When not breeding the male loses his elaborate tail feathers.
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On the bird's back, above the tail feathers, are the oysters.
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Peacocks vibrate their tail feathers in two distinct patterns; they twerk, essentially.
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The devices are typically attached to tail feathers, though some require invasive implantation surgery.
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On closer inspection, he noticed that the helpless birds had their flight and tail feathers removed.
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Of significance, the tail feathers were asymmetrically vaned, meaning one side was wider than the other.
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Among the highlights: — The tail feathers vibrate at their natural resonating frequency — like a guitar string.
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Most songbirds have 12 tail feathers, and for DNA-collecting purposes, you'll want to pluck two.
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Anchiornis had small bushy plumes covering its back and neck, unlike its straighter wing and tail feathers.
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A Cochin hen with fluffy tail feathers appears alongside Ms. Rossellini's drawing of a tutu-clad mannequin.
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It's a follow up to the group's earlier study on how male dancers should shake their tail feathers.
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They turn away from us, and as they flap their arms sinuously, they shake their tail feathers of tulle.
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It finally was captured when it foolishly became engrossed in trying to pull the tail feathers from a celluloid parrot.
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During mating season, the cloacas swell, the female moves her tail feathers aside, and the male rubs his cloaca against hers.
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For several minutes we stood and watched the bird as it hopped about, occasionally fanning white tail feathers in our direction.
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That includes a whole new species of insect hundred million year old intact dinosaur tail feathers, and a nearly complete baby bird.
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Although most birds make calls to advertise themselves or defend their territory, with their voices, some use their wings or tail feathers.
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This is the mechanism found in hummingbird tail feathers, and it is one of several ways that feathers can make bird calls.
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In fact, you could say that the front cover (crow's head) is figurative and the back cover (crow's tail feathers) is abstract.
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That means a peacock can shake his tail feathers at a wider range of potential resonant frequencies and still be reasonably energy efficient.
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Before this collar-poppin' kid was makin' tail feathers shake in Hollywood, he was just another serious stud growing up in St. Louis, Missouri.
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It was their version of the monal's mating dance: one group strutting and fanning its tail feathers while the other tried to appear unimpressed.
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Olivia Pierson, Nicole Williams, Sasha Gates and Natalie Halcro -- all dating or married to NFL players -- shook their tail feathers in the famous Carnival parade.
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There's a lot of riding over the same parts too, especially by the tail feathers and the hat (which happens to be the steeper parts).
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This year, it forgoes the traditional backyard barbecue of years past in favor of a head-to-head showcase that's sure to ruffle tail feathers.
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The male wire-tailed manakin has elongated tail feathers, which he swipes across the face of the female during courtship, and which may impede flight.
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It must have had to do with the weaving technique, because the end result looked more like a peacock's tail: feathers with eyes, beautiful but disturbing.
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Additionally, said Clark, he's pointing his tail feathers towards the female, so the sound is also louder—the faster he goes, the louder the sound would be.
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The restaurant specializes in whole roast birds, and diners are encouraged to experience the chicken in its entirety: from egg to table, from cockscomb to tail feathers.
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To impress a potential partner, he hovers in front her like a helicopter, flapping his wings and dangling his long tail feathers like luxurious locks of hair.
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They not only fan out those spectacular tail feathers — called a train — to tempt pea hens, but they also shake them in a behavior called train rattling.
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In March, their wings and tail feathers would be replaced, and by the end of July, all their feathers would be replaced -- just in time for breeding season.
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Such signals of fitness have been compared to peacock tail feathers, which would be too much of a burden if the peacock were not hale enough to escape predators.
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I saw frigatebirds and boobies, but I was captivated by the red-billed tropicbirds with their three-foot wingspan and two elegant tail feathers streaming behind them like kites.
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"Either the young dinosaurs needed these tail feathers for some function we don't know about, or they were growing their feathers really differently from most living birds," Poust said.
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There, for several hours a day, starting at sunrise, they fan their tail-feathers into a speckled halo and emit a peculiar warbling sound by dilating air-sacks in their feathery breasts.
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She looked like a tiny plucked blue chicken, her only remaining plumage some straggly wing and tail feathers and a frayed skull cap of the ones she couldn't reach with her beak to mutilate.
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To prevent conflict and confusion over situations like this in the future, however, it is possible that United Airlines may be next to update their policies on pets of all stripes and tail feathers.
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Live performances by Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars — grooving along in a fur coat and shades — and the Weeknd kept the energy running as the models shook their tail feathers, and 43 pairs of wings, for the cameras.
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"The head is 29 carat white gold, the body is 21 carat yellow gold, the tail feathers are 248 carat white gold, and the base is 10 carat yellow gold," statue owner Ron Shore told VICE News.
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"The head is 18 carat white gold, the body is 14 carat yellow gold, the tail feathers are 14 carat white gold, and the base is 10 carat yellow gold," statue owner Ron Shore told VICE News.
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" In fact, he said, there is typically more tropical diversity of any natural trait — "be it poison, venom or long tail feathers for attracting mates" — because "there is just more diversity in the tropics than in temperate zones, period.
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More than 50 earthly beauties — among them Kendall Jenner, Adriana Lima, Irina Shayk, Joan Smalls, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Gigi and Bella Hadid — descend on Paris to walk the runway at the Grand Palais in skimpies, tail feathers and angel wings.
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The first rays of a new day's sun reveal what is making the noise: large brown birds more than twice the size of a barnyard chicken, strutting and shaking while thrusting bulbous yellow air sacs out of their chests, and fanning a fantastic spread of pointy tail feathers.
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One can stand close enough to see a smear of iridescent green highlighting its eyes, and with its graceful black legs and lacy tail feathers, it looks for all the world like it stepped right out of one of Chagall's whimsical compositions (though, in fairness, the artist did seem to favor chickens).
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The fossil skeleton, now a new species named Mirarce eatoni, includes several vertebrae, the base of the spine that would support the tail feathers, nearly all of the bones of the left foot and some from the right, a humerus, a femur, the lowest leg bone found in birds called the tarsometatarsus, a wishbone, and other pieces.
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The skin has the lacquered crackle of Peking duck, and once the bird has been carved, it comes back with all the parts, so you can gnaw on the feet if you wish, though there's more satisfaction to be had in burrowing into the fatty heart-shaped nugget where the tail feathers were once plugged in.
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The secondary and tail feathers are lost and replaced over a similar timescale, again starting while incubation is taking place. In the case of the tail, the two outermost tail feathers are first shed followed by the two central ones, the other tail feathers being moulted the following year.Shawyer (1994) pp.
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There appears to be some debate about the number of tail feathers possessed by the Australian logrunner. For example, some references state that the logrunner only has 10 tail feathers READER'S DIGEST, S. 1986. Reader's Digest complete book of Australian birds, Sydney, Reader's Digest. whilst other references describe the bird as having 12 tail feathers.
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Birds that have fed on berries of introduced Eurasian honeysuckles while growing tail feathers will have darker orange-tipped tail-feathers."All About Birds." Cedar Waxwing, Life History. Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
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The underwing-coverts are dark grey, and the flight feathers are light grey. The uppertail-coverts have black tips. The central pair of tail feathers are the longest. The other tail feathers have black bands.
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The tail feathers were brown and had, with the exception of the two central tail feathers, white tips. Further characteristics were the white feather tufts under the axillaries and the two narrow central tail feathers which changed into fine hair-like or fibrous tips. The flanks and the undertail coverts were colored deeply yellow. The bill and the tarsus were black.
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An adult female is , including much shorter tail feathers, extending beyond the rest of the tail. Tails vary in length but are approximately . Tail-feathers of juveniles and immatures are shorter than adults. The tail feathers are often damaged towards the end of the breeding season, most likely from entering and leaving the burrow and regrow before the next mating season.
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The rump is white. Two-thirds of the two central tail feathers are silver-grey, and the terminal third is black. The other tail feathers are black. The beak is black, and the legs are greyish-black.
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Its plumage is mostly yellowish green and it has pointed tail feathers.
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The male long-tailed widowbird (Euplectes progne) has exceptionally long tail feathers roughly half a meter in length. Male tail feathers were cropped and glued and those with artificially enhanced tail lengths secured the most matings, demonstrating female preference.
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The latter do little damage, although heavy infestations cause individual tail feathers to develop asymmetrically.
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"SAFRING Bird Ringing Manual ". As a general rule, the tail feathers are moulted and replaced starting with the innermost pair. Centripetal moults of tail feathers are however seen in the Phasianidae. The centrifugal moult is modified in the tail feathers of woodpeckers and treecreepers, in that it begins with the second innermost pair of feathers and finishes with the central pair of feathers so that the bird maintains a functional climbing tail.
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The central tail feathers are green near the base but elongated into "rackets", with bare shafts and black tips tinged with blue. The outer tail feathers are green with a black band near the tip. The female is similar but lacks the red spot and the orange collar, has greener upper wing coverts and has a shorter tail. The juvenile is similar to the female but does not have bare shafts to the tail feathers.
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The adult male and female are alike; juvenile birds are more olive above and slightly yellowish below. In A. a. alticola, the outer tail-feathers have white tips and outer webs and the next three pairs of tail-feathers have small white tips. A. a.
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Females do not possess these long tail feathers, as to make laying and incubating eggs easier.
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Like all paradise kingfishers, the buff-breasted is brightly coloured with a large red bill, rich rufous-buff underparts, blue or purple cap, crown and outer tail feathers, black eye stripes running down to the nape of its neck, red feet, white lower back and rump and long white or blue-and-white tail-feathers which varies geographically. The identifying feature is the white patch on the centre of the upper back. The juvenile has a brown bill, yellowish feet, is duller and lacks long tail feathers. An adult male is in length including the tail feathers which extend beyond the rest of the tail.
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These researchers further suggested that the distribution of size and long tail feathers in Confuciusornis was similar to the modern pheasant-tailed jacana (Hydrophasianus chirurgus), a water-bird in which and the female is largest and adult individuals of both sexes have long tails, but only during the breeding season. Confuciusornis differs from the jacanas in that long tail feathers are present in specimens of all sizes, even in some of the smallest known specimens. This suggests that the long tail feathers might not have had a function in reproduction at all. Several alternative hypothesis explaining the frequent absence of long tail feathers have been proposed.
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The males in breeding plumage have black back and wings, with a rufous breast. The head is black, with a chestnut nape and a black bill. The dual-length ornamental tail feathers are black. These tail feathers can reach a length of and a width of .
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Restoration The bones of the tail have not been preserved in any known specimen, but comparison with related species suggest it was short with a small, plowshare-shaped pygostyle bone, to which the tail feathers anchored. A mass of muscles, called the rectorial bulb, probably was present to control the fanning of the trail feathers. The tail feathers were long, with symmetrical vanes. There were at least 10 tail feathers (rectrices), more than in other primitive fan-tailed birds.
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There are only ten tail-feathers, and the scutellation of the tarsus is like that of Xenicus.
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Biak monarchs measure 17 centimeters. Its heads, wings, throat, and central tail feathers are dark brown or black; its outer tail feathers, belly, breast, and rump are white. It also has a white patch on its wing. Some of the coloring may differ based on sex or age.
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The outer tail feathers are olive green and tipped in yellow with the inner webs black. The central tail feathers are olive green with a black tip. The underside is whitish buff as in the male but washed with grey from the middle of the abdomen to the vent.
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This large, heavily patterned thrush is similar in appearance to the scaly thrush, to which was considered a subspecies. It has warm olive-brown to buff upperparts and whitish underparts with heavy black scaling. It has twelve tail feathers. The scaly thrush is smaller and has fourteen tail feathers.
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Their bills are bluish white. Males are known for their distinctly long tails, which contain twelve tail feathers. Of these twelve tail feathers, between six and eight are approximately half a metre (approximately 20 inches) long. Males have wingspans of approximately 127 to 147 mm (approximately 5 to 5.8 inches).
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The tail feathers are very similar to those of the males. The bill, gape and bare eyering are pale blue on females. At the juvenile stage, the head, neck and upper-parts are buff brown, whereas the underparts appear buff white. No black tip on the narrower central tail feathers can be observed.
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Birch is a typical material for arrows. The normal length of an arrow is between , and the shaft's diameter is around . As for fletchings, crane tail feathers are favored, but tail feathers of all birds are usable. Eagle feathers make a particularly prized arrow, but eagle feathers are relatively difficult to acquire.
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The feathers were short and pointed, and arched away from the body of the tail, so that the entire array of tail feathers resembled a palm frond. The tail feathers did not overlap, and so could not have formed a lift-generating surface, so the tail was probably used mainly for display.
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This species lacks a pale contrasting rump and has no white spots on the inner webs of the tail feathers.
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In bending this way, along with the twisting of the outer tail-feathers, the length of the vibration is continuous as long as the required air speed is maintained. To make sure the feathers are able to withstand the strain of the vibrations, they are very strong in their structure. There have been differences noted between both the outer and inner tail-feathers of the snipe to help better explain the aerodynamic mechanisms that are responsible for its sound production. The outer tail-feathers for example are stronger and much more stiff compared to the inner tail-feathers and they have strong hooks which join the barbules of the rear vane in order to prevent it from breaking at high wind speeds.
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The bird itself is quite small, with long, forked tail feathers. Males have brilliant purple iridescent foreheads and throats, and females have orange on their flanks and edges of their tail feathers. Their calls are a series of harsh 'tit' or 'tit-it' notes. Males often use their tails as a percussive instrument in flight.
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Their plumage provides excellent camouflage for rocky surfaces. They are sexually dimorphic. In flight, males have small white spots on the four outer primaries and their two outer tail feathers have white tips. Females have 3 to 4 smaller white spots on their outer primaries and do not have white on their outer tail feathers.
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Logrunners as a group are characterised within their group by their distinctive tail feathers where the rachis (or central shafts) of the tail feathers protrude and are stiffened.LUCAS, A. H. S. and DUDLEY LE SOUËF, W. H. 1911. The birds of Australia, Melbourne, Melbourne : Whitcombe and Tombs. The broad tail of the bird is less than four inches (10 cm) in length and the strong protruding rachis at the ends of the tail feathers are almost void of the usual barbs, giving the feather the appearance of spines.
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The wings and tail are dark with a white wingbar and white outer tail-feathers. Females are duller than the males.
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Racquet feathers black tinged with blue. Their side tail feathers are green tipped black. Their bill has a blue-grey hue.
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The tail is long and thin, and is often held upright over the body.Hancock P, Weiersbye I. 2016. Cisticolidae. In: Hughes A (ed) Birds of Botswana, Princeton University Press: Princeton. p290. The tail is made up of a total of 10 paired tail feathers, with the outer feathers up to 5.6 cm shorter than the central tail feathers.
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Racket-tails have pronounced sexual dimorphism (sexes have different plumage). Only the male has elongated outer rectrices (tail feathers) that are about 7.5 to 9 cm long. These tail feathers have bare shafts with long terminal oval shaped flags that have pointed ends. In perching birds, the rackets are held parallel with a slight overlap of the flags.
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The white-throated bee-eater can reach a length of 19–21 cm, excluding the two very elongated central tail feathers, which can exceed an additional length of 12 cm. They weigh between 20 and 28 grams. Sexes are alike, except that the male has longer tail feathers. The call is similar to European bee-eater.
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The Foghorn Leghorn-inspired character is also now flipping Eminem the bird with his tail feathers, and the cannabis cigarettes are shown.
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An angry parrot may fan its tail feathers while a content, affectionate parrot may purr, or bend their head down to be scratched.
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Rainbow bee-eaters are brilliantly coloured birds that grow to be in length, including the elongated tail feathers, and weighing . The upper back and wings are green in colour, and the lower back and under-tail coverts are bright blue. The undersides of the wings and primary flight feathers are rufous to copper with green edges and tipped with black, and the tail is black to deep violet. The rainbow bee-eater's two central tail feathers are longer than the other tail feathers, and are longer in the male rainbow bee-eaters than in the females.
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The breast, belly, flanks, and throat are light olive-yellow streaked with brown, while the rump is light grey-brown. The flight feathers are olive-brown, edged with olive-yellow, which gives the wing a yellow panel when folded. The tail feathers are dark olive-brown edged in olive-yellow. There are ten primary flight feathers, ten secondaries and twelve tail feathers.
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The female has an olive-green back, yellowish breast and white tips to the outer tail feathers. In most of the range, males have a long green-blue tail, but A.s. nicobarica of the Nicobar Islands and the former subspecies A. vigorsii (Western crimson sunbird) of the Western Ghats of India lack the long central tail feathers. Their call is chee-cheewee.
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Peruvian Racket-tails have pronounced sexual dimorphism (sexes have different plumage). Only the male has elongated racket-shaped outer rectrices (tail feathers) that are about 7 to 7.5 cm long. These tail feathers have bare shafts with long terminal oval shaped flags that have blunted ends. In perching birds, the rackets are held parallel with a slight overlap of the flags.
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This is a medium-sized but stocky thrush 17–20 cm in length. The summer male is unmistakable, with a blue-grey head, orange underparts and outer tail feathers, dark brown wings and white back. Females and immatures are much less striking, with dark brown scaly upperparts, and paler brown scaly underparts. The outer tail feathers are reddish, like the male.
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Ornithurans all have a bony pygostyle, to which tail feathers are anchored. For more details on the evolution of birds, see Evolution of birds.
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The scientific names are derived from Ancient Greek phaethon, "sun". They have predominantly white plumage with elongated tail feathers and small feeble legs and feet.
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The rufous-vented paradise flycatcher is similar in appearance but has a darker head with a crest and males always have elongated central tail- feathers.
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The back of the head, nape and neck are buff or brown. The mantle and back are rusty brown and the wings are brown, with pale edges to the feathers. The two central tail feathers are white and the remaining tail feathers are black, with some white streaks on the outer ones. The breast, belly and flanks are rusty brown, boldly streaked and mottled with black.
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Its lateral tail feathers are white with black tips, and the central tail feathers all black. The irises are dark brown and the legs brown-grey. Its beak is shorter and broader than that of the closely related and similar Baudin's black cockatoo; the two are often difficult to distinguish in the field. The adult male has a dark grey beak and pink eye-rings.
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Protopteryx fossils show that they were roughly the same as a today's starling. The adult body length of Protopteryx was about , excluding the tail feathers. Protopteryx teeth were conical and unserrated, and some teeth had a resorption pit similar to those seen in Archaeopteryx. The body of Protopteryx was covered in three types of feathers: down feathers, flight feathers, and long, ribbon-like tail feathers.
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The feathers of the Masai ostrich lack barbs, which gives them a soft, downy appearance. Similar to other ostrich subspecies, they possess approximately 50-60 tail feathers, 16 primaries, 4 alular, and 20-23 secondary feathers. The wing and tail feathers have evolved to serve as decorative plumes for courtship display rather than flight. For males, the majority of the body is covered in black feathers.
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The female is brown with erectile short feather crest, blackish tail and primaries. This pheasant is found in the forests of Vietnam and Laos. Its appearance resembles another of Vietnam's enigmatic birds, the Vietnamese pheasant, but it is larger in size, has a longer tail, and an all dark blue crest and tail feathers. The latter species has a white crest and central tail feathers.
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Males of the subspecies from Borneo and Bangka Island, L. i. ignita (lesser Bornean crested fireback) and L. i. nobilis (greater Bornean crested fireback), have brown central tail feathers, whitish legs and are rufous below. The male Vieillot's crested fireback, L. rufa, of the Thai-Malay Peninsula and most of Sumatra has white central tail feathers, red legs and bluish black streaked white below.
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This population may be identical to the nominate of the eastern Himalayas. They have twelve tail feathers and nine primaries. The wing is long and pointed.
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Catalina macaws generally weigh 2 - 3 pounds and can reach up to 35 inches in length from the beak to the tip of the tail feathers.
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Snowcap (male) This is a tiny hummingbird, 6.5 cm long and 2.5 g in weight, with a short black bill and black legs. The adult male snowcap is unmistakable. It has the shining white cap which gives this species its English and scientific names, a deep purple body, and white outer tail feathers. The adult female is bronze-green above, dull white below, and has dull white outer tail feathers.
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The two central tail feathers are blue and the lateral feathers are dark brown and edged with indigo. The base of the outer tail feathers are white but this is not easily visible when the bird is sitting. The wing feathers are dark brown with a narrow outer fringe of blue. The juvenile is dark brown with creamy spots and a scaly appearance on the throat and breast.
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H. p. capitalis have a brown back but the males have a black head. The Sri Lankan population leggei lacks sexual dimorphism in plumage. H. p. intermedius has only the females with a brownish back. The tail is black but the outer tail feathers are white while the non-central tail feathers are tipped with white. The call is a rapid and high ' or a ' and sometimes a sharp chip.
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Body length is . Both sexes have iridescent green backs, iridescent dark blue central tail feathers, and outer tail feathers that are predominantly white terminally with a band of black at the base (sometimes partially barred black and white in females). The bill is dull gray with a slightly darker band at the tip. The adult male has a blackish head, iridescent green breast, and geranium red belly and undertail coverts.
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These birds are very small waders, at length. They are similar in size to the little stint (Calidris minuta) but shorter legged and longer winged. The legs are yellow and the outer tail feathers white, in contrast to little stint's dark legs and grey outer tail feathers. This is a rather drab wader, with mainly plain brown upperparts and head, and underparts white apart from a darker breast.
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The crimson seedcracker grows to a length of about . It is a plump bird with a domed head and a broad, sharply-pointed bill. The plumage on the upper parts is dark brown or brownish-black while the head, sides of neck, face, chin, throat, breast and flanks are glossy crimson-red. The outer tail feathers are brown, and the rump and the central pair of tail feathers are crimson.
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The beak is black. The underside is whitish buff. The central tail feathers are about twice as long as the outermost. The sexes are indistinguishable in the field.
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The mesoptile (down feathers) of juveniles is whitish. Their facial disk is dark, and the ear tufts are short. The flight and tail feathers are similar to adults.
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The juvenile is similar to the adult but less vivid, and lacks the attenuated tail feathers. The voice is a harsh guttural shriek, uttered as it swoops down.
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Most Lohmann Browns have a caramel/brown shade of feathers, with white feathers in a pattern round their necks, and white feathers at the tips of their tail feathers.
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Rather, the feathers were very broad and rounded. There were eight tail feathers, up to long, anchored to a pygostyle and rectrical bulb (see below) as in modern birds.
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During the first week out of the nest, juveniles will huddle together during the daylight hours so that their tail feathers can grown and their wings can become stronger.
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Baudin's black cockatoo is about 56 cm (22 in) long. It is mostly dark-grey with narrow vague light-grey scalloping, which is produced by narrow pale-grey margins at the tip of dark-grey feathers. It has a crest of short feathers on its head, and it has whitish patches of feathers that cover its ears. Its lateral tail feathers are white with black tips, and the central tail feathers are all black.
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In adult males, the outer tail feathers are deep magenta to wine purple tipped with black. In females and juvenile males, the outer tail feathers are broadly banded in magenta and iridescent dark blue, with narrow white tips on the outer 3–4 feathers. Rancho Naturalista - Costa Rica (flash photo) The adult male has glossy bright green upperparts. His throat and chest have a relatively narrow matte black central area, bordered with blue-green.
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Male Stephanie's astrapia specimen at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Female Stephanie's astrapia specimen. Stephanie's astrapia is a most distinctive bird-of-paradise, and extremely unmistakable to recognize. The males of this species reach around 84 cm (33 inches) in length, and a considerable portion of its length comes from the long, 47 cm (18 inches), glossy, black central tail feathers, which almost compete with the exaggerated, white tail feathers of the male Ribbon-tailed astrapias.
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Juveniles do not have racket-shaped tail feathers. The male juvenile has a little blue on the nape and the female juvenile has all-green upper-parts.Forshaw (2006). plate 34.
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The bar-tailed cuckoo-dove measures in length. It has a short, completely black bill. The six central tail feathers are black barred. The central breast feathers are not bifurcated.
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The person performing this procedure typically uses one hand to move and direct the tail feathers, while using the other hand to insert the instrument and semen into the vagina.
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White wing patches are prominent in flight. The dark tail has white bars on the central tail feathers. They range from in length. This woodpecker's voice is a rolling churr sound.
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The uppertail-coverts are similar in colour, and contrast with the pinkish-rufous tail-feathers. The bill is bright red, the iris is medium brown, and the legs are pinkish-red.
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Other non-vocal sounds include soft drumming by territorial males (a sound produced by the beating wings) and a tail-swish and a whoosh produced by the tail feathers in flight.
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The mountain finches also seem to be part of this clade. Bullfinches have glossy black wings and tail feathers. They show a white rump. The legs and feet are fleshy brown.
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The subspecies albidior is larger and has large white spots on the inner webs of the tail feathers. The upper breast is a paler grey with white margins to the feathers.
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The back, lower breast and upper belly are blue-grey, and the flight feathers and long pointed tail are black. The outer tail feathers are spotted with white. The female is 21 cm long and generally duller than the male, with a darker grey forehead, olive body plumage and a shorter, duller black tail. Immatures are similar to the adults, but the central tail feathers are shorter and the white spotting on the outer tail is indistinct.
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They have 12 tail feathers that are graduated. The central tail-feathers are chestnut with a black tip, with the second and third pairs from the middle having more black than chestnut. The outer three pairs have long white tips. The female lacks the contrasting black and crimson and has only a slightly darker head and breast that shades into the olive brown on the back while the crimson of the underside of the male is replaced by ochre.
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The adult male is black with an iridescent greenish blue crown, throat, and central tail feathers, as well as iridescent green on the lower breast and flank. The central tail feathers are shortened, giving an appearance of blue over black along the tail. It has been suggested that some of the male's feathers are super black feathers. These feathers have been modified so that their barbules structurally absorb light, unlike normal black feathers, which emphasizes a darker appearance.
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They are brown with streaks above and white below. They have thin pointed down-curved bills, which they use to extricate insects from bark. They have stiff, pointed tail feathers, like woodpeckers and woodcreepers, which they use to support themselves on vertical trees. All the tail feathers but the two central ones are molted in quick succession; the two central ones are not molted till the others grow back, so the bird can always prop itself with its tail.
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Most birds' tails end in long feathers called rectrices. These feathers are used as a rudder, helping the bird steer and maneuver in flight; they also help the bird to balance while it is perched. In some species--such as birds of paradise, lyrebirds, and most notably peafowl--modified tail feathers play an important role in courtship displays. The extra-stiff tail feathers of other species, including woodpeckers and woodcreepers, allow them to brace themselves firmly against tree trunks.
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The authors noted that longipterygid enantiornithines like Shanweiniao had very robust pygostyles even by enantiornithine standards, while birds preserving clear evidence for aerodynamic rectricial arrangements (Sapeornis, Chiappeavis, members of Ornithuromorpha) had relatively more delicate pygostyles. O'Connor et al. (2016) also reported presence of narrow spaces visible between some of the tail feathers of the holotype specimen of Shanweiniao cooperorum. The authors considered it more likely that Shanweiniao had rachis-dominated tail feathers similar to feathers present in Paraprotopteryx.
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Comparison of the tail feathers to another similar discovery, both possessing a long fan shaped tail improving flight, suggests these to be the oldest form of bird with this type of tail.
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During summer and spring short trips were common. The Ranges were a source of lyrebird tail feathers, which were used for ornamentation and for trade.Bradshaw, John (1999). The Early Settlement of South Gippsland.
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It is about 25 cm long. It is gray-brown above while the underparts are white with arrow-shaped black spots and its eyes are yellow. The outer tail-feathers have white tips.
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They instead found the tail feathers similar to those of arboreal birds such as the paradise-flycatchers. In 2017, Nikita V. Zelenkov criticised the idea that Parapengornis was especially adapted for climbing trees.
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Tail is full and carried high, pointing upwards and held close to the body of the bird with no space between the body and tail. The sickle feathers are relatively straight and spear like. A minimum of one inch longer than the other tail feathers, but ideally no more than a couple of inches above the head is desirable. The remaining tail feathers should ideally be no higher than the top of the comb when the bird is standing to attention.
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Near Watamu, Kenya This species, like other bee-eaters, is a richly colored, slender bird, predominantly carmine in color, except for a greenish blue head and throat and distinctive black mask. This species has red eyes, a black, pointed, decurved beak, and elongated central tail feathers. The sexes are similar in appearance, and the juveniles can be distinguished from adults by their lack of elongated central tail feathers and the pinkish brown coloration of their mantle, chest to belly, and flanks.
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Adult breeding males are almost entirely black with orange and white shoulders (epaulets), long, wide tails, and a bluish white bill. Females are rather inconspicuous, their feathers streaked tawny and black with pale patches on the chest, breast and back, narrow tail feathers, and horn-colored bills. When flying, male long-tailed widowbirds are readily visible due to their extremely long tails. Between six and eight of their twelve tail feathers are approximately half a metre (approximately 20 inches) long.
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This interpretation is consistent with an avian-style mode of growth, as it was suggested by the earlier histological studies. It is also consistent with comparisons to modern birds, in which long tail feathers are typically unrelated to the sexes. The absence of long tail feathers in many specimens was suggested to be the result of stress-induced shedding prior to death. Chiappe and colleagues defended their findings in a 2010 comment, arguing that the assumed short, avian-like growth period is unlikely.
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Wings and tail feathers are slow to grow initially but more rapid as the primary feathers appear. Nestlings quickly reach about 80–90% of adult weight about two-thirds of the time through this period, plateauing before they leave the hollow; they fledge at this weight with wing and tail feathers still to grow a little before reaching adult dimensions.. Growth rate of the young, as well as numbers fledged, are adversely impacted by reduced food supply and poor weather conditions..
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Male with long tail feathers The ribbon-tailed astrapia is medium-sized, up to 32 cm long (without including the tail of the male, which can be over 1 metre). Male ribbon-tailed astrapia are generally around 125 cm whereas females are around 35 cm. The body of males are velvet black. The male has an iridescent olive green and bronze plumage, and is adorned with ornamental "ball" plume above its bill and two extremely long, ribbon-like white tail feathers.
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Cast of a slab with long and short tailed specimens of C. sanctus Many specimens of Confuciusornis preserve a single pair of long, streamer-like tail feathers, similar to those present in some modern birds-of-paradise. Specimens lacking these feathers include ones that otherwise have exquisitely preserved feathers on the rest of the body, indicating that their absence is not simply due to poor preservation. Larry Martin and colleagues stated in 1998 that long tail feathers are present in about 5 to 10% of the specimens known at the time. A 2011 analysis by Jesús Marugán-Lobón and colleagues found that out of 130 specimens, 18% had long tail feathers and 28% had not, while in the remaining 54% preservation was insufficient to determine their presence or absence.
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Restoration of a long-tailed individual in flight Controversy arose from the observation that the known specimens of Confuciusornis can be divided into a small-sized and a large-sized group, but that this bimodal distribution is unrelated to the possession of long tail feathers. Chiappe and colleagues argued in 2008 that this size distribution can be explained by a dinosaur-like mode of growth (see section Growth), and maintained that sexual dimorphism is the most likely explanation for the presence and absence of long tail feathers. Winfried and Dieter Peters, however, responded in 2009 that both sexes likely had long tail feathers, as is the case in most modern birds that show similar feathers. One of the sexes, however, would have been larger than the other (sexual size dimorphism).
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In an invited reply in 2010, Peters and Peters stated that Chiappe and colleagues did not comment on their main argument, the gap in body size between the smaller size class and inferred hatchlings, which accounts for one order of magnitude and would be most consistent with a sexual size dimorphism. Marugán-Lobón and colleagues studied the relationships between the presence and absence of long tail feathers and the lengths of various long bones of the arms and limbs, using a once more enlarged sample of 130 specimens. While confirming that the tail feathers are unrelated to body size, their presence corresponds to different proportions of the forelimb compared to the hind limb. The authors concluded that the meaning of the observed distributions of both the tail feathers and the body size remains contentious.
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The head, neck and breast are black. The eyes are yellow, and the bill and feet are red. The rest of the plumage is mostly blue. The wings and tail feathers have white tips.
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This is evidenced by genetic "advertisement"—an example of this would be the existence of exaggerated traits, such as the elaborate tail-feathers of male peacocks. However, in humans, both sexes exert mate choice.
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The tail feathers are black and have broad yellow tips. The juvenile has olive upperparts. The head is olive, and the throat is streaked with yellow. It has a dusky beak, and black streaked breast.
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It is a smaller version of the White-browed robin-chat, measuring 18 cm rather than 20 cm, with darker, blackish central tail feathers, and in some races a more constricted supercilium behind the eye.
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There is sometimes a tuft of small feathers on the , the rear facing toe. This species lacks the white spots on the inner webs of the tail feathers that are present in some Collocalia species.
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There is occasionally a tuft of small feathers on the , the rear facing toe. This species lacks the white spots on the inner webs of the tail feathers that are present in some Collocalia species.
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The scaled piculet grows to a length of . The plumage is mottled, the scaled effect coming about because the feathers have pale-coloured bands and darker tips. The crown and nape are black, the male having some red speckling at the front of the crown; the female lacks this red colouration, but otherwise, the sexes are similar. The mantle and back are olive or tan and are scaled, the flight feathers and tail feathers are brown, the two central tail feathers having white tips.
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The Lutino sex-linked recessive mutation is a perfect example of a type of cockatiel that are the hardest to sex visually. Lutinos lack eumelanin pigment (enabling black, brown, grey colours and tones) and are consequently yellow to yellowish-white with orange cheek-patches. Adult female Lutinos as well as immature Lutinos of both genders display yellow bars, dots and/or stripes on the underside of their tail feathers. Mature males, however, can be sexed visually by their always displaying solid white coloured undersides of tail feathers.
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They are completely covered by greenish down after twenty days, and after thirty days the wing and tail feathers emerge. After forty days, all contour, wing, and tail feathers are well developed, but down is still retained on the lower parts and flanks. When nestlings are developed enough, they can threaten nest intruders with loud growls and bites but will retreat into nooks and stay still if the intruder persists. After fifty days, the chicks are rather active, flapping their wings and venturing near the entrance hole.
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Juvenile This fantail is mid- to-dark grey or grey-brown above, lighter (often yellowish/orange) below, with a white throat, white markings over the eye, and (depending on the race) either white-edged or entirely white outer tail feathers. It grows to in length, of which half is the tail, which, as the name implies, is often displayed fanned out. This reveals that the outer tail feathers are light and the centre ones are dark. Some races, such as keasti, have a darker plumage.
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Rowley & Russell (1997), p. 176 Both sexes have long, slender, distinct tails held at an upward angle from their bodies. Measuring around , the tail feathers have a white fringe, which disappears with wear.Rowley & Russell (1997), p.
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The Main tail feathers should be broad and should over lap neatly. The tail should be open and when viewed from behind should be open to an angle of 45 degrees creating an open ‘V’ shape.
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The rump is rufous-orange. The central tail feathers are black, and the outer feathers are orange-rufous. The flight feathers and wing coverts are blackish brown, with olive-brown edges. The underwing coverts are grey.
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The shoulders are yellow-brown with dark middle strands. The underside is light beige-brown banded. The lower wings are beige without white wing bands. The two extreme tail feathers have narrow light beige-white tips.
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Adult southern cassowaries are tall, although some females may reach ,buzzle.com and weigh . All cassowaries have feathers that consist of a shaft and loose barbules. They do not have rectrices (tail feathers) or a preen gland.
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Later, during the Yuan dynasty the two terms were merged to become fenghuang, but the "King of Birds" came to symbolize the empress when paired with a dragon representing the emperor. From the Jiajing era (1522–66) of the Ming dynasty onwards, a pair of phoenixes was differentiated by the tail feathers of the two birds, typically together forming a closed circle pattern—the male identified by five long serrated tail feathers or "filaments" (five being an odd, masculine, or yang number) and the female by what sometimes appears to be one but is in fact usually two curling or tendrilled tail feathers (two being an even, feminine, or yin number). Also during this period, the fenghuang was used as a symbol representing the direction south. This was portrayed through a male and female facing each other.
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Naumann, Johann Friedrich. 1820-1847. Naturgeschichte der Vögel Deutschlands. E. Fleischer, Leipzig. A few years later after reading Naumann's proposal, the scientist Friedrich Wilhelm Meves conducted studies that looked in-depth at the tail-feathers of snipe.
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An adult Slaty bunting measures 13 centimeters in length and weighs 20 grams. The plumages are brown and highly distinctive with unusual tail feathers which are broad towards the tip. Its bill is comparatively small and neat.
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This species is similar to lance-tailed manakin, Chiroxiphia lanceolata, which breeds further north from northern Venezuela to Costa Rica, but the latter has elongated central tail feathers, and the male has a somewhat brighter blue back.
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The bird's song is high-pitched and monotonous. The long-billed pipit is very similar but has a slightly longer bill and tail, a smaller pale area in the outer tail-feathers and a slightly lower voice.
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The base of the tail also has a red patch, which is usually hidden. The outer tail feathers have yellowish tips. 8 weeks old. The bill is horn-colored (gray), darker in immatures of the Belizean subspecies.
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Newton's Fiscal Lanius newtoni, BirdLife International, Access date 19 October 2018 The São Tomé fiscal has a pale yellow chin, breast, belly, flanks vent and under tail. Its graduated tail has all black central tail feathers and an increasing amount of white on outer web from inner to outer tail feathers. The Lanius newtoni has a clear voice with a whistle tiuh tiuh often repeated and metallic tsink tsink audible over a long distance. The species lives on the island of São Tomé and is usually found under closed canopy.
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By comparison to humans, this is a g-force acceleration well beyond the threshold of causing near loss of consciousness in fighter pilots (occurring at about +5 Gz) during flight of fixed-wing aircraft in a high-speed banked turn. The outer tail feathers of male Anna's (Calypte anna) and Selasphorus hummingbirds (e.g., Allen's, calliope) vibrate during courtship display dives and produce an audible chirp caused by aeroelastic flutter. Hummingbirds cannot make the courtship dive sound when missing their outer tail feathers, and those same feathers could produce the dive-sound in a wind tunnel.
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Borneo Rainforest Lodge - Danum Valley - Sabah, Borneo - Malaysia It has mostly blackish plumage, except that the belly and legs are white and the tail is white with a black band near the tip of each feather. The tail is long and the two central tail feathers are much longer than the others, giving the bird a total length greater than that of any other hornbill species. The body length is , not counting the tail feathers, which boost the length a further . One male weighed in weight while two females averaged about .
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Bycanistes subcylindricus is a moderately large bird of 60 to 70 cm with a wingspan of 28 to 38 cm. It is recognizable by its black plummage for the higher body and wings alongside and white plummage on the lower body and wings with black feathers amongst the white feathers of the tail, particularly the top tail feathers and the base of the tail feathers. It has a yellow-brownish bill and flattened casque, which are enlarged in males. Females have a smaller casque and a black bill.
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Fossil skeleton of Rapaxavis pani (a longipterygid) with a preserved pygostyle Clarke et al. (2006) surveyed all enantiornithean fossils then known and concluded that none had preserved tail feathers that formed a lift-generating fan, as in modern birds. They found that all avialans outside of Euornithes (the clade they called Ornithurae) with preserved tail feathers had only short coverts or elongated paired tail plumes. They suggested that the development of the pygostyle in enantiornitheans must have been a function of tail shortening, not the development of a modern tail feather anatomy.
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The African paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone viridis) is a medium-sized passerine bird. The two central tail feathers of the male are extended into streamers that commonly are more than twice as long as the body. The female tail feathers are of moderate length and without streamers. The upper parts of the male body, wings, and tail are boldly coloured in chestnut or rusty shades, but the underparts and the head are variably grey to blue-gray, with the head of the mature male being darker, commonly glossy black with greenish highlights.
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There are dull white spots on the inner webs of the tail feathers. Most birds have a tuft of feathers on the hallux, the rear facing toe. Subspecies perneglecta is darker and has more gloss on the feathers.
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It has black tail feathers and wingtips, and a patch of black at the top of its head. The primary feathers range from dark grey to brown. The part of its face not covered by feathers has red skin.
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These scientists suggested that a fan of tail feathers and the associated musculature needed to control them, known as the rectrical bulb, evolved alongside a short, triangular pygostyle, like the ones in modern birds, rather than the long, rod- or dagger-shaped pygostyles in more primitive avialans like enantiornitheans. Instead of a feather fan, most enantiornitheans had a pair of long specialized pinfeathers similar to those of the extinct Confuciusornis and certain birds-of-paradise. However, further discoveries showed that at least among primitive enantiornitheans, tail anatomy was more complex than previously thought. One enantiornithean, Shanweiniao, was initially interpreted as having at least four long tail feathers that overlapped each other and might have formed a lift-generating surface similar to the tail fans of euornitheans, though a later study indicates that Shanweiniao was more likely to have rachis-dominated tail feathers similar to feathers present in Paraprotopteryx.
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The breeding male is long, and the nonbreeding male and the female are long. Females have been measured to weigh approximately . The breeding male has long tail feathers with rounded tips. It has a chestnut-orange patch on its nape.
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Melampitta gigantea: Possible Relation between Feather Structure and Underground Roosting Habits. -The Condor, 85: 89–91. Birds such as creepers, woodpeckers, swifts and penguins are also known to use their modified tail feathers as braces and supports.GILL, F. B. 2007.
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They have greyish-white necks and bellies and their wings, like all red billed hornbills, have large and small spots of white surrounded by black feathers. Their tail feathers are long and black on the exterior and white on the interior.
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They have large wings but no tail feathers. They have no clavicles. Cassowaries are in height and weigh . They have rudimentary wings with black feathers and six stiff, porcupine-like, quills in the place of their primary and secondary feathers.
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They have a loud call but are not as gregarious or active as the smaller bee-eaters, and their square ended tail lacks the typical "wires" made up of the shafts of the longer central tail feathers in many species.
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The distinctive greyer endemic race in Sri Lanka, P. h. pectoralis, retains the summer-type plumage all year round. Young birds have a pale lower mandible. The tail feathers are shorter in summer than in the non-breeding winter plumage.
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The narrow-billed antwren exhibits sexual dimorphism. The male is dark grey, with a black breast. It has 2 white wing bars and white tips on the outer tail feathers. The female, however, is olive breasted and with brown wings.
