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[
"Stachys recta",
"Salvia pratensis",
"Lysimachia vulgaris",
"Lotus corniculatus",
"Tussilago farfara",
"Achillea millefolium",
"Filipendula ulmaria"
] |
{"Stachys recta": {"keywords": ["Close-up on flowers of S. recta subsp. recta The biological form of S. recta is hemicryptophyte scapose, as its overwintering buds are situated just below the soil surface and the floral axis is more or less erect with a few leaves.", "Stachys recta grows in lawns, in semi-dry and dry grasslands and in rocky hillsides.", "It prefers calcareous and moderately dry soil, at an altitude of above sea level."], "habitat_section": ["This plant is a sub-Mediterranean floral element and it is widespread from Europe to the Caucasus and Asia Minor.", "Stachys recta grows in lawns, in semi-dry and dry grasslands and in rocky hillsides.", "It prefers calcareous and moderately dry soil, at an altitude of above sea level."], "random_sentences": ["Stachys recta, commonly known as stiff hedgenettle or perennial yellow-woundwort, is herbaceous perennial plant of the family Lamiaceae.", "The generic epithet is derived from the Greek word , meaning \" an ear of grain \" , and refers to the fact that the inflorescence is often a spike.", "The specific epithet comes from the Latin recta, meaning \" straight \" , also refers to the shape of the inflorescence.", "Close-up on flowers of S. recta subsp. recta The biological form of S. recta is hemicryptophyte scapose, as its overwintering buds are situated just below the soil surface and the floral axis is more or less erect with a few leaves.", "The plant reaches on average in height.", "It has thick, woody roots.", "The stems are strong, simple or branched, with slightly rough glandular hairs.", "The leaves are ovate-spatulate to oblong-lanceolate, with toothed edges and a long petiole.", "The length of the leaves is and the width 0.5 to 2 cm.", "The flowers are gathered in a dense terminal spike and are usually yellowish-white, stained by purple or brown spots.", "The flowering period extends from July through October.", "The flowers are hermaphrodite and pollinated by insects.", "The fruit are achenes about 2 mm long, rounded, chestnut-brown and smooth or very finely punctured.", "This plant is strictly related to S. officinalis, and has similar properties and characteristics.", "This plant is a sub-Mediterranean floral element and it is widespread from Europe to the Caucasus and Asia Minor.", "Stachys recta grows in lawns, in semi-dry and dry grasslands and in rocky hillsides.", "It prefers calcareous and moderately dry soil, at an altitude of above sea level."]}, "Salvia pratensis": {"keywords": ["Salvia pratensis, the meadow clary or meadow sage, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa.", "The Latin specific epithet pratensis means \"of meadows\", referring to its preferred habitat.", "It also grows in scrub edges and woodland borders.", "The flowers may grow up to 2.5 cm and open starting from the base of the inflorescence, which grows up to 30.5 cm long.", "Salvia pratensis is native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa where it grows in meadows, fields, banks and rough places.", "Salvia pratensis is hardy in the severest European climates, down to 40 C .", "It is widely grown in horticulture, especially Salvia pratensis subsp. haematodes, which is prized by flower arrangers as a cut flower.", "- 'Atroviolacea', dark blue to violet 'Baumgartenii', blue to violet 'Lupinoides', to 60 cm , white-flecked blue to purple 'Mitsommer' , sky blue 'Rosea', rose-pink to purple 'Rubicunda', rose-red 'Tenorii', to about 60 cm tall, blue flowers 'Variegata', blue and sometimes white-tipped flowers."], "habitat_section": ["Salvia pratensis is native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa where it grows in meadows, fields, banks and rough places.", "It has become naturalized in many parts of the United States, and is considered a noxious weed in the state of Washington.", "At one time it was banned from California because it was thought to have naturalized in three locations."], "random_sentences": ["Salvia pratensis, the meadow clary or meadow sage, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa.", "The Latin specific epithet pratensis means \"of meadows\", referring to its preferred habitat.", "It also grows in scrub edges and woodland borders.", "This herbaceous perennial forms a basal clump 1 to 1.5 m tall, with rich green rugose leaves that are slightly ruffled and toothed on the edges.", "The stems have four edges and are clad in glandular and soft hairs.", "The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, with those on the lower part of the stem up to 15 cm long, decreasing in size higher up the stem.", "The flower stalks are typically branched, with four to six flowers in each verticil forming a lax spike.", "The flowers may grow up to 2.5 cm and open starting from the base of the inflorescence, which grows up to 30.5 cm long.", "The small calyx is dark brown.", "The corolla is irregular, 20 to 30 mm long, fused with two lips and long-tubed.", "The upper lip arches in a crescent shape and the lower lip is three-lobed with the central lobe larger than the lateral lobes.", "In the wild the corolla is usually bluish-violet.", "In cultivation, the flowers have a wide variety of colors, from rich violet and violet-blue to bluish white, and from pink to pure white.", "There are two long stamens protected by the upper corolla lip and the fruit is a four-chambered schizocarp.", "Salvia pratensis is native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa where it grows in meadows, fields, banks and rough places.", "It has become naturalized in many parts of the United States, and is considered a noxious weed in the state of Washington.", "At one time it was banned from California because it was thought to have naturalized in three locations.", "Salvia pratensis is hardy in the severest European climates, down to 40 C .", "It is widely grown in horticulture, especially Salvia pratensis subsp. haematodes, which is prized by flower arrangers as a cut flower.", "Some botanists consider it a separate species, S. haematodes.", "Named cultivars include:- 'Atroviolacea', dark blue to violet 'Baumgartenii', blue to violet 'Lupinoides', to 60 cm , white-flecked blue to purple 'Mitsommer' , sky blue 'Rosea', rose-pink to purple 'Rubicunda', rose-red 'Tenorii', to about 60 cm tall, blue flowers 'Variegata', blue and sometimes white-tipped flowers.", "The name of the plant 'clary' is derived from 'clear-eye' and the plant seeds were historically ground to a paste and used to clear irritations in the eye.", "It was also used for gargling and as an early form of toothpaste, as well as a flavouring for alcohol."]}, "Lysimachia vulgaris": {"keywords": ["Lysimachia vulgaris capsules and seeds Lysimachia vulgaris, the yellow loosestrife or garden loosestrife, is a species of herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Primulaceae.", "Yellow loosestrife is a tall downy semi-evergreen perennial plant with an upright habit, high, with erect panicles of conspicuous yellow flowers.", "L. vulgaris is native to Britain, where it is frequent to locally common, as well as Eurasia, and North Africa.", "It has been introduced to North America, where it is considered an exotic introduction, for its ornamental value in gardens.", "It grows best in moist habitats such as fens and wet woodlands as well as on lakesides and riverbanks.", "Although the seeds only appear to have a maximum viability of 3 years when stored in the soil, the plant can spread by vegetative means from rhizomes over extensive areas, sometimes to the detriment of other species.", "It remains in a vegetative state for some years before blooming, so that flowering stands of the plant indicate that it has long been present in that area."], "habitat_section": ["L. vulgaris is native to Britain, where it is frequent to locally common, as well as Eurasia, and North Africa.", "It has been introduced to North America, where it is considered an exotic introduction, for its ornamental value in gardens.", "It grows best in moist habitats such as fens and wet woodlands as well as on lakesides and riverbanks.", "Like many of its congeners, L. vulgaris provides an important nectar source for specialist solitary bees in the genus Macropis, especially Macropis europaea.", "However, the relationship between Lysimachia and Macropis is not thought to be obligate on the part of the plant.", "For the first time, a plant pathogen Ramularia lysimachiae Thun was found on the plant in County Durham in 2004.", "L. vulgaris has been listed as a noxious weed in Washington State on account of its invasiveness.", "Although the seeds only appear to have a maximum viability of 3 years when stored in the soil, the plant can spread by vegetative means from rhizomes over extensive areas, sometimes to the detriment of other species.", "It remains in a vegetative state for some years before blooming, so that flowering stands of the plant indicate that it has long been present in that area.", "L. vulgaris is an unpalatable species that is avoided by large herbivores due to its content of toxic compounds."], "random_sentences": ["Lysimachia vulgaris capsules and seeds Lysimachia vulgaris, the yellow loosestrife or garden loosestrife, is a species of herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Primulaceae.", "It was transferred to Myrsinoideae based on results of molecular phylogenetic research before being merged into the Primulaceae.", "Yellow loosestrife is a tall downy semi-evergreen perennial plant with an upright habit, high, with erect panicles of conspicuous yellow flowers.", "The edges of the petals lack the fringe of hairs seen in L. punctata, and the hairy, narrow triangular sepals have a conspicuous orange margin.", "It flowers from June through August in the British Isles.", "Measuring 5 - 12 cm long, the entire-margined leaves are opposite or 3-4-whorled, ovate to lanceolate and spotted with translucent orange glands.", "The stem is round or square in cross-section, downy, and usually solid and pith-filled", "The generic name Lysimachia means ending strife, derived from Lysimachus, a King of Thrace, Asia Minor and Macedon, also an army leader under Alexander the Great.", "The specific epithet vulgaris means common, or usual", "L. vulgaris is native to Britain, where it is frequent to locally common, as well as Eurasia, and North Africa.", "It has been introduced to North America, where it is considered an exotic introduction, for its ornamental value in gardens.", "It grows best in moist habitats such as fens and wet woodlands as well as on lakesides and riverbanks.", "Like many of its congeners, L. vulgaris provides an important nectar source for specialist solitary bees in the genus Macropis, especially Macropis europaea.", "However, the relationship between Lysimachia and Macropis is not thought to be obligate on the part of the plant.", "For the first time, a plant pathogen Ramularia lysimachiae Thun was found on the plant in County Durham in 2004.", "L. vulgaris has been listed as a noxious weed in Washington State on account of its invasiveness.", "Although the seeds only appear to have a maximum viability of 3 years when stored in the soil, the plant can spread by vegetative means from rhizomes over extensive areas, sometimes to the detriment of other species.", "It remains in a vegetative state for some years before blooming, so that flowering stands of the plant indicate that it has long been present in that area.", "L. vulgaris is an unpalatable species that is avoided by large herbivores due to its content of toxic compounds.", "Like many other plants in the genus Lysimachia, yellow loosestrife has historically been valued for its medicinal properties and is still sometimes used today in traditional folk medicine by some eastern cultures.", "It has been used as an effective anti-inflammatory agent as well as for treating fever, wounds, ulcers, and diarrhoea.", "It also has analgesic, astringent, and expectorant properties.", "Yellow loosestrife growing in Sweden."]}, "Lotus corniculatus": {"keywords": ["Lotus corniculatus is a flowering plant in the pea family Fabaceae, native to grasslands in temperate Eurasia and North Africa.", "It is typically sprawling at the height of the surrounding grassland.", "It is most often found in sandy soils.", "It is used in agriculture as a forage plant, grown for pasture, hay, and silage.", "It may be used as an alternative to alfalfa in poor soils.", "A double-flowered variety is grown as an ornamental plant.", "It is regularly included as a component of wildflower mixes in Europe.", "It can also prevent soil erosion and provide a good habitat for wildlife.", "In the Chicago Region, mostly non-native bees have been observed visiting the flowers, including Andrena wilkella, Anthidium oblongatum, Apis mellifera and Megachile rotundata.", "The native bees Bombus impatiens and Megachile relativa have also been observed visiting birdsfoot trefoil flowers, though the latter only rarely.", "It has been commonly planted along roadsides for erosion control or pastures for forage and then spreads into natural areas."], "habitat_section": ["Lotus corniculatus has a broad distribution worldwide.", "It is common everywhere in Britain and Ireland.", "The flowers are mostly visited by bumblebees.", "In the Chicago Region, mostly non-native bees have been observed visiting the flowers, including Andrena wilkella, Anthidium oblongatum, Apis mellifera and Megachile rotundata.", "The native bees Bombus impatiens and Megachile relativa have also been observed visiting birdsfoot trefoil flowers, though the latter only rarely.", "The plant is an important nectar source for many insects and is also used as a larval food plant by many species of Lepidoptera such as six-spot burnet and the silver-studded blue.", "It is a host plant for the wood white butterfly, Leptidea sinapis."], "random_sentences": ["Lotus corniculatus is a flowering plant in the pea family Fabaceae, native to grasslands in temperate Eurasia and North Africa.", "Common names include common bird's-foot trefoil, eggs and bacon, birdsfoot deervetch, and just bird's-foot trefoil, though the latter name is often also applied to other members of the genus.", "It is a perennial herbaceous plant, similar in appearance to some clovers.", "The name 'bird's foot' refers to the appearance of the seed pods on their stalk.", "Five leaflets are present, but with the central three held conspicuously above the others, hence the use of the name 'trefoil'.", "It is often used as forage and is widely used as food for livestock due to its nonbloating properties.", "The height of the plant is variable, from , occasionally more where supported by other plants", "the stems can reach up to long.", "It is typically sprawling at the height of the surrounding grassland.", "It can survive fairly close grazing, trampling, and mowing.", "It is most often found in sandy soils.", "It flowers from June to September.", "The flowers develop into small pea-like pods or legumes.", "The plant had many common English names in Britain, which are now mostly out of use.", "These names were often connected with the yellow and orange colour of the flowers, e.g. 'butter and eggs'.", "One name that is still used is eggs and bacon .", "Lotus corniculatus flowers in southeastern Minnesota ", "The following subspecies are accepted:", "Lotus corniculatus has a broad distribution worldwide.", "It is common everywhere in Britain and Ireland.", "It is used in agriculture as a forage plant, grown for pasture, hay, and silage.", "It is a high quality forage that does not cause bloat in ruminants.", "Taller-growing cultivars have been developed for this.", "It may be used as an alternative to alfalfa in poor soils.", "A double-flowered variety is grown as an ornamental plant.", "It is regularly included as a component of wildflower mixes in Europe.", "It can also prevent soil erosion and provide a good habitat for wildlife.", "Fresh bird's-foot trefoil contains cyanogenic glycosides, which release small amounts of hydrogen cyanide when macerated.", "This is not normally poisonous to humans, though, as the dose is very low, and the metabolization of cyanide is relatively quick.", "Condensed tannins are also present in L. corniculatus.", "In the traditional medicine of the Sannio regio of Italy, the diluted infusions were used for anxiety, insomnia, and exhaustion.", "The flowers are mostly visited by bumblebees.", "In the Chicago Region, mostly non-native bees have been observed visiting the flowers, including Andrena wilkella, Anthidium oblongatum, Apis mellifera and Megachile rotundata.", "The native bees Bombus impatiens and Megachile relativa have also been observed visiting birdsfoot trefoil flowers, though the latter only rarely.", "The plant is an important nectar source for many insects and is also used as a larval food plant by many species of Lepidoptera such as six-spot burnet and the silver-studded blue.", "It is a host plant for the wood white butterfly, Leptidea sinapis.", "Birdsfoot trefoil is an invasive species in many parts of North America and Australia.", "It has been commonly planted along roadsides for erosion control or pastures for forage and then spreads into natural areas.", "Once it has established in an area, it can outcompete native species.", "The use of prescribed fire is not an effective management tool against Lotus corniculatus and herbicide is recommended instead to control it."]}, "Tussilago farfara": {"keywords": ["The leaves of coltsfoot, which appear after the flowers have set seed, wither and die in the early summer.", "The plant is often found in waste and disturbed places and along roadsides and paths."], "habitat_section": ["Coltsfoot is widespread across Europe, Asia, and North Africa, from Svalbard to Morocco to China and the Russian Far East.", "It is also a common plant in North and South America where it has been introduced, most likely by settlers as a medicinal item.", "The plant is often found in waste and disturbed places and along roadsides and paths.", "In some areas it is considered an invasive species."], "random_sentences": ["Tussilago farfara, commonly known as coltsfoot, is a plant in the tribe Senecioneae in the family Asteraceae, native to Europe and parts of western and central Asia.", "The name \" tussilago \" is derived from the Latin tussis, meaning cough, and ago, meaning to cast or to act on.", "It has had uses in traditional medicine, but the discovery of toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids in the plant has resulted in liver health concerns.", "Tussilago farfara is the only accepted species in the genus Tussilago, although more than two dozen other species have at one time or another been considered part of this group.", "Most of them are now regarded as members of other genera .", "Coltsfoot is a perennial herbaceous plant that spreads by seeds and rhizomes.", "Tussilago is often found in colonies of dozens of plants.", "The flowers, which superficially resemble dandelions, bear scale-leaves on the long stems in early spring.", "The leaves of coltsfoot, which appear after the flowers have set seed, wither and die in the early summer.", "The flower heads are of yellow florets with an outer row of bracts.", "The plant is typically in height.", "The leaves have angular teeth on their margins.", "Coltsfoot is widespread across Europe, Asia, and North Africa, from Svalbard to Morocco to China and the Russian Far East.", "It is also a common plant in North and South America where it has been introduced, most likely by settlers as a medicinal item.", "The plant is often found in waste and disturbed places and along roadsides and paths.", "In some areas it is considered an invasive species.", "The common name comes from the leaf's supposed resemblance in shape to a colt's foot.", "It is a 16th century translation of the medieval Latin name pes pulli, meaning \" foal's foot \" .", "Other common names include tash plant, ass's foot, bull's foot, coughwort , farfara, foal's foot, foalswort, and horse foot.", "Sometimes it is confused with Petasites frigidus, or western coltsfoot.", "It has been called bechion, bechichie, or bechie, from the Ancient Greek word for \" cough \" .", "Also ungula caballina , and chamleuce.", "Coltsfoot has been used in herbal medicine and has been consumed as a food product with some confectionery products, such as Coltsfoot Rock.", "Tussilago farfara leaves have been used in traditional Austrian medicine internally or externally for treatment of disorders of the respiratory tract, skin, locomotor system, viral infections, flu, colds, fever, rheumatism and gout.", "An extract of the fresh leaves has also been used to make cough drops and hard candy.", "Coltsfoot is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the Gothic and small angle shades.", "It is also visited by honeybees, providing pollen and nectar.", "Fruit of coltsfoot with pappus.", "Tussilago farfara contains tumorigenic pyrrolizidine alkaloids.", "Senecionine and senkirkine, present in coltsfoot, have the highest mutagenetic activity of any pyrrolozidine alkaloid, tested using Drosophila melanogaster to produce a comparative genotoxicity test.", "Two cases of supposed liver damage due to coltsfoot tea have been shown to actually be the result of mistaken identity.", "In one, coltsfoot tea causing severe liver problems in an infant was actually the result of Adenostyles alliariae .", "In another case, an infant developed liver disease and died because the mother drank tea originally believed to contain coltsfoot during her pregnancy, but which was later shown to be Petasites hybridus or a similar species.", "In one 27-year-old male, ingesting a multicomponent herbal supplement that included coltsfoot may have caused him to develop non-lethal deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.", "In response, the German government banned the sale of coltsfoot.", "Clonal plants of coltsfoot free of pyrrolizidine alkaloids were then developed in Austria and Germany.", "This has resulted in the development of the registered variety Tussilago farfara 'Wien', which has no detectable levels of these alkaloids."]}, "Achillea millefolium": {"keywords": ["Other common names include old man's pepper, devil's nettle, sanguinary, milfoil, soldier's woundwort, and thousand seal. The plant is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Asia, Europe, and North America.", "Petiolate leaves on lower stems Illustration from Kohler's Medicinal Plants Achillea millefolium is an erect, herbaceous, perennial plant that produces one to several stems in height, and has a spreading rhizomatous growth form.", "Other names include arrowroot, nose bleed, death flower, eerie, hundred leaved grass, knyghten, old man's mustard, sanguinary, seven-year's love, snake's grass, soldier, and gordaldo.", "Wenatchee Foothills, Chelan County, Washington Yarrow grows from sea level to in elevation.", "Common yarrow is frequently found in the mildly disturbed soil of grasslands and open forests.", "In North America, both native and introduced genotypes, and both diploid and polyploid plants are found.", "Common yarrow produces an average yield of , with a total dry weight of .", "It has been introduced as a feed for livestock in New Zealand and Australia, where it is a common weed of both wet and dry areas, such as roadsides, meadows, fields and coastal places.", ", Moths The larvae of the moths Bucculatrix clavenae, B. cristatella, B. fatigatella, B. humiliella, B. latviaella, Cnephasia abrasana, Cochylimorpha elongana, Coleophora argentula, C. carelica, C. ditella, C. expressella, C. follicularis, C. gardesanella, C. millefolii, C. partitella, C. ptarmicia, C. quadristraminella, C. succursella, C. vibicigerella, Depressaria olerella, D. silesiaca, Dichrorampha alpinana , D. petiverella, D. vancouverana , Eupithecia millefoliata , E. nanata , Gillmeria pallidactyla, Idaea pallidata, Isidiella nickerlii, Loxostege manualis, Phycitodes maritima, P. saxicola, Pyncostola bohemiella, Sophronia sicariellus and Thetidia smaragdaria feed on Achillea millefolium in Europe.", "A. millefolium 'Paprika' cultivar A. millefolium cultivar Achillea millefolium is cultivated as an ornamental plant by many plant nurseries.", "It is planted in gardens and natural landscaping settings of diverse climates and styles.", "They include native plant, drought-tolerant, and wildlife gardens.", "The plant is a frequent component of butterfly gardens.", "The plant prefers well-drained soil in full sun, but can be grown in less ideal conditions.", "A. millefolium can be planted to combat soil erosion due to the plant's resistance to drought.", "Before the arrival of monocultures of ryegrass, both grass and pasture contained A. millefolium at a density of about 0.3 kg/ha.", "One factor for its use in grass mixtures was its deep roots, with leaves rich in minerals, minimizing mineral deficiencies in ruminant feed.", "It was introduced into New Zealand as a drought-tolerant pasture."], "habitat_section": ["Wenatchee Foothills, Chelan County, Washington Yarrow grows from sea level to in elevation.", "Common yarrow is frequently found in the mildly disturbed soil of grasslands and open forests.", "Active growth occurs in the spring.", "The plant is native to Eurasia and is found widely from the UK to China.", "In North America, both native and introduced genotypes, and both diploid and polyploid plants are found.", "It is found in every habitat throughout California except the Colorado and Mojave Deserts.", "Common yarrow produces an average yield of , with a total dry weight of .", "It has been introduced as a feed for livestock in New Zealand and Australia, where it is a common weed of both wet and dry areas, such as roadsides, meadows, fields and coastal places.", "Pollination by Eristalis arbustorum"], "random_sentences": ["Achillea millefolium, commonly known as yarrow or common yarrow, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae.", "Other common names include old man's pepper, devil's nettle, sanguinary, milfoil, soldier's woundwort, and thousand seal. The plant is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Asia, Europe, and North America.", "It has been introduced as a feed for livestock in New Zealand and Australia.", "Petiolate leaves on lower stems Illustration from Kohler's Medicinal Plants Achillea millefolium is an erect, herbaceous, perennial plant that produces one to several stems in height, and has a spreading rhizomatous growth form.", "Leaves are evenly distributed along the stem, with the leaves near the middle and bottom of the stem being the largest.", "The leaves have varying degrees of hairiness .", "The leaves are long, bipinnate or tripinnate, almost feathery, and arranged spirally on the stems.", "The leaves are cauline, and more or less clasping, being more petiolate near the base.", "The inflorescence has 4 to 9 phyllaries and contains ray and disk flowers which are white to pink, blooming from March to October.", "There are generally 3 to 8 ray flowers, which are long and ovate to round.", "The tiny disk flowers range from 10 to 40.", "The inflorescence is produced in a flat-topped capitulum cluster and the inflorescences are visited by many insects, featuring a generalized pollination system.", "The small achene-like fruits are called cypsela.", "The plant has a sweet scent similar to that of chrysanthemums, so powerful that it may be irritating to some.", "The dark blue essential oil of yarrow contains chemicals called proazulenes.", "Chamazulene and -Cadinol are chemical compounds found in A. millefolium.", "The chromophore of azulene was discovered in yarrow and wormwood and named in 1863 by Septimus Piesse.", "Yarrow contains isovaleric acid, salicylic acid, asparagine, sterols, and flavonoids.", "The several varieties and subspecies include:", "The genus name Achillea is derived from mythical Greek character Achilles, who reportedly carried it with his army to treat battle wounds.", "The specific epithet millefolium as well as the common names milfoil and thousand leaf come from the featherlike leaves which are minutely divided.", "The English name yarrow comes from its Saxon name gearwe, which is related to both the Dutch word gerw and the Old High German word garawa.", "In the eastern counties .", " it may be called yarroway.", "Other names include arrowroot, nose bleed, death flower, eerie, hundred leaved grass, knyghten, old man's mustard, sanguinary, seven-year's love, snake's grass, soldier, and gordaldo.", "In New Mexico and southern Colorado, it is called plumajillo from its leaf shape and texture.", "Wenatchee Foothills, Chelan County, Washington Yarrow grows from sea level to in elevation.", "Common yarrow is frequently found in the mildly disturbed soil of grasslands and open forests.", "Active growth occurs in the spring.", "The plant is native to Eurasia and is found widely from the UK to China.", "In North America, both native and introduced genotypes, and both diploid and polyploid plants are found.", "It is found in every habitat throughout California except the Colorado and Mojave Deserts.", "Common yarrow produces an average yield of , with a total dry weight of .", "It has been introduced as a feed for livestock in New Zealand and Australia, where it is a common weed of both wet and dry areas, such as roadsides, meadows, fields and coastal places.", "Several cavity-nesting birds, including the common starling, use yarrow to line their nests.", "Experiments conducted on the tree swallow, which does not use yarrow, suggest that adding yarrow to nests inhibits the growth of parasites.", "Achillea millefolium is a food source for many species of insects.", "Moths The larvae of the moths Bucculatrix clavenae, B. cristatella, B. fatigatella, B. humiliella, B. latviaella, Cnephasia abrasana, Cochylimorpha elongana, Coleophora argentula, C. carelica, C. ditella, C. expressella, C. follicularis, C. gardesanella, C. millefolii, C. partitella, C. ptarmicia, C. quadristraminella, C. succursella, C. vibicigerella, Depressaria olerella, D. silesiaca, Dichrorampha alpinana , D. petiverella, D. vancouverana , Eupithecia millefoliata , E. nanata , Gillmeria pallidactyla, Idaea pallidata, Isidiella nickerlii, Loxostege manualis, Phycitodes maritima, P. saxicola, Pyncostola bohemiella, Sophronia sicariellus and Thetidia smaragdaria feed on Achillea millefolium in Europe.", " The larvae of Chlorochlamys chloroleucaria , Coleophora quadruplex and Sparganothoides lentiginosana feed on A. millefolium in North America.", " Other species of moths with a more cosmopolitan distribution include Aethes smeathmanniana , Chloroclystis v-ata , Choristoneura diversana, Cochylidia richteriana, Epiblema graphana, Eupithecia succenturiata , E. vulgata , Jordanita budensis and Thiodia citrana .", "The Noctuid Agrotis stigmosa has also been reared on A. millefolium.", " Lafontaine, J. D., 2004.", "Noctuoidea, Noctuidae : Noctuinae, Agrotini in Hodges, R. W., ed.", ", The Moths of North America, fasc.", "Beetles Cassida denticollis, Galeruca tanaceti, Hypocassida subferruginea and Phytoecia virgula are cosmopolitan species of beetles that feed on A. millefolium.", " Chrysanthia viridissima is a European species whose adults can be found feeding on pollen and nectar.", " Trichodes ornatus is a species found in North America whose adults can be found feeding on A. millefolium.", "True bugs Horistus orientalis is a species of plant bugs that feeds on A. millefolium.", "Wasps Hedychrum rutilans is a species of cuckoo wasps whose adults can be found feeding on A. millefolium in Europe and North Africa.", "A. millefolium 'Paprika' cultivar A. millefolium cultivar Achillea millefolium is cultivated as an ornamental plant by many plant nurseries.", "It is planted in gardens and natural landscaping settings of diverse climates and styles.", "They include native plant, drought-tolerant, and wildlife gardens.", "The plant is a frequent component of butterfly gardens.", "The plant prefers well-drained soil in full sun, but can be grown in less ideal conditions.", "For propagation, seeds require light for germination, so optimal germination occurs when planted no deeper than .", "Seeds also require a germination temperature of .", "It has a relatively short life in some situations, but may be prolonged by division in the spring every other year, and planting apart.", "Yarrow can cause allergic skin rashes.", "It reportedly can induce menstruation and cause miscarriages.", "According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, yarrow is toxic to dogs, cats, and horses, causing increased urination, vomiting, diarrhea and dermatitis.", "When consumed by cows, an unfavorable flavor is given to their milk.", "In a standard rodent model for reproductive toxicity, aqueous extracts of yarrow produced a significant increase in the percentage of abnormal sperm.", "A. millefolium was used in traditional medicine, in part due to its astringent properties and the mild laxative effect of its leaves.", "The Navajo historically considered it a \" life medicine \" and chewed the plant for toothaches and used its infusions for earaches.", "The Miwok in California used the plant as an analgesic and head cold remedy.", "Native American nations used the plant for healing cuts and abrasions, relief from earaches and throat infections, as well as for an eyewash.", "Common yarrow was used by Plains indigenous peoples to reduce pain or fever and aid sleep.", "In the early 20th century, some Ojibwe people used a decoction of yarrow leaves on hot stones and inhaled it to treat headaches, or applied decoctions of the root onto skin for its stimulating effect.", "The entire plant is reportedly edible and nutritious, but it is advised not to consume much.", "both its leaves and flowers are bitter and astringent.", "The leaves can be eaten young", "raw, they can be added to salad.", "The leaves, with an aniseed-grass flavour, can be brewed as tea.", "In the Middle Ages, yarrow was part of a herbal mixture known as gruit used in the flavoring of beer prior to the use of hops.", "The flowers and leaves are used in making some liquors and bitters.", "Yarrow is considered an especially useful companion plant, attracting beneficial insects and repelling some pests.", "It attracts predatory wasps, which drink the nectar and then use insect pests as food for their larvae.", "Similarly, it attracts ladybirds and hoverflies.", "A. millefolium can be planted to combat soil erosion due to the plant's resistance to drought.", "Before the arrival of monocultures of ryegrass, both grass and pasture contained A. millefolium at a density of about 0.3 kg/ha.", "One factor for its use in grass mixtures was its deep roots, with leaves rich in minerals, minimizing mineral deficiencies in ruminant feed.", "It was introduced into New Zealand as a drought-tolerant pasture.", "Some pick-up sticks are made of yarrow.", "Yarrow can be used for dying wool as it contains apigenin and luteolin.", "Depending on the mordant the color may be green to yellow.", "In antiquity, the plant was known as herba militaris for its use in stanching the flow of blood from wounds.", "For its association with the Abrahamic devil it was called bad man's plaything, devil's nettle, and devil's plaything.", "It was called old man's pepper due to its pungent flavor, while the name field hop came from its use in beer making in Sweden.", "In the Classical Greek epic Iliad, Homer tells of the centaur Chiron, who conveyed herbal secrets to his human pupils and taught Achilles to use yarrow on the battlegrounds of Troy.", "A bunch of 50 yarrow A. millefolium subsp. millefolium var. millefolium stalks, used for I Ching divination Yarrow and tortoiseshell are considered to be lucky in Chinese tradition.", "The stalks are dried and used as a randomising agent in I Ching divination.", "In the Hebrides a leaf held against the eyes was sometimes believed to give second sight.", "In Sussex and Devonshire superstition, yarrow was used for finding one's real sweetheart.", "One would pluck yarrow growing on a young man's grave while reciting: :Yarrow, sweet yarrow, the first that I have found, in the name of Jesus Christ, I pluck it from the ground", " As Joseph loved sweet Mary, and took her for his dear, so in a dream this night, I hope, my true love will appear.", "and go to sleep with the yarrow under the pillow.", "In a similar tradition in Wicklow, girls would pick yarrow on Hallow Eve and recite: :Thou pretty herb of Venus' tree, Thy true name is yarrow", " Now who my bosom friend may be, Pray tell thou me to-morrow.", "then retire for the night without speaking and go to sleep with an ounce of yarrow sewn in flannel under the pillow.", "In Suffolk a leaf was placed in the nose so it would bleed, while reciting :Green 'arrow, green 'arrow, you bears a white blow, If my love love me, my nose will bleed now", " If my love don't love me, it 'on't bleed a drop, If my love do love me, 'twill bleed every drop.", "In Dublin on May Day or the night before, women would place a stocking full of yarrow under their pillow and recite: :Good morrow, good yarrow, good morrow to thee, I hope by the yarrow my lover to see", " And that he may be married to me.", " The colour of his hair and the clothes he does wear, And if he be for me may his face be turned to me, And if he be not, dark and surely may he be, And his back be turned toward me.", "In the witchcraft trial of Elspeth Reoch in March 1616, she was alleged to have plucked \" melefour, \" thought to be another name for yarrow, and said \" In nomine Patris, Fiili, et Spiritus Sancti \" to become able to cure distemper and impart the faculty of prediction.", "Yarrow was thought to bring luck due to being, according to one woman cited by James Britten, \" the first herb our Saviour put in His hand when a child.", "\" This is apparently a corruption of the Achilles myth."]}, "Filipendula ulmaria": {"keywords": ["Filipendula ulmaria, commonly known as meadowsweet or mead wort, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Rosaceae that grows in damp meadows.", "Meadowsweet has also been referred to as queen of the meadow, pride of the meadow, meadow-wort, meadow queen, lady of the meadow, dollof, meadsweet, and bridewort.", "Meadowsweet has delicate, graceful, creamy-white flowers clustered close together in irregularly-branched cymes, having a very strong, sweet smell redolent of antiseptic.", "They flower from early summer to early autumn and are visited by various types of insects, in particular Musca flies.", "Many insects and fungi cause disease in meadowsweet.", "The meadowsweet rust gall on leaf midrib Meadowsweet leaves are commonly galled by the bright orange-rust fungus Triphragmium ulmariae, which creates swellings and distortions on the stalk and/or midrib.", "The fungus Podosphaera filipendulae causes mildew on the leaves and flower heads, coating them with a white powder.", "The English common name meadowsweet dates from the 16th century.", "An earlier common name dating from the 15th century was 'meadsweet' Meadowsweet is known by many other names.", "In Europe, it took its name \" queen of the meadow \" for the way it can dominate a low-lying, damp meadow.", "Wild meadowsweet in Wharfedale, near Conistone, North Yorkshire, England Meadowsweet is common throughout the British Isles in damp areas and is dominant in fens and wet woods.", "Juncus subnodulosus-Cirsium palustre fen-meadow and Purple moor grass and rush pastures BAP habitat plant associations of Western Europe consistently include this plant.", "The whole plant is a traditional remedy for an acidic stomach, and the fresh root is often used in homeopathic preparations.", "The dried flowers are used in potpourri.", "In 1838, Raffaele Piria obtained salicylic acid from the buds of meadowsweet.", "Thereafter in 1899, scientists at the firm Bayer used salicylic acid derived from meadowsweet to synthesise acetylsalicylic acid , which was named after the old botanical name for meadowsweet, Spiraea ulmaria.", "White-flowered meadowsweet has been found with the cremated remains of three people and at least one animal in a Bronze Age cairn at Fan Foel, Carmarthenshire.", "In Welsh mythology, Gwydion and Math created a woman out of oak blossom, broom, and meadowsweet and named her Blodeuwedd ."], "habitat_section": ["Wild meadowsweet in Wharfedale, near Conistone, North Yorkshire, England Meadowsweet is common throughout the British Isles in damp areas and is dominant in fens and wet woods.", "Juncus subnodulosus-Cirsium palustre fen-meadow and Purple moor grass and rush pastures BAP habitat plant associations of Western Europe consistently include this plant."], "random_sentences": ["Filipendula ulmaria, commonly known as meadowsweet or mead wort, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Rosaceae that grows in damp meadows.", "It is native throughout most of Europe and Western Asia .", "It has been introduced and naturalised in North America.", "Meadowsweet has also been referred to as queen of the meadow, pride of the meadow, meadow-wort, meadow queen, lady of the meadow, dollof, meadsweet, and bridewort.", "left The stems, growing up to 120 cm, are tall, erect and furrowed, reddish to sometimes purple.", "The leaves are dark-green on the upper side and whitish and downy underneath, much divided, interruptedly pinnate, having a few large serrate leaflets and small intermediate ones.", "Terminal leaflets are large, 48 cm long, and three- to five-lobed.", "Meadowsweet has delicate, graceful, creamy-white flowers clustered close together in irregularly-branched cymes, having a very strong, sweet smell redolent of antiseptic.", "They flower from early summer to early autumn and are visited by various types of insects, in particular Musca flies.", "The flowers are small and numerous, they show 5 sepals and 5 petals with 7 to 20 stamens.", "Many insects and fungi cause disease in meadowsweet.", "The meadowsweet rust gall on leaf midrib Meadowsweet leaves are commonly galled by the bright orange-rust fungus Triphragmium ulmariae, which creates swellings and distortions on the stalk and/or midrib.", "The fungus Ramularia ulmariae causes purple blotches on the leaves.", "The fungus Podosphaera filipendulae causes mildew on the leaves and flower heads, coating them with a white powder.", "The midge Dasineura ulmariae causes pinkish-white galls on the leaves that can distort the leaf surface.", "The English common name meadowsweet dates from the 16th century.", "It did not originally mean 'sweet plant of the meadow', but a plant used for sweetening or flavouring mead.", "An earlier common name dating from the 15th century was 'meadsweet' Meadowsweet is known by many other names.", "In Chaucer's The Knight's Tale it is known as meadwort and was one of the ingredients in a drink called \" save \" .", "It was also known as bridewort, because it was strewn in churches for festivals and weddings, and often made into bridal garlands.", "In Europe, it took its name \" queen of the meadow \" for the way it can dominate a low-lying, damp meadow.", "The specific epithet ulmaria means \" elmlike \" , possibly in reference to its individual leaves which resemble those of the elm .", "The generic name, Filipendula, comes from filum, meaning \" thread \" and pendulus, meaning \" hanging \" .", "This is said to describe the slender attachment of root tubers, which hang characteristically on the genus, on fibrous roots.", "Wild meadowsweet in Wharfedale, near Conistone, North Yorkshire, England Meadowsweet is common throughout the British Isles in damp areas and is dominant in fens and wet woods.", "Juncus subnodulosus-Cirsium palustre fen-meadow and Purple moor grass and rush pastures BAP habitat plant associations of Western Europe consistently include this plant.", "The whole herb possesses a pleasant taste and flavour, the green parts having a similar aromatic character to the flowers, hence the use of the plant as a strewing herb, strewn on floors to give the rooms a pleasant aroma, and its use to flavour wine, beer, and many kinds of vinegar.", "The flowers can be added to stewed fruit and jams, giving them a subtle almond flavour.", "Some foragers also use the flowers to flavour desserts such as panna cotta.", "It has many medicinal properties.", "The whole plant is a traditional remedy for an acidic stomach, and the fresh root is often used in homeopathic preparations.", "The dried flowers are used in potpourri.", "It is also a frequently used spice in Scandinavian varieties of mead.", "Chemical constituents include salicin, flavone glycosides, essential oils, and tannins.", "In 1838, Raffaele Piria obtained salicylic acid from the buds of meadowsweet.", "Thereafter in 1899, scientists at the firm Bayer used salicylic acid derived from meadowsweet to synthesise acetylsalicylic acid , which was named after the old botanical name for meadowsweet, Spiraea ulmaria.", "The name then became aspirin.", "A natural black dye can be obtained from the roots by using a copper mordant.", "A tea made from Filipendula ulmaria flowers or leaves has been used in traditional Austrian herbal medicine for the treatment of rheumatism, gout, infections, and fever.", "White-flowered meadowsweet has been found with the cremated remains of three people and at least one animal in a Bronze Age cairn at Fan Foel, Carmarthenshire.", "Similar finds have also been found inside a beaker from Ashgrove, Fife, and a vessel from North Mains, Strathallan.", "These could indicate honey-based mead or flavoured ale, or might suggest that the plant was placed on the grave as a scented flower.", "In Welsh mythology, Gwydion and Math created a woman out of oak blossom, broom, and meadowsweet and named her Blodeuwedd .", "In the 16th century, when it was customary to strew floors with rushes and herbs , it was a favorite of Elizabeth I of England.", "She desired it above all other herbs in her chambers."]}}
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|
2715204_1279681
| 2154
|
[
"Lathyrus vernus"
] |
{"Lathyrus vernus": {"keywords": ["Lathyrus vernus, the spring vetchling, spring pea, or spring vetch, is a species of flowering herbaceous perennial plant in the genus Lathyrus, native to forests of Europe and Siberia.", "This species, and the cultivar 'Alboroseus', have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "The stem grows to and is erect and nearly hairless.", "It does not wither after flowering but continues to grow until autumn.", "Lathyrus vernus is native to Europe and parts of northern Asia.", "Its typical habitat is broad-leaved woodland, forest margins, plantations and clearings."], "habitat_section": ["Lathyrus vernus is native to Europe and parts of northern Asia.", "Its typical habitat is broad-leaved woodland, forest margins, plantations and clearings."], "random_sentences": ["Lathyrus vernus, the spring vetchling, spring pea, or spring vetch, is a species of flowering herbaceous perennial plant in the genus Lathyrus, native to forests of Europe and Siberia.", "It forms a dense clump of pointed leaves with purple flowers in spring, shading to a greenish-blue with age.", "This species, and the cultivar 'Alboroseus', have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Lathyrus vernus is a perennial plant with an upright stem without wings.", "The stem grows to and is erect and nearly hairless.", "The leaves are alternate with short stalks and large, wide stipules.", "The leaf blades are pinnate with two to four pairs of ovate tapering leaflets with blunt tips, entire margins and no tendrils.", "The inflorescence has a long stem and three to ten purplish-red flowers, each long, turning bluer as they age.", "These have five sepals and five petals and are irregular.", "The uppermost petal is known as the \" standard \" , the lateral two as the \" wings \" and the lowest two are joined to form the \" keel \" .", "There are ten stamens and a single carpel.", "The fruit is a long brown pod up to in length containing eight to fourteen seeds which are poisonous.", "This plant flowers early in the year, in May and June.", "It can be distinguished from bitter vetch (L.", "linifolius) and black pea (L.", "niger) by the breadth of its ovate leaflets.", "It does not wither after flowering but continues to grow until autumn.", "Lathyrus vernus is native to Europe and parts of northern Asia.", "Its typical habitat is broad-leaved woodland, forest margins, plantations and clearings."]}}
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|
2713921_1239786
| 524
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[
"Clinopodium vulgare",
"Ononis spinosa",
"Lathyrus pratensis"
] |
{"Clinopodium vulgare": {"keywords": ["Clinopodium vulgare, the wild basil, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae.", "The inflorescence is a terminal spike consisting of several loose whorls of clusters of flowers growing in the axils of the leaves.", "Wild basil occurs in suitable locations in most of Europe, western and central Asia, North America and North Africa.", "Its typical habitat is dry grassland and heathland, usually on limestone or chalky soils."], "habitat_section": ["Wild basil occurs in suitable locations in most of Europe, western and central Asia, North America and North Africa.", "Its typical habitat is dry grassland and heathland, usually on limestone or chalky soils.", "Though its distribution is patchy it is widespread and not threatened in the UK. Pollination is by bees and Lepidoptera."], "random_sentences": ["Clinopodium vulgare, the wild basil, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae.", "Wild basil is a perennial rhizomatous herb with square, upright, hairy stems and opposite pairs of leaves.", "The leaves are hairy, ovate or lanceolate in shape, and have short or no stalks, wedge-shaped bases and bluntly-toothed margins.", "The inflorescence is a terminal spike consisting of several loose whorls of clusters of flowers growing in the axils of the leaves.", "Each flower has a short stalk, five sepals about long and five petals in length which are fused into a tube.", "The flowers are pink, violet or purple and have two lips.", "Each has four stamens, a long style and fused carpels.", "Wild basil occurs in suitable locations in most of Europe, western and central Asia, North America and North Africa.", "Its typical habitat is dry grassland and heathland, usually on limestone or chalky soils.", "Though its distribution is patchy it is widespread and not threatened in the UK.", "The leaves of wild basil are used as an aromatic herb in the preparation of food dishes and to make a herbal tea.", "They can also be used in the preparation of both a brown and a yellow dye.", "This plant has traditionally been used as an astringent, a cardiac stimulant, an expectorant, to reduce flatulence and to increase perspiration.", "It has been used traditionally in Bulgaria for the healing of wounds and has been shown to have anti-bacterial properties.", "Pollination is by bees and Lepidoptera."]}, "Ononis spinosa": {"keywords": ["Spiny restharrow is an erect, bushy perennial. The wiry, branched stem is downy and nearly always spiny, and grows to a height of .", "The flowers are deep pink and white, with the wings shorter than the hooked keel, and the calyx usually shorter than the pod.", "Its typical habitat is lime-rich but nutrient-poor grassland on chalk and heavy, calcareous soils.", "It grows in the Plaster's Green Meadows, an SSSI in Lincolnshire.", "Though the original process is now lost, it is known it involved dipping the finished weapon into a vat containing a special liquid of which spiny restharrow extract was a part , then holding the sword aloft while galloping on a horse, allowing it to dry and harden against the wind."], "habitat_section": ["Spiny restharrow is found in southern temperate areas of Europe and Siberia.", "In the British Isles it occurs predominantly in central and southeastern England.", "Its typical habitat is lime-rich but nutrient-poor grassland on chalk and heavy, calcareous soils.", "It grows in the Plaster's Green Meadows, an SSSI in Lincolnshire."], "random_sentences": ["Ononis spinosa is a plant belonging to the family Fabaceae, that is commonly known as spiny restharrow or just restharrow.", "It is found throughout much of Europe including Britain, but seldom as far north as Scotland.", "Spiny restharrow is an erect, bushy perennial. The wiry, branched stem is downy and nearly always spiny, and grows to a height of .", "The leaves are small, dark green, oval or trefoil, with toothed leaf-like stipules at their base.", "The flowers are deep pink and white, with the wings shorter than the hooked keel, and the calyx usually shorter than the pod.", "Spiny restharrow is found in southern temperate areas of Europe and Siberia.", "In the British Isles it occurs predominantly in central and southeastern England.", "Its typical habitat is lime-rich but nutrient-poor grassland on chalk and heavy, calcareous soils.", "It grows in the Plaster's Green Meadows, an SSSI in Lincolnshire.", "In medieval Russia, it was used for manufacturing Bulat steel.", "Though the original process is now lost, it is known it involved dipping the finished weapon into a vat containing a special liquid of which spiny restharrow extract was a part , then holding the sword aloft while galloping on a horse, allowing it to dry and harden against the wind.", "In traditional Russian herbal medicine, it was used as an anodyne, antiphlogistic, aperient, coagulant and diuretic.", "A decoction of restharrow was used for eczema and other skin problems, hemorrhoids, chronic constipation, and infections of the anus."]}, "Lathyrus pratensis": {"keywords": ["Lathyrus pratensis or meadow vetchling, yellow pea, meadow pea and meadow pea-vine, is a perennial legume that grows to 1.2 m in height.", "As a perennial, this plant reproduces itself over many years, spreading out from the point it was introduced, especially in damp grassy areas.", "Meadow vetchling is a perennial plant with a limp, unwinged stem that grows to and is erect and hairy.", "Meadow vetchling is native to Europe and Asia, but has been introduced to other parts of the world.", "Its typical habitat is rough grassy places, broad-leaved woodland, forest margins, hedgerows and banks where it uses its tendrils to clamber over other vegetation."], "habitat_section": ["Meadow vetchling is native to Europe and Asia, but has been introduced to other parts of the world.", "In the United States, this plant is found primarily in the northwestern states of Oregon and Alaska.", "Its typical habitat is rough grassy places, broad-leaved woodland, forest margins, hedgerows and banks where it uses its tendrils to clamber over other vegetation."], "random_sentences": ["Lathyrus pratensis or meadow vetchling, yellow pea, meadow pea and meadow pea-vine, is a perennial legume that grows to 1.2 m in height.", "The hermaphrodite flowers are pollinated by bees.", "As a perennial, this plant reproduces itself over many years, spreading out from the point it was introduced, especially in damp grassy areas.", "This plant has been propagated in the past as animal fodder.", "Lathyrus pratensis is also a host plant for ovipositioning of the wood white butterfly .", "Meadow vetchling is a perennial plant with a limp, unwinged stem that grows to and is erect and hairy.", "The leaves are alternate with short stalks and large stipules.", "The leaf blades are pinnate with a single pair of broad lanceolate leaflets with blunt tips, entire margins and a terminal unbranched tendril.", "The inflorescence has a long stem and a cluster of five to twelve yellow flowers, each long.", "These have five sepals and five petals and are irregular.", "The uppermost petal is known as the \" standard \" , the lateral two as the \" wings \" and the lowest two are joined to form the \" keel \" .", "There are ten stamens and a single carpel.", "The fruit is a long black pod.", "This plant flowers from June to August.", "Inflorescence Lathyrus pratensis flowers - Keila.", "A close-up of the flowers 20130525Lathyrus latifolius5.", "Vigorous green growth Lathyrus pratensis IP0706078.", "Young fruit Lapr 002 shp .", "Meadow vetchling is native to Europe and Asia, but has been introduced to other parts of the world.", "In the United States, this plant is found primarily in the northwestern states of Oregon and Alaska.", "Its typical habitat is rough grassy places, broad-leaved woodland, forest margins, hedgerows and banks where it uses its tendrils to clamber over other vegetation."]}}
|
|
2799197_1142057
| 014
|
[
"Eriophorum scheuchzeri"
] |
{"Eriophorum scheuchzeri": {"keywords": ["Eriophorum scheuchzeri is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family known by the common names Scheuchzer's cottongrass and white cottongrass.", "It has an arctic circumpolar and circumboreal distribution in the Northern Hemisphere.", "It can be found in Alaska, across Canada, in the Arctic islands, Greenland, Iceland, and across Eurasia.", "Disjunct occurrences exist in the Rocky Mountains, in the high mountains of southern Europe and on Mount Daisetsu in Japan and some other Asian mountains.", "This plant can be found at sea level in northern parts of its range and at over in elevation farther south.", "It is restricted to wet habitat types, and grows in marshes and wet meadows, by ponds and lakes, and on riverbanks, in moist and wet gravel and sand substrates.", "It often lines the edges of standing water bodies commonly associated with mosses and other sedges, such as Carex aquatilis.", "pualunnguat, meaning \" imitation mittens \" , kumaksiutinnguat, meaning \" an imitation object to remove lice \" , and in North Baffin, kanguujat, meaning \" what looks like snow geese \" ."], "habitat_section": ["This plant can be found at sea level in northern parts of its range and at over in elevation farther south.", "It is a helophyte.", "It is restricted to wet habitat types, and grows in marshes and wet meadows, by ponds and lakes, and on riverbanks, in moist and wet gravel and sand substrates.", "It often lines the edges of standing water bodies commonly associated with mosses and other sedges, such as Carex aquatilis."], "random_sentences": ["Eriophorum scheuchzeri is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family known by the common names Scheuchzer's cottongrass and white cottongrass.", "It has an arctic circumpolar and circumboreal distribution in the Northern Hemisphere.", "It can be found in Alaska, across Canada, in the Arctic islands, Greenland, Iceland, and across Eurasia.", "Disjunct occurrences exist in the Rocky Mountains, in the high mountains of southern Europe and on Mount Daisetsu in Japan and some other Asian mountains.", "This species is a perennial herb producing colonies via its rhizomes.", "The thin stems may reach tall, but they are often much shorter.", "The rolled leaf blades are up to long.", "Leaves at the top of the stem have no blades, just black-tipped sheaths.", "The inflorescence is a solitary flower head with wispy, cottony, bright white, red-tinged, or silvery bristles up to long.", "This plant can be found at sea level in northern parts of its range and at over in elevation farther south.", "It is restricted to wet habitat types, and grows in marshes and wet meadows, by ponds and lakes, and on riverbanks, in moist and wet gravel and sand substrates.", "It often lines the edges of standing water bodies commonly associated with mosses and other sedges, such as Carex aquatilis.", "Native and indigenous peoples have long been familiar with the plant and its uses.", "The Inuit have at least three names for Scheuchzer's cottongrass: pualunnguat, meaning \" imitation mittens \"", "kumaksiutinnguat, meaning \" an imitation object to remove lice \"", "and in North Baffin, kanguujat, meaning \" what looks like snow geese \" .", "It has been used as lamp wicks, boot insoles, and swabs.", "The plant is also edible and sweet-tasting.", "This plant is consumed by muskoxen.", "Waterfowl feed on the seeds."]}}
|
|
2619616_1264219
| 2457
|
[
"Symphoricarpos albus"
] |
{"Symphoricarpos albus": {"keywords": ["Symphoricarpos albus is a species of flowering plant in the honeysuckle family known by the common name common snowberry.", "Native to North America, it is browsed by some animals and planted for ornamental and ecological purposes, but is poisonous to humans.", "S. albus is an erect, deciduous shrub, producing a stiff, branching main stem and often several smaller shoots from a rhizome.", "It grows in shady and moist mountain and forest habitat, in woodlands and on floodplains and riverbanks.", "This shrub is an important food source for a number of animals, including bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer, and grizzly bears.", "The fruit and shrub are poisonous to humans, causing vomiting.", "This shrub is used for erosion control in riparian areas, and it is planted in ecological restoration projects on disturbed sites such as abandoned mines.", "It grows in full sun to full light shade and a well-drained soil that is slightly acid to well alkaline, pH range of about 6.0 to 8.5."], "habitat_section": ["S. albus occurs across much of Canada and the northern and western United States.", "It grows in shady and moist mountain and forest habitat, in woodlands and on floodplains and riverbanks.", "It can grow in a wide variety of habitat types.", "It is naturalized in parts of Britain, where it has been planted as an ornamental and cover for game animals.", "This shrub is an important food source for a number of animals, including bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer, and grizzly bears.", "Livestock such as cattle and sheep readily browse it.", "Many birds and small mammals use it for food and cover.", "Pocket gophers dig burrows underneath it during the winter."], "random_sentences": ["Symphoricarpos albus is a species of flowering plant in the honeysuckle family known by the common name common snowberry.", "Native to North America, it is browsed by some animals and planted for ornamental and ecological purposes, but is poisonous to humans.", "S. albus is an erect, deciduous shrub, producing a stiff, branching main stem and often several smaller shoots from a rhizome.", "It can spread and colonize an area to form a dense thicket.", "It reaches in maximum height.", "The leaves are oppositely arranged on the spreading branches.", "They are generally oval, differing in size and shape, and up to long, or slightly larger on the shoots.", "The inflorescence is a raceme of up to 16 flowers.", "Each flower has a small, five-toothed calyx of sepals.", "The bell-shaped, rounded corolla is about long and bright pink in color.", "It has pointed lobes at the mouth and the inside is filled with white hairs.", "The fruit is a fleshy white berry-like drupe about 1 cm wide which contains two seeds.", "The plant sometimes reproduces via seed but it is primarily vegetative, reproducing by sprouting from its spreading rhizome.", "Birds disperse the seeds after they eat the fruit.", "S. albus occurs across much of Canada and the northern and western United States.", "It grows in shady and moist mountain and forest habitat, in woodlands and on floodplains and riverbanks.", "It can grow in a wide variety of habitat types.", "It is naturalized in parts of Britain, where it has been planted as an ornamental and cover for game animals.", "This shrub is an important food source for a number of animals, including bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer, and grizzly bears.", "Livestock such as cattle and sheep readily browse it.", "Many birds and small mammals use it for food and cover.", "Pocket gophers dig burrows underneath it during the winter.", "The fruit and shrub are poisonous to humans, causing vomiting.", "Native Americans used the plant as medicine, soap, sometimes for food, and the wood was good for arrow shafts.", "In Russia, the berries are crushed in the hands and rubbed about for a soothing folk-remedy hand lotion.", "This shrub is used for erosion control in riparian areas, and it is planted in ecological restoration projects on disturbed sites such as abandoned mines.", "Its white fruits and blue-green foliage made it popular as an ornamental plant planted around old houses of the 1890s through the 1920s like with the Vanhoutte Spirea or Bridalwreath.", "It is still sold by some large diverse conventional nurseries and native plant nurseries, and occasionally found in modern landscapes.", "It grows in full sun to full light shade and a well-drained soil that is slightly acid to well alkaline, pH range of about 6.0 to 8.5.", "it is easy to transplant with its fibrous, shallow root system.", "It fares well in U.S. Department of Agriculture hardiness zones of 2 to 7."]}}
|
|
2705595_1155687
| 1243
|
[
"Arnica montana",
"Lasiocampa quercus",
"Nucifraga caryocatactes"
] |
{"Arnica montana": {"keywords": ["Arnica montana, also known as wolf's bane, leopard's bane, mountain tobacco and mountain arnica, is a moderately toxic European flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae.", "Arnica montana Arnica montana is a flowering plant about tall aromatic fragrant, herbaceous perennial. Its basal green ovate leaves with rounded tips are bright coloured and level to the ground.", "The flowering season is between May and August .", "The achenes have a one-piece rough pappus which opens in dry conditions.", "Arnica montana is a hemicryptophyte, which helps the plant to survive the extreme overwintering condition of its habitat.", "the rosette part grows at its front while its tail is slowly dying.", "The Latin specific epithet montana refers to mountains or coming from mountains.", "Arnica montana grows in nutrient-poor siliceous meadows or clay soils.", "It mostly grows on alpine meadows and up to nearly .", "However Arnica does not grow on lime soil, thus it is an extremely reliable bioindicator for nutrient poor and acidic soils.", "It is becoming rarer, particularly in the north of its distribution, largely due to increasingly intensive agriculture and commercial wildcrafting .", "Planting density for Arnica montana is of 20 plants/m 2 such that the maximum yield density will be achieved in the second flowering season.", "The flowers are harvested when fully developed and dried without their bract nor receptacles.", "Arnica montana is sometimes grown in herb gardens.", "Extensive agriculture has been replaced by intensive management."], "habitat_section": ["Distribution map of Arnica montana.", "Arnica montana is widespread across most of Europe.", "It is absent from the Celtic Isles and the Italian and Balkan peninsulas.", "In addition, it is considered extinct in Hungary and Lithuania.", "Arnica montana grows in nutrient-poor siliceous meadows or clay soils.", "It mostly grows on alpine meadows and up to nearly .", "In more upland regions, it may also be found on nutrient-poor moors and heaths.", "However Arnica does not grow on lime soil, thus it is an extremely reliable bioindicator for nutrient poor and acidic soils.", "It is rare overall, but may be locally abundant.", "It is becoming rarer, particularly in the north of its distribution, largely due to increasingly intensive agriculture and commercial wildcrafting .", "Nevertheless, it is cultivated on a large scale in Estonia."], "random_sentences": ["Arnica montana, also known as wolf's bane, leopard's bane, mountain tobacco and mountain arnica, is a moderately toxic European flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae.", "It is noted for its large yellow flower head.", "The names \" wolf's bane \" and \" leopard's bane \" are also used for another plant, aconitum, which is extremely poisonous.", "Arnica montana is used as an herbal medicine for analgesic and anti-inflammatory purposes, but there is insufficient high-quality clinical evidence for such effects, and it is toxic when taken internally or applied to injured skin.", "Arnica montana Arnica montana is a flowering plant about tall aromatic fragrant, herbaceous perennial. Its basal green ovate leaves with rounded tips are bright coloured and level to the ground.", "In addition, they are somewhat downy on their upper surface, veined and aggregated in rosettes.", "By contrast, the upper leaves are opposed, spear-shaped and smaller which is an exception within the Asteraceae.", "The chromosome number is 2n38.", "The flowering season is between May and August .", "The hairy flowers are composed of yellow disc florets in the center and orange-yellow ray florets at the external part.", "The achenes have a one-piece rough pappus which opens in dry conditions.", "Arnica montana is a hemicryptophyte, which helps the plant to survive the extreme overwintering condition of its habitat.", "In addition, Arnica forms rhizomes, which grow in a two-year cycle: the rosette part grows at its front while its tail is slowly dying.", "The Latin specific epithet montana refers to mountains or coming from mountains.", "Distribution map of Arnica montana.", "Arnica montana is widespread across most of Europe.", "It is absent from the Celtic Isles and the Italian and Balkan peninsulas.", "In addition, it is considered extinct in Hungary and Lithuania.", "Arnica montana grows in nutrient-poor siliceous meadows or clay soils.", "It mostly grows on alpine meadows and up to nearly .", "In more upland regions, it may also be found on nutrient-poor moors and heaths.", "However Arnica does not grow on lime soil, thus it is an extremely reliable bioindicator for nutrient poor and acidic soils.", "It is rare overall, but may be locally abundant.", "It is becoming rarer, particularly in the north of its distribution, largely due to increasingly intensive agriculture and commercial wildcrafting .", "Nevertheless, it is cultivated on a large scale in Estonia.", "Chemical structure of helenalin The main constituents of Arnica montana are essential oils, fatty acids, thymol, pseudoguaianolide sesquiterpene lactones and flavanone glycosides.", "Pseudoguaianolide sesquiterpenes constitute 0.20.8% of the flower head of Arnica montana.", "They are the toxin helenalin and their fatty esters.", "2,5-Dimethoxy-p-cymene and thymol methyl ether are the primary components of essential oils from both the plant's roots and rhizomes.", "The quality and chemical constitution of the plant substance Arnicae flos can be monitored by near-infrared spectroscopy.", "Arnica montana fruits and seeds Arnica montana: Photo taken at Botanical Garden in Erlangen, Germany.", "Arnica montana is propagated from seed.", "Generally, 20% of seeds do not germinate.", "For large scale planting, it is recommended to raise plants first in a nursery and then to transplant them in the field.", "Seeds sprout in 1420 days but germination rate depends highly on the seed quality.", "Planting density for Arnica montana is of 20 plants/m 2 such that the maximum yield density will be achieved in the second flowering season.", "While Arnica montana has high exigencies of soil quality, analyses should be done before any fertilizer input.", "The flowers are harvested when fully developed and dried without their bract nor receptacles.", "The roots can be harvested in autumn and dried as well after being carefully washed.", "Arnica montana is sometimes grown in herb gardens.", "Historically, Arnica montana has been used as an herbal medicine for centuries.", "Traditional uses for the plant are similar to those for willow bark, with it generally being employed for analgesic and anti-inflammatory purposes.", "Clinical trials of Arnica montana have yielded mixed results: .", " A. montana has also been the subject of studies of homeopathic preparations.", "A 1998 systematic review of homeopathic A. montana conducted at the University of Exeter found that there are no rigorous clinical trials that support the claim that it is efficacious beyond a placebo effect at the concentrations used in homeopathy.", "The US Food and Drug Administration has classified Arnica montana as an unsafe herb because of its toxicity.", "It should not be taken orally or applied to broken skin where absorption can occur.", "Arnica irritates mucous membranes and may elicit stomach pain, diarrhea, and vomiting.", "It may produce contact dermatitis when applied to skin.", "Contact with the plant can also cause skin irritation.", "In the Ames test, an extract of A. montana was found to be mutagenic.", "The demand for A. montana is 50 tonnes per year in Europe, but the supply does not cover the demand.", "it is protected in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and in some regions of Switzerland.", "France and Romania produce A. montana for the international market.", "Changes in agriculture in Europe during the last decades have led to a decline in the occurrence of A. montana.", "Extensive agriculture has been replaced by intensive management."]}, "Lasiocampa quercus": {"keywords": ["It feeds on a variety of plant species , and may develop over two years in higher latitudes, where it may be known as the northern eggar.", "The oak eggar's habitat is wide-ranging, including scrub, heath, moor, downland, hedges and sea cliffs, reflecting the larva's very varied range of food plants.", "In more northerly latitudes, development can span two years, with larvae overwintering the first year, and the pupae in the second year.", "Larvae feed on a wide variety of plant species, low down, including blackthorn, hawthorn, viburnum, dogwood, ivy and ling, bilberry, broom, larch, birch, willow, hazel, sea buckthorn and Rubus species, including bramble.", "The Oak Eggar caterpillar , a pest particularly of oak forests, is known to be capable of adapting itself to a variety of trees in default of oak Larvae can be infected by a baculovirus, a virus that changes their behaviour, causing them to climb out of the protection of low scrub and leave them open to predation, facilitating the spread of the infection."], "habitat_section": ["The oak eggar's habitat is wide-ranging, including scrub, heath, moor, downland, hedges and sea cliffs, reflecting the larva's very varied range of food plants."], "random_sentences": ["Lasiocampa quercus, the oak eggar, is a common moth of the family Lasiocampidae found in Europe, including Britain and Ireland.", "It feeds on a variety of plant species , and may develop over two years in higher latitudes, where it may be known as the northern eggar.", "Its specific name quercus refers to the fact that its cocoon generally resembles an acorn, not that its primary food source is oak.", "The oak eggar's habitat is wide-ranging, including scrub, heath, moor, downland, hedges and sea cliffs, reflecting the larva's very varied range of food plants.", "The moth's wingspan is about 45 mm to 75 mm , the female being larger and paler than the male.", "It is Britain's largest day-flying moth.", "The oak eggar is on the wing for about two months between May and September, depending on the latitude.", "In more northerly latitudes, development can span two years, with larvae overwintering the first year, and the pupae in the second year.", "In northern areas it is known as the northern eggar", "this was formerly thought to be a separate species, but is generally assumed to be a subspecies Lasiocampa quercus callunae, there is no clear geographical separation of the two types, but the northern eggar tends to be the larger of the two.", "There are morphological differences and different food preferences.", "Males tend to be day fliers, while females tend to fly from dusk.", "Unpaired females may attract a large number of males, and eggs are laid loosely in undergrowth.", "Larvae feed on a wide variety of plant species, low down, including blackthorn, hawthorn, viburnum, dogwood, ivy and ling, bilberry, broom, larch, birch, willow, hazel, sea buckthorn and Rubus species, including bramble.", "It is not known to feed on oak", "however, one entomologist is quoted as saying: The Oak Eggar caterpillar , a pest particularly of oak forests, is known to be capable of adapting itself to a variety of trees in default of oak Larvae can be infected by a baculovirus, a virus that changes their behaviour, causing them to climb out of the protection of low scrub and leave them open to predation, facilitating the spread of the infection.", "The caterpillar hairs of some species of moth, such as the oak processionary moth , can cause skin irritation, but there is no evidence that the oak eggar is one of these, despite the similar name.", "The caterpillar pupates on the ground inside a silken cocoon, the exterior of which is hard and yellowish, and resembles an acorn, hence the moth's name.", "Eggar is an obsolete word relating to the shape of the cocoon."]}, "Nucifraga caryocatactes": {"keywords": ["In western Uttarakhand, India The most important food resources for this species are the seeds of various pines , principally the cold-climate species of white pine with large seeds.", "Surplus seed is always stored for later use and it is this species that is responsible for the sowing of new trees of their favoured pines, including the re-establishment of the Swiss pine over large areas in the Alps of central Europe formerly cleared by man.", "The spotted nutcracker has an extensive range forming a broad swathe eastwest from Scandinavia right across northern Europe, Siberia and to eastern Asia, including Japan, inhabiting the huge taiga conifer forests in the north.", "Three further disjunct populations occur in mountain conifer forests further south, one centered on the mountains of central and southeast Europe , another in the western Himalayas, and the third in western China seaboard and separated from the northern population by a relatively small gap in the north centre of China."], "habitat_section": ["The spotted nutcracker has an extensive range forming a broad swathe eastwest from Scandinavia right across northern Europe, Siberia and to eastern Asia, including Japan, inhabiting the huge taiga conifer forests in the north.", "Three further disjunct populations occur in mountain conifer forests further south, one centered on the mountains of central and southeast Europe , another in the western Himalayas, and the third in western China seaboard and separated from the northern population by a relatively small gap in the north centre of China.", "See subspecies list above for race distributions.", "Some of the populations can be separated on bill size.", "This species has a large range, extending over 10,000,000 km 2 globally.", "It also has a large global population, with an estimate of between 800,000-1,700,000 individuals in Europe.", "Spotted nutcrackers are not migratory, but will erupt out of range when a cone crop failure leaves them short of a food supply, the thin-billed eastern race macrorhynchos being the more likely to do this.", "Britain records very sporadic vagrants, but in 1968 over 300 nutcrackers visited Britain as part of a larger irruption into western Europe, probably due to a spell of early cold weather in Siberia."], "random_sentences": ["The spotted nutcracker, Eurasian nutcracker, or simply nutcracker is a passerine bird slightly larger than the Eurasian jay.", "It has a much larger bill and a slimmer looking head without any crest.", "The feathering over its body is predominantly chocolate brown with distinct white spots and streaks .", "The wings and upper tail are virtually black with a greenish-blue gloss.", "The spotted nutcracker is one of three currently-recognized species of nutcracker.", "The Kashmir nutcracker was formerly considered a subspecies of the spotted.", "The other member of the genus, Clark's nutcracker (N.", "columbiana), occurs in western North America.", "Skeleton The nutcracker was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, and it still bears its original name Nucifraga caryocatactes.", "The scientific name is a reduplication", "nucifraga is a New Latin translation of German Nussbrecher, \" nut-breaker \" based on Latin nucis \" nut \" , and frangere \" to shatter \" , and caryocatactes based on Greek: karuon \" nut \" , and kataseio \" to shatter \" .", "The common English name nutcracker first appears in 1693 in a translation of a German travel guide, where it is a calque on the German name Nuknacker, as the bird was not recorded in England until 1753.", "Other Germanic languages have etymologically related names: Danish: nddekrige", "left The spotted nutcracker is a dark brown, broad-winged, short-tailed corvid.", "Body plumage is mid-to-dark chocolate brown, heavily spotted with white on face, neck, mantle and underparts.", "It has a large white loral spot, a white eye-ring, blackish-brown cap extending onto the nape, dark blackish wings with a greenish-blue gloss, all white vent, and dark tail with white corners above and a white terminal band on the undertail.", "In flight, broad wings, white vent and short tail are noticeable", "The black bill is slender and rather long, sharply pointed, and varies in size amongst races.", "The iris, legs and feet are black.", "Nutcrackers range from 3238 cm in length and have a wingspan ranging from 4953 cm.", "The voice is similar to that of the Eurasian jay and is loud and harsh.", "It is described as kraak-kraak-kraak-kraak.", "In western Uttarakhand, India The most important food resources for this species are the seeds of various pines , principally the cold-climate species of white pine with large seeds: P. armandii, P. bungeana, P. cembra, P. gerardiana, P. koraiensis, P. parviflora, P. peuce, Siberian dwarf pine", "pumila, P. sibirica and P. wallichiana.", "In some regions, where none of these pines occur, the seeds of spruce and hazel nuts form an important part of the diet too.", "The forms that take hazel nuts have thicker bills for cracking their hard shells, with a special ridge on the inside of the bill edge near the base.", "If the shell is too hard, it holds the nut between its feet and hacks at it with its bill like a chisel.", "A special adaptation is found in the tongue of the nutcracker.", "The tip of the tongue forks with two long pointed appendages which are keratinized into nail like surfaces.", "This is thought to help them handle and shell conifer seeds.", "Surplus seed is always stored for later use and it is this species that is responsible for the sowing of new trees of their favoured pines, including the re-establishment of the Swiss pine over large areas in the Alps of central Europe formerly cleared by man.", "Various insects are also taken, and also small birds, their eggs and nestlings, small rodents and carrion such as roadkills.", "It digs out bumble bee and wasp nests avidly to get at the grubs.", "Egg of spotted nutcracker Nutcracker couples stay together for life and their territory expands between 20 and 30 acres.", "Nesting is always early in this species across its whole range, so as to make the best use of pine nuts stored the previous autumn.", "The nest is usually built high in a conifer and usually on the sunny side.", "There are normally 2-4 eggs laid and incubated for 18 days.", "Both sexes feed the young which are usually fledged by about 23 days and stay with their parents for many months, following them to learn the food storage techniques essential for survival in their harsh environment.", "The spotted nutcracker has an extensive range forming a broad swathe eastwest from Scandinavia right across northern Europe, Siberia and to eastern Asia, including Japan, inhabiting the huge taiga conifer forests in the north.", "Three further disjunct populations occur in mountain conifer forests further south, one centered on the mountains of central and southeast Europe ", "another in the western Himalayas", "and the third in western China seaboard and separated from the northern population by a relatively small gap in the north centre of China.", "See subspecies list above for race distributions.", "Some of the populations can be separated on bill size.", "This species has a large range, extending over 10,000,000 km 2 globally.", "It also has a large global population, with an estimate of between 800,000-1,700,000 individuals in Europe.", "Spotted nutcrackers are not migratory, but will erupt out of range when a cone crop failure leaves them short of a food supply, the thin-billed eastern race macrorhynchos being the more likely to do this.", "Britain records very sporadic vagrants, but in 1968 over 300 nutcrackers visited Britain as part of a larger irruption into western Europe, probably due to a spell of early cold weather in Siberia."]}}
|
|
2585746_1116241
| 2457
|
[
"Lepidium draba"
] |
{"Lepidium draba": {"keywords": ["Whitetop has slightly domed flower clusters in which the individual flower stalks grow upward from various points off the branch to approximately the same height .", "It is native to western Asia and southeastern Europe and is an invasive species in North America, introduced by contaminated seeds in the early 1900s.", "It has been suggested that native grasses from the Poa genera may be able to outcompete hoary cress in North America."], "habitat_section": ["It is native to western Asia and southeastern Europe and is an invasive species in North America, introduced by contaminated seeds in the early 1900s.", "Also known as Cardaria draba, hoary cress is a weed in much of south-east and south-west Australia as well.", "It has been suggested that native grasses from the Poa genera may be able to outcompete hoary cress in North America."], "random_sentences": ["Lepidium draba, also known as whitetop, hoary cress, or Thanet cress, is a rhizomatous perennial flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae.", "It is native to western Asia and southeastern Europe and has been widely introduced elsewhere.", "Whitetop is a perennial herb that reproduces by seeds and by horizontal creeping roots.", "The stem is stoutish, erect or spreading, 10 to 80 cm tall, branched, covered sparsely with ash-colored soft hairs to heavily covered.", "The leaves are alternating, simple, and mostly toothed.", "The basal leaves are 4 to 10 cm, have a slight stem , and are long and flat, lance-shaped to egg-shaped, with the narrow end attached to the stalk.", "On the upper part of the stem the leaves are attached directly to the stalk , are 2 to 6.5 cm long, and are oblong or tapering the point, with broad bases that clasp the stalk.", "Whitetop has slightly domed flower clusters in which the individual flower stalks grow upward from various points off the branch to approximately the same height .", "The petals are white, clawed, and 3 to 5 mm long, about twice the length of the sepals.", "Typically, each flower has four petals.", "Hoary cress was traditionally used for medicinal purposes, including anti-inflammatory and antibacterial treatments.", "It is native to western Asia and southeastern Europe and is an invasive species in North America, introduced by contaminated seeds in the early 1900s.", "Also known as Cardaria draba, hoary cress is a weed in much of south-east and south-west Australia as well.", "It has been suggested that native grasses from the Poa genera may be able to outcompete hoary cress in North America."]}}
|
|
2618462_1127487
| 524
|
[
"Columba palumbus"
] |
{"Columba palumbus": {"keywords": ["Photograph taken in Cambridge, England The common wood pigeon or common woodpigeon , also known as simply wood pigeon, wood-pigeon or woodpigeon, is a large species in the dove and pigeon family , native to the western Palearctic.", "It has a flexible diet, predominantly feeding on vegetable matter, including cereal crops, leading to them being regarded as an agricultural pest.", "In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.", "In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities.", "Like many species of pigeon, wood pigeons take advantage of trees and buildings to gain a vantage point over the surrounding area, and their distinctive call means that they are usually heard before they are seen.", "Two young Columba palumbus in a nest It breeds in trees in woods, parks and gardens, laying two white eggs in a simple stick nest which hatch after 17 to 19 days.", "Wood pigeons seem to have a preference for trees near roadways and rivers.", "Their plumage becomes much darker, especially the head, during hot summer periods.", "For birds that survive the first year the typical lifespan is thus only three years, but the maximum recorded age is 17 years and 8 months for a bird ringed and recovered on the Orkney Islands.", "Most of its diet is vegetable, round and fleshy leaves from Caryophyllaceae, Asteraceae, and cruciferous vegetables taken from open fields or gardens and lawns, young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain, pine nuts, and certain fruits and berries.", "In the autumn they also eat figs and acorns, and in winter buds of trees and bushes.", "This is an extremely rich fluid that is produced in the adult birds' crops during the breeding season.", "Due to their feeding on cereal crops, wood pigeons are considered an agricultural pest."], "habitat_section": ["In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.", "In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities."], "random_sentences": ["altA large common wood pigeon standing on a garden fence", "Common wood pigeon perched on a fence.", "Photograph taken in Cambridge, England The common wood pigeon or common woodpigeon , also known as simply wood pigeon, wood-pigeon or woodpigeon, is a large species in the dove and pigeon family , native to the western Palearctic.", "It belongs to the genus Columba, which includes closely related species such as the rock dove .", "It has historically been known as the ring dove, and is locally known in southeast England as the \" culver \"", "the latter name has given rise to several areas known for keeping pigeons to be named after it, such as Culver Down.", "It has a flexible diet, predominantly feeding on vegetable matter, including cereal crops, leading to them being regarded as an agricultural pest.", "Wood pigeons are extensively hunted over large parts of their range, but this does not seem to have a great impact on their population.", "The common wood pigeon was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.", "He placed it with all the other pigeons in the genus Columba and coined the binomial name Columba palumbus.", "The specific epithet palumbus is from the Latin palumbes for a wood pigeon.", "Five subspecies are recognised, one of which is now extinct: extinct", "Adult common wood pigeon, photograph taken in Birmingham, England The three Western European Columba pigeons, common wood pigeon, stock dove and rock dove, though superficially alike, have very distinctive characteristics", "the common wood pigeon may be identified at once by its larger size at and weight , and the white on its neck and wing.", "It is otherwise a basically grey bird, with a pinkish breast.", "The wingspan can range from and the wing chord measures .", "The tail measures , the bill is and the tarsus is .", "Adult birds bear a series of green and white patches on their necks, and a pink patch on their chest.", "The eye colour is a pale yellow, in contrast to that of rock doves, which is orange-red, and the stock pigeon, which is black.", "Juvenile birds do not have the white patches on either side of the neck.", "When they are about 6 months old they gain small white patches on both sides of the neck, which gradually enlarge until they are fully formed when the bird is about 68 months old (approx.", "Juvenile birds also have a greyer beak and an overall lighter grey appearance than adult birds.", "The call is a characteristic cooing, coo-COO-coocoo-coo.", "In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.", "In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities.", "A flock of common wood pigeons feeding in a field right", "Adult sitting on its nest in a tree Egg Hatching of a Common Wood Pigeon Its flight is quick, performed by regular beats, with an occasional sharp flick of the wings, characteristic of pigeons in general. It takes off with a loud clattering.", "It perches well, and in its nuptial display walks along a horizontal branch with swelled neck, lowered wings, and fanned tail.", "During the display flight the bird climbs, the wings are smartly cracked like a whiplash, and the bird glides down on stiff wings.", "The common wood pigeon is gregarious, often forming very large flocks outside the breeding season.", "Like many species of pigeon, wood pigeons take advantage of trees and buildings to gain a vantage point over the surrounding area, and their distinctive call means that they are usually heard before they are seen.", "Wood pigeons are known to fiercely defend their territory, and will fight each other to gain access to nesting and roosting locations.", "Male wood pigeons will typically attempt to drive competitors off by threat displays and pursuit, but will also directly fight, jumping and striking their rival with both wings.", "This species can be an agricultural pest, and it is often shot, being a legal quarry species in most European countries.", "It is wary in rural areas, but often quite tame where it is not persecuted.", "Two young Columba palumbus in a nest It breeds in trees in woods, parks and gardens, laying two white eggs in a simple stick nest which hatch after 17 to 19 days.", "Wood pigeons seem to have a preference for trees near roadways and rivers.", "Males exhibit aggressive behaviour towards each other during the breeding season by jumping and flapping wings at each other.", "Their plumage becomes much darker, especially the head, during hot summer periods.", "Breeding can happen year round if there is food abundant however breeding season most commonly occurs in autumn usually in the months of August and September.", "The nests are vulnerable to attack, particularly by crows.", "The young usually fly at 33 to 34 days", "however, if the nest is disturbed, some young may be able to survive having left the nest as early as 20 days from hatching.", "In a study carried out using ring-recovery data, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 52 per cent, and the adult annual survival rate was 61 per cent.", "For birds that survive the first year the typical lifespan is thus only three years, but the maximum recorded age is 17 years and 8 months for a bird ringed and recovered on the Orkney Islands.", "Most of its diet is vegetable, round and fleshy leaves from Caryophyllaceae, Asteraceae, and cruciferous vegetables taken from open fields or gardens and lawns", "young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain, pine nuts, and certain fruits and berries.", "In the autumn they also eat figs and acorns, and in winter buds of trees and bushes.", "They will also eat larvae, ants, and small worms.", "They need open water to drink and bathe in.", "Young common wood pigeons swiftly become fat, as a result of the crop milk they are fed by their parents.", "This is an extremely rich fluid that is produced in the adult birds' crops during the breeding season.", "Due to their feeding on cereal crops, wood pigeons are considered an agricultural pest.", "In Ireland and the UK, the traditional mnemonic for the distinctive call of the bird has been interpreted as \" Take two cows, Teddy \" , or \" Take two cows, Taffy \" .", "Another interpretation for the birdsong has been \" My toe bleeds, Betty \" .", "AS PER NEW WIKIPEDIA POLICY, GALLERY MUST BE REFERENCED TO AS COMMONS.", "DON'T ADD IT HERE PLEASE "]}}
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[
"Tettigonia viridissima",
"Cervus elaphus"
] |
{"Tettigonia viridissima": {"keywords": ["This species can be encountered in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm, in the Near East, and in North Africa, especially in meadows, grasslands, prairies and occasionally in gardens at an elevation up to above sea level.", "Tettigonia viridissima is distinguished by its very long and thin antennae, which can sometimes reach up to three times the length of the body, thus differentiating them from grasshoppers, which always carry short antennae."], "habitat_section": ["This species can be encountered in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm, in the Near East, and in North Africa, especially in meadows, grasslands, prairies and occasionally in gardens at an elevation up to above sea level."], "random_sentences": ["Tettigonia viridissima, the great green bush-cricket, is a large species of bush-cricket belonging to the subfamily Tettigoniinae.", "This species can be encountered in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm, in the Near East, and in North Africa, especially in meadows, grasslands, prairies and occasionally in gardens at an elevation up to above sea level.", "viridissima, female The adult males grow up to long, while females reach .", "This insect is most often completely green , excluding a rust-colored band on top of the body.", "The organ of the stridulation of the males is generally brown.", "Tettigonia viridissima is distinguished by its very long and thin antennae, which can sometimes reach up to three times the length of the body, thus differentiating them from grasshoppers, which always carry short antennae.", "It could be confused with Tettigonia cantans, whose wings are a centimeter shorter than the ovipositor, or Tettigonia caudata whose hind femurs bear conspicuous black spines.", "The morphology of both sexes is very similar, but the female has an egg-laying organ that can reach a length of .", "It reaches the end of the elytra and is slightly curved downward.", "The larvae are green and as the imago show on their back a thin brown longitudinal stripe.", "The ovipositor can be seen from the fifth stage", "the wings appear in both genders from the sixth stage.", "Tettigonia viridissima is carnivorous and arboreal. Its diet is mostly composed of flies, caterpillars and larvae.", "Unlike grasshoppers, it is essentially active in day and night, as testified by its endless crepuscular and nocturnal singing.", "The species can bite painfully but is not particularly aggressive.", "It is best to avoid holding the insect in the fist, as that almost guarantees a bite.", "They can fly, but they tend to avoid flying where possible.", "Most often they move \" on foot \" or jumps, which allow them to travel about in bushes and trees."]}, "Cervus elaphus": {"keywords": ["The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of western Asia.", "It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains of Northern Africa, its early ancestors are thought to have crossed over to Morocco, then to Algeria, Libya and Tunisia via the Strait of Gibraltar, becoming the only species of true deer to inhabit Africa.", "The closely related and slightly larger American elk, or wapiti, native to North America and northeastern Asia, had been regarded as a subspecies of red deer, but recently it has been established as a distinct species.", "Subtle differences in appearance are noted between the various subspecies of red deer, primarily in size and antlers, with the smallest being the Corsican red deer found on the islands of Corsica and Sardinia and the largest being the Caspian red deer of Asia Minor and the Caucasus Region to the west of the Caspian Sea.", "The deer of central and western Europe vary greatly in size, with some of the largest deer found in the Carpathian Mountains in Central Europe.", "Western European red deer, historically, grew to large size given ample food supply , and descendants of introduced populations living in New Zealand and Argentina have grown quite large in both body and antler size.", "Large red deer stags, like the Caspian red deer or those of the Carpathian Mountains, may rival North American elk in size.", "Size varies in different subspecies with the largest, the huge but small-antlered deer of the Carpathian Mountains , weighing up to .", "Only the stags have antlers, which start growing in the spring and are shed each year, usually at the end of winter.", "During the autumn, all red deer subspecies grow thicker coats of hair, which helps to insulate them during the winter.", "By the time summer begins, the heavy winter coat has been shed, the animals are known to rub against trees and other objects to help remove hair from their bodies.", "Red deer have different colouration based on the seasons and types of habitats, with grey or lighter colouration prevalent in the winter and more reddish and darker coat colouration in the summer.", "The deer has particularly expanded its footprint into forests at higher altitudes than before.", "Carted deer were kept by stag hunts with no wild red deer in the locality and were normally recaptured after the hunt and used again, although the hunts are called \" stag hunts \" , the Norwich Staghounds only hunted hinds , and in 1950, at least eight hinds were known to be at large near Kimberley and West Harling, they formed the basis of a new population based in Thetford Forest in Norfolk.", "Further substantial red deer herds originated from escapes or deliberate releases in the New Forest, the Peak District, Suffolk, Lancashire, Brecon Beacons, and North Yorkshire, as well as many other smaller populations scattered throughout England and Wales, and they are all generally increasing in numbers and range.", "Caspian red deer are found in the Hyrcanian Forests.", "The first red deer to reach New Zealand were a pair sent by Lord Petre in 1851 from his herd at Thorndon Park, Essex, to the South Island, but the hind was shot before they had a chance to breed.", "The first deer to reach the North Island were a gift to Sir Frederick Weld from Windsor Great Park and were released near Wellington, these were followed by further releases up to 1914.", "In 1927, the State Forest Service introduced a bounty for red deer shot on their land, and in 1931, government control operations were commenced.", "The introduced red deer have adapted well and are widely hunted on both islands, many of the 220 introductions used deer originating from Scotland or one of the major deer parks in England, principally Warnham, Woburn Abbey or Windsor Great Park.", "This is having adverse effects on the integrity of wild herds, as now more and larger herds are being grown due to the superior genetics that have been attained by selective breeding.", "Wild red deer are a feral pest species in Australia, do considerable harm to the natural environment, and are a significant road traffic hazard.", "Red deer in Europe generally spend their winters at lower altitudes in more wooded terrain.", "During the summer, they migrate to higher elevations where food supplies are greater and better for the calving season.", "Until recently, biologists considered the red deer and elk or wapiti the same species, forming a continuous distribution throughout temperate Eurasia and North America.", "Name Subspecies Status Historical range Notes Central European or common red deer C. e. hippelaphus Western and Central Europe, Balkans Medium to large subspecies, with the largest deer found in the Carpathian Mountains in Central Europe.", "Caspian red deer or maral C. e. maral Asia Minor, Crimea, the Caucasus and northwestern Iran Large subspecies, its coat is dark grey, except in the summer, when it is a dark brown.", "Spanish red deer C. e. hispanicus Iberian Peninsula Smaller than the common red deer and more greyish in colour Mesola red deer C. e. italicus Once widespread across the Italian northeastern coast, but now restricted to Bosco della Mesola Nature Reserve One of the smallest subspecies, similar to the Corsican and Atlas subspecies.", "Two males roaring Male European red deer have a distinctive roar during the rut, which is an adaptation to forested environments, in contrast to male American elk stags which \" bugle \" during the rut in adaptation to open environments.", "The Monarch of the Glen, 1851, by Sir Edwin Landseer, an iconic image of the 19th century Red deer are widely depicted in cave art found throughout European caves, with some of the artwork dating from as early as 40,000 years ago, during the Upper Paleolithic.", "Some estates in the Scottish Highlands still sell deer-stalking accompanied by a gillie in the traditional way, on unfenced land, while others operate more like farms for venison."], "habitat_section": ["Stag and hinds The Cervus genus ancestors of red deer first appear in fossil records 12 million years ago during the Miocene in Eurasia."], "random_sentences": ["The red deer is one of the largest deer species.", "A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind.", "The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of western Asia.", "It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains of Northern Africa", "its early ancestors are thought to have crossed over to Morocco, then to Algeria, Libya and Tunisia via the Strait of Gibraltar, becoming the only species of true deer to inhabit Africa.", "Red deer have been introduced to other areas, including Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Peru, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina.", "In many parts of the world, the meat from red deer is used as a food source.", "Red deer are ruminants, characterized by a four-chambered stomach.", "Genetic evidence indicates that the red deer, as traditionally defined, is a species group, rather than a single species, though exactly how many species the group includes remains disputed.", "The closely related and slightly larger American elk, or wapiti, native to North America and northeastern Asia, had been regarded as a subspecies of red deer, but recently it has been established as a distinct species.", "The ancestor of all red deer probably originated in central Asia and resembled sika deer.", "Additional genetic research has suggested that the closest living species to the red deer is the fallow deer, Dama dama.", "Although at one time red deer were rare in parts of Europe, they were never close to extinction.", "Reintroduction and conservation efforts, such as in the United Kingdom and Portugal, have resulted in an increase of red deer populations, while other areas, such as North Africa, have continued to show a population decline.", "Skull of a red deer The red deer is the fourth-largest extant deer species, behind the moose, elk, and sambar deer.", "It is a ruminant, eating its food in two stages and having an even number of toes on each hoof, like camels, goats, and cattle.", "European red deer have a relatively long tail compared to their Asian and North American relatives.", "Subtle differences in appearance are noted between the various subspecies of red deer, primarily in size and antlers, with the smallest being the Corsican red deer found on the islands of Corsica and Sardinia and the largest being the Caspian red deer of Asia Minor and the Caucasus Region to the west of the Caspian Sea.", "The deer of central and western Europe vary greatly in size, with some of the largest deer found in the Carpathian Mountains in Central Europe.", "Western European red deer, historically, grew to large size given ample food supply , and descendants of introduced populations living in New Zealand and Argentina have grown quite large in both body and antler size.", "Large red deer stags, like the Caspian red deer or those of the Carpathian Mountains, may rival North American elk in size.", "Female red deer are much smaller than their male counterparts.", "Skeleton of Cervus elaphus found at Gar Dalam Red deer buck bugling.", "Communication consists primarily of smell and vocal cues.", "The male red deer is typically long from the nose to the base of the tail and typically weighs", "the female is long and often weighs .", "In Scotland, stags average in head-and-body length and high at the shoulder and females average long and tall.", "Based on body mass, they are likely the fourth largest extant deer species on average, behind the moose, the elk and the sambar deer.", "Size varies in different subspecies with the largest, the huge but small-antlered deer of the Carpathian Mountains (C.", "e. elaphus), weighing up to .", "At the other end of the scale, the Corsican red deer (C.", "e. corsicanus) weighs about , although red deer in poor habitats can weigh as little as .", "The males of many subspecies also grow a short neck mane during the autumn.", "The male deer of the British Isles and Norway tend to have the thickest and most noticeable manes.", "Male Caspian red deer (C.", "e. maral) and Spanish red deer (C.", "e. hispanicus) do not carry neck manes.", "Male deer of all subspecies, however, tend to have stronger and thicker neck muscles than female deer, which may give them an appearance of having neck manes.", "Red deer hinds do not have neck manes.", "Only the stags have antlers, which start growing in the spring and are shed each year, usually at the end of winter.", "Antlers typically measure in total length and weigh , although large ones can grow to and weigh .", "The antlers are testosterone-driven and as the stag's testosterone levels drop in the autumn, the velvet is shed and the antlers stop growing.", "With the approach of autumn, the antlers begin to calcify and the stags' testosterone production builds for the approaching rut .", "European red deer antlers are distinctive in being rather straight and rugose, with the fourth and fifth tines forming a \" crown \" or \" cup \" in larger males.", "Any tines in excess of the fourth and fifth tines grow radially from the cup, which are generally absent in the antlers of smaller red deer, such as Corsican red deer.", "Western European red deer antlers feature \" bez \" tines that are either absent or smaller than the brow tines.", "However, bez tines occur frequently in Norwegian red deer.", "Antlers of Caspian red deer carry large bez tines and form less-developed cups than western European red deer, their antlers are thus more like the \" throw back \" top tines of the North American elk (C.", "canadensis), known as maraloid characteristics.", "A stag can have antlers with no tines, and is then known as a switch.", "Similarly, a stag that does not grow antlers is a hummel.", "European red deer tend to be reddish-brown in their summer coats, and some individuals may have a few spots on the backs of their summer coats.", "During the autumn, all red deer subspecies grow thicker coats of hair, which helps to insulate them during the winter.", "Autumn is also when some of the stags grow their neck manes.", "The autumn/winter coats of most subspecies are most distinct.", "The Caspian red deer's winter coat is greyer and has a larger and more distinguished light rump-patch compared to the Western European red deer, which has more of a greyish-brown coat with a darker yellowish rump patch in the winter.", "By the time summer begins, the heavy winter coat has been shed", "the animals are known to rub against trees and other objects to help remove hair from their bodies.", "Red deer have different colouration based on the seasons and types of habitats, with grey or lighter colouration prevalent in the winter and more reddish and darker coat colouration in the summer.", "Stag and hinds The Cervus genus ancestors of red deer first appear in fossil records 12 million years ago during the Miocene in Eurasia.", "The European red deer is found in southwestern Asia , North Africa, and Europe.", "The red deer is the largest nondomesticated land mammal still existing in Ireland.", "In the Netherlands, a large herd lives in the Oostvaardersplassen, a nature reserve.", "Ireland has its own unique subspecies.", "In France, the population is thriving, having multiplied five-fold in the last half-century, increasing from 30,000 in 1970 to around 160,000 in 2014.", "The deer has particularly expanded its footprint into forests at higher altitudes than before.", "In the UK, indigenous populations occur in Scotland, the Lake District, and the south west of England .", "Not all of these are of entirely pure bloodlines, as some of these populations have been supplemented with deliberate releases of deer from parks, such as Warnham or Woburn Abbey, in an attempt to increase antler sizes and body weights.", "The University of Edinburgh found that, in Scotland, extensive hybridisation with the closely related sika deer has occurred.", "Several other populations have originated either with \" carted \" deer kept for stag hunts being left out at the end of the hunt, escapes from deer farms, or deliberate releases.", "Carted deer were kept by stag hunts with no wild red deer in the locality and were normally recaptured after the hunt and used again", "although the hunts are called \" stag hunts \" , the Norwich Staghounds only hunted hinds , and in 1950, at least eight hinds were known to be at large near Kimberley and West Harling", "they formed the basis of a new population based in Thetford Forest in Norfolk.", "Further substantial red deer herds originated from escapes or deliberate releases in the New Forest, the Peak District, Suffolk, Lancashire, Brecon Beacons, and North Yorkshire, as well as many other smaller populations scattered throughout England and Wales, and they are all generally increasing in numbers and range.", "A census of deer populations in 2007 and again in 2011 coordinated by the British Deer Society records the red deer as having continued to expand their range in England and Wales since 2000, with expansion most notable in the Midlands and East Anglia.", "Caspian red deer are found in the Hyrcanian Forests.", "Deer near Lake George Scott In New Zealand, red deer were introduced by acclimatisation societies along with other deer and game species.", "The first red deer to reach New Zealand were a pair sent by Lord Petre in 1851 from his herd at Thorndon Park, Essex, to the South Island, but the hind was shot before they had a chance to breed.", "Lord Petre sent another stag and two hinds in 1861, and these were liberated near Nelson, from where they quickly spread.", "The first deer to reach the North Island were a gift to Sir Frederick Weld from Windsor Great Park and were released near Wellington", "these were followed by further releases up to 1914.", "Between 1851 and 1926, 220 separate liberations of red deer involved over 800 deer.", "In 1927, the State Forest Service introduced a bounty for red deer shot on their land, and in 1931, government control operations were commenced.", "Between 1931 and March 1975, 1,124,297 deer were killed on official operations.", "The introduced red deer have adapted well and are widely hunted on both islands", "many of the 220 introductions used deer originating from Scotland or one of the major deer parks in England, principally Warnham, Woburn Abbey or Windsor Great Park.", "Some hybridisation happened with the closely related American elk introduced in Fiordland in 1921.", "New Zealand red deer produce very large antlers and are regarded as amongst the best in the world by hunters.", "Along with the other introduced deer species, they are, however, officially regarded as a noxious pest and are still heavily culled using professional hunters working with helicopters, or even poisoned.", "The first red deer to reach Australia were probably the six that Prince Albert sent in 1860 from Windsor Great Park to Thomas Chirnside, who was starting a herd at Werribee Park, south west of Melbourne in Victoria.", "Further introductions were made in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia.", "Today, red deer in Australia range from Queensland south through New South Wales into Victoria and across to South Australia, with the numbers increasing.", "The Queensland, Victorian and most New South Wales strains can still be traced to the early releases, but South Australia's population, along with all others, is now largely recent farm escapees.", "This is having adverse effects on the integrity of wild herds, as now more and larger herds are being grown due to the superior genetics that have been attained by selective breeding.", "Wild red deer are a feral pest species in Australia, do considerable harm to the natural environment, and are a significant road traffic hazard.", "In Argentina and Chile, the red deer has had a potentially adverse impact on native animal species, such as the South Andean deer or huemul", "the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources has labelled the animal as one of the world's 100 worst invaders.", "Red deer in Europe generally spend their winters at lower altitudes in more wooded terrain.", "During the summer, they migrate to higher elevations where food supplies are greater and better for the calving season.", "Until recently, biologists considered the red deer and elk or wapiti (C.", "canadensis) the same species, forming a continuous distribution throughout temperate Eurasia and North America.", "This belief was based largely on the fully fertile hybrids that can be produced under captive conditions.", "Genetic evidence clearly shows the wapiti and red deer form two separate species.", "Another member of the red deer group which may represent a separate species is C. corsicanus.", "If so, C. corsicanus includes the subspecies C. e. barbarus , and is restricted to Maghreb in North Africa, Corsica, and Sardinia.", "The International Union for Conservation of Nature originally listed nine subspecies of red deer : three as endangered, one as vulnerable, one as near threatened, and four without enough data to give a category .", "The species as a whole, however, is listed as least concern.", "However, this was based on the traditional classification of red deer as one species , including the wapiti.", "The common red deer is also known as simply red deer.", "Selected members of the red deer species group are listed in the table below.", "Of the ones listed, C. e. hippelaphus and C. e. scoticus may be junior synonyms.", "Cervus elaphus appeared in Europe by the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene around 800,000 years ago.", "These earliest forms belonged to the palaeosubspecies Cervus elaphus acoronatus.", "Other palaeosubspecies are known, including those belonging to C. elaphus rianensis from the Middle Pleistocene of Italy, C. elaphus siciliae from the late Middle and Late Pleistocene of Sicily.", "Name Subspecies Status Historical range Notes Central European or common red deer C. e. hippelaphus Western and Central Europe, Balkans Medium to large subspecies, with the largest deer found in the Carpathian Mountains in Central Europe.", "It is light-coloured, with a light-coloured rump patch bordering with black.", "Caspian red deer or maral C. e. maral Asia Minor, Crimea, the Caucasus and northwestern Iran Large subspecies", "its coat is dark grey, except in the summer, when it is a dark brown.", "Norwegian red deer C. e. atlanticus Norway Small subspecies Scottish red deer C.", "e. scoticus England, Scotland and Ireland This deer is slightly smaller than red deer in Western Europe and its coat is lighter in colour, with a distinct border to the lighter patch on the rump.", "Spanish red deer C. e. hispanicus Iberian Peninsula Smaller than the common red deer and more greyish in colour Mesola red deer C.", "e. italicus Once widespread across the Italian northeastern coast, but now restricted to Bosco della Mesola Nature Reserve One of the smallest subspecies, similar to the Corsican and Atlas subspecies.", "C. e. elaphus Corsican red deer C. e. corsicanus Near Threatened Corsica and Sardinia", "probably introduced there in historical times and identical with the Barbary stag One of the smallest subspecies Barbary stag or Atlas deer C. e. barbarus Near Threatened Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia One of the smallest subspecies Crimean red deer C. e. brauneri Near Threatened Crimea", "A group of hinds with calves Mature red deer (C.", "elaphus) usually stay in single-sex groups for most of the year.", "During the mating season, called the rut, mature stags compete for the attentions of the hinds and will then try to defend the hinds they attract.", "Rival stags challenge opponents by belling and walking in parallel.", "This allows combatants to assess each other's antlers, body size and fighting prowess.", "If neither stag backs down, a clash of antlers can occur, and stags sometimes sustain serious injuries.", "Red deer are among the mammals exhibiting homosexual behavior.", "Dominant stags follow groups of hinds during the rut, from August into early winter.", "The stags may have as many as 20 hinds to keep from other, less attractive males.", " Only mature stags hold harems , and breeding success peaks at about eight years of age.", "Stags two to four years old rarely hold harems and spend most of the rut on the periphery of larger harems, as do stags over 11 years old.", "Young and old stags that do acquire a harem hold it later in the breeding season than those stags in their prime.", "Harem-holding stags rarely feed and lose up to 20% of their body weight.", "Stags that enter the rut in poor condition are less likely to make it through to the peak conception period.", "Two males roaring Male European red deer have a distinctive roar during the rut, which is an adaptation to forested environments, in contrast to male American elk stags which \" bugle \" during the rut in adaptation to open environments.", "The male deer roars to keep his harem of females together.", "The females are initially attracted to those males that both roar most often and have the loudest roar call.", "Males also use the roar call when competing with other males for females during the rut, and along with other forms of posturing and antler fights, is a method used by the males to establish dominance.", "Roaring is most common during the early dawn and late evening, which is also when the crepuscular deer are most active in general.", "Red deer mating juvenile Female red deer reach sexual maturity at 2 years of age.", "Red deer mating patterns usually involve a dozen or more mating attempts before the first successful one.", "There may be several more matings before the stag will seek out another mate in his harem.", "Females in their second autumn can produce one or very rarely two offspring per year.", "The gestation period is 240 to 262 days, and the offspring weigh about .", "After two weeks, calves are able to join the herd and are fully weaned after two months.", "The offspring will remain with their mothers for almost one full year, leaving around the time the next season's offspring are produced.", "The gestation period is the same for all subspecies.", "All red deer calves are born spotted, as is common with many deer species, and lose their spots by the end of summer.", "However, as in many species of Old World deer, some adults do retain a few spots on the backs of their summer coats.", "Red deer live over 20 years in captivity and in the wild they live 10 to 13 years, though some subspecies with less predation pressure average 15 years.", "Remains of a fawn carried by a wolf Male red deer retain their antlers for more than half the year, and are less gregarious and less likely to group with other males when they have antlers.", "The antlers provide self-defence, as does a strong front-leg kicking action performed by both sexes when attacked.", "Once the antlers are shed, stags tend to form bachelor groups which allow them to cooperatively work together.", "Herds tend to have one or more members watching for potential danger, while the remaining members eat and rest.", "After the rut, females form large herds of up to 50 individuals.", "The newborn calves are kept close to the hinds by a series of vocalizations between the two, and larger nurseries have an ongoing and constant chatter during the daytime hours.", "When approached by predators, the largest and most robust females may make a stand, using their front legs to kick at their attackers.", "Guttural grunts and posturing is used with all but the most determined of predators with great effectiveness.", "Aside from humans and domestic dogs, the grey wolf is probably the most dangerous predator European red deer encounter.", "Occasionally, the brown bear will prey on European red deer.", "Red deer in folklore and art", "The Monarch of the Glen, 1851, by Sir Edwin Landseer, an iconic image of the 19th century Red deer are widely depicted in cave art found throughout European caves, with some of the artwork dating from as early as 40,000 years ago, during the Upper Paleolithic.", "Siberian cave art from the Neolithic of 7,000 years ago has abundant depictions of red deer, including what can be described as spiritual artwork, indicating the importance of this mammal to the peoples of that region (Note: these animals were most likely wapiti (C.", "canadensis) in Siberia, not red deer).", "Red deer are also often depicted on Pictish stones , from the early medieval period in Scotland, usually as prey animals for human or animal predators.", "In medieval hunting, the red deer was the most prestigious quarry, especially the mature stag, which in England was called a hart.", "Red deer are held in captivity for a variety of reasons.", "The meat of the deer, called venison, was until recently restricted in the United Kingdom to those with connections to the aristocratic or poaching communities, and a licence was needed to sell it legally, but it is now widely available in supermarkets, especially in the autumn.", "The Queen followed the custom of offering large pieces of venison to members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom and others.", "Some estates in the Scottish Highlands still sell deer-stalking accompanied by a gillie in the traditional way, on unfenced land, while others operate more like farms for venison.", "Venison is widely considered to be both flavourful and nutritious.", "It is higher in protein and lower in fat than either beef or chicken.", "The red deer can produce of antler velvet annually.", "On ranches in New Zealand, China, Siberia, and elsewhere, this velvet is collected and sold to markets in East Asia, where it is used for holistic medicines, with South Korea being the primary consumer.", "In Russia, a medication produced from antler velvet is sold under the brand name Pantokrin (", "The antlers themselves are also believed by East Asians to have medicinal purposes and are often ground up and used in small quantities.", "Historically, related deer species such as Central Asian red deer, wapiti, Thorold's deer, and sika deer have been reared on deer farms in Central and Eastern Asia by Han Chinese, Turkic peoples, Tungusic peoples, Mongolians, and Koreans.", "In modern times, western countries such as New Zealand and United States have taken to farming European red deer for similar purposes.", "Deer hair products are also used in the fly fishing industry, being used to tie flies.", "Deer antlers are also used for decorative purposes and have been used for artwork, furniture and other novelty items.", "Deer antlers were and still are the source material for horn furniture.", "Already in the 15th century trophies of case were used for clothes hook, storage racks and chandeliers, the so-called Lusterweibchen.", "In the 19th century the European nobility discovered red deer antlers as perfect decorations for their manors and hunting castles.", "This fashion trend splashes over to upper- and middle-class households in the mid of the 19th century.", "Rustic deer antler candle holder At the increasingly popular World Expositions, producers of horn furniture, mainly in Germany, Austria and the United States, such as and Friedrich Wenzel, showed their horn furniture and a kind of series manufacturing began.", "In recent times deer antler home decors can be found in home styling magazines."]}}
|
|
2568424_1201267
| 321
|
[
"Aruncus dioicus"
] |
{"Aruncus dioicus": {"keywords": ["Aruncus dioicus, known as goat's beard, buck's-beard or bride's feathers, is a flowering herbaceous perennial plant in the family Rosaceae, found in Europe, Asia, and eastern and western North America.", "It has alternate, pinnately compound leaves, on thin, stiff stems, with plumes of feathery white or cream flowers borne in summer.", "Very small, 5-petaled white or cream flowers are displayed in showy panicles, blooming in late spring to early summer.", "This plant can be found in moist woodland, often at higher altitudes, throughout temperate areas of Europe, Asia, and eastern and western North America.", "In the UK it is considered suitable for planting in and around water areas, and has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Goat's beard prefers humus-rich soil and shade or partial shade.", "It can be grown in full sun if it has consistent moisture.", "Native Americans in the Northwest used the plant medicinally as a diuretic, as a poultice, and to treat blood diseases, smallpox, and sore throats."], "habitat_section": ["This plant can be found in moist woodland, often at higher altitudes, throughout temperate areas of Europe, Asia, and eastern and western North America.", "In the UK it is considered suitable for planting in and around water areas, and has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Goat's beard prefers humus-rich soil and shade or partial shade.", "It can be grown in full sun if it has consistent moisture.", "Aruncus dioicus is the host plant for the dusky azure butterfly."], "random_sentences": ["Aruncus dioicus, known as goat's beard, buck's-beard or bride's feathers, is a flowering herbaceous perennial plant in the family Rosaceae, found in Europe, Asia, and eastern and western North America.", "It is the type species of the genus Aruncus.", "It has alternate, pinnately compound leaves, on thin, stiff stems, with plumes of feathery white or cream flowers borne in summer.", "The Latin specific epithet dioicus means \" having the male reproductive organs on one plant, and the female on another \" .", "The leaves are alternate and pinnately compound.", "The species is from tall, with compound leaves consisting of 3 or 5 leaflets.", "Very small, 5-petaled white or cream flowers are displayed in showy panicles, blooming in late spring to early summer.", "Male and female flowers are borne on different plants.", "The flower spikes rise high above the plant, adding to the showiness of the species.", "Plants with male flowers have a showier bloom than the ones with female flowers.", "This plant can be found in moist woodland, often at higher altitudes, throughout temperate areas of Europe, Asia, and eastern and western North America.", "In the UK it is considered suitable for planting in and around water areas, and has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Goat's beard prefers humus-rich soil and shade or partial shade.", "It can be grown in full sun if it has consistent moisture.", "Aruncus dioicus is the host plant for the dusky azure butterfly.", "In Italy the young shoots are eaten, usually boiled briefly in herb infused water, and then cooked with eggs and cheese.", "In Friuli it is one of the ingredients in the local home-made soup based on wild greens called 'pistic'.", "Aruncus dioicus var. kamtschaticus has shown potent cytotoxicity against Jurkat T cells.", "Native Americans in the Northwest used the plant medicinally as a diuretic, as a poultice, and to treat blood diseases, smallpox, and sore throats."]}}
|
|
2600933_1227830
| 2154
|
[
"Salvia pratensis"
] |
{"Salvia pratensis": {"keywords": ["Salvia pratensis, the meadow clary or meadow sage, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa.", "The Latin specific epithet pratensis means \"of meadows\", referring to its preferred habitat.", "It also grows in scrub edges and woodland borders.", "The flowers may grow up to 2.5 cm and open starting from the base of the inflorescence, which grows up to 30.5 cm long.", "Salvia pratensis is native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa where it grows in meadows, fields, banks and rough places.", "Salvia pratensis is hardy in the severest European climates, down to 40 C .", "It is widely grown in horticulture, especially Salvia pratensis subsp. haematodes, which is prized by flower arrangers as a cut flower.", "- 'Atroviolacea', dark blue to violet 'Baumgartenii', blue to violet 'Lupinoides', to 60 cm , white-flecked blue to purple 'Mitsommer' , sky blue 'Rosea', rose-pink to purple 'Rubicunda', rose-red 'Tenorii', to about 60 cm tall, blue flowers 'Variegata', blue and sometimes white-tipped flowers."], "habitat_section": ["Salvia pratensis is native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa where it grows in meadows, fields, banks and rough places.", "It has become naturalized in many parts of the United States, and is considered a noxious weed in the state of Washington.", "At one time it was banned from California because it was thought to have naturalized in three locations."], "random_sentences": ["Salvia pratensis, the meadow clary or meadow sage, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa.", "The Latin specific epithet pratensis means \"of meadows\", referring to its preferred habitat.", "It also grows in scrub edges and woodland borders.", "This herbaceous perennial forms a basal clump 1 to 1.5 m tall, with rich green rugose leaves that are slightly ruffled and toothed on the edges.", "The stems have four edges and are clad in glandular and soft hairs.", "The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, with those on the lower part of the stem up to 15 cm long, decreasing in size higher up the stem.", "The flower stalks are typically branched, with four to six flowers in each verticil forming a lax spike.", "The flowers may grow up to 2.5 cm and open starting from the base of the inflorescence, which grows up to 30.5 cm long.", "The small calyx is dark brown.", "The corolla is irregular, 20 to 30 mm long, fused with two lips and long-tubed.", "The upper lip arches in a crescent shape and the lower lip is three-lobed with the central lobe larger than the lateral lobes.", "In the wild the corolla is usually bluish-violet.", "In cultivation, the flowers have a wide variety of colors, from rich violet and violet-blue to bluish white, and from pink to pure white.", "There are two long stamens protected by the upper corolla lip and the fruit is a four-chambered schizocarp.", "Salvia pratensis is native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa where it grows in meadows, fields, banks and rough places.", "It has become naturalized in many parts of the United States, and is considered a noxious weed in the state of Washington.", "At one time it was banned from California because it was thought to have naturalized in three locations.", "Salvia pratensis is hardy in the severest European climates, down to 40 C .", "It is widely grown in horticulture, especially Salvia pratensis subsp. haematodes, which is prized by flower arrangers as a cut flower.", "Some botanists consider it a separate species, S. haematodes.", "Named cultivars include:- 'Atroviolacea', dark blue to violet 'Baumgartenii', blue to violet 'Lupinoides', to 60 cm , white-flecked blue to purple 'Mitsommer' , sky blue 'Rosea', rose-pink to purple 'Rubicunda', rose-red 'Tenorii', to about 60 cm tall, blue flowers 'Variegata', blue and sometimes white-tipped flowers.", "The name of the plant 'clary' is derived from 'clear-eye' and the plant seeds were historically ground to a paste and used to clear irritations in the eye.", "It was also used for gargling and as an early form of toothpaste, as well as a flavouring for alcohol."]}}
|
|
2602673_1256526
| 1141
|
[
"Cardamine heptaphylla",
"Mercurialis perennis"
] |
{"Cardamine heptaphylla": {"keywords": ["Cardamine heptaphylla, common name pinnate coralroot is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae.", "The genus name cardamine is derived from the Greek kardamon, cardamom - an unrelated plant in the ginger family, used as a pungent spice in cooking.", "This species grows mainly in mountain woods, especially in beech and spruce forests, but sometimes in plain, at an elevation up to above sea level.", "It prefers calcareous soils.", "These deciduous, perennial, rhizomatous, herbaceous, flowering plants are characterized by a glabrous, erect, unbranched stem, and by few but very large imparipinnate leaves, with 5 to 9 large opposite leaflets, ovate-lanceolate, irregularly toothed.", "The large flowers grow in a many-flowered inflorescence.", "The inflorescence is composed by a cluster with four cup-shaped broad flowers."], "habitat_section": ["This species is widespread in Central and Southern Europe, from Northern Spain, to Italy and S.W. Germany.", "This species grows mainly in mountain woods, especially in beech and spruce forests, but sometimes in plain, at an elevation up to above sea level.", "It prefers calcareous soils."], "random_sentences": ["Cardamine heptaphylla, common name pinnate coralroot is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae.", "The genus name cardamine is derived from the Greek kardamon, cardamom - an unrelated plant in the ginger family, used as a pungent spice in cooking.", "The specific epithet heptaphylla is composed of ancient Greek , hepta and , phullon .", "This species is widespread in Central and Southern Europe, from Northern Spain, to Italy and S.W. Germany.", "This species grows mainly in mountain woods, especially in beech and spruce forests, but sometimes in plain, at an elevation up to above sea level.", "Cardamine heptaphylla can reach a size of .", "These deciduous, perennial, rhizomatous, herbaceous, flowering plants are characterized by a glabrous, erect, unbranched stem, and by few but very large imparipinnate leaves, with 5 to 9 large opposite leaflets, ovate-lanceolate, irregularly toothed.", "They have a horizontally crawling rhizome.", "The large flowers grow in a many-flowered inflorescence.", "The inflorescence is composed by a cluster with four cup-shaped broad flowers.", "Each flower is carried by a rather long pedicel.", "Flowers may be white, pink or purplish.", "Petals are 18 to 23 mm long, obovate, usually somewhat wrinkled and three times longer than the calyx.", "Corolla has a diameter of .", "They bloom from April to July.", "The pollination is done by bees, flies, butterflies and moths.", "The fruit is a 4 to 7 cm long pod."]}, "Mercurialis perennis": {"keywords": ["It characteristically forms dense, extensive carpets on the floor of woodlands and beneath hedgerows.", "It usually grows in dense masses often in the ground flora of beech, oak, ash, elm and other types of woodlands in Europe.", "It also grows under the shade of hedgerows and scrub.", "It is able to colonize new deciduous woods on dry, calcareous soils at an annual rate of a meter or more.", "Its period of reproductive activity depends upon a number of factors such as illumination, soil reaction, soil moisture, etc.", "Mercurialis perennis extends from sea level to the mountain range.", "The ultimate height attained in different mountainous regions, e.g.", "Existing colonies in some parts of Britain , are expanding and showing increased vigor, perhaps as a result of deeper shade in woodlands where coppicing has ceased.", "The genus Mercurialis itself consists of nine species and the main taxonomic characteristics used in distinguishing them are the clusters of floration, the annual or perennial habit, and the glabrous or hairy condition of the vegetative organs, but chiefly the ovary and the capsule, the woody or herbaceous nature of the plant, and lastly the character of the lamina.", "A researcher induced toxicity with dog's mercury, frozen at different stages of growth and fed it to sheep."], "habitat_section": ["Besides those three variations of M. perennis there are six habitat forms in nature."], "random_sentences": ["Mercurialis perennis, commonly known as dog's mercury, is a poisonous woodland plant found in much of Europe as well as in Algeria, Iran, Turkey, and the Caucasus, but almost absent from Ireland, Orkney and Shetland.", "A member of the spurge family , it is a herbaceous, downy perennial with erect stems bearing simple, serrate leaves.", "The dioecious inflorescences are green, bearing inconspicuous flowers from February to April.", "It characteristically forms dense, extensive carpets on the floor of woodlands and beneath hedgerows.", "Mercurialis perennis is a herbaceous plant.", "It usually grows in dense masses often in the ground flora of beech, oak, ash, elm and other types of woodlands in Europe.", "It also grows under the shade of hedgerows and scrub.", "It has a preference for moderately shady to densely shady habitats.", "It is able to colonize new deciduous woods on dry, calcareous soils at an annual rate of a meter or more.", "Under such conditions, the plants, especially the females, often display a darker green color.", "Its period of reproductive activity depends upon a number of factors such as illumination, soil reaction, soil moisture, etc.", "These factors also affect the duration of reproductive activity.", "but in the open, it eventually gives way to other plants.", "Mercurialis perennis extends from sea level to the mountain range.", "The ultimate height attained in different mountainous regions, e.g. in Scotland, England, Germany, and Switzerland, naturally varies with the latitude and other geographical factors.", "Existing colonies in some parts of Britain , are expanding and showing increased vigor, perhaps as a result of deeper shade in woodlands where coppicing has ceased.", "The plant's common name derives from the plant's resemblance to the unrelated Chenopodium bonus-henricus .", "Since Mercurialis perennis is highly poisonous, it was named \" dog's \" mercury .", "It has also been known as boggard posy.", "There are separate male and female plants .", "the plants are born at the base of the leaves similar to nettles.", "The flower spikes appear between February and May.", "The catkin-like male flowers have a yellow color and female flowers have 3 tepals .", "The genus Mercurialis belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae and to the subfamily Crotonoideae.", "It is included in the tribe Acalyphae, which is characterized by clusters of flowers It is also characterized by the lack of any laticiferous tissue, in the place of which tanniniferous cells are sometimes found.", "According to Pax , there are three other genera related to Mercurialis", "The differences between these are based on the characteristics of the calyx and stamens.", "The genus Mercurialis itself consists of nine species and the main taxonomic characteristics used in distinguishing them are the clusters of floration, the annual or perennial habit, and the glabrous or hairy condition of the vegetative organs, but chiefly the ovary and the capsule, the woody or herbaceous nature of the plant, and lastly the character of the lamina.", "Dog's mercury is one of the characteristic plants of several woodland types, in particular:", "M. perennis has variation in its morphological characters.", "This is noticeable in the outline, shape, and hairiness of its leaves, in the size of the lower leaves, in the number of stamens, and in the size of the seeds and fruits.", "M. perennis possesses three distinct varieties are: M. perennis L. var. genuina Miiller-Aarg M. perennis L. var. Salisburyana Mukerji .", "M. perennis L. var. leiocarpa Mukerji (syn.", ") Note:- M. perennis L. var. Salisburyana Mukerji was discovered in March 1926 at Staplehurst .", "It differs from M. perennis L. var. genuina Miiller-Aarg in the following respects:", "Besides those three variations of M. perennis there are six habitat forms in nature:", "All parts of the dog's mercury are highly poisonous.", " but boiling or drying destroys the toxins.", " Methylamine and trimethylamine are thought to be present, together with a volatile basic oil, mercurialine, and saponins.", "The scent of the plant is often described as 'foetid' due to the presence of trimethylamine which often gives off a rotting fish smell.", "Mercurialine is thought to be one of the active principle parts that are responsible for the toxicity of the herb.", "It is known to induce hemorrhagic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract and kidneys.", "There is apparently some narcotic action, which induces drowsiness, and mild muscular spasms.", "One hypothesized mechanism of toxicity was discovered in 1900s.", "A researcher induced toxicity with dog's mercury, frozen at different stages of growth and fed it to sheep.", "Based on this experiment, these effects may be due to different toxic factors that are developed at different growth stages.", "Another hypothesis is that one toxin might be culpable for the symptoms and illness.", "Symptoms of poisoning appear within a few hours", "they can include vomiting, pain, gastric and kidney inflammation, and sometimes inflammation of the cheeks and jaw and drowsiness.", "Larger doses cause lethargy, jaundice, painful urination, apparently by making the urine acid, and coma before death.", "The first-known account of this phenomenon probably dates from 1693, when a family of five became seriously ill as a result of eating the plant ", "one of the children died some days later as a result.", "Apart from Chenopodium bonus-henricus and some other edible members of the Chenopodiaceae , the most similar-looking species is probably Mercurialis annua, annual mercury, which is also thought to be poisonous.", "Dog's mercury has been eaten in mistake for brooklime.", "In 1983, a couple was reported of having eaten a large quantity of leaves after washing and boiling the plant after mistaking it for brooklime.", "Both patients were hospitalized complaining of nausea, vomiting, and severe bilateral colicky loin pain and present signs of malar erythema but no signs of cardiovascular/respiratory disorders.", "They presented signs similar to an allergic reaction.", "They suffered severe gastrointestinal complications which led to dehydration.", "Once the toxin was identified, they were given sodium bicarbonate four times a day to neutralize the acidity of the urine.", "They recovered after two days of rest and continuous observation and monitoring.", "The dog's mercury is poisonous by itself but with a thorough drying/heating, one is able to destroy its poisonous quality.", "The juice of the plant is emetic, ophthalmic and purgative.", "It can be used externally to treat menstrual pain, ear, and eye problems, warts, and sores.", "A lotion can be made from the plant for antiseptic external dressing due to its ability to soften and moisturize the skin.", "A fine blue dye can be obtained from the leaves although it is able to be turned red by acids and destroyed by alkalis.", "It is often permanent and colouration is similar to indigo.", "A yellow dye can be obtained from the leaves.", "The seeds are also a good source of drying oil."]}}
|
|
2582690_1130059
| 1749
|
[
"Caltha palustris"
] |
{"Caltha palustris": {"keywords": ["Caltha palustris, known as marsh-marigold and kingcup, is a small to medium size perennial herbaceous plant of the buttercup family, native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "It flowers between April and August, dependent on altitude and latitude, but occasional flowers may occur at other times.", "Caltha palustris is a high, hairless, fleshy, perennial, herbaceous plant that dies down in autumn and overwinters with buds near the surface of the marshy soil.", "In their youth the leaves are protected by a membranous sheath, that may be up to long in fully grown plants.", "The common marsh-marigold mostly has several flowering stems of up to long, carrying mostly several seated leaflike stipules, although lower ones may be on a short petiole, and between four and six flowers.", "A Caltha palustris flower and bud at the Ljubljana Botanical Garden in Slovenia The generic name Caltha is derived from the Ancient Greek , meaning \" goblet \" , and is said to refer to the shape of the flower.", "These include in addition to the most common two, marsh marigold and kingcup, also brave bassinets, crazy Beth, horse blob, Molly-blob, May blob, mare blob, boots, water boots, meadow-bright, bullflower, meadow buttercup, water buttercup, soldier's buttons, meadow cowslip, water cowslip, publican's cloak, crowfoot, water dragon, drunkards, water goggles, meadow gowan, water gowan, yellow gowan, goldes, golds, goldings, gools, cow lily, marybuds, and publicans-and-sinners.", "Both are herbaceous plants with yellow flowers, but Primula veris is much smaller.", "The species is native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "The marsh-marigold on spring flood plains of the Narew river.", "The marsh-marigold grows in places with oxygen-rich water near the surface of the soil.", "It likes richer soils, but dislikes application of fertilizer and avoids high concentrations of phosphate and ammonium, and is also shy of brackish water.", "The resulting insoluble mineral appears as \" rusty \" flocs on the water soil and the surface of the stems of marsh plants.", "Around the edge of lakes and rivers it grows between reeds, and it can be found in black alder coppices and other regularly flooded and always moist forests.", "It also used to be common on wet meadows, but due to agricultural rationalization it is now limited to ditches.", "It is a component of purple moor grass and rush pastures a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK. It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe.", "In western Europe, the marsh-marigold moth Micropterix calthella bites open the anthers of the marsh-marigold and other plants to eat the pollen.", "The caterpillars that are present in summer and autumn also feed on marsh-marigold, although these are sometimes found on mosses too.", "The seeds also have some spongy tissue that makes them float on water, until they wash up in a location that may be suitable for this species to grow.", "Young leaves or buds should be submerged a few times in fresh boiling water until barely tender, cut into bite-sized pieces, lightly salted, and served with melted butter and vinegar.", "The common marsh marigold is planted as an ornamental throughout temperate regions in the world, and sometimes recommended for low maintenance wildlife gardens.", "The double-flowered cultivar 'Flore Pleno' has won the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "to-day all this young verdure smiled clear in sunlight, transparent emerald and amber gleams played over it and in Thomas Hardy's poem 'Overlooking the River Stour'."], "habitat_section": ["The species is native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "It can be found in much of the northeastern United States.", "The marsh-marigold on spring flood plains of the Narew river.", "The marsh-marigold grows in places with oxygen-rich water near the surface of the soil.", "It likes richer soils, but dislikes application of fertilizer and avoids high concentrations of phosphate and ammonium, and is also shy of brackish water.", "It is often associated with seepage that is rich in iron, because iron ions react with phosphate, thus making it unavailable for plants.", "The resulting insoluble mineral appears as \" rusty \" flocs on the water soil and the surface of the stems of marsh plants.", "Around the edge of lakes and rivers it grows between reeds, and it can be found in black alder coppices and other regularly flooded and always moist forests.", "When it is present it often visually dominates when it is in bloom.", "It also used to be common on wet meadows, but due to agricultural rationalization it is now limited to ditches.", "It is a component of purple moor grass and rush pastures a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK. It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe.", "In western Europe, the marsh-marigold moth Micropterix calthella bites open the anthers of the marsh-marigold and other plants to eat the pollen.", "The caterpillars that are present in summer and autumn also feed on marsh-marigold, although these are sometimes found on mosses too.", "Another visitor of Caltha palustris in western Europe is the leaf beetle Prasocuris phellandrii, which is black with four orange stripes and around cm and eats the sepals.", "Its larvae inhabit the hollow stems of members of the parsley family.", "In the USA two species of leaf beetle can be found on Caltha.", "Plateumaris nitida and Hydrothassa vittata.", "The maggots of some Phytomyza species are miners in Caltha leaves."], "random_sentences": ["Caltha palustris, known as marsh-marigold and kingcup, is a small to medium size perennial herbaceous plant of the buttercup family, native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "It flowers between April and August, dependent on altitude and latitude, but occasional flowers may occur at other times.", "Caltha palustris is a high, hairless, fleshy, perennial, herbaceous plant that dies down in autumn and overwinters with buds near the surface of the marshy soil.", "The plants have many, thick strongly branching roots.", "Its flowering stems are hollow, erect or more or less decumbent.", "The alternate true leaves are in a rosette, each of which consist of a leaf stem that is about four times as long as the kidney-shaped leaf blade, itself between long and wide, with a heart-shaped foot, a blunt tip, and a scalloped to toothed, sometime almost entire margin particularly towards the tip.", "In their youth the leaves are protected by a membranous sheath, that may be up to long in fully grown plants.", "The common marsh-marigold mostly has several flowering stems of up to long, carrying mostly several seated leaflike stipules, although lower ones may be on a short petiole", "and between four and six flowers.", "The flowers are approximately but range between in diameter.", "There are four to nine petal-like, brightly colored , inverted egg-shaped sepals, each about but ranging from long, and about , ranging from wide", "they have a blunt or sometimes acute tip.", "Real petals and nectaries are lacking.", "Between 50 and 120 stamens with flattened yellow filaments and yellow tricolpate or sometimes pantoporate pollen encircle 525 free, flattened, linear-oblong, yellow to green carpels, with a two-lobed, obliquely positioned stigma, and each with many seedbuds.", "This later develops into a seated, funnel-shaped fruit of long and wide, that opens with one suture at the side of the axis and contains 720 ovoid, brown to black seeds of about .", "The oldest description that is generally acknowledged in the botanical literature dates from 1700 under the name Populago by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in", "PA273 part 1 of his Institutiones rei herbariae.", "He distinguished between P. flore major, P. flore minor and P. flore plena, and already says all of these are synonymous to Caltha palustris, without mentioning any previous author.", "As a plant name published before 1 May 1753, Populago is invalid.", "And so is the first description as Caltha palustris by Carl Linnaeus in his Genera Plantarum of 1737.", "But Linnaeus re-describes the species under the same name in Species Plantarum of 1 May 1753, thus providing the correct name.", "A Caltha palustris flower and bud at the Ljubljana Botanical Garden in Slovenia The generic name Caltha is derived from the Ancient Greek , meaning \" goblet \" , and is said to refer to the shape of the flower.", "The species epithet palustris is Latin for \" of the marsh \" and indicates its common habitat.", "In the UK, Caltha palustris is known by a variety of vernacular names, varying by geographical region.", "These include in addition to the most common two, marsh marigold and kingcup, also brave bassinets, crazy Beth, horse blob, Molly-blob, May blob, mare blob, boots, water boots, meadow-bright, bullflower, meadow buttercup, water buttercup, soldier's buttons, meadow cowslip, water cowslip, publican's cloak, crowfoot, water dragon, drunkards, water goggles, meadow gowan, water gowan, yellow gowan, goldes, golds, goldings, gools, cow lily, marybuds, and publicans-and-sinners.", "The common name \" marigold \" refers to its use in medieval churches at Easter as a tribute to the Virgin Mary, as in \" Mary gold \" .", "In North America Caltha palustris is sometimes known as cowslip.", "However, cowslip more often refers to Primula veris, the original plant to go by that name.", "Both are herbaceous plants with yellow flowers, but Primula veris is much smaller.", "Subdivision, synonymy and culture varieties", "White form seen in the Himalayas in Kashmir, India Caltha palustris is a very variable species.", "Since most character states occur in almost any combination, this provides little basis for subdivisions.", "The following varieties are nevertheless widely recognised.", "They are listed with their respective synonyms.", "If an epithet based on the same type specimen is used at different levels, only the use at the highest taxonomic rank is listed, so as C. himalensis is already listed, C. palustris var. himalensis is not.", "Double flowered: \" Flore Pleno \" , \" Multiplex \" , \" Plena \" , \" Semiplena \" .", "The species is native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "It can be found in much of the northeastern United States.", "The marsh-marigold on spring flood plains of the Narew river.", "The marsh-marigold grows in places with oxygen-rich water near the surface of the soil.", "It likes richer soils, but dislikes application of fertilizer and avoids high concentrations of phosphate and ammonium, and is also shy of brackish water.", "It is often associated with seepage that is rich in iron, because iron ions react with phosphate, thus making it unavailable for plants.", "The resulting insoluble mineral appears as \" rusty \" flocs on the water soil and the surface of the stems of marsh plants.", "Around the edge of lakes and rivers it grows between reeds, and it can be found in black alder coppices and other regularly flooded and always moist forests.", "When it is present it often visually dominates when it is in bloom.", "It also used to be common on wet meadows, but due to agricultural rationalization it is now limited to ditches.", "It is a component of purple moor grass and rush pastures a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK.", "It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe.", "In western Europe, the marsh-marigold moth Micropterix calthella bites open the anthers of the marsh-marigold and other plants to eat the pollen.", "The caterpillars that are present in summer and autumn also feed on marsh-marigold, although these are sometimes found on mosses too.", "Another visitor of Caltha palustris in western Europe is the leaf beetle Prasocuris phellandrii, which is black with four orange stripes and around cm and eats the sepals.", "Its larvae inhabit the hollow stems of members of the parsley family.", "In the USA two species of leaf beetle can be found on Caltha: Plateumaris nitida and Hydrothassa vittata.", "The maggots of some Phytomyza species are miners in Caltha leaves.", "Caltha palustris pollination by a syrphid fly The flowers produce both nectar and copious amounts of pollen which attract many insect visitors.", "They may be most commonly pollinated by hoverflies .", "In Canada, beetles , thrips , bugs , butterflies , sawflies , bees , ants and flies have been observed to visit the leaves or flowers, many of which were found carrying Caltha pollen.", "In addition to other forms of pollination, this plant is adapted to rain-pollination.", "Caltha palustris is infertile when self-pollinated.", "Rather high fertility in crosses between sibling plants suggest that this phenomenon is genetically regulated by several genes.", "This regulation mechanism also occurs in Ranunculus and as far as known only in these two genera.", "In Caltha palustris up to two hundred seeds may be produced by each flower.", "When the follicles open, they form a \" splash cup \" .", "When a raindrop hits one at the right angle, the walls are shaped such that the seeds are expelled.", "The seeds also have some spongy tissue that makes them float on water, until they wash up in a location that may be suitable for this species to grow.", "The marsh-marigold is affected by the rust species Puccinia calthea and P. calthicola.", "Caltha contains several active substances of which the most important from a toxicological point of view is protoanemonin.", "Larger quantities of the plant may cause convulsions, burning of the throat, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, dizziness and fainting.", "Contact of the skin or mucous membranes with the juices can cause blistering or inflammation, and gastric illness if ingested.", "Younger parts seem to contain less toxics and heating breaks these substances down.", "Small amounts of Caltha in hay do not cause problems when fed to husbandry, but larger quantities lead to gastric illness.", "Additionally, plants that live in raw water may carry toxic organisms which can be neutralized by cooking.", "Early spring greens and buds of Caltha palustris are edible when cooked .", "Young leaves or buds should be submerged a few times in fresh boiling water until barely tender, cut into bite-sized pieces, lightly salted, and served with melted butter and vinegar.", "Very young flowerbuds have been prepared like capers and used as a spice.", "The common marsh marigold is planted as an ornamental throughout temperate regions in the world, and sometimes recommended for low maintenance wildlife gardens.", "The double-flowered cultivar 'Flore Pleno' has won the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Caltha palustris is a plant commonly mentioned in literature, including Shakespeare: :Winking Marybuds begin :To open their golden eyes (Cymbeline, ii.", "It also appears in Charlotte Bronte's Shirley: :They both halted on the green brow of the Common: they looked down on the deep valley robed in May raiment", "on varied meads, some pearled with daisies, and some golden with king-cups: to-day all this young verdure smiled clear in sunlight", "transparent emerald and amber gleams played over it and in Thomas Hardy's poem 'Overlooking the River Stour': :Closed were the kingcups", "and the mead/Dripped in monotonous green,/Though the day's morning sheen/Had shown it golden and honeybee'd.", "Kingcup Cottage by Racey Helps is a children's book which features the plant.", "In Latvia Caltha palustris is also known as , which is also used as a girls name and symbolizes fire.", "The word is made from 2 words and .", "This refers to the burning reaction that some people experience from contact with Caltha sap."]}}
|
|
2657442_1142743
| 423
|
[
"Ptyonoprogne rupestris"
] |
{"Ptyonoprogne rupestris": {"keywords": ["It breeds in the mountains of southern Europe, northwestern Africa and across the Palearctic.", "Many European birds are resident, but some northern populations and most Asian breeders are migratory, wintering in northern Africa, the Middle East or India.", "The Eurasian crag martin builds a nest adherent to the rock under a cliff overhang or increasingly onto a man-made structure.", "It makes a neat half-cup mud nest with an inner soft lining of feathers and dry grass.", "It feeds on a wide variety of insects that it catches with its beak while flying near to cliff faces or over streams and alpine meadows.", "The specific rupestris means \" of rocks \" , from the Latin rupes \" rock \" .", "Two races, Central Asian P. r. centralasica and P. r. theresae in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, have been proposed, but the slight differences in size and colour show no consistent geographical pattern.", "The groups are the \" core martins \" including burrowing species like the sand martin, the \" nest-adopters \" , which are birds like the tree swallow that use natural cavities, and the \" mud nest builders \" .", "The Ptyonoprogne species construct an open mud nest and therefore belong to the last group, Hirundo species also build open nests, Delichon house martins have a closed nest, and the Cecropis and Petrochelidon swallows have retort-like closed nests with an entrance tunnel.", "Ptyonoprogne is closely related to the larger swallow genus Hirundo into which it is often subsumed, but a DNA analysis showed that an enlarged genus Hirundo should logically contain all the mud-builder genera, including the Delichon house martins, a practice which few authorities follow.", "Although the nests of the Ptyonoprogne crag martins resemble those of typical Hirundo species like the barn swallow, the research showed that if Delichon, Cecropis and Petrochelidon are split from Hirundo, Ptyonoprogne should also be treated as a separate genus.", "Mostly brownish martins perching on brownish rocky ground The Eurasian crag martin is long with a wingspan, and weighs an average .", "It has ash-brown upperparts and paler underparts, and has a broader body, wings and tail than any other European swallow.", "Breeding habitat in Spain The Eurasian crag martin breeds in mountains from Iberia and northwesternmost Africa through southern Europe, the Persian Gulf and the Himalayas to southwestern and northeastern China.", "Northern populations are migratory, with European birds wintering in north Africa, Senegal, Ethiopia and the Nile Valley, and Asian breeders going to southern China, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East.", "Some European birds stay north of the Mediterranean, and, like martins in warmer areas such as India, Turkey and Cyprus, just move to lower ground after breeding.", "Crag martins breed on dry, warm and sheltered cliffs in mountainous areas with crags and gorges.", "In South Asia, migrant Eurasian birds sometimes join with flocks of the dusky crag martin and roost communally on ledges of cliffs or buildings.", "The largest known wintering roost of Eurasian crag martins has been recorded at the Gorham's Cave Complex in Gibraltar.", "The caves were home to a maximum of 12,000 birds during the 2020-2021 winter season, 1-2% of the entire European population of Eurasian crag martins.", "Nest with young Ptyonoprogne rupestris MHNT In flight The Gorham's Cave Complex in Gibraltar holds the largest known wintering roost of Eurasian crag martins in the world Crag martin pairs nest alone or in small colonies, usually containing fewer than ten nests.", "It is constructed under an overhang on a rock cliff face, in a crevice or cave, or on a man-made structure.", "An Italian study showed that, as with other aerial feeders, the start of breeding was delayed by cold or wet weather, but this had no influence on the clutch size nor on the number of fledged young.", "The authors suggested that hot weather dried up the small rivers where the parents found food.", "The Eurasian crag martin feeds mainly on insects caught in its beak in flight, although it will occasionally take prey items off rocks, the ground, or a water surface.", "At other times, they may hunt while flying above streams or alpine meadows.", "Aquatic species such as stoneflies, caddisflies and pond skaters appear to be important in at least Spain .", "Eurasian crag martins are known to form large roosts in winter, with the largest known roost being the Gorham's Cave Complex in Gibraltar.", "A study carried out at these caves and published in Scientific Reports in 2021, revealed that birds showed very high fidelity towards individual caves within and between years.", "Mark-recapture showed there was over a 90% chance of recapturing birds at the caves where they were first caught.", "The condition of birds from different caves suggests differences in roost quality which correlates to the fitness of Eurasian crag martins and, ultimately, survivorship."], "habitat_section": ["Breeding habitat in Spain The Eurasian crag martin breeds in mountains from Iberia and northwesternmost Africa through southern Europe, the Persian Gulf and the Himalayas to southwestern and northeastern China.", "Northern populations are migratory, with European birds wintering in north Africa, Senegal, Ethiopia and the Nile Valley, and Asian breeders going to southern China, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East.", "Some European birds stay north of the Mediterranean, and, like martins in warmer areas such as India, Turkey and Cyprus, just move to lower ground after breeding.", "none from Ireland, and the first record for Sweden was reported as recently as 1996.", "South of its normal wintering range, it has occurred as a vagrant in The Gambia.", "In 2022, the first nesting of the species was recorded on the territory of the Slovak Republic in the Mala Fatra National Park.", "Crag martins breed on dry, warm and sheltered cliffs in mountainous areas with crags and gorges.", "The typical altitude is but breeding occurs up to in Central Asia.", "In South Asia, migrant Eurasian birds sometimes join with flocks of the dusky crag martin and roost communally on ledges of cliffs or buildings.", "The largest known wintering roost of Eurasian crag martins has been recorded at the Gorham's Cave Complex in Gibraltar.", "The caves were home to a maximum of 12,000 birds during the 2020-2021 winter season, 1-2% of the entire European population of Eurasian crag martins."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian crag martin or just crag martin is a small passerine bird in the swallow family.", "It is about long with ash-brown upperparts and paler underparts, and a short, square tail that has distinctive white patches on most of its feathers.", "It breeds in the mountains of southern Europe, northwestern Africa and across the Palearctic.", "It can be confused with the three other species in its genus, but is larger with brighter tail spots and different plumage tone.", "Many European birds are resident, but some northern populations and most Asian breeders are migratory, wintering in northern Africa, the Middle East or India.", "The Eurasian crag martin builds a nest adherent to the rock under a cliff overhang or increasingly onto a man-made structure.", "It makes a neat half-cup mud nest with an inner soft lining of feathers and dry grass.", "Nests are often solitary, although a few pairs may breed relatively close together at good locations.", "Two to five brown-blotched white eggs are incubated mainly by the female, and both parents feed the chicks.", "This species does not form large breeding colonies, but is gregarious outside the breeding season.", "It feeds on a wide variety of insects that it catches with its beak while flying near to cliff faces or over streams and alpine meadows.", "Adults and young may be hunted and eaten by birds of prey or corvids, and this species is a host of blood-sucking mites.", "With its large, expanding range and large population, there are no significant conservation concerns involving the species.", "This bird is closely related to the other three crag martins which share its genus, and has sometimes been considered to be the same species as one or more of them, although it appears that there are areas where two species' ranges overlap without hybridisation occurring.", "All four Ptyonoprogne crag martins are quite similar in behaviour to other Old World swallows that build mud nests, and are sometimes subsumed into the larger genus Hirundo, but this approach leads to inconsistencies in classifying several other genera, particularly the house martins.", "The Eurasian crag martin was formally described as Hirundo rupestris by Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1769 and was moved to the new genus Ptyonoprogne by German ornithologist Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach in 1850.", "Its nearest relatives are the three other members of the genus, the pale crag martin, P. obsoleta, the rock martin, P. fuligula, and the dusky crag martin, P. concolor.", "The genus name is derived from the Greek ptuon , \" a fan \" , referring to the shape of the opened tail, and Procne , a mythological girl who was turned into a swallow.", "The specific rupestris means \" of rocks \" , from the Latin rupes \" rock \" .", "There are no generally recognised subspecies.", "Two races, Central Asian P. r. centralasica and P. r. theresae in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, have been proposed, but the slight differences in size and colour show no consistent geographical pattern.", "Fossils of this species have been found in Late Pleistocene deposits in Bulgaria, and in central France in layers dated at 242,000 to 301,000 years ago.", "The four Ptyonoprogne species are members of the swallow family, and are placed in the subfamily Hirundininae, which comprises all swallows and martins except the very distinctive river martins.", "DNA studies suggest that there are three major groupings within the Hirundininae, broadly correlating with the type of nest built.", "The groups are the \" core martins \" including burrowing species like the sand martin, the \" nest-adopters \" , which are birds like the tree swallow that use natural cavities, and the \" mud nest builders \" .", "The Ptyonoprogne species construct an open mud nest and therefore belong to the last group", "Hirundo species also build open nests, Delichon house martins have a closed nest, and the Cecropis and Petrochelidon swallows have retort-like closed nests with an entrance tunnel.", "Ptyonoprogne is closely related to the larger swallow genus Hirundo into which it is often subsumed, but a DNA analysis showed that an enlarged genus Hirundo should logically contain all the mud-builder genera, including the Delichon house martins, a practice which few authorities follow.", "Although the nests of the Ptyonoprogne crag martins resemble those of typical Hirundo species like the barn swallow, the research showed that if Delichon, Cecropis and Petrochelidon are split from Hirundo, Ptyonoprogne should also be treated as a separate genus.", "Group perched on a rocky surface", "altMostly brownish martins perching on brownish rocky ground The Eurasian crag martin is long with a wingspan, and weighs an average .", "It has ash-brown upperparts and paler underparts, and has a broader body, wings and tail than any other European swallow.", "The tail is short and square, with white patches near the tips of all but the central and outermost pairs of feathers.", "The underwing and undertail coverts are blackish, the eyes are brown, the small bill is mainly black, and the legs are brownish-pink.", "The sexes are alike, but juveniles have buff-brown tips to the plumage of the head, upperparts and wing coverts.", "This species can be distinguished from the sand martin by its larger size, the white patches on the tail, and its lack of a brown breast band.", "Where the range overlaps with that of another Ptyonoprogne species, the Eurasian crag martin is darker, browner and 15% larger than the rock martin.", " and larger and paler, particularly on its underparts than the dusky crag martin.", "The white tail spots of the Eurasian crag martin are significantly larger than those of both its relatives.", "The crag martin's flight appears relatively slow for a swallow.", "Rapid wing beats are interspersed with flat-winged glides, and its long flexible primaries give it the agility to manoeuvre near cliff faces.", "The bird often flies high, and shows the white spots as it spreads its tail.", "The vocalisations include short high pli, and piieh and tshir calls resembling those of the linnet and the house martin, respectively.", "alt bare cliffs with meadow in the foreground", "Breeding habitat in Spain The Eurasian crag martin breeds in mountains from Iberia and northwesternmost Africa through southern Europe, the Persian Gulf and the Himalayas to southwestern and northeastern China.", "Northern populations are migratory, with European birds wintering in north Africa, Senegal, Ethiopia and the Nile Valley, and Asian breeders going to southern China, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East.", "Some European birds stay north of the Mediterranean, and, like martins in warmer areas such as India, Turkey and Cyprus, just move to lower ground after breeding.", " none from Ireland, and the first record for Sweden was reported as recently as 1996.", "South of its normal wintering range, it has occurred as a vagrant in The Gambia.", "In 2022, the first nesting of the species was recorded on the territory of the Slovak Republic in the Mala Fatra National Park.", "Crag martins breed on dry, warm and sheltered cliffs in mountainous areas with crags and gorges.", "The typical altitude is but breeding occurs up to in Central Asia.", "In South Asia, migrant Eurasian birds sometimes join with flocks of the dusky crag martin and roost communally on ledges of cliffs or buildings.", "The largest known wintering roost of Eurasian crag martins has been recorded at the Gorham's Cave Complex in Gibraltar.", "The caves were home to a maximum of 12,000 birds during the 2020-2021 winter season", "1-2% of the entire European population of Eurasian crag martins.", "alt mud cup nest containing three young", "Nest with young Ptyonoprogne rupestris MHNT In flight The Gorham's Cave Complex in Gibraltar holds the largest known wintering roost of Eurasian crag martins in the world Crag martin pairs nest alone or in small colonies, usually containing fewer than ten nests.", "It is constructed under an overhang on a rock cliff face, in a crevice or cave, or on a man-made structure.", "It takes one to three weeks to build and is re-used for the second brood and in subsequent years.", "The clutch is two to five eggs with an average of three.", "The eggs are white with brownish blotches particularly at the wide end, and average with a weight of .", "The eggs are incubated mainly by the female for 1317 days to hatching, and the chicks take another 2427 days to fledge.", "Both parents feed the chicks bringing food every two to five minutes, and the young are fed for 1421 days after fledging.", " With such frequent feeding rates the adults mainly forage in the best hunting zones in the immediate vicinity of the nest, since the further they fly to forage the longer it would take to bring food to the chicks in the nest.", "In an Italian study, the hatching rate was 80.2 percent, and the average number of fledged young was 3.1.", "An Italian study showed that, as with other aerial feeders, the start of breeding was delayed by cold or wet weather, but this had no influence on the clutch size nor on the number of fledged young.", "Unexpectedly, it was found that once the eggs had hatched there was a negative relationship between temperature and the number of fledged young.", "The authors suggested that hot weather dried up the small rivers where the parents found food.", "Colony size did not influence the laying date, the clutch size or the number of successfully fledged young, but this species does not form large colonies anyway.", "The Eurasian crag martin feeds mainly on insects caught in its beak in flight, although it will occasionally take prey items off rocks, the ground, or a water surface.", "When breeding, birds often fly back and forth near to a rock face hunting for insects, feeding both inside and outside the nesting territory.", "At other times, they may hunt while flying above streams or alpine meadows.", "The insects taken depend on what is locally available and may include flies, ants, aerial spiders, and beetles.", "Aquatic species such as stoneflies, caddisflies and pond skaters appear to be important in at least Spain .", "Eurasian crag martins are known to form large roosts in winter, with the largest known roost being the Gorham's Cave Complex in Gibraltar.", "A study carried out at these caves and published in Scientific Reports in 2021, revealed that birds showed very high fidelity towards individual caves within and between years.", "Mark-recapture showed there was over a 90% chance of recapturing birds at the caves where they were first caught.", "The condition of birds from different caves suggests differences in roost quality which correlates to the fitness of Eurasian crag martins and, ultimately, survivorship.", "This species is occasionally hunted by the peregrine falcon, which shares its mountain habitat, and during its migration over the Himalayas, it is reported to be subject to predation by crows.", "Common kestrels, Eurasian sparrowhawks, Eurasian jays and common ravens are also treated as predators and attacked by repeated dives if they approach nesting cliffs.", "Despite the general aggressiveness of the crag martin, it tolerates sympatric common house martins, perhaps because the large numbers of that highly colonial species provide an early warning of predators.", "Two new species of parasites were first discovered on this martin, the fly Ornithomya rupes in Gibraltar and the flea Ceratophyllus nanshanensis from China.", "altEurasian Crag Martin nesting at Nice Airport", "Eurasian Crag Martin nesting at Nice Airport The European population of the Eurasian crag martin is estimated to be 360,0001,110,000 individuals, including 120,000370,000 breeding pairs.", "A rough estimate of the worldwide population is 500,0005,000,000 individuals, with Europe hosting between one-quarter and one-half of the total. The population is estimated to be increasing following a northward expansion, which may be partly due to increased use of man-made structures as nest sites.", "Expansions of the range have been reported in Austria , Switzerland, the former Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria.", "With its very large range and high numbers, the Eurasian crag martin is not considered to be threatened, and it is classed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List."]}}
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|
2683826_1239776
| 2457
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[
"Impatiens parviflora"
] |
{"Impatiens parviflora": {"keywords": ["Flower Impatiens parviflora is a species of annual herbaceous plants in the family Balsaminaceae, native to some areas of Eurasia, naturalized elsewhere and found in damp shady places.", "Impatiens parviflora can grow in sandy, loamy, and clay soils and prefer moist soil.", "Impatiens parviflora flowers are pollinated by insects."], "habitat_section": ["Impatiens parviflora flowers are pollinated by insects."], "random_sentences": ["Flower Impatiens parviflora is a species of annual herbaceous plants in the family Balsaminaceae, native to some areas of Eurasia, naturalized elsewhere and found in damp shady places.", "Impatiens parviflora can grow in sandy, loamy, and clay soils and prefer moist soil.", "Impatiens parviflora flowers are pollinated by insects.", "Impatiens parviflora has many uses.", "If cooked, the leaves are completely edible.", "The seeds can be consumed either raw or cooked.", "Impatiens parviflora is also used as a treatment for warts, ringworm, and nettle stings.", "It is also used as a hair rinse to relieve an itchy scalp."]}}
|
|
2567333_1131929
| 1952
|
[
"Colchicum autumnale"
] |
{"Colchicum autumnale": {"keywords": ["Colchicum autumnale, commonly known as autumn crocus, meadow saffron, or naked ladies, is a toxic autumn-blooming flowering plant that resembles the true crocuses, but is a member of the plant family Colchicaceae, unlike the true crocuses, which belong to the family Iridaceae.", "The name \" naked ladies \" is because the flowers emerge from the ground long before the leaves appear.", "The species is cultivated as an ornamental in temperate areas, in spite of its toxicity.", "The cultivar 'Nancy Lindsay' has gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit."], "habitat_section": ["C. autumnale is the only species of its family native to Great Britain and Ireland,"], "random_sentences": ["Colchicum autumnale, commonly known as autumn crocus, meadow saffron, or naked ladies, is a toxic autumn-blooming flowering plant that resembles the true crocuses, but is a member of the plant family Colchicaceae, unlike the true crocuses, which belong to the family Iridaceae.", "The name \" naked ladies \" is because the flowers emerge from the ground long before the leaves appear.", "Despite the vernacular name of \" meadow saffron \" , this plant is not the source of saffron, which is obtained from the saffron crocus, Crocus sativus and that plant, too, is sometimes called \" autumn crocus \" .", "The species is cultivated as an ornamental in temperate areas, in spite of its toxicity.", "The cultivar 'Nancy Lindsay' has gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit.", "This herbaceous perennial has leaves up to long.", "The flowers are solitary, across, with six tepals and six stamens with orange anthers and three white styles.", "At the time of fertilisation, the ovary is below ground.", "C. autumnale is the only species of its family native to Great Britain and Ireland,", "The bulb-like corms of C. autumnale contain colchicine, a useful drug with a narrow therapeutic index.", "Colchicine is approved in many countries for the treatment of gout and familial Mediterranean fever, but has a low therapeutic index.", "Colchicine is also used in plant breeding to produce polyploid strains.", "Colchicum plants are deadly poisonous due to their colchicine content and have been mistaken by foragers for ramsons, which they vaguely resemble.", "The symptoms of colchicine poisoning are similar to those of arsenic, and no antidote is known.", "This plant poses a particular threat to felines.", "The leaves and fruit of meadow saffron contain the highest level of toxins, but all parts of the plant are regarded as poisonous."]}}
|
|
2683096_1258776
| 2457
|
[
"Primula veris"
] |
{"Primula veris": {"keywords": ["Primula veris, the cowslip, common cowslip, or cowslip primrose , is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the primrose family Primulaceae.", "The species is native throughout most of temperate Europe and western Asia, and although absent from more northerly areas including much of northwest Scotland, it reappears in northernmost Sutherland and Orkney and in Scandinavia.", "The common name cowslip may derive from the old English for cow dung, probably because the plant was often found growing amongst the manure in cow pastures.", "An alternative derivation simply refers to slippery or boggy ground, again, a typical habitat for this plant.", "Other historical common names include cuy lippe, herb peter, paigle or pagil, peggle, key flower, key of heaven, fairy cups, petty mulleins, crewel, buckles, palsywort, and plumrocks.", "Albrecht Durer, Tuft of Cowslips, 1526, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., NGA 74162 Primula veris is a variable evergreen or semi-evergreen perennial plant growing to tall and broad, with a rosette of leaves 515 cm long and 26 cm broad.", "The deep yellow flowers are produced in spring, in clusters of 1030 blooms together on a single stem.", "Each flower is 915 mm broad.", "Red- and orange-flowered plants occur rarely but can be locally widespread in areas where coloured primula hybrids bloom at the same time as the native cowslip, enabling cross-pollination.", "The cowslip is frequently found on more open ground than the primrose, including open fields, meadows, coastal dunes, and clifftops.", "Additionally the seeds are now often included in wildflower seed mixes used to landscape motorway banks and similar civil engineering earthworks where the plants may be seen in dense stands.", "In cultivation this plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "The dried roots contain significant amounts of triterpene saponins, such as primula acid I/II, while in the flower these constituents are located in the sepals, and the dominating constituents are flavonoids.", "Rare side effects of the saponins can be nausea or diarrhoea while some of the phenolic constituents are possibly responsible for allergic reactions.", "Uses in English cookery include using the flowers to flavor country wine and vinegars, sugaring to be a sweet or eaten as part of a composed salad while the juice of the cowslip is used to prepare tansy for frying.", "This wine \" was more precious than elderberry wine, which was the drink for cold weather, for snow and sleet \" .", "In times when English wines were more used, every housewife in Warwickshire could produce her clear cowslip winethe cowslip is still sold in many markets for this purpose, and little cottage girls still ramble the meadows during April and May in search of itcountry people use it as a salad or boil it for the table."], "habitat_section": ["Primula veris in a meadow.", "The cowslip is frequently found on more open ground than the primrose, including open fields, meadows, coastal dunes, and clifftops.", "The plant suffered a decline due to changing agricultural practices throughout the 1970s and 1980s in Britain.", "It may therefore be rare locally, though where found it may be abundant.", "Additionally the seeds are now often included in wildflower seed mixes used to landscape motorway banks and similar civil engineering earthworks where the plants may be seen in dense stands.", "This practice has led to a revival in its fortunes."], "random_sentences": ["Primula veris, the cowslip, common cowslip, or cowslip primrose (syn.", "Primula officinalis ), is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the primrose family Primulaceae.", "The species is native throughout most of temperate Europe and western Asia, and although absent from more northerly areas including much of northwest Scotland, it reappears in northernmost Sutherland and Orkney and in Scandinavia.", "This species frequently hybridizes with other Primulas such as the common primrose Primula vulgaris to form false oxlip which is often confused with true oxlip , a much rarer plant.", "The common name cowslip may derive from the old English for cow dung, probably because the plant was often found growing amongst the manure in cow pastures.", "An alternative derivation simply refers to slippery or boggy ground", "again, a typical habitat for this plant.", "The name \" cowslop \" derived from Old English still exists in some dialects, but the politer-sounding cowslip became standard in the 16th century.", "The species name veris is the genitive case form of Latin .", "However, primrose P. vulgaris, flowers earlier, from December to May in the British Isles.", "Other historical common names include cuy lippe, herb peter, paigle or pagil, peggle, key flower, key of heaven, fairy cups, petty mulleins, crewel, buckles, palsywort, and plumrocks.", "Flowers Primula veris MHNT altImage of a trust of cowslips, gouache on vellum", "Albrecht Durer, Tuft of Cowslips, 1526, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., NGA 74162 Primula veris is a variable evergreen or semi-evergreen perennial plant growing to tall and broad, with a rosette of leaves 515 cm long and 26 cm broad.", "The deep yellow flowers are produced in spring, in clusters of 1030 blooms together on a single stem.", "Each flower is 915 mm broad.", "Red- and orange-flowered plants occur rarely but can be locally widespread in areas where coloured primula hybrids bloom at the same time as the native cowslip, enabling cross-pollination.", "Primula veris in a meadow.", "The cowslip is frequently found on more open ground than the primrose, including open fields, meadows, coastal dunes, and clifftops.", "The plant suffered a decline due to changing agricultural practices throughout the 1970s and 1980s in Britain.", "It may therefore be rare locally, though where found it may be abundant.", "Additionally the seeds are now often included in wildflower seed mixes used to landscape motorway banks and similar civil engineering earthworks where the plants may be seen in dense stands.", "This practice has led to a revival in its fortunes.", "In cultivation this plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Red-flowered Primula veris plants The cowslip may be confused with the closely related Primula elatior which has a similar general appearance and habitat, although the oxlip has larger, pale yellow flowers more like a primrose, and a corolla tube without folds.", "The roots of Primula veris contain several glycosides of 5-methoxysalicylic methyl ester, such as primeverin and primulaverin.", "In the crude dried root, their phenolic aglycones are responsible for the typical odour reminiscent of methyl salicylate or anethole.", "The dried roots contain significant amounts of triterpene saponins, such as primula acid I/II, while in the flower these constituents are located in the sepals, and the dominating constituents are flavonoids.", "Rare side effects of the saponins can be nausea or diarrhoea while some of the phenolic constituents are possibly responsible for allergic reactions.", "The subspecies macrocalyx, growing in Siberia, contains the phenolic compound riccardin C.", "Cowslip leaves have been traditionally used in Spanish cooking as a salad green.", "Uses in English cookery include using the flowers to flavor country wine and vinegars", "sugaring to be a sweet or eaten as part of a composed salad while the juice of the cowslip is used to prepare tansy for frying.", "The close cousin of the cowslip, the primrose P. vulgaris has often been confused with the cowslip and its uses in cuisine are similar with the addition of its flowers being used as a colouring agent in desserts.", "English children's writer Alison Uttley in her story \" The Country Child \" of family life on an English farm from the perspective of a 9-year-old farmer's daughter Susan describes cowslips among the favourite flowers of her heroine and mentions her participation in preparing them for making cowslip wine, a locally important process.", "After its initial preparation, cowslip wine \" would change to sparkling yellow wine \" offered in \" little fluted glasses \" with a biscuit to important \" morning visitors \" of the farm: such as the curate coming for subscriptions, the local squire and an occasional dealer .", "This wine \" was more precious than elderberry wine, which was the drink for cold weather, for snow and sleet \" .", " In the midland and southern counties of England, a sweet and pleasant wine resembling the muscadel is made from the cowslip flower, and it is one of the most wholesome and pleasant of home-made wines, and slightly narcotic in its effects.", "In times when English wines were more used, every housewife in Warwickshire could produce her clear cowslip winethe cowslip is still sold in many markets for this purpose, and little cottage girls still ramble the meadows during April and May in search of itcountry people use it as a salad or boil it for the table.", " Anne Pratt ", "This herb was already mentioned by Pliny the Elder for its early blooming attributes.", "Species from the genus Primula along with other ritual plants played a significant role in the pharmacy and mythology of the Celtic druids, likely as an ingredient of magical potions to increase the absorption of other herbal constituents.", "In the Middle-Ages it was also known as St. Peter's herb or Petrella and was sought after by Florentine apothecaries.", "Hildegard von Bingen recommended the medicinal parts only for topical use but the leaves were also consumed as food.", "Other common names at the time were 'Herba paralysis', 'Verbascum', primrose, or mullein leaves.", "It was frequently misidentified as or confused with similar species from the genus Primula."]}}
|
|
2789069_1152243
| 2154
|
[
"Juniperus communis"
] |
{"Juniperus communis": {"keywords": ["Juniperus communis, the common juniper, is a species of small tree or shrub in the cypress family Cupressaceae.", "An evergreen conifer, it has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere.", "Juniperus communis is very variable in form, ranging from rarely tall to a low, often prostrate spreading shrub in exposed locations.", "The species has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic south in mountains to around 30N latitude in North America, Europe and Asia.", "Relict populations can be found in the Atlas Mountains of Africa.", "Teardrop-shaped J. communis in Hvaler, Norway Juniperus communis is cultivated in the horticulture trade and used as an evergreen ornamental shrub in gardens.", "The following cultivars gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit in 1993."], "habitat_section": ["The species has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic south in mountains to around 30N latitude in North America, Europe and Asia.", "Relict populations can be found in the Atlas Mountains of Africa.", "J. communis is one of Ireland's longest established plants."], "random_sentences": ["Juniperus communis, the common juniper, is a species of small tree or shrub in the cypress family Cupressaceae.", "An evergreen conifer, it has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere.", "Juniperus communis is very variable in form, ranging from rarely tall to a low, often prostrate spreading shrub in exposed locations.", "It has needle-like leaves in whorls of three", "the leaves are green, with a single white stomatal band on the inner surface.", "It never attains the scale-like adult foliage of other members of the genus.", "It is dioecious, with male and female cones on separate plants.", "The male cones are yellow, long, and fall soon after shedding their pollen in MarchApril.", "The fruit are berry-like cones known as juniper berries.", "They are initially green, ripening in 18 months to purple-black with a blue waxy coating", "they are spherical, diameter, and usually have three fleshy fused scales, each scale with a single seed.", "The seeds are dispersed when birds eat the cones, digesting the fleshy scales and passing the hard, unwinged seeds in their droppings.", "The juniper berry oil is composed largely of monoterpene hydrocarbons such as -pinene, myrcene, sabinene, limonene and -pinene.", "The species has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic south in mountains to around 30N latitude in North America, Europe and Asia.", "Relict populations can be found in the Atlas Mountains of Africa.", "J. communis is one of Ireland's longest established plants.", "Teardrop-shaped J. communis in Hvaler, Norway Juniperus communis is cultivated in the horticulture trade and used as an evergreen ornamental shrub in gardens.", "The following cultivars gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit in 1993:", "J. communis wood pieces, with a U.S. penny for scale, showing the narrow growth rings of the species It is too small to have any general lumber usage.", "In Scandinavia, however, juniper wood is used for making containers for storing small quantities of dairy products such as butter and cheese, and also for making wooden butter knives.", "It was also frequently used for trenails in wooden shipbuilding by shipwrights for its tough properties.", "In Estonia juniper wood is valued for its long lasting and pleasant aroma, very decorative natural structure of wood as well as good physical properties of wood due to slow growth rate of juniper and resulting dense and strong wood.", "Various decorative items are common in most Estonian handicraft shops and households.", "According to the old tradition, on Easter Monday Kashubian boys chase girls whipping their legs gently with juniper twigs.", "This is to bring good fortune in love to the chased girls.", "Juniper wood, especially burl wood, is frequently used to make knife handles for French pocketknives such as the Laguiole.", "Its astringent blue-black seed cones, commonly known as juniper berries, are too bitter to eat raw and are usually sold dried and used to flavour meats, sauces, and stuffings.", "They are generally crushed before use to release their flavour.", "Since juniper berries have a strong taste, they should be used sparingly.", "They are generally used to enhance meat with a strong flavour, such as game, including game birds, or tongue.", "The cones are used to flavour certain beers and gin .", "In Finland, juniper is used as a key ingredient in making sahti, a traditional Finnish ale.", "Also the Slovak alcoholic beverage Borovicka and Dutch Jenever are flavoured with juniper berry or its extract.", "Juniper is used in the traditional farmhouse ales of Norway, Brewing and beer traditions in Norway: The social anthropological background of the brewing industry, Odd Nordland, Universitetsforlaget, 1969.", "Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and Latvia.", "In Norway, the beer is brewed with juniper infusion instead of water, while in the other countries the juniper twigs are mainly used as filters to prevent the crushed malts from clogging the outlet of the lauter tun.", "The use of juniper in farmhouse brewing has been common in much of northern Europe, seemingly for a very long time.", "Juniper berries have long been used as medicine by many cultures including the Navajo people.", "Western American tribes combined the berries of J. communis with Berberis root bark in a herbal tea.", "Native Americans also used juniper berries as a female contraceptive.", "Juniper leaves were found to harbor fungi with potent anti-fungal compounds, including ibrexafungerp, which is now FDA approved to treat fungal infections."]}}
|
|
2693238_1281646
| 1344
|
[
"Pimpinella major"
] |
{"Pimpinella major": {"keywords": ["Pimpinella major, common name greater burnet-saxifrage or hollowstem burnet saxifrage, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the genus Pimpinella belonging to the carrot family .", "The flowering period extends from June to August in its native habitat.", "Pimpinella major is widespread in central Europe and in the Caucasus and it is naturalized in North America.", "It grows in burned forests, clearings, herb-rich areas, meadows, waysides, and wooded pastures.", "It prefers nutrient-rich substrate and chalk and limestone soils, at an altitude of above sea level.", "The roots of Pimpinella major have been used internally in Austrian traditional medicine - as a tisane, in milk, or in herbal liqueurs - for the treatment of disorders of the respiratory tract, fever, infections, colds, and influenza."], "habitat_section": ["Pimpinella major is widespread in central Europe and in the Caucasus and it is naturalized in North America.", "It grows in burned forests, clearings, herb-rich areas, meadows, waysides, and wooded pastures.", "It prefers nutrient-rich substrate and chalk and limestone soils, at an altitude of above sea level."], "random_sentences": ["Pimpinella major, common name greater burnet-saxifrage or hollowstem burnet saxifrage, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the genus Pimpinella belonging to the carrot family .", "Pimpinella major reaches on average in height.", "The stem is hollow, deeply grooved, mostly glabrous, and generally branched and leafy.", "The leaves are dark green, slightly glossy, ovate or oblong, short-stalked, feathery, more or less deeply cut, and usually pointed.", "Basal leaves have a petiole long.", "The inflorescence has a diameter of .", "The flowers, usually hermaphrodite, range from white to glowing rose or soft-pink and are gathered in umbels with 11 to 16 stalks.", "The flowering period extends from June to August in its native habitat.", "The fruits are ovoid, long.", "Pimpinella major is widespread in central Europe and in the Caucasus and it is naturalized in North America.", "It grows in burned forests, clearings, herb-rich areas, meadows, waysides, and wooded pastures.", "It prefers nutrient-rich substrate and chalk and limestone soils, at an altitude of above sea level.", "The roots of Pimpinella major have been used internally in Austrian traditional medicine - as a tisane, in milk, or in herbal liqueurs - for the treatment of disorders of the respiratory tract, fever, infections, colds, and influenza."]}}
|
|
2606218_1198273
| 2255
|
[
"Certhia brachydactyla",
"Corvus corone",
"Anthus trivialis",
"Cyanistes caeruleus",
"Lophophanes cristatus",
"Leonurus cardiaca",
"Chloris chloris",
"Dendrocopos major",
"Passer domesticus",
"Fringilla coelebs",
"Aegithalos caudatus",
"Buteo buteo",
"Sylvia atricapilla",
"Strix aluco",
"Carduelis carduelis",
"Muscicapa striata",
"Turdus merula",
"Columba palumbus",
"Phylloscopus collybita",
"Poecile palustris",
"Parus major",
"Erithacus rubecula",
"Hirundo rustica",
"Phoenicurus ochruros",
"Garrulus glandarius",
"Falco tinnunculus",
"Picus viridis",
"Ficedula hypoleuca",
"Periparus ater"
] |
{"Certhia brachydactyla": {"keywords": ["Certhia brachydactyla dorotheae, Cyprus The short-toed treecreeper is a small passerine bird found in woodlands through much of the warmer regions of Europe and into north Africa.", "The short-toed treecreeper tends to prefer deciduous trees and lower altitudes than its relative in these overlap areas.", "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.", "It is a resident in woodlands throughout its range, and nests in tree crevices or behind bark flakes, laying about six eggs.", "The short-toed treecreeper belongs to the northern group, along with the North American brown creeper, C. americana, the common treecreeper, C. familaris, of temperate Eurasia, and Hodgson's treecreeper, C. hodgsoni, from the southern rim of the Himalayas.", "Cork oak is a preferred nesting tree in Spain The short-toed treecreeper breeds in temperate woodlands across Europe from Portugal to Turkey and Greece, and in north west Africa.", "It prefers well-grown trees, especially oak and avoids pure stands of conifers.", "Where it shares its European range with common treecreeper, the latter species tends to be found mainly in coniferous forest and at higher altitudes.", "It has occurred as a vagrant to England, Sweden, Lithuania and the Balearic Islands.", "Eggs of Certhia brachydactyla MHNT Adult foraging on a trunk The short-toed nests in tree crevices or behind bark flakes.", "The nest has an often bulky base of twigs, pine needles, grass or bark, and a lining of finer material such as feathers, wool, moss, lichen or spider web.", "Although normally found on trees, it will occasionally feed on walls or bare ground, or amongst fallen pine needles.", "As a small woodland bird with cryptic plumage and a quiet call, the short-toed treecreeper is easily overlooked as it hops mouse-like up a vertical trunk, progressing in short hops, using its stiff tail and widely splayed feet as support.", "It is solitary in winter, but in cold weather up to twenty or more birds will roost together in a suitable sheltered crevice, or in a star formation under eaves of buildings.", "It is common through much of its range, but is rare in the Caucasus and on the smaller Channel Islands."], "habitat_section": ["Cork oak is a preferred nesting tree in Spain The short-toed treecreeper breeds in temperate woodlands across Europe from Portugal to Turkey and Greece, and in north west Africa.", "It prefers well-grown trees, especially oak and avoids pure stands of conifers.", "Where it shares its European range with common treecreeper, the latter species tends to be found mainly in coniferous forest and at higher altitudes.", "This treecreeper is essentially non-migratory but post-breeding dispersal may lead to vagrancy outside the normal range.", "It has occurred as a vagrant to England, Sweden, Lithuania and the Balearic Islands.", "Three birds on Corsica in 1969 appeared to be of the North African subspecies C. b. mauritanica''.", "This species has an extensive range of between 1 to 10 million square kilometres .", "It has a large population, estimated at between 4.1 to 14 million individuals.", "Population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List .", "For these reasons, the short-toed treecreeper is evaluated as Least Concern.", "It is common through much of its range, but is rare in the Caucasus and on the smaller Channel Islands.", "In the west of its range it is spreading north through Denmark, where it first bred in 1946."], "random_sentences": ["Certhia brachydactyla dorotheae, Cyprus The short-toed treecreeper is a small passerine bird found in woodlands through much of the warmer regions of Europe and into north Africa.", "It has a generally more southerly distribution than the other European treecreeper species, the common treecreeper, with which it is easily confused where they both occur.", "The short-toed treecreeper tends to prefer deciduous trees and lower altitudes than its relative in these overlap areas.", "Although mainly sedentary, vagrants have occurred outside the breeding range.", "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.", "The short-toed treecreeper was first described by Christian Ludwig Brehm in 1820.", "The binomial name is derived from Greek", "kerthios is a small tree-dwelling bird described by Aristotle and others, and brachydactyla comes from brakhus, \" short \" and dactulos \" finger \" , which refers, like the English name, to the fact that this species has shorter toes than the common treecreeper.", "This species is one of a group of very similar treecreeper species, all placed in the single genus Certhia.", "Eight species are currently recognised, in two evolutionary lineages, a Holarctic radiation, and a Sino-Himalayan group south and east of the Himalayas.", "The former group has a more warbling song, always starting or ending with a shrill sreeh.", "The Himalayan species, in contrast, have a faster-paced trill without the sreeh sound.", "The short-toed treecreeper belongs to the northern group, along with the North American brown creeper, C. americana, the common treecreeper, C. familaris, of temperate Eurasia, and Hodgson's treecreeper, C. hodgsoni, from the southern rim of the Himalayas.", "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.", "The sexes are similar, but juveniles have whitish underparts, sometimes with a buff belly.", "The call of this species is a repeated shrill tyt...", "tyt tyt-tyt and the song of the nominate subspecies is an evenly spaced sequence of notes teet-teet-teet-e-roi-tiit.", "There is some geographical variation", "the song of Danish birds is shorter, that of the Cyprus subspecies is very short and simple, and the North African version is lower pitched.", "European birds do not respond to latter two song variants.", "The brown treecreeper has never been recorded in Europe, but would be difficult to separate from the short-toed treecreeper, which it much resembles in appearance.", "Its call is more like the common treecreeper's, but a vagrant brown treecreeper might still not be possible to identify with certainty given the similarities between the three species.", "Cork oak is a preferred nesting tree in Spain The short-toed treecreeper breeds in temperate woodlands across Europe from Portugal to Turkey and Greece, and in north west Africa.", "It prefers well-grown trees, especially oak and avoids pure stands of conifers.", "Where it shares its European range with common treecreeper, the latter species tends to be found mainly in coniferous forest and at higher altitudes.", "This treecreeper is essentially non-migratory but post-breeding dispersal may lead to vagrancy outside the normal range.", "It has occurred as a vagrant to England, Sweden, Lithuania and the Balearic Islands.", "Three birds on Corsica in 1969 appeared to be of the North African subspecies C. b. mauritanica''.", "Eggs of Certhia brachydactyla MHNT Adult foraging on a trunk The short-toed nests in tree crevices or behind bark flakes.", "Old woodpecker nests, crevices in buildings or walls, and artificial nest boxes or flaps are also used.", "The nest has an often bulky base of twigs, pine needles, grass or bark, and a lining of finer material such as feathers, wool, moss, lichen or spider web.", "The eggs are laid between April and mid June (typical clutch 5", "they are white with purple-red blotches, in size.", "The eggs are incubated by the female alone for 13 15 days until the altricial downy chicks hatch", "they are then fed by both parents, but brooded by the female alone, for a further 15 18 days to fledging.", "This species often raises a second brood.", "The male starts constructing a new nest while the female is still feeding the first brood, and when the chicks are 1012 days old, he takes over feeding duties while the female completes the new nest.", "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.", "It may add some seeds to its diet in the colder months.", "As a small woodland bird with cryptic plumage and a quiet call, the short-toed treecreeper is easily overlooked as it hops mouse-like up a vertical trunk, progressing in short hops, using its stiff tail and widely splayed feet as support.", "Nevertheless, it is not wary, and is largely indifferent to the presence of humans.", "It has a distinctive erratic and undulating flight, alternating fluttering butterfly-like wing beats with side-slips and tumbles.", "It is solitary in winter, but in cold weather up to twenty or more birds will roost together in a suitable sheltered crevice, or in a star formation under eaves of buildings.", "This species has an extensive range of between 1", "10 million square kilometres (0.4", "It has a large population, estimated at between 4.1", "Population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List .", "For these reasons, the short-toed treecreeper is evaluated as Least Concern.", "It is common through much of its range, but is rare in the Caucasus and on the smaller Channel Islands.", "In the west of its range it is spreading north through Denmark, where it first bred in 1946."]}, "Corvus corone": {"keywords": ["The carrion crow is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus Corvus which is native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic.", "Juvenile carrion crows can be identified by their brownish plumage and blue eyes, both of which darken to black and brown as the crow grows older.", "It is believed that this distribution might have resulted from the glaciation cycles during the Pleistocene, which caused the parent population to split into isolates which subsequently re-expanded their ranges when the climate warmed causing secondary contact.", "The carrion crow is also found in the mountains and forests of Japan and also in the cities of Japan.", "Scavenging around a dead bird in Paris, France The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks, moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts.", "Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.", "Crows are scavengers by nature, which is why they tend to frequent sites inhabited by humans in order to feed on their household waste.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden The bulky stick nest is usually placed in a tall tree, but cliff ledges, old buildings and pylons may be used as well."], "habitat_section": ["A map of Europe indicating the distribution of the carrion and hooded crows on either side of a contact zone separating the two species The carrion crow and hooded crow , including the former's slightly larger allied form or race C. c. orientalis, are two very closely related species, the geographic distributions of both forms of carrion crow across Europe are illustrated in the accompanying diagram.", "It is believed that this distribution might have resulted from the glaciation cycles during the Pleistocene, which caused the parent population to split into isolates which subsequently re-expanded their ranges when the climate warmed causing secondary contact.", "Poelstra and coworkers sequenced almost the entire genomes of both species in populations at varying distances from the contact zone to find that the two species were genetically identical, both in their DNA and in its expression , except for the lack of expression of a small portion of the genome in the hooded crow, which imparts the lighter plumage colouration on its torso.", "Thus the two species can viably hybridize, and occasionally do so at the contact zone, but the all-black carrion crows on the one side of the contact zone mate almost exclusively with other all-black carrion crows, while the same occurs among the hooded crows on the other side of the contact zone.", "It is therefore clear that it is only the outward appearance of the two species that inhibits hybridization.", "The authors attribute this to assortative mating , the advantage of which is not clear, and it would lead to the rapid appearance of streams of new lineages, and possibly even species, through mutual attraction between mutants.", "Unnikrishnan and Akhila propose, instead, that koinophilia is a more parsimonious explanation for the resistance to hybridization across the contact zone, despite the absence of physiological, anatomical or genetic barriers to such hybridization.", "The carrion crow is also found in the mountains and forests of Japan and also in the cities of Japan.", "Scavenging around a dead bird in Paris, France The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks, moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts.", "The most distinctive feature is the voice.", "The rook has a high-pitched kaaa, but the crow's guttural, slightly vibrant, deeper croaked kraa is distinct from any note of the rook.", "The carrion crow is noisy, perching on a vantage point such as a building or the top of a tree and calling three or four times in quick succession, with a slight pause between each series of croaks.", "During each series of calls, a crow may perform an accompanying gesture, raising its shoulders and bowing its head and neck downwards with each caw.", "The wing-beats are slower, more deliberate than those of the rook.", "Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.", "Like other species of corvid, carrion crows will actively harass predators and competitors that enter their territory or threaten them or their offspring, and will engage in group mobbing behaviour as a method to defend themselves."], "random_sentences": ["The carrion crow is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus Corvus which is native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic.", "The carrion crow was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, and it still bears its original name of Corvus corone.", "The binomial name is derived from the Latin , \" raven \" , and Greek , \" crow \" .", "The hooded crow, formerly regarded as a subspecies, has been split off as a separate species, and there is some discussion whether the eastern carrion crow (C.", "c. orientalis) is distinct enough to warrant specific status", "the two taxa are well separated, and it has been proposed they could have evolved independently in the wetter, maritime regions at the opposite ends of the Eurasian landmass.", "Along with the hooded crow, the carrion crow occupies a similar ecological niche in Eurasia to the American crow (C.", "Adult male carrion crow moulting at the Jardin des Plantes of Paris.", "The plumage of the carrion crow is black with a green or purple sheen, much greener than the gloss of the rook.", "The bill, legs and feet are also black.", "It can be distinguished from the common raven by its size of around in length as compared to an average of for ravens, and from the hooded crow by its black plumage.", "The carrion crow has a wingspan of and weighs .", "There is frequent confusion between the carrion crow and the rook, another black corvid found within its range.", "The beak of the crow is stouter and in consequence looks shorter, and whereas in the adult rook the nostrils are bare, those of the crow are covered at all ages with bristle-like feathers.", "As well as this, the wings of a carrion crow are proportionally shorter and broader than those of the rook when seen in flight.", "Juvenile carrion crows can be identified by their brownish plumage and blue eyes, both of which darken to black and brown as the crow grows older.", "Distribution and genetic relationship to hooded crows", "A map of Europe indicating the distribution of the carrion and hooded crows on either side of a contact zone separating the two species The carrion crow and hooded crow , including the former's slightly larger allied form or race C. c. orientalis, are two very closely related species", "the geographic distributions of both forms of carrion crow across Europe are illustrated in the accompanying diagram.", "It is believed that this distribution might have resulted from the glaciation cycles during the Pleistocene, which caused the parent population to split into isolates which subsequently re-expanded their ranges when the climate warmed causing secondary contact.", "Poelstra and coworkers sequenced almost the entire genomes of both species in populations at varying distances from the contact zone to find that the two species were genetically identical, both in their DNA and in its expression , except for the lack of expression of a small portion of the genome in the hooded crow, which imparts the lighter plumage colouration on its torso.", "Thus the two species can viably hybridize, and occasionally do so at the contact zone, but the all-black carrion crows on the one side of the contact zone mate almost exclusively with other all-black carrion crows, while the same occurs among the hooded crows on the other side of the contact zone.", "It is therefore clear that it is only the outward appearance of the two species that inhibits hybridization.", "The authors attribute this to assortative mating , the advantage of which is not clear, and it would lead to the rapid appearance of streams of new lineages, and possibly even species, through mutual attraction between mutants.", "Unnikrishnan and Akhila propose, instead, that koinophilia is a more parsimonious explanation for the resistance to hybridization across the contact zone, despite the absence of physiological, anatomical or genetic barriers to such hybridization.", "The carrion crow is also found in the mountains and forests of Japan and also in the cities of Japan.", "In Southend-on-Sea, England In flight right", "Scavenging around a dead bird in Paris, France The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks", "moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts.", "The most distinctive feature is the voice.", "The rook has a high-pitched kaaa, but the crow's guttural, slightly vibrant, deeper croaked kraa is distinct from any note of the rook.", "The carrion crow is noisy, perching on a vantage point such as a building or the top of a tree and calling three or four times in quick succession, with a slight pause between each series of croaks.", "During each series of calls, a crow may perform an accompanying gesture, raising its shoulders and bowing its head and neck downwards with each caw.", "The wing-beats are slower, more deliberate than those of the rook.", "Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.", "Like other species of corvid, carrion crows will actively harass predators and competitors that enter their territory or threaten them or their offspring, and will engage in group mobbing behaviour as a method to defend themselves.", "Like all corvids, carrion crows show intelligent behaviour.", "For example, they can discriminate between numerosities up to 30, flexibly switch between rules, and recognise human and crow faces.", "Given the difference in brain architecture in crows compared to primates, these abilities suggest that their intelligence is realised as a product of convergent evolution.", "Though an eater of carrion of all kinds, the carrion crow will eat insects, earthworms, other invertebrates, grain, fruits, seeds, nuts, small mammals, amphibians, fish, scraps and will also steal eggs.", "Crows are scavengers by nature, which is why they tend to frequent sites inhabited by humans in order to feed on their household waste.", "Crows will also harass birds of prey or even foxes for their kills.", "Crows actively hunt and occasionally co-operate with other crows to make kills, and are sometimes seen catching ducklings for food.", "Due to their gregarious lifestyle and defensive abilities, carrion crows have few natural predators.", "However, powerful raptors such as the northern goshawk, peregrine falcon, Eurasian eagle-owl and golden eagle will readily hunt them, and crows can become an important prey item locally.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden The bulky stick nest is usually placed in a tall tree, but cliff ledges, old buildings and pylons may be used as well.", "Nests are also occasionally placed on or near the ground.", "The nest resembles that of the common raven, but is less bulky.", "The 3 to 4 brown-speckled blue or greenish eggs are incubated for 1820 days by the female alone, who is fed by the male.", "The young fledge after 2930 days.", "Chicks in the nest It is not uncommon for an offspring from the previous years to stay around and help rear the new hatchlings.", "Instead of seeking out a mate, it looks for food and assists the parents in feeding the young."]}, "Anthus trivialis": {"keywords": ["at Rajkot The tree pipit is a small passerine bird which breeds across most of Europe and the Palearctic as far East as the East Siberian Mountains.", "anthus is the name for a small bird of grasslands, and the specific trivialis means \" common \" .", "The breeding habitat is open woodland and scrub.", "They breed in habitats with a wooded component, including Lowland heath and coppice.", "They prefer low canopy medium-sized trees, where there is low-growing scrub and bramble less than 2 metres high, so that horizontal visibility is relatively high.", "Once they have arrived they nest on the ground amongst grass or heather tussocks.", "They forage on invertebrates found in the ground vegetation.", "The Forestry Commission offers grants under a scheme called England's Woodland Improvement Grant , as does Natural Englands Environmental Stewardship Scheme."], "habitat_section": ["They breed in habitats with a wooded component, including Lowland heath and coppice.", "They are found mostly in open birch woodland on the boundary with moorland, or open structured oak woodland therefore heavy thinning is required to produce a gappy character.", "They prefer low canopy medium-sized trees, where there is low-growing scrub and bramble less than 2 metres high, so that horizontal visibility is relatively high.", "They like a mosaic of grass and bracken, but not very grazed short turf, so light to moderate grazing is preferred.", "Glades are also valuable, and streams are preferred.", "Once they have arrived they nest on the ground amongst grass or heather tussocks.", "They forage on invertebrates found in the ground vegetation.", "They need scattered trees as song perches.", "The Forestry Commission offers grants under a scheme called England's Woodland Improvement Grant , as does Natural Englands Environmental Stewardship Scheme."], "random_sentences": ["at Rajkot The tree pipit is a small passerine bird which breeds across most of Europe and the Palearctic as far East as the East Siberian Mountains.", "It is a long-distance migrant moving in winter to Africa and southern Asia.", "The scientific name is from Latin: anthus is the name for a small bird of grasslands, and the specific trivialis means \" common \" .", "The tree pipit was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Alauda trivialis.", "Linnaeus noted that the species occurred in Sweden.", "The specific epithet trivialis is Latin meaning \" common \" or \" ordinary \" from Latin trivium meaning \" public street \" .", "The tree pipit is now placed in the genus Anthus that was introduced in 1805 by the German naturalist Johann Matthaus Bechstein.", "This is a small pipit, which resembles meadow pipit.", "It is an undistinguished-looking species, streaked brown above and with black markings on a white belly and buff breast below.", "It can be distinguished from the slightly smaller meadow pipit by its heavier bill and greater contrast between its buff breast and white belly.", "Tree pipits more readily perch in trees.", "The call is a strong spek, unlike the weak call of its relative.", "The song flight is unmistakable.", "The bird rises a short distance up from a tree, and then parachutes down on stiff wings, the song becoming more drawn out towards the end.", "The breeding habitat is open woodland and scrub.", "The nest is on the ground, with 48 eggs being laid.", "This species is insectivorous, like its relatives, but will also take seeds.", "They breed in habitats with a wooded component, including Lowland heath and coppice.", "They are found mostly in open birch woodland on the boundary with moorland, or open structured oak woodland therefore heavy thinning is required to produce a gappy character.", "They prefer low canopy medium-sized trees, where there is low-growing scrub and bramble less than 2 metres high, so that horizontal visibility is relatively high.", "They like a mosaic of grass and bracken, but not very grazed short turf, so light to moderate grazing is preferred.", "Glades are also valuable, and streams are preferred.", "Once they have arrived they nest on the ground amongst grass or heather tussocks.", "They forage on invertebrates found in the ground vegetation.", "They need scattered trees as song perches.", "The Forestry Commission offers grants under a scheme called England's Woodland Improvement Grant ", "as does Natural Englands Environmental Stewardship Scheme."]}, "Cyanistes caeruleus": {"keywords": ["Eurasian blue tits, usually resident and non-migratory birds, are widespread and a common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and the western Palearctic in deciduous or mixed woodlands with a high proportion of oak.", "Outside the breeding season, they also eat seeds and other vegetable-based foods.", "The birds are famed for their acrobatic skills, as they can hold on to the outermost branches of trees and shrubs and hang upside down when looking for food.", "The Eurasian blue tit and the related hybrids are considered native species in areas of the European continent with a mainly temperate or Mediterranean climate, and in parts of the Middle East.", "Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Vatican City and Ukraine.", "In Great Britain the Eurasian blue tit can be found in a variety of environments, and is typically found in deciduous woodland, parks, gardens and even in the centre of towns.", "As a rule the bird roosts in ivy or evergreens, but in harsh winters will roost wherever there is a suitable small hole, be it in a tree or nesting box.", "Egg size appears to depend mostly on the size of individual females and secondarily on habitat, with smaller eggs found at higher altitudes.", "Scolding, for example, is used when a ground predator , a low flying predator or a perched owl are noticed.", "In addition, the instinct to strip bark from trees in search of insects has developed into a tendency to peel building materials such as thatch, wallpaper, stucco and window putty.", "Breeding seasons may be affected badly if the weather is cold and wet between May and July, particularly if this coincides with the emergence of the caterpillars on which the nestlings are fed."], "habitat_section": ["Reported range from observations reported to eBird Blue tit displaying aggression during ringing There are currently around 2044 million pairs in Europe.", "The Eurasian blue tit and the related hybrids are considered native species in areas of the European continent with a mainly temperate or Mediterranean climate, and in parts of the Middle East.", "These areas include Ireland, the United Kingdom and most of the European Union and EFTA , plus.", "Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Vatican City and Ukraine.", "In Great Britain the Eurasian blue tit can be found in a variety of environments, and is typically found in deciduous woodland, parks, gardens and even in the centre of towns.", "Eurasian blue and great tits form mixed winter flocks, and the former are perhaps the better gymnasts in the slender twigs.", "A Eurasian blue tit will often ascend a trunk in short jerky hops, reminiscent of a treecreeper.", "As a rule the bird roosts in ivy or evergreens, but in harsh winters will roost wherever there is a suitable small hole, be it in a tree or nesting box.", "They are very agile and can hang from almost anywhere.", "This is a common and popular European garden bird, due to its perky acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or suet.", "It swings beneath the holder, calling \" tee, tee, tee \" or a scolding \" churr \" .", "The Eurasian blue tit is classified as a least concern species on the IUCN Red List , and as a Green Status species, since 1996, by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the United Kingdom."], "random_sentences": ["Eurasian blue tit in Sweden, April 2018 The Eurasian blue tit is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae.", "It is easily recognisable by its blue and yellow plumage and small size.", "Eurasian blue tits, usually resident and non-migratory birds, are widespread and a common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and the western Palearctic in deciduous or mixed woodlands with a high proportion of oak.", "They usually nest in tree holes, although they easily adapt to nest boxes where necessary.", "Their main rival for nests and in the search for food is the larger and more common great tit.", "The Eurasian blue tit prefers insects and spiders for its diet.", "Outside the breeding season, they also eat seeds and other vegetable-based foods.", "The birds are famed for their acrobatic skills, as they can hold on to the outermost branches of trees and shrubs and hang upside down when looking for food.", "The Eurasian blue tit was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Parus caeruleus.", "Parus is the classical Latin for a tit and caeruleus is the Latin for dark blue or cerulean.", "Two centuries earlier, before the introduction of the binomial nomenclature, the same Latin name had been used by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner when he described and illustrated the blue tit in his Historiae animalium of 1555.", "In 2005, analysis of the mtDNA cytochrome b sequences of the Paridae indicated that Cyanistes was an early offshoot from the lineage of other tits, and more accurately regarded as a genus rather than a subgenus of Parus.", "The current genus name, Cyanistes, is from the Ancient Greek , \" dark blue \" .", "The African blue tit was formerly considered conspecific.", "Pleske's tit is a common interspecific hybrid between this species and the azure tit , in western Russia.", "The cap is usually darker than the azure tit, and the tail is paler than the Eurasian blue tit.", "The Eurasian blue tit is usually , long with a wingspan of for both sexes, and weighs about .", "A typical Eurasian blue tit has an azure-blue crown and dark blue line passing through the eye, and encircling the white cheeks to the chin, giving the bird a very distinctive appearance.", "The forehead and a bar on the wing are white.", "The nape, wings and tail are blue and the back is yellowish green.", "The underparts is mostly sulphur-yellow with a dark line down the abdomenthe yellowness is indicative of the number of yellowy-green caterpillars eaten, due to high levels of carotene pigments in the diet.", "The bill is black, the legs bluish grey, and the irides dark brown.", "The sexes are similar and often indistinguishable to human eyes, but under ultraviolet light, males have a brighter blue crown.", "Young blue tits are noticeably more yellow.", "Reported range from observations reported to eBird Blue tit displaying aggression during ringing There are currently around 2044 million pairs in Europe.", "The Eurasian blue tit and the related hybrids are considered native species in areas of the European continent with a mainly temperate or Mediterranean climate, and in parts of the Middle East.", "These areas include Ireland, the United Kingdom and most of the European Union and EFTA , plus: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Vatican City and Ukraine.", "In Great Britain the Eurasian blue tit can be found in a variety of environments, and is typically found in deciduous woodland, parks, gardens and even in the centre of towns.", "Eurasian blue and great tits form mixed winter flocks, and the former are perhaps the better gymnasts in the slender twigs.", "A Eurasian blue tit will often ascend a trunk in short jerky hops, reminiscent of a treecreeper.", "As a rule the bird roosts in ivy or evergreens, but in harsh winters will roost wherever there is a suitable small hole, be it in a tree or nesting box.", "They are very agile and can hang from almost anywhere.", "This is a common and popular European garden bird, due to its perky acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or suet.", "It swings beneath the holder, calling \" tee, tee, tee \" or a scolding \" churr \" .", "Feeding the young at a nest box in England Eggs of Cyanistes caeruleus ultramarinus MHNT right", "Few birds more readily accept the shelter of a nesting box", "the same hole is returned to year after year, and when one pair dies another takes possession.", "It is estimated by the RSPB that there are 3,535,000 breeding pairs in the UK.", "During the incubation period, female blue tits perform all of the incubation, however the male feeds the female during this time.", "During the nestling period both female nest attendance and male feeding rate are higher in the morning, declining throughout the day.", "Eggs are long and wide.", "Egg size appears to depend mostly on the size of individual females and secondarily on habitat, with smaller eggs found at higher altitudes.", "The clutch's total weight can be 1.5 times as heavy as the female bird.", "Juvenile in Pimlico, LondonA study found that the timing of breeding in blue tits is related to the expression of nestling carotenoidbased coloration, which could play a role in offspringparent communication.", "The bird is a close sitter, hissing and biting at an intruding finger.", "In the South West of England such behaviour has earned the Eurasian blue tit the colloquial nickname \" Little Billy Biter \" or \" Billy Biter \" , originating from the UK.", "When protecting its eggs it raises its crest, but this is a sign of excitement rather than anger, for it is also elevated during nuptial display.", "The nesting material is usually moss, wool, hair and feathers, and the eggs are laid in April or May.", "The number in the clutch is often very large, but seven or eight are normal, clutch size varies with latitude and other geographic parameters.", "Some bigger clutches may be laid by two or even more hens in some locations but single hen clutches of 14 have been verified in the UK.", "It is not unusual for a single bird to feed the chicks in the nest at a rate of one feed every 90 seconds during the height of the breeding season.", "In winter they form flocks with other tit species.", "In an analysis carried out using ring-recovery data in Britain, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 38%, while the adult annual survival rate was 53%.", "From these figures the typical lifespan is only three years.", "Within Britain, the maximum recorded age is 10 years and 3 months for a bird that was ringed in Bedfordshire.", "The maximum recorded age overall is 11 years and 7 months for a bird in the Czech Republic.", "Eating peanuts from a garden bird feeder in England right", "Eurasian blue tit eating peanuts from a string, Italy The Eurasian blue tit feeds on many insects, though it is fond of young buds of various trees, especially when insect prey is scarce, and may pull them to bits in the hope of finding insects.", "It is a well-known predator of many Lepidoptera species including the Wood Tiger moth.", "No species, however, destroys more coccids and aphids, the worst foes of many plants.", "It takes leaf miner grubs and green tortrix moths .", "In common with all members of the family, seeds are also eaten.", "Calls of a blue tit Eurasian blue tits use songs and calls throughout the year.", "Songs are mostly used in late winter and spring to defend the territory or to attract mates.", "Calls are used for multiple reasons.", "Communication with other Eurasian blue tits is the most important motivation for the use of calls.", "They inform one another on their location in trees by means of contact-calls.", "They use alarm-calls to warn others about the presence of predators in the neighbourhood.", "Scolding, for example, is used when a ground predator , a low flying predator or a perched owl are noticed.", "Sometimes this is followed by mobbing behaviour in which birds gather together in flocks to counter a predator.", "The alarm-whistle warns other birds about the proximity of a Eurasian sparrowhawk, a northern goshawk, a common buzzard or other flying predators that form a potential danger in the air.", "A series of high-pitched '' notes are given by both partners before and during copulation.", "The begging-call is used by juveniles to beg for food from parents.", "An interesting example of culturally transmitted learning in birds was the phenomenon dating from the 1920s of blue tits teaching one another how to open traditional British milk bottles with foil tops, to get at the cream underneath Such behaviour has been suppressed recently by the gradual change of human dietary habits , and the way of getting them .", "In addition, the instinct to strip bark from trees in search of insects has developed into a tendency to peel building materials such as thatch, wallpaper, stucco and window putty.", "The small size of the Eurasian blue tit makes it vulnerable to prey by larger birds such as jays who catch the vulnerable fledglings when they leave the nest.", "The most important predator is probably the sparrowhawk, closely followed by the domestic cat.", "Nests may be robbed by mammals such as weasels and red squirrels, as well as introduced grey squirrels in the UK.", "The successful breeding of chicks is dependent on sufficient supply of green caterpillars as well as satisfactory weather.", "Breeding seasons may be affected badly if the weather is cold and wet between May and July, particularly if this coincides with the emergence of the caterpillars on which the nestlings are fed.", "A bald blue tit with mite Eurasian blue tits are known to be host to feather mites, and rarely lice and flat flies.", "In Europe, the only feather mite species known to live on the blue tit host is Proctophyllodes stylifer.", "However, this mite seems to be of no concern to the bird as, until now, it is only known to feed on dead feather tissue.", "P. stylifer lives all its developmental stages, i.e. egg, larva, protonymph, tritonymph and adult, within the plumage of the same host.", "The usual sites where P. stylifer is encountered are the remiges and the rectrices of the bird where they can be found tandemly positioned between the barbs of the rachis.", "The Eurasian blue tit is classified as a least concern species on the IUCN Red List , and as a Green Status species, since 1996, by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the United Kingdom.", "The Eurasian blue tit has appeared on many stamps and ornaments.", "Its most recent appearance on a British stamp was the 2010 Birds of Britain series."]}, "Lophophanes cristatus": {"keywords": ["It is a widespread and common resident breeder in coniferous forests throughout central and northern Europe and in deciduous woodland in France and the Iberian peninsula."], "habitat_section": ["Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden It is an easy tit to recognise, for besides its erectile crest, the tip of which is often recurved, its gorget and collar are distinctive.", "It is, like other tits, talkative, and birds keep up a constant zee, zee, zee , similar to that of the coal tit.", "It makes a nest in a hole in rotting stumps.", "This bird often feeds low down in trees, but although not shy, it is not always easily approached.", "It will join winter tit flocks with other species.", "Like other tits it is found in pairs and it feeds on insects and seeds.", "Lophophanes cristatus -Aviemore, Scotland-8.", "Lophophanes cristatus -Aviemore, Scotland-8 .", "Lophophanes cristatus Luc Viatour 5."], "random_sentences": ["Bird recorded in Scotland The crested tit or European crested tit , is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.", "It is a widespread and common resident breeder in coniferous forests throughout central and northern Europe and in deciduous woodland in France and the Iberian peninsula.", "In Great Britain, it is chiefly restricted to the ancient pinewoods of Inverness and Strathspey in Scotland, and seldom strays far from its haunts.", "A few vagrant crested tits have been seen in England.", "It is resident, and most individuals do not migrate.", "This species was formerly placed in Parus, but the distinctness of Lophophanes is well supported, and it is now recognised by the American Ornithologists' Union and the British Ornithologists' Union as a distinct genus.", "The current genus name, Lophophanes, is from the Ancient Greek lophos, \" crest \" , and phaino, \" to show \" .", "The specific cristatus is Latin for \" crested \" .", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden It is an easy tit to recognise, for besides its erectile crest, the tip of which is often recurved, its gorget and collar are distinctive.", "It is, like other tits, talkative, and birds keep up a constant zee, zee, zee , similar to that of the coal tit.", "It makes a nest in a hole in rotting stumps.", "This bird often feeds low down in trees, but although not shy, it is not always easily approached.", "It will join winter tit flocks with other species.", "Like other tits it is found in pairs and it feeds on insects and seeds.", "jpg Lophophanes cristatus - 02."]}, "Leonurus cardiaca": {"keywords": ["The plant grows to about in height and blooms in mid to late summer.", "Motherwort is probably native to the southeastern part of Europe and central Asia where it has been cultivated since ancient times.", "Its natural habitat is beside roadsides, in vacant fields, waste ground, rubbish dumps and other disturbed areas.", "This plant prefers well drained soil and a partly shady location.", "It is hardy in USDA climate zones 48.", "Among other chemical constituents, it also contains stachydrine, bitter iridoid glycosides , diterpenoids, flavonoids , tannins, volatile oils, and vitamin A. Stachydrine is extracted from the leaves of Motherwort and has demonstrated various bioactivities for the treatment of fibrosis, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, uterine diseases, brain injuries, and inflammation."], "habitat_section": ["Motherwort is probably native to the southeastern part of Europe and central Asia where it has been cultivated since ancient times.", "Its natural habitat is beside roadsides, in vacant fields, waste ground, rubbish dumps and other disturbed areas.", "This plant prefers well drained soil and a partly shady location.", "Introduced to North America as a bee foraging plant and to attract bumble bees, this perennial herb is now considered invasive.", "It is hardy in USDA climate zones 48."], "random_sentences": ["Leonurus cardiaca, known as motherwort, is an herbaceous perennial plant in the mint family, Lamiaceae.", "Other common names include throw-wort, lion's ear, and lion's tail.", "Lion's tail is also a common name for Leonotis leonurus, and lion's ear, a common name for Leonotis nepetifolia.", "Originally from Central Asia and southeastern Europe, it is now found worldwide, spread largely due to its use as a herbal remedy.", "Leonurus cardiaca has a squarish stem which is clad in short hairs and is often purplish, especially near the nodes.", "The opposite leaves have serrated margins and are palmately lobed with long petioles", "basal leaves are wedge shaped with three points while the upper leaves have three to five.", "They are slightly hairy above and greyish beneath.", "Flowers appear in leaf axils on the upper part of the plant and have three-lobed bracts.", "The calyx of each flower is bell-shaped and has five lobes.", "The corolla is irregular, long, fused, long-tubed with two lips.", "The upper lip is convex and covered with white hairs and the lower lip is three-lobed and downward-curving and spotted with red.", "The flowers are pink to lilac in colour often with furry lower lips.", "There are four protruding stamens, two short and two longer, and the fruit is a four-chambered schizocarp.", "The plant grows to about in height and blooms in mid to late summer.", "Motherwort is probably native to the southeastern part of Europe and central Asia where it has been cultivated since ancient times.", "Its natural habitat is beside roadsides, in vacant fields, waste ground, rubbish dumps and other disturbed areas.", "This plant prefers well drained soil and a partly shady location.", "Introduced to North America as a bee foraging plant and to attract bumble bees, this perennial herb is now considered invasive.", "It is hardy in USDA climate zones 48.", "Nicholas Culpeper considered motherwort useful for removing melancholy vapors from the heart, improving cheerfulness, and settling the wombs of mothers.", "In 15th century Europe, motherwort was considered by some herbalists to protect against evil spirits.", "Chemical structure of stachydrine The herb contains the alkaloid leonurine.", "Among other chemical constituents, it also contains stachydrine, bitter iridoid glycosides , diterpenoids, flavonoids , tannins, volatile oils, and vitamin A. Stachydrine is extracted from the leaves of Motherwort and has demonstrated various bioactivities for the treatment of fibrosis, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, uterine diseases, brain injuries, and inflammation."]}, "Chloris chloris": {"keywords": ["Woodland edges, farmland hedges and gardens with relatively thick vegetation are favoured for breeding.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain."], "habitat_section": ["Woodland edges, farmland hedges and gardens with relatively thick vegetation are favoured for breeding.", "It nests in trees or bushes, laying 3 to 6 eggs.", "This species can form large flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixing with other finches and buntings.", "They feed largely on seeds, but also take berries."], "random_sentences": ["Nest with eggs in Nottinghamshire, England The European greenfinch or simply the greenfinch is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.", "This bird is widespread throughout Europe, North Africa and Southwest Asia.", "It is mainly resident, but some northernmost populations migrate further south.", "The greenfinch has also been introduced into Australia, New Zealand, Uruguay, and Argentina.", "The greenfinch was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under the binomial name Loxia chloris.", "The specific epithet is from khloris, the Ancient Greek name for this bird, from khloros, \" green \" .", "The finch family, Fringillidae, is divided into two subfamilies, the Carduelinae, containing around 28 genera with 141 species and the Fringillinae containing a single genus, Fringilla, with four species.", "The finch family 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 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.", "They have therefore been placed in the resurrected genus Chloris that had originally been introduced by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1800, with the European greenfinch as the type species.", "The European greenfinch is long with a wingspan of .", "It is similar in size and shape to a house sparrow, but is mainly green, with yellow in the wings and tail.", "The female and young birds are duller and have brown tones on the back.", "The bill is thick and conical. The song contains a lot of trilling twitters interspersed with wheezes, and the male has a \" butterfly \" display flight.", "Male greenfinch birds exhibit higher degrees of fluctuating asymmetry.", "The development of bones of males may be more easily disrupted than that of females.", "Woodland edges, farmland hedges and gardens with relatively thick vegetation are favoured for breeding.", "It nests in trees or bushes, laying 3 to 6 eggs.", "This species can form large flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixing with other finches and buntings.", "They feed largely on seeds, but also take berries.", "Cuculus canorus bangsi in a clutch of Carduelis chloris - MHNT Breeding season occurs in spring, starting in the second half of March, until June, with fledging young in early July.", "Incubation lasts about 1314 days, by the female.", "The male feeds her at the nest during this period.", "Chicks are covered with thick, long, greyish-white down at hatching.", "They are fed on insect larvae by both adults during the first days, and later, by a frequently regurgitated yellowish paste made of seeds.", "They leave the nest about 13 days later, but they are not able to fly.", "Usually, they fledge 1618 days after hatching.", "This species produces two or three broods per year.", "In Australasia, the European greenfinch's breeding season is from October to March.", "The protozoal parasite Trichomonas gallinae was known to infect pigeons and raptors, but, beginning in Great Britain in 2005, carcasses of dead European greenfinches and common chaffinches were found to be infected with the parasite.", "The disease spread and in 2008, infected carcasses were found in Norway, Sweden and Finland and a year later in Germany.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain.", "In Great Britain, the number of infected carcasses recovered each year declined after a peak in 2006.", "There was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches from around 4.3 million to around 2.8 million, but no significant decline in the overall number of common chaffinches.", "A similar pattern occurred in Finland where, after the arrival of the disease in 2008, there was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches but only a small change in the number of common chaffinches.", "The English poet William Wordsworth wrote a poem about this species entitled The Green Linnet in 1803."]}, "Dendrocopos major": {"keywords": ["This species is found across the Palearctic including parts of North Africa.", "Across most of its range it is resident, but in the north some will migrate if the conifer cone crop fails.", "This woodpecker occurs in all types of woodlands and eats a variety of foods, being capable of extracting seeds from pine cones, insect larvae from inside trees or eggs and chicks of other birds from their nests.", "The bill is slate-black, the legs greenish-grey and the eye is deep red.", "D. m. canariensis and D. m. thanneri in the Canary Islands are similar to the Iberian race but have contrasting white flanks.", "In Morocco, D. m. mauritanus is pale below with red in the centre of its breast, and birds breeding at higher altitudes are larger and darker than those lower in the hills.", "Northern D. m. major starts its moult from mid-June to late July and finishes in October or November, temperate races like D. m. pinetorum are earlier, commencing in early June to mid-July and completing in mid-September to late October, and southern D. m. hispanicus starts late May or June and finishes as early as August.", "The species ranges across Eurasia from the British Isles to Japan, and in North Africa from Morocco to Tunisia, it is absent only from those areas too cold or dry to have suitable woodland habitat.", "It is found in a wide variety of woodlands, broadleaf, coniferous or mixed, and in modified habitats like parks, gardens and olive groves.", "It occurs from sea level to the tree line, up to in Europe, in Morocco and in Central Asia.", "Highland populations often descend to lower altitudes in winter.", "Vagrants have reached the Faroe Islands, Hong Kong and Iceland, and there are several sightings from North America in at least the Aleutian Islands, Pribilof Islands and Alaska.", "Old holes are rarely re-used, The nest cavity is deep with an entrance hole wide.", "Egg Trees chosen for nest holes have soft heartwood and tough sapwood, the former often due to parasites or diseases that weaken the tree's core.", "They are laid from mid-April to June, the later dates being for birds breeding in the north of the range or at altitude.", "Crustaceans, molluscs and carrion may be eaten, and bird feeders are visited for seeds, suet and domestic scraps.", "Fat-rich plant products such as nuts and conifer seeds are particularly important as winter food in the north of the woodpecker's range, and can then supply more than 30% of the bird's energy requirements.", "Woodland birds of prey such as the Eurasian sparrowhawk and the northern goshawk hunt the great spotted woodpecker.", "For this reason the great spotted woodpecker is evaluated as a species of least concern by the IUCN. Breeding densities have been recorded as between 0.16.6 pairs/10 ha , with the greatest densities in mature forest growing on alluvium.", "Numbers have increased in Europe due to the planting of forests, which provides breeding habitat, and more available dead wood, and this species has profited from its flexibility with regard to types of woodland and its ability to thrive in proximity to humans.", "Harsh winters are a problem, and fragmentation of woodland can cause local difficulties.", "The Canary Islands populations of D. m. canariensis on Tenerife and D. m. thanneri on Gran Canaria face a potential threat from the exploitation of the local pine forests."], "habitat_section": ["Large trees provide habitat for excavating feeding holes.", "The species ranges across Eurasia from the British Isles to Japan, and in North Africa from Morocco to Tunisia, it is absent only from those areas too cold or dry to have suitable woodland habitat.", "It is found in a wide variety of woodlands, broadleaf, coniferous or mixed, and in modified habitats like parks, gardens and olive groves.", "It occurs from sea level to the tree line, up to in Europe, in Morocco and in Central Asia.", "Highland populations often descend to lower altitudes in winter.", "Juveniles also have a tendency to wander some distance from where they were hatched, often as far as , sometimes up to .", "Vagrants have reached the Faroe Islands, Hong Kong and Iceland, and there are several sightings from North America in at least the Aleutian Islands, Pribilof Islands and Alaska.", "but the island has been naturally recolonised, with the first proven nesting in County Down in 2007.", "Its expansion in range is continuing, with breeding proven or suspected in at least 10 counties by 2013, with the main concentration in Down and County Wicklow.", "Genetic evidence shows the birds to be of British, rather than Scandinavian, ancestry, with the populations in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic having separate origins.", "The great spotted woodpecker was also found to have been nesting in the Isle of Man from 2009."], "random_sentences": ["The great spotted woodpecker is a medium-sized woodpecker with pied black and white plumage and a red patch on the lower belly.", "Males and young birds also have red markings on the neck or head.", "This species is found across the Palearctic including parts of North Africa.", "Across most of its range it is resident, but in the north some will migrate if the conifer cone crop fails.", "Some individuals have a tendency to wander, leading to the recent recolonisation of Ireland and to vagrancy to North America.", "Great spotted woodpeckers chisel into trees to find food or excavate nest holes, and also drum for contact and territorial advertisement", "like other woodpeckers, they have anatomical adaptations to manage the physical stresses from the hammering action.", "This species is similar to the Syrian woodpecker.", "This woodpecker occurs in all types of woodlands and eats a variety of foods, being capable of extracting seeds from pine cones, insect larvae from inside trees or eggs and chicks of other birds from their nests.", "It breeds in holes excavated in living or dead trees, unlined apart from wood chips.", "The typical clutch is four to six glossy white eggs.", "Both parents incubate the eggs, feed the chicks, and keep the nest clean.", "When the young fledge they are fed by the adults for about ten days, each parent taking responsibility for feeding part of the brood.", "The species is closely related to some other members of its genus.", "It has a number of subspecies, some of which are distinctive enough to be potential new species.", "It has a huge range and large population, with no widespread threats, so it is classed as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature .", "Woodpeckers are an ancient bird family consisting of three subfamilies, the wrynecks, the piculets and the true woodpeckers, Picinae.", "The largest of the five tribes within the Picinae is Melanerpini, the pied woodpeckers, a group which includes the great spotted woodpecker.", "Within the genus Dendrocopos the great spotted woodpecker's closest relatives are the Himalayan, Sind, Syrian, white-winged woodpeckers and the Darjeeling woodpecker.", "The great spotted woodpecker has been recorded as hybridising with the Syrian woodpecker.", "It was moved to its current genus, Dendrocopos, by the German naturalist Carl Ludwig Koch in 1816.", "The genus name Dendrocopos is a combination of the Greek words dendron , \" tree \" , and kopos, \" striking \" .", "The specific major is from Latin maior, \" greater \" .", "Female Dendrocopos major major in Sweden An adult great spotted woodpecker is long, weighs and has a wingspan.", "The upperparts are glossy blue-black, with white on the sides of the face and neck.", "Black lines run from the shoulder to the nape, the base of the bill and about halfway across the breast.", "There is a large white shoulder patch and the flight feathers are barred with black and white, as is the tail.", "The underparts are white other than a scarlet lower belly and undertail.", "The bill is slate-black, the legs greenish-grey and the eye is deep red.", "Males have a crimson patch on the nape, which is absent from the otherwise similar females.", "Juvenile birds are less glossy than adults and have a brown tinge to their upperparts and dirty white underparts.", "Their markings are less well-defined than the adult's and the lower belly is pink rather than red.", "The crown of the juvenile's head is red, less extensively in young females than males.", "The various subspecies differ in plumage, the general pattern being that northern forms are larger, heavier-billed and whiter beneath, as predicted by Bergmann's rule, so north Eurasian D. m. major and D. m. kamtschaticus are large and strikingly white, whereas D. m. hispanicus in Iberia and D. m. harterti in Corsica and Sardinia are somewhat smaller and have darker underparts.", "D. m. canariensis and D. m. thanneri in the Canary Islands are similar to the Iberian race but have contrasting white flanks.", "In Morocco, D. m. mauritanus is pale below with red in the centre of its breast, and birds breeding at higher altitudes are larger and darker than those lower in the hills.", "D. m. numidus in Algeria and Tunisia is very distinctive, with a breast band of red-tipped black feathers.", "Caspian D. m. poelzami is small, relatively long-billed and has brown underparts.", "D. m. japonicus of Japan has less white on its shoulders but more in its wings.", "The two Chinese forms, D. m. cabanisi and D. m. stresemanni, have brownish heads and underparts, and often some red on the breast.", "Both races have increasingly dark underparts towards the south of their respective ranges.", "although juvenile great spotted woodpeckers often have an incomplete cheek bar, so can potentially be misidentified as Syrian.", "The white-winged woodpecker has a far more extensive white wing patch than the great spotted woodpecker.", "The Sind woodpecker is very similar to the Syrian species, and can be distinguished from great spotted woodpecker in the same way.", "Juvenile male D. m. major in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England.", "Juveniles can be distinguished from adults by their red crown, which is more pronounced in males.", "Adult great spotted woodpeckers have a complete moult after the breeding season which takes about 120 days.", "Northern D. m. major starts its moult from mid-June to late July and finishes in October or November, temperate races like D. m. pinetorum are earlier, commencing in early June to mid-July and completing in mid-September to late October, and southern D. m. hispanicus starts late May or June and finishes as early as August.", "Juveniles have a partial moult, retaining some of the wing coverts but replacing body, tail and primary feathers.", "This moult to near-adult plumage starts from late May to early August and finishes from mid-September to late November, timing varying with latitude as with the adults.", "The call of the great spotted woodpecker is a sharp kik, which may be repeated as a wooden rattling krrarraarr if the bird is disturbed.", "The courtship call, gwig, is mostly given in the display flight.", "Drumming on dead trees and branches, and sometimes suitable man-made structures, serves to maintain contact between paired adults and to advertise ownership of territory.", "Drumming Both sexes drum, although the male does so much more often, mostly from mid-January until the young are fledged.", "As late as the early twentieth century it was thought that the drumming might be a vocalisation, and it was not until 1943 that it was finally proved to be purely mechanical.", "Large trees provide habitat for excavating feeding holes.", "The species ranges across Eurasia from the British Isles to Japan, and in North Africa from Morocco to Tunisia", "it is absent only from those areas too cold or dry to have suitable woodland habitat.", "It is found in a wide variety of woodlands, broadleaf, coniferous or mixed, and in modified habitats like parks, gardens and olive groves.", "It occurs from sea level to the tree line, up to in Europe, in Morocco and in Central Asia.", "Highland populations often descend to lower altitudes in winter.", "Juveniles also have a tendency to wander some distance from where they were hatched, often as far as , sometimes up to .", "Vagrants have reached the Faroe Islands, Hong Kong and Iceland, and there are several sightings from North America in at least the Aleutian Islands, Pribilof Islands and Alaska.", "but the island has been naturally recolonised, with the first proven nesting in County Down in 2007.", "Its expansion in range is continuing, with breeding proven or suspected in at least 10 counties by 2013, with the main concentration in Down and County Wicklow.", "Genetic evidence shows the birds to be of British, rather than Scandinavian, ancestry, with the populations in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic having separate origins.", "The great spotted woodpecker was also found to have been nesting in the Isle of Man from 2009.", "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, and the stiff tail feathers that are used as a prop against the trunk.", "In most birds the bones of the tail diminish in size towards its end, but this does not occur in woodpeckers, and the final vertebra, the pygostyle, is very large to anchor the strong tail muscles.", "In the great spotted woodpecker and most of its relatives, the hinge where the front of the skull connects with the upper mandible is folded inwards, tensioned by a muscle that braces it against the shock of the impact when the bill is hammering on hard wood.", "Skeletal adaptations and strengthening also help to absorb the shock, and narrow nostrils protect against flying debris.", "Great spotted woodpeckers are strongly territorial, typically occupying areas of about year-round, which are defended mainly by the male, a behaviour which attracts females.", "Pairs are monogamous during the breeding period, but often change partners before the next season.", "Sexual maturity is attained at an age of one year", "courtship behaviour commences in the following December.", "The male has a fluttering flight display with shallow wingbeats and a spread tail.", "He calls in flight and may land at a prospective nest-site.", "The pair excavate a new hole at least above the ground and usually lower than , although sometimes much higher.", "The chosen site is normally a tree, alive or dead, occasionally a utility pole or nest box.", "Old holes are rarely re-used, The nest cavity is deep with an entrance hole wide.", "It is excavated by both sexes, the male doing most of the chiselling.", "Egg Trees chosen for nest holes have soft heartwood and tough sapwood, the former often due to parasites or diseases that weaken the tree's core.", "It is not certain how suitable trees are selected, although it may be by drumming, since woods with differing elastic modulus and density may transmit sound at different speeds.", "A Japanese study found nests in trees from many families", "these included grey alder, Japanese white birch, Japanese hop-hornbeam, Japanese tree lilac, willows, Japanese larch and Sargent's cherry.", "The Mongolian oak and prickly castor-oil tree were rarely if ever used.", "The typical clutch is four to six glossy white eggs that measure and weigh about , of which 7% is shell.", "They are laid from mid-April to June, the later dates being for birds breeding in the north of the range or at altitude.", "The eggs are incubated by either adult during the day and by the male at night, for 1012 days before hatching.", "Both birds brood and feed the altricial naked chicks and keep the nest clean.", "The young fledge in 2023 days from hatching.", "Each parent then takes responsibility for feeding part of the brood for about ten days, during which time they normally remain close to the nest tree.", "There is only one brood per year.", "The survival rates for adults and young are unknown, as is the average lifespan, but the maximum known age is just over 11 years.", "Male and female feeding young The great spotted woodpecker is omnivorous.", "It digs beetle larvae from trees and also takes many other invertebrates including adult beetles, ants and spiders.", "The bird also digs for Lepidoptera larvae like Acronicta rumicis.", "Crustaceans, molluscs and carrion may be eaten, and bird feeders are visited for seeds, suet and domestic scraps.", "The nests of other cavity-nesting birds, such as tits, may be raided for their eggs and chicks", "nest boxes may be similarly attacked, holes being pecked to admit entrance by the woodpecker where necessary.", "House martin colonies can be destroyed in repeated visits.", "Fat-rich plant products such as nuts and conifer seeds are particularly important as winter food in the north of the woodpecker's range, and can then supply more than 30% of the bird's energy requirements.", "Other plant items consumed include buds, berries and tree sap, the latter obtained by drilling rings of holes around a tree trunk.", "Scavenging on a dead pig The species feeds at all levels of a tree, usually alone, but sometimes as a pair.", "It will use an \" anvil \" on which to hammer hard items, particularly pine, spruce, and larch cones, but also fruit, nuts, and hard-bodied insects.", "Woodland birds of prey such as the Eurasian sparrowhawk and the northern goshawk hunt the great spotted woodpecker.", "This woodpecker is a host of the blood-feeding fly Carnus hemapterus, and its internal parasites may include the spiny-headed worm Prosthorhynchus transversus.", "Protozoans also occur, including the potentially fatal Toxoplasma gondii, which causes toxoplasmosis.", "The great spotted woodpecker is the favoured host of the tapeworm Anomotaenia brevis.", "The total population for the great spotted woodpecker is estimated at 73.7110.3 million individuals, with 35% of the population in Europe.", "The breeding range is estimated as , and the population is considered overall to be large and apparently stable or slightly increasing, especially in Britain, where the population has recently overspilled into Ireland.", "For this reason the great spotted woodpecker is evaluated as a species of least concern by the IUCN.", "Breeding densities have been recorded as between 0.16.6 pairs/10 ha , with the greatest densities in mature forest growing on alluvium.", "Numbers have increased in Europe due to the planting of forests, which provides breeding habitat, and more available dead wood, and this species has profited from its flexibility with regard to types of woodland and its ability to thrive in proximity to humans.", "Harsh winters are a problem, and fragmentation of woodland can cause local difficulties.", "The Canary Islands populations of D. m. canariensis on Tenerife and D. m. thanneri on Gran Canaria face a potential threat from the exploitation of the local pine forests."]}, "Passer domesticus": {"keywords": ["One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia.", "Though found in widely varied habitats and climates, it typically avoids extensive woodlands, grasslands, and deserts away from human development.", "It feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is an opportunistic eater and commonly eats insects and many other foods.", "Younger birds are smaller, males are larger during the winter, and females are larger during the breeding season.", "Birds at higher latitudes, colder climates, and sometimes higher altitudes are larger , both between and within subspecies.", "The upper back and mantle are a warm brown, with broad black streaks, while the lower back, rump and upper tail coverts are greyish brown.", "Many of these relatives are smaller, with an appearance that is neater or \" cuter \" , as with the Dead Sea sparrow.", "The house sparrow is also called by a number of alternative English names, including English sparrow, chiefly in North America, and Indian sparrow or Indian house sparrow, for the birds of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia.", "Within Passer, the house sparrow is part of the \" Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrows \" group and a close relative of the Mediterranean \" willow sparrows \" .", "In the Alps, the Italian sparrow intergrades over a narrow roughly strip with the house sparrow, and some house sparrows migrate into the Italian sparrow's range in winter.", "On the Mediterranean islands of Malta, Gozo, Crete, Rhodes, and Karpathos, other apparently intermediate birds are of unknown status.", "By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona House sparrows perching on a roof, during winter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa.", "Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America , Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world.", "It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.", "House sparrows were introduced in New Zealand in 1859, and from there reached many of the Pacific islands, including Hawaii.", "It now occurs almost continuously from Tierra del Fuego to the fringes of the Amazon basin, with isolated populations as far north as coastal Venezuela.", "The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra.", "It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night.", "It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates.", "It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries.", "In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty.", "The house sparrow feeds mostly on the ground, but it flocks in trees and bushes.", "Outside of the reproductive season, they often roost communally in trees or shrubs.", "A female house sparrow feeding on rice grains As an adult, the house sparrow mostly feeds on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is opportunistic and adaptable, and eats whatever foods are available.", "Several studies of the house sparrow in temperate agricultural areas have found the proportion of seeds in its diet to be about 90%.", "In temperate areas, the house sparrow has an unusual habit of tearing flowers, especially yellow ones, in the spring.", "Various noninsect arthropods are eaten, as are molluscs and crustaceans where available, earthworms, and even vertebrates such as lizards and frogs.", "Some young birds disperse long distances, especially on coasts, and mountain birds move to lower elevations in winter.", "The house sparrow is also a common victim of roadkill, on European roads, it is the bird most frequently found dead.", "The house sparrow hosts avian pox and avian malaria, which it has spread to the native forest birds of Hawaii.", "Arboviruses such as the West Nile virus, which most commonly infect insects and mammals, survive winters in temperate areas by going dormant in birds such as the house sparrow.", "A few records indicate disease extirpating house sparrow populations, especially from Scottish islands, but this seems to be rare.", "House sparrows are also infected by haemosporidian parasites, but less so in urban than in rural areas Toxoplasma gondii has been detected in sparrows in northwestern China where they pose a risk due to their meat being consumed in the region.", "A number of chewing lice occupy different niches on the house sparrow's body.", "Menacanthus lice occur across the house sparrow's body, where they feed on blood and feathers, while Brueelia lice feed on feathers and Philopterus fringillae occurs on the head.", "Finally, house sparrows in constant darkness could be entrained to a cycle of high and low temperature, but only if the difference in temperature was large , some of the tested sparrows matched their activity to the warm phase, and others to the cold phase.", "Usually, the house sparrow is regarded as a pest, since it consumes agricultural products and spreads disease to humans and their domestic animals.", "Declines in insect populations result from an increase of monoculture crops, the heavy use of pesticides, the replacement of native plants in cities with introduced plants and parking areas, and possibly the introduction of unleaded petrol, which produces toxic compounds such as methyl nitrite."], "habitat_section": ["By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona House sparrows perching on a roof, during winter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa.", "Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America , Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world.", "It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.", "The extent of its range makes it the most widely distributed wild bird on the planet.", "The house sparrow is closely associated with human habitation and cultivation.", "It is not an obligate commensal of humans as some have suggested.", "birds of the migratory Central Asian subspecies usually breed away from humans in open country, and birds elsewhere are occasionally found away from humans.", "The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra.", "Well adapted to living around humans, it frequently lives and even breeds indoors, especially in factories, warehouses, and zoos.", "It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night.", "It reaches its greatest densities in urban centres, but its reproductive success is greater in suburbs, where insects are more abundant.", "On a larger scale, it is most abundant in wheat-growing areas such as the Midwestern United States.", "It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates.", "It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries.", "In most of eastern Asia, the house sparrow is entirely absent, replaced by the Eurasian tree sparrow.", "Where these two species overlap, the house sparrow is usually more common than the Eurasian tree sparrow, but one species may replace the other in a manner that ornithologist Maud Doria Haviland described as \" random, or even capricious \" .", "In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty."], "random_sentences": ["The house sparrow is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world.", "It is a small bird that has a typical length of and a mass of .", "Females and young birds are coloured pale brown and grey, and males have brighter black, white, and brown markings.", "One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia.", "Its intentional or accidental introductions to many regions, including parts of Australasia, Africa, and the Americas, make it the most widely distributed wild bird.", "The house sparrow is strongly associated with human habitation, and can live in urban or rural settings.", "Though found in widely varied habitats and climates, it typically avoids extensive woodlands, grasslands, and deserts away from human development.", "It feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is an opportunistic eater and commonly eats insects and many other foods.", "Its predators include domestic cats, hawks, and many other predatory birds and mammals.", "Because of its numbers, ubiquity, and association with human settlements, the house sparrow is culturally prominent.", "It is extensively, and usually unsuccessfully, persecuted as an agricultural pest.", "It has also often been kept as a pet, as well as being a food item and a symbol of lust, sexual potency, commonness, and vulgarity.", "Though it is widespread and abundant, its numbers have declined in some areas.", "The animal's conservation status is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List.", "An audio recording of a house sparrow", "The house sparrow is typically about long, ranging from .", "The house sparrow is a compact bird with a full chest and a large, rounded head.", "Its bill is stout and conical with a culmen length of , strongly built as an adaptation for eating seeds.", "Its tail is short, at long.", "The wing chord is , and the tarsus is .", "In mass, the house sparrow ranges from .", "Females usually are slightly smaller than males.", "The median mass on the European continent for both sexes is about , and in more southerly subspecies is around .", "Younger birds are smaller, males are larger during the winter, and females are larger during the breeding season.", "Birds at higher latitudes, colder climates, and sometimes higher altitudes are larger , both between and within subspecies.", "The plumage of the house sparrow is mostly different shades of grey and brown.", "The sexes exhibit strong dimorphism: the female is mostly buffish above and below, while the male has boldly coloured head markings, a reddish back, and grey underparts.", "The male has a dark grey crown from the top of its bill to its back, and chestnut brown flanking its crown on the sides of its head.", "It has black around its bill, on its throat, and on the spaces between its bill and eyes .", "It has a small white stripe between the lores and crown and small white spots immediately behind the eyes , with black patches below and above them.", "The underparts are pale grey or white, as are the cheeks, ear coverts, and stripes at the base of the head.", "The upper back and mantle are a warm brown, with broad black streaks, while the lower back, rump and upper tail coverts are greyish brown.", "The male is duller in fresh nonbreeding plumage, with whitish tips on many feathers.", "Wear and preening expose many of the bright brown and black markings, including most of the black throat and chest patch, called the \" bib \" or \" badge \" .", "The badge is variable in width and general size, and may signal social status or fitness.", "This hypothesis has led to a \" veritable 'cottage industry' \" of studies, which have only conclusively shown that patches increase in size with age.", "The male's bill is dark grey, but black in the breeding season.", "The female has no black markings or grey crown.", "Its upperparts and head are brown with darker streaks around the mantle and a distinct pale supercilium.", "Its underparts are pale grey-brown.", "The female's bill is brownish-grey and becomes darker in breeding plumage approaching the black of the male's bill.", "Juveniles are similar to the adult female, but deeper brown below and paler above, with paler and less defined supercilia.", "Juveniles have broader buff feather edges, and tend to have looser, scruffier plumage, like moulting adults.", "Juvenile males tend to have darker throats and white postoculars like adult males, while juvenile females tend to have white throats.", "However, juveniles cannot be reliably sexed by plumage: some juvenile males lack any markings of the adult male, and some juvenile females have male features.", "The bills of young birds are light yellow to straw, paler than the female's bill.", "Immature males have paler versions of the adult male's markings, which can be very indistinct in fresh plumage.", "By their first breeding season, young birds generally are indistinguishable from other adults, though they may still be paler during their first year.", "Most house sparrow vocalisations are variations on its short and incessant chirping call.", "Transcribed as chirrup, tschilp, or philip, this note is made as a contact call by flocking or resting birds, or by males to proclaim nest ownership and invite pairing.", "In the breeding season, the male gives this call repetitively, with emphasis and speed, but not much rhythm, forming what is described either as a song or an \" ecstatic call \" similar to a song.", "Young birds also give a true song, especially in captivity, a warbling similar to that of the European greenfinch.", "Aggressive males give a trilled version of their call, transcribed as \" chur-chur-r-r-it-it-it-it \" .", "This call is also used by females in the breeding season, to establish dominance over males while displacing them to feed young or incubate eggs.", "House sparrows give a nasal alarm call, the basic sound of which is transcribed as quer, and a shrill chree call in great distress.", "Another vocalisation is the \" appeasement call \" , a soft quee given to inhibit aggression, usually given between birds of a mated pair.", "These vocalisations are not unique to the house sparrow, but are shared, with small variations, by all sparrows.", "An immature of the Indian subspecies (P.", "d. indicus) in Rajasthan, India Some variation is seen in the 12 subspecies of house sparrows, which are divided into two groups, the Oriental P. d. indicus group, and the Palaearctic P. d. domesticus group.", "Birds of the P. d. domesticus group have grey cheeks, while P. d. indicus group birds have white cheeks, as well as bright colouration on the crown, a smaller bill, and a longer black bib.", "The subspecies P. d. tingitanus differs little from the nominate subspecies, except in the worn breeding plumage of the male, in which the head is speckled with black and underparts are paler.", "P. d. balearoibericus is slightly paler than the nominate, but darker than P. d. bibilicus.", "P. d. bibilicus is paler than most subspecies, but has the grey cheeks of P. d. domesticus group birds.", "The similar P. d. persicus is paler and smaller, and P. d. niloticus is nearly identical but smaller.", "Of the less widespread P. d. indicus group subspecies, P. d. hyrcanus is larger than P. d. indicus, P. d. hufufae is paler, P. d. bactrianus is larger and paler, and P. d. parkini is larger and darker with more black on the breast than any other subspecies.", "The house sparrow can be confused with a number of other seed-eating birds, especially its relatives in the genus Passer.", "Many of these relatives are smaller, with an appearance that is neater or \" cuter \" , as with the Dead Sea sparrow.", "The dull-coloured female can often not be distinguished from other females, and is nearly identical to those of the Spanish and Italian sparrows.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow is smaller and slenderer with a chestnut crown and a black patch on each cheek.", "The male Spanish sparrow and Italian sparrow are distinguished by their chestnut crowns.", "The Sind sparrow is very similar but smaller, with less black on the male's throat and a distinct pale supercilium on the female.", "The house sparrow was among the first animals to be given a scientific name in the modern system of biological classification, since it was described by Carl Linnaeus, in the 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "It was described from a type specimen collected in Sweden, with the name Fringilla domestica.", "Later, the genus name Fringilla came to be used only for the common chaffinch and its relatives, and the house sparrow has usually been placed in the genus Passer created by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.", "The bird's scientific name and its usual English name have the same meaning.", "The Latin word passer, like the English word \" sparrow \" , is a term for small active birds, coming from a root word referring to speed.", "The Latin word domesticus means \" belonging to the house \" , like the common name a reference to its association with humans.", "The house sparrow is also called by a number of alternative English names, including English sparrow, chiefly in North America", "and Indian sparrow or Indian house sparrow, for the birds of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia.", "Dialectal names include sparr, sparrer, spadger, spadgick, and philip, mainly in southern England", "spug and spuggy, mainly in northern England", "spur and sprig, mainly in Scotland", "and spatzie or spotsie, from the German Spatz, in North America.", "A pair of Italian sparrows, in Rome The genus Passer contains about 25 species, depending on the authority, 26 according to the Handbook of the Birds of the World.", "Most Passer species are dull-coloured birds with short, square tails and stubby, conical beaks, between long.", "Mitochondrial DNA studies suggest that speciation in the genus occurred during the Pleistocene and earlier, while other evidence suggests speciation occurred 25,000 to 15,000 years ago.", "Within Passer, the house sparrow is part of the \" Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrows \" group and a close relative of the Mediterranean \" willow sparrows \" .", "The taxonomy of the house sparrow and its Mediterranean relatives is complicated.", "The common type of \" willow sparrow \" is the Spanish sparrow, which resembles the house sparrow in many respects.", "It frequently prefers wetter habitats than the house sparrow, and it is often colonial and nomadic.", "In most of the Mediterranean, one or both species occur, with some degree of hybridisation.", "In North Africa, the two species hybridise extensively, forming highly variable mixed populations with a full range of characters from pure house sparrows to pure Spanish sparrows.", "In most of Italy, the breeding species is the Italian sparrow, which has an appearance intermediate between those of the house and Spanish sparrows.", "Its specific status and origin are the subject of much debate, but it may be a case of long-ago hybrid speciation.", "In the Alps, the Italian sparrow intergrades over a narrow roughly strip with the house sparrow, and some house sparrows migrate into the Italian sparrow's range in winter.", "On the Mediterranean islands of Malta, Gozo, Crete, Rhodes, and Karpathos, other apparently intermediate birds are of unknown status.", "By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona House sparrows perching on a roof, during winter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa.", "Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America , Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world.", "It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.", "The extent of its range makes it the most widely distributed wild bird on the planet.", "The house sparrow has become highly successful in most parts of the world where it has been introduced.", "This is mostly due to its early adaptation to living with humans, and its adaptability to a wide range of conditions.", "Other factors may include its robust immune response, compared to the Eurasian tree sparrow.", "Where introduced, it can extend its range quickly, sometimes at a rate over per year.", "In many parts of the world, it has been characterised as a pest, and poses a threat to native birds.", "A few introductions have died out or been of limited success, such as those to Greenland and Cape Verde.", "intended to control the ravages of the linden moth.", "In North America, the house sparrow now occurs from the Northwest Territories of Canada to southern Panama, The house sparrow was first introduced to Australia in 1863 at Melbourne and is common throughout the eastern part of the continent as far north as Cape York, but has been prevented from establishing itself in Western Australia, where every house sparrow found in the state is killed.", "House sparrows were introduced in New Zealand in 1859, and from there reached many of the Pacific islands, including Hawaii.", "In southern Africa, birds of both the European subspecies (P.", "d. domesticus) and the Indian subspecies (P.", "d. indicus) were introduced around 1900.", "Birds of P. d. domesticus ancestry are confined to a few towns, while P. d. indicus birds have spread rapidly, reaching Tanzania in the 1980s.", "Despite this rapid spread, native relatives such as the Cape sparrow also occur and thrive in urban habitats.", "In South America, it was first introduced near Buenos Aires around 1870, and quickly became common in most of the southern part of the continent.", "It now occurs almost continuously from Tierra del Fuego to the fringes of the Amazon basin, with isolated populations as far north as coastal Venezuela.", "The house sparrow is closely associated with human habitation and cultivation.", "It is not an obligate commensal of humans as some have suggested: birds of the migratory Central Asian subspecies usually breed away from humans in open country, and birds elsewhere are occasionally found away from humans.", "The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra.", "Well adapted to living around humans, it frequently lives and even breeds indoors, especially in factories, warehouses, and zoos.", "It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night.", "It reaches its greatest densities in urban centres, but its reproductive success is greater in suburbs, where insects are more abundant.", "On a larger scale, it is most abundant in wheat-growing areas such as the Midwestern United States.", "It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates.", "It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries.", "In most of eastern Asia, the house sparrow is entirely absent, replaced by the Eurasian tree sparrow.", "Where these two species overlap, the house sparrow is usually more common than the Eurasian tree sparrow, but one species may replace the other in a manner that ornithologist Maud Doria Haviland described as \" random, or even capricious \" .", "In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty.", "The house sparrow is a very social bird.", "It is gregarious during all seasons when feeding, often forming flocks with other species of birds.", "It roosts communally and while breeding nests are usually grouped together in clumps.", "House sparrows also engage in social activities such as dust or water bathing and \" social singing \" , in which birds call together in bushes.", "The house sparrow feeds mostly on the ground, but it flocks in trees and bushes.", "At feeding stations and nests, female house sparrows are dominant despite their smaller size, and they can fight over males in the breeding season.", "House sparrows sleep with the bill tucked underneath the scapular feathers.", "Outside of the reproductive season, they often roost communally in trees or shrubs.", "Much communal chirping occurs before and after the birds settle in the roost in the evening, as well as before the birds leave the roost in the morning.", "Some congregating sites separate from the roost may be visited by the birds prior to settling in for the night.", "Dust or water bathing is common and often occurs in groups.", "Head scratching is done with the leg over the drooped wing.", "A female house sparrow feeding on rice grains As an adult, the house sparrow mostly feeds on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is opportunistic and adaptable, and eats whatever foods are available.", "In towns and cities, it often scavenges for food in garbage containers and congregates in the outdoors of restaurants and other eating establishments to feed on leftover food and crumbs.", "It can perform complex tasks to obtain food, such as opening automatic doors to enter supermarkets, clinging to hotel walls to watch vacationers on their balconies, and nectar robbing kowhai flowers.", "In common with many other birds, the house sparrow requires grit to digest the harder items in its diet.", "Grit can be either stone, often grains of masonry, or the shells of eggs or snails", "oblong and rough grains are preferred.", "Several studies of the house sparrow in temperate agricultural areas have found the proportion of seeds in its diet to be about 90%.", "It will eat almost any seeds, but where it has a choice, it prefers corn, oats, and wheat.", "Rural birds tend to eat more waste seed from animal dung and seed from fields.", "In urban areas, the house sparrow feeds largely on food provided directly or indirectly by humans, such as bread, though it prefers raw seeds.", "The house sparrow also eats some plant matter besides seeds, including buds, berries, and fruits such as grapes and cherries.", "In temperate areas, the house sparrow has an unusual habit of tearing flowers, especially yellow ones, in the spring.", "Animals form another important part of the house sparrow's diet, chiefly insects, of which beetles, caterpillars, dipteran flies, and aphids are especially important.", "Various noninsect arthropods are eaten, as are molluscs and crustaceans where available, earthworms, and even vertebrates such as lizards and frogs.", "Young house sparrows are fed mostly on insects until about 15 days after hatching.", "They are also given small quantities of seeds, spiders, and grit.", "In most places, grasshoppers and crickets are the most abundant foods of nestlings.", "True bugs, ants, sawflies, and beetles are also important, but house sparrows take advantage of whatever foods are abundant to feed their young.", "House sparrows have been observed stealing prey from other birds, including American robins.", "The gut microbiota of house sparrows differs between chicks and adults, with Pseudomonadota decreasing in chicks when they get to around 9 days old, whilst the relative abundance of Bacillota increase.", "The house sparrow's flight is direct and flapping, averaging and about 15 wingbeats per second.", "On the ground, the house sparrow typically hops rather than walks.", "It can swim when pressed to do so by pursuit from predators.", "Captive birds have been recorded diving and swimming short distances under water.", "Most house sparrows do not move more than a few kilometres during their lifetimes.", "However, limited migration occurs in all regions.", "Some young birds disperse long distances, especially on coasts, and mountain birds move to lower elevations in winter.", "Two subspecies, P. d. bactrianus and P. d. parkini, are predominantly migratory.", "Unlike the birds in sedentary populations that migrate, birds of migratory subspecies prepare for migration by putting on weight.", "A pair of the Indian subspecies (P.", "d. indicus) mating in Kolkata House sparrows can breed in the breeding season immediately following their hatching, and sometimes attempt to do so.", "Some birds breeding for the first time in tropical areas are only a few months old and still have juvenile plumage.", "Birds breeding for the first time are rarely successful in raising young, and reproductive success increases with age, as older birds breed earlier in the breeding season, and fledge more young.", "As the breeding season approaches, hormone releases trigger enormous increases in the size of the sexual organs and changes in day length lead males to start calling by nesting sites.", "The timing of mating and egg-laying varies geographically, and between specific locations and years because a sufficient supply of insects is needed for egg formation and feeding nestlings.", "Males take up nesting sites before the breeding season, by frequently calling beside them.", "Unmated males start nest construction and call particularly frequently to attract females.", "When a female approaches a male during this period, the male displays by moving up and down while drooping and shivering his wings, pushing up his head, raising and spreading his tail, and showing his bib.", "Males may try to mate with females while calling or displaying.", "In response, a female will adopt a threatening posture and attack a male before flying away, pursued by the male.", "The male displays in front of her, attracting other males, which also pursue and display to the female.", "This group display usually does not immediately result in copulations.", "Other males usually do not copulate with the female.", "Copulation is typically initiated by the female giving a soft dee-dee-dee call to the male.", "Birds of a pair copulate frequently until the female is laying eggs, and the male mounts the female repeatedly each time a pair mates.", "The house sparrow is monogamous, and typically mates for life, but birds from pairs often engage in extra-pair copulations, so about 15% of house sparrow fledglings are unrelated to their mother's mate.", "Males guard their mates carefully to avoid being cuckolded, and most extra-pair copulation occurs away from nest sites.", "Males may sometimes have multiple mates, and bigamy is mostly limited by aggression between females.", "Many birds do not find a nest and a mate, and instead may serve as helpers around the nest for mated pairs, a role which increases the chances of being chosen to replace a lost mate.", "Lost mates of both sexes can be replaced quickly during the breeding season.", "The formation of a pair and the bond between the two birds is tied to the holding of a nest site, though paired house sparrows can recognise each other away from the nest.", "In adult house sparrows, annual survival is 4565%.", "After fledging and leaving the care of their parents, young sparrows have a high mortality rate, which lessens as they grow older and more experienced.", "Only about 2025% of birds hatched survive to their first breeding season.", "The oldest known wild house sparrow lived for nearly two decades", "it was found dead 19 years and 9 months after it was ringed in Denmark.", "The oldest recorded captive house sparrow lived for 23 years.", "The typical ratio of males to females in a population is uncertain due to problems in collecting data, but a very slight preponderance of males at all ages is usual.", "A male sparrow being eaten by a cat: Domestic cats are one of the main predators of the house sparrow.", "The house sparrow's main predators are cats and birds of prey, but many other animals prey on them, including corvids, squirrels, and even humansthe house sparrow has been consumed in the past by people in many parts of the world, and it still is in parts of the Mediterranean.", "Most species of birds of prey have been recorded preying on the house sparrow in places where records are extensive.", "Accipiters and the merlin in particular are major predators, though cats are likely to have a greater impact on house sparrow populations.", "The house sparrow is also a common victim of roadkill", "on European roads, it is the bird most frequently found dead.", "The house sparrow is host to a huge number of parasites and diseases, and the effect of most is unknown.", "Ornithologist Ted R. Anderson listed thousands, noting that his list was incomplete.", "The commonly recorded bacterial pathogens of the house sparrow are often those common in humans, and include Salmonella and Escherichia coli.", "Salmonella is common in the house sparrow, and a comprehensive study of house sparrow disease found it in 13% of sparrows tested.", "Salmonella epidemics in the spring and winter can kill large numbers of sparrows.", "The house sparrow hosts avian pox and avian malaria, which it has spread to the native forest birds of Hawaii.", "Many of the diseases hosted by the house sparrow are also present in humans and domestic animals, for which the house sparrow acts as a reservoir host.", "Arboviruses such as the West Nile virus, which most commonly infect insects and mammals, survive winters in temperate areas by going dormant in birds such as the house sparrow.", "A few records indicate disease extirpating house sparrow populations, especially from Scottish islands, but this seems to be rare.", "House sparrows are also infected by haemosporidian parasites, but less so in urban than in rural areas Toxoplasma gondii has been detected in sparrows in northwestern China where they pose a risk due to their meat being consumed in the region.", "The house sparrow is infested by a number of external parasites, which usually cause little harm to adult sparrows.", "In Europe, the most common mite found on sparrows is Proctophyllodes, the most common ticks are Argas reflexus and Ixodes arboricola, and the most common flea on the house sparrow is Ceratophyllus gallinae.", "Dermanyssus blood-feeding mites are also common ectoparasites of house sparrows, and these mites can enter human habitation and bite humans, causing a condition known as gamasoidosis.", "A number of chewing lice occupy different niches on the house sparrow's body.", "Menacanthus lice occur across the house sparrow's body, where they feed on blood and feathers, while Brueelia lice feed on feathers and Philopterus fringillae occurs on the head.", "An immature house sparrow sleeping House sparrows express strong circadian rhythms of activity in the laboratory.", "They were among the first bird species to be seriously studied in terms of their circadian activity and photoperiodism, in part because of their availability and adaptability in captivity, but also because they can \" find their way \" and remain rhythmic in constant darkness.", "Such studies have found that the pineal gland is a central part of the house sparrow's circadian system: removal of the pineal eliminates the circadian rhythm of activity, and transplant of the pineal into another individual confers to this individual the rhythm phase of the donor bird.", "The suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus have also been shown to be an important component of the circadian system of house sparrows.", "The photoreceptors involved in the synchronisation of the circadian clock to the external light-dark cycle are located in the brain and can be stimulated by light reaching them directly though the skull, as revealed by experiments in which blind sparrows, which normally can still synchronise to the light-dark cycle, failed to do so once India ink was injected as a screen under the skin on top of their skulls.", "Similarly, even when blind, house sparrows continue to be photoperiodic, i.e. show reproductive development when the days are long, but not when the days are short.", "This response is stronger when the feathers on top of the head are plucked, and is eliminated when India ink is injected under the skin at the top of the head, showing that the photoreceptors involved in the photoperiodic response to day length are located inside the brain.", "House sparrows have also been used in studies of nonphotic entrainment : for example, in constant darkness, a situation in which the birds would normally reveal their endogenous, non-24-hour, \" free-running \" rhythms of activity, they instead show 24-hour periodicity if they are exposed to two hours of chirp playbacks every 24 hours, matching their daily activity onsets with the daily playback onsets.", "House sparrows in constant dim light can also be entrained to a daily cycle based on the presence of food.", "Finally, house sparrows in constant darkness could be entrained to a cycle of high and low temperature, but only if the difference in temperature was large ", "some of the tested sparrows matched their activity to the warm phase, and others to the cold phase.", "Flocking and chirping together beneath a fluorescent tube light in Germany The house sparrow is closely associated with humans.", "They are believed to have become associated with humans around 10,000 years ago.", "d. bactrianus) is least associated with humans and considered to be evolutionarily closer to the ancestral noncommensal populations.", "Usually, the house sparrow is regarded as a pest, since it consumes agricultural products and spreads disease to humans and their domestic animals.", "Even birdwatchers often hold it in little regard because of its molestation of other birds.", "However, the house sparrow can be beneficial to humans, as well, especially by eating insect pests, and attempts at the large-scale control of the house sparrow have failed.", "The house sparrow has long been used as a food item.", "From around 1560 to at least the 19th century in northern Europe, earthenware \" sparrow pots \" were hung from eaves to attract nesting birds so the young could be readily harvested.", "Wild birds were trapped in nets in large numbers, and sparrow pie was a traditional dish, thought, because of the association of sparrows with lechery, to have aphrodisiac properties.", "A traditional Indian medicine, Cittukkuruvi lekiyam in Tamil, was sold with similar aphrodisiac claims.", "Sparrows were also trapped as food for falconers' birds and zoo animals.", "During the 1870s, there were debates on the damaging effects of sparrows in the House of Commons in England.", "In the early part of the 20th century, sparrow clubs culled many millions of birds and eggs in an attempt to control numbers of this perceived pest, but with only a localised impact on numbers.", "House sparrows have been kept as pets at many times in history, though they have no bright plumage or attractive songs, and raising them is difficult.", "The house sparrow has an extremely large range and population, so it is assessed as least concern for conservation on the IUCN Red List.", "The IUCN estimates for the global population runs up to nearly 1.4 billion individuals, second among all birds perhaps only to the red-billed quelea in abundance .", "However, populations have been declining in many parts of the world, especially near its Eurasian places of origin.", "These declines were first noticed in North America, where they were initially attributed to the spread of the house finch, but have been most severe in Western Europe.", "Declines have not been universal, as no serious declines have been reported from Eastern Europe, but have even occurred in Australia, where the house sparrow was introduced recently.", "In Great Britain, populations peaked in the early 1970s, but have since declined by 68% overall, and about 90% in some regions.", "The RSPB lists the house sparrow's UK conservation status as red.", "In London, the house sparrow almost disappeared from the central city.", "The numbers of house sparrows in the Netherlands have dropped in half since the 1980s, so the house sparrow is even considered an endangered species.", "This status came to widespread attention after a female house sparrow, referred to as the \" Dominomus \" , was killed after knocking down dominoes arranged as part of an attempt to set a world record.", "These declines are not unprecedented, as similar reductions in population occurred when the internal combustion engine replaced horses in the 1920s and a major source of food in the form of grain spillage was lost.", "Declines have been particularly apparent even in North America, where the house sparrow is invasive in some states.", "Introduced to Philadelphia initially in 1852 the house sparrow rapidly spread across the nation.", "However, the bird has largely disappeared from the city nowadays and overall, it is estimated to have declined in North America by 84% since 1966.", "In South Asia, the house sparrow has largely vanished from major cities such as Karachi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Lahore.", "Various causes for the dramatic decreases in population have been proposed, including predation, in particular by Eurasian sparrowhawks", "electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones", "and diseases A primary cause of the decline seems to be an insufficient supply of insect food for nestling sparrows.", "Declines in insect populations result from an increase of monoculture crops, the heavy use of pesticides, the replacement of native plants in cities with introduced plants and parking areas, and possibly the introduction of unleaded petrol, which produces toxic compounds such as methyl nitrite.", "Protecting insect habitats on farms and planting native plants in cities benefit the house sparrow, as does establishing urban green spaces.", "To raise awareness of threats to the house sparrow, World Sparrow Day has been celebrated on 20 March across the world since 2010.", "Over the recent years, the house sparrow population has been on the decline in many Asian countries, and this decline is quite evident in India.", "To promote the conservation of these birds, in 2012, the house sparrow was declared as the state bird of Delhi.", "To many people across the world, the house sparrow is the most familiar wild animal and, because of its association with humans and familiarity, it is frequently used to represent the common and vulgar, or the lewd.", "One of the reasons for the introduction of house sparrows throughout the world was their association with the European homeland of many immigrants.", "Birds usually described later as sparrows are referred to in many works of ancient literature and religious texts in Europe and western Asia.", "These references may not always refer specifically to the house sparrow, or even to small, seed-eating birds, but later writers who were inspired by these texts often had the house sparrow in mind.", "In particular, sparrows were associated by the ancient Greeks with Aphrodite, the goddess of love, due to their perceived lustfulness, an association echoed by later writers such as Chaucer and Shakespeare.", "Jesus's use of \" sparrows \" as an example of divine providence in the Gospel of Matthew also inspired later references, such as that in Shakespeare's Hamlet and the Gospel hymn His Eye Is on the Sparrow.", "\" The house sparrow is very rarely represented in ancient Egyptian art, but an Egyptian hieroglyph is based on it.", "The sparrow hieroglyph had no phonetic value and was used as a determinative in words to indicate small, narrow, or bad.", "An alternative view is that the hieroglyph meant \" a prolific man \" or \" the revolution of a year \" ."]}, "Fringilla coelebs": {"keywords": ["The chaffinch breeds in much of Europe, across the Palearctic to Siberia and in northwestern Africa.", "Outside the breeding season, chaffinches form flocks in open countryside and forage for seeds on the ground.", "During the breeding season, they forage on trees for invertebrates, especially caterpillars, and feed these to their young.", "They are partial migrants, birds breeding in warmer regions are sedentary, while those breeding in the colder northern areas of their range winter further south.", "The ends of the feathers wear away over the winter so that by the spring breeding season the underlying brighter colours are displayed.", "The males of F. c. canariensis and F. c. palmae in the Canary Islands have deep slate-blue upperparts and lack a contrasting mantle.", "The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia.", "There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.", "The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century.", "In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species.", "In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.", "This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter.", "The date for breeding is dependent on the spring temperature and is earlier in southwest Europe and later in the northeast.", "The outside is covered with a layer of lichen and spider silk over an inner layer of moss and grass.", "Outside the breeding season, common chaffinches mainly eat seeds and other plant material that they find on the ground.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain.", "The endemic subspecies on the Macaronesian islands in the Atlantic are vulnerable to the loss of habitat, especially F. c. ombriosa on El Hierro in the Canary Islands, where the breeding population is between 1,000 and 5,000 pairs.", "\" In Great Britain, the practice of keeping common chaffinches as pets declined after the trapping of wild birds was outlawed by the Wild Birds Protection Acts of 1880 to 1896."], "habitat_section": ["The common chaffinch breeds in wooded areas where the July isotherm is between .", "The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia.", "There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.", "The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century.", "In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species.", "In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.", "This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter.", "It forms loose flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with bramblings.", "It occasionally strays to eastern North America, although some sightings may be escapees."], "random_sentences": ["ID composite The common chaffinch or simply the chaffinch is a common and widespread small passerine bird in the finch family.", "The male is brightly coloured with a blue-grey cap and rust-red underparts.", "The female is more subdued in colouring, but both sexes have two contrasting white wing bars and white sides to the tail.", "The male bird has a strong voice and sings from exposed perches to attract a mate.", "The chaffinch breeds in much of Europe, across the Palearctic to Siberia and in northwestern Africa.", "The female builds a nest with a deep cup in the fork of a tree.", "The clutch is typically four or five eggs, which hatch in about 13 days.", "The chicks fledge in around 14 days, but are fed by both adults for several weeks after leaving the nest.", "Outside the breeding season, chaffinches form flocks in open countryside and forage for seeds on the ground.", "During the breeding season, they forage on trees for invertebrates, especially caterpillars, and feed these to their young.", "birds breeding in warmer regions are sedentary, while those breeding in the colder northern areas of their range winter further south.", "The eggs and nestlings of the chaffinch are taken by a variety of mammalian and avian predators.", "Its large numbers and huge range mean that chaffinches are classed as of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.", "The common chaffinch was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name.", "Fringilla is the Latin word for finch, while caelebs means unmarried or single.", "Linnaeus remarked that during the Swedish winter, only the female birds migrated south through Belgium to Italy.", "The name spink is probably derived from the bird's call note.", "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 .", "The common chaffinch is about long, with a wingspan of and a weight of .", "The adult male of the nominate subspecies has a black forehead and a blue-grey crown, nape and upper mantle.", "The rump is a light olive-green", "the lower mantle and scapulars form a brown saddle.", "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.", "The flight feathers are black with white on the basal portions of the vanes.", "The secondaries and inner primaries have pale yellow fringes on the outer web whereas the outer primaries have a white outer edge.", "After the autumn moult, the tips of the new feathers have a buff fringe that adds a brown cast to the coloured plumage.", "The ends of the feathers wear away over the winter so that by the spring breeding season the underlying brighter colours are displayed.", "The eyes have dark brown irises and the legs are grey-brown.", "In winter the bill is a pale grey and slightly darker along the upper ridge or culmen, but in spring the bill becomes bluish-grey with a small black tip.", "The male of the subspecies resident in the British Isles (F.", "c. gengleri) closely resembles the nominate subspecies, but has a slightly darker mantle and underparts.", "The males of the two North African subspecies F. c. africana and F. c. spodiogenys have a blue-grey crown and nape that extends down to the sides of the head and neck, a black forehead and lore, a broken white eye-ring, a bright olive-green saddle and a pink-buff throat and breast.", "The males of F. c. canariensis and F. c. palmae in the Canary Islands have deep slate-blue upperparts and lack a contrasting mantle.", "Male chaffinches in Madeira (F.", "c. maderensis) and the Azores (F.", "c. moreletti) are similar in appearance to F. c. canariensis, but have a bright green mantle.", "The adult female is much duller in appearance than the male.", "The head and most of the upperparts are shades of grey-brown.", "The lower back and rump are a dull olive green.", "The wings and tail are similar to those of the male.", "The juvenile resembles the female.", "Males typically sing two or three different song types, and there are regional dialects also.", "The acquisition by the young common chaffinch of its song was the subject of an influential study by British ethologist William Thorpe.", "Thorpe determined that if the young common chaffinch is not exposed to the adult male's song during a certain critical period after hatching, it will never properly learn the song.", "He also found that in adult common chaffinches, castration eliminates the song, but injection of testosterone induces such birds to sing even in November, when they are normally silent.", "The common chaffinch breeds in wooded areas where the July isotherm is between .", "The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia.", "There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.", "The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century.", "In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species.", "In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.", "This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter.", "It forms loose flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with bramblings.", "It occasionally strays to eastern North America, although some sightings may be escapees.", "Nest of a chaffinch Eggs of Fringilla coelebs moreletti", "Common chaffinches first breed when they are 1 year old.", "They are mainly monogamous and the pair-bond for residential subspecies such as gengleri sometimes persists from one year to the next.", "The date for breeding is dependent on the spring temperature and is earlier in southwest Europe and later in the northeast.", "In Great Britain, most clutches are laid between late April and the middle of June.", "A male attracts a female to his territory through song.", " Nests are built entirely by the female and are usually located in the fork of a bush or a tree several metres above the ground.", "The nest has a deep cup and is lined with a layer of thin roots and feathers.", "The outside is covered with a layer of lichen and spider silk over an inner layer of moss and grass.", "The eggs are laid in early morning at daily intervals until the clutch is complete.", "The clutch is typically 45 eggs, which are smooth and slightly glossy, but very variable in colour.", "They range from pale-blueish green to light red with purple-brown blotches, spots or steaks.", "The average size of an egg is with a weight of .", "The eggs are incubated for 1016 days by the female.", "The chicks are altricial, hatching nearly naked with closed eyes, and are fed by both parents but mainly by the female, who broods them for around six days.", "They are mainly fed caterpillars.", "The nestlings fledge 1118 days after hatching and disperse.", "The young birds are then assisted with feeding by both parents for a further three weeks.", "The parents only very rarely start a second brood, but when they do so it is always in a new nest.", "Juveniles undergo a partial moult at around five weeks of age in which they replace their head, body and many of their covert feathers, but not their primary and secondary flight feathers.", "After breeding adult birds undergo a complete annual moult which lasts around ten weeks.", "In a study carried out in Britain using ring-recovery data, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 53 per cent, and the adult annual survival rate was 59 per cent.", "From these figures the typical lifespan is only 3 years, but the maximum age recorded is 15 years and 6 months for a bird in Switzerland.", "Outside the breeding season, common chaffinches mainly eat seeds and other plant material that they find on the ground.", "They often forage in open country in large flocks.", "Common chaffinches seldom take food directly from plants and only very rarely use their feet for handling food.", "During the breeding season, their diet switches to invertebrates, especially defoliating caterpillars.", "They forage in trees and also occasionally make short sallies to catch insects in the air.", "The young are entirely fed with invertebrates which include caterpillars, aphids, earwigs, spiders and grubs .", "The eggs and nestlings of the common chaffinch are predated by crows, Eurasian red and eastern grey squirrels, domestic cats and probably also by stoats and weasels.", "Clutches begun later in the spring suffer less predation, an effect that is believed to be due to the increased vegetation making nests more difficult to find.", " Unlike the case for the closely related brambling, the common chaffinch is not parasitised by the common cuckoo.", "The protozoal parasite Trichomonas gallinae was known to infect pigeons and raptors, but beginning in Great Britain in 2005, carcasses of dead European greenfinches and common chaffinches were found to be infected with the parasite.", "The disease spread and in 2008, infected carcasses were found in Norway, Sweden and Finland and a year later in Germany.