Bird
Birds known as Aves, are a group of endothermic vertebrates, characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds range in size from the 5 cm bee hummingbird to the 2.75 m ostrich. They rank as the world's most numerically-successful class of tetrapods, with ten thousand living species, more than half of these being passerines, sometimes known as perching birds. Birds have wings which are less developed depending on the species. Wings, which evolved from forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in flightless birds, including ratites and diverse endemic island species of birds; the digestive and respiratory systems of birds are uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming; the fossil record demonstrates that birds are modern feathered dinosaurs, having evolved from earlier feathered dinosaurs within the theropod group, which are traditionally placed within the saurischian dinosaurs.
The closest living relatives of birds are the crocodilians. Primitive bird-like dinosaurs that lie outside class Aves proper, in the broader group Avialae, have been found dating back to the mid-Jurassic period, around 170 million years ago. Many of these early "stem-birds", such as Archaeopteryx, were not yet capable of powered flight, many retained primitive characteristics like toothy jaws in place of beaks, long bony tails. DNA-based evidence finds that birds diversified around the time of the Cretaceous–Palaeogene extinction event 66 million years ago, which killed off the pterosaurs and all the non-avian dinosaur lineages, but birds those in the southern continents, survived this event and migrated to other parts of the world while diversifying during periods of global cooling. This makes them the sole surviving dinosaurs according to cladistics; some birds corvids and parrots, are among the most intelligent animals. Many species annually migrate great distances. Birds are social, communicating with visual signals and bird songs, participating in such social behaviours as cooperative breeding and hunting and mobbing of predators.
The vast majority of bird species are monogamous for one breeding season at a time, sometimes for years, but for life. Other species have breeding systems that are polygynous or polyandrous. Birds produce offspring by laying eggs, they are laid in a nest and incubated by the parents. Most birds have an extended period of parental care after hatching; some birds, such as hens, lay eggs when not fertilised, though unfertilised eggs do not produce offspring. Many species of birds are economically important as food for human consumption and raw material in manufacturing, with domesticated and undomesticated birds being important sources of eggs and feathers. Songbirds and other species are popular as pets. Guano is harvested for use as a fertiliser. Birds prominently figure throughout human culture. About 120–130 species have become extinct due to human activity since the 17th century, hundreds more before then. Human activity threatens about 1,200 bird species with extinction, though efforts are underway to protect them.
Recreational birdwatching is an important part of the ecotourism industry. The first classification of birds was developed by Francis Willughby and John Ray in their 1676 volume Ornithologiae. Carl Linnaeus modified that work in 1758 to devise the taxonomic classification system in use. Birds are categorised as the biological class Aves in Linnaean taxonomy. Phylogenetic taxonomy places Aves in the dinosaur clade Theropoda. Aves and a sister group, the clade Crocodilia, contain the only living representatives of the reptile clade Archosauria. During the late 1990s, Aves was most defined phylogenetically as all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of modern birds and Archaeopteryx lithographica. However, an earlier definition proposed by Jacques Gauthier gained wide currency in the 21st century, is used by many scientists including adherents of the Phylocode system. Gauthier defined Aves to include only the crown group of the set of modern birds; this was done by excluding most groups known only from fossils, assigning them, instead, to the Avialae, in part to avoid the uncertainties about the placement of Archaeopteryx in relation to animals traditionally thought of as theropod dinosaurs.
Gauthier identified four different definitions for the same biological name "Aves", a problem. Gauthier proposed to reserve the term Aves only for the crown group consisting of the last common ancestor of all living birds and all of its descendants, which corresponds to meaning number 4 below, he assigned other names to the other groups. Aves can mean all archosaurs closer to birds than to crocodiles Aves can mean those advanced archosaurs with feathers Aves can mean those feathered dinosaurs that fly Aves can mean the last common ancestor of all the living birds and all of its descendants (a "c
Passiflora
Passiflora, known as the passion flowers or passion vines, is a genus of about 550 species of flowering plants, the type genus of the family Passifloraceae. They are tendril-bearing vines, with some being shrubs or trees, they can be herbaceous. Passion flowers produce regular and showy flowers with a distinctive corona; the flower ripens into an indehiscent fruit with numerous seeds. For more information about the fruit of the Passiflora plant, see passionfruit. A list of Passiflora species is found at List of Passiflora species. Passiflora has a neotropic distribution, unlike its family Passifloraceae, which includes more Old World species; the vast majority of Passiflora are found in Mexico and South America, although there are additional representatives in the United States, Southeast Asia, Oceania. New species continue to be identified: for example, P. xishuangbannaensis and P. pardifolia have only been known to the scientific community since 2005 and 2006, respectively. Some species of Passiflora have been naturalized beyond their native ranges.
For example, the blue passion flower now grows wild in Spain. The purple passionfruit and its yellow relative flavicarpa have been introduced in many tropical regions as commercial crops. Passion flowers have unique floral structures. Pollinators of Passiflora include bumblebees, carpenter bees, wasps and hummingbirds. Passiflora exhibit high levels of pollinator specificity, which has led to frequent coevolution across the genus; the sword-billed hummingbird is a notable example: it, with its immensely elongated bill, is the sole pollinator of 37 species of high Andean Passiflora in the supersection Tacsonia. The leaves are used for feeding by the larvae of a number of species of Lepidoptera. Famously, they are targeted by many butterfly species of the tribe Heliconiini; the many defensive adaptations visible on Passiflora include diverse leaf shapes, colored nubs, extrafloral nectaries, trichomes and chemical defenses. These, combined with adaptations on the part of the butterflies, were important in the foundation of coevolutionary theory.
The following lepidoptera larvae are known to feed on Passiflora: Longwing butterflies Cydno longwing, one of few Heliconians to feed on multiple species of Passiflora Gulf fritillary, which feeds on several species of Passiflora, such as Passiflora lutea, Passiflora affinis, stinking passion flower, Maypop American Sara longwing Red postman Asian leopard lacewing. Postman butterfly prefer P. menispermifolia and P. oerstedii Zebra longwing feed on yellow passion flower, two-flowered passion flower, corky-stemmed passion flower Banded orange feed on P. tetrastylis Julia butterfly feed on yellow passion flower and P. affinis Swift moth Cibyra sertaThe high pollinator and parasite specificity in Passiflora may have led to the tremendous morphological variation in the genus. It is thought to have among the highest foliar diversity among all plant genera, with leaf shapes ranging from unlobed to five-lobed found on the same plant. Coevolution can be a major driver of speciation, may be responsible for the radiation of certain clades of Passiflora such as Tacsonia.
The bracts of the stinking passion flower are covered by hairs. Many small insects get stuck to this and get digested to nutrient-rich goo by proteases and acid phosphatases. Since the insects killed are major pests, this passion flower seems to be a protocarnivorous plant. Banana passion flower or "banana poka" from Central Brazil, is an invasive weed on the islands of Hawaii, it is spread by feral pigs eating the fruits. It overgrows and smothers stands of endemic vegetation on roadsides. Blue passion flower is holding its own in Spain these days, it needs to be watched so that unwanted spreading can be curtailed. On the other hand, some species are endangered due to unsustainable logging and other forms of habitat destruction. For example, the Chilean passion flower is a rare vine growing in the Andes from Venezuela to Chile between 2,500 and 3,800 meters altitude, in Coastal Central Chile, where it occurs in woody Chilean Mediterranean forests. P. pinnatistipula has a round fruit, unusual in Tacsonia group species like banana passion flower and P. mixta, with their elongated tubes and brightly red to rose-colored petals.
Notable and sometimes economically significant pathogens of Passiflora are several sac fungi of the genus Septoria, the undescribed proteobacterium called "Pseudomonas tomato", the Potyvirus passionfruit woodiness virus, the Carlavirus Passiflora latent virus. A number of species of Passiflora are cultivated outside their natural range for both their flowers and fruit. Hundreds of hybrids have been named; the following hybrids and cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:'Amethyst' P. × exoniensis P. × violaceaDuring the Victorian era the flower
Planalto hermit
The planalto hermit is a species of bird in the family Trochilidae, the hummingbirds. It is found in eastern and south-central Brazil, eastern Bolivia and marginally in north-western Argentina, it is easily recognized by its large size, broad white tips to all the rectrices, cinnamon-buff underparts and rump – the latter contrasing with its tail and remaining upperparts. This is a non-forest hermit, being found in a wide range of open and semi-open habitats, including Caatinga and the Pantanal, it is widespread and common, therefore considered to be of Least Concern by BirdLife International. Stamps Planalto Hermit photo gallery VIREO Photo-High Res Photo-"High Resolution"-.