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Outside the breeding season (September–January), the crown is dark olive-brown, with a yellowish olive- green border. The upper parts are yellowish to olive-green. The rump yellowish to olive-golden yellow. The longest tail feathers are dark gray.
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Pygmy parrots are the smallest parrots and range is size from about . They have long toes and long, curved claws. The shafts of their tail feathers are stiff and form projections at the end of the tail. The cere is prominent.
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Besides, Caihong was especially distinguished from closely related genera of the Yanliao Biota, such as Eosinopteryx and Anchiornis, by the presence of prominent lacrimal crests, longer pennaceous feathers on the forelimbs and hindlimbs and tail feathers with large asymmetrical vanes.
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The iris is pale brown. The tail is a pale brown at the base and dark violet-brown towards the tip. The tail feathers have conspicuous black shafts. The juvenile shows slight barring on the body, especially on the underside.
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J. Linn. Soc. 87: 611–624. PDF fulltext Another way to tell the two species apart is the lack of spots on its white tail feathers (present in the downy). Their outward similarity is a spectacular example of convergent evolution.
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Their tail feathers are black on the exterior and white on the interior and their legs are short and grey with small semi-sharp claws at the end. Their bellies are usually greyish white but can also be pure white.
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The black flight and tail feathers and white rump make this species unmistakable in flight. This species has a range of wheezing or grating calls comparable to those of the common starling, but the most familiar is a wheezing ssreeeeo.
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Albert's lyrebird (Menura alberti) is a timid, pheasant-sized songbird which is endemic to subtropical rainforests of Australia, in a small area on the state border between New South Wales and Queensland. The rarer of the two species of lyrebirds, Albert's lyrebird is named after Prince Albert, the prince consort of Queen Victoria, queen of the United Kingdom. It lacks the elegant lyre-shaped tail feathers of the superb lyrebird and is found in a much more restricted range. In the past, Albert's lyrebirds were shot to be eaten in pies, to supply tail-feathers to "globe-trotting curio-hunters" or by vandals.
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The ancient Egyptian Shuti, a two-feather adornment for crowns, is part of a series of hieroglyphs for "crowns"; usage as a hieroglyph is not as common as the actual crown represented in Egyptian art, and artworks. One popular use of the Shuti, two-feather crown is by the deity Amun, one of his many crowns he is portrayed wearing. The tail feathers in this crown are generally straight, and are assumed to be the tail feathers of a falcon. They can be compared to the ostrich features in the Atef crown of Osiris, or the single ostrich feather that symbolizes Maat.
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Photographs and measurements of wing and tail feathers were taken from each individual, as well as small feather samples for genetic analysis. Growth bars visible on the tail feathers can help scientists determine the age of the bird, and comparison of photographs and measurements with results of lab analyses will aid in finding a way to sex Nihoa millerbirds in the field. Development of these methods will ensure that the right numbers of male and female birds are moved to Laysan. Several Nihoa millerbirds were placed in a temporary enclosure and presented with a selection of island insects.
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Pigeon skeleton with "plowshare"-type pygostyle (number 17) Confuciusornis sanctus with "rod"-type pygostyle and the two central tail feathers Pygostyle describes a skeletal condition in which the final few caudal vertebrae are fused into a single ossification, supporting the tail feathers and musculature. In modern birds, the rectrices attach to these. The pygostyle is the main component of the uropygium, a structure colloquially known as the bishop's nose, parson's nose, pope's nose, or sultan's nose. This is the fleshy protuberance visible at the posterior end of a bird (most commonly a chicken or turkey) that has been dressed for cooking.
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The grey crow (Corvus tristis), formerly known as the bare-faced crow, is about the same size (42–45 cm in length) as the Eurasian carrion crow (Corvus corone) but has somewhat different proportions and quite atypical feather pigmentation during the juvenile phase for a member of this genus. The tail feathers are relatively long and graduated and the legs are relatively short. The overall colouring of the adult bird is black with randomly bleached wing and tail feathers. A large region around the eye is quite bare of feathering and shows pinkish-white skin with the eyes a bluish-white.
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The feathers of the white cockatoo are mostly white. However, both upper and lower surfaces of the inner half of the trailing edge of the large wing feathers are a yellow color. The yellow color on the underside of the wings is most notable because the yellow portion of the upper surface of the feather is covered by the white of the feather immediately medial (nearer to the body) and above. Similarly, areas of larger tail feathers that are covered by other tail feathers – and the innermost covered areas of the larger crest feathers – are yellow.
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The rufous-bellied kookaburra (Dacelo gaudichaud), originally known as Gaudichaud's kookaburra after the French botanist Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré, is a species of kookaburra which is widely distributed through the forests of lowland New Guinea. It has a black cap, blue-tinged wings, and a pale rufous belly and tail feathers, but its white bill distinguishes it very clearly from other kookaburras with their black bills. Juveniles, however, have a dark grey bill. Like the blue-winged kookaburra, the sexes can be distinguished by the colour of the tail feathers: blue in males and rufous in females and immature birds.
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Snipe in the genera Gallinago and Lymnocryptes, as well as the closely related woodcocks Scolopax, make courtship display flights, at dusk and on moonlit nights, producing mechanical sounds called "drumming", "bleating" or "winnowing", through the vibration of their modified outer tail feathers caused by the rush of air in the course of a power dive. Of his research in the Chatham Islands Miskelly wrote: and: Examination of museum skins from bird collections showed such characteristic wear of the tail feathers on male snipe from the Chatham Islands (C. pusilla), islands off Stewart Island (C. iredalei), the Auckland Islands (C.
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The brilliant iridescent colours of the peacock's tail feathers are created by structural coloration, as first noted by Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke. In living creatures, structural coloration is the production of colour by microscopically structured surfaces fine enough to interfere with visible light, sometimes in combination with pigments. For example, peacock tail feathers are pigmented brown, but their microscopic structure makes them also reflect blue, turquoise, and green light, and they are often iridescent. Structural coloration was first observed by English scientists Robert Hooke and Isaac Newton, and its principle – wave interference – explained by Thomas Young a century later.
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The male long-tailed sylph carries characteristic elongated tail feathers. These feathers are so ridiculously long that they hinder his flight: it is difficult for him to carry such finery every day when he relies on his flying skills to survive . Female sylphs, whose tails are of a more modest size, pick out and mate with the males with the longest tail feathers. They therefore ensure that they are mating with a male who is so fit and healthy that he can live well enough to come into breeding condition even when carrying a heavy load.
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There are many ornamental breeds of pigeons, including the "Duchess" breed, which has as a prominent characteristic feet that are completely covered by a sort of fan of feathers. The fantail pigeons are also very ornamental with their fan-shaped tail feathers.
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The outer tail-feathers are white. The bird is long. The male and female have different calls and duet with the female responding to the male's call. It feeds mainly on insects and other small invertebrates but also eats some seeds and berries.
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She has more white below than other female hummingbirds. Juvenile snowcaps resemble the adult female, but are duller, have greyer underparts, and bronzed central tail feathers. The purple plumage of young males starts on the underparts as a striking dark central line.
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Patterning of the male It is 18.5–20 cm long. The male is grey above and whitish below. It has a black cap with a white forehead and there is a white band across the flight-feathers. The outer tail feathers are white.
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Also, the sound is made during dive displays. A second, rather faint, repeated whining sound is sometimes produced with the outer tail-feathers during the dive, as the male flies over the female, spreading and shutting the tail as he does so.
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Shen's fighting style shares similar qualities with "Cai Li Fo", a Chinese martial art that uses a metal fan for defensive and distraction purposes. These qualities are represented in the movie by Shen's use of his tail feathers and his agile, circular movements.
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The female lays two brown-spotted pale blue eggs. The volcano junco is on average 16 cm long and weighs 28 g. The adult has brown upperparts with dark streaking especially on the back. The wings and tail feathers are dark fringed.
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Indian peacock's true tail and elongated uppertail covert feathers The uppertail and undertail coverts cover the base of the tail feathers above and below. Sometimes these coverts are more specialised. The "tail" of a peacock is made of very elongated uppertail coverts.
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Its plumage is mostly iridescent green. The throat is blue and the outer tail-feathers are violet, becoming blue towards the tips. The female is long. The tail is shorter than that of the male but still fairly long and slightly forked.
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The upper breast is olive in color. It has green tail feathers with red undertail coverts. The beak is a light blue/grey tipped with white. Females have a blue wash on the forehead and an orange wash on the nape and hindneck.
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This is the smallest North American nightjar, about in length, with a wingspan of approximately . It weighs . The sexes are similar, both gray and black patterned above. The outer tail-feathers are tipped with white, the markings slightly more prominent in the male.
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Ornithology, New York, W.H. Freeman. The logrunner is not unique in having atypical tail feather structures. Other birds, such as the Greater Melampitta (Melampitta gigantea), also have spiny and stiffened tail feathers, but not to the same extent as the logrunner.DIAMOND, J. M. 1983.
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They measure 15 cm and weigh 16 to 19 g. The plumage of the forehead, throat and upper breast is coloured deep rufous-chestnut. The crown and upperparts are a shiny steel-blue. Flight and tail feathers are black, the latter with large white windows.
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The lack of white in the tail is a distinction from similar Hirundo species. The outer feathers are slightly longer in the male than the female. Juveniles are duller and browner than the adult, with shorter outer tail feathers. The northern subspecies, H. d.
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The back, mantle, wings and tail are slatey-brown, with the rump and base of the outer tail feathers rufous. There are two white streaks on the wings. The throat is streaked in grey and white, the breast is grey and the belly rufous.
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There is a white wing stripe. The trail is black with white outer tail feathers. The underparts are white except for a black band across the breast and the greyish undertail coverts. The eyes are bright yellow while the bill and legs are black.
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It is 15 to 18 cm in length with the long, pointed tail feathers accounting for much of this. The bill is short and pointed and the wings are short and rounded. The plumage varies among the four subspecies. The nominate subspecies L. a.
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The underparts are pinkish with black bars on the sides of the neck, breast and belly. The face is blue-grey with bare blue skin around the eyes. There are white tips to the tail feathers. Juveniles are duller and paler than the adults.
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The three outer tail feathers are white and the fourth pair has the outer web white. The wings are darker brown. The iris is yellow and the upper mandible is dark brown while the lower mandible is yellowish. The tail is faintly cross barred.
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This species, like other bee-eaters, is a richly coloured, slender bird. It has brown and yellow upper parts, whilst the wings are green and the beak is black. It can reach a length of , including the two elongated central tail feathers. Sexes are alike.
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In flight the male shows a small white spottowards the wingtip and white tips to the two outer tail feathers. The female is paler and lack white spots on the wings or outer tail. They measure 29–31 cm in length and weigh 89–112g.
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Male E. c. caliginosa upright The yellowhammer is a large bunting, long, with a wingspan; it weighs . The male of the nominate subspecies E. c. citrinella has a bright yellow head, heavily streaked brown back, rufous rump, yellow under parts, and white outer tail feathers.
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In breeding adults of all morphs, the two central tail feathers are much longer than the others, spoon- shaped, and twisted from the horizontal. Juveniles are even more problematic to identify, and are difficult to separate from parasitic jaegers at a distance on plumage alone.
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Its shoulder is green, but the rest of the wing is blackish. The outer tail feathers are white with blackish tips and edges. Although members of the genus Urochroa share the name hillstar with members of the genus Oreotrochilus, they are not closely related.
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The female is less appealing, being dark brown over most of its body and a blackish head, and sporting much shorter tail feathers. The female is also exceptionally shorter than the male. Levaillant of France described this bird as L’Incomparable or Incomparable bird-of-paradise.
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Sunbirds and spiderhunters make up the family Nectariniidae of passerine birds. They are small, slender passerines from the Old World, usually with downward-curved bills. Many are brightly coloured, often with iridescent feathers, particularly in the males. Many species also have especially long tail feathers.
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Male on La Digue Nesting female The Seychelles paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone corvina) is a rare bird from the genus of paradise flycatchers (Terpsiphone) within the family Monarchidae. It is a forest-dwelling bird endemic to the Seychelles where it is native to the island of La Digue. Males have glossy black plumage with elongated tail feathers, while females are reddish-brown with pale underparts and no long tail feathers. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists this bird as being "critically endangered" and attempts have been made to increase its numbers by relocating some individuals to Denis Island, another island in the Seychelles archipelago.
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Painting by J. G. Keulemans of a female, a male, and a white female The huia had black plumage with a green metallic tinge and distinctive rounded bright orange wattles at the gape. In both sexes, the eyes were brown; the beak was ivory white, greyish at the base; the legs and feet were long and bluish grey while the claws were light brown. Huia had twelveBest 2005 long glossy black tail feathers, each tipped for with a broad band of white.Barrie and Robertson 2005 Immature huia had small pale wattles, duller plumage flecked with brown, and a reddish-buff tinge to the white tips of the tail feathers.
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A deep shade of crimson is apparent on the rump and tail coverts. A thin black band extends across the frons, broadening at the lores and circling the eyes to give a masked appearance, contrasting the distinctive patch of crimson at the ear coverts and scarlet of the bill; this mask is comparatively larger in males when closely observed. The colour of the tail feathers is a dusky shade of brown with fine black barring and the central tail feathers become crimson toward the coverts. Descriptions of the iris are as red or dark brown, the eye-ring as pale blue, and the legs as dark- or pink-brown.
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It is buffy-brown above with darker streaks. The underparts are white or pale buff with a streaked breast and plain belly and flanks. The face is boldly patterned with a pale stripe over the eye and a dark malar stripe. The outer tail-feathers are white.
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Some individuals have more extensive black plumage of their tail feathers. There is a sharp demarcation between light and dark plumage. Black primary feathers are more resilient to wear, which may explain the dark plumage of the wings. The head and hindneck are tinged buff- yellow.
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The male has an iridescent yellow-green breast shield, elongated black plumes, three erectile spatule head wires behind each eye, coppery-bronzed nasal tuft feathers and long, wedge-shaped tail feathers. The female is a rich brown bird with blackish head. It is approximately 43 cm long.
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The eyes are dark brown. Kakapo feet are large, scaly, and, as in all parrots, zygodactyl (two toes face forward and two backward). The pronounced claws are particularly useful for climbing. The ends of the tail feathers often become worn from being continually dragged on the ground.
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The chicks leave the nest about 84 days after hatching. and are independent in 15–18 weeks. Juveniles reach sexual maturity in 3–4 years. As part of the courtship behavior, the male ruffles his feathers, spreads his tail feathers, extends his wings, and erects his crest.
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Hornbills in the genus Tockus are small sized African birds with triangular shaped curved bills. They can be found in tropical and sub-tropical African grasslands, forests and savannahs. They all have long tail feathers which are black on the exterior and white on the interior.
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D. h. albogularis with whitish throat from western peninsular India D. h. phillipsi of Sri Lanka The tawny-bellied babbler is a small babbler at 13 cm including its long round-tipped tail. The outer tail feathers are about half the length of the central tail feather.
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The quetzal (; code: GTQ) is the currency of Guatemala, named after the national bird of Guatemala, the resplendent quetzal. In ancient Mayan culture, the quetzal bird's tail feathers were used as currency. It is divided into 100 centavos, or lenes in Guatemalan slang. The plural is quetzales.
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The two central tail feathers are black with a white tip and base. The other pairs have increasing areas of white and less black. The primaries are black with a buff tip and white base. The secondaries are black with broader, paler tips but no white bases.
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The tail feathers have rufous on the outer webs. The lores are pale and the eye ring is conspicuous. The chin and throat are white while the breast and sides of the body are pale brown. The middle of the body to the vent is buffy white.
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The upper parts are cinnamon-brown finely marked with dark brown vermiculations. Across the shoulders, the outer webs of the feathers are whitish making a pale horizontal streak. The flight feathers and the tail feathers are barred. The underparts are whitish, heavily marked with dark streaks.
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The main wing and tail feathers are barred with white. The underparts are whitish with some reddish-brown streaking and mottling. The legs are feathered, the bill is yellowish-brown and the eyes yellow. The female is similar but has an overall more reddish-brown appearance.
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The tail is carmine, gradually bleaching to grey. The throat and underparts are bright pink and the undertail coverts are grey. The undersides of the flight feathers and large tail feathers are glossy black. The beak is black, the eye reddish-brown and the leg yellowish-brown.
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The little friarbird also has a black curved bill, dark brown eyes with bluish black legs. Its flight characteristics involve wing- beats which are shallow and quivering in nature. The tail is clearly square- cut when spread with slight pale tips present on the tail feathers.
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The satin swiftlet is around in length. The back is satin blueish black. The throat and upper breast are plain dark grey, the lower breast, flanks and belly are white. The tail feathers are dark but there are usually dull white spots on the inner webs.
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It is a small warbler, especially compared to others in their genus. They are pale brown (weak tea colour) above and whitish below with buff flanks. The outer tail feathers have pale edges. They have a short pale supercilium, and the bill is strong and pointed.
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This all-green toucanet has a distinctive short yellow line behind eye and blue breast-band. The blue-grey bill has a narrow white line at base blending into a white throat. The central tail feathers are tipped with chestnut. Uniquely among Aulacorhynchus toucanets, its vent is bright yellow.
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Tail feathers are long. The plumage is black-brown, darker on wings and tail and pale on the belly. Juveniles are predominantly greenish gray with a pale belly and some spots of buff colour on the head and wings. Subspecies show subtle differences in colouration, with T. f.
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Males have long central tail feathers which are shorter in female birds. The tail is green at base and becomes deep blue and widely tipped with bright yellow. The parakeet features a bright red-orange upper mandible with a pale yellow lower. It also has a pale yellow eye.
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Later analysis also showed that an unknown number of them had the normal "Reverse of 2000" rather than what collectors called the enhanced tail feathers "Reverse of 1999". Thus the fact that a coin came from the cereal box does not guarantee that it is the rare variety.
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Juveniles are also typified by a browner head and generally duller colour overall. The outer tail feathers have white inner edges and an oval white spot. The eyes are brown, while beak and feet are both black. It is the only West African swallow with a wing patch.
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The central feathers of the tail are somewhat stiffened. The tips of all the tail feathers lack barbs, giving the tail a "spiny" appearance. The bird's throat is also tawny in color, with brownish edging to the feathers. Birds within the subspecies albescens have a paler whitish throat.
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All primaries, sickles and tail-feathers should have white tips. The black feathers may have a beetle-green tint. In Italy, blue mottled with white is also recognised in full-size birds, but not in bantams. Australia recognises a Red variety, with a chestnut to red bay ground colour.
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The white throat and blackish breast band are distinctions from similar Hirundo species. The outer feathers are slightly longer in the male than the female. Juveniles are duller than the adult, with shorter outer tail feathers and a browner crown. The call is a mix of warbles and twitters.
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The upperparts are entirely bright olive-green, with the wings and tail feathers grey, edged with green. The throat and undertail coverts are yellow-green, with the rest of the underparts grey. Circlets of small white feathers surround the eyes. Males are brighter yellow on the throat than females.
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It is a medium-sized to large bird, medium slate-grey in colour, with contrasting bright white horizontal banding on its tail feathers. It has a medium-white breast with vertical black markings. It has a large orange cere at the base of its beak, and large yellow eyes.
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A small bandolier holds a sword on his right hand side. The god wears tights on his legs. Above the right shoulder of the figure, behind the raised arm, the remains of an eagle are visible. The end of the left wing and the tail feathers are relatively clear.
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The back and rump are rufous. Tail feathers are dark olive-brown, and there is a purple patch on the sides of the breast and the lesser covert feathers. The beak is black, and the feet are reddish violet. The female's head, neck and breast are rusty chestnut.
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The nominate and nemoricola have a light grey head with whitish streaking (especially on crown and collar region). Both subspecies have white irises and a yellow bill with a pale blue base. The sexes are similar, but juveniles have whitish underparts and just chestnut tips to the tail feathers.
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They are pale brown (weak tea colour) above and whitish below with buff flanks. The outer tail feathers have pale edges. They have a short pale supercilium, and the bill is strong and pointed. Sykes's is larger and greyer than booted, and most resembles an eastern olivaceous warbler.
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Birds 36 (12): 230-234. In order for the drumming sound to be produced, the snipe must reach a velocity of 25 mph (40 km/h) which is required to start the vibration of the outer tail-feathers. In an experiment conduction by Carr-Lewty, it was discovered that an air speed of 37.5 mph (60.6 km/h) gave a good indication of drumming at its average pitch; 24.2 mph (39.2 km/h) was the slowest average speed to produce the drumming and 52.3 mph (84.5 km/h) was the speed reached to produce its maximum pitch. Because the outer tail-feathers are somewhat elastic, they are able to bend about their shafts under air pressure.
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The superb lyrebird was first illustrated and described scientifically as Menura superba by Major-General Thomas Davies on 4 November 1800 to the Linnean Society of London. Superb lyrebirds are passerine birds within the family Menuridae, being one of the two species of lyrebirds forming the genus Menura, with the other being the much rarer Albert's lyrebird. The superb lyrebird can be distinguished from Albert's lyrebird by its slightly larger size, less reddish colour and more ornate tail feathers. The generic name Menura derives from Ancient Greek mēnē 'moon' and oura 'tail', referring to the numerous transparent lunules in the inner webs of the outer tail- feathers (as described by John Latham in 1801).
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Chiappeavis, a primitive pengornithid enantiornithean, had a fan of tail feathers similar to that of more primitive avialans like Sapeornis, suggesting that this might have been the ancestral condition, with pinfeathers being a feature evolved several times in early avialans for display purposes. Another enantiornithean, Feitianius, also had an elaborate fan of tail feathers. More importantly, soft tissue preserved around the tail was interpreted as the remains of a rectrical bulb, suggesting that this feature was not in fact restricted to species with modern-looking pygostyles, but might have evolved much earlier than previously thought and been present in many enantiornitheans. At least one genus of enantiornithean, Cruralispennia, had a modern-looking pygostyle but lacked a tail fan.
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In their 1999 study, Chiappe and colleagues discussed the possibility that individuals might lack tail feathers because they died during molting. Although direct evidence for molting in early birds is missing, the lack of feather abrasion in Confuciusornis specimens suggests that the plumage got periodically renewed. As in modern birds, molting individuals may have been present alongside non-molting individuals, and males and females may have molted at different times during the year, possibly explaining the co-occurrence of specimens with and without long tail feathers. Peters and Petters, on the other hand, suggested that Confuciusornis may have shed the feathers as a defense mechanism, a method used by several extant species.
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To continue his mimicry, Pluto clamps his teeth on the quail's tail feathers and also starts pulling, lifting the quail into the air, and stretching the caterpillar to more than three times its original length. The caterpillar continues to keep his head inside the burrow while flailing his legs in desperation even though the sound of stretching can be heard. Finally, the quail's tail feathers give out, causing the tug of war to end with Pluto's head whipping back, red feathers floating everywhere. When Pluto investigates, he can see that the force of the caterpillar snapping back to his original length had pulled the quail halfway into the burrow with its head facing out.
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A small yellow bird with a prominent white eye ring surrounding a dark eye. The underparts and head are yellow, with a black loral stripe, black bill, the flight and tail feathers are brown edged with yellowish olive. Some subspecies are greener, especially those occurring in forest. Juveniles are darker.
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Male pin- tailed snipes often display in a group, with a loud repetitive tcheka song which has a crescendo of fizzing and buzzing sounds, and also whistling noises produced in flight by the pin-like outer tail feathers which give this species its English name. The normal call is a weak '.
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The undertail coverts are white. The legs and orbital skin are yellow. Sexes are alike in plumage, but the female is smaller and lacks the large tarsal spur of the male. In flight, from above, the white primaries tipped in black and the rufous outer tail feathers make it distinctive.
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The lower belly is reddish-brown and the underside of the tail is chestnut. The adult female is similar, but the forebelly is reddish-brown, not purple. Young birds have a green crown and nape, dusky face and bluish beard. They lack the elongated central tail feathers of the adult.
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All the tail feathers except the two central ones have white spots. The wings are black except for a small white patch. The underparts are whitish, sometimes washed with buff. It could be confused with the southern fiscal, but its colouration is distinctly darker and it occurs at higher elevations.
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The underwing coverts are tawny. The blackish tail has very long outer feathers; these are slightly longer in the male than the female. Juveniles are duller and browner, with less contrast and shorter outer tail feathers. There are five or six subspecies differing in the extent of the underpart streaking.
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The buff-collared nightjar (Antrostomus ridgwayi) is a small nightjar. Adults are dark with brown, grey, black and white patterning on the upperparts and breast. The tail is dark brown, with darker finely barred markings throughout. The male has large white outer tail tips on the 3 outermost tail feathers.
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The black rough-winged swallow is a small swallow at 13–15 cm length with a forked tail. Its plumage is blue-glossed black. Sexes are similar, but the female has shorter outer tail feathers, and less obvious wing serrations. Juveniles are brown with little gloss, and have short tails.
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Between the lyrates are twelve filamentaries, feathers of flexible silvery barbs. In the centre of the tail are two silvery median feathers. The tail of the female is less ornate, with shorter lyrates and plain, broad feathers in place of the filamentaries. In both sexes, juveniles have no ornamental tail feathers.
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The feathers on the head and the upper breast have a scale like appearance. The tail feathers are very short and similar colour to the back. The plumage on the back of the bird is brown. The coverts and wing feathers are also brown but have black spotting on them.
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Lefranc & Worfolk (1997) p. 23. The male has mainly black upperparts, a white crown, forehead and supercilium. There are large white patches on the shoulders and primaries, and the outermost tail feathers are also white. The throat, neck sides and underparts are white, with orange on the flanks and breast.
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The plumage is generally light gray-brown and lighter and pinkish below. The wings have black spotting, and the outer tail feathers are white, contrasting with the black inners. Below the eye is a distinctive crescent-shaped area of dark feathers. The eyes are dark, with light skin surrounding them.
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The spotted flycatcher is a small slim bird, around in length, with a weight of . It has dull grey-brown upperparts and off-white underparts. The crown, throat and breast are streaked with brown while the wings and tail feathers are edged with paler thin margins. The subspecies M. s.
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The Mediterranean flycatcher is a small slim bird, around in length, with a weight of . It has dull grey-brown upperparts and off-white underparts. The crown, throat and breast are streaked with brown while the wings and tail feathers are edged with paler thin margins. The subspecies M. t.
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Immature birds closely resemble immature white-breasted robins (Quoyornis georgianus), though both are usually close by their respective parents. Young western yellow robins also have an olive tinge to the edges of their flight and tail feathers, and gain yellow feathers on their bellies as they moult from juvenile plumage.
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Females have a rather subdued coloration. The upper portion of the female's body is streaked with buff or tawny and black. Female chests, breasts and flanks are slightly paler than their above coloring. The area under the wing-coverts is black and the females' tail feathers are narrow and pointed.
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It is 16-18 centimetres long. The upperparts are warm brown with dark streaks while the underparts are pale with some streaking on the breast. The bird has a dark eyestripe, white supercilium and pale outer tail-feathers. Juveniles have dark spots above and have more streaking below than the adults.
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The stiff-tailed ducks, Oxyura, are part of the Oxyurini tribe of ducks. The genus name is derived from Ancient Greek oxus, "sharp", and oura, "tail". All have, as their name implies, long, stiff tail feathers, which are erected when the bird is resting. All have relatively large, swollen bills.
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Barnes's astrapia is similar in appearance to both parent species, though closer to a ribbon- tailed astrapia. Males have two very long white and black tail feathers, glossy blue head and neck, small beak and a black body. Females have fewer blue feathers on their head as well as shorter tails.
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The body is grey on the underside becoming whiter towards the vent. The back and scapulars are brownish. The crown and nape are greyish and the black wing has a prominent white carpal patch. The vent is rufous and the outer tail feathers and tips of the central feathers are black.
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The sexes are indistinguishable by external appearance. Birds from Sri Lanka have a broader white tip to the tail feathers. Malkohas are generally very silent but will sometimes produce a low croaky kraa when flushed. Young birds have dull and non glossy upperparts and some brown feathers in their wing.
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CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), . In the Bandundu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the great blue turaco is actively hunted for meat and feathers. The blue and yellow tail feathers are prized for making good luck talismans.
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There are typically 12 to 16 tail feathers. James's flamingos molt their wing and body feathers according to their breeding schedule and the color of the new feathers depends on the quality of the diet that they have obtained. No evidence of color differentiation is seen between the males and females.
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Sub-adult in Costa Rica Brown jays vary in plumage geographically: there are two main groups. Northern birds are almost completely dark brown, with lighter brown on the underparts. Southern birds are white-bellied and have bright white tips to the outer tail feathers. The intergrade zone is in Veracruz, Mexico.
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The thighs and vent area are yellowish green with blue edging on some of the feathers. The tail feathers are shades of green, some edged with blue. Male birds have a red upper mandible with a yellow tip, while the lower mandible is black. The females have an all-black beak.
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To ensure that the vibrations occur within a safe limit, the wings of the snipe are used. The quivering of the wings interrupts the flow of air to the tail-feathers during a dive and actually decreases the vibration, which is what allows for the shaky and tremulous quality of the drumming sound.
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An attractive, thrush-like bird, the long-tailed mockingbird has a long, elegant tail which it carries at a pert angle whilst on the ground. Its plumage is made up of grey, cappuccino, and dun coloured feathers. The outer tail feathers are broadly tipped white. Its face has been described as harlequin patterned.
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"Birds, symbolic". Peter and Linda Murray, Oxford Dictionary of Christian Art (2004). The 'eyes' in the peacock's tail feathers symbolise the all-seeing Christian God and – in some interpretations – the Church. A peacock drinking from a vase is used as a symbol of a Christian believer drinking from the waters of eternal life.
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The boulder chat is a large chat, in length, with brownish-black plumage and white tips to the outer tail feathers. In flight, a row of small white spots can be seen on the edge of the primary and secondary coverts. Females are similar to males but have a slightly duller plumage.
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Emu-wrens are fairly secretive and hard to spot, living in low shrub cover. They are predominantly insectivorous, but supplement their diet with seeds. Their furtive behaviour and brown colour has resulted in them being mistaken for bush mice. They exhibit a weak but distinctive flight pattern with the tail feathers drooping noticeably.
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Species that burrow or live in dry or mountainous areas are often matte brown above (e.g. sand martin and crag martin). The sexes show limited or no sexual dimorphism, with longer outer tail feathers in the adult male probably being the most common distinction. The chicks hatch naked and with closed eyes.
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In modern birds, this form of pygostyle attaches to tail muscles which control the advanced pennaceous rectrices of their fan-shaped tails. However, its presence in IVPP 21711, which has simple, hair-like tail feathers, throws doubt on the hypothesis that a plow-shaped pygostyle always correlates to an advanced, fan- shaped tail.
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Male O. c. maculatus (Selangor, Malaysia) O. c. maculatus (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) The black-naped oriole is medium-sized and overall golden with a strong pinkish bill and a broad black mask and nape. The adult male has the central tail feathers tipped yellow and the lateral ones are more broadly yellow.
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19th- century Japanese belt ornament in hornbill ivory, showing natural preen gland colouring The casque is the source of hornbill ivory, a valuable carving material. Indigenous peoples also use the central tail feathers to decorate dancing cloaks and head-dresses. Historically, the casque was also used by carvers in China and Japan.
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Male and female parakeet at Vedanthangal, Tamil Nadu, India. A parakeet is any one of many small to medium-sized species of parrot, in multiple genera, that generally have long tail feathers. Older spellings still sometimes encountered are paroquet or paraquet. In American English, the word parakeet usually refers to the budgerigar.
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It is a medium-sized bird, in length, and is characterized by its white belly and black back and wings. The tips of the long tail feathers are white. The eyes are yellow; the beak is red and presents a stocky casque on the upper mandible. In females, the casque is smaller.
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Lesser racket-tailed drongo is about 25–27·5 cm long, excluding outermost tail feathers (c. 30–40 cm to end of tail); average weight of males 39–49 g, and females 35·5–44 g. It can be confused with the Greater racket-tailed drongo, but it doesn't have crest on head.
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Princeton University Press (1992), The body plumage is white although it may become brown-stained. Inner secondary plumes are displayed as lacy black "tail" feathers. The upper tail becomes yellow when the bird is breeding. The legs and feet are dark and red skin is visible on the underside of the wing.
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The female Maccoa is less colourful. It boasts a greyish-black bill with a light tip, and a light brown face with a dark crown and cheek stripe, and an off-white throat. The female also has a light brown breast, darker brown back, off-white underparts, black feet and black tail feathers.
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Meek's pygmy parrots have not been much studied. They spend their day clambering about among the foliage of trees using their beaks, large feet, and stiffened tail feathers for support. Their diet is believed to be insects, fungi, lichens, and mosses. Attempts to keep pygmy parrots in captivity have not met with success.
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It is a small, dumpy bird with broad tail-feathers and a total length of approximately 12.5 cm. The upperparts are plain blackish in colour while the underparts are dark grey. The flanks are slightly barred with brown, at least in young birds. The legs are reddish-brown and the bill is dark.
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The length of the males is about 20 cm. In addition there are two long black central tail feathers which can reach a length of 30 cm. The females can reach a length between 16 and 18 cm (including the tail). The males are entirely glossy black with a deep blue sheen.
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Their inclusion along with the treecreepers is not certain and some studies find them more closely related to the nuthatches while others suggest a close relation to the wallcreeper. They lack the stiff tail feathers of treecreepers and do not use their tail for supporting them while creeping vertically along tree trunks.
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The duck has a grey chin, neck and face, with the body plumage a mixture of brown and grey feathers giving a mottled look. Its eyes are red with black pupils. The crown and the feathers surrounding the eyes are dark brown or blackish. The tail feathers are also dark, sometimes black.
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The feet are weak with the three toes joined at the base. Southeast Asian birds have rufous crown and face, and green underparts, whereas Arabian beludschicus has a green crown, blue face and bluish underparts. The wings are green and the beak is black. The elongated tail feathers are absent in juveniles.
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It is 10 cm (4 in) long and weighs 2.5 g (0.09 oz). Sexes are similar, but males have a narrow black breast band and females have longer central tail feathers with paler tips. The facial pattern includes a distinct whitish supercilium and white throat. The bill is black above and yellow below.
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Adults have mottled plumage: the upperparts are grey, black and brown; the lower parts are grey and black. They have a very short bill and a black throat. Males have a white patch below the throat and white tips on the outer tail feathers; in the female, these parts are light brown.
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During courtship, a male calliope hummingbird hovers at accelerated wingbeat frequency up to 95 flaps per second (42% higher than normal hovering), creating a loud buzzing sound, with throat feathers protruding and facing a female. The male then ascends temporarily to 20 meters and dives at high speed, with the rapid descent causing sonation of wing and tail feathers combined with vocalization, intending to attract attention of the female. Research in a wind tunnel demonstrated that the male courtship display includes sounds produced by three independent feather or vocal components, each with different acoustic characteristics, thus potentially containing different messages appealing to the female. The tail feathers flutter at high frequency and hit each other to produce the buzzing sound.
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Additionally, carbonized tissue impressions show that it had a rectrical bulb, the muscles around the tail which allow the tail feathers to be fanned out during flight, and retraced when at rest. These adaptations are rare among Mesozoic birds, many of which are known to have had long, pointed wings and very few, if any, long tail feathers. The rectrical bulb and plough- shaped pygostyle allowing for tail fanning is also a unique characteristic of ornithurine birds, of which Yixianornis is among the earliest known. In a 2006 study, Julia Clarke, Zhou Zhonghe and Zhang Fucheng found that the ability to fan the tail, along with the broad wings, show that it probably preferred environments with dense vegetation, where high maneuverability in flight would be necessary.
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The two began working together to capture more videos of peacock courtship rituals to understand how the tail feathers vibrate, and how those vibrations are received by the females. They found that the train-rattling behavior only occurs when females are present and that, as the tail shakes, the eyespots on the tail appear not to move, leading them to conclude that the shaking behavior enhances the appearance of the eyespots of the tail. In previous work, Dakin found that the hue and iridescence of the tail's eyespots contribute to the mating success of the male. They also found that the tail feathers vibrate at their natural resonance frequency, producing sound waves that are within the audible range that females are able to hear.
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Bird with tail fanned out showing how it got its name This fantail is mid to dark grey or grey-brown above, yellowish/orange below, with a dark band across the chest below a white throat, white markings over the eye, and (depending on the race) either white-edged or entirely white outer tail feathers. It grows to in length, of which half is the tail, which, as the name implies, is often displayed fanned out. This reveals that the outer tail feathers are light and the centre ones are dark. Some subspecies are found in a darker plumage, notably the "black fantail" morph seen in 4% of South Island birds and less than 1% of North Island birds (it is completely absent from the Chatham Islands).
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Barred black and white above, it usually has unbarred central tail feathers. Its dark buff underside has prominent dark streaking. The dark grey crown (with a red nape in males), strong black eyestripes, and thin dark malar stripes contrast with broad white supercilia and cheeks. It occurs from Nepal to Myanmar and northern Vietnam.
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Each drum is several seconds in length and is full of rich harmonies. In looking at the aerodynamics of drumming, the two outer tail-feathers of the snipe, when widely expanded, can actually vibrate without interference from the outer rectrices.Carr-Lewty, R. A. 1943. The aerodynamics of the drumming of the common snipe. Brit.
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The central tail feathers are rufous, but the outer are black with white tips. The bill is yellow and the iris is red. Immature birds have a grey bill and eyering, brown iris, and less white in the tail. It resembles the little cuckoo, but that species is smaller and has a darker throat.
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It is a large warbler, 18–20 cm long with a wingspan of 23–26 cm. The plumage is brown above with a paler rump and whitish tips to the tail feathers. The underparts are whitish below, browner on the flanks and undertail-coverts. There are narrow greyish streaks on the throat and breast.
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Cradock would cook vast dishes that were served to the audience. They became known for their roast turkey, complete with stuffed head, tail feathers and wings. Complete with French accents, their act was one of a drunken hen-pecked husband and a domineering wife. At this time, they were known as Major and Mrs Cradock.
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HIGGINS, P. J., AMBROSE, S. J., MARCHANT, S., DAVIES, S. J. J. F., PETER, J. M., STEELE, W. K. and COWLING, S. J. 1990. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, Melbourne, Oxford University Press. Most birds are described as having 12 tail feathers but there are notable exceptions to this.GILL, F. B. 2007.
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The necklaced spinetail is about long. The forehead is marked with black and white, and there is a white streak above the eye. The upper parts of the body, the wings and the tail are reddish brown. The flanks are buff and the tail feathers have blackish centres giving the tail a bicoloured effect.
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Midway Atoll Tropicbirds range in size from 76 cm to 102 cm in length and 94 cm to 112 cm in wingspan. Their plumage is predominantly white, with elongated central tail feathers. The three species have different combinations of black markings on the face, back, and wings. Their bills are large, powerful and slightly decurved.
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Sea terns have deeply forked tails, and at least a shallow "V" is shown by all other species. The noddies (genera Anous, Procelsterna and Gygis) have unusual notched-wedge shaped tails, the longest tail feathers being the middle-outer, rather than the central or outermost.Harrison (1988) pp. 387–390.Hutton & Drummond (2011) p. 226.
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The green-billed malkoha (Phaenicophaeus tristis) is a species of non- parasitic cuckoo found throughout Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. The birds are waxy bluish black with a long graduated tail with white tips to the tail feathers. The bill is prominent and curved. These birds are found in dry scrub and thin forests.
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The drake's belly and flanks are a bright white. Its neck, breast, and tail feathers are a glossy black, while its lower flanks are vermiculated gray. The upper wing has a white stripe starting as the speculum and extending along the flight feathers to the wingtip. Legs and feet of both sexes are gray.
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Then, they also become more active and start flapping their wings. Between day 18 and 23, the chicks start to move more rapidly, though clumsily. By this time, the tail feathers have grown to about 1 cm. Between day 24 and 30, the spotted contour feathers are developing on the top surface of their wings.
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The adult Myiozetetes flycatcher is long and weighs . The upperparts are olive-brown, and the wings and tail are brown with only faint rufous fringes. The underparts are yellow and the throat is white. Young birds lack the red-orange crown stripe of the adult, and have chestnut fringes to the wing and tail feathers.
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The tail is green with the base of the outer tail-feathers marked with orange-red. The lower flanks, thighs and undertail-coverts green are strongly marked with yellow, while the underwing-coverts are orange-red. They have orange-red eyes, and their bills (beaks) are dark coral-red. Their legs are generally grey-brown.
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The wire-tailed swallow is a small swallow, measuring in length. It has bright blue upperparts, bright white underparts and a chestnut cap. Immature birds lack tail wires, and have dull brown (rather than chestnut) caps. The species is named for the very long filamentous outermost tail feathers, which trail behind like two wires.
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Their tail feathers are olive green with a bluish tip. The primary feathers, wing coverts, and under-wing coverts are blue. Immature gold-capped conures are mostly green, with some orange around the eyes, above the beak, and on the breast near the wings. Some navy is mixed in with the green of the tail.
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The spy hurls a bomb at Krazy which blasts the cat sky high. Krazy then lands on a buzzard, and tries to takes some tail feathers. The buzzard, however, tosses Krazy away before he can take any. Back on the ground, Krazy comes across a tent where a gremlin with a feather hat emerges.
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A crescent-shaped white patch formed by tertiary coverts; smaller on the underside of the wing. Ten primaries, twelve rectrices. Central tail feathers sooty brown with rusty tips; outer ones rusty with sooty brown barring. Bill blackish, lower mandible slightly paler, pointed, thin and short, rather like in an insectivorous passerine than a wader.
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The underparts are white with a glossy black breast band, which is dark reddish brown in the females. The tail is black with white outer tail feathers while the wings are mainly black with a white stripe. The bill and legs are black and the eyes yellow. Juveniles are similar to females but browner.
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Emberiza cioides MHNT The meadow bunting is 15 to 16.5 cm long. The male is mostly rufous-brown with dark streaks on the back. The boldly-patterned head is brown with white eyebrows, moustachial stripe and throat and grey sides to the neck. The outer tail- feathers are white and the legs are pinkish-brown.
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The number four is prominent in the design: 4 wing feathers, 4 tail feathers, 4 red compass points and 4 green compass points. This is since greater Kurdistan is divided amongst four states (Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria) and because Iraqi Kurdistan is formed from the four northern Iraqi governorates, Erbil, Duhok and Sulaymaniyah.