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain.", "In Great Britain, the number of infected carcasses recovered each year declined after a peak in 2006.", "There was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches but no significant decline in the overall number of common chaffinches.", "A similar pattern occurred in Finland where, after the arrival of the disease in 2008, there was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches, but only a small change in the number of common chaffinches.", "Common chaffinches can develop tumors on their feet and legs caused by the Fringilla coelebs papillomavirus.", "The size of the papillomas range from a small nodule on a digit to a large growth involving both the foot and the leg.", "The disease is uncommon: in a 1973 study undertaken in the Netherlands, of around 25,000 common chaffinches screened, only 330 bore papillomas.", "The common chaffinch has an extensive range, estimated at 7 million square kilometres and a large population including an estimated 130240 million breeding pairs in Europe.", "Allowing for the birds breeding in Asia, the total population lies between 530 and 1,400 million individuals.", "There is no evidence of any serious overall decline in numbers, so the species is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of Least Concern.", "The endemic subspecies on the Macaronesian islands in the Atlantic are vulnerable to the loss of habitat, especially F. c. ombriosa on El Hierro in the Canary Islands, where the breeding population is between 1,000 and 5,000 pairs.", "A captive male chaffinch The common chaffinch was once popular as a caged songbird and large numbers of wild birds were trapped and sold.", "At the end of the 19th century, trapping even depleted the number of birds in London parks.", "In 1882, the English publisher Samuel Orchart Beeton issued a guide on the care of caged birds and included the recommendation: \" To parents and guardians plagued with a morose and sulky boy, my advice is, buy him a chaffinch.", "\" In Great Britain, the practice of keeping common chaffinches as pets declined after the trapping of wild birds was outlawed by the Wild Birds Protection Acts of 1880 to 1896.", "The common chaffinch is still a popular pet bird in some European countries.", "In Belgium, the traditional sport of vinkenzetting pits male common chaffinches against one another in a contest for the most bird calls in an hour."]}, "Aegithalos caudatus": {"keywords": ["The long-tailed tit is globally widespread throughout temperate northern Europe and the Palearctic, into boreal Scandinavia and south into the Mediterranean zone.", "It inhabits deciduous and mixed woodland with a well-developed shrub layer, favouring edge habitats.", "It can also be found in scrub, heathland with scattered trees, bushes and hedges, in farmland and riverine woodland, parks and gardens.", "The bird's year-round diet of insects and social foraging bias habitat choice in winter towards deciduous woodland, typically of oak, ash and locally sycamore species.", "The tit lines the outside with hundreds of flakes of pale lichens - this provides camouflage.", "The driving force behind the flocking behaviour is thought to be that of winter roosting, being susceptible to cold, huddling increases survival through cold nights.", "At the end of the breeding season, in June and July, the birds reform the winter flocks in their winter territory.", "This may be due to helpers having relatively poorer body conditions at the end of the breeding season, similar to pied kingfisher and white-winged chough."], "habitat_section": ["The long-tailed tit is globally widespread throughout temperate northern Europe and the Palearctic, into boreal Scandinavia and south into the Mediterranean zone.", "It inhabits deciduous and mixed woodland with a well-developed shrub layer, favouring edge habitats.", "It can also be found in scrub, heathland with scattered trees, bushes and hedges, in farmland and riverine woodland, parks and gardens.", "The bird's year-round diet of insects and social foraging bias habitat choice in winter towards deciduous woodland, typically of oak, ash and locally sycamore species.", "For nesting, strong preference is shown towards scrub areas.", "The nest is often built in thorny bushes less than above the ground.", "Globally, the species is common throughout its range, only becoming scarce at the edge of the distribution.", "The IUCN, BirdLife International and The British Trust for Ornithology all list the long-tailed tit as a species of least concern, currently under little or no threat and reasonably abundant.", "Due to their small size they are vulnerable to extreme cold weather, with population losses of up to 80% being recorded in times of prolonged cold.", "It is thought that populations rapidly return to previous levels due to high breeding potential."], "random_sentences": ["The long-tailed tit , also named long-tailed bushtit, is a common bird found throughout Europe and the Palearctic.", "The genus name Aegithalos was a term used by Aristotle for some European tits, including the long-tailed tit.", "The long-tailed tit was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Parus caudatus.", "The specific epithet caudatus is the Latin word for \" tailed \" .", "Linnaeus did not invent this Latin name.", "\" Parus caudatus \" had been used by earlier authors such as the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner in 1555, the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1599, and the English ornithologist Francis Willughby in 1676.", "Willughby listed the English name as the \" long tail'd titmouse \" .", "Its previous common nickname in everyday English was the bum-towel, from the shape of its tail.", "The long-tailed tit was first classified as a true tit of the Parus group.", "Parus has since been split from the Aegithalidae, with the latter becoming a distinct family containing three genera: This is the only representative of the Aegithalidae in northern Eurasia.", "The long-tailed tit exhibits complex global variation with 17 races recognised, divisible into three groups: ", "altMap of subspecies distribution for long-tailed tits", "Distribution map of long-tailed tits Aegithalos caudatus caudatus with white head in Berlin The silver-throated bushtit from eastern China was formerly considered conspecific but the plumage is distinctive and there are significant genetic differences.", "Where the groups meet there are extensive areas occupied by very variable hybrids.", "The British long-tailed tit, subspecies A. c. rosaceus, belongs to the A. c. europaeus group.", "This species has been described as a tiny , round-bodied tit with a short, stubby bill and a very long, narrow tail.", "The sexes look the same and young birds undergo a complete moult to adult plumage before the first winter.", "The plumage is mainly black and white, with variable amounts of grey and pink.", "Vocalisations are a valuable aid to locating and identifying these birds.", "When in flocks they issue constant contact calls and are often heard before they are seen.", "They have three main calls, a single high pitched pit, a triple trill eez-eez-eez, and a rattling schnuur.", "The calls become faster and louder when the birds cross open ground or if an individual becomes separated from the group.", "The long-tailed tit is globally widespread throughout temperate northern Europe and the Palearctic, into boreal Scandinavia and south into the Mediterranean zone.", "It inhabits deciduous and mixed woodland with a well-developed shrub layer, favouring edge habitats.", "It can also be found in scrub, heathland with scattered trees, bushes and hedges, in farmland and riverine woodland, parks and gardens.", "The bird's year-round diet of insects and social foraging bias habitat choice in winter towards deciduous woodland, typically of oak, ash and locally sycamore species.", "For nesting, strong preference is shown towards scrub areas.", "The nest is often built in thorny bushes less than above the ground.", "The long-tailed tit is insectivorous throughout the year.", "It eats predominantly arthropods, preferring the eggs and larvae of moths and butterflies.", "Occasional vegetable matter is taken in the autumn.", "The nest of the long-tailed tit is constructed from four materials: lichen, feathers, spider egg cocoons and moss, with over 6,000 pieces used for a typical nest.", "The nest is a flexible sac with a small, round entrance on top, suspended either low in a gorse or bramble bush or high up in the forks of tree branches.", "The structural stability of the nest is provided by a mesh of moss and spider silk.", "The tiny leaves of the moss act as hooks and the spider silk of egg cocoons provides the loops", "thus forming a natural form of velcro.", "The tit lines the outside with hundreds of flakes of pale lichens - this provides camouflage.", "Inside, it lines the nest with more than 2,000 downy feathers to insulate the nest.", "Nests suffer a high rate of predation with only 17% success.", "A long-tailed tit in its nest.", "\" Males fighting for the possession of territory.", "The feathers have been torn from the crown of the defeated and dying rival \" (H.", "E. Howard , Territory in Bird Life, p. 145) Long-tailed tits resting, mid-afternoon in energy saving anti-parallel paired formation in a willow Extensive work has been done at Wytham Wood, Oxfordshire, in Germany and Japan.", "Outside the breeding season they form compact flocks of six to seventeen birds, composed of family parties from the previous breeding season, together with any extra adults that helped to raise a brood.", "These flocks will occupy and defend territories against neighbouring flocks.", "The driving force behind the flocking behaviour is thought to be that of winter roosting, being susceptible to cold", "huddling increases survival through cold nights.", "From July to February, the non-breeding season, long-tailed tits form flocks of relatives and non-relatives, roosting communally.", "When the breeding season begins, the flocks break up, and the birds attempt to breed in monogamous pairs.", "Males remain within the winter territory, while females have a tendency to wander to neighbouring territories.", "Pairs whose nests fail have three choices: try again, abandon nesting for the season or help at a neighbouring nest.", "It has been shown that failed pairs split and help at the nests of male relatives, recognition being established vocally.", "The helped nests have greater success due to higher provisioning rates and better nest defence.", "At the end of the breeding season, in June and July, the birds reform the winter flocks in their winter territory.", "Due to high predation, there is a high nest failure rate.", "If nest failure occurs after the beginning of May, failed breeders will not try to re-nest, but may become helpers at a nest of another, usually related, pair.", "In one study, around 50% of nests had one or more helpers.", "By helping close relatives, helpers gain indirect fitness benefits by increasing the survivability of related offspring.", "Helpers may also gain greater access to mates and territories in the future.", "Helpers also gain experience raising young and therefore their future offspring have greater survivability rates.", "Males and females are equally likely to become helpers.", "Parents may allow the care of helpers to be additive to their own efforts, or on the other extreme, they may reduce their efforts with the care of the helpers.", "Juvenile males have a higher survivability than juvenile females, although the survival rate for adults of the two sexes is the same.", "Offspring that were raised with helpers have a higher survivability than offspring raised without.", "Failed breeders that became helpers have a higher survivability than failed breeders who did not.", "This may be because of the reduced energy expenditure from sharing a nest.", "This is similar to acorn woodpeckers and green wood hoopoes.", "However, failed breeders that did not help are more likely to breed successfully in subsequent years, so there may be a cost of helping.", "This may be due to helpers having relatively poorer body conditions at the end of the breeding season, similar to pied kingfisher and white-winged chough.", "Successful breeders have a survivability rate around the survivability of failed breeders who became helpers.", "Globally, the species is common throughout its range, only becoming scarce at the edge of the distribution.", "The IUCN, BirdLife International and The British Trust for Ornithology all list the long-tailed tit as a species of least concern, currently under little or no threat and reasonably abundant.", "Due to their small size they are vulnerable to extreme cold weather, with population losses of up to 80% being recorded in times of prolonged cold.", "It is thought that populations rapidly return to previous levels due to high breeding potential."]}, "Buteo buteo": {"keywords": ["The species lives in most of Europe and extends its breeding range across much of the Palearctic as far as northwestern China , far western Siberia and northwestern Mongolia.", "However, buzzards from the colder parts of the Northern Hemisphere as well as those that breed in the eastern part of their range typically migrate south for the northern winter, many journeying as far as South Africa.", "Two buzzards in Africa are likely closely related to the common buzzard based on genetic materials, the mountain and forest buzzards , to the point where it has been questioned whether they are sufficiently distinct to qualify as full species.", "Juvenile forest buzzards of Africa are extremely easy to mistake for juvenile common buzzards of the steppe race that come to winter in Africa.", "The oriental species is with more similar in body plan to common buzzards, being relatively broader winged, shorter tailed and more amply-headed relative to the European honey buzzard, but all plumages lack carpal patches.", "However, the subarctic breeding rough-legged buzzard comes down to occupy much of the northern part of the continent during winter in the same haunts as the common buzzard.", "Hybridization with the latter race and nominate common buzzards has been observed in the Strait of Gibraltar, a few such birds have been reported potentially in the southern Mediterranean due to mutually encroaching ranges, which are blurring possibly due to climate change.", "Wintering steppe buzzards may live alongside mountain buzzards and especially with forest buzzard while wintering in Africa.", "In comparison, the mountain buzzard, which is more similar in size to the steppe buzzard and slightly larger than the forest buzzard, is usually duller brown above than a steppe buzzard and is more whitish below with distinctive heavy brown blotches from breasts to the belly, flanks and wing linings while juvenile mountain buzzard is buffy below with smaller and streakier markings.", "The common buzzard is found throughout several islands in the eastern Atlantic islands, including the Canary Islands and Azores and almost throughout Europe.", "In mainland Europe, remarkably, there are no substantial gaps without breeding common buzzards from Portugal and Spain to Greece, Estonia, Belarus and Ukraine, though are present mainly only in the breeding season in much of the eastern half of the latter three countries.", "They are also present in all larger Mediterranean islands such as Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Crete.", "The common buzzard reaches its northern limits as a breeder in far eastern Finland and over the border to European Russia, continuing as a breeder over to the narrowest straits of the White Sea and nearly to the Kola Peninsula.", "In these northern quarters, the common buzzard is present typically only in summer but is a year-around resident of a hearty bit of southern Sweden and some of southern Norway.", "Outside of Europe, it is a resident of northern Turkey otherwise occurring mainly as a passage migrant or winter visitor in the remainder of Turkey, Georgia, sporadically but not rarely in Azerbaijan and Armenia, northern Iran to northern Turkmenistan.", "Further north though its absent from either side of the northern Caspian Sea, the common buzzard is found in much of western Russia including all of the Central Federal District and the Volga Federal District, all but the northernmost parts of the Northwestern and Ural Federal Districts and nearly the southern half of the Siberian Federal District, its farthest easterly occurrence as a breeder.", "Non-breeding populations occur, either as migrants or wintering birds, in southwestern India, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt , northern Tunisia , northern Morocco, near the coasts of The Gambia, Senegal and far southwestern Mauritania and Ivory Coast .", "The common buzzard generally inhabits the interface of woodlands and open grounds, most typically the species lives in forest edge, small woods or shelterbelts with adjacent grassland, arables or other farmland.", "The woods they inhabit may be coniferous, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests and temperate deciduous forest with occasional preferences for the local dominant tree.", "It is absent from treeless tundra, as well as the Subarctic where the species almost entirely gives way to the rough-legged buzzard.", "Common buzzards are fairly adaptive to rural areas as well as suburban areas with parks and large gardens, in addition to such areas if they're near farms.", "It is most often seen either soaring at varying heights or perched prominently on tree tops, bare branches, telegraph poles, fence posts, rocks or ledges, or alternately well inside tree canopies.", "Southwestern Poland was recorded to be a fairly important wintering grounds for central European buzzards in early spring that apparently travelled from somewhat farther north, in winter average density was a locally high 2.12 individual per square kilometer.", "In Bulgaria, the mean wintering density was 0.34 individual per square kilometer, and buzzards showed a preference for agricultural over forested areas.", "In no part of the range do steppe buzzards use the same summering and wintering grounds.", "This race migrates in September to October often from Asia Minor to the Cape of Africa in about a month but does not cross water, following around the Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria rather than crossing the several kilometer wide gulf.", "Migratory behavior of steppe buzzards mirrors those of broad-winged and Swainson's hawks in every significant way as similar long-distance migrating Buteos, including trans-equatorial movements, avoidance of large bodies of waters and flocking behaviour.", "In last 50 years, it was recorded that nominate buzzards are typically migrating shorter distances and wintering further north, possibly in response to climate change, resulting in relatively smaller numbers of them at migration sites.", "Furthermore, prey size can vary from tiny beetles, caterpillars and ants to large adult grouse and rabbits up to nearly twice their body mass.", "Hunting in relatively open areas has been found to increase hunting success whereas more complete shrub cover lowered success.", "Outside the breeding season, as many 1530 buzzards have been recorded foraging on ground in a single large field, especially juveniles.", "Several wood mice are known to be taken quite frequently but given their preference for activity in deeper woods than the field-forest interfaces preferred, they are rarely more than secondary food items.", "Other rodents taken either seldom or in areas where the food habits of buzzards are spottily known include flying squirrels, marmots , chipmunks, spiny rats, hamsters, mole-rats, gerbils, jirds and jerboas and occasionally hearty numbers of dormice, although these are nocturnal. Surprisingly little research has gone into the diets of wintering steppe buzzards in southern Africa, considering their numerous status there.", "In northern Ireland, an area of interest because it is devoid of any native vole species, rabbits were again the main prey.", "While rabbits are non-native, albeit long-established, in the British Isles, in their native area of the Iberian peninsula, rabbits are similarly significant to the buzzard's diet.", "When common buzzards feed on invertebrates, these are chiefly earthworms, beetles and caterpillars in Europe and largely seemed to be preyed on by juvenile buzzards with less refined hunting skills or in areas with mild winters and ample swarming or social insects.", "In winter in northeastern Spain, it was found that the buzzards switched largely from the vertebrate prey typically taken during spring and summer to a largely insect-based diet.", "Especially in winter quarters such as southern Africa, common buzzards are often attracted to swarming locusts and other orthopterans.", "In this way the steppe buzzard may mirror a similar long-distance migrant from the Americas, the Swainson's hawk, which feeds its young largely on nutritious vertebrates but switches to a largely insect-based once the reach their distant wintering grounds in South America.", "In Eritea, 18 returning migrant steppe buzzards were seen to feed together on swarms of grasshoppers.", "Common buzzards co-occur with dozens of other raptorial birds through their breeding, resident and wintering grounds.", "On another set of islands, on Crete the density of pairs was lower at 5.7 pairs per , here buzzards tend to have an irregular distribution, some in lower intensity harvest olive groves but their occurrence actually more common in agricultural than natural areas.", "The Czech study hypothesized that fragmentation of forest in human management of lands for wild sheep and deer, creating exceptional concentrations of prey such as voles, and lack of appropriate habitat in surrounding regions for the exceptionally high density.", "Various other aerial displays include low contour flight or weaving among trees, frequently with deep beats and exaggerated upstrokes which show underwing pattern to rivals perched below.", "Despite the highly territorial nature of buzzards and their devotion to a single mate and breeding ground each summer, there is one case of a polyandrous trio of buzzards nesting in the Canary Islands.", "The breeding season commences at differing times based on latitude.", "Common buzzard breeding seasons may fall as early as January to April but typically the breeding season is March to July in much of Palearctic.", "In the northern stretches of the range the breeding season may last into MayAugust.", "1st year birds generally remain in wintering area for following summer but then return to near area of origin but then migrate south again without breeding.", "Breeding success was lower farther from significant stands of trees in the Midlands and most nesting failures that could be determined occurred in the incubation stage, possibly in correlation with predation of eggs by corvids.", "More significant than even prey, late winter-early spring was found to be likely the primary driver of breeding success in buzzards from southern Norway.", "In Germany, weather conditions and rodent populations seemed to be the primary drivers of nesting success.", "Breeding success in areas with wild European rabbits was considerably effected by rabbit myxomatosis and rabbit haemorrhagic disease, both of which have heavily depleted wild rabbit population.", "The Westphalian buzzards are possibly benefiting from increasingly warmer mean climate, which in turn is increasing vulnerability of voles."], "habitat_section": ["Common buzzard often inhabit the interface of woods and open areas.", "The common buzzard is found throughout several islands in the eastern Atlantic islands, including the Canary Islands and Azores and almost throughout Europe.", "It is today found in Ireland and in nearly every part of Scotland, Wales and England.", "In mainland Europe, remarkably, there are no substantial gaps without breeding common buzzards from Portugal and Spain to Greece, Estonia, Belarus and Ukraine, though are present mainly only in the breeding season in much of the eastern half of the latter three countries.", "They are also present in all larger Mediterranean islands such as Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Crete.", "Further north in Scandinavia, they are found mainly in southeastern Norway , just over the southern half of Sweden and hugging over the Gulf of Bothnia to Finland where they live as a breeding species over nearly two-thirds of the land.", "The common buzzard reaches its northern limits as a breeder in far eastern Finland and over the border to European Russia, continuing as a breeder over to the narrowest straits of the White Sea and nearly to the Kola Peninsula.", "In these northern quarters, the common buzzard is present typically only in summer but is a year-around resident of a hearty bit of southern Sweden and some of southern Norway.", "Outside of Europe, it is a resident of northern Turkey otherwise occurring mainly as a passage migrant or winter visitor in the remainder of Turkey, Georgia, sporadically but not rarely in Azerbaijan and Armenia, northern Iran to northern Turkmenistan.", "Further north though its absent from either side of the northern Caspian Sea, the common buzzard is found in much of western Russia including all of the Central Federal District and the Volga Federal District, all but the northernmost parts of the Northwestern and Ural Federal Districts and nearly the southern half of the Siberian Federal District, its farthest easterly occurrence as a breeder.", "It also found in northern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, far northwestern China and northwestern Mongolia.", "Non-breeding populations occur, either as migrants or wintering birds, in southwestern India, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt , northern Tunisia , northern Morocco, near the coasts of The Gambia, Senegal and far southwestern Mauritania and Ivory Coast .", "In eastern and central Africa, it is found in winter from southeastern Sudan, Eritrea, about two-thirds of Ethiopia, much of Kenya , Uganda, southern and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and more or less the entirety of southern Africa from Angola across to Tanzania down the remainder of the continent .", "The common buzzard generally inhabits the interface of woodlands and open grounds, most typically the species lives in forest edge, small woods or shelterbelts with adjacent grassland, arables or other farmland.", "It acquits to open moorland as long as there is some trees for perch hunting and nesting use.", "The woods they inhabit may be coniferous, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests and temperate deciduous forest with occasional preferences for the local dominant tree.", "It is absent from treeless tundra, as well as the Subarctic where the species almost entirely gives way to the rough-legged buzzard.", "Common buzzards are fairly adaptive to rural areas as well as suburban areas with parks and large gardens, in addition to such areas if they're near farms.", "Home ranges of common buzzards are generally .", "In a German study, the range was with an average of .", "On another set of islands, on Crete the density of pairs was lower at 5.7 pairs per , here buzzards tend to have an irregular distribution, some in lower intensity harvest olive groves but their occurrence actually more common in agricultural than natural areas.", "In the Italian Alps, it was recorded in 199396 that there were from 28 to 30 pairs per .", "Despite claims from the study of the English midlands were the highest known territory density for the species, a number ranging from 32 to 51 pairs in wooded area of merely in Czech Republic seems to surely exceed even those densities.", "The Czech study hypothesized that fragmentation of forest in human management of lands for wild sheep and deer, creating exceptional concentrations of prey such as voles, and lack of appropriate habitat in surrounding regions for the exceptionally high density.", "A territorial dogfight between three buzzards in the Azores.", "Common buzzards maintain their territories through flight displays.", "In Europe, territorial behaviour generally starts in February.", "However, displays are not uncommon throughout year in resident pairs, especially by males, and can elicit similar displays by neighbors.", "In them, common buzzards generally engage in high circling, spiraling upward on slightly raised wings.", "Mutual high circling by pairs sometimes go on at length, especially during the period prior to or during breeding season.", "In mutual displays, a pair may follow each other at in level flight.", "During the mutual displays, the male may engage in exaggerated deep flapping or zig-zag tumbling, apparently in response to the female being too distant.", "Two or three pairs may circle together at times and as many as 14 individual adults have been recorded over established display sites.", "Sky-dancing by common buzzards have been recorded in spring and autumn, typically by male but sometimes by female, nearly always with much calling.", "Their sky-dances are of the rollercoaster type, with upward sweep until they start to stall, but sometimes embellished with loops or rolls at the top.", "Next in the sky-dance, they dive on more or less closed wings before spreading them and shooting up again, upward sweeps of up to , with dive drops of up to at least .", "These dances may be repeated in series of 10 to 20.", "In the climax of the sky dance, the undulations become progressive shallower, often slowing and terminating directly onto a perch.", "Various other aerial displays include low contour flight or weaving among trees, frequently with deep beats and exaggerated upstrokes which show underwing pattern to rivals perched below.", "Talon grappling and occasionally cartwheeling downward with feet interlocked has been recorded in buzzards and, as in many raptors, is likely the physical culmination of the aggressive territorial display, especially between males.", "Despite the highly territorial nature of buzzards and their devotion to a single mate and breeding ground each summer, there is one case of a polyandrous trio of buzzards nesting in the Canary Islands.", "In North-Estonian Neeruti landscape reserve found in years 1989 and 1990 Marek Vahula 9 populated nest.", "This is sovereign public density of population.", "One nest founded in 12.06.1982 and this is apparently oldest nest of Common Buzzard, what is populated until today."], "random_sentences": ["The common buzzard is a medium-to-large bird of prey which has a large range.", "A member of the genus Buteo, it is a member of the family Accipitridae.", "The species lives in most of Europe and extends its breeding range across much of the Palearctic as far as northwestern China , far western Siberia and northwestern Mongolia.", "Over much of its range, it is a year-round resident.", "However, buzzards from the colder parts of the Northern Hemisphere as well as those that breed in the eastern part of their range typically migrate south for the northern winter, many journeying as far as South Africa.", "The common buzzard is an opportunistic predator that can take a wide variety of prey, but it feeds mostly on small mammals, especially rodents such as voles.", "It typically hunts from a perch.", "Like most accipitrid birds of prey, it builds a nest, typically in trees in this species, and is a devoted parent to a relatively small brood of young.", "The first formal description of the common buzzard was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Falco buteo.", "It should not be confused with the Turkey vulture, which is sometimes called a buzzard in American English.", "The Buteoninae subfamily originated from and is most diversified in the Americas, with occasional broader radiations that led to common buzzards and other Eurasian and African buzzards.", "The common buzzard is a member of the genus Buteo, a group of medium-sized raptors with robust bodies and broad wings.", "The Buteo species of Eurasia and Africa are usually commonly referred to as \" buzzards \" while those in the Americas are called hawks.", "Under current classification, the genus includes approximately 28 species, the second most diverse of all extant accipitrid genera behind only Accipiter.", "DNA testing shows that the common buzzard is fairly closely related to the red-tailed hawk of North America, which occupies a similar ecological niche to the buzzard in that continent.", "The two species may belong to the same species complex.", "Two buzzards in Africa are likely closely related to the common buzzard based on genetic materials, the mountain and forest buzzards , to the point where it has been questioned whether they are sufficiently distinct to qualify as full species.", "However, the distinctiveness of these African buzzards has generally been supported.", "Genetic studies have further indicated that the modern buzzards of Eurasia and Africa are a relatively young group, showing that they diverged at about 300,000 years ago.", "Nonetheless, fossils dating earlier than 5 million year old showed Buteo species were present in Europe much earlier than that would imply, although it cannot be stated to a certainty that these wouldve been related to the extant buzzards.", "A dark individual from Europe The common buzzard is a medium-sized raptor that is highly variable in plumage.", "Most buzzards are distinctly round headed with a somewhat slender bill, relatively long wings that either reach or fall slightly short of the tail tip when perched, a fairly short tail, and somewhat short and mainly bare tarsi.", "They can appear fairly compact in overall appearance but may also appear large relative to other commoner raptorial birds such as kestrels and sparrowhawks.", "The common buzzard measures between in length with a wingspan.", "A pale individual in Europe In Europe, most typical buzzards are dark brown above and on the upperside of the head and mantle, but can become paler and warmer brown with worn plumage.", "The flight feathers on perched European buzzards are always brown in the nominate subspecies (B.", "Usually the tail will usually be narrowly barred grey-brown and dark brown with a pale tip and a broad dark subterminal band but the tail in palest birds can show a varying amount a white and reduced subterminal band or even appear almost all white.", "In European buzzards, the underside coloring can be variable but most typically show a brown-streaked white throat with a somewhat darker chest.", "A pale U across breast is often present", "followed by a pale line running down the belly which separates the dark areas on breast-side and flanks.", "These pale areas tend to have highly variable markings that tend to form irregular bars.", "Juvenile buzzards are quite similar to adult in the nominate race, being best told apart by having a paler eye, a narrower subterminal band on the tail and underside markings that appear as streaks rather than bars.", "Furthermore, juveniles may show variable creamy to rufous fringes to upperwing coverts but these also may not be present.", "Seen from below in flight, buzzards in Europe typically have a dark trailing edge to the wings.", "If seen from above, one of the best marks is their broad dark subterminal tail band.", "Flight feathers of typical European buzzards are largely greyish, the aforementioned dark wing linings at front with contrasting paler band along the median coverts.", "In flight, paler individuals tend to show dark carpal patches that can appears as blackish arches or commas but these may be indistinct in darker individuals or can appear light brownish or faded in paler individuals.", "Juvenile nominate buzzards are best told apart from adults in flight by the lack of a distinct subterminal band and below by having less sharp and brownish rather than blackish trailing wing edge.", "Juvenile buzzards show streaking paler parts of under wing and body showing rather than barring as do adults.", "Beyond the typical mid-range brownish buzzard, birds in Europe can range from almost uniform black-brown above to mainly white.", "Extreme dark individuals may range from chocolate brown to blackish with almost no pale showing but a variable, faded U on the breast and with or without faint lighter brown throat streaks.", "Extreme pale birds are largely whitish with variable widely spaced streaks or arrowheads of light brown about the mid-chest and flanks and may or may not show dark feather-centres on the head, wing-coverts and sometimes all but part of mantle.", "Individuals can show nearly endless variation of colours and hues in between these extremes and the common buzzard is counted among the most variably plumage diurnal raptors for this reason.", "One study showed that this variation may actually be the result of diminished single-locus genetic diversity.", "Although they can look compact when perched, buzzards may appear large and long-winged in flight.", "Beyond the nominate form (B.", "b. buteo) that occupies most of the common buzzard's European range, a second main, widely distributed subspecies is known as the steppe buzzard (B.", "The steppe buzzard race shows three main colour morphs, each of which can be predominant in a region of breeding range.", "It is more distinctly polymorphic rather than just individually very variable like the nominate race.", "This may be because, unlike the nominate buzzard, the steppe buzzard is highly migratory.", "Polymorphism has been linked with migratory behaviour.", "Juvenile forest buzzards of Africa are extremely easy to mistake for juvenile common buzzards of the steppe race that come to winter in Africa.", "The common buzzard is often confused with other raptors especially in flight or at a distance.", "Inexperienced and over-enthusiastic observers have even mistaken darker birds for the far larger and differently proportioned golden eagle and also dark birds for western marsh harrier which also flies in a dihedral but is obviously relatively much longer and slenderer winged and tailed and with far different flying methods.", "Also buzzards may possibly be confused with dark or light morph booted eagles , which are similar in size, but the eagle flies on level, parallel-edged wings which usually appear broader, has a longer squarer tail, with no carpal patch in pale birds and all dark flight feathers but for whitish wedge on inner primaries in dark morph ones.", "Pale individuals are sometimes also mistaken with pale morph short-toed eagles which are much larger with a considerably bigger head, longer wings and paler underwing lacking any carpal patch or dark wing lining.", "More serious identification concerns lie in other Buteo species and in flight with honey buzzards, which are quite different looking when seen perched at close range.", "The European honey buzzard is thought in engage in mimicry of more powerful raptors, in particular, juveniles may mimic the plumage of the more powerful common buzzard.", "While less individually variable in Europe, the honey buzzard is more extensive polymorphic on underparts than even the common buzzard.", "The most common morph of the adult European honey buzzard is heavily and rufous barred on the underside, quite different from the common buzzard, however the brownish juvenile much more resembles an intermediate common buzzard.", "Honey buzzards flap with distinctively slower and more even wing beats than common buzzard.", "The wings are also lifted higher on each upstroke, creating a more regular and mechanical effect, furthermore their wings are held slightly arched when soaring but not in a V. On the honey buzzard, the head appears smaller, the body thinner, the tail longer and the wings narrower and more parallel edged.", "The steppe buzzard race is particularly often mistaken for juvenile European honey buzzards, to the point where early observers of raptor migration in Israel considered distant individuals indistinguishable.", "However, when compared to a steppe buzzard, the honey buzzard has distinctly darker secondaries on the underwing with fewer and broader bars and more extensive black wing-tips contrasting with a less extensively pale hand.", "Found in the same range as the steppe buzzard in some parts of southern Siberia as well as in southwestern India, the Oriental honey buzzard is larger than both the European honey buzzard and the common buzzard.", "The oriental species is with more similar in body plan to common buzzards, being relatively broader winged, shorter tailed and more amply-headed relative to the European honey buzzard, but all plumages lack carpal patches.", "In much of Europe, the common buzzard is the only type of buzzard.", "However, the subarctic breeding rough-legged buzzard comes down to occupy much of the northern part of the continent during winter in the same haunts as the common buzzard.", "However, the rough-legged buzzard is typically larger and distinctly longer-winged with feathered legs, as well as having a white based tail with a broad subterminal band.", "Rough-legged buzzards have slower wing beats and hover far more frequently than do common buzzards.", "The carpal patch marking on the under-wing are also bolder and blacker on all paler forms of rough-legged hawk.", "Many pale morph rough-legged buzzards have a bold, blackish band across the belly against contrasting paler feathers, a feature which rarely appears in individual common buzzard.", "Usually the face also appears somewhat whitish in most pale morphs of rough-legged buzzards, which is true of only extremely pale common buzzards.", "Dark morph rough-legged buzzards are usually distinctly darker than even extreme dark individuals of common buzzards in Europe and still have the distinct white-based tail and broad subterminal band of other roughlegs.", "In eastern Europe and much of the Asian range of common buzzards, the long-legged buzzard may live alongside the common species.", "As in the steppe buzzard race, the long-legged buzzard has three main colour morphs that are more or less similar in hue.", "In both the steppe buzzard race and long-legged buzzard, the main colour is overall fairly rufous.", "More so than steppe buzzards, long-legged buzzards tend to have a distinctly paler head and neck compared to other feathers, and, more distinctly, a normally unbarred tail.", "Furthermore, the long-legged buzzard is usually a rather larger bird, often considered fairly eagle-like in appearance , an effect enhanced by its longer tarsi, somewhat longer neck and relatively elongated wings.", "The flight style of the latter species is deeper, slower and more aquiline, with much more frequent hovering, showing a more protruding head and a slightly higher V held in a soar.", "The smaller North African and Arabian race of long-legged buzzard (B.", "r. cirtensis) is more similar in size and nearly all colour characteristics to steppe buzzard, extending to the heavily streaked juvenile plumage, in some cases such birds can be distinguished only by their proportions and flight patterns which remain unchanged.", "Hybridization with the latter race (B.", "r. cirtensis) and nominate common buzzards has been observed in the Strait of Gibraltar, a few such birds have been reported potentially in the southern Mediterranean due to mutually encroaching ranges, which are blurring possibly due to climate change.", "Wintering steppe buzzards may live alongside mountain buzzards and especially with forest buzzard while wintering in Africa.", "The juveniles of steppe and forest buzzards are more or less indistinguishable and only told apart by proportions and flight style, the latter species being smaller, more compact, having a smaller bill, shorter legs and shorter and thinner wings than a steppe buzzard.", "However, size is not diagnostic unless side by side as the two buzzards overlap in this regard.", "Most reliable are the species wing proportions and their flight actions.", "Forest buzzard have more flexible wing beats interspersed with glides, additionally soaring on flatter wings and apparently never engage in hovering.", "Adult forest buzzards compared to the typical adult steppe buzzard are also similar, but the forest typically has a whiter underside, sometimes mostly plain white, usually with heavy blotches or drop-shaped marks on abdomen, with barring on thighs, more narrow tear-shaped on chest and more spotted on leading edges of underwing, usually lacking marking on the white U across chest .", "In comparison, the mountain buzzard, which is more similar in size to the steppe buzzard and slightly larger than the forest buzzard, is usually duller brown above than a steppe buzzard and is more whitish below with distinctive heavy brown blotches from breasts to the belly, flanks and wing linings while juvenile mountain buzzard is buffy below with smaller and streakier markings.", "The steppe buzzard when compared to another African species, the red-necked buzzard , which has red tail similar to vulpinus, is distinct in all other plumage aspects despite their similar size.", "The latter buzzard has a streaky rufous head and is white below with a contrasting bold dark chest in adult plumage and, in juvenile plumage, has heavy, dark blotches on the chest and flanks with pale wing-linings.", "Jackal and augur buzzards (Buteo rufofuscus", "augur), also both rufous on the tail, are larger and bulkier than steppe buzzards and have several distinctive plumage characteristics, most notably both having their own striking, contrasting patterns of black-brown, rufous and cream.", "Common buzzard often inhabit the interface of woods and open areas.", "The common buzzard is found throughout several islands in the eastern Atlantic islands, including the Canary Islands and Azores and almost throughout Europe.", "It is today found in Ireland and in nearly every part of Scotland, Wales and England.", "In mainland Europe, remarkably, there are no substantial gaps without breeding common buzzards from Portugal and Spain to Greece, Estonia, Belarus and Ukraine, though are present mainly only in the breeding season in much of the eastern half of the latter three countries.", "They are also present in all larger Mediterranean islands such as Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Crete.", "Further north in Scandinavia, they are found mainly in southeastern Norway , just over the southern half of Sweden and hugging over the Gulf of Bothnia to Finland where they live as a breeding species over nearly two-thirds of the land.", "The common buzzard reaches its northern limits as a breeder in far eastern Finland and over the border to European Russia, continuing as a breeder over to the narrowest straits of the White Sea and nearly to the Kola Peninsula.", "In these northern quarters, the common buzzard is present typically only in summer but is a year-around resident of a hearty bit of southern Sweden and some of southern Norway.", "Outside of Europe, it is a resident of northern Turkey otherwise occurring mainly as a passage migrant or winter visitor in the remainder of Turkey, Georgia, sporadically but not rarely in Azerbaijan and Armenia, northern Iran to northern Turkmenistan.", "Further north though its absent from either side of the northern Caspian Sea, the common buzzard is found in much of western Russia including all of the Central Federal District and the Volga Federal District, all but the northernmost parts of the Northwestern and Ural Federal Districts and nearly the southern half of the Siberian Federal District, its farthest easterly occurrence as a breeder.", "It also found in northern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, far northwestern China and northwestern Mongolia.", "Non-breeding populations occur, either as migrants or wintering birds, in southwestern India, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt , northern Tunisia , northern Morocco, near the coasts of The Gambia, Senegal and far southwestern Mauritania and Ivory Coast .", "In eastern and central Africa, it is found in winter from southeastern Sudan, Eritrea, about two-thirds of Ethiopia, much of Kenya , Uganda, southern and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and more or less the entirety of southern Africa from Angola across to Tanzania down the remainder of the continent .", "The common buzzard generally inhabits the interface of woodlands and open grounds", "most typically the species lives in forest edge, small woods or shelterbelts with adjacent grassland, arables or other farmland.", "It acquits to open moorland as long as there is some trees for perch hunting and nesting use.", "The woods they inhabit may be coniferous, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests and temperate deciduous forest with occasional preferences for the local dominant tree.", "It is absent from treeless tundra, as well as the Subarctic where the species almost entirely gives way to the rough-legged buzzard.", "Common buzzards are fairly adaptive to rural areas as well as suburban areas with parks and large gardens, in addition to such areas if they're near farms.", "Buzzards spend much of their day perched.", "The common buzzard is a typical Buteo in much of its behaviour.", "It is most often seen either soaring at varying heights or perched prominently on tree tops, bare branches, telegraph poles, fence posts, rocks or ledges, or alternately well inside tree canopies.", "Buzzards will also stand and forage on the ground.", "In resident populations, it may spend more than half of its day inactively perched.", "Furthermore, it has been described a \" sluggish and not very bold \" bird of prey.", "A steppe buzzard migrating through Israel, where buzzards have one of the largest raptor migrations in the world.", "The common buzzard is aptly described as a partial migrant.", "The autumn and spring movements of buzzards are subject to extensive variation, even down to the individual level, based on a region's food resources, competition , extent of human disturbance and weather conditions.", "Short distance movements are the norm for juveniles and some adults in autumn and winter, but more adults in central Europe and the British Isles remain on their year-around residence than do not.", "Even for first year juvenile buzzards dispersal may not take them very far.", "In England, 96% of first-years moved in winter to less than from their natal site.", "Southwestern Poland was recorded to be a fairly important wintering grounds for central European buzzards in early spring that apparently travelled from somewhat farther north, in winter average density was a locally high 2.12 individual per square kilometer.", "In Bulgaria, the mean wintering density was 0.34 individual per square kilometer, and buzzards showed a preference for agricultural over forested areas.", "Similar habitat preferences were recorded in northeastern Romania, where buzzard density was 0.3340.539 individuals per square kilometer.", "The nominate buzzards of Scandinavia are somewhat more strongly migratory than most central European populations.", "However, birds from Sweden show some variation in migratory behaviours.", "A maximum of 41,000 individuals have been recorded at one of the main migration sites within southern Sweden in Falsterbo.", "In southern Sweden, winter movements and migration was studied via observation of buzzard colour.", "White individuals were substantially more common in southern Sweden rather than further north in their Swedish range.", "The southern population migrates earlier than intermediate to dark buzzards, in both adults and juveniles.", "A larger proportion of juveniles than of adults migrate in the southern population.", "Especially adults in the southern population are resident to a higher degree than more northerly breeders.", "The entire population of the steppe buzzard is strongly migratory, covering substantial distances during migration.", "In no part of the range do steppe buzzards use the same summering and wintering grounds.", "Steppe buzzards are slightly gregarious in migration, and travel in variously sized flocks.", "This race migrates in September to October often from Asia Minor to the Cape of Africa in about a month but does not cross water, following around the Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria rather than crossing the several kilometer wide gulf.", "Similarly, they will funnel along both sides of the Black Sea.", "Migratory behavior of steppe buzzards mirrors those of broad-winged", "swainsoni) in every significant way as similar long-distance migrating Buteos, including trans-equatorial movements, avoidance of large bodies of waters and flocking behaviour.", "In last 50 years, it was recorded that nominate buzzards are typically migrating shorter distances and wintering further north, possibly in response to climate change, resulting in relatively smaller numbers of them at migration sites.", "They are also extending their breeding range possibly reducing/supplanting steppe buzzards.", "Resident populations of common buzzards tend to vocalize all year around, whereas migrants tend to vocalize only during the breeding season.", "Both nominate buzzards and steppe buzzards tend to have similar voices.", "The main call of the species is a plaintive, far-carrying pee-yow or peee-oo, used as both contact call and more excitedly in aerial displays.", "Their call is sharper, more ringing when used in aggression, tends to be more drawn-out and wavering when chasing intruders, sharper, more yelping when as warning when approaching the nest or shorter and more explosive when called in alarm.", "Other variations of their vocal performances include a cat-like mew, uttered repeatedly on the wing or when perched, especially in display", "a repeated mah has been recorded as uttered by pairs answering each other, further chuckles and croaks have also been recorded at nests.", "Juveniles can usually be distinguished by the discordant nature of their calls compared to those of adults.", "An illustration of a buzzard preying on a rodent.", "The common buzzard is a generalist predator which hunts a wide variety of prey given the opportunity.", "Their prey spectrum extents to a wide variety of vertebrates including mammals, birds , reptiles, amphibians and, rarely, fish, as well as to various invertebrates, mostly insects.", "Young animals are often attacked, largely the nidifugous young of various vertebrates.", "In total well over 300 prey species are known to be taken by common buzzards.", "Furthermore, prey size can vary from tiny beetles, caterpillars and ants to large adult grouse and rabbits up to nearly twice their body mass.", "Mean body mass of vertebrate prey was estimated at in Belarus.", "At times, they will also subsist partially on carrion, usually of dead mammals or fish.", "Hunting in relatively open areas has been found to increase hunting success whereas more complete shrub cover lowered success.", "A majority of prey is taken by dropping from perch, and is normally taken on ground.", "Alternately, prey may be hunted in a low flight.", "This species tends not to hunt in a spectacular stoop but generally drops gently then gradually accelerate at bottom with wings held above the back.", "Sometimes, the buzzard also forages by random glides or soars over open country, wood edges or clearings.", "Perch hunting may be done preferentially but buzzards fairly regularly also hunt from a ground position when the habitat demands it.", "Outside the breeding season, as many 1530 buzzards have been recorded foraging on ground in a single large field, especially juveniles.", "Normally the rarest foraging type is hovering.", "A study from Great Britain indicated that hovering does not seem to increase hunting success.", "A buzzard with a freshly caught rodent, likely a vole.", "A high diversity of rodents may be taken given the chance, as around 60 species of rodent have been recorded in the foods of common buzzards.", "In southern Scotland, field voles were the best represented species in pellets, accounting for 32.1% of 581 pellets.", "In southern Norway, field voles were again the main food in years with peak vole numbers, accounting for 40.8% of 179 prey items in 1985 and 24.7% of 332 prey items in 1994.", "Altogether, rodents amount to 67.6% and 58.4% of the foods in these respective peak vole years.", "However, in low vole population years, the contribution of rodents to the diet was minor.", "Common voles were the main foods recorded in central Slovakia, accounting for 26.5% of 606 prey items.", "The common vole, or other related vole species at times, were the main foods as well in the Ukraine ranging east to Russia in the Privolshky Steppe Nature Reserve and in Samara .", "In Belarus, voles, including Microtus species and bank voles , accounted for 34.8% of the biomass on average in 1065 prey items from different study areas over 4 years.", "Other rodents are taken largely opportunistically rather than by preference.", "Several wood mice are known to be taken quite frequently but given their preference for activity in deeper woods than the field-forest interfaces preferred, they are rarely more than secondary food items.", "Rodent prey taken have ranged in size from the Eurasian harvest mouse to the non-native, muskrat .", "Other rodents taken either seldom or in areas where the food habits of buzzards are spottily known include flying squirrels, marmots , chipmunks, spiny rats, hamsters, mole-rats, gerbils, jirds and jerboas and occasionally hearty numbers of dormice, although these are nocturnal. Surprisingly little research has gone into the diets of wintering steppe buzzards in southern Africa, considering their numerous status there.", "However, it has been indicated that the main prey remains consist of rodents such as the four-striped grass mouse and Cape mole-rats .", "Other than rodents, two other groups of mammals can be counted as significant to the diet of common buzzards.", "One of these main prey type of import in the diets of common buzzards are leporids or lagomorphs, especially the European rabbit where it is found in numbers in a wild or feral state.", "In all dietary studies from Scotland, rabbits were highly important to the buzzard's diet.", "In southern Scotland, rabbits constituted 40.8% of remains at nests and 21.6% of pellet contents, while lagomorphs were present in 99% of remains in Moray, Scotland.", "The nutritional richness relative to the commonest prey elsewhere, such as voles, might account for the high productivity of buzzards here.", "For example, clutch sizes were twice as large on average where rabbits were common than were where they were rare .", "In northern Ireland, an area of interest because it is devoid of any native vole species, rabbits were again the main prey.", "Here, lagomorphs constituted 22.5% of prey items by number and 43.7% by biomass.", "While rabbits are non-native, albeit long-established, in the British Isles, in their native area of the Iberian peninsula, rabbits are similarly significant to the buzzard's diet.", "In Murcia, Spain, rabbits were the most common mammal in the diet, making up 16.8% of 167 prey items.", "The other significant mammalian prey type is insectivores, among which more than 20 species are known to be taken by this species, including nearly all the species of shrew, mole and hedgehog found in Europe.", "Moles are taken particularly often among this order, since as is the case with \" vole-holes \" , buzzard probably tend to watch molehills in fields for activity and dive quickly from their perch when one of the subterranean mammals pops up.", "The most widely found mole in the buzzard's northern range is the European mole and this is one of the more important non-rodent prey items for the species.", "This species was present in 55% of 101 remains in Glen Urquhart, Scotland and was the second most common prey species in 606 prey items in Slovakia.", "In Bari, Italy, the Roman mole , of similar size to the European species, was the leading identified mammalian prey, making up 10.7% of the diet.", "The full size range of insectivores may be taken by buzzards, ranging from the world's smallest mammal , the Etruscan shrew to arguably the heaviest insectivore, the European hedgehog .", "Mammalian prey for common buzzards other than rodents, insectivores and lagomorphs is rarely taken.", "Occasionally, some weasels and perhaps martens might be attacked by buzzards, more likely the more powerful female buzzard since such prey is potentially dangerous and of similar size to a buzzard itself.", "Numerous larger mammals, including medium-sized carnivores such as dogs, cats and foxes and various ungulates, are sometimes eaten as carrion by buzzards, mainly during lean winter months.", "Still-borns of deer are also visited with some frequency.", "A crow mobs a buzzard.", "Buzzards will readily prey on crows, especially their fledglings.", "When attacking birds, common buzzards chiefly prey on nestlings and fledglings of small to medium-sized birds, largely passerines but also a variety of gamebirds, but sometimes also injured, sickly or unwary but healthy adults.", "While capable of overpowering birds larger than itself, the common buzzard is usually considered to lack the agility necessary to capture many adult birds, even gamebirds which would presumably be weaker fliers considering their relatively heavy bodies and small wings.", "On the contrary, in southern Scotland, even though the buzzards were taking relatively large bird prey, largely red grouse , 87% of birds taken were reportedly adults.", "In total, as in many raptorial birds that are far from bird-hunting specialists, birds are the most diverse group in the buzzard's prey spectrum due to the sheer number and diversity of birds, few raptors do not hunt them at least occasionally.", "Nearly 150 species of bird have been identified in the common buzzard's diet.", "In general, despite many that are taken, birds usually take a secondary position in the diet after mammals.", "In northern Scotland, birds were fairly numerous in the foods of buzzards.", "The most often recorded avian prey and 2nd and 3rd most frequent prey species in Glen Urquhart, were chaffinch and meadow pipits , with the buzzards taking 195 fledglings of these species against only 90 adults.", "This differed from Moray where the most frequent avian prey and 2nd most frequent prey species behind the rabbit was the common wood pigeon and the buzzards took four times as many adults relative to fledglings.", "Birds were the primary food for common buzzards in the Italian Alps, where they made up 46% of the diet against mammal which accounted for 29% in 146 prey items.", "The leading prey species here were Eurasian blackbirds and Eurasian jays , albeit largely fledglings were taken of both.", "Birds could also take the leading position in years with low vole populations in southern Norway, in particular thrushes, namely the blackbird, the song thrush and the redwing , which were collectively 22.1% of 244 prey items in 1993.", "In southern Spain, birds were equal in number to mammals in the diet, both at 38.3%, but most remains were classified as \" unidentified medium-sized birds \" , although the most often identified species of those that apparently could be determined were Eurasian jays and red-legged partridges .", "Similarly, in northern Ireland, birds were roughly equal in import to mammals but most were unidentified corvids.", "In Seversky Donets, Ukraine, birds and mammals both made up 39.3% of the foods of buzzards.", "Common buzzards may hunt nearly 80 species passerines and nearly all available gamebirds.", "Like many other largish raptors, gamebirds are attractive to hunt for buzzards due to their ground-dwelling habits.", "Buzzards were the most frequent predator in a study of juvenile pheasants in England, accounting for 4.3% of 725 deaths .", "They also prey on a wide size range of birds, ranging down to Europe's smallest bird, the goldcrest .", "Very few individual birds hunted by buzzards weigh more than .", "However, there have been some particularly large avian kills by buzzards, including any that weigh more or , or about the largest average size of a buzzard, have including adults of mallard , black grouse , ring-necked pheasant , common raven and some of the larger gulls if ambushed on their nests.", "The largest avian kill by a buzzard, and possibly largest known overall for the species, was an adult female western capercaillie that weighed an estimated .", "At times, buzzards will hunt the young of large birds such as herons and cranes.", "Other assorted avian prey has included a few species of waterfowl, most available pigeons and doves, cuckoos, swifts, grebes, rails, nearly 20 assorted shorebirds, tubenoses, hoopoes, bee-eaters and several types of woodpecker.", "Birds with more conspicuous or open nesting areas or habits are more likely to have fledglings or nestlings attacked, such as water birds, while those with more secluded or inaccessible nests, such as pigeons/doves and woodpeckers, adults are more likely to be hunted.", "A buzzard that caught a large Green whip snake but was flushed from its catch.", "The common buzzard may be the most regular avian predator of reptiles and amphibians in Europe apart from the sections where they are sympatric with the largely snake-eating short-toed eagle.", "In total, the prey spectrum of common buzzards include nearly 50 herpetological prey species.", "In studies from northern and southern Spain, the leading prey numerically were both reptilian, although in Biscay the leading prey was classified as \" unidentified snakes \" .", "In Murcia, the most numerous prey was the ocellated lizard , at 32.9%.", "In total, at Biscay and Murcia, reptiles accounted for 30.4% and 35.9% of the prey items, respectively.", "Findings were similar in a separate study from northeastern Spain, where reptiles amounted to 35.9% of prey.", "In Bari, Italy, reptiles were the main prey, making up almost exactly half of the biomass, led by the large green whip snake , maximum size up to , at 24.2% of food mass.", "In Stavropol Krai, Russia, the sand lizard was the main prey at 23.7% of 55 prey items.", "The slowworm , a legless lizard, became the most numerous prey for the buzzards of southern Norway in low vole years, amounting to 21.3% of 244 prey items in 1993 and were also common even in the peak vole year of 1994 .", "More or less any snake in Europe is potential prey and the buzzard has been known to be uncharacteristically bold in going after and overpowering large snakes such as rat snakes, ranging up to nearly in length, and healthy, large vipers despite the danger of being struck by such prey.", "However, in at least one case, the corpse of a female buzzard was found envenomed over the body of an adder that it had killed.", "In some parts of range, the common buzzard acquires the habit of taking many frogs and toads.", "This was the case in the Mogilev Region of Belarus where the moor frog was the major prey over several years, followed by other frogs and toads amounting to 39.4% of the diet over the years.", "In central Scotland, the common toad was the most numerous prey species, accounting for 21.7% of 263 prey items, while the common frog made up a further 14.7% of the diet.", "Frogs made up about 10% of the diet in central Poland as well.", "When common buzzards feed on invertebrates, these are chiefly earthworms, beetles and caterpillars in Europe and largely seemed to be preyed on by juvenile buzzards with less refined hunting skills or in areas with mild winters and ample swarming or social insects.", "In most dietary studies, invertebrates are at best a minor supplemental contributor to the buzzard's diet.", "Nonetheless, roughly a dozen beetle species have found in the foods of buzzards from the Ukraine alone.", "In winter in northeastern Spain, it was found that the buzzards switched largely from the vertebrate prey typically taken during spring and summer to a largely insect-based diet.", "Most of this prey was unidentified but the most frequently identified were European mantis and European mole cricket .", "In the Ukraine, 30.8% of the food by number was found to be insects.", "Especially in winter quarters such as southern Africa, common buzzards are often attracted to swarming locusts and other orthopterans.", "In this way the steppe buzzard may mirror a similar long-distance migrant from the Americas, the Swainson's hawk, which feeds its young largely on nutritious vertebrates but switches to a largely insect-based once the reach their distant wintering grounds in South America.", "In Eritea, 18 returning migrant steppe buzzards were seen to feed together on swarms of grasshoppers.", "For wintering steppe buzzards in Zimbabwe, one source went so far as to refer to them as primarily insectivorous, apparently being somewhat locally specialized to feeding on termites.", "Stomach contents in buzzards from Malawi apparently consisted largely of grasshoppers .", "Fish tend to be the rarest class of prey found in the common buzzard's foods.", "There are a couple cases of predation of fish detected in the Netherlands, while elsewhere they've been known to have fed upon eels and carp.", "A juvenile white-tailed eagle being mobbed by a pair of common buzzards over the Isle of Canna, as the eagle will sometimes prey on the buzzard.", "Common buzzards co-occur with dozens of other raptorial birds through their breeding, resident and wintering grounds.", "There may be many other birds that broadly overlap in prey selection to some extent.", "Furthermore, their preference for interfaces of forest and field is used heavily by many birds of prey.", "Some of the most similar species by diet are the common kestrel , hen harrier and lesser spotted eagle , not to mention nearly every European species of owl, as all but two may locally prefer rodents such as voles in their diets.", "Diet overlap was found to be extensive between buzzards and red foxes in Poland, with 61.9% of prey selection overlapping by species although the dietary breadth of the fox was broader and more opportunistic.", "Both fox dens and buzzard roosts were found to be significantly closer to high vole areas relative to the overall environment here.", "The only other widely found European Buteo, the rough-legged buzzard, comes to winter extensively with common buzzards.", "It was found in southern Sweden, habitat, hunting and prey selection often overlapped considerably.", "Rough-legged buzzards appear to prefer slightly more open habitat and took slightly fewer wood mice than common buzzard.", "Roughlegs also hover much more frequently and are more given to hunting in high winds.", "The two buzzards are aggressive towards one another and excluded each other from winter feeding territories in similar ways to the way they exclude conspecifics.", "In northern Germany, the buffer of their habitat preferences apparently accounted for the lack of effect on each other's occupancy between the two buzzard species.", "Despite a broad range of overlap, very little is known about the ecology of common and long-legged buzzards where they co-exist.", "However, it can be inferred from the long-legged species preference for predation on differing prey, such as blind mole-rats, ground squirrels, hamsters and gerbils, from the voles usually preferred by the common species, that serious competition for food is unlikely.", "A more direct negative effect has been found in buzzard's co-existence with northern goshawk .", "Despite the considerable discrepancy of the two species dietary habits, habitat selection in Europe is largely similar between buzzards and goshawks.", "Goshawks are slightly larger than buzzards and are more powerful, agile and generally more aggressive birds, and so they are considered dominant.", "In studies from Germany and Sweden, buzzards were found to be less disturbance sensitive than goshawks but were probably displaced into inferior nesting spots by the dominant goshawks.", "The exposure of buzzards to a dummy goshawk was found to decrease breeding success whereas there was no effect on breeding goshawks when they were exposed to a dummy buzzard.", "In many cases, in Germany and Sweden, goshawks displaced buzzards from their nests to take them over for themselves.", "In Poland, buzzards productivity was correlated to prey population variations, particularly voles which could vary from 1080 per hectare, whereas goshawks were seemingly unaffected by prey variations", "buzzards were found here to number 1.73 pair per against goshawk 1.63 pair per .", "In contrast, the slightly larger counterpart of buzzards in North America, the red-tailed hawk are more similar in diet to goshawks there.", "Redtails are not invariably dominated by goshawks and are frequently able to outcompete them by virtue of greater dietary and habitat flexibility.", "Furthermore, red-tailed hawks are apparently equally capable of killing goshawks as goshawks are of killing them .", "Other raptorial birds, including many of similar or mildly larger size than common buzzards themselves, may dominate or displace the buzzard, especially with aims to take over their nests.", "Species such as the black kite , booted eagle and the lesser spotted eagle have been known to displace actively nesting buzzards, although in some cases the buzzards may attempt to defend themselves.", "The broad range of accipitrids that take over buzzard nests is somewhat unusual. More typically, common buzzards are victims of nest parasitism to owls and falcons, as neither of these other kinds of raptorial birds builds their own nests, but these may regularly take up occupancy on already abandoned or alternate nests rather than ones the buzzards are actively using.", "In urban vicinities of southwestern England, it was found that peregrine falcons were harassing buzzards so persistently, in many cases resulting in injury or death for the buzzards, the attacks tending to peak during the falcon's breeding seasons and tend to be focused on subadult buzzards.", "Despite often being dominated in nesting site confrontations by even similarly sized raptors, buzzards appear to be bolder in direct competition over food with other raptors outside of the context of breeding, and has even been known to displace larger birds of prey such as red kites and female buzzards may also dominate male goshawks at disputed kills.", "The remains of a common buzzard that was preyed on by a Eurasian eagle-owl.", "Common buzzards are occasionally threatened by predation by other raptorial birds.", "Northern goshawks have been known to have preyed upon buzzards in a few cases.", "Much larger raptors are known to have killed a few buzzards as well, including steppe eagles on migrating steppe buzzards in Israel.", "Further instances of predation on buzzards have involved golden, eastern imperial , Bonelli's and white-tailed eagles in Europe.", "Besides preying on adult buzzard, white-tailed eagles have been known to raise buzzards with their own young.", "These are most likely cases of eagles carrying off young buzzard nestlings with the intention of predation but, for unclear reasons, not killing them.", "Instead the mother eagle comes to brood the young buzzard.", "Despite the difference of the two species diets, white-tailed eagles are surprisingly successful at raising young buzzards to fledging.", "Studies in Lithuania of white-tailed eagle diets found that predation on common buzzards was more frequent than anticipated, with 36 buzzard remains found in 11 years of study of the summer diet of the white-tailed eagles.", "While nestling buzzards were multiple times more vulnerable to predation than adult buzzards in the Lithuanian data, the region's buzzards expelled considerable time and energy during the late nesting period trying to protect their nests.", "The most serious predator of common buzzards, however, is almost certainly the Eurasian eagle-owl .", "This is a very large owl with a mean body mass about three to four times greater than that of a buzzard.", "The eagle-owl, despite often taking small mammals that broadly overlap with those selected by buzzards, is considered a \" super-predator \" that is a major threat to nearly all co-existing raptorial birds, capably destroying whole broods of other raptorial birds and dispatching adult raptors even as large as eagles.", "Due to their large numbers in edge habitats, common buzzards frequently feature heavily in the eagle-owl's diet.", "Eagle-owls, as will some other large owls, also readily expropriate the nests of buzzards.", "The reintroduction of eagle-owls to sections of Germany has been found to have a slight deleterious effect on the local occupancy of common buzzards.", "The only sparing factor is the temporal difference and buzzards may locally be able to avoid nesting near an active eagle-owl family.", "As the ecology of the wintering population is relatively little studied, a similar very large owl at the top of the avian food chain, the Verreaux's eagle-owl , is the only known predator of wintering steppe buzzards in southern Africa.", "Despite not being known predators of buzzards, other large, vole-eating owls are known to displace or to be avoided by nesting buzzards, such as great grey owls and Ural owls .", "Common buzzards themselves rarely present a threat to other raptorial birds but may occasionally kill a few of those of smaller size.", "The buzzard is a known predator of Eurasian sparrowhawks , common kestrel and lesser kestrel .", "Perhaps surprisingly, given the nocturnal habits of this prey, the group of raptorial birds the buzzard is known to hunt most extensively is owls.", "Known owl prey has included barn owls , European scops owls , tawny owls , little owls , boreal owls , long-eared owls and short-eared owls .", "Despite their relatively large size, tawny owls are known to avoid buzzards as there are several records of them preying upon the owls.", "A pair of common buzzards in Scotland.", "Home ranges of common buzzards are generally .", "In a German study, the range was with an average of .", "On another set of islands, on Crete the density of pairs was lower at 5.7 pairs per", "here buzzards tend to have an irregular distribution, some in lower intensity harvest olive groves but their occurrence actually more common in agricultural than natural areas.", "In the Italian Alps, it was recorded in 199396 that there were from 28 to 30 pairs per .", "Despite claims from the study of the English midlands were the highest known territory density for the species, a number ranging from 32 to 51 pairs in wooded area of merely in Czech Republic seems to surely exceed even those densities.", "The Czech study hypothesized that fragmentation of forest in human management of lands for wild sheep and deer, creating exceptional concentrations of prey such as voles, and lack of appropriate habitat in surrounding regions for the exceptionally high density.", "A territorial dogfight between three buzzards in the Azores.", "Common buzzards maintain their territories through flight displays.", "In Europe, territorial behaviour generally starts in February.", "However, displays are not uncommon throughout year in resident pairs, especially by males, and can elicit similar displays by neighbors.", "In them, common buzzards generally engage in high circling, spiraling upward on slightly raised wings.", "Mutual high circling by pairs sometimes go on at length, especially during the period prior to or during breeding season.", "In mutual displays, a pair may follow each other at in level flight.", "During the mutual displays, the male may engage in exaggerated deep flapping or zig-zag tumbling, apparently in response to the female being too distant.", "Two or three pairs may circle together at times and as many as 14 individual adults have been recorded over established display sites.", "Sky-dancing by common buzzards have been recorded in spring and autumn, typically by male but sometimes by female, nearly always with much calling.", "Their sky-dances are of the rollercoaster type, with upward sweep until they start to stall, but sometimes embellished with loops or rolls at the top.", "Next in the sky-dance, they dive on more or less closed wings before spreading them and shooting up again, upward sweeps of up to , with dive drops of up to at least .", "These dances may be repeated in series of 10 to 20.", "In the climax of the sky dance, the undulations become progressive shallower, often slowing and terminating directly onto a perch.", "Various other aerial displays include low contour flight or weaving among trees, frequently with deep beats and exaggerated upstrokes which show underwing pattern to rivals perched below.", "Talon grappling and occasionally cartwheeling downward with feet interlocked has been recorded in buzzards and, as in many raptors, is likely the physical culmination of the aggressive territorial display, especially between males.", "Despite the highly territorial nature of buzzards and their devotion to a single mate and breeding ground each summer, there is one case of a polyandrous trio of buzzards nesting in the Canary Islands.", "In North-Estonian Neeruti landscape reserve found in years 1989 and 1990 Marek Vahula 9 populated nest.", "This is sovereign public density of population.", "One nest founded in 12.06.1982 and this is apparently oldest nest of Common Buzzard, what is populated until today.", "Common buzzards tend to build a bulky nest of sticks, twigs and often heather.", "Commonly, nests are up to across and deep.", "With reuse over years, the diameter can reach or exceed and weight of nests can reach over .", "Buzzards were recorded to nest almost exclusively in pines in Spain at a mean height of .", "The much plainer egg of the common buzzard contrasted with that of the European honey buzzard.", "The breeding season commences at differing times based on latitude.", "Common buzzard breeding seasons may fall as early as January to April but typically the breeding season is March to July in much of Palearctic.", "In the northern stretches of the range the breeding season may last into MayAugust.", "Mating usually occurs on or near the nest and lasts about 15 seconds, typically occurring several times a day.", "Eggs are usually laid in 2 to 3-day intervals.", "The clutch size can range from to 2 to 6, a relatively large clutch for an accipitrid.", "More northerly and westerly buzzard usually bear larger clutches, which average nearer 3, than those further east and south.", "In Spain, the average clutch size is about 2 to 2.3.", "From 4 locations in different parts of Europe, 43% had clutch size of 2, 41% had size of 3, clutches of 1 and 4 each constituted about 8%.", "Laying dates are remarkably constant throughout Great Britain.", "There are, however, highly significant differences in clutch size between British study areas.", "These do not follow any latitudinal gradient and it is likely that local factors such as habitat and prey availability are more important determinants of clutch size.", "The eggs are white in ground colour, rather round in shape with sporadic red to brown markings sometimes lightly showing.", "In the nominate race, egg size is in height by in diameter with an average of in 600 eggs.", "In the race of vulpinus, egg height is by with an average of in 303 eggs.", "Eggs are generally laid in late March to early April in extreme south, sometime in April in most of Europe, into May and possibly even early June in the extreme north.", "If eggs are lost to a predator or fail in some other way, common buzzards do not usually lay replacement clutches but they have been recorded, even with 3 attempts of clutches by a single female.", "The female does most but not all of the incubating, doing so for a total of 3335 days.", "The female remains at the nest brooding the young in the early stages with the male bringing all prey.", "At about 812 days, both the male and female will bring prey but the female continues to do all feeding until the young can tear up their own prey.", "Once hatching commences, it may take 48 hours for the chick to chip out.", "Hatching may take place over 37 days, with new hatchlings averaging about in body mass.", "After leaving the nest, buzzards generally stay close by, but with migratory ones there is more definitive movement generally southbound.", "Full independence is generally sought 6 to 8 weeks after fledging.", "1st year birds generally remain in wintering area for following summer but then return to near area of origin but then migrate south again without breeding.", "Radio-tracking suggests that most dispersal, even relatively early dispersals, by juvenile buzzards is undertaken independently rather than via exile by parents, as has been recorded in some other birds of prey.", "In common buzzards, generally speaking, siblings stay quite close to each other after dispersal from their parents and form something of a social group, although parents usually tolerate their presence on their territory until they are laying another clutch.", "However, the social group of siblings disbands at about a year of age.", "Juvenile buzzards are subordinate to adults during most encounters and tend to avoid direct confrontations and actively defended territories until they are of appropriate age .", "This was the case as well for steppe buzzard juveniles wintering in southern Africa, although in some cases juveniles were able to successfully steal prey from adults there.", "A common buzzard recent fledgling in a pine tree.", "Numerous factors may weigh into the breeding success of common buzzards.", "Chiefly among these are prey populations, habitat, disturbance and persecution levels and innerspecies competition.", "High breeding success was detected in Argyll, Scotland, due likely to hearty prey populations but also probably a lower local rate of persecution than elsewhere in the British isles.", "Here, the mean number of fledglings were 1.75 against 0.821.41 in other parts of Britain.", "It was found in the English Midlands that breeding success both by measure of clutch size and mean number of fledglings, was relatively high thanks again to high prey populations.", "Breeding success was lower farther from significant stands of trees in the Midlands and most nesting failures that could be determined occurred in the incubation stage, possibly in correlation with predation of eggs by corvids.", "More significant than even prey, late winter-early spring was found to be likely the primary driver of breeding success in buzzards from southern Norway.", "Here, even in peak vole years, nesting success could be considerably hampered by heavy snow at this crucial stage.", "In Norway, large clutches of 3+ were expected only in years with minimal snow cover, high vole populations and lighter rains in MayJune.", "In the Italian Alps, the mean number of fledglings per pair was 1.07.", "33.4% of nesting attempts were failures per a study in southwestern Germany, with an average of 1.06 of all nesting attempts and 1.61 for all successful attempt.", "In Germany, weather conditions and rodent populations seemed to be the primary drivers of nesting success.", "In Murcia part of Spain contrasted with Biscay to the north, higher levels of interspecific competition from booted eagles and northern goshawks did not appear to negatively affect breeding success due to more ample prey populations in Murcia than in Biscay.", "Breeding success in areas with wild European rabbits was considerably effected by rabbit myxomatosis and rabbit haemorrhagic disease, both of which have heavily depleted wild rabbit population.", "Breeding success in formerly rabbit-rich areas were recorded to decrease from as much as 2.6 to as little as 0.9 young per pair.", "Age of first breeding in several radio-tagged buzzards showed only a single male breeding as early as his 2nd summer .", "Significantly more buzzards were found to start breeding at the 3 summer but breeding attempts can be individually erratic given the availability of habitat, food and mates.", "The mean life expectancy was estimated at 6.3 years in the late 1950s, but this was at a time of high persecution when humans were causing 5080% of buzzard deaths.", "In a more modern context with regionally reduced persecution rates, the lifespan expected can be higher but is still widely variable due to a wide variety of factors.", "A wintering steppe buzzard in South Africa.", "The common buzzard is one of the most numerous birds of prey in its range.", "Almost certainly, it is the most numerous diurnal bird of prey throughout Europe.", "Conservative estimates put the total population at no fewer than 700,000 pairs in Europe, which are more than twice the total estimates for the next four birds of prey estimated as most common: the Eurasian sparrowhawk , the common kestrel and the northern goshawk .", "In Westphalia, Germany, population of Buzzards was shown to nearly triple over the last few decades.", "The Westphalian buzzards are possibly benefiting from increasingly warmer mean climate, which in turn is increasing vulnerability of voles.", "However, the rate of increase was significantly greater in males than in females, in part because of reintroduced Eurasian eagle-owls to the region preying on nests , which may in turn put undue pressure on the local buzzard population.", "At least 238 common buzzards killed through persecution were recovered in England from 1975 to 1989, largely through poisoning.", "Persecution did not significantly differ at any time due this span of years nor did the persecution rates decrease, nor did it when compared to rates of last survey of this in 1981.", "While some persecution persists in England, it is probably slightly less common today.", "The buzzard was found to be the most vulnerable raptor to power-line collision fatalities in Spain probably as it is one of the most common largish birds, and together with the common raven, it accounted for nearly a third of recorded electrocutions.", "Given its relative abundance, the common buzzard is held as an ideal bioindicator, as they are effected by a range of pesticide and metal contamination through pollution like other raptors but are largely resilient to these at the population levels.", "In turn, this allows biologists to study the buzzards intensively and their environments without affecting their overall population.", "The lack of affect may be due to the buzzard's adaptability as well as its relatively short, terrestrially-based food chain, which exposes them to less risk of contamination and population depletions than raptors that prey more heavily on water-based prey or other birds .", "Common buzzards are seldom vulnerable to egg-shell thinning from DDT as are other raptors but egg-shell thinning has been recorded.", "Other factors that negatively effect raptors have been studied in common buzzards are helminths, avipoxvirus and assorted other viruses."]}, "Sylvia atricapilla": {"keywords": ["The blackcap breeds in much of Europe, western Asia and northwestern Africa, and its preferred habitat is mature deciduous woodland.", "The blackcap is a partial migrant, birds from the colder areas of its range winter in scrub or trees in northwestern Europe, around the Mediterranean and in tropical Africa.", "Some birds from Germany and western continental Europe have adapted to spending the winter in gardens in Great Britain and Ireland.", "Garden birds also eat bread, fat and peanuts in winter.", "Despite extensive hunting in Mediterranean countries and the natural hazards of predation and disease, the blackcap has been extending its range for several decades, and is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as least concern.", "In some geographically isolated areas, such as islands, peninsulas and valleys in the Alps, a simplified fluting song occurs, named the Leiern song by the German ornithologists who first described it.", "The main call is a hard tac-tac, like stones knocking together, and other vocalisations include a squeaking sweet alarm, and a low-pitched trill similar to that of a garden warbler.", "Wintering birds in Africa are quiet initially, but start singing in January or February prior to their return north.", "A grey bird with a brown cap The continental breeding range of the blackcap lies between the 1430 July isotherms, and is occupied by the nominate subspecies, the other forms being restricted to islands or fringe areas in the Caucasus and eastern Iberia.", "Cross-breeding in captivity of birds from the resident population on the Canary Islands with migratory blackcaps from Germany showed the urge to migrate is genetically controlled, the offspring showing intermediate behaviour in terms of restlessness at migration time.", "Climate change appears to be affecting the migration pattern of the garden warbler and blackcap.", "Left graph shows likelihood of individual blackcaps being seen in a garden plotted against date, right graph shows likelihood plotted against air temperature.", "Although the British climate is sub-optimal, compensatory factors include the ready availability of food, , a shorter migration distance, and the avoidance of the Alps and the Sahara Desert.", "The steady supply of winter food in gardens gives even Spanish-breeding birds an opportunity to put on weight quicker than in their home range.", "Adults that frequented gardens had better body condition, smaller fat stores, longer bills, and rounder wing tips.", "Blackcaps did not exclusively feed in gardens, visits were linked to harsher weather.", "Individuals generally stayed at garden sites until immediately before spring departure, and supplemental feeding may have benefits for winter survival, When preparing for migration, abundant supplemental food may allow blackcaps to attain better body condition and may facilitate earlier and more successful breeding attempts.", "In the Iberian Peninsula, migratory blackcaps track similar climatic conditions over the season, which sedentary individuals must cope with great variation in climate over the year.", "Deciduous woodland is the preferred breeding habitat.", "A woodland glade The blackcap's main breeding habitat is mature deciduous woodland, with good scrub cover below the trees.", "Other habitats, such as parks, large gardens and overgrown hedges, are used as long as they meet the essential requirements of tall trees for songposts and an established understory.", "Densities are much lower in poorer habitats such as conifer forests.", "Breeding occurs in Europe at altitudes up to .", "The blackcap normally raises just one brood, but second nestings are sometimes recorded, particularly in the milder climate of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic islands, triple brooding has been observed once, the female laying a total of 23 eggs in the season.", "A male blackcap eating a berry from a tree The blackcap feeds mainly on insects during the breeding season, then switches to fruit in late summer, the change being triggered by an internal biological rhythm.", "Although any suitable fruit may be eaten, some have seasonal or local importance, elder makes up a large proportion of the diet of northern birds preparing for migration, and energy-rich olives and lentisc are favoured by blackcaps wintering in the Mediterranean.", "Blackcaps defend good winter food sources in the wild, and at garden feeding stations they repel competitors as large as starlings and blackbirds.", "Seventeen strains of H. parabelopolskyi are found only in the blackcap, and form a monophyletic group, three further members of that group are found only in the garden warbler, and another three occur in the African hill babbler, supporting the shared ancestry of the three bird species.", "A painting of a seated man in a brown jacket and buff waistcoat Aristotle, in his History of Animals, considered that the garden warbler eventually metamorphosed into a blackcap."], "habitat_section": ["A grey bird with a brown cap The continental breeding range of the blackcap lies between the 1430 July isotherms, and is occupied by the nominate subspecies, the other forms being restricted to islands or fringe areas in the Caucasus and eastern Iberia.", "There is a migratory divide in Europe at longitude 1011E. Birds to the west of this line head southwest towards Iberia or West Africa, whereas populations to the east migrate to the eastern Mediterranean and on to East Africa.", "Cross-breeding in captivity of birds from the resident population on the Canary Islands with migratory blackcaps from Germany showed the urge to migrate is genetically controlled, the offspring showing intermediate behaviour in terms of restlessness at migration time.", "Similar experiments using birds from southern Germany and eastern Austria, on opposite sides of the migratory divide, demonstrated that the direction of migration is also genetically determined.", "Climate change appears to be affecting the migration pattern of the garden warbler and blackcap.", "Both are arriving in Europe earlier than previously, and blackcaps and juvenile garden warblers are departing nearly two weeks later than in the 1980s.", "Birds of both species are longer-winged and lighter than in the past, suggesting a longer migration as the breeding range expands northwards.", "Left graph shows likelihood of individual blackcaps being seen in a garden plotted against date, right graph shows likelihood plotted against air temperature.", "where the blackcap was formerly just a summer visitor.", "Although the British climate is sub-optimal, compensatory factors include the ready availability of food, , a shorter migration distance, and the avoidance of the Alps and the Sahara Desert.", "It now appears that the wintering birds in the UK come from a much wider area than previously thought.", "The majority come from France, and some individuals come from as far away as Spain and Poland.", "The steady supply of winter food in gardens gives even Spanish-breeding birds an opportunity to put on weight quicker than in their home range.", "A 2021 paper showed that blackcaps, particularly adults, wintering in Britain and Ireland showed high site fidelity and low movement between wintering sites, in contrast to blackcaps wintering in their traditional winter ranges.", "Adults that frequented gardens had better body condition, smaller fat stores, longer bills, and rounder wing tips.", "The bill and wing tip shapes reflected a more generalist diet than that of birds in traditional winter sites.", "Blackcaps did not exclusively feed in gardens, visits were linked to harsher weather.", "Individuals generally stayed at garden sites until immediately before spring departure, and supplemental feeding may have benefits for winter survival, When preparing for migration, abundant supplemental food may allow blackcaps to attain better body condition and may facilitate earlier and more successful breeding attempts.", "In the Iberian Peninsula, migratory blackcaps track similar climatic conditions over the season, which sedentary individuals must cope with great variation in climate over the year.", "This suggests a trade-off between the cost of travelling long distances of migrants, and the flexibility required by sedentary individuals to tolerate a wide variety of environmental conditions.", "Deciduous woodland is the preferred breeding habitat.", "A woodland glade The blackcap's main breeding habitat is mature deciduous woodland, with good scrub cover below the trees.", "Other habitats, such as parks, large gardens and overgrown hedges, are used as long as they meet the essential requirements of tall trees for songposts and an established understory.", "Where other Sylvia warblers also breed, blackcaps tend to use taller trees than their relatives, preferably those with a good canopy, such as pedunculate oak.", "In prime habitat, breeding densities reach 100200 pairs per square kilometre in northern Europe, and 500900 pairs per square kilometre in Italy.", "Densities are much lower in poorer habitats such as conifer forests.", "Breeding occurs in Europe at altitudes up to .", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany When male blackcaps return to their breeding areas, they establish a territory.", "Adults that have previously bred return to the site they have used in previous summers, whereas inexperienced birds either wander until they find a suitable area, or establish a very large initial territory which contracts under pressure from neighbours.", "Territorial boundaries are established initially by loud singing, performed while the male displays with his crown raised, tail fanned and slow wingbeats.", "This display is followed, if necessary, by a chase, often leading to a fight.", "The typical territory size in a French study was , but in insect-rich tall maquis in Gibraltar, the average was only .", "Females feed within a home range which may overlap other blackcap territories, and covers up to six times the area of the defended zone.", "The eggs normally take about 11 days to hatch.", "Two eggs in a cup-shaped nest Sylvia warblers are unusual in that they vigorously defend their territories against other members of their genus as well as conspecifics.", "Blackcaps and garden warblers use identical habits in the same wood, yet aggressive interactions mean that their territories never overlap.", "Similar songs are a feature of the Sylvia warblers as a group, and it has been suggested that this promotes interspecific competition and helps to segregate territories between related species.", "It appears more likely from later studies that segregation of sympatric species, other than the blackcap and garden warbler, is due to subtle habitat preferences rather than interspecies aggression."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian blackcap , usually known simply as the blackcap, is a common and widespread typical warbler.", "It has mainly olive-grey upperparts and pale grey underparts, and differences between the five subspecies are small.", "Both sexes have a neat coloured cap to the head, black in the male and reddish-brown in the female.", "The male's typical song is a rich musical warbling, often ending in a loud high-pitched crescendo, but a simpler song is given in some isolated areas, such as valleys in the Alps.", "The blackcap's closest relative is the garden warbler, which looks quite different but has a similar song.", "The blackcap breeds in much of Europe, western Asia and northwestern Africa, and its preferred habitat is mature deciduous woodland.", "The male holds a territory when breeding, which is defended against garden warblers as well as other blackcaps.", "The nest is a neat cup, built low in brambles or scrub, and the clutch is typically 46 mainly buff eggs, which hatch in about 11 days.", "The chicks fledge in 1112 days, but are cared for by both adults for some time after leaving the nest.", "The blackcap is a partial migrant", "birds from the colder areas of its range winter in scrub or trees in northwestern Europe, around the Mediterranean and in tropical Africa.", "Some birds from Germany and western continental Europe have adapted to spending the winter in gardens in Great Britain and Ireland.", "Insects are the main food in the breeding season, but, for the rest of the year, blackcaps survive primarily on small fruit.", "Garden birds also eat bread, fat and peanuts in winter.", "Despite extensive hunting in Mediterranean countries and the natural hazards of predation and disease, the blackcap has been extending its range for several decades, and is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as least concern.", "Its rich and varied song has led to it being described as the \" mock nightingale \" and it has featured in literature, films and music.", "In Messiaen's opera Saint Francois d'Assise, the saint is represented by themes based on the blackcap's song.", "The genus Sylvia, the typical warblers, forms part of a large family of Old World warblers, the Sylviidae.", "The blackcap and its nearest relative, the garden warbler, are an ancient species pair which diverged very early from the rest of the genus at between 12 and 16 million years ago.", "In the course of time, these two species have become sufficiently distinctive that they have been placed in separate subgenera, with the blackcap in subgenus Sylvia and the garden warbler in Epilais.", "These sister species have a breeding range which extends farther northeast than all other Sylvia species except the lesser whitethroat and common whitethroat.", "The nearest relatives of the garden warbler outside the sister group are believed to be the African hill babbler and Dohrn's thrush-babbler, both of which should probably be placed in Sylvia rather than their current genera, Pseudoalcippe and Horizorhinus respectively.", "The blackcap was one of the many bird species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, as Motacilla atricapilla.", "The current genus name is from Modern Latin silvia, a woodland sprite, related to silva, a wood.", "The species name, like the English name, refers to the male's black cap.", "Atricapilla is from the Latin ater, \" black \" , and capillus, \" hair \" .", "Fossils and subfossils of the blackcap have been found in a number of European countries", "the oldest, dated to 1.21.0 million years ago, are from the Early Pleistocene of Bulgaria.", "Fossils from France show that the genus Sylvia dates back at least 20 million years.", "Male S. a. heineken in the Canary Islands, Spain", "altA male blackcap perched in a tree The blackcap is a mainly grey warbler with distinct male and female plumages.", "The nominate subspecies is about long with a wing length.", "Blackcaps have a complete moult in their breeding areas in August and September prior to migration.", "Some birds, typically those migrating the greatest distances, have a further partial moult between December and March.", "Juveniles replace their loosely structured body feathers with adult plumage, starting earlier, but taking longer to complete, than the adults.", "Blackcaps breeding in the north of the range have an earlier and shorter post-juvenile moult than those further south, and cross-breeding of captive birds shows that the timing is genetically controlled.", "Song of male, Moscow Song of a male, Surrey, England Calls of a male, Surrey, England The male's song is a rich musical warbling, often ending in a loud high-pitched crescendo, which is given in bursts of up to 30 seconds.", "The song is repeated for about two-and-a-half minutes, with a short pause before each repetition.", "In some geographically isolated areas, such as islands, peninsulas and valleys in the Alps, a simplified fluting song occurs, named the Leiern song by the German ornithologists who first described it.", "The song's introduction is like that of other blackcaps, but the final warbling part is a simple alternation between two notes, as in a great tit's call but more fluting.", "The main song is confusable with that of the garden warbler, but it is slightly higher pitched than in that species, more broken into discrete song segments, and less mellow.", "Both species have a quiet subsong, a muted version of the full song, which is even harder to separate.", "The blackcap occasionally mimics the song of other birds, the most frequently copied including the garden warbler and the common nightingale.", "The main call is a hard tac-tac, like stones knocking together, and other vocalisations include a squeaking sweet alarm, and a low-pitched trill similar to that of a garden warbler.", "Wintering birds in Africa are quiet initially, but start singing in January or February prior to their return north.", "Adult female in Sweden showing reddish brown cap", "altA grey bird with a brown cap The continental breeding range of the blackcap lies between the 1430 July isotherms, and is occupied by the nominate subspecies, the other forms being restricted to islands or fringe areas in the Caucasus and eastern Iberia.", "There is a migratory divide in Europe at longitude 1011E.", "Birds to the west of this line head southwest towards Iberia or West Africa, whereas populations to the east migrate to the eastern Mediterranean and on to East Africa.", "Cross-breeding in captivity of birds from the resident population on the Canary Islands with migratory blackcaps from Germany showed the urge to migrate is genetically controlled, the offspring showing intermediate behaviour in terms of restlessness at migration time.", "Similar experiments using birds from southern Germany and eastern Austria, on opposite sides of the migratory divide, demonstrated that the direction of migration is also genetically determined.", "Climate change appears to be affecting the migration pattern of the garden warbler and blackcap.", "Both are arriving in Europe earlier than previously, and blackcaps and juvenile garden warblers are departing nearly two weeks later than in the 1980s.", "Birds of both species are longer-winged and lighter than in the past, suggesting a longer migration as the breeding range expands northwards.", "Left graph shows likelihood of individual blackcaps being seen in a garden plotted against date, right graph shows likelihood plotted against air temperature.", "where the blackcap was formerly just a summer visitor.", "Although the British climate is sub-optimal, compensatory factors include the ready availability of food, , a shorter migration distance, and the avoidance of the Alps and the Sahara Desert.", "It now appears that the wintering birds in the UK come from a much wider area than previously thought.", "The majority come from France, and some individuals come from as far away as Spain and Poland.", "The steady supply of winter food in gardens gives even Spanish-breeding birds an opportunity to put on weight quicker than in their home range.", "A 2021 paper showed that blackcaps, particularly adults, wintering in Britain and Ireland showed high site fidelity and low movement between wintering sites, in contrast to blackcaps wintering in their traditional winter ranges.", "Adults that frequented gardens had better body condition, smaller fat stores, longer bills, and rounder wing tips.", "The bill and wing tip shapes reflected a more generalist diet than that of birds in traditional winter sites.", "Blackcaps did not exclusively feed in gardens", "visits were linked to harsher weather.", "Individuals generally stayed at garden sites until immediately before spring departure, and supplemental feeding may have benefits for winter survival, When preparing for migration, abundant supplemental food may allow blackcaps to attain better body condition and may facilitate earlier and more successful breeding attempts.", "In the Iberian Peninsula, migratory blackcaps track similar climatic conditions over the season, which sedentary individuals must cope with great variation in climate over the year.", "This suggests a trade-off between the cost of travelling long distances of migrants, and the flexibility required by sedentary individuals to tolerate a wide variety of environmental conditions.", "Deciduous woodland is the preferred breeding habitat.", "altA woodland glade The blackcap's main breeding habitat is mature deciduous woodland, with good scrub cover below the trees.", "Other habitats, such as parks, large gardens and overgrown hedges, are used as long as they meet the essential requirements of tall trees for songposts and an established understory.", "Where other Sylvia warblers also breed, blackcaps tend to use taller trees than their relatives, preferably those with a good canopy, such as pedunculate oak.", "In prime habitat, breeding densities reach 100200 pairs per square kilometre in northern Europe, and 500900 pairs per square kilometre in Italy.", "Densities are much lower in poorer habitats such as conifer forests.", "Breeding occurs in Europe at altitudes up to .", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany When male blackcaps return to their breeding areas, they establish a territory.", "Adults that have previously bred return to the site they have used in previous summers, whereas inexperienced birds either wander until they find a suitable area, or establish a very large initial territory which contracts under pressure from neighbours.", "Territorial boundaries are established initially by loud singing, performed while the male displays with his crown raised, tail fanned and slow wingbeats.", "This display is followed, if necessary, by a chase, often leading to a fight.", "The typical territory size in a French study was , but in insect-rich tall maquis in Gibraltar, the average was only .", "Females feed within a home range which may overlap other blackcap territories, and covers up to six times the area of the defended zone.", "The eggs normally take about 11 days to hatch.", "altTwo eggs in a cup-shaped nest Sylvia warblers are unusual in that they vigorously defend their territories against other members of their genus as well as conspecifics.", "Blackcaps and garden warblers use identical habits in the same wood, yet aggressive interactions mean that their territories never overlap.", "Similar songs are a feature of the Sylvia warblers as a group, and it has been suggested that this promotes interspecific competition and helps to segregate territories between related species.", "It appears more likely from later studies that segregation of sympatric species, other than the blackcap and garden warbler, is due to subtle habitat preferences rather than interspecies aggression.", "Young chicks begging for food.", "These are still largely unfeathered.", "altThree small chicks with open red mouths in a nest Cuculus canorus bangsi in a clutch of Sylvia atricapilla MHNT Blackcaps first breed when they are one year old, and are mainly monogamous, although both sexes may sometimes deviate from this.", "A male attracts a female to his territory through song and a display involving raising the black crown feathers, fluffing the tail, slow wingbeats, and a short flapping flight.", "He also builds one or more simple nests , usually near his songpost.", "The eggs are incubated for an average of 11 days .", "Both adults incubate, although only the female stays on the nest at night.", "The chicks are altricial, hatching naked and with closed eyes, and are fed by both parents.", "They fledge about 1112 days after hatching, leaving the nest shortly before they are able to fly.", "They are assisted with feeding for a further two or three weeks.", "If the nest is threatened, the non-incubating bird gives an alarm call so that the sitting parent and chicks stay still and quiet.", "A male blackcap may mob a potential predator, or try to lure it away with disjointed runs and flaps on the ground.", "The blackcap normally raises just one brood, but second nestings are sometimes recorded, particularly in the milder climate of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic islands", "triple brooding has been observed once, the female laying a total of 23 eggs in the season.", "Of eggs laid, 6593% hatch successfully, and 7592% of the chicks go on to fledge.", "The productivity varies with location, level of predation and quality of habitat, but the national figure for the UK was 2.5.", "The adult annual survival rate is 43% , and 36% of juveniles live through their first year.", "The typical life expectancy is two years,", "Male eating an olive from a tree in France in December", "altA male blackcap eating a berry from a tree The blackcap feeds mainly on insects during the breeding season, then switches to fruit in late summer, the change being triggered by an internal biological rhythm.", "When migrants arrive on their territories they initially take berries, pollen and nectar if there are insufficient insects available, then soon switch to their preferred diet.", "They mainly pick prey off foliage and twigs, but may occasionally hover, flycatch or feed on the ground.", "Blackcaps eat a wide range of invertebrate prey, although aphids are particularly important early in the season, and flies, beetles and caterpillars are also taken in large numbers.", "Small snails are swallowed whole, since the shell is a source of calcium for the bird's eggs.", "Chicks are mainly fed soft-bodied insects, fruit only if invertebrates are scarce.", "In July, the diet switches increasingly to fruit.", "The protein needed for egg-laying and for the chicks to grow is replaced by fruit sugar which helps the birds to fatten for migration.", "Aphids are still taken while they are available, since they often contain sugars from the plant sap on which they feed.", "Blackcaps eat a wide range of small fruit, and squeeze out any seeds on a branch before consuming the pulp.", "This technique makes them an important propagator of mistletoe.", "The mistle thrush, which also favours that plant, is less beneficial since it tends to crush the seeds.", "Although any suitable fruit may be eaten, some have seasonal or local importance", "elder makes up a large proportion of the diet of northern birds preparing for migration, and energy-rich olives and lentisc are favoured by blackcaps wintering in the Mediterranean.", "Blackcaps defend good winter food sources in the wild, and at garden feeding stations they repel competitors as large as starlings and blackbirds.", "Birds occasionally become tame enough to feed from the hand.", "The common cuckoo is an occasional brood parasite of the blackcap.", "altA bird with a grey back, pale underparts and along tail perched on a post Blackcaps are caught by Eurasian sparrowhawks in the breeding range, and by Eleonora's falcons on migration.", "Eurasian jays and Eurasian magpies take eggs and young, as do mammals such as stoats, weasels and squirrels.", "Domestic cats are the most important predator, possibly killing up to 10% of blackcaps.", "Blackcaps are occasionally hosts of the common cuckoo, a brood parasite.", "The level of parasitism is low because the cuckoo's eggs are often rejected.", "Blackcaps have evolved adaptations which make it difficult for the parasitic species to succeed, despite the cuckoo's tendency to lay eggs which resemble those of their host.", "Blackcaps are good at spotting alien eggs, and their own eggs are very alike within a clutch, making it easier to spot the intruder.", "There is, however, considerable variation between different clutches, making it harder for the cuckoo to convincingly mimic a blackcap egg.", "The open habitat and cup nest of the warbler make it a potential target for the cuckoo", "it may have experienced much higher levels of parasitism in the past, and countermeasures would have spread rapidly once they evolved.", "The only blood parasites found in a study of blackcaps trapped on migration were protozoans from the genera Haemoproteus and Plasmodium.", "The study concluded that 45.5% of the males and 22.7% of the females were affected, but the number of parasites was small, and the ability to store fat for the migration flight was unimpaired.", "Seventeen strains of H. parabelopolskyi are found only in the blackcap, and form a monophyletic group", "three further members of that group are found only in the garden warbler, and another three occur in the African hill babbler, supporting the shared ancestry of the three bird species.", "Blackcaps may carry parasitic worms that sometimes kill their hosts.", "External parasites include chewing lice and feather mites.", "The latter do little damage, although heavy infestations cause individual tail feathers to develop asymmetrically.", "The English poet John Clare described the blackcap as the \" March Nightingale \" .", "altA painting of a seated man in a brown jacket and buff waistcoat Aristotle, in his History of Animals, considered that the garden warbler eventually metamorphosed into a blackcap.", "The blackcap's song has led to it being described as the \" mock nightingale \" or \" country nightingale \" , and John Clare, in \" The March Nightingale \" describes the listener as believing that the rarer species has arrived prematurely.", "\" He stops his own and thinks the nightingale/Hath of her monthly reckoning counted wrong \" .", "The song is also the topic of Italian poet Giovanni Pascoli's \" La Capinera \" .", "Giovanni Verga's 1871 novel Storia di una capinera, according to its author, was inspired by a story of a blackcap trapped and caged by children.", "The bird, silent and pining for its lost freedom, eventually dies.", "In the book, a nun evacuated from her convent by cholera falls in love with a family friend, only to have to return to her confinement when the disease wanes.", "The novel was adapted as films of the same name in 1917, 1943 and 1993.", "The last version was directed by Franco Zeffirelli, and its English-language version was retitled as Sparrow.", "In Saint Francois d'Assise, an opera by Messiaen, the orchestration is based on bird song.", "St Francis himself is represented by the blackcap.", "Folk names for the blackcap often refer to its most obvious plumage feature or to its song, as in the \" nightingale \" names above.", "Other old names are based on its choice of nesting material .", "There is a tradition of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm bases being named for birds.", "A former base near Stretton in Cheshire was called HMS Blackcap.", "The blackcap has a very large range, and its population in Europe is estimated at 4165 million breeding pairs.", "Allowing for birds breeding in Africa and Asia, the total population estimate is between 101 and 161 million individuals.", "It is therefore classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of least concern."]}, "Strix aluco": {"keywords": ["The tawny owl , also called the brown owl, is commonly found in woodlands across Europe to western Siberia, and has seven recognized subspecies.", "The tawny owl's hearing is ten times better than a human's, and it can hunt using this sense alone in the dark of a woodland on an overcast night, but the patter of raindrops makes it difficult to detect faint sounds, and prolonged wet weather can lead to starvation if the owl cannot hunt effectively.", "Although both colour morphs occur in much of the European range, brown birds predominate in the more humid climate of western Europe, with the grey morph becoming more common further east, in the northernmost regions, all the owls are a cold-grey colour.", "The Italian study showed that brown-morph birds were found in denser woodland, and in Finland, Gloger's rule would suggest that paler birds would in any case predominate in the colder climate.", "Subspecies Range Described by S. a. aluco north and central Europe from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean and Black Sea Linnaeus, 1758 S. a. biddulphi northwest India and Pakistan Scully, 1881 S. a. harmsi Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan S. a. sanctinicolai west Iran, northeast Iraq S. a. siberiae central Russia from Urals to west Siberia Dementiev, 1934 S. a. sylvatica west and southern Europe, west Turkey Shaw, 1809 S. a. willkonskii northeast Turkey and northwest Iran to Turkmenistan .", "Ancient deciduous woodland is a favoured habitat The tawny owl is non-migratory and has a distribution stretching discontinuously across temperate Europe from Great Britain and the Iberian Peninsula eastwards to western Siberia.", "It is absent from Ireland , and only a rare vagrant to the Balearic and Canary Islands.", "This species is found in deciduous and mixed forests, and sometimes mature conifer plantations, preferring locations with access to water.", "Cemeteries, gardens and parks have allowed it to spread into urban areas, including central London.", "Although tawny owls occur in urban environments, especially those with natural forests and wooded habitat patches, they are less likely to occur at sites with high noise levels at night.", "The tawny owl is mainly a lowland bird in the colder parts of its range, but breeds to in Scotland, in the Alps, in Turkey, and up to in Myanmar."], "habitat_section": ["Ancient deciduous woodland is a favoured habitat The tawny owl is non-migratory and has a distribution stretching discontinuously across temperate Europe from Great Britain and the Iberian Peninsula eastwards to western Siberia.", "It is absent from Ireland , and only a rare vagrant to the Balearic and Canary Islands.", "In the Himalayas and East Asia it is replaced by the Himalayan owl and in northwest Africa it is replaced by the closely related Maghreb owl .", "This species is found in deciduous and mixed forests, and sometimes mature conifer plantations, preferring locations with access to water.", "Cemeteries, gardens and parks have allowed it to spread into urban areas, including central London.", "Although tawny owls occur in urban environments, especially those with natural forests and wooded habitat patches, they are less likely to occur at sites with high noise levels at night.", "The tawny owl is mainly a lowland bird in the colder parts of its range, but breeds to in Scotland, in the Alps, in Turkey, and up to in Myanmar.", "The tawny owl has a geographical range of at least 10 million km 2 and a large population including an estimated 970,0002,000,000 individuals in Europe alone.", "Population trends have not been quantified, but there is evidence of an overall increase.", "This owl is not believed to meet the IUCN Red List criterion of declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations and is therefore evaluated as being of least concern.", "This species has expanded its range in Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and Ukraine, and populations are stable or increasing in most European countries.", "Declines have occurred in Finland, Estonia, Italy and Albania.", "Tawny owls are listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species meaning international trade is regulated."], "random_sentences": ["The tawny owl , also called the brown owl, is commonly found in woodlands across Europe to western Siberia, and has seven recognized subspecies.", "It is a stocky, medium-sized owl, whose underparts are pale with dark streaks, and whose upper body may be either brown or grey.", "(In several subspecies, individuals may be of either color.", ") The tawny owl typically makes its nest in a tree hole where it can protect its eggs and young against potential predators.", "It is non-migratory and highly territorial: as a result, when young birds grow up and leave the parental nest, if they cannot find a vacant territory to claim as their own, they will often starve.", "The tawny owl is a nocturnal bird of prey.", "It is able to hunt successfully at night because of its vision and hearing adaptations and its ability to fly silently.", "It usually hunts by dropping suddenly from a perch and seizing its prey, which it swallows whole.", "It hunts mainly rodents, although in urbanized areas its diet includes a higher proportion of birds.", "It also sometimes catches smaller owls, and is itself sometimes hunted by the eagle owl and the northern goshawk.", "Although many people assume that the tawny owl has exceptional night vision, its retina is no more sensitive than a human's.", "Its directional hearing skill is more important to its hunting success: its ears are asymmetrically placed, which enables it to more precisely pinpoint the location from which a sound originates.", "The tawny owl holds a place in human folklore: because it is active at night and has what many humans experience as a haunting call, people have traditionally associated it with bad omens and death.", "Many people think that all owl species make a hooting sound, but that is an overgeneralization based on the call of this particular species.", "In addition, the double hoot, which many people think is the tawny owls prototypical call, is actually a call and response between a male and a female.", "Juvenile specimen of a tawny owl Field of view compared with a pigeon An owl's retina has a single fovea.", "Hooting song, Gloucestershire, England, 1978 'Kewick' calls, England, 1960s The tawny owl is a robust bird, in length, with an wingspan.", "Weight can range from .", "Its large rounded head lacks ear tufts, and the facial disc surrounding the dark brown eyes is usually rather plain.", "The nominate race has two morphs which differ in their plumage colour, one form having rufous brown upperparts and the other greyish brown, although intermediates also occur.", "The underparts of both morphs are whitish and streaked with brown.", "Feathers are moulted gradually between June and December.", "This species is sexually dimorphic", "the female is much larger than the male, 5% longer and more than 25% heavier.", "The tawny owl flies with long glides on rounded wings, less undulating and with fewer wingbeats than other Eurasian owls, and typically at a greater height.", "The flight of the tawny owl is rather heavy and slow, particularly at takeoff.", "As with most owls, its flight is silent because of its feathers' soft, furry upper surfaces and a fringe on the leading edge of the outer primaries.", "Its size, squat shape and broad wings distinguish it from other owls found within its range", "great grey owl, eagle owl and Ural owls are similar in shape, but much larger.", "The tawny owl's retina has about 56,000 light-sensitive rod cells per square millimetre ", "although earlier claims that it could see in the infrared part of the spectrum have been dismissed, it is still often said to have eyesight 10 to 100 times better than humans in low-light conditions.", "However, the experimental basis for this claim is probably inaccurate by at least a factor of 10.", "Adaptations to night vision include the large size of the eye, its tubular shape, large numbers of closely packed retinal rods, and an absence of cone cells, since rod cells have superior light sensitivity.", "There are few coloured oil drops, which would reduce the light intensity.", "Unlike diurnal birds of prey, owls normally have only one fovea, and that is poorly developed except in daytime hunters such as the short-eared owl.", "Hearing is important for a nocturnal bird of prey, and as with other owls, the tawny owl's two ear openings differ in structure and are asymmetrically placed to improve directional hearing.", "A passage through the skull links the eardrums, and small differences in the time of arrival of a sound at each ear enables its source to be pinpointed.", "The left ear opening is higher on the head than the larger right ear and tilts downward, improving sensitivity to sounds from below.", "Both ear openings are hidden under the facial disk feathers, which are structurally specialized to be transparent to sound, and are supported by a movable fold of skin .", "The internal structure of the ear, which has large numbers of auditory neurons, gives an improved ability to detect low-frequency sounds at a distance, which could include rustling made by prey moving in vegetation.", "The tawny owl's hearing is ten times better than a human's, and it can hunt using this sense alone in the dark of a woodland on an overcast night, but the patter of raindrops makes it difficult to detect faint sounds, and prolonged wet weather can lead to starvation if the owl cannot hunt effectively.", "The vocal activity of tawny owls depends on sex, annual cycle stage and weather, with males being more vocal than females year-round, with peak vocal activity during incubation and post-breeding.", "Although both colour morphs occur in much of the European range, brown birds predominate in the more humid climate of western Europe, with the grey morph becoming more common further east", "in the northernmost regions, all the owls are a cold-grey colour.", "The Siberian and Scandinavian subspecies are 12% larger and 40% heavier, and have 13% longer wings than western European birds, in accordance with Bergmann's rule which predicts that northern forms will typically be bigger than their southern counterparts.", "The plumage colour is genetically controlled, and studies in Finland and Italy indicate that grey-morph tawny owls have more reproductive success, better immune resistance, and fewer parasites than brown birds.", "Although this might suggest that eventually the brown morph could disappear, the owls show no colour preference when choosing a mate, so the selection pressure in favour of the grey morph is reduced.", "There are also environmental factors involved.", "The Italian study showed that brown-morph birds were found in denser woodland, and in Finland, Gloger's rule would suggest that paler birds would in any case predominate in the colder climate.", "Individual from France perched upon a human hand The species was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 under its current scientific name.", "The binomial derives from Greek strix \" owl \" and Italian allocco, \" tawny owl \" .", "The tawny owl is a member of the wood-owl genus Strix, part of the typical owl family Strigidae, which contains all species of owl other than the barn owls.", "Within its genus, the tawny owl's closest relatives are Hume's owl, Strix butleri, , the Himalayan owl, Strix nivicolum, , its larger northern neighbour, the Ural owl, S. uralensis, and the North American barred owl, S. varia.", "The EarlyMiddle Pleistocene Strix intermedia is sometimes considered a paleosubspecies of the tawny owl, which would make it that species' immediate ancestor.", "The tawny owl subspecies are often poorly differentiated, and may be at a flexible stage of subspecies formation with features related to the ambient temperature, the colour tone of the local habitat, and the size of available prey.", "Consequently, various authors have historically described between 10 and 15 subspecies.", "Subspecies Range Described by S. a. aluco north and central Europe from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean and Black Sea Linnaeus, 1758 S. a. biddulphi northwest India and Pakistan Scully, 1881 S. a. harmsi Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan S. a. sanctinicolai west Iran, northeast Iraq S. a. siberiae central Russia from Urals to west Siberia Dementiev, 1934 S. a. sylvatica west and southern Europe, west Turkey Shaw, 1809 S. a. willkonskii northeast Turkey and northwest Iran to Turkmenistan ", "Ancient deciduous woodland is a favoured habitat The tawny owl is non-migratory and has a distribution stretching discontinuously across temperate Europe from Great Britain and the Iberian Peninsula eastwards to western Siberia.", "It is absent from Ireland , and only a rare vagrant to the Balearic and Canary Islands.", "In the Himalayas and East Asia it is replaced by the Himalayan owl and in northwest Africa it is replaced by the closely related Maghreb owl .", "This species is found in deciduous and mixed forests, and sometimes mature conifer plantations, preferring locations with access to water.", "Cemeteries, gardens and parks have allowed it to spread into urban areas, including central London.", "Although tawny owls occur in urban environments, especially those with natural forests and wooded habitat patches, they are less likely to occur at sites with high noise levels at night.", "The tawny owl is mainly a lowland bird in the colder parts of its range, but breeds to in Scotland, in the Alps, in Turkey, and up to in Myanmar.", "The tawny owl has a geographical range of at least 10 million km 2 and a large population including an estimated 970,0002,000,000 individuals in Europe alone.", "Population trends have not been quantified, but there is evidence of an overall increase.", "This owl is not believed to meet the IUCN Red List criterion of declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations and is therefore evaluated as being of least concern.", "This species has expanded its range in Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and Ukraine, and populations are stable or increasing in most European countries.", "Declines have occurred in Finland, Estonia, Italy and Albania.", "Tawny owls are listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species meaning international trade is regulated.", "Tawny owls pair off from the age of one year, and stay together in a usually monogamous relationship for life.", "An established pair's territory is defended year-round and maintained with little, if any, boundary change from year to year.", "The pair sit in cover on a branch close to a tree trunk during the day, and usually roost separately from July to October.", "Roosting owls may be discovered and \" mobbed \" by small birds during the day, but they normally ignore the disturbance.", "The tawny owl typically nests in a hole in a tree, but will also use old European magpie nests, squirrel drey or holes in buildings, and readily takes to nest boxes.", "It nests from February onwards in the south of its range, but rarely before mid-March in Scandinavia.", "The glossy white eggs are in size and weigh of which 7% is shell.", "The typical clutch of two or three eggs is incubated for 30 days to hatching, and the altricial, downy chicks fledge in a further 3539 days.", "Incubation is usually undertaken by the female alone, although the male has rarely been observed to assist.", "The young usually leave the nest up to ten days before fledging, and hide on nearby branches.", "The parents care for young birds for two or three months after they fledge, but from August to November the juveniles disperse to find a territory of their own to occupy.", "If they fail to find a vacant territory, they usually starve.", "The juvenile survival rate is unknown, but the annual survival rate for adults is 76.8%.", "The typical lifespan is five years, but an age of over 18 years has been recorded for a wild tawny owl, and of over 27 years for a captive bird.", "This species is increasingly affected by avian malaria, the incidence of which has tripled in the last 70 years, in parallel with increasing global temperatures.", "An increase of one degree Celsius produces a two- to three-fold increase in the rate of malaria.", "In 2010, the incidence in British tawny owls was 60%, compared to 23% in 1996.", "Bank vole is a common prey The tawny owl hunts almost entirely at night, watching from a perch before dropping or gliding silently down to its victim, but very occasionally it will hunt in daylight when it has young to feed.", "This species takes a wide range of prey, mainly woodland rodents, but also other mammals up to the size of a young rabbit, and birds, earthworms and beetles.", "In urban areas, birds make up a larger proportion of the diet, and species as unlikely as mallard and kittiwake have been killed and eaten.", "Less powerful woodland owls such as the little owl and the long-eared owl cannot usually co-exist with the stronger tawny owls, which may take them as food items, and are found in different habitats", "in Ireland the absence of the tawny owl allowed the long-eared owl to become the dominant owl.", "Similarly, where the tawny owl has moved into built-up areas, it tends to displace barn owls from their traditional nesting sites in buildings.", "Grey individual, probably subspecies S. a. aluco The tawny owl, like its relatives, has often been seen as an omen of bad luck", "William Shakespeare used it as such in Julius Caesar : \" And yesterday the bird of night did sit/ Even at noon-day upon the market-place/ Hooting and shrieking.", "\" John Ruskin is quoted as saying \" Whatever wise people may say of them, I at least have found the owl's cry always prophetic of mischief to me \" .", "Wordsworth described the technique for calling an owl in his poem \" There Was a Boy \" .", " And there, with fingers interwoven, both hands Pressed closely palm to palm and to his mouth Uplifted, he, as through an instrument, Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls, That they might answer him.", "And they would shout Across the watery vale, and shout again, Responsive to his call,with quivering peals, And long halloos, and screams, and echoes loud Redoubled and redoubled", "concourse wild Of jocund din!"]}, "Carduelis carduelis": {"keywords": ["The European goldfinch or simply the goldfinch is a small passerine bird in the finch family that is native to Europe, North Africa and western and central Asia.", "The sexes are broadly similar, with a red face, black and white head, warm brown upper parts, white underparts with buff flanks and breast patches, and black and yellow wings.", "After moult birds appear less colourful, until the tips of the newly grown feathers wear away.", "The European goldfinch is native to Europe, North Africa, and western and central Asia.", "It is found in open, partially wooded lowlands and is a resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from colder regions.", "It was introduced to Bermuda, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands, Uruguay, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand in the 19th century, and their populations quickly increased and their range expanded greatly.", "In the United States, they have become established in the western Great Lakes region.", "It is constructed of mosses and lichens and lined with plant down such as that from thistles.", "European goldfinches are attracted to back gardens in Europe and North America by birdfeeders containing seed."], "habitat_section": ["The European goldfinch is native to Europe, North Africa, and western and central Asia.", "It is found in open, partially wooded lowlands and is a resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from colder regions.", "It will also make local movements, even in the west, to escape bad weather.", "It has been introduced to many areas of the world.", "It was introduced to Bermuda, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands, Uruguay, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand in the 19th century, and their populations quickly increased and their range expanded greatly.", "In Australia, they now occur from Brisbane to the Eyre Peninsula, and are also spread throughout New Zealand.", "In the United States, they have become established in the western Great Lakes region.", "A European goldfinch nest and eggs"], "random_sentences": ["The European goldfinch or simply the goldfinch is a small passerine bird in the finch family that is native to Europe, North Africa and western and central Asia.", "It has been introduced to other areas, including Australia, New Zealand and Uruguay.", "The breeding male has a red face with black markings around the eyes, and a black-and-white head.", "The back and flanks are buff or chestnut brown.", "The black wings have a broad yellow bar.", "The tail is black and the rump is white.", "Males and females are very similar, but females have a slightly smaller red area on the face.", "The goldfinch is often depicted in Italian Renaissance paintings of the Madonna and Child.", "The European goldfinch was one of the birds described and illustrated by Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner in his Historiae animalium of 1555.", "The first formal description was by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae published in 1758.", "He introduced the binomial name, Fringilla carduelis.", "Carduelis is the Latin word for 'goldfinch'.", "The European goldfinch is now placed in the genus Carduelis that was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 by tautonomy based on Linnaeus's specific epithet.", "Modern molecular genetic studies have shown that the European goldfinch is closely related to the citril finch and the Corsican finch .", "The English word 'goldfinch' was used in the second half of the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer in his unfinished The Cook's Tale: \" Gaillard he was as goldfynch in the shawe \" .", "The European goldfinch originated in the late Miocene-Pliocene and belongs to the clade of cardueline finches.", "The citril finch and the Corsican finch are its sister taxa.", "Their closest relatives are the greenfinches, crossbills and redpolls.", "The monophyly of the subfamily Carduelinae is suggested in previous studies.", "The average European goldfinch is long with a wingspan of and a weight of .", "The sexes are broadly similar, with a red face, black and white head, warm brown upper parts, white underparts with buff flanks and breast patches, and black and yellow wings.", "On closer inspection, male European goldfinches can often be distinguished by a larger, darker red mask that extends just behind the eye.", "The shoulder feathers are black, whereas they are brown on the female.", "In females, the red face does not extend past the eye.", "The ivory-coloured bill is long and pointed, and the tail is forked.", "Goldfinches in breeding condition have a white bill, with a greyish or blackish mark at the tip for the rest of the year.", "Juveniles have a plain head and a greyer back but are unmistakable due to the yellow wing stripe.", "Birds in central Asia have a plain grey head behind the red face, lacking the black and white head pattern of European and western Asian birds.", "Adults moult after the breeding season, with some individuals beginning in July and others not completing their moult until November.", "After moult birds appear less colourful, until the tips of the newly grown feathers wear away.", "The song is a pleasant silvery twittering.", "The call is a melodic , and the song is a pleasant tinkling medley of trills and twitters, but always including the tri-syllabic call phrase or a .", "The European goldfinch is native to Europe, North Africa, and western and central Asia.", "It is found in open, partially wooded lowlands and is a resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from colder regions.", "It will also make local movements, even in the west, to escape bad weather.", "It has been introduced to many areas of the world.", "It was introduced to Bermuda, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands, Uruguay, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand in the 19th century, and their populations quickly increased and their range expanded greatly.", "In Australia, they now occur from Brisbane to the Eyre Peninsula, and are also spread throughout New Zealand.", "In the United States, they have become established in the western Great Lakes region.", "A European goldfinch nest and eggs", "The nest is built entirely by the female and is generally completed within a week.", "The male accompanies the female, but does not contribute.", "The nest is neat and compact and is generally located several metres above the ground, hidden by leaves in the twigs at the end of a swaying branch.", "It is constructed of mosses and lichens and lined with plant down such as that from thistles.", "It is attached to the twigs of the tree with spider silk.", "A deep cup prevents the loss of eggs in windy weather.", "Beginning within a couple of days after the completion of the nest, the eggs are laid in early morning at daily intervals.", "The clutch is typically 4-6 eggs, which are whitish with reddish-brown speckles.", "They have a smooth surface and are slightly glossy.", "The average size is with a calculated weight of .", "The eggs are incubated for 1113 days by the female, who is fed by the male.", "The chicks are fed by both parents.", "Initially they receive a mixture of seeds and insects, but as they grow the proportion of insect material decreases.", "For the first 79 days the young are brooded by the female.", "The nestlings fledge 1318 days after hatching.", "The young birds are fed by both parents for a further 79 days.", "The parents typically raise two broods each year and occasionally three.", "The European goldfinch's preferred food is small seeds such as those from thistles , cornflowers, and teasels, but insects are also taken when feeding young.", "It also regularly visits bird feeders in winter.", "In the winter, European goldfinches group together to form flocks of up to 40, occasionally more.", "European goldfinches are attracted to back gardens in Europe and North America by birdfeeders containing seed.", "This seed of an annual from Africa is small, and high in oils.", "Special polycarbonate feeders with small oval slits at which the European goldfinches feed are sometimes used.", "Madonna of the Goldfinch by Raphael, upright", "The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius, 1654 European goldfinches are commonly kept and bred in captivity around the world because of their distinctive appearance and pleasant song.", "If European goldfinches are kept with domestic canaries, they tend to lose their native song and call in favour of their cagemates' songs.", "This is considered undesirable, as it detracts from the allure of keeping European goldfinches.", "In Great Britain during the 19th century, many thousands of European goldfinches were trapped each year to be sold as cage birds.", "One of the earliest campaigns of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was directed against this trade.", "Wildlife conservation attempts to limit bird trapping and the destruction of the open space habitats of European goldfinches.", "Steglitz, a borough of the German city of Berlin is named after the European goldfinch.", "The surname Goldspink is based on the Scots word for the European goldfinch.", "Because of the thistle seeds it eats, in Christian symbolism the European goldfinch is associated with Christ's Passion and his crown of thorns.", "The European goldfinch, appearing in pictures of the Madonna and Christ child, represents the foreknowledge Jesus and Mary had of the Crucifixion.", "Examples include the Madonna del cardellino or Madonna of the Goldfinch, painted by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael in about 15056, in which John the Baptist offers a European goldfinch to Christ in a warning of his future.", "In Barocci's Holy Family, a European goldfinch is held in the hand of John the Baptist, who holds it high out of reach of an interested cat.", "In Cima da Conegliano's Madonna and Child, a European goldfinch flutters in the hand of the Christ child.", "It is also an emblem of endurance, fruitfulness, and persistence.", "Because it symbolizes the Passion, the European goldfinch is considered a \" saviour \" bird and may be pictured with the common housefly .", "The European goldfinch is also associated with Saint Jerome and appears in some depictions of him.", "Antonio Vivaldi composed a Concerto in D major for Flute \" Il Gardellino \" (RV 428, Op.", "3), where the singing of the European goldfinch is imitated by a flute.", "An anonymous Italian Neapolitan poem titled Il Cardellino was put to music by Saverio Mercadante and sung by Jose Carreras.", "European goldfinches, with their \" wanton freak \" and \" yellow flutterings \" , are among the many natural \" luxuries \" that delight the speaker of John Keats' poem 'I stood tip-toe upon a little hill...", "In the poem The Great Hunger by Patrick Kavanagh, the European goldfinch is one of the rare glimpses of beauty in the life of an elderly Irish farmer: Donna Tartt's novel The Goldfinch won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.", "A turning point in the plot occurs when the narrator, Theo, sees his mother's favourite painting, Carel Fabritius's The Goldfinch, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art."]}, "Muscicapa striata": {"keywords": ["It breeds in most of Europe and in the Palearctic to Siberia, and is migratory, wintering in Africa and south western Asia.", "They are birds of deciduous woodlands, parks and gardens, with a preference for open areas amongst trees."], "habitat_section": ["Spotted flycatchers hunt from conspicuous perches, making sallies after passing flying insects, and often returning to the same perch.", "Their upright posture is characteristic.", "Most passerines moult their primary flight feathers in sequence beginning near the body and proceeding outwards along the wing.", "The spotted flycatcher is unusual in replacing the outer flight feathers before those nearer the body.", "The flycatcher's call is a thin, drawn out soft and high pitched , slightly descending in pitch."], "random_sentences": ["The spotted flycatcher is a small passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family.", "It breeds in most of Europe and in the Palearctic to Siberia, and is migratory, wintering in Africa and south western Asia.", "It is declining in parts of its range.", "This is an undistinguished looking bird with long wings and tail.", "The adults have grey-brown upperparts and whitish underparts, with a streaked crown and breast, giving rise to the bird's common name.", "The legs are short and black, and the bill is black and has the broad but pointed shape typical of aerial insectivores.", "Juveniles are browner than adults and have spots on the upperparts.", "The spotted flycatcher was described by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764 and given the binomial name Motacilla striata.", "The genus name Muscicapa comes from the Latin musca, a fly and capere, to catch.", "The specific epithet striata is from the Latin striatus meaning striated.", "There are five recognised subspecies all of which winter in southern Africa.", "The breeding range is given below.", "Two other subspecies were previously recognised, M. s. tyrrhenica and M. s. balearica.", "However, a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2016 found that they were genetically similar to each other but significantly different from the other spotted flycatcher subspecies.", "The authors proposed that these insular subspecies should be considered as a separate species.", "The International Ornithologists' Union has split the species and it is known as the Mediterranean flycatcher, while other taxonomic authorities still consider it to be conspecific.", "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. tyrrhenica has paler and warmer plumage on the upperparts, with more diffuse markings on the head and breast.", "Juveniles have ochre-buff spots above and scaly brown spots below.", "Spotted flycatchers hunt from conspicuous perches, making sallies after passing flying insects, and often returning to the same perch.", "Their upright posture is characteristic.", "Most passerines moult their primary flight feathers in sequence beginning near the body and proceeding outwards along the wing.", "The spotted flycatcher is unusual in replacing the outer flight feathers before those nearer the body.", "The flycatcher's call is a thin, drawn out soft and high pitched , slightly descending in pitch.", "They are birds of deciduous woodlands, parks and gardens, with a preference for open areas amongst trees.", "They build an open nest in a suitable recess, often against a wall, and will readily adapt to an open-fronted nest box.", "Most European birds cannot discriminate between their own eggs and those of other species.", "The exception to this are the hosts of the common cuckoo, which have had to evolve this skill as a protection against that nest parasite.", "The spotted flycatcher shows excellent egg recognition, and it is likely that it was once a host of the cuckoo, but became so good at recognising the intruder's eggs that it ceased to be victimised.", "A contrast to this is the dunnock, which appears to be a recent cuckoo host, since it does not show any egg discrimination.", "A study conducted at two different locations in southern England found that one third of nests were predated.", "The Eurasian jay was the most common aerial predator, consuming both eggs and chicks.", "The domestic cat predated a small fraction of the nests.", "A juvenile flycatcher shortly after leaving the nest."]}, "Turdus merula": {"keywords": ["This species breeds in woods and gardens, building a neat, cup-shaped nest, bound together with mud.", "Both sexes are territorial on the breeding grounds, with distinctive threat displays, but are more gregarious during migration and in wintering areas.", "Pairs stay in their territory throughout the year where the climate is sufficiently temperate.", "Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the blackbird is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary Islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "It is close in evolutionary terms to the island thrush of Southeast Asia and islands in the southwest Pacific, which probably diverged from T. merula stock fairly recently.", "The ouzel usage survived later in poetry, and still occurs as the name of the closely related ring ouzel , and in water ouzel, an alternative name for the unrelated but superficially similar white-throated dipper and American dipper .", "The common blackbird breeds in temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia.", "Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year.", "Female blackbirds in Scotland and the north of England migrate more in winter than do the males Common over most of its range in woodland, the common blackbird has a preference for deciduous trees with dense undergrowth.", "However, gardens provide the best breeding habitat with up to 7.3 pairs per hectare , with woodland typically holding about a tenth of that density, and open and very built-up habitats even less.", "The common blackbird also lives in parks, gardens and hedgerows.", "The common blackbird occurs at elevations up to in Europe, in North Africa, and at in peninsular India and Sri Lanka, but the large Himalayan subspecies range much higher, with T. m. maximus breeding at and remaining above even in winter.", "Migrants are more gregarious, travelling in small flocks and feeding in loose groups in the wintering grounds.", "In its native Northern Hemisphere range, the first-year male common blackbird of the nominate race may start singing as early as late January in fine weather in order to establish a territory, followed in late March by the adult male.", "In urban and suburban environments with high levels of anthropogenic noise, such as near airports, blackbirds have been observed modifying their song to successfully compensate and compete with the noise, singing for longer periods of time, at a higher volume, and earlier during their area's dawn chorus, when environmental sounds are less prominent.", "It pulls earthworms from the soil, usually finding them by sight, but sometimes by hearing, and roots through leaf litter for other invertebrates.", "Animal prey predominates, and is particularly important during the breeding season, with windfall apples and berries taken more in the autumn and winter.", "The nature of the fruit taken depends on what is locally available, and frequently includes exotics in gardens.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern but there have been local declines, especially on farmland, which may be due to agricultural policies that encouraged farmers to remove hedgerows , and to drain damp grassland and increase the use of pesticides, both of which could have reduced the availability of invertebrate food.", "The common blackbird was introduced to Australia by a bird dealer visiting Melbourne in early 1857, The introduced population in Australia is considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens, including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes.", "It is thought to spread weeds, such as blackberry, and may compete with native birds for food and nesting sites.", "Introduced there along with the song thrush in 1862, it has spread throughout the country up to an elevation of , as well as outlying islands such as the Campbell and Kermadecs.", "It eats a wide range of native and exotic fruit, and makes a major contribution to the development of communities of naturalised woody weeds.", "These communities provide fruit more suited to non-endemic native birds and naturalised birds than to endemic birds."], "habitat_section": ["The common blackbird breeds in temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia.", "It has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.", "Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year.", "Recoveries of blackbirds ringed on the Isle of May show that these birds commonly migrate from southern Norway to Scotland, and some onwards to Ireland.", "Scottish-ringed birds have also been recovered in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.", "Female blackbirds in Scotland and the north of England migrate more in winter than do the males Common over most of its range in woodland, the common blackbird has a preference for deciduous trees with dense undergrowth.", "However, gardens provide the best breeding habitat with up to 7.3 pairs per hectare , with woodland typically holding about a tenth of that density, and open and very built-up habitats even less.", "They are often replaced by the related ring ouzel in areas of higher altitude.", "The common blackbird also lives in parks, gardens and hedgerows.", "The common blackbird occurs at elevations up to in Europe, in North Africa, and at in peninsular India and Sri Lanka, but the large Himalayan subspecies range much higher, with T. m. maximus breeding at and remaining above even in winter.", "However, a 1994 record from Bonavista, Newfoundland, has been accepted as a genuine wild bird, Male blackbird with earthworm The male common blackbird defends its breeding territory, chasing away other males or utilising a \" bow and run \" threat display.", "This consists of a short run, the head first being raised and then bowed with the tail dipped simultaneously.", "If a fight between male blackbirds does occur, it is usually short and the intruder is soon chased away.", "The female blackbird is also aggressive in the spring when it competes with other females for a good nesting territory, and although fights are less frequent, they tend to be more violent.", "As long as winter food is available, both the male and female will remain in the territory throughout the year, although occupying different areas.", "Migrants are more gregarious, travelling in small flocks and feeding in loose groups in the wintering grounds.", "The flight of migrating birds comprises bursts of rapid wing beats interspersed with level or diving movement, and differs from both the normal fast agile flight of this species and the more dipping action of larger thrushes.", "The common blackbird has an extensive range, estimated at 32.4 million square kilometres , and a large population, including an estimated 110 to 174 million individuals in Europe alone.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern but there have been local declines, especially on farmland, which may be due to agricultural policies that encouraged farmers to remove hedgerows , and to drain damp grassland and increase the use of pesticides, both of which could have reduced the availability of invertebrate food.", "The common blackbird was introduced to Australia by a bird dealer visiting Melbourne in early 1857, The introduced population in Australia is considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens, including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes.", "It is thought to spread weeds, such as blackberry, and may compete with native birds for food and nesting sites.", "The introduced common blackbird is, together with the native silvereye , the most widely distributed avian seed disperser in New Zealand.", "Introduced there along with the song thrush in 1862, it has spread throughout the country up to an elevation of , as well as outlying islands such as the Campbell and Kermadecs.", "It eats a wide range of native and exotic fruit, and makes a major contribution to the development of communities of naturalised woody weeds.", "These communities provide fruit more suited to non-endemic native birds and naturalised birds than to endemic birds."], "random_sentences": ["The common blackbird is a species of true thrush.", "It is also called the Eurasian blackbird , or simply the blackbird where this does not lead to confusion with a local species.", "It breeds in Europe, Asiatic Russia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.", "It has a number of subspecies across its large range", "a few of the Asian subspecies are sometimes considered to be full species.", "Depending on latitude, the common blackbird may be resident, partially migratory, or fully migratory.", "The adult male of the common blackbird , which is found throughout most of Europe, is all black except for a yellow eye-ring and bill and has a rich, melodious song", "the adult female and juvenile have mainly dark brown plumage.", "This species breeds in woods and gardens, building a neat, cup-shaped nest, bound together with mud.", "It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, earthworms, berries, and fruits.", "Both sexes are territorial on the breeding grounds, with distinctive threat displays, but are more gregarious during migration and in wintering areas.", "Pairs stay in their territory throughout the year where the climate is sufficiently temperate.", "This common and conspicuous species has given rise to a number of literary and cultural references, frequently related to its song.", "Female T. m. mauretanicus The common blackbird was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Turdus merula .", "The binomial name derives from two Latin words, turdus, \" thrush \" , and merula, \" blackbird \" , the latter giving rise to its French name, merle, and its Scots name, merl.", "About 65 species of medium to large thrushes are in the genus Turdus, characterised by rounded heads, longish, pointed wings, and usually melodious songs.", "Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the blackbird is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary Islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "It is close in evolutionary terms to the island thrush (T.", "poliocephalus) of Southeast Asia and islands in the southwest Pacific, which probably diverged from T. merula stock fairly recently.", "Until about the 17th century, another name for the species was ouzel, ousel or wosel (from Old English osle, cf.", "Another variant occurs in Act 3 of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, where Bottom refers to \" The Woosell cocke, so blacke of hew, With Orenge-tawny bill \" .", "The ouzel usage survived later in poetry, and still occurs as the name of the closely related ring ouzel , and in water ouzel, an alternative name for the unrelated but superficially similar white-throated dipper and American dipper .", "Two related Asian Turdus thrushes, the white-collared blackbird (T.", "albocinctus) and the grey-winged blackbird (T.", "boulboul), are also named blackbirds, The icterid family of the New World is sometimes called the blackbird family because of some species' superficial resemblance to the common blackbird and other Old World thrushes, but they are not evolutionarily close, being related to the New World warblers and tanagers.", "The term is often limited to smaller species with mostly or entirely black plumage, at least in the breeding male, notably the cowbirds, the grackles, and for around 20 species with \" blackbird \" in the name, such as the red-winged blackbird and the melodious blackbird.", "In Europe, the common blackbird can be confused with the paler-winged first-winter ring ouzel or the superficially similar common starling .", "A number of similar Turdus thrushes exist far outside the range of the common blackbird, for example the South American Chiguanco thrush .", "The Indian blackbird, the Tibetan blackbird, and the Chinese blackbird were formerly considered subspecies of the common blackbird.", "Historic image of blackbird in Nederlandsche Vogelen The common blackbird of the nominate subspecies T. m. merula is in length, has a long tail, and weighs .", "The adult male has glossy black plumage, blackish-brown legs, a yellow eye-ring and an orange-yellow bill.", "The bill darkens somewhat in winter.", "The adult female is sooty-brown with a dull yellowish-brownish bill, a brownish-white throat and some weak mottling on the breast.", "The juvenile is similar to the female, but has pale spots on the upperparts, and the very young juvenile also has a speckled breast.", "Young birds vary in the shade of brown, with darker birds presumably males.", "The first year male resembles the adult male, but has a dark bill and weaker eye ring, and its folded wing is brown, rather than black like the body plumage.", "The common blackbird breeds in temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia.", "It has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.", "Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year.", "Recoveries of blackbirds ringed on the Isle of May show that these birds commonly migrate from southern Norway to Scotland, and some onwards to Ireland.", "Scottish-ringed birds have also been recovered in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.", "Female blackbirds in Scotland and the north of England migrate more in winter than do the males Common over most of its range in woodland, the common blackbird has a preference for deciduous trees with dense undergrowth.", "However, gardens provide the best breeding habitat with up to 7.3 pairs per hectare , with woodland typically holding about a tenth of that density, and open and very built-up habitats even less.", "They are often replaced by the related ring ouzel in areas of higher altitude.", "The common blackbird also lives in parks, gardens and hedgerows.", "The common blackbird occurs at elevations up to in Europe, in North Africa, and at in peninsular India and Sri Lanka, but the large Himalayan subspecies range much higher, with T. m. maximus breeding at and remaining above even in winter.", "However, a 1994 record from Bonavista, Newfoundland, has been accepted as a genuine wild bird,", "Male blackbird with earthworm The male common blackbird defends its breeding territory, chasing away other males or utilising a \" bow and run \" threat display.", "This consists of a short run, the head first being raised and then bowed with the tail dipped simultaneously.", "If a fight between male blackbirds does occur, it is usually short and the intruder is soon chased away.", "The female blackbird is also aggressive in the spring when it competes with other females for a good nesting territory, and although fights are less frequent, they tend to be more violent.", "As long as winter food is available, both the male and female will remain in the territory throughout the year, although occupying different areas.", "Migrants are more gregarious, travelling in small flocks and feeding in loose groups in the wintering grounds.", "The flight of migrating birds comprises bursts of rapid wing beats interspersed with level or diving movement, and differs from both the normal fast agile flight of this species and the more dipping action of larger thrushes.", "The male common blackbird attracts the female with a courtship display which consists of oblique runs combined with head-bowing movements, an open beak, and a \" strangled \" low song.", "The female remains motionless until she raises her head and tail to permit copulation.", "This species is monogamous, and the established pair will usually stay together as long as they both survive.", "Pair separation rates of up to 20% have been noted following poor breeding.", "Although the species is socially monogamous, there have been studies showing as much as 17% extra-pair paternity.", "The nominate T. merula may commence breeding in March, but eastern and Indian races are a month or more later, and the introduced New Zealand birds start nesting in August .", "Eggs of birds of the southern Indian races are paler than those from the northern subcontinent and Europe.", "The female incubates for 1214 days before the altricial chicks are hatched naked and blind.", "Fledging takes another 1019 days, with both parents feeding the young and removing faecal sacs.", "The nest is often ill-concealed compared with those of other species, and many breeding attempts fail due to predation.", "The young are fed by the parents for up to three weeks after leaving the nest, and will follow the adults begging for food.", "If the female starts another nest, the male alone will feed the fledged young.", "Second broods are common, with the female reusing the same nest if the brood was successful, and three broods may be raised in the south of the common blackbird's range.", "A common blackbird has an average life expectancy of 2.4 years, and, based on data from bird ringing, the oldest recorded age is 21 years and 10 months.", "In its native Northern Hemisphere range, the first-year male common blackbird of the nominate race may start singing as early as late January in fine weather in order to establish a territory, followed in late March by the adult male.", "The male's song is a varied and melodious low-pitched fluted warble, given from trees, rooftops or other elevated perches mainly in the period from March to June, sometimes into the beginning of July.", "It has a number of other calls, including an aggressive seee, a pook-pook-pook alarm for terrestrial predators like cats, and various chink and chook, chook vocalisations.", "The territorial male invariably gives chink-chink calls in the evening in an attempt to deter other blackbirds from roosting in its territory overnight.", "Like other passerine birds, it has a thin high seeet alarm call for threats from birds of prey since the sound is rapidly attenuated in vegetation, making the source difficult to locate.", "In urban and suburban environments with high levels of anthropogenic noise, such as near airports, blackbirds have been observed modifying their song to successfully compensate and compete with the noise, singing for longer periods of time, at a higher volume, and earlier during their area's dawn chorus, when environmental sounds are less prominent.", "Adult male feeding on cherries in Lausanne, Switzerland The common blackbird is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, spiders, snails, earthworms, seeds, berries and other fruits.", "It feeds mainly on the ground, running and hopping with a start-stop-start progress.", "It pulls earthworms from the soil, usually finding them by sight, but sometimes by hearing, and roots through leaf litter for other invertebrates.", "Small amphibians, lizards and small mammals are occasionally hunted.", "This species will also perch in bushes to take berries and collect caterpillars and other active insects, such as beetles and grasshoppers.", "Animal prey predominates, and is particularly important during the breeding season, with windfall apples and berries taken more in the autumn and winter.", "The nature of the fruit taken depends on what is locally available, and frequently includes exotics in gardens.", "As the blackbird lives in proximity to urbanized areas, it likely supplements its diet with man-made food.", "Near human habitation the main predator of the common blackbird is the domestic cat, with newly fledged young especially vulnerable.", "Foxes and predatory birds, such as the sparrowhawk and other accipiters, also take this species when the opportunity arises.", "However, there is little direct evidence to show that either predation of the adult blackbirds or loss of the eggs and chicks to corvids, such as the European magpie or Eurasian jay, decrease population numbers.", "A male attempting to distract a kestrel close to its nest This species is occasionally a host of parasitic cuckoos, such as the common cuckoo , but this is minimal because the common blackbird recognizes the adult of the parasitic species and its non-mimetic eggs.", "In the UK, only three nests of 59,770 examined contained cuckoo eggs.", "The introduced merula blackbird in New Zealand, where the cuckoo does not occur, has, over the past 130 years, lost the ability to recognize the adult common cuckoo but still rejects non-mimetic eggs.", "As with other passerine birds, parasites are common.", "Intestinal parasites were found in 88% of common blackbirds, most frequently Isospora and Capillaria species.", "and more than 80% had haematozoan parasites .", "Common blackbirds spend much of their time looking for food on the ground where they can become infested with ticks, which are external parasites that most commonly attach to the head of a blackbird.", "there is no evidence that this affects the fitness of blackbirds except when they are exhausted and run down after migration.", "The common blackbird is one of a number of species which has unihemispheric slow-wave sleep.", "One hemisphere of the brain is effectively asleep, while a low-voltage EEG, characteristic of wakefulness, is present in the other.", "The benefit of this is that the bird can rest in areas of high predation or during long migratory flights, but still retain a degree of alertness.", "The common blackbird has an extensive range, estimated at 32.4 million square kilometres , and a large population, including an estimated 110 to 174 million individuals in Europe alone.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern but there have been local declines, especially on farmland, which may be due to agricultural policies that encouraged farmers to remove hedgerows , and to drain damp grassland and increase the use of pesticides, both of which could have reduced the availability of invertebrate food.", "The common blackbird was introduced to Australia by a bird dealer visiting Melbourne in early 1857, The introduced population in Australia is considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens, including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes.", "It is thought to spread weeds, such as blackberry, and may compete with native birds for food and nesting sites.", "The introduced common blackbird is, together with the native silvereye , the most widely distributed avian seed disperser in New Zealand.", "Introduced there along with the song thrush in 1862, it has spread throughout the country up to an elevation of , as well as outlying islands such as the Campbell and Kermadecs.", "It eats a wide range of native and exotic fruit, and makes a major contribution to the development of communities of naturalised woody weeds.", "These communities provide fruit more suited to non-endemic native birds and naturalised birds than to endemic birds.", "\" Sing a Song for Sixpence \" cover illustration The common blackbird was seen as a sacred though destructive bird in Classical Greek folklore, and was said to die if it consumed pomegranates.", "Like many other small birds, it has in the past been trapped in rural areas at its night roosts as an easily available addition to the diet, Sing a song of sixpence, A pocket full of rye", " Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie!", " When the pie was opened the birds began to sing, Oh, wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?", " The common blackbird's melodious, distinctive song is mentioned in the poem Adlestrop by Edward Thomas", " And for that minute a blackbird sang Close by, and round him, mistier, Farther and farther, all the birds Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.", " In the English Christmas carol \" The Twelve Days of Christmas \" , the line commonly sung today as \" four calling birds \" is believed to have originally been written in the 18th century as \" four colly birds \" , an archaism meaning \" black as coal \" that was a popular English nickname for the common blackbird.", "The common blackbird, unlike many black creatures, is not normally seen as a symbol of bad luck, and it symbolised resignation in the 17th century tragic play The Duchess of Malfi", "an alternate connotation is vigilance, the bird's clear cry warning of danger.", "which has a breeding population of 12 million pairs, it has also featured on a number of other stamps issued by European and Asian countries, including a 1966 4d British stamp and a 1998 Irish 30p stamp.", "This birdarguablyalso gives rise to the Serbian name for Kosovo, which is the possessive adjectival form of Serbian , as in Kosovo polje .", "A common blackbird can be heard singing on the Beatles song \" Blackbird \" ."]}, "Columba palumbus": {"keywords": ["Photograph taken in Cambridge, England The common wood pigeon or common woodpigeon , also known as simply wood pigeon, wood-pigeon or woodpigeon, is a large species in the dove and pigeon family , native to the western Palearctic.", "It has a flexible diet, predominantly feeding on vegetable matter, including cereal crops, leading to them being regarded as an agricultural pest.", "In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.", "In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities.", "Like many species of pigeon, wood pigeons take advantage of trees and buildings to gain a vantage point over the surrounding area, and their distinctive call means that they are usually heard before they are seen.", "Two young Columba palumbus in a nest It breeds in trees in woods, parks and gardens, laying two white eggs in a simple stick nest which hatch after 17 to 19 days.", "Wood pigeons seem to have a preference for trees near roadways and rivers.", "Their plumage becomes much darker, especially the head, during hot summer periods.", "For birds that survive the first year the typical lifespan is thus only three years, but the maximum recorded age is 17 years and 8 months for a bird ringed and recovered on the Orkney Islands.", "Most of its diet is vegetable, round and fleshy leaves from Caryophyllaceae, Asteraceae, and cruciferous vegetables taken from open fields or gardens and lawns, young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain, pine nuts, and certain fruits and berries.", "In the autumn they also eat figs and acorns, and in winter buds of trees and bushes.", "This is an extremely rich fluid that is produced in the adult birds' crops during the breeding season.", "Due to their feeding on cereal crops, wood pigeons are considered an agricultural pest."], "habitat_section": ["In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.", "In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities."], "random_sentences": ["altA large common wood pigeon standing on a garden fence", "Common wood pigeon perched on a fence.", "Photograph taken in Cambridge, England The common wood pigeon or common woodpigeon , also known as simply wood pigeon, wood-pigeon or woodpigeon, is a large species in the dove and pigeon family , native to the western Palearctic.", "It belongs to the genus Columba, which includes closely related species such as the rock dove .", "It has historically been known as the ring dove, and is locally known in southeast England as the \" culver \"", "the latter name has given rise to several areas known for keeping pigeons to be named after it, such as Culver Down.", "It has a flexible diet, predominantly feeding on vegetable matter, including cereal crops, leading to them being regarded as an agricultural pest.", "Wood pigeons are extensively hunted over large parts of their range, but this does not seem to have a great impact on their population.", "The common wood pigeon was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.", "He placed it with all the other pigeons in the genus Columba and coined the binomial name Columba palumbus.", "The specific epithet palumbus is from the Latin palumbes for a wood pigeon.", "Five subspecies are recognised, one of which is now extinct: extinct", "Adult common wood pigeon, photograph taken in Birmingham, England The three Western European Columba pigeons, common wood pigeon, stock dove and rock dove, though superficially alike, have very distinctive characteristics", "the common wood pigeon may be identified at once by its larger size at and weight , and the white on its neck and wing.", "It is otherwise a basically grey bird, with a pinkish breast.", "The wingspan can range from and the wing chord measures .", "The tail measures , the bill is and the tarsus is .", "Adult birds bear a series of green and white patches on their necks, and a pink patch on their chest.", "The eye colour is a pale yellow, in contrast to that of rock doves, which is orange-red, and the stock pigeon, which is black.", "Juvenile birds do not have the white patches on either side of the neck.", "When they are about 6 months old they gain small white patches on both sides of the neck, which gradually enlarge until they are fully formed when the bird is about 68 months old (approx.", "Juvenile birds also have a greyer beak and an overall lighter grey appearance than adult birds.", "The call is a characteristic cooing, coo-COO-coocoo-coo.", "In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.", "In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities.", "A flock of common wood pigeons feeding in a field right", "Adult sitting on its nest in a tree Egg Hatching of a Common Wood Pigeon Its flight is quick, performed by regular beats, with an occasional sharp flick of the wings, characteristic of pigeons in general. It takes off with a loud clattering.", "It perches well, and in its nuptial display walks along a horizontal branch with swelled neck, lowered wings, and fanned tail.", "During the display flight the bird climbs, the wings are smartly cracked like a whiplash, and the bird glides down on stiff wings.", "The common wood pigeon is gregarious, often forming very large flocks outside the breeding season.", "Like many species of pigeon, wood pigeons take advantage of trees and buildings to gain a vantage point over the surrounding area, and their distinctive call means that they are usually heard before they are seen.", "Wood pigeons are known to fiercely defend their territory, and will fight each other to gain access to nesting and roosting locations.", "Male wood pigeons will typically attempt to drive competitors off by threat displays and pursuit, but will also directly fight, jumping and striking their rival with both wings.", "This species can be an agricultural pest, and it is often shot, being a legal quarry species in most European countries.", "It is wary in rural areas, but often quite tame where it is not persecuted.", "Two young Columba palumbus in a nest It breeds in trees in woods, parks and gardens, laying two white eggs in a simple stick nest which hatch after 17 to 19 days.", "Wood pigeons seem to have a preference for trees near roadways and rivers.", "Males exhibit aggressive behaviour towards each other during the breeding season by jumping and flapping wings at each other.", "Their plumage becomes much darker, especially the head, during hot summer periods.", "Breeding can happen year round if there is food abundant however breeding season most commonly occurs in autumn usually in the months of August and September.", "The nests are vulnerable to attack, particularly by crows.", "The young usually fly at 33 to 34 days", "however, if the nest is disturbed, some young may be able to survive having left the nest as early as 20 days from hatching.", "In a study carried out using ring-recovery data, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 52 per cent, and the adult annual survival rate was 61 per cent.", "For birds that survive the first year the typical lifespan is thus only three years, but the maximum recorded age is 17 years and 8 months for a bird ringed and recovered on the Orkney Islands.", "Most of its diet is vegetable, round and fleshy leaves from Caryophyllaceae, Asteraceae, and cruciferous vegetables taken from open fields or gardens and lawns", "young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain, pine nuts, and certain fruits and berries.", "In the autumn they also eat figs and acorns, and in winter buds of trees and bushes.", "They will also eat larvae, ants, and small worms.", "They need open water to drink and bathe in.", "Young common wood pigeons swiftly become fat, as a result of the crop milk they are fed by their parents.", "This is an extremely rich fluid that is produced in the adult birds' crops during the breeding season.", "Due to their feeding on cereal crops, wood pigeons are considered an agricultural pest.", "In Ireland and the UK, the traditional mnemonic for the distinctive call of the bird has been interpreted as \" Take two cows, Teddy \" , or \" Take two cows, Taffy \" .", "Another interpretation for the birdsong has been \" My toe bleeds, Betty \" .", "AS PER NEW WIKIPEDIA POLICY, GALLERY MUST BE REFERENCED TO AS COMMONS.", "DON'T ADD IT HERE PLEASE "]}, "Phylloscopus collybita": {"keywords": ["The common chiffchaff , or simply the chiffchaff, is a common and widespread leaf warbler which breeds in open woodlands throughout northern and temperate Europe and the Palearctic.", "It is a migratory passerine which winters in southern and western Europe, southern Asia and north Africa.", "The common chiffchaff has three still commonly accepted subspecies, together with some from the Iberian Peninsula, the Canary Islands, and the Caucasus which are now more often treated as full species.", "When breeding, it is a bird of open woodlands with some taller trees and ground cover for nesting purposes.", "These trees are typically at least high, with undergrowth that is an open, poor to medium mix of grasses, bracken, nettles or similar plants.", "Its breeding habitat is quite specific, and even near relatives do not share it, for example, the willow warbler prefers younger trees, while the wood warbler prefers less undergrowth.", "In winter, the common chiffchaff uses a wider range of habitats including scrub, and is not so dependent on trees.", "It is often found near water, unlike the willow warbler which tolerates drier habitats.", "There is an increasing tendency to winter in western Europe well north of the traditional areas, especially in coastal southern England and the mild urban microclimate of London.", "These overwintering common chiffchaffs include some visitors of the eastern subspecies abietinus and tristis, so they are certainly not all birds which have bred locally, although some undoubtedly are.", "The female's nest is built on or near the ground in a concealed site in brambles, nettles or other dense low vegetation.", "In the north of the range there is only time to raise one brood, due to the short summer, but a second brood is common in central and southern areas.", "Small birds are also at the mercy of the weather, particularly when migrating, but also on the breeding and wintering grounds.", "The main effect of humans on this species is indirect, through woodland clearance which affects the habitat, predation by cats, and collisions with windows, buildings and cars."], "habitat_section": ["The common chiffchaff breeds across Europe and Asia east to eastern Siberia and north to about 70N, with isolated populations in northwest Africa, northern and western Turkey and northwestern Iran.", "It is migratory, but it is one of the first passerine birds to return to its breeding areas in the spring and among the last to leave in late autumn.", "When breeding, it is a bird of open woodlands with some taller trees and ground cover for nesting purposes.", "These trees are typically at least high, with undergrowth that is an open, poor to medium mix of grasses, bracken, nettles or similar plants.", "Its breeding habitat is quite specific, and even near relatives do not share it, for example, the willow warbler prefers younger trees, while the wood warbler prefers less undergrowth.", "In winter, the common chiffchaff uses a wider range of habitats including scrub, and is not so dependent on trees.", "It is often found near water, unlike the willow warbler which tolerates drier habitats.", "There is an increasing tendency to winter in western Europe well north of the traditional areas, especially in coastal southern England and the mild urban microclimate of London.", "These overwintering common chiffchaffs include some visitors of the eastern subspecies abietinus and tristis, so they are certainly not all birds which have bred locally, although some undoubtedly are.", "Siberian chiffchaff near Hodal, India The male common chiffchaff is highly territorial during the breeding season, with a core territory typically across, which is fiercely defended against other males.", "Other small birds may also be attacked.", "The male is inquisitive and fearless, attacking even dangerous predators like the stoat if they approach the nest, as well as egg-thieves like the Eurasian jay.", "His song, given from a favoured prominent vantage point, appears to be used to advertise an established territory and contact the female, rather than as a paternity guard strategy.", "Beyond the core territory, there is a larger feeding range which is variable in size, but typically ten or more times the area of the breeding territory.", "It is believed that the female has a larger feeding range than the male.", "After breeding has finished, this species abandons its territory, and may join small flocks including other warblers prior to migration."], "random_sentences": ["The common chiffchaff , or simply the chiffchaff, is a common and widespread leaf warbler which breeds in open woodlands throughout northern and temperate Europe and the Palearctic.", "It is a migratory passerine which winters in southern and western Europe, southern Asia and north Africa.", "Greenish-brown above and off-white below, it is named onomatopoeically for its simple chiff-chaff song.", "It has a number of subspecies, some of which are now treated as full species.", "The female builds a domed nest on or near the ground, and assumes most of the responsibility for brooding and feeding the chicks, whilst the male has little involvement in nesting, but defends his territory against rivals, and attacks potential predators.", "A small insectivorous bird, it is subject to predation by mammals, such as cats and mustelids, and birds, particularly hawks of the genus Accipiter.", "Its large range and population mean that its status is secure, although one subspecies is probably extinct.", "thumb The British naturalist Gilbert White was one of the first people to separate the similar-looking common chiffchaff, willow warbler and wood warbler by their songs, as detailed in 1789 in The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, but the common chiffchaff was first formally described as Sylvia collybita by French ornithologist Louis Vieillot in 1817 in his Nouveau Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle.", "The type locality is the French region of Normandy.", "Described by German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1826, the genus Phylloscopus contains about 80 species of small insectivorous Old World woodland warblers which are either greenish or brown above and yellowish, white or buff below.", "The genus was formerly part of the Old World warbler family Sylvidae, but has now been split off as a separate family Phylloscopidae.", "The chiffchaff's closest relatives, other than former subspecies, are a group of leaf warblers which similarly lack crown stripes, a yellow rump or obvious wing bars", "they include the willow, Bonelli's, wood and plain leaf warblers.", "The common chiffchaff has three still commonly accepted subspecies, together with some from the Iberian Peninsula, the Canary Islands, and the Caucasus which are now more often treated as full species.", "The common chiffchaff's English name is onomatopoeic, referring to the repetitive song of the European subspecies.", "There are similar names in some other European languages, such as the Dutch , the German , Welsh and Finnish .", "The binomial name is of Greek origin", "Phylloscopus comes from /, \" leaf \" , and /, \" to look at \" or \" to see \" , since this genus comprises species that spend much of their time feeding in trees, while collybita is a corruption of kollubistes, \" money changer \" , the song being likened to the jingling of coins.", "In some languages their tree-dwelling habit is hinted in the vernacular name.", "For example, in Swedish the common chiffchaff is called gransangare, a compound of gran and sangare, meaning both \" singer \" and Old World warbler.", "The common chiffchaff is a small, dumpy, long leaf warbler.", "The male weighs 78 grammes , and the female 67 grammes .", " The spring adult of the western nominate subspecies P. c. collybita has brown-washed dull green upperparts, off-white underparts becoming yellowish on the flanks, and a short whitish supercilium.", "It has dark legs, a fine dark bill, and short primary projection .", "As the plumage wears, it gets duller and browner, and the yellow on the flanks tends to be lost, but after the breeding season there is a prolonged complete moult before migration.", "The newly fledged juvenile is browner above than the adult, with yellow-white underparts, but moults about 10 weeks after acquiring its first plumage.", "After moulting, both the adult and the juvenile have brighter and greener upperparts and a paler supercilium.", " Common chiffchaff Nominate subspecies P. c. collybita", "thumb This warbler gets its name from its simple distinctive song, a repetitive cheerful .", "This song is one of the first avian signs that spring has returned.", "Its call is a , less disyllabic than the of the willow warbler or of the western Bonelli's warbler.", "The song differs from that of the Iberian chiffchaff, which has a shorter .", "However, mixed singers occur in the hybridisation zone and elsewhere, and can be difficult to allocate to species.", "When not singing, the common chiffchaff can be difficult to distinguish from other leaf warblers with greenish upperparts and whitish underparts, particularly the willow warbler.", "However, that species has a longer primary projection, a sleeker, brighter appearance and generally pale legs.", "bonelli) might be confused with the common chiffchaff subspecies tristis, but it has a plain face and green in the wings.", "The common chiffchaff also has rounded wings in flight, and a diagnostic tail movement consisting of a dip, then sidewards wag, that distinguishes it from other Phylloscopus warblers and gives rise to the name \" tailwagger \" in India.", "Perhaps the greatest challenge is distinguishing non-singing birds of the nominate subspecies from Iberian chiffchaff in the field.", "In Great Britain and the Netherlands, all accepted records of vagrant Iberian chiffchaffs relate to singing males.", "The common chiffchaff breeds across Europe and Asia east to eastern Siberia and north to about 70N, with isolated populations in northwest Africa, northern and western Turkey and northwestern Iran.", "It is migratory, but it is one of the first passerine birds to return to its breeding areas in the spring and among the last to leave in late autumn.", "When breeding, it is a bird of open woodlands with some taller trees and ground cover for nesting purposes.", "These trees are typically at least high, with undergrowth that is an open, poor to medium mix of grasses, bracken, nettles or similar plants.", "Its breeding habitat is quite specific, and even near relatives do not share it", "for example, the willow warbler (P.", "trochilus) prefers younger trees, while the wood warbler (P.", "In winter, the common chiffchaff uses a wider range of habitats including scrub, and is not so dependent on trees.", "It is often found near water, unlike the willow warbler which tolerates drier habitats.", "There is an increasing tendency to winter in western Europe well north of the traditional areas, especially in coastal southern England and the mild urban microclimate of London.", "These overwintering common chiffchaffs include some visitors of the eastern subspecies abietinus and tristis, so they are certainly not all birds which have bred locally, although some undoubtedly are.", "Siberian chiffchaff near Hodal, India The male common chiffchaff is highly territorial during the breeding season, with a core territory typically across, which is fiercely defended against other males.", "Other small birds may also be attacked.", "The male is inquisitive and fearless, attacking even dangerous predators like the stoat if they approach the nest, as well as egg-thieves like the Eurasian jay.", "His song, given from a favoured prominent vantage point, appears to be used to advertise an established territory and contact the female, rather than as a paternity guard strategy.", "Beyond the core territory, there is a larger feeding range which is variable in size, but typically ten or more times the area of the breeding territory.", "It is believed that the female has a larger feeding range than the male.", "After breeding has finished, this species abandons its territory, and may join small flocks including other warblers prior to migration.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The male common chiffchaff returns to its breeding territory two or three weeks before the female and immediately starts singing to establish ownership and attract a female.", "When a female is located, the male will use a slow butterfly-like flight as part of the courtship ritual, but once a pair-bond has been established, other females will be driven from the territory.", "The male has little involvement in the nesting process other than defending the territory.", "The female's nest is built on or near the ground in a concealed site in brambles, nettles or other dense low vegetation.", "The domed nest has a side entrance, and is constructed from coarse plant material such as dead leaves and grass, with finer material used on the interior before the addition of a lining of feathers.", "The typical nest is high and across.", "The clutch is two to seven cream-coloured eggs which have tiny ruddy, purple or blackish spots and are about long and across.", "They are incubated by the female for 1314 days before hatching as naked, blind altricial chicks.", "The female broods and feeds the chicks for another 1415 days until they fledge.", "The male rarely participates in feeding, although this sometimes occurs, especially when bad weather limits insect supplies or if the female disappears.", "After fledging, the young stay in the vicinity of the nest for three to four weeks, and are fed by and roost with the female, although these interactions reduce after approximately the first 14 days.", "In the north of the range there is only time to raise one brood, due to the short summer, but a second brood is common in central and southern areas.", "Although pairs stay together during the breeding season and polygamy is uncommon, even if the male and female return to the same site in the following year there is no apparent recognition or fidelity.", "Interbreeding with other species, other than those formerly considered as subspecies of P. collybita, is rare, but a few examples are known of hybridisation with the willow warbler.", "Such hybrids give mixed songs, but the latter alone is not proof of interspecific breeding.", "Like most Old World warblers, this small species is insectivorous, moving restlessly through foliage or briefly hovering.", "It has been recorded as taking insects, mainly flies, from more than 50 families, along with other small and medium-sized invertebrates.", "It will take the eggs and larvae of butterflies and moths, particularly those of the winter moth.", "The chiffchaff has been estimated to require about one-third of its weight in insects daily, and it feeds almost continuously in the autumn to put on extra fat as fuel for the long migration flight.", "As with most small birds, mortality in the first year of life is high, but adults aged three to four years are regularly recorded, and the record is more than seven years.", "Eggs, chicks and fledglings of this ground-nesting species are taken by stoats, weasels and crows such as the European magpie, and the adults are hunted by birds of prey, particularly the sparrowhawk.", "Small birds are also at the mercy of the weather, particularly when migrating, but also on the breeding and wintering grounds.", "The common chiffchaff is occasionally a host of brood parasitic cuckoos, including the common and Horsfield's cuckoos, but it recognises and rejects non-mimetic eggs and is therefore only rarely successfully brood-parasitised.", "Like other passerine birds, the common chiffchaff can also acquire intestinal nematode parasites and external ticks.", "The main effect of humans on this species is indirect, through woodland clearance which affects the habitat, predation by cats, and collisions with windows, buildings and cars.", "Only the first of these has the potential to seriously affect populations, but given the huge geographical spread of P. c. abietinus and P. c. tristis, and woodland conservation policies in the range of P. c. collybita, the chiffchaff's future seems assured.", "The common chiffchaff has an enormous range, with an estimated global extent of 10 million square kilometres and a population of 60120 million individuals in Europe alone.", "Although global population trends have not been quantified, the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List .", "For these reasons, the species is evaluated as \" least concern \" ."]}, "Poecile palustris": {"keywords": ["The marsh tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae and genus Poecile, closely related to the willow, Pere David's and Songar tits.", "It can be found throughout temperate Europe and northern Asia and, despite its name, it occurs in a range of habitats including dry woodland.", "Typical marsh tit habitat in Northamptonshire, England.", "Data from 157 woodlands covered by the RSPB/BTO Repeat Woodland Bird Survey showed that the abundance of marsh tits in 20032004 corresponded with the vegetation present 24 metres above the ground, the shrub layer.", "Data from the 1980s did not show the same results, but marsh tit numbers had increased by 20032004 in woods with the most shrub cover.", "The study concluded that damage to the shrub layer, caused by overgrazing by deer, for example, may make woodland less suitable for marsh tits.", "It is a widespread and common resident breeder throughout temperate Europe and northern Asia.", "It occurs from northern Spain north to south-eastern Scotland and east to western Russia, with a broad gap in western Asia and present again in eastern Asia from the Altai Mountains east to northern Japan and northern and western China.", "This species is sedentary, making short post-breeding movements in most of its range, but in northern Europe some move southward in winter.", "Marsh tits breed mostly in lowland areas, but can reach altitudes of up to 1,300 m. They prefer large areas of moist, broadleaved woodland, often oak or beech, though they can occupy wet alder woodland, riverside trees, parks and gardens or orchards.", "A study at Monks Wood, Cambridgeshire, England, found that marsh tits required mature trees with a shrub layer below the canopy, but that they avoided parts of the wood with many young trees.", "Another study in the United Kingdom found that during winter and while foraging, marsh tits spent more time than blue tits in the wood's understorey, and more time lower in the woodland canopy and understorey.", "Trees and shrubs in 10 breeding territories were also compared.", "The trees varied significantly between territories, but the shrub characteristics did not, suggesting that the shrubs were more important to the birds.", "In Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire, marsh tits were \" largely absent \" from parts of the wood with a dense canopy but poor shrub cover.", "In mixed winter tit flocks, seldom more than one or two marsh tits are present, and parties of this species alone are infrequent.", "Inside the hole, a nest of moss is made and lined with hair and sometimes a few feathers, of moss is used in damp holes, but much less in dry ones.", "A study of marsh tits in Biaowieza Forest, Poland, looked at which factors affected birds' choice to re-occupy a nest hole used the previous year.", "Mostly spiders and insects are eaten in spring and summer, but seeds including those of the thistle nuts and berries are taken in autumn and winter.", "Hiding places for the seeds include on and in the ground, in leaf litter, in tree stumps, and under moss and lichen in trees.", "The marsh tit's hippocampus is 31% bigger than that of the great tit, despite the great tit's larger overall size and larger forebrain, the relative volume of this part of the brain is greater in birds that cache food."], "habitat_section": ["Typical marsh tit habitat in Northamptonshire, England.", "The marsh tit has a worldwide Extent of Occurrence of around 10 million square kilometres.", "The global population includes between 6.1 million and 12 million birds in Europe alone.", "The species is classified as Least Concern, though there is some evidence of a decline in numbers.", "For example, between the 1970s and 2007, marsh tit numbers declined in the United Kingdom by more than 50% and consequently it is on the Red List of species compiled by the UK's Joint Nature Conservation Committee.", "Research suggests that the cause may be low survival rates from year to year, though the nest failure rate has fallen during the decline.", "Other studies have shown that reduced diversity of woodland structure and plant species, partly because of the impact of deer browsing, is the cause of the bird's decline.", "Data from 157 woodlands covered by the RSPB/BTO Repeat Woodland Bird Survey showed that the abundance of marsh tits in 20032004 corresponded with the vegetation present 24 metres above the ground, the shrub layer.", "Data from the 1980s did not show the same results, but marsh tit numbers had increased by 20032004 in woods with the most shrub cover.", "The study concluded that damage to the shrub layer, caused by overgrazing by deer, for example, may make woodland less suitable for marsh tits.", "It is a widespread and common resident breeder throughout temperate Europe and northern Asia.", "It occurs from northern Spain north to south-eastern Scotland and east to western Russia, with a broad gap in western Asia and present again in eastern Asia from the Altai Mountains east to northern Japan and northern and western China.", "This species is sedentary, making short post-breeding movements in most of its range, but in northern Europe some move southward in winter.", "However, marsh tits seem not to perform the occasional irruptions that other members of the tit family do.", "Most marsh tits stay in their breeding territories year-round, presumably this is related to their food-storing strategy.", "Analysis of UK ringing data showed that of 108 recoveries , 85% were less than 5 km from where the bird was originally caught, and only 1% further than 20 km.", "Young birds join mixed roaming flocks, adults also join the flocks when they pass through, but do not stray from their territory.", "Marsh tits breed mostly in lowland areas, but can reach altitudes of up to 1,300 m. They prefer large areas of moist, broadleaved woodland, often oak or beech, though they can occupy wet alder woodland, riverside trees, parks and gardens or orchards.", "A study at Monks Wood, Cambridgeshire, England, found that marsh tits required mature trees with a shrub layer below the canopy, but that they avoided parts of the wood with many young trees.", "Another study in the United Kingdom found that during winter and while foraging, marsh tits spent more time than blue tits in the wood's understorey, and more time lower in the woodland canopy and understorey.", "Trees and shrubs in 10 breeding territories were also compared.", "The trees varied significantly between territories, but the shrub characteristics did not, suggesting that the shrubs were more important to the birds.", "In Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire, marsh tits were \" largely absent \" from parts of the wood with a dense canopy but poor shrub cover.", "In mixed winter tit flocks, seldom more than one or two marsh tits are present, and parties of this species alone are infrequent.", "Its performances in the bushes and branches are just as neat and agile as those of other tits, it often hangs upside down by one leg."], "random_sentences": ["The marsh tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae and genus Poecile, closely related to the willow, Pere David's and Songar tits.", "It is a small bird, around long and weighing , with a black crown and nape, pale cheeks, brown back and greyish-brown wings and tail.", "Between 8 and 11 subspecies are recognised.", "Its close resemblance to the willow tit can cause identification problems, especially in the United Kingdom where the local subspecies of the two are very similar: they were not recognised as separate species until 1897.", "Globally, the marsh tit is classified as Least Concern, although there is evidence of a decline in numbers .", "It can be found throughout temperate Europe and northern Asia and, despite its name, it occurs in a range of habitats including dry woodland.", "The marsh tit is omnivorous", "its food includes caterpillars, spiders and seeds.", "It nests in tree holes, choosing existing hollows to enlarge, rather than excavating its own.", "A clutch of 59 eggs is laid.", "The marsh tit was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Parus palustris.", "It is now placed in the genus Poecile that was erected by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1829.", "The genus name, Poecile, is the Ancient Greek name for a now unidentifiable small bird, and is perhaps derived from poikolos, meaning \" spotted \"", "the specific palustris is Latin for \" marshy \" .", "Bird trapped for ringing showing pale 'cutting edges' to bill The nominate race has a black cap and nape with a blue sheen visible at close quarters.", "The black 'bib' below the bill is rather small", "the cheeks are white, turning dusky brown on the ear coverts.", "The upperparts, tail and wings are greyish-brown, with slightly paler fringes to the tertials.", "The underparts are off-white with a buff or brown tinge strongest on the flanks and undertail coverts.", "The bill is black and the legs dark grey.", "Juveniles are very similar to adults, but with a duller black cap and bib, more greyish upperparts and paler underparts", "they moult into adult plumage by September.", "The marsh tit weighs , has a length of and a wingspan of .", "The wing length ranges from .", "The oldest recorded marsh tit in Europe reached the age of 11 years, 11 months.", "Like other tits it has a large range of call notes", "most typical is the explosive \" pitchou \" note, given when agitated, often leading into \" pitchou-bee-bee-bee \" , which can sound like willow tit when not heard clearly.", "Note the glossy cap, smaller bib and uniform wings which help distinguish it from the willow tit.", "Marsh and willow tits are difficult to distinguish on appearance alone", "the races occurring in the UK (P.", "p. dresseri and P. m. kleinschmidti respectively) are especially hard to separate.", "When caught for ringing, the pale 'cutting edge' of the marsh tit's bill is a reliable criterion", "otherwise, the best way to tell apart the two species is by voice.", "Plumage characteristics include the lack of a pale wing panel , the marsh tit's glossier black cap and smaller black 'bib', although none of these is 'completely reliable'", "The marsh tit has a noticeably smaller and shorter head than the willow tit and overall the markings are crisp and neat, with the head in proportion to the rest of the bird .", "Typical marsh tit habitat in Northamptonshire, England.", "The marsh tit has a worldwide Extent of Occurrence of around 10 million square kilometres.", "The global population includes between 6.1 million and 12 million birds in Europe alone.", "The species is classified as Least Concern, though there is some evidence of a decline in numbers.", "For example, between the 1970s and 2007, marsh tit numbers declined in the United Kingdom by more than 50% and consequently it is on the Red List of species compiled by the UK's Joint Nature Conservation Committee.", "Research suggests that the cause may be low survival rates from year to year, though the nest failure rate has fallen during the decline.", "Other studies have shown that reduced diversity of woodland structure and plant species, partly because of the impact of deer browsing, is the cause of the bird's decline.", "Data from 157 woodlands covered by the RSPB/BTO Repeat Woodland Bird Survey showed that the abundance of marsh tits in 20032004 corresponded with the vegetation present 24 metres above the ground, the shrub layer.", "Data from the 1980s did not show the same results, but marsh tit numbers had increased by 20032004 in woods with the most shrub cover.", "The study concluded that damage to the shrub layer, caused by overgrazing by deer, for example, may make woodland less suitable for marsh tits.", "It is a widespread and common resident breeder throughout temperate Europe and northern Asia.", "It occurs from northern Spain north to south-eastern Scotland and east to western Russia, with a broad gap in western Asia and present again in eastern Asia from the Altai Mountains east to northern Japan and northern and western China.", "This species is sedentary, making short post-breeding movements in most of its range, but in northern Europe some move southward in winter.", "However, marsh tits seem not to perform the occasional irruptions that other members of the tit family do.", "Most marsh tits stay in their breeding territories year-round", "presumably this is related to their food-storing strategy.", "Analysis of UK ringing data showed that of 108 recoveries , 85% were less than 5 km from where the bird was originally caught, and only 1% further than 20 km.", "Young birds join mixed roaming flocks", "adults also join the flocks when they pass through, but do not stray from their territory.", "Marsh tits breed mostly in lowland areas, but can reach altitudes of up to 1,300 m. They prefer large areas of moist, broadleaved woodland, often oak or beech, though they can occupy wet alder woodland, riverside trees, parks and gardens or orchards.", "A study at Monks Wood, Cambridgeshire, England, found that marsh tits required mature trees with a shrub layer below the canopy, but that they avoided parts of the wood with many young trees.", "Another study in the United Kingdom found that during winter and while foraging, marsh tits spent more time than blue tits in the wood's understorey, and more time lower in the woodland canopy and understorey.", "Trees and shrubs in 10 breeding territories were also compared.", "The trees varied significantly between territories, but the shrub characteristics did not, suggesting that the shrubs were more important to the birds.", "In Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire, marsh tits were \" largely absent \" from parts of the wood with a dense canopy but poor shrub cover.", "In mixed winter tit flocks, seldom more than one or two marsh tits are present, and parties of this species alone are infrequent.", "Its performances in the bushes and branches are just as neat and agile as those of other tits", "it often hangs upside down by one leg.", "Marsh tits are monogamous and often pair for life", "one pair stayed together for six years.", "In Europe, hybridisation with the willow tit has been recorded twice.", "The nest site is in a hole, usually in a tree but sometimes in a wall or in the ground.", "Old willow tit holes may be used and enlarged further.", "Marsh tits do not usually excavate their own nest holes, though they may enlarge the hollow, carrying the chips to a distance before dropping them.", "The hole may be within a centimetres or two of the ground or high as .", "Inside the hole, a nest of moss is made and lined with hair and sometimes a few feathers", "of moss is used in damp holes, but much less in dry ones.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden Between five and nine white and red-speckled eggs are laid late in April or in May, measuring and weighing each, of which 6% is shell.", "The eggs are incubated by the female for 1416 days", "incubation begins before the clutch is complete, meaning that the chicks hatch over a period of around two days.", "She sits closely and gives a typical tit \" hissing display \" if disturbed.", "The male helps to feed and care for the young and brings nearly all the food for the first four days after hatching.", "The altricial, downy chicks fledge after 1821 days.", "The fledglings are fed by their parents for a week and become independent after a further 17 days.", "The family stays together for between 11 and 15 days after the first flights of the juveniles.", "Second broods have been recorded, though they are extremely rare in Britain", "A study of marsh tits in Biaowieza Forest, Poland, looked at which factors affected birds' choice to re-occupy a nest hole used the previous year.", "It found that 35.5% of available holes were used again the following year, and that holes where a brood had failed were less likely to be re-used.", "A study in Bourton Woods, Gloucestershire, England, found that nestboxes were used by marsh tits in successive years in only 20% of cases.", "Mostly spiders and insects are eaten in spring and summer, but seeds including those of the thistle nuts and berries are taken in autumn and winter.", "Beechmast is the preferred food when it can be found.", "Marsh tits often take seeds and fruit from the plant before taking them to eat elsewhere.", "Marsh tits collect and store large numbers of seeds.", "For a study in Norway, birds were watched for two hours 15 minutes.", "They ate 43 and cached 83 seeds per hour.", "In Sweden, storing food is most frequent between September and late February, with the peak in this behaviour occurring from September to October.", "Hiding places for the seeds include on and in the ground, in leaf litter, in tree stumps, and under moss and lichen in trees.", "The hidden seeds are prone to being stolen, by other marsh tits or other species, so birds often fly from one site to another before deciding on a hiding place.", "They tend to retrieve the oldest items first, and memorise their location rather than searching randomly or checking systematically.", "The marsh tit's hippocampus is 31% bigger than that of the great tit, despite the great tit's larger overall size and larger forebrain", "the relative volume of this part of the brain is greater in birds that cache food."]}, "Parus major": {"keywords": ["Great tit in Sweden, winter 2016 The great tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.", "It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of North Africa where it is generally resident in any sort of woodland, most great tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters.", "It is predominantly insectivorous in the summer, but will consume a wider range of food items in the winter months, including small hibernating bats.", "The great tit has adapted well to human changes in the environment and is a common and familiar bird in urban parks and gardens.", "The 11 subspecies of the cinereous tit were once lumped with the great tit but recent genetic and bioacoustic studies now separate that group as a distinct species The great tit was formerly treated as ranging from Britain to Japan and south to the islands of Indonesia, with 36 described subspecies ascribed to four main species groups.", "The major group had 13 subspecies across Europe, temperate Asia and north Africa, the minor group's nine subspecies occurred from southeast Russia and Japan into northern southeast Asia and the 11 subspecies in the cinereus group were found from Iran across south Asia to Indonesia.", "This form was once thought to form a ring species around the Tibetan Plateau, with gene flow throughout the subspecies, but this theory was abandoned when sequences of mitochondrial DNA were examined, finding that the four groups were distinct and that the hybridisation zones between the groups were the result of secondary contact after a temporary period of isolation.", "The other subspecies have much more restricted distributions, four being restricted to islands and the remainder of the P. m. major subspecies representing former glacial refuge populations.", "Mixed forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe A nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia.", "It can be found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands.", "It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens.", "In dense forests, including conifer forests it prefers forest clearings.", "In northern Siberia it lives in boreal taiga.", "In North Africa it rather resides in oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves.", "In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest.", "Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan subspecies, as well as low scrubland, oases, at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.", "Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic and also to Netherlands, Britain, even as far as the southern Balkans.", " Male great tit on branch with sunflower seed Great tits are primarily insectivorous in the summer, feeding on insects and spiders which they capture by foliage gleaning.", "Seeds and fruit usually come from deciduous trees and shrubs, like for instance the seeds of beech and hazel.", "In particularly severe winters they may consume 44% of their body weight in sunflower seeds.", "Great tit nesting in nest box Great tits are cavity nesters, breeding in a hole that is usually inside a tree, although occasionally in a wall or rock face, and they will readily take to nest boxes.", "The nest inside the cavity is built by the female, and is made of plant fibres, grasses, moss, hair, wool and feathers.", "Insularity also affects clutch size, with great tits on offshore islands laying smaller clutches with larger eggs than mainland birds.", "This patch turns white after the first moult at age two months, and diminishes in size as the bird grows.", "Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.", "Reduced cold injury and heat loss is mediated by the great tits counter-current vascular arrangements, and peripheral vasoconstriction in major vessels in and around the birds bill and legs.", "In response to food restriction, the great tits bill temperature dropped, and once food availably was increased, bill temperatures gradually returned to normal. Vasoconstriction of blood vessels in the bill not only serves as an energy saving mechanism, but also reduces the amount of heat transferred from core body tissues to the skin , which, in turn, reduces heat loss rate by lowering skin temperature relative to the environment.", "It is more common and has better breeding success in areas with undisturbed forest cover, but it has adapted to human modified habitats.", "In areas with low frequency background noise pollution, the song has a higher frequency than in quieter areas."], "habitat_section": ["Mixed forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe A nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia.", "It can be found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands.", "In North Africa it lives in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.", "It also occurs across the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia from northern Iran and Afghanistan to Mongolia, as well as across northern Asia from the Urals as far east as northern China and the Amur Valley.", "The great tit occupies a range of habitats.", "It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens.", "In dense forests, including conifer forests it prefers forest clearings.", "In northern Siberia it lives in boreal taiga.", "In North Africa it rather resides in oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves.", "In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest.", "Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan subspecies, as well as low scrubland, oases, at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.", "The great tit is generally not migratory.", "Pairs will usually remain near or in their territory year round, even in the northern parts of their range.", "Young birds will disperse from their parents' territory, but usually not far.", "Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic and also to Netherlands, Britain, even as far as the southern Balkans.", "The great tit was unsuccessfully introduced into the United States, birds were set free near Cincinnati, Ohio between 1872 and 1874 but failed to become established.", "Suggestions that they were an excellent control measure for codling moths nearly led to their introduction to some new areas particularly in the United States of America, however this plan was not implemented.", "A small population is present in the upper Midwest, believed to be the descendants of birds liberated in Chicago in 2002 along with European goldfinches, Eurasian jays, common chaffinches, European greenfinches, saffron finches, blue tits and Eurasian linnets, although sightings of some of these species pre-date the supposed introduction date.", "Birds were introduced to the Almaty Province in what is now Kazakhstan in 196061 and became established, although their present status is unclear.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a predator of great tits, with the young from second broods being at higher risk partly because of the hawk's greater need for food for its own developing young.", "The nests of great tits are raided by great spotted woodpeckers, particularly when nesting in certain types of nest boxes.", "Other nest predators include introduced grey squirrels and least weasels, which are able to take nesting adults as well.", "A species of biting louse described as Rostrinirmus hudeci was isolated and described in 1981 from great tits in central Europe.", "The hen flea Ceratophyllus gallinae is exceedingly common in the nests of blue and great tits.", "It was originally a specialist tit flea, but the dry, crowded conditions of chicken runs enabled it to flourish with its new host.", "This flea is preferentially predated by the clown beetle Gnathoncus punctulatus, The rove beetle Microglotta pulla also feeds on fleas and their larvae.", "Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.", "Great tits compete with the pied flycatcher for nesting boxes, and can kill prospecting flycatcher males.", "Incidences of fatal competition are more frequent when nesting times overlap, and climate change has led to greater synchrony of nesting between the two species and flycatcher deaths.", "Having killed the flycatchers, the great tits may consume their brains."], "random_sentences": ["Great tit in Sweden, winter 2016 The great tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.", "It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of North Africa where it is generally resident in any sort of woodland", "most great tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters.", "Until 2005 this species was lumped with numerous other subspecies.", "DNA studies have shown these other subspecies to be distinct from the great tit and these have now been separated as two distinct species, the cinereous tit of southern Asia, and the Japanese tit of East Asia.", "The great tit remains the most widespread species in the genus Parus.", "The great tit is a distinctive bird with a black head and neck, prominent white cheeks, olive upperparts and yellow underparts, with some variation amongst the numerous subspecies.", "It is predominantly insectivorous in the summer, but will consume a wider range of food items in the winter months, including small hibernating bats.", "Like all tits it is a cavity nester, usually nesting in a hole in a tree.", "The female lays around 12 eggs and incubates them alone, although both parents raise the chicks.", "In most years the pair will raise two broods.", "The nests may be raided by woodpeckers, squirrels and weasels and infested with fleas, and adults may be hunted by sparrowhawks.", "The great tit has adapted well to human changes in the environment and is a common and familiar bird in urban parks and gardens.", "The great tit is also an important study species in ornithology.", "The great tit was described under its current binomial name by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "Its scientific name is derived from the Latin parus \" tit \" and maior \" larger \" .", "Francis Willughby had used the name in the 17th century.", "alt Bird with similar markings to great tit, but colours washed out and greyer, drinks from a leaking tap", "The 11 subspecies of the cinereous tit were once lumped with the great tit but recent genetic and bioacoustic studies now separate that group as a distinct species The great tit was formerly treated as ranging from Britain to Japan and south to the islands of Indonesia, with 36 described subspecies ascribed to four main species groups.", "The major group had 13 subspecies across Europe, temperate Asia and north Africa, the minor group's nine subspecies occurred from southeast Russia and Japan into northern southeast Asia and the 11 subspecies in the cinereus group were found from Iran across south Asia to Indonesia.", "The three bokharensis subspecies were often treated as a separate species, Parus bokharensis, the Turkestan tit.", "This form was once thought to form a ring species around the Tibetan Plateau, with gene flow throughout the subspecies, but this theory was abandoned when sequences of mitochondrial DNA were examined, finding that the four groups were distinct and that the hybridisation zones between the groups were the result of secondary contact after a temporary period of isolation.", "A study published in 2005 confirmed that the major group was distinct from the cinereus and minor groups and that along with P. m. bokharensis it diverged from these two groups around 1.5 million years ago.", "The divergence between the bokharensis and major groups was estimated to have been about half a million years ago.", "The study also examined hybrids between representatives of the major and minor groups in the Amur Valley where the two meet.", "Hybrids were rare, suggesting that there were some reproductive barriers between the two groups.", "The study recommended that the two eastern groups be split out as new species, the cinereous tit , and the Japanese tit , but that the Turkestan tit be lumped in with the great tit.", "This taxonomy has been followed by some authorities, for example the IOC World Bird List.", "The Handbook of the Birds of the World volume treating the Parus species went for the more traditional classification, treating the Turkestan tit as a separate species but retaining the Japanese and cinereous tits with the great tit, a move that has not been without criticism.", "The nominate subspecies of the great tit is the most widespread, its range stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to the Amur Valley and from Scandinavia to the Middle East.", "The other subspecies have much more restricted distributions, four being restricted to islands and the remainder of the P. m. major subspecies representing former glacial refuge populations.", "The dominance of a single, morphologically uniform subspecies over such a large area suggests that the nominate race rapidly recolonised a large area after the last glacial epoch.", "This hypothesis is supported by genetic studies which suggest a geologically recent genetic bottleneck followed by a rapid population expansion.", "In females and juveniles the mid-line stripe is narrower and sometimes discontinuous", "alt duller-plumaged great tit with weak breast and belly stripe The great tit is large for a tit at in length, and has a distinctive appearance that makes it easy to recognise.", "The nominate race P. major major has a bluish-black crown, black neck, throat, bib and head, and white cheeks and ear coverts.", "The breast is bright lemon-yellow and there is a broad black mid-line stripe running from the bib to vent.", "There is a dull white spot on the neck turning to greenish yellow on the upper nape.", "The rest of the nape and back are green tinged with olive.", "The wing-coverts are green, the rest of the wing is bluish-grey with a white wing-bar.", "The tail is bluish grey with white outer tips.", "The plumage of the female is similar to that of the male except that the colours are overall duller", "the bib is less intensely black, as is the line running down the belly, which is also narrower and sometimes broken.", "Young birds are like the female, except that they have dull olive-brown napes and necks, greyish rumps, and greyer tails, with less defined white tips.", "The plumage of the male is typically bright, although this varies by subspecies", "alt Great tit with strongly yellow sides perched on twig There is some variation in the subspecies.", "P. m. newtoni is like the nominate race but has a slightly longer bill, the mantle is slightly deeper green, there is less white on the tail tips, and the ventral mid-line stripe is broader on the belly.", "P. m. corsus also resembles the nominate form but has duller upperparts, less white in the tail and less yellow in the nape.", "P. m. mallorcae is like the nominate subspecies, but has a larger bill, greyer-blue upperparts and slightly paler underparts.", "P. m. ecki is like P. m. mallorcae except with bluer upperparts and paler underparts.", "P. m. excelsus is similar to the nominate race but has much brighter green upperparts, bright yellow underparts and no white on the tail.", "P. m. aphrodite has darker, more olive-grey upperparts, and the underparts are more yellow to pale cream.", "P. m. niethammeri is similar to P. m. aphrodite but the upperparts are duller and less green, and the underparts are pale yellow.", "P. m. terrasanctae resembles the previous two subspecies but has slightly paler upperparts.", "P. m. blandfordi is like the nominate but with a greyer mantle and scapulars and pale yellow underparts, and P. m. karelini is intermediate between the nominate and P. m. blandfordi, and lacks white on the tail.", "The plumage of P. m. bokharensis is much greyer, pale creamy white to washed out grey underparts, a larger white cheep patch, a grey tail, wings, back and nape.", "It is also slightly smaller, with a smaller bill but longer tail.", "The situation is similar for the two related subspecies in the Turkestan tit group.", "P. m. turkestanicus is like P. m. bokharensis but with a larger bill and darker upperparts.", "P. m. ferghanensis is like P. m. bokharensis but with a smaller bill, darker grey on the flanks and a more yellow wash on the juvenile birds.", "Female great tit and male The colour of the male bird's breast has been shown to correlate with stronger sperm, and is one way that the male demonstrates his reproductive superiority to females.", "Higher levels of carotenoid increase the intensity of the yellow of the breast its colour, and also enable the sperm to better withstand the onslaught of free radicals.", "Carotenoids cannot be synthesized by the bird and have to be obtained from food, so a bright colour in a male demonstrates his ability to obtain good nutrition.", "However, the saturation of the yellow colour is also influenced by environmental factors, such as weather conditions.", "The width of the male's ventral stripe, which varies with individual, is selected for by females, with higher quality females apparently selecting males with wider stripes.", "Great tit : song ", "Great tit : sonagram ", "Great tit twittering The great tit is, like other tits, a vocal bird, and has up to 40 types of calls and songs.", "The calls are generally the same between the sexes, but the male is much more vocal and the female rarely calls.", "Soft single notes such as \" pit \" , \" spick \" , or \" chit \" are used as contact calls.", "A loud \" tink \" is used by adult males as an alarm or in territorial disputes.", "One of the most familiar is a \" teacher, teacher \" , often likened to a squeaky wheelbarrow wheel, which is used in proclaiming ownership of a territory.", "In former times, English folk considered the \" saw-sharpening \" call to be a foretelling of rain.", "There is little geographic variation in calls, but tits from the two south Asian groups recently split from the great tit do not recognise or react to the calls of the temperate great tits.", "alt forest clearing with leaf strewn floor, low plants and saplings, and tall trees partly obscuring the sky", "Mixed forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe A nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia.", "It can be found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands.", "In North Africa it lives in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.", "It also occurs across the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia from northern Iran and Afghanistan to Mongolia, as well as across northern Asia from the Urals as far east as northern China and the Amur Valley.", "The great tit occupies a range of habitats.", "It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens.", "In dense forests, including conifer forests it prefers forest clearings.", "In northern Siberia it lives in boreal taiga.", "In North Africa it rather resides in oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves.", "In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest.", "Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan subspecies, as well as low scrubland, oases", "at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.", "The great tit is generally not migratory.", "Pairs will usually remain near or in their territory year round, even in the northern parts of their range.", "Young birds will disperse from their parents' territory, but usually not far.", "Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic and also to Netherlands, Britain, even as far as the southern Balkans.", "The great tit was unsuccessfully introduced into the United States", "birds were set free near Cincinnati, Ohio between 1872 and 1874 but failed to become established.", "Suggestions that they were an excellent control measure for codling moths nearly led to their introduction to some new areas particularly in the United States of America, however this plan was not implemented.", "A small population is present in the upper Midwest, believed to be the descendants of birds liberated in Chicago in 2002 along with European goldfinches, Eurasian jays, common chaffinches, European greenfinches, saffron finches, blue tits and Eurasian linnets, although sightings of some of these species pre-date the supposed introduction date.", "Birds were introduced to the Almaty Province in what is now Kazakhstan in 196061 and became established, although their present status is unclear.", "Like other tits, great tits transport food with their beak, and then transfer it to their feet, where it is held while they eat", "alt Male great tit on branch with sunflower seed Great tits are primarily insectivorous in the summer, feeding on insects and spiders which they capture by foliage gleaning.", "Their larger invertebrate prey include cockroaches, grasshoppers and crickets, lacewings, earwigs, bugs , ants, flies , caddis flies, beetles, scorpion flies, harvestmen, bees and wasps, snails and woodlice.", "A study published in 2007 found that great tits helped to reduce caterpillar damage in apple orchards by as much as 50%.", "Nestlings also undergo a period in their early development where they are fed a number of spiders, possibly for nutritional reasons.", "In autumn and winter, when insect prey becomes scarcer, great tits add berries and seeds to their diet.", "Seeds and fruit usually come from deciduous trees and shrubs, like for instance the seeds of beech and hazel.", "Where it is available they will readily take table scraps, peanuts and sunflower seeds from bird tables.", "In particularly severe winters they may consume 44% of their body weight in sunflower seeds.", "They often forage on the ground, particularly in years with high beech mast production.", "Great tits, along with other tits, will join winter mixed-species foraging flocks.", "Great tit feeding its young with an insect Large food items, such as large seeds or prey, are dealt with by \" hold-hammering \" , where the item is held with one or both feet and then struck with the bill until it is ready to eat.", "Using this method, a great tit can get into a hazelnut in about twenty minutes.", "When feeding young, adults will hammer off the heads of large insects to make them easier to consume, and remove the gut from caterpillars so that the tannins in the gut will not retard the chick's growth.", "Great tits combine dietary versatility with a considerable amount of intelligence and the ability to solve problems with insight learning, that is to solve a problem through insight rather than trial and error.", "In England, great tits learned to break the foil caps of milk bottles delivered at the doorstep of homes to obtain the cream at the top.", "This behaviour, first noted in 1921, spread rapidly in the next two decades.", "In 2009, great tits were reported killing, and eating the brains of roosting pipistrelle bats.", "This is the first time a songbird has been recorded preying on bats.", "The tits only do this during winter when the bats are hibernating and other food is scarce.", "They have also been recorded using tools, using a conifer needle in the bill to extract larvae from a hole in a tree.", "Great tits are monogamous breeders and establish breeding territories.", "These territories are established in late January and defence begins in late winter or early spring.", "Territories are usually reoccupied in successive years, even if one of the pair dies, so long as the brood is raised successfully.", "Females are likely to disperse to new territories if their nest is predated the previous year.", "If the pair divorces for some reason then the birds will disperse, with females travelling further than males to establish new territories.", "Although the great tit is socially monogamous, extra-pair copulations are frequent.", "One study in Germany found that 40% of nests contained some offspring fathered by parents other than the breeding male and that 8.5% of all chicks were the result of cuckoldry.", "Adult males tend to have a higher reproductive success compared to sub-adults.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden Young chicks in the nest", "alt nest with seven chicks.", "These are covered with grey down, and have bright yellow gapes Great tits are seasonal breeders.", "The exact timing of breeding varies by a number of factors, most importantly location.", "Most breeding occurs between January and September", "in Europe the breeding season usually begins after March.", "In Israel there are exceptional records of breeding during the months of October to December.", "The amount of sunlight and daytime temperatures will also affect breeding timing.", "One study found a strong correlation between the timing of laying and the peak abundance of caterpillar prey, which is in turn correlated to temperature.", "On an individual level, younger females tend to start laying later than older females.", "alt Great tit leaving its wooden nest box right", "Great tit nesting in nest box Great tits are cavity nesters, breeding in a hole that is usually inside a tree, although occasionally in a wall or rock face, and they will readily take to nest boxes.", "The nest inside the cavity is built by the female, and is made of plant fibres, grasses, moss, hair, wool and feathers.", "The number in the clutch is often very large, as many as 18, but five to twelve is more common.", "Clutch size is smaller when birds start laying later, and is also lower when the density of competitors is higher.", "Second broods tend to have smaller clutches.", "Insularity also affects clutch size, with great tits on offshore islands laying smaller clutches with larger eggs than mainland birds.", "The eggs are white with red spots.", "The female undertakes all incubation duties, and is fed by the male during incubation.", "The bird is a close sitter, hissing when disturbed.", "The timing of hatching, which is best synchronised with peak availability of prey, can be manipulated when environmental conditions change after the laying of the first egg by delaying the beginning of incubation, laying more eggs or pausing during incubation.", "The incubation period is between 12 and 15 days.", "alt Young bird with ruffled adult-like plumage and yellow gape The chicks, like those of all tits, hatch unfeathered and blind.", "Once feathers begin to erupt, the nestlings are unusual for altricial birds in having plumage coloured with carotenoids similar to their parents .", "The nape is yellow and attracts the attention of the parents by its ultraviolet reflectance.", "This may be to make them easier to find in low light, or be a signal of fitness to win the parents' attention.", "This patch turns white after the first moult at age two months, and diminishes in size as the bird grows.", "Chicks are fed by both parents, usually receiving of food a day.", "Inbreeding depression occurs when the offspring produced as a result of a mating between close relatives show reduced fitness.", "The reduced fitness is generally considered to be a consequence of the increased expression of deleterious recessive alleles in these offspring.", "In natural populations of P. major, inbreeding is avoided by dispersal of individuals from their birthplace, which reduces the chance of mating with a close relative.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a predator of great tits, with the young from second broods being at higher risk partly because of the hawk's greater need for food for its own developing young.", "The nests of great tits are raided by great spotted woodpeckers, particularly when nesting in certain types of nest boxes.", "Other nest predators include introduced grey squirrels and least weasels, which are able to take nesting adults as well.", "A species of biting louse described as Rostrinirmus hudeci was isolated and described in 1981 from great tits in central Europe.", "The hen flea Ceratophyllus gallinae is exceedingly common in the nests of blue and great tits.", "It was originally a specialist tit flea, but the dry, crowded conditions of chicken runs enabled it to flourish with its new host.", "This flea is preferentially predated by the clown beetle Gnathoncus punctulatus, The rove beetle Microglotta pulla also feeds on fleas and their larvae.", "Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.", "Great tits compete with the pied flycatcher for nesting boxes, and can kill prospecting flycatcher males.", "Incidences of fatal competition are more frequent when nesting times overlap, and climate change has led to greater synchrony of nesting between the two species and flycatcher deaths.", "Having killed the flycatchers, the great tits may consume their brains.", "Great tits have been found to possess special physiological adaptations for cold environments.", "When preparing for winter months, the great tit can increase how thermogenic its blood is.", "The mechanism for this adaptation is a seasonal increase in mitochondrial volume and mitochondrial respiration in red blood cells and increased uncoupling of the electron transport from ATP production.", "Reduced cold injury and heat loss is mediated by the great tits counter-current vascular arrangements, and peripheral vasoconstriction in major vessels in and around the birds bill and legs.", "This mechanism allows uninsulated regions to remain close to the surrounding temperature.", "In response to food restriction, the great tits bill temperature dropped, and once food availably was increased, bill temperatures gradually returned to normal. Vasoconstriction of blood vessels in the bill not only serves as an energy saving mechanism, but also reduces the amount of heat transferred from core body tissues to the skin , which, in turn, reduces heat loss rate by lowering skin temperature relative to the environment.", "The great tit's willingness to use bird-feeders and nesting boxes makes it popular with the general public and useful to scientists", "alt adult great tit perched on hand The great tit is a popular garden bird due to its acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or seed.", "Its willingness to move into nest boxes has made it a valuable study subject in ornithology", "it has been particularly useful as a model for the study of the evolution of various life-history traits, particularly clutch size.", "A study of a literature database search found 1,349 articles relating to Parus major for the period between 1969 and 2002.", "The great tit has generally adjusted to human modifications of the environment.", "It is more common and has better breeding success in areas with undisturbed forest cover, but it has adapted to human modified habitats.", "It can be very common in urban areas.", "For example, the breeding population in the city of Sheffield has been estimated at some 17,000 individuals.", "In adapting to human environments its song has been observed to change in noise-polluted urban environments.", "In areas with low frequency background noise pollution, the song has a higher frequency than in quieter areas.", "This tit has expanded its range, moving northwards into Scandinavia and Scotland, and south into Israel and Egypt.", "The total population is estimated at between 3001,100 million birds in a range of 32.4 million km 2 .", "While there have been some localised declines in population in areas with poorer quality habitats, its large range and high numbers mean that the great tit is not considered to be threatened, and it is classed as least concern on the IUCN Red List."]}, "Erithacus rubecula": {"keywords": ["The robin occurs in Eurasia east to Western Siberia, south to Algeria and on the Atlantic islands as far west as the Central Group of the Azores and Madeira.", "In southern Iberia, habitat segregation of resident and migrant robins occurs, with resident robins remaining in the same woodlands where they bred.", "There was a similar outcome in North America, as birds failed to become established after being released in Long Island, New York in 1852, Oregon in 18891892, and the Saanich Peninsula in British Columbia in 19081910.", "Well known to British and Irish gardeners, it is relatively unafraid of people and drawn to human activities involving the digging of soil, in order to look out for earthworms and other food freshly turned up.", "Robins also approach large wild animals, such as wild boar, which disturb the ground, to look for any food that might be brought to the surface.", "A spell of very low temperatures in winter can, however, result in higher mortality rates.", "As well as the usual crevices, or sheltered banks, other objects include pieces of machinery, barbecues, bicycle handlebars, bristles on upturned brooms, discarded kettles, watering cans, flower pots and hats.", "Nests are generally composed of moss, leaves and grass, with fine grass, hair and feathers for lining.", "After two to three months out of the nest, the juvenile bird grows some orange feathers under its chin, and over a similar period this patch gradually extends to complete the adult appearance of an entirely red-orange breast.", "Both the male and female sing during the winter, when they hold separate territories, the song then sounding more plaintive than the summer version.", "The female robin moves a short distance from the summer nesting territory to a nearby area that is more suitable for winter feeding.", "European robin feeding on snowy ground The robin features prominently in British folklore and that of northwestern France, but much less so in other parts of Europe.", "An alternative legend has it that its breast was scorched fetching water for souls in Purgatory."], "habitat_section": ["The robin occurs in Eurasia east to Western Siberia, south to Algeria and on the Atlantic islands as far west as the Central Group of the Azores and Madeira.", "It is a vagrant in Iceland.", "In the southeast, it reaches Iran the Caucasus range.", "In southern Iberia, habitat segregation of resident and migrant robins occurs, with resident robins remaining in the same woodlands where they bred.", "Attempts to introduce the European robin into Australia and New Zealand in the latter part of the 19th century were unsuccessful.", "Birds were released around Melbourne, Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Dunedin by various local acclimatisation societies, with none becoming established.", "There was a similar outcome in North America, as birds failed to become established after being released in Long Island, New York in 1852, Oregon in 18891892, and the Saanich Peninsula in British Columbia in 19081910.", "Robin with prey The robin is diurnal, although it has been reported to be active hunting insects on moonlit nights or near artificial light at night.", "Well known to British and Irish gardeners, it is relatively unafraid of people and drawn to human activities involving the digging of soil, in order to look out for earthworms and other food freshly turned up.", "The robin is considered to be a gardener's friend, and from the traditional association of the red breast with the blood of Christ, the robin would never be harmed.", "In continental Europe, on the other hand, robins were hunted and killed as were most other small birds, and are therefore more wary.", "Robins also approach large wild animals, such as wild boar, which disturb the ground, to look for any food that might be brought to the surface.", "In autumn and winter, robins will supplement their usual diet of terrestrial invertebrates, such as spiders, worms and insects, with berries and fruit.", "They will also eat seed mixtures and suet placed on bird-tables.", "Male robins are noted for their highly aggressive territorial behaviour.", "They will fiercely attack other males and competitors that stray into their territories and have been observed attacking other small birds without apparent provocation.", "There are instances of robins attacking their own reflection.", "Territorial disputes sometimes lead to fatalities, accounting for up to 10% of adult robin deaths in some areas.", "Because of high mortality in the first year of life, a robin has an average life expectancy of 1.1 years, however, once past its first year, life expectancy increases.", "One robin has been recorded as reaching 19 years of age.", "A spell of very low temperatures in winter can, however, result in higher mortality rates.", "The species is parasitised by the moorhen flea and the acanthocephalan Apororhynchus silesiacus.", "The European robin has an extensive range and a population numbering in the hundreds of millions.", "The species does not approach the vulnerable thresholds under the population trend criterion , the population appears to be increasing.", "The International Union for Conservation of Nature evaluates it as least concern."], "random_sentences": ["The European robin , known simply as the robin or robin redbreast in Great Britain", "Ireland, is a small insectivorous passerine bird that belongs to the chat subfamily of the Old World flycatcher family.", "About in length, the male and female are similar in colouration, with an orange breast and face lined with grey, brown upper-parts and a whitish belly.", "It is found across Europe, east to Western Siberia and south to North Africa", "it is sedentary in most of its range except the far north.", "The term robin is also applied to some birds in other families with red or orange breasts.", "These include the American robin , a thrush, and the Australasian robins of the family Petroicidae, the relationships of which are unclear.", "The European robin was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Motacilla rubecula.", "Its specific epithet rubecula is a diminutive derived from the Latin , meaning 'red'.", "The genus Erithacus was introduced by French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1800, giving the bird its current binomial name E. rubecula.", "The genus name Erithacus is from Ancient Greek and refers to an unknown bird, now usually identified as robin.", "The distinctive orange breast of both sexes contributed to the European robin's original name of \" redbreast \" , orange as a colour name being unknown in English until the 16th century, by which time the fruit had been introduced.", "In the 15th century, when it became popular to give human names to familiar species, the bird came to be known as robin redbreast, which was eventually shortened to robin.", "As a given name, Robin is originally a diminutive of Robert.", "Other older English names for the bird include ruddock and robinet.", "In American literature of the late 19th century, this robin was frequently called the English robin.", "The Dutch , French , German , Italian , Spanish and Portuguese all refer to the distinctively coloured front.", "The genus Erithacus previously included the Japanese robin and the Ryukyu robin.", "These east Asian species were shown in molecular phylogenetic studies to be more similar to a group of other Asian species than to the European robin.", "In a reorganisation of the genera, the Japanese and the Ryukyu robins were moved to the resurrected genus Larvivora leaving the European robin as the sole member of Erithacus.", "The phylogenetic analysis placed Erithacus in the subfamily Erithacinae, which otherwise contained only African species, but its exact position with respect to the other genera was not resolved.", "The genus Erithacus was formerly classified as a member of the thrush family but is now considered to belong to the Old World flycatcher family , specifically to the chats which also include the common nightingale.", "The larger American robin (T.", "migratorius) is named for its similarity to the European robin, but the two birds are not closely related.", "The similarity lies largely in the orange chest patch in both species.", "This American species was incorrectly shown \" feathering its nest \" in London in the film Mary Poppins, but it only occurs in the U.K. as a very rare vagrant.", "Some South and Central American Turdus thrushes are also called robins, such as the rufous-collared thrush.", "The Australian \" robin redbreast \" , more correctly the scarlet robin , is more closely related to crows and jays than it is to the European robin.", "It belongs to the family Petroicidae, whose members are commonly called \" Australasian robins \" .", "The red-billed leiothrix is sometimes named the \" Pekin robin \" by aviculturalists.", "Another group of Old World flycatchers, this time from Africa and Asia, is the genus Copsychus", "its members are known as magpie-robins, one of which, the Oriental magpie robin (C.", "saularis), is the national bird of Bangladesh.", "The adult European robin is .", " long and weighs , with a wingspan of .", "The male and female bear similar plumage: an orange breast and face , lined by a bluish grey on the sides of the neck and chest.", "The upperparts are brownish, or olive-tinged in British birds, and the belly whitish, while the legs and feet are brown.", "The bill and eyes are black.", "Juveniles are a spotted brown and white in colouration, with patches of orange gradually appearing.", "The robin occurs in Eurasia east to Western Siberia, south to Algeria and on the Atlantic islands as far west as the Central Group of the Azores and Madeira.", "It is a vagrant in Iceland.", "In the southeast, it reaches Iran the Caucasus range.", "In southern Iberia, habitat segregation of resident and migrant robins occurs, with resident robins remaining in the same woodlands where they bred.", "Attempts to introduce the European robin into Australia and New Zealand in the latter part of the 19th century were unsuccessful.", "Birds were released around Melbourne, Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Dunedin by various local acclimatisation societies, with none becoming established.", "There was a similar outcome in North America, as birds failed to become established after being released in Long Island, New York in 1852, Oregon in 18891892, and the Saanich Peninsula in British Columbia in 19081910.", "Robin with prey The robin is diurnal, although it has been reported to be active hunting insects on moonlit nights or near artificial light at night.", "Well known to British and Irish gardeners, it is relatively unafraid of people and drawn to human activities involving the digging of soil, in order to look out for earthworms and other food freshly turned up.", "The robin is considered to be a gardener's friend, and from the traditional association of the red breast with the blood of Christ, the robin would never be harmed.", "In continental Europe, on the other hand, robins were hunted and killed as were most other small birds, and are therefore more wary.", "Robins also approach large wild animals, such as wild boar, which disturb the ground, to look for any food that might be brought to the surface.", "In autumn and winter, robins will supplement their usual diet of terrestrial invertebrates, such as spiders, worms and insects, with berries and fruit.", "They will also eat seed mixtures and suet placed on bird-tables.", "Male robins are noted for their highly aggressive territorial behaviour.", "They will fiercely attack other males and competitors that stray into their territories and have been observed attacking other small birds without apparent provocation.", "There are instances of robins attacking their own reflection.", "Territorial disputes sometimes lead to fatalities, accounting for up to 10% of adult robin deaths in some areas.", "Because of high mortality in the first year of life, a robin has an average life expectancy of 1.1 years", "however, once past its first year, life expectancy increases.", "One robin has been recorded as reaching 19 years of age.", "A spell of very low temperatures in winter can, however, result in higher mortality rates.", "The species is parasitised by the moorhen flea and the acanthocephalan Apororhynchus silesiacus.", "Robins may choose a wide variety of sites for building a nest.", "In fact, anything which can offer some shelter, like a depression or hole, may be considered.", "As well as the usual crevices, or sheltered banks, other objects include pieces of machinery, barbecues, bicycle handlebars, bristles on upturned brooms, discarded kettles, watering cans, flower pots and hats.", "Robins will also nest in manmade nest boxes, favouring a design with an open front placed in a sheltered position up to from the ground.", "Nests are generally composed of moss, leaves and grass, with fine grass, hair and feathers for lining.", "Two or three clutches of five or six eggs are laid throughout the breeding season, which commences in March in Britain and Ireland.", "The eggs are a cream, buff or white speckled or blotched with reddish-brown colour, often more heavily so at the larger end.", "When juvenile birds fly from the nests, their colouration is entirely mottled brown.", "After two to three months out of the nest, the juvenile bird grows some orange feathers under its chin, and over a similar period this patch gradually extends to complete the adult appearance of an entirely red-orange breast.", "The robin produces a fluting, warbling during the breeding season.", "Both the male and female sing during the winter, when they hold separate territories, the song then sounding more plaintive than the summer version.", "The female robin moves a short distance from the summer nesting territory to a nearby area that is more suitable for winter feeding.", "The male robin keeps the same territory throughout the year.", "During the breeding season, male robins usually initiate their morning song an hour before civil sunrise, and usually terminate their daily singing around thirty minutes after sunset.", "Nocturnal singing can also occur, especially in urban areas that are artificially lit during the night.", "Under artificial light, nocturnal singing can be used by urban robins to actively shunt daytime anthropogenic noise.", "Very weak radio-frequency interference prevents migratory robins from orienting correctly to the Earth's magnetic field.", "Since this would not interfere with an iron compass, the experiments imply that the birds use a radical-pair mechanism.", "The European robin has an extensive range and a population numbering in the hundreds of millions.", "The species does not approach the vulnerable thresholds under the population trend criterion ", "the population appears to be increasing.", "The International Union for Conservation of Nature evaluates it as least concern.", "European robin feeding on snowy ground The robin features prominently in British folklore and that of northwestern France, but much less so in other parts of Europe.", "It was held to be a storm-cloud bird and sacred to Thor, the god of thunder, in Norse mythology.", "Robins feature in the traditional children's tale Babes in the Wood", "the birds cover the dead bodies of the children.", "The robin has become strongly associated with Christmas, taking a starring role on many Christmas cards since the mid-19th century.", "The robin has appeared on many Christmas postage stamps.", "An old British folk tale seeks to explain the robin's distinctive breast.", "Legend has it that when Jesus was dying on the cross, the robin, then simply brown in colour, flew to his side and sang into his ear in order to comfort him in his pain.", "The blood from his wounds stained the robin's breast, and thereafter all robins carry the mark of Christ's blood upon them.", "An alternative legend has it that its breast was scorched fetching water for souls in Purgatory.", "The association with Christmas more probably arises from the fact that postmen in Victorian Britain wore red jackets and were nicknamed \" Robins \"", "the robin featured on the Christmas card is an emblem of the postman delivering the card.", "In the 1960s, in a vote publicised by The Times, the robin was adopted as the unofficial national bird of the United Kingdom.", "In 2015, the robin was again voted Britain's national bird in a poll organised by birdwatcher David Lindo, taking 34% of the final vote.", "Several English and Welsh sports organisations are nicknamed \" the Robins \" .", "The nickname is typically used for teams whose home colours predominantly use red.", "These include the professional football clubs Bristol City, Crewe Alexandra, Swindon Town, Cheltenham Town , and, traditionally, Wrexham FC, as well as the English rugby league team the Hull Kingston Rovers .", "A small bird is an unusual choice, although it is thought to symbolise agility in darting around the field."]}, "Hirundo rustica": {"keywords": ["Four are strongly migratory, and their wintering grounds cover much of the Southern Hemisphere as far south as central Argentina, the Cape Province of South Africa, and northern Australia.", "This species is fairly quiet on the wintering grounds.", "The preferred habitat of the barn swallow is open country with low vegetation, such as pasture, meadows and farmland, preferably with nearby water.", "H. r. rustica juveniles In slow motion This species breeds across the Northern Hemisphere from sea level to , but to in the Caucasus and North America, and it is absent only from deserts and the cold northernmost parts of the continents.", "It is most common in open, low vegetation habitats, such as savanna and ranch land, and in Venezuela, South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago it is described as being particularly attracted to burnt or harvested sugarcane fields and the waste from the cane.", "Individual birds tend to return to the same wintering locality each year Migration of barn swallows between Britain and South Africa was first established on 23 December 1912 when a bird that had been ringed by James Masefield at a nest in Staffordshire, was found in Natal. As would be expected for a long-distance migrant, this bird has occurred as a vagrant to such distant areas as Hawaii, Bermuda, Greenland, Tristan da Cunha, the Falkland Islands, and even Antarctica.", "The barn swallow typically feeds in open areas above shallow water or the ground often following animals, humans or farm machinery to catch disturbed insects, but it will occasionally pick prey items from the water surface, walls and plants.", "On the wintering grounds, Hymenoptera, especially flying ants, are important food items.", "Isotope studies have shown that wintering populations may utilise different feeding habitats, with British breeders feeding mostly over grassland, whereas Swiss birds utilised woodland more.", "The barn swallow drinks by skimming low over lakes or rivers and scooping up water with its open mouth.", "Reed beds are an important source of food prior to and whilst on migration, although the barn swallow is a diurnal migrant that can feed on the wing whilst it travels low over ground or water, the reed beds enable fat deposits to be established or replenished.", "In Denmark, the average male tail length increased by 9% between 1984 and 2004, but it is possible that climatic changes may lead in the future to shorter tails if summers become hot and dry.", "In the northern part of the range, it usually starts late May to early June and ends the same time as the breeding season of the southernmost birds.", "As its name implies, the barn swallow typically nests inside accessible buildings such as barns and stables, or under bridges and wharves.", "The clutch size is influenced by latitude, with clutch sizes of northern populations being higher on average than southern populations.", "The barn swallow has been recorded as hybridising with the cliff swallow and the cave swallow in North America, and the house martin in Eurasia, the cross with the latter being one of the most common passerine hybrids.", "Climate change may affect the barn swallow, drought causes weight loss and slow feather regrowth, and the expansion of the Sahara will make it a more formidable obstacle for migrating European birds.", "Hot dry summers will reduce the availability of insect food for chicks.", "Conversely, warmer springs may lengthen the breeding season and result in more chicks, and the opportunity to use nest sites outside buildings in the north of the range might also lead to more offspring.", "Many literary references are based on the barn swallow's northward migration as a symbol of spring or summer."], "habitat_section": ["The preferred habitat of the barn swallow is open country with low vegetation, such as pasture, meadows and farmland, preferably with nearby water.", "This swallow avoids heavily wooded or precipitous areas and densely built-up locations.", "The presence of accessible open structures such as barns, stables, or culverts to provide nesting sites, and exposed locations such as wires, roof ridges or bare branches for perching, are also important in the bird's selection of its breeding range.", "Barn swallows are semi-colonial, settling in groups from a single pair to a few dozen pairs, particularly in larger wooden structures housing animals.", "The same individuals often breed at the same site year after year, although settlement choices have been experimentally shown to be predicted by nest availability rather than any characteristics of available mates.", "Because it takes around 2 weeks for a pair to build a nest from mud, hair, and other materials, old nests are highly prized.", "H. r. rustica juveniles In slow motion This species breeds across the Northern Hemisphere from sea level to , but to in the Caucasus and North America, and it is absent only from deserts and the cold northernmost parts of the continents.", "Over much of its range, it avoids towns, and in Europe is replaced in urban areas by the house martin.", "However, in Honshu, Japan, the barn swallow is a more urban bird, with the red-rumped swallow replacing it as the rural species.", "It is most common in open, low vegetation habitats, such as savanna and ranch land, and in Venezuela, South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago it is described as being particularly attracted to burnt or harvested sugarcane fields and the waste from the cane.", "In the absence of suitable roost sites, they may sometimes roost on wires where they are more exposed to predators.", "Individual birds tend to return to the same wintering locality each year Migration of barn swallows between Britain and South Africa was first established on 23 December 1912 when a bird that had been ringed by James Masefield at a nest in Staffordshire, was found in Natal. As would be expected for a long-distance migrant, this bird has occurred as a vagrant to such distant areas as Hawaii, Bermuda, Greenland, Tristan da Cunha, the Falkland Islands, and even Antarctica."], "random_sentences": ["The barn swallow is the most widespread species of swallow in the world.", "In fact, it appears to have the largest natural distribution of any of the world's passerines, ranging over 251 million square kilometres globally.", "It is a distinctive passerine bird with blue upperparts and a long, deeply forked tail.", "It is found in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.", "In Anglophone Europe it is just called the swallow", "in northern Europe it is the only common species called a \" swallow \" rather than a \" martin \" .", "There are six subspecies of barn swallow, which breed across the Northern Hemisphere.", "Four are strongly migratory, and their wintering grounds cover much of the Southern Hemisphere as far south as central Argentina, the Cape Province of South Africa, and northern Australia.", "Its huge range means that the barn swallow is not endangered, although there may be local population declines due to specific threats.", "The barn swallow is a bird of open country that normally uses man-made structures to breed and consequently has spread with human expansion.", "It builds a cup nest from mud pellets in barns or similar structures and feeds on insects caught in flight.", "This species lives in close association with humans, and its insect-eating habits mean that it is tolerated by humans", "this acceptance was reinforced in the past by superstitions regarding the bird and its nest.", "There are frequent cultural references to the barn swallow in literary and religious works due to both its living in close proximity to humans and its annual migration.", "The barn swallow is the national bird of Austria and Estonia.", "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.", "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.", "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.", "It also lacks the long tail streamers of the adult.", "Although both sexes sing, female song was only recently described.", "(See below for details about song.", ") Calls include witt or witt-witt and a loud splee-plink when excited .", "The alarm calls include a sharp siflitt for predators like cats and a flitt-flitt for birds of prey like the hobby.", "This species is fairly quiet on the wintering grounds.", "The distinctive combination of a red face and blue breast band renders the adult barn swallow easy to distinguish from the African Hirundo species and from the welcome swallow with which its range overlaps in Australasia.", "In Africa the short tail streamers of the juvenile barn swallow invite confusion with juvenile red-chested swallow , but the latter has a narrower breast band and more white in the tail.", "The barn swallow was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Hirundo rustica, characterised as \" H. rectricibus, exceptis duabus intermediis, macula alba notatis \" .", "Hirundo is the Latin word for \" swallow \"", "rusticus means \" of the country \" .", "This species is the only one of that genus to have a range extending into the Americas, with the majority of Hirundo species being native to Africa.", "This genus of blue-backed swallows is sometimes called the \" barn swallows \" .", "though an earlier instance of the collocation in an English-language context is in Gilbert White's popular book The Natural History of Selborne, originally published in 1789: The swallow, though called the chimney-swallow, by no means builds altogether in chimnies , but often within barns and out-houses against the rafters ...", "In Sweden she builds in barns, and is called ladusvala, the barn-swallow.", " This suggests that the English name may be a calque on the Swedish term.", "There are few taxonomic problems within the genus, but the red-chested swallowa resident of West Africa, the Congo Basin, and Ethiopiawas formerly treated as a subspecies of barn swallow.", "The red-chested swallow is slightly smaller than its migratory relative, has a narrower blue breast-band, and has shorter tail streamers.", "In flight, it looks paler underneath than barn swallow.", "The preferred habitat of the barn swallow is open country with low vegetation, such as pasture, meadows and farmland, preferably with nearby water.", "This swallow avoids heavily wooded or precipitous areas and densely built-up locations.", "The presence of accessible open structures such as barns, stables, or culverts to provide nesting sites, and exposed locations such as wires, roof ridges or bare branches for perching, are also important in the bird's selection of its breeding range.", "Barn swallows are semi-colonial, settling in groups from a single pair to a few dozen pairs, particularly in larger wooden structures housing animals.", "The same individuals often breed at the same site year after year, although settlement choices have been experimentally shown to be predicted by nest availability rather than any characteristics of available mates.", "Because it takes around 2 weeks for a pair to build a nest from mud, hair, and other materials, old nests are highly prized.", "r. rustica juveniles In slow motion This species breeds across the Northern Hemisphere from sea level to , but to in the Caucasus and North America, and it is absent only from deserts and the cold northernmost parts of the continents.", "Over much of its range, it avoids towns, and in Europe is replaced in urban areas by the house martin.", "However, in Honshu, Japan, the barn swallow is a more urban bird, with the red-rumped swallow replacing it as the rural species.", "It is most common in open, low vegetation habitats, such as savanna and ranch land, and in Venezuela, South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago it is described as being particularly attracted to burnt or harvested sugarcane fields and the waste from the cane.", "In the absence of suitable roost sites, they may sometimes roost on wires where they are more exposed to predators.", "Individual birds tend to return to the same wintering locality each year Migration of barn swallows between Britain and South Africa was first established on 23 December 1912 when a bird that had been ringed by James Masefield at a nest in Staffordshire, was found in Natal. As would be expected for a long-distance migrant, this bird has occurred as a vagrant to such distant areas as Hawaii, Bermuda, Greenland, Tristan da Cunha, the Falkland Islands, and even Antarctica.", "Chicks in the nest The barn swallow is similar in its habits to other aerial insectivores, including other swallow species and the unrelated swifts.", "It is not a particularly fast flier, with a speed estimated at about , up to and a wing beat rate of approximately 5, up to 79 times each second.", "The barn swallow typically feeds in open areas above shallow water or the ground often following animals, humans or farm machinery to catch disturbed insects, but it will occasionally pick prey items from the water surface, walls and plants.", "In the breeding areas, large flies make up around 70% of the diet, with aphids also a significant component.", "However, in Europe, the barn swallow consumes fewer aphids than the house or sand martins.", "On the wintering grounds, Hymenoptera, especially flying ants, are important food items.", "Grasshoppers, crickets, dragonflies, beetles and moths are also preyed upon.", "When egg-laying, barn swallows hunt in pairs, but otherwise will form often large flocks.", "The amount of food a clutch will get depends on the size of the clutch, with larger clutches getting more food on average.", "The timing of a clutch also determines the food given", "later broods get food that is smaller in size compared to earlier broods.", "This is because larger insects are too far away from the nest to be profitable in terms of energy expenditure.", "Isotope studies have shown that wintering populations may utilise different feeding habitats, with British breeders feeding mostly over grassland, whereas Swiss birds utilised woodland more.", "Another study showed that a single population breeding in Denmark actually wintered in two separate areas.", "The barn swallow drinks by skimming low over lakes or rivers and scooping up water with its open mouth.", "Swallows gather in communal roosts after breeding, sometimes thousands strong.", "Reed beds are regularly favoured, with the birds swirling en masse before swooping low over the reeds.", "Reed beds are an important source of food prior to and whilst on migration", "although the barn swallow is a diurnal migrant that can feed on the wing whilst it travels low over ground or water, the reed beds enable fat deposits to be established or replenished.", "Males sing to defend small territories and to attract mates.", "Males sing throughout the breeding season, from late April into August in many parts of the range.", "Their song is made up of a \" twitter warble, \" followed by a rising \" P-syllable \" in European H. r. rustica and the North American H. r. erythrogaster.", "In all subspecies, this is followed by a short \" Q-syllable \" and a trilled series of pulses, termed the \" rattle.", "\" The rattle is sometimes followed by a terminal \" -Note \" in some subspecies' populations, and always at the end of H. r. tytleri song.", "Female songs are much shorter than male songs, and are only produced during the early part of the breeding season.", "Females sing spontaneously, though infrequently, and will also countersing in response to each other.", "Four well-grown chicks in a nest H. r. rustica fledgling begging right", "Juvenile bird in Sussex Juveniles waiting for food The male barn swallow returns to the breeding grounds before the females and selects a nest site, which is then advertised to females with a circling flight and song.", "Males with longer tail feathers are generally longer-lived and more disease resistant, females thus gaining an indirect fitness benefit from this form of selection, since longer tail feathers indicate a genetically stronger individual which will produce offspring with enhanced vitality.", "Males in northern Europe have longer tails than those further south", "whereas in Spain the male's tail streamers are only 5% longer than the female's, in Finland the difference is 20%.", "In Denmark, the average male tail length increased by 9% between 1984 and 2004, but it is possible that climatic changes may lead in the future to shorter tails if summers become hot and dry.", "The breeding season of the barn swallow is variable", "in the southern part of the range, the breeding season usually is from February or March to early to mid September, although some late second and third broods finish in October.", "In the northern part of the range, it usually starts late May to early June and ends the same time as the breeding season of the southernmost birds.", "Both sexes defend the nest, but the male is particularly aggressive and territorial. Males guard females actively to avoid being cuckolded.", "Males may use deceptive alarm calls to disrupt extrapair copulation attempts toward their mates.", "As its name implies, the barn swallow typically nests inside accessible buildings such as barns and stables, or under bridges and wharves.", "The nest building ability of the male is also sexually selected", "females will lay more eggs and at an earlier date with males who are better at nest construction, with the opposite being true with males that are not.", "After building the nest, barn swallows may nest colonially where sufficient high-quality nest sites are available, and within a colony, each pair defends a territory around the nest which, for the European subspecies, is in size.", "Colony size tends to be larger in North America.", "In North America at least, barn swallows frequently engage in a mutualist relationship with ospreys.", "Barn swallows will build their nest below an osprey nest, receiving protection from other birds of prey that are repelled by the exclusively fish-eating ospreys.", "The ospreys are alerted to the presence of these predators by the alarm calls of the swallows.", "There are normally two broods, with the original nest being reused for the second brood and being repaired and reused in subsequent years.", "The female lays two to seven, but typically four or five, reddish-spotted white eggs.", "The clutch size is influenced by latitude, with clutch sizes of northern populations being higher on average than southern populations.", "The eggs are in size, and weigh , of which 5% is shell.", "In Europe, the female does almost all the incubation, but in North America the male may incubate up to 25% of the time.", "The incubation period is normally 1419 days, with another 1823 days before the altricial chicks fledge.", "The fledged young stay with, and are fed by, the parents for about a week after leaving the nest.", "Occasionally, first-year birds from the first brood will assist in feeding the second brood.", "Compared to those from early broods, juvenile barn swallows from late broods have been found to migrate at a younger age, fuel less efficiently during migration and have lower return rates the following year.", "The barn swallow will mob intruders such as cats or accipiters that venture too close to their nest, often flying very close to the threat.", "Adult barn swallows have few predators, but some are taken by accipiters, falcons, and owls.", "Brood parasitism by cowbirds in North America or cuckoos in Eurasia is rare.", "Hatching success is 90% and the fledging survival rate is 7090%.", "Average mortality is 7080% in the first year and 4070% for the adult.", "Although the record age is more than 11 years, most survive less than four years.", "Barn swallow nestlings have prominent red gapes, a feature shown to induce feeding by parent birds.", "An experiment in manipulating brood size and immune system showed the vividness of the gape was positively correlated with T-cellmediated immunocompetence, and that larger brood size and injection with an antigen led to a less vivid gape.", "The barn swallow has been recorded as hybridising with the cliff swallow and the cave swallow (P.", "fulva) in North America, and the house martin in Eurasia, the cross with the latter being one of the most common passerine hybrids.", "Feeding trace of Brueelia lice on a tail feather Barn swallows 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.", "In Texas, the swallow bug , which is common on species such as the cliff swallow, is also known to infest barn swallows.", "Predatory bats such as the greater false vampire bat are known to prey on barn swallows.", "Swallows at their communal roosts attract predators and several falcon species make use of these opportunities.", "Falcon species confirmed as predators include the peregrine falcon and the African hobby.", "The barn swallow has an enormous range, with an estimated global extent of about and a population of 190 million individuals.", "The species is evaluated as least concern on the 2019 IUCN Red List, This is a species that has greatly benefited historically from forest clearance, which has created the open habitats it prefers, and from human habitation, which have given it an abundance of safe man-made nest sites.", "There have been local declines due to the use of DDT in Israel in the 1950s, competition for nest sites with house sparrows in the US in the 19th century, and an ongoing gradual decline in numbers in parts of Europe and Asia due to agricultural intensification, reducing the availability of insect food.", "However, there has been an increase in the population in North America during the 20th century with the greater availability of nesting sites and subsequent range expansion, including the colonisation of northern Alberta.", "However, following detailed evaluation, advanced radar technology will be installed to enable planes using the airport to be warned of bird movements and, if necessary, take appropriate measures to avoid the flocks.", "Climate change may affect the barn swallow", "drought causes weight loss and slow feather regrowth, and the expansion of the Sahara will make it a more formidable obstacle for migrating European birds.", "Hot dry summers will reduce the availability of insect food for chicks.", "Conversely, warmer springs may lengthen the breeding season and result in more chicks, and the opportunity to use nest sites outside buildings in the north of the range might also lead to more offspring.", "In Nederlandsche Vogelen The barn swallow is an attractive bird that feeds on flying insects and has therefore been tolerated by humans when it shares their buildings for nesting.", "As one of the earlier migrants, this conspicuous species is also seen as an early sign of summer's approach.", "Many cattle farmers believed that swallows spread Salmonella infections", "however, a study in Sweden showed no evidence of the birds being reservoirs of the bacteria.", "Many literary references are based on the barn swallow's northward migration as a symbol of spring or summer.", "The proverb about the necessity for more than one piece of evidence goes back at least to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: \" For as one swallow or one day does not make a spring, so one day or a short time does not make a fortunate or happy man.", "\" The barn swallow symbolises the coming of spring and thus love in the Pervigilium Veneris, a late Latin poem.", "In his poem \" The Waste Land \" , T. S. Eliot quoted the line \" Quando fiam uti chelidon ?", "\" ( \" When will I be like the swallow, so that I can stop being silent?", "\" ) This refers to the myth of Philomela in which she turns into a nightingale, and her sister Procne into a swallow.", "Gilbert White studied the barn swallow in detail in his pioneering work The Natural History of Selborne, but even this careful observer was uncertain whether it migrated or hibernated in winter.", "In the past, the tolerance for this beneficial insectivore was reinforced by superstitions regarding damage to the barn swallow's nest.", "Such an act might lead to cows giving bloody milk, or no milk at all, or to hens ceasing to lay.", "This may be a factor in the longevity of swallows' nests.", "Survival, with suitable annual refurbishment, for 1015 years is regular, and one nest was reported to have been occupied for 48 years."]}, "Phoenicurus ochruros": {"keywords": ["It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but north-eastern birds migrate to winter in southern and western Europe and Asia, and north Africa.", "On passage it is fairly common on the east and south coasts, and in winter on the coasts of Wales and western and southern England, with a few also at inland sites.", "They also winter on the south and east coasts of Ireland.", "The species originally inhabited stony ground in mountains, particularly cliffs, but since about 1900 has expanded to include similar urban habitats including bombed areas during and after World War II, and large industrial complexes that have the bare areas and cliff-like buildings it favours, in Great Britain, most of the small breeding population nests in such industrial areas.", "It will catch passing insects in flight, and migrants often hunt in coastal tide-wrack for flies or tiny crustaceans.", "The nest is built by the female and is typically placed in a crevice or hole in rock or a wall or on a ledge of a building."], "habitat_section": ["It is a widespread breeder in south and central Europe and Asia and north-west Africa, from Great Britain and Ireland south to Morocco, east to central China.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but north-eastern birds migrate to winter in southern and western Europe and Asia, and north Africa.", "It nests in crevices or holes in buildings.", "In Britain, it is most common as a passage and winter visitor, with only 2050 pairs breeding.", "On passage it is fairly common on the east and south coasts, and in winter on the coasts of Wales and western and southern England, with a few also at inland sites.", "Migrant black redstarts arrive in Britain in October or November and either move on or remain to winter, returning eastward in March or April.", "They also winter on the south and east coasts of Ireland.", "The species originally inhabited stony ground in mountains, particularly cliffs, but since about 1900 has expanded to include similar urban habitats including bombed areas during and after World War II, and large industrial complexes that have the bare areas and cliff-like buildings it favours, in Great Britain, most of the small breeding population nests in such industrial areas.", "It will catch passing insects in flight, and migrants often hunt in coastal tide-wrack for flies or tiny crustaceans.", "Its quick ducks of head and body are robin-like, and its tail is often flicked.", "The male has a rattling song and a tick call.", "Eastern race birds are very rare vagrants in western Europe."], "random_sentences": ["The black redstart is a small passerine bird in the genus Phoenicurus.", "Like its relatives, it was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family , but is now known to be an Old World flycatcher .", "Obsolete common names include Tithys redstart, blackstart and black redtail.", "The first formal description of the black redstart was by the German naturalist Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin in 1774 under the binomial name Mottacilla ochruros.", " The species is now placed in the genus Phoenicurus that was introduced in 1817 by the English naturalist Thomas Forster.", "Both parts of the scientific name are from Ancient Greek and refer to the colour of the tail.", "The genus name Phoenicurus is from phoinix, \" red \" , and -ouros - \" tailed \" , and the specific ochruros is from okhros, \" pale yellow \" and -ouros.", "The black redstart is a member of a temperate Eurasian clade, which also includes the Daurian redstart, Hodgson's redstart, the white-winged redstart and perhaps Przevalski's redstart.", "The ancestors of the present species diverged from about 3 million years ago onwards and spread throughout much of Palearctic from 1.5 mya onward.", "It is not very closely related to the common redstart.", "As these are separated by different behaviour and ecological requirements and have not evolved fertilisation barriers, the two European species can produce apparently fertile and viable hybrids.", "There are a number of subspecies, which differ mainly in the underpart colours of the adult males", "different authorities accept between five and seven subspecies.", "They can be separated into three major groups, according to morphology, biogeography and mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data.", "Basal central and eastern Asian forms which diverged from the ancestral stock as the species slowly spread west .", "Females and juveniles light grey brown.", "Western Asian forms, whose lineage separated from the gibraltariensis group c. 1.50.5 mya.", "European population, which formed as a distinct subspecies probably during the last ice age.", "Females and juveniles dark grey.", "The black redstart is in length and in weight, similar to the common redstart.", "The adult male is overall dark grey to black on the upperparts and with a black breast", "the lower rump and tail are orange-red, with the two central tail feathers dark red-brown.", "The belly and undertail are either blackish-grey (western subspecies", "see Taxonomy and systematics, above) or orange-red ", "the wings are blackish-grey with pale fringes on the secondaries forming a whitish panel or all blackish .", "The female is grey to grey-brown overall except for the orange-red lower rump and tail, greyer than the common redstart", "at any age the grey axillaries and underwing coverts are also distinctive .", "Yearling males are similar to females but blacker", "the whitish wing panel of the western subspecies does not develop until the second year.", "Black redstart, Sector 38 West, Chandigarh, India right", "It is a widespread breeder in south and central Europe and Asia and north-west Africa, from Great Britain and Ireland south to Morocco, east to central China.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but north-eastern birds migrate to winter in southern and western Europe and Asia, and north Africa.", "It nests in crevices or holes in buildings.", "In Britain, it is most common as a passage and winter visitor, with only 2050 pairs breeding.", "On passage it is fairly common on the east and south coasts, and in winter on the coasts of Wales and western and southern England, with a few also at inland sites.", "Migrant black redstarts arrive in Britain in October or November and either move on or remain to winter, returning eastward in March or April.", "They also winter on the south and east coasts of Ireland.", "The species originally inhabited stony ground in mountains, particularly cliffs, but since about 1900 has expanded to include similar urban habitats including bombed areas during and after World War II, and large industrial complexes that have the bare areas and cliff-like buildings it favours", "in Great Britain, most of the small breeding population nests in such industrial areas.", "It will catch passing insects in flight, and migrants often hunt in coastal tide-wrack for flies or tiny crustaceans.", "Its quick ducks of head and body are robin-like, and its tail is often flicked.", "The male has a rattling song and a tick call.", "Eastern race birds are very rare vagrants in western Europe.", "Black redstarts are usually monogamous.", "They start breeding in mid-April.", "The nest is built by the female and is typically placed in a crevice or hole in rock or a wall or on a ledge of a building.", "The nest consists of a loose cup of grass and stems and is lined with hair, wool and feathers.", "The eggs are laid daily.", "The clutch consists of 4 to 6 eggs that are usually white but can also be pale blue.", "On average they measure and weigh .", "Beginning after the final egg is laid, the eggs are incubated by the female for 1317 days.", "The young are cared for and fed by both parents and fledge after 1219 days."]}, "Garrulus glandarius": {"keywords": ["The Eurasian jay is a woodland bird that occurs over a vast region from western Europe and north-west Africa to the Indian subcontinent and further to the eastern seaboard of Asia and down into south-east Asia.", "G. g. glaszneri Troodos Mountains, Cyprus .", "The complex colouring on the upper surface of the wing includes black and white bars and a prominent bright blue patch with fine black bars.", "A member of the widespread jay group, it inhabits mixed woodland, particularly with oaks, and is a habitual acorn hoarder.", "Before humans began planting the trees commercially on a wide scale, Eurasian jays were the main source of movement and propagation for the European oak , each bird having the ability to spread more than a thousand acorns each year.", "Jays have been recorded carrying single acorns as far as 20 km, and are credited with the rapid northward spread of oaks following the last ice age.", "Both sexes build the nest which is usually placed in a fork or on a branch of a tree close to the main trunk at a height of above the ground.", "The nest has a base of twigs in diameter and a lining of thinner twigs, roots, grass, moss and leaves.", "Jay eating a walnut Feeding in both trees and on the ground, it takes a wide range of invertebrates including many pest insects, acorns , beech and other seeds, fruits such as blackberries and rowan berries, young birds and eggs, bats, and small rodents.", "Like most species, the jay's diet changes with the seasons but is noteworthy for its prolific caching of foodespecially oak acorns and beechnutsfor winter and spring."], "habitat_section": ["A member of the widespread jay group, it inhabits mixed woodland, particularly with oaks, and is a habitual acorn hoarder.", "In recent years, the bird has begun to migrate into urban areas, possibly as a result of continued erosion of its woodland habitat.", "Before humans began planting the trees commercially on a wide scale, Eurasian jays were the main source of movement and propagation for the European oak , each bird having the ability to spread more than a thousand acorns each year.", "Eurasian jays will also bury the acorns of other oak species, and have been cited by the National Trust as a major propagator of the largest population of holm oak in Northern Europe, situated in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.", "Jays have been recorded carrying single acorns as far as 20 km, and are credited with the rapid northward spread of oaks following the last ice age."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian jay is a species of passerine bird in the crow family Corvidae.", "It has pinkish brown plumage with a black stripe on each side of a whitish throat, a bright blue panel on the upper wing and a black tail.", "The Eurasian jay is a woodland bird that occurs over a vast region from western Europe and north-west Africa to the Indian subcontinent and further to the eastern seaboard of Asia and down into south-east Asia.", "Across this vast range, several distinct racial forms have evolved which look different from each other, especially when comparing forms at the extremes of its range.", "The bird is called jay, without any epithets, by English speakers in Great Britain and Ireland.", "The Eurasian jay was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Corvus glandarius.", "Linnaeus specified the locality as \" Europa \" but this was restricted to Sweden by Ernst Hartert in 1903.", "The Eurasian jay is now one of three species placed in the genus Garrulus that was established in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson.", "The genus name Garrulus is a Latin word meaning \" chattering \" , \" babbling \" or \" noisy \" .", "The specific epithet glandarius is Latin meaning \" of acorns \" .", "Eight racial groups were recognised by Steve Madge", "Hilary Burn in 1994: The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Birdlife International split the Eurasian jay into three species.", "The subspecies G. g. leucotis becomes the white-face jay and the bispecularis group containing six subspecies becomes the plain-crowned jay .", "g. bispecularis Uttarakhand, India Garrulus glandarius IL Jerusalem.", "g. atricapillus Jerusalem, Israel Cyprus jay .", "Eurasian Jay in a tree The Eurasian jay is a relatively small corvid, similar in size to a western jackdaw with a length of and a wingspan of .", "The nominate race has light rufous brown to a pinkish brown body plumage.", "The whitish throat is bordered on each side by a prominent black moustache stripe.", "The forehead and crown are whitish with black stripes.", "The complex colouring on the upper surface of the wing includes black and white bars and a prominent bright blue patch with fine black bars.", "The tail is mainly black.", "Singing of Eurasian jay, Paris right", "Calls of Eurasian jay, Crimea The most characteristic call is a harsh, rasping screech that is used upon sighting various predators and as a advertising call.", "The jay is well known for its mimicry, often sounding so like a different species that it is difficult to distinguish its true identity unless the bird is seen.", "It will imitate the calls of birds of prey such as the mew of the common buzzard and the cackle of the northern goshawk.", "A member of the widespread jay group, it inhabits mixed woodland, particularly with oaks, and is a habitual acorn hoarder.", "In recent years, the bird has begun to migrate into urban areas, possibly as a result of continued erosion of its woodland habitat.", "Before humans began planting the trees commercially on a wide scale, Eurasian jays were the main source of movement and propagation for the European oak (Q.", "robur), each bird having the ability to spread more than a thousand acorns each year.", "Eurasian jays will also bury the acorns of other oak species, and have been cited by the National Trust as a major propagator of the largest population of holm oak (Q.", "ilex) in Northern Europe, situated in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.", "Jays have been recorded carrying single acorns as far as 20 km, and are credited with the rapid northward spread of oaks following the last ice age.", "Eurasian jays normally first breed when two years of age, although they occasionally breed when only one year.", "Both sexes build the nest which is usually placed in a fork or on a branch of a tree close to the main trunk at a height of above the ground.", "Very occasionally the nest is located on a building.", "The nest has a base of twigs in diameter and a lining of thinner twigs, roots, grass, moss and leaves.", "The eggs are laid daily, normally early in the morning.", "The clutch is 36 eggs which are pale green to pale olive brown and are covered with fine darker speckles.", "They sometimes have brown or black streaks concentrated at the broader end.", "The eggs are and weigh around .", "They are incubated by the female and hatch after 1619 days.", "While the female is on the nest the male brings her food.", "Both parents feed and care for the young which fledge after 1923 days.", "The parents continue to feed the fledgelings until they are 68 weeks of age.", "Only a single brood is raised each year.", "The maximum recorded age is 16 years and 9 months for a bird in Skelton, York, United Kingdom, that was ringed in 1966 and found dead in 1983.", "Juvenile Eurasian jay in South Korea Garrulus glandarius atricapillus MHNT.", "Jay eating a walnut Feeding in both trees and on the ground, it takes a wide range of invertebrates including many pest insects, acorns , beech and other seeds, fruits such as blackberries and rowan berries, young birds and eggs, bats, and small rodents.", "Like most species, the jay's diet changes with the seasons but is noteworthy for its prolific caching of foodespecially oak acorns and beechnutsfor winter and spring.", "While caching occurs throughout the year, it is most intense in the autumn.", "In order to keep its plumage free from parasites, it lies on top of anthills with spread wings and lets its feathers be sprayed with formic acid.", "Similar to other corvids, Eurasian jays have been reported to plan for future needs.", "Male Eurasian jays also take into account the desires of their partner when sharing food with her as a courtship ritual and when protecting food items from stealing conspecifics."]}, "Falco tinnunculus": {"keywords": ["It is widespread in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as occasionally reaching the east coast of North America.", "It has colonized a few oceanic islands, but vagrant individuals are generally rare, in the whole of Micronesia for example, the species was only recorded twice each on Guam and Saipan in the Marianas.", "In the cool-temperate parts of its range, the common kestrel migrates south in winter, otherwise it is sedentary, though juveniles may wander around in search for a good place to settle down as they become mature.", "It is a diurnal animal of the lowlands and prefers open habitat such as fields, heaths, shrubland and marshland.", "It does not require woodland to be present as long as there are alternative perching and nesting sites like rocks or buildings.", "It will thrive in treeless steppe where there are abundant herbaceous plants and shrubs to support a population of prey animals.", "The common kestrel readily adapts to human settlement, as long as sufficient swathes of vegetation are available, and may even be found in wetlands, moorlands and arid savanna.", "It is found from the sea to the lower mountain ranges, reaching elevations up to ASL in the hottest tropical parts of its range but only to about in the subtropical climate of the Himalayan foothills.", " When hunting, the common kestrel characteristically hovers about above the ground, searching for prey, either by flying into the wind or by soaring using ridge lift.", "It can often be found hunting along the sides of roads and motorways.", "On oceanic islands , small birds may make up the bulk of its diet.", "In northern latitudes, the kestrel is found more often to deliver lizards to their nestlings during midday and also with increasing ambient temperature.", "April or May in temperate Eurasia and some time between August and December in the tropics and southern Africa.", "It is a cavity nester, preferring holes in cliffs, trees or buildings, in built-up areas, common kestrels will often nest on buildings, and will reuse the old nests of corvids.", "The diminutive subspecies dacotiae, the sarnicolo of the eastern Canary Islands is peculiar for nesting occasionally in the dried fronds below the top of palm trees, apparently coexisting with small songbirds which also make their home there."], "habitat_section": ["In the cool-temperate parts of its range, the common kestrel migrates south in winter, otherwise it is sedentary, though juveniles may wander around in search for a good place to settle down as they become mature.", "It is a diurnal animal of the lowlands and prefers open habitat such as fields, heaths, shrubland and marshland.", "It does not require woodland to be present as long as there are alternative perching and nesting sites like rocks or buildings.", "It will thrive in treeless steppe where there are abundant herbaceous plants and shrubs to support a population of prey animals.", "The common kestrel readily adapts to human settlement, as long as sufficient swathes of vegetation are available, and may even be found in wetlands, moorlands and arid savanna.", "It is found from the sea to the lower mountain ranges, reaching elevations up to ASL in the hottest tropical parts of its range but only to about in the subtropical climate of the Himalayan foothills.", "Globally, this species is not considered threatened by the IUCN. Its stocks were affected by the indiscriminate use of organochlorines and other pesticides in the mid-20th century, but being something of an r-strategist able to multiply quickly under good conditions it was less affected than other birds of prey.", "The global population has been fluctuating considerably over the years but remains generally stable, it is roughly estimated at 12 million pairs or so, about 20% of which are found in Europe.", "There has been a recent decline in parts of Western Europe such as Ireland.", "Subspecies dacotiae is quite rare, numbering less than 1000 adult birds in 1990, when the ancient western Canarian subspecies canariensis numbered about ten times as many birds."], "random_sentences": ["Falco tinnunculus - Common Kestrel The common kestrel is a bird of prey species belonging to the kestrel group of the falcon family Falconidae.", "It is also known as the European kestrel, Eurasian kestrel, or Old World kestrel.", "In the United Kingdom, where no other kestrel species commonly occurs, it is generally just called \" kestrel \" .", "This species occurs over a large range.", "It is widespread in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as occasionally reaching the east coast of North America.", "It has colonized a few oceanic islands, but vagrant individuals are generally rare", "in the whole of Micronesia for example, the species was only recorded twice each on Guam and Saipan in the Marianas.", "Common kestrels measure from head to tail, with a wingspan of .", "Females are noticeably larger, with the adult male weighing , around on average", "the adult female weighs , around on average.", "They are thus small compared with other birds of prey, but larger than most songbirds.", "Like the other Falco species, they have long wings as well as a distinctive long tail.", "Their plumage is mainly light chestnut brown with blackish spots on the upperside and buff with narrow blackish streaks on the underside", "the remiges are also blackish.", "Unlike most raptors, they display sexual colour dimorphism with the male having fewer black spots and streaks, as well as a blue-grey cap and tail.", "The tail is brown with black bars in females, and has a black tip with a narrow white rim in both sexes.", "All common kestrels have a prominent black malar stripe like their closest relatives.", "The cere, feet, and a narrow ring around the eye are bright yellow", "the toenails, bill and iris are dark.", "Juveniles look like adult females, but the underside streaks are wider", "the yellow of their bare parts is paler.", "Hatchlings are covered in white down feathers, changing to a buff-grey second down coat before they grow their first true plumage.", "In the cool-temperate parts of its range, the common kestrel migrates south in winter", "otherwise it is sedentary, though juveniles may wander around in search for a good place to settle down as they become mature.", "It is a diurnal animal of the lowlands and prefers open habitat such as fields, heaths, shrubland and marshland.", "It does not require woodland to be present as long as there are alternative perching and nesting sites like rocks or buildings.", "It will thrive in treeless steppe where there are abundant herbaceous plants and shrubs to support a population of prey animals.", "The common kestrel readily adapts to human settlement, as long as sufficient swathes of vegetation are available, and may even be found in wetlands, moorlands and arid savanna.", "It is found from the sea to the lower mountain ranges, reaching elevations up to ASL in the hottest tropical parts of its range but only to about in the subtropical climate of the Himalayan foothills.", "Globally, this species is not considered threatened by the IUCN.", "Its stocks were affected by the indiscriminate use of organochlorines and other pesticides in the mid-20th century, but being something of an r-strategist able to multiply quickly under good conditions it was less affected than other birds of prey.", "The global population has been fluctuating considerably over the years but remains generally stable", "it is roughly estimated at 12 million pairs or so, about 20% of which are found in Europe.", "There has been a recent decline in parts of Western Europe such as Ireland.", "Subspecies dacotiae is quite rare, numbering less than 1000 adult birds in 1990, when the ancient western Canarian subspecies canariensis numbered about ten times as many birds.", " When hunting, the common kestrel characteristically hovers about above the ground, searching for prey, either by flying into the wind or by soaring using ridge lift.", "Like most birds of prey, common kestrels have keen eyesight enabling them to spot small prey from a distance.", "Once prey is sighted, the bird makes a short, steep dive toward the target, unlike the peregrine who loves to dive from above.", "It can often be found hunting along the sides of roads and motorways.", "This species is able to see near ultraviolet light, allowing the birds to detect the urine trails around rodent burrows as they shine in an ultraviolet colour in the sunlight.", "Another favourite hunting technique is to perch a bit above the ground cover, surveying the area.", "When the bird spots prey animals moving by, it will pounce on them.", "They also prowl a patch of hunting ground in a ground-hugging flight, ambushing prey as they happen across it.", "European pine vole , a typical common kestrel prey since prehistoric times Common kestrels eat almost exclusively mouse-sized mammals.", "Voles, shrews and true mice supply up to three-quarters or more of the biomass most individuals ingest.", "On oceanic islands , small birds may make up the bulk of its diet.", "Elsewhere, birds are only an important food during a few weeks each summer when inexperienced fledglings abound.", "Other suitably sized vertebrates like bats, swifts, frogs and lizards are eaten only on rare occasions.", "However, kestrels are more likely to prey on lizards in southern latitudes.", "In northern latitudes, the kestrel is found more often to deliver lizards to their nestlings during midday and also with increasing ambient temperature.", "Seasonally, arthropods may be a main prey item.", "Generally, invertebrates like camel spiders and even earthworms, but mainly sizeable insects such as beetles, orthopterans and winged termites will be eaten.", "F. tinnunculus requires the equivalent of 48 voles a day, depending on energy expenditure (time of the year, amount of hovering, etc.", "They have been known to catch several voles in succession and cache some for later consumption.", "An individual nestling consumes on average 4.2 g/h, equivalent to 67.8 g/d .", "The common kestrel starts breeding in spring , i.e. April or May in temperate Eurasia and some time between August and December in the tropics and southern Africa.", "It is a cavity nester, preferring holes in cliffs, trees or buildings", "in built-up areas, common kestrels will often nest on buildings, and will reuse the old nests of corvids.", "The diminutive subspecies dacotiae, the sarnicolo of the eastern Canary Islands is peculiar for nesting occasionally in the dried fronds below the top of palm trees, apparently coexisting with small songbirds which also make their home there.", "In general, common kestrels will usually tolerate conspecifics nesting nearby, and sometimes a few dozen pairs may be found nesting in a loose colony.", "Male F. t. tinnunculus bringing food to nest The clutch is normally 37 eggs", "more eggs may be laid in total but some will be removed during the laying time.", "This lasts about 2 days per egg laid.", "The eggs are abundantly patterned with brown spots, from a wash that tinges the entire surface buffish white to large almost-black blotches.", "Incubation lasts from 4 weeks to one month, both male and female will take shifts incubating the eggs.", "After the eggs have hatched, the parents share brooding and hunting duties.", "Only the female feeds the chicks, by tearing apart prey into manageable chunks.", "The young fledge after 45 weeks.", "The family stays close together for a few weeks, during which time the young learn how to fend for themselves and hunt prey.", "The young become sexually mature the next breeding season.", "Female kestrel chicks with blacker plumage have been found to have bolder personalities, indicating that even in juvenile birds plumage coloration can act as a status signal. Data from Britain shows nesting pairs bringing up about 23 chicks on average, though this includes a considerable rate of total brood failures", "actually, few pairs that do manage to fledge offspring raise less than 3 or 4.", "Compared to their siblings, first-hatched chicks have greater survival and recruitment probability, thought to be due to the first-hatched chicks obtaining a higher body condition when in the nest.", "Population cycles of prey, particularly voles, have a considerable influence on breeding success.", "Most common kestrels die before they reach 2 years of age", "mortality up until the first birthday may be as high as 70%.", "At least females generally breed at one year of age", "possibly, some males take a year longer to maturity as they do in related species.", "The biological lifespan to death from senescence can be 16 years or more, however", "one was recorded to have lived almost 24 years.", "This species is part of a clade that contains the kestrel species with black malar stripes, a feature which apparently was not present in the most ancestral kestrels.", "They seem to have radiated in the Gelasian (Late Pliocene, roughly 2.52 mya, probably starting in tropical East Africa, as indicated by mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data analysis and considerations of biogeography.", "The common kestrel's closest living relative is apparently the nankeen or Australian kestrel (F.", "cenchroides), which probably derived from ancestral common kestrels settling in Australia and adapting to local conditions less than one million years ago, during the Middle Pleistocene.", "rupicolus), previously considered a subspecies, is now treated as a distinct species.", "naumanni), which much resembles a small common kestrel with no black on the upperside except wing and tail tips, is probably not very closely related to the present species, and the American kestrel (F.", "sparverius) is apparently not a true kestrel at all.", "Both species have much grey in their wings in males, which does not occur in the common kestrel or its close living relatives but does in almost all other falcons.", "Wooden common kestrel sculpture The kestrel is sometimes seen, like other birds of prey, as a symbol of the power and vitality of nature.", "In \" Into Battle \" , the war poet Julian Grenfell invokes the superhuman characteristics of the kestrel among several birds, when hoping for prowess in battle: Gerard Manley Hopkins writes on the kestrel in his poem \" The Windhover \" , exalting in their mastery of flight and their majesty in the sky.", "A kestrel is also one of the main characters in The Animals of Farthing Wood.", "Barry Hines novel A Kestrel for a Knave - together with the 1969 film based on it, Ken Loach's Kes - is about a working-class boy in England who befriends a kestrel.", "The Pathan name for the kestrel, Bad Khurak, means \" wind hover \" and in Punjab it is called Larzanak or \" little hoverer \" .", "It was once used as a decoy to capture other birds of prey in Persia and Arabia.", "It was also used to train greyhounds meant for hunting gazelles in parts of Arabia.", "Young greyhounds would be set after jerboa-rats which would also be distracted and forced to make twists and turns by the dives of a kestrel.", "The name \" kestrel \" is derived from the French crecerelle which is diminutive for crecelle, which also referred to a bell used by lepers.", "The word is earlier spelt 'c/kastrel', and is evidenced from the 15th century.", "The kestrel was once used to drive and keep away pigeons.", "Archaic names for the kestrel include windhover and windfucker, due to its habit of beating the wind .", "The species name tinnunculus is Latin for \" kestrel \" from \" tinnulus \" , \" shrill \" ."]}, "Picus viridis": {"keywords": ["The European green woodpecker spends much of its time feeding on ants on the ground and does not often 'drum' on trees like other woodpecker species.", "Juvenile More than 75% of the range of the European green woodpecker is in Europe, where it is absent from some northern and eastern parts and from Ireland, Greenland and the Macaronesian Islands, but otherwise distributed widely.", "A combination of old deciduous trees for nesting, and nearby feeding grounds with plenty of ants, is essential. This is usually found in semi-open landscapes with small woodlands, hedges, scattered old trees, edges of forests and floodplain forests.", "Suitable habitats for foraging include grassland, heaths, plantations, orchards and lawns.", "It may be a few feet above the ground or at the top of a tall tree, oaks, beeches, willows and fruit trees are the preferred nest trees in western and central Europe, and aspens in the north.", "The main food of the European green woodpecker is ants of the genera Lasius and Formica Green woodpeckers will often forage in short grazed or mown permanent grasslands where the availability of ant nests is high.", "Other names, including rain-bird, weather cock and wet bird, suggest its supposed ability to bring on rain."], "habitat_section": ["Juvenile More than 75% of the range of the European green woodpecker is in Europe, where it is absent from some northern and eastern parts and from Ireland, Greenland and the Macaronesian Islands, but otherwise distributed widely.", "Over half of the European population is thought to be in France and Germany, with substantial numbers also in United Kingdom, Sweden, Russia, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria.", "It also occurs in western Asia.", "The European green woodpecker has a large range and an Estimated Global Extent of Occurrence of between 1 million to 10 million square kilometres, and a population in the region of 920,000 to 2.9 million birds.", "Populations appear to be stable, so the species is considered of Least Concern.", "The species is highly sedentary and individuals rarely move more than around 500 m between breeding seasons.", "A combination of old deciduous trees for nesting, and nearby feeding grounds with plenty of ants, is essential. This is usually found in semi-open landscapes with small woodlands, hedges, scattered old trees, edges of forests and floodplain forests.", "Suitable habitats for foraging include grassland, heaths, plantations, orchards and lawns."], "random_sentences": ["European green woodpecker eating The European green woodpecker is a large green woodpecker with a bright red crown and a black moustache.", "Males have a red centre to the moustache stripe which is absent in females.", "It is resident across much of Europe and the western Palearctic but in Spain and Portugal it is replaced by the similar Iberian green woodpecker .", "The European green woodpecker spends much of its time feeding on ants on the ground and does not often 'drum' on trees like other woodpecker species.", "Though its vivid green and red plumage is particularly striking, it is a shy bird, and is more often heard than seen, drawing attention with its loud calls.", "A nest hole is excavated in a tree", "four to six eggs are laid which hatch after 1920 days.", "The European green woodpecker was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name Picus viridis.", "The type locality is Sweden.", "The scientific name is derived from the Latin picus, meaning \" woodpecker \" , and viridis meaning \" green \" .", "It is member of the order Piciformes and the woodpecker family Picidae.", "with subtle and mostly clinal differences between them.", "The Iberian green woodpecker and Levaillant's woodpecker were formerly considered as subspecies of the European green woodpecker.", "They are now treated as separate species based on the results of two molecular phylogenetic studies published in 2011.", "The European green woodpecker measures in length with a wingspan.", "Both sexes are green above and pale yellowish green below, with yellow rump and red crown and nape", "the moustachial stripe has a red centre in the male but is solid black in the female.", "The lores and around the white eye are black in both male and female, except in the Iberian race P. v. subsp. sharpei, in which it is dark grey and males have only a lower black border to the moustache.", "Juveniles are spotty and streaked all over", "the moustache is dark initially, though juvenile males can show some red feathers by early June or usually by July or August.", "Moult takes place between June and November with the first flight feathers being lost around the time the young fledge.", "Juveniles moult quickly after fledging and gain their adult plumage between August and November.", "Although the European green woodpecker is shy and wary, it is usually its loud calls, known as yaffling, which first draw attention.", "It 'drums' rarely , but often gives a noisy kyu-kyu-kyuck while flying.", "The song is a loud series of 1018 'klu' sounds which gets slightly faster towards the end and falls slightly in pitch.", "The flight is undulating, with 34 wingbeats followed by a short glide when the wings are held by the body.", "It can be distinguished from the similar, but smaller, grey-headed woodpecker by its yellowish, not grey, underparts, and the black lores and facial 'mask'.", "In Europe, its green upperparts and yellow rump can lead to confusion with the grey-headed woodpecker or possibly the female golden oriole, though the latter is smaller and more slender with narrower wings and longer tail.", "The closely related, very similar Levaillant's woodpecker occurs only in north-west Africa.", "Juvenile More than 75% of the range of the European green woodpecker is in Europe, where it is absent from some northern and eastern parts and from Ireland, Greenland and the Macaronesian Islands, but otherwise distributed widely.", "Over half of the European population is thought to be in France and Germany, with substantial numbers also in United Kingdom, Sweden, Russia, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria.", "It also occurs in western Asia.", "The European green woodpecker has a large range and an Estimated Global Extent of Occurrence of between 1 million to 10 million square kilometres, and a population in the region of 920,000 to 2.9 million birds.", "Populations appear to be stable, so the species is considered of Least Concern.", "The species is highly sedentary and individuals rarely move more than around 500 m between breeding seasons.", "A combination of old deciduous trees for nesting, and nearby feeding grounds with plenty of ants, is essential. This is usually found in semi-open landscapes with small woodlands, hedges, scattered old trees, edges of forests and floodplain forests.", "Suitable habitats for foraging include grassland, heaths, plantations, orchards and lawns.", "Eggs of Picus viridis MHNT The nesting hole is larger but similar to those of the other woodpeckers.", "It may be a few feet above the ground or at the top of a tall tree", "oaks, beeches, willows and fruit trees are the preferred nest trees in western and central Europe, and aspens in the north.", "and the work is performed mostly by the male over 1530 days.", "Some tree holes are used for breeding for more than 10 years, but not necessarily by the same pair.", "There is a single brood of four to six white eggs, measuring and weighing each, of which 7% is shell.", "After the last egg is laid, they are incubated for 1920 days by both parents taking shifts of between 1.5 and 2.5 hours.", "The chicks are naked and altricial at hatching and fledge after 2124 days.", "The main food of the European green woodpecker is ants of the genera Lasius and Formica Green woodpeckers will often forage in short grazed or mown permanent grasslands where the availability of ant nests is high.", "Dropping opened to show ant remainsA study of a nest in Romania found that 10 species of ant were fed to the chicks.", "During the first 10 days, the young received an average of each, from days 1020, , and from day 20, .", "The seven chicks consumed an estimated 1.5 million ants and pupae before leaving the nest.", "The beak is relatively weak and used for pecking in soft wood only.", "It lacks the barbs of the Dendrocopos woodpeckers and black woodpecker , but is made sticky by secretions from the enlarged salivary glands.", "Heavy, prolonged snow cover makes feeding difficult for the green woodpecker and can result in high mortality, from which it may take 10 years for the population to recover.", "Ant nests can be located under the snow", "one bird was observed to dig 85 cm to reach a nest.", "'Professor Yaffle', the wooden bookend character in the 1974 children's animation series Bagpuss, was based loosely upon the green woodpecker.", "'Yaffle' was among many English folk names for the European green woodpecker relating to its laughing call", "others include laughing Betsey, yaffingale, yappingale and Jack Eikle.", "Other names, including rain-bird, weather cock and wet bird, suggest its supposed ability to bring on rain.", "The species has been the subject of postage stamps from several countries.", "The European green woodpecker is associated with Woodpecker Cider, an image of the bird is used on the merchandise.", "The woodpecker was the totem of the Italic tribe of the Picentes, and features of the coat of arms and flag of the Italian region of the Marches."]}, "Ficedula hypoleuca": {"keywords": ["It is migratory, wintering mainly in tropical Africa.", "European pied flycatcher vocalization They are birds of deciduous woodlands, parks and gardens, with a preference for oak trees.", "The very similar Atlas pied flycatcher, of the mountains of north west Africa was formerly classed as subspecies of the European pied flycatcher.", "More specifically, the nominate subspecies F. h. hypoleuca inhabits the UK, central Europe and Scandinavia, F. h. speculigera inhabits Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, F. h. iberiae inhabits in the Iberian Peninsula, and F. h. tomensis in eastern Europe and Russia.", "This flycatcher typically spends winter in tropical Africa.", "The European pied flycatcher is a terrestrial bird, typically inhabiting open forests, woodlands, and towns.", "In an experiment conducted from 1948 to 1964 in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, two hundred and fifty nest boxes were carefully recorded for their locations and then analyzed for their inhabitance.", "In fact, their name comes from their habit of catching flying insects, but they also catch insects or arthropods from tree trunks, branches, or from the ground.", "It was also found that airborne prey were captured more during the early part of the season than in the later part , the converse trend appeared in prey taken from trees.", "They breed in upland broadleaf woodland.", "They require very high horizontal visibility - a low abundance of shrub and understorey, but with high proportion of moss and grass.", "They also like lichens that grow on trees."], "habitat_section": ["The European pied flycatcher has a very large range and population size, and is thus deemed to be of least concern by the IUCN. This species occupies areas of many different countries in Europe and northern Africa, also being present in the west Asian portion of Russia.", "More specifically, the nominate subspecies F. h. hypoleuca inhabits the UK, central Europe and Scandinavia, F. h. speculigera inhabits Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, F. h. iberiae inhabits in the Iberian Peninsula, and F. h. tomensis in eastern Europe and Russia.", "The species is noted as a vagrant species in places in other countries in Africa and South Asia, such as Sudan and Afghanistan.", "This flycatcher typically spends winter in tropical Africa.", "The European pied flycatcher is a terrestrial bird, typically inhabiting open forests, woodlands, and towns.", "In 2005, the European population was listed to hold 3 to 7 million pairs.", "They breed in upland broadleaf woodland.", "This means that in Britain they are limited due to geography to the North and West.", "They prefer mature oak woodland, but also breed in mature upland ash and birch woods.", "They require very high horizontal visibility - a low abundance of shrub and understorey, but with high proportion of moss and grass.", "Grazing needs to be managed to maintain this open character, but also allow the occasional replacement trees.", "They will sometimes use mature open conifer woodland where natural tree holes occur.", "Generally they prefer trees that have tree holes, i.e.", "dead trees, or dead limbs on healthy trees.", "They also like lichens that grow on trees."], "random_sentences": ["European pied flycatchers, 2010 in Texel, Netherlands The European pied flycatcher is a small passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family.", "One of the four species of Western Palearctic black-and-white flycatchers, it hybridizes to a limited extent with the collared flycatcher.", "It breeds in most of Europe and across the Western Palearctic.", "It is migratory, wintering mainly in tropical Africa.", "It usually builds its nests in holes on oak trees.", "This species practices polygyny, usually bigamy, with the male travelling large distances to acquire a second mate.", "The male will mate with the secondary female and then return to the primary female in order to help with aspects of child rearing, such as feeding.", "The European pied flycatcher is mainly insectivorous, although its diet also includes other arthropods.", "This species commonly feeds on spiders, ants, bees and similar prey.", "The European pied flycatcher has a very large range and population size and so it is of least concern according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature .", "The European pied flycatcher is an Old World flycatcher, part of a family of insectivorous songbirds which typically feed by darting after insects.", "The Latin word ficedula means \" small fig-eating bird \" .", "The term hypoleuca comes from two Greek roots, hupo, \" below \" , and leukos, \" white \" .", "The species was described in Linnaeus's Fauna Svecica , a work that was not binomial and that is therefore unavailable nomenclaturally.", "Later, in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae and the next edition of Fauna Svecica , Linnaeus confounded this flycatcher with the Eurasian blackcap and the whinchat.", "To this point, the European pied flycatcher still lacked a proper valid binominal name.", "The species was finally named as Motacilla hypoleuca by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764.", "However, he described this species anonymously in the appendix of a sales catalogue of the collection of Adriaan Vroeg, popularly known simply as the \" Adumbratiunculae \" among ornithologists.", "The authorship of the Adumbratiunculae would later be attributed to Pallas.", "Given the initial anonymity of the publication and the inferred authorship by external evidence, the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature advocates that Pallas's name should appear enclosed in square brackets in the species' name.", "Thus, the correct form of the scientific name of the European pied plycatcher is Ficedula hypoleuca .", "Ficedula hypoleuca currently has four recognized subspecies: the nominate F. h. hypoleuca , F. h. speculigera , F. h. iberiae , and F. h. tomensis .", "The subspecies F. h. muscipeta is currently considered synonymous with F. h. hypoleuca, but could represent an actual distinct subspecies.", "The name F. h. atricapilla is a junior subjective synonym of F. h. hypoleuca", "and the name F. h. sibirica Khakhlov, 1915 is invalid, the correct form being F. h. tomensis .", "This is a long bird.", "The breeding male is mainly black above and white below, with a large white wing patch, white tail sides and a small forehead patch.", "The Iberian subspecies iberiae has a larger forehead patch and a pale rump.", "Non-breeding males, females and juveniles have the black replaced by a pale brown, and may be very difficult to distinguish from other Ficedula flycatchers, particularly the collared flycatcher, with which this species hybridizes to a limited extent.", "The bill is black, and has the broad but pointed shape typical of aerial insectivores.", "As well as taking insects in flight, this species hunts caterpillars amongst the oak foliage, and will take berries.", "It is therefore a much earlier spring migrant than the more aerial spotted flycatcher, and its loud rhythmic and melodious song is characteristic of oak woods in spring.", "European pied flycatcher vocalization They are birds of deciduous woodlands, parks and gardens, with a preference for oak trees.", "They build an open nest in a tree hole, and will readily adapt to an open-fronted nest box.", "The very similar Atlas pied flycatcher, of the mountains of north west Africa was formerly classed as subspecies of the European pied flycatcher.", "The European pied flycatcher has a very large range and population size, and is thus deemed to be of least concern by the IUCN.", "This species occupies areas of many different countries in Europe and northern Africa, also being present in the west Asian portion of Russia.", "More specifically, the nominate subspecies F. h. hypoleuca inhabits the UK, central Europe and Scandinavia, F. h. speculigera inhabits Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, F. h. iberiae inhabits in the Iberian Peninsula, and F. h. tomensis in eastern Europe and Russia.", "The species is noted as a vagrant species in places in other countries in Africa and South Asia, such as Sudan and Afghanistan.", "This flycatcher typically spends winter in tropical Africa.", "The European pied flycatcher is a terrestrial bird, typically inhabiting open forests, woodlands, and towns.", "In 2005, the European population was listed to hold 3", "The European pied flycatcher predominately practices a mixed mating system of monogamy and polygyny.", "Their mating system has also been described as successive polygyny.", "Gender difference in mating behavior", "The male mating behavior has two key characteristics: desertion of the primary female and polyterritoriality.", "The males travel large distances, an average of , to find his second mate.", "After breeding with the secondary female, the males return to their first mate.", "The males of this species are polyterritorial", "the males will acquire multiple nest sites to attract a female.", "Upon breeding with this first female, the male will procure more nesting sites, typically some distance from the site of the primary female, in order to attract a second female for mating.", "The males that have better success at polygyny are typically larger, older and more experienced at arriving earlier to the mating sites.", "Polygyny threshold model graph The female behaviour has also been studied in depth, especially due to the fact that some females accept polygyny while others are able to maintain monogamous relationships.", "The first female in a polygynous relationship does not suffer much in comparison to females in monogamous situations.", "These primary females gain greater reproductive success because they are able to secure full-time help from the male once he returns from his search for a second mate.", "The second female, however, often suffers from polygyny.", "These females have 60% less offspring than females that are in a monogamous relationship.", "These findings are consistent with the polygyny threshold model, which is depicted at the right.", "Additionally, the secondary female lays a smaller clutch which she is more likely to be able to rear on her own.", "Another behavior that is relatively frequent in European pied flycatchers is the practice of extra-pair copulations .", "Thus, the male practicing EPC will have a group of offspring raised successfully without any parental investment on his part.", "The female may benefit from EPC if the second male is judged to have superior genes to the original male.", "Another benefit that EPC adds is that there is an increase in genetic variability.", "However, females are not typically very welcoming of EPC.", "A female that is being pursued for an EPC will either passively allow the male to copulate with her, or will resist it and risk injury due to the male's aggression.", "In an experiment conducted from 1948 to 1964 in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, two hundred and fifty nest boxes were carefully recorded for their locations and then analyzed for their inhabitance.", "The median breeding dispersal of the European pied flycatcher ranges from about , with the average distance between nest sites being about .", "This distance typically depended on the breeding density in each year.", "The study found little evidence to suggest a difference in breeding dispersal between years or between monogamous and polygynous males.", "As a result, the data for the separate categories could be combined.", "The breeding dispersal over longer distances could result in both mate fidelity as well as mate change, the latter of which occurs either while the previous mate is still alive, or following the death of the mate.", "The breeding dispersal distances of birds that survive more than three breeding seasons were studied, and the results showed that the site fidelity increased with more successive breeding attempts.", "The same long-term study also found that older European pied flycatchers, both male and female, were more likely to move shorter distances between breeding seasons than younger birds were.", "When mates were observed to re-establish their pair bond, they tended to occupy certain areas that were near the nest site established in the previous breeding season.", "In addition, female birds were less likely to return to a former breeding site following the death of, or divorce from, their former partner.", "When a pair divorces, the females have been observed to move greater distances away than the males.", "As a result, females that keep the same mates from year to year end up moving shorter distances for each mating period than those that divorce.", "Divorce has little influence on the likelihood of males moving away from their original nest site.", "The study found that males that keep the same mate do not move significantly smaller distances than males that divorce.", "Since most bird species exhibit monogamous mating behaviors, the polygynous behavior of the European pied flycatcher has sparked much research.", "There are three main hypotheses that seek to explain why females settle polygynously when it lowers their overall fitness and reproductive success compared to a monogamous relationship.", "F. hypoleuca and F. albicollis are speciating from each other, providing evidence for speciation by reinforcement .", "The two species diverged less than two million years ago, which is considered recent on the time scale of evolution.", "Still, hybrids of the two species already suffer from low fertility and metabolic dysfunction.", "It was also believed that sexual selection causes reinforcement and pied flycatcher evolved different colouration in sympatry versus allopatry to prevent hybridization, though some evidence suggests heterospecific competition instead of reinforcement as the underlying mechanism.", "Mating choice tests of the species find that females of both species choose conspecific males in sympatry, but heterospecific males in allopatry .", "The patterns could suggest mimicry, driven by interspecific competition", "however, song divergence has been detected that shows a similar pattern to the mating preferences.", "Male flycatcher returning to nest Studies were also done to examine the amount of contribution the male European pied flycatcher provided in parental care as well as why some females choose to mate with mated males.", "When older and younger monogamous males were compared, there was no difference in feeding rate between each nest.", "When females were studied, scientists found that monogamous and primary females benefited significantly more from the male in terms of parental care than polygynous females did.", "The latter group could only partially compensate for the absence of a male, leading to secondary females and widows raising fewer offspring than the monogamous pairs did.", "In the study, differences in mates and the qualities of the territories were slight and therefore not considered, since they lead to no advantages for females to choose between the territories belonging to monogamous or already-mated males.", "The results of the study suggest that the males can control multiple territories and are thus able to deceive females into accepting polygyny, while the females do not have enough time to discover the marital status of the males.", "In terms of male parental care to clutches, the rate of male incubation feeding was directly related to the physical condition of the males, and negatively correlated with the ambient temperature.", "Polygynously mated females also received far less feeds than monogamously mated females, despite having no difference in the food delivery rates by the male.", "The reduction in delivery rate to the polygynously mated females led to a negative effect on their incubation efficiency, because the females needed to spend more time away from the nest acquiring food.", "This also prolonged the incubation period when compared to monogamous females.", "The male feeding behavior is related to the reproductive value as represented by the nests, as well as to the costs and benefits of incubation feeding.", "The main diet of the European pied flycatcher is insects.", "In fact, their name comes from their habit of catching flying insects, but they also catch insects or arthropods from tree trunks, branches, or from the ground.", "Studies have found that the majority of food catches were made from the ground.", "It was also found that airborne prey were captured more during the early part of the season than in the later part ", "the converse trend appeared in prey taken from trees.", "There are also many overlaps in the foraging techniques with the collared flycatcher, the spotted flycatcher, and the common redstart.", "Courtship feeding, or incubation feeding, occurs when the male feeds the female in the pairing, egglaying stages, and incubation.", "An interpretation of this behavior is that it strengthens the pair bond between mates.", "Eggs off Ficedula speculigera MHNT Pied flycatcher chicks The diet of the European pied flycatcher is composed nearly entirely of insects.", "One study analyzed the stomach contents of birds during the breeding season and found that ants, bees, wasps and beetles made up the main diet.", "Ants made up approximately 25% of the diet.", "Food given to nestlings include spiders, butterflies, moths, flies, mosquitoes, ants, bees, wasps, and beetles.", "For Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera, larvae appear to be consumed more than adult insects", "the opposite is true for other insect orders.", "There is also variation between the proportions of larvae and adult insects between different habitats.", "Nestlings were also found to consume more spiders, butterfly, and moth larvae, while adult flycatchers consume more ants.", "It has on average decreased in population by 25% within the last 25 years.", "It has ceased to breed in several parts of its former range within Britain.", "It is a very rare and irregular breeder in Ireland, with only one or two pairs recorded as breeding in most years.", "Records of its location can be found on that National Biodiversity Network.", "In the Netherlands it have declined by 90% due to nestlings peaks mistiming.", "Female in a nestbox in Finland", "They breed in upland broadleaf woodland.", "This means that in Britain they are limited due to geography to the North and West.", "They prefer mature oak woodland, but also breed in mature upland ash and birch woods.", "They require very high horizontal visibility - a low abundance of shrub and understorey, but with high proportion of moss and grass.", "Grazing needs to be managed to maintain this open character, but also allow the occasional replacement trees.", "They will sometimes use mature open conifer woodland where natural tree holes occur.", "Generally they prefer trees that have tree holes, i.e. dead trees, or dead limbs on healthy trees.", "They also like lichens that grow on trees."]}, "Periparus ater": {"keywords": ["It is a widespread and common resident breeder in forests throughout the temperate to subtropical Palearctic, including North Africa.", "As occasional hybridization has been recorded between the two, mtDNA alone is insufficient to determine whether hybrid gene flow or another trivial cause obfuscates the actual relationships, or whether taxonomic rearrangement is indeed required.", "With the range of these titmice encircling the Himalayas, without further study it cannot even be excluded that they constitute a ring species with gene flow occurring in Nepal but not in Afghanistan as has been shown for other passerines in the same region.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden It is typically a bird of temperate humid conifer forest, but apart from that shows little habitat specificity.", "In Bhutan for example coal tits are fairly common residents above the subtropical zone, at about 3,0003,800 m ASL, and are found in forests dominated by Bhutan fir as well as in those characterized by Himalayan hemlock and rhododendrons.", "It will also visit gardens to feed on a variety of foods put out, particularly sunflower seeds.", "In winter, the red blood cells of coal tits has been shown to contain more mitochondria, which consume oxygen and produce heat.", "A favourite nesting site is a hole in a rotting tree-stump, often low down, and the nest is deep within the hole, holes in the ground, burrows of mice or rabbits, chinks between the stones in walls, old nests of Pica magpies or other large birds, and squirrel dreys are also occupied.", "The materials, moss, hair and grass, are closely felted together, and rabbit fur or feathers added for lining."], "habitat_section": ["Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden It is typically a bird of temperate humid conifer forest, but apart from that shows little habitat specificity.", "In Bhutan for example coal tits are fairly common residents above the subtropical zone, at about 3,0003,800 m ASL, and are found in forests dominated by Bhutan fir as well as in those characterized by Himalayan hemlock and rhododendrons.", "The coal tit is an all-year resident throughout almost all range, making only local movements in response to particularly severe weather, only the Siberian birds have a more regular migration.", "Very rarely, vagrants may cross longer distances, for example the nominate subspecies of continental Europe was recorded in Ireland once in 1960 and once before that, but apparently not since then.", "Coal tits will form small flocks in winter with other tits.", "This species resembles other tits in acrobatic skill and restless activity, though it more frequently pitches on a trunk, and in little hops resembles a treecreeper .", "Its food is similar to that of the others, it is keen on beechmast, picks out the seeds from fir and larch cones, and joins Carduelis redpolls and siskins in alders and birches .", "It will also visit gardens to feed on a variety of foods put out, particularly sunflower seeds.", "Coal tits in the laboratory prefer to forage at a variable feeding site when they are in a negative energy budget.", "They increase evening body mass in response to tawny owl calls.", "After dawn the coal tits increases body mass as soon as possible if food is obtained at a low rate, increasing body mass exponentially until an inflection point when the increase of body mass is slower.", "The inflection point of the body mass trajectory is 16.7% delayed compared to a high food availability.", "Subordinate coal tits are excluded from feeding sites by dominants more often in the early morning than in the rest of the day, and they showed more variability in daily mass gain and body mass at dawn than dominant coal tits.", "In winter, the red blood cells of coal tits has been shown to contain more mitochondria, which consume oxygen and produce heat.", "Being common and widespread, the coal tit is not considered a threatened species by the IUCN. The coal tit has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of bird fleas reported from a single nest, 5,754 fleas."], "random_sentences": ["The coal tit or cole tit, , is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae.", "It is a widespread and common resident breeder in forests throughout the temperate to subtropical Palearctic, including North Africa.", "The black-crested tit is now usually included in this species.", "This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "Linnaeus' primary reference was his earlier Fauna Svecica, whose cumbersome pre-binomial name Parus capite nigro: vertice albo, dorso cinereo, pectore albo became the much simpler yet no less unequivocal Parus ater.", "This name meaning \" dusky-black tit \" was simply adopted from older ornithological textbooks, ultimately going back to Conrad Gessner's 1555 Historia animalium.", "He gave no type locality except \" Europe \" , but his original description refers to the population inhabiting Sweden .", "The current genus name, is Ancient Greek peri plus the pre-existing genus Parus.", "The specific ater is Latin for \" dull black \" .", "The colourful great tit with its bold wing-stripe.", "Before binomial nomenclature, naturalists found the folk taxonomy of this species and the coal tit quite confusing.", "Gessner also notes that the coal tit was known as Kohlmei in German the literal equivalent of its English name, though in its modern orthography Kohlmeise it refers to the great tit .", "That bird was in Gessner's day usually called Spiegelmei , Brandtmei or grosse Mei in German.", "Kolmey was attested for P. major by William Turner, but Turner does not list P. ater at all, while Gessner notes that his hunters always used Kohlmei for the present species.", "However, this has since changed, and the modern German name of P. ater is Tannenmeise , after a typical habitat.", "This name is attested by Johann Leonhard Frisch in the early 18th century already, who furthermore records that P. ater was also called Kleine Kohl-Maise whereas Kohl-Maise referred unequivocally to P. major.", "Frisch collected his data in the Berlin region, where the German dialect was quite different from that spoken by Gessner's Alemannic sources 200 years earlier, and heavily influenced by Middle Low German the language of the northern German sources of Turner.", "Regarding that, Tanne is derived from the Old Saxon danna, and thus had spread through the German dialect continuum from north to south.", "Illustration of Parus ater cypriotes by John Gerrard Keulemans In addition, the same data suggest that this species is paraphyletic in regard to the closely related and parapatric spot-winged tit (P.", "melanolophus) from South Asia, which looks like a slightly crested, darker version of P. ater.", "Consequently, the spot-winged tit might have to be included in P. ater, or some coal tits could be considered a distinct species.", "As occasional hybridization has been recorded between the two, mtDNA alone is insufficient to determine whether hybrid gene flow or another trivial cause obfuscates the actual relationships, or whether taxonomic rearrangement is indeed required.", "With the range of these titmice encircling the Himalayas, without further study it cannot even be excluded that they constitute a ring species with gene flow occurring in Nepal but not in Afghanistan as has been shown for other passerines in the same region.", "Periparus ater filmed in Tokyo, Japan The coal tit is 1011.5 cm in length, and has a distinctive large white nape spot on its black head.", "The head, throat and neck of the adult are glossy blue-black, setting off the off-white sides of the face and the brilliant white nape", "the white tips of the wing coverts appear as two wingbars.", "The underparts are whitish shading through buff to rufous on the flanks.", "The bill is black, the legs lead-coloured, and irides dark brown.", "The young birds are duller than the adults, lacking gloss on the black head, and with the white of nape and cheeks tinged with yellow.", "While searching for food, coal tit flocks keep contact with incessant short dee or see-see calls.", "The species' song if \" song \" it can be called is a strident if-he, if-he, if-he, heard most frequently from January to June, but also in autumn.", "The song resembles that of the great tit, but much faster and higher in pitch.", "One variant of this song ends with a sharp ichi.", "North African birds also have a call similar to that of the crested tit which is not found in Africa.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden It is typically a bird of temperate humid conifer forest, but apart from that shows little habitat specificity.", "In Bhutan for example coal tits are fairly common residents above the subtropical zone, at about 3,0003,800 m ASL, and are found in forests dominated by Bhutan fir as well as in those characterized by Himalayan hemlock and rhododendrons.", "The coal tit is an all-year resident throughout almost all range, making only local movements in response to particularly severe weather", "only the Siberian birds have a more regular migration.", "Very rarely, vagrants may cross longer distances", "for example the nominate subspecies of continental Europe was recorded in Ireland once in 1960 and once before that, but apparently not since then.", "Coal tits will form small flocks in winter with other tits.", "This species resembles other tits in acrobatic skill and restless activity, though it more frequently pitches on a trunk, and in little hops resembles a treecreeper .", "Its food is similar to that of the others", "it is keen on beechmast, picks out the seeds from fir and larch cones, and joins Carduelis redpolls and siskins in alders and birches .", "It will also visit gardens to feed on a variety of foods put out, particularly sunflower seeds.", "Coal tits in the laboratory prefer to forage at a variable feeding site when they are in a negative energy budget.", "They increase evening body mass in response to tawny owl calls.", "After dawn the coal tits increases body mass as soon as possible if food is obtained at a low rate, increasing body mass exponentially until an inflection point when the increase of body mass is slower.", "The inflection point of the body mass trajectory is 16.7% delayed compared to a high food availability.", "Subordinate coal tits are excluded from feeding sites by dominants more often in the early morning than in the rest of the day, and they showed more variability in daily mass gain and body mass at dawn than dominant coal tits.", "In winter, the red blood cells of coal tits has been shown to contain more mitochondria, which consume oxygen and produce heat.", "Being common and widespread, the coal tit is not considered a threatened species by the IUCN.", "The coal tit has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of bird fleas reported from a single nest, 5,754 fleas.", "A favourite nesting site is a hole in a rotting tree-stump, often low down, and the nest is deep within the hole", "holes in the ground, burrows of mice or rabbits, chinks between the stones in walls, old nests of Pica magpies or other large birds, and squirrel dreys are also occupied.", "The materials, moss, hair and grass, are closely felted together, and rabbit fur or feathers added for lining.", "Seven to eleven red-spotted white eggs are laid, usually in May", "this species breeds usually once per year."]}}
