Birds

Some nice and colourful cuties here.

Questions

Its name also having been used for different species in Australia and Africa, the huge stork known as the jabiru comes from a Tupi-Guarani word that means what? One distinctive feature is a red pouch at the base of its throat.

SWOLLEN NECK

Also going by the name redbird, common cardinal, red cardinal or simply, cardinal, what is the most common rendering of ‘Cardinalis cardinalis’, this being to distinguish it from cardinals found in other areas?

NORTHERN CARDINAL

Unsurprisingly having a geographical distribution further south than the Northern cardinal, what is the alternative name for the desert cardinal? It comes from the Greek and refers to its reddish colour and the oblique shape of its bill.

PYRRHULOXIA

Found in Colombia and Venezuela, which third member of the Cardinalis genus gets its common name from the striking colour of its male?

VERMILION CARDINAL

The sole extant member of the genus Megadyptes is a penguin that has been given what common name thanks to a distinctive feature? Endemic to New Zealand, it is also known as hoiho or tarakaka.

YELLOW-EYED PENGUIN

Written and directed by “Full House” star Bob Saget, which parody of “March of the Penguins” has Samuel L. Jackson as its narrator and among its many sphenisciformes is one who is ‘freezing their nuts off’?

FARCE OF THE PENGUINS

Found in North America and the only member of the Corthylio genus, what type of bird is the ‘ruby-crowned’, this name coming from the red patch on its head? There is also a golden-crowned version that carries the same name, though this sits in a different genus.

KINGLET

A member of the kinglet family, what is the repetitive binomial carried by the goldcrest, a bird that unsurprisingly sports a nice streak of gold on top of its head?

REGULUS REGULUS

Now a name used by two different species, one of which is native to Madeira, which members of the Regulus genus get their name from the orange crown seen on the males?

FIRECREST

Its binomial name taken from ornithologist Walter Goodfellow, the flamecrest is a member of the Regulus genus that is native to which island, this being sometimes put before firecrest in an alternate name?

TAIWAN

Thrushes

Started spamming the Wikipedia list of thrushes but although I still have a long way to go on this huge list, I’ve found some interesting nuggets on the way so far.

Questions

Thanks to the male song being loud and carrying a long way during windy weather, which bird gained the name ‘stormcock’?

MISTLE THRUSH

The mistle thrush can be found in which genus that is known as the ‘true thrushes’, containing the greatest number of species within its wider family?

TURDUS (The family being Turdidae)

Sitting in the genus of ‘Turdus’, what is the species name of the mistle thrush, etymologically coming from Latin words that mean ‘mistletoe eater’?

VISCIVORUS

First coined by Julian Huxley in 1938, what biological term refers to a measurable gradient in a single characteristic across its geographical range, with an example being the group of sub-species proposed for the mistle thrush?

CLINE / CLINAL

The scientific species name for the song thrush, which has a habit of breaking open the shells of snails by using a stone as an ‘anvil’, comes from which character in Greek mythology, who after having her tongue cut out was turned into a singing bird with her name meaning ‘loving song’?

PHILOMELA

Sometimes considered a sub-species of the groundscraper thrush, ‘Turdus simensis’ is named for which country, its species name being a reference to a range of mountains that are found there?

ETHIOPIA (Simien Mountains)

The thrushes named ‘Turdus xanthorhynchus’ and ‘Turdus oliveaceofuscus’ get their common names from the two main islands in which country, presumably featuring something yellow and olive respectively?

SÃO TOMÉ AND PRÍNCIPE

Also known as Heller’s ground thrush from which it gets its scientific name of ‘Turdus helleri’, the Taita thrush is named for a range of hills in which country?

KENYA

Following a recurring theme, Roehl’s thrush or ‘Turdus roehli’ is also known as the Usambara thrush, with that name coming from a range of mountains in which country?

TANZANIA

The ‘Turdus libonyana’ gets its taxonomic name from the red-billed buffalo weaver, but by what name is it also known, being a corruption of the former South African town of Kaditschwene?

KURRICHANE THRUSH

The Comoros thrush has a sub-species that can be found on which highest point of its native country, with the general population living at lower altitude?

MOUNT KARTHALA

‘Tephronotus’ is the second part of the binomial name for the bare-eyed thrush, but what do the two Greek terms that create it mean? It is also used for a type of shrike, whose common name would give the answer away.

GREY-BACKED / ASH-COLOURED BACKED

The unexciting binomial of ‘Turdus smithi’ is also known as what kind of thrush, after a natural region that can be found in South Africa?

KAROO THRUSH

Which bird that can be found in the British Isles, that gets its common name from a colourful part of its anatomy, carries the binomial ‘Turdus iliacus’, the latter part referring to its flank?

REDWING

Since it is so common, what follows ‘Turdus’ in the second part of the common blackbird’s binomial name, itself meaning ‘blackbird’ which gives rise to the French term for it in turn?

MERULA (The French for blackbird is ‘merle’)

Birds

Trying to get a greater appreciation for the goshawk, so some interesting stuff on birds of prey to be discovered..

Questions

The opposite to altricial, what term is used in biology for a species whose young is relatively well developed at birth?

PRECOCIAL

What term synonymous with most precocial species, means that young leave the nest shortly after birth or hatching?

NIDIFUGOUS

How is the little grebe also known? It is in the genus tachybaptus meaning ‘fast sink under’, and has a red neck that provides the species name ruficollus.

DABCHICK

Particularly associated with cuckoos, what two-word term describes the most common form of brood parasitism?

EGG MIMICRY

Unsurprisingly found on the west coast of South America, the Inca tern has a distinctive facial feature that looks like a moustache of what colour?

WHITE

The sooty and spectacled terns are collectively known as manutara in the birdman ritual of which island? The aim of the ritual was to be the first to retrieve an egg.

EASTER ISLAND

The dodo and Rodrigues solitaire are placed within which sub-family of extinct flightless birds within the family columbidae, with its former name being didines?

RAPHINAE

Which extinct bird from the island of Réunion was thought to be a white dodo or Réunion solitaire? The last definite account was in 1708.

RÉUNION IBIS / RÉUNION SACRED IBIS

The goshawks and sparrowhawks are the names most commonly given to birds that can be found in which genus, with around 50 recognised species being the most diverse within its family?

ACCIPITER

Taken from the Greek for ‘raven’, which paired bone that is part of the shoulder plays an important role in bird flight, not being present in therian mammals which have a ‘process’ as part of the shoulder instead?

CORACOID

Most members of the genus ‘Accipiter’ can be distinguished from their near relatives by the lack of a procoracoid what, which is a word for an open hole that allows structures to connect separate parts of the body together?

FORAMEN

What scientific name is given to the Northern goshawk or simply goshawk, the type species of the ‘Accipiter’ genus and the only species from that genus to be found in both Eurasia and North America? This may come from their nature or that during the Middle Ages they were only allowed to be used by nobles in falconry.

GENTILIS

From the Latin verb and referring to hawks, what does the genus name ‘Accipiter’ mean?

(TO) GRASP

The goshawk has possibly the second largest distribution of any member of the Accipitridae family behind the golden eagle, which is known by what scientific binomial name?

AQUILA CHRYSAETOS

How is the species ‘buteo lagopus’ best known, being restricted to the Arctic and thought to be the only member of the Accipitridae family that frequents both Eurasia and North America?

ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD

The species name for the Eurasian Sparrowhawk, also known as the northern sparrowhawk or just sparrowhawk, comes from which king of Megara, who was turned into one of these birds when his daughter Scylla cut off his purple lock of hair to present to her lover King Minos?

NISUS