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The tips of the tail feathers are white, aging to buffish. The bill is relatively short for a honeyeater, slightly down-curved and grey, becoming black toward the tip. There is a pale and indistinct ring of feathers, tinted buff, around the eye. The colour of the iris is brown, the legs are steel grey.
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Its face and throat are yellow with a black eye stripe, and the crown and nape are rich chestnut. The thin curved bill is black. Sexes are alike, but young birds are duller. This species is 18-20 cm long; it lacks the two elongated central tail feathers possessed by most of its relatives.
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The crown is rufous and the upperparts are predominantly olive green. The underside is creamy white. The sexes are identical, except that the male has long central tail feathers in the breeding season, although the reliability of sexing data accompanying museum specimens used in determining this sexual dimorphism has been questioned. Young birds are duller.
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Jinfengopteryx preserves feather impressions "around the neck, the body, the hips, the upper hindlimbs, the tail, and near the manus" (end of the front limbs). The specimen shows short, simple feathers on its neck, body, hips, and upper legs. Also preserved are long, vaned tail feathers that become increasingly longer distally (away from the body).
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The Huon astrapia is considered as Least Concern, though as poorly-known as it is, it almost comes in into the Data-Deficient category. It is listed on Appendix II of CITES. It is not routinely hunted, though the skins and tail feathers of the males are important cultural items for the people of Nokopo.
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This structure fringes powder green ear patches. The upper half of the fore neck is white and forms an open collar around the neck whereas the base if the neck and breast are light chestnut colored. The flanks are more intensely chestnut colored and the back is metallic green. The sixteen tail feathers are black.
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The tail feathers for both the male and female are made up of thick, spine-like shafts. The tail is usually held flat on the surface of the water, or held erect when defensive. The male also holds the tail erect during courtship displays. The feet are quite powerful, which aids in swimming and diving.
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Plumage over the lores is pale blue and the fore-crown is blue. A barred appearance over the back and sides of neck arises from the green feathers having black tips and edges. The tail feathers are green with red bases. Its beak is yellow, its irises are brown, and its legs are pink.
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Black-crowned barwings consist of a monotypic group; having no other discovered subspecies. They were quickly classified into Actinodura since are very similar to Actinodura ramsayi in appearance. Three plumage differences set them apart; the lores are black, the posterior is darker olive-brown, and the tail feathers are darker with narrower white tips.
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Bates's paradise flycatcher is usually 18 centimetres long but males in parts of Cameroon and Angola have elongated central tail-feathers making them 23-28 centimetres long. The head and underparts are blue-grey while the upperparts are rufous. The sexes are similar in coloration. The song is a series of ringing "tswee" notes.
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The citron-crested cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea citrinocristata) is a medium- sized cockatoo with an orange crest, dark grey beak, pale orange ear patches, and strong feet and claws. The underside of the larger wing and tail feathers have a pale yellow color. The eyelid color is a very light blue. Both sexes are similar.
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Discosura is a genus of hummingbird in the family Trochilidae. The thorntails are sometimes placed in the genus Popelairia (Reichenbach, 1854), leaving Discosura for the racket-tailed coquette. On the contrary, some have argued for merging this genus into Lophornis, which they overall resemble, except for the highly modified tail-feathers of the males.
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The bird is a medium-sized, approximately 60 cm long, brownish dark pheasant with finely spotted buff, short crest, bare red facial skin, brown iris and purplish-blue ocelli on upperbody plumage and half of its tail of twenty feathers. Both sexes are similar. The female has eighteen tail feathers and is smaller than male.
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The juvenile is mottled brown, buff and white above, with buff edgings to the wing and tail feathers. Its underparts are whitish with brown barring. The male of the most distinctive of the other subspecies, N. a. nigritemporalis, occurring in the central belt across Africa, has no supercilium and a white, not buff, shoulder patch.
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The adult male is grey-brown above and orange below with a grey head, throat and upper breast. The tail feathers have white tips. The legs and feet are yellow, the eye is red and the bill is black above and yellow below. The adult female is sometimes similar to the male but often occurs in a "hepatic" morph.
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213, no. 9, 2010, pp. 1602–1608. The sound is produced mechanically (rather than vocally) by the vibration of the outer tail feathers when flying in a downwards, swooping motion. The drumming display is usually crepuscular, though it can also be heard at any point throughout the breeding season, as well as sporadically during their migration period.
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The wallcreeper is a long bird, with a mass of . Its is primarily blue-grey, with darker flight and tail feathers. Its most striking plumage feature, though, are its extraordinary crimson wings. Largely hidden when the wings are folded, this bright colouring covers most of the covert feathers, and the basal half of the primaries and secondaries.
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There are a number of subspecies with minor plumage variations. For example, P. c. mehleri, one of the South American subspecies, has mainly brown (not black) outer tail feathers. Additionally, the subspecies from Mexico, Central America, and northern and western South America have a yellow eye-ring, but this is red in the remaining part of South America.
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The blue- faced honeyeater begins its moult in October or November, starting with its primary flight feathers, replacing them by February. It replaces its body feathers anywhere from December to June, and tail feathers between December and July.Higgins, p. 606. 422 blue-faced honeyeaters have been banded between 1953 and 1997 to monitor movements and longevity.
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Body feathers are replaced at both moults while wing and tail feathers are in spring only, though the latter may be replaced at any time if damaged or worn.Rowley & Russell, p. 45 The blue coloured plumage, particularly the ear-coverts, of the breeding males is highly iridescent due to the flattened and twisted surface of the barbules.Rowley & Russell, p.
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The stripe-chested antwren is a small bird growing to a length of about . The male has a black head and black upper parts boldly streaked with white. The black wings have two white wing bands and white edges to the flight feathers. The tail feathers are black with white edges and a broad white tip.
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What little of the plumage has been preserved, seems to indicate that long tail feathers were absent. It has been suggested that in the Enantiornithes such long display feathers were limited to the males only, as an instance of sexual dimorphism. Their absence thus is a further corroboration of the hypothesis that the type specimen is female.
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It has two white or yellowish wingbars and white outer tail feathers. Females and young birds are duller than males. The underpart colour becomes increasingly dull from north to south through this tit's range. It is, like other tits, a vocal bird, and has a large variety of calls, of which the most familiar is a si-si.
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Mountain wheatear is 18–20 cm long, and like other wheatears, it has a distinctive tail pattern, with a white rump and outer tail feathers. Its legs and pointed bill are black. The male is very variable in plumage, although the tail pattern and a white shoulder patch are always present. A white and black bird.
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It lays 2-3 eggs in a cup nest in a rock cavity or on a ledge. It eats a wide range of insects and other small animals, and some berries. This is a large stocky rock thrush in length. The summer male has a blue-grey head, orange underparts and outer tail feathers, and brown wings and back.
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The flame robin deploys a number of agonistic displays, including a breast-puffing display where it puffs its breast feathers, and a white spot display where it puffs its feathers to accentuate its frontal white spot, white wing markings or white outer tail feathers. They may also fly at intruders or sing to defend their territory.
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These hawks have a brownish plumage, reddish shoulders and tail feathers with a white base and white tip. They exhibit sexual dimorphism with the females being larger by about 35%. In the United States, the average weight for adult males is about , with a range of , while the adult female average is , with a range of .Hamerstrom, F. (1978).
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Beaky comes looking for Bugs when he suddenly jumps out from behind the rocks and plays with his throat. After some heckling and trickery from Bugs, a chase ensues. Beaky manages to grab Bugs in his talons and swoops away. Bugs tickles the buzzard with one of his own tail feathers, resulting in Bugs being released and falling.
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The underparts are yellow and the throat is white. Young birds have no crown stripe, and have chestnut fringes to the wing and tail feathers. The best distinction from the social flycatcher is the latter's strong black-and white head pattern. The call is a sharp nasal kip and the dawn song is a kip, kip, kip, k’beer.
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Hanson recruited professional dancers for the shoot and also invited local residents and fans to take part. The video was directed by Todd Edwards, co-founder of Blue Yonder Films.Hundreds Shake Their Tail Feathers On Tulsa Hanson VideoHanson music video shot in Greenwood It was released for public viewing to the band's MySpace channel on April 15, 2010.
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The outer tail feathers are tipped in white both in the male and female. They are seen in pairs or small groups and aggregations may be found in gardens with suitable flowers. They feed mainly on nectar but also take fruits and insects. Groups of as many as 40 to 50 individuals have sometimes been noted.
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Tail feathers of both sexes are bluish-grey with an eye-shaped, blue-bronze spot near the end with a bright gold tip. The spots, or ocelli (located on the tail), for which the ocellated turkey is named, have been likened to the patterning typically found on peafowl.James G. Dickson. The wild turkey: biology and management.
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A comparison of the wing bones Like other jacanas it has 10 tail feathers and the oil gland is tufted. Many jacana species have a carpal spur that is used in territorial fights. In some species the spur is reduced but the wing bones are modified. The carpal spur is reduced to a tubercle in the bronze-winged jacana.
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They normally do not take part in mixed-species flocks. All have a pointed orange-yellow bill, a primarily gray head and chest, a paler buff or whitish belly, extensive white to the outer tail-feathers, and a small – but contrasting – black mask and chin. Except in the gray-winged Inca finch, all have a rufous back or wings.
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The Mac Haik Peacock is a mascot of the Mac Haik Automotive Group division of Mac Haik Enterprises, Inc., that some people would say is very similar to the NBC Peacock, due to its rainbow tail feathers. The origin of the "Mac Haik Peacock" goes back to his first car dealership. In 1983, he bought Tom Peacock Chevrolet.
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The unique, rounded pygostyle and long, stiff tail feathers of pengornithids would have made their tail overall similar to that of woodpeckers. The feet of pengornithids were also particularly adapted for grasping branches. These features indicate that while pengornithids may not have been as adept at climbing as many modern birds, they were better climbers than many other enantiornithes.
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Photographed at Queen Elizabeth NP, Uganda The white-browed robin-chat is long and weighs . The crown and face are black, and there is a white supercilium over the dark brown eye. The back is olive grey-brown, and the rump is rufous. The two central tail feathers are olive-brown, and the other feathers are orange- rufous.
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It also has three narrower white bands created by the tips of shorter tail feathers. The wings of this species are largely black with a prominent white band across the greater coverts. Juveniles of the species have brownish black upperparts, breast, and throat, brown flanks, and brown mottling on the belly. They also lack the prominent white crown.
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The tail is black but the outer tail feathers have white edges and tips. The underparts are white, broken with a narrow black breast band. The females are similar to the males but have a pale rufous-buff breast band and chin and the face mask, supercilium and wing stripe are buffy brown. The bill and legs are black.
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Female in South Africa It is sexually dimorphic, with males more brightly coloured. Both sexes have vivid, gingery green upperpart plumage. The tail feathers have a metallic blue-green gloss. The outer three rectices on each side are tipped and fringed white, giving the undertail of perched birds a characteristic white appearance (compare bar- tailed trogon).
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They suggested that the wings of Confuciusornis would have been white or, possibly, colored with carotenoid pigments. The long tail feathers of male specimens would have also been dark in color along their entire length. A 2018 study of the specimen CUGB P1401 indicated the presence of heavy spotting on the wings, throat, and crest of Confuciusornis.
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The upperparts are yellow-green with dark streaking while the head and underparts are dark greyish, sometimes with faint streaking. The outer tail-feathers are mostly white and there may be a pale spot on the lores. Juvenile birds are similar to adults but are darker and greener. The lesser honeyguide is smaller with a less heavy bill.
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Plate by François-Nicolas Martinet, 1779, showing a bluish head and brown body The Mascarene parrot was in length. The wing was , the tail , the culmen , and the tarsus . It had a large red bill and moderately long, rounded tail feathers. It had a black velvet-like facial mask on the front part of the head.
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Secondaries are replaced from August after the primaries are at the third quill. The secondary moult is not orderly, the 8th and 7th being dropped earlier than the rest. The tail feathers are moulted centrifugally. Seasonal colour changes in the testicular tissues are caused by variation in melanin synthesis, with the dark pigmentation being lost during the breeding season.
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Molts occur inward towards the body on the wing feathers. Tail molt may generally start with the middle tail feathers, proceeding posteriorly to the upper tail coverts, also starting with the median feathers on the scapulars.Henny, C. J., Olson, R. A., & Fleming, T. L. (1985). Breeding chronology, molt, and measurements of Accipiter hawks in northeastern Oregon.
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Faverolles were originally bred in France as a utility fowl, used for both eggs and meat but are now primarily raised for exhibition. When Faverolles reached the UK in 1886, the breed was further altered to meet exhibition standards, British breeders developed a type of Faverolles with longer, higher raised tail feathers than their German and French Cousins.
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It has a total length of about . It is overall green with a large dark bill (large even for a parrot) and, as suggested by its name, a very short tail. Adults show a small maroon-red spot on the shoulder and at the base of the outer tail-feathers, but typically neither are easy to see.
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Female tends to have greener rather than gold feathers on shoulders. Non-breeding plumage is much duller and with a blue-green back and no elongated central tail feathers. Juvenile resembles a non-breeding adult, but with less variation in the feather colours. Adults begin to moult in June or July and complete the process by August or September.
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It is now known that at least some, and probably all, dromaeosaurids were covered in feathers, including large, vaned, wing and tail feathers. This development, first hypothesized in the mid- to late 1980s and confirmed by fossil discoveries in 1999, represents a significant change in the way dromaeosaurids have historically been depicted in art and film.
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The females are slightly larger. The mesial stripe on the throat is dark but narrow. In flight the male seen from below shows a light wing lining (underwing coverts) and has blackish wing tips. When seen from above the tail bands are faintly marked on the lateral tail feathers and not as strongly marked as in the Eurasian sparrowhawk.
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The Cinnamon Screech Owl is a small, roughly long owl with a weight of 88 to 120 grams. It is tawny in colour, with streaks down the breast and mottling on the mantle and back. The flight feathers are barred, as are the tail feathers. It has dark brown eyes, a blue- gray bill, and medium-length ear tufts.
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The mantle, back and wings are dark green, as are the upper tail coverts. The upper side of the tail is green tipped with yellow and the central tail feathers are red towards their tips. The underside of the tail is yellow and the thighs are dark purple. The beak is orange and the eye yellowish-orange.
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The female is a buff-tinged brown, with a weaker, greyer face mask and less white in the wings. There are short dark streaks on the mantle and a white subterminal band on the tail feathers other than the central pair. There is white on the upperwing coverts, secondaries, and inner primaries. The male has a brick red iris.
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Shrikes are medium-sized birds with grey, brown, or black and white plumage. Most species are between and in size, however, the genus Corvinella with its extremely elongated tail feathers may reach up to in length. Their beaks are hooked, like those of a bird of prey, reflecting their predatory nature, and their calls are strident.
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Volume 11: Old World Flycatchers to Old World Warblers. Lynx Edicions. . Immature on migration, England It is the largest Curruca warbler, 15.5–17 cm in length and weighing 22–36 g, mainly grey above and whitish below. Adult males are dark grey above with white tips on the wing coverts and tail feathers, and heavily barred below.
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The southern white-fringed antwren is long, and weighs . The male has a grey-brown crown and upperparts, and black wings, tail, lower face and underparts. There are two conspicuous white wing bars and a white stripe running from above the eye down the sides of the breast and flanks. The tail feathers are tipped with white.
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Sideview of the nest The bee hummingbird's breeding season is March–June. They lay up to two eggs at a time. Males in the “bee” hummingbird clade court females with sound from tail‐feathers, which flutter during display dives. Using bits of cobwebs, bark, and lichen, the female builds a cup-shaped nest that is about in diameter.
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Tristram's woodpecker, with its 46 cm length, is among the largest of all woodpeckers. Both the tuft and the cheek patches are crimson red; its upper parts are black, which contrast with its white underparts, wing tips and a white rump. It has four toes, of which two are directed backwards. Its tail feathers are firm.
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Males measure between 21 and 24 centimeters long, including the long tail. They are mostly green, with long black tail feathers and an iridescent green patch on the chest and throat. Females are between 13.5 and 14.5 centimeters in length. They differ from the male in having a shorter tail and white underparts with green spots.
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The central tail feathers are blue-green and the rest are mostly white with black tips and edges. Females are duller dusty olive green above with a whitish throat speckled with brown spots. Its tail is dark and the rest of its underparts are pale grayish. There are two subspecies and the males can be distinguished by their throat.
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The grey-bellied comet is a large hummingbird with a long beak and a deeply forked tail, growing to . The upperparts are bronzy-green and the long green tail feathers have orangeish tips. The underparts are grey and the male has a blue throat. The tail of the female is shorter than that of the male.
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The specimen was described as being in adult male plumage, mainly the glossy blue-black colouring of the adult male satin bowerbird, but with a conspicuous and extensive yellow wing patch, yellow tipping to some tail feathers, with a paler iris colour than the satin bowerbird, and intermediate in size between the two putative parent species.
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Stenogussonia, but the species was later transferred to Sebastiania. The specific epithet pavoniana might derive from the Latin ('peafowl'). However neither the flowers nor fruit are peacock blue or any other shade of blue, but more of a greenish yellow. The seeds do have a spot that might abstractly resemble the eyespot on a peacock's tail feathers.
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The rump is bright chestnut and the upper tail coverts are purple with maroon margins. The tail feathers are cinnamon with black bases. The female crestless fireback is almost completely black with a blue or green gloss and was for some time considered to be a separate species. The head is brownish, paling to nearly white on the throat.
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At least two lines of arrested growth (growth lines that form annually) could be identified, demonstrating an extended growth over several years; the studied female would have been in its third year. Long tail feathers were confirmed to occur in small individuals, the smallest of which was only around 23% the mass of the largest specimens. Assuming that the occurrence of tail feathers indicates sexual maturity, the authors concluded that the latter must have occurred well before the animals reached their final size, unlike in birds but similar to non-avian dinosaurs. In a 2018 study, Jingmai O'Connor and colleagues questioned the identification of medullary bone, arguing that the purported medullary bone was only found in the forelimb, while in modern birds it is mostly present in the hind limb.
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Profile of a Eurasian collared dove A pair of Eurasian collared doves from Mangaon, Maharashtra, India It is a medium-sized dove, distinctly smaller than the wood pigeon, similar in length to a rock pigeon but slimmer and longer-tailed, and slightly larger than the related European turtle dove, with an average length of from tip of beak to tip of tail, with a wingspan of , and a weight of . It is grey- buff to pinkish-grey overall, a little darker above than below, with a blue- grey underwing patch. The tail feathers are grey-buff above, and dark grey and tipped white below; the outer tail feathers are also tipped whitish above. It has a black half-collar edged with white on its nape from which it gets its name.
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Anna's hummingbird Red-billed streamertail Sonation is the sound produced by birds, using mechanisms other than the syrinx. The term sonate is described as the deliberate production of sounds, not from the throat, but rather from structures such as the bill, wings, tail, feet and body feathers, or by the use of tools. Examples are the tonal sound produced by the tail-feathers of the Anna's hummingbird Calypte anna, the drumming of the tail-feathers of the African snipe and common snipe, bill-clattering by storks or the deliberate territorial tapping practised by woodpeckers and certain members of the parrot family, such as palm cockatoos which drum on hollow trees using broken-off sticks. The clapper lark's (Mirafra apiata) display flight includes a steep climb with wing rattling.
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Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) shown drumming Drumming (also called bleating or winnowing) is a sound produced by snipe as part of their courtship display flights.Van Casteren, A, et al. “Sonation in the Male Common Snipe (Capella Gallinago Gallinago L.) Is Achieved by a Flag-like Fluttering of Their Tail Feathers and Consequent Vortex Shedding.” The Journal of Experimental Biology, vol.
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Barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) that live in or around Chernobyl have displayed an increased rate of physical abnormalities compared to swallows from uncontaminated areas. Abnormalities included partially albinistic plumage, deformed toes, tumors, deformed tail feathers, deformed beaks, and deformed air sacks. Birds with these abnormalities have a reduced viability in the wild and a decrease in fitness. Moeller et al.
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In 2003 Microraptor, a raven-sized dinosaur, approximately in weight, was the first of the microraptorines to be discovered. It shared with species such as Anchiornis and Xiaotingia large feathered limbs and elongated bony tails with long tail feathers. These features caused experts to hypothesize that miniaturisation was an essential evolutionary step to enable flight. Changyuraptor's larger size and weight contradicts that hypothesis.
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Juveniles have a bone-coloured beak, grey eye-rings, and less white in the tail feathers. They can also be distinguished by their constant begging calls. It is not possible to tell the sexes apart until the male's bill begins to darken. This begins when the male is around one year old, and is complete some time after two years of age.
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The rest of the upper parts are olive green. The upper breast is metallic violet and the lower breast is bright orange, fading to paler orange and yellow on the belly. The tail is long and blackish, with elongated central tail feathers, which extend beyond the other feathers. The female has olive-greenish grey upperparts and olive yellowish underparts, paler on the belly.
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It was later discovered that the dollars included in every 2,000 boxes were in fact early strikes, differing from those ultimately issued for circulation by the number of tail feathers on the eagle. Approximately 5,500 of the coins were included in the boxes of cereal. Far less of these dollars are known, since many may have been spent and entered circulation.
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Perinet reserve The Madagascan wagtail is a large, elegant and slender wagtail which has grey upperparts, a white breast and a yellow belly. There is a black band across the breast and the long tail has a dark centre and white outer tail feathers. There is short white supercilium. Juveniles have a less conspicuous breast band and a fainter supercilium.
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Grouse are game, and hunters kill millions each year for food, sport, and other uses. In the United Kingdom, this takes the form of driven grouse shooting. The male black grouse's tail feathers are a traditional ornament for hats in areas such as Scotland and the Alps. Folk dances from the Alps to the North American prairies imitate the displays of lekking males.
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The sooty tyrannulet (Serpophaga nigricans) is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is small, usually weighing 9 grams with a length of 12 centimeters, and has gray or brownish-grey feathers with black tail feathers. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay; also southern Paraguay. A small extension of its range is in southeastern Bolivia.
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It was considered the nominate subspecies of the red-bellied pitta. This species has a wingspan of 20 - 25cm and is 17.5 - 20cm tall. In the class Aves it lays eggs and has feathers covering its entire body, it also has wings and can fly. As the illustration on your right shows it has short tail feathers and has a small brown head.
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A transmitter attached to a hawk's anklet. In order to track a raptor that has flown away, many falconers use radio telemetry. Typically a transmitter is temporarily attached to the leg at the jess or on a bewit. Sometimes a mount for it may be attached to one of the center tail feathers by very careful application of a small drop of Superglue.
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Thomas Yellowtail was born just south of Lodge Grass, Montana, on the Crow Indian reservation.U. Idaho.edu, Rodney Frey His father's name was Hawk with the Yellow Tail Feathers. It was the practice at the time for the U.S. Government to assign surnames to the Indians as a means of assimilating them into the white culture and to ease record keeping.
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It was Geirlug, and she brought the forester's daughters and a closed basket. During the feast, she opened it, and a cock and hen flew out. The cock pecked at the hen, pulling out her tail feathers, and the hen asked, "Will you treat me as badly as Grethari treated Geirlug?" He remembered Geirlug and married her instead of the other princess.
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Tinamous have very short tail feathers, giving them an almost tailless aspect. In general, they resemble galliform birds like quails and grouse. Tinamous have a very long, keeled, breastbone with an unusual three- pronged shape. This bone, the sternum, has a central blade (the Carina sterni), with two long, slender lateral trabeculae, which curve to either side and nearly touch the keel posteriorly.
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Females have a brown head, but their underparts are a much richer orange than those of other female rock thrushes. The outer tail feathers are reddish, like the male's. Immatures are like the female, but the upperparts have buff spots and the underparts show black scaling. The male Cape rock thrush has a whistled song ', and occasionally mimics other birds.
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The tail feathers are red. Due to selection by parrot breeders, some grey parrots are partly or completely red. Both sexes appear similar. The colouration of juveniles is similar to that of adults, but typically their eyes are dark grey to black, in comparison to the yellow irises around dark eyes of the adult birds, and their undertail coverts are tinged with grey.
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This pheasant is mentioned in the 2008 edition of Guinness World Records for having the longest natural tail feather of any bird species; a record formerly held by the crested argus pheasant. The tail can measure up to long. Females measure long and weigh . They are brown with a blackish crown, a buff face and greyish brown barred tail feathers.
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Jacanas were once placed in the family Parridae based on the genus Parra but the family name is now Jacanidae based on the type genus Jacana. The family is placed within the order Charadriiformes under the suborder Scolopaci and is a sister of the Rostratulidae. They have 10 tail feathers unlike most others wader groups which have twelve. They have a rudimentary caecum.
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New World Blackbirds Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press The greater coverts and primaries are thinly fringed with white. The wing linings are yellow and the outer tail feathers have small white tips. The bill and eyes are dark black, and the legs are blue-grey. Like most tropical oriole species, the females are similar or identical to the males in coloring.
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This is a mainly yellowish-green parrot with a slaty-purple head bordered below by a broad black cheek stripe which becomes a narrow band across nape. The forehead back to the eye area has a pink-purple tinge. There is a reddish-brown patch on the wing-coverts. The tail feathers are purple with yellowish-white tips, and yellow undersides.
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Australian Geographic, (89), 18–19. and several spinetails in the family Furnariidae have 10, 8, or even 6, as is the case of Des Murs's wiretail. Species adapted to tree trunk climbing such as woodcreeper and treecreepers have stiff tail feathers that are used as props during climbing. Extremely long tails used as sexual ornaments are shown by species in different families.
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Legs of males are red and have spurs while the yellow legs of females usually lack spurs. The central tail feathers are long and sickle shaped. Males have an eclipse plumage in which they moult their colourful neck feathers in summer during or after the breeding season. The female is duller and has black and white streaking on the underparts and yellow legs.
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Charles Darwin used it as one of the examples in the first chapter of On The Origin Of Species. He believed it was a descendant of the rock pigeon (Columba livia). A Silky Fantail There is a feather mutation called Silky that gives an interesting lace effect to a Fantails tail feathers. Fantails with this mutation are known as Silky or Lace Fantails.
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Large and predominantly white, the king vulture has gray to black ruff, flight, and tail feathers. The head and neck are bald, with the skin color varying, including yellow, orange, blue, purple, and red. The king vulture has a very noticeable orange fleshy caruncle on its beak. This vulture is a scavenger and it often makes the initial cut into a fresh carcass.
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Feather shafts project at the tip of the tail and the undersides of the inner tail feathers have yellow-orange transverse stripes. The male is about 5% longer than the female, and the male's upper beak is 12–14% longer than the female's. Juveniles generally resemble adults, but have yellow eyerings and cere, an orange-yellow lower beak, and grey- yellow legs.
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Rufous morph female It is a large terrestrial black curassow with a small head, large bluish grey casque on forehead, red bill, white-tipped tail feathers, greenish glossed mantle and breast feathers, and white below. Both sexes are similar. Length in adult birds can vary from . The male, at 3.6 kg (8 lbs), is larger than the female, at 2.6 kg (5.8 lbs).
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Adult bird in Bangalore, India Jerdon's bush lark has arrowhead-like spots pointing upwards on the breast. It is very similar to the Indian bush lark (M. erythroptera) but has buffy lores, less white behind ear coverts, darker center to wing coverts and central tail feathers. Dark centers of primary coverts are prominent, and wing panels are duller and rufous.
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The feathers are black, with white tips, except for the outermost feathers, which are white. The tail has a white tip and three white bands created by the ends of shorter tail feathers. The beak of the species is black, while the feet and legs are whitish-pink or a light flesh colour. The iris is brown or dark brown.
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Like all widowbirds the male and female plumages differ prominently during breeding season. In the breeding season males moult into a black breeding plumage, which includes long tail feathers and yellow shoulder patches (these patches retain a discrete appearance during the non-breeding period). Outside the breeding season the sexes are similar in appearance, both having speckled brown and black plumage.
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The back is olive-grey. The belly, vent and thighs are a uniform yellow with the red being restricted to the undertail-coverts area. The lesser wing coverts are blue and outer median wing coverts red, while the inner median and greater wing coverts, and inner secondaries a yellow-olive colour. The central tail feathers are tinged with pale blue.
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In the outer tail feathers this occupies more than half the length of the feather but in the central feathers it is about one third. There is an over-eye streak of creamy white and the ear- coverts are pale brown. The chin is pale cream and the throat pale buff. The breast is sandy or isabelline buff and the belly creamy white.
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Male in winter The head and nape of the adult male desert wheatear are a pale sandy-grey colour with the feathers tipped grey. The mantle, scapulars and back are a similar but rather richer colour. The rump and upper tail-coverts are pale buff. The basal third of the tail feathers are white and the rest black with a pale buff tip.
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The body was mostly covered in feathers of about . The barbs of the down feathers were laminar instead of hairlike and were frayed at the tips. The most distinctive feature of Protopteryx is that the tail consisted of two long feathers which only had barbs at their tips. Closer to the body, the long tail feathers were thin and needle-like.
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They have yellow outer tail- feathers and yellow fringes to the wing feathers. It is 14–15 cm long. Birds on the mainland are smaller than those on the Falklands with a smaller bill and more yellow in the wings and tail. The call is a short, high-pitched note and the song is a repeated series of two or three whistles.
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It measures in length, and has a very large cream-colored casque on the beak. The head is silver-grey and the rest of the plumage is iridescent black, except for the white rump, lower back, thighs, vent and tip of the outer tail-feathers. The sexes are similar except the female has a smaller casque and reddish skin around the eyes.
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The upperwing-coverts are black with white spots while the underwing-coverts are grey and white. The tail feathers are grey below with white tips and a black subterminal band. The bill is black and the feet are grey with yellowish soles. Adult females are paler above than the males and have a white face and underparts with heavy black streaking.
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Like other manakins, the lance-tailed manakin is a compact, brightly coloured forest bird, typically 13.5 cm long and weighing 17.5 g. Both sexes have bring orange legs and two central tail feathers elongated to form a spike. Females are olive-green, with slightly paler underparts. Most females are solid green, however, a small portion have tawny or red caps.
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Live capons in Hainan, China, displaying characteristic small head, comb and wattle. A plucked capon with its head, feet and tail feathers still attached A capon (from ) is a cockerel (rooster) that has been castrated or neutered, either physically or chemically, to improve the quality of its flesh for food, and, in some countries like Spain, fattened by forced feeding.
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Pygmy parrots are native to the forests of New Guinea and nearby islands. They are tiny birds, fast-moving, and mostly green with bright highlights. A pygmy parrot spends a good deal of time climbing through foliage, using its large feet and beak, and stiffened tail feathers. At a little over long, the buff-faced pygmy parrot is the smallest parrot species.
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This is a medium-large tern, very similar in size and general appearance to its three very close relatives Sandwich tern, Elegant tern and Chinese crested tern. The summer adult has a black cap, black legs and a long sharp orange bill. The upperwings, rump and central tail feathers are grey and the underparts white. The primary flight feathers darken during the summer.
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This long-tailed and large babbler has a brown body with creamy white outer tail feathers which are easily visible as they fly with fluttery wing beats low over the ground. The lores are dark and forehead is grey with white shaft streaks on the feathers. The rump and uppertail covers are pale grey. The mantle has dusky blotches and no shaft streaks.
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Most of its wing coverts, tertials and central tail feathers have pale centres. The primary coverts look all brown. The rufous wing bars are diagnostic but care must be taken not to confuse the bird with Jerdon's bush lark in the central Western Ghats and country around where their ranges overlap. Jerdon's bush lark is darker with more rufous on the wings.
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This involves it raising its crown feathers, ruffling its crown and rump feathers, lowering its wings to display its rump, and raising and flaring its tail feathers. The female often stoops low and gives out a food-begging call. These displays begin before a nest site is chosen and continue through the breeding season until around two weeks after the young have fledged.
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Jungle mynas are long and have grey plumage, darker on the head and wings. The sexes are indistinguishable in plumage. A large white wing patches on the base of the primaries becomes conspicuous in flight, and the tail feathers are broadly tipped in white. There is a tuft of feathers on the forehead arising at the base of the bill.
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The Oxyurini are a tribe of the duck subfamily of birds, the Anatinae. It has been subject of considerable debate about its validity and circumscription. Some taxonomic authorities place the group in its own subfamily, the Oxyurinae. Most of its members have long, stiff tail feathers which are erected when the bird is at rest, and relatively large, swollen bills.
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110 in a nest placed in the hollow of a tree. During courtship, males pursue the female, alight above the female, give a shrill call, and then flick and fan out their tail feathers. This is followed by a rising and falling flight pattern by both sexes. If the male is unsuccessful, the female will threaten the male, gesturing with the mouth open.
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The juvenile looks similar to the adult with a mostly white crown. In the juvenile, the stripes above the eye usually are connected at the nape. The tail feathers usually have black tips or subterminal dots and without the tail streamers that are distinctive on the adult. Occasionally, a juvenile will have black markings on its flanks and under tail coverts.
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The Venezuelan sylph (Aglaiocercus berlepschi) is a small bird in the hummingbird family, Trochilidae. It is restricted to the eastern Venezuelan Coastal Range and is classed as an endangered species by BirdLife International. It is sometimes considered to be a subspecies of the long- tailed sylph (A. kingi). The male is in length with the elongated outer tail- feathers accounting for .
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Females have a blue crown and white throat, breast and belly. The long-tailed sylph is similar in appearance but does not overlap in range. Males of the subspecies caudatus have a mostly blue tail and no blue throat patch while males of the subspecies margarethae have green tips to the tail-feathers. Females have a rufous breast and belly.
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The white throat is often largely obscured but can be puffed up in displaying birds during courtship. The flight and tail feathers are barred with lighter and darker feathers. The eyes are distinctly dark, often blackish in color. The two adult sexes are similar looking but females are generally less rufous in color and have a more indistinct facial disc.
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The tail is dark brown, but the outer webs of the outer tail feathers vary from buff (cf. africana and sharpii) to tawny or bright rufous. The mantle is lighter brown than the back, and the rump still darker brown. The flanks are a shade darker than the rufous-buff belly, but regionally the plumage may also be stained red by soil.
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Its diet apparently includes frogs. The giant snipe is usually seen alone when flushed. Other Gallinago snipes have an aerial display, which involves flying high in circles, followed by a powerful stoop during which the bird makes a drumming sound, caused by vibrations of modified outer tail feathers. This species displays at night, but it is not known whether it drums.
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The bill is dark, somewhat stout and heavy and the iris is reddish. The sexes are not distinguishable in the field and the juvenile has a paler base to the mandible and less streaks on the underside. There are whitish spots at the tip of the tail feathers. The nominate race is found on the plains of the mainland of the Indian Subcontinent.
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Wands are handcrafted from high- quality woods, or "wandwoods", which are capable of sustaining magic (e.g. holly, yew, ebony, vinewood, mahogany, cherry, oak, etc.). A core is then inserted into the middle of the wand from top to bottom, which gives it its power to generate magical effects. Common cores include phoenix tail feathers, unicorn tail hairs, and dragon heartstrings.
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Prioniturus verticalis has mainly dark green plumage on back, an olive/green on its breast and belly. Male birds have a pale blue with small red patch on its forehead and forecrown. Females look identical to the male except, they do not have a red spot on their forecrown. The primary feathers blue on outer webs while the middle tail feathers green.
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The head is black overall with a white supraloral and postocular stripe. The bird's iris is creamy white to pale yellow and the bill is black. This tit-tyrant's back is a dull, grayish brown, and the wings and tail are a duskier shade of this color. The wings also feature two narrow white wingbars, while the outer tail feathers are white.
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After a few weeks the young are able to defend themselves if bothered. Down feathers will be gone by the sixth week, replaced with juvenile feathers. However, fledging will occur before wing and tail feathers are completely grown. In the weeks that follow, fledglings will continue to move further from the nesting site as they grow bigger and more confident.
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They are sexually dimorphic and exhibit a large difference in appearance between sexes. The males of rubronotata possess red forecrowns with red bills and orange eyes. They have purple or blue ear coverts which are streaked with a paler blue along with red underwing coverts. They have a yellow-tipped green tail, with the base of side tail feathers being red.
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The back of a perched russet-crowned Motmot Russet-crowned motmots are relatively small motmots that measure 30.5 to 35.5 cm long and weigh 74 to 104g. Like most motmots, russet-crowned motmots are not sexually dimorphic in plumage. However, females have shorter tail feathers (10 to 15mm) than males (11 to 22mm). Russet-crowned motmots have a rufous crown and nape.
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The blue of the flight feathers and coverts at the underwing is apparent when taking to the air. The upper tail coverts and rump are green tending to olive, perhaps with a red margin. The central tail rectrices are blue and green, outer tail feathers are a similar blue with a white tip. The undertail feathers are blue with white fringes.
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The tail feathers are green with blue and green tips and red spots on the inner side. They produce distinctive loud, sharp and repetitive sounds that resemble a hawk, a natural predator of these birds. It is possible that this sound is used to alert other birds. The syllables are 3-5 times longer than those of white-fronted amazon and Yucatan amazon.
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The central tail feathers were long, and there was a small tuft of gray feathers under the base of the wing. While the beak and legs were black, the leg feathers were a rich golden yellow. It was the only ‘ō’ō known to have eyes with yellow irises. Like other honeyeaters it had a sharp, slightly curved bill for sampling nectar.
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It may be based on the thunderbird. Zapdos has the form of a large bird with black and yellow plumage, with its spiky feathers make it look as if it were made of lightning. Its tail feathers stick out in several directions, furthering this illusion. A large crest of feathers decorates its head, and distinctive black rings encircle its eyes.
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Both sexes have a distinctive green colour in the wild, and captive bred ringnecks have multiple colour mutations including blue, violet and yellow. Rose-ringed parakeets measure on average in length, including the tail feathers, a large portion of their total length. Their average single-wing length is about . In the wild, this is a noisy species with an unmistakable squawking call.
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This is a large black hornbill with a yellow bill, white tail feathers, pale blue skin around eye, blackish feet and bare dark blue throat. The male has rufous/buff face and neck, orange-red eyes, and a high red casque on the top of his bill. The female has a black face and neck, a yellow casque, and brownish eyes.
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The western race has a paler, warmer brown back than birds in southeastern Europe and Asia. The long rufous tail is frequently fanned, showing the black and white tips of the tail feathers. The adult male and female have similar plumage and the juvenile resembles the adult but is paler. These birds feed on insects mostly caught on the ground.
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Subspecies muscatensis from the UAE Like other bee-eaters, this species is a richly coloured, slender bird. It is about 9 inches (16–18 cm) long with about 2 inches made up by the elongated central tail-feathers. The sexes are not visually distinguishable. The entire plumage is bright green and tinged with blue especially on the chin and throat.
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In Govinda-lilamrita, Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami states that Govardhana Hill is shaped like a peacock and that Radha Kunda and Syama Kunda are its eyes. Dan Ghati and Manasi Ganga are its long neck. Mukharavinda is the mouth, Kusuma Sarovara its face, and Punchari is its back and tail feathers. A peacock often curves its neck and puts his head under its stomach.
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The central item of the patch is a fierce representation of a thunderbird on a black bordered triangular field of silver. The triangle sits on a blue, white-bordered, circular field. The thunderbird, bright yellow and outlined in royal blue, has three black concentric triangles superimposed on his chest. The numeral "27" is emblazoned on the bird's tail feathers, directly below the triangles.
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Taking the form of a peacock with a display of fanned tail feathers, this diamond brooch features a collection of coloured diamonds. A total of 120.81 carats of diamonds adorn the brooch, which measures a little over 10 cm in height. This piece is priced at $100 million. At the heart of the brooch, sits a 20.02 carat deep blue pear shape diamond.
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The impact of the eagle's wings on the other die caused a marking outside of Franklin's mouth which, according to some, resembles buck teeth. The quality of half dollars struck by the Mint decreased in the late 1950s, caused by deterioration of the master die from which working dies were made for coinage. In an initial attempt to improve the quality of the pieces, the Mint made slight modifications to the designs, though both the old (Type I) and new (Type II) were struck in 1958 and 1959. One obvious difference between the types is the number of long tail feathers on the eagle—Type I half dollars have four tail feathers, Type II only three. Approximately 5-10% of the 1958 Philadelphia coinage is Type II, struck from dies which were first used to strike the 1958 proofs.
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This trogon measures and weighs about . Males and females both have bright yellow underparts with a narrow band of white separating the yellow from a dark chest. Distinctive markings include a dark eye surrounded by a light blue eye ring and black tail feathers with broad white tips. Males have black heads and breasts with a blue-green sheen on the nape, back and wings.
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The rump and upper tail-coverts are yellowish, the main flight feathers in the wing are brown and the tail feathers are black. The upper breast is black while the lower breast and the rest of the underparts and flanks are yellow or cream with black barrings, markings or chevrons. The eye is dark, the beak is ivory or yellowish, and the legs are grey.
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The rump is yellowish-brown, with some dark barring. The main flight feathers are black and the tail feathers are chestnut, tipped with black. The throat is cinnamon, speckled with brown, and the underparts are buff or chestnut, densely marked with dark barrings or chevron-shaped markings. The eye is reddish brown, the beak is yellow or buff with a bluish base and the legs are grey.
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C. s. normantoni are a little smaller than the nominate form. C. s. normantoni is lightly brownish on the underside of flight and tail feathers. C. s. gymnopis has darker blue eye-rings, more strongly marked pink lores and a yellow wash to the lower-ear coverts. Females are slightly smaller than males in weight, wing length, culmen size, tarsus length, tail length and eye ring diameter.
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Their vocal range is broad and varied, and has been described as harsh and jarring. The shrike's notes include squeaky whistles, shrill trills, and guttural warbles. The trills sung by males during breeding season vary in rhythm and pitch. When alarmed, a shrike will produce a “schgra-a-a” shriek while spreading out its tail feathers. Nestlings will make “tcheek” and “tsp” sounds shortly after hatching.
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Wilson's Bird-of-paradise (Cicinnurus respublica) Handbook of the Birds of the World. The male is a red and black bird-of-paradise, with a yellow mantle on its neck, light green mouth, rich blue feet and two curved violet tail feathers. The head is naked blue, with a black double cross pattern on it. The female is a brownish bird with bare blue crown.