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2601128_1113568
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[
"Chamaenerion angustifolium",
"Melanargia galathea"
] |
{"Chamaenerion angustifolium": {"keywords": ["Chamaenerion angustifolium is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the willowherb family Onagraceae.", "It is known in North America as fireweed, in some parts of Canada as great willowherb, in Britain and Ireland as rosebay willowherb.", "It is native throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere, including large parts of the boreal forests.", "The seeds have silky hairs to aid wind dispersal and are very easily spread by the wind, often becoming a weed and a dominant species on disturbed ground.", "The common American name \" fireweed \" derives from the species' abundance as a colonizer on burnt sites after forest fires and other disturbances.", "C. angustifolium dominating the forest floor about one year after the 2019 Swan Lake Fire Porcupine feasting on fireweed in Alaska Fireweed is often abundant in wet calcareous to slightly acidic soils in open fields, pastures, and particularly burned-over lands.", "It is a pioneer species that quickly colonizes open areas with little competition, such as the sites of forest fires and forest clearings.", "Plants grow and flower as long as there is open space and plenty of light.", "Fireweed reaches its average peak colonization after five years and then begins to be replaced as trees and brush grow larger.", "Seeds remain viable in the soil seed bank for many years.", "When a new fire or other disturbance occurs that opens up the ground to light again, the seeds germinate.", "Some areas with heavy seed counts in the soil can, after burning, be covered with pure dense stands of this species and when in flower the landscape is turned into fields of color.", "Fireweed is an effective colonizer, it may not be present until after a fire has moved through a landscape.", "Fireweed is well adapted to seed in severely burned areas as well, because the mineral soil that is exposed due to the removal of organic soil layers provides a good seedbed.", "In Britain the plant was considered a rare species in the 18th century, and one confined to a few locations with damp, gravelly soils.", "When properly prepared soon after picking they are a good source of vitamin C and provitamin A. The Denaina add fireweed to their dogs' food.", "Fireweed is also a medicine of the Upper Inlet Dena'ina, who treat pus-filled boils or cuts by placing a piece of the raw stem on the afflicted area.", "In Russia, fireweed is made into a tea known as Ivan Chai or Koporsky tea .", "The popularity of fireweed tea perhaps stems from the similarity of its production to that of common black tea , leading to a richly flavoured and deeply coloured herbal tea, with no caffeine, it is commercially sold in a blend with mint or thyme.", "Fireweed tea is high in iron, copper, potassium and calcium.", "In the Yukon, the flowers from fireweed are made into jelly.", "The honey produced from fireweed is highly valued for its quality.", "Most fireweed honey is produced in locations in cool climates, such as the Pacific Northwest in the United States and Scandinavian countries in Europe.", "Fireweed's natural variation in ploidy has prompted its use in scientific studies of polyploidy's possible effects on adaptive potential and species diversification.", "Because fireweed can colonize disturbed sites, even following an old oil spill, it is often used to reestablish vegetation.", "It is also grown as an ornamental plant.", "Because of its rapid establishment on disturbed land, fireweed can be used for land management purposes.", "Events such as logging, fires and mass wasting can leave the land barren and without vegetation.", "Fireweed is a useful tool that can be utilized after prescribed fires and logging events because of its fire resistance and ability to recycle the nutrients left in the soil after a fire.", "Reestablishment of vegetation is crucial in the recovery time of disturbed lands.", "In many cases, fireweed establishes itself on these disturbed lands, but implementing the introduction of fireweed to a disturbed area as a management practice could prove useful in speeding up the recovery of disturbed lands.", "Fireweed can quickly establish itself across the landscape and prevent further damage, while providing a blanket of vegetation for recovering fauna to create new habitats in and for pollinators to foster the re-establishment of a diverse set of flora.", "The Flag of Yukon features fireweed.", "Fireweed is the floral emblem of Yukon.", "Because of fireweed's poetic nature, it has found use in poetry and prose since at least the 19th century.", "Rudyard Kipling wrote, \" The fire-weed glows in the centre of the drive ways \" .", "In The Fellowship of the Ring, J. R. R. Tolkien lists fireweed as one of the flowering plants returning to the site of a bonfire inside the Old Forest.", "As the first plant to colonise waste ground, fireweed is often mentioned in postwar British literature.", "The children's novel Fireweed is set during the Blitz and features two runaway teenagers who meet on bomb sites where fireweed is growing profusely.", "Another children's novel, A Reflection of Rachel features a protagonist attempting to restore an old garden that used \" Rose Pink Willow Herb \" as an ornamental plant and mentions its notoriety for growing on abandoned bomb sites.", "Cicely Mary Barker's 1948 book Flower Fairies of the Wayside included an illustration of 'The Rose-Bay Willow-Herb Fairy', with the accompanying verse \" On the breeze my fluff is blown, So my airy seeds are sown.", "\" Rosebay Willowherb was subsequently voted the county flower of London in 2002 following a poll by the wild plant conservation charity Plantlife."], "habitat_section": ["C. angustifolium dominating the forest floor about one year after the 2019 Swan Lake Fire Porcupine feasting on fireweed in Alaska Fireweed is often abundant in wet calcareous to slightly acidic soils in open fields, pastures, and particularly burned-over lands.", "It is a pioneer species that quickly colonizes open areas with little competition, such as the sites of forest fires and forest clearings.", "Plants grow and flower as long as there is open space and plenty of light.", "Fireweed reaches its average peak colonization after five years and then begins to be replaced as trees and brush grow larger.", "Seeds remain viable in the soil seed bank for many years.", "When a new fire or other disturbance occurs that opens up the ground to light again, the seeds germinate.", "Some areas with heavy seed counts in the soil can, after burning, be covered with pure dense stands of this species and when in flower the landscape is turned into fields of color.", "Fireweed is an effective colonizer, it may not be present until after a fire has moved through a landscape.", "Because of its very high dispersal capacity, \" propagule pressure \" from its regional presence will let it quickly colonize a disturbed area.", "Once seedlings are established, the plant quickly reproduces and covers the disturbed area via seeds and rhizomes.", "It is somewhat adapted to fire as well and so can prevent the reintroduction of fire to the landscape.", "Fireweed is well adapted to seed in severely burned areas as well, because the mineral soil that is exposed due to the removal of organic soil layers provides a good seedbed.", "In Britain the plant was considered a rare species in the 18th century, and one confined to a few locations with damp, gravelly soils.", "It was misidentified as great hairy willowherb in contemporary floras.", "The plant's rise from local rarity to widespread abundance seems to have occurred at the same time as the expansion of the railway network and the associated soil disturbance.", "The plant became locally known as bombweed due to its rapid colonization of bomb craters in the Second World War.", "Bears and elk are known to favor the plant as food."], "random_sentences": ["Chamaenerion angustifolium is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the willowherb family Onagraceae.", "It is known in North America as fireweed, in some parts of Canada as great willowherb, in Britain and Ireland as rosebay willowherb.", "In the United Kingdom it is also known as bombweed, as a result of its rapid appearance on city bomb sites during the Blitz of World War II", "the plant is also traditionally known as Saint Anthony's laurel.", "It is also known by the synonyms Chamerion angustifolium and Epilobium angustifolium.", "It is native throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere, including large parts of the boreal forests.", "The reddish stems of this herbaceous perennial are usually simple, erect, smooth, high with scattered alternate leaves.", "The leaves are spirally arranged, entire, narrowly lanceolate, and pinnately veined, the secondary leaf veins anastomosing, joining together to form a continuous marginal vein just inside the leaf margins.", "The inflorescence is a symmetrical terminal raceme that blooms progressively from bottom to top, producing a gracefully tapered shape.", "The flowers are in diameter, slightly asymmetrical, with four magenta to pink petals and four narrower pink sepals behind.", "The protruding style has four stigmas.", "The floral formula is / K4 C4 A4+4 or 4+0 G.", "The upright, reddish-brown linear seed capsule splits from the apex and curls open.", "It bears many minute brown seeds, about 300 to 400 per capsule and 80,000 per plant.", "The seeds have silky hairs to aid wind dispersal and are very easily spread by the wind, often becoming a weed and a dominant species on disturbed ground.", "Once established, the plants also spread extensively by underground roots, an individual plant eventually forming a large patch.", "This species has been placed in the genus Chamaenerion rather than Epilobium based on several morphological distinctions: spiral leaf arrangement", "absence of a hypanthium", "subequal stamens ", "zygomorphic stamens and stigma.", "Under this taxonomic arrangement, Chamaenerion and Epilobium are monophyletic sister genera.", "Two subspecies are recognized as valid:", "The generic name Chamaenerion means 'dwarf-oleander' and the Latin specific epithet angustifolium translates as 'narrow-leaved'.", "It shares this epithet with many other species of plants, including Vaccinium angustifolium.", "The common British name \" rosebay \" , from the passing resemblance of the flowers to roses and the leaves to those of bay, goes back in print to Gerard's Herball of 1597.", "The common American name \" fireweed \" derives from the species' abundance as a colonizer on burnt sites after forest fires and other disturbances.", "C. angustifolium dominating the forest floor about one year after the 2019 Swan Lake Fire Porcupine feasting on fireweed in Alaska Fireweed is often abundant in wet calcareous to slightly acidic soils in open fields, pastures, and particularly burned-over lands.", "It is a pioneer species that quickly colonizes open areas with little competition, such as the sites of forest fires and forest clearings.", "Plants grow and flower as long as there is open space and plenty of light.", "Fireweed reaches its average peak colonization after five years and then begins to be replaced as trees and brush grow larger.", "Seeds remain viable in the soil seed bank for many years.", "When a new fire or other disturbance occurs that opens up the ground to light again, the seeds germinate.", "Some areas with heavy seed counts in the soil can, after burning, be covered with pure dense stands of this species and when in flower the landscape is turned into fields of color.", "Fireweed is an effective colonizer", "it may not be present until after a fire has moved through a landscape.", "Because of its very high dispersal capacity, \" propagule pressure \" from its regional presence will let it quickly colonize a disturbed area.", "Once seedlings are established, the plant quickly reproduces and covers the disturbed area via seeds and rhizomes.", "It is somewhat adapted to fire as well and so can prevent the reintroduction of fire to the landscape.", "Fireweed is well adapted to seed in severely burned areas as well, because the mineral soil that is exposed due to the removal of organic soil layers provides a good seedbed.", "In Britain the plant was considered a rare species in the 18th century, and one confined to a few locations with damp, gravelly soils.", "It was misidentified as great hairy willowherb in contemporary floras.", "The plant's rise from local rarity to widespread abundance seems to have occurred at the same time as the expansion of the railway network and the associated soil disturbance.", "The plant became locally known as bombweed due to its rapid colonization of bomb craters in the Second World War.", "Bears and elk are known to favor the plant as food.", "The flowers are visited by a wide variety of insects .", "Some species in the insect order Lepidoptera frequently use the willowherb as their primary larval host-plant, examples including the elephant hawk moth , bedstraw hawk moth , and the white-lined sphinx moth .", "Leaves used as fermented tea The plant is not considered palatable, but is easy to find.", "The very young shoots and leaves can be cooked and eaten.", "The young flowers are also edible, and the stems of older plants can be split to extract the edible raw pith.", "Additionally, the leaves can be used for tea.", "Traditionally the young shoots are collected in the spring by Native American and Siberian people and mixed with other greens.", "As the plant matures, the leaves become tough and somewhat bitter.", "Native Americans in the American southeast collect the stems in this stage.", "They are peeled and eaten raw.", "When properly prepared soon after picking they are a good source of vitamin C and provitamin A. The Denaina add fireweed to their dogs' food.", "Fireweed is also a medicine of the Upper Inlet Dena'ina, who treat pus-filled boils or cuts by placing a piece of the raw stem on the afflicted area.", "This is said to draw the pus out of the cut or boil and prevents a cut with pus in it from healing over too quickly.", "The root can be roasted after scraping off the outside, but often tastes bitter.", "To mitigate this, the root is collected before the plant flowers and the brown thread in the middle removed.", "The stem centers can also be prepared by splitting the outer stalk, and eaten raw.", "angustifolium) is made into a tea known as Ivan Chai or Koporsky tea .", "They use it as highly prized medicinal herb too.", "The popularity of fireweed tea perhaps stems from the similarity of its production to that of common black tea , leading to a richly flavoured and deeply coloured herbal tea, with no caffeine, it is commercially sold in a blend with mint or thyme.", "Fireweed tea is high in iron, copper, potassium and calcium.", "In the Yukon, the flowers from fireweed are made into jelly.", "The honey produced from fireweed is highly valued for its quality.", "Most fireweed honey is produced in locations in cool climates, such as the Pacific Northwest in the United States and Scandinavian countries in Europe.", "Fireweed's natural variation in ploidy has prompted its use in scientific studies of polyploidy's possible effects on adaptive potential and species diversification.", "Because fireweed can colonize disturbed sites, even following an old oil spill, it is often used to reestablish vegetation.", "It is also grown as an ornamental plant.", "A white form, C. angustifolium 'Album', is listed by the Royal Horticultural Society.", "Because of its rapid establishment on disturbed land, fireweed can be used for land management purposes.", "Events such as logging, fires and mass wasting can leave the land barren and without vegetation.", "This causes the land to be more susceptible to erosion because of the lack of root structure in the soil.", "Fireweed is a useful tool that can be utilized after prescribed fires and logging events because of its fire resistance and ability to recycle the nutrients left in the soil after a fire.", "It is also able to quickly establish a root system for reproduction and through this can prevent mass wasting and erosion events from occurring on burned or logged hillsides.", "Reestablishment of vegetation is crucial in the recovery time of disturbed lands.", "In many cases, fireweed establishes itself on these disturbed lands, but implementing the introduction of fireweed to a disturbed area as a management practice could prove useful in speeding up the recovery of disturbed lands.", "Disturbed and burned over lands are generally unpleasant to look at and pose a risk to habitats and nearby communities because of their susceptibility to mass wasting events.", "Fireweed can quickly establish itself across the landscape and prevent further damage, while providing a blanket of vegetation for recovering fauna to create new habitats in and for pollinators to foster the re-establishment of a diverse set of flora.", "The Flag of Yukon features fireweed.", "Fireweed is the floral emblem of Yukon.", "Because of fireweed's poetic nature, it has found use in poetry and prose since at least the 19th century.", "Rudyard Kipling wrote, \" The fire-weed glows in the centre of the drive ways \" .", "In The Fellowship of the Ring, J. R. R. Tolkien lists fireweed as one of the flowering plants returning to the site of a bonfire inside the Old Forest.", "As the first plant to colonise waste ground, fireweed is often mentioned in postwar British literature.", "The children's novel Fireweed is set during the Blitz and features two runaway teenagers who meet on bomb sites where fireweed is growing profusely.", "Another children's novel, A Reflection of Rachel features a protagonist attempting to restore an old garden that used \" Rose Pink Willow Herb \" as an ornamental plant and mentions its notoriety for growing on abandoned bomb sites.", "Cicely Mary Barker's 1948 book Flower Fairies of the Wayside included an illustration of 'The Rose-Bay Willow-Herb Fairy', with the accompanying verse \" On the breeze my fluff is blown", "So my airy seeds are sown.", "Where the earth is burnt and sad, I will come to make it glad.", "All forlorn and ruined places, All neglected empty spaces, I can coveronly think!", "With a mass of rosy pink.", "\" Rosebay Willowherb was subsequently voted the county flower of London in 2002 following a poll by the wild plant conservation charity Plantlife."]}, "Melanargia galathea": {"keywords": ["It is found in forest clearings and edges, meadows and steppe where it occurs up to above sea level.", "It is found in forest clearings and edges, meadows and steppe where it occurs up to 1,500-1,700 m above sea level.", "They are a common sight in unimproved grasslands across southern Britain, particularly on the South Downs, but also extending slightly further north to places such as the Dunstable Downs.", "On a good site, in warm, sunny weather, thousands can be seen gently fluttering amongst the grass heads."], "habitat_section": ["This species can be found across most of Europe, southern Russia, Asia Minor and Iran.", "There is an isolated population in Japan.", "It is not found in Ireland, North Britain, Scandinavia and Portugal or Spain.", "The late twentieth century saw an expansion of its range in the UK. It is found in forest clearings and edges, meadows and steppe where it occurs up to 1,500-1,700 m above sea level.", "They are a common sight in unimproved grasslands across southern Britain, particularly on the South Downs, but also extending slightly further north to places such as the Dunstable Downs."], "random_sentences": ["Melanargia galathea, the marbled white, is a medium-sized butterfly in the family Nymphalidae.", "Despite its common name and appearance, this butterfly is one of the \" browns \" , of the subfamily Satyrinae.", "This species can be found across most of Europe, southern Russia, Asia Minor and Iran.", "It is found in forest clearings and edges, meadows and steppe where it occurs up to above sea level.", "The caterpillars feed on various grasses.", "This species can be found across most of Europe, southern Russia, Asia Minor and Iran.", "There is an isolated population in Japan.", "It is not found in Ireland, North Britain, Scandinavia and Portugal or Spain.", "The late twentieth century saw an expansion of its range in the UK.", "It is found in forest clearings and edges, meadows and steppe where it occurs up to 1,500-1,700 m above sea level.", "They are a common sight in unimproved grasslands across southern Britain, particularly on the South Downs, but also extending slightly further north to places such as the Dunstable Downs.", "Illustration of egg, larva and pupa Melanargia galathea has a wingspan of .", "In these medium-sized butterflies the upper side of the wings is decorated with white and gray-black or dark brown markings, but it is always gray-black or dark brown checkered in the basal and distal areas.", "The underside is similar to the upper side but the drawings is light gray or light brown.", "On the underside of the hindwings is present a row of gray eye spots.", "The males and the females are quite similar, except that some females may have a yellowish nuance on the underside of the wings.", "In the otherwise black cell of both wing an oval white spot which is not divided by a transverse bar.", "On the hindwing above the ocelli are quite invisible or shine through very faintly from the underside.", "This species is rather similar to the Iberian marbled white that replaces M. galathea in Spain and southern France.", "The caterpillars are about 28 millimeters long.", "They are green or yellow with some lighter and darker narrow longitudinal lines.", "The head is always light brown.", "Satyrinae - Melanargia galathea mating.", "Male underside Melanargia galathea bottom MichaD.", "Female underside Marbled white ab.", "Like other members of its subfamily, the larvae feed on various grasses.", "annua, P. trivalis), Festuca rubra, Bromus erectus, Dactylis, Brachypodium pinnatum, Agrostis capillaris, Elytrigia, Holcus, Dactylis, Triticum and Agropyron species .", "Eggs are laid on the wing, or from brief perches on grass stems, and are just sprinkled among the grass stems.", "Upon hatching, the larvae immediately enter hibernation and only feed the following spring when the fresh growth occurs.", "They are a lime-green colour, with a dark green line running down the middle of their back.", "Pupation takes place at ground level in a loose cocoon.", "Adults can be found from early June to early September.", "On a good site, in warm, sunny weather, thousands can be seen gently fluttering amongst the grass heads.", "The marbled white was called \" Our Half-mourner \" by James Petiver , \" The Marmoris \" by Benjamin Wilkes and \" The Marmoress \" by Moses Harris."]}}
|
|
2784164_1170812
| 726
|
[
"Rumex acetosa"
] |
{"Rumex acetosa": {"keywords": ["Sorrel , also called common sorrel or garden sorrel, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Polygonaceae.", "Sorrel is native to Eurasia and a common plant in grassland habitats.", "It is often cultivated as a leaf vegetable or herb.", "Sorrel is a slender herbaceous perennial plant about high, with roots that run deep into the ground, as well as juicy stems and arrow-shaped leaves.", "R. acetosa occurs in grassland habitats throughout Europe from the northern Mediterranean coast to the north of Scandinavia and in parts of Central Asia.", "It can grow in poor soil.", "In Afghanistan, the leaves are coated in a wet batter and deep fried, then served as an appetizer or if in season during Ramadan, for breaking the fast.", "In Armenia, the leaves are collected in spring, woven into braids, and dried for use during winter.", "Throughout eastern Europe, wild or garden sorrel is used to make sour soups, stewed with vegetables or herbs, meat or eggs."], "habitat_section": ["R. acetosa occurs in grassland habitats throughout Europe from the northern Mediterranean coast to the north of Scandinavia and in parts of Central Asia.", "It occurs as an introduced species in parts of New Zealand, Australia and North America.", "It can grow in poor soil.", "The leaves are eaten by the larvae of several species of Lepidoptera including the blood-vein moth, as well as by non-specialized snails and slugs."], "random_sentences": ["Sorrel , also called common sorrel or garden sorrel, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Polygonaceae.", "Other names for sorrel include spinach dock and narrow-leaved dock .", "Sorrel is native to Eurasia and a common plant in grassland habitats.", "It is often cultivated as a leaf vegetable or herb.", "Sorrel is a slender herbaceous perennial plant about high, with roots that run deep into the ground, as well as juicy stems and arrow-shaped leaves.", "The species is dioecious, with stamens and pistils on different plants.", "R. acetosa occurs in grassland habitats throughout Europe from the northern Mediterranean coast to the north of Scandinavia and in parts of Central Asia.", "It occurs as an introduced species in parts of New Zealand, Australia and North America.", "It can grow in poor soil.", "The leaves are eaten by the larvae of several species of Lepidoptera including the blood-vein moth, as well as by non-specialized snails and slugs.", "Sorrel soup with egg and croutons, part of Polish cuisine Common sorrel has been cultivated for centuries.", "The leaves are edible when young but toughen with age", "they may be pureed in soups and sauces or added to salad.", "In India, the leaves are used in soups or curries made with yellow lentils and peanuts.", "In Afghanistan, the leaves are coated in a wet batter and deep fried, then served as an appetizer or if in season during Ramadan, for breaking the fast.", "In Armenia, the leaves are collected in spring, woven into braids, and dried for use during winter.", "The most common preparation is aveluk soup, where the leaves are rehydrated and rinsed to reduce bitterness, then stewed with onions, potatoes, walnuts, garlic and bulgur wheat or lentils, and sometimes sour plums.", "Throughout eastern Europe, wild or garden sorrel is used to make sour soups, stewed with vegetables or herbs, meat or eggs.", "In rural Greece, it is used with spinach, leeks, and chard in spanakopita.", "In Albania, the leaves are simmered and served cold marinated in olive oil, or as an ingredient for filling byrek pies .", "\" Escalope de saumon a l'oseille \" , invented in 1962 by the Troisgros brothers, is an emblematic dish of the French nouvelle cuisine.", "French cuisine traditionally cooks fish with sorrel because its acidity dissolves thin fish bones.", "In the Caribbean, the roselle flower commonly made into sweet drinks is known as \" sorrel \" , but this plant from Western Africa is actually a form of hibiscus unrelated to the Eurasian sorrel herb."]}}
|
|
2596197_1159872
| 1243
|
[
"Campanula trachelium"
] |
{"Campanula trachelium": {"keywords": ["It is a Eurasian blue wildflower native to Denmark and England and now naturalized in southeast Ireland.", "Campanula trachelium likes humus-rich soil and is found in broad-leaved woodlands, coppices, hedgerows and the margins of forests."], "habitat_section": ["Campanula trachelium likes humus-rich soil and is found in broad-leaved woodlands, coppices, hedgerows and the margins of forests."], "random_sentences": ["Campanula trachelium, the nettle-leaved bellflower, is a species of bellflower.", "It is a Eurasian blue wildflower native to Denmark and England and now naturalized in southeast Ireland.", "It is also found southward through much of Europe into Africa.", "The alternate name throatwort is derived from an old belief that C. trachelium is a cure for sore throat, and the species name trachelium refers to its use as treatment of the throat in folk medicine.", "Other folknames include Our Lady's Bells because the color blue was identified with the Virgin Mary's scarf, veil, or shawl", "Coventry Bells because C. trachelium was especially common in fields around Coventry", "and \" Bats-in-the-Belfry \" or in the singular \" Bat-in-the-Belfry \" , because the stamens inside the flower were like bats hanging in the bell of a church steeple.", "Close-up showing the fine hairs on the leaves and petals of C. trachelium on the GR 5 by the river Doubs Campanula trachelium is a perennial plant with one or more unbranched, often reddish, square-edged stems that are roughly hairy.", "The leaves grow alternately up the stems.", "The lower leaves are long-stalked and ovate with a heart-shaped base.", "The upper leaves have no stalks and are ovate or lanceolate, hairy with toothed margins.", "The inflorescence is a one sided spike with a few slightly nodding flowers.", "Each flower has five sepals which are fused, erect and hairy, and the five violet petals are fused into a bell that is hairy inside.", "There are five stamens and a pistil formed from three fused carpels.", "The fruit is a hairy, nodding capsule.", "Campanula trachelium likes humus-rich soil and is found in broad-leaved woodlands, coppices, hedgerows and the margins of forests."]}}
|
|
2778236_1162605
| 726
|
[
"Eryngium alpinum",
"Pedicularis palustris",
"Chamaenerion fleischeri"
] |
{"Eryngium alpinum": {"keywords": ["Eryngium alpinum, the alpine sea holly, alpine eryngo or queen of the Alps, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the family Apiaceae.", "Eryngium alpinum is a hemicryptophyte, its overwintering buds are situated just below the soil surface and the floral axis more or less erect with a few leaves.", "It grows in subalpine scrub, rocky areas and wet pastures, preferably in limestone, at an altitude of above sea level.", "Flowers of Eryngium alpinum attract honeybees and bumblebees, here with tree bumblebee Eryngium alpinum is cultivated as an ornamental plant for its blue and purple flowerheads.", "It requires dry, well-drained soil and full sun.", "Wild populations of the species are in decline due to overcollection for ornamental use and habitat degradation from recreational activity and grazing."], "habitat_section": ["This plant is native to Austria, Liechtenstein, Croatia, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Slovenia.", "It grows in subalpine scrub, rocky areas and wet pastures, preferably in limestone, at an altitude of above sea level.", "Wild populations of the species are in decline due to overcollection for ornamental use and habitat degradation from recreational activity and grazing.", "Numerous local extinctions of subpopulations have occurred."], "random_sentences": ["Eryngium alpinum, the alpine sea holly, alpine eryngo or queen of the Alps, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the family Apiaceae.", "Eryngium alpinum is a hemicryptophyte, its overwintering buds are situated just below the soil surface and the floral axis more or less erect with a few leaves.", "The roots are deep and robust.", "The stems are solitary and erect, usually with three branches on the apex and with longitudinal purple stripes.", "This plant generally reaches about in height, with a maximum of .", "The basal leaves are oval or heart-shaped, wide and long, with toothed hedges and a long petiole.", "The cauline leaves are sessile and progressively more divided.", "The inflorescences are dense umbels at the top of the main branches.", "They are bright green at the bases and the stiff, bristly bracts are blue.", "They are about 4 cm long and 2 cm diameter and the bracts are up to long.", "The flowers inside are about 2 mm long.", "The peripheral flowers are sterile and the internal flowers are hermaphroditic.", "Both types are actinomorphic and pentamerous, with five petals.", "Flowering occurs in July through September.", "The fruit is a spiny achene about half a centimeter wide.", "This plant is native to Austria, Liechtenstein, Croatia, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Slovenia.", "It grows in subalpine scrub, rocky areas and wet pastures, preferably in limestone, at an altitude of above sea level.", "Flowers of Eryngium alpinum attract honeybees and bumblebees", "here with tree bumblebee Eryngium alpinum is cultivated as an ornamental plant for its blue and purple flowerheads.", "It requires dry, well-drained soil and full sun.", "Wild populations of the species are in decline due to overcollection for ornamental use and habitat degradation from recreational activity and grazing.", "Numerous local extinctions of subpopulations have occurred."]}, "Pedicularis palustris": {"keywords": ["It is native to central and northern Europe and Asia where it grows in wetlands and boggy habitats.", "Marsh lousewort is found in central and northern Europe and Asia.", "In Europe, it occurs in Scandinavia and southwards through most of Europe at altitudes of up to .", "Typical habitat is wetlands, swamps, fens, marshes, wet meadows and ditches."], "habitat_section": ["Marsh lousewort is found in central and northern Europe and Asia.", "In Europe, it occurs in Scandinavia and southwards through most of Europe at altitudes of up to .", "In the British Isles, it mostly occurs in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, western England and East Anglia.", "In Asia, it occurs in Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and northern China.", "Typical habitat is wetlands, swamps, fens, marshes, wet meadows and ditches.", "Marsh lousewort is a semi-parasitic plant, the roots sucking nourishment from adjacent plants.", "The flowers are pollinated by honey bees and bumblebees, these land on the lower lip, which droops under their weight allowing them to thrust their head inside the flower and extract the nectar, getting powdered with pollen at the same time."], "random_sentences": ["Pedicularis palustris, commonly known as marsh lousewort or red rattle, is a plant species in the family Orobanchaceae.", "It is native to central and northern Europe and Asia where it grows in wetlands and boggy habitats.", "The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of least concern.", "The nominate subspecies Pedicularis palustris subsp. palustris, which occurs in the west of the range, is a straggly biennial plant with a much-branched, usually erect stem up to tall.", "The leaves are alternate or opposite, with a short stalk.", "The leaf blades are triangular-lanceolate to linear, with pinnate lobes and toothed margins.", "The inflorescence is a raceme with leaf-like bracts.", "Each bilaterally symmetrical flower has a short stalk and a large, rounded, toothed calyx.", "The flower is reddish-purple and up to long, with five petals fused into a tube, the upper lip being slightly shorter than the lower lip.", "The fruit is a capsule.", "The other subspecies, Pedicularis palustris subsp. karoi, which occurs in the east of the range, is an annual plant and has smaller flowers.", "This species can be distinguished from common lousewort by having two calyx lobes rather than four, and four small teeth at the tip of the upper lip rather than two.", "It is also taller and more erect, and is found in wetter locations.", "Marsh lousewort is found in central and northern Europe and Asia.", "In Europe, it occurs in Scandinavia and southwards through most of Europe at altitudes of up to .", "In the British Isles, it mostly occurs in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, western England and East Anglia.", "In Asia, it occurs in Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and northern China.", "Typical habitat is wetlands, swamps, fens, marshes, wet meadows and ditches.", "Marsh lousewort is a semi-parasitic plant, the roots sucking nourishment from adjacent plants.", "The flowers are pollinated by honey bees and bumblebees", "these land on the lower lip, which droops under their weight allowing them to thrust their head inside the flower and extract the nectar, getting powdered with pollen at the same time."]}, "Chamaenerion fleischeri": {"keywords": ["Chamaenerion fleischeri, formerly Epilobium fleischeri, commonly known as Alpine willowherb, is a herbaceous perennial plant of the family Onagraceae.", "Close-up on a flower of Chamaenerion fleischeri The biological life-form of Chamaenerion fleischeri is scapose hemicryptophyte, as its overwintering buds are situated just below the soil surface and the floral axis is more or less erect with a few leaves.", "This plant is endemic to the Alps, in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Austria.", "It grows in clusters on moraines, in glaciers, among piles of stones and in alluvial deposits.", "It prefers siliceous soils, at an altitude of above sea level."], "habitat_section": ["This plant is endemic to the Alps, in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Austria.", "It grows in clusters on moraines, in glaciers, among piles of stones and in alluvial deposits.", "It prefers siliceous soils, at an altitude of above sea level."], "random_sentences": ["Chamaenerion fleischeri, formerly Epilobium fleischeri, commonly known as Alpine willowherb, is a herbaceous perennial plant of the family Onagraceae.", "Close-up on a flower of Chamaenerion fleischeri The biological life-form of Chamaenerion fleischeri is scapose hemicryptophyte, as its overwintering buds are situated just below the soil surface and the floral axis is more or less erect with a few leaves.", "This plant reaches on average in height.", "The stem is erect and the leaves are usually glabrous and toothed.", "This plant is quite similar to Chamaenerion dodonaei, but that is much taller and has bristly leaves.", "Chamaenerion fleischeri has fragrant flowers with four pointed thin dark purple sepals and four bright pink ovate petals.", "Flowering occurs from late June to August.", "This plant is endemic to the Alps, in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Austria.", "It grows in clusters on moraines, in glaciers, among piles of stones and in alluvial deposits.", "It prefers siliceous soils, at an altitude of above sea level."]}}
|
|
2734777_1143640
| 1243
|
[
"Parnassia palustris"
] |
{"Parnassia palustris": {"keywords": ["Parnassia palustris, the marsh grass of Parnassus, northern grass-of-Parnassus, or just grass-of-Parnassus, and bog star, is a flowering plant in the staff-vine family Celastraceae.", "It was described by the Greek physician Dioscorides, growing up a mountain in 1st century A.D. .", "This perennial plant is not a grass, nor does it look like one, but grows from a short underground stem.", "Parnassia palustris is native to northern temperate parts of Eurasia.", "It is found in wet moorlands and marshes of northern England and Scotland."], "habitat_section": ["Parnassia palustris is native to northern temperate parts of Eurasia.", "It is found in wet moorlands and marshes of northern England and Scotland."], "random_sentences": ["Parnassia palustris, the marsh grass of Parnassus, northern grass-of-Parnassus, or just grass-of-Parnassus, and bog star, is a flowering plant in the staff-vine family Celastraceae.", "It is the county flower of Cumberland in England, and appears on its flag.", "The name comes from ancient Greece: evidently the cattle on Mount Parnassus appreciated the plant", "hence it was an \" honorary grass \" .", "The specific epithet palustris is Latin for \" of the marsh \" and indicates its common habitat.", "It was described by the Greek physician Dioscorides, growing up a mountain in 1st century A.D.", "This perennial plant is not a grass, nor does it look like one, but grows from a short underground stem.", "It has long stemmed heart-shaped leaves, which are 4-12 in long.", "In the centre of the leaf, is the flowering stem.", "The stem holds a solitary white flower, blooming between July and October.", "The flower has 5 stamens around the centre.", "The flower produces a honey-like scent to attract pollinators.", "Parnassia palustris is native to northern temperate parts of Eurasia.", "It is found in wet moorlands and marshes of northern England and Scotland.", "Seen on Mount Ontake, Otaki, Nagano prefecture, Japan It was once used in herbal medicines, to treat disorders of the liver.", "An infusion of the leaves, was also used to treat indigestion.", "When added to wine or water, the leaves are claimed to dissolve kidney stones.", "While finishing his schooling in the School of Mines at Freiberg from June 14, 1791, to February 26, 1792, Alexander von Humboldt published three articles on plants in the Annalen der Botanik.", "These were his first of what the world famous explorer would produce.", "Notably, one was concerning \" On the Motion of the Filaments of the Parnassia Palustris.", "\" von F. A. v. Humboldt.", "\" Beobachtungen uber die Staubfaden der Parnaflia paluftris \" Annalen der Botanick.", "/ Herausgegeben von Dr. Paulus Usteri."]}}
|
|
2645059_1181681
| 726
|
[
"Miramella alpina",
"Euthystira brachyptera"
] |
{"Miramella alpina": {"keywords": ["Miramella alpina, the 'Green Mountain Grasshopper', is a species of 'short-horned grasshoppers' belonging to the family Acrididae subfamily Melanoplinae.", "This common alpine grasshopper is present in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Switzerland.", "''Miramella alpina, mating pair The adult males grow up to long, while the females reach of length.", "They can be encountered from late June through September, mainly in moist mountain meadows, wet clearings and open woods.", "They feed on grasses, lichens, mosses and various herbaceous plants, with a preference for Vaccinium species."], "habitat_section": ["This common alpine grasshopper is present in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Switzerland."], "random_sentences": ["Miramella alpina, the 'Green Mountain Grasshopper', is a species of 'short-horned grasshoppers' belonging to the family Acrididae subfamily Melanoplinae.", "This common alpine grasshopper is present in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Switzerland.", "''Miramella alpina, mating pair The adult males grow up to long, while the females reach of length.", "The basic coloration of the body is bright green in both sexes, with longitudinal black stripes at the sides of pronotum, extended to the abdomen in males.", "The light-brown wings usually are very reduced and unfit to flight .", "Femora of the hind legs are red on the bottom, while tibiae are yellowish in the females and black in males.", "They can be encountered from late June through September, mainly in moist mountain meadows, wet clearings and open woods.", "They feed on grasses, lichens, mosses and various herbaceous plants, with a preference for Vaccinium species."]}, "Euthystira brachyptera": {"keywords": ["It prefers mountain and subalpine meadows with tall grasses, heaths with rough vegetation and woodland clearings.", "It is quite common in calcareous grasslands with Brachypodium pinnatum."], "habitat_section": ["This species is present in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm, and in the Near East.", "It prefers mountain and subalpine meadows with tall grasses, heaths with rough vegetation and woodland clearings.", "It is quite common in calcareous grasslands with Brachypodium pinnatum."], "random_sentences": ["Euthystira brachyptera, the small gold grasshopper, is a species of grasshopper belonging to the family Acrididae.", "Euthystira brachyptera can reach a length of 1326 millimetres .", "The body color is shiny yellow-green.", "The wings of the males reach the center of the abdomen, while the wings of the females are very small and usually purplish.", "This species could be confused with Euchorthippus declivus and Chrysochraon dispar.", "It can be distinguished by means of the sharper top of head and the proportionally smaller eyes.", "Adults can be found from July to September.", "This species is present in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm, and in the Near East.", "It prefers mountain and subalpine meadows with tall grasses, heaths with rough vegetation and woodland clearings.", "It is quite common in calcareous grasslands with Brachypodium pinnatum."]}}
|
|
2606477_1127175
| 1040
|
[
"Cydonia oblonga"
] |
{"Cydonia oblonga": {"keywords": ["The quince tree is also grown as an ornamental plant for its attractive pale pink blossoms and other ornamental qualities.", "Halved quince, with seeds and oxidation visible The tree grows high and wide.", "Quince fruits in tree Quince is native to the Hyrcanian forest region south of the Caspian Sea, although it thrives in a variety of climates and can be grown successfully at latitudes as far north as Scotland.", "It was cultivated from an archaic period around the Mediterranean.", "While quince is a hardy shrub, it may develop fungal diseases in hot weather, resulting in premature leaf fall.", "Quince leaf blight, caused by fungus Diplocarpon mespili, presents a threat in wet summers, causing severe leaf spotting and early defoliation, also affecting fruit to a lesser extent.", "Appearing as red excrescence on various parts of the plant, it may affect quinces grown in vicinity of junipers.", "Quince is a hardy, drought-tolerant shrub which adapts to many soils of low to medium pH. It tolerates both shade and sun, but sunlight is required to produce larger flowers and ensure fruit ripening.", "It is a hardy plant that does not require much maintenance, and tolerates years without pruning or major insect and disease problems.", "Quince is cultivated on all continents in warm-temperate and temperate climates.", "It requires a cooler period of the year, with temperatures under , to flower properly.", "Quince forms thick bushes, which must be pruned and reduced into a single stem to grow fruit-bearing trees for commercial use.", "In warmer climates, it may become soft to the point of being edible, but additional ripening may be required in cooler climates.", "In Europe, quinces are commonly grown in central and southern areas where the summers are sufficiently hot for the fruit to fully ripen.", "They are not grown in large amounts, typically one or two quince trees are grown in a mixed orchard with several apples and other fruit trees.", "In the 18th-century New England colonies, for example, there was always a quince at the lower corner of the vegetable garden, Ann Leighton notes in records of Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Newburyport, Massachusetts.", "For a quince rakija, ripe fruits of sweeter varieties are washed and cleared from rot and seeds, then crushed or minced, mixed with cold or boiling sweetened water and yeast, and left for several weeks to ferment.", "Quince is one of the most popular species for deciduous bonsai specimens, along with related Chinese quince and Japanese quince, native to Eastern Asia."], "habitat_section": ["Quince fruits in tree Quince is native to the Hyrcanian forest region south of the Caspian Sea, although it thrives in a variety of climates and can be grown successfully at latitudes as far north as Scotland.", "It should not be confused with its relatives, the Chinese quince, Pseudocydonia sinensis, or the flowering quinces of genus Chaenomeles, either of which is sometimes used as a culinary substitute."], "random_sentences": ["Cydonia oblonga) is the sole member of the genus Cydonia in the Malinae subtribe of the Rosaceae family.", "It is a deciduous tree that bears hard, aromatic bright golden-yellow pome fruit, similar in appearance to a pear.", "Ripe quince fruits are hard, tart, and astringent.", "They are seldom eaten raw, but are processed into marmalade, jam, paste or alcoholic beverages.", "The quince tree is also grown as an ornamental plant for its attractive pale pink blossoms and other ornamental qualities.", "Halved quince, with seeds and oxidation visible The tree grows high and wide.", "The fruit is long and across.", "The immature fruit is green with dense grey-white fine hair, most of which rubs off before maturity in late autumn when the fruit changes colour to yellow with hard, strongly perfumed flesh.", "The leaves are alternately arranged, simple, long, with an entire margin and densely pubescent with fine white hairs.", "The flowers, produced in spring after the leaves, are white or pink, across, with five petals.", "The seeds contain nitriles, which are common in the seeds of the rose family.", "In the stomach, enzymes or stomach acid or both cause some of the nitriles to be hydrolysed and produce hydrogen cyanide, which is a volatile gas.", "The seeds are only toxic if eaten in large quantities.", "Four other species previously included in the genus Cydonia are now treated in separate genera.", "These are Pseudocydonia sinensis and the three flowering quinces of eastern Asia in the genus Chaenomeles.", "Another unrelated fruit, the bael, is sometimes called the \" Bengal quince \" .", "The modern name originated in the 14th century as a plural of quoyn, via Old French cooin from Latin cotoneum malum / cydonium malum, ultimately from Greek , kydonion melon \" Kydonian apple \" .", "Cydonia is included in the subfamily Amygdaloideae.", "Quince foliage and ripening fruit right", "Quince fruits in tree Quince is native to the Hyrcanian forest region south of the Caspian Sea, although it thrives in a variety of climates and can be grown successfully at latitudes as far north as Scotland.", "It should not be confused with its relatives, the Chinese quince, Pseudocydonia sinensis, or the flowering quinces of genus Chaenomeles, either of which is sometimes used as a culinary substitute.", "The fruit was known to the Akkadians, who called it supurgillu", "\" quinces \" , as well as in Judea of Israel during the Mishnaic era where it was called perishin ( collective plural, or sing.", "quince flourished in the heat of the Mesopotamian plain, where apples did not.", "It was cultivated from an archaic period around the Mediterranean.", "Some ancients called the fruit \" golden apples \" .", "The Greeks associated it with Cydonia on Crete, as the \" Cydonian pome \" , and Theophrastus, in his Enquiry into Plants, noted that quince was one of many fruiting plants that do not come true from seed.", "As a sacred emblem of Aphrodite, a quince figured in a lost poem of Callimachus that survives in a prose epitome: seeing his beloved in the courtyard of the temple of Aphrodite, Acontius plucks a quince from the \" orchard of Aphrodite \" , inscribes its skin and furtively rolls it at the feet of her illiterate nurse, whose curiosity aroused, hands it to the girl to read aloud, and the girl finds herself saying \" I swear by Aphrodite that I will marry Acontius \" .", "A vow thus spoken in the goddess's temenos cannot be broken.", "Pliny the Elder mentions \" numerous varieties \" of quince in his Natural History and describes four.", "The season of ripe quinces is brief: the Roman cookbook De re coquinaria of \" Apicius \" specifies in attempting to keep quinces, to select perfect unbruised fruits and keep stems and leaves intact, submerged in honey and reduced wine.", "Quince is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including brown-tail, Bucculatrix bechsteinella, Bucculatrix pomifoliella, Coleophora cerasivorella, Coleophora malivorella, green pug and winter moth.", "While quince is a hardy shrub, it may develop fungal diseases in hot weather, resulting in premature leaf fall.", "Quince leaf blight, caused by fungus Diplocarpon mespili, presents a threat in wet summers, causing severe leaf spotting and early defoliation, also affecting fruit to a lesser extent.", "It may also affect other Rosaceae plants such as hawthorn and medlar, but is typically less damaging than on quince.", "Cedar-quince rust, caused by Gymnosporangium clavipes, requires two hosts to complete the fungal life cycle, one being a cedar and the other a rosacea.", "Appearing as red excrescence on various parts of the plant, it may affect quinces grown in vicinity of junipers.", "Quince is a hardy, drought-tolerant shrub which adapts to many soils of low to medium pH.", "It tolerates both shade and sun, but sunlight is required to produce larger flowers and ensure fruit ripening.", "It is a hardy plant that does not require much maintenance, and tolerates years without pruning or major insect and disease problems.", "It is favored by landscape architects, such as Frederick Law Olmsted in the early 20th century, for its attractive blossoms.", "Quince is cultivated on all continents in warm-temperate and temperate climates.", "It requires a cooler period of the year, with temperatures under , to flower properly.", "Propagation is done by cuttings or layering", "the former method produces better plants, but they take longer to mature than by the latter.", "Named cultivars are propagated by cuttings or layers grafted on quince rootstock.", "Propagation by seed is not used commercially.", "Quince forms thick bushes, which must be pruned and reduced into a single stem to grow fruit-bearing trees for commercial use.", "The tree is self-pollinated, but it produces better yields when cross-pollinated.", "Fruits are typically left on the tree to ripen fully.", "In warmer climates, it may become soft to the point of being edible, but additional ripening may be required in cooler climates.", "They are harvested in late autumn, before first frosts.", "Quince is also used as rootstock for certain pear cultivars.", "The resultant chimera is called + Pirocydonia danielii.", "In Europe, quinces are commonly grown in central and southern areas where the summers are sufficiently hot for the fruit to fully ripen.", "They are not grown in large amounts", "typically one or two quince trees are grown in a mixed orchard with several apples and other fruit trees.", "In the 18th-century New England colonies, for example, there was always a quince at the lower corner of the vegetable garden, Ann Leighton notes in records of Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Newburyport, Massachusetts.", "Charlemagne directed that quinces be planted in well-stocked orchards.", "Quinces in England are first recorded in about 1275, when Edward I had some planted at the Tower of London.", "In 2020 world production of quinces amounted to 696,861 tonnes, with Turkey and China growing a combined 43% of the world total .", "Quinces are appreciated for their intense aroma, flavour, and tartness.", "However, most varieties of quince are too hard and tart to be eaten raw", "even ripe fruits should be subjected to bletting by frost or decay to be suitable for consumption.", "However, they may be cooked or roasted and used for jams, marmalade, jellies, or pudding.", "Some varieties of quince, such as 'Aromatnaya' and 'Kuganskaya' do not require cooking and can be eaten raw.", "However, most varieties of quince are too hard, astringent and sour to eat raw unless \" bletted \" .", "High in pectin, they are used to make jam, jelly and quince pudding, or they may be peeled, then roasted, baked or stewed", "pectin levels diminish as the fruit ripens.", "Long cooking with sugar turns the flesh of the fruit red by formation of anthocyanins.", "The very strong perfume means they can be added in small quantities to apple pies and jam to enhance the flavor.", "Adding a diced quince to apple sauce will enhance the taste of the apple sauce with the chunks of relatively firm, tart quince.", "The term \" marmalade \" , originally meaning a quince jam, derives from marmelo, the Portuguese word for this fruit.", "Quince cheese Quince cheese is firm, sticky, sweet reddish hard paste made from the quince fruit, and originating from the Iberian peninsula.", "It is known as marmelada across the Portuguese-speaking world and as carne de membrillo or dulce de membrillo across the Spanish-speaking world, where it is used in a variety of recipes, eaten in sandwiches and with cheese, traditionally manchego cheese, or accompanying fresh curds.", "In Chile, boiled quince is popular in desserts such as the murta con membrillo that combines Chilean guava with quince.", "A raw quince is 84% water, 15% carbohydrates, and contains negligible fat and protein .", "In a reference amount, the fruit provides of food energy and a moderate amount of vitamin C , but no other micronutrients of significant quantity.", "In the Balkans and elsewhere, quince eau-de-vie is made.", "For a quince rakija, ripe fruits of sweeter varieties are washed and cleared from rot and seeds, then crushed or minced, mixed with cold or boiling sweetened water and yeast, and left for several weeks to ferment.", "The fermented mash is distilled once, obtaining a 2030 ABV, or twice, producing an approximately 60% ABV liquor.", "The two distillates may be mixed or diluted with distilled water to obtain the final product, containing 4243% ABV.", "Traditionally, it is not aged in wooden casks.", "In the Alsace region of France and the Valais region of Switzerland, liqueur de coing made from quince is used as a digestif.", "In Carolina in 1709, John Lawson allowed that he was \" not a fair judge of the different sorts of Quinces, which they call Brunswick, Portugal and Barbary \" , but he noted \" of this fruit they make a wine or liquor which they call Quince-Drink, and which I approve of beyond any that their country affords, though a great deal of cider and perry is there made, The Quince-Drink most commonly purges.", "Quince is one of the most popular species for deciduous bonsai specimens, along with related Chinese quince and Japanese quince, native to Eastern Asia.", "According to research, quince helps reduce symptoms of early pregnancy such as nauseaand vomiting.", "Traditionally, the fruit has been used to cure digestive disorders", "in fact, it promises to inhibit growth of H. Pylori, a bacteria causing ulcer in the stomach."]}}
|
|
2668471_1211319
| 2053
|
[
"Certhia brachydactyla",
"Corvus corone",
"Cyanistes caeruleus",
"Turdus philomelos",
"Fulica atra",
"Anas platyrhynchos",
"Chloris chloris",
"Passer domesticus",
"Fringilla coelebs",
"Sylvia atricapilla",
"Carduelis carduelis",
"Turdus merula",
"Chroicocephalus ridibundus",
"Columba palumbus",
"Fringilla montifringilla",
"Parus major",
"Erithacus rubecula",
"Phoenicurus ochruros",
"Motacilla alba",
"Periparus ater"
] |
{"Certhia brachydactyla": {"keywords": ["Certhia brachydactyla dorotheae, Cyprus The short-toed treecreeper is a small passerine bird found in woodlands through much of the warmer regions of Europe and into north Africa.", "The short-toed treecreeper tends to prefer deciduous trees and lower altitudes than its relative in these overlap areas.", "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.", "It is a resident in woodlands throughout its range, and nests in tree crevices or behind bark flakes, laying about six eggs.", "The short-toed treecreeper belongs to the northern group, along with the North American brown creeper, C. americana, the common treecreeper, C. familaris, of temperate Eurasia, and Hodgson's treecreeper, C. hodgsoni, from the southern rim of the Himalayas.", "Cork oak is a preferred nesting tree in Spain The short-toed treecreeper breeds in temperate woodlands across Europe from Portugal to Turkey and Greece, and in north west Africa.", "It prefers well-grown trees, especially oak and avoids pure stands of conifers.", "Where it shares its European range with common treecreeper, the latter species tends to be found mainly in coniferous forest and at higher altitudes.", "It has occurred as a vagrant to England, Sweden, Lithuania and the Balearic Islands.", "Eggs of Certhia brachydactyla MHNT Adult foraging on a trunk The short-toed nests in tree crevices or behind bark flakes.", "The nest has an often bulky base of twigs, pine needles, grass or bark, and a lining of finer material such as feathers, wool, moss, lichen or spider web.", "Although normally found on trees, it will occasionally feed on walls or bare ground, or amongst fallen pine needles.", "As a small woodland bird with cryptic plumage and a quiet call, the short-toed treecreeper is easily overlooked as it hops mouse-like up a vertical trunk, progressing in short hops, using its stiff tail and widely splayed feet as support.", "It is solitary in winter, but in cold weather up to twenty or more birds will roost together in a suitable sheltered crevice, or in a star formation under eaves of buildings.", "It is common through much of its range, but is rare in the Caucasus and on the smaller Channel Islands."], "habitat_section": ["Cork oak is a preferred nesting tree in Spain The short-toed treecreeper breeds in temperate woodlands across Europe from Portugal to Turkey and Greece, and in north west Africa.", "It prefers well-grown trees, especially oak and avoids pure stands of conifers.", "Where it shares its European range with common treecreeper, the latter species tends to be found mainly in coniferous forest and at higher altitudes.", "This treecreeper is essentially non-migratory but post-breeding dispersal may lead to vagrancy outside the normal range.", "It has occurred as a vagrant to England, Sweden, Lithuania and the Balearic Islands.", "Three birds on Corsica in 1969 appeared to be of the North African subspecies C. b. mauritanica''.", "This species has an extensive range of between 1 to 10 million square kilometres .", "It has a large population, estimated at between 4.1 to 14 million individuals.", "Population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List .", "For these reasons, the short-toed treecreeper is evaluated as Least Concern.", "It is common through much of its range, but is rare in the Caucasus and on the smaller Channel Islands.", "In the west of its range it is spreading north through Denmark, where it first bred in 1946."], "random_sentences": ["Certhia brachydactyla dorotheae, Cyprus The short-toed treecreeper is a small passerine bird found in woodlands through much of the warmer regions of Europe and into north Africa.", "It has a generally more southerly distribution than the other European treecreeper species, the common treecreeper, with which it is easily confused where they both occur.", "The short-toed treecreeper tends to prefer deciduous trees and lower altitudes than its relative in these overlap areas.", "Although mainly sedentary, vagrants have occurred outside the breeding range.", "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.", "The short-toed treecreeper was first described by Christian Ludwig Brehm in 1820.", "The binomial name is derived from Greek", "kerthios is a small tree-dwelling bird described by Aristotle and others, and brachydactyla comes from brakhus, \" short \" and dactulos \" finger \" , which refers, like the English name, to the fact that this species has shorter toes than the common treecreeper.", "This species is one of a group of very similar treecreeper species, all placed in the single genus Certhia.", "Eight species are currently recognised, in two evolutionary lineages, a Holarctic radiation, and a Sino-Himalayan group south and east of the Himalayas.", "The former group has a more warbling song, always starting or ending with a shrill sreeh.", "The Himalayan species, in contrast, have a faster-paced trill without the sreeh sound.", "The short-toed treecreeper belongs to the northern group, along with the North American brown creeper, C. americana, the common treecreeper, C. familaris, of temperate Eurasia, and Hodgson's treecreeper, C. hodgsoni, from the southern rim of the Himalayas.", "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.", "The sexes are similar, but juveniles have whitish underparts, sometimes with a buff belly.", "The call of this species is a repeated shrill tyt...", "tyt tyt-tyt and the song of the nominate subspecies is an evenly spaced sequence of notes teet-teet-teet-e-roi-tiit.", "There is some geographical variation", "the song of Danish birds is shorter, that of the Cyprus subspecies is very short and simple, and the North African version is lower pitched.", "European birds do not respond to latter two song variants.", "The brown treecreeper has never been recorded in Europe, but would be difficult to separate from the short-toed treecreeper, which it much resembles in appearance.", "Its call is more like the common treecreeper's, but a vagrant brown treecreeper might still not be possible to identify with certainty given the similarities between the three species.", "Cork oak is a preferred nesting tree in Spain The short-toed treecreeper breeds in temperate woodlands across Europe from Portugal to Turkey and Greece, and in north west Africa.", "It prefers well-grown trees, especially oak and avoids pure stands of conifers.", "Where it shares its European range with common treecreeper, the latter species tends to be found mainly in coniferous forest and at higher altitudes.", "This treecreeper is essentially non-migratory but post-breeding dispersal may lead to vagrancy outside the normal range.", "It has occurred as a vagrant to England, Sweden, Lithuania and the Balearic Islands.", "Three birds on Corsica in 1969 appeared to be of the North African subspecies C. b. mauritanica''.", "Eggs of Certhia brachydactyla MHNT Adult foraging on a trunk The short-toed nests in tree crevices or behind bark flakes.", "Old woodpecker nests, crevices in buildings or walls, and artificial nest boxes or flaps are also used.", "The nest has an often bulky base of twigs, pine needles, grass or bark, and a lining of finer material such as feathers, wool, moss, lichen or spider web.", "The eggs are laid between April and mid June (typical clutch 5", "they are white with purple-red blotches, in size.", "The eggs are incubated by the female alone for 13 15 days until the altricial downy chicks hatch", "they are then fed by both parents, but brooded by the female alone, for a further 15 18 days to fledging.", "This species often raises a second brood.", "The male starts constructing a new nest while the female is still feeding the first brood, and when the chicks are 1012 days old, he takes over feeding duties while the female completes the new nest.", "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.", "It may add some seeds to its diet in the colder months.", "As a small woodland bird with cryptic plumage and a quiet call, the short-toed treecreeper is easily overlooked as it hops mouse-like up a vertical trunk, progressing in short hops, using its stiff tail and widely splayed feet as support.", "Nevertheless, it is not wary, and is largely indifferent to the presence of humans.", "It has a distinctive erratic and undulating flight, alternating fluttering butterfly-like wing beats with side-slips and tumbles.", "It is solitary in winter, but in cold weather up to twenty or more birds will roost together in a suitable sheltered crevice, or in a star formation under eaves of buildings.", "This species has an extensive range of between 1", "10 million square kilometres (0.4", "It has a large population, estimated at between 4.1", "Population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List .", "For these reasons, the short-toed treecreeper is evaluated as Least Concern.", "It is common through much of its range, but is rare in the Caucasus and on the smaller Channel Islands.", "In the west of its range it is spreading north through Denmark, where it first bred in 1946."]}, "Corvus corone": {"keywords": ["The carrion crow is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus Corvus which is native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic.", "Juvenile carrion crows can be identified by their brownish plumage and blue eyes, both of which darken to black and brown as the crow grows older.", "It is believed that this distribution might have resulted from the glaciation cycles during the Pleistocene, which caused the parent population to split into isolates which subsequently re-expanded their ranges when the climate warmed causing secondary contact.", "The carrion crow is also found in the mountains and forests of Japan and also in the cities of Japan.", "Scavenging around a dead bird in Paris, France The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks, moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts.", "Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.", "Crows are scavengers by nature, which is why they tend to frequent sites inhabited by humans in order to feed on their household waste.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden The bulky stick nest is usually placed in a tall tree, but cliff ledges, old buildings and pylons may be used as well."], "habitat_section": ["A map of Europe indicating the distribution of the carrion and hooded crows on either side of a contact zone separating the two species The carrion crow and hooded crow , including the former's slightly larger allied form or race C. c. orientalis, are two very closely related species, the geographic distributions of both forms of carrion crow across Europe are illustrated in the accompanying diagram.", "It is believed that this distribution might have resulted from the glaciation cycles during the Pleistocene, which caused the parent population to split into isolates which subsequently re-expanded their ranges when the climate warmed causing secondary contact.", "Poelstra and coworkers sequenced almost the entire genomes of both species in populations at varying distances from the contact zone to find that the two species were genetically identical, both in their DNA and in its expression , except for the lack of expression of a small portion of the genome in the hooded crow, which imparts the lighter plumage colouration on its torso.", "Thus the two species can viably hybridize, and occasionally do so at the contact zone, but the all-black carrion crows on the one side of the contact zone mate almost exclusively with other all-black carrion crows, while the same occurs among the hooded crows on the other side of the contact zone.", "It is therefore clear that it is only the outward appearance of the two species that inhibits hybridization.", "The authors attribute this to assortative mating , the advantage of which is not clear, and it would lead to the rapid appearance of streams of new lineages, and possibly even species, through mutual attraction between mutants.", "Unnikrishnan and Akhila propose, instead, that koinophilia is a more parsimonious explanation for the resistance to hybridization across the contact zone, despite the absence of physiological, anatomical or genetic barriers to such hybridization.", "The carrion crow is also found in the mountains and forests of Japan and also in the cities of Japan.", "Scavenging around a dead bird in Paris, France The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks, moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts.", "The most distinctive feature is the voice.", "The rook has a high-pitched kaaa, but the crow's guttural, slightly vibrant, deeper croaked kraa is distinct from any note of the rook.", "The carrion crow is noisy, perching on a vantage point such as a building or the top of a tree and calling three or four times in quick succession, with a slight pause between each series of croaks.", "During each series of calls, a crow may perform an accompanying gesture, raising its shoulders and bowing its head and neck downwards with each caw.", "The wing-beats are slower, more deliberate than those of the rook.", "Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.", "Like other species of corvid, carrion crows will actively harass predators and competitors that enter their territory or threaten them or their offspring, and will engage in group mobbing behaviour as a method to defend themselves."], "random_sentences": ["The carrion crow is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus Corvus which is native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic.", "The carrion crow was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, and it still bears its original name of Corvus corone.", "The binomial name is derived from the Latin , \" raven \" , and Greek , \" crow \" .", "The hooded crow, formerly regarded as a subspecies, has been split off as a separate species, and there is some discussion whether the eastern carrion crow (C.", "c. orientalis) is distinct enough to warrant specific status", "the two taxa are well separated, and it has been proposed they could have evolved independently in the wetter, maritime regions at the opposite ends of the Eurasian landmass.", "Along with the hooded crow, the carrion crow occupies a similar ecological niche in Eurasia to the American crow (C.", "Adult male carrion crow moulting at the Jardin des Plantes of Paris.", "The plumage of the carrion crow is black with a green or purple sheen, much greener than the gloss of the rook.", "The bill, legs and feet are also black.", "It can be distinguished from the common raven by its size of around in length as compared to an average of for ravens, and from the hooded crow by its black plumage.", "The carrion crow has a wingspan of and weighs .", "There is frequent confusion between the carrion crow and the rook, another black corvid found within its range.", "The beak of the crow is stouter and in consequence looks shorter, and whereas in the adult rook the nostrils are bare, those of the crow are covered at all ages with bristle-like feathers.", "As well as this, the wings of a carrion crow are proportionally shorter and broader than those of the rook when seen in flight.", "Juvenile carrion crows can be identified by their brownish plumage and blue eyes, both of which darken to black and brown as the crow grows older.", "Distribution and genetic relationship to hooded crows", "A map of Europe indicating the distribution of the carrion and hooded crows on either side of a contact zone separating the two species The carrion crow and hooded crow , including the former's slightly larger allied form or race C. c. orientalis, are two very closely related species", "the geographic distributions of both forms of carrion crow across Europe are illustrated in the accompanying diagram.", "It is believed that this distribution might have resulted from the glaciation cycles during the Pleistocene, which caused the parent population to split into isolates which subsequently re-expanded their ranges when the climate warmed causing secondary contact.", "Poelstra and coworkers sequenced almost the entire genomes of both species in populations at varying distances from the contact zone to find that the two species were genetically identical, both in their DNA and in its expression , except for the lack of expression of a small portion of the genome in the hooded crow, which imparts the lighter plumage colouration on its torso.", "Thus the two species can viably hybridize, and occasionally do so at the contact zone, but the all-black carrion crows on the one side of the contact zone mate almost exclusively with other all-black carrion crows, while the same occurs among the hooded crows on the other side of the contact zone.", "It is therefore clear that it is only the outward appearance of the two species that inhibits hybridization.", "The authors attribute this to assortative mating , the advantage of which is not clear, and it would lead to the rapid appearance of streams of new lineages, and possibly even species, through mutual attraction between mutants.", "Unnikrishnan and Akhila propose, instead, that koinophilia is a more parsimonious explanation for the resistance to hybridization across the contact zone, despite the absence of physiological, anatomical or genetic barriers to such hybridization.", "The carrion crow is also found in the mountains and forests of Japan and also in the cities of Japan.", "In Southend-on-Sea, England In flight right", "Scavenging around a dead bird in Paris, France The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks", "moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts.", "The most distinctive feature is the voice.", "The rook has a high-pitched kaaa, but the crow's guttural, slightly vibrant, deeper croaked kraa is distinct from any note of the rook.", "The carrion crow is noisy, perching on a vantage point such as a building or the top of a tree and calling three or four times in quick succession, with a slight pause between each series of croaks.", "During each series of calls, a crow may perform an accompanying gesture, raising its shoulders and bowing its head and neck downwards with each caw.", "The wing-beats are slower, more deliberate than those of the rook.", "Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.", "Like other species of corvid, carrion crows will actively harass predators and competitors that enter their territory or threaten them or their offspring, and will engage in group mobbing behaviour as a method to defend themselves.", "Like all corvids, carrion crows show intelligent behaviour.", "For example, they can discriminate between numerosities up to 30, flexibly switch between rules, and recognise human and crow faces.", "Given the difference in brain architecture in crows compared to primates, these abilities suggest that their intelligence is realised as a product of convergent evolution.", "Though an eater of carrion of all kinds, the carrion crow will eat insects, earthworms, other invertebrates, grain, fruits, seeds, nuts, small mammals, amphibians, fish, scraps and will also steal eggs.", "Crows are scavengers by nature, which is why they tend to frequent sites inhabited by humans in order to feed on their household waste.", "Crows will also harass birds of prey or even foxes for their kills.", "Crows actively hunt and occasionally co-operate with other crows to make kills, and are sometimes seen catching ducklings for food.", "Due to their gregarious lifestyle and defensive abilities, carrion crows have few natural predators.", "However, powerful raptors such as the northern goshawk, peregrine falcon, Eurasian eagle-owl and golden eagle will readily hunt them, and crows can become an important prey item locally.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden The bulky stick nest is usually placed in a tall tree, but cliff ledges, old buildings and pylons may be used as well.", "Nests are also occasionally placed on or near the ground.", "The nest resembles that of the common raven, but is less bulky.", "The 3 to 4 brown-speckled blue or greenish eggs are incubated for 1820 days by the female alone, who is fed by the male.", "The young fledge after 2930 days.", "Chicks in the nest It is not uncommon for an offspring from the previous years to stay around and help rear the new hatchlings.", "Instead of seeking out a mate, it looks for food and assists the parents in feeding the young."]}, "Cyanistes caeruleus": {"keywords": ["Eurasian blue tits, usually resident and non-migratory birds, are widespread and a common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and the western Palearctic in deciduous or mixed woodlands with a high proportion of oak.", "Outside the breeding season, they also eat seeds and other vegetable-based foods.", "The birds are famed for their acrobatic skills, as they can hold on to the outermost branches of trees and shrubs and hang upside down when looking for food.", "The Eurasian blue tit and the related hybrids are considered native species in areas of the European continent with a mainly temperate or Mediterranean climate, and in parts of the Middle East.", "Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Vatican City and Ukraine.", "In Great Britain the Eurasian blue tit can be found in a variety of environments, and is typically found in deciduous woodland, parks, gardens and even in the centre of towns.", "As a rule the bird roosts in ivy or evergreens, but in harsh winters will roost wherever there is a suitable small hole, be it in a tree or nesting box.", "Egg size appears to depend mostly on the size of individual females and secondarily on habitat, with smaller eggs found at higher altitudes.", "Scolding, for example, is used when a ground predator , a low flying predator or a perched owl are noticed.", "In addition, the instinct to strip bark from trees in search of insects has developed into a tendency to peel building materials such as thatch, wallpaper, stucco and window putty.", "Breeding seasons may be affected badly if the weather is cold and wet between May and July, particularly if this coincides with the emergence of the caterpillars on which the nestlings are fed."], "habitat_section": ["Reported range from observations reported to eBird Blue tit displaying aggression during ringing There are currently around 2044 million pairs in Europe.", "The Eurasian blue tit and the related hybrids are considered native species in areas of the European continent with a mainly temperate or Mediterranean climate, and in parts of the Middle East.", "These areas include Ireland, the United Kingdom and most of the European Union and EFTA , plus.", "Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Vatican City and Ukraine.", "In Great Britain the Eurasian blue tit can be found in a variety of environments, and is typically found in deciduous woodland, parks, gardens and even in the centre of towns.", "Eurasian blue and great tits form mixed winter flocks, and the former are perhaps the better gymnasts in the slender twigs.", "A Eurasian blue tit will often ascend a trunk in short jerky hops, reminiscent of a treecreeper.", "As a rule the bird roosts in ivy or evergreens, but in harsh winters will roost wherever there is a suitable small hole, be it in a tree or nesting box.", "They are very agile and can hang from almost anywhere.", "This is a common and popular European garden bird, due to its perky acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or suet.", "It swings beneath the holder, calling \" tee, tee, tee \" or a scolding \" churr \" .", "The Eurasian blue tit is classified as a least concern species on the IUCN Red List , and as a Green Status species, since 1996, by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the United Kingdom."], "random_sentences": ["Eurasian blue tit in Sweden, April 2018 The Eurasian blue tit is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae.", "It is easily recognisable by its blue and yellow plumage and small size.", "Eurasian blue tits, usually resident and non-migratory birds, are widespread and a common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and the western Palearctic in deciduous or mixed woodlands with a high proportion of oak.", "They usually nest in tree holes, although they easily adapt to nest boxes where necessary.", "Their main rival for nests and in the search for food is the larger and more common great tit.", "The Eurasian blue tit prefers insects and spiders for its diet.", "Outside the breeding season, they also eat seeds and other vegetable-based foods.", "The birds are famed for their acrobatic skills, as they can hold on to the outermost branches of trees and shrubs and hang upside down when looking for food.", "The Eurasian blue tit was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Parus caeruleus.", "Parus is the classical Latin for a tit and caeruleus is the Latin for dark blue or cerulean.", "Two centuries earlier, before the introduction of the binomial nomenclature, the same Latin name had been used by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner when he described and illustrated the blue tit in his Historiae animalium of 1555.", "In 2005, analysis of the mtDNA cytochrome b sequences of the Paridae indicated that Cyanistes was an early offshoot from the lineage of other tits, and more accurately regarded as a genus rather than a subgenus of Parus.", "The current genus name, Cyanistes, is from the Ancient Greek , \" dark blue \" .", "The African blue tit was formerly considered conspecific.", "Pleske's tit is a common interspecific hybrid between this species and the azure tit , in western Russia.", "The cap is usually darker than the azure tit, and the tail is paler than the Eurasian blue tit.", "The Eurasian blue tit is usually , long with a wingspan of for both sexes, and weighs about .", "A typical Eurasian blue tit has an azure-blue crown and dark blue line passing through the eye, and encircling the white cheeks to the chin, giving the bird a very distinctive appearance.", "The forehead and a bar on the wing are white.", "The nape, wings and tail are blue and the back is yellowish green.", "The underparts is mostly sulphur-yellow with a dark line down the abdomenthe yellowness is indicative of the number of yellowy-green caterpillars eaten, due to high levels of carotene pigments in the diet.", "The bill is black, the legs bluish grey, and the irides dark brown.", "The sexes are similar and often indistinguishable to human eyes, but under ultraviolet light, males have a brighter blue crown.", "Young blue tits are noticeably more yellow.", "Reported range from observations reported to eBird Blue tit displaying aggression during ringing There are currently around 2044 million pairs in Europe.", "The Eurasian blue tit and the related hybrids are considered native species in areas of the European continent with a mainly temperate or Mediterranean climate, and in parts of the Middle East.", "These areas include Ireland, the United Kingdom and most of the European Union and EFTA , plus: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Vatican City and Ukraine.", "In Great Britain the Eurasian blue tit can be found in a variety of environments, and is typically found in deciduous woodland, parks, gardens and even in the centre of towns.", "Eurasian blue and great tits form mixed winter flocks, and the former are perhaps the better gymnasts in the slender twigs.", "A Eurasian blue tit will often ascend a trunk in short jerky hops, reminiscent of a treecreeper.", "As a rule the bird roosts in ivy or evergreens, but in harsh winters will roost wherever there is a suitable small hole, be it in a tree or nesting box.", "They are very agile and can hang from almost anywhere.", "This is a common and popular European garden bird, due to its perky acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or suet.", "It swings beneath the holder, calling \" tee, tee, tee \" or a scolding \" churr \" .", "Feeding the young at a nest box in England Eggs of Cyanistes caeruleus ultramarinus MHNT right", "Few birds more readily accept the shelter of a nesting box", "the same hole is returned to year after year, and when one pair dies another takes possession.", "It is estimated by the RSPB that there are 3,535,000 breeding pairs in the UK.", "During the incubation period, female blue tits perform all of the incubation, however the male feeds the female during this time.", "During the nestling period both female nest attendance and male feeding rate are higher in the morning, declining throughout the day.", "Eggs are long and wide.", "Egg size appears to depend mostly on the size of individual females and secondarily on habitat, with smaller eggs found at higher altitudes.", "The clutch's total weight can be 1.5 times as heavy as the female bird.", "Juvenile in Pimlico, LondonA study found that the timing of breeding in blue tits is related to the expression of nestling carotenoidbased coloration, which could play a role in offspringparent communication.", "The bird is a close sitter, hissing and biting at an intruding finger.", "In the South West of England such behaviour has earned the Eurasian blue tit the colloquial nickname \" Little Billy Biter \" or \" Billy Biter \" , originating from the UK.", "When protecting its eggs it raises its crest, but this is a sign of excitement rather than anger, for it is also elevated during nuptial display.", "The nesting material is usually moss, wool, hair and feathers, and the eggs are laid in April or May.", "The number in the clutch is often very large, but seven or eight are normal, clutch size varies with latitude and other geographic parameters.", "Some bigger clutches may be laid by two or even more hens in some locations but single hen clutches of 14 have been verified in the UK.", "It is not unusual for a single bird to feed the chicks in the nest at a rate of one feed every 90 seconds during the height of the breeding season.", "In winter they form flocks with other tit species.", "In an analysis carried out using ring-recovery data in Britain, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 38%, while the adult annual survival rate was 53%.", "From these figures the typical lifespan is only three years.", "Within Britain, the maximum recorded age is 10 years and 3 months for a bird that was ringed in Bedfordshire.", "The maximum recorded age overall is 11 years and 7 months for a bird in the Czech Republic.", "Eating peanuts from a garden bird feeder in England right", "Eurasian blue tit eating peanuts from a string, Italy The Eurasian blue tit feeds on many insects, though it is fond of young buds of various trees, especially when insect prey is scarce, and may pull them to bits in the hope of finding insects.", "It is a well-known predator of many Lepidoptera species including the Wood Tiger moth.", "No species, however, destroys more coccids and aphids, the worst foes of many plants.", "It takes leaf miner grubs and green tortrix moths .", "In common with all members of the family, seeds are also eaten.", "Calls of a blue tit Eurasian blue tits use songs and calls throughout the year.", "Songs are mostly used in late winter and spring to defend the territory or to attract mates.", "Calls are used for multiple reasons.", "Communication with other Eurasian blue tits is the most important motivation for the use of calls.", "They inform one another on their location in trees by means of contact-calls.", "They use alarm-calls to warn others about the presence of predators in the neighbourhood.", "Scolding, for example, is used when a ground predator , a low flying predator or a perched owl are noticed.", "Sometimes this is followed by mobbing behaviour in which birds gather together in flocks to counter a predator.", "The alarm-whistle warns other birds about the proximity of a Eurasian sparrowhawk, a northern goshawk, a common buzzard or other flying predators that form a potential danger in the air.", "A series of high-pitched '' notes are given by both partners before and during copulation.", "The begging-call is used by juveniles to beg for food from parents.", "An interesting example of culturally transmitted learning in birds was the phenomenon dating from the 1920s of blue tits teaching one another how to open traditional British milk bottles with foil tops, to get at the cream underneath Such behaviour has been suppressed recently by the gradual change of human dietary habits , and the way of getting them .", "In addition, the instinct to strip bark from trees in search of insects has developed into a tendency to peel building materials such as thatch, wallpaper, stucco and window putty.", "The small size of the Eurasian blue tit makes it vulnerable to prey by larger birds such as jays who catch the vulnerable fledglings when they leave the nest.", "The most important predator is probably the sparrowhawk, closely followed by the domestic cat.", "Nests may be robbed by mammals such as weasels and red squirrels, as well as introduced grey squirrels in the UK.", "The successful breeding of chicks is dependent on sufficient supply of green caterpillars as well as satisfactory weather.", "Breeding seasons may be affected badly if the weather is cold and wet between May and July, particularly if this coincides with the emergence of the caterpillars on which the nestlings are fed.", "A bald blue tit with mite Eurasian blue tits are known to be host to feather mites, and rarely lice and flat flies.", "In Europe, the only feather mite species known to live on the blue tit host is Proctophyllodes stylifer.", "However, this mite seems to be of no concern to the bird as, until now, it is only known to feed on dead feather tissue.", "P. stylifer lives all its developmental stages, i.e. egg, larva, protonymph, tritonymph and adult, within the plumage of the same host.", "The usual sites where P. stylifer is encountered are the remiges and the rectrices of the bird where they can be found tandemly positioned between the barbs of the rachis.", "The Eurasian blue tit is classified as a least concern species on the IUCN Red List , and as a Green Status species, since 1996, by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the United Kingdom.", "The Eurasian blue tit has appeared on many stamps and ornaments.", "Its most recent appearance on a British stamp was the 2010 Birds of Britain series."]}, "Turdus philomelos": {"keywords": ["The song thrush breeds in forests, gardens and parks, and is partially migratory with many birds wintering in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, it has also been introduced into New Zealand and Australia.", "They are less closely related to other European thrush species such as the blackbird which are descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "It has brown upperparts which are warmer in tone than those of the nominate form, an olive-tinged rump and rich yellow background colour to the underparts.", "Juvenile in New Zealand The song thrush breeds in most of Europe , and across Ukraine and Russia almost to Lake Baikal. It reaches to 75N in Norway, but only to about 60N in Siberia.", "Birds from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Russia winter around the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East, but only some of the birds in the milder west of the breeding range leave their breeding areas.", "Such areas include parks, gardens, coniferous and deciduous woodland and hedgerows.", "In New Zealand, where it was introduced on both the main islands, the song thrush quickly established itself and spread to surrounding islands such as the Kermadecs, Chatham and Auckland Islands.", "Juvenile in a forest near Dombaih, Russia The song thrush typically nests in forest with good undergrowth and nearby more open areas, and in western Europe also uses gardens and parks.", "The island subspecies T. p. hebridensis breeds in more open country, including heathland, and in the east of the song thrush's Eurasian range, the nominate subspecies is restricted to the edge of the dense conifer forests.", "In intensively farmed areas where agricultural practices appear to have made cropped land unsuitable, gardens are an important breeding habitat.", "In one English study, only 3.5% of territories were found in farmland, whereas gardens held 71.5% of the territories, despite that habitat making up only 2% of the total area.", "The remaining nests were in woodlands .", "The winter habitat is similar to that used for breeding, except that high ground and other exposed localities are avoided, however, the island subspecies T. p. hebridensis will frequent the seashore in winter.", "It flies in loose flocks which cross the sea on a broad front rather than concentrating at short crossings , and calls frequently to maintain contact.", "Return migration varies between mid-February around the Mediterranean to May in northern Sweden and central Siberia.", "Vagrants have been recorded in Greenland, various Atlantic islands, and West Africa.", "Three eggs in a nest The female song thrush builds a neat cup-shaped nest lined with mud and dry grass in a bush, tree or creeper, or, in the case of the Hebridean subspecies, on the ground.", "Ixodes ticks are also common, and can carry pathogens, including tick-borne encephalitis in forested areas of central and eastern Europe and Russia, and, more widely, Borrelia bacteria.", "Some species of Borrelia cause Lyme disease, and ground-feeding birds like the song thrush may act as a reservoir for the disease.", "Like its relative, the blackbird, the song thrush finds animal prey by sight, has a run-and-stop hunting technique on open ground, and will rummage through leaf-litter seeking potential food items.", "The thrush often uses a favorite stone as an \" anvil \" on which to break the shell of the snail before extracting the soft body and invariably wiping it on the ground before consumption.", "In gardens, the use of poison bait to control slugs and snails may pose a threat.", "In urban areas, some thrushes are killed while using the hard surface of roads to smash snails.", "The song thrush's characteristic song, with melodic phrases repeated twice or more, is described by the nineteenth-century British poet Robert Browning in his poem Home Thoughts, from Abroad."], "habitat_section": ["Juvenile in New Zealand The song thrush breeds in most of Europe , and across Ukraine and Russia almost to Lake Baikal. It reaches to 75N in Norway, but only to about 60N in Siberia.", "Birds from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Russia winter around the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East, but only some of the birds in the milder west of the breeding range leave their breeding areas.", "In Great Britain song thrushes are commonly found where there are trees and bushes.", "Such areas include parks, gardens, coniferous and deciduous woodland and hedgerows.", "Birds of the nominate subspecies were introduced to New Zealand and Australia by acclimatisation societies between 1860 and 1880, apparently for purely sentimental reasons.", "In New Zealand, where it was introduced on both the main islands, the song thrush quickly established itself and spread to surrounding islands such as the Kermadecs, Chatham and Auckland Islands.", "Although it is common and widespread in New Zealand, in Australia only a small population survives around Melbourne.", "In New Zealand, there appears to be a limited detrimental effect on some invertebrates due to predation by introduced bird species, and the song thrush also damages commercial fruit crops in that country.", "As an introduced species it has no legal protection in New Zealand, and can be killed at any time.", "Juvenile in a forest near Dombaih, Russia The song thrush typically nests in forest with good undergrowth and nearby more open areas, and in western Europe also uses gardens and parks.", "It breeds up to the tree-line, reaching in Switzerland.", "The island subspecies T. p. hebridensis breeds in more open country, including heathland, and in the east of the song thrush's Eurasian range, the nominate subspecies is restricted to the edge of the dense conifer forests.", "In intensively farmed areas where agricultural practices appear to have made cropped land unsuitable, gardens are an important breeding habitat.", "In one English study, only 3.5% of territories were found in farmland, whereas gardens held 71.5% of the territories, despite that habitat making up only 2% of the total area.", "The remaining nests were in woodlands .", "The winter habitat is similar to that used for breeding, except that high ground and other exposed localities are avoided, however, the island subspecies T. p. hebridensis will frequent the seashore in winter.", "Breaking the shell of a snail The song thrush is not usually gregarious, although several birds may roost together in winter or be loosely associated in suitable feeding habitats, perhaps with other thrushes such as the blackbird, fieldfare, redwing and dark-throated thrush.", "Unlike the more nomadic fieldfare and redwing, the song thrush tends to return regularly to the same wintering areas.", "This is a monogamous territorial species, and in areas where it is fully migratory, the male re-establishes its breeding territory and starts singing as soon as he returns.", "In the milder areas where some birds stay year round, the resident male remains in his breeding territory, singing intermittently, but the female may establish a separate individual wintering range until pair formation begins in the early spring.", "During migration, the song thrush travels mainly at night with a strong and direct flight action.", "It flies in loose flocks which cross the sea on a broad front rather than concentrating at short crossings , and calls frequently to maintain contact.", "Migration may start as early as late August in the most easterly and northerly parts of the range, but the majority of birds, with shorter distances to cover, head south from September to mid-December.", "However, hard weather may force further movement.", "Return migration varies between mid-February around the Mediterranean to May in northern Sweden and central Siberia.", "Vagrants have been recorded in Greenland, various Atlantic islands, and West Africa.", "In New Zealand The song thrush has an extensive range, estimated at , and a large population, with an estimated 40 to 71 million individuals in Europe alone.", "In the western Palaearctic, there is evidence of population decline, but at a level below the threshold required for global conservation concern and the IUCN Red List categorises this species as of \" Least Concern \" .", "In Great Britain and the Netherlands, there has been a more than 50% decline in population, and the song thrush is included in regional Red Lists.", "The decreases are greatest in farmlands and believed to be due to changes in agricultural practices in recent decades.", "The precise reasons for the decline are not known but may be related to the loss of hedgerows, a move to sowing crops in autumn rather than spring, and possibly the increased use of pesticides.", "These changes may have reduced the availability of food and of nest sites.", "In gardens, the use of poison bait to control slugs and snails may pose a threat.", "In urban areas, some thrushes are killed while using the hard surface of roads to smash snails."], "random_sentences": ["The song thrush is a thrush that breeds across the West Palearctic.", "It has brown upper-parts and black-spotted cream or buff underparts and has three recognised subspecies.", "Its distinctive song, which has repeated musical phrases, has frequently been referred to in poetry.", "The song thrush breeds in forests, gardens and parks, and is partially migratory with many birds wintering in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East", "it has also been introduced into New Zealand and Australia.", "Although it is not threatened globally, there have been serious population declines in parts of Europe, possibly due to changes in farming practices.", "The song thrush builds a neat mud-lined cup nest in a bush or tree and lays four to five dark-spotted blue eggs.", "It is omnivorous and has the habit of using a favourite stone as an \" anvil \" on which to break open the shells of snails.", "Like other perching birds , it is affected by external and internal parasites and is vulnerable to predation by cats and birds of prey.", "The song thrush was described by German ornithologist Christian Ludwig Brehm in 1831, and still bears its original scientific name, Turdus philomelos.", "The generic name, Turdus, is the Latin for thrush, and the specific epithet refers to a character in Greek mythology, Philomela, who had her tongue cut out, but was changed into a singing bird.", "Her name is derived from the Ancient Greek philo- , and melos .", "The dialect names throstle and mavis both mean thrush, being related to the German drossel and French mauvis respectively.", "Throstle dates back to at least the fourteenth century and was used by Chaucer in the Parliament of Fowls.", "Mavis is derived via Middle English mavys and Old French mauvis from Middle Breton milhuyt meaning \" thrush.", "\" Mavis can also mean \" purple \" in Greek.", "A parent feeding chicks in their nest in a New Zealand garden", "altA brown spotted bird standing on the rim of a nest with food for four chicks seen with open gapes A molecular study indicated that the song thrush's closest relatives are the similarly plumaged mistle thrush (T.", "viscivorus) and Chinese thrush (T.", "these three species are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa.", "They are less closely related to other European thrush species such as the blackbird (T.", "merula) which are descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "The song thrush has three subspecies, with the nominate subspecies, T. p. philomelos, covering the majority of the species' range.", "T. p. hebridensis, described by British ornithologist William Eagle Clarke in 1913, is a mainly sedentary form found in the Outer Hebrides and Isle of Skye in Scotland.", "It is the darkest subspecies, with a dark brown back, greyish rump, pale buff background colour to the underparts and grey-tinged flanks.", "T. p. clarkei, described by German zoologist Ernst Hartert in 1909, and named for William Eagle Clarke, breeds in the rest of Great Britain and Ireland and on mainland Europe in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and possibly somewhat further east.", "It has brown upperparts which are warmer in tone than those of the nominate form, an olive-tinged rump and rich yellow background colour to the underparts.", "It is a partial migrant with some birds wintering in southern France and Iberia.", "This form intergrades with the nominate subspecies in central Europe, and with T. p. hebridensis in the Inner Hebrides and western Scotland, and in these areas birds show intermediate characteristics.", "Additional subspecies, such as T. p. nataliae of Siberia, proposed by the Russian Sergei Buturlin in 1929, are not widely accepted.", "Song thrush in Slovenia upright", "In flight The song thrush is in length and weighs .", "The sexes are similar, with plain brown backs and neatly black-spotted cream or yellow-buff underparts, becoming paler on the belly.", "The underwing is warm yellow, the bill is yellowish and the legs and feet are pink.", "The upperparts of this species become colder in tone from west to east across the breeding range from Sweden to Siberia.", "The juvenile resembles the adult, but has buff or orange streaks on the back and wing coverts.", "The most similar European thrush species is the redwing (T.", "iliacus), but that bird has a strong white supercilium, red flanks, and shows a red underwing in flight.", "viscivorus) is much larger and has white tail corners, and the Chinese thrush (T.", "mupinensis), although much more similar in plumage, has black face markings and does not overlap in range.", "The song thrush has a short, sharp tsip call, replaced on migration by a thin high seep, similar to the redwing's call but shorter.", "The alarm call is a chook-chook becoming shorter and more strident with increasing danger.", "The male's song, given from trees, rooftops or other elevated perches, is a loud clear run of musical phrases, repeated two to four times, filip filip filip codidio codidio quitquiquit tittit tittit tereret tereret tereret, and interspersed with grating notes and mimicry.", "It is given mainly from February to June by the Outer Hebridean race, but from November to July by the more widespread subspecies.", "For its weight, this species has one of the loudest bird calls.", "An individual male may have a repertoire of more than 100 phrases, many copied from its parents and neighbouring birds.", "Mimicry may include the imitation of man-made items like telephones, and the song thrush will also repeat the calls of captive birds, including exotics such as the white-faced whistling duck.", "Juvenile in New Zealand The song thrush breeds in most of Europe , and across Ukraine and Russia almost to Lake Baikal. It reaches to 75N in Norway, but only to about 60N in Siberia.", "Birds from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Russia winter around the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East, but only some of the birds in the milder west of the breeding range leave their breeding areas.", "In Great Britain song thrushes are commonly found where there are trees and bushes.", "Such areas include parks, gardens, coniferous and deciduous woodland and hedgerows.", "Birds of the nominate subspecies were introduced to New Zealand and Australia by acclimatisation societies between 1860 and 1880, apparently for purely sentimental reasons.", "In New Zealand, where it was introduced on both the main islands, the song thrush quickly established itself and spread to surrounding islands such as the Kermadecs, Chatham and Auckland Islands.", "Although it is common and widespread in New Zealand, in Australia only a small population survives around Melbourne.", "In New Zealand, there appears to be a limited detrimental effect on some invertebrates due to predation by introduced bird species, and the song thrush also damages commercial fruit crops in that country.", "As an introduced species it has no legal protection in New Zealand, and can be killed at any time.", "Juvenile in a forest near Dombaih, Russia The song thrush typically nests in forest with good undergrowth and nearby more open areas, and in western Europe also uses gardens and parks.", "It breeds up to the tree-line, reaching in Switzerland.", "The island subspecies T. p. hebridensis breeds in more open country, including heathland, and in the east of the song thrush's Eurasian range, the nominate subspecies is restricted to the edge of the dense conifer forests.", "In intensively farmed areas where agricultural practices appear to have made cropped land unsuitable, gardens are an important breeding habitat.", "In one English study, only 3.5% of territories were found in farmland, whereas gardens held 71.5% of the territories, despite that habitat making up only 2% of the total area.", "The remaining nests were in woodlands .", "The winter habitat is similar to that used for breeding, except that high ground and other exposed localities are avoided", "however, the island subspecies T. p. hebridensis will frequent the seashore in winter.", "Breaking the shell of a snail The song thrush is not usually gregarious, although several birds may roost together in winter or be loosely associated in suitable feeding habitats, perhaps with other thrushes such as the blackbird, fieldfare, redwing and dark-throated thrush.", "Unlike the more nomadic fieldfare and redwing, the song thrush tends to return regularly to the same wintering areas.", "This is a monogamous territorial species, and in areas where it is fully migratory, the male re-establishes its breeding territory and starts singing as soon as he returns.", "In the milder areas where some birds stay year round, the resident male remains in his breeding territory, singing intermittently, but the female may establish a separate individual wintering range until pair formation begins in the early spring.", "During migration, the song thrush travels mainly at night with a strong and direct flight action.", "It flies in loose flocks which cross the sea on a broad front rather than concentrating at short crossings , and calls frequently to maintain contact.", "Migration may start as early as late August in the most easterly and northerly parts of the range, but the majority of birds, with shorter distances to cover, head south from September to mid-December.", "However, hard weather may force further movement.", "Return migration varies between mid-February around the Mediterranean to May in northern Sweden and central Siberia.", "Vagrants have been recorded in Greenland, various Atlantic islands, and West Africa.", "Three eggs in a nest The female song thrush builds a neat cup-shaped nest lined with mud and dry grass in a bush, tree or creeper, or, in the case of the Hebridean subspecies, on the ground.", "She lays four or five bright glossy blue eggs which are lightly spotted with black or purple", "they are typically size and weigh , of which 6% is shell.", "The female incubates the eggs alone for 1017 days, and after hatching a similar time elapses until the young fledge.", "Two or three broods in a year is normal, although only one may be raised in the north of the range.", "On average, 54.6% of British juveniles survive the first year of life, and the adult annual survival rate is 62.2%.", "The typical lifespan is three years, but the maximum recorded age is 10 years 8 months.", "The song thrush is occasionally a host of parasitic cuckoos, such as the common cuckoo, but this is very rare because the thrush recognizes the cuckoo's non-mimetic eggs.", "However, the song thrush does not demonstrate the same aggression toward the adult cuckoo that is shown by the blackbird.", "The introduced birds in New Zealand, where the cuckoo does not occur, have, over the past 130 years, retained the ability to recognize and reject non-mimetic eggs.", "Adult birds may be killed by cats, little owls and sparrowhawks, and eggs and nestlings are taken by magpies, jays, and, where present, grey squirrels.", "As with other passerine birds, parasites are common, and include endoparasites, such as the nematode Splendidofilaria mavis whose specific name mavis derives from this thrush.", "A Russian study of blood parasites showed that all the fieldfares, redwings and song thrushes sampled carried haematozoans, particularly Haemoproteus and Trypanosoma.", "Ixodes ticks are also common, and can carry pathogens, including tick-borne encephalitis in forested areas of central and eastern Europe and Russia, and, more widely, Borrelia bacteria.", "Some species of Borrelia cause Lyme disease, and ground-feeding birds like the song thrush may act as a reservoir for the disease.", "Broken shells of grove snails on an 'anvil' Foraging in hedgerow The song thrush is omnivorous, eating a wide range of invertebrates, especially earthworms and snails, as well as soft fruit and berries.", "Like its relative, the blackbird, the song thrush finds animal prey by sight, has a run-and-stop hunting technique on open ground, and will rummage through leaf-litter seeking potential food items.", "Land snails are an especially important food item when drought or hard weather makes it hard to find other food.", "The thrush often uses a favorite stone as an \" anvil \" on which to break the shell of the snail before extracting the soft body and invariably wiping it on the ground before consumption.", "Young birds initially flick objects and attempt to play with them until they learn to use anvils as tools to smash snails.", "The nestlings are mainly fed on animal food such as worms, slugs, snails and insect larvae.", "The grove snail is regularly eaten by the song thrush, and its polymorphic shell patterns have been suggested as evolutionary responses to reduce predation", "however, song thrushes may not be the only selective force involved.", "In New Zealand The song thrush has an extensive range, estimated at , and a large population, with an estimated 40 to 71 million individuals in Europe alone.", "In the western Palaearctic, there is evidence of population decline, but at a level below the threshold required for global conservation concern and the IUCN Red List categorises this species as of \" Least Concern \" .", "In Great Britain and the Netherlands, there has been a more than 50% decline in population, and the song thrush is included in regional Red Lists.", "The decreases are greatest in farmlands and believed to be due to changes in agricultural practices in recent decades.", "The precise reasons for the decline are not known but may be related to the loss of hedgerows, a move to sowing crops in autumn rather than spring, and possibly the increased use of pesticides.", "These changes may have reduced the availability of food and of nest sites.", "In gardens, the use of poison bait to control slugs and snails may pose a threat.", "In urban areas, some thrushes are killed while using the hard surface of roads to smash snails.", " Deleted image removed: upright", "West Bromwich Albion's former club crest, replaced in 2006 with a modified crest also featuring a song thrush The song thrush's characteristic song, with melodic phrases repeated twice or more, is described by the nineteenth-century British poet Robert Browning in his poem Home Thoughts, from Abroad: That's the wise thrush", "he sings each song twice over, Lest you should think he never could recapture The first fine careless rapture!", " The song also inspired the nineteenth-century British writer Thomas Hardy, who spoke in Darkling Thrush of the bird's \" full-hearted song evensong/Of joy illimited \" , but twentieth-century British poet Ted Hughes in Thrushes concentrated on its hunting prowess: \" Nothing but bounce and/stab/and a ravening second \" .", "Nineteenth-century Welsh poet Edward Thomas wrote 15 poems concerning blackbirds or thrushes, including The Thrush: I hear the thrush, and I see Him alone at the end of the lane Near the bare poplar's tip, Singing continuously.", " Dunfermline, Scotland In The Tables Turned, Romantic poet William Wordsworth references the song thrush, writing Hark, how blithe the throstle sings And he is no mean preacher Come forth into the light of things Let Nature be your teacher The song thrush is the emblem of West Bromwich Albion Football Club, chosen because the public house in which the team used to change kept a pet thrush in a cage.", "It also gave rise to Albion's early nickname, The Throstles.", "Thrushes have been trapped for food from as far back as 12,000 years ago and an early reference is found in the Odyssey: \" Then, as doves or thrushes beating their spread wings against some snare rigged up in thicketsflying in for a cosy nest but a grisly bed receives them.", "\" Hunting continues today around the Mediterranean, but is not believed to be a major factor in this species' decline in parts of its range.", "In Spain, this species is normally caught as it migrates through the country, often using birdlime which, although banned by the European Union, is still tolerated and permitted in the Valencian Community.", "In 2003 and 2004 the EU tried, but failed, to stop this practice in the Valencian region.", "Up to at least the nineteenth century the song thrush was kept as a cage bird because of its melodious voice.", "As with hunting, there is little evidence that the taking of wild birds for aviculture has had a significant effect on wild populations."]}, "Fulica atra": {"keywords": ["An extinct subspecies F. atra pontica, has been described from the Chalcolithic from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.", "The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.", "The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands.", "It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The nest is a bulky structure that either floats on the water or is built in shallow water on a low or barely submerged stump or log, making a neat, large bowl.", "Chick picking through wet leaves in Sweden .", "The coot is an omnivore, and will take a variety of small live prey including the eggs of other water birds, as well as algae, vegetation, seeds and fruit.", "In the water it may upend in the fashion of a mallard or dive in search of food."], "habitat_section": ["The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds.", "It occurs and breeds in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa.", "The species has recently expanded its range into New Zealand.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.", "The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands.", "It is an aggressive species, and strongly territorial during the breeding season, and both parents are involved in territorial defence.", "During the non-breeding season they may form large flocks, possibly related to predator avoidance.", "It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing.", "It does the same, but without actually flying, when travelling a short distance at speed in territorial disputes or on land to escape from intruders.", "As with many rails, its weak flight does not inspire confidence, but on migration, usually at night, it can cover surprisingly large distances.", "It bobs its head as it swims, and makes short dives from a little jump.", "When fighting other waterbirds , the coot attacks by charging its opponent and striking them with its long legs."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian coot , also known as the common coot, or Australian coot, is a member of the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae.", "It is found in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and parts of North Africa.", "It has a slaty-black body, a glossy black head and a white bill with a white frontal shield.", "Similar looking coot species are found throughout the world, with the largest variety of coot species living in South America.", "The Eurasian coot was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name Fulica atra.", "Linnaeus specified the locality as Europe but this is now restricted to Sweden.", "The binomial name is from Latin: Fulica means \" coot \" , and atra mean \" black \" .", "Four subspecies are recognised: An extinct subspecies F. atra pontica, has been described from the Chalcolithic from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.", "Legs and feet of Eurasian coot in St James's Park, London The Eurasian coot is in length with a wing-span of", "males weigh around and females .", "It is largely black except for the white bill and frontal shield .", "As a swimming species, the coot has partial webbing on its long strong toes.", "The sexes are similar in appearance.", "The juvenile is paler than the adult, has a whitish breast, and lacks the facial shield", "the adult black plumage develops when about 34 months old, but the white shield is only fully developed at about one year old.", "The Eurasian coot is a noisy bird with a wide repertoire of crackling, explosive, or trumpeting calls, often given at night.", "The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds.", "It occurs and breeds in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa.", "The species has recently expanded its range into New Zealand.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.", "The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands.", "It is an aggressive species, and strongly territorial during the breeding season, and both parents are involved in territorial defence.", "During the non-breeding season they may form large flocks, possibly related to predator avoidance.", "It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing.", "It does the same, but without actually flying, when travelling a short distance at speed in territorial disputes or on land to escape from intruders.", "As with many rails, its weak flight does not inspire confidence, but on migration, usually at night, it can cover surprisingly large distances.", "It bobs its head as it swims, and makes short dives from a little jump.", "When fighting other waterbirds , the coot attacks by charging its opponent and striking them with its long legs.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The nest is a bulky structure that either floats on the water or is built in shallow water on a low or barely submerged stump or log, making a neat, large bowl.", "It is constructed of plant stems and leaves with a lining of finer material. Normally concealed in vegetation the nest can sometimes be placed in the open.", "It is built by both sexes with the male collecting most of the material which is incorporated by the female.", "The eggs are laid at daily intervals.", "The clutch usually contains between six and ten smooth and slightly glossy buff coloured eggs that are covered with black or dark brown speckles.", "On average they are and weigh .", "The eggs are incubated by both sexes beginning after the second egg is laid and hatch asynchronously after 21 to 24 days.", "The chicks are precocial and nidifugous.", "The chicks are covered with a black down.", "On the body the down has yellow hair-like tips.", "On the sides of the head, nape and throat the hair-like tips are longer and orange-red.", "Between the eyes and on the lores, the tips are red.", "The shield is bright red and the bill is red with a white tip.", "The young are brooded by the female for the first three to four days during which time food is brought by the male.", "The male also builds one or more platforms that is used for roosting and brooding the chicks.", "On leaving the nest, the brood is sometimes split up with each parent taking care of a separate group.", "The young can feed themselves when they are around 30 days and fledge at 55 to 60 days.", "Eurasian coots normally only have a single brood each year but in some areas such as Britain they will sometimes attempt a second brood.", "They first breed when they are one to two years old.", "Chick mortality occurs mainly due to starvation rather than predation.", "Most chicks died in the first 10 days after hatching, when they are most dependent on adults for food.", "Coots can be very brutal to their own young under pressure such as the lack of food.", "They will bite young that are begging for food and repeatedly do this until it stops begging.", "If the begging continues, they may bite so hard that the chick is killed.", "Coots will also lay their eggs in the nests of other coots when their environment or physical condition limits their ability to breed, or to lengthen their reproductive life.", "adult with chicks, Trujillo, Spain Eurasian coot juvenile.", "chick in Marais Audomarois, France Baby Eurasian coot foraging .", "The coot is an omnivore, and will take a variety of small live prey including the eggs of other water birds, as well as algae, vegetation, seeds and fruit.", "It shows considerable variation in its feeding techniques, grazing on land or in the water.", "In the water it may upend in the fashion of a mallard or dive in search of food.", "The Eurasian coot is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies."]}, "Anas platyrhynchos": {"keywords": ["The mallard or wild duck is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa.", "Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes.", "The non-migratory mallard interbreeds with indigenous wild ducks of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring.", "Complete hybridisation of various species of wild duck gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl.", "This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domestic duck, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool has been genetically polluted by the domestic and feral mallard populations.", "The Aleutian Islands hold a population of mallards that appear to be evolving towards becoming a subspecies, as gene flow with other populations is very limited.", "Both male and female mallards have distinct iridescent purple-blue speculum feathers edged with white, which are prominent in flight or at rest but temporarily shed during the annual summer moult.", "Bergmann's Rule, which states that polar forms tend to be larger than related ones from warmer climates, has numerous examples in birds, as in case of the Greenland mallard which is larger than the mallards further south.", "Allen's Rule says that appendages like ears tend to be smaller in polar forms to minimise heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion, and that the polar taxa are stockier overall.", "The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and South Korea.", "It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south.", "For example, in North America, it winters south to the southern United States and northern Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.", "The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions.", "It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline.", "Water depths of less than are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep.", "They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.", "During the breeding season, male birds were recorded to have eaten 37.6% animal matter and 62.4% plant matter, most notably the grass Echinochloa crus-galli, and nonlaying females ate 37.0% animal matter and 63.0% plant matter, while laying females ate 71.9% animal matter and only 28.1% plant matter.", "It usually nests on a river bank, but not always near water.", "Nesting sites are typically on the ground, hidden in vegetation where the female's speckled plumage serves as effective camouflage, but female mallards have also been known to nest in hollows in trees, boathouses, roof gardens and on balconies, sometimes resulting in hatched offspring having difficulty following their parent to water.", "In New Zealand, where mallards are naturalised, the nesting season has been found to be longer, eggs and clutches are larger and nest survival is generally greater compared with mallards in their native range.", "In addition, mallards may occasionally breed during the autumn in cases of unseasonably warm weather, one such instance of a late clutch occurred in November 2011, in which a female successfully hatched and raised a clutch of eleven ducklings at the London Wetland Centre.", "Mallards are also preyed upon by other waterside apex predators, such as grey herons , great blue herons and black-crowned night herons , the European herring gull , the wels catfish , and the northern pike .", "Several drakes swim in a pond Since 1998, the mallard has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species.", "They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other human-made water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged in human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours.", "The mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domestic and feral populations.", "The last male Mariana mallard Mallards are causing severe \" genetic pollution \" to South Africa's biodiversity by breeding with endemic ducks If this continues, only hybrids occur and in the long term result in the extinction of various indigenous waterfowl.", "Mallards have often been ubiquitous in their regions among the ponds, rivers, and streams of human parks, farms, and other human-made waterwayseven to the point of visiting water features in human courtyards.", "The ideal location for hunting mallards is considered to be where the water level is somewhat shallow where the birds can be found foraging for food."], "habitat_section": ["The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and South Korea.", "Also in the east, it ranges to south-eastern and south-western Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere.", "It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south.", "For example, in North America, it winters south to the southern United States and northern Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.", "A drake later named \" Trevor \" attracted media attention in 2018 when it turned up on the island of Niue, an atypical location for mallards.", "The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions.", "It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline.", "Water depths of less than are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep.", "They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.", "Several drakes swim in a pond Since 1998, the mallard has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species.", "This is because it has a large rangemore than 20,000,000 km 2 and because its population is increasing, rather than declining by 30% over ten years or three generations and thus is not warranted a vulnerable rating.", "Also, the population size of the mallard is very large.", "Unlike many waterfowl, mallards have benefited from human alterations to the worldso much so that they are now considered an invasive species in some regions.", "They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other human-made water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged in human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours.", "The mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domestic and feral populations.", "Over time, a continuum of hybrids ranging between almost typical examples of either species develop, the speciation process is beginning to reverse itself.", "This has created conservation concerns for relatives of the mallard, such as the Hawaiian duck, the New Zealand grey duck subspecies of the Pacific black duck, the American black duck, the mottled duck, Meller's duck, the yellow-billed duck, and the Mexican duck, in the latter case even leading to a dispute as to whether these birds should be considered a species or included in the mallard species.", "Ecological changes and hunting have also led to a decline of local species, for example, the New Zealand grey duck population declined drastically due to overhunting in the mid-20th century.", "Hybrid offspring of Hawaiian ducks seem to be less well adapted to native habitat, and using them in re-introduction projects apparently reduces success.", "In summary, the problems of mallards \" hybridising away \" relatives is more a consequence of local ducks declining than of mallards spreading, allopatric speciation and isolating behaviour have produced today's diversity of mallard-like ducks despite the fact that, in most, if not all, of these populations, hybridisation must have occurred to some extent."], "random_sentences": ["The mallard or wild duck is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa.", "This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae.", "Males have purple patches on their wings, while the females have mainly brown-speckled plumage.", "Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent blue feathers called a speculum on their wings", "males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers.", "The mallard is long, of which the body makes up around two-thirds the length.", "The wingspan is and the bill is long.", "It is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks, weighing .", "Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes.", "The female lays 8 to 13 creamy white to greenish-buff spotless eggs, on alternate days.", "Incubation takes 27 to 28 days and fledging takes 50 to 60 days.", "The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch.", "The mallard is considered to be a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature .", "Unlike many waterfowl, mallards are considered an invasive species in some regions.", "It is a very adaptable species, being able to live and even thrive in urban areas which may have supported more localised, sensitive species of waterfowl before development.", "The non-migratory mallard interbreeds with indigenous wild ducks of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring.", "Complete hybridisation of various species of wild duck gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl.", "This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domestic duck, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool has been genetically polluted by the domestic and feral mallard populations.", "An American black duck and a male mallard in eclipse plumage The mallard was one of the many bird species originally described in the 1758 10thedition of Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus.", "The genome of Anas platyrhynchos was sequenced in 2013.", "The name mallard originally referred to any wild drake, and it is sometimes still used this way.", "It was derived from the Old French or for \" wild drake \" although its true derivation is unclear.", "It may be related to, or at least influenced by, an Old High German masculine proper name , clues lying in the alternative English forms \" maudelard \" and \" mawdelard \" .", "Masle has also been proposed as an influence.", "Mallards frequently interbreed with their closest relatives in the genus Anas, such as the American black duck, and also with species more distantly related, such as the northern pintail, leading to various hybrids that may be fully fertile.", "Mallards and their domestic conspecifics are also fully interfertile.", "Genetic analysis has shown that certain mallards appear to be closer to their Indo-Pacific relatives, while others are related to their American relatives.", "Mitochondrial DNA data for the D-loop sequence suggest that mallards may have evolved in the general area of Siberia.", "Mallard bones rather abruptly appear in food remains of ancient humans and other deposits of fossil bones in Europe, without a good candidate for a local predecessor species.", "The large Ice Age palaeosubspecies that made up at least the European and West Asian populations during the Pleistocene has been named Anas platyrhynchos palaeoboschas.", "Mallards are differentiated in their mitochondrial DNA between North American and Eurasian populations, but the nuclear genome displays a notable lack of genetic structure.", "Haplotypes typical of American mallard relatives and eastern spot-billed ducks can be found in mallards around the Bering Sea.", "The Aleutian Islands hold a population of mallards that appear to be evolving towards becoming a subspecies, as gene flow with other populations is very limited.", "Also, the paucity of morphological differences between the Old World mallards and the New World mallard demonstrates the extent to which the genome is shared among them such that birds like the Chinese spot-billed duck are highly similar to the Old World mallard, and birds such as the Hawaiian duck are highly similar to the New World mallard.", "The size of the mallard varies clinally", "for example, birds from Greenland, though larger, have smaller bills, paler plumage, and stockier bodies than birds further south and are sometimes classified as a separate subspecies, the Greenland mallard .", "Juvenile male and female Duckling The mallard is a medium-sized waterfowl species that is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks.", "It is longof which the body makes up around two-thirdshas a wingspan of , and weighs .", "Among standard measurements, the wing chord is , the bill is , and the tarsus is .", "The breeding male mallard is unmistakable, with a glossy bottle-green head and a white collar that demarcates the head from the purple-tinged brown breast, grey-brown wings, and a pale grey belly.", "The rear of the male is black, with white-bordered dark tail feathers.", "The bill of the male is a yellowish-orange tipped with black, with that of the female generally darker and ranging from black to mottled orange and brown.", "The female mallard is predominantly mottled, with each individual feather showing sharp contrast from buff to very dark brown, a coloration shared by most female dabbling ducks, and has buff cheeks, eyebrow, throat, and neck, with a darker crown and eye-stripe.", "Both male and female mallards have distinct iridescent purple-blue speculum feathers edged with white, which are prominent in flight or at rest but temporarily shed during the annual summer moult.", "Upon hatching, the plumage of the duckling is yellow on the underside and face and black on the back all the way to the top and back of the head.", "Its legs and bill are also black.", "2)the breast feathers are reddish-brown in males, but brown in females", "This change in plumage also applies to adult mallard males when they transition in and out of their non-breeding eclipse plumage at the beginning and the end of the summer moulting period.", "The adulthood age for mallards is fourteen months, and the average life expectancy is three years, but they can live to twenty.", "Several species of duck have brown-plumaged females that can be confused with the female mallard.", "The female gadwall has an orange-lined bill, white belly, black and white speculum that is seen as a white square on the wings in flight, and is a smaller bird.", "More similar to the female mallard in North America are the American black duck (A.", "rubripes), which is notably darker-hued in both sexes than the mallard, and the mottled duck (A.", "fulvigula), which is somewhat darker than the female mallard, and with slightly different bare-part colouration and no white edge on the speculum.", "Owing to their highly 'malleable' genetic code, mallards can display a large amount of variation, as seen here with this female, who displays faded or 'apricot' plumage.", "In captivity, domestic ducks come in wild-type plumages, white, and other colours.", "Most of these colour variants are also known in domestic mallards not bred as livestock, but kept as pets, aviary birds, etc.", ", where they are rare but increasing in availability.", "A noisy species, the female has the deep quack stereotypically associated with ducks.", "Male mallards make a sound phonetically similar to that of the female, a typical quack, but it is deeper and quieter compared to that of the female.", "When incubating a nest, or when offspring are present, females vocalise differently, making a call that sounds like a truncated version of the usual quack.", "This maternal vocalisation is highly attractive to their young.", "The repetition and frequency modulation of these quacks form the auditory basis for species identification in offspring, a process known as acoustic conspecific identification.", "In addition, females hiss if the nest or offspring are threatened or interfered with.", "When taking off, the wings of a mallard produce a characteristic faint whistling noise.", "The mallard is a rare example of both Allen's Rule and Bergmann's Rule in birds.", "Bergmann's Rule, which states that polar forms tend to be larger than related ones from warmer climates, has numerous examples in birds, as in case of the Greenland mallard which is larger than the mallards further south.", "Allen's Rule says that appendages like ears tend to be smaller in polar forms to minimise heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion, and that the polar taxa are stockier overall.", "Examples of this rule in birds are rare as they lack external ears, but the bill of ducks is supplied with a few blood vessels to prevent heat loss, and, as in the Greenland mallard, the bill is smaller than that of birds farther south, illustrating the rule.", "Due to the variability of the mallard's genetic code, which gives it its vast interbreeding capability, mutations in the genes that decide plumage colour are very common and have resulted in a wide variety of hybrids, such as Brewer's duck .", "The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres", "in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and South Korea.", "Also in the east, it ranges to south-eastern and south-western Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere.", "It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south.", "For example, in North America, it winters south to the southern United States and northern Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.", "A drake later named \" Trevor \" attracted media attention in 2018 when it turned up on the island of Niue, an atypical location for mallards.", "The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions.", "It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline.", "Water depths of less than are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep.", "They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.", "Drake mallard performing the grunt-whistle", "The mallard is omnivorous and very flexible in its choice of food.", "Its diet may vary based on several factors, including the stage of the breeding cycle, short-term variations in available food, nutrient availability, and interspecific and intraspecific competition.", "The majority of the mallard's diet seems to be made up of gastropods, insects , crustaceans, worms, many varieties of seeds and plant matter, and roots and tubers.", "During the breeding season, male birds were recorded to have eaten 37.6% animal matter and 62.4% plant matter, most notably the grass Echinochloa crus-galli, and nonlaying females ate 37.0% animal matter and 63.0% plant matter, while laying females ate 71.9% animal matter and only 28.1% plant matter.", "Plants generally make up the larger part of a bird's diet, especially during autumn migration and in the winter.", "The mallard usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing", "there are reports of it eating frogs.", "However, in 2017 a flock of mallards in Romania were observed hunting small migratory birds, including grey wagtails and black redstarts, the first documented occasion they had been seen attacking and consuming large vertebrates.", "It usually nests on a river bank, but not always near water.", "It is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and forms large flocks, which are known as \" sordes \" .", "Female mallard with five ducklings Mallards usually form pairs until the female lays eggs at the start of the nesting season, which is around the beginning of spring.", "At this time she is left by the male who joins up with other males to await the moulting period, which begins in June .", "During the brief time before this, however, the males are still sexually potent and some of them either remain on standby to sire replacement clutches or forcibly mate with females that appear to be isolated or unattached regardless of their species and whether or not they have a brood of ducklings.", "Nesting sites are typically on the ground, hidden in vegetation where the female's speckled plumage serves as effective camouflage, but female mallards have also been known to nest in hollows in trees, boathouses, roof gardens and on balconies, sometimes resulting in hatched offspring having difficulty following their parent to water.", "Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden Egg clutches number 813 creamy white to greenish-buff eggs free of speckles.", "They measure about in length and in width.", "The eggs are laid on alternate days, and incubation begins when the clutch is almost complete.", "Incubation takes 2728days and fledging takes 5060days.", "The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch.", "However, filial imprinting compels them to instinctively stay near the mother, not only for warmth and protection but also to learn about and remember their habitat as well as how and where to forage for food.", "Though adoptions are known to occur, female mallards typically do not tolerate stray ducklings near their broods, and will violently attack and drive away any unfamiliar young, sometimes going as far as to kill them.", "When ducklings mature into flight-capable juveniles, they learn about and remember their traditional migratory routes .", "In New Zealand, where mallards are naturalised, the nesting season has been found to be longer, eggs and clutches are larger and nest survival is generally greater compared with mallards in their native range.", "In cases where a nest or brood fails, some mallards may mate for a second time in an attempt to raise a second clutch, typically around early-to-mid summer.", "In addition, mallards may occasionally breed during the autumn in cases of unseasonably warm weather", "one such instance of a late clutch occurred in November 2011, in which a female successfully hatched and raised a clutch of eleven ducklings at the London Wetland Centre.", "During the breeding season, both male and female mallards can become aggressive, driving off competitors to themselves or their mate by charging at them.", "Males tend to fight more than females, and attack each other by repeatedly pecking at their rival's chest, ripping out feathers and even skin on rare occasions.", "Female mallards are also known to carry out 'inciting displays', which encourage other ducks in the flock to begin fighting.", "It is possible that this behaviour allows the female to evaluate the strength of potential partners.", "The drakes that end up being left out after the others have paired off with mating partners sometimes target an isolated female duck, even one of a different species, and proceed to chase and peck at her until she weakens, at which point the males take turns copulating with the female.", "Lebret calls this behaviour \" Attempted Rape Flight \" , and Stanley Cramp and K.E.L. Simmons speak of \" rape-intent flights \" .", "Male mallards also occasionally chase other male ducks of a different species, and even each other, in the same way.", "In one documented case of \" homosexual necrophilia \" , a male mallard copulated with another male he was chasing after the chased male died upon flying into a glass window.", "This paper was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 2003.", "Mallards are opportunistically targeted by brood parasites, occasionally having eggs laid in their nests by redheads, ruddy ducks, lesser scaup, gadwalls, northern shovelers, northern pintails, cinnamon teal, common goldeneyes, and other mallards.", "These eggs are generally accepted when they resemble the eggs of the host mallard, but the hen may attempt to eject them or even abandon the nest if parasitism occurs during egg laying.", "A male mute swan driving off a female mallard In addition to human hunting, mallards of all ages and in all locations must contend with a wide diversity of predators including raptors and owls, mustelids, corvids, snakes, raccoons, opossums, skunks, turtles, large fish, felids, and canids, the last two including domestic ones.", "The most prolific natural predators of adult mallards are red foxes and the faster or larger birds of prey, e.g. peregrine falcons, Aquila or Haliaeetus eagles.", "In North America, adult mallards face no fewer than 15 species of birds of prey, from northern harriers and short-eared owls to huge bald and golden eagles , and about a dozen species of mammalian predators, not counting several more avian and mammalian predators who threaten eggs and nestlings.", "Mallards are also preyed upon by other waterside apex predators, such as grey herons , great blue herons and black-crowned night herons , the European herring gull , the wels catfish , and the northern pike .", "Crows are also known to kill ducklings and adults on occasion.", "Also, mallards may be attacked by larger anseriformes such as swans and geese during the breeding season, and are frequently driven off by these birds over territorial disputes.", "Mute swans have been known to attack or even kill mallards if they feel that the ducks pose a threat to their offspring.", "Common loons are similarly territorial and aggressive towards other birds in such disputes, and will frequently drive mallards away from their territory.", "However, in 2019, a pair of common loons in Wisconsin were observed raising a mallard duckling for several weeks, having seemingly adopted the bird after it had been abandoned by its parents.", "The predation-avoidance behaviour of sleeping with one eye open, allowing one brain hemisphere to remain aware while the other half sleeps, was first demonstrated in mallards, although it is believed to be widespread among birds in general.", "Several drakes swim in a pond Since 1998, the mallard has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species.", "This is because it has a large rangemore than 20,000,000 km 2 and because its population is increasing, rather than declining by 30% over ten years or three generations and thus is not warranted a vulnerable rating.", "Also, the population size of the mallard is very large.", "Unlike many waterfowl, mallards have benefited from human alterations to the worldso much so that they are now considered an invasive species in some regions.", "They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other human-made water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged in human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours.", "The mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domestic and feral populations.", "Over time, a continuum of hybrids ranging between almost typical examples of either species develop", "the speciation process is beginning to reverse itself.", "This has created conservation concerns for relatives of the mallard, such as the Hawaiian duck, the New Zealand grey duck subspecies of the Pacific black duck, the American black duck, the mottled duck, Meller's duck, the yellow-billed duck, and the Mexican duck, in the latter case even leading to a dispute as to whether these birds should be considered a species or included in the mallard species.", "Ecological changes and hunting have also led to a decline of local species", "for example, the New Zealand grey duck population declined drastically due to overhunting in the mid-20th century.", "Hybrid offspring of Hawaiian ducks seem to be less well adapted to native habitat, and using them in re-introduction projects apparently reduces success.", "In summary, the problems of mallards \" hybridising away \" relatives is more a consequence of local ducks declining than of mallards spreading", "allopatric speciation and isolating behaviour have produced today's diversity of mallard-like ducks despite the fact that, in most, if not all, of these populations, hybridisation must have occurred to some extent.", "The last male Mariana mallard Mallards are causing severe \" genetic pollution \" to South Africa's biodiversity by breeding with endemic ducks If this continues, only hybrids occur and in the long term result in the extinction of various indigenous waterfowl.", "The mallard can crossbreed with 63 other species, posing a severe threat to indigenous waterfowl's genetic integrity.", "Mallards and their hybrids compete with indigenous birds for resources, including nest sites, roosting sites, and food.", "Mallard x Pacific black duck hybrid, Tasmania Availability of mallards, mallard ducklings, and fertilised mallard eggs for public sale and private ownership, either as poultry or as pets, is currently legal in the United States, except for the state of Florida, which has currently banned domestic ownership of mallards.", "This is to prevent hybridisation with the native mottled duck.", "The mallard is considered an invasive species in Australia and New Zealand, where it competes with the Pacific black duck which was over-hunted in the past.", "There, and elsewhere, mallards are spreading with increasing urbanisation and hybridising with local relatives.", "The Laysan duck is an insular relative of the mallard, with a very small and fluctuating population.", "Now, their range includes only Laysan Island.", "It is one of the successfully translocated birds, after having become nearly extinct in the early 20th century.", "Mallard resting on a poolside in San Francisco", "Mallards have often been ubiquitous in their regions among the ponds, rivers, and streams of human parks, farms, and other human-made waterwayseven to the point of visiting water features in human courtyards.", "George Hetzel, mallard still life painting, 18831884 Mallards have had a long relationship with humans.", "Almost all domestic duck breeds derive from the mallard, with the exception of a few Muscovy breeds, and are listed under the trinomial name A. p. domesticus.", "Mallards are generally monogamous while domestic ducks are mostly polygamous.", "Domestic ducks have no territorial behaviour and are less aggressive than mallards.", "Domestic ducks are mostly kept for meat", "their eggs are also eaten, and have a strong flavour.", "Because of this, mallards have been found to be contaminated with the genes of the domestic duck.", "While the keeping of domestic breeds is more popular, pure-bred mallards are sometimes kept for eggs and meat, although they may require wing clipping to restrict flying, or training to navigate and fly home.", "Mallards are one of the most common varieties of ducks hunted as a sport due to the large population size.", "The ideal location for hunting mallards is considered to be where the water level is somewhat shallow where the birds can be found foraging for food.", "Hunting mallards might cause the population to decline in some places, at some times, and with some populations.", "In certain countries, the mallard may be legally shot but is protected under national acts and policies.", "For example, in the United Kingdom, the mallard is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which restricts certain hunting methods or taking or killing mallards.", " Since ancient times, the mallard has been eaten as food.", "The wild mallard was eaten in Neolithic Greece.", "Usually, only the breast and thigh meat is eaten.", "It does not need to be hung before preparation, and is often braised or roasted, sometimes flavoured with bitter orange or with port."]}, "Chloris chloris": {"keywords": ["Woodland edges, farmland hedges and gardens with relatively thick vegetation are favoured for breeding.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain."], "habitat_section": ["Woodland edges, farmland hedges and gardens with relatively thick vegetation are favoured for breeding.", "It nests in trees or bushes, laying 3 to 6 eggs.", "This species can form large flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixing with other finches and buntings.", "They feed largely on seeds, but also take berries."], "random_sentences": ["Nest with eggs in Nottinghamshire, England The European greenfinch or simply the greenfinch is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.", "This bird is widespread throughout Europe, North Africa and Southwest Asia.", "It is mainly resident, but some northernmost populations migrate further south.", "The greenfinch has also been introduced into Australia, New Zealand, Uruguay, and Argentina.", "The greenfinch was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under the binomial name Loxia chloris.", "The specific epithet is from khloris, the Ancient Greek name for this bird, from khloros, \" green \" .", "The finch family, Fringillidae, is divided into two subfamilies, the Carduelinae, containing around 28 genera with 141 species and the Fringillinae containing a single genus, Fringilla, with four species.", "The finch family 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 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.", "They have therefore been placed in the resurrected genus Chloris that had originally been introduced by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1800, with the European greenfinch as the type species.", "The European greenfinch is long with a wingspan of .", "It is similar in size and shape to a house sparrow, but is mainly green, with yellow in the wings and tail.", "The female and young birds are duller and have brown tones on the back.", "The bill is thick and conical. The song contains a lot of trilling twitters interspersed with wheezes, and the male has a \" butterfly \" display flight.", "Male greenfinch birds exhibit higher degrees of fluctuating asymmetry.", "The development of bones of males may be more easily disrupted than that of females.", "Woodland edges, farmland hedges and gardens with relatively thick vegetation are favoured for breeding.", "It nests in trees or bushes, laying 3 to 6 eggs.", "This species can form large flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixing with other finches and buntings.", "They feed largely on seeds, but also take berries.", "Cuculus canorus bangsi in a clutch of Carduelis chloris - MHNT Breeding season occurs in spring, starting in the second half of March, until June, with fledging young in early July.", "Incubation lasts about 1314 days, by the female.", "The male feeds her at the nest during this period.", "Chicks are covered with thick, long, greyish-white down at hatching.", "They are fed on insect larvae by both adults during the first days, and later, by a frequently regurgitated yellowish paste made of seeds.", "They leave the nest about 13 days later, but they are not able to fly.", "Usually, they fledge 1618 days after hatching.", "This species produces two or three broods per year.", "In Australasia, the European greenfinch's breeding season is from October to March.", "The protozoal parasite Trichomonas gallinae was known to infect pigeons and raptors, but, beginning in Great Britain in 2005, carcasses of dead European greenfinches and common chaffinches were found to be infected with the parasite.", "The disease spread and in 2008, infected carcasses were found in Norway, Sweden and Finland and a year later in Germany.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain.", "In Great Britain, the number of infected carcasses recovered each year declined after a peak in 2006.", "There was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches from around 4.3 million to around 2.8 million, but no significant decline in the overall number of common chaffinches.", "A similar pattern occurred in Finland where, after the arrival of the disease in 2008, there was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches but only a small change in the number of common chaffinches.", "The English poet William Wordsworth wrote a poem about this species entitled The Green Linnet in 1803."]}, "Passer domesticus": {"keywords": ["One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia.", "Though found in widely varied habitats and climates, it typically avoids extensive woodlands, grasslands, and deserts away from human development.", "It feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is an opportunistic eater and commonly eats insects and many other foods.", "Younger birds are smaller, males are larger during the winter, and females are larger during the breeding season.", "Birds at higher latitudes, colder climates, and sometimes higher altitudes are larger , both between and within subspecies.", "The upper back and mantle are a warm brown, with broad black streaks, while the lower back, rump and upper tail coverts are greyish brown.", "Many of these relatives are smaller, with an appearance that is neater or \" cuter \" , as with the Dead Sea sparrow.", "The house sparrow is also called by a number of alternative English names, including English sparrow, chiefly in North America, and Indian sparrow or Indian house sparrow, for the birds of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia.", "Within Passer, the house sparrow is part of the \" Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrows \" group and a close relative of the Mediterranean \" willow sparrows \" .", "In the Alps, the Italian sparrow intergrades over a narrow roughly strip with the house sparrow, and some house sparrows migrate into the Italian sparrow's range in winter.", "On the Mediterranean islands of Malta, Gozo, Crete, Rhodes, and Karpathos, other apparently intermediate birds are of unknown status.", "By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona House sparrows perching on a roof, during winter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa.", "Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America , Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world.", "It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.", "House sparrows were introduced in New Zealand in 1859, and from there reached many of the Pacific islands, including Hawaii.", "It now occurs almost continuously from Tierra del Fuego to the fringes of the Amazon basin, with isolated populations as far north as coastal Venezuela.", "The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra.", "It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night.", "It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates.", "It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries.", "In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty.", "The house sparrow feeds mostly on the ground, but it flocks in trees and bushes.", "Outside of the reproductive season, they often roost communally in trees or shrubs.", "A female house sparrow feeding on rice grains As an adult, the house sparrow mostly feeds on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is opportunistic and adaptable, and eats whatever foods are available.", "Several studies of the house sparrow in temperate agricultural areas have found the proportion of seeds in its diet to be about 90%.", "In temperate areas, the house sparrow has an unusual habit of tearing flowers, especially yellow ones, in the spring.", "Various noninsect arthropods are eaten, as are molluscs and crustaceans where available, earthworms, and even vertebrates such as lizards and frogs.", "Some young birds disperse long distances, especially on coasts, and mountain birds move to lower elevations in winter.", "The house sparrow is also a common victim of roadkill, on European roads, it is the bird most frequently found dead.", "The house sparrow hosts avian pox and avian malaria, which it has spread to the native forest birds of Hawaii.", "Arboviruses such as the West Nile virus, which most commonly infect insects and mammals, survive winters in temperate areas by going dormant in birds such as the house sparrow.", "A few records indicate disease extirpating house sparrow populations, especially from Scottish islands, but this seems to be rare.", "House sparrows are also infected by haemosporidian parasites, but less so in urban than in rural areas Toxoplasma gondii has been detected in sparrows in northwestern China where they pose a risk due to their meat being consumed in the region.", "A number of chewing lice occupy different niches on the house sparrow's body.", "Menacanthus lice occur across the house sparrow's body, where they feed on blood and feathers, while Brueelia lice feed on feathers and Philopterus fringillae occurs on the head.", "Finally, house sparrows in constant darkness could be entrained to a cycle of high and low temperature, but only if the difference in temperature was large , some of the tested sparrows matched their activity to the warm phase, and others to the cold phase.", "Usually, the house sparrow is regarded as a pest, since it consumes agricultural products and spreads disease to humans and their domestic animals.", "Declines in insect populations result from an increase of monoculture crops, the heavy use of pesticides, the replacement of native plants in cities with introduced plants and parking areas, and possibly the introduction of unleaded petrol, which produces toxic compounds such as methyl nitrite."], "habitat_section": ["By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona House sparrows perching on a roof, during winter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa.", "Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America , Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world.", "It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.", "The extent of its range makes it the most widely distributed wild bird on the planet.", "The house sparrow is closely associated with human habitation and cultivation.", "It is not an obligate commensal of humans as some have suggested.", "birds of the migratory Central Asian subspecies usually breed away from humans in open country, and birds elsewhere are occasionally found away from humans.", "The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra.", "Well adapted to living around humans, it frequently lives and even breeds indoors, especially in factories, warehouses, and zoos.", "It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night.", "It reaches its greatest densities in urban centres, but its reproductive success is greater in suburbs, where insects are more abundant.", "On a larger scale, it is most abundant in wheat-growing areas such as the Midwestern United States.", "It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates.", "It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries.", "In most of eastern Asia, the house sparrow is entirely absent, replaced by the Eurasian tree sparrow.", "Where these two species overlap, the house sparrow is usually more common than the Eurasian tree sparrow, but one species may replace the other in a manner that ornithologist Maud Doria Haviland described as \" random, or even capricious \" .", "In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty."], "random_sentences": ["The house sparrow is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world.", "It is a small bird that has a typical length of and a mass of .", "Females and young birds are coloured pale brown and grey, and males have brighter black, white, and brown markings.", "One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia.", "Its intentional or accidental introductions to many regions, including parts of Australasia, Africa, and the Americas, make it the most widely distributed wild bird.", "The house sparrow is strongly associated with human habitation, and can live in urban or rural settings.", "Though found in widely varied habitats and climates, it typically avoids extensive woodlands, grasslands, and deserts away from human development.", "It feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is an opportunistic eater and commonly eats insects and many other foods.", "Its predators include domestic cats, hawks, and many other predatory birds and mammals.", "Because of its numbers, ubiquity, and association with human settlements, the house sparrow is culturally prominent.", "It is extensively, and usually unsuccessfully, persecuted as an agricultural pest.", "It has also often been kept as a pet, as well as being a food item and a symbol of lust, sexual potency, commonness, and vulgarity.", "Though it is widespread and abundant, its numbers have declined in some areas.", "The animal's conservation status is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List.", "An audio recording of a house sparrow", "The house sparrow is typically about long, ranging from .", "The house sparrow is a compact bird with a full chest and a large, rounded head.", "Its bill is stout and conical with a culmen length of , strongly built as an adaptation for eating seeds.", "Its tail is short, at long.", "The wing chord is , and the tarsus is .", "In mass, the house sparrow ranges from .", "Females usually are slightly smaller than males.", "The median mass on the European continent for both sexes is about , and in more southerly subspecies is around .", "Younger birds are smaller, males are larger during the winter, and females are larger during the breeding season.", "Birds at higher latitudes, colder climates, and sometimes higher altitudes are larger , both between and within subspecies.", "The plumage of the house sparrow is mostly different shades of grey and brown.", "The sexes exhibit strong dimorphism: the female is mostly buffish above and below, while the male has boldly coloured head markings, a reddish back, and grey underparts.", "The male has a dark grey crown from the top of its bill to its back, and chestnut brown flanking its crown on the sides of its head.", "It has black around its bill, on its throat, and on the spaces between its bill and eyes .", "It has a small white stripe between the lores and crown and small white spots immediately behind the eyes , with black patches below and above them.", "The underparts are pale grey or white, as are the cheeks, ear coverts, and stripes at the base of the head.", "The upper back and mantle are a warm brown, with broad black streaks, while the lower back, rump and upper tail coverts are greyish brown.", "The male is duller in fresh nonbreeding plumage, with whitish tips on many feathers.", "Wear and preening expose many of the bright brown and black markings, including most of the black throat and chest patch, called the \" bib \" or \" badge \" .", "The badge is variable in width and general size, and may signal social status or fitness.", "This hypothesis has led to a \" veritable 'cottage industry' \" of studies, which have only conclusively shown that patches increase in size with age.", "The male's bill is dark grey, but black in the breeding season.", "The female has no black markings or grey crown.", "Its upperparts and head are brown with darker streaks around the mantle and a distinct pale supercilium.", "Its underparts are pale grey-brown.", "The female's bill is brownish-grey and becomes darker in breeding plumage approaching the black of the male's bill.", "Juveniles are similar to the adult female, but deeper brown below and paler above, with paler and less defined supercilia.", "Juveniles have broader buff feather edges, and tend to have looser, scruffier plumage, like moulting adults.", "Juvenile males tend to have darker throats and white postoculars like adult males, while juvenile females tend to have white throats.", "However, juveniles cannot be reliably sexed by plumage: some juvenile males lack any markings of the adult male, and some juvenile females have male features.", "The bills of young birds are light yellow to straw, paler than the female's bill.", "Immature males have paler versions of the adult male's markings, which can be very indistinct in fresh plumage.", "By their first breeding season, young birds generally are indistinguishable from other adults, though they may still be paler during their first year.", "Most house sparrow vocalisations are variations on its short and incessant chirping call.", "Transcribed as chirrup, tschilp, or philip, this note is made as a contact call by flocking or resting birds, or by males to proclaim nest ownership and invite pairing.", "In the breeding season, the male gives this call repetitively, with emphasis and speed, but not much rhythm, forming what is described either as a song or an \" ecstatic call \" similar to a song.", "Young birds also give a true song, especially in captivity, a warbling similar to that of the European greenfinch.", "Aggressive males give a trilled version of their call, transcribed as \" chur-chur-r-r-it-it-it-it \" .", "This call is also used by females in the breeding season, to establish dominance over males while displacing them to feed young or incubate eggs.", "House sparrows give a nasal alarm call, the basic sound of which is transcribed as quer, and a shrill chree call in great distress.", "Another vocalisation is the \" appeasement call \" , a soft quee given to inhibit aggression, usually given between birds of a mated pair.", "These vocalisations are not unique to the house sparrow, but are shared, with small variations, by all sparrows.", "An immature of the Indian subspecies (P.", "d. indicus) in Rajasthan, India Some variation is seen in the 12 subspecies of house sparrows, which are divided into two groups, the Oriental P. d. indicus group, and the Palaearctic P. d. domesticus group.", "Birds of the P. d. domesticus group have grey cheeks, while P. d. indicus group birds have white cheeks, as well as bright colouration on the crown, a smaller bill, and a longer black bib.", "The subspecies P. d. tingitanus differs little from the nominate subspecies, except in the worn breeding plumage of the male, in which the head is speckled with black and underparts are paler.", "P. d. balearoibericus is slightly paler than the nominate, but darker than P. d. bibilicus.", "P. d. bibilicus is paler than most subspecies, but has the grey cheeks of P. d. domesticus group birds.", "The similar P. d. persicus is paler and smaller, and P. d. niloticus is nearly identical but smaller.", "Of the less widespread P. d. indicus group subspecies, P. d. hyrcanus is larger than P. d. indicus, P. d. hufufae is paler, P. d. bactrianus is larger and paler, and P. d. parkini is larger and darker with more black on the breast than any other subspecies.", "The house sparrow can be confused with a number of other seed-eating birds, especially its relatives in the genus Passer.", "Many of these relatives are smaller, with an appearance that is neater or \" cuter \" , as with the Dead Sea sparrow.", "The dull-coloured female can often not be distinguished from other females, and is nearly identical to those of the Spanish and Italian sparrows.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow is smaller and slenderer with a chestnut crown and a black patch on each cheek.", "The male Spanish sparrow and Italian sparrow are distinguished by their chestnut crowns.", "The Sind sparrow is very similar but smaller, with less black on the male's throat and a distinct pale supercilium on the female.", "The house sparrow was among the first animals to be given a scientific name in the modern system of biological classification, since it was described by Carl Linnaeus, in the 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "It was described from a type specimen collected in Sweden, with the name Fringilla domestica.", "Later, the genus name Fringilla came to be used only for the common chaffinch and its relatives, and the house sparrow has usually been placed in the genus Passer created by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.", "The bird's scientific name and its usual English name have the same meaning.", "The Latin word passer, like the English word \" sparrow \" , is a term for small active birds, coming from a root word referring to speed.", "The Latin word domesticus means \" belonging to the house \" , like the common name a reference to its association with humans.", "The house sparrow is also called by a number of alternative English names, including English sparrow, chiefly in North America", "and Indian sparrow or Indian house sparrow, for the birds of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia.", "Dialectal names include sparr, sparrer, spadger, spadgick, and philip, mainly in southern England", "spug and spuggy, mainly in northern England", "spur and sprig, mainly in Scotland", "and spatzie or spotsie, from the German Spatz, in North America.", "A pair of Italian sparrows, in Rome The genus Passer contains about 25 species, depending on the authority, 26 according to the Handbook of the Birds of the World.", "Most Passer species are dull-coloured birds with short, square tails and stubby, conical beaks, between long.", "Mitochondrial DNA studies suggest that speciation in the genus occurred during the Pleistocene and earlier, while other evidence suggests speciation occurred 25,000 to 15,000 years ago.", "Within Passer, the house sparrow is part of the \" Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrows \" group and a close relative of the Mediterranean \" willow sparrows \" .", "The taxonomy of the house sparrow and its Mediterranean relatives is complicated.", "The common type of \" willow sparrow \" is the Spanish sparrow, which resembles the house sparrow in many respects.", "It frequently prefers wetter habitats than the house sparrow, and it is often colonial and nomadic.", "In most of the Mediterranean, one or both species occur, with some degree of hybridisation.", "In North Africa, the two species hybridise extensively, forming highly variable mixed populations with a full range of characters from pure house sparrows to pure Spanish sparrows.", "In most of Italy, the breeding species is the Italian sparrow, which has an appearance intermediate between those of the house and Spanish sparrows.", "Its specific status and origin are the subject of much debate, but it may be a case of long-ago hybrid speciation.", "In the Alps, the Italian sparrow intergrades over a narrow roughly strip with the house sparrow, and some house sparrows migrate into the Italian sparrow's range in winter.", "On the Mediterranean islands of Malta, Gozo, Crete, Rhodes, and Karpathos, other apparently intermediate birds are of unknown status.", "By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona House sparrows perching on a roof, during winter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa.", "Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America , Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world.", "It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.", "The extent of its range makes it the most widely distributed wild bird on the planet.", "The house sparrow has become highly successful in most parts of the world where it has been introduced.", "This is mostly due to its early adaptation to living with humans, and its adaptability to a wide range of conditions.", "Other factors may include its robust immune response, compared to the Eurasian tree sparrow.", "Where introduced, it can extend its range quickly, sometimes at a rate over per year.", "In many parts of the world, it has been characterised as a pest, and poses a threat to native birds.", "A few introductions have died out or been of limited success, such as those to Greenland and Cape Verde.", "intended to control the ravages of the linden moth.", "In North America, the house sparrow now occurs from the Northwest Territories of Canada to southern Panama, The house sparrow was first introduced to Australia in 1863 at Melbourne and is common throughout the eastern part of the continent as far north as Cape York, but has been prevented from establishing itself in Western Australia, where every house sparrow found in the state is killed.", "House sparrows were introduced in New Zealand in 1859, and from there reached many of the Pacific islands, including Hawaii.", "In southern Africa, birds of both the European subspecies (P.", "d. domesticus) and the Indian subspecies (P.", "d. indicus) were introduced around 1900.", "Birds of P. d. domesticus ancestry are confined to a few towns, while P. d. indicus birds have spread rapidly, reaching Tanzania in the 1980s.", "Despite this rapid spread, native relatives such as the Cape sparrow also occur and thrive in urban habitats.", "In South America, it was first introduced near Buenos Aires around 1870, and quickly became common in most of the southern part of the continent.", "It now occurs almost continuously from Tierra del Fuego to the fringes of the Amazon basin, with isolated populations as far north as coastal Venezuela.", "The house sparrow is closely associated with human habitation and cultivation.", "It is not an obligate commensal of humans as some have suggested: birds of the migratory Central Asian subspecies usually breed away from humans in open country, and birds elsewhere are occasionally found away from humans.", "The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra.", "Well adapted to living around humans, it frequently lives and even breeds indoors, especially in factories, warehouses, and zoos.", "It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night.", "It reaches its greatest densities in urban centres, but its reproductive success is greater in suburbs, where insects are more abundant.", "On a larger scale, it is most abundant in wheat-growing areas such as the Midwestern United States.", "It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates.", "It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries.", "In most of eastern Asia, the house sparrow is entirely absent, replaced by the Eurasian tree sparrow.", "Where these two species overlap, the house sparrow is usually more common than the Eurasian tree sparrow, but one species may replace the other in a manner that ornithologist Maud Doria Haviland described as \" random, or even capricious \" .", "In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty.", "The house sparrow is a very social bird.", "It is gregarious during all seasons when feeding, often forming flocks with other species of birds.", "It roosts communally and while breeding nests are usually grouped together in clumps.", "House sparrows also engage in social activities such as dust or water bathing and \" social singing \" , in which birds call together in bushes.", "The house sparrow feeds mostly on the ground, but it flocks in trees and bushes.", "At feeding stations and nests, female house sparrows are dominant despite their smaller size, and they can fight over males in the breeding season.", "House sparrows sleep with the bill tucked underneath the scapular feathers.", "Outside of the reproductive season, they often roost communally in trees or shrubs.", "Much communal chirping occurs before and after the birds settle in the roost in the evening, as well as before the birds leave the roost in the morning.", "Some congregating sites separate from the roost may be visited by the birds prior to settling in for the night.", "Dust or water bathing is common and often occurs in groups.", "Head scratching is done with the leg over the drooped wing.", "A female house sparrow feeding on rice grains As an adult, the house sparrow mostly feeds on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is opportunistic and adaptable, and eats whatever foods are available.", "In towns and cities, it often scavenges for food in garbage containers and congregates in the outdoors of restaurants and other eating establishments to feed on leftover food and crumbs.", "It can perform complex tasks to obtain food, such as opening automatic doors to enter supermarkets, clinging to hotel walls to watch vacationers on their balconies, and nectar robbing kowhai flowers.", "In common with many other birds, the house sparrow requires grit to digest the harder items in its diet.", "Grit can be either stone, often grains of masonry, or the shells of eggs or snails", "oblong and rough grains are preferred.", "Several studies of the house sparrow in temperate agricultural areas have found the proportion of seeds in its diet to be about 90%.", "It will eat almost any seeds, but where it has a choice, it prefers corn, oats, and wheat.", "Rural birds tend to eat more waste seed from animal dung and seed from fields.", "In urban areas, the house sparrow feeds largely on food provided directly or indirectly by humans, such as bread, though it prefers raw seeds.", "The house sparrow also eats some plant matter besides seeds, including buds, berries, and fruits such as grapes and cherries.", "In temperate areas, the house sparrow has an unusual habit of tearing flowers, especially yellow ones, in the spring.", "Animals form another important part of the house sparrow's diet, chiefly insects, of which beetles, caterpillars, dipteran flies, and aphids are especially important.", "Various noninsect arthropods are eaten, as are molluscs and crustaceans where available, earthworms, and even vertebrates such as lizards and frogs.", "Young house sparrows are fed mostly on insects until about 15 days after hatching.", "They are also given small quantities of seeds, spiders, and grit.", "In most places, grasshoppers and crickets are the most abundant foods of nestlings.", "True bugs, ants, sawflies, and beetles are also important, but house sparrows take advantage of whatever foods are abundant to feed their young.", "House sparrows have been observed stealing prey from other birds, including American robins.", "The gut microbiota of house sparrows differs between chicks and adults, with Pseudomonadota decreasing in chicks when they get to around 9 days old, whilst the relative abundance of Bacillota increase.", "The house sparrow's flight is direct and flapping, averaging and about 15 wingbeats per second.", "On the ground, the house sparrow typically hops rather than walks.", "It can swim when pressed to do so by pursuit from predators.", "Captive birds have been recorded diving and swimming short distances under water.", "Most house sparrows do not move more than a few kilometres during their lifetimes.", "However, limited migration occurs in all regions.", "Some young birds disperse long distances, especially on coasts, and mountain birds move to lower elevations in winter.", "Two subspecies, P. d. bactrianus and P. d. parkini, are predominantly migratory.", "Unlike the birds in sedentary populations that migrate, birds of migratory subspecies prepare for migration by putting on weight.", "A pair of the Indian subspecies (P.", "d. indicus) mating in Kolkata House sparrows can breed in the breeding season immediately following their hatching, and sometimes attempt to do so.", "Some birds breeding for the first time in tropical areas are only a few months old and still have juvenile plumage.", "Birds breeding for the first time are rarely successful in raising young, and reproductive success increases with age, as older birds breed earlier in the breeding season, and fledge more young.", "As the breeding season approaches, hormone releases trigger enormous increases in the size of the sexual organs and changes in day length lead males to start calling by nesting sites.", "The timing of mating and egg-laying varies geographically, and between specific locations and years because a sufficient supply of insects is needed for egg formation and feeding nestlings.", "Males take up nesting sites before the breeding season, by frequently calling beside them.", "Unmated males start nest construction and call particularly frequently to attract females.", "When a female approaches a male during this period, the male displays by moving up and down while drooping and shivering his wings, pushing up his head, raising and spreading his tail, and showing his bib.", "Males may try to mate with females while calling or displaying.", "In response, a female will adopt a threatening posture and attack a male before flying away, pursued by the male.", "The male displays in front of her, attracting other males, which also pursue and display to the female.", "This group display usually does not immediately result in copulations.", "Other males usually do not copulate with the female.", "Copulation is typically initiated by the female giving a soft dee-dee-dee call to the male.", "Birds of a pair copulate frequently until the female is laying eggs, and the male mounts the female repeatedly each time a pair mates.", "The house sparrow is monogamous, and typically mates for life, but birds from pairs often engage in extra-pair copulations, so about 15% of house sparrow fledglings are unrelated to their mother's mate.", "Males guard their mates carefully to avoid being cuckolded, and most extra-pair copulation occurs away from nest sites.", "Males may sometimes have multiple mates, and bigamy is mostly limited by aggression between females.", "Many birds do not find a nest and a mate, and instead may serve as helpers around the nest for mated pairs, a role which increases the chances of being chosen to replace a lost mate.", "Lost mates of both sexes can be replaced quickly during the breeding season.", "The formation of a pair and the bond between the two birds is tied to the holding of a nest site, though paired house sparrows can recognise each other away from the nest.", "In adult house sparrows, annual survival is 4565%.", "After fledging and leaving the care of their parents, young sparrows have a high mortality rate, which lessens as they grow older and more experienced.", "Only about 2025% of birds hatched survive to their first breeding season.", "The oldest known wild house sparrow lived for nearly two decades", "it was found dead 19 years and 9 months after it was ringed in Denmark.", "The oldest recorded captive house sparrow lived for 23 years.", "The typical ratio of males to females in a population is uncertain due to problems in collecting data, but a very slight preponderance of males at all ages is usual.", "A male sparrow being eaten by a cat: Domestic cats are one of the main predators of the house sparrow.", "The house sparrow's main predators are cats and birds of prey, but many other animals prey on them, including corvids, squirrels, and even humansthe house sparrow has been consumed in the past by people in many parts of the world, and it still is in parts of the Mediterranean.", "Most species of birds of prey have been recorded preying on the house sparrow in places where records are extensive.", "Accipiters and the merlin in particular are major predators, though cats are likely to have a greater impact on house sparrow populations.", "The house sparrow is also a common victim of roadkill", "on European roads, it is the bird most frequently found dead.", "The house sparrow is host to a huge number of parasites and diseases, and the effect of most is unknown.", "Ornithologist Ted R. Anderson listed thousands, noting that his list was incomplete.", "The commonly recorded bacterial pathogens of the house sparrow are often those common in humans, and include Salmonella and Escherichia coli.", "Salmonella is common in the house sparrow, and a comprehensive study of house sparrow disease found it in 13% of sparrows tested.", "Salmonella epidemics in the spring and winter can kill large numbers of sparrows.", "The house sparrow hosts avian pox and avian malaria, which it has spread to the native forest birds of Hawaii.", "Many of the diseases hosted by the house sparrow are also present in humans and domestic animals, for which the house sparrow acts as a reservoir host.", "Arboviruses such as the West Nile virus, which most commonly infect insects and mammals, survive winters in temperate areas by going dormant in birds such as the house sparrow.", "A few records indicate disease extirpating house sparrow populations, especially from Scottish islands, but this seems to be rare.", "House sparrows are also infected by haemosporidian parasites, but less so in urban than in rural areas Toxoplasma gondii has been detected in sparrows in northwestern China where they pose a risk due to their meat being consumed in the region.", "The house sparrow is infested by a number of external parasites, which usually cause little harm to adult sparrows.", "In Europe, the most common mite found on sparrows is Proctophyllodes, the most common ticks are Argas reflexus and Ixodes arboricola, and the most common flea on the house sparrow is Ceratophyllus gallinae.", "Dermanyssus blood-feeding mites are also common ectoparasites of house sparrows, and these mites can enter human habitation and bite humans, causing a condition known as gamasoidosis.", "A number of chewing lice occupy different niches on the house sparrow's body.", "Menacanthus lice occur across the house sparrow's body, where they feed on blood and feathers, while Brueelia lice feed on feathers and Philopterus fringillae occurs on the head.", "An immature house sparrow sleeping House sparrows express strong circadian rhythms of activity in the laboratory.", "They were among the first bird species to be seriously studied in terms of their circadian activity and photoperiodism, in part because of their availability and adaptability in captivity, but also because they can \" find their way \" and remain rhythmic in constant darkness.", "Such studies have found that the pineal gland is a central part of the house sparrow's circadian system: removal of the pineal eliminates the circadian rhythm of activity, and transplant of the pineal into another individual confers to this individual the rhythm phase of the donor bird.", "The suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus have also been shown to be an important component of the circadian system of house sparrows.", "The photoreceptors involved in the synchronisation of the circadian clock to the external light-dark cycle are located in the brain and can be stimulated by light reaching them directly though the skull, as revealed by experiments in which blind sparrows, which normally can still synchronise to the light-dark cycle, failed to do so once India ink was injected as a screen under the skin on top of their skulls.", "Similarly, even when blind, house sparrows continue to be photoperiodic, i.e. show reproductive development when the days are long, but not when the days are short.", "This response is stronger when the feathers on top of the head are plucked, and is eliminated when India ink is injected under the skin at the top of the head, showing that the photoreceptors involved in the photoperiodic response to day length are located inside the brain.", "House sparrows have also been used in studies of nonphotic entrainment : for example, in constant darkness, a situation in which the birds would normally reveal their endogenous, non-24-hour, \" free-running \" rhythms of activity, they instead show 24-hour periodicity if they are exposed to two hours of chirp playbacks every 24 hours, matching their daily activity onsets with the daily playback onsets.", "House sparrows in constant dim light can also be entrained to a daily cycle based on the presence of food.", "Finally, house sparrows in constant darkness could be entrained to a cycle of high and low temperature, but only if the difference in temperature was large ", "some of the tested sparrows matched their activity to the warm phase, and others to the cold phase.", "Flocking and chirping together beneath a fluorescent tube light in Germany The house sparrow is closely associated with humans.", "They are believed to have become associated with humans around 10,000 years ago.", "d. bactrianus) is least associated with humans and considered to be evolutionarily closer to the ancestral noncommensal populations.", "Usually, the house sparrow is regarded as a pest, since it consumes agricultural products and spreads disease to humans and their domestic animals.", "Even birdwatchers often hold it in little regard because of its molestation of other birds.", "However, the house sparrow can be beneficial to humans, as well, especially by eating insect pests, and attempts at the large-scale control of the house sparrow have failed.", "The house sparrow has long been used as a food item.", "From around 1560 to at least the 19th century in northern Europe, earthenware \" sparrow pots \" were hung from eaves to attract nesting birds so the young could be readily harvested.", "Wild birds were trapped in nets in large numbers, and sparrow pie was a traditional dish, thought, because of the association of sparrows with lechery, to have aphrodisiac properties.", "A traditional Indian medicine, Cittukkuruvi lekiyam in Tamil, was sold with similar aphrodisiac claims.", "Sparrows were also trapped as food for falconers' birds and zoo animals.", "During the 1870s, there were debates on the damaging effects of sparrows in the House of Commons in England.", "In the early part of the 20th century, sparrow clubs culled many millions of birds and eggs in an attempt to control numbers of this perceived pest, but with only a localised impact on numbers.", "House sparrows have been kept as pets at many times in history, though they have no bright plumage or attractive songs, and raising them is difficult.", "The house sparrow has an extremely large range and population, so it is assessed as least concern for conservation on the IUCN Red List.", "The IUCN estimates for the global population runs up to nearly 1.4 billion individuals, second among all birds perhaps only to the red-billed quelea in abundance .", "However, populations have been declining in many parts of the world, especially near its Eurasian places of origin.", "These declines were first noticed in North America, where they were initially attributed to the spread of the house finch, but have been most severe in Western Europe.", "Declines have not been universal, as no serious declines have been reported from Eastern Europe, but have even occurred in Australia, where the house sparrow was introduced recently.", "In Great Britain, populations peaked in the early 1970s, but have since declined by 68% overall, and about 90% in some regions.", "The RSPB lists the house sparrow's UK conservation status as red.", "In London, the house sparrow almost disappeared from the central city.", "The numbers of house sparrows in the Netherlands have dropped in half since the 1980s, so the house sparrow is even considered an endangered species.", "This status came to widespread attention after a female house sparrow, referred to as the \" Dominomus \" , was killed after knocking down dominoes arranged as part of an attempt to set a world record.", "These declines are not unprecedented, as similar reductions in population occurred when the internal combustion engine replaced horses in the 1920s and a major source of food in the form of grain spillage was lost.", "Declines have been particularly apparent even in North America, where the house sparrow is invasive in some states.", "Introduced to Philadelphia initially in 1852 the house sparrow rapidly spread across the nation.", "However, the bird has largely disappeared from the city nowadays and overall, it is estimated to have declined in North America by 84% since 1966.", "In South Asia, the house sparrow has largely vanished from major cities such as Karachi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Lahore.", "Various causes for the dramatic decreases in population have been proposed, including predation, in particular by Eurasian sparrowhawks", "electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones", "and diseases A primary cause of the decline seems to be an insufficient supply of insect food for nestling sparrows.", "Declines in insect populations result from an increase of monoculture crops, the heavy use of pesticides, the replacement of native plants in cities with introduced plants and parking areas, and possibly the introduction of unleaded petrol, which produces toxic compounds such as methyl nitrite.", "Protecting insect habitats on farms and planting native plants in cities benefit the house sparrow, as does establishing urban green spaces.", "To raise awareness of threats to the house sparrow, World Sparrow Day has been celebrated on 20 March across the world since 2010.", "Over the recent years, the house sparrow population has been on the decline in many Asian countries, and this decline is quite evident in India.", "To promote the conservation of these birds, in 2012, the house sparrow was declared as the state bird of Delhi.", "To many people across the world, the house sparrow is the most familiar wild animal and, because of its association with humans and familiarity, it is frequently used to represent the common and vulgar, or the lewd.", "One of the reasons for the introduction of house sparrows throughout the world was their association with the European homeland of many immigrants.", "Birds usually described later as sparrows are referred to in many works of ancient literature and religious texts in Europe and western Asia.", "These references may not always refer specifically to the house sparrow, or even to small, seed-eating birds, but later writers who were inspired by these texts often had the house sparrow in mind.", "In particular, sparrows were associated by the ancient Greeks with Aphrodite, the goddess of love, due to their perceived lustfulness, an association echoed by later writers such as Chaucer and Shakespeare.", "Jesus's use of \" sparrows \" as an example of divine providence in the Gospel of Matthew also inspired later references, such as that in Shakespeare's Hamlet and the Gospel hymn His Eye Is on the Sparrow.", "\" The house sparrow is very rarely represented in ancient Egyptian art, but an Egyptian hieroglyph is based on it.", "The sparrow hieroglyph had no phonetic value and was used as a determinative in words to indicate small, narrow, or bad.", "An alternative view is that the hieroglyph meant \" a prolific man \" or \" the revolution of a year \" ."]}, "Fringilla coelebs": {"keywords": ["The chaffinch breeds in much of Europe, across the Palearctic to Siberia and in northwestern Africa.", "Outside the breeding season, chaffinches form flocks in open countryside and forage for seeds on the ground.", "During the breeding season, they forage on trees for invertebrates, especially caterpillars, and feed these to their young.", "They are partial migrants, birds breeding in warmer regions are sedentary, while those breeding in the colder northern areas of their range winter further south.", "The ends of the feathers wear away over the winter so that by the spring breeding season the underlying brighter colours are displayed.", "The males of F. c. canariensis and F. c. palmae in the Canary Islands have deep slate-blue upperparts and lack a contrasting mantle.", "The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia.", "There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.", "The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century.", "In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species.", "In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.", "This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter.", "The date for breeding is dependent on the spring temperature and is earlier in southwest Europe and later in the northeast.", "The outside is covered with a layer of lichen and spider silk over an inner layer of moss and grass.", "Outside the breeding season, common chaffinches mainly eat seeds and other plant material that they find on the ground.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain.", "The endemic subspecies on the Macaronesian islands in the Atlantic are vulnerable to the loss of habitat, especially F. c. ombriosa on El Hierro in the Canary Islands, where the breeding population is between 1,000 and 5,000 pairs.", "\" In Great Britain, the practice of keeping common chaffinches as pets declined after the trapping of wild birds was outlawed by the Wild Birds Protection Acts of 1880 to 1896."], "habitat_section": ["The common chaffinch breeds in wooded areas where the July isotherm is between .", "The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia.", "There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.", "The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century.", "In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species.", "In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.", "This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter.", "It forms loose flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with bramblings.", "It occasionally strays to eastern North America, although some sightings may be escapees."], "random_sentences": ["ID composite The common chaffinch or simply the chaffinch is a common and widespread small passerine bird in the finch family.", "The male is brightly coloured with a blue-grey cap and rust-red underparts.", "The female is more subdued in colouring, but both sexes have two contrasting white wing bars and white sides to the tail.", "The male bird has a strong voice and sings from exposed perches to attract a mate.", "The chaffinch breeds in much of Europe, across the Palearctic to Siberia and in northwestern Africa.", "The female builds a nest with a deep cup in the fork of a tree.", "The clutch is typically four or five eggs, which hatch in about 13 days.", "The chicks fledge in around 14 days, but are fed by both adults for several weeks after leaving the nest.", "Outside the breeding season, chaffinches form flocks in open countryside and forage for seeds on the ground.", "During the breeding season, they forage on trees for invertebrates, especially caterpillars, and feed these to their young.", "birds breeding in warmer regions are sedentary, while those breeding in the colder northern areas of their range winter further south.", "The eggs and nestlings of the chaffinch are taken by a variety of mammalian and avian predators.", "Its large numbers and huge range mean that chaffinches are classed as of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.", "The common chaffinch was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name.", "Fringilla is the Latin word for finch, while caelebs means unmarried or single.", "Linnaeus remarked that during the Swedish winter, only the female birds migrated south through Belgium to Italy.", "The name spink is probably derived from the bird's call note.", "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 .", "The common chaffinch is about long, with a wingspan of and a weight of .", "The adult male of the nominate subspecies has a black forehead and a blue-grey crown, nape and upper mantle.", "The rump is a light olive-green", "the lower mantle and scapulars form a brown saddle.", "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.", "The flight feathers are black with white on the basal portions of the vanes.", "The secondaries and inner primaries have pale yellow fringes on the outer web whereas the outer primaries have a white outer edge.", "After the autumn moult, the tips of the new feathers have a buff fringe that adds a brown cast to the coloured plumage.", "The ends of the feathers wear away over the winter so that by the spring breeding season the underlying brighter colours are displayed.", "The eyes have dark brown irises and the legs are grey-brown.", "In winter the bill is a pale grey and slightly darker along the upper ridge or culmen, but in spring the bill becomes bluish-grey with a small black tip.", "The male of the subspecies resident in the British Isles (F.", "c. gengleri) closely resembles the nominate subspecies, but has a slightly darker mantle and underparts.", "The males of the two North African subspecies F. c. africana and F. c. spodiogenys have a blue-grey crown and nape that extends down to the sides of the head and neck, a black forehead and lore, a broken white eye-ring, a bright olive-green saddle and a pink-buff throat and breast.", "The males of F. c. canariensis and F. c. palmae in the Canary Islands have deep slate-blue upperparts and lack a contrasting mantle.", "Male chaffinches in Madeira (F.", "c. maderensis) and the Azores (F.", "c. moreletti) are similar in appearance to F. c. canariensis, but have a bright green mantle.", "The adult female is much duller in appearance than the male.", "The head and most of the upperparts are shades of grey-brown.", "The lower back and rump are a dull olive green.", "The wings and tail are similar to those of the male.", "The juvenile resembles the female.", "Males typically sing two or three different song types, and there are regional dialects also.", "The acquisition by the young common chaffinch of its song was the subject of an influential study by British ethologist William Thorpe.", "Thorpe determined that if the young common chaffinch is not exposed to the adult male's song during a certain critical period after hatching, it will never properly learn the song.", "He also found that in adult common chaffinches, castration eliminates the song, but injection of testosterone induces such birds to sing even in November, when they are normally silent.", "The common chaffinch breeds in wooded areas where the July isotherm is between .", "The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia.", "There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.", "The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century.", "In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species.", "In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.", "This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter.", "It forms loose flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with bramblings.", "It occasionally strays to eastern North America, although some sightings may be escapees.", "Nest of a chaffinch Eggs of Fringilla coelebs moreletti", "Common chaffinches first breed when they are 1 year old.", "They are mainly monogamous and the pair-bond for residential subspecies such as gengleri sometimes persists from one year to the next.", "The date for breeding is dependent on the spring temperature and is earlier in southwest Europe and later in the northeast.", "In Great Britain, most clutches are laid between late April and the middle of June.", "A male attracts a female to his territory through song.", " Nests are built entirely by the female and are usually located in the fork of a bush or a tree several metres above the ground.", "The nest has a deep cup and is lined with a layer of thin roots and feathers.", "The outside is covered with a layer of lichen and spider silk over an inner layer of moss and grass.", "The eggs are laid in early morning at daily intervals until the clutch is complete.", "The clutch is typically 45 eggs, which are smooth and slightly glossy, but very variable in colour.", "They range from pale-blueish green to light red with purple-brown blotches, spots or steaks.", "The average size of an egg is with a weight of .", "The eggs are incubated for 1016 days by the female.", "The chicks are altricial, hatching nearly naked with closed eyes, and are fed by both parents but mainly by the female, who broods them for around six days.", "They are mainly fed caterpillars.", "The nestlings fledge 1118 days after hatching and disperse.", "The young birds are then assisted with feeding by both parents for a further three weeks.", "The parents only very rarely start a second brood, but when they do so it is always in a new nest.", "Juveniles undergo a partial moult at around five weeks of age in which they replace their head, body and many of their covert feathers, but not their primary and secondary flight feathers.", "After breeding adult birds undergo a complete annual moult which lasts around ten weeks.", "In a study carried out in Britain using ring-recovery data, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 53 per cent, and the adult annual survival rate was 59 per cent.", "From these figures the typical lifespan is only 3 years, but the maximum age recorded is 15 years and 6 months for a bird in Switzerland.", "Outside the breeding season, common chaffinches mainly eat seeds and other plant material that they find on the ground.", "They often forage in open country in large flocks.", "Common chaffinches seldom take food directly from plants and only very rarely use their feet for handling food.", "During the breeding season, their diet switches to invertebrates, especially defoliating caterpillars.", "They forage in trees and also occasionally make short sallies to catch insects in the air.", "The young are entirely fed with invertebrates which include caterpillars, aphids, earwigs, spiders and grubs .", "The eggs and nestlings of the common chaffinch are predated by crows, Eurasian red and eastern grey squirrels, domestic cats and probably also by stoats and weasels.", "Clutches begun later in the spring suffer less predation, an effect that is believed to be due to the increased vegetation making nests more difficult to find.", " Unlike the case for the closely related brambling, the common chaffinch is not parasitised by the common cuckoo.", "The protozoal parasite Trichomonas gallinae was known to infect pigeons and raptors, but beginning in Great Britain in 2005, carcasses of dead European greenfinches and common chaffinches were found to be infected with the parasite.", "The disease spread and in 2008, infected carcasses were found in Norway, Sweden and Finland and a year later in Germany.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain.", "In Great Britain, the number of infected carcasses recovered each year declined after a peak in 2006.", "There was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches but no significant decline in the overall number of common chaffinches.", "A similar pattern occurred in Finland where, after the arrival of the disease in 2008, there was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches, but only a small change in the number of common chaffinches.", "Common chaffinches can develop tumors on their feet and legs caused by the Fringilla coelebs papillomavirus.", "The size of the papillomas range from a small nodule on a digit to a large growth involving both the foot and the leg.", "The disease is uncommon: in a 1973 study undertaken in the Netherlands, of around 25,000 common chaffinches screened, only 330 bore papillomas.", "The common chaffinch has an extensive range, estimated at 7 million square kilometres and a large population including an estimated 130240 million breeding pairs in Europe.", "Allowing for the birds breeding in Asia, the total population lies between 530 and 1,400 million individuals.", "There is no evidence of any serious overall decline in numbers, so the species is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of Least Concern.", "The endemic subspecies on the Macaronesian islands in the Atlantic are vulnerable to the loss of habitat, especially F. c. ombriosa on El Hierro in the Canary Islands, where the breeding population is between 1,000 and 5,000 pairs.", "A captive male chaffinch The common chaffinch was once popular as a caged songbird and large numbers of wild birds were trapped and sold.", "At the end of the 19th century, trapping even depleted the number of birds in London parks.", "In 1882, the English publisher Samuel Orchart Beeton issued a guide on the care of caged birds and included the recommendation: \" To parents and guardians plagued with a morose and sulky boy, my advice is, buy him a chaffinch.", "\" In Great Britain, the practice of keeping common chaffinches as pets declined after the trapping of wild birds was outlawed by the Wild Birds Protection Acts of 1880 to 1896.", "The common chaffinch is still a popular pet bird in some European countries.", "In Belgium, the traditional sport of vinkenzetting pits male common chaffinches against one another in a contest for the most bird calls in an hour."]}, "Sylvia atricapilla": {"keywords": ["The blackcap breeds in much of Europe, western Asia and northwestern Africa, and its preferred habitat is mature deciduous woodland.", "The blackcap is a partial migrant, birds from the colder areas of its range winter in scrub or trees in northwestern Europe, around the Mediterranean and in tropical Africa.", "Some birds from Germany and western continental Europe have adapted to spending the winter in gardens in Great Britain and Ireland.", "Garden birds also eat bread, fat and peanuts in winter.", "Despite extensive hunting in Mediterranean countries and the natural hazards of predation and disease, the blackcap has been extending its range for several decades, and is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as least concern.", "In some geographically isolated areas, such as islands, peninsulas and valleys in the Alps, a simplified fluting song occurs, named the Leiern song by the German ornithologists who first described it.", "The main call is a hard tac-tac, like stones knocking together, and other vocalisations include a squeaking sweet alarm, and a low-pitched trill similar to that of a garden warbler.", "Wintering birds in Africa are quiet initially, but start singing in January or February prior to their return north.", "A grey bird with a brown cap The continental breeding range of the blackcap lies between the 1430 July isotherms, and is occupied by the nominate subspecies, the other forms being restricted to islands or fringe areas in the Caucasus and eastern Iberia.", "Cross-breeding in captivity of birds from the resident population on the Canary Islands with migratory blackcaps from Germany showed the urge to migrate is genetically controlled, the offspring showing intermediate behaviour in terms of restlessness at migration time.", "Climate change appears to be affecting the migration pattern of the garden warbler and blackcap.", "Left graph shows likelihood of individual blackcaps being seen in a garden plotted against date, right graph shows likelihood plotted against air temperature.", "Although the British climate is sub-optimal, compensatory factors include the ready availability of food, , a shorter migration distance, and the avoidance of the Alps and the Sahara Desert.", "The steady supply of winter food in gardens gives even Spanish-breeding birds an opportunity to put on weight quicker than in their home range.", "Adults that frequented gardens had better body condition, smaller fat stores, longer bills, and rounder wing tips.", "Blackcaps did not exclusively feed in gardens, visits were linked to harsher weather.", "Individuals generally stayed at garden sites until immediately before spring departure, and supplemental feeding may have benefits for winter survival, When preparing for migration, abundant supplemental food may allow blackcaps to attain better body condition and may facilitate earlier and more successful breeding attempts.", "In the Iberian Peninsula, migratory blackcaps track similar climatic conditions over the season, which sedentary individuals must cope with great variation in climate over the year.", "Deciduous woodland is the preferred breeding habitat.", "A woodland glade The blackcap's main breeding habitat is mature deciduous woodland, with good scrub cover below the trees.", "Other habitats, such as parks, large gardens and overgrown hedges, are used as long as they meet the essential requirements of tall trees for songposts and an established understory.", "Densities are much lower in poorer habitats such as conifer forests.", "Breeding occurs in Europe at altitudes up to .", "The blackcap normally raises just one brood, but second nestings are sometimes recorded, particularly in the milder climate of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic islands, triple brooding has been observed once, the female laying a total of 23 eggs in the season.", "A male blackcap eating a berry from a tree The blackcap feeds mainly on insects during the breeding season, then switches to fruit in late summer, the change being triggered by an internal biological rhythm.", "Although any suitable fruit may be eaten, some have seasonal or local importance, elder makes up a large proportion of the diet of northern birds preparing for migration, and energy-rich olives and lentisc are favoured by blackcaps wintering in the Mediterranean.", "Blackcaps defend good winter food sources in the wild, and at garden feeding stations they repel competitors as large as starlings and blackbirds.", "Seventeen strains of H. parabelopolskyi are found only in the blackcap, and form a monophyletic group, three further members of that group are found only in the garden warbler, and another three occur in the African hill babbler, supporting the shared ancestry of the three bird species.", "A painting of a seated man in a brown jacket and buff waistcoat Aristotle, in his History of Animals, considered that the garden warbler eventually metamorphosed into a blackcap."], "habitat_section": ["A grey bird with a brown cap The continental breeding range of the blackcap lies between the 1430 July isotherms, and is occupied by the nominate subspecies, the other forms being restricted to islands or fringe areas in the Caucasus and eastern Iberia.", "There is a migratory divide in Europe at longitude 1011E. Birds to the west of this line head southwest towards Iberia or West Africa, whereas populations to the east migrate to the eastern Mediterranean and on to East Africa.", "Cross-breeding in captivity of birds from the resident population on the Canary Islands with migratory blackcaps from Germany showed the urge to migrate is genetically controlled, the offspring showing intermediate behaviour in terms of restlessness at migration time.", "Similar experiments using birds from southern Germany and eastern Austria, on opposite sides of the migratory divide, demonstrated that the direction of migration is also genetically determined.", "Climate change appears to be affecting the migration pattern of the garden warbler and blackcap.", "Both are arriving in Europe earlier than previously, and blackcaps and juvenile garden warblers are departing nearly two weeks later than in the 1980s.", "Birds of both species are longer-winged and lighter than in the past, suggesting a longer migration as the breeding range expands northwards.", "Left graph shows likelihood of individual blackcaps being seen in a garden plotted against date, right graph shows likelihood plotted against air temperature.", "where the blackcap was formerly just a summer visitor.", "Although the British climate is sub-optimal, compensatory factors include the ready availability of food, , a shorter migration distance, and the avoidance of the Alps and the Sahara Desert.", "It now appears that the wintering birds in the UK come from a much wider area than previously thought.", "The majority come from France, and some individuals come from as far away as Spain and Poland.", "The steady supply of winter food in gardens gives even Spanish-breeding birds an opportunity to put on weight quicker than in their home range.", "A 2021 paper showed that blackcaps, particularly adults, wintering in Britain and Ireland showed high site fidelity and low movement between wintering sites, in contrast to blackcaps wintering in their traditional winter ranges.", "Adults that frequented gardens had better body condition, smaller fat stores, longer bills, and rounder wing tips.", "The bill and wing tip shapes reflected a more generalist diet than that of birds in traditional winter sites.", "Blackcaps did not exclusively feed in gardens, visits were linked to harsher weather.", "Individuals generally stayed at garden sites until immediately before spring departure, and supplemental feeding may have benefits for winter survival, When preparing for migration, abundant supplemental food may allow blackcaps to attain better body condition and may facilitate earlier and more successful breeding attempts.", "In the Iberian Peninsula, migratory blackcaps track similar climatic conditions over the season, which sedentary individuals must cope with great variation in climate over the year.", "This suggests a trade-off between the cost of travelling long distances of migrants, and the flexibility required by sedentary individuals to tolerate a wide variety of environmental conditions.", "Deciduous woodland is the preferred breeding habitat.", "A woodland glade The blackcap's main breeding habitat is mature deciduous woodland, with good scrub cover below the trees.", "Other habitats, such as parks, large gardens and overgrown hedges, are used as long as they meet the essential requirements of tall trees for songposts and an established understory.", "Where other Sylvia warblers also breed, blackcaps tend to use taller trees than their relatives, preferably those with a good canopy, such as pedunculate oak.", "In prime habitat, breeding densities reach 100200 pairs per square kilometre in northern Europe, and 500900 pairs per square kilometre in Italy.", "Densities are much lower in poorer habitats such as conifer forests.", "Breeding occurs in Europe at altitudes up to .", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany When male blackcaps return to their breeding areas, they establish a territory.", "Adults that have previously bred return to the site they have used in previous summers, whereas inexperienced birds either wander until they find a suitable area, or establish a very large initial territory which contracts under pressure from neighbours.", "Territorial boundaries are established initially by loud singing, performed while the male displays with his crown raised, tail fanned and slow wingbeats.", "This display is followed, if necessary, by a chase, often leading to a fight.", "The typical territory size in a French study was , but in insect-rich tall maquis in Gibraltar, the average was only .", "Females feed within a home range which may overlap other blackcap territories, and covers up to six times the area of the defended zone.", "The eggs normally take about 11 days to hatch.", "Two eggs in a cup-shaped nest Sylvia warblers are unusual in that they vigorously defend their territories against other members of their genus as well as conspecifics.", "Blackcaps and garden warblers use identical habits in the same wood, yet aggressive interactions mean that their territories never overlap.", "Similar songs are a feature of the Sylvia warblers as a group, and it has been suggested that this promotes interspecific competition and helps to segregate territories between related species.", "It appears more likely from later studies that segregation of sympatric species, other than the blackcap and garden warbler, is due to subtle habitat preferences rather than interspecies aggression."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian blackcap , usually known simply as the blackcap, is a common and widespread typical warbler.", "It has mainly olive-grey upperparts and pale grey underparts, and differences between the five subspecies are small.", "Both sexes have a neat coloured cap to the head, black in the male and reddish-brown in the female.", "The male's typical song is a rich musical warbling, often ending in a loud high-pitched crescendo, but a simpler song is given in some isolated areas, such as valleys in the Alps.", "The blackcap's closest relative is the garden warbler, which looks quite different but has a similar song.", "The blackcap breeds in much of Europe, western Asia and northwestern Africa, and its preferred habitat is mature deciduous woodland.", "The male holds a territory when breeding, which is defended against garden warblers as well as other blackcaps.", "The nest is a neat cup, built low in brambles or scrub, and the clutch is typically 46 mainly buff eggs, which hatch in about 11 days.", "The chicks fledge in 1112 days, but are cared for by both adults for some time after leaving the nest.", "The blackcap is a partial migrant", "birds from the colder areas of its range winter in scrub or trees in northwestern Europe, around the Mediterranean and in tropical Africa.", "Some birds from Germany and western continental Europe have adapted to spending the winter in gardens in Great Britain and Ireland.", "Insects are the main food in the breeding season, but, for the rest of the year, blackcaps survive primarily on small fruit.", "Garden birds also eat bread, fat and peanuts in winter.", "Despite extensive hunting in Mediterranean countries and the natural hazards of predation and disease, the blackcap has been extending its range for several decades, and is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as least concern.", "Its rich and varied song has led to it being described as the \" mock nightingale \" and it has featured in literature, films and music.", "In Messiaen's opera Saint Francois d'Assise, the saint is represented by themes based on the blackcap's song.", "The genus Sylvia, the typical warblers, forms part of a large family of Old World warblers, the Sylviidae.", "The blackcap and its nearest relative, the garden warbler, are an ancient species pair which diverged very early from the rest of the genus at between 12 and 16 million years ago.", "In the course of time, these two species have become sufficiently distinctive that they have been placed in separate subgenera, with the blackcap in subgenus Sylvia and the garden warbler in Epilais.", "These sister species have a breeding range which extends farther northeast than all other Sylvia species except the lesser whitethroat and common whitethroat.", "The nearest relatives of the garden warbler outside the sister group are believed to be the African hill babbler and Dohrn's thrush-babbler, both of which should probably be placed in Sylvia rather than their current genera, Pseudoalcippe and Horizorhinus respectively.", "The blackcap was one of the many bird species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, as Motacilla atricapilla.", "The current genus name is from Modern Latin silvia, a woodland sprite, related to silva, a wood.", "The species name, like the English name, refers to the male's black cap.", "Atricapilla is from the Latin ater, \" black \" , and capillus, \" hair \" .", "Fossils and subfossils of the blackcap have been found in a number of European countries", "the oldest, dated to 1.21.0 million years ago, are from the Early Pleistocene of Bulgaria.", "Fossils from France show that the genus Sylvia dates back at least 20 million years.", "Male S. a. heineken in the Canary Islands, Spain", "altA male blackcap perched in a tree The blackcap is a mainly grey warbler with distinct male and female plumages.", "The nominate subspecies is about long with a wing length.", "Blackcaps have a complete moult in their breeding areas in August and September prior to migration.", "Some birds, typically those migrating the greatest distances, have a further partial moult between December and March.", "Juveniles replace their loosely structured body feathers with adult plumage, starting earlier, but taking longer to complete, than the adults.", "Blackcaps breeding in the north of the range have an earlier and shorter post-juvenile moult than those further south, and cross-breeding of captive birds shows that the timing is genetically controlled.", "Song of male, Moscow Song of a male, Surrey, England Calls of a male, Surrey, England The male's song is a rich musical warbling, often ending in a loud high-pitched crescendo, which is given in bursts of up to 30 seconds.", "The song is repeated for about two-and-a-half minutes, with a short pause before each repetition.", "In some geographically isolated areas, such as islands, peninsulas and valleys in the Alps, a simplified fluting song occurs, named the Leiern song by the German ornithologists who first described it.", "The song's introduction is like that of other blackcaps, but the final warbling part is a simple alternation between two notes, as in a great tit's call but more fluting.", "The main song is confusable with that of the garden warbler, but it is slightly higher pitched than in that species, more broken into discrete song segments, and less mellow.", "Both species have a quiet subsong, a muted version of the full song, which is even harder to separate.", "The blackcap occasionally mimics the song of other birds, the most frequently copied including the garden warbler and the common nightingale.", "The main call is a hard tac-tac, like stones knocking together, and other vocalisations include a squeaking sweet alarm, and a low-pitched trill similar to that of a garden warbler.", "Wintering birds in Africa are quiet initially, but start singing in January or February prior to their return north.", "Adult female in Sweden showing reddish brown cap", "altA grey bird with a brown cap The continental breeding range of the blackcap lies between the 1430 July isotherms, and is occupied by the nominate subspecies, the other forms being restricted to islands or fringe areas in the Caucasus and eastern Iberia.", "There is a migratory divide in Europe at longitude 1011E.", "Birds to the west of this line head southwest towards Iberia or West Africa, whereas populations to the east migrate to the eastern Mediterranean and on to East Africa.", "Cross-breeding in captivity of birds from the resident population on the Canary Islands with migratory blackcaps from Germany showed the urge to migrate is genetically controlled, the offspring showing intermediate behaviour in terms of restlessness at migration time.", "Similar experiments using birds from southern Germany and eastern Austria, on opposite sides of the migratory divide, demonstrated that the direction of migration is also genetically determined.", "Climate change appears to be affecting the migration pattern of the garden warbler and blackcap.", "Both are arriving in Europe earlier than previously, and blackcaps and juvenile garden warblers are departing nearly two weeks later than in the 1980s.", "Birds of both species are longer-winged and lighter than in the past, suggesting a longer migration as the breeding range expands northwards.", "Left graph shows likelihood of individual blackcaps being seen in a garden plotted against date, right graph shows likelihood plotted against air temperature.", "where the blackcap was formerly just a summer visitor.", "Although the British climate is sub-optimal, compensatory factors include the ready availability of food, , a shorter migration distance, and the avoidance of the Alps and the Sahara Desert.", "It now appears that the wintering birds in the UK come from a much wider area than previously thought.", "The majority come from France, and some individuals come from as far away as Spain and Poland.", "The steady supply of winter food in gardens gives even Spanish-breeding birds an opportunity to put on weight quicker than in their home range.", "A 2021 paper showed that blackcaps, particularly adults, wintering in Britain and Ireland showed high site fidelity and low movement between wintering sites, in contrast to blackcaps wintering in their traditional winter ranges.", "Adults that frequented gardens had better body condition, smaller fat stores, longer bills, and rounder wing tips.", "The bill and wing tip shapes reflected a more generalist diet than that of birds in traditional winter sites.", "Blackcaps did not exclusively feed in gardens", "visits were linked to harsher weather.", "Individuals generally stayed at garden sites until immediately before spring departure, and supplemental feeding may have benefits for winter survival, When preparing for migration, abundant supplemental food may allow blackcaps to attain better body condition and may facilitate earlier and more successful breeding attempts.", "In the Iberian Peninsula, migratory blackcaps track similar climatic conditions over the season, which sedentary individuals must cope with great variation in climate over the year.", "This suggests a trade-off between the cost of travelling long distances of migrants, and the flexibility required by sedentary individuals to tolerate a wide variety of environmental conditions.", "Deciduous woodland is the preferred breeding habitat.", "altA woodland glade The blackcap's main breeding habitat is mature deciduous woodland, with good scrub cover below the trees.", "Other habitats, such as parks, large gardens and overgrown hedges, are used as long as they meet the essential requirements of tall trees for songposts and an established understory.", "Where other Sylvia warblers also breed, blackcaps tend to use taller trees than their relatives, preferably those with a good canopy, such as pedunculate oak.", "In prime habitat, breeding densities reach 100200 pairs per square kilometre in northern Europe, and 500900 pairs per square kilometre in Italy.", "Densities are much lower in poorer habitats such as conifer forests.", "Breeding occurs in Europe at altitudes up to .", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany When male blackcaps return to their breeding areas, they establish a territory.", "Adults that have previously bred return to the site they have used in previous summers, whereas inexperienced birds either wander until they find a suitable area, or establish a very large initial territory which contracts under pressure from neighbours.", "Territorial boundaries are established initially by loud singing, performed while the male displays with his crown raised, tail fanned and slow wingbeats.", "This display is followed, if necessary, by a chase, often leading to a fight.", "The typical territory size in a French study was , but in insect-rich tall maquis in Gibraltar, the average was only .", "Females feed within a home range which may overlap other blackcap territories, and covers up to six times the area of the defended zone.", "The eggs normally take about 11 days to hatch.", "altTwo eggs in a cup-shaped nest Sylvia warblers are unusual in that they vigorously defend their territories against other members of their genus as well as conspecifics.", "Blackcaps and garden warblers use identical habits in the same wood, yet aggressive interactions mean that their territories never overlap.", "Similar songs are a feature of the Sylvia warblers as a group, and it has been suggested that this promotes interspecific competition and helps to segregate territories between related species.", "It appears more likely from later studies that segregation of sympatric species, other than the blackcap and garden warbler, is due to subtle habitat preferences rather than interspecies aggression.", "Young chicks begging for food.", "These are still largely unfeathered.", "altThree small chicks with open red mouths in a nest Cuculus canorus bangsi in a clutch of Sylvia atricapilla MHNT Blackcaps first breed when they are one year old, and are mainly monogamous, although both sexes may sometimes deviate from this.", "A male attracts a female to his territory through song and a display involving raising the black crown feathers, fluffing the tail, slow wingbeats, and a short flapping flight.", "He also builds one or more simple nests , usually near his songpost.", "The eggs are incubated for an average of 11 days .", "Both adults incubate, although only the female stays on the nest at night.", "The chicks are altricial, hatching naked and with closed eyes, and are fed by both parents.", "They fledge about 1112 days after hatching, leaving the nest shortly before they are able to fly.", "They are assisted with feeding for a further two or three weeks.", "If the nest is threatened, the non-incubating bird gives an alarm call so that the sitting parent and chicks stay still and quiet.", "A male blackcap may mob a potential predator, or try to lure it away with disjointed runs and flaps on the ground.", "The blackcap normally raises just one brood, but second nestings are sometimes recorded, particularly in the milder climate of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic islands", "triple brooding has been observed once, the female laying a total of 23 eggs in the season.", "Of eggs laid, 6593% hatch successfully, and 7592% of the chicks go on to fledge.", "The productivity varies with location, level of predation and quality of habitat, but the national figure for the UK was 2.5.", "The adult annual survival rate is 43% , and 36% of juveniles live through their first year.", "The typical life expectancy is two years,", "Male eating an olive from a tree in France in December", "altA male blackcap eating a berry from a tree The blackcap feeds mainly on insects during the breeding season, then switches to fruit in late summer, the change being triggered by an internal biological rhythm.", "When migrants arrive on their territories they initially take berries, pollen and nectar if there are insufficient insects available, then soon switch to their preferred diet.", "They mainly pick prey off foliage and twigs, but may occasionally hover, flycatch or feed on the ground.", "Blackcaps eat a wide range of invertebrate prey, although aphids are particularly important early in the season, and flies, beetles and caterpillars are also taken in large numbers.", "Small snails are swallowed whole, since the shell is a source of calcium for the bird's eggs.", "Chicks are mainly fed soft-bodied insects, fruit only if invertebrates are scarce.", "In July, the diet switches increasingly to fruit.", "The protein needed for egg-laying and for the chicks to grow is replaced by fruit sugar which helps the birds to fatten for migration.", "Aphids are still taken while they are available, since they often contain sugars from the plant sap on which they feed.", "Blackcaps eat a wide range of small fruit, and squeeze out any seeds on a branch before consuming the pulp.", "This technique makes them an important propagator of mistletoe.", "The mistle thrush, which also favours that plant, is less beneficial since it tends to crush the seeds.", "Although any suitable fruit may be eaten, some have seasonal or local importance", "elder makes up a large proportion of the diet of northern birds preparing for migration, and energy-rich olives and lentisc are favoured by blackcaps wintering in the Mediterranean.", "Blackcaps defend good winter food sources in the wild, and at garden feeding stations they repel competitors as large as starlings and blackbirds.", "Birds occasionally become tame enough to feed from the hand.", "The common cuckoo is an occasional brood parasite of the blackcap.", "altA bird with a grey back, pale underparts and along tail perched on a post Blackcaps are caught by Eurasian sparrowhawks in the breeding range, and by Eleonora's falcons on migration.", "Eurasian jays and Eurasian magpies take eggs and young, as do mammals such as stoats, weasels and squirrels.", "Domestic cats are the most important predator, possibly killing up to 10% of blackcaps.", "Blackcaps are occasionally hosts of the common cuckoo, a brood parasite.", "The level of parasitism is low because the cuckoo's eggs are often rejected.", "Blackcaps have evolved adaptations which make it difficult for the parasitic species to succeed, despite the cuckoo's tendency to lay eggs which resemble those of their host.", "Blackcaps are good at spotting alien eggs, and their own eggs are very alike within a clutch, making it easier to spot the intruder.", "There is, however, considerable variation between different clutches, making it harder for the cuckoo to convincingly mimic a blackcap egg.", "The open habitat and cup nest of the warbler make it a potential target for the cuckoo", "it may have experienced much higher levels of parasitism in the past, and countermeasures would have spread rapidly once they evolved.", "The only blood parasites found in a study of blackcaps trapped on migration were protozoans from the genera Haemoproteus and Plasmodium.", "The study concluded that 45.5% of the males and 22.7% of the females were affected, but the number of parasites was small, and the ability to store fat for the migration flight was unimpaired.", "Seventeen strains of H. parabelopolskyi are found only in the blackcap, and form a monophyletic group", "three further members of that group are found only in the garden warbler, and another three occur in the African hill babbler, supporting the shared ancestry of the three bird species.", "Blackcaps may carry parasitic worms that sometimes kill their hosts.", "External parasites include chewing lice and feather mites.", "The latter do little damage, although heavy infestations cause individual tail feathers to develop asymmetrically.", "The English poet John Clare described the blackcap as the \" March Nightingale \" .", "altA painting of a seated man in a brown jacket and buff waistcoat Aristotle, in his History of Animals, considered that the garden warbler eventually metamorphosed into a blackcap.", "The blackcap's song has led to it being described as the \" mock nightingale \" or \" country nightingale \" , and John Clare, in \" The March Nightingale \" describes the listener as believing that the rarer species has arrived prematurely.", "\" He stops his own and thinks the nightingale/Hath of her monthly reckoning counted wrong \" .", "The song is also the topic of Italian poet Giovanni Pascoli's \" La Capinera \" .", "Giovanni Verga's 1871 novel Storia di una capinera, according to its author, was inspired by a story of a blackcap trapped and caged by children.", "The bird, silent and pining for its lost freedom, eventually dies.", "In the book, a nun evacuated from her convent by cholera falls in love with a family friend, only to have to return to her confinement when the disease wanes.", "The novel was adapted as films of the same name in 1917, 1943 and 1993.", "The last version was directed by Franco Zeffirelli, and its English-language version was retitled as Sparrow.", "In Saint Francois d'Assise, an opera by Messiaen, the orchestration is based on bird song.", "St Francis himself is represented by the blackcap.", "Folk names for the blackcap often refer to its most obvious plumage feature or to its song, as in the \" nightingale \" names above.", "Other old names are based on its choice of nesting material .", "There is a tradition of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm bases being named for birds.", "A former base near Stretton in Cheshire was called HMS Blackcap.", "The blackcap has a very large range, and its population in Europe is estimated at 4165 million breeding pairs.", "Allowing for birds breeding in Africa and Asia, the total population estimate is between 101 and 161 million individuals.", "It is therefore classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of least concern."]}, "Carduelis carduelis": {"keywords": ["The European goldfinch or simply the goldfinch is a small passerine bird in the finch family that is native to Europe, North Africa and western and central Asia.", "The sexes are broadly similar, with a red face, black and white head, warm brown upper parts, white underparts with buff flanks and breast patches, and black and yellow wings.", "After moult birds appear less colourful, until the tips of the newly grown feathers wear away.", "The European goldfinch is native to Europe, North Africa, and western and central Asia.", "It is found in open, partially wooded lowlands and is a resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from colder regions.", "It was introduced to Bermuda, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands, Uruguay, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand in the 19th century, and their populations quickly increased and their range expanded greatly.", "In the United States, they have become established in the western Great Lakes region.", "It is constructed of mosses and lichens and lined with plant down such as that from thistles.", "European goldfinches are attracted to back gardens in Europe and North America by birdfeeders containing seed."], "habitat_section": ["The European goldfinch is native to Europe, North Africa, and western and central Asia.", "It is found in open, partially wooded lowlands and is a resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from colder regions.", "It will also make local movements, even in the west, to escape bad weather.", "It has been introduced to many areas of the world.", "It was introduced to Bermuda, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands, Uruguay, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand in the 19th century, and their populations quickly increased and their range expanded greatly.", "In Australia, they now occur from Brisbane to the Eyre Peninsula, and are also spread throughout New Zealand.", "In the United States, they have become established in the western Great Lakes region.", "A European goldfinch nest and eggs"], "random_sentences": ["The European goldfinch or simply the goldfinch is a small passerine bird in the finch family that is native to Europe, North Africa and western and central Asia.", "It has been introduced to other areas, including Australia, New Zealand and Uruguay.", "The breeding male has a red face with black markings around the eyes, and a black-and-white head.", "The back and flanks are buff or chestnut brown.", "The black wings have a broad yellow bar.", "The tail is black and the rump is white.", "Males and females are very similar, but females have a slightly smaller red area on the face.", "The goldfinch is often depicted in Italian Renaissance paintings of the Madonna and Child.", "The European goldfinch was one of the birds described and illustrated by Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner in his Historiae animalium of 1555.", "The first formal description was by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae published in 1758.", "He introduced the binomial name, Fringilla carduelis.", "Carduelis is the Latin word for 'goldfinch'.", "The European goldfinch is now placed in the genus Carduelis that was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 by tautonomy based on Linnaeus's specific epithet.", "Modern molecular genetic studies have shown that the European goldfinch is closely related to the citril finch and the Corsican finch .", "The English word 'goldfinch' was used in the second half of the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer in his unfinished The Cook's Tale: \" Gaillard he was as goldfynch in the shawe \" .", "The European goldfinch originated in the late Miocene-Pliocene and belongs to the clade of cardueline finches.", "The citril finch and the Corsican finch are its sister taxa.", "Their closest relatives are the greenfinches, crossbills and redpolls.", "The monophyly of the subfamily Carduelinae is suggested in previous studies.", "The average European goldfinch is long with a wingspan of and a weight of .", "The sexes are broadly similar, with a red face, black and white head, warm brown upper parts, white underparts with buff flanks and breast patches, and black and yellow wings.", "On closer inspection, male European goldfinches can often be distinguished by a larger, darker red mask that extends just behind the eye.", "The shoulder feathers are black, whereas they are brown on the female.", "In females, the red face does not extend past the eye.", "The ivory-coloured bill is long and pointed, and the tail is forked.", "Goldfinches in breeding condition have a white bill, with a greyish or blackish mark at the tip for the rest of the year.", "Juveniles have a plain head and a greyer back but are unmistakable due to the yellow wing stripe.", "Birds in central Asia have a plain grey head behind the red face, lacking the black and white head pattern of European and western Asian birds.", "Adults moult after the breeding season, with some individuals beginning in July and others not completing their moult until November.", "After moult birds appear less colourful, until the tips of the newly grown feathers wear away.", "The song is a pleasant silvery twittering.", "The call is a melodic , and the song is a pleasant tinkling medley of trills and twitters, but always including the tri-syllabic call phrase or a .", "The European goldfinch is native to Europe, North Africa, and western and central Asia.", "It is found in open, partially wooded lowlands and is a resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from colder regions.", "It will also make local movements, even in the west, to escape bad weather.", "It has been introduced to many areas of the world.", "It was introduced to Bermuda, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands, Uruguay, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand in the 19th century, and their populations quickly increased and their range expanded greatly.", "In Australia, they now occur from Brisbane to the Eyre Peninsula, and are also spread throughout New Zealand.", "In the United States, they have become established in the western Great Lakes region.", "A European goldfinch nest and eggs", "The nest is built entirely by the female and is generally completed within a week.", "The male accompanies the female, but does not contribute.", "The nest is neat and compact and is generally located several metres above the ground, hidden by leaves in the twigs at the end of a swaying branch.", "It is constructed of mosses and lichens and lined with plant down such as that from thistles.", "It is attached to the twigs of the tree with spider silk.", "A deep cup prevents the loss of eggs in windy weather.", "Beginning within a couple of days after the completion of the nest, the eggs are laid in early morning at daily intervals.", "The clutch is typically 4-6 eggs, which are whitish with reddish-brown speckles.", "They have a smooth surface and are slightly glossy.", "The average size is with a calculated weight of .", "The eggs are incubated for 1113 days by the female, who is fed by the male.", "The chicks are fed by both parents.", "Initially they receive a mixture of seeds and insects, but as they grow the proportion of insect material decreases.", "For the first 79 days the young are brooded by the female.", "The nestlings fledge 1318 days after hatching.", "The young birds are fed by both parents for a further 79 days.", "The parents typically raise two broods each year and occasionally three.", "The European goldfinch's preferred food is small seeds such as those from thistles , cornflowers, and teasels, but insects are also taken when feeding young.", "It also regularly visits bird feeders in winter.", "In the winter, European goldfinches group together to form flocks of up to 40, occasionally more.", "European goldfinches are attracted to back gardens in Europe and North America by birdfeeders containing seed.", "This seed of an annual from Africa is small, and high in oils.", "Special polycarbonate feeders with small oval slits at which the European goldfinches feed are sometimes used.", "Madonna of the Goldfinch by Raphael, upright", "The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius, 1654 European goldfinches are commonly kept and bred in captivity around the world because of their distinctive appearance and pleasant song.", "If European goldfinches are kept with domestic canaries, they tend to lose their native song and call in favour of their cagemates' songs.", "This is considered undesirable, as it detracts from the allure of keeping European goldfinches.", "In Great Britain during the 19th century, many thousands of European goldfinches were trapped each year to be sold as cage birds.", "One of the earliest campaigns of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was directed against this trade.", "Wildlife conservation attempts to limit bird trapping and the destruction of the open space habitats of European goldfinches.", "Steglitz, a borough of the German city of Berlin is named after the European goldfinch.", "The surname Goldspink is based on the Scots word for the European goldfinch.", "Because of the thistle seeds it eats, in Christian symbolism the European goldfinch is associated with Christ's Passion and his crown of thorns.", "The European goldfinch, appearing in pictures of the Madonna and Christ child, represents the foreknowledge Jesus and Mary had of the Crucifixion.", "Examples include the Madonna del cardellino or Madonna of the Goldfinch, painted by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael in about 15056, in which John the Baptist offers a European goldfinch to Christ in a warning of his future.", "In Barocci's Holy Family, a European goldfinch is held in the hand of John the Baptist, who holds it high out of reach of an interested cat.", "In Cima da Conegliano's Madonna and Child, a European goldfinch flutters in the hand of the Christ child.", "It is also an emblem of endurance, fruitfulness, and persistence.", "Because it symbolizes the Passion, the European goldfinch is considered a \" saviour \" bird and may be pictured with the common housefly .", "The European goldfinch is also associated with Saint Jerome and appears in some depictions of him.", "Antonio Vivaldi composed a Concerto in D major for Flute \" Il Gardellino \" (RV 428, Op.", "3), where the singing of the European goldfinch is imitated by a flute.", "An anonymous Italian Neapolitan poem titled Il Cardellino was put to music by Saverio Mercadante and sung by Jose Carreras.", "European goldfinches, with their \" wanton freak \" and \" yellow flutterings \" , are among the many natural \" luxuries \" that delight the speaker of John Keats' poem 'I stood tip-toe upon a little hill...", "In the poem The Great Hunger by Patrick Kavanagh, the European goldfinch is one of the rare glimpses of beauty in the life of an elderly Irish farmer: Donna Tartt's novel The Goldfinch won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.", "A turning point in the plot occurs when the narrator, Theo, sees his mother's favourite painting, Carel Fabritius's The Goldfinch, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art."]}, "Turdus merula": {"keywords": ["This species breeds in woods and gardens, building a neat, cup-shaped nest, bound together with mud.", "Both sexes are territorial on the breeding grounds, with distinctive threat displays, but are more gregarious during migration and in wintering areas.", "Pairs stay in their territory throughout the year where the climate is sufficiently temperate.", "Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the blackbird is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary Islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "It is close in evolutionary terms to the island thrush of Southeast Asia and islands in the southwest Pacific, which probably diverged from T. merula stock fairly recently.", "The ouzel usage survived later in poetry, and still occurs as the name of the closely related ring ouzel , and in water ouzel, an alternative name for the unrelated but superficially similar white-throated dipper and American dipper .", "The common blackbird breeds in temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia.", "Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year.", "Female blackbirds in Scotland and the north of England migrate more in winter than do the males Common over most of its range in woodland, the common blackbird has a preference for deciduous trees with dense undergrowth.", "However, gardens provide the best breeding habitat with up to 7.3 pairs per hectare , with woodland typically holding about a tenth of that density, and open and very built-up habitats even less.", "The common blackbird also lives in parks, gardens and hedgerows.", "The common blackbird occurs at elevations up to in Europe, in North Africa, and at in peninsular India and Sri Lanka, but the large Himalayan subspecies range much higher, with T. m. maximus breeding at and remaining above even in winter.", "Migrants are more gregarious, travelling in small flocks and feeding in loose groups in the wintering grounds.", "In its native Northern Hemisphere range, the first-year male common blackbird of the nominate race may start singing as early as late January in fine weather in order to establish a territory, followed in late March by the adult male.", "In urban and suburban environments with high levels of anthropogenic noise, such as near airports, blackbirds have been observed modifying their song to successfully compensate and compete with the noise, singing for longer periods of time, at a higher volume, and earlier during their area's dawn chorus, when environmental sounds are less prominent.", "It pulls earthworms from the soil, usually finding them by sight, but sometimes by hearing, and roots through leaf litter for other invertebrates.", "Animal prey predominates, and is particularly important during the breeding season, with windfall apples and berries taken more in the autumn and winter.", "The nature of the fruit taken depends on what is locally available, and frequently includes exotics in gardens.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern but there have been local declines, especially on farmland, which may be due to agricultural policies that encouraged farmers to remove hedgerows , and to drain damp grassland and increase the use of pesticides, both of which could have reduced the availability of invertebrate food.", "The common blackbird was introduced to Australia by a bird dealer visiting Melbourne in early 1857, The introduced population in Australia is considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens, including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes.", "It is thought to spread weeds, such as blackberry, and may compete with native birds for food and nesting sites.", "Introduced there along with the song thrush in 1862, it has spread throughout the country up to an elevation of , as well as outlying islands such as the Campbell and Kermadecs.", "It eats a wide range of native and exotic fruit, and makes a major contribution to the development of communities of naturalised woody weeds.", "These communities provide fruit more suited to non-endemic native birds and naturalised birds than to endemic birds."], "habitat_section": ["The common blackbird breeds in temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia.", "It has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.", "Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year.", "Recoveries of blackbirds ringed on the Isle of May show that these birds commonly migrate from southern Norway to Scotland, and some onwards to Ireland.", "Scottish-ringed birds have also been recovered in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.", "Female blackbirds in Scotland and the north of England migrate more in winter than do the males Common over most of its range in woodland, the common blackbird has a preference for deciduous trees with dense undergrowth.", "However, gardens provide the best breeding habitat with up to 7.3 pairs per hectare , with woodland typically holding about a tenth of that density, and open and very built-up habitats even less.", "They are often replaced by the related ring ouzel in areas of higher altitude.", "The common blackbird also lives in parks, gardens and hedgerows.", "The common blackbird occurs at elevations up to in Europe, in North Africa, and at in peninsular India and Sri Lanka, but the large Himalayan subspecies range much higher, with T. m. maximus breeding at and remaining above even in winter.", "However, a 1994 record from Bonavista, Newfoundland, has been accepted as a genuine wild bird, Male blackbird with earthworm The male common blackbird defends its breeding territory, chasing away other males or utilising a \" bow and run \" threat display.", "This consists of a short run, the head first being raised and then bowed with the tail dipped simultaneously.", "If a fight between male blackbirds does occur, it is usually short and the intruder is soon chased away.", "The female blackbird is also aggressive in the spring when it competes with other females for a good nesting territory, and although fights are less frequent, they tend to be more violent.", "As long as winter food is available, both the male and female will remain in the territory throughout the year, although occupying different areas.", "Migrants are more gregarious, travelling in small flocks and feeding in loose groups in the wintering grounds.", "The flight of migrating birds comprises bursts of rapid wing beats interspersed with level or diving movement, and differs from both the normal fast agile flight of this species and the more dipping action of larger thrushes.", "The common blackbird has an extensive range, estimated at 32.4 million square kilometres , and a large population, including an estimated 110 to 174 million individuals in Europe alone.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern but there have been local declines, especially on farmland, which may be due to agricultural policies that encouraged farmers to remove hedgerows , and to drain damp grassland and increase the use of pesticides, both of which could have reduced the availability of invertebrate food.", "The common blackbird was introduced to Australia by a bird dealer visiting Melbourne in early 1857, The introduced population in Australia is considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens, including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes.", "It is thought to spread weeds, such as blackberry, and may compete with native birds for food and nesting sites.", "The introduced common blackbird is, together with the native silvereye , the most widely distributed avian seed disperser in New Zealand.", "Introduced there along with the song thrush in 1862, it has spread throughout the country up to an elevation of , as well as outlying islands such as the Campbell and Kermadecs.", "It eats a wide range of native and exotic fruit, and makes a major contribution to the development of communities of naturalised woody weeds.", "These communities provide fruit more suited to non-endemic native birds and naturalised birds than to endemic birds."], "random_sentences": ["The common blackbird is a species of true thrush.", "It is also called the Eurasian blackbird , or simply the blackbird where this does not lead to confusion with a local species.", "It breeds in Europe, Asiatic Russia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.", "It has a number of subspecies across its large range", "a few of the Asian subspecies are sometimes considered to be full species.", "Depending on latitude, the common blackbird may be resident, partially migratory, or fully migratory.", "The adult male of the common blackbird , which is found throughout most of Europe, is all black except for a yellow eye-ring and bill and has a rich, melodious song", "the adult female and juvenile have mainly dark brown plumage.", "This species breeds in woods and gardens, building a neat, cup-shaped nest, bound together with mud.", "It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, earthworms, berries, and fruits.", "Both sexes are territorial on the breeding grounds, with distinctive threat displays, but are more gregarious during migration and in wintering areas.", "Pairs stay in their territory throughout the year where the climate is sufficiently temperate.", "This common and conspicuous species has given rise to a number of literary and cultural references, frequently related to its song.", "Female T. m. mauretanicus The common blackbird was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Turdus merula .", "The binomial name derives from two Latin words, turdus, \" thrush \" , and merula, \" blackbird \" , the latter giving rise to its French name, merle, and its Scots name, merl.", "About 65 species of medium to large thrushes are in the genus Turdus, characterised by rounded heads, longish, pointed wings, and usually melodious songs.", "Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the blackbird is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary Islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "It is close in evolutionary terms to the island thrush (T.", "poliocephalus) of Southeast Asia and islands in the southwest Pacific, which probably diverged from T. merula stock fairly recently.", "Until about the 17th century, another name for the species was ouzel, ousel or wosel (from Old English osle, cf.", "Another variant occurs in Act 3 of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, where Bottom refers to \" The Woosell cocke, so blacke of hew, With Orenge-tawny bill \" .", "The ouzel usage survived later in poetry, and still occurs as the name of the closely related ring ouzel , and in water ouzel, an alternative name for the unrelated but superficially similar white-throated dipper and American dipper .", "Two related Asian Turdus thrushes, the white-collared blackbird (T.", "albocinctus) and the grey-winged blackbird (T.", "boulboul), are also named blackbirds, The icterid family of the New World is sometimes called the blackbird family because of some species' superficial resemblance to the common blackbird and other Old World thrushes, but they are not evolutionarily close, being related to the New World warblers and tanagers.", "The term is often limited to smaller species with mostly or entirely black plumage, at least in the breeding male, notably the cowbirds, the grackles, and for around 20 species with \" blackbird \" in the name, such as the red-winged blackbird and the melodious blackbird.", "In Europe, the common blackbird can be confused with the paler-winged first-winter ring ouzel or the superficially similar common starling .", "A number of similar Turdus thrushes exist far outside the range of the common blackbird, for example the South American Chiguanco thrush .", "The Indian blackbird, the Tibetan blackbird, and the Chinese blackbird were formerly considered subspecies of the common blackbird.", "Historic image of blackbird in Nederlandsche Vogelen The common blackbird of the nominate subspecies T. m. merula is in length, has a long tail, and weighs .", "The adult male has glossy black plumage, blackish-brown legs, a yellow eye-ring and an orange-yellow bill.", "The bill darkens somewhat in winter.", "The adult female is sooty-brown with a dull yellowish-brownish bill, a brownish-white throat and some weak mottling on the breast.", "The juvenile is similar to the female, but has pale spots on the upperparts, and the very young juvenile also has a speckled breast.", "Young birds vary in the shade of brown, with darker birds presumably males.", "The first year male resembles the adult male, but has a dark bill and weaker eye ring, and its folded wing is brown, rather than black like the body plumage.", "The common blackbird breeds in temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia.", "It has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.", "Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year.", "Recoveries of blackbirds ringed on the Isle of May show that these birds commonly migrate from southern Norway to Scotland, and some onwards to Ireland.", "Scottish-ringed birds have also been recovered in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.", "Female blackbirds in Scotland and the north of England migrate more in winter than do the males Common over most of its range in woodland, the common blackbird has a preference for deciduous trees with dense undergrowth.", "However, gardens provide the best breeding habitat with up to 7.3 pairs per hectare , with woodland typically holding about a tenth of that density, and open and very built-up habitats even less.", "They are often replaced by the related ring ouzel in areas of higher altitude.", "The common blackbird also lives in parks, gardens and hedgerows.", "The common blackbird occurs at elevations up to in Europe, in North Africa, and at in peninsular India and Sri Lanka, but the large Himalayan subspecies range much higher, with T. m. maximus breeding at and remaining above even in winter.", "However, a 1994 record from Bonavista, Newfoundland, has been accepted as a genuine wild bird,", "Male blackbird with earthworm The male common blackbird defends its breeding territory, chasing away other males or utilising a \" bow and run \" threat display.", "This consists of a short run, the head first being raised and then bowed with the tail dipped simultaneously.", "If a fight between male blackbirds does occur, it is usually short and the intruder is soon chased away.", "The female blackbird is also aggressive in the spring when it competes with other females for a good nesting territory, and although fights are less frequent, they tend to be more violent.", "As long as winter food is available, both the male and female will remain in the territory throughout the year, although occupying different areas.", "Migrants are more gregarious, travelling in small flocks and feeding in loose groups in the wintering grounds.", "The flight of migrating birds comprises bursts of rapid wing beats interspersed with level or diving movement, and differs from both the normal fast agile flight of this species and the more dipping action of larger thrushes.", "The male common blackbird attracts the female with a courtship display which consists of oblique runs combined with head-bowing movements, an open beak, and a \" strangled \" low song.", "The female remains motionless until she raises her head and tail to permit copulation.", "This species is monogamous, and the established pair will usually stay together as long as they both survive.", "Pair separation rates of up to 20% have been noted following poor breeding.", "Although the species is socially monogamous, there have been studies showing as much as 17% extra-pair paternity.", "The nominate T. merula may commence breeding in March, but eastern and Indian races are a month or more later, and the introduced New Zealand birds start nesting in August .", "Eggs of birds of the southern Indian races are paler than those from the northern subcontinent and Europe.", "The female incubates for 1214 days before the altricial chicks are hatched naked and blind.", "Fledging takes another 1019 days, with both parents feeding the young and removing faecal sacs.", "The nest is often ill-concealed compared with those of other species, and many breeding attempts fail due to predation.", "The young are fed by the parents for up to three weeks after leaving the nest, and will follow the adults begging for food.", "If the female starts another nest, the male alone will feed the fledged young.", "Second broods are common, with the female reusing the same nest if the brood was successful, and three broods may be raised in the south of the common blackbird's range.", "A common blackbird has an average life expectancy of 2.4 years, and, based on data from bird ringing, the oldest recorded age is 21 years and 10 months.", "In its native Northern Hemisphere range, the first-year male common blackbird of the nominate race may start singing as early as late January in fine weather in order to establish a territory, followed in late March by the adult male.", "The male's song is a varied and melodious low-pitched fluted warble, given from trees, rooftops or other elevated perches mainly in the period from March to June, sometimes into the beginning of July.", "It has a number of other calls, including an aggressive seee, a pook-pook-pook alarm for terrestrial predators like cats, and various chink and chook, chook vocalisations.", "The territorial male invariably gives chink-chink calls in the evening in an attempt to deter other blackbirds from roosting in its territory overnight.", "Like other passerine birds, it has a thin high seeet alarm call for threats from birds of prey since the sound is rapidly attenuated in vegetation, making the source difficult to locate.", "In urban and suburban environments with high levels of anthropogenic noise, such as near airports, blackbirds have been observed modifying their song to successfully compensate and compete with the noise, singing for longer periods of time, at a higher volume, and earlier during their area's dawn chorus, when environmental sounds are less prominent.", "Adult male feeding on cherries in Lausanne, Switzerland The common blackbird is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, spiders, snails, earthworms, seeds, berries and other fruits.", "It feeds mainly on the ground, running and hopping with a start-stop-start progress.", "It pulls earthworms from the soil, usually finding them by sight, but sometimes by hearing, and roots through leaf litter for other invertebrates.", "Small amphibians, lizards and small mammals are occasionally hunted.", "This species will also perch in bushes to take berries and collect caterpillars and other active insects, such as beetles and grasshoppers.", "Animal prey predominates, and is particularly important during the breeding season, with windfall apples and berries taken more in the autumn and winter.", "The nature of the fruit taken depends on what is locally available, and frequently includes exotics in gardens.", "As the blackbird lives in proximity to urbanized areas, it likely supplements its diet with man-made food.", "Near human habitation the main predator of the common blackbird is the domestic cat, with newly fledged young especially vulnerable.", "Foxes and predatory birds, such as the sparrowhawk and other accipiters, also take this species when the opportunity arises.", "However, there is little direct evidence to show that either predation of the adult blackbirds or loss of the eggs and chicks to corvids, such as the European magpie or Eurasian jay, decrease population numbers.", "A male attempting to distract a kestrel close to its nest This species is occasionally a host of parasitic cuckoos, such as the common cuckoo , but this is minimal because the common blackbird recognizes the adult of the parasitic species and its non-mimetic eggs.", "In the UK, only three nests of 59,770 examined contained cuckoo eggs.", "The introduced merula blackbird in New Zealand, where the cuckoo does not occur, has, over the past 130 years, lost the ability to recognize the adult common cuckoo but still rejects non-mimetic eggs.", "As with other passerine birds, parasites are common.", "Intestinal parasites were found in 88% of common blackbirds, most frequently Isospora and Capillaria species.", "and more than 80% had haematozoan parasites .", "Common blackbirds spend much of their time looking for food on the ground where they can become infested with ticks, which are external parasites that most commonly attach to the head of a blackbird.", "there is no evidence that this affects the fitness of blackbirds except when they are exhausted and run down after migration.", "The common blackbird is one of a number of species which has unihemispheric slow-wave sleep.", "One hemisphere of the brain is effectively asleep, while a low-voltage EEG, characteristic of wakefulness, is present in the other.", "The benefit of this is that the bird can rest in areas of high predation or during long migratory flights, but still retain a degree of alertness.", "The common blackbird has an extensive range, estimated at 32.4 million square kilometres , and a large population, including an estimated 110 to 174 million individuals in Europe alone.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern but there have been local declines, especially on farmland, which may be due to agricultural policies that encouraged farmers to remove hedgerows , and to drain damp grassland and increase the use of pesticides, both of which could have reduced the availability of invertebrate food.", "The common blackbird was introduced to Australia by a bird dealer visiting Melbourne in early 1857, The introduced population in Australia is considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens, including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes.", "It is thought to spread weeds, such as blackberry, and may compete with native birds for food and nesting sites.", "The introduced common blackbird is, together with the native silvereye , the most widely distributed avian seed disperser in New Zealand.", "Introduced there along with the song thrush in 1862, it has spread throughout the country up to an elevation of , as well as outlying islands such as the Campbell and Kermadecs.", "It eats a wide range of native and exotic fruit, and makes a major contribution to the development of communities of naturalised woody weeds.", "These communities provide fruit more suited to non-endemic native birds and naturalised birds than to endemic birds.", "\" Sing a Song for Sixpence \" cover illustration The common blackbird was seen as a sacred though destructive bird in Classical Greek folklore, and was said to die if it consumed pomegranates.", "Like many other small birds, it has in the past been trapped in rural areas at its night roosts as an easily available addition to the diet, Sing a song of sixpence, A pocket full of rye", " Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie!", " When the pie was opened the birds began to sing, Oh, wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?", " The common blackbird's melodious, distinctive song is mentioned in the poem Adlestrop by Edward Thomas", " And for that minute a blackbird sang Close by, and round him, mistier, Farther and farther, all the birds Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.", " In the English Christmas carol \" The Twelve Days of Christmas \" , the line commonly sung today as \" four calling birds \" is believed to have originally been written in the 18th century as \" four colly birds \" , an archaism meaning \" black as coal \" that was a popular English nickname for the common blackbird.", "The common blackbird, unlike many black creatures, is not normally seen as a symbol of bad luck, and it symbolised resignation in the 17th century tragic play The Duchess of Malfi", "an alternate connotation is vigilance, the bird's clear cry warning of danger.", "which has a breeding population of 12 million pairs, it has also featured on a number of other stamps issued by European and Asian countries, including a 1966 4d British stamp and a 1998 Irish 30p stamp.", "This birdarguablyalso gives rise to the Serbian name for Kosovo, which is the possessive adjectival form of Serbian , as in Kosovo polje .", "A common blackbird can be heard singing on the Beatles song \" Blackbird \" ."]