1.
Domestication
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Charles Darwin recognized the small number of traits that made domestic species different from their wild ancestors. There is a difference between domestic and wild populations. The dog was the first domesticated vertebrate, and was established across Eurasia before the end of the Late Pleistocene era, well before cultivation and before the domestication of other animals. Among birds, the domestic species today is the chicken, important for meat and eggs, though economically valuable poultry include the turkey, guineafowl. Birds are also kept as cagebirds, from songbirds to parrots. The longest established invertebrate domesticates are the bee and the silkworm. Terrestrial snails are raised for food, while species from several phyla are kept for research, the domestication of plants began at least 12,000 years ago with cereals in the Middle East, and the bottle gourd in Asia. Agriculture developed in at least 11 different centres around the world, domesticating different crops, Domestication means belonging to the house. Animals domesticated for home companionship are usually called pets, while those domesticated for food or work are called livestock or farm animals and this definition recognizes both the biological and the cultural components of the domestication process and the impacts on both humans and the domesticated animals and plants. All past definitions of domestication have included a relationship between humans with plants and animals, but their differences lay in who was considered as the partner in the relationship. This new definition recognizes a mutualistic relationship in both partners gain benefits. Domestication has vastly enhanced the reproductive output of crop plants, livestock, Domestication syndrome is the suite of phenotypic traits arising during domestication that distinguish crops from their wild ancestors. The domestication of animals is the relationship between animals with the humans who have influence on their care and reproduction. Charles Darwin recognized the small number of traits that made domestic species different from their wild ancestors, there is a genetic difference between domestic and wild populations. Domestication should not be confused with taming, the beginnings of animal domestication involved a protracted coevolutionary process with multiple stages along different pathways. The dog was the first domesticant, and was established across Eurasia before the end of the Late Pleistocene era, well before cultivation and before the domestication of other animals. Humans did not intend to domesticate animals from, or at least they did not envision a domesticated animal resulting from, in both of these cases, humans became entangled with these species as the relationship between them, and the human role in their survival and reproduction, intensified. Although the directed pathway proceeded from capture to taming, the two pathways are not as goal-oriented and archaeological records suggest that they take place over much longer time frames
2.
Bird
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Birds, a subgroup of Reptiles, are the last living examples of Dinosaurs. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the 5 cm bee hummingbird to the 2.75 m ostrich. They rank as the class of tetrapods with the most living species, at ten thousand. Birds are the closest living relatives of crocodilians, the fossil record indicates that birds evolved from feathered ancestors within the theropod group of saurischian dinosaurs. True birds first appeared during the Cretaceous period, around 100 million years ago, Birds, especially those in the southern continents, survived this event and then migrated to other parts of the world while diversifying during periods of global cooling. 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. Birds have wings which are more or less developed depending on the species, the digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have evolved for swimming. Many species annually migrate great distances, Birds are social, communicating with visual signals, calls, and bird songs, and participating in such social behaviours as cooperative breeding and hunting, flocking, and mobbing of predators. The vast majority of species are socially monogamous, usually for one breeding season at a time, sometimes for years. Other species have breeding systems that are polygynous or, rarely, Birds produce offspring by laying eggs which are fertilised through sexual reproduction. They are usually 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 even when not fertilised, songbirds, parrots, 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, 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 currently 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
3.
Egg as food
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Eggs are laid by female animals of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and fish, and have been eaten by humans for thousands of years. Bird and reptile eggs consist of an eggshell, albumen. The most popular choice for egg consumption are chicken eggs, other popular choices for egg consumption are duck, quail, roe, and caviar. Egg yolks and whole eggs store significant amounts of protein and choline, due to their protein content, the United States Department of Agriculture categorizes eggs as Meats within the Food Guide Pyramid. Despite the nutritional value of eggs, there are potential health issues arising from egg quality, storage. Chickens and other egg-laying creatures are widely kept throughout the world, in 2009, an estimated 62.1 million metric tons of eggs were produced worldwide from a total laying flock of approximately 6.4 billion hens. There are issues of variation in demand and expectation, as well as current debates concerning methods of mass production. In 2012, the European Union banned battery husbandry of chickens, bird eggs have been valuable foodstuffs since prehistory, in both hunting societies and more recent cultures where birds were domesticated. The chicken was probably domesticated for its eggs before 7500 BCE, chickens were brought to Sumer and Egypt by 1500 BCE, and arrived in Greece around 800 BCE, where the quail had been the primary source of eggs. In Thebes, Egypt, the tomb of Haremhab, built about 1420 BCE, shows a depiction of a man carrying bowls of ostrich eggs and other large eggs, presumably those of the pelican, as offerings. In ancient Rome, eggs were preserved using a number of methods, the Romans crushed the shells in their plates to prevent evil spirits from hiding there. In the Middle Ages, eggs were forbidden during Lent because of their richness, the word mayonnaise possibly was derived from moyeu, the medieval French word for the yolk, meaning center or hub. Egg scrambled with acidic fruit juices were popular in France in the 17th century, the dried egg industry developed in the 19th century, before the rise of the frozen egg industry. In 1878, a company in St. Louis, Missouri started to transform egg yolk and white into a light-brown, the production of dried eggs significantly expanded during World War II, for use by the United States Armed Forces and its allies. In 1911, the egg carton was invented by Joseph Coyle in Smithers, British Columbia, early egg cartons were made of paper. Bird eggs are a food and one of the most versatile ingredients used in cooking. They are important in many branches of the food industry. The most commonly used bird eggs are those from the chicken, duck and goose eggs, and smaller eggs, such as quail eggs, are occasionally used as a gourmet ingredient in western countries
4.
Meat
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Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and killed animals for meat since prehistoric times, the advent of civilization allowed the domestication of animals such as chickens, sheep, pigs and cattle. This eventually led to their use in production on an industrial scale with the aid of slaughterhouses. Meat is mainly composed of water, protein, and fat and it is edible raw, but is normally eaten after it has been cooked and seasoned or processed in a variety of ways. Unprocessed meat will spoil or rot within hours or days as a result of infection with and decomposition by bacteria, most often, meat refers to skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as offal. The word meat comes from the Old English word mete, which referred to food in general, the term is related to mad in Danish, mat in Swedish and Norwegian, and matur in Icelandic and Faroese, which also mean food. The word mete also exists in Old Frisian to denote important food, differentiating it from swiets, paleontological evidence suggests that meat constituted a substantial proportion of the diet of even the earliest humans. Early hunter-gatherers depended on the hunting of large animals such as bison. Several breeds of sheep were established in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt by 3500–3000 BC, today, more than 200 sheep-breeds exist. Cattle were domesticated in Mesopotamia after settled agriculture was established about 5000 BC, modern domesticated cattle fall into the groups Bos taurus and Bos indicus, both descended from the now-extinct aurochs. The breeding of cattle, cattle optimized for meat production as opposed to animals best suited for draught or dairy purposes. Domestic pigs, which are descended from boars, are known to have existed about 2500 BC in modern-day Hungary and in Troy, earlier pottery from Jericho. Pork sausages and hams were of commercial importance in Greco-Roman times. Pigs continue to be bred intensively as they are being optimized to produce meat best suited for meat products. Other animals are or have raised or hunted for their flesh. The type of meat consumed varies much between different cultures, changes over time, depending on such as tradition and the availability of the animals. The amount and kind of meat consumed also varies by income, horses are commonly eaten in France, Italy, Germany and Japan, among other countries. Horses and other mammals such as reindeer were hunted during the late Paleolithic in western Europe
5.
Feather
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Feathers are epidermal growths that form the distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on birds. They are considered the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates and they are among the characteristics that distinguish the extant birds from other living groups. Although feathers cover most parts of the body of birds, they arise only from certain well-defined tracts on the skin and they aid in flight, thermal insulation, and waterproofing. In addition, coloration helps in communication and protection, plumology is the name for the science that is associated with the study of feathers. Feathers are among the most complex integumentary appendages found in vertebrates and are formed in tiny follicles in the epidermis, or outer skin layer, that produce keratin proteins. There are two types of feather, vaned feathers which cover the exterior of the body. The pennaceous feathers are vaned feathers, also called contour feathers, pennaceous feathers arise from tracts and cover the entire body. In some passerines, filoplumes arise exposed beyond the contour feathers on the neck, the remiges, or flight feathers of the wing, and rectrices, the flight feathers of the tail are the most important feathers for flight. A typical vaned feather features a main shaft, called the rachis, fused to the rachis are a series of branches, or barbs, the barbs themselves are also branched and form the barbules. These barbules have minute hooks called barbicels for cross-attachment, down feathers are fluffy because they lack barbicels, so the barbules float free of each other, allowing the down to trap air and provide excellent thermal insulation. At the base of the feather, the rachis expands to form the hollow tubular calamus which inserts into a follicle in the skin, the basal part of the calamus is without vanes. This part is embedded within the follicle and has an opening at the base. Hatchling birds of species have a special kind of natal down feathers which are pushed out when the normal feathers emerge. Flight feathers are stiffened so as to work against the air in the downstroke, feathers insulate birds from water and cold temperatures. They may also be plucked to line the nest and provide insulation to the eggs, the individual feathers in the wings and tail play important roles in controlling flight. Some species have a crest of feathers on their heads, although feathers are light, a birds plumage weighs two or three times more than its skeleton, since many bones are hollow and contain air sacs. Color patterns serve as camouflage against predators for birds in their habitats, as with fish, the top and bottom colors may be different, in order to provide camouflage during flight. Striking differences in patterns and colors are part of the sexual dimorphism of many bird species and are particularly important in selection of mating pairs
6.
Superorder (biology)
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In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized by the nomenclature codes. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, an immediately higher rank, superorder, may be added directly above order, while suborder would be a lower rank. A taxonomic unit, a taxon, in that rank, in that case the plural is orders. Example, The Juglans and Hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, what does and does not belong to each order is determined by a taxonomist, as is whether a particular order should be recognized at all. Often there is no agreement, with different taxonomists each taking a different position. There are no rules that a taxonomist needs to follow in describing or recognizing an order. Some taxa are accepted almost universally, while others are recognised only rarely, for some groups of organisms, consistent suffixes are used to denote that the rank is an order. The Latin suffix -formes meaning having the form of is used for the name of orders of birds and fishes. The suffix -ales is for the name of orders of plants, fungi, for some clades covered by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a number of additional classifications are sometimes used, although not all of these are officially recognised. In their 1997 classification of mammals, McKenna and Bell used two levels between superorder and order, grandorder and mirorder. Michael Novacek inserted them at the same position, michael Benton inserted them between superorder and magnorder instead. This position was adopted by Systema Naturae 2000 and others, in botany, the ranks of subclass and suborder are secondary ranks pre-defined as respectively above and below the rank of order. Any number of further ranks can be used as long as they are clearly defined, the superorder rank is commonly used, with the ending -anae that was initiated by Armen Takhtajans publications from 1966 onwards. Carl Linnaeus was the first to apply it consistently to the division of all three kingdoms of nature in his Systema Naturae, for plants, Linnaeus orders in the Systema Naturae and the Species Plantarum were strictly artificial, introduced to subdivide the artificial classes into more comprehensible smaller groups. In French botanical publications, from Michel Adansons Familles naturelles des plantes and until the end of the 19th century, some of the plant families still retain the names of Linnaean natural orders or even the names of pre-Linnaean natural groups recognised by Linnaeus as orders in his natural classification. Such names are known as family names. In zoology, the Linnaean orders were used more consistently and that is, the orders in the zoology part of the Systema Naturae refer to natural groups. Some of his names are still in use
7.
Fowl
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Fowl are birds belonging to one of two biological orders, namely the gamefowl or landfowl and the waterfowl. Studies of anatomical and molecular similarities suggest these two groups are close relatives, together, they form the fowl clade which is scientifically known as Galloanserae. This clade is supported by morphological and DNA sequence data as well as retrotransposon presence/absence data. In colloquial speech, however, the term fowl is often used near-synonymously with poultry, nonetheless, the fact that the Galliformes and Anseriformes most likely form a monophyletic group makes a distinction between fowl and poultry warranted. The historic difference is due to the Germanic/Latin split word pairs characteristic of Middle English, while they are quite diverse ecologically and consequently, in an adaptation to their different lifestyles, also morphologically and ethologically, some features still unite water- and landfowl. Many of these, however, are plesiomorphic for Neornithes as a whole, Galloanserae are very prolific, they regularly produce clutches of more than five or even more than 10 eggs, which is a lot for such sizeable birds. By comparison, birds of prey and pigeons rarely lay more than two eggs, while most living birds are monogamous, at least for a breeding season, many Galloanserae are notoriously polygynous or polygamous. To ornithologists, this is well known in dabbling ducks. The general public is probably most familiar with the habits of domestic chickens. Hybridization is extremely frequent in the Galloanserae, and genera, not usually known to produce hybrids in birds. Guineafowl have successfully produced hybrids with domestic fowl and Indian peafowl and this is an important factor complicating mtDNA sequence-based research on their relationships. The mallards of North America, for example, are mostly derived from some males which arrived from Siberia, settled down. Fossils such as Vegavis indicate that essentially modern waterfowl, albeit belonging to an extinct lineage, were contemporaries of the nonavian dinosaurs. As opposed to the fairly conservative Galliformes, the Anseriformes have adapted to filter-feeding and are characterized by a large number of autapomorphies related to this lifestyle. However, as support for the Galloanserae has emerged in subsequent studies. Benson, D. Presbyornis isoni and other late Paleocene birds from North Dakota, smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 69, 253-266. New nuclear evidence for the oldest divergence among neognath birds, the utility of ZENK. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 30, 140-151 Feduccia, A, the Origin and Evolution of Birds, Second Edition
8.
Galliformes
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The name derives from gallus, Latin for cock or rooster. Common names are gamefowl or gamebirds, landfowl, gallinaceous birds, wildfowl or just fowl are also often used for the Galliformes, but usually these terms also refer to waterfowl, and occasionally to other commonly hunted birds. This group has about 290 species, one or more of which are found in every part of the worlds continents. They are rarer on islands, and in contrast to the closely related waterfowl, are absent from oceanic islands—unless introduced there by humans. Several species have been domesticated during their long and extensive relationships with humans and this order contains five families, Phasianidae, Odontophoridae, Numididae, Cracidae, and Megapodiidae. They are important as seed dispersers and predators in the ecosystems they inhabit, many gallinaceous species are skilled runners and escape predators by running rather than flying. Males of most species are more colorful than the females, males often have elaborate courtship behaviors that include strutting, fluffing of tail or head feathers, and vocal sounds. The living Galliformes were once divided into seven or more families, despite their distinctive appearance, grouse and turkeys probably do not warrant separation as families due to their recent origin from partridge- or pheasant-like birds. The turkeys became larger after their ancestors colonized temperate and subtropical North America, the ancestors of grouse, though, adapted to harsh climates and could thereby colonize subarctic regions. Consequently, the Phasianidae are expanded in current taxonomy to include the former Tetraonidae and Meleagrididae as subfamilies, the Anseriformes and the Galliformes together make up the Galloanserae. They are basal among the living birds, and normally follow the Paleognathae in modern bird classification systems. This was first proposed in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy and has been the one major change of that proposed scheme that was almost universally adopted. However, the Galliformes as they were traditionally delimited are called Gallomorphae in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy and this is not a natural group, however, but rather an erroneous result of the now-obsolete phenetic methodology employed in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy. Phenetic studies do not distinguish between plesiomorphic and apomorphic characters, which leads to basal lineages appearing as monophyletic groups, historically, the buttonquails, mesites and the hoatzin were placed in the Galliformes, too. The former are now known to be adapted to an inland lifestyle, whereas the mesites are probably closely related to pigeons. The relationships of the hoatzin are entirely obscure, and it is treated as a monotypic order Opisthocomiformes to signify this. The earliest galliform-like fossils hail from the Late Cretaceous, most notably those of Austinornis lentus and its partial left tarsometatarsus was found in the Austin Chalk near Fort McKinney, Texas, dating to about 85 million years ago. This bird was quite closely related to Galliformes, but whether it was a part of these or belongs elsewhere in the little-known galliform branch of Galloanserae is not clear
9.
Chicken
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The chicken is a type of domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the red junglefowl. It is one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, humans keep chickens primarily as a source of food, consuming both their meat and their eggs. From India, the chicken was imported to Lydia in western Asia Minor. In the UK and Ireland adult male chickens over the age of one year are known as cocks, whereas in America, Australia. Males less than a year old are cockerels, females over a year old are known as hens and younger females as pullets although in the egg-laying industry, a pullet becomes a hen when she begins to lay eggs at 16 to 20 weeks of age. In Australia and New Zealand, there is a generic term chook /ˈtʃʊk/ to describe all ages, the young are called chicks and the meat is called chicken. Chicken originally referred to domestic fowl. The species as a whole was then called domestic fowl, or just fowl. This use of chicken survives in the phrase Hen and Chickens, sometimes used as a British public house or theatre name, the word chicken is sometimes erroneously construed to mean females exclusively, despite the term hen for females being in wide circulation. In the Deep South of the United States chickens are also referred to by the slang term yardbird, in the wild, they often scratch at the soil to search for seeds, insects and even animals as large as lizards, small snakes or young mice. Chickens may live for five to ten years, depending on the breed, the worlds oldest chicken was a hen which died of heart failure at the age of 16 according to Guinness World Records. However, in some breeds, such as the Sebright chicken, the rooster has only slightly pointed neck feathers, the identification can be made by looking at the comb, or eventually from the development of spurs on the males legs. Adult chickens have a fleshy crest on their heads called a comb, or cockscomb, collectively, these and other fleshy protuberances on the head and throat are called caruncles. Both the adult male and female have wattles and combs, a muff or beard is a mutation found in several chicken breeds which causes extra feathering under the chickens face, giving the appearance of a beard. Domestic chickens are not capable of long distance flight, although birds are generally capable of flying for short distances. Chickens may occasionally fly briefly to explore their surroundings, but generally do so only to flee perceived danger, Chickens are gregarious birds and live together in flocks. They have an approach to the incubation of eggs and raising of young. Individual chickens in a flock will dominate others, establishing an order, with dominant individuals having priority for food access
10.
Quail
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Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. Old World quail are placed in the family Phasianidae, and New World quail are placed in the family Odontophoridae, the species of buttonquail are named for their superficial resemblance to quail, and form the family Turnicidae in the order Charadriiformes. The king quail, an Old World quail, often is sold in the pet trade, in 2007,40 million quail were produced in the U. S. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey or bevy
11.
Domestic turkey
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The domesticated turkey is a large poultry bird, one of the two species in the genus Meleagris and the same as the wild turkey. Female domesticated turkeys are referred to as hens, and the chicks may be called poults or turkeylings, in the United States, the males are referred to as toms, while in Europe, males are stags. The fleshy protuberance atop the beak is the snood, and the one attached to the underside of the beak is known as a wattle. The English language name for this results from an early misidentification of the bird with an unrelated species which was imported to Europe through the country of Turkey. The Aztecs associated the turkey with their trickster god Tezcatlipoca, perhaps because of its perceived humorous behavior, domestic turkeys were taken to Europe by the Spanish. Many distinct breeds were developed in Europe, in the early 20th century, many advances were made in the breeding of turkeys, resulting in breeds such as the Beltsville Small White. The 16th-century English navigator William Strickland is generally credited with introducing the turkey into England and his family coat of arms — showing a turkey cock as the family crest — is among the earliest known European depictions of a turkey. English farmer Thomas Tusser notes the turkey being among farmers fare at Christmas in 1573, the domestic turkey was sent from England to Jamestown, Virginia in 1608. A document written in 1584 lists supplies to be furnished to future colonies in the New World, turkies, prior to the late 19th century, turkey was something of a luxury in the UK, with goose or beef a more common Christmas dinner among the working classes. In Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, Bob Cratchit had a goose before Scrooge bought him a turkey, Turkey production in the UK was centered in East Anglia, using two breeds, the Norfolk Black and the Norfolk Bronze. These would be driven as flocks, after shoeing, down to markets in London from the 17th century onwards - the breeds having arrived in the early 16th century via Spain. Intensive farming of turkeys from the late 1940s dramatically cut the price, with the availability of refrigeration, whole turkeys could be shipped frozen to distant markets. Later advances in disease control increased even more. Advances in shipping, changing consumer preferences and the proliferation of commercial poultry plants has made fresh turkey inexpensive as well as readily available, recent genome analysis has provided researchers with the opportunity to determine the evolutionary history of domesticated turkeys, and their relationship to other domestic fowl. Young domestic turkeys readily fly short distances, perch and roost and these behaviours become less frequent as the birds mature, but adults will readily climb on objects such as bales of straw. Young birds perform spontaneous, frivolous running which has all the appearance of play, commercial turkeys show a wide diversity of behaviours including comfort behaviours such as wing-flapping, feather ruffling, leg stretching and dust-bathing. Turkeys are highly social and become distressed when isolated. Many of their behaviours are socially facilitated i. e. expression of a behaviour by one animal increases the tendency for this behaviour to be performed by others
12.
Columbidae
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Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae, which includes about 310 species. Pigeons and doves are stout-bodied birds with short necks, and short slender bills and they primarily feed on seeds, fruits, and plants. This family occurs worldwide, but the greatest variety is in the Indomalaya, in general, the terms dove and pigeon are used somewhat interchangeably. Pigeon is a French word that derives from the Latin pipio, for a peeping chick, the species most commonly referred to as pigeon is the rock dove, one subspecies of which, the domestic pigeon, is common in many cities as the feral pigeon. Pigeons and doves are likely the most common birds in the world, doves and pigeons build relatively flimsy nests – often using sticks and other debris – which may be placed in trees, on ledges, or on the ground, depending on species. They lay one or two eggs at a time, and both parents care for the young, which leave the nest after seven to 28 days. Unlike most birds, both sexes of doves and pigeons produce crop milk to feed to their young, secreted by a sloughing of fluid-filled cells from the lining of the crop, young doves and pigeons are called squabs. The adjective columbine refers to pigeons and doves, recent phylogenomic studies support the grouping of these pigeons and sandgrouse together, along with mesites, forming the sister taxon to Mirandornithes. The Columbidae are usually divided into five subfamilies, probably inaccurately, for example, the American ground and quail doves, which are usually placed in the Columbinae, seem to be two distinct subfamilies. The order presented here follows Baptista et al. with some updates, osteology and DNA sequence analyses indicate the dodo and Rodrigues solitaire are better considered as a subfamily Raphinae in the Columbidae pending availability of further information. The dodo and Rodrigues solitaire are in all part of the Indo-Australian radiation that produced the three small subfamilies mentioned above, with the fruit-doves and pigeons. Therefore, they are included as a subfamily Raphinae, pending better material evidence of their exact relationships. Exacerbating these issues, columbids are not well represented in the fossil record, no truly primitive forms have been found to date. The genus Gerandia has been described from Early Miocene deposits of France, apart from that, all other fossils belong to extant genera. For these, and for the number of more recently extinct prehistoric species. Phylogeny based on the work by John H. Boyd III, Pigeons and doves exhibit considerable variations in size. Overall, the Columbidae tend to have short bills and legs, the wings are large and have low wing loadings, pigeons have strong wing muscles and are among the strongest fliers of all birds. They are also highly manoeuvrable in flight, the plumage of the family is variable
13.
Squab
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In culinary terminology, squab is a young domestic pigeon, typically under four weeks old, or its meat. The meat is described as tasting like dark chicken. The term is probably of Scandinavian origin, the Swedish word skvabb means loose and it formerly applied to all dove and pigeon species, such as the wood pigeon, the mourning dove, and the now-extinct passenger pigeon, and their meat. More recently, squab meat comes almost entirely from domesticated pigeons, the meat of dove and pigeon gamebirds hunted primarily for sport is rarely called squab. The modern squab industry uses utility pigeons, squabs are raised until they are roughly a month old, when they reach adult size but have not yet flown, before being slaughtered. Doves are described as food in the Holy Scriptures and were eaten by the Hebrews, texts about methods of raising pigeons for their meat date as far back as AD60 in Spain. Such birds were hunted for their meat because it was a cheap, in the Tierra de Campos, a resource-poor region of north-western Spain, squab meat was an important supplement to grain crops from at least Roman times. Caelius Aurelianus, an Ancient Roman physician, regarded the meat as a cure for headaches, from the Middle Ages, a dovecote was a common outbuilding on an estate that aimed to be self-sufficient. The dovecote was considered a living pantry, a source of meat for unexpected guests, dovecotes were introduced to South America and Africa by Mediterranean colonists. In England, pigeon meat was eaten when food was rationed during the Second World War and remains associated with wartime shortages. This was parodied in an episode of the sitcom Dads Army, nevertheless, many people continue to eat it, especially the older generation. Squab have been raised in North America since the early 1900s. As of 1986, annual production in the United States and Canada was one and a half million squabs per year. Pigeons, unlike other poultry, form pair bonds to breed, ten pairs can produce eight squabs each month without being fed by their keepers. Pigeons which are accustomed to their dovecote may forage and return there to rest, industrially raised pigeons have young which weigh 1.3 pounds when of age, as opposed to traditionally raised pigeons, which weigh 0.5 pounds. Utility pigeons have been selected for weight gain, quick growth, health when kept in large numbers. Meleg estimates that 15–20% of eggs fail to hatch in well-maintained pigeon lofts, egg size is important for the squabs initial size and for mortality at hatching, but becomes less important as the squab ages. Aggrey and Cheng feel that the weight of squabs is not a good indicator of their weight at four weeks old
14.
Game (hunting)
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Game or quarry is any animal hunted for sport or for food. The type and range of animals hunted for food varies in different parts of the world, in some countries, game is classified, including legal classification with respect to licences required, as either small game or large game. Game or quarry is any animal hunted for sport or for food, the term game arises in medieval hunting terminology by the late 13th century and is particular to English, from the generic meaning of Old English gamen joy, amusement, sport, merriment. Small game includes animals, such as rabbits, pheasants. Large game includes animals like deer and bear, big game is a term sometimes used interchangeably with large game although in other contexts it refers to large, typically African, mammals which are hunted mainly for trophies in safaris. The type and range of animals hunted for food varies in different parts of the world and this is influenced by climate, animal diversity, local taste and locally accepted views about what can or cannot be legitimately hunted. Sometimes a distinction is made between varieties and species of a particular animal, such as wild turkey and domestic turkey. Fish caught for sport are referred to as game fish, the flesh of the animal, when butchered for consumption is often described as having a gamey flavour. This difference in taste can be attributed to the diet of the animal. In some countries, game is classified, including legal classification with respect to licences required, a single small game licence may cover all small game species and be subject to yearly bag limits. Large game are often subject to individual licensing where a licence is required for each individual animal taken. In some parts of Africa, wild animals hunted for their meat are called bushmeat, see article for more detailed information on how this operates within the economy. In Africa, animals hunted for their pelts or ivory are sometimes referred to as the big game, also see the legal definition of game in Swaziland. South Africa has 62 species of gamebirds, including guineafowl, francolin, partridge, quail, sandgrouse, duck, geese, snipe, bustard, of the remaining 41 species,24 have shown an increase in numbers and distribution range in the last 25 years or so. The status of 14 species appears unchanged, with insufficient information being available for the three species. S. and Canada, deer are the most commonly hunted big game. Other game species include, In the PRC there is a special category called ye wei. In the UK game is defined in law by the Game Act 1831 and it is illegal to shoot game on Sundays or at night. Other that are hunted for food in the UK are specified under the Wildlife, the ban is generally considered voluntary on private lands, and few birds live away from RSPB or Forestry Commission land allegedly
15.
Cockfight
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A cockfight is a blood sport between two roosters, or more accurately gamecocks, held in a ring called a cockpit. The history of raising fowl for fighting goes back 6,000 years, the combatants, referred to as gamecocks, are specially bred birds, conditioned for increased stamina and strength. The comb and wattle are cut off in order to show standards of the American Gamefowl Society. Cocks possess congenital aggression toward all males of the same species, cocks are given the best of care until near the age of two years. They are conditioned, much like professional athletes prior to events or shows, wagers are often made on the outcome of the match. Cockfighting is a sport due in some part to the physical trauma the cocks inflict on each other. While not all fights are to the death, the cocks may endure significant physical trauma, in some areas around the world, cockfighting is still practiced as a mainstream event, in some countries it is regulated by law, or forbidden outright. Advocates of the age old sport often list cultural and religious relevance as reasons for perpetuation of cockfighting as a sport, two owners place their gamecock in the cockpit. The cocks fight until one of them dies or is critically injured. Historically, this was in a cockpit, a term which was used in the 16th century to mean a place of entertainment or frenzied activity. William Shakespeare used the term in Henry V to specifically mean the area around the stage of a theatre, in Tudor times, the Palace of Westminster had a permanent cockpit, called the Cockpit-in-Court. Cockfighting is an ancient spectator sport, there is evidence that cockfighting was a pastime in the Indus Valley Civilization. The Encyclopædia Britannica holds, The sport was popular in ancient times in India, China, Persia, based on his analysis of a Mohenjo-daro seal, Iravatham Mahadevan speculates that the citys ancient name could have been Kukkutarma. However, according to a recent study, it is not known whether these birds made much contribution to the domestic fowl. Chickens from the Harappan culture of the Indus Valley may have been the source of diffusion throughout the world. Within the Indus Valley, indications are that chickens were used for sport and not for food, an early image of a fighting rooster has been found on a 6th-century BC seal of Jaazaniah from the biblical city of Mizpah in Benjamin, near Jerusalem. The anthropologist Clifford Geertz wrote the influential essay Deep Play, Notes on the Balinese Cockfight, in some regional variations, the birds are equipped with either metal spurs or knives, tied to the leg in the area where the birds natural spur has been partially removed. A cockspur is a bracelet with a curved, sharp spike which is attached to the leg of the bird, the spikes typically range in length from short spurs of just over an inch to long spurs almost two and a half inches long
16.
Foodborne illness
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Symptoms vary depending on the cause, and are described below in this article. A few broad generalizations can be made, e. g, the incubation period ranges from hours to days, depending on the cause and on how much was consumed. The incubation period tends to cause sufferers to not associate the symptoms with the item consumed, symptoms often include vomiting, fever, and aches, and may include diarrhea. Some types of microbes stay in the intestine, some produce a toxin that is absorbed into the bloodstream, Foodborne illness usually arises from improper handling, preparation, or food storage. Good hygiene practices before, during, and after food preparation can reduce the chances of contracting an illness, there is a consensus in the public health community that regular hand-washing is one of the most effective defenses against the spread of foodborne illness. The action of monitoring food to ensure that it will not cause illness is known as food safety. Foodborne disease can also be caused by a variety of toxins that affect the environment. Foodborne illness can also be caused by pesticides or medicines in food, bacteria are a common cause of foodborne illness. In the United Kingdom during 2000, the bacteria involved were the following, Campylobacter jejuni 77. 3%, Salmonella 20. 9%, Escherichia coli O157, H71. 4%. In the past, bacterial infections were thought to be prevalent because few places had the capability to test for norovirus. Toxins from bacterial infections are delayed because the bacteria need time to multiply, as a result, symptoms associated with intoxication are usually not seen until 12–72 hours or more after eating contaminated food. However, in cases, such as Staphylococcal food poisoning. Most common bacterial foodborne pathogens are, Campylobacter jejuni which can lead to secondary Guillain–Barré syndrome and periodontitis Clostridium perfringens, enterotoxins can produce illness even when the microbes that produced them have been killed. Symptom appearance varies with the toxin but may be rapid in onset and this causes intense vomiting including or not including diarrhea, and staphylococcal enterotoxins are the most commonly reported enterotoxins although cases of poisoning are likely underestimated. The CDC has estimated about 240,000 cases per year in the United States, many foodborne illnesses remain poorly understood. In August 2006, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved Phage therapy which involves spraying meat with viruses that infect bacteria and this has raised concerns, because without mandatory labelling consumers would not be aware that meat and poultry products have been treated with the spray. At home, prevention mainly consists of food safety practices. Many forms of bacterial poisoning can be prevented by cooking it sufficiently, many toxins, however, are not destroyed by heat treatment
17.
Anseriformes
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In fact, these living species are all included in Anatidae except for the three screamers and the magpie goose. All species in the order are highly adapted for an aquatic existence at the water surface, the males, except for the screamers, also have a penis, a trait that has disappeared in Neoaves. All are web-footed for efficient swimming, the earliest known Anseriform is the recently discovered Vegavis, which lived during the Cretaceous period. It is thought that the Anseriformes originated when the original Galloanserae split into the two main lineages, the extinct dromornithids may possibly represent early offshoots of the anseriform line, if they arent stem-Galliformes instead, and so maybe Gastornis. The ancestors of the Anseriformes developed the characteristic bill structure that they still share, the prehistoric wading presbyornithids were even more bizarre. The Anseriformes and the Galliformes are the most primitive neognathous birds, Anatidae systematics, especially regarding placement of some odd genera in the dabbling ducks or shelducks, is not fully resolved. See the Anatidae article for information, and for alternate taxonomic approaches. Some unusual groups, such as the extinct Gastornithidae and Dromornithidae, are found to be at the base of the Anseriformes family tree. Anatidae is traditionally divided into subfamilies Anatinae and Anserinae, the Anatinae consists of tribes Anatini, Aythyini, Mergini and Tadornini. The higher-order classification below follows a phylogenetic analysis performed by Angolin,2007, Mikkos Phylogeny Archive, the clade Somaterini has a single genus Somateria. List of Anseriformes by population Agnolin, F. Brontornis burmeisteri Moreno & Mercerat, un Anseriformes gigante del Mioceno Medio de Patagonia, revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales. Clarke, J. A. Tambussi, C. P. Noriega, erickson, G. M. & Ketcham, R. A. Definitive fossil evidence for the extant avian radiation in the Cretaceous, & Zusi, R. L. Higher-order phylogeny of modern birds based on comparative anatomy. Zoological Journal of the Linnen Society, murray, P. F. & Vickers-Rich, P. Magnificent Mihirungs, The Colossal Flightless Birds of the Australian Dreamtime
18.
Aviculture
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Aviculture is the practice of keeping and breeding birds and the culture that forms around it. Aviculture is generally focused on not only the raising and breeding of birds, but also on preserving avian habitat, there are various reasons that people get involved in aviculture. Some people breed birds to preserve a species, some people breed parrots as companion birds, and some people breed birds to make a profit. Aviculture Aviculture is the practice of keeping birds in captivity using controlled conditions, normally within the confines of an aviary, for hobby, business, research & conservation purposes. Some important reasons for aviculture are, breeding birds to preserve the species because many species are at risk due to habitat destruction. Aviculture encourages conservation, provides education about avian species, provides companion birds for the public, the truest meaning of aviculture, was described by Dr. Jean Delacour, the most dedicated, influential, and highly respected individual in the modern history of aviculture. There are avicultural societies throughout the world, but generally in Europe, Australia and the United States, the first avicultural society in Australia was The Avicultural Society of South Australia, founded in 1928. It is now promoted with the name Bird Keeping in Australia, the two major national avicultural societies in the United States are the American Federation of Aviculture and the Avicultural Society of America, founded in 1927. In the UK, the Avicultural Society was formed in 1894, the Budgerigar Society was formed in 1925. Publications on aviculture include books on species which include pets, books on breeding and introductory books for parrots, there are also periodicals, both generalized and specific to types of birds, with articles on breeding, care, companionship, choosing a bird, and health effects. Supply companies publish catalogs of products for bird keepers, the oldest avicultural society in the United States is the Avicultural Society of America, founded in 1927. The ASA produces a magazine, ASA Avicultural Bulletin. The ASA is a 501 non-profit organization that focuses on breeding, the Avicultural Society of South Australia produces a monthly full-colour magazine, Bird Keeping in Australia. It deals with all aspects of aviculture in Australia, the ASSA is registered as an educational organization, having the motto, Founded 1928, for the Study, Care, Breeding and Conservation of Birds. From the common name canary, a bird is native to the Canary Islands, Madeira. This bird has been kept as a cagebird in Europe from the 1470s to the present, the terms canariculture and canaricultura have been used in French, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian respectively, to describe the keeping and breeding of canaries for some time. English speaking canary breeders are beginning to use the more commonly. The word comes from the psittacinae and it is one branch of the science of aviculture
19.
Songbird
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A songbird is a bird belonging to the clade Passeri of the perching birds. Another name that is seen as a scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin oscen. This group contains some 4,000 species found all over the world, in which the vocal organ typically is developed in such a way as to produce a diverse and elaborate bird song. Songbirds form one of the two lineages of extant perching birds, the other being the Tyranni which are most diverse in the Neotropics. These have a simpler syrinx musculature, and while their vocalizations are often just as complex and striking as those of songbirds, there is a third perching bird lineage, the Acanthisitti from New Zealand, of which only two species remain alive today. The song in this clade is essentially territorial in that it communicates the identity and whereabouts of an individual to other birds, sexual selection among songbirds is highly based on mimetic vocalization. Female preference has shown in some populations to be based on the extent of a males song repertoire, the larger a males repertoire, the more females a male individual attracts. It is not to be confused with bird calls which are used for alarms, while almost all living birds give calls of some sort, well-developed songs are only given by a few lineages outside the songbirds. Other birds sometimes have songs to attract mates or hold territory, the monotonous repetition of the common cuckoo or little crake can be contrasted with the variety of a nightingale or marsh warbler. On the other hand, although many songbirds have songs which are pleasant to the human ear, many members of the crow family communicate with croaks or screeches which sound harsh to humans. Even these, however, have a song of sorts, a softer twitter which is given between courting partners, sexual selection can be broken down into several different studies regarding different aspects of a bird’s song. As a result, song can vary even within a single species, many believe that song repertoire and cognition have a direct relationship. However, a study published in 2013 has shown that all cognitive ability may not be related to the song repertoire of a songbird. Specifically, spatial learning is said to have a relationship with song repertoire. So for example, this would be an individual who does not migrate as far as others in the species and this suggests an evolutionary trade-off between possible alleles. With natural selection choosing traits best fit for reproductive success there could be a trade off in either direction depending on which trait would produce a higher fitness at that time period, Song repertoire can be attributed to male songbirds as it is one of the main mechanisms of courtship. Song repertoires differ from individual to male individual and species to species. Some species may typically have large repertoires while others may have smaller ones
20.
Parrot
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Parrots, also known as psittacines /ˈsɪtəsaɪnz/, are birds of the roughly 393 species in 92 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies, the Psittacoidea, the Cacatuoidea, and the Strigopoidea, Parrots have a generally pantropical distribution with several species inhabiting temperate regions in the Southern Hemisphere, as well. The greatest diversity of parrots is in South America and Australasia, characteristic features of parrots include a strong, curved bill, an upright stance, strong legs, and clawed zygodactyl feet. Many parrots are vividly coloured, and some are multi-coloured, most parrots exhibit little or no sexual dimorphism in the visual spectrum. They form the most variably sized bird order in terms of length, the most important components of most parrots diets are seeds, nuts, fruit, buds, and other plant material. A few species sometimes eat animals and carrion, while the lories and lorikeets are specialised for feeding on floral nectar, almost all parrots nest in tree hollows, and lay white eggs from which hatch altricial young. Parrots, along with ravens, crows, jays, and magpies, are among the most intelligent birds, some parrots are intelligent and talk at the level of a four-to-five year old human. Measures taken to conserve the habitats of some high-profile charismatic species have protected many of the less charismatic species living in the same ecosystems. Psittaciform diversity in South America and Australasia suggests that the order may have evolved in Gondwana, molecular studies suggest that parrots evolved approximately 59 million years ago in Gondwana. The three major clades of Neotropical parrots originated about 50 Mya, likewise, the earliest parrots do not have the specialised crushing bills of modern species. If so, they probably had not evolved their morphological autapomorphies yet, the combined evidence supported the hypothesis of Psittaciformes being near passerines, i. e. the mostly land-living birds that emerged in close proximity to the K-Pg extinction. Europe is the origin of the first undeniable parrot fossils, which date from about 50 Mya, the climate there and then was tropical, consistent with the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum. Initially, a neoavian named Mopsitta tanta, uncovered in Denmarks Early Eocene Fur Formation and dated to 54 Mya, was assigned to the Psittaciformes, fossils assignable to Psittaciformes date from slightly later in the Eocene, starting around 50 Mya. Several fairly complete skeletons of birds have been found in England. The fossil record—mainly from Europe—consists of bones clearly recognisable as belonging to parrots of modern type, at this point, however, is found the first unambiguous parrot fossil, an upper jaw that is indistinguishable from that of modern cockatoos. The Psittaciformes comprise three lineages, Strigopoidea, Psittacoidea and Cacatuoidea. Colourful feathers with high levels of psittacofulvin resist the feather-degrading bacterium Bacillus licheniformis better than white ones, lorikeets were previously regarded as a third family, Loriidae, but are now considered a tribe within the subfamily Lorinae, family Cacatuoidea. The two other tribes in the subfamily are the closely related fig parrots and budgerigar, the order Psittaciformes consists of roughly 393 species belonging to 92 genera
21.
Japanese quail
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The Japanese quail, Coturnix japonica, is a species of Old World quail found in East Asia. First considered a subspecies of the quail, it was distinguished as its own species in 1983. The Japanese quail has played a role in the lives of humanity since the 12th century. Where it is found, the species is abundant across most of its range, currently there are a few true breeding mutations of the Japanese quail. The breeds from the United States are, Texas A&M, English white, golden range, red range, Italian, Manchurian, Tibetan, rosetta, scarlett, roux dilute, populations of the Japanese quail are known to mainly inhabit East Asia and Russia. This includes India, Korea, Japan, and China, though several resident populations of this quail have been shown to winter in Japan, most migrate south to areas such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and southern China. This quail has also found to reside in many parts of Africa, including Tanzania, Malawi, Kenya, Namibia, Madagascar. Breeding sites of the Japanese quail are largely localized to East and Central Asia, in areas as Manchuria, southeastern Siberia, northern Japan. However, it has also observed to breed in some regions of Europe. The Japanese quail is primarily a species that tends to stay within areas of dense vegetation in order to take cover. Thus, its natural habitats include grassy fields, bushes along the banks of rivers, and agricultural fields that have been planted with such as oats, rice. It has also reported to prefer open habitats such as steppes, meadows. The morphology of the Japanese quail differs depending on its stage in life, as chicks, both male and female individuals exhibit the same kind of plumage and coloring. Their heads are tawny in color, with black patches littering the area above the beak. The wings and the back of the chick are a pale brown, a pale yellow-brown stripe surrounded by smaller black stripes runs down the top of the head. The plumage of the Japanese quail is sexually dimorphic, allowing for differing sexes to be distinguished from one another, both male and female adults exhibit predominantly brown plumage. However, markings on the throat and breast, as well as the shade of brown of the plumage. The breast feathers of females are littered with dark spots among generally pale feathers, contrastingly, male breast feathers show off a uniform dark reddish-brown color that is devoid of any dark spots
22.
Common pheasant
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The common pheasant is a bird in the pheasant family. The genus name comes from Latin phasianus, pheasant, the species name colchicus is Latin for of Colchis a country on the Black Sea where pheasants became known to Europeans. It is native to Asia and has been introduced elsewhere as a game bird. In parts of its range, namely in places where none of its relatives such as in Europe. Ring-necked pheasant is both the name used for the species as a whole in North America and also the name for a number of subspecies. The word pheasant is derived from the ancient town of Phasis and it is a well-known gamebird, among those of more than regional importance perhaps the most widespread and ancient one in the whole world. The common pheasant is one of the worlds most hunted birds, it has been introduced for that purpose to many regions, and is also common on game farms where it is commercially bred. The ring-necked pheasant is the bird of South Dakota, one of only three U. S. state birds that is not a species native to the United States. The green pheasant of Japan is sometimes considered a subspecies of the common pheasant, though the species produce fertile hybrids wherever they coexist, this is simply a typical feature among fowl, in which postzygotic isolating mechanisms are slight compared to most other birds. The species apparently have different ecological requirements and at least in its typical habitat. The introduction of the latter to Japan has therefore largely failed, there are many colour forms of the male common pheasant, ranging in colour from nearly white to almost black in some melanistic examples. These are due to breeding and hybridization between subspecies and with the green pheasant, reinforced by continual releases of stock from varying sources to the wild. For example, the ring-necked pheasants common in Europe, North America and Australia do not pertain to any specific taxon, body weight can range from 0.5 to 3 kg, with males averaging 1.2 kg and females averaging 0.9 kg. The adult male common pheasant of the nominate subspecies Phasianus colchicus colchicus is 60–89 cm in length with a brown streaked black tail. The body plumage is barred bright gold or fiery copper-red and chestnut-brown plumage with irredescent sheen of green and purple, the wing coverage is white or cream and black-barred markings are common on the tail. The head is green with a small crest and distinctive red wattle. P. c. colchicus and some other races lack a neck ring. Behind the face are two ear-tufts, that make the pheasant to alert, the female and juveniles are much less showy, with a duller mottled brown plumage all over and measuring 50–63 cm long including a tail of around 20 cm
23.
Peafowl
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The peafowl include three species of birds in the genera Pavo and Afropavo of the Phasianidae family, the pheasants and their allies. There are two Asiatic species and one African species, male peafowl are known for their piercing call and their extravagant plumage. The latter is especially prominent in the Asiatic species, who have a tail or train of covert feathers which they display as part of a courtship ritual. The term peacock is properly reserved for the male, the female is known as a peahen, the functions of the elaborate iridescent coloration and large train of peacocks have been the subject of extensive scientific debate. Charles Darwin suggested they served to attract females, and the features of the males had evolved by sexual selection. The Indian peacock has iridescent blue and green plumage, the peacock tail, known as a train, consists not of tail quill feathers, but highly elongated upper tail coverts. These feathers are marked with eyespots, best seen when a peacock fans his tail, both sexes of all species have a crest atop the head. The Indian peahen has a mixture of grey, brown. The female also displays her plumage to ward off female competition or signal danger to her young, the green peafowl differs from the Indian peafowl in that the male has green and gold plumage with black wings with a sheen of blue. Unlike the Indian peafowl, the green peahen is similar to the male, only having shorter upper tail coverts, a more coppery neck, the Congo peacock male does not display his covert feathers, but uses his actual tail feathers during courtship displays. These feathers are shorter than those of the Indian and green species. Females of the Indian and African species are dull grey and/or brown, chicks of both sexes in all the species are cryptically coloured. They vary between yellow and tawny, usually with patches of brown or light tan and dirty white ivory. Occasionally, peafowl appear with white plumage and this can result in the complete lack of coloration of their plumage, while preserving normal eye colour. By contrast, true albino peafowl have a lack of melanin. Leucistic peachicks are born yellow and become white as they mature. As with many birds, vibrant iridescent plumage colours are not primarily pigments, optical interference Bragg reflections based on regular, periodic nanostructures of the barbules of the feathers produce the peacocks colours. Slight changes to the spacing of these result in different colours
24.
Guineafowl
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Guineafowl are birds of the family Numididae in the order Galliformes. They are endemic to the continent of Africa and rank among the oldest of the gallinaceous birds and they are phylogenetically intermediate between peafowl and the Odontophoridae. One Eocene fossil lineage, Telecrex, is represented by the black guineafowl, while modern guineafowl species are endemic to Africa, the helmeted guineafowl has been introduced widely elsewhere. This is a list of species, presented in taxonomic order. Most species of guineafowl have a grey or blackish plumage with dense white spots. While several species are well known, the plumed guineafowl. These large birds measure from 40–71 cm in length, and weigh 700–1600 grams or 1. 5-3.5 pounds, all guineafowl are social, and typically live in small groups or large flocks. Guineafowl travel behind herd animals and beneath monkey troops where they forage within manure, Guineafowl play a pivotal role in the control of ticks, flies, locusts, scorpions and other invertebrates. They pluck maggots from carcasses and manure, wild guineafowl are, without exception, strong fliers. Their breast muscles are dark, enabling them to themselves in flight for considerable distances if hard-pressed. Grass and bush fires are a constant threat to these galliformes, some species of guineafowl, like the vulturine, may go without drinking water for extended periods, instead sourcing their moisture from their food. Young guineafowl are very sensitive to weather, in cold temperatures. They live in habitats such as savanna or semideserts, while some, such as the black guineafowl. The helmeted guinea fowl has been introduced in East Africa, the West Indies, the United States, Britain, and India, Guineafowl meat is drier and leaner than chicken meat and has a gamey flavour. It has marginally more protein than chicken or turkey, roughly half the fat of chicken, Guineafowl eggs are substantially richer than chicken eggs. Madge and McGowan, Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, family Numididae, p. 554–570 in, del Hoyo, J. Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. eds. Handbook of the Birds of the World, Vol.2, ISBN 84-87334-15-6 Guineafowl videos on the Internet Bird Collection SPPA article on Guinea Fowl Early Birds, Guinea Fowl by Dennis Headley
25.
Mute swan
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The mute swan is a species of swan and a member of the waterfowl family Anatidae. It is native to much of Eurasia, and the far north of Africa and it is an introduced species in North America, Australasia and southern Africa. The name mute derives from it being less vocal than other swan species, measuring 125 to 170 cm in length, this large swan is wholly white in plumage with an orange beak bordered with black. It is recognisable by its pronounced knob atop the beak, which is larger in males, the mute swan was first formally described by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin as Anas olor in 1789, and was transferred by Johann Matthäus Bechstein to the new genus Cygnus in 1803. It is the species of the genus Cygnus. Both cygnus and olor mean swan in Latin, cygnus is a variant form of cycnus, a borrowing from Greek κύκνος kyknos, a word of the same meaning. Despite its Eurasian origin, its closest relatives are the black swan of Australia, the species is monotypic with no living subspecies. Mute swan subfossils,6,000 years old, have found in post-glacial peat beds of East Anglia. They have been recorded from Ireland east to Portugal and Italy, the paleosubspecies Cygnus olor bergmanni, which differed only in size from the living bird, is known from fossils found in Azerbaijan. Fossils of swan ancestors more distantly allied to the mute swan have been found in four U. S. states, California, Arizona, Idaho, the timeline runs from the Miocene to the late Pleistocene, or 10,000 BP. The latest find was in Anza Borrego Desert, a park in California. Adults of this large swan typically range from 140 to 160 cm long, although can range in extreme cases from 125 to 170 cm, males are larger than females and have a larger knob on their bill. On average, this is the second largest waterfowl species after the trumpeter swan, among standard measurements of the mute swan, the wing chord measures 53–62.3 cm, the tarsus is 10–11.8 cm and the bill is 6. 9–9 cm. The mute swan is one of the heaviest flying birds, young birds, called cygnets, are not the bright white of mature adults, and their bill is dull greyish-black, not orange, for the first year. The down may range from white to grey to buff. The white cygnets have a leucistic gene, cygnets grow quickly, reaching a size close to their adult size in approximately three months after hatching. Cygnets typically retain their grey feathers until they are at least one year old, all mute swans are white at maturity, though the feathers are often stained orange-brown by iron and tannins in the water. The morph immutabilis has pinkish legs and dull white cygnets, as with white domestic geese, polish swans carry a copy of a gene responsible for leucism
26.
Turkey (bird)
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The turkey is a large bird in the genus Meleagris, which is native to the Americas. One species, Meleagris gallopavo, is native to the forests of North America, from Mexico, throughout the midwest and eastern United States, the other living species is Meleagris ocellata or the ocellated turkey, native to the forests of the Yucatán Peninsula. Males of both species have a distinctive fleshy wattle or protuberance that hangs from the top of the beak. They are among the largest birds in their ranges, as in many galliformes, the male is larger and much more colorful than the female. Turkeys are classed in the family of Phasianidae in the order of Galliformes. The genus Meleagris is the extant genus in the subfamily Meleagridinae, formerly known as the family Meleagrididae. There are two theories for the derivation of the turkey for this bird, according to Columbia University professor of Romance languages Mario Pei. The name of the North American bird thus became turkey fowl or Indian turkeys, the other theory arises from turkeys coming to England from the Americas via merchant ships from the Middle East where they were domesticated successfully. Again the importers lent the name to the bird, because these merchants were called Turkey merchants as much of the area was part of the Ottoman Empire, hence the name Turkey birds or, soon thereafter, turkeys. In 1550, the English navigator William Strickland, who had introduced the turkey into England, was granted a coat of arms including a turkey-cock in his pride proper, William Shakespeare used the term in Twelfth Night, believed to be written in 1601 or 1602. The lack of context around his usage suggests that the term had widespread reach, in many countries, the names for turkeys have different derivations. Ironically, many of these names incorporate an assumed Indian origin, such as diiq Hindi in Arabian countries, dinde in French, индюшка in Russia, indyk in Poland, and Hindi in Turkey. These are thought to arise from the thought that Christopher Columbus had originally believed that he had reached India rather than the Americas on his voyage, in Portuguese a turkey is a peru, the name is thought to derive from the eponymous country Perú. The anhinga is sometimes called a turkey, from the shape of its tail when the feathers are fully spread for drying. A number of turkeys have been described from fossils, the Meleagridinae are known from the Early Miocene onwards, with the extinct genera Rhegminornis and Proagriocharis. The former is probably a basal turkey, the other a more contemporary bird not very similar to known turkeys, a turkey fossil not assignable to genus but similar to Meleagris is known from the Late Miocene of Westmoreland County, Virginia. In the modern genus Meleagris, a number of species have been described, as turkey fossils are robust and fairly often found. Many of these supposed fossilized species are now considered junior synonyms, one, the well-documented California turkey Meleagris californica, became extinct recently enough to have been hunted by early human settlers
27.
Goose
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Geese are waterfowl belonging to the tribe Anserini of the family Anatidae. This tribe comprises the genera Anser, Branta and Chen, some other birds, mostly related to the shelducks, have goose as part of their names. More distantly related members of the family Anatidae are swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, the word goose is a direct descendent of Proto-Indo-European root, *ghans-. In Germanic languages, the root gave Old English gōs with the plural gēs and gandres, Frisian goes, gies and guoske, New High German Gans, Gänse, and Ganter, and Old Norse gās. The term goose applies to the female in particular, while applies to the male in particular. Young birds before fledging are called goslings, the collective noun for a group of geese on the ground is a gaggle, when in flight, they are called a skein, a team, or a wedge, when flying close together, they are called a plump. The three living genera of true geese are, Anser, grey geese, including the goose, and domestic geese, Chen, white geese. Either these or, more probably, the goose-like Coscoroba swan is the closest living relative of the true geese, the aptly named Anser atavus from some 12 million years ago had even more plesiomorphies in common with swans. In addition, some birds are known from subfossil remains found on the Hawaiian Islands. Geese are monogamous, living in permanent pairs throughout the year, however, unlike most other permanently monogamous animals, paired geese are more dominant and feed more, two factors that result in more young. Some mainly Southern Hemisphere birds are called geese, most of which belong to the shelduck subfamily Tadorninae, the blue-winged goose, Cyanochen cyanopterus, and the Cape Barren goose, Cereopsis novaehollandiae, have disputed affinities. They belong to separate ancient lineages that may ally either to the Tadorninae, Anserinae, the three species of small waterfowl in the genus Nettapus are named pygmy geese. They seem to represent another ancient lineage, with affinities to the Cape Barren goose or the spur-winged goose. A genus of prehistorically extinct seaducks, Chendytes, is sometimes called diving-geese due to their large size, the unusual magpie goose is in a family of its own, the Anseranatidae. The northern gannet, a seabird, is known as the Solan goose, although it is a bird unrelated to the true geese. Well-known sayings about geese include, To have a gander is to something in detail. Whats sauce for the goose is sauce for the means that what is appropriate treatment for one person is equally appropriate for someone else. Saying that someones goose is cooked means that they have suffered, or are about to suffer, a wild goose chase is a useless, futile waste of time and effort
28.
Red junglefowl
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The red junglefowl is a tropical member of the family Phasianidae. It is the progenitor of the domestic chicken. The red junglefowl was first domesticated at least five years ago in Asia. Since then it has spread around the world, and the form is kept globally as a very productive food source of both meat and eggs. The range of the wild form stretches from Tamil Nadu, India, eastwards across Indochina and southern China and into Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, junglefowl are established on several of the Hawaiian Islands, including Kauai, but these are feral descendants of domestic chickens. They can also be found on Christmas Island, Vanuatu, the females plumage is typical of this family of birds in being cryptic and adapted for camouflage. She alone looks after the eggs and chicks and she also has no fleshy wattles, and a very small comb on the head. During their mating season, the male birds announce their presence with the well known cock-a-doodle-doo call or crowing, male red junglefowl have a shorter crowing sound than domestic roosters, the call cuts off abruptly at the end. This serves both to potential mates and to make other male birds in the area aware of the risk of fighting a breeding competitor. A spur on the leg just behind and above the foot serves in such fighting. Their call structure is complex and they have distinctive alarm calls for aerial, males make a food-related display called tidbitting, performed upon finding food in the presence of a female. The display is composed of coaxing, cluck-like calls and eye-catching bobbing and twitching motions of the head, during the performance, the male repeatedly picks up and drops the food item with his beak. The display usually ends when the hen takes the food item either from the ground or directly from the male’s beak, males that produce anti-predator alarm calls appear to be preferred by females. They are omnivorous and feed on insects, seeds and fruits including those that are cultivated such as those of the oil palm, red junglefowl regularly bathe in dust to keep just the right balance in their plumage. The dust absorbs extra oil and subsequently falls off. P. the study showed that chickens were most likely domesticated from wild red junglefowl, though some have suggested possible genetic contributions from other junglefowl species. Domestication occurred at least 7,400 years ago from a common ancestor flock in the natural range. The paper also states that the earliest undisputed domestic chicken remains are associated with a date of approximately 5,400 BC from the Chishan site. In the Ganges region of India, red junglefowl were being used by humans as early as 7,000 years ago
29.
Domestic duck
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Domesticated ducks are ducks that are raised for meat, eggs and down. Many ducks are also kept for show, as pets, or for their ornamental value, almost all varieties of domesticated duck are descended from the mallard, apart from the Muscovy duck. Ducks have been farmed for thousands of years, possibly starting in Southeast Asia, while popular in haute cuisine, duck appears less frequently in the mass-market food industry and restaurants in the lower price range. However, ducks are more popular in China and there they are raised extensively, ducks are farmed for their meat, eggs, and down. A minority of ducks are also kept for foie gras production, in Vietnam, their blood is used in a food called tiết canh. Their eggs are blue-green to white, depending on the breed, ducks can be kept free range, in cages, in barns, or in batteries. Ducks enjoy access to swimming water, but do not require it to survive and they should be fed a grain and insect diet. It is a misconception that ducks should be fed bread, bread has limited nutritional value. Ducks should be monitored for avian influenza, as they are prone to infection with the dangerous H5N1 strain. The females of many breeds of domestic ducks are unreliable at sitting their eggs, notable exceptions include the Rouen duck and especially the Muscovy duck. It has been a custom on farms for centuries to put duck eggs under broody hens for hatching, nowadays incubators are often used. However, young ducklings rely on their mothers for a supply of oil to make them waterproof, a chicken hen does not make as much preen oil as a female duck. Once the duckling grows its own feathers, it will produce oil from the sebaceous gland near the base of its tail. Domesticated ducks can be kept as pets, in a garden or backyard and they will often eat insects and slugs. A pond or deep water dish is recommended, a coop should be provided for shelter from predators such as foxes, hawks, coyotes, and raccoons, as many breeds of domestic ducks cannot fly. Ducks are also kept for their ornamental value, breeds have been developed with crests and tufts or striking plumage. Exhibition shows are held in which ducks, along with other breeds of poultry, are exhibited in competition and these shows can be open, or closed. List of duck breeds Duck and Goose from Farm to Table factsheet from USDA
30.
Muscovy duck
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The Muscovy duck is a large duck native to Mexico, Central, and South America. Feral Muscovy ducks are found in New Zealand, Australia, and they are large ducks, with the males about 76 cm long, and weighing up to 7 kg. Females are considerably smaller, and only grow to 3 kg, the bird is predominantly black and white, with the back feathers being iridescent and glossy in males, while the females are more drab. The amount of white on the neck and head is variable, as well as the bill and they may have white patches or bars on the wings, which become more noticeable during flight. Both sexes have pink or red wattles around the bill, those of the male being larger, although the Muscovy duck is a tropical bird, it adapts well to cooler climates, thriving in weather as cold as −12 °C and able to survive even colder conditions. In general, Barbary duck is the used for C. moschata in a culinary context. The domestic breed, Cairina moschata domestica, is known in Spanish as the pato criollo. They have been bred since pre-Columbian times by Native Americans and are heavier and their plumage color is also more variable. Other names for the breed in Spanish are pato casero. All Muscovy ducks have long claws on their feet and a flat tail. In the domestic drake, length is about 86 cm and weight is 4. 6–6.8 kg, while the hen is much smaller. Large domesticated males often weigh up to 8 kg, and large domesticated females up to 5 kg, the true wild Muscovy duck, from which all domesticated Muscovys originated, is blackish, with large white wing patches. Length can range from 66 to 84 cm, wingspan from 137 to 152 cm, on the head, the wild male has short crest on the nape. The bill is black with a speckling of pale pink, a blackish or dark red knob can be seen at the bill base, and the bare skin of the face is similar to that in color. The legs and webbed feet are blackish, the wild female is similar in plumage, but is also much smaller, and she has feathered face and lacks the prominent knob. The juvenile is overall, with little or no white on the upperwing. Domesticated birds may look similar, most are brown or black mixed with white. Other colors such as lavender or all-white are also seen, both sexes have a nude black-and-red or all-red face, the drake also has pronounced caruncles at the base of the bill and a low erectile crest of feathers
31.
Mallard
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This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae. The male birds have a green head and are grey on wings and belly. Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black speculum feathers which commonly also include iridescent blue feathers especially among males, mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes. This species is the ancestor of most breeds of domesticated ducks. The mallard was one of the bird species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work Systema Naturae. The scientific name is from Latin Anas, duck and Ancient Greek platyrhynchus, Mallard originally referred to any wild drake and it is sometimes still used this way. It was derived from the Old French malart or mallart for wild drake and it may be related to an Old High German masculine proper name Madelhart, clues lying in the alternate English forms maudelard or mawdelard. Masle has also proposed as an influence. This is quite unusual among such different species, and apparently is because the mallard evolved very rapidly and recently, the distinct lineages of this radiation are usually kept separate due to non-overlapping ranges and behavioural cues, but are still not fully genetically incompatible. Mallards and their domesticated conspecifics are also fully interfertile, the genome of Anas platyrhynchos was sequenced in 2013. Mallards appear to be closer to their Indo-Pacific relatives than to their American ones judging from biogeography, the large ice age palaeosubspecies which made up at least the European and west Asian populations during the Pleistocene has been named Anas platyrhynchos palaeoboschas. In their mitochondrial DNA, mallards are differentiated between North America and Eurasia, however, in the nuclear genome there is a lack of genetic structure. Haplotypes typical of American mallard relatives and spotbills can be found in mallards around the Bering Sea, the Aleutian Islands hold a population of mallards that appear to be evolving towards a subspecies, as gene flow with other populations is very limited. The size of the mallard varies clinally, and birds from Greenland and they are sometimes separated as subspecies, the Greenland mallard. The mallard is a waterfowl species although it is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks. It is 50–65 cm long, has a wingspan of 81–98 cm, and weighs 0. 72–1.58 kg. Among standard measurements, the chord is 25.7 to 30.6 cm, the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm. The breeding male mallard is unmistakable, with a glossy bottle-green head and white collar which demarcates the head from the purple-tinged brown breast, grey wings
32.
Emu
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The emu is the second-largest living bird by height, after its ratite relative, the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird, the emus range covers most of mainland Australia, but the Tasmanian emu and King Island emu subspecies became extinct after the European settlement of Australia in 1788. The bird is common for it to be rated as a least-concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Emus are soft-feathered, brown, flightless birds with long necks and legs, Emus can travel great distances, and when necessary can sprint at 50 km/h, they forage for a variety of plants and insects, but have been known to go for weeks without eating. They drink infrequently, but take in copious amounts of water when the opportunity arises, breeding takes place in May and June, and fighting among females for a mate is common. Females can mate several times and lay clutches of eggs in one season. The male does the incubation, during this process he hardly eats or drinks, the eggs hatch after around eight weeks, and the young are nurtured by their fathers. They reach full size after around six months, but can remain as a unit until the next breeding season. The emu is an important cultural icon of Australia, appearing on the coat of arms, the bird features prominently in Indigenous Australian mythology. The birds were known on the eastern coast before 1788, when the first Europeans settled there, total length seven feet two inches. The long spines which are seen in the wings of the sort, are in this not observable. The legs are stout, formed much as in the Galeated Cassowary, the species was named by ornithologist John Latham in 1790 based on a specimen from the Sydney area of Australia, a country which was known as New Holland at the time. In his original 1816 description of the emu, the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot used two names, first Dromiceius and later Dromaius. Most modern publications, including those of the Australian government, use Dromaius, another theory is that it comes from the word ema, which is used in Portuguese to denote a large bird akin to an ostrich or crane. In Victoria, some terms for the emu were Barrimal in the Dja Dja Wurrung language, myoure in Gunai, the birds were known as murawung or birabayin to the local Eora and Darug inhabitants of the Sydney basin. The emu was long classified, with its closest relatives the cassowaries, in the family Casuariidae, however, an alternate classification was proposed in 2014 by Mitchell et al. based on analysis of mitochondrial DNA. This splits off the Casuariidae into their own order, the Casuariformes, the cladogram shown below is from their study. Two different Dromaius species were present in Australia at the time of European settlement, the insular dwarf emus, D. baudinianus and D. n. minor, originally present on Kangaroo Island and King Island respectively, both became extinct shortly after the arrival of Europeans
33.
Egyptian goose
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The Egyptian goose is a member of the duck, goose, and swan family Anatidae. It is native to Africa south of the Sahara and the Nile Valley, Egyptian geese were considered sacred by the Ancient Egyptians, and appeared in much of their artwork. They have been raised for food and extensively bred in parts of Africa since they were domesticated by the ancient Egyptians, because of their popularity chiefly as ornamental bird, escapes are common and small feral populations have become established in Western Europe. The Egyptian goose is believed to be most closely related to the shelducks and their relatives and it is the only extant member of the genus Alopochen, which also contains closely related prehistoric and recently extinct species. MtDNA cytochrome b sequence data suggest that the relationships of Alopochen to Tadorna need further investigation, the generic name is based on Greek ἀλώπηξ, fox, and χήν goose, referring to the ruddy colour of its back. The species name aegyptius is from the Latin Aegyptius, Egyptian and it swims well, and in flight looks heavy, more like a goose than a duck, hence the English name. The sexes of this species are identical in plumage but the males slightly larger. There is an amount of variation in plumage tone, with some birds greyer and others browner. A large part of the wings of birds is white. When it is aroused, either in alarm or aggression, the white begins to show, in flight or when the wings are fully spread in aggression, the white is conspicuous. The voices and vocalisations of the sexes differ, the male having a hoarse, the male Egyptian goose attracts its mate with an elaborate, noisy courtship display that includes honking, neck stretching and feather displays. The female has a far noisier raucous quack that frequently sounds in aggression and this species breeds widely in Africa except in deserts and dense forests, and is locally abundant. They are found mostly in the Nile Valley and south of the Sahara, while not breeding, it disperses somewhat, sometimes making longer migrations northwards into arid regions of the Sahel. It has also introduced elsewhere, Great Britain, the Netherlands, France. Escapes have also bred on occasion in other places, such as Florida, the British population dates back to the 18th century, though only formally added to the British list in 1971. In Britain, it is mainly in East Anglia, in parkland with lakes. It was officially declared a pest in the U. K. in 2009 and this is a largely terrestrial species, which will also perch readily on trees and buildings. Egyptian geese typically eat seeds, leaves, grasses, and plant stems, occasionally, they will eat locusts, worms, or other small animals
34.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
35.
Domestic goose
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Domestic geese are domesticated grey geese kept as poultry for their meat, eggs, and down feathers since ancient times. In Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia, the domesticated geese are derived from the greylag goose Anser anser. In eastern Asia, the domesticated geese are derived from the swan goose Anser cygnoides. Both have been introduced in more recent times, and modern flocks in both areas may consist of either species, and/or hybrids between them. Chinese geese may be distinguished from European geese by the large knob at the base of the bill. The domestication, as Charles Darwin remarks, is of ancient date. Although their heavy weight affects their ability to fly, most breeds of domestic geese are capable of flight, Geese have also been strongly selected for fecundity, with females laying up to 50 eggs per year, compared to 5–12 eggs for a wild goose. As most domestic geese display little sexual dimorphism, sexing is based primarily on physical characteristics, males are typically taller and larger than females, and have longer necks. In addition, males can be distinguished by the protective behaviour they exhibit towards their mate, changes to the plumage are variable, many have been selected to lose dark brown tones of the wild bird. The result is a marked, or completely covered in white feathers. Others retain plumage close to the natural, some, such as the modern Toulouse goose look almost identical to the greylag in plumage, white geese are often preferred as they look better plucked and dressed, with any small down feathers remaining being less conspicuous. From the time of the Romans, white geese have been held in great esteem, Geese produce large edible eggs, weighing 120–170 grams. They can be used in cooking just like chickens eggs, though they have more yolk. The taste is much the same as that of a chicken egg, like their wild ancestors, domestic geese are very protective of their offspring and other members of the flock. The gander will normally place himself between any perceived threat and his family, owing to their highly aggressive nature, loud call and sensitivity to unusual movements, geese can contribute towards the security of a property. In late 1950s South Vietnam, the VNAF used flocks of geese to guard their parked aircraft at night due to the noise they would make at intruders, when Aphrodite first came ashore she was welcomed by the Charites, whose chariot was drawn by geese. There are Mother Goose tales, such as a farmwife might have told, there is the goose that laid the golden eggs. The geese in the temple of Juno on the Capitoline Hill were said by Livy to have saved Rome from the Gauls around 390 BC when they were disturbed in a night attack
36.
Greylag goose
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The greylag goose is a large species of goose in the waterfowl family Anatidae. It has mottled and barred grey and white plumage and an orange beak, a large bird, it measures between 74 and 91 centimetres in length, with an average weight of 3.3 kilograms. Its distribution is widespread, with birds from the north of its range in Europe and it is the type species of the genus Anser and is the ancestor of the domestic goose, having been domesticated at least as early as 1360 BC. The genus name is from anser, the Latin for goose, Greylag geese travel to their northerly breeding grounds in spring, nesting on moorlands, in marshes, around lakes and on coastal islands. They normally mate for life and nest on the ground among vegetation, a clutch of three to five eggs is laid, the female incubates the eggs and both parents defend and rear the young. The birds stay together as a group, migrating southwards in autumn as part of a flock. During the winter they occupy semi-aquatic habitats, estuaries, marshes and flooded fields, feeding on grass, Anser anser, the greylag goose, is a member of the waterfowl family Anatidae. The two subspecies intergrade where their ranges meet, the greylag goose sometimes hybridises with other species of goose including the barnacle goose and the Canada goose, and occasionally with the mute swan. The greylag goose was one of the first animals to be domesticated, this happened at least 3000 years ago in Ancient Egypt, the domestic breed being known as A. a. domesticus. As the domestic goose is a subspecies of the greylag goose they are able to interbreed, the greylag is the largest and bulkiest of the grey geese of the genus Anser, but is more lightly built and agile than its domestic relative. It has a rotund, bulky body, a thick and long neck, and it has pink legs and feet, and an orange or pink bill with a white or brown nail. It is 74 to 91 centimetres long with a length of 41.2 to 48 centimetres. It has a tail 6.2 to 6.9 centimetres, a bill of 6.4 to 6.9 centimetres long, and it weighs 2.16 to 4.56 kilograms, with a mean weight of around 3.3 kilograms. The wingspan is 147 to 180 centimetres, males are generally larger than females, with the sexual dimorphism more pronounced in the eastern subspecies rubirostris, which is larger than the nominate subspecies on average. The plumage of the goose is greyish-brown, with a darker head and paler breast. It has a pale grey fore-wing and rump which are noticeable when the bird is in flight or stretches its wings on the ground and it has a white line bordering its upper flanks, and its wing coverts are light-coloured, contrasting with its darker flight feathers. Its plumage is patterned by the pale fringes of the feathers, juveniles differ mostly in their lack of black-speckling on the breast and belly and by their greyish legs. Adults have a distinctive pattern of folds in the feathers on their necks
37.
Swan goose
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The swan goose is a rare large goose with a natural breeding range in inland Mongolia, northernmost China, and southeastern Russia. It is migratory and winters mainly in central and eastern China, vagrant birds are encountered in Japan and Korea, and more rarely in Kazakhstan, Laos, coastal Siberia, Taiwan, Thailand and Uzbekistan. While uncommon in the wild, this species has been domesticated, introduced and feral populations of its domestic breeds occur in many places outside its natural range. The wild form is kept in collections, and escapes are not unusual amongst feral flocks of other Anser. The swan goose is large and long-necked for its genus, wild birds being 81–94 cm long and weighing 2. 8–3.5 kg or more. The sexes are similar, although the male is larger, with a longer bill and neck. Typical measurements of the wing are 45–46 cm in males,37. 5–44 cm in females, the tarsus of males measures around 8.1 cm. The wingspan of adult geese is 160–185 cm, the upperparts are greyish-brown, with thin light fringes to the larger feathers and a maroon hindneck and cap. The remiges are blackish, as are the underwing and the white-tipped rectrices, while the upper-. A thin white stripe surrounds the bill base, apart from darker streaks on the belly and flanks, the underside is pale buff, being especially light on the lower head and foreneck which are sharply delimited against the maroon. In flight, the wings appear dark, with no conspicuous pattern, uniquely among its genus, the long, heavy bill is completely black, the legs and feet, on the other hand, are orange as in most of its relatives. Juveniles are duller than adult birds, and lack the bill base. The voice is a loud drawn-out and ascending honking aang, as a warning call, a similar but more barking honk is given two or three times in short succession. The karyotype of the goose is 2n=80, consisting of four pairs of macrochromosomes,35 pairs of microchromosomes. The two largest macrochromosome pairs as well as the Z chromosome are submetacentric, while the third-largest chromosome pair is acrocentric, the W chromosomes are acrocentric too, as are the larger microchromosomes, the smaller ones probably being telocentric. Compared to the goose, there seems to have been some rearrangement on the fourth-largest chromosome pair. It inhabits steppe to taiga and mountain valleys near freshwater, grazing on plants such as sedges and it forms small flocks outside the breeding season. In the winter, it grazes on plains and stubble fields, birds return from the winter quarters around April, and the breeding season starts soon thereafter
38.
Indian peafowl
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The Indian peafowl or blue peafowl, a large and brightly coloured bird, is a species of peafowl native to South Asia, but introduced in many other parts of the world. These stiff feathers are raised into a fan and quivered in a display during courtship, peahens lack the train, and have a greenish lower neck and duller brown plumage. The Indian peafowl lives mainly on the ground in open forest or on land under cultivation where they forage for berries, grains but also prey on snakes, lizards, and small rodents. Their loud calls make them easy to detect, and in forest areas often indicate the presence of a such as a tiger. They forage on the ground in groups and usually try to escape on foot through undergrowth and avoid flying. The function of the elaborate train has been debated for over a century. In the 19th century, Charles Darwin found it a puzzle and his later explanation, sexual selection, is widely but not universally accepted. In the 20th century, Amotz Zahavi argued that the train was a handicap, despite extensive study, opinions remain divided on the mechanisms involved. The bird is celebrated in Indian and Greek mythology and is the bird of India. The Indian peafowl is listed as of Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, carl Linnaeus in his work Systema Naturae in 1758 assigned to the Indian peafowl the technical name of Pavo cristatus. The current spelling was established in the late 17th century, chaucer used the word to refer to a proud and ostentatious person in his simile proud a pekok in Troilus and Criseyde. The Greek word for peacock was taos and was related to the Persian tavus, the Hebrew word tuki has been said to have been derived from the Tamil tokei but sometimes traced to the Egyptian tekh. Peacocks are a larger sized bird with a length from bill to tail of 100 to 115 cm and to the end of a fully grown train as much as 195 to 225 cm and weigh 4–6 kg. The females, or peahens, are smaller at around 95 cm in length, Indian peafowl are among the largest and heaviest representatives of the Phasianidae. Their size, colour and shape of crest make them unmistakable within their distribution range. The male is blue on the crown, the feathers of the head being short. The fan-shaped crest on the head is made of feathers with bare black shafts, a white stripe above the eye and a crescent shaped white patch below the eye are formed by bare white skin. The sides of the head have iridescent greenish blue feathers, the back has scaly bronze-green feathers with black and copper markings
39.
Common ostrich
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The ostrich or common ostrich is either one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member of the genus Struthio, which is in the ratite family. In 2014, the Somali ostrich was recognized as a distinct species, the common ostrich shares the order Struthioniformes with the kiwis, emus, rheas, and cassowaries. However, phylogenetic studies have shown that it is the group to all other members of Palaeognathae. It is distinctive in its appearance, with a neck and legs, and can run at up to about 70 km/h. The common ostrich is the largest living species of bird and lays the largest eggs of any living bird, the common ostrichs diet consists mainly of plant matter, though it also eats invertebrates. It lives in groups of 5 to 50 birds. When threatened, the ostrich will either hide itself by lying flat against the ground, if cornered, it can attack with a kick of its powerful legs. Mating patterns differ by region, but territorial males fight for a harem of two to seven females. The common ostrich is farmed around the world, particularly for its feathers and its skin is used for leather products and its meat is marketed commercially, with its leanness a common marketing point. Common ostriches usually weigh from 63 to 145 kilograms, or as much as two adult humans, ostriches of the East African race averaged 115 kg in males and 100 kg in females, while the nominate subspecies was found to average 111 kg in unsexed adults. Exceptional male ostriches can weigh up to 156.8 kg, at sexual maturity, male common ostriches can be from 2.1 to 2.8 m in height, while female common ostriches range from 1.7 to 2.0 m tall. New chicks are fawn in colour, with brown spots. During the first year of life, chicks grow at about 25 cm per month, at one year of age, common ostriches weigh approximately 45 kilograms. Their lifespan is up to 40–45 years, the feathers of adult males are mostly black, with white primaries and a white tail. However, the tail of one subspecies is buff, females and young males are greyish-brown and white. The head and neck of both male and female ostriches is nearly bare, with a layer of down. The skin of the neck and thighs is pinkish gray. The eyes are shaded from sunlight from above, However, the head and bill are relatively small for the birds huge size, with the bill measuring 12 to 14.3 cm
40.
Partridge
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Partridges are medium-sized non-migratory gamebirds, with a wide native distribution throughout the Old World, including Europe, Asia, and parts of Africa. They are sometimes grouped in the Perdicinae subfamily of the Phasianidae and these are medium-sized birds, intermediate between the larger pheasants and the smaller quails. Partridges are native to the steppes of Europe, Asia, Africa. Nowadays they are found nesting on agricultural land. They nest on the ground and have a diet consisting of seeds, species such as the grey partridge and the red-legged partridge are popular as game birds, and are often reared in captivity and released for the purpose of hunting. For the same reason, they have been introduced into areas of North America. According to Greek legend, the first partridge appeared when Daedalus threw his nephew, Perdix, supposedly mindful of his fall, the bird does not build its nest in the trees, nor take lofty flights and avoids high places. The most famous reference to the partridge is in the Christmas carol, the first gift listed is a partridge in a pear tree, and these words end each verse. Since partridges are unlikely to be seen in pear-trees it has suggested that the text in a pear tree is a corruption of the French une perdrix. The partridge has also used as a symbol that represents Kurdish nationalism. Sherko Kurmanj discusses the paradox of symbols in Iraq as an attempt to make a distinction between the Kurds and the Arabs. He says that while Iraqis generally regards the palm tree, falcon, and sword as their symbols, the Kurds consider the Oak, Partridge
41.
Red-legged partridge
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The red-legged partridge is a gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. It is sometimes known as French partridge, to distinguish it from the English or grey partridge, the genus name is from Ancient Greek alektoris a farmyard chicken, and rufa is Latin for red or rufous. It is a bird, with a light brown back, grey breast. The face is white with a black gorget and it has rufous-streaked flanks and red legs. When disturbed, it prefers to run rather than fly, and this is a seed-eating species, but the young in particular take insects as an essential protein supply. The call is a three-syllable ka-chu-chu and this partridge breeds naturally in southwestern Europe. It is replaced in southeastern Europe by the very similar rock partridge and it is a non-migratory terrestrial species, which forms flocks outside the breeding season. This species breeds on dry lowlands, such as farmland and open stony areas, there are three recognized subspecies, A. r. hispanica - northern and western Iberian Peninsula A. r. intercedens - eastern and southern Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands A. r. The lores have a bar of black feathering above a patch of pinkish-red skin. This black colouration continues behind the eye, where it broadens, there is a patch of pale buff-brown feathering on the ear-coverts, adjoining the black. The eye is surrounded by a bright red eye-ring, the chin and upper throat are creamy-white, and are bordered behind and below by a solid black gorget. The black colour continues down onto the throat as a patch of broad triangular black streaks on a pale sandy-grey background. Similar, but narrower, black streaks are present on a pale blue-grey background on the upper neck-sides, the breast is pale blue-grey, and the belly pinkish-buff. The upper parts are plain, unmarked dark sandy-grey, the uppertail-coverts are similar in colour, and contrast with the pinkish-rufous tail-feathers. The bill is red, the iris is medium brown. Red-legged partridge are bred for shooting, and sold and eaten as game, the natural range of the red-legged partridge is France, Spain and Portugal. However, it was introduced from France to Great Britain in the 18th century, as it is a mediterranean species, it thrives in hot, dry areas with sandy soil. The ability to breed two clutches simultaneously has led to it being extensively reared in captivity, and released for shooting, the breeding of chukars and red-legged/chukar hybrids is prohibited, due to its impact on wild populations of red-legs
42.
Chukar partridge
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The chukar partridge or chukar is a Eurasian upland gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae. It has been considered to form a complex along with the rock partridge, Philbys partridge and Przevalskis partridge. This partridge has well marked black and white bars on the flanks, the species has been introduced into many other places and feral populations have established themselves in parts of North America and New Zealand. This bird can be found in parts of Middle East, the chukar is a rotund 32–35 cm long partridge, with a light brown back, grey breast, and buff belly. The shades vary across the various populations, the face is white with a black gorget. It has rufous-streaked flanks, red legs and coral red bill, sexes are similar, the female slightly smaller in size and lacking the spur. The tail has 14 feathers, the primary is the longest while the first is level with the fifth and sixth primaries. It is very similar to the rock partridge with which it has been lumped in the past but is browner on the back and has a tinge to the foreneck. The sharply defined gorget distinguishes this species from the red-legged partridge which has the black collar breaking into dark streaks near the breast and their song is a noisy chuck-chuck-chukar-chukar from which the name is derived. The Barbary partridge has a rather than black collar with a grey throat. Other common names of this bird include chukker, Indian chukar and this partridge has its native range in Asia, including Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, along the inner ranges of the Western Himalayas to Nepal. Further west in southeastern Europe it is replaced by the red-legged partridge and it barely ranges into Africa on the Sinai Peninsula. The habitat in the range is rocky open hillsides with grass or scattered scrub or cultivation. They are not found in areas of high humidity or rainfall and it has been introduced widely as a game bird, and feral populations have become established in the United States, Canada, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand and Hawaii. Initial introductions into the US were from the nominate populations collected from Afghanistan and it has also been introduced to New South Wales in Australia but breeding populations have not persisted and are probably extinct. A small population exists on Robben Island in South Africa since it was introduced there in 1964, the chukar partridge is part of a confusing group of red-legged partridges. Several plumage variations within the distribution of the chukar partridge have been described and designated as subspecies. In the past the group was included with the rock partridge
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Grey partridge
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The grey partridge, also known as the English partridge, Hungarian partridge, or hun, is a gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds. The scientific name is the Latin for partridge, and is derived from Ancient Greek perdix. Widespread and common throughout much of its range, the partridge is evaluated as of Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. However, it has suffered a decline in the UK. This partridge breeds on farmland across most of Europe into western Asia, a popular gamebird in vast areas of North America, it is commonly known as Hungarian partridge or just hun. The grey partridge is a bird, 28–32 cm long, brown-backed, with grey flanks. The belly is white, usually marked with a large chestnut-brown horse-shoe mark in males, hens lay up to twenty eggs in a ground nest. The nest is usually in the margin of a cereal field and these are present after around 16 weeks of age when the birds have moulted into adult plumage. Young grey partridges are mostly yellow-brown and lack the distinctive face, the song is a harsh kieerr-ik, and when disturbed, like most of the gamebirds, it flies a short distance on rounded wings, often calling rick rick rick as it rises. They are a species, but the young in particular take insects as an essential protein supply. During the first 10 days of life, the young can only digest insects, the parents lead their chicks to the edges of cereal fields, where they can forage for insects. They are also a terrestrial species, and form flocks outside the breeding season. Their numbers have fallen in these areas by as much as 85% in the last 25 years, efforts are being made in Great Britain by organizations such as the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust to halt this decline by creating conservation headlands. In 1995, it was nominated a Biodiversity Action Plan species, gray Partridge Species Account – Cornell Lab of Ornithology Ageing and sexing by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze Feathers of Grey partridge
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France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
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Afghanistan
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Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. It has a population of approximately 32 million, making it the 42nd most populous country in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north and its territory covers 652,000 km2, making it the 41st largest country in the world. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, the political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a state in the Great Game between British India and the Russian Empire. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, King Amanullah unsuccessfully attempted to modernize the country and it remained peaceful during Zahir Shahs forty years of monarchy. A series of coups in the 1970s was followed by a series of wars that devastated much of Afghanistan. The name Afghānistān is believed to be as old as the ethnonym Afghan, the root name Afghan was used historically in reference to a member of the ethnic Pashtuns, and the suffix -stan means place of in Persian. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to land of the Afghans or, more specifically in a historical sense, however, the modern Constitution of Afghanistan states that he word Afghan shall apply to every citizen of Afghanistan. An important site of historical activities, many believe that Afghanistan compares to Egypt in terms of the historical value of its archaeological sites. The country sits at a unique nexus point where numerous civilizations have interacted and it has been home to various peoples through the ages, among them the ancient Iranian peoples who established the dominant role of Indo-Iranian languages in the region. At multiple points, the land has been incorporated within large regional empires, among them the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, and the Islamic Empire. Archaeological exploration done in the 20th century suggests that the area of Afghanistan has been closely connected by culture and trade with its neighbors to the east, west. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BCE, and the early city of Mundigak may have been a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization. More recent findings established that the Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up towards modern-day Afghanistan, making the ancient civilisation today part of Pakistan, Afghanistan, in more detail, it extended from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. There are several smaller IVC colonies to be found in Afghanistan as well, after 2000 BCE, successive waves of semi-nomadic people from Central Asia began moving south into Afghanistan, among them were many Indo-European-speaking Indo-Iranians. These tribes later migrated further into South Asia, Western Asia, the region at the time was referred to as Ariana
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United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
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Small-billed tinamou
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The small-billed tinamou is a type of Tinamou commonly found in dry savanna in Amazonian South America. The small-billed tinamou is approximately 22 cm in length and its upperparts are dark brown, with grey to brownish under parts and head. Its bill and legs are red, the small-billed tinamou is a monotypic species. All tinamou are from the family Tinamidae, and in the scheme are also ratites. Unlike other ratites, tinamous can fly, although in general, all ratites evolved from prehistoric flying birds, and tinamous are the closest living relative of these birds. Crypturellus is formed from three Latin or Greek words, kruptos meaning covered or hidden, oura meaning tail, and ellus meaning diminutive. Therefore, Crypturellus means small hidden tail, like other tinamous, the small-billed eats fruit off the ground or low-lying bushes. They also eat small amounts of invertebrates, flower buds, tender leaves, seeds, the male incubates the eggs which may come from as many as 4 different females, and then will raise them until they are ready to be on their own, usually 2–3 weeks. The nest is located on the ground in dense brush or between raised root buttresses and its range is Amazonian South America, Brazil except for the southeastern portion, northeastern Peru, eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, and northeastern Argentina. The IUCN classifies this tinamou as Least Concern, with a range of 6,700,000 km2. Bartletts Tinamou - BirdLife Species Factsheet, systema Naturae 2000 / Classification, Genus Crypturellus. The Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World,8 Birds I Tinamous and Ratites to Hoatzins. A Guide to the Scientific Classifications of Reptiles, Birds & Mammals, new York, NY, Facts on File. p.183. Associação Mãe-da-lua Small-billed Tinamou - photos, sounds, notes
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South America
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South America is a continent located in the western hemisphere, mostly in the southern hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the northern hemisphere. It may also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas, which is the used in nations that speak Romance languages. The reference to South America instead of other regions has increased in the last decades due to changing geopolitical dynamics. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean, North America and it includes twelve sovereign states, a part of France, and a non-sovereign area. In addition to this, the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers. Its population as of 2005 has been estimated at more than 371,090,000, South America ranks fourth in area and fifth in population. Brazil is by far the most populous South American country, with more than half of the population, followed by Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela. In recent decades Brazil has also concentrated half of the regions GDP and has become a first regional power, most of the population lives near the continents western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, the continents cultural and ethnic outlook has its origin with the interaction of indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, more locally, with African slaves. Given a long history of colonialism, the majority of South Americans speak Portuguese or Spanish. South America occupies the portion of the Americas. The continent is delimited on the northwest by the Darién watershed along the Colombia–Panama border. Almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate, South Americas major mineral resources are gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, and petroleum. These resources found in South America have brought high income to its countries especially in times of war or of rapid growth by industrialized countries elsewhere. However, the concentration in producing one major export commodity often has hindered the development of diversified economies and this is leading to efforts to diversify production to drive away from staying as economies dedicated to one major export. South America is one of the most biodiverse continents on earth, South America is home to many interesting and unique species of animals including the llama, anaconda, piranha, jaguar, vicuña, and tapir. The Amazon rainforests possess high biodiversity, containing a proportion of the Earths species. Brazil is the largest country in South America, encompassing around half of the land area
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The dictionary definition of poultry at Wiktionary