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These dates do fluctuate from year to year based on the weather. Johnsgard (2002) observed weather delayed lekking of up to two weeks by sharp-tailed grouse in North Dakota. The males display on the lek by stamping their feet rapidly, about 20 times per second, and rattle their tail feathers while turning in circles or dancing forward. Purple neck sacs are inflated and deflated during display.
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The Laysan duck is teal-sized and dark brown, with a prominent white eye-ring. The bill is short and spatulate, dark green with variable black blotching in males, and dull orange with variable black blotching in females. The Laysan duck usually has a ring of fat around its neck. Some males show faint iridescence on the head or neck and have slightly upturned central tail feathers.
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Very similar in plumage to european stonechat (Saxicola rubicola). The male has black head, white collar and bright rufous chest patch. The back and wings are dark, with white on wing coverts and rump. The key differentiating feature from male common stonechat is the white inner webs of outer tail feathers which is visible when the bird spreads the tail in flight or while landing.
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This whistling thrush is dark violet blue with shiny spangling on the tips of the body feathers other than on the lores, abdomen and under the tail. The wing coverts are a slightly different shade of blue and the median coverts have white spots at their tips. The bill is yellow and stands in contrast. The inner webs of the flight and tail feathers is black.
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The female's tail feathers are longer and more pointed at the tip than those of the male. The juvenile purple-throated cotinga resembles a paler, buffier female; the plumage of the immature is undescribed. The adult purple-throated cotinga is about in length and weighs an average of . The cotinga has a very wide bill with a strongly arched culmen and weakly developed rictal bristles.
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Tit-spinetails are small passerine birds of the genus Leptasthenura, belonging to the ovenbird family Furnariidae. They are found in South America, particularly the southern and Andean parts of the continent. They are somewhat similar to birds of the tit family in their shape and feeding behaviour, hence the first part of their name. The "spinetail" part of their name refers to their long, pointed tail feathers.
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The Java sparrow is about in length from the beak to its tip of tail feathers. Although only about the size of a house sparrow, it may be the largest species in the estrildid family. The adult is unmistakable, with its grey upperparts and breast, pink belly, white-cheeked black head, red eye- ring, pink feet and thick red bill. Both sexes are similar.
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University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, USA. Her flight and tail feathers are faintly barred brown while the underparts are white in base color with brown spotting and barring on the flanks and upper breast. In confusingly plumaged snowy owls, the sex can be determined by the shape of wing markings, which manifest as bars more so in females and spots in males.Lind, H. (1993).
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It is traditional that the prince, and his council of eleven wears a fore-and-aft bicorne with (pheasant) tail feathers, in particular in those places that are influenced by the Rhenish Carnaval. Carnaval is however by definition controlled by unwritten laws. Hence the use of this tradition varies from place to place. However generally speaking the prince wears "three" feathers on his bicorne.
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It has dark brown upper parts and black tail feathers. The feathers on its lower parts and legs are white, giving it its diagnostic image from below. These vultures are easily distinguishable from all other vulture species as the plumage exhibits a strong contrast between black and white. Individual white- headed vultures can also be reliably identified based on a unique pattern in their median wing coverts.
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Porky raises the alarm and all birds manage to hide except one little chick. The mother hen Henrietta notices that one of her chicks is missing and the chicken-hawk has taken him away. Porky drives his airplane out of the barn and pursues the chicken-hawk. After Porky blows off some tail feathers, the chicken-hawk calls for reinforcements from other chicken-hawks.
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Front view Side view The bird is a long, mostly green, multi-colored amazon parrot with a yellowish white, blue and green head, greenish-bronze upperparts, grey feet, reddish eye, and violet blue-green wings. Its tail feathers are blue with broad yellow tips. There is a less yellow-brown morph and a less common green morph. It has grey feet and reddish eyes.
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The back and inner wings are teal and green, becoming olive-green at the tail, which is white underneath. Takahe have a bright scarlet frontal shield and "carmine beaks marbled with shades of red". Their scarlet legs were described as "crayfish-red" by one of the early rediscoverers. Sexes are similar; the females are slightly smaller, and may display frayed tail feathers when nesting.
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A black comma-shaped marking lies in front of and stretches over and behind the eye, which is deep red and surrounded by a black orbital ring. The leading edge of the outer wing is black. When perched, this gives the species its prominent black "shoulders". The central rectrices of the tail are pale grey, while the rest of the tail feathers are white.
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The common noddy and two species of bosun or tropicbirds, with their brilliant gold or silver plumage and distinctive streamer tail feathers, also nest on the island. Of the ten native land birds and shorebirds, seven are endemic species or subspecies. This includes the Christmas thrush and the Christmas imperial pigeon. Some 86 migrant bird species have been recorded as visitors to the island.
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Tail length, however, varied significantly among scansoriopterygids. Epidexipteryx had a short tail (70% the length of the torso), anchoring long tail feathers, while Scansoriopteryx had a very long tail (over three times as long as the torso) with a short spray of feathers at the tip. All three described scansoripterygid specimens preserve the fossilized traces of feathers covering their bodies.Czerkas, S.A., and Yuan, C. (2002).
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The black bill is short and straight. The adult male volcano hummingbird has bronze-green upperparts and rufous-edged black outer tail feathers. The throat is grey- purple in the Talamanca range, red in the Poas-Barva mountains and pink-purple in the Irazú-Turrialba area, the rest of the underparts being white. The female is similar, but her throat is white with dusky spots.
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The male resplendent quetzal boasts iridescent blue-green tail feathers measuring up to long that were prized by the Maya elite.Christenson 2003, 2007, pp.52–53. The blue-green feathers symbolized vegetation and the sky, both symbols of life for the ancient Maya, while the bright red feathers of the bird's chest symbolized fire. Together, this combination gave a profound religious symbolism to the bird.
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The nominate race of red junglefowl has a mix of feather colours, with orange, brown, red, gold, grey, white, olive and even metallic green plumage. The tail of the male roosters can grow up to , and the whole bird may be as long as . There are 14 tail feathers. A moult in June changes the bird's plumage to an eclipse pattern, which lasts through October.
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Males perform aerial courtship displays involving swirling somersaults, twists, and flips. All partnered with their buzzing calls, they do their best to impress female counterparts. Courtship displays also provide a usage for their long tail feathers (which are longer in males), as a way to impress potential mates. Breeding seasons are dependent on subspecies and location; breeding season ranges from late summer, to mid winter.
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With a population estimated around 2,000-10,000 individual birds, the habitat Due to ongoing habitat loss, small population size, and hunting in some areas for food and its tail feathers, the black sicklebill is declining in a relatively relevant portion of it distribution. It is classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, and is listed on Appendix II of CITES.
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In the best show birds these are quite faint, but nevertheless are still clearly visible. The cheek flash, cere and eye are unaffected by this mutation. The long tail feathers are much paler than the wild-type, being smokey-grey in the blue series and a pale grey-green in the green series. Clearwings which are split for Dilute are often slightly paler than pure Clearwings.
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The bronze-tailed peacock-pheasant is a small, up to 56 cm long, dark brown pheasant with dark grey legs, rather small head and long, narrow tail of sixteen feathers. The tail feathers are chestnut brown with metallic purplish bars near tips. Both sexes are similar. The male has longer tail, two spurs on legs and yellow iris while the unspurred female's is dark brown.
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There is geographical variation in plumage across the four subspecies. Adults have pale yellow eyes and a faint cream coloured supercilium. The throat feathers are grey, often with striation, and the flight feathers on the wings are pale brown. The tail feathers are brown with a black bar and white spot on the tip of all the rectrices, except the central pairs, which are completely dark.
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The male (peacock) of this species is a large bird of up to in length. Though much less impressive than its Asiatic cousins, the male's feathers are nevertheless deep blue with a metallic green and violet tinge. It has bare red neck skin, grey feet, and a black tail with fourteen tail feathers. Its crown is adorned with vertical white elongated hair-like feathers.
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Malimbus, 28, 52-53. In Salonga National Park, its diet is taxonomically narrower in secondary forest than in primary forest. The male has a similar display to that of other species of peafowl, though the Congo peacock actually fans its tail feathers while other peacocks fan their upper tail covert feathers. The Congo peafowl is monogamous, though detailed mating information from the wild is still needed.
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The crown, face, and mantle are black, while the bird's underparts are white, sharply divided from the black above. The wings are largely black with a broad white stripe across the greater coverts. The tail of the species, similar to that of other forktails, is long, graduated, and deeply forked. The tail is black with a white tip and three white bands created by shorter tail feathers.
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The ranges of delesserti and gularis are widely disjunct but museum specimens can be told apart by the pale lower mandible of delesserti unlike the all dark bill of gularis. The tail is uniformly coloured and is darker than the back in delesserti while that of gularis is pale with rufous outer tail feathers. The chin is yellow in gularis while white in delesserti.
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Geographically isolated populations show variations in their songs. Birds have been noted to moult their tail feathers in the beginning of June. Little is known of their dispersal, longevity and other aspects of life history although more than 133 birds have been ringed. Two greyish green and brown-marked eggs are laid during the breeding season that varies from April to June, after the rains.
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The underparts are deep chestnut and the nuchal collar is not well marked. The populations in mainland India, erythropygia has the rump patch uniform dark chestnut without any dark shaft-streaks. The tail fork is shallow and the white patch on the inner web of the outer-tail feathers is indistinct. Populations of japonica breed in eastern Asia and winter in Thailand, Burma, India and northern Australia.
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The Chilean seaside cinclodes grows to a length of about . The upper parts are mainly a dark sooty brown, with a narrow whitish superciliary stripe and pale tips to the outer tail feathers. The wings have a rufous-buff bar that is chiefly visible in flight. The chin, throat and sides of the neck are white while the breast and belly are brown, streaked with white.
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The female is duller but the moustachial stripe can appear more noticeable. The outer tail feathers are whitish. The species was described by Edward Blyth based on a drawing by Francis Buchanan-Hamilton after whom the species is named. It has been suggested that the actual date of the description was 1845 due to delays in the publication of the journal of The Asiatic Society.
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The male Swinhoe's pheasant can grow up to 79 cm. He has a glossy blue-purple chest, belly and rump, white nape, red wattles, white tail feathers, and a white crest. The female is brown marked with yellow arrow-shaped spots and complex barring patterns, and has maroon outer rectrices. The juvenile male is dark blue with brown and yellow patterns on its wings.
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Male and female isabelline wheatear are similar in appearance. The upper-parts are a pale sandy brown with an isabelline tinge (isabelline is a pale grey-yellow, fawn, cream-brown or parchment colour). The lower back is isabelline and the rump and upper tail- coverts are white. The tail feathers are brownish-black with a narrow edge and tip of buff and a large white base.
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The Ainu hunted bear, Ezo deer (a subspecies of sika deer), rabbit, fox, raccoon dog, and other animals. Ezo deer were a particularly important food resource for the Ainu, as were salmon. They also hunted sea eagles such as white-tailed sea eagles, raven and other birds. The Ainu hunted eagles to obtain their tail feathers, which they used in trade with the Japanese.
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The outer tail feathers are white, and the legs, bill and iris are dark brown or blackish. In non-breeding plumage, the head is grey-brown and the supercilium is less distinct. The upperparts are more streaked, and the underparts are white, marked lightly with brown on the breast and flanks. The sexes are similar although the female has, on average, a greyer head.
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Along the cliff face near the Chalk Wall and Meng Liang's Stairway there are a number of caves. Dripping water from natural springs within the caves have created many stalactites. One particular stalactite is approximately 10 metres (33 ft) high, and it is shaped like a Phoenix displaying its tail feathers. Moss and bamboo growing next to the formation look like feathers on a bird.
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The deeper (proximal) parts of the crest feathers and neck feathers are also a salmon color, but the coloration here is hidden by the white color of the more superficial (distal) areas of these feathers. The underside of its wing and tail feathers exhibit a yellowish tinge. The beak is pale grey and eye colour ranges from brown to black. Both sexes are similar.
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The jandaya parakeet is a small, long-tailed parakeet with the reddish-orange body, green wings, vent and tail, yellow head, neck, and shoulders, orange cheeks, black bill, whitish periophthalmic ring, and dark eyes. The ends of the tail feathers are tinged in blue. It measures 30 cm (12 in) in length and weighs 125–140 gm. The jandaya parakeet has a very loud, shrill call.
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Skull showing tongue and supporting structures. The great spotted woodpecker spends much of its time climbing trees, and has adaptations to this lifestyle, many of which are shared by other woodpecker species. These include the zygodactyl arrangement of the foot, with two toes facing forward and two back,Gorman (2014) p. 18. and the stiff tail feathers that are used as a prop against the trunk.
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The body feathers have dense, fluffy bases and are loosely attached to the skin, hence they drop out easily. When a predator catches it, large numbers of feathers come out in the attacker's mouth, and the pigeon may use this temporary distraction to make an escape. It also tends to drop the tail feathers when preyed upon or under traumatic conditions, probably as a distraction mechanism.
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The New Zealand fernbird is a rich brown above and white below, with brown spots on both the throat and breast. Early settlers called it the "swamp sparrow" no doubt because of its colouration. The tail feathers are thin, dark brown, and spine-like. The birds reach a length of 18 cm (7 in) – as measured from tip of beak to end of tail.
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Centrocercus species are notable for their elaborate courtship rituals. Each spring males congregate on leks and perform a "strutting display." The male puffs up a large, whitish air sack on its chest, makes a soft drumming noise, and struts around with his tail feathers displayed and air sack puffed up. Groups of females observe these displays and select the most attractive males to mate with.
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They may be compared with the falcon tail feathers in two-feather crowns such as those of Amun, which are more narrow and straight without curve. The Atef crown identifies Osiris in ancient Egyptian painting. Osiris wears the Atef crown as a symbol of the ruler of the underworld. The tall bulbous white piece in the center of the crown is between two ostrich feathers.
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It served not only as a colorful display, but also as protection from all dangers. Some of the eggs were emptied, and a bird's head made of wax or dough and wings and tail-feathers of folded paper were attached. These “doves” were suspended before icons in commemoration of the birth of Christ, when a dove came down from heaven and soared over the child Jesus.
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The underside of the spotless crake is also a bluish–grey which then transitions to a blackish–grey on the underside of the tail feathers. Its bill is black, and its eyes are a deep red which contrast sharply with the head. The legs and feet are a reddish–pink colour. Spotless crake lack any obvious sexual dimorphism, making it hard to distinguish between male and female. .
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A young bird with the base of the mandible grey, Rajasthan This myna is pale buff creamy with a black cap and a loose crest. The bill is yellow with a bluish base. The iris is pale and there is a bluish patch of skin around the eye. The outer tail feathers have white and the black primaries of the wings do not have any white patches.
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At Giants Castle, KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg, South Africa The illustration of Cape vulture skeleton (1904) This large vulture is of a creamy-buff colour, with contrasting dark flight- and tail-feathers. The adult is paler than the juvenile, and its underwing coverts can appear almost white at a distance. The head and neck are near-naked. The eyes are yellowish, and the bill is black.
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The feathers of Yixianornis are unique among those preserved in other Mesozoic bird specimens, and have allowed scientists to infer its probable lifestyle. The wings were broad and rounded, with similarly large, rounded feathers. The tail feathers were arranged in a graduated series, with the outer feathers anchored closer to the base of the tail. This would have given the tail a slightly rounded silhouette.
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Whereas, the extraordinary tail feathers of the male long-tailed widowbird are displayed to choosy females while the male flies above his grassland territory. Biological ornamentation is also seen in the common roach fish, Rutilus rutilus. Male roach develop sexual ornaments (breeding tubercles) during the breeding season. Roach display lek-like spawning behavior, whereby females choose between males, usually choosing the more elaborately ornamented ones.
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The Pekin is a true bantam, that is, a breed of miniature chicken which has no large fowl counterpart. They are rather round-shaped, and their carriage tilts forward, with the head slightly closer to the ground than their elaborate tail feathers. This 'tilt' is a key characteristic of the Pekin. The bird on the whole, though the tail especially, should be abundantly feathered, and well rounded.
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The huia (; Heteralocha acutirostris) is an extinct species of New Zealand wattlebird, endemic to the North Island of New Zealand. The last confirmed sighting of a huia was in 1907, although there were credible sightings as late as the early 1960s. Its extinction had two primary causes. The first was rampant overhunting to procure huia skins for mounted specimens and their tail feathers for hat decorations.
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This species, like other bee- eaters, is a richly coloured, slender bird. It is predominantly green; its face has blue sides with a black eye stripe, and a yellow and brown throat; the beak is black. It can reach a length of , with the two elongated central tail feathers adding another . Sexes are mostly alike but the tail-streamers of the female are shorter.
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Rufous-Crested Coquettes are of 6.4cm to 7.0cm in length, have a wingspan of 4.0cm to 4.5cm, and have weigh an average of 2.8g. This species has a short orange bill that ends in a sharp blackened point. Its back and stomach is a light iridescent green. A band of white feathers crosses the rump, and brown, orange, and green tail feathers extend posteriorly from it.
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The Veraguan mango is a medium-sized hummingbird species, reaching lengths of 11–12 cm. Both sexes are metallic green with a slightly decurved, dark grey beak, and black tail feathers with a red circle central to each feather. This species exhibits sexual dimorphism. Males have a blueish breast and belly, whilst females have a white-cream belly with a dark teal stripe running down the breast.
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The upper parts and wings are golden olive in color and the underparts are bright blue with yellow lateral patches. The crown and nape are black, the rump is bright yellow, and the thighs are reddish brown. The tail feathers are gray with chestnut tips and the tail coverts are red and dark green. The face has patches of yellow and yellow-green and the iris is red.
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A complete albino often has weak eyesight and brittle wing and tail feathers, which may reduce its ability to fly. In flocks, albinos are often harassed by their own species. Such observations have been made among red-winged blackbirds, barn swallows, and African penguins. In a nesting colony of the latter, three unusual juveniles—one black-headed, one white- headed, and one full albino—were shunned and abused by companions.
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"We had no idea of the impact.""Did Chernobyl Leave an Eden for Wildlife?", by Henry Fountain, The New York Times, 28 August 2007 It is unknown whether fallout contamination will have any long-term adverse effect on the flora and fauna of the region, as plants and animals have significantly different and varying radiologic tolerance compared with humans. Some birds are reported with stunted tail feathers (which interferes with breeding).
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You won't need telling twice." Andrew Ryce of Resident Advisor wrote, "It never feels like Dreijer is playing catch- up. Plunge is the natural next step, a realization of impulses that have long lain dormant, or at least unrecognized." Andy Jex of MusicOMH wrote, "This is a joyous artistic rebirth, its creator shaking her tail feathers, pushing her own boundaries and immersed in emotion and whim brought out from within.
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The female is similar to the male, but is duller overall and has a chestnut-tinged crown. Juvenile birds resemble adults but have greyish napes and more chestnut in the crown, and the feathers of the back, rump and primaries are scalloped with ochre. The secondaries on the wing and the tail feathers are edged with white. The song of this species is delicate, and does not carry far.
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The dinosaur's tail is long and feathered, with end feathers up to long, equalling approximately 30% of the length of the animal's skeleton. This length exceeds the previous record length of for feathers from non-avian dinosaurs. The elongated tail feathers are thought to have helped provide softer and safer landings. They could have controlled pitch, a feature useful for a heavier animal, that would have attained a faster gliding speed.
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The bee-eaters are a group of near passerine birds in the family Meropidae, containing three genera and twenty-seven species. Most species are found in Africa and Asia, with a few in southern Europe, Australia, and New Guinea. They are characterised by richly coloured plumage, slender bodies, and usually elongated central tail feathers. All have long down-turned bills and medium to long wings, which may be pointed or round.
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The tail is long and graduated, ranging from 11 to 19.3 cm in length. This species measures between 23 and 29 cm in total, and body mass ranges from 30 to 46.5 g in males and 23 to 43 g in females. Females are smaller than males, with shorter bills and tail feathers. Males also have triangular-shaped bulge on the sixth primary feather, used in mating displays.
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Reported range from observations submitted to eBird shows the migration pattern of the species The adult male barn swallow of the nominate subspecies H. r. rustica is long including of elongated outer tail feathers. It has a wingspan of and weighs . It has steel blue upperparts and a rufous forehead, chin and throat, which are separated from the off-white underparts by a broad dark blue breast band.
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An Aylesbury duckling incubates in the egg for 28 days. Until eight weeks after hatching, the time of their first moult, ducks and drakes (females and males) are almost indistinguishable. After moulting, males have two or three curved tail feathers and a fainter, huskier quack than the female. By one year of age, females and males grow to an average weight of respectively, although males can reach around .
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The beak is white and the irises are brown. The upper breast is red and the lower breast is yellow fading to pale green over the abdomen. The feathers of the back and shoulders are black, and have yellowish or greenish margins giving rise to a scalloped appearance that varies slightly between the subspecies and the sexes. The wings and lateral tail feathers are bluish while the tail is dark green.
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They are also noted for their distinctive pair of ribbon-like tail feathers of disputed function. The wing anatomy of confuciusornithids suggests an unusual flight behavior, due to anatomy that implies conflicting abilities. They possess feathers similar to those of fast-flapping birds, which rely on quick flapping of their wings to stay aloft. At the same time, their wing anatomy also suggests a lack of flapping ability.
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Nyctidromus albicollis Louis Agassiz Fuertes, 1926 This medium-sized nightjar is long and has two colour morphs, the plumage being variegated greyish-brown or rufous-brown. It is long-tailed and has broad rounded wings. The buff 'eyering' and 'facial stripe' contrast with the reddish sides of the face. The adult male pauraque has a white band near the wing tips, and the outer tail feathers are mainly white.
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Juveniles are duller and browner, with less contrast and shorter outer tail feathers. The flight is slow and buoyant, and the call is a twittering chissick. This species can be distinguished from the smaller lesser striped swallow, Hirundo abyssinica, in that the latter species has heavier and darker underparts striping, a deeper red rump, and rufous rather than buffy ear coverts. The lesser striped swallow also prefers less open habitats.
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There is also a buff patch on the side of the neck. Many of the wing feathers have buff edges, and the outer tail feathers are white. Jackson's pipit has been considered a subspecies of the long-billed pipit. (Sibley and Monroe suggested that it might be conspecific with the bannermani subspecies of the long-billed pipit.) It has also been considered a subspecies or morph of the African pipit.
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Red-crowned amazons usually have horn colored beaks and ceres but these can sometimes have black highlights. Their legs are flesh-colored or gray. They are approximately 11-13 inches in length from the beak to the tip of the tail feathers with a wingspan of 15-16 inches. Amazon parrots are not sexually dimorphic, so the only true way to know a parrot's sex is by genetic testing.
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They are mainly green and have a reddish forehead and pale blue lower back, rump and upper tail feathers. The tail is brownish-red tipped with very pale blue. The bare facial skin is patterned with lines of small dark feathers, which are reddish in older and female parrots. Juveniles have grey-coloured eyes instead of black, are duller in colour and have shorter tails which are tipped in yellow.
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The tail is broad with white tips on the three outer tail feathers. The bird has a bare patch of skin behind each eye; this patch is shaded blue anterior to red posterior. The lesser roadrunner is slightly smaller, not as streaky, and has a smaller bill. Both the lesser roadrunner and the greater roadrunner leave behind very distinct "X" track marks appearing as if they are travelling in both directions.
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Well-preserved feathers surround every part of the skeleton except the snout and feet. The body and tail feathers are short, hair-like, and do not have rachises. The feathers on the upper side of the neck are longer than those on the lower side. Asymmetrical pennaceous feathers are preserved attached to the wings, although they are shorter than in other enantiornitheans, being only twice the length of the hand.
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It has a long forked tail, with a row of white spots on the individual feathers. These birds are about long, including the outer tail feathers which are slightly shorter in the female. The welcome swallow's weight is about 9-20g. From the Gould collection in Tasmania a “natural size” male had a wing size of 11.1 cm, tail size of 7.4 cm, and a culmen of 0.7 cm.
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The distinctive plumage and tail feathers clearly confirm that this is a Harris's hawk This medium-large hawk is roughly intermediate in size between a peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) and a red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). Harris's hawks range in length from and generally have a wingspan of about Clark, W. S. and B. K. Wheeler. (1987). A Field Guide to Hawks of North America. Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston.
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The shield on the reverse was given rococo sides; previously they had been straight. A ninth leaf was added to the olive branch, and the shape of the leaves was changed. The finials of the scroll were made smaller though more elaborate—on the left-hand scroll, the finials impinge less on the letters "ibus" in "Pluribus" than before. The eagle's wings and tail feathers were also slightly elongated.
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The body colour of the Greywing variety is about half the intensity of the corresponding normal variety, and the wing, head and neck markings are similarly reduced in intensity from black to mid-grey. The spots are grey and the cheek patches are pale violet. The tail feathers are grey with a bluish tinge. The overall effect is a very pleasing combination of pastel shades, particularly so in the blue series.
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The Australasian gannet (Morus serrator), also known as the Australian gannet or tākapu, is a large seabird of the booby and gannet family, Sulidae. Adults are mostly white, with black flight feathers at the wingtips and lining the trailing edge of the wing. The central tail feathers are also black. The head is tinged buff-yellow, with a pale blue-grey bill edged in black, and blue- rimmed eyes.
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Open-work charms depicting fenghuang are much less commonly seen than those that depict Chinese dragons. Fenghuang in Chinese mythology are symbols of "peace" and "joy", as fenghuang are seen as a symbol of yin they tend to have tail feathers in even numbers (as even numbers represent yin while odd numbers represent yang).Sportstune (Chinese charms) Chinese charms, section 8. 8. OPEN WORK CHARMS. 8.1 Geometric designs.
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The plumage is mostly dark grey with a white eyebrow, moustache and tips to the tail feathers. The belly is white and the breast is blackish with white feather edges giving a scaly appearance. The species is closely related to the rufous fantail (Rhipidura rufifrons) but it is darker and duller in appearance with a different song and feeding behaviour. The scientific name commemorates the Polish naturalist Jan Kubary.
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The brown gerygone (Gerygone mouki), previously known as the brown warbler, is a small passerine bird native to eastern coastal Australia. The upper parts of the brown gerygone are a deep olive-grey or olive-brown, while its face and underparts are a much paler grey, cream, or washed-out brown. The tail feathers are dark and may be white-tipped. It is approximately 10 cm in length.
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The adult male has wine-red streaks on the gorget, green flanks and a dark tail. Females and immatures have a pinkish wash on the flanks, dark streaks on the throat and a dark tail with white tips. The only similar birds are the rufous hummingbird and the Allen's hummingbird, but these birds are larger with more distinct and contrasting rufous markings on tail and flanks, and longer central tail feathers.
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They have few predators but injured birds may be taken by birds of prey. An arbovirus that causes "Balagodu", trematodes and several other parasites have been isolated from the species. Antibodies to Japanese encephalitis and West Nile virus has been detected in pond herons and cattle egrets from southern India. Traces of heavy metals acquired from feeding in polluted waters may be particularly concentrated in the tail feathers.
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The Dilute mutation changes the body colour of the wild-type Light Green to yellow, with a variable amount of light green suffusion. The suffusion is deepest on the rump and around the vent. The spots and markings on the wing, head and neck, which are black in the wild-type, are pale grey. The cheek patches are pale lavender and the long tail feathers are pale bluey-grey.
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The phalanx bones of the toes are shortened as in modern mousebirds, but uniquely the first phalanges of the forward pointing toes are all equally shortened. The fourth toe was capable of reversing as in modern mousebirds, and it was presumably pamprodactyl. It is unknown if Oligocolius had the characteristic long tail feathers of other mousebirds, however O. brevitarsus has a very well-developed pygostyle to suggest so.
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It had some yellowish plumes on its rump, but lacked yellow thigh feathers like the Bishop's ōō, and also lacked the whitish edgings on its tail feathers like the Oahu ōō. It had the largest yellow plumes on its wings out of all the species of ōō. The name of the cinder cone Puu Ōō is often translated as "Hill of the Ōō-Bird", referring to this species.
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A Cantonese opera exhibit at the Hong Kong Museum of History, 2008. Hats and helmets signify social status, age and capability: scholars and officials wear black hats with wings on either side; generals wear helmets with pheasants' tail feathers; soldiers wear ordinary hats, and kings wear crowns. Queens or princesses have jeweled helmets. If a hat or helmet is removed, this indicates the character is exhausted, frustrated, or ready to surrender.
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The superb parrot is medium-sized, bright green, approximately long, and has long tail feathers, a yellow-green neck, and yellow-orange irises. The adult male has a scarlet band on its upper chest and a bright yellow face and throat. The adult female has a pale blue-green face, greyish-green throat, a variable tinged russet-pink fore-throat, and orange thighs. Juveniles have brown irises and otherwise resemble females.
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Similar in appearance, all treecreepers are small birds with streaked and spotted brown upperparts, rufous rumps and whitish underparts. They have long decurved bills, and long rigid tail feathers that provide support as they creep up tree trunks looking for insects. The Eurasian treecreeper is long and weighs 7.0-12.9 g (0.25-0.46 oz). It has warm brown upperparts intricately patterned with black, buff and white, and a plain brown tail.
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Falco's name and hooked beak suggests that he is a falcon of some kind, with some official material referring to him as a falcon. On the contrary, the color of his feathers and the shape of his tail feathers resembles that of a pheasant, more specifically the Mikado pheasant and Edwards's pheasant. Interviews with the original developers reveal that Falco was originally intended to be a pheasant. Super Smash Bros.
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It also has three white bands along its length, formed by the white tips of shorter tail feathers. The juvenile of the species lacks a white forehead, is brown above, and has dark scales on its breast. The tail of the juvenile is shorter than that of the adult: juveniles also have greyish or yellowish lores, and greyish or white chin and throat. The flanks are a dull grey-brown.
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The adult male has a velvety black head with a white loral spot and narrow supercilium, the head colour fades to blackish- grey on the hindcrown and is separated from the back by a white collar. The mantle and back are velvety-black with a mottled rump which has long, fluffy feathers. The wings are very black with a contrasting white wingstripe. The tail is black with white outer tail feathers.
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It was first reported in 1835 by the bird collector Andrew Matthews for George Loddiges, after whom the genus is named. The marvellous spatuletail is unique among birds in having just four feathers in its tail. Its most remarkable feature is the male's two long racquet-shaped outer tail feathers that cross each other and end in large violet-blue discs or "spatules". He can move them independently.
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They have similar skull morphologies, nine large primaries, 12 tail feathers and no crop. In all species the female bird builds the nest, incubates the eggs and broods the young. Fringilline finches raise their young almost entirely on arthropods, while the cardueline finches raise their young on regurgitated seeds. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2012 found that the greenfinches are not closely related to other members of the genus Carduelis.
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The bird is typically decorated with paper eyes, a plastic top hat, and one or more tail feathers. The whole setup pivots on an adjustable crosspiece attached to the neck. Despite the drinking bird's appearance and classification as a toy there is a potential danger of thin shards of glass should the bulb break. Early models were often filled with highly flammable substances, though the fluid in later versions is nonflammable.
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"Proud as a peacock" is a saying that is used to mean a vain or self-centered person. The phrase comes from the plumage of the male peafowl (females are peahens). When a male is courting, he spreads his tail feathers, sometimes five feet in length, out in a fan pattern to attract a female. Thus, someone who is "proud as a peacock" is similarly "strutting his stuff".
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According to Weske et al., based on a single individual bird, the Sira curassow is very similar morphologically to the horned curassow, however the casque is less erect and more rounded (ellipsoidal instead of elongated cone). Additionally the outer tail feathers have narrower white tips and the four central tail feather completely lack white colouring, although this last characteristic appears to be very variable and perhaps not diagnostic.
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Zoe 4: 228–247. In copulation, the female, when perched, tilts forward, allowing the male to land with his feet lodged on her horizontal back. The female twists and moves her tail feathers to one side, while the mounted male twists his cloacal opening around the female's cloaca. Copulation lasts 5 to 10 seconds and during pre-nesting courtship in late winter or early spring can occur numerous times each day.
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The only well-preserved tail feathers come from the type specimen of J. palmapenis. A study by Gregory M. Erickson in 2009 has shown that Jeholornis (along with Archaeopteryx) had relatively slow ontogenic development, i.e. they grew very slowly, compared to most modern birds, which grow very quickly. The living kiwi birds however, have slow development, and it has been speculated that Jeholornis could have had a metabolism similar to these.
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It has been considered conspecific with Javan sunbird, Aethopyga mystacalis. The Temminck's sunbird is 10 cm (female) -12.5 cm (male) long. The longer-tailed male is mostly scarlet, except for a greyish belly, yellow and purple bands between the back and tail, and four purple bands on the head emanating from the beak. The female is drab olive, except for rufous fringes to the wing and tail feathers.
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The names spink and shell apple are among the many folk names listed for the common chaffinch by Reverend Charles Swainson in his Provincial Names and Folk Lore of British Birds (1885). The Fringillidae are all seed-eaters with stout conical bills. They have similar skull morphologies, nine large primaries, 12 tail feathers and no crop. In all species, the female builds the nest, incubates the eggs, and broods the young.
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The common woodshrike is dully ashy brown and like other woodshrikes has a large head with a strong hooked beak. They have a broad creamy brow above a dark cheek patch and white outer tail feathers contrasting with their dark tail. Young birds have streaks and spot on the crown and white spots on the mantle. The underside is also streaked and the breast is heavily marked in young birds.
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This uniform, worn for both parade and ordinary duties, was practical and smart but plain by the standards of the period. In 1908 a more elaborate full dress was adopted in "Atholl Grey" (a light grey with slightly violet tint). Tunic and overalls were in this distinctive colour, with collars, shoulder straps, piping and trouser stripes in yellow. The slouch hat continued to be worn, with black cock's tail feathers.
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Two at Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo, Hawaii, USA At Kakegawa Kacho-en, Japan It has a total length of about , of which almost half is tail feathers. The general plumage is green, with a distinct yellow collar that is broadest on the back of the neck. The yellow collar develops as the bird ages, with more vibrant colors found in mature birds. The front and crown is brownish black.
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The plumbeous ibis is the most morphologically similar to the sympatric buff-necked ibis Theresticus caudatus, but differs in colouration and neck structure. The adult plumage is largely grey; but can be bluish grey, greenish grey or brownish grey. The dorsal feathers are mottled greyish-brown, so that the plumage appears lighter below than above. The flight and tail feathers are dark brown or black, superimposed with a glossy greenish bronze.
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The swift parrot is about long and has long pointed wings and long tapering tail feathers. It is mainly green with bluish crown and red on the face above and below the beak. The adult female is slightly duller, and the juvenile has a dark brown iris and a pale orange bill. The forehead to throat is crimson and there is also crimson patch at the top, edge of the wing.
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The central tail feathers are unbanded and only have a dark terminal band. Juveniles have dark streaks and spots on the upper breast and the wing is narrowly barred while the tail has dark but narrow bands. A post juvenile transitional plumage is found with very strong barring on the contour feathers of the underside. The call is pee- wee, the first note being higher and the second being longer.
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The flight and tail feathers are strongly barred dark brown and buffish. The facial disc is poorly defined but a sizeable off- white area on the eyebrows and forehead stands out. While buffy and brown fish owls are featherless on their legs and the Blakiston's fish owl (B. blakistoni) has totally feathered legs (the latter more like most Bubo), the tawny fish owl has feathering over two-thirds of the tarsi.
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The underparts are yellow-green (brightest on the throat and belly) with streaks on the flanks. It has black lores, a narrow black chin, a pale eye ring and white outer tail feathers. There are two bars on the wing, formed by pale tips to the median and greater wing coverts. The female is similar to the male but paler without the black on the lores and chin.
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Sharpe's lark, M. (a.) sharpii, of northwestern Somalia, has almost plain, coppery red upper parts and is sometimes (e.g., by Sibley and Monroe) regarded as a separate and endangered species. Its small range of some 21,200 km2 is impacted by overgrazing and conversion to croplands. It may however be conspecific with Somali lark, M. (a.) somalica, which differs by its very long bill and white edges to the outer tail feathers.
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Breeding usually takes place from January to April while a second season happens from July to September. During breeding season the male performs an elaborate courtship display to attract a female. In the display, the male approaches the female with small steps and hops while making a warbling sound. He also extends his neck to show of his blue throat patch while raising his rump, displaying his tail feathers.
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The birds find food by climbing tree bark vertically or by climbing along the bottom of branches while hanging upside-down. While foraging and feeding, the tail feathers are used as a prop against the tree surface. The parrot feeds on fungi and lichens found on the tree bark, as well as the seeds of the casuarina tree in which it is commonly found.del Hoyo, Elliott and Sargatal. 1992.
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Large, with long tail and unique crest, sexes similar, races differ in that cagayanensis is smaller with less extensive and shorter superciliary crest and with olive wash on underparts compared to superciliosus. And upperparts, wings, and tail black with bluish green gloss; superciliery or eyebrow composed of long, loosely webbed red feathers running from lores to nape; graduated tail feathers tipped white; underparts black with dull greenish tinge.
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The males have longer tail feathers and brighter coloring than females. The male also has a coral-red beak, while the female's is duller and has a greyish crown. Another difference is that the male has an orange iris, while the female's is much browner. In addition, the male of the species has a longer, projecting extension from the end of the 3rd primary (flight) feather on each side.
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Just as Porky departs, the lit fuse follows Daffy into his hotel office; the hotel explodes and has to be closed for repairs. The short ends with Daffy asking the composer for “a little traveling music, please” (a reference to The Jackie Gleason Show) before running out of the now-ruined hotel and running away with his trade- mark laugh in pain as his tail feathers are on fire.
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The mugimaki flycatcher is 13 to 13.5 centimetres long. It has a rattling call and often flicks its wings and tail. The adult male has blackish upperparts with a short white supercilium behind the eye, a white wing-patch, white edges to the tertials and white at the base of the outer tail-feathers. The breast and throat are orange-red while the belly and undertail-coverts are white.
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Within an hour, it will be able to run reasonably well; it can flutter for a short distance and run very fast within two hours, and despite not having yet grown tail feathers, it can fly strongly within a day. Chicks have no contact with adults or other chicks; they tend to hatch one at a time, and birds of any age ignore one another except for mating or territorial disputes.
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The male lekking fish, Rutilus, displays elaborate colors in its scales Ornamentation is a common biological trait seen in birds. The male quetzal has elaborate ornamentation to aid in mating. Male quetzals have iridescent green wing coverts, back, chest and head, and a red belly. During mating season, male quetzals grow twin tail feathers that form an amazing train up to three feet long (one meter) with vibrant colors.
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Males measure from in length, against the females' length of around long. The male of the eastern slopes of the northern Andes has elongated tail feathers that curve outward and taper from a broad base to a slender tip. The outermost is longest and each successive feather toward the center is shorter. All are steel-blue with white shafts, making a most striking and curious display when spread.
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Their sclera is dark brown and their pupils are black. Their wings are like all red-billed hornbills, with large and small circles of white feathers surrounded by black feathers on the exterior and white on the upper half of the interior and black on the lower half of the interior. They have long tail feathers that are black on the exterior and a greyish white on the interior.
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The male is a velvet black and green bird-of-paradise with black flank plumes, black curved bill, yellow mouth, blackish feet and dark brown iris. It has an iridescent greenish blue on its crown, throat, breast shield and central tail feathers. The female is a rufous brown bird with barred buff below. Its appearance resembles, and it is sometimes considered to be a subspecies of the magnificent riflebird.
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Batabano is known for its extravagant costumes. The Masquerade Bands that partake in the parade use costumes to highlight their performances. At the end of both the Junior and Adult parade, the best costumes of the year are recognized and awarded. Traditional men’s costumes include shorts, feathered headdresses, and jeweled neck pieces and cuffs. Women’s full costume usually includes a multicolored bikini, feather headdresses, leg pieces, and extra tail feathers.
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Bruce (1999) pp 34–75, Svensson et al. (1999) pp. 212–213 The bird's head and upper body typically vary between pale brown and some shade of grey (especially on the forehead and back) in most subspecies. Some are purer, richer brown instead, and all have fine black-and-white speckles except on the remiges and rectrices (main wing and tail feathers), which are light brown with darker bands.
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The lesser seedcracker grows to a length of about . The male plumage is brown tinged with olive, apart from the forehead, crown, side of face, chin, throat and upper breast which are bright red, and the rump and central tail feathers which are deep blood red. The underparts are paler than the upper parts. The female is similar but has a smaller area of red on the face and crown.
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At Cooloolah NP, SE Queensland, Australia Up to 30 cm long. Plumage grass green, each feather with black and yellow markings; narrow orange-red band to forehead; head, nape, upper back and breast green, each feather with black shaft marking; feathers of abdomen, thighs and under tail-coverts greenish yellow with black barring; under wing-coverts green; primary coverts green; flight-feathers green with pale stripe across them; underside of flight- feathers with pale yellow wing-stripe; upperside of tail-feathers green with yellowish striped markings, underside brownish; outer tail-feathers yellow with brownish-black striping; bill greyish brown to horn-colour; cere greyish pink; narrow periophthalmic ring pale grey; iris whitish yellow; longish feet greyish brown; claws not so curved as other parrots. Immatures as adults, but with slightly duller plumage; orange-red band to forehead absent; head, nape, upper back and breast green, each feather with distinct black shaft markings; tail shorter; iris brown.
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The pied stilt grows to a length of about with a wingspan of about . The back of the head and neck, the back and the upper surfaces of the wings are glossy greenish-black. The undersides of the wings are plain black and the remainder of the plumage is white, apart from the tail feathers which are tinged with grey. The long, thin legs are pink and the toes have black claws.
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These displays are mainly performed by male snipe and they can be distinguished by their frayed middle tail-feathers. Drumming can also be performed in a sexual display over home range. If a snipe is disturbed by a suspected intruder, then they may start drumming as a way to distract the potential threat. This context of drumming can be seen in both male and female snipe during the early part of the breeding season.
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The warbler's upper body is predominantly black with white areas, while its underparts are white with black streaks. Other identifying characteristics are dark brown eyes, white patches on its ears and neck, an incomplete white eyering, a white eyestripe, and two white spots on its outer tail feathers. Characteristic of Antillean warblers (S. adelaidae, S. delicata, S. plumbea, and S. pharetra), the species features a long bill and short, round wings ( average).