}, "Chroicocephalus ridibundus": {"keywords": ["The black-headed gull is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic including Europe and also in coastal eastern Canada.", "They are an overwintering species, found in a variety of different habitats.", "The summer adult has a chocolate-brown head , pale grey body, black tips to the primary wing feathers, and red bill and legs.", "Immature birds have a mottled pattern of brown spots over most of the body, It breeds in colonies in large reed beds or marshes, or on islands in lakes, nesting on the ground.", "It is not a pelagic species and is rarely seen at sea far from coasts.", "Small numbers also breed in northeastern Canada and can be seen in winter in northeast North America as far south as Virginia, often with the similar-looking Bonaparte's Gull and also in some Caribbean islands.", "Although mothers show some form of aggressiveness when a predator is near, in the first 30 minutes, wet chicks can be easily taken by other black-headed gulls after hatching when the parents of the wet chick are distracted.", "Head-bobbing walking occurs during a seeking type foraging by walking through water and includes benefits such as enhancing motion and pattern detection and gathering depth information from motion parallax during the thrust phase."], "habitat_section": ["Black-headed gulls can be found over much of Europe.", "It is also found in across the Palearctic to Japan and east China.", "Small numbers also breed in northeastern Canada and can be seen in winter in northeast North America as far south as Virginia, often with the similar-looking Bonaparte's Gull and also in some Caribbean islands."], "random_sentences": ["The black-headed gull is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic including Europe and also in coastal eastern Canada.", "Most of the population is migratory and winters further south, but some birds reside in the milder westernmost areas of Europe.", "Small numbers also occur in northeastern North America, where it was formerly known as the common black-headed gull.", "As is the case with many gulls, it was previously placed in the genus Larus.", "The genus name Chroicocephalus is from Ancient Greek khroizo, \" to colour \" , and kephale, \" head \" .", "The specific ridibundus is Latin for \" laughing \" , from ridere \" to laugh \" .", "The black-headed gull displays a variety of compelling behaviours and adaptations.", "Some of these include removing eggshells from one's nest after hatching, begging co-ordination between siblings, differences between sexes, conspecific brood parasitism, and extra-pair paternity.", "They are an overwintering species, found in a variety of different habitats.", "This gull is long with a wingspan and weighs .", "In flight, the white leading edge to the wing is a good field mark.", "The summer adult has a chocolate-brown head , pale grey body, black tips to the primary wing feathers, and red bill and legs.", "The hood is lost in winter, leaving just two dark spots.", "Immature birds have a mottled pattern of brown spots over most of the body, It breeds in colonies in large reed beds or marshes, or on islands in lakes, nesting on the ground.", "Like most gulls, it is highly gregarious in winter, both when feeding or in evening roosts.", "It is not a pelagic species and is rarely seen at sea far from coasts.", "The black-headed gull is a bold and opportunistic feeder.", "It eats insects, fish, seeds, worms, scraps, and carrion in towns, or invertebrates in ploughed fields with equal relish.", "It is a noisy species, especially in colonies, with a familiar \" kree-ar \" call.", "Its scientific name means laughing gull.", "This species takes two years to reach maturity.", "First-year birds have a black terminal tail band, more dark areas in the wings, and, in summer, a less fully developed dark hood.", "Like most gulls, black-headed gulls are long-lived birds, with a maximum age of at least 32.9 years recorded in the wild, in addition to an anecdote now believed of dubious authenticity regarding a 63-year-old bird.", "Black-headed gulls can be found over much of Europe.", "It is also found in across the Palearctic to Japan and east China.", "Small numbers also breed in northeastern Canada and can be seen in winter in northeast North America as far south as Virginia, often with the similar-looking Bonaparte's Gull and also in some Caribbean islands.", "Eggshell removal is a behaviour seen in birds once the chicks have hatched, observed mostly to reduce risk of predation.", "Removing the eggshell acts as a way of camouflage to avoid predators seeing the nest.", "The further away egg shells are from the nest, the lower the predation risk.", "Black-headed gull eggs experience predation from different species of birds, foxes, stoats, and even other black-headed gulls.", "Although mothers show some form of aggressiveness when a predator is near, in the first 30 minutes, wet chicks can be easily taken by other black-headed gulls after hatching when the parents of the wet chick are distracted.", "Black headed gulls also carry away other objects that do not belong in the nest.", "The removal of eggshells and other objects is important not only in the incubation period but also during the first few days after the eggs hatch.", "However, the removal process seems to increase as time goes on.", "The removal is done by both the male and female parents, normally lasts a few seconds and is done three times a year.", "A black-headed gull is able to differentiate an egg shell from an egg by acknowledging its thin, serrated, white, edge.", "Therefore, the weight of the egg or eggshell does not play a role when determining its value.", "Black-headed gulls display both head-bobbing walking and non-bobbing walking .", "Head-bobbing walking is expressed by a hold phase and a thrust phase.", "The hold phase in black-headed gulls occurs mainly during the single support phase and is when the bird balances its head to equal the environment.", "Head-bobbing walking occurs during a seeking type foraging by walking through water and includes benefits such as enhancing motion and pattern detection and gathering depth information from motion parallax during the thrust phase.", "Non-bobbing walking occurs when black-headed gulls are displaying a waiting behaviour while foraging on flat surfaces.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The eggs of the black-headed gull are considered a delicacy by some in the UK and are eaten hard boiled.", "The collection of black-headed gull eggs is heavily regulated by the UK government.", "Eggs may only be taken by a small number of licensed individuals at six sites between April 1 and May 15 each year and only a single egg may be taken from each nest.", "No eggs are permitted to be sold after June 30.", "As the gulls tend to lay in late April and early May, the eggs are in effect, only available to purchase for 3 or 4 weeks per year.", "Observations on the behavior of black-headed gulls show that black-headed gulls individuals synchronize their vigilance activity with other black-headed gulls neighbors.", "Synchronization in black-headed gulls groups is dependent on the distance between the black-headed gulls members.", "On 19th October 1991, local Broome birder Brian Kane saw a strange species of bird while trawling the local sewer ponds.", "Upon seeing this bird, he contacted the Broome Bird Observatory by telephone to verify the species, however there was conjecture regarding its identity.", "Kane took photos of the bird and recorded field notes, before sending this information to the Appraisals Committee in Hobart, Tasmania, who were able to confirm that it was indeed a black-headed gull.", "This was the first recorded sighting of the species in Australia.", "In Richard Adams' 1972 novel Watership Down, a black-headed gull named Kehaar plays a major part in the story.", "Injured by a farm cat and left behind during the seasonal migrations, Kehaar finds himself stranded on the Downs and is taken in by a warren of European rabbits.", "He later becomes their friend and ally, and helps to save the rabbits from danger many times", "instincts eventually force him to return to his colony, but he promises to visit the rabbits each winter.", "True to Adams' stated intentions of trying to keep the animals' behavior close to reality, Kehaar is characterized as intelligent, gregarious, noisy, messy, and impatient.", "He has a guttural accent, inspired by a Norwegian Resistance fighter Adams once had known.", "Kehaar appears in all three screen adaptations of the novel", "the character was voiced by Zero Mostel in the 1978 film, Rik Mayall in the 1999 TV series, and Peter Capaldi in the 2018 miniseries."]}, "Columba palumbus": {"keywords": ["Photograph taken in Cambridge, England The common wood pigeon or common woodpigeon , also known as simply wood pigeon, wood-pigeon or woodpigeon, is a large species in the dove and pigeon family , native to the western Palearctic.", "It has a flexible diet, predominantly feeding on vegetable matter, including cereal crops, leading to them being regarded as an agricultural pest.", "In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.", "In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities.", "Like many species of pigeon, wood pigeons take advantage of trees and buildings to gain a vantage point over the surrounding area, and their distinctive call means that they are usually heard before they are seen.", "Two young Columba palumbus in a nest It breeds in trees in woods, parks and gardens, laying two white eggs in a simple stick nest which hatch after 17 to 19 days.", "Wood pigeons seem to have a preference for trees near roadways and rivers.", "Their plumage becomes much darker, especially the head, during hot summer periods.", "For birds that survive the first year the typical lifespan is thus only three years, but the maximum recorded age is 17 years and 8 months for a bird ringed and recovered on the Orkney Islands.", "Most of its diet is vegetable, round and fleshy leaves from Caryophyllaceae, Asteraceae, and cruciferous vegetables taken from open fields or gardens and lawns, young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain, pine nuts, and certain fruits and berries.", "In the autumn they also eat figs and acorns, and in winter buds of trees and bushes.", "This is an extremely rich fluid that is produced in the adult birds' crops during the breeding season.", "Due to their feeding on cereal crops, wood pigeons are considered an agricultural pest."], "habitat_section": ["In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.", "In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities."], "random_sentences": ["altA large common wood pigeon standing on a garden fence", "Common wood pigeon perched on a fence.", "Photograph taken in Cambridge, England The common wood pigeon or common woodpigeon , also known as simply wood pigeon, wood-pigeon or woodpigeon, is a large species in the dove and pigeon family , native to the western Palearctic.", "It belongs to the genus Columba, which includes closely related species such as the rock dove .", "It has historically been known as the ring dove, and is locally known in southeast England as the \" culver \"", "the latter name has given rise to several areas known for keeping pigeons to be named after it, such as Culver Down.", "It has a flexible diet, predominantly feeding on vegetable matter, including cereal crops, leading to them being regarded as an agricultural pest.", "Wood pigeons are extensively hunted over large parts of their range, but this does not seem to have a great impact on their population.", "The common wood pigeon was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.", "He placed it with all the other pigeons in the genus Columba and coined the binomial name Columba palumbus.", "The specific epithet palumbus is from the Latin palumbes for a wood pigeon.", "Five subspecies are recognised, one of which is now extinct: extinct", "Adult common wood pigeon, photograph taken in Birmingham, England The three Western European Columba pigeons, common wood pigeon, stock dove and rock dove, though superficially alike, have very distinctive characteristics", "the common wood pigeon may be identified at once by its larger size at and weight , and the white on its neck and wing.", "It is otherwise a basically grey bird, with a pinkish breast.", "The wingspan can range from and the wing chord measures .", "The tail measures , the bill is and the tarsus is .", "Adult birds bear a series of green and white patches on their necks, and a pink patch on their chest.", "The eye colour is a pale yellow, in contrast to that of rock doves, which is orange-red, and the stock pigeon, which is black.", "Juvenile birds do not have the white patches on either side of the neck.", "When they are about 6 months old they gain small white patches on both sides of the neck, which gradually enlarge until they are fully formed when the bird is about 68 months old (approx.", "Juvenile birds also have a greyer beak and an overall lighter grey appearance than adult birds.", "The call is a characteristic cooing, coo-COO-coocoo-coo.", "In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.", "In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities.", "A flock of common wood pigeons feeding in a field right", "Adult sitting on its nest in a tree Egg Hatching of a Common Wood Pigeon Its flight is quick, performed by regular beats, with an occasional sharp flick of the wings, characteristic of pigeons in general. It takes off with a loud clattering.", "It perches well, and in its nuptial display walks along a horizontal branch with swelled neck, lowered wings, and fanned tail.", "During the display flight the bird climbs, the wings are smartly cracked like a whiplash, and the bird glides down on stiff wings.", "The common wood pigeon is gregarious, often forming very large flocks outside the breeding season.", "Like many species of pigeon, wood pigeons take advantage of trees and buildings to gain a vantage point over the surrounding area, and their distinctive call means that they are usually heard before they are seen.", "Wood pigeons are known to fiercely defend their territory, and will fight each other to gain access to nesting and roosting locations.", "Male wood pigeons will typically attempt to drive competitors off by threat displays and pursuit, but will also directly fight, jumping and striking their rival with both wings.", "This species can be an agricultural pest, and it is often shot, being a legal quarry species in most European countries.", "It is wary in rural areas, but often quite tame where it is not persecuted.", "Two young Columba palumbus in a nest It breeds in trees in woods, parks and gardens, laying two white eggs in a simple stick nest which hatch after 17 to 19 days.", "Wood pigeons seem to have a preference for trees near roadways and rivers.", "Males exhibit aggressive behaviour towards each other during the breeding season by jumping and flapping wings at each other.", "Their plumage becomes much darker, especially the head, during hot summer periods.", "Breeding can happen year round if there is food abundant however breeding season most commonly occurs in autumn usually in the months of August and September.", "The nests are vulnerable to attack, particularly by crows.", "The young usually fly at 33 to 34 days", "however, if the nest is disturbed, some young may be able to survive having left the nest as early as 20 days from hatching.", "In a study carried out using ring-recovery data, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 52 per cent, and the adult annual survival rate was 61 per cent.", "For birds that survive the first year the typical lifespan is thus only three years, but the maximum recorded age is 17 years and 8 months for a bird ringed and recovered on the Orkney Islands.", "Most of its diet is vegetable, round and fleshy leaves from Caryophyllaceae, Asteraceae, and cruciferous vegetables taken from open fields or gardens and lawns", "young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain, pine nuts, and certain fruits and berries.", "In the autumn they also eat figs and acorns, and in winter buds of trees and bushes.", "They will also eat larvae, ants, and small worms.", "They need open water to drink and bathe in.", "Young common wood pigeons swiftly become fat, as a result of the crop milk they are fed by their parents.", "This is an extremely rich fluid that is produced in the adult birds' crops during the breeding season.", "Due to their feeding on cereal crops, wood pigeons are considered an agricultural pest.", "In Ireland and the UK, the traditional mnemonic for the distinctive call of the bird has been interpreted as \" Take two cows, Teddy \" , or \" Take two cows, Taffy \" .", "Another interpretation for the birdsong has been \" My toe bleeds, Betty \" .", "AS PER NEW WIKIPEDIA POLICY, GALLERY MUST BE REFERENCED TO AS COMMONS.", "DON'T ADD IT HERE PLEASE "]}, "Fringilla montifringilla": {"keywords": ["It has also been called the cock o' the north and the mountain finch.", "Male and female in Poland This bird is widespread, in the breeding season, throughout the forests of northern Europe and east across the Palearctic.", "It is migratory, wintering in southern Europe, North Africa, northern India, northern Pakistan, China, and Japan.", "Open coniferous or birch woodland is favoured for breeding.", "In Europe, it forms large flocks in the winter, sometimes with thousands or even millions of birds in a single flock.", "Bramblings mostly eat seeds in winter, but insects in summer."], "habitat_section": ["Male and female in Poland This bird is widespread, in the breeding season, throughout the forests of northern Europe and east across the Palearctic.", "It is migratory, wintering in southern Europe, North Africa, northern India, northern Pakistan, China, and Japan.", "It frequently strays into Alaska during migration and there are scattered records across the northern United States and southern Canada.", "The global population of bramblings is about 100 to 200 million, with a decreasing trend.", "Open coniferous or birch woodland is favoured for breeding.", "Eggs of Fringilla montifringilla MHNT A flock of bramblings migrating This species is almost entirely migratory.", "In Europe, it forms large flocks in the winter, sometimes with thousands or even millions of birds in a single flock.", "Such large gatherings occur especially if beech mast is abundant.", "Bramblings do not require beech mast in the winter, but winter flocks of bramblings will move until they find it.", "This may be an adaptation to avoid competition with the common chaffinch.", "Bramblings mostly eat seeds in winter, but insects in summer.", "It builds its nest in a tree fork, and decorates the exterior with moss or lichen to make it less conspicuous.", "It lays 49 eggs."], "random_sentences": ["thumb The brambling is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.", "It has also been called the cock o' the north and the mountain finch.", "It is widespread and migratory, often seen in very large flocks.", "In 1758 Linnaeus included the species in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name, Fringilla montifringilla.", "Montifringilla is from Latin mons, montis mountain and fringilla finch.", "The English name is probably derived from Common West Germanic", "The brambling is similar in size and shape to a common chaffinch.", "Breeding-plumaged male bramblings are very distinctive, with a black head, dark upperparts, orange breast and white belly.", "Females and younger birds are less distinct, and more similar in appearance to some chaffinches.", "In all plumages, however, bramblings differs from chaffinches in a number of features: An additional difference for all plumages except breeding-plumaged males is the bill colour - yellow in the brambling, dull pinkish in the common chaffinch .", "Male and female in Poland This bird is widespread, in the breeding season, throughout the forests of northern Europe and east across the Palearctic.", "It is migratory, wintering in southern Europe, North Africa, northern India, northern Pakistan, China, and Japan.", "It frequently strays into Alaska during migration and there are scattered records across the northern United States and southern Canada.", "The global population of bramblings is about 100 to 200 million, with a decreasing trend.", "Open coniferous or birch woodland is favoured for breeding.", "Eggs of Fringilla montifringilla MHNT A flock of bramblings migrating This species is almost entirely migratory.", "In Europe, it forms large flocks in the winter, sometimes with thousands or even millions of birds in a single flock.", "Such large gatherings occur especially if beech mast is abundant.", "Bramblings do not require beech mast in the winter, but winter flocks of bramblings will move until they find it.", "This may be an adaptation to avoid competition with the common chaffinch.", "Bramblings mostly eat seeds in winter, but insects in summer.", "It builds its nest in a tree fork, and decorates the exterior with moss or lichen to make it less conspicuous."]}, "Parus major": {"keywords": ["Great tit in Sweden, winter 2016 The great tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.", "It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of North Africa where it is generally resident in any sort of woodland, most great tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters.", "It is predominantly insectivorous in the summer, but will consume a wider range of food items in the winter months, including small hibernating bats.", "The great tit has adapted well to human changes in the environment and is a common and familiar bird in urban parks and gardens.", "The 11 subspecies of the cinereous tit were once lumped with the great tit but recent genetic and bioacoustic studies now separate that group as a distinct species The great tit was formerly treated as ranging from Britain to Japan and south to the islands of Indonesia, with 36 described subspecies ascribed to four main species groups.", "The major group had 13 subspecies across Europe, temperate Asia and north Africa, the minor group's nine subspecies occurred from southeast Russia and Japan into northern southeast Asia and the 11 subspecies in the cinereus group were found from Iran across south Asia to Indonesia.", "This form was once thought to form a ring species around the Tibetan Plateau, with gene flow throughout the subspecies, but this theory was abandoned when sequences of mitochondrial DNA were examined, finding that the four groups were distinct and that the hybridisation zones between the groups were the result of secondary contact after a temporary period of isolation.", "The other subspecies have much more restricted distributions, four being restricted to islands and the remainder of the P. m. major subspecies representing former glacial refuge populations.", "Mixed forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe A nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia.", "It can be found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands.", "It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens.", "In dense forests, including conifer forests it prefers forest clearings.", "In northern Siberia it lives in boreal taiga.", "In North Africa it rather resides in oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves.", "In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest.", "Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan subspecies, as well as low scrubland, oases, at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.", "Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic and also to Netherlands, Britain, even as far as the southern Balkans.", " Male great tit on branch with sunflower seed Great tits are primarily insectivorous in the summer, feeding on insects and spiders which they capture by foliage gleaning.", "Seeds and fruit usually come from deciduous trees and shrubs, like for instance the seeds of beech and hazel.", "In particularly severe winters they may consume 44% of their body weight in sunflower seeds.", "Great tit nesting in nest box Great tits are cavity nesters, breeding in a hole that is usually inside a tree, although occasionally in a wall or rock face, and they will readily take to nest boxes.", "The nest inside the cavity is built by the female, and is made of plant fibres, grasses, moss, hair, wool and feathers.", "Insularity also affects clutch size, with great tits on offshore islands laying smaller clutches with larger eggs than mainland birds.", "This patch turns white after the first moult at age two months, and diminishes in size as the bird grows.", "Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.", "Reduced cold injury and heat loss is mediated by the great tits counter-current vascular arrangements, and peripheral vasoconstriction in major vessels in and around the birds bill and legs.", "In response to food restriction, the great tits bill temperature dropped, and once food availably was increased, bill temperatures gradually returned to normal. Vasoconstriction of blood vessels in the bill not only serves as an energy saving mechanism, but also reduces the amount of heat transferred from core body tissues to the skin , which, in turn, reduces heat loss rate by lowering skin temperature relative to the environment.", "It is more common and has better breeding success in areas with undisturbed forest cover, but it has adapted to human modified habitats.", "In areas with low frequency background noise pollution, the song has a higher frequency than in quieter areas."], "habitat_section": ["Mixed forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe A nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia.", "It can be found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands.", "In North Africa it lives in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.", "It also occurs across the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia from northern Iran and Afghanistan to Mongolia, as well as across northern Asia from the Urals as far east as northern China and the Amur Valley.", "The great tit occupies a range of habitats.", "It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens.", "In dense forests, including conifer forests it prefers forest clearings.", "In northern Siberia it lives in boreal taiga.", "In North Africa it rather resides in oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves.", "In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest.", "Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan subspecies, as well as low scrubland, oases, at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.", "The great tit is generally not migratory.", "Pairs will usually remain near or in their territory year round, even in the northern parts of their range.", "Young birds will disperse from their parents' territory, but usually not far.", "Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic and also to Netherlands, Britain, even as far as the southern Balkans.", "The great tit was unsuccessfully introduced into the United States, birds were set free near Cincinnati, Ohio between 1872 and 1874 but failed to become established.", "Suggestions that they were an excellent control measure for codling moths nearly led to their introduction to some new areas particularly in the United States of America, however this plan was not implemented.", "A small population is present in the upper Midwest, believed to be the descendants of birds liberated in Chicago in 2002 along with European goldfinches, Eurasian jays, common chaffinches, European greenfinches, saffron finches, blue tits and Eurasian linnets, although sightings of some of these species pre-date the supposed introduction date.", "Birds were introduced to the Almaty Province in what is now Kazakhstan in 196061 and became established, although their present status is unclear.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a predator of great tits, with the young from second broods being at higher risk partly because of the hawk's greater need for food for its own developing young.", "The nests of great tits are raided by great spotted woodpeckers, particularly when nesting in certain types of nest boxes.", "Other nest predators include introduced grey squirrels and least weasels, which are able to take nesting adults as well.", "A species of biting louse described as Rostrinirmus hudeci was isolated and described in 1981 from great tits in central Europe.", "The hen flea Ceratophyllus gallinae is exceedingly common in the nests of blue and great tits.", "It was originally a specialist tit flea, but the dry, crowded conditions of chicken runs enabled it to flourish with its new host.", "This flea is preferentially predated by the clown beetle Gnathoncus punctulatus, The rove beetle Microglotta pulla also feeds on fleas and their larvae.", "Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.", "Great tits compete with the pied flycatcher for nesting boxes, and can kill prospecting flycatcher males.", "Incidences of fatal competition are more frequent when nesting times overlap, and climate change has led to greater synchrony of nesting between the two species and flycatcher deaths.", "Having killed the flycatchers, the great tits may consume their brains."], "random_sentences": ["Great tit in Sweden, winter 2016 The great tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.", "It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of North Africa where it is generally resident in any sort of woodland", "most great tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters.", "Until 2005 this species was lumped with numerous other subspecies.", "DNA studies have shown these other subspecies to be distinct from the great tit and these have now been separated as two distinct species, the cinereous tit of southern Asia, and the Japanese tit of East Asia.", "The great tit remains the most widespread species in the genus Parus.", "The great tit is a distinctive bird with a black head and neck, prominent white cheeks, olive upperparts and yellow underparts, with some variation amongst the numerous subspecies.", "It is predominantly insectivorous in the summer, but will consume a wider range of food items in the winter months, including small hibernating bats.", "Like all tits it is a cavity nester, usually nesting in a hole in a tree.", "The female lays around 12 eggs and incubates them alone, although both parents raise the chicks.", "In most years the pair will raise two broods.", "The nests may be raided by woodpeckers, squirrels and weasels and infested with fleas, and adults may be hunted by sparrowhawks.", "The great tit has adapted well to human changes in the environment and is a common and familiar bird in urban parks and gardens.", "The great tit is also an important study species in ornithology.", "The great tit was described under its current binomial name by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "Its scientific name is derived from the Latin parus \" tit \" and maior \" larger \" .", "Francis Willughby had used the name in the 17th century.", "alt Bird with similar markings to great tit, but colours washed out and greyer, drinks from a leaking tap", "The 11 subspecies of the cinereous tit were once lumped with the great tit but recent genetic and bioacoustic studies now separate that group as a distinct species The great tit was formerly treated as ranging from Britain to Japan and south to the islands of Indonesia, with 36 described subspecies ascribed to four main species groups.", "The major group had 13 subspecies across Europe, temperate Asia and north Africa, the minor group's nine subspecies occurred from southeast Russia and Japan into northern southeast Asia and the 11 subspecies in the cinereus group were found from Iran across south Asia to Indonesia.", "The three bokharensis subspecies were often treated as a separate species, Parus bokharensis, the Turkestan tit.", "This form was once thought to form a ring species around the Tibetan Plateau, with gene flow throughout the subspecies, but this theory was abandoned when sequences of mitochondrial DNA were examined, finding that the four groups were distinct and that the hybridisation zones between the groups were the result of secondary contact after a temporary period of isolation.", "A study published in 2005 confirmed that the major group was distinct from the cinereus and minor groups and that along with P. m. bokharensis it diverged from these two groups around 1.5 million years ago.", "The divergence between the bokharensis and major groups was estimated to have been about half a million years ago.", "The study also examined hybrids between representatives of the major and minor groups in the Amur Valley where the two meet.", "Hybrids were rare, suggesting that there were some reproductive barriers between the two groups.", "The study recommended that the two eastern groups be split out as new species, the cinereous tit , and the Japanese tit , but that the Turkestan tit be lumped in with the great tit.", "This taxonomy has been followed by some authorities, for example the IOC World Bird List.", "The Handbook of the Birds of the World volume treating the Parus species went for the more traditional classification, treating the Turkestan tit as a separate species but retaining the Japanese and cinereous tits with the great tit, a move that has not been without criticism.", "The nominate subspecies of the great tit is the most widespread, its range stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to the Amur Valley and from Scandinavia to the Middle East.", "The other subspecies have much more restricted distributions, four being restricted to islands and the remainder of the P. m. major subspecies representing former glacial refuge populations.", "The dominance of a single, morphologically uniform subspecies over such a large area suggests that the nominate race rapidly recolonised a large area after the last glacial epoch.", "This hypothesis is supported by genetic studies which suggest a geologically recent genetic bottleneck followed by a rapid population expansion.", "In females and juveniles the mid-line stripe is narrower and sometimes discontinuous", "alt duller-plumaged great tit with weak breast and belly stripe The great tit is large for a tit at in length, and has a distinctive appearance that makes it easy to recognise.", "The nominate race P. major major has a bluish-black crown, black neck, throat, bib and head, and white cheeks and ear coverts.", "The breast is bright lemon-yellow and there is a broad black mid-line stripe running from the bib to vent.", "There is a dull white spot on the neck turning to greenish yellow on the upper nape.", "The rest of the nape and back are green tinged with olive.", "The wing-coverts are green, the rest of the wing is bluish-grey with a white wing-bar.", "The tail is bluish grey with white outer tips.", "The plumage of the female is similar to that of the male except that the colours are overall duller", "the bib is less intensely black, as is the line running down the belly, which is also narrower and sometimes broken.", "Young birds are like the female, except that they have dull olive-brown napes and necks, greyish rumps, and greyer tails, with less defined white tips.", "The plumage of the male is typically bright, although this varies by subspecies", "alt Great tit with strongly yellow sides perched on twig There is some variation in the subspecies.", "P. m. newtoni is like the nominate race but has a slightly longer bill, the mantle is slightly deeper green, there is less white on the tail tips, and the ventral mid-line stripe is broader on the belly.", "P. m. corsus also resembles the nominate form but has duller upperparts, less white in the tail and less yellow in the nape.", "P. m. mallorcae is like the nominate subspecies, but has a larger bill, greyer-blue upperparts and slightly paler underparts.", "P. m. ecki is like P. m. mallorcae except with bluer upperparts and paler underparts.", "P. m. excelsus is similar to the nominate race but has much brighter green upperparts, bright yellow underparts and no white on the tail.", "P. m. aphrodite has darker, more olive-grey upperparts, and the underparts are more yellow to pale cream.", "P. m. niethammeri is similar to P. m. aphrodite but the upperparts are duller and less green, and the underparts are pale yellow.", "P. m. terrasanctae resembles the previous two subspecies but has slightly paler upperparts.", "P. m. blandfordi is like the nominate but with a greyer mantle and scapulars and pale yellow underparts, and P. m. karelini is intermediate between the nominate and P. m. blandfordi, and lacks white on the tail.", "The plumage of P. m. bokharensis is much greyer, pale creamy white to washed out grey underparts, a larger white cheep patch, a grey tail, wings, back and nape.", "It is also slightly smaller, with a smaller bill but longer tail.", "The situation is similar for the two related subspecies in the Turkestan tit group.", "P. m. turkestanicus is like P. m. bokharensis but with a larger bill and darker upperparts.", "P. m. ferghanensis is like P. m. bokharensis but with a smaller bill, darker grey on the flanks and a more yellow wash on the juvenile birds.", "Female great tit and male The colour of the male bird's breast has been shown to correlate with stronger sperm, and is one way that the male demonstrates his reproductive superiority to females.", "Higher levels of carotenoid increase the intensity of the yellow of the breast its colour, and also enable the sperm to better withstand the onslaught of free radicals.", "Carotenoids cannot be synthesized by the bird and have to be obtained from food, so a bright colour in a male demonstrates his ability to obtain good nutrition.", "However, the saturation of the yellow colour is also influenced by environmental factors, such as weather conditions.", "The width of the male's ventral stripe, which varies with individual, is selected for by females, with higher quality females apparently selecting males with wider stripes.", "Great tit : song ", "Great tit : sonagram ", "Great tit twittering The great tit is, like other tits, a vocal bird, and has up to 40 types of calls and songs.", "The calls are generally the same between the sexes, but the male is much more vocal and the female rarely calls.", "Soft single notes such as \" pit \" , \" spick \" , or \" chit \" are used as contact calls.", "A loud \" tink \" is used by adult males as an alarm or in territorial disputes.", "One of the most familiar is a \" teacher, teacher \" , often likened to a squeaky wheelbarrow wheel, which is used in proclaiming ownership of a territory.", "In former times, English folk considered the \" saw-sharpening \" call to be a foretelling of rain.", "There is little geographic variation in calls, but tits from the two south Asian groups recently split from the great tit do not recognise or react to the calls of the temperate great tits.", "alt forest clearing with leaf strewn floor, low plants and saplings, and tall trees partly obscuring the sky", "Mixed forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe A nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia.", "It can be found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands.", "In North Africa it lives in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.", "It also occurs across the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia from northern Iran and Afghanistan to Mongolia, as well as across northern Asia from the Urals as far east as northern China and the Amur Valley.", "The great tit occupies a range of habitats.", "It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens.", "In dense forests, including conifer forests it prefers forest clearings.", "In northern Siberia it lives in boreal taiga.", "In North Africa it rather resides in oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves.", "In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest.", "Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan subspecies, as well as low scrubland, oases", "at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.", "The great tit is generally not migratory.", "Pairs will usually remain near or in their territory year round, even in the northern parts of their range.", "Young birds will disperse from their parents' territory, but usually not far.", "Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic and also to Netherlands, Britain, even as far as the southern Balkans.", "The great tit was unsuccessfully introduced into the United States", "birds were set free near Cincinnati, Ohio between 1872 and 1874 but failed to become established.", "Suggestions that they were an excellent control measure for codling moths nearly led to their introduction to some new areas particularly in the United States of America, however this plan was not implemented.", "A small population is present in the upper Midwest, believed to be the descendants of birds liberated in Chicago in 2002 along with European goldfinches, Eurasian jays, common chaffinches, European greenfinches, saffron finches, blue tits and Eurasian linnets, although sightings of some of these species pre-date the supposed introduction date.", "Birds were introduced to the Almaty Province in what is now Kazakhstan in 196061 and became established, although their present status is unclear.", "Like other tits, great tits transport food with their beak, and then transfer it to their feet, where it is held while they eat", "alt Male great tit on branch with sunflower seed Great tits are primarily insectivorous in the summer, feeding on insects and spiders which they capture by foliage gleaning.", "Their larger invertebrate prey include cockroaches, grasshoppers and crickets, lacewings, earwigs, bugs , ants, flies , caddis flies, beetles, scorpion flies, harvestmen, bees and wasps, snails and woodlice.", "A study published in 2007 found that great tits helped to reduce caterpillar damage in apple orchards by as much as 50%.", "Nestlings also undergo a period in their early development where they are fed a number of spiders, possibly for nutritional reasons.", "In autumn and winter, when insect prey becomes scarcer, great tits add berries and seeds to their diet.", "Seeds and fruit usually come from deciduous trees and shrubs, like for instance the seeds of beech and hazel.", "Where it is available they will readily take table scraps, peanuts and sunflower seeds from bird tables.", "In particularly severe winters they may consume 44% of their body weight in sunflower seeds.", "They often forage on the ground, particularly in years with high beech mast production.", "Great tits, along with other tits, will join winter mixed-species foraging flocks.", "Great tit feeding its young with an insect Large food items, such as large seeds or prey, are dealt with by \" hold-hammering \" , where the item is held with one or both feet and then struck with the bill until it is ready to eat.", "Using this method, a great tit can get into a hazelnut in about twenty minutes.", "When feeding young, adults will hammer off the heads of large insects to make them easier to consume, and remove the gut from caterpillars so that the tannins in the gut will not retard the chick's growth.", "Great tits combine dietary versatility with a considerable amount of intelligence and the ability to solve problems with insight learning, that is to solve a problem through insight rather than trial and error.", "In England, great tits learned to break the foil caps of milk bottles delivered at the doorstep of homes to obtain the cream at the top.", "This behaviour, first noted in 1921, spread rapidly in the next two decades.", "In 2009, great tits were reported killing, and eating the brains of roosting pipistrelle bats.", "This is the first time a songbird has been recorded preying on bats.", "The tits only do this during winter when the bats are hibernating and other food is scarce.", "They have also been recorded using tools, using a conifer needle in the bill to extract larvae from a hole in a tree.", "Great tits are monogamous breeders and establish breeding territories.", "These territories are established in late January and defence begins in late winter or early spring.", "Territories are usually reoccupied in successive years, even if one of the pair dies, so long as the brood is raised successfully.", "Females are likely to disperse to new territories if their nest is predated the previous year.", "If the pair divorces for some reason then the birds will disperse, with females travelling further than males to establish new territories.", "Although the great tit is socially monogamous, extra-pair copulations are frequent.", "One study in Germany found that 40% of nests contained some offspring fathered by parents other than the breeding male and that 8.5% of all chicks were the result of cuckoldry.", "Adult males tend to have a higher reproductive success compared to sub-adults.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden Young chicks in the nest", "alt nest with seven chicks.", "These are covered with grey down, and have bright yellow gapes Great tits are seasonal breeders.", "The exact timing of breeding varies by a number of factors, most importantly location.", "Most breeding occurs between January and September", "in Europe the breeding season usually begins after March.", "In Israel there are exceptional records of breeding during the months of October to December.", "The amount of sunlight and daytime temperatures will also affect breeding timing.", "One study found a strong correlation between the timing of laying and the peak abundance of caterpillar prey, which is in turn correlated to temperature.", "On an individual level, younger females tend to start laying later than older females.", "alt Great tit leaving its wooden nest box right", "Great tit nesting in nest box Great tits are cavity nesters, breeding in a hole that is usually inside a tree, although occasionally in a wall or rock face, and they will readily take to nest boxes.", "The nest inside the cavity is built by the female, and is made of plant fibres, grasses, moss, hair, wool and feathers.", "The number in the clutch is often very large, as many as 18, but five to twelve is more common.", "Clutch size is smaller when birds start laying later, and is also lower when the density of competitors is higher.", "Second broods tend to have smaller clutches.", "Insularity also affects clutch size, with great tits on offshore islands laying smaller clutches with larger eggs than mainland birds.", "The eggs are white with red spots.", "The female undertakes all incubation duties, and is fed by the male during incubation.", "The bird is a close sitter, hissing when disturbed.", "The timing of hatching, which is best synchronised with peak availability of prey, can be manipulated when environmental conditions change after the laying of the first egg by delaying the beginning of incubation, laying more eggs or pausing during incubation.", "The incubation period is between 12 and 15 days.", "alt Young bird with ruffled adult-like plumage and yellow gape The chicks, like those of all tits, hatch unfeathered and blind.", "Once feathers begin to erupt, the nestlings are unusual for altricial birds in having plumage coloured with carotenoids similar to their parents .", "The nape is yellow and attracts the attention of the parents by its ultraviolet reflectance.", "This may be to make them easier to find in low light, or be a signal of fitness to win the parents' attention.", "This patch turns white after the first moult at age two months, and diminishes in size as the bird grows.", "Chicks are fed by both parents, usually receiving of food a day.", "Inbreeding depression occurs when the offspring produced as a result of a mating between close relatives show reduced fitness.", "The reduced fitness is generally considered to be a consequence of the increased expression of deleterious recessive alleles in these offspring.", "In natural populations of P. major, inbreeding is avoided by dispersal of individuals from their birthplace, which reduces the chance of mating with a close relative.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a predator of great tits, with the young from second broods being at higher risk partly because of the hawk's greater need for food for its own developing young.", "The nests of great tits are raided by great spotted woodpeckers, particularly when nesting in certain types of nest boxes.", "Other nest predators include introduced grey squirrels and least weasels, which are able to take nesting adults as well.", "A species of biting louse described as Rostrinirmus hudeci was isolated and described in 1981 from great tits in central Europe.", "The hen flea Ceratophyllus gallinae is exceedingly common in the nests of blue and great tits.", "It was originally a specialist tit flea, but the dry, crowded conditions of chicken runs enabled it to flourish with its new host.", "This flea is preferentially predated by the clown beetle Gnathoncus punctulatus, The rove beetle Microglotta pulla also feeds on fleas and their larvae.", "Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.", "Great tits compete with the pied flycatcher for nesting boxes, and can kill prospecting flycatcher males.", "Incidences of fatal competition are more frequent when nesting times overlap, and climate change has led to greater synchrony of nesting between the two species and flycatcher deaths.", "Having killed the flycatchers, the great tits may consume their brains.", "Great tits have been found to possess special physiological adaptations for cold environments.", "When preparing for winter months, the great tit can increase how thermogenic its blood is.", "The mechanism for this adaptation is a seasonal increase in mitochondrial volume and mitochondrial respiration in red blood cells and increased uncoupling of the electron transport from ATP production.", "Reduced cold injury and heat loss is mediated by the great tits counter-current vascular arrangements, and peripheral vasoconstriction in major vessels in and around the birds bill and legs.", "This mechanism allows uninsulated regions to remain close to the surrounding temperature.", "In response to food restriction, the great tits bill temperature dropped, and once food availably was increased, bill temperatures gradually returned to normal. Vasoconstriction of blood vessels in the bill not only serves as an energy saving mechanism, but also reduces the amount of heat transferred from core body tissues to the skin , which, in turn, reduces heat loss rate by lowering skin temperature relative to the environment.", "The great tit's willingness to use bird-feeders and nesting boxes makes it popular with the general public and useful to scientists", "alt adult great tit perched on hand The great tit is a popular garden bird due to its acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or seed.", "Its willingness to move into nest boxes has made it a valuable study subject in ornithology", "it has been particularly useful as a model for the study of the evolution of various life-history traits, particularly clutch size.", "A study of a literature database search found 1,349 articles relating to Parus major for the period between 1969 and 2002.", "The great tit has generally adjusted to human modifications of the environment.", "It is more common and has better breeding success in areas with undisturbed forest cover, but it has adapted to human modified habitats.", "It can be very common in urban areas.", "For example, the breeding population in the city of Sheffield has been estimated at some 17,000 individuals.", "In adapting to human environments its song has been observed to change in noise-polluted urban environments.", "In areas with low frequency background noise pollution, the song has a higher frequency than in quieter areas.", "This tit has expanded its range, moving northwards into Scandinavia and Scotland, and south into Israel and Egypt.", "The total population is estimated at between 3001,100 million birds in a range of 32.4 million km 2 .", "While there have been some localised declines in population in areas with poorer quality habitats, its large range and high numbers mean that the great tit is not considered to be threatened, and it is classed as least concern on the IUCN Red List."]}, "Erithacus rubecula": {"keywords": ["The robin occurs in Eurasia east to Western Siberia, south to Algeria and on the Atlantic islands as far west as the Central Group of the Azores and Madeira.", "In southern Iberia, habitat segregation of resident and migrant robins occurs, with resident robins remaining in the same woodlands where they bred.", "There was a similar outcome in North America, as birds failed to become established after being released in Long Island, New York in 1852, Oregon in 18891892, and the Saanich Peninsula in British Columbia in 19081910.", "Well known to British and Irish gardeners, it is relatively unafraid of people and drawn to human activities involving the digging of soil, in order to look out for earthworms and other food freshly turned up.", "Robins also approach large wild animals, such as wild boar, which disturb the ground, to look for any food that might be brought to the surface.", "A spell of very low temperatures in winter can, however, result in higher mortality rates.", "As well as the usual crevices, or sheltered banks, other objects include pieces of machinery, barbecues, bicycle handlebars, bristles on upturned brooms, discarded kettles, watering cans, flower pots and hats.", "Nests are generally composed of moss, leaves and grass, with fine grass, hair and feathers for lining.", "After two to three months out of the nest, the juvenile bird grows some orange feathers under its chin, and over a similar period this patch gradually extends to complete the adult appearance of an entirely red-orange breast.", "Both the male and female sing during the winter, when they hold separate territories, the song then sounding more plaintive than the summer version.", "The female robin moves a short distance from the summer nesting territory to a nearby area that is more suitable for winter feeding.", "European robin feeding on snowy ground The robin features prominently in British folklore and that of northwestern France, but much less so in other parts of Europe.", "An alternative legend has it that its breast was scorched fetching water for souls in Purgatory."], "habitat_section": ["The robin occurs in Eurasia east to Western Siberia, south to Algeria and on the Atlantic islands as far west as the Central Group of the Azores and Madeira.", "It is a vagrant in Iceland.", "In the southeast, it reaches Iran the Caucasus range.", "In southern Iberia, habitat segregation of resident and migrant robins occurs, with resident robins remaining in the same woodlands where they bred.", "Attempts to introduce the European robin into Australia and New Zealand in the latter part of the 19th century were unsuccessful.", "Birds were released around Melbourne, Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Dunedin by various local acclimatisation societies, with none becoming established.", "There was a similar outcome in North America, as birds failed to become established after being released in Long Island, New York in 1852, Oregon in 18891892, and the Saanich Peninsula in British Columbia in 19081910.", "Robin with prey The robin is diurnal, although it has been reported to be active hunting insects on moonlit nights or near artificial light at night.", "Well known to British and Irish gardeners, it is relatively unafraid of people and drawn to human activities involving the digging of soil, in order to look out for earthworms and other food freshly turned up.", "The robin is considered to be a gardener's friend, and from the traditional association of the red breast with the blood of Christ, the robin would never be harmed.", "In continental Europe, on the other hand, robins were hunted and killed as were most other small birds, and are therefore more wary.", "Robins also approach large wild animals, such as wild boar, which disturb the ground, to look for any food that might be brought to the surface.", "In autumn and winter, robins will supplement their usual diet of terrestrial invertebrates, such as spiders, worms and insects, with berries and fruit.", "They will also eat seed mixtures and suet placed on bird-tables.", "Male robins are noted for their highly aggressive territorial behaviour.", "They will fiercely attack other males and competitors that stray into their territories and have been observed attacking other small birds without apparent provocation.", "There are instances of robins attacking their own reflection.", "Territorial disputes sometimes lead to fatalities, accounting for up to 10% of adult robin deaths in some areas.", "Because of high mortality in the first year of life, a robin has an average life expectancy of 1.1 years, however, once past its first year, life expectancy increases.", "One robin has been recorded as reaching 19 years of age.", "A spell of very low temperatures in winter can, however, result in higher mortality rates.", "The species is parasitised by the moorhen flea and the acanthocephalan Apororhynchus silesiacus.", "The European robin has an extensive range and a population numbering in the hundreds of millions.", "The species does not approach the vulnerable thresholds under the population trend criterion , the population appears to be increasing.", "The International Union for Conservation of Nature evaluates it as least concern."], "random_sentences": ["The European robin , known simply as the robin or robin redbreast in Great Britain", "Ireland, is a small insectivorous passerine bird that belongs to the chat subfamily of the Old World flycatcher family.", "About in length, the male and female are similar in colouration, with an orange breast and face lined with grey, brown upper-parts and a whitish belly.", "It is found across Europe, east to Western Siberia and south to North Africa", "it is sedentary in most of its range except the far north.", "The term robin is also applied to some birds in other families with red or orange breasts.", "These include the American robin , a thrush, and the Australasian robins of the family Petroicidae, the relationships of which are unclear.", "The European robin was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Motacilla rubecula.", "Its specific epithet rubecula is a diminutive derived from the Latin , meaning 'red'.", "The genus Erithacus was introduced by French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1800, giving the bird its current binomial name E. rubecula.", "The genus name Erithacus is from Ancient Greek and refers to an unknown bird, now usually identified as robin.", "The distinctive orange breast of both sexes contributed to the European robin's original name of \" redbreast \" , orange as a colour name being unknown in English until the 16th century, by which time the fruit had been introduced.", "In the 15th century, when it became popular to give human names to familiar species, the bird came to be known as robin redbreast, which was eventually shortened to robin.", "As a given name, Robin is originally a diminutive of Robert.", "Other older English names for the bird include ruddock and robinet.", "In American literature of the late 19th century, this robin was frequently called the English robin.", "The Dutch , French , German , Italian , Spanish and Portuguese all refer to the distinctively coloured front.", "The genus Erithacus previously included the Japanese robin and the Ryukyu robin.", "These east Asian species were shown in molecular phylogenetic studies to be more similar to a group of other Asian species than to the European robin.", "In a reorganisation of the genera, the Japanese and the Ryukyu robins were moved to the resurrected genus Larvivora leaving the European robin as the sole member of Erithacus.", "The phylogenetic analysis placed Erithacus in the subfamily Erithacinae, which otherwise contained only African species, but its exact position with respect to the other genera was not resolved.", "The genus Erithacus was formerly classified as a member of the thrush family but is now considered to belong to the Old World flycatcher family , specifically to the chats which also include the common nightingale.", "The larger American robin (T.", "migratorius) is named for its similarity to the European robin, but the two birds are not closely related.", "The similarity lies largely in the orange chest patch in both species.", "This American species was incorrectly shown \" feathering its nest \" in London in the film Mary Poppins, but it only occurs in the U.K. as a very rare vagrant.", "Some South and Central American Turdus thrushes are also called robins, such as the rufous-collared thrush.", "The Australian \" robin redbreast \" , more correctly the scarlet robin , is more closely related to crows and jays than it is to the European robin.", "It belongs to the family Petroicidae, whose members are commonly called \" Australasian robins \" .", "The red-billed leiothrix is sometimes named the \" Pekin robin \" by aviculturalists.", "Another group of Old World flycatchers, this time from Africa and Asia, is the genus Copsychus", "its members are known as magpie-robins, one of which, the Oriental magpie robin (C.", "saularis), is the national bird of Bangladesh.", "The adult European robin is .", " long and weighs , with a wingspan of .", "The male and female bear similar plumage: an orange breast and face , lined by a bluish grey on the sides of the neck and chest.", "The upperparts are brownish, or olive-tinged in British birds, and the belly whitish, while the legs and feet are brown.", "The bill and eyes are black.", "Juveniles are a spotted brown and white in colouration, with patches of orange gradually appearing.", "The robin occurs in Eurasia east to Western Siberia, south to Algeria and on the Atlantic islands as far west as the Central Group of the Azores and Madeira.", "It is a vagrant in Iceland.", "In the southeast, it reaches Iran the Caucasus range.", "In southern Iberia, habitat segregation of resident and migrant robins occurs, with resident robins remaining in the same woodlands where they bred.", "Attempts to introduce the European robin into Australia and New Zealand in the latter part of the 19th century were unsuccessful.", "Birds were released around Melbourne, Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Dunedin by various local acclimatisation societies, with none becoming established.", "There was a similar outcome in North America, as birds failed to become established after being released in Long Island, New York in 1852, Oregon in 18891892, and the Saanich Peninsula in British Columbia in 19081910.", "Robin with prey The robin is diurnal, although it has been reported to be active hunting insects on moonlit nights or near artificial light at night.", "Well known to British and Irish gardeners, it is relatively unafraid of people and drawn to human activities involving the digging of soil, in order to look out for earthworms and other food freshly turned up.", "The robin is considered to be a gardener's friend, and from the traditional association of the red breast with the blood of Christ, the robin would never be harmed.", "In continental Europe, on the other hand, robins were hunted and killed as were most other small birds, and are therefore more wary.", "Robins also approach large wild animals, such as wild boar, which disturb the ground, to look for any food that might be brought to the surface.", "In autumn and winter, robins will supplement their usual diet of terrestrial invertebrates, such as spiders, worms and insects, with berries and fruit.", "They will also eat seed mixtures and suet placed on bird-tables.", "Male robins are noted for their highly aggressive territorial behaviour.", "They will fiercely attack other males and competitors that stray into their territories and have been observed attacking other small birds without apparent provocation.", "There are instances of robins attacking their own reflection.", "Territorial disputes sometimes lead to fatalities, accounting for up to 10% of adult robin deaths in some areas.", "Because of high mortality in the first year of life, a robin has an average life expectancy of 1.1 years", "however, once past its first year, life expectancy increases.", "One robin has been recorded as reaching 19 years of age.", "A spell of very low temperatures in winter can, however, result in higher mortality rates.", "The species is parasitised by the moorhen flea and the acanthocephalan Apororhynchus silesiacus.", "Robins may choose a wide variety of sites for building a nest.", "In fact, anything which can offer some shelter, like a depression or hole, may be considered.", "As well as the usual crevices, or sheltered banks, other objects include pieces of machinery, barbecues, bicycle handlebars, bristles on upturned brooms, discarded kettles, watering cans, flower pots and hats.", "Robins will also nest in manmade nest boxes, favouring a design with an open front placed in a sheltered position up to from the ground.", "Nests are generally composed of moss, leaves and grass, with fine grass, hair and feathers for lining.", "Two or three clutches of five or six eggs are laid throughout the breeding season, which commences in March in Britain and Ireland.", "The eggs are a cream, buff or white speckled or blotched with reddish-brown colour, often more heavily so at the larger end.", "When juvenile birds fly from the nests, their colouration is entirely mottled brown.", "After two to three months out of the nest, the juvenile bird grows some orange feathers under its chin, and over a similar period this patch gradually extends to complete the adult appearance of an entirely red-orange breast.", "The robin produces a fluting, warbling during the breeding season.", "Both the male and female sing during the winter, when they hold separate territories, the song then sounding more plaintive than the summer version.", "The female robin moves a short distance from the summer nesting territory to a nearby area that is more suitable for winter feeding.", "The male robin keeps the same territory throughout the year.", "During the breeding season, male robins usually initiate their morning song an hour before civil sunrise, and usually terminate their daily singing around thirty minutes after sunset.", "Nocturnal singing can also occur, especially in urban areas that are artificially lit during the night.", "Under artificial light, nocturnal singing can be used by urban robins to actively shunt daytime anthropogenic noise.", "Very weak radio-frequency interference prevents migratory robins from orienting correctly to the Earth's magnetic field.", "Since this would not interfere with an iron compass, the experiments imply that the birds use a radical-pair mechanism.", "The European robin has an extensive range and a population numbering in the hundreds of millions.", "The species does not approach the vulnerable thresholds under the population trend criterion ", "the population appears to be increasing.", "The International Union for Conservation of Nature evaluates it as least concern.", "European robin feeding on snowy ground The robin features prominently in British folklore and that of northwestern France, but much less so in other parts of Europe.", "It was held to be a storm-cloud bird and sacred to Thor, the god of thunder, in Norse mythology.", "Robins feature in the traditional children's tale Babes in the Wood", "the birds cover the dead bodies of the children.", "The robin has become strongly associated with Christmas, taking a starring role on many Christmas cards since the mid-19th century.", "The robin has appeared on many Christmas postage stamps.", "An old British folk tale seeks to explain the robin's distinctive breast.", "Legend has it that when Jesus was dying on the cross, the robin, then simply brown in colour, flew to his side and sang into his ear in order to comfort him in his pain.", "The blood from his wounds stained the robin's breast, and thereafter all robins carry the mark of Christ's blood upon them.", "An alternative legend has it that its breast was scorched fetching water for souls in Purgatory.", "The association with Christmas more probably arises from the fact that postmen in Victorian Britain wore red jackets and were nicknamed \" Robins \"", "the robin featured on the Christmas card is an emblem of the postman delivering the card.", "In the 1960s, in a vote publicised by The Times, the robin was adopted as the unofficial national bird of the United Kingdom.", "In 2015, the robin was again voted Britain's national bird in a poll organised by birdwatcher David Lindo, taking 34% of the final vote.", "Several English and Welsh sports organisations are nicknamed \" the Robins \" .", "The nickname is typically used for teams whose home colours predominantly use red.", "These include the professional football clubs Bristol City, Crewe Alexandra, Swindon Town, Cheltenham Town , and, traditionally, Wrexham FC, as well as the English rugby league team the Hull Kingston Rovers .", "A small bird is an unusual choice, although it is thought to symbolise agility in darting around the field."]}, "Phoenicurus ochruros": {"keywords": ["It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but north-eastern birds migrate to winter in southern and western Europe and Asia, and north Africa.", "On passage it is fairly common on the east and south coasts, and in winter on the coasts of Wales and western and southern England, with a few also at inland sites.", "They also winter on the south and east coasts of Ireland.", "The species originally inhabited stony ground in mountains, particularly cliffs, but since about 1900 has expanded to include similar urban habitats including bombed areas during and after World War II, and large industrial complexes that have the bare areas and cliff-like buildings it favours, in Great Britain, most of the small breeding population nests in such industrial areas.", "It will catch passing insects in flight, and migrants often hunt in coastal tide-wrack for flies or tiny crustaceans.", "The nest is built by the female and is typically placed in a crevice or hole in rock or a wall or on a ledge of a building."], "habitat_section": ["It is a widespread breeder in south and central Europe and Asia and north-west Africa, from Great Britain and Ireland south to Morocco, east to central China.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but north-eastern birds migrate to winter in southern and western Europe and Asia, and north Africa.", "It nests in crevices or holes in buildings.", "In Britain, it is most common as a passage and winter visitor, with only 2050 pairs breeding.", "On passage it is fairly common on the east and south coasts, and in winter on the coasts of Wales and western and southern England, with a few also at inland sites.", "Migrant black redstarts arrive in Britain in October or November and either move on or remain to winter, returning eastward in March or April.", "They also winter on the south and east coasts of Ireland.", "The species originally inhabited stony ground in mountains, particularly cliffs, but since about 1900 has expanded to include similar urban habitats including bombed areas during and after World War II, and large industrial complexes that have the bare areas and cliff-like buildings it favours, in Great Britain, most of the small breeding population nests in such industrial areas.", "It will catch passing insects in flight, and migrants often hunt in coastal tide-wrack for flies or tiny crustaceans.", "Its quick ducks of head and body are robin-like, and its tail is often flicked.", "The male has a rattling song and a tick call.", "Eastern race birds are very rare vagrants in western Europe."], "random_sentences": ["The black redstart is a small passerine bird in the genus Phoenicurus.", "Like its relatives, it was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family , but is now known to be an Old World flycatcher .", "Obsolete common names include Tithys redstart, blackstart and black redtail.", "The first formal description of the black redstart was by the German naturalist Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin in 1774 under the binomial name Mottacilla ochruros.", " The species is now placed in the genus Phoenicurus that was introduced in 1817 by the English naturalist Thomas Forster.", "Both parts of the scientific name are from Ancient Greek and refer to the colour of the tail.", "The genus name Phoenicurus is from phoinix, \" red \" , and -ouros - \" tailed \" , and the specific ochruros is from okhros, \" pale yellow \" and -ouros.", "The black redstart is a member of a temperate Eurasian clade, which also includes the Daurian redstart, Hodgson's redstart, the white-winged redstart and perhaps Przevalski's redstart.", "The ancestors of the present species diverged from about 3 million years ago onwards and spread throughout much of Palearctic from 1.5 mya onward.", "It is not very closely related to the common redstart.", "As these are separated by different behaviour and ecological requirements and have not evolved fertilisation barriers, the two European species can produce apparently fertile and viable hybrids.", "There are a number of subspecies, which differ mainly in the underpart colours of the adult males", "different authorities accept between five and seven subspecies.", "They can be separated into three major groups, according to morphology, biogeography and mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data.", "Basal central and eastern Asian forms which diverged from the ancestral stock as the species slowly spread west .", "Females and juveniles light grey brown.", "Western Asian forms, whose lineage separated from the gibraltariensis group c. 1.50.5 mya.", "European population, which formed as a distinct subspecies probably during the last ice age.", "Females and juveniles dark grey.", "The black redstart is in length and in weight, similar to the common redstart.", "The adult male is overall dark grey to black on the upperparts and with a black breast", "the lower rump and tail are orange-red, with the two central tail feathers dark red-brown.", "The belly and undertail are either blackish-grey (western subspecies", "see Taxonomy and systematics, above) or orange-red ", "the wings are blackish-grey with pale fringes on the secondaries forming a whitish panel or all blackish .", "The female is grey to grey-brown overall except for the orange-red lower rump and tail, greyer than the common redstart", "at any age the grey axillaries and underwing coverts are also distinctive .", "Yearling males are similar to females but blacker", "the whitish wing panel of the western subspecies does not develop until the second year.", "Black redstart, Sector 38 West, Chandigarh, India right", "It is a widespread breeder in south and central Europe and Asia and north-west Africa, from Great Britain and Ireland south to Morocco, east to central China.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but north-eastern birds migrate to winter in southern and western Europe and Asia, and north Africa.", "It nests in crevices or holes in buildings.", "In Britain, it is most common as a passage and winter visitor, with only 2050 pairs breeding.", "On passage it is fairly common on the east and south coasts, and in winter on the coasts of Wales and western and southern England, with a few also at inland sites.", "Migrant black redstarts arrive in Britain in October or November and either move on or remain to winter, returning eastward in March or April.", "They also winter on the south and east coasts of Ireland.", "The species originally inhabited stony ground in mountains, particularly cliffs, but since about 1900 has expanded to include similar urban habitats including bombed areas during and after World War II, and large industrial complexes that have the bare areas and cliff-like buildings it favours", "in Great Britain, most of the small breeding population nests in such industrial areas.", "It will catch passing insects in flight, and migrants often hunt in coastal tide-wrack for flies or tiny crustaceans.", "Its quick ducks of head and body are robin-like, and its tail is often flicked.", "The male has a rattling song and a tick call.", "Eastern race birds are very rare vagrants in western Europe.", "Black redstarts are usually monogamous.", "They start breeding in mid-April.", "The nest is built by the female and is typically placed in a crevice or hole in rock or a wall or on a ledge of a building.", "The nest consists of a loose cup of grass and stems and is lined with hair, wool and feathers.", "The eggs are laid daily.", "The clutch consists of 4 to 6 eggs that are usually white but can also be pale blue.", "On average they measure and weigh .", "Beginning after the final egg is laid, the eggs are incubated by the female for 1317 days.", "The young are cared for and fed by both parents and fledge after 1219 days."]}, "Motacilla alba": {"keywords": ["The species breeds in much of Europe and the Asian Palearctic and parts of North Africa.", "As many as six subspecies may be present in the wintering ground in India or Southeast Asia and here they can be difficult to distinguish.", "Yellow denotes summer range, green year round range, blue winter range.", "This species breeds throughout Eurasia up to latitudes 75N, only being absent in the Arctic from areas where the July isotherm is less than 4 C. It also breeds in the mountains of Morocco and western Alaska.", "Northern European breeders winter around the Mediterranean and in tropical and subtropical Africa, and Asiatic birds move to the Middle East, India, Birds from the North American population also winter in tropical Asia."], "habitat_section": ["Worldwide distribution of the white wagtail.", "Yellow denotes summer range, green year round range, blue winter range.", "This species breeds throughout Eurasia up to latitudes 75N, only being absent in the Arctic from areas where the July isotherm is less than 4 C. It also breeds in the mountains of Morocco and western Alaska.", "It occupies a wide range of habitats, but is absent from deserts.", "White wagtails are residents in the milder parts of its range such as western Europe and the Mediterranean, but migratory in much of the rest of its range.", "Northern European breeders winter around the Mediterranean and in tropical and subtropical Africa, and Asiatic birds move to the Middle East, India, Birds from the North American population also winter in tropical Asia.", "The most conspicuous habit of this species is a near-constant tail wagging, a trait that has given the species, and indeed the genus, its common name.", "In spite of the ubiquity of this behaviour, the reasons for it are poorly understood.", "It has been suggested that it may flush prey, or signal submissiveness to other wagtails.", "A study in 2004 has suggested instead that it is a signal of vigilance to potential predators."], "random_sentences": ["The white wagtail is a small passerine bird in the family Motacillidae, which also includes pipits and longclaws.", "The species breeds in much of Europe and the Asian Palearctic and parts of North Africa.", "It has a toehold in Alaska as a scarce breeder.", "It is resident in the mildest parts of its range, but otherwise migrates to Africa.", "In Ireland and Great Britain, the darker subspecies, the pied wagtail or water wagtail (M.", "this is also called in Ireland willie wagtail, not to be confused with the Australian species Rhipidura leucophrys which bears the same common name.", "In total, there are between 9 and 11 subspecies of M. alba.", "The white wagtail is an insectivorous bird of open country, often near habitation and water.", "It prefers bare areas for feeding, where it can see and pursue its prey.", "In urban areas it has adapted to foraging on paved areas such as car parks.", "It nests in crevices in stone walls and similar natural and man-made structures.", "It is the national bird of Latvia and has featured on the stamps of several countries.", "Though it is 'of least concern', there are several threats against it, like being kept as pets and being used as food.", "Breeding ranges of the major races The white wagtail was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, and it still bears its original name Motacilla alba.", "The Latin genus name originally meant \" little mover \" , but certain medieval writers thought it meant \" wag-tail \" , giving rise to a new Latin word cilla for \" tail \" .", "The specific epithet alba is Latin for \" white \" .", "Within the wagtail genus Motacilla, the white wagtail's closest genetic relatives appear to be other black-and-white wagtails such as the Japanese wagtail, Motacilla grandis, and the white-browed wagtail, Motacilla madaraspatensis , with which it appears to form a superspecies.", "However, mtDNA cytochrome b and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 sequence data suggests that the white wagtail is itself polyphyletic or paraphyletic .", "Other phylogenetic studies using mtDNA still suggest that there is considerable gene flow within the races and the resulting closeness makes Motacilla alba a single species.", "A study has suggested the existence of only two groups: the alboides group, with M. a. alboides, M. a. leucopsis and M. a. personata", "and the alba group, with M. a. alba, M. a. yarrellii, M. a. baicalensis, M. a. ocularis, M. a. lugens, and M. a. subpersonata.", "An adult with a juvenile in Kazakhstan thumbnail", "White wagtails sitting on a spruce and flying away you can see their characteristic flightpattern.", "Spring 2021 The white wagtail is a slender bird, in length , with the characteristic long, constantly wagging tail of its genus.", "Its average weight is and the maximum lifespan in the wild is about 12 years.", "There are a number of other subspecies, some of which may have arisen because of partial geographical isolation, such as the resident British and Irish form, the pied wagtail M. a. yarrellii, which now also breeds in adjacent areas of the neighbouring European mainland.", "The pied wagtail, named for naturalist William Yarrell, exchanges the grey colour of the nominate form with black , but is otherwise identical in its behaviour.", "Other subspecies, the validity of some of which is questionable, differ in the colour of the wings, back, and head, or other features.", "Some races show sexual dimorphism during the breeding season.", "As many as six subspecies may be present in the wintering ground in India or Southeast Asia and here they can be difficult to distinguish.", "Phylogenetic studies using mtDNA suggest that some morphological features have evolved more than once, including the back and chin colour.", "Breeding M. a. yarrellii look much like the nominate race except for the black back, and M. a. alboides of the Himalayas differs from the Central Asian M. a. personata only by its black back.", "M. a. personata has been recorded breeding in the Siddar Valley of Kashmir of the Western Himalayas.", "It has also been noted that both back and chin change colour during the pre-basic moult", "all black-throated subspecies develop white chins and throats in winter and some black-backed birds are grey-backed in winter.", "The call of the white wagtail is a sharp chisick, slightly softer than the version given by the pied wagtail.", "The song is more regular in white than pied, but with little territorial significance, since the male uses a series of contact calls to attract the female.", "Worldwide distribution of the white wagtail.", "Yellow denotes summer range, green year round range, blue winter range.", "This species breeds throughout Eurasia up to latitudes 75N, only being absent in the Arctic from areas where the July isotherm is less than 4 C. It also breeds in the mountains of Morocco and western Alaska.", "It occupies a wide range of habitats, but is absent from deserts.", "White wagtails are residents in the milder parts of its range such as western Europe and the Mediterranean, but migratory in much of the rest of its range.", "Northern European breeders winter around the Mediterranean and in tropical and subtropical Africa, and Asiatic birds move to the Middle East, India, Birds from the North American population also winter in tropical Asia.", "The most conspicuous habit of this species is a near-constant tail wagging, a trait that has given the species, and indeed the genus, its common name.", "In spite of the ubiquity of this behaviour, the reasons for it are poorly understood.", "It has been suggested that it may flush prey, or signal submissiveness to other wagtails.", "A study in 2004 has suggested instead that it is a signal of vigilance to potential predators.", "The exact composition of the diet of white wagtails varies by location, but terrestrial and aquatic insects and other small invertebrates form the major part of the diet.", "These range from beetles, dragonflies, small snails, spiders, worms, crustaceans, to maggots found in carcasses and, most importantly, flies.", "Small fish fry have also been recorded in the diet.", "The white wagtail is somewhat unusual in the parts of its range where it is non-migratory as it is an insectivorous bird that continues to feed on insects during the winter .", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany right", "Juvenile M. a. alba in northern Norway, showing the grey face and chest White wagtails are monogamous and defend breeding territories.", "Around three to eight eggs are laid, with the usual number being four to six.", "The eggs are cream-coloured, often with a faint bluish-green or turquoise tint, and heavily spotted with reddish brown", "they measure, on average, .", "Both parents incubate the eggs, although the female generally does so for longer and incubates at night.", "The eggs begin to hatch after 12 days .", "Both parents feed the chicks until they fledge after between 12 and 15 days, and the chicks are fed for another week after fledging.", "Though it is known to be a host species for the common cuckoo, the white wagtail typically deserts its nest if it has been parasitised.", "Moksnes et al. theorised that this occurs because the wagtail is too small to push the intruding egg out of the nest, and too short-billed to destroy the egg by puncturing it.", "This species has a large range, with an estimated extent of more than .", "The population size is between 130 and 230 million.", "Population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List .", "For these reasons, the species is evaluated to be of least concern.", "The population in Europe appears to be stable.", "The species has adapted well to human changes to the environment and has exploited human changes such as man-made structures that are used for nesting sites and increased open areas that are used for foraging.", "In a number of cities, notably Dublin, large flocks gather in winter to roost.", "They are therefore rated as of least concern.", "However, they are caught for sport and often then placed into collections.", "They are also kept as pets and eaten as food.", "Climate change may be affecting the time of their migration.", "They have featured on stamps from Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Finland, Georgia, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Jersey, Kuwait, Latvia, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom and Vietnam.", "The white wagtail is the national bird of Latvia, and has been often mentioned in Latvian and Madheshi folk songs.", "It is called Khirlichi in Madheshi language and is worshipped during festivals of Sama Chakewa and Jitiya."]}, "Periparus ater": {"keywords": ["It is a widespread and common resident breeder in forests throughout the temperate to subtropical Palearctic, including North Africa.", "As occasional hybridization has been recorded between the two, mtDNA alone is insufficient to determine whether hybrid gene flow or another trivial cause obfuscates the actual relationships, or whether taxonomic rearrangement is indeed required.", "With the range of these titmice encircling the Himalayas, without further study it cannot even be excluded that they constitute a ring species with gene flow occurring in Nepal but not in Afghanistan as has been shown for other passerines in the same region.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden It is typically a bird of temperate humid conifer forest, but apart from that shows little habitat specificity.", "In Bhutan for example coal tits are fairly common residents above the subtropical zone, at about 3,0003,800 m ASL, and are found in forests dominated by Bhutan fir as well as in those characterized by Himalayan hemlock and rhododendrons.", "It will also visit gardens to feed on a variety of foods put out, particularly sunflower seeds.", "In winter, the red blood cells of coal tits has been shown to contain more mitochondria, which consume oxygen and produce heat.", "A favourite nesting site is a hole in a rotting tree-stump, often low down, and the nest is deep within the hole, holes in the ground, burrows of mice or rabbits, chinks between the stones in walls, old nests of Pica magpies or other large birds, and squirrel dreys are also occupied.", "The materials, moss, hair and grass, are closely felted together, and rabbit fur or feathers added for lining."], "habitat_section": ["Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden It is typically a bird of temperate humid conifer forest, but apart from that shows little habitat specificity.", "In Bhutan for example coal tits are fairly common residents above the subtropical zone, at about 3,0003,800 m ASL, and are found in forests dominated by Bhutan fir as well as in those characterized by Himalayan hemlock and rhododendrons.", "The coal tit is an all-year resident throughout almost all range, making only local movements in response to particularly severe weather, only the Siberian birds have a more regular migration.", "Very rarely, vagrants may cross longer distances, for example the nominate subspecies of continental Europe was recorded in Ireland once in 1960 and once before that, but apparently not since then.", "Coal tits will form small flocks in winter with other tits.", "This species resembles other tits in acrobatic skill and restless activity, though it more frequently pitches on a trunk, and in little hops resembles a treecreeper .", "Its food is similar to that of the others, it is keen on beechmast, picks out the seeds from fir and larch cones, and joins Carduelis redpolls and siskins in alders and birches .", "It will also visit gardens to feed on a variety of foods put out, particularly sunflower seeds.", "Coal tits in the laboratory prefer to forage at a variable feeding site when they are in a negative energy budget.", "They increase evening body mass in response to tawny owl calls.", "After dawn the coal tits increases body mass as soon as possible if food is obtained at a low rate, increasing body mass exponentially until an inflection point when the increase of body mass is slower.", "The inflection point of the body mass trajectory is 16.7% delayed compared to a high food availability.", "Subordinate coal tits are excluded from feeding sites by dominants more often in the early morning than in the rest of the day, and they showed more variability in daily mass gain and body mass at dawn than dominant coal tits.", "In winter, the red blood cells of coal tits has been shown to contain more mitochondria, which consume oxygen and produce heat.", "Being common and widespread, the coal tit is not considered a threatened species by the IUCN. The coal tit has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of bird fleas reported from a single nest, 5,754 fleas."], "random_sentences": ["The coal tit or cole tit, , is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae.", "It is a widespread and common resident breeder in forests throughout the temperate to subtropical Palearctic, including North Africa.", "The black-crested tit is now usually included in this species.", "This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "Linnaeus' primary reference was his earlier Fauna Svecica, whose cumbersome pre-binomial name Parus capite nigro: vertice albo, dorso cinereo, pectore albo became the much simpler yet no less unequivocal Parus ater.", "This name meaning \" dusky-black tit \" was simply adopted from older ornithological textbooks, ultimately going back to Conrad Gessner's 1555 Historia animalium.", "He gave no type locality except \" Europe \" , but his original description refers to the population inhabiting Sweden .", "The current genus name, is Ancient Greek peri plus the pre-existing genus Parus.", "The specific ater is Latin for \" dull black \" .", "The colourful great tit with its bold wing-stripe.", "Before binomial nomenclature, naturalists found the folk taxonomy of this species and the coal tit quite confusing.", "Gessner also notes that the coal tit was known as Kohlmei in German the literal equivalent of its English name, though in its modern orthography Kohlmeise it refers to the great tit .", "That bird was in Gessner's day usually called Spiegelmei , Brandtmei or grosse Mei in German.", "Kolmey was attested for P. major by William Turner, but Turner does not list P. ater at all, while Gessner notes that his hunters always used Kohlmei for the present species.", "However, this has since changed, and the modern German name of P. ater is Tannenmeise , after a typical habitat.", "This name is attested by Johann Leonhard Frisch in the early 18th century already, who furthermore records that P. ater was also called Kleine Kohl-Maise whereas Kohl-Maise referred unequivocally to P. major.", "Frisch collected his data in the Berlin region, where the German dialect was quite different from that spoken by Gessner's Alemannic sources 200 years earlier, and heavily influenced by Middle Low German the language of the northern German sources of Turner.", "Regarding that, Tanne is derived from the Old Saxon danna, and thus had spread through the German dialect continuum from north to south.", "Illustration of Parus ater cypriotes by John Gerrard Keulemans In addition, the same data suggest that this species is paraphyletic in regard to the closely related and parapatric spot-winged tit (P.", "melanolophus) from South Asia, which looks like a slightly crested, darker version of P. ater.", "Consequently, the spot-winged tit might have to be included in P. ater, or some coal tits could be considered a distinct species.", "As occasional hybridization has been recorded between the two, mtDNA alone is insufficient to determine whether hybrid gene flow or another trivial cause obfuscates the actual relationships, or whether taxonomic rearrangement is indeed required.", "With the range of these titmice encircling the Himalayas, without further study it cannot even be excluded that they constitute a ring species with gene flow occurring in Nepal but not in Afghanistan as has been shown for other passerines in the same region.", "Periparus ater filmed in Tokyo, Japan The coal tit is 1011.5 cm in length, and has a distinctive large white nape spot on its black head.", "The head, throat and neck of the adult are glossy blue-black, setting off the off-white sides of the face and the brilliant white nape", "the white tips of the wing coverts appear as two wingbars.", "The underparts are whitish shading through buff to rufous on the flanks.", "The bill is black, the legs lead-coloured, and irides dark brown.", "The young birds are duller than the adults, lacking gloss on the black head, and with the white of nape and cheeks tinged with yellow.", "While searching for food, coal tit flocks keep contact with incessant short dee or see-see calls.", "The species' song if \" song \" it can be called is a strident if-he, if-he, if-he, heard most frequently from January to June, but also in autumn.", "The song resembles that of the great tit, but much faster and higher in pitch.", "One variant of this song ends with a sharp ichi.", "North African birds also have a call similar to that of the crested tit which is not found in Africa.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden It is typically a bird of temperate humid conifer forest, but apart from that shows little habitat specificity.", "In Bhutan for example coal tits are fairly common residents above the subtropical zone, at about 3,0003,800 m ASL, and are found in forests dominated by Bhutan fir as well as in those characterized by Himalayan hemlock and rhododendrons.", "The coal tit is an all-year resident throughout almost all range, making only local movements in response to particularly severe weather", "only the Siberian birds have a more regular migration.", "Very rarely, vagrants may cross longer distances", "for example the nominate subspecies of continental Europe was recorded in Ireland once in 1960 and once before that, but apparently not since then.", "Coal tits will form small flocks in winter with other tits.", "This species resembles other tits in acrobatic skill and restless activity, though it more frequently pitches on a trunk, and in little hops resembles a treecreeper .", "Its food is similar to that of the others", "it is keen on beechmast, picks out the seeds from fir and larch cones, and joins Carduelis redpolls and siskins in alders and birches .", "It will also visit gardens to feed on a variety of foods put out, particularly sunflower seeds.", "Coal tits in the laboratory prefer to forage at a variable feeding site when they are in a negative energy budget.", "They increase evening body mass in response to tawny owl calls.", "After dawn the coal tits increases body mass as soon as possible if food is obtained at a low rate, increasing body mass exponentially until an inflection point when the increase of body mass is slower.", "The inflection point of the body mass trajectory is 16.7% delayed compared to a high food availability.", "Subordinate coal tits are excluded from feeding sites by dominants more often in the early morning than in the rest of the day, and they showed more variability in daily mass gain and body mass at dawn than dominant coal tits.", "In winter, the red blood cells of coal tits has been shown to contain more mitochondria, which consume oxygen and produce heat.", "Being common and widespread, the coal tit is not considered a threatened species by the IUCN.", "The coal tit has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of bird fleas reported from a single nest, 5,754 fleas.", "A favourite nesting site is a hole in a rotting tree-stump, often low down, and the nest is deep within the hole", "holes in the ground, burrows of mice or rabbits, chinks between the stones in walls, old nests of Pica magpies or other large birds, and squirrel dreys are also occupied.", "The materials, moss, hair and grass, are closely felted together, and rabbit fur or feathers added for lining.", "Seven to eleven red-spotted white eggs are laid, usually in May", "this species breeds usually once per year."]}}
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2607664_1229865
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[
"Juglans regia",
"Allium ursinum",
"Urtica dioica",
"Aegopodium podagraria"
] |
{"Juglans regia": {"keywords": ["Juglans regia is a large deciduous tree, attaining heights of , and a trunk up to 2 m in diameter, commonly with a short trunk and broad crown.", "The bark is smooth, olive-brown when young and silvery-grey on older branches, and features scattered broad fissures with a rougher texture.", "Taxonomic keys The Latin name for the walnut was nux Gallica, \" Gallic nut \" , the Gaulish region of Galatia in Anatolia lies in highlands at the western end of the tree's presumed natural distribution.", "Other names include common walnut in Britain, Persian walnut in South Africa and Australia, and English walnut in North America and Great Britain, New Zealand, and Australia, the latter name possibly because English sailors were prominent in Juglans regia nut distribution at one time.", "\" In the Chinese language, the edible, cultivated walnut is called , which means literally \" Hu peach \" , suggesting the ancient Chinese associated the introduction of the tree into East Asia with the Hu barbarians of the regions north and northwest of China.", "However, as with other old and widespread cultivated plants, it is not easy to reconstruct the original distribution and determine the borders of the past natural ranges.", "The largest forests are in Kyrgyzstan, where trees occur in extensive forests at altitude, notably at Arslanbob in Jalal-Abad Province .", "Recent prospections in walnut populations of the Mediterrean Basin allowed to select interesting trees of this type.", "Cultivated J. regia was introduced into western and northern Europe very early, in Roman times or earlier, and to the Americas in the 17th century, by English colonists.", "It is cultivated extensively from 30 to 50 of latitude in the Northern Hemisphere and from 30 to 40 in the Southern Hemisphere.", "It tends to grow taller and narrower in dense forest competition.", "It is a light-demanding species, requiring full sun to grow well.", "Other plants often will not grow under walnut trees because the fallen leaves and husks contain juglone, a chemical which acts as a natural herbicide.", "FAOSTAT of the United Nations Walnuts Walnut trees grow best in rich, deep soil with full sun and long summers, such as the California central valley.", "Mature trees may reach in height and width, and live more than 200 years, developing massive trunks more than thick.", "In Skopelos, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, local legend suggests whoever plants a walnut tree will die as soon as the tree can \" see \" the sea."], "habitat_section": ["Walnut tree - Juglans regia L. Claimed to be the oldest walnut tree in the world.", "Near Khotan, Xinjiang, China, in 2011 In August, Czech Republic One of the centers of origin and diversity of Juglans regia is Iran.", "However, as with other old and widespread cultivated plants, it is not easy to reconstruct the original distribution and determine the borders of the past natural ranges.", "There are many reports concerning the earliest fossil pollen and nuts of J. regia, and the conclusions that various authors draw are somewhat contradictory.", "Taken together these finds suggest that J. regia possibly survived the last glaciations in several refugia, as the compilation of the data shows most likely southern Europe, the Near East, China, and the Himalaya.", "The largest forests are in Kyrgyzstan, where trees occur in extensive forests at altitude, notably at Arslanbob in Jalal-Abad Province .", "It tends to grow taller and narrower in dense forest competition.", "It is a light-demanding species, requiring full sun to grow well.", "Juglans regia is infested by Rhagoletis juglandis, commonly known as the walnut husk fly, which lays its eggs in the husks of walnut fruit.", "Other plants often will not grow under walnut trees because the fallen leaves and husks contain juglone, a chemical which acts as a natural herbicide.", "Horses that eat walnut leaves may develop laminitis, a hoof ailment."], "random_sentences": ["Juglans regia, the Persian walnut, English walnut, Carpathian walnut, Madeira walnut, or especially in Great Britain, common walnut, is an Old World walnut tree species native to the region stretching from the Balkans eastward to the Himalayas and southwest China.", "It is widely cultivated across Europe.", "It is the origin of cultivated varieties which produce the edible walnut, consumed around the world.", "China is the major commercial producer of walnuts.", "Juglans regia is a large deciduous tree, attaining heights of , and a trunk up to 2 m in diameter, commonly with a short trunk and broad crown.", "The bark is smooth, olive-brown when young and silvery-grey on older branches, and features scattered broad fissures with a rougher texture.", "Like all walnuts, the pith of the twigs contains air spaces", "this chambered pith is brownish in color.", "The leaves are alternately arranged, 2540 cm long, odd-pinnate with 59 leaflets, paired alternately with one terminal leaflet.", "The largest leaflets are the three at the apex, 1018 cm long and 68 cm broad", "the basal pair of leaflets are much smaller, 58 cm long, with the margins of the leaflets entire.", "The male flowers are in drooping catkins 510 cm long, and the female flowers are terminal, in clusters of two to five, ripening in the autumn into a fruit with a green, semifleshy husk and a brown, corrugated nut.", "The whole fruit, including the husk, falls in autumn", "the seed is large, with a relatively thin shell, and edible, with a rich flavour.", "Taxonomic keys The Latin name for the walnut was nux Gallica, \" Gallic nut \"", "the Gaulish region of Galatia in Anatolia lies in highlands at the western end of the tree's presumed natural distribution.", "For the etymology and meaning of the word in English and other Germanic languages, see \" walnut \" .", "\" Walnut \" does not distinguish the tree from other species of Juglans.", "Other names include common walnut in Britain", "Persian walnut in South Africa and Australia", "and English walnut in North America and Great Britain, New Zealand, and Australia, the latter name possibly because English sailors were prominent in Juglans regia nut distribution at one time.", "Alternatively, Walter Fox Allen stated in his 1912 treatise What You Need to Know About Planting, Cultivating and Harvesting this Most Delicious of Nuts: \" In America, it has commonly been known as English walnut to distinguish it from our native species.", "\" In the Chinese language, the edible, cultivated walnut is called , which means literally \" Hu peach \" , suggesting the ancient Chinese associated the introduction of the tree into East Asia with the Hu barbarians of the regions north and northwest of China.", "In Mexico, it is called , suggesting the Mexicans associated the introduction of the tree into Mexico with Spaniards from Castile .", "The Old English term wealhhnutu is a late book-name (Old English Vocabularies, Wright", "Wulker), so the remark that the Anglo-Saxons inherited the walnut tree from the Romans does not follow from this name.", "Old English: walhhnutu is wealh + hnutu .", "Etymologically it \" meant the nut of the Roman lands as distinguished from the native hazel \" according to the Oxford English Dictionary.", "Walnut tree - Juglans regia L. Claimed to be the oldest walnut tree in the world.", "Near Khotan, Xinjiang, China, in 2011 In August, Czech Republic", "One of the centers of origin and diversity of Juglans regia is Iran.", "However, as with other old and widespread cultivated plants, it is not easy to reconstruct the original distribution and determine the borders of the past natural ranges.", "There are many reports concerning the earliest fossil pollen and nuts of J. regia, and the conclusions that various authors draw are somewhat contradictory.", "Taken together these finds suggest that J. regia possibly survived the last glaciations in several refugia, as the compilation of the data shows most likely southern Europe, the Near East, China, and the Himalaya.", "The largest forests are in Kyrgyzstan, where trees occur in extensive forests at altitude, notably at Arslanbob in Jalal-Abad Province .", "In the fourth century BC, Alexander the Great introduced this \" Persian nut \" in Macedonian, Ancient Greek ancestral forms with lateral fruiting from Iran and Central Asia.", "They hybridized with terminal-bearing forms to give lateral-bearing trees with larger fruit.", "These lateral-bearers were spread in southern Europe and northern Africa by Romans.", "Recent prospections in walnut populations of the Mediterrean Basin allowed to select interesting trees of this type.", "In the Middle Ages, the lateral-bearing character was introduced again in southern Turkey by merchants travelling along the Silk Road.", "J. regia germplasm in China is thought to have been introduced from Central Asia about 2,000 years ago, and in some areas has become naturalized.", "Cultivated J. regia was introduced into western and northern Europe very early, in Roman times or earlier, and to the Americas in the 17th century, by English colonists.", "Important nut-growing regions include California in the United States", "France, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary in Europe", "Baja California and Coahuila in Mexico", "and Chile in Latin America.", "Lately, cultivation has spread to other regions, such as New Zealand and the southeast of Australia.", "It is cultivated extensively from 30 to 50 of latitude in the Northern Hemisphere and from 30 to 40 in the Southern Hemisphere.", "Its high-quality fruits are eaten both fresh or pressed for their richly flavored oil", "numerous cultivars have been selected for larger nuts with thinner shells.", "It tends to grow taller and narrower in dense forest competition.", "It is a light-demanding species, requiring full sun to grow well.", "Juglans regia is infested by Rhagoletis juglandis, commonly known as the walnut husk fly, which lays its eggs in the husks of walnut fruit.", "Other plants often will not grow under walnut trees because the fallen leaves and husks contain juglone, a chemical which acts as a natural herbicide.", "Horses that eat walnut leaves may develop laminitis, a hoof ailment.", "Walnut production 2019 Country 2.52 0.59 0.32 0.23 0.17 World 4.50 Source: FAOSTAT of the United Nations Walnuts Walnut trees grow best in rich, deep soil with full sun and long summers, such as the California central valley.", "Juglans hindsii and J. hindsii J. regia are often used as grafting stock for J. regia.", "Mature trees may reach in height and width, and live more than 200 years, developing massive trunks more than thick.", "Particular cultivars of J. regia may be more infested by R. juglandis than others because of varying walnut husk softness or thickness.", "'Eureka', 'Klondike', 'Payne', 'Franquette' and 'Ehrhardt' cultivars are among the most susceptible to infestation.", "In 2019, world production of shelled walnuts was 4.5 million tonnes, led by China with 56% of the total harvested .", "Secondary producers were the United States and Iran.", "Walnuts and other tree nuts are food allergen sources having potential to cause life-threatening, IgE-mediated allergic reactions in some individuals.", "English walnut kernels are 4% water, 65% fat, 15% protein, and 14% carbohydrates .", "In a 100 gram reference amount providing 654 calories, the kernels supply several dietary minerals in rich content , including manganese , phosphorus , magnesium , zinc , and iron among others, the B vitamins, B6 , thiamine , and folate , and dietary fiber .", "One study of various cultivars of J. regia in Turkey showed the fatty acid composition included about 6% palmitic acid, 3% stearic acid, 30% oleic acid, 50% linoleic acid, and 9% linolenic acid.", "Walnut heartwood is a heavy, hard, open-grained hardwood.", "Freshly cut live wood may be Dijon-mustard colour, darkening to brown over a few days.", "The dried lumber is a rich chocolate-brown to black, with cream to tan sapwood, and may feature unusual figures, such as \" curly \" , \" bee's wing \" , \" bird's eye \" , and \" rat tail \" , among others.", "It is prized by fine woodworkers for its durability, lustre and chatoyance, and is used for high-end flooring, guitars, furniture, veneers, knobs and handles as well as gunstocks.", "The Native American Navajo tribe has been documented using the hulls of the nut to create a brown dye.", "In Skopelos, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, local legend suggests whoever plants a walnut tree will die as soon as the tree can \" see \" the sea.", "Most planting is done by field rats .", "In Flanders, a folk saying states: \" By the time the tree is big, the planter surely will be dead.", "These sayings refer to the relatively slow growth rate and late fruiting of the tree.", "Benevento in southern Italy is the home of an ancient tradition of stregoneria.", "The witches of Benevento were reputed to come from all over Italy to gather for their sabbats under the sacred walnut tree of Benevento.", "In 1526, Judge Paolo Grillandi wrote of witches in Benevento who worship a goddess at the site of an old walnut tree.", "This legend inspired many cultural works, including the 1812 ballet Il Noce di Benevento by Salvatore Vigano and Franz Xaver Sussmayr, a theme from which was adapted into a violin piece called Le Streghe by Niccolo Paganini.", "The Beneventan liqueur Strega depicts on its label the famous walnut tree with the witches dancing under it."]}, "Allium ursinum": {"keywords": ["Wild garlic in Hampshire, UK. Allium ursinum, known as wild garlic, ramsons, cowleekes, cows's leek, cowleek, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek, Eurasian wild garlic or bear's garlic, is a bulbous perennial flowering plant in the amaryllis family Amaryllidaceae.", "It is native to Europe and Asia, where it grows in moist woodland.", "Illustration from Otto Wilhelm Thome's book Flora von Deutschland, Osterreich und der Schweiz, 1885 Allium ursinum is a bulbous, perennial herbaceous monocot, that reproduces primarily by seed.", "starting before deciduous trees leaf in the spring.", "The flower stem is triangular in cross-section and the leaves are broadly lanceolate, similar to those of the toxic lily of the valley .", "It is native to temperate regions of Europe, from Britain east to the Caucasus.", "It is common in much of the lowland British Isles with the exception of the far north of Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, and the Channel Islands.", "It grows in deciduous woodlands with moist soils, preferring slightly acidic conditions."], "habitat_section": ["It is native to temperate regions of Europe, from Britain east to the Caucasus.", "It is common in much of the lowland British Isles with the exception of the far north of Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, and the Channel Islands.", "The ursinum subspecies is found in western and central Europe, while the ucrainicum subspecies is found in the east and southeast.", "A. ursinum completely covers the forest floor in early May.", "From the forest of Riis Skov in Denmark.", "It grows in deciduous woodlands with moist soils, preferring slightly acidic conditions.", "In the British Isles, colonies are frequently associated with bluebells , especially in ancient woodland.", "It is considered to be an ancient woodland indicator species.", "As its name suggests, A. ursinum is an important food for brown bears.", "The plant is also a favourite of wild boar.", "A. ursinum is the primary larval host plant for a specialised hoverfly, ramsons hoverfly .", "The flowers are pollinated by bees."], "random_sentences": ["Wild garlic in Hampshire, UK.", "Allium ursinum, known as wild garlic, ramsons, cowleekes, cows's leek, cowleek, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek, Eurasian wild garlic or bear's garlic, is a bulbous perennial flowering plant in the amaryllis family Amaryllidaceae.", "It is native to Europe and Asia, where it grows in moist woodland.", "It is a wild relative of onion and garlic, all belonging to the same genus, Allium.", "There are two recognized subspecies: A. ursinum subsp. ursinum and A. ursinum subsp. ucrainicum.", "The Latin specific name ursinum translates to 'bear' and refers to the supposed fondness of the brown bear for the bulbs", "folk tales describe the bears consuming them after awakening from hibernation.", "Another theory is that the \" ursinum \" may refer to Ursa Major, as A. ursinum was perhaps one of the most northerly distributed Allium species known to the ancient Greeks, though this hypothesis is disputed.", "Common names for the plant in many languages also make reference to bears.", "Cows love to eat them, hence the modern vernacular name of cows's leek.", "In Devon, dairy farmers have occasionally had the milk of their herds rejected because of the garlic flavour imparted to it by the cows having grazed upon the plant.", "Ramsons is from the Saxon word hramsa, meaning \" garlic \" .", "There is evidence it has been used in English cuisine since Celtic Britons over 1,500 years ago.", "Early healers among the Celts, Teutonic tribes and ancient Romans were familiar with the wild herb and called it herba salutaris, meaning 'healing herb'.", "Illustration from Otto Wilhelm Thome's book Flora von Deutschland, Osterreich und der Schweiz, 1885 Allium ursinum is a bulbous, perennial herbaceous monocot, that reproduces primarily by seed.", "The narrow bulbs are formed from a single leaf base The flowers are star-like with six white tepals, about in diameter, with stamens shorter than the perianth.", "starting before deciduous trees leaf in the spring.", "The flower stem is triangular in cross-section and the leaves are broadly lanceolate, similar to those of the toxic lily of the valley .", "It is native to temperate regions of Europe, from Britain east to the Caucasus.", "It is common in much of the lowland British Isles with the exception of the far north of Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, and the Channel Islands.", "The ursinum subspecies is found in western and central Europe, while the ucrainicum subspecies is found in the east and southeast.", "Allium ursinum has been credited with many medicinal qualities and is a popular homeopathic ingredient.", "It is often used for treating cardiovascular, respiratory, and digestive problems, as well as for the sterilisation of wounds.", "Various minerals are found in much higher amounts in Allium ursinum than in clove garlic.", "It is sometimes called the magnesium king of plants because of the high levels of this mineral found in the leaves.", "Magnesium is known as the anti-stress mineral and protects the circulatory system, especially the heart.", "A. ursinum completely covers the forest floor in early May.", "From the forest of Riis Skov in Denmark.", "It grows in deciduous woodlands with moist soils, preferring slightly acidic conditions.", "In the British Isles, colonies are frequently associated with bluebells , especially in ancient woodland.", "It is considered to be an ancient woodland indicator species.", "All parts of the Allium ursinum plant are edible and have culinary uses, including the flower which can be used to garnish salads.", "The leaves of the Allium ursinum are the most popular part to be used in food.", "Leaves can be used in raw salads and carry a very subtle garlicky flavour similar to that of garlic chives.", "When picked the leaves bruise, making them smell even stronger.", "When cooked the flavour of the leaves becomes softer and sweeter.", "The leaf is often chopped and used to replace garlic and other herbs in many recipes.", "The bulb can be used in a similar way to clove garlic.", "Popular dishes using the plant include pesto, soups, pasta, cheese, scones and Devonnaise.", "The leaves of A. ursinum are edible", "they can be used as salad, herb, boiled as a vegetable, in soup, or as an ingredient for a sauce that may be a substitute for pesto in lieu of basil.", "Leaves are also often used to make garlic butter.", "The stems are preserved by salting and eaten as a salad in Russia.", "A variety of Cornish Yarg cheese has a rind coated in wild garlic leaves.", "The leaves can be pickled in the same way as Allium ochotense known as mountain garlic in Korea.", "The bulbs and flowers are also edible.", "It is used for preparing herbed cheese, a Van speciality in Turkey.", "The leaves are also used as fodder.", "Cows that have fed on ramsons give milk that tastes slightly of garlic, and butter made from this milk used to be very popular in 19th-century Switzerland.", "The first evidence of the human use of A. ursinum comes from the Mesolithic settlement of Barkr , where an impression of a leaf has been found.", "In the Swiss Neolithic settlement of Thayngen-Weier , a high concentration of pollen from A. ursinum was found in the settlement layer, interpreted by some as evidence for the use of A. ursinum as fodder.", "Plants that may be mistaken for A. ursinum include lily of the valley, Colchicum autumnale, Arum maculatum, and Veratrum viride or Veratrum album, all of which are poisonous.", "In Europe, where ramsons are popularly harvested from the wild, people are regularly poisoned after mistakenly picking lily of the valley or Colchicum autumnale.", "When the leaves of A. ursinum and Arum maculatum first sprout, they look similar, but unfolded Arum maculatum leaves have irregular edges and many deep veins, while ramsons leaves are convex with a single main vein.", "The leaves of lily of the valley are paired, dull green and come from a single reddish-purple stem, while the leaves of A. ursinum emerge individually are initially shiny and are bright green.", "Allium ursinum in an English woodland", "As its name suggests, A. ursinum is an important food for brown bears.", "The plant is also a favourite of wild boar.", "A. ursinum is the primary larval host plant for a specialised hoverfly, ramsons hoverfly .", "The flowers are pollinated by bees."]}, "Urtica dioica": {"keywords": ["Urtica dioica, often known as common nettle, burn nettle, stinging nettle or nettle leaf, or just a nettle or stinger, is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Urticaceae.", "Originally native to Europe, much of temperate Asia and western North Africa, it is now found worldwide, including New Zealand and North America.", "Urtica dioica is a dioecious, herbaceous, perennial plant, tall in the summer and dying down to the ground in winter.", "A stinging nettle growing in a field U. dioica is considered to be native to Europe, much of temperate Asia and western North Africa.", "It is less widespread in southern Europe and north Africa, where it is restricted by its need for moist soil, but is still common.", "It grows in abundance in the Pacific Northwest, especially in places where annual rainfall is high.", "Human and animal waste may be responsible for elevated levels of phosphate and nitrogen in the soil, providing an ideal environment for nettles.", "It is also eaten by the larvae of some moths including angle shades, buff ermine, dot moth, the flame, the gothic, grey chi, grey pug, lesser broad-bordered yellow underwing, mouse moth, setaceous Hebrew character, and small angle shades.", "ISSN 1027-832X Stinging nettle is particularly found as an understory plant in wetter environments, but it is also found in meadows.", "Although nutritious, it is not widely eaten by either wildlife or livestock, presumably because of the sting.", "The stinging nettle can also be grown in controlled-environment agriculture systems, such as soil-less medium cultivations or aeroponics, which may achieve higher yields, standardize quality, and reduce harvesting costs and contamination.", "Docks, especially the broad-leaf dock often grow in similar environments to stinging nettles and are regarded as a folk remedy to counteract the sting of a nettle, although there is no evidence of any chemical effect.", "Leaves harvested post-flowering must have their cystoliths broken down by acid, as in the fermentation process.", "In its peak season, nettle contains up to 25% protein, dry weight, which is high for a leafy green vegetable.", "The leaves are also dried and may then be used to make a herbal tea, as can also be done with the nettle's flowers.", "The sentenced perpetrator of a crime was flogged with stinging nettle, in public, naked, whilst being showered with freezing cold water.", "Nettles have a number of other uses in the vegetable garden, including the potential for encouraging beneficial insects.", "Since nettles prefer to grow in phosphorus-rich and nitrogen rich soils that have recently been disturbed , the growth of nettles is an indicator that an area has high fertility , and thus is an indicator to gardeners as to the quality of the soil.", "They are also one of the few plants that can tolerate, and flourish in, soils rich in poultry droppings."], "habitat_section": ["A stinging nettle growing in a field U. dioica is considered to be native to Europe, much of temperate Asia and western North Africa.", "It is abundant in northern Europe and much of Asia, usually found in the countryside.", "It is less widespread in southern Europe and north Africa, where it is restricted by its need for moist soil, but is still common.", "It has been introduced to many other parts of the world.", "In North America, it is widely distributed in Canada and the United States, where it is found in every province and state except for Hawaii, and also can be found in northernmost Mexico.", "It grows in abundance in the Pacific Northwest, especially in places where annual rainfall is high.", "The European subspecies has been introduced into Australia, North America and South America.", "In Europe, nettles have a strong association with human habitation and buildings.", "The presence of nettles may indicate the site of a long-abandoned building, and can also indicate soil fertility.", "Human and animal waste may be responsible for elevated levels of phosphate and nitrogen in the soil, providing an ideal environment for nettles.", "Aglais io caterpillars feeding on leaves Nettles are the larval food plant for several species of butterflies, such as the peacock butterfly, comma , and the small tortoiseshell.", "It is also eaten by the larvae of some moths including angle shades, buff ermine, dot moth, the flame, the gothic, grey chi, grey pug, lesser broad-bordered yellow underwing, mouse moth, setaceous Hebrew character, and small angle shades.", "The roots are sometimes eaten by the larva of the ghost moth .", "It is a known host to the pathogenic fungus Phoma herbarum.", "Helgi Hallgrimsson and Guriur Gya Eyjolfsdottir .", "Islenskt sveppatal I - smasveppir .", "ISSN 1027-832X Stinging nettle is particularly found as an understory plant in wetter environments, but it is also found in meadows.", "Although nutritious, it is not widely eaten by either wildlife or livestock, presumably because of the sting.", "It spreads by abundant seeds and also by rhizomes, and is often able to survive and re-establish quickly after fire."], "random_sentences": ["Urtica dioica, often known as common nettle, burn nettle, stinging nettle or nettle leaf, or just a nettle or stinger, is a .", " herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Urticaceae.", "Originally native to Europe, much of temperate Asia and western North Africa, it is now found worldwide, including New Zealand and North America.", "The species is divided into six subspecies, five of which have many hollow stinging hairs called trichomes on the leaves and stems, which act like hypodermic needles, injecting histamine and other chemicals that produce a stinging sensation upon contact .", "The plant has a long history of use as a source for traditional medicine, food, tea, and textile raw material in ancient and modern societies.", "Urtica dioica is a dioecious, herbaceous, perennial plant, tall in the summer and dying down to the ground in winter.", "It has widely spreading rhizomes and stolons, which are bright yellow, as are the roots.", "The soft, green leaves are long and are borne oppositely on an erect, wiry, green stem.", "The leaves have a strongly serrated margin, a cordate base, and an acuminate tip with a terminal leaf tooth longer than adjacent laterals.", "It bears small, greenish or brownish, numerous flowers in dense axillary inflorescences.", "The leaves and stems are very hairy with non-stinging hairs, and in most subspecies, also bear many stinging hairs , whose tips come off when touched, transforming the hair into a needle that can inject several chemicals causing a painful sting or paresthesia, giving the species its common names: stinging nettle, burn-nettle, burn-weed, or burn-hazel.", "Illustration by Otto Wilhelm Thome The taxonomy of Urtica species has been confused, and older sources are likely to use a variety of systematic names for these plants.", "Formerly, more species were recognised than are now accepted.", "However, at least six clear subspecies of U. dioica are described, some formerly classified as separate species: Other species' names formerly accepted as distinct by some authors but now regarded as synonyms of one or other subspecies include U. breweri, U. californica, U. cardiophylla, U. lyalli, U. major, U. procera, U. serra, U. strigosissima, U. trachycarpa, and U. viridis.", "Urtica is derived from a Latin word meaning 'sting'.", "Dioica is derived from Greek, meaning 'of two houses' (having separate staminate and pistillate plants", "A stinging nettle growing in a field U. dioica is considered to be native to Europe, much of temperate Asia and western North Africa.", "It is abundant in northern Europe and much of Asia, usually found in the countryside.", "It is less widespread in southern Europe and north Africa, where it is restricted by its need for moist soil, but is still common.", "It has been introduced to many other parts of the world.", "In North America, it is widely distributed in Canada and the United States, where it is found in every province and state except for Hawaii, and also can be found in northernmost Mexico.", "It grows in abundance in the Pacific Northwest, especially in places where annual rainfall is high.", "The European subspecies has been introduced into Australia, North America and South America.", "In Europe, nettles have a strong association with human habitation and buildings.", "The presence of nettles may indicate the site of a long-abandoned building, and can also indicate soil fertility.", "Human and animal waste may be responsible for elevated levels of phosphate and nitrogen in the soil, providing an ideal environment for nettles.", "Aglais io caterpillars feeding on leaves Nettles are the larval food plant for several species of butterflies, such as the peacock butterfly, comma , and the small tortoiseshell.", "It is also eaten by the larvae of some moths including angle shades, buff ermine, dot moth, the flame, the gothic, grey chi, grey pug, lesser broad-bordered yellow underwing, mouse moth, setaceous Hebrew character, and small angle shades.", "The roots are sometimes eaten by the larva of the ghost moth .", "It is a known host to the pathogenic fungus Phoma herbarum.", "Natturufristofnun Islands .", "ISSN 1027-832X Stinging nettle is particularly found as an understory plant in wetter environments, but it is also found in meadows.", "Although nutritious, it is not widely eaten by either wildlife or livestock, presumably because of the sting.", "It spreads by abundant seeds and also by rhizomes, and is often able to survive and re-establish quickly after fire.", "The stinging nettle can also be grown in controlled-environment agriculture systems, such as soil-less medium cultivations or aeroponics, which may achieve higher yields, standardize quality, and reduce harvesting costs and contamination.", "A hand with nettle dermatitis Urtica dioica produces its inflammatory effect on skin both by impaling the skin via spicules", "and by biochemical irritants, such as histamine, serotonin, and acetylcholine, among other chemicals.", "Anti-itch drugs, usually in the form of creams containing antihistamines or hydrocortisone, may provide relief from nettle dermatitis.", "The term, contact urticaria, has a wider use in dermatology, involving dermatitis caused by various skin irritants and pathogens.", "Docks, especially the broad-leaf dock often grow in similar environments to stinging nettles and are regarded as a folk remedy to counteract the sting of a nettle, although there is no evidence of any chemical effect.", "It may be that the act of rubbing a dock leaf against a nettle sting acts as a distracting counterstimulation, or that belief in the dock's effect provides a placebo effect.", "The young leaves are edible and can be used as a leaf vegetable, as with a puree.", "U. dioica has a flavour similar to spinach when cooked.", "Young plants were harvested by Native Americans and used as a cooked plant in spring when other food plants were scarce.", "Soaking stinging nettles in water or cooking removes the stinging chemicals from the plant, which allows them to be handled and eaten without injury.", "After the stinging nettle enters its flowering and seed-setting stages, the leaves develop gritty particles called cystoliths, which can irritate the kidneys and urinary tract.", "Cystoliths are made of calcium carbonate, and will not dissolve when boiled.", "Leaves harvested post-flowering must have their cystoliths broken down by acid, as in the fermentation process.", "In its peak season, nettle contains up to 25% protein, dry weight, which is high for a leafy green vegetable.", "The leaves are also dried and may then be used to make a .", " herbal tea, as can also be done with the nettle's flowers.", "Nettles can be used in a variety of recipes, such as polenta, pesto, and puree.", "Nettle soup is a common use of the plant, particularly in Northern and Eastern Europe.", "Nettles are sometimes used in cheesemaking, such as for Cornish Yarg and as a flavouring in varieties of Gouda.", "Nettles are used in Montenegro, Serbia, and Bosnia and Hercegovina as part of the dough filling for the borek pastry.", "The top baby leaves are selected and simmered, and then mixed with other ingredients such as herbs and rice, before being used as a filling between dough layers.", "Similarly, in Greece the tender leaves are often used, after simmering, as a filling for hortopita, which is similar to spanakopita, but with wild greens rather than spinach for filling.", "Young nettles can also be used to make an alcoholic drink.", "As Old English stie, nettle is one of the nine plants invoked in the pagan Anglo-Saxon Nine Herbs Charm, recorded in 10th-century traditional medicine.", "Nettle was believed to be a galactagogue", "a substance that promotes lactation.", "Urtication, or flogging with nettles is the process of deliberately applying stinging nettles to the skin to provoke inflammation.", "An agent thus used was considered to be a rubefacient , used as a folk remedy for treating rheumatism.", "In indigenous justice systems in Ecuador, urtication was used as punishment for severe crimes in 2010.", "The sentenced perpetrator of a crime was flogged with stinging nettle, in public, naked, whilst being showered with freezing cold water.", "Nettle fibre, stem, yarn, textile, jewellery with glass and nettle yarn Nettle stems contain a bast fibre that has been traditionally used for the same purposes as linen and is produced by a similar retting process.", "Unlike cotton, nettles grow easily without pesticides.", "The fibres are coarser, however.", "Historically, nettles have been used to make clothing for almost 3,000 years, as ancient nettle textiles from the Bronze Age have been found in Denmark.", "It is widely believed that German Army uniforms were almost all made from nettle during World War I due to a potential shortage of cotton, although there is little evidence to support this.", "More recently, companies in Austria, Germany, and Italy have started to produce commercial nettle textiles.", "The fibre content in nettle shows a high variability and reaches from below 1% to 17%.", "Under middle-European conditions, stems yield typically between 45 and 55 dt / ha , which is comparable to flax stem yield.", "Due to the variable fibre content, the fibre yields vary between 0.2 and 7 dt / ha, but the yields are normally in the range between 2 and 4 dt / ha.", "Fibre varieties are normally cloning varieties and therefore planted from vegetative propagated plantlets.", "Direct seeding is possible, but leads to great heterogeneity in maturity.", "Nettles may be used as a dye-stuff, producing yellow from the roots, or yellowish green from the leaves.", "Use in agriculture / horticulture", "In the European Union and United Kingdom, nettle extract can be used as a insecticide, fungicide, and acaricide under Basic Substance regulations.", "As an insecticide nettle extract can be used for the control of codling moth, diamondback moth, and spider mites.", "As a fungicide, it can be used for the control of Pythium root rot, powdery mildew, early blight, late blight, Septoria blight, Alternaria leaf spot, and grey mould.", "Nettles have a number of other uses in the vegetable garden, including the potential for encouraging beneficial insects.", "Since nettles prefer to grow in phosphorus-rich and nitrogen rich soils that have recently been disturbed , the growth of nettles is an indicator that an area has high fertility , and thus is an indicator to gardeners as to the quality of the soil.", "Nettles contain nitrogenous compounds, so are used as a compost activator or can be used to make a liquid fertilizer, which although low in phosphate, is useful in supplying magnesium, sulphur, and iron.", "They are also one of the few plants that can tolerate, and flourish in, soils rich in poultry droppings.", "The stinging nettle is the red admiral caterpillar's primary host plant and can attract migrating red admiral butterflies to a garden.", "U. dioica can be a troubling weed, and mowing can increase plant density.", "Regular and persistent tilling will greatly reduce its numbers, and the use of herbicides such as 2,4-D and glyphosate are effective control measures.", "In Great Britain and Ireland, U. dioica and the annual nettle Urtica urens are the only common stinging plants and have found a place in several figures of speech in the English language.", "Shakespeare's Hotspur urges that \" out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety \" .", "The figure of speech \" to grasp the nettle \" probably originated from Aesop's fable \" The Boy and the Nettle \" .", "In Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock, one of the characters quotes Aesop \" Gently touch a nettle and it'll sting you for your pains/Grasp it as a lad of mettle and soft as silk remains \" .", "The metaphor may refer to the fact that if a nettle plant is grasped firmly rather than brushed against, it does not sting so readily, because the hairs are crushed down flat and do not penetrate the skin so easily.", "In the German language, the idiom sich in die Nesseln setzen, or to sit in nettles, means to get into trouble.", "In Hungarian, the idiom csalanba nem ut a mennyko, the lightning bolt does not strike into nettles, alludes to the belief that bad people escape trouble or the devil looks after his own.", "The same idiom exists in the Serbian language .", "In Dutch, a netelige situatie means a predicament.", "In French, the idiom faut pas pousser meme dans les orties means that we should be careful not to abuse a situation.", "The name urticaria for hives comes from the Latin name of nettle .", "The English word 'nettled', meaning irritated or angry, is derived from 'nettle'.", "There is a common idea in Great Britain that the nettle was introduced by the Romans.", "The idea was mentioned by William Camden in his book Britannia of 1586.", "However, in 2011, an early Bronze Age burial cist on Whitehorse Hill, Dartmoor, Devon was excavated.", "The cist dated from between 1730 and 1600 BC.", "It contained various high value beads as well as fragments of a sash made from nettle fibre.", "It is possible that the sash was traded from mainland Europe, but perhaps more probable that it was locally made."]}, "Aegopodium podagraria": {"keywords": ["Aegopodium podagraria, commonly called ground elder, is a species of flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae that grows in shady places.", "The name \" ground elder \" comes from the superficial similarity of its leaves and flowers to those of elder , which is not closely related.", "Other common names include herb gerard, bishop's weed, goutweed, gout wort, snow-in-the-mountain, English masterwort and wild masterwort.", "This herbaceous perennial grows to a height of from underground rhizomes.", "It flowers in spring and early summer.", "Once established, the plants are highly competitive, also in shaded environments, and can reduce the diversity of ground cover, and prevent the establishment of tree and shrub seedlings.", "Because of its limited seed dispersal ability, short-lived seed bank and seedling recruitment, the primary vector for dispersal to new areas are human plantings as an ornamental, medicinal or vegetable plant, as well as by accidentally spreading rhizomes by dumping of garden waste.", "Because of this it has been described as a nuisance species, and been labeled one of the \" worst \" garden weeds in perennial flower gardens.", "A. podagraria has been introduced around the world, including in North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, most commonly as an ornamental plant.", "It readily establishes and can become naturalized in boreal, moist-temperate, and moist-subtropical climates.", "It is an \" aggressive \" invader in the upper Great Lakes region and northeastern North America, Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand.", "All-green goutweed may be more persistent and spread more rapidly than ornamental, variegated goutweed varieties, making the all-green type particularly difficult to control.", "Integrative management strategies that combine herbicide with landscape cloth, bark mulch, and hand weeding to control goutweed in a garden are largely unsuccessful because sprouting occurs from either rhizomes or root fragments left in the soil.", "Removing flowers before seed set may help control the spread of goutweed.", "It is thus recommended to plant goutweed only on sites not adjacent to wildlands and in gardens where root spread can be restricted .", "An ornamental form with variegated leaves A variegated form is grown as an ornamental plant.", "Phyllopertha horticola beetle on goutweed flowers In Eurasia, it is used as a food plant by the larvae of some species of Lepidoptera, including dot moth, grey dagger and grey pug, although A. podagraria is not the exclusive host to any of these species."], "habitat_section": ["Aegopodium podagraria is distributed widely in the temperate zone of western Asia and the whole of mainland Europe.", "It has been introduced elsewhere, including Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia , New Zealand, and Japan.", "Phyllopertha horticola beetle on goutweed flowers In Eurasia, it is used as a food plant by the larvae of some species of Lepidoptera, including dot moth, grey dagger and grey pug, although A. podagraria is not the exclusive host to any of these species."], "random_sentences": ["Aegopodium podagraria, commonly called ground elder, is a species of flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae that grows in shady places.", "The name \" ground elder \" comes from the superficial similarity of its leaves and flowers to those of elder , which is not closely related.", "Other common names include herb gerard, bishop's weed, goutweed, gout wort, snow-in-the-mountain, English masterwort and wild masterwort.", "This herbaceous perennial grows to a height of from underground rhizomes.", "The stems are erect, hollow, and grooved.", "The upper leaves are ternate, broad and toothed.", "It flowers in spring and early summer.", "Numerous flowers are grouped together in an umbrella-shaped flowerhead known as a compound umbel.", "The main umbel is further divided into several secondary umbels known as umbellets or umbellules.", "Each umbellet has 15 to 20 rays that are each topped with a single, small, five-petaled white flower.", "They are visited by many types of pollinating insects.", "The fruits, produced in late summer and autumn, are small and have long curved styles.", "Aegopodium podagraria is distributed widely in the temperate zone of western Asia and the whole of mainland Europe.", "It has been introduced elsewhere, including Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia , New Zealand, and Japan.", "Seed dispersal and seedling establishment is typically limited by shading, and new establishments from seed are restricted to disturbed areas.", "However, Aegopodium podagraria readily spreads over large areas of ground by underground rhizomes.", "Once established, the plants are highly competitive, also in shaded environments, and can reduce the diversity of ground cover, and prevent the establishment of tree and shrub seedlings.", "Because of its limited seed dispersal ability, short-lived seed bank and seedling recruitment, the primary vector for dispersal to new areas are human plantings as an ornamental, medicinal or vegetable plant, as well as by accidentally spreading rhizomes by dumping of garden waste.", "It spreads rapidly under favorable growing conditions.", "Because of this it has been described as a nuisance species, and been labeled one of the \" worst \" garden weeds in perennial flower gardens.", "Status as an invasive exotic plant", "A. podagraria has been introduced around the world, including in North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, most commonly as an ornamental plant.", "It readily establishes and can become naturalized in boreal, moist-temperate, and moist-subtropical climates.", "It is an \" aggressive \" invader in the upper Great Lakes region and northeastern North America, Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand.", "It can pose an ecological threat due to its invasive nature, with potential to crowd out native species.", "Because of its potential impacts on native communities and the difficulty of its control, it has been banned or restricted in some jurisdictions outside its native range, including in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Vermont in the USA.", "Rhizomes developing new shoots Once established, goutweed is difficult to eradicate.", "The smallest piece of rhizome left in the ground will quickly form a sturdy new plant.", "All-green goutweed may be more persistent and spread more rapidly than ornamental, variegated goutweed varieties, making the all-green type particularly difficult to control.", "And all-green, wild type forms are known to reappear from seeds of variegated varieties.", "Integrative management strategies that combine herbicide with landscape cloth, bark mulch, and hand weeding to control goutweed in a garden are largely unsuccessful because sprouting occurs from either rhizomes or root fragments left in the soil.", "Hand pulling, raking, and digging followed by monitoring to control goutweed may be effective", "however, caution must be taken to remove the entire rhizome and root system.", "Removing flowers before seed set may help control the spread of goutweed.", "Because goutweed's starch reserves are typically depleted by spring, removal of leaves in spring could be effective in starving the plant.", "Once goutweed has been removed, the patch should be carefully monitored periodically for a few years.", "New shoots should be dug up and destroyed.", "Revegetation with other plant materials is recommended.", "Systemic herbicides such as glyphosate are recommended because A. podagraria will regrow if merely defoliated.", "The most effective means of control is to prevent its establishment in natural communities.", "It is thus recommended to plant goutweed only on sites not adjacent to wildlands and in gardens where root spread can be restricted .", "However, the aggressive nature of this plant makes even this strategy risky.", "Several states have banned sales of goutweed .", "An ornamental form with variegated leaves A variegated form is grown as an ornamental plant.", "However, it is banned in several states due to its invasiveness.", "Seeds from the variegated form may revert to the more aggressive \" green form.", "Phyllopertha horticola beetle on goutweed flowers In Eurasia, it is used as a food plant by the larvae of some species of Lepidoptera, including dot moth, grey dagger and grey pug, although A. podagraria is not the exclusive host to any of these species.", "Uses as food and medicine", "The tender leaves have been used in antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages as a spring leaf vegetable, much as spinach was used.", "It is commonly used for soup.", "Young leaves are preferred as a pot herb.", "It is best picked from when it appears to just before it flowers .", "If it is picked after this point, it takes on a pungent taste and has a laxative effect.", "However, it can be stopped from flowering by pinching out the flowers, ensuring the plant remains edible if used more sparingly as a pot herb.", "It also had a history as a medicinal herb to treat gout and arthritis, applied in hot wraps externally upon boiling both leaves and roots together.", "Ingested, the leaves have a diuretic effect and act as a mild sedative.", "Its use as a medicinal herb has largely declined during the modern era.", "The plant is said to have been introduced into Great Britain by the Romans as a food plant and into Northern Europe as a medicinal herb by monks.", "It is still found growing in patches surrounding many monastic ruins in Europe, and descriptions of its use are found among monastic writings, such as in Physica by Hildegard von Bingen."]}}
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[
"Allium ursinum"
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{"Allium ursinum": {"keywords": ["Wild garlic in Hampshire, UK. Allium ursinum, known as wild garlic, ramsons, cowleekes, cows's leek, cowleek, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek, Eurasian wild garlic or bear's garlic, is a bulbous perennial flowering plant in the amaryllis family Amaryllidaceae.", "It is native to Europe and Asia, where it grows in moist woodland.", "Illustration from Otto Wilhelm Thome's book Flora von Deutschland, Osterreich und der Schweiz, 1885 Allium ursinum is a bulbous, perennial herbaceous monocot, that reproduces primarily by seed.", "starting before deciduous trees leaf in the spring.", "The flower stem is triangular in cross-section and the leaves are broadly lanceolate, similar to those of the toxic lily of the valley .", "It is native to temperate regions of Europe, from Britain east to the Caucasus.", "It is common in much of the lowland British Isles with the exception of the far north of Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, and the Channel Islands.", "It grows in deciduous woodlands with moist soils, preferring slightly acidic conditions."], "habitat_section": ["It is native to temperate regions of Europe, from Britain east to the Caucasus.", "It is common in much of the lowland British Isles with the exception of the far north of Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, and the Channel Islands.", "The ursinum subspecies is found in western and central Europe, while the ucrainicum subspecies is found in the east and southeast.", "A. ursinum completely covers the forest floor in early May.", "From the forest of Riis Skov in Denmark.", "It grows in deciduous woodlands with moist soils, preferring slightly acidic conditions.", "In the British Isles, colonies are frequently associated with bluebells , especially in ancient woodland.", "It is considered to be an ancient woodland indicator species.", "As its name suggests, A. ursinum is an important food for brown bears.", "The plant is also a favourite of wild boar.", "A. ursinum is the primary larval host plant for a specialised hoverfly, ramsons hoverfly .", "The flowers are pollinated by bees."], "random_sentences": ["Wild garlic in Hampshire, UK.", "Allium ursinum, known as wild garlic, ramsons, cowleekes, cows's leek, cowleek, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek, Eurasian wild garlic or bear's garlic, is a bulbous perennial flowering plant in the amaryllis family Amaryllidaceae.", "It is native to Europe and Asia, where it grows in moist woodland.", "It is a wild relative of onion and garlic, all belonging to the same genus, Allium.", "There are two recognized subspecies: A. ursinum subsp. ursinum and A. ursinum subsp. ucrainicum.", "The Latin specific name ursinum translates to 'bear' and refers to the supposed fondness of the brown bear for the bulbs", "folk tales describe the bears consuming them after awakening from hibernation.", "Another theory is that the \" ursinum \" may refer to Ursa Major, as A. ursinum was perhaps one of the most northerly distributed Allium species known to the ancient Greeks, though this hypothesis is disputed.", "Common names for the plant in many languages also make reference to bears.", "Cows love to eat them, hence the modern vernacular name of cows's leek.", "In Devon, dairy farmers have occasionally had the milk of their herds rejected because of the garlic flavour imparted to it by the cows having grazed upon the plant.", "Ramsons is from the Saxon word hramsa, meaning \" garlic \" .", "There is evidence it has been used in English cuisine since Celtic Britons over 1,500 years ago.", "Early healers among the Celts, Teutonic tribes and ancient Romans were familiar with the wild herb and called it herba salutaris, meaning 'healing herb'.", "Illustration from Otto Wilhelm Thome's book Flora von Deutschland, Osterreich und der Schweiz, 1885 Allium ursinum is a bulbous, perennial herbaceous monocot, that reproduces primarily by seed.", "The narrow bulbs are formed from a single leaf base The flowers are star-like with six white tepals, about in diameter, with stamens shorter than the perianth.", "starting before deciduous trees leaf in the spring.", "The flower stem is triangular in cross-section and the leaves are broadly lanceolate, similar to those of the toxic lily of the valley .", "It is native to temperate regions of Europe, from Britain east to the Caucasus.", "It is common in much of the lowland British Isles with the exception of the far north of Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, and the Channel Islands.", "The ursinum subspecies is found in western and central Europe, while the ucrainicum subspecies is found in the east and southeast.", "Allium ursinum has been credited with many medicinal qualities and is a popular homeopathic ingredient.", "It is often used for treating cardiovascular, respiratory, and digestive problems, as well as for the sterilisation of wounds.", "Various minerals are found in much higher amounts in Allium ursinum than in clove garlic.", "It is sometimes called the magnesium king of plants because of the high levels of this mineral found in the leaves.", "Magnesium is known as the anti-stress mineral and protects the circulatory system, especially the heart.", "A. ursinum completely covers the forest floor in early May.", "From the forest of Riis Skov in Denmark.", "It grows in deciduous woodlands with moist soils, preferring slightly acidic conditions.", "In the British Isles, colonies are frequently associated with bluebells , especially in ancient woodland.", "It is considered to be an ancient woodland indicator species.", "All parts of the Allium ursinum plant are edible and have culinary uses, including the flower which can be used to garnish salads.", "The leaves of the Allium ursinum are the most popular part to be used in food.", "Leaves can be used in raw salads and carry a very subtle garlicky flavour similar to that of garlic chives.", "When picked the leaves bruise, making them smell even stronger.", "When cooked the flavour of the leaves becomes softer and sweeter.", "The leaf is often chopped and used to replace garlic and other herbs in many recipes.", "The bulb can be used in a similar way to clove garlic.", "Popular dishes using the plant include pesto, soups, pasta, cheese, scones and Devonnaise.", "The leaves of A. ursinum are edible", "they can be used as salad, herb, boiled as a vegetable, in soup, or as an ingredient for a sauce that may be a substitute for pesto in lieu of basil.", "Leaves are also often used to make garlic butter.", "The stems are preserved by salting and eaten as a salad in Russia.", "A variety of Cornish Yarg cheese has a rind coated in wild garlic leaves.", "The leaves can be pickled in the same way as Allium ochotense known as mountain garlic in Korea.", "The bulbs and flowers are also edible.", "It is used for preparing herbed cheese, a Van speciality in Turkey.", "The leaves are also used as fodder.", "Cows that have fed on ramsons give milk that tastes slightly of garlic, and butter made from this milk used to be very popular in 19th-century Switzerland.", "The first evidence of the human use of A. ursinum comes from the Mesolithic settlement of Barkr , where an impression of a leaf has been found.", "In the Swiss Neolithic settlement of Thayngen-Weier , a high concentration of pollen from A. ursinum was found in the settlement layer, interpreted by some as evidence for the use of A. ursinum as fodder.", "Plants that may be mistaken for A. ursinum include lily of the valley, Colchicum autumnale, Arum maculatum, and Veratrum viride or Veratrum album, all of which are poisonous.", "In Europe, where ramsons are popularly harvested from the wild, people are regularly poisoned after mistakenly picking lily of the valley or Colchicum autumnale.", "When the leaves of A. ursinum and Arum maculatum first sprout, they look similar, but unfolded Arum maculatum leaves have irregular edges and many deep veins, while ramsons leaves are convex with a single main vein.", "The leaves of lily of the valley are paired, dull green and come from a single reddish-purple stem, while the leaves of A. ursinum emerge individually are initially shiny and are bright green.", "Allium ursinum in an English woodland", "As its name suggests, A. ursinum is an important food for brown bears.", "The plant is also a favourite of wild boar.", "A. ursinum is the primary larval host plant for a specialised hoverfly, ramsons hoverfly .", "The flowers are pollinated by bees."]}}
|
|
2599430_1203946
| 625
|
[
"Eriophorum vaginatum"
] |
{"Eriophorum vaginatum": {"keywords": ["Eriophorum vaginatum, the hare's-tail cottongrass, tussock cottongrass, or sheathed cottonsedge, is a species of perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the sedge family Cyperaceae.", "It is native to bogs and other acidic wetlands throughout the Holarctic Kingdom.", "On the flowering stems there is a single, inflated leaf-sheath, without a lamina, hence the species epithet .", "Eriophorum vaginatum Eriophorum vaginatum occurs throughout much of the boreal and arctic zones of Eurasia and North America.", "It prefers acidic, moist to wet, peaty soil and may be dominant in bogs, poor fens and the heathlands of Western Europe."], "habitat_section": ["Eriophorum vaginatum Eriophorum vaginatum occurs throughout much of the boreal and arctic zones of Eurasia and North America.", "It prefers acidic, moist to wet, peaty soil and may be dominant in bogs, poor fens and the heathlands of Western Europe.", "It is also common on the tundra.", "Common in Scotland, it is sometimes referred to as draw-ling or drawmoss."], "random_sentences": ["Eriophorum vaginatum, the hare's-tail cottongrass, tussock cottongrass, or sheathed cottonsedge, is a species of perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the sedge family Cyperaceae.", "It is native to bogs and other acidic wetlands throughout the Holarctic Kingdom.", "It is a 3060 cm high tussock-forming plant with solitary spikes.", "The head of Eriophorum vaginatum Eriophorum vaginatum is a 30 to 60-cm-high tussock-forming plant with extremely narrow, almost hair-like leaves.", "On the flowering stems there is a single, inflated leaf-sheath, without a lamina, hence the species epithet .", "The inflorescence is a dense, tufted, solitary spike.", "Fruiting stems elongate considerably, reaching well above the leaves.", "Eriophorum vaginatum Eriophorum vaginatum occurs throughout much of the boreal and arctic zones of Eurasia and North America.", "It prefers acidic, moist to wet, peaty soil and may be dominant in bogs, poor fens and the heathlands of Western Europe.", "It is also common on the tundra.", "Common in Scotland, it is sometimes referred to as draw-ling or drawmoss."]}}
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2603321_1098616
| 726
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[
"Asplenium septentrionale",
"Petasites albus",
"Polystichum lonchitis",
"Dryas octopetala",
"Pieris napi",
"Lasiommata maera",
"Oxalis acetosella",
"Asplenium viride"
] |
{"Asplenium septentrionale": {"keywords": ["Asplenium septentrionale is a species of fern known by the common names northern spleenwort and forked spleenwort.", "It is native to Europe, Asia and western North America, where it grows on rocks.", "Asplenium septentrionale is a small fern which grows in dense clusters superficially resembling tufts of grass.", "Fertile leaves of A. septentrionale showing brown sori on underside Individual plants have an abundant number of leaves, forming dense tufts from a rhizome of about 1 millimetre in diameter, and sometimes mats on flat rocks.", "The presence of sori on fertile leaves distinguishes it from the vegetative material of a grass or sedge.", "Most members of the A. septentrionale subclade have small leaves with a long green stalk, entire or divided into two or three segments, and always grow on rocks.", "Asplenium septentrionale subsp. septentrionale is found in Europe and Asia from the Macaronesian Islands east through Europe, western Asia, the former USSR, northern India, parts of western and central China , and Taiwan.", "It is also found in North America, principally in the Rocky Mountains of the western United States, but also in the Black Hills of South DakotaWyoming.", "It also occurs in the mountains of the Cascade Range and the Sierra Nevada, from Oregon south through California into Baja California.", "Asplenium septentrionale is epipetric and can be found in crevices of rocks, around boulders, and on cliffs.", "It can be found on a variety of substrates, including granitic rocks and limestone.", "In the United States, it can be found growing at altitudes from .", "It is best grown in partial sun or medium light in moist to dry potting mix.", "It requires good drainage and little watering."], "habitat_section": ["Asplenium septentrionale subsp. septentrionale is found in Europe and Asia from the Macaronesian Islands east through Europe, western Asia, the former USSR, northern India, parts of western and central China , and Taiwan.", "It is also found in North America, principally in the Rocky Mountains of the western United States, but also in the Black Hills of South DakotaWyoming.", "It also occurs in the mountains of the Cascade Range and the Sierra Nevada, from Oregon south through California into Baja California.", "Populations occur to the eastward in western Texas and near the tip of the Oklahoma Panhandle, and two very disjunct stations have been located on shale in Monroe County and Hardy County, West Virginia.", "Asplenium septentrionale subsp. caucasicum has been reported from Georgia, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey.", "The type specimen of A. septentrionale subsp. rehmanii came from Pakistan, near the Lowari Pass.", "Asplenium septentrionale is epipetric and can be found in crevices of rocks, around boulders, and on cliffs.", "It can be found on a variety of substrates, including granitic rocks and limestone.", "The West Virginia stations are on shale.", "In the United States, it can be found growing at altitudes from ."], "random_sentences": ["Asplenium septentrionale is a species of fern known by the common names northern spleenwort and forked spleenwort.", "It is native to Europe, Asia and western North America, where it grows on rocks.", "Its long, slender leaves give it a distinctive appearance.", "Three subspecies exist, corresponding to a tetraploid and a diploid cytotype and their triploid hybrid.", "Asplenium septentrionale is a small fern which grows in dense clusters superficially resembling tufts of grass.", "The long, dark stems support narrow, leathery leaf blades, which may appear slightly forked at the tip.", "The fronds are monomorphic, with no difference in shape or size between fertile and sterile fronds.", "The rhizome from which the many leaves of each plant spring is about 1 millimetre in diameter, and covered with scales.", "The scales are narrowly triangular, and range in color from black to a dark reddish brown.", "They are long, 0.3 to 0.6 millimetres wide, and entire at the edges.", "The stipes are reddish brown at the base, fading to green above.", "They range from in length, and are about 2 to 5 times the length of the leaf blade itself.", "The leaf blades are narrow, with parallel edges following the stem, ranging from in length and in width.", "They come to a point at both base and tip, and have a leathery texture.", "They are often divided into pinnae near the tip, usually two .", "These pinnae are sharply angled towards the tip of the blade, giving it a forked appearance.", "They also come to a point at the tip, and have a few widely spaced, irregular teeth.", "The rachis is green and shiny, and the leaves, including the rachis, are free of hairs or scales.", "Fertile and sterile fronds are the same in appearance", "in fertile fronds, the sori are linear, parallel to the edges of the pinna, usually two or more per pinna.", "The sori are covered by thin, pale tan indusia, with entire edges.", "It contains 64 spores per sporangium, and most sporophytes have a chromosome number of 2n144 .", "Fertile leaves of A. septentrionale showing brown sori on underside Individual plants have an abundant number of leaves, forming dense tufts from a rhizome of about 1 millimetre in diameter, and sometimes mats on flat rocks.", "A. septentrionale is easily distinguished from other related ferns by its narrow blades, often forked at the tip.", "The presence of sori on fertile leaves distinguishes it from the vegetative material of a grass or sedge.", "Originally named Acrostichum septentrionale by Linnaeus in 1753, the species was placed in genus Asplenium by Georg Franz Hoffmann in 1796.", "The species has twice been placed in genera segregated from Asplenium: as Chamaefilix septentrionalis by Farwell in 1931, and as Tarachia septentrionalis by Momose in 1960.", "Neither combination was widely accepted and current authorities do not recognize these segregate genera.", "A global phylogeny of Asplenium published in 2020 divided the genus into eleven clades, which were given informal names pending further taxonomic study.", "A. septentrionale belongs to the \" A. septentrionale subclade \" of the \" Schaffneria clade \" .", "The Schaffneria clade has a worldwide distribution, and members vary widely in form and habitat.", "Most members of the A. septentrionale subclade have small leaves with a long green stalk, entire or divided into two or three segments, and always grow on rocks.", "Other members of the subclade include the European A. seelosii and A. celtibericum and an undescriped species from Venezuela.", "In 1980, the discovery of diploid specimens prompted the division of the species into A. septentrionale subsp. septentrionale, the tetraploid population, and A. septentrionale subsp. caucasicum, the diploid population.", "The diploids are limited to southwest Asia, while the tetraploid population has a circumboreal distribution.", "The tetraploid subspecies is believed to have arisen from the diploid subspecies by autopolyploidy.", "The two subspecies are very similar in form, but can be distinguished by the narrower blades of A. septentrionale subsp. caucasicum and its smaller spores .", "In 2003, Ronald Viane and Tadeus Reichstein elevated this subspecies to a species, as A. caucasicum, and described a sterile triploid formed by hybridization of the tetraploid and diploid, identifiable by its abortive spores.", "They designated the hybrid A. dirense.", "However, in his taxonomic revision of Indian pteridophytes, Christopher Fraser-Jenkins reduced all of these taxa to subspecific rank, with the hybrid A. dirense becoming the nothosubspecies A. septentrionale subsp. rehmanii.", "Asplenium septentrionale can hybridize with maidenhair spleenwort (A.", "trichomanes) to form the hybrid A. alternifolium, with A. foreziense to form A. costei, with black spleenwort (A.", "adiantum-nigrum) to form A. contrei, with A. obovatum subsp. lanceolatum to form A. souchei, and with wall-rue (A.", "ruta-muraria) to form A. murbeckii and A. tavelio.", "A. murbeckii can back-cross with A. septentrionale to form A. hungaricum.", "Asplenium septentrionale subsp. septentrionale is found in Europe and Asia from the Macaronesian Islands east through Europe, western Asia, the former USSR, northern India, parts of western and central China , and Taiwan.", "It is also found in North America, principally in the Rocky Mountains of the western United States, but also in the Black Hills of South DakotaWyoming.", "It also occurs in the mountains of the Cascade Range and the Sierra Nevada, from Oregon south through California into Baja California.", "Populations occur to the eastward in western Texas and near the tip of the Oklahoma Panhandle, and two very disjunct stations have been located on shale in Monroe County and Hardy County, West Virginia.", "Asplenium septentrionale subsp. caucasicum has been reported from Georgia, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey.", "The type specimen of A. septentrionale subsp. rehmanii came from Pakistan, near the Lowari Pass.", "Asplenium septentrionale is epipetric and can be found in crevices of rocks, around boulders, and on cliffs.", "It can be found on a variety of substrates, including granitic rocks and limestone.", "The West Virginia stations are on shale.", "In the United States, it can be found growing at altitudes from .", "Asplenium septentrionale is hardy to USDA Zone 4.", "It is best grown in partial sun or medium light in moist to dry potting mix.", "It requires good drainage and little watering.", "Sensitive to root disturbance, it is difficult to transplant and establish, and is rarely sold by nurseries."]}, "Petasites albus": {"keywords": ["The native range of Petasites albus is the mountains of central Europe and the Caucasus.", "It prefers damp soils in deciduous forests, mountain pastures, springs and streamsides, roadside verges and other areas of rough ground."], "habitat_section": ["The native range of Petasites albus is the mountains of central Europe and the Caucasus.", "It was first recorded in Sweden in Skane in 1737 .", "In the British Isles it is a neophyte, introduced by the 17th century and naturalized in Yorkshire by 1843, but now predominantly distributed in North-east Scotland.", "It prefers damp soils in deciduous forests, mountain pastures, springs and streamsides, roadside verges and other areas of rough ground."], "random_sentences": ["Petasites albus, the white butterbur, is a flowering plant species in the family Asteraceae.", "It is native to central Europe and the Caucasus.", "Petasites albus is a perennial rhizomatous herb, with large suborbicular leaves covered with lax cottony hairs.", "The flower heads are compact racemes of composite flowers or capitula with white ligules.", "They are dioecious, the male plants often more common than the females, as in the British range.", "The native range of Petasites albus is the mountains of central Europe and the Caucasus.", "It was first recorded in Sweden in Skane in 1737 .", "In the British Isles it is a neophyte, introduced by the 17th century and naturalized in Yorkshire by 1843, but now predominantly distributed in North-east Scotland.", "It prefers damp soils in deciduous forests, mountain pastures, springs and streamsides, roadside verges and other areas of rough ground."]}, "Polystichum lonchitis": {"keywords": ["Polystichum lonchitis is a species of fern known by the common name northern hollyfern, or simply holly-fern.", "It is native to much of the Northern Hemisphere from Eurasia to Alaska to Greenland and south into mountainous central North America.", "It has stiff, glossy green, erect fronds and grows in moist, shady, rocky mountain habitats.", "The pinnae overlap each other slightly and are toothed with prominent outward-pointing spines on the margins.", "Holly fern is an arctic-alpine species with a circumpolar boreal and montane distribution in the Northern Hemisphere.", "It grows best in calcareous soil in cool, damp locations at the base of cliffs, on rock ledges and crevices, and among boulders and in deep cavities in limestone pavements.", "It also grows on other types of rocks as long as they are not calcium deficient.", "It occurs at a single location in Northern Ireland, at Lough Navar Forest Park in County Fermanagh, and because of its rarity there, it is listed as a Northern Ireland Priority Species."], "habitat_section": ["Holly fern is an arctic-alpine species with a circumpolar boreal and montane distribution in the Northern Hemisphere.", "It grows best in calcareous soil in cool, damp locations at the base of cliffs, on rock ledges and crevices, and among boulders and in deep cavities in limestone pavements.", "It also grows on other types of rocks as long as they are not calcium deficient.", "In the British Isles it occurs in Scotland and the western fringes of England, Wales and Ireland, and at scattered locations elsewhere.", "It occurs at a single location in Northern Ireland, at Lough Navar Forest Park in County Fermanagh, and because of its rarity there, it is listed as a Northern Ireland Priority Species."], "random_sentences": ["Polystichum lonchitis is a species of fern known by the common name northern hollyfern, or simply holly-fern.", "It is native to much of the Northern Hemisphere from Eurasia to Alaska to Greenland and south into mountainous central North America.", "It has stiff, glossy green, erect fronds and grows in moist, shady, rocky mountain habitats.", "A nature print This tufted fern produces several erect, linear fronds up to long.", "In shadier locations fronds may be held horizontally.", "The fronds are glossy and stiff, pinnate, with many lance-shaped to oblong pinnae up to long, the longest ones occurring near the midpoint of the frond, the basal ones being smaller and triangular in shape.", "The pinnae overlap each other slightly and are toothed with prominent outward-pointing spines on the margins.", "The sori are rounded, with a whitish to gray covering , and are arranged in two rows on the underside of the pinnae.", "This is a slow-growing, long-lived plant.", "Holly fern is an arctic-alpine species with a circumpolar boreal and montane distribution in the Northern Hemisphere.", "It grows best in calcareous soil in cool, damp locations at the base of cliffs, on rock ledges and crevices, and among boulders and in deep cavities in limestone pavements.", "It also grows on other types of rocks as long as they are not calcium deficient.", "In the British Isles it occurs in Scotland and the western fringes of England, Wales and Ireland, and at scattered locations elsewhere.", "It occurs at a single location in Northern Ireland, at Lough Navar Forest Park in County Fermanagh, and because of its rarity there, it is listed as a Northern Ireland Priority Species."]}, "Dryas octopetala": {"keywords": ["Dryas octopetala, the mountain avens, eightpetal mountain-avens, white dryas or white dryad, is an Arcticalpine flowering plant in the family Rosaceae.", "It is a small prostrate evergreen subshrub forming large colonies.", "As a floral emblem, it is the official territorial flower of the Northwest Territories and the national flower of Iceland.", "Dryas octopetala has a widespread occurrence throughout mountainous areas where it is generally restricted to limestone outcrops.", "These include the entire Arctic, as well as the mountains of Scandinavia, Iceland, the Alps, Carpathian Mountains, Balkans, Caucasus and in isolated locations elsewhere.", "In Great Britain it occurs in the Pennines , at two locations in Snowdonia , and more widely in the Scottish Highlands, in Ireland it occurs on The Burren and a few other sites.", "In North America it is found in Alaska, most frequently on previously glaciated terrain, and through the Canadian rockies reaching as far south as Colorado in the Rocky Mountains.", "It grows in dry localities where snow melts early, on gravel and rocky barrens, forming a distinct heath community on calcareous soils.", "During these cold spells, Dryas octopetala was much more widely distributed than it is today, as large parts of the northern hemisphere that are now covered by forests were replaced in the cold periods by tundra.", "D. octopetala is cultivated in temperate regions as groundcover, or as an alpine or rock garden plant.", "It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit."], "habitat_section": ["Dryas octopetala has a widespread occurrence throughout mountainous areas where it is generally restricted to limestone outcrops.", "These include the entire Arctic, as well as the mountains of Scandinavia, Iceland, the Alps, Carpathian Mountains, Balkans, Caucasus and in isolated locations elsewhere.", "In Great Britain it occurs in the Pennines , at two locations in Snowdonia , and more widely in the Scottish Highlands, in Ireland it occurs on The Burren and a few other sites.", "In North America it is found in Alaska, most frequently on previously glaciated terrain, and through the Canadian rockies reaching as far south as Colorado in the Rocky Mountains.", "It grows in dry localities where snow melts early, on gravel and rocky barrens, forming a distinct heath community on calcareous soils."], "random_sentences": ["Dryas octopetala, the mountain avens, eightpetal mountain-avens, white dryas or white dryad, is an Arcticalpine flowering plant in the family Rosaceae.", "It is a small prostrate evergreen subshrub forming large colonies.", "The specific epithet octopetala derives from Greek octo 'eight' and petalon 'petal', referring to the eight petals of the flower, an unusual number in the Rosaceae, where five is the normal number.", "However, flowers with up to 16 petals also occur naturally.", "As a floral emblem, it is the official territorial flower of the Northwest Territories and the national flower of Iceland.", "The stems are woody, tortuous, with short, horizontal rooting branches.", "The leaves are glabrous above, densely white-tomentose beneath.", "The flowers are produced on stalks long, and have eight creamy white petals hence the specific epithet octopetala.", "The style is persistent on the fruit with white feathery hairs, functioning as a wind-dispersal agent.", "The feathery hairs of the seed head first appear twisted together and glossy before spreading out to an expanded ball which the wind quickly disperses.", "Dryas octopetala has a widespread occurrence throughout mountainous areas where it is generally restricted to limestone outcrops.", "These include the entire Arctic, as well as the mountains of Scandinavia, Iceland, the Alps, Carpathian Mountains, Balkans, Caucasus and in isolated locations elsewhere.", "In Great Britain it occurs in the Pennines , at two locations in Snowdonia , and more widely in the Scottish Highlands", "in Ireland it occurs on The Burren and a few other sites.", "In North America it is found in Alaska, most frequently on previously glaciated terrain, and through the Canadian rockies reaching as far south as Colorado in the Rocky Mountains.", "It grows in dry localities where snow melts early, on gravel and rocky barrens, forming a distinct heath community on calcareous soils.", "The Younger Dryas, Older Dryas and Oldest Dryas stadials are named after Dryas octopetala, because of the great quantities of its pollen found in cores dating from those times.", "During these cold spells, Dryas octopetala was much more widely distributed than it is today, as large parts of the northern hemisphere that are now covered by forests were replaced in the cold periods by tundra.", "D. octopetala is cultivated in temperate regions as groundcover, or as an alpine or rock garden plant.", "It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "The leaves are occasionally used as an herbal tea."]}, "Pieris napi": {"keywords": ["A circumboreal species widespread across Europe and Asia, including the Indian subcontinent, Japan, the Maghreb and North America.", "It is found in meadows, hedgerows and woodland glades but not as often in gardens and parks like its close relatives the large and small whites, for which it is often mistaken.", "Unlike the large and small whites, it rarely chooses garden cabbages to lay its eggs on, preferring wild crucifers.", "The eggs are laid singly on a wide range of food plants including hedge mustard , garlic mustard , cuckooflower , water-cress , charlock , large bitter-cress , wild cabbage , and wild radish , and so it is rarely a pest in gardens or field crops.", "When full grown it is green above with black warts, from which arise whitish and blackish hairs.", "Like other Pieris species it overwinters as a pupa.", "P. napi is found in damp, grassy places with some shade, forest edges, hedgerows, meadows and wooded river valleys.", "The later generations widen their habitat use in the search for alternative food plants in drier, but flowery places.", "In the Mediterranean the insect is also found in scrub around mountain streams or springs and on floodplains with Nasturtium officinale.", "It is found from sea level to high elevations .", "The generations vary with location, elevation and season.", "In the bulk of the July and August specimens only the nervures are shaded with greenish grey, and the nervures are only faintly, or not at all, marked with this colour.", "The vein shading varies in colour and in intensity and the shaded bands may be broad or narrow.", "Although polyandry benefits females of P. napi by maximizing the amount of transferred nutrients from the male, the infertile sperm storage prolongs female re-mating.", "However, the American butterflies cannot successfully reproduce by laying eggs on the invasive weed garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata, a fact that threatens their survival as garlic mustard out-competes native mustard plants due to having no biological control species present in North America."], "habitat_section": ["A circumboreal species widespread across Europe and Asia, including the Indian subcontinent, Japan, the Maghreb and North America.", "It is found in meadows, hedgerows and woodland glades but not as often in gardens and parks like its close relatives the large and small whites, for which it is often mistaken.", "Like other \" white \" butterflies, the sexes differ.", "The female has two spots on each forewing, the male only one.", "The veins on the wings of the female are usually more heavily marked.", "The underside hindwings are pale yellow with the veins highlighted by black scales giving a greenish tint, hence green-veined white.", "Unlike the large and small whites, it rarely chooses garden cabbages to lay its eggs on, preferring wild crucifers.", "Males emit a sex pheromone that is perceptible to humans, citral, the basic flavor-imparting component of lemon peel oil.", "Some authors consider the mustard white and West Virginia white of North America to be conspecific with P. napi or consider P. napi to be a superspecies.", "Despite this, the American butterflies, unlike P. napi, cannot successfully use garlic mustard as a host plant.", "Females will lay eggs on it, mistaking this non-native species for a compatible native mustard, resulting in the death of the offspring.", "Classification is also an issue concerning the European dark-veined white.", "P. napi is found in damp, grassy places with some shade, forest edges, hedgerows, meadows and wooded river valleys.", "The later generations widen their habitat use in the search for alternative food plants in drier, but flowery places.", "In the Mediterranean the insect is also found in scrub around mountain streams or springs and on floodplains with Nasturtium officinale.", "It is found from sea level to high elevations ."], "random_sentences": ["The green-veined white is a butterfly of the family Pieridae.", "A circumboreal species widespread across Europe and Asia, including the Indian subcontinent, Japan, the Maghreb and North America.", "It is found in meadows, hedgerows and woodland glades but not as often in gardens and parks like its close relatives the large and small whites, for which it is often mistaken.", "Like other \" white \" butterflies, the sexes differ.", "The female has two spots on each forewing, the male only one.", "The veins on the wings of the female are usually more heavily marked.", "The underside hindwings are pale yellow with the veins highlighted by black scales giving a greenish tint, hence green-veined white.", "Unlike the large and small whites, it rarely chooses garden cabbages to lay its eggs on, preferring wild crucifers.", "Males emit a sex pheromone that is perceptible to humans, citral, the basic flavor-imparting component of lemon peel oil.", "Some authors consider the mustard white and West Virginia white of North America to be conspecific with P. napi or consider P. napi to be a superspecies.", "Despite this, the American butterflies, unlike P. napi, cannot successfully use garlic mustard as a host plant.", "Females will lay eggs on it, mistaking this non-native species for a compatible native mustard, resulting in the death of the offspring.", "Classification is also an issue concerning the European dark-veined white.", "Life cycle and food plants", "The eggs are laid singly on a wide range of food plants including hedge mustard , garlic mustard , cuckooflower , water-cress , charlock , large bitter-cress , wild cabbage , and wild radish , and so it is rarely a pest in gardens or field crops.", "The caterpillar is green and well camouflaged.", "When full grown it is green above with black warts, from which arise whitish and blackish hairs.", "There is a darker line along the back and a yellow line low down on the sides.", "Underneath the colour is whitish-grey.", "The spiracular line is dusky but not conspicuous, and the spiracles are blackish surrounded with yellow.", "There is extensive overlap with other leaf-feeding larvae of large and small whites in some wild populations .", "It is often found feeding on the same plant as the orange tip but rarely competes for food because it usually feeds on the leaves whereas the orange tip caterpillar feeds on the flowers and developing seed pods.", "Like other Pieris species it overwinters as a pupa.", "This is green in colour, and the raised parts are yellowish and brown.", "This is the most frequent form, but it varies through yellowish to buff or greyish, and is sometimes without markings.", "P. napi is found in damp, grassy places with some shade, forest edges, hedgerows, meadows and wooded river valleys.", "The later generations widen their habitat use in the search for alternative food plants in drier, but flowery places.", "In the Mediterranean the insect is also found in scrub around mountain streams or springs and on floodplains with Nasturtium officinale.", "It is found from sea level to high elevations .", "The generations vary with location, elevation and season.", "In northern Europe there are two or three generations from April to early September.", "In warmer areas and in some good years there is a fourth generation.", "In southern Europe there are three or more partially overlapping generations from March to October.", "Plate 13 from The Butterflies of the British Isles by Richard South In Great Britain, April, May and June specimens have the veins tinged with grey and rather distinct, but are not so strongly marked with black as those belonging to the second flight, which occurs in late July and throughout August.", "This seasonal variation, as it is called, is also most clearly exhibited on the underside.", "In the May and June butterfly the veins below are greenish grey, and those of the hindwings are broadly bordered also with this colour.", "In the bulk of the July and August specimens only the nervures are shaded with greenish grey, and the nervures are only faintly, or not at all, marked with this colour.", "Now and then a specimen of the first brood may assume the characters properly belonging to the specimens of the second brood", "and, on the other hand, a butterfly of the second brood may closely resemble one of the first brood.", "As a rule, however, the seasonal differences referred to are fairly constant.", "By rearing this species from the egg it has been ascertained that part of a brood from eggs laid in June attains the butterfly stage the same year, and the other part remains in the chrysalis until the following spring, the butterflies in each set being of the form proper to the time of emergence.", "In the typical form -forma typica- the forewings are creamy-white, irrorated with black towards the base.", "There is an apical blackish blotch, sometimes broken into several terminal spots", "and a black spot between 3 and 4 In the female there is a black subdorsal posterior spot, and a dorsal confluent mark.", "The hindwings are creamy-white, the base black-sprinkled and a black costal spot before the apex .", "The underside of the hindwings and underside apex of the forewings is pale yellow the veins edged with a shading of fine black lines, in the hindwings more broadly.", "The ground colour varies from white to cream, sulphur-yellow, chrome yellow and light hues of buff or brown.", "The spot markings also vary and may be joined or absent.", "The vein shading varies in colour and in intensity and the shaded bands may be broad or narrow.", "Variants, many named, are described by Rober , Langham and Anon Langham, C. 1922 Some forms of Pieris napi taken in County Fermanagh.", "Irish Naturalist 31: 42-45 pdf", "Recent research has shown that when males mate with a female, they inject methyl salicylate along with their sperm.", "The smell of this compound repels other males, thus ensuring the first male's paternity of the eggsa form of chemical mate guarding.", "After a female mates, she will display a mate refusal posture that releases methyl salicylate during a subsequent courtship.", "The release of this anti-aphrodisiac will quickly terminate the courtship.", "Males are very sensitive to differences in methyl salicylate levels, and will use this sense to influence their mating behaviour.", "However, a virgin female displaying a very similar posture will release a different chemical that will prolong the courtship ritual. Males are sensitive to these chemical and postural differences, and can discriminate between a receptive virgin female and an unreceptive mated female.", "The adult male of this species has a distinctive odour that resembles lemon verbena.", "This smell is associated with specialized androconial scales on male wings.", "In the usually polyandrous P. napi, females who mate multiple times have higher lifetime fecundity, lay larger eggs, and live longer compared to females who mate only once.", "In most organisms it is the female who contributes the most to the reproduction of offspring as she must invest an egg and then carry the zygote.", "Males, on the other hand, need only provide a sperm that is of low cost.", "In P. napi, however, mating is unusually costly to males as the ejaculate matter produced contains not only sperm but accessory substances as well.", "These substances average 15% of male body mass and are incorporated into female soma and reproductive tissues during the mating process.", "The amount of ejaculate of virgin males during mating is larger than that of non-virgin males.", "Females therefore must mate more frequently with non-virgin males in order to obtain the necessary amount of male-derived nutrition.", "In P. napi, the nuptial gift is an example of sexual cooperation towards a common interest of both males and females.", "The existence of nutrients in the ejaculate is beneficial to the females because it increases female fecundity and longevity, and eventually promotes re-mating.", "The existence of the anti-aphrodisiac, methyl salicylate, is effective in reducing female harassment by other males.", "However, the transfer of this ejaculate can cause a conflict over re-mating due to sperm competition.", "After a female mates, infertile sperm ejaculated by the male will fill the female's sperm storage organ and prevent her from mating.", "The amount of infertile sperm stored is correlated with the refractory period of a female after mating.", "Infertile sperm makes up 90% of the sperm count, showing that males manipulate females by preventing them from mating with another male for a certain period of time.", "Although polyandry benefits females of P. napi by maximizing the amount of transferred nutrients from the male, the infertile sperm storage prolongs female re-mating.", "This refractory period makes it harder for females to mate, and females will continue to have difficulty as their age and mating frequency increase.", "Males who have recently copulated will not transfer as many nutrients to their next mate, but will spend a longer duration of time for each mating.", "This increases the mating costs for females because they are spending more time copulating and receiving fewer nutrients from the ejaculate.", "Males take advantage of this because females do not reduce their mating costs by copulating with virgin males.", "In addition, males will transfer the most methyl salicylate to their first mate to ensure its paternity.", "However, a female who mates with a virgin male will have the most difficulty re-mating, therefore delaying her from engaging in the preferred polyandry.", "Males tailor their ejaculate in the sense that the first ejaculate is meant to prolong the refractory period of the female, and every subsequent ejaculate is meant to maximize efficiency in sperm competition.", "Some authorities consider P. napi to be a superspecies that includes the American species mustard white and West Virginia white as well as the European dark-veined white.", "However, the American butterflies cannot successfully reproduce by laying eggs on the invasive weed garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata, a fact that threatens their survival as garlic mustard out-competes native mustard plants due to having no biological control species present in North America.", "In Europe, where garlic mustard is native, 76 things consume it."]}, "Lasiommata maera": {"keywords": ["Its preferred habitats are edges of the forest, unmanaged clearings on forested areas, rocky dry areas and stony slopes, at an elevation of above sea level.", "On an average larger than hiera, more evenly coloured, the black markings of the ground less prominent in the nymotypical form with a sooty brown disc, the forewing of the male more pointed, with longer costal margin and more oblique distal margin, on the underside of the forewing the distal band extends without interruption across the median veins to the hindmargin.", "The larva eats full-grown grasses, such as Poa annua, Poa bulbosa, Poa pratensis, Festuca ovina, Festuca rubra, Festuca pratensis, Glyceria fluitans, Calamagrostis epigejos, Calamagrostis arundinacea, Calamagrostis varia, Deschampsia flexuosa, Agrostis capillaris, Nardus stricta, Dactylis, Lolium and Hordeum species."], "habitat_section": ["The species is common in continental Europe.", "It is also present in the Urals, south western Siberia, Asia Minor, Syria, Iran, Central Asia and the Himalayas.", "It is absent from the United Kingdom.", "Its preferred habitats are edges of the forest, unmanaged clearings on forested areas, rocky dry areas and stony slopes, at an elevation of above sea level."], "random_sentences": ["Lasiommata maera, the large wall brown, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae.", "The species is common in continental Europe.", "It is also present in the Urals, south western Siberia, Asia Minor, Syria, Iran, Central Asia and the Himalayas.", "It is absent from the United Kingdom.", "Its preferred habitats are edges of the forest, unmanaged clearings on forested areas, rocky dry areas and stony slopes, at an elevation of above sea level.", "Lasiommata maera has a wingspan of .", "These large butterflies are quite variable in color and pattern.", "Usually the upperside is orange in the forewings and mostly brown in the hindwings.", "The forewings always show a single ocellus, while the hindwings bear two or three ocelli.", "The underside of the forewings is orange and the underside of the hindwings is marbled with gray brown.", "This species is quite similar to Lasiommata megera, that is smaller and has paler yellow-orange forewings.", "Seitz P. maera L. ( adrasta Dup.", "On an average larger than hiera, more evenly coloured, the black markings of the ground less prominent in the nymotypical form with a sooty brown disc", "the forewing of the male more pointed, with longer costal margin and more oblique distal margin", "on the underside of the forewing the distal band extends without interruption across the median veins to the hindmargin.", "The underside of the hindwing has a much purer ground-colour, i. e. there are less clouds and shadows between the various dentate lines which cross the disc.", "The apical ocellus has a stronger tendency towardsduplication being usually somewhat distorted obliquely and at least beneath bearing two pupils.", "Between this ocellus and the apex there is nearly always a minute eye-dot, there occurring also often specimens with other accessory ocelli .", "Moreover, the ocelli of the hindwing are as a rule somewhat larger than in the same sex of hiera A very large material proves that it is hardly possible to find definite trenchant distinctions , especially if one takes into account the large number of local forms of maera, all the various kinds of pattern and coloration exhibiting a great variability.", "The larva eats full-grown grasses, such as Poa annua, Poa bulbosa, Poa pratensis, Festuca ovina, Festuca rubra, Festuca pratensis, Glyceria fluitans, Calamagrostis epigejos, Calamagrostis arundinacea, Calamagrostis varia, Deschampsia flexuosa, Agrostis capillaris, Nardus stricta, Dactylis, Lolium and Hordeum species.", "This species has two broods in the northern countries, a single brood in the south.", "Adults fly from April to September.", "These butterflies are avid fliers and they are seldom seen in flight in strong wind."]}, "Oxalis acetosella": {"keywords": ["It flowers from spring to midsummer with small white chasmogamous flowers with pink streaks.", "During the night or when it rains the flowers close and the leaves fold.", "Both have white flowers, are small, and are found in woody shady places.", "It grows in woods and shady places in the Northern Hemisphere."], "habitat_section": ["It grows in woods and shady places in the Northern Hemisphere.", "The plant is commonly found in Great Britain and Ireland.", "Scannell, M.J.P. and Synnott, D.M. 1972 Census Catalogue of the Flora of Ireland Dublin Paperback."], "random_sentences": ["Oxalis acetosella, the wood sorrel or common wood sorrel, is a rhizomatous flowering plant in the family Oxalidaceae, common in most of Europe and parts of Asia.", "The specific epithet acetosella refers to its sour taste.", "The common name wood sorrel is often used for other plants in the genus Oxalis.", "In much of its range it is the only member of its genus and hence simply known as \" the \" wood sorrel.", "While common wood sorrel may be used to differentiate it from most other species of Oxalis, in North America, Oxalis montana is also called common wood sorrel.", "It is also known as Alleluia because it blossoms between Easter and Pentecost, when the Psalms which end with Hallelujah are sung.", "Oxalis acetosella, Otto Wilhelm Thome Flora von Deutschland Osterreich und der Schweiz The plant has trifoliate compound leaves, the leaflets heart-shaped and folded through the middle, that occur in groups of three on petioles up to long.", "It flowers from spring to midsummer with small white chasmogamous flowers with pink streaks.", "Red or violet flowers also occur rarely.", "During the night or when it rains the flowers close and the leaves fold.", "As with other species of wood sorrel, the leaves are sometimes eaten.", "An oxalate called \" sal acetosella \" was formerly extracted from the plant, through boiling.", "Oxalis acetosella growing at Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland.", "Anemonoides nemorosa is similar.", "Both have white flowers, are small, and are found in woody shady places.", "Anemonoides nemorosa however has palmately lobed leaves and does not have true petals but large sepals which are petal-like.", "It grows in woods and shady places in the Northern Hemisphere.", "The plant is commonly found in Great Britain and Ireland.", " Scannell, M.J.P. and Synnott, D.M. 1972 Census Catalogue of the Flora of Ireland Dublin Paperback.", "The common wood sorrel is sometimes referred to as a shamrock and given as a gift on Saint Patrick's Day.", "This is due to its trifoliate clover-like leaf, and to early references to shamrock being eaten.", "Despite this, it is generally accepted that the plant described as shamrock is a species of clover, usually lesser clover ."]}, "Asplenium viride": {"keywords": ["Green spleenwort in its native habitat in Germany Asplenium viride is a species of fern known as the green spleenwort because of its green stipes and rachides.", "Members of the clade grow on rocks and usually have once-pinnate leaf blades with slender, chestnut- to dark-brown stalks.", "A. viride is a native species of northern and western North America and northern Europe and Asia.", "It is a small rock fern, growing on calcareous rock."], "habitat_section": ["A. viride is a native species of northern and western North America and northern Europe and Asia.", "It is a small rock fern, growing on calcareous rock.", "It is a diploid species, with n 36, and hybridizes with Asplenium trichomanes to produce Asplenium adulterinum, found on Vancouver Island, British Columbia."], "random_sentences": ["Green spleenwort in its native habitat in Germany Asplenium viride is a species of fern known as the green spleenwort because of its green stipes and rachides.", "This feature easily distinguishes it from the very similar-looking maidenhair spleenwort, Asplenium trichomanes.", "Green spleenwort was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1753 Species Plantarum, under the name \" Asplenium Trich.", "ramosum \" , with a type locality of \" \" .", "Under the rules of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, phrase names such as \" Asplenium Trichomanes ramosum \" are to be treated as orthographic errors in this case, for \" Asplenium ramosum \" .", "That name was later rejected in favour of William Hudson's later name Asplenium viride, which had a type locality of \" \" .", "A global phylogeny of Asplenium published in 2020 divided the genus into eleven clades, which were given informal names pending further taxonomic study.", "A. viride belongs to the \" A. viride subclade \" of the \" A. trichomanes clade \" .", "The A. trichomanes clade has a worldwide distribution.", "Members of the clade grow on rocks and usually have once-pinnate leaf blades with slender, chestnut- to dark-brown stalks.", "The A. viride subclade, which contains only A. viride and its allopolyploid descendant A. adulterinum, is exceptional in having green stalks.", "A. viride is a native species of northern and western North America and northern Europe and Asia.", "It is a small rock fern, growing on calcareous rock.", "It is a diploid species, with n 36, and hybridizes with Asplenium trichomanes to produce Asplenium adulterinum, found on Vancouver Island, British Columbia."]}}
|
|
2553667_1137060
| 1952
|
[
"Cedrus deodara"
] |
{"Cedrus deodara": {"keywords": ["It is a large evergreen coniferous tree reaching tall, exceptionally with a trunk up to in diameter.", "Trees growing in Kalpa, Himachal Pradesh, India The species natively occurs in East-Afghanistan, South Western Tibet, Western Nepal, Northern Pakistan, and North-Central India.", "It grows at altitudes of .", "It is widely grown as an ornamental tree, often planted in parks and large gardens for its drooping foliage.", "General cultivation is limited to areas with mild winters, with trees frequently killed by temperatures below about , limiting it to USDA zone 7 and warmer for reliable growth.", "It can succeed in rather cool-summer climates, as in Ushuaia, Argentina.", "The most cold-tolerant trees originate in the northwest of the species' range in Kashmir and Paktia Province, Afghanistan.", "Selected cultivars from this region are hardy to USDA zone 7 or even zone 6, tolerating temperatures down to about .", "Of these, 'Eisregen', 'Eiswinter', 'Karl Fuchs', and 'Polar Winter' were selected in Germany from seed collected in Paktia, 'Kashmir' was a selection of the nursery trade, whereas 'Shalimar' originated from seeds collected in 1964 from Shalimar Gardens, Kashmir and propagated at the Arnold Arboretum.", "C. deodara and the three cultivars 'Feelin' Blue', 'Pendula' and 'Aurea' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit .", "In Pakistan and India, during the British colonial period, deodar wood was used extensively for construction of barracks, public buildings, bridges, canals and railway cars.", "Because of its antifungal and insect repellent properties, rooms made of deodar cedar wood are used to store meat and food grains like oats and wheat in Shimla, Kullu, and Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh."], "habitat_section": ["Trees growing in Kalpa, Himachal Pradesh, India The species natively occurs in East-Afghanistan, South Western Tibet, Western Nepal, Northern Pakistan, and North-Central India.", "It grows at altitudes of ."], "random_sentences": ["Cedrus deodara, the deodar cedar, Himalayan cedar, or deodar, is a species of cedar native to the Himalayas.", "It is a large evergreen coniferous tree reaching tall, exceptionally with a trunk up to in diameter.", "It has a conic crown with level branches and drooping branchlets.", "The leaves are needle-like, mostly long, occasionally up to long, slender , borne singly on long shoots, and in dense clusters of 2030 on short shoots", "they vary from bright green to glaucous blue-green in colour.", "The female cones are barrel-shaped, long and broad, and disintegrate when mature to release the winged seeds.", "The male cones are long, and shed their pollen in autumn.", "The bark of Cedrus deodara contains large amounts of taxifolin.", "The wood contains cedeodarin, ampelopsin, cedrin, cedrinoside, and deodarin .", "The main components of the needle essential oil include -terpineol , linalool , limonene , anethole , caryophyllene , and eugenol .", "The deodar cedar also contains lignans and the phenolic sesquiterpene himasecolone, together with isopimaric acid.", "Other compounds have been identified, including -matairesinol, -nortrachelogenin, and a dibenzylbutyrolactollignan .", "The botanical name, which is also the English common name, is derived from the Sanskrit term devadaru, which means \" wood of the gods \" , a compound of deva \" god \" and daru \" wood and tree \" .", "Trees growing in Kalpa, Himachal Pradesh, India The species natively occurs in East-Afghanistan, South Western Tibet, Western Nepal, Northern Pakistan, and North-Central India.", "It grows at altitudes of .", "It is widely grown as an ornamental tree, often planted in parks and large gardens for its drooping foliage.", "General cultivation is limited to areas with mild winters, with trees frequently killed by temperatures below about , limiting it to USDA zone 7 and warmer for reliable growth.", "It can succeed in rather cool-summer climates, as in Ushuaia, Argentina.", "The most cold-tolerant trees originate in the northwest of the species' range in Kashmir and Paktia Province, Afghanistan.", "Selected cultivars from this region are hardy to USDA zone 7 or even zone 6, tolerating temperatures down to about .", "Of these, 'Eisregen', 'Eiswinter', 'Karl Fuchs', and 'Polar Winter' were selected in Germany from seed collected in Paktia", "'Kashmir' was a selection of the nursery trade, whereas 'Shalimar' originated from seeds collected in 1964 from Shalimar Gardens, Kashmir and propagated at the Arnold Arboretum.", "C. deodara and the three cultivars 'Feelin' Blue', 'Pendula' and 'Aurea' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit .", "upright Deodar is in great demand as building material because of its durability, rot-resistant character and fine, close grain, which is capable of taking a high polish.", "Its historical use to construct religious temples and in landscaping around temples is well recorded.", "Its rot-resistant character also makes it an ideal wood for constructing the well-known houseboats of Srinagar, Kashmir.", "In Pakistan and India, during the British colonial period, deodar wood was used extensively for construction of barracks, public buildings, bridges, canals and railway cars.", "Despite its durability, it is not a strong timber, and its brittle nature makes it unsuitable for delicate work where strength is required, such as chair-making.", "C. deodara is used in Ayurvedic medicine.", "Because of its antifungal and insect repellent properties, rooms made of deodar cedar wood are used to store meat and food grains like oats and wheat in Shimla, Kullu, and Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh.", "Cedar oil is often used for its aromatic properties, especially in aromatherapy.", "It has a characteristic woody odor which may change somewhat in the course of drying out.", "The crude oils are often yellowish or darker in color.", "Its applications include soap perfumes, household sprays, floor polishes, and insecticides, and is also used in microscope work as a clearing oil.", "Among Hindus, as the etymology of deodar suggests, it is worshiped as a divine tree.", "Deva, the first half of the Sanskrit term, means divine, deity, or deus.", "Daru, the second part, is cognate with the words durum, druid, tree, and true.", "Several Hindu legends refer to this tree.", "For example, Valmiki Ramayan reads: The deodar is the national tree of Pakistan, and the state tree of Himachal Pradesh, India."]}}
|
|
2687115_1240087
| 2154
|
[
"Trifolium repens"
] |
{"Trifolium repens": {"keywords": ["It is native to Europe, including the British Isles, and central Asia and is one of the most widely cultivated types of clover.", "It has been widely introduced worldwide as a forage crop, and is now also common in most grassy areas of North America, Australia and New Zealand.", "It is low growing, with heads of whitish flowers, often with a tinge of pink or cream that may come on with the aging of the plant.", "It is native in Europe and Central Asia, ubiquitous throughout the British Isles, introduced in North America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and elsewhere, and globally cultivated as a forage crop.", "Possible factors could include temperature , herbivory pressures, and drought stress.", "Symbiotic nitrogen fixation in root nodules of white clover obviates synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use for maintaining productivity on much temperate zone pasture land.", "White clover is commonly grown in mixtures with forage grasses, e.g.", "Such mixtures can not only optimize livestock production, but can also reduce the bloat risk to livestock that can be associated with excessive white clover in pastures.", "White clover grows well as a companion plant among lawns, grain crops, pasture grasses, and vegetable rows.", "Besides making an excellent forage crop for livestock, its leaves and flowers are a valuable survival food.", "Dried white clover flowers may also be smoked as a herbal alternative to tobacco."], "habitat_section": ["It is native in Europe and Central Asia, ubiquitous throughout the British Isles, introduced in North America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and elsewhere, and globally cultivated as a forage crop.", "White clover has been used as a model organism for global research into ecology and urban evolution.", "As part of the Global Urban Evolution Project scientists from 26 countries examined the production of cyanide by over 110,000 clover plants from 160 cities.", "Cyanide can be useful to clover plants as a deterrent to herbivores.", "Analyzing urban-rural differences, scientists found that cyanide production tended to increase with distance from the center of cities, suggesting that clover populations were adapting to factors commonly found in urban centers worldwide.", "Possible factors could include temperature , herbivory pressures, and drought stress.", "As clover habitats, the downtowns of cities may more closely resemble other far-flung cities than nearby rural areas."], "random_sentences": ["Trifolium repens, the white clover, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the bean family Fabaceae .", "It is native to Europe, including the British Isles, and central Asia and is one of the most widely cultivated types of clover.", "It has been widely introduced worldwide as a forage crop, and is now also common in most grassy areas of North America, Australia and New Zealand.", "The species includes varieties often classed as small, intermediate and large, according to height, which reflects petiole length.", "The term 'white clover' is applied to the species in general, 'Dutch clover' is often applied to intermediate varieties , and 'ladino clover' is applied to large varieties.", "Illustration A T. repens leaf T. repens flowering Four-leaf Trifolium repens T. repens flower The genus name, Trifolium, derives from the Latin , \" three \" , and , \" leaf \" , so called from the characteristic form of the leaf, which almost always has three leaflets ", "hence the popular name \" trefoil \" .", "The species name, , is Latin for \" creeping \" .", "It is a herbaceous, perennial plant.", "It is low growing, with heads of whitish flowers, often with a tinge of pink or cream that may come on with the aging of the plant.", "The heads are generally wide, and are at the end of peduncles or inflorescence stalks.", "The flowers are mostly visited by bumblebees and often by honey bees.", "The leaves are trifoliolate, smooth, elliptic to egg-shaped and long-petioled and usually with light or dark markings.", "The stems function as stolons, so white clover often forms mats, with the stems creeping as much as a year, and rooting at the nodes.", "The leaves form the symbol known as shamrock.", "Almost always, a white clover will be trifoliolate.", "However, one can, but only sometimes, possess four or more leaflets.", "It is native in Europe and Central Asia, ubiquitous throughout the British Isles, introduced in North America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and elsewhere, and globally cultivated as a forage crop.", "White clover has been used as a model organism for global research into ecology and urban evolution.", "As part of the Global Urban Evolution Project scientists from 26 countries examined the production of cyanide by over 110,000 clover plants from 160 cities.", "Cyanide can be useful to clover plants as a deterrent to herbivores.", "Analyzing urban-rural differences, scientists found that cyanide production tended to increase with distance from the center of cities, suggesting that clover populations were adapting to factors commonly found in urban centers worldwide.", "Possible factors could include temperature , herbivory pressures, and drought stress.", "As clover habitats, the downtowns of cities may more closely resemble other far-flung cities than nearby rural areas.", "Trifolium repens is a tetraploid with two diploid ancestors.", "In order to increase genetic diversity for breeding, research is focused on finding these ancestors.", "Proposed ancestors of Trifolium repens include Trifolium nigrescens, Trifolium occidentale, Trifolium pallescens, and Trifolium uniflorum.", "Additionally, it is possible that one of the diploid ancestors has yet to be analyzed, either because it has not been discovered or is extinct.", "White clover has been described as the most important forage legume of the temperate zones.", "Symbiotic nitrogen fixation in root nodules of white clover obviates synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use for maintaining productivity on much temperate zone pasture land.", "White clover is commonly grown in mixtures with forage grasses, e.g. perennial ryegrass .", "Such mixtures can not only optimize livestock production, but can also reduce the bloat risk to livestock that can be associated with excessive white clover in pastures.", "Such species mixtures also tend to avoid issues that could otherwise be associated with cyanogenic glycosides intake on pure or nearly pure stands of some white clover varieties.", "However, problems do not inevitably arise with grazing on monocultures of white clover, and superior ruminant production is sometimes achieved on white clover monocultures managed to optimize sward height.", "Formononetin and biochanin A play a role in arbuscular mycorrhiza formation on white clover roots, and foliar disease can stimulate production of estrogenic coumestans in white clover.", "However, while there have been a few reports of phytoestrogenic effects of white clover on grazing ruminants, these have been far less common than such reports regarding some varieties of subterranean and red clover.", "Among forage plants, some white clover varieties tend to be favored by rather close grazing, because of their stoloniferous habit, which can contribute to competitive advantage.", "Companion planting, green manure, and cover crops", "White clover grows well as a companion plant among lawns, grain crops, pasture grasses, and vegetable rows.", "For these reasons, it is often used as a green manure and cover crop.", "Besides making an excellent forage crop for livestock, its leaves and flowers are a valuable survival food: they are high in proteins, and are widespread and abundant.", "The fresh plants have been used for centuries as additives to salads and other meals consisting of leafy vegetables.", "They are not easy for humans to digest raw, but, this is however easily fixed by boiling the harvested plants for 510 minutes.", "Native Americans ate some species raw.", "Dried white clover flowers may also be smoked as a herbal alternative to tobacco.", "In India, T. repens is considered a folk medicine against intestinal helminthic worms, and an experimental in-vivo study validated that the aerial shoots of T. repens bear significant anticestodal properties.", "Trifolium means 'trefoil' ", "this is Plinys name for trifoliate plants.", "Repens means 'creeping' or 'stoloniferous'."]}}
|
|
2571776_1130581
| 014
|
[
"Astrantia major"
] |
{"Astrantia major": {"keywords": ["Astrantia major, the great masterwort, is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native to central and eastern Europe.", "Growing up to 90 cm tall by 45 cm broad, it is an herbaceous perennial, much used in gardens.", "The small flowers are greenish-white with reddish shades.", "It is found in the countries of Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, North Caucasus, Poland, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine and Yugoslavia.", "It is common in mountain meadows and grasslands, in forests and clearings, and close to the streams, usually on calcareous soils, at an elevation of 1002,300 metres above sea level.", "Many strains of Astrantia major grow well in the garden, given some shade and moisture.", "Their flowerheads provide summer colour in shades of red, pink and white.", "The following cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit."], "habitat_section": ["This plant is native to southern Europe , but also in the Caucasus up to Anatolia.", "It is found in the countries of Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, North Caucasus, Poland, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine and Yugoslavia.", "It has been in the British Isles since the 16th century.", "It has also naturalized in Shropshire near Stokesay Castle, and in Worcestershire.", "It is common in mountain meadows and grasslands, in forests and clearings, and close to the streams, usually on calcareous soils, at an elevation of 1002,300 metres above sea level."], "random_sentences": ["Astrantia major, the great masterwort, is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native to central and eastern Europe.", "Growing up to 90 cm tall by 45 cm broad, it is an herbaceous perennial, much used in gardens.", "The Latin specific epithet major, meaning \"larger\", distinguishes this species from its smaller relative Astrantia minor.", "Astrantia major reaches on average 60 centimetres of height.", "The stem is erect and glabrous, with little branches and few leaves.", "The basal leaves have a long petiole 1020 centimetres , 3 to 7 lobes and toothed segments.", "Size: 815 centimetres .", "The cauline leaves are generally two, sessile, amplexicaul and lanceolate-shaped with a trilobed apex.", "The inflorescence is umbrella-shaped, with 23 centimetres of diameter.", "The floral bracts are numerous , 1018 millimetres long, reddish with acuminate apex.", "The small flowers are greenish-white with reddish shades.", "The central ones are hermaphrodite, while the external ones are male.", "The petals are five, white , while the stamens are five and much longer.", "Size of the flowers: about 1 mm.", "The flowering period extends from June through September.", "The plant also produces an essential oil that can be used in herbal medicines.", "Astrantia major is an entomophilous plant, mainly pollinated by beetles, but also by other insects.", "This perennial plant reproduces itself also by means of buds present at the ground level.", "This plant is native to southern Europe , but also in the Caucasus up to Anatolia.", "It is found in the countries of Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, North Caucasus, Poland, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine and Yugoslavia.", "It has been in the British Isles since the 16th century.", "It has also naturalized in Shropshire near Stokesay Castle, and in Worcestershire.", "It is common in mountain meadows and grasslands, in forests and clearings, and close to the streams, usually on calcareous soils, at an elevation of 1002,300 metres above sea level.", "Many strains of Astrantia major grow well in the garden, given some shade and moisture.", "Their flowerheads provide summer colour in shades of red, pink and white.", "The following cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:- A. major 'Roma' 'Sunningdale Variegated' Other cultivars include:-"]}}
|
|
2598082_1199394
| 2053
|
[
"Sonchus asper",
"Salvia pratensis"
] |
{"Sonchus asper": {"keywords": ["Sonchus asper is native to Europe, North Africa, and western Asia.", "It is found in cultivated soil, pastures, roadsides, edges of yards, vacant lots, construction sites, waste areas and in grasslands."], "habitat_section": ["Sonchus asper is native to Europe, North Africa, and western Asia.", "It has also become naturalized on other continents and is regarded as a noxious, invasive weed in many places.", "Its edible leaves make a palatable and nutritious leaf vegetable.", "It is found in cultivated soil, pastures, roadsides, edges of yards, vacant lots, construction sites, waste areas and in grasslands."], "random_sentences": ["Sonchus asper, the prickly sow-thistle, rough milk thistle, spiny sowthistle, sharp-fringed sow thistle, or spiny-leaved sow thistle, is a widespread flowering plant in the tribe Cichorieae within the family Asteraceae.", "Sonchus asper is an annual or biennial herb sometimes reaching a height of 200 cm.", "with spiny leaves and yellow flowers resembling those of the dandelion.", "The leaves are bluish-green, simple, lanceolate, with wavy and sometimes lobed margins, covered in spines on both the margins and beneath.", "The base of the leaf surrounds the stem.", "The leaves and stems emit a milky sap when cut.", "One plant will produce several flat-topped arrays of flower heads, each head containing numerous yellow ray flowers but no disc flowers.", "Sonchus asper is native to Europe, North Africa, and western Asia.", "It has also become naturalized on other continents and is regarded as a noxious, invasive weed in many places.", "Its edible leaves make a palatable and nutritious leaf vegetable.", "It is found in cultivated soil, pastures, roadsides, edges of yards, vacant lots, construction sites, waste areas and in grasslands."]}, "Salvia pratensis": {"keywords": ["Salvia pratensis, the meadow clary or meadow sage, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa.", "The Latin specific epithet pratensis means \"of meadows\", referring to its preferred habitat.", "It also grows in scrub edges and woodland borders.", "The flowers may grow up to 2.5 cm and open starting from the base of the inflorescence, which grows up to 30.5 cm long.", "Salvia pratensis is native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa where it grows in meadows, fields, banks and rough places.", "Salvia pratensis is hardy in the severest European climates, down to 40 C .", "It is widely grown in horticulture, especially Salvia pratensis subsp. haematodes, which is prized by flower arrangers as a cut flower.", "- 'Atroviolacea', dark blue to violet 'Baumgartenii', blue to violet 'Lupinoides', to 60 cm , white-flecked blue to purple 'Mitsommer' , sky blue 'Rosea', rose-pink to purple 'Rubicunda', rose-red 'Tenorii', to about 60 cm tall, blue flowers 'Variegata', blue and sometimes white-tipped flowers."], "habitat_section": ["Salvia pratensis is native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa where it grows in meadows, fields, banks and rough places.", "It has become naturalized in many parts of the United States, and is considered a noxious weed in the state of Washington.", "At one time it was banned from California because it was thought to have naturalized in three locations."], "random_sentences": ["Salvia pratensis, the meadow clary or meadow sage, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa.", "The Latin specific epithet pratensis means \"of meadows\", referring to its preferred habitat.", "It also grows in scrub edges and woodland borders.", "This herbaceous perennial forms a basal clump 1 to 1.5 m tall, with rich green rugose leaves that are slightly ruffled and toothed on the edges.", "The stems have four edges and are clad in glandular and soft hairs.", "The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs, with those on the lower part of the stem up to 15 cm long, decreasing in size higher up the stem.", "The flower stalks are typically branched, with four to six flowers in each verticil forming a lax spike.", "The flowers may grow up to 2.5 cm and open starting from the base of the inflorescence, which grows up to 30.5 cm long.", "The small calyx is dark brown.", "The corolla is irregular, 20 to 30 mm long, fused with two lips and long-tubed.", "The upper lip arches in a crescent shape and the lower lip is three-lobed with the central lobe larger than the lateral lobes.", "In the wild the corolla is usually bluish-violet.", "In cultivation, the flowers have a wide variety of colors, from rich violet and violet-blue to bluish white, and from pink to pure white.", "There are two long stamens protected by the upper corolla lip and the fruit is a four-chambered schizocarp.", "Salvia pratensis is native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa where it grows in meadows, fields, banks and rough places.", "It has become naturalized in many parts of the United States, and is considered a noxious weed in the state of Washington.", "At one time it was banned from California because it was thought to have naturalized in three locations.", "Salvia pratensis is hardy in the severest European climates, down to 40 C .", "It is widely grown in horticulture, especially Salvia pratensis subsp. haematodes, which is prized by flower arrangers as a cut flower.", "Some botanists consider it a separate species, S. haematodes.", "Named cultivars include:- 'Atroviolacea', dark blue to violet 'Baumgartenii', blue to violet 'Lupinoides', to 60 cm , white-flecked blue to purple 'Mitsommer' , sky blue 'Rosea', rose-pink to purple 'Rubicunda', rose-red 'Tenorii', to about 60 cm tall, blue flowers 'Variegata', blue and sometimes white-tipped flowers.", "The name of the plant 'clary' is derived from 'clear-eye' and the plant seeds were historically ground to a paste and used to clear irritations in the eye.", "It was also used for gargling and as an early form of toothpaste, as well as a flavouring for alcohol."]}}
|
|
2585195_1205055
| 1243
|
[
"Corvus corone",
"Alcedo atthis",
"Bucephala clangula",
"Aegithalos caudatus",
"Sylvia atricapilla",
"Spinus spinus",
"Poecile palustris",
"Larus michahellis",
"Cygnus olor",
"Ardea alba",
"Erithacus rubecula",
"Cuculus canorus",
"Dryocopus martius",
"Tringa glareola",
"Phoenicurus ochruros",
"Phoenicurus phoenicurus",
"Corvus corax",
"Tringa nebularia",
"Periparus ater",
"Tringa ochropus",
"Cyanistes caeruleus",
"Sturnus vulgaris",
"Chloris chloris",
"Troglodytes troglodytes",
"Passer domesticus",
"Pandion haliaetus",
"Mareca penelope",
"Passer montanus",
"Turdus merula",
"Circus aeruginosus",
"Spatula clypeata",
"Mareca strepera",
"Hirundo rustica",
"Mergus merganser",
"Milvus milvus",
"Milvus migrans",
"Turdus pilaris",
"Regulus regulus",
"Cinclus cinclus",
"Coccothraustes coccothraustes",
"Phylloscopus trochilus",
"Motacilla alba",
"Tachybaptus ruficollis",
"Certhia brachydactyla",
"Podiceps cristatus",
"Actitis hypoleucos",
"Turdus philomelos",
"Fulica atra",
"Anas crecca",
"Emberiza citrinella",
"Anthus spinoletta",
"Dendrocopos major",
"Turdus viscivorus",
"Buteo buteo",
"Anthus pratensis",
"Gallinago gallinago",
"Chroicocephalus ridibundus",
"Phylloscopus collybita",
"Luscinia megarhynchos",
"Gallinula chloropus",
"Dendrocoptes medius",
"Pica pica",
"Sitta europaea",
"Garrulus glandarius",
"Falco tinnunculus",
"Picus viridis",
"Ficedula hypoleuca",
"Motacilla cinerea",
"Anas platyrhynchos",
"Alopochen aegyptiaca",
"Linaria cannabina",
"Aythya ferina",
"Streptopelia decaocto",
"Accipiter gentilis",
"Picus canus",
"Aythya fuligula",
"Fringilla coelebs",
"Regulus ignicapilla",
"Carduelis carduelis",
"Columba palumbus",
"Phalacrocorax carbo",
"Dryobates minor",
"Fringilla montifringilla",
"Parus major",
"Columba oenas",
"Accipiter nisus",
"Oxyura leucocephala"
] |
{"Corvus corone": {"keywords": ["The carrion crow is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus Corvus which is native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic.", "Juvenile carrion crows can be identified by their brownish plumage and blue eyes, both of which darken to black and brown as the crow grows older.", "It is believed that this distribution might have resulted from the glaciation cycles during the Pleistocene, which caused the parent population to split into isolates which subsequently re-expanded their ranges when the climate warmed causing secondary contact.", "The carrion crow is also found in the mountains and forests of Japan and also in the cities of Japan.", "Scavenging around a dead bird in Paris, France The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks, moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts.", "Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.", "Crows are scavengers by nature, which is why they tend to frequent sites inhabited by humans in order to feed on their household waste.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden The bulky stick nest is usually placed in a tall tree, but cliff ledges, old buildings and pylons may be used as well."], "habitat_section": ["A map of Europe indicating the distribution of the carrion and hooded crows on either side of a contact zone separating the two species The carrion crow and hooded crow , including the former's slightly larger allied form or race C. c. orientalis, are two very closely related species, the geographic distributions of both forms of carrion crow across Europe are illustrated in the accompanying diagram.", "It is believed that this distribution might have resulted from the glaciation cycles during the Pleistocene, which caused the parent population to split into isolates which subsequently re-expanded their ranges when the climate warmed causing secondary contact.", "Poelstra and coworkers sequenced almost the entire genomes of both species in populations at varying distances from the contact zone to find that the two species were genetically identical, both in their DNA and in its expression , except for the lack of expression of a small portion of the genome in the hooded crow, which imparts the lighter plumage colouration on its torso.", "Thus the two species can viably hybridize, and occasionally do so at the contact zone, but the all-black carrion crows on the one side of the contact zone mate almost exclusively with other all-black carrion crows, while the same occurs among the hooded crows on the other side of the contact zone.", "It is therefore clear that it is only the outward appearance of the two species that inhibits hybridization.", "The authors attribute this to assortative mating , the advantage of which is not clear, and it would lead to the rapid appearance of streams of new lineages, and possibly even species, through mutual attraction between mutants.", "Unnikrishnan and Akhila propose, instead, that koinophilia is a more parsimonious explanation for the resistance to hybridization across the contact zone, despite the absence of physiological, anatomical or genetic barriers to such hybridization.", "The carrion crow is also found in the mountains and forests of Japan and also in the cities of Japan.", "Scavenging around a dead bird in Paris, France The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks, moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts.", "The most distinctive feature is the voice.", "The rook has a high-pitched kaaa, but the crow's guttural, slightly vibrant, deeper croaked kraa is distinct from any note of the rook.", "The carrion crow is noisy, perching on a vantage point such as a building or the top of a tree and calling three or four times in quick succession, with a slight pause between each series of croaks.", "During each series of calls, a crow may perform an accompanying gesture, raising its shoulders and bowing its head and neck downwards with each caw.", "The wing-beats are slower, more deliberate than those of the rook.", "Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.", "Like other species of corvid, carrion crows will actively harass predators and competitors that enter their territory or threaten them or their offspring, and will engage in group mobbing behaviour as a method to defend themselves."], "random_sentences": ["The carrion crow is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus Corvus which is native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic.", "The carrion crow was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, and it still bears its original name of Corvus corone.", "The binomial name is derived from the Latin , \" raven \" , and Greek , \" crow \" .", "The hooded crow, formerly regarded as a subspecies, has been split off as a separate species, and there is some discussion whether the eastern carrion crow (C.", "c. orientalis) is distinct enough to warrant specific status", "the two taxa are well separated, and it has been proposed they could have evolved independently in the wetter, maritime regions at the opposite ends of the Eurasian landmass.", "Along with the hooded crow, the carrion crow occupies a similar ecological niche in Eurasia to the American crow (C.", "Adult male carrion crow moulting at the Jardin des Plantes of Paris.", "The plumage of the carrion crow is black with a green or purple sheen, much greener than the gloss of the rook.", "The bill, legs and feet are also black.", "It can be distinguished from the common raven by its size of around in length as compared to an average of for ravens, and from the hooded crow by its black plumage.", "The carrion crow has a wingspan of and weighs .", "There is frequent confusion between the carrion crow and the rook, another black corvid found within its range.", "The beak of the crow is stouter and in consequence looks shorter, and whereas in the adult rook the nostrils are bare, those of the crow are covered at all ages with bristle-like feathers.", "As well as this, the wings of a carrion crow are proportionally shorter and broader than those of the rook when seen in flight.", "Juvenile carrion crows can be identified by their brownish plumage and blue eyes, both of which darken to black and brown as the crow grows older.", "Distribution and genetic relationship to hooded crows", "A map of Europe indicating the distribution of the carrion and hooded crows on either side of a contact zone separating the two species The carrion crow and hooded crow , including the former's slightly larger allied form or race C. c. orientalis, are two very closely related species", "the geographic distributions of both forms of carrion crow across Europe are illustrated in the accompanying diagram.", "It is believed that this distribution might have resulted from the glaciation cycles during the Pleistocene, which caused the parent population to split into isolates which subsequently re-expanded their ranges when the climate warmed causing secondary contact.", "Poelstra and coworkers sequenced almost the entire genomes of both species in populations at varying distances from the contact zone to find that the two species were genetically identical, both in their DNA and in its expression , except for the lack of expression of a small portion of the genome in the hooded crow, which imparts the lighter plumage colouration on its torso.", "Thus the two species can viably hybridize, and occasionally do so at the contact zone, but the all-black carrion crows on the one side of the contact zone mate almost exclusively with other all-black carrion crows, while the same occurs among the hooded crows on the other side of the contact zone.", "It is therefore clear that it is only the outward appearance of the two species that inhibits hybridization.", "The authors attribute this to assortative mating , the advantage of which is not clear, and it would lead to the rapid appearance of streams of new lineages, and possibly even species, through mutual attraction between mutants.", "Unnikrishnan and Akhila propose, instead, that koinophilia is a more parsimonious explanation for the resistance to hybridization across the contact zone, despite the absence of physiological, anatomical or genetic barriers to such hybridization.", "The carrion crow is also found in the mountains and forests of Japan and also in the cities of Japan.", "In Southend-on-Sea, England In flight right", "Scavenging around a dead bird in Paris, France The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks", "moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts.", "The most distinctive feature is the voice.", "The rook has a high-pitched kaaa, but the crow's guttural, slightly vibrant, deeper croaked kraa is distinct from any note of the rook.", "The carrion crow is noisy, perching on a vantage point such as a building or the top of a tree and calling three or four times in quick succession, with a slight pause between each series of croaks.", "During each series of calls, a crow may perform an accompanying gesture, raising its shoulders and bowing its head and neck downwards with each caw.", "The wing-beats are slower, more deliberate than those of the rook.", "Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.", "Like other species of corvid, carrion crows will actively harass predators and competitors that enter their territory or threaten them or their offspring, and will engage in group mobbing behaviour as a method to defend themselves.", "Like all corvids, carrion crows show intelligent behaviour.", "For example, they can discriminate between numerosities up to 30, flexibly switch between rules, and recognise human and crow faces.", "Given the difference in brain architecture in crows compared to primates, these abilities suggest that their intelligence is realised as a product of convergent evolution.", "Though an eater of carrion of all kinds, the carrion crow will eat insects, earthworms, other invertebrates, grain, fruits, seeds, nuts, small mammals, amphibians, fish, scraps and will also steal eggs.", "Crows are scavengers by nature, which is why they tend to frequent sites inhabited by humans in order to feed on their household waste.", "Crows will also harass birds of prey or even foxes for their kills.", "Crows actively hunt and occasionally co-operate with other crows to make kills, and are sometimes seen catching ducklings for food.", "Due to their gregarious lifestyle and defensive abilities, carrion crows have few natural predators.", "However, powerful raptors such as the northern goshawk, peregrine falcon, Eurasian eagle-owl and golden eagle will readily hunt them, and crows can become an important prey item locally.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden The bulky stick nest is usually placed in a tall tree, but cliff ledges, old buildings and pylons may be used as well.", "Nests are also occasionally placed on or near the ground.", "The nest resembles that of the common raven, but is less bulky.", "The 3 to 4 brown-speckled blue or greenish eggs are incubated for 1820 days by the female alone, who is fed by the male.", "The young fledge after 2930 days.", "Chicks in the nest It is not uncommon for an offspring from the previous years to stay around and help rear the new hatchlings.", "Instead of seeking out a mate, it looks for food and assists the parents in feeding the young."]}, "Alcedo atthis": {"keywords": ["The common kingfisher hunting in Italy's Po River The common kingfisher , also known as the Eurasian kingfisher and river kingfisher, is a small kingfisher with seven subspecies recognized within its wide distribution across Eurasia and North Africa.", "It is resident in much of its range, but migrates from areas where rivers freeze in winter.", "The glossy white eggs are laid in a nest at the end of a burrow in a riverbank.", "Some that moult late may suspend their moult during cold winter weather.", "The common kingfisher is widely distributed over Europe, Asia, and North Africa, mainly south of 60N. It is a common breeding species over much of its vast Eurasian range, but in North Africa it is mainly a winter visitor, although it is a scarce breeding resident in coastal Morocco and Tunisia.", "In temperate regions, this kingfisher inhabits clear, slow-flowing streams and rivers, and lakes with well-vegetated banks.", "It frequents scrubs and bushes with overhanging branches close to shallow open water in which it hunts.", "In winter it is more coastal, often feeding in estuaries or harbours and along rocky seashores.", "Tropical populations are found by slow-flowing rivers, in mangrove creeks and in swamps.", "Measures to improve water flow can disrupt this habitat, and in particular, the replacement of natural banks by artificial confinement greatly reduces the populations of fish, amphibians and aquatic reptiles, and waterside birds are lost.", "This species is resident in areas where the climate is mild year-round, but must migrate after breeding from regions with prolonged freezing conditions in winter.", "Most birds winter within the southern parts of the breeding range, but smaller numbers cross the Mediterranean into Africa or travel over the mountains of Malaysia into Southeast Asia.", "Volunteers create a vertical bank in which common kingfishers have subsequently nested annually Eggs of Alcedo atthis, MHNT Like all kingfishers, the common kingfisher is highly territorial, since it must eat around 60% of its body weight each day, it is essential to have control of a suitable stretch of river.", "The nest is in a burrow excavated by both birds of the pair in a low vertical riverbank, or sometimes a quarry or other cutting.", "The nest cavity is unlined but soon accumulates a litter of fish remains and cast pellets.", "Other causes of death are cats, rats, collisions with vehicles and windows, and human disturbance of nesting birds, including riverbank works with heavy machinery.", "Since kingfishers are high up in the food chain, they are vulnerable to build-up of chemicals, and river pollution by industrial and agricultural products excludes the birds from many stretches of otherwise suitable rivers that would be habitats.", "Pellet of a common kingfisher The common kingfisher hunts from a perch above the water, on a branch, post or riverbank, bill pointing down as it searches for prey.", "About 60% of food items are fish, but this kingfisher also catches aquatic insects such as dragonfly larvae and water beetles, and, in winter, crustaceans including freshwater shrimps.", "Aquatic kingfishers have high numbers of red pigments in their oil droplets, the reason red droplets predominate is not understood, but the droplets may help with the glare or the dispersion of light from particulate matter in the water."], "habitat_section": ["The common kingfisher is widely distributed over Europe, Asia, and North Africa, mainly south of 60N. It is a common breeding species over much of its vast Eurasian range, but in North Africa it is mainly a winter visitor, although it is a scarce breeding resident in coastal Morocco and Tunisia.", "In temperate regions, this kingfisher inhabits clear, slow-flowing streams and rivers, and lakes with well-vegetated banks.", "It frequents scrubs and bushes with overhanging branches close to shallow open water in which it hunts.", "In winter it is more coastal, often feeding in estuaries or harbours and along rocky seashores.", "Tropical populations are found by slow-flowing rivers, in mangrove creeks and in swamps.", "Measures to improve water flow can disrupt this habitat, and in particular, the replacement of natural banks by artificial confinement greatly reduces the populations of fish, amphibians and aquatic reptiles, and waterside birds are lost.", "It can tolerate a certain degree of urbanisation, provided the water remains clean.", "This species is resident in areas where the climate is mild year-round, but must migrate after breeding from regions with prolonged freezing conditions in winter.", "Most birds winter within the southern parts of the breeding range, but smaller numbers cross the Mediterranean into Africa or travel over the mountains of Malaysia into Southeast Asia.", "Kingfishers migrate mainly at night, and some Siberian breeders must travel at least between the breeding sites and the wintering areas."], "random_sentences": ["The common kingfisher hunting in Italy's Po River The common kingfisher , also known as the Eurasian kingfisher and river kingfisher, is a small kingfisher with seven subspecies recognized within its wide distribution across Eurasia and North Africa.", "It is resident in much of its range, but migrates from areas where rivers freeze in winter.", "This sparrow-sized bird has the typical short-tailed, large-headed kingfisher profile", "it has blue upperparts, orange underparts and a long bill.", "It feeds mainly on fish, caught by diving, and has special visual adaptations to enable it to see prey under water.", "The glossy white eggs are laid in a nest at the end of a burrow in a riverbank.", "The common kingfisher was first described by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae in 1758 as Gracula atthis.", "The genus Alcedo comprises seven small kingfishers that all eat fish as part of their diet.", "The common kingfisher's closest relative is the cerulean kingfisher that has white underparts and is found in parts of Indonesia.", "This species has the typical short-tailed, dumpy-bodied, large-headed, and long-billed kingfisher shape.", "The adult male of the western European subspecies, A. a. ispida has green-blue upperparts with pale azure-blue back and rump, a rufous patch by the bill base, and a rufous ear-patch.", "It has a green-blue neck stripe, white neck blaze and throat, rufous underparts, and a black bill with some red at the base.", "The legs and feet are bright red.", "It is about long with a wingspan of , and weighs .", "The female is identical in appearance to the male except that her lower mandible is orange-red with a black tip.", "The juvenile is similar to the adult, but with duller and greener upperparts and paler underparts.", "Its bill is black, and the legs are also initially black.", "Feathers are moulted gradually between July and November with the main flight feathers taking 90100 days to moult and regrow.", "Some that moult late may suspend their moult during cold winter weather.", "The flight of the kingfisher is fast, direct and usually low over water.", "The short, rounded wings whirr rapidly, and a bird flying away shows an electric-blue \" flash \" down its back.", "In North Africa, Europe and Asia north of the Himalayas, this is the only small blue kingfisher.", "In south and southeast Asia, it can be confused with six other small blue-and-rufous kingfishers, but the rufous ear patches distinguish it from all but juvenile blue-eared kingfishers", "details of the head pattern may be necessary to differentiate the two species where both occur.", "The common kingfisher has no song.", "The flight call is a short, sharp whistle chee repeated two or three times.", "Anxious birds emit a harsh, shrit-it-it and nestlings call for food with a churring noise.", "There are seven subspecies differing in the hue of the upperparts and the intensity of the rufous colour of the underparts", "size varies across the subspecies by up to 10%.", "The races resident south of the Wallace Line have the bluest upperparts and partly blue ear-patches.", "The common kingfisher is widely distributed over Europe, Asia, and North Africa, mainly south of 60N.", "It is a common breeding species over much of its vast Eurasian range, but in North Africa it is mainly a winter visitor, although it is a scarce breeding resident in coastal Morocco and Tunisia.", "In temperate regions, this kingfisher inhabits clear, slow-flowing streams and rivers, and lakes with well-vegetated banks.", "It frequents scrubs and bushes with overhanging branches close to shallow open water in which it hunts.", "In winter it is more coastal, often feeding in estuaries or harbours and along rocky seashores.", "Tropical populations are found by slow-flowing rivers, in mangrove creeks and in swamps.", "Measures to improve water flow can disrupt this habitat, and in particular, the replacement of natural banks by artificial confinement greatly reduces the populations of fish, amphibians and aquatic reptiles, and waterside birds are lost.", "It can tolerate a certain degree of urbanisation, provided the water remains clean.", "This species is resident in areas where the climate is mild year-round, but must migrate after breeding from regions with prolonged freezing conditions in winter.", "Most birds winter within the southern parts of the breeding range, but smaller numbers cross the Mediterranean into Africa or travel over the mountains of Malaysia into Southeast Asia.", "Kingfishers migrate mainly at night, and some Siberian breeders must travel at least between the breeding sites and the wintering areas.", "Volunteers create a vertical bank in which common kingfishers have subsequently nested annually Eggs of Alcedo atthis, MHNT Like all kingfishers, the common kingfisher is highly territorial", "since it must eat around 60% of its body weight each day, it is essential to have control of a suitable stretch of river.", "It is solitary for most of the year, roosting alone in heavy cover.", "If another kingfisher enters its territory, both birds display from perches, and fights may occur, in which a bird will grab the other's beak and try to hold it underwater.", "Pairs form in the autumn but each bird retains a separate territory, generally at least long, but up to and territories are not merged until the spring.", "The courtship is initiated by the male chasing the female while calling continually, and later by ritual feeding, with copulation usually following.", "The nest is in a burrow excavated by both birds of the pair in a low vertical riverbank, or sometimes a quarry or other cutting.", "The straight, gently inclining burrow is normally long and ends in an enlarged chamber.", "The nest cavity is unlined but soon accumulates a litter of fish remains and cast pellets.", "The common kingfisher typically lays two to ten glossy white eggs, which average in breadth, in length, and weigh about , of which 5% is shell.", "Both sexes incubate by day, but only the female incubates at night.", "An incubating bird sits trance-like, facing the tunnel", "it invariably casts a pellet, breaking it up with the bill.", "The eggs hatch in 1920 days, one or two eggs in most clutches fail to do so because the parent cannot cover them prior.", "The altricial young are in the nest for a further 2425 days, often more.", "Once large enough, young birds will come to the burrow entrance to be fed.", "Two broods, sometimes three, may be reared in a season.", "The early days for fledged juveniles are more hazardous", "during its first dives into the water, about four days after leaving the nest, a fledgling may become waterlogged and drown.", "The oldest bird on record was 21 years.", "Other causes of death are cats, rats, collisions with vehicles and windows, and human disturbance of nesting birds, including riverbank works with heavy machinery.", "Since kingfishers are high up in the food chain, they are vulnerable to build-up of chemicals, and river pollution by industrial and agricultural products excludes the birds from many stretches of otherwise suitable rivers that would be habitats.", "This species was killed in Victorian times for stuffing and display in glass cases and use in hat making.", "English naturalist William Yarrell also reported the country practice of killing a kingfisher and hanging it from a thread in the belief that it would swing to predict the direction in which the wind would blow.", "Persecution by anglers and to provide feathers for fishing flies were common in earlier decades, but are now largely a thing of the past.", "Pellet of a common kingfisher The common kingfisher hunts from a perch above the water, on a branch, post or riverbank, bill pointing down as it searches for prey.", "It bobs its head when food is detected to gauge the distance and plunges steeply down to seize its prey usually no deeper than below the surface.", "The wings are opened underwater and the open eyes are protected by the transparent third eyelid.", "The bird rises beak-first from the surface and flies back to its perch.", "At the perch the fish is adjusted until it is held near its tail and beaten against the perch several times.", "Once dead, the fish is positioned lengthways and swallowed head-first.", "A few times each day, a small greyish pellet of fish bones and other indigestible remains is regurgitated.", "The food is mainly fish up to long, but the average size is .", "Minnows, sticklebacks, small roach and trout are typical prey.", "About 60% of food items are fish, but this kingfisher also catches aquatic insects such as dragonfly larvae and water beetles, and, in winter, crustaceans including freshwater shrimps.", "In Central Europe, however, fish represented 99.9% of the diet .", "Common kingfishers have also been observed to catch lamprey.", "One study found that food provisioning rate increased with brood size, from 1498 g to 2968 g .", "During the fledging period each chick consumed on average 334 g of fish, which resulted in an estimated daily food intake of 37% of the chick's body mass .", "The average daily energy intake was 73.5 kJ per chick .", "A challenge for any diving bird is the change in refraction between air and water.", "The eyes of many birds have two foveae , Each cone cell of a bird's retina contains an oil droplet that may contain carotenoid pigments.", "These droplets enhance color vision and reduce glare.", "Aquatic kingfishers have high numbers of red pigments in their oil droplets", "the reason red droplets predominate is not understood, but the droplets may help with the glare or the dispersion of light from particulate matter in the water.", "This species has a large range, with an estimated global extent of occurrence of .", "It has a large population, including an estimated 160,000320,000 individuals in Europe alone.", "Global population trends have not been quantified, but populations appear to be stable so the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List .", "For these reasons, the species is evaluated as \" least concern \" ."]}, "Bucephala clangula": {"keywords": ["Bucephala clangula Pair Female goldeneye with chicks The common goldeneye or simply goldeneye is a medium-sized sea duck of the genus Bucephala, the goldeneyes.", "They are found in the lakes and rivers of boreal forests across Canada and the northern United States, Scotland, Scandinavia, the Baltic States, and northern Russia.", "They are migratory and most winter in protected coastal waters or open inland waters at more temperate latitudes.", "Naturally, they nest in cavities in large trees, where they return year after year, though they will readily use nest boxes as well.", "Year-round, about 32% of their prey is crustaceans, 28% is aquatic insects and 10% is molluscs.", "Insects are the predominant prey while nesting and crustaceans are the predominant prey during migration and winter.", "They themselves may fall prey to various hawks, owls and eagles, while females and their broods have been preyed upon by bears , various weasels , mink , raccoons and even northern flickers and red squirrels .", "Approximately 188,300 common goldeneyes were killed annually by duck hunters in North America during the 1970s, representing slightly less than 4% of the total waterfowl killed in Canada during that period, and less than 1% of the total waterfowl killed in the US. Both the breeding and winter habitat of these birds has been degraded by clearance and pollution.", "However, the common goldeneye in North America is known to derive short-term benefits from lake acidification."], "habitat_section": ["Their breeding habitat is the taiga.", "They are found in the lakes and rivers of boreal forests across Canada and the northern United States, Scotland, Scandinavia, the Baltic States, and northern Russia.", "They are migratory and most winter in protected coastal waters or open inland waters at more temperate latitudes.", "Naturally, they nest in cavities in large trees, where they return year after year, though they will readily use nest boxes as well.", "Natural tree cavities chosen for nest sites include those made by broken limbs and those made by large woodpeckers, specifically pileated woodpeckers or black woodpeckers.", "Average egg size is a breadth of , a length of and a weight of .", "The incubation period ranges from 28 to 32 days.", "The female does all the incubating and is abandoned by the male about 1 to 2 weeks into incubation.", "The young remain in the nest for about 2436 hours.", "Brood parasitism is quite common with other common goldeneyes, and occurs less frequently with other duck species.", "The broods commonly start to mix with other females' broods as they become more independent or are abandoned by their mothers.", "Goldeneye young have been known to be competitively killed by other goldeneye mothers, common loons and red-necked grebes.", "The young are capable of flight at 5565 days of age.", "The common goldeneye is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "Approximately 188,300 common goldeneyes were killed annually by duck hunters in North America during the 1970s, representing slightly less than 4% of the total waterfowl killed in Canada during that period, and less than 1% of the total waterfowl killed in the US. Both the breeding and winter habitat of these birds has been degraded by clearance and pollution.", "However, the common goldeneye in North America is known to derive short-term benefits from lake acidification.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden"], "random_sentences": ["Bucephala clangula Pair Female goldeneye with chicks The common goldeneye or simply goldeneye is a medium-sized sea duck of the genus Bucephala, the goldeneyes.", "Its closest relative is the similar Barrow's goldeneye.", "The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek boukephalos , a reference to the bulbous head shape of the bufflehead.", "The species name is derived from the Latin clangere .", "Common goldeneyes are aggressive and territorial ducks, and have elaborate courtship displays.", "Adult males ranges from and weigh approximately , while females range from and weigh approximately .", "The common goldeneye has a wingspan of 30.3-32.7 in .", "The species is named for its golden-yellow eye.", "Adult males have a dark head with a greenish gloss and a circular white patch below the eye, a dark back and a white neck and belly.", "Adult females have a brown head and a mostly grey body.", "Their legs and feet are orange-yellow.", "Two subspecies are generally recognized, the nominate Eurasian subspecies Bucephala clangula clangula and the North American B. c. americana.", "americana has a longer and thicker bill than clangula.", "Their breeding habitat is the taiga.", "They are found in the lakes and rivers of boreal forests across Canada and the northern United States, Scotland, Scandinavia, the Baltic States, and northern Russia.", "They are migratory and most winter in protected coastal waters or open inland waters at more temperate latitudes.", "Naturally, they nest in cavities in large trees, where they return year after year, though they will readily use nest boxes as well.", "Natural tree cavities chosen for nest sites include those made by broken limbs and those made by large woodpeckers, specifically pileated woodpeckers or black woodpeckers.", "Average egg size is a breadth of , a length of and a weight of .", "The incubation period ranges from 28 to 32 days.", "The female does all the incubating and is abandoned by the male about 1 to 2 weeks into incubation.", "The young remain in the nest for about 2436 hours.", "Brood parasitism is quite common with other common goldeneyes, and occurs less frequently with other duck species.", "The broods commonly start to mix with other females' broods as they become more independent or are abandoned by their mothers.", "Goldeneye young have been known to be competitively killed by other goldeneye mothers, common loons and red-necked grebes.", "The young are capable of flight at 5565 days of age.", "Common goldeneyes are diving birds that forage underwater.", "Year-round, about 32% of their prey is crustaceans, 28% is aquatic insects and 10% is molluscs.", "Insects are the predominant prey while nesting and crustaceans are the predominant prey during migration and winter.", "Locally, fish eggs and aquatic plants can be important foods.", "They themselves may fall prey to various hawks, owls and eagles, while females and their broods have been preyed upon by bears (Ursus spp.", "), various weasels (Mustela spp.", "), mink , raccoons and even northern flickers and red squirrels .", "The common goldeneye is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "Approximately 188,300 common goldeneyes were killed annually by duck hunters in North America during the 1970s, representing slightly less than 4% of the total waterfowl killed in Canada during that period, and less than 1% of the total waterfowl killed in the US.", "Both the breeding and winter habitat of these birds has been degraded by clearance and pollution.", "However, the common goldeneye in North America is known to derive short-term benefits from lake acidification."]}, "Aegithalos caudatus": {"keywords": ["The long-tailed tit is globally widespread throughout temperate northern Europe and the Palearctic, into boreal Scandinavia and south into the Mediterranean zone.", "It inhabits deciduous and mixed woodland with a well-developed shrub layer, favouring edge habitats.", "It can also be found in scrub, heathland with scattered trees, bushes and hedges, in farmland and riverine woodland, parks and gardens.", "The bird's year-round diet of insects and social foraging bias habitat choice in winter towards deciduous woodland, typically of oak, ash and locally sycamore species.", "The tit lines the outside with hundreds of flakes of pale lichens - this provides camouflage.", "The driving force behind the flocking behaviour is thought to be that of winter roosting, being susceptible to cold, huddling increases survival through cold nights.", "At the end of the breeding season, in June and July, the birds reform the winter flocks in their winter territory.", "This may be due to helpers having relatively poorer body conditions at the end of the breeding season, similar to pied kingfisher and white-winged chough."], "habitat_section": ["The long-tailed tit is globally widespread throughout temperate northern Europe and the Palearctic, into boreal Scandinavia and south into the Mediterranean zone.", "It inhabits deciduous and mixed woodland with a well-developed shrub layer, favouring edge habitats.", "It can also be found in scrub, heathland with scattered trees, bushes and hedges, in farmland and riverine woodland, parks and gardens.", "The bird's year-round diet of insects and social foraging bias habitat choice in winter towards deciduous woodland, typically of oak, ash and locally sycamore species.", "For nesting, strong preference is shown towards scrub areas.", "The nest is often built in thorny bushes less than above the ground.", "Globally, the species is common throughout its range, only becoming scarce at the edge of the distribution.", "The IUCN, BirdLife International and The British Trust for Ornithology all list the long-tailed tit as a species of least concern, currently under little or no threat and reasonably abundant.", "Due to their small size they are vulnerable to extreme cold weather, with population losses of up to 80% being recorded in times of prolonged cold.", "It is thought that populations rapidly return to previous levels due to high breeding potential."], "random_sentences": ["The long-tailed tit , also named long-tailed bushtit, is a common bird found throughout Europe and the Palearctic.", "The genus name Aegithalos was a term used by Aristotle for some European tits, including the long-tailed tit.", "The long-tailed tit was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Parus caudatus.", "The specific epithet caudatus is the Latin word for \" tailed \" .", "Linnaeus did not invent this Latin name.", "\" Parus caudatus \" had been used by earlier authors such as the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner in 1555, the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1599, and the English ornithologist Francis Willughby in 1676.", "Willughby listed the English name as the \" long tail'd titmouse \" .", "Its previous common nickname in everyday English was the bum-towel, from the shape of its tail.", "The long-tailed tit was first classified as a true tit of the Parus group.", "Parus has since been split from the Aegithalidae, with the latter becoming a distinct family containing three genera: This is the only representative of the Aegithalidae in northern Eurasia.", "The long-tailed tit exhibits complex global variation with 17 races recognised, divisible into three groups: ", "altMap of subspecies distribution for long-tailed tits", "Distribution map of long-tailed tits Aegithalos caudatus caudatus with white head in Berlin The silver-throated bushtit from eastern China was formerly considered conspecific but the plumage is distinctive and there are significant genetic differences.", "Where the groups meet there are extensive areas occupied by very variable hybrids.", "The British long-tailed tit, subspecies A. c. rosaceus, belongs to the A. c. europaeus group.", "This species has been described as a tiny , round-bodied tit with a short, stubby bill and a very long, narrow tail.", "The sexes look the same and young birds undergo a complete moult to adult plumage before the first winter.", "The plumage is mainly black and white, with variable amounts of grey and pink.", "Vocalisations are a valuable aid to locating and identifying these birds.", "When in flocks they issue constant contact calls and are often heard before they are seen.", "They have three main calls, a single high pitched pit, a triple trill eez-eez-eez, and a rattling schnuur.", "The calls become faster and louder when the birds cross open ground or if an individual becomes separated from the group.", "The long-tailed tit is globally widespread throughout temperate northern Europe and the Palearctic, into boreal Scandinavia and south into the Mediterranean zone.", "It inhabits deciduous and mixed woodland with a well-developed shrub layer, favouring edge habitats.", "It can also be found in scrub, heathland with scattered trees, bushes and hedges, in farmland and riverine woodland, parks and gardens.", "The bird's year-round diet of insects and social foraging bias habitat choice in winter towards deciduous woodland, typically of oak, ash and locally sycamore species.", "For nesting, strong preference is shown towards scrub areas.", "The nest is often built in thorny bushes less than above the ground.", "The long-tailed tit is insectivorous throughout the year.", "It eats predominantly arthropods, preferring the eggs and larvae of moths and butterflies.", "Occasional vegetable matter is taken in the autumn.", "The nest of the long-tailed tit is constructed from four materials: lichen, feathers, spider egg cocoons and moss, with over 6,000 pieces used for a typical nest.", "The nest is a flexible sac with a small, round entrance on top, suspended either low in a gorse or bramble bush or high up in the forks of tree branches.", "The structural stability of the nest is provided by a mesh of moss and spider silk.", "The tiny leaves of the moss act as hooks and the spider silk of egg cocoons provides the loops", "thus forming a natural form of velcro.", "The tit lines the outside with hundreds of flakes of pale lichens - this provides camouflage.", "Inside, it lines the nest with more than 2,000 downy feathers to insulate the nest.", "Nests suffer a high rate of predation with only 17% success.", "A long-tailed tit in its nest.", "\" Males fighting for the possession of territory.", "The feathers have been torn from the crown of the defeated and dying rival \" (H.", "E. Howard , Territory in Bird Life, p. 145) Long-tailed tits resting, mid-afternoon in energy saving anti-parallel paired formation in a willow Extensive work has been done at Wytham Wood, Oxfordshire, in Germany and Japan.", "Outside the breeding season they form compact flocks of six to seventeen birds, composed of family parties from the previous breeding season, together with any extra adults that helped to raise a brood.", "These flocks will occupy and defend territories against neighbouring flocks.", "The driving force behind the flocking behaviour is thought to be that of winter roosting, being susceptible to cold", "huddling increases survival through cold nights.", "From July to February, the non-breeding season, long-tailed tits form flocks of relatives and non-relatives, roosting communally.", "When the breeding season begins, the flocks break up, and the birds attempt to breed in monogamous pairs.", "Males remain within the winter territory, while females have a tendency to wander to neighbouring territories.", "Pairs whose nests fail have three choices: try again, abandon nesting for the season or help at a neighbouring nest.", "It has been shown that failed pairs split and help at the nests of male relatives, recognition being established vocally.", "The helped nests have greater success due to higher provisioning rates and better nest defence.", "At the end of the breeding season, in June and July, the birds reform the winter flocks in their winter territory.", "Due to high predation, there is a high nest failure rate.", "If nest failure occurs after the beginning of May, failed breeders will not try to re-nest, but may become helpers at a nest of another, usually related, pair.", "In one study, around 50% of nests had one or more helpers.", "By helping close relatives, helpers gain indirect fitness benefits by increasing the survivability of related offspring.", "Helpers may also gain greater access to mates and territories in the future.", "Helpers also gain experience raising young and therefore their future offspring have greater survivability rates.", "Males and females are equally likely to become helpers.", "Parents may allow the care of helpers to be additive to their own efforts, or on the other extreme, they may reduce their efforts with the care of the helpers.", "Juvenile males have a higher survivability than juvenile females, although the survival rate for adults of the two sexes is the same.", "Offspring that were raised with helpers have a higher survivability than offspring raised without.", "Failed breeders that became helpers have a higher survivability than failed breeders who did not.", "This may be because of the reduced energy expenditure from sharing a nest.", "This is similar to acorn woodpeckers and green wood hoopoes.", "However, failed breeders that did not help are more likely to breed successfully in subsequent years, so there may be a cost of helping.", "This may be due to helpers having relatively poorer body conditions at the end of the breeding season, similar to pied kingfisher and white-winged chough.", "Successful breeders have a survivability rate around the survivability of failed breeders who became helpers.", "Globally, the species is common throughout its range, only becoming scarce at the edge of the distribution.", "The IUCN, BirdLife International and The British Trust for Ornithology all list the long-tailed tit as a species of least concern, currently under little or no threat and reasonably abundant.", "Due to their small size they are vulnerable to extreme cold weather, with population losses of up to 80% being recorded in times of prolonged cold.", "It is thought that populations rapidly return to previous levels due to high breeding potential."]}, "Sylvia atricapilla": {"keywords": ["The blackcap breeds in much of Europe, western Asia and northwestern Africa, and its preferred habitat is mature deciduous woodland.", "The blackcap is a partial migrant, birds from the colder areas of its range winter in scrub or trees in northwestern Europe, around the Mediterranean and in tropical Africa.", "Some birds from Germany and western continental Europe have adapted to spending the winter in gardens in Great Britain and Ireland.", "Garden birds also eat bread, fat and peanuts in winter.", "Despite extensive hunting in Mediterranean countries and the natural hazards of predation and disease, the blackcap has been extending its range for several decades, and is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as least concern.", "In some geographically isolated areas, such as islands, peninsulas and valleys in the Alps, a simplified fluting song occurs, named the Leiern song by the German ornithologists who first described it.", "The main call is a hard tac-tac, like stones knocking together, and other vocalisations include a squeaking sweet alarm, and a low-pitched trill similar to that of a garden warbler.", "Wintering birds in Africa are quiet initially, but start singing in January or February prior to their return north.", "A grey bird with a brown cap The continental breeding range of the blackcap lies between the 1430 July isotherms, and is occupied by the nominate subspecies, the other forms being restricted to islands or fringe areas in the Caucasus and eastern Iberia.", "Cross-breeding in captivity of birds from the resident population on the Canary Islands with migratory blackcaps from Germany showed the urge to migrate is genetically controlled, the offspring showing intermediate behaviour in terms of restlessness at migration time.", "Climate change appears to be affecting the migration pattern of the garden warbler and blackcap.", "Left graph shows likelihood of individual blackcaps being seen in a garden plotted against date, right graph shows likelihood plotted against air temperature.", "Although the British climate is sub-optimal, compensatory factors include the ready availability of food, , a shorter migration distance, and the avoidance of the Alps and the Sahara Desert.", "The steady supply of winter food in gardens gives even Spanish-breeding birds an opportunity to put on weight quicker than in their home range.", "Adults that frequented gardens had better body condition, smaller fat stores, longer bills, and rounder wing tips.", "Blackcaps did not exclusively feed in gardens, visits were linked to harsher weather.", "Individuals generally stayed at garden sites until immediately before spring departure, and supplemental feeding may have benefits for winter survival, When preparing for migration, abundant supplemental food may allow blackcaps to attain better body condition and may facilitate earlier and more successful breeding attempts.", "In the Iberian Peninsula, migratory blackcaps track similar climatic conditions over the season, which sedentary individuals must cope with great variation in climate over the year.", "Deciduous woodland is the preferred breeding habitat.", "A woodland glade The blackcap's main breeding habitat is mature deciduous woodland, with good scrub cover below the trees.", "Other habitats, such as parks, large gardens and overgrown hedges, are used as long as they meet the essential requirements of tall trees for songposts and an established understory.", "Densities are much lower in poorer habitats such as conifer forests.", "Breeding occurs in Europe at altitudes up to .", "The blackcap normally raises just one brood, but second nestings are sometimes recorded, particularly in the milder climate of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic islands, triple brooding has been observed once, the female laying a total of 23 eggs in the season.", "A male blackcap eating a berry from a tree The blackcap feeds mainly on insects during the breeding season, then switches to fruit in late summer, the change being triggered by an internal biological rhythm.", "Although any suitable fruit may be eaten, some have seasonal or local importance, elder makes up a large proportion of the diet of northern birds preparing for migration, and energy-rich olives and lentisc are favoured by blackcaps wintering in the Mediterranean.", "Blackcaps defend good winter food sources in the wild, and at garden feeding stations they repel competitors as large as starlings and blackbirds.", "Seventeen strains of H. parabelopolskyi are found only in the blackcap, and form a monophyletic group, three further members of that group are found only in the garden warbler, and another three occur in the African hill babbler, supporting the shared ancestry of the three bird species.", "A painting of a seated man in a brown jacket and buff waistcoat Aristotle, in his History of Animals, considered that the garden warbler eventually metamorphosed into a blackcap."], "habitat_section": ["A grey bird with a brown cap The continental breeding range of the blackcap lies between the 1430 July isotherms, and is occupied by the nominate subspecies, the other forms being restricted to islands or fringe areas in the Caucasus and eastern Iberia.", "There is a migratory divide in Europe at longitude 1011E. Birds to the west of this line head southwest towards Iberia or West Africa, whereas populations to the east migrate to the eastern Mediterranean and on to East Africa.", "Cross-breeding in captivity of birds from the resident population on the Canary Islands with migratory blackcaps from Germany showed the urge to migrate is genetically controlled, the offspring showing intermediate behaviour in terms of restlessness at migration time.", "Similar experiments using birds from southern Germany and eastern Austria, on opposite sides of the migratory divide, demonstrated that the direction of migration is also genetically determined.", "Climate change appears to be affecting the migration pattern of the garden warbler and blackcap.", "Both are arriving in Europe earlier than previously, and blackcaps and juvenile garden warblers are departing nearly two weeks later than in the 1980s.", "Birds of both species are longer-winged and lighter than in the past, suggesting a longer migration as the breeding range expands northwards.", "Left graph shows likelihood of individual blackcaps being seen in a garden plotted against date, right graph shows likelihood plotted against air temperature.", "where the blackcap was formerly just a summer visitor.", "Although the British climate is sub-optimal, compensatory factors include the ready availability of food, , a shorter migration distance, and the avoidance of the Alps and the Sahara Desert.", "It now appears that the wintering birds in the UK come from a much wider area than previously thought.", "The majority come from France, and some individuals come from as far away as Spain and Poland.", "The steady supply of winter food in gardens gives even Spanish-breeding birds an opportunity to put on weight quicker than in their home range.", "A 2021 paper showed that blackcaps, particularly adults, wintering in Britain and Ireland showed high site fidelity and low movement between wintering sites, in contrast to blackcaps wintering in their traditional winter ranges.", "Adults that frequented gardens had better body condition, smaller fat stores, longer bills, and rounder wing tips.", "The bill and wing tip shapes reflected a more generalist diet than that of birds in traditional winter sites.", "Blackcaps did not exclusively feed in gardens, visits were linked to harsher weather.", "Individuals generally stayed at garden sites until immediately before spring departure, and supplemental feeding may have benefits for winter survival, When preparing for migration, abundant supplemental food may allow blackcaps to attain better body condition and may facilitate earlier and more successful breeding attempts.", "In the Iberian Peninsula, migratory blackcaps track similar climatic conditions over the season, which sedentary individuals must cope with great variation in climate over the year.", "This suggests a trade-off between the cost of travelling long distances of migrants, and the flexibility required by sedentary individuals to tolerate a wide variety of environmental conditions.", "Deciduous woodland is the preferred breeding habitat.", "A woodland glade The blackcap's main breeding habitat is mature deciduous woodland, with good scrub cover below the trees.", "Other habitats, such as parks, large gardens and overgrown hedges, are used as long as they meet the essential requirements of tall trees for songposts and an established understory.", "Where other Sylvia warblers also breed, blackcaps tend to use taller trees than their relatives, preferably those with a good canopy, such as pedunculate oak.", "In prime habitat, breeding densities reach 100200 pairs per square kilometre in northern Europe, and 500900 pairs per square kilometre in Italy.", "Densities are much lower in poorer habitats such as conifer forests.", "Breeding occurs in Europe at altitudes up to .", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany When male blackcaps return to their breeding areas, they establish a territory.", "Adults that have previously bred return to the site they have used in previous summers, whereas inexperienced birds either wander until they find a suitable area, or establish a very large initial territory which contracts under pressure from neighbours.", "Territorial boundaries are established initially by loud singing, performed while the male displays with his crown raised, tail fanned and slow wingbeats.", "This display is followed, if necessary, by a chase, often leading to a fight.", "The typical territory size in a French study was , but in insect-rich tall maquis in Gibraltar, the average was only .", "Females feed within a home range which may overlap other blackcap territories, and covers up to six times the area of the defended zone.", "The eggs normally take about 11 days to hatch.", "Two eggs in a cup-shaped nest Sylvia warblers are unusual in that they vigorously defend their territories against other members of their genus as well as conspecifics.", "Blackcaps and garden warblers use identical habits in the same wood, yet aggressive interactions mean that their territories never overlap.", "Similar songs are a feature of the Sylvia warblers as a group, and it has been suggested that this promotes interspecific competition and helps to segregate territories between related species.", "It appears more likely from later studies that segregation of sympatric species, other than the blackcap and garden warbler, is due to subtle habitat preferences rather than interspecies aggression."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian blackcap , usually known simply as the blackcap, is a common and widespread typical warbler.", "It has mainly olive-grey upperparts and pale grey underparts, and differences between the five subspecies are small.", "Both sexes have a neat coloured cap to the head, black in the male and reddish-brown in the female.", "The male's typical song is a rich musical warbling, often ending in a loud high-pitched crescendo, but a simpler song is given in some isolated areas, such as valleys in the Alps.", "The blackcap's closest relative is the garden warbler, which looks quite different but has a similar song.", "The blackcap breeds in much of Europe, western Asia and northwestern Africa, and its preferred habitat is mature deciduous woodland.", "The male holds a territory when breeding, which is defended against garden warblers as well as other blackcaps.", "The nest is a neat cup, built low in brambles or scrub, and the clutch is typically 46 mainly buff eggs, which hatch in about 11 days.", "The chicks fledge in 1112 days, but are cared for by both adults for some time after leaving the nest.", "The blackcap is a partial migrant", "birds from the colder areas of its range winter in scrub or trees in northwestern Europe, around the Mediterranean and in tropical Africa.", "Some birds from Germany and western continental Europe have adapted to spending the winter in gardens in Great Britain and Ireland.", "Insects are the main food in the breeding season, but, for the rest of the year, blackcaps survive primarily on small fruit.", "Garden birds also eat bread, fat and peanuts in winter.", "Despite extensive hunting in Mediterranean countries and the natural hazards of predation and disease, the blackcap has been extending its range for several decades, and is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as least concern.", "Its rich and varied song has led to it being described as the \" mock nightingale \" and it has featured in literature, films and music.", "In Messiaen's opera Saint Francois d'Assise, the saint is represented by themes based on the blackcap's song.", "The genus Sylvia, the typical warblers, forms part of a large family of Old World warblers, the Sylviidae.", "The blackcap and its nearest relative, the garden warbler, are an ancient species pair which diverged very early from the rest of the genus at between 12 and 16 million years ago.", "In the course of time, these two species have become sufficiently distinctive that they have been placed in separate subgenera, with the blackcap in subgenus Sylvia and the garden warbler in Epilais.", "These sister species have a breeding range which extends farther northeast than all other Sylvia species except the lesser whitethroat and common whitethroat.", "The nearest relatives of the garden warbler outside the sister group are believed to be the African hill babbler and Dohrn's thrush-babbler, both of which should probably be placed in Sylvia rather than their current genera, Pseudoalcippe and Horizorhinus respectively.", "The blackcap was one of the many bird species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, as Motacilla atricapilla.", "The current genus name is from Modern Latin silvia, a woodland sprite, related to silva, a wood.", "The species name, like the English name, refers to the male's black cap.", "Atricapilla is from the Latin ater, \" black \" , and capillus, \" hair \" .", "Fossils and subfossils of the blackcap have been found in a number of European countries", "the oldest, dated to 1.21.0 million years ago, are from the Early Pleistocene of Bulgaria.", "Fossils from France show that the genus Sylvia dates back at least 20 million years.", "Male S. a. heineken in the Canary Islands, Spain", "altA male blackcap perched in a tree The blackcap is a mainly grey warbler with distinct male and female plumages.", "The nominate subspecies is about long with a wing length.", "Blackcaps have a complete moult in their breeding areas in August and September prior to migration.", "Some birds, typically those migrating the greatest distances, have a further partial moult between December and March.", "Juveniles replace their loosely structured body feathers with adult plumage, starting earlier, but taking longer to complete, than the adults.", "Blackcaps breeding in the north of the range have an earlier and shorter post-juvenile moult than those further south, and cross-breeding of captive birds shows that the timing is genetically controlled.", "Song of male, Moscow Song of a male, Surrey, England Calls of a male, Surrey, England The male's song is a rich musical warbling, often ending in a loud high-pitched crescendo, which is given in bursts of up to 30 seconds.", "The song is repeated for about two-and-a-half minutes, with a short pause before each repetition.", "In some geographically isolated areas, such as islands, peninsulas and valleys in the Alps, a simplified fluting song occurs, named the Leiern song by the German ornithologists who first described it.", "The song's introduction is like that of other blackcaps, but the final warbling part is a simple alternation between two notes, as in a great tit's call but more fluting.", "The main song is confusable with that of the garden warbler, but it is slightly higher pitched than in that species, more broken into discrete song segments, and less mellow.", "Both species have a quiet subsong, a muted version of the full song, which is even harder to separate.", "The blackcap occasionally mimics the song of other birds, the most frequently copied including the garden warbler and the common nightingale.", "The main call is a hard tac-tac, like stones knocking together, and other vocalisations include a squeaking sweet alarm, and a low-pitched trill similar to that of a garden warbler.", "Wintering birds in Africa are quiet initially, but start singing in January or February prior to their return north.", "Adult female in Sweden showing reddish brown cap", "altA grey bird with a brown cap The continental breeding range of the blackcap lies between the 1430 July isotherms, and is occupied by the nominate subspecies, the other forms being restricted to islands or fringe areas in the Caucasus and eastern Iberia.", "There is a migratory divide in Europe at longitude 1011E.", "Birds to the west of this line head southwest towards Iberia or West Africa, whereas populations to the east migrate to the eastern Mediterranean and on to East Africa.", "Cross-breeding in captivity of birds from the resident population on the Canary Islands with migratory blackcaps from Germany showed the urge to migrate is genetically controlled, the offspring showing intermediate behaviour in terms of restlessness at migration time.", "Similar experiments using birds from southern Germany and eastern Austria, on opposite sides of the migratory divide, demonstrated that the direction of migration is also genetically determined.", "Climate change appears to be affecting the migration pattern of the garden warbler and blackcap.", "Both are arriving in Europe earlier than previously, and blackcaps and juvenile garden warblers are departing nearly two weeks later than in the 1980s.", "Birds of both species are longer-winged and lighter than in the past, suggesting a longer migration as the breeding range expands northwards.", "Left graph shows likelihood of individual blackcaps being seen in a garden plotted against date, right graph shows likelihood plotted against air temperature.", "where the blackcap was formerly just a summer visitor.", "Although the British climate is sub-optimal, compensatory factors include the ready availability of food, , a shorter migration distance, and the avoidance of the Alps and the Sahara Desert.", "It now appears that the wintering birds in the UK come from a much wider area than previously thought.", "The majority come from France, and some individuals come from as far away as Spain and Poland.", "The steady supply of winter food in gardens gives even Spanish-breeding birds an opportunity to put on weight quicker than in their home range.", "A 2021 paper showed that blackcaps, particularly adults, wintering in Britain and Ireland showed high site fidelity and low movement between wintering sites, in contrast to blackcaps wintering in their traditional winter ranges.", "Adults that frequented gardens had better body condition, smaller fat stores, longer bills, and rounder wing tips.", "The bill and wing tip shapes reflected a more generalist diet than that of birds in traditional winter sites.", "Blackcaps did not exclusively feed in gardens", "visits were linked to harsher weather.", "Individuals generally stayed at garden sites until immediately before spring departure, and supplemental feeding may have benefits for winter survival, When preparing for migration, abundant supplemental food may allow blackcaps to attain better body condition and may facilitate earlier and more successful breeding attempts.", "In the Iberian Peninsula, migratory blackcaps track similar climatic conditions over the season, which sedentary individuals must cope with great variation in climate over the year.", "This suggests a trade-off between the cost of travelling long distances of migrants, and the flexibility required by sedentary individuals to tolerate a wide variety of environmental conditions.", "Deciduous woodland is the preferred breeding habitat.", "altA woodland glade The blackcap's main breeding habitat is mature deciduous woodland, with good scrub cover below the trees.", "Other habitats, such as parks, large gardens and overgrown hedges, are used as long as they meet the essential requirements of tall trees for songposts and an established understory.", "Where other Sylvia warblers also breed, blackcaps tend to use taller trees than their relatives, preferably those with a good canopy, such as pedunculate oak.", "In prime habitat, breeding densities reach 100200 pairs per square kilometre in northern Europe, and 500900 pairs per square kilometre in Italy.", "Densities are much lower in poorer habitats such as conifer forests.", "Breeding occurs in Europe at altitudes up to .", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany When male blackcaps return to their breeding areas, they establish a territory.", "Adults that have previously bred return to the site they have used in previous summers, whereas inexperienced birds either wander until they find a suitable area, or establish a very large initial territory which contracts under pressure from neighbours.", "Territorial boundaries are established initially by loud singing, performed while the male displays with his crown raised, tail fanned and slow wingbeats.", "This display is followed, if necessary, by a chase, often leading to a fight.", "The typical territory size in a French study was , but in insect-rich tall maquis in Gibraltar, the average was only .", "Females feed within a home range which may overlap other blackcap territories, and covers up to six times the area of the defended zone.", "The eggs normally take about 11 days to hatch.", "altTwo eggs in a cup-shaped nest Sylvia warblers are unusual in that they vigorously defend their territories against other members of their genus as well as conspecifics.", "Blackcaps and garden warblers use identical habits in the same wood, yet aggressive interactions mean that their territories never overlap.", "Similar songs are a feature of the Sylvia warblers as a group, and it has been suggested that this promotes interspecific competition and helps to segregate territories between related species.", "It appears more likely from later studies that segregation of sympatric species, other than the blackcap and garden warbler, is due to subtle habitat preferences rather than interspecies aggression.", "Young chicks begging for food.", "These are still largely unfeathered.", "altThree small chicks with open red mouths in a nest Cuculus canorus bangsi in a clutch of Sylvia atricapilla MHNT Blackcaps first breed when they are one year old, and are mainly monogamous, although both sexes may sometimes deviate from this.", "A male attracts a female to his territory through song and a display involving raising the black crown feathers, fluffing the tail, slow wingbeats, and a short flapping flight.", "He also builds one or more simple nests , usually near his songpost.", "The eggs are incubated for an average of 11 days .", "Both adults incubate, although only the female stays on the nest at night.", "The chicks are altricial, hatching naked and with closed eyes, and are fed by both parents.", "They fledge about 1112 days after hatching, leaving the nest shortly before they are able to fly.", "They are assisted with feeding for a further two or three weeks.", "If the nest is threatened, the non-incubating bird gives an alarm call so that the sitting parent and chicks stay still and quiet.", "A male blackcap may mob a potential predator, or try to lure it away with disjointed runs and flaps on the ground.", "The blackcap normally raises just one brood, but second nestings are sometimes recorded, particularly in the milder climate of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic islands", "triple brooding has been observed once, the female laying a total of 23 eggs in the season.", "Of eggs laid, 6593% hatch successfully, and 7592% of the chicks go on to fledge.", "The productivity varies with location, level of predation and quality of habitat, but the national figure for the UK was 2.5.", "The adult annual survival rate is 43% , and 36% of juveniles live through their first year.", "The typical life expectancy is two years,", "Male eating an olive from a tree in France in December", "altA male blackcap eating a berry from a tree The blackcap feeds mainly on insects during the breeding season, then switches to fruit in late summer, the change being triggered by an internal biological rhythm.", "When migrants arrive on their territories they initially take berries, pollen and nectar if there are insufficient insects available, then soon switch to their preferred diet.", "They mainly pick prey off foliage and twigs, but may occasionally hover, flycatch or feed on the ground.", "Blackcaps eat a wide range of invertebrate prey, although aphids are particularly important early in the season, and flies, beetles and caterpillars are also taken in large numbers.", "Small snails are swallowed whole, since the shell is a source of calcium for the bird's eggs.", "Chicks are mainly fed soft-bodied insects, fruit only if invertebrates are scarce.", "In July, the diet switches increasingly to fruit.", "The protein needed for egg-laying and for the chicks to grow is replaced by fruit sugar which helps the birds to fatten for migration.", "Aphids are still taken while they are available, since they often contain sugars from the plant sap on which they feed.", "Blackcaps eat a wide range of small fruit, and squeeze out any seeds on a branch before consuming the pulp.", "This technique makes them an important propagator of mistletoe.", "The mistle thrush, which also favours that plant, is less beneficial since it tends to crush the seeds.", "Although any suitable fruit may be eaten, some have seasonal or local importance", "elder makes up a large proportion of the diet of northern birds preparing for migration, and energy-rich olives and lentisc are favoured by blackcaps wintering in the Mediterranean.", "Blackcaps defend good winter food sources in the wild, and at garden feeding stations they repel competitors as large as starlings and blackbirds.", "Birds occasionally become tame enough to feed from the hand.", "The common cuckoo is an occasional brood parasite of the blackcap.", "altA bird with a grey back, pale underparts and along tail perched on a post Blackcaps are caught by Eurasian sparrowhawks in the breeding range, and by Eleonora's falcons on migration.", "Eurasian jays and Eurasian magpies take eggs and young, as do mammals such as stoats, weasels and squirrels.", "Domestic cats are the most important predator, possibly killing up to 10% of blackcaps.", "Blackcaps are occasionally hosts of the common cuckoo, a brood parasite.", "The level of parasitism is low because the cuckoo's eggs are often rejected.", "Blackcaps have evolved adaptations which make it difficult for the parasitic species to succeed, despite the cuckoo's tendency to lay eggs which resemble those of their host.", "Blackcaps are good at spotting alien eggs, and their own eggs are very alike within a clutch, making it easier to spot the intruder.", "There is, however, considerable variation between different clutches, making it harder for the cuckoo to convincingly mimic a blackcap egg.", "The open habitat and cup nest of the warbler make it a potential target for the cuckoo", "it may have experienced much higher levels of parasitism in the past, and countermeasures would have spread rapidly once they evolved.", "The only blood parasites found in a study of blackcaps trapped on migration were protozoans from the genera Haemoproteus and Plasmodium.", "The study concluded that 45.5% of the males and 22.7% of the females were affected, but the number of parasites was small, and the ability to store fat for the migration flight was unimpaired.", "Seventeen strains of H. parabelopolskyi are found only in the blackcap, and form a monophyletic group", "three further members of that group are found only in the garden warbler, and another three occur in the African hill babbler, supporting the shared ancestry of the three bird species.", "Blackcaps may carry parasitic worms that sometimes kill their hosts.", "External parasites include chewing lice and feather mites.", "The latter do little damage, although heavy infestations cause individual tail feathers to develop asymmetrically.", "The English poet John Clare described the blackcap as the \" March Nightingale \" .", "altA painting of a seated man in a brown jacket and buff waistcoat Aristotle, in his History of Animals, considered that the garden warbler eventually metamorphosed into a blackcap.", "The blackcap's song has led to it being described as the \" mock nightingale \" or \" country nightingale \" , and John Clare, in \" The March Nightingale \" describes the listener as believing that the rarer species has arrived prematurely.", "\" He stops his own and thinks the nightingale/Hath of her monthly reckoning counted wrong \" .", "The song is also the topic of Italian poet Giovanni Pascoli's \" La Capinera \" .", "Giovanni Verga's 1871 novel Storia di una capinera, according to its author, was inspired by a story of a blackcap trapped and caged by children.", "The bird, silent and pining for its lost freedom, eventually dies.", "In the book, a nun evacuated from her convent by cholera falls in love with a family friend, only to have to return to her confinement when the disease wanes.", "The novel was adapted as films of the same name in 1917, 1943 and 1993.", "The last version was directed by Franco Zeffirelli, and its English-language version was retitled as Sparrow.", "In Saint Francois d'Assise, an opera by Messiaen, the orchestration is based on bird song.", "St Francis himself is represented by the blackcap.", "Folk names for the blackcap often refer to its most obvious plumage feature or to its song, as in the \" nightingale \" names above.", "Other old names are based on its choice of nesting material .", "There is a tradition of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm bases being named for birds.", "A former base near Stretton in Cheshire was called HMS Blackcap.", "The blackcap has a very large range, and its population in Europe is estimated at 4165 million breeding pairs.", "Allowing for birds breeding in Africa and Asia, the total population estimate is between 101 and 161 million individuals.", "It is therefore classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of least concern."]}, "Spinus spinus": {"keywords": ["It is found in forested areas, both coniferous and mixed woodland where it feeds on seeds of all kinds, especially of alder and conifers.", "In this way overwintering populations can thrive where food is abundant.", "This could be explained by a number of factors, such as spatial variability of individuals in breeding areas between years, the large overwintering area which supposes a constant genetic interchange, and females having a number of clutches of eggs in one breeding season, each in a different place.", "It has been recorded both in the Aleutian Islands and the east.", "the Labrador Peninsula and St. Lawrence River mouth .", "the eastern coast of Asia and the central and northern part of Europe.", "They are present in the north of Scandinavia and in Russia and they over-winter in the Mediterranean basin and the area around the Black Sea.", "In China they breed in the Khingan Mountains of Inner Mongolia and in Jiangsu province, they spend winter in Tibet, Taiwan, the valleys of the lower Yangtse River and the south east coast.", "There is also a similar and closely related North America counterpart, the pine siskin .", "Every few years they migrate southwards in larger numbers and the overwintering populations in the Iberian Peninsula are greatly augmented.", "Its habitat is forested areas at a particular altitude on a mountain side and they have a certain predilection for humid areas.", "Coniferous woodland, especially spruce, is favoured for breeding.", "The siskin also breeds in mixed woodland, while in winter they prefer stubble and crops and areas containing trees with seeds.", "It feeds in trees, avoiding eating on the ground.", "In autumn and winter, its diet is based on the seeds of deciduous trees such as birch and, above all, alder.", "They also visit cultivated areas and pasture, where they join with other finches in eating the seeds of various Compositae such as thistles, dandelions, Artemisia, knapweeds and other herbaceous plants, such as St. John's wort, meadowsweet and sorrel.", "In spring, during the breeding season, they are found in coniferous forests.", "In summer their feeding is more varied, adding other herbaceous plants to their diet of conifer seeds.", "On the Iberian Peninsula they make their nests in afirs, Scotch pine and Corsican pine.", "It is made from small twigs, dried grasses, moss and lichen and lined with down.", "There has been a statue of siskin on the embankment by the First Engineer Bridge since 1994, though it has been stolen and replaced multiple times."], "habitat_section": ["An adult male at a bird table This species can be found across the greater part of Eurosiberia and the north of Africa.", "Its breeding area is separated into two zones, both on each side of the Palearctic realm.", "the eastern coast of Asia and the central and northern part of Europe.", "These birds can be found throughout the year in Central Europe and some mountain ranges in the south of the continent.", "They are present in the north of Scandinavia and in Russia and they over-winter in the Mediterranean basin and the area around the Black Sea.", "In China they breed in the Khingan Mountains of Inner Mongolia and in Jiangsu province, they spend winter in Tibet, Taiwan, the valleys of the lower Yangtse River and the south east coast.", "The Eurasian siskin is occasionally seen in North America.", "There is also a similar and closely related North America counterpart, the pine siskin .", "Their seasonal distribution is also marked by the fact that they follow an anomalous migration pattern.", "Every few years they migrate southwards in larger numbers and the overwintering populations in the Iberian Peninsula are greatly augmented.", "This event has been the object of diverse theories, one theory suggests that it occurs in the years when Norway spruce produces abundant seeds in the centre and north of Europe, causing populations to increase.", "An alternative theory is that greater migration occurs when the preferred food of alder or birch seed fails.", "This species will form large flocks outside the breeding season, often mixed with redpolls.", "It is a bird that does not remain for long in one area but which varies the areas it uses for breeding and feeding, over-wintering from one year to the next.", "Its habitat is forested areas at a particular altitude on a mountain side and they have a certain predilection for humid areas.", "Coniferous woodland, especially spruce, is favoured for breeding.", "It builds its nest in a tree, laying 26 eggs.", "The British range of this once local breeder has expanded greatly due to an increase in commercial conifer plantations.", "The siskin also breeds in mixed woodland, while in winter they prefer stubble and crops and areas containing trees with seeds.", "A perched male observing its next destination They are very active and restless birds.", "They are also very social, forming small cohesive flocks especially in autumn and winter.", "They are fairly trusting of humans, it being possible to observe them from a short distance.", "During the breeding season, however, they are much more timid, solitary and difficult to observe.", "For this reason there is a German legend which says that siskins guard a magic stone in their nests that makes them invisible.", "It is one of the few species which has been described as exhibiting \" allofeeding \" ' behavior, this is where subordinates regurgitate food for the dominant members of the group, which creates a strong cohesion in the flocks and implies a hierarchical structure within the group.", "The worldwide population of the siskin is estimated as between 20 and 36 million.", "The European population is estimated as between 2.7 and 15 million pairs.", "There does not seem to be a major decline in population numbers and for this reason the IUCN has listed their conservation status as least concern.", "The siskin appears in Annex II of the Berne Convention as a protected bird species."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian siskin is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.", "It is also called the European siskin, common siskin or just siskin.", "Other names include black-headed goldfinch, barley bird and aberdevine.", "It is very common throughout Europe and Eurosiberia.", "It is found in forested areas, both coniferous and mixed woodland where it feeds on seeds of all kinds, especially of alder and conifers.", "It can be distinguished from other similar finches by the colour of the plumage.", "The upper parts are greyish green and the under parts grey-streaked white.", "Its wings are black with a conspicuous yellow wing bar, and the tail is black with yellow sides.", "The male has a mainly yellow face and breast, with a neat black cap.", "Female and young birds have a greyish green head and no cap.", "It is a trusting, sociable and active bird.", "The song of this bird is a pleasant mix of twitters and trills.", "For these reasons it is often raised in captivity.", "These birds have an unusual migration pattern as every few years in winter they migrate southwards in large numbers.", "The reasons for this behaviour are not known but may be related to climatic factors and above all the availability of food.", "In this way overwintering populations can thrive where food is abundant.", "This small finch is an acrobatic feeder, often hanging upside-down like a tit.", "It will visit garden bird feeding stations.", "The siskin was first was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Fringilla spinus, in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "In 1760, Brisson described the genus Carduelis, where this species was then placed.", "Recent taxonomic studies suggest placing it in the genus Spinus.", "The scientific name Spinus is from the Ancient Greek spinos, a name for a now-unidentifiable bird.", "The English name is from German dialect or , Despite being found across a wide area it is a monotypic species, that is, there are no distinct subspecies.", "This could be explained by a number of factors, such as spatial variability of individuals in breeding areas between years, the large overwintering area which supposes a constant genetic interchange, and females having a number of clutches of eggs in one breeding season, each in a different place.", "This bird may have reached America either from Asia or from Europe .", "It is the extant parental species of one of the Spinus/Carduelis three evolutive North American radiations of atriceps, pinus and dominicensis finches.", "It has been recorded both in the Aleutian Islands and the east: the Labrador Peninsula and St. Lawrence River mouth .", "This raises the possibility that this bird entered America through Greenland/Iceland from Western Europe.", "The siskin is a small, short-tailed bird, in length It weighs between .", "The bird's appearance shows sexual dimorphism.", "The male has a greyish green back", "the sides of the tail are yellow and the end is black", "the wings are black with a distinctive yellow wing stripe", "its breast is yellowish becoming whiter and striped towards the cloaca", "it has a black bib and on its head it has two yellow auriculas and a black cap.", "The amount of black on the bib is very variable between males and the size of the bib has been related to dominance within a flock.", "The plumage of the female is more olive-coloured than the male.", "The cap and the auriculas are greenish with a white bib and a rump that is a slightly striped whitish yellow.", "The young have a similar colouration to the females, with drab colours and a more subdued plumage.", "The shape of the siskin's beak is determined by its feeding habits.", "It is strong although it is also slender in order to pick up the seeds on which they feed.", "The legs and feet are dark brown and the eyes are black.", "It has a rapid and bounding flight pattern that is similar to other finches.", "The siskin is easy to recognize, but in some instances it can be confused with other finches such as the citril finch, the European greenfinch or the European serin.", "The Eurasian siskin, in many plumages, is a bright bird.", "Adult male Eurasian siskins are bright green and yellow with a black cap, and an unstreaked throat and breast.", "Adult females also usually have green and yellow plumage tones: for example, yellow in the supercilium and on the sides of the breast, green tones in the mantle and yellow in the rump.", "The ground colour of the underparts of the Eurasian siskin is normally pure white.", "In females and juveniles, the centre of the belly and lower breast are often largely or entirely unstreaked.", "The wingbars of the Eurasian siskin are broad and yellow and the bill is short with a decurved culmen.", "An adult male at a bird table This species can be found across the greater part of Eurosiberia and the north of Africa.", "Its breeding area is separated into two zones, both on each side of the Palearctic realm: the eastern coast of Asia and the central and northern part of Europe.", "These birds can be found throughout the year in Central Europe and some mountain ranges in the south of the continent.", "They are present in the north of Scandinavia and in Russia and they over-winter in the Mediterranean basin and the area around the Black Sea.", "In China they breed in the Khingan Mountains of Inner Mongolia and in Jiangsu province", "they spend winter in Tibet, Taiwan, the valleys of the lower Yangtse River and the south east coast.", "The Eurasian siskin is occasionally seen in North America.", "There is also a similar and closely related North America counterpart, the pine siskin .", "Their seasonal distribution is also marked by the fact that they follow an anomalous migration pattern.", "Every few years they migrate southwards in larger numbers and the overwintering populations in the Iberian Peninsula are greatly augmented.", "This event has been the object of diverse theories, one theory suggests that it occurs in the years when Norway spruce produces abundant seeds in the centre and north of Europe, causing populations to increase.", "An alternative theory is that greater migration occurs when the preferred food of alder or birch seed fails.", "This species will form large flocks outside the breeding season, often mixed with redpolls.", "It is a bird that does not remain for long in one area but which varies the areas it uses for breeding and feeding, over-wintering from one year to the next.", "Its habitat is forested areas at a particular altitude on a mountain side and they have a certain predilection for humid areas.", "Coniferous woodland, especially spruce, is favoured for breeding.", "It builds its nest in a tree, laying 26 eggs.", "The British range of this once local breeder has expanded greatly due to an increase in commercial conifer plantations.", "The siskin also breeds in mixed woodland", "while in winter they prefer stubble and crops and areas containing trees with seeds.", "A perched male observing its next destination They are very active and restless birds.", "They are also very social, forming small cohesive flocks especially in autumn and winter.", "They are fairly trusting of humans, it being possible to observe them from a short distance.", "During the breeding season, however, they are much more timid, solitary and difficult to observe.", "For this reason there is a German legend which says that siskins guard a magic stone in their nests that makes them invisible.", "It is one of the few species which has been described as exhibiting \" allofeeding \" ' behavior, this is where subordinates regurgitate food for the dominant members of the group, which creates a strong cohesion in the flocks and implies a hierarchical structure within the group.", "Pair feeding in an alder tree, illustration by Naumann The siskin is mainly a granivore, although it varies its diet depending on the season.", "It feeds in trees, avoiding eating on the ground.", "In autumn and winter, its diet is based on the seeds of deciduous trees such as birch and, above all, alder.", "They also visit cultivated areas and pasture, where they join with other finches in eating the seeds of various Compositae such as thistles, dandelions, Artemisia, knapweeds and other herbaceous plants, such as St. John's wort, meadowsweet and sorrel.", "In spring, during the breeding season, they are found in coniferous forests.", "At this time their feeding is based on the seeds of these trees, especially on trees belonging to the genera Abies, Picea and Larix.", "They also feed on elms and poplars.", "When feeding the young they eat more insects, mainly beetles, as the proteins they contain help the chicks to grow.", "In summer their feeding is more varied, adding other herbaceous plants to their diet of conifer seeds: goosefoots and other Compositae.", "Eggs of Spinus spinus Pairs are generally formed during the winter period before migration.", "The males compete aggressively for the females.", "As part of the courtship the male plumps up the feathers of the pileus and rump, making itself bigger, extending the tail and singing repeatedly.", "They also make mating flights from tree to tree, although they are not as eye-catching as the flights of the other finches.", "They construct a nest that is generally located at the end of a relatively high branch in a conifer, such that the nest is reasonably hidden and difficult to see.", "On the Iberian Peninsula they make their nests in afirs, Scotch pine and Corsican pine.", "They form small colonies of up to six pairs with the nests located near to each other.", "The nest is small and bowl-shaped.", "It is made from small twigs, dried grasses, moss and lichen and lined with down.", "Incubation takes between 10 and 14 days and is carried out entirely by the female.", "The chicks are altricial and nidicolous.", "They leave the nest after 15 days in a semi-feathered condition.", "They then remain close to the nest area for up to a month when, with their plumage now complete, they disperse.", "The siskin usually has a second brood, from the middle of June up to the middle of July.", "This bird has two calls, both powerful but conflicting, one is descending and the other is ascending, their onomatopoeic sounds can be represented as \" tilu \" and \" tluih \" .", "On occasions they also issue a harsh rattling chirrup.", "The song is similar to the other finches, a smooth and rapid twitter and trill with a long duration and which is occasionally interrupted by a stronger or shorter syllable.", "Siskins sing throughout the year and often in groups.", "The worldwide population of the siskin is estimated as between 20 and 36 million.", "The European population is estimated as between 2.7 and 15 million pairs.", "There does not seem to be a major decline in population numbers and for this reason the IUCN has listed their conservation status as least concern.", "The siskin appears in Annex II of the Berne Convention as a protected bird species.", "Structure holding cages used for listening to siskins at the singing contest of Sagra dei Osei, Italy Like many of the finches, the siskin is valued by aviculturalists as a domestic bird for its song and appearance.", "They do not require specific care and adapt well to captivity, although they do not breed well in captivity.", "There are no specific diseases that affect the species, although they can show certain intestinal pathologies associated with a poor diet.", "They live for between 11 and 14 years, in sharp contrast to the 2 or 3 years it is estimated they live in the wild.", "In some areas, individuals that are found are the result of escapes or releases of captive birds.", "Poland, Gibraltar, Benin and Belgium have all issued postage stamps bearing the image of the siskin.", "In Saint Petersburg there is a statue of a siskin, as its colours are the same as the uniform worn by the students at an elite school in the city.", "These students have come to be known by the sobriquet siskin, .", "This term was popularised in the Russian song \" Chizhik-Pyzhik \" .", "There has been a statue of siskin on the embankment by the First Engineer Bridge since 1994, though it has been stolen and replaced multiple times.", "There is a Czech folk song/dance/game \" Cizecku, cizecku \" , in which the siskin is the source of the lore on what happens with the poppy.", "Elif Shafak, in the novel Three Daughters of Eve, mentioned a siskin in a pivotal scene in which the heroine, Peri, meets the charismatic and controversial Professor Azur.", "When Peri entered Professor Azur's office, she found a siskin with yellow-green feathers and a forked tail trapped amid the shelves and stacks of books."]