Little hermit
The little hermit is a hummingbird, a resident breeder in north-eastern Venezuela, northern Guyana, French Guiana and Trinidad. This lowland species occurs in various semi-open wooded habitats, e.g. mangrove, secondary forest and scrub. In Trinidad it occurs in rainforest, it is common in most of its range, therefore listed as Least Concern by BirdLife International. Several other small hermits were considered subspecies of this species; this includes the stripe-throated hermit of Central America and north-western South America, the minute hermit of south-eastern Brazil, the Tapajós hermit of south-eastern Amazonia, the black-throated hermit of western Amazonia. As presently defined, the little hermit is monotypic, it is among the smallest hummingbirds and birds overall with a total length of ca. 9 cm. and a weight of 2½-3½ g.. It is olive-green above with underparts; as most other hermits, it has a long decurved bill, elongated central rectrices with whitish tips and a blackish mask bordered by a whitish-buff malar and supercilium.
The upper mandible is black, the lower is yellow with a black tip. The male has a darker throat than the female; the males form communal leks where they flash their tails to attract the females. The song varies over its range, but is high, squeaky and repeated again and again; the little hermit lays two eggs in a conical nest suspended under a large leaf. Incubation and fledging period not reported, but as relatives where incubations is 14–16 days, fledging another 20–23 days; the food of this species is nectar, taken from a wide variety of flowers, some small insects. It feeds by trap-lining. Birds of Venezuela by Hilty, ISBN 0-7136-6418-5. Ffrench, Richard. A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago. Comstock Publishing. ISBN 0-8014-9792-2. Hinkelmann, C.. Little Hermit. Pp. 545–546 in: del Hoyo, J. Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. eds. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 5. Barn-owls to Hummingbirds. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ISBN 84-87334-25-3
Argentina
Argentina the Argentine Republic, is a country located in the southern half of South America. Sharing the bulk of the Southern Cone with Chile to the west, the country is bordered by Bolivia and Paraguay to the north, Brazil to the northeast and the South Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Drake Passage to the south. With a mainland area of 2,780,400 km2, Argentina is the eighth-largest country in the world, the fourth largest in the Americas, the largest Spanish-speaking nation; the sovereign state is subdivided into twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires, the federal capital of the nation as decided by Congress. The provinces and the capital exist under a federal system. Argentina claims sovereignty over part of Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; the earliest recorded human presence in modern-day Argentina dates back to the Paleolithic period. The Inca Empire expanded to the northwest of the country in Pre-Columbian times; the country has its roots in Spanish colonization of the region during the 16th century.
Argentina rose as the successor state of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, a Spanish overseas viceroyalty founded in 1776. The declaration and fight for independence was followed by an extended civil war that lasted until 1861, culminating in the country's reorganization as a federation of provinces with Buenos Aires as its capital city; the country thereafter enjoyed relative peace and stability, with several waves of European immigration radically reshaping its cultural and demographic outlook. The almost-unparalleled increase in prosperity led to Argentina becoming the seventh wealthiest nation in the world by the early 20th century. Following the Great Depression in the 1930s, Argentina descended into political instability and economic decline that pushed it back into underdevelopment, though it remained among the fifteen richest countries for several decades. Following the death of President Juan Perón in 1974, his widow, Isabel Martínez de Perón, ascended to the presidency, she was overthrown in 1976 by a U.
S.-backed coup which installed a right-wing military dictatorship. The military government persecuted and murdered numerous political critics and leftists in the Dirty War, a period of state terrorism that lasted until the election of Raúl Alfonsín as President in 1983. Several of the junta's leaders were convicted of their crimes and sentenced to imprisonment. Argentina is a prominent regional power in the Southern Cone and Latin America, retains its historic status as a middle power in international affairs. Argentina has the second largest economy in South America, the third-largest in Latin America, membership in the G-15 and G-20 major economies, it is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, World Trade Organization, Union of South American Nations, Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and the Organization of Ibero-American States. Despite its history of economic instability, it ranks second highest in the Human Development Index in Latin America; the description of the country by the word Argentina has been found on a Venetian map in 1536.
In English the name "Argentina" comes from the Spanish language, however the naming itself is not Spanish, but Italian. Argentina means in Italian " of silver, silver coloured" borrowed from the Old French adjective argentine " of silver" > "silver coloured" mentioned in the 12th century. The French word argentine is the feminine form of argentin and derives from argent "silver" with the suffix -in; the Italian naming "Argentina" for the country implies Terra Argentina "land of silver" or Costa Argentina "coast of silver". In Italian, the adjective or the proper noun is used in an autonomous way as a substantive and replaces it and it is said l'Argentina; the name Argentina was first given by the Venetian and Genoese navigators, such as Giovanni Caboto. In Spanish and Portuguese, the words for "silver" are plata and prata and " of silver" is said plateado and prateado. Argentina was first associated with the silver mountains legend, widespread among the first European explorers of the La Plata Basin.
The first written use of the name in Spanish can be traced to La Argentina, a 1602 poem by Martín del Barco Centenera describing the region. Although "Argentina" was in common usage by the 18th century, the country was formally named "Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata" by the Spanish Empire, "United Provinces of the Río de la Plata" after independence; the 1826 constitution included the first use of the name "Argentine Republic" in legal documents. The name "Argentine Confederation" was commonly used and was formalized in the Argentine Constitution of 1853. In 1860 a presidential decree settled the country's name as "Argentine Republic", that year's constitutional amendment ruled all the names since 1810 as valid. In the English language the country was traditionally called "the Argentine", mimicking the typical Spanish usage la Argentina and resulting from a mistaken shortening of the fuller name'Argentine Republic'.'The Argentine' fell out of fashion during the mid-to-late 20th century, now the country is referred to as "Argentina".
In the Spanish language "Argentina" is feminine, taking the feminine article "La" as the i
Koepcke's hermit
Koepcke's hermit, ermite de Koepcke, or ermitaño de Koepcke is a species of hummingbird in the family Trochilidae. It is found only in Peru, its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest. It is threatened by habitat loss
Long-tailed hermit
The long-tailed hermit is a large hummingbird, a resident breeder in Venezuela, the Guianas, north-eastern Brazil. This species is referred to as the eastern long-tailed hermit, but it is following recommendations from Gary Stiles in February 2006, that the new name will be adopted by most authorities; the taxonomic history of this group is complicated, with similar hermit populations from both sides of the Andes being classed as a single long-tailed hermit species. The western population was split as the western long-tailed hermit, P. longirostris, leading to the renaming of P. superciliosus as eastern long-tailed hermit. The further renaming of P. longirostris as long-billed hermit means that P. superciliosus no longer needs “eastern” in its English name. A further problem relates to the taxonomy of the long-tailed hermit versus the great-billed hermit. Most taxa consider subspecies of the former are now considered subspecies of the latter. A satisfactory taxonomic treatment of the entire P. longirostris/P.
Superciliosus/P. Malaris group is still lacking according to some Neotropical ornithologists; the long-tailed hermit inhabits forest undergrowth near water and its preferred food plants. It weighs 4-6 g; the bill is long and decurved, with a red tipped black lower mandible, the central feathers of the tapered tail are long and white-tipped. The adult long-tailed hermit is dull brownish green above with a buff-tinged rump, it has a dark mask through the eye, bordered below with whitish-buff stripes. The underparts are pale greyish-buff in colour; the sexes are similar, although the female is smaller. During the breeding season, male long-tailed hermits sing in communal leks of up to several dozen birds, wiggle their long tails in display. Competitive lek singing can occupy half of the daylight hours, the purpose of course being to attract females; the female selects the best lek singer to mate with. The song consists of sharp tsuk sounds; the female long-tailed hermit is responsible for nest construction and feeding the young.
She lays two white eggs in a conical nest of fibres and cobwebs suspended under a large Heliconia or banana leaf. The food of this species is nectar, taken from large flowers, such as Heliconias and passion flowers, small insects and spiders taken as an essential source of protein. Hatchlings are fed by the female with regurgitated invertebrates. Long-tailed hermits are trap-line feeders. ^ "Proposal to South American Classification Committee". Retrieved 2006-03-11. ^ "Proposal to South American Classification Committee". Archived from the original on 2007-02-23. Retrieved 2007-07-04."Eastern long-tailed hermit" videos on the Internet Bird Collection Stamps with RangeMap Long-tailed hermit photo gallery VIREO Photo-High Res- Hilty, Birds of Venezuela, ISBN 0-7136-6418-5 Hinkelmann, C.. Eastern Long-tailed Hermit. Pp. 541 in: del Hoya, J. Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. eds. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 5. Barn-owls to Hummingbirds. Lyxn Edicions, Barcelona. ISBN 84-87334-25-3
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
_(9496909861).jpg)