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The male California gnatcatcher is dusky gray overall, distinguished only by its black crown and thin black beak. It has a long, thin black tail with narrow white tips and edges on the underside of the tail feathers. However, the male loses its plumage colors by winter and obtains a plumage color similar to the females. The female is similar to the male, but with a blue-gray instead of a black crown.
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Kemp, A. C., & Kemp, M. I. (1980). The biology of the southern ground hornbill Bucorvus leadbeateri (Vigors)(Aves: Bucerotidae). Annals of the Transvaal Museum, 32(4), 65-100. Other species rival the southern ground species in length, at up to about , including the Abyssinian ground hornbill (Bucorvus abyssinicus), the great hornbill (Buceros bicornis) and, probably the longest of all (perhaps exceeding ) thanks in part to its extended tail feathers, the helmeted hornbill (Rhinoplax vigil).
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It builds a flimsy dish nest of twigs 1–11 m high in a tree and lays two white eggs. Blue ground doves are small pigeons, 20 cm long with a weight of 65-72 g. Adult males have blue-grey upperparts and paler grey underparts, becoming grey-white on the face. The flight feathers and outer tail feathers are blackish, and the wings are boldly spotted black (these spots often forming distinct bands).
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Toxostoma ocellatum The ocellated thrasher (Toxostoma ocellatum) is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is endemic to the highlands of south-central Mexico, where ts natural habitats are dry scrubland and open oak and pine woodland between 1500 and 3000 m above sea-level. About 30 cm long, its upperparts are brown while the underparts are white with round black spots. The outer tail-feathers have narrow white tips.
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The term honesty in animal communication is controversial because in non- technical usage it implies intent, to discriminate deception from honesty in human interactions. However, biologists use the phrase "honest signals" in a direct, statistical sense. Biological signals, like warning calls or resplendent tail feathers, are honest if they truly convey useful information to the receiver. That is, the signal trait conveys to the receiver the presence of an otherwise unobservable factor.
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The iris, underside of the casque and orbital skin colours vary between the sexes The great hornbill is a large bird, long, with a wingspan and a weight of . The average weight of 7 males was whereas that of 3 females was . It is the heaviest, but not the longest, Asian hornbill (falling second to the similarly weighted helmeted hornbill due to the latter's extremely long tail feathers).Holmes, D. A., & Nash, S. (1990).
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This pattern however is also found in immatures whose neck is lighter and lack the long pointed scapulars. In flight the long and slender neck, wide wing and wedge shaped tail make it distinctive. Young birds have a pale brown neck and appear whitish on the underside and lack the white streak along the side of the neck. The inner secondaries or tertials and the central tail feathers appear wavy or corrugated.
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The outer tail feathers are elongated, giving the distinctive deeply forked "swallow tail". There is a line of white spots across the outer end of the upper tail. p1061–1064 The female is similar in appearance to the male, but the tail streamers are shorter, the blue of the upperparts and breast band is less glossy, and the underparts paler. The juvenile is browner and has a paler rufous face and whiter underparts.
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White-tailed ptarmigan males are usually monogamous and remain with the same mate for one breeding season. To attract females, a male will strut and display his tail feathers. The female builds a simple scrape nest on the ground, while the male acts as a sentry to guard the area. The nest is a shallow depression in a snow-free area, generally protected from the wind and is softened with grasses and a few feathers.
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The bar-throated apalis is a slender bird with a long tail and is 11 to 13 cm in length. The plumage varies depending on the subspecies: the upper parts can be grey or green while the underparts are white or pale yellow. All forms have a narrow black band across the breast, white outer tail-feathers and a pale eye. The black bill is fairly long and slender and is slightly curved.
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Size of S. chaoyangensis compared with a human Sapeornis was large for an early avialan, about long in life, excluding the tail feathers. The hand of Sapeornis was far more advanced than that of Archaeopteryx. It had three fingers, the outer ones with two and the middle one with three phalanges, and a well-fused carpometacarpus. Its arms were about half again as long as the legs, suggesting a large wing area.
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The horned guan (Oreophasis derbianus) is a large, approximately long, turkey- like bird with glossy black dorsal plumage, red legs, a white iris, a yellow bill, and a red horn on top of its head. The breast and upper belly are white, and its long tail feathers are black with a white band near the base. Both sexes are similar. The young are duller with a smaller horn, and have a brown tail and wings.
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The adult long-billed corella measures from 38 to 41 cm in length,Birds in Backyards - Long-billed Corella has a wingspan around 80-90 cm, and averages 567 g in weight. It has a long, bone-coloured beak, and a rim of featherless, bluish skin around the eyes. The plumage is predominantly white with reddish feathers around the eyes and lores. The underside of the wings and tail feathers are tinged with yellow.
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The Nauru reed warbler is a medium-sized and warmly coloured reed warbler, with a relatively light build. The entirety of the upperparts are dark brown, with the rump and uppertail coverts slightly brighter than the tail and mantle. When closed, the wing is the same colour as the mantle, short and rounded. The wing does not reach the start of the tail feathers, which enhances the appearance of a long tail.
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The female has a narrower ventral line and is slightly duller. The upper tail coverts are ashy while the tail is black with the central 4 pairs of feathers ashy on the outer webs and all but the central pair are tipped white. The fifth pair is white with a black rachis and a band of black on the inner web. The outermost pair of tail feathers are all white with a black shaft.
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A singing male above and a juvenile below An adult thrush nightingale is about long with a wingspan of approximately . The head, nape and the whole of the upper parts of the thrush nightingale are dark brown with a slight olive tinge. The colour is much deeper than that of the nightingale and is not at all rufous. The upper tail-coverts are less olivaceous and the tail feathers are dark rufous-brown.
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The tail feathers are vibrated, and the lyrebird beats his wings against his body and struts around the mound. He also sings loudly, incorporating his own vocalisations with mimicry of other bird calls. A study has found evidence that the lyrebirds’ ‘dance choreography’ is highly coordinated to different types of song repertoire. Coordination of movement with acoustic signals is a trait previously thought to be unique to humans, and indicates high cognitive ability.
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The Puerto Rican lizard cuckoo has a gray breast and chin, a tan lower body and brown upper body. It can be identified by its gray chin and breast and reddish-tan underbelly. The main identifying characteristic for this species is its long dark tail with two white spots on its outer tail feathers. It measures from 40 to 48 centimeters (16 to 19 inches) and weighs, on average, 80 grams (2.7 ounces).
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However, given the uncertainty of whether dromaeosaurids possessed asymmetrical wing feathers, the support for a single emergence of asymmetrical wing feathers in the common ancestor of the Paraves is equivocal, the alternative scenario that it evolved twice being plausible. The distinct possibility thus remains that troodontids had asymmetrical tail feathers but symmetrical arm feathers, suggesting that asymmetry in the tail appeared first, but this is not supported by the ancestral state reconstruction.
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There is little difference between males and females but the male has black between the eye and bill.Grimmett, Richard; Carol Inskipp & Tim Inskipp (1999) Pocket Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent, Christopher Helm, London. . The female Kurdistan wheatear can be very similar but usually has white bases to the outer tail-feathers. Adult males and some females of the Kurdistan wheatear are quite different with a black face and throat and greyer upperparts.
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The base of the outer rectrices was partially blackish blue. The tail feathers and tail coverts were maroon. The legs were dark slate-grey. The iris was reddish orange and had an inner yellow ring. The bird was 30 cm (12 in) in length, the wings were 208 mm (8.2 in), the tail was 132 mm (5.2 in), the culmen was 25 mm (1 in), and the tarsals were 28 mm (1.10 in).
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Blue-throated macaw raised in captivity. Photographed at Cincinnati Zoo, Cincinnati, Ohio Close-up of head The blue-throated macaw is about long including the length of its tail feathers and has a wingspan of approximately three feet or 0.9 m. It weighs about to . There is little easily observable sexual dimorphism; however, males tend to be a little bigger than females with approximate masses of 750 g and 950 g respectively.
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The breeding male malachite sunbird, which has very long central tail feathers, is 25 cm long, and the shorter-tailed female 15 cm. The adult male is metallic green when breeding, with blackish-green wings with small yellow pectoral patches. In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the male's upperparts are brown apart from the green wings and tail, the latter retaining the elongated feathers. The underparts in eclipse plumage are yellow, flecked with green.
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Chan Chich Lodge area, Belize: the ocellated turkey is named for the eye-shaped spots (ocelli) on its tail feathers. Painting by Nicolas Huet the Younger The body feathers of both sexes are a mixture of bronze and green iridescent color. Although females can be duller with more green, the breast feathers do not generally differ and cannot be used to determine sex. Neither sex possesses the beard typically found in wild turkeys.
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The feathers on the rump are long and this gives the rump a fluffy appearance, contrasting with the glossy blue-back uppertail coverts. The wings are brownish black with a white stripe along their length. The underwing coverts are black and the tail is black with white tipped and edged outer tail feathers. The underparts are white, except for the underwing coverts and thighs and the broad glossy blue-black breast band.
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The Rwenzori batis is a small, active black and white Old World flycatcher. The upperparts are dark bluish black with a white stripe along the wing and a white loral spot. The underparts are mostly white except for a glossy bluish black breast band, a black chin spot and black thighs and grey axillaries. The tail is black with the feathers having white tips and white edges on the outer tail feathers.
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The dark-bellied cinclodes grows to a length of about . The upper parts are mainly a sooty brown, with a broad white superciliary stripe and pale buff tips to the outer tail feathers. The wings have buff wing-bars which are chiefly visible in flight. The chin, throat and sides of the neck are white flecked with dusky grey while the breast and belly are greyish- brown, with the breast streaked with white.
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Cinnamon quail-thrush have a body-length of 20 cm, and weigh up to 50 grams when fully grown. Male birds are characterised by a white eyebrow, black face and a broad white streak down the sides of a black throat. The upperparts of their body are plain cinnamon-rufous with buff-white patches on the upper breast and a broad black band below. The outer tail feathers are black with white tips.
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The white crown tinged with brown contrasts with the black face and throat and white rump. The female is browner, and the head is washed with sandy buff. Females are darker than the females of the northern wheatear, look smaller and show less white on the rump. The tail feathers are white with characteristic black markings, which form an inverted black "T" pattern that resembles the tail of the black-eared wheatear.
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The crown, nape and neck of the adult male pied wheatear are pale brown, the feathers having pale tips and white bases. The mantle and scapulars are black with buff tips to the feathers. The back, rump and upper tail-coverts are creamy-white. The central pair of tail feathers are black with white bases but the rest are white with black tips, the outer pair having rather more black than the rest.
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It is tied with fine copper wire and the tail feathers of the European cock pheasant. The Pheasant Tail Nymph is designed as a generic nymph pattern and imitates any of the dark coloured swimming nymphs. The Grey Goose Nymph was tied in the same manner as the Pheasant Tail Nymph but with light grey goose feathers. The Grey Goose nymph is a generic pattern designed to imitate the lighter coloured swimming nymphs.
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When the females return, males court females that enter their territory by performing courtship displays. They perform a "dive display" rising above and to each side of the female. If the female perches, the male begins flying in very rapid horizontal arcs less than in front of her. If the female is receptive to the male, she may give a call and assume a solicitous posture with her tail feathers cocked and her wings drooped.
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The Puerto Rican emerald (Riccordia maugeaus), or zumbadorcito de Puerto Rico in Spanish, is an endemic hummingbird found only in the archipelago of Puerto Rico. The species displays sexual dimorphism with males and females differing in coloration. The male has iridescent green feathers on its body and a black tail while the female has a white breast and white out tail feathers. They measure 9-10 cm and weigh about 3 grams.
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This riflebird is a medium-sized bird, being up to 34 cm long. The male is velvet-black bird-of-paradise with elongated black filamental flank plumes, an iridescent blue-green crown, a wide, triangle-shaped breast shield, and on central tail feathers. It has a black curved bill, yellow mouth, blackish feet and a dark brown iris. The female is brownish with dark spots and buff bars below with a white brow.
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Unlike their relatives (the darters and cormorants), sulids have a well-developed preen gland whose waxy secretions they spread on their feathers for waterproofing and pest control. They moult their tail feathers irregularly and the flight feathers of their wings in stages, so that starting at the first moult, they always have some old feathers, some new ones, and some partly grown ones. Moult as a response to periods of stress has been recorded.
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The Indian paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi) is a medium-sized passerine bird native to Asia, where it is widely distributed. As the global population is considered stable, it has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2004. It is native to the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and Myanmar. Males have elongated central tail feathers, and a black and rufous plumage in some populations, while others have white plumage.
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They migrate through Texas and eastern Mexico to their winter non-breeding range, from southern Mexico to Panama. Pre-migratory roosts and flocks flying south may contain as many as 1000 birds. The scissor-tailed flycatcher is the state bird of Oklahoma, and is displayed in flight with tail feathers spread on the reverse of the Oklahoma Commemorative Quarter. Professional soccer team FC Tulsa features a scissor-tailed flycatcher on their crest.
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The square-tailed nightjar (Caprimulgus fossii) is a species of nightjar in the family Caprimulgidae which is native to tropical and subtropical woodlands of the Afrotropics. It has an extensive range south of the African equator. Despite not having a completely "square tail", its naming highlights a distinguishing field mark. The similarly plumaged slender-tailed nightjar, found in dry bush country of the tropics, differs namely by its protruding central tail feathers.
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The central tail feathers are greenish while the outer feathers are rufous with greenish bars. The outer rectrices are barred black and white. The breast is whitish with bronze-green bars and variably washed rufous markings. Juveniles have barred rufous and greenish bronze feathers on the upper parts of the body, a bright rufous crown, rufous and mottled green or brown wings, a barred brown and rufous tail and brown-barred white under parts.
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The plain appearance of the garden warbler means that it can be confused with several other species. The melodious and icterine warblers usually have long bills and a yellowish tint to their plumage. The booted warbler is similar in colour, although it is smaller, more delicately built and has a flesh-coloured bill. Western and eastern olivaceous warblers are also relatively small, and have white outer tail feathers as well as a pinkish bill.
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The tail feathers are reddish-brown with faint transverse bars being visible in some individuals and the under- tail coverts are streaked. The slender legs and the feet are pale yellowish- brown. Dartmoor, England The song is an unmusical long, high-pitched reeling trill performed with beak held wide open and the whole body vibrating. It lasts for from a few seconds to two or three minutes with hardly a pause for breath.
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Males have a white patch below the throat and white tips on the outer tail feathers; in the female, these parts are light brown. This bird is sometimes confusedFor example, Henninger (1906) combines the old scientific name of C. carolinensis with the common name "whip-poor- will". As C. carolinensis does not occur in the area discussed, he obviously refers to C. vociferus. In other cases, the specific identity of birds may not be determinable.
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Obi paradise-crows are blackish overall, with a bluish-green sheen/iridescence to the feathers. The flight feathers are a light brownish, and the tail feathers have a pronounced bluish sheen to them. They have a crow-like head and bill; the bill is a cool light gray. Also, they have distinctive and beautiful, scarlet-red eyes and blackish to grayish legs and feet with sharp claws adapted for their perching lifestyles.
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The tips of its tail feathers are light brown in color, with chestnut colored feathers under the tail. It has a unique grey colored, crescent-shaped patch of bare skin covering its ears, a character not found in other curassows (Harry 2006). The distinct coloration separates M.mitu as its own species distinct from other curassow species. Sexual dimorphism is not pronounced: females tend to be lighter in color and slightly smaller in size (Sick 1980).
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Juvenile little friarbirds tend to have a paler appearance with a lighter facial skin. The chin, throat and, in some cases, upper breast tend to appear as a washed yellow with yellow spots on the side of the breast. The term ‘citreogularis’ is frequently used to describe young birds which have a yellow fore-neck. The tail feathers also tend to appear with a shallower cut, unlike those of adult little friarbirds.
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The upper plumage, the lesser wing coverts, and the lower tail coverts of the female are brownish blue, with the edges of the feathers brighter. The middle tail feathers and the outer webs of all the others, except the outer pair, like the upper plumage, and remainder of tail dark brown. primaries and secondaries dark brown. The greater wing coverts, primary coverts, and tertiaries dark brown, with a blue tinge on the outer webs.
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This is a large skua at about 45cm length, excluding the central tail feathers of the summer adult, which can add another 10cm or so. This species ranges from in length, in wingspan and in weight. The upper limit of the length includes the elongated tail streamer of breeding adults, which is about in length. Identification of this jaeger is complicated by its similarities to parasitic jaeger and the existence of three morphs.
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The pheasant is up to 50 cm long, rufous brown and black spotted, with an elongated crest and nape feathers, black below and bare red skin around bluish iris eye. The breast sides are metallic blue-green, bordering the white throat and central upper breast. Its twenty-two tail feathers are decorated with large blue-green ocelli, which may be spread fan- like in display. The female is smaller and duller brown than the male.
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The female's beak was long, thin and arched downward, while the male's was short and stout, like that of a crow. Males were long, while females were larger at . The sexes were otherwise similar, with orange wattles and deep metallic, bluish-black plumage with a greenish iridescence on the upper surface, especially about the head. The tail feathers were unique among New Zealand birds in having a broad white band across the tips.
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The military macaw is 70.5 cm (27.8 in) long on average, 99–110 (33–43 in) across the wings and weighs 900–1,100 grams (2–2.4 lbs). Military macaws are mostly green with light blue and yellow flight and tail feathers and a bright red patch on their forehead. Their face is bare and white in color with black striations. The large strong beak is grey-black and the iris is yellow.
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Flying individual The adult white-tailed tropicbird is a slender, mainly white bird, 71–80 cm long including the very long central tail feathers, which double its total length. The wingspan is 89–96 cm. The bird has a black band on the inner wing, a black eye-mask, and an orange- yellow to orange-red bill. The bill colour, pure white back and black wing bar distinguish this species from the red-billed tropicbird.
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The tail has similar colouring, but the tips of the tail-feathers are white. The under-tail coverts are white or, on some birds, light grey, and often streaked. There seems to be an amount of variability in the appearance of many birds in this species. One example is on the Mornington Peninsula, located on the eastern coast of Port Phillip Bay in Victoria, where the spiny-cheeked honeyeaters have darker bellies.
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Adults and juveniles generally show strikingly different colouration in south-eastern populations, with predominantly greenish-olive body plumage on the juvenile, most persistent on the nape and breast. Juveniles are said to 'ripen' as they get older and turn from green to red. All races have blue cheeks and black- scalloped blue-margined wings and predominantly blue tail with predominantly red coloration. The crimson rosella's blue tail feathers are one of the favourite decorations of the satin bowerbird.
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Immature birds have yellow rather than orange bare skin on their faces, more brownish plumage, shorter tail feathers and greyish rather than brown irises. Adults are normally silent but can utter a deep guttural croaking noise in nuptial displays or at nests. Secretarybirds make this sound when greeting their mates or in a threat display or fight against other birds, sometimes throwing their head backwards at the same time. When alarmed, the secretarybird may emit a high-pitched croak.
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The purple-bearded bee-eater is a colourful long bird with a long tail, long slender decurved beak and rather rounded wings. It is 25–26 cm (10 inches) long, excluding 6 cm (21/2 inches) of tail streamers. The adult male has a purple head, face, “beard” (long hanging throat feathers), breast and upper belly. The upperparts, wings and tail are green, apart from a reddish-brown nape, and the central tail feathers are elongated as streamers.
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The male has a blue head, mantle, back, wings and upper parts of the breast contrasting with an orange lower part of the breast and the belly. The female has a brown back, wings and tail and pale underparts, mottled and streaked with bold brown markings. In both sexes, the base of the outer tail feathers is orange. Males can often be detected by their song - "toee toee toee" issuing from the lower parts of the tree canopy.
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Outer tail feathers may have white tips. Juveniles have no barring on underside. An all-black morph occurs in the area around the lower Jubba and Tana Rivers and on the Lamu Archipelago. Recent cladistic analysis of nDNA BRM15 intron-15 and mtDNA NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 and ATP synthase F0 subunit 6 sequence data indicates that the Ethiopian boubou is a polyphyletic cryptic species complex, which was once lumped with the tropical boubou, black boubou, and Ethiopian boubou.
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Pores in the bones and unfused sutures in the skeleton indicate that the specimen was a juvenile, but the authors believe that it was developed enough to erect a new taxon on the basis of its unique morphological characters. There are feather impressions preserved on the right hand and also probable tail feathers preserved near the left foot. Zhongornis had a beaked mouth with no teeth. The tail is proportionately short, has thirteen vertebrae, and no pygostyle.
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Most whitestarts are long with dark grey or dark olive-green upperparts, except for the white outer tail feathers which are frequently spread in display. Adults have brightly coloured red, orange or yellow bellies. Many species have contrasting black, rufous or yellow caps or distinctive facial patterns, often with white or yellow "spectacles" around the eye. The painted whitestart, the most northern form, is larger ( long) and has a different plumage pattern, song and behaviour from the other whitestarts.
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The tail feathers are only sparsely barbed, and the wings are very short and rounded. The sexes are similar in appearance, but immature birds are duller and have olive feet and bill; the chicks, as with all rails, are covered with blackish down. The Zapata rail's call is described as a bouncing ' similar to that of the bare-legged owl, and a loud limpkin-like '. However, these calls may actually be those of the spotted rail.
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There are six pairs of tail feathers, the middle feathers of which have strong central shafts for extra support. The feet are zygodactyl, with scansorial abilities, and therefore adapted to climbing vertical surfaces, however, they are not as specialised as other woodpeckers for this purpose. The first toe is short, the 4th toe being shorter or of equal length to remaining two toes. Most species in this genus use a bipedal hopping movement on vertical and horizontal surfaces.
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They also vary the orientation and enlarge the collective surface area of their tail feathers into the shape of a fan. While hovering, the visual system of a hummingbird is able to separate apparent motion caused by the movement of the hummingbird itself from motions caused by external sources, such as an approaching predator. In natural settings full of highly complex background motion, hummingbirds are able to precisely hover in place by rapid coordination of vision with body position.
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Their average weight is 13 ounces (369 g) and their average length is 11 inches (28 cm). The Indian fantail stands upright, unlike the english fantail whose chest is carried upright so that it is higher than the bird's head, which rests back on the cushion formed by the tail feathers. Indian Fantail pigeons usually lay 2 or 3 eggs in a clutch. Hatched fledglings take at least 4 to 6 weeks to fly and leave their home.
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Female in Papua New Guinea Male in Papua New Guinea The brown sicklebill is large, up to 96 cm long, dark blue and green with highly iridescent plumages, a sickle-shaped bill, pale blue iris and brown underparts. The male is adorned with ornamental plumes on the sides of its rear and a huge sabre-shaped central tail feathers that are highly prized by natives. The female is a reddish-brown bird with buff barred black below.
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Buff-tailed coronet in Bellavista Cloud Forest Reserve, Ecuador The buff- tailed coronet (Boissonneaua flavescens) is a species of hummingbird from the family Trochilidae. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Distinguishing characteristics are the short bill, glittering green coloration, and buffy color under the remiges (flight feathers) and rectrices (tail feathers). Like other hummingbirds, the buff-tailed coronet is often found in mid-level forest to canopy searching for flowers with nectar and some insects.
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The buff-tailed coronet has only slight sexual dimorphism. The female is scaled with white feathers mostly throughout the chin and throat, and some on the belly. Prominent feather colorations are iridescent green with darker wing tips, and buffy hues under the wing and tail feathers. On the face, there is an obvious white post ocular spot on each side. Puffy white “boots” are present at the thighs, an orange tuft at the shoulder, and a short, dark bill.
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There are two main types of pygostyle: one, found in Confuciusornithidae, Enantiornithes, and some other Mesozoic birds, as well as in some oviraptorosaurs like Nomingia, is long and rod- or dagger blade-like. None of the known fossils with such pygostyles show traces of well-developed rectrices. The tail feathers in these animals consisted of downy fuzz and sometimes 2–4 central "streamers" such as those found in some specimens of Confuciusornis or in Paraprotopteryx.Clarke et al.
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It has a faint pale stripe over the eye, a rufous tinge to the ear-coverts and silvery-white underwing-coverts.Redman, Nigel; Terry Stevenson & John Fanshawe (2009) Birds of the Horn of Africa, Christopher Helm, London. The rump and bases of the outer tail-feathers are reddish while the rest of the tail is black forming a T-shaped pattern.Harris, Alan; Hadoram Shirihai & David Christie (1996) The Macmillan Birder's Guide to European and Middle Eastern Birds, Macmillan, London. .
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Zhenyuanlong (meaning "Zhenyuan's dragon", from Chinese Pinyin 龙 lóng "dragon") is a genus of dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the Yixian Formation of Liaoning, China. It lived during the Aptian age of the early Cretaceous period, approximately 125 million years ago. It is known from a single specimen belonging to the species Zhenyuanlong suni (Chinese: 孫氏振元龍). This type specimen preserved a nearly complete skeleton that contains traces of feathers, including long tail feathers and large wings.
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When a female flies onto a male's territory, he rises up about before diving over the recipient. As he approaches the bottom of the dive, the male reaches an average speed of , which is 385 body lengths per second. At the bottom of the dive, the male travels , and produces a loud sound described by some as an "explosive squeak" with his outer tail-feathers. Anna's hummingbirds hybridize fairly frequently with other species, especially the congeneric Costa's hummingbird.
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All the treecreepers are similar in appearance, being small birds with streaked and spotted brown upperparts, rufous rumps and whitish underparts. They have long decurved bills, and long stiff tail feathers which provide support as they creep up tree trunks looking for insects. The short-toed treecreeper is long and weighs . It has dull grey-brown upperparts intricately patterned with black, buff and white, a weak off-white supercilium and dingy underparts contrasting with the white throat.
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N. japonica is a hawk owl species with a body length averaging between 29 and 33 cm and a wingspan of approximately 60 to 70 cm wide. Current knowledge on the species shows no sexual dimorphism and an average weight of approximately 168g. The Northern Boobook has a hawk-like appearance and its subspecies are practically undistinguishable. Individuals of the species will have a brown back and wings with lighter brown horizontal streaks on the tail feathers.
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The Serama are characterized by their upright posture, full breast, vertical tail feathers held upright and tight up to the body and vertical wings held down nearly touching the ground. In Malaysia they are described as brave warriors and archangel chickens, because of their very human like appearance. They are the smallest breed of chicken in the world. Typically under 500g, but with even smaller birds that are under 250g being bred in its native Malaysia.
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Such shedding would have been triggered by stress induced by the very volcanic explosions that buried the animals, resulting in a large number of specimens lacking these feathers. In a 2011 paper, Jesús Marugán-Lobón and colleagues stated that even the presence of two separate species, one with and one without long tail feathers, needs to be considered. This possibility would be, however, unsubstantiated at present, as other anatomical differences between these possible species are not apparent.
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The beak, legs and feet are black and the eyes dark brown. The length is about . Female in Bulgaria The adult female is similar to the male but the mantle and scapulars are brown with buff tips rather than black, the tail feathers are brown and white and the wing feathers brown with buff tips. Again, abrasion wears of the tips of the feathers and the bird becomes more uniformly brown and white with creamy buff underparts.
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Its feet are feathered to the toes as an adaptation to its Arctic home range. Its scientific name reflects this feature; the genus name Buteo is the Latin name of the common buzzard, and lagopus, is derived from Ancient Greek lago (λαγως), meaning "hare", and pous (πους), "foot". Its talons are relatively small, reflecting their preferred choice of prey. Distinguishing characteristics in all plumages include long white tail feathers with one or more dark subterminal bands.
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The female and male adults are very much alike, having only small differences such as wing length. It is 37-39 cm in body length, the wing length of adult males ranges from while that of females ranges from . During incubation, this species has a horizontal stance and the tail feathers are slightly longer in the center in comparison to other alcids. This makes the razorbill have a distinctly long tail which is not common for an auk.
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The tail of H. l. psaroides has a gentle curve in the outer tail feathers and a shallow fork The black bulbul was originally described in the genus Turdus and has also been considered as either conspecific with or as subspecies of the Malagasy bulbul. The common name 'black bulbul' is also used as an alternate name by the Malagasy bulbul. Formerly, the square-tailed bulbul was also classified as two subspecies of the black bulbul.
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At first, Daisy acts shy and has her back turned to her visitor. But Donald soon notices her tail-feathers taking the form of a hand and signaling for him to come closer. But their time alone is soon interrupted by Huey, Dewey, and Louie who have followed their uncle and clearly compete with him for the attention of Daisy. Uncle and nephews take turns dancing the jitterbug with her while trying to get rid of each other.
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The side of head, throat and breast are a dull rust-red merging to a pale creamy-pink on the belly. The central pair of tail feathers are dark grey with a black shaft streak. The rest of the tail is black apart from the two outer feathers on each side which have white wedges. Each wing has a contrasting white panel on the coverts and a buff-white bar on the secondaries and inner primaries.
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In the past the species included Tephrodornis affinis as a subspecies but that is now considered a full species restricted within Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan species has distinct plumage as well as calls. Several subspecies have been named for the populations within the wide range of this species. The northwestern dry region form is paler and given the name of pallidus while the nominate population which has dark central tail feathers is found in peninsular India.
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As members of the stiff-tailed duck group, Maccoas are often found wading in the water with their tail feathers cocked upwards. As diving ducks, their bodies are specialized for being agile underwater swimmers and thus have sacrificed the characteristics that allow them to move well on land. As a result, their legs are set further back on their bodies which makes them awkward when walking out of water. Male (left) and female (right) Maccoa ducks.
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The stripe-throated bulbul grows to a length of about . The plumage of both sexes is predominately dull brown with the exception of the forehead, ear coverts, throat and upper breast which are boldly streaked with yellow. The leading edges of the wings and the outer tail feathers are yellowish, the lower breast and belly are streaked with white, and the area around the vent is yellow. Juveniles are similar to adults but the yellow- colouring is more muted.
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This kingfisher has a red bill, a dark turquoise cap with brighter blue edges, blackish cheeks, and bluish- black upper parts. The under parts are white and the under-wing coverts are blue and white. The central tail feathers are elongated and their base is blue. It is similar in appearance to the buff-breasted paradise kingfisher (Tanysiptera sylvia) apart from the colour of the breast, and in some parts of Papua New Guinea, both birds coexist.
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The breeding season varies according to latitude, taking place from April to July in Queensland, January to May in northern New South Wales, December to February in southern New South Wales, and October to February in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.Higgins, p. 73. The male yellow-tailed black cockatoo courts by puffing up his crest and spreading his tail feathers to display his yellow plumage. Softly growling, he approaches the female and bows to her three or four times.
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Nest with eggs The breeding season is December to September, but varies according to region and usually begins with the first rains. Peak breeding in northern India is in June and is earlier in Southern India. In Sri Lanka, breeding is in March to June and August to September. Males sing during this season and display by lowering and spreading their tail feathers and strutting around the female, displaying their sides and fluffing their undertail coverts.
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The birds can be aged by their plumage; juveniles look similar to adults but have fresh plumage and two dark or dark grey spots on the tongue. Cetti's warbler is unusual among passerine birds in having ten tail feathers (rectrices) rather than the usual twelve. Cetti's warblers signal their presence with loud song. Their song is distinct, comes in loud bursts, and has a unique structure that allows the birds to avoid mating with other species.
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The wildlife sanctuary is administered by a Trust and special permission for visits is needed from the Trust Chairman, High Chief Rongomatane Ariki. Alternatively, it is possible join the research vessel Bounty Bay for an eco tour, run by Pacific Expeditions Ltd. out of Rarotonga, the main island of the Cook Islands. Copra cutters from Atiu visit once a year to cut coconuts from the trees, and a quantity of the tail feathers of the tropic birds.
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The plumage of the starling is often brightly coloured due to iridescence; this colour is derived from the structure of the feathers, not from any pigment. Some species of Asian starling have crests or erectile feathers on the crest. Other ornamentation includes elongated tail feathers and brightly coloured bare areas on the face. These colours can be derived from pigments, or, as in the Bali starling, structural colour, caused by light scattering off parallel collagen fibres.
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') In his 1704 book Opticks, Isaac Newton described the mechanism of the colours other than the brown pigment of peacock tail feathers. Newton noted that In 1892, Frank Evers Beddard noted that Chrysospalax golden moles' thick fur was structurally coloured. Thomas Young (1773–1829) extended Newton's particle theory of light by showing that light could also behave as a wave. He showed in 1803 that light could diffract from sharp edges or slits, creating interference patterns.
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At an official Māori welcome in Rotorua, a guide took a huia tail feather from her hair and placed it in the band of the Duke's hat as a token of respect. Many people in England and New Zealand wanted to emulate this royal fashion and wear huia feathers in their hats. The price of tail feathers was soon pushed to £1, making each bird worth £12, and some feathers sold for as much as £5.
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It has a narrow wing stripe, extending across the median and larger wing coverts, and often a bit onto the secondary remiges. Outer tail feathers never have white tips. Recent cladistic analysis of nDNA BRM15 intron-15 and mtDNA NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 and ATP synthase F0 subunit 6 sequence data indicates that the Ethiopian boubou is a polyphyletic cryptic species complex, which was once lumped with the tropical boubou, black boubou, and East Coast boubou.
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When conducting a dive display, the male typically ascends approximately in the air then abruptly turns and descends in a dive-like fashion. As the male flies over the female, he rotates his body and spreads his tail feathers, which flutter and collide to produce a short, buzzing sound. A male satin bowerbird makes and uses a bower to attract potential mates. In addition, some animals attempt to attract females through the construction and decoration of unique structures.
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This species, like other bee-eaters, is a richly coloured, slender bird. It is predominantly green; its face has a narrow blue patch with a black eye stripe, and a yellow and brown throat; the tail is blue and the beak is black. The three outer toes are united around their bases. It can reach a length of 23–26 cm, including the two elongated central tail feathers which can jut two inches more than the remaining ten feathers.
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The males perform various courtship displays in order to attract mates. They have what is called a shuttle display where they hover about 10–15 cm in front of a female, sing, flare their bright gorget and move up, down, left and right in an attempt to impress the potential mate. They spread their tail feathers while doing this and wave them side to side. During normal flight, they beat their wings constantly at a fairly regular frequency.
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The wing coverts and flight feathers are very dark gray with paler fringes, and the closed wing is pale gray and black, with a thin white wing bar. The face and the underparts are white. The outer tail feathers are black with broad diagonal white bands across the outer three feathers, a feature readily visible in flight. The female has, on average, a narrower black back band, slightly duller upperparts and buffer underparts than the male.
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Furthermore, male and female plumage is indistinguishable in ultraviolet and visible light. A study published in 1999 showed that male long-tailed finches were unable to determine the sex of unfamiliar members of their species unless the latter bird declared its sex by song. Juveniles have black beaks and shorter tail feathers. The subspecies are distinguished by the bill coloration, the nominate western group presenting a yellow colour and the eastern P. acuticauda hecki is red.
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The only way to reach Colchis was to sail through the Symplegades (Clashing Rocks), huge rock cliffs that came together and crushed anything that traveled between them. Phineas told Jason to release a dove when they approached these islands, and if the dove made it through, to row with all their might. If the dove was crushed, he was doomed to fail. Jason released the dove as advised, which made it through, losing only a few tail feathers.
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Goodfellow's best-known ornithological achievement was the scientific discovery of the Mikado pheasant in the central mountain ranges of Taiwan and its introduction to aviculture. In about 1906 he secured the type specimen, comprising two long black tail feathers obtained from one of his porters who was wearing them in a head-dress. On a later visit to Taiwan he obtained eleven live birds, eight males and three females, which were taken to Britain and bred successfully in captivity.Beebe (1990).
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The arrows are fletched with hane (feathers) about fifteen centimetres in length and can be the most expensive part of the arrow. Traditionally, the outermost tail feathers of large birds of prey were considered the finest. Many of these birds are now endangered - in particular the sea eagle - therefore, feathers of lesser eagles, swans, geese or even turkeys are being used in modern times. On the other hand, owl feathers were never used, as they were thought to be bringers of misfortune.
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In addition to these, company advertising showed other labels, including Circuit West, Cafe Crowd, L.A. Station, Pipe Line, Tail Feathers, and Union Jack. From 1972 on and while still in her twenties, Sue Wong, who started at the company as an intern, served as head designer of the Young Edwardian label. In 1977, the Young Edwardian brand brought in $50 million, all on sales of dresses priced at $50 or less. One style, an appliqued sun dress, brought in $2 million alone.
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Shorter, rounder wings are found on species that are sedentary and make typically short foraging flights in denser forests and reed-beds. Those with more elongated wings are more migratory. All the bee-eaters are highly aerial; they take off strongly from perches, fly directly without undulations, and are able to change direction quickly, although they rarely hover. The flight feathers of the wing comprise 10 primaries, the outermost being very small, and 13 secondaries, and there are 12 tail feathers.
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37 Nestlings, fledglings, and juveniles have brown plumage and pink-brown bills with shorter tails than adults. Young males develop blue tail feathers and darker bills by late summer or autumn (following a spring or summer breeding season), while young females develop light blue tails. By the subsequent spring, all males are fertile and have developed cloacal protuberances, which store sperm. In contrast, during the breeding season, fertile females develop oedematous brood patches, which are bare areas on their bellies.
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Genus Hemicircus excepting, the tail feathers were further transformed for specialized support, the pygostyle disc became greatly enlarged, and the ectropodactyl toe arrangement evolved. These latter characters may have facilitated enormous increases in body size in some lineages. Prehistoric representatives of the extant Picidae genera are treated in the genus articles. An enigmatic form based on a coracoid found in Pliocene deposits of New Providence in the Bahamas, has been described as Bathoceleus hyphalus and probably also is a woodpecker.
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The wings, legs, and tail supported long but relatively narrow vaned feathers. Two types of simpler, downy (plumaceous) feathers covered the rest of the body, as in Sinornithosaurus: down feathers made up of filaments attached at their bases, and more complex down feathers with barbs attached along a central quill. Long, simple feathers covered almost the entire head and neck, torso, upper legs, and the first half of the tail. The rest of the tail bore pennaceous tail feathers (rectrices).
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The eastern carrion crow (Corvus corone orientalis, originally a separate species C.orientalis.) is a member of the crow family and a subspecies of the carrion crow. Differences from the nominate subspecies include a larger size, at a length about , and more graduated outer tail feathers. The eastern carrion crow is found in Siberia from the Yenisei to Japan, south to Central Asia, Afghanistan, Eastern Iran, Kashmir, Tibet and northern China. They generally lay three to five eggs in trees or buildings.
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In the second year, the bird's appearance changes depending on the different phases of moulting: they can have adult plumage at the front and continue to be brown at the rear. Gannets gradually acquire more white in subsequent seasons until they reach maturity after five years. Northern gannets are slightly larger and thicker-billed than Cape or Australian gannets. The northern gannet has more white in the wings and an all-white tail, the other species having black tips to their tail feathers.
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Dave's Hopper's are usually tied in sizes 6 to 14 to represent the typical sizes of hoppers found throughout the summer and fall months. Dave Whitlock created the Dave's Cricket using the same basic tying technique and materials in black to simulate a typical cricket (Gryllidae). Dave's Hopper can be tied with a variety of colors for the tail, ribbing, body and deer hair head to represent different colored grasshopper species. Many tiers substitute rubber or pheasant tail feathers for the legs.
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The bird is around long and is mainly black, with a white iris, white facial tufts and yellow margins on its wing and tail feathers. It is a very active bird and rarely sits long enough to give an extended view. When danger approaches a New Holland honeyeater, such as a bird of prey, a group of honeyeaters will form together and give a warning call. Sexes are similar in looks with the exception that females are, on average, slightly smaller.
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Foghorn obliges, the shack explodes, and the chicken hawks are blown back into their nest. Pappy then decides that they must settle on (literally) black-eyed peas. Though victorious, Foghorn isn't completely unscathed—all his tail feathers have been blown off, though he doesn't seem to notice this. He comments about getting back to enjoying his vacation, which he calls a "Southern exposure", blithely turning about to reveal his buttocks (with the boxer shorts) to the audience as the picture fades out.
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The Golden Eagle contains 18 pounds of solid gold. The head is made of 18 carat white gold and encrusted with 763 diamonds; and the eyes are made of two 1.1 carat matching pear shaped diamonds. The Eagle stands watch over the Atocha Star emerald, a 12.72 carat emerald valued at $3.18 million in 2013. The tail feathers are 14 kt white gold; the body, rock and base are 14 kt yellow gold, and the very bottom pedestal is 10 kt yellow gold.
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Plumage is warm gray-brown (sometimes called "sandy") above and pale with more or less dark mottling below. The darkest part of the upper side is the primary wing feathers; the lightest is the rump and tail, particularly the outer tail feathers. The head has a "moustache" mark like a peregrine falcon's but narrower, and a white line over the eye. A conspicuous character is that the axillars ("wingpits") and underwing coverts are black, except along the leading edge of the wing.
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The white-browed wagtail or large pied wagtail (Motacilla maderaspatensis) is a medium-sized bird and is the largest member of the wagtail family. They are conspicuously patterned with black above and white below, a prominent white brow, shoulder stripe and outer tail feathers. White-browed wagtails are native to South Asia, common near small water bodies and have adapted to urban environments where they often nest on roof tops. The specific name is derived from the Indian city of Madras (now Chennai).
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Zhenyuanlong compared in size to human Zhenyuanlong suni was a mid-sized dromaeosaurid comparable in length to the similar Tianyuraptor. The fossil skeleton is nearly complete but lacks the last half of the tail, giving the specimen a preserved length of . Based on comparison to the complete skeleton of Tianyuraptor, it has been estimated that the skeleton of Zhenyuanlong would have been about long when complete. With the added length of long tail feathers, the animal was perhaps up to in life.
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Illustration of a male The short-tailed paradigalla is medium-sized, approximately 23 cm long, stocky black plumaged with slender black bill and bright yellow and blue wattles in front of each eye. The sexes are almost similar in appearance: the female is smaller than the male with a duller plumage and smaller wattles. The short-tailed paradigalla is distinguished from its nearest relative, the long- tailed paradigalla, by its smaller size, shorter tail feathers and lack of red on the wattles.