}, "Poecile palustris": {"keywords": ["The marsh tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae and genus Poecile, closely related to the willow, Pere David's and Songar tits.", "It can be found throughout temperate Europe and northern Asia and, despite its name, it occurs in a range of habitats including dry woodland.", "Typical marsh tit habitat in Northamptonshire, England.", "Data from 157 woodlands covered by the RSPB/BTO Repeat Woodland Bird Survey showed that the abundance of marsh tits in 20032004 corresponded with the vegetation present 24 metres above the ground, the shrub layer.", "Data from the 1980s did not show the same results, but marsh tit numbers had increased by 20032004 in woods with the most shrub cover.", "The study concluded that damage to the shrub layer, caused by overgrazing by deer, for example, may make woodland less suitable for marsh tits.", "It is a widespread and common resident breeder throughout temperate Europe and northern Asia.", "It occurs from northern Spain north to south-eastern Scotland and east to western Russia, with a broad gap in western Asia and present again in eastern Asia from the Altai Mountains east to northern Japan and northern and western China.", "This species is sedentary, making short post-breeding movements in most of its range, but in northern Europe some move southward in winter.", "Marsh tits breed mostly in lowland areas, but can reach altitudes of up to 1,300 m. They prefer large areas of moist, broadleaved woodland, often oak or beech, though they can occupy wet alder woodland, riverside trees, parks and gardens or orchards.", "A study at Monks Wood, Cambridgeshire, England, found that marsh tits required mature trees with a shrub layer below the canopy, but that they avoided parts of the wood with many young trees.", "Another study in the United Kingdom found that during winter and while foraging, marsh tits spent more time than blue tits in the wood's understorey, and more time lower in the woodland canopy and understorey.", "Trees and shrubs in 10 breeding territories were also compared.", "The trees varied significantly between territories, but the shrub characteristics did not, suggesting that the shrubs were more important to the birds.", "In Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire, marsh tits were \" largely absent \" from parts of the wood with a dense canopy but poor shrub cover.", "In mixed winter tit flocks, seldom more than one or two marsh tits are present, and parties of this species alone are infrequent.", "Inside the hole, a nest of moss is made and lined with hair and sometimes a few feathers, of moss is used in damp holes, but much less in dry ones.", "A study of marsh tits in Biaowieza Forest, Poland, looked at which factors affected birds' choice to re-occupy a nest hole used the previous year.", "Mostly spiders and insects are eaten in spring and summer, but seeds including those of the thistle nuts and berries are taken in autumn and winter.", "Hiding places for the seeds include on and in the ground, in leaf litter, in tree stumps, and under moss and lichen in trees.", "The marsh tit's hippocampus is 31% bigger than that of the great tit, despite the great tit's larger overall size and larger forebrain, the relative volume of this part of the brain is greater in birds that cache food."], "habitat_section": ["Typical marsh tit habitat in Northamptonshire, England.", "The marsh tit has a worldwide Extent of Occurrence of around 10 million square kilometres.", "The global population includes between 6.1 million and 12 million birds in Europe alone.", "The species is classified as Least Concern, though there is some evidence of a decline in numbers.", "For example, between the 1970s and 2007, marsh tit numbers declined in the United Kingdom by more than 50% and consequently it is on the Red List of species compiled by the UK's Joint Nature Conservation Committee.", "Research suggests that the cause may be low survival rates from year to year, though the nest failure rate has fallen during the decline.", "Other studies have shown that reduced diversity of woodland structure and plant species, partly because of the impact of deer browsing, is the cause of the bird's decline.", "Data from 157 woodlands covered by the RSPB/BTO Repeat Woodland Bird Survey showed that the abundance of marsh tits in 20032004 corresponded with the vegetation present 24 metres above the ground, the shrub layer.", "Data from the 1980s did not show the same results, but marsh tit numbers had increased by 20032004 in woods with the most shrub cover.", "The study concluded that damage to the shrub layer, caused by overgrazing by deer, for example, may make woodland less suitable for marsh tits.", "It is a widespread and common resident breeder throughout temperate Europe and northern Asia.", "It occurs from northern Spain north to south-eastern Scotland and east to western Russia, with a broad gap in western Asia and present again in eastern Asia from the Altai Mountains east to northern Japan and northern and western China.", "This species is sedentary, making short post-breeding movements in most of its range, but in northern Europe some move southward in winter.", "However, marsh tits seem not to perform the occasional irruptions that other members of the tit family do.", "Most marsh tits stay in their breeding territories year-round, presumably this is related to their food-storing strategy.", "Analysis of UK ringing data showed that of 108 recoveries , 85% were less than 5 km from where the bird was originally caught, and only 1% further than 20 km.", "Young birds join mixed roaming flocks, adults also join the flocks when they pass through, but do not stray from their territory.", "Marsh tits breed mostly in lowland areas, but can reach altitudes of up to 1,300 m. They prefer large areas of moist, broadleaved woodland, often oak or beech, though they can occupy wet alder woodland, riverside trees, parks and gardens or orchards.", "A study at Monks Wood, Cambridgeshire, England, found that marsh tits required mature trees with a shrub layer below the canopy, but that they avoided parts of the wood with many young trees.", "Another study in the United Kingdom found that during winter and while foraging, marsh tits spent more time than blue tits in the wood's understorey, and more time lower in the woodland canopy and understorey.", "Trees and shrubs in 10 breeding territories were also compared.", "The trees varied significantly between territories, but the shrub characteristics did not, suggesting that the shrubs were more important to the birds.", "In Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire, marsh tits were \" largely absent \" from parts of the wood with a dense canopy but poor shrub cover.", "In mixed winter tit flocks, seldom more than one or two marsh tits are present, and parties of this species alone are infrequent.", "Its performances in the bushes and branches are just as neat and agile as those of other tits, it often hangs upside down by one leg."], "random_sentences": ["The marsh tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae and genus Poecile, closely related to the willow, Pere David's and Songar tits.", "It is a small bird, around long and weighing , with a black crown and nape, pale cheeks, brown back and greyish-brown wings and tail.", "Between 8 and 11 subspecies are recognised.", "Its close resemblance to the willow tit can cause identification problems, especially in the United Kingdom where the local subspecies of the two are very similar: they were not recognised as separate species until 1897.", "Globally, the marsh tit is classified as Least Concern, although there is evidence of a decline in numbers .", "It can be found throughout temperate Europe and northern Asia and, despite its name, it occurs in a range of habitats including dry woodland.", "The marsh tit is omnivorous", "its food includes caterpillars, spiders and seeds.", "It nests in tree holes, choosing existing hollows to enlarge, rather than excavating its own.", "A clutch of 59 eggs is laid.", "The marsh tit was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Parus palustris.", "It is now placed in the genus Poecile that was erected by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1829.", "The genus name, Poecile, is the Ancient Greek name for a now unidentifiable small bird, and is perhaps derived from poikolos, meaning \" spotted \"", "the specific palustris is Latin for \" marshy \" .", "Bird trapped for ringing showing pale 'cutting edges' to bill The nominate race has a black cap and nape with a blue sheen visible at close quarters.", "The black 'bib' below the bill is rather small", "the cheeks are white, turning dusky brown on the ear coverts.", "The upperparts, tail and wings are greyish-brown, with slightly paler fringes to the tertials.", "The underparts are off-white with a buff or brown tinge strongest on the flanks and undertail coverts.", "The bill is black and the legs dark grey.", "Juveniles are very similar to adults, but with a duller black cap and bib, more greyish upperparts and paler underparts", "they moult into adult plumage by September.", "The marsh tit weighs , has a length of and a wingspan of .", "The wing length ranges from .", "The oldest recorded marsh tit in Europe reached the age of 11 years, 11 months.", "Like other tits it has a large range of call notes", "most typical is the explosive \" pitchou \" note, given when agitated, often leading into \" pitchou-bee-bee-bee \" , which can sound like willow tit when not heard clearly.", "Note the glossy cap, smaller bib and uniform wings which help distinguish it from the willow tit.", "Marsh and willow tits are difficult to distinguish on appearance alone", "the races occurring in the UK (P.", "p. dresseri and P. m. kleinschmidti respectively) are especially hard to separate.", "When caught for ringing, the pale 'cutting edge' of the marsh tit's bill is a reliable criterion", "otherwise, the best way to tell apart the two species is by voice.", "Plumage characteristics include the lack of a pale wing panel , the marsh tit's glossier black cap and smaller black 'bib', although none of these is 'completely reliable'", "The marsh tit has a noticeably smaller and shorter head than the willow tit and overall the markings are crisp and neat, with the head in proportion to the rest of the bird .", "Typical marsh tit habitat in Northamptonshire, England.", "The marsh tit has a worldwide Extent of Occurrence of around 10 million square kilometres.", "The global population includes between 6.1 million and 12 million birds in Europe alone.", "The species is classified as Least Concern, though there is some evidence of a decline in numbers.", "For example, between the 1970s and 2007, marsh tit numbers declined in the United Kingdom by more than 50% and consequently it is on the Red List of species compiled by the UK's Joint Nature Conservation Committee.", "Research suggests that the cause may be low survival rates from year to year, though the nest failure rate has fallen during the decline.", "Other studies have shown that reduced diversity of woodland structure and plant species, partly because of the impact of deer browsing, is the cause of the bird's decline.", "Data from 157 woodlands covered by the RSPB/BTO Repeat Woodland Bird Survey showed that the abundance of marsh tits in 20032004 corresponded with the vegetation present 24 metres above the ground, the shrub layer.", "Data from the 1980s did not show the same results, but marsh tit numbers had increased by 20032004 in woods with the most shrub cover.", "The study concluded that damage to the shrub layer, caused by overgrazing by deer, for example, may make woodland less suitable for marsh tits.", "It is a widespread and common resident breeder throughout temperate Europe and northern Asia.", "It occurs from northern Spain north to south-eastern Scotland and east to western Russia, with a broad gap in western Asia and present again in eastern Asia from the Altai Mountains east to northern Japan and northern and western China.", "This species is sedentary, making short post-breeding movements in most of its range, but in northern Europe some move southward in winter.", "However, marsh tits seem not to perform the occasional irruptions that other members of the tit family do.", "Most marsh tits stay in their breeding territories year-round", "presumably this is related to their food-storing strategy.", "Analysis of UK ringing data showed that of 108 recoveries , 85% were less than 5 km from where the bird was originally caught, and only 1% further than 20 km.", "Young birds join mixed roaming flocks", "adults also join the flocks when they pass through, but do not stray from their territory.", "Marsh tits breed mostly in lowland areas, but can reach altitudes of up to 1,300 m. They prefer large areas of moist, broadleaved woodland, often oak or beech, though they can occupy wet alder woodland, riverside trees, parks and gardens or orchards.", "A study at Monks Wood, Cambridgeshire, England, found that marsh tits required mature trees with a shrub layer below the canopy, but that they avoided parts of the wood with many young trees.", "Another study in the United Kingdom found that during winter and while foraging, marsh tits spent more time than blue tits in the wood's understorey, and more time lower in the woodland canopy and understorey.", "Trees and shrubs in 10 breeding territories were also compared.", "The trees varied significantly between territories, but the shrub characteristics did not, suggesting that the shrubs were more important to the birds.", "In Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire, marsh tits were \" largely absent \" from parts of the wood with a dense canopy but poor shrub cover.", "In mixed winter tit flocks, seldom more than one or two marsh tits are present, and parties of this species alone are infrequent.", "Its performances in the bushes and branches are just as neat and agile as those of other tits", "it often hangs upside down by one leg.", "Marsh tits are monogamous and often pair for life", "one pair stayed together for six years.", "In Europe, hybridisation with the willow tit has been recorded twice.", "The nest site is in a hole, usually in a tree but sometimes in a wall or in the ground.", "Old willow tit holes may be used and enlarged further.", "Marsh tits do not usually excavate their own nest holes, though they may enlarge the hollow, carrying the chips to a distance before dropping them.", "The hole may be within a centimetres or two of the ground or high as .", "Inside the hole, a nest of moss is made and lined with hair and sometimes a few feathers", "of moss is used in damp holes, but much less in dry ones.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden Between five and nine white and red-speckled eggs are laid late in April or in May, measuring and weighing each, of which 6% is shell.", "The eggs are incubated by the female for 1416 days", "incubation begins before the clutch is complete, meaning that the chicks hatch over a period of around two days.", "She sits closely and gives a typical tit \" hissing display \" if disturbed.", "The male helps to feed and care for the young and brings nearly all the food for the first four days after hatching.", "The altricial, downy chicks fledge after 1821 days.", "The fledglings are fed by their parents for a week and become independent after a further 17 days.", "The family stays together for between 11 and 15 days after the first flights of the juveniles.", "Second broods have been recorded, though they are extremely rare in Britain", "A study of marsh tits in Biaowieza Forest, Poland, looked at which factors affected birds' choice to re-occupy a nest hole used the previous year.", "It found that 35.5% of available holes were used again the following year, and that holes where a brood had failed were less likely to be re-used.", "A study in Bourton Woods, Gloucestershire, England, found that nestboxes were used by marsh tits in successive years in only 20% of cases.", "Mostly spiders and insects are eaten in spring and summer, but seeds including those of the thistle nuts and berries are taken in autumn and winter.", "Beechmast is the preferred food when it can be found.", "Marsh tits often take seeds and fruit from the plant before taking them to eat elsewhere.", "Marsh tits collect and store large numbers of seeds.", "For a study in Norway, birds were watched for two hours 15 minutes.", "They ate 43 and cached 83 seeds per hour.", "In Sweden, storing food is most frequent between September and late February, with the peak in this behaviour occurring from September to October.", "Hiding places for the seeds include on and in the ground, in leaf litter, in tree stumps, and under moss and lichen in trees.", "The hidden seeds are prone to being stolen, by other marsh tits or other species, so birds often fly from one site to another before deciding on a hiding place.", "They tend to retrieve the oldest items first, and memorise their location rather than searching randomly or checking systematically.", "The marsh tit's hippocampus is 31% bigger than that of the great tit, despite the great tit's larger overall size and larger forebrain", "the relative volume of this part of the brain is greater in birds that cache food."]}, "Larus michahellis": {"keywords": ["Mating on roof-top, Constanta, Romania The breeding range is centred on the Mediterranean Sea.", "In Europe, there are colonies all along the Mediterranean coast, and also on the Atlantic islands and coasts north to Brittany and west to the Azores.", "It also breeds on the western side of the Black Sea, here it overlaps with the Caspian gull but there is a difference in habitat, with the yellow-legged gull preferring sea cliffs and the Caspian gull flatter shores.", "Many birds remain in the same area all year round, but others migrate to spend the winter in mild areas of western Europe or head south as far as Senegal, Gambia and the Red Sea.", "There is also extensive northward post-breeding dispersal in the late summer, with numbers in southern England high from July to October.", "They will scavenge on rubbish tips and elsewhere, as well as seeking suitable prey in fields or on the coast, or robbing smaller gulls and other seabirds of their catches.", "Although urban populations are generally opportunistic scavengers, they can shift to a predatory diet if necessary, this was observed during the lockdown of Italy in 2020, when the lack of food scraps led the yellow-legged gulls of Rome to take prey as large as rats and rock doves.", "Atlantic gulls in Gibraltar have been observed and photographed picking and eating fruit from olive trees in flight.", "The nest is a sometimes sparse mound of vegetation built on the ground or on cliff ledges.", "In some places such as Gibraltar they have started nesting on buildings and even on trees."], "habitat_section": ["Mating on roof-top, Constanta, Romania The breeding range is centred on the Mediterranean Sea.", "In North Africa, it is common in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and increasing in places.", "Recent breeding has occurred in Libya and Egypt.", "In the Middle East, a few breed in Israel and Syria with larger numbers in Cyprus and Turkey.", "In Europe, there are colonies all along the Mediterranean coast, and also on the Atlantic islands and coasts north to Brittany and west to the Azores.", "It also breeds on the western side of the Black Sea, here it overlaps with the Caspian gull but there is a difference in habitat, with the yellow-legged gull preferring sea cliffs and the Caspian gull flatter shores.", "In recent decades birds have spread north into central and western Europe.", "One to four pairs have attempted to breed in southern England since 1995 , though colonisation has been very slow.", "Many birds remain in the same area all year round, but others migrate to spend the winter in mild areas of western Europe or head south as far as Senegal, Gambia and the Red Sea.", "There is also extensive northward post-breeding dispersal in the late summer, with numbers in southern England high from July to October.", "It is reported as a vagrant to northeastern North America and Nigeria."], "random_sentences": ["The yellow-legged gull is a large gull found in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, which has only recently achieved wide recognition as a distinct species.", "It was formerly treated as a subspecies of either the Caspian gull L. cachinnans, or more broadly as a subspecies of the herring gull L. argentatus.", "The genus name is from Latin Larus which appears to have referred to a gull or other large seabird, and the species name honours the German zoologist Karl Michahelles.", "In flight over the Gulf of Olbia", "It is now generally accepted that the yellow-legged gull is a full species, but until recently there was much disagreement.", "For example, British Birds magazine split the yellow-legged gull from the herring gull in 1993 but included the Caspian gull in the former, but the BOU in Great Britain retained the yellow-legged gull as a subspecies of the herring gull until 2007.", "DNA research, however, suggests that the yellow-legged gull is actually closest to the great black-backed gull L. marinus and the Armenian gull L. armenicus, while the Caspian gull is closer to the herring gull and the lesser black-backed gull L. fuscus, rather than being each other's closest relatives.", "There are two subspecies of the yellow-legged gull:", "Mating on roof-top, Constanta, Romania The breeding range is centred on the Mediterranean Sea.", "In North Africa, it is common in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and increasing in places.", "Recent breeding has occurred in Libya and Egypt.", "In the Middle East, a few breed in Israel and Syria with larger numbers in Cyprus and Turkey.", "In Europe, there are colonies all along the Mediterranean coast, and also on the Atlantic islands and coasts north to Brittany and west to the Azores.", "It also breeds on the western side of the Black Sea", "here it overlaps with the Caspian gull but there is a difference in habitat, with the yellow-legged gull preferring sea cliffs and the Caspian gull flatter shores.", "In recent decades birds have spread north into central and western Europe.", "One to four pairs have attempted to breed in southern England since 1995 , though colonisation has been very slow.", "Many birds remain in the same area all year round, but others migrate to spend the winter in mild areas of western Europe or head south as far as Senegal, Gambia and the Red Sea.", "There is also extensive northward post-breeding dispersal in the late summer, with numbers in southern England high from July to October.", "It is reported as a vagrant to northeastern North America and Nigeria.", "Nominate L. m. michahellis, Elba thumbnail", "Head of a two-year old yellow-legged gull taken at the Breton coast Juvenile with open beak The yellow-legged gull is a large gull, though the size does vary, with the smallest females being scarcely larger than a common gull and the largest males being roughly the size of a great black-backed gull.", "They range in length from in total length, from in wingspan and from in weight.", "Among standard measurements, the wing chord is , the bill is and the tarsus is .", "Adults are externally similar to herring gulls but have yellow legs.", "They have a grey back, slightly darker than herring gulls but lighter than lesser black-backed gulls.", "They are much whiter-headed in autumn, and have more extensively black wing tips with few white spots, just as lesser black-backed.", "They have a red spot on the bill as adults, like the entire complex.", "There is a red ring around the eye like in the lesser black-backed gull but unlike in the herring gull which has a dark yellow ring.", "First-year birds have a paler head, rump and underparts than those of the herring gull, more closely resembling first-year great black-backed gulls in plumage.", "They have a dark bill and eyes, pinkish grey legs, dark flight feathers and a well-defined black band on the tail.", "They become lighter in the underparts and lose the upperpart pattern subsequently.", "By their second winter, birds are essentially feathered like adults, save for the patterned feathers remaining on the wing coverts.", "However, their bill tips are black, their eyes still dark, and the legs are a light yellow flesh colour.", "The call is a loud laugh which is deeper and more nasal than the call of the herring gull.", "Larus michahellis juvenile in Rambla del Mar, Barcelona", "Yellow-legged gull eating a Eurasian collared dove in Barcelona Like most Larus gulls, they are omnivores and opportunistic foragers.", "They will scavenge on rubbish tips and elsewhere, as well as seeking suitable prey in fields or on the coast, or robbing smaller gulls and other seabirds of their catches.", "Although urban populations are generally opportunistic scavengers, they can shift to a predatory diet if necessary", "this was observed during the lockdown of Italy in 2020, when the lack of food scraps led the yellow-legged gulls of Rome to take prey as large as rats and rock doves.", "Atlantic gulls in Gibraltar have been observed and photographed picking and eating fruit from olive trees in flight.", "Larus michahellis atlantis - MHNT Yellow-legged gulls usually breed in colonies.", "Eggs, usually three, are laid from mid March to early May and are defended vigorously by this large gull.", "The nest is a sometimes sparse mound of vegetation built on the ground or on cliff ledges.", "In some places such as Gibraltar they have started nesting on buildings and even on trees.", "The eggs are incubated for 2731 days and the young birds fledge after 3540 days."]}, "Cygnus olor": {"keywords": ["It is native to much of Eurosiberia, and the far north of Africa.", "It is an introduced species in North America, home to the largest populations outside of its native range, with additional smaller introductions in Australasia and southern Africa.", "Mute swan subfossils, 6,000 years old, have been found in post-glacial peat beds of East Anglia, Great Britain.", "A related paleospecies recorded from fossils and subfossils is the Giant swan, Cygnus falconeri, a flightless species which lived on the islands of Malta and Sicily during the Middle Pleistocene.", "Fossils from the Pleistocene include Cygnus paloregonus from Fossil Lake, Oregon, Froman's Ferry, Idaho, and Arizona, referred to by Howard in The Waterfowl of the World as \" probably the mute type swan \" .", "Mute swans nest on large mounds that they build with waterside vegetation in shallow water on islands in the middle or at the very edge of a lake.", "They feed on a wide range of vegetation, both submerged aquatic plants which they reach with their long necks, and by grazing on land.", "The food commonly includes agricultural crop plants such as oilseed rape and wheat, and feeding flocks in the winter may cause significant crop damage, often as much through trampling with their large webbed feet, as through direct consumption.", "Unlike black swans, mute swans are usually strongly territorial with just a single pair on smaller lakes, though in a few locations where a large area of suitable feeding habitat is found they can be colonial. The largest colonies have over 100 pairs, such as at the colony at Abbotsbury Swannery in southern England, and at the southern tip of Oland Island, Ottenby Preserve, in the coastal waters of the Baltic Sea, and can have nests spaced as little as apart.", "A notable flock of non-breeding birds is found on the River Tweed estuary at Berwick-upon-Tweed in northeastern England, with a maximum count of 787 birds.", "Once the adults are mated they seek out their own territories and often live close to ducks and gulls, which may take advantage of the swan's ability to reach deep water weeds, which tend to spread out on the water surface.", "This limits the distribution of the species at the northern edge of its range as the cygnets need to learn to fly before the ponds and lakes freeze over.", "The mute swan is found naturally mainly in temperate areas of Europe then across the Palearctic as far east as Primorsky Krai, near Sidemi.", "It is partially migratory throughout northern latitudes in Europe and Asia, as far south as North Africa and the Mediterranean.", "While most of the current population in Japan is introduced, mute swans are depicted on scrolls more than 1,000 years old, and wild birds from the mainland Asian population still occur rarely in winter.", "The descendants of such birds have become naturalised in the eastern United States and Great Lakes, much as the Canada goose has done in Europe."], "habitat_section": ["The mute swan is found naturally mainly in temperate areas of Europe then across the Palearctic as far east as Primorsky Krai, near Sidemi.", "It is partially migratory throughout northern latitudes in Europe and Asia, as far south as North Africa and the Mediterranean.", "It is known and recorded to have nested in Iceland and is a vagrant to that area as well as to Bermuda, according to the UN Environment Programme chart of international status chart of bird species, which places it in 70 countries, breeding in 49 countries, and vagrant in 16 countries.", "While most of the current population in Japan is introduced, mute swans are depicted on scrolls more than 1,000 years old, and wild birds from the mainland Asian population still occur rarely in winter.", "Natural migrants to Japan usually occur along with whooper and sometimes Bewick's swans.", "The mute swan is protected in most of its range, but this has not prevented illegal hunting and poaching.", "It is often kept in captivity outside its natural range, as a decoration for parks and ponds, and escapes have happened.", "The descendants of such birds have become naturalised in the eastern United States and Great Lakes, much as the Canada goose has done in Europe."], "random_sentences": ["The mute swan is a species of swan and a member of the waterfowl family Anatidae.", "It is native to much of Eurosiberia, and the far north of Africa.", "It is an introduced species in North America, home to the largest populations outside of its native range, with additional smaller introductions in Australasia and southern Africa.", "The name 'mute' derives from it being less vocal than other swan species.", "Measuring in length, this large swan is wholly white in plumage with an orange beak bordered with black.", "It is recognizable by its pronounced knob atop the beak, which is larger in males.", "The mute swan was first formally described by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin as Anas olor in 1789, and was transferred by Johann Matthaus Bechstein to the new genus Cygnus in 1803.", "Both cygnus and olor mean \" swan \" in Latin", "cygnus is a variant form of cycnus, a borrowing from Greek kyknos, a word of the same meaning.", "Despite its Eurasian origin, its closest relatives are the black swan of Australia and the black-necked swan of South America, not the other Northern Hemisphere swans of the genus Cygnus.", "The species is monotypic, with no living subspecies.", "Mute swan subfossils, 6,000 years old, have been found in post-glacial peat beds of East Anglia, Great Britain.", "They have been recorded from Ireland east to Portugal and Italy, and from France, 13,000 BP .", "Cygnus olor bergmanni, which differed only in size from the living bird, is known from fossils found in Azerbaijan.", "A related paleospecies recorded from fossils and subfossils is the Giant swan, Cygnus falconeri, a flightless species which lived on the islands of Malta and Sicily during the Middle Pleistocene.", "Fossils of swan ancestors more distantly allied to the mute swan have been found in four U.S. states: California, Arizona, Idaho and Oregon.", "The timeline runs from the Miocene to the late Pleistocene, or 10,000 BP.", "The latest find was in Anza Borrego Desert, a state park in California.", "Fossils from the Pleistocene include Cygnus paloregonus from Fossil Lake, Oregon, Froman's Ferry, Idaho, and Arizona, referred to by Howard in The Waterfowl of the World as \" probably the mute type swan \" .", "Adults of this large swan typically range from long, although can range in extreme cases from , with a wingspan.", "Males are larger than females and have a larger knob on their bill.", "On average, this is the second largest waterfowl species after the trumpeter swan, although male mute swans can easily match or even exceed a male trumpeter in mass.", "Among standard measurements of the mute swan, the wing chord measures , the tarsus is and the bill is .", "The plumage is white, while the legs are dark grey.", "The beak of the mute swan is bright orange, with black around the nostrils and a black nail.", "The mute swan is one of the heaviest flying birds.", "In several studies from Great Britain, males were found to average from about , with a weight range of while the slightly smaller females averaged about , with a weight range of .", "Young birds, called cygnets, are not the bright white of mature adults, and their bill is dull greyish-black, not orange, for the first year.", "The down may range from pure white to grey to buff, with grey/buff the most common.", "The white cygnets have a leucistic gene.", "Cygnets grow quickly, reaching a size close to their adult size in approximately three months after hatching.", "Cygnets typically retain their grey feathers until they are at least one year old, with the down on their wings having been replaced by flight feathers earlier that year.", "All mute swans are white at maturity, though the feathers are often stained orange-brown by iron and tannins in the water.", "Two mute swan cygnets a few weeks old.", "The cygnet on the right is of the \" Polish swan \" colour morph, and carries a gene responsible for leucism.", "The colour morph C. o. morpha immutabilis , also known as the \" Polish swan \" , has pinkish legs and dull white cygnets", "as with white domestic geese, it is found only in populations with a history of domestication.", "Polish swans carry a copy of a gene responsible for leucism.", "Nest in Drilon, Pogradec, Albania.", "The cob is patrolling the area close to the nest to protect his mate.", "Mute swans nest on large mounds that they build with waterside vegetation in shallow water on islands in the middle or at the very edge of a lake.", "They are monogamous and often reuse the same nest each year, restoring or rebuilding it as needed.", "Male and female swans share the care of the nest, and once the cygnets are fledged it is not uncommon to see whole families looking for food.", "They feed on a wide range of vegetation, both submerged aquatic plants which they reach with their long necks, and by grazing on land.", "The food commonly includes agricultural crop plants such as oilseed rape and wheat, and feeding flocks in the winter may cause significant crop damage, often as much through trampling with their large webbed feet, as through direct consumption.", "Unlike black swans, mute swans are usually strongly territorial with just a single pair on smaller lakes, though in a few locations where a large area of suitable feeding habitat is found they can be colonial. The largest colonies have over 100 pairs, such as at the colony at Abbotsbury Swannery in southern England, and at the southern tip of Oland Island, Ottenby Preserve, in the coastal waters of the Baltic Sea, and can have nests spaced as little as apart.", "Non-mated juveniles up to 34 years old commonly form larger flocks, which can total several hundred birds, often at regular traditional sites.", "A notable flock of non-breeding birds is found on the River Tweed estuary at Berwick-upon-Tweed in northeastern England, with a maximum count of 787 birds.", "A large population exists near the Swan Lifeline Station in Windsor, and live on the Thames in the shadow of Windsor Castle.", "Once the adults are mated they seek out their own territories and often live close to ducks and gulls, which may take advantage of the swan's ability to reach deep water weeds, which tend to spread out on the water surface.", "The mute swan is less vocal than the noisy whooper and Bewick's swans", "they do, however, make a variety of sounds, often described as \" grunting, hoarse whistling, and snorting noises.", "\" During a courtship display, mute swans utter a rhythmic song.", "The song help synchronize the movements of their heads and necks.", "It could technically be employed to distinguish a bonded couple from two dating swans, as the rhythm of the song typically fails to match the pace of the head movements in two dating swans.", "Mute swans usually hiss at competitors or intruders trying to enter their territory.", "The most familiar sound associated with mute swans is the vibrant throbbing of the wings in flight which is unique to the species, and can be heard from a range of , indicating its value as a contact sound between birds in flight.", "Cygnets are especially vocal, and communicate through a variety of whistling and chirping sounds when content, as well as a harsh squawking noise when distressed or lost.", "Nesting in spring, Cologne, Germany Mute swans can be very aggressive in defence of their nests and are highly protective of their mate and offspring.", "Most defensive acts from a mute swan begin with a loud hiss and, if this is not sufficient to drive off the predator or intruder, are followed by a physical attack.", "Swans attack by striking at the threat with bony spurs in their wings, accompanied by biting with their large bill, while smaller waterbirds such as ducks are normally grabbed with the swan's bill and dragged or thrown clear of the swan and its offspring.", "The wings of the swan are very powerful, though not strong enough to break an adult man's leg, as is commonly misquoted.", "Large waterfowl, such as Canada geese, may be aggressively driven off, and mute swans regularly attack people who enter their territory.", "Healthy adults are rarely preyed upon, though canids such as coyotes, felids such as lynx, and bears can pose a threat to infirm ones (healthy adults can usually swim away from danger and nest defense is usually successful.", ") and there are a few cases of healthy adults falling prey to golden eagles.", "In England, there has been an increased rate of attacks on swans by out-of-control dogs, especially in parks where the birds are less territorial. This is considered criminal in British law, and the birds are placed under the highest protection due to their association with the monarch.", "Mute swans will readily attack dogs to protect themselves and their cygnets from an attack, and an adult swan is capable of overwhelming and drowning even large dog breeds.", "The familiar pose with neck curved back and wings half raised, known as busking, is a threat display.", "Both feet are paddled in unison during this display, resulting in more jerky movement.", "The swans may also use the busking posture for wind-assisted transportation over several hundred meters, so-called windsurfing.", "Like other swans, mute swans are known for their ability to grieve for a lost or dead mate or cygnet.", "Swans will go through a mourning process, and in the case of the loss of their mate, may either stay where its counterpart lived, or fly off to join a flock.", "Should one of the pair die while there are cygnets present, the remaining parent will take up their partner's duties in raising the clutch.", "Nest of a mute swan, Sweden Cygnets captured one day after they hatched.", "Newburg Lake, Livonia, MI, U.S. A three-day old cygnet Mute swans lay from 4 to 10 eggs.", "The female broods for around 36 days, with cygnets normally hatching between the months of May and July.", "The young swans do not achieve the ability to fly before about 120 to 150 days old.", "This limits the distribution of the species at the northern edge of its range as the cygnets need to learn to fly before the ponds and lakes freeze over.", "The mute swan is found naturally mainly in temperate areas of Europe then across the Palearctic as far east as Primorsky Krai, near Sidemi.", "It is partially migratory throughout northern latitudes in Europe and Asia, as far south as North Africa and the Mediterranean.", "It is known and recorded to have nested in Iceland and is a vagrant to that area as well as to Bermuda, according to the UN Environment Programme chart of international status chart of bird species, which places it in 70 countries, breeding in 49 countries, and vagrant in 16 countries.", "While most of the current population in Japan is introduced, mute swans are depicted on scrolls more than 1,000 years old, and wild birds from the mainland Asian population still occur rarely in winter.", "Natural migrants to Japan usually occur along with whooper and sometimes Bewick's swans.", "The mute swan is protected in most of its range, but this has not prevented illegal hunting and poaching.", "It is often kept in captivity outside its natural range, as a decoration for parks and ponds, and escapes have happened.", "The descendants of such birds have become naturalised in the eastern United States and Great Lakes, much as the Canada goose has done in Europe.", "The Threatened Swan by Jan Asselijn The mute swan has been the national bird of Denmark since 1984.", "Prior to that, the skylark was considered Denmark's national bird .", "The fairy tale \" The Ugly Duckling \" by Hans Christian Andersen tells the story of a cygnet ostracised by his fellow barnyard fowl because of his perceived unattractiveness.", "To his delight , he matures into a graceful swan, the most beautiful bird of all.", "Today, the British Monarch retains the right to ownership of all unmarked mute swans in open water, but Queen Elizabeth II exercised her ownership only on certain stretches of the Thames and its surrounding tributaries.", "This ownership is shared with the Vintners' and Dyers' Companies, who were granted rights of ownership by the Crown in the 15th century.", "The mute swans in the moat at the Bishops Palace at Wells Cathedral in Wells, England have for centuries been trained to ring bells via strings attached to them to beg for food.", "Two swans are still able to ring for lunch.", "The pair of swans in the Boston Public Garden are named Romeo and Juliet after the Shakespearean couple", "however, it was found that both of them are females."]}, "Ardea alba": {"keywords": ["Distributed across most of the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world, it builds tree nests in colonies close to water.", "Adult sitting on a bridge in California The great egret is generally a very successful species with a large and expanding range, occurring worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats.", "It is ubiquitous across the Sun Belt of the United States and in the Neotropics.", "However, in some parts of the southern United States, its numbers have declined due to habitat loss, particularly wetland degradation through drainage, grazing, clearing, burning, increased salinity, groundwater extraction and invasion by exotic plants.", "Nevertheless, the species adapts well to human habitation and can be readily seen near wetlands and bodies of water in urban and suburban areas.", "The great egret is partially migratory, with northern hemisphere birds moving south from areas with colder winters.", "The species breeds in colonies in trees close to large lakes with reed beds or other extensive wetlands, preferably at height of .", "Spearing a fish The great egret forages in shallow water or in drier habitats, feeding mainly on fish, frogs, other amphibians, small mammals , and occasionally small reptiles , crustaceans and insects ."], "habitat_section": ["Adult sitting on a bridge in California The great egret is generally a very successful species with a large and expanding range, occurring worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats.", "It is ubiquitous across the Sun Belt of the United States and in the Neotropics.", "In North America, large numbers of great egrets were killed around the end of the 19th century so that their plumes, known as \" aigrettes \" , could be used to decorate hats.", "Numbers have since recovered as a result of conservation measures.", "Its range has expanded as far north as southern Canada.", "However, in some parts of the southern United States, its numbers have declined due to habitat loss, particularly wetland degradation through drainage, grazing, clearing, burning, increased salinity, groundwater extraction and invasion by exotic plants.", "Nevertheless, the species adapts well to human habitation and can be readily seen near wetlands and bodies of water in urban and suburban areas.", "The great egret is partially migratory, with northern hemisphere birds moving south from areas with colder winters.", "It is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "In 1953, the great egret in flight was chosen as the symbol of the National Audubon Society, which was formed in part to prevent the killing of birds for their feathers.", "and a second breeding site was announced at Holkham National Nature Reserve in Norfolk where a pair fledged three young.", "In January 2021, Bird Guides, a UK website and magazine which reports sightings of rare birds, dropped the species from its list of nationally rare birds because sightings had become so numerous.", "A similar move northwards has been observed in the Nordic countries where historically it only was a rare visitor.", "The first confirmed breeding in Sweden was 2012 and in Denmark in 2014, and both countries now have small colonies.", "In 2018, a pair of great egrets nested in Finland for the first time, raising four young in a grey heron colony in Porvoo.", "The species breeds in colonies in trees close to large lakes with reed beds or other extensive wetlands, preferably at height of .", "It begins to breed at 23 years of age by forming monogamous pairs each season.", "Whether the pairing carries over to the next season is not known.", "The male selects the nest area, starts a nest, and then attracts a female.", "The nest, made of sticks and lined with plant material, could be up to 3 feet across.", "Up to six bluish green eggs are laid at one time.", "Both sexes incubate the eggs, and the incubation period is 2326 days.", "The young are fed by regurgitation by both parents and are able to fly within 67 weeks."], "random_sentences": ["The great egret , also known as the common egret, large egret, or great white egret or great white heron is a large, widely distributed egret, with four subspecies found in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and southern Europe, recently also spreading to more northern areas of Europe.", "Distributed across most of the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world, it builds tree nests in colonies close to water.", "Like all egrets, it is a member of the heron family, Ardeidae.", "Traditionally classified with the storks in the Ciconiiformes, the Ardeidae are closer relatives of pelicans and belong in the Pelecaniformes, instead.", "The great egretunlike the typical egretsdoes not belong to the genus Egretta, but together with the great herons is today placed in Ardea.", "In the past, however, it was sometimes placed in Egretta or separated in a monotypic genus Casmerodius.", "The Old World population is often referred to as the \" great white egret \" .", "This species is sometimes confused with the great white heron of the Caribbean, which is a white morph of the closely related great blue heron.", "The scientific name comes from Latin ardea, \" heron \" , and alba, \" white \" .", "Adult In flight The great egret is a large heron with all-white plumage.", "Standing up to tall, this species can measure in length and have a wingspan of .", "Body mass can range from , with an average around .", "It is thus only slightly smaller than the great blue or grey heron (A.", "Apart from size, the great egret can be distinguished from other white egrets by its yellow bill and black legs and feet, though the bill may become darker and the lower legs lighter in the breeding season.", "In breeding plumage, delicate ornamental feathers are borne on the back.", "Males and females are identical in appearance", "juveniles look like nonbreeding adults.", "Differentiated from the intermediate egret by the gape, which extends well beyond the back of the eye in case of the great egret, but ends just behind the eye in case of the intermediate egret.", "It has a slow flight, with its neck retracted.", "This is characteristic of herons and bitterns, and distinguishes them from storks, cranes, ibises, and spoonbills, which extend their necks in flight.", "The great egret walks with its neck extended and wings held close.", "The great egret is not normally a vocal bird", "it gives a low, hoarse croak when disturbed, and at breeding colonies, it often gives a loud croaking cuk cuk cuk and higher-pitched squawks.", "Adult sitting on a bridge in California The great egret is generally a very successful species with a large and expanding range, occurring worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats.", "It is ubiquitous across the Sun Belt of the United States and in the Neotropics.", "In North America, large numbers of great egrets were killed around the end of the 19th century so that their plumes, known as \" aigrettes \" , could be used to decorate hats.", "Numbers have since recovered as a result of conservation measures.", "Its range has expanded as far north as southern Canada.", "However, in some parts of the southern United States, its numbers have declined due to habitat loss, particularly wetland degradation through drainage, grazing, clearing, burning, increased salinity, groundwater extraction and invasion by exotic plants.", "Nevertheless, the species adapts well to human habitation and can be readily seen near wetlands and bodies of water in urban and suburban areas.", "The great egret is partially migratory, with northern hemisphere birds moving south from areas with colder winters.", "It is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "In 1953, the great egret in flight was chosen as the symbol of the National Audubon Society, which was formed in part to prevent the killing of birds for their feathers.", "and a second breeding site was announced at Holkham National Nature Reserve in Norfolk where a pair fledged three young.", "In January 2021, Bird Guides, a UK website and magazine which reports sightings of rare birds, dropped the species from its list of nationally rare birds because sightings had become so numerous.", "A similar move northwards has been observed in the Nordic countries where historically it only was a rare visitor.", "The first confirmed breeding in Sweden was 2012 and in Denmark in 2014, and both countries now have small colonies.", "In 2018, a pair of great egrets nested in Finland for the first time, raising four young in a grey heron colony in Porvoo.", "The species breeds in colonies in trees close to large lakes with reed beds or other extensive wetlands, preferably at height of .", "It begins to breed at 23 years of age by forming monogamous pairs each season.", "Whether the pairing carries over to the next season is not known.", "The male selects the nest area, starts a nest, and then attracts a female.", "The nest, made of sticks and lined with plant material, could be up to 3 feet across.", "Up to six bluish green eggs are laid at one time.", "Both sexes incubate the eggs, and the incubation period is 2326 days.", "The young are fed by regurgitation by both parents and are able to fly within 67 weeks.", "Spearing a fish The great egret forages in shallow water or in drier habitats, feeding mainly on fish, frogs, other amphibians, small mammals , and occasionally small reptiles , crustaceans and insects .", "This species normally impales its prey with its long, sharp bill by standing still and allowing the prey to come within the striking distance of its bill, which it uses as a spear.", "It often waits motionless for prey or slowly stalks its victim.", "A long-running field study suggested that the great egrets of central Europe host 17 different helminth species.", "Juvenile great egrets were shown to host fewer species, but the intensity of infection was higher in the juveniles than in the adults.", "Of the digeneans found in central European great egrets, numerous species likely infected their definitive hosts outside of central Europe itself.", "The great egret is depicted on the reverse side of a 5-Brazilian reais banknote.", "The great egret is the symbol of the National Audubon Society.", "An airbrushed photograph of a great egret in breeding plumage by Werner Krutein is featured in the cover art of the 1992 Faith No More album Angel Dust.", "In Belarus, a commemorative coin has the image of a great egret.", "The great egret also features on the New Zealand $2 coin and on the Hungarian 5-forint coin."]}, "Erithacus rubecula": {"keywords": ["The robin occurs in Eurasia east to Western Siberia, south to Algeria and on the Atlantic islands as far west as the Central Group of the Azores and Madeira.", "In southern Iberia, habitat segregation of resident and migrant robins occurs, with resident robins remaining in the same woodlands where they bred.", "There was a similar outcome in North America, as birds failed to become established after being released in Long Island, New York in 1852, Oregon in 18891892, and the Saanich Peninsula in British Columbia in 19081910.", "Well known to British and Irish gardeners, it is relatively unafraid of people and drawn to human activities involving the digging of soil, in order to look out for earthworms and other food freshly turned up.", "Robins also approach large wild animals, such as wild boar, which disturb the ground, to look for any food that might be brought to the surface.", "A spell of very low temperatures in winter can, however, result in higher mortality rates.", "As well as the usual crevices, or sheltered banks, other objects include pieces of machinery, barbecues, bicycle handlebars, bristles on upturned brooms, discarded kettles, watering cans, flower pots and hats.", "Nests are generally composed of moss, leaves and grass, with fine grass, hair and feathers for lining.", "After two to three months out of the nest, the juvenile bird grows some orange feathers under its chin, and over a similar period this patch gradually extends to complete the adult appearance of an entirely red-orange breast.", "Both the male and female sing during the winter, when they hold separate territories, the song then sounding more plaintive than the summer version.", "The female robin moves a short distance from the summer nesting territory to a nearby area that is more suitable for winter feeding.", "European robin feeding on snowy ground The robin features prominently in British folklore and that of northwestern France, but much less so in other parts of Europe.", "An alternative legend has it that its breast was scorched fetching water for souls in Purgatory."], "habitat_section": ["The robin occurs in Eurasia east to Western Siberia, south to Algeria and on the Atlantic islands as far west as the Central Group of the Azores and Madeira.", "It is a vagrant in Iceland.", "In the southeast, it reaches Iran the Caucasus range.", "In southern Iberia, habitat segregation of resident and migrant robins occurs, with resident robins remaining in the same woodlands where they bred.", "Attempts to introduce the European robin into Australia and New Zealand in the latter part of the 19th century were unsuccessful.", "Birds were released around Melbourne, Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Dunedin by various local acclimatisation societies, with none becoming established.", "There was a similar outcome in North America, as birds failed to become established after being released in Long Island, New York in 1852, Oregon in 18891892, and the Saanich Peninsula in British Columbia in 19081910.", "Robin with prey The robin is diurnal, although it has been reported to be active hunting insects on moonlit nights or near artificial light at night.", "Well known to British and Irish gardeners, it is relatively unafraid of people and drawn to human activities involving the digging of soil, in order to look out for earthworms and other food freshly turned up.", "The robin is considered to be a gardener's friend, and from the traditional association of the red breast with the blood of Christ, the robin would never be harmed.", "In continental Europe, on the other hand, robins were hunted and killed as were most other small birds, and are therefore more wary.", "Robins also approach large wild animals, such as wild boar, which disturb the ground, to look for any food that might be brought to the surface.", "In autumn and winter, robins will supplement their usual diet of terrestrial invertebrates, such as spiders, worms and insects, with berries and fruit.", "They will also eat seed mixtures and suet placed on bird-tables.", "Male robins are noted for their highly aggressive territorial behaviour.", "They will fiercely attack other males and competitors that stray into their territories and have been observed attacking other small birds without apparent provocation.", "There are instances of robins attacking their own reflection.", "Territorial disputes sometimes lead to fatalities, accounting for up to 10% of adult robin deaths in some areas.", "Because of high mortality in the first year of life, a robin has an average life expectancy of 1.1 years, however, once past its first year, life expectancy increases.", "One robin has been recorded as reaching 19 years of age.", "A spell of very low temperatures in winter can, however, result in higher mortality rates.", "The species is parasitised by the moorhen flea and the acanthocephalan Apororhynchus silesiacus.", "The European robin has an extensive range and a population numbering in the hundreds of millions.", "The species does not approach the vulnerable thresholds under the population trend criterion , the population appears to be increasing.", "The International Union for Conservation of Nature evaluates it as least concern."], "random_sentences": ["The European robin , known simply as the robin or robin redbreast in Great Britain", "Ireland, is a small insectivorous passerine bird that belongs to the chat subfamily of the Old World flycatcher family.", "About in length, the male and female are similar in colouration, with an orange breast and face lined with grey, brown upper-parts and a whitish belly.", "It is found across Europe, east to Western Siberia and south to North Africa", "it is sedentary in most of its range except the far north.", "The term robin is also applied to some birds in other families with red or orange breasts.", "These include the American robin , a thrush, and the Australasian robins of the family Petroicidae, the relationships of which are unclear.", "The European robin was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Motacilla rubecula.", "Its specific epithet rubecula is a diminutive derived from the Latin , meaning 'red'.", "The genus Erithacus was introduced by French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1800, giving the bird its current binomial name E. rubecula.", "The genus name Erithacus is from Ancient Greek and refers to an unknown bird, now usually identified as robin.", "The distinctive orange breast of both sexes contributed to the European robin's original name of \" redbreast \" , orange as a colour name being unknown in English until the 16th century, by which time the fruit had been introduced.", "In the 15th century, when it became popular to give human names to familiar species, the bird came to be known as robin redbreast, which was eventually shortened to robin.", "As a given name, Robin is originally a diminutive of Robert.", "Other older English names for the bird include ruddock and robinet.", "In American literature of the late 19th century, this robin was frequently called the English robin.", "The Dutch , French , German , Italian , Spanish and Portuguese all refer to the distinctively coloured front.", "The genus Erithacus previously included the Japanese robin and the Ryukyu robin.", "These east Asian species were shown in molecular phylogenetic studies to be more similar to a group of other Asian species than to the European robin.", "In a reorganisation of the genera, the Japanese and the Ryukyu robins were moved to the resurrected genus Larvivora leaving the European robin as the sole member of Erithacus.", "The phylogenetic analysis placed Erithacus in the subfamily Erithacinae, which otherwise contained only African species, but its exact position with respect to the other genera was not resolved.", "The genus Erithacus was formerly classified as a member of the thrush family but is now considered to belong to the Old World flycatcher family , specifically to the chats which also include the common nightingale.", "The larger American robin (T.", "migratorius) is named for its similarity to the European robin, but the two birds are not closely related.", "The similarity lies largely in the orange chest patch in both species.", "This American species was incorrectly shown \" feathering its nest \" in London in the film Mary Poppins, but it only occurs in the U.K. as a very rare vagrant.", "Some South and Central American Turdus thrushes are also called robins, such as the rufous-collared thrush.", "The Australian \" robin redbreast \" , more correctly the scarlet robin , is more closely related to crows and jays than it is to the European robin.", "It belongs to the family Petroicidae, whose members are commonly called \" Australasian robins \" .", "The red-billed leiothrix is sometimes named the \" Pekin robin \" by aviculturalists.", "Another group of Old World flycatchers, this time from Africa and Asia, is the genus Copsychus", "its members are known as magpie-robins, one of which, the Oriental magpie robin (C.", "saularis), is the national bird of Bangladesh.", "The adult European robin is .", " long and weighs , with a wingspan of .", "The male and female bear similar plumage: an orange breast and face , lined by a bluish grey on the sides of the neck and chest.", "The upperparts are brownish, or olive-tinged in British birds, and the belly whitish, while the legs and feet are brown.", "The bill and eyes are black.", "Juveniles are a spotted brown and white in colouration, with patches of orange gradually appearing.", "The robin occurs in Eurasia east to Western Siberia, south to Algeria and on the Atlantic islands as far west as the Central Group of the Azores and Madeira.", "It is a vagrant in Iceland.", "In the southeast, it reaches Iran the Caucasus range.", "In southern Iberia, habitat segregation of resident and migrant robins occurs, with resident robins remaining in the same woodlands where they bred.", "Attempts to introduce the European robin into Australia and New Zealand in the latter part of the 19th century were unsuccessful.", "Birds were released around Melbourne, Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Dunedin by various local acclimatisation societies, with none becoming established.", "There was a similar outcome in North America, as birds failed to become established after being released in Long Island, New York in 1852, Oregon in 18891892, and the Saanich Peninsula in British Columbia in 19081910.", "Robin with prey The robin is diurnal, although it has been reported to be active hunting insects on moonlit nights or near artificial light at night.", "Well known to British and Irish gardeners, it is relatively unafraid of people and drawn to human activities involving the digging of soil, in order to look out for earthworms and other food freshly turned up.", "The robin is considered to be a gardener's friend, and from the traditional association of the red breast with the blood of Christ, the robin would never be harmed.", "In continental Europe, on the other hand, robins were hunted and killed as were most other small birds, and are therefore more wary.", "Robins also approach large wild animals, such as wild boar, which disturb the ground, to look for any food that might be brought to the surface.", "In autumn and winter, robins will supplement their usual diet of terrestrial invertebrates, such as spiders, worms and insects, with berries and fruit.", "They will also eat seed mixtures and suet placed on bird-tables.", "Male robins are noted for their highly aggressive territorial behaviour.", "They will fiercely attack other males and competitors that stray into their territories and have been observed attacking other small birds without apparent provocation.", "There are instances of robins attacking their own reflection.", "Territorial disputes sometimes lead to fatalities, accounting for up to 10% of adult robin deaths in some areas.", "Because of high mortality in the first year of life, a robin has an average life expectancy of 1.1 years", "however, once past its first year, life expectancy increases.", "One robin has been recorded as reaching 19 years of age.", "A spell of very low temperatures in winter can, however, result in higher mortality rates.", "The species is parasitised by the moorhen flea and the acanthocephalan Apororhynchus silesiacus.", "Robins may choose a wide variety of sites for building a nest.", "In fact, anything which can offer some shelter, like a depression or hole, may be considered.", "As well as the usual crevices, or sheltered banks, other objects include pieces of machinery, barbecues, bicycle handlebars, bristles on upturned brooms, discarded kettles, watering cans, flower pots and hats.", "Robins will also nest in manmade nest boxes, favouring a design with an open front placed in a sheltered position up to from the ground.", "Nests are generally composed of moss, leaves and grass, with fine grass, hair and feathers for lining.", "Two or three clutches of five or six eggs are laid throughout the breeding season, which commences in March in Britain and Ireland.", "The eggs are a cream, buff or white speckled or blotched with reddish-brown colour, often more heavily so at the larger end.", "When juvenile birds fly from the nests, their colouration is entirely mottled brown.", "After two to three months out of the nest, the juvenile bird grows some orange feathers under its chin, and over a similar period this patch gradually extends to complete the adult appearance of an entirely red-orange breast.", "The robin produces a fluting, warbling during the breeding season.", "Both the male and female sing during the winter, when they hold separate territories, the song then sounding more plaintive than the summer version.", "The female robin moves a short distance from the summer nesting territory to a nearby area that is more suitable for winter feeding.", "The male robin keeps the same territory throughout the year.", "During the breeding season, male robins usually initiate their morning song an hour before civil sunrise, and usually terminate their daily singing around thirty minutes after sunset.", "Nocturnal singing can also occur, especially in urban areas that are artificially lit during the night.", "Under artificial light, nocturnal singing can be used by urban robins to actively shunt daytime anthropogenic noise.", "Very weak radio-frequency interference prevents migratory robins from orienting correctly to the Earth's magnetic field.", "Since this would not interfere with an iron compass, the experiments imply that the birds use a radical-pair mechanism.", "The European robin has an extensive range and a population numbering in the hundreds of millions.", "The species does not approach the vulnerable thresholds under the population trend criterion ", "the population appears to be increasing.", "The International Union for Conservation of Nature evaluates it as least concern.", "European robin feeding on snowy ground The robin features prominently in British folklore and that of northwestern France, but much less so in other parts of Europe.", "It was held to be a storm-cloud bird and sacred to Thor, the god of thunder, in Norse mythology.", "Robins feature in the traditional children's tale Babes in the Wood", "the birds cover the dead bodies of the children.", "The robin has become strongly associated with Christmas, taking a starring role on many Christmas cards since the mid-19th century.", "The robin has appeared on many Christmas postage stamps.", "An old British folk tale seeks to explain the robin's distinctive breast.", "Legend has it that when Jesus was dying on the cross, the robin, then simply brown in colour, flew to his side and sang into his ear in order to comfort him in his pain.", "The blood from his wounds stained the robin's breast, and thereafter all robins carry the mark of Christ's blood upon them.", "An alternative legend has it that its breast was scorched fetching water for souls in Purgatory.", "The association with Christmas more probably arises from the fact that postmen in Victorian Britain wore red jackets and were nicknamed \" Robins \"", "the robin featured on the Christmas card is an emblem of the postman delivering the card.", "In the 1960s, in a vote publicised by The Times, the robin was adopted as the unofficial national bird of the United Kingdom.", "In 2015, the robin was again voted Britain's national bird in a poll organised by birdwatcher David Lindo, taking 34% of the final vote.", "Several English and Welsh sports organisations are nicknamed \" the Robins \" .", "The nickname is typically used for teams whose home colours predominantly use red.", "These include the professional football clubs Bristol City, Crewe Alexandra, Swindon Town, Cheltenham Town , and, traditionally, Wrexham FC, as well as the English rugby league team the Hull Kingston Rovers .", "A small bird is an unusual choice, although it is thought to symbolise agility in darting around the field."]}, "Cuculus canorus": {"keywords": ["This species is a widespread summer migrant to Europe and Asia, and winters in Africa.", "a partial moult in summer and a complete moult in winter.", "Essentially a bird of open land, the common cuckoo is a widespread summer migrant to Europe and Asia, and winters in Africa.", "The common cuckoo has also occurred as a vagrant in countries including Barbados, the United States, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Indonesia, Palau, Seychelles, Taiwan and China.", "meadow pipit, dunnock and Eurasian reed warbler are the most common hosts in northern Europe, garden warbler, meadow pipit, pied wagtail and European robin in central Europe, brambling and common redstart in Finland, and great reed warbler in Hungary.", "Research has shown that the female common cuckoo is able to keep its egg inside its body for an extra 24 hours before laying it in a host's nest.", "Scientists incubated common cuckoo eggs for 24 hours at the bird's body temperature of , and examined the embryos, which were found \" much more advanced \" than those of other species studied.", "A study in Japan found that young common cuckoos probably acquire species-specific feather lice from body-to-body contact with other cuckoos between the time of leaving the nest and returning to the breeding area in spring.", "The tale was an explanation for their absence outside the summer season, later accepted by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History.", "Do paint the meadows with delight, .", "She sucks little birds' eggs to make her voice clear, And never sings cuckoo till the summer draws near The second, \" The Cuckoo's Nest \" is a song about a courtship, with the eponymous nest serving as a metaphor for the vulva and its tangled \" nest \" of pubic hair."], "habitat_section": ["Essentially a bird of open land, the common cuckoo is a widespread summer migrant to Europe and Asia, and winters in Africa.", "Birds arrive in Europe in April and leave in September.", "The common cuckoo has also occurred as a vagrant in countries including Barbados, the United States, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Indonesia, Palau, Seychelles, Taiwan and China.", "Between 1995 and 2015, the distribution of cuckoos within the UK has shifted towards the north, with a decline by 69% in England but an increase by 33% in Scotland."], "random_sentences": ["The common cuckoo is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, Cuculiformes, which includes the roadrunners, the anis and the coucals.", "This species is a widespread summer migrant to Europe and Asia, and winters in Africa.", "It is a brood parasite, which means it lays eggs in the nests of other bird species, particularly of dunnocks, meadow pipits, and reed warblers.", "Although its eggs are larger than those of its hosts, the eggs in each type of host nest resemble the host's eggs.", "The adult too is a mimic, in its case of the sparrowhawk", "since that species is a predator, the mimicry gives the female time to lay her eggs without being attacked.", "The species' binomial name is derived from the Latin cuculus and canorus (melodious", "from canere, meaning to sing).", "The cuckoo family gets its common name and genus name by onomatopoeia for the call of the male common cuckoo.", "The English word \" cuckoo \" comes from the Old French cucu, and its earliest recorded usage in English is from around 1240, in the song Sumer Is Icumen In.", "The song is written in Middle English, and the first two lines are: \" Svmer is icumen in / Lhude sing cuccu.", "\" In modern English, this translates to \" Summer has come in / Loudly sing, Cuckoo!", "There are four subspecies worldwide:", "Although the common cuckoo's global population appears to be declining, it is classified of being of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.", "It is estimated that the species numbers between 25 million and 100 million individuals worldwide, with around 12.6 million to 25.8 million of those birds breeding in Europe.", "The longest recorded lifespan of a common cuckoo in the United Kingdom is 6 years, 11 months and 2 days.", "Common cuckoo in flight The common cuckoo is long from bill to tail (with a tail of and a wingspan of .", "It has a greyish, slender body and long tail, similar to a sparrowhawk in flight, where the wingbeats are regular.", "During the breeding season, common cuckoos often settle on an open perch with drooped wings and raised tail.", "There is a rufous colour morph, which occurs occasionally in adult females but more often in juveniles.", "c. bakeri) from Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary in East Sikkim, India.", "All adult males are slate-grey", "the grey throat extends well down the bird's breast with a sharp demarcation to the barred underparts.", "The iris, orbital ring, the base of the bill and feet are yellow.", "Grey adult females have a pinkish-buff or buff background to the barring and neck sides, and sometimes small rufous spots on the median and greater coverts and the outer webs of the secondary feathers.", "Rufous morph adult females have reddish-brown upperparts with dark grey or black bars.", "The black upperpart bars are narrower than the rufous bars, as opposed to rufous juvenile birds, where the black bars are broader.", "Common cuckoos in their first autumn have variable plumage.", "Some have strongly-barred chestnut-brown upperparts, while others are plain grey.", "Rufous-brown birds have heavily barred upperparts with some feathers edged with creamy-white.", "All have whitish edges to the upper wing-coverts and primaries.", "The secondaries and greater coverts have chestnut bars or spots.", "In spring, birds hatched in the previous year may retain some barred secondaries and wing-coverts.", "The most obvious identification features of juvenile common cuckoos are the white nape patch and white feather fringes.", "Common cuckoos moult twice a year: a partial moult in summer and a complete moult in winter.", "Males weigh around and females .", "The common cuckoo looks very similar to the Oriental cuckoo, which is slightly shorter-winged on average.", "Cuckoo adult mimics sparrowhawk, giving female time to lay eggs parasitically", "altPhoto of sparrowhawk and cuckoo, looking similar The barred underparts of the common cuckoo resemble those of the Eurasian sparrowhawk, a predator of adult birds.", "A study comparing the responses of Eurasian reed warblers, a host of cuckoo chicks, to manipulated taxidermy model cuckoos and sparrowhawks found that reed warblers were more aggressive to cuckoos with obscured underparts, suggesting that the resemblance to sparrowhawks is likely to help the cuckoo access the nests of potential hosts.", "Other small birds, great tits and blue tits, showed alarm and avoided attending feeders on seeing either sparrowhawks or cuckoos", "this implies that the cuckoo's hawklike appearance functions as protective mimicry, whether to reduce attacks by hawks or to make brood parasitism easier.", "Hosts attack cuckoos more when they see neighbors mobbing cuckoos.", "The existence of the two plumage morphs in females may be due to frequency-dependent selection if this learning applies only to the morph that hosts see neighbors mob.", "In an experiment with dummy cuckoos of each morph and a sparrowhawk, reed warblers were more likely to attack both cuckoo morphs than the sparrowhawk, and even more likely to mob a certain cuckoo morph when they saw neighbors mobbing that morph, decreasing the reproductive success of that morph and selecting for the less common morph.", "Common cuckoo song, Kaluga region, Russia The male's song, goo-ko, is usually given from an open perch.", "During the breeding season the male typically gives this vocalisation with intervals of 1", "1.5 seconds, in groups of 10", "20 with a rest of a few seconds between groups.", "The female has a loud bubbling call.", "The song starts as a descending minor third early in the year in April, and the interval gets wider, through a major third to a fourth as the season progresses, and in June the cuckoo \" forgets its tune \" and may make other calls such as ascending intervals.", "The wings are drooped when calling intensely and when in the vicinity of a potential female, the male often wags its tail from side to side or the body may pivot from side to side.", "Essentially a bird of open land, the common cuckoo is a widespread summer migrant to Europe and Asia, and winters in Africa.", "Birds arrive in Europe in April and leave in September.", "The common cuckoo has also occurred as a vagrant in countries including Barbados, the United States, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Indonesia, Palau, Seychelles, Taiwan and China.", "Between 1995 and 2015, the distribution of cuckoos within the UK has shifted towards the north, with a decline by 69% in England but an increase by 33% in Scotland.", "The common cuckoo's diet consists of insects, with hairy caterpillars, which are distasteful to many birds, being a specialty of preference.", "It also occasionally eats eggs and chicks.", "This Eurasian reed warbler is raising a common cuckoo.", "The common cuckoo is an obligate brood parasite", "it lays its eggs in the nests of other birds.", "Hatched cuckoo chicks may push out host eggs out of the nest or be raised alongside the host's chicks.", "A female may visit up to 50 nests during a breeding season.", "Common cuckoos first breed at the age of two years.", "More than 100 host species have been recorded: meadow pipit, dunnock and Eurasian reed warbler are the most common hosts in northern Europe", "garden warbler, meadow pipit, pied wagtail and European robin in central Europe", "brambling and common redstart in Finland", "and great reed warbler in Hungary.", "Female common cuckoos are divided into gentes groups of females favouring a particular host species' nest and laying eggs that match those of that species in color and pattern.", "Evidence from mitochondrial DNA analyses suggest that each gente may have multiple independent origins due to parasitism of specific hosts by different ancestors.", "One hypothesis for the inheritance of egg appearance mimicry is that this trait is inherited from the female only, suggesting that it is carried on the sex-determining W chromosome .", "A genetic analysis of gentes supports this proposal by finding significant differentiation in mitochondrial DNA, but not in microsatellite DNA.", "Considering the tendency for common cuckoo males to mate with multiple females and produce offspring raised by more than one host species, it appears as though males do not contribute to the maintenance of common cuckoo gentes.", "However, it was found that only nine percent of offspring were raised outside of their father's presumed host species.", "Therefore, both males and females may contribute to the maintenance of common cuckoo egg mimicry polymorphism.", "It is notable that most non-parasitic cuckoo species lay white eggs, like most non-passerines other than ground-nesters.", "Cuckoo eggs mimicking smaller eggs, in this case of reed warbler", "altphoto of box of cuckoo and reed warbler eggs Cuculus canorus canorus in a nest Acrocephalus arundinaceus - MHNT Cuculus canorus bangsi in a nest Phoenicurus moussieri - MHNT As the common cuckoo evolves to lay eggs that better imitate the host's eggs, the host species adapts and is more able to distinguish the cuckoo egg.", "A study of 248 common cuckoo and host eggs demonstrated that female cuckoos that parasitised common redstart nests laid eggs that matched better than those that targeted dunnocks.", "Spectroscopy was used to model how the host species saw the cuckoo eggs.", "Cuckoos that target dunnock nests lay white, brown-speckled eggs, in contrast to the dunnock's own blue eggs.", "The theory suggests that common redstarts have been parasitised by common cuckoos for longer, and so have evolved to be better than the dunnocks at noticing the cuckoo eggs.", "The cuckoo, over time, has needed to evolve more accurate mimicking eggs to successfully parasitise the redstart.", "In contrast, cuckoos do not seem to have experienced evolutionary pressure to develop eggs which closely mimic the dunnock's, as dunnocks do not seem to be able to distinguish between the two species' eggs, despite the significant colour differences.", "The dunnock's inability to distinguish the eggs suggests that they have not been parasitised for very long, and have not yet evolved defences against it, unlike the redstart.", "Studies performed on great reed warbler nests in central Hungary, showed an \" unusually high \" frequency of common cuckoo parasitism, with 64% of the nests parasitised.", "Of the nests targeted by cuckoos, 64% contained one cuckoo egg, 23% had two, 10% had three and 3% had four common cuckoo eggs.", "In total, 58% of the common cuckoo eggs were laid in nests that were multiply parasitised.", "When laying eggs in nests already parasitised, the female cuckoos removed one egg at random, showing no discrimination between the great reed warbler eggs and those of other cuckoos.", "It was found that nests close to cuckoo perches were most vulnerable: multiple parasitised nests were closest to the vantage points, and unparasitised nests were farthest away.", "Nearly all the nests \" in close vicinity \" to the vantage points were parasitised.", "More visible nests were more likely to be selected by the common cuckoos.", "Female cuckoos use their vantage points to watch for potential hosts and find it easier to locate the more visible nests while they are egg-laying, however, novel studies highlight that host alarm calls might also play an important role during nest searching.", "In addition, cuckoos tend to lay the eggs on the host clutch initiation day or one day before.", "The great reed warblers' responses to the common cuckoo eggs varied: 66% accepted the egg", "20% abandoned the nests entirely", "28% of the cuckoo eggs were described as \" almost perfect \" in their mimesis of the host eggs, and the warblers rejected \" poorly mimetic \" cuckoo eggs more often.", "The degree of mimicry made it difficult for both the great reed warblers and the observers to tell the eggs apart.", "The egg measures and weighs , of which 7% is shell.", "Research has shown that the female common cuckoo is able to keep its egg inside its body for an extra 24 hours before laying it in a host's nest.", "This means the cuckoo chick can hatch before the host's chicks do, and it can eject the unhatched eggs from the nest.", "Scientists incubated common cuckoo eggs for 24 hours at the bird's body temperature of , and examined the embryos, which were found \" much more advanced \" than those of other species studied.", "The idea of 'internal incubation' was first put forward in 1802 and 18th- and 19th-century egg collectors had reported finding that cuckoo embryos were more advanced than those of the host species.", "A study using digital photography and spectrometry along with an automatic analytical approach to analyse cuckoo eggs and predict the identity of bird females based on their egg appearance showed that individual cuckoo females lay eggs with a relatively constant appearance, and that eggs laid by more genetically distant females differ more in colour.", "Complete list of common cuckoo's nest-host by Aleksander D. Numerov ", "names of birds in whose nests cuckoo's eggs and chicks were found more than 10 times : Yellow-bellied warbler Common linnet Common redpoll Paddyfield warbler Moustached warbler Great reed warbler Black-browed reed warbler Blyth's reed warbler Aquatic warbler Marsh warbler Sedge warbler Eurasian reed warbler Clamorous reed warbler Rusty-fronted barwing Long-tailed tit Eurasian skylark Dusky fulvetta Rufous-winged fulvetta Yellow-throated fulvetta Nepal fulvetta Brown-cheeked fulvetta Tawny pipit Red-throated pipit Blyth's pipit Olive-backed pipit Australasian pipit Meadow pipit Rosy pipit Buff-bellied pipit Water pipit Upland pipit Tree pipit Little spiderhunter Streaked spiderhunter Lesser shortwing White-browed shortwing Red-capped lark Lapland longspur Carduelis caniceps European goldfinch Twite Common rosefinch Pallas's rosefinch Short-toed treecreeper Eurasian treecreeper Cetti's warbler Brown-flanked bush warbler Rufous-tailed scrub robin European greenfinch Grey-capped greenfinch Golden-fronted leafbird Orange-bellied leafbird Brown dipper Zitting cisticola Golden-headed cisticola Hawfinch Purple cochoa Green cochoa White-rumped shama Oriental magpie-robin Black-winged cuckooshrike Grey-headed canary-flycatcher Azure-winged magpie Blue-and-white flycatcher Blue-throated blue flycatcher Common house martin Bronzed drongo Ashy drongo Yellow-breasted bunting Red-headed bunting Corn bunting Yellow-browed bunting Rock bunting Meadow bunting Cirl bunting Yellowhammer Yellow-throated bunting Chestnut-eared bunting Ortolan bunting Emberiza icterica Black-headed bunting Little bunting Rustic bunting Chestnut bunting Common reed bunting Black-faced bunting Tristram's bunting Black-backed forktail Spotted forktail Slaty-backed forktail European robin Horned lark Japanese grosbeak Slaty-backed flycatcher European pied flycatcher Narcissus flycatcher Red-breasted flycatcher Ultramarine flycatcher Slaty-blue flycatcher Common chaffinch Brambling Crested lark Streaked laughingthrush Ashy bulbul Rufous-backed sibia Grey sibia Booted warbler Icterine warbler Eastern olivaceous warbler Melodious warbler Sykes's warbler Barn swallow Black-naped monarch Malagasy bulbul Mountain bulbul White-bellied redstart Bull-headed shrike Red-backed shrike Brown shrike Great grey shrike Lesser grey shrike Long-tailed shrike Woodchat shrike Tiger shrike Silver-eared mesia Red-billed leiothrix White-browed tit-warbler Red-faced liocichla River warbler Savi's warbler Brown bush warbler Common grasshopper warbler Middendorff's grasshopper warbler Woodlark Indian blue robin Siberian rubythroat Siberian blue robin Thrush nightingale Common nightingale Himalayan rubythroat Bluethroat Pin-striped tit-babbler Striated grassbird Blue-winged minla Blue-capped rock thrush Monticola erythrogastra White-throated rock thrush Chestnut-bellied rock thrush Common rock thrush Blue rock thrush White wagtail Grey wagtail Citrine wagtail Western yellow wagtail Japanese wagtail White wagtail Motacilla sordidus Brown-breasted flycatcher Spotted flycatcher Verditer flycatcher White-winged grosbeak Blue whistling thrush Streaked wren-babbler Eyebrowed wren-babbler Large niltava Small niltava Rufous-bellied niltava Western black-eared wheatear Isabelline wheatear Northern wheatear Pied wheatear Eurasian golden oriole Dark-necked tailorbird Common tailorbird Bearded reedling Black-breasted parrotbill Vinous-throated parrotbill Eurasian blue tit Great tit Yellow-cheeked tit House sparrow Spanish sparrow Eurasian tree sparrow Russet sparrow Spot-throated babbler Buff-breasted babbler Puff-throated babbler Grey-chinned minivet Daurian redstart Eversmann's redstart Blue-fronted redstart Plumbeous water redstart Moussier's redstart Black redstart Common redstart Thick-billed warbler Western Bonelli's warbler Arctic warbler Yellow-vented warbler Common chiffchaff Sulphur-bellied warbler Yellow-browed warbler Pallas's leaf warbler Blyth's leaf warbler Wood warbler Radde's warbler Willow warbler Eurasian magpie Scaly-breasted cupwing Pygmy cupwing Rusty-cheeked scimitar babbler Coral-billed scimitar babbler Streak-breasted scimitar babbler White-browed scimitar babbler Black-throated prinia Himalayan prinia Yellow-bellied prinia Graceful prinia Rufescent prinia Tawny-flanked prinia Black-throated accentor Alpine accentor Brown accentor Dunnock Robin accentor Rufous-breasted accentor Trilling shrike-babbler Red-vented bulbul Flavescent bulbul Himalayan bulbul Black-capped bulbul Eurasian bullfinch Goldcrest White-throated fantail White-browed fantail Desert finch Long-billed wren-babbler Pied bush chat Grey bush chat White-tailed stonechat Whinchat Siberian stonechat Streaked scrub warbler Green-crowned warbler Chestnut-crowned warbler Grey-hooded warbler Atlantic canary Red-fronted serin Indian nuthatch Velvet-fronted nuthatch Tawny-breasted wren-babbler Eurasian siskin Crested finchbill Grey-throated babbler Rufous-fronted babbler Common starling Eurasian blackcap Garden warbler Eastern subalpine warbler Common whitethroat Spectacled warbler Lesser whitethroat Tristram's warbler Western Orphean warbler Sardinian warbler Barred warbler Dartford warbler Indian paradise flycatcher Grey-bellied tesia Chestnut-capped babbler Brown-capped laughingthrush Striped laughingthrush Eurasian wren Japanese thrush Black-breasted thrush Redwing Common blackbird Eyebrowed thrush Song thrush Fieldfare Ring ouzel Tickell's thrush Mistle thrush Long-tailed rosefinch Pale-footed bush warbler Whiskered yuhina Rufous-vented yuhina Orange-headed thrush Dark-sided thrush Long-billed thrush Indian white-eye ", "A chick of the common cuckoo in the nest of a tree pipit The naked, altricial chick hatches after 1113 days.", "It methodically evicts all host progeny from host nests.", "It is a much larger bird than its hosts, and needs to monopolize the food supplied by the parents.", "The chick will roll the other eggs out of the nest by pushing them with its back over the edge.", "If the host's eggs hatch before the cuckoo's, the cuckoo chick will push the other chicks out of the nest in a similar way.", "At 14 days old, the common cuckoo chick is about three times the size of an adult Eurasian reed warbler.", "The necessity of eviction behavior is unclear.", "One hypothesis is that competing with host chicks leads to decreased cuckoo chick weight, which is selective pressure for eviction behavior.", "An analysis of the amount of food provided to common cuckoo chicks by host parents in the presence and absence of host siblings showed that when competing against host siblings, cuckoo chicks did not receive enough food, showing an inability to compete.", "Selection pressure for eviction behavior may come from cuckoo chicks lacking the correct visual begging signals, hosts distributing food to all nestlings equally, or host recognition of the parasite.", "Species whose broods are parasitised by the common cuckoo have evolved to discriminate against cuckoo eggs but not chicks.", "Experiments have shown that common cuckoo chicks persuade their host parents to feed them by making a rapid begging call that sounds \" remarkably like a whole brood of host chicks.", "\" The researchers suggested that \" the cuckoo needs vocal trickery to stimulate adequate care to compensate for the fact that it presents a visual stimulus of just one gape.", "\" However, a cuckoo chick needs the amount of food of a whole brood of host nestlings, and it struggles to elicit that much from the host parents with only the vocal stimulus.", "This may reflect a tradeoffthe cuckoo chick benefits from eviction by receiving all the food provided, but faces a cost in being the only one influencing feeding rate.", "For this reason, cuckoo chicks exploit host parental care by remaining with the host parent longer than host chicks do, both before and after fledging.", "Common cuckoo chicks fledge about 1721 days after hatching, If the hen cuckoo is out-of-phase with a clutch of Eurasian reed warbler eggs, she will eat them all so that the hosts are forced to start another brood.", "The common cuckoo's behaviour was firstly observed and described by Aristotle and the combination of behaviour and anatomical adaptation by Edward Jenner, who was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society in 1788 for this work rather than for his development of the smallpox vaccine.", "It was first documented on film in 1922 by Edgar Chance and Oliver G Pike, in their film The Cuckoo's Secret.", "A study in Japan found that young common cuckoos probably acquire species-specific feather lice from body-to-body contact with other cuckoos between the time of leaving the nest and returning to the breeding area in spring.", "A total of 21 nestlings were examined shortly before they left their hosts' nests and none carried feather lice.", "However, young birds returning to Japan for the first time were found just as likely as older individuals to be lousy.", "The occurrence of common cuckoo in Europe is a good surrogate for biodiversity facets including taxonomic diversity and functional diversity in bird communities, and better than the traditional use of top predators as bioindicators.", "The reason for this is the strong correlation between the cuckoo's host species richness and overall bird species richness, due to co-evolutionary relationships.", "This may be useful for citizen science.", "Aristotle was aware of the old tale that cuckoos turned into hawks in winter.", "The tale was an explanation for their absence outside the summer season, later accepted by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History.", "Aristotle rejected the claim, observing in his History of Animals that cuckoos do not have the predators' talons or hooked bills.", "These Classical era accounts were known to the Early Modern English naturalist, William Turner.", "The 13th-century medieval English round, \" Sumer Is Icumen In \" , celebrates the cuckoo as a sign of spring, the beginning of summer, in the first stanza, and in the chorus:", "Middle English Svmer is icumen in Lhude sing cuccu Growe sed and blowe med and spring e wde nu Sing cuccu ", "Modern English Summer has arrived, Sing loudly, cuckoo!", "The seed is growing And the meadow is blooming, And the wood is coming into leaf now, Sing, cuckoo!", " In England, William Shakespeare alludes to the common cuckoo's association with spring, and with cuckoldry, in the courtly springtime song in his play Love's Labours Lost: :When daisies pied and violets blue :::And lady-smocks all silver-white .", " :And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue :::Do paint the meadows with delight, :The cuckoo then, on every tree, :Mocks married men", "for thus sings he: ::: \" Cuckoo", "\" O, word of fear, :::Unpleasing to a married ear!", "Golden cuckoo in the coat of arms of Suomenniemi In Europe, hearing the call of the common cuckoo is regarded as the first harbinger of spring.", "Many local legends and traditions are based on this.", "In Scotland, gowk stanes sometimes associated with the arrival of the first cuckoo of spring.", "\" Gowk \" is an old name for the common cuckoo in northern England, derived from the harsh repeated \" gowk \" call the bird makes when excited.", "The well-known cuckoo clock features a mechanical bird and is fitted with bellows and pipes that imitate the call of the common cuckoo.", "Cuckoos feature in traditional rhymes, such as ' \" In April the cuckoo comes, In May she'll stay, In June she changes her tune, In July she prepares to fly, Come August, go she must, \" ' quoted Peggy.", "'But you haven't said it all,' put in Bobby.", "' \" And if the cuckoo stays till September, It's as much as the oldest man can remember.", "\" ' On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring is a symphonic poem from Norway composed for orchestra by Frederick Delius.", "Two English folk songs feature cuckoos.", "One usually called The Cuckoo starts: The cuckoo is a fine bird and she sings as she flies, She brings us good tidings, she tells us no lies.", " She sucks little birds' eggs to make her voice clear, And never sings cuckoo till the summer draws near The second, \" The Cuckoo's Nest \" is a song about a courtship, with the eponymous nest serving as a metaphor for the vulva and its tangled \" nest \" of pubic hair.", " Some like a girl who is pretty in the face and some like a girl who is slender in the waist But give me a girl who will wriggle and will twist At the bottom of the belly lies the cuckoo's nest...", "Me darling, says she, I can do no such thing For me mother often told me it was committing sin Me maidenhead to lose and me sex to be abused So have no more to do with me cuckoo's nest One of the tales of the Wise Men of Gotham tells how they built a hedge round a tree in order to trap a cuckoo so that it would always be summer.", "The theme music for film comedians Laurel and Hardy, titled \" Dance of The Cuckoos \" and composed by Marvin Hatley, was based on the call of the common cuckoo."]}, "Dryocopus martius": {"keywords": ["Black woodpecker drumming The black woodpecker is a large woodpecker that lives in mature forests across the northern Palearctic.", "This non-migratory species tends to make its home in old-growth forest or large forest stands and excavates a large tree hole to reside in.", "The black woodpecker is mainly found in forested regions, with a preference for extensive, mature woodland, including coniferous, tropical, subtropical and boreal forests.", "It is very widespread throughout mountainous and lowland forests.", "At one point, when much of Europe and Asia was deforested, this species declined and in some areas is still struggling today, including in the Pyrenees.", "However, with the restoration of some forested areas, black woodpeckers have increased in some parts of Europe.", "Dryocopus martius martius is thought to be the woodpecker referred to in the augural instructions on the early Italic Iguvine Tablets by the Umbrian word peiqu, a bird \" very prominent in early Italic religion and mythology."], "habitat_section": ["A black woodpecker taking anting bath in Hungary The range of the black woodpecker spreads east from Spain across the whole of Europe, excluding Great Britain, Ireland, and northern Scandinavia.", "It is also native to parts of Asia, including Korea, Japan and China, and to the Middle East, including Iran and Kazakhstan.", "The southern limits of this woodpecker's range are in Spain and Italy, and it has also been recorded as a vagrant in Portugal. The species is generally more uncommon and more discontinuous in distribution in the Asian part of its range.", "The black woodpecker is mainly found in forested regions, with a preference for extensive, mature woodland, including coniferous, tropical, subtropical and boreal forests.", "It is very widespread throughout mountainous and lowland forests.", "It is more likely to occur in marginal woods near human habitations during the non-breeding season.", "This species has been observed at elevations between .", "The black woodpecker is noticeably absent from the British Isles.", "Approximately 80 sightings of the species in the UK have been reported, but some of these are disputed, though the proximity of the British Isles to the species' range in Western Europe means that the species may cross over on a regular basis.", "Tree work by black woodpecker Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden The woodpecker feeds by using its bill to hammer on dead trees to dig out carpenter ants and wood-boring beetle grubs.", "The selection of foods is relatively predictable, narrow and consistent in this species.", "Like all woodpeckers, this species has a specially adapted neck containing very strong muscles, which allow it to endlessly hack away at tree bark.", "Due to the size of its bill and large size and great physical power of this bird, it can access prey fairly deep within a tree.", "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.", "It not only provides habitats for other species, but also controls populations of wood-boring insects, helping to protect the trees.", "When the nest is ready, the female lays a single clutch of two to eight eggs, the average being four to six.", "The nest hole is usually dug in a live poplar or pine tree.", "The breeding pair take it in turns to incubate the eggs, also sharing duties of feeding and brooding the chicks once they have hatched.", "The nestlings may fight their way to the entrance of the nest in order to be fed first.", "After 18 to 35 days, the young black woodpeckers will leave the nest, staying with the adults for another week."], "random_sentences": ["Black woodpecker drumming The black woodpecker is a large woodpecker that lives in mature forests across the northern Palearctic.", "It is the sole representative of its genus in that region.", "The black woodpecker is easily the largest woodpecker species in Europe as well as in the portion of Asia where it lives and is one of the largest species worldwide.", "This non-migratory species tends to make its home in old-growth forest or large forest stands and excavates a large tree hole to reside in.", "In turn, several species rely on black woodpeckers to secondarily reside in the holes made in trees by them.", "This woodpeckers diet is comprised mostly of carpenter ants.", "This species is closely related to, and fills the same ecological niche in Europe as, the pileated woodpecker of North America and the lineated woodpecker of South America, also being similar to the white-bellied woodpecker which is distributed to the south somewhat of the black woodpecker in Asia.", "The black woodpecker was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Picus martius.", "Linnaeus gave the locality as Europe, but this is now taken to be Sweden.", "The black woodpecker is now placed in the genus Dryocopus that was introduced by the German naturalist Friedrich Boie in 1826.", "Skull of a black woodpecker The black woodpecker measures long with a wingspan.", "Body weight is approximately on average.", "The piercing yellow eyes and manic, high-pitched calls of the black woodpecker have made it the villain of fairy tales throughout its range.", "Their voice is remarkable in that it has two different calls.", "One is a short single high-pitched note, a loud, whistling kree-kree-kree, done only twice in a row.", "The other is a screech-like shrill while in flight.", "Unlike other woodpecker species, the black woodpecker does not have a dipping, bounding flight, but instead flies with slow, unsteady-seeming wing beats with its head raised.", "A black woodpecker taking anting bath in Hungary The range of the black woodpecker spreads east from Spain across the whole of Europe, excluding Great Britain, Ireland, and northern Scandinavia.", "It is also native to parts of Asia, including Korea, Japan and China, and to the Middle East, including Iran and Kazakhstan.", "The southern limits of this woodpecker's range are in Spain and Italy, and it has also been recorded as a vagrant in Portugal. The species is generally more uncommon and more discontinuous in distribution in the Asian part of its range.", "The black woodpecker is mainly found in forested regions, with a preference for extensive, mature woodland, including coniferous, tropical, subtropical and boreal forests.", "It is very widespread throughout mountainous and lowland forests.", "It is more likely to occur in marginal woods near human habitations during the non-breeding season.", "This species has been observed at elevations between .", "The black woodpecker is noticeably absent from the British Isles.", "Approximately 80 sightings of the species in the UK have been reported, but some of these are disputed, though the proximity of the British Isles to the species' range in Western Europe means that the species may cross over on a regular basis.", "Tree work by black woodpecker Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden The woodpecker feeds by using its bill to hammer on dead trees to dig out carpenter ants and wood-boring beetle grubs.", "The selection of foods is relatively predictable, narrow and consistent in this species.", "Like all woodpeckers, this species has a specially adapted neck containing very strong muscles, which allow it to endlessly hack away at tree bark.", "Due to the size of its bill and large size and great physical power of this bird, it can access prey fairly deep within a tree.", "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.", "It not only provides habitats for other species, but also controls populations of wood-boring insects, helping to protect the trees.", "When the nest is ready, the female lays a single clutch of two to eight eggs, the average being four to six.", "The nest hole is usually dug in a live poplar or pine tree.", "The breeding pair take it in turns to incubate the eggs, also sharing duties of feeding and brooding the chicks once they have hatched.", "The nestlings may fight their way to the entrance of the nest in order to be fed first.", "After 18 to 35 days, the young black woodpeckers will leave the nest, staying with the adults for another week.", "The black woodpecker is a fairly widely distributed woodland species and can successfully breed in most areas where extensive woodland is left.", "At one point, when much of Europe and Asia was deforested, this species declined and in some areas is still struggling today, including in the Pyrenees.", "They normally require mature trees and ample stands of dead trees to sustain a viable breeding population.", "However, with the restoration of some forested areas, black woodpeckers have increased in some parts of Europe.", "northern goshawks , common buzzards and golden eagles .", "The black woodpecker in the coat of arms of Pielisjarvi The municipality of Nurmijarvi in Uusimaa, Finland has adopted the black woodpecker as the title bird of the municipality, because in addition to being the most common bird in the locality, it also appears in the literature of Aleksis Kivi, a Finnish national author, originally from the Nurmijarvi.", "Nurmijarvi's local football club NJS has also adopted the black woodpecker as the club's logo.", "Dryocopus martius martius is thought to be the woodpecker referred to in the augural instructions on the early Italic Iguvine Tablets by the Umbrian word peiqu, a bird \" very prominent in early Italic religion and mythology."]}, "Tringa glareola": {"keywords": ["Rather, its closest relative is the common redshank , and these two share a sister relationship with the marsh sandpiper .", "The wood sandpiper breeds in subarctic wetlands from the Scottish Highlands across Europe and then east across the Palearctic.", "Vagrant birds have been seen as far into the Pacific as the Hawaiian Islands.", "In Micronesia it is a regular visitor to the Mariana Islands and Palau, it is recorded on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands about once per decade.", "This bird is usually found on freshwater during migration and wintering.", "They forage by probing in shallow water or on wet mud, and mainly eat insects and similar small prey.", "The wood sandpiper is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies."], "habitat_section": ["The wood sandpiper breeds in subarctic wetlands from the Scottish Highlands across Europe and then east across the Palearctic.", "They migrate to Africa, Southern Asia, particularly India, and Australia.", "Vagrant birds have been seen as far into the Pacific as the Hawaiian Islands.", "In Micronesia it is a regular visitor to the Mariana Islands and Palau, it is recorded on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands about once per decade.", "This species is encountered in the western Pacific region between mid-October and mid-May.", "A slight westward expansion saw the establishment of a small but permanent breeding population in Scotland since the 1950s.", "This bird is usually found on freshwater during migration and wintering.", "They forage by probing in shallow water or on wet mud, and mainly eat insects and similar small prey.", "T. glareola nests on the ground or uses an abandoned old tree nest of another bird, such as the fieldfare .", "Four pale green eggs are laid between March and May.", "Adult wood sandpipers moult all their primary feathers between August and December, whilst immature birds moult varying number of outer primaries between December and April, much closer to their departure from Africa.", "Immatures are also much more flexible than adults in the timing and rate of their moult and refueling.", "Adults and immatures which accumulate fuel loads of c.50% of their lean body mass can potentially cross distances of 23974490 km in one non-stop flight.", "The wood sandpiper is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "Widespread, it is considered a Species of Least Concern by the IUCN."], "random_sentences": ["Tringa glareola The wood sandpiper is a small wader.", "This Eurasian species is the smallest of the shanks, which are mid-sized long-legged waders of the family Scolopacidae.", "The genus name Tringa is the New Latin name given to the green sandpiper by Aldrovandus in 1599 based on Ancient Greek trungas, a thrush-sized, white-rumped, tail-bobbing wading bird mentioned by Aristotle.", "The specific glareola is from Latin glarea, \" gravel \" .", "It resembles a longer-legged and more delicate green (T.", "ochropus) or solitary sandpiper (T.", "solitaria) with a short fine bill, brown back and longer yellowish legs.", "It differs from the first of those species in a smaller and less contrasting white rump patch, while the solitary sandpiper has no white rump patch at all.", "However, it is not very closely related to these two species.", "Rather, its closest relative is the common redshank (T.", "totanus), and these two share a sister relationship with the marsh sandpiper (T.", "These three species are a group of smallish shanks with red or yellowish legs, a breeding plumage that is generally subdued light brown above with some darker mottling and with a pattern of somewhat diffuse small brownish spots on the breast and neck.", "The wood sandpiper breeds in subarctic wetlands from the Scottish Highlands across Europe and then east across the Palearctic.", "They migrate to Africa, Southern Asia, particularly India, and Australia.", "Vagrant birds have been seen as far into the Pacific as the Hawaiian Islands.", "In Micronesia it is a regular visitor to the Mariana Islands and Palau", "it is recorded on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands about once per decade.", "This species is encountered in the western Pacific region between mid-October and mid-May.", "A slight westward expansion saw the establishment of a small but permanent breeding population in Scotland since the 1950s.", "This bird is usually found on freshwater during migration and wintering.", "They forage by probing in shallow water or on wet mud, and mainly eat insects and similar small prey.", "T. glareola nests on the ground or uses an abandoned old tree nest of another bird, such as the fieldfare .", "Four pale green eggs are laid between March and May.", "Adult wood sandpipers moult all their primary feathers between August and December, whilst immature birds moult varying number of outer primaries between December and April, much closer to their departure from Africa.", "Immatures are also much more flexible than adults in the timing and rate of their moult and refueling.", "Adults and immatures which accumulate fuel loads of c.50% of their lean body mass can potentially cross distances of 23974490 km in one non-stop flight.", "The wood sandpiper is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "Widespread, it is considered a Species of Least Concern by the IUCN."]}, "Phoenicurus ochruros": {"keywords": ["It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but north-eastern birds migrate to winter in southern and western Europe and Asia, and north Africa.", "On passage it is fairly common on the east and south coasts, and in winter on the coasts of Wales and western and southern England, with a few also at inland sites.", "They also winter on the south and east coasts of Ireland.", "The species originally inhabited stony ground in mountains, particularly cliffs, but since about 1900 has expanded to include similar urban habitats including bombed areas during and after World War II, and large industrial complexes that have the bare areas and cliff-like buildings it favours, in Great Britain, most of the small breeding population nests in such industrial areas.", "It will catch passing insects in flight, and migrants often hunt in coastal tide-wrack for flies or tiny crustaceans.", "The nest is built by the female and is typically placed in a crevice or hole in rock or a wall or on a ledge of a building."], "habitat_section": ["It is a widespread breeder in south and central Europe and Asia and north-west Africa, from Great Britain and Ireland south to Morocco, east to central China.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but north-eastern birds migrate to winter in southern and western Europe and Asia, and north Africa.", "It nests in crevices or holes in buildings.", "In Britain, it is most common as a passage and winter visitor, with only 2050 pairs breeding.", "On passage it is fairly common on the east and south coasts, and in winter on the coasts of Wales and western and southern England, with a few also at inland sites.", "Migrant black redstarts arrive in Britain in October or November and either move on or remain to winter, returning eastward in March or April.", "They also winter on the south and east coasts of Ireland.", "The species originally inhabited stony ground in mountains, particularly cliffs, but since about 1900 has expanded to include similar urban habitats including bombed areas during and after World War II, and large industrial complexes that have the bare areas and cliff-like buildings it favours, in Great Britain, most of the small breeding population nests in such industrial areas.", "It will catch passing insects in flight, and migrants often hunt in coastal tide-wrack for flies or tiny crustaceans.", "Its quick ducks of head and body are robin-like, and its tail is often flicked.", "The male has a rattling song and a tick call.", "Eastern race birds are very rare vagrants in western Europe."], "random_sentences": ["The black redstart is a small passerine bird in the genus Phoenicurus.", "Like its relatives, it was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family , but is now known to be an Old World flycatcher .", "Obsolete common names include Tithys redstart, blackstart and black redtail.", "The first formal description of the black redstart was by the German naturalist Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin in 1774 under the binomial name Mottacilla ochruros.", " The species is now placed in the genus Phoenicurus that was introduced in 1817 by the English naturalist Thomas Forster.", "Both parts of the scientific name are from Ancient Greek and refer to the colour of the tail.", "The genus name Phoenicurus is from phoinix, \" red \" , and -ouros - \" tailed \" , and the specific ochruros is from okhros, \" pale yellow \" and -ouros.", "The black redstart is a member of a temperate Eurasian clade, which also includes the Daurian redstart, Hodgson's redstart, the white-winged redstart and perhaps Przevalski's redstart.", "The ancestors of the present species diverged from about 3 million years ago onwards and spread throughout much of Palearctic from 1.5 mya onward.", "It is not very closely related to the common redstart.", "As these are separated by different behaviour and ecological requirements and have not evolved fertilisation barriers, the two European species can produce apparently fertile and viable hybrids.", "There are a number of subspecies, which differ mainly in the underpart colours of the adult males", "different authorities accept between five and seven subspecies.", "They can be separated into three major groups, according to morphology, biogeography and mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data.", "Basal central and eastern Asian forms which diverged from the ancestral stock as the species slowly spread west .", "Females and juveniles light grey brown.", "Western Asian forms, whose lineage separated from the gibraltariensis group c. 1.50.5 mya.", "European population, which formed as a distinct subspecies probably during the last ice age.", "Females and juveniles dark grey.", "The black redstart is in length and in weight, similar to the common redstart.", "The adult male is overall dark grey to black on the upperparts and with a black breast", "the lower rump and tail are orange-red, with the two central tail feathers dark red-brown.", "The belly and undertail are either blackish-grey (western subspecies", "see Taxonomy and systematics, above) or orange-red ", "the wings are blackish-grey with pale fringes on the secondaries forming a whitish panel or all blackish .", "The female is grey to grey-brown overall except for the orange-red lower rump and tail, greyer than the common redstart", "at any age the grey axillaries and underwing coverts are also distinctive .", "Yearling males are similar to females but blacker", "the whitish wing panel of the western subspecies does not develop until the second year.", "Black redstart, Sector 38 West, Chandigarh, India right", "It is a widespread breeder in south and central Europe and Asia and north-west Africa, from Great Britain and Ireland south to Morocco, east to central China.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but north-eastern birds migrate to winter in southern and western Europe and Asia, and north Africa.", "It nests in crevices or holes in buildings.", "In Britain, it is most common as a passage and winter visitor, with only 2050 pairs breeding.", "On passage it is fairly common on the east and south coasts, and in winter on the coasts of Wales and western and southern England, with a few also at inland sites.", "Migrant black redstarts arrive in Britain in October or November and either move on or remain to winter, returning eastward in March or April.", "They also winter on the south and east coasts of Ireland.", "The species originally inhabited stony ground in mountains, particularly cliffs, but since about 1900 has expanded to include similar urban habitats including bombed areas during and after World War II, and large industrial complexes that have the bare areas and cliff-like buildings it favours", "in Great Britain, most of the small breeding population nests in such industrial areas.", "It will catch passing insects in flight, and migrants often hunt in coastal tide-wrack for flies or tiny crustaceans.", "Its quick ducks of head and body are robin-like, and its tail is often flicked.", "The male has a rattling song and a tick call.", "Eastern race birds are very rare vagrants in western Europe.", "Black redstarts are usually monogamous.", "They start breeding in mid-April.", "The nest is built by the female and is typically placed in a crevice or hole in rock or a wall or on a ledge of a building.", "The nest consists of a loose cup of grass and stems and is lined with hair, wool and feathers.", "The eggs are laid daily.", "The clutch consists of 4 to 6 eggs that are usually white but can also be pale blue.", "On average they measure and weigh .", "Beginning after the final egg is laid, the eggs are incubated by the female for 1317 days.", "The young are cared for and fed by both parents and fledge after 1219 days."]}, "Phoenicurus phoenicurus": {"keywords": ["Female The male in summer has a slate-grey head and upperparts, except the rump and tail, which, like the flanks, underwing coverts and axillaries are orange-chestnut.", "Common redstarts prefer open mature birch and oak woodland with a high horizontal visibility and low amounts of shrub and understorey especially where the trees are old enough to have holes suitable for its nest.", "In Britain it occurs primarily in upland areas less affected by agricultural intensification, but further east in Europe also commonly in lowland areas, including parks and old gardens in urban areas.", "They also use mature open conifer woodland, particularly in the north of the breeding range.", "In England, where it has declined by 55% in the past 25 years , the Forestry Commission offers grants under a scheme called England's Woodland Improvement Grant , as does Natural Englands Environmental Stewardship Scheme.", "Common redstart diet It is a summer visitor throughout most of Europe and western Asia , and also in northwest Africa in Morocco.", "It winters in central Africa and Arabia, south of the Sahara Desert but north of the Equator, from Senegal east to Yemen.", "It is widespread as a breeding bird in Great Britain, particularly in upland broadleaf woodlands and hedgerow trees, but in Ireland it is very local, and may not breed every year."], "habitat_section": ["Common redstarts prefer open mature birch and oak woodland with a high horizontal visibility and low amounts of shrub and understorey especially where the trees are old enough to have holes suitable for its nest.", "They prefer to nest on the edge of woodland clearings.", "In Britain it occurs primarily in upland areas less affected by agricultural intensification, but further east in Europe also commonly in lowland areas, including parks and old gardens in urban areas.", "They nest in natural tree holes, so dead trees or those with dead limbs are beneficial to the species, nestboxes are sometimes used.", "A high cover of moss and lichen is also preferred.", "They also use mature open conifer woodland, particularly in the north of the breeding range.", "Management to thin out the trees is thus favoured.", "In England, where it has declined by 55% in the past 25 years , the Forestry Commission offers grants under a scheme called England's Woodland Improvement Grant , as does Natural Englands Environmental Stewardship Scheme.", "It is a very rare breeding bird in Ireland, with between one and five pairs breeding in most years, nearly all of them in County Wicklow.", "Common redstart diet It is a summer visitor throughout most of Europe and western Asia , and also in northwest Africa in Morocco.", "It winters in central Africa and Arabia, south of the Sahara Desert but north of the Equator, from Senegal east to Yemen.", "It is widespread as a breeding bird in Great Britain, particularly in upland broadleaf woodlands and hedgerow trees, but in Ireland it is very local, and may not breed every year.", "The males first arrive in early to mid April, often a few days in advance of the females.", "Five or six light blue eggs are laid during May, with a second brood in midsummer in the south of the breeding range.", "It departs for Africa between mid-August and early October.", "It often feeds like a flycatcher, making aerial sallies after passing insects, and most of its food consists of winged insects.", "The call is chat-like and the alarm a plaintive single note, wheet, like that of many other chats.", "The male's song is similar to that of the robin, but never more than a prelude, since it has an unfinished, feeble ending.", "Common redstarts are sometimes parasitized by common cuckoos.", "Surprisingly, redstart chicks did not suffer from sharing the nest with a cuckoo chick.", "The presence of a cuckoo might even be beneficial for the nestlings.", "The large size of the cuckoo chick affects the thermoregulation in the nest.", "In some sense, the cuckoo chick is brooding the redstart nestlings.", "Moreover, food provision might be better for redstart chicks in a mixed brood."], "random_sentences": ["The common redstart , or often simply redstart, is a small passerine bird in the genus Phoenicurus.", "Like its relatives, it was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family, , but is now known to be an Old World flycatcher .", "The first formal description of the common redstart was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Motacilla phoenicurus.", "The genus Phoenicurus was introduced by the English naturalist Thomas Forster in 1817.", "The genus and species name phoenicurus is from Ancient Greek phoinix, \" red \" , and -ouros - \" tailed \" .", "The nominate P. p. phoenicurus is found all over Europe and reaches into Siberia.", "To the southeast, subspecies P. p. samamisicus is found from the Crimean Peninsula through Turkey, the Middle East, and into Central Asia.", "It is slightly smaller than P. p. phoenicurus and in adult males has white outer webs in the remiges to some extent, forming a pale to whitish wing-patch similar to the one seen in black redstart and Daurian redstart.", "This patch is also present but less conspicuous in immature males, and sometimes in adult females.", "The subspecies intergrade widely in Turkey and the southern Balkans.", "Genetically, common and black redstarts are still fairly compatible and can produce hybrids that appear to be healthy and fertile, but they are separated by different behaviour and ecological requirements so hybrids are very rare in nature.", "The common redstart shows some affinity to the European robin in many of its habits and actions.", "It has the same general carriage, and chat-like behaviour, and is the same length at 1314.5 cm long but slightly slimmer and not quite as heavy, weighing 1123 g. The orange-red tail, from which it and other redstarts get their names , is frequently quivered.", "Among common European birds, only the black redstart has a similarly coloured tail.", "Female The male in summer has a slate-grey head and upperparts, except the rump and tail, which, like the flanks, underwing coverts and axillaries are orange-chestnut.", "the sides of the face and throat are black.", "The wings and the two central tail feathers are brown, the other tail feathers bright orange-red.", "The orange on the flanks shades to almost white on the belly.", "The bill and legs are black.", "In autumn, pale feather fringes on the body feathering obscure the colours of the male, giving it a washed-out appearance.", "The female is browner, with paler underparts", "it lacks the black and slate, and the throat is whitish.", "Common redstarts prefer open mature birch and oak woodland with a high horizontal visibility and low amounts of shrub and understorey especially where the trees are old enough to have holes suitable for its nest.", "They prefer to nest on the edge of woodland clearings.", "In Britain it occurs primarily in upland areas less affected by agricultural intensification, but further east in Europe also commonly in lowland areas, including parks and old gardens in urban areas.", "They nest in natural tree holes, so dead trees or those with dead limbs are beneficial to the species", "A high cover of moss and lichen is also preferred.", "They also use mature open conifer woodland, particularly in the north of the breeding range.", "Management to thin out the trees is thus favoured.", "In England, where it has declined by 55% in the past 25 years , the Forestry Commission offers grants under a scheme called England's Woodland Improvement Grant ", "as does Natural Englands Environmental Stewardship Scheme.", "It is a very rare breeding bird in Ireland, with between one and five pairs breeding in most years, nearly all of them in County Wicklow.", "Nest with a clutch of eggs Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany right", "Common redstart diet It is a summer visitor throughout most of Europe and western Asia , and also in northwest Africa in Morocco.", "It winters in central Africa and Arabia, south of the Sahara Desert but north of the Equator, from Senegal east to Yemen.", "It is widespread as a breeding bird in Great Britain, particularly in upland broadleaf woodlands and hedgerow trees, but in Ireland it is very local, and may not breed every year.", "The males first arrive in early to mid April, often a few days in advance of the females.", "Five or six light blue eggs are laid during May, with a second brood in midsummer in the south of the breeding range.", "It departs for Africa between mid-August and early October.", "It often feeds like a flycatcher, making aerial sallies after passing insects, and most of its food consists of winged insects.", "The call is chat-like and the alarm a plaintive single note, wheet, like that of many other chats.", "The male's song is similar to that of the robin, but never more than a prelude, since it has an unfinished, feeble ending.", "Common redstarts are sometimes parasitized by common cuckoos.", "Surprisingly, redstart chicks did not suffer from sharing the nest with a cuckoo chick.", "The presence of a cuckoo might even be beneficial for the nestlings.", "The large size of the cuckoo chick affects the thermoregulation in the nest.", "In some sense, the cuckoo chick is brooding the redstart nestlings.", "Moreover, food provision might be better for redstart chicks in a mixed brood."]}, "Corvus corax": {"keywords": ["In many cultures, including the indigenous cultures of Scandinavia, ancient Ireland and Wales, Bhutan, the northwest coast of North America, and Siberia and northeast Asia, the common raven has been revered as a spiritual figure or godlike creature.", ", the Icelandic raven Iceland and the Faroe Islands It is less glossy than C. c. principalis or the nominate C. c. corax, is intermediate in size, and the bases of its neck feathers are whitish .", ", the North African raven North Africa and the Canary Islands It is the smallest subspecies, with the shortest throat hackles and a distinctly oily plumage gloss.", "The Canary Islands raven is browner than the North African raven, leading some authorities to treat them as separate subspecies with the latter maintaining the name C. c. tingitanus and the former known as C. c. canariensis.", ", the Kamchatkan raven Northeastern Asia Intergrades into the nominate subspecies in the Lake Baikal region.", ", the northern raven Northern North America and Greenland It has a large body and the largest bill, its plumage is strongly glossed, and its throat hackles are well developed.", "The common raven evolved in the Old World and crossed the Bering land bridge into North America.", "Recent genetic studies, which examined the DNA of common ravens from across the world, have determined that the birds fall into at least two clades.", "a California clade, found only in the southwestern United States, and a Holarctic clade, found across the rest of the Northern Hemisphere.", "A 2011 study suggested that there are no restrictions on gene flow between the Californian and Holarctic common raven groups, and that the lineages can remerge, effectively reversing a potential speciation.", "A recent study of raven mitochondrial DNA showed that the isolated population from the Canary Islands is distinct from other populations.", "Birds from colder regions such as the Himalayas and Greenland are generally larger with slightly larger bills, while those from warmer regions are smaller with proportionally smaller bills.", "The voice of ravens is also quite distinct, its usual call being a deep croak of a much more sonorous quality than a crow's call.", "In North America, the Chihuahuan raven is fairly similar to the relatively small common ravens of the American southwest and is best distinguished by the still relatively smaller size of its bill, beard and body and relatively longer tail.", "In the Faroe Islands, a now-extinct white-and-black colour morph of this species existed, known as the pied raven.", "They range throughout the Holarctic from Arctic and temperate habitats in North America and Eurasia to the deserts of North Africa, and to islands in the Pacific Ocean.", "In Tibet, they have been recorded at altitudes up to 5,000 m , and as high as 6,350 m on Mount Everest.", "In the United Kingdom, the common raven's range has been increasing, though it favours mountainous or coastal terrain, but can also be found in parks with tall trees suitable for use as habitation.", "Common Ravens panting to cool down in heat in Palm Desert California Most common ravens prefer wooded areas with large expanses of open land nearby, or coastal regions for their nesting sites and feeding grounds.", "On coasts, individuals of this species are often evenly distributed and prefer to build their nest sites along sea cliffs.", "Common ravens are often located in coastal regions because these areas provide easy access to water and a variety of food sources.", "Also, coastal regions have stable weather patterns without extreme cold or hot temperatures.", "The nest is a deep bowl made of large sticks and twigs, bound with an inner layer of roots, mud, and bark and lined with a softer material, such as deer fur.", "The nest is usually placed in a large tree or on a cliff ledge, or less frequently in old buildings or utility poles.", "In colder climates, it is later, e.g.", "For example, those foraging on tundra on the Arctic North Slope of Alaska obtained about half their energy needs from predation, mainly of microtine rodents, and half by scavenging, mainly of caribou and ptarmigan carcasses.", "They sometimes associate with another canine, the grey wolf, as a kleptoparasite, following to scavenge wolf-kills in winter.", "Flock feeding at a garbage dump Common ravens nesting near sources of human garbage included a higher percentage of food waste in their diet, birds nesting near roads consumed more road-killed vertebrates, and those nesting far from these sources of food ate more arthropods and plant material. Fledging success was higher for those using human garbage as a food source.", "In contrast, a 19841986 study of common raven diet in an agricultural region of southwestern Idaho found that cereal grains were the principal constituent of pellets, though small mammals, grasshoppers, cattle carrion and birds were also eaten.", "Furthermore, there has been research suggesting that the common raven is involved in seed dispersal. In the wild, the common raven chooses the best habitat and disperses seeds in locations best suited for its survival. .", "They have been observed to slide down snowbanks, apparently purely for fun.", "Compared to many smaller Corvus species , ravens prefer undisturbed mountain or forest habitat or rural areas over urban areas.", "Common ravens can cause damage to crops, such as nuts and grain, or can harm livestock, particularly by killing young goat kids, lambs and calves.", "Ravens generally attack the faces of young livestock, but the more common raven behaviour of scavenging may be misidentified as predation by ranchers.", "Towns, landfills, sewage treatment plants and artificial ponds create sources of food and water for scavenging birds.", "Ravens also find nesting sites in utility poles and ornamental trees, and are attracted to roadkill on highways.", "A valkyrie speaks with a raven in a 19th-century illustration of the Old Norse poem Hrafnsmal by Frederick Sandys ."], "habitat_section": ["Two juveniles in Iceland The common raven can thrive in varied climates, indeed this species has the largest range of any member of the genus, and one of the largest of any passerine.", "They range throughout the Holarctic from Arctic and temperate habitats in North America and Eurasia to the deserts of North Africa, and to islands in the Pacific Ocean.", "In the British Isles, they are more common in Scotland, Wales, northern England and the west of Ireland.", "In Tibet, they have been recorded at altitudes up to 5,000 m , and as high as 6,350 m on Mount Everest.", "In the United Kingdom, the common raven's range has been increasing, though it favours mountainous or coastal terrain, but can also be found in parks with tall trees suitable for use as habitation.", "Its population is at its most dense in the north and west of the country, though the species is expanding its population southwards.", "Common Ravens panting to cool down in heat in Palm Desert California Most common ravens prefer wooded areas with large expanses of open land nearby, or coastal regions for their nesting sites and feeding grounds.", "In some areas of dense human population, such as California in the United States, they take advantage of a plentiful food supply and have seen a surge in their numbers.", "On coasts, individuals of this species are often evenly distributed and prefer to build their nest sites along sea cliffs.", "Common ravens are often located in coastal regions because these areas provide easy access to water and a variety of food sources.", "Also, coastal regions have stable weather patterns without extreme cold or hot temperatures.", "In general, common ravens live in a wide array of environments but prefer heavily contoured landscapes.", "When the environment changes in vast degrees, these birds will respond with a stress response.", "The hormone known as corticosterone is activated by the hypothalamicpituitaryadrenal axis.", "Corticosterone is activated when the bird is exposed to stress, such as migrating great distances.", "Compared to many smaller Corvus species , ravens prefer undisturbed mountain or forest habitat or rural areas over urban areas.", "In other areas, their numbers have increased dramatically and they have become agricultural pests.", "Common ravens can cause damage to crops, such as nuts and grain, or can harm livestock, particularly by killing young goat kids, lambs and calves.", "Ravens generally attack the faces of young livestock, but the more common raven behaviour of scavenging may be misidentified as predation by ranchers.", "In the western Mojave Desert, human settlement and land development have led to an estimated 16-fold increase in the common raven population over 25 years.", "Towns, landfills, sewage treatment plants and artificial ponds create sources of food and water for scavenging birds.", "Ravens also find nesting sites in utility poles and ornamental trees, and are attracted to roadkill on highways.", "The explosion in the common raven population in the Mojave has raised concerns for the desert tortoise, a threatened species.", "Common ravens prey upon juvenile tortoises, which have soft shells and move slowly.", "Plans to control the population have included shooting and trapping birds, as well as contacting landfill operators to ask that they reduce the amount of exposed garbage.", "A hunting bounty as a method of control was historically used in Finland from the mid-18th century until 1923.", "Culling has taken place to a limited extent in Alaska, where the population increase in common ravens is threatening the vulnerable Steller's eider .", "Ravens, like other corvids, are definitive hosts of West Nile Virus .", "The transmission can be from infected birds to humans, and ravens are susceptible to WNV. However, in a 2010 study, it was shown that the California Common Ravens did not have a high positivity rate of WNV."], "random_sentences": ["The common raven , also known as the western raven or northern raven when discussing the raven at the subspecies level, is a large all-black passerine bird.", "Found across the Northern Hemisphere, it is the most widely distributed of all corvids.", "There are at least eight subspecies with little variation in appearance, although recent research has demonstrated significant genetic differences among populations from various regions.", "It is one of the two largest corvids, alongside the thick-billed raven, and is possibly the heaviest passerine bird", "at maturity, the common raven averages in length and in mass.", "Although their typical lifespan is considerably shorter, common ravens can live more than 23 years in the wild.", "Young birds may travel in flocks but later mate for life, with each mated pair defending a territory.", "Common ravens have coexisted with humans for thousands of years and in some areas have been so numerous that people have regarded them as pests.", "Part of their success as a species is due to their omnivorous diet: they are extremely versatile and opportunistic in finding sources of nutrition, feeding on carrion, insects, cereal grains, berries, fruit, small animals, nesting birds, and food waste.", "Some notable feats of problem-solving provide evidence that the common raven is unusually intelligent.", "Over the centuries, it has been the subject of mythology, folklore, art, and literature.", "In many cultures, including the indigenous cultures of Scandinavia, ancient Ireland and Wales, Bhutan, the northwest coast of North America, and Siberia and northeast Asia, the common raven has been revered as a spiritual figure or godlike creature.", "The common raven was one of the many species originally described, with its type locality given as Europe, by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, and it still bears its original name of Corvus corax.", "It is the type species of the genus Corvus, derived from the Latin word for 'raven'.", "The specific epithet corax is the Latinized form of the Greek word , meaning 'raven' or 'crow'.", "The modern English word raven has cognates in many other Germanic languages, including Old Norse and Old High German , all which descend from Proto-Germanic .", "An old Scottish word or , akin to the French , has been used for both this bird and the carrion crow.", "Collective nouns for a group of ravens include \" unkindness \" and \" conspiracy \" .", "The closest relatives of the common raven are the brown-necked raven (C.", "ruficollis), the pied crow (C.", "albus) of Africa, and the Chihuahuan raven (C.", "cryptoleucus) of the North American Southwest.", "While some authorities have recognized as many as 11 subspecies, others recognize only eight: Subspecies Image Distribution Notes , the North Eurasian raven From Europe eastwards to Lake Baikal, south to the Caucasus region and northern Iran It has a relatively short, arched bill.", "The population in southwestern Europe has an even more arched bill and shorter wings than the \" typical \" nominate, leading some authorities to recognize it as a separate subspecies, the Hispanic raven (C.", ", the Icelandic raven Iceland and the Faroe Islands It is less glossy than C. c. principalis or the nominate C. c. corax, is intermediate in size, and the bases of its neck feathers are whitish .", "An extinct white-and-black color morph found only on the Faroes was known as the pied raven (C.", "the black color morph's scientific name is C. c. varius morpha typicus).", ", the South Eurasian raven From Greece eastwards to northwestern India, Central Asia and western China, though not in the Himalayan region It is larger than the nominate form, but has relatively short throat feathers .", "Its plumage is generally all black, though its neck and breast have a brownish tone similar to that of the brown-necked raven", "this is more evident when the plumage is worn.", "The bases of its neck feathers, although somewhat variable in colour, are often almost whitish.", "The name C. c. laurencei is sometimes used instead of C. c. subcorax.", "and is sometimes preferred, since the type specimen of subcorax collected by Nikolai Severtzov is possibly a brown-necked raven.", "The population restricted to the Sindh district of Pakistan and adjoining regions of northwestern India is sometimes known as the Punjab raven.", ", the North African raven North Africa and the Canary Islands It is the smallest subspecies, with the shortest throat hackles and a distinctly oily plumage gloss.", "Its bill is short but markedly stout, and the culmen is strongly arched.", "The Canary Islands raven is browner than the North African raven, leading some authorities to treat them as separate subspecies with the latter maintaining the name C. c. tingitanus and the former known as C. c. canariensis.", ", the Tibetan raven The Himalayas It is the largest and glossiest subspecies, with the longest throat hackles.", "Its bill is large, but less imposing than that of C. c. principalis and the bases of its neck feathers are grey.", ", the Kamchatkan raven Northeastern Asia Intergrades into the nominate subspecies in the Lake Baikal region.", "It is intermediate in size between C. c. principalis and C. c. corax and has a distinctly larger and thicker bill than the nominate subspecies does.", ", the northern raven Northern North America and Greenland It has a large body and the largest bill, its plumage is strongly glossed, and its throat hackles are well developed.", ", the western raven South-central North America and Central America It is smaller, with a smaller and narrower bill than C. c. principalis.", "Populations in the far southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico are the smallest in North America.", "They are sometimes included in C. c. sinuatus, while other authorities recognize them as a distinct subspecies, the southwestern raven (C.", "The common raven evolved in the Old World and crossed the Bering land bridge into North America.", "Recent genetic studies, which examined the DNA of common ravens from across the world, have determined that the birds fall into at least two clades: a California clade, found only in the southwestern United States, and a Holarctic clade, found across the rest of the Northern Hemisphere.", "Birds from both clades look alike, but the groups are genetically distinct and began to diverge about two million years ago.", "Ravens in the Holarctic clade are more closely related to the pied crow (C.", "albus) than they are to the California clade.", "Thus, the common raven species as traditionally delimited is considered to be paraphyletic.", "One explanation for these genetic findings is that common ravens settled in California at least two million years ago and became separated from their relatives in Europe and Asia during a glacial period.", "One million years ago, a group from the California clade evolved into a new species, the Chihuahuan raven.", "Other members of the Holarctic clade arrived later in a separate migration from Asia, perhaps at the same time as humans.", "A 2011 study suggested that there are no restrictions on gene flow between the Californian and Holarctic common raven groups, and that the lineages can remerge, effectively reversing a potential speciation.", "A recent study of raven mitochondrial DNA showed that the isolated population from the Canary Islands is distinct from other populations.", "The study did not include any individuals from the North African population, and its position is therefore unclear, though its morphology is very close to the population of the Canaries .", "In sunlight, the plumage can display a blue or purple sheen which is a result of iridescence.", "A mature common raven ranges between 54 and 67 cm long, with a wingspan of 115 to 150 cm .", "Recorded weights range from 0.69 to 2 kg , thus making the common raven one of the heaviest passerines.", "Birds from colder regions such as the Himalayas and Greenland are generally larger with slightly larger bills, while those from warmer regions are smaller with proportionally smaller bills.", "Representative of the size variation in the species, ravens from California weighed an average of , those from Alaska weighed an average of and those from Nova Scotia weighed an average of .", "The bill is large and slightly curved, with a culmen length of , easily one of the largest bills amongst passerines .", "It has a longish, strongly graduated tail, at , and mostly black iridescent plumage, and a dark brown iris.", "The throat feathers are elongated and pointed and the bases of the neck feathers are pale brownish-grey.", "The legs and feet are good-sized, with a tarsus length of .", "Juvenile plumage is similar but duller with a blue-grey iris.", "Apart from its greater size, the common raven differs from its cousins, the crows, by having a larger and heavier black beak, shaggy feathers around the throat and above the beak, and a wedge-shaped tail.", "Flying ravens are distinguished from crows by their tail shape, larger wing area, and more stable soaring style, which generally involves less wing flapping.", "Despite their bulk, ravens are easily as agile in flight as their smaller cousins.", "In flight the feathers produce a creaking sound that has been likened to the rustle of silk.", "The voice of ravens is also quite distinct, its usual call being a deep croak of a much more sonorous quality than a crow's call.", "In North America, the Chihuahuan raven (C.", "cryptoleucus) is fairly similar to the relatively small common ravens of the American southwest and is best distinguished by the still relatively smaller size of its bill, beard and body and relatively longer tail.", "corone) in Europe may suggest a raven due to their largish bill but are still distinctly smaller and have the wing and tail shapes typical of crows.", "In the Faroe Islands, a now-extinct white-and-black colour morph of this species existed, known as the pied raven.", "White ravens are occasionally found in the wild.", "Birds in British Columbia lack the pink eyes of an albino, and are instead leucistic, a condition where an animal lacks any of several different types of pigment, not simply melanin.", "Vocalising Common ravens have a wide range of vocalizations which are of interest to ornithologists.", "Gwinner carried out important studies in the early 1960s, recording and photographing his findings in great detail.", "Like other corvids, the common raven can mimic sounds from their environment, including human speech.", "Non-vocal sounds produced by the common raven include wing whistles and bill snapping.", "Clapping or clicking has been observed more often in females than in males.", "If a member of a pair is lost, its mate reproduces the calls of its lost partner to encourage its return.", "Two juveniles in Iceland The common raven can thrive in varied climates", "indeed this species has the largest range of any member of the genus, and one of the largest of any passerine.", "They range throughout the Holarctic from Arctic and temperate habitats in North America and Eurasia to the deserts of North Africa, and to islands in the Pacific Ocean.", "In the British Isles, they are more common in Scotland, Wales, northern England and the west of Ireland.", "In Tibet, they have been recorded at altitudes up to 5,000 m , and as high as 6,350 m on Mount Everest.", "In the United Kingdom, the common raven's range has been increasing, though it favours mountainous or coastal terrain, but can also be found in parks with tall trees suitable for use as habitation.", "Its population is at its most dense in the north and west of the country, though the species is expanding its population southwards.", "Common Ravens panting to cool down in heat in Palm Desert California Most common ravens prefer wooded areas with large expanses of open land nearby, or coastal regions for their nesting sites and feeding grounds.", "In some areas of dense human population, such as California in the United States, they take advantage of a plentiful food supply and have seen a surge in their numbers.", "On coasts, individuals of this species are often evenly distributed and prefer to build their nest sites along sea cliffs.", "Common ravens are often located in coastal regions because these areas provide easy access to water and a variety of food sources.", "Also, coastal regions have stable weather patterns without extreme cold or hot temperatures.", "In general, common ravens live in a wide array of environments but prefer heavily contoured landscapes.", "When the environment changes in vast degrees, these birds will respond with a stress response.", "The hormone known as corticosterone is activated by the hypothalamicpituitaryadrenal axis.", "Corticosterone is activated when the bird is exposed to stress, such as migrating great distances.", "Group of ravens gathered around dead member Common ravens usually travel in mated pairs, although young birds may form flocks.", "Relationships between common ravens are often quarrelsome, yet they demonstrate considerable devotion to their families.", "Owing to its size, gregariousness and its defensive abilities, the common raven has few natural predators.", "Predators of its eggs include owls, martens, and sometimes eagles.", "Ravens are quite vigorous at defending their young and are usually successful at driving off perceived threats.", "They attack potential predators by flying at them and lunging with their large bills.", "Humans are occasionally attacked if they get close to a raven nest, though serious injuries are unlikely.", "There are a few records of predation by large birds of prey.", "Their attackers in America have reportedly included great horned owls, northern goshawks, bald eagles, golden eagles and red-tailed hawks.", "It is possible that the two hawk species only attack young ravens", "in one instance a peregrine falcon swooped at a newly fledged raven but was chased off by the parent ravens.", "In Eurasia, their reported predators include, in addition to golden eagles, Eurasian eagle-owls, white-tailed eagles, Steller's sea-eagles, eastern imperial eagles and gyrfalcons.", "Because they are potentially hazardous prey for raptorial birds, raptors must usually take them by surprise and most attacks are on fledgling ravens.", "More rarely still, large mammalian predators such as lynxes, coyotes and cougars have also attacked ravens.", "This principally occurs at a nest site and when other prey for the carnivores are scarce.", "Ravens are highly wary around novel carrion sites and, in North America, have been recorded waiting for the presence of American crows and blue jays before approaching to eat.", "Young on a nest Hvitserkur, Iceland Eggs of Corvus corax Juveniles begin to court at a very early age, but may not bond for another two or three years.", "Aerial acrobatics, demonstrations of intelligence, and ability to provide food are key behaviours of courting.", "Once paired, they tend to nest together for life, usually in the same location.", "Instances of non-monogamy have been observed in common ravens, by males visiting a female's nest when her mate is away.", "Breeding pairs must have a territory of their own before they begin nest-building and reproduction, and thus they aggressively defend a territory and its food resources.", "Nesting territories vary in size according to the density of food resources in the area.", "The nest is a deep bowl made of large sticks and twigs, bound with an inner layer of roots, mud, and bark and lined with a softer material, such as deer fur.", "The nest is usually placed in a large tree or on a cliff ledge, or less frequently in old buildings or utility poles.", "Females lay between three and seven pale bluish-green, brown-blotched eggs.", "Incubation is about 18 to 21 days, by the female only.", "The male may stand or crouch over the young, sheltering but not actually brooding them.", "Young fledge at 35 to 42 days, and are fed by both parents.", "They stay with their parents for another six months after fledging.", "In most of their range, egg-laying begins in late February.", "In colder climates, it is later, e.g. April in Greenland and Tibet.", "In Pakistan, egg-laying takes place in December.", "They have been observed dropping stones on potential predators that venture close to their nests.", "Common ravens can be very long-lived, especially in captive or protected conditions", "individuals at the Tower of London have lived for more than 40 years.", "which among passerines only is surpassed by a few Australian species such as the satin bowerbird.", "Feeding Common ravens are omnivorous and highly opportunistic: their diet may vary widely with location, season and serendipity.", "For example, those foraging on tundra on the Arctic North Slope of Alaska obtained about half their energy needs from predation, mainly of microtine rodents, and half by scavenging, mainly of caribou and ptarmigan carcasses.", "In some places they are mainly scavengers, feeding on carrion as well as the associated maggots and carrion beetles.", "With large-bodied carrion, which they are not equipped to tear through as well as birds such as hook-billed vultures, they must wait for the prey to be torn open by another predator or flayed by other means.", "They are also known to eat the afterbirth of ewes and other large mammals.", "Plant food includes cereal grains, acorns, buds, berries and fruit.", "They prey on small invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals and birds.", "Ravens may also consume the undigested portions of animal feces, and human food waste.", "They store surplus food items, especially those containing fat, and will learn to hide such food out of the sight of other common ravens.", "Ravens also raid the food caches of other species, such as the Arctic fox.", "They sometimes associate with another canine, the grey wolf, as a kleptoparasite, following to scavenge wolf-kills in winter.", "Ravens are regular predators at bird nests, brazenly picking off eggs, nestlings and sometimes adult birds when they spot an opportunity.", "They are considered perhaps the primary natural threat to the nesting success of the critically endangered California condor, since they readily take condor eggs and are very common in the areas where the species is being re-introduced.", "On the other hand, when they defend their own adjacent nests, they may incidentally benefit condors since they chase golden eagles out of the area that may otherwise prey upon larger nestling and fledging condors.", "Condors, despite their large size, do not seem to have well developed nest defenses.", "Flock feeding at a garbage dump Common ravens nesting near sources of human garbage included a higher percentage of food waste in their diet, birds nesting near roads consumed more road-killed vertebrates, and those nesting far from these sources of food ate more arthropods and plant material. Fledging success was higher for those using human garbage as a food source.", "In contrast, a 19841986 study of common raven diet in an agricultural region of southwestern Idaho found that cereal grains were the principal constituent of pellets, though small mammals, grasshoppers, cattle carrion and birds were also eaten.", "One behaviour is recruitment, where juvenile ravens call other ravens to a food bonanza, usually a carcass, with a series of loud yells.", "In Ravens in Winter, Bernd Heinrich posited that this behaviour evolved to allow the juveniles to outnumber the resident adults, thus allowing them to feed on the carcass without being chased away.", "A more mundane explanation is that individuals co-operate in sharing information about carcasses of large mammals because they are too big for just a few birds to exploit.", "Experiments with baits however show that such recruitment behaviour is independent of the size of the bait.", "Furthermore, there has been research suggesting that the common raven is involved in seed dispersal. In the wild, the common raven chooses the best habitat and disperses seeds in locations best suited for its survival.", "The brain of the common raven is among the largest of any bird species.", "Specifically, their hyperpallium is large for a bird.", "They display ability in problem-solving, as well as other cognitive processes such as imitation and insight.", "Dilapidated NIKE Missile radar dome in Alaska with an evening roost Linguist Derek Bickerton, building on the work of biologist Bernd Heinrich, has argued that ravens are one of only four known animals who have demonstrated displacement, the capacity to communicate about objects or events that are distant in space or time.", "Subadult ravens roost together at night, but usually forage alone during the day.", "However, when one discovers a large carcass guarded by a pair of adult ravens, the unmated raven will return to the roost and communicate the find.", "The following day, a flock of unmated ravens will fly to the carcass and chase off the adults.", "Bickerton argues that the advent of linguistic displacement was perhaps the most important event in the evolution of human language, and that ravens are the only other vertebrate to share this with humans.", "One experiment designed to evaluate insight and problem-solving ability involved a piece of meat attached to a string hanging from a perch.", "To reach the food, the bird needed to stand on the perch, pull the string up a little at a time, and step on the loops to gradually shorten the string.", "Four of five common ravens eventually succeeded, and \" the transition from no success to constant reliable access occurred with no demonstrable trial-and-error learning.", "\" This supports the hypothesis that common ravens are 'inventors', implying that they can solve problems.", "Many of the feats of common ravens were formerly argued to be stereotyped innate behaviour, but it now has been established that their aptitudes for solving problems individually and learning from each other reflect a flexible capacity for intelligent insight unusual among non-human animals.", "Another experiment showed that some common ravens could intentionally deceive their conspecifics.", "A study published in 2011 found that ravens can recognise when they are given an unfair trade during reciprocal interactions with conspecifics or humans, retaining memory of the interaction for a prolonged period of time.", "Birds that were given a fair trade by experimenters were found to prefer interacting with these experimenters compared to those that did not.", "Furthermore, ravens in the wild have also been observed to stop cooperating with other ravens if they observe them cheating during group tasks.", "Common ravens have been observed calling wolves to the site of dead animals.", "The wolves open the carcass, leaving the scraps more accessible to the birds.", "They watch where other common ravens bury their food and remember the locations of each other's food caches, so they can steal from them.", "This type of theft occurs so regularly that common ravens will fly extra distances from a food source to find better hiding places for food.", "They have also been observed pretending to make a cache without actually depositing the food, presumably to confuse onlookers.", "Common ravens are known to steal and cache shiny objects such as pebbles, pieces of metal, and golf balls.", "One theory is that they hoard shiny objects to impress other ravens.", "Other research indicates that juveniles are deeply curious about all new things, and that common ravens retain an attraction to bright, round objects based on their similarity to bird eggs.", "Mature birds lose their intense interest in the unusual, and become highly neophobic.", "The first large-scale assessment of ravens' cognitive abilities suggests that, by four months of age, ravens do about as well as adult chimps and orangutans on tests of causal reasoning, social learning, theory of mind, etc.", "There has been increasing recognition of the extent to which birds engage in play.", "Juvenile common ravens are among the most playful of bird species.", "They have been observed to slide down snowbanks, apparently purely for fun.", "They even engage in games with other species, such as playing catch-me-if-you-can with wolves, otters and dogs.", "Common ravens are known for spectacular aerobatic displays, such as flying in loops or interlocking talons with each other in flight.", "They are also one of only a few wild animals who make their own toys.", "They have been observed breaking off twigs to play with socially.", "Compared to many smaller Corvus species , ravens prefer undisturbed mountain or forest habitat or rural areas over urban areas.", "In other areas, their numbers have increased dramatically and they have become agricultural pests.", "Common ravens can cause damage to crops, such as nuts and grain, or can harm livestock, particularly by killing young goat kids, lambs and calves.", "Ravens generally attack the faces of young livestock, but the more common raven behaviour of scavenging may be misidentified as predation by ranchers.", "In the western Mojave Desert, human settlement and land development have led to an estimated 16-fold increase in the common raven population over 25 years.", "Towns, landfills, sewage treatment plants and artificial ponds create sources of food and water for scavenging birds.", "Ravens also find nesting sites in utility poles and ornamental trees, and are attracted to roadkill on highways.", "The explosion in the common raven population in the Mojave has raised concerns for the desert tortoise, a threatened species.", "Common ravens prey upon juvenile tortoises, which have soft shells and move slowly.", "Plans to control the population have included shooting and trapping birds, as well as contacting landfill operators to ask that they reduce the amount of exposed garbage.", "A hunting bounty as a method of control was historically used in Finland from the mid-18th century until 1923.", "Culling has taken place to a limited extent in Alaska, where the population increase in common ravens is threatening the vulnerable Steller's eider .", "Ravens, like other corvids, are definitive hosts of West Nile Virus .", "The transmission can be from infected birds to humans, and ravens are susceptible to WNV.", "However, in a 2010 study, it was shown that the California Common Ravens did not have a high positivity rate of WNV.", "Bill Reid's sculpture The Raven and the First Men, showing part of a Haida creation myth.", "Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia.", "Across its range in the Northern Hemisphere, and throughout human history, the common raven has been a powerful symbol and a popular subject of mythology and folklore.", "In some Western traditions, ravens have long been considered to be birds of ill omen, death and evil in general, in part because of the negative symbolism of their all-black plumage and the eating of carrion.", "In Sweden, ravens are known as the ghosts of murdered people, and in Germany as the souls of the damned.", "In Danish folklore, valravne that ate a king's heart gained human knowledge, could perform great malicious acts, could lead people astray, had superhuman powers, and were \" terrible animals \" .", "As in traditional mythology and folklore, the common raven features frequently in more modern writings such as the works of William Shakespeare, and, perhaps most famously, in the poem \" The Raven \" by Edgar Allan Poe.", "Ravens have appeared in the works of Charles Dickens, J. R. R. Tolkien, Stephen King, George R. R. Martin and Joan Aiken among others.", "It continues to be used as a symbol in areas where it once had mythological status: as the national bird of Bhutan , official bird of the Yukon territory, and on the coat of arms of the Isle of Man .", "In Persia and Arabia the raven was held as a bird of bad omen but a 14th-century Arabic work reports use of the raven in falconry.", "The modern unisex given name Raven is derived from the English word \" raven \" .", "As a masculine name, Raven parallels the Old Norse Hrafn, and Old English upright", "A valkyrie speaks with a raven in a 19th-century illustration of the Old Norse poem Hrafnsmal by Frederick Sandys"]}, "Tringa nebularia": {"keywords": ["Like the Norwegian Skoddefoll, this refers to the greenshank's damp marshy habitat.", "This is a subarctic bird, breeding from northern Scotland eastwards across northern Europe and east across the Palearctic.", "It is a migratory species, wintering in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and Australasia, usually on fresh water.", "It breeds on dry ground near marshy areas, laying about four eggs in a ground scrape.", "When in water, they can appear very similar to marsh sandpipers but are distinguished by the shape of the lower bill which gives it an upturned appearance to the bill."], "habitat_section": ["This is a subarctic bird, breeding from northern Scotland eastwards across northern Europe and east across the Palearctic.", "It is a migratory species, wintering in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and Australasia, usually on fresh water.", "It breeds on dry ground near marshy areas, laying about four eggs in a ground scrape."], "random_sentences": ["The common greenshank is a wader in the large family Scolopacidae, the typical waders.", "The genus name Tringa is the New Latin name given to the green sandpiper by Aldrovandus in 1599 based on Ancient Greek trungas, a thrush-sized, white-rumped, tail-bobbing wading bird mentioned by Aristotle.", "The specific nebularia is from Latin nebula \" mist \" .", "Like the Norwegian Skoddefoll, this refers to the greenshank's damp marshy habitat.", "Its closest relative is the greater yellowlegs, which together with the spotted redshank form a close-knit group.", "Among them, these three species show all the basic leg and foot colours found in the shanks, demonstrating that this character is paraphyletic.", "They are also the largest shanks apart from the willet, which is altogether more robustly built.", "The greater yellowlegs and the common greenshank share a coarse, dark, and fairly crisp breast pattern as well as much black on the shoulders and back in breeding plumage.", "This is a subarctic bird, breeding from northern Scotland eastwards across northern Europe and east across the Palearctic.", "It is a migratory species, wintering in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and Australasia, usually on fresh water.", "It breeds on dry ground near marshy areas, laying about four eggs in a ground scrape.", "Common greenshanks are brown in breeding plumage, and grey-brown in winter.", "When in water, they can appear very similar to marsh sandpipers but are distinguished by the shape of the lower bill which gives it an upturned appearance to the bill.", "They have long greenish legs and a long bill with a grey base.", "They show a white wedge on the back in flight.", "They are somewhat larger than the related common redshank.", "The usual call is a rapid series of three short fluty notes syllabilized as teu-teu-teu.", "Like most waders, they feed on small invertebrates, but will also take small fish and amphibians.", "The common greenshank is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies."]}, "Periparus ater": {"keywords": ["It is a widespread and common resident breeder in forests throughout the temperate to subtropical Palearctic, including North Africa.", "As occasional hybridization has been recorded between the two, mtDNA alone is insufficient to determine whether hybrid gene flow or another trivial cause obfuscates the actual relationships, or whether taxonomic rearrangement is indeed required.", "With the range of these titmice encircling the Himalayas, without further study it cannot even be excluded that they constitute a ring species with gene flow occurring in Nepal but not in Afghanistan as has been shown for other passerines in the same region.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden It is typically a bird of temperate humid conifer forest, but apart from that shows little habitat specificity.", "In Bhutan for example coal tits are fairly common residents above the subtropical zone, at about 3,0003,800 m ASL, and are found in forests dominated by Bhutan fir as well as in those characterized by Himalayan hemlock and rhododendrons.", "It will also visit gardens to feed on a variety of foods put out, particularly sunflower seeds.", "In winter, the red blood cells of coal tits has been shown to contain more mitochondria, which consume oxygen and produce heat.", "A favourite nesting site is a hole in a rotting tree-stump, often low down, and the nest is deep within the hole, holes in the ground, burrows of mice or rabbits, chinks between the stones in walls, old nests of Pica magpies or other large birds, and squirrel dreys are also occupied.", "The materials, moss, hair and grass, are closely felted together, and rabbit fur or feathers added for lining."], "habitat_section": ["Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden It is typically a bird of temperate humid conifer forest, but apart from that shows little habitat specificity.", "In Bhutan for example coal tits are fairly common residents above the subtropical zone, at about 3,0003,800 m ASL, and are found in forests dominated by Bhutan fir as well as in those characterized by Himalayan hemlock and rhododendrons.", "The coal tit is an all-year resident throughout almost all range, making only local movements in response to particularly severe weather, only the Siberian birds have a more regular migration.", "Very rarely, vagrants may cross longer distances, for example the nominate subspecies of continental Europe was recorded in Ireland once in 1960 and once before that, but apparently not since then.", "Coal tits will form small flocks in winter with other tits.", "This species resembles other tits in acrobatic skill and restless activity, though it more frequently pitches on a trunk, and in little hops resembles a treecreeper .", "Its food is similar to that of the others, it is keen on beechmast, picks out the seeds from fir and larch cones, and joins Carduelis redpolls and siskins in alders and birches .", "It will also visit gardens to feed on a variety of foods put out, particularly sunflower seeds.", "Coal tits in the laboratory prefer to forage at a variable feeding site when they are in a negative energy budget.", "They increase evening body mass in response to tawny owl calls.", "After dawn the coal tits increases body mass as soon as possible if food is obtained at a low rate, increasing body mass exponentially until an inflection point when the increase of body mass is slower.", "The inflection point of the body mass trajectory is 16.7% delayed compared to a high food availability.", "Subordinate coal tits are excluded from feeding sites by dominants more often in the early morning than in the rest of the day, and they showed more variability in daily mass gain and body mass at dawn than dominant coal tits.", "In winter, the red blood cells of coal tits has been shown to contain more mitochondria, which consume oxygen and produce heat.", "Being common and widespread, the coal tit is not considered a threatened species by the IUCN. The coal tit has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of bird fleas reported from a single nest, 5,754 fleas."], "random_sentences": ["The coal tit or cole tit, , is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae.", "It is a widespread and common resident breeder in forests throughout the temperate to subtropical Palearctic, including North Africa.", "The black-crested tit is now usually included in this species.", "This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "Linnaeus' primary reference was his earlier Fauna Svecica, whose cumbersome pre-binomial name Parus capite nigro: vertice albo, dorso cinereo, pectore albo became the much simpler yet no less unequivocal Parus ater.", "This name meaning \" dusky-black tit \" was simply adopted from older ornithological textbooks, ultimately going back to Conrad Gessner's 1555 Historia animalium.", "He gave no type locality except \" Europe \" , but his original description refers to the population inhabiting Sweden .", "The current genus name, is Ancient Greek peri plus the pre-existing genus Parus.", "The specific ater is Latin for \" dull black \" .", "The colourful great tit with its bold wing-stripe.", "Before binomial nomenclature, naturalists found the folk taxonomy of this species and the coal tit quite confusing.", "Gessner also notes that the coal tit was known as Kohlmei in German the literal equivalent of its English name, though in its modern orthography Kohlmeise it refers to the great tit .", "That bird was in Gessner's day usually called Spiegelmei , Brandtmei or grosse Mei in German.", "Kolmey was attested for P. major by William Turner, but Turner does not list P. ater at all, while Gessner notes that his hunters always used Kohlmei for the present species.", "However, this has since changed, and the modern German name of P. ater is Tannenmeise , after a typical habitat.", "This name is attested by Johann Leonhard Frisch in the early 18th century already, who furthermore records that P. ater was also called Kleine Kohl-Maise whereas Kohl-Maise referred unequivocally to P. major.", "Frisch collected his data in the Berlin region, where the German dialect was quite different from that spoken by Gessner's Alemannic sources 200 years earlier, and heavily influenced by Middle Low German the language of the northern German sources of Turner.", "Regarding that, Tanne is derived from the Old Saxon danna, and thus had spread through the German dialect continuum from north to south.", "Illustration of Parus ater cypriotes by John Gerrard Keulemans In addition, the same data suggest that this species is paraphyletic in regard to the closely related and parapatric spot-winged tit (P.", "melanolophus) from South Asia, which looks like a slightly crested, darker version of P. ater.", "Consequently, the spot-winged tit might have to be included in P. ater, or some coal tits could be considered a distinct species.", "As occasional hybridization has been recorded between the two, mtDNA alone is insufficient to determine whether hybrid gene flow or another trivial cause obfuscates the actual relationships, or whether taxonomic rearrangement is indeed required.", "With the range of these titmice encircling the Himalayas, without further study it cannot even be excluded that they constitute a ring species with gene flow occurring in Nepal but not in Afghanistan as has been shown for other passerines in the same region.", "Periparus ater filmed in Tokyo, Japan The coal tit is 1011.5 cm in length, and has a distinctive large white nape spot on its black head.", "The head, throat and neck of the adult are glossy blue-black, setting off the off-white sides of the face and the brilliant white nape", "the white tips of the wing coverts appear as two wingbars.", "The underparts are whitish shading through buff to rufous on the flanks.", "The bill is black, the legs lead-coloured, and irides dark brown.", "The young birds are duller than the adults, lacking gloss on the black head, and with the white of nape and cheeks tinged with yellow.", "While searching for food, coal tit flocks keep contact with incessant short dee or see-see calls.", "The species' song if \" song \" it can be called is a strident if-he, if-he, if-he, heard most frequently from January to June, but also in autumn.", "The song resembles that of the great tit, but much faster and higher in pitch.", "One variant of this song ends with a sharp ichi.", "North African birds also have a call similar to that of the crested tit which is not found in Africa.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden It is typically a bird of temperate humid conifer forest, but apart from that shows little habitat specificity.", "In Bhutan for example coal tits are fairly common residents above the subtropical zone, at about 3,0003,800 m ASL, and are found in forests dominated by Bhutan fir as well as in those characterized by Himalayan hemlock and rhododendrons.", "The coal tit is an all-year resident throughout almost all range, making only local movements in response to particularly severe weather", "only the Siberian birds have a more regular migration.", "Very rarely, vagrants may cross longer distances", "for example the nominate subspecies of continental Europe was recorded in Ireland once in 1960 and once before that, but apparently not since then.", "Coal tits will form small flocks in winter with other tits.", "This species resembles other tits in acrobatic skill and restless activity, though it more frequently pitches on a trunk, and in little hops resembles a treecreeper .", "Its food is similar to that of the others", "it is keen on beechmast, picks out the seeds from fir and larch cones, and joins Carduelis redpolls and siskins in alders and birches .", "It will also visit gardens to feed on a variety of foods put out, particularly sunflower seeds.", "Coal tits in the laboratory prefer to forage at a variable feeding site when they are in a negative energy budget.", "They increase evening body mass in response to tawny owl calls.", "After dawn the coal tits increases body mass as soon as possible if food is obtained at a low rate, increasing body mass exponentially until an inflection point when the increase of body mass is slower.", "The inflection point of the body mass trajectory is 16.7% delayed compared to a high food availability.", "Subordinate coal tits are excluded from feeding sites by dominants more often in the early morning than in the rest of the day, and they showed more variability in daily mass gain and body mass at dawn than dominant coal tits.", "In winter, the red blood cells of coal tits has been shown to contain more mitochondria, which consume oxygen and produce heat.", "Being common and widespread, the coal tit is not considered a threatened species by the IUCN.", "The coal tit has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of bird fleas reported from a single nest, 5,754 fleas.", "A favourite nesting site is a hole in a rotting tree-stump, often low down, and the nest is deep within the hole", "holes in the ground, burrows of mice or rabbits, chinks between the stones in walls, old nests of Pica magpies or other large birds, and squirrel dreys are also occupied.", "The materials, moss, hair and grass, are closely felted together, and rabbit fur or feathers added for lining.", "Seven to eleven red-spotted white eggs are laid, usually in May", "this species breeds usually once per year."]}, "Tringa ochropus": {"keywords": ["In addition, both species nest in trees, unlike most other scolopacids.", "The latter feature reliably distinguishes it from the slightly smaller but otherwise very similar solitary sandpiper of North America.", "Eggs, Museum Wiesbaden The green sandpiper breeds across subarctic Europe and east across the Palearctic and is a migratory bird, wintering in southern Europe, the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and tropical Africa.", "Green sandpiper is very much a bird of freshwater, and is often found in sites too restricted for other waders, which tend to like a clear all-round view."], "habitat_section": ["Eggs, Museum Wiesbaden The green sandpiper breeds across subarctic Europe and east across the Palearctic and is a migratory bird, wintering in southern Europe, the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and tropical Africa.", "Food is small invertebrate items picked off the mud as this species works steadily around the edges of its chosen pond.", "This is not a gregarious species, although sometimes small numbers congregate in suitable feeding areas.", "Green sandpiper is very much a bird of freshwater, and is often found in sites too restricted for other waders, which tend to like a clear all-round view."], "random_sentences": ["The green sandpiper is a small wader of the Old World.", "The green sandpiper represents an ancient lineage of the genus Tringa", "its only close living relative is the solitary sandpiper (T.", "They both have brown wings with little light dots and a delicate but contrasting neck and chest pattern.", "In addition, both species nest in trees, unlike most other scolopacids.", "Given its basal position in Tringa, it is fairly unsurprising that suspected cases of hybridisation between this species and the common sandpiper (A.", "hypoleucos) of the sister genus Actitis have been reported.", "The green sandpiper was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the current binomial name Tringa ochropus.", "The genus name Tringa is the New Latin name given to the green sandpiper by Aldrovandus in 1599 based on Ancient Greek trungas, a thrush-sized, white-rumped, tail-bobbing wading bird mentioned by Aristotle.", "The specific ochropus is from Ancient Greek okhros, \" ochre \" , and pous, \" foot \" .", "The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.", "This species is a somewhat plump wader with a dark greenish-brown back and wings, greyish head and breast and otherwise white underparts.", "The back is spotted white to varying extents, being maximal in the breeding adult, and less in winter and young birds.", "The legs and short bill are both dark green.", "It is conspicuous and characteristically patterned in flight, with the wings dark above and below and a brilliant white rump.", "The latter feature reliably distinguishes it from the slightly smaller but otherwise very similar solitary sandpiper (T.", "In flight it has a characteristic three-note whistle.", "Eggs, Museum Wiesbaden The green sandpiper breeds across subarctic Europe and east across the Palearctic and is a migratory bird, wintering in southern Europe, the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and tropical Africa.", "Food is small invertebrate items picked off the mud as this species works steadily around the edges of its chosen pond.", "This is not a gregarious species, although sometimes small numbers congregate in suitable feeding areas.", "Green sandpiper is very much a bird of freshwater, and is often found in sites too restricted for other waders, which tend to like a clear all-round view.", "It lays 24 eggs in an old tree nest of another species, such as a fieldfare .", "The clutch takes about three weeks to hatch.", "Widely distributed and not uncommon, the green sandpiper is not considered a threatened species by the IUCN on a global scale.", "It is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies."]}, "Cyanistes caeruleus": {"keywords": ["Eurasian blue tits, usually resident and non-migratory birds, are widespread and a common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and the western Palearctic in deciduous or mixed woodlands with a high proportion of oak.", "Outside the breeding season, they also eat seeds and other vegetable-based foods.", "The birds are famed for their acrobatic skills, as they can hold on to the outermost branches of trees and shrubs and hang upside down when looking for food.", "The Eurasian blue tit and the related hybrids are considered native species in areas of the European continent with a mainly temperate or Mediterranean climate, and in parts of the Middle East.", "Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Vatican City and Ukraine.", "In Great Britain the Eurasian blue tit can be found in a variety of environments, and is typically found in deciduous woodland, parks, gardens and even in the centre of towns.", "As a rule the bird roosts in ivy or evergreens, but in harsh winters will roost wherever there is a suitable small hole, be it in a tree or nesting box.", "Egg size appears to depend mostly on the size of individual females and secondarily on habitat, with smaller eggs found at higher altitudes.", "Scolding, for example, is used when a ground predator , a low flying predator or a perched owl are noticed.", "In addition, the instinct to strip bark from trees in search of insects has developed into a tendency to peel building materials such as thatch, wallpaper, stucco and window putty.", "Breeding seasons may be affected badly if the weather is cold and wet between May and July, particularly if this coincides with the emergence of the caterpillars on which the nestlings are fed."], "habitat_section": ["Reported range from observations reported to eBird Blue tit displaying aggression during ringing There are currently around 2044 million pairs in Europe.", "The Eurasian blue tit and the related hybrids are considered native species in areas of the European continent with a mainly temperate or Mediterranean climate, and in parts of the Middle East.", "These areas include Ireland, the United Kingdom and most of the European Union and EFTA , plus.", "Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Vatican City and Ukraine.", "In Great Britain the Eurasian blue tit can be found in a variety of environments, and is typically found in deciduous woodland, parks, gardens and even in the centre of towns.", "Eurasian blue and great tits form mixed winter flocks, and the former are perhaps the better gymnasts in the slender twigs.", "A Eurasian blue tit will often ascend a trunk in short jerky hops, reminiscent of a treecreeper.", "As a rule the bird roosts in ivy or evergreens, but in harsh winters will roost wherever there is a suitable small hole, be it in a tree or nesting box.", "They are very agile and can hang from almost anywhere.", "This is a common and popular European garden bird, due to its perky acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or suet.", "It swings beneath the holder, calling \" tee, tee, tee \" or a scolding \" churr \" .", "The Eurasian blue tit is classified as a least concern species on the IUCN Red List , and as a Green Status species, since 1996, by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the United Kingdom."], "random_sentences": ["Eurasian blue tit in Sweden, April 2018 The Eurasian blue tit is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae.", "It is easily recognisable by its blue and yellow plumage and small size.", "Eurasian blue tits, usually resident and non-migratory birds, are widespread and a common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and the western Palearctic in deciduous or mixed woodlands with a high proportion of oak.", "They usually nest in tree holes, although they easily adapt to nest boxes where necessary.", "Their main rival for nests and in the search for food is the larger and more common great tit.", "The Eurasian blue tit prefers insects and spiders for its diet.", "Outside the breeding season, they also eat seeds and other vegetable-based foods.", "The birds are famed for their acrobatic skills, as they can hold on to the outermost branches of trees and shrubs and hang upside down when looking for food.", "The Eurasian blue tit was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Parus caeruleus.", "Parus is the classical Latin for a tit and caeruleus is the Latin for dark blue or cerulean.", "Two centuries earlier, before the introduction of the binomial nomenclature, the same Latin name had been used by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner when he described and illustrated the blue tit in his Historiae animalium of 1555.", "In 2005, analysis of the mtDNA cytochrome b sequences of the Paridae indicated that Cyanistes was an early offshoot from the lineage of other tits, and more accurately regarded as a genus rather than a subgenus of Parus.", "The current genus name, Cyanistes, is from the Ancient Greek , \" dark blue \" .", "The African blue tit was formerly considered conspecific.", "Pleske's tit is a common interspecific hybrid between this species and the azure tit , in western Russia.", "The cap is usually darker than the azure tit, and the tail is paler than the Eurasian blue tit.", "The Eurasian blue tit is usually , long with a wingspan of for both sexes, and weighs about .", "A typical Eurasian blue tit has an azure-blue crown and dark blue line passing through the eye, and encircling the white cheeks to the chin, giving the bird a very distinctive appearance.", "The forehead and a bar on the wing are white.", "The nape, wings and tail are blue and the back is yellowish green.", "The underparts is mostly sulphur-yellow with a dark line down the abdomenthe yellowness is indicative of the number of yellowy-green caterpillars eaten, due to high levels of carotene pigments in the diet.", "The bill is black, the legs bluish grey, and the irides dark brown.", "The sexes are similar and often indistinguishable to human eyes, but under ultraviolet light, males have a brighter blue crown.", "Young blue tits are noticeably more yellow.", "Reported range from observations reported to eBird Blue tit displaying aggression during ringing There are currently around 2044 million pairs in Europe.", "The Eurasian blue tit and the related hybrids are considered native species in areas of the European continent with a mainly temperate or Mediterranean climate, and in parts of the Middle East.", "These areas include Ireland, the United Kingdom and most of the European Union and EFTA , plus: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Vatican City and Ukraine.", "In Great Britain the Eurasian blue tit can be found in a variety of environments, and is typically found in deciduous woodland, parks, gardens and even in the centre of towns.", "Eurasian blue and great tits form mixed winter flocks, and the former are perhaps the better gymnasts in the slender twigs.", "A Eurasian blue tit will often ascend a trunk in short jerky hops, reminiscent of a treecreeper.", "As a rule the bird roosts in ivy or evergreens, but in harsh winters will roost wherever there is a suitable small hole, be it in a tree or nesting box.", "They are very agile and can hang from almost anywhere.", "This is a common and popular European garden bird, due to its perky acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or suet.", "It swings beneath the holder, calling \" tee, tee, tee \" or a scolding \" churr \" .", "Feeding the young at a nest box in England Eggs of Cyanistes caeruleus ultramarinus MHNT right", "Few birds more readily accept the shelter of a nesting box", "the same hole is returned to year after year, and when one pair dies another takes possession.", "It is estimated by the RSPB that there are 3,535,000 breeding pairs in the UK.", "During the incubation period, female blue tits perform all of the incubation, however the male feeds the female during this time.", "During the nestling period both female nest attendance and male feeding rate are higher in the morning, declining throughout the day.", "Eggs are long and wide.", "Egg size appears to depend mostly on the size of individual females and secondarily on habitat, with smaller eggs found at higher altitudes.", "The clutch's total weight can be 1.5 times as heavy as the female bird.", "Juvenile in Pimlico, LondonA study found that the timing of breeding in blue tits is related to the expression of nestling carotenoidbased coloration, which could play a role in offspringparent communication.", "The bird is a close sitter, hissing and biting at an intruding finger.", "In the South West of England such behaviour has earned the Eurasian blue tit the colloquial nickname \" Little Billy Biter \" or \" Billy Biter \" , originating from the UK.", "When protecting its eggs it raises its crest, but this is a sign of excitement rather than anger, for it is also elevated during nuptial display.", "The nesting material is usually moss, wool, hair and feathers, and the eggs are laid in April or May.", "The number in the clutch is often very large, but seven or eight are normal, clutch size varies with latitude and other geographic parameters.", "Some bigger clutches may be laid by two or even more hens in some locations but single hen clutches of 14 have been verified in the UK.", "It is not unusual for a single bird to feed the chicks in the nest at a rate of one feed every 90 seconds during the height of the breeding season.", "In winter they form flocks with other tit species.", "In an analysis carried out using ring-recovery data in Britain, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 38%, while the adult annual survival rate was 53%.", "From these figures the typical lifespan is only three years.", "Within Britain, the maximum recorded age is 10 years and 3 months for a bird that was ringed in Bedfordshire.", "The maximum recorded age overall is 11 years and 7 months for a bird in the Czech Republic.", "Eating peanuts from a garden bird feeder in England right", "Eurasian blue tit eating peanuts from a string, Italy The Eurasian blue tit feeds on many insects, though it is fond of young buds of various trees, especially when insect prey is scarce, and may pull them to bits in the hope of finding insects.", "It is a well-known predator of many Lepidoptera species including the Wood Tiger moth.", "No species, however, destroys more coccids and aphids, the worst foes of many plants.", "It takes leaf miner grubs and green tortrix moths .", "In common with all members of the family, seeds are also eaten.", "Calls of a blue tit Eurasian blue tits use songs and calls throughout the year.", "Songs are mostly used in late winter and spring to defend the territory or to attract mates.", "Calls are used for multiple reasons.", "Communication with other Eurasian blue tits is the most important motivation for the use of calls.", "They inform one another on their location in trees by means of contact-calls.", "They use alarm-calls to warn others about the presence of predators in the neighbourhood.", "Scolding, for example, is used when a ground predator , a low flying predator or a perched owl are noticed.", "Sometimes this is followed by mobbing behaviour in which birds gather together in flocks to counter a predator.", "The alarm-whistle warns other birds about the proximity of a Eurasian sparrowhawk, a northern goshawk, a common buzzard or other flying predators that form a potential danger in the air.", "A series of high-pitched '' notes are given by both partners before and during copulation.", "The begging-call is used by juveniles to beg for food from parents.", "An interesting example of culturally transmitted learning in birds was the phenomenon dating from the 1920s of blue tits teaching one another how to open traditional British milk bottles with foil tops, to get at the cream underneath Such behaviour has been suppressed recently by the gradual change of human dietary habits , and the way of getting them .", "In addition, the instinct to strip bark from trees in search of insects has developed into a tendency to peel building materials such as thatch, wallpaper, stucco and window putty.", "The small size of the Eurasian blue tit makes it vulnerable to prey by larger birds such as jays who catch the vulnerable fledglings when they leave the nest.", "The most important predator is probably the sparrowhawk, closely followed by the domestic cat.", "Nests may be robbed by mammals such as weasels and red squirrels, as well as introduced grey squirrels in the UK.", "The successful breeding of chicks is dependent on sufficient supply of green caterpillars as well as satisfactory weather.", "Breeding seasons may be affected badly if the weather is cold and wet between May and July, particularly if this coincides with the emergence of the caterpillars on which the nestlings are fed.", "A bald blue tit with mite Eurasian blue tits are known to be host to feather mites, and rarely lice and flat flies.", "In Europe, the only feather mite species known to live on the blue tit host is Proctophyllodes stylifer.", "However, this mite seems to be of no concern to the bird as, until now, it is only known to feed on dead feather tissue.", "P. stylifer lives all its developmental stages, i.e. egg, larva, protonymph, tritonymph and adult, within the plumage of the same host.", "The usual sites where P. stylifer is encountered are the remiges and the rectrices of the bird where they can be found tandemly positioned between the barbs of the rachis.", "The Eurasian blue tit is classified as a least concern species on the IUCN Red List , and as a Green Status species, since 1996, by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the United Kingdom.", "The Eurasian blue tit has appeared on many stamps and ornaments.", "Its most recent appearance on a British stamp was the 2010 Birds of Britain series."]}, "Sturnus vulgaris": {"keywords": ["The legs are pink and the bill is black in winter and yellow in summer, young birds have browner plumage than the adults.", "The common starling has about 12 subspecies breeding in open habitats across its native range in temperate Europe and across the Palearctic to western Mongolia, and it has been introduced to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, South Africa and Fiji.", "This bird is resident in western and southern Europe and southwestern Asia, while northeastern populations migrate south and west in the winter within the breeding range and also further south to Iberia and North Africa.", "Large flocks typical of this species can be beneficial to agriculture by controlling invertebrate pests, however, starlings can also be pests themselves when they feed on fruit and sprouting crops.", "The species has declined in numbers in parts of northern and western Europe since the 1980s due to fewer grassland invertebrates being available as food for growing chicks.", "It has partly moulted into its first-winter plumage, however, juvenile brown plumage is prominent on its head and neck Like most terrestrial starlings the common starling moves by walking or running, rather than hopping.", "This technique involves inserting the bill into the ground and opening it as a way of searching for hidden food items.", "In Iberia, the western Mediterranean and northwest Africa, the common starling may be confused with the closely related spotless starling, the plumage of which, as its name implies, has a more uniform colour.", "Very large roosts, up to 1.5 million birds, form in city centres, woodlands and reedbeds, causing problems with their droppings.", "In smaller amounts, the droppings act as a fertiliser, and therefore woodland managers may try to move roosts from one area of a wood to another to benefit from the soil enhancement and avoid large toxic deposits.", "Flocks of more than a million common starlings may be observed just before sunset in spring in southwestern Jutland, Denmark, over the seaward marshlands of Tnder and Esbjerg municipalities between Tnder and Ribe.", "Flocks of anything from five to fifty thousand common starlings form in areas of the UK just before sundown during mid-winter.", "An adult foraging and finding food for young chicks There are several methods by which common starlings obtain their food, but, for the most part, they forage close to the ground, taking insects from the surface or just underneath.", "Generally, common starlings prefer foraging amongst short-cropped grasses and eat with grazing animals or perch on their backs, where they will also feed on the mammal's external parasites.", "A parent feeding a chick Unpaired males find a suitable cavity and begin to build nests in order to attract single females, often decorating the nest with ornaments such as flowers and fresh green material, which the female later disassembles upon accepting him as a mate.", "Nests may be in any type of hole, common locations include inside hollowed trees, buildings, tree stumps and man-made nest-boxes.", "Nests are typically made out of straw, dry grass and twigs with an inner lining made up of feathers, wool and soft leaves.", "Prior to that, the fouling would wet both the chicks' plumage and the nest material, thereby reducing their effectiveness as insulation and increasing the risk of chilling the hatchlings.", "Widespread throughout the Northern Hemisphere, the bird is native to Eurasia and is found throughout Europe, northern Africa , India Nepal, the Middle East including Israel, Syria, Iran, and Iraq, and northwestern China.", "A flock resting on a pine tree during migration Common starlings in the south and west of Europe and south of latitude 40N are mainly resident, Birds in the east of the country move southwards, and those from farther west winter in the southwest of the US. They occasionally inhabit open forests and woodlands and are sometimes found in shrubby areas such as Australian heathland.", "Common starlings rarely inhabit dense, wet forests but are found in coastal areas, where they nest and roost on cliffs and forage amongst seaweed.", "Their ability to adapt to a large variety of habitats has allowed them to disperse and establish themselves in diverse locations around the world resulting in a habitat range from coastal wetlands to alpine forests, from sea cliffs to mountain ranges above sea level.", "The common starling has been introduced to and has successfully established itself in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, North America, Fiji and several Caribbean islands.", "The intensive farming methods used in northern Europe mean there is less pasture and meadow habitat available, and the supply of grassland invertebrates needed for the nestlings to thrive is correspondingly reduced.", "Feeding on a windfall apple Since common starlings eat insect pests such as wireworms, they are considered beneficial in northern Eurasia, and this was one of the reasons given for introducing the birds elsewhere.", "Common starlings introduced to areas such as Australia or North America, where other members of the genus are absent, may affect native species through competition for nest holes.", "For its role in the decline of local native species and the damages to agriculture, the common starling has been included in the IUCN List of the world's 100 worst invasive species.", "This, coupled with them being lowland birds that easily coexist with humans, enables them to take advantage of other native birds, most particularly woodpecker.", "As cavity nesters, they are able to outcompete many native species in terms of habitat and nest sites.", "Common starlings can eat and damage fruit in orchards such as grapes, peaches, olives, currants and tomatoes or dig up newly sown grain and sprouting crops.", "Common starlings take advantage of agricultural fields, livestock facilities, and other human related sources of food and nest sites.", "Starlings often assault crops such as grapes, olives, and cherries by consuming excessive amounts of crops in large flock sizes and in new grain fields, starlings pull up young plants and eat the seeds.", "Common starlings also often congregate at feeding troughs to eat grain and concurrently contaminate the food and water sources provided for livestock with their droppings.", "The English or house sparrow and the common starling are considerable agricultural pests, together causing an estimated US$1billion per year in crop damages.", "Common starlings may be sucked into aircraft jet engines, one of the worst instances of this being an incident in Boston in 1960, when sixty-two people died after a turboprop airliner flew into a flock and plummeted into the sea at Winthrop Harbor.", "The spread of disease to livestock is also a concern, possibly more important than starling's effects on food consumption or transmission of disease to humans.", "Due to the impact of starlings on crop production, there have been attempts to control the numbers of both native and introduced populations of common starlings.", "The Wildlife Order in Northern Ireland allows, with a general licence, \" an authorised person to control starlings to prevent serious damage to agriculture or preserve public health and safety \" .", "Alternatives to managing starling populations in agricultural areas include the use of starlicide.", "Use of starlicide has been found to reduce the spread of Salmonella enterica in livestock and other diseases found among livestock.", "Though this does not appear to eliminate introduction of these diseases completely, it has been determined that they are contributors and starling control is a successful mitigation strategy.", "In the medieval Welsh , Branwen tamed a common starling, \" taught it words \" , and sent it across the Irish Sea with a message to her brothers, Bran and Manawydan, who then sailed from Wales to Ireland to rescue her."], "habitat_section": ["A large flock in Rotterdam, Netherlands The common starling is a highly gregarious species, especially in autumn and winter.", "Although flock size is highly variable, huge, noisy flocks - murmurations - may form near roosts.", "These dense concentrations of birds are thought to be a defence against attacks by birds of prey such as peregrine falcons or Eurasian sparrowhawks.", "Flocks form a tight sphere-like formation in flight, frequently expanding and contracting and changing shape, seemingly without any sort of leader.", "Each common starling changes its course and speed as a result of the movement of its closest neighbours.", "Very large roosts, up to 1.5 million birds, form in city centres, woodlands and reedbeds, causing problems with their droppings.", "These may accumulate up to deep, killing trees by their concentration of chemicals.", "In smaller amounts, the droppings act as a fertiliser, and therefore woodland managers may try to move roosts from one area of a wood to another to benefit from the soil enhancement and avoid large toxic deposits.", "Flocks of more than a million common starlings may be observed just before sunset in spring in southwestern Jutland, Denmark, over the seaward marshlands of Tnder and Esbjerg municipalities between Tnder and Ribe.", "They gather in March until northern Scandinavian birds leave for their breeding ranges by mid-April.", "Their swarm behaviour creates complex shapes silhouetted against the sky, a phenomenon known locally as sort sol .", "Flocks of anything from five to fifty thousand common starlings form in areas of the UK just before sundown during mid-winter.", "These flocks are commonly called murmurations.", "The global population of common starlings was estimated to be 310 million individuals in 2004, occupying a total area of .", "Widespread throughout the Northern Hemisphere, the bird is native to Eurasia and is found throughout Europe, northern Africa , India Nepal, the Middle East including Israel, Syria, Iran, and Iraq, and northwestern China.", "A flock resting on a pine tree during migration Common starlings in the south and west of Europe and south of latitude 40N are mainly resident, Birds in the east of the country move southwards, and those from farther west winter in the southwest of the US. They occasionally inhabit open forests and woodlands and are sometimes found in shrubby areas such as Australian heathland.", "Common starlings rarely inhabit dense, wet forests but are found in coastal areas, where they nest and roost on cliffs and forage amongst seaweed.", "Their ability to adapt to a large variety of habitats has allowed them to disperse and establish themselves in diverse locations around the world resulting in a habitat range from coastal wetlands to alpine forests, from sea cliffs to mountain ranges above sea level."], "random_sentences": ["The common starling or European starling , also known simply as the starling in Great Britain and Ireland, is a medium-sized passerine bird in the starling family, Sturnidae.", "It is about long and has glossy black plumage with a metallic sheen, which is speckled with white at some times of year.", "The legs are pink and the bill is black in winter and yellow in summer", "young birds have browner plumage than the adults.", "It is a noisy bird, especially in communal roosts and other gregarious situations, with an unmusical but varied song.", "Its gift for mimicry has been noted in literature including the Mabinogion and the works of Pliny the Elder and William Shakespeare.", "The common starling has about 12 subspecies breeding in open habitats across its native range in temperate Europe and across the Palearctic to western Mongolia, and it has been introduced to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, South Africa and Fiji.", "This bird is resident in western and southern Europe and southwestern Asia, while northeastern populations migrate south and west in the winter within the breeding range and also further south to Iberia and North Africa.", "The common starling builds an untidy nest in a natural or artificial cavity in which four or five glossy, pale blue eggs are laid.", "These take two weeks to hatch and the young remain in the nest for another three weeks.", "There are normally one or two breeding attempts each year.", "This species is omnivorous, taking a wide range of invertebrates, as well as seeds and fruit.", "It is hunted by various mammals and birds of prey, and is host to a range of external and internal parasites.", "Large flocks typical of this species can be beneficial to agriculture by controlling invertebrate pests", "however, starlings can also be pests themselves when they feed on fruit and sprouting crops.", "Common starlings may also be a nuisance through the noise and mess caused by their large urban roosts.", "Introduced populations in particular have been subjected to a range of controls, including culling, but these have had limited success, except in preventing the colonisation of Western Australia.", "The species has declined in numbers in parts of northern and western Europe since the 1980s due to fewer grassland invertebrates being available as food for growing chicks.", "Despite this, its huge global population is not thought to be declining significantly, so the common starling is classified as being of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.", "The common starling was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his Systema Naturae in 1758 under its current binomial name.", "Sturnus and vulgaris are derived from the Latin for \" starling \" and \" common \" respectively.", "The Old English , later , and the Latin are both derived from an unknown Indo-European root dating back to the second millennium BC.", "\" Starling \" was first recorded in the 11th century, when it referred to the juvenile of the species, but by the 16th century it had already largely supplanted \" stare \" to refer to birds of all ages.", "The older name is referenced in William Butler Yeats' poem \" The Stare's Nest by My Window \" .", "The International Ornithological Congress's preferred English vernacular name is common starling.", "The starling family, Sturnidae, is an entirely Old World group apart from introductions elsewhere, with the greatest numbers of species in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.", "The genus Sturnus is polyphyletic and relationships between its members are not fully resolved.", "The closest relation of the common starling is the spotless starling.", "The non-migratory spotless starling may be descended from a population of ancestral S. vulgaris that survived in an Iberian refugium during an Ice Age retreat, and mitochondrial gene studies suggest that it could be considered a subspecies of the common starling.", "There is more genetic variation between common starling populations than between the nominate common starling and the spotless starling.", "part of the problem in resolving relationships in the Sturnidae is the paucity of the fossil record for the family as a whole.", "A young juvenile being fed by an adult in Boston The common starling is long, with a wingspan of and a weight of .", "They can usually be sexed by the colour of the irises, rich brown in males, mouse-brown or grey in females.", "Estimating the contrast between an iris and the central always-dark pupil is 97% accurate in determining sex, rising to 98% if the length of the throat feathers is also considered.", "The common starling is mid-sized by both starling standards and passerine standards.", "It is readily distinguished from other mid-sized passerines, such as thrushes, icterids or small corvids, by its relatively short tail, sharp, blade-like bill, round-bellied shape and strong, sizeable legs.", "In flight, its strongly pointed wings and dark colouration are distinctive, while on the ground its strange, somewhat waddling gait is also characteristic.", "The colouring and build usually distinguish this bird from other starlings, although the closely related spotless starling may be physically distinguished by the lack of iridescent spots in adult breeding plumage.", "It has partly moulted into its first-winter plumage", "however, juvenile brown plumage is prominent on its head and neck Like most terrestrial starlings the common starling moves by walking or running, rather than hopping.", "Their flight is quite strong and direct", "their triangular wings beat very rapidly, and periodically the birds glide for a short way without losing much height before resuming powered flight.", "When in a flock, the birds take off almost simultaneously, wheel and turn in unison, form a compact mass or trail off into a wispy stream, bunch up again and land in a coordinated fashion.", "Common starling on migration can fly at and cover up to .", "This adaptation is most strongly developed in the common starling , where the protractor muscles responsible for opening the jaw are enlarged and the skull is narrow, allowing the eye to be moved forward to peer down the length of the bill.", "This technique involves inserting the bill into the ground and opening it as a way of searching for hidden food items.", "Common starlings have the physical traits that enable them to use this feeding technique, which has undoubtedly helped the species spread far and wide.", "In Iberia, the western Mediterranean and northwest Africa, the common starling may be confused with the closely related spotless starling, the plumage of which, as its name implies, has a more uniform colour.", "At close range it can be seen that the latter has longer throat feathers, a fact particularly noticeable when it sings.", "Chattering calls of a group altSinging adult male", "Adult male singing and displaying its long throat feathers Singing Sturnus vulgaris, Spring Creek Park, New York, USA.", "The common starling is a noisy bird.", "Its song consists of a wide variety of both melodic and mechanical-sounding noises as part of a ritual succession of sounds.", "The male is the main songster and engages in bouts of song lasting for a minute or more.", "Each of these typically includes four varieties of song type, which follow each other in a regular order without pause.", "The bout starts with a series of pure-tone whistles and these are followed by the main part of the song, a number of variable sequences that often incorporate snatches of song mimicked from other species of bird and various naturally occurring or man-made noises.", "The structure and simplicity of the sound mimicked is of greater importance than the frequency with which it occurs.", "In some instances, a wild starling has been observed to mimic a sound it has heard only once.", "Each sound clip is repeated several times before the bird moves on to the next.", "After this variable section comes a number of types of repeated clicks followed by a final burst of high-frequency song, again formed of several types.", "Each bird has its own repertoire with more proficient birds having a range of up to 35 variable song types and as many as 14 types of clicks.", "Males sing constantly as the breeding period approaches and perform less often once pairs have bonded.", "In the presence of a female, a male sometimes flies to his nest and sings from the entrance, apparently attempting to entice the female in.", "Older birds tend to have a wider repertoire than younger ones.", "Those males that engage in longer bouts of singing and that have wider repertoires attract mates earlier and have greater reproductive success than others.", "Females appear to prefer mates with more complex songs, perhaps because this indicates greater experience or longevity.", "Having a complex song is also useful in defending a territory and deterring less experienced males from encroaching.", "Along with having adaptions of the skull and muscles for singing, male starlings also have a much larger syrinx than females.", "This is due to increased muscle mass and enlarged elements of the syringeal skeleton.", "The male starling's syrinx is around 35% larger than its female counterpart.", "However, this sexual dimorphism is less pronounced than it is in songbird species like the zebra finch, where the male's syrinx is 100% larger than the female's syrinx.", "Singing also occurs outside the breeding season, taking place throughout the year apart from the moulting period.", "The songsters are more commonly male although females also sing on occasion.", "The function of such out-of-season song is poorly understood.", "The alarm call is a harsh scream, and while foraging together common starlings squabble incessantly.", "They chatter while roosting and bathing, making a great deal of noise that can cause irritation to people living nearby.", "When a flock of common starlings is flying together, the synchronised movements of the birds' wings make a distinctive whooshing sound that can be heard hundreds of metres away.", "A large flock in Rotterdam, Netherlands The common starling is a highly gregarious species, especially in autumn and winter.", "Although flock size is highly variable, huge, noisy flocks - murmurations - may form near roosts.", "These dense concentrations of birds are thought to be a defence against attacks by birds of prey such as peregrine falcons or Eurasian sparrowhawks.", "Flocks form a tight sphere-like formation in flight, frequently expanding and contracting and changing shape, seemingly without any sort of leader.", "Each common starling changes its course and speed as a result of the movement of its closest neighbours.", "Very large roosts, up to 1.5 million birds, form in city centres, woodlands and reedbeds, causing problems with their droppings.", "These may accumulate up to deep, killing trees by their concentration of chemicals.", "In smaller amounts, the droppings act as a fertiliser, and therefore woodland managers may try to move roosts from one area of a wood to another to benefit from the soil enhancement and avoid large toxic deposits.", "Flocks of more than a million common starlings may be observed just before sunset in spring in southwestern Jutland, Denmark, over the seaward marshlands of Tnder and Esbjerg municipalities between Tnder and Ribe.", "They gather in March until northern Scandinavian birds leave for their breeding ranges by mid-April.", "Their swarm behaviour creates complex shapes silhouetted against the sky, a phenomenon known locally as sort sol .", "Flocks of anything from five to fifty thousand common starlings form in areas of the UK just before sundown during mid-winter.", "These flocks are commonly called murmurations.", "A flock foraging at a farm in Northern Ireland The common starling is largely insectivorous and feeds on both pest and other arthropods.", "The food range includes spiders, crane flies, moths, mayflies, dragonflies, damsel flies, grasshoppers, earwigs, lacewings, caddisflies, flies, beetles, sawflies, bees, wasps and ants.", "Prey are consumed in both adult and larvae stages of development, and common starlings will also feed on earthworms, snails, small amphibians and lizards.", "The Sturnidae differ from most birds in that they cannot easily metabolise foods containing high levels of sucrose, although they can cope with other fruits such as grapes and cherries.", "An adult foraging and finding food for young chicks There are several methods by which common starlings obtain their food, but, for the most part, they forage close to the ground, taking insects from the surface or just underneath.", "Generally, common starlings prefer foraging amongst short-cropped grasses and eat with grazing animals or perch on their backs, where they will also feed on the mammal's external parasites.", "Large flocks may engage in a practice known as \" roller-feeding \" , where the birds at the back of the flock continually fly to the front where the feeding opportunities are best.", "The larger the flock, the nearer individuals are to one another while foraging.", "Flocks often feed in one place for some time, and return to previous successfully foraged sites.", "A parent feeding a chick Unpaired males find a suitable cavity and begin to build nests in order to attract single females, often decorating the nest with ornaments such as flowers and fresh green material, which the female later disassembles upon accepting him as a mate.", "The amount of green material is not important, as long as some is present, but the presence of herbs in the decorative material appears to be significant in attracting a mate.", "The scent of plants such as yarrow acts as an olfactory attractant to females.", "The males sing throughout much of the construction and even more so when a female approaches his nest.", "Following copulation, the male and female continue to build the nest.", "Nests may be in any type of hole, common locations include inside hollowed trees, buildings, tree stumps and man-made nest-boxes.", "Nests are typically made out of straw, dry grass and twigs with an inner lining made up of feathers, wool and soft leaves.", "Construction usually takes four or five days and may continue through incubation.", "Five eggs in a nest Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany altChicks waiting to be fed", "Chicks waiting to be fed at the entrance of their nest made in a gap in a wall in Galway, Ireland Breeding takes place during the spring and summer.", "Following copulation, the female lays eggs on a daily basis over a period of several days.", "If an egg is lost during this time, she will lay another to replace it.", "There are normally four or five eggs that are ovoid in shape and pale blue or occasionally white, and they commonly have a glossy appearance.", "The egg size is in length and in maximum diameter.", "the adults largely cease removing droppings from the nest.", "Prior to that, the fouling would wet both the chicks' plumage and the nest material, thereby reducing their effectiveness as insulation and increasing the risk of chilling the hatchlings.", "Nestlings remain in the nest for three weeks, where they are fed continuously by both parents.", "Fledglings continue to be fed by their parents for another one or two weeks.", "A pair can raise up to three broods per year, frequently reusing and relining the same nest, Intraspecific brood parasites are common in common starling nests.", "Female \" floaters \" present in colonies often lay eggs in another pair's nest.", "Fledglings have also been reported to invade their own or neighbouring nests and evict a new brood.", "A majority of starling predators are avian.", "The typical response of starling groups is to take flight, with a common sight being undulating flocks of starling flying high in quick and agile patterns.", "Their abilities in flight are seldom matched by birds of prey.", "Adult common starlings are hunted by hawks such as the northern goshawk and Eurasian sparrowhawk , and falcons including the peregrine falcon , Eurasian hobby and common kestrel .", "Slower raptors like black and red kites (Milvus migrans", "milvus), eastern imperial eagle , common buzzard and Australasian harrier tend to take the more easily caught fledglings or juveniles.", "While perched in groups by night, they can be vulnerable to owls, including the little owl , long-eared owl , short-eared owl , barn owl , tawny owl and Eurasian eagle-owl .", "More than twenty species of hawk, owl and falcon are known to occasionally predate feral starlings in North America, though the most regular predators of adults are likely to be urban-living peregrine falcons or merlins .", "Common mynas sometimes evict eggs, nestlings and adult common starlings from their nests, and squirrels (Sciurus spp.", "), Common starlings are hosts to a wide range of parasites.", "A survey of three hundred common starlings from six US states found that all had at least one type of parasite", "99% had external fleas, mites or ticks, and 95% carried internal parasites, mostly various types of worm.", "Blood-sucking species leave their host when it dies, but other external parasites stay on the corpse.", "A bird with a deformed bill was heavily infested with Mallophaga lice, presumably due to its inability to remove vermin.", "Dermanyssus gallinae, a parasite of the common starling The hen flea is the most common flea in their nests.", "The small, pale house-sparrow flea C. fringillae, is also occasionally found there and probably arises from the habit of its main host of taking over the nests of other species.", "This flea does not occur in the US, even on house sparrows.", "Lice include Menacanthus eurystemus, Brueelia nebulosa and Stumidoecus sturni.", "Other arthropod parasites include Ixodes ticks and mites such as Analgopsis passerinus, Boydaia stumi, Dermanyssus gallinae, Ornithonyssus bursa, O. sylviarum, Proctophyllodes species, Pteronyssoides truncatus and Trouessartia rosteri.", "The hen mite D. gallinae is itself preyed upon by the predatory mite Androlaelaps casalis.", "The presence of this control on numbers of the parasitic species may explain why birds are prepared to reuse old nests.", "Flying insects that parasitise common starlings include the louse-fly Omithomya nigricornis Larvae of the moth Hofmannophila pseudospretella are nest scavengers, which feed on animal material such as faeces or dead nestlings.", "Protozoan blood parasites of the genus Haemoproteus have been found in common starlings, but a better known pest is the brilliant scarlet nematode Syngamus trachea.", "This worm moves from the lungs to the trachea and may cause its host to suffocate.", "In Britain, the rook and the common starling are the most infested wild birds.", "Other recorded internal parasites include the spiny-headed worm Prosthorhynchus transverses.", "Common starlings may contract avian tuberculosis, avian malaria and retrovirus-induced lymphomas.", "Captive starlings often accumulate excess iron in the liver, a condition that can be prevented by adding black tea-leaves to the food.", "The global population of common starlings was estimated to be 310 million individuals in 2004, occupying a total area of .", "Widespread throughout the Northern Hemisphere, the bird is native to Eurasia and is found throughout Europe, northern Africa , India Nepal, the Middle East including Israel, Syria, Iran, and Iraq, and northwestern China.", "A flock resting on a pine tree during migration Common starlings in the south and west of Europe and south of latitude 40N are mainly resident, Birds in the east of the country move southwards, and those from farther west winter in the southwest of the US.", "They occasionally inhabit open forests and woodlands and are sometimes found in shrubby areas such as Australian heathland.", "Common starlings rarely inhabit dense, wet forests but are found in coastal areas, where they nest and roost on cliffs and forage amongst seaweed.", "Their ability to adapt to a large variety of habitats has allowed them to disperse and establish themselves in diverse locations around the world resulting in a habitat range from coastal wetlands to alpine forests, from sea cliffs to mountain ranges above sea level.", "The common starling has been introduced to and has successfully established itself in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, North America, Fiji and several Caribbean islands.", "As a result, it has also been able to migrate to Thailand, Southeast Asia and New Guinea.", "The global population of the common starling is estimated to be more than 310 million individuals and its numbers are not thought to be declining significantly, so the bird is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of least concern.", "Major declines in populations have been observed from 1980 onward in Sweden, Finland, northern Russia and the Baltic States, and smaller declines in much of the rest of northern and central Europe.", "The intensive farming methods used in northern Europe mean there is less pasture and meadow habitat available, and the supply of grassland invertebrates needed for the nestlings to thrive is correspondingly reduced.", "Congregating on wires in France right", "Feeding on a windfall apple Since common starlings eat insect pests such as wireworms, they are considered beneficial in northern Eurasia, and this was one of the reasons given for introducing the birds elsewhere.", "Around 25 million nest boxes were erected for this species in the former Soviet Union, and common starlings were found to be effective in controlling the grass grub Costelytra zealandica in New Zealand.", "Common starlings introduced to areas such as Australia or North America, where other members of the genus are absent, may affect native species through competition for nest holes.", "In North America, chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, purple martins and other swallows may be affected.", "In Australia, competitors for nesting sites include the crimson and eastern rosellas.", "For its role in the decline of local native species and the damages to agriculture, the common starling has been included in the IUCN List of the world's 100 worst invasive species.", "European, or common, starlings are habitat generalists meaning they are able to exploit a multitude of habitats, nest sites and food sources.", "This, coupled with them being lowland birds that easily coexist with humans, enables them to take advantage of other native birds, most particularly woodpecker.", "European starlings are considered aggressive omnivores that utilize an open-bill probing technique that gives them an evolutionary advantage over birds that are frugivores.", "Their aggressive and gregarious behaviour in terms of food thus allows them to outcompete native species.", "Common starlings are also aggressive in the creation of their nest cavities.", "Often, starlings will usurp a nest site, for example a tree hollow, and fill it rapidly with bedding and contaminants compared to other species, like the native parrots, that use little to no bedding.", "As cavity nesters, they are able to outcompete many native species in terms of habitat and nest sites.", "Common starlings can eat and damage fruit in orchards such as grapes, peaches, olives, currants and tomatoes or dig up newly sown grain and sprouting crops.", "Agricultural damage in the US is estimated as costing about US$800million annually.", "Common starlings take advantage of agricultural fields, livestock facilities, and other human related sources of food and nest sites.", "Starlings often assault crops such as grapes, olives, and cherries by consuming excessive amounts of crops in large flock sizes and in new grain fields, starlings pull up young plants and eat the seeds.", "Bird damage to grapes in 1968 cost upwards to $4.4million while losing almost 17% of the crops.", "Common starlings also often congregate at feeding troughs to eat grain and concurrently contaminate the food and water sources provided for livestock with their droppings.", "For example, high protein supplements added to cattle feed are selectively eaten by common starlings.", "In 1968, the cost of cattle rations consumed during winter by starlings was $84 per 1,000 starlings and is proposed to be much more expensive today given an increase in current cattle feed costs.", "The English or house sparrow and the common starling are considerable agricultural pests, together causing an estimated US$1billion per year in crop damages.", "The large size of flocks can also cause problems.", "Common starlings may be sucked into aircraft jet engines, one of the worst instances of this being an incident in Boston in 1960, when sixty-two people died after a turboprop airliner flew into a flock and plummeted into the sea at Winthrop Harbor.", "The large roosts of the common starling pose many safety hazards for aircraft, mainly including the clogging of engines that concurrently shutdown the plane into descent.", "From the years 19902001, 852 incidents of aircraft hazard due to starlings and blackbirds were reported with 39 strikes causing major damage that cost a total of $1,607,317.", "Starlings' droppings can contain the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum, the cause of histoplasmosis in humans.", "At roosting sites this fungus can thrive in accumulated droppings.", "There are a number of other infectious diseases that can potentially be transmitted by common starlings to humans, although the potential for the birds to spread infections may have been exaggerated.", "The spread of disease to livestock is also a concern, possibly more important than starling's effects on food consumption or transmission of disease to humans.", "The spreading of Histoplasmosis reported in a Nebraska manufacturing facility saw a loss of 10,000 pigs from the spread of the disease which was valued at $1million loss in 2014.", "Due to the impact of starlings on crop production, there have been attempts to control the numbers of both native and introduced populations of common starlings.", "Within the natural breeding range, this may be affected by legislation.", "For example, in Spain, the species is hunted commercially as a food item, and has a closed season, whereas in France, it is classed as a pest, and the season in which it may be killed covers the greater part of the year.", "In Great Britain, starlings are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which makes it \" illegal to intentionally kill, injure or take a starling, or to take, damage or destroy an active nest or its contents \" .", "The Wildlife Order in Northern Ireland allows, with a general licence, \" an authorised person to control starlings to prevent serious damage to agriculture or preserve public health and safety \" .", "The species is migratory, so birds involved in control measures may have come from a wide area and breeding populations may not be greatly affected.", "In Europe, the varying legislation and mobile populations mean that control attempts may have limited long-term results.", "Non-lethal techniques such as scaring with visual or auditory devices have only a temporary effect in any case.", "Huge urban roosts in cities can create problems due to the noise and mess made and the smell of the droppings.", "In 1949, so many birds landed on the clock hands of London's Big Ben that it stopped, leading to unsuccessful attempts to disrupt the roosts with netting, repellent chemical on the ledges and broadcasts of common starling alarm calls.", "An entire episode of The Goon Show in 1954 was a parody of the futile efforts to disrupt the large common starling roosts in central London.", "The adult has a black beak in the winter.", "Where it is introduced, the common starling is unprotected by legislation, and extensive control plans may be initiated.", "Common starlings can be prevented from using nest boxes by ensuring that the access holes are smaller than the diameter they need, and the removal of perches discourages them from visiting bird feeders.", "Another technique is to analyse the DNA of Australian common starling populations to track where the migration from eastern to western Australia is occurring so that better preventive strategies can be used.", "By 2009, only 300 common starlings were left in Western Australia, and the state committed a further A$400,000 in that year to continue the eradication programme.", "In the United States, common starlings are exempt from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which prohibits the taking or killing of migratory birds.", "No permit is required to remove nests and eggs or kill juveniles or adults.", "In 2008, the United States government poisoned, shot or trapped 1.7million birds, the largest number of any nuisance species to be culled.", "In 2005, the population in the United States was estimated at 140million birds, around 45% of the global total of 310million.", "The likelihood of starlings to damage the feeding operations is dependent on the number of livestock, favoring areas with more livestock.", "They also show preference for feed types which were not whole corn but smaller feeds, creating more damage in areas where the feed was smaller.", "A proposed solution to this problem is use of less palatable feed by agriculturalists, perhaps relying on larger feed types or feed which is less favorable in composition to starlings.", "Alternatives to managing starling populations in agricultural areas include the use of starlicide.", "Use of starlicide has been found to reduce the spread of Salmonella enterica in livestock and other diseases found among livestock.", "Though this does not appear to eliminate introduction of these diseases completely, it has been determined that they are contributors and starling control is a successful mitigation strategy.", "Pet in a cage Common starlings may be kept as pets or as laboratory animals.", "Austrian ethologist Konrad Lorenz wrote of them in his book King Solomon's Ring as \" the poor man's dog \" and \" something to love \" , because nestlings are easily obtained from the wild and after careful hand rearing they are straightforward to look after.", "They adapt well to captivity, and thrive on a diet of standard bird feed and mealworms.", "Several birds may be kept in the same cage, and their inquisitiveness makes them easy to train or study.", "The only disadvantages are their messy and indiscriminate defecation habits and the need to take precautions against diseases that may be transmitted to humans.", "As a laboratory bird, the common starling is second in numbers only to the domestic pigeon.", "The common starling's gift for mimicry has long been recognised.", "In the medieval Welsh , Branwen tamed a common starling, \" taught it words \" , and sent it across the Irish Sea with a message to her brothers, Bran and Manawydan, who then sailed from Wales to Ireland to rescue her.", "Pliny the Elder claimed that these birds could be taught to speak whole sentences in Latin and Greek, and in Henry IV, William Shakespeare had Hotspur declare \" The king forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer.", "But I will find him when he is asleep, and in his ear I'll holler 'Mortimer!", "' Nay I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but Mortimer, and give it to him to keep his anger still in motion.", "altMozart's \" starling song \"", "Mozart's \" starling song \" Mozart had a pet common starling which could sing part of his Piano Concerto in G Major (KV.", "He had bought it from a shop after hearing it sing a phrase from a work he wrote six weeks previously, which had not yet been performed in public.", "He became very attached to the bird and arranged an elaborate funeral for it when it died three years later.", "It has been suggested that his A Musical Joke (K.", "522) might be written in the comical, inconsequential style of a starling's vocalisation.", "Their ability at mimicry is so great that strangers have looked in vain for the human they think they have just heard speak."]}, "Chloris chloris": {"keywords": ["Woodland edges, farmland hedges and gardens with relatively thick vegetation are favoured for breeding.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain."], "habitat_section": ["Woodland edges, farmland hedges and gardens with relatively thick vegetation are favoured for breeding.", "It nests in trees or bushes, laying 3 to 6 eggs.", "This species can form large flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixing with other finches and buntings.", "They feed largely on seeds, but also take berries."], "random_sentences": ["Nest with eggs in Nottinghamshire, England The European greenfinch or simply the greenfinch is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.", "This bird is widespread throughout Europe, North Africa and Southwest Asia.", "It is mainly resident, but some northernmost populations migrate further south.", "The greenfinch has also been introduced into Australia, New Zealand, Uruguay, and Argentina.", "The greenfinch was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under the binomial name Loxia chloris.", "The specific epithet is from khloris, the Ancient Greek name for this bird, from khloros, \" green \" .", "The finch family, Fringillidae, is divided into two subfamilies, the Carduelinae, containing around 28 genera with 141 species and the Fringillinae containing a single genus, Fringilla, with four species.", "The finch family 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 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.", "They have therefore been placed in the resurrected genus Chloris that had originally been introduced by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1800, with the European greenfinch as the type species.", "The European greenfinch is long with a wingspan of .", "It is similar in size and shape to a house sparrow, but is mainly green, with yellow in the wings and tail.", "The female and young birds are duller and have brown tones on the back.", "The bill is thick and conical. The song contains a lot of trilling twitters interspersed with wheezes, and the male has a \" butterfly \" display flight.", "Male greenfinch birds exhibit higher degrees of fluctuating asymmetry.", "The development of bones of males may be more easily disrupted than that of females.", "Woodland edges, farmland hedges and gardens with relatively thick vegetation are favoured for breeding.", "It nests in trees or bushes, laying 3 to 6 eggs.", "This species can form large flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixing with other finches and buntings.", "They feed largely on seeds, but also take berries.", "Cuculus canorus bangsi in a clutch of Carduelis chloris - MHNT Breeding season occurs in spring, starting in the second half of March, until June, with fledging young in early July.", "Incubation lasts about 1314 days, by the female.", "The male feeds her at the nest during this period.", "Chicks are covered with thick, long, greyish-white down at hatching.", "They are fed on insect larvae by both adults during the first days, and later, by a frequently regurgitated yellowish paste made of seeds.", "They leave the nest about 13 days later, but they are not able to fly.", "Usually, they fledge 1618 days after hatching.", "This species produces two or three broods per year.", "In Australasia, the European greenfinch's breeding season is from October to March.", "The protozoal parasite Trichomonas gallinae was known to infect pigeons and raptors, but, beginning in Great Britain in 2005, carcasses of dead European greenfinches and common chaffinches were found to be infected with the parasite.", "The disease spread and in 2008, infected carcasses were found in Norway, Sweden and Finland and a year later in Germany.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain.", "In Great Britain, the number of infected carcasses recovered each year declined after a peak in 2006.", "There was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches from around 4.3 million to around 2.8 million, but no significant decline in the overall number of common chaffinches.", "A similar pattern occurred in Finland where, after the arrival of the disease in 2008, there was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches but only a small change in the number of common chaffinches.", "The English poet William Wordsworth wrote a poem about this species entitled The Green Linnet in 1803."]}, "Troglodytes troglodytes": {"keywords": ["The species was once lumped with Troglodytes hiemalis of eastern North America and Troglodytes pacificus of western North America as the winter wren.", "The Eurasian wren occurs in Europe and across the Palearctic including a belt of Asia from northern Iran and Afghanistan across to Japan.", "the winter wren and the Pacific wren .", "Some ornithologists place the Eurasian wren, the winter wren and the Pacific wren in a separate genus Nannus that was introduced by the Swedish naturalist Gustaf Johan Billberg in 1828 with the Eurasian wren as the type species.", "It was estimated that Troglodytes pacificus and Troglodytes troglodytes last shared a common ancestor approximately 4.3 million years ago, long before the glacial cycles of the Pleistocene, thought to have promoted speciation in many avian lineages inhabiting the boreal forest of North America.", "one, T. t. hirtensis, is confined to the island of St Kilda, another, T. t. zetlandicus, to the Shetland Islands, and the third, T. t. fridariensis, to Fair Isle.", "It is replaced by other races in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the Shetlands, the Hebrides, and St Kilda, and further south in northwestern Africa, Spain and Portugal, the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Crete and Cyprus.", "It occupies a great variety of habitats, typically any kind of cultivated or uncultivated area with bushes and low ground cover, gardens, hedgerows, thickets, plantations, woodland and reed beds.", "It inhabits more open locations with clumps of brambles or gorse, rough pasture, moorland, boulder-strewn slopes, rocky coasts and sea cliffs.", "It sometimes moves higher in the canopy, but for the most part stays near the ground, often being flushed from under overhangs on banks.", "It is mouse-like, easily lost sight of when it is hunting for food, but is found everywhere from the tops of the highest moors to the sea coast.", "It is a bird of the uplands even in winter, vanishing into the heather when snow lies thick above, a troglodyte indeed.", "It frequents gardens and farms, but it is quite as abundant in thick woods and in reed-beds.", "Eggs Cuculus canorus canorus in a spawn of Troglodytes troglodytes - MHNT Adult with four hatchlings, one has just been fed a spider or harvestman In most of northern Europe and Asia, it nests mostly in coniferous forests, where it is often identified by its long and exuberant song.", "Although it is an insectivore, it can remain in moderately cold and even snowy climates by foraging for insects on substrates such as bark and fallen logs.", "The neatly-domed nest has a side entrance and is built of grass, moss, lichen and dead leaves, whatever is available locally.", "It is often tucked into a hole in a wall or tree trunk or a crack in a rock, but it is often built in brambles, a bush or a hedge, among ivy on a bank, in thatch, or in abandoned bird's nests such as those of the house sparrow, swallow, house martin and dipper.", "Wrens on a stamp from the Faroe Islands In European folklore, the wren is the king of the birds, according to a fable attributed to Aesop by Plutarch, when the eagle and the wren strove to fly the highest, the wren rested on the eagle's back, and when the eagle tired, the wren flew out above him."], "habitat_section": ["Subspecies Troglodytes troglodytes nipalensis with its very dark plumage in Sikkim, India The Eurasian wren is a Palearctic species.", "The nominate race breeds in Europe as far north as 67N in Norway and 64N in Sweden, Finland and Russia.", "The bird's southern limit is northern Spain, southern France, Italy, Sicily and southern Russia.", "It also breeds in Western Asia as far east as Syria.", "It is replaced by other races in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the Shetlands, the Hebrides, and St Kilda, and further south in northwestern Africa, Spain and Portugal, the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Crete and Cyprus.", "Other races also occur in southern Russia and Japan.", "It occupies a great variety of habitats, typically any kind of cultivated or uncultivated area with bushes and low ground cover, gardens, hedgerows, thickets, plantations, woodland and reed beds.", "It inhabits more open locations with clumps of brambles or gorse, rough pasture, moorland, boulder-strewn slopes, rocky coasts and sea cliffs.", "Eurasian wren singing, Texel, Netherlands The wren is an ever-active bird, constantly on the move foraging for insects, in the open or among thick vegetation.", "It moves with quick jerks, probing into crevices, examining old masonry, hopping onto fallen logs and delving down among them.", "It sometimes moves higher in the canopy, but for the most part stays near the ground, often being flushed from under overhangs on banks.", "Sometimes it hops up the lower part of tree trunks, behaving like a miniature nuthatch.", "Occasionally it flits away, its short flights swift and direct but not sustained, its tiny round wings whirring as it flies.", "This small, stump-tailed wren is almost as familiar in Europe as the robin.", "It is mouse-like, easily lost sight of when it is hunting for food, but is found everywhere from the tops of the highest moors to the sea coast.", "It is a bird of the uplands even in winter, vanishing into the heather when snow lies thick above, a troglodyte indeed.", "It frequents gardens and farms, but it is quite as abundant in thick woods and in reed-beds.", "At night, usually in winter, it often roosts, true to its scientific name, in dark retreats, snug holes and even old nests.", "In hard weather, it may do so in parties, consisting of either the family or of many individuals gathered together for warmth."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian wren or northern wren is a very small insectivorous bird, and the only member of the wren family Troglodytidae found in Eurasia and Africa .", "In Anglophone Europe, it is commonly known simply as the wren.", "It has a very short tail which is often held erect, a short neck and a relative long thin bill.", "It is russet brown above, paler buff-brown below and has a cream buff supercilium.", "The species was once lumped with Troglodytes hiemalis of eastern North America and Troglodytes pacificus of western North America as the winter wren.", "The Eurasian wren occurs in Europe and across the Palearctic including a belt of Asia from northern Iran and Afghanistan across to Japan.", "It is migratory in only the northern parts of its range.", "It is also highly polygynous, an unusual mating system for passerines.", "Eurasian wren in Germany The scientific name is taken from the Greek word \" troglodytes \" , meaning \" hole-dweller \" , and refers to its habit of disappearing into cavities or crevices whilst hunting arthropods or to roost.", "The taxonomy of the genus Troglodytes is currently unresolved, as recent molecular studies have suggested that Cistothorus spp.", "are within the clade currently defined by Troglodytes.", "The Eurasian wren was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Motacilla troglodytes.", "The specific epithet is from the Ancient Greek meaning \" cave-dweller \" .", "In 1555 the German naturalist Conrad Gessner had used the Latin name Passer troglodyte for the Eurasian wren in his Historiae animalium.", "The species is now placed in the genus Troglodytes that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1809.", "The Eurasian wren was formerly considered conspecific with two North American species: the winter wren and the Pacific wren .", "Some ornithologists place the Eurasian wren, the winter wren and the Pacific wren in a separate genus Nannus that was introduced by the Swedish naturalist Gustaf Johan Billberg in 1828 with the Eurasian wren as the type species.", "It was estimated that Troglodytes pacificus and Troglodytes troglodytes last shared a common ancestor approximately 4.3 million years ago, long before the glacial cycles of the Pleistocene, thought to have promoted speciation in many avian lineages inhabiting the boreal forest of North America.", "There are 28 recognised subspecies of this taxonomically complex bird.", "The disputed subspecies T. t. , the Daito wren, became extinct around 1940 if it was indeed a valid taxon and not merely based on an anomaly.", "Thus in Scotland, in addition to the typical bird T. t. indigenus, there are three distinct insular subspecies: one, T. t. hirtensis, is confined to the island of St Kilda", "another, T. t. zetlandicus, to the Shetland Islands", "and the third, T. t. fridariensis, to Fair Isle.", "The St Kilda wren is greyer above, whiter beneath, with more abundant bars on the back", "the Shetland wren and Fair Isle wren are darker.", "The Eurasian wren is a plump, sturdy bird with rounded wings and a short tail, which is usually held cocked up.", "The adult bird is in length and has a wingspan of .", "It is rufous brown above, greyer beneath, and indistinctly barred with darker brown and grey, even on the wings and tail.", "The bill is dark brown and the legs are pale brown, the feet having strong claws and a large hind toe.", "Young birds are less distinctly barred and have mottled underparts.", "The plumage is subject to considerable variation, and where populations have been isolated, the variation has become fixed in one minor form or another.", "The most common call is a sharp, repeated \" tic-tic-tic \" , similar but faster and with less isolated notes compared to that of a robin.", "When the bird is annoyed or excited, its call runs into an emphatic , not unlike clockwork running down.", "Subspecies Troglodytes troglodytes nipalensis with its very dark plumage in Sikkim, India The Eurasian wren is a Palearctic species.", "The nominate race breeds in Europe as far north as 67N in Norway and 64N in Sweden, Finland and Russia.", "The bird's southern limit is northern Spain, southern France, Italy, Sicily and southern Russia.", "It also breeds in Western Asia as far east as Syria.", "It is replaced by other races in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the Shetlands, the Hebrides, and St Kilda, and further south in northwestern Africa, Spain and Portugal, the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Crete and Cyprus.", "Other races also occur in southern Russia and Japan.", "It occupies a great variety of habitats, typically any kind of cultivated or uncultivated area with bushes and low ground cover", "gardens, hedgerows, thickets, plantations, woodland and reed beds.", "It inhabits more open locations with clumps of brambles or gorse, rough pasture, moorland, boulder-strewn slopes, rocky coasts and sea cliffs.", "Eurasian wren singing, Texel, Netherlands The wren is an ever-active bird, constantly on the move foraging for insects, in the open or among thick vegetation.", "It moves with quick jerks, probing into crevices, examining old masonry, hopping onto fallen logs and delving down among them.", "It sometimes moves higher in the canopy, but for the most part stays near the ground, often being flushed from under overhangs on banks.", "Sometimes it hops up the lower part of tree trunks, behaving like a miniature nuthatch.", "Occasionally it flits away, its short flights swift and direct but not sustained, its tiny round wings whirring as it flies.", "This small, stump-tailed wren is almost as familiar in Europe as the robin.", "It is mouse-like, easily lost sight of when it is hunting for food, but is found everywhere from the tops of the highest moors to the sea coast.", "It is a bird of the uplands even in winter, vanishing into the heather when snow lies thick above, a troglodyte indeed.", "It frequents gardens and farms, but it is quite as abundant in thick woods and in reed-beds.", "At night, usually in winter, it often roosts, true to its scientific name, in dark retreats, snug holes and even old nests.", "In hard weather, it may do so in parties, consisting of either the family or of many individuals gathered together for warmth.", "Eggs Cuculus canorus canorus in a spawn of Troglodytes troglodytes - MHNT Adult with four hatchlings", "one has just been fed a spider or harvestman In most of northern Europe and Asia, it nests mostly in coniferous forests, where it is often identified by its long and exuberant song.", "Although it is an insectivore, it can remain in moderately cold and even snowy climates by foraging for insects on substrates such as bark and fallen logs.", "The male wren builds several nests in his territory", "these are called \" cock nests \" but are never lined until the female chooses one to use.", "The number of nests on a territory influences the female's choice of mate", "she preferentially mates with a male that had constructed numerous nests.", "Courtship includes display and posturing by the male.", "He sings with wings and tail half open, or with them drooping, sometimes with one wing extended, or the wings may be raised and lowered several times in quick succession.", "The neatly-domed nest has a side entrance and is built of grass, moss, lichen and dead leaves, whatever is available locally.", "It is often tucked into a hole in a wall or tree trunk or a crack in a rock, but it is often built in brambles, a bush or a hedge, among ivy on a bank, in thatch, or in abandoned bird's nests such as those of the house sparrow, swallow, house martin and dipper.", "On making her selection, the female wren lines the nest generously with feathers.", "A clutch of five or six eggs are laid from April onwards.", "These average and are white with variable amounts of reddish-brown speckles, mostly on the broad end.", "The female alone incubates these, and they hatch after 14 to 15 days.", "The young are fed on insects, spiders and other small invertebrates", "there is no record of the male feeding the young in the nest, but he does do so after they have fledged, which happens after about 16 days.", "There are usually two broods.", "Wrens are highly polygamous, that is to say a male can have, at any one time, more than one female with an active nest on his territory.", "An active nest is one in which there are eggs or nestlings.", "A male has been recorded with four females breeding on his territory.", "Bigamy and trigamy are the most common forms of polygamy.", "Insects form the bulk of the diet", "these are chiefly the larvae of butterflies and moths, such as geometer moths and owlet moths, as well as beetle larvae, fly larvae, caddisfly larvae and aphids.", "Other dietary items include spiders, and some seeds are also taken.", "The young are largely fed on moth larvae, with caterpillars of the cabbage moth and crane fly larvae having been identified.", "Wren on a British farthing coin upright0.8", "Wrens on a stamp from the Faroe Islands In European folklore, the wren is the king of the birds, according to a fable attributed to Aesop by Plutarch, when the eagle and the wren strove to fly the highest, the wren rested on the eagle's back, and when the eagle tired, the wren flew out above him.", "Thus, Plutarch implied, the wren proved that cleverness is better than strength.", "The wren's majesty is recognized in such stories as the Grimm Brothers' The Willow-Wren and the Bear.", "Aristotle and Plutarch called the wren and .", "In German, the wren is called Zaunkonig .", "An old German name was Schneekonig , and in Dutch, it is winterkoning , which all refer to king.", "In Japan, the wren is labelled king of the winds, and the myth of The Wren Among the Hawks sees the wren successfully hunt a boar that the hawks could not, by flying into its ear and driving it mad.", "It was a sacred bird to the Druids, who considered it \" king of all birds \" , and used its musical notes for divination.", "The shape-shifting Fairy Queen took the form of a wren, known as \" Jenny Wren \" in nursery rhymes.", "A wren's feather was thought to be a charm against disaster or drowning.", "The wren also features in the legend of Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr, who supposedly was betrayed by the noisy bird as he attempted to hide from his enemies.", "Traditionally, St. Stephen's Day has been commemorated by Hunting the Wren, wherein young wrenboys would catch the bird and then ritually parade it around town, as described in the traditional \" Wren Song \" .", "The Wren, the Wren, the king of all birds, St. Stephen's day was caught in the furze.", "Although he is little, his family's great, I pray you, good landlady, give us a treat.", "The tradition, and the significance of the wren as a symbol and sacrifice of the old year, is discussed in Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough.", "According to Suetonius, the assassination of Julius Caesar was foretold by an unfortunate wren.", "On the day before the Ides of March, a wren was seen being pursued in a frenzy by various other birds.", "With a conspicuous sprig of laurel clamped in its beak, the wren flew desperately into the Roman Senate, but there its pursuers overtook it and tore it to pieces."]}, "Passer domesticus": {"keywords": ["One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia.", "Though found in widely varied habitats and climates, it typically avoids extensive woodlands, grasslands, and deserts away from human development.", "It feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is an opportunistic eater and commonly eats insects and many other foods.", "Younger birds are smaller, males are larger during the winter, and females are larger during the breeding season.", "Birds at higher latitudes, colder climates, and sometimes higher altitudes are larger , both between and within subspecies.", "The upper back and mantle are a warm brown, with broad black streaks, while the lower back, rump and upper tail coverts are greyish brown.", "Many of these relatives are smaller, with an appearance that is neater or \" cuter \" , as with the Dead Sea sparrow.", "The house sparrow is also called by a number of alternative English names, including English sparrow, chiefly in North America, and Indian sparrow or Indian house sparrow, for the birds of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia.", "Within Passer, the house sparrow is part of the \" Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrows \" group and a close relative of the Mediterranean \" willow sparrows \" .", "In the Alps, the Italian sparrow intergrades over a narrow roughly strip with the house sparrow, and some house sparrows migrate into the Italian sparrow's range in winter.", "On the Mediterranean islands of Malta, Gozo, Crete, Rhodes, and Karpathos, other apparently intermediate birds are of unknown status.", "By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona House sparrows perching on a roof, during winter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa.", "Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America , Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world.", "It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.", "House sparrows were introduced in New Zealand in 1859, and from there reached many of the Pacific islands, including Hawaii.", "It now occurs almost continuously from Tierra del Fuego to the fringes of the Amazon basin, with isolated populations as far north as coastal Venezuela.", "The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra.", "It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night.", "It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates.", "It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries.", "In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty.", "The house sparrow feeds mostly on the ground, but it flocks in trees and bushes.", "Outside of the reproductive season, they often roost communally in trees or shrubs.", "A female house sparrow feeding on rice grains As an adult, the house sparrow mostly feeds on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is opportunistic and adaptable, and eats whatever foods are available.", "Several studies of the house sparrow in temperate agricultural areas have found the proportion of seeds in its diet to be about 90%.", "In temperate areas, the house sparrow has an unusual habit of tearing flowers, especially yellow ones, in the spring.", "Various noninsect arthropods are eaten, as are molluscs and crustaceans where available, earthworms, and even vertebrates such as lizards and frogs.", "Some young birds disperse long distances, especially on coasts, and mountain birds move to lower elevations in winter.", "The house sparrow is also a common victim of roadkill, on European roads, it is the bird most frequently found dead.", "The house sparrow hosts avian pox and avian malaria, which it has spread to the native forest birds of Hawaii.", "Arboviruses such as the West Nile virus, which most commonly infect insects and mammals, survive winters in temperate areas by going dormant in birds such as the house sparrow.", "A few records indicate disease extirpating house sparrow populations, especially from Scottish islands, but this seems to be rare.", "House sparrows are also infected by haemosporidian parasites, but less so in urban than in rural areas Toxoplasma gondii has been detected in sparrows in northwestern China where they pose a risk due to their meat being consumed in the region.", "A number of chewing lice occupy different niches on the house sparrow's body.", "Menacanthus lice occur across the house sparrow's body, where they feed on blood and feathers, while Brueelia lice feed on feathers and Philopterus fringillae occurs on the head.", "Finally, house sparrows in constant darkness could be entrained to a cycle of high and low temperature, but only if the difference in temperature was large , some of the tested sparrows matched their activity to the warm phase, and others to the cold phase.", "Usually, the house sparrow is regarded as a pest, since it consumes agricultural products and spreads disease to humans and their domestic animals.", "Declines in insect populations result from an increase of monoculture crops, the heavy use of pesticides, the replacement of native plants in cities with introduced plants and parking areas, and possibly the introduction of unleaded petrol, which produces toxic compounds such as methyl nitrite."], "habitat_section": ["By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona House sparrows perching on a roof, during winter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa.", "Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America , Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world.", "It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.", "The extent of its range makes it the most widely distributed wild bird on the planet.", "The house sparrow is closely associated with human habitation and cultivation.", "It is not an obligate commensal of humans as some have suggested.", "birds of the migratory Central Asian subspecies usually breed away from humans in open country, and birds elsewhere are occasionally found away from humans.", "The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra.", "Well adapted to living around humans, it frequently lives and even breeds indoors, especially in factories, warehouses, and zoos.", "It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night.", "It reaches its greatest densities in urban centres, but its reproductive success is greater in suburbs, where insects are more abundant.", "On a larger scale, it is most abundant in wheat-growing areas such as the Midwestern United States.", "It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates.", "It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries.", "In most of eastern Asia, the house sparrow is entirely absent, replaced by the Eurasian tree sparrow.", "Where these two species overlap, the house sparrow is usually more common than the Eurasian tree sparrow, but one species may replace the other in a manner that ornithologist Maud Doria Haviland described as \" random, or even capricious \" .", "In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty."], "random_sentences": ["The house sparrow is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world.", "It is a small bird that has a typical length of and a mass of .", "Females and young birds are coloured pale brown and grey, and males have brighter black, white, and brown markings.", "One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia.", "Its intentional or accidental introductions to many regions, including parts of Australasia, Africa, and the Americas, make it the most widely distributed wild bird.", "The house sparrow is strongly associated with human habitation, and can live in urban or rural settings.", "Though found in widely varied habitats and climates, it typically avoids extensive woodlands, grasslands, and deserts away from human development.", "It feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is an opportunistic eater and commonly eats insects and many other foods.", "Its predators include domestic cats, hawks, and many other predatory birds and mammals.", "Because of its numbers, ubiquity, and association with human settlements, the house sparrow is culturally prominent.", "It is extensively, and usually unsuccessfully, persecuted as an agricultural pest.", "It has also often been kept as a pet, as well as being a food item and a symbol of lust, sexual potency, commonness, and vulgarity.", "Though it is widespread and abundant, its numbers have declined in some areas.", "The animal's conservation status is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List.", "An audio recording of a house sparrow", "The house sparrow is typically about long, ranging from .", "The house sparrow is a compact bird with a full chest and a large, rounded head.", "Its bill is stout and conical with a culmen length of , strongly built as an adaptation for eating seeds.", "Its tail is short, at long.", "The wing chord is , and the tarsus is .", "In mass, the house sparrow ranges from .", "Females usually are slightly smaller than males.", "The median mass on the European continent for both sexes is about , and in more southerly subspecies is around .", "Younger birds are smaller, males are larger during the winter, and females are larger during the breeding season.", "Birds at higher latitudes, colder climates, and sometimes higher altitudes are larger , both between and within subspecies.", "The plumage of the house sparrow is mostly different shades of grey and brown.", "The sexes exhibit strong dimorphism: the female is mostly buffish above and below, while the male has boldly coloured head markings, a reddish back, and grey underparts.", "The male has a dark grey crown from the top of its bill to its back, and chestnut brown flanking its crown on the sides of its head.", "It has black around its bill, on its throat, and on the spaces between its bill and eyes .", "It has a small white stripe between the lores and crown and small white spots immediately behind the eyes , with black patches below and above them.", "The underparts are pale grey or white, as are the cheeks, ear coverts, and stripes at the base of the head.", "The upper back and mantle are a warm brown, with broad black streaks, while the lower back, rump and upper tail coverts are greyish brown.", "The male is duller in fresh nonbreeding plumage, with whitish tips on many feathers.", "Wear and preening expose many of the bright brown and black markings, including most of the black throat and chest patch, called the \" bib \" or \" badge \" .", "The badge is variable in width and general size, and may signal social status or fitness.", "This hypothesis has led to a \" veritable 'cottage industry' \" of studies, which have only conclusively shown that patches increase in size with age.", "The male's bill is dark grey, but black in the breeding season.", "The female has no black markings or grey crown.", "Its upperparts and head are brown with darker streaks around the mantle and a distinct pale supercilium.", "Its underparts are pale grey-brown.", "The female's bill is brownish-grey and becomes darker in breeding plumage approaching the black of the male's bill.", "Juveniles are similar to the adult female, but deeper brown below and paler above, with paler and less defined supercilia.", "Juveniles have broader buff feather edges, and tend to have looser, scruffier plumage, like moulting adults.", "Juvenile males tend to have darker throats and white postoculars like adult males, while juvenile females tend to have white throats.", "However, juveniles cannot be reliably sexed by plumage: some juvenile males lack any markings of the adult male, and some juvenile females have male features.", "The bills of young birds are light yellow to straw, paler than the female's bill.", "Immature males have paler versions of the adult male's markings, which can be very indistinct in fresh plumage.", "By their first breeding season, young birds generally are indistinguishable from other adults, though they may still be paler during their first year.", "Most house sparrow vocalisations are variations on its short and incessant chirping call.", "Transcribed as chirrup, tschilp, or philip, this note is made as a contact call by flocking or resting birds, or by males to proclaim nest ownership and invite pairing.", "In the breeding season, the male gives this call repetitively, with emphasis and speed, but not much rhythm, forming what is described either as a song or an \" ecstatic call \" similar to a song.", "Young birds also give a true song, especially in captivity, a warbling similar to that of the European greenfinch.", "Aggressive males give a trilled version of their call, transcribed as \" chur-chur-r-r-it-it-it-it \" .", "This call is also used by females in the breeding season, to establish dominance over males while displacing them to feed young or incubate eggs.", "House sparrows give a nasal alarm call, the basic sound of which is transcribed as quer, and a shrill chree call in great distress.", "Another vocalisation is the \" appeasement call \" , a soft quee given to inhibit aggression, usually given between birds of a mated pair.", "These vocalisations are not unique to the house sparrow, but are shared, with small variations, by all sparrows.", "An immature of the Indian subspecies (P.", "d. indicus) in Rajasthan, India Some variation is seen in the 12 subspecies of house sparrows, which are divided into two groups, the Oriental P. d. indicus group, and the Palaearctic P. d. domesticus group.", "Birds of the P. d. domesticus group have grey cheeks, while P. d. indicus group birds have white cheeks, as well as bright colouration on the crown, a smaller bill, and a longer black bib.", "The subspecies P. d. tingitanus differs little from the nominate subspecies, except in the worn breeding plumage of the male, in which the head is speckled with black and underparts are paler.", "P. d. balearoibericus is slightly paler than the nominate, but darker than P. d. bibilicus.", "P. d. bibilicus is paler than most subspecies, but has the grey cheeks of P. d. domesticus group birds.", "The similar P. d. persicus is paler and smaller, and P. d. niloticus is nearly identical but smaller.", "Of the less widespread P. d. indicus group subspecies, P. d. hyrcanus is larger than P. d. indicus, P. d. hufufae is paler, P. d. bactrianus is larger and paler, and P. d. parkini is larger and darker with more black on the breast than any other subspecies.", "The house sparrow can be confused with a number of other seed-eating birds, especially its relatives in the genus Passer.", "Many of these relatives are smaller, with an appearance that is neater or \" cuter \" , as with the Dead Sea sparrow.", "The dull-coloured female can often not be distinguished from other females, and is nearly identical to those of the Spanish and Italian sparrows.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow is smaller and slenderer with a chestnut crown and a black patch on each cheek.", "The male Spanish sparrow and Italian sparrow are distinguished by their chestnut crowns.", "The Sind sparrow is very similar but smaller, with less black on the male's throat and a distinct pale supercilium on the female.", "The house sparrow was among the first animals to be given a scientific name in the modern system of biological classification, since it was described by Carl Linnaeus, in the 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "It was described from a type specimen collected in Sweden, with the name Fringilla domestica.", "Later, the genus name Fringilla came to be used only for the common chaffinch and its relatives, and the house sparrow has usually been placed in the genus Passer created by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.", "The bird's scientific name and its usual English name have the same meaning.", "The Latin word passer, like the English word \" sparrow \" , is a term for small active birds, coming from a root word referring to speed.", "The Latin word domesticus means \" belonging to the house \" , like the common name a reference to its association with humans.", "The house sparrow is also called by a number of alternative English names, including English sparrow, chiefly in North America", "and Indian sparrow or Indian house sparrow, for the birds of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia.", "Dialectal names include sparr, sparrer, spadger, spadgick, and philip, mainly in southern England", "spug and spuggy, mainly in northern England", "spur and sprig, mainly in Scotland", "and spatzie or spotsie, from the German Spatz, in North America.", "A pair of Italian sparrows, in Rome The genus Passer contains about 25 species, depending on the authority, 26 according to the Handbook of the Birds of the World.", "Most Passer species are dull-coloured birds with short, square tails and stubby, conical beaks, between long.", "Mitochondrial DNA studies suggest that speciation in the genus occurred during the Pleistocene and earlier, while other evidence suggests speciation occurred 25,000 to 15,000 years ago.", "Within Passer, the house sparrow is part of the \" Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrows \" group and a close relative of the Mediterranean \" willow sparrows \" .", "The taxonomy of the house sparrow and its Mediterranean relatives is complicated.", "The common type of \" willow sparrow \" is the Spanish sparrow, which resembles the house sparrow in many respects.", "It frequently prefers wetter habitats than the house sparrow, and it is often colonial and nomadic.", "In most of the Mediterranean, one or both species occur, with some degree of hybridisation.", "In North Africa, the two species hybridise extensively, forming highly variable mixed populations with a full range of characters from pure house sparrows to pure Spanish sparrows.", "In most of Italy, the breeding species is the Italian sparrow, which has an appearance intermediate between those of the house and Spanish sparrows.", "Its specific status and origin are the subject of much debate, but it may be a case of long-ago hybrid speciation.", "In the Alps, the Italian sparrow intergrades over a narrow roughly strip with the house sparrow, and some house sparrows migrate into the Italian sparrow's range in winter.", "On the Mediterranean islands of Malta, Gozo, Crete, Rhodes, and Karpathos, other apparently intermediate birds are of unknown status.", "By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona House sparrows perching on a roof, during winter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa.", "Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America , Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world.", "It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.", "The extent of its range makes it the most widely distributed wild bird on the planet.", "The house sparrow has become highly successful in most parts of the world where it has been introduced.", "This is mostly due to its early adaptation to living with humans, and its adaptability to a wide range of conditions.", "Other factors may include its robust immune response, compared to the Eurasian tree sparrow.", "Where introduced, it can extend its range quickly, sometimes at a rate over per year.", "In many parts of the world, it has been characterised as a pest, and poses a threat to native birds.", "A few introductions have died out or been of limited success, such as those to Greenland and Cape Verde.", "intended to control the ravages of the linden moth.", "In North America, the house sparrow now occurs from the Northwest Territories of Canada to southern Panama, The house sparrow was first introduced to Australia in 1863 at Melbourne and is common throughout the eastern part of the continent as far north as Cape York, but has been prevented from establishing itself in Western Australia, where every house sparrow found in the state is killed.", "House sparrows were introduced in New Zealand in 1859, and from there reached many of the Pacific islands, including Hawaii.", "In southern Africa, birds of both the European subspecies (P.", "d. domesticus) and the Indian subspecies (P.", "d. indicus) were introduced around 1900.", "Birds of P. d. domesticus ancestry are confined to a few towns, while P. d. indicus birds have spread rapidly, reaching Tanzania in the 1980s.", "Despite this rapid spread, native relatives such as the Cape sparrow also occur and thrive in urban habitats.", "In South America, it was first introduced near Buenos Aires around 1870, and quickly became common in most of the southern part of the continent.", "It now occurs almost continuously from Tierra del Fuego to the fringes of the Amazon basin, with isolated populations as far north as coastal Venezuela.", "The house sparrow is closely associated with human habitation and cultivation.", "It is not an obligate commensal of humans as some have suggested: birds of the migratory Central Asian subspecies usually breed away from humans in open country, and birds elsewhere are occasionally found away from humans.", "The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra.", "Well adapted to living around humans, it frequently lives and even breeds indoors, especially in factories, warehouses, and zoos.", "It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night.", "It reaches its greatest densities in urban centres, but its reproductive success is greater in suburbs, where insects are more abundant.", "On a larger scale, it is most abundant in wheat-growing areas such as the Midwestern United States.", "It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates.", "It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries.", "In most of eastern Asia, the house sparrow is entirely absent, replaced by the Eurasian tree sparrow.", "Where these two species overlap, the house sparrow is usually more common than the Eurasian tree sparrow, but one species may replace the other in a manner that ornithologist Maud Doria Haviland described as \" random, or even capricious \" .", "In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty.", "The house sparrow is a very social bird.", "It is gregarious during all seasons when feeding, often forming flocks with other species of birds.", "It roosts communally and while breeding nests are usually grouped together in clumps.", "House sparrows also engage in social activities such as dust or water bathing and \" social singing \" , in which birds call together in bushes.", "The house sparrow feeds mostly on the ground, but it flocks in trees and bushes.", "At feeding stations and nests, female house sparrows are dominant despite their smaller size, and they can fight over males in the breeding season.", "House sparrows sleep with the bill tucked underneath the scapular feathers.", "Outside of the reproductive season, they often roost communally in trees or shrubs.", "Much communal chirping occurs before and after the birds settle in the roost in the evening, as well as before the birds leave the roost in the morning.", "Some congregating sites separate from the roost may be visited by the birds prior to settling in for the night.", "Dust or water bathing is common and often occurs in groups.", "Head scratching is done with the leg over the drooped wing.", "A female house sparrow feeding on rice grains As an adult, the house sparrow mostly feeds on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is opportunistic and adaptable, and eats whatever foods are available.", "In towns and cities, it often scavenges for food in garbage containers and congregates in the outdoors of restaurants and other eating establishments to feed on leftover food and crumbs.", "It can perform complex tasks to obtain food, such as opening automatic doors to enter supermarkets, clinging to hotel walls to watch vacationers on their balconies, and nectar robbing kowhai flowers.", "In common with many other birds, the house sparrow requires grit to digest the harder items in its diet.", "Grit can be either stone, often grains of masonry, or the shells of eggs or snails", "oblong and rough grains are preferred.", "Several studies of the house sparrow in temperate agricultural areas have found the proportion of seeds in its diet to be about 90%.", "It will eat almost any seeds, but where it has a choice, it prefers corn, oats, and wheat.", "Rural birds tend to eat more waste seed from animal dung and seed from fields.", "In urban areas, the house sparrow feeds largely on food provided directly or indirectly by humans, such as bread, though it prefers raw seeds.", "The house sparrow also eats some plant matter besides seeds, including buds, berries, and fruits such as grapes and cherries.", "In temperate areas, the house sparrow has an unusual habit of tearing flowers, especially yellow ones, in the spring.", "Animals form another important part of the house sparrow's diet, chiefly insects, of which beetles, caterpillars, dipteran flies, and aphids are especially important.", "Various noninsect arthropods are eaten, as are molluscs and crustaceans where available, earthworms, and even vertebrates such as lizards and frogs.", "Young house sparrows are fed mostly on insects until about 15 days after hatching.", "They are also given small quantities of seeds, spiders, and grit.", "In most places, grasshoppers and crickets are the most abundant foods of nestlings.", "True bugs, ants, sawflies, and beetles are also important, but house sparrows take advantage of whatever foods are abundant to feed their young.", "House sparrows have been observed stealing prey from other birds, including American robins.", "The gut microbiota of house sparrows differs between chicks and adults, with Pseudomonadota decreasing in chicks when they get to around 9 days old, whilst the relative abundance of Bacillota increase.", "The house sparrow's flight is direct and flapping, averaging and about 15 wingbeats per second.", "On the ground, the house sparrow typically hops rather than walks.", "It can swim when pressed to do so by pursuit from predators.", "Captive birds have been recorded diving and swimming short distances under water.", "Most house sparrows do not move more than a few kilometres during their lifetimes.", "However, limited migration occurs in all regions.", "Some young birds disperse long distances, especially on coasts, and mountain birds move to lower elevations in winter.", "Two subspecies, P. d. bactrianus and P. d. parkini, are predominantly migratory.", "Unlike the birds in sedentary populations that migrate, birds of migratory subspecies prepare for migration by putting on weight.", "A pair of the Indian subspecies (P.", "d. indicus) mating in Kolkata House sparrows can breed in the breeding season immediately following their hatching, and sometimes attempt to do so.", "Some birds breeding for the first time in tropical areas are only a few months old and still have juvenile plumage.", "Birds breeding for the first time are rarely successful in raising young, and reproductive success increases with age, as older birds breed earlier in the breeding season, and fledge more young.", "As the breeding season approaches, hormone releases trigger enormous increases in the size of the sexual organs and changes in day length lead males to start calling by nesting sites.", "The timing of mating and egg-laying varies geographically, and between specific locations and years because a sufficient supply of insects is needed for egg formation and feeding nestlings.", "Males take up nesting sites before the breeding season, by frequently calling beside them.", "Unmated males start nest construction and call particularly frequently to attract females.", "When a female approaches a male during this period, the male displays by moving up and down while drooping and shivering his wings, pushing up his head, raising and spreading his tail, and showing his bib.", "Males may try to mate with females while calling or displaying.", "In response, a female will adopt a threatening posture and attack a male before flying away, pursued by the male.", "The male displays in front of her, attracting other males, which also pursue and display to the female.", "This group display usually does not immediately result in copulations.", "Other males usually do not copulate with the female.", "Copulation is typically initiated by the female giving a soft dee-dee-dee call to the male.", "Birds of a pair copulate frequently until the female is laying eggs, and the male mounts the female repeatedly each time a pair mates.", "The house sparrow is monogamous, and typically mates for life, but birds from pairs often engage in extra-pair copulations, so about 15% of house sparrow fledglings are unrelated to their mother's mate.", "Males guard their mates carefully to avoid being cuckolded, and most extra-pair copulation occurs away from nest sites.", "Males may sometimes have multiple mates, and bigamy is mostly limited by aggression between females.", "Many birds do not find a nest and a mate, and instead may serve as helpers around the nest for mated pairs, a role which increases the chances of being chosen to replace a lost mate.", "Lost mates of both sexes can be replaced quickly during the breeding season.", "The formation of a pair and the bond between the two birds is tied to the holding of a nest site, though paired house sparrows can recognise each other away from the nest.", "In adult house sparrows, annual survival is 4565%.", "After fledging and leaving the care of their parents, young sparrows have a high mortality rate, which lessens as they grow older and more experienced.", "Only about 2025% of birds hatched survive to their first breeding season.", "The oldest known wild house sparrow lived for nearly two decades", "it was found dead 19 years and 9 months after it was ringed in Denmark.", "The oldest recorded captive house sparrow lived for 23 years.", "The typical ratio of males to females in a population is uncertain due to problems in collecting data, but a very slight preponderance of males at all ages is usual.", "A male sparrow being eaten by a cat: Domestic cats are one of the main predators of the house sparrow.", "The house sparrow's main predators are cats and birds of prey, but many other animals prey on them, including corvids, squirrels, and even humansthe house sparrow has been consumed in the past by people in many parts of the world, and it still is in parts of the Mediterranean.", "Most species of birds of prey have been recorded preying on the house sparrow in places where records are extensive.", "Accipiters and the merlin in particular are major predators, though cats are likely to have a greater impact on house sparrow populations.", "The house sparrow is also a common victim of roadkill", "on European roads, it is the bird most frequently found dead.", "The house sparrow is host to a huge number of parasites and diseases, and the effect of most is unknown.", "Ornithologist Ted R. Anderson listed thousands, noting that his list was incomplete.", "The commonly recorded bacterial pathogens of the house sparrow are often those common in humans, and include Salmonella and Escherichia coli.", "Salmonella is common in the house sparrow, and a comprehensive study of house sparrow disease found it in 13% of sparrows tested.", "Salmonella epidemics in the spring and winter can kill large numbers of sparrows.", "The house sparrow hosts avian pox and avian malaria, which it has spread to the native forest birds of Hawaii.", "Many of the diseases hosted by the house sparrow are also present in humans and domestic animals, for which the house sparrow acts as a reservoir host.", "Arboviruses such as the West Nile virus, which most commonly infect insects and mammals, survive winters in temperate areas by going dormant in birds such as the house sparrow.", "A few records indicate disease extirpating house sparrow populations, especially from Scottish islands, but this seems to be rare.", "House sparrows are also infected by haemosporidian parasites, but less so in urban than in rural areas Toxoplasma gondii has been detected in sparrows in northwestern China where they pose a risk due to their meat being consumed in the region.", "The house sparrow is infested by a number of external parasites, which usually cause little harm to adult sparrows.", "In Europe, the most common mite found on sparrows is Proctophyllodes, the most common ticks are Argas reflexus and Ixodes arboricola, and the most common flea on the house sparrow is Ceratophyllus gallinae.", "Dermanyssus blood-feeding mites are also common ectoparasites of house sparrows, and these mites can enter human habitation and bite humans, causing a condition known as gamasoidosis.", "A number of chewing lice occupy different niches on the house sparrow's body.", "Menacanthus lice occur across the house sparrow's body, where they feed on blood and feathers, while Brueelia lice feed on feathers and Philopterus fringillae occurs on the head.", "An immature house sparrow sleeping House sparrows express strong circadian rhythms of activity in the laboratory.", "They were among the first bird species to be seriously studied in terms of their circadian activity and photoperiodism, in part because of their availability and adaptability in captivity, but also because they can \" find their way \" and remain rhythmic in constant darkness.", "Such studies have found that the pineal gland is a central part of the house sparrow's circadian system: removal of the pineal eliminates the circadian rhythm of activity, and transplant of the pineal into another individual confers to this individual the rhythm phase of the donor bird.", "The suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus have also been shown to be an important component of the circadian system of house sparrows.", "The photoreceptors involved in the synchronisation of the circadian clock to the external light-dark cycle are located in the brain and can be stimulated by light reaching them directly though the skull, as revealed by experiments in which blind sparrows, which normally can still synchronise to the light-dark cycle, failed to do so once India ink was injected as a screen under the skin on top of their skulls.", "Similarly, even when blind, house sparrows continue to be photoperiodic, i.e. show reproductive development when the days are long, but not when the days are short.", "This response is stronger when the feathers on top of the head are plucked, and is eliminated when India ink is injected under the skin at the top of the head, showing that the photoreceptors involved in the photoperiodic response to day length are located inside the brain.", "House sparrows have also been used in studies of nonphotic entrainment : for example, in constant darkness, a situation in which the birds would normally reveal their endogenous, non-24-hour, \" free-running \" rhythms of activity, they instead show 24-hour periodicity if they are exposed to two hours of chirp playbacks every 24 hours, matching their daily activity onsets with the daily playback onsets.", "House sparrows in constant dim light can also be entrained to a daily cycle based on the presence of food.", "Finally, house sparrows in constant darkness could be entrained to a cycle of high and low temperature, but only if the difference in temperature was large ", "some of the tested sparrows matched their activity to the warm phase, and others to the cold phase.", "Flocking and chirping together beneath a fluorescent tube light in Germany The house sparrow is closely associated with humans.", "They are believed to have become associated with humans around 10,000 years ago.", "d. bactrianus) is least associated with humans and considered to be evolutionarily closer to the ancestral noncommensal populations.", "Usually, the house sparrow is regarded as a pest, since it consumes agricultural products and spreads disease to humans and their domestic animals.", "Even birdwatchers often hold it in little regard because of its molestation of other birds.", "However, the house sparrow can be beneficial to humans, as well, especially by eating insect pests, and attempts at the large-scale control of the house sparrow have failed.", "The house sparrow has long been used as a food item.", "From around 1560 to at least the 19th century in northern Europe, earthenware \" sparrow pots \" were hung from eaves to attract nesting birds so the young could be readily harvested.", "Wild birds were trapped in nets in large numbers, and sparrow pie was a traditional dish, thought, because of the association of sparrows with lechery, to have aphrodisiac properties.", "A traditional Indian medicine, Cittukkuruvi lekiyam in Tamil, was sold with similar aphrodisiac claims.", "Sparrows were also trapped as food for falconers' birds and zoo animals.", "During the 1870s, there were debates on the damaging effects of sparrows in the House of Commons in England.", "In the early part of the 20th century, sparrow clubs culled many millions of birds and eggs in an attempt to control numbers of this perceived pest, but with only a localised impact on numbers.", "House sparrows have been kept as pets at many times in history, though they have no bright plumage or attractive songs, and raising them is difficult.", "The house sparrow has an extremely large range and population, so it is assessed as least concern for conservation on the IUCN Red List.", "The IUCN estimates for the global population runs up to nearly 1.4 billion individuals, second among all birds perhaps only to the red-billed quelea in abundance .", "However, populations have been declining in many parts of the world, especially near its Eurasian places of origin.", "These declines were first noticed in North America, where they were initially attributed to the spread of the house finch, but have been most severe in Western Europe.", "Declines have not been universal, as no serious declines have been reported from Eastern Europe, but have even occurred in Australia, where the house sparrow was introduced recently.", "In Great Britain, populations peaked in the early 1970s, but have since declined by 68% overall, and about 90% in some regions.", "The RSPB lists the house sparrow's UK conservation status as red.", "In London, the house sparrow almost disappeared from the central city.", "The numbers of house sparrows in the Netherlands have dropped in half since the 1980s, so the house sparrow is even considered an endangered species.", "This status came to widespread attention after a female house sparrow, referred to as the \" Dominomus \" , was killed after knocking down dominoes arranged as part of an attempt to set a world record.", "These declines are not unprecedented, as similar reductions in population occurred when the internal combustion engine replaced horses in the 1920s and a major source of food in the form of grain spillage was lost.", "Declines have been particularly apparent even in North America, where the house sparrow is invasive in some states.", "Introduced to Philadelphia initially in 1852 the house sparrow rapidly spread across the nation.", "However, the bird has largely disappeared from the city nowadays and overall, it is estimated to have declined in North America by 84% since 1966.", "In South Asia, the house sparrow has largely vanished from major cities such as Karachi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Lahore.", "Various causes for the dramatic decreases in population have been proposed, including predation, in particular by Eurasian sparrowhawks", "electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones", "and diseases A primary cause of the decline seems to be an insufficient supply of insect food for nestling sparrows.", "Declines in insect populations result from an increase of monoculture crops, the heavy use of pesticides, the replacement of native plants in cities with introduced plants and parking areas, and possibly the introduction of unleaded petrol, which produces toxic compounds such as methyl nitrite.", "Protecting insect habitats on farms and planting native plants in cities benefit the house sparrow, as does establishing urban green spaces.", "To raise awareness of threats to the house sparrow, World Sparrow Day has been celebrated on 20 March across the world since 2010.", "Over the recent years, the house sparrow population has been on the decline in many Asian countries, and this decline is quite evident in India.", "To promote the conservation of these birds, in 2012, the house sparrow was declared as the state bird of Delhi.", "To many people across the world, the house sparrow is the most familiar wild animal and, because of its association with humans and familiarity, it is frequently used to represent the common and vulgar, or the lewd.", "One of the reasons for the introduction of house sparrows throughout the world was their association with the European homeland of many immigrants.", "Birds usually described later as sparrows are referred to in many works of ancient literature and religious texts in Europe and western Asia.", "These references may not always refer specifically to the house sparrow, or even to small, seed-eating birds, but later writers who were inspired by these texts often had the house sparrow in mind.", "In particular, sparrows were associated by the ancient Greeks with Aphrodite, the goddess of love, due to their perceived lustfulness, an association echoed by later writers such as Chaucer and Shakespeare.", "Jesus's use of \" sparrows \" as an example of divine providence in the Gospel of Matthew also inspired later references, such as that in Shakespeare's Hamlet and the Gospel hymn His Eye Is on the Sparrow.", "\" The house sparrow is very rarely represented in ancient Egyptian art, but an Egyptian hieroglyph is based on it.", "The sparrow hieroglyph had no phonetic value and was used as a determinative in words to indicate small, narrow, or bad.", "An alternative view is that the hieroglyph meant \" a prolific man \" or \" the revolution of a year \" ."]}, "Pandion haliaetus": {"keywords": ["The osprey , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range.", "The osprey tolerates a wide variety of habitats, nesting in any location near a body of water providing an adequate food supply.", "A number of claw fossils have been recovered from Pliocene and Pleistocene sediments in Florida and South Carolina.", "The species name haliaetus comes from Greek haliaetos \" sea-eagle \" from the combining form hali- of hals \" sea \" and aetos, \" eagle \" .", "In flight, Northern Territory, Australia The sexes appear fairly similar, but the adult male can be distinguished from the female by its slimmer body and narrower wings.", "It is found in temperate and tropical regions of all continents, except Antarctica.", "In North America it breeds from Alaska and Newfoundland south to the Gulf Coast and Florida, wintering further south from the southern United States through to Argentina.", "It is found in summer throughout Europe north into Ireland, Scandinavia, Finland and Great Britain though not Iceland, and winters in North Africa.", "In the islands of the Pacific it is found in the Bismarck Islands, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia, and fossil remains of adults and juveniles have been found in Tonga, where it probably was wiped out by arriving humans.", "It is an uncommon to fairly common winter visitor to all parts of South Asia, and Southeast Asia from Myanmar through to Indochina and southern China, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.", "They catch fish by diving into a body of water, oftentimes completely submerging their entire bodies.", "Preparing to mate on the nest Osprey standing next to its nest showing their relative sizes Osprey chick in nest The osprey breeds near freshwater lakes and rivers, and sometimes on coastal brackish waters.", "Rocky outcrops just offshore are used in Rottnest Island off the coast of Western Australia, where there are 14 or so similar nesting sites of which five to seven are used in any one year.", "The nest is a large heap of sticks, driftwood, turf or seaweed built in forks of trees, rocky outcrops, utility poles, artificial platforms or offshore islets.", "Egg, collection of the Museum Wiesbaden The nesting platform design developed by one organization, Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries, Inc. has become the official design of the State of New Jersey, U.S. The nesting platform plans and materials list, available online, have been utilized by people from a number of different geographical regions.", "The breeding season varies according to latitude, spring in southern Australia, April to July in northern Australia and winter in southern Queensland.", "In South Australia, nesting sites on the Eyre Peninsula and Kangaroo Island are vulnerable to unmanaged coastal recreation and encroaching urban development."], "habitat_section": ["The osprey is the second most widely distributed raptor species, after the peregrine falcon, and is one of only six land-birds with a cosmopolitan distribution.", "It is found in temperate and tropical regions of all continents, except Antarctica.", "In North America it breeds from Alaska and Newfoundland south to the Gulf Coast and Florida, wintering further south from the southern United States through to Argentina.", "It is found in summer throughout Europe north into Ireland, Scandinavia, Finland and Great Britain though not Iceland, and winters in North Africa.", "In Australia it is mainly sedentary and found patchily around the coastline, though it is a non-breeding visitor to eastern Victoria and Tasmania.", "In the islands of the Pacific it is found in the Bismarck Islands, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia, and fossil remains of adults and juveniles have been found in Tonga, where it probably was wiped out by arriving humans.", "It is possible it may once have ranged across Vanuatu and Fiji as well.", "It is an uncommon to fairly common winter visitor to all parts of South Asia, and Southeast Asia from Myanmar through to Indochina and southern China, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.", "The worldwide distribution of the species is unusual for land-based birds, and only recognised in five other species.", "Adults on a man-made nest in New Jersey, US The osprey has a large range, covering in just Africa and the Americas, and has a large global population estimated at 460,000 individuals.", "Although global population trends have not been quantified, the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and for these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern.", "There is evidence for regional decline in South Australia where former territories at locations in the Spencer Gulf and along the lower Murray River have been vacant for decades.", "In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the main threats to osprey populations were egg collectors and hunting of the adults along with other birds of prey, but osprey populations declined drastically in many areas in the 1950s and 1960s, this appeared to be in part due to the toxic effects of insecticides such as DDT on reproduction.", "The pesticide interfered with the bird's calcium metabolism which resulted in thin-shelled, easily broken or infertile eggs.", "Possibly because of the banning of DDT in many countries in the early 1970s, together with reduced persecution, the osprey, as well as other affected bird of prey species, have made significant recoveries.", "In South Australia, nesting sites on the Eyre Peninsula and Kangaroo Island are vulnerable to unmanaged coastal recreation and encroaching urban development."], "random_sentences": ["The osprey , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range.", "It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings.", "It is brown on the upperparts and predominantly greyish on the head and underparts.", "The osprey tolerates a wide variety of habitats, nesting in any location near a body of water providing an adequate food supply.", "It is found on all continents except Antarctica, although in South America it occurs only as a non-breeding migrant.", "As its other common names suggest, the osprey's diet consists almost exclusively of fish.", "It possesses specialised physical characteristics and exhibits unique behaviour to assist in hunting and catching prey.", "As a result of these unique characteristics, it has been given its own taxonomic genus, Pandion, and family, Pandionidae.", "The osprey was described by Carl Linnaeus under the name Falco haliaeetus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "The genus, Pandion, is the sole member of the family Pandionidae, and used to contain only one species, the osprey (P.", "The genus Pandion was described by the French zoologist Marie Jules Cesar Savigny in 1809.", "It has always presented something of a riddle to taxonomists, but here it is treated as the sole living member of the family Pandionidae, and the family listed in its traditional place as part of the order Falconiformes.", "Other schemes place it alongside the hawks and eagles in the family Accipitridaewhich itself can be regarded as making up the bulk of the order Accipitriformes or else be lumped with the Falconidae into Falconiformes.", "The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy has placed it together with the other diurnal raptors in a greatly enlarged Ciconiiformes, but this results in an unnatural paraphyletic classification.", "American subspecies Australasian subspecies is the most distinctive Californian bird with scraps of fish on its beak The osprey is unusual in that it is a single living species that occurs nearly worldwide.", "Even the few subspecies are not unequivocally separable.", "There are four generally recognised subspecies, although differences are small, and ITIS lists only the first three.", "To date there have been two extinct species named from the fossil record.", "Pandion homalopteron was named by Stuart L. Warter in 1976 from fossils of Middle Miocene, Barstovian age, found in marine deposits in the southern part of California.", "The second named species Pandion lovensis, was described in 1985 by Jonathan J. Becker from fossils found in Florida and dating to the latest Clarendonian and possibly representing a separate lineage from that of P. homalopteron and P. haliaetus.", "A number of claw fossils have been recovered from Pliocene and Pleistocene sediments in Florida and South Carolina.", "The oldest recognized family Pandionidae fossils have been recovered from the Oligocene age Jebel Qatrani Formation, of Faiyum, Egypt.", "However they are not complete enough to assign to a specific genus.", "Another Pandionidae claw fossil was recovered from Early Oligocene deposits in the Mainz basin, Germany, and was described in 2006 by Gerald Mayr.", "The genus name Pandion derives from Pandion , the mythical Greek king of Athens and grandfather of Theseus, Pandion II.", "Although Pandion II was not used to name a bird of prey, Nisus, a king of Megara, was used for the genus.", "The species name haliaetus comes from Greek haliaetos \" sea-eagle \" from the combining form hali- of hals \" sea \" and aetos, \" eagle \" .", "The origins of osprey are obscure", "the word itself was first recorded around 1460, derived via the Anglo-French ospriet and the Medieval Latin avis prede \" bird of prey, \" from the Latin avis praedae though the Oxford English Dictionary notes a connection with the Latin ossifraga or \" bone breaker \" of Pliny the Elder.", "However, this term referred to the bearded vulture.", "The osprey differs in several respects from other diurnal birds of prey.", "Its toes are of equal length, its tarsi are reticulate, and its talons are rounded, rather than grooved.", "The osprey and owls are the only raptors whose outer toe is reversible, allowing them to grasp their prey with two toes in front and two behind.", "This is particularly helpful when they grab slippery fish.", "The osprey is in weight and in length with a wingspan.", "It is, thus, of similar size to the largest members of the Buteo or Falco genera.", "The subspecies are fairly close in size, with the nominate subspecies averaging , P. h. carolinensis averaging and P. h. cristatus averaging .", "The wing chord measures , the tail measures and the tarsus is .", "The upperparts are a deep, glossy brown, while the breast is white and sometimes streaked with brown, and the underparts are pure white.", "The head is white with a dark mask across the eyes, reaching to the sides of the neck.", "The irises of the eyes are golden to brown, and the transparent nictitating membrane is pale blue.", "The bill is black, with a blue cere, and the feet are white with black talons.", "A short tail and long, narrow wings with four long, finger-like feathers, and a shorter fifth, give it a very distinctive appearance.", "In flight, Northern Territory, Australia The sexes appear fairly similar, but the adult male can be distinguished from the female by its slimmer body and narrower wings.", "The breast band of the male is also weaker than that of the female, or is non-existent, and the underwing coverts of the male are more uniformly pale.", "It is straightforward to determine the sex in a breeding pair, but harder with individual birds.", "The juvenile osprey may be identified by buff fringes to the plumage of the upperparts, a buff tone to the underparts, and streaked feathers on the head.", "During spring, barring on the underwings and flight feathers is a better indicator of a young bird, due to wear on the upperparts.", "In flight, the osprey has arched wings and drooping \" hands \" , giving it a gull-like appearance.", "The call is a series of sharp whistles, described as cheep, cheep or yewk, yewk.", "If disturbed by activity near the nest, the call is a frenzied cheereek!", "The osprey is the second most widely distributed raptor species, after the peregrine falcon, and is one of only six land-birds with a cosmopolitan distribution.", "It is found in temperate and tropical regions of all continents, except Antarctica.", "In North America it breeds from Alaska and Newfoundland south to the Gulf Coast and Florida, wintering further south from the southern United States through to Argentina.", "It is found in summer throughout Europe north into Ireland, Scandinavia, Finland and Great Britain though not Iceland, and winters in North Africa.", "In Australia it is mainly sedentary and found patchily around the coastline, though it is a non-breeding visitor to eastern Victoria and Tasmania.", "In the islands of the Pacific it is found in the Bismarck Islands, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia, and fossil remains of adults and juveniles have been found in Tonga, where it probably was wiped out by arriving humans.", "It is possible it may once have ranged across Vanuatu and Fiji as well.", "It is an uncommon to fairly common winter visitor to all parts of South Asia, and Southeast Asia from Myanmar through to Indochina and southern China, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.", "The worldwide distribution of the species is unusual for land-based birds, and only recognised in five other species.", "Osprey in flight with a fish kill at Bhigwan, India The osprey is piscivorous, with fish making up 99% of its diet.", "It typically takes live fish weighing and about in length, but virtually any type of fish from to can be taken.", "Even larger northern pike has been taken in Russia.", "Osprey feeding on a recently caught fish in Kartung, the Gambia.", "Characteristically its tongue often pokes out whilst swallowing food.", "Ospreys have vision that is well adapted to detecting underwater objects from the air.", "Prey is first sighted when the osprey is above the water, after which the bird hovers momentarily and then plunges feet first into the water.", "They catch fish by diving into a body of water, oftentimes completely submerging their entire bodies.", "As an osprey dives it adjusts the angle of its flight to account for the distortion of the fish's image caused by refraction.", "Ospreys will typically eat on a nearby perch but have also been known to carry fish for longer distances.", "Occasionally, the osprey may prey on rodents, rabbits, hares, other mammals, snakes, frogs, birds, salamanders, conchs and crustaceans.", "Reports of ospreys feeding on carrion are rare.", "They have been observed eating dead white-tailed deer and Virginia opossum.", "The osprey has several adaptations that suit its piscivorous lifestyle:", "Preparing to mate on the nest Osprey standing next to its nest showing their relative sizes Osprey chick in nest The osprey breeds near freshwater lakes and rivers, and sometimes on coastal brackish waters.", "Rocky outcrops just offshore are used in Rottnest Island off the coast of Western Australia, where there are 14 or so similar nesting sites of which five to seven are used in any one year.", "Many are renovated each season, and some have been used for 70 years.", "The nest is a large heap of sticks, driftwood, turf or seaweed built in forks of trees, rocky outcrops, utility poles, artificial platforms or offshore islets.", "As wide as 2 meters and weighing about , large nests on utility poles may be fire hazards and have caused power outages.", "Generally, ospreys reach sexual maturity and begin breeding around the age of three to four, though in some regions with high osprey densities, such as Chesapeake Bay in the United States, they may not start breeding until five to seven years old, and there may be a shortage of suitable tall structures.", "If there are no nesting sites available, young ospreys may be forced to delay breeding.", "To ease this problem, posts are sometimes erected to provide more sites suitable for nest building.", "In some regions ospreys prefer transmission towers as nesting sites, e.g. in eastern Germany.", "Egg, collection of the Museum Wiesbaden The nesting platform design developed by one organization, Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries, Inc. has become the official design of the State of New Jersey, U.S. The nesting platform plans and materials list, available online, have been utilized by people from a number of different geographical regions.", "The breeding season varies according to latitude", "spring in southern Australia, April to July in northern Australia and winter in southern Queensland.", "In spring the pair begins a five-month period of partnership to raise their young.", "The female lays two to four eggs within a month, and relies on the size of the nest to conserve heat.", "The eggs are whitish with bold splotches of reddish-brown and are about and weigh about .", "The eggs are incubated for about 3543 days to hatching.", "The newly hatched chicks weigh only , but fledge in 810 weeks.", "A study on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, had an average time between hatching and fledging of 69 days.", "The same study found an average of 0.66 young fledged per year per occupied territory, and 0.92 young fledged per year per active nest.", "Some 22% of surviving young either remained on the island or returned at maturity to join the breeding population.", "When food is scarce, the first chicks to hatch are most likely to survive.", "The typical lifespan is 710 years, though rarely individuals can grow to as old as 2025 years.", "The oldest European wild osprey on record lived to be over thirty years of age.", "In North America, great horned owls , golden eagles , and bald eagles are the only major predators of ospreys, capable of taking both nestlings and adults.", "However, kleptoparasitism by bald eagles, where the larger raptor steals the osprey's catch, is more common than predation.", "The white-tailed eagle , which is very similar to the bald eagle, may harass or prey on the osprey in Eurasia.", "Raccoons can be a serious threat to nestlings or eggs if they can access the nest.", "Endoparasitic trematodes (Scaphanocephalus expansus and Neodiplostomum spp.", ") have been recorded in wild ospreys.", "European breeders winter in Africa.", "American and Canadian breeders winter in South America, although some stay in the southernmost U.S. states such as Florida and California.", "Some ospreys from Florida migrate to South America.", "Australasian ospreys tend not to migrate.", "Studies of Swedish ospreys showed that females tend to migrate to Africa earlier than males.", "More stopovers are made during their autumn migration.", "The variation of timing and duration in autumn was more variable than in spring.", "Although migrating predominantly during the day, they sometimes fly in the dark hours particularly in crossings over water and cover on average per day with a maximum of per day.", "European birds may also winter in South Asia, as indicated by an osprey tagged in Norway being monitored in western India.", "In the Mediterranean, ospreys show partial migratory behaviour with some individuals remaining resident, whilst others undertake relatively short migration trips.", "Swedish ospreys have a significantly higher mortality rate during migration seasons than during stationary periods, with more than half of the total annual mortality occurring during migration.", "These deaths can also be categorized into spatial patterns: Spring mortality occurs mainly in Africa, which can be traced to crossing the Sahara desert.", "Mortality can also occur through mishaps with human utilities, such as nesting near overhead electric cables or collisions with aircraft.", "Adults on a man-made nest in New Jersey, US The osprey has a large range, covering in just Africa and the Americas, and has a large global population estimated at 460,000 individuals.", "Although global population trends have not been quantified, the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and for these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern.", "There is evidence for regional decline in South Australia where former territories at locations in the Spencer Gulf and along the lower Murray River have been vacant for decades.", "In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the main threats to osprey populations were egg collectors and hunting of the adults along with other birds of prey, but osprey populations declined drastically in many areas in the 1950s and 1960s", "this appeared to be in part due to the toxic effects of insecticides such as DDT on reproduction.", "The pesticide interfered with the bird's calcium metabolism which resulted in thin-shelled, easily broken or infertile eggs.", "Possibly because of the banning of DDT in many countries in the early 1970s, together with reduced persecution, the osprey, as well as other affected bird of prey species, have made significant recoveries.", "In South Australia, nesting sites on the Eyre Peninsula and Kangaroo Island are vulnerable to unmanaged coastal recreation and encroaching urban development."]}, "Mareca penelope": {"keywords": ["Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden It breeds in the northernmost areas of Europe and the Palearctic.", "In Great Britain and Ireland, the Eurasian wigeon is common as a winter visitor, but scarce as a breeding bird in Scotland, the Lake District, the Pennines and occasionally further south, with only a handful of breeding pairs in Ireland.", "It can be found as an uncommon winter visitor in the United States on the mid-Atlantic and Pacific coasts.", "Two males and a female in flight The Eurasian wigeon is a bird of open wetlands, such as wet grassland or marshes with some taller vegetation, and usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing, which it does very readily.", "It nests on the ground, near water and under cover."], "habitat_section": ["Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden It breeds in the northernmost areas of Europe and the Palearctic.", "It is the Old World counterpart of North America's American wigeon.", "It is strongly migratory and winters further south than its breeding range.", "It migrates to southern Asia and Africa.", "In Great Britain and Ireland, the Eurasian wigeon is common as a winter visitor, but scarce as a breeding bird in Scotland, the Lake District, the Pennines and occasionally further south, with only a handful of breeding pairs in Ireland.", "It can be found as an uncommon winter visitor in the United States on the mid-Atlantic and Pacific coasts.", "It is a rare visitor to the rest of the United States except for the Four Corners and the southern Appalachians.", "Two males and a female in flight The Eurasian wigeon is a bird of open wetlands, such as wet grassland or marshes with some taller vegetation, and usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing, which it does very readily.", "It nests on the ground, near water and under cover.", "It is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and will form large flocks.", "They will join with flocks of the American wigeon in the United States, and they also hybridize with them.", "This is a noisy species.", "The male has a clear whistle that sounds like.", "\" pjiew pjiew \" , whereas the female has a low growl.", "\" rawr \" .", "The Eurasian wigeon is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "Its conservation status is least concern."