of the wings. The length of the wings is 1.5 to 2 inches (38 to 51 mm).


The species can be found in the south-western United States, including Arizona and Texas, as well as Mexico.


Life cycle of this species lasts two - three years. Adults can be encountered from May to September, but mainly in July and August). They visit flowering plants for nectar and/or pollen, while larvae develop and feed within dead wood and tree stumps of coniferous trees (Picea, Pinus, Abies, Larix). To develop and reach maturity they need nutrients provided by fungi. Theirs gut contains cellulase-producing yeasts to enable xylophagy, or wood-digestion.


The species is found throughout the European mainland, Russia and North Africa. It can also be found in Turkey and Great Britain.


The wingspan of an adult is between 80 and 175 mm (3+1⁄8 and 6+7⁄8 inches). There is a high amount of variation within this species. The colors of the adult are always primarily yellow with red, brown, and purple blotches but can vary distinctly on this. Light and dark morphs of this species are found in both northern and southern regions of their range. Individuals from the northern regions of their native range may tend to have fewer dark markings. Larvae can be small (approximately 10–15 mm long) and orange with black transverse bands and large spines in the first instar, to 3–5.5 inches (75–100 mm) long in the fifth instar with long hairs and shorter spines and color morphs varying between dark brown and burgundy with white spiracle patches, and green with yellow spiracle patches.


Larvae feed on a variety of host plants from Coniferous and deciduous trees to shrubs. Examples of some are:
Pinus (pines)
Quercus (oaks)
Acer (maples)
Liquidambar styraciflua (sweet gum)
Sassafras albidum (sassafras)
Eucalyptus
Acer negundo (box elder)
Picea abies (Norway spruce)
The E. i. pini subspecies feeds almost exclusively on pine and is normally found on Pinus strobus and Pinus resinosa with limited records from other pine species and Picea glauca.
On Martha's Vineyard, E. i. imperialis feeds almost exclusively on pitch pine (Pinus rigida).


Imperial moths (their many regional morphs, subspecies, and sibling species) range from Argentina to Canada and from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Coast. This species is the widest ranging and northernmost in its genus Eacles. Nominate Eacles imperialis imperialis has been recorded historically from New England and southern Canada, south to the Florida Keys, and as far west as Nebraska. E. i. imperialis may not appear in Massachusetts today except for a population located on Martha's Vineyard. The true northern limits of the nominate's range are unknown because of possible confusion with subspecies E. i. pini in existing records. Subspecies E. i. pini occurs in coniferous and transition zone woodlands at the northern edges of the New England and Great Lakes States and northward into Canada. In the southwest it is replaced by the closely related E. oslari. Other subspecies are found in Mexico and South America. Subspecies E. i. magnifica can be found in Brazil and surrounding regions.
For a map of the distribution of E. i. imperialis click here.


Adults can have a wingspan of approximately 3-7 inches (80–174 mm). Adults will emerge once a year to mate. Emergence takes place at sunrise and mating will take place in the following night hours of the day. In the northern part of their range they tend to emerge mid-summer (June–August), while in the southern part they tend to emerge at more varied times (April–October). Males tend to emerge days earlier than females. Once a pair has been linked in a mating event, they are more vulnerable to predators, particularly foragers.
As with all of Saturniidae, the adults do not feed. Their mouth parts have been reduced.


Hipparchia semele sometimes lay their eggs on the green leaves that the larvae later feed on. Because the adult butterflies lay their eggs on the ground, the larvae can easily find the host plants to feed on. Therefore, laying eggs directly on host plants does not seem to be crucial for survival to adulthood.


Hipparchia semele lives at elevations between sea level and about 2,000 metres (6,600 ft). The grayling is a species endemic to Europe, and is found almost all over Europe and parts of western Russia. In parts of northern and western Europe, including Scandinavia, Britain, Ireland, and the Baltic states, it can be seen mostly in the coastal areas. The butterfly population is declining in many areas, especially inland. The grayling is not found in west France, large parts of Greece, Albania, North Macedonia, and south of Bulgaria and the Mediterranean islands.


The spangled drongo (Dicrurus bracteatus) is a bird of the family Dicruridae. It is the only drongo to be found in Australia, where it can be recognised by its black, iridescent plumage and its characteristic forked tail. It feeds on insects and small vertebrates. It has complex and varied calls and is a mimic of the sounds it hears. It arrives in Queensland in late spring and breeds high in an isolated tree, producing three to five young each year.


Chrysoteuchia topiarius, the topiary grass-veneer moth, subterranean sod webworm or cranberry girdler, is a moth of the family Crambidae. The species was first described by Philipp Christoph Zeller in 1866. It is found in most of North America.
The wingspan is 17–20 mm. The forewings vary from dark clay coloured to light yellowish brown. The hindwings are grey. Adults are on wing from late June to early August in one generation per year.
The larvae feed on a wide range of plant, including mostly grasses. The young larvae feed on soft tissue such as the crowns, leaves and roots of their host plant. Mature larvae feed on the bark of cranberry and conifer seedling roots and crowns. They have also been recorded on blueberry.


This small butterfly has slim, triangular wings.  The upperside of the male's wings is mostly orange with the margins being dark brown.  The underside of the male's wings is mainly yellow orange with the margins being dark brown. There is a yellow basal spot enclosed with brown. The upperside of the female's wings is dark brown with large, glassy spots near the forewing outer margin.  The underside of the female's wings is a brownish-burgundy color with the hindwing having a white streak on the costal edge.  The wing margins are broadly frosted. The wingspan measures 1+3⁄8 to 1+5⁄8 inches (35–41 mm).


The Zabulon skipper (Lon zabulon) (sometimes called the southern dimorphic skipper) is a North American butterfly first described by the French naturalists Jean Baptiste Boisduval and John Eatton Le Conte from the state of Georgia, United States.


Males perch all day in search for females. Usually, courtship takes place in the afternoon.  However, it will occasionally happen as early as 8:20 a.m.  Females lay their eggs singly on the underside of host plant leaves.  The larva is either brown or green, both sometimes having a pinkish hue.  It is often indistinguishable from closely related larvae.  The chrysalis is often formed inside a leaf shelter.  It is brown with the abdomen being a lighter brown and having small black dots.  The overwintering stage is unknown.  The Zabulon skipper has two broods per year.


This butterfly is on the wing from March to April and again in August to October in the south; and from May to July and again in August to September in the north.


The warbling vireo (Vireo gilvus) is a small North American songbird.
Its breeding habitat is open deciduous and mixed woods from Alaska to Mexico and the Florida Panhandle. It often nests in widely spaced trees, often cottonwood or aspen, along streams or rivers. It migrates to Mexico and Central America.
Measurements:
Length: 4.7-5.1 in (12-13 cm)
Weight: 0.3-0.6 oz (10-16 g)
Wingspan: 8.7 in (22 cm)
They are mainly olive-grey on the head and upperparts with white underparts; they have brown eyes and the front of the face is light. There is a white supercilium. They have thick blue-grey legs and a stout bill. Western birds are generally smaller and have darker grey crowns.
Warbling vireos forage for insects in trees, hopping along branches and sometimes hovering. They also eat berries, especially before migration and in winter quarters, where they are – like other vireos – apparently quite fond of gumbo-limbo seeds, though they will not venture into human-modified habitat to get them.
They make a deep cup nest suspended from a tree branch or shrub, placed relatively high in the east and lower in the west. The male helps with incubation and may sing from the nest.
The warbling vireo's song is a cheerful warble, similar to that of the painted bunting and the purple finch. There are subtle differences in song between eastern and western birds, at least where the ranges meet in Alberta. Some authorities split the eastern and western races of this species into separate species:
The western warbling vireo, V. swainsoni, includes V. g. swainsoni, which breeds from southeastern Alaska and southwestern Northwest Territories to the Sierra San Pedro Mártir, Baja California, and V. g. brewsteri, which breeds from southern Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana to south-central Oaxaca. These two subspecies winter in Mexico. The swainsoni group also includes V. g. victoriae, an isolated population breeding in the Sierra de la Laguna, Baja California Sur, and migrating to unknown wintering grounds.
The eastern warbling vireo, V. gilvus, breeds from central Alberta and northern Montana east and south through most of the United States and parts of southern Canada, outside the range of the previous group. It winters south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec from south-central Chiapas to Nicaragua. It completes its autumn molt on the breeding grounds, while the swainsonii group completes it after leaving.
The brown-capped vireo (Vireo leucophrys), resident in Central America and northern South America, is sometimes considered conspecific with the warbling vireo.


Neoalcis is a monotypic moth genus in the family Geometridae erected by James Halliday McDunnough in 1920. Its only species, Neoalcis californiaria, the brown-lined looper, was described by Packard in 1871.
It is found along the west coast of North America, from California to British Columbia.
The wingspan is about 34 mm.
The larvae feed on various broadleaf trees and shrubs, but mainly Douglas-fir. Other host plants include western hemlock, western red cedar, grand fir and lodgepole pine.


The crested guan (Penelope purpurascens) is a member of an ancient group of birds of the family Cracidae, which are related to the Australasian megapodes or mound builders (Megapodiidae). It is found in the Neotropics, in lowlands forests ranging from south Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula to western Ecuador and southern Venezuela. The sexes are similar in appearance; the plumage is mainly dark brown with white spotting, an area of bare skin round the eye, bright red wattles, a bushy crest, a long broad tail and pink legs. It is a social bird, often seen in pairs or small family groups. It feeds in trees, mainly on fruit, and builds a nest of twigs on a branch. The two or three white eggs are incubated by the female. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated this bird's conservation status as "Near Threatened".


The crested guan is an arboreal forest species. The substantial twig nest is built in a tree or stump and lined with leaves. The female lays two or three large rough-shelled white eggs and incubates them alone.
This is a social bird, often seen in pairs or family groups of 6–12. It walks along branches seeking the fruit and foliage on which it feeds, or flies off with a heavy ani-like flap and glide.
The range of this species has severely contracted outside remote or protected forests due to deforestation and hunting, but it has a very wide range and is a relatively common species so the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being "Near Threatend".
Commonly found in the forest floor near forest edges and gardens on biological stations such as La Selva in Sarapiqui Costa Rica, they are playful and chase each another running around in circles for a good hour or so. Sometimes taking turns among three individuals.


This is a large gamebird and the largest species in the Penelope genus, with a length varying from 84 to 91.5 cm (33.1 to 36.0 in). These birds commonly weigh around 1,750 g (3.9 lb), though can weigh as little as 1,361 g (3.0 lb) in P. p. brunnescens, the smallest race on average. In Panama, an unsexed sample of crested guans weighed an average of 2.06 kg (4.5 lb). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 33 to 42.8 cm (13.0 to 16.9 in), the tail is 34 to 41.5 cm (13.4 to 16.3 in) and the tarsus is 7.4 to 9.1 cm (2.9 to 3.6 in). It is similar in general appearance to a turkey, with a small head, long strong red legs, and a long broad tail. It is mainly dark brown, with white spotting on the neck and breast. The rump and belly are rufous. The head sports a bushy crest, from which the species gets its name, blue-grey bare skin around the eye, and a bare red dewlap or wattle. The sexes are similar, but young birds have black vermiculations and ochre specks on the body plumage.
The crested guan is a noisy bird with a loud plee or quonk call, a whistled contact call and a powerful keLEEEErrrr!.


Forages on tundra, in mowed grass, and on beaches and tidal flats, eating nearly anything that crawls including insects, spiders, mollusks, crustaceans, and small reptiles, as well as berries, leaves, and seeds. Foraging pace is a repeated run-stop-peck. Most wintering birds feed singly within an established territory. Non-territorial birds feed in loose groups.


The Pacific golden plover is migratory, breeds during May, June, and July in Alaska and Siberia. Migrates south to Asia, Australasia, and Pacific islands in August and September, and stays until April or May. A rare vagrant to western Europe.
Although a shorebird, the Pacific Golden-Plover feeds mostly inland, preferring open spaces with short vegetation. During the breeding season, the Arctic tundra provides insects and berries for food, and effective camouflage for predator avoidance.
In Hawaii, Pacific golden plovers have adapted remarkably to human presence and to human alteration of the natural environment including, backyards, parks, cemeteries, rooftops, pastures, and golf courses. Because kōlea are site-faithful, each bird returns to, and defends, the same territory year after year, resulting in people observing the comings and goings of the kōlea with special interest. Some observers name and feed their birds, and some birds become tame around their caretakers. The oldest kōlea recorded lived to be at least 21 years, 3 months; its age was unknown at banding.
Kōlea are the subject of a Hawaii Audubon Society’s citizen science project called Kōlea Count, www.koleacount.org. The birds’ habit of returning to the same territory each year allows scientists in Hawaiʻi to attach tiny light level geolocator devices to the birds and retrieve them the following year in the same location. Such research showed that the birds made the 3,000-mile (4,800 km) nonstop flight between Alaska and Hawaiʻi in 3-4 days.
Pacific  golden plovers gather in flocks some days prior to migrating north, and fly at altitudes of 3,000 feet (about 1 km) to as high as 16,000 feet (4.88 km). Some birds do not migrate. These are usually first-year, older, injured individuals, or birds without enough fat reserves to make the journey.


The Pacific golden plover breeds in Arctic tundra areas of Siberia and western Alaska. Males usually arrive first, possibly returning to, and defending, the same territory each year. Some male and female appear to arrive paired. Females have been observed searching for breeding partners on the tundra. The male builds a nest of lichen, moss, and grasses, in shallow scrapes on the ground in a dry open area. The female lays 4 eggs, buff-colored with splotches of black and brown. Male and female share incubation, care of young, and defense from foxes and avian predators.
Soon after hatching, chicks leave the nest to forage, returning to the parent birds to seek warmth and shelter. When juveniles are capable of flight around 26-28 days after hatching, parent birds begin to leave to migrate south. Females usually depart first. Flocks of juveniles remain, making the migration sometimes as late as October and November depending on Arctic weather. First year birds migrate by instinct, confronting the vagaries of weather during their long southward flights. Once landed, they must compete with each other and established adults for foraging ground.


Adults are about 25 cm (9.8 in) long with a wingspan averaging 61 cm (24 in) At their lightest, fat free, the birds weigh around 135 g (4.8 oz) In March, the birds begin gaining weight. Before leaving for their Arctic breeding grounds, the birds weigh about 7 ounces (198 g.)
In breeding plumage, the male is spotted gold and black on the crown, back, and wings. Face and neck are black bordered with white, breast is black, rump is dark. Bill is black, legs are gray to black. Female similar but black breast mottled and less distinct.
In nonbreeding plumage, sexes look identical. The black on the face and breast bordered by white is replaced with dark brown, gray, and yellowish patterning and lighter underparts.
Molt to breeding plumage begins in March and April, prior to migration. Molt to nonbreeding plumage begins in the Arctic during egg incubation.
Downy chicks are spotted gold and black on head and back with whitish yellow underparts. Legs and feet adult size at hatching.
Similar birds are the European Golden-Plover, Pluvialis apricaria, and the American Golden-Plover, Pluvialis dominica. The Pacific golden plover is more similar to the American golden plover, with which it was once considered the lesser golden plover. The Pacific Golden-Plover is slimmer than the American golden plover, has longer legs, and usually has more yellow on the back.


This species is 20–27 mm in length, and its hindwing is 11–15 mm long; it is thus considerably smaller than most European members of the genus Ischnura.
Adult males have a black head and thorax, with blue markings, and a largely yellow abdomen, with black markings on its upper surface.  The term citrine refers to its yellowish colouration.  Adult females are initially largely orange, marked with black above on the head and rear part of the abdomen. They undergo a colour change, through brown or olive to greyish, as they mature.
Male citrine forktails are the only damselflies in the world with the pterostigma situated away from the leading edge of the wing.


It is native to North and South America, and there is a population on the Azores. The Azorean population is likely to have been present since the late 19th Century, it was not identified as this species until 1990.


The dry-season form is similar to the wet-season form but on the upperside the black markings are narrower, the white markings on the black apical area of forewing broader and longer, and on the hindwing the narrow inner margining to the black on the termen very narrow, somewhat obsolescent; therefore, the white subterminal spots have the appearance of opening inwards. Underside: ground colour almost pure white; on the hindwing slightly tinged with yellow. Antennae, head, thorax, and abdomen as in the wet-season form.
Wingspan of 44–62 mm.
Race taprobana, Moore. (Sri Lanka) Differs from the typical form as follows: Male upperside, forewing: deep black on apical area, the enclosed white elongate spots more or less obsolete. Hindwing: the black terminal border much broader and of a deeper black, the enclosed white spots, except the spot in interspace 6, very much smaller, somewhat obsolescent, sometimes absent in interspace 4. Underside: similar to the upperside, the markings of a very intense black and broader, the enclosed spots in the apical area of forewing, the white of the cell and the area along the upper half of the wing generally overlaid with rich chrome yellow. Hindwing: ground colour a deep rich chrome yellow, the spots on it enclosed in the black along terminal margin subhastate (somewhat spear shaped), the spot in interspace 4 absent.
The female is similar to the male on both upper and undersides, but in most specimens, on the upperside, the spots of the white ground colour that are enclosed in the black apical area of the forewing and the spots on the black border along the terminal margin of the hindwing are entirely absent.


Food plants of the larvae include Capparis zeylanica. In Africa, the host plants are almost exclusively from the family Capparaceae and in particular the genera Boscia, Maerua and Capparis. Eggs are laid in batches of 20 or so, while the newly hatched larvae are gregarious.