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As the male does this dance, he moves around the female making sure the dorsal surface of the tail feathers are constantly in view of the female (Gonzalez et al. 1998). Ocellated turkey poults hatch in May through July after a 28-day incubation period. Female ocellated turkeys lay 8–15 eggs in a well concealed nest on the ground. The poults are covered in a reddish brown juvenile plumage which allows them to blend into their surroundings to hide from predators.
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This is the only jacana to have a different breeding and non-breeding plumages. The breeding plumage is marked by the elongated central tail feathers that given the bird its name. The body is chocolate brown, with a white face and the back of the crown is black with white stripes running down the sides of the neck that separate the white of the front of neck and the silky golden yellow of the nape. The wings are predominantly white.
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Hairstyles can express a character's emotions: warriors express their sadness at losing a battle by swinging their ponytails. For the female roles, buns indicated a maiden, while a married woman has a 'dai tau' (). In the Three Kingdoms legends, Zhao Yun and especially Lü Bu are very frequently depicted wearing helmets with pheasants' tail feathers; this originates with Cantonese opera, not with the military costumes of their era, although it's a convention that was in place by the Qing Dynasty or earlier.
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The short-toed treecreeper typically seeks invertebrate food on tree trunks, starting near the tree base and spiralling its way up using its stiff tail feathers for support. Unlike a nuthatch, it does not come down trees head first, but flies to the base of another nearby tree. It uses its long thin bill to extract insects and spiders from crevices in the bark. Although normally found on trees, it will occasionally feed on walls or bare ground, or amongst fallen pine needles.
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A feeding trace of Brueelia lice on the tail feather of Barn swallow. Feather holes often characteristically occur on wing and tail feathers of some small- bodied species of passerines. In the case of barn swallows, it was suggested that the holes were feeding traces of avian lice, either Machaerilaemus malleus and/or Myrsidea rustica (both Phthiraptera: Amblycera). Hole counts were shown to be highly repeatable, and thus counts appeared to be useful measures to quantify the intensity of infestation.
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The Clearflight Pied has two main characteristics: a clear patch at the nape of the neck and, ideally, completely clear primary flight and long tail feathers. All other features are normal. However, few birds approach the ideal; most show considerable variation in the extent of the clear areas. The nape spot is almost always present, but it varies considerably in size, affecting just one or two feathers in some birds or extending well down the back and round into the breast on others.
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The flight feathers are black with broad blue edges. The upper tail-coverts are blue, and are so long that it is difficult to see the black tail feathers. The female also resembles the blue cotinga female; its upper parts are greyish-brown with white scalloping, and its pale underparts are mottled and spotted with grey rather than having the scaly appearance of the female blue cotinga. This species is usually silent, but does sometimes emit fluttering rattles when on the wing.
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The black-tipped cotinga reaches an adult length of and has a black bill, red eyes and short rounded wings. The male is pure white except for a narrow black tip to the outer wing feathers and, in young individuals, a black tip to the central tail feathers. The female looks very different, having the head and upper parts brownish-grey, and the wings and tail brownish-black. The wing-coverts and the inner flight feathers have broad white margins.
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Margaret's batis is a small, mainly black and white shrike-like bird with a black face mask and reddish eye, in a mainly dark grey head. They have white underparts with a broad black breast band in both sexes, with black wings which are marked in the male with a white wing stripe while the female has a rufous wing stripe. The tail is black with white outer tail feathers. Juveniles resemble the females but are duller and have brown eye.
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Dagron photographed pages of newspapers in their entirety which he then converted into miniature photographs. He subsequently removed the collodion film from the glass base and rolled it tightly into a cylindrical shape which he then inserted into miniature tubes that were transported fastened to the tail feathers of the pigeons. Upon receipt the microphotograph was reattached to a glass frame and was then projected by magic lantern on the wall. The message contained in the microfilm could then be transcribed or copied.
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The imperial snipe occurs around the tree-line at altitude in mosaic habitats consisting of a mixture of bogs, mossy areas, moist elfin forest, tree-ferns and tall grass. Little is known about its habits and it is mostly observed when displaying. The dawn and dusk aerial display involves flying high in circles performing the extremely loud song. This is followed by a dive during which the bird makes a drumming sound caused by the vibrations of its modified outer tail feathers.
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The primary and secondary feathers of the wing were a blackish-brown with a narrow white edge on the outer side of the secondaries. The two central tail feathers were brownish gray, and the rest were white. The tail pattern was distinctive as it had white outer edges with blackish spots that were prominently displayed in flight. The lower throat and breast were richly pinkish-rufous, grading into a paler pink further down, and into white on the abdomen and undertail covert feathers.
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Across these copies, the body ranges from chestnut brown to greyish chocolate, the tail from light grey to blackish grey-brown, and the head from bluish grey to dove-grey. The plate also lacks two dark central tail feathers without white bases, a feature described by Brisson, and these features have been repeated by subsequent artists. Martinet's illustration and Buffon's description were perhaps based on the Paris specimen. In 1879, Forbes stated the cere was covered by feathers which concealed the nostrils.
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The sexes of Pallas's leaf warbler have similar plumage, but non-breeding birds are somewhat brighter green above and have broad, bright fringes to their flight feathers. Juveniles are like the adults, but have a brown tinge to the upperparts, greyish-white underparts and a duller supercilium. Adults have a complete post-breeding moult in August or September before migrating south. Juveniles and pre-breeding adults have a partial moult in March or April, replacing all the body plumage and some tail feathers.
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It has large deep-red eyes, which are surrounded by a black eye patch. Its bill is black, with a dark grey-brown cere at its base. Its wings are marked with a black shoulder patch above and a striking black line underneath, which runs from the primary coverts to the body, and which resembles a letter 'M' or 'W' when flying. The central rectrices of the tail are pale grey, while the rest of the tail feathers are white.
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The female has a much duller brown and black body with an iridescent head. Unlike males, females do not have the long white tails. Hybrids between this species and the Princess Stephanie's astrapia, in the small area where their ranges overlap, have been named Barnes's astrapia. One of the most spectacular birds-of-paradise, the male ribbon-tailed astrapia has the longest tail feathers in relation to body size of any bird, over three times the length of its body.
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White feathers appear along the tips of the wings, tail, and form a small ring partway up the neck that separates the black body feathers from bare neck skin. The white tail feathers are often discolored from dirt and appear reddish-brown. Females tend to be smaller than males and also possess bare skin on both the neck and legs, though their skin color appears more beige than pink. Adult females body feathers are a uniformly- distributed, monochromatic color scheme of brown.
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Particularly the mating habits of the Lyrebird where the male lyre bird constructs mounds by scratching the earth, sticks and other debris into areas where he then performs his dance with his magnificent tail feathers on display to attract a female. Kara sketched all the specimens, animals and birds within the park. Photography was also used in latter years to record the specimens in their natural state. Kara had the films made into "slides" which was state of the art at the time.
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Manson-Bahr is credited with unravelling the mystery of how the Common snipe creates its drumming sound which is unlike other birdsong. He worked out that the sound was created by placing out two tail feathers at 90 degrees to the direction of flight. When diving these feathers create this unusual sound. He demonstrated this in front of the British Ornithologists Union by inserting two snipe feathers into a cork which he then whirled around his head on a string.
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The face is orange with gray cheeks, a gray median crown stripe, brown lateral crown stripes, and a brown eyeline. The tail feathers are short and sharply pointed. Distinguishing this species from closely related sparrows such as the Nelson's sparrow can be difficult. The inland subspecies of the Nelson's sparrow can be differentiated by its fainter streaking and brighter orange breast and sides, while the coastal subspecies of the Nelson's sparrow can be differentiated by its paler, less-contrasting plumage.
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The rainforest scops owl is a relatively small owl with short, rounded wings and short erectile ear tufts on top of the head. There are three morphs recorded from this species a grey plumaged morph, a brown plumaged morph and a rufous plumaged morph. Features which stand out from the main plumage color are the pale eyebrows, light spots on the scapulars and the barring on the wings and outer tail feathers. Sometimes the crown and the underparts are streaked.
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The red-browed amazon has a bright red crown fading to purplish-brown at the back. The cheeks and throat are blue and the wing and body plumage is green with dark markings on the back of the neck. Black and red patches can be seen on the wings when they are spread and the tail feathers have red markings and are tipped with yellow. The beak and legs are grey and the iris of the eye is orange-brown.
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Fraser's eagle-owl is a relatively small species of eagle-owl with has rather "fluffy" ear tufts and a facial disc with a distinct dark rim. The upperparts are rufous and buffy brown, barred with darker bars, the pale scapulars have dark edged outer webs which show as a series of pale dots across the shoulder. The flight and tail feathers have narrow light and dark bars. The underparts are pale rufous shading to whitish on the belly and undertail coverts.
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The Cassin's sparrow is a fairly large, plain, grayish sparrow that lacks conspicuous markings. In flight, the long, roundish tail is obvious and the white tips of the tail feathers are sometimes apparent. This species is most easily identified by its distinctive song and dramatic skylarking behavior during the breeding season. Although often characterized in the literature as secretive and difficult to observe when not singing,; ; observed that Cassin's sparrows readily accommodated the presence of an observer, especially early in the breeding season.
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The collared forest falcon will catch its prey by first concealing itself in the dense forest canopy before pursuing by flight, or running and hopping along the forest floor. This hunting of animals is thought to be aided by their specialized sense of hearing supported by a more pronounced facial disk, also seen in owls and harriers. Flexible tail feathers are also helpful when going after prey in dense forest areas. Differences were observed in the hunting techniques among individual M. semitorquatus'.
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It was a close relative of Yanornis and together with this and Songlingornis forms a clade of early modern birds. Clarke et al. found that Yixianornis was the most primitive bird to display an essentially modern pygostyle and fan of tail feathers. Later, an enantiornithine called Shanweiniao was found to have a fan tail as well, though it may have evolved independently of modern birds.Jingmai K. O’connor, Xuri Wang, Luis M. Chiappe, Chunling Gao, Qingjin Meng,Xiaodong Cheng, And Jinyuan Liu (2009).
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The Siamese fireback (Lophura diardi) also known as Diard's fireback, is a fairly large, approximately 80 cm long, pheasant. The male has a grey plumage with an extensive facial caruncle, crimson legs and feet, ornamental black crest feathers, reddish brown iris and long curved blackish tail. The female is a brown bird with blackish wing and tail feathers. Head Lophura diardi The Siamese fireback is distributed to the lowland and evergreen forests of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam in Southeast Asia.
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The Cape wagtail has a dull plumage and a relatively short tail, with olive grey breast and face, with a tan supercilium and dark lores. The underparts are creamy white and may show a faint pinkish wash on the lower breast and belly. The breast band is dusky and the sides of the breast and the flanks are olive-grey. The brownish black wings have pale edges to the feathers and the tail is blackish with the two outer tail feathers being white.
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But in reality, Jojo has survived, but is lost with no idea of where to turn. The Cat appears to him with a band of Hunches, encouraging him to use his Thinks to find his way home ("Havin' a Hunch"). Jojo does so and happily reunites with his parents, who forgive him for his Thinks. Gertrude sneaks into the circus to free Horton, explaining she plucked out all but one of her tail feathers to fly there, and confesses her love for him.
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A Māori man from the Hauraki district wearing huia tail feathers in his hair (photo before 1886). The huia was found throughout the North Island before humans arrived in New Zealand. Māori are estimated to have arrived around 750 years ago, and by the arrival of European settlers in the 1840s, habitat destruction, hunting, and introduced rats had reduced the bird's range to the southern North Island. However, Māori hunting pressures on the huia were limited to some extent by traditional protocols.
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The adult male has a crest of slender and rigid black tipped rufous feathers, that extend dorsally from its rufous coloured head feathers. It has a throat of darker iridescent green feathers which ends posteriorly in small pointed white feathers. A vertical band of rufous feathers frames the green throat and tail feathers of the males, and the tail ends in a double-rounded shape. Female rufous-crested coquettes share a similar physiology to the males, with a few key defining differences.
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Females display no head crests, and instead their rufous coloured forehead feathers fade into the iridescent green ones which extend down their backs. Their throats are not uniformly green, but instead are primarily white with small clusters of green feathers. A band of rufous feathers extends fully from the side of the throat up to the forehead. The tail of the female rufous-crested coquette is singly rounded, and the tail feathers, while primarily green, end in small patches of light orange.
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The tail is forked with the central pair of feathers bronze-green while the other tail feathers have chestnut edges and bronze-green tips. Undertail coverts are a deep fawn colour and wings are purplish-brown. It is noted that there is some variation in plumage for this species, but these differences do not relate to location and is minimal when considering the wide range. Specimens examined by Peter Cotton had an average wing length of 60.5mm and exposed culmen length of 18.5mm.
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Although their common name would indicate that each lemon-breasted canary indeed has a yellow throat/chest, this is not the case between males and females, making them easy to differentiate. Only the males have the signature yellow feathers in the breast region. The females have mostly cream and brown feathers, less distinct head markings. However, both sexes have noticeably yellow rumps around the tail feathers and bicolored beaks, the upper part being darker brown/black than the lower part.
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Diseases, injuries, and genetic disorders may impair the body's symmetry and the tail. In experiments where eyespots are removed from their tail feathers, also known as trains, there is a significant decline in mating success compared with a control group. This supports the hypothesis that the train elaboration evolved, at least in part, as a result of female choice. The most common explanation for this adaptation is that the females gain indirect benefits such as good genes for their offspring.
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A survey of falcons on the island in 2014 found evidence of Eleonora's falcon (Falco eleonorae) crippling and imprisoning live prey for later use. Abdeljebbar Qninba of Mohammed V University, Rabat, and colleagues, found small birds with missing flight and tail feathers trapped, or hiding in small holes or cavities. It is thought either the falcons plucked feathers to keep the birds as a food source for later, or alternatively, the prey are escaping from the falcons by finding refuge in nearby holes.
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The star finch is an estrildid finch, between 10 and 12 cm in length, with crimson fore-parts of the head and a scarlet bill. The upper and lower plumage is yellow-green, white spotted on the underparts, the belly more yellow. The upper tail coverts are scarlet, tail feathers are brownish scarlet. The female has less crimson on the head, and generally duller than the male, the immature star finch is olive to brownish with a grey face and head.
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The noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala) is a bird in the honeyeater family, Meliphagidae, and is endemic to eastern and southeastern Australia. This miner is a grey bird, with a black head, orange-yellow beak and feet, a distinctive yellow patch behind the eye, and white tips on the tail feathers. The Tasmanian race has a more intense yellow panel in the wing, and a broader white tip to the tail. Males, females and juveniles are similar in appearance, though young birds are a brownish-grey.
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Since it was a crime to kill a quetzal, the bird was simply captured, its long tail feathers plucked, and was set free. In several Mesoamerican languages, the term for quetzal can also mean precious, sacred, or erected. Until recently, it was thought that the resplendent quetzal could not be bred or held for any long time in captivity, and indeed it was noted for usually killing itself soon after being captured or caged. For this reason it is a traditional symbol of liberty.
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The female also displays her plumage to ward off female competition or signal danger to her young. Green peafowl differ from Indian peafowl in that the male has green and gold plumage and black wings with a sheen of blue. Unlike Indian peafowl, the green peahen is similar to the male, but has shorter upper tail coverts, a more coppery neck, and overall less iridescence. The Congo peacock male does not display his covert feathers, but uses his actual tail feathers during courtship displays.
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The male golden-winged sunbird is about 9 in (23 cm) long and the female is about 6 in (15 cm) long, the male having long central tail feathers. Yellow- edged feathers in the wings and tail are key identification pointers in all plumages of both the male and female. Body feathers of the male in breeding condition are a conspicuous metallic reddish-copper colour, which are mostly replaced by dull-black feathers in the non-breeding condition. The underparts of the male are brownish-black.
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Another painting in the same series yielded the indigenous name mereangeree. Notes on this latter drawing suggest an alternate name of emu- or cassowary titmouse, from its soft tail feathers. In the first description and illustration of the bird by Major- General Thomas Davies, another Sydney region indigenous name merion binnion was reported, since the tail resembled the "cassowary (emu)" feathers. The skin of a male southern emu-wren somehow ended up in the collection of Coenraad Jacob Temminck, who believed it to be from Java.
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From there it was named by François Levaillant as the gauze-tailed warbler. This mistake was not picked up for another 55 years. Veillot defined the genus Malurus and placed the southern emu-wren within it, naming it as Malurus palustris. The southern emu-wren derives its common name from its tail feathers, the loosely barbed nature of which resembles feathers of the emu, the irony being that the emu- wrens are among the smallest of Australian birds, while the emu is the largest.
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Porky sees him, shoves the noisy accordion down Lulu's throat to her stomach, stuffs her inside a guitar case and trims her sticking out tail feathers. When the conductor comes up to Porky, Lulu blows her cover by squawking, pushing her legs out, and taking the conductor on a wild ride to the other side of the coach. Angered, the conductor throws Lulu and Porky out of the train from the observation car. Porky spots a handcar in a siding and a cow grazing.
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These are medium-sized partridges with dull-coloured bills and legs, streaked brown upperparts, and rufous tails with barring on the flanks. Neither sex has spurs on the legs, and the only plumage distinction is that females tend to be duller in appearance. Grey and Daurian partridges are very closely related and similar in appearance, and form a superspecies. Tibetan partridge has a striking black and white face pattern, black breast barring and 16 tail feathers instead of the 18 of the other species.
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The outdated model, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid Iberomesornis romerali was more derived physically than Archaeopteryx. The basal characteristic of a long tail had been lost and the coracoid was longer. The vertebrate column of Iberomesornis ended in a pygostyle: a splint of bone made of fused tail vertebrae that supports the tail feathers. The shorter tail and the higher position of the shoulder indicated by the strut-like coracoid — allowing for a greater wing amplitude — improved manoeuvrability, turning and swooping at speed.
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CRC Press (2008), . The minuscule size and very short tail of the Myiornis pygmy tyrants often lend them a resemblance to a tiny ball or insect. The largest tyrant flycatcher is the great shrike-tyrant at and . A few species such as the streamer-tailed tyrant, scissor-tailed flycatcher and fork-tailed flycatcher have a larger total length (up to ), but this is mainly due to their extremely long tails; the fork-tailed flycatcher has relatively the longest tail feathers of any known bird.
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Maya chiefdoms or kuchkabalob of Yucatán in the 16th century according to Ralph L. Roys. Chakán (, ‘1) oregano of this land; 2) macaw tail feathers.’) is the name of one of the Mayan jurisdictions (kuchkabalob) that existed on the Yucatan Peninsula at the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century. Unlike other jurisdictions, Chakán did not seem to have a centralized government or control of a dominant Halach Uinik, as in the case of the provinces Ceh Pech or Ah Kin Chel.
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Birds have been noted to moult their tail feathers in the beginning of June. Little is known of their dispersal, longevity and other aspects of life history although more than 133 birds have been ringed. Two greyish green and brown-marked eggs are laid during the breeding season that varies from April to June, after the rains. The nest is placed in a tree hole or placed on a bank and is made of moss and fibrous roots and placed low over the ground.
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Sizes of Yi qi (green), Epidexipteryx hui (orange), and Scansoriopteryx heilmanni (red) compared with a human. Scansoriopterygids are among the smallest non-avian dinosaurs known. The juvenile specimens of Scansoriopteryx are the size of house sparrows, about long, while the adult type specimen of Epidexipteryx is about the size of a pigeon, about long (not including the tail feathers). Scansoriopterygids differentiate from other theropod dinosaurs in part by their extremely long third fingers, which were longer than the first and second digits of the hand.
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The male Malagasy paradise flycatcher has the typical blue eye-ring and long tail The paradise flycatchers are generally small birds, around in length and weighing . They have a medium length grey or blueish bill which is broad and hooked at the end and is surrounded by stiff rictal bristles. The inside of the mouths of paradise-flycatchers are brightly coloured, being either yellow or green. The tails are long, particularly in many species where the male has a massively elongated pair of middle tail feathers.
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Museum specimen Manucodia comrii has a compact and large body approximately 43 cm long, with glossy purple, black and green plumage, red iris and crinkled yellowish-green upper breast and neck feathers. It has curled head feathering and twisted central tail feathers. Both sexes are similar with a slightly smaller female. The curl-crested manucode is the largest species of manucode, and also the largest and heaviest species in its family in terms of body size, weighing up to 450 gramsPerrins, Christopher, Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds.
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This feature is variable among other kinds of swamphen. The softness of the rectrices (tail feathers) and the lengths of the secondary and wing covert feathers relative to the primary feathers appear to have been intermediate between those of the purple swamphen and the takahē. Although the known skins are mostly white, contemporary illustrations depict some blue individuals; others had a mixture of white and blue feathers. Their legs were red or yellow, but the latter colour may be present only on dried specimens.
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The evacuation of the area surrounding the nuclear reactor has created a lush and unique wildlife refuge. In the 1996 BBC Horizon documentary "Inside Chernobyl's Sarcophagus", birds are seen flying in and out of large holes in the structure of the former nuclear reactor. The long-term impact of the fallout on the flora and fauna of the region is not fully known, as plants and animals have significantly different and varying radiologic tolerance. Some birds are reported with stunted tail feathers (which interferes with breeding).
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The name 'Slate' is derived from the appearance of blue-series Slates, particularly the Skyblue Slate, which is close in colour to a Light Grey but with a more bluish tone. The Light Green Slate is intermediate in shade between a Light Green and a Light Grey-Green. In both blue- and green-series Slates the cheek patch is purplish-grey or deep violet, somewhat like the cheek patches of Mauves. The long tail feathers are a little darker than the corresponding non-Slate.
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Finally, their bills are horn- coloured. Non-breeding males are slightly larger than females, though they demonstrate a remarkably similar appearance. For the most part, these males are colored in the same manner as the females, except in that they are more broadly streaked above and below and have wings and wing shoulders with the morphology of the breeding class of males. Rarely, males in the non-breeding class have elongated brownish black tail feathers, though these feathers are substantially shorter than those of the breeding class.
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Many specimens preserve a pair of long, narrow tail feathers, which grew longer than the entire length of the rest of the body. Unlike the feathers of most modern birds, these feathers were not differentiated into a central quill and barbs for most of their length. Rather, most of the feather formed a ribbon-like sheet, about six millimetres wide. Only at the last one quarter of the feather, towards the rounded tip, does the feather become differentiated into a central shaft with interlocking barbs.
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The long-tailed manakin (Chiroxiphia linearis) is a species of bird in the family Pipridae native to Central America where it inhabits both wet and dry tropical and subtropical forests. It is a small, plump bird about long. Males have black plumage with a blue back and a red crown, and the two central tail feathers are greatly elongated.. Females and juveniles are olive-green with paler underparts. At breeding time, males are involved in a cooperative lekking behaviour with a complex coordinated courtship dance.
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The bill is blackish, the iris is dark brown and the legs and feet are brown. The flight on long pointed wings is noiseless, due to their soft plumage, and very buoyant. Flying birds can be sexed since the male has a white wing patch across three primary feathers and white tips to the two outer tail feathers, whereas females do not show any white in flight. Chicks have downy brown and buff plumage, and the fledged young are similar in appearance to the adult female.
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These may involve picking up, manipulating or tugging at various objects such as sticks, rocks or bits of wire, and handing them to other birds. A bird may pick up a feather or leaf and flying off with it, with other birds pursuing and attempting to bring down the leader by latching onto its tail feathers. Birds may jump on each other and even engage in mock fighting. Play may even take place with other species such as blue-faced honeyeaters and Australasian pipits.
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Protopteryx was adapted for flying and had feathers with features similar to modern birds, as shown by its procoracoid, carina of the sternum, external tuberosity of the humerus, and deltoid crest, which suggest Protopteryx had a modern musculus supercoracoideus and pectoralis. Protopteryx also shares asymmetric wing flight feathers with flying birds, as well as Archaeopteryx and Confuciusornis. The tail feathers of Protopteryx lack of barbs and rami close to the body, suggesting a use outside of flight, such as display, thermoregulation, or sensory usage.
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The water pipit is closely related to the Eurasian rock pipit and the meadow pipit, and is rather similar to both in appearance. Compared to the meadow pipit, the water pipit is longer-winged and longer-tailed than its relative, and has much paler underparts. It has dark, rather than pinkish-red, legs. The water pipit in winter plumage is also confusable with the Eurasian rock pipit, but has a strong supercilium, greyer upperparts, and white, not grey, outer tail feathers; it is also typically much warier.
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The water pipit (Anthus spinoletta) is a small passerine bird which breeds in the mountains of Southern Europe and the Palearctic eastwards to China. It is a short-distance migrant; many birds move to lower altitudes or wet open lowlands in winter. The water pipit in breeding plumage has greyish-brown upperparts, weakly streaked with darker brown, and pale pink-buff underparts fading to whitish on the lower belly. The head is grey with a broad white supercilium ("eyebrow"), and the outer tail feathers are white.
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The lance-tailed manakin (Chiroxiphia lanceolata) is a small passerine bird which breeds in tropical Central and South America from Costa Rica to northern Venezuela. This manakin is a fairly common bird of dry and moist deciduous forests, but not rainforest. It is a small, compact bird about long and similar to the blue-backed manakin, but both sexes have the two central tail feathers elongated to form a spike. Males have black plumage with a blue back, a red crown and orange legs.
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The jungle babbler can be separated from the white-headed babbler by the dark loreal zone between the bill and the eye as well as the lack of a contrasting light crown. The calls of the two species are however distinct and unmistakable. The jungle babbler has harsh nasal calls while the white-headed babbler has high pitched calls. Another babbler that is similarly found in urban areas is the large grey babbler, however that species has a distinctive long tail with white outer tail feathers.
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Donald visits the house of his new love interest, Daisy, for their first known date. Donald tried to woo her and hug her, but at first Daisy acts shy and has her back turned to her visitor. But Donald soon notices her tail feathers taking the form of a hand and signaling for him to come closer. But their time alone is soon interrupted by Huey, Dewey, and Louie who have just followed their uncle and clearly compete with him for the attention of Daisy.
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Anatomical illustration comparing the "frond-tail" of Archaeopteryx with the "fan-tail" of a modern bird Specimens of Archaeopteryx were most notable for their well-developed flight feathers. They were markedly asymmetrical and showed the structure of flight feathers in modern birds, with vanes given stability by a barb-barbule-barbicel arrangement. The tail feathers were less asymmetrical, again in line with the situation in modern birds and also had firm vanes. The thumb did not yet bear a separately movable tuft of stiff feathers.
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His body got fluffier, rounder and more well groomed as well. His personality developed over time from being a dim, slow-witted character into the childlike innocence he is known for today. Although all the Sesame Street Muppet characters are technically ageless, Big Bird is psychologically written to represent a six-year-old. The costume is partially assembled by company American & Fancy Feather, using the tail feathers from turkeys; as the feathers are rarely clean, company owner Anthony Trento calls the Big Bird costume his "toughest customer".
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The exact number of flight feathers cannot be determined from known specimens, however, as the preservation is too poor. The tails of several specimens preserve a fan of feathers (rectrices) at the tip, shorter than those on the forelimbs. The feather fan is similar to those of Microraptor and Caudipteryx, being restricted to the tip of the tail, unlike those of Archaeopteryx and Similicaudipteryx which have rectrices extending down much of the tail length. In at least one species, Jeholornis palmapenis, there were 11 tail feathers.
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The male has the forehead and crown with the crest brilliant yellow; the whole upper plumage, sides of the head and neck, chin, throat, and breast deep black glossed with green, the edges of the feathers of the upper plumage with a metallic lustre, and the outermost tail-feathers tipped with white; lower plumage from the breast downwards deep yellow, the thighs barred or mottled with white. The recumbent crest is raised when the bird is alert or alarmed. M. s. sultanea from Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary.
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This bird has a spectacular aerial display, which involves flying high in circles, followed by a powerful stoop during which the bird makes a drumming sound, caused by vibrations of modified outer tail feathers. The Madagascan snipe forages by pushing its long bill deep into the mud seeking invertebrates, such as insects and worms, seeds and plants. If alarmed, it freezes, and its cryptic plumage provides effective camouflage when the bird stands motionless amongst marsh vegetation. When flushed, it flies off with a zigzagging action.
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The noble snipe is found high altitude wet grassland marshes and swamps from 2,700 – 4,200 m. Little is known of its biology, but it has an aerial display, which involves flying high in circles, followed by a powerful stoop during which the bird makes a drumming sound, caused by vibrations of modified outer tail feathers, lower pitched than that of common snipe. It breeds from March to July. The noble snipe is usually alone or in pairs, but is difficult to observe on the ground.
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The adult form has two colour morphs: a dark and a pale morph. A third greyish morph has been described, but it is restricted to the subspecies Lophostrix cristata stricklandi The dark morph has an overall chocolate-brown colour, with the Crown, facial disk and upper breast in the same deep chocolate colour. The wing coverts and primaries are dotted with white and all flight feathers are barred light and dark. The tail feathers are chocolate brown with some darker mottling and the throat is pale buff.
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Male at Disney's Animal Kingdom The great argus is a brown-plumaged pheasant with a blue head and neck, rufous red upper breast, black hair-like feathers on the crown and nape, and red legs. The male is one of the largest of all pheasants, measuring in total length, including a tail of , and weighing . Males have very long tail feathers and huge, broad and greatly elongated secondary wing feathers decorated with large eyespots. Young males develop their adult plumage in their third year.
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As an adult the spotless crake can reach a length of 17 – 20 cm; a wingspan of 26 – 29 cm; and can weigh between 40 – 50g. The head, and neck of the spotless crake is a bluish–grey slate colour. Some also have an occasional light grey or whitish patch on the chin, which can extend down the throat. The back, the outer wings, and inner wings have a dark reddish–brown which then fades into a dark blackish – brown on the tail feathers.
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The plumage coloring of both the Rouen drake and the Rouen duck are nearly identical to that of the Mallard drake and Mallard duck. The Mallard color pattern is referred to as gray. Males have green heads, white collars, black tail coverts and dark, ashy brown tail feathers, a gray body, and a deep claret breast. The female Rouen hens are a consistent shade of mahogany brown, with a brown crown and tan eye-stripes extending from bill to the back of the eyes.
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The sexes are similar in plumage, which is all black except for white patches at the tips of the wings and tail feathers. The bill and legs are black and the eyes bright yellow. The white tips line the trailing edges of the wings in flight, and a paler arc across the bases of the primary flight feathers is also visible on the underwing. Although there is no seasonal variation to the plumage, the black may fade a little to a dark brown with wear.
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The black bill is strong and slightly decurved. The shafts of the male's two outermost primary flight feathers are thickened, flattened and bent at an angle to give the distinctive feature which gives the sabrewings their English and scientific names (Greek καμπυλος kampylos, "bent", and πτερον pteron, "wing"). In some species, the male and female plumage is similar, in others, such as the violet sabrewing, the sexes look completely different. In several species, the three outer pairs of the tail feathers are broadly tipped white.
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The tail feathers are chestnut brown with speckled edges, and the primaries and secondaries are blackish- brown with buff or chestnut tips. The cheeks are brown with a buff superciliary stripe and a similarly colored mustachial stripe. The chin is creamy-white with a chestnut central stripe, and the feathers of the throat, breast, and upper belly are buff and rust-colored, finely outlined with black, giving a striped effect to the underparts. The eyes are surrounded by yellowish skin, and the iris is pale yellow.
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The toes are anisodactyl—three forward, one back—like those of most birds, but the chimney swift can swivel its back toe (its hallux) forward to help it get a better grip. Unlike the legs and feet of most birds, those of the chimney swift have no scales; instead, they are covered with smooth skin. Its tail is short and square, measuring only in length. All ten of its tail feathers have shafts which extend as much as beyond the vanes, ending in sharp, stiff points.
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The upperparts are dark olive, and the wings and tail are brown with faint rufous fringes. The underparts are yellow and the throat is white with dark stripes down each side which distinguish it from similar species like social or gray- capped flycatchers. Young birds have paler yellow underparts, browner upperparts, no crown stripe, and more obvious chestnut fringes to the wing and tail feathers. The call of the golden-bellied flycatcher is a squeaky seeeik and the dawn song is a melodious repeated tre-le-loo.
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The ruddy shelduck grows to a length of and has a wingspan. The male has orange-brown body plumage and a paler, orange-brown head and neck, separated from the body by a narrow black collar. The rump, flight feathers, tail-coverts and tail feathers are black and there are iridescent green speculum feathers on the inner surfaces of the wings. Both upper and lower wing-coverts are white, this feature being particularly noticeable in flight but hardly visible when the bird is at rest.
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In the British Isles, the young seem largely to disperse along river corridors and the distance travelled from their natal site averages about .Shawyer (1994) p. 91 Barn owl, Canada, with detail of wings and tail feathers In continental Europe the distance travelled is greater, commonly somewhere between but exceptionally , with ringed birds from the Netherlands ending up in Spain and in Ukraine. In the United States, dispersal is typically over distances of , with the most travelled individuals ending up some from the point of origin.
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It was once believed that the drumming sound was produced by the vocal organs, though it has since been confirmed that is not the case. The specifics of how this extraordinary sound is produced can be explained by looking at the tail feathers. The sound is generated by vibration of the outer rectrices in the airstream modified by the set of wings. Drumming in G. galinaga and G. delicata begins quite soft, increasing in volume and frequency as the dive progresses--reaching a crescendo just before the dive concludes.
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However, the female often neglects and even abandons the young near the end of the rearing period, leaving it up to the male to continue caring for the offspring until they are ready to survive on their own. During the incubation period, when a parent approaches the nest hole, they land and rotate their head side to side before entering, otherwise known as "bowing in". This process ends when the chicks hatch. Young quetzals begin flying after three weeks old but for the males, their long tail feathers take three years to develop.
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The Cape sugarbird is a grey-brown bird that is easily recognisable by a spot of yellow under its tail and the very long tail feathers present in males. The male is 34–44 cm long, and the shorter-tailed, shorter-billed, and paler breasted female 25–29 cm long. Another characteristic of the Cape sugarbird is the sound it makes when it flies. The main flight feathers are arranged in such a way that when the bird beats its wings, a frrt-frrt sound is made with the intention of attracting females.
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The white-winged fairywren (Malurus leucopterus) is a species of passerine bird in the Australasian wren family, Maluridae. It lives in the drier parts of Central Australia; from central Queensland and South Australia across to Western Australia. Like other fairywrens, this species displays marked sexual dimorphism and one or more males of a social group grow brightly coloured plumage during the breeding season. The female is sandy-brown with light-blue tail feathers; it is smaller than the male, which, in breeding plumage, has a bright-blue body, black bill, and white wings.
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The edges of black flight feathers and greater primary and secondary coverts are bright yellow, as are those of the tail feathers, which also have white tips. The striking colour contrast in the feathers of the remiges and rectrices is one of the species' most distinctive traits, along with its pink bill, which has a grey tip. Feet and legs are also grey, while the irises of the eyes are reddish-brown . Females are slightly smaller than the males and are paler in colour, with fewer spots running down the flanks.
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When walking, the male carries its tail in an upward-curving train. Juveniles are separable from adults at close range. They are similar to the adult female, but can be distinguished by: (1) the richer and more uniform rufous-brown colouring on the chin, throat and foreneck, and brighter red-brown wash on the forehead and forecrown; (2) the slightly paler upperbody; (3) the softer, downy texture of the rump, lower belly and vent feathers; and, most importantly, (4) the tail feathers (excluding the central pair of medians) are distinctly narrower, more tapered and pointed.
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Territory sizes vary greatly, ranging from 6.7 to 2300 m2, but each territory contains about the same number of flowers. Sometimes, when a female golden-winged sunbird intrudes on a bronzy sunbird's territory, it performs a begging display by quivering its wings and spreading its tail. This causes the bronzy sunbird to tolerate the foraging of the golden-winged sunbird in its territory. Female sunbirds spread their feet apart on the stalk of a Leonotis plant and turn their bodies 90° to the stalk and fan their tail feathers to varying degrees.
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White-plumed antbirds are very persistent in holding on to territories and may remain even in case of conflict with other individuals, if enough food sources are available. They are generally solitary outside of the breeding season and will tend to follow individual ant swarms through the forest. Like other antbirds, they perform anting, which is the process of brushing small insects through their wing and tail feathers. It is still unknown whether the main function of this process is to ease irritation during moulting, kill mites, or detoxify distasteful insects.
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It exhibits little sexual dimorphism, but when the black eye trait is shown on females, their eyes are duller and greyer than those of males. The plumage is fresh in August and gradually gets worn away until the following spring. In worn plumage, the whitish feathers forming the ends of the eyebrows are worn, and the eyebrow line becomes discontinuous or inconspicuous, and the upper parts of the bird become duller. Its tail feathers and wings wear, but the blue-grey feather tips exist until at least May.
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The tips of the tail feathers are shaped like rackets and the bare feather shafts are longer than in other motmots. Although it is often said that motmots pluck the barbs off their tail to create the racketed shape, this is not true; the barbs are weakly attached and fall off due to abrasion with substrates and with routine preening. Unlike most bird species, where only males express elaborate traits, the turquoise- browed motmot expresses the extraordinary racketed tail in both sexes. Research indicates that the tail has evolved to function differently for the sexes.
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The plumage tones are darkest on the upper parts, while the lower belly and vent are white Their body feathers are darkest on the upper side, where they are coloured in dull tones of grey and brown, with shades of lavender on the nape. It is paler below, where a tint of pinkish lavender is usually present. The lower belly and crissum (the undertail coverts surrounding the cloaca) is white. As with related species, they have white fringes and conspicuous white tips to the otherwise slate grey tail feathers.
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Goddard's interest in aerodynamics led him to study some of Samuel Langley's scientific papers in the periodical Smithsonian. In these papers, Langley wrote that birds flap their wings with different force on each side to turn in the air. Inspired by these articles, the teenage Goddard watched swallows and chimney swifts from the porch of his home, noting how subtly the birds moved their wings to control their flight. He noted how remarkably the birds controlled their flight with their tail feathers, which he called the birds' equivalent of ailerons.
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The genus Stercorarius was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the parasitic jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus) as the type species. Skuas are related to gulls, waders, auks, and skimmers. In the three smaller species, all nesting exclusively in the Holarctic, breeding adults have the two central tail feathers obviously elongated, and at least some adults have white on the underparts and pale yellow on the neck. These characteristics are not shared by the larger species, all native to the Southern Hemisphere except for the great skua.
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Illustration by Howard Davie for The Heroes by Charles Kingsley. The Symplegades (; , Symplēgádes) or Clashing Rocks, also known as the Cyanean Rocks, were, according to Greek mythology, a pair of rocks at the Bosphorus that clashed together whenever a vessel went through. They were defeated by Jason and the Argonauts, who would have been lost and killed by the rocks except for Phineus' advice. Jason let a dove fly between the rocks to see exactly how fast they'd have to row to beat the rocks; the dove lost only its tail feathers.
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It weighs up to 16 grams, twice as much as treecreepers of similar length (up to 15 cm). The African spotted creeper has a thin pointed down-curved bill, which it uses to extricate insects from bark, but it lacks the stiff tail feathers which the true treecreepers use to support themselves on vertical trees. Its nests and eggs are quite different from those of the Certhiinae. The nest is a cup placed on a horizontal branch, usually in a crotch, and camouflaged with spiders' egg sacs, caterpillar frass, and lichen.
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The male has a brilliant green plumage, with white thighs and a dark metallic blue tail (clearly forked in the northern part of its range; slightly so in the central and southern part). The female average smaller than the male and also differ by the grey-white underparts, a blackish ear patch, a short white supercilium/post-ocular streak and white- tipped outer tail feathers. Blue-tailed emeralds feed on insects and nectar. The song is a pleasant twittering, and the call of this species is a pebbly tsip.
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Whitestarts are New World warblers in the genus Myioborus. The English name refers to the white outer tail feathers which are a prominent feature of the members of this genus ("start" is an archaic word for "tail"). The species in this genus are also often called "redstarts". The stronghold of the whitestarts is northern South America, although a few species range along the Andes as far south as north-western Argentina, while others range north through Central America and as far north as the United States, in the case of the painted whitestart.
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The woodpecker is 23 cm long, and is very similar to the great spotted woodpecker, Dendrocopos major. The upper parts of the male are glossy black, with a crimson spot on the nape and white on the forehead, sides of the face and neck. On the shoulder is a large white patch and the flight feathers are black with white spots forming three wingbars. The three outer tail feathers show only a few white spots; these show when the short stiff tail is outspread, acting as a support in climbing.
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DK Adult (2005), The feathers of the oilbird are soft like those of many nightbirds, but not as soft as those of owls or nightjars, as they do not need to be silent like predatory species. The oilbird is mainly reddish-brown with white spots on the nape and wings. Lower parts are cinnamon-buff with white diamond- shaped spots edged in black, these spots start small towards the throat and get larger towards the back. The stiff tail feathers are a rich brown spotted with white on either side.
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In courtship displays for one example, males of the colorful Anna's hummingbird orient their bodies and feathers toward the sun to enhance the display value of iridescent plumage toward a female of interest. One study of Anna's hummingbirds found that dietary protein was an influential factor in feather color, as birds receiving more protein grew significantly more colorful crown feathers than those fed a low-protein diet. Additionally, birds on a high- protein diet grew yellower (higher hue) green tail feathers than birds on a low-protein diet.
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The adult specimen of Epidexipteryx lacked preserved feathers around the forelimbs, but preserved simple feathers on the body and long, ribbon-like feathers on the tail. The tail feathers, likely used in display, consisted of a central shaft (rachis) and unbranched vane (unlike the vanes of modern feathers, which are broken up into smaller filaments or barbs). Yi also preserves feathers. These are notably very simple for a member of Pennaraptora (a clade of which scansoriopterygids are usually considered members), being "paintbrush-like", with long quill-like bases topped by sprays of thinner filaments.
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Unfortunately the doll decides that it prefers Daffy to Speedy, resulting in Daffy being blown up instead. Daffy's next strategy is "Plan X" - disguising himself as a giant enchilada and delivering himself to Speedy's mouse hole. The mice become suspicious when they see Daffy's tail feathers sticking out of the enchilada however, and decide to fill it with Tabasco sauce. The sauce is so powerful that it sets fire to Daffy's hunting hat and sends him rocketing into the village fountain - which Speedy promptly drains, giving Daffy a very hard landing.
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The black-tailed gnatcatcher reaches about 4.5 to 5 inches in length, much of it taken up by a long black tail lined with white outer feathers. The body is blue-grey, with white underparts, and while it is similar to the blue-grey gnatcatcher, the two birds are differentiated by the amount of black in the tail feathers. The male has a black cap during the summer that extends to the eyes. Females and winter males, lacking the black cap, are difficult to distinguish from the blue-grey gnatcatcher.
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Young bird (7 weeks old) These are conspicuous and unmistakable birds found in dry stony and open grassland or scrub habitats. They are medium-sized pale brown waders with a black crown which is separated from the brown on the neck by a narrow white band and large yellow facial wattles. The chin and throat are black and the brown neck and upper breast is separated from the white belly by a narrow blackish line. The tail has a subterminal black band which does not extend into the outer tail- feathers.
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Similarly, digit II of the foot in Sinusonasus is not as specialized as those of derived troodontids, despite the hindlimb being overall derived. Conversely, the forelimb of Jianianhualong is short overall as in derived troodontids, despite the presence of basal traits. An ancestral state reconstruction conducted along with the phylogenetic analysis (results labelled in the above phylogenetic tree) suggests that wing feather asymmetry evolved only once, at the last common ancestor of the Paraves. Asymmetrical tail feathers would then also have evolved once, at the common ancestor of all paravians excluding scansoriopterygids and avialans.
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Most nests will also have a long escape tunnel in case a predator breaks in the nest to eat them. Taking advantage of the fact that she is imprisoned; the female will shed all of her flight and tail feathers simultaneously and regrow them during the time she stays with the chicks. Once the chicks are half-grown, the female will break out of the nest in order to help the male. The chicks will rebuild the wall themselves and continue to be fed through the slits by the parents.
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The other two species, Loria's and yellow-breasted satinbirds are much more different from the aforementioned species. Loria's satinbid male is mostly black with shiny purple or metallic sheens; they have iridescent light blue secondary wing feathers, iridescent blue tail feathers, and an iridescent greenish-aqua patch of feathers leading from the base of the bill to right above the eyes. Females, like the others mentioned above, are olive greenish with lighter underparts. Male yellow-breasted satinbirds have reddish-olive upperparts, except for the upper rump, which is a yellow gold.
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Male ocellated turkeys engage in an elaborate, spirited display to attract females (Gonzalez et al. 1998). Ocellated turkeys use their tail fans just like North American subspecies of turkeys do; however, there are several distinct differences between the display of the ocellated and their North American cousins. Male turkeys begin the mating dance by tapping their feet against the ground in rapid succession. Next, the male birds move their tail feathers from side to side while quickly vibrating their wings and dragging the tips of them against the ground.
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This bird has an aerial display, which involves flying high in circles, followed by a powerful stoop during which the bird makes a "drumming" sound, caused by vibrations of modified outer tail feathers. The solitary snipe forages by pushing its long bill deep into the mud seeking invertebrates, such as insects and worms, seeds and plants. It is quite approachable, but if alarmed, it crouches, and its cryptic plumage provides effective camouflage when the bird stands motionless amongst marsh vegetation. When flushed, it drops back into the marsh after a short slow flight.
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It is these latter birds, with extensive clear areas on the breast, that are known as Dutch Pieds. While well-marked Clearflight Pieds have all 10 primaries and both long tail feathers clear, many specimens show just a few clear flight feathers and occasionally none at all are affected. Poorly marked Clearflight Pieds can look rather like Recessive Pieds, but they may be distinguished from them by the white iris ring, which is always present in adult Clearflights. Some specimens may also resemble Australian Pieds but may be distinguished from them by two characteristics.
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John Moore. Fishermen in Suffolk referred to the goldcrest as the "herring spink". Aristotle (384–322 BC) and Pliny (23–79 AD) both wrote about the legend of a contest among the birds to see who should be their king, the title to be awarded to the one that could fly highest. Initially, it looked as though the eagle would win easily, but as he began to tire, a small bird that had hidden under the eagle's tail feathers emerged to fly even higher and claimed the title.
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The Jameson's snipe is found in marshy areas where grassland and forest intergrade, at altitudes ranging between 2,100 – 3,800 m (mostly 3,000 – 3,500 m). Little is known of its behaviour, but it has an aerial display, which involves flying high in circles, followed by a dive during which the bird makes a drumming sound, caused by vibrations of its modified outer tail feathers. The Jameson's snipe forages by pushing its long bill deep into the mud seeking insects and worms. Its cryptic plumage provides effective camouflage when the bird stands motionless amongst marsh vegetation.
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The underparts are yellow and the throat is white. Young birds have a paler eye mask, reduced crown stripe, and have chestnut fringes to the wing and tail feathers. The call is a sharp peeurrr and the dawn song is a chips-k’-cheery. As the specific epithet similis (Latin for "the similar one") indicates, this species looks much like its closest living relative the rusty-margined flycatcher (Myiozetetes cayanensis), and also like the white-bearded flycatcher (Phelpsia inornatus), white-ringed flycatcher (Conopias albovittatus) and lesser kiskadee (Pitangus/Philohydor lictor).
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Elmer Fudd is hunting ducks with his dog Laramore. After missing Daffy several times ("Confidentially, those hunters couldn't hit the broad side of a DUCK!" snickers Daffy to the audience) and leaving a duck-shaped hole in the clouds after each shotgun blast, Elmer manages to graze Daffy with a load of buckshot; this merely blows off his tail-feathers but causes him to fall. Laramore ensures there is a pillow waiting to cushion Daffy's landing. Daffy then gives the dog a lesson in how to retrieve a duck.
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The adults' upper parts and tail are glossy blue-black except for concealed white spots on the rump, visible only when the wings are spread and the rump feathers are erected. The underparts are white, in some populations with a buffy or pinkish tinge on the breast and flanks, which is not always noticeable except in good light. The wings of most subspecies have a white stripe on the wing coverts, in some extending onto the secondary remiges. The tips of the outer tail feathers can be white in some subspecies.
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The Ituri batis is a very small black and white bird, like a small shrike or old world flycatcher which is white below with a broad black breast band, a black head with a conspicuous white loral spot in front of a bright yellow eye. Black on the back and wings with a white strip on the wings and white outer tail feathers on an otherwise black tail. The females is similar to the male but has a thin white supercilium. Young birds are buffer above and greyer below.
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Many individuals of Confuciusornis lacked even these two tail feathers, possibly due to sexual dimorphism. The rest of the tail around the pygostyle was covered in short, non-aerodynamic feather tufts similar to the contour feathers of the body, rather than the familiar feather fan of modern bird tails. Laser fluorescence of two Confuciusornis specimens revealed additional details of their soft-tissue anatomy. The propatagium of Confuciusornis was large, likely relatively thick, and extended from the shoulder to the wrist, as in modern birds; the extent of the postpatagium is also similar to modern birds.
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American Museum Novitates, No. 3387, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024. One controversial study concluded that Confuciusornis may be more closely related to Microraptor and other dromaeosaurids than to Archaeopteryx, but this study was criticized on methodological grounds. Restoration of the related Eoconfuciusornis The present standard interpretation of the phylogenetic position of Confuciusornis can be shown in this cladogram: A close relative, the confuciusornithid Changchengornis hengdaoziensis, also lived in the Yixian Formation. Changchengornis also possessed the paired, long tail feathers, as did several more advanced enantiornith birds.
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Small body size was not primarily achieved by slowing growth but by shortening the period of rapid growth. The growth rate estimated for Confuciusornis is still lower than the extremely fast growth characteristic for modern birds (6–8 weeks), suggesting that that growth was secondarily accelerated later in avian evolution. In 2008 Chiappe and colleagues conducted a statistical analysis based on 106 specimens to explore the relationship between body size and the possession of long tail feathers. The population showed a clear bimodal distribution of the size of the animals with two distinct weight classes.
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Among the specimens studied was a previously undescribed specimen of Sinosauropteryx, IVPP V14202. By examining melanosome structure and distribution, Zhang and colleagues were able to confirm the presence of light and dark bands of colour in the tail feathers of Sinosauropteryx. Furthermore, the team was able to compare melanosome types to those of modern birds to determine a general range of colour. From the presence of phaeomelanosomes, spherical melanosomes that make and store red pigment, they concluded that the darker feathers of Sinosauropteryx were chestnut or reddish brown in colour.
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This mutation first made its appearance around 1933, when a Blackwing Silver hen and four Skyblues were bred from a pair of Skyblues. The Blackwing Silver had a white body with a faint blue suffusion on the rump, normal wing markings, a black eye, black long tail feathers and a silver-grey cheek flash. This hen, paired to a Dilute Skyblue cock, produced a Blackwing Silver cock and from these two all subsequent Blackwing Silvers and later Blackwing Yellows were bred. He established that the mutation is dominant and not sex-linked.
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The Mascarene parrot or mascarin (Mascarinus mascarin) is an extinct species of parrot that was endemic to the Mascarene island of Réunion in the western Indian Ocean. The taxonomic relationships of this species have been subject to debate; it has historically been grouped with either the Psittaculini parrots or the vasa parrots, with the latest genetic study favouring the former group. The Mascarene parrot was in length with a large red bill and long, rounded tail feathers. Its legs were red, and it had naked red skin around the eyes and nostrils.
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It had a black facial mask and partially white tail feathers, but the colouration of the body, wings and head in the living bird is unclear. Descriptions from life indicate the body and head were ash grey, and the white part of the tail had two dark central feathers. In contrast, stuffed specimens and old descriptions based on them indicate that the body was brown and the head bluish. This may be due to the specimens having changed colour as a result of ageing and exposure to light.
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Daisy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1940 by Walt Disney Studios as the girlfriend of Donald Duck. Daisy is an anthropomorphic white duck, but has large eyelashes and ruffled tail feathers to suggest a skirt. She is often seen wearing a hair bow, blouse, and heeled shoes. Daisy was introduced in the short film Mr. Duck Steps Out (1940) and was incorporated into Donald's comic stories several months later. She appeared in 11 short films between 1940 and 1954, and far later in Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) and Fantasia 2000 (1999).
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The African snipe builds a saucer-shaped nest of dry grass in the drier areas of its breeding marshes. The nest is concealed in a dense tuft of grass or rushes. Breeding is dependent on the rains in the tropics, but mainly April to October in South Africa, although nesting has occurred in all months. This bird has a spectacular aerial display, which involves flying high in circles, followed by a powerful stoop during which the bird makes a drumming sound, caused by vibrations of modified outer tail feathers.
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It has been depicted with brownish-grey plumage, yellow feet, a tuft of tail feathers, a grey, naked head, and a black, yellow, and green beak. It used gizzard stones to help digest its food, which is thought to have included fruits, and its main habitat is believed to have been the woods in the drier coastal areas of Mauritius. One account states its clutch consisted of a single egg. It is presumed that the dodo became flightless because of the ready availability of abundant food sources and a relative absence of predators on Mauritius.
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Vinson, who observed live hoopoe starlings when he lived on Réunion, described the crest as flexible, disunited and forward- curled barbs of various lengths, highest in the centre, and able to be erected at will. He compared the bird's crest to that of a cockatoo and to the tail feathers of a bird-of-paradise. Most mounted specimens have an erect crest, indicating its natural position. The only illustration of the hoopoe starling now thought to have been made from life was drawn by French artist Paul Philippe Sauguin de Jossigny during the early 1770s.
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Asities are small forest birds with sexually dichromic plumage and brightly coloured wattles around the eyes of the males. These wattles, which are most conspicuous during the breeding season, get their colour from arrays of collagen fibres. This method of pigmentation is unique in the animal kingdom. Several other features separate them from the broadbills, they possess twelve tail feathers on extremely short (almost non- existent in the Philepitta species) tails, their syrinx is encased with a large bronchial ring and they have forked tongues adapted to nectivory.
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The red-necked buzzard is a medium-sized bird of prey with a distinctive rufous neck, the rufous colour extends up over the crown and down on to the upper back. The rest of the upperparts are mostly blackish, except for the rufous upper tail feathers which has a black subterminal bar. The underparts are mainly white, apart from a dark throat and dark blotches which extend along the flanks. Juveniles resemble the adults, but have a browner upperparts, creamy rather than white underparts and lack the dark throat.
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White-collared starlings are dimorphic in adulthood, with sexual differences in both size and coloration. Adult males have a glossy- black plumage save for a white patch on the chest which extends up to the wings; their bill and legs are black and a bright yellow iris. Adult females are primarily grey with black-tipped wing and tail feathers; the feathers on its crown and rump have blue-black tips. Juveniles and subadults tend to resemble the female, but with more brownish-grey feathers on their ventral plumage.
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Microraptor had four wings, one on each of its forelimbs and hindlimbs, somewhat resembling one possible arrangement of the quartet of flight surfaces on a tandem wing aircraft of today. It had long pennaceous feathers on arms and hands with legs and feet . The long feathers on the legs of Microraptor were true flight feathers as seen in modern birds, with asymmetrical vanes on the arm, leg, and tail feathers. As in modern bird wings, Microraptor had both primary (anchored to the hand) and secondary (anchored to the arm) flight feathers.
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The adult white-eyed river martin is a medium-sized swallow, long, with mainly silky black plumage and a white rump. The back is green-glossed black, and is separated from the similarly coloured upper tail by a narrow bright white rump band. The head is darker than the back, with a velvet-black chin leading to blue-green glossed black underparts. The wings are black, with brown inner edges to the flight feathers, and the tail is green-glossed black with two elongated, slender, central tail feathers, up to long.
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The black-throated coucal is the largest species in the genus Centropus, growing to in length. The sexes are similar, the adult having the head, neck, upper breast and mantle black, glossed with violet-blue, the wings rufous-chestnut, the back black barred with white and the tail black, the tail feathers having paler bases. The lower breast and belly are white, the thighs, flanks and undertail-coverts having a rufous tinge. The juvenile has somewhat similar plumage to the adult, but is barred and streaked with buff, and lacks the gloss on the head.
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Its plumage is green, and most feathers are edged with blue. It has a distinct white forehead and area around the eyes; some blue patches on cheeks and crown; a red patch under the chin; and black ear coverts. This amazon also has red feathers on its abdomen; blue wind coverts; green edging to the outer webs; yellowish green plumage under the tail; an upper-side green tail with yellow tips; red outer tail feathers at base; a horn coloured bill, and brown irises with pale feet. Its body length is about 28 cm long.
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The Madagascan sandgrouse is a plump bird with a short tail and legs and is easy to identify because both sexes have black underwings and it is the only sandgrouse found in Madagascar. The adult male has a brown head with a distinctive black area surrounding the beak and a yellow ring of bare skin around the eye. The mantle, back and rump are blackish-brown speckled with buff. The flight feathers and main tail feathers are blackish-brown, the upper wing coverts being buff and the tail being barred and tipped with buff.
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The primaries are pale with dark trailing edges, a fact that distinguishes this species from the crowned sandgrouse (Pterocles coronatus) which has completely dark primaries. The female also has an orange throat region but is generally duller in plumage than the male. The body colour is greyish-brown liberally spotted with small dark markings and with dark patches on the wings, tail and lower belly. The central tail feathers in both sexes are elongated but not to the extent that they are in the pin-tailed sandgrouse (Pterocles alchata).
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The female alone incubates the clutch, over a period of 18 to 21 days, and is fed by the male during this time. The chicks are born helpless and blind, their salmon-pink skin covered in pale grey down. By day eight they open their eyes, and are well-covered in grey down with pin feathers emerging from their wings on day nine and their down is dark grey. They have well-developed wing and tail feathers by day 21 and are almost fully covered in feathers by day 28.
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In living birds, the remaining caudal vertebrae are fused into a further bone, the pygostyle, for attachment of the tail feathers. Aside from the tail, the number of vertebrae in mammals is generally fairly constant. There are almost always seven cervical vertebrae (sloths and manatees are among the few exceptions), followed by around twenty or so further vertebrae, divided between the thoracic and lumbar forms, depending on the number of ribs. There are generally three to five vertebrae with the sacrum, and anything up to fifty caudal vertebrae.
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The racket-tailed treepie (Crypsirina temia) is an Asian treepie, a member of the crow family, Corvidae. It has a velvety-black forehead of short, plush black feathers with the rest of the bird being an oily green colour, though appearing black in dim light. The tail feathers which in this species are long and broaden at the tail's end are black also with a greenish tinge, as are the wings. The iris of the bird is a turquoise-blue darkening towards the pupil to a very deep or near black.
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For example, Mickey can squeeze through certain gaps, while Donald must find a different route, leading him to entirely different realms. When playing in two player mode, the players can stand on each other's shoulders and use ropes to help each other out, and Mickey can pull Donald through gaps his (evidently very stiff) tail feathers prevent him from fitting through. World of Illusion comprises five principal stages named the 'Enchanted Forest', 'Among the Clouds', 'Underwater Adventure', 'The Library', and 'The Magic Box'.SEGA, World of Illusion instruction manual, pp.
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Adult males have a red patch on the back of the head whereas juvenile birds display a red cap. The downy woodpecker is virtually identical in plumage pattern to the larger hairy woodpecker, but it can be distinguished from the hairy by the presence of black spots on its white tail feathers and the length of its bill. The downy woodpecker's bill is shorter than its head, whereas the hairy woodpecker's bill is approximately equal to head length. The downy woodpecker gives a number of vocalizations, including a short pik call.
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The pintail or northern pintail (Anas acuta) is a duck with wide geographic distribution that breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and North America. It is migratory and winters south of its breeding range to the equator. Unusually for a bird with such a large range, it has no geographical subspecies if the possibly conspecific duck Eaton's pintail is considered to be a separate species. This is a large duck, and the male's long central tail feathers give rise to the species' English and scientific names.
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Separated for millennia by vast ice sheets, the survivors evolved into two species which are still separated by a wide gap across the continent's midsection. It is also closely related to the Chapman's swift; in the past, the three were sometimes treated as a single species. The chimney swift's genus name, Chaetura, is a combination of two Ancient Greek words: chaite, which means "bristle" or "spine", and oura which means "tail". This is an apt description of the bird's tail, as the shafts of all ten tail feathers (rectrices) end in sharp, protruding points.
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Skeletal restoration E. hui is known from a well-preserved partial skeleton that includes four long feathers on the tail, composed of a central rachis and vanes. However, unlike in modern-style rectrices (tail feathers), the vanes were not branched into individual filaments but made up of a single ribbon- like sheet. Epidexipteryx also preserved a covering of simpler body feathers, composed of parallel barbs as in more primitive feathered dinosaurs. However, the body feathers of Epidexipteryx are unique in that some appear to arise from a "membranous structure" at the base of each feather.
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It has been suggested that this may represent a stage in the evolution of the feather. Size of E. hui (holotype specimen) compared with a human. In all, the skeleton of Epidexipteryx hui measures 25 centimeters (10 inches) in length (44.5 cm or 17.5 in including the incomplete tail feathers), and the authors estimated a weight of 164 grams, smaller than most other basal avialans. The skull of Epidexipteryx is also unique in a number of features, and bears an overall similarity to the skull of Sapeornis, oviraptorosaurs and, to a lesser extent, therizinosauroids.
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The legs and feet are pale brown. Juveniles are similar in appearance but generally a paler sandy-brown colour. The plumage is moulted in the autumn and prior to this, the white tips of the tail feathers may have become reduced in size or worn off. The song is a somewhat lark-like but often disjointed series of notes, sometimes clear and loud but at other times soft, and is sung from an elevated position near the top of a tree, on a pole or on a wire.
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Mann's whistles are mounted to the birds by securing together two of their tail feathers and securing the whistle between them with a toggle. Petravicius is the only person in the United Kingdom to have trained pigeons to return to a mobile loft (his is mounted on a moped). This is essential to the performance as otherwise the birds would quickly return to their home loft, leaving the intended audience behind. Petravicius' Birmingham Rollers are well suited to the task as they are able to make quick, acrobatic turns.
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The Firebird is described as a large bird with majestic plumage that glows brightly emitting red, orange, and yellow light, like a bonfire that is just past the turbulent flame. The feathers do not cease glowing if removed, and one feather can light a large room if not concealed. In later iconography, the form of the Firebird is usually that of a smallish fire-colored falcon, complete with a crest on its head and tail feathers with glowing "eyes". It is beautiful but dangerous, showing no sign of friendliness.
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Genera and species within the Family Menoponidae are identified by their short antennae, concealed in grooves behind the eyes. To the untrained eye, it may appear as though they have no antennae. Most lice also further specialize to specific regions on their hosts such as the fluff at the base of the tail, the head, and the shaft. In fact, if a species that is better suited to tail feathers is presented with the opportunity to infest a different type of feather, they will make an attempt to eat those feathers but will fail to reproduce and soon die.
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They begin to quarrel as the human, the donkey, and the birds realize the money each of them owe does not exist and therefore will not be paid back. Eventually the beadle from the nearby town hears the ruckus and decides to take the four travellers before the mayor of the town for judgement. The mayor condemns the pedlar to imprisonment, the donkey to be thrashed, and the tail-feathers of the raven and hedge-sparrow be pulled out. As each of the four travellers receive their punishments they vow to never trust, or be deceived, by each other again.
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The resplendent quetzal was considered divine, associated with the "snake god", Quetzalcoatl, by Pre- Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations. Its iridescent green tail feathers, symbols for spring plant growth, were venerated by the ancient Aztecs and Maya, who viewed the quetzal as the "god of the air" and as a symbol of goodness and light. The Maya also viewed the quetzal symbolizing freedom and wealth, due to their view of quetzals dying in captivity and the value of their feathers, respectively. Mesoamerican rulers and some nobility of other ranks wore headdresses made from quetzal feathers, symbolically connecting them to Quetzalcoatl.
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The crest is made up of long black feathers arising from the nape. The scapulars, primary and secondary flight feathers, rump and thighs are black, while the uppertail coverts are white, though barred with black in some individuals. It has a wedge-shaped tail with white tipping, marbled grey and black colouring at the base, and two broad black bands, one at the base and the other at the end. Sexes look similar to one another although the male tends to have longer tail feathers, more head plumes, a shorter head and more blue-grey plumage.
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The most blackish-brown individuals tend to occur in India. Adults often show relatively little varying colors apart from their somewhat blacker wing and tail feathers, though when freshly molted great wing coverts and secondaries may show small pale tips which may form pale lines along closed wing has tawny upper parts and blackish flight feathers and tail. The head is often similarly tawny in colour as the body but may also sometimes shows darker eyebrows, other thin brown streaks or a darker chin. Meanwhile, the tail is plain or obscurely dark barred (with around 7 subtle bands).
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Bates's sunbird is a very small dull green sunbird with a short, decurved bill a short tail and a yellowish belly. The male has dark olive upperparts, except for a vague pale supercilium, with paler greyer underparts with a pale buffy centre to the belly. The wings are dark brown with pale fringes and the tail is black with wide olive edges and tips to the outer tail feathers. There are long wispy yellow feathers on the sides of the breast, in the otherwise similar female these feathers are whiter and may be much reduced in length.
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When the initial European settlers came to Central Mexico, they observed that the Aztecs targeted the slender-billed grackle; the reason for this is partially unclear. Some speculate that they were targeted because they were seen as pest who ate their crops, while others believe it was to use their feathers for headdresses. They choose to use their black tail feathers rather than their bright green feathers for reasons still unknown. Also during Izcalli, the Aztecs' month in which they sacrificed a variety of animals to their gods, they chose to use this bird for sacrifice to their fire god.
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Hall's babbler is medium in size (19 cm-21 cm) and identified by its thick white eyebrows and a white 'bib' from chin to mid-breast which is sharply demarcated from the brown lower breast to belly. The tail feathers are tipped white, with the amount of white decreasing from the outermost to innermost feather, where most birds lack white tips on the central pair of feathers; this pattern creates distinctive white 'corners' to the fanned tail which is conspicuous in flight. The legs and feet are dark grey. The bill is curved and the iris is dark brown.
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A number of Streptopelia species are very similar in appearance, all having semi-collars and subdued plumage tones. The ring-necked dove is distinguished from its locally sympatric sister species, the African collared dove, by call, the paler bases of the tail feathers, and the grey rather than pink crown feathers. On appearance alone, it may also be confused with the Eurasian collared dove, vinaceous dove, red-eyed dove, red collared dove, mourning collared dove or the Barbary dove, the last of these a popular cage bird with isolated feral populations. The red-eyed dove is generally similar, with an identical display flight.
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Martha after being skinned After her death, Martha was quickly brought to the Cincinnati Ice Company, where she was held by her feet and frozen into a block of ice. She was then sent by express train to the Smithsonian, where she arrived on September 4, 1914, and was photographed. She had been molting when she died, and as such she was missing several feathers, including some of her longer tail feathers. William PalmerWilliam Palmer (1856–1921) was a English-born American naturalist, the chief taxidermist for the National Museum of Natural History, and an ornithologist who participated in several noteworthy expeditions.
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Serikornis sungei Although it is practically certain that every anchiornithid possessed advanced pennaceous feathers, there is still much variety in feathering between genera (or between individuals in the case of numerous genera such as Anchiornis). Most had vaned tail feathers forming a frond-shaped tail, with the tails feathers of Caihong being particularly long and in some cases asymmetrical. However, Eosinopteryx, Serikornis, and Aurornis were preserved with short and downy tail feathering. Some studies on the body feathering of anchiornithids indicate that the feathers were pennaceous, but seemingly lacked barbules, making them "shaggy" or "silky" in life.
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At first the bird was thought to be a subspecies of the Australian marbled frogmouth (Podargus ocellatus). In 1998, an expedition by the Florida Museum of Natural History to Santa Isabel Island managed to collect a new specimen. Upon examining it, Nigel Cleere, Andrew Kratter, David Steadman and co-workers realized that it was highly distinct, and it was moved to a newly coined genus, Rigidipenna. The Solomons frogmouth differs in several ways from other frogmouths, for instance in having only eight tail feathers instead of the more usual ten or twelve, and also in having coarser feathers.
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However, it backfires on him when Woody is able to spin the balloon around, grab Farkle's shotgun, and shoot the balloon causing it to crash to earth. Woody then throws the gun back to Farkle, only to have it go off when it hits the ground and nearly shoot off Woody's tail feathers. Farkle then tries using a rocket and a club, but shoots past Woody into the sky and then crashes to the ground once the rocket burns off. Woody then mocks a frustrated Farkle by saying he should join the circus with that performance.
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Notable features in the male include a long, metallic green crest, coppery feathers on the back and neck, and a prominent white rump that is most visible when the bird is in flight. The tail feathers of the male are uniformly rufous, becoming darker towards the tips, whereas the lower tail coverts of females are white, barred with black and red. The female has a prominent white patch on the throat and a white strip on the tail. The first-year male and the juvenile resemble the female, but the first-year male is larger and the juvenile is less distinctly marked.
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The most popular festival held in Niyodogawacho is the Akibamatsuri, held annually on February 11. A day long procession up a hillside to the Akiba temple, it features elaborate costumes, a highly choreographed march and focuses on the tossing of long wooden poles topped with the tail feathers of Onagadori, the famous long tailed roosters of Kōchi Prefecture. Often designated as one of the three major festivals in the Kōchi festival calendar, it is the one occasion where many former residents of the town return to participate, particularly important for a small town ravaged by depopulation.
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The white feathers of the head and rump have concealed dark brown bases, while those of the mantle, back, tail rectrices and tail coverts have dark brown shaft bases. The two long tail feathers are orange or red with white bases for around a tenth of their length, and can be hard to see when the bird is flying. The white wings are marked by dark chevron-shaped patches on the tertials, and the dark shafts of the primary flight feathers are visible. The pink tinge is often more pronounced in the remiges of the upper wing.
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A tendon in the rear of the leg running from the underside of the toes to the muscle behind the tibiotarsus will automatically be pulled and tighten when the leg bends, causing the foot to curl and become stiff when the bird lands on a branch. This enables passerines to sleep while perching without falling off.Stefoff, Rebecca (2008), The Bird Class, Marshall Cavendish BenchmarkBrooke, Michael and Birkhead, Tim (1991) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Ornithology, Cambridge University Press . Most passerine birds have 12 tail feathers but the superb lyrebird has 16,Jones, D. (2008) "Flight of fancy".
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The Salmon-crested cockatoo (Cacatua moluccensis), also known as the Moluccan cockatoo, is a cockatoo endemic to the Seram archipelago in eastern Indonesia. At a height of up to and weight of up to , it is among the largest of the white cockatoos. The female is larger than the male on average. It has white- pink feathers with a definite peachy glow, a slight yellow on the underwing and underside of the tail feathers and a large retractable recumbent crest which it raises when threatened, revealing hitherto concealed bright red- orange plumes to frighten potential attackers.
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At Marwell Wildlife, England Adult red-crowned cranes are named for a patch of red bare skin on the crown, which becomes brighter during mating season. Overall, they are snow white in color with black on the wing secondaries, which can appear almost like a black tail when the birds are standing, but the real tail feathers are actually white. Males are black on the cheeks, throat, and neck, while females are pearly gray in these spots. The bill is olive green to greenish horn, the legs are slate to grayish black, and the iris is dark brown.Archibald G.W. & Meine, C.D. 1996.
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The Eurasian treecreeper or common treecreeper (Certhia familiaris) is a small passerine bird also known in the British Isles, where it is the only living member of its genus, simply as treecreeper. It is similar to other treecreepers, and has a curved bill, patterned brown upperparts, whitish underparts, and long stiff tail feathers which help it creep up tree trunks. It can be most easily distinguished from the similar short-toed treecreeper, which shares much of its European range, by its different song. The Eurasian treecreeper has nine or more subspecies which breed in different parts of its range in the Palearctic.
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Formica rufa, a competitor for arthropod prey The Eurasian treecreeper typically seeks invertebrate food on tree trunks, starting near the tree base and working its way up using its stiff tail feathers for support. Unlike a nuthatch, it does not come down trees head first, but flies to the base of another nearby tree. It uses its long thin bill to extract insects and spiders from crevices in the bark. Although normally found on trees, it will occasionally hunt prey items on walls, bare ground, or amongst fallen pine needles, and may add some conifer seeds to its diet in the colder months.
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The short-toed treecreeper is one of a group of four very similar Holarctic treecreepers, including the closely related North American brown creepers, and has five subspecies differing in appearance and song. Like other treecreepers, the short-toed is inconspicuously plumaged brown above and whitish below, and has a curved bill and stiff tail feathers. It is a resident in woodlands throughout its range, and nests in tree crevices or behind bark flakes, laying about six eggs. This common, unwary, but inconspicuous species feeds mainly on insects which are picked from the tree trunk as the treecreeper ascends with short hops.
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The feathers of the piece have deteriorated over the centuries. It is high and across and has the form of concentric layers of different colored feathers arranged in a semicircle. The smallest is made from blue feathers of the Cotinga amabilis (xiuhtōtōtl) with small plates of gold in the shapes of half moons. Behind this is a layer of Roseate spoonbill (tlāuhquechōlli) feathers, then small quetzal feathers, then a layer of white-tipped red-brown feathers of the squirrel cuckoo, Piaya cayana, with three bands of small gold plates, and finally two of 400 closely spaced quetzal tail feathers, some long.
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The sexes are very similar, apart from the crest colour, although the female is a little duller in plumage and on average slightly smaller. Juveniles have a grey tinge to the duller upperparts, and lack the coloured crown; the other head markings are present, but duller than in the adult. By their first winter, only the flight and tail feathers remain unmoulted, and the young birds are virtually indistinguishable from the adults in the field. This kinglet usually hops with its body held horizontally, and its flight is weak and whirring, with occasional quick evasive turns.
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Aristotle and Pliny relate the legend of a contest amongst the birds to see who should be their king, the title to be awarded to the one that could fly highest. Initially, it looked as though the eagle would win easily, but as he began to tire, a small bird which had hidden under the eagle's tail feathers emerged to fly even higher and claimed the title.Aristotle, History of Animals, 9.11.Pliny, Natural History, 10.74 Following from this legend, in much European folklore the wren has been described as the "king of the birds" or as a flame bearer.
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Archaeornithura had a moderately advanced plumage, fan-shaped tail feathers, a U-shaped furcula, highly fused wing apexes, and a well-developed alula – a feathered first finger projecting on the front edge of the wing that is typically used to boost manoeuvrability during flight. Collectively, these traits mean that it shares many morphological features with a modern bird – more than found in any other bird of equivalent age. This suggests that the Ornithuromorpha diverged from other bird-related dinosaurs earlier than previously thought. "The new bird is quite derived and has many advanced features of modern birds," said discoverer Wang Min.
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The grey headed batis is a small grey, black and white bird with restless habits. In the adult males the forehead, crown and nape are bluish black, there is a small white loral spot which extends into a long, broad, supercilium, there is a small white patch on the nape and the face mask is glossy black. The mantle and back aredark grey with a tinge of glossy black, the fluffy rump is white and the uppertail coverts are black. The wing is black with a white stripe and the tail is black with white outer tail feathers.
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Woodward's batis is in length and weighs . It is a small active bird which is similar to a flycatcher and shows the typical patterns and plumage colours of the genus Batis. It is blue-grey above with a short white supercilium, black mask on the face, an orange-red eyes and the tail is black with the outer tail fathers edged white and all of the tail feathers except the middle two are tipped with white. It is sexually dimorphic and the male shows white on the wing strip, chin and throat while his breast and upper belly are pale rufous.
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The southern scrub robin (Drymodes brunneopygia) is a species of bird in the family Petroicidae. It is endemic to Australia, where it occurs in mallee and heathland in the semi-arid southern parts of the continent, extending from Wyperfeld National Park in Victoria in the east through South Australia to the west coast between Kalbarri and the Pinnacles in Nambung National Park. It is a relatively dull and large robin, adults being around in length, of which around a third is the tail feathers. Most of the plumage is grey, except for a dullish red tail and patterned black-and-white wings.
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A. s. coutellii is smaller than the nominate subspecies and the white of the outer tail feathers has a hint of grey. It is paler and more heavily streaked above, and in summer plumage the underparts' colour covers a larger area and has a rusty tint. A. s. blakistoni is large, pale and less strongly streaked. Conspicuous head markings The water pipit has a complete moult between July and September, although there is considerable individual variation in timing. There is a partial pre-breeding moult, mainly between January and March, but with much variability in timing.
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The habitats used by Eurasian rock and water pipits are completely separate in the breeding season, and there is little overlap even when birds are not nesting. There is also little mixing with breeding meadow pipits, although since 1960 some overlapping territories have been found where the species coexist. The Eurasian rock pipit's subspecies Anthus petrosus littoralis in summer plumage is particularly close in outward appearance to the water pipit. The rock pipit normally has a bluer tint to the head, streaking on the breast and flanks, and buff outer tail feathers, and the songs are also different.
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From late January to early March there is a partial moult and individually variable moult of some body and wing covert feathers, and sometimes the central tail feathers. The Eurasian rock pipit is closely related to the water pipit and the meadow pipit, and is rather similar in appearance. Compared to the meadow pipit, the Eurasian rock pipit is darker, larger and longer-winged than its relative, and has dark, rather than pinkish-red, legs. The water pipit in winter plumage is also confusable with the Eurasian rock pipit, but has a strong supercilium and greyer upperparts; it is also typically much warier.
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The Eurasian rock pipit's dusky, rather than white, outer tail feathers are also a distinction from all its relatives. The habitats used by Eurasian rock and water pipits are completely separate in the breeding season, and there is little overlap even when birds are not nesting. The Eurasian rock pipit's song is a sequence of about twenty tinkling cheepa notes followed by a rising series of thin gee calls, and finishing with a short trill. The shrill pseep flight call is intermediate between the soft sip sip sip of the meadow pipit and the water pipit's short, thin fist.
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A captive alt=A mainly-white cockatoo with a black beak perched on a wooden perch. Its yellow crest is raised and very conspicuous. The cockatoos are generally medium to large parrots of stocky build, which range from in length and in weight; however, one species, the cockatiel, is considerably smaller and slimmer than the other species, being long (including its long pointed tail feathers) and in weight.. The movable headcrest, which is present in all cockatoos, is spectacular in many species;. it is raised when the bird lands from flying or when it is aroused.
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The Eurasian eagle-owls’ feathers are lightweight and robust but nevertheless need to be replaced periodically as they become worn. In the Eurasian eagle-owl, this happens in stages and the first moult starts the year after hatching with some body feathers and wing coverts being replaced. The next year the three central secondaries on each wing and three middle tail feathers are shed and regrow, and the following year two or three primaries and their coverts are lost. In the final year of this post-juvenile moult, the remaining primaries are moulted and all the juvenile feathers will have been replaced.
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The greater racket-tailed drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus) is a medium-sized Asian bird which is distinctive in having elongated outer tail feathers with webbing restricted to the tips. They are placed along with other drongos in the family Dicruridae. They are conspicuous in the forest habitats often perching in the open and by attracting attention with a wide range of loud calls that include perfect imitations of many other birds. One hypothesis suggested is that these vocal imitations may help in the formation of mixed-species foraging flocks, a feature seen in forest bird communities where many insect feeders forage together.
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The common whistle note that is made leads to its local name in many parts of India of kothwal (which means a "policeman" or "guard", who used a whistle that produced a similar note), a name also applied to the black drongo and in other places as the Bhimraj or Bhringaraj. In Mizo language of northeast India, it is called Vakul and the Mizo people use the tail feathers in ceremonies. Prior to the 1950s it was often kept in captivity by people in parts of India. It was said to be very hardy and like a crow, accommodating a varied diet.
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The feathers and other parts of the red-tailed hawk are considered sacred to many American indigenous people and, like the feathers of the bald eagle and golden eagle, are sometimes used in religious ceremonies and found adorning the regalia of many Native Americans in the United States; these parts, most especially their distinctive tail feathers, are a popular item in the Native American community. As with the other two species, the feathers and parts of the red-tailed hawk are regulated by the eagle feather law, which governs the possession of feathers and parts of migratory birds.
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Euornithes also included the first avialans to develop true pygostyle and a fully mobile fan of tail feathers, which may have replaced the "hind wing" as the primary mode of aerial maneuverability and braking in flight. A study on mosaic evolution in the avian skull found that the last common ancestor of all Neornithes might have had a beak similar to that of the modern hook-billed vanga and a skull similar to that of the Eurasian golden oriole. As both species are small aerial and canopy foraging omnivores, a similar ecological niche was inferred for this hypothetical ancestor.
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The little sparrowhawk is, as its name suggests a very small bird of prey which is also distinguished by two white spots on the underside of its central tail feathers and by a narrow white patch on the lower rump. It is sexually dimorphic and the male has dark grey upperparts, which can appear almost black, this colour extending on to the cheeks to contrast with the white throat. The underparts are white barred with fine rufous bars. The females are overall browner on the upperparts and the underpart bars are also browner and less fine than the male.
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Though generally similar to other ostriches, the skin of the neck and thighs of the Somali ostrich is blue (rather than pinkish), becoming bright blue on the male during the mating season. The neck lacks a typical broad white ring, and the tail feathers are white. The females are slightly larger than the males and browner in plumage than other female ostriches. The Somali ostrich is similar in size to other ostriches so far as is known, perhaps averaging marginally smaller in body mass than some subspecies of common ostrich (at least the nominate race, S. c. camelus).
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Like other wheatears, it has a distinctive tail pattern with a black feathers on the base and centre of the tail forming an inverted T against the otherwise white rump. The juvenile has a brown cap and cheeks, and the breast band is weak and diffuse. However, the breast band, larger size, and white at the base of the outer tail feathers distinguish it from the migrant northern wheatear, which is rare over most of the capped wheatear's range. The capped wheatear's song is a loud melodic warble interspersed with slurred chattering, and it has a chik-chik alarm call.
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Males average 20.1 in (51 cm) long, while females average 22.1 in (56 cm); they are distinguished from the black caracara by larger size and plumage that is mainly black, with the belly, tail feathers, and undertail feathers being white. Both their faces and throats are bare with a few black feathers scattered on the throat; the exposed skin is red. Both male and female red-throated caracaras are similar in appearance. Males have a wing length of 35.55 cm, a tail length of 24.96 cm, a bill length of 2.5 cm, and a tarsus length of 5.41 cm.
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The Indian spotted creeper has grey and white spotted and barred plumage, clearly different from the treecreepers of the subfamily Certhiinae. It weighs up to 16 grams, twice as much as treecreepers of similar length (up to 15 cm). The Indian spotted creeper has a thin pointed down-curved bill, a bit longer than the head, that it uses to extricate insects from bark, but it lacks the stiff tail feathers which treecreepers use to prop themselves on the vertical surface of tree trunks. They have a whitish supercilium contrasting with a dark eye stripe and white on the throat.
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This species was first described by Major James Franklin in 1831 who provided a brief description in Latin and placed it in the genus Certhia as Certhia spilonota while noting that the tail feathers were not stiff as is typical for the genus. George Robert Gray at the British Museum erected the genus Salpornis and placed this species in it as Salpornis spilonota. When similar species were found in Africa, they were added as subspecies of the Indian species. It was only in 2010 that molecular, morpholological and vocal differences were studied, which resulted in the African species being considered distinct species.
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Male and female Cotigao NP, Goa, India Khao Yai National Park - Thailand The Asian fairy bluebird measures in length. The iris is crimson and eyelids pinkish; the bill, legs and claws are black, and mouth a flesh- colour. Marked sexual dimorphism is evident. The male is a shining ultramarine-blue with lilac reflections on its upper plumage, lesser wing coverts, and under tail coverts, while the sides of its head and the whole lower plumage are deep black; greater wing-coverts, quills, and tail black, and some of the coverts tipped with blue, and the middle tail-feathers glossed with blue.
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The National Poultry Show is being held, and Daffy Duck looks at the matinee showing the prizes for the judging. The first prize for best rooster is $5,000, and the best duck is $5.00. Daffy, having traveled all the way from Dubuque for the contest, is outraged that ducks rate such a low prize and decides to disguise himself as a rooster (using rubber gloves and the tail feathers of another rooster, affixed through a plunger head) to get the $5000. Meanwhile, Henery is being taught all about roosters by his father, George K. (or G.K.) Chickenhawk (a reference to G.K. Chesterton).
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The university fight song is "Utah Man", commonly played at athletic games and other university events. In 1996, Swoop was introduced as the new mascot of the University of Utah. Because of relationships with the local Ute Indians, Utah adopted a new mascot. While still known as the Utes, Utah is now represented by the Red-tailed Hawk known for the use of his tail feathers in Ute head- dresses, and said he "Reflects the soaring spirit of our state and school" In 2002, the university was one of 20 schools to make the U.S. News & World Report College Sports Honor Roll.
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The first barefoot mailman was Edwin Ruthven Bradley, a retired Chicago newsman and Lake Worth resident, who won the postal contract in 1885 with a bid of $600 per year. He and his son, Louie, took turns carrying the mail once a week for about two years.Pierce: 195 His second son, Guy Bradley, would later become famous after his murder while serving as an early game warden protecting the egrets being poached for tail feathers. The third, and most famous, of the barefoot mailmen was James E. "Ed" Hamilton, who had come to Hypoluxo from Cadiz, Kentucky (Trigg County) in 1885.
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Pigeon whistles are small devices fitted to pigeons that emit a noise as the bird flies through the air. They have been used in China, where they are known as geling or geshao, since at least the Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and also in Japan and Indonesia. Traditionally they were made from lightweight bamboo or from gourds and attached to the pigeon by a toggle fixed between its tail feathers - causing no harm to the bird. They are used to deter birds of prey, for entertainment and as a means of an owner recognising their pigeons.
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A copper plate found at the Clay Hill Site (3 LE 11) in Lee County, Arkansas has the same chest region design and long narrow shape and distinctive tail feathers as the Scott Site and Rose Mound examples. Although fragmented it is approximately in length. It was recorded to be in a private collection in 1978 but has not been seen since. The plate was found in an Armorel Phase burial that also contained a Clarksdale bell, an item of European manufacture that is a hallmark of the 1541 Hernando de Soto excursion through the southeast.
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From an unknown location on the west coast of central Florida comes the Wilcox plate, a partial avian themed copper plate showing the middle section details of scalloped wings, tail feathers and a raptors leg and claw in the Malden style very similar to the Wulfing plates. It was discovered somewhere near Waldo, Florida in Levy County in the 1880s, where it was purchased from a local doctor by Joseph Wilcox for the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. It has been part of the collection of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology since the mid-1930s.
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The crested fireback (Lophura ignita) is a medium-sized, up to 70 cm long, forest pheasant with a peacock-like dark crest, bluish black plumage, reddish brown rump, black outer tail feathers, red iris and bare blue facial skin. The female is a brown bird with short crest, blue facial skin and spotted black- and-white below. The crested fireback is found in lowland forests of the Thai- Malay Peninsula, Borneo and Sumatra. There are four subspecies of the crested fireback, but in 2014 the subspecies rufa was split as a distinct species from the others.
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It is the only cardueline finch to undergo a molt twice a year. During the winter molt it sheds all its feathers; in the spring, it sheds all but the wing and tail feathers, which are dark brown in the female and black in the male. The markings on these feathers remain through each molt, with bars on the wings and white under and at the edges of the short, notched tail. The sexual dimorphism displayed in plumage coloration is especially pronounced after the spring molt, when the bright color of the male's summer plumage is needed to attract a mate.
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Wilson Snipe (Gallinago delicata) There is an extensive list of the snipe and snipe-like birds, and they can be separated into three main groups: semi-snipes, aberrant snipes, and true snipes. For the purpose of this section, the group of the true snipes will be examined. The true snipes comprise nine species, all of which are quite similar to one another, however, they differ mainly in terms of both the size and number of their outer tail-feathers. The most widely researched of the true snipe are the common snipe and the Wilson's snipe, and the drumming differences between these two species of snipe will be discussed here.
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The piculets are a distinctive subfamily, Picumninae, of small woodpeckers which occur mainly in tropical South America, with just three Asian and one African species. Like the true woodpeckers, piculets have large heads, long tongues which they use to extract their insect prey and zygodactyl feet, with two toes pointing forward, and two backwards. However, they lack the stiff tail feathers that the true woodpeckers use when climbing trees, so they are more likely than their relatives to perch on a branch rather than an upright trunk. Their bills are shorter and less dagger-like than the true woodpeckers, so they look for insects and grubs mainly in decaying wood.
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Brown-backed honeybird juvenile fed by host parent, a rock-loving cisticola Most honeyguides are dull-colored, though some have bright yellow coloring in the plumage. All have light outer tail feathers, which are white in all the African species. They are among the few birds that feed regularly on wax-- beeswax in most species, and presumably the waxy secretions of scale insects in the genus Prodotiscus and to a lesser extent in Melignomon and the smaller species of Indicator. They also feed on waxworms which are the larvae of the waxmoth Galleria mellonella, on bee colonies, and on flying and crawling insects, spiders, and occasional fruits.
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Male Wilson’s Birds of Paradise are the most colorful of all the species within the family, possessing a veritable rainbow of color. This remarkable example of hue and iridescence possesses all of the primary colors (and more) in different ways. The baby blue hue of its head is skin, not feathers, and is the result of structural color absent in any other member of birds of paradise. Yellow on the nape of its neck, followed by the crimson on its back are consistent, pigmented colors, present year-round. Its quirky, “handlebar-mustache-shaped” tail feathers are brilliantly iridescent, reflecting light to produce intense color to the eye of the beholder.
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Many species have elongated central tail feathers. There is little visible difference between the sexes in most of the family, although in several species the iris is red in the males and brown-red in the females, and in species with tail-streamers these may be slightly longer in males. Both the European and red-bearded bee-eaters have sex-based differences in their plumage colour, and the female rainbow bee-eater has shorter tail streamers than the male, which terminate in a club-shape that he lacks. There may be instances where bee-eaters are sexually dichromatic at the ultraviolet part of the colour spectrum, which humans cannot see.
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Feeding trace of Brueelia lice on a tail feather Barn swallows (and other small passerines) often have characteristic feather holes on their wing and tail feathers. These holes were suggested as being caused by avian lice such as Machaerilaemus malleus and Myrsidea rustica, although other studies suggest that they are mainly caused by species of Brueelia. Several other species of lice have been described from barn swallow hosts, including Brueelia domestica and Philopterus microsomaticus. The avian lice prefer to feed on white tail spots, and they are generally found more numerously on short-tailed males, indicating the function of unbroken white tail spots as a measure of quality.
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During the winter of 1887-1888, James Willard Schultz, an early hunting guide in the St. Mary Lakes region, and his family built a cabin on the north shore of upper Saint Mary Lake. While hunting on Red Eagle Mountain with his Pikuni friend, Tail-Feathers-Coming-Over-the-Hill, Schultz gave this mountain the name it bears today. Warren Hanna, Schultz's biographer describes the naming thus: Alternatively, numerous Blackfeet Indian legends are credited with the origins of the mountains' name. Used by the Blackfeet as a location for vision quests, it is one of the most accessible major mountain peaks in Glacier National Park.
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Because fully-grown feathers are essentially dead structures, it is vital that birds have some way to protect and lubricate them. To facilitate this, many species have a preen or uropygial gland, which opens above the base of the tail feathers and secretes a substance containing fatty acids, water, and waxes. The bird gathers this substance on its bill and applies it to its feathers. The gland is generally larger (in relation to body size) in waterbirds, including terns, grebes and petrels, but studies have found no clear correlation between the size of a bird's gland and the exposure to water that its lifestyle dictates.
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In the distal 10% of the feather's length, the individual parallel barbs become distinguishable, forming a brush- like tip. This form of feather morphology, dubbed "proximally wire-like part with a short filamentous distal tip (PWFDT)" , is also present in feathers projecting along the front edge of the left wing. PWFDT feathers are currently only known in Cruralispennia, although they are similar to the ribbon-like tail feathers of the oviraptorosaur Similicaudipteryx. It is probable that PWFDT feathers are a result of a genetic overexpression of the BMP4 gene (which promotes barb fusion and rachis formation) or a suppression of the Sonic hedgehog gene (which promotes the formation of individual barbs).
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The flanks are bright green, and the black of the chest tapers onto the belly. Female - Rancho Naturalista - Costa Rica (flash photo) Females and immature males have bronze-green upperparts and largely white underparts with a dark central stripe that changes from black at the chin to blue-green on the throat. Immature birds of both sexes usually show some gray or buff feather edges on the head and wings and are mottled with cinnamon to rusty brown along the edges of the white breast-belly stripe. Immature females have less extensive magenta in the outer tail feathers than adult females or immature males.
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Further Austria mainly comprised the Alsatian County of Ferrette in the Sundgau, including the town of Belfort, and the adjacent Breisgau region east of the Rhine, including Freiburg im Breisgau after 1368. Also ruled from the Habsburg residence in Ensisheim near Mühlhausen were numerous scattered territories stretching from Upper Swabia to the Allgäu region in the east, the largest being the margravate of Burgau between the cities of Augsburg and Ulm. During the Habsburg Monarchy they were humorously called "tail feathers of the Imperial Eagle". Some estates in Vorarlberg possessed by the Habsburgs were also considered part of Further Austria, though they were temporarily directly administered from Tyrol.
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SF violet light greens have contour features similar in shade to a dark green, but the faint ribbing present in the body feathers of a dark green is lacking, giving the feathers of the violet light greens a more satin-like finish. The tail feathers are paler than the navy blue of the dark green, rather like those of the light green, particularly near the quill end, and violet light greens lack the dark blue colour present in the flight feathers of dark greens. SF violet dark greens have a body color midway between dark green and dark grey. SF violet olives are very similar to olives.
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Marlon (voiced by Larry Storch) was an intelligent, red, talking mynah bird and also a wizard who used his magic to help the kids out of jams. Marlon was also notable for his method of flight: he spun his tail feathers like a helicopter rotor rather than using his wings, which were instead used as hands, often for grand gestures as he cast spells. The Bradys' dog from the live-action series, Tiger, was replaced by a dog named Mop Top (also voiced by Storch). There were also twin giant panda cubs, Ping and Pong (voiced by Jane Webb), named after the game ping-pong.
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Cock and hen, illustration from the Geflügel-Album of Jean Bungartz, 1885 The Yokohama is a German breed of fancy chicken, with unusual colouring and very long tail-feathers. It was created by in the 1880s, and derives from ornamental birds brought to Europe from Japan in the second half of the nineteenth century. Some of these were shipped from the Japanese port of Yokohama, and so were known by that name. In Germany, the Yokohama name is used only for white or red-saddled birds; in the United Kingdom, it is used also for the birds known elsewhere as Phoenix, in various colours.
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Cooking was done in a hāngi or in gourds of boiling oil. The flesh of the bird could be preserved in its own fat and stored in containers for later consumption – hunters of the Ngāi Tahu tribe would pack the flesh in baskets made from the inner bark of totara tree or in containers constructed from kelp. Bundles of kakapo tail feathers were attached to the sides of these containers to provide decoration and a way to identify their contents. Also taken by the Māori were the bird's eggs, which are described as whitish "but not pure white", and about the same size as a kererū egg.
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The Wandsworth Shield is a circular bronze Iron Age shield boss or mount decorated in La Tène style which was found in the River Thames at Wandsworth in London sometime before 1849. Another incomplete bronze shield mount, sometimes called the Wandsworth Mask Shield was found at the same time. Both shield mounts are now held at the British Museum. The bold repoussé decoration on the Wandsworth Shield, comprising two birds with outstretched wings and long trailing tail feathers, has led Barry Cunliffe, Emeritus Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford, to consider the shield to be "among the masterpieces of British Celtic art".
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Many warrior-based tribes of Native Americans admired the great horned owl for their "strength, courage and beauty". The Pima of the southwest believed that owls were reincarnations of slain warriors who fly about by night. The Arikara of the Great Plains had mystic owl societies in which initiates were made to adorn facial mask made of the wing and tail feathers of great horned owls. Some Indian nations regarded the great horned owl as a friendly spirit who could aid in matters of love, such as the Passamaquoddy of Maine who felt the call of this species was a magical love flute designed to ignite human passions.
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However, there was no correlation between size and the possession of the long tail feathers. From this it was concluded that either the sexes did not differ in size or both sexes had the long feathers. The first case was deemed most likely which left the size distribution to be explained. It was hypothesized that the smaller animals consisted of very young individuals, that the large animals were adults and that the rarity of individuals with an intermediate size was caused by Confuciusornis experiencing a growth spurt just prior to reaching adulthood, the shortness of which would have prevented many becoming fossilized during this phase.
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Feathers taken from wings are said to flow less smoothly through the air, so if given the choice, tail feathers are picked. The Mongols characteristically pay close attention to the minutest details; the placement of the fletchings in relation to their size, and what part of the bird the feathers originate from, are of great importance for correct rotation and good balance in the air. Consequently, these factors are painstakingly considered when making arrows after the Old Mongol standard. Arrowheads can be everything from wide metal blades used for big game (or in war) to bone and wooden points, which are used for hunting birds and small animals.
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"I think of him as a peacock who has moulted all but one of his tail feathers, but does not know it," notes author John Rudlin. In this case, his cowardice is usually overcome by the fury of his passion, which he makes every effort to demonstrate. Typically, however, his cowardice is such that when one of the characters orders him to do something, he often steps down out of fear, but is able to make up an excuse that ensures the other characters still see him as a brave and fierce individual. Columbina sometimes uses him to make Arlecchino jealous, much to Capitano's bewilderment and fright.
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There are several discrepancies in how the colour of the body, wings, tail feathers and the head have historically been described and depicted. In 1674, Dubois described live specimens as being "petit-gris" which is the colour of the dark phase of the red squirrel. According to Hume, this colour is a dark blackish grey or brown. In 1760, Brisson published the following description based on a captive bird (which may have been the specimen now preserved in Paris): Instead of grey, several later authors described the body as brown and the head as bluish lilac, based on stuffed specimens, and this has become the "orthodox image" of the bird.
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This first design featured Woody with red "vest feathers" (instead of white), buck teeth in some shots, thick ringed legs, two green tail feathers and a big chin which made him look more like a pelican than a woodpecker. The short almost never saw the light of the day because then distributor Bernie Krieser (representing Universal) thought Woody was the ugliest thing he had ever seen. Lantz told him, "You're not paying for these pictures, All you're doing is distributing them, so release him, because I'm taking a chance". So then Krieser took it back and asked for a series as the short was a hit.
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The helmsmen in the center of the queue are the last rectrices to be renovated. Molting in the capital region involves changing the feathers of the pileus and the sides of the head. It is one of the last parts of the body to begin feather replacement, but the renewal of most of the capital feathers is complete before that of the secondary feathers, tail feathers, and under-wing feathers. The beginning of the molt in this region coincides with the beginning of the development of the primary remige V or VI. Some individuals have already started replacing the capital feathers by mid- August.
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Both parents are involved in their care and they soon learn to peck at food and become fully- fledged at eight or nine weeks, about the same time as their parents regain their ability to fly after moulting their main wing and tail feathers a month earlier. Immature birds undergo a similar moult, and move to traditional, safe locations before doing so because of their vulnerability while flightless. A migrating flock Greylag geese are gregarious birds and form flocks. This has the advantage for the birds that the vigilance of some individuals in the group allows the rest to feed without having to constantly be alert to the approach of predators.
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Iago is also known for his notorious greed of treasure and gold, for which he will go to outlandish lengths to acquire, usually dragging along Abu to help him, but Abu's incompetence always costs him. Iago is often put in situations of deciding between saving his own tail feathers or doing the right thing. His guilt always leads him to do the latter as he lacks a moral conscience; his greed leaves him unsatisfied in usually losing some form of reward or riches, for which he always berates himself afterwards. He (as well as maybe Jafar) is a reference to the character of the same name.
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Size comparison Oviraptor philoceratops is known from a single partial skeleton (specimen number AMNH 6517), as well as a nest of about fifteen eggs that have been referred to this species (AMNH 6508). When living, Oviraptor was one of the most bird-like of the non-Avian theropod dinosaurs. Its rib cage, in particular, displayed several features that are typical of birds, including a set of processes on each rib that would have kept the rib cage rigid. A relative of Oviraptor called Nomingia was found with a pygostyle, which is a set of fused vertebrae that would later help support the tail feathers of birds.
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The chicks that hatch eventually fledge in about 10 to 15 weeks after hatching, although most fledge after about 80 to 90 days. Normally, the maximum weight of the chicks is about , but on years that are hotter than average, this can drop to about . Born helpless and unable to move around (nidicolous and semi-altricial), the chicks are constantly brooded by the parents until they are 3 to 5 days old, when they can thermoregulate their body temperature. They grow their first feathers—scapulars—at 13–15 days, followed by primaries at 24–27 days, tail feathers at 30–35 days and are fully feathered by 55 days.
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However, other structures such as the large colorful tail feathers found in male peacocks, are a result of Fisherian Runaway as well as several more species specific factors. Due to females selecting for specific traits in males, over time, these traits are exaggerated to the point where they could hinder the male's survivability. However, since these traits greatly benefit sexual selection, their usefulness in providing more mating opportunities overrides the possibility that the trait could lead to a shortening of its lifespan through predation or starvation. These desirable traits extend beyond physical body parts, and often extend into courtship behavior and nuptial gifts as well.
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323) Whistler's comments have been subsequently debated and Daniel Marien notes that the southern boundary of the species is not well understood and further notes that the Biligirirangans specimen commented upon by Whistler was identified positively by Biswamoy Biswas as a nigrolutea. Adult females of both species are entirely green above (except for a gray and white tail in nigrolutea) and yellow (dull in winter, brighter in spring) below. The juvenal and first-winter plumages in both sexes of both species are similar to their adult female plumages. First-year birds are best recognized by the possession of more pointed and somewhat narrower tail feathers.
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The adult white-eyed river martin is a medium-sized swallow, with mainly glossy greenish-black plumage, a white rump, and a tail which has two elongated slender central tail feathers, each widening to a racket-shape at the tip. It has a white eye ring and a broad, bright greenish-yellow bill. The sexes are similar in appearance, but the juvenile lacks the tail ornaments and is generally browner than the adult. Little is known of the behaviour or breeding habitat of this martin, although like other swallows it feeds on insects caught in flight, and its wide bill suggests that it may take relatively large species.
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The breeding grounds and habitat are unknown, although river valleys in northern Thailand or southwestern China are possibilities. A claimed depiction of this species in a Chinese scroll painting initially appeared to support the possibility of the martin breeding in China. The bird in the painting had a similarly shaped head and bill, a white eye and a long tail, although it lacked the white rump, did not show the correct bill colour, and elongated the outer, rather than central, tail feathers. Painted before 1970, it pre-dated the publication of pictures of the Thai bird, so it must have been painted from life.
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The Sunda collared dove is a small to medium-sized bird which has a light, rosy hue around the neck and chest area, fading into the underside of the bird consists of a light caramel color, into a shade of cream at the base (start) of the tail. The start of the wings have a light grey tone, protruding to a steely grey hue near the end of the wing, all the way to the tip of the tail. The tail feathers under the bird are a 'eggshell' white, color. The birds tail consists of few layers from creamy colored to an ashen grey.
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A male stripping bark from a tree in alt=A large black cockatoo partly hidden behind a small tree trunk, peeling bark downwards off another branch with its large beak The yellow-tailed black cockatoo is in length and 750–900 grams in weight. It has a short mobile crest on the top of its head, and the plumage is mostly brownish-black with paler feather-margins in the neck, nape, and wings, and pale yellow bands in the tail feathers. The tails of birds of subspecies funereus measure around , with an average tail length longer than xanthanotus. Male funereus birds weigh on average around and females weigh about .
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The name was first given to a child in the late 19th century, to the son of members of a lower North Island iwi concerned about the bird's rapid decline, and although uncommon, it is still used today in New Zealand as a name for girls and more rarely for boys (e.g. Huia Edmonds), of both European and Māori descent. Tail feathers of the extinct huia are very rare and they have become a collectors' item. In June 2010 a single huia tail feather sold at auction in Auckland for NZ$8,000, much higher than the $500 the auctioneers had expected, making it the most expensive feather ever.
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Finally, they counterintuitively found that the longer and heavier the male's tail feathers were, the faster they were able to shake their feathers. In a follow-up study published in 2018, Kane and Dakin found that the vibrations sent out by males rattling their trains are actually felt by females on the crest of their head, which vibrates in turn. They found that at the base of the a female's crest feathers lies a tiny feather known as a filoplume, which acts as a mechanical sensor. When the crest feathers begin vibrating, the filoplume triggers a nerve cell, translating the physical vibrations of the plume into neuronal signal.
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After the curious female approaches, his folded black feather cape and blue-green breast shield springs upward and spreads widely and symmetrically around his head, instantly transforming the frontal view of the male bird into a spectacular ellipse-shaped creature that rhythmically snaps his tail feathers against each other, similar to how snapping fingers work, while hopping in frantic circles around the female. The average female rejects 15-20 potential suitors before consenting to mate. The show that males put on to attract females can be a long process that takes up many hours in a day. These species are polygynous and usually will mate with more than one female.
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He then finds the same pirates planning to bury the treasure on the island and tricks them into fighting each other by throwing coconuts at their heads from atop a tree, but is thrown off by an angry ape and discovered. They tie him to a tree and torment him until realizing that the tree was actually the leg of a giant, fire-breathing Roc, who overpowers the pirates. The captain retaliates by throwing the treasure chest at it, but the Roc catches it in its beak and flies away with Sinbad still attached. Sinbad's parrot unties him and forces the Roc to drop the treasure by destroying its tail-feathers.
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The outer wing coverts are chestnut edged with black and white and the primaries are black with pale edges which gives both the leading and trailing edges of the wing the appearance of a black rim in flight. The rump and the tail are distinctly barred in black and brownish-yellow and the streamers on the central tail feathers are slate-grey. Outside the breeding season, all the upper parts, including the crown and cheeks, are barred in black and brownish-yellow and the throat loses its black patch, becoming whitish. The female is generally similar to the male but the colours are duller.
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Common Buzzard in flight, Devon, England. There are around 40,000 breeding pairs in the United Kingdom Red kite in flight showing distinctive tail feathers There are numerous different species of bird in the area, and they include the red kite, common buzzard, kestrel, carrion crow, common raven and skylark to name a few of the most obvious residents. The red kite was previously restricted to this and adjoining areas in South Wales such as Mynydd Mallaen, owing to persecution from farmers and gamekeepers who thought (wrongly) that the bird attacked game birds. The red kite has since been re-introduced widely in many parts of Britain, such as the Chilterns and Northamptonshire.
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It was eventually confirmed through Meve's experiments that the drumming sound was produced by the tail-feathers. Before the confirmed discovery of the drumming behaviour in snipe, there were many theories and folklore surrounding where the sound was actually coming from. The Nunamiut people of Alaska believed that the drumming of the Wilson's snipe resembled the sound of a walrus, and therefore they referred to the snipe as avikiak for walrus. Another example can be seen in the popular belief of some parts of Sweden where they thought the sound was from a horse that had been miraculously transported into the sky because they thought the sound was so similar to that of a horse's whinny.
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At hatching, the chicks are covered with white down. Contour feathers begin to appear by 10–14 days, and the chicks become fully feathered with full plumage after 4–6 weeks. This plumage is typically pale greyish brown with a white lower back, rump and tail coverts; some white downy feathers remaining under the wings and underside of the body; black wing and tail feathers with a white and dark brown wing lining; distinct feathering on the greyish brown head, and dull yellow bare parts. After about 10 weeks when juveniles have fledged, loss of head feathers begins; and the dark, bare areas on the forehead and sides of the head around the eyes become visible.
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Red kite in flight showing distinctive tail feathers carrion crow in flight There are numerous different species of bird in the area, and they include the red kite, common buzzard, kestrel, carrion crow, common raven and jackdaw as well as the skylark, to name a few of the most obvious residents. The kestrel and buzzard are widely distributed, but the raven is restricted to the higher mountains. The red kite survived in this area and was the last refuge of the species thanks to the lack of shoots for game birds. It has now been reintroduced to many parts of England and Wales thanks to campaigns run by the RSPB and Forestry Commission, for example.
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Takam (Azerbaijani: تکم for "my billy goat") is the name of the king of goats, a male goat, in the folklore of Azarbaijan, Iran. Takam's effigies are made out of wood and ornamented with coloured glass beads and cock's tail feathers. A pole affixed to a Takam is passed through a hole in a plank which is held horizontally, from below which the Takam is moved as though it is dancing on the surface of the plank. While doing so, the person playing the Takam, who is referred to as Takam-Chi (تکم چی), or Takam Gardān (meaning, the one who turns around the Takam), chants special poetry which in Azari is called Sāyā (سایا).
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The most primitive members have a few teeth in the front of the mouth; in Incisivosaurus, they are enlarged and form bizarrely prominent "bucktoothed" incisors. The arms and hands are generally long (though very reduced in some advanced species) and the shoulder girdle is large and massive, with flexed coracoid bones and prominent attachments for strong arm muscles. Their tails are very short compared to other maniraptorans. In Nomingia and Similicaudipteryx, the tail ends in four fused vertebrae which Osmólska, He, and others have referred to as a "pygostyle", but which Witmer found was anatomically different and evolved separately from the pygostyle of birds (a bone which serves as the attachment point for a fan of tail feathers).
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Similicaudipteryx also differed from its relatives by possessing a dagger-shaped pygostyle (the bone at the end of the tail to which feathers anchor in birds) consisting of the two most extreme tail vertebrae and several unique features of the back vertebrae. The pubic bone was exceptionally long relative to the ilium. The only other oviraptorosaur reported to have a pygostyle is Nomingia, though the feature is widespread in more advanced birds and appears to have evolved at least twice. The holotype specimen lacks traces of feathers, but He and colleagues speculated that they were probably present based on its pygostyle, the anchor point of long tail feathers (rectrices) in modern birds.
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It was probably an accomplished flyer for its time, though perhaps not as nimble and somewhat lacking in stamina compared to modern birds. It is not known whether it had an alula, although it is likely as such a feature is present in other enantiornitheans such as Eoalulavis. Inferring from the features of other enantiornitheans, Concornis also likely possessed a long, narrow pygostyle which connected to a single pair of ribbon-like tail feathers, rather than a fan-like tail of pennaceous feathers as in modern birds. The legs were fairly long and neither dedicated to perching on branches nor to running on the ground; it had a large hallux as is generally absent in terrestrial birds.
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The oldest known species with such a pygostyle is Hongshanornis longicresta. As evidenced by the oviraptorosaurian cases, the pygostyle evolved at least twice, and rod- shaped pygostyles seem to have evolved several times, in association with shortening of the tail but not necessarily with a retractable fan of tail feathers. In other words, the pygostyles of oviraptorosaurs and Confuciusornis were likely weight-saving measures, and the specialized "true" pygostyles of ornithurans were adapted from these later to improve flight performance. The bird clade Pygostylia was named in 1996, by Luis Chiappe, for the presence of this feature and roughly corresponds to its appearance in the bird family tree, though the feature itself is not included in its definition.
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A CDT tag taken off an elephant seal at Año Nuevo State Reserve Many different types of tags are used in the TOPP tagging program, each designed for different marine animals and different types of data. Archival tags, though small, are very powerful, and can last up to 10 years. Researchers surgically implant them into the bellies of tuna, where the tags record, as often as every few seconds, pressure (for depth of dives), ambient light (to estimate location), internal and external body temperature, and, in some cases, speed of travel. The tags are small and light enough to be attached to the outside of an animal, such as the tail feathers of red-footed boobies.
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Sylvester is in pursuit of Tweety, chasing him to the top of a building. Sylvester falls from the building (first he grabs some of Tweety's tail feathers to help him fly, but Tweety is able to take them back), crashes to the sidewalk and dies. The spirit of his first life approaches two escalators and takes the "down" (to Hell) one (since the one going "up" (to Heaven) is roped off) and ends up in Hell. He is greeted by a Satanic bulldog (Hector the Bulldog), who realizes he must goad Sylvester into giving up his remaining eight lives, so he asks life #1 to sit on a bench to wait for the others.
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The Fuegian snipe is found in grassy and forested boggy areas with low scrub or rushes, at altitudes ranging from 4,200 m in the north of its down to nearly sea level in Tierra del Fuego, where it also occurs in unforested open grass and scrubby areas. Little is known of its breeding biology, but it has a nocturnal aerial display, which involves flying high in circles, followed by a powerful stoop during which the bird makes a drumming sound, caused by vibrations of modified outer tail feathers. The drumming alternates with the char-woo call. The Fuegian snipe forages by pushing its long bill deep into the mud seeking insects and worms.
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The idea of a dinosaur-like mode of growth was criticized by Winfried and Dieter Peters in 2008, who argued that the body size of the smaller size class was too large to possibly have represented the youngest growth state. Analyzing an extended data set, these researchers identified a third size class that supposedly represented this youngest growth state. As it would be highly unlikely that Confuciusornis showed two distinct growth spurts, a feature unseen in known amniotes, they concluded that the two larger size classes represented the two sexes rather than growth stages (sexual size dimorphism). The long tail feathers would have occurred in both sexes, one of which was the largest.
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The black grouse is a large bird with males measuring roughly around in length and weighing , sometimes up to , with females approximately and weighing . The cock's fancy plumage is predominantly black with deep-blue hues on his neck and back, which contrasts the white wingline and undertail coverts, as well as red bare skin above each eye. On the other hand, the hen is much drabber and cryptically-colored to blend in easily with the dense undergrowth, especially when nesting. The black grouse, along with the Caucasian grouse, has long outer rectrices (tail feathers) that curl outward and arranged in a way it resembles the frame of a Greek lyre, hence the genus name, Lyrurus.
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A model of the phoenix Fawkes Fawkes is Albus Dumbledore's pet phoenix, a mythological bird which cyclically bursts into flame upon its death and is then reborn from the ashes. Phoenix tail feathers are suitable for inclusion in some wands (both Harry and Voldemort's wands contain a feather from Fawkes' tail, the only two he ever gave) and their tears have healing powers. Fawkes can also teleport himself and others in a burst of flame. In Chamber of Secrets, Harry's display of loyalty to Dumbledore results in his summoning Fawkes to his aid against Salazar Slytherin's basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets; whereupon Fawkes punctures the basilisk's eyes, eliminating her ability to kill with her gaze.
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Nesting in desert environments can be harmful to adults that stay in the nest for large parts of the day, and for eggs and nestlings, due to heat stress. The choice of nesting area may therefore have been a mechanism for successful incubation in extreme heat. It has also been suggested that the evolution of tail-feathers in oviraptorosaurs was an adaptation for shading and protecting eggs in their nests. That the second finger of heyuannine oviraptorids was reduced in size compared to the robust first finger may be explained by a change in function; it may be related to the presence of long wing feathers that were attached to the second finger.
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In order to position itself correctly, it has short, stumpy legs, as well as long, sharp claws and very stiff tail feathers. The woodpecker will more than likely choose for its nest a tree with a fungal disease, such as heart rot, although some will utilise a living, healthy tree. Once a hole has been made, the black woodpecker chips downwards through the trunk of the tree, creating a nesting chamber, the only lining being the woodchips created throughout the process. The black woodpecker's excavations provide homes for many other species of bird and mammal, and is therefore considered to be a "keystone" species in many of its habitats throughout its range.
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Juveniles have a grey tinge to the duller upperparts, and lack the crown and eye stripes and supercilium; by their first winter, only the flight and tail feathers remain unmoulted, and the young birds are virtually indistinguishable from the adults in the field. This kinglet usually hops with its body held horizontally, and its flight is weak and whirring, with occasional jinking. Compared to the common firecrest, the Madeiran firecrest has a longer bill and legs, a shorter white supercilium, more black on the wings and a deeper golden-bronze shoulder patch; the male's crest is duller orange. Juveniles have plainer heads, lacking the dull supercilium shown by the young of the European species.
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The male and female plumages of hermits are very similar, with differences limited to details of bill-shape, tail-shape and/or strength of colours/patterns. Most species of hermit do not show the strong sexual dimorphism usually associated with hummingbirds; green hermit is an exception to this rule. Hermits in the type genus, Phaethornis, have a long decurved bill (three species, P. koepkeae, P. philippii and P. bourcieri, with virtually straight bills) with a red or yellow base to the lower mandible, and their two central tail feathers are elongated and tipped with white, buff or ochre. The crown of the head is flat, and two pale facial stripes enclose a dusky mask.
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The most brilliant and distinctive feature present on the male are the fine, silky elongated flank plumes that are mainly a dull amber color on the surface; below, they are a light blue, based by two dark crimson lines on each side of the lower belly. These elegant features help the male create an illusion for his potential audience. The female, however, is more or less similar to the male; of course, she lacks the opulent flank plumes and tail wires present on the male, but she does sport bright blue wings and tail feathers like the male. Instead of having an all-black underside, she is chestnut-brown below with blackish barring.
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Her complexion is the color of gorocana (bright yellow pigment prepared from the urine of a cow) and her garments are the brilliant colors of peacock tail feathers. Rupa manjari (Rupa Goswami) is the assistant and follower of Lalita-sakhi; thus all who consider themselves as Rupanuga bhaktas (followers of Rupa Goswami) are ultimately the servants of Lalita Devi and thus through the media of the parampara should always be longing to engage in the service of her lotus feet. When the day comes at which we are given the opportunity to serve her, she will engage us in the intimate loving service of Sri Sri Radha-Krishna according to our heart's desire (Radha-Krishna- ganoddesa-dipika).
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Open-work charms depicting fenghuang are much less commonly seen than those that depict Chinese dragons. Fenghuang in Chinese mythology are symbols of "peace" and "joy", as fenghuang are seen as a symbol of yin they tend to have tail feathers in even numbers (as even numbers represent yin while odd numbers represent yang). Open-work charms that display fenghuang also tend to be on the larger side (for example 58 millimeters in diameter) and also being both thick and heavy. In Buddhism the fenghuang is considered to be a symbol of goodness because it eats no living thing, for this reason open-work charms depicting fenghuang were commonly worn by Buddhists.
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In 1950, the paper became the New York World-Telegram and Sun after Dewart and his family sold Scripps the remnants of another afternoon paper, the New York Sun.(January 4, 1950). World-Telegram and Sun Merged in Transaction, Prescott Evening Courier (Associated Press) (The writer A.J. Liebling once described the "and Sun" portion of the combined publication's nameplate as resembling the tail feathers of a canary on the chin of a cat.) Early in 1966, a proposal to create New York's first joint operating agreement led to the merger of the World-Telegram and Sun with Hearst's Journal American. The intention was to produce a joint afternoon edition, with a separate morning paper to be produced by the Herald Tribune.
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The crested argus, genus Rheinardia, is a large and spectacular peafowl-like genus of bird in the pheasant family with dark-brown-spotted black and buff plumage, a heavy pink bill, brown irises and blue skin around the eyes. The head has two crests; the hind crest, which extends down the occiput, is erected when alarmed and during intentional behaviors including pair bonding and courtship displays. The male has a broad and greatly elongated tail of twelve feathers. The tail covert (or "train") of the male is the longest of any bird and is believed to contain the longest (and widest) feathers to occur in a wild bird; the Reeves's pheasant has tail feathers of similar length but which are considerably narrower.
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Yellowface I Greywing Skyblue cock Budgerigar The Yellowface I Skyblue variety is the same in appearance as a normal Skyblue except that the forehead and mask, which is white in the normal Skyblue, is replaced by bright yellow, the short tail feathers show yellow instead of the normal white, and the undulations on the wings are often faint yellow. The yellow on the mask tends to leak down onto the breast to a small degree, giving it a green tinge. In juvenile plumage the yellow is considerably fainter and does not appear on the forehead, which is barred in the usual way, nor does it leak onto the breast to as great an extent. The Yellowface I Cobalt and Yellowface I Mauve varieties have similar yellow markings.
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The bird can sing at the same frequency as the tail feather chirp, but its small syrinx is not capable of the same volume. The sound is caused by the aerodynamics of rapid air flow past tail feathers, causing them to flutter in a vibration which produces the high-pitched sound of a courtship dive. Many other species of hummingbirds also produce sounds with their wings or tails while flying, hovering or diving, including the wings of the calliope hummingbird, broad-tailed hummingbird, rufous hummingbird, Allen's hummingbird, and streamertail, as well as the tail of the Costa's hummingbird and the black-chinned hummingbird, and a number of related species. The harmonics of sounds during courtship dives vary across species of hummingbirds.
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The word "waka" is also used in broader senses that can be translated as "vessel", "container", or "vehicle". A waka huia is a hollowed and carved vessel used for storing of taonga (treasures) such as the prized tail feathers of the now-extinct huia (Heteralocha acutirostris) that are worn as ornaments in the hair."CORONATION GIFT", Te Ao Hou In current Māori language usage, waka is used to refer to cars, (along with the transliterated term motokā), waka-rere-rangi for aircraft and a waka hari hinu is an oil tanker – a waka niho (gear container) is a car's gearbox. Waka can be used to refer transport in general, such as in "Te Manatū Waka" (Ministry of Transport) and "Waka Kotahi" (NZ Transport Agency).
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Except for the central pair, the tail feathers are much whiter than in the northern wheatear, the white on the inner web often extending to the tip. The female is a more gray-brown bird, but has the characteristic white lower back, and her seasonal changes are less marked. It is found breeding in the eastern Mediterranean , Southeast Europe to the Caspian Sea and Iran and migrates to winter quarters in the Sudan. The male eastern black-eared wheatear can be distinguished from the male western black-eared wheatear by its whiter, less buff-tinted upperparts than the latter species, giving it a more distinctly black-and-white appearance, as well as by having the black of the mask reaching just above the base of the bill.
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The Vietnamese crested argus (Rheinardia ocellata) is a large and spectacular peafowl-like species of bird in the pheasant family with dark-brown-spotted black and buff plumage, a heavy pink bill, brown irises and blue skin around the eyes. The head has two crests; the hind crest, which extends down the occiput, is erected when alarmed and during intentional behaviors including pair bonding and courtship displays. The male has a broad and greatly elongated tail of twelve feathers. The tail covert (or "train") of the male is the longest of any bird and is believed to contain the longest (and widest) feathers to occur in a wild bird; the Reeves's pheasant has tail feathers of similar length but which are considerably narrower.
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The Malaysian crested argus (Rheinardia nigrescens) is a large and spectacular peafowl-like species of bird in the pheasant family with dark-brown-spotted black and buff plumage, a heavy pink bill, brown irises and blue skin around the eyes. The head has two crests; the hind crest, which extends down the occiput, is erected when alarmed and during intentional behaviors including pair bonding and courtship displays. The male has a broad and greatly elongated tail of twelve feathers. The tail covert (or "train") of the male is the longest of any bird and is believed to contain the longest (and widest) feathers to occur in a wild bird; the Reeves's pheasant has tail feathers of similar length but which are considerably narrower.
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Most adult bohaiornithids would have been rather similar in size and appearance to each other, and the family lacked the longevity and physical diversity of some other enantiornithean groups, such as the long-snouted longipterygids. The only specimens of bohaiornithids believed to have reached adulthood (the holotype of Zhouornis and a referred specimen of Bohaiornis) were also the largest specimens, and were about the size of a pigeon, which is much larger than most other Jehol enantiornitheans with the exception of Pengornis and Xiangornis. The smallest and youngest bohaiornithid specimens were about half the size of the largest ones. Many bohaiornithids have been found preserving feathers, and a few possessed a pair of long, ribbon-like tail feathers with barbs only at the tips.
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The colors of her clothes change very often, but her signature colors are usually purple and pink. The creators of the television series Quack Pack, in keeping with their modernization theme, reworked Daisy's character into a career-oriented woman and thus gave her a different appearance to match. While keeping with the purple and pink motif, Daisy usually wore long dresses with high-heeled shoes and instead of wearing her trademark hair bow, the feathers atop her head got the same treatment as her tail feathers had before; the animators arranged them in such a manner to appear as if Daisy was sporting a more modern short hairstyle. House of Mouse got her a blue and purple employee uniform, with a blue bow, and a long ponytail.
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In 2014, another Indian illustration of a dodo was reported, but it was found to be derivative of an 1836 German illustration. All post-1638 depictions appear to be based on earlier images, around the time reports mentioning dodos became rarer. Differences in the depictions led ornithologists such as Anthonie Cornelis Oudemans and Masauji Hachisuka to speculate about sexual dimorphism, ontogenic traits, seasonal variation, and even the existence of different species, but these theories are not accepted today. Because details such as markings of the beak, the form of the tail feathers, and colouration vary from account to account, it is impossible to determine the exact morphology of these features, whether they signal age or sex, or if they even reflect reality.
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As Ajax is about to eat Donald alive, Donald shoves an umbrella into Ajax's mouth and escapes. Donald and his nephews are then shown quietly tiptoeing away to search for Ajax, but one of them accidentally spills some candle wax on Donald's behind and later burns Donald's back. Donald's head briefly turns into a boiling kettle, and he angrily drives the triplets away and gets his hand burnt on a doorknob due to unknowingly holding the candle's flame under it. Later, Donald searches for Ajax on his own, and unfortunately crosses paths with the gorilla, who was standing on his head, and Donald does not even realize his presence until his tail feathers hint him, and Ajax starts chasing Donald.
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The maniraptor model loading is typical for ducks, though these have a relatively larger wingspan and a lower aspect ratio. The bat model has a loading typical for shore birds, though again their wingspan is (much) larger while their aspect ratio to the contrary is higher. A problem for the hypothesis that Yi was specialised for gliding flight, resides in the fact that because of it having a forelimb wing, instead of a gliding skin along its torso as with most gliders, its center of mass seems to be behind its control and main lift surfaces, causing flight instability. This problem might have been lessened by a short fleshy tail and long tail feathers, as known from its relative Epidexipteryx.
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The interesting thing about sexual ornaments is that they impede the male's chances for survival, yet they continue to be passed on from generation to generation. The larger the male peacock's tail feathers are, or the brighter the birds feathers are, the harder it is for them to escape predators and maneuver through trees, and the more food they will need to eat to develop the ornament. A peacock's tail almost certainly reduces survival of the peacock as they reduce maneuverability, power of flight, and make the bird more conspicuous to predators. Ornaments, therefore, have a great effect on the fitness of the animals that carry them, but the benefits of having an ornament must outweigh the costs for them to be passed on.
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