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian wigeon or European wigeon, also known as the widgeon or the wigeon is one of three species of wigeon in the dabbling duck genus Mareca.", "It is common and widespread within its Palearctic range.", "The Eurasian wigeon was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under the binomial name Anas penelope.", "This dabbling duck is long with a wingspan, and a weight of .", "The breeding male has grey flanks and back, with a black rear end, a dark green speculum and a brilliant white patch on upper wings, obvious in flight or at rest.", "It has a pink breast, white belly, and a chestnut head with a creamy crown.", "In non-breeding plumage, the drake looks more like the female.", "The female is light brown, with plumage much like a female American wigeon.", "It can be distinguished from most other ducks, apart from American wigeon, on shape.", "However, that species has a paler head and white axillaries on its underwing.", "The female can be a rufous morph with a redder head, and a gray morph with a more gray head.", "Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden It breeds in the northernmost areas of Europe and the Palearctic.", "It is the Old World counterpart of North America's American wigeon.", "It is strongly migratory and winters further south than its breeding range.", "It migrates to southern Asia and Africa.", "In Great Britain and Ireland, the Eurasian wigeon is common as a winter visitor, but scarce as a breeding bird in Scotland, the Lake District, the Pennines and occasionally further south, with only a handful of breeding pairs in Ireland.", "It can be found as an uncommon winter visitor in the United States on the mid-Atlantic and Pacific coasts.", "It is a rare visitor to the rest of the United States except for the Four Corners and the southern Appalachians.", "Two males and a female in flight The Eurasian wigeon is a bird of open wetlands, such as wet grassland or marshes with some taller vegetation, and usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing, which it does very readily.", "It nests on the ground, near water and under cover.", "It is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and will form large flocks.", "They will join with flocks of the American wigeon in the United States, and they also hybridize with them.", "This is a noisy species.", "The male has a clear whistle that sounds like: \" pjiew pjiew \" , whereas the female has a low growl: \" rawr \" .", "The Eurasian wigeon is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "Its conservation status is least concern."]}, "Passer montanus": {"keywords": ["This sparrow breeds over most of temperate Eurasia and Southeast Asia, where it is known as the tree sparrow, and it has been introduced elsewhere including the United States, where it is known as the Eurasian tree sparrow or German sparrow to differentiate it from the native unrelated American tree sparrow.", "The legs are pale brown, and the bill is lead-blue in summer, becoming almost black in winter.", "The change in mass is due to an increase in blood volume to support active feather growth, and a generally higher water content in the body.", "passer, \" sparrow \" , and montanus, \" of the mountains \" .", "Urban nest under a roof tile of a wooden house in Japan The Eurasian tree sparrow's natural breeding range comprises most of temperate Europe and Asia south of about latitude 68N and through Southeast Asia to Java and Bali.", "It is sedentary over most of its extensive range, but northernmost breeding populations migrate south for the winter, and small numbers leave southern Europe for North Africa and the Middle East.", "The eastern subspecies P. m. dilutus reaches coastal Pakistan in winter and thousands of birds of this race move through eastern China in autumn.", "It was introduced successfully to Sardinia, eastern Indonesia, the Philippines and Micronesia, but introductions to New Zealand and Bermuda did not take root.", "These sparrows are descended from 12 birds imported from Germany and released in late April 1870 as part of a project to enhance the native North American avifauna.", "In Australia, the Eurasian tree sparrow is present in Melbourne, towns in central and northern Victoria and some centres in the Riverina region of New South Wales.", "Despite its scientific name, Passer montanus, this is not typically a mountain species, and reaches only in Switzerland, although it has bred at in the northern Caucasus and as high as in Nepal. When the Eurasian tree sparrow and the larger house sparrow occur in the same area, the house sparrow generally breeds in urban areas while the smaller Eurasian tree sparrow nests in the countryside.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow is a predominantly seed and grain eating bird which feeds on the ground in flocks, often with house sparrows, finches, or buntings.", "It eats weed seeds, such as chickweeds and goosefoot, spilled grain, Adults use a variety of wetlands when foraging for invertebrate prey to feed nestlings, and aquatic sites play a key role in providing adequate diversity and availability of suitable invertebrate prey to allow successful chick rearing throughout the long breeding season of this multi-brooded species.", "The house sparrow and Eurasian tree sparrow are the most frequent victims of roadkill on the roads of Central, Eastern and Southern Europe.", "Winter stubble is a seasonal food resource.", "The large decline in Eurasian tree sparrow numbers is probably the result of agricultural intensification and specialisation, particularly the increased use of herbicides and a trend towards autumn-sown crops .", "In Australia, it damages many cereal and fruit crops and spoils cereal crops, animal feed and stored grain with its droppings."], "habitat_section": ["Urban nest under a roof tile of a wooden house in Japan The Eurasian tree sparrow's natural breeding range comprises most of temperate Europe and Asia south of about latitude 68N and through Southeast Asia to Java and Bali.", "It formerly bred in the Faroes, Malta and Gozo.", "It is sedentary over most of its extensive range, but northernmost breeding populations migrate south for the winter, and small numbers leave southern Europe for North Africa and the Middle East.", "The eastern subspecies P. m. dilutus reaches coastal Pakistan in winter and thousands of birds of this race move through eastern China in autumn.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow has been introduced outside its native range, but has not always become established, possibly due to competition with the house sparrow.", "It was introduced successfully to Sardinia, eastern Indonesia, the Philippines and Micronesia, but introductions to New Zealand and Bermuda did not take root.", "Ship-carried birds colonised Borneo.", "This sparrow has occurred as a natural vagrant to Gibraltar, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Iceland.", "In North America, a population of about 15,000 birds has become established around St. Louis and neighbouring parts of Illinois and southeastern Iowa.", "These sparrows are descended from 12 birds imported from Germany and released in late April 1870 as part of a project to enhance the native North American avifauna.", "Within its limited US range of about , the Eurasian tree sparrow has to compete with the house sparrow in urban centres, and is therefore mainly found in parks, farms and rural woods.", "The American population is sometimes referred to as the \" German sparrow \" , to distinguish it from both the native American tree sparrow species and the much more widespread \" English \" house sparrow.", "In Australia, the Eurasian tree sparrow is present in Melbourne, towns in central and northern Victoria and some centres in the Riverina region of New South Wales.", "It is a prohibited species in Western Australia, where it often arrives on ships from Southeast Asia.", "Despite its scientific name, Passer montanus, this is not typically a mountain species, and reaches only in Switzerland, although it has bred at in the northern Caucasus and as high as in Nepal. When the Eurasian tree sparrow and the larger house sparrow occur in the same area, the house sparrow generally breeds in urban areas while the smaller Eurasian tree sparrow nests in the countryside.", "Where trees are in short supply, as in Mongolia, both species may utilise man-made structures as nest sites.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow is rural in Europe, but is an urban bird in eastern Asia, in southern and central Asia, both Passer species may be found around towns and villages.", "In parts of the Mediterranean, such as Italy, both the tree and the Italian or Spanish sparrows may be found in settlements.", "In Australia, the Eurasian tree sparrow is largely an urban bird, and it is the house sparrow which utilises more natural habitats.", "Winter stubble is a seasonal food resource.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow has a large range estimated as and a population of 190310 million individuals.", "Although the population is declining, the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List .", "For these reasons, the species' conservation status is evaluated at the global level as being of Least Concern.", "The collapse in populations seems to have been particularly severe in Great Britain, where there was a 95% decline between 1970 and 1998, and Ireland, which had only 1,0001,500 pairs in the late 1990s.", "In the British Isles, such declines may be due to natural fluctuations, to which Eurasian tree sparrows are known to be prone.", "Breeding performance has improved substantially as population sizes have decreased, suggesting that decreases in productivity were not responsible for the decline and that survival was the critical factor.", "The large decline in Eurasian tree sparrow numbers is probably the result of agricultural intensification and specialisation, particularly the increased use of herbicides and a trend towards autumn-sown crops .", "The change from mixed to specialised farming and the increased use of insecticides has reduced the amount of insect food available for nestlings."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian tree sparrow is a passerine bird in the sparrow family with a rich chestnut crown and nape, and a black patch on each pure white cheek.", "The sexes are similarly plumaged, and young birds are a duller version of the adult.", "This sparrow breeds over most of temperate Eurasia and Southeast Asia, where it is known as the tree sparrow, and it has been introduced elsewhere including the United States, where it is known as the Eurasian tree sparrow or German sparrow to differentiate it from the native unrelated American tree sparrow.", "Although several subspecies are recognised, the appearance of this bird varies little across its extensive range.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow's untidy nest is built in a natural cavity, a hole in a building or the disused nest of a European magpie or white stork.", "The typical clutch is five or six eggs which hatch in under two weeks.", "This sparrow feeds mainly on seeds, but invertebrates are also consumed, particularly during the breeding season.", "As with other small birds, infection by parasites and diseases, and predation by birds of prey take their toll, and the typical life span is about two years.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow is widespread in the towns and cities of eastern Asia, but in Europe it is a bird of lightly wooded open countryside, with the house sparrow breeding in the more urban areas.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow's extensive range and large population ensure that it is not endangered globally, but there have been large declines in western European populations, in part due to changes in farming practices involving increased use of herbicides and loss of winter stubble fields.", "In eastern Asia and western Australia, this species is sometimes viewed as a pest, although it is also widely celebrated in oriental art.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow is long, making it roughly 10% smaller than the house sparrow.", "The adult's crown and nape are rich chestnut, and there is a kidney-shaped black ear patch on each pure white cheek", "the chin, throat, and the area between the bill and throat are black.", "The upperparts are light brown, streaked with black, and the brown wings have two distinct narrow white bars.", "The legs are pale brown, and the bill is lead-blue in summer, becoming almost black in winter.", "Adult and juvenile Eurasian tree sparrows undergo a slow complete moult in the autumn, and show an increase in body mass despite a reduction in stored fat.", "The change in mass is due to an increase in blood volume to support active feather growth, and a generally higher water content in the body.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow has no true song, but its vocalisations include an excited series of tschip calls given by unpaired or courting males.", "Other monosyllabic chirps are used in social contacts, and the flight call is a harsh teck.", "altpage from an old book", "Description of the house and Eurasian tree sparrows from the Systema naturae The Old World sparrow genus Passer is a group of small passerine birds that is believed to have originated in Africa, and which contains 1525 species depending on the authority.", "Its members are typically found in open, lightly wooded, habitats, although several species, notably the house sparrow (P.", "domesticus) have adapted to human habitations.", "Most species in the genus are typically long, predominantly brown or greyish birds with short square tails and stubby conical beaks.", "They are primarily ground-feeding seed-eaters, although they also consume invertebrates, especially when breeding.", "Genetic studies show that the Eurasian tree sparrow diverged from the other Eurasian members of its genus relatively early, before the speciation of the house, plain-backed and Spanish sparrows.", "The Eurasian species is not closely related to the American tree sparrow , which is in a different family, the New World sparrows.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow's binomial name is derived from two Latin words: passer, \" sparrow \" , and montanus, \" of the mountains \" .", "The Eurasian tree sparrow was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 Systema Naturae as Fringilla montana, but, along with the house sparrow, it was soon moved from the finches into the new genus Passer created by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow's common name is given because of its preference of tree holes for nesting.", "This name, and the scientific name montanus, do not appropriately describe this species's habitat preferences: the German name Feldsperling comes closer to doing so.", "Urban nest under a roof tile of a wooden house in Japan The Eurasian tree sparrow's natural breeding range comprises most of temperate Europe and Asia south of about latitude 68N and through Southeast Asia to Java and Bali.", "It formerly bred in the Faroes, Malta and Gozo.", "It is sedentary over most of its extensive range, but northernmost breeding populations migrate south for the winter, and small numbers leave southern Europe for North Africa and the Middle East.", "The eastern subspecies P. m. dilutus reaches coastal Pakistan in winter and thousands of birds of this race move through eastern China in autumn.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow has been introduced outside its native range, but has not always become established, possibly due to competition with the house sparrow.", "It was introduced successfully to Sardinia, eastern Indonesia, the Philippines and Micronesia, but introductions to New Zealand and Bermuda did not take root.", "This sparrow has occurred as a natural vagrant to Gibraltar, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Iceland.", "In North America, a population of about 15,000 birds has become established around St. Louis and neighbouring parts of Illinois and southeastern Iowa.", "These sparrows are descended from 12 birds imported from Germany and released in late April 1870 as part of a project to enhance the native North American avifauna.", "Within its limited US range of about , the Eurasian tree sparrow has to compete with the house sparrow in urban centres, and is therefore mainly found in parks, farms and rural woods.", "The American population is sometimes referred to as the \" German sparrow \" , to distinguish it from both the native American tree sparrow species and the much more widespread \" English \" house sparrow.", "In Australia, the Eurasian tree sparrow is present in Melbourne, towns in central and northern Victoria and some centres in the Riverina region of New South Wales.", "It is a prohibited species in Western Australia, where it often arrives on ships from Southeast Asia.", "Despite its scientific name, Passer montanus, this is not typically a mountain species, and reaches only in Switzerland, although it has bred at in the northern Caucasus and as high as in Nepal. When the Eurasian tree sparrow and the larger house sparrow occur in the same area, the house sparrow generally breeds in urban areas while the smaller Eurasian tree sparrow nests in the countryside.", "Where trees are in short supply, as in Mongolia, both species may utilise man-made structures as nest sites.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow is rural in Europe, but is an urban bird in eastern Asia", "in southern and central Asia, both Passer species may be found around towns and villages.", "In parts of the Mediterranean, such as Italy, both the tree and the Italian or Spanish sparrows may be found in settlements.", "In Australia, the Eurasian tree sparrow is largely an urban bird, and it is the house sparrow which utilises more natural habitats.", "Eggs, from the collection of the Museum de Toulouse A fledgling The Eurasian tree sparrow reaches breeding maturity within a year from hatching, This species will breed in the disused domed nest of a European magpie, or an active or unused stick nest of a large bird such as the white stork, white-tailed eagle, osprey, black kite or grey heron.", "It will sometimes attempt to take over the nest of other birds that breed in holes or enclosed spaces, such as the barn swallow, house martin, sand martin or European bee-eater.", "Pairs may breed in isolation or in loose colonies, and will readily use nest boxes.", "In a Spanish study, boxes made from a mixture of wood and concrete had a much higher occupancy rate than wooden boxes , and birds nesting in woodcrete sites had earlier clutches, a shorter incubation period and more breeding attempts per season.", "Clutch size and chick condition did not differ between nest box types, but reproductive success was higher in woodcrete, perhaps because the synthetic nests were 1.5 C warmer than their wooden counterparts.", "The male calls from near the nest site in spring to proclaim ownership and attract a mate.", "He may also carry nest material into the nest hole.", "The untidy nest is composed of hay, grass, wool or other material and lined with feathers, which improve the thermal insulation.", "A complete nest consists of three layers", "The typical clutch is five or six eggs , white to pale grey and heavily marked with spots, small blotches, or speckling", "they are in size and weigh , of which 7% is shell.", "The eggs are incubated by both parents for 1213 days before the altricial, naked chicks hatch, and a further 1518 days elapse before they fledge.", "Two or three broods may be raised each year", "birds breeding in colonies produce more eggs and fledglings from their first broods than solitary pairs, but the reverse is true for second and third clutches.", "Females which copulate frequently tend to lay more eggs and have a shorter incubation time, so within-pair mating may be an indicator of the pairs' reproductive ability.", "There is a significant level of promiscuity", "in a Hungarian study, more than 9% of chicks were sired by extra-pair males, and 20% of the broods contained at least one extra-pair young.", "Hybridisation between the Eurasian tree sparrow and the house sparrow has been recorded in many parts of the world with male hybrids tending to resemble the Eurasian tree sparrow while females have more similarities with the house sparrow.", "A breeding population in the Eastern Ghats of India, said to be introduced, may also hybridise with house sparrows.", "On at least one occasion a mixed pair has resulted in fertile young.", "A wild hybridisation with the resident sparrows of Malta, which are intermediate between the Spanish sparrow (P.", "hispaniolensis) and Italian sparrows (P.", "italiae), was recorded in Malta in 1975.", "A woodcrete nest box Eurasian tree sparrow is a very social bird, and usually has no problem sticking together at a bird feeder.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow is a predominantly seed and grain eating bird which feeds on the ground in flocks, often with house sparrows, finches, or buntings.", "It eats weed seeds, such as chickweeds and goosefoot, spilled grain, Adults use a variety of wetlands when foraging for invertebrate prey to feed nestlings, and aquatic sites play a key role in providing adequate diversity and availability of suitable invertebrate prey to allow successful chick rearing throughout the long breeding season of this multi-brooded species.", "Large areas of formerly occupied farmland no longer provide these invertebrate resources due to the effects of intensive farming, and the availability of supplementary seed food within of the nest-site does not influence nest-site choice, or affect the number of young raised.", "In winter, seed resources are most likely to be a key limiting factor.", "At this time of year, individuals in a flock form linear dominance hierarchies, but there is no strong relation between the size of the throat patch and position in that hierarchy.", "This is in contrast to the house sparrow", "in that species, fights to establish dominance are reduced by the display of the throat patch, the size of which acts as a signalling \" badge \" of fitness.", "Although there is evidence that the black throat patch of male, but not female, tree sparrows predicts fighting success in foraging flocks.", "The risk of predation affects feeding strategies.", "A study showed increased distance between shelter and a food supply meant that birds visited a feeder in smaller flocks, spent less time on it and were more vigilant when far from shelter.", "Sparrows can feed as \" producers \" , searching for food directly, or \" scroungers \" , just joining other flock members who have already discovered food.", "Scrounging was 30% more likely at exposed feeding sites, although this is not due to increased anti-predator vigilance.", "A possible explanation is that riskier places are used by individuals with lower fat reserves.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a widespread predator", " Predators of the Eurasian tree sparrow include a variety of accipiters, falcons and owls, such as the Eurasian sparrowhawk, common kestrel, little owl, and sometimes long-eared owl and white stork.", "It does not appear to be at an increased risk of predation during its autumn moult, despite having fewer flight feathers at that time.", "Nests may be raided by Eurasian magpies, jays, least weasels, rats, cats, and constricting snakes such as the horseshoe whip snake.", "Many species of bird lice are present on the birds and in their nests, and mites of the genus Knemidocoptes have been known to infest populations, resulting in lesions on the legs and toes.", "Parasitisation of nestlings by Protocalliphora blow-fly larvae is a significant factor in nestling mortality.", "Egg size does not influence nestling mortality, but chicks from large eggs grow faster.", "Eurasian tree sparrows are also subject to bacterial and viral infections.", "Bacteria have been shown to be an important factor in the failure of eggs to hatch and in nestling mortality, and mass deaths due to Salmonella infection have been noted in Japan.", "Avian malaria parasites have been found in the blood of many populations, and birds in China were found to harbour a strain of H5N1 that was highly virulent to chickens.", "The immune response of Eurasian tree sparrows is less robust than that of the house sparrow and has been proposed as a factor in the greater invasive potential of the latter.", "The house sparrow and Eurasian tree sparrow are the most frequent victims of roadkill on the roads of Central, Eastern and Southern Europe.", "The maximum recorded age is 13.1 years, but three years is a typical lifespan.", "Winter stubble is a seasonal food resource.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow has a large range estimated as and a population of 190310 million individuals.", "Although the population is declining, the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List .", "For these reasons, the species' conservation status is evaluated at the global level as being of Least Concern.", "The collapse in populations seems to have been particularly severe in Great Britain, where there was a 95% decline between 1970 and 1998, and Ireland, which had only 1,0001,500 pairs in the late 1990s.", "In the British Isles, such declines may be due to natural fluctuations, to which Eurasian tree sparrows are known to be prone.", "Breeding performance has improved substantially as population sizes have decreased, suggesting that decreases in productivity were not responsible for the decline and that survival was the critical factor.", "The large decline in Eurasian tree sparrow numbers is probably the result of agricultural intensification and specialisation, particularly the increased use of herbicides and a trend towards autumn-sown crops .", "The change from mixed to specialised farming and the increased use of insecticides has reduced the amount of insect food available for nestlings.", "A horticultural pest, the common asparagus beetle is a regular prey item The Eurasian tree sparrow is seen as a pest in some areas.", "In Australia, it damages many cereal and fruit crops and spoils cereal crops, animal feed and stored grain with its droppings.", "Quarantine rules prohibit the transport of this species into Western Australia.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow's consumption of insects has led to its use in agriculture to control fruit tree pests and the common asparagus beetle .", "The Eurasian tree sparrow has long been depicted in Chinese and Japanese art, often on a plant spray or in a flying flock, and representations by oriental artists including Hiroshige have featured on the postage stamps of Antigua and Barbuda, Central African Republic, China, and the Gambia.", "More straightforward illustrations were used on the stamps of Belarus, Belgium, Cambodia, Estonia, and Taiwan.", "The fluttering of the bird gave rise to a traditional Japanese dance, the Suzume Odori, developed in Sendai, which was depicted by artists such as Hokusai.", "In the Philippines, where it is one of several species referred to as maya, and is sometimes specifically referred to as the \" mayang simbahan \" , the Eurasian tree sparrow is the most common bird in the cities.", "Many urban Filipinos confuse it with the former national bird of the Philippines, the black-headed munia also called a maya, but specifically differentiated in folk taxa as the \" mayang pula \" ."]}, "Turdus merula": {"keywords": ["This species breeds in woods and gardens, building a neat, cup-shaped nest, bound together with mud.", "Both sexes are territorial on the breeding grounds, with distinctive threat displays, but are more gregarious during migration and in wintering areas.", "Pairs stay in their territory throughout the year where the climate is sufficiently temperate.", "Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the blackbird is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary Islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "It is close in evolutionary terms to the island thrush of Southeast Asia and islands in the southwest Pacific, which probably diverged from T. merula stock fairly recently.", "The ouzel usage survived later in poetry, and still occurs as the name of the closely related ring ouzel , and in water ouzel, an alternative name for the unrelated but superficially similar white-throated dipper and American dipper .", "The common blackbird breeds in temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia.", "Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year.", "Female blackbirds in Scotland and the north of England migrate more in winter than do the males Common over most of its range in woodland, the common blackbird has a preference for deciduous trees with dense undergrowth.", "However, gardens provide the best breeding habitat with up to 7.3 pairs per hectare , with woodland typically holding about a tenth of that density, and open and very built-up habitats even less.", "The common blackbird also lives in parks, gardens and hedgerows.", "The common blackbird occurs at elevations up to in Europe, in North Africa, and at in peninsular India and Sri Lanka, but the large Himalayan subspecies range much higher, with T. m. maximus breeding at and remaining above even in winter.", "Migrants are more gregarious, travelling in small flocks and feeding in loose groups in the wintering grounds.", "In its native Northern Hemisphere range, the first-year male common blackbird of the nominate race may start singing as early as late January in fine weather in order to establish a territory, followed in late March by the adult male.", "In urban and suburban environments with high levels of anthropogenic noise, such as near airports, blackbirds have been observed modifying their song to successfully compensate and compete with the noise, singing for longer periods of time, at a higher volume, and earlier during their area's dawn chorus, when environmental sounds are less prominent.", "It pulls earthworms from the soil, usually finding them by sight, but sometimes by hearing, and roots through leaf litter for other invertebrates.", "Animal prey predominates, and is particularly important during the breeding season, with windfall apples and berries taken more in the autumn and winter.", "The nature of the fruit taken depends on what is locally available, and frequently includes exotics in gardens.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern but there have been local declines, especially on farmland, which may be due to agricultural policies that encouraged farmers to remove hedgerows , and to drain damp grassland and increase the use of pesticides, both of which could have reduced the availability of invertebrate food.", "The common blackbird was introduced to Australia by a bird dealer visiting Melbourne in early 1857, The introduced population in Australia is considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens, including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes.", "It is thought to spread weeds, such as blackberry, and may compete with native birds for food and nesting sites.", "Introduced there along with the song thrush in 1862, it has spread throughout the country up to an elevation of , as well as outlying islands such as the Campbell and Kermadecs.", "It eats a wide range of native and exotic fruit, and makes a major contribution to the development of communities of naturalised woody weeds.", "These communities provide fruit more suited to non-endemic native birds and naturalised birds than to endemic birds."], "habitat_section": ["The common blackbird breeds in temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia.", "It has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.", "Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year.", "Recoveries of blackbirds ringed on the Isle of May show that these birds commonly migrate from southern Norway to Scotland, and some onwards to Ireland.", "Scottish-ringed birds have also been recovered in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.", "Female blackbirds in Scotland and the north of England migrate more in winter than do the males Common over most of its range in woodland, the common blackbird has a preference for deciduous trees with dense undergrowth.", "However, gardens provide the best breeding habitat with up to 7.3 pairs per hectare , with woodland typically holding about a tenth of that density, and open and very built-up habitats even less.", "They are often replaced by the related ring ouzel in areas of higher altitude.", "The common blackbird also lives in parks, gardens and hedgerows.", "The common blackbird occurs at elevations up to in Europe, in North Africa, and at in peninsular India and Sri Lanka, but the large Himalayan subspecies range much higher, with T. m. maximus breeding at and remaining above even in winter.", "However, a 1994 record from Bonavista, Newfoundland, has been accepted as a genuine wild bird, Male blackbird with earthworm The male common blackbird defends its breeding territory, chasing away other males or utilising a \" bow and run \" threat display.", "This consists of a short run, the head first being raised and then bowed with the tail dipped simultaneously.", "If a fight between male blackbirds does occur, it is usually short and the intruder is soon chased away.", "The female blackbird is also aggressive in the spring when it competes with other females for a good nesting territory, and although fights are less frequent, they tend to be more violent.", "As long as winter food is available, both the male and female will remain in the territory throughout the year, although occupying different areas.", "Migrants are more gregarious, travelling in small flocks and feeding in loose groups in the wintering grounds.", "The flight of migrating birds comprises bursts of rapid wing beats interspersed with level or diving movement, and differs from both the normal fast agile flight of this species and the more dipping action of larger thrushes.", "The common blackbird has an extensive range, estimated at 32.4 million square kilometres , and a large population, including an estimated 110 to 174 million individuals in Europe alone.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern but there have been local declines, especially on farmland, which may be due to agricultural policies that encouraged farmers to remove hedgerows , and to drain damp grassland and increase the use of pesticides, both of which could have reduced the availability of invertebrate food.", "The common blackbird was introduced to Australia by a bird dealer visiting Melbourne in early 1857, The introduced population in Australia is considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens, including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes.", "It is thought to spread weeds, such as blackberry, and may compete with native birds for food and nesting sites.", "The introduced common blackbird is, together with the native silvereye , the most widely distributed avian seed disperser in New Zealand.", "Introduced there along with the song thrush in 1862, it has spread throughout the country up to an elevation of , as well as outlying islands such as the Campbell and Kermadecs.", "It eats a wide range of native and exotic fruit, and makes a major contribution to the development of communities of naturalised woody weeds.", "These communities provide fruit more suited to non-endemic native birds and naturalised birds than to endemic birds."], "random_sentences": ["The common blackbird is a species of true thrush.", "It is also called the Eurasian blackbird , or simply the blackbird where this does not lead to confusion with a local species.", "It breeds in Europe, Asiatic Russia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.", "It has a number of subspecies across its large range", "a few of the Asian subspecies are sometimes considered to be full species.", "Depending on latitude, the common blackbird may be resident, partially migratory, or fully migratory.", "The adult male of the common blackbird , which is found throughout most of Europe, is all black except for a yellow eye-ring and bill and has a rich, melodious song", "the adult female and juvenile have mainly dark brown plumage.", "This species breeds in woods and gardens, building a neat, cup-shaped nest, bound together with mud.", "It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, earthworms, berries, and fruits.", "Both sexes are territorial on the breeding grounds, with distinctive threat displays, but are more gregarious during migration and in wintering areas.", "Pairs stay in their territory throughout the year where the climate is sufficiently temperate.", "This common and conspicuous species has given rise to a number of literary and cultural references, frequently related to its song.", "Female T. m. mauretanicus The common blackbird was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Turdus merula .", "The binomial name derives from two Latin words, turdus, \" thrush \" , and merula, \" blackbird \" , the latter giving rise to its French name, merle, and its Scots name, merl.", "About 65 species of medium to large thrushes are in the genus Turdus, characterised by rounded heads, longish, pointed wings, and usually melodious songs.", "Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the blackbird is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary Islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "It is close in evolutionary terms to the island thrush (T.", "poliocephalus) of Southeast Asia and islands in the southwest Pacific, which probably diverged from T. merula stock fairly recently.", "Until about the 17th century, another name for the species was ouzel, ousel or wosel (from Old English osle, cf.", "Another variant occurs in Act 3 of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, where Bottom refers to \" The Woosell cocke, so blacke of hew, With Orenge-tawny bill \" .", "The ouzel usage survived later in poetry, and still occurs as the name of the closely related ring ouzel , and in water ouzel, an alternative name for the unrelated but superficially similar white-throated dipper and American dipper .", "Two related Asian Turdus thrushes, the white-collared blackbird (T.", "albocinctus) and the grey-winged blackbird (T.", "boulboul), are also named blackbirds, The icterid family of the New World is sometimes called the blackbird family because of some species' superficial resemblance to the common blackbird and other Old World thrushes, but they are not evolutionarily close, being related to the New World warblers and tanagers.", "The term is often limited to smaller species with mostly or entirely black plumage, at least in the breeding male, notably the cowbirds, the grackles, and for around 20 species with \" blackbird \" in the name, such as the red-winged blackbird and the melodious blackbird.", "In Europe, the common blackbird can be confused with the paler-winged first-winter ring ouzel or the superficially similar common starling .", "A number of similar Turdus thrushes exist far outside the range of the common blackbird, for example the South American Chiguanco thrush .", "The Indian blackbird, the Tibetan blackbird, and the Chinese blackbird were formerly considered subspecies of the common blackbird.", "Historic image of blackbird in Nederlandsche Vogelen The common blackbird of the nominate subspecies T. m. merula is in length, has a long tail, and weighs .", "The adult male has glossy black plumage, blackish-brown legs, a yellow eye-ring and an orange-yellow bill.", "The bill darkens somewhat in winter.", "The adult female is sooty-brown with a dull yellowish-brownish bill, a brownish-white throat and some weak mottling on the breast.", "The juvenile is similar to the female, but has pale spots on the upperparts, and the very young juvenile also has a speckled breast.", "Young birds vary in the shade of brown, with darker birds presumably males.", "The first year male resembles the adult male, but has a dark bill and weaker eye ring, and its folded wing is brown, rather than black like the body plumage.", "The common blackbird breeds in temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia.", "It has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.", "Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year.", "Recoveries of blackbirds ringed on the Isle of May show that these birds commonly migrate from southern Norway to Scotland, and some onwards to Ireland.", "Scottish-ringed birds have also been recovered in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.", "Female blackbirds in Scotland and the north of England migrate more in winter than do the males Common over most of its range in woodland, the common blackbird has a preference for deciduous trees with dense undergrowth.", "However, gardens provide the best breeding habitat with up to 7.3 pairs per hectare , with woodland typically holding about a tenth of that density, and open and very built-up habitats even less.", "They are often replaced by the related ring ouzel in areas of higher altitude.", "The common blackbird also lives in parks, gardens and hedgerows.", "The common blackbird occurs at elevations up to in Europe, in North Africa, and at in peninsular India and Sri Lanka, but the large Himalayan subspecies range much higher, with T. m. maximus breeding at and remaining above even in winter.", "However, a 1994 record from Bonavista, Newfoundland, has been accepted as a genuine wild bird,", "Male blackbird with earthworm The male common blackbird defends its breeding territory, chasing away other males or utilising a \" bow and run \" threat display.", "This consists of a short run, the head first being raised and then bowed with the tail dipped simultaneously.", "If a fight between male blackbirds does occur, it is usually short and the intruder is soon chased away.", "The female blackbird is also aggressive in the spring when it competes with other females for a good nesting territory, and although fights are less frequent, they tend to be more violent.", "As long as winter food is available, both the male and female will remain in the territory throughout the year, although occupying different areas.", "Migrants are more gregarious, travelling in small flocks and feeding in loose groups in the wintering grounds.", "The flight of migrating birds comprises bursts of rapid wing beats interspersed with level or diving movement, and differs from both the normal fast agile flight of this species and the more dipping action of larger thrushes.", "The male common blackbird attracts the female with a courtship display which consists of oblique runs combined with head-bowing movements, an open beak, and a \" strangled \" low song.", "The female remains motionless until she raises her head and tail to permit copulation.", "This species is monogamous, and the established pair will usually stay together as long as they both survive.", "Pair separation rates of up to 20% have been noted following poor breeding.", "Although the species is socially monogamous, there have been studies showing as much as 17% extra-pair paternity.", "The nominate T. merula may commence breeding in March, but eastern and Indian races are a month or more later, and the introduced New Zealand birds start nesting in August .", "Eggs of birds of the southern Indian races are paler than those from the northern subcontinent and Europe.", "The female incubates for 1214 days before the altricial chicks are hatched naked and blind.", "Fledging takes another 1019 days, with both parents feeding the young and removing faecal sacs.", "The nest is often ill-concealed compared with those of other species, and many breeding attempts fail due to predation.", "The young are fed by the parents for up to three weeks after leaving the nest, and will follow the adults begging for food.", "If the female starts another nest, the male alone will feed the fledged young.", "Second broods are common, with the female reusing the same nest if the brood was successful, and three broods may be raised in the south of the common blackbird's range.", "A common blackbird has an average life expectancy of 2.4 years, and, based on data from bird ringing, the oldest recorded age is 21 years and 10 months.", "In its native Northern Hemisphere range, the first-year male common blackbird of the nominate race may start singing as early as late January in fine weather in order to establish a territory, followed in late March by the adult male.", "The male's song is a varied and melodious low-pitched fluted warble, given from trees, rooftops or other elevated perches mainly in the period from March to June, sometimes into the beginning of July.", "It has a number of other calls, including an aggressive seee, a pook-pook-pook alarm for terrestrial predators like cats, and various chink and chook, chook vocalisations.", "The territorial male invariably gives chink-chink calls in the evening in an attempt to deter other blackbirds from roosting in its territory overnight.", "Like other passerine birds, it has a thin high seeet alarm call for threats from birds of prey since the sound is rapidly attenuated in vegetation, making the source difficult to locate.", "In urban and suburban environments with high levels of anthropogenic noise, such as near airports, blackbirds have been observed modifying their song to successfully compensate and compete with the noise, singing for longer periods of time, at a higher volume, and earlier during their area's dawn chorus, when environmental sounds are less prominent.", "Adult male feeding on cherries in Lausanne, Switzerland The common blackbird is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, spiders, snails, earthworms, seeds, berries and other fruits.", "It feeds mainly on the ground, running and hopping with a start-stop-start progress.", "It pulls earthworms from the soil, usually finding them by sight, but sometimes by hearing, and roots through leaf litter for other invertebrates.", "Small amphibians, lizards and small mammals are occasionally hunted.", "This species will also perch in bushes to take berries and collect caterpillars and other active insects, such as beetles and grasshoppers.", "Animal prey predominates, and is particularly important during the breeding season, with windfall apples and berries taken more in the autumn and winter.", "The nature of the fruit taken depends on what is locally available, and frequently includes exotics in gardens.", "As the blackbird lives in proximity to urbanized areas, it likely supplements its diet with man-made food.", "Near human habitation the main predator of the common blackbird is the domestic cat, with newly fledged young especially vulnerable.", "Foxes and predatory birds, such as the sparrowhawk and other accipiters, also take this species when the opportunity arises.", "However, there is little direct evidence to show that either predation of the adult blackbirds or loss of the eggs and chicks to corvids, such as the European magpie or Eurasian jay, decrease population numbers.", "A male attempting to distract a kestrel close to its nest This species is occasionally a host of parasitic cuckoos, such as the common cuckoo , but this is minimal because the common blackbird recognizes the adult of the parasitic species and its non-mimetic eggs.", "In the UK, only three nests of 59,770 examined contained cuckoo eggs.", "The introduced merula blackbird in New Zealand, where the cuckoo does not occur, has, over the past 130 years, lost the ability to recognize the adult common cuckoo but still rejects non-mimetic eggs.", "As with other passerine birds, parasites are common.", "Intestinal parasites were found in 88% of common blackbirds, most frequently Isospora and Capillaria species.", "and more than 80% had haematozoan parasites .", "Common blackbirds spend much of their time looking for food on the ground where they can become infested with ticks, which are external parasites that most commonly attach to the head of a blackbird.", "there is no evidence that this affects the fitness of blackbirds except when they are exhausted and run down after migration.", "The common blackbird is one of a number of species which has unihemispheric slow-wave sleep.", "One hemisphere of the brain is effectively asleep, while a low-voltage EEG, characteristic of wakefulness, is present in the other.", "The benefit of this is that the bird can rest in areas of high predation or during long migratory flights, but still retain a degree of alertness.", "The common blackbird has an extensive range, estimated at 32.4 million square kilometres , and a large population, including an estimated 110 to 174 million individuals in Europe alone.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern but there have been local declines, especially on farmland, which may be due to agricultural policies that encouraged farmers to remove hedgerows , and to drain damp grassland and increase the use of pesticides, both of which could have reduced the availability of invertebrate food.", "The common blackbird was introduced to Australia by a bird dealer visiting Melbourne in early 1857, The introduced population in Australia is considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens, including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes.", "It is thought to spread weeds, such as blackberry, and may compete with native birds for food and nesting sites.", "The introduced common blackbird is, together with the native silvereye , the most widely distributed avian seed disperser in New Zealand.", "Introduced there along with the song thrush in 1862, it has spread throughout the country up to an elevation of , as well as outlying islands such as the Campbell and Kermadecs.", "It eats a wide range of native and exotic fruit, and makes a major contribution to the development of communities of naturalised woody weeds.", "These communities provide fruit more suited to non-endemic native birds and naturalised birds than to endemic birds.", "\" Sing a Song for Sixpence \" cover illustration The common blackbird was seen as a sacred though destructive bird in Classical Greek folklore, and was said to die if it consumed pomegranates.", "Like many other small birds, it has in the past been trapped in rural areas at its night roosts as an easily available addition to the diet, Sing a song of sixpence, A pocket full of rye", " Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie!", " When the pie was opened the birds began to sing, Oh, wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?", " The common blackbird's melodious, distinctive song is mentioned in the poem Adlestrop by Edward Thomas", " And for that minute a blackbird sang Close by, and round him, mistier, Farther and farther, all the birds Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.", " In the English Christmas carol \" The Twelve Days of Christmas \" , the line commonly sung today as \" four calling birds \" is believed to have originally been written in the 18th century as \" four colly birds \" , an archaism meaning \" black as coal \" that was a popular English nickname for the common blackbird.", "The common blackbird, unlike many black creatures, is not normally seen as a symbol of bad luck, and it symbolised resignation in the 17th century tragic play The Duchess of Malfi", "an alternate connotation is vigilance, the bird's clear cry warning of danger.", "which has a breeding population of 12 million pairs, it has also featured on a number of other stamps issued by European and Asian countries, including a 1966 4d British stamp and a 1998 Irish 30p stamp.", "This birdarguablyalso gives rise to the Serbian name for Kosovo, which is the possessive adjectival form of Serbian , as in Kosovo polje .", "A common blackbird can be heard singing on the Beatles song \" Blackbird \" ."]}, "Circus aeruginosus": {"keywords": ["The western marsh harrier is a large harrier, a bird of prey from temperate and subtropical western Eurasia and adjacent Africa.", "the eastern marsh harrier , the Papuan harrier of eastern Asia and the Wallacea, the swamp harrier of Australasia and the Madagascar marsh harrier of the western Indian Ocean islands.", "The western marsh harrier is often divided into two subspecies, the widely migratory C. a. aeruginosus which is found across most of its range, and C. a. harterti which is resident all-year in north-west Africa.", "A fairly pale adult female winters near Hodal Adult male , juvenile and adult female , illustration from 1899 The western marsh harrier is in length, has a wingspan of and a weight of in males and in females.", "It breeds in almost every country of Europe but is absent from mountainous regions and subarctic Scandinavia.", "In the Middle East there are populations in Turkey, Iraq, and Iran, while in Central Asia the range extends eastwards as far as north-west China, Mongolia, and the Lake Baikal region of Siberia.", "Some birds winter in milder regions of southern and western Europe, while others migrate to the Sahel, Nile basin and Great Lakes region in Africa, or to Arabia, the Indian subcontinent, and Myanmar.", "The all-year resident subspecies harterti inhabits Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.", "Subsequently, there were confirmed records from Guadeloupe , from Laguna Cartagena National Wildlife Refuge in Puerto Rico and in Bermuda .", "The female usually is identifiable by the rather dark plumage except the creamy crown, nape, and throat Like the other marsh harriers, it is strongly associated with wetland areas, especially those rich in common reed .", "It can also be met with in a variety of other open habitats, such as farmland and grassland, particularly where these border marshland.", "It is a territorial bird in the breeding season, and even in winter it seems less social than other harriers, which often gather in large flocks.", "But this is probably simply due to habitat preferences, as the marsh harriers are completely allopatric while several of C. aeruginosus grassland and steppe relatives winter in the same regions and assemble at food sources such as locust outbreaks.", "Still, in Keoladeo National Park of Rajasthan around 100 Eurasian marsh harriers are observed to roost together each November/December, they assemble in tall grassland dominated by Desmostachya bipinnata and vetiver , but where this is too disturbed by human activity they will use floating carpets of common water hyacinth instead the choice of such roost sites may be to give early warning of predators, which will conspicuously rustle through the plants if they try to sneak upon the resting birds .", "The ground nest is made of sticks, reeds and grasses.", "It is usually built in a reedbed, but the species will also nest in arable fields.", "It hunts in typical harrier fashion, gliding low over flat open ground on its search for prey, with its wings held in a shallow V-shape and often with dangling legs.", "Wintering female hunting near Kolkata Western marsh harrier in Estonia Circus aeruginosus by Jos Zwarts The western marsh harrier declined in many areas between the 19th and the late 20th centuries due to persecution, habitat destruction and excessive pesticide use.", "They are vulnerable to disturbance during the breeding season and also liable to lead shot poisoning."], "habitat_section": ["The male is characterised by the very clear chestnut brown mantle and the grey secondaries and black outer primaries This species has a wide breeding range from Europe and northwestern Africa to Central Asia and the northern parts of the Middle East.", "It breeds in almost every country of Europe but is absent from mountainous regions and subarctic Scandinavia.", "It is rare but increasing in Great Britain where it has spread as far as eastern Scotland.", "In the Middle East there are populations in Turkey, Iraq, and Iran, while in Central Asia the range extends eastwards as far as north-west China, Mongolia, and the Lake Baikal region of Siberia.", "Most populations of the western marsh harrier are migratory or dispersive.", "Some birds winter in milder regions of southern and western Europe, while others migrate to the Sahel, Nile basin and Great Lakes region in Africa, or to Arabia, the Indian subcontinent, and Myanmar.", "The all-year resident subspecies harterti inhabits Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.", "Vagrants have reached Iceland, the Azores, Malaysia, and Sumatra.", "The first documented record for the Americas was one bird reportedly photographed on 4 December 1994 at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in Accomack County, Virginia.", "Subsequently, there were confirmed records from Guadeloupe , from Laguna Cartagena National Wildlife Refuge in Puerto Rico and in Bermuda .", "The female usually is identifiable by the rather dark plumage except the creamy crown, nape, and throat Like the other marsh harriers, it is strongly associated with wetland areas, especially those rich in common reed .", "It can also be met with in a variety of other open habitats, such as farmland and grassland, particularly where these border marshland.", "It is a territorial bird in the breeding season, and even in winter it seems less social than other harriers, which often gather in large flocks.", "But this is probably simply due to habitat preferences, as the marsh harriers are completely allopatric while several of C. aeruginosus grassland and steppe relatives winter in the same regions and assemble at food sources such as locust outbreaks.", "Wintering female hunting near Kolkata Western marsh harrier in Estonia Circus aeruginosus by Jos Zwarts The western marsh harrier declined in many areas between the 19th and the late 20th centuries due to persecution, habitat destruction and excessive pesticide use.", "It is now a protected species in many countries.", "In Great Britain, the population was likely extinct by the end of the 19th century.", "A single pair in Horsey, Norfolk bred in 1911, and by 2006, the Rare Breeding Birds Panel had recorded at least 265 females rearing 453 young.", "It made a comeback in Ireland as well, where it had become extinct in 1918.", "It still faces a number of threats, including the shooting of birds migrating through the Mediterranean region.", "They are vulnerable to disturbance during the breeding season and also liable to lead shot poisoning.", "Still, the threats to this bird have been largely averted and it is today classified as Species of Least Concern by the IUCN."], "random_sentences": ["The western marsh harrier is a large harrier, a bird of prey from temperate and subtropical western Eurasia and adjacent Africa.", "It is also known as the Eurasian marsh harrier.", "Formerly, a number of relatives were included in C. aeruginosus, which was then known as \" marsh harrier \" .", "The related taxa are now generally considered to be separate species: the eastern marsh harrier (C.", "spilonotus), the Papuan harrier (C.", "spilothorax) of eastern Asia and the Wallacea, the swamp harrier (C.", "approximans) of Australasia and the Madagascar marsh harrier (C.", "maillardi) of the western Indian Ocean islands.", "The western marsh harrier is often divided into two subspecies, the widely migratory C. a. aeruginosus which is found across most of its range, and C. a. harterti which is resident all-year in north-west Africa.", "The western marsh harrier was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Falco aeruginosus.", "Linnaeus specified the locality as Europe but restricted this to Sweden in 1761.", "The western marsh harrier is now placed in the genus Circus that was introduced by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacepede in 1799.", "The genus name Circus is derived from the Ancient Greek kirkos, referring to a bird of prey named for its circling flight , probably the hen harrier.", "The specific aeruginosus is Latin for \" rusty \" .", "A fairly pale adult female winters near Hodal Adult male , juvenile and adult female , illustration from 1899 The western marsh harrier is in length, has a wingspan of and a weight of in males and in females.", "It is a large, bulky harrier, larger than other European harriers, with fairly broad wings, and is sexually dimorphic.", "The male's plumage is mostly a cryptic reddish-brown with lighter yellowish streaks, which are particularly prominent on the breast.", "The head and shoulders are mostly pale greyish-yellowish.", "The rectrices and the secondary and tertiary remiges are pure grey, the latter contrasting with the brown forewing and the black primary remiges at the wingtips.", "The upperside and underside of the wing look similar, though the brown is lighter on the underwing.", "Whether from the side or below, flying males appear characteristically three-colored brown-grey-black.", "The legs, feet, irides and the cere of the black bill are yellow.", "The female is almost entirely chocolate-brown.", "The top of the head, the throat and the shoulders have of a conspicuously lighter yellowish colour", "this can be clearly delimited and very contrasting, or be more washed-out, resembling the male's head colours.", "But the eye area of the female is always darker, making the light eye stand out, while the male's head is altogether not very contrastingly coloured and the female lacks the grey wing-patch and tail.", "Juveniles are similar to females, but usually have less yellow, particularly on the shoulders.", "There is a rare hypermelanic morph with largely dark plumage.", "It is most often found in the east of the species' range.", "Juveniles of this morph may look entirely black in flight.", "The male is characterised by the very clear chestnut brown mantle and the grey secondaries and black outer primaries This species has a wide breeding range from Europe and northwestern Africa to Central Asia and the northern parts of the Middle East.", "It breeds in almost every country of Europe but is absent from mountainous regions and subarctic Scandinavia.", "It is rare but increasing in Great Britain where it has spread as far as eastern Scotland.", "In the Middle East there are populations in Turkey, Iraq, and Iran, while in Central Asia the range extends eastwards as far as north-west China, Mongolia, and the Lake Baikal region of Siberia.", "Most populations of the western marsh harrier are migratory or dispersive.", "Some birds winter in milder regions of southern and western Europe, while others migrate to the Sahel, Nile basin and Great Lakes region in Africa, or to Arabia, the Indian subcontinent, and Myanmar.", "The all-year resident subspecies harterti inhabits Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.", "Vagrants have reached Iceland, the Azores, Malaysia, and Sumatra.", "The first documented record for the Americas was one bird reportedly photographed on 4 December 1994 at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in Accomack County, Virginia.", "Subsequently, there were confirmed records from Guadeloupe , from Laguna Cartagena National Wildlife Refuge in Puerto Rico and in Bermuda .", "The female usually is identifiable by the rather dark plumage except the creamy crown, nape, and throat Like the other marsh harriers, it is strongly associated with wetland areas, especially those rich in common reed .", "It can also be met with in a variety of other open habitats, such as farmland and grassland, particularly where these border marshland.", "It is a territorial bird in the breeding season, and even in winter it seems less social than other harriers, which often gather in large flocks.", " But this is probably simply due to habitat preferences, as the marsh harriers are completely allopatric while several of C. aeruginosus grassland and steppe relatives winter in the same regions and assemble at food sources such as locust outbreaks.", "Still, in Keoladeo National Park of Rajasthan around 100 Eurasian marsh harriers are observed to roost together each November/December", "they assemble in tall grassland dominated by Desmostachya bipinnata and vetiver , but where this is too disturbed by human activity they will use floating carpets of common water hyacinth instead the choice of such roost sites may be to give early warning of predators, which will conspicuously rustle through the plants if they try to sneak upon the resting birds .", "Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The start of the breeding season varies from mid-March to early May.", "Western marsh harrier males often pair with two and occasionally three females.", "Pair bonds usually last for a single breeding season, but some pairs remain together for several years.", "The ground nest is made of sticks, reeds and grasses.", "It is usually built in a reedbed, but the species will also nest in arable fields.", "There are between three and eight eggs in a normal clutch.", "The eggs are oval in shape and white in colour, with a bluish or greenish tinge when recently laid.", "The eggs are incubated for 3138 days and the young birds fledge after 3040 days.", "It hunts in typical harrier fashion, gliding low over flat open ground on its search for prey, with its wings held in a shallow V-shape and often with dangling legs.", "It feeds on small mammals, small birds, insects, reptiles, and frogs.", "Wintering female hunting near Kolkata Western marsh harrier in Estonia Circus aeruginosus by Jos Zwarts The western marsh harrier declined in many areas between the 19th and the late 20th centuries due to persecution, habitat destruction and excessive pesticide use.", "It is now a protected species in many countries.", "In Great Britain, the population was likely extinct by the end of the 19th century.", "A single pair in Horsey, Norfolk bred in 1911, and by 2006, the Rare Breeding Birds Panel had recorded at least 265 females rearing 453 young.", "It made a comeback in Ireland as well, where it had become extinct in 1918.", "It still faces a number of threats, including the shooting of birds migrating through the Mediterranean region.", "They are vulnerable to disturbance during the breeding season and also liable to lead shot poisoning.", "Still, the threats to this bird have been largely averted and it is today classified as Species of Least Concern by the IUCN."]}, "Spatula clypeata": {"keywords": ["It breeds in northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and across most of North America, wintering in southern Europe, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Central, the Caribbean, and northern South America.", "In North America, it breeds along the southern edge of Hudson Bay and west of this body of water, and as far south as the Great Lakes west to Colorado, Nevada, and Oregon.", "The northern shoveler is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "In flight Northern shoveler Male in Chilika Lake.", "Northern Shoveler - Draining out excess water after bath I IMG 1016.", "A pair foraging together in New York Groups of northern shovelers swim rapidly in circles to collect food from the surface by creating a funnel effect.", "Northern shovelers feed by dabbling for plant food, often by swinging its bill from side to side and using the bill to strain food from the water.", "Their wide-flat bill is equipped with well-developed lamellae small, comb-like structures on the edge of the bill that act like sieves, allowing the birds to skim crustaceans and plankton from the water's surface.", "Thus, mud-bottomed marshes rich in invertebrate life are their habitat of choice.", "The shoveler prefers to nest in grassy areas away from open water.", "Their nest is a shallow depression on the ground, lined with plant material and down.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden This is a bird of open wetlands, such as wet grassland or marshes with some emergent vegetation.", "It breeds in wide areas across Eurasia, western North America and the Great Lakes region of the United States.", "This bird winters in southern Europe, the Indian Subcontinent, the Caribbean, northern South America, Malay Archipelago, Japan and other areas.", "Those wintering in the Indian Subcontinent make the taxing journey over the Himalayas, often taking a break in wetlands just south of the Himalaya before continuing further south to warmer regions.", "In North America it winters south of a line from Washington to Idaho and from New Mexico east to Kentucky, also along the Eastern Seaboard as far north as Massachusetts.", "In the British Isles, home to more than 20% of the North Western European population, it is best known as a winter visitor, although it is more frequently seen in southern and eastern England, especially around the Ouse Washes, the Humber and the North Kent Marshes, and in much smaller numbers in Scotland and western parts of England.", "In winter, breeding birds move south, and are replaced by an influx of continental birds from further north.", "Among North America's duck species, northern shovelers trail only mallards and blue-winged teal in overall abundance."], "habitat_section": ["Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden This is a bird of open wetlands, such as wet grassland or marshes with some emergent vegetation.", "It breeds in wide areas across Eurasia, western North America and the Great Lakes region of the United States.", "This bird winters in southern Europe, the Indian Subcontinent, the Caribbean, northern South America, Malay Archipelago, Japan and other areas.", "Those wintering in the Indian Subcontinent make the taxing journey over the Himalayas, often taking a break in wetlands just south of the Himalaya before continuing further south to warmer regions.", "In North America it winters south of a line from Washington to Idaho and from New Mexico east to Kentucky, also along the Eastern Seaboard as far north as Massachusetts.", "In the British Isles, home to more than 20% of the North Western European population, it is best known as a winter visitor, although it is more frequently seen in southern and eastern England, especially around the Ouse Washes, the Humber and the North Kent Marshes, and in much smaller numbers in Scotland and western parts of England.", "In winter, breeding birds move south, and are replaced by an influx of continental birds from further north.", "It breeds across most of Ireland, but the population there is very difficult to assess.", "Surveys in 2017 and 2018 suggest that it is more common and widespread in Ireland than previously thought.", "It is strongly migratory and winters further south than its breeding range.", "It has occasionally been reported as a vagrant as far south as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.", "It is not as gregarious as some dabbling ducks outside the breeding season and tends to form only small flocks.", "Among North America's duck species, northern shovelers trail only mallards and blue-winged teal in overall abundance.", "Their populations have been healthy since the 1960s, and have soared in recent years to more than 5 million birds , most likely because of favorable breeding, migration, and wintering habitat conditions.", "ID composite from the Crossley ID Guide Britain and Ireland"], "random_sentences": ["Spatula clypeata), known simply in Britain as the shoveler, is a common and widespread duck.", "It breeds in northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and across most of North America, wintering in southern Europe, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Central, the Caribbean, and northern South America.", "It is a rare vagrant to Australia.", "In North America, it breeds along the southern edge of Hudson Bay and west of this body of water, and as far south as the Great Lakes west to Colorado, Nevada, and Oregon.", "The northern shoveler is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "The conservation status of this bird is Least Concern.", "The northern shoveler was first formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.", "He introduced the binomial name Anas clypeata.", "A molecular phylogentic study comparing mitochondrial DNA sequences published in 2009 found that the genus Anas, as then defined, was non-monophyletic.", "The genus was subsequently split into four monophyletic genera with ten species including the northern shoveler moved into the resurrected genus Spatula.", "This genus had been originally proposed by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1822.", "The name Spatula is the Latin for a \" spoon \" or \" spatula \" .", "The specific epithet is derived from Latin clypeata, \" shield-bearing \" .", "No living subspecies are accepted today.", "Fossil bones of a very similar duck have been found in Early Pleistocene deposits at Dursunlu, Turkey.", "It is unresolved, however, how these birds were related to the northern shoveler of today", "i.e., whether the differences noted were due to being a related species or paleosubspecies, or attributable to individual variation.", "This species is unmistakable in the northern hemisphere due to its large spatulate bill.", "The breeding drake has an iridescent dark green head, white breast and chestnut belly and flanks.", "In flight, pale blue forewing feathers are revealed, separated from the green speculum by a white border.", "In early fall the male will have a white crescent on each side of the face.", "In non-breeding plumage, the drake resembles the female.", "The female is a drab mottled brown like other dabblers, with plumage much like a female mallard, but easily distinguished by the long broad bill, which is gray tinged with orange on cutting edge and lower mandible.", "The female's forewing is gray.", "They are long and have a wingspan of with a weight of .", "In flight Northern shoveler Male in Chilika Lake.", "Male northern shoveler in Butte County, California.", "Female stretching after bathing in Kolkata.", "A pair foraging together in New York Groups of northern shovelers swim rapidly in circles to collect food from the surface by creating a funnel effect.", "Northern shovelers feed by dabbling for plant food, often by swinging its bill from side to side and using the bill to strain food from the water.", "They use their highly specialized bill to forage for aquatic invertebrates.", "Their wide-flat bill is equipped with well-developed lamellae small, comb-like structures on the edge of the bill that act like sieves, allowing the birds to skim crustaceans and plankton from the water's surface.", "This adaptation, more specialized in shovelers, gives them an advantage over other puddle ducks, with which they do not have to compete for food resources during most of the year.", "Thus, mud-bottomed marshes rich in invertebrate life are their habitat of choice.", "The shoveler prefers to nest in grassy areas away from open water.", "Their nest is a shallow depression on the ground, lined with plant material and down.", "Hens typically lay about nine eggs.", "The drakes are very territorial during breeding season and will defend their territory and partners from competing males.", "Drakes also engage in elaborate courtship behaviors, both on the water and in the air", "it is not uncommon for a dozen or more males to pursue a single hen.", "Despite their stout appearance, shovelers are nimble fliers.", "This is a fairly quiet species.", "The male has a clunking call, whereas the female has a Mallard-like quack.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden This is a bird of open wetlands, such as wet grassland or marshes with some emergent vegetation.", "It breeds in wide areas across Eurasia, western North America and the Great Lakes region of the United States.", "This bird winters in southern Europe, the Indian Subcontinent, the Caribbean, northern South America, Malay Archipelago, Japan and other areas.", "Those wintering in the Indian Subcontinent make the taxing journey over the Himalayas, often taking a break in wetlands just south of the Himalaya before continuing further south to warmer regions.", "In North America it winters south of a line from Washington to Idaho and from New Mexico east to Kentucky, also along the Eastern Seaboard as far north as Massachusetts.", "In the British Isles, home to more than 20% of the North Western European population, it is best known as a winter visitor, although it is more frequently seen in southern and eastern England, especially around the Ouse Washes, the Humber and the North Kent Marshes, and in much smaller numbers in Scotland and western parts of England.", "In winter, breeding birds move south, and are replaced by an influx of continental birds from further north.", "It breeds across most of Ireland, but the population there is very difficult to assess.", "Surveys in 2017 and 2018 suggest that it is more common and widespread in Ireland than previously thought.", "It is strongly migratory and winters further south than its breeding range.", "It has occasionally been reported as a vagrant as far south as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.", "It is not as gregarious as some dabbling ducks outside the breeding season and tends to form only small flocks.", "Among North America's duck species, northern shovelers trail only mallards and blue-winged teal in overall abundance.", "Their populations have been healthy since the 1960s, and have soared in recent years to more than 5 million birds , most likely because of favorable breeding, migration, and wintering habitat conditions.", "ID composite from the Crossley ID Guide Britain and Ireland"]}, "Mareca strepera": {"keywords": ["The gadwall breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic, and central North America.", "In North America, its breeding range lies along the Saint Lawrence River, through the Great Lakes, Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Dakotas, south to Kansas, west to California, and along coastal Pacific Canada and southern coastal Alaska.", "This dabbling duck is strongly migratory, and winters farther south than its breeding range, from coastal Alaska, south into Central America, and east into Idaho, Kansas, Ohio, Virginia, and then south all the way into Central America.", "Female and male dabbling, WWT London Wetland Centre, Barnes The gadwall is a bird of open wetlands, such as prairie or steppe lakes, wet grassland or marshes with dense fringing vegetation, and usually feeds by dabbling for plant food with head submerged.", "It nests on the ground, often some distance from water.", "Pair formation begins during fall migration or on breeding grounds, but has also been reported to occur in August when males are still in eclipse plumage.", "Young birds feed on insects at first, adults also eat some molluscs and insects during the nesting season."], "habitat_section": ["The gadwall breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic, and central North America.", "In North America, its breeding range lies along the Saint Lawrence River, through the Great Lakes, Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Dakotas, south to Kansas, west to California, and along coastal Pacific Canada and southern coastal Alaska.", "The range of this bird appears to be expanding into eastern North America.", "This dabbling duck is strongly migratory, and winters farther south than its breeding range, from coastal Alaska, south into Central America, and east into Idaho, Kansas, Ohio, Virginia, and then south all the way into Central America.", "In Great Britain, the gadwall is a scarce-breeding bird and winter visitor, though its population has increased in recent years.", "It is likely that its expansion was partly through introduction, mainly to England, and partly through colonization by continental birds staying to breed in Scotland.", "In Ireland a small breeding population has recently become established, centred on County Wexford in the south and Lough Neagh in the north.", "The Gadwall is also seen in some parts of South Asia, particularly the southern part of India.", "Currently, the gadwall is listed as least concern in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.", "The gadwall is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "Populations have increased approximately 2.5% over the course of 49 years , and continue to grow.", "Gadwalls are one of the most hunted duck species , with 1.7 million shot each year.", "Because of the efforts of the United States and Canadian groups Ducks Unlimited, Delta Waterfowl Foundation and other private conservation groups, the species continues to be sustainably hunted there."], "random_sentences": ["The gadwall is a common and widespread dabbling duck in the family Anatidae.", "The gadwall was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "The gadwall is long with a wingspan.", "The male is slightly larger than the female, weighing on average against her .", "In non-breeding plumage, the drake looks more like the female, but retains the male wing pattern, and is usually greyer above and has less orange on the bill.", "The female is light brown, with plumage much like a female mallard.", "It can be distinguished from that species by the dark orange-edged bill, smaller size, the white speculum, and white belly.", "Both sexes go through two moults annually, following a juvenile moult.", "The gadwall is a quieter duck, except during its courtship display.", "Females give a call similar to the quack of a female mallard but higher-pitched, transcribed as gag-ag-ag-ag.", "Males give a grunt, transcribed as mep, and a whistle.", "The gadwall breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic, and central North America.", "In North America, its breeding range lies along the Saint Lawrence River, through the Great Lakes, Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Dakotas, south to Kansas, west to California, and along coastal Pacific Canada and southern coastal Alaska.", "The range of this bird appears to be expanding into eastern North America.", "This dabbling duck is strongly migratory, and winters farther south than its breeding range, from coastal Alaska, south into Central America, and east into Idaho, Kansas, Ohio, Virginia, and then south all the way into Central America.", "In Great Britain, the gadwall is a scarce-breeding bird and winter visitor, though its population has increased in recent years.", "It is likely that its expansion was partly through introduction, mainly to England, and partly through colonization by continental birds staying to breed in Scotland.", "In Ireland a small breeding population has recently become established, centred on County Wexford in the south and Lough Neagh in the north.", "The Gadwall is also seen in some parts of South Asia, particularly the southern part of India.", "Female and male dabbling, WWT London Wetland Centre, Barnes The gadwall is a bird of open wetlands, such as prairie or steppe lakes, wet grassland or marshes with dense fringing vegetation, and usually feeds by dabbling for plant food with head submerged.", "They can also dive underwater for food, more proficiently than other dabbling ducks, and may also steal food from diving birds such as coots.", "It nests on the ground, often some distance from water.", "It is not as gregarious as some dabbling ducks outside the breeding season and tends to form only small flocks.", "Gadwalls are monogamous and may start breeding after their first year.", "Pair formation begins during fall migration or on breeding grounds, but has also been reported to occur in August when males are still in eclipse plumage.", "Gadwalls are generally quiet, except during courtship.", "The male utters a mep call during a display known as the burp, where he raises his head pointing his bill towards a female.", "The grunt-whistle is similar to that of mallards, where the male rears his outstretched head with the bill dipped into water, displacing a stream of water droplets towards a nearby female as the bill is raised against the chest.", "During this display the male makes a loud whistle call followed by a low burp.", "Paired males may follow other females in flight displays.", "Young birds feed on insects at first", "adults also eat some molluscs and insects during the nesting season.", "Currently, the gadwall is listed as least concern in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.", "The gadwall is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "Populations have increased approximately 2.5% over the course of 49 years , and continue to grow.", "Gadwalls are one of the most hunted duck species , with 1.7 million shot each year.", "Because of the efforts of the United States and Canadian groups Ducks Unlimited, Delta Waterfowl Foundation and other private conservation groups, the species continues to be sustainably hunted there."]}, "Hirundo rustica": {"keywords": ["Four are strongly migratory, and their wintering grounds cover much of the Southern Hemisphere as far south as central Argentina, the Cape Province of South Africa, and northern Australia.", "This species is fairly quiet on the wintering grounds.", "The preferred habitat of the barn swallow is open country with low vegetation, such as pasture, meadows and farmland, preferably with nearby water.", "H. r. rustica juveniles In slow motion This species breeds across the Northern Hemisphere from sea level to , but to in the Caucasus and North America, and it is absent only from deserts and the cold northernmost parts of the continents.", "It is most common in open, low vegetation habitats, such as savanna and ranch land, and in Venezuela, South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago it is described as being particularly attracted to burnt or harvested sugarcane fields and the waste from the cane.", "Individual birds tend to return to the same wintering locality each year Migration of barn swallows between Britain and South Africa was first established on 23 December 1912 when a bird that had been ringed by James Masefield at a nest in Staffordshire, was found in Natal. As would be expected for a long-distance migrant, this bird has occurred as a vagrant to such distant areas as Hawaii, Bermuda, Greenland, Tristan da Cunha, the Falkland Islands, and even Antarctica.", "The barn swallow typically feeds in open areas above shallow water or the ground often following animals, humans or farm machinery to catch disturbed insects, but it will occasionally pick prey items from the water surface, walls and plants.", "On the wintering grounds, Hymenoptera, especially flying ants, are important food items.", "Isotope studies have shown that wintering populations may utilise different feeding habitats, with British breeders feeding mostly over grassland, whereas Swiss birds utilised woodland more.", "The barn swallow drinks by skimming low over lakes or rivers and scooping up water with its open mouth.", "Reed beds are an important source of food prior to and whilst on migration, although the barn swallow is a diurnal migrant that can feed on the wing whilst it travels low over ground or water, the reed beds enable fat deposits to be established or replenished.", "In Denmark, the average male tail length increased by 9% between 1984 and 2004, but it is possible that climatic changes may lead in the future to shorter tails if summers become hot and dry.", "In the northern part of the range, it usually starts late May to early June and ends the same time as the breeding season of the southernmost birds.", "As its name implies, the barn swallow typically nests inside accessible buildings such as barns and stables, or under bridges and wharves.", "The clutch size is influenced by latitude, with clutch sizes of northern populations being higher on average than southern populations.", "The barn swallow has been recorded as hybridising with the cliff swallow and the cave swallow in North America, and the house martin in Eurasia, the cross with the latter being one of the most common passerine hybrids.", "Climate change may affect the barn swallow, drought causes weight loss and slow feather regrowth, and the expansion of the Sahara will make it a more formidable obstacle for migrating European birds.", "Hot dry summers will reduce the availability of insect food for chicks.", "Conversely, warmer springs may lengthen the breeding season and result in more chicks, and the opportunity to use nest sites outside buildings in the north of the range might also lead to more offspring.", "Many literary references are based on the barn swallow's northward migration as a symbol of spring or summer."], "habitat_section": ["The preferred habitat of the barn swallow is open country with low vegetation, such as pasture, meadows and farmland, preferably with nearby water.", "This swallow avoids heavily wooded or precipitous areas and densely built-up locations.", "The presence of accessible open structures such as barns, stables, or culverts to provide nesting sites, and exposed locations such as wires, roof ridges or bare branches for perching, are also important in the bird's selection of its breeding range.", "Barn swallows are semi-colonial, settling in groups from a single pair to a few dozen pairs, particularly in larger wooden structures housing animals.", "The same individuals often breed at the same site year after year, although settlement choices have been experimentally shown to be predicted by nest availability rather than any characteristics of available mates.", "Because it takes around 2 weeks for a pair to build a nest from mud, hair, and other materials, old nests are highly prized.", "H. r. rustica juveniles In slow motion This species breeds across the Northern Hemisphere from sea level to , but to in the Caucasus and North America, and it is absent only from deserts and the cold northernmost parts of the continents.", "Over much of its range, it avoids towns, and in Europe is replaced in urban areas by the house martin.", "However, in Honshu, Japan, the barn swallow is a more urban bird, with the red-rumped swallow replacing it as the rural species.", "It is most common in open, low vegetation habitats, such as savanna and ranch land, and in Venezuela, South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago it is described as being particularly attracted to burnt or harvested sugarcane fields and the waste from the cane.", "In the absence of suitable roost sites, they may sometimes roost on wires where they are more exposed to predators.", "Individual birds tend to return to the same wintering locality each year Migration of barn swallows between Britain and South Africa was first established on 23 December 1912 when a bird that had been ringed by James Masefield at a nest in Staffordshire, was found in Natal. As would be expected for a long-distance migrant, this bird has occurred as a vagrant to such distant areas as Hawaii, Bermuda, Greenland, Tristan da Cunha, the Falkland Islands, and even Antarctica."], "random_sentences": ["The barn swallow is the most widespread species of swallow in the world.", "In fact, it appears to have the largest natural distribution of any of the world's passerines, ranging over 251 million square kilometres globally.", "It is a distinctive passerine bird with blue upperparts and a long, deeply forked tail.", "It is found in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.", "In Anglophone Europe it is just called the swallow", "in northern Europe it is the only common species called a \" swallow \" rather than a \" martin \" .", "There are six subspecies of barn swallow, which breed across the Northern Hemisphere.", "Four are strongly migratory, and their wintering grounds cover much of the Southern Hemisphere as far south as central Argentina, the Cape Province of South Africa, and northern Australia.", "Its huge range means that the barn swallow is not endangered, although there may be local population declines due to specific threats.", "The barn swallow is a bird of open country that normally uses man-made structures to breed and consequently has spread with human expansion.", "It builds a cup nest from mud pellets in barns or similar structures and feeds on insects caught in flight.", "This species lives in close association with humans, and its insect-eating habits mean that it is tolerated by humans", "this acceptance was reinforced in the past by superstitions regarding the bird and its nest.", "There are frequent cultural references to the barn swallow in literary and religious works due to both its living in close proximity to humans and its annual migration.", "The barn swallow is the national bird of Austria and Estonia.", "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.", "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.", "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.", "It also lacks the long tail streamers of the adult.", "Although both sexes sing, female song was only recently described.", "(See below for details about song.", ") Calls include witt or witt-witt and a loud splee-plink when excited .", "The alarm calls include a sharp siflitt for predators like cats and a flitt-flitt for birds of prey like the hobby.", "This species is fairly quiet on the wintering grounds.", "The distinctive combination of a red face and blue breast band renders the adult barn swallow easy to distinguish from the African Hirundo species and from the welcome swallow with which its range overlaps in Australasia.", "In Africa the short tail streamers of the juvenile barn swallow invite confusion with juvenile red-chested swallow , but the latter has a narrower breast band and more white in the tail.", "The barn swallow was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Hirundo rustica, characterised as \" H. rectricibus, exceptis duabus intermediis, macula alba notatis \" .", "Hirundo is the Latin word for \" swallow \"", "rusticus means \" of the country \" .", "This species is the only one of that genus to have a range extending into the Americas, with the majority of Hirundo species being native to Africa.", "This genus of blue-backed swallows is sometimes called the \" barn swallows \" .", "though an earlier instance of the collocation in an English-language context is in Gilbert White's popular book The Natural History of Selborne, originally published in 1789: The swallow, though called the chimney-swallow, by no means builds altogether in chimnies , but often within barns and out-houses against the rafters ...", "In Sweden she builds in barns, and is called ladusvala, the barn-swallow.", " This suggests that the English name may be a calque on the Swedish term.", "There are few taxonomic problems within the genus, but the red-chested swallowa resident of West Africa, the Congo Basin, and Ethiopiawas formerly treated as a subspecies of barn swallow.", "The red-chested swallow is slightly smaller than its migratory relative, has a narrower blue breast-band, and has shorter tail streamers.", "In flight, it looks paler underneath than barn swallow.", "The preferred habitat of the barn swallow is open country with low vegetation, such as pasture, meadows and farmland, preferably with nearby water.", "This swallow avoids heavily wooded or precipitous areas and densely built-up locations.", "The presence of accessible open structures such as barns, stables, or culverts to provide nesting sites, and exposed locations such as wires, roof ridges or bare branches for perching, are also important in the bird's selection of its breeding range.", "Barn swallows are semi-colonial, settling in groups from a single pair to a few dozen pairs, particularly in larger wooden structures housing animals.", "The same individuals often breed at the same site year after year, although settlement choices have been experimentally shown to be predicted by nest availability rather than any characteristics of available mates.", "Because it takes around 2 weeks for a pair to build a nest from mud, hair, and other materials, old nests are highly prized.", "r. rustica juveniles In slow motion This species breeds across the Northern Hemisphere from sea level to , but to in the Caucasus and North America, and it is absent only from deserts and the cold northernmost parts of the continents.", "Over much of its range, it avoids towns, and in Europe is replaced in urban areas by the house martin.", "However, in Honshu, Japan, the barn swallow is a more urban bird, with the red-rumped swallow replacing it as the rural species.", "It is most common in open, low vegetation habitats, such as savanna and ranch land, and in Venezuela, South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago it is described as being particularly attracted to burnt or harvested sugarcane fields and the waste from the cane.", "In the absence of suitable roost sites, they may sometimes roost on wires where they are more exposed to predators.", "Individual birds tend to return to the same wintering locality each year Migration of barn swallows between Britain and South Africa was first established on 23 December 1912 when a bird that had been ringed by James Masefield at a nest in Staffordshire, was found in Natal. As would be expected for a long-distance migrant, this bird has occurred as a vagrant to such distant areas as Hawaii, Bermuda, Greenland, Tristan da Cunha, the Falkland Islands, and even Antarctica.", "Chicks in the nest The barn swallow is similar in its habits to other aerial insectivores, including other swallow species and the unrelated swifts.", "It is not a particularly fast flier, with a speed estimated at about , up to and a wing beat rate of approximately 5, up to 79 times each second.", "The barn swallow typically feeds in open areas above shallow water or the ground often following animals, humans or farm machinery to catch disturbed insects, but it will occasionally pick prey items from the water surface, walls and plants.", "In the breeding areas, large flies make up around 70% of the diet, with aphids also a significant component.", "However, in Europe, the barn swallow consumes fewer aphids than the house or sand martins.", "On the wintering grounds, Hymenoptera, especially flying ants, are important food items.", "Grasshoppers, crickets, dragonflies, beetles and moths are also preyed upon.", "When egg-laying, barn swallows hunt in pairs, but otherwise will form often large flocks.", "The amount of food a clutch will get depends on the size of the clutch, with larger clutches getting more food on average.", "The timing of a clutch also determines the food given", "later broods get food that is smaller in size compared to earlier broods.", "This is because larger insects are too far away from the nest to be profitable in terms of energy expenditure.", "Isotope studies have shown that wintering populations may utilise different feeding habitats, with British breeders feeding mostly over grassland, whereas Swiss birds utilised woodland more.", "Another study showed that a single population breeding in Denmark actually wintered in two separate areas.", "The barn swallow drinks by skimming low over lakes or rivers and scooping up water with its open mouth.", "Swallows gather in communal roosts after breeding, sometimes thousands strong.", "Reed beds are regularly favoured, with the birds swirling en masse before swooping low over the reeds.", "Reed beds are an important source of food prior to and whilst on migration", "although the barn swallow is a diurnal migrant that can feed on the wing whilst it travels low over ground or water, the reed beds enable fat deposits to be established or replenished.", "Males sing to defend small territories and to attract mates.", "Males sing throughout the breeding season, from late April into August in many parts of the range.", "Their song is made up of a \" twitter warble, \" followed by a rising \" P-syllable \" in European H. r. rustica and the North American H. r. erythrogaster.", "In all subspecies, this is followed by a short \" Q-syllable \" and a trilled series of pulses, termed the \" rattle.", "\" The rattle is sometimes followed by a terminal \" -Note \" in some subspecies' populations, and always at the end of H. r. tytleri song.", "Female songs are much shorter than male songs, and are only produced during the early part of the breeding season.", "Females sing spontaneously, though infrequently, and will also countersing in response to each other.", "Four well-grown chicks in a nest H. r. rustica fledgling begging right", "Juvenile bird in Sussex Juveniles waiting for food The male barn swallow returns to the breeding grounds before the females and selects a nest site, which is then advertised to females with a circling flight and song.", "Males with longer tail feathers are generally longer-lived and more disease resistant, females thus gaining an indirect fitness benefit from this form of selection, since longer tail feathers indicate a genetically stronger individual which will produce offspring with enhanced vitality.", "Males in northern Europe have longer tails than those further south", "whereas in Spain the male's tail streamers are only 5% longer than the female's, in Finland the difference is 20%.", "In Denmark, the average male tail length increased by 9% between 1984 and 2004, but it is possible that climatic changes may lead in the future to shorter tails if summers become hot and dry.", "The breeding season of the barn swallow is variable", "in the southern part of the range, the breeding season usually is from February or March to early to mid September, although some late second and third broods finish in October.", "In the northern part of the range, it usually starts late May to early June and ends the same time as the breeding season of the southernmost birds.", "Both sexes defend the nest, but the male is particularly aggressive and territorial. Males guard females actively to avoid being cuckolded.", "Males may use deceptive alarm calls to disrupt extrapair copulation attempts toward their mates.", "As its name implies, the barn swallow typically nests inside accessible buildings such as barns and stables, or under bridges and wharves.", "The nest building ability of the male is also sexually selected", "females will lay more eggs and at an earlier date with males who are better at nest construction, with the opposite being true with males that are not.", "After building the nest, barn swallows may nest colonially where sufficient high-quality nest sites are available, and within a colony, each pair defends a territory around the nest which, for the European subspecies, is in size.", "Colony size tends to be larger in North America.", "In North America at least, barn swallows frequently engage in a mutualist relationship with ospreys.", "Barn swallows will build their nest below an osprey nest, receiving protection from other birds of prey that are repelled by the exclusively fish-eating ospreys.", "The ospreys are alerted to the presence of these predators by the alarm calls of the swallows.", "There are normally two broods, with the original nest being reused for the second brood and being repaired and reused in subsequent years.", "The female lays two to seven, but typically four or five, reddish-spotted white eggs.", "The clutch size is influenced by latitude, with clutch sizes of northern populations being higher on average than southern populations.", "The eggs are in size, and weigh , of which 5% is shell.", "In Europe, the female does almost all the incubation, but in North America the male may incubate up to 25% of the time.", "The incubation period is normally 1419 days, with another 1823 days before the altricial chicks fledge.", "The fledged young stay with, and are fed by, the parents for about a week after leaving the nest.", "Occasionally, first-year birds from the first brood will assist in feeding the second brood.", "Compared to those from early broods, juvenile barn swallows from late broods have been found to migrate at a younger age, fuel less efficiently during migration and have lower return rates the following year.", "The barn swallow will mob intruders such as cats or accipiters that venture too close to their nest, often flying very close to the threat.", "Adult barn swallows have few predators, but some are taken by accipiters, falcons, and owls.", "Brood parasitism by cowbirds in North America or cuckoos in Eurasia is rare.", "Hatching success is 90% and the fledging survival rate is 7090%.", "Average mortality is 7080% in the first year and 4070% for the adult.", "Although the record age is more than 11 years, most survive less than four years.", "Barn swallow nestlings have prominent red gapes, a feature shown to induce feeding by parent birds.", "An experiment in manipulating brood size and immune system showed the vividness of the gape was positively correlated with T-cellmediated immunocompetence, and that larger brood size and injection with an antigen led to a less vivid gape.", "The barn swallow has been recorded as hybridising with the cliff swallow and the cave swallow (P.", "fulva) in North America, and the house martin in Eurasia, the cross with the latter being one of the most common passerine hybrids.", "Feeding trace of Brueelia lice on a tail feather Barn swallows 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.", "In Texas, the swallow bug , which is common on species such as the cliff swallow, is also known to infest barn swallows.", "Predatory bats such as the greater false vampire bat are known to prey on barn swallows.", "Swallows at their communal roosts attract predators and several falcon species make use of these opportunities.", "Falcon species confirmed as predators include the peregrine falcon and the African hobby.", "The barn swallow has an enormous range, with an estimated global extent of about and a population of 190 million individuals.", "The species is evaluated as least concern on the 2019 IUCN Red List, This is a species that has greatly benefited historically from forest clearance, which has created the open habitats it prefers, and from human habitation, which have given it an abundance of safe man-made nest sites.", "There have been local declines due to the use of DDT in Israel in the 1950s, competition for nest sites with house sparrows in the US in the 19th century, and an ongoing gradual decline in numbers in parts of Europe and Asia due to agricultural intensification, reducing the availability of insect food.", "However, there has been an increase in the population in North America during the 20th century with the greater availability of nesting sites and subsequent range expansion, including the colonisation of northern Alberta.", "However, following detailed evaluation, advanced radar technology will be installed to enable planes using the airport to be warned of bird movements and, if necessary, take appropriate measures to avoid the flocks.", "Climate change may affect the barn swallow", "drought causes weight loss and slow feather regrowth, and the expansion of the Sahara will make it a more formidable obstacle for migrating European birds.", "Hot dry summers will reduce the availability of insect food for chicks.", "Conversely, warmer springs may lengthen the breeding season and result in more chicks, and the opportunity to use nest sites outside buildings in the north of the range might also lead to more offspring.", "In Nederlandsche Vogelen The barn swallow is an attractive bird that feeds on flying insects and has therefore been tolerated by humans when it shares their buildings for nesting.", "As one of the earlier migrants, this conspicuous species is also seen as an early sign of summer's approach.", "Many cattle farmers believed that swallows spread Salmonella infections", "however, a study in Sweden showed no evidence of the birds being reservoirs of the bacteria.", "Many literary references are based on the barn swallow's northward migration as a symbol of spring or summer.", "The proverb about the necessity for more than one piece of evidence goes back at least to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: \" For as one swallow or one day does not make a spring, so one day or a short time does not make a fortunate or happy man.", "\" The barn swallow symbolises the coming of spring and thus love in the Pervigilium Veneris, a late Latin poem.", "In his poem \" The Waste Land \" , T. S. Eliot quoted the line \" Quando fiam uti chelidon ?", "\" ( \" When will I be like the swallow, so that I can stop being silent?", "\" ) This refers to the myth of Philomela in which she turns into a nightingale, and her sister Procne into a swallow.", "Gilbert White studied the barn swallow in detail in his pioneering work The Natural History of Selborne, but even this careful observer was uncertain whether it migrated or hibernated in winter.", "In the past, the tolerance for this beneficial insectivore was reinforced by superstitions regarding damage to the barn swallow's nest.", "Such an act might lead to cows giving bloody milk, or no milk at all, or to hens ceasing to lay.", "This may be a factor in the longevity of swallows' nests.", "Survival, with suitable annual refurbishment, for 1015 years is regular, and one nest was reported to have been occupied for 48 years."]}, "Mergus merganser": {"keywords": ["The common merganser or goosander is a large seaduck of rivers and lakes in forested areas of Europe, Asia, and North America.", "In addition to fish, they take a wide range of other aquatic prey, such as molluscs, crustaceans, worms, insect larvae, and amphibians, more rarely, small mammals and birds may be taken.", "When not diving for food, they are usually seen swimming on the water surface, or resting on rocks in midstream or hidden among riverbank vegetation, or on the edge of floating ice.", "In most places, the common merganser is as much a frequenter of salt water as fresh water.", "In larger streams and rivers, they float down with the stream for a few miles, and either fly back again or more commonly fish their way back, diving incessantly the whole way.", "In smaller streams, they are present in pairs or smaller groups, and they float down, twisting round and round in the rapids, or fishing vigorously in a deep pool near the foot of a waterfall or rapid.", "When floating leisurely, they position themselves in water similar to ducks, but they also swim deep in water like cormorants, especially when swimming upstream.", "They often sit on a rock in the middle of the water, similar to cormorants, often half-opening their wings to the sun.", "To rise from water, they flap along the surface for many yards.", "They often fish in a group forming a semicircle and driving the fish into shallow water, where they are captured easily.", "Their ordinary voice is a low, harsh croak, but during the breeding season, males in display, as well as young, make a plaintive, soft whistle.", "Nesting is normally in a tree cavity, so it requires mature forest as its breeding habitat, they also readily use large nest boxes where provided, requiring an entrance hole in diameter.", "In places devoid of trees , they use holes in cliffs and steep, high banks, sometimes at considerable distances from the water.", "The ducklings are taken by their mother in her bill to rivers or lakes immediately after hatching, where they feed on freshwater invertebrates and small fish fry, fledging when 6070 days old.", "The species is a partial migrant, with birds moving away from areas where rivers and major lakes freeze in the winter, but resident where waters remain open.", "Eastern North American birds move south in small groups to the United States wherever ice-free conditions exist on lakes and rivers, on the milder Pacific coast, they are permanent residents.", "The goosander is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies."], "habitat_section": ["Overall, the species is not threatened, though illegal persecution by game-fishing interests is a problem in some areas.", "In February 2020, a rare common merganser sighting was documented in Central Park, New York, the bird was in obvious distress, with its beak being trapped by a piece of debris.", "Within western Europe, a marked southward spread has occurred from Scandinavia in the breeding range since about 1850, colonising Scotland in 1871, England in 1941, and also a strong increase in the population in the Alps.", "They are very scarce in Ireland, with regular breeding confined to a few pairs in County Wicklow.", "The goosander is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies."], "random_sentences": ["The common merganser or goosander is a large seaduck of rivers and lakes in forested areas of Europe, Asia, and North America.", "The common merganser eats mainly fish.", "It nests in holes in trees.", "The first formal description of the common merganser was by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae.", "He introduced the current binomial name Mergus merganser.", "The genus name is a Latin word used by Pliny and other Roman authors to refer to an unspecified waterbird, and merganser is derived from mergus and anser, Latin for \" goose \" .", "In 1843 John James Audubon used the name \" Buff-breasted Merganser \" in addition to \" goosander \" in his book The Birds of America.", "The three subspecies differ in only minor detail:", "It is long with a wingspan and a weight of", "males average slightly larger than females, but with some overlap.", "Like other species in the genus Mergus, it has a crest of longer head feathers, but these usually lie smoothly rounded behind the head, not normally forming an erect crest.", "Adult males in breeding plumage are easily distinguished, the body white with a variable salmon-pink tinge, the head black with an iridescent green gloss, the rump and tail grey, and the wings largely white on the inner half, black on the outer half.", "Females and males in \" eclipse \" are largely grey, with a reddish-brown head, white chin, and white secondary feathers on the wing.", "Juveniles are similar to adult females but also show a short black-edged white stripe between the eye and bill.", "The bill and legs are red to brownish-red, brightest on adult males, dullest on juveniles.", "Like the other mergansers, these piscivorous ducks have serrated edges to their bills to help them grip their prey, so they are often known as \" sawbills \" .", "In addition to fish, they take a wide range of other aquatic prey, such as molluscs, crustaceans, worms, insect larvae, and amphibians", "more rarely, small mammals and birds may be taken.", "As in other birds with the character, the salmon-pink tinge shown variably by males is probably diet-related, obtained from the carotenoid pigments present in some crustaceans and fish.", "When not diving for food, they are usually seen swimming on the water surface, or resting on rocks in midstream or hidden among riverbank vegetation, or on the edge of floating ice.", "In most places, the common merganser is as much a frequenter of salt water as fresh water.", "In larger streams and rivers, they float down with the stream for a few miles, and either fly back again or more commonly fish their way back, diving incessantly the whole way.", "In smaller streams, they are present in pairs or smaller groups, and they float down, twisting round and round in the rapids, or fishing vigorously in a deep pool near the foot of a waterfall or rapid.", "When floating leisurely, they position themselves in water similar to ducks, but they also swim deep in water like cormorants, especially when swimming upstream.", "They often sit on a rock in the middle of the water, similar to cormorants, often half-opening their wings to the sun.", "To rise from water, they flap along the surface for many yards.", "Once they are airborne, their flight is strong and rapid.", "They often fish in a group forming a semicircle and driving the fish into shallow water, where they are captured easily.", "Their ordinary voice is a low, harsh croak, but during the breeding season, males in display, as well as young, make a plaintive, soft whistle.", "Generally, they are wary, and one or more birds stay on sentry duty to warn the flock of approaching danger.", "When disturbed, they often disgorge food before moving.", "Though they move clumsily on land, they resort to running when pressed, assuming a very upright position similar to penguins, and falling and stumbling frequently.", "Nesting is normally in a tree cavity, so it requires mature forest as its breeding habitat", "they also readily use large nest boxes where provided, requiring an entrance hole in diameter.", "In places devoid of trees , they use holes in cliffs and steep, high banks, sometimes at considerable distances from the water.", "The female lays 617 white to yellowish eggs, and raises one brood in a season.", "The ducklings are taken by their mother in her bill to rivers or lakes immediately after hatching, where they feed on freshwater invertebrates and small fish fry, fledging when 6070 days old.", "The young are sexually mature at the age of two years.", "Common mergansers are known to form creches, with single females having been observed with over 70 ducklings at one time.", "The species is a partial migrant, with birds moving away from areas where rivers and major lakes freeze in the winter, but resident where waters remain open.", "Eastern North American birds move south in small groups to the United States wherever ice-free conditions exist on lakes and rivers", "on the milder Pacific coast, they are permanent residents.", "Scandinavian and Russian birds also migrate southwards, but western European birds, and a few in Japan, are largely resident.", "In some populations, the males also show distinct moult migration, leaving the breeding areas as soon as the young hatch to spend the summer elsewhere.", "Notably, most of the western European male population migrates north to estuaries in Finnmark in northern Norway to moult, leaving the females to care for the ducklings.", "Much smaller numbers of males also use estuaries in eastern Scotland as a moulting area.", "Overall, the species is not threatened, though illegal persecution by game-fishing interests is a problem in some areas.", "In February 2020, a rare common merganser sighting was documented in Central Park, New York", "the bird was in obvious distress, with its beak being trapped by a piece of debris.", "Within western Europe, a marked southward spread has occurred from Scandinavia in the breeding range since about 1850, colonising Scotland in 1871, England in 1941, and also a strong increase in the population in the Alps.", "They are very scarce in Ireland, with regular breeding confined to a few pairs in County Wicklow.", "The goosander is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies."]}, "Milvus milvus": {"keywords": ["The species currently breeds in the Western Palearctic region of Europe and northwest Africa, though it formerly also occurred in northern Iran.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range in western Europe and northwest Africa, but birds from northeastern and Central Europe winter further south and west, reaching south to Turkey.", "The red kite has been known to successfully hybridize with the black kite in captivity where both species were kept together, and in the wild on the Cape Verde Islands and infrequently in other places.", "The red kites on the Cape Verde Islands are quite distinct in morphology, being somewhat intermediate with black kites.", "In some parts of the United Kingdom, red kites are also deliberately fed in domestic gardens, explaining the presence of red kites in urban areas.", "Red kite in flight in Gredos Mountains, Avila, Spain Red kites inhabit broadleaf woodlands, valleys and wetland edges, to .", "They are native to the western Palearctic, with the European population of 19,00025,000 pairs encompassing 95% of its global breeding range.", "It breeds from Spain and Portugal east into central Europe and Ukraine, north to southern Sweden, Latvia and the UK, and south to southern Italy.", "Northern birds move south in winter, mostly staying in the west of the breeding range, but also to eastern Turkey, northern Tunisia and Algeria.", "The main threats to red kites are poisoning, through illegal direct poisoning and indirect poisoning from pesticides, particularly in the wintering ranges in France and Spain, and changes in agricultural practices causing a reduction in food resources.", "The populations of the northern foothills of the Harz Mountains suffered an estimated 50% decline from 1991 to 2001.", "The Balearic Islands population has declined from 41 to 47 breeding pairs in 1993 to just 10 in 2003.", "Shakespeare's King Lear describes his daughter Goneril as a detested kite, and he wrote \" when the kite builds, look to your lesser linen \" in reference to them stealing washing hung out to dry in the nesting season.", "In Northern Ireland, 80 birds from wild stock in Wales were released between 2008 and 2010, and the first successful breeding was recorded in 2010.", "Thirty Spanish birds were introduced into Rockingham Forest near Corby in 2000, and by 2010, the RSPB estimated that over 200 chicks had been reared from the initial release.", "So successful has the reintroduction been that 30 chicks have been transported from Rockingham Forest for release in Cumbria.", "In June 2010, the Forestry Commission North West England announced a three-year project to release 90 red kites in Grizedale Forest, Cumbria under a special licence issued by Natural England.", "In May 2007, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Dick Roche announced an agreement to bring at least 100 birds from Wales to restock the population as part of a 5-year programme in the Wicklow Mountains, similar to the earlier golden eagle reintroduction programme.", "On 22 May 2010, 2 newly hatched red kite chicks were discovered in the Wicklow mountains, bringing the number of chicks hatched since reintroduction to 7.", "Sweden is one location where the red kite seems to be increasing, with around 2,000 pairs in 2009, some of which are overwintering and some flying south to the Mediterranean for the winter.", "The kite is often seen along the roadsides and roaming the open colourful wheat and rapeseed fields of Scania.", "In Switzerland, they are a common sight in all rural areas, excluding the Alps and its foothills."], "habitat_section": ["Red kite in flight in Gredos Mountains, Avila, Spain Red kites inhabit broadleaf woodlands, valleys and wetland edges, to .", "They are native to the western Palearctic, with the European population of 19,00025,000 pairs encompassing 95% of its global breeding range.", "It breeds from Spain and Portugal east into central Europe and Ukraine, north to southern Sweden, Latvia and the UK, and south to southern Italy.", "There is a population in northern Morocco.", "Northern birds move south in winter, mostly staying in the west of the breeding range, but also to eastern Turkey, northern Tunisia and Algeria.", "The three largest populations declined between 1990 and 2000, and overall the species declined by almost 20% over the ten years.", "The main threats to red kites are poisoning, through illegal direct poisoning and indirect poisoning from pesticides, particularly in the wintering ranges in France and Spain, and changes in agricultural practices causing a reduction in food resources.", "Other threats include electrocution, hunting and trapping, deforestation, egg-collection and possibly competition with the generally more successful black kite M. migrans."], "random_sentences": ["Red Kite at Bwlch Nant yr Arian, Wales, a local feeding ground.", "The red kite is a medium-large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as eagles, buzzards, and harriers.", "The species currently breeds in the Western Palearctic region of Europe and northwest Africa, though it formerly also occurred in northern Iran.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range in western Europe and northwest Africa, but birds from northeastern and Central Europe winter further south and west, reaching south to Turkey.", "Vagrants have reached north to Finland and south to Israel, Libya and Gambia.", "The red kite was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Falco milvus.", "The word milvus was the Latin name for the bird.", "In 1799 the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacepede moved the species to the genus Milvus creating the tautonym.", "The subspecies M. m. fasciicauda is almost certainly extinct.", "The genus Milvus contains two other species: the black kite (M.", "migrans) and the yellow-billed kite (M.", "The red kite has been known to successfully hybridize with the black kite in captivity where both species were kept together, and in the wild on the Cape Verde Islands and infrequently in other places.", "The red kites on the Cape Verde Islands are quite distinct in morphology, being somewhat intermediate with black kites.", "The question whether the Cape Verde kite should be considered a distinct species or a red kite subspecies has not been settled.", "A mitochondrial DNA study on museum specimens suggested that Cape Verde birds did not form a monophyletic lineage among or next to red kites.", "This interpretation is problematic: mtDNA analysis is susceptible to hybridization events, the evolutionary history of the Cape Verde population is not known, and the genetic relationship of red kites is confusing, with geographical proximity being no indicator of genetic relatedness and the overall genetic similarity high, perhaps indicating a relict species.", "Given the morphological distinctness of the Cape Verde birds and that the Cape Verde population was isolated from other populations of red kites, it cannot be conclusively resolved as to whether the Cape Verde population was not a distinct subspecies or even species that frequently absorbed stragglers from the migrating European populations into its gene pool.", "The Cape Verde population became effectively extinct since 2000, all surviving birds being hybrids with black kites.", "The English word \" kite \" is from the Old English cyta which is of unknown origin.", "A kite is mentioned by Geoffrey Chaucer's in his Knight's Tale.", "The early fifteenth century Hengwrt manuscript contains the lines: \" Ther cam a kyte, whil t they were so wrothe That bar awey the boon bitwix hem bothe.", "\" The first recorded use of the word \" kite \" for a toy that is attached to a length of string and flown in the air dates from the seventeenth century.", "Leucistic form A red kite skull Red kite, falconry Adlerwarte Obernberg am Inn, Upper Austria Red kites are long with a wingspan", "males weigh , and females .", "It is an elegant bird, soaring on long wings held at a dihedral, and long forked tail, twisting as it changes direction.", "The body, upper tail and wing coverts are rufous.", "The white primary flight feathers contrast with the black wing tips and dark secondaries.", "Apart from the weight difference, the sexes are similar, but juveniles have a buff breast and belly.", "Its call is a thin piping sound, similar to but less mewling than the common buzzard.", "There is a rare white leucistic form accounting for approximately 1% of hatchlings in the Welsh population, but this variation confers a disadvantage in the survival stakes.", "Differences between adults and juveniles", "Adults differ from juveniles in a number of characteristics: These differences hold throughout most of the first year of a bird's life.", "Eggs in the natural history collection of the Museum Wiesbaden, Germany right", "Juveniles at nest, Berlin Usually red kites first breed when they are two years old, although exceptionally they can successfully breed when they are only one year old.", "They are monogamous and the pair-bond in populations is probably maintained during the winter, particularly when the pair remain on their breeding territory.", "For migrant populations the fidelity to a particular nesting site means that the pair-bond is likely to be renewed each breeding season.", "The nest is normally placed in a fork of a large hardwood tree at a height of between above the ground.", "A pair will sometimes use a nest from the previous year and can occasionally occupy an old nest of the common buzzard.", "The nest is built by both sexes.", "The male brings dead twigs in length which are placed by the female.", "The nest is lined with grass and sometimes also with sheep's wool.", "Unlike the black kite, no greenery is added to the nest.", "Both sexes continue to add material to the nest during the incubation and nestling periods.", "Nests vary greatly in size and can become large when the same nest is occupied for several seasons.", "The eggs are laid at three-day intervals.", "The clutch is usually between one and three eggs but four and even five eggs have occasionally been recorded.", "The eggs are non-glossy with a white ground and red-brown spots.", "The average size is with a calculated weight of .", "In Britain and central Europe, laying begins at the end of March but in the Mediterranean area laying begins in early March.", "The eggs are mainly incubated by the female, but the male will relieve her for short periods while she feeds.", "The male will also bring food for the female.", "Incubation starts as soon as the first egg is laid.", "Each egg hatches after 31 to 32 days but as they hatch asynchronously a clutch of three eggs requires 38 days of incubation.", "The chicks are cared for by both parents.", "The female them for the first 14 days while the male brings food to the nest which the female feeds to the chicks.", "Later both parents bring items of food which are placed in the nest to allow the chicks to feed themselves.", "The nestlings begin climbing onto branches around their nest from 45 days but they rarely before 4850 days and sometimes not until they are 6070 days of age.", "The young spend a further 1520 days in the neighbourhood of the nest being fed by their parents.", "Only a single brood is raised each year but if the eggs are lost the female will relay.", "The maximum age recorded is 25 years and 8 months for a ringed bird in Germany.", "The longevity record for Britain and Ireland is 23 years and 10 months for a bird found dead in Wales in 2012.", "Side view of adult, Wales The red kite's diet consists mainly of small mammals such as mice, voles, shrews, young hares and rabbits.", "It feeds on a wide variety of carrion including sheep carcasses and dead game birds.", "Live birds are also taken and occasionally reptiles and amphibians.", "Earthworms form an important part of the diet, especially in spring.", "In some parts of the United Kingdom, red kites are also deliberately fed in domestic gardens, explaining the presence of red kites in urban areas.", "Here, up to 5% of householders have provided supplementary food for red kites, with chicken the predominant meat provided.", "As scavengers, red kites are particularly susceptible to poisoning.", "Illegal poison baits set for foxes or crows are indiscriminate and kill protected birds and other animals.", "There have also been a number of incidents of red kites and other raptors being targeted by wildlife criminals.", "In the United Kingdom, there have been several unusual instances of red kites stealing food from people in a similar manner to gulls.", "One such occurrence took place in Marlow, Buckinghamshire , in which Red Kites swooped down to steal sandwiches from people in one of the town's parks.", "Red kite in flight in Gredos Mountains, Avila, Spain Red kites inhabit broadleaf woodlands, valleys and wetland edges, to .", "They are native to the western Palearctic, with the European population of 19,00025,000 pairs encompassing 95% of its global breeding range.", "It breeds from Spain and Portugal east into central Europe and Ukraine, north to southern Sweden, Latvia and the UK, and south to southern Italy.", "There is a population in northern Morocco.", "Northern birds move south in winter, mostly staying in the west of the breeding range, but also to eastern Turkey, northern Tunisia and Algeria.", "The three largest populations declined between 1990 and 2000, and overall the species declined by almost 20% over the ten years.", "The main threats to red kites are poisoning, through illegal direct poisoning and indirect poisoning from pesticides, particularly in the wintering ranges in France and Spain, and changes in agricultural practices causing a reduction in food resources.", "Other threats include electrocution, hunting and trapping, deforestation, egg-collection and possibly competition with the generally more successful black kite M. migrans.", "Nestling red kites, Barnim, Germany German populations declined by 25%30% between 1991 and 1997, but have remained stable since.", "The populations of the northern foothills of the Harz Mountains suffered an estimated 50% decline from 1991 to 2001.", "In Spain, the species showed an overall decline in breeding population of up to 43% for the period 1994 to 200102, and surveys of wintering birds in 200304 suggest a similarly large decline in core wintering areas.", "The Balearic Islands population has declined from 41 to 47 breeding pairs in 1993 to just 10 in 2003.", "In France, breeding populations have decreased in the northeast, but seem to be stable in southwest and central France and Corsica.", "Populations elsewhere are stable or undergoing increases.", "In Sweden, the species has increased from 30 to 50 pairs in the 1970s to 1,200 breeding pairs in 2003.", "In Switzerland, populations increased during the 1990s, and have stabilised.", "Red kite, Gigrin Farm, Wales Red kites at the feeding station, Laurieston, Scotland.", "In the United Kingdom, red kites were ubiquitous scavengers that lived on carrion and rubbish.", "Shakespeare's King Lear describes his daughter Goneril as a detested kite, and he wrote \" when the kite builds, look to your lesser linen \" in reference to them stealing washing hung out to dry in the nesting season.", "In the mid-15th century, King James II of Scotland decreed that they should be \" killed wherever possible \" , but they remained protected in England and Wales for the next 100 years as they kept the streets free of carrion and rotting food.", "Under Tudor \" vermin laws \" many creatures were seen as competitors for the produce of the countryside and bounties were paid by the parish for their carcasses.", "By the 20th century, the breeding population was restricted to a handful of pairs in South Wales, but recently the Welsh population has been supplemented by re-introductions in England and Scotland.", "In 2004, from 375 occupied territories identified, at least 216 pairs were thought to have hatched eggs and 200 pairs reared at least 286 young.", "In 1989, six Swedish birds were released at a site in north Scotland and four Swedish and one Welsh bird in Buckinghamshire.", "Altogether, 93 birds of Swedish and Spanish origin were released at each of the sites.", "In the second stage of reintroduction in 1995 and 1996, further birds were brought from Germany to populate areas of Dumfries and Galloway.", "Between 2004 and 2006, 94 birds were brought from the Chilterns and introduced into the Derwent Valley in north East England.", "In Northern Ireland, 80 birds from wild stock in Wales were released between 2008 and 2010, and the first successful breeding was recorded in 2010.", "The reintroductions in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty have been a success.", "Between 1989 and 1993, 90 birds were released there and by 2002, 139 pairs were breeding.", "They can commonly be seen taking advantage of thermals from the M40 motorway.", "Another successful reintroduction has been in Northamptonshire, which has become a stronghold for the red kite.", "Thirty Spanish birds were introduced into Rockingham Forest near Corby in 2000, and by 2010, the RSPB estimated that over 200 chicks had been reared from the initial release.", "So successful has the reintroduction been that 30 chicks have been transported from Rockingham Forest for release in Cumbria.", "From the Chilterns they have spread as far east as Essex and can be seen over Harlow.", "To the west they have recently spread along the M4 as far as the Cotswold Edge overlooking the Severn near Bristol.", "A sighting of the first red kite in London for 150 years was reported in The Independent newspaper in January 2006 and in June of that year, the UK-based Northern Kites Project reported that kites had bred in the Derwent Valley in and around Rowlands Gill, Tyne and Wear for the first time since the re-introduction.", "In 1999, the red kite was named 'Bird of the Century' by the British Trust for Ornithology.", "According to the Welsh Kite Trust, it has been voted \" Wales's favourite bird \" .", "In June 2010, the Forestry Commission North West England announced a three-year project to release 90 red kites in Grizedale Forest, Cumbria under a special licence issued by Natural England.", "The Grizedale programme was the ninth reintroduction of red kites into different regions of the UK and the final re-introduction phase in England.", "The stated aims of the Grizedale project were: As of July 2011, non-breeding birds are regularly seen in all parts of Britain, and the number of breeding pairs is too large for the RSPB to continue to survey them on an annual basis.", "Red kites were extinct in Ireland by the middle nineteenth century, due to persecution, poisoning and woodland clearance.", "In May 2007, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Dick Roche announced an agreement to bring at least 100 birds from Wales to restock the population as part of a 5-year programme in the Wicklow Mountains, similar to the earlier golden eagle reintroduction programme.", "On 19 July 2007, the first thirty red kites were released in County Wicklow.", "On 22 May 2010, 2 newly hatched red kite chicks were discovered in the Wicklow mountains, bringing the number of chicks hatched since reintroduction to 7.", "Sweden is one location where the red kite seems to be increasing, with around 2,000 pairs in 2009, some of which are overwintering and some flying south to the Mediterranean for the winter.", "The red kite is the landscape bird of Scania, and the coat of arms of the municipality of Tomelilla.", "The kite is often seen along the roadsides and roaming the open colourful wheat and rapeseed fields of Scania.", "Populations and trends by country", "A young red kite in Cookham, Berkshire.", "The following figures have been collated from various sources.", "They cover most of the countries in which red kites are believed to have bred.", "All information must be referenced A short video on Red Kite feeding at Bwlch Nant yr Arian visitor centre in Ceredigion, Wales One of the best places to see the red kite in Scandinavia is Scania in southern Sweden.", "It may be observed in one of its breeding locations such as the Kullaberg Nature Preserve near Molle.", "In Switzerland, they are a common sight in all rural areas, excluding the Alps and its foothills.", "Some of the best places to see them in the United Kingdom are Gigrin Farm near Rhayader, mid Wales, where hundreds are fed by the local farmer as a tourist attraction, a Red Kite Feeding Station at Llanddeusant in the Brecon Beacons, visited daily by over 50 birds, and the Bwlch Nant yr Arian forest visitor centre in Ceredigion where the rare leucistic variant can be seen.", "In the UK, the Oxfordshire part of the Chilterns has many red kites, especially near Henley-on-Thames and Watlington, where they were introduced on John Paul Getty's estate.", "Red Kites are also becoming common in Buckinghamshire, often being seen near Stokenchurch, where a population was released in the 1990s, and Flackwell Heath near High Wycombe.", "They can also be seen around Harewood near Leeds where they were re-introduced in 1999.", "In Ireland they can be best observed at Redcross, near Avoca, County Wicklow."]}, "Milvus migrans": {"keywords": ["The black kite is widely distributed through the temperate and tropical parts of Eurasia and parts of Australasia and Oceania, with the temperate region populations tending to be migratory.", "They occur throughout Africa except for the Congo Basin and the Sahara Desert.", "The temperate populations of this kite tend to be migratory while the tropical ones are resident.", "European and central Asian birds are migratory, moving to the tropics in winter, but races in warmer regions such as the Indian M. m. govinda , or the Australasian M. m. affinis , are resident.", "Vagrants, most likely of the black-eared kite, on occasion range far into the Pacific, out to the Hawaiian islands.", "Here the birds avoid heavily forested regions.", "Black kites in Spain prey on nestling waterfowl especially during summer to feed their young.", "In India, the subspecies govinda shows large seasonal fluctuations with the highest numbers seen from July to October, after the monsoons, and it has been suggested that they make local movements in response to high rainfall.", "The breeding season of the black kite in India begins in winter , the young birds fledging before the monsoons.", "Birds in the Italian Alps tended to build their nest close to water in steep cliffs or tall trees."], "habitat_section": ["The species is found in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.", "The temperate populations of this kite tend to be migratory while the tropical ones are resident.", "European and central Asian birds are migratory, moving to the tropics in winter, but races in warmer regions such as the Indian M. m. govinda , or the Australasian M. m. affinis , are resident.", "In some areas such as in the United Kingdom, the black kite occurs only as a wanderer on migration.", "These birds are usually of the nominate race, but in November 2006 a juvenile of the eastern lineatus, not previously recorded in western Europe, was found in Lincolnshire.", "The species is not found in the Indonesian archipelago between the South East Asian mainland and the Wallace Line.", "Vagrants, most likely of the black-eared kite, on occasion range far into the Pacific, out to the Hawaiian islands.", "In India, the population of M. m. govinda is particularly large especially in areas of high human population.", "Here the birds avoid heavily forested regions.", "A survey in 1967 in the 150 square kilometres of the city of New Delhi produced an estimate of about 2200 pairs or roughly 15 per square kilometre.", "Another survey in 2013 estimated 150 pairs for every 10 square kilometres.", "Vagrants from Australia occasionally reach New Zealand, however, only one individual has persisted there ."], "random_sentences": ["Black kite in Hanoi Zoo The black kite is a medium-sized bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors.", "It is thought to be the world's most abundant species of Accipitridae, although some populations have experienced dramatic declines or fluctuations.", "Current global population estimates run up to 6 million individuals.", "Unlike others of the group, black kites are opportunistic hunters and are more likely to scavenge.", "They spend much time soaring and gliding in thermals in search of food.", "Their angled wing and distinctive forked tail make them easy to identify.", "They are also vociferous with a shrill whinnying call.", "The black kite is widely distributed through the temperate and tropical parts of Eurasia and parts of Australasia and Oceania, with the temperate region populations tending to be migratory.", "Several subspecies are recognized and formerly had their own English names.", "The European populations are small, but the South Asian population is very large.", "The black kite was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux in 1770.", "The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by Francois-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminees D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.", "Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Falco migrans in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminees.", "The type locality is France.", "The current genus Milvus was erected by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacepede in 1799.", "Milvus is the Latin word for a red kite", "the specific migrans means \" migrating \" from the Latin migrare \" to migrate \" .", "The red kite has been known to hybridize with the black kite .", "Recent DNA studies suggest that the yellow-billed African races parasitus and aegyptius differ significantly from black kites in the Eurasian clade, and should be considered a separate allopatric species: yellow-billed kite, M. aegyptius.", "They occur throughout Africa except for the Congo Basin and the Sahara Desert.", "There have been some suggestions that the black-eared kite (M.", "m. lineatus) should be elevated to full species status as M. lineatus, but this is not well supported.", "M. m. govinda, India Black kites can be distinguished from red kites by the slightly smaller size, less forked tail , and generally dark plumage without any rufous.", "The sexes are alike though the male is a little smaller and less aggressive .", "The upper plumage is brown but the head and neck tend to be paler.", "The patch behind the eye appears darker.", "The outer flight feathers are black and the feathers have dark cross bars and are mottled at the base.", "The lower parts of the body are pale brown, becoming lighter towards the chin.", "The body feathers have dark shafts giving it a streaked appearance.", "The cere and gape are yellow, but the bill is black .", "The legs are yellow and the claws are black.", "They have a distinctive shrill whistle followed by a rapid whinnying call.", "Males and females have the same plumage but females are longer than male and have a little larger wingspan.", "Their wingspan is around 150 cm.", "The species is found in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.", "The temperate populations of this kite tend to be migratory while the tropical ones are resident.", "European and central Asian birds are migratory, moving to the tropics in winter, but races in warmer regions such as the Indian M. m. govinda , or the Australasian M. m. affinis , are resident.", "In some areas such as in the United Kingdom, the black kite occurs only as a wanderer on migration.", "These birds are usually of the nominate race, but in November 2006 a juvenile of the eastern lineatus, not previously recorded in western Europe, was found in Lincolnshire.", "The species is not found in the Indonesian archipelago between the South East Asian mainland and the Wallace Line.", "Vagrants, most likely of the black-eared kite, on occasion range far into the Pacific, out to the Hawaiian islands.", "In India, the population of M. m. govinda is particularly large especially in areas of high human population.", "Here the birds avoid heavily forested regions.", "A survey in 1967 in the 150 square kilometres of the city of New Delhi produced an estimate of about 2200 pairs or roughly 15 per square kilometre.", "Another survey in 2013 estimated 150 pairs for every 10 square kilometres.", "Vagrants from Australia occasionally reach New Zealand, however, only one individual has persisted there .", "Black kites are most often seen gliding and soaring on thermals as they search for food.", "Their flight is buoyant and the bird glides effortlessly, changing directions easily.", "They will swoop down with their legs lowered to snatch small live prey, fish, household refuse and carrion, for which behaviour they are known in British military slang as the shite-hawk.", "They are opportunist hunters and have been known to take birds, bats, and rodents.", "They are attracted to smoke and fires, where they seek escaping prey.", "Kites are also known to spread fires by picking and dropping burning twigs so as to flush prey, leading to them being known in some circles as \" firehawks \" .", "The Indian populations are well adapted to living in cities and are found in densely populated areas.", "Large numbers may be seen soaring in thermals over cities.", "In some places, they will readily swoop and snatch food held by humans.", "In Delhi, where Black Kites breed within the cities, religious offerings of meat to the Kites are common among those who practice Islam.", "The meat is thrown into the air and the Kites dive-bomb for the meat.", "Humans who are in the vicinity may suffer serious injury due to the sharp claws and talons of the Kites.", "The reinforcement between human proximity and being fed have decreased the Kite's fear of humans.", "Black kites in Spain prey on nestling waterfowl especially during summer to feed their young.", "Predation of nests of other pairs of black kites has also been noted.", "Kites have also been seen to tear and carry away the nests of baya weavers in an attempt to obtain eggs or chicks.", "In winter, kites form large communal roosts.", "Flocks may fly about before settling at the roost.", "When migrating, the black kite has a greater propensity to form large flocks than other migratory raptors, particularly prior to making a crossing across water.", "In India, the subspecies govinda shows large seasonal fluctuations with the highest numbers seen from July to October, after the monsoons, and it has been suggested that they make local movements in response to high rainfall.", "The breeding season of the black kite in India begins in winter , the young birds fledging before the monsoons.", "The nest is a rough platform of twigs and sticks placed in a tree.", "Nest sites may be reused in subsequent years.", "European birds breed in summer.", "Birds in the Italian Alps tended to build their nest close to water in steep cliffs or tall trees.", "Nest orientation may be related to wind and rainfall.", "The nests may sometimes be decorated with bright materials such as white plastic and a study in Spain suggests that they may have a role in signalling to keep away other kites.", "After pairing, the male frequently copulates with the female.", "Unguarded females may be approached by other males, and extra pair copulations are frequent.", "Males returning from a foraging trip will frequently copulate on return, as this increases the chances of his sperm fertilizing the eggs rather than a different male.", "Both the male and female take part in nest building, incubation and care of chicks.", "Eggs The typical clutch size is 2 or sometimes 3 eggs.", "The incubation period varies from 30 to 34 days.", "Chicks of the Indian population stay at the nest for nearly two months.", "Chicks hatched later in European populations appear to fledge faster.", "The care of young by the parents also rapidly decreased with the need for adults to migrate.", "Siblings show aggression to each other and often the weaker chick may be killed, but parent birds were found to preferentially feed the smaller chicks in experimentally altered nests.", "Newly hatched young have down which are sepia on the back and black around the eye and buff on the head, neck and underparts.", "This is replaced by brownish-gray second down .", "After 912 days, the second down appears on the whole body except the top of the head.", "Body feathers begin to appear after 18 to 22 days.", "The feathers on the head become noticeable from the 24th to 29th day.", "The nestlings initially feed on food fallen at the bottom of the nest and begin to tear flesh after 3339 days.", "They are able to stand on their legs after 1719 days and begin flapping their wings after 2731 days.", "After 50 days, they begin to move to branches next to the nest.", "Birds are able to breed after their second year.", "Parent birds guard their nest and will dive aggressively at intruders.", "Humans who intrude the nest appear to be recognized by birds and singled out for dive attacks.", "Black-eared kites in Japan were found to accumulate nearly 70% of mercury accumulated from polluted food in the feathers, thus excreting it in the moult process.", "Black kites often perch on electric wires and are frequent victims of electrocution.", "Their habit of swooping to pick up dead rodents or other roadkill leads to collisions with vehicles.", "Instances of mass poisoning as a result of feeding on poisoned voles in agricultural fields have been noted.", "They are also a major nuisance at some airports, where their size makes them a significant birdstrike hazard.", "As a large raptorial bird, the black kite has few natural predators.", "However, they do have a single serious predator: the Eurasian eagle-owl .", "The eagle-owl freely picks off kites of any age and were noted to precipitously decrease kite breeding success when nesting within kilometres of the kites in the Italian Alps.", "Like most bird species, they have parasites, several species of endoparasitic trematodes are known and some Digenea species that are transmitted via fishes.", "Birds with abnormal development of a secondary upper mandible have been recorded in govinda and lineatus."]}, "Turdus pilaris": {"keywords": ["It breeds in woodland and scrub in northern Europe and across the Palearctic.", "It is strongly migratory, with many northern birds moving south during the winter.", "It is a very rare breeder in Great Britain and Ireland, but winters in large numbers in the United Kingdom, Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.", "It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of molluscs, insects and earthworms in the summer, and berries, grain and seeds in the winter.", "Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the fieldfare is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Caribbean islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "Fieldfares in winter The fieldfare is a migratory species with a palearctic distribution.", "It breeds in northern Norway, northern Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Siberia as far east as Transbaikal, the Aldan River and the Tian Shan Mountains in North West China.", "Its winter range extends through western and southern Europe to North Africa, though it is uncommon in the Mediterranean region.", "It is a vagrant to Iceland, Greenland, Spitsbergen, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Madeira, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, the United States, Malta and Cyprus.", "It is highly gregarious, quite shy and easily scared in the winter and bold and noisy in the breeding season.", "In woodland they do not skulk in the undergrowth as do blackbirds or song thrushes, instead they perch in the open on bushes and high branches.", "They roost socially, sometimes in overgrown hedges and shrubberies but usually on the ground.", "In the summer the fieldfare frequents mixed woodland of birch, alder, pine, spruce and fir, often near marshes, moorland or other open ground.", "It does not avoid the vicinity of humans and can be seen in cultivated areas, orchards, parks and gardens.", "It also inhabits open tundra and the slopes of hills above the tree line.", "In the winter, groups of fieldfares are chiefly found in open country, agricultural land, orchards and open woodland.", "Later in the year they move on to pastureland and cultivated fields.", "Later in the winter windfall apples are eaten, swedes attacked in the field and grain and seeds eaten.", "When these are exhausted, or in particularly harsh weather, the birds may move to marshes or even the foreshore where molluscs are to be found.", "The breeding season starts in May in Poland but further north in Scandinavia may not start until early July.", "The location is often in woodland but may be in a hedgerow, garden, among rocks, in a pile of logs, in a hut or on the ground.", "The nest is built of dried grasses and weeds with a few twigs and a little moss, with a lining of mud and an inner lining of fine grasses."], "habitat_section": ["Fieldfares in winter The fieldfare is a migratory species with a palearctic distribution.", "It breeds in northern Norway, northern Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Siberia as far east as Transbaikal, the Aldan River and the Tian Shan Mountains in North West China.", "Its winter range extends through western and southern Europe to North Africa, though it is uncommon in the Mediterranean region.", "Eastern populations migrate to Anatolia, Israel, Iran and Northwest India, and occasionally Northeast India.", "It is a vagrant to Iceland, Greenland, Spitsbergen, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Madeira, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, the United States, Malta and Cyprus.", "The flight of the fieldfare is slow and direct.", "It takes several strong beats then closes its wings briefly before flapping on.", "It is highly gregarious, quite shy and easily scared in the winter and bold and noisy in the breeding season.", "When a group is in a tree they all tend to face in the same direction, keeping up a constant chatter.", "When foraging on the ground, often in association with redwings, the group works its way up wind, each bird pausing every so often to stand erect and gaze around before resuming feeding.", "When alarmed they fly off down wind and the feeding group reforms elsewhere.", "In woodland they do not skulk in the undergrowth as do blackbirds or song thrushes, instead they perch in the open on bushes and high branches.", "They roost socially, sometimes in overgrown hedges and shrubberies but usually on the ground.", "Common sites are in rough grass among bushes or clumps of rushes, in young plantations, on stubble and in the furrows of ploughed fields.", "In the summer the fieldfare frequents mixed woodland of birch, alder, pine, spruce and fir, often near marshes, moorland or other open ground.", "It does not avoid the vicinity of humans and can be seen in cultivated areas, orchards, parks and gardens.", "It also inhabits open tundra and the slopes of hills above the tree line.", "In the winter, groups of fieldfares are chiefly found in open country, agricultural land, orchards and open woodland.", "They are nomadic, wandering wherever there is an abundance of berries and insects.", "Later in the year they move on to pastureland and cultivated fields.", "The fieldfare has an extensive range, estimated at 10 million square kilometres , and a large population, including an estimated forty two to seventy two million individuals in Europe.", "There are thought to be up to twenty million individuals in Russia and the global population is estimated to be between forty-four and ninety-six million individuals.", "The population size appears to be stable and the bird is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criteria of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , and is therefore evaluated as being of \" least concern \" .", "Turdus pilaris MWNH 2244."], "random_sentences": ["The fieldfare is a member of the thrush family Turdidae.", "It breeds in woodland and scrub in northern Europe and across the Palearctic.", "It is strongly migratory, with many northern birds moving south during the winter.", "It is a very rare breeder in Great Britain", "Ireland, but winters in large numbers in the United Kingdom, Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.", "It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of molluscs, insects and earthworms in the summer, and berries, grain and seeds in the winter.", "Fieldfares often nest in small colonies, possibly for protection from predators.", "The nest is built in a tree where five or six eggs are laid.", "The chicks are fed by both parents and leave the nest after a fortnight.", "There may be two broods in southern parts of the range but only one further north.", "Migrating birds and wintering birds often form large flocks, often in the company of redwings.", "The fieldfare is long, with a grey crown, neck and rump, a plain brown back, dark wings and tail and white underwings.", "The breast and flanks are heavily spotted.", "The breast has a reddish wash and the rest of the underparts are white.", "The sexes are similar in appearance but the females are slightly more brown.", "The male has a simple chattering song and the birds have various guttural flight and alarm calls.", "The English common name fieldfare dates back to at least the eleventh century.", "The Old English word feldefare perhaps meant traveller through the fields.", "The species was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under its current scientific name.", "The name Turdus pilaris comes from two separate Latin words for thrush.", "About 65 species of medium to large thrushes are in the genus Turdus, characterised by rounded heads, longish, pointed wings, and usually melodious songs.", "Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the fieldfare is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Caribbean islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "The fieldfare is easily recognisable with its slate-grey head, nape and rump, dark brown back, blackish tail and boldly speckled breast.", "In flight, its white under wing-coverts and axillaries are conspicuous.", "The harsh flight call \" tsak tsak \" is also distinctive.", "The forehead and crown of the male are bluish-grey and each feather has a central brownish-black band.", "The lores and under-eye regions are black and there are faint, pale streaks above the eyes.", "The ear coverts, nape, hind neck and rump are bluish-grey, usually with a white streak near the shaft of each rump feather.", "The scapulars and mantle feathers are dark chestnut-brown with dark central streaks and pale tips.", "There are fourteen tail feathers each with a pointed tip, the outer two slightly shorter than the others giving a rounded tail.", "They are brownish-black, with inconspicuous darker bars visible in some lights.", "The outer edge of each tail feather is fringed with grey near the base and the outer pair of feathers have a narrow white border on the inner edge.", "The chin, throat and upper breast are creamy-buff with bold streaks and speckles of brownish-black.", "The lower breast is creamy-white with a diminishing buff tinge and fewer speckles and the belly is similarly creamy-white, with the speckles restricted to the uppermost parts.", "The primaries are brownish-black with the leading edge fringed grey and the inner edge of the outer feathers grey near the base whereas the inner feathers are fringed with brown near the base.", "The secondaries are similar but fringed with chestnut-brown on the leading edge.", "The upper wing-coverts are brownish-black and similar to the outer primaries in their margin colouration.", "The axillaries and under wing-coverts are white and the under tail-coverts have dark greyish-brown bases and margins and white centres and tips.", "The beak is strong, with a slight curve and a notch near the tip.", "It is orange-yellow in winter, with the upper mandible somewhat brownish and both mandible tips brownish-black.", "In the summer both mandibles of the male's beak are yellow.", "The irises are dark brown and the legs and feet are brown.", "The average adult length is , the winglength is and the tarsal length .", "Wingspan ranges from 39 to 42 cm and weight ranges from 80 to 140 g. The female is very similar to the male but the upper parts are somewhat more brownish and the feathers on the crown have narrower black central stripes.", "The throat and breast are paler with fewer, smaller markings.", "The beak is similar to the male's winter beak.", "The juvenile are a duller colour than the adults with pale coloured streaks on the feathers that have dark streaks in the adult.", "The young assume their adult plumage after their first moult in the autumn.", "The call is mostly uttered in flight and is a harsh \" tsak tsak tsuk \" .", "The same sound, but softer, is made more conversationally when individuals gather in trees.", "When angry or alarmed they emit various warning sounds reminiscent of the mistle thrush .", "The male has a rather feeble song that he sings in the breeding season.", "It is a mixture of a few phrases like those of the common blackbird interspersed with whistles, guttural squeaks and call notes.", "This is sung on the wing and also from a tree and a subdued version of this song with more warbling notes is sung by a group of birds at communal roosts.", "Fieldfares in winter The fieldfare is a migratory species with a palearctic distribution.", "It breeds in northern Norway, northern Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Siberia as far east as Transbaikal, the Aldan River and the Tian Shan Mountains in North West China.", "Its winter range extends through western and southern Europe to North Africa, though it is uncommon in the Mediterranean region.", "Eastern populations migrate to Anatolia, Israel, Iran and Northwest India, and occasionally Northeast India.", "It is a vagrant to Iceland, Greenland, Spitsbergen, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Madeira, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, the United States, Malta and Cyprus.", "The flight of the fieldfare is slow and direct.", "It takes several strong beats then closes its wings briefly before flapping on.", "It is highly gregarious, quite shy and easily scared in the winter and bold and noisy in the breeding season.", "When a group is in a tree they all tend to face in the same direction, keeping up a constant chatter.", "When foraging on the ground, often in association with redwings, the group works its way up wind, each bird pausing every so often to stand erect and gaze around before resuming feeding.", "When alarmed they fly off down wind and the feeding group reforms elsewhere.", "In woodland they do not skulk in the undergrowth as do blackbirds or song thrushes, instead they perch in the open on bushes and high branches.", "They roost socially, sometimes in overgrown hedges and shrubberies but usually on the ground.", "Common sites are in rough grass among bushes or clumps of rushes, in young plantations, on stubble and in the furrows of ploughed fields.", "In the summer the fieldfare frequents mixed woodland of birch, alder, pine, spruce and fir, often near marshes, moorland or other open ground.", "It does not avoid the vicinity of humans and can be seen in cultivated areas, orchards, parks and gardens.", "It also inhabits open tundra and the slopes of hills above the tree line.", "In the winter, groups of fieldfares are chiefly found in open country, agricultural land, orchards and open woodland.", "They are nomadic, wandering wherever there is an abundance of berries and insects.", "Later in the year they move on to pastureland and cultivated fields.", "Migration southwards from the breeding range starts in October but the bulk of birds arrive in the United Kingdom in November.", "Some of these are still on passage and carry on into continental Europe but others remain.", "The passage-migrants return in April and they and the resident migrants depart from the United Kingdom mostly by early May.", "Animal food in the diet includes snails and slugs, earthworms, spiders and insects such as beetles and their larvae, flies and grasshoppers.", "When berries ripen in the autumn these are taken in great number.", "Hawthorn, holly, rowan, yew, juniper, dog rose, Cotoneaster, Pyracantha and Berberis are all relished.", "Later in the winter windfall apples are eaten, swedes attacked in the field and grain and seeds eaten.", "When these are exhausted, or in particularly harsh weather, the birds may move to marshes or even the foreshore where molluscs are to be found.", "The breeding season starts in May in Poland but further north in Scandinavia may not start until early July.", "The female fieldfare builds a cup-shaped nest with no attempt at concealment.", "The location is often in woodland but may be in a hedgerow, garden, among rocks, in a pile of logs, in a hut or on the ground.", "Fieldfares usually nest in close proximity to others of the same species.", "The adults will defend the nest aggressively and nesting gregariously may offer protection from predators.", "The nest is built of dried grasses and weeds with a few twigs and a little moss, with a lining of mud and an inner lining of fine grasses.", "There are usually five to six eggs in a clutch, but occasionally three, four, seven or eight eggs are laid.", "The eggs vary in size from and are variable in colour.", "Many are pale blue speckled with fine brown dots and resemble those of the common blackbird.", "Others are bright blue, with or without larger red-brown splotches.", "Incubation starts before all the eggs are laid and lasts for thirteen to fourteen days.", "The female does all or most of the incubation.", "The chicks are altricial and both parents bring food to them.", "They are usually ready to leave the nest after fourteen to sixteen days and there may be two broods in the season, especially in the southern parts of the breeding range.", "The fieldfare has an extensive range, estimated at 10 million square kilometres , and a large population, including an estimated forty two to seventy two million individuals in Europe.", "There are thought to be up to twenty million individuals in Russia and the global population is estimated to be between forty-four and ninety-six million individuals.", "The population size appears to be stable and the bird is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criteria of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , and is therefore evaluated as being of \" least concern \" ."]}, "Regulus regulus": {"keywords": ["Several subspecies are recognised across the very large distribution range that includes much of the Palearctic and the islands of Macaronesia and Iceland.", "Birds from the north and east of its breeding range migrate to winter further south.", "Birds on the Canary Islands are now separated into two subspecies of the goldcrest, but were formerly considered to be a subspecies of the firecrest or a separate species, Regulus teneriffae.", "The goldcrest breeds in coniferous woodland and gardens, building its compact, three-layered nest on a tree branch.", "This kinglet is constantly on the move as it searches for insects to eat, and in winter it is often found with flocks of tits.", "Not only are there variations between islands and within an island, but individual males on the Azores can have up to three song types.", "There are also two main dialect groups on the Canary islands, a widespread group similar to the European version, and another that is restricted to the mountains of Tenerife.", "It is sometimes viewed as a race of firecrest, but its territorial song resembles those of the Himalayan races of goldcrest, and genetic data show that it is the closest relative of that species, and, despite its alternative name, only distantly related to the firecrest.", "The silver fir, a favoured nesting tree The goldcrest breeds in mature lowland and mountain coniferous woodlands, mainly up to , and occasionally to .", "It uses spruce, larch, Scots pine, silver fir and mountain pine, and in man-made landscapes also introduced conifers such as douglas fir.", "Once breeding is over, this species will readily move into deciduous trees and shrubs, heathland and similar more open habitats.", "The Tenerife subspecies occurs in the mountain region previously occupied by laurisilva, but now dominated by tree heaths.", "It is common only in that habitat, becoming rare in pine forest, where it occurs only where tree-heath is also available.", "It is common in middle and northern temperate and boreal latitudes of Europe, between the July isotherms, and thus predominantly in cooler climates than the firecrest.", "Further east it occurs discontinuously through southern Siberia to Sakhalin and Japan, in the Tian Shan mountains, northern Iran, and from the Himalayas east to central China.", "This species is partly migratory, northernmost populations deserting their breeding areas in winter.", "Birds in northern Fennoscandia and Russia vacate their territories between late August and early November, with most leaving in late September to mid-October as the first cold weather arrives.", "Adverse conditions may lead to disorientation, large numbers gathering on ships on overcast or wet nights.", "Spring migration is complete by late March on the Mediterranean islands, but continues to late April or early May in northern Europe.", "The warmer spring weather brings on plant growth, thus preparing the habitat for returning migrants.", "Goldcrests will occasionally feed on the ground among leaf-litter with tits.", "Both birds occur in similar forests, but the chiffchaff is found within of the forest edge, with the goldcrest breeding deeper in the woodland.", "Outside the breeding season, small groups of goldcrests maintain exclusive winter feeding territories, which they defend against neighbouring groups.", "Goldcrest Winter Mote Park, Maidstone, Kent, UK Several small passerine species survive freezing winter nights by inducing a lower metabolic rate and hypothermia, of a maximum of below normal body temperature, in order to reduce energy consumption overnight.", "However, in freezing conditions, it may be that for very small birds, including the tiny goldcrest, the energy economies of induced hypothermia may be insufficient to counterbalance the negative effects of hypothermia including the energy required to raise body temperature back to normal at dawn.", "Observations of five well-fed birds suggest that they maintain normal body temperatures during cold nights by metabolising fat laid down during the day, and that they actually use behavioural thermoregulation strategies, such as collective roosting in dense foliage or snow holes to survive winter nights.", "During an 18hour winter night, with temperatures as low as in the north of its range, goldcrests huddled together can each burn off fat equivalent to 20% of body weight to keep warm.", "These lice move over the host's body, and have strong mouthparts that pierce the host's skin so that they can feed on blood, and sometimes feather material. A number of feather mites have been recorded in the genus Regulus, these mites live on fungi growing on the feathers.", "Until the severe winter of 191617 the Goldcrest was abundant and widespread, nesting in all the wooded portions of our islands, in 1920 it could have little more than an obituary notice, for the nesting stock was practically \" wiped out.", "In lowland Britain, there was an increase of 48% following the 1970/71 winter, with many pairs spreading into deciduous woodlands where they would not normally breed."], "habitat_section": ["The silver fir, a favoured nesting tree The goldcrest breeds in mature lowland and mountain coniferous woodlands, mainly up to , and occasionally to .", "It uses spruce, larch, Scots pine, silver fir and mountain pine, and in man-made landscapes also introduced conifers such as douglas fir.", "Breeding densities of up to 591 pairs per square km have been recorded in Norway spruce in Ireland, and goldcrests constituted over 60% of all birds found in Welsh Douglas fir and Norway spruce plantations.", "Broad-leaved woods are used only when some spruce or firs are also present.", "Sites such as parks and cemeteries are used only when they offer suitable conifers that are not otherwise locally available.", "The height and nature of any undergrowth is irrelevant.", "Once breeding is over, this species will readily move into deciduous trees and shrubs, heathland and similar more open habitats.", "The Tenerife subspecies occurs in the mountain region previously occupied by laurisilva, but now dominated by tree heaths.", "It is common only in that habitat, becoming rare in pine forest, where it occurs only where tree-heath is also available.", "The goldcrest has a huge range in Eurasia, breeding from Macaronesia to Japan.", "It is common in middle and northern temperate and boreal latitudes of Europe, between the July isotherms, and thus predominantly in cooler climates than the firecrest.", "Further east it occurs discontinuously through southern Siberia to Sakhalin and Japan, in the Tian Shan mountains, northern Iran, and from the Himalayas east to central China.", "Breeding occurs intermittently in the Faroes.", "The goldcrest has occurred as a vagrant in Jordan and Morocco.", "On foggy or overcast nights, goldcrests and other disorientated migrants can be attracted to lighthouses in large numbers.", "This species is partly migratory, northernmost populations deserting their breeding areas in winter.", "Birds winter in Europe and Asia south of the breeding range.", "Birds in northern Fennoscandia and Russia vacate their territories between late August and early November, with most leaving in late September to mid-October as the first cold weather arrives.", "Adverse conditions may lead to disorientation, large numbers gathering on ships on overcast or wet nights.", "Large influxes include 15,000 birds on the Isle of May in October 1982, and nearly 21,000 birds through a single site in Latvia during September and October 1983.", "Spring migration is complete by late March on the Mediterranean islands, but continues to late April or early May in northern Europe.", "The spring passage is much lighter than in autumn, suggesting high mortality on migration.", "The ability to lay down fat is adversely affected in this tiny bird by poor health.", "In Hungary, goldcrests stopping temporarily on migration were mostly found in scrub, including blackthorn, hawthorn and pear, which provided some protection from sparrowhawks.", "Females migrated slightly earlier than males, but overall there were more males, with an average sex ratio of 1.6.", "Goldcrests can fly in one day, although they keep at a lower level in heavy headwinds.", "This is a tame and inquisitive bird, and tired migrants will land near or on humans, sometimes searching for food on their clothing.", "The warmer spring weather brings on plant growth, thus preparing the habitat for returning migrants.", "The effect is greatest in western and central Europe."], "random_sentences": ["Subspecies R. r. himalayensis at Vinayak village in Uttarakhand, India Bathing goldcrest at Utrecht in the Netherlands The goldcrest is a very small passerine bird in the kinglet family.", "Its colourful golden crest feathers, as well as being called the \" king of the birds \" in European folklore, gives rise to its English and scientific names.", "The scientific name, R. regulus, means king or knight.", "Several subspecies are recognised across the very large distribution range that includes much of the Palearctic and the islands of Macaronesia and Iceland.", "Birds from the north and east of its breeding range migrate to winter further south.", "This kinglet has greenish upper-parts, whitish under-parts, and has two white wingbars.", "It has a plain face contrasting black irises and a bright head crest, orange and yellow in the male and yellow in the female, which is displayed during breeding.", "It superficially resembles the common firecrest, which largely shares its European range, but the latter's bronze shoulders and strong face pattern are distinctive.", "The song is a repetition of high thin notes, slightly higher-pitched than those of its relative.", "Birds on the Canary Islands are now separated into two subspecies of the goldcrest, but were formerly considered to be a subspecies of the firecrest or a separate species, Regulus teneriffae.", "The goldcrest breeds in coniferous woodland and gardens, building its compact, three-layered nest on a tree branch.", "Ten to twelve eggs are incubated by the female alone, and the chicks are fed by both parents", "This kinglet is constantly on the move as it searches for insects to eat, and in winter it is often found with flocks of tits.", "It may be killed by birds of prey or carry parasites, but its large range and population mean that it is not considered to present any significant conservation concerns.", "The goldcrest is the smallest European bird, in length, with a wingspan and a weight of .", "It is similar in appearance to a warbler, with olive-green upper-parts, buff-white underparts, two white wing bars, and a plain face with conspicuous black irises.", "The crown of the head has black sides and a narrow black front, and a bright crest, yellow with an orange centre in the male, and entirely yellow in the female", "the crest is erected in display, making the distinctive orange stripe of the male much more conspicuous.", "The small, thin bill is black, and the legs are dark flesh-brown.", "Apart from the crest colour, the sexes are alike, although in fresh plumage, the female may have very slightly paler upper-parts and greyer underparts than the adult male.", "The juvenile is similar to the adult, but has duller upper-parts and lacks the coloured crown.", "Although the tail and flight feathers may be retained into the first winter, by then the young birds are almost indistinguishable from adults in the field.", "The nominate subspecies, R. r. regulus, in Belgium.", "The goldcrest has a bright crest and a relatively plain face.", "The orange tinge of the hindcrown indicates that this is a male.", "The goldcrest is usually easily distinguished from other small birds in its range, but poor views could possibly lead to confusion with the common firecrest or yellow-browed warbler.", "The adult common firecrest has a distinguishing face pattern showing a bright white supercilium and black eye-stripe, and the juvenile usually shows enough of this face pattern to be readily distinguished from the plain-faced goldcrest.", "The yellow-browed warbler has a yellowish supercilium and pale crown stripe, so also shows a different head pattern.", "The ruby-crowned kinglet, an American Regulus species and a potential vagrant in Europe, could be more difficult to distinguish.", "It has a plain face like its Old World cousin, but the male has a red crest without any yellow or a black border.", "Female and juvenile ruby-crowned kinglets lack the ruby-red crown patch, but compared with the similarly crestless juvenile goldcrest, the American bird is larger in size, has an obvious whitish eyering, and yellowish wing bars.", "Song of the male goldcrest, near Camberley Male in France displaying orange crest feathers that are set within a narrow rim of yellow feathers The typical contact call of the goldcrest is a thin, high-pitched zee given at intervals of 14 seconds, with all the notes at the same pitch.", "It sometimes has a more clipped ending, or is delivered more rapidly.", "The call is higher and less rough than that of the firecrest.", "The song of the male goldcrest is a very high, thin double note cedar, repeated 57 times and ending in a flourish, .", "The songs of mainland goldcrests vary only slightly across their range and consist of a single song type, but much more divergence has occurred in the isolated Macaronesian populations.", "Not only are there variations between islands and within an island, but individual males on the Azores can have up to three song types.", "The dialects on the Azores fall into two main groups, neither of which elicited a response from male European goldcrests in playback experiments.", "There are also two main dialect groups on the Canary islands, a widespread group similar to the European version, and another that is restricted to the mountains of Tenerife.", "The kinglets are a small group of birds sometimes included in the Old World warblers, but frequently given family status, especially as recent research shows that despite superficial similarities, they are phylogenetically remote from the warblers.", "The names of the family, Regulidae, and its only genus, Regulus, are derived from the Latin , a diminutive of , a king.", "The goldcrest was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his in 1758 as Motacilla regulus .", "It was moved to the warbler genus Sylvia by English naturalist John Latham in 1790, and to its current genus by French zoologist Georges Cuvier in 1800.", "The relationships of the flamecrest or Taiwan firecrest of Taiwan have also been a source of much debate.", "It is sometimes viewed as a race of firecrest, but its territorial song resembles those of the Himalayan races of goldcrest, and genetic data show that it is the closest relative of that species, and, despite its alternative name, only distantly related to the firecrest.", "The flamecrest diverged from the goldcrest 3.03.1 mya .", "There are a few Pleistocene records from Europe of extant Regulus species, mostly goldcrests or unidentifiable to species.", "The only fossil of an extinct Regulus is a left ulna from 2.61.95 mya in Bulgaria, which was identified as belonging to an extinct species, Regulus bulgaricus.", "The goldcrest lineage diverged from this apparent ancestor of the common firecrest in the Middle Pleistocene.", "The silver fir, a favoured nesting tree The goldcrest breeds in mature lowland and mountain coniferous woodlands, mainly up to , and occasionally to .", "It uses spruce, larch, Scots pine, silver fir and mountain pine, and in man-made landscapes also introduced conifers such as douglas fir.", "Breeding densities of up to 591 pairs per square km have been recorded in Norway spruce in Ireland, and goldcrests constituted over 60% of all birds found in Welsh Douglas fir and Norway spruce plantations.", "Broad-leaved woods are used only when some spruce or firs are also present.", "Sites such as parks and cemeteries are used only when they offer suitable conifers that are not otherwise locally available.", "The height and nature of any undergrowth is irrelevant.", "Once breeding is over, this species will readily move into deciduous trees and shrubs, heathland and similar more open habitats.", "The Tenerife subspecies occurs in the mountain region previously occupied by laurisilva, but now dominated by tree heaths.", "It is common only in that habitat, becoming rare in pine forest, where it occurs only where tree-heath is also available.", "The goldcrest has a huge range in Eurasia, breeding from Macaronesia to Japan.", "It is common in middle and northern temperate and boreal latitudes of Europe, between the July isotherms, and thus predominantly in cooler climates than the firecrest.", "Further east it occurs discontinuously through southern Siberia to Sakhalin and Japan, in the Tian Shan mountains, northern Iran, and from the Himalayas east to central China.", "Breeding occurs intermittently in the Faroes.", "The goldcrest has occurred as a vagrant in Jordan and Morocco.", "On foggy or overcast nights, goldcrests and other disorientated migrants can be attracted to lighthouses in large numbers.", "This species is partly migratory, northernmost populations deserting their breeding areas in winter.", "Birds winter in Europe and Asia south of the breeding range.", "Birds in northern Fennoscandia and Russia vacate their territories between late August and early November, with most leaving in late September to mid-October as the first cold weather arrives.", "Adverse conditions may lead to disorientation, large numbers gathering on ships on overcast or wet nights.", "Large influxes include 15,000 birds on the Isle of May in October 1982, and nearly 21,000 birds through a single site in Latvia during September and October 1983.", "Spring migration is complete by late March on the Mediterranean islands, but continues to late April or early May in northern Europe.", "The spring passage is much lighter than in autumn, suggesting high mortality on migration.", "The ability to lay down fat is adversely affected in this tiny bird by poor health.", "In Hungary, goldcrests stopping temporarily on migration were mostly found in scrub, including blackthorn, hawthorn and pear, which provided some protection from sparrowhawks.", "Females migrated slightly earlier than males, but overall there were more males, with an average sex ratio of 1.6:1.", "Goldcrests can fly in one day, although they keep at a lower level in heavy headwinds.", "This is a tame and inquisitive bird, and tired migrants will land near or on humans, sometimes searching for food on their clothing.", "The warmer spring weather brings on plant growth, thus preparing the habitat for returning migrants.", "The effect is greatest in western and central Europe.", "The male sings during the breeding season, usually while foraging rather than from a perch.", "It has a display involving bowing its head towards another bird and raising the coloured crest.", "However, in very small areas of conifers it is rare for the goldcrest and the firecrest to share territories", "either one or the other is present, but not both.", "A male goldcrest will defend his territory against either species, sometimes including some firecrest phrases in his song.", "The goldcrest's nest is a well-insulated cup-shaped structure built in three layers.", "The nest's outer layer is made from moss, small twigs, cobwebs and lichen, the cobwebs also being used to attach the nest to the thin branches that support it.", "The middle layer is moss, which is lined by an inner layer of feathers and hair.", "and is constructed by both sexes, although the female does most of the work.", "It is often suspended from a hanging branch, usually at no great height, although Eric Simms reported nests at heights from .", "One pair built their nest just above that of a sparrowhawk.", "Old drawing of a nest and small branches of a conifer tree Regulus regulus regulus MHNT.", "Regulus regulus regulus MHNT Regulus regulus azoricus MHNT.", "Regulus regulus azoricus MHNT Regulus regulus inermis MHNT.", "Regulus regulus inermis MHNT Regulus regulus teneriffae MHNT.", "The eggs are and weigh , of which 5% is shell.", "The clutch size in Europe is typically 911 eggs, but ranges from 613.", "The eggs are piled up in the nest and the female keeps the eggs warm with her brood patch and also by putting her warm legs into the middle of the pile between the eggs.", "The eggs are maintained at , the female regulating the temperature of the eggs by varying the time spent sitting.", "She leaves the nest more with increasing air temperature, and incubates more tightly when the light intensity is lower early and late in the day.", "The female incubates the eggs for 16 to 19 days to hatching, and broods the chicks, which fledge in a further 17 to 22 days later.", "Both parents feed the chicks and fledged young, There are nonetheless records of an individual surviving to 4 years 10 months, and even a report of a bird ringed in Winchester in the UK in 1989 and found dead in Morocco 7 years and 7 months later.", "Although their ranges overlap substantially, hybridisation between goldcrests and firecrests seems to be prevented by differences in courtship rituals and different facial patterns.", "Even in aviary studies in which a female goldcrest was given an artificial eyestripe to facilitate mating with a male firecrest, the chicks were never raised by the mixed pair, and appeared to be poorly adapted compared to the parent species.", "Springtails are a major dietary item.", "thumb All Regulus species are almost exclusively insectivorous, preying on small arthropods with soft cuticles, such as springtails, aphids and spiders.", "They also feed on the cocoons and eggs of spiders and insects, and occasionally take pollen.", "All species will catch flying insects while hovering.", "Although the similarly sized goldcrest and firecrest are often found together, there are a number of factors that minimise direct competition for food.", "Goldcrests prefer smaller prey than common firecrests.", "Although both will take trapped insects from spider webs on autumn migration, firecrests will also eat the large orb-web spiders .", "The goldcrest takes a wide variety of prey, especially spiders, caterpillars, bugs, springtails and flies.", "Larger prey such as oak bush crickets and tortrix moths may sometimes be taken.", "Flying insects are taken in hovering flight but not normally pursued", "there is a record of a goldcrest attacking a large dragonfly in flight, only to be dragged along by the insect before releasing it unharmed.", "Goldcrests will occasionally feed on the ground among leaf-litter with tits.", "Non-animal food is rare, although goldcrests have been seen drinking sap from broken birch twigs together with tits and nuthatches.", "The goldcrest has much the same range and habitat preference as the common chiffchaff, and there is some evidence that high breeding densities of the kinglet depress the population of the warbler, although the converse is not true.", "There is no evidence that the species compete for territories, and in any case the chiffchaff is 50% heavier than the goldcrest.", "Nevertheless, there are 1.5 million breeding pairs of goldcrests in Finland, compared with 0.4 million breeding pairs of chiffchaffs, and only the kinglet has increased in numbers as the area of spruce woodland in the country has expanded.", "The goldcrest may be out-competing the warbler for food, especially as the larger bird faces more competition from other insectivores, including other Phylloscopus warblers.", "Both birds occur in similar forests, but the chiffchaff is found within of the forest edge, with the goldcrest breeding deeper in the woodland.", "Nevertheless, there is no conclusive evidence that the decline of the chiffchaff subspecies Phylloscopus collybita abietinus in parts of Finland is due to competition with the willow warbler and goldcrest.", "Outside the breeding season, small groups of goldcrests maintain exclusive winter feeding territories, which they defend against neighbouring groups.", "As they roam around their territory, they frequently join loose flocks of other wanderers such as tits and warblers.", "A consequence of feeding in a flock is that foraging sites may be restricted to avoid competition with other species.", "In a Swedish study, coal tits and goldcrests foraged in the outer foliage, while the larger willow and crested tits used the inner canopy.", "In sites where the numbers of willow and crested tits was artificially reduced, goldcrests and coal tits extended their foraging to include the inner canopy, but did not do so where the larger tits were retained.", "In some areas, wintering birds have developed the habit of coming to feeding stations and bird tables to take fat, sometimes with warblers such as the common chiffchaff and blackcap.", "Goldcrest Winter Mote Park, Maidstone, Kent, UK Several small passerine species survive freezing winter nights by inducing a lower metabolic rate and hypothermia, of a maximum of below normal body temperature, in order to reduce energy consumption overnight.", "However, in freezing conditions, it may be that for very small birds, including the tiny goldcrest, the energy economies of induced hypothermia may be insufficient to counterbalance the negative effects of hypothermia including the energy required to raise body temperature back to normal at dawn.", "Observations of five well-fed birds suggest that they maintain normal body temperatures during cold nights by metabolising fat laid down during the day, and that they actually use behavioural thermoregulation strategies, such as collective roosting in dense foliage or snow holes to survive winter nights.", "During an 18hour winter night, with temperatures as low as in the north of its range, goldcrests huddled together can each burn off fat equivalent to 20% of body weight to keep warm.", "Those with a relatively large amount of fat, may make stops during migration of only 12 days", "although they have lost weight since commencing their journey, they have enough energy reserves to reach the wintering areas.", "The proportion of migrating males increases as they travel south through Europe.", "There is competition within the species even during migration, and the larger and more aggressive males may get more food.", "Their death rate is therefore lower than that of the females both on the southward migration, and in resident populations.", "Throughout the goldcrest's range, the main predator of small woodland birds is the Eurasian sparrowhawk, which has a diet consisting of up to 98% of birds.", "Merlins, tawny and long-eared owls also hunt goldcrests.", "The erratic movements and flights of small woodland birds, which are vulnerable to attack while away from cover, may help to confuse their predators.", "The goldcrest has only very rarely been recorded as a host of the common cuckoo, a widespread European brood parasite.", "The goldcrest is a host of the widespread moorhen flea, Dasypsyllus gallinulae, and of the louse Philopterus reguli.", "The amblycerous mite Ricinus frenatus has been found on the eastern goldcrest subspecies, R. r. japonensis in Japan, and at the other end of the range in birds of the nominate subspecies on the Faroes and in Spain.", "These lice move over the host's body, and have strong mouthparts that pierce the host's skin so that they can feed on blood, and sometimes feather material. A number of feather mites have been recorded in the genus Regulus", "these mites live on fungi growing on the feathers.", "The fungi found on the plumage may feed on the keratin of the outer feathers or on feather oil.", "The goldcrest has a large range, estimated at 13.2 million km 2 and a total population estimated at 80200 million individuals, and it is therefore classed as least concern on the IUCN Red List.", "There was some northward range expansion in Scotland, Belgium, Norway, and Finland during the 20th century, assisted by the spread of conifer plantations.", "The population is currently stable, although there may be temporary marked declines in harsh winters.", " Until the severe winter of 191617 the Goldcrest was abundant and widespread, nesting in all the wooded portions of our islands", "in 1920 it could have little more than an obituary notice, for the nesting stock was practically \" wiped out.", "and for some years, even as a winter visitor, the Goldcrest remained rare, absent from most of its nesting haunts.", "It is, however, now fully re-established.", " Conversely, populations can expand rapidly after a series of mild winters.", "In lowland Britain, there was an increase of 48% following the 1970/71 winter, with many pairs spreading into deciduous woodlands where they would not normally breed.", "Fishing Boats Offshore by John Moore.", "Fishermen in Suffolk referred to the goldcrest as the \" herring spink \" .", "Aristotle and Pliny 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.", "Following from this legend, in much European folklore the wren has been described as the \" king of the birds \" or as a flame bearer.", "However, these terms were also applied to the Regulus species, the fiery crowns of the goldcrest and firecrest making them more likely to be the original bearers of these titles, and, because of the legend's reference to the \" smallest of birds \" becoming king, the title was probably transferred to the equally tiny wren.", "The confusion was probably compounded by the similarity and consequent interchangeability of the Greek words for the wren and the crests .", "In English, the association between the goldcrest and Eurasian wren may have been reinforced by the kinglet's old name of \" gold-crested wren \" .", "It has had little other impact on literature, An old English name for the goldcrest is the \" woodcock pilot \" , since migrating birds preceded the arrival of Eurasian woodcocks by a couple of days.", "There are unfounded legends that the goldcrest would hitch a ride in the feathers of the larger bird, and similar stories claimed that owls provided the transport."]}, "Cinclus cinclus": {"keywords": ["The white-throated dipper is closely associated with swiftly running rivers and streams or the lakes into which these fall.", "It often perches bobbing spasmodically with its short tail uplifted on the rocks round which the water swirls and tumbles.", "Undoubtedly when entering the water it grips with its strong feet, but the method of progression beneath the surface is by swimming, using the wings effectively for flying under water.", "It holds itself down by muscular exertion, with its head well down and its body oblique, its course beneath the surface often revealed by a line of rising bubbles.", "In this way it secures its food, usually aquatic invertebrates including caddis worms and other aquatic insect larvae, beetles, Limnaea, Ancylus and other freshwater molluscs, and also fish and small amphibians.", "It also walks and runs on the banks and rocks seeking terrestrial invertebrates.", "When the swift hill streams are frozen it is forced to descend to the lowlands and even visit the coasts, but some will remain if there is any open water.", "It is often placed on a rocky ledge or in a cavity.", "The nest consists of a dome shaped structure made of moss, grass stems and leaves with a side entrance within which is an inner cup made of stems, rootlets and hair.", "When disturbed, the young that hardly feathered will at once drop into the water and dive."], "habitat_section": ["At Brandon Creek, County Kerry, Ireland From Jung town in Arunachal Pradesh in eastern Himalayas India.", "The white-throated dipper is closely associated with swiftly running rivers and streams or the lakes into which these fall.", "It often perches bobbing spasmodically with its short tail uplifted on the rocks round which the water swirls and tumbles.", "It acquired its name from these sudden dips, not from its diving habit, though it dives as well as walks into the water.", "It flies rapidly and straight, its short wings whirring swiftly and without pauses or glides, calling a shrill zil, zil, zil.", "It will then either drop on the water and dive or plunge in with a small splash.", "From a perch it will walk into the water and deliberately submerge, but there is no truth in the assertion that it can defy the laws of specific gravity and walk along the bottom.", "Undoubtedly when entering the water it grips with its strong feet, but the method of progression beneath the surface is by swimming, using the wings effectively for flying under water.", "It holds itself down by muscular exertion, with its head well down and its body oblique, its course beneath the surface often revealed by a line of rising bubbles.", "In this way it secures its food, usually aquatic invertebrates including caddis worms and other aquatic insect larvae, beetles, Limnaea, Ancylus and other freshwater molluscs, and also fish and small amphibians.", "A favourite food is the small crustacean Gammarus, an amphipod shrimp.", "It also walks and runs on the banks and rocks seeking terrestrial invertebrates.", "The winter habits of the dipper vary considerably and apparently individually.", "When the swift hill streams are frozen it is forced to descend to the lowlands and even visit the coasts, but some will remain if there is any open water."], "random_sentences": ["The white-throated dipper , also known as the European dipper or just dipper, is an aquatic passerine bird found in Europe, Middle East, Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent.", "The species is divided into several subspecies, based primarily on colour differences, particularly of the pectoral band.", "The white-throated dipper is Norway's national bird.", "The white-throated dipper was described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Sturnus cinclus.", "The current genus Cinclus was introduced by the German naturalist Moritz Balthasar Borkhausen in 1797.", "The name cinclus is from the Ancient Greek word that was used to describe small tail-wagging birds that resided near water.", "Of the five species now placed in the genus, a molecular genetic study has shown that the white-throated dipper is most closely related to the other Eurasian species, the brown dipper .", "There are 14 subspecies of which one is now extinct ", "The white-throated dipper is about long, rotund and short tailed.", "The head of the adult is brown, the back slate-grey mottled with black, looking black from a distance, and the wings and tail are brown.", "The throat and upper breast are white, followed by a band of warm chestnut which merges into black on the belly and flanks.", "The bill is almost black, the legs and irides brown.", "C. c. cinclus has a black belly band.", "The young are greyish brown and have no chestnut band.", "The male has a sweet wren-like song.", "During courtship the male sings whilst he runs and postures, exhibiting his snowy breast, and when displaying he will take long and high flights, like those of the common kingfisher, accompanied by sharp metallic calls clink, clink, different from the normal zil.", "At Brandon Creek, County Kerry, Ireland From Jung town in Arunachal Pradesh in eastern Himalayas India.", "The white-throated dipper is closely associated with swiftly running rivers and streams or the lakes into which these fall.", "It often perches bobbing spasmodically with its short tail uplifted on the rocks round which the water swirls and tumbles.", "It acquired its name from these sudden dips, not from its diving habit, though it dives as well as walks into the water.", "It flies rapidly and straight, its short wings whirring swiftly and without pauses or glides, calling a shrill zil, zil, zil.", "It will then either drop on the water and dive or plunge in with a small splash.", "From a perch it will walk into the water and deliberately submerge, but there is no truth in the assertion that it can defy the laws of specific gravity and walk along the bottom.", "Undoubtedly when entering the water it grips with its strong feet, but the method of progression beneath the surface is by swimming, using the wings effectively for flying under water.", "It holds itself down by muscular exertion, with its head well down and its body oblique, its course beneath the surface often revealed by a line of rising bubbles.", "In this way it secures its food, usually aquatic invertebrates including caddis worms and other aquatic insect larvae, beetles, Limnaea, Ancylus and other freshwater molluscs, and also fish and small amphibians.", "A favourite food is the small crustacean Gammarus, an amphipod shrimp.", "It also walks and runs on the banks and rocks seeking terrestrial invertebrates.", "The winter habits of the dipper vary considerably and apparently individually.", "When the swift hill streams are frozen it is forced to descend to the lowlands and even visit the coasts, but some will remain if there is any open water.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany White-throated Dipper young one begging for food, at Sumdo, Ladakh, India The white-throated dippers first breed when they are one year old.", "They are monogamous and defend a territory.", "The nest is almost invariably built either very near or above water.", "It is often placed on a rocky ledge or in a cavity.", "Man-made structures such as bridges are also used.", "The nest consists of a dome shaped structure made of moss, grass stems and leaves with a side entrance within which is an inner cup made of stems, rootlets and hair.", "Both sexes build the main larger structure but the female builds the inner cup.", "The eggs are laid daily.", "The clutch can contain from 1-8 eggs but usually 45.", "The eggs are smooth and glossy white and are with a calculated weight of .", "They are incubated by the female beginning after the last or sometimes the penultimate egg has been laid.", "The male will bring food to the incubating female.", "The eggs hatch after around 16 days and then both parents feed the altricial and nidicolous nestlings.", "For the first 1213 days they are brooded by the female.", "Both parents remove the faecal sacs for the first 9 days.", "The chicks fledge at around 22 days of age but the parents continue to feed their young for another week but feeding can continue for 18 days.", "If the female has started a second clutch then only the male parent feeds the fledglings.", "One or two broods are reared, usually in the same nest.", "When disturbed, the young that hardly feathered will at once drop into the water and dive.", "The maximum recorded age of a white-throated dipper from ring-recovery data is 10 years and 7 months for a bird ringed in Finland.", "Within the United Kingdom and Ireland the maximum age is 8 years and 9 months for a bird ringed and recovered in County Laois, Ireland.", "The first detailed description of the white-throated dipper, dating from c.1183, is that of Gerald of Wales , the twelfth-century cleric, historian and traveller, in his book Topographia Hibernica, an account of his travels through Ireland in 118386.", "Gerald, a keen observer of wildlife, describes the dipper accurately, but with his notorious tendency to believe anything he was told, which so often detracts from the value of his work, states that it was an aberrant variety of the common kingfisher.", "The true kingfisher, according to Gerald, did not occur in Ireland in the 1180s, although it was widespread there by the eighteenth century."]}, "Coccothraustes coccothraustes": {"keywords": ["It is a rare vagrant to the western islands of Alaska.", "Deciduous or mixed woodland, including parkland, with large trees especially hornbeam is favoured for breeding.", "Its head is orange-brown with a black eyestripe and bib, and a massive bill, which is black in summer but paler in winter.", "It is not found in Iceland, parts of the British Isles, or certain Mediterranean islands.", "The hawfinch typically inhabits deciduous forests during the spring to have offspring, often in trees that bear fruit, such as oak trees.", "They also incur into human areas, such as parks and gardens.", "They can also be found in pine woods, as long as there is a source of water in the vicinity.", "During autumn and winter they seek food-providing forests, especially those with cherry and plum trees.", "As for height, the hawfinch is present in any altitude up to that which is limited by the size of the trees.", "One well-known site is Bedgebury Pinetum, where flocks gather to roost in winter.", "The species is also found in the New Forest, a central roost site exists here, at the Blackwater Arboretum.", "they are most often seen at Curraghchase Forest Park in County Limerick, where a flock of between 15 and 30 birds occurs each winter.", "During the course of the hawfinch's life it can only be seen on the ground while looking for seeds or drinking water, always near trees.", "The date for breeding is dependent on the spring temperature and is earlier in southwest Europe and later in the northeast.", "The male chooses the site of the nest and builds a layer of dry twigs.", "The nest is untidy and is formed of a bulky twig base and a shallow cup lined with roots, grasses and lichens.", "While on the ground scavenging it hops, and they are quick to fly away at the slightest noise.", "The hawfinch is a partial migrant, with northern flocks migrating towards the South during the winter, as shown by ringing techniques.", "These same studies showed that those hawfinches inhabiting habitats with a temperate climate would often have sedentary behaviour."], "habitat_section": ["A hawfinch's head The hawfinch is distributed in the whole of Europe, Eastern Asia , and North Africa .", "It has also been sighted in Alaska, but this is reported as an accidental presence.", "It is not found in Iceland, parts of the British Isles, or certain Mediterranean islands.", "It is however found in southern Europe, such as in Spain and Bulgaria, as well as in central Europe, including parts of England and southern Sweden.", "The hawfinch's range has extended further north since the 1950s, and is now found as far north as Northern Norway.", "In Asia it can be found in the Caucasus, northern Iran, Afghanistan, Turkistan, Siberia, Manchuria and North Korea.", "The hawfinch typically inhabits deciduous forests during the spring to have offspring, often in trees that bear fruit, such as oak trees.", "They also incur into human areas, such as parks and gardens.", "They can also be found in pine woods, as long as there is a source of water in the vicinity.", "During autumn and winter they seek food-providing forests, especially those with cherry and plum trees.", "As for height, the hawfinch is present in any altitude up to that which is limited by the size of the trees.", "The hawfinch is a shy species, and therefore difficult to observe and study.", "It spends most of the day on top of high branches, above all during breeding season.", "During the course of the hawfinch's life it can only be seen on the ground while looking for seeds or drinking water, always near trees.", "While drinking and eating it is fairly aggressive and dominant, towards both its same species or different ones, even bigger birds.", "It guards a quite small territory when its chicks are born, however, when not bearing any offspring it is known to guard entire woods.", "This is interpreted as an evolutionary advantage, given colony rearing is seen as safer against nest predators."], "random_sentences": ["juvenile, Hungary A hawfinch foraging, De Cocksdorp, Netherlands The hawfinch is a passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.", "It is the only species placed in the genus Coccothraustes.", "Its closest living relatives are the Chinese grosbeak and Japanese grosbeak of East Asia, and the evening grosbeak and hooded grosbeak of North America.", "This bird breeds across Europe and temperate Asia .", "It is mainly resident in Europe, but many Asian birds migrate further south in the winter.", "It is a rare vagrant to the western islands of Alaska.", "Deciduous or mixed woodland, including parkland, with large trees especially hornbeam is favoured for breeding.", "The hawfinch builds its nest in a bush or tree, and lays 27 eggs.", "The food is mainly seeds and fruit kernels, especially those of cherries, which it cracks with its powerful bill.", "This large finch species is usually seen in a pair or small group.", "The 16.518 cm long hawfinch is a bulky bull-headed bird, which appears very short-tailed in flight.", "Its head is orange-brown with a black eyestripe and bib, and a massive bill, which is black in summer but paler in winter.", "The upper parts are dark brown and the underparts orange.", "The white wing bars and tail tip are striking in flight.", "The call is a hard chick.", "The song of this unobtrusive bird is quiet and mumbled.", "The hawfinch was described and illustrated by Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner in his Historiae animalium in 1555.", "He used the Latin name Coccothraustes which is derived from the Greek: kokkos is a seed or kernel and thrauo means to break or to shatter.", "In 1758 Carl Linnaeus included the species in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Loxia coccothraustes.", "The hawfinch was moved to a separate genus Coccothraustes by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.", "The English name 'hawfinch' was used by the ornithologist Francis Willughby in 1676.", "Haws are the red berries of the common hawthorn .", "Molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that the hawfinch is closely related to other grosbeaks in the Eophona, Hesperiphona and Mycerobas genera.", "Finches with large beaks in the Rhynchostruthus and Rhodospiza genera are not closely related.", "The similar bill morphology is the result of convergence due to the similar feeding behaviour.", "The hawfinch has an overall length of , with a wingspan that ranges from .", "It weighs with the male being on average slightly heavier than the female.", "It is a robust bird with a thick neck, large round head and a wide, strong conical beak with a metallic appearance.", "It has short pinkish legs with a light hue and it has a short tail.", "The plumage of the female is slightly paler than that of the male.", "The overall colour is light brown, its head having an orange hue to it.", "Its eyes have a black circle around them, extending to its beak and surrounding it at its edge.", "Its throat is also black.", "The sides of its neck, as well as the back of its neck, are gray.", "The upper side of its wings are a deep black colour.", "The wings also have three stripes from approximately the middle till their sides: a white, a brown and a blue stripe.", "Adults moults between July and September.", "A hawfinch's head The hawfinch is distributed in the whole of Europe, Eastern Asia , and North Africa .", "It has also been sighted in Alaska, but this is reported as an accidental presence.", "It is not found in Iceland, parts of the British Isles, or certain Mediterranean islands.", "It is however found in southern Europe, such as in Spain and Bulgaria, as well as in central Europe, including parts of England and southern Sweden.", "The hawfinch's range has extended further north since the 1950s, and is now found as far north as Northern Norway.", "In Asia it can be found in the Caucasus, northern Iran, Afghanistan, Turkistan, Siberia, Manchuria and North Korea.", "The hawfinch typically inhabits deciduous forests during the spring to have offspring, often in trees that bear fruit, such as oak trees.", "They also incur into human areas, such as parks and gardens.", "They can also be found in pine woods, as long as there is a source of water in the vicinity.", "During autumn and winter they seek food-providing forests, especially those with cherry and plum trees.", "As for height, the hawfinch is present in any altitude up to that which is limited by the size of the trees.", "In the 18th century, the hawfinch was recorded as only a rare winter visitor in Britain.", "The first breeding record was early in the 19th century", "by the early 1830s, a well-documented colony was established at Epping Forest in Essex, and breeding was also recorded in other counties east and south of London.", "Further expansion of the range continued through the 19th and 20th centuries, with breeding occurring as far north as Aberdeenshire by 19681972.", "Peak numbers were in the period 19831990.", "Subsequently, there has been a significant decline of between 37% and 45% between 19901999.", "Southeastern England is the stronghold of the hawfinch in Britain.", "One well-known site is Bedgebury Pinetum, where flocks gather to roost in winter.", "The species is also found in the New Forest", "a central roost site exists here, at the Blackwater Arboretum.", "The only Sussex stronghold is at Westdean Woods in West Sussex, while in Surrey they are regularly seen at Bookham Common in winter.", "Formerly, hawfinches were regularly encountered in the Windsor Great Park area in winter, though no sizeable gatherings have been reported since the mid-1990s.", "The recent BTO Bird Atlas shows no evidence of the hawfinch breeding anywhere in this area", "the reasons why are unclear.", "In Devon , the hawfinch is largely confined to the upper Teign Valley.", "In western England and Wales, two areas in which hawfinches reliably occur are the Forest of Dean and the Wyre Forest.", "In Eastern England, the hawfinch is present in the Breckland of East Anglia.", "In northern England, hawfinches are regularly found in a small number of locations.", "Prime sites include Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire and Hulne Park in Northumberland.", "Hawfinches can be seen at Cromford Derbyshire near the canal and at Clumber Park near the chapel.", "In Scotland, Scone Palace near Perth is the most well-known site in Scotland for hawfinches.", "Formerly, they also occurred in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.", "In Ireland, they are an annual winter visitor in small numbers: they are most often seen at Curraghchase Forest Park in County Limerick, where a flock of between 15 and 30 birds occurs each winter.", "A few birds also turn up in Dublin most years.", "The hawfinch is a shy species, and therefore difficult to observe and study.", "It spends most of the day on top of high branches, above all during breeding season.", "During the course of the hawfinch's life it can only be seen on the ground while looking for seeds or drinking water, always near trees.", "While drinking and eating it is fairly aggressive and dominant, towards both its same species or different ones, even bigger birds.", "It guards a quite small territory when its chicks are born", "however, when not bearing any offspring it is known to guard entire woods.", "This is interpreted as an evolutionary advantage, given colony rearing is seen as safer against nest predators.", "Coccothraustes coccothraustes eggs Hawfinches first breed when they are 1 year old.", "They are monogamous, with a pair-bond that sometimes persists from one year to the next.", "Pair-formation takes place before the breakup of the wintering flocks.", "The date for breeding is dependent on the spring temperature and is earlier in southwest Europe and later in the northeast.", "In Britain, most clutches are laid between late April and late June.", "Hawfinches engage in an elaborate series of courtship routines.", "The two birds stand apart facing one another and reach out to touch their bills.", "The male displays to the female by standing erect, puffing out the feathers on his head, neck and chest and allowing his wings to droop forward.", "He then makes a deep bow.", "The male will also lower a wing and move it in a semi-circular arc, revealing his wing bars and modified wing feathers.", "The breeding pairs are usually solitary, but they occasionally breed in loose groups.", "The nest is normally located high in a tree on a horizontal branch with easy access from the air.", "The male chooses the site of the nest and builds a layer of dry twigs.", "After a few days, the female takes over.", "The nest is untidy and is formed of a bulky twig base and a shallow cup lined with roots, grasses and lichens.", "The eggs are laid in early morning at daily intervals.", "The clutch is normally 45 eggs.", "There is considerable variable in the colour and shape of the eggs.", "They have purple brown and pale grey squiggles on a background that can be buff, grey-green or pale blueish.", "The average size is with a calculated weight of .", "The eggs are incubated for 1113 days by the female.", "who is fed by the male.", "This is case for most cardueline finches but not for the chaffinch - see table Newton p.165 for other fringilline finches but not Hawfinch.", "hbwonline mentions that female fed by male in courtship The nestlings are fed by both parents, who regurgitate seeds but also bring mouthfuls of caterpillars.", "Initially, the male normally passes the food to the female who feeds the chicks, but as they grow bigger both adults feed them directly.", "The female broods the chicks while they are in the nest.", "They fledge after 1214 days and the young birds become independent of their parents around 30 days later.", "The parents generally only raise a single brood each year.", " The hawfinch is highly unusual among cardueline finches in that the male bird chooses the nest site and starts the construction.", "In other species the female performs these roles.", "The hawfinch is also unusual in that the nest is kept clean by the parents removing the faecal sacs of the nestlings right up to the time when the chicks fledge.", "This behaviour is shared by the Eurasian bullfinch, but most finches cease to remove the faecal material after the first few days.", "The annual survival rate is not known.", "The maximum age obtained from ring-recovery data is 12 years and 7 months for a bird in Germany.", "The hawfinch feeds primarily on hard seeds from trees, as well as fruit seeds, which it obtains with the help of its strong beak with accompanying jaw muscles.", "Its jaw muscles exert a force equivalent to a load of approximately 3048 kg.", "Thus it can break through the seeds of cherries and plums.", "Other common sources of food include pine seeds, berries, sprouts and the occasional caterpillar and beetle.", "They can also break through olive seeds.", "The bird is known to eat in groups, especially during the winter.", "Its flight is quick and its trajectory is straight over short distances.", "During long flights periodical undulations can be observed in their flight pattern.", "While on the ground scavenging it hops, and they are quick to fly away at the slightest noise.", "They are observed to catch insects mid-flight.", "They fly up to a height of 200 m and they are seen to fly in groups, as well as alone.", "The hawfinch is a partial migrant, with northern flocks migrating towards the South during the winter, as shown by ringing techniques.", "These same studies showed that those hawfinches inhabiting habitats with a temperate climate would often have sedentary behaviour.", "A few migrants from northern Europe reach Britain in autumn and some are seen on the Northern Isles in spring.", "The European population of the hawfinch is estimated to be between 7,200,000 and 12,600,000 individuals.", "Assuming that the European range is between 25 percent and 49 percent of the global range, a tentative figure for the global population size is 14,700,00050,400,000 individuals.", "States with large populations include Romania , Croatia and Germany .", "Although the global population appears to be stable.", " the population within the United Kingdom underwent a 76 percent reduction between 1968 and 2011.", "In 2013 it was estimated that there were only 5001000 breeding pairs.", "The reasons for this decline are not understood.", "Given the high numbers and huge breeding area, the hawfinch is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of least concern."]}, "Phylloscopus trochilus": {"keywords": ["The willow warbler is a very common and widespread leaf warbler which breeds throughout northern and temperate Europe and the Palearctic, from Ireland east to the Anadyr River basin in eastern Siberia.", "It is a bird of open woodlands with trees and ground cover for nesting, including most importantly birch, alder, and willow habitats.", "The nest is usually built in close contact with the ground, often in low vegetation.", "left Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany Willow warblers prefer young, open, scrubby woodland with small trees, including human-altered habitats such as coppice and young plantations up to 1020 years old.", "High amounts of birch, alder and willow, with good lichen amounts, and water features , fields with large amounts of bracken and mosses, and patches of low bramble are preferred, but it will use a wide range of other species, including young or open coniferous forests.", "Incorporating woodland ride edge thickets of varying structure and height is beneficial. They prefer damp woodland areas.", "Thicket forming shrubs like blackthorn provide pockets of habitat.", "The Forestry Commission offers grants under a scheme called England's Woodland Improvement Grant , as does Natural England's Environmental Stewardship Scheme."], "habitat_section": ["left Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany Willow warblers prefer young, open, scrubby woodland with small trees, including human-altered habitats such as coppice and young plantations up to 1020 years old.", "High amounts of birch, alder and willow, with good lichen amounts, and water features , fields with large amounts of bracken and mosses, and patches of low bramble are preferred, but it will use a wide range of other species, including young or open coniferous forests.", "Incorporating woodland ride edge thickets of varying structure and height is beneficial. They prefer damp woodland areas.", "Thicket forming shrubs like blackthorn provide pockets of habitat.", "Deer browsing can degrade the required low cover.", "The highest population densities are found in Scandinavia , with up to 1,100 pairs per square kilometre, and a total population in Sweden and Finland of 24 million pairs.", "Lower densities occur further east, with peak densities of 27 pairs per square kilometre in central Siberia.", "Even lower densities are found on the southern edge of the breeding range, with just 9 pairs per square kilometre in Switzerland, and a total of just 100 pairs in the whole of northern Spain.", "In England this species has on average decreased in population by 70% within the last 25 years, with the biggest declines in the southeast.", "In Scotland some increases have occurred.", "The Forestry Commission offers grants under a scheme called England's Woodland Improvement Grant , as does Natural England's Environmental Stewardship Scheme."], "random_sentences": ["The willow warbler is a very common and widespread leaf warbler which breeds throughout northern and temperate Europe and the Palearctic, from Ireland east to the Anadyr River basin in eastern Siberia.", "It is strongly migratory, with almost all of the population wintering in sub-Saharan Africa.", "It is a bird of open woodlands with trees and ground cover for nesting, including most importantly birch, alder, and willow habitats.", "The nest is usually built in close contact with the ground, often in low vegetation.", "Like most Old World warblers , this small passerine is insectivorous.", "In northern Europe, it is one of the first warblers to return in the spring, though later than the closely related chiffchaff.", "The willow warbler was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Motacilla trochilus.", "The willow warbler is now one of around 80 species placed in the genus Phylloscopus that was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1826.", "The genus name combines the Ancient Greek phullon meaning \" leaf \" and skopos meaning \" seeker \" .", "The specific epithet is Ancient Greek meaning \" wren \" .", "Before the English name was standardised to willow warbler by William Yarrell in 1843, it was sometimes called \" willow wren \" .", "There is a clinal reduction in green and yellow plumage tones from west to east, with central birds browner and easternmost birds predominantly greyish:", "The willow warbler is a typical leaf warbler in appearance, 1112.5 cm long and 715 g weight.", "It is greenish brown above and off-white to yellowish below", "the wings are plain greenish-brown with no wingbars.", "Juveniles are yellower below than adults.", "It is very similar to the chiffchaff, but non-singing birds can be distinguished from that species by their paler pinkish-yellow legs , longer paler bill, more elegant shape and longer primary projection .", "Its song is a simple repetitive descending whistle, while the contact call is a disyllabic 'hoo-eet', distinct from the more monosyllabic 'hweet' of chiffchaffs.", "All populations are highly migratory, with the subspecies P. t. yakutensis migrating up to 12,000 km from eastern Siberia to southern Africa along the Asian - East African Flyway, one of the longest migrations of any for a bird of its size.", "left Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany Willow warblers prefer young, open, scrubby woodland with small trees, including human-altered habitats such as coppice and young plantations up to 1020 years old.", "High amounts of birch, alder and willow, with good lichen amounts, and water features , fields with large amounts of bracken and mosses, and patches of low bramble are preferred, but it will use a wide range of other species, including young or open coniferous forests.", "Incorporating woodland ride edge thickets of varying structure and height is beneficial. They prefer damp woodland areas.", "Thicket forming shrubs like blackthorn provide pockets of habitat.", "Deer browsing can degrade the required low cover.", "The highest population densities are found in Scandinavia , with up to 1,100 pairs per square kilometre, and a total population in Sweden and Finland of 24 million pairs.", "Lower densities occur further east, with peak densities of 27 pairs per square kilometre in central Siberia.", "Even lower densities are found on the southern edge of the breeding range, with just 9 pairs per square kilometre in Switzerland, and a total of just 100 pairs in the whole of northern Spain.", "In England this species has on average decreased in population by 70% within the last 25 years, with the biggest declines in the southeast.", "In Scotland some increases have occurred.", "The Forestry Commission offers grants under a scheme called England's Woodland Improvement Grant ", "as does Natural England's Environmental Stewardship Scheme."]}, "Motacilla alba": {"keywords": ["The species breeds in much of Europe and the Asian Palearctic and parts of North Africa.", "As many as six subspecies may be present in the wintering ground in India or Southeast Asia and here they can be difficult to distinguish.", "Yellow denotes summer range, green year round range, blue winter range.", "This species breeds throughout Eurasia up to latitudes 75N, only being absent in the Arctic from areas where the July isotherm is less than 4 C. It also breeds in the mountains of Morocco and western Alaska.", "Northern European breeders winter around the Mediterranean and in tropical and subtropical Africa, and Asiatic birds move to the Middle East, India, Birds from the North American population also winter in tropical Asia."], "habitat_section": ["Worldwide distribution of the white wagtail.", "Yellow denotes summer range, green year round range, blue winter range.", "This species breeds throughout Eurasia up to latitudes 75N, only being absent in the Arctic from areas where the July isotherm is less than 4 C. It also breeds in the mountains of Morocco and western Alaska.", "It occupies a wide range of habitats, but is absent from deserts.", "White wagtails are residents in the milder parts of its range such as western Europe and the Mediterranean, but migratory in much of the rest of its range.", "Northern European breeders winter around the Mediterranean and in tropical and subtropical Africa, and Asiatic birds move to the Middle East, India, Birds from the North American population also winter in tropical Asia.", "The most conspicuous habit of this species is a near-constant tail wagging, a trait that has given the species, and indeed the genus, its common name.", "In spite of the ubiquity of this behaviour, the reasons for it are poorly understood.", "It has been suggested that it may flush prey, or signal submissiveness to other wagtails.", "A study in 2004 has suggested instead that it is a signal of vigilance to potential predators."], "random_sentences": ["The white wagtail is a small passerine bird in the family Motacillidae, which also includes pipits and longclaws.", "The species breeds in much of Europe and the Asian Palearctic and parts of North Africa.", "It has a toehold in Alaska as a scarce breeder.", "It is resident in the mildest parts of its range, but otherwise migrates to Africa.", "In Ireland and Great Britain, the darker subspecies, the pied wagtail or water wagtail (M.", "this is also called in Ireland willie wagtail, not to be confused with the Australian species Rhipidura leucophrys which bears the same common name.", "In total, there are between 9 and 11 subspecies of M. alba.", "The white wagtail is an insectivorous bird of open country, often near habitation and water.", "It prefers bare areas for feeding, where it can see and pursue its prey.", "In urban areas it has adapted to foraging on paved areas such as car parks.", "It nests in crevices in stone walls and similar natural and man-made structures.", "It is the national bird of Latvia and has featured on the stamps of several countries.", "Though it is 'of least concern', there are several threats against it, like being kept as pets and being used as food.", "Breeding ranges of the major races The white wagtail was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, and it still bears its original name Motacilla alba.", "The Latin genus name originally meant \" little mover \" , but certain medieval writers thought it meant \" wag-tail \" , giving rise to a new Latin word cilla for \" tail \" .", "The specific epithet alba is Latin for \" white \" .", "Within the wagtail genus Motacilla, the white wagtail's closest genetic relatives appear to be other black-and-white wagtails such as the Japanese wagtail, Motacilla grandis, and the white-browed wagtail, Motacilla madaraspatensis , with which it appears to form a superspecies.", "However, mtDNA cytochrome b and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 sequence data suggests that the white wagtail is itself polyphyletic or paraphyletic .", "Other phylogenetic studies using mtDNA still suggest that there is considerable gene flow within the races and the resulting closeness makes Motacilla alba a single species.", "A study has suggested the existence of only two groups: the alboides group, with M. a. alboides, M. a. leucopsis and M. a. personata", "and the alba group, with M. a. alba, M. a. yarrellii, M. a. baicalensis, M. a. ocularis, M. a. lugens, and M. a. subpersonata.", "An adult with a juvenile in Kazakhstan thumbnail", "White wagtails sitting on a spruce and flying away you can see their characteristic flightpattern.", "Spring 2021 The white wagtail is a slender bird, in length , with the characteristic long, constantly wagging tail of its genus.", "Its average weight is and the maximum lifespan in the wild is about 12 years.", "There are a number of other subspecies, some of which may have arisen because of partial geographical isolation, such as the resident British and Irish form, the pied wagtail M. a. yarrellii, which now also breeds in adjacent areas of the neighbouring European mainland.", "The pied wagtail, named for naturalist William Yarrell, exchanges the grey colour of the nominate form with black , but is otherwise identical in its behaviour.", "Other subspecies, the validity of some of which is questionable, differ in the colour of the wings, back, and head, or other features.", "Some races show sexual dimorphism during the breeding season.", "As many as six subspecies may be present in the wintering ground in India or Southeast Asia and here they can be difficult to distinguish.", "Phylogenetic studies using mtDNA suggest that some morphological features have evolved more than once, including the back and chin colour.", "Breeding M. a. yarrellii look much like the nominate race except for the black back, and M. a. alboides of the Himalayas differs from the Central Asian M. a. personata only by its black back.", "M. a. personata has been recorded breeding in the Siddar Valley of Kashmir of the Western Himalayas.", "It has also been noted that both back and chin change colour during the pre-basic moult", "all black-throated subspecies develop white chins and throats in winter and some black-backed birds are grey-backed in winter.", "The call of the white wagtail is a sharp chisick, slightly softer than the version given by the pied wagtail.", "The song is more regular in white than pied, but with little territorial significance, since the male uses a series of contact calls to attract the female.", "Worldwide distribution of the white wagtail.", "Yellow denotes summer range, green year round range, blue winter range.", "This species breeds throughout Eurasia up to latitudes 75N, only being absent in the Arctic from areas where the July isotherm is less than 4 C. It also breeds in the mountains of Morocco and western Alaska.", "It occupies a wide range of habitats, but is absent from deserts.", "White wagtails are residents in the milder parts of its range such as western Europe and the Mediterranean, but migratory in much of the rest of its range.", "Northern European breeders winter around the Mediterranean and in tropical and subtropical Africa, and Asiatic birds move to the Middle East, India, Birds from the North American population also winter in tropical Asia.", "The most conspicuous habit of this species is a near-constant tail wagging, a trait that has given the species, and indeed the genus, its common name.", "In spite of the ubiquity of this behaviour, the reasons for it are poorly understood.", "It has been suggested that it may flush prey, or signal submissiveness to other wagtails.", "A study in 2004 has suggested instead that it is a signal of vigilance to potential predators.", "The exact composition of the diet of white wagtails varies by location, but terrestrial and aquatic insects and other small invertebrates form the major part of the diet.", "These range from beetles, dragonflies, small snails, spiders, worms, crustaceans, to maggots found in carcasses and, most importantly, flies.", "Small fish fry have also been recorded in the diet.", "The white wagtail is somewhat unusual in the parts of its range where it is non-migratory as it is an insectivorous bird that continues to feed on insects during the winter .", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany right", "Juvenile M. a. alba in northern Norway, showing the grey face and chest White wagtails are monogamous and defend breeding territories.", "Around three to eight eggs are laid, with the usual number being four to six.", "The eggs are cream-coloured, often with a faint bluish-green or turquoise tint, and heavily spotted with reddish brown", "they measure, on average, .", "Both parents incubate the eggs, although the female generally does so for longer and incubates at night.", "The eggs begin to hatch after 12 days .", "Both parents feed the chicks until they fledge after between 12 and 15 days, and the chicks are fed for another week after fledging.", "Though it is known to be a host species for the common cuckoo, the white wagtail typically deserts its nest if it has been parasitised.", "Moksnes et al. theorised that this occurs because the wagtail is too small to push the intruding egg out of the nest, and too short-billed to destroy the egg by puncturing it.", "This species has a large range, with an estimated extent of more than .", "The population size is between 130 and 230 million.", "Population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List .", "For these reasons, the species is evaluated to be of least concern.", "The population in Europe appears to be stable.", "The species has adapted well to human changes to the environment and has exploited human changes such as man-made structures that are used for nesting sites and increased open areas that are used for foraging.", "In a number of cities, notably Dublin, large flocks gather in winter to roost.", "They are therefore rated as of least concern.", "However, they are caught for sport and often then placed into collections.", "They are also kept as pets and eaten as food.", "Climate change may be affecting the time of their migration.", "They have featured on stamps from Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Finland, Georgia, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Jersey, Kuwait, Latvia, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom and Vietnam.", "The white wagtail is the national bird of Latvia, and has been often mentioned in Latvian and Madheshi folk songs.", "It is called Khirlichi in Madheshi language and is worshipped during festivals of Sama Chakewa and Jitiya."]}, "Tachybaptus ruficollis": {"keywords": ["This bird breeds in small colonies in heavily vegetated areas of freshwater lakes across Europe, much of Asia down to New Guinea, and most of Africa.", "Most birds move to more open or coastal waters in winter, but it is only migratory in those parts of its range where the waters freeze.", "Outside of breeding season, it moves into more open water, occasionally even appearing on the coast in small bays.", "The little grebe is an excellent swimmer and diver and pursues its fish and aquatic invertebrate prey underwater.", "When the adult bird leaves the nest it usually takes care to cover the eggs with weeds.", "In India, the species breeds during the rainy season."], "habitat_section": ["This bird breeds in small colonies in heavily vegetated areas of freshwater lakes across Europe, much of Asia down to New Guinea, and most of Africa.", "Most birds move to more open or coastal waters in winter, but it is only migratory in those parts of its range where the waters freeze.", "Outside of breeding season, it moves into more open water, occasionally even appearing on the coast in small bays."], "random_sentences": ["The little grebe , also known as dabchick, is a member of the grebe family of water birds.", "The genus name is from Ancient Greek takhus \" fast \" and bapto \" to sink under \" .", "The specific ruficollis is from Latin rufus \" red \" and Modern Latin -collis, \" -necked \" , itself derived from Latin collum \" neck \" .", "At in length it is the smallest European member of its family.", "It is commonly found in open bodies of water across most of its range.", "The little grebe was described by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764 and given the binomial name Colymbus ruficollis.", "The tricolored grebe was considered conspecific, with some taxonomic authorities still considering it so.", "There are six currently-recognized subspecies, separated principally by size and colouration.", "The little grebe is a small water bird with a pointed bill.", "The adult is unmistakable in summer, predominantly dark above with its rich, rufous colour neck, cheeks and flanks, and bright yellow gape.", "The rufous is replaced by a dirty brownish grey in non-breeding and juvenile birds.", "Juvenile birds have a yellow bill with a small black tip, and black and white streaks on the cheeks and sides of the neck as seen below.", "This yellow bill darkens as the juveniles age, eventually turning black in adulthood.", "In winter, its size, buff plumage, with a darker back and cap, and powder puff rear end enable easy identification of this species.", "The little grebe's breeding call, given singly or in duet, is a trilled repeated weet-weet-weet or wee-wee-wee which sounds like a horse whinnying.", "This bird breeds in small colonies in heavily vegetated areas of freshwater lakes across Europe, much of Asia down to New Guinea, and most of Africa.", "Most birds move to more open or coastal waters in winter, but it is only migratory in those parts of its range where the waters freeze.", "Outside of breeding season, it moves into more open water, occasionally even appearing on the coast in small bays.", "The little grebe is an excellent swimmer and diver and pursues its fish and aquatic invertebrate prey underwater.", "It uses the vegetation skilfully as a hiding place.", "Like all grebes, it nests at the water's edge, since its legs are set very far back and it cannot walk well.", "Usually four to seven eggs are laid.", "When the adult bird leaves the nest it usually takes care to cover the eggs with weeds.", "This makes it less likely to be detected by predators.", "The young leave the nest and can swim soon after hatching, and chicks are often carried on the backs of the swimming adults.", "In India, the species breeds during the rainy season."]}, "Certhia brachydactyla": {"keywords": ["Certhia brachydactyla dorotheae, Cyprus The short-toed treecreeper is a small passerine bird found in woodlands through much of the warmer regions of Europe and into north Africa.", "The short-toed treecreeper tends to prefer deciduous trees and lower altitudes than its relative in these overlap areas.", "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.", "It is a resident in woodlands throughout its range, and nests in tree crevices or behind bark flakes, laying about six eggs.", "The short-toed treecreeper belongs to the northern group, along with the North American brown creeper, C. americana, the common treecreeper, C. familaris, of temperate Eurasia, and Hodgson's treecreeper, C. hodgsoni, from the southern rim of the Himalayas.", "Cork oak is a preferred nesting tree in Spain The short-toed treecreeper breeds in temperate woodlands across Europe from Portugal to Turkey and Greece, and in north west Africa.", "It prefers well-grown trees, especially oak and avoids pure stands of conifers.", "Where it shares its European range with common treecreeper, the latter species tends to be found mainly in coniferous forest and at higher altitudes.", "It has occurred as a vagrant to England, Sweden, Lithuania and the Balearic Islands.", "Eggs of Certhia brachydactyla MHNT Adult foraging on a trunk The short-toed nests in tree crevices or behind bark flakes.", "The nest has an often bulky base of twigs, pine needles, grass or bark, and a lining of finer material such as feathers, wool, moss, lichen or spider web.", "Although normally found on trees, it will occasionally feed on walls or bare ground, or amongst fallen pine needles.", "As a small woodland bird with cryptic plumage and a quiet call, the short-toed treecreeper is easily overlooked as it hops mouse-like up a vertical trunk, progressing in short hops, using its stiff tail and widely splayed feet as support.", "It is solitary in winter, but in cold weather up to twenty or more birds will roost together in a suitable sheltered crevice, or in a star formation under eaves of buildings.", "It is common through much of its range, but is rare in the Caucasus and on the smaller Channel Islands."], "habitat_section": ["Cork oak is a preferred nesting tree in Spain The short-toed treecreeper breeds in temperate woodlands across Europe from Portugal to Turkey and Greece, and in north west Africa.", "It prefers well-grown trees, especially oak and avoids pure stands of conifers.", "Where it shares its European range with common treecreeper, the latter species tends to be found mainly in coniferous forest and at higher altitudes.", "This treecreeper is essentially non-migratory but post-breeding dispersal may lead to vagrancy outside the normal range.", "It has occurred as a vagrant to England, Sweden, Lithuania and the Balearic Islands.", "Three birds on Corsica in 1969 appeared to be of the North African subspecies C. b. mauritanica''.", "This species has an extensive range of between 1 to 10 million square kilometres .", "It has a large population, estimated at between 4.1 to 14 million individuals.", "Population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List .", "For these reasons, the short-toed treecreeper is evaluated as Least Concern.", "It is common through much of its range, but is rare in the Caucasus and on the smaller Channel Islands.", "In the west of its range it is spreading north through Denmark, where it first bred in 1946."], "random_sentences": ["Certhia brachydactyla dorotheae, Cyprus The short-toed treecreeper is a small passerine bird found in woodlands through much of the warmer regions of Europe and into north Africa.", "It has a generally more southerly distribution than the other European treecreeper species, the common treecreeper, with which it is easily confused where they both occur.", "The short-toed treecreeper tends to prefer deciduous trees and lower altitudes than its relative in these overlap areas.", "Although mainly sedentary, vagrants have occurred outside the breeding range.", "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.", "The short-toed treecreeper was first described by Christian Ludwig Brehm in 1820.", "The binomial name is derived from Greek", "kerthios is a small tree-dwelling bird described by Aristotle and others, and brachydactyla comes from brakhus, \" short \" and dactulos \" finger \" , which refers, like the English name, to the fact that this species has shorter toes than the common treecreeper.", "This species is one of a group of very similar treecreeper species, all placed in the single genus Certhia.", "Eight species are currently recognised, in two evolutionary lineages, a Holarctic radiation, and a Sino-Himalayan group south and east of the Himalayas.", "The former group has a more warbling song, always starting or ending with a shrill sreeh.", "The Himalayan species, in contrast, have a faster-paced trill without the sreeh sound.", "The short-toed treecreeper belongs to the northern group, along with the North American brown creeper, C. americana, the common treecreeper, C. familaris, of temperate Eurasia, and Hodgson's treecreeper, C. hodgsoni, from the southern rim of the Himalayas.", "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.", "The sexes are similar, but juveniles have whitish underparts, sometimes with a buff belly.", "The call of this species is a repeated shrill tyt...", "tyt tyt-tyt and the song of the nominate subspecies is an evenly spaced sequence of notes teet-teet-teet-e-roi-tiit.", "There is some geographical variation", "the song of Danish birds is shorter, that of the Cyprus subspecies is very short and simple, and the North African version is lower pitched.", "European birds do not respond to latter two song variants.", "The brown treecreeper has never been recorded in Europe, but would be difficult to separate from the short-toed treecreeper, which it much resembles in appearance.", "Its call is more like the common treecreeper's, but a vagrant brown treecreeper might still not be possible to identify with certainty given the similarities between the three species.", "Cork oak is a preferred nesting tree in Spain The short-toed treecreeper breeds in temperate woodlands across Europe from Portugal to Turkey and Greece, and in north west Africa.", "It prefers well-grown trees, especially oak and avoids pure stands of conifers.", "Where it shares its European range with common treecreeper, the latter species tends to be found mainly in coniferous forest and at higher altitudes.", "This treecreeper is essentially non-migratory but post-breeding dispersal may lead to vagrancy outside the normal range.", "It has occurred as a vagrant to England, Sweden, Lithuania and the Balearic Islands.", "Three birds on Corsica in 1969 appeared to be of the North African subspecies C. b. mauritanica''.", "Eggs of Certhia brachydactyla MHNT Adult foraging on a trunk The short-toed nests in tree crevices or behind bark flakes.", "Old woodpecker nests, crevices in buildings or walls, and artificial nest boxes or flaps are also used.", "The nest has an often bulky base of twigs, pine needles, grass or bark, and a lining of finer material such as feathers, wool, moss, lichen or spider web.", "The eggs are laid between April and mid June (typical clutch 5", "they are white with purple-red blotches, in size.", "The eggs are incubated by the female alone for 13 15 days until the altricial downy chicks hatch", "they are then fed by both parents, but brooded by the female alone, for a further 15 18 days to fledging.", "This species often raises a second brood.", "The male starts constructing a new nest while the female is still feeding the first brood, and when the chicks are 1012 days old, he takes over feeding duties while the female completes the new nest.", "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.", "It may add some seeds to its diet in the colder months.", "As a small woodland bird with cryptic plumage and a quiet call, the short-toed treecreeper is easily overlooked as it hops mouse-like up a vertical trunk, progressing in short hops, using its stiff tail and widely splayed feet as support.", "Nevertheless, it is not wary, and is largely indifferent to the presence of humans.", "It has a distinctive erratic and undulating flight, alternating fluttering butterfly-like wing beats with side-slips and tumbles.", "It is solitary in winter, but in cold weather up to twenty or more birds will roost together in a suitable sheltered crevice, or in a star formation under eaves of buildings.", "This species has an extensive range of between 1", "10 million square kilometres (0.4", "It has a large population, estimated at between 4.1", "Population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List .", "For these reasons, the short-toed treecreeper is evaluated as Least Concern.", "It is common through much of its range, but is rare in the Caucasus and on the smaller Channel Islands.", "In the west of its range it is spreading north through Denmark, where it first bred in 1946."]}, "Podiceps cristatus": {"keywords": ["Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The great crested grebe breeds in vegetated areas of freshwater lakes.", "It winters on freshwater lakes and reservoirs or the coast.", "The adults teach these skills to their young by carrying them on their back and diving, leaving the chicks to float on the surface, they then re-emerge a few feet away so that the chicks may swim back onto them."], "habitat_section": ["Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The great crested grebe breeds in vegetated areas of freshwater lakes.", "The subspecies P. c. cristatus is found across Europe and east across the Palearctic.", "It is resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from the colder regions.", "It winters on freshwater lakes and reservoirs or the coast.", "The African subspecies P. c. infuscatus and the Australasian subspecies P. c. australis are mainly sedentary."], "random_sentences": ["Podiceps cristatus The great crested grebe is a member of the grebe family of water birds noted for its elaborate mating display.", "The great crested grebe was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Colymbus cristatus.", "The great crested grebe is now the type species of the genus Podiceps that was erected by the English naturalist John Latham in 1787.", "The type locality is Sweden.", "The scientific name comes from Latin: the genus name Podiceps is from , \" vent \" and , \" foot \" , and is a reference to the placement of a grebe's legs towards the rear of its body", "the species name, cristatus, means \" crested \" .", "Young grebe, Moscow The great crested grebe is the largest member of the grebe family found in the Old World, with some larger species residing in the Americas.", "They measure long with a wingspan and weigh .", "It is an excellent swimmer and diver, and pursues its fish prey underwater.", "The adults are unmistakable in summer with head and neck decorations.", "In winter, this is whiter than most grebes, with white above the eye, and a pink bill.", "The young are distinctive because their heads are striped black and white.", "They lose these markings when they become adults.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The great crested grebe breeds in vegetated areas of freshwater lakes.", "The subspecies P. c. cristatus is found across Europe and east across the Palearctic.", "It is resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from the colder regions.", "It winters on freshwater lakes and reservoirs or the coast.", "The African subspecies P. c. infuscatus and the Australasian subspecies P. c. australis are mainly sedentary.", "The great crested grebe has an elaborate mating display.", "Like all grebes, it nests on the water's edge.", "The nest is built by both sexes.", "The clutch averages four chalky white eggs which average in size and weigh .", "Incubation is by both parents and begins as soon as the first egg is laid.", "The eggs hatch asynchronously after 27 to 29 days.", "The precocial young are cared for and fed by both parents.", "Young grebes are capable of swimming and diving almost at hatching.", "The adults teach these skills to their young by carrying them on their back and diving, leaving the chicks to float on the surface", "they then re-emerge a few feet away so that the chicks may swim back onto them.", "The great crested grebe feeds mainly on fish, but also small crustaceans, insects, small frogs and newts.", "A head of great crested grebe in the coat of arms of Kauvatsa This species was hunted almost to extinction in the United Kingdom in the 19th century for its head plumes, which were used to decorate ladies' hats and garments.", "The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was set up to help protect this species, which is again a common sight.", "The great crested grebe and its behaviour was the subject of one of the landmark publications in avian ethology: Julian Huxley's 1914 paper on The Courtshiphabits of the Great Crested Grebe ."]}, "Actitis hypoleucos": {"keywords": ["Actitis hypoleucos The common sandpiper is a small Palearctic wader.", "The common sandpiper breeds across most of temperate and subtropical Europe and Asia, and migrates to Africa, southern Asia and Australia in winter.", "It nests on the ground near freshwater.", "When threatened, the young may cling to their parent's body to be flown away to safety.", "The common sandpiper forages by sight on the ground or in shallow water, picking up small food items such as insects, crustaceans and other invertebrates, it may even catch insects in flight.", "The purple sandpiper is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "In the Nukumanu language of the Nukumanu Islands , this species is usually called tiritavoi."], "habitat_section": ["The common sandpiper breeds across most of temperate and subtropical Europe and Asia, and migrates to Africa, southern Asia and Australia in winter.", "The eastern edge of its migration route passes by Palau in Micronesia, where hundreds of birds may gather for a stop-over.", "They depart the Palau region for their breeding quarters around the last week of April to the first week of May.", "It is a gregarious bird and is seen in large flocks, and has the distinctive stiff-winged flight, low over the water, of Actitis waders.", "Egg Wintering bird foraging matakakoni-style in Puri It is widespread and common, and therefore classified as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List but is a vulnerable species in some states of Australia.", "The purple sandpiper is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies."], "random_sentences": ["Actitis hypoleucos The common sandpiper is a small Palearctic wader.", "This bird and its American sister species, the spotted sandpiper (A.", "macularia), make up the genus Actitis.", "They are parapatric and replace each other geographically", "stray birds of either species may settle down with breeders of the other and hybridize.", "Hybridization has also been reported between the common sandpiper and the green sandpiper, a basal species of the closely related shank genus Tringa.", "The common sandpiper was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Tringa hypoleucos.", "The species is now placed together with the spotted sandpiper in the genus Actitis that was introduced in 1811 by the German zoologist Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger.", "The genus name Actitis is from Ancient Greek aktites meaning \" coast-dweller \" from akte meaning \" coast \" .", "The specific epithet hypoleucos combines the Ancient Greek hupo meaning \" beneath \" with leukos meaning \" white \" .", "The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.", "The adult is long with a wingspan.", "It has greyish-brown upperparts, white underparts, short dark-yellowish legs and feet, and a bill with a pale base and dark tip.", "In winter plumage, they are duller and have more conspicuous barring on the wings, though this is still only visible at close range.", "Juveniles are more heavily barred above and have buff edges to the wing feathers.", "This species is very similar to the slightly larger spotted sandpiper (A.", "But its darker legs and feet and the crisper wing pattern tend to give it away, and of course they are only rarely found in the same location.", "The common sandpiper breeds across most of temperate and subtropical Europe and Asia, and migrates to Africa, southern Asia and Australia in winter.", "The eastern edge of its migration route passes by Palau in Micronesia, where hundreds of birds may gather for a stop-over.", "They depart the Palau region for their breeding quarters around the last week of April to the first week of May.", "It is a gregarious bird and is seen in large flocks, and has the distinctive stiff-winged flight, low over the water, of Actitis waders.", "Egg Wintering bird foraging matakakoni-style in Puri", "It nests on the ground near freshwater.", "When threatened, the young may cling to their parent's body to be flown away to safety.", "The common sandpiper forages by sight on the ground or in shallow water, picking up small food items such as insects, crustaceans and other invertebrates", "it may even catch insects in flight.", "It is widespread and common, and therefore classified as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List but is a vulnerable species in some states of Australia.", "The purple sandpiper is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "In the Nukumanu language of the Nukumanu Islands , this species is usually called tiritavoi.", "Another Nukumanu name for it, matakakoni, exists, but this is considered somewhat taboo and not used when children and women are around.", "The reason for this is that matakakoni means \" bird that walks a little, then copulates \" , in reference to the pumping tail and thrusting head movements the Actitis species characteristically perform during foraging."]}, "Turdus philomelos": {"keywords": ["The song thrush breeds in forests, gardens and parks, and is partially migratory with many birds wintering in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, it has also been introduced into New Zealand and Australia.", "They are less closely related to other European thrush species such as the blackbird which are descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "It has brown upperparts which are warmer in tone than those of the nominate form, an olive-tinged rump and rich yellow background colour to the underparts.", "Juvenile in New Zealand The song thrush breeds in most of Europe , and across Ukraine and Russia almost to Lake Baikal. It reaches to 75N in Norway, but only to about 60N in Siberia.", "Birds from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Russia winter around the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East, but only some of the birds in the milder west of the breeding range leave their breeding areas.", "Such areas include parks, gardens, coniferous and deciduous woodland and hedgerows.", "In New Zealand, where it was introduced on both the main islands, the song thrush quickly established itself and spread to surrounding islands such as the Kermadecs, Chatham and Auckland Islands.", "Juvenile in a forest near Dombaih, Russia The song thrush typically nests in forest with good undergrowth and nearby more open areas, and in western Europe also uses gardens and parks.", "The island subspecies T. p. hebridensis breeds in more open country, including heathland, and in the east of the song thrush's Eurasian range, the nominate subspecies is restricted to the edge of the dense conifer forests.", "In intensively farmed areas where agricultural practices appear to have made cropped land unsuitable, gardens are an important breeding habitat.", "In one English study, only 3.5% of territories were found in farmland, whereas gardens held 71.5% of the territories, despite that habitat making up only 2% of the total area.", "The remaining nests were in woodlands .", "The winter habitat is similar to that used for breeding, except that high ground and other exposed localities are avoided, however, the island subspecies T. p. hebridensis will frequent the seashore in winter.", "It flies in loose flocks which cross the sea on a broad front rather than concentrating at short crossings , and calls frequently to maintain contact.", "Return migration varies between mid-February around the Mediterranean to May in northern Sweden and central Siberia.", "Vagrants have been recorded in Greenland, various Atlantic islands, and West Africa.", "Three eggs in a nest The female song thrush builds a neat cup-shaped nest lined with mud and dry grass in a bush, tree or creeper, or, in the case of the Hebridean subspecies, on the ground.", "Ixodes ticks are also common, and can carry pathogens, including tick-borne encephalitis in forested areas of central and eastern Europe and Russia, and, more widely, Borrelia bacteria.", "Some species of Borrelia cause Lyme disease, and ground-feeding birds like the song thrush may act as a reservoir for the disease.", "Like its relative, the blackbird, the song thrush finds animal prey by sight, has a run-and-stop hunting technique on open ground, and will rummage through leaf-litter seeking potential food items.", "The thrush often uses a favorite stone as an \" anvil \" on which to break the shell of the snail before extracting the soft body and invariably wiping it on the ground before consumption.", "In gardens, the use of poison bait to control slugs and snails may pose a threat.", "In urban areas, some thrushes are killed while using the hard surface of roads to smash snails.", "The song thrush's characteristic song, with melodic phrases repeated twice or more, is described by the nineteenth-century British poet Robert Browning in his poem Home Thoughts, from Abroad."], "habitat_section": ["Juvenile in New Zealand The song thrush breeds in most of Europe , and across Ukraine and Russia almost to Lake Baikal. It reaches to 75N in Norway, but only to about 60N in Siberia.", "Birds from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Russia winter around the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East, but only some of the birds in the milder west of the breeding range leave their breeding areas.", "In Great Britain song thrushes are commonly found where there are trees and bushes.", "Such areas include parks, gardens, coniferous and deciduous woodland and hedgerows.", "Birds of the nominate subspecies were introduced to New Zealand and Australia by acclimatisation societies between 1860 and 1880, apparently for purely sentimental reasons.", "In New Zealand, where it was introduced on both the main islands, the song thrush quickly established itself and spread to surrounding islands such as the Kermadecs, Chatham and Auckland Islands.", "Although it is common and widespread in New Zealand, in Australia only a small population survives around Melbourne.", "In New Zealand, there appears to be a limited detrimental effect on some invertebrates due to predation by introduced bird species, and the song thrush also damages commercial fruit crops in that country.", "As an introduced species it has no legal protection in New Zealand, and can be killed at any time.", "Juvenile in a forest near Dombaih, Russia The song thrush typically nests in forest with good undergrowth and nearby more open areas, and in western Europe also uses gardens and parks.", "It breeds up to the tree-line, reaching in Switzerland.", "The island subspecies T. p. hebridensis breeds in more open country, including heathland, and in the east of the song thrush's Eurasian range, the nominate subspecies is restricted to the edge of the dense conifer forests.", "In intensively farmed areas where agricultural practices appear to have made cropped land unsuitable, gardens are an important breeding habitat.", "In one English study, only 3.5% of territories were found in farmland, whereas gardens held 71.5% of the territories, despite that habitat making up only 2% of the total area.", "The remaining nests were in woodlands .", "The winter habitat is similar to that used for breeding, except that high ground and other exposed localities are avoided, however, the island subspecies T. p. hebridensis will frequent the seashore in winter.", "Breaking the shell of a snail The song thrush is not usually gregarious, although several birds may roost together in winter or be loosely associated in suitable feeding habitats, perhaps with other thrushes such as the blackbird, fieldfare, redwing and dark-throated thrush.", "Unlike the more nomadic fieldfare and redwing, the song thrush tends to return regularly to the same wintering areas.", "This is a monogamous territorial species, and in areas where it is fully migratory, the male re-establishes its breeding territory and starts singing as soon as he returns.", "In the milder areas where some birds stay year round, the resident male remains in his breeding territory, singing intermittently, but the female may establish a separate individual wintering range until pair formation begins in the early spring.", "During migration, the song thrush travels mainly at night with a strong and direct flight action.", "It flies in loose flocks which cross the sea on a broad front rather than concentrating at short crossings , and calls frequently to maintain contact.", "Migration may start as early as late August in the most easterly and northerly parts of the range, but the majority of birds, with shorter distances to cover, head south from September to mid-December.", "However, hard weather may force further movement.", "Return migration varies between mid-February around the Mediterranean to May in northern Sweden and central Siberia.", "Vagrants have been recorded in Greenland, various Atlantic islands, and West Africa.", "In New Zealand The song thrush has an extensive range, estimated at , and a large population, with an estimated 40 to 71 million individuals in Europe alone.", "In the western Palaearctic, there is evidence of population decline, but at a level below the threshold required for global conservation concern and the IUCN Red List categorises this species as of \" Least Concern \" .", "In Great Britain and the Netherlands, there has been a more than 50% decline in population, and the song thrush is included in regional Red Lists.", "The decreases are greatest in farmlands and believed to be due to changes in agricultural practices in recent decades.", "The precise reasons for the decline are not known but may be related to the loss of hedgerows, a move to sowing crops in autumn rather than spring, and possibly the increased use of pesticides.", "These changes may have reduced the availability of food and of nest sites.", "In gardens, the use of poison bait to control slugs and snails may pose a threat.", "In urban areas, some thrushes are killed while using the hard surface of roads to smash snails."], "random_sentences": ["The song thrush is a thrush that breeds across the West Palearctic.", "It has brown upper-parts and black-spotted cream or buff underparts and has three recognised subspecies.", "Its distinctive song, which has repeated musical phrases, has frequently been referred to in poetry.", "The song thrush breeds in forests, gardens and parks, and is partially migratory with many birds wintering in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East", "it has also been introduced into New Zealand and Australia.", "Although it is not threatened globally, there have been serious population declines in parts of Europe, possibly due to changes in farming practices.", "The song thrush builds a neat mud-lined cup nest in a bush or tree and lays four to five dark-spotted blue eggs.", "It is omnivorous and has the habit of using a favourite stone as an \" anvil \" on which to break open the shells of snails.", "Like other perching birds , it is affected by external and internal parasites and is vulnerable to predation by cats and birds of prey.", "The song thrush was described by German ornithologist Christian Ludwig Brehm in 1831, and still bears its original scientific name, Turdus philomelos.", "The generic name, Turdus, is the Latin for thrush, and the specific epithet refers to a character in Greek mythology, Philomela, who had her tongue cut out, but was changed into a singing bird.", "Her name is derived from the Ancient Greek philo- , and melos .", "The dialect names throstle and mavis both mean thrush, being related to the German drossel and French mauvis respectively.", "Throstle dates back to at least the fourteenth century and was used by Chaucer in the Parliament of Fowls.", "Mavis is derived via Middle English mavys and Old French mauvis from Middle Breton milhuyt meaning \" thrush.", "\" Mavis can also mean \" purple \" in Greek.", "A parent feeding chicks in their nest in a New Zealand garden", "altA brown spotted bird standing on the rim of a nest with food for four chicks seen with open gapes A molecular study indicated that the song thrush's closest relatives are the similarly plumaged mistle thrush (T.", "viscivorus) and Chinese thrush (T.", "these three species are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa.", "They are less closely related to other European thrush species such as the blackbird (T.", "merula) which are descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "The song thrush has three subspecies, with the nominate subspecies, T. p. philomelos, covering the majority of the species' range.", "T. p. hebridensis, described by British ornithologist William Eagle Clarke in 1913, is a mainly sedentary form found in the Outer Hebrides and Isle of Skye in Scotland.", "It is the darkest subspecies, with a dark brown back, greyish rump, pale buff background colour to the underparts and grey-tinged flanks.", "T. p. clarkei, described by German zoologist Ernst Hartert in 1909, and named for William Eagle Clarke, breeds in the rest of Great Britain and Ireland and on mainland Europe in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and possibly somewhat further east.", "It has brown upperparts which are warmer in tone than those of the nominate form, an olive-tinged rump and rich yellow background colour to the underparts.", "It is a partial migrant with some birds wintering in southern France and Iberia.", "This form intergrades with the nominate subspecies in central Europe, and with T. p. hebridensis in the Inner Hebrides and western Scotland, and in these areas birds show intermediate characteristics.", "Additional subspecies, such as T. p. nataliae of Siberia, proposed by the Russian Sergei Buturlin in 1929, are not widely accepted.", "Song thrush in Slovenia upright", "In flight The song thrush is in length and weighs .", "The sexes are similar, with plain brown backs and neatly black-spotted cream or yellow-buff underparts, becoming paler on the belly.", "The underwing is warm yellow, the bill is yellowish and the legs and feet are pink.", "The upperparts of this species become colder in tone from west to east across the breeding range from Sweden to Siberia.", "The juvenile resembles the adult, but has buff or orange streaks on the back and wing coverts.", "The most similar European thrush species is the redwing (T.", "iliacus), but that bird has a strong white supercilium, red flanks, and shows a red underwing in flight.", "viscivorus) is much larger and has white tail corners, and the Chinese thrush (T.", "mupinensis), although much more similar in plumage, has black face markings and does not overlap in range.", "The song thrush has a short, sharp tsip call, replaced on migration by a thin high seep, similar to the redwing's call but shorter.", "The alarm call is a chook-chook becoming shorter and more strident with increasing danger.", "The male's song, given from trees, rooftops or other elevated perches, is a loud clear run of musical phrases, repeated two to four times, filip filip filip codidio codidio quitquiquit tittit tittit tereret tereret tereret, and interspersed with grating notes and mimicry.", "It is given mainly from February to June by the Outer Hebridean race, but from November to July by the more widespread subspecies.", "For its weight, this species has one of the loudest bird calls.", "An individual male may have a repertoire of more than 100 phrases, many copied from its parents and neighbouring birds.", "Mimicry may include the imitation of man-made items like telephones, and the song thrush will also repeat the calls of captive birds, including exotics such as the white-faced whistling duck.", "Juvenile in New Zealand The song thrush breeds in most of Europe , and across Ukraine and Russia almost to Lake Baikal. It reaches to 75N in Norway, but only to about 60N in Siberia.", "Birds from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Russia winter around the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East, but only some of the birds in the milder west of the breeding range leave their breeding areas.", "In Great Britain song thrushes are commonly found where there are trees and bushes.", "Such areas include parks, gardens, coniferous and deciduous woodland and hedgerows.", "Birds of the nominate subspecies were introduced to New Zealand and Australia by acclimatisation societies between 1860 and 1880, apparently for purely sentimental reasons.", "In New Zealand, where it was introduced on both the main islands, the song thrush quickly established itself and spread to surrounding islands such as the Kermadecs, Chatham and Auckland Islands.", "Although it is common and widespread in New Zealand, in Australia only a small population survives around Melbourne.", "In New Zealand, there appears to be a limited detrimental effect on some invertebrates due to predation by introduced bird species, and the song thrush also damages commercial fruit crops in that country.", "As an introduced species it has no legal protection in New Zealand, and can be killed at any time.", "Juvenile in a forest near Dombaih, Russia The song thrush typically nests in forest with good undergrowth and nearby more open areas, and in western Europe also uses gardens and parks.", "It breeds up to the tree-line, reaching in Switzerland.", "The island subspecies T. p. hebridensis breeds in more open country, including heathland, and in the east of the song thrush's Eurasian range, the nominate subspecies is restricted to the edge of the dense conifer forests.", "In intensively farmed areas where agricultural practices appear to have made cropped land unsuitable, gardens are an important breeding habitat.", "In one English study, only 3.5% of territories were found in farmland, whereas gardens held 71.5% of the territories, despite that habitat making up only 2% of the total area.", "The remaining nests were in woodlands .", "The winter habitat is similar to that used for breeding, except that high ground and other exposed localities are avoided", "however, the island subspecies T. p. hebridensis will frequent the seashore in winter.", "Breaking the shell of a snail The song thrush is not usually gregarious, although several birds may roost together in winter or be loosely associated in suitable feeding habitats, perhaps with other thrushes such as the blackbird, fieldfare, redwing and dark-throated thrush.", "Unlike the more nomadic fieldfare and redwing, the song thrush tends to return regularly to the same wintering areas.", "This is a monogamous territorial species, and in areas where it is fully migratory, the male re-establishes its breeding territory and starts singing as soon as he returns.", "In the milder areas where some birds stay year round, the resident male remains in his breeding territory, singing intermittently, but the female may establish a separate individual wintering range until pair formation begins in the early spring.", "During migration, the song thrush travels mainly at night with a strong and direct flight action.", "It flies in loose flocks which cross the sea on a broad front rather than concentrating at short crossings , and calls frequently to maintain contact.", "Migration may start as early as late August in the most easterly and northerly parts of the range, but the majority of birds, with shorter distances to cover, head south from September to mid-December.", "However, hard weather may force further movement.", "Return migration varies between mid-February around the Mediterranean to May in northern Sweden and central Siberia.", "Vagrants have been recorded in Greenland, various Atlantic islands, and West Africa.", "Three eggs in a nest The female song thrush builds a neat cup-shaped nest lined with mud and dry grass in a bush, tree or creeper, or, in the case of the Hebridean subspecies, on the ground.", "She lays four or five bright glossy blue eggs which are lightly spotted with black or purple", "they are typically size and weigh , of which 6% is shell.", "The female incubates the eggs alone for 1017 days, and after hatching a similar time elapses until the young fledge.", "Two or three broods in a year is normal, although only one may be raised in the north of the range.", "On average, 54.6% of British juveniles survive the first year of life, and the adult annual survival rate is 62.2%.", "The typical lifespan is three years, but the maximum recorded age is 10 years 8 months.", "The song thrush is occasionally a host of parasitic cuckoos, such as the common cuckoo, but this is very rare because the thrush recognizes the cuckoo's non-mimetic eggs.", "However, the song thrush does not demonstrate the same aggression toward the adult cuckoo that is shown by the blackbird.", "The introduced birds in New Zealand, where the cuckoo does not occur, have, over the past 130 years, retained the ability to recognize and reject non-mimetic eggs.", "Adult birds may be killed by cats, little owls and sparrowhawks, and eggs and nestlings are taken by magpies, jays, and, where present, grey squirrels.", "As with other passerine birds, parasites are common, and include endoparasites, such as the nematode Splendidofilaria mavis whose specific name mavis derives from this thrush.", "A Russian study of blood parasites showed that all the fieldfares, redwings and song thrushes sampled carried haematozoans, particularly Haemoproteus and Trypanosoma.", "Ixodes ticks are also common, and can carry pathogens, including tick-borne encephalitis in forested areas of central and eastern Europe and Russia, and, more widely, Borrelia bacteria.", "Some species of Borrelia cause Lyme disease, and ground-feeding birds like the song thrush may act as a reservoir for the disease.", "Broken shells of grove snails on an 'anvil' Foraging in hedgerow The song thrush is omnivorous, eating a wide range of invertebrates, especially earthworms and snails, as well as soft fruit and berries.", "Like its relative, the blackbird, the song thrush finds animal prey by sight, has a run-and-stop hunting technique on open ground, and will rummage through leaf-litter seeking potential food items.", "Land snails are an especially important food item when drought or hard weather makes it hard to find other food.", "The thrush often uses a favorite stone as an \" anvil \" on which to break the shell of the snail before extracting the soft body and invariably wiping it on the ground before consumption.", "Young birds initially flick objects and attempt to play with them until they learn to use anvils as tools to smash snails.", "The nestlings are mainly fed on animal food such as worms, slugs, snails and insect larvae.", "The grove snail is regularly eaten by the song thrush, and its polymorphic shell patterns have been suggested as evolutionary responses to reduce predation", "however, song thrushes may not be the only selective force involved.", "In New Zealand The song thrush has an extensive range, estimated at , and a large population, with an estimated 40 to 71 million individuals in Europe alone.", "In the western Palaearctic, there is evidence of population decline, but at a level below the threshold required for global conservation concern and the IUCN Red List categorises this species as of \" Least Concern \" .", "In Great Britain and the Netherlands, there has been a more than 50% decline in population, and the song thrush is included in regional Red Lists.", "The decreases are greatest in farmlands and believed to be due to changes in agricultural practices in recent decades.", "The precise reasons for the decline are not known but may be related to the loss of hedgerows, a move to sowing crops in autumn rather than spring, and possibly the increased use of pesticides.", "These changes may have reduced the availability of food and of nest sites.", "In gardens, the use of poison bait to control slugs and snails may pose a threat.", "In urban areas, some thrushes are killed while using the hard surface of roads to smash snails.", " Deleted image removed: upright", "West Bromwich Albion's former club crest, replaced in 2006 with a modified crest also featuring a song thrush The song thrush's characteristic song, with melodic phrases repeated twice or more, is described by the nineteenth-century British poet Robert Browning in his poem Home Thoughts, from Abroad: That's the wise thrush", "he sings each song twice over, Lest you should think he never could recapture The first fine careless rapture!", " The song also inspired the nineteenth-century British writer Thomas Hardy, who spoke in Darkling Thrush of the bird's \" full-hearted song evensong/Of joy illimited \" , but twentieth-century British poet Ted Hughes in Thrushes concentrated on its hunting prowess: \" Nothing but bounce and/stab/and a ravening second \" .", "Nineteenth-century Welsh poet Edward Thomas wrote 15 poems concerning blackbirds or thrushes, including The Thrush: I hear the thrush, and I see Him alone at the end of the lane Near the bare poplar's tip, Singing continuously.", " Dunfermline, Scotland In The Tables Turned, Romantic poet William Wordsworth references the song thrush, writing Hark, how blithe the throstle sings And he is no mean preacher Come forth into the light of things Let Nature be your teacher The song thrush is the emblem of West Bromwich Albion Football Club, chosen because the public house in which the team used to change kept a pet thrush in a cage.", "It also gave rise to Albion's early nickname, The Throstles.", "Thrushes have been trapped for food from as far back as 12,000 years ago and an early reference is found in the Odyssey: \" Then, as doves or thrushes beating their spread wings against some snare rigged up in thicketsflying in for a cosy nest but a grisly bed receives them.", "\" Hunting continues today around the Mediterranean, but is not believed to be a major factor in this species' decline in parts of its range.", "In Spain, this species is normally caught as it migrates through the country, often using birdlime which, although banned by the European Union, is still tolerated and permitted in the Valencian Community.", "In 2003 and 2004 the EU tried, but failed, to stop this practice in the Valencian region.", "Up to at least the nineteenth century the song thrush was kept as a cage bird because of its melodious voice.", "As with hunting, there is little evidence that the taking of wild birds for aviculture has had a significant effect on wild populations."]}, "Fulica atra": {"keywords": ["An extinct subspecies F. atra pontica, has been described from the Chalcolithic from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.", "The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.", "The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands.", "It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The nest is a bulky structure that either floats on the water or is built in shallow water on a low or barely submerged stump or log, making a neat, large bowl.", "Chick picking through wet leaves in Sweden .", "The coot is an omnivore, and will take a variety of small live prey including the eggs of other water birds, as well as algae, vegetation, seeds and fruit.", "In the water it may upend in the fashion of a mallard or dive in search of food."], "habitat_section": ["The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds.", "It occurs and breeds in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa.", "The species has recently expanded its range into New Zealand.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.", "The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands.", "It is an aggressive species, and strongly territorial during the breeding season, and both parents are involved in territorial defence.", "During the non-breeding season they may form large flocks, possibly related to predator avoidance.", "It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing.", "It does the same, but without actually flying, when travelling a short distance at speed in territorial disputes or on land to escape from intruders.", "As with many rails, its weak flight does not inspire confidence, but on migration, usually at night, it can cover surprisingly large distances.", "It bobs its head as it swims, and makes short dives from a little jump.", "When fighting other waterbirds , the coot attacks by charging its opponent and striking them with its long legs."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian coot , also known as the common coot, or Australian coot, is a member of the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae.", "It is found in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and parts of North Africa.", "It has a slaty-black body, a glossy black head and a white bill with a white frontal shield.", "Similar looking coot species are found throughout the world, with the largest variety of coot species living in South America.", "The Eurasian coot was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name Fulica atra.", "Linnaeus specified the locality as Europe but this is now restricted to Sweden.", "The binomial name is from Latin: Fulica means \" coot \" , and atra mean \" black \" .", "Four subspecies are recognised: An extinct subspecies F. atra pontica, has been described from the Chalcolithic from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.", "Legs and feet of Eurasian coot in St James's Park, London The Eurasian coot is in length with a wing-span of", "males weigh around and females .", "It is largely black except for the white bill and frontal shield .", "As a swimming species, the coot has partial webbing on its long strong toes.", "The sexes are similar in appearance.", "The juvenile is paler than the adult, has a whitish breast, and lacks the facial shield", "the adult black plumage develops when about 34 months old, but the white shield is only fully developed at about one year old.", "The Eurasian coot is a noisy bird with a wide repertoire of crackling, explosive, or trumpeting calls, often given at night.", "The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds.", "It occurs and breeds in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa.", "The species has recently expanded its range into New Zealand.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.", "The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands.", "It is an aggressive species, and strongly territorial during the breeding season, and both parents are involved in territorial defence.", "During the non-breeding season they may form large flocks, possibly related to predator avoidance.", "It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing.", "It does the same, but without actually flying, when travelling a short distance at speed in territorial disputes or on land to escape from intruders.", "As with many rails, its weak flight does not inspire confidence, but on migration, usually at night, it can cover surprisingly large distances.", "It bobs its head as it swims, and makes short dives from a little jump.", "When fighting other waterbirds , the coot attacks by charging its opponent and striking them with its long legs.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The nest is a bulky structure that either floats on the water or is built in shallow water on a low or barely submerged stump or log, making a neat, large bowl.", "It is constructed of plant stems and leaves with a lining of finer material. Normally concealed in vegetation the nest can sometimes be placed in the open.", "It is built by both sexes with the male collecting most of the material which is incorporated by the female.", "The eggs are laid at daily intervals.", "The clutch usually contains between six and ten smooth and slightly glossy buff coloured eggs that are covered with black or dark brown speckles.", "On average they are and weigh .", "The eggs are incubated by both sexes beginning after the second egg is laid and hatch asynchronously after 21 to 24 days.", "The chicks are precocial and nidifugous.", "The chicks are covered with a black down.", "On the body the down has yellow hair-like tips.", "On the sides of the head, nape and throat the hair-like tips are longer and orange-red.", "Between the eyes and on the lores, the tips are red.", "The shield is bright red and the bill is red with a white tip.", "The young are brooded by the female for the first three to four days during which time food is brought by the male.", "The male also builds one or more platforms that is used for roosting and brooding the chicks.", "On leaving the nest, the brood is sometimes split up with each parent taking care of a separate group.", "The young can feed themselves when they are around 30 days and fledge at 55 to 60 days.", "Eurasian coots normally only have a single brood each year but in some areas such as Britain they will sometimes attempt a second brood.", "They first breed when they are one to two years old.", "Chick mortality occurs mainly due to starvation rather than predation.", "Most chicks died in the first 10 days after hatching, when they are most dependent on adults for food.", "Coots can be very brutal to their own young under pressure such as the lack of food.", "They will bite young that are begging for food and repeatedly do this until it stops begging.", "If the begging continues, they may bite so hard that the chick is killed.", "Coots will also lay their eggs in the nests of other coots when their environment or physical condition limits their ability to breed, or to lengthen their reproductive life.", "adult with chicks, Trujillo, Spain Eurasian coot juvenile.", "chick in Marais Audomarois, France Baby Eurasian coot foraging .", "The coot is an omnivore, and will take a variety of small live prey including the eggs of other water birds, as well as algae, vegetation, seeds and fruit.", "It shows considerable variation in its feeding techniques, grazing on land or in the water.", "In the water it may upend in the fashion of a mallard or dive in search of food.", "The Eurasian coot is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies."]}, "Anas crecca": {"keywords": ["The Eurasian teal , common teal, or Eurasian green-winged teal is a common and widespread duck which breeds in temperate Eurosiberia and migrates south in winter.", "It is commonly found in sheltered wetlands and feeds on seeds and aquatic invertebrates.", "A proposed subspecies, A. c. nimia of the Aleutian Islands, differs only in slightly larger size, it is probably not distinct.", "As regards the type locality Linnaeus simply remarked that it inhabits freshwater ecosystems in Europe.", "Wintering birds at Purbasthali, Burdwan District of West Bengal The Eurasian teal breeds across the Palearctic and mostly winters well south of its breeding range.", "However, in the milder climate of temperate Europe, the summer and winter ranges overlap.", "For example, in the United Kingdom and Ireland a small summer population breeds, but far greater numbers of Siberian birds arrive in winter.", "In the Caucasus region, western Asia Minor, along the northern shores of the Black Sea, and even on the south coast of Iceland and on the Vestmannaeyjar, the species can be encountered all year, too.", "In winter, there are high densities around the Mediterranean, including the entire Iberian Peninsula and extending west to Mauretania, on Japan and Taiwan, as well as in South Asia.", "Other important wintering locations include almost the entire length of the Nile Valley, the Near East and Persian Gulf region, the mountain ranges of northern Iran, and South Korea and continental East and Southeast Asia.", "More isolated wintering grounds are Lake Victoria, the Senegal River estuary, the swamps of the upper Congo River, the inland and sea deltas of the Niger River, and the central Indus River valley.", "Vagrants have been seen in inland Zaire, Malaysia, on Greenland, and on the Marianas, Palau and Yap in Micronesia, they are regularly recorded on the North American coasts south to California and South Carolina.", "From tracking wintering teal in Italy, most individuals departed the wintering grounds between mid-February and March, using the Black-Sea-Mediterranean flyway to reach their breeding grounds, from central Europe to east of the Urals, by May.", "Its numbers are mainly assessed by counts of wintering birds, some 750,000 are recorded annually around the Mediterranean and Black Seas, 250,000 in temperate western Europe, and more than 110,000 in Japan.", "It appears to be holding its own currently, with its slow decline of maybe 12% annually in the 1990s presumably mainly due to drainage and pollution of wetlands not warranting action other than continuing to monitor the population and possibly providing better protection for habitat on the wintering grounds.", "In the breeding season, it is a common inhabitant of sheltered freshwater wetlands with some tall vegetation, such as taiga bogs or small lakes and ponds with extensive reedbeds.", "In winter, it is often seen in brackish waters and even in sheltered inlets and lagoons along the seashore.", "In the breeding season it eats mainly aquatic invertebrates, such as crustaceans, insects and their larvae, molluscs and worms.", "In winter, it shifts to a largely granivorous diet, feeding on seeds of aquatic plants and grasses, including sedges and grains.", "Diurnal throughout the breeding season, in winter they are often crepuscular or even nocturnal feeders.", "It nests on the ground, near water and under cover.", "The pairs form in the winter quarters and arrive on the breeding grounds together, starting about March.", "The nest is a deep hollow lined with dry leaves and down feathers, built in dense vegetation near water.", "After the females have started laying, the males leave them and move away for shorter or longer distances, assembling in flocks on particular lakes where they moult into eclipse plumage, they will usually encounter their offspring only in winter quarters."], "habitat_section": ["Wintering birds at Purbasthali, Burdwan District of West Bengal The Eurasian teal breeds across the Palearctic and mostly winters well south of its breeding range.", "However, in the milder climate of temperate Europe, the summer and winter ranges overlap.", "For example, in the United Kingdom and Ireland a small summer population breeds, but far greater numbers of Siberian birds arrive in winter.", "In the Caucasus region, western Asia Minor, along the northern shores of the Black Sea, and even on the south coast of Iceland and on the Vestmannaeyjar, the species can be encountered all year, too.", "In winter, there are high densities around the Mediterranean, including the entire Iberian Peninsula and extending west to Mauretania, on Japan and Taiwan, as well as in South Asia.", "Other important wintering locations include almost the entire length of the Nile Valley, the Near East and Persian Gulf region, the mountain ranges of northern Iran, and South Korea and continental East and Southeast Asia.", "More isolated wintering grounds are Lake Victoria, the Senegal River estuary, the swamps of the upper Congo River, the inland and sea deltas of the Niger River, and the central Indus River valley.", "Vagrants have been seen in inland Zaire, Malaysia, on Greenland, and on the Marianas, Palau and Yap in Micronesia, they are regularly recorded on the North American coasts south to California and South Carolina.", "From tracking wintering teal in Italy, most individuals departed the wintering grounds between mid-February and March, using the Black-Sea-Mediterranean flyway to reach their breeding grounds, from central Europe to east of the Urals, by May.", "This slow migration is due to long stopovers near the start of migration, mainly in south-eastern Europe.", "Altogether, the Eurasian teal is much less common than its American counterpart, though still very plentiful.", "Its numbers are mainly assessed by counts of wintering birds, some 750,000 are recorded annually around the Mediterranean and Black Seas, 250,000 in temperate western Europe, and more than 110,000 in Japan.", "It appears to be holding its own currently, with its slow decline of maybe 12% annually in the 1990s presumably mainly due to drainage and pollution of wetlands not warranting action other than continuing to monitor the population and possibly providing better protection for habitat on the wintering grounds.", "The IUCN and BirdLife International classify the Eurasian teal as a species of Least Concern, unchanged from their assessment before the split of the more numerous A. carolinensis.", "The Eurasian teal is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian teal , common teal, or Eurasian green-winged teal is a common and widespread duck which breeds in temperate Eurosiberia and migrates south in winter.", "The Eurasian teal is often called simply the teal due to being the only one of these small dabbling ducks in much of its range.", "The bird gives its name to the blue-green colour teal. It is a highly gregarious duck outside the breeding season and can form large flocks.", "It is commonly found in sheltered wetlands and feeds on seeds and aquatic invertebrates.", "The North American green-winged teal (A.", "carolinensis) was formerly considered a subspecies of A. crecca.", "The Eurasian teal belongs to the \" true \" teals, a group of small Anas dabbling ducks closely related to the mallard (A.", "that latter group in fact seems to have evolved from a true teal. It forms a superspecies with the green-winged teal and the speckled teal (A.", "A proposed subspecies, A. c. nimia of the Aleutian Islands, differs only in slightly larger size", "it is probably not distinct.", "Whether the Eurasian and green-winged teals are to be treated as one or two species is still being reviewed by the AOU, while the IUCN and BirdLife International separate them nowadays.", "Despite the almost identical and highly apomorphic nuptial plumage of their males, which continues to puzzle scientists, they seem well distinct species, as indicated by a wealth of behavioural, morphological and molecular data.", "The Eurasian teal was first scientifically named by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 edition of Systema naturae.", "His Latin description reads: macula alarum viridi, linea alba supra infraque oculos \" a duck with green speculum, a white line above and below the eyes \" and his primary reference was the bird's description in his earlier work Fauna Svecica.", "In fact, the description he used in Systema Naturae was the name under which the bird went in the Fauna Svecica, demonstrating the value of his new binomial nomenclature by compressing the long-winded names formerly used in biological classification into much simpler scientific names like Anas crecca.", "Linnaeus also noted in his description that earlier authors had already written about the Eurasan teal at length: Conrad Gessner had described it in the Historiae animalium as the anas parva among his querquedulae ", "Ulisse Aldrovandi had called it phascade or querquedula minor , and was duly referenced by Francis Willughby who named the species querquedula secunda Aldrovandi .", "John Ray may be credited with formally introducing the name \" common teal \" , while Eleazar Albin called it simply \" the teal \" .", "As regards the type locality Linnaeus simply remarked that it inhabits freshwater ecosystems in Europe.", "The specific name of Linnaeus is onomatopoetic, referring to the male's characteristic call which was already discussed by Linnaeus' sources.", "The scientific name of the Eurasian tealunchanged since Linnaeus' time therefore translates as \" duck that makes cryc \"", "common names like the Bokmal krikkand, Danish krikand and German Krickente mean the same.", "Male in nuptial plumage and female.", "Male has the wide white wing stripe and conspicuous face markings, which gave the colour teal its name.", "The Eurasian teal is one of the smallest extant dabbling ducks at length and with an average weight of in drake and in hens .", "The wings are long, yielding a wingspan of .", "The bill measures in length, and the tarsus .", "From a distance, the drakes in nuptial plumage appear grey, with a dark head, a yellowish behind, and a white stripe running along the flanks.", "Their head and upper neck is chestnut, with a wide and iridescent dark green patch of half-moon- or teardrop-shape that starts immediately before the eye and arcs to the upper hindneck.", "The patch is bordered with thin yellowish-white lines, and a single line of that colour extends from the patch's forward end, curving along the base of the bill.", "The breast is buff with small round brown spots.", "The center of the belly is white, and the rest of the body plumage is mostly white with thin and dense blackish vermiculations, appearing medium grey even at a short distance.", "The outer scapular feathers are white, with a black border to the outer vanes, and form the white side-stripe when the bird is in resting position.", "The primary remiges are dark greyish brown", "the speculum feathers are iridescent blackish-green with white tips, and form the speculum together with the yellowish-white tips of the larger upperwing coverts .", "The underwing is whitish, with grey remiges, dense dark spotting on the inner coverts and a dark leading edge.", "The tail and tail coverts are black, with a bright yellowish-buff triangular patch in the center of the coverts at each side.", "In non-breeding plumage, the drake looks more like the hen", "it is more uniform in colour, with a dark head and vestigial facial markings.", "The hen itself is yellowish-brown, somewhat darker on wings and back.", "It has a dark greyish-brown upper head, hindneck, eyestripe and feather pattern.", "The pattern is dense short streaks on the head and neck, and scaly spots on the rest of the body", "overall they look much like a tiny mallard (A.", "platyrhynchos) hen when at rest.", "The wings are coloured similar to the drake's, but with brown instead of grey upperwing coverts that have less wide tips, and wider tips of the speculum feathers.", "The hen's rectrices have yellowish-white tips", "the midbelly is whitish with some dark streaking.", "Immatures are coloured much like hens, but have a stronger pattern.", "The downy young are coloured like in other dabbling ducks: brown above and yellow below, with a yellow supercilium.", "They are recognizable by their tiny size however, weighing just at hatching.", "The drake's bill is dark grey, in eclipse plumage often with some light greenish or brownish hue at the base.", "The bill of hens and immatures is pinkish or yellowish at the base, becoming dark grey towards the tip", "the grey expands basewards as the birds age.", "The feet are dark grey in males and greyish olive or greyish-brown in females and immatures.", "The iris is always brown.", "Male in eclipse resembles female, but with darker upperparts and grey bill.", "Flight feathers are moulted simultaneously and birds are flightless for up to 4 weeks.", "This is a noisy species.", "The male whistles cryc or creelycc, not loud but very clear and far-carrying.", "The female has a feeble keh or neeh quack.", "Males in nuptial plumage are distinguished from green-winged teals by the horizontal white scapular stripe, the lack of a vertical white bar at the breast sides, and the quite conspicuous light outlines of the face patch, which are indistinct in the green-winged teal drake.", "Males in eclipse plumage, females and immatures are best recognised by their small size, calls, and the speculum", "they are hard to tell apart from the green-winged teal however.", "Wintering birds at Purbasthali, Burdwan District of West Bengal The Eurasian teal breeds across the Palearctic and mostly winters well south of its breeding range.", "However, in the milder climate of temperate Europe, the summer and winter ranges overlap.", "For example, in the United Kingdom and Ireland a small summer population breeds, but far greater numbers of Siberian birds arrive in winter.", "In the Caucasus region, western Asia Minor, along the northern shores of the Black Sea, and even on the south coast of Iceland and on the Vestmannaeyjar, the species can be encountered all year, too.", "In winter, there are high densities around the Mediterranean, including the entire Iberian Peninsula and extending west to Mauretania", "as well as in South Asia.", "Other important wintering locations include almost the entire length of the Nile Valley, the Near East and Persian Gulf region, the mountain ranges of northern Iran, and South Korea and continental East and Southeast Asia.", "More isolated wintering grounds are Lake Victoria, the Senegal River estuary, the swamps of the upper Congo River, the inland and sea deltas of the Niger River, and the central Indus River valley.", "Vagrants have been seen in inland Zaire, Malaysia, on Greenland, and on the Marianas, Palau and Yap in Micronesia", "they are regularly recorded on the North American coasts south to California and South Carolina.", "From tracking wintering teal in Italy, most individuals departed the wintering grounds between mid-February and March, using the Black-Sea-Mediterranean flyway to reach their breeding grounds, from central Europe to east of the Urals, by May.", "This slow migration is due to long stopovers near the start of migration, mainly in south-eastern Europe.", "Altogether, the Eurasian teal is much less common than its American counterpart, though still very plentiful.", "Its numbers are mainly assessed by counts of wintering birds", "some 750,000 are recorded annually around the Mediterranean and Black Seas, 250,000 in temperate western Europe, and more than 110,000 in Japan.", "It appears to be holding its own currently, with its slow decline of maybe 12% annually in the 1990s presumably mainly due to drainage and pollution of wetlands not warranting action other than continuing to monitor the population and possibly providing better protection for habitat on the wintering grounds.", "The IUCN and BirdLife International classify the Eurasian teal as a species of Least Concern, unchanged from their assessment before the split of the more numerous A. carolinensis.", "The Eurasian teal is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "Eggs This dabbling duck is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and will form large flocks.", "In flight, the fast, twisting flocks resemble waders", "despite its short legs, it is also rather nimble on the ground by ducks' standards.", "In the breeding season, it is a common inhabitant of sheltered freshwater wetlands with some tall vegetation, such as taiga bogs or small lakes and ponds with extensive reedbeds.", "In winter, it is often seen in brackish waters and even in sheltered inlets and lagoons along the seashore.", "The Eurasian teal usually feeds by dabbling, upending or grazing", "it may submerge its head and on occasion even dive to reach food.", "In the breeding season it eats mainly aquatic invertebrates, such as crustaceans, insects and their larvae, molluscs and worms.", "In winter, it shifts to a largely granivorous diet, feeding on seeds of aquatic plants and grasses, including sedges and grains.", "Diurnal throughout the breeding season, in winter they are often crepuscular or even nocturnal feeders.", "It nests on the ground, near water and under cover.", "The pairs form in the winter quarters and arrive on the breeding grounds together, starting about March.", "The breeding starts some weeks thereafter, not until May in the most northernly locations.", "The nest is a deep hollow lined with dry leaves and down feathers, built in dense vegetation near water.", "After the females have started laying, the males leave them and move away for shorter or longer distances, assembling in flocks on particular lakes where they moult into eclipse plumage", "they will usually encounter their offspring only in winter quarters.", "The clutch may consist of 516 eggs, but usually numbers 811", "they are incubated for 2123 days.", "The young leave the nest soon after hatching and are attended by the mother for about 2530 days, after which they fledge.", "The drakes and the hens with young generally move to the winter quarters separately.", "After the first winter, the young moult into adult plumage.", "The maximum recorded lifespan though it is not clear whether this refers to the common or the green-winged tealwas over 27 years, which is rather high for such a small bird."]}, "Emberiza citrinella": {"keywords": ["The yellowhammer is common in open areas with some shrubs or trees, and forms small flocks in winter.", "Yellowhammers feed on the ground, usually in flocks outside the breeding season.", "The pine bunting and yellowhammer are so closely related that each responds to the other's song.", "It is the commonest and most widespread European bunting, although it is absent from high mountains, Arctic regions, the western Netherlands, most of Iberia and Greece, and low-lying regions of other countries adjoining the Mediterranean Sea.", "), the Balearic Islands, Iceland, and the Faroes.", "and soon spread over the main islands.", "They sometimes visit New Zealand's subantarctic islands, although rarely staying to breed, and have reached Australia's Lord Howe Island on a number of occasions.", "Populations of yellowhammer have also been introduced to the Falkland Islands and South Africa.", "The yellowhammer is a bird of dry, open country, preferably with a range of vegetation types and some trees from which to sing.", "It is absent from urban areas, forests, and wetlands.", "Probably originally found at forest edges and large clearing, it has benefited from traditional agriculture, which created extensive open areas with hedges and clumps of trees.", "The nest is built by the female on or near the ground, and is typically well hidden in tussocks, against a bank or low in a bush.", "It is constructed from nearby plant material, such as leaves, dry grass, and stalks, and is lined with fine grasses and sometimes animal hair.", "Typical food plants include common nettle, docks, common knotgrass, fat hen, common chickweed, and yarrow.", "Grasses are also important, particularly cereals, and grain makes up a significant part of the food consumed in autumn and winter, wheat and oats being preferred to barley.", "The yellowhammer adds invertebrates to its diet in the breeding season, particularly as food for its growing chicks.", "It is not a significant host of the common cuckoo, a brood parasite, although as a ground-nesting bird, its eggs and chicks are vulnerable to predation from small mammals such as mice and other rodents.", "In early spring, when winds blow chilly cold, The yellowhammer, trailing grass, will come To fix a place and choose an early home, With yellow breast and head of solid gold."], "habitat_section": ["Traditional farmland provides good habitat for nesting and feeding.", "thumb The yellowhammer breeds across the Palearctic between the July isotherms.", "It is the commonest and most widespread European bunting, although it is absent from high mountains, Arctic regions, the western Netherlands, most of Iberia and Greece, and low-lying regions of other countries adjoining the Mediterranean Sea.", "It breeds in Russia east to Irkutsk, and in most of Ukraine.", "The Asian range extends into northwest Turkey, the Caucasus, and northern Kazakhstan.", "), the Balearic Islands, Iceland, and the Faroes.", "and soon spread over the main islands.", "They sometimes visit New Zealand's subantarctic islands, although rarely staying to breed, and have reached Australia's Lord Howe Island on a number of occasions.", "At the beginning of the 20th century, this bunting was seen as a serious agricultural pest in its adopted country.", "Populations of yellowhammer have also been introduced to the Falkland Islands and South Africa.", "The yellowhammer is a bird of dry, open country, preferably with a range of vegetation types and some trees from which to sing.", "It is absent from urban areas, forests, and wetlands.", "Probably originally found at forest edges and large clearing, it has benefited from traditional agriculture, which created extensive open areas with hedges and clumps of trees.", "The International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates the European population of the yellowhammer to be from 5493 million individuals, suggesting a Eurasian total of 73186 million birds.", "Although the population appears to be in a decline, the decrease is not rapid enough to trigger their vulnerability criteria.", "The large numbers and huge breeding range of about 12.9 million km 2 , mean that this bunting is classified by the IUCN as being of least concern.", "In 2016 the species went extinct on the Isle of Man.", "In eastern Europe, numbers appear to be stable, although the trend in Russia is unknown.", "Changes to agricultural practices are thought to be responsible for reduced breeding densities."], "random_sentences": ["Emberiza citrinella The yellowhammer is a passerine bird in the bunting family that is native to Eurasia and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia.", "Most European birds remain in the breeding range year-round, but the eastern subspecies is partially migratory, with much of the population wintering further south.", "The male yellowhammer has a bright yellow head, streaked brown back, chestnut rump, and yellow under parts.", "Other plumages are duller versions of the same pattern.", "The yellowhammer is common in open areas with some shrubs or trees, and forms small flocks in winter.", "Its song has a rhythm like \" A little bit of bread and no cheese \" .", "The song is very similar to that of its closest relative, the pine bunting, with which it interbreeds.", "Breeding commences mainly in April and May, with the female building a lined cup nest in a concealed location on or near the ground.", "The three to five eggs are patterned with a mesh of fine dark lines, giving rise to the old name for the bird of \" scribble lark \" or \" writing lark \" .", "The female incubates the eggs for 1214 days prior to hatching, and broods the altricial downy chicks until they fledge 1113 days later.", "Both adults feed the chick in the nest and raise two or three broods each year.", "The nest may be raided by rodents or corvids, and the adults are hunted by birds of prey.", "Yellowhammers feed on the ground, usually in flocks outside the breeding season.", "Their diet is mainly seeds, supplemented by invertebrates in the breeding season.", "Changes to agricultural practices have led to population declines in western Europe, but its large numbers and huge range mean that the yellowhammer is classed as being of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.", "This conspicuous yellow bird has inspired poems by Robert Burns and John Clare, and its characteristic song has influenced musical works by Beethoven and Messiaen.", "Children's writer Enid Blyton helped to popularise the standard English representation of the song.", "The yellowhammer was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under its current scientific name.", "Emberiza is derived from the Old German Embritz, a bunting, and citrinella is the Italian for a small yellow bird.", "The English name is thought to have come from Ammer, another German word for a bunting, and was first recorded in 1553 as yelambre.", "The bird family Emberizidae contains a single genus Emberiza, with around 40 members, that are confined to the Old World.", "Within its genus, the yellowhammer is most closely related to the pine bunting, with which it forms a superspecies", "they have at times been considered as one species.", "The white-capped and cirl buntings are also near relatives of the species pair.", "Where their ranges meet, the yellowhammer and pine bunting interbreed", "the yellowhammer is dominant, and the hybrid zone is moving further east.", "Male E. c. caliginosa Female", "upright Emberiza citrinella The yellowhammer is a large bunting, long, with a wingspan", "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.", "The female is less brightly coloured, and more streaked on the crown, breast, and flanks.", "Both sexes are less strongly marked outside the breeding season, when the dark fringes on new feathers obscure the yellow plumage.", "The juvenile is much duller and less yellow than the adults, and often has a paler rump.", "After breeding, adults have a complete moult, which takes at least eight weeks", "males acquire more yellow in the plumage each time they moult.", "Juveniles have a partial moult not long after fledging, replacing the head, body, and some covert feathers.", "Distinguishing females of the three subspecies using plumage features is not usually possible.", "Females and juveniles, especially of the pale eastern subspecies, E. c. erythrogenys, may be confused with pine buntings, but they always have a yellow tint to their plumage, a paler rufous rump, and more uniform upperparts than that species.", "Young and female yellowhammers can be distinguished from cirl buntings by the grey-brown rump of the latter species.", "The song of the cock yellowhammer is a series of short notes, gradually increasing in volume and followed by one or two more protracted notes.", "It is often represented as \" A little bit of bread and no cheese \" , and the full version can be confused with the almost identical song of the pine bunting.", "If the final notes are omitted, confusion with the cirl bunting is possible.", "Other vocalisations include a zit contact call, a see alarm, and a trilled tirrr given in flight.", "females tend to mate with males that share their dialect, and prefer those with the largest repertoires.", "The pine bunting and yellowhammer are so closely related that each responds to the other's song.", "The male yellowhammer's song is more attractive to females, and is one reason for the dominance of that species where the ranges overlap.", "Traditional farmland provides good habitat for nesting and feeding.", "thumb The yellowhammer breeds across the Palearctic between the July isotherms.", "It is the commonest and most widespread European bunting, although it is absent from high mountains, Arctic regions, the western Netherlands, most of Iberia and Greece, and low-lying regions of other countries adjoining the Mediterranean Sea.", "It breeds in Russia east to Irkutsk, and in most of Ukraine.", "The Asian range extends into northwest Turkey, the Caucasus, and northern Kazakhstan.", "), the Balearic Islands, Iceland, and the Faroes.", "and soon spread over the main islands.", "They sometimes visit New Zealand's subantarctic islands, although rarely staying to breed, and have reached Australia's Lord Howe Island on a number of occasions.", "At the beginning of the 20th century, this bunting was seen as a serious agricultural pest in its adopted country.", "Populations of yellowhammer have also been introduced to the Falkland Islands and South Africa.", "The yellowhammer is a bird of dry, open country, preferably with a range of vegetation types and some trees from which to sing.", "It is absent from urban areas, forests, and wetlands.", "Probably originally found at forest edges and large clearing, it has benefited from traditional agriculture, which created extensive open areas with hedges and clumps of trees.", "Eggs Breeding normally starts in early May, but often in April in the south of the range.", "Yellowhammers are monogamous and breed when aged one year.", "The males establish territories along hedges or woodland fringes and sing from a tree or bush, often continuing well into July or August.", "The male displays to the female by raising his wings and running towards her.", "The nest is built by the female on or near the ground, and is typically well hidden in tussocks, against a bank or low in a bush.", "It is constructed from nearby plant material, such as leaves, dry grass, and stalks, and is lined with fine grasses and sometimes animal hair.", "It is across with a cup deep.", "The female incubates the eggs for 1214 days to hatching, and broods the altricial, downy chicks until they fledge 1113 days later.", "Both adults feed the chick in the nest and two or three broods are raised each year.", "Foraging is mainly on the ground, and the bird's diet consists mainly of seeds.", "Oily seeds, such as those of brassicas, are ignored in favour of more starchy items.", "Typical food plants include common nettle, docks, common knotgrass, fat hen, common chickweed, and yarrow.", "Grasses are also important, particularly cereals, and grain makes up a significant part of the food consumed in autumn and winter, wheat and oats being preferred to barley.", "When not breeding, yellowhammers forage in flocks that can occasionally number hundreds of birds, and often contain other buntings and finches.", "The yellowhammer adds invertebrates to its diet in the breeding season, particularly as food for its growing chicks.", "A wide range of species is taken, including springtails, grasshoppers, flies, beetles, caterpillars, earthworms, spiders, and snails.", "During the first few days, chicks are exclusively fed invertebrate prey, but from day three they are also fed cereal grains, which the chicks can digest efficiently.", "This is thought to be intentional by the parents to allow the nestlings to adjust their physiology to eating seed.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a predator of the yellowhammer.", "Predators of the yellowhammer include the sparrowhawk, northern goshawk, lesser spotted eagle, and hobby.", "It is not a significant host of the common cuckoo, a brood parasite, although as a ground-nesting bird, its eggs and chicks are vulnerable to predation from small mammals such as mice and other rodents.", "Nests are also raided by crows, Eurasian jays, and Eurasian magpies.", "Predation accounted for more than 60% of nest failures in a 2012 survey in Germany.", "Thirteen species of fleas in the genera Ceratophyllus and Dasypsyllus have been found on this bunting, and internal parasites include Ascaridia galli.", "The yellowhammer may carry haematozoan blood parasites such as Haemoproteus coatneyi.", "Males with high parasite levels produced fewer offspring , and tend to be less brightly coloured.", "The striking plumage of the male may therefore have arisen as a signal of fitness to breed.", "Yellowhammers infected with Haemoproteus may have lower winter survival rates due to a tendency to having shorter wings.", "The International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates the European population of the yellowhammer to be from 5493 million individuals, suggesting a Eurasian total of 73186 million birds.", "Although the population appears to be in a decline, the decrease is not rapid enough to trigger their vulnerability criteria.", "The large numbers and huge breeding range of about 12.9 million km 2 , mean that this bunting is classified by the IUCN as being of least concern.", "In 2016 the species went extinct on the Isle of Man.", "In eastern Europe, numbers appear to be stable, although the trend in Russia is unknown.", "Changes to agricultural practices are thought to be responsible for reduced breeding densities.", "John Clare wrote two poems about the yellowhammer.", "The yellowhammer is a conspicuous, vocal, and formerly common country bird, and has attracted human interest.", "Yellowham Wood and Yellowham Hill, near Dorchester, both derive their names from the bird.", "Robbie Burns' poem \" The Yellow, Yellow Yorlin' \" gets its title from a Scottish name for the yellowhammer, which is given an obvious sexual connotation: \" I met a pretty maid, an' unto her I said,/ 'I wad fain fin' your yellow, yellow yorlin'.", "' \" More factual descriptions of the bird and its behaviour can be found in John Clare's \" The Yellowhammer's Nest \" and \" The Yellowhammer \" , whose final lines read: In early spring, when winds blow chilly cold, The yellowhammer, trailing grass, will come To fix a place and choose an early home, With yellow breast and head of solid gold.", " Enid Blyton helped to popularize the bird's song as \" little bit of bread and no cheese \" in books such as The Ship of Adventure and Five Go Off in a Caravan, and wrote a poem called \" The Yellow-hammer \" .", "Beethoven's student, Carl Czerny, and biographer Anton Schindler, both suggested that the composer got the idea for the first four notes of his 5th symphony from the yellowhammer's call, although more likely the opening of the 4th Piano Concerto was actually the work in question.", "Beethoven also used the yellowhammer theme in two piano sonatas, no.", "21 in C major (the \" Waldstein \" , Op.", "23 in F minor (the \" Appassionata \" , Op.", "Catalogue d'oiseaux, La fauvette des jardins and Meditations sur le mystere de la Sainte Trinite, appearing in four movements of the last piece.", "An old legend links the yellowhammer to the devil.", "Its tongue was supposed to bear a drop of his blood, and the intricate pattern on the eggs was said to carry a concealed, possibly evil, message", "these satanic associations sometimes led to the persecution of the bird.", "The unusual appearance of the eggs also led to the names of Scribble Lark or Scribble Jack, alternative titles for the bird."]}, "Anthus spinoletta": {"keywords": ["The water pipit 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.", "Water pipits construct a cup-like nest on the ground under vegetation or in cliff crevices and lay four to six speckled grey-ish white eggs, which hatch in about two weeks with a further 1415 days to fledging.", "Although pipits occasionally catch insects in flight, they feed mainly on small invertebrates picked off the ground or vegetation, and also some plant material. The water pipit may be hunted by birds of prey, infested by parasites such as fleas, or act as an involuntary host to the common cuckoo, but overall its population is large and stable, and it is therefore evaluated as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature .", "Their similar appearances have led to taxonomic problems, the water pipit and the buff-bellied pipit were both formerly considered subspecies of the European rock pipit.", "Of these, the rock pipit is the more closely related to the water pipit, based on external and molecular characteristics.", "Anthus is the Latin name for a small bird of grasslands, and the specific spinoletta is a local dialect word for a pipit from the Florence area of Italy.", "Wintering Anthus spinoletta blakistoni at Tal Chhapar Sanctuary There are three recognised subspecies of the water pipit.", "The water pipit is closely related to the Eurasian rock pipit and the meadow pipit, The habitats used by European rock and water pipits are completely separate in the breeding season, and there is little overlap even when birds are not nesting.", "The European rock pipit's subspecies Anthus petrosus littoralis in summer plumage is particularly close in outward appearance to the water pipit.", "The call of the water pipit is a single or double sharp \" dzip \" or similar, slightly harsher than soft sip sip sip of the meadow pipit or the shrill pseep of the European rock pipit.", "The short, thin fist flight call is intermediate between the sip of the meadow pipit and the rock pipit's feest.", "In typical breeding habitat The breeding range of the water pipit is the mountains of southern Europe and Asia from Spain to central China, along with the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica.", "The water pipit is predominantly a mountain species in the breeding season, found in alpine pasture and high meadows with short grass and some bushes or rocks.", "It is typically found close to wetter areas and often on slopes.", "It migrates relatively short distances in autumn to lower ground, typically wintering on coastal wetlands, marshes, rice fields and similar habitats.", "Nominate A. s. spinoletta winters mainly in western and southern Europe and in northwestern Africa, in western Europe some birds show fidelity to the same wintering site, returning each year.", "Birds in Spain appear to move only lower down the mountains in which they breed.", "coutellii winters at lower altitudes near its breeding areas and also in the Arabian Peninsula and northeast Africa.", "blakistoni winters in Pakistan, northwest India and southern China.", "The water pipit has been recorded as a vagrant in Belarus, Gibraltar and Latvia, and on islands including the Canaries, Iceland, Malta and Svalbard.", "The water pipit is a much less approachable bird as compared to the European rock pipit.", "It is warier than its relative and if approached it flies some distance before landing again, whereas the rock pipit typically travels only a short distance, close to the ground, before it alights.", "The nest is hidden in vegetation on the ground, sometimes in a hollow.", "Glacier fleas are a prey item found on snow fields The water pipit's feeding habitat is damp grassland, rather than the rocky coasts favoured by the Eurasian rock pipit.", "The water pipit feeds mainly on a wide range of invertebrates, including crickets and grasshoppers, beetles, snails, millipedes and spiders.", "Birds close to snow fields take insects specialised for that habitat such as the springtails Isotoma saltans and I. nivalis, and the scorpion fly Boreus izyemalis.", "In areas with acidic soils, there is less calcium available, potentially leading to thinner egg shells.", "In such locations, pipits are more likely to select snails and similar prey with calcium-rich shells than is the case in limestone terrain.", "A new species of feather mite, Proctophyllodes schwerinensis, was discovered on the water pipit, which is also a host to the fleas Ceratophyllus borealis and Dasypsyllus gallinulae.", "The range is discontinuous due to the mountain habitat this species uses, but the population is considered overall to be large and stable, and for this reason the water pipit is evaluated as a species of least concern by the IUCN. Breeding densities have been recorded as 2.4 in the Jura Mountains, 3.03.6 in the Alps and 4.5 in the Tatra Mountains of Poland."], "habitat_section": ["In typical breeding habitat The breeding range of the water pipit is the mountains of southern Europe and Asia from Spain to central China, along with the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica.", "The water pipit is predominantly a mountain species in the breeding season, found in alpine pasture and high meadows with short grass and some bushes or rocks.", "It is typically found close to wetter areas and often on slopes.", "It breeds between altitude, mostly .", "It migrates relatively short distances in autumn to lower ground, typically wintering on coastal wetlands, marshes, rice fields and similar habitats.", "Although most birds move to lowlands, some may remain at up to .", "Nominate A. s. spinoletta winters mainly in western and southern Europe and in northwestern Africa, in western Europe some birds show fidelity to the same wintering site, returning each year.", "Birds in Spain appear to move only lower down the mountains in which they breed.", "coutellii winters at lower altitudes near its breeding areas and also in the Arabian Peninsula and northeast Africa.", "blakistoni winters in Pakistan, northwest India and southern China.", "Water pipits leave their breeding sites from mid-September, although the eastern subspecies may start moving south before then.", "The spring migration starts in February and March, with arrival on the breeding grounds in April and May.", "The water pipit has been recorded as a vagrant in Belarus, Gibraltar and Latvia, and on islands including the Canaries, Iceland, Malta and Svalbard."], "random_sentences": ["The water pipit 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 , and the outer tail feathers are white.", "In winter, the head is grey-brown, the supercilium is duller, the upperparts are more streaked, and the underparts are white, streaked lightly with brown on the breast and flanks.", "There are only minor differences among the three subspecies, the sexes are almost identical, and young birds resemble adults.", "The water pipit's song is delivered from a perch or in flight, and consists of four or five blocks, each consisting of about six repetitions of a different short note.", "Water pipits construct a cup-like nest on the ground under vegetation or in cliff crevices and lay four to six speckled grey-ish white eggs, which hatch in about two weeks with a further 1415 days to fledging.", "Although pipits occasionally catch insects in flight, they feed mainly on small invertebrates picked off the ground or vegetation, and also some plant material. The water pipit may be hunted by birds of prey, infested by parasites such as fleas, or act as an involuntary host to the common cuckoo, but overall its population is large and stable, and it is therefore evaluated as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature .", "The family Motacillidae consists of the wagtails, pipits and longclaws.", "The largest of the three groups is the pipits, genus Anthus, which are typically brown-plumaged terrestrial insectivores.", "Their similar appearances have led to taxonomic problems", "the water pipit and the buff-bellied pipit were both formerly considered subspecies of the European rock pipit.", "Of these, the rock pipit is the more closely related to the water pipit, based on external and molecular characteristics.", "Other near relatives are the meadow, red-throated and rosy pipits.", "The water pipit was first described by Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae in 1758 as Alauda spinoletta .", "The current genus Anthus was created for the pipits by German naturalist Johann Matthaus Bechstein in 1805.", "Anthus is the Latin name for a small bird of grasslands, and the specific spinoletta is a local dialect word for a pipit from the Florence area of Italy.", "Wintering Anthus spinoletta blakistoni at Tal Chhapar Sanctuary There are three recognised subspecies of the water pipit: A possible fourth race from the northwestern Caucasus, Anthus spinoletta caucasicus, cannot be reliably separated from A.s. coutellii.", "The latter form is itself a potential new species, based on genetic data, appearance and a characteristic flight call.", "The water pipit is long and weighs .", "The adult of the nominate race in spring plumage has greyish-brown upperparts, weakly streaked with darker brown, and pale pink-buff underparts fading to whitish on the lower belly.", "There may be some faint streaking on the breast and flanks.", "The head is grey with a broad white supercilium.", "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.", "Young birds resembles the non-breeding adult, but are browner and more streaked above with prominent streaking on the underparts.", "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.", "This moult typically involves replacing the head, body and some wing feathers, but the extent is again variable.", "Very occasionally, females may moult into what looks like non-breeding plumage, rather than the expected brighter garb.", "The chicks start to gain juvenile plumage as soon as a month after hatching, and most have completed the transition to near-adult appearance by September.", "The first pre-breeding moult is similar to that of the adult, but may be less complete or even absent.", "The water pipit is closely related to the Eurasian rock pipit and the meadow pipit, The habitats used by European 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 European 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,", "The water pipit's song is delivered from a perch or in flight, and consists of four or five blocks, each consisting of about half a dozen repetitions of a different short note.", "The call of the water pipit is a single or double sharp \" dzip \" or similar, slightly harsher than soft sip sip sip of the meadow pipit or the shrill pseep of the European rock pipit.", "The short, thin fist flight call is intermediate between the sip of the meadow pipit and the rock pipit's feest.", "The differences between the calls of the pipit species are very subtle, and not diagnostic in the absence of other evidence.", "The flight call of the subspecies A. s. coutellii is shorter and more buzzing than that of the nominate race.", "In typical breeding habitat The breeding range of the water pipit is the mountains of southern Europe and Asia from Spain to central China, along with the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica.", "The water pipit is predominantly a mountain species in the breeding season, found in alpine pasture and high meadows with short grass and some bushes or rocks.", "It is typically found close to wetter areas and often on slopes.", "It breeds between altitude, mostly .", "It migrates relatively short distances in autumn to lower ground, typically wintering on coastal wetlands, marshes, rice fields and similar habitats.", "Although most birds move to lowlands, some may remain at up to .", "Nominate A. s. spinoletta winters mainly in western and southern Europe and in northwestern Africa", "in western Europe some birds show fidelity to the same wintering site, returning each year.", "Birds in Spain appear to move only lower down the mountains in which they breed.", "A.s. coutellii winters at lower altitudes near its breeding areas and also in the Arabian Peninsula and northeast Africa.", "A.s. blakistoni winters in Pakistan, northwest India and southern China.", "Water pipits leave their breeding sites from mid-September, although the eastern subspecies may start moving south before then.", "The spring migration starts in February and March, with arrival on the breeding grounds in April and May.", "The water pipit has been recorded as a vagrant in Belarus, Gibraltar and Latvia, and on islands including the Canaries, Iceland, Malta and Svalbard.", "The water pipit is a much less approachable bird as compared to the European rock pipit.", "It is warier than its relative and if approached it flies some distance before landing again, whereas the rock pipit typically travels only a short distance, close to the ground, before it alights.", "Egg in Museum Wiesbaden The water pipit is mainly monogamous, although both sexes may deviate from this occasionally.", "The male has a display flight in which he climbs to , flies in an arc and glides back down, singing throughout.", "The female constructs a cup nest from grass and leaves which is lined with finer plant material and animal hairs.", "The nest is hidden in vegetation on the ground, sometimes in a hollow.", "The normal clutch is four to six eggs laid from the end of April to early July.", "The eggs are incubated by the female for 1415 days to hatching.", "Chicks are fed initially by the male, both parents sharing the duty after a few days when the female does not need to brood so often, and they fledge in a further 1415 days.", "There may be two broods in a year.", "In a Swiss study of the nominate subspecies, 76% of eggs hatched, and 58% of chicks fledged.", "Birds of the race A. s. blakistoni in the Tian Shan hatched 90% of their eggs, and hatchlings survived to fledging in 47% of the nests.", "In the latter study, early nests were more likely to fail because less plant cover made them more likely to be found by predators.", "Neither the average lifespan nor the maximum age of survival are known.", "Glacier fleas are a prey item found on snow fields The water pipit's feeding habitat is damp grassland, rather than the rocky coasts favoured by the Eurasian rock pipit.", "The water pipit feeds mainly on a wide range of invertebrates, including crickets and grasshoppers, beetles, snails, millipedes and spiders.", "Barkflies, true flies, caterpillars and homopterans can form a large part of the diet of fledglings.", "Birds close to snow fields take insects specialised for that habitat such as the springtails Isotoma saltans and I. nivalis, and the scorpion fly Boreus izyemalis.", "In areas with acidic soils, there is less calcium available, potentially leading to thinner egg shells.", "In such locations, pipits are more likely to select snails and similar prey with calcium-rich shells than is the case in limestone terrain.", "The water pipit is hunted by birds of prey including the Eleonora's falcon, and eggs and young may be taken by terrestrial predators including stoats and snakes.", "A new species of feather mite, Proctophyllodes schwerinensis, was discovered on the water pipit, which is also a host to the fleas Ceratophyllus borealis and Dasypsyllus gallinulae.", "Along with other Motacillidae species, the water pipit is a host of the protozoan parasite Haemoproteus anthi.", "Estimates of the European breeding population of the water pipit vary widely, but may be as high as two million pairs, which would suggest a global population of tens of millions of individuals spread over .", "The range is discontinuous due to the mountain habitat this species uses, but the population is considered overall to be large and stable, and for this reason the water pipit is evaluated as a species of least concern by the IUCN.", "Breeding densities have been recorded as 2.4 in the Jura Mountains, 3.03.6 in the Alps and 4.5 in the Tatra Mountains of Poland."]}, "Dendrocopos major": {"keywords": ["This species is found across the Palearctic including parts of North Africa.", "Across most of its range it is resident, but in the north some will migrate if the conifer cone crop fails.", "This woodpecker occurs in all types of woodlands and eats a variety of foods, being capable of extracting seeds from pine cones, insect larvae from inside trees or eggs and chicks of other birds from their nests.", "The bill is slate-black, the legs greenish-grey and the eye is deep red.", "D. m. canariensis and D. m. thanneri in the Canary Islands are similar to the Iberian race but have contrasting white flanks.", "In Morocco, D. m. mauritanus is pale below with red in the centre of its breast, and birds breeding at higher altitudes are larger and darker than those lower in the hills.", "Northern D. m. major starts its moult from mid-June to late July and finishes in October or November, temperate races like D. m. pinetorum are earlier, commencing in early June to mid-July and completing in mid-September to late October, and southern D. m. hispanicus starts late May or June and finishes as early as August.", "The species ranges across Eurasia from the British Isles to Japan, and in North Africa from Morocco to Tunisia, it is absent only from those areas too cold or dry to have suitable woodland habitat.", "It is found in a wide variety of woodlands, broadleaf, coniferous or mixed, and in modified habitats like parks, gardens and olive groves.", "It occurs from sea level to the tree line, up to in Europe, in Morocco and in Central Asia.", "Highland populations often descend to lower altitudes in winter.", "Vagrants have reached the Faroe Islands, Hong Kong and Iceland, and there are several sightings from North America in at least the Aleutian Islands, Pribilof Islands and Alaska.", "Old holes are rarely re-used, The nest cavity is deep with an entrance hole wide.", "Egg Trees chosen for nest holes have soft heartwood and tough sapwood, the former often due to parasites or diseases that weaken the tree's core.", "They are laid from mid-April to June, the later dates being for birds breeding in the north of the range or at altitude.", "Crustaceans, molluscs and carrion may be eaten, and bird feeders are visited for seeds, suet and domestic scraps.", "Fat-rich plant products such as nuts and conifer seeds are particularly important as winter food in the north of the woodpecker's range, and can then supply more than 30% of the bird's energy requirements.", "Woodland birds of prey such as the Eurasian sparrowhawk and the northern goshawk hunt the great spotted woodpecker.", "For this reason the great spotted woodpecker is evaluated as a species of least concern by the IUCN. Breeding densities have been recorded as between 0.16.6 pairs/10 ha , with the greatest densities in mature forest growing on alluvium.", "Numbers have increased in Europe due to the planting of forests, which provides breeding habitat, and more available dead wood, and this species has profited from its flexibility with regard to types of woodland and its ability to thrive in proximity to humans.", "Harsh winters are a problem, and fragmentation of woodland can cause local difficulties.", "The Canary Islands populations of D. m. canariensis on Tenerife and D. m. thanneri on Gran Canaria face a potential threat from the exploitation of the local pine forests."], "habitat_section": ["Large trees provide habitat for excavating feeding holes.", "The species ranges across Eurasia from the British Isles to Japan, and in North Africa from Morocco to Tunisia, it is absent only from those areas too cold or dry to have suitable woodland habitat.", "It is found in a wide variety of woodlands, broadleaf, coniferous or mixed, and in modified habitats like parks, gardens and olive groves.", "It occurs from sea level to the tree line, up to in Europe, in Morocco and in Central Asia.", "Highland populations often descend to lower altitudes in winter.", "Juveniles also have a tendency to wander some distance from where they were hatched, often as far as , sometimes up to .", "Vagrants have reached the Faroe Islands, Hong Kong and Iceland, and there are several sightings from North America in at least the Aleutian Islands, Pribilof Islands and Alaska.", "but the island has been naturally recolonised, with the first proven nesting in County Down in 2007.", "Its expansion in range is continuing, with breeding proven or suspected in at least 10 counties by 2013, with the main concentration in Down and County Wicklow.", "Genetic evidence shows the birds to be of British, rather than Scandinavian, ancestry, with the populations in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic having separate origins.", "The great spotted woodpecker was also found to have been nesting in the Isle of Man from 2009."], "random_sentences": ["The great spotted woodpecker is a medium-sized woodpecker with pied black and white plumage and a red patch on the lower belly.", "Males and young birds also have red markings on the neck or head.", "This species is found across the Palearctic including parts of North Africa.", "Across most of its range it is resident, but in the north some will migrate if the conifer cone crop fails.", "Some individuals have a tendency to wander, leading to the recent recolonisation of Ireland and to vagrancy to North America.", "Great spotted woodpeckers chisel into trees to find food or excavate nest holes, and also drum for contact and territorial advertisement", "like other woodpeckers, they have anatomical adaptations to manage the physical stresses from the hammering action.", "This species is similar to the Syrian woodpecker.", "This woodpecker occurs in all types of woodlands and eats a variety of foods, being capable of extracting seeds from pine cones, insect larvae from inside trees or eggs and chicks of other birds from their nests.", "It breeds in holes excavated in living or dead trees, unlined apart from wood chips.", "The typical clutch is four to six glossy white eggs.", "Both parents incubate the eggs, feed the chicks, and keep the nest clean.", "When the young fledge they are fed by the adults for about ten days, each parent taking responsibility for feeding part of the brood.", "The species is closely related to some other members of its genus.", "It has a number of subspecies, some of which are distinctive enough to be potential new species.", "It has a huge range and large population, with no widespread threats, so it is classed as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature .", "Woodpeckers are an ancient bird family consisting of three subfamilies, the wrynecks, the piculets and the true woodpeckers, Picinae.", "The largest of the five tribes within the Picinae is Melanerpini, the pied woodpeckers, a group which includes the great spotted woodpecker.", "Within the genus Dendrocopos the great spotted woodpecker's closest relatives are the Himalayan, Sind, Syrian, white-winged woodpeckers and the Darjeeling woodpecker.", "The great spotted woodpecker has been recorded as hybridising with the Syrian woodpecker.", "It was moved to its current genus, Dendrocopos, by the German naturalist Carl Ludwig Koch in 1816.", "The genus name Dendrocopos is a combination of the Greek words dendron , \" tree \" , and kopos, \" striking \" .", "The specific major is from Latin maior, \" greater \" .", "Female Dendrocopos major major in Sweden An adult great spotted woodpecker is long, weighs and has a wingspan.", "The upperparts are glossy blue-black, with white on the sides of the face and neck.", "Black lines run from the shoulder to the nape, the base of the bill and about halfway across the breast.", "There is a large white shoulder patch and the flight feathers are barred with black and white, as is the tail.", "The underparts are white other than a scarlet lower belly and undertail.", "The bill is slate-black, the legs greenish-grey and the eye is deep red.", "Males have a crimson patch on the nape, which is absent from the otherwise similar females.", "Juvenile birds are less glossy than adults and have a brown tinge to their upperparts and dirty white underparts.", "Their markings are less well-defined than the adult's and the lower belly is pink rather than red.", "The crown of the juvenile's head is red, less extensively in young females than males.", "The various subspecies differ in plumage, the general pattern being that northern forms are larger, heavier-billed and whiter beneath, as predicted by Bergmann's rule, so north Eurasian D. m. major and D. m. kamtschaticus are large and strikingly white, whereas D. m. hispanicus in Iberia and D. m. harterti in Corsica and Sardinia are somewhat smaller and have darker underparts.", "D. m. canariensis and D. m. thanneri in the Canary Islands are similar to the Iberian race but have contrasting white flanks.", "In Morocco, D. m. mauritanus is pale below with red in the centre of its breast, and birds breeding at higher altitudes are larger and darker than those lower in the hills.", "D. m. numidus in Algeria and Tunisia is very distinctive, with a breast band of red-tipped black feathers.", "Caspian D. m. poelzami is small, relatively long-billed and has brown underparts.", "D. m. japonicus of Japan has less white on its shoulders but more in its wings.", "The two Chinese forms, D. m. cabanisi and D. m. stresemanni, have brownish heads and underparts, and often some red on the breast.", "Both races have increasingly dark underparts towards the south of their respective ranges.", "although juvenile great spotted woodpeckers often have an incomplete cheek bar, so can potentially be misidentified as Syrian.", "The white-winged woodpecker has a far more extensive white wing patch than the great spotted woodpecker.", "The Sind woodpecker is very similar to the Syrian species, and can be distinguished from great spotted woodpecker in the same way.", "Juvenile male D. m. major in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England.", "Juveniles can be distinguished from adults by their red crown, which is more pronounced in males.", "Adult great spotted woodpeckers have a complete moult after the breeding season which takes about 120 days.", "Northern D. m. major starts its moult from mid-June to late July and finishes in October or November, temperate races like D. m. pinetorum are earlier, commencing in early June to mid-July and completing in mid-September to late October, and southern D. m. hispanicus starts late May or June and finishes as early as August.", "Juveniles have a partial moult, retaining some of the wing coverts but replacing body, tail and primary feathers.", "This moult to near-adult plumage starts from late May to early August and finishes from mid-September to late November, timing varying with latitude as with the adults.", "The call of the great spotted woodpecker is a sharp kik, which may be repeated as a wooden rattling krrarraarr if the bird is disturbed.", "The courtship call, gwig, is mostly given in the display flight.", "Drumming on dead trees and branches, and sometimes suitable man-made structures, serves to maintain contact between paired adults and to advertise ownership of territory.", "Drumming Both sexes drum, although the male does so much more often, mostly from mid-January until the young are fledged.", "As late as the early twentieth century it was thought that the drumming might be a vocalisation, and it was not until 1943 that it was finally proved to be purely mechanical.", "Large trees provide habitat for excavating feeding holes.", "The species ranges across Eurasia from the British Isles to Japan, and in North Africa from Morocco to Tunisia", "it is absent only from those areas too cold or dry to have suitable woodland habitat.", "It is found in a wide variety of woodlands, broadleaf, coniferous or mixed, and in modified habitats like parks, gardens and olive groves.", "It occurs from sea level to the tree line, up to in Europe, in Morocco and in Central Asia.", "Highland populations often descend to lower altitudes in winter.", "Juveniles also have a tendency to wander some distance from where they were hatched, often as far as , sometimes up to .", "Vagrants have reached the Faroe Islands, Hong Kong and Iceland, and there are several sightings from North America in at least the Aleutian Islands, Pribilof Islands and Alaska.", "but the island has been naturally recolonised, with the first proven nesting in County Down in 2007.", "Its expansion in range is continuing, with breeding proven or suspected in at least 10 counties by 2013, with the main concentration in Down and County Wicklow.", "Genetic evidence shows the birds to be of British, rather than Scandinavian, ancestry, with the populations in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic having separate origins.", "The great spotted woodpecker was also found to have been nesting in the Isle of Man from 2009.", "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, and the stiff tail feathers that are used as a prop against the trunk.", "In most birds the bones of the tail diminish in size towards its end, but this does not occur in woodpeckers, and the final vertebra, the pygostyle, is very large to anchor the strong tail muscles.", "In the great spotted woodpecker and most of its relatives, the hinge where the front of the skull connects with the upper mandible is folded inwards, tensioned by a muscle that braces it against the shock of the impact when the bill is hammering on hard wood.", "Skeletal adaptations and strengthening also help to absorb the shock, and narrow nostrils protect against flying debris.", "Great spotted woodpeckers are strongly territorial, typically occupying areas of about year-round, which are defended mainly by the male, a behaviour which attracts females.", "Pairs are monogamous during the breeding period, but often change partners before the next season.", "Sexual maturity is attained at an age of one year", "courtship behaviour commences in the following December.", "The male has a fluttering flight display with shallow wingbeats and a spread tail.", "He calls in flight and may land at a prospective nest-site.", "The pair excavate a new hole at least above the ground and usually lower than , although sometimes much higher.", "The chosen site is normally a tree, alive or dead, occasionally a utility pole or nest box.", "Old holes are rarely re-used, The nest cavity is deep with an entrance hole wide.", "It is excavated by both sexes, the male doing most of the chiselling.", "Egg Trees chosen for nest holes have soft heartwood and tough sapwood, the former often due to parasites or diseases that weaken the tree's core.", "It is not certain how suitable trees are selected, although it may be by drumming, since woods with differing elastic modulus and density may transmit sound at different speeds.", "A Japanese study found nests in trees from many families", "these included grey alder, Japanese white birch, Japanese hop-hornbeam, Japanese tree lilac, willows, Japanese larch and Sargent's cherry.", "The Mongolian oak and prickly castor-oil tree were rarely if ever used.", "The typical clutch is four to six glossy white eggs that measure and weigh about , of which 7% is shell.", "They are laid from mid-April to June, the later dates being for birds breeding in the north of the range or at altitude.", "The eggs are incubated by either adult during the day and by the male at night, for 1012 days before hatching.", "Both birds brood and feed the altricial naked chicks and keep the nest clean.", "The young fledge in 2023 days from hatching.", "Each parent then takes responsibility for feeding part of the brood for about ten days, during which time they normally remain close to the nest tree.", "There is only one brood per year.", "The survival rates for adults and young are unknown, as is the average lifespan, but the maximum known age is just over 11 years.", "Male and female feeding young The great spotted woodpecker is omnivorous.", "It digs beetle larvae from trees and also takes many other invertebrates including adult beetles, ants and spiders.", "The bird also digs for Lepidoptera larvae like Acronicta rumicis.", "Crustaceans, molluscs and carrion may be eaten, and bird feeders are visited for seeds, suet and domestic scraps.", "The nests of other cavity-nesting birds, such as tits, may be raided for their eggs and chicks", "nest boxes may be similarly attacked, holes being pecked to admit entrance by the woodpecker where necessary.", "House martin colonies can be destroyed in repeated visits.", "Fat-rich plant products such as nuts and conifer seeds are particularly important as winter food in the north of the woodpecker's range, and can then supply more than 30% of the bird's energy requirements.", "Other plant items consumed include buds, berries and tree sap, the latter obtained by drilling rings of holes around a tree trunk.", "Scavenging on a dead pig The species feeds at all levels of a tree, usually alone, but sometimes as a pair.", "It will use an \" anvil \" on which to hammer hard items, particularly pine, spruce, and larch cones, but also fruit, nuts, and hard-bodied insects.", "Woodland birds of prey such as the Eurasian sparrowhawk and the northern goshawk hunt the great spotted woodpecker.", "This woodpecker is a host of the blood-feeding fly Carnus hemapterus, and its internal parasites may include the spiny-headed worm Prosthorhynchus transversus.", "Protozoans also occur, including the potentially fatal Toxoplasma gondii, which causes toxoplasmosis.", "The great spotted woodpecker is the favoured host of the tapeworm Anomotaenia brevis.", "The total population for the great spotted woodpecker is estimated at 73.7110.3 million individuals, with 35% of the population in Europe.", "The breeding range is estimated as , and the population is considered overall to be large and apparently stable or slightly increasing, especially in Britain, where the population has recently overspilled into Ireland.", "For this reason the great spotted woodpecker is evaluated as a species of least concern by the IUCN.", "Breeding densities have been recorded as between 0.16.6 pairs/10 ha , with the greatest densities in mature forest growing on alluvium.", "Numbers have increased in Europe due to the planting of forests, which provides breeding habitat, and more available dead wood, and this species has profited from its flexibility with regard to types of woodland and its ability to thrive in proximity to humans.", "Harsh winters are a problem, and fragmentation of woodland can cause local difficulties.", "The Canary Islands populations of D. m. canariensis on Tenerife and D. m. thanneri on Gran Canaria face a potential threat from the exploitation of the local pine forests."]}, "Turdus viscivorus": {"keywords": ["The mistle thrush is a bird common to much of Europe, temperate Asia and North Africa.", "It is a year-round resident in a large part of its range, but northern and eastern populations migrate south for the winter, often in small flocks.", "The male has a loud, far-carrying song which is delivered even in wet and windy weather, earning the bird the old name of stormcock.", " The mistle thrush breeds in much of Europe and temperate Asia, although it is absent from the treeless far north, and its range becomes discontinuous in southeast Europe, Turkey and the Middle East.", "In these warmer southern areas, it tends to be found in the milder uplands and coastal regions.", "The mistle thrush is found in a wide range of habitats containing trees, including forests, plantations, hedges and town parks.", "In the south and east of its range, it inhabits upland coniferous woodland and the range extends above the main tree line where dwarf juniper is present.", "Breeding occurs at up to in the mountains of North Africa, and occasionally much higher, to .", "More open habitats, such as agricultural land, moors and grassy hills, are extensively used in winter or on migration.", "In Germany and elsewhere in central Europe, it was found only in coniferous forest until the mid-1920s when its range rapidly expanded, first into farmland, and then to suburbs and urban parks.", "They roost at night in trees or bushes, again typically as individuals or pairs, except in late summer or autumn when families may roost together.", "The nest is usually built in a tree in the fork of a branch or against the trunk, although hedges, ledges on buildings and cliff faces may also be used.", "The thrush's nest is a large cup of sticks, dry grass, roots and moss, coated on the inside with a layer of mud and lined with fine grass and leaves.", "It may eat the flowers and shoots of grasses and other plants, and will take fallen apples and plums.", "Young birds are initially mainly fed on invertebrates, often collected from low foliage or under bushes rather than in the grassland preferred by the adults.", "It expanded rapidly into lowland and coastal areas of Europe during the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, colonising areas where it was formerly rare or absent, such as Ireland , Scotland and the Netherlands.", "The perceived decline may be due to the loss of invertebrate-rich pastures and mixed farms through conversion to arable agriculture or more intensively managed grassland.", "Adult survival, clutch size and fledging success are all lower in arable landscapes than in areas with extensive pasture.", "In Finland, the loss of ancient forests is thought to have led to a local decline.", "Mistle Thrush and Alpine Chough, by Giovanni da Udine, an artist who worked in Raphael's studio in the 16th century, was a sketch for his Bird with Garland and Fruit, and this in turn was the basis for a Raphael fresco in the Apostolic Palace."], "habitat_section": [" The mistle thrush breeds in much of Europe and temperate Asia, although it is absent from the treeless far north, and its range becomes discontinuous in southeast Europe, Turkey and the Middle East.", "In these warmer southern areas, it tends to be found in the milder uplands and coastal regions.", "Nominate T. v. viscivorus breeds in Europe and in Asia east to the Ob, beyond which it is replaced by T. v. bonapartei.", "The southern form T. v. deichleri is resident in North Africa, Corsica and Sardinia.", "The mistle thrush is found in a wide range of habitats containing trees, including forests, plantations, hedges and town parks.", "In the south and east of its range, it inhabits upland coniferous woodland and the range extends above the main tree line where dwarf juniper is present.", "Breeding occurs at up to in the mountains of North Africa, and occasionally much higher, to .", "More open habitats, such as agricultural land, moors and grassy hills, are extensively used in winter or on migration.", "There is evidence that this species has changed its natural habitat in at least parts of its range.", "In Germany and elsewhere in central Europe, it was found only in coniferous forest until the mid-1920s when its range rapidly expanded, first into farmland, and then to suburbs and urban parks.", "The reasons for this expansion are unclear.", "Perhaps the most notable find of the 118th Christmas Bird Count in Canada was a single vagrant mistle thrush found in Miramichi, New Brunswick.", "This was the first record for this species in North America.", "The discovery attracted many birders from Canada and the United States, sightings continued from early December 2017 through late March 2018."], "random_sentences": ["The mistle thrush is a bird common to much of Europe, temperate Asia and North Africa.", "It is a year-round resident in a large part of its range, but northern and eastern populations migrate south for the winter, often in small flocks.", "It is a large thrush with pale grey-brown upper parts, a greyish-white chin and throat, and black spots on its pale yellow and off-white under parts.", "The sexes are similar in plumage, and its three subspecies show only minimal differences.", "The male has a loud, far-carrying song which is delivered even in wet and windy weather, earning the bird the old name of stormcock.", "Found in open woods, parks, hedges and cultivated land, the mistle thrush feeds on a wide variety of invertebrates, seeds and berries.", "Its preferred fruits include those of the mistletoe, holly and yew.", "Mistletoe is favoured where it is available, and this is reflected in the thrush's English and scientific names", "the plant, a parasitic species, benefits from its seeds being excreted by the thrush onto branches where they can germinate.", "In winter, a mistle thrush will vigorously defend mistletoe clumps or a holly tree as a food reserve for when times are hard.", "The open cup nest is built against a trunk or in a forked branch, and is fearlessly defended against potential predators, sometimes including humans or cats.", "The clutch, typically of three to five eggs, is incubated for 1215 days, mainly by the female.", "The chicks fledge about 1416 days after hatching.", "There are normally two broods.", "There was a range expansion in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and a small decline in recent decades, perhaps due to changes in agricultural practices.", "Given its high numbers and very large range, this thrush is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of least concern.", "The mistle thrush was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under its current scientific name.", "Turdus is the Latin for \" thrush \" , and viscivorus, \" mistletoe eater \" , comes from viscum \" mistletoe \" and vorare, \" to devour \" .", "The bird's liking for mistletoe berries is also indicated by its English name, \" mistle \" being an old name for the plant.", "There are more than 60 species of medium to large thrushes in the genus Turdus, characterised by rounded heads, longish pointed wings, and usually melodious songs.", "At least eight subspecies have been proposed, but the differences between them are mainly clinal, with birds being paler and less densely spotted in the east of the range.", "The accepted subspecies as of 2000 are: An isolated population in Crimea has sometimes been separated as T. v. tauricus, but this is not considered to be a valid form.", "In Kazakhstan The mistle thrush is the largest thrush native to Europe.", "The nominate subspecies measures in length, with a wingspan.", "It weighs , with an average of around .", "It has a stocky upright posture when on the ground.", "It has pale grey-brown upperparts, the chin and throat are greyish-white, and the yellowish-buff breast and off-white belly are marked with round black spots.", "The spotting becomes denser on the lower chest, giving the appearance of a breast-band.", "The long tail has white tips on the outer feathers, and the underwing coverts are white.", "The eyes are dark brown and the bill is blackish with a yellowish base to the lower mandible.", "The legs and feet are yellowish-brown.", "There are no plumage differences between the sexes.", "Juveniles are similar to adults, but they have paler upperparts with creamy centres to many of the feathers and smaller spots on the yellowish underparts.", "By their first winter they are very similar to adults, but the underparts are usually more buff-toned.", "The eastern subspecies T. v. bonapartei is in length, and therefore slightly larger than the nominate form.", "It is paler grey above and whiter below, with fewer black spots.", "Birds of intermediate appearance are seen west of the Ob River where the range overlaps with viscivorus.", "The southern race T. v. deichleri resembles bonapartei in appearance, but is closer in size to the nominate viscivorus, although it has a more slender bill.", "Adults have a full moult after breeding, beginning between late May and the end of June, and completed by early October.", "Juvenile birds have a partial moult, replacing their head, body, and covert feathers", "this is completed by October, although the start of the moult depends on when the chicks hatched.", "The mistle thrush is much larger, paler and longer-tailed than the sympatric song thrush.", "In the western Himalayas it could be confused with both the plain-backed and the long-tailed thrushes.", "These are similar to the mistle thrush, but the plainbacked thrush lacks obvious wing bars, is more rufous above than its relative, and is barred rather than spotted below.", "The long-tailed thrush has olive-toned upperparts, bars on its breast and two wing bars.", "Juvenile mistle thrushes are superficially similar to White's thrush, but that species has golden-yellow plumage, scalloped underparts and a distinctive underwing pattern.", "The male mistle thrush has a loud melodious song with fluted whistles, sounding like chewee-trewuu ...", "trureetruuruu or similar, repeated three to six times, There is also a squeaky tuk contact call.", "An adult with two juveniles feeding on a lawn", " The mistle thrush breeds in much of Europe and temperate Asia, although it is absent from the treeless far north, and its range becomes discontinuous in southeast Europe, Turkey and the Middle East.", "In these warmer southern areas, it tends to be found in the milder uplands and coastal regions.", "Nominate T. v. viscivorus breeds in Europe and in Asia east to the Ob, beyond which it is replaced by T. v. bonapartei.", "The southern form T. v. deichleri is resident in North Africa, Corsica and Sardinia.", "The mistle thrush is found in a wide range of habitats containing trees, including forests, plantations, hedges and town parks.", "In the south and east of its range, it inhabits upland coniferous woodland and the range extends above the main tree line where dwarf juniper is present.", "Breeding occurs at up to in the mountains of North Africa, and occasionally much higher, to .", "More open habitats, such as agricultural land, moors and grassy hills, are extensively used in winter or on migration.", "There is evidence that this species has changed its natural habitat in at least parts of its range.", "In Germany and elsewhere in central Europe, it was found only in coniferous forest until the mid-1920s when its range rapidly expanded, first into farmland, and then to suburbs and urban parks.", "The reasons for this expansion are unclear.", "Perhaps the most notable find of the 118th Christmas Bird Count in Canada was a single vagrant mistle thrush found in Miramichi, New Brunswick.", "This was the first record for this species in North America.", "The discovery attracted many birders from Canada and the United States", "sightings continued from early December 2017 through late March 2018.", "Mistle thrushes are found as individuals or pairs for much of the year, although families forage together in late summer, and groups may merge to form large flocks when food sources are plentiful.", "It is not uncommon for up to 50 thrushes to feed together at that time of year.", "They roost at night in trees or bushes, again typically as individuals or pairs, except in late summer or autumn when families may roost together.", "The mistle thrush is quite terrestrial, hopping with its head held up and body erect", "when excited, it will flick its wings and tail.", "The flight consists of undulating bounds interspersed with glides.", "Male passing earthworms to female on nest Mistle thrushes breed in the year subsequent to their hatching", "Their territories are much larger than those of blackbirds or song thrushes", "Breeding typically commences in mid-March in the south and west of Europe , but not till early May in Finland.", "The nest is usually built in a tree in the fork of a branch or against the trunk, although hedges, ledges on buildings and cliff faces may also be used.", "The nest site may be up to above the ground, although is more typical. The common chaffinch often nests close to a mistle thrush, the vigilance of the chaffinch and the aggressive behaviour of the thrush benefiting both species.", "The thrush's nest is a large cup of sticks, dry grass, roots and moss, coated on the inside with a layer of mud and lined with fine grass and leaves.", "The nest is built by the female, although the male may help.", "Nests built early in the breeding season may be destroyed by bad weather.", "The clutch is typically three to five eggs , which are usually whitish-buff or greenish-blue and are spotted with red, purple or brown.", "The eggs are incubated for 1215 days, mainly by the female.", "The young are dependent on their parents for 1520 days after fledging.", "In a study carried out in Britain, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year is 57 per cent, and the adult annual survival rate is 62 per cent.", "Life expectancy is typically three years,", "The mistle thrush derives its English and scientific names from mistletoe, a favourite food.", "Mistle thrushes feed mainly on invertebrates, fruit and berries.", "Animal prey include earthworms, insects and other arthropods, slugs and snails.", "Snails are sometimes smashed on a stone \" anvil \" , a technique also used by the song thrush.", "The mistle thrush has been known to kill slowworms and the young of the song thrush, blackbird and dunnock.", "Plant food includes the fruits and seeds of bushes and trees, mainly holly, yew, ivy and mistletoe, but also, for example, blackberry, cherry, elder, hawthorn, olive and rose.", "It may eat the flowers and shoots of grasses and other plants, and will take fallen apples and plums.", "It forages within its breeding habitat and in open fields, sometimes sharing these feeding areas with redwings or fieldfares.", "Young birds are initially mainly fed on invertebrates, often collected from low foliage or under bushes rather than in the grassland preferred by the adults.", "Adults will roam up to 1 km from the nest on pasture or ploughed land.", "After fledging the young may accompany their parents until the onset of winter.", "Conversely, in hard winters, the defender may be overwhelmed by large flocks of fieldfares, redwings or Bohemian waxwings.", "A castor bean tick swollen with the blood of its host", "thumb The mistle thrush is predated upon by a wide variety of birds of prey, including the boreal owl, External parasites of the mistle thrush include the hen flea, the moorhen flea, the castor bean tick and the brightly coloured harvest mite.", "Internally, they can suffer from parasites including tapeworm, nematodes, and Syngamus merulae .", "Blood parasites can include Trypanosoma and Plasmodium species.", "The mistle thrush has an extensive distribution in Europe and western Asia, and its European breeding population is estimated at 922.2 million birds.", "When Asian breeders are added, this gives a global total of 12.244.4 million.", "It expanded rapidly into lowland and coastal areas of Europe during the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, colonising areas where it was formerly rare or absent, such as Ireland , Scotland and the Netherlands.", "The range also increased in Denmark, Norway, Hungary and Austria.", "Although the population now appears to be declining, the decrease is not rapid or large enough to trigger conservation vulnerability criteria.", "Given its high numbers and very large range, this thrush is therefore classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of least concern.", "The perceived decline may be due to the loss of invertebrate-rich pastures and mixed farms through conversion to arable agriculture or more intensively managed grassland.", "Adult survival, clutch size and fledging success are all lower in arable landscapes than in areas with extensive pasture.", "In Finland, the loss of ancient forests is thought to have led to a local decline.", "Mistle Thrush and Alpine Chough by Giovanni da Udine", "upright Desiderius Erasmus's early sixteenth-century collection of Latin proverbs included Turdus malum sibi ipse cacat, , which refers to the use of the sticky mistletoe berries favoured by this species as an ingredient in birdlime, used to trap birds.", "The thrush was seen to be thus spreading the seeds of his own destruction.", " Mistle Thrush and Alpine Chough, by Giovanni da Udine, an artist who worked in Raphael's studio in the 16th century, was a sketch for his Bird with Garland and Fruit, and this in turn was the basis for a Raphael fresco in the Apostolic Palace.", "The early Renaissance poem \" The Harmony of Birds \" features a thrusshe singing the phrase \" sanctus, sanctus \" , distinguishing the bird from the song thrush, the mauys or throstle.", "The song of the mistle thrush is also described in Thomas Hardy's \" Darkling Thrush \" and Edward Thomas's \" The Thrush \" .", "The loud call of this common and conspicuous bird also led to many old or local names, including \" screech \" , \" shrite \" and \" gawthrush \" .", "Other names, including \" stormcock \" referred to its willingness to sing in wind and rain.", "\" Holm thrush \" , \" hollin cock \" and \" holm cock \" are based on obsolete names for the holly tree, which may be defended by the thrush in winter for its berries.", "In Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden, Dickon reassures Mary Lennox that he will keep his knowledge of the garden secret by comparing her to a mistle thrush in defence of its nest, recognising his privilege in sharing her secret: \" If tha' was a missel thrush an' showed me where thy nest was, does tha' think I'd tell any one?", "Not me, \" he said.", "\" Tha' art as safe as a missel thrush.", "\" The final verse of the Jethro Tull song \" Jack-in-the-Green \" from their album Songs from the Wood mentions the bird in the lines \" Oh, the mistlethrush is coming.", "Jack, put out the light.", "\" The bird also features in the lyrics of The Decemberists' song \" Won't Want for Love \" from their 2009 album The Hazards of Love: \" Mistlethrush, Mistlethrush, Lay me down in the underbrush, My naked feet grow weary with the dusk \" ."]}, "Buteo buteo": {"keywords": ["The species lives in most of Europe and extends its breeding range across much of the Palearctic as far as northwestern China , far western Siberia and northwestern Mongolia.", "However, buzzards from the colder parts of the Northern Hemisphere as well as those that breed in the eastern part of their range typically migrate south for the northern winter, many journeying as far as South Africa.", "Two buzzards in Africa are likely closely related to the common buzzard based on genetic materials, the mountain and forest buzzards , to the point where it has been questioned whether they are sufficiently distinct to qualify as full species.", "Juvenile forest buzzards of Africa are extremely easy to mistake for juvenile common buzzards of the steppe race that come to winter in Africa.", "The oriental species is with more similar in body plan to common buzzards, being relatively broader winged, shorter tailed and more amply-headed relative to the European honey buzzard, but all plumages lack carpal patches.", "However, the subarctic breeding rough-legged buzzard comes down to occupy much of the northern part of the continent during winter in the same haunts as the common buzzard.", "Hybridization with the latter race and nominate common buzzards has been observed in the Strait of Gibraltar, a few such birds have been reported potentially in the southern Mediterranean due to mutually encroaching ranges, which are blurring possibly due to climate change.", "Wintering steppe buzzards may live alongside mountain buzzards and especially with forest buzzard while wintering in Africa.", "In comparison, the mountain buzzard, which is more similar in size to the steppe buzzard and slightly larger than the forest buzzard, is usually duller brown above than a steppe buzzard and is more whitish below with distinctive heavy brown blotches from breasts to the belly, flanks and wing linings while juvenile mountain buzzard is buffy below with smaller and streakier markings.", "The common buzzard is found throughout several islands in the eastern Atlantic islands, including the Canary Islands and Azores and almost throughout Europe.", "In mainland Europe, remarkably, there are no substantial gaps without breeding common buzzards from Portugal and Spain to Greece, Estonia, Belarus and Ukraine, though are present mainly only in the breeding season in much of the eastern half of the latter three countries.", "They are also present in all larger Mediterranean islands such as Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Crete.", "The common buzzard reaches its northern limits as a breeder in far eastern Finland and over the border to European Russia, continuing as a breeder over to the narrowest straits of the White Sea and nearly to the Kola Peninsula.", "In these northern quarters, the common buzzard is present typically only in summer but is a year-around resident of a hearty bit of southern Sweden and some of southern Norway.", "Outside of Europe, it is a resident of northern Turkey otherwise occurring mainly as a passage migrant or winter visitor in the remainder of Turkey, Georgia, sporadically but not rarely in Azerbaijan and Armenia, northern Iran to northern Turkmenistan.", "Further north though its absent from either side of the northern Caspian Sea, the common buzzard is found in much of western Russia including all of the Central Federal District and the Volga Federal District, all but the northernmost parts of the Northwestern and Ural Federal Districts and nearly the southern half of the Siberian Federal District, its farthest easterly occurrence as a breeder.", "Non-breeding populations occur, either as migrants or wintering birds, in southwestern India, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt , northern Tunisia , northern Morocco, near the coasts of The Gambia, Senegal and far southwestern Mauritania and Ivory Coast .", "The common buzzard generally inhabits the interface of woodlands and open grounds, most typically the species lives in forest edge, small woods or shelterbelts with adjacent grassland, arables or other farmland.", "The woods they inhabit may be coniferous, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests and temperate deciduous forest with occasional preferences for the local dominant tree.", "It is absent from treeless tundra, as well as the Subarctic where the species almost entirely gives way to the rough-legged buzzard.", "Common buzzards are fairly adaptive to rural areas as well as suburban areas with parks and large gardens, in addition to such areas if they're near farms.", "It is most often seen either soaring at varying heights or perched prominently on tree tops, bare branches, telegraph poles, fence posts, rocks or ledges, or alternately well inside tree canopies.", "Southwestern Poland was recorded to be a fairly important wintering grounds for central European buzzards in early spring that apparently travelled from somewhat farther north, in winter average density was a locally high 2.12 individual per square kilometer.", "In Bulgaria, the mean wintering density was 0.34 individual per square kilometer, and buzzards showed a preference for agricultural over forested areas.", "In no part of the range do steppe buzzards use the same summering and wintering grounds.", "This race migrates in September to October often from Asia Minor to the Cape of Africa in about a month but does not cross water, following around the Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria rather than crossing the several kilometer wide gulf.", "Migratory behavior of steppe buzzards mirrors those of broad-winged and Swainson's hawks in every significant way as similar long-distance migrating Buteos, including trans-equatorial movements, avoidance of large bodies of waters and flocking behaviour.", "In last 50 years, it was recorded that nominate buzzards are typically migrating shorter distances and wintering further north, possibly in response to climate change, resulting in relatively smaller numbers of them at migration sites.", "Furthermore, prey size can vary from tiny beetles, caterpillars and ants to large adult grouse and rabbits up to nearly twice their body mass.", "Hunting in relatively open areas has been found to increase hunting success whereas more complete shrub cover lowered success.", "Outside the breeding season, as many 1530 buzzards have been recorded foraging on ground in a single large field, especially juveniles.", "Several wood mice are known to be taken quite frequently but given their preference for activity in deeper woods than the field-forest interfaces preferred, they are rarely more than secondary food items.", "Other rodents taken either seldom or in areas where the food habits of buzzards are spottily known include flying squirrels, marmots , chipmunks, spiny rats, hamsters, mole-rats, gerbils, jirds and jerboas and occasionally hearty numbers of dormice, although these are nocturnal. Surprisingly little research has gone into the diets of wintering steppe buzzards in southern Africa, considering their numerous status there.", "In northern Ireland, an area of interest because it is devoid of any native vole species, rabbits were again the main prey.", "While rabbits are non-native, albeit long-established, in the British Isles, in their native area of the Iberian peninsula, rabbits are similarly significant to the buzzard's diet.", "When common buzzards feed on invertebrates, these are chiefly earthworms, beetles and caterpillars in Europe and largely seemed to be preyed on by juvenile buzzards with less refined hunting skills or in areas with mild winters and ample swarming or social insects.", "In winter in northeastern Spain, it was found that the buzzards switched largely from the vertebrate prey typically taken during spring and summer to a largely insect-based diet.", "Especially in winter quarters such as southern Africa, common buzzards are often attracted to swarming locusts and other orthopterans.", "In this way the steppe buzzard may mirror a similar long-distance migrant from the Americas, the Swainson's hawk, which feeds its young largely on nutritious vertebrates but switches to a largely insect-based once the reach their distant wintering grounds in South America.", "In Eritea, 18 returning migrant steppe buzzards were seen to feed together on swarms of grasshoppers.", "Common buzzards co-occur with dozens of other raptorial birds through their breeding, resident and wintering grounds.", "On another set of islands, on Crete the density of pairs was lower at 5.7 pairs per , here buzzards tend to have an irregular distribution, some in lower intensity harvest olive groves but their occurrence actually more common in agricultural than natural areas.", "The Czech study hypothesized that fragmentation of forest in human management of lands for wild sheep and deer, creating exceptional concentrations of prey such as voles, and lack of appropriate habitat in surrounding regions for the exceptionally high density.", "Various other aerial displays include low contour flight or weaving among trees, frequently with deep beats and exaggerated upstrokes which show underwing pattern to rivals perched below.", "Despite the highly territorial nature of buzzards and their devotion to a single mate and breeding ground each summer, there is one case of a polyandrous trio of buzzards nesting in the Canary Islands.", "The breeding season commences at differing times based on latitude.", "Common buzzard breeding seasons may fall as early as January to April but typically the breeding season is March to July in much of Palearctic.", "In the northern stretches of the range the breeding season may last into MayAugust.", "1st year birds generally remain in wintering area for following summer but then return to near area of origin but then migrate south again without breeding.", "Breeding success was lower farther from significant stands of trees in the Midlands and most nesting failures that could be determined occurred in the incubation stage, possibly in correlation with predation of eggs by corvids.", "More significant than even prey, late winter-early spring was found to be likely the primary driver of breeding success in buzzards from southern Norway.", "In Germany, weather conditions and rodent populations seemed to be the primary drivers of nesting success.", "Breeding success in areas with wild European rabbits was considerably effected by rabbit myxomatosis and rabbit haemorrhagic disease, both of which have heavily depleted wild rabbit population.", "The Westphalian buzzards are possibly benefiting from increasingly warmer mean climate, which in turn is increasing vulnerability of voles."], "habitat_section": ["Common buzzard often inhabit the interface of woods and open areas.", "The common buzzard is found throughout several islands in the eastern Atlantic islands, including the Canary Islands and Azores and almost throughout Europe.", "It is today found in Ireland and in nearly every part of Scotland, Wales and England.", "In mainland Europe, remarkably, there are no substantial gaps without breeding common buzzards from Portugal and Spain to Greece, Estonia, Belarus and Ukraine, though are present mainly only in the breeding season in much of the eastern half of the latter three countries.", "They are also present in all larger Mediterranean islands such as Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Crete.", "Further north in Scandinavia, they are found mainly in southeastern Norway , just over the southern half of Sweden and hugging over the Gulf of Bothnia to Finland where they live as a breeding species over nearly two-thirds of the land.", "The common buzzard reaches its northern limits as a breeder in far eastern Finland and over the border to European Russia, continuing as a breeder over to the narrowest straits of the White Sea and nearly to the Kola Peninsula.", "In these northern quarters, the common buzzard is present typically only in summer but is a year-around resident of a hearty bit of southern Sweden and some of southern Norway.", "Outside of Europe, it is a resident of northern Turkey otherwise occurring mainly as a passage migrant or winter visitor in the remainder of Turkey, Georgia, sporadically but not rarely in Azerbaijan and Armenia, northern Iran to northern Turkmenistan.", "Further north though its absent from either side of the northern Caspian Sea, the common buzzard is found in much of western Russia including all of the Central Federal District and the Volga Federal District, all but the northernmost parts of the Northwestern and Ural Federal Districts and nearly the southern half of the Siberian Federal District, its farthest easterly occurrence as a breeder.", "It also found in northern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, far northwestern China and northwestern Mongolia.", "Non-breeding populations occur, either as migrants or wintering birds, in southwestern India, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt , northern Tunisia , northern Morocco, near the coasts of The Gambia, Senegal and far southwestern Mauritania and Ivory Coast .", "In eastern and central Africa, it is found in winter from southeastern Sudan, Eritrea, about two-thirds of Ethiopia, much of Kenya , Uganda, southern and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and more or less the entirety of southern Africa from Angola across to Tanzania down the remainder of the continent .", "The common buzzard generally inhabits the interface of woodlands and open grounds, most typically the species lives in forest edge, small woods or shelterbelts with adjacent grassland, arables or other farmland.", "It acquits to open moorland as long as there is some trees for perch hunting and nesting use.", "The woods they inhabit may be coniferous, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests and temperate deciduous forest with occasional preferences for the local dominant tree.", "It is absent from treeless tundra, as well as the Subarctic where the species almost entirely gives way to the rough-legged buzzard.", "Common buzzards are fairly adaptive to rural areas as well as suburban areas with parks and large gardens, in addition to such areas if they're near farms.", "Home ranges of common buzzards are generally .", "In a German study, the range was with an average of .", "On another set of islands, on Crete the density of pairs was lower at 5.7 pairs per , here buzzards tend to have an irregular distribution, some in lower intensity harvest olive groves but their occurrence actually more common in agricultural than natural areas.", "In the Italian Alps, it was recorded in 199396 that there were from 28 to 30 pairs per .", "Despite claims from the study of the English midlands were the highest known territory density for the species, a number ranging from 32 to 51 pairs in wooded area of merely in Czech Republic seems to surely exceed even those densities.", "The Czech study hypothesized that fragmentation of forest in human management of lands for wild sheep and deer, creating exceptional concentrations of prey such as voles, and lack of appropriate habitat in surrounding regions for the exceptionally high density.", "A territorial dogfight between three buzzards in the Azores.", "Common buzzards maintain their territories through flight displays.", "In Europe, territorial behaviour generally starts in February.", "However, displays are not uncommon throughout year in resident pairs, especially by males, and can elicit similar displays by neighbors.", "In them, common buzzards generally engage in high circling, spiraling upward on slightly raised wings.", "Mutual high circling by pairs sometimes go on at length, especially during the period prior to or during breeding season.", "In mutual displays, a pair may follow each other at in level flight.", "During the mutual displays, the male may engage in exaggerated deep flapping or zig-zag tumbling, apparently in response to the female being too distant.", "Two or three pairs may circle together at times and as many as 14 individual adults have been recorded over established display sites.", "Sky-dancing by common buzzards have been recorded in spring and autumn, typically by male but sometimes by female, nearly always with much calling.", "Their sky-dances are of the rollercoaster type, with upward sweep until they start to stall, but sometimes embellished with loops or rolls at the top.", "Next in the sky-dance, they dive on more or less closed wings before spreading them and shooting up again, upward sweeps of up to , with dive drops of up to at least .", "These dances may be repeated in series of 10 to 20.", "In the climax of the sky dance, the undulations become progressive shallower, often slowing and terminating directly onto a perch.", "Various other aerial displays include low contour flight or weaving among trees, frequently with deep beats and exaggerated upstrokes which show underwing pattern to rivals perched below.", "Talon grappling and occasionally cartwheeling downward with feet interlocked has been recorded in buzzards and, as in many raptors, is likely the physical culmination of the aggressive territorial display, especially between males.", "Despite the highly territorial nature of buzzards and their devotion to a single mate and breeding ground each summer, there is one case of a polyandrous trio of buzzards nesting in the Canary Islands.", "In North-Estonian Neeruti landscape reserve found in years 1989 and 1990 Marek Vahula 9 populated nest.", "This is sovereign public density of population.", "One nest founded in 12.06.1982 and this is apparently oldest nest of Common Buzzard, what is populated until today."], "random_sentences": ["The common buzzard is a medium-to-large bird of prey which has a large range.", "A member of the genus Buteo, it is a member of the family Accipitridae.", "The species lives in most of Europe and extends its breeding range across much of the Palearctic as far as northwestern China , far western Siberia and northwestern Mongolia.", "Over much of its range, it is a year-round resident.", "However, buzzards from the colder parts of the Northern Hemisphere as well as those that breed in the eastern part of their range typically migrate south for the northern winter, many journeying as far as South Africa.", "The common buzzard is an opportunistic predator that can take a wide variety of prey, but it feeds mostly on small mammals, especially rodents such as voles.", "It typically hunts from a perch.", "Like most accipitrid birds of prey, it builds a nest, typically in trees in this species, and is a devoted parent to a relatively small brood of young.", "The first formal description of the common buzzard was by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Falco buteo.", "It should not be confused with the Turkey vulture, which is sometimes called a buzzard in American English.", "The Buteoninae subfamily originated from and is most diversified in the Americas, with occasional broader radiations that led to common buzzards and other Eurasian and African buzzards.", "The common buzzard is a member of the genus Buteo, a group of medium-sized raptors with robust bodies and broad wings.", "The Buteo species of Eurasia and Africa are usually commonly referred to as \" buzzards \" while those in the Americas are called hawks.", "Under current classification, the genus includes approximately 28 species, the second most diverse of all extant accipitrid genera behind only Accipiter.", "DNA testing shows that the common buzzard is fairly closely related to the red-tailed hawk of North America, which occupies a similar ecological niche to the buzzard in that continent.", "The two species may belong to the same species complex.", "Two buzzards in Africa are likely closely related to the common buzzard based on genetic materials, the mountain and forest buzzards , to the point where it has been questioned whether they are sufficiently distinct to qualify as full species.", "However, the distinctiveness of these African buzzards has generally been supported.", "Genetic studies have further indicated that the modern buzzards of Eurasia and Africa are a relatively young group, showing that they diverged at about 300,000 years ago.", "Nonetheless, fossils dating earlier than 5 million year old showed Buteo species were present in Europe much earlier than that would imply, although it cannot be stated to a certainty that these wouldve been related to the extant buzzards.", "A dark individual from Europe The common buzzard is a medium-sized raptor that is highly variable in plumage.", "Most buzzards are distinctly round headed with a somewhat slender bill, relatively long wings that either reach or fall slightly short of the tail tip when perched, a fairly short tail, and somewhat short and mainly bare tarsi.", "They can appear fairly compact in overall appearance but may also appear large relative to other commoner raptorial birds such as kestrels and sparrowhawks.", "The common buzzard measures between in length with a wingspan.", "A pale individual in Europe In Europe, most typical buzzards are dark brown above and on the upperside of the head and mantle, but can become paler and warmer brown with worn plumage.", "The flight feathers on perched European buzzards are always brown in the nominate subspecies (B.", "Usually the tail will usually be narrowly barred grey-brown and dark brown with a pale tip and a broad dark subterminal band but the tail in palest birds can show a varying amount a white and reduced subterminal band or even appear almost all white.", "In European buzzards, the underside coloring can be variable but most typically show a brown-streaked white throat with a somewhat darker chest.", "A pale U across breast is often present", "followed by a pale line running down the belly which separates the dark areas on breast-side and flanks.", "These pale areas tend to have highly variable markings that tend to form irregular bars.", "Juvenile buzzards are quite similar to adult in the nominate race, being best told apart by having a paler eye, a narrower subterminal band on the tail and underside markings that appear as streaks rather than bars.", "Furthermore, juveniles may show variable creamy to rufous fringes to upperwing coverts but these also may not be present.", "Seen from below in flight, buzzards in Europe typically have a dark trailing edge to the wings.", "If seen from above, one of the best marks is their broad dark subterminal tail band.", "Flight feathers of typical European buzzards are largely greyish, the aforementioned dark wing linings at front with contrasting paler band along the median coverts.", "In flight, paler individuals tend to show dark carpal patches that can appears as blackish arches or commas but these may be indistinct in darker individuals or can appear light brownish or faded in paler individuals.", "Juvenile nominate buzzards are best told apart from adults in flight by the lack of a distinct subterminal band and below by having less sharp and brownish rather than blackish trailing wing edge.", "Juvenile buzzards show streaking paler parts of under wing and body showing rather than barring as do adults.", "Beyond the typical mid-range brownish buzzard, birds in Europe can range from almost uniform black-brown above to mainly white.", "Extreme dark individuals may range from chocolate brown to blackish with almost no pale showing but a variable, faded U on the breast and with or without faint lighter brown throat streaks.", "Extreme pale birds are largely whitish with variable widely spaced streaks or arrowheads of light brown about the mid-chest and flanks and may or may not show dark feather-centres on the head, wing-coverts and sometimes all but part of mantle.", "Individuals can show nearly endless variation of colours and hues in between these extremes and the common buzzard is counted among the most variably plumage diurnal raptors for this reason.", "One study showed that this variation may actually be the result of diminished single-locus genetic diversity.", "Although they can look compact when perched, buzzards may appear large and long-winged in flight.", "Beyond the nominate form (B.", "b. buteo) that occupies most of the common buzzard's European range, a second main, widely distributed subspecies is known as the steppe buzzard (B.", "The steppe buzzard race shows three main colour morphs, each of which can be predominant in a region of breeding range.", "It is more distinctly polymorphic rather than just individually very variable like the nominate race.", "This may be because, unlike the nominate buzzard, the steppe buzzard is highly migratory.", "Polymorphism has been linked with migratory behaviour.", "Juvenile forest buzzards of Africa are extremely easy to mistake for juvenile common buzzards of the steppe race that come to winter in Africa.", "The common buzzard is often confused with other raptors especially in flight or at a distance.", "Inexperienced and over-enthusiastic observers have even mistaken darker birds for the far larger and differently proportioned golden eagle and also dark birds for western marsh harrier which also flies in a dihedral but is obviously relatively much longer and slenderer winged and tailed and with far different flying methods.", "Also buzzards may possibly be confused with dark or light morph booted eagles , which are similar in size, but the eagle flies on level, parallel-edged wings which usually appear broader, has a longer squarer tail, with no carpal patch in pale birds and all dark flight feathers but for whitish wedge on inner primaries in dark morph ones.", "Pale individuals are sometimes also mistaken with pale morph short-toed eagles which are much larger with a considerably bigger head, longer wings and paler underwing lacking any carpal patch or dark wing lining.", "More serious identification concerns lie in other Buteo species and in flight with honey buzzards, which are quite different looking when seen perched at close range.", "The European honey buzzard is thought in engage in mimicry of more powerful raptors, in particular, juveniles may mimic the plumage of the more powerful common buzzard.", "While less individually variable in Europe, the honey buzzard is more extensive polymorphic on underparts than even the common buzzard.", "The most common morph of the adult European honey buzzard is heavily and rufous barred on the underside, quite different from the common buzzard, however the brownish juvenile much more resembles an intermediate common buzzard.", "Honey buzzards flap with distinctively slower and more even wing beats than common buzzard.", "The wings are also lifted higher on each upstroke, creating a more regular and mechanical effect, furthermore their wings are held slightly arched when soaring but not in a V. On the honey buzzard, the head appears smaller, the body thinner, the tail longer and the wings narrower and more parallel edged.", "The steppe buzzard race is particularly often mistaken for juvenile European honey buzzards, to the point where early observers of raptor migration in Israel considered distant individuals indistinguishable.", "However, when compared to a steppe buzzard, the honey buzzard has distinctly darker secondaries on the underwing with fewer and broader bars and more extensive black wing-tips contrasting with a less extensively pale hand.", "Found in the same range as the steppe buzzard in some parts of southern Siberia as well as in southwestern India, the Oriental honey buzzard is larger than both the European honey buzzard and the common buzzard.", "The oriental species is with more similar in body plan to common buzzards, being relatively broader winged, shorter tailed and more amply-headed relative to the European honey buzzard, but all plumages lack carpal patches.", "In much of Europe, the common buzzard is the only type of buzzard.", "However, the subarctic breeding rough-legged buzzard comes down to occupy much of the northern part of the continent during winter in the same haunts as the common buzzard.", "However, the rough-legged buzzard is typically larger and distinctly longer-winged with feathered legs, as well as having a white based tail with a broad subterminal band.", "Rough-legged buzzards have slower wing beats and hover far more frequently than do common buzzards.", "The carpal patch marking on the under-wing are also bolder and blacker on all paler forms of rough-legged hawk.", "Many pale morph rough-legged buzzards have a bold, blackish band across the belly against contrasting paler feathers, a feature which rarely appears in individual common buzzard.", "Usually the face also appears somewhat whitish in most pale morphs of rough-legged buzzards, which is true of only extremely pale common buzzards.", "Dark morph rough-legged buzzards are usually distinctly darker than even extreme dark individuals of common buzzards in Europe and still have the distinct white-based tail and broad subterminal band of other roughlegs.", "In eastern Europe and much of the Asian range of common buzzards, the long-legged buzzard may live alongside the common species.", "As in the steppe buzzard race, the long-legged buzzard has three main colour morphs that are more or less similar in hue.", "In both the steppe buzzard race and long-legged buzzard, the main colour is overall fairly rufous.", "More so than steppe buzzards, long-legged buzzards tend to have a distinctly paler head and neck compared to other feathers, and, more distinctly, a normally unbarred tail.", "Furthermore, the long-legged buzzard is usually a rather larger bird, often considered fairly eagle-like in appearance , an effect enhanced by its longer tarsi, somewhat longer neck and relatively elongated wings.", "The flight style of the latter species is deeper, slower and more aquiline, with much more frequent hovering, showing a more protruding head and a slightly higher V held in a soar.", "The smaller North African and Arabian race of long-legged buzzard (B.", "r. cirtensis) is more similar in size and nearly all colour characteristics to steppe buzzard, extending to the heavily streaked juvenile plumage, in some cases such birds can be distinguished only by their proportions and flight patterns which remain unchanged.", "Hybridization with the latter race (B.", "r. cirtensis) and nominate common buzzards has been observed in the Strait of Gibraltar, a few such birds have been reported potentially in the southern Mediterranean due to mutually encroaching ranges, which are blurring possibly due to climate change.", "Wintering steppe buzzards may live alongside mountain buzzards and especially with forest buzzard while wintering in Africa.", "The juveniles of steppe and forest buzzards are more or less indistinguishable and only told apart by proportions and flight style, the latter species being smaller, more compact, having a smaller bill, shorter legs and shorter and thinner wings than a steppe buzzard.", "However, size is not diagnostic unless side by side as the two buzzards overlap in this regard.", "Most reliable are the species wing proportions and their flight actions.", "Forest buzzard have more flexible wing beats interspersed with glides, additionally soaring on flatter wings and apparently never engage in hovering.", "Adult forest buzzards compared to the typical adult steppe buzzard are also similar, but the forest typically has a whiter underside, sometimes mostly plain white, usually with heavy blotches or drop-shaped marks on abdomen, with barring on thighs, more narrow tear-shaped on chest and more spotted on leading edges of underwing, usually lacking marking on the white U across chest .", "In comparison, the mountain buzzard, which is more similar in size to the steppe buzzard and slightly larger than the forest buzzard, is usually duller brown above than a steppe buzzard and is more whitish below with distinctive heavy brown blotches from breasts to the belly, flanks and wing linings while juvenile mountain buzzard is buffy below with smaller and streakier markings.", "The steppe buzzard when compared to another African species, the red-necked buzzard , which has red tail similar to vulpinus, is distinct in all other plumage aspects despite their similar size.", "The latter buzzard has a streaky rufous head and is white below with a contrasting bold dark chest in adult plumage and, in juvenile plumage, has heavy, dark blotches on the chest and flanks with pale wing-linings.", "Jackal and augur buzzards (Buteo rufofuscus", "augur), also both rufous on the tail, are larger and bulkier than steppe buzzards and have several distinctive plumage characteristics, most notably both having their own striking, contrasting patterns of black-brown, rufous and cream.", "Common buzzard often inhabit the interface of woods and open areas.", "The common buzzard is found throughout several islands in the eastern Atlantic islands, including the Canary Islands and Azores and almost throughout Europe.", "It is today found in Ireland and in nearly every part of Scotland, Wales and England.", "In mainland Europe, remarkably, there are no substantial gaps without breeding common buzzards from Portugal and Spain to Greece, Estonia, Belarus and Ukraine, though are present mainly only in the breeding season in much of the eastern half of the latter three countries.", "They are also present in all larger Mediterranean islands such as Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Crete.", "Further north in Scandinavia, they are found mainly in southeastern Norway , just over the southern half of Sweden and hugging over the Gulf of Bothnia to Finland where they live as a breeding species over nearly two-thirds of the land.", "The common buzzard reaches its northern limits as a breeder in far eastern Finland and over the border to European Russia, continuing as a breeder over to the narrowest straits of the White Sea and nearly to the Kola Peninsula.", "In these northern quarters, the common buzzard is present typically only in summer but is a year-around resident of a hearty bit of southern Sweden and some of southern Norway.", "Outside of Europe, it is a resident of northern Turkey otherwise occurring mainly as a passage migrant or winter visitor in the remainder of Turkey, Georgia, sporadically but not rarely in Azerbaijan and Armenia, northern Iran to northern Turkmenistan.", "Further north though its absent from either side of the northern Caspian Sea, the common buzzard is found in much of western Russia including all of the Central Federal District and the Volga Federal District, all but the northernmost parts of the Northwestern and Ural Federal Districts and nearly the southern half of the Siberian Federal District, its farthest easterly occurrence as a breeder.", "It also found in northern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, far northwestern China and northwestern Mongolia.", "Non-breeding populations occur, either as migrants or wintering birds, in southwestern India, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt , northern Tunisia , northern Morocco, near the coasts of The Gambia, Senegal and far southwestern Mauritania and Ivory Coast .", "In eastern and central Africa, it is found in winter from southeastern Sudan, Eritrea, about two-thirds of Ethiopia, much of Kenya , Uganda, southern and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and more or less the entirety of southern Africa from Angola across to Tanzania down the remainder of the continent .", "The common buzzard generally inhabits the interface of woodlands and open grounds", "most typically the species lives in forest edge, small woods or shelterbelts with adjacent grassland, arables or other farmland.", "It acquits to open moorland as long as there is some trees for perch hunting and nesting use.", "The woods they inhabit may be coniferous, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests and temperate deciduous forest with occasional preferences for the local dominant tree.", "It is absent from treeless tundra, as well as the Subarctic where the species almost entirely gives way to the rough-legged buzzard.", "Common buzzards are fairly adaptive to rural areas as well as suburban areas with parks and large gardens, in addition to such areas if they're near farms.", "Buzzards spend much of their day perched.", "The common buzzard is a typical Buteo in much of its behaviour.", "It is most often seen either soaring at varying heights or perched prominently on tree tops, bare branches, telegraph poles, fence posts, rocks or ledges, or alternately well inside tree canopies.", "Buzzards will also stand and forage on the ground.", "In resident populations, it may spend more than half of its day inactively perched.", "Furthermore, it has been described a \" sluggish and not very bold \" bird of prey.", "A steppe buzzard migrating through Israel, where buzzards have one of the largest raptor migrations in the world.", "The common buzzard is aptly described as a partial migrant.", "The autumn and spring movements of buzzards are subject to extensive variation, even down to the individual level, based on a region's food resources, competition , extent of human disturbance and weather conditions.", "Short distance movements are the norm for juveniles and some adults in autumn and winter, but more adults in central Europe and the British Isles remain on their year-around residence than do not.", "Even for first year juvenile buzzards dispersal may not take them very far.", "In England, 96% of first-years moved in winter to less than from their natal site.", "Southwestern Poland was recorded to be a fairly important wintering grounds for central European buzzards in early spring that apparently travelled from somewhat farther north, in winter average density was a locally high 2.12 individual per square kilometer.", "In Bulgaria, the mean wintering density was 0.34 individual per square kilometer, and buzzards showed a preference for agricultural over forested areas.", "Similar habitat preferences were recorded in northeastern Romania, where buzzard density was 0.3340.539 individuals per square kilometer.", "The nominate buzzards of Scandinavia are somewhat more strongly migratory than most central European populations.", "However, birds from Sweden show some variation in migratory behaviours.", "A maximum of 41,000 individuals have been recorded at one of the main migration sites within southern Sweden in Falsterbo.", "In southern Sweden, winter movements and migration was studied via observation of buzzard colour.", "White individuals were substantially more common in southern Sweden rather than further north in their Swedish range.", "The southern population migrates earlier than intermediate to dark buzzards, in both adults and juveniles.", "A larger proportion of juveniles than of adults migrate in the southern population.", "Especially adults in the southern population are resident to a higher degree than more northerly breeders.", "The entire population of the steppe buzzard is strongly migratory, covering substantial distances during migration.", "In no part of the range do steppe buzzards use the same summering and wintering grounds.", "Steppe buzzards are slightly gregarious in migration, and travel in variously sized flocks.", "This race migrates in September to October often from Asia Minor to the Cape of Africa in about a month but does not cross water, following around the Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria rather than crossing the several kilometer wide gulf.", "Similarly, they will funnel along both sides of the Black Sea.", "Migratory behavior of steppe buzzards mirrors those of broad-winged", "swainsoni) in every significant way as similar long-distance migrating Buteos, including trans-equatorial movements, avoidance of large bodies of waters and flocking behaviour.", "In last 50 years, it was recorded that nominate buzzards are typically migrating shorter distances and wintering further north, possibly in response to climate change, resulting in relatively smaller numbers of them at migration sites.", "They are also extending their breeding range possibly reducing/supplanting steppe buzzards.", "Resident populations of common buzzards tend to vocalize all year around, whereas migrants tend to vocalize only during the breeding season.", "Both nominate buzzards and steppe buzzards tend to have similar voices.", "The main call of the species is a plaintive, far-carrying pee-yow or peee-oo, used as both contact call and more excitedly in aerial displays.", "Their call is sharper, more ringing when used in aggression, tends to be more drawn-out and wavering when chasing intruders, sharper, more yelping when as warning when approaching the nest or shorter and more explosive when called in alarm.", "Other variations of their vocal performances include a cat-like mew, uttered repeatedly on the wing or when perched, especially in display", "a repeated mah has been recorded as uttered by pairs answering each other, further chuckles and croaks have also been recorded at nests.", "Juveniles can usually be distinguished by the discordant nature of their calls compared to those of adults.", "An illustration of a buzzard preying on a rodent.", "The common buzzard is a generalist predator which hunts a wide variety of prey given the opportunity.", "Their prey spectrum extents to a wide variety of vertebrates including mammals, birds , reptiles, amphibians and, rarely, fish, as well as to various invertebrates, mostly insects.", "Young animals are often attacked, largely the nidifugous young of various vertebrates.", "In total well over 300 prey species are known to be taken by common buzzards.", "Furthermore, prey size can vary from tiny beetles, caterpillars and ants to large adult grouse and rabbits up to nearly twice their body mass.", "Mean body mass of vertebrate prey was estimated at in Belarus.", "At times, they will also subsist partially on carrion, usually of dead mammals or fish.", "Hunting in relatively open areas has been found to increase hunting success whereas more complete shrub cover lowered success.", "A majority of prey is taken by dropping from perch, and is normally taken on ground.", "Alternately, prey may be hunted in a low flight.", "This species tends not to hunt in a spectacular stoop but generally drops gently then gradually accelerate at bottom with wings held above the back.", "Sometimes, the buzzard also forages by random glides or soars over open country, wood edges or clearings.", "Perch hunting may be done preferentially but buzzards fairly regularly also hunt from a ground position when the habitat demands it.", "Outside the breeding season, as many 1530 buzzards have been recorded foraging on ground in a single large field, especially juveniles.", "Normally the rarest foraging type is hovering.", "A study from Great Britain indicated that hovering does not seem to increase hunting success.", "A buzzard with a freshly caught rodent, likely a vole.", "A high diversity of rodents may be taken given the chance, as around 60 species of rodent have been recorded in the foods of common buzzards.", "In southern Scotland, field voles were the best represented species in pellets, accounting for 32.1% of 581 pellets.", "In southern Norway, field voles were again the main food in years with peak vole numbers, accounting for 40.8% of 179 prey items in 1985 and 24.7% of 332 prey items in 1994.", "Altogether, rodents amount to 67.6% and 58.4% of the foods in these respective peak vole years.", "However, in low vole population years, the contribution of rodents to the diet was minor.", "Common voles were the main foods recorded in central Slovakia, accounting for 26.5% of 606 prey items.", "The common vole, or other related vole species at times, were the main foods as well in the Ukraine ranging east to Russia in the Privolshky Steppe Nature Reserve and in Samara .", "In Belarus, voles, including Microtus species and bank voles , accounted for 34.8% of the biomass on average in 1065 prey items from different study areas over 4 years.", "Other rodents are taken largely opportunistically rather than by preference.", "Several wood mice are known to be taken quite frequently but given their preference for activity in deeper woods than the field-forest interfaces preferred, they are rarely more than secondary food items.", "Rodent prey taken have ranged in size from the Eurasian harvest mouse to the non-native, muskrat .", "Other rodents taken either seldom or in areas where the food habits of buzzards are spottily known include flying squirrels, marmots , chipmunks, spiny rats, hamsters, mole-rats, gerbils, jirds and jerboas and occasionally hearty numbers of dormice, although these are nocturnal. Surprisingly little research has gone into the diets of wintering steppe buzzards in southern Africa, considering their numerous status there.", "However, it has been indicated that the main prey remains consist of rodents such as the four-striped grass mouse and Cape mole-rats .", "Other than rodents, two other groups of mammals can be counted as significant to the diet of common buzzards.", "One of these main prey type of import in the diets of common buzzards are leporids or lagomorphs, especially the European rabbit where it is found in numbers in a wild or feral state.", "In all dietary studies from Scotland, rabbits were highly important to the buzzard's diet.", "In southern Scotland, rabbits constituted 40.8% of remains at nests and 21.6% of pellet contents, while lagomorphs were present in 99% of remains in Moray, Scotland.", "The nutritional richness relative to the commonest prey elsewhere, such as voles, might account for the high productivity of buzzards here.", "For example, clutch sizes were twice as large on average where rabbits were common than were where they were rare .", "In northern Ireland, an area of interest because it is devoid of any native vole species, rabbits were again the main prey.", "Here, lagomorphs constituted 22.5% of prey items by number and 43.7% by biomass.", "While rabbits are non-native, albeit long-established, in the British Isles, in their native area of the Iberian peninsula, rabbits are similarly significant to the buzzard's diet.", "In Murcia, Spain, rabbits were the most common mammal in the diet, making up 16.8% of 167 prey items.", "The other significant mammalian prey type is insectivores, among which more than 20 species are known to be taken by this species, including nearly all the species of shrew, mole and hedgehog found in Europe.", "Moles are taken particularly often among this order, since as is the case with \" vole-holes \" , buzzard probably tend to watch molehills in fields for activity and dive quickly from their perch when one of the subterranean mammals pops up.", "The most widely found mole in the buzzard's northern range is the European mole and this is one of the more important non-rodent prey items for the species.", "This species was present in 55% of 101 remains in Glen Urquhart, Scotland and was the second most common prey species in 606 prey items in Slovakia.", "In Bari, Italy, the Roman mole , of similar size to the European species, was the leading identified mammalian prey, making up 10.7% of the diet.", "The full size range of insectivores may be taken by buzzards, ranging from the world's smallest mammal , the Etruscan shrew to arguably the heaviest insectivore, the European hedgehog .", "Mammalian prey for common buzzards other than rodents, insectivores and lagomorphs is rarely taken.", "Occasionally, some weasels and perhaps martens might be attacked by buzzards, more likely the more powerful female buzzard since such prey is potentially dangerous and of similar size to a buzzard itself.", "Numerous larger mammals, including medium-sized carnivores such as dogs, cats and foxes and various ungulates, are sometimes eaten as carrion by buzzards, mainly during lean winter months.", "Still-borns of deer are also visited with some frequency.", "A crow mobs a buzzard.", "Buzzards will readily prey on crows, especially their fledglings.", "When attacking birds, common buzzards chiefly prey on nestlings and fledglings of small to medium-sized birds, largely passerines but also a variety of gamebirds, but sometimes also injured, sickly or unwary but healthy adults.", "While capable of overpowering birds larger than itself, the common buzzard is usually considered to lack the agility necessary to capture many adult birds, even gamebirds which would presumably be weaker fliers considering their relatively heavy bodies and small wings.", "On the contrary, in southern Scotland, even though the buzzards were taking relatively large bird prey, largely red grouse , 87% of birds taken were reportedly adults.", "In total, as in many raptorial birds that are far from bird-hunting specialists, birds are the most diverse group in the buzzard's prey spectrum due to the sheer number and diversity of birds, few raptors do not hunt them at least occasionally.", "Nearly 150 species of bird have been identified in the common buzzard's diet.", "In general, despite many that are taken, birds usually take a secondary position in the diet after mammals.", "In northern Scotland, birds were fairly numerous in the foods of buzzards.", "The most often recorded avian prey and 2nd and 3rd most frequent prey species in Glen Urquhart, were chaffinch and meadow pipits , with the buzzards taking 195 fledglings of these species against only 90 adults.", "This differed from Moray where the most frequent avian prey and 2nd most frequent prey species behind the rabbit was the common wood pigeon and the buzzards took four times as many adults relative to fledglings.", "Birds were the primary food for common buzzards in the Italian Alps, where they made up 46% of the diet against mammal which accounted for 29% in 146 prey items.", "The leading prey species here were Eurasian blackbirds and Eurasian jays , albeit largely fledglings were taken of both.", "Birds could also take the leading position in years with low vole populations in southern Norway, in particular thrushes, namely the blackbird, the song thrush and the redwing , which were collectively 22.1% of 244 prey items in 1993.", "In southern Spain, birds were equal in number to mammals in the diet, both at 38.3%, but most remains were classified as \" unidentified medium-sized birds \" , although the most often identified species of those that apparently could be determined were Eurasian jays and red-legged partridges .", "Similarly, in northern Ireland, birds were roughly equal in import to mammals but most were unidentified corvids.", "In Seversky Donets, Ukraine, birds and mammals both made up 39.3% of the foods of buzzards.", "Common buzzards may hunt nearly 80 species passerines and nearly all available gamebirds.", "Like many other largish raptors, gamebirds are attractive to hunt for buzzards due to their ground-dwelling habits.", "Buzzards were the most frequent predator in a study of juvenile pheasants in England, accounting for 4.3% of 725 deaths .", "They also prey on a wide size range of birds, ranging down to Europe's smallest bird, the goldcrest .", "Very few individual birds hunted by buzzards weigh more than .", "However, there have been some particularly large avian kills by buzzards, including any that weigh more or , or about the largest average size of a buzzard, have including adults of mallard , black grouse , ring-necked pheasant , common raven and some of the larger gulls if ambushed on their nests.", "The largest avian kill by a buzzard, and possibly largest known overall for the species, was an adult female western capercaillie that weighed an estimated .", "At times, buzzards will hunt the young of large birds such as herons and cranes.", "Other assorted avian prey has included a few species of waterfowl, most available pigeons and doves, cuckoos, swifts, grebes, rails, nearly 20 assorted shorebirds, tubenoses, hoopoes, bee-eaters and several types of woodpecker.", "Birds with more conspicuous or open nesting areas or habits are more likely to have fledglings or nestlings attacked, such as water birds, while those with more secluded or inaccessible nests, such as pigeons/doves and woodpeckers, adults are more likely to be hunted.", "A buzzard that caught a large Green whip snake but was flushed from its catch.", "The common buzzard may be the most regular avian predator of reptiles and amphibians in Europe apart from the sections where they are sympatric with the largely snake-eating short-toed eagle.", "In total, the prey spectrum of common buzzards include nearly 50 herpetological prey species.", "In studies from northern and southern Spain, the leading prey numerically were both reptilian, although in Biscay the leading prey was classified as \" unidentified snakes \" .", "In Murcia, the most numerous prey was the ocellated lizard , at 32.9%.", "In total, at Biscay and Murcia, reptiles accounted for 30.4% and 35.9% of the prey items, respectively.", "Findings were similar in a separate study from northeastern Spain, where reptiles amounted to 35.9% of prey.", "In Bari, Italy, reptiles were the main prey, making up almost exactly half of the biomass, led by the large green whip snake , maximum size up to , at 24.2% of food mass.", "In Stavropol Krai, Russia, the sand lizard was the main prey at 23.7% of 55 prey items.", "The slowworm , a legless lizard, became the most numerous prey for the buzzards of southern Norway in low vole years, amounting to 21.3% of 244 prey items in 1993 and were also common even in the peak vole year of 1994 .", "More or less any snake in Europe is potential prey and the buzzard has been known to be uncharacteristically bold in going after and overpowering large snakes such as rat snakes, ranging up to nearly in length, and healthy, large vipers despite the danger of being struck by such prey.", "However, in at least one case, the corpse of a female buzzard was found envenomed over the body of an adder that it had killed.", "In some parts of range, the common buzzard acquires the habit of taking many frogs and toads.", "This was the case in the Mogilev Region of Belarus where the moor frog was the major prey over several years, followed by other frogs and toads amounting to 39.4% of the diet over the years.", "In central Scotland, the common toad was the most numerous prey species, accounting for 21.7% of 263 prey items, while the common frog made up a further 14.7% of the diet.", "Frogs made up about 10% of the diet in central Poland as well.", "When common buzzards feed on invertebrates, these are chiefly earthworms, beetles and caterpillars in Europe and largely seemed to be preyed on by juvenile buzzards with less refined hunting skills or in areas with mild winters and ample swarming or social insects.", "In most dietary studies, invertebrates are at best a minor supplemental contributor to the buzzard's diet.", "Nonetheless, roughly a dozen beetle species have found in the foods of buzzards from the Ukraine alone.", "In winter in northeastern Spain, it was found that the buzzards switched largely from the vertebrate prey typically taken during spring and summer to a largely insect-based diet.", "Most of this prey was unidentified but the most frequently identified were European mantis and European mole cricket .", "In the Ukraine, 30.8% of the food by number was found to be insects.", "Especially in winter quarters such as southern Africa, common buzzards are often attracted to swarming locusts and other orthopterans.", "In this way the steppe buzzard may mirror a similar long-distance migrant from the Americas, the Swainson's hawk, which feeds its young largely on nutritious vertebrates but switches to a largely insect-based once the reach their distant wintering grounds in South America.", "In Eritea, 18 returning migrant steppe buzzards were seen to feed together on swarms of grasshoppers.", "For wintering steppe buzzards in Zimbabwe, one source went so far as to refer to them as primarily insectivorous, apparently being somewhat locally specialized to feeding on termites.", "Stomach contents in buzzards from Malawi apparently consisted largely of grasshoppers .", "Fish tend to be the rarest class of prey found in the common buzzard's foods.", "There are a couple cases of predation of fish detected in the Netherlands, while elsewhere they've been known to have fed upon eels and carp.", "A juvenile white-tailed eagle being mobbed by a pair of common buzzards over the Isle of Canna, as the eagle will sometimes prey on the buzzard.", "Common buzzards co-occur with dozens of other raptorial birds through their breeding, resident and wintering grounds.", "There may be many other birds that broadly overlap in prey selection to some extent.", "Furthermore, their preference for interfaces of forest and field is used heavily by many birds of prey.", "Some of the most similar species by diet are the common kestrel , hen harrier and lesser spotted eagle , not to mention nearly every European species of owl, as all but two may locally prefer rodents such as voles in their diets.", "Diet overlap was found to be extensive between buzzards and red foxes in Poland, with 61.9% of prey selection overlapping by species although the dietary breadth of the fox was broader and more opportunistic.", "Both fox dens and buzzard roosts were found to be significantly closer to high vole areas relative to the overall environment here.", "The only other widely found European Buteo, the rough-legged buzzard, comes to winter extensively with common buzzards.", "It was found in southern Sweden, habitat, hunting and prey selection often overlapped considerably.", "Rough-legged buzzards appear to prefer slightly more open habitat and took slightly fewer wood mice than common buzzard.", "Roughlegs also hover much more frequently and are more given to hunting in high winds.", "The two buzzards are aggressive towards one another and excluded each other from winter feeding territories in similar ways to the way they exclude conspecifics.", "In northern Germany, the buffer of their habitat preferences apparently accounted for the lack of effect on each other's occupancy between the two buzzard species.", "Despite a broad range of overlap, very little is known about the ecology of common and long-legged buzzards where they co-exist.", "However, it can be inferred from the long-legged species preference for predation on differing prey, such as blind mole-rats, ground squirrels, hamsters and gerbils, from the voles usually preferred by the common species, that serious competition for food is unlikely.", "A more direct negative effect has been found in buzzard's co-existence with northern goshawk .", "Despite the considerable discrepancy of the two species dietary habits, habitat selection in Europe is largely similar between buzzards and goshawks.", "Goshawks are slightly larger than buzzards and are more powerful, agile and generally more aggressive birds, and so they are considered dominant.", "In studies from Germany and Sweden, buzzards were found to be less disturbance sensitive than goshawks but were probably displaced into inferior nesting spots by the dominant goshawks.", "The exposure of buzzards to a dummy goshawk was found to decrease breeding success whereas there was no effect on breeding goshawks when they were exposed to a dummy buzzard.", "In many cases, in Germany and Sweden, goshawks displaced buzzards from their nests to take them over for themselves.", "In Poland, buzzards productivity was correlated to prey population variations, particularly voles which could vary from 1080 per hectare, whereas goshawks were seemingly unaffected by prey variations", "buzzards were found here to number 1.73 pair per against goshawk 1.63 pair per .", "In contrast, the slightly larger counterpart of buzzards in North America, the red-tailed hawk are more similar in diet to goshawks there.", "Redtails are not invariably dominated by goshawks and are frequently able to outcompete them by virtue of greater dietary and habitat flexibility.", "Furthermore, red-tailed hawks are apparently equally capable of killing goshawks as goshawks are of killing them .", "Other raptorial birds, including many of similar or mildly larger size than common buzzards themselves, may dominate or displace the buzzard, especially with aims to take over their nests.", "Species such as the black kite , booted eagle and the lesser spotted eagle have been known to displace actively nesting buzzards, although in some cases the buzzards may attempt to defend themselves.", "The broad range of accipitrids that take over buzzard nests is somewhat unusual. More typically, common buzzards are victims of nest parasitism to owls and falcons, as neither of these other kinds of raptorial birds builds their own nests, but these may regularly take up occupancy on already abandoned or alternate nests rather than ones the buzzards are actively using.", "In urban vicinities of southwestern England, it was found that peregrine falcons were harassing buzzards so persistently, in many cases resulting in injury or death for the buzzards, the attacks tending to peak during the falcon's breeding seasons and tend to be focused on subadult buzzards.", "Despite often being dominated in nesting site confrontations by even similarly sized raptors, buzzards appear to be bolder in direct competition over food with other raptors outside of the context of breeding, and has even been known to displace larger birds of prey such as red kites and female buzzards may also dominate male goshawks at disputed kills.", "The remains of a common buzzard that was preyed on by a Eurasian eagle-owl.", "Common buzzards are occasionally threatened by predation by other raptorial birds.", "Northern goshawks have been known to have preyed upon buzzards in a few cases.", "Much larger raptors are known to have killed a few buzzards as well, including steppe eagles on migrating steppe buzzards in Israel.", "Further instances of predation on buzzards have involved golden, eastern imperial , Bonelli's and white-tailed eagles in Europe.", "Besides preying on adult buzzard, white-tailed eagles have been known to raise buzzards with their own young.", "These are most likely cases of eagles carrying off young buzzard nestlings with the intention of predation but, for unclear reasons, not killing them.", "Instead the mother eagle comes to brood the young buzzard.", "Despite the difference of the two species diets, white-tailed eagles are surprisingly successful at raising young buzzards to fledging.", "Studies in Lithuania of white-tailed eagle diets found that predation on common buzzards was more frequent than anticipated, with 36 buzzard remains found in 11 years of study of the summer diet of the white-tailed eagles.", "While nestling buzzards were multiple times more vulnerable to predation than adult buzzards in the Lithuanian data, the region's buzzards expelled considerable time and energy during the late nesting period trying to protect their nests.", "The most serious predator of common buzzards, however, is almost certainly the Eurasian eagle-owl .", "This is a very large owl with a mean body mass about three to four times greater than that of a buzzard.", "The eagle-owl, despite often taking small mammals that broadly overlap with those selected by buzzards, is considered a \" super-predator \" that is a major threat to nearly all co-existing raptorial birds, capably destroying whole broods of other raptorial birds and dispatching adult raptors even as large as eagles.", "Due to their large numbers in edge habitats, common buzzards frequently feature heavily in the eagle-owl's diet.", "Eagle-owls, as will some other large owls, also readily expropriate the nests of buzzards.", "The reintroduction of eagle-owls to sections of Germany has been found to have a slight deleterious effect on the local occupancy of common buzzards.", "The only sparing factor is the temporal difference and buzzards may locally be able to avoid nesting near an active eagle-owl family.", "As the ecology of the wintering population is relatively little studied, a similar very large owl at the top of the avian food chain, the Verreaux's eagle-owl , is the only known predator of wintering steppe buzzards in southern Africa.", "Despite not being known predators of buzzards, other large, vole-eating owls are known to displace or to be avoided by nesting buzzards, such as great grey owls and Ural owls .", "Common buzzards themselves rarely present a threat to other raptorial birds but may occasionally kill a few of those of smaller size.", "The buzzard is a known predator of Eurasian sparrowhawks , common kestrel and lesser kestrel .", "Perhaps surprisingly, given the nocturnal habits of this prey, the group of raptorial birds the buzzard is known to hunt most extensively is owls.", "Known owl prey has included barn owls , European scops owls , tawny owls , little owls , boreal owls , long-eared owls and short-eared owls .", "Despite their relatively large size, tawny owls are known to avoid buzzards as there are several records of them preying upon the owls.", "A pair of common buzzards in Scotland.", "Home ranges of common buzzards are generally .", "In a German study, the range was with an average of .", "On another set of islands, on Crete the density of pairs was lower at 5.7 pairs per", "here buzzards tend to have an irregular distribution, some in lower intensity harvest olive groves but their occurrence actually more common in agricultural than natural areas.", "In the Italian Alps, it was recorded in 199396 that there were from 28 to 30 pairs per .", "Despite claims from the study of the English midlands were the highest known territory density for the species, a number ranging from 32 to 51 pairs in wooded area of merely in Czech Republic seems to surely exceed even those densities.", "The Czech study hypothesized that fragmentation of forest in human management of lands for wild sheep and deer, creating exceptional concentrations of prey such as voles, and lack of appropriate habitat in surrounding regions for the exceptionally high density.", "A territorial dogfight between three buzzards in the Azores.", "Common buzzards maintain their territories through flight displays.", "In Europe, territorial behaviour generally starts in February.", "However, displays are not uncommon throughout year in resident pairs, especially by males, and can elicit similar displays by neighbors.", "In them, common buzzards generally engage in high circling, spiraling upward on slightly raised wings.", "Mutual high circling by pairs sometimes go on at length, especially during the period prior to or during breeding season.", "In mutual displays, a pair may follow each other at in level flight.", "During the mutual displays, the male may engage in exaggerated deep flapping or zig-zag tumbling, apparently in response to the female being too distant.", "Two or three pairs may circle together at times and as many as 14 individual adults have been recorded over established display sites.", "Sky-dancing by common buzzards have been recorded in spring and autumn, typically by male but sometimes by female, nearly always with much calling.", "Their sky-dances are of the rollercoaster type, with upward sweep until they start to stall, but sometimes embellished with loops or rolls at the top.", "Next in the sky-dance, they dive on more or less closed wings before spreading them and shooting up again, upward sweeps of up to , with dive drops of up to at least .", "These dances may be repeated in series of 10 to 20.", "In the climax of the sky dance, the undulations become progressive shallower, often slowing and terminating directly onto a perch.", "Various other aerial displays include low contour flight or weaving among trees, frequently with deep beats and exaggerated upstrokes which show underwing pattern to rivals perched below.", "Talon grappling and occasionally cartwheeling downward with feet interlocked has been recorded in buzzards and, as in many raptors, is likely the physical culmination of the aggressive territorial display, especially between males.", "Despite the highly territorial nature of buzzards and their devotion to a single mate and breeding ground each summer, there is one case of a polyandrous trio of buzzards nesting in the Canary Islands.", "In North-Estonian Neeruti landscape reserve found in years 1989 and 1990 Marek Vahula 9 populated nest.", "This is sovereign public density of population.", "One nest founded in 12.06.1982 and this is apparently oldest nest of Common Buzzard, what is populated until today.", "Common buzzards tend to build a bulky nest of sticks, twigs and often heather.", "Commonly, nests are up to across and deep.", "With reuse over years, the diameter can reach or exceed and weight of nests can reach over .", "Buzzards were recorded to nest almost exclusively in pines in Spain at a mean height of .", "The much plainer egg of the common buzzard contrasted with that of the European honey buzzard.", "The breeding season commences at differing times based on latitude.", "Common buzzard breeding seasons may fall as early as January to April but typically the breeding season is March to July in much of Palearctic.", "In the northern stretches of the range the breeding season may last into MayAugust.", "Mating usually occurs on or near the nest and lasts about 15 seconds, typically occurring several times a day.", "Eggs are usually laid in 2 to 3-day intervals.", "The clutch size can range from to 2 to 6, a relatively large clutch for an accipitrid.", "More northerly and westerly buzzard usually bear larger clutches, which average nearer 3, than those further east and south.", "In Spain, the average clutch size is about 2 to 2.3.", "From 4 locations in different parts of Europe, 43% had clutch size of 2, 41% had size of 3, clutches of 1 and 4 each constituted about 8%.", "Laying dates are remarkably constant throughout Great Britain.", "There are, however, highly significant differences in clutch size between British study areas.", "These do not follow any latitudinal gradient and it is likely that local factors such as habitat and prey availability are more important determinants of clutch size.", "The eggs are white in ground colour, rather round in shape with sporadic red to brown markings sometimes lightly showing.", "In the nominate race, egg size is in height by in diameter with an average of in 600 eggs.", "In the race of vulpinus, egg height is by with an average of in 303 eggs.", "Eggs are generally laid in late March to early April in extreme south, sometime in April in most of Europe, into May and possibly even early June in the extreme north.", "If eggs are lost to a predator or fail in some other way, common buzzards do not usually lay replacement clutches but they have been recorded, even with 3 attempts of clutches by a single female.", "The female does most but not all of the incubating, doing so for a total of 3335 days.", "The female remains at the nest brooding the young in the early stages with the male bringing all prey.", "At about 812 days, both the male and female will bring prey but the female continues to do all feeding until the young can tear up their own prey.", "Once hatching commences, it may take 48 hours for the chick to chip out.", "Hatching may take place over 37 days, with new hatchlings averaging about in body mass.", "After leaving the nest, buzzards generally stay close by, but with migratory ones there is more definitive movement generally southbound.", "Full independence is generally sought 6 to 8 weeks after fledging.", "1st year birds generally remain in wintering area for following summer but then return to near area of origin but then migrate south again without breeding.", "Radio-tracking suggests that most dispersal, even relatively early dispersals, by juvenile buzzards is undertaken independently rather than via exile by parents, as has been recorded in some other birds of prey.", "In common buzzards, generally speaking, siblings stay quite close to each other after dispersal from their parents and form something of a social group, although parents usually tolerate their presence on their territory until they are laying another clutch.", "However, the social group of siblings disbands at about a year of age.", "Juvenile buzzards are subordinate to adults during most encounters and tend to avoid direct confrontations and actively defended territories until they are of appropriate age .", "This was the case as well for steppe buzzard juveniles wintering in southern Africa, although in some cases juveniles were able to successfully steal prey from adults there.", "A common buzzard recent fledgling in a pine tree.", "Numerous factors may weigh into the breeding success of common buzzards.", "Chiefly among these are prey populations, habitat, disturbance and persecution levels and innerspecies competition.", "High breeding success was detected in Argyll, Scotland, due likely to hearty prey populations but also probably a lower local rate of persecution than elsewhere in the British isles.", "Here, the mean number of fledglings were 1.75 against 0.821.41 in other parts of Britain.", "It was found in the English Midlands that breeding success both by measure of clutch size and mean number of fledglings, was relatively high thanks again to high prey populations.", "Breeding success was lower farther from significant stands of trees in the Midlands and most nesting failures that could be determined occurred in the incubation stage, possibly in correlation with predation of eggs by corvids.", "More significant than even prey, late winter-early spring was found to be likely the primary driver of breeding success in buzzards from southern Norway.", "Here, even in peak vole years, nesting success could be considerably hampered by heavy snow at this crucial stage.", "In Norway, large clutches of 3+ were expected only in years with minimal snow cover, high vole populations and lighter rains in MayJune.", "In the Italian Alps, the mean number of fledglings per pair was 1.07.", "33.4% of nesting attempts were failures per a study in southwestern Germany, with an average of 1.06 of all nesting attempts and 1.61 for all successful attempt.", "In Germany, weather conditions and rodent populations seemed to be the primary drivers of nesting success.", "In Murcia part of Spain contrasted with Biscay to the north, higher levels of interspecific competition from booted eagles and northern goshawks did not appear to negatively affect breeding success due to more ample prey populations in Murcia than in Biscay.", "Breeding success in areas with wild European rabbits was considerably effected by rabbit myxomatosis and rabbit haemorrhagic disease, both of which have heavily depleted wild rabbit population.", "Breeding success in formerly rabbit-rich areas were recorded to decrease from as much as 2.6 to as little as 0.9 young per pair.", "Age of first breeding in several radio-tagged buzzards showed only a single male breeding as early as his 2nd summer .", "Significantly more buzzards were found to start breeding at the 3 summer but breeding attempts can be individually erratic given the availability of habitat, food and mates.", "The mean life expectancy was estimated at 6.3 years in the late 1950s, but this was at a time of high persecution when humans were causing 5080% of buzzard deaths.", "In a more modern context with regionally reduced persecution rates, the lifespan expected can be higher but is still widely variable due to a wide variety of factors.", "A wintering steppe buzzard in South Africa.", "The common buzzard is one of the most numerous birds of prey in its range.", "Almost certainly, it is the most numerous diurnal bird of prey throughout Europe.", "Conservative estimates put the total population at no fewer than 700,000 pairs in Europe, which are more than twice the total estimates for the next four birds of prey estimated as most common: the Eurasian sparrowhawk , the common kestrel and the northern goshawk .", "In Westphalia, Germany, population of Buzzards was shown to nearly triple over the last few decades.", "The Westphalian buzzards are possibly benefiting from increasingly warmer mean climate, which in turn is increasing vulnerability of voles.", "However, the rate of increase was significantly greater in males than in females, in part because of reintroduced Eurasian eagle-owls to the region preying on nests , which may in turn put undue pressure on the local buzzard population.", "At least 238 common buzzards killed through persecution were recovered in England from 1975 to 1989, largely through poisoning.", "Persecution did not significantly differ at any time due this span of years nor did the persecution rates decrease, nor did it when compared to rates of last survey of this in 1981.", "While some persecution persists in England, it is probably slightly less common today.", "The buzzard was found to be the most vulnerable raptor to power-line collision fatalities in Spain probably as it is one of the most common largish birds, and together with the common raven, it accounted for nearly a third of recorded electrocutions.", "Given its relative abundance, the common buzzard is held as an ideal bioindicator, as they are effected by a range of pesticide and metal contamination through pollution like other raptors but are largely resilient to these at the population levels.", "In turn, this allows biologists to study the buzzards intensively and their environments without affecting their overall population.", "The lack of affect may be due to the buzzard's adaptability as well as its relatively short, terrestrially-based food chain, which exposes them to less risk of contamination and population depletions than raptors that prey more heavily on water-based prey or other birds .", "Common buzzards are seldom vulnerable to egg-shell thinning from DDT as are other raptors but egg-shell thinning has been recorded.", "Other factors that negatively effect raptors have been studied in common buzzards are helminths, avipoxvirus and assorted other viruses."]}, "Anthus pratensis": {"keywords": ["The meadow pipit is a small passerine bird, which breeds in much of the Palearctic, from southeastern Greenland and Iceland east to just east of the Ural Mountains in Russia, and south to central France and Romania, an isolated population also occurs in the Caucasus Mountains.", "It is migratory over most of its range, wintering in southern Europe, North Africa, and south-western Asia, but is resident year-round in western Europe, though even here many birds move to the coast or lowlands in winter.", "Nest with eggs It is primarily a species of open habitats, either uncultivated or low-intensity agriculture, such as pasture, bogs, and moorland, but also occurs in low numbers in arable croplands.", "In winter, it also uses saltmarshes and sometimes open woodlands.", "It is a fairly terrestrial pipit, always feeding on the ground, but uses elevated perches such as shrubs, fence lines, or electricity wires as vantage points to watch for predators.", "Breeding densities range from in northern Scandinavia, to in grassland in the south of the breeding range, and just in arable farmland.", "A few isolated breeding pairs are recorded from south of the main range, in the mountains of Spain, Italy, and the northern Balkans.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden Cuculus canorus canorus in a clutch of Anthus pratensis - MHNT The nest is on the ground hidden in dense vegetation, with two to seven eggs, the eggs hatch after 1115 days, with the chicks fledging 1014 days after hatching.", "It also eats the seeds of grasses, sedges, rushes, and heather, and crowberry berries, mainly in winter."], "habitat_section": ["Nest with eggs It is primarily a species of open habitats, either uncultivated or low-intensity agriculture, such as pasture, bogs, and moorland, but also occurs in low numbers in arable croplands.", "In winter, it also uses saltmarshes and sometimes open woodlands.", "It is a fairly terrestrial pipit, always feeding on the ground, but uses elevated perches such as shrubs, fence lines, or electricity wires as vantage points to watch for predators.", "The estimated total population is 12 million pairs.", "It is an abundant species in the north of its range, and generally the commonest breeding bird in most of upland Britain, but less common further south.", "Breeding densities range from in northern Scandinavia, to in grassland in the south of the breeding range, and just in arable farmland.", "A few isolated breeding pairs are recorded from south of the main range, in the mountains of Spain, Italy, and the northern Balkans.", "A general decline in the population has occurred over the past 17 years, most notable in French farmland, with a 68% drop."], "random_sentences": ["The meadow pipit is a small passerine bird, which breeds in much of the Palearctic, from southeastern Greenland and Iceland east to just east of the Ural Mountains in Russia, and south to central France and Romania", "an isolated population also occurs in the Caucasus Mountains.", "It is migratory over most of its range, wintering in southern Europe, North Africa, and south-western Asia, but is resident year-round in western Europe, though even here many birds move to the coast or lowlands in winter.", "The meadow pipit was formally described by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Alauda pratensis.", "The type locality is Sweden.", "The meadow pipit is now the type species of the genus Anthus that was introduced in 1805 by German naturalist Johann Matthaus Bechstein.", "Old folk names, no longer used, include \" chit lark \" , \" peet lark \" , \" tit lark \" , and \" titling \"", "these refer to its small size and superficial similarity to a lark.", "A meadow pipit perched on a fishing net This is a widespread and often abundant small pipit, long and weight.", "It is an undistinguished-looking species on the ground, mainly brown above and buff below, with darker streaking on most of its plumage", "the tail is brown, with narrow white side edges.", "It has a thin bill and pale pinkish-yellow legs", "the hind claw is notably long, longer than the rest of the hind toes.", "The call is a weak tsi-tsi.", "The simple repetitive song is given in a short song flight.", "Birds breeding in Ireland and western Scotland are slightly darker coloured than those in other areas, and are often distinguished as the subspecies A. p. whistleri, though it intergrades clinally with nominate A. p. pratensis found in the rest of the species' range.", "It is similar to the red-throated pipit A. cervinus, which is more heavily streaked and has an orange-red throat, and to the tree pipit A. trivialis, which is slightly larger, less heavily streaked, and has stronger facial markings and a shorter hind claw.", "The song of the meadow pipit accelerates towards the end while that of the tree pipit slows down.", "Nest with eggs It is primarily a species of open habitats, either uncultivated or low-intensity agriculture, such as pasture, bogs, and moorland, but also occurs in low numbers in arable croplands.", "In winter, it also uses saltmarshes and sometimes open woodlands.", "It is a fairly terrestrial pipit, always feeding on the ground, but uses elevated perches such as shrubs, fence lines, or electricity wires as vantage points to watch for predators.", "The estimated total population is 12 million pairs.", "It is an abundant species in the north of its range, and generally the commonest breeding bird in most of upland Britain, but less common further south.", "Breeding densities range from in northern Scandinavia, to in grassland in the south of the breeding range, and just in arable farmland.", "A few isolated breeding pairs are recorded from south of the main range, in the mountains of Spain, Italy, and the northern Balkans.", "A general decline in the population has occurred over the past 17 years, most notable in French farmland, with a 68% drop.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden Cuculus canorus canorus in a clutch of Anthus pratensis - MHNT The nest is on the ground hidden in dense vegetation, with two to seven eggs", "the eggs hatch after 1115 days, with the chicks fledging 1014 days after hatching.", "Two broods are commonly raised each year.", "This species is one of the most important nest hosts of the cuckoo, and it is also an important prey species for merlins and hen harriers.", "Its food is primarily insects and other invertebrates, mostly small items less than long.", "It also eats the seeds of grasses, sedges, rushes, and heather, and crowberry berries, mainly in winter."]}, "Gallinago gallinago": {"keywords": ["The breeding habitats are marshes, bogs, tundra and wet meadows throughout the Palearctic.", "Here it is mostly on the northern edge of the Taiga zone at 71N, but reaches 74N on the east coast of the Taymyr Peninsula.", "In the east it extends to Anadyr, Kamchatka, Bering Island and the Kuril Islands, The southern boundary of the distribution area in Europe runs through northern Portugal, central France, northern Italy, Bulgaria, and Ukraine, with populations in the west being only very scattered.", "It is migratory, with European birds wintering in southern and western Europe and Africa , and Asian migrants moving to tropical southern Asia.", "Both species breed in the Aleutian Islands.", "The common snipe is a well camouflaged bird, it is usually shy and conceals itself close to ground vegetation and flushes only when approached closely.", "Populations on the southern fringes of the breeding range in Europe are however declining with local extinction in some areas , mainly due to field drainage and agricultural intensification.", "The purple sandpiper is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "Old folk names include \" mire snipe \" , \" horse gowk \" , \" heather bleat \" , and the variant spelling \" snite \" ."], "habitat_section": ["Common Snipe at Chilika, Odisha Overall, the species is not threatened.", "Populations on the southern fringes of the breeding range in Europe are however declining with local extinction in some areas , mainly due to field drainage and agricultural intensification.", "The Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies to the species.", "The purple sandpiper is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "It is still hunted as a gamebird in much of its range."], "random_sentences": ["The common snipe is a small, stocky wader native to the Old World.", "The breeding habitats are marshes, bogs, tundra and wet meadows throughout the Palearctic.", "In the north, the distribution limit extends from Iceland over the north of the British Isles and northern Fennoscandia, where it occurs at around 70N, as well as through European Russia and Siberia.", "Here it is mostly on the northern edge of the Taiga zone at 71N, but reaches 74N on the east coast of the Taymyr Peninsula.", "In the east it extends to Anadyr, Kamchatka, Bering Island and the Kuril Islands, The southern boundary of the distribution area in Europe runs through northern Portugal, central France, northern Italy, Bulgaria, and Ukraine, with populations in the west being only very scattered.", "In Asia, the distribution extends south to northern Turkestan, locally to Afghanistan and the Middle East, through the Altai and further to Manchuria and Ussuri.", "It is migratory, with European birds wintering in southern and western Europe and Africa , and Asian migrants moving to tropical southern Asia.", "The North American Wilson's snipe was previously considered the same species, and is listed as such in older field guides.", "The common snipe was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Scolopax gallinago.", "The species is now placed with 17 other snipe in the genus Gallinago that was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.", "The name gallinago is New Latin for a woodcock or snipe from Latin gallina, \" hen \" and the suffix -ago, \" resembling \" .", "Egg Adults are in length with a wingspan and a weight of .", "They have short greenish-grey legs and a very long straight dark bill.", "The body is mottled brown with straw-yellow stripes on top and pale underneath.", "They have a dark stripe through the eye, with light stripes above and below it.", "The common snipe is the most widespread of several similar snipes.", "It most closely resembles the Wilson's snipe (G.", "delicata) of North America, which was until recently considered to be a subspecies G. g. delicata of the common snipe.", "They differ in the number of tail feathers, with seven pairs in G. gallinago and eight pairs in G. delicata", "the North American species also has a slightly thinner white trailing edge to the wings .", "Both species breed in the Aleutian Islands.", "It is also very similar to the pin-tailed snipe (G.", "stenura) and Swinhoe's snipe (G.", "identification of these species there is complex.", "The subspecies faeroeensis is normally is more richly toned on the breast, its upperparts and the head than the gallinago.", "G. g. gallinago at Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India.", "G. g. gallinago at nature park S'Albufera, on the island of Mallorca.", "The common snipe is a well camouflaged bird, it is usually shy and conceals itself close to ground vegetation and flushes only when approached closely.", "When flushed, they utter a sharp note that sounds like scape, scape and fly off in a series of aerial zig-zags to confuse predators.", "They forage in soft mud, probing or picking up food by sight.", "They mainly eat insects and earthworms, also some plant material. The male performs \" winnowing \" display during courtship, flying high in circles and then taking shallow dives to produce a \" drumming \" sound by vibrating its tail feathers.", "This sound has been compared by others to the bleating of a sheep or goat", "hence in many languages the snipe is known by names signifying \" flying goat \" , \" heaven's ram \" , as in Scotland by \" heather-bleater \" and in Finnish the name taivaanvuohi, \" sky goat \" .", "Philip Manson-Bahr is credited with unravelling the mystery of how the snipe creates that unusual breathy 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.", "Wing shape does not differ between sedentary and migratory common snipe, suggesting that social selection influences wing shape given this species aerial displays during courtship.", "Common snipe nest in a well-hidden location on the ground, laying four eggs of a dark olive colour, blotched and spotted with rich brown, which are incubated by the female for 1821 days.", "The freshly hatched young are covered in dark maroon down, variegated with black, white and buff.", "The young are cared for by both parents, each parent looking after half the brood, with fledging in 1020 days.", "Common Snipe at Chilika, Odisha Overall, the species is not threatened.", "Populations on the southern fringes of the breeding range in Europe are however declining with local extinction in some areas , mainly due to field drainage and agricultural intensification.", "The Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies to the species.", "The purple sandpiper is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "It is still hunted as a gamebird in much of its range.", "Old folk names include \" mire snipe \" , \" horse gowk \" , \" heather bleat \" , and the variant spelling \" snite \" .", "See snipe for other aspects of the name."]}, "Chroicocephalus ridibundus": {"keywords": ["The black-headed gull is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic including Europe and also in coastal eastern Canada.", "They are an overwintering species, found in a variety of different habitats.", "The summer adult has a chocolate-brown head , pale grey body, black tips to the primary wing feathers, and red bill and legs.", "Immature birds have a mottled pattern of brown spots over most of the body, It breeds in colonies in large reed beds or marshes, or on islands in lakes, nesting on the ground.", "It is not a pelagic species and is rarely seen at sea far from coasts.", "Small numbers also breed in northeastern Canada and can be seen in winter in northeast North America as far south as Virginia, often with the similar-looking Bonaparte's Gull and also in some Caribbean islands.", "Although mothers show some form of aggressiveness when a predator is near, in the first 30 minutes, wet chicks can be easily taken by other black-headed gulls after hatching when the parents of the wet chick are distracted.", "Head-bobbing walking occurs during a seeking type foraging by walking through water and includes benefits such as enhancing motion and pattern detection and gathering depth information from motion parallax during the thrust phase."], "habitat_section": ["Black-headed gulls can be found over much of Europe.", "It is also found in across the Palearctic to Japan and east China.", "Small numbers also breed in northeastern Canada and can be seen in winter in northeast North America as far south as Virginia, often with the similar-looking Bonaparte's Gull and also in some Caribbean islands."], "random_sentences": ["The black-headed gull is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic including Europe and also in coastal eastern Canada.", "Most of the population is migratory and winters further south, but some birds reside in the milder westernmost areas of Europe.", "Small numbers also occur in northeastern North America, where it was formerly known as the common black-headed gull.", "As is the case with many gulls, it was previously placed in the genus Larus.", "The genus name Chroicocephalus is from Ancient Greek khroizo, \" to colour \" , and kephale, \" head \" .", "The specific ridibundus is Latin for \" laughing \" , from ridere \" to laugh \" .", "The black-headed gull displays a variety of compelling behaviours and adaptations.", "Some of these include removing eggshells from one's nest after hatching, begging co-ordination between siblings, differences between sexes, conspecific brood parasitism, and extra-pair paternity.", "They are an overwintering species, found in a variety of different habitats.", "This gull is long with a wingspan and weighs .", "In flight, the white leading edge to the wing is a good field mark.", "The summer adult has a chocolate-brown head , pale grey body, black tips to the primary wing feathers, and red bill and legs.", "The hood is lost in winter, leaving just two dark spots.", "Immature birds have a mottled pattern of brown spots over most of the body, It breeds in colonies in large reed beds or marshes, or on islands in lakes, nesting on the ground.", "Like most gulls, it is highly gregarious in winter, both when feeding or in evening roosts.", "It is not a pelagic species and is rarely seen at sea far from coasts.", "The black-headed gull is a bold and opportunistic feeder.", "It eats insects, fish, seeds, worms, scraps, and carrion in towns, or invertebrates in ploughed fields with equal relish.", "It is a noisy species, especially in colonies, with a familiar \" kree-ar \" call.", "Its scientific name means laughing gull.", "This species takes two years to reach maturity.", "First-year birds have a black terminal tail band, more dark areas in the wings, and, in summer, a less fully developed dark hood.", "Like most gulls, black-headed gulls are long-lived birds, with a maximum age of at least 32.9 years recorded in the wild, in addition to an anecdote now believed of dubious authenticity regarding a 63-year-old bird.", "Black-headed gulls can be found over much of Europe.", "It is also found in across the Palearctic to Japan and east China.", "Small numbers also breed in northeastern Canada and can be seen in winter in northeast North America as far south as Virginia, often with the similar-looking Bonaparte's Gull and also in some Caribbean islands.", "Eggshell removal is a behaviour seen in birds once the chicks have hatched, observed mostly to reduce risk of predation.", "Removing the eggshell acts as a way of camouflage to avoid predators seeing the nest.", "The further away egg shells are from the nest, the lower the predation risk.", "Black-headed gull eggs experience predation from different species of birds, foxes, stoats, and even other black-headed gulls.", "Although mothers show some form of aggressiveness when a predator is near, in the first 30 minutes, wet chicks can be easily taken by other black-headed gulls after hatching when the parents of the wet chick are distracted.", "Black headed gulls also carry away other objects that do not belong in the nest.", "The removal of eggshells and other objects is important not only in the incubation period but also during the first few days after the eggs hatch.", "However, the removal process seems to increase as time goes on.", "The removal is done by both the male and female parents, normally lasts a few seconds and is done three times a year.", "A black-headed gull is able to differentiate an egg shell from an egg by acknowledging its thin, serrated, white, edge.", "Therefore, the weight of the egg or eggshell does not play a role when determining its value.", "Black-headed gulls display both head-bobbing walking and non-bobbing walking .", "Head-bobbing walking is expressed by a hold phase and a thrust phase.", "The hold phase in black-headed gulls occurs mainly during the single support phase and is when the bird balances its head to equal the environment.", "Head-bobbing walking occurs during a seeking type foraging by walking through water and includes benefits such as enhancing motion and pattern detection and gathering depth information from motion parallax during the thrust phase.", "Non-bobbing walking occurs when black-headed gulls are displaying a waiting behaviour while foraging on flat surfaces.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The eggs of the black-headed gull are considered a delicacy by some in the UK and are eaten hard boiled.", "The collection of black-headed gull eggs is heavily regulated by the UK government.", "Eggs may only be taken by a small number of licensed individuals at six sites between April 1 and May 15 each year and only a single egg may be taken from each nest.", "No eggs are permitted to be sold after June 30.", "As the gulls tend to lay in late April and early May, the eggs are in effect, only available to purchase for 3 or 4 weeks per year.", "Observations on the behavior of black-headed gulls show that black-headed gulls individuals synchronize their vigilance activity with other black-headed gulls neighbors.", "Synchronization in black-headed gulls groups is dependent on the distance between the black-headed gulls members.", "On 19th October 1991, local Broome birder Brian Kane saw a strange species of bird while trawling the local sewer ponds.", "Upon seeing this bird, he contacted the Broome Bird Observatory by telephone to verify the species, however there was conjecture regarding its identity.", "Kane took photos of the bird and recorded field notes, before sending this information to the Appraisals Committee in Hobart, Tasmania, who were able to confirm that it was indeed a black-headed gull.", "This was the first recorded sighting of the species in Australia.", "In Richard Adams' 1972 novel Watership Down, a black-headed gull named Kehaar plays a major part in the story.", "Injured by a farm cat and left behind during the seasonal migrations, Kehaar finds himself stranded on the Downs and is taken in by a warren of European rabbits.", "He later becomes their friend and ally, and helps to save the rabbits from danger many times", "instincts eventually force him to return to his colony, but he promises to visit the rabbits each winter.", "True to Adams' stated intentions of trying to keep the animals' behavior close to reality, Kehaar is characterized as intelligent, gregarious, noisy, messy, and impatient.", "He has a guttural accent, inspired by a Norwegian Resistance fighter Adams once had known.", "Kehaar appears in all three screen adaptations of the novel", "the character was voiced by Zero Mostel in the 1978 film, Rik Mayall in the 1999 TV series, and Peter Capaldi in the 2018 miniseries."]}, "Phylloscopus collybita": {"keywords": ["The common chiffchaff , or simply the chiffchaff, is a common and widespread leaf warbler which breeds in open woodlands throughout northern and temperate Europe and the Palearctic.", "It is a migratory passerine which winters in southern and western Europe, southern Asia and north Africa.", "The common chiffchaff has three still commonly accepted subspecies, together with some from the Iberian Peninsula, the Canary Islands, and the Caucasus which are now more often treated as full species.", "When breeding, it is a bird of open woodlands with some taller trees and ground cover for nesting purposes.", "These trees are typically at least high, with undergrowth that is an open, poor to medium mix of grasses, bracken, nettles or similar plants.", "Its breeding habitat is quite specific, and even near relatives do not share it, for example, the willow warbler prefers younger trees, while the wood warbler prefers less undergrowth.", "In winter, the common chiffchaff uses a wider range of habitats including scrub, and is not so dependent on trees.", "It is often found near water, unlike the willow warbler which tolerates drier habitats.", "There is an increasing tendency to winter in western Europe well north of the traditional areas, especially in coastal southern England and the mild urban microclimate of London.", "These overwintering common chiffchaffs include some visitors of the eastern subspecies abietinus and tristis, so they are certainly not all birds which have bred locally, although some undoubtedly are.", "The female's nest is built on or near the ground in a concealed site in brambles, nettles or other dense low vegetation.", "In the north of the range there is only time to raise one brood, due to the short summer, but a second brood is common in central and southern areas.", "Small birds are also at the mercy of the weather, particularly when migrating, but also on the breeding and wintering grounds.", "The main effect of humans on this species is indirect, through woodland clearance which affects the habitat, predation by cats, and collisions with windows, buildings and cars."], "habitat_section": ["The common chiffchaff breeds across Europe and Asia east to eastern Siberia and north to about 70N, with isolated populations in northwest Africa, northern and western Turkey and northwestern Iran.", "It is migratory, but it is one of the first passerine birds to return to its breeding areas in the spring and among the last to leave in late autumn.", "When breeding, it is a bird of open woodlands with some taller trees and ground cover for nesting purposes.", "These trees are typically at least high, with undergrowth that is an open, poor to medium mix of grasses, bracken, nettles or similar plants.", "Its breeding habitat is quite specific, and even near relatives do not share it, for example, the willow warbler prefers younger trees, while the wood warbler prefers less undergrowth.", "In winter, the common chiffchaff uses a wider range of habitats including scrub, and is not so dependent on trees.", "It is often found near water, unlike the willow warbler which tolerates drier habitats.", "There is an increasing tendency to winter in western Europe well north of the traditional areas, especially in coastal southern England and the mild urban microclimate of London.", "These overwintering common chiffchaffs include some visitors of the eastern subspecies abietinus and tristis, so they are certainly not all birds which have bred locally, although some undoubtedly are.", "Siberian chiffchaff near Hodal, India The male common chiffchaff is highly territorial during the breeding season, with a core territory typically across, which is fiercely defended against other males.", "Other small birds may also be attacked.", "The male is inquisitive and fearless, attacking even dangerous predators like the stoat if they approach the nest, as well as egg-thieves like the Eurasian jay.", "His song, given from a favoured prominent vantage point, appears to be used to advertise an established territory and contact the female, rather than as a paternity guard strategy.", "Beyond the core territory, there is a larger feeding range which is variable in size, but typically ten or more times the area of the breeding territory.", "It is believed that the female has a larger feeding range than the male.", "After breeding has finished, this species abandons its territory, and may join small flocks including other warblers prior to migration."], "random_sentences": ["The common chiffchaff , or simply the chiffchaff, is a common and widespread leaf warbler which breeds in open woodlands throughout northern and temperate Europe and the Palearctic.", "It is a migratory passerine which winters in southern and western Europe, southern Asia and north Africa.", "Greenish-brown above and off-white below, it is named onomatopoeically for its simple chiff-chaff song.", "It has a number of subspecies, some of which are now treated as full species.", "The female builds a domed nest on or near the ground, and assumes most of the responsibility for brooding and feeding the chicks, whilst the male has little involvement in nesting, but defends his territory against rivals, and attacks potential predators.", "A small insectivorous bird, it is subject to predation by mammals, such as cats and mustelids, and birds, particularly hawks of the genus Accipiter.", "Its large range and population mean that its status is secure, although one subspecies is probably extinct.", "thumb The British naturalist Gilbert White was one of the first people to separate the similar-looking common chiffchaff, willow warbler and wood warbler by their songs, as detailed in 1789 in The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, but the common chiffchaff was first formally described as Sylvia collybita by French ornithologist Louis Vieillot in 1817 in his Nouveau Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle.", "The type locality is the French region of Normandy.", "Described by German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1826, the genus Phylloscopus contains about 80 species of small insectivorous Old World woodland warblers which are either greenish or brown above and yellowish, white or buff below.", "The genus was formerly part of the Old World warbler family Sylvidae, but has now been split off as a separate family Phylloscopidae.", "The chiffchaff's closest relatives, other than former subspecies, are a group of leaf warblers which similarly lack crown stripes, a yellow rump or obvious wing bars", "they include the willow, Bonelli's, wood and plain leaf warblers.", "The common chiffchaff has three still commonly accepted subspecies, together with some from the Iberian Peninsula, the Canary Islands, and the Caucasus which are now more often treated as full species.", "The common chiffchaff's English name is onomatopoeic, referring to the repetitive song of the European subspecies.", "There are similar names in some other European languages, such as the Dutch , the German , Welsh and Finnish .", "The binomial name is of Greek origin", "Phylloscopus comes from /, \" leaf \" , and /, \" to look at \" or \" to see \" , since this genus comprises species that spend much of their time feeding in trees, while collybita is a corruption of kollubistes, \" money changer \" , the song being likened to the jingling of coins.", "In some languages their tree-dwelling habit is hinted in the vernacular name.", "For example, in Swedish the common chiffchaff is called gransangare, a compound of gran and sangare, meaning both \" singer \" and Old World warbler.", "The common chiffchaff is a small, dumpy, long leaf warbler.", "The male weighs 78 grammes , and the female 67 grammes .", " The spring adult of the western nominate subspecies P. c. collybita has brown-washed dull green upperparts, off-white underparts becoming yellowish on the flanks, and a short whitish supercilium.", "It has dark legs, a fine dark bill, and short primary projection .", "As the plumage wears, it gets duller and browner, and the yellow on the flanks tends to be lost, but after the breeding season there is a prolonged complete moult before migration.", "The newly fledged juvenile is browner above than the adult, with yellow-white underparts, but moults about 10 weeks after acquiring its first plumage.", "After moulting, both the adult and the juvenile have brighter and greener upperparts and a paler supercilium.", " Common chiffchaff Nominate subspecies P. c. collybita", "thumb This warbler gets its name from its simple distinctive song, a repetitive cheerful .", "This song is one of the first avian signs that spring has returned.", "Its call is a , less disyllabic than the of the willow warbler or of the western Bonelli's warbler.", "The song differs from that of the Iberian chiffchaff, which has a shorter .", "However, mixed singers occur in the hybridisation zone and elsewhere, and can be difficult to allocate to species.", "When not singing, the common chiffchaff can be difficult to distinguish from other leaf warblers with greenish upperparts and whitish underparts, particularly the willow warbler.", "However, that species has a longer primary projection, a sleeker, brighter appearance and generally pale legs.", "bonelli) might be confused with the common chiffchaff subspecies tristis, but it has a plain face and green in the wings.", "The common chiffchaff also has rounded wings in flight, and a diagnostic tail movement consisting of a dip, then sidewards wag, that distinguishes it from other Phylloscopus warblers and gives rise to the name \" tailwagger \" in India.", "Perhaps the greatest challenge is distinguishing non-singing birds of the nominate subspecies from Iberian chiffchaff in the field.", "In Great Britain and the Netherlands, all accepted records of vagrant Iberian chiffchaffs relate to singing males.", "The common chiffchaff breeds across Europe and Asia east to eastern Siberia and north to about 70N, with isolated populations in northwest Africa, northern and western Turkey and northwestern Iran.", "It is migratory, but it is one of the first passerine birds to return to its breeding areas in the spring and among the last to leave in late autumn.", "When breeding, it is a bird of open woodlands with some taller trees and ground cover for nesting purposes.", "These trees are typically at least high, with undergrowth that is an open, poor to medium mix of grasses, bracken, nettles or similar plants.", "Its breeding habitat is quite specific, and even near relatives do not share it", "for example, the willow warbler (P.", "trochilus) prefers younger trees, while the wood warbler (P.", "In winter, the common chiffchaff uses a wider range of habitats including scrub, and is not so dependent on trees.", "It is often found near water, unlike the willow warbler which tolerates drier habitats.", "There is an increasing tendency to winter in western Europe well north of the traditional areas, especially in coastal southern England and the mild urban microclimate of London.", "These overwintering common chiffchaffs include some visitors of the eastern subspecies abietinus and tristis, so they are certainly not all birds which have bred locally, although some undoubtedly are.", "Siberian chiffchaff near Hodal, India The male common chiffchaff is highly territorial during the breeding season, with a core territory typically across, which is fiercely defended against other males.", "Other small birds may also be attacked.", "The male is inquisitive and fearless, attacking even dangerous predators like the stoat if they approach the nest, as well as egg-thieves like the Eurasian jay.", "His song, given from a favoured prominent vantage point, appears to be used to advertise an established territory and contact the female, rather than as a paternity guard strategy.", "Beyond the core territory, there is a larger feeding range which is variable in size, but typically ten or more times the area of the breeding territory.", "It is believed that the female has a larger feeding range than the male.", "After breeding has finished, this species abandons its territory, and may join small flocks including other warblers prior to migration.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The male common chiffchaff returns to its breeding territory two or three weeks before the female and immediately starts singing to establish ownership and attract a female.", "When a female is located, the male will use a slow butterfly-like flight as part of the courtship ritual, but once a pair-bond has been established, other females will be driven from the territory.", "The male has little involvement in the nesting process other than defending the territory.", "The female's nest is built on or near the ground in a concealed site in brambles, nettles or other dense low vegetation.", "The domed nest has a side entrance, and is constructed from coarse plant material such as dead leaves and grass, with finer material used on the interior before the addition of a lining of feathers.", "The typical nest is high and across.", "The clutch is two to seven cream-coloured eggs which have tiny ruddy, purple or blackish spots and are about long and across.", "They are incubated by the female for 1314 days before hatching as naked, blind altricial chicks.", "The female broods and feeds the chicks for another 1415 days until they fledge.", "The male rarely participates in feeding, although this sometimes occurs, especially when bad weather limits insect supplies or if the female disappears.", "After fledging, the young stay in the vicinity of the nest for three to four weeks, and are fed by and roost with the female, although these interactions reduce after approximately the first 14 days.", "In the north of the range there is only time to raise one brood, due to the short summer, but a second brood is common in central and southern areas.", "Although pairs stay together during the breeding season and polygamy is uncommon, even if the male and female return to the same site in the following year there is no apparent recognition or fidelity.", "Interbreeding with other species, other than those formerly considered as subspecies of P. collybita, is rare, but a few examples are known of hybridisation with the willow warbler.", "Such hybrids give mixed songs, but the latter alone is not proof of interspecific breeding.", "Like most Old World warblers, this small species is insectivorous, moving restlessly through foliage or briefly hovering.", "It has been recorded as taking insects, mainly flies, from more than 50 families, along with other small and medium-sized invertebrates.", "It will take the eggs and larvae of butterflies and moths, particularly those of the winter moth.", "The chiffchaff has been estimated to require about one-third of its weight in insects daily, and it feeds almost continuously in the autumn to put on extra fat as fuel for the long migration flight.", "As with most small birds, mortality in the first year of life is high, but adults aged three to four years are regularly recorded, and the record is more than seven years.", "Eggs, chicks and fledglings of this ground-nesting species are taken by stoats, weasels and crows such as the European magpie, and the adults are hunted by birds of prey, particularly the sparrowhawk.", "Small birds are also at the mercy of the weather, particularly when migrating, but also on the breeding and wintering grounds.", "The common chiffchaff is occasionally a host of brood parasitic cuckoos, including the common and Horsfield's cuckoos, but it recognises and rejects non-mimetic eggs and is therefore only rarely successfully brood-parasitised.", "Like other passerine birds, the common chiffchaff can also acquire intestinal nematode parasites and external ticks.", "The main effect of humans on this species is indirect, through woodland clearance which affects the habitat, predation by cats, and collisions with windows, buildings and cars.", "Only the first of these has the potential to seriously affect populations, but given the huge geographical spread of P. c. abietinus and P. c. tristis, and woodland conservation policies in the range of P. c. collybita, the chiffchaff's future seems assured.", "The common chiffchaff has an enormous range, with an estimated global extent of 10 million square kilometres and a population of 60120 million individuals in Europe alone.", "Although global population trends have not been quantified, the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List .", "For these reasons, the species is evaluated as \" least concern \" ."]}, "Luscinia megarhynchos": {"keywords": ["It is a migratory insectivorous species breeding in forest and scrub in Europe and the Palearctic, and wintering in Sub-Saharan Africa.", "It nests on or near the ground in dense vegetation.", "Despite local efforts to safeguard its favoured coppice and scrub habitat, numbers fell by 53 percent between 1995 and 2008."], "habitat_section": ["It is a migratory insectivorous species breeding in forest and scrub in Europe and the Palearctic, and wintering in Sub-Saharan Africa.", "It is not found naturally in the Americas.", "The distribution is more southerly than the very closely related thrush nightingale Luscinia luscinia.", "It nests on or near the ground in dense vegetation.", "Research in Germany found that favoured breeding habitat of nightingales was defined by a number of geographical factors.", "In the U.K., the bird is at the northern limit of its range which has contracted in recent years, placing it on the red list for conservation.", "Despite local efforts to safeguard its favoured coppice and scrub habitat, numbers fell by 53 percent between 1995 and 2008.", "A survey conducted by the British Trust for Ornithology in 2012 and 2013 recorded some 3,300 territories, with most of these clustered in a few counties in the southeast of England, notably Kent, Essex, Suffolk, and East and West Sussex.", "By contrast, the European breeding population is estimated at between 3.2 and 7 million pairs, giving it green conservation status .", "Common nightingales are so named because they frequently sing at night as well as during the day.", "The name has been used for more than 1,000 years, being highly recognisable even in its Old English form nihtegale, which means \" night songstress \" .", "Early writers assumed the female sang when it is in fact the male.", "The song is loud, with an impressive range of whistles, trills and gurgles.", "Its song is particularly noticeable at night because few other birds are singing.", "This is why its name includes \" night \" in several languages.", "Only unpaired males sing regularly at night, and nocturnal song probably serves to attract a mate.", "Singing at dawn, during the hour before sunrise, is assumed to be important in defending the bird's territory.", "Nightingales sing even more loudly in urban or near-urban environments, in order to overcome the background noise.", "The most characteristic feature of the song is a loud whistling crescendo, absent from the song of thrush nightingale.", "It has a frog-like alarm call.", "The bird is a host of the acanthocephalan intestinal parasite Apororhynchus silesiacus."], "random_sentences": ["The common nightingale, rufous nightingale or simply nightingale , is a small passerine bird best known for its powerful and beautiful song.", "It was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae.", "It belongs to a group of more terrestrial species, often called chats.", "\" Nightingale \" is derived from \" night \" and the Old English galan, \" to sing \" .", "The genus name Luscinia is Latin for \" nightingale \" and megarhynchos is from Ancient Greek megas, \" great \" and rhunkhos \" bill \" .", "Male Luscinia megarhynchos The common nightingale is slightly larger than the European robin, at length.", "It is plain brown above except for the reddish tail.", "It is buff to white below.", "m. golzi) and the Caucasian subspecies (L.", "m. africana) have paler upper parts and a stronger face-pattern, including a pale supercilium.", "The song of the nightingale has been described as one of the most beautiful sounds in nature, inspiring songs, fairy tales, opera, books, and a great deal of poetry.", "Song recorded in Devon, England", "It is a migratory insectivorous species breeding in forest and scrub in Europe and the Palearctic, and wintering in Sub-Saharan Africa.", "It is not found naturally in the Americas.", "The distribution is more southerly than the very closely related thrush nightingale Luscinia luscinia.", "It nests on or near the ground in dense vegetation.", "Research in Germany found that favoured breeding habitat of nightingales was defined by a number of geographical factors.", "In the U.K., the bird is at the northern limit of its range which has contracted in recent years, placing it on the red list for conservation.", "Despite local efforts to safeguard its favoured coppice and scrub habitat, numbers fell by 53 percent between 1995 and 2008.", "A survey conducted by the British Trust for Ornithology in 2012 and 2013 recorded some 3,300 territories, with most of these clustered in a few counties in the southeast of England, notably Kent, Essex, Suffolk, and East and West Sussex.", "By contrast, the European breeding population is estimated at between 3.2 and 7 million pairs, giving it green conservation status .", "Common nightingales are so named because they frequently sing at night as well as during the day.", "The name has been used for more than 1,000 years, being highly recognisable even in its Old English form nihtegale, which means \" night songstress \" .", "Early writers assumed the female sang when it is in fact the male.", "The song is loud, with an impressive range of whistles, trills and gurgles.", "Its song is particularly noticeable at night because few other birds are singing.", "This is why its name includes \" night \" in several languages.", "Only unpaired males sing regularly at night, and nocturnal song probably serves to attract a mate.", "Singing at dawn, during the hour before sunrise, is assumed to be important in defending the bird's territory.", "Nightingales sing even more loudly in urban or near-urban environments, in order to overcome the background noise.", "The most characteristic feature of the song is a loud whistling crescendo, absent from the song of thrush nightingale.", "It has a frog-like alarm call.", "The bird is a host of the acanthocephalan intestinal parasite Apororhynchus silesiacus.", "The common nightingale is an important symbol for poets from a variety of ages, and has taken on a number of symbolic connotations.", "Homer evokes the nightingale in the Odyssey, suggesting the myth of Philomela and Procne .", "This myth is the focus of Sophocles' tragedy, Tereus, of which only fragments remain.", "Ovid, too, in his Metamorphoses, includes the most popular version of this myth, imitated and altered by later poets, including Chretien de Troyes, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, and George Gascoigne.", "T.S. Eliot's \" The Waste Land \" also evokes the common nightingale's song .", "Because of the violence associated with the myth, the nightingale's song was long interpreted as a lament.", "The common nightingale has also been used as a symbol of poets or their poetry.", "Poets chose the nightingale as a symbol because of its creative and seemingly spontaneous song.", "Aristophanes's The Birds and Callimachus both evoke the bird's song as a form of poetry.", "Virgil compares the mourning of Orpheus to the lament of the nightingale.", "In Sonnet 102 Shakespeare compares his love poetry to the song of the common nightingale : :: \" Our love was new, and then but in the spring, ::When I was wont to greet it with my lays", "::As Philomel in summer's front doth sing, ::And stops his pipe in growth of riper days: \" During the Romantic era the bird's symbolism changed once more: poets viewed the nightingale not only as a poet in his own right, but as master of a superior art that could inspire the human poet.", "For some romantic poets, the nightingale even began to take on qualities of the muse.", "The nightingale has a long history with symbolic associations ranging from \" creativity, the muse, nature's purity, and, in Western spiritual tradition, virtue and goodness.", "\" Coleridge and Wordsworth saw the nightingale more as an instance of natural poetic creation: the nightingale became a voice of nature.", "John Keats' \" Ode to a Nightingale \" pictures the nightingale as an idealized poet who has achieved the poetry that Keats longs to write.", "Invoking a similar conception of the nightingale, Shelley wrote in his A Defense of Poetry \" : ::A poet is a nightingale who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds", "his auditors are as men entranced by the melody of an unseen musician, who feel that they are moved and softened, yet know not whence or why.", "The nightingale is the national bird of Ukraine.", "One legend tells how nightingales once only lived in India, when one nightingale visited Ukraine.", "Hearing sad songs from the people, the nightingale sang its song to cheer them up.", "The people responded with happy songs, and since then, nightingales have visited Ukraine every spring to hear Ukrainian songs.", "National poet Taras Shevchenko observed that \" even the memory of the nightingale's song makes man happy.", "\" The nightingale is the official national bird of Iran.", "In medieval Persian literature, the nightingale's enjoyable song has made it a symbol of the lover who is eloquent, passionate, and doomed to love in vain.", "In Persian poetry, the object of the nightingale's affections is the rose which embodies both the perfection of earthly beauty and the arrogance of that perfection.", "Dance of Spring Nightingale depicting movement of a nightingale, a solo Korean court dance", "The nightingale is used symbolically in the Baha'i Faith to represent the founder Baha'u'llah.", "Baha'is utilise this metaphor to convey how Baha'u'llah's writings are of beautiful quality, much like how the nightingale's singing is revered for its beautiful quality in Persian music and literature.", "Nightingales are mentioned in much of Baha'u'llah's works, including the Tablet of Ahmad, The Seven Valleys, The Hidden Words, and the untranslated Tablet of the Nightingale and the Owl."]}, "Gallinula chloropus": {"keywords": ["The common moorhen lives around well-vegetated marshes, ponds, canals and other wetlands.", "The species is not found in the polar regions or many tropical rainforests.", "\" Water rail \" usually refers to Rallus aquaticus, again not closely related.", "This is a common breeding bird in marsh environments, well-vegetated lakes and even in city parks.", "Populations in areas where the waters freeze, such as eastern Europe, will migrate to more temperate climates.", "In China, common moorhen populations are largely resident south of the Yangtze River, whilst northern populations migrate in the winter, therefore these populations show high genetic diversity.", "This species will consume a wide variety of vegetable material and small aquatic creatures.", "The birds are territorial during breeding season, and will fight with other members of their species, as well as other water birds such as ducks, to drive them out of their territory.", "The nest is a basket built on the ground in dense vegetation.", "Laying starts in spring, between mid-March and mid-May in Northern hemisphere temperate regions.", "In the Lake Ngardok wetlands of Babeldaob, a few dozen still occur, but the total number of common moorhens on Palau is about in the same region as the Guam population."], "habitat_section": ["This is a common breeding bird in marsh environments, well-vegetated lakes and even in city parks.", "Populations in areas where the waters freeze, such as eastern Europe, will migrate to more temperate climates.", "In China, common moorhen populations are largely resident south of the Yangtze River, whilst northern populations migrate in the winter, therefore these populations show high genetic diversity."], "random_sentences": ["The common moorhen , also known as the waterhen or swamp chicken, is a bird species in the rail family .", "It is distributed across many parts of the Old World.", "The common moorhen lives around well-vegetated marshes, ponds, canals and other wetlands.", "The species is not found in the polar regions or many tropical rainforests.", "Elsewhere it is likely the most common rail species, except for the Eurasian coot in some regions.", "The closely related common gallinule of the New World has been recognized as a separate species by most authorities, starting with the American Ornithologists' Union and the International Ornithological Committee in 2011.", "The name mor-hen has been recorded in English since the 13th century.", "The word moor here is an old sense meaning marsh", "the species is not usually found in moorland.", "An older name, common waterhen, is more descriptive of the bird's habitat.", "A \" watercock \" is not a male \" waterhen \" but the rail species Gallicrex cinerea, not closely related to the common moorhen.", "\" Water rail \" usually refers to Rallus aquaticus, again not closely related.", "The scientific name Gallinula chloropus comes from the Latin Gallinula and the Greek chloropus .", "Common moorhen feet have no webbing The moorhen is a distinctive species, with dark plumage apart from the white undertail, yellow legs and a red frontal shield.", "The young are browner and lack the red shield.", "The frontal shield of the adult has a rounded top and fairly parallel sides", "the tailward margin of the red unfeathered area is a smooth waving line.", "In the related common gallinule of the Americas, the frontal shield has a fairly straight top and is less wide towards the bill, giving a marked indentation to the back margin of the red area.", "The common moorhen gives a wide range of gargling calls and will emit loud hisses when threatened.", "A midsized to large rail, it can range from in length and span across the wings.", "The body mass of this species can range from .", "This is a common breeding bird in marsh environments, well-vegetated lakes and even in city parks.", "Populations in areas where the waters freeze, such as eastern Europe, will migrate to more temperate climates.", "In China, common moorhen populations are largely resident south of the Yangtze River, whilst northern populations migrate in the winter, therefore these populations show high genetic diversity.", "This species will consume a wide variety of vegetable material and small aquatic creatures.", "They forage beside or in the water, sometimes walking on lilypads or upending in the water to feed.", "They are often secretive, but can become tame in some areas.", "Despite loss of habitat in parts of its range, the common moorhen remains plentiful and widespread.", "The birds are territorial during breeding season, and will fight with other members of their species, as well as other water birds such as ducks, to drive them out of their territory.", "The nest is a basket built on the ground in dense vegetation.", "Laying starts in spring, between mid-March and mid-May in Northern hemisphere temperate regions.", "About 8 eggs are usually laid per female early in the season", "a brood later in the year usually has only 58 or fewer eggs.", "Nests may be re-used by different females.", "Incubation lasts about three weeks.", "Both parents incubate and feed the young.", "These fledge after 4050 days, become independent usually a few weeks thereafter, and may raise their first brood the next spring.", "When threatened, the young may cling to the parents' body, after which the adult birds fly away to safety, carrying their offspring with them.", "Moorhen sighted in Fangu, Corsica On a global scale all subspecies taken together the common moorhen is as abundant as its vernacular name implies.", "It is therefore considered a species of Least Concern by the IUCN.", "However, small populations may be prone to extinction.", "The population of Palau, belonging to the widespread subspecies G. c. orientalis and locally known as debar , is very rare, and apparently the birds are hunted by locals.", "Most of the population on the archipelago occurs on Angaur and Peleliu, while the species is probably already gone from Koror.", "In the Lake Ngardok wetlands of Babeldaob, a few dozen still occur, but the total number of common moorhens on Palau is about in the same region as the Guam population: fewer than 100 adult birds have been encountered in any survey.", "Other localised groups of common moorhen are starting to come under threat.", "The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the United Kingdom has the common moorhen classified as one of its 103 species whose conservation status is of moderate concern due to its recent population decine.", "The number of breeding pairs has fallen to its lowest level in the UK since 1966 and has been protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act .", "The common moorhen is one of the birds from which the cyclocoelid flatworm parasite Cyclocoelum mutabile was first described.", "The bird is also parasitised by the moorhen flea, Dasypsyllus gallinulae.", "on nest, Wolvercote, Oxfordshire Image:Waterhoennest.", "c. chloropus nest with small clutch of eggs at Wilgenhoek, Deerlijk Image:Teichhuhn 0507241b.", "Moorhen feeding chick some regurgitated food."]}, "Dendrocoptes medius": {"keywords": ["The middle spotted woodpecker occurs only in Europe in the Palearctic, from northern Spain and France east to Poland and Ukraine, and south to central Italy , the Balkan Peninsula, Lithuania, Latvia, Turkey, the Caucasus, and Iran.", "It prefers deciduous forest regions, especially areas with old oak, hornbeam and elm, and a patchwork of clearings, pasture and dense woodland.", "In the breeding season it excavates a nest hole about 5 cm wide in a decaying tree trunk or thick branch."], "habitat_section": ["The middle spotted woodpecker occurs only in Europe in the Palearctic, from northern Spain and France east to Poland and Ukraine, and south to central Italy , the Balkan Peninsula, Lithuania, Latvia, Turkey, the Caucasus, and Iran.", "The species is common in Estonia, but virtually nonexistent in Finland.", "This species used to breed in Sweden but became extirpated in the '80s.", "However, middle spotted woodpeckers have been seen again in Sweden in its breeding habitat in recent years, suggesting a recolonization of the country.", "Due to its sedentary nature it has never been recorded in Great Britain.", "It prefers deciduous forest regions, especially areas with old oak, hornbeam and elm, and a patchwork of clearings, pasture and dense woodland.", "Behaviourally it likes to feed high in the trees, moving constantly and making a good view difficult.", "In the breeding season it excavates a nest hole about 5 cm wide in a decaying tree trunk or thick branch.", "It lays four to seven eggs and incubates for 1114 days.", "The middle spotted woodpecker lives predominantly on a diet of insects as well as their larvae, which it finds by picking them from branches and twigs rather than hacking them from beneath the bark.", "It will also feed on tree sap.", "It is rarely heard drumming, and never for territorial purposes, which it asserts by song, a slow, nasal gvayk gvayk gvayk gvayk gvayk.", "Calls include a fast kik kekekekek."], "random_sentences": ["from the Zagros region right", "Race sanctijohannis from the Zagros region Dendrocopos medius The middle spotted woodpecker is a European woodpecker belonging to the genus Dendrocoptes.", "The middle spotted woodpecker was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Picus medius.", "The specific epithet is Latin for \" intermediate \" .", "Linnaeus gave the locality as Europe, but this is now taken to be Sweden.", "For many years this woodpecker was usually placed in the genus Dendrocopos but a 2015 molecular phylogenetic study that compared nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences from pied woodpeckers found that Dendrocopos was polyphyletic.", "As part of the reorganisation to create monophyletic genera, the middle spotted woodpecker was one of three species that were placed in the resurrected genus Dendrocoptes.", "This genus had been erected by the German ornithologists Jean Cabanis and Ferdinand Heine in 1863 with the middle spotted woodpecker as the type species.", "The middle spotted woodpecker is 2022 cm long and has plumage similar to the great spotted woodpecker.", "As with that species the upperparts are predominantly black with white oval wing patches and white barring on the wings, and the underparts are white.", "The main differences are a red crown, lack of a black moustachial stripe, a pink vent, and dark streaks on the flanks.", "Although only slightly smaller than the great spotted woodpecker, it appears smaller due to its short, slender bill and more rounded, pale head.", "It can also be confused with the Syrian woodpecker , being distinguished from this by the smaller bill, and the red crown not having narrow black sides.", "The middle spotted woodpecker occurs only in Europe in the Palearctic, from northern Spain and France east to Poland and Ukraine, and south to central Italy , the Balkan Peninsula, Lithuania, Latvia, Turkey, the Caucasus, and Iran.", "The species is common in Estonia, but virtually nonexistent in Finland.", "This species used to breed in Sweden but became extirpated in the '80s.", "However, middle spotted woodpeckers have been seen again in Sweden in its breeding habitat in recent years, suggesting a recolonization of the country.", "Due to its sedentary nature it has never been recorded in Great Britain.", "It prefers deciduous forest regions, especially areas with old oak, hornbeam and elm, and a patchwork of clearings, pasture and dense woodland.", "Behaviourally it likes to feed high in the trees, moving constantly and making a good view difficult.", "In the breeding season it excavates a nest hole about 5 cm wide in a decaying tree trunk or thick branch.", "It lays four to seven eggs and incubates for 1114 days.", "The middle spotted woodpecker lives predominantly on a diet of insects as well as their larvae, which it finds by picking them from branches and twigs rather than hacking them from beneath the bark.", "It will also feed on tree sap.", "It is rarely heard drumming, and never for territorial purposes, which it asserts by song", "a slow, nasal gvayk gvayk gvayk gvayk gvayk.", "Calls include a fast kik kekekekek."]}, "Pica pica": {"keywords": ["The range of the magpie extends across temperate Eurasia from Portugal, Spain and Ireland in the west to the Kamchatka Peninsula.", "The preferred habit is open countryside with scattered trees and magpies are normally absent from treeless areas and dense forests.", "They sometimes breed at high densities in suburban settings such as parks and gardens.", "Magpies are normally sedentary and spend winters close to their nesting territories but birds living near the northern limit of their range in Sweden, Finland and Russia can move south in harsh weather.", "The magpie is omnivorous, eating young birds and eggs, small mammals, insects, scraps and carrion, acorns, grain, and other vegetable substances.", "Like other corvids, such as ravens and crows, their total brain-to-body mass ratio is equal to most great apes and cetaceans."], "habitat_section": ["The range of the magpie extends across temperate Eurasia from Portugal, Spain and Ireland in the west to the Kamchatka Peninsula.", "The preferred habit is open countryside with scattered trees and magpies are normally absent from treeless areas and dense forests.", "They sometimes breed at high densities in suburban settings such as parks and gardens.", "They can often be found close to the centre of cities.", "Magpies are normally sedentary and spend winters close to their nesting territories but birds living near the northern limit of their range in Sweden, Finland and Russia can move south in harsh weather.", "P. p. bactriana in Ladakh Young bird"], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian magpie or common magpie is a resident breeding bird throughout the northern part of the Eurasian continent.", "It is one of several birds in the crow family designated magpies, and belongs to the Holarctic radiation of \" monochrome \" magpies.", "In Europe, \" magpie \" is used by English speakers as a synonym for the Eurasian magpie: the only other magpie in Europe is the Iberian magpie , which is limited to the Iberian Peninsula.", "The Eurasian magpie is one of the most intelligent birds, and it is believed to be one of the most intelligent of all non-human animals.", "The expansion of its nidopallium is approximately the same in its relative size as the brain of chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and humans.", "It is the only bird known to pass the mirror test, along with very few other non-avian species.", "The magpie was described and illustrated by Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner in his Historiae animalium of 1555.", "In 1758 Linnaeus included the species in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Corvus pica.", "The magpie was moved to a separate genus Pica by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.", "Pica is the Classical Latin word for this magpie.", "The Eurasian magpie is almost identical in appearance to the North American black-billed magpie and at one time the two species were considered to be conspecific.", "In 2000, the American Ornithologists' Union decided to treat the black-billed magpie as a separate species based on studies of the vocalization and behaviour that indicated that the black-billed magpie was closer to the yellow-billed magpie than to the Eurasian magpie.", "The gradual clinal variation over the large geographic range and the intergradation of the different subspecies means that the geographical limits, and acceptance of the various subspecies, vary between authorities.", "The International Ornithological Congress recognises six subspecies : Others now considered as distinct species: An analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences published in 2003 confirmed that the black-billed magpie and the yellow-billed magpie were closely related to each other.", "The study also found that magpies in Korea are as different from the nominate subspecies as they are to the North American magpie species.", "These results imply that the species Pica pica is not monophyletic.", "A more recent study using both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA found that magpies in eastern and northeastern China are genetically very similar to each other, but differ from those in northwestern China and Spain.", "Magpies were originally known as simply \" pies \" .", "This is hypothesized to derive from a Proto-Indo-European root", "The adult male of the nominate subspecies, P. p. pica, is in length, of which more than half is the tail.", "The head, neck and breast are glossy black with a metallic green and violet sheen", "the belly and scapulars are pure white", "the wings are black glossed with green or purple, and the primaries have white inner webs, conspicuous when the wing is open.", "The graduated tail is black, glossed with green and reddish purple.", "The legs and bill are black", "the iris is dark brown.", "The plumage of the sexes is similar but females are slightly smaller.", "The tail feathers of both sexes are quite long, about 1228 cm long.", "Males of the nominate subspecies weigh while females weigh .", "The young resemble the adults, but are at first without much of the gloss on the sooty plumage.", "The young have the malar region pink, and somewhat clear eyes.", "The tail is much shorter than the adults.", "The subspecies differ in their size, the amount of white on their plumage and the colour of the gloss on their black feathers.", "The Asian subspecies P. p. bactriana has more extensive white on the primaries and a prominent white rump.", "Adults undergo an annual complete moult after breeding.", "Moult begins in June or July and ends in September or October.", "The primary flight feathers are replaced over a period of three months.", "Juvenile birds undergo a partial moult beginning about one month later than the adult birds in which their body feathers are replaced but not those of the wings or the tail.", "Eurasian magpies have a well-known call.", "It is a choking chatter \" chac-chac \" or a repetitive \" chac-chac-chac-chac \" .", "The young also emit the previous call, although they also emit an acute call similar to a \" Uik Uik \" , which may resemble the barking of a small dog.", "Both adults and young can emit a kind of hiss barely noticeable from afar.", "The range of the magpie extends across temperate Eurasia from Portugal, Spain and Ireland in the west to the Kamchatka Peninsula.", "The preferred habit is open countryside with scattered trees and magpies are normally absent from treeless areas and dense forests.", "They sometimes breed at high densities in suburban settings such as parks and gardens.", "They can often be found close to the centre of cities.", "Magpies are normally sedentary and spend winters close to their nesting territories but birds living near the northern limit of their range in Sweden, Finland and Russia can move south in harsh weather.", "p. bactriana in Ladakh Young bird", "Eurasian magpie egg Pica pica pica - Magpie nest.", "Some magpies breed after their first year, while others remain in the non-breeding flocks and first breed in their second year .", " BTO Birdfacts has First Breeding: 2 years.", "HBWalive has Able to breed for first time when 1517 months old.", "They are monogamous, and the pairs often remain together from one breeding season to the next.", "They generally occupy the same territory on successive years.", "Mating takes place in spring.", "In the courtship display, males rapidly raise and depress their head feathers, uplift, open and close their tails like fans, and call in soft tones quite distinct from their usual chatter.", "The loose feathers of the flanks are brought over the primaries, and the shoulder patch is spread so the white is conspicuous, presumably to attract females.", "Short buoyant flights and chases follow.", "Magpies prefer tall trees for their bulky nest, firmly attaching them to a central fork in the upper branches.", "A framework of the sticks is cemented with earth and clay, and a lining of the same is covered with fine roots.", "Above is a stout though loosely built dome of prickly branches with a single well-concealed entrance.", "These huge nests are conspicuous when the leaves fall.", "Where trees are scarce, though even in well-wooded country, nests are at times built in bushes and hedgerows.", "In Europe, clutches are typically laid in April, and usually contain five or six eggs, but clutches with as few as three and as many as ten have been recorded.", "The eggs are laid in early morning, usually at daily intervals.", "On average, the eggs of the nominate species measure and weigh .", "Small for the size of the bird, they are typically pale blue-green, with close specks and spots of olive brown, but show much variation in ground and marking.", "The eggs are incubated for 2122 days by the female, who is fed on the nest by the male.", "The chicks are altricial, hatching nearly naked with closed eyes.", "They are brooded by the female for the first 510 days and fed by both parents.", "Initially the parents eat the faecal sacs of the nestlings, but as the chicks grow larger, they defecate on the edge of the nest.", "The nestlings open their eyes 7 to 8 days after hatching.", "Their body feathers start to appear after around 8 days and the primary wing feathers after 10 days.", "For several days before they are ready to leave the nest, the chicks clamber around the nearby branches.", "They fledge at around 27 days.", "The parents then continue to feed the chicks for several more weeks.", "They also protect the chicks from predators, as their ability to fly is poor, making them vulnerable.", "On average, only 3 or 4 chicks survive to fledge successfully.", "Some nests are lost to predators, but an important factor causing nestling mortality is starvation.", "Magpie eggs hatch asynchronously, and if the parents have difficulty finding sufficient food, the last chicks to hatch are unlikely to survive.", "Only a single brood is reared, unless disaster overtakes the first clutch.", "A study conducted near Sheffield in Britain, using birds with coloured rings on their legs, found that only 22% of fledglings survived their first year.", "For subsequent years, the survival rate for the adult birds was 69%, implying that for those birds that survive the first year, the average total lifespan was 3.7 years .", " this is 1 + life expectancy where life expectancy -).", "htm gives a \" typical lifespan \" of 5 years but doesn't cite a source.", "Siriwardena et al 1998 do not include magpies .", "The maximum age recorded for a magpie is 21 years and 8 months for a bird from near Coventry in England that was ringed in 1925 and shot in 1947.", "The magpie is omnivorous, eating young birds and eggs, small mammals, insects, scraps and carrion, acorns, grain, and other vegetable substances.", "The Eurasian magpie is believed to be not only among the most intelligent of birds, but also among the most intelligent of all animals.", "Along with the western jackdaw, the Eurasian magpie's nidopallium is approximately the same relative size as those in chimpanzees and humans and significantly larger than the gibbons.", "Like other corvids, such as ravens and crows, their total brain-to-body mass ratio is equal to most great apes and cetaceans.", "A 2004 review suggests that the intelligence of the corvid family to which the Eurasian magpie belongs is equivalent to that of the great apes in terms of social cognition, causal reasoning, flexibility, imagination and prospection.", "Magpies have been observed engaging in elaborate social rituals, possibly including the expression of grief.", "Mirror self-recognition has been demonstrated in European magpies, making them one of only a few species to possess this capability.", "The cognitive abilities of the Eurasian magpie are regarded as evidence that intelligence evolved independently in both corvids and primates.", "This is indicated by tool use, an ability to hide and store food across seasons, episodic memory, and using their own experience to predict the behavior of conspecifics.", "Another behaviour exhibiting intelligence is cutting their food in correctly sized proportions for the size of their young.", "In captivity, magpies have been observed counting up to get food .", " , imitating human voices, and regularly using tools to clean their own cages.", "In the wild, they organise themselves into gangs and use complex strategies hunting other birds and when confronted by predators.", "The Eurasian magpie has an extremely large range.", "The European population is estimated to be between 7.5 and 19 million breeding pairs.", "Allowing for the birds breeding in other continents, the total population is estimated to be between 46 and 228 million individuals.", "The population trend in Europe has been stable since 1980.", "There is no evidence of any serious overall decline in numbers, so the species is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of Least Concern."]}, "Sitta europaea": {"keywords": ["Its preferred habitat is mature deciduous or mixed woodland with large, old trees, preferably oak.", "If the entrance to the hole is too large, the female plasters it with mud to reduce its size, and often coats the inside of the cavity too.", "The 69 red-speckled white eggs are laid on a deep base of pine or other wood chips.", "The group europaea is related to the two nuthatches of rocky environments, the Western rock nuthatch and the Eastern rock nuthatch , and these two clades diverge from each other by thirteen million years.", "It is related to the group of the \" Asian Nuthatch \" , including the subspecies inhabiting the northern part of the Asian continent, from Kazakhstan to Korea and Japan, all white-bellied.", "In Southeast Europe and Western Asia, the Eastern rock nuthatch and the Western rock nuthatch inhabit rocky environments and are larger and paler than species.", "The song of the distinctive S. e. arctica is said to be noticeably different from that of its relatives, which would help to establish whether it is a full species, but there has been insufficient research into its vocalizations.", "It is found between the July isotherms, north to about latitude 64N in western Russia and 69N in Siberia.", "It breeds south to the Mediterranean in Europe, although it is absent from the islands, other than Sicily, and in most of Russia the southern boundary is around 5455N. In the east, the range includes most of China and Taiwan and much of Korea.", "It has occurred as a vagrant in Lebanon and the Channel Islands, and the nominate race has been recorded a few times in Finland where S. e. asiatica is the normal form.", "Northern and eastern breeders are dependent on the cones of the Siberian stone pine, and if the crop fails many birds of the S. e. asiatica subspecies may move west into northern Sweden and Finland in autumn, sometimes staying to breed.", "Siberian S. e. arctica may make more limited movements south and east in winter, and S. e. amurensis, from southeast Russia, is regular in winter in Korea.", "The preferred habitat is mature woodland with large, old trees, which provide extensive growth for foraging and nesting holes.", "In Europe, deciduous or mixed forest is favoured, particularly when containing oak.", "Particularly in mountains, old spruce and pine forests are used, and pine is also favoured in Taiwan.", "Unusual habitats include dwarf juniper in Mongolia and rocky terrain in a limited part of southern Siberia.", "The Eurasian nuthatch is primarily a lowland bird in the north of its range, but reaches the tree-line in Switzerland, at or higher, and breeds occasionally at in Austria.", "It breeds at similar levels in the mountains of Turkey, the Middle East and Central Asia.", "It is mainly a mountain bird in southern Japan, , and Taiwan, , but in southern China, the chestnut-vented nuthatch is the highland species, with the Eurasian species at lower levels.", "Territory sizes range from in Europe to an average of in the sub-optimal conifer forests of Siberia.", "The nest site is typically above the ground and has a deep base of pine bark or chips of other wood, rarely supplemented with dry plant material. If the entrance to the hole is too large, it is plastered with mud, clay and sometimes dung to make it smaller.", "Food items are found mainly on tree trunks and large branches, but smaller branches may also be investigated, and food may be taken from the ground, especially outside the breeding season.", "Some prey is caught in flight, and a nuthatch will remove bark or rotten wood to reach insects, although it cannot chisel into healthy wood like a woodpecker.", "Individual seeds are hidden in cracks in bark, occasionally in walls or in the ground.", "The food item is usually concealed with lichen, moss or small pieces of bark.", "The parakeets tend to occur in fragmented urban woodlands, while nuthatches prefer large old oak woodlands, which reduces the level of competition."], "habitat_section": ["The Eurasian nuthatch's breeding range extends across temperate Eurasia from Great Britain to Japan.", "It is found between the July isotherms, north to about latitude 64N in western Russia and 69N in Siberia.", "It breeds south to the Mediterranean in Europe, although it is absent from the islands, other than Sicily, and in most of Russia the southern boundary is around 5455N. In the east, the range includes most of China and Taiwan and much of Korea.", "It has occurred as a vagrant in Lebanon and the Channel Islands, and the nominate race has been recorded a few times in Finland where S. e. asiatica is the normal form.", "Most populations are sedentary, apart from some post-breeding dispersal of young birds, and there is a reluctance to cross even short stretches of open water.", "Northern and eastern breeders are dependent on the cones of the Siberian stone pine, and if the crop fails many birds of the S. e. asiatica subspecies may move west into northern Sweden and Finland in autumn, sometimes staying to breed.", "Siberian S. e. arctica may make more limited movements south and east in winter, and S. e. amurensis, from southeast Russia, is regular in winter in Korea.", "The preferred habitat is mature woodland with large, old trees, which provide extensive growth for foraging and nesting holes.", "In Europe, deciduous or mixed forest is favoured, particularly when containing oak.", "Parks, old orchards and other wooded habitats may be occupied as long as they have at least a block of suitable trees.", "Particularly in mountains, old spruce and pine forests are used, and pine is also favoured in Taiwan.", "In most of Russia, conifers are used for nesting, but population densities are relatively low.", "Moroccan birds nest in oak, Atlas cedar and fir.", "Unusual habitats include dwarf juniper in Mongolia and rocky terrain in a limited part of southern Siberia.", "The Eurasian nuthatch is primarily a lowland bird in the north of its range, but reaches the tree-line in Switzerland, at or higher, and breeds occasionally at in Austria.", "It breeds at similar levels in the mountains of Turkey, the Middle East and Central Asia.", "It is mainly a mountain bird in southern Japan, , and Taiwan, , but in southern China, the chestnut-vented nuthatch is the highland species, with the Eurasian species at lower levels."], "random_sentences": ["eating seeds in Hungary The Eurasian nuthatch or wood nuthatch is a small passerine bird found throughout the Palearctic and in Europe.", "Like other nuthatches, it is a short-tailed bird with a long bill, blue-gray upperparts and a black eye-stripe.", "It is a vocal bird with a repeated loud dwip call.", "There are more than 20 subspecies in three main groups", "birds in the west of the range have orange-buff underparts and a white throat, those in Russia have whitish underparts, and those in the east have a similar appearance to European birds, but lack the white throat.", "Its preferred habitat is mature deciduous or mixed woodland with large, old trees, preferably oak.", "Pairs hold permanent territories, and nest in tree holes, usually old woodpecker nests, but sometimes natural cavities.", "If the entrance to the hole is too large, the female plasters it with mud to reduce its size, and often coats the inside of the cavity too.", "The 69 red-speckled white eggs are laid on a deep base of pine or other wood chips.", "The Eurasian nuthatch eats mainly insects, particularly caterpillars and beetles, although in autumn and winter its diet is supplemented with nuts and seeds.", "The young are fed mainly on insects, with some seeds, food items mainly being found on tree trunks and large branches.", "The nuthatch can forage when descending trees head first, as well as when climbing.", "It readily visits bird tables, eating fatty man-made food items as well as seeds.", "It is an inveterate hoarder, storing food year-round.", "Its main natural predator is the Eurasian sparrowhawk.", "Fragmentation of woodland can lead to local losses of breeding birds, but the species' range is still expanding.", "It has a large population and huge breeding area, and is therefore classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of least concern.", "The nuthatches are a family of similar-looking birds with short tails and wings, compact bodies and longish pointed bills.", "They have grey or bluish upperparts, a black eyestripe and strong feet.", "All are in the single genus Sitta.", "Within the genus, the Eurasian nuthatch forms a superspecies with the chestnut-vented, Indian, chestnut-bellied and Kashmir nuthatches and has in the past been considered conspecific with all of these.", "and the species name, europaea, is Latin for \" European \" .", "\" Nuthatch \" , first recorded in 1350, is derived from \" nut \" and a word probably related to \" hack \" , since these birds hack at nuts they have wedged into crevices.", "In 2014, Eric Pasquet and colleagues published a phylogeny based on examination of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA of 21 nuthatch species.", "The group europaea is related to the two nuthatches of rocky environments, the Western rock nuthatch (S.", "neumayer) and the Eastern rock nuthatch (S.", "tephronota), and these two clades diverge from each other by thirteen million years.", "Within the group europaea, the white-tailed nuthatch (S.", "himalayensis)and consequently the white-browed nuthatch (S.", "victoriae), although not included in the studyappears to be basal, and the Eurasian nuthatch is closely related to the chestnut-vented nuthatch (S.", "nagaensis) and the Kashmir nuthatch (S.", "castanea), the Beautiful nuthatch (S.", "cinnamoventris), the Burmese nuthatch (S.", "neglecta), and the Siberian nuthatch (S.", "arctica) are not included in the study.", "All the species of the group \" europaea \" masonry the entrance to their nests.", "The study by Packert and colleagues also includes a fairly exhaustive sampling of the Eurasian nuthatch subspecies.", "It highlights three large groups of subspecies, not perfectly overlapping with the traditionally distinguished groups on the basis of the coloring of their lower parts.", "A first group concerns the \" European nuthatch \" , which includes all the European subspecies, whether buff-bellied or white-bellied, as well as the subspecies of the Near East.", "It is related to the group of the \" Asian Nuthatch \" , including the subspecies inhabiting the northern part of the Asian continent, from Kazakhstan to Korea and Japan, all white-bellied.", "Finally, a third group of subspecies, the \" Eastern nuthatch, \" includes the Asian subspecies living further south, in North and East China and in Taiwan.", "The fossil record for nuthatches is sparse, and in Europe is limited to the extinct Sitta senogalliensis from the Lower Miocene in Italy and somewhat later material from France", "the family appears to be of relatively recent origin.", "Female S. e. europaea in Sweden An individual of the subspecies Sitta europaea caesia in flight.", "The adult male of the nominate subspecies, S. e. europaea is long with a wingspan.", "Nuthatches move on trees with short leaps, and do not use their tails for support.", "In flight, they have a characteristic appearance, with a pointed head, round wings and a short, square tail.", "Their flight is fast, with wings closed between beats, and is usually of short duration.", "S. e. caesia, the most widespread of the western subspecies, has orange-buff underparts except for a white throat and cheeks.", "The other western forms mainly differ in the exact shade of the underparts, although some southeastern forms also show a white forehead and supercilium.", "S. e. sinensis and S. e. formosana, of China and Taiwan respectively, have buff underparts like the western races, but have buff, instead of white, throats.", "Adults have a complete moult after breeding which takes about 80 days, starting from late May onwards and finishing by late September.", "The moult period for Siberian birds is more compressed, running from June to mid-September.", "Fledged juveniles moult some of their wing coverts when they are about eight weeks old.", "In much of its range, Eurasian is the only nuthatch present.", "In southeast Europe and southwest Asia, the western and eastern rock nuthatches are larger and paler than the Eurasian species.", "They also lack white spots in the tail and are usually found in a different, stony habitat, and Kruper's nuthatch is small and has a black cap and reddish breast patch.", "In southwest China, the chestnut-vented nuthatch is very similar to the European bird, but is darker above, has less white on the face and has greyer underparts.", "In most of its range, the Eurasian nuthatch is the only nuthatch present.", "In Southeast Europe and Western Asia, the Eastern rock nuthatch (S.", "tephronota) and the Western rock nuthatch (S.", "neumayer) inhabit rocky environments and are larger and paler than species.", "Eurasian species do not have white dots on their tails.", "In the same area, the Kruper's nuthatch (S.", "krueperi) is smaller, with a dark crown and a large russet patch on the breast.", "In southwest China, the chestnut-vented nuthatch (S.", "nagaensis) is very similar to the torchepot, but has darker upperparts, less white on the face, and more greyish underparts.", "arctica) was once considered a subspecies of the Eurasian nuthatch but differs quite clearly from it, being larger, pale, with a shorter and thinner eye line, a longer bill and a straighter culmen, and more white in the tail than any other subspecies.", "The Eurasian nuthatch calls frequently, usually with a loud, sharp dwip normally repeated twice, sometimes more often if excited.", "It has a shrill sirrrr or tsi-si-si alarm call, and a thin tsit pre-flight call.", "The song is a slow whistled pee-pee-pee with many variants, including a faster version, and may be intermingled with the call.", "The song of the distinctive S. e. arctica is said to be noticeably different from that of its relatives, which would help to establish whether it is a full species, but there has been insufficient research into its vocalizations.", "The Eurasian nuthatch's breeding range extends across temperate Eurasia from Great Britain to Japan.", "It is found between the July isotherms, north to about latitude 64N in western Russia and 69N in Siberia.", "It breeds south to the Mediterranean in Europe, although it is absent from the islands, other than Sicily, and in most of Russia the southern boundary is around 5455N.", "In the east, the range includes most of China and Taiwan and much of Korea.", "It has occurred as a vagrant in Lebanon and the Channel Islands, and the nominate race has been recorded a few times in Finland where S. e. asiatica is the normal form.", "Most populations are sedentary, apart from some post-breeding dispersal of young birds, and there is a reluctance to cross even short stretches of open water.", "Northern and eastern breeders are dependent on the cones of the Siberian stone pine, and if the crop fails many birds of the S. e. asiatica subspecies may move west into northern Sweden and Finland in autumn, sometimes staying to breed.", "Siberian S. e. arctica may make more limited movements south and east in winter, and S. e. amurensis, from southeast Russia, is regular in winter in Korea.", "The preferred habitat is mature woodland with large, old trees, which provide extensive growth for foraging and nesting holes.", "In Europe, deciduous or mixed forest is favoured, particularly when containing oak.", "Parks, old orchards and other wooded habitats may be occupied as long as they have at least a block of suitable trees.", "Particularly in mountains, old spruce and pine forests are used, and pine is also favoured in Taiwan.", "In most of Russia, conifers are used for nesting, but population densities are relatively low.", "Moroccan birds nest in oak, Atlas cedar and fir.", "Unusual habitats include dwarf juniper in Mongolia and rocky terrain in a limited part of southern Siberia.", "The Eurasian nuthatch is primarily a lowland bird in the north of its range, but reaches the tree-line in Switzerland, at or higher, and breeds occasionally at in Austria.", "It breeds at similar levels in the mountains of Turkey, the Middle East and Central Asia.", "It is mainly a mountain bird in southern Japan, , and Taiwan, , but in southern China, the chestnut-vented nuthatch is the highland species, with the Eurasian species at lower levels.", "Nuthatches are more reluctant to occupy a nest box than other tree hole nesting birds.", "Egg Nuthatches are monogamous, and a pair occupies a breeding territory in which it spends the winter as well.", "Territory sizes range from in Europe to an average of in the sub-optimal conifer forests of Siberia.", "The male sings to defend his territory and attract a mate.", "Both sexes have a courtship display with a floating, quivering flight, and the male will also make circular flights with a spread tail and raised head.", "He will also feed the female while courting her.", "Despite the lifelong pairing, genetic research in Germany showed that at least 10% of the young in the study area were fathered by another male, usually from an adjacent territory.", "The nest is in a tree cavity, usually an old woodpecker hole, but sometimes of natural origin.", "Occasionally the female will enlarge an existing hole in rotten wood.", "The nest site is typically above the ground and has a deep base of pine bark or chips of other wood, rarely supplemented with dry plant material. If the entrance to the hole is too large, it is plastered with mud, clay and sometimes dung to make it smaller.", "A small entrance and large interior, together with the use of a deep layer of wood chips in which to bury the eggs and small young when the adults leave the nest, may be adaptations to reduce the chance of predation.", "Nests with small entrance holes are most successful.", "Locally, a small entrance may make it less likely that the nest will be taken over by common starlings.", "The female undertakes most of the work, and often plasters the inside of the cavity too, taking up to four weeks to complete the construction.", "A nest is often re-used in subsequent years.", "The clutch is usually 69 red-speckled white eggs, although up to 13 eggs are sometimes laid.", "They average and weigh of which 6% is shell.", "The female incubates the eggs for 1318 days to hatching, and broods the altricial downy chicks until they fledge 2026 days later.", "Both adults feed the chicks in the nest and continue after they fledge until they become independent in about 814 days.", "Normally only one brood is raised each year.", "When nest boxes are used, the clutch size and number of fledglings are greater in larger boxes.", "For reasons that are unclear, there is no link between cavity size and nesting outcomes for natural holes.", "The sedentary nature of this species means that juveniles can only acquire a territory by finding a vacant area or replacing a dead adult.", "In Europe, young birds almost always move to unoccupied habitat, but in the larger territories of Siberia most live within the breeding range of an adult pair.", "The adult annual survival rate across most of the range is around 51%, and a small Belgian study found a 25% local survival rate for juveniles.", "The typical lifespan is two years and the maximum known age for a wild bird is 12 years 11 months in the UK.", "There is also a Swiss longevity record of 10 years 6 months.", "Feeding at a bird table in winter The Eurasian nuthatch eats mainly insects, particularly caterpillar and beetles.", "In autumn and winter, the diet is supplemented with nuts and seeds, hazel nuts and beech mast being preferred.", "The young are fed mainly on the insects favoured by their parents, with some seeds.", "Food items are found mainly on tree trunks and large branches, but smaller branches may also be investigated, and food may be taken from the ground, especially outside the breeding season.", "Nuthatches can forage when descending trees head first, as well as when climbing.", "Some prey is caught in flight, and a nuthatch will remove bark or rotten wood to reach insects, although it cannot chisel into healthy wood like a woodpecker.", "A pair may temporarily join a mixed-species foraging flock as it passes near their territory.", "It has even been recorded as taking slaughterhouse offal. Plant food is stored year-round, but mainly in autumn.", "Individual seeds are hidden in cracks in bark, occasionally in walls or in the ground.", "The food item is usually concealed with lichen, moss or small pieces of bark.", "The cached food is retrieved in cold weather.", "Siberian birds store the seeds of the Siberian stone pine, sometimes hoarding enough to last a whole year.", "Cached food may sometimes include non-plant material such as pieces of bread, caterpillars and grubs, the larvae being incapacitated by battering.", "Hoarding is a long-term strategy, stored food items only being consumed when fresh food is hard to find, sometimes up to three months after caching.", "Birds with good stored food supplies are fitter than those with more limited resources.", "Beech mast crops vary widely from year to year.", "Where beech mast is an important part of the diet, adult survival rates are largely unaffected in years with a poor mast crop, but the number of juvenile birds falls in the autumn as they are lost through starvation or emigration.", "In areas where common hazel is the prevalent tree species, there is a similar pattern of adult survival and loss of juvenile birds in years with poor nut production.", "Across most of its European range, the most important predator of the Eurasian nuthatch is the sparrowhawk.", "Other species known to prey on this nuthatch include the northern goshawk, hobby, tawny owl, pygmy owl and least weasel.", "A Swedish study showed that 6.2% of the nuthatch nests in their study area were raided by predators.", "The perpetrators were not identified, but the main single predator of tit nests in the same study was the great spotted woodpecker.", "Common starlings will take over Eurasian nuthatch nest holes, reducing their breeding success.", "This is most likely to occur if the nest is high in a tree and there is a good local breeding density of the nuthatch.", "Introduced ring-necked parakeets may also compete with Eurasian nuthatches for nesting holes.", "The parakeets tend to occur in fragmented urban woodlands, while nuthatches prefer large old oak woodlands, which reduces the level of competition.", "Ornithologists conducting a 2010 Belgian study suggested that the problem was not so severe as to warrant culling of the parakeets.", "Small studies in Slovakia and Spain found no blood parasites, but a larger Spanish survey found some evidence of Plasmodium infection.", "The European population of the Eurasian nuthatch has been estimated as 22.557 million birds, suggesting a global total of 45.9228 million individuals.", "China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Russia each have between 10,000 and 100,000 breeding pairs.", "The known breeding area is about 23.3 million km 2 , which is a large proportion of the potential suitable habitat, and the population appears to be stable.", "The large numbers and huge breeding range mean that this species is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of least concern."]}, "Garrulus glandarius": {"keywords": ["The Eurasian jay is a woodland bird that occurs over a vast region from western Europe and north-west Africa to the Indian subcontinent and further to the eastern seaboard of Asia and down into south-east Asia.", "G. g. glaszneri Troodos Mountains, Cyprus .", "The complex colouring on the upper surface of the wing includes black and white bars and a prominent bright blue patch with fine black bars.", "A member of the widespread jay group, it inhabits mixed woodland, particularly with oaks, and is a habitual acorn hoarder.", "Before humans began planting the trees commercially on a wide scale, Eurasian jays were the main source of movement and propagation for the European oak , each bird having the ability to spread more than a thousand acorns each year.", "Jays have been recorded carrying single acorns as far as 20 km, and are credited with the rapid northward spread of oaks following the last ice age.", "Both sexes build the nest which is usually placed in a fork or on a branch of a tree close to the main trunk at a height of above the ground.", "The nest has a base of twigs in diameter and a lining of thinner twigs, roots, grass, moss and leaves.", "Jay eating a walnut Feeding in both trees and on the ground, it takes a wide range of invertebrates including many pest insects, acorns , beech and other seeds, fruits such as blackberries and rowan berries, young birds and eggs, bats, and small rodents.", "Like most species, the jay's diet changes with the seasons but is noteworthy for its prolific caching of foodespecially oak acorns and beechnutsfor winter and spring."], "habitat_section": ["A member of the widespread jay group, it inhabits mixed woodland, particularly with oaks, and is a habitual acorn hoarder.", "In recent years, the bird has begun to migrate into urban areas, possibly as a result of continued erosion of its woodland habitat.", "Before humans began planting the trees commercially on a wide scale, Eurasian jays were the main source of movement and propagation for the European oak , each bird having the ability to spread more than a thousand acorns each year.", "Eurasian jays will also bury the acorns of other oak species, and have been cited by the National Trust as a major propagator of the largest population of holm oak in Northern Europe, situated in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.", "Jays have been recorded carrying single acorns as far as 20 km, and are credited with the rapid northward spread of oaks following the last ice age."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian jay is a species of passerine bird in the crow family Corvidae.", "It has pinkish brown plumage with a black stripe on each side of a whitish throat, a bright blue panel on the upper wing and a black tail.", "The Eurasian jay is a woodland bird that occurs over a vast region from western Europe and north-west Africa to the Indian subcontinent and further to the eastern seaboard of Asia and down into south-east Asia.", "Across this vast range, several distinct racial forms have evolved which look different from each other, especially when comparing forms at the extremes of its range.", "The bird is called jay, without any epithets, by English speakers in Great Britain and Ireland.", "The Eurasian jay was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Corvus glandarius.", "Linnaeus specified the locality as \" Europa \" but this was restricted to Sweden by Ernst Hartert in 1903.", "The Eurasian jay is now one of three species placed in the genus Garrulus that was established in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson.", "The genus name Garrulus is a Latin word meaning \" chattering \" , \" babbling \" or \" noisy \" .", "The specific epithet glandarius is Latin meaning \" of acorns \" .", "Eight racial groups were recognised by Steve Madge", "Hilary Burn in 1994: The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Birdlife International split the Eurasian jay into three species.", "The subspecies G. g. leucotis becomes the white-face jay and the bispecularis group containing six subspecies becomes the plain-crowned jay .", "g. bispecularis Uttarakhand, India Garrulus glandarius IL Jerusalem.", "g. atricapillus Jerusalem, Israel Cyprus jay .", "Eurasian Jay in a tree The Eurasian jay is a relatively small corvid, similar in size to a western jackdaw with a length of and a wingspan of .", "The nominate race has light rufous brown to a pinkish brown body plumage.", "The whitish throat is bordered on each side by a prominent black moustache stripe.", "The forehead and crown are whitish with black stripes.", "The complex colouring on the upper surface of the wing includes black and white bars and a prominent bright blue patch with fine black bars.", "The tail is mainly black.", "Singing of Eurasian jay, Paris right", "Calls of Eurasian jay, Crimea The most characteristic call is a harsh, rasping screech that is used upon sighting various predators and as a advertising call.", "The jay is well known for its mimicry, often sounding so like a different species that it is difficult to distinguish its true identity unless the bird is seen.", "It will imitate the calls of birds of prey such as the mew of the common buzzard and the cackle of the northern goshawk.", "A member of the widespread jay group, it inhabits mixed woodland, particularly with oaks, and is a habitual acorn hoarder.", "In recent years, the bird has begun to migrate into urban areas, possibly as a result of continued erosion of its woodland habitat.", "Before humans began planting the trees commercially on a wide scale, Eurasian jays were the main source of movement and propagation for the European oak (Q.", "robur), each bird having the ability to spread more than a thousand acorns each year.", "Eurasian jays will also bury the acorns of other oak species, and have been cited by the National Trust as a major propagator of the largest population of holm oak (Q.", "ilex) in Northern Europe, situated in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.", "Jays have been recorded carrying single acorns as far as 20 km, and are credited with the rapid northward spread of oaks following the last ice age.", "Eurasian jays normally first breed when two years of age, although they occasionally breed when only one year.", "Both sexes build the nest which is usually placed in a fork or on a branch of a tree close to the main trunk at a height of above the ground.", "Very occasionally the nest is located on a building.", "The nest has a base of twigs in diameter and a lining of thinner twigs, roots, grass, moss and leaves.", "The eggs are laid daily, normally early in the morning.", "The clutch is 36 eggs which are pale green to pale olive brown and are covered with fine darker speckles.", "They sometimes have brown or black streaks concentrated at the broader end.", "The eggs are and weigh around .", "They are incubated by the female and hatch after 1619 days.", "While the female is on the nest the male brings her food.", "Both parents feed and care for the young which fledge after 1923 days.", "The parents continue to feed the fledgelings until they are 68 weeks of age.", "Only a single brood is raised each year.", "The maximum recorded age is 16 years and 9 months for a bird in Skelton, York, United Kingdom, that was ringed in 1966 and found dead in 1983.", "Juvenile Eurasian jay in South Korea Garrulus glandarius atricapillus MHNT.", "Jay eating a walnut Feeding in both trees and on the ground, it takes a wide range of invertebrates including many pest insects, acorns , beech and other seeds, fruits such as blackberries and rowan berries, young birds and eggs, bats, and small rodents.", "Like most species, the jay's diet changes with the seasons but is noteworthy for its prolific caching of foodespecially oak acorns and beechnutsfor winter and spring.", "While caching occurs throughout the year, it is most intense in the autumn.", "In order to keep its plumage free from parasites, it lies on top of anthills with spread wings and lets its feathers be sprayed with formic acid.", "Similar to other corvids, Eurasian jays have been reported to plan for future needs.", "Male Eurasian jays also take into account the desires of their partner when sharing food with her as a courtship ritual and when protecting food items from stealing conspecifics."]}, "Falco tinnunculus": {"keywords": ["It is widespread in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as occasionally reaching the east coast of North America.", "It has colonized a few oceanic islands, but vagrant individuals are generally rare, in the whole of Micronesia for example, the species was only recorded twice each on Guam and Saipan in the Marianas.", "In the cool-temperate parts of its range, the common kestrel migrates south in winter, otherwise it is sedentary, though juveniles may wander around in search for a good place to settle down as they become mature.", "It is a diurnal animal of the lowlands and prefers open habitat such as fields, heaths, shrubland and marshland.", "It does not require woodland to be present as long as there are alternative perching and nesting sites like rocks or buildings.", "It will thrive in treeless steppe where there are abundant herbaceous plants and shrubs to support a population of prey animals.", "The common kestrel readily adapts to human settlement, as long as sufficient swathes of vegetation are available, and may even be found in wetlands, moorlands and arid savanna.", "It is found from the sea to the lower mountain ranges, reaching elevations up to ASL in the hottest tropical parts of its range but only to about in the subtropical climate of the Himalayan foothills.", " When hunting, the common kestrel characteristically hovers about above the ground, searching for prey, either by flying into the wind or by soaring using ridge lift.", "It can often be found hunting along the sides of roads and motorways.", "On oceanic islands , small birds may make up the bulk of its diet.", "In northern latitudes, the kestrel is found more often to deliver lizards to their nestlings during midday and also with increasing ambient temperature.", "April or May in temperate Eurasia and some time between August and December in the tropics and southern Africa.", "It is a cavity nester, preferring holes in cliffs, trees or buildings, in built-up areas, common kestrels will often nest on buildings, and will reuse the old nests of corvids.", "The diminutive subspecies dacotiae, the sarnicolo of the eastern Canary Islands is peculiar for nesting occasionally in the dried fronds below the top of palm trees, apparently coexisting with small songbirds which also make their home there."], "habitat_section": ["In the cool-temperate parts of its range, the common kestrel migrates south in winter, otherwise it is sedentary, though juveniles may wander around in search for a good place to settle down as they become mature.", "It is a diurnal animal of the lowlands and prefers open habitat such as fields, heaths, shrubland and marshland.", "It does not require woodland to be present as long as there are alternative perching and nesting sites like rocks or buildings.", "It will thrive in treeless steppe where there are abundant herbaceous plants and shrubs to support a population of prey animals.", "The common kestrel readily adapts to human settlement, as long as sufficient swathes of vegetation are available, and may even be found in wetlands, moorlands and arid savanna.", "It is found from the sea to the lower mountain ranges, reaching elevations up to ASL in the hottest tropical parts of its range but only to about in the subtropical climate of the Himalayan foothills.", "Globally, this species is not considered threatened by the IUCN. Its stocks were affected by the indiscriminate use of organochlorines and other pesticides in the mid-20th century, but being something of an r-strategist able to multiply quickly under good conditions it was less affected than other birds of prey.", "The global population has been fluctuating considerably over the years but remains generally stable, it is roughly estimated at 12 million pairs or so, about 20% of which are found in Europe.", "There has been a recent decline in parts of Western Europe such as Ireland.", "Subspecies dacotiae is quite rare, numbering less than 1000 adult birds in 1990, when the ancient western Canarian subspecies canariensis numbered about ten times as many birds."], "random_sentences": ["Falco tinnunculus - Common Kestrel The common kestrel is a bird of prey species belonging to the kestrel group of the falcon family Falconidae.", "It is also known as the European kestrel, Eurasian kestrel, or Old World kestrel.", "In the United Kingdom, where no other kestrel species commonly occurs, it is generally just called \" kestrel \" .", "This species occurs over a large range.", "It is widespread in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as occasionally reaching the east coast of North America.", "It has colonized a few oceanic islands, but vagrant individuals are generally rare", "in the whole of Micronesia for example, the species was only recorded twice each on Guam and Saipan in the Marianas.", "Common kestrels measure from head to tail, with a wingspan of .", "Females are noticeably larger, with the adult male weighing , around on average", "the adult female weighs , around on average.", "They are thus small compared with other birds of prey, but larger than most songbirds.", "Like the other Falco species, they have long wings as well as a distinctive long tail.", "Their plumage is mainly light chestnut brown with blackish spots on the upperside and buff with narrow blackish streaks on the underside", "the remiges are also blackish.", "Unlike most raptors, they display sexual colour dimorphism with the male having fewer black spots and streaks, as well as a blue-grey cap and tail.", "The tail is brown with black bars in females, and has a black tip with a narrow white rim in both sexes.", "All common kestrels have a prominent black malar stripe like their closest relatives.", "The cere, feet, and a narrow ring around the eye are bright yellow", "the toenails, bill and iris are dark.", "Juveniles look like adult females, but the underside streaks are wider", "the yellow of their bare parts is paler.", "Hatchlings are covered in white down feathers, changing to a buff-grey second down coat before they grow their first true plumage.", "In the cool-temperate parts of its range, the common kestrel migrates south in winter", "otherwise it is sedentary, though juveniles may wander around in search for a good place to settle down as they become mature.", "It is a diurnal animal of the lowlands and prefers open habitat such as fields, heaths, shrubland and marshland.", "It does not require woodland to be present as long as there are alternative perching and nesting sites like rocks or buildings.", "It will thrive in treeless steppe where there are abundant herbaceous plants and shrubs to support a population of prey animals.", "The common kestrel readily adapts to human settlement, as long as sufficient swathes of vegetation are available, and may even be found in wetlands, moorlands and arid savanna.", "It is found from the sea to the lower mountain ranges, reaching elevations up to ASL in the hottest tropical parts of its range but only to about in the subtropical climate of the Himalayan foothills.", "Globally, this species is not considered threatened by the IUCN.", "Its stocks were affected by the indiscriminate use of organochlorines and other pesticides in the mid-20th century, but being something of an r-strategist able to multiply quickly under good conditions it was less affected than other birds of prey.", "The global population has been fluctuating considerably over the years but remains generally stable", "it is roughly estimated at 12 million pairs or so, about 20% of which are found in Europe.", "There has been a recent decline in parts of Western Europe such as Ireland.", "Subspecies dacotiae is quite rare, numbering less than 1000 adult birds in 1990, when the ancient western Canarian subspecies canariensis numbered about ten times as many birds.", " When hunting, the common kestrel characteristically hovers about above the ground, searching for prey, either by flying into the wind or by soaring using ridge lift.", "Like most birds of prey, common kestrels have keen eyesight enabling them to spot small prey from a distance.", "Once prey is sighted, the bird makes a short, steep dive toward the target, unlike the peregrine who loves to dive from above.", "It can often be found hunting along the sides of roads and motorways.", "This species is able to see near ultraviolet light, allowing the birds to detect the urine trails around rodent burrows as they shine in an ultraviolet colour in the sunlight.", "Another favourite hunting technique is to perch a bit above the ground cover, surveying the area.", "When the bird spots prey animals moving by, it will pounce on them.", "They also prowl a patch of hunting ground in a ground-hugging flight, ambushing prey as they happen across it.", "European pine vole , a typical common kestrel prey since prehistoric times Common kestrels eat almost exclusively mouse-sized mammals.", "Voles, shrews and true mice supply up to three-quarters or more of the biomass most individuals ingest.", "On oceanic islands , small birds may make up the bulk of its diet.", "Elsewhere, birds are only an important food during a few weeks each summer when inexperienced fledglings abound.", "Other suitably sized vertebrates like bats, swifts, frogs and lizards are eaten only on rare occasions.", "However, kestrels are more likely to prey on lizards in southern latitudes.", "In northern latitudes, the kestrel is found more often to deliver lizards to their nestlings during midday and also with increasing ambient temperature.", "Seasonally, arthropods may be a main prey item.", "Generally, invertebrates like camel spiders and even earthworms, but mainly sizeable insects such as beetles, orthopterans and winged termites will be eaten.", "F. tinnunculus requires the equivalent of 48 voles a day, depending on energy expenditure (time of the year, amount of hovering, etc.", "They have been known to catch several voles in succession and cache some for later consumption.", "An individual nestling consumes on average 4.2 g/h, equivalent to 67.8 g/d .", "The common kestrel starts breeding in spring , i.e. April or May in temperate Eurasia and some time between August and December in the tropics and southern Africa.", "It is a cavity nester, preferring holes in cliffs, trees or buildings", "in built-up areas, common kestrels will often nest on buildings, and will reuse the old nests of corvids.", "The diminutive subspecies dacotiae, the sarnicolo of the eastern Canary Islands is peculiar for nesting occasionally in the dried fronds below the top of palm trees, apparently coexisting with small songbirds which also make their home there.", "In general, common kestrels will usually tolerate conspecifics nesting nearby, and sometimes a few dozen pairs may be found nesting in a loose colony.", "Male F. t. tinnunculus bringing food to nest The clutch is normally 37 eggs", "more eggs may be laid in total but some will be removed during the laying time.", "This lasts about 2 days per egg laid.", "The eggs are abundantly patterned with brown spots, from a wash that tinges the entire surface buffish white to large almost-black blotches.", "Incubation lasts from 4 weeks to one month, both male and female will take shifts incubating the eggs.", "After the eggs have hatched, the parents share brooding and hunting duties.", "Only the female feeds the chicks, by tearing apart prey into manageable chunks.", "The young fledge after 45 weeks.", "The family stays close together for a few weeks, during which time the young learn how to fend for themselves and hunt prey.", "The young become sexually mature the next breeding season.", "Female kestrel chicks with blacker plumage have been found to have bolder personalities, indicating that even in juvenile birds plumage coloration can act as a status signal. Data from Britain shows nesting pairs bringing up about 23 chicks on average, though this includes a considerable rate of total brood failures", "actually, few pairs that do manage to fledge offspring raise less than 3 or 4.", "Compared to their siblings, first-hatched chicks have greater survival and recruitment probability, thought to be due to the first-hatched chicks obtaining a higher body condition when in the nest.", "Population cycles of prey, particularly voles, have a considerable influence on breeding success.", "Most common kestrels die before they reach 2 years of age", "mortality up until the first birthday may be as high as 70%.", "At least females generally breed at one year of age", "possibly, some males take a year longer to maturity as they do in related species.", "The biological lifespan to death from senescence can be 16 years or more, however", "one was recorded to have lived almost 24 years.", "This species is part of a clade that contains the kestrel species with black malar stripes, a feature which apparently was not present in the most ancestral kestrels.", "They seem to have radiated in the Gelasian (Late Pliocene, roughly 2.52 mya, probably starting in tropical East Africa, as indicated by mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data analysis and considerations of biogeography.", "The common kestrel's closest living relative is apparently the nankeen or Australian kestrel (F.", "cenchroides), which probably derived from ancestral common kestrels settling in Australia and adapting to local conditions less than one million years ago, during the Middle Pleistocene.", "rupicolus), previously considered a subspecies, is now treated as a distinct species.", "naumanni), which much resembles a small common kestrel with no black on the upperside except wing and tail tips, is probably not very closely related to the present species, and the American kestrel (F.", "sparverius) is apparently not a true kestrel at all.", "Both species have much grey in their wings in males, which does not occur in the common kestrel or its close living relatives but does in almost all other falcons.", "Wooden common kestrel sculpture The kestrel is sometimes seen, like other birds of prey, as a symbol of the power and vitality of nature.", "In \" Into Battle \" , the war poet Julian Grenfell invokes the superhuman characteristics of the kestrel among several birds, when hoping for prowess in battle: Gerard Manley Hopkins writes on the kestrel in his poem \" The Windhover \" , exalting in their mastery of flight and their majesty in the sky.", "A kestrel is also one of the main characters in The Animals of Farthing Wood.", "Barry Hines novel A Kestrel for a Knave - together with the 1969 film based on it, Ken Loach's Kes - is about a working-class boy in England who befriends a kestrel.", "The Pathan name for the kestrel, Bad Khurak, means \" wind hover \" and in Punjab it is called Larzanak or \" little hoverer \" .", "It was once used as a decoy to capture other birds of prey in Persia and Arabia.", "It was also used to train greyhounds meant for hunting gazelles in parts of Arabia.", "Young greyhounds would be set after jerboa-rats which would also be distracted and forced to make twists and turns by the dives of a kestrel.", "The name \" kestrel \" is derived from the French crecerelle which is diminutive for crecelle, which also referred to a bell used by lepers.", "The word is earlier spelt 'c/kastrel', and is evidenced from the 15th century.", "The kestrel was once used to drive and keep away pigeons.", "Archaic names for the kestrel include windhover and windfucker, due to its habit of beating the wind .", "The species name tinnunculus is Latin for \" kestrel \" from \" tinnulus \" , \" shrill \" ."]}, "Picus viridis": {"keywords": ["The European green woodpecker spends much of its time feeding on ants on the ground and does not often 'drum' on trees like other woodpecker species.", "Juvenile More than 75% of the range of the European green woodpecker is in Europe, where it is absent from some northern and eastern parts and from Ireland, Greenland and the Macaronesian Islands, but otherwise distributed widely.", "A combination of old deciduous trees for nesting, and nearby feeding grounds with plenty of ants, is essential. This is usually found in semi-open landscapes with small woodlands, hedges, scattered old trees, edges of forests and floodplain forests.", "Suitable habitats for foraging include grassland, heaths, plantations, orchards and lawns.", "It may be a few feet above the ground or at the top of a tall tree, oaks, beeches, willows and fruit trees are the preferred nest trees in western and central Europe, and aspens in the north.", "The main food of the European green woodpecker is ants of the genera Lasius and Formica Green woodpeckers will often forage in short grazed or mown permanent grasslands where the availability of ant nests is high.", "Other names, including rain-bird, weather cock and wet bird, suggest its supposed ability to bring on rain."], "habitat_section": ["Juvenile More than 75% of the range of the European green woodpecker is in Europe, where it is absent from some northern and eastern parts and from Ireland, Greenland and the Macaronesian Islands, but otherwise distributed widely.", "Over half of the European population is thought to be in France and Germany, with substantial numbers also in United Kingdom, Sweden, Russia, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria.", "It also occurs in western Asia.", "The European green woodpecker has a large range and an Estimated Global Extent of Occurrence of between 1 million to 10 million square kilometres, and a population in the region of 920,000 to 2.9 million birds.", "Populations appear to be stable, so the species is considered of Least Concern.", "The species is highly sedentary and individuals rarely move more than around 500 m between breeding seasons.", "A combination of old deciduous trees for nesting, and nearby feeding grounds with plenty of ants, is essential. This is usually found in semi-open landscapes with small woodlands, hedges, scattered old trees, edges of forests and floodplain forests.", "Suitable habitats for foraging include grassland, heaths, plantations, orchards and lawns."], "random_sentences": ["European green woodpecker eating The European green woodpecker is a large green woodpecker with a bright red crown and a black moustache.", "Males have a red centre to the moustache stripe which is absent in females.", "It is resident across much of Europe and the western Palearctic but in Spain and Portugal it is replaced by the similar Iberian green woodpecker .", "The European green woodpecker spends much of its time feeding on ants on the ground and does not often 'drum' on trees like other woodpecker species.", "Though its vivid green and red plumage is particularly striking, it is a shy bird, and is more often heard than seen, drawing attention with its loud calls.", "A nest hole is excavated in a tree", "four to six eggs are laid which hatch after 1920 days.", "The European green woodpecker was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name Picus viridis.", "The type locality is Sweden.", "The scientific name is derived from the Latin picus, meaning \" woodpecker \" , and viridis meaning \" green \" .", "It is member of the order Piciformes and the woodpecker family Picidae.", "with subtle and mostly clinal differences between them.", "The Iberian green woodpecker and Levaillant's woodpecker were formerly considered as subspecies of the European green woodpecker.", "They are now treated as separate species based on the results of two molecular phylogenetic studies published in 2011.", "The European green woodpecker measures in length with a wingspan.", "Both sexes are green above and pale yellowish green below, with yellow rump and red crown and nape", "the moustachial stripe has a red centre in the male but is solid black in the female.", "The lores and around the white eye are black in both male and female, except in the Iberian race P. v. subsp. sharpei, in which it is dark grey and males have only a lower black border to the moustache.", "Juveniles are spotty and streaked all over", "the moustache is dark initially, though juvenile males can show some red feathers by early June or usually by July or August.", "Moult takes place between June and November with the first flight feathers being lost around the time the young fledge.", "Juveniles moult quickly after fledging and gain their adult plumage between August and November.", "Although the European green woodpecker is shy and wary, it is usually its loud calls, known as yaffling, which first draw attention.", "It 'drums' rarely , but often gives a noisy kyu-kyu-kyuck while flying.", "The song is a loud series of 1018 'klu' sounds which gets slightly faster towards the end and falls slightly in pitch.", "The flight is undulating, with 34 wingbeats followed by a short glide when the wings are held by the body.", "It can be distinguished from the similar, but smaller, grey-headed woodpecker by its yellowish, not grey, underparts, and the black lores and facial 'mask'.", "In Europe, its green upperparts and yellow rump can lead to confusion with the grey-headed woodpecker or possibly the female golden oriole, though the latter is smaller and more slender with narrower wings and longer tail.", "The closely related, very similar Levaillant's woodpecker occurs only in north-west Africa.", "Juvenile More than 75% of the range of the European green woodpecker is in Europe, where it is absent from some northern and eastern parts and from Ireland, Greenland and the Macaronesian Islands, but otherwise distributed widely.", "Over half of the European population is thought to be in France and Germany, with substantial numbers also in United Kingdom, Sweden, Russia, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria.", "It also occurs in western Asia.", "The European green woodpecker has a large range and an Estimated Global Extent of Occurrence of between 1 million to 10 million square kilometres, and a population in the region of 920,000 to 2.9 million birds.", "Populations appear to be stable, so the species is considered of Least Concern.", "The species is highly sedentary and individuals rarely move more than around 500 m between breeding seasons.", "A combination of old deciduous trees for nesting, and nearby feeding grounds with plenty of ants, is essential. This is usually found in semi-open landscapes with small woodlands, hedges, scattered old trees, edges of forests and floodplain forests.", "Suitable habitats for foraging include grassland, heaths, plantations, orchards and lawns.", "Eggs of Picus viridis MHNT The nesting hole is larger but similar to those of the other woodpeckers.", "It may be a few feet above the ground or at the top of a tall tree", "oaks, beeches, willows and fruit trees are the preferred nest trees in western and central Europe, and aspens in the north.", "and the work is performed mostly by the male over 1530 days.", "Some tree holes are used for breeding for more than 10 years, but not necessarily by the same pair.", "There is a single brood of four to six white eggs, measuring and weighing each, of which 7% is shell.", "After the last egg is laid, they are incubated for 1920 days by both parents taking shifts of between 1.5 and 2.5 hours.", "The chicks are naked and altricial at hatching and fledge after 2124 days.", "The main food of the European green woodpecker is ants of the genera Lasius and Formica Green woodpeckers will often forage in short grazed or mown permanent grasslands where the availability of ant nests is high.", "Dropping opened to show ant remainsA study of a nest in Romania found that 10 species of ant were fed to the chicks.", "During the first 10 days, the young received an average of each, from days 1020, , and from day 20, .", "The seven chicks consumed an estimated 1.5 million ants and pupae before leaving the nest.", "The beak is relatively weak and used for pecking in soft wood only.", "It lacks the barbs of the Dendrocopos woodpeckers and black woodpecker , but is made sticky by secretions from the enlarged salivary glands.", "Heavy, prolonged snow cover makes feeding difficult for the green woodpecker and can result in high mortality, from which it may take 10 years for the population to recover.", "Ant nests can be located under the snow", "one bird was observed to dig 85 cm to reach a nest.", "'Professor Yaffle', the wooden bookend character in the 1974 children's animation series Bagpuss, was based loosely upon the green woodpecker.", "'Yaffle' was among many English folk names for the European green woodpecker relating to its laughing call", "others include laughing Betsey, yaffingale, yappingale and Jack Eikle.", "Other names, including rain-bird, weather cock and wet bird, suggest its supposed ability to bring on rain.", "The species has been the subject of postage stamps from several countries.", "The European green woodpecker is associated with Woodpecker Cider, an image of the bird is used on the merchandise.", "The woodpecker was the totem of the Italic tribe of the Picentes, and features of the coat of arms and flag of the Italian region of the Marches."]}, "Ficedula hypoleuca": {"keywords": ["It is migratory, wintering mainly in tropical Africa.", "European pied flycatcher vocalization They are birds of deciduous woodlands, parks and gardens, with a preference for oak trees.", "The very similar Atlas pied flycatcher, of the mountains of north west Africa was formerly classed as subspecies of the European pied flycatcher.", "More specifically, the nominate subspecies F. h. hypoleuca inhabits the UK, central Europe and Scandinavia, F. h. speculigera inhabits Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, F. h. iberiae inhabits in the Iberian Peninsula, and F. h. tomensis in eastern Europe and Russia.", "This flycatcher typically spends winter in tropical Africa.", "The European pied flycatcher is a terrestrial bird, typically inhabiting open forests, woodlands, and towns.", "In an experiment conducted from 1948 to 1964 in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, two hundred and fifty nest boxes were carefully recorded for their locations and then analyzed for their inhabitance.", "In fact, their name comes from their habit of catching flying insects, but they also catch insects or arthropods from tree trunks, branches, or from the ground.", "It was also found that airborne prey were captured more during the early part of the season than in the later part , the converse trend appeared in prey taken from trees.", "They breed in upland broadleaf woodland.", "They require very high horizontal visibility - a low abundance of shrub and understorey, but with high proportion of moss and grass.", "They also like lichens that grow on trees."], "habitat_section": ["The European pied flycatcher has a very large range and population size, and is thus deemed to be of least concern by the IUCN. This species occupies areas of many different countries in Europe and northern Africa, also being present in the west Asian portion of Russia.", "More specifically, the nominate subspecies F. h. hypoleuca inhabits the UK, central Europe and Scandinavia, F. h. speculigera inhabits Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, F. h. iberiae inhabits in the Iberian Peninsula, and F. h. tomensis in eastern Europe and Russia.", "The species is noted as a vagrant species in places in other countries in Africa and South Asia, such as Sudan and Afghanistan.", "This flycatcher typically spends winter in tropical Africa.", "The European pied flycatcher is a terrestrial bird, typically inhabiting open forests, woodlands, and towns.", "In 2005, the European population was listed to hold 3 to 7 million pairs.", "They breed in upland broadleaf woodland.", "This means that in Britain they are limited due to geography to the North and West.", "They prefer mature oak woodland, but also breed in mature upland ash and birch woods.", "They require very high horizontal visibility - a low abundance of shrub and understorey, but with high proportion of moss and grass.", "Grazing needs to be managed to maintain this open character, but also allow the occasional replacement trees.", "They will sometimes use mature open conifer woodland where natural tree holes occur.", "Generally they prefer trees that have tree holes, i.e.", "dead trees, or dead limbs on healthy trees.", "They also like lichens that grow on trees."], "random_sentences": ["European pied flycatchers, 2010 in Texel, Netherlands The European pied flycatcher is a small passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family.", "One of the four species of Western Palearctic black-and-white flycatchers, it hybridizes to a limited extent with the collared flycatcher.", "It breeds in most of Europe and across the Western Palearctic.", "It is migratory, wintering mainly in tropical Africa.", "It usually builds its nests in holes on oak trees.", "This species practices polygyny, usually bigamy, with the male travelling large distances to acquire a second mate.", "The male will mate with the secondary female and then return to the primary female in order to help with aspects of child rearing, such as feeding.", "The European pied flycatcher is mainly insectivorous, although its diet also includes other arthropods.", "This species commonly feeds on spiders, ants, bees and similar prey.", "The European pied flycatcher has a very large range and population size and so it is of least concern according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature .", "The European pied flycatcher is an Old World flycatcher, part of a family of insectivorous songbirds which typically feed by darting after insects.", "The Latin word ficedula means \" small fig-eating bird \" .", "The term hypoleuca comes from two Greek roots, hupo, \" below \" , and leukos, \" white \" .", "The species was described in Linnaeus's Fauna Svecica , a work that was not binomial and that is therefore unavailable nomenclaturally.", "Later, in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae and the next edition of Fauna Svecica , Linnaeus confounded this flycatcher with the Eurasian blackcap and the whinchat.", "To this point, the European pied flycatcher still lacked a proper valid binominal name.", "The species was finally named as Motacilla hypoleuca by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764.", "However, he described this species anonymously in the appendix of a sales catalogue of the collection of Adriaan Vroeg, popularly known simply as the \" Adumbratiunculae \" among ornithologists.", "The authorship of the Adumbratiunculae would later be attributed to Pallas.", "Given the initial anonymity of the publication and the inferred authorship by external evidence, the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature advocates that Pallas's name should appear enclosed in square brackets in the species' name.", "Thus, the correct form of the scientific name of the European pied plycatcher is Ficedula hypoleuca .", "Ficedula hypoleuca currently has four recognized subspecies: the nominate F. h. hypoleuca , F. h. speculigera , F. h. iberiae , and F. h. tomensis .", "The subspecies F. h. muscipeta is currently considered synonymous with F. h. hypoleuca, but could represent an actual distinct subspecies.", "The name F. h. atricapilla is a junior subjective synonym of F. h. hypoleuca", "and the name F. h. sibirica Khakhlov, 1915 is invalid, the correct form being F. h. tomensis .", "This is a long bird.", "The breeding male is mainly black above and white below, with a large white wing patch, white tail sides and a small forehead patch.", "The Iberian subspecies iberiae has a larger forehead patch and a pale rump.", "Non-breeding males, females and juveniles have the black replaced by a pale brown, and may be very difficult to distinguish from other Ficedula flycatchers, particularly the collared flycatcher, with which this species hybridizes to a limited extent.", "The bill is black, and has the broad but pointed shape typical of aerial insectivores.", "As well as taking insects in flight, this species hunts caterpillars amongst the oak foliage, and will take berries.", "It is therefore a much earlier spring migrant than the more aerial spotted flycatcher, and its loud rhythmic and melodious song is characteristic of oak woods in spring.", "European pied flycatcher vocalization They are birds of deciduous woodlands, parks and gardens, with a preference for oak trees.", "They build an open nest in a tree hole, and will readily adapt to an open-fronted nest box.", "The very similar Atlas pied flycatcher, of the mountains of north west Africa was formerly classed as subspecies of the European pied flycatcher.", "The European pied flycatcher has a very large range and population size, and is thus deemed to be of least concern by the IUCN.", "This species occupies areas of many different countries in Europe and northern Africa, also being present in the west Asian portion of Russia.", "More specifically, the nominate subspecies F. h. hypoleuca inhabits the UK, central Europe and Scandinavia, F. h. speculigera inhabits Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, F. h. iberiae inhabits in the Iberian Peninsula, and F. h. tomensis in eastern Europe and Russia.", "The species is noted as a vagrant species in places in other countries in Africa and South Asia, such as Sudan and Afghanistan.", "This flycatcher typically spends winter in tropical Africa.", "The European pied flycatcher is a terrestrial bird, typically inhabiting open forests, woodlands, and towns.", "In 2005, the European population was listed to hold 3", "The European pied flycatcher predominately practices a mixed mating system of monogamy and polygyny.", "Their mating system has also been described as successive polygyny.", "Gender difference in mating behavior", "The male mating behavior has two key characteristics: desertion of the primary female and polyterritoriality.", "The males travel large distances, an average of , to find his second mate.", "After breeding with the secondary female, the males return to their first mate.", "The males of this species are polyterritorial", "the males will acquire multiple nest sites to attract a female.", "Upon breeding with this first female, the male will procure more nesting sites, typically some distance from the site of the primary female, in order to attract a second female for mating.", "The males that have better success at polygyny are typically larger, older and more experienced at arriving earlier to the mating sites.", "Polygyny threshold model graph The female behaviour has also been studied in depth, especially due to the fact that some females accept polygyny while others are able to maintain monogamous relationships.", "The first female in a polygynous relationship does not suffer much in comparison to females in monogamous situations.", "These primary females gain greater reproductive success because they are able to secure full-time help from the male once he returns from his search for a second mate.", "The second female, however, often suffers from polygyny.", "These females have 60% less offspring than females that are in a monogamous relationship.", "These findings are consistent with the polygyny threshold model, which is depicted at the right.", "Additionally, the secondary female lays a smaller clutch which she is more likely to be able to rear on her own.", "Another behavior that is relatively frequent in European pied flycatchers is the practice of extra-pair copulations .", "Thus, the male practicing EPC will have a group of offspring raised successfully without any parental investment on his part.", "The female may benefit from EPC if the second male is judged to have superior genes to the original male.", "Another benefit that EPC adds is that there is an increase in genetic variability.", "However, females are not typically very welcoming of EPC.", "A female that is being pursued for an EPC will either passively allow the male to copulate with her, or will resist it and risk injury due to the male's aggression.", "In an experiment conducted from 1948 to 1964 in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, two hundred and fifty nest boxes were carefully recorded for their locations and then analyzed for their inhabitance.", "The median breeding dispersal of the European pied flycatcher ranges from about , with the average distance between nest sites being about .", "This distance typically depended on the breeding density in each year.", "The study found little evidence to suggest a difference in breeding dispersal between years or between monogamous and polygynous males.", "As a result, the data for the separate categories could be combined.", "The breeding dispersal over longer distances could result in both mate fidelity as well as mate change, the latter of which occurs either while the previous mate is still alive, or following the death of the mate.", "The breeding dispersal distances of birds that survive more than three breeding seasons were studied, and the results showed that the site fidelity increased with more successive breeding attempts.", "The same long-term study also found that older European pied flycatchers, both male and female, were more likely to move shorter distances between breeding seasons than younger birds were.", "When mates were observed to re-establish their pair bond, they tended to occupy certain areas that were near the nest site established in the previous breeding season.", "In addition, female birds were less likely to return to a former breeding site following the death of, or divorce from, their former partner.", "When a pair divorces, the females have been observed to move greater distances away than the males.", "As a result, females that keep the same mates from year to year end up moving shorter distances for each mating period than those that divorce.", "Divorce has little influence on the likelihood of males moving away from their original nest site.", "The study found that males that keep the same mate do not move significantly smaller distances than males that divorce.", "Since most bird species exhibit monogamous mating behaviors, the polygynous behavior of the European pied flycatcher has sparked much research.", "There are three main hypotheses that seek to explain why females settle polygynously when it lowers their overall fitness and reproductive success compared to a monogamous relationship.", "F. hypoleuca and F. albicollis are speciating from each other, providing evidence for speciation by reinforcement .", "The two species diverged less than two million years ago, which is considered recent on the time scale of evolution.", "Still, hybrids of the two species already suffer from low fertility and metabolic dysfunction.", "It was also believed that sexual selection causes reinforcement and pied flycatcher evolved different colouration in sympatry versus allopatry to prevent hybridization, though some evidence suggests heterospecific competition instead of reinforcement as the underlying mechanism.", "Mating choice tests of the species find that females of both species choose conspecific males in sympatry, but heterospecific males in allopatry .", "The patterns could suggest mimicry, driven by interspecific competition", "however, song divergence has been detected that shows a similar pattern to the mating preferences.", "Male flycatcher returning to nest Studies were also done to examine the amount of contribution the male European pied flycatcher provided in parental care as well as why some females choose to mate with mated males.", "When older and younger monogamous males were compared, there was no difference in feeding rate between each nest.", "When females were studied, scientists found that monogamous and primary females benefited significantly more from the male in terms of parental care than polygynous females did.", "The latter group could only partially compensate for the absence of a male, leading to secondary females and widows raising fewer offspring than the monogamous pairs did.", "In the study, differences in mates and the qualities of the territories were slight and therefore not considered, since they lead to no advantages for females to choose between the territories belonging to monogamous or already-mated males.", "The results of the study suggest that the males can control multiple territories and are thus able to deceive females into accepting polygyny, while the females do not have enough time to discover the marital status of the males.", "In terms of male parental care to clutches, the rate of male incubation feeding was directly related to the physical condition of the males, and negatively correlated with the ambient temperature.", "Polygynously mated females also received far less feeds than monogamously mated females, despite having no difference in the food delivery rates by the male.", "The reduction in delivery rate to the polygynously mated females led to a negative effect on their incubation efficiency, because the females needed to spend more time away from the nest acquiring food.", "This also prolonged the incubation period when compared to monogamous females.", "The male feeding behavior is related to the reproductive value as represented by the nests, as well as to the costs and benefits of incubation feeding.", "The main diet of the European pied flycatcher is insects.", "In fact, their name comes from their habit of catching flying insects, but they also catch insects or arthropods from tree trunks, branches, or from the ground.", "Studies have found that the majority of food catches were made from the ground.", "It was also found that airborne prey were captured more during the early part of the season than in the later part ", "the converse trend appeared in prey taken from trees.", "There are also many overlaps in the foraging techniques with the collared flycatcher, the spotted flycatcher, and the common redstart.", "Courtship feeding, or incubation feeding, occurs when the male feeds the female in the pairing, egglaying stages, and incubation.", "An interpretation of this behavior is that it strengthens the pair bond between mates.", "Eggs off Ficedula speculigera MHNT Pied flycatcher chicks The diet of the European pied flycatcher is composed nearly entirely of insects.", "One study analyzed the stomach contents of birds during the breeding season and found that ants, bees, wasps and beetles made up the main diet.", "Ants made up approximately 25% of the diet.", "Food given to nestlings include spiders, butterflies, moths, flies, mosquitoes, ants, bees, wasps, and beetles.", "For Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera, larvae appear to be consumed more than adult insects", "the opposite is true for other insect orders.", "There is also variation between the proportions of larvae and adult insects between different habitats.", "Nestlings were also found to consume more spiders, butterfly, and moth larvae, while adult flycatchers consume more ants.", "It has on average decreased in population by 25% within the last 25 years.", "It has ceased to breed in several parts of its former range within Britain.", "It is a very rare and irregular breeder in Ireland, with only one or two pairs recorded as breeding in most years.", "Records of its location can be found on that National Biodiversity Network.", "In the Netherlands it have declined by 90% due to nestlings peaks mistiming.", "Female in a nestbox in Finland", "They breed in upland broadleaf woodland.", "This means that in Britain they are limited due to geography to the North and West.", "They prefer mature oak woodland, but also breed in mature upland ash and birch woods.", "They require very high horizontal visibility - a low abundance of shrub and understorey, but with high proportion of moss and grass.", "Grazing needs to be managed to maintain this open character, but also allow the occasional replacement trees.", "They will sometimes use mature open conifer woodland where natural tree holes occur.", "Generally they prefer trees that have tree holes, i.e. dead trees, or dead limbs on healthy trees.", "They also like lichens that grow on trees."]}, "Motacilla cinerea": {"keywords": ["The species is always associated with running water when breeding, although they may use man-made structures near streams for the nest.", "Outside the breeding season, they may also be seen around lakes, coasts and other watery habitats.", "They forage singly or in pairs on meadows or on shallow water marshes.", "They also use rocks in water and will often perch on trees.", "Island forms include patriciae of the Azores, schmitzi of Madeira and canariensis of the Canary Islands.", "They sometimes occur on the islands to the West of Alaska but have been known to occur further south in California as a vagrant.", "Nominate race The breeding season is April to July and the nest is placed near fast running streams or rivers on an embankment between stones and roots.", "The Canary Islands population typically have smaller clutches and the breeding season is not as short and well marked as in populations at higher latitudes.", "These birds feed on a variety of aquatic invertebrates including adult flies, mayflies, beetles, crustacea and molluscs.", "They often forage along roadsides in winter, flushing with a sharp chi-cheep call and flying up further along the road but after some distance turning back to return to the original location."], "habitat_section": ["The bird is widely distributed across the Palearctic region with several well marked populations.", "The nominate form is from western Europe including the British Isles, Scandinavia and Mediterranean region.", "Race melanope, which is not well separated from the nominate subspecies, is described as the population breeding in eastern Europe and central Asia mainly along the mountain chains of the Urals, Tien Shan and along the Himalayas.", "They winter in Africa and Asia.", "Race robusta breeds along the northeastern parts of Asia in Siberia extending to Korea and Japan.", "These winter in Southeast Asia.", "Island forms include patriciae of the Azores, schmitzi of Madeira and canariensis of the Canary Islands.", "They sometimes occur on the islands to the West of Alaska but have been known to occur further south in California as a vagrant.", "Nominate race The breeding season is April to July and the nest is placed near fast running streams or rivers on an embankment between stones and roots.", "The male in display, makes short flights up into the air and descends slowly with fluttering flight accompanied by a rapid series of chipping high notes.", "In Europe the nests are often made in holes in manmade structures.", "The clutch consists of 36 speckled eggs and multiple broods may be raised with declining numbers in the clutch in subsequent broods.", "The usual clutch size is five in Ireland and the breeding success is about 80% with predation of eggs or chicks being the main cause of breeding failure.", "The Canary Islands population typically have smaller clutches and the breeding season is not as short and well marked as in populations at higher latitudes.", "The incubation period is about two weeks with chicks fledging within a fortnight.", "They live for a maximum of 8 years in the wild.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden In some parts of its range the white-throated dipper nests in the same habitats as the grey wagtail and there are some records of interspecific feeding of dipper chicks by adult wagtails.", "These birds feed on a variety of aquatic invertebrates including adult flies, mayflies, beetles, crustacea and molluscs.", "They often forage along roadsides in winter, flushing with a sharp chi-cheep call and flying up further along the road but after some distance turning back to return to the original location.", "Adults often have parasitic ticks, Ixodes ricinus, which can harbour Borrelia and thus can potentially disperse Lyme disease over a wide region.", "Coccidia such as Isospora sp. are known in this species.", "The common cuckoo is sometimes a brood parasite of this species, and kestrels may sometimes prey on them."], "random_sentences": ["The grey wagtail is a member of the wagtail family, Motacillidae, measuring around 1819 cm overall length.", "The species looks somewhat similar to the yellow wagtail but has the yellow on its underside restricted to the throat and vent.", "Breeding males have a black throat.", "The species is widely distributed, with several populations breeding in Eurosiberia and migrating to tropical regions in Asia and Africa.", "The species is always associated with running water when breeding, although they may use man-made structures near streams for the nest.", "Outside the breeding season, they may also be seen around lakes, coasts and other watery habitats.", "Like other wagtails, they frequently wag their tail and fly low with undulations and they have a sharp call that is often given in flight.", "The binomial name of the grey wagtail Motacilla cinerea was introduced by Marmaduke Tunstall in his 1771 publication Ornithologia Britannica.", "Motacilla is the Latin name for the pied wagtail", "although actually a diminutive of motare, \" to move about \" , from medieval times it led to the misunderstanding of cilla as \" tail \" .", "The specific cinerea is Latin for \" ash-grey \" from cinis, \" ashes \" .", "The relationships of this species are not well resolved", "it belongs to the non-African clade of wagtails, these are confusing in their external morphology, and mtDNA cytochrome b and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 sequence data are not able to robustly resolve their relationships.", "While the present species is probably most closely related to citrine wagtails and some blue-headed wagtails, the exact nature of this relationship is unclear.", "Male M. c. melanope This slim wagtail has a narrow white supercilium and a broken eye ring.", "The upperparts are grey and the yellow vent contrasting with whitish underparts makes it distinctive.", "The breeding male has a black throat that is edged by whitish moustachial stripes.", "They forage singly or in pairs on meadows or on shallow water marshes.", "They also use rocks in water and will often perch on trees.", "They have a clear sharp call note and the song consists of trills.", "The bird is widely distributed across the Palearctic region with several well marked populations.", "The nominate form is from western Europe including the British Isles, Scandinavia and Mediterranean region.", "Race melanope, which is not well separated from the nominate subspecies, is described as the population breeding in eastern Europe and central Asia mainly along the mountain chains of the Urals, Tien Shan and along the Himalayas.", "They winter in Africa and Asia.", "Race robusta breeds along the northeastern parts of Asia in Siberia extending to Korea and Japan.", "These winter in Southeast Asia.", "Island forms include patriciae of the Azores, schmitzi of Madeira and canariensis of the Canary Islands.", "They sometimes occur on the islands to the West of Alaska but have been known to occur further south in California as a vagrant.", "Nominate race The breeding season is April to July and the nest is placed near fast running streams or rivers on an embankment between stones and roots.", "The male in display, makes short flights up into the air and descends slowly with fluttering flight accompanied by a rapid series of chipping high notes.", "In Europe the nests are often made in holes in manmade structures.", "The clutch consists of 36 speckled eggs and multiple broods may be raised with declining numbers in the clutch in subsequent broods.", "The usual clutch size is five in Ireland and the breeding success is about 80% with predation of eggs or chicks being the main cause of breeding failure.", "The Canary Islands population typically have smaller clutches and the breeding season is not as short and well marked as in populations at higher latitudes.", "The incubation period is about two weeks with chicks fledging within a fortnight.", "They live for a maximum of 8 years in the wild.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden In some parts of its range the white-throated dipper nests in the same habitats as the grey wagtail and there are some records of interspecific feeding of dipper chicks by adult wagtails.", "These birds feed on a variety of aquatic invertebrates including adult flies, mayflies, beetles, crustacea and molluscs.", "They often forage along roadsides in winter, flushing with a sharp chi-cheep call and flying up further along the road but after some distance turning back to return to the original location.", "Adults often have parasitic ticks, Ixodes ricinus, which can harbour Borrelia and thus can potentially disperse Lyme disease over a wide region.", "Coccidia such as Isospora sp. are known in this species.", "The common cuckoo is sometimes a brood parasite of this species, and kestrels may sometimes prey on them."]}, "Anas platyrhynchos": {"keywords": ["The mallard or wild duck is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa.", "Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes.", "The non-migratory mallard interbreeds with indigenous wild ducks of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring.", "Complete hybridisation of various species of wild duck gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl.", "This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domestic duck, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool has been genetically polluted by the domestic and feral mallard populations.", "The Aleutian Islands hold a population of mallards that appear to be evolving towards becoming a subspecies, as gene flow with other populations is very limited.", "Both male and female mallards have distinct iridescent purple-blue speculum feathers edged with white, which are prominent in flight or at rest but temporarily shed during the annual summer moult.", "Bergmann's Rule, which states that polar forms tend to be larger than related ones from warmer climates, has numerous examples in birds, as in case of the Greenland mallard which is larger than the mallards further south.", "Allen's Rule says that appendages like ears tend to be smaller in polar forms to minimise heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion, and that the polar taxa are stockier overall.", "The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and South Korea.", "It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south.", "For example, in North America, it winters south to the southern United States and northern Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.", "The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions.", "It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline.", "Water depths of less than are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep.", "They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.", "During the breeding season, male birds were recorded to have eaten 37.6% animal matter and 62.4% plant matter, most notably the grass Echinochloa crus-galli, and nonlaying females ate 37.0% animal matter and 63.0% plant matter, while laying females ate 71.9% animal matter and only 28.1% plant matter.", "It usually nests on a river bank, but not always near water.", "Nesting sites are typically on the ground, hidden in vegetation where the female's speckled plumage serves as effective camouflage, but female mallards have also been known to nest in hollows in trees, boathouses, roof gardens and on balconies, sometimes resulting in hatched offspring having difficulty following their parent to water.", "In New Zealand, where mallards are naturalised, the nesting season has been found to be longer, eggs and clutches are larger and nest survival is generally greater compared with mallards in their native range.", "In addition, mallards may occasionally breed during the autumn in cases of unseasonably warm weather, one such instance of a late clutch occurred in November 2011, in which a female successfully hatched and raised a clutch of eleven ducklings at the London Wetland Centre.", "Mallards are also preyed upon by other waterside apex predators, such as grey herons , great blue herons and black-crowned night herons , the European herring gull , the wels catfish , and the northern pike .", "Several drakes swim in a pond Since 1998, the mallard has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species.", "They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other human-made water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged in human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours.", "The mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domestic and feral populations.", "The last male Mariana mallard Mallards are causing severe \" genetic pollution \" to South Africa's biodiversity by breeding with endemic ducks If this continues, only hybrids occur and in the long term result in the extinction of various indigenous waterfowl.", "Mallards have often been ubiquitous in their regions among the ponds, rivers, and streams of human parks, farms, and other human-made waterwayseven to the point of visiting water features in human courtyards.", "The ideal location for hunting mallards is considered to be where the water level is somewhat shallow where the birds can be found foraging for food."], "habitat_section": ["The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and South Korea.", "Also in the east, it ranges to south-eastern and south-western Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere.", "It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south.", "For example, in North America, it winters south to the southern United States and northern Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.", "A drake later named \" Trevor \" attracted media attention in 2018 when it turned up on the island of Niue, an atypical location for mallards.", "The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions.", "It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline.", "Water depths of less than are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep.", "They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.", "Several drakes swim in a pond Since 1998, the mallard has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species.", "This is because it has a large rangemore than 20,000,000 km 2 and because its population is increasing, rather than declining by 30% over ten years or three generations and thus is not warranted a vulnerable rating.", "Also, the population size of the mallard is very large.", "Unlike many waterfowl, mallards have benefited from human alterations to the worldso much so that they are now considered an invasive species in some regions.", "They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other human-made water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged in human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours.", "The mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domestic and feral populations.", "Over time, a continuum of hybrids ranging between almost typical examples of either species develop, the speciation process is beginning to reverse itself.", "This has created conservation concerns for relatives of the mallard, such as the Hawaiian duck, the New Zealand grey duck subspecies of the Pacific black duck, the American black duck, the mottled duck, Meller's duck, the yellow-billed duck, and the Mexican duck, in the latter case even leading to a dispute as to whether these birds should be considered a species or included in the mallard species.", "Ecological changes and hunting have also led to a decline of local species, for example, the New Zealand grey duck population declined drastically due to overhunting in the mid-20th century.", "Hybrid offspring of Hawaiian ducks seem to be less well adapted to native habitat, and using them in re-introduction projects apparently reduces success.", "In summary, the problems of mallards \" hybridising away \" relatives is more a consequence of local ducks declining than of mallards spreading, allopatric speciation and isolating behaviour have produced today's diversity of mallard-like ducks despite the fact that, in most, if not all, of these populations, hybridisation must have occurred to some extent."], "random_sentences": ["The mallard or wild duck is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa.", "This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae.", "Males have purple patches on their wings, while the females have mainly brown-speckled plumage.", "Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent blue feathers called a speculum on their wings", "males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers.", "The mallard is long, of which the body makes up around two-thirds the length.", "The wingspan is and the bill is long.", "It is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks, weighing .", "Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes.", "The female lays 8 to 13 creamy white to greenish-buff spotless eggs, on alternate days.", "Incubation takes 27 to 28 days and fledging takes 50 to 60 days.", "The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch.", "The mallard is considered to be a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature .", "Unlike many waterfowl, mallards are considered an invasive species in some regions.", "It is a very adaptable species, being able to live and even thrive in urban areas which may have supported more localised, sensitive species of waterfowl before development.", "The non-migratory mallard interbreeds with indigenous wild ducks of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring.", "Complete hybridisation of various species of wild duck gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl.", "This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domestic duck, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool has been genetically polluted by the domestic and feral mallard populations.", "An American black duck and a male mallard in eclipse plumage The mallard was one of the many bird species originally described in the 1758 10thedition of Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus.", "The genome of Anas platyrhynchos was sequenced in 2013.", "The name mallard originally referred to any wild drake, and it is sometimes still used this way.", "It was derived from the Old French or for \" wild drake \" although its true derivation is unclear.", "It may be related to, or at least influenced by, an Old High German masculine proper name , clues lying in the alternative English forms \" maudelard \" and \" mawdelard \" .", "Masle has also been proposed as an influence.", "Mallards frequently interbreed with their closest relatives in the genus Anas, such as the American black duck, and also with species more distantly related, such as the northern pintail, leading to various hybrids that may be fully fertile.", "Mallards and their domestic conspecifics are also fully interfertile.", "Genetic analysis has shown that certain mallards appear to be closer to their Indo-Pacific relatives, while others are related to their American relatives.", "Mitochondrial DNA data for the D-loop sequence suggest that mallards may have evolved in the general area of Siberia.", "Mallard bones rather abruptly appear in food remains of ancient humans and other deposits of fossil bones in Europe, without a good candidate for a local predecessor species.", "The large Ice Age palaeosubspecies that made up at least the European and West Asian populations during the Pleistocene has been named Anas platyrhynchos palaeoboschas.", "Mallards are differentiated in their mitochondrial DNA between North American and Eurasian populations, but the nuclear genome displays a notable lack of genetic structure.", "Haplotypes typical of American mallard relatives and eastern spot-billed ducks can be found in mallards around the Bering Sea.", "The Aleutian Islands hold a population of mallards that appear to be evolving towards becoming a subspecies, as gene flow with other populations is very limited.", "Also, the paucity of morphological differences between the Old World mallards and the New World mallard demonstrates the extent to which the genome is shared among them such that birds like the Chinese spot-billed duck are highly similar to the Old World mallard, and birds such as the Hawaiian duck are highly similar to the New World mallard.", "The size of the mallard varies clinally", "for example, birds from Greenland, though larger, have smaller bills, paler plumage, and stockier bodies than birds further south and are sometimes classified as a separate subspecies, the Greenland mallard .", "Juvenile male and female Duckling The mallard is a medium-sized waterfowl species that is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks.", "It is longof which the body makes up around two-thirdshas a wingspan of , and weighs .", "Among standard measurements, the wing chord is , the bill is , and the tarsus is .", "The breeding male mallard is unmistakable, with a glossy bottle-green head and a white collar that demarcates the head from the purple-tinged brown breast, grey-brown wings, and a pale grey belly.", "The rear of the male is black, with white-bordered dark tail feathers.", "The bill of the male is a yellowish-orange tipped with black, with that of the female generally darker and ranging from black to mottled orange and brown.", "The female mallard is predominantly mottled, with each individual feather showing sharp contrast from buff to very dark brown, a coloration shared by most female dabbling ducks, and has buff cheeks, eyebrow, throat, and neck, with a darker crown and eye-stripe.", "Both male and female mallards have distinct iridescent purple-blue speculum feathers edged with white, which are prominent in flight or at rest but temporarily shed during the annual summer moult.", "Upon hatching, the plumage of the duckling is yellow on the underside and face and black on the back all the way to the top and back of the head.", "Its legs and bill are also black.", "2)the breast feathers are reddish-brown in males, but brown in females", "This change in plumage also applies to adult mallard males when they transition in and out of their non-breeding eclipse plumage at the beginning and the end of the summer moulting period.", "The adulthood age for mallards is fourteen months, and the average life expectancy is three years, but they can live to twenty.", "Several species of duck have brown-plumaged females that can be confused with the female mallard.", "The female gadwall has an orange-lined bill, white belly, black and white speculum that is seen as a white square on the wings in flight, and is a smaller bird.", "More similar to the female mallard in North America are the American black duck (A.", "rubripes), which is notably darker-hued in both sexes than the mallard, and the mottled duck (A.", "fulvigula), which is somewhat darker than the female mallard, and with slightly different bare-part colouration and no white edge on the speculum.", "Owing to their highly 'malleable' genetic code, mallards can display a large amount of variation, as seen here with this female, who displays faded or 'apricot' plumage.", "In captivity, domestic ducks come in wild-type plumages, white, and other colours.", "Most of these colour variants are also known in domestic mallards not bred as livestock, but kept as pets, aviary birds, etc.", ", where they are rare but increasing in availability.", "A noisy species, the female has the deep quack stereotypically associated with ducks.", "Male mallards make a sound phonetically similar to that of the female, a typical quack, but it is deeper and quieter compared to that of the female.", "When incubating a nest, or when offspring are present, females vocalise differently, making a call that sounds like a truncated version of the usual quack.", "This maternal vocalisation is highly attractive to their young.", "The repetition and frequency modulation of these quacks form the auditory basis for species identification in offspring, a process known as acoustic conspecific identification.", "In addition, females hiss if the nest or offspring are threatened or interfered with.", "When taking off, the wings of a mallard produce a characteristic faint whistling noise.", "The mallard is a rare example of both Allen's Rule and Bergmann's Rule in birds.", "Bergmann's Rule, which states that polar forms tend to be larger than related ones from warmer climates, has numerous examples in birds, as in case of the Greenland mallard which is larger than the mallards further south.", "Allen's Rule says that appendages like ears tend to be smaller in polar forms to minimise heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion, and that the polar taxa are stockier overall.", "Examples of this rule in birds are rare as they lack external ears, but the bill of ducks is supplied with a few blood vessels to prevent heat loss, and, as in the Greenland mallard, the bill is smaller than that of birds farther south, illustrating the rule.", "Due to the variability of the mallard's genetic code, which gives it its vast interbreeding capability, mutations in the genes that decide plumage colour are very common and have resulted in a wide variety of hybrids, such as Brewer's duck .", "The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres", "in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and South Korea.", "Also in the east, it ranges to south-eastern and south-western Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere.", "It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south.", "For example, in North America, it winters south to the southern United States and northern Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.", "A drake later named \" Trevor \" attracted media attention in 2018 when it turned up on the island of Niue, an atypical location for mallards.", "The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions.", "It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline.", "Water depths of less than are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep.", "They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.", "Drake mallard performing the grunt-whistle", "The mallard is omnivorous and very flexible in its choice of food.", "Its diet may vary based on several factors, including the stage of the breeding cycle, short-term variations in available food, nutrient availability, and interspecific and intraspecific competition.", "The majority of the mallard's diet seems to be made up of gastropods, insects , crustaceans, worms, many varieties of seeds and plant matter, and roots and tubers.", "During the breeding season, male birds were recorded to have eaten 37.6% animal matter and 62.4% plant matter, most notably the grass Echinochloa crus-galli, and nonlaying females ate 37.0% animal matter and 63.0% plant matter, while laying females ate 71.9% animal matter and only 28.1% plant matter.", "Plants generally make up the larger part of a bird's diet, especially during autumn migration and in the winter.", "The mallard usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing", "there are reports of it eating frogs.", "However, in 2017 a flock of mallards in Romania were observed hunting small migratory birds, including grey wagtails and black redstarts, the first documented occasion they had been seen attacking and consuming large vertebrates.", "It usually nests on a river bank, but not always near water.", "It is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and forms large flocks, which are known as \" sordes \" .", "Female mallard with five ducklings Mallards usually form pairs until the female lays eggs at the start of the nesting season, which is around the beginning of spring.", "At this time she is left by the male who joins up with other males to await the moulting period, which begins in June .", "During the brief time before this, however, the males are still sexually potent and some of them either remain on standby to sire replacement clutches or forcibly mate with females that appear to be isolated or unattached regardless of their species and whether or not they have a brood of ducklings.", "Nesting sites are typically on the ground, hidden in vegetation where the female's speckled plumage serves as effective camouflage, but female mallards have also been known to nest in hollows in trees, boathouses, roof gardens and on balconies, sometimes resulting in hatched offspring having difficulty following their parent to water.", "Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden Egg clutches number 813 creamy white to greenish-buff eggs free of speckles.", "They measure about in length and in width.", "The eggs are laid on alternate days, and incubation begins when the clutch is almost complete.", "Incubation takes 2728days and fledging takes 5060days.", "The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch.", "However, filial imprinting compels them to instinctively stay near the mother, not only for warmth and protection but also to learn about and remember their habitat as well as how and where to forage for food.", "Though adoptions are known to occur, female mallards typically do not tolerate stray ducklings near their broods, and will violently attack and drive away any unfamiliar young, sometimes going as far as to kill them.", "When ducklings mature into flight-capable juveniles, they learn about and remember their traditional migratory routes .", "In New Zealand, where mallards are naturalised, the nesting season has been found to be longer, eggs and clutches are larger and nest survival is generally greater compared with mallards in their native range.", "In cases where a nest or brood fails, some mallards may mate for a second time in an attempt to raise a second clutch, typically around early-to-mid summer.", "In addition, mallards may occasionally breed during the autumn in cases of unseasonably warm weather", "one such instance of a late clutch occurred in November 2011, in which a female successfully hatched and raised a clutch of eleven ducklings at the London Wetland Centre.", "During the breeding season, both male and female mallards can become aggressive, driving off competitors to themselves or their mate by charging at them.", "Males tend to fight more than females, and attack each other by repeatedly pecking at their rival's chest, ripping out feathers and even skin on rare occasions.", "Female mallards are also known to carry out 'inciting displays', which encourage other ducks in the flock to begin fighting.", "It is possible that this behaviour allows the female to evaluate the strength of potential partners.", "The drakes that end up being left out after the others have paired off with mating partners sometimes target an isolated female duck, even one of a different species, and proceed to chase and peck at her until she weakens, at which point the males take turns copulating with the female.", "Lebret calls this behaviour \" Attempted Rape Flight \" , and Stanley Cramp and K.E.L. Simmons speak of \" rape-intent flights \" .", "Male mallards also occasionally chase other male ducks of a different species, and even each other, in the same way.", "In one documented case of \" homosexual necrophilia \" , a male mallard copulated with another male he was chasing after the chased male died upon flying into a glass window.", "This paper was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 2003.", "Mallards are opportunistically targeted by brood parasites, occasionally having eggs laid in their nests by redheads, ruddy ducks, lesser scaup, gadwalls, northern shovelers, northern pintails, cinnamon teal, common goldeneyes, and other mallards.", "These eggs are generally accepted when they resemble the eggs of the host mallard, but the hen may attempt to eject them or even abandon the nest if parasitism occurs during egg laying.", "A male mute swan driving off a female mallard In addition to human hunting, mallards of all ages and in all locations must contend with a wide diversity of predators including raptors and owls, mustelids, corvids, snakes, raccoons, opossums, skunks, turtles, large fish, felids, and canids, the last two including domestic ones.", "The most prolific natural predators of adult mallards are red foxes and the faster or larger birds of prey, e.g. peregrine falcons, Aquila or Haliaeetus eagles.", "In North America, adult mallards face no fewer than 15 species of birds of prey, from northern harriers and short-eared owls to huge bald and golden eagles , and about a dozen species of mammalian predators, not counting several more avian and mammalian predators who threaten eggs and nestlings.", "Mallards are also preyed upon by other waterside apex predators, such as grey herons , great blue herons and black-crowned night herons , the European herring gull , the wels catfish , and the northern pike .", "Crows are also known to kill ducklings and adults on occasion.", "Also, mallards may be attacked by larger anseriformes such as swans and geese during the breeding season, and are frequently driven off by these birds over territorial disputes.", "Mute swans have been known to attack or even kill mallards if they feel that the ducks pose a threat to their offspring.", "Common loons are similarly territorial and aggressive towards other birds in such disputes, and will frequently drive mallards away from their territory.", "However, in 2019, a pair of common loons in Wisconsin were observed raising a mallard duckling for several weeks, having seemingly adopted the bird after it had been abandoned by its parents.", "The predation-avoidance behaviour of sleeping with one eye open, allowing one brain hemisphere to remain aware while the other half sleeps, was first demonstrated in mallards, although it is believed to be widespread among birds in general.", "Several drakes swim in a pond Since 1998, the mallard has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species.", "This is because it has a large rangemore than 20,000,000 km 2 and because its population is increasing, rather than declining by 30% over ten years or three generations and thus is not warranted a vulnerable rating.", "Also, the population size of the mallard is very large.", "Unlike many waterfowl, mallards have benefited from human alterations to the worldso much so that they are now considered an invasive species in some regions.", "They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other human-made water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged in human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours.", "The mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domestic and feral populations.", "Over time, a continuum of hybrids ranging between almost typical examples of either species develop", "the speciation process is beginning to reverse itself.", "This has created conservation concerns for relatives of the mallard, such as the Hawaiian duck, the New Zealand grey duck subspecies of the Pacific black duck, the American black duck, the mottled duck, Meller's duck, the yellow-billed duck, and the Mexican duck, in the latter case even leading to a dispute as to whether these birds should be considered a species or included in the mallard species.", "Ecological changes and hunting have also led to a decline of local species", "for example, the New Zealand grey duck population declined drastically due to overhunting in the mid-20th century.", "Hybrid offspring of Hawaiian ducks seem to be less well adapted to native habitat, and using them in re-introduction projects apparently reduces success.", "In summary, the problems of mallards \" hybridising away \" relatives is more a consequence of local ducks declining than of mallards spreading", "allopatric speciation and isolating behaviour have produced today's diversity of mallard-like ducks despite the fact that, in most, if not all, of these populations, hybridisation must have occurred to some extent.", "The last male Mariana mallard Mallards are causing severe \" genetic pollution \" to South Africa's biodiversity by breeding with endemic ducks If this continues, only hybrids occur and in the long term result in the extinction of various indigenous waterfowl.", "The mallard can crossbreed with 63 other species, posing a severe threat to indigenous waterfowl's genetic integrity.", "Mallards and their hybrids compete with indigenous birds for resources, including nest sites, roosting sites, and food.", "Mallard x Pacific black duck hybrid, Tasmania Availability of mallards, mallard ducklings, and fertilised mallard eggs for public sale and private ownership, either as poultry or as pets, is currently legal in the United States, except for the state of Florida, which has currently banned domestic ownership of mallards.", "This is to prevent hybridisation with the native mottled duck.", "The mallard is considered an invasive species in Australia and New Zealand, where it competes with the Pacific black duck which was over-hunted in the past.", "There, and elsewhere, mallards are spreading with increasing urbanisation and hybridising with local relatives.", "The Laysan duck is an insular relative of the mallard, with a very small and fluctuating population.", "Now, their range includes only Laysan Island.", "It is one of the successfully translocated birds, after having become nearly extinct in the early 20th century.", "Mallard resting on a poolside in San Francisco", "Mallards have often been ubiquitous in their regions among the ponds, rivers, and streams of human parks, farms, and other human-made waterwayseven to the point of visiting water features in human courtyards.", "George Hetzel, mallard still life painting, 18831884 Mallards have had a long relationship with humans.", "Almost all domestic duck breeds derive from the mallard, with the exception of a few Muscovy breeds, and are listed under the trinomial name A. p. domesticus.", "Mallards are generally monogamous while domestic ducks are mostly polygamous.", "Domestic ducks have no territorial behaviour and are less aggressive than mallards.", "Domestic ducks are mostly kept for meat", "their eggs are also eaten, and have a strong flavour.", "Because of this, mallards have been found to be contaminated with the genes of the domestic duck.", "While the keeping of domestic breeds is more popular, pure-bred mallards are sometimes kept for eggs and meat, although they may require wing clipping to restrict flying, or training to navigate and fly home.", "Mallards are one of the most common varieties of ducks hunted as a sport due to the large population size.", "The ideal location for hunting mallards is considered to be where the water level is somewhat shallow where the birds can be found foraging for food.", "Hunting mallards might cause the population to decline in some places, at some times, and with some populations.", "In certain countries, the mallard may be legally shot but is protected under national acts and policies.", "For example, in the United Kingdom, the mallard is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which restricts certain hunting methods or taking or killing mallards.", " Since ancient times, the mallard has been eaten as food.", "The wild mallard was eaten in Neolithic Greece.", "Usually, only the breast and thigh meat is eaten.", "It does not need to be hung before preparation, and is often braised or roasted, sometimes flavoured with bitter orange or with port."]}, "Alopochen aegyptiaca": {"keywords": ["This species breeds widely in Africa except in deserts and dense forests, and is locally abundant.", "While not breeding, it disperses somewhat, sometimes making longer migrations northwards into the arid regions of the Sahel.", "In Great Britain, it is found mainly in East Anglia, and in various locations along the River Thames, where it breeds at sites with open water, short grass and suitable nesting locations .", "During the winter, they are widely dispersed within river valleys, where they feed on short grass and cereals.", "This is a largely terrestrial species, which will also perch readily on trees and buildings.", "Until the goslings are a few weeks old and strong enough to graze, they feed largely on small aquatic invertebrates, especially freshwater plankton."], "habitat_section": ["This species breeds widely in Africa except in deserts and dense forests, and is locally abundant.", "They are found mostly in the Nile Valley and south of the Sahara.", "While not breeding, it disperses somewhat, sometimes making longer migrations northwards into the arid regions of the Sahel.", "It spread to Great Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany and Italy where there are self-sustaining populations which are mostly derived from escaped ornamental birds.", "Escapes have also bred on occasion in other places, such as Texas, and New Zealand.", "The British population dates back to the 18th century, though only formally added to the British list in 1971.", "In Great Britain, it is found mainly in East Anglia, and in various locations along the River Thames, where it breeds at sites with open water, short grass and suitable nesting locations .", "During the winter, they are widely dispersed within river valleys, where they feed on short grass and cereals.", "In the United Kingdom in 2009, it was officially declared a non-native species.", "Accordingly, Egyptian geese in Great Britain may be shot without special permission if they cause problems.", "In Europe, the species has been included since 2017 in the list of Invasive Alien Species of Union concern .", "This implies that this species cannot be imported, bred, transported, commercialized, used, exchanged or intentionally released into the environment and member states are obliged to try to eradicate the species."], "random_sentences": ["The Egyptian goose is a member of the duck, goose, and swan family Anatidae.", "It is native to Africa south of the Sahara and the Nile Valley.", "Egyptian geese were considered sacred by the Ancient Egyptians, and appeared in much of their artwork.", "Because of their popularity chiefly as an ornamental bird, escapees are common and feral populations have become established in Western Europe, the United States, and New Zealand.", "The Egyptian goose is believed to be most closely related to the shelducks and their relatives, and is placed with them in the subfamily Tadorninae.", "It is the only extant member of the genus Alopochen, which also contains closely related prehistoric and recently extinct species.", "mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data suggest that the relationships of Alopochen to Tadorna need further investigation.", "The generic name Alopochen is based on Greek , \" fox \" , and \" goose \" , referring to the ruddy colour of its back.", "The word : chen is grammatically of either masculine or feminine gender.", "The species name aegyptiacus is from the Latin Aegyptiacus, \" Egyptian \" .", "Adult and goslings It swims well and in flight looks heavy, more like a goose than a duck, hence the English name.", "The sexes of this species are identical in plumage but the males average slightly larger.", "There is a fair amount of variation in plumage tone, with some birds greyer and others browner, but this is not sex- or age-related.", "A large part of the wings of mature birds is white, but in repose the white is hidden by the wing coverts.", "When it is aroused, either in alarm or aggression, the white begins to show.", "In flight or when the wings are fully spread in aggression, the white is conspicuous.", "The voices and vocalisations of the sexes differ, the male having a hoarse, subdued duck-like quack which seldom sounds unless it is aroused.", "The male Egyptian goose attracts its mate with an elaborate, noisy courtship display that includes honking, neck stretching and feather displays.", "The female has a far noisier raucous quack that frequently sounds in aggression and almost incessantly at the slightest disturbance when tending her young.", "This species breeds widely in Africa except in deserts and dense forests, and is locally abundant.", "They are found mostly in the Nile Valley and south of the Sahara.", "While not breeding, it disperses somewhat, sometimes making longer migrations northwards into the arid regions of the Sahel.", "It spread to Great Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany and Italy where there are self-sustaining populations which are mostly derived from escaped ornamental birds.", "Escapes have also bred on occasion in other places, such as Texas, and New Zealand.", "The British population dates back to the 18th century, though only formally added to the British list in 1971.", "In Great Britain, it is found mainly in East Anglia, and in various locations along the River Thames, where it breeds at sites with open water, short grass and suitable nesting locations .", "During the winter, they are widely dispersed within river valleys, where they feed on short grass and cereals.", "In the United Kingdom in 2009, it was officially declared a non-native species.", "Accordingly, Egyptian geese in Great Britain may be shot without special permission if they cause problems.", "In Europe, the species has been included since 2017 in the list of Invasive Alien Species of Union concern .", "This implies that this species cannot be imported, bred, transported, commercialized, used, exchanged or intentionally released into the environment and member states are obliged to try to eradicate the species.", "This is a largely terrestrial species, which will also perch readily on trees and buildings.", "Egyptian geese typically eat seeds, leaves, grasses and plant stems.", "Occasionally, they will eat locusts, worms, or other small animals.", "Until the goslings are a few weeks old and strong enough to graze, they feed largely on small aquatic invertebrates, especially freshwater plankton.", "As a result, if anoxic conditions lead to the production of botulinum toxin and it gets passed up the food chain via worms and insect larvae insensitive to the toxin, entire clutches of goslings feeding on such prey may die.", "The parents, who do not eat such organisms to any significant extent, generally remain unaffected.", "Both sexes are aggressively territorial towards their own species when breeding and frequently pursue intruders into the air, attacking them in aerial \" dogfights \" .", "Egyptian geese have been observed attacking aerial objects such as drones that enter their habitat as well.", "Neighbouring pairs may even kill another's offspring for their own offsprings' survival, as well as for more resources.", "This species will nest in a large variety of situations, especially in holes in mature trees in parkland.", "The female builds the nest from reeds, leaves and grass and both parents take turns incubating the eggs.", "Egyptian geese usually pair for life.", "Both the male and female care for the offspring until they are old enough to care for themselves.", "Such parental care, however, does not include foraging for the young, who, being precocial, forage for themselves.", "In their native range, predators of Egyptian geese include leopards, lions, cheetahs, hyenas, crocodiles and Old World vultures."]}, "Linaria cannabina": {"keywords": ["The common linnet breeds in Europe, the western Palearctic and North Africa.", "It is partially resident, but many eastern and northern birds migrate farther south in the breeding range or move to the coasts.", "Eggs Open land with thick bushes is favoured for breeding, including heathland and garden.", "This species can form large flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with other finches, such as twite, on coasts and salt marshes.", "It likes small to medium-sized seeds from most arable weeds, knotgrass, dock), crucifers , chickweeds, dandelions, thistle, sow-thistle, mayweed, common groundsel, common hawthorn and birch.", "It is a character in Oscar Wilde's children's story \" The Devoted Friend \" and Wilde also mentions how the call of the linnet awakens \" The Selfish Giant \" to the one tree where it is springtime in his garden."], "habitat_section": ["The common linnet breeds in Europe, the western Palearctic and North Africa.", "It is partially resident, but many eastern and northern birds migrate farther south in the breeding range or move to the coasts.", "They are sometimes found several hundred miles off-shore.", "It has been introduced to the Dominican Republic.", "The common linnet is listed by the UK Biodiversity Action Plan as a priority species.", "It is protected in the UK by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.", "In Britain, populations are declining, attributed to increasing use of herbicides, aggressive scrub removal and excessive hedge trimming, its population fell by 56% between 1968 and 1991, probably due to a decrease in seed supply and the increasing use of herbicide.", "From 1980 to 2009, according to the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme, the European population decreased by 62% Favourable management practices on agricultural land include."], "random_sentences": ["thumb The common linnet is a small passerine bird of the finch family, Fringillidae.", "It derives its common name and the scientific name, Linaria, from its fondness for hemp seeds and flax seedsflax being the English name of the plant from which linen is made.", "In 1758, the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus included the common linnet in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name, Acanthis cannabina.", "The species was formerly placed in the genus Carduelis but based on the results of a phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences published in 2012, it was moved to the genus Linaria that had been introduced by the German naturalist Johann Matthaus Bechstein in 1802.", "The genus name linaria is the Latin for a linen-weaver, from linum, \" flax \" .", "The species name cannabina comes from the Latin for hemp.", "The English name has a similar root, being derived from Old French linette, from lin, \" flax \" .", "c. mediterranea, male Common linnet female.", "c. mediterranea, female Common linnet juvenile.", "The common linnet is a slim bird with a long tail.", "The upper parts are brown, the throat is sullied white and the bill is grey.", "The summer male has a grey nape, red head-patch and red breast.", "Females and young birds lack the red and have white underparts, the breast streaked buff.", "The common linnet breeds in Europe, the western Palearctic and North Africa.", "It is partially resident, but many eastern and northern birds migrate farther south in the breeding range or move to the coasts.", "They are sometimes found several hundred miles off-shore.", "It has been introduced to the Dominican Republic.", "Eggs Open land with thick bushes is favoured for breeding, including heathland and garden.", "It builds its nest in a bush, laying four to seven eggs.", "This species can form large flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with other finches, such as twite, on coasts and salt marshes.", "The common linnet's pleasant song contains fast trills and twitters.", "It feeds on the ground, and low down in bushes, its food mainly consisting of seeds, which it also feeds to its chicks.", "It likes small to medium-sized seeds from most arable weeds, knotgrass, dock), crucifers , chickweeds, dandelions, thistle, sow-thistle, mayweed, common groundsel, common hawthorn and birch.", "They have a small component of Invertebrates in their diet.", "The common linnet is listed by the UK Biodiversity Action Plan as a priority species.", "It is protected in the UK by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.", "In Britain, populations are declining, attributed to increasing use of herbicides, aggressive scrub removal and excessive hedge trimming", "its population fell by 56% between 1968 and 1991, probably due to a decrease in seed supply and the increasing use of herbicide.", "From 1980 to 2009, according to the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme, the European population decreased by 62% Favourable management practices on agricultural land include:", "The bird was a popular pet in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras.", "Alfred, Lord Tennyson mentions \" the linnet born within the cage \" in Canto 27 of his 1849 poem \" In Memoriam A.H.H. \" , the same section that contains the famous lines \" 'Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all.", "\" A linnet features in the classic British music hall song \" Don't Dilly Dally on the Way \" which is subtitled \" The Cock Linnet Song \" .", "It is a character in Oscar Wilde's children's story \" The Devoted Friend \" and Wilde also mentions how the call of the linnet awakens \" The Selfish Giant \" to the one tree where it is springtime in his garden.", "William Butler Yeats evokes the image of the common linnet in \" The Lake Isle of Innisfree \" : \" And evening full of the linnet's wings.", "\" and also mentions the bird in his poem \" A Prayer for My Daughter \" : \" May she become a flourishing hidden tree That all her thoughts may like the linnet be, And have no business but dispensing round Their magnanimities of sound.", "\" In the 1840 novel The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens, the heroine Nell keeps \" only a poor linnet \" in a cage, which she leaves for Kit as a sign of her gratefulness to him.", "The English Baroque composer John Blow composed an ode on the occasion of the death of his colleague Henry Purcell, \" An Ode on the Death of Mr. Purcell \" set to the poem \" Mark how the lark and linnet sing \" by the poet John Dryden.", "\" The Linnets \" has become the nickname of King's Lynn Football Club, Burscough Football Club and Runcorn Linnets Football Club .", "Barry Town F.C., the South Wales-based football team, also used to be nicknamed 'The Linnets'.", "Robert Burns's 1788 poem \" A Mother's Lament for the Death of Her Son \" also tells of a linnet bird bewailing her ravished young.", "William Blake invokes \" the linnet's song \" in one of the poems entitled \" Song \" in his Poetical Sketches.", "Walter de la Mare's poem \" The Linnet \" , published in 1918 in the collection Motley and Other Poems, has been set to music by a number of composers including Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, Kenneth Leighton and Jack Gibbons.", "The Eurovision Song Contest 2014 entry for the Netherlands \" The Common Linnets \" is a direct reference to the bird.", "William Wordsworth argued that the song of the common linnet provides more wisdom than books in the third verse of \" The Tables Turned \" : Books!", "'tis a dull and endless strife: Come, hear the woodland linnet, How sweet his music!", "on my life, There's more of wisdom in it.", " But the fellow English poet Robert Bridges used the common linnet instead to express the limitations of poetryconcentrating on the difficulty in poetry of conveying the beauty of a bird's song.", "He wrote in the first verse: I heard a linnet courting His lady in the spring: His mates were idly sporting, Nor stayed to hear him sing His song of love.", "I fear my speech distorting His tender love.", " The musical Sweeney Todd features the song \" Green Finch and Linnet Bird \" , in which a young lady confined to her room wonders why caged birds sing: Green finch and linnet bird, Nightingale, blackbird, How is it you sing?", "How can you jubilate, Sitting in cages, Never taking wing?", " In Emily Dickinson's poem \" Morns like thesewe parted \" the last line is: \" And this linnet flew!"]}, "Aythya ferina": {"keywords": ["The scientific name is derived from Greek aithuia an unidentified seabird mentioned by authors including Hesychius and Aristotle, and Latin ferina, \" wild game \" , from ferus, \" wild \" .", "Their breeding habitat consists of marshes and lakes with a metre or more water depth.", "Pochards breed in much of temperate and northern Europe and across the Palearctic.", "In the British Isles, birds breed in eastern England and lowland Scotland, in small numbers in Northern Ireland with numbers increasing gradually, and sporadically in the Republic of Ireland, where it may also be increasing.", "Large numbers stay overwinter in Great Britain, after the birds retreat from Russia and Scandinavia.", "They eat aquatic plants with some molluscs, aquatic insects and small fish."], "habitat_section": ["Their breeding habitat consists of marshes and lakes with a metre or more water depth.", "Pochards breed in much of temperate and northern Europe and across the Palearctic.", "They are migratory, and spend winter in the south and west of Europe.", "In the British Isles, birds breed in eastern England and lowland Scotland, in small numbers in Northern Ireland with numbers increasing gradually, and sporadically in the Republic of Ireland, where it may also be increasing.", "While uncommon, individuals are also occasionally seen in the south of England, and small populations are sometimes observed on the River Thames.", "Large numbers stay overwinter in Great Britain, after the birds retreat from Russia and Scandinavia.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany These are gregarious birds, forming large flocks in winter, often mixed with other diving ducks such as the tufted duck.", "These birds feed mainly by diving or dabbling.", "They eat aquatic plants with some molluscs, aquatic insects and small fish.", "They often feed at night, and will up-end for food as well as the more characteristic diving.", "According to the article 'Patterns in the diving behaviour of the pochard, Aythya ferina.", "a test of an optimality model' Pochard's have a behavioral preference when it comes to their feeding patterns.", "This behavioral preference is that Pochards prefer shallower water in comparison to deeper water even though the food concentration in deeper water may be higher.", "In a number of countries the population of Common Pochard is decreasing mainly due to urbanization of the natural habitats and their transformation, as well as due to overhunting.", "The pochard is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies."], "random_sentences": ["Aythya ferina) is a medium-sized diving duck.", "The scientific name is derived from Greek aithuia an unidentified seabird mentioned by authors including Hesychius and Aristotle, and Latin ferina, \" wild game \" , from ferus, \" wild \" .", "The adult male has a long dark bill with a grey band, a red head and neck, a black breast, red eyes and a grey back.", "The adult female has a brown head and body and a narrower grey bill-band.", "The triangular head shape is distinctive.", "Pochards are superficially similar to the closely related North American redhead and canvasback.", "Males have whistles cut off by a final nasal note aaoo-oo-haa.", "Their breeding habitat consists of marshes and lakes with a metre or more water depth.", "Pochards breed in much of temperate and northern Europe and across the Palearctic.", "They are migratory, and spend winter in the south and west of Europe.", "In the British Isles, birds breed in eastern England and lowland Scotland, in small numbers in Northern Ireland with numbers increasing gradually, and sporadically in the Republic of Ireland, where it may also be increasing.", "While uncommon, individuals are also occasionally seen in the south of England, and small populations are sometimes observed on the River Thames.", "Large numbers stay overwinter in Great Britain, after the birds retreat from Russia and Scandinavia.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany These are gregarious birds, forming large flocks in winter, often mixed with other diving ducks such as the tufted duck.", "These birds feed mainly by diving or dabbling.", "They eat aquatic plants with some molluscs, aquatic insects and small fish.", "They often feed at night, and will up-end for food as well as the more characteristic diving.", "According to the article 'Patterns in the diving behaviour of the pochard, Aythya ferina: a test of an optimality model' Pochard's have a behavioral preference when it comes to their feeding patterns.", "This behavioral preference is that Pochards prefer shallower water in comparison to deeper water even though the food concentration in deeper water may be higher.", "In a number of countries the population of Common Pochard is decreasing mainly due to urbanization of the natural habitats and their transformation, as well as due to overhunting.", "The pochard is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies."]}, "Streptopelia decaocto": {"keywords": ["The Eurasian collared dove is a dove species native to Europe and Asia, it was introduced to Japan, North America and islands in the Caribbean.", "Over the last century, it has been one of the great colonisers of the bird world, travelling far beyond its native range to colonise colder countries, becoming a permanent resident in several of them.", "Its original range at the end of the 19th century was warm temperate and subtropical Asia from Turkey east to southern China and south through India to Sri Lanka.", "In 1838 it was reported in Bulgaria, but not until the 20th century did it expand across Europe, appearing in parts of the Balkans between 1900 and 1920, and then spreading rapidly northwest, reaching Germany in 1945, Great Britain by 1953 , Ireland in 1959, and the Faroe Islands in the early 1970s.", "Subsequent spread was 'sideways' from this fast northwestern spread, reaching northeast to north of the Arctic Circle in Norway and east to the Ural Mountains in Russia, and southwest to the Canary Islands and northern Africa from Morocco to Egypt, by the end of the 20th century.", "From the Bahamas, the species spread to Florida, and is now found in nearly every state in the U.S. In Arkansas , the species was recorded first in 1989 and since then has grown in numbers and is now present in 42 of 75 counties in the state.", "However, the species is known as an aggressive competitor and there is concern that as populations continue to grow, native birds will be out-competed by the invaders.", "Carrying capacities appear to be highest in areas with higher temperatures and intermediate levels of development, such as suburban areas and some agricultural areas.", "While the spread of disease to native species has not been recorded in a study, Eurasian collared doves are known carriers of the parasite Trichomonas gallinae as well as pigeon paramyxovirus type 1.", "Pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 is an emergent disease and has the potential to affect domestic poultry, making the Eurasian collared dove a threat to not only native biodiversity, but a possible economic threat as well.", "Eurasian collared doves typically breed close to human habitation wherever food resources are abundant and there are trees for nesting, almost all nests are within of inhabited buildings.", "Breeding occurs throughout the year when abundant food is available, though only rarely in winter in areas with cold winters such as northeastern Europe.", "The Eurasian collared dove is not wary and often feeds very close to human habitation, including visiting bird tables, the largest populations are typically found around farms where spilt grain is frequent around grain stores or where livestock are fed.", "It is a gregarious species and sizeable winter flocks will form where there are food supplies such as grain as well as seeds, shoots and insects."], "habitat_section": ["Juvenile with early collar development The Eurasian collared dove is not migratory, but is strongly dispersive.", "Over the last century, it has been one of the great colonisers of the bird world, travelling far beyond its native range to colonise colder countries, becoming a permanent resident in several of them.", "Its original range at the end of the 19th century was warm temperate and subtropical Asia from Turkey east to southern China and south through India to Sri Lanka.", "In 1838 it was reported in Bulgaria, but not until the 20th century did it expand across Europe, appearing in parts of the Balkans between 1900 and 1920, and then spreading rapidly northwest, reaching Germany in 1945, Great Britain by 1953 , Ireland in 1959, and the Faroe Islands in the early 1970s.", "Subsequent spread was 'sideways' from this fast northwestern spread, reaching northeast to north of the Arctic Circle in Norway and east to the Ural Mountains in Russia, and southwest to the Canary Islands and northern Africa from Morocco to Egypt, by the end of the 20th century.", "In the east of its range, it has also spread northeast to most of central and northern China, and locally in Japan.", "It has also reached Iceland as a vagrant , but has not colonised successfully there."], "random_sentences": [" The Eurasian collared dove is a dove species native to Europe and Asia", "it was introduced to Japan, North America and islands in the Caribbean.", "Because of its vast global range and increasing population trend, it has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2014.", "Columba decaocto was the scientific name proposed by the Hungarian naturalist Imre Frivaldszky in 1838 who described a Eurasian collared dove.", "The type locality is Plovdiv in Bulgaria.", "The Burmese collared dove (S.", "xanthocycla) was formerly considered a subspecies of the Eurasian collared dove, but was split as a distinct species by the IOC in 2021.", "Two other subspecies were formerly sometimes accepted, S. d. stoliczkae from Turkestan in central Asia and S. d. intercedens from southern India and Sri Lanka.", "They are now considered junior synonyms of the nominate subspecies (S.", "The Eurasian collared dove is closely related to the Sunda collared dove of Southeast Asia and the African collared dove of Sub-Saharan Africa, forming a superspecies with these.", "The generic name is from the Ancient Greek streptos meaning \" collar \" and peleia meaning \" dove \"", "the specific epithet is Greek for \" eighteen \" .", "The number comes from a Greek myth.", "A maid who worked hard for little money was unhappy that she was only paid 18 coins a year and begged the gods to let the world know how little she was rewarded by her mistress.", "Thereupon Zeus created this dove that has called out \" Deca-octo \" ever since.", "altA pair 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.", "The short legs are red and the bill is black.", "The iris is red, but from a distance the eyes appear to be black, as the pupil is relatively large and only a narrow rim of reddish-brown iris can be seen around the black pupil.", "The eye is surrounded by a small area of bare skin, which is either white or yellow.", "The two sexes are virtually indistinguishable", "juveniles differ in having a poorly developed collar, and a brown iris.", "The subspecies S. d. xanthocycla differs in having yellow rather than white eye-rings, darker grey on the head and the underparts a slightly darker pink.", "The song is a goo-GOO-goo.", "The Eurasian collared dove also makes a harsh loud screeching call lasting about two seconds, particularly in flight just before landing.", "A rough way to describe the screeching sound is a hah-hah.", "Eurasian collared doves cooing in early spring are sometimes mistakenly reported as the calls of early-arriving common cuckoos and, as such, a mistaken sign of spring's return.", "Juvenile before collar formation right", "Juvenile with early collar development The Eurasian collared dove is not migratory, but is strongly dispersive.", "Over the last century, it has been one of the great colonisers of the bird world, travelling far beyond its native range to colonise colder countries, becoming a permanent resident in several of them.", "Its original range at the end of the 19th century was warm temperate and subtropical Asia from Turkey east to southern China and south through India to Sri Lanka.", "In 1838 it was reported in Bulgaria, but not until the 20th century did it expand across Europe, appearing in parts of the Balkans between 1900 and 1920, and then spreading rapidly northwest, reaching Germany in 1945, Great Britain by 1953 , Ireland in 1959, and the Faroe Islands in the early 1970s.", "Subsequent spread was 'sideways' from this fast northwestern spread, reaching northeast to north of the Arctic Circle in Norway and east to the Ural Mountains in Russia, and southwest to the Canary Islands and northern Africa from Morocco to Egypt, by the end of the 20th century.", "In the east of its range, it has also spread northeast to most of central and northern China, and locally in Japan.", "It has also reached Iceland as a vagrant , but has not colonised successfully there.", "Invasive status in North America", "In 1974, fewer than 50 Eurasian collared doves escaped captivity in Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas.", "From the Bahamas, the species spread to Florida, and is now found in nearly every state in the U.S. In Arkansas , the species was recorded first in 1989 and since then has grown in numbers and is now present in 42 of 75 counties in the state.", "It spread from the southeastern corner of the state in 1997 to the northwestern corner in five years, covering a distance of about at a rate of per year.", "This is more than double the rate of per year observed in Europe.", "As of 2012, few negative impacts have been demonstrated in Florida, where the species is most prolific.", "However, the species is known as an aggressive competitor and there is concern that as populations continue to grow, native birds will be out-competed by the invaders.", "However, one study found that Eurasian collared doves are not more aggressive or competitive than native mourning doves, despite similar dietary preferences.", "They can become hand-tame in urban areas - Szczecin, Poland Population growth has ceased in areas where the species has long been established, such as Florida, and in these regions recent observations suggest the population is in decline.", "The population is still growing exponentially in areas of more recent introduction: up to 2015, the Eurasian collared dove experienced a greater than 1.5% yearly population increase throughout nearly the entirety of its North American range.", "Carrying capacities appear to be highest in areas with higher temperatures and intermediate levels of development, such as suburban areas and some agricultural areas.", "While the spread of disease to native species has not been recorded in a study, Eurasian collared doves are known carriers of the parasite Trichomonas gallinae as well as pigeon paramyxovirus type 1.", "Both Trichomonas gallinae and pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 can spread to native birds via commingling at feeders and by consumption of doves by predators.", "Pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 is an emergent disease and has the potential to affect domestic poultry, making the Eurasian collared dove a threat to not only native biodiversity, but a possible economic threat as well.", "Eurasian collared doves typically breed close to human habitation wherever food resources are abundant and there are trees for nesting", "almost all nests are within of inhabited buildings.", "The female lays two white eggs in a stick nest, which she incubates during the night and which the male incubates during the day.", "Incubation lasts between 14 and 18 days, with the young fledging after 15 to 19 days.", "Breeding occurs throughout the year when abundant food is available, though only rarely in winter in areas with cold winters such as northeastern Europe.", "Three to four broods per year is common, although up to six broods in a year has been recorded.", "Eurasian collared doves are a monogamous species, and share parental duties when caring for young.", "Near Chandigarh The male's mating display is a ritual flight, which, as with many other pigeons, consists of a rapid, near-vertical climb to height followed by a long glide downward in a circle, with the wings held below the body in an inverted \" V \" shape.", "At all other times, flight is typically direct using fast and clipped wing beats and without use of gliding.", "The Eurasian collared dove is not wary and often feeds very close to human habitation, including visiting bird tables", "the largest populations are typically found around farms where spilt grain is frequent around grain stores or where livestock are fed.", "It is a gregarious species and sizeable winter flocks will form where there are food supplies such as grain as well as seeds, shoots and insects.", "Flocks most commonly number between 10 and 50, but flocks of up to 10,000 have been recorded.", "Eurasian collared dove near Chunni, Punjab.", "Eurasian collared dove near Mohali."]}, "Accipiter gentilis": {"keywords": ["It is a widespread species that inhabits many of the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere.", "The only other acciptrid species to also range in both North America and Eurasia, according to current opinion, is the more Arctic-restricted rough-legged buzzard .", "The northern goshawk has a large circumpolar distribution.", "Their Eurasian distribution sweeps continuously across most of Russia, excluding the fully treeless tundra in the northern stretches, to the western limits of Siberia as far as Anadyr and Kamchatka.", "In North America, they are most broadly found in the western United States, including Alaska, and western Canada.", "Their breeding range in the western contiguous United States largely consists of the wooded foothills of the Rocky Mountains and many other large mountain ranges from Washington to southern California extending east to central Colorado and westernmost Texas.", "The goshawk continues east through much of Canada as a native species, but is rarer in most of the eastern United States, especially the Midwest where they are not typically found outside the Great Lakes region, where a good-sized breeding population occurs in the northern parts of Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan and somewhat into Ohio, a very small population persists in the extreme northeast corner of North Dakota.", "They breed also in mountainous areas of New England, New York, central Pennsylvania and northwestern New Jersey, sporadically down to extreme northwestern Maryland and northeastern West Virginia.", "Vagrants have been reported in Ireland, North Africa , the Arabian Peninsula , southwest Asia , western India and on Izu-shoto and the Commander Islands, and in most of the parts of the United States where they do not breed.", "Adult in the Kaibab Plateau, Arizona, in a pine tree that typifies the habitat used locally Northern goshawks can be found in both deciduous and coniferous forests.", "While the species might show strong regional preferences for certain trees, they seem to have no strong overall preferences nor even a preference between deciduous or coniferous trees despite claims to the contrary.", "More important than the type of trees are the composition of a given tree stand, which should be tall, old-growth with intermediate to heavy canopy coverage and minimal density undergrowth, both of which are favorable for hunting conditions.", "Narrow tree-lined riparian zones in otherwise relatively open habitats can provide suitable wintering habitat in the absence of more extensive woodlands.", "The northern goshawk can be found at almost any altitude, but recently is typically found at high elevations due to a paucity of extensive forests remaining in lowlands across much of its range.", "Altitudinally, goshawks may live anywhere up to a given mountain range's tree line, which is usually in elevation or less.", "In winter months, the northernmost or high mountain populations move down to warmer forests with lower elevations, often continuing to avoid detection except while migrating.", "Juvenile and adult by Louis Agassiz Fuertes The northern goshawk has relatively short, broad wings and a long tail, typical for Accipiter species and common to raptors that require maneuverability within forest habitats.", "Goshawks tend to show clinal variation in color, with most goshawks further north being paler and those in warmer areas being darker but individuals can be either dark in the north or pale in the south.", "The juvenile northern goshawk is usually a solid to mildly streaky brown above, with many variations in underside color from nearly pure white to almost entirely overlaid with broad dark cinnamon-brown striping.", "Adults always have a white eye stripe or supercilia, which tends to be broader in northern Eurasian and North American birds.", "Accipiter gentilis northern goshawk Northern goshawks normally only vocalize during courtship or the nesting season.", "Occasionally hunting northern goshawks may make shrill screams when pursuing prey, especially if a lengthy chase is undertaken and the prey is already aware of its intended predator.", "The goshawk sometimes seems to have a shorter tail relative to its much broader body.", "Rarely, in the southern stretches of its Asian wintering range, the northern goshawk may live alongside the crested goshawk which is smaller and has a slight crest as well as a distinct mixture of denser streaks and bars below and no supercilia.", "The roadside hawk is noticeably smaller with paddle-shaped wings, barred lower breast and a buff U on undertail coverts in young birds.", "Even wintering gyrfalcon juveniles have been mistaken for goshawks and vice versa on occasion, especially when observed distantly perched.", "The harriers are the only group of extant diurnal raptors that seem to bear remotely close relation to this genus, whereas buteonines, Old World kites, sea eagles and chanting-goshawks are much more distantly related and all other modern accipitrids are not directly related.", "However, the much smaller sharp-shinned hawk, which has similar plumage to the Cooper's hawk and seems to be most closely related to the Eurasian sparrowhawk, appears to have occupied North America the latest of the three North American species, despite having the broadest current distribution of any Accipiter in the Americas .", "Some birds up to as far north as northern Canada and central Scandinavia may remain on territory throughout the winter.", "In Eurasia, very small numbers of migratory northern goshawks cross the Strait of Gibraltar and Bosporus in autumn but further east more significant winter range expansions may extend from northern Iran and southern Turkmenia to Aral and Balkhash lakes, from Kashmir to Assam, extreme northwestern Thailand, northern Vietnam, southern China, Taiwan, Ryukyu Islands and South Korea.", "Migratory goshawks in North America may move down to Baja California, Sinaloa and into most of west Texas, but generally in non-irruptive years, goshawks winter no further south than Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina.", "Prey availability may primarily dictate the proportion of goshawk populations that migrate and the selection of wintering areas, followed by the presence of snow which may aid prey capture in the short-term but in the long-term is likely to cause higher goshawk mortality.", "Showing the high variability of migratory movements, in one study of winter movements of adult female goshawks that bred in high-elevation forests of Utah, about 36% migrated to the general south, 22% migrated farther than that distance, 8.3% migrated less far, 2.7% went north instead of south and 31% stayed throughout winter on their breeding territory.", "those of the boreal forests in North America, Scandinavia, and possibly Siberia, with more equal sex ratio of movement and a strong southward tendency of movements in years where prey such as hares and grouse crash.", "Goshawks are particularly agile hunters of the woodlands.", "As typical of the genus Accipiter , the northern goshawk has relatively short wings and a long tail which make it ideally adapted to engaging in brief but agile and twisting hunting flights through dense vegetation of wooded environments.", "Goshawks often forage in adjoining habitat types, such as the edge of a forest and meadow.", "Hunting habitat can be variable, as in a comparison of habitats used in England found that only 8% of landscapes used were woodlands whereas in Sweden 73-76% of the habitat used was woodland, albeit normally within of an opening.", "One study from central Sweden found that locally goshawks typically hunt within the largest patches of mature forests, selecting second growth forest less than half as often as its prevalence in the local environment.", "Habitual perches are used for dismantling prey especially in the breeding season, often called plucking perches \" , which may be fallen logs, bent-over trees, stumps or rocks and can see years of usage.", "Northern goshawks often leave larger portions of their prey uneaten than other raptors, with limbs, many feathers and fur and other body parts strewn near kill sites and plucking perches, and are helpful to distinguish their kills from other raptors such as large owls, who usually eat everything.", "The most important prey species are small to medium-sized mammals and medium to large-sized birds found in forest, edge and scrub habitats.", "Prey selection also varies by season and a majority of dietary studies are conducted within the breeding season, leaving a possibility of bias for male-selected prey, whereas recent advanced in radio-tagging have allowed a broader picture of goshawks' fairly different winter diet .", "Studies have shown that from several parts of the Eurasian continent from Spain to the Ural mountains mammals contributed only about 9% of the breeding season diet.", "However, mammals may be slightly underrepresented in Eurasian data because of the little-studied presence of mammals as a food source in winter, particularly in the western and southern portions of Europe where the lack of snowfall can allow large numbers of rabbits.", "The second most commonly reported prey species in breeding season dietary studies from both Europe and North America are both large jays, the Eurasian jay and the Steller's jay .", "All told 33 species of this order have turned up in their diet, including most of the species either native to or introduced in North America and Europe.", "Northern goshawks can show somewhat of a trend for females to be taken more so than males while hunting adult gamebirds, due to the larger size and more developed defenses of males .", "Alongside martens, northern goshawks are perhaps the most efficient temperate-zone predators of tree squirrels.", "In North America, tree squirrels are even more significant as prey, particularly the modestly-sized pine squirrels which are the single most important prey type for American goshawks overall.", "In the Pacific northwest, the Douglas squirrel replaces the red squirrel in both distribution and as the highest contributor to goshawk diets from northern California to British Columbia.", "Ground squirrels are also important prey species, mostly in North America, 25 of 44 of squirrel species found in the diet are ground squirrels.", "In Nevada and Idahos Sawtooth National Forest, the Belding's ground squirrel fully dominated the food spectrum, comprising up to 74.3% of the prey by number and 84.2% by biomass.", "Even much bigger ground squirrels such as prairie dogs and marmots are attacked on occasion.", "Especially in the Iberian peninsula, the native European rabbit is often delivered to nests and can be the most numerous prey.", "Woodpeckers such as northern flickers often fall victim to goshawks Some 21 species of woodpecker have been reported from northern goshawk food studies around the world.", "During summer in Alberta, the meadow vole was the third most frequently reported prey species, the only known study where large numbers of microtine rodents were taken in North America.", "Other miscellaneous rodents reported sporadically in the diet include dormice, porcupines, kangaroo rats, mountain beavers , jumping mice, Old World mice and rats, zokors, gophers and jirds.", "Ungulates such as deer and sheep are sometimes consumed by goshawks but there is no evidence that they prey on live ones , but these are more likely rare cases of scavenging on carrion, which may more regularly occur than once thought in areas with harsh winter weather.", "In some of the warmer drier extensions of their range, reptiles may be available to them to hunt.", "Only one species of snake is recorded from their diet, the small innocuous grass snake , at , however about a half dozen lizards are recorded in their diet, primarily from the Iberian peninsula but also from the Ural mountains and the American southwest.", "Chasing an osprey, most likely to rob it of food, but the osprey is even considered possible prey Northern goshawks are often near the top of the avian food chain in forested biomes but face competition for food resources from various other predators, including both birds and mammals.", "In many of the ecosystems that they inhabit, northern goshawks compete with resources with other predators, particularly where they take sizeable numbers of lagomorphs.", "About a dozen mammalian and avian predators in each area all primarily consume European rabbits and snowshoe hares alongside goshawks in the Iberian peninsula and the American boreal forest regions where these became primary staple foods.", "However, even where these are primary food sources, the northern goshawk is less specialized than many and can alternate their food selection, often taking equal or greater numbers of tree squirrels and woodland birds.", "Northern goshawks from North America are less prone to nesting outside of mature forests and take larger numbers of mammals as opposed to abundant birds than in Europe.", "The latter species much more readily nests in semi-open and developed areas of North America than goshawks there and hunts a broad assemblage of medium-sized birds, whereas such prey is more readily available to male goshawks from Europe than to goshawks in North America.", "Martens, and to a lesser extent other weasels, are presumably one of their more major competitors as their diet often consists of similar prey primarily during spring and summer, tree squirrels and woodland birds, but little has been studied in terms of how the two types of predator effect each other.", "The golden eagle and the bald eagle in North America, have killed wintering goshawks, but given the discrepancy in their habitat preferences, such cases are presumably rare.", "Another, and rather gruesome, hunting mishap occurred when a goshawk caught a large mountain hare and, while attempting to hold it in place by grasping vegetation with its other foot, was torn in half.", "In some studies from North America up to 15% of nests are in dead trees but this is far rarer in Eurasia.", "Multiple studies note the habit of nests being built in forests close to clear-fellings, swamps and heaths, lakes and meadows, roads , railways and swathes cut along power cables, usually near such openings there'd be prominent boulders, stones or roots of fallen trees or low branches to use as plucking points.", "As is typical in widely distributed raptors from temperate-zones, those from cold regions faced south, 65% in Alaska, 54% in Norway and also in high latitudes such as sky-forests of the Arizona Rockies, otherwise usually nests face north and east.", "After many uses, a nest can range up to across and in depth and can weigh up to a ton when wet.", "Poor weather, which consists of cold springs that bear late cold spells, snow, and freezing rain, causes many nests to fail, and may also hamper courtship and lower brood size and overall breeding attempts.", "Both bacterial and viral diseases have been known to cause mortality in wild northern goshawks.", "In North America, there are a broadly estimated 150,000300,000 individuals.", "In North America, most western populations at mid-latitudes have approximately 3.610.7 pairs.", "Typically, populations at far northern latitudes may occur at lower densities than those of southwestern and western populations in North America.", "In Illinois, migratory goshawks during the winter of 1972-1973 invasion year contained less organochlorine and PCB residues than did other raptors, however, these birds were probably from nonagricultural, northern forests.", "Goshawks, which had increased in The Netherlands after World War II due to less persecution, new woodlands and increased pigeon numbers, were found to have suddenly crashed from the late 1950s on.", "Wildlife researchers and biologists do not seem to negatively affect goshawk nests, as they aware to keep forays to the nest brief and capture of adult goshawks for radio-tagging was found to not harm their success at raising broods.", "In North America, several non-governmental conservation organizations petitioned the Department of Interior, United States Fish and Wildlife Service to list the goshawk as \" threatened \" or \" endangered \" under the authority of the Endangered Species Act.", "Both petitions argued for listing primarily on the basis of historic and ongoing nesting habitat loss, specifically the loss of old-growth and mature forest stands throughout the goshawk's known range.", "In both instances, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that listing was not warranted, but state and federal natural resource agencies responded during the petition process with standardized and long-term goshawk inventory and monitoring efforts, especially throughout U.S. Forest Service lands in the Western U.S. The United States Forest Service has listed the goshawk as a \" sensitive species \" , while it also benefits from various protection at the state level.", "In North America, the goshawk is federally protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 by an amendment incorporating native birds of prey into the Act in 1972.", "The name implies prowess against larger quarry such as wild geese, but were also flown against crane species and other large waterbirds.", "The name \" goose hawk \" is somewhat of a misnomer, however, as the traditional quarry for goshawks in ancient and contemporary falconry has been rabbits, pheasants, partridge, and medium-sized waterfowl, which are similar to much of the prey the species hunts in the wild."], "habitat_section": ["The northern goshawk has a large circumpolar distribution.", "In Eurasia, it is found in most areas of Europe excluding Ireland and Iceland.", "It has a fairly spotty distribution in western Europe but is more or less found continuously through the rest of the continent.", "Their Eurasian distribution sweeps continuously across most of Russia, excluding the fully treeless tundra in the northern stretches, to the western limits of Siberia as far as Anadyr and Kamchatka.", "In North America, they are most broadly found in the western United States, including Alaska, and western Canada.", "Their breeding range in the western contiguous United States largely consists of the wooded foothills of the Rocky Mountains and many other large mountain ranges from Washington to southern California extending east to central Colorado and westernmost Texas.", "Somewhat discontinuous breeding populations are found in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, thence also somewhat spottily into western Mexico down through Sonora and Chihuahua along the Sierra Madre Occidental as far as Jalisco and Guerrero, their worldwide southern limit as a breeding species.", "The goshawk continues east through much of Canada as a native species, but is rarer in most of the eastern United States, especially the Midwest where they are not typically found outside the Great Lakes region, where a good-sized breeding population occurs in the northern parts of Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan and somewhat into Ohio, a very small population persists in the extreme northeast corner of North Dakota.", "They breed also in mountainous areas of New England, New York, central Pennsylvania and northwestern New Jersey, sporadically down to extreme northwestern Maryland and northeastern West Virginia.", "Vagrants have been reported in Ireland, North Africa , the Arabian Peninsula , southwest Asia , western India and on Izu-shoto and the Commander Islands, and in most of the parts of the United States where they do not breed.", "Adult in the Kaibab Plateau, Arizona, in a pine tree that typifies the habitat used locally Northern goshawks can be found in both deciduous and coniferous forests.", "While the species might show strong regional preferences for certain trees, they seem to have no strong overall preferences nor even a preference between deciduous or coniferous trees despite claims to the contrary.", "More important than the type of trees are the composition of a given tree stand, which should be tall, old-growth with intermediate to heavy canopy coverage and minimal density undergrowth, both of which are favorable for hunting conditions.", "Even if they are far more wary of human presence than the Eurasian sparrowhawk, northern goshhawks are known to live in some relatively densely wooded areas of large cities of Central Europe, such as Berlin and Hamburg, it is a relatively new phenomenon that started in the 20th century.", "Access to waterways and riparian zones of any kind is not uncommon in goshawk home ranges but seems to not be a requirement.", "Narrow tree-lined riparian zones in otherwise relatively open habitats can provide suitable wintering habitat in the absence of more extensive woodlands.", "The northern goshawk can be found at almost any altitude, but recently is typically found at high elevations due to a paucity of extensive forests remaining in lowlands across much of its range.", "Altitudinally, goshawks may live anywhere up to a given mountain range's tree line, which is usually in elevation or less.", "In winter months, the northernmost or high mountain populations move down to warmer forests with lower elevations, often continuing to avoid detection except while migrating.", "A majority of goshawks around the world remain sedentary throughout the year.", "Adult goshawks maintain territories with display flights.", "The northern goshawk is always found solitarily or in pairs.", "This species is highly territorial as are most raptorial birds, maintaining regularly spaced home ranges that constitute their territory.", "Territories are maintained by adults in display flights.", "During nesting, the home ranges of goshawk pairs are from and these vicinities tend to be vigorously defended both to maintain rights to their nests and mates as well as the ranges prey base."], "random_sentences": ["Accipiter gentilis) is a species of medium-large raptor in the family Accipitridae, a family which also includes other extant diurnal raptors, such as eagles, buzzards and harriers.", "As a species in the genus Accipiter, the goshawk is often considered a \" true hawk \" .", "The scientific name is Latin", "Accipiter is \" hawk \" , from accipere, \" to grasp \" , and gentilis is \" noble \" or \" gentle \" because in the Middle Ages only the nobility were permitted to fly goshawks for falconry.", "This species was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 as Falco gentilis.", "It is a widespread species that inhabits many of the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere.", "The northern goshawk is the only species in the genus Accipiter found in both Eurasia and North America.", "It may have the second widest distribution of any true member of the family Accipitridae, behind arguably only the golden eagle , which has a broader range to the south of Asia than the goshawk.", "The only other acciptrid species to also range in both North America and Eurasia, according to current opinion, is the more Arctic-restricted rough-legged buzzard .", "The northern goshawk has a large circumpolar distribution.", "In Eurasia, it is found in most areas of Europe excluding Ireland and Iceland.", "It has a fairly spotty distribution in western Europe but is more or less found continuously through the rest of the continent.", "Their Eurasian distribution sweeps continuously across most of Russia, excluding the fully treeless tundra in the northern stretches, to the western limits of Siberia as far as Anadyr and Kamchatka.", "In North America, they are most broadly found in the western United States, including Alaska, and western Canada.", "Their breeding range in the western contiguous United States largely consists of the wooded foothills of the Rocky Mountains and many other large mountain ranges from Washington to southern California extending east to central Colorado and westernmost Texas.", "Somewhat discontinuous breeding populations are found in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, thence also somewhat spottily into western Mexico down through Sonora and Chihuahua along the Sierra Madre Occidental as far as Jalisco and Guerrero, their worldwide southern limit as a breeding species.", "The goshawk continues east through much of Canada as a native species, but is rarer in most of the eastern United States, especially the Midwest where they are not typically found outside the Great Lakes region, where a good-sized breeding population occurs in the northern parts of Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan and somewhat into Ohio", "a very small population persists in the extreme northeast corner of North Dakota.", "They breed also in mountainous areas of New England, New York, central Pennsylvania and northwestern New Jersey, sporadically down to extreme northwestern Maryland and northeastern West Virginia.", "Vagrants have been reported in Ireland, North Africa ", "the Arabian Peninsula , southwest Asia , western India and on Izu-shoto and the Commander Islands, and in most of the parts of the United States where they do not breed.", "Adult in the Kaibab Plateau, Arizona, in a pine tree that typifies the habitat used locally Northern goshawks can be found in both deciduous and coniferous forests.", "While the species might show strong regional preferences for certain trees, they seem to have no strong overall preferences nor even a preference between deciduous or coniferous trees despite claims to the contrary.", "More important than the type of trees are the composition of a given tree stand, which should be tall, old-growth with intermediate to heavy canopy coverage and minimal density undergrowth, both of which are favorable for hunting conditions.", "Even if they are far more wary of human presence than the Eurasian sparrowhawk, northern goshhawks are known to live in some relatively densely wooded areas of large cities of Central Europe, such as Berlin and Hamburg", "it is a relatively new phenomenon that started in the 20th century.", "Access to waterways and riparian zones of any kind is not uncommon in goshawk home ranges but seems to not be a requirement.", "Narrow tree-lined riparian zones in otherwise relatively open habitats can provide suitable wintering habitat in the absence of more extensive woodlands.", "The northern goshawk can be found at almost any altitude, but recently is typically found at high elevations due to a paucity of extensive forests remaining in lowlands across much of its range.", "Altitudinally, goshawks may live anywhere up to a given mountain range's tree line, which is usually in elevation or less.", "In winter months, the northernmost or high mountain populations move down to warmer forests with lower elevations, often continuing to avoid detection except while migrating.", "A majority of goshawks around the world remain sedentary throughout the year.", "Juvenile and adult by Louis Agassiz Fuertes The northern goshawk has relatively short, broad wings and a long tail, typical for Accipiter species and common to raptors that require maneuverability within forest habitats.", "For an Accipiter, it has a relatively sizeable bill, relatively long wings, a relatively short tail, robust and fairly short legs and particularly thick toes.", "Across most of the species' range, it is blue-grey above or brownish-grey with dark barring or streaking over a grey or white base color below, but Asian subspecies in particular range from nearly white overall to nearly black above.", "Goshawks tend to show clinal variation in color, with most goshawks further north being paler and those in warmer areas being darker but individuals can be either dark in the north or pale in the south.", "Individuals that live a long life may gradually become paler as they age, manifesting in mottling and a lightening of the back from a darker shade to a bluer pale color.", "Its plumage is more variable than that of the Eurasian sparrowhawk , which is probably due to higher genetic variability in the larger goshawk.", "The juvenile northern goshawk is usually a solid to mildly streaky brown above, with many variations in underside color from nearly pure white to almost entirely overlaid with broad dark cinnamon-brown striping.", "Both juveniles and adults have a barred tail, with 3 to 5 dark brown or black bars.", "Adults always have a white eye stripe or supercilia, which tends to be broader in northern Eurasian and North American birds.", "In North America, juveniles have pale-yellow eyes, and adults develop dark red eyes usually after their second year, although nutrition and genetics may affect eye color as well.", "In Europe and Asia, juveniles also have pale-yellow eyes while adults typically develop orange-colored eyes, though some may have only brighter yellow or occasionally ochre or brownish eye color.", "Moulting starts between late March and late May, the male tends to moult later and faster than the female.", "Moulting results in the female being especially likely to have a gap in its wing feathers while incubating and this may cause some risk, especially if the male is lost, as it inhibits her hunting abilities and may hamper her defensive capabilities, putting both herself and the nestlings in potential danger of predation.", "The moult takes a total of 46 months, with tail feathers following the wings then lastly the contour and body feathers, which may not be completely moulted even as late as October.", "The northern goshawk, like all Accipiters, exhibits sexual dimorphism, where females are significantly larger than males, with the dimorphism notably greater in most parts of Eurasia.", "Linearly, males average about 8% smaller in North America and 13% smaller than females in Eurasia, but in the latter landmass can range up to a very noticeable 28% difference in extreme cases.", "Males from six subspecies average around in body mass, with a range from all races of .", "The female can be up to more than twice as heavy, averaging from the same races with an overall range of .", "Among standard measurements, the most oft-measured is wing chord which can range from in males and from in females.", "Additional, the tail is , the culmen is and the tarsus is .", "Accipiter gentilis northern goshawk Northern goshawks normally only vocalize during courtship or the nesting season.", "Adult goshawks may chatter a repeated note, varying in speed and volume based on the context.", "When calling from a perch, birds often turn their heads slowly from side to side, producing a ventriloquial effect.", "Vocalizations mainly peak in late courtship/early nesting around late March to April, can begin up to 45 minutes before sunrise, and are more than twice in as frequent in the first three hours of daylight as in the rest of the day.", "Occasionally hunting northern goshawks may make shrill screams when pursuing prey, especially if a lengthy chase is undertaken and the prey is already aware of its intended predator.", "Juvenile in flight, the most likely age and condition to mistake a goshawk for another species right", "An adult goshawk shows its richly streaked plumage.", "The juvenile plumage of the species may cause some confusion, especially with other Accipiter juveniles.", "Unlike other northern Accipiters, the adult northern goshawk never has a rusty color to its underside barring.", "The classic Accipiter flight is a characteristic \" flap flap, glide \" , but the goshawk, with its greater wing area, can sometimes be seen steadily soaring in migration .", "In North America juveniles are sometimes confused with the smaller Cooper's hawk , especially between small male goshawks and large female Cooper's hawks.", "Unlike in Europe with sparrowhawks, Cooper's hawks can have a largish appearance and juveniles may be regularly mistaken for the usually less locally numerous goshawk.", "However, the juvenile goshawk displays a heavier, vertical streaking pattern on chest and abdomen, with the juvenile Cooper's hawk streaking frequently in a teardrop pattern wherein the streaking appears to taper at the top, as opposed to the more even streaking of the goshawk.", "The goshawk sometimes seems to have a shorter tail relative to its much broader body.", "Although there appears to be a size overlap between small male goshawks and large female Cooper's hawks, morphometric measurements of both species demonstrate no such overlap, although weight overlap can rarely occur due to variation in seasonal condition and food intake at time of weighing.", "Rarely, in the southern stretches of its Asian wintering range, the northern goshawk may live alongside the crested goshawk which is smaller and has a slight crest as well as a distinct mixture of denser streaks and bars below and no supercilia.", "Large juvenile Cooper's hawks such as this are at times mistaken for a goshawk Northern goshawks are sometimes mistaken for species even outside of the genus Accipiter especially as juveniles of each respective species.", "In North America, four species of buteonine hawk may be confused with them on occasion despite the differing proportions of these hawks, which all have longer wings and shorter tails relative to their size.", "A species so similar it is sometimes nicknamed the \" Mexican goshawk \" , gray hawk juveniles have contrasting face pattern with bold dusky eye-stripes, dark eyes, barred thighs and a bold white \" U \" on the uppertail coverts.", "The roadside hawk is noticeably smaller with paddle-shaped wings, barred lower breast and a buff U on undertail coverts in young birds.", "Somewhat less likely to confuse despite their broader extent of overlap are the red-shouldered hawk which have a narrow white-barred, dark-looking tail, bold white crescents on their primaries and dark wing edges and the broad-winged hawk which also has dark wing edges and a differing tapered wing shape.", "Even wintering gyrfalcon juveniles have been mistaken for goshawks and vice versa on occasion, especially when observed distantly perched.", "However, the bulkier, broader headed yet relatively shorter tailed falcon still has many tell-tale falcon characteristics like pointed, longer wings, a brown malar stripe as well as its more extensive barring both above and below.", "The genus Accipiter contains nearly 50 known living species and is the most diverse genus of diurnal raptors in the world.", "This group of agile, smallish, forest-dwelling hawks has been in existence for possibly tens of millions of years, probably as an adaptation to the explosive numbers of small birds that began to occupy the world's forest in the last few eras.", "The harriers are the only group of extant diurnal raptors that seem to bear remotely close relation to this genus, whereas buteonines, Old World kites, sea eagles and chanting-goshawks are much more distantly related and all other modern accipitrids are not directly related.", "A presumably older radiation of this group occurred in Africa, where it led to both the Henst's goshawk of Madagascar and the black sparrowhawk of the mainland.", "While the Henst's goshawk quite resembles the northern goshawks, the black sparrowhawk is superficially described as a sparrowhawk due to its relatively much longer and finer legs than those of typical goshawks but overall its size and plumage is much more goshawk than sparrowhawk-like.", "Outside of the presumed superspecies, the genus Erythrotriorchis may be part of an Australasian radiation of basal goshawks based largely on their similar morphology to northern goshawks.", "Genetic studies have indicated that the Cooper's hawk of North America is also fairly closely related to the northern goshawk, having been present in North America before either of the other two North American Accipiters.", "However, the much smaller sharp-shinned hawk, which has similar plumage to the Cooper's hawk and seems to be most closely related to the Eurasian sparrowhawk, appears to have occupied North America the latest of the three North American species, despite having the broadest current distribution of any Accipiter in the Americas .", "The term goshawk comes from the Old English gosheafoc, \" goose-hawk \" .", "Adult goshawks maintain territories with display flights.", "The northern goshawk is always found solitarily or in pairs.", "This species is highly territorial as are most raptorial birds, maintaining regularly spaced home ranges that constitute their territory.", "Territories are maintained by adults in display flights.", "During nesting, the home ranges of goshawk pairs are from and these vicinities tend to be vigorously defended both to maintain rights to their nests and mates as well as the ranges prey base.", "Although at times considered rather sedentary for a northern raptor species, the northern goshawk is a partial migrant.", "Migratory movements generally occur between September and November in the fall and February to April in the spring.", "Spring migration is less extensive and more poorly known than fall migration, but seems to peak late March to early April.", "Some birds up to as far north as northern Canada and central Scandinavia may remain on territory throughout the winter.", "In central Europe, few birds travel more than throughout the year, a few juveniles have exceptionally been recorded traveling up to .", "In Eurasia, very small numbers of migratory northern goshawks cross the Strait of Gibraltar and Bosporus in autumn but further east more significant winter range expansions may extend from northern Iran", "Balkhash lakes, from Kashmir to Assam, extreme northwestern Thailand, northern Vietnam, southern China, Taiwan, Ryukyu Islands and South Korea.", "Migratory goshawks in North America may move down to Baja California, Sinaloa and into most of west Texas, but generally in non-irruptive years, goshawks winter no further south than Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina.", "Some periodic eruptions to nearly as far as the Gulf of Mexico have been recorded at no fewer than 10 years apart.", "In one case, a female that was banded in Wisconsin was recovered in Louisiana, a first ever record of the species in that state.", "Prey availability may primarily dictate the proportion of goshawk populations that migrate and the selection of wintering areas, followed by the presence of snow which may aid prey capture in the short-term but in the long-term is likely to cause higher goshawk mortality.", "Showing the high variability of migratory movements, in one study of winter movements of adult female goshawks that bred in high-elevation forests of Utah, about 36% migrated to the general south, 22% migrated farther than that distance, 8.3% migrated less far, 2.7% went north instead of south and 31% stayed throughout winter on their breeding territory.", "Irruptive movements seem to occur for northern populations, i.e. those of the boreal forests in North America, Scandinavia, and possibly Siberia, with more equal sex ratio of movement and a strong southward tendency of movements in years where prey such as hares and grouse crash.", "Male young goshawks tend to disperse farther than females, which is unusual in birds, including raptors.", "It has been speculated that larger female juveniles displace male juveniles, forcing them to disperse farther, to the incidental benefit of the species genetic diversity.", "In Cedar Grove, Wisconsin, there were more than twice as many juvenile males than females recorded migrating.", "At the hawk watch at Cape May Point State Park in New Jersey, few adult males and no adult females have been recorded in fall migration apart from irruptive years, indicating that migration is more important to juveniles.", "More juveniles were recorded migrating than adults in several years of study from Sweden.", "In northern Accipiters including the goshawk, there seems to be multiple peaks in numbers of migrants, an observation that suggests partial segregation by age and sex.", "Goshawks are particularly agile hunters of the woodlands.", "As typical of the genus Accipiter , the northern goshawk has relatively short wings and a long tail which make it ideally adapted to engaging in brief but agile and twisting hunting flights through dense vegetation of wooded environments.", "This species is a powerful hunter, taking birds and mammals in a variety of woodland habitats, often utilizing a combination of speed and obstructing cover to ambush their victims.", "Goshawks often forage in adjoining habitat types, such as the edge of a forest and meadow.", "Hunting habitat can be variable, as in a comparison of habitats used in England found that only 8% of landscapes used were woodlands whereas in Sweden 73-76% of the habitat used was woodland, albeit normally within of an opening.", "One study from central Sweden found that locally goshawks typically hunt within the largest patches of mature forests, selecting second growth forest less than half as often as its prevalence in the local environment.", "The northern goshawk is typically considered a perch-hunter.", "Hunting efforts are punctuated by a series of quick flights low to the ground, interspersed with brief periods of scanning for unsuspecting prey from elevated perches .", "These flights are meant to be inconspicuous, averaging about 83 seconds in males and 94 seconds in females, and prey pursuits may be abandoned if the victims become aware of the goshawk too quickly.", "More sporadically, northern goshawks may watch from prey from a high soar or gliding flight above the canopy.", "One study in Germany found an exceptional 80% of hunting efforts to be done from a high soar but the author admitted that he was probably biased by the conspicuousness of this method.", "In comparison, a study from Great Britain found that 95% of hunting efforts were from perches.", "A strong bias for pigeons as prey and a largely urbanized environment in Germany explains the local prevalence of hunting from a soaring flight, as the urban environment provides ample thermals and obstructing tall buildings which are ideal for hunting pigeons on the wing.", "A juvenile goshawk beginning to pluck its prey, a likely rock dove.", "Northern goshawks rarely vary from their perch-hunting style that typifies the initial part of their hunt but seems to be able to show nearly endless variation to the concluding pursuit.", "Hunting goshawks seem to not only utilize thick vegetation to block them from view for their prey but, while hunting flying birds, they seem to be able to adjust their flight level so the prey is unable to see its hunter past their own tails.", "Prey is killed by driving the talons into the quarry and squeezing while the head is held back to avoid flailing limbs, frequently followed by a kneading action until the prey stops struggling.", "Kills are normally consumed on the ground by juvenile or non-breeding goshawks or taken to a low perch by breeding goshawks.", "Habitual perches are used for dismantling prey especially in the breeding season, often called plucking perches \" , which may be fallen logs, bent-over trees, stumps or rocks and can see years of usage.", "Northern goshawks often leave larger portions of their prey uneaten than other raptors, with limbs, many feathers and fur and other body parts strewn near kill sites and plucking perches, and are helpful to distinguish their kills from other raptors such as large owls, who usually eat everything.", "The daily food requirements of a single goshawks are around and most kills can feed a goshawk for 1 to 3 days.", "Northern goshawks sometimes cache prey on tree branches or wedged in a crotch between branches for up to 32 hours.", "This is done primarily during the nestling stage.", "Hunting success rates have been very roughly estimated at 1530%, within average range for a bird of prey, but may be reported as higher elsewhere.", "One study claimed hunting success rates for pursuing rabbits was 60% and corvids was 63.8%.", "Northern goshawks most often prey on birds, especially in Eurasia Northern goshawks are usually opportunistic predators, as are most birds of prey.", "The most important prey species are small to medium-sized mammals and medium to large-sized birds found in forest, edge and scrub habitats.", "Primary prey selection varies considerably not just at the regional but also the individual level as the primary food species can be dramatically different in nests just a few kilometers apart.", "Prey selection also varies by season and a majority of dietary studies are conducted within the breeding season, leaving a possibility of bias for male-selected prey, whereas recent advanced in radio-tagging have allowed a broader picture of goshawks' fairly different winter diet .", "Birds are usually the primary prey in Europe, constituting 76.5% of the diet in 17 studies.", "In North America, by comparison, they constitute 47.8% in 33 studies and mammals account for a nearly equal portion of the diet and in some areas rather dominate the food spectrum.", "Studies have shown that from several parts of the Eurasian continent from Spain to the Ural mountains mammals contributed only about 9% of the breeding season diet.", "However, mammals may be slightly underrepresented in Eurasian data because of the little-studied presence of mammals as a food source in winter, particularly in the western and southern portions of Europe where the lack of snowfall can allow large numbers of rabbits.", "There is some difference in size and type between the prey caught by males and larger females.", "Prey selection between sexes is more disparate in the more highly dimorphic races from Eurasia than those from North America.", "In the Netherlands, male prey averaged whereas female prey averaged , thus a rough 45% difference .", "This is fairly different from Vendsyssel, Denmark, where mostly adult birds were caught except for thrushes and corvids, as in these two groups, the goshawks caught mostly fledglings.", "Overall, one prey family that is known to be taken in nearly every part of the goshawk's range is the corvids, although they do not necessarily dominate the diet in all areas.", "Some 24 species have been reported in the diet.", "The second most commonly reported prey species in breeding season dietary studies from both Europe and North America are both large jays, the Eurasian jay and the Steller's jay .", "These species were recorded in studies from northeastern Poland and the Apennines of Italy and in northwestern Oregon and the Kaibab Plateau of Arizona as the main prey species by number.", "The conspicuously loud vocalizations, somewhat sluggish flight and moderate size of these jays make them ideal for prey-gathering male goshawks.", "Another medium-sized corvid, the Eurasian magpie is also amongst the most widely reported secondary prey species for goshawks there.", "Magpies, like large jays, are rather slow fliers and can be handily outpaced by a pursuing goshawk.", "Some authors claim that taking of large corvids is a rare behavior, due of their intelligence and complex sociality which in turn impart formidable group defenses and mobbing capabilities.", "One estimation claimed this to be done by about 12% of adult goshawks during the breeding season , however, on the contrary many goshawks do routinely hunt crows and similar species.", "In fact, there are some recorded cases where goshawks were able to exploit such mobbing behavior in order to trick crows into close range, where the mob victim suddenly turned to grab one predaceously.", "Despite evidence that northern goshawks avoid nesting near common ravens , the largest widespread corvid and a formidable opponent even one-on-one, they are even known to prey on ravens seldom.", "Corvids taken have ranged in size from the Canada jay to the raven.", "Adult on Corsica with its fresh prey, a common wood pigeon In Europe, the leading prey species numerically is the rock pigeon .", "In areas where goshawk restrict their hunting forays to field and forest, they often catch another numerous pigeon, the common wood pigeon .", "The latter species was the main prey in the diet of northern goshawks from in the Germany-Netherlands border area and Wales .", "It has been theorized that male goshawks in peri-urban regions may be better suited with their higher agility to ambushing rock pigeons in and amongst various manmade structures whereas females may be better suited due to the higher overall speeds to taking out common wood-pigeons, as these typically forage in wood-cloaked but relatively open fields", "however males are efficient predators of common wood-pigeons as well.", "One exception is in Connecticut where the mourning dove , the smallest known pigeon or dove the goshawk has hunted at , was the second most numerous prey species.", "Hawk and Black-Game , a painting of a goshawk at the moment of catching a black grouse The northern goshawk is in some parts of its range considered a specialized predator of gamebirds, particularly grouse.", "All told 33 species of this order have turned up in their diet, including most of the species either native to or introduced in North America and Europe.", "Numerically, only in the well-studied taiga habitats of Scandinavia, Canada and Alaska and some areas of the eastern United States do grouse typically take a dominant position.", "Elsewhere in the range, gamebirds are often secondary in number but often remain one of the most important contributors of prey biomass to nests.", "With their general ground-dwelling habits, gamebirds tend to be fairly easy for goshawks to overtake if they remain unseen and, if made aware of the goshawk, the prey chooses to run rather than fly.", "If frightened too soon, gamebirds may take flight and may be chased for some time, although the capture rates are reduced considerably when this occurs.", "Pre-fledgling chicks of gamebirds are particularly vulnerable due to the fact that they can only run when being pursued.", "This is fairly different from in southeastern Alaska, where grouse are similarly as important as in Fennoscandia, as 32.1% of avian prey deliveries were adults, 14.4% were fledglings and 53.5% were nestlings.", "Goshawks sometimes become habitual fowl killers.", "This juvenile was caught pursuing chickens inside a hen house.", "Northern goshawks can show somewhat of a trend for females to be taken more so than males while hunting adult gamebirds, due to the larger size and more developed defenses of males .", "Some authors have claimed this of male ring-necked pheasant , but these trends are not reported everywhere, as in southern Sweden equal numbers of adult male and female ring-necked pheasants, both sexes averaging , were taken.", "Domestic fowl, particularly chickens are taken occasionally, especially where wild prey populations are depleted.", "While other raptors are at times blamed for large numbers of attacks on fowl, goshawks are reportedly rather more likely to attack chickens during the day than other raptors and are probably the most habitual avian predator of domestic fowl, at least in the temperate-zone.", "Particularly large numbers of chickens have been reported in Wigry National Park, Poland , Belarus and the Ukraine, being the third most regularly reported prey in the latter two.", "In a study of British goshawks, the red grouse , a race of willow ptarmigan, was found to be the leading prey species .", "In La Segarra, Spain, the red-legged partridge is the most commonly reported prey species .", "The sooty grouse was reported as the leading prey species in southern Alaska .", "Among mammalian prey, indisputably the most significant by number are the squirrels.", "All told, 44 members of the Sciuridae have turned up in their foods.", "Tree squirrels are the most obviously co-habitants with goshawks and are indeed taken in high numbers.", "Alongside martens, northern goshawks are perhaps the most efficient temperate-zone predators of tree squirrels.", "Goshawks are large and powerful enough to overtake even the heaviest tree squirrels unlike smaller Accipiters and have greater agility and endurance in pursuits than do most buteonine hawks, some of which like red-tailed hawks regularly pursue tree squirrels but have relatively low hunting success rates due to the agility of squirrels.", "In North America, tree squirrels are even more significant as prey, particularly the modestly-sized pine squirrels which are the single most important prey type for American goshawks overall.", "Particularly the American red squirrel is significant, being the primary prey in studies from Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana but also reported everywhere in their foods from the eastern United States to Alaska and Arizona.", "Much like the American marten , the American distribution of goshawks is largely concurrent with that of American red squirrels, indicating the particular significance of it as a dietary staple.", "In the Pacific northwest, the Douglas squirrel replaces the red squirrel in both distribution and as the highest contributor to goshawk diets from northern California to British Columbia.", "The largest occurrence of Douglas squirrel known was from Lake Tahoe, where they constituted 23% of prey by number and 32.9% by weight.", "Larger tree squirrels are also taken opportunistically, in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the eastern gray squirrel was the third most significant prey species.", "Ground squirrels are also important prey species, mostly in North America, 25 of 44 of squirrel species found in the diet are ground squirrels.", "Particularly widely reported as a secondary food staple from Oregon, Wyoming, California and Arizona was the golden-mantled ground squirrel .", "In Nevada and Idahos Sawtooth National Forest, the Belding's ground squirrel fully dominated the food spectrum, comprising up to 74.3% of the prey by number and 84.2% by biomass.", "Even much bigger ground squirrels such as prairie dogs and marmots are attacked on occasion.", "Several hoary marmots were brought to nests in southeast Alaska but averaged only , so were young animals about half of the average adult weight .", "About a dozen species of chipmunk are known to be taken by goshawks and the eastern chipmunks were the second most numerous prey species at nests in central New York and Minnesota.", "Squirrels taken have ranged in size from the least chipmunk to the aforementioned adult marmots.", "Illustrating a goshawk attempting to catch a rabbit, by G. E. Lodge Northern goshawks can be locally heavy predators of lagomorphs, of which they take at least 15 species as prey.", "Especially in the Iberian peninsula, the native European rabbit is often delivered to nests and can be the most numerous prey.", "Even where taken secondarily in numbers in Spain to gamebirds such as in La Segarra, Spain, rabbits tend to be the most significant contributor of biomass to goshawk nests.", "On average, the weight of rabbits taken in La Segarra was , indicating most of the 333 rabbits taken there were yearlings and about 2-3 times lighter than a prime adult wild rabbit.", "Asian and American goshawks also take about a half dozen species of pikas, much smaller cousins of rabbits and hares, but they are at best supplementary prey for American goshawks and of unknown importance to little-studied Asian populations.", "Woodpeckers such as northern flickers often fall victim to goshawks Some 21 species of woodpecker have been reported from northern goshawk food studies around the world.", "With their relatively slow, undulating flight adult and fledged woodpeckers can easily be overtaken by hunting goshawks, not to mention their habitat preferences frequently put them within active goshawk ranges.", "Most of the widespread species from Europe and North America have been observed as prey, most commonly relatively large woodpeckers such as the greater spotted woodpecker and the European green woodpecker in Europe and the northern flicker in North America.", "Indeed, the flicker is the third most regularly reported prey species in America.", "In south-central Wyoming, the northern flicker was the second most numerous prey species and it was the main prey species in a study from New Mexico .", "Adult common eiders , the largest northern duck at , have also been captured by goshawks.", "Juvenile in Japan with a young bird prey item Corvids as aforementioned are quite important prey.", "Although they take fewer passerines than other northern Accipiters, smaller types of songbirds can still be regionally important to the diet.", "This is especially true of the thrushes which are often delivered to nests in Europe.", "17 species of thrush have been identified in goshawk food across their range.", "The numerous Eurasian blackbird is often most reported from this family and can even be the main prey at some locations such as in the Netherlands and in Norway .", "Non-passerine upland birds taken by goshawks in small numbers include but are not limited to nightjars, swifts, bee-eaters, kingfishers, rollers, hoopoes and parrots.", "A goshawk preying on a brown rat in a fairly urbanized area.", "Outside of the squirrel family, relatively few other types of rodents are taken in many regions.", "In eastern Oregon, the northern flying squirrel was the third or fourth most frequently caught prey species.", "During summer in Alberta, the meadow vole was the third most frequently reported prey species, the only known study where large numbers of microtine rodents were taken in North America.", "Microtine rodents taken by goshawks have ranged in size from the western harvest mouse to the muskrat .", "Other miscellaneous rodents reported sporadically in the diet include dormice, porcupines, kangaroo rats, mountain beavers , jumping mice, Old World mice and rats, zokors, gophers and jirds.", "The smallest mammalian prey species known to be attacked by goshawks was the masked shrew .", "Even more sporadically attacked by goshawks, given this prey's nocturnal habits, are bats.", "In one case a juvenile golden snub-nosed monkey , which was successfully taken by a goshawk.", "Ungulates such as deer and sheep are sometimes consumed by goshawks but there is no evidence that they prey on live ones , but these are more likely rare cases of scavenging on carrion, which may more regularly occur than once thought in areas with harsh winter weather.", "In a few cases, northern goshawks have been recorded hunting and killing prey beyond birds and mammals.", "In some of the warmer drier extensions of their range, reptiles may be available to them to hunt.", "Only one species of snake is recorded from their diet, the small innocuous grass snake , at", "however about a half dozen lizards are recorded in their diet, primarily from the Iberian peninsula but also from the Ural mountains and the American southwest.", "Chasing an osprey, most likely to rob it of food, but the osprey is even considered possible prey Northern goshawks are often near the top of the avian food chain in forested biomes but face competition for food resources from various other predators, including both birds and mammals.", "Comparative dietary studies have shown that mean sizes of prey, both in terms of its size relative to the raptor itself and absolute weight, for goshawks is relatively larger than in most buteonine hawks in North America and Europe.", "Studies show even buteonine hawks slightly larger than goshawks on average take prey weighing less than whereas average goshawk prey is usually well over such a mass.", "This is due largely to the much higher importance of microtine rodents to most buteonine hawks, which, despite their occasional abundance, are ignored by goshawks in most regions.", "Similarly, mean prey mass for sharp-shinned and Cooper's hawks in North America is between about 10 and 30% of their own mass, whereas the mean prey of American goshawks is between about 25 and 50% of their own mass and therefore are the goshawks takes prey that is on average relatively much larger.", "In many of the ecosystems that they inhabit, northern goshawks compete with resources with other predators, particularly where they take sizeable numbers of lagomorphs.", "About a dozen mammalian and avian predators in each area all primarily consume European rabbits and snowshoe hares alongside goshawks in the Iberian peninsula and the American boreal forest regions where these became primary staple foods.", "Like those co-habitant predators, the goshawk suffers declines during the low portion in the lagomorph's breeding cycles, which rise and fall cyclically every 10 to 12 years.", "However, even where these are primary food sources, the northern goshawk is less specialized than many and can alternate their food selection, often taking equal or greater numbers of tree squirrels and woodland birds.", "Due to this dietary variation, the northern goshawk is less affected than other raptorial birds by prey population cycles and tends to not be depleted by resource competition.", "Northern goshawks from North America are less prone to nesting outside of mature forests and take larger numbers of mammals as opposed to abundant birds than in Europe.", "This may be in part due to heavier competition from a greater diversity of raptors in North America.", "In Europe, the goshawk only co-exists with the much smaller sparrowhawk within its own genus, while in North America, it lives with the intermediately-sized Cooper's hawk.", "The latter species much more readily nests in semi-open and developed areas of North America than goshawks there and hunts a broad assemblage of medium-sized birds, whereas such prey is more readily available to male goshawks from Europe than to goshawks in North America.", "Although the Cooper's hawk usually avoids and loses individual contests against the larger goshawk, its adaptability has allowed it to become the most widespread and commonly found North American Accipiter.", "The slightly larger goshawks of Europe have been shown, in some but not all areas, to outcompete and possibly lower productivity of the slightly smaller common buzzard when their ranges overlap.", "Usually, however, the dietary habits and nesting preferences are sufficiently distinct and thus effect neither buzzard or goshawk populations.", "Both can mutually be very common even when the other is present.", "On the other hand, American goshawks are slightly smaller on average than their European counterparts and can be up to 10% smaller in mass than red-tailed hawks.", "However, studies have indicated that the goshawk has, beyond its superior speed and agility, has stronger feet and a more forceful attack than that of the red-tailed hawk.", "All in all, individual competitions between red-tailed hawks and goshawks can go either way and neither is strongly likely to deter the other from nesting given their distinct nesting habitats.", "Other raptors, including most medium to large-sized owls as well as red-tailed hawks and falcons, will use nests built by northern goshawks, even when goshawks are still in the area.", "Illustration of the formidable talons and beak, which are both proportionately large relative to their size, and give them a predatory advantage over many other raptors To many other raptorial birds, the northern goshawk is more significant as a predatory threat than as competition.", "The northern goshawk is one of the most dangerous species to other raptors, especially to those considerably smaller than itself.", "In many cases, raptors of any age from nestlings to adults are taken around their nests but free-flying raptors too are readily taken or ambushed at a perch.", "One example is a study from northern England, the common kestrels , which average about , recorded as prey at goshawk nests numbered 139, a larger number than kestrels recorded alive in the spring in the same area.", "In the Veluwe province of the Netherlands, the percentage of nest of European honey buzzards , weighing on average , predated by goshawks increased from a little as 7.7% in 19811990 to 33% in 20002004.", "As their habitat preferences may overlap with goshawks, all other Accipiters encountered may be predated in multiple cases, including the Eurasian sparrowhawk, the levant sparrowhawk , the sharp-shinned hawk, the Japanese sparrowhawk and the Cooper's hawk.", "Even raptors somewhat larger than a northern goshawks have been considered as prey, although it is not clear whether adults are among the victims, including the osprey , crested honey-buzzard and the lesser spotted eagle .", "In Bavaria, Germany, the long-eared owl was the second most common prey species for nesting goshawks.", "Larger falcons have turned up in the diet as well, including the prairie falcon and the saker falcon , although possible only nestlings of these species.", "Brief aerial skirmishes between goshawks and peregrine falcons have been described but neither species is known to have killed one another in the wild.", "In Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, at least four small passerines species were recorded as nesting close to active goshawk nest, due to the incidental shelter that the fierce goshawks inadvertently provides from smaller raptors which are their main predators.", "Such raptors, including Eurasian kestrels, Eurasian sparrowhawks and long-eared owls, not only avoid goshawk activity where possible but also were found to have lower nest productivity any time they nested relatively close to goshawks per the study.", "A similar phenomenon, with goshawks inadvertently providing shelter to small passerines, has been recorded in North America as well.", "Prey selection frequently overlaps between goshawks and American martens, seldom will both species prey on the other Competition for northern goshawks can also come from mammalian carnivores.", "Martens, and to a lesser extent other weasels, are presumably one of their more major competitors as their diet often consists of similar prey primarily during spring and summer, tree squirrels and woodland birds, but little has been studied in terms of how the two types of predator effect each other.", "Most recorded interactions have been predatory, as the goshawk has been recorded preying on a dozen species, from the least weasel to the stone marten .", "Northern goshawks have also been recorded as feeding on much bigger predators such as the red fox , the raccoon dog and the striped skunk , but it is not clear whether these were actual kills, as many may be encountered as already dead carrion.", "Domestic carnivores are sometimes eaten, including dogs and cats, the latter of which has reportedly been taken alive by goshawks.", "The red fox is a surprisingly considerable competitor for resources with northern goshawks.", "It was found in Norway that goshawk numbers were higher when voles were at peak numbers, not due to voles as a food source but because foxes were more likely to eat the rodents and ignore grouse, whereas during low vole numbers the foxes are more likely to compete with goshawks over grouse as prey.", "A decrease of the fox population of Norway due to sarcoptic mange was found result in an increase of grouse numbers and, in turn, northern goshawks.", "In some areas, red foxes have been found to steal up to half of the goshawks kills.", "Unlike the predators at the top of the avian food chain such as eagles and the largest owls, which are rarely endangered by predation as adults, the northern goshawk is itself susceptible to a fairly extensive range of predators.", "The most deadly are likely to be the Eurasian eagle owl and the great horned owl, which not only predate goshawks of any age and at any season but also opportunistically take over their own prior nests as their own nesting site.", "In comparison, in Schleswig-Holstein, 59% of reintroduced eagle owls used nests built by goshawks and no goshawk pairs could successfully nest within of an active eagle-owl nest.", "18% of nest failures here positively were attributed to eagle owl predation, with another 8% likely due to eagle-owls.", "Other larger raptorial birds can threaten them.", "The golden eagle and the bald eagle in North America, have killed wintering goshawks, but given the discrepancy in their habitat preferences, such cases are presumably rare.", "Other avian predators known to have successfully preyed on goshawks including adults include white-tailed eagles , Bonelli's eagles , eastern imperial eagles , snowy owls , Ural owls and red-tailed hawks.", "Overall, the range of nest predators is more extensive in North America than in Eurasia, in the latter continent most recorded nest depredations are by eagle owls, with martens and corvids usually only preying on goshawk nestlings when low food supplies cause the goshawks to have lower nest attendance .", "Fledgling goshawks are also vulnerable to canids such as coyotes , gray wolves and red foxes as they may perch lower to the ground and are clumsier, more unsteady and less cautious than older birds.", "In one case, a goshawk that was ambushed and killed at a kill by a mangy vixen fox was able to lethally slash the windpipe of the fox, which apparently died moments after partially consuming the goshawk.", "Apart from aforementioned predation events, northern goshawks have at times been killed by non-predators, including prey that turned the tables on their pursuer, as well as in hunting accidents.", "In one case, a huge group of hooded crows heavily mobbed a goshawk that they caught in a relatively open spot, resulting in a prolonged attack that ended up killing the goshawk.", "In another instance, a goshawk drowned while attempting to capture a tufted duck .", "One young goshawk managed to escape a red fox that had caught it with a chewed wing, only to drown in a nearby creek.", "Another, and rather gruesome, hunting mishap occurred when a goshawk caught a large mountain hare and, while attempting to hold it in place by grasping vegetation with its other foot, was torn in half.", "Egg Collection Museum Wiesbaden The northern goshawk is one of the most extensively studied raptors in terms of its breeding habits.", "Adult goshawks return to their breeding grounds usually between March and April, but locally as early as February.", "Males intruding in Hamburg, Germany territories were in some cases not evicted and ended up mating with the female, with the male of the pair not stopping it.", "In migratory, northernmost populations, mate retention in consecutive years is low.", "Nests are usually large structures placed quite high near the canopy on mature, tall trees, as seen on this birch in Norway Nesting areas are indefinite, a nest may be used for several years, also a nest built years prior may be used or an entirely new nest may be constructed.", "When nest constructing, the pair will often roost together.", "Males construct most new nests but females may assist somewhat if reinforcing old nests.", "While the male is building, the female perches in the vicinity, occasionally screaming, sometimes flying to inspect the nest.", "At other times, the female may take a more active role, or even the primary one, in new nest construction and this is subject to considerable individual variation.", "Most nests are constructed under the canopy or near the main fork of a tree and in North America, averaging nest height ranged from to , elsewhere as in Europe average height is between .", "In some studies from North America up to 15% of nests are in dead trees but this is far rarer in Eurasia.", "More significant than species is the maturity and height of the nesting tree, its structure and, perhaps most significantly, little to no understory below it.", "Multiple studies note the habit of nests being built in forests close to clear-fellings, swamps and heaths, lakes and meadows, roads , railways and swathes cut along power cables, usually near such openings there'd be prominent boulders, stones or roots of fallen trees or low branches to use as plucking points.", "Canopy cover averaged between 60 and 96% in Europe.", "As is typical in widely distributed raptors from temperate-zones, those from cold regions faced south, 65% in Alaska, 54% in Norway and also in high latitudes such as sky-forests of the Arizona Rockies, otherwise usually nests face north and east.", "After many uses, a nest can range up to across and in depth and can weigh up to a ton when wet.", "Northern goshawks may adopt nests of other species, common buzzards contributed 5% of nests used in Schleswig-Holstein, including unusually exposed ones on edges of woods and another 2% were built by common ravens or carrion crows, but 93% were built by the goshawks themselves.", "While colonizing peri-urban areas in Europe, they may displace Eurasian sparrowhawks not only from their territories but may actually try to use overly small sparrowhawk nests, usually resulting in nest collapse.", "One nest was used continuously by different pairs for a period of 17 years.", "A single pair may maintain up to several nests, usually up to two will occur in an area of no more than a few hundred meters.", "One nest may be used in sequential years, but often an alternate is selected.", "During an 18-year-study from Germany, many alternate nests were used, 27 pairs had two, 10 had 3, 5 had 4, one had five and one pair had as many as 11.", "Other regions where pairs had on average two nests were Poland, California and Arizonas Kaibab Plateau.", "The extent of use of alternate nests is unknown as well as their benefit, but they may reduce significant levels of parasites and diseases within the nest.", "In central Europe, the goshawk's nest area can be as small of woods and less than 10 hectares are commonplace.", "Usually only one active nest occurs per , are they avoid edges as nest sites and occupied nests are seldom less than apart.", "The most closely spaced active nests by a separate pair on record was in central Europe, another case of two active nests apart in Germany was a possible case of polygamy.", "The eggs are laid at 2- to 3-day intervals on average between April and June , taking up to 9 days for a clutch of 34 and 11 days for a clutch of 5.", "In combination spring weather and prey population levels seem to drive both egg laying dates and clutch size.", "If an entire clutch is lost, a replacement can be laid within 15 to 30 days.", "Mother goshawk seldom leaves the nest in either the incubation or the brooding stage, until the young are about 2 weeks During incubation, females tend to become quieter and more inconspicuous.", "The mother can develop a brooding patch of up to on her underside.", "She may turn the eggs as frequently as every 30 to 60 minutes.", "Males may incubate as many as 1 to 3 hours, but usually less than an hour, early in incubation but rarely do so later on.", "During daylight females can do as much as 96% of the observed incubation.", "The incubation stage last for any time between 28 and 37 days , varying in different parts of the range.", "After hatching occurs, the male does not come directly to the nest but instead just delivers food to a branch near the nest which the female tears apart and shares between herself and the nestlings.", "Food deliveries by the male can be daily or as infrequent as every 3 to 5 days.", "In turn, the female must feed the young about twice a day in order for the chicks to avoid starvation.", "Caching of food has been recorded near the nest, but only before the young start feeding themselves.", "Food deliveries must average about per young goshawk per day for them to successfully fledge, or total daily and throughout the season for an average sized clutch of around three.", "Females will also start capturing prey later on, but usually only after the young have already fledged.", "In Europe, female goshawks may press down on their nest if a human approaches, others may unobtrusively leave the nest, although are more reluctant to leave the nest late in incubation.", "In North America, the behavior of parent goshawks differs, as they often vigorously defend their territories fiercely from all intruders, including passing humans.", "The northern goshawk has a reputation as the most aggressive American raptor when the vicinity of their nest is approached.", "Here, when the nest is approached the goshawk will engage in their defensive kakking vocal display accompanied by exaggerated swooping in flight which quickly phases into a violent attack, potentially causing painful injuries and blood loss.", "Research has indicated that attacks on humans are mostly done by adult females and are rarely pressed unless a person is by themselves.", "However, large groups and loud noise can appear to irritate the female and may cause her to attack the next lone person who comes near the nest.", "The higher aggression towards humans in North America than in Europe has been linked to both a more extensive range of potential nest predators for American goshawks causing them to develop a more aggressive display or the lower rates of persecution in America than in Europe, which may account for the relative shyness in the latter continent.", "Occasionally, both males and females have been recorded abandoning the nest and their mates.", "There are a few rare cases where males successfully reared up to 4 young after the female abandoned the nest or was killed between the 2 and 3rd week.", "Otherwise male will continue delivering prey but without the female all the nestlings will starve to death and the food simply rots.", "In cases where the male abandons the female and the brood, she may be able to successfully brood but usually only one nestling is likely to survive to fledge without the male's contribution of prey.", "At other times the mother may be replaced, sometimes forcefully, by another female, usually an older mature one.", "Exceptional cases of polygamy, with a male mating with two females, have been reported in Germany and The Netherlands and typically these breeding attempts fail.", "Nestling northern goshawks in Germany Hatching is asynchronous but not completely, usually an average sized clutch takes only 2 to 3 days to hatch, although it may take up to 6 days to hatch a clutch of more than 4 eggs.", "Nestlings at 4 weeks are starting to develop strong flight feathers, which they frequently flap", "also they can start to pull on food but are still mainly fed by female and begin to make a whistling scream when she goes to fetch food from the male.", "More active feeding behavior by nestlings may increase their aggression towards each other.", "By the 5th week, they've developed many typical goshawk behaviors, sometimes mantling over food, testing balance by extending one leg and one wing at edge of nest and can wag their tails vigorously.", "Starvation risk also increases at this point due to their growing demands and, due to their incessant begging calls, vocal activity may court predators.", "In 6th week, they become \" branchers \" , although still spend much of the time by the nest, especially by the edge.", "The young goshawks \" play \" by seizing and striking violent at a perch or by yanking off leaves and tossing them over their back.", "Wing feathers do not develop highly dimorphically, but male branchers are better developed than females who have more growing to do and can leave the nest up to 13 days sooner.", "The young rarely return to the nest after being 35 to 46 days of age and start their first flight another 10 days later, thus becoming full fledglings.", "Nonetheless, either by predation, starvation or siblicide, few nests produce more than 2 to 3 fledglings.", "One pair in North America was able to successfully fledge all four of its young.", "Somewhat larger numbers of female fledglings are produced in Europe with their larger size, but the opposite is true in North America where sexual dimorphism is less pronounced.", "When food supplies are very high, though, European goshawks actually can produce somewhat more males than females.", "Two juveniles from Pennsylvania after they've become \" branchers \" , or have left the nest but are not yet flying competently At about 50 days old, the young goshawks may start hunting on their own but more often eat carrion either provided by parents or biologists.", "Most fledglings stay within of the nest at 65 days of age but can wander up to before dispersal at between 65 and 80 days old in sync with the full development of their flight feathers.", "Between 65 and 90 days after hatching, more or less all young goshawks become independent.", "There is no evidence that parents aggressively displace the young in the fall , therefore the young birds seek independence on their own.", "Goshawk siblings are not cohesive together past 65 days, except for some lingering young females, whereas common buzzard broods are not recorded at their nests after 65 days but remain strongly cohesive with each other.", "5% of radio-tagged young in Gotland, Sweden were found to disperse to another breeding area and join a different brood as soon as their flight feathers were developed enough.", "These seem to be cases of moving to a better food area.", "Parents and adoptive young seem to tolerate this, although parents do not seem to be able to tell the difference between their own and other young.", "It is only after dispersal that goshawks typically start to hunt and seem to drink more often than older birds, sometimes spend up to an hour bathing.", "Nest success averages between 80 and 95% in terms of the number of nests that produce fledglings, with an average number of 2 to 3 fledglings per nest.", "About equal numbers of eggs and nestlings may be lost but according to a study from Spain large clutches of 4 to 5 had higher losses overall than medium-sized clutches of 2 to nearly 4.", "Total losses averaged 36% in Spain across clutches of 25.", "Similar results were found in Germany, with similar numbers of fledglings produced in very large clutches as in medium-sized ones .", "Studies from Finland and the Yukon Territory found that average number of fledglings varied dramatically based on food supply based on the cyclical nature of most prey in these northern areas, varying from average success rates of 0 to 3.9 fledglings in the latter region.", "Similar wide variations in breeding success in correlation to prey levels were noted at other areas, including Nevada and Wisconsin.", "Poor weather, which consists of cold springs that bear late cold spells, snow, and freezing rain, causes many nests to fail, and may also hamper courtship and lower brood size and overall breeding attempts.", "However, the most important cause of nest failure was found to be nest destruction by humans and other predations, starvation, then bad weather and collapse of nests in declining order.", "On average, humans are responsible based on known studies for about 17% of nest failures in Europe.", "32% of 97 nestlings in Bavaria, Germany died because of human activities, while 59% of 111 broods in England failed due to this factor.", "Low food supplies are linked to predation, as it seems to cause greater risk of predation due to the lower nest attendance.", "Lower densities of pairs may actually increase nesting success, as per studies from Finland where the highest median clutch size, at 3.8, was in the area with the lowest densities.", "Similarly, in Schleswig-Holstein, nest failure was 14% higher where active nests were closer than apart compared to nests farther than this.", "Age may also play a factor in nest success, pairings where one mate is not fully mature is less than half as successful as ones where both were mature, based on studies from Arizona.", "Overall, males do not normally breed at any younger than 3 years of age and females can breed at as young as 1 to 2 years old, but rarely produce successful, viable clutches.", "The age at sexual maturity is the same as other northern Accipiters as well as most buteonine hawks .", "69 years of age seem to be the overall peak reproductive years for most northern goshawks.", "However, some females can reproduce at as old as 17 years old and senescence is ambiguous in both sexes .", "Median values of brood success was found to be 77% in Europe and 82% in North America overall.", "Conversely, the median brood size is about half a chick smaller in North America than in Europe.", "In Europe, clutch size overall averages 3.3, the number of nestlings averages 2.5 and fledglings averages 1.9.", "Goshawks may be killed by collisions with man-made objects The lifespan in the wild is variable.", "It is known that in captivity, northern goshawks may live up to 27 years of age.", "In Fennoscandia, starvation was found to account for 3-6% of reported deaths.", "In Norway, 9% of deaths were from starvation, but the percentage of demises from this increased to the north and affected juveniles more so than adults.", "In Gotland, Sweden, 28% of mortality was from starvation and disease.", "Both bacterial and viral diseases have been known to cause mortality in wild northern goshawks.", "Variable numbers of goshawks are killed by flying into man-made objects such as power lines and buildings and by automobiles, although lesser numbers are affected by powerline collisions than larger types of raptor.", "The breeding range of the northern goshawk extends over one-third of North America and Asia each and perhaps five-sixths of Europe, a total area of over .", "Densities in western and central Europe were recorded at 35 pairs per .", "In boreal Sweden, numbers vary from 1 to 4.5 pairs per , while in similar habitat in Alaska there were 0.3 to 2.7/.", "An average of only 1 pair per would give world population of 600,000 breeding birds, likely at least half as many immature and other non-breeders.", "The total population of northern goshawks in the world probably ranges well over a million.", "The total European populations, estimated at as many as 160,000 pairs, makes it the fourth most numerous raptor in the continent, after the common buzzards , Eurasian sparrowhawk and common kestrel .", "The most populated countries by goshawks in Europe were Sweden , Germany , Finland and France .", "The highest densities of breeding pairs per of land were in The Netherlands, Latvia and Switzerland, although this is biased due to the small land area of these countries.", "Russia has a roughly estimated 85,000 pairs of northern goshawk.", "In North America, there are a broadly estimated 150,000300,000 individuals.", "In North America, most western populations at mid-latitudes have approximately 3.610.7 pairs.", "A total of 107 nesting territories were located on a study area on the Kaibab Plateau, AZ, resulting in a density of 8.4 pairs/.", "The estimated density in Pennsylvania suggests that eastern populations may occur at lower densities than western populations, but densities of eastern populations may increase as these populations recover.", "Typically, populations at far northern latitudes may occur at lower densities than those of southwestern and western populations in North America.", "Although median densities was similar, populations are overall much denser in Europe than in North America.", "The hotspots of density for goshawks in Europe lie in east-central Europe and in west-central area .", "Per the IUCN, the global population is estimated to consist of 1 million to nearly 2.5 million birds, making this one of the most numerous species in its diverse family .", "Juvenile goshawk from Poland In the 1950s1960s declines were increasingly linked with pesticide pollution.", "However, in early 1970s pesticide levels in the United States for goshawks were low.", "Eggshell thinning has not been a problem for most populations, although California eggshells pre-1947 to 19471964 declined some 8-12%.", "In Illinois, migratory goshawks during the winter of 1972-1973 invasion year contained less organochlorine and PCB residues than did other raptors, however, these birds were probably from nonagricultural, northern forests.", "Higher DDT levels seemed to have persisted quite recently in Europe.", "This was the case in Germany, especially in former East Germany where DDT was widely available until 1988, having been largely discontinued elsewhere after the 1970s.", "Goshawks, which had increased in The Netherlands after World War II due to less persecution, new woodlands and increased pigeon numbers, were found to have suddenly crashed from the late 1950s on.", "It was later revealed that this was due to DDT, the number of breeding pairs decreasing 84% from 1958 to 1963.", "As opposed to DDT, the main contaminant found to have reduced goshawks in Scandinavia during the 20th century were methyl mercury seed dressings used to reduce fungal attack in livestock.", "Falconer's bird in Scotland Seemingly the remaining persistent conservation threat to goshawks, given their seeming overall resilience to both persecution and pesticides, is deforestation.", "Timber harvests are known to destroy many nests and adversely regional populations.", "Wildlife researchers and biologists do not seem to negatively affect goshawk nests, as they aware to keep forays to the nest brief and capture of adult goshawks for radio-tagging was found to not harm their success at raising broods.", "In North America, several non-governmental conservation organizations petitioned the Department of Interior, United States Fish", "1997) to list the goshawk as \" threatened \" or \" endangered \" under the authority of the Endangered Species Act.", "Both petitions argued for listing primarily on the basis of historic and ongoing nesting habitat loss, specifically the loss of old-growth and mature forest stands throughout the goshawk's known range.", "In both instances, the U.S. Fish", "Wildlife Service concluded that listing was not warranted, but state and federal natural resource agencies responded during the petition process with standardized and long-term goshawk inventory and monitoring efforts, especially throughout U.S. Forest Service lands in the Western U.S. The United States Forest Service has listed the goshawk as a \" sensitive species \" , while it also benefits from various protection at the state level.", "In North America, the goshawk is federally protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 by an amendment incorporating native birds of prey into the Act in 1972.", "The northern goshawk is also listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species .", "Iranian falconer with a trained goshawk", "The northern goshawk appears on the flag and coat of arms of the Azores.", "The archipelago of the Azores, Portugal, takes its name from the Portuguese language word for goshawk, , because the explorers who discovered the archipelago thought the birds of prey they saw there were goshawks", "later it was found that these birds were kites or common buzzards .", "The goshawk features in Stirling Council's coat of arms via the crest of the Drummond Clan.", "Hawks are highly associated with Guru Gobind Singh in the Sikh community.", "According to ornithologists, he is believed to have kept a white Northern Goshawk.", "This is reflected in that the Northern Goshawk was made the official state bird of Punjab, India.", "The name \" goshawk \" is a traditional name from Anglo-Saxon goshafoc, literally \" goose hawk \" .", "The name implies prowess against larger quarry such as wild geese, but were also flown against crane species and other large waterbirds.", "The name \" goose hawk \" is somewhat of a misnomer, however, as the traditional quarry for goshawks in ancient and contemporary falconry has been rabbits, pheasants, partridge, and medium-sized waterfowl, which are similar to much of the prey the species hunts in the wild.", "A notable exception is in records of traditional Japanese falconry, where goshawks were used more regularly on goose and crane species.", "In ancient European falconry literature, goshawks were often referred to as a yeoman's bird or the \" cook's bird \" because of their utility as a hunting partner catching edible prey, as opposed to the peregrine falcon, also a prized falconry bird, but more associated with noblemen and less adapted to a variety of hunting techniques and prey types found in wooded areas.", "The northern goshawk has remained equal to the peregrine falcon in its stature and popularity in modern falconry.", "Goshawk hunting flights in falconry typically begin from the falconer's gloved hand, where the fleeing bird or rabbit is pursued in a horizontal chase.", "The goshawk's flight in pursuit of prey is characterized by an intense burst of speed often followed by a binding maneuver, where the goshawk, if the prey is a bird, inverts and seizes the prey from below.", "The goshawk, like other accipiters, shows a marked willingness to follow prey into thick vegetation, even pursuing prey on foot through brush.", "Goshawks trained for falconry not infrequently escape their handlers and, extrapolated from the present day British population which is composed mostly of escaped birds as such, have reasonably high survival rates, although many do die shortly after escape and many do not successfully breed.", "The effect of modern-day collection of northern goshawks for falconry purposes is unclear, unlike some falcon species which can show regional declines due to heavy falconry collections but can increase in other areas due to established escapees from falconers."]}, "Picus canus": {"keywords": ["Its distribution stretches across large parts of the central and Eastern Palaearctic, all the way to the Pacific Ocean.", "It prefers deciduous forest with a high proportion of dead trees, feeding primarily on ants, although not being as exclusively dependent on this group as the green woodpecker.", "The grey-headed woodpecker is found in wide parts of Central, Northern and Eastern Europe, as well as a wide belt south of the boreal coniferous forests across Asia all the way to the Pacific coast, Sakhalin and Hokkaido.", "Its northern limit is at the border between closed coniferous and mixed forest, the southern limit is where tree steppe transitions to treeless shrubby steppe.", "In East Asia, the species is most differentiated, and south of Manchuria covers the Korean Peninsula, as well as large parts of eastern China and Farther India, the mountain forests of the Malay Peninsula.", "Most likely, several hundred pairs breed in Mittelgebirge habitats of the Pontic Mountains.", "The species is absent from the North German Plain, British Isles, Iberian Peninsula, and Mediterranean islands.", "Besides those, caterpillars, crickets, bark and wood beetle larvae, flies, spiders and lice are part of the diet.", "In late autumn and early winter, grey-headed woodpeckers switch to including significant amounts of vegetable matter, such as berries and other fruits, in their diets on a regular basis.", "As the grey-headed woodpecker prefers undisturbed and ancient forests with natural cohort structure as well as riparian forests for breeding, the destruction of such habitat is the greatest threat to the species."], "habitat_section": ["The grey-headed woodpecker is found in wide parts of Central, Northern and Eastern Europe, as well as a wide belt south of the boreal coniferous forests across Asia all the way to the Pacific coast, Sakhalin and Hokkaido.", "Its northern limit is at the border between closed coniferous and mixed forest, the southern limit is where tree steppe transitions to treeless shrubby steppe.", "In East Asia, the species is most differentiated, and south of Manchuria covers the Korean Peninsula, as well as large parts of eastern China and Farther India, the mountain forests of the Malay Peninsula.", "In Europe, the type subspecies breeds within a wide belt from western France to the Urals.", "It has settled medium latitudes of Scandinavia as well as Central, Eastern and Southern Europe.", "There is contradictory information regarding its occurrence in Turkey.", "Most likely, several hundred pairs breed in Mittelgebirge habitats of the Pontic Mountains.", "The species is absent from the North German Plain, British Isles, Iberian Peninsula, and Mediterranean islands.", "In Italy, it is confined to the northernmost parts.", "The grey-headed woodpecker is difficult to record, as isolated breeding pairs don't often call.", "These are therefore easily overlooked, and population records have corresponding gaps.", "It is probable that European populations, especially at the north-western margin of the range, have receded in numbers and distribution.", "Since the 1990s, populations seem to be recovering as a result of mild winters.", "Globally, there is a slight reduction in population numbers, but insufficiently so for an elevated threat status.", "The species is therefore considered safe.", "The observation of stable or slightly increasing populations in Europe may, however, be based solely on greater effort in recording the species.", "The overall European population is estimated at 180,000 to 320,000 breeding pairs.", "Key populations are found in European parts of Russia as well as Romania.", "Germany has around 15,000 pairs, Austria approximately 2,500 and Switzerland some 1,500.", "There are no summary figures for populations outside Europe.", "As the grey-headed woodpecker prefers undisturbed and ancient forests with natural cohort structure as well as riparian forests for breeding, the destruction of such habitat is the greatest threat to the species."], "random_sentences": ["The grey-headed woodpecker , also known as the grey-faced woodpecker, is a Eurasian member of the woodpecker family, Picidae.", "Along with the more commonly found European green woodpecker and the Iberian green woodpecker, it is one of three closely related sister species found in Europe.", "Its distribution stretches across large parts of the central and Eastern Palaearctic, all the way to the Pacific Ocean.", "The grey-headed woodpecker is more demanding than the European green woodpecker in terms of its habitat.", "It prefers deciduous forest with a high proportion of dead trees, feeding primarily on ants, although not being as exclusively dependent on this group as the green woodpecker.", "The grey-headed woodpecker's nest is typically excavated into dead or severely damaged trees.", "In the majority of areas for which population numbers are available, the grey-headed woodpecker is in decline.", "IUCN's Least Concern rating is primarily based on the large distribution of the species.", "The grey-headed woodpecker was formally described by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788 in the 13th edition of the Systema Naturae under the current binomial name Picus canus.", "The type locality is Norway.", "The specific epithet canus is the Latin for \" grey \" .", "dedemi) was formerly considered a subspecies of the grey-headed woodpecker, but was split as a distinct species by the IOC in 2021.", "P. c. dedemi is sometimes recognised as a separate species, the black-naped woodpecker.", "There is evidence for hybridisation between grey-headed and European green woodpeckers.", "However, these seem extremely rare.", "It appears that the female partner was invariably a grey-headed woodpecker.", "Nothing has been reported concerning the fertility of such hybrid offspring.", "Their plumage resembles a grey-headed woodpecker more closely, but with a red parting on the head, a reddish nape and a brighter iris, while some were conspicuous for their dark coloration.", "The subspecies Picus canus hessei has a black nape.", "Male in Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand The grey-headed woodpecker is in length, has a wingspan of and weighs around .", "The male of the nominate subspecies has a grey head with a red forecrown.", "There is a black line across the lores and a narrow black moustache stripe.", "The back, and wing are green.", "The breast and underbody are pale grey.", "The folded primaries are barred brown-black on grey-white.", "The female lacks the red forecrown but has fine black streaks on the crown.", "The widely distributed Picus canus jessoensis is very similar to the nominate subspecies but is slightly greyer and less green.", "The Chinese subspecies Picus canus guerini has a black nape patch and a greenish underbody.", "The subspecies Picus canus hessei is similar to guerini but is more golden green above and a deeper green below.", "The race on the island of Sumatra, Picus canus dedemi, differs markedly from the other subspecies in having reddish rather than green above, and red, green and grey below.", "It has a black crown and nape.", "Specimens of the more widespread of the two Eastern subspecies, P. c. jessoensis, are usually a little larger and heavier than individuals from the type locality.", "On average, it is somewhat smaller and lighter than the European green woodpecker.", "In the field, this distinction in size is difficult to make.", "Its size is approximately that of a Eurasian collared dove.", "Grey-headed woodpeckers have uniformly olive green upperparts, transitioning across the neck to a light grey, the head being that latter colour.", "The typical woodpecker markings are small and not particularly conspicuous.", "It has a grey head with black moustache, and the male has a red crown.", "It has a shorter neck, slimmer bill and slightly rounder head than the green woodpecker.", "Calls made by the European green woodpecker and grey-headed woodpecker resemble each other.", "The far-carrying territorial song of the grey-headed woodpecker is more melodic and cleaner than the explosive \" laughter \" of the green woodpecker.", "The call series consists of ten to fifteen utterances of declining pitch and gradual slowing.", "Besides these partner-specific vocalisations, aggressive noises can be heard from both sexes, but more often the male.", "Typical are individual, sharp kuek sounds that may, with increasing irritation, be placed in sequence and be continued as kek.", "A single kuek may also be a predator warning, as begging nestlings will immediately fall silent if this call is made by either parent.", "Individual drumming activity by grey-headed woodpeckers can be quite varied, but they drum on more occasions than European green woodpeckers.", "Drumming frequence can be 20 Hertz, with a \" drum roll \" lasting up to 40 beats, or two seconds.", "Both sexes drum, but the female less often than the male, and usually more quietly and shorter.", "Grey-headed woodpeckers often continue to use the same well-resonating drum sites for years these can even be at a considerable distance from the nest.", "Grey-headed woodpeckers often use metal covers on masts and roofs as drumming substrate due to their favourable resonance characteristics.", "The grey-headed woodpecker is found in wide parts of Central, Northern and Eastern Europe, as well as a wide belt south of the boreal coniferous forests across Asia all the way to the Pacific coast, Sakhalin and Hokkaido.", "Its northern limit is at the border between closed coniferous and mixed forest", "the southern limit is where tree steppe transitions to treeless shrubby steppe.", "In East Asia, the species is most differentiated, and south of Manchuria covers the Korean Peninsula, as well as large parts of eastern China and Farther India, the mountain forests of the Malay Peninsula.", "In Europe, the type subspecies breeds within a wide belt from western France to the Urals.", "It has settled medium latitudes of Scandinavia as well as Central, Eastern and Southern Europe.", "There is contradictory information regarding its occurrence in Turkey.", "Most likely, several hundred pairs breed in Mittelgebirge habitats of the Pontic Mountains.", "The species is absent from the North German Plain, British Isles, Iberian Peninsula, and Mediterranean islands.", "In Italy, it is confined to the northernmost parts.", "Grey-headed woodpeckers breed in May and lay five to ten eggs which are brought up by both parents.", "The young hatch after 1517 days, and fledge in 2425 days.", "Formica rufa is one of the species eaten The grey-headed woodpecker is a somewhat less specialised ant hunter than the European green woodpecker.", "In its foraging strategy it is intermediate between many Dendrocopos species on the one hand, and the often ant-specific members of the genus Picus.", "This reduced ant specialisation of the grey-headed woodpecker allows it to be sympatric with European green woodpeckers and even to breed at about 100 meters from them.", "Nonetheless, ants and their immatures make up the lion's share of the grey-headed woodpecker's diet, particularly in spring and summer.", "Wood ants of the genus Formica as well as members of Lasius and Myrmicinae such as Myrmica spp.", "predominate, and with termites may make up 90% of the diet.", "Besides those, caterpillars, crickets, bark and wood beetle larvae, flies, spiders and lice are part of the diet.", "In late autumn and early winter, grey-headed woodpeckers switch to including significant amounts of vegetable matter, such as berries and other fruits, in their diets on a regular basis.", "The grey-headed woodpecker is difficult to record, as isolated breeding pairs don't often call.", "These are therefore easily overlooked, and population records have corresponding gaps.", "It is probable that European populations, especially at the north-western margin of the range, have receded in numbers and distribution.", "Since the 1990s, populations seem to be recovering as a result of mild winters.", "Globally, there is a slight reduction in population numbers, but insufficiently so for an elevated threat status.", "The species is therefore considered safe.", "The observation of stable or slightly increasing populations in Europe may, however, be based solely on greater effort in recording the species.", "The overall European population is estimated at 180,000 to 320,000 breeding pairs.", "Key populations are found in European parts of Russia as well as Romania.", "Germany has around 15,000 pairs, Austria approximately 2,500 and Switzerland some 1,500.", "There are no summary figures for populations outside Europe.", "As the grey-headed woodpecker prefers undisturbed and ancient forests with natural cohort structure as well as riparian forests for breeding, the destruction of such habitat is the greatest threat to the species."]}, "Aythya fuligula": {"keywords": ["The tufted duck breeds throughout temperate and northern Eurasia.", "It occasionally can be found as a winter visitor along both coasts of the United States and Canada.", "These ducks are migratory in most of their range, and overwinter in the milder south and west of Europe, southern Asia and all year in the British Isles.", "They form large flocks on open water in winter.", "Their breeding habitat is close to marshes and lakes with plenty of vegetation to conceal the nest.", "They are also found on coastal lagoons, shorelines and sheltered ponds.", "They eat molluscs, aquatic insects and some plants and sometimes feed at night."], "habitat_section": ["The tufted duck breeds throughout temperate and northern Eurasia.", "It occasionally can be found as a winter visitor along both coasts of the United States and Canada.", "It is believed to have expanded its traditional range with the increased availability of open water due to gravel extraction, and the spread of freshwater mussels, a favourite food.", "These ducks are migratory in most of their range, and overwinter in the milder south and west of Europe, southern Asia and all year in the British Isles.", "One individual has been reported as far south as Melbourne, Australia.", "They form large flocks on open water in winter.", "Their breeding habitat is close to marshes and lakes with plenty of vegetation to conceal the nest.", "They are also found on coastal lagoons, shorelines and sheltered ponds."], "random_sentences": ["The tufted duck or tufted pochard is a small diving duck with a population of close to one million birds, found in northern Eurasia.", "The scientific name is derived from Ancient Greek aithuia, an unidentified seabird mentioned by authors including Hesychius and Aristotle, and Latin fuligo \" soot \" and gula \" throat \" .", "The adult male is all black except for white flanks and a blue-grey bill with gold-yellow eyes, along with a thin crest on the back of its head.", "It has an obvious head tuft that gives the species its name.", "The adult female is brown with paler flanks, and is more easily confused with other diving ducks.", "In particular, some have white around the bill base which resembles the scaup species, although the white is never as extensive as in those ducks.", "The females' call is a harsh, growling \" karr \" , mostly given in flight.", "The males are mostly silent but they make whistles during courtship based on a simple \" wit-oo \" .", "The only ducks which are similar are the greater scaup and lesser scaup, but these species have no tuft and a different call.", "The tufted duck is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "The tufted duck breeds throughout temperate and northern Eurasia.", "It occasionally can be found as a winter visitor along both coasts of the United States and Canada.", "It is believed to have expanded its traditional range with the increased availability of open water due to gravel extraction, and the spread of freshwater mussels, a favourite food.", "These ducks are migratory in most of their range, and overwinter in the milder south and west of Europe, southern Asia and all year in the British Isles.", "One individual has been reported as far south as Melbourne, Australia.", "They form large flocks on open water in winter.", "Their breeding habitat is close to marshes and lakes with plenty of vegetation to conceal the nest.", "They are also found on coastal lagoons, shorelines and sheltered ponds.", "These birds feed mainly by diving, but they will sometimes upend from the surface.", "They eat molluscs, aquatic insects and some plants and sometimes feed at night."]}, "Fringilla coelebs": {"keywords": ["The chaffinch breeds in much of Europe, across the Palearctic to Siberia and in northwestern Africa.", "Outside the breeding season, chaffinches form flocks in open countryside and forage for seeds on the ground.", "During the breeding season, they forage on trees for invertebrates, especially caterpillars, and feed these to their young.", "They are partial migrants, birds breeding in warmer regions are sedentary, while those breeding in the colder northern areas of their range winter further south.", "The ends of the feathers wear away over the winter so that by the spring breeding season the underlying brighter colours are displayed.", "The males of F. c. canariensis and F. c. palmae in the Canary Islands have deep slate-blue upperparts and lack a contrasting mantle.", "The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia.", "There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.", "The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century.", "In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species.", "In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.", "This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter.", "The date for breeding is dependent on the spring temperature and is earlier in southwest Europe and later in the northeast.", "The outside is covered with a layer of lichen and spider silk over an inner layer of moss and grass.", "Outside the breeding season, common chaffinches mainly eat seeds and other plant material that they find on the ground.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain.", "The endemic subspecies on the Macaronesian islands in the Atlantic are vulnerable to the loss of habitat, especially F. c. ombriosa on El Hierro in the Canary Islands, where the breeding population is between 1,000 and 5,000 pairs.", "\" In Great Britain, the practice of keeping common chaffinches as pets declined after the trapping of wild birds was outlawed by the Wild Birds Protection Acts of 1880 to 1896."], "habitat_section": ["The common chaffinch breeds in wooded areas where the July isotherm is between .", "The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia.", "There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.", "The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century.", "In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species.", "In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.", "This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter.", "It forms loose flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with bramblings.", "It occasionally strays to eastern North America, although some sightings may be escapees."], "random_sentences": ["ID composite The common chaffinch or simply the chaffinch is a common and widespread small passerine bird in the finch family.", "The male is brightly coloured with a blue-grey cap and rust-red underparts.", "The female is more subdued in colouring, but both sexes have two contrasting white wing bars and white sides to the tail.", "The male bird has a strong voice and sings from exposed perches to attract a mate.", "The chaffinch breeds in much of Europe, across the Palearctic to Siberia and in northwestern Africa.", "The female builds a nest with a deep cup in the fork of a tree.", "The clutch is typically four or five eggs, which hatch in about 13 days.", "The chicks fledge in around 14 days, but are fed by both adults for several weeks after leaving the nest.", "Outside the breeding season, chaffinches form flocks in open countryside and forage for seeds on the ground.", "During the breeding season, they forage on trees for invertebrates, especially caterpillars, and feed these to their young.", "birds breeding in warmer regions are sedentary, while those breeding in the colder northern areas of their range winter further south.", "The eggs and nestlings of the chaffinch are taken by a variety of mammalian and avian predators.", "Its large numbers and huge range mean that chaffinches are classed as of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.", "The common chaffinch was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name.", "Fringilla is the Latin word for finch, while caelebs means unmarried or single.", "Linnaeus remarked that during the Swedish winter, only the female birds migrated south through Belgium to Italy.", "The name spink is probably derived from the bird's call note.", "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 .", "The common chaffinch is about long, with a wingspan of and a weight of .", "The adult male of the nominate subspecies has a black forehead and a blue-grey crown, nape and upper mantle.", "The rump is a light olive-green", "the lower mantle and scapulars form a brown saddle.", "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.", "The flight feathers are black with white on the basal portions of the vanes.", "The secondaries and inner primaries have pale yellow fringes on the outer web whereas the outer primaries have a white outer edge.", "After the autumn moult, the tips of the new feathers have a buff fringe that adds a brown cast to the coloured plumage.", "The ends of the feathers wear away over the winter so that by the spring breeding season the underlying brighter colours are displayed.", "The eyes have dark brown irises and the legs are grey-brown.", "In winter the bill is a pale grey and slightly darker along the upper ridge or culmen, but in spring the bill becomes bluish-grey with a small black tip.", "The male of the subspecies resident in the British Isles (F.", "c. gengleri) closely resembles the nominate subspecies, but has a slightly darker mantle and underparts.", "The males of the two North African subspecies F. c. africana and F. c. spodiogenys have a blue-grey crown and nape that extends down to the sides of the head and neck, a black forehead and lore, a broken white eye-ring, a bright olive-green saddle and a pink-buff throat and breast.", "The males of F. c. canariensis and F. c. palmae in the Canary Islands have deep slate-blue upperparts and lack a contrasting mantle.", "Male chaffinches in Madeira (F.", "c. maderensis) and the Azores (F.", "c. moreletti) are similar in appearance to F. c. canariensis, but have a bright green mantle.", "The adult female is much duller in appearance than the male.", "The head and most of the upperparts are shades of grey-brown.", "The lower back and rump are a dull olive green.", "The wings and tail are similar to those of the male.", "The juvenile resembles the female.", "Males typically sing two or three different song types, and there are regional dialects also.", "The acquisition by the young common chaffinch of its song was the subject of an influential study by British ethologist William Thorpe.", "Thorpe determined that if the young common chaffinch is not exposed to the adult male's song during a certain critical period after hatching, it will never properly learn the song.", "He also found that in adult common chaffinches, castration eliminates the song, but injection of testosterone induces such birds to sing even in November, when they are normally silent.", "The common chaffinch breeds in wooded areas where the July isotherm is between .", "The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia.", "There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.", "The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century.", "In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species.", "In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.", "This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter.", "It forms loose flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with bramblings.", "It occasionally strays to eastern North America, although some sightings may be escapees.", "Nest of a chaffinch Eggs of Fringilla coelebs moreletti", "Common chaffinches first breed when they are 1 year old.", "They are mainly monogamous and the pair-bond for residential subspecies such as gengleri sometimes persists from one year to the next.", "The date for breeding is dependent on the spring temperature and is earlier in southwest Europe and later in the northeast.", "In Great Britain, most clutches are laid between late April and the middle of June.", "A male attracts a female to his territory through song.", " Nests are built entirely by the female and are usually located in the fork of a bush or a tree several metres above the ground.", "The nest has a deep cup and is lined with a layer of thin roots and feathers.", "The outside is covered with a layer of lichen and spider silk over an inner layer of moss and grass.", "The eggs are laid in early morning at daily intervals until the clutch is complete.", "The clutch is typically 45 eggs, which are smooth and slightly glossy, but very variable in colour.", "They range from pale-blueish green to light red with purple-brown blotches, spots or steaks.", "The average size of an egg is with a weight of .", "The eggs are incubated for 1016 days by the female.", "The chicks are altricial, hatching nearly naked with closed eyes, and are fed by both parents but mainly by the female, who broods them for around six days.", "They are mainly fed caterpillars.", "The nestlings fledge 1118 days after hatching and disperse.", "The young birds are then assisted with feeding by both parents for a further three weeks.", "The parents only very rarely start a second brood, but when they do so it is always in a new nest.", "Juveniles undergo a partial moult at around five weeks of age in which they replace their head, body and many of their covert feathers, but not their primary and secondary flight feathers.", "After breeding adult birds undergo a complete annual moult which lasts around ten weeks.", "In a study carried out in Britain using ring-recovery data, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 53 per cent, and the adult annual survival rate was 59 per cent.", "From these figures the typical lifespan is only 3 years, but the maximum age recorded is 15 years and 6 months for a bird in Switzerland.", "Outside the breeding season, common chaffinches mainly eat seeds and other plant material that they find on the ground.", "They often forage in open country in large flocks.", "Common chaffinches seldom take food directly from plants and only very rarely use their feet for handling food.", "During the breeding season, their diet switches to invertebrates, especially defoliating caterpillars.", "They forage in trees and also occasionally make short sallies to catch insects in the air.", "The young are entirely fed with invertebrates which include caterpillars, aphids, earwigs, spiders and grubs .", "The eggs and nestlings of the common chaffinch are predated by crows, Eurasian red and eastern grey squirrels, domestic cats and probably also by stoats and weasels.", "Clutches begun later in the spring suffer less predation, an effect that is believed to be due to the increased vegetation making nests more difficult to find.", " Unlike the case for the closely related brambling, the common chaffinch is not parasitised by the common cuckoo.", "The protozoal parasite Trichomonas gallinae was known to infect pigeons and raptors, but beginning in Great Britain in 2005, carcasses of dead European greenfinches and common chaffinches were found to be infected with the parasite.", "The disease spread and in 2008, infected carcasses were found in Norway, Sweden and Finland and a year later in Germany.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain.", "In Great Britain, the number of infected carcasses recovered each year declined after a peak in 2006.", "There was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches but no significant decline in the overall number of common chaffinches.", "A similar pattern occurred in Finland where, after the arrival of the disease in 2008, there was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches, but only a small change in the number of common chaffinches.", "Common chaffinches can develop tumors on their feet and legs caused by the Fringilla coelebs papillomavirus.", "The size of the papillomas range from a small nodule on a digit to a large growth involving both the foot and the leg.", "The disease is uncommon: in a 1973 study undertaken in the Netherlands, of around 25,000 common chaffinches screened, only 330 bore papillomas.", "The common chaffinch has an extensive range, estimated at 7 million square kilometres and a large population including an estimated 130240 million breeding pairs in Europe.", "Allowing for the birds breeding in Asia, the total population lies between 530 and 1,400 million individuals.", "There is no evidence of any serious overall decline in numbers, so the species is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of Least Concern.", "The endemic subspecies on the Macaronesian islands in the Atlantic are vulnerable to the loss of habitat, especially F. c. ombriosa on El Hierro in the Canary Islands, where the breeding population is between 1,000 and 5,000 pairs.", "A captive male chaffinch The common chaffinch was once popular as a caged songbird and large numbers of wild birds were trapped and sold.", "At the end of the 19th century, trapping even depleted the number of birds in London parks.", "In 1882, the English publisher Samuel Orchart Beeton issued a guide on the care of caged birds and included the recommendation: \" To parents and guardians plagued with a morose and sulky boy, my advice is, buy him a chaffinch.", "\" In Great Britain, the practice of keeping common chaffinches as pets declined after the trapping of wild birds was outlawed by the Wild Birds Protection Acts of 1880 to 1896.", "The common chaffinch is still a popular pet bird in some European countries.", "In Belgium, the traditional sport of vinkenzetting pits male common chaffinches against one another in a contest for the most bird calls in an hour."]}, "Regulus ignicapilla": {"keywords": ["It breeds in most of temperate Europe and northwestern Africa, and is partially migratory, with birds from central Europe wintering to the south and west of their breeding range.", "Firecrests in the Balearic Islands and north Africa are widely recognised as a separate subspecies, but the population on Madeira, previously also treated as a subspecies, is now treated as a distinct species, the Madeira firecrest, Regulus madeirensis.", "The common firecrest breeds in broadleaved or coniferous woodland and gardens, building its compact, three-layered nest on a tree branch.", "This kinglet is constantly on the move and frequently hovers as it searches for insects to eat, and in winter it is often found with flocks of tits.", "There are two widely recognised subspecies of common firecrest, nominate R. i. ignicapilla and Mediterranean R. i. balearicus .", "The latter form is found on the Balearic Islands and in north Africa, and is slightly paler below and greyer above than the nominate subspecies.", "Cytochrome b gene divergence between the Madeira firecrest and the European bird is 8.5%, comparable with the divergence level between other recognised Regulus species, such as the 9% between the goldcrest and the golden-crowned kinglet.", "The kinglets on the Canary Islands, which were also considered to be close to firecrests, have now been shown to comprise two subspecies of goldcrest.", "The common firecrest breeds in lowland broadleaf forest, preferring cork oak and alder where available, otherwise beech and holly.", "It also uses mixed broadleaf and conifer woodland, and stands of spruce, European silver fir, cedar and pines, often with undergrowth of juniper, ivy and wild rose.", "In drier Mediterranean habitats it is found in conifers, evergreen oak, and mixed woodlands up to .", "The nominate subspecies breeds in Europe from southern England, France, Spain and Portugal east to Belarus, northwestern Ukraine, and Greece, and north to the Baltic and southern Latvia.", "Southern birds are largely resident, unlike northern and eastern populations which are migratory, wintering mainly in Mediterranean areas and the far west of Europe from Portugal north to Britain.", "R. i. balearicus is resident in the Balearic Islands and the northern parts of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.", "Firecrest parents mainly feed young chicks during their first four days of life with springtails after which time larger food items are given as the chicks grow.", "Throughout the firecrest's range, the main predator of small woodland birds is the Eurasian sparrowhawk, which takes avian prey as up to 98% of its diet.", "The invasive Argentine ant is common in the Mediterranean area, and reduces arthropod numbers by removing most native ant species.", "The common firecrest expanded its range in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but first bred in 1962, A population was found in northern Morocco in 1986.", "There may also be localised losses in areas of high heavy metal pollution, which particularly affects ground feeders like thrushes and conifer foliage gleaners, including both European Regulus species."], "habitat_section": ["Cork woodland is favoured for breeding.", "The common firecrest breeds in lowland broadleaf forest, preferring cork oak and alder where available, otherwise beech and holly.", "It also uses mixed broadleaf and conifer woodland, and stands of spruce, European silver fir, cedar and pines, often with undergrowth of juniper, ivy and wild rose.", "In drier Mediterranean habitats it is found in conifers, evergreen oak, and mixed woodlands up to .", "The nominate subspecies breeds in Europe from southern England, France, Spain and Portugal east to Belarus, northwestern Ukraine, and Greece, and north to the Baltic and southern Latvia.", "There are isolated populations east of the main range in Abkhazia, the Crimea and Turkey.", "Its range lies between the July isotherms.", "Southern birds are largely resident, unlike northern and eastern populations which are migratory, wintering mainly in Mediterranean areas and the far west of Europe from Portugal north to Britain.", "R. i. balearicus is resident in the Balearic Islands and the northern parts of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.", "This species has been recorded as a vagrant from Norway, Finland, Estonia, Cyprus, Egypt and Lebanon.", "In July 2020, it was reported that the common firecrest was now nesting in at least two locations in southern Finland."], "random_sentences": ["The common firecrest , also known as the firecrest, is a very small passerine bird in the kinglet family.", "It breeds in most of temperate Europe and northwestern Africa, and is partially migratory, with birds from central Europe wintering to the south and west of their breeding range.", "Firecrests in the Balearic Islands and north Africa are widely recognised as a separate subspecies, but the population on Madeira, previously also treated as a subspecies, is now treated as a distinct species, the Madeira firecrest, Regulus madeirensis.", "A fossil ancestor of the firecrest has been identified from a single wing bone.", "This kinglet is greenish above and has whitish underparts.", "It has two white wingbars, a black eye stripe and a white supercilium.", "The head crest, orange in the male and yellow in the female, is displayed during breeding, and gives rise to the English and scientific names for the species.", "This bird superficially resembles the goldcrest, which largely shares its European range, but the firecrest's bronze shoulders and strong face pattern are distinctive.", "The song is a repetition of high thin notes, slightly lower-pitched than those of its relative.", "The common firecrest breeds in broadleaved or coniferous woodland and gardens, building its compact, three-layered nest on a tree branch.", "Seven to twelve eggs are incubated by the female alone.", "Both parents feed the chicks, which fledge 2224 days after hatching.", "This kinglet is constantly on the move and frequently hovers as it searches for insects to eat, and in winter it is often found with flocks of tits.", "Despite some possible local declines, the species is not the subject of significant conservation concerns owing to its large European population and an expansion of its range over the last century.", "It may be hunted and killed by birds of prey, and can carry parasites.", "It is possible that this species was the original \" king of the birds \" in European folklore.", "The common firecrest is a small plump bird, in length with a wingspan of , and weighs .", "It has bright olive-green upperparts with a bronze-coloured patch on each shoulder, and whitish underparts washed with brownish-grey on the breast and flanks.", "It has two white wingbars, a tiny black pointed bill, and brownish-black legs.", "The head pattern is striking, with a black eye stripe, long white supercilium, and a crest which is bright yellow in the female and mainly orange in the male.", "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.", "A temporarily stunned adult male found on a pavement in Lille, France.", "The pattern on its head is seen clearly.", "The kinglets are a small group of birds sometimes included in the Old World warblers, but frequently given family status, especially as recent research shows that, despite superficial similarities, the crests are phylogenetically remote from the warblers.", "The names of the family, Regulidae, and its only genus, Regulus, are derived from the Latin regulus, a diminutive of rex, \" a king \" , and refer to the characteristic orange or yellow crests of adult kinglets.", "The common firecrest was first formally described by Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1820 as Sylvia ignicapilla", "the relatively late identification of this common European bird arose from a perception that it was just a variety of the goldcrest.", "The species name is derived from Latin ignis \" fire \" and capillus \" hair \" .", "There are two widely recognised subspecies of common firecrest, nominate R. i. ignicapilla and Mediterranean R. i. balearicus .", "The latter form is found on the Balearic Islands and in north Africa, and is slightly paler below and greyer above than the nominate subspecies.", "The Madeira firecrest, R. madeirensis, was formerly also considered to be a subspecies of the common firecrest, but phylogenetic analysis based on the cytochrome b gene showed that the Madeiran form is distinct at the species level.", "Cytochrome b gene divergence between the Madeira firecrest and the European bird is 8.5%, comparable with the divergence level between other recognised Regulus species, such as the 9% between the goldcrest and the golden-crowned kinglet.", "The island form also differs in morphology and vocalisations.", "The proposed split was accepted by the Association of European Rarities Committees in 2003, although some authorities, like The Clements checklist, have not yet recognised the new species.", "The flamecrest or Taiwan firecrest of Taiwan has sometimes been viewed as a race of the common firecrest", "however, the flamecrest's territorial song, which resembles those of the Himalayan races of the goldcrest, and genetic data indicate that the flamecrest is closely related to the Himalayan goldcrest and only distantly to the two firecrest species.", "The kinglets on the Canary Islands, which were also considered to be close to firecrests, have now been shown to comprise two subspecies of goldcrest.", "There are a few Pleistocene records from Europe and Israel of extant Regulus species, mostly goldcrests or unidentifiable to species, but also a Spanish specimen of firecrest.", "A left ulna from Bulgaria was identified as belonging to a fossil species, Regulus bulgaricus, from 2.6", "This appears to be ancestral to the common firecrest, with the goldcrest diverging from this lineage in the Middle Pleistocene.", "Cork woodland is favoured for breeding.", "The common firecrest breeds in lowland broadleaf forest, preferring cork oak and alder where available, otherwise beech and holly.", "It also uses mixed broadleaf and conifer woodland, and stands of spruce, European silver fir, cedar and pines, often with undergrowth of juniper, ivy and wild rose.", "In drier Mediterranean habitats it is found in conifers, evergreen oak, and mixed woodlands up to .", "The nominate subspecies breeds in Europe from southern England, France, Spain and Portugal east to Belarus, northwestern Ukraine, and Greece, and north to the Baltic and southern Latvia.", "There are isolated populations east of the main range in Abkhazia, the Crimea and Turkey.", "Its range lies between the July isotherms.", "Southern birds are largely resident, unlike northern and eastern populations which are migratory, wintering mainly in Mediterranean areas and the far west of Europe from Portugal north to Britain.", "R. i. balearicus is resident in the Balearic Islands and the northern parts of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.", "This species has been recorded as a vagrant from Norway, Finland, Estonia, Cyprus, Egypt and Lebanon.", "In July 2020, it was reported that the common firecrest was now nesting in at least two locations in southern Finland.", "Singing in a conifer tree in Galicia, Spain Eggs of Regulus ignicapilla MHNT The common firecrest is monogamous.", "The male sings during the breeding season, often with its crest raised, and has a display which involves pointing its bill at another bird, showing the crest and strong face pattern.", "This differs from the display of the plainer-faced goldcrest, which bows its head to emphasise the crest.", "The breeding territory is about , and may overlap with neighbouring goldcrest territories.", "Firecrests will sometimes defend their territories against goldcrests with the crest raised and a great deal of wing-fluttering, in other circumstances, the two kinglets learned to ignore each other's songs.", "In his courtship display the male firecrest raises his crest, points it towards his mate and hovers over her before mating takes place.", "As is typical for the family, the nest is a closed cup built in three layers with a small entrance hole near its top.", "The nest's outer layer is made from moss, small twigs, cobwebs and lichen, the spider webs also being used to attach the nest to the thin branches that support it.", "The middle layer is moss, and this is lined with feathers and hair.", "The nest is smaller, deeper and more compact than that of the goldcrest, about across and deep, with a wall thickness of about .", "The nest is constructed by the female alone, although the male will accompany the female while she builds the nest over a period of a few days to three weeks.", "unlike those of Madeira firecrest which are described as like those of a Phylloscopus warbler .", "The eggs are and weigh , of which 5% is shell.", "The clutch size in Europe is 712 eggs, but probably smaller in northwest Africa.", "The female incubates the eggs for 14.5 to 16.5 days to hatching, and broods the chicks, which fledge eight to ten days later.", "Both parents feed the chicks and fledged young.", "This species becomes sexually mature after one year, and has a life expectancy of less than two years.", "Although their ranges overlap substantially, hybridisation between goldcrests and firecrests seems to be prevented by differences in courtship rituals and different facial patterns.", "Even in aviary studies in which a female goldcrest was given an artificial eyestripe to facilitate mating with a male firecrest, the chicks were never raised by the mixed pair, and appeared to be poorly adapted compared to the parent species.", "Firecrest parents mainly feed young chicks during their first four days of life with springtails after which time larger food items are given as the chicks grow.", "All species of kinglet are almost exclusively insectivorous, preying on small arthropods with soft cuticles, such as springtails, aphids and spiders.", "They also feed on the cocoons and eggs of spiders and insects, and occasionally take pollen.", "All species will hover to catch flying insects.", "Although the similarly sized firecrest and goldcrest are often found together, there are a number of factors that reduce direct competition for food.", "Common firecrests prefer larger prey than goldcrests.", "Although both will take trapped insects from spider webs on autumn migration, firecrests will also eat the large orb-web spiders .", "Young common firecrests are fed almost exclusively with springtails", "larger food items are not accepted, and spiders are occasionally regurgitated.", "From the fifth day onwards, the nestling diet includes aphids and a high amount of snail shells, the latter being needed for bone growth.", "After the second week, the food includes larger moths and caterpillars, as well as various arthropods typically avoided by adults, such as harvestmen, earwigs, and centipedes.", "In some areas, wintering birds have developed the habit of coming to feeding stations and bird tables for fatty food, sometimes with goldcrests or warblers such as the common chiffchaff and blackcap.", "The contact call is three or four thin high notes, similar to that of goldcrest, but slightly lower in pitch, zit-zit-zit rather than see-see-see.", "The song is a succession of call notes in a longer and slightly more varied sequence.", "Typically there are 1114 notes per song, becoming louder and faster, with the final three notes slightly different from the preceding ones: zit-zit-zit-zit-zit-zit-zit-zit-zit-zit-zirt.", "The song usually lasts 0.52.5 seconds, shorter than the 3.54.0 seconds for the goldcrest, and may be repeated up to eight times a minute.", "In May and June, singing is most frequent after dawn, but continues less often throughout the day.", "Later in the breeding season, song becomes largely confined to the morning.", "Male goldcrests and Madeiran firecrests sometimes show a territorial response to recordings of the songs or calls of the common firecrest, but the reverse is apparently not true, because the songs of the common firecrest are simpler in construction than those of its relatives.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a major predator of small songbirds.", "Throughout the firecrest's range, the main predator of small woodland birds is the Eurasian sparrowhawk, which takes avian prey as up to 98% of its diet.", "The tawny owl relies more on mammalian catches, but about one-third of its food is forest birds.", "Eggs and young may be taken by grey squirrels, Eurasian jays and great spotted woodpeckers.", "The invasive Argentine ant is common in the Mediterranean area, and reduces arthropod numbers by removing most native ant species.", "The reduction in prey items is greatest in the tree canopy, and has a greater effect on species like the firecrest that feed high in the foliage.", "Less food is available for chicks, and parents have to spend more time foraging.", "Data on specific parasites of the firecrest is lacking, but the widespread moorhen flea, Dasypsyllus gallinulae has been recorded in a related Regulus species.", "A number of feather mites have been recorded in the genus, including Proctophyllodes glandarinus on firecrest.", "These mites live on fungi growing on the feathers.", "The fungi found on the plumage may feed on the keratin of the outer feathers or on feather oil.", "The common firecrest expanded its range in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but first bred in 1962, A population was found in northern Morocco in 1986.", "There may also be localised losses in areas of high heavy metal pollution, which particularly affects ground feeders like thrushes and conifer foliage gleaners, including both European Regulus species.", "Conifer specialists suffer from the loss and poor quality of needles, and the consequent decrease in abundance of their invertebrate food.", "The common firecrest has a large range and a population estimated at 1015 million individuals, most in Europe.", "The population is believed to be stable in the absence of evidence for any declines or serious threats, and it is therefore classed as least concern on the IUCN Red List.", "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.", "Following from this legend, in much European folklore the wren has been described as the \" king of the birds \" or as a flame bearer.", "However, these terms were also applied to the Regulus species, the fiery crowns of the goldcrest and firecrest making them more likely to be the original bearers of these titles, and, because of the legend's reference to the \" smallest of birds \" becoming king, the title was probably transferred to the equally tiny wren.", "The confusion was assisted by the similarity and consequent interchangeability of the Ancient Greek words for the wren and the crest .", "In English, the association between the firecrest and Eurasian wren was reinforced by the kinglet's old name of \" fire-crested wren \" ."]}, "Carduelis carduelis": {"keywords": ["The European goldfinch or simply the goldfinch is a small passerine bird in the finch family that is native to Europe, North Africa and western and central Asia.", "The sexes are broadly similar, with a red face, black and white head, warm brown upper parts, white underparts with buff flanks and breast patches, and black and yellow wings.", "After moult birds appear less colourful, until the tips of the newly grown feathers wear away.", "The European goldfinch is native to Europe, North Africa, and western and central Asia.", "It is found in open, partially wooded lowlands and is a resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from colder regions.", "It was introduced to Bermuda, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands, Uruguay, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand in the 19th century, and their populations quickly increased and their range expanded greatly.", "In the United States, they have become established in the western Great Lakes region.", "It is constructed of mosses and lichens and lined with plant down such as that from thistles.", "European goldfinches are attracted to back gardens in Europe and North America by birdfeeders containing seed."], "habitat_section": ["The European goldfinch is native to Europe, North Africa, and western and central Asia.", "It is found in open, partially wooded lowlands and is a resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from colder regions.", "It will also make local movements, even in the west, to escape bad weather.", "It has been introduced to many areas of the world.", "It was introduced to Bermuda, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands, Uruguay, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand in the 19th century, and their populations quickly increased and their range expanded greatly.", "In Australia, they now occur from Brisbane to the Eyre Peninsula, and are also spread throughout New Zealand.", "In the United States, they have become established in the western Great Lakes region.", "A European goldfinch nest and eggs"], "random_sentences": ["The European goldfinch or simply the goldfinch is a small passerine bird in the finch family that is native to Europe, North Africa and western and central Asia.", "It has been introduced to other areas, including Australia, New Zealand and Uruguay.", "The breeding male has a red face with black markings around the eyes, and a black-and-white head.", "The back and flanks are buff or chestnut brown.", "The black wings have a broad yellow bar.", "The tail is black and the rump is white.", "Males and females are very similar, but females have a slightly smaller red area on the face.", "The goldfinch is often depicted in Italian Renaissance paintings of the Madonna and Child.", "The European goldfinch was one of the birds described and illustrated by Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner in his Historiae animalium of 1555.", "The first formal description was by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae published in 1758.", "He introduced the binomial name, Fringilla carduelis.", "Carduelis is the Latin word for 'goldfinch'.", "The European goldfinch is now placed in the genus Carduelis that was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 by tautonomy based on Linnaeus's specific epithet.", "Modern molecular genetic studies have shown that the European goldfinch is closely related to the citril finch and the Corsican finch .", "The English word 'goldfinch' was used in the second half of the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer in his unfinished The Cook's Tale: \" Gaillard he was as goldfynch in the shawe \" .", "The European goldfinch originated in the late Miocene-Pliocene and belongs to the clade of cardueline finches.", "The citril finch and the Corsican finch are its sister taxa.", "Their closest relatives are the greenfinches, crossbills and redpolls.", "The monophyly of the subfamily Carduelinae is suggested in previous studies.", "The average European goldfinch is long with a wingspan of and a weight of .", "The sexes are broadly similar, with a red face, black and white head, warm brown upper parts, white underparts with buff flanks and breast patches, and black and yellow wings.", "On closer inspection, male European goldfinches can often be distinguished by a larger, darker red mask that extends just behind the eye.", "The shoulder feathers are black, whereas they are brown on the female.", "In females, the red face does not extend past the eye.", "The ivory-coloured bill is long and pointed, and the tail is forked.", "Goldfinches in breeding condition have a white bill, with a greyish or blackish mark at the tip for the rest of the year.", "Juveniles have a plain head and a greyer back but are unmistakable due to the yellow wing stripe.", "Birds in central Asia have a plain grey head behind the red face, lacking the black and white head pattern of European and western Asian birds.", "Adults moult after the breeding season, with some individuals beginning in July and others not completing their moult until November.", "After moult birds appear less colourful, until the tips of the newly grown feathers wear away.", "The song is a pleasant silvery twittering.", "The call is a melodic , and the song is a pleasant tinkling medley of trills and twitters, but always including the tri-syllabic call phrase or a .", "The European goldfinch is native to Europe, North Africa, and western and central Asia.", "It is found in open, partially wooded lowlands and is a resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from colder regions.", "It will also make local movements, even in the west, to escape bad weather.", "It has been introduced to many areas of the world.", "It was introduced to Bermuda, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands, Uruguay, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand in the 19th century, and their populations quickly increased and their range expanded greatly.", "In Australia, they now occur from Brisbane to the Eyre Peninsula, and are also spread throughout New Zealand.", "In the United States, they have become established in the western Great Lakes region.", "A European goldfinch nest and eggs", "The nest is built entirely by the female and is generally completed within a week.", "The male accompanies the female, but does not contribute.", "The nest is neat and compact and is generally located several metres above the ground, hidden by leaves in the twigs at the end of a swaying branch.", "It is constructed of mosses and lichens and lined with plant down such as that from thistles.", "It is attached to the twigs of the tree with spider silk.", "A deep cup prevents the loss of eggs in windy weather.", "Beginning within a couple of days after the completion of the nest, the eggs are laid in early morning at daily intervals.", "The clutch is typically 4-6 eggs, which are whitish with reddish-brown speckles.", "They have a smooth surface and are slightly glossy.", "The average size is with a calculated weight of .", "The eggs are incubated for 1113 days by the female, who is fed by the male.", "The chicks are fed by both parents.", "Initially they receive a mixture of seeds and insects, but as they grow the proportion of insect material decreases.", "For the first 79 days the young are brooded by the female.", "The nestlings fledge 1318 days after hatching.", "The young birds are fed by both parents for a further 79 days.", "The parents typically raise two broods each year and occasionally three.", "The European goldfinch's preferred food is small seeds such as those from thistles , cornflowers, and teasels, but insects are also taken when feeding young.", "It also regularly visits bird feeders in winter.", "In the winter, European goldfinches group together to form flocks of up to 40, occasionally more.", "European goldfinches are attracted to back gardens in Europe and North America by birdfeeders containing seed.", "This seed of an annual from Africa is small, and high in oils.", "Special polycarbonate feeders with small oval slits at which the European goldfinches feed are sometimes used.", "Madonna of the Goldfinch by Raphael, upright", "The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius, 1654 European goldfinches are commonly kept and bred in captivity around the world because of their distinctive appearance and pleasant song.", "If European goldfinches are kept with domestic canaries, they tend to lose their native song and call in favour of their cagemates' songs.", "This is considered undesirable, as it detracts from the allure of keeping European goldfinches.", "In Great Britain during the 19th century, many thousands of European goldfinches were trapped each year to be sold as cage birds.", "One of the earliest campaigns of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was directed against this trade.", "Wildlife conservation attempts to limit bird trapping and the destruction of the open space habitats of European goldfinches.", "Steglitz, a borough of the German city of Berlin is named after the European goldfinch.", "The surname Goldspink is based on the Scots word for the European goldfinch.", "Because of the thistle seeds it eats, in Christian symbolism the European goldfinch is associated with Christ's Passion and his crown of thorns.", "The European goldfinch, appearing in pictures of the Madonna and Christ child, represents the foreknowledge Jesus and Mary had of the Crucifixion.", "Examples include the Madonna del cardellino or Madonna of the Goldfinch, painted by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael in about 15056, in which John the Baptist offers a European goldfinch to Christ in a warning of his future.", "In Barocci's Holy Family, a European goldfinch is held in the hand of John the Baptist, who holds it high out of reach of an interested cat.", "In Cima da Conegliano's Madonna and Child, a European goldfinch flutters in the hand of the Christ child.", "It is also an emblem of endurance, fruitfulness, and persistence.", "Because it symbolizes the Passion, the European goldfinch is considered a \" saviour \" bird and may be pictured with the common housefly .", "The European goldfinch is also associated with Saint Jerome and appears in some depictions of him.", "Antonio Vivaldi composed a Concerto in D major for Flute \" Il Gardellino \" (RV 428, Op.", "3), where the singing of the European goldfinch is imitated by a flute.", "An anonymous Italian Neapolitan poem titled Il Cardellino was put to music by Saverio Mercadante and sung by Jose Carreras.", "European goldfinches, with their \" wanton freak \" and \" yellow flutterings \" , are among the many natural \" luxuries \" that delight the speaker of John Keats' poem 'I stood tip-toe upon a little hill...", "In the poem The Great Hunger by Patrick Kavanagh, the European goldfinch is one of the rare glimpses of beauty in the life of an elderly Irish farmer: Donna Tartt's novel The Goldfinch won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.", "A turning point in the plot occurs when the narrator, Theo, sees his mother's favourite painting, Carel Fabritius's The Goldfinch, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art."]}, "Columba palumbus": {"keywords": ["Photograph taken in Cambridge, England The common wood pigeon or common woodpigeon , also known as simply wood pigeon, wood-pigeon or woodpigeon, is a large species in the dove and pigeon family , native to the western Palearctic.", "It has a flexible diet, predominantly feeding on vegetable matter, including cereal crops, leading to them being regarded as an agricultural pest.", "In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.", "In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities.", "Like many species of pigeon, wood pigeons take advantage of trees and buildings to gain a vantage point over the surrounding area, and their distinctive call means that they are usually heard before they are seen.", "Two young Columba palumbus in a nest It breeds in trees in woods, parks and gardens, laying two white eggs in a simple stick nest which hatch after 17 to 19 days.", "Wood pigeons seem to have a preference for trees near roadways and rivers.", "Their plumage becomes much darker, especially the head, during hot summer periods.", "For birds that survive the first year the typical lifespan is thus only three years, but the maximum recorded age is 17 years and 8 months for a bird ringed and recovered on the Orkney Islands.", "Most of its diet is vegetable, round and fleshy leaves from Caryophyllaceae, Asteraceae, and cruciferous vegetables taken from open fields or gardens and lawns, young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain, pine nuts, and certain fruits and berries.", "In the autumn they also eat figs and acorns, and in winter buds of trees and bushes.", "This is an extremely rich fluid that is produced in the adult birds' crops during the breeding season.", "Due to their feeding on cereal crops, wood pigeons are considered an agricultural pest."], "habitat_section": ["In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.", "In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities."], "random_sentences": ["altA large common wood pigeon standing on a garden fence", "Common wood pigeon perched on a fence.", "Photograph taken in Cambridge, England The common wood pigeon or common woodpigeon , also known as simply wood pigeon, wood-pigeon or woodpigeon, is a large species in the dove and pigeon family , native to the western Palearctic.", "It belongs to the genus Columba, which includes closely related species such as the rock dove .", "It has historically been known as the ring dove, and is locally known in southeast England as the \" culver \"", "the latter name has given rise to several areas known for keeping pigeons to be named after it, such as Culver Down.", "It has a flexible diet, predominantly feeding on vegetable matter, including cereal crops, leading to them being regarded as an agricultural pest.", "Wood pigeons are extensively hunted over large parts of their range, but this does not seem to have a great impact on their population.", "The common wood pigeon was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.", "He placed it with all the other pigeons in the genus Columba and coined the binomial name Columba palumbus.", "The specific epithet palumbus is from the Latin palumbes for a wood pigeon.", "Five subspecies are recognised, one of which is now extinct: extinct", "Adult common wood pigeon, photograph taken in Birmingham, England The three Western European Columba pigeons, common wood pigeon, stock dove and rock dove, though superficially alike, have very distinctive characteristics", "the common wood pigeon may be identified at once by its larger size at and weight , and the white on its neck and wing.", "It is otherwise a basically grey bird, with a pinkish breast.", "The wingspan can range from and the wing chord measures .", "The tail measures , the bill is and the tarsus is .", "Adult birds bear a series of green and white patches on their necks, and a pink patch on their chest.", "The eye colour is a pale yellow, in contrast to that of rock doves, which is orange-red, and the stock pigeon, which is black.", "Juvenile birds do not have the white patches on either side of the neck.", "When they are about 6 months old they gain small white patches on both sides of the neck, which gradually enlarge until they are fully formed when the bird is about 68 months old (approx.", "Juvenile birds also have a greyer beak and an overall lighter grey appearance than adult birds.", "The call is a characteristic cooing, coo-COO-coocoo-coo.", "In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.", "In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities.", "A flock of common wood pigeons feeding in a field right", "Adult sitting on its nest in a tree Egg Hatching of a Common Wood Pigeon Its flight is quick, performed by regular beats, with an occasional sharp flick of the wings, characteristic of pigeons in general. It takes off with a loud clattering.", "It perches well, and in its nuptial display walks along a horizontal branch with swelled neck, lowered wings, and fanned tail.", "During the display flight the bird climbs, the wings are smartly cracked like a whiplash, and the bird glides down on stiff wings.", "The common wood pigeon is gregarious, often forming very large flocks outside the breeding season.", "Like many species of pigeon, wood pigeons take advantage of trees and buildings to gain a vantage point over the surrounding area, and their distinctive call means that they are usually heard before they are seen.", "Wood pigeons are known to fiercely defend their territory, and will fight each other to gain access to nesting and roosting locations.", "Male wood pigeons will typically attempt to drive competitors off by threat displays and pursuit, but will also directly fight, jumping and striking their rival with both wings.", "This species can be an agricultural pest, and it is often shot, being a legal quarry species in most European countries.", "It is wary in rural areas, but often quite tame where it is not persecuted.", "Two young Columba palumbus in a nest It breeds in trees in woods, parks and gardens, laying two white eggs in a simple stick nest which hatch after 17 to 19 days.", "Wood pigeons seem to have a preference for trees near roadways and rivers.", "Males exhibit aggressive behaviour towards each other during the breeding season by jumping and flapping wings at each other.", "Their plumage becomes much darker, especially the head, during hot summer periods.", "Breeding can happen year round if there is food abundant however breeding season most commonly occurs in autumn usually in the months of August and September.", "The nests are vulnerable to attack, particularly by crows.", "The young usually fly at 33 to 34 days", "however, if the nest is disturbed, some young may be able to survive having left the nest as early as 20 days from hatching.", "In a study carried out using ring-recovery data, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 52 per cent, and the adult annual survival rate was 61 per cent.", "For birds that survive the first year the typical lifespan is thus only three years, but the maximum recorded age is 17 years and 8 months for a bird ringed and recovered on the Orkney Islands.", "Most of its diet is vegetable, round and fleshy leaves from Caryophyllaceae, Asteraceae, and cruciferous vegetables taken from open fields or gardens and lawns", "young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain, pine nuts, and certain fruits and berries.", "In the autumn they also eat figs and acorns, and in winter buds of trees and bushes.", "They will also eat larvae, ants, and small worms.", "They need open water to drink and bathe in.", "Young common wood pigeons swiftly become fat, as a result of the crop milk they are fed by their parents.", "This is an extremely rich fluid that is produced in the adult birds' crops during the breeding season.", "Due to their feeding on cereal crops, wood pigeons are considered an agricultural pest.", "In Ireland and the UK, the traditional mnemonic for the distinctive call of the bird has been interpreted as \" Take two cows, Teddy \" , or \" Take two cows, Taffy \" .", "Another interpretation for the birdsong has been \" My toe bleeds, Betty \" .", "AS PER NEW WIKIPEDIA POLICY, GALLERY MUST BE REFERENCED TO AS COMMONS.", "DON'T ADD IT HERE PLEASE "]}, "Phalacrocorax carbo": {"keywords": ["Texel, Netherlands The great cormorant , known as the black shag in New Zealand and formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds.", "It breeds in much of the Old World, Australia, and the Atlantic coast of North America.", "It feeds on the sea, in estuaries, and on freshwater lakes and rivers.", "Northern birds migrate south and winter along any coast that is well-supplied with fish.", "However, after 1945 many artificial lakes were formed in Serbia, some of them became potential habitats for cormorants.", "Currently, on the Lake Celije, formed in 1980, there is a resident colony of cormorants, who nest there and are present throughout the year, except JanuaryFebruary 1985 and February 2012 when the lake surface was completely frozen.", "The type subspecies, P. c. carbo, is found mainly in Atlantic waters and nearby inland areas.", "on western European coasts and east across the Palearctic to Siberia and to North Africa, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland, and on the eastern seaboard of North America.", "The great cormorant often nests in colonies near wetlands, rivers, and sheltered inshore waters.", "It builds its nest, which is made from sticks, in trees, on the ledges of cliffs, and on the ground on rocky islands that are free of predators.", "The average weight of fish taken by great cormorants increased with decreasing air and water temperature, being 30 g during summer, 109 g during a warm winter and 157 g during the cold winter .", "Cormorants consume all fish of appropriate size that they are able to catch in summer and noticeably select for larger, mostly torpedo-shaped fish in winter.", "Thus, the winter elevation of foraging efficiency described for cormorants by various researchers is due to capturing larger fish not due to capturing more fish.", "In some freshwater systems, the losses of fish due to overwintering great cormorants were estimated to be up to 80 kg per ha each year .", "An old legend states that for people who die far out at sea, whose bodies are never recovered, spend eternity on the island Utrst which can only occasionally be found by mortals."], "habitat_section": ["This is a very common and widespread bird species.", "It feeds on the sea, in estuaries, and on freshwater lakes and rivers.", "Northern birds migrate south and winter along any coast that is well-supplied with fish.", "In Serbia, the cormorant lives in Vojvodina.", "However, after 1945 many artificial lakes were formed in Serbia, some of them became potential habitats for cormorants.", "Currently, on the Lake Celije, formed in 1980, there is a resident colony of cormorants, who nest there and are present throughout the year, except JanuaryFebruary 1985 and February 2012 when the lake surface was completely frozen.", "The type subspecies, P. c. carbo, is found mainly in Atlantic waters and nearby inland areas.", "on western European coasts and east across the Palearctic to Siberia and to North Africa, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland, and on the eastern seaboard of North America.", "The subspecies P. c. novaehollandiae is found in Australian waters."], "random_sentences": ["Adult great cormorant in breeding plumage.", "Texel, Netherlands The great cormorant , known as the black shag in New Zealand and formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds.", "It breeds in much of the Old World, Australia, and the Atlantic coast of North America.", "The long white-breasted cormorant P. c. lucidus found in sub-Saharan Africa, has a white neck and breast.", "It is often treated as a full species, Phalacrocorax lucidus .", "In addition to the Australasian and African forms, Phalacrocorax carbo novaehollandiae and P. c. lucidus mentioned above, other geographically distinct subspecies are recognised, including P. c. sinensis , P. c. maroccanus , and P. c. hanedae .", "Some authors treat all these as allospecies of a P. carbo superspecies group.", "In New Zealand, the subspecies P. c. novaehollandiae is known as the black shag or by its Maori name", "The syntype is in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.", "The great cormorant is a large black bird, but there is a wide variation in size in the species' wide range.", "Weight is reported to vary from to .", "Males are typically larger and heavier than females, with the nominate race (P.", "c. carbo) averaging about 10% larger in linear measurements than the smallest race in Europe (P.", "The lightest average weights cited are in Germany (P.", "c. sinensis), where 36 males averaged and 17 females averaged .", "The highest come from Prince Edward Island in Canada (P.", "c. carbo), where 11 males averaged and 11 females averaged .", "Length can vary from and wingspan from .", "They are tied as the second largest extant species of cormorant after the flightless cormorant, with the Japanese cormorant averaging at a similar size.", "In bulk if not in linear dimensions, the Blue-eyed shag species complex of the Southern Oceans are scarcely smaller at average.", "It has a longish tail and yellow throat-patch.", "Adults have white patches on the thighs and on the throat in the breeding season.", "In European waters it can be distinguished from the common shag by its larger size, heavier build, thicker bill, lack of a crest and plumage without any green tinge.", "In eastern North America, it is similarly larger and bulkier than double-crested cormorant, and the latter species has more yellow on the throat and bill and lack the white thigh patches frequently seen on great cormorants.", "Great cormorants are mostly silent, but they make various guttural noises at their breeding colonies.", "A very rare variation of the great cormorant is caused by albinism.", "The Phalacrocorax carbo albino suffers from poor eyesight and/or hearing, thus it rarely manages to survive in the wild.", "This is a very common and widespread bird species.", "It feeds on the sea, in estuaries, and on freshwater lakes and rivers.", "Northern birds migrate south and winter along any coast that is well-supplied with fish.", "In Serbia, the cormorant lives in Vojvodina.", "However, after 1945 many artificial lakes were formed in Serbia", "some of them became potential habitats for cormorants.", "Currently, on the Lake Celije, formed in 1980, there is a resident colony of cormorants, who nest there and are present throughout the year, except JanuaryFebruary 1985 and February 2012 when the lake surface was completely frozen.", "The type subspecies, P. c. carbo, is found mainly in Atlantic waters and nearby inland areas: on western European coasts and east across the Palearctic to Siberia and to North Africa, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland", "and on the eastern seaboard of North America.", "The subspecies P. c. novaehollandiae is found in Australian waters.", "Cormorant swallowing a just caught eel Great cormorant with bronze featherback from Keoladeo Ghana National park, Bharatpur Great cormorant trying to swallow bronze featherback.", "from Keoladeo Ghana National park, Bharatpur Great cormorant from Ponnani Malappuram Kerala India", "The great cormorant often nests in colonies near wetlands, rivers, and sheltered inshore waters.", "Pairs will use the same nest site to breed year after year.", "It builds its nest, which is made from sticks, in trees, on the ledges of cliffs, and on the ground on rocky islands that are free of predators.", "This cormorant lays a clutch of three to five eggs that measure on average.", "The eggs are a pale blue or green, and sometimes have a white chalky layer covering them.", "These eggs are incubated for a period of about 28 to 31 days.", "The great cormorant feeds on fish caught through diving.", "This bird feeds primarily on wrasses, but it also takes sand smelt, flathead and common soles.", "The average weight of fish taken by great cormorants increased with decreasing air and water temperature, being 30 g during summer, 109 g during a warm winter and 157 g during the cold winter .", "Cormorants consume all fish of appropriate size that they are able to catch in summer and noticeably select for larger, mostly torpedo-shaped fish in winter.", "Thus, the winter elevation of foraging efficiency described for cormorants by various researchers is due to capturing larger fish not due to capturing more fish.", "In some freshwater systems, the losses of fish due to overwintering great cormorants were estimated to be up to 80 kg per ha each year .", "This cormorant forages by diving and capturing its prey in its beak.", "Studies suggest that their hearing has evolved for underwater usage, possibly aiding their detection of fish.", "These adaptations also have a cost on their hearing ability in air which is of lowered sensitivity.", "Cormorant fishing in Suzhou, China", "left Many fishermen see in the great cormorant a competitor for fish.", "Because of this, it was hunted nearly to extinction in the past.", "Due to conservation efforts, its numbers increased.", "At the moment, there are about 1.2 million birds in Europe (based on winter counts", "late summer counts would show higher numbers).", "Increasing populations have once again brought the cormorant into conflict with fisheries.", "For example, in Britain, where inland breeding was once uncommon, there are now increasing numbers of birds breeding inland, and many inland fish farms and fisheries now claim to be suffering high losses due to these birds.", "In the UK each year, some licences are issued to cull specified numbers of cormorants in order to help reduce predation", "it is, however, still illegal to kill a bird without such a licence.", "Cormorant fishing is practised in China, Japan, and elsewhere around the globe.", "In this practice, fishermen tie a line around the throats of cormorants, tight enough to prevent swallowing the larger fish they catch, and deploy them from small boats.", "The cormorants catch fish without being able to fully swallow them, and the fishermen are able to retrieve the fish simply by forcing open the cormorants' mouths, apparently engaging the regurgitation reflex.", "In Norway, the cormorant is a traditional game bird.", "Each year approximately 10,000 cormorants are shot to be eaten.", "In North Norway, cormorants are traditionally seen as semi-sacred.", "It is regarded as good luck to have cormorants gather near your village or settlement.", "An old legend states that for people who die far out at sea, whose bodies are never recovered, spend eternity on the island Utrst which can only occasionally be found by mortals.", "The inhabitants of Utrst can only visit their homes in the shape of cormorants."]}, "Dryobates minor": {"keywords": ["The genus name Dryobates is from the Ancient Greek meaning woodland and bates meaning walker.", "From its small size and its habit of spending most of its time in the tops of tall trees in woods and parks, this little woodpecker is often overlooked, but if sighted on a trunk it may at once be identified by the broad barring on the wings and narrower bars across the lower back.", "When hunting for wood-boring larvae it chips away at the rotten wood, and the litter at the foot of a tree is often the first indication that insects are attacking upper branches.", "Through the breeding season, surface-living insects from the foliage and bark of trees make up an increased amount of the diet.", "The winter temperatures may have a direct effect on winter survival of lesser spotted woodpeckers by heat loss, whereas weather conditions during spring have an indirect effect on breeding performance by affecting food sources.", "The British Ornithology Trust blamed modern habits of removing dead trees quickly from parks and woodland, depriving the birds of the decaying wood which is their favoured nesting habitat."], "habitat_section": ["Frontal view Lesser spotted woodpecker eggs Its habits are very similar to those of the great spotted woodpecker, and it has the same stumpy appearance, almost triangular, when bounding from tree to tree.", "Its note is a repeated \" keek \" , loud for so small a bird, and its vibrating rattle can with experience be distinguished from that of the larger species.", "This substitute for a song may be heard at all times, but most frequently when courtship begins early in the year.", "Its insect food is similar to that of the great spotted woodpecker.", "When hunting for wood-boring larvae it chips away at the rotten wood, and the litter at the foot of a tree is often the first indication that insects are attacking upper branches.", "From autumn to spring it hunts mainly on wood-living insect larvae, frequently from thin dead branches in living trees.", "Through the breeding season, surface-living insects from the foliage and bark of trees make up an increased amount of the diet.", "Nestlings are mainly fed with surface-living insects, such as aphids and larval insects.", "At night it roosts in old holes.", "A litter of chips is also a guide to a nesting hole, for the bird does not always carry these away when excavating.", "The hole is usually at a considerable height above the ground and may be as high as 30 or 40 feet, 10 or 20 meters.", "It is a smaller burrow than that of the great spotted woodpecker, measuring from 1 to 2 inches, 2.5 to 5 cm in diameter.", "The shaft varies, the nesting cavity being often a foot or more below the entrance.", "Five to eight highly polished white eggs are laid upon wood dust and chips in the latter half of May, and a single brood is the rule.", "Both birds help to incubate.", "Occasionally an old or natural hollow is used or enlarged.", "Populations of lesser spotted woodpeckers are mostly resident, but can be nomadic to some degree.", "Annual fluctuations in population numbers are common.", "The winter temperatures may have a direct effect on winter survival of lesser spotted woodpeckers by heat loss, whereas weather conditions during spring have an indirect effect on breeding performance by affecting food sources.", "In 2017, the UK population of lesser spotted woodpeckers was reported to have almost halved since 2009, to around 2,000.", "The British Ornithology Trust blamed modern habits of removing dead trees quickly from parks and woodland, depriving the birds of the decaying wood which is their favoured nesting habitat."], "random_sentences": ["The lesser spotted woodpecker is a member of the woodpecker family Picidae.", "It was formerly assigned to the genus Dendrocopos .", "Some taxonomic authorities continue to list the species there.", "The range of the lesser spotted woodpecker is the Palearctic region, but several subspecies are recognised.", "The lesser spotted woodpecker was listed by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Picus minor.", "The species was moved to the genus Dendrocopos by the German naturalist Carl Ludwig Koch in 1816.", "A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2015 based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences found that the species placed in the genus Dendrocopos did not form a monophyletic group.", "In the revised generic classification, the lesser spotted woodpecker was placed in the resurrected genus Dryobates, that had originally been introduced by the German naturalist Friedrich Boie in 1826.", "The genus name Dryobates is from the Ancient Greek meaning woodland and bates meaning walker.", "The specific minor is Latin for \" smaller \" .", "There are 13 recognised subspecies:", "Lesser spotted woodpecker in Korvemaa, Estonia This is the smallest European woodpecker, with adults being long with a wing span of and weighing .", "A sample of 50 lesser spotted woodpeckers in Great Britain averaged in body mass.", "From its small size and its habit of spending most of its time in the tops of tall trees in woods and parks, this little woodpecker is often overlooked, but if sighted on a trunk it may at once be identified by the broad barring on the wings and narrower bars across the lower back.", "The male has a crimson crown, a brown forehead, a black superciliary stripe, and another from the base of the bill to the neck.", "The nape and upper back are black, but the lower back is barred with black and white.", "On the wings are broader and more conspicuous bars, and the outer tail feathers are also barred.", "The under parts are white with streaks on the flanks.", "The bill and legs are slate-grey.", "In the female the crown is white, but the young birds of both sexes have more or less crimson on the head.", "There are no marked seasonal changes.", "Frontal view Lesser spotted woodpecker eggs Its habits are very similar to those of the great spotted woodpecker, and it has the same stumpy appearance, almost triangular, when bounding from tree to tree.", "Its note is a repeated \" keek \" , loud for so small a bird, and its vibrating rattle can with experience be distinguished from that of the larger species.", "This substitute for a song may be heard at all times, but most frequently when courtship begins early in the year.", "Its insect food is similar to that of the great spotted woodpecker.", "When hunting for wood-boring larvae it chips away at the rotten wood, and the litter at the foot of a tree is often the first indication that insects are attacking upper branches.", "From autumn to spring it hunts mainly on wood-living insect larvae, frequently from thin dead branches in living trees.", "Through the breeding season, surface-living insects from the foliage and bark of trees make up an increased amount of the diet.", "Nestlings are mainly fed with surface-living insects, such as aphids and larval insects.", "At night it roosts in old holes.", "A litter of chips is also a guide to a nesting hole, for the bird does not always carry these away when excavating.", "The hole is usually at a considerable height above the ground and may be as high as 30 or 40 feet, 10 or 20 meters.", "It is a smaller burrow than that of the great spotted woodpecker, measuring from 1 to 2 inches, 2.5 to 5 cm in diameter.", "The shaft varies, the nesting cavity being often a foot or more below the entrance.", "Five to eight highly polished white eggs are laid upon wood dust and chips in the latter half of May, and a single brood is the rule.", "Both birds help to incubate.", "Occasionally an old or natural hollow is used or enlarged.", "Populations of lesser spotted woodpeckers are mostly resident, but can be nomadic to some degree.", "Annual fluctuations in population numbers are common.", "The winter temperatures may have a direct effect on winter survival of lesser spotted woodpeckers by heat loss, whereas weather conditions during spring have an indirect effect on breeding performance by affecting food sources.", "In 2017, the UK population of lesser spotted woodpeckers was reported to have almost halved since 2009, to around 2,000.", "The British Ornithology Trust blamed modern habits of removing dead trees quickly from parks and woodland, depriving the birds of the decaying wood which is their favoured nesting habitat."]}, "Fringilla montifringilla": {"keywords": ["It has also been called the cock o' the north and the mountain finch.", "Male and female in Poland This bird is widespread, in the breeding season, throughout the forests of northern Europe and east across the Palearctic.", "It is migratory, wintering in southern Europe, North Africa, northern India, northern Pakistan, China, and Japan.", "Open coniferous or birch woodland is favoured for breeding.", "In Europe, it forms large flocks in the winter, sometimes with thousands or even millions of birds in a single flock.", "Bramblings mostly eat seeds in winter, but insects in summer."], "habitat_section": ["Male and female in Poland This bird is widespread, in the breeding season, throughout the forests of northern Europe and east across the Palearctic.", "It is migratory, wintering in southern Europe, North Africa, northern India, northern Pakistan, China, and Japan.", "It frequently strays into Alaska during migration and there are scattered records across the northern United States and southern Canada.", "The global population of bramblings is about 100 to 200 million, with a decreasing trend.", "Open coniferous or birch woodland is favoured for breeding.", "Eggs of Fringilla montifringilla MHNT A flock of bramblings migrating This species is almost entirely migratory.", "In Europe, it forms large flocks in the winter, sometimes with thousands or even millions of birds in a single flock.", "Such large gatherings occur especially if beech mast is abundant.", "Bramblings do not require beech mast in the winter, but winter flocks of bramblings will move until they find it.", "This may be an adaptation to avoid competition with the common chaffinch.", "Bramblings mostly eat seeds in winter, but insects in summer.", "It builds its nest in a tree fork, and decorates the exterior with moss or lichen to make it less conspicuous.", "It lays 49 eggs."], "random_sentences": ["thumb The brambling is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.", "It has also been called the cock o' the north and the mountain finch.", "It is widespread and migratory, often seen in very large flocks.", "In 1758 Linnaeus included the species in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name, Fringilla montifringilla.", "Montifringilla is from Latin mons, montis mountain and fringilla finch.", "The English name is probably derived from Common West Germanic", "The brambling is similar in size and shape to a common chaffinch.", "Breeding-plumaged male bramblings are very distinctive, with a black head, dark upperparts, orange breast and white belly.", "Females and younger birds are less distinct, and more similar in appearance to some chaffinches.", "In all plumages, however, bramblings differs from chaffinches in a number of features: An additional difference for all plumages except breeding-plumaged males is the bill colour - yellow in the brambling, dull pinkish in the common chaffinch .", "Male and female in Poland This bird is widespread, in the breeding season, throughout the forests of northern Europe and east across the Palearctic.", "It is migratory, wintering in southern Europe, North Africa, northern India, northern Pakistan, China, and Japan.", "It frequently strays into Alaska during migration and there are scattered records across the northern United States and southern Canada.", "The global population of bramblings is about 100 to 200 million, with a decreasing trend.", "Open coniferous or birch woodland is favoured for breeding.", "Eggs of Fringilla montifringilla MHNT A flock of bramblings migrating This species is almost entirely migratory.", "In Europe, it forms large flocks in the winter, sometimes with thousands or even millions of birds in a single flock.", "Such large gatherings occur especially if beech mast is abundant.", "Bramblings do not require beech mast in the winter, but winter flocks of bramblings will move until they find it.", "This may be an adaptation to avoid competition with the common chaffinch.", "Bramblings mostly eat seeds in winter, but insects in summer.", "It builds its nest in a tree fork, and decorates the exterior with moss or lichen to make it less conspicuous."]}, "Parus major": {"keywords": ["Great tit in Sweden, winter 2016 The great tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.", "It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of North Africa where it is generally resident in any sort of woodland, most great tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters.", "It is predominantly insectivorous in the summer, but will consume a wider range of food items in the winter months, including small hibernating bats.", "The great tit has adapted well to human changes in the environment and is a common and familiar bird in urban parks and gardens.", "The 11 subspecies of the cinereous tit were once lumped with the great tit but recent genetic and bioacoustic studies now separate that group as a distinct species The great tit was formerly treated as ranging from Britain to Japan and south to the islands of Indonesia, with 36 described subspecies ascribed to four main species groups.", "The major group had 13 subspecies across Europe, temperate Asia and north Africa, the minor group's nine subspecies occurred from southeast Russia and Japan into northern southeast Asia and the 11 subspecies in the cinereus group were found from Iran across south Asia to Indonesia.", "This form was once thought to form a ring species around the Tibetan Plateau, with gene flow throughout the subspecies, but this theory was abandoned when sequences of mitochondrial DNA were examined, finding that the four groups were distinct and that the hybridisation zones between the groups were the result of secondary contact after a temporary period of isolation.", "The other subspecies have much more restricted distributions, four being restricted to islands and the remainder of the P. m. major subspecies representing former glacial refuge populations.", "Mixed forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe A nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia.", "It can be found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands.", "It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens.", "In dense forests, including conifer forests it prefers forest clearings.", "In northern Siberia it lives in boreal taiga.", "In North Africa it rather resides in oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves.", "In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest.", "Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan subspecies, as well as low scrubland, oases, at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.", "Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic and also to Netherlands, Britain, even as far as the southern Balkans.", " Male great tit on branch with sunflower seed Great tits are primarily insectivorous in the summer, feeding on insects and spiders which they capture by foliage gleaning.", "Seeds and fruit usually come from deciduous trees and shrubs, like for instance the seeds of beech and hazel.", "In particularly severe winters they may consume 44% of their body weight in sunflower seeds.", "Great tit nesting in nest box Great tits are cavity nesters, breeding in a hole that is usually inside a tree, although occasionally in a wall or rock face, and they will readily take to nest boxes.", "The nest inside the cavity is built by the female, and is made of plant fibres, grasses, moss, hair, wool and feathers.", "Insularity also affects clutch size, with great tits on offshore islands laying smaller clutches with larger eggs than mainland birds.", "This patch turns white after the first moult at age two months, and diminishes in size as the bird grows.", "Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.", "Reduced cold injury and heat loss is mediated by the great tits counter-current vascular arrangements, and peripheral vasoconstriction in major vessels in and around the birds bill and legs.", "In response to food restriction, the great tits bill temperature dropped, and once food availably was increased, bill temperatures gradually returned to normal. Vasoconstriction of blood vessels in the bill not only serves as an energy saving mechanism, but also reduces the amount of heat transferred from core body tissues to the skin , which, in turn, reduces heat loss rate by lowering skin temperature relative to the environment.", "It is more common and has better breeding success in areas with undisturbed forest cover, but it has adapted to human modified habitats.", "In areas with low frequency background noise pollution, the song has a higher frequency than in quieter areas."], "habitat_section": ["Mixed forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe A nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia.", "It can be found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands.", "In North Africa it lives in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.", "It also occurs across the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia from northern Iran and Afghanistan to Mongolia, as well as across northern Asia from the Urals as far east as northern China and the Amur Valley.", "The great tit occupies a range of habitats.", "It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens.", "In dense forests, including conifer forests it prefers forest clearings.", "In northern Siberia it lives in boreal taiga.", "In North Africa it rather resides in oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves.", "In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest.", "Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan subspecies, as well as low scrubland, oases, at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.", "The great tit is generally not migratory.", "Pairs will usually remain near or in their territory year round, even in the northern parts of their range.", "Young birds will disperse from their parents' territory, but usually not far.", "Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic and also to Netherlands, Britain, even as far as the southern Balkans.", "The great tit was unsuccessfully introduced into the United States, birds were set free near Cincinnati, Ohio between 1872 and 1874 but failed to become established.", "Suggestions that they were an excellent control measure for codling moths nearly led to their introduction to some new areas particularly in the United States of America, however this plan was not implemented.", "A small population is present in the upper Midwest, believed to be the descendants of birds liberated in Chicago in 2002 along with European goldfinches, Eurasian jays, common chaffinches, European greenfinches, saffron finches, blue tits and Eurasian linnets, although sightings of some of these species pre-date the supposed introduction date.", "Birds were introduced to the Almaty Province in what is now Kazakhstan in 196061 and became established, although their present status is unclear.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a predator of great tits, with the young from second broods being at higher risk partly because of the hawk's greater need for food for its own developing young.", "The nests of great tits are raided by great spotted woodpeckers, particularly when nesting in certain types of nest boxes.", "Other nest predators include introduced grey squirrels and least weasels, which are able to take nesting adults as well.", "A species of biting louse described as Rostrinirmus hudeci was isolated and described in 1981 from great tits in central Europe.", "The hen flea Ceratophyllus gallinae is exceedingly common in the nests of blue and great tits.", "It was originally a specialist tit flea, but the dry, crowded conditions of chicken runs enabled it to flourish with its new host.", "This flea is preferentially predated by the clown beetle Gnathoncus punctulatus, The rove beetle Microglotta pulla also feeds on fleas and their larvae.", "Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.", "Great tits compete with the pied flycatcher for nesting boxes, and can kill prospecting flycatcher males.", "Incidences of fatal competition are more frequent when nesting times overlap, and climate change has led to greater synchrony of nesting between the two species and flycatcher deaths.", "Having killed the flycatchers, the great tits may consume their brains."], "random_sentences": ["Great tit in Sweden, winter 2016 The great tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.", "It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of North Africa where it is generally resident in any sort of woodland", "most great tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters.", "Until 2005 this species was lumped with numerous other subspecies.", "DNA studies have shown these other subspecies to be distinct from the great tit and these have now been separated as two distinct species, the cinereous tit of southern Asia, and the Japanese tit of East Asia.", "The great tit remains the most widespread species in the genus Parus.", "The great tit is a distinctive bird with a black head and neck, prominent white cheeks, olive upperparts and yellow underparts, with some variation amongst the numerous subspecies.", "It is predominantly insectivorous in the summer, but will consume a wider range of food items in the winter months, including small hibernating bats.", "Like all tits it is a cavity nester, usually nesting in a hole in a tree.", "The female lays around 12 eggs and incubates them alone, although both parents raise the chicks.", "In most years the pair will raise two broods.", "The nests may be raided by woodpeckers, squirrels and weasels and infested with fleas, and adults may be hunted by sparrowhawks.", "The great tit has adapted well to human changes in the environment and is a common and familiar bird in urban parks and gardens.", "The great tit is also an important study species in ornithology.", "The great tit was described under its current binomial name by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "Its scientific name is derived from the Latin parus \" tit \" and maior \" larger \" .", "Francis Willughby had used the name in the 17th century.", "alt Bird with similar markings to great tit, but colours washed out and greyer, drinks from a leaking tap", "The 11 subspecies of the cinereous tit were once lumped with the great tit but recent genetic and bioacoustic studies now separate that group as a distinct species The great tit was formerly treated as ranging from Britain to Japan and south to the islands of Indonesia, with 36 described subspecies ascribed to four main species groups.", "The major group had 13 subspecies across Europe, temperate Asia and north Africa, the minor group's nine subspecies occurred from southeast Russia and Japan into northern southeast Asia and the 11 subspecies in the cinereus group were found from Iran across south Asia to Indonesia.", "The three bokharensis subspecies were often treated as a separate species, Parus bokharensis, the Turkestan tit.", "This form was once thought to form a ring species around the Tibetan Plateau, with gene flow throughout the subspecies, but this theory was abandoned when sequences of mitochondrial DNA were examined, finding that the four groups were distinct and that the hybridisation zones between the groups were the result of secondary contact after a temporary period of isolation.", "A study published in 2005 confirmed that the major group was distinct from the cinereus and minor groups and that along with P. m. bokharensis it diverged from these two groups around 1.5 million years ago.", "The divergence between the bokharensis and major groups was estimated to have been about half a million years ago.", "The study also examined hybrids between representatives of the major and minor groups in the Amur Valley where the two meet.", "Hybrids were rare, suggesting that there were some reproductive barriers between the two groups.", "The study recommended that the two eastern groups be split out as new species, the cinereous tit , and the Japanese tit , but that the Turkestan tit be lumped in with the great tit.", "This taxonomy has been followed by some authorities, for example the IOC World Bird List.", "The Handbook of the Birds of the World volume treating the Parus species went for the more traditional classification, treating the Turkestan tit as a separate species but retaining the Japanese and cinereous tits with the great tit, a move that has not been without criticism.", "The nominate subspecies of the great tit is the most widespread, its range stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to the Amur Valley and from Scandinavia to the Middle East.", "The other subspecies have much more restricted distributions, four being restricted to islands and the remainder of the P. m. major subspecies representing former glacial refuge populations.", "The dominance of a single, morphologically uniform subspecies over such a large area suggests that the nominate race rapidly recolonised a large area after the last glacial epoch.", "This hypothesis is supported by genetic studies which suggest a geologically recent genetic bottleneck followed by a rapid population expansion.", "In females and juveniles the mid-line stripe is narrower and sometimes discontinuous", "alt duller-plumaged great tit with weak breast and belly stripe The great tit is large for a tit at in length, and has a distinctive appearance that makes it easy to recognise.", "The nominate race P. major major has a bluish-black crown, black neck, throat, bib and head, and white cheeks and ear coverts.", "The breast is bright lemon-yellow and there is a broad black mid-line stripe running from the bib to vent.", "There is a dull white spot on the neck turning to greenish yellow on the upper nape.", "The rest of the nape and back are green tinged with olive.", "The wing-coverts are green, the rest of the wing is bluish-grey with a white wing-bar.", "The tail is bluish grey with white outer tips.", "The plumage of the female is similar to that of the male except that the colours are overall duller", "the bib is less intensely black, as is the line running down the belly, which is also narrower and sometimes broken.", "Young birds are like the female, except that they have dull olive-brown napes and necks, greyish rumps, and greyer tails, with less defined white tips.", "The plumage of the male is typically bright, although this varies by subspecies", "alt Great tit with strongly yellow sides perched on twig There is some variation in the subspecies.", "P. m. newtoni is like the nominate race but has a slightly longer bill, the mantle is slightly deeper green, there is less white on the tail tips, and the ventral mid-line stripe is broader on the belly.", "P. m. corsus also resembles the nominate form but has duller upperparts, less white in the tail and less yellow in the nape.", "P. m. mallorcae is like the nominate subspecies, but has a larger bill, greyer-blue upperparts and slightly paler underparts.", "P. m. ecki is like P. m. mallorcae except with bluer upperparts and paler underparts.", "P. m. excelsus is similar to the nominate race but has much brighter green upperparts, bright yellow underparts and no white on the tail.", "P. m. aphrodite has darker, more olive-grey upperparts, and the underparts are more yellow to pale cream.", "P. m. niethammeri is similar to P. m. aphrodite but the upperparts are duller and less green, and the underparts are pale yellow.", "P. m. terrasanctae resembles the previous two subspecies but has slightly paler upperparts.", "P. m. blandfordi is like the nominate but with a greyer mantle and scapulars and pale yellow underparts, and P. m. karelini is intermediate between the nominate and P. m. blandfordi, and lacks white on the tail.", "The plumage of P. m. bokharensis is much greyer, pale creamy white to washed out grey underparts, a larger white cheep patch, a grey tail, wings, back and nape.", "It is also slightly smaller, with a smaller bill but longer tail.", "The situation is similar for the two related subspecies in the Turkestan tit group.", "P. m. turkestanicus is like P. m. bokharensis but with a larger bill and darker upperparts.", "P. m. ferghanensis is like P. m. bokharensis but with a smaller bill, darker grey on the flanks and a more yellow wash on the juvenile birds.", "Female great tit and male The colour of the male bird's breast has been shown to correlate with stronger sperm, and is one way that the male demonstrates his reproductive superiority to females.", "Higher levels of carotenoid increase the intensity of the yellow of the breast its colour, and also enable the sperm to better withstand the onslaught of free radicals.", "Carotenoids cannot be synthesized by the bird and have to be obtained from food, so a bright colour in a male demonstrates his ability to obtain good nutrition.", "However, the saturation of the yellow colour is also influenced by environmental factors, such as weather conditions.", "The width of the male's ventral stripe, which varies with individual, is selected for by females, with higher quality females apparently selecting males with wider stripes.", "Great tit : song ", "Great tit : sonagram ", "Great tit twittering The great tit is, like other tits, a vocal bird, and has up to 40 types of calls and songs.", "The calls are generally the same between the sexes, but the male is much more vocal and the female rarely calls.", "Soft single notes such as \" pit \" , \" spick \" , or \" chit \" are used as contact calls.", "A loud \" tink \" is used by adult males as an alarm or in territorial disputes.", "One of the most familiar is a \" teacher, teacher \" , often likened to a squeaky wheelbarrow wheel, which is used in proclaiming ownership of a territory.", "In former times, English folk considered the \" saw-sharpening \" call to be a foretelling of rain.", "There is little geographic variation in calls, but tits from the two south Asian groups recently split from the great tit do not recognise or react to the calls of the temperate great tits.", "alt forest clearing with leaf strewn floor, low plants and saplings, and tall trees partly obscuring the sky", "Mixed forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe A nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia.", "It can be found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands.", "In North Africa it lives in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.", "It also occurs across the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia from northern Iran and Afghanistan to Mongolia, as well as across northern Asia from the Urals as far east as northern China and the Amur Valley.", "The great tit occupies a range of habitats.", "It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens.", "In dense forests, including conifer forests it prefers forest clearings.", "In northern Siberia it lives in boreal taiga.", "In North Africa it rather resides in oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves.", "In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest.", "Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan subspecies, as well as low scrubland, oases", "at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.", "The great tit is generally not migratory.", "Pairs will usually remain near or in their territory year round, even in the northern parts of their range.", "Young birds will disperse from their parents' territory, but usually not far.", "Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic and also to Netherlands, Britain, even as far as the southern Balkans.", "The great tit was unsuccessfully introduced into the United States", "birds were set free near Cincinnati, Ohio between 1872 and 1874 but failed to become established.", "Suggestions that they were an excellent control measure for codling moths nearly led to their introduction to some new areas particularly in the United States of America, however this plan was not implemented.", "A small population is present in the upper Midwest, believed to be the descendants of birds liberated in Chicago in 2002 along with European goldfinches, Eurasian jays, common chaffinches, European greenfinches, saffron finches, blue tits and Eurasian linnets, although sightings of some of these species pre-date the supposed introduction date.", "Birds were introduced to the Almaty Province in what is now Kazakhstan in 196061 and became established, although their present status is unclear.", "Like other tits, great tits transport food with their beak, and then transfer it to their feet, where it is held while they eat", "alt Male great tit on branch with sunflower seed Great tits are primarily insectivorous in the summer, feeding on insects and spiders which they capture by foliage gleaning.", "Their larger invertebrate prey include cockroaches, grasshoppers and crickets, lacewings, earwigs, bugs , ants, flies , caddis flies, beetles, scorpion flies, harvestmen, bees and wasps, snails and woodlice.", "A study published in 2007 found that great tits helped to reduce caterpillar damage in apple orchards by as much as 50%.", "Nestlings also undergo a period in their early development where they are fed a number of spiders, possibly for nutritional reasons.", "In autumn and winter, when insect prey becomes scarcer, great tits add berries and seeds to their diet.", "Seeds and fruit usually come from deciduous trees and shrubs, like for instance the seeds of beech and hazel.", "Where it is available they will readily take table scraps, peanuts and sunflower seeds from bird tables.", "In particularly severe winters they may consume 44% of their body weight in sunflower seeds.", "They often forage on the ground, particularly in years with high beech mast production.", "Great tits, along with other tits, will join winter mixed-species foraging flocks.", "Great tit feeding its young with an insect Large food items, such as large seeds or prey, are dealt with by \" hold-hammering \" , where the item is held with one or both feet and then struck with the bill until it is ready to eat.", "Using this method, a great tit can get into a hazelnut in about twenty minutes.", "When feeding young, adults will hammer off the heads of large insects to make them easier to consume, and remove the gut from caterpillars so that the tannins in the gut will not retard the chick's growth.", "Great tits combine dietary versatility with a considerable amount of intelligence and the ability to solve problems with insight learning, that is to solve a problem through insight rather than trial and error.", "In England, great tits learned to break the foil caps of milk bottles delivered at the doorstep of homes to obtain the cream at the top.", "This behaviour, first noted in 1921, spread rapidly in the next two decades.", "In 2009, great tits were reported killing, and eating the brains of roosting pipistrelle bats.", "This is the first time a songbird has been recorded preying on bats.", "The tits only do this during winter when the bats are hibernating and other food is scarce.", "They have also been recorded using tools, using a conifer needle in the bill to extract larvae from a hole in a tree.", "Great tits are monogamous breeders and establish breeding territories.", "These territories are established in late January and defence begins in late winter or early spring.", "Territories are usually reoccupied in successive years, even if one of the pair dies, so long as the brood is raised successfully.", "Females are likely to disperse to new territories if their nest is predated the previous year.", "If the pair divorces for some reason then the birds will disperse, with females travelling further than males to establish new territories.", "Although the great tit is socially monogamous, extra-pair copulations are frequent.", "One study in Germany found that 40% of nests contained some offspring fathered by parents other than the breeding male and that 8.5% of all chicks were the result of cuckoldry.", "Adult males tend to have a higher reproductive success compared to sub-adults.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden Young chicks in the nest", "alt nest with seven chicks.", "These are covered with grey down, and have bright yellow gapes Great tits are seasonal breeders.", "The exact timing of breeding varies by a number of factors, most importantly location.", "Most breeding occurs between January and September", "in Europe the breeding season usually begins after March.", "In Israel there are exceptional records of breeding during the months of October to December.", "The amount of sunlight and daytime temperatures will also affect breeding timing.", "One study found a strong correlation between the timing of laying and the peak abundance of caterpillar prey, which is in turn correlated to temperature.", "On an individual level, younger females tend to start laying later than older females.", "alt Great tit leaving its wooden nest box right", "Great tit nesting in nest box Great tits are cavity nesters, breeding in a hole that is usually inside a tree, although occasionally in a wall or rock face, and they will readily take to nest boxes.", "The nest inside the cavity is built by the female, and is made of plant fibres, grasses, moss, hair, wool and feathers.", "The number in the clutch is often very large, as many as 18, but five to twelve is more common.", "Clutch size is smaller when birds start laying later, and is also lower when the density of competitors is higher.", "Second broods tend to have smaller clutches.", "Insularity also affects clutch size, with great tits on offshore islands laying smaller clutches with larger eggs than mainland birds.", "The eggs are white with red spots.", "The female undertakes all incubation duties, and is fed by the male during incubation.", "The bird is a close sitter, hissing when disturbed.", "The timing of hatching, which is best synchronised with peak availability of prey, can be manipulated when environmental conditions change after the laying of the first egg by delaying the beginning of incubation, laying more eggs or pausing during incubation.", "The incubation period is between 12 and 15 days.", "alt Young bird with ruffled adult-like plumage and yellow gape The chicks, like those of all tits, hatch unfeathered and blind.", "Once feathers begin to erupt, the nestlings are unusual for altricial birds in having plumage coloured with carotenoids similar to their parents .", "The nape is yellow and attracts the attention of the parents by its ultraviolet reflectance.", "This may be to make them easier to find in low light, or be a signal of fitness to win the parents' attention.", "This patch turns white after the first moult at age two months, and diminishes in size as the bird grows.", "Chicks are fed by both parents, usually receiving of food a day.", "Inbreeding depression occurs when the offspring produced as a result of a mating between close relatives show reduced fitness.", "The reduced fitness is generally considered to be a consequence of the increased expression of deleterious recessive alleles in these offspring.", "In natural populations of P. major, inbreeding is avoided by dispersal of individuals from their birthplace, which reduces the chance of mating with a close relative.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a predator of great tits, with the young from second broods being at higher risk partly because of the hawk's greater need for food for its own developing young.", "The nests of great tits are raided by great spotted woodpeckers, particularly when nesting in certain types of nest boxes.", "Other nest predators include introduced grey squirrels and least weasels, which are able to take nesting adults as well.", "A species of biting louse described as Rostrinirmus hudeci was isolated and described in 1981 from great tits in central Europe.", "The hen flea Ceratophyllus gallinae is exceedingly common in the nests of blue and great tits.", "It was originally a specialist tit flea, but the dry, crowded conditions of chicken runs enabled it to flourish with its new host.", "This flea is preferentially predated by the clown beetle Gnathoncus punctulatus, The rove beetle Microglotta pulla also feeds on fleas and their larvae.", "Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.", "Great tits compete with the pied flycatcher for nesting boxes, and can kill prospecting flycatcher males.", "Incidences of fatal competition are more frequent when nesting times overlap, and climate change has led to greater synchrony of nesting between the two species and flycatcher deaths.", "Having killed the flycatchers, the great tits may consume their brains.", "Great tits have been found to possess special physiological adaptations for cold environments.", "When preparing for winter months, the great tit can increase how thermogenic its blood is.", "The mechanism for this adaptation is a seasonal increase in mitochondrial volume and mitochondrial respiration in red blood cells and increased uncoupling of the electron transport from ATP production.", "Reduced cold injury and heat loss is mediated by the great tits counter-current vascular arrangements, and peripheral vasoconstriction in major vessels in and around the birds bill and legs.", "This mechanism allows uninsulated regions to remain close to the surrounding temperature.", "In response to food restriction, the great tits bill temperature dropped, and once food availably was increased, bill temperatures gradually returned to normal. Vasoconstriction of blood vessels in the bill not only serves as an energy saving mechanism, but also reduces the amount of heat transferred from core body tissues to the skin , which, in turn, reduces heat loss rate by lowering skin temperature relative to the environment.", "The great tit's willingness to use bird-feeders and nesting boxes makes it popular with the general public and useful to scientists", "alt adult great tit perched on hand The great tit is a popular garden bird due to its acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or seed.", "Its willingness to move into nest boxes has made it a valuable study subject in ornithology", "it has been particularly useful as a model for the study of the evolution of various life-history traits, particularly clutch size.", "A study of a literature database search found 1,349 articles relating to Parus major for the period between 1969 and 2002.", "The great tit has generally adjusted to human modifications of the environment.", "It is more common and has better breeding success in areas with undisturbed forest cover, but it has adapted to human modified habitats.", "It can be very common in urban areas.", "For example, the breeding population in the city of Sheffield has been estimated at some 17,000 individuals.", "In adapting to human environments its song has been observed to change in noise-polluted urban environments.", "In areas with low frequency background noise pollution, the song has a higher frequency than in quieter areas.", "This tit has expanded its range, moving northwards into Scandinavia and Scotland, and south into Israel and Egypt.", "The total population is estimated at between 3001,100 million birds in a range of 32.4 million km 2 .", "While there have been some localised declines in population in areas with poorer quality habitats, its large range and high numbers mean that the great tit is not considered to be threatened, and it is classed as least concern on the IUCN Red List."]}, "Columba oenas": {"keywords": ["The rock dove and stock dove are more alike in size and plumage, but wild specimens of the former have a white rump and two well-marked dark bars on the wing, while the rump of the stock dove is grey and its wing bars incomplete.", "Before deforestation, the stock dove was the most frequent pigeon, nesting mostly in oak or pine wood, but as it usually nests in cavities in trees it was normally only found in old forests.", "It has been observed nesting in rabbit burrows, ruins, old poplar hedges, cracks in crags or cliff faces, in ivy, and in the thick growth around the boles of lime trees.", "The cavity should be about 75 centimetres deep and the hole should be big enough to admit a fist.", "Outside of the breeding season, stock doves may also roost in cavities.", "It is also common on coasts where the cliffs provide holes.", "berries such as bay and hawthorn, figs, cereal grains, beans, peas, and small invertebrates that are obtained while walking on the ground.", "Such hollow trees near human settlements would often be taken and used as wood stock for firewood, hence the name."], "habitat_section": ["The stock dove is the scarcest of the wild European pigeons, though still common in ideal habitat.", "In part of its European and western Asiatic range it is a migrant.", "There has been a sharp decline in France .", "Although the species is not considered threatened in Europe, it is classified in Schedule 2 of the Birds Directive and Annex III the Berne Convention.", "Over half of the European stock dove population is found in the UK. The nest is usually in a hole in an old tree.", "Before deforestation, the stock dove was the most frequent pigeon, nesting mostly in oak or pine wood, but as it usually nests in cavities in trees it was normally only found in old forests.", "In plantations there are not as many holes to nest in, so it is scarcer.", "In addition, as the stock dove is double-brooded, requiring two holes for its broods.", "It has been observed nesting in rabbit burrows, ruins, old poplar hedges, cracks in crags or cliff faces, in ivy, and in the thick growth around the boles of lime trees.", "It will also use nest boxes.", "The cavity should be about 75 centimetres deep and the hole should be big enough to admit a fist.", "Though nesting material is seldom used, the squabs leave the hole very oily.", "Stock doves prefer to nest close together.", "Outside of the breeding season, stock doves may also roost in cavities.", "The habitat of the stock dove is generally open country.", "Even though it nests in trees it does not prefer densely wooded areas.", "It is also common on coasts where the cliffs provide holes.", "Its flight is quick, performed by regular beats, with an occasional sharp flick of the wings, a characteristic of pigeons in general. It perches well, and in nuptial display walks along a horizontal branch with swelled neck, lowered wings, and fanned tail.", "During the circling spring flight the wings are smartly cracked like a whip.", "Most of its food is plant material, young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain as well as insects and snails.", "In some areas it feeds mostly on acorns and pine seeds.", "Its diet can include a variety of foods.", "berries such as bay and hawthorn, figs, cereal grains, beans, peas, and small invertebrates that are obtained while walking on the ground.", "During autumn migration in October, stock doves stop over at places with an abundance of acorns, supplementing the diet with shoots and leaves."], "random_sentences": ["Columba oenas egg The stock dove is a species of bird in the family Columbidae, the doves and pigeons.", "It is widely distributed in the western Palearctic.", "The stock dove was first formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.", "He placed it with all the other pigeons in the genus Columba and coined the binomial name Columba oenas.", "The specific name oenas is from the Ancient Greek oinas meaning \" pigeon \" .", "The genus Columba is in the pigeon family, and has the widest distribution.", "Its members are typically pale grey or brown, often with white head or neck markings or iridescent green or purple patches on the neck and breast.", "The neck feathers may be stiffened and aligned to form grooves, but these are absent in this species.", "The stock dove is less grey in plumage than other pigeons in Europe.", "The three western European Columba pigeons, though alike, have very distinctive characteristics.", "The common wood pigeon may be readily distinguished by its large size, as well as the white on its neck and wings.", "The rock dove and stock dove are more alike in size and plumage, but wild specimens of the former have a white rump and two well-marked dark bars on the wing, while the rump of the stock dove is grey and its wing bars incomplete.", "The feral pigeon is highly variable, and indistinctly marked grey specimens with the white rump missing can sometimes resemble the stock dove quite closely.", "The stock dove is sociable as well as gregarious, often consorting with wood pigeons, though doubtless it is the presence of food which brings them together.", "The short, deep, \" grunting \" Ooo-uu-ooh call is quite distinct from the modulated cooing notes of the common wood pigeon", "it is loud enough to be described, somewhat fancifully, as \" roaring \" .", "The stock dove is the scarcest of the wild European pigeons, though still common in ideal habitat.", "In part of its European and western Asiatic range it is a migrant.", "There has been a sharp decline in France .", "Although the species is not considered threatened in Europe, it is classified in Schedule 2 of the Birds Directive and Annex III the Berne Convention.", "Over half of the European stock dove population is found in the UK.", "The nest is usually in a hole in an old tree.", "Before deforestation, the stock dove was the most frequent pigeon, nesting mostly in oak or pine wood, but as it usually nests in cavities in trees it was normally only found in old forests.", "In plantations there are not as many holes to nest in, so it is scarcer.", "In addition, as the stock dove is double-brooded, requiring two holes for its broods.", "It has been observed nesting in rabbit burrows, ruins, old poplar hedges, cracks in crags or cliff faces, in ivy, and in the thick growth around the boles of lime trees.", "It will also use nest boxes.", "The cavity should be about 75 centimetres deep and the hole should be big enough to admit a fist.", "Though nesting material is seldom used, the squabs leave the hole very oily.", "Stock doves prefer to nest close together.", "Outside of the breeding season, stock doves may also roost in cavities.", "The habitat of the stock dove is generally open country.", "Even though it nests in trees it does not prefer densely wooded areas.", "It is also common on coasts where the cliffs provide holes.", "Its flight is quick, performed by regular beats, with an occasional sharp flick of the wings, a characteristic of pigeons in general. It perches well, and in nuptial display walks along a horizontal branch with swelled neck, lowered wings, and fanned tail.", "During the circling spring flight the wings are smartly cracked like a whip.", "Most of its food is plant material", "young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain as well as insects and snails.", "In some areas it feeds mostly on acorns and pine seeds.", "Its diet can include a variety of foods: berries such as bay and hawthorn, figs, cereal grains, beans, peas, and small invertebrates that are obtained while walking on the ground.", "During autumn migration in October, stock doves stop over at places with an abundance of acorns, supplementing the diet with shoots and leaves.", "The common name stock dove has caused some confusion about the origins of this bird.", "The modern usage of the word \" stock \" might imply that the bird has been tamed and kept as stock for food and merchandise, leading to the belief that this bird is a hybrid breed with its origins in human aviaries", "however, this is not the case.", "The word \" stock \" in the common name of this species refers not to the stock of trade, but comes from the Old English \" stocc \" meaning \" stump, post, stake, tree trunk, log, \" .", "Therefore, \" stock dove \" means roughly \" a dove which lives in hollow trees \" .", "Such hollow trees near human settlements would often be taken and used as wood stock for firewood, hence the name.", "The genus name Columba is the Latin word meaning \" pigeon, dove \" , whose older etymology comes from the Ancient Greek , \" a diver \" , from , \" dive, plunge headlong, swim \" .", "Aristophanes and others use the word , \" diver \" , for the name of the bird, because of its swimming motion in the air."]}, "Accipiter nisus": {"keywords": ["Though it is a predator which specialises in catching woodland birds, the Eurasian sparrowhawk can be found in any habitat and often hunts garden birds in towns and cities.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is found throughout the temperate and subtropical parts of the Old World, while birds from the northern parts of the range migrate south for winter, their southern counterparts remain resident or make dispersive movements.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a small bird of prey with short, broad wings and a long tail, both adaptations to manoeuvring through trees.", "Deciduous woodland is a typical breeding and hunting habitat for the Eurasian sparrowhawk.", "A widespread species throughout the temperate and subtropical parts of the Old World, the Eurasian sparrowhawk is resident or breeds in an estimated global range of and had an estimated population of 1.5 million birds in 2009.", "Although global population trends have not been analysed, numbers seem to be stable, so it has been classified as being of least concern by IUCN. The race granti, with 100 pairs resident on Madeira and 200 pairs on the Canary Islands, is threatened by loss of habitat, egg-collecting and illegal hunting, and is listed on Annex I of the European Commission Birds Directive.", "In Ireland it is the most common bird of prey, breeding even near the city centre of Dublin, where it frequents parks and large gardens.", "This species is prevalent in most woodland types in its range, and also in more open country with scattered trees.", "The increased proportion of medium-aged stands of trees created by modern forestry techniques have benefited Accipiter nisus, according to a Norwegian study.", "Unlike its larger relative the northern goshawk, it can be seen in gardens and in urban areas and will even breed in city parks if they have a certain density of tall trees.", "Eurasian sparrowhawks from colder regions of northern Europe and Asia migrate south for the winter, some to north Africa and India, members of the southern populations are resident or disperse.", "The recovery rate also declined with increased elevation of the ground.", "It hunts by surprise attack, using hedges, tree-belts, copses, orchards and other cover near woodland areas, its choice of habitat is dictated by these requirements.", "It also makes use of gardens in built-up areas, taking advantage of the prey found there.", "The sparrowhawk bears numerous adaptations that allow it to fly at speed low to the ground and hunt in confined spaces, these include its blunted wings, which allow it to fly through narrow gaps in hedges and fences, and its long, square-edged tail, which the bird uses to aid itself in carrying out tight turns, such as those required to negotiate close stands of trees.", "A study in a forested area of Norway found that the mean size of the home ranges was for males, and for females, which was larger than studies in Great Britain had found, \" probably due to lower land productivity and associated lower densities of prey species in the \" .", "Natural predators of the Eurasian sparrowhawk include the barn owl, the tawny owl, the northern goshawk, the peregrine falcon, the golden eagle, the eagle owl, the red fox, the stone marten and the pine marten.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk breeds in well-grown, extensive areas of woodland, often coniferous or mixed, preferring forest with a structure neither too dense nor too open, to allow a choice of flight paths.", "The nest can be located in the fork of a tree, often near the trunk and where two or three branches begin, on a horizontal branch in the lower canopy, or near the top of a tall shrub.", "In a study in the Forest of Ae, south-west Scotland, it was found that 21% of nestlings over two days old died, with the causes of death being starvation, wet weather, predation and desertion by the parents.", "The habitat conserved with gamebirds in mind also suited this species and its prey, gamekeepers' more successful efforts to wipe out the northern goshawk and pine marten predators of the Eurasian sparrowhawk may have benefited it.", "It was criticised by the government's own ecological adviser, Dr Ian Bainbridge, the government body Scottish Natural Heritage and organisations including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.", "\" Eurasian sparrowhawks are an effective urban adapter species in the UK and are thus non-threatened, however, recent search has suggested that they are prone to colliding with man-made structures when hunting such as buildings.", "she will serve in the winter as well as in the summer, and will fly at all kind of game more than the falcon.", "Holy sparrowhawks perch on the branches of an oak tree that grows from the grave of a murdered man, and \" publish the foul deed \" ."], "habitat_section": ["Deciduous woodland is a typical breeding and hunting habitat for the Eurasian sparrowhawk.", "A widespread species throughout the temperate and subtropical parts of the Old World, the Eurasian sparrowhawk is resident or breeds in an estimated global range of and had an estimated population of 1.5 million birds in 2009.", "Although global population trends have not been analysed, numbers seem to be stable, so it has been classified as being of least concern by IUCN. The race granti, with 100 pairs resident on Madeira and 200 pairs on the Canary Islands, is threatened by loss of habitat, egg-collecting and illegal hunting, and is listed on Annex I of the European Commission Birds Directive.", "It is one of the most common birds of prey in Europe, along with the common kestrel and common buzzard.", "The Norwegian and Albanian populations are declining and, in many parts of Europe, Eurasian sparrowhawks are still shot.", "However, this low-level persecution has not affected the populations badly.", "In Ireland it is the most common bird of prey, breeding even near the city centre of Dublin, where it frequents parks and large gardens.", "This species is prevalent in most woodland types in its range, and also in more open country with scattered trees.", "Eurasian sparrowhawks prefer to hunt the edges of wooded areas, but migrant birds can be seen in any habitat.", "The increased proportion of medium-aged stands of trees created by modern forestry techniques have benefited Accipiter nisus, according to a Norwegian study.", "Unlike its larger relative the northern goshawk, it can be seen in gardens and in urban areas and will even breed in city parks if they have a certain density of tall trees.", "Eurasian sparrowhawks from colder regions of northern Europe and Asia migrate south for the winter, some to north Africa and India, members of the southern populations are resident or disperse.", "Juveniles begin their migration earlier than adults and juvenile females move before juvenile males.", "Analysis of ringing data collected at Heligoland, Germany, found that males move further and more often than females, of migrating birds ringed at Kaliningrad, Russia, the average distance moved before recovery was for males and for females.", "A study of Eurasian sparrowhawks in southern Scotland found that ringed birds which had been raised on \" high grade \" territories were recovered in greater proportion than birds which came from \" low grade \" territories.", "This suggested that the high grade territories produced young which survived better.", "The recovery rate also declined with increased elevation of the ground.", "After the post-fledging period, female birds dispersed greater distances than did males."], "random_sentences": ["Northern sparrowhawk call with common starling prey The Eurasian sparrowhawk , also known as the northern sparrowhawk or simply the sparrowhawk, is a small bird of prey in the family Accipitridae.", "Adult male Eurasian sparrowhawks have bluish grey upperparts and orange-barred underparts", "females and juveniles are brown above with brown barring below.", "The female is up to 25% larger than the male one of the greatest size differences between the sexes in any bird species.", "Though it is a predator which specialises in catching woodland birds, the Eurasian sparrowhawk can be found in any habitat and often hunts garden birds in towns and cities.", "Males tend to take smaller birds, including tits, finches, and sparrows", "females catch primarily thrushes and starlings, but are capable of killing birds weighing or more.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is found throughout the temperate and subtropical parts of the Old World", "while birds from the northern parts of the range migrate south for winter, their southern counterparts remain resident or make dispersive movements.", "Eurasian sparrowhawks breed in suitable woodland of any type, with the nest, measuring up to across, built using twigs in a tree.", "Four or five pale blue, brown-spotted eggs are laid", "the success of the breeding attempt is dependent on the female maintaining a high weight while the male brings her food.", "The chicks hatch after 33 days and fledge after 24 to 28 days.", "The probability of a juvenile surviving its first year is 34%, with 69% of adults surviving from one year to the next.", "Mortality in young males is greater than that of young females and the typical lifespan is four years.", "This species is now one of the most common birds of prey in Europe, although the population crashed after the Second World War.", "Organochlorine insecticides used to treat seeds before sowing built up in the bird population, and the concentrations in Eurasian sparrowhawks were enough to kill some outright and incapacitate others", "affected birds laid eggs with fragile shells which broke during incubation.", "However, its population recovered after the chemicals were banned, and it is now relatively common, classified as being of least concern by BirdLife International. The Eurasian sparrowhawk's hunting behaviour has brought it into conflict with humans for hundreds of years, particularly racing pigeon owners and people rearing poultry and gamebirds.", "It has also been blamed for decreases in passerine populations.", "The increase in population of the Eurasian sparrowhawk coincides with the decline in house sparrows in Britain.", "Studies of racing pigeon deaths found that Eurasian sparrowhawks were responsible for less than 1%.", "Falconers have utilised the Eurasian sparrowhawk since at least the 16th century", "although the species has a reputation for being difficult to train, it is also praised for its courage.", "The species features in Teutonic mythology and is mentioned in works by writers including William Shakespeare, Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Ted Hughes.", "Within the family Accipitridae, the Eurasian sparrowhawk is a member of the large genus Accipiter, which consists of small to medium-sized woodland hawks.", "Most of the Old World members of the genus are called sparrowhawks or goshawks.", "The species' name dates back to the Middle English word sperhauk and Old English spearhafoc, a hawk which hunts sparrows.", "The Old Norse name for the Eurasian sparrowhawk, sparrhaukr, was thought to have been coined by Vikings who encountered falconry in England.", "English folk names for the Eurasian sparrowhawk include blue hawk, referring to the adult male's colouration, as well as hedge hawk, spar hawk, spur hawk and stone falcon.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 landmark 10th edition of Systema Naturae, as Falco nisus, but moved to its present genus by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.", "The current scientific name is derived from the Latin accipiter, meaning 'hawk' and nisus, the sparrowhawk.", "According to Greek mythology, Nisus, the king of Megara, was turned into a sparrowhawk after his daughter, Scylla, cut off his purple lock of hair to present to her lover , Minos.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk forms a superspecies with the rufous-chested sparrowhawk of eastern and southern Africa, and possibly the Madagascar sparrowhawk.", "Geographic variation is clinal, with birds becoming larger and paler in the eastern part of the range compared to the western part.", "Within the species itself, six subspecies are generally recognised:", "altCommon cuckoo in flight, showing barred underparts", "The resemblance of the common cuckoo to the Eurasian sparrowhawk helps it avoid aggression from the small birds whose nest it seeks to parasitise.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a small bird of prey with short, broad wings and a long tail, both adaptations to manoeuvring through trees.", "Females can be up to 25% larger than males and weigh up to twice as much.", "Marked size difference in this direction is unusual in higher vertebrates but typical in birds of prey, and most marked in birds of prey which hunt birds.", "The adult male is long, with a wingspan of and a mass of .", "He has slate-grey upperparts , with finely red-barred underparts, which can look plain orange from a distance", "his irides are orange-yellow or orange-red.", "The female is much larger at long, with a wingspan of , and a mass of .", "She has dark brown or greyish-brown upperparts, and brown-barred underparts, and bright yellow to orange irides.", "The juvenile is warm brown above, with rusty fringes to the upperparts", "and coarsely barred or spotted brown below, with pale yellow eyes", "its throat has dark streaks and lacks a mesial stripe.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk's pale underparts and darker upperparts are an example of countershading, which helps to break up the bird's outline.", "Countershading is exhibited by birds of prey which hunt birds and other fast-moving animals.", "The horizontal barring seen on adult Eurasian sparrowhawks is typical of woodland-dwelling predatory birds, while the adult male's bluish colour is also seen in other bird-eating raptors, including the peregrine falcon, the merlin and other Accipiters.", "A study, using stuffed bird models, found that small birds are less likely to approach common cuckoos which have barred underparts like the Eurasian sparrowhawk.", "Eurasian reed warblers were found to be more aggressive to cuckoos which looked less hawk-like, meaning that the resemblance to the hawk helps the cuckoo to access the nests of potential hosts.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk's small bill is used for plucking feathers and pulling prey apart, rather than killing or cutting.", "Its long legs and toes are an adaptation for catching and eating birds.", "The outer toe is \" fairly long and slender \"", "the inner toe and back toe are relatively short and thick.", "The middle toe is very long and can be used to grasp objects, while a protuberance on the underside of the toe means that the digit can be closed without leaving a gap, which helps with gripping.", "The flight is a characteristic \" flap-flap-glide \" , with the glide creating an undulating pattern.", "This species is similar in size to the Levant sparrowhawk, but larger than the shikra ", "the male is only slightly larger than the merlin.", "Because of the overlap in sizes, the female can be confused with the similarly-sized male northern goshawk, but lacks the bulk of that species.", "Eurasian sparrowhawks are smaller, more slender and have shorter wings, a square-ended tail and fly with faster wingbeats.", "A confusion species in China is the besra, although A. n. melaschistos is considerably larger.", "In Great Britain, Eurasian sparrowhawks living further north are bigger than their more southerly counterparts, with wing length increasing by an average of in males, and in females, for each degree further north.", "The oldest known wild Eurasian sparrowhawk lived more than two decades", "it was found dead in Denmark 20 years and 3 months after having been ringed.", "The typical lifespan is four years.", "Data analysis by the British Trust for Ornithology shows that the proportion of juveniles surviving their first year of life is 34%", "adult survival from one year to the next is 69%.", "Birds in their first year of life weigh less than adults, and are especially light in the first two months after reaching independence.", "There is probably high mortality, especially for young males, during this time.", "A study in southern Scotland suggested that the greater mortality in young male birds may be due to their smaller size and the smaller size of their prey, which means that they can \" last less long between meals \" .", "Their size also means that their range of prey is restricted.", "It has been estimated that a female Eurasian sparrowhawk of average weight could survive for seven days without feeding three days longer than a male of average weight.", "A study of female Eurasian sparrowhawks found \" strong evidence \" that their rate of survival increased for the first three years of life, and declined for the last five to six years.", "Senescence was the cause of the decline as the birds became older.", "Deciduous woodland is a typical breeding and hunting habitat for the Eurasian sparrowhawk.", "A widespread species throughout the temperate and subtropical parts of the Old World, the Eurasian sparrowhawk is resident or breeds in an estimated global range of and had an estimated population of 1.5 million birds in 2009.", "Although global population trends have not been analysed, numbers seem to be stable, so it has been classified as being of least concern by IUCN.", "The race granti, with 100 pairs resident on Madeira and 200 pairs on the Canary Islands, is threatened by loss of habitat, egg-collecting and illegal hunting, and is listed on Annex I of the European Commission Birds Directive.", "It is one of the most common birds of prey in Europe, along with the common kestrel and common buzzard.", "The Norwegian and Albanian populations are declining and, in many parts of Europe, Eurasian sparrowhawks are still shot.", "However, this low-level persecution has not affected the populations badly.", "In Ireland it is the most common bird of prey, breeding even near the city centre of Dublin, where it frequents parks and large gardens.", "This species is prevalent in most woodland types in its range, and also in more open country with scattered trees.", "Eurasian sparrowhawks prefer to hunt the edges of wooded areas, but migrant birds can be seen in any habitat.", "The increased proportion of medium-aged stands of trees created by modern forestry techniques have benefited Accipiter nisus, according to a Norwegian study.", "Unlike its larger relative the northern goshawk, it can be seen in gardens and in urban areas and will even breed in city parks if they have a certain density of tall trees.", "Eurasian sparrowhawks from colder regions of northern Europe and Asia migrate south for the winter, some to north Africa and India", "members of the southern populations are resident or disperse.", "Juveniles begin their migration earlier than adults and juvenile females move before juvenile males.", "Analysis of ringing data collected at Heligoland, Germany, found that males move further and more often than females", "of migrating birds ringed at Kaliningrad, Russia, the average distance moved before recovery was for males and for females.", "A study of Eurasian sparrowhawks in southern Scotland found that ringed birds which had been raised on \" high grade \" territories were recovered in greater proportion than birds which came from \" low grade \" territories.", "This suggested that the high grade territories produced young which survived better.", "The recovery rate also declined with increased elevation of the ground.", "After the post-fledging period, female birds dispersed greater distances than did males.", "A juvenile with the carcass of a common wood pigeon The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a major predator of smaller woodland birds, though only 10% of its hunting attacks are successful.", "It hunts by surprise attack, using hedges, tree-belts, copses, orchards and other cover near woodland areas", "its choice of habitat is dictated by these requirements.", "It also makes use of gardens in built-up areas, taking advantage of the prey found there.", "It waits, hidden, for birds to come near, then breaks cover and flies out fast and low.", "A chase may follow, with the hawk even flipping upside-down to grab the victim from below or following it on foot through vegetation.", "It can \" stoop \" onto prey from a great height.", "Ian Newton describes seven modes of hunting used by Eurasian sparrowhawks: The sparrowhawk bears numerous adaptations that allow it to fly at speed low to the ground and hunt in confined spaces", "these include its blunted wings, which allow it to fly through narrow gaps in hedges and fences, and its long, square-edged tail, which the bird uses to aid itself in carrying out tight turns, such as those required to negotiate close stands of trees.", "Male Eurasian sparrowhawks regularly kill birds weighing up to and sometimes up to or more", "females can tackle prey up to or more.", "A recent study found that on average, female sparrowhawk prey were two and a half times heavier than that of the male.", "The weight of food consumed by adult birds daily is estimated to be for males and for females.", "During one year, a pair of Eurasian sparrowhawks could take 2,200 house sparrows, 600 common blackbirds or 110 wood pigeons.", "Species that feed in the open, far from cover, or are conspicuous by their behaviour or coloration, are taken more often by Eurasian sparrowhawks.", "For example, great tits and house sparrows are vulnerable to attack.", "Eurasian sparrowhawks may account for more than 50% of deaths in certain species, but the extent varies from area to area.", "Males tend to take tits, finches, sparrows and buntings", "females often take thrushes and starlings.", "Larger quarry may not die immediately but succumb during feather plucking and eating.", "More than 120 bird species have been recorded as prey and individual Eurasian sparrowhawks may specialise in certain prey.", "The birds taken are usually adults or fledglings, though chicks in the nest and carrion are sometimes eaten.", "Small mammals, including bats, mice, voles, squirrels, shrews, and young rabbits, are sometimes caught but insects are eaten only very rarely.", "Small birds are killed on impact or when squeezed by the Eurasian sparrowhawk's foot, especially the two long claws.", "Victims which struggle are \" kneaded \" by the hawk, using its talons to squeeze and stab.", "When dealing with large prey species which peck and flap, the hawk's long legs help in restraining the prey.", "It stands on top of its prey to pluck and pull it apart.", "The feathers are plucked and usually the breast muscles are eaten first.", "The bones are left, but can be broken using the notch in the bill.", "Like other birds of prey, Eurasian sparrowhawks produce pellets containing indigestible parts of their prey.", "These range from long and wide and are round at one end and more narrow and pointed at the other.", "They are usually composed of small feathers, as the larger ones are plucked and not consumed.", "Video of a Eurasian sparrowhawk subduing a pigeon During hunting, this species can fly per day.", "It rises above tree level mostly to display, soar above territory and to make longer journeys.", "A study in a forested area of Norway found that the mean size of the home ranges was for males, and for females, which was larger than studies in Great Britain had found, \" probably due to lower land productivity and associated lower densities of prey species in the \" .", "A study looked at the effect on the population of blue tits in an area where a pair of Eurasian sparrowhawks began to breed in 1990.", "It found that the annual adult survival rate for the tits in that area dropped from 0.485 to 0.376 .", "The size of the breeding population was not changed, but there were fewer non-breeding blue tits in the population.", "In woodland, Eurasian sparrowhawks account for the deaths of a third of all young great tits", "the two alarm calls given by great tits when mobbing a predator, and when fleeing from a nearby hawk, are within the optimum hearing range of both prey and predator", "however, the high-pitched alarm call given when a distant flying Eurasian sparrowhawk is seen \" can only be heard well by the tit \" .", "Research carried out in Sussex, England, found that the impact of Eurasian sparrowhawk predation on grey partridges was highest when the partridge density was lowest, while a 10-year study in Scotland found that Eurasian sparrowhawks did not select the common redshanks they predated according to the waders' size or condition, probably because of the hawks' surprise-attack hunting technique.", "Another study found that the risk of predation for a bird targeted by a Eurasian sparrowhawk or northern goshawk increased 25-fold if the prey was infected with the blood parasite Leucocytozoon, and birds with avian malaria were 16 times more likely to be killed.", "Natural predators of the Eurasian sparrowhawk include the barn owl, the tawny owl, the northern goshawk, the peregrine falcon, the golden eagle, the eagle owl, the red fox, the stone marten and the pine marten.", "altThree fluffy, white chicks in a nest", "The chicks stay on the nest until they are 24 to 28 days old.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk breeds in well-grown, extensive areas of woodland, often coniferous or mixed, preferring forest with a structure neither too dense nor too open, to allow a choice of flight paths.", "The nest can be located in the fork of a tree, often near the trunk and where two or three branches begin, on a horizontal branch in the lower canopy, or near the top of a tall shrub.", "If available, conifers are preferred.", "A new nest is built every year, generally close to the nest of the previous year, and sometimes using an old wood pigeon (A.", "n. melaschistos frequently uses the old nests of jungle crows ) nest as a base", "the male does most of the work.", "The structure, made of loose twigs up to long, has an average diameter of .", "When the eggs are laid, a lining of fine twigs or bark chippings is added.", "During the breeding season, the adult male Eurasian sparrowhawk loses a small amount of weight while feeding his mate before she lays eggs, and also when the young are large and require more food.", "The weight of the adult female is highest in May, when laying eggs, and lowest in August after the breeding cycle is complete.", "A study suggested that the number of eggs and subsequent breeding success are dependent on the female maintaining a high weight while the male is feeding her.", "Sexual maturity is reached at between 13 years.", "Most Eurasian sparrowhawks stay on the same territory for one breeding season, though others keep the same one for up to eight years.", "A change of mate usually triggers the change in territory.", "Older birds tend to stay in the same territory", "failed breeding attempts make a move more likely.", "The birds which kept the same territories had higher nest success, though it did not increase between years", "females which moved experienced more success the year after changing territory.", "The background colour of the eggs changes from light blue to white on storage in collections The eggs are pale blue with brown spots and each measure x , and weigh about of which 8% is shell in a healthy egg.", "Usually a clutch of four or five eggs is laid.", "The eggs are generally laid in the morning with an interval of 23 days between each egg.", "If a clutch is lost, up to two further eggs may be laid that are smaller than the earlier eggs.", "The altricial, downy chicks hatch after 33 days of incubation.", "After hatching, the female cares for and feeds the chicks for the first 814 days of life, and also during bad weather after that.", "The male provides food, up to six kills per day in the first week increasing to eight per day in the third and 10 per day in the last week in the nest, by which time the female is also hunting.", "By 2428 days after hatching, the young birds start to perch on branches near the nest and take their first flight.", "They are fed by their parents for a further 2830 days, staying close to the nest while growing and practicing flying.", "At this stage they are extremely vocal, and their cries to their parents can often be heard a considerable distance away.", "The young hawks disperse after their parents stop provisioning them.", "Though they receive the same amount of food, male chicks mature more quickly and seem to be ready to leave the nest sooner.", "In a study in the Forest of Ae, south-west Scotland, it was found that 21% of nestlings over two days old died, with the causes of death being starvation, wet weather, predation and desertion by the parents.", "The parasite Leucocytozoon toddi can be passed from parent to nestling at the nest, possibly because of the number of birds sharing a small space, thus allowing transmission.", "altIn flight with wings spread, showing barring on underwing and tail", "In flight as seen from below, showing barring on underparts.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk population in Europe crashed in the second half of the 20th century.", "The decline coincided with the introduction of cyclodiene insecticides aldrin, dieldrin and heptachlor used as seed dressings in agriculture in 1956.", "The chemicals accumulated in the bodies of grain-eating birds and had two effects on top predators like the Eurasian sparrowhawk and peregrine falcon: the shells of eggs they laid were too thin, causing them to break during incubation", "and birds were poisoned by lethal concentrations of the insecticides.", "Sub-lethal effects of these substances include irritability, convulsions and disorientation.", "In west Germany, around 80% of nests before the 1950s produced young, but only 54% were successful in the 1960s and '70s.", "In the United Kingdom, for example, the species almost became extinct in East Anglia, where the chemicals were most widely used", "in western and northern parts of the country, where the pesticides were not used, there were no declines.", "The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds bought its Coombes Valley nature reserve in Staffordshire because it was the only Eurasian sparrowhawk breeding site left in the English Midlands.", "In the UK, the use of cyclodienes as seed dressings for autumn-sown cereals was banned in 1975 and the levels of the chemicals present in the bird population began to fall.", "The population has largely recovered to pre-decline levels, with an increase seen in many areas, for example northern Europe.", "In Sweden, the population also decreased drastically from the 1950s, but recovered again once organochlorines were banned in the 1970s.", "In the UK, the failure rate at the egg stage had decreased from 17% to 6% by the year 2000, and the population had stabilised after reaching a peak in the 1990s.", "A study of the eggs of Dutch Eurasian sparrowhawks found that contamination with Dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene a \" very persistent compound \" produced when DDT breaks down continued into the 1980s, though a decline in the number of clutches with broken eggs during the 1970s suggested decreasing levels of the chemical. Body tissue samples from Eurasian sparrowhawks are still analysed as part of the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme conducted by the UK government's Joint Nature Conservation Committee.", "Although the average liver concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls in Eurasian sparrowhawks were lower in birds that died in 2005 compared to those that died in 2004, there was not a significant or consistent decline in residues between 20002005.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk's adaptation for feeding on birds has brought it into conflict with humans", "in the 19th century it was described as \" the great enemy of small quadrupeds and birds, and often very destructive to young chicks in poultry-yards in the breeding season \" and \" very destructive to partridges \" .", "Writing for gamekeepers in 1851, T. B. Johnson recommended that: \" The nest of this bird should be diligently sought ...", "and destroyed, shooting the parent birds first, if possible.", "\" altProfile of a large brown bird with a green and red head and a white collar", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk's natural hunting behaviour can conflict with gamekeepers rearing common pheasants.", "It was written in 1870 that \" The sparrowhawk is perhaps only the true enemy of the game-preserver", "though at the same time it is probable that if the good and evil it does were justly weighed, the balance would be in favour of the hawk, its favourite quarry being the wood pigeon, which is now increasing to an extent injurious to agriculture.", "\" Parish records of the 18th century for Aldworth, Berkshire, in southern England, show that payments were made for 106 Eurasian sparrowhawks' heads, at the same time as efforts were being made to control the numbers of sparrows.", "The species suffered heavy persecution by 18th-century European landowners and gamekeepers, but withstood attempts to eradicate it.", "For example, on the estate at Sandringham in Norfolk, 1,645 'hawks' were killed between 1938 and 1950, with 1,115 taken between 1919 and 1926 at Langwell and Sandside in Caithness, Scotland.", "The population was able to quickly replace lost birds there is a high proportion of non-breeding, non-territorial birds able to fill vacant territories.", "The habitat conserved with gamebirds in mind also suited this species and its prey", "gamekeepers' more successful efforts to wipe out the northern goshawk and pine marten predators of the Eurasian sparrowhawk may have benefited it.", "The population increased markedly when this pressure was relaxed, for example during the First and Second World Wars.", "In the United Kingdom, research into the effect of predators on bird populations has been \" a contentious issue \" , with \" perceived conflict between the interests of nature conservationists and those involved in game shooting \" .", "Declines in the populations of some British songbirds since the 1960s have coincided with considerable changes in agricultural practices and also large increases in the numbers of Eurasian sparrowhawks and European magpies.", "When the Eurasian sparrowhawk population declined because of organochlorine use, there was no great increase in the populations of songbirds.", "In a 19491979 study of 13 passerine species breeding in a 40-acre oakwood at Bookham Commons, Surrey, England, none was present in significantly greater numbers when Eurasian sparrowhawks were absent from the wood.", "Many studies, mostly short-term, failed to find an effect on songbird populations caused by predatory birds such as Eurasian sparrowhawks.", "But analysis of long-term, large-scale national data from the UK's Common Bird Census demonstrated that the declines in farmland songbird populations since the 1960s are unlikely to have been caused by increased predation by Eurasian sparrowhawks and magpies.", "The results of the study indicated that patterns of year-to-year songbird population change were the same at different sites, whether the predators were present or not.", "Another study, which examined the effects of predators including the Eurasian sparrowhawk and introduced grey squirrel on UK passerine populations, found that \" whilst a small number of associations may suggest significant negative effects between predator and prey species, for the majority of the songbird species examined there is no evidence that increases in common avian predators or grey squirrels are associated with large-scale population declines.", "\" Racing pigeon owners in Great Britain have said for many years that Eurasian sparrowhawks and peregrine falcons \" cause serious and escalating losses \" of pigeons and some have called for these birds of prey to be killed or removed from areas surrounding homing pigeon lofts.", "In Scotland, a two-year study published in 2004, and funded by Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Homing Union , found there was \" no evidence that birds of prey cause major losses of racing pigeons at lofts or during races.", "\" It reported that 56% of racing pigeons were lost each year but that the proportion taken by Eurasian sparrowhawks \" often blamed for major losses \" was less than 1%, with at least 2% taken by peregrine falcons.", "The study was carried out by the Central Science Laboratory", "researchers worked with SHU members who provided data, information on pigeon rings found at peregrine falcon nests and pigeon carcasses.", "From January to April 2009, the Scottish Government conducted a trial translocation of Eurasian sparrowhawks from around racing pigeon lofts in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Kilmarnock, Stirling and Dumfries.", "The trial, which cost 25,000, was supported by the Scottish Homing Union, representing the country's 3,500 pigeon fanciers.", "The experiment was originally scheduled for early in 2008 but was postponed because it would have impinged on the birds' breeding season.", "It was criticised by the government's own ecological adviser, Dr Ian Bainbridge, the government body Scottish Natural Heritage and organisations including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.", "The findings, released in January 2010, showed that only seven Eurasian sparrowhawks had been removed from the area from five pigeon lofts.", "One hawk returned twice to the area of the loft, while new birds began to visit two other lofts.", "The report found that \" The quantity and quality of the observational data collected meant that it was impossible to draw any firm conclusions \" and the government stated that \" no further research involving the trapping or translocation of raptors \" would take place, while the SHU maintained that it was \" very optimistic that licensed trapping and translocation could at last provide some protection.", "\" Eurasian sparrowhawks are an effective urban adapter species in the UK and are thus non-threatened, however, recent search has suggested that they are prone to colliding with man-made structures when hunting such as buildings.", "altThree men with Eurasian sparrowhawks perching on their fists", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is popular with falconers in Georgia.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk has been used in falconry for centuries and was favoured by Emperor Akbar the Great of the Mughal Empire.", "There is a tradition of using migrant Eurasian sparrowhawks to catch common quail in Tunisia and Georgia, where there are 500 registered bazieri and a monument to bazieri in the city of Poti.", "Eurasian sparrowhawks are also popular in Ireland.", "At Cap Bon in Tunisia, and in Turkey, thousands are captured each year by falconers and used for hunting migrant common quails.", "Although they were formerly released at the end of the season, many are now kept because of the scarcity of migrants.", "In 17th century England, the Eurasian sparrowhawk was used by priests, reflecting their lowly status", "whereas in the Middle Ages, they were favoured by ladies of noble and royal status because of their small size.", "The falconer's name for a male Eurasian sparrowhawk is a \" musket \"", "this is derived from the Latin word musca, meaning 'a fly', via the Old French word moschet.", "\" An austringer undertaking to train a sparrowhawk should be in no doubt that he is taking on one of the most difficult hawks available.", "\" A female Eurasian sparrowhawk is considered a bad choice for a novice and the male is very difficult and demanding, even for an experienced handler.", "They have been described as \" hysterical little hawks \" but are also praised as courageous and providing \" sport of the highest quality \" .", "Philip Glasier describes Eurasian sparrowhawks as \" in many ways superior to hunting with a larger short-wing \" and \" extremely hard to tame \" .", "They are best suited for small quarry such as common starlings and common blackbirds but are also capable of taking common teal, Eurasian magpies, pheasants and partridges.", "A 19th century author remarked that this species was \" the best of all hawks for landrails \" , now known as corn crakes.", "In 1735, the Sportsman's Dictionary noted that \" ...", "she will serve in the winter as well as in the summer, and will fly at all kind of game more than the falcon.", "If a winter sparrowhawk prove good, she will kill the pye, the chough, the jay, woodcock, thrush, black-bird, fieldfare, and divers other birds of the like nature.", "altAdult male Eurasian sparrowhawk perching on branch", "An adult male in Slovakia In Slavic mythology, the sparrowhawk, known as krahui or krahug, is a sacred bird in Old Bohemian songs and lives in a grove of the gods.", "Holy sparrowhawks perch on the branches of an oak tree that grows from the grave of a murdered man, and \" publish the foul deed \" .", "In some areas of England, it was believed that the common cuckoo turned into a Eurasian sparrowhawk in winter.", "The name Spearhafoc was in use as a personal name in England before the Norman conquest in 1066.", "In 1695, John Aubrey wrote in his Miscellanies: Not long before the Death of King Charles II a sparrow-hawk escaped from the Perch, and pitched on one of the Iron Crowns of the White Tower, and entangling its string in the Crown, hung by the heels and died.", "T'was considered very ominous, and so it proved.", " The musket, or musquet, originally a kind of crossbow bolt, and later a small cannon, was named after the male Eurasian sparrowhawk because of its size.", "The British Gloster Aircraft Company named one of their Mars series craft the Sparrowhawk.", "In William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, Mrs Ford greets Robin, Falstaff's page, with the words \" How now, my eyas musket \" , eyas musket meaning a lively young man .", "The British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes wrote a poem entitled \" A Sparrow-Hawk \" which refers to this species.", "Hermann Hesse mentioned this bird in his book Demian and the bird is also referred to in One Thousand and One Nights by Richard Francis Burton: Good sooth my bones, wheneas they hear thy name Quail as birds quailed when Nisus o'er them flew The Eurasian sparrowhawk was written about by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: A sparhawk proud did hold in wicked jail Music's sweet chorister, the Nightingale To whom with sighs she said: 'O set me free, And in my song I'll praise no bird but thee.", "' The Hawk replied: 'I will not lose my diet To let a thousand such enjoy their quiet.", "' It also appears in Tennyson's Idylls of the King."]}, "Oxyura leucocephala": {"keywords": ["Its breeding habitat is lakes with open water and dense vegetation at the margin.", "It dives under water and feeds on aquatic vegetation as well as some animal matter."], "habitat_section": ["Egg, collection Museum Wiesbaden This duck breeds in Spain and North Africa, with a larger population in western and central Asia.", "Their breeding habitat is large tracts of open water, such as lakes and ponds including artificial water bodies, with dense stands of aquatic plants to provide shelter and nesting sites.", "Individuals are fairly frequently reported well north of their breeding range, but as with many wildfowl, the status of these extralimital records is clouded by the possibility of escapes from collections.", "This duck is considered endangered due to a large reduction in populations in the last 10 years.", "Most of this decline is due to habitat loss and hunting, but interbreeding of the Spanish population with the introduced ruddy duck is a more recent threat.", "This has led to the attempted eradication of the American species from western Europe.", "The white-headed duck is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated the bird's conservation status as being \" endangered \" ."], "random_sentences": ["The white-headed duck is a small diving duck some long.", "The male has a white head with black crown, a blue bill, and reddish-grey plumage.", "The female has a dark bill and rather duller colouring.", "Its breeding habitat is lakes with open water and dense vegetation at the margin.", "It dives under water and feeds on aquatic vegetation as well as some animal matter.", "It is more likely to swim away from a perceived threat than to fly.", "This duck is known from Spain, North Africa, Western Asia and Central Asia.", "Populations are declining, mostly due to loss of habitat and pollution, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated the bird's status as \" endangered \" .", "The white-headed duck was originally described as Anas leucocephala by Giovani Antonio Scopoli in 1769.", "It is currently in the genus Oxyura.", "Other generic synonyms used in the past include Erismatura, Cerconectes, Gymnura, Undina, Bythonessa, Plectrura, and Pervicauda.", "Other junior synonyms for the species include Anas mersa, Anas vindila, Anas ruthenica, and Oxyura unifasciata.", "Its scientific name comes from the Greek Oxyura and leucocephala (from leukos, \" white \" and kephalos, \" head \" .", "The common name white-headed duck, like the specific name, refers to its white head.", "It interbreeds with other species in its genus, such as the ruddy duck.", "The hybrids are fully fertile and capable of having viable offspring with both parent species.", "Different populations of the white-headed duck do not display significant genetic differences.", "However, some studies have found that they do display morphological differences, with western populations being larger in size, having darker ventral coloration, and males having more yellow feathers on their back.", "Dark phase birds have only been found in the western populations.", "In the genus Oxyura, it is generally thought to be related most closely to Maccoa duck.", "Some studies have also found that these two species form a clade with the blue-billed duck, although this is disputed and species relations between Oxyura ducks are unresolved.", "Adult males have a grey and reddish body, a blue bill and a largely white head with a black cap and neck.", "Adult females have a grey-brown body with a white face and a darker bill, cap, and cheek stripe.", "Length is and weight is .", "Egg, collection Museum Wiesbaden This duck breeds in Spain and North Africa, with a larger population in western and central Asia.", "Their breeding habitat is large tracts of open water, such as lakes and ponds including artificial water bodies, with dense stands of aquatic plants to provide shelter and nesting sites.", "Individuals are fairly frequently reported well north of their breeding range, but as with many wildfowl, the status of these extralimital records is clouded by the possibility of escapes from collections.", "These birds dive and swim under water.", "They are omnivorous, with vegetable matter predominating.", "They are reluctant to fly, preferring to swim for cover.", "This duck is considered endangered due to a large reduction in populations in the last 10 years.", "Most of this decline is due to habitat loss and hunting, but interbreeding of the Spanish population with the introduced ruddy duck is a more recent threat.", "This has led to the attempted eradication of the American species from western Europe.", "The white-headed duck is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated the bird's conservation status as being \" endangered \" ."]}}
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"Caltha palustris"
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{"Caltha palustris": {"keywords": ["Caltha palustris, known as marsh-marigold and kingcup, is a small to medium size perennial herbaceous plant of the buttercup family, native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "It flowers between April and August, dependent on altitude and latitude, but occasional flowers may occur at other times.", "Caltha palustris is a high, hairless, fleshy, perennial, herbaceous plant that dies down in autumn and overwinters with buds near the surface of the marshy soil.", "In their youth the leaves are protected by a membranous sheath, that may be up to long in fully grown plants.", "The common marsh-marigold mostly has several flowering stems of up to long, carrying mostly several seated leaflike stipules, although lower ones may be on a short petiole, and between four and six flowers.", "A Caltha palustris flower and bud at the Ljubljana Botanical Garden in Slovenia The generic name Caltha is derived from the Ancient Greek , meaning \" goblet \" , and is said to refer to the shape of the flower.", "These include in addition to the most common two, marsh marigold and kingcup, also brave bassinets, crazy Beth, horse blob, Molly-blob, May blob, mare blob, boots, water boots, meadow-bright, bullflower, meadow buttercup, water buttercup, soldier's buttons, meadow cowslip, water cowslip, publican's cloak, crowfoot, water dragon, drunkards, water goggles, meadow gowan, water gowan, yellow gowan, goldes, golds, goldings, gools, cow lily, marybuds, and publicans-and-sinners.", "Both are herbaceous plants with yellow flowers, but Primula veris is much smaller.", "The species is native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "The marsh-marigold on spring flood plains of the Narew river.", "The marsh-marigold grows in places with oxygen-rich water near the surface of the soil.", "It likes richer soils, but dislikes application of fertilizer and avoids high concentrations of phosphate and ammonium, and is also shy of brackish water.", "The resulting insoluble mineral appears as \" rusty \" flocs on the water soil and the surface of the stems of marsh plants.", "Around the edge of lakes and rivers it grows between reeds, and it can be found in black alder coppices and other regularly flooded and always moist forests.", "It also used to be common on wet meadows, but due to agricultural rationalization it is now limited to ditches.", "It is a component of purple moor grass and rush pastures a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK. It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe.", "In western Europe, the marsh-marigold moth Micropterix calthella bites open the anthers of the marsh-marigold and other plants to eat the pollen.", "The caterpillars that are present in summer and autumn also feed on marsh-marigold, although these are sometimes found on mosses too.", "The seeds also have some spongy tissue that makes them float on water, until they wash up in a location that may be suitable for this species to grow.", "Young leaves or buds should be submerged a few times in fresh boiling water until barely tender, cut into bite-sized pieces, lightly salted, and served with melted butter and vinegar.", "The common marsh marigold is planted as an ornamental throughout temperate regions in the world, and sometimes recommended for low maintenance wildlife gardens.", "The double-flowered cultivar 'Flore Pleno' has won the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "to-day all this young verdure smiled clear in sunlight, transparent emerald and amber gleams played over it and in Thomas Hardy's poem 'Overlooking the River Stour'."], "habitat_section": ["The species is native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "It can be found in much of the northeastern United States.", "The marsh-marigold on spring flood plains of the Narew river.", "The marsh-marigold grows in places with oxygen-rich water near the surface of the soil.", "It likes richer soils, but dislikes application of fertilizer and avoids high concentrations of phosphate and ammonium, and is also shy of brackish water.", "It is often associated with seepage that is rich in iron, because iron ions react with phosphate, thus making it unavailable for plants.", "The resulting insoluble mineral appears as \" rusty \" flocs on the water soil and the surface of the stems of marsh plants.", "Around the edge of lakes and rivers it grows between reeds, and it can be found in black alder coppices and other regularly flooded and always moist forests.", "When it is present it often visually dominates when it is in bloom.", "It also used to be common on wet meadows, but due to agricultural rationalization it is now limited to ditches.", "It is a component of purple moor grass and rush pastures a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK. It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe.", "In western Europe, the marsh-marigold moth Micropterix calthella bites open the anthers of the marsh-marigold and other plants to eat the pollen.", "The caterpillars that are present in summer and autumn also feed on marsh-marigold, although these are sometimes found on mosses too.", "Another visitor of Caltha palustris in western Europe is the leaf beetle Prasocuris phellandrii, which is black with four orange stripes and around cm and eats the sepals.", "Its larvae inhabit the hollow stems of members of the parsley family.", "In the USA two species of leaf beetle can be found on Caltha.", "Plateumaris nitida and Hydrothassa vittata.", "The maggots of some Phytomyza species are miners in Caltha leaves."], "random_sentences": ["Caltha palustris, known as marsh-marigold and kingcup, is a small to medium size perennial herbaceous plant of the buttercup family, native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "It flowers between April and August, dependent on altitude and latitude, but occasional flowers may occur at other times.", "Caltha palustris is a high, hairless, fleshy, perennial, herbaceous plant that dies down in autumn and overwinters with buds near the surface of the marshy soil.", "The plants have many, thick strongly branching roots.", "Its flowering stems are hollow, erect or more or less decumbent.", "The alternate true leaves are in a rosette, each of which consist of a leaf stem that is about four times as long as the kidney-shaped leaf blade, itself between long and wide, with a heart-shaped foot, a blunt tip, and a scalloped to toothed, sometime almost entire margin particularly towards the tip.", "In their youth the leaves are protected by a membranous sheath, that may be up to long in fully grown plants.", "The common marsh-marigold mostly has several flowering stems of up to long, carrying mostly several seated leaflike stipules, although lower ones may be on a short petiole", "and between four and six flowers.", "The flowers are approximately but range between in diameter.", "There are four to nine petal-like, brightly colored , inverted egg-shaped sepals, each about but ranging from long, and about , ranging from wide", "they have a blunt or sometimes acute tip.", "Real petals and nectaries are lacking.", "Between 50 and 120 stamens with flattened yellow filaments and yellow tricolpate or sometimes pantoporate pollen encircle 525 free, flattened, linear-oblong, yellow to green carpels, with a two-lobed, obliquely positioned stigma, and each with many seedbuds.", "This later develops into a seated, funnel-shaped fruit of long and wide, that opens with one suture at the side of the axis and contains 720 ovoid, brown to black seeds of about .", "The oldest description that is generally acknowledged in the botanical literature dates from 1700 under the name Populago by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in", "PA273 part 1 of his Institutiones rei herbariae.", "He distinguished between P. flore major, P. flore minor and P. flore plena, and already says all of these are synonymous to Caltha palustris, without mentioning any previous author.", "As a plant name published before 1 May 1753, Populago is invalid.", "And so is the first description as Caltha palustris by Carl Linnaeus in his Genera Plantarum of 1737.", "But Linnaeus re-describes the species under the same name in Species Plantarum of 1 May 1753, thus providing the correct name.", "A Caltha palustris flower and bud at the Ljubljana Botanical Garden in Slovenia The generic name Caltha is derived from the Ancient Greek , meaning \" goblet \" , and is said to refer to the shape of the flower.", "The species epithet palustris is Latin for \" of the marsh \" and indicates its common habitat.", "In the UK, Caltha palustris is known by a variety of vernacular names, varying by geographical region.", "These include in addition to the most common two, marsh marigold and kingcup, also brave bassinets, crazy Beth, horse blob, Molly-blob, May blob, mare blob, boots, water boots, meadow-bright, bullflower, meadow buttercup, water buttercup, soldier's buttons, meadow cowslip, water cowslip, publican's cloak, crowfoot, water dragon, drunkards, water goggles, meadow gowan, water gowan, yellow gowan, goldes, golds, goldings, gools, cow lily, marybuds, and publicans-and-sinners.", "The common name \" marigold \" refers to its use in medieval churches at Easter as a tribute to the Virgin Mary, as in \" Mary gold \" .", "In North America Caltha palustris is sometimes known as cowslip.", "However, cowslip more often refers to Primula veris, the original plant to go by that name.", "Both are herbaceous plants with yellow flowers, but Primula veris is much smaller.", "Subdivision, synonymy and culture varieties", "White form seen in the Himalayas in Kashmir, India Caltha palustris is a very variable species.", "Since most character states occur in almost any combination, this provides little basis for subdivisions.", "The following varieties are nevertheless widely recognised.", "They are listed with their respective synonyms.", "If an epithet based on the same type specimen is used at different levels, only the use at the highest taxonomic rank is listed, so as C. himalensis is already listed, C. palustris var. himalensis is not.", "Double flowered: \" Flore Pleno \" , \" Multiplex \" , \" Plena \" , \" Semiplena \" .", "The species is native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "It can be found in much of the northeastern United States.", "The marsh-marigold on spring flood plains of the Narew river.", "The marsh-marigold grows in places with oxygen-rich water near the surface of the soil.", "It likes richer soils, but dislikes application of fertilizer and avoids high concentrations of phosphate and ammonium, and is also shy of brackish water.", "It is often associated with seepage that is rich in iron, because iron ions react with phosphate, thus making it unavailable for plants.", "The resulting insoluble mineral appears as \" rusty \" flocs on the water soil and the surface of the stems of marsh plants.", "Around the edge of lakes and rivers it grows between reeds, and it can be found in black alder coppices and other regularly flooded and always moist forests.", "When it is present it often visually dominates when it is in bloom.", "It also used to be common on wet meadows, but due to agricultural rationalization it is now limited to ditches.", "It is a component of purple moor grass and rush pastures a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK.", "It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe.", "In western Europe, the marsh-marigold moth Micropterix calthella bites open the anthers of the marsh-marigold and other plants to eat the pollen.", "The caterpillars that are present in summer and autumn also feed on marsh-marigold, although these are sometimes found on mosses too.", "Another visitor of Caltha palustris in western Europe is the leaf beetle Prasocuris phellandrii, which is black with four orange stripes and around cm and eats the sepals.", "Its larvae inhabit the hollow stems of members of the parsley family.", "In the USA two species of leaf beetle can be found on Caltha: Plateumaris nitida and Hydrothassa vittata.", "The maggots of some Phytomyza species are miners in Caltha leaves.", "Caltha palustris pollination by a syrphid fly The flowers produce both nectar and copious amounts of pollen which attract many insect visitors.", "They may be most commonly pollinated by hoverflies .", "In Canada, beetles , thrips , bugs , butterflies , sawflies , bees , ants and flies have been observed to visit the leaves or flowers, many of which were found carrying Caltha pollen.", "In addition to other forms of pollination, this plant is adapted to rain-pollination.", "Caltha palustris is infertile when self-pollinated.", "Rather high fertility in crosses between sibling plants suggest that this phenomenon is genetically regulated by several genes.", "This regulation mechanism also occurs in Ranunculus and as far as known only in these two genera.", "In Caltha palustris up to two hundred seeds may be produced by each flower.", "When the follicles open, they form a \" splash cup \" .", "When a raindrop hits one at the right angle, the walls are shaped such that the seeds are expelled.", "The seeds also have some spongy tissue that makes them float on water, until they wash up in a location that may be suitable for this species to grow.", "The marsh-marigold is affected by the rust species Puccinia calthea and P. calthicola.", "Caltha contains several active substances of which the most important from a toxicological point of view is protoanemonin.", "Larger quantities of the plant may cause convulsions, burning of the throat, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, dizziness and fainting.", "Contact of the skin or mucous membranes with the juices can cause blistering or inflammation, and gastric illness if ingested.", "Younger parts seem to contain less toxics and heating breaks these substances down.", "Small amounts of Caltha in hay do not cause problems when fed to husbandry, but larger quantities lead to gastric illness.", "Additionally, plants that live in raw water may carry toxic organisms which can be neutralized by cooking.", "Early spring greens and buds of Caltha palustris are edible when cooked .", "Young leaves or buds should be submerged a few times in fresh boiling water until barely tender, cut into bite-sized pieces, lightly salted, and served with melted butter and vinegar.", "Very young flowerbuds have been prepared like capers and used as a spice.", "The common marsh marigold is planted as an ornamental throughout temperate regions in the world, and sometimes recommended for low maintenance wildlife gardens.", "The double-flowered cultivar 'Flore Pleno' has won the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Caltha palustris is a plant commonly mentioned in literature, including Shakespeare: :Winking Marybuds begin :To open their golden eyes (Cymbeline, ii.", "It also appears in Charlotte Bronte's Shirley: :They both halted on the green brow of the Common: they looked down on the deep valley robed in May raiment", "on varied meads, some pearled with daisies, and some golden with king-cups: to-day all this young verdure smiled clear in sunlight", "transparent emerald and amber gleams played over it and in Thomas Hardy's poem 'Overlooking the River Stour': :Closed were the kingcups", "and the mead/Dripped in monotonous green,/Though the day's morning sheen/Had shown it golden and honeybee'd.", "Kingcup Cottage by Racey Helps is a children's book which features the plant.", "In Latvia Caltha palustris is also known as , which is also used as a girls name and symbolizes fire.", "The word is made from 2 words and .", "This refers to the burning reaction that some people experience from contact with Caltha sap."]}}
|
|
2598312_1123187
| 1040
|
[
"Saponaria ocymoides"
] |
{"Saponaria ocymoides": {"keywords": ["The flowering period extends from May to August in the Northern Hemisphere.", "This species ranges from the mountains of Spain to Corsica, Sardinia and Slovenia, from the Apennines to the Alps.", "It grows in rocky and stony places, dry slopes and forests .", "It prefers calcareous soils, at an altitude of up to , rarely up to .", "Saponaria ocymoides is cultivated as an ornamental plant for rock gardens and dry stone walls, in well-drained alkaline or neutral soil in full sun.", "Like most alpine plants it dislikes winter wetness around its roots.", "It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit."], "habitat_section": ["This species ranges from the mountains of Spain to Corsica, Sardinia and Slovenia, from the Apennines to the Alps.", "It grows in rocky and stony places, dry slopes and forests .", "It prefers calcareous soils, at an altitude of up to , rarely up to ."], "random_sentences": ["Saponaria ocymoides, the rock soapwort or tumbling Ted,", "The Latin specific epithet ocymoides means resembling basil .", "However the resemblance is superficial, as the two plants are not closely related.", "In fact Saponaria ocymoides belongs to the same family as pinks and carnations.", "Reaching a height of , the stem is prostrate to ascending, woody, reddish, quite hairy and very branched.", "The leaves are ovate to lanceolate, sessile and hairy, 13 cm long.", "The five-petalled flowers are arranged in groups at the ends of branches.", "They have red or pink petals and blue anthers.", "The sepals are fused in a tube about an 8 to 10 millimeters long.", "The flowering period extends from May to August in the Northern Hemisphere.", "The fruit is an ovoid capsule, up to 9 mm long.", "This species ranges from the mountains of Spain to Corsica, Sardinia and Slovenia, from the Apennines to the Alps.", "It grows in rocky and stony places, dry slopes and forests .", "It prefers calcareous soils, at an altitude of up to , rarely up to .", "Saponaria ocymoides is cultivated as an ornamental plant for rock gardens and dry stone walls, in well-drained alkaline or neutral soil in full sun.", "Like most alpine plants it dislikes winter wetness around its roots.", "It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit."]}}
|
|
2588337_1095294
| 1648
|
[
"Saxifraga bryoides"
] |
{"Saxifraga bryoides": {"keywords": ["It is an inhabitant of the Arctic tundra but it also grows in the Alps and other European mountain ranges at high altitudes.", "Flower of Saxifraga bryoides Mossy saxifrage is a low growing, evergreen perennial plant forming dense mats of foliage which seldom exceed in height.", "The leaves curl together in winter and this form of growth is typical of plants growing at high altitudes and under cold conditions because it conserves energy.", "The two species also occupy rather different habitats with the mossy saxifrage being found at higher altitudes, favouring rocky, exposed positions, while the rough saxifrage is often found on damp rocks by streams.", "Mossy saxifrage is mainly a plant of the Arctic tundra.", "It is one of only two species in the section Trachyphyllum that occurs at high altitudes in continental Europe, the other being Saxifraga aspera.", "It occurs in the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Carpathians and the Balkan Mountains at altitudes between It occurs among silicaceous rocks and occupies ledges and fissures in the rock on cliffs, ridges and summits.", "Mossy saxifrage can be grown in a rockery in temperate climates and can be propagated from seed or by cuttings.", "It likes gritty, well drained soil."], "habitat_section": ["Mossy saxifrage is mainly a plant of the Arctic tundra.", "It is one of only two species in the section Trachyphyllum that occurs at high altitudes in continental Europe, the other being Saxifraga aspera.", "It occurs in the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Carpathians and the Balkan Mountains at altitudes between It occurs among silicaceous rocks and occupies ledges and fissures in the rock on cliffs, ridges and summits."], "random_sentences": ["Saxifraga bryoