Thursday, February 2, 2012

>>Songbird


Songbird


Songbirds
Male Superb Lyrebird
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Passeriformes
Suborder:Passeri
Families
Many, see text
A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (orderPasseriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as scientific or vernacular name isOscines, from Latin oscen, "a songbird". 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 major lineages of extant perching birds, the other being theTyranni which are most diverse in the Neotropics and absent from many parts of the world. These have a simpler syrinx musculature, and while their vocalizations are often just as complex and striking as those of songbirds, they are altogether more mechanical sounding. There is a third perching bird lineage, the Acanthisitti "living fossils" from New Zealand, of which only two species remain alive today.
There is evidence to suggest that songbirds evolved 50 million years ago in the part ofGondwana that later became Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and Antarctica, before spreading around the world.
This 'bird song' is essentially territorial in that it communicates the identity and whereabouts of an individual to other birds and also signals sexual intentions. It is not to be confused with bird calls which are used for alarms and contact and are especially important in birds that feed or migrate in flocks. 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 — especially non-passeriforms — sometimes have songs to attract mates or hold territory, but these are usually simple and repetitive, lacking the variety of many oscine songs. 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, this is not invariably the case. Many members of the crow family (Corvidae) communicate with croaks or screeches which sound harsh to humans. Even these, however, have s song of sorts, a softer twitter which is given between courting partners. And even though some parrots(which are not songbirds) can be taught to repeat human speech, vocal mimicry among birds is almost completely restricted to songbirds, some of which — such as the lyrebirds or the aptly-named mockingbirds — excel in imitating the sounds of other birds or even environmental noises.





Taxonomy

Under the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy this suborder is divided into two "parvorders", Corvida and Passerida (standard taxonomic practice would rank these as infraorders). The families of suborder Passeri are listed below as being in either Corvida or Passerida.


Families


Corvida


Passerida


Juvenile House sparrow

Blue-winged Leafbird (Chloropsis cochinchinensis)


เขียนโดย ที่ 10:37 PM 0 ความคิดเห็น
ป้ายกำกับ: , , ,

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

>>Lari


Lari



Greater Crested Tern displaying inTasmania
The suborder Lari is the part of the orderCharadriiformes which includes the gulls, terns,skuas and skimmers, with the waders and snipesmaking up the rest of the order. Following recent research, the auks are now placed into the Lari too; the Glareolidae might constitute a distinct suborder. Sometimes, the buttonquails are also placed here, but the molecular data and fossilrecord rather suggests them be a quite basaloffshoot along with the snipe-like and aberrantwaders.(Paton et al., 2003; Thomas et al., 2004; Paton & Baker, 2006).
The larids are generally larger species which take fish from the sea. Several gulls and skuaswill also take food items from beaches, or rob smaller species, and some have become adapted to inland environments.
เขียนโดย ที่ 10:34 PM 0 ความคิดเห็น
ป้ายกำกับ: , , ,

>>Wader


Wader


(Redirected from Charadrii)
Waders, called shorebirds in North America (where "wader" is used to refer to long-legged wading birds such as storks and herons), are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups. The latter are the skuas (Stercorariidae), gulls(Laridae), terns (Sternidae), skimmers (Rynchopidae), and auks (Alcidae). Also, the pratincoles(Glareolidae) and the Crab Plover (Dromadidae), which bear greater resemblance to waders, are closely related to the seabirds.
This leaves about 210 species, most of which are associated with wetland or coastal environments. Many species of Arctic and temperate regions are strongly migratory, but tropical birds are often resident, or move only in response to rainfall patterns. Some of the Arctic species, such as Little Stint, are amongst the longest distance migrants, spending the non-breeding season in the southern hemisphere.
The majority of species eat small invertebrates picked out of mud or exposed soil. Different lengths of bills enable different species to feed in the same habitat, particularly on the coast, without direct competition for food. Many waders have sensitive nerve endings at the end of their bills which enable them to detect prey items hidden in mud or soft soil. Some larger species, particularly those adapted to drier habitats will take larger prey including insects and small reptiles.
Many of the smaller species found in coastal habitats, particularly but not exclusively thecalidrids, are often named as "sandpipers", but this term does not have a strict meaning, since the Upland Sandpiper is a grassland species.
The smallest member of this group is the Least Sandpiper, small adults of which can weigh as little as 15.5 grams and measure just over 13 cm (5 inches). The largest species is believed to be the Far Eastern Curlew, at about 63 cm (25 inches) and 860 grams (1.9 lb), although theBeach Thick-knee, is the heaviest at about 1 kg (2.2 lb).
In the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, waders and many other groups are subsumed into a greatly enlarged Ciconiiformes order. However, the classification of the Charadriiformes is one of the weakest points of the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, as DNA-DNA hybridization has turned out to be incapable of properly resolving the interrelationships of the group. Formerly, the waders were united in a single suborder Charadrii, but this has turned out to be a "wastebasket taxon", uniting no less than four charadriiform lineages in a paraphyletic assemblage. However, it indicated that the Plains Wanderer actually belonged into one of them. Following recent studies (Ericson et al., 2003; Paton et al., 2003; Thomas et al., 2004a, b; van Tuinen et al., 2004; Paton & Baker, 2006), the waders may be more accurately subdivided as follows:

Waders roosting on the beach at high tide

Waders in flight
  • Suborder Scolopaci
    • Family Scolopacidae: snipe, sandpipers, phalaropes, and allies
In keeping more in line with the traditional grouping, the Thinocori could be included in the Scolopaci, and the Chionidi in the Charadrii. However, the increasing knowledge about the early evolutionary history of modern birds suggests that the assumption of Paton et al. (2003) and Thomas et al. (2004b) of 4 distinct "wader" lineages (= suborders) already being present around the K-T boundary is correct.
เขียนโดย ที่ 10:31 PM 0 ความคิดเห็น
ป้ายกำกับ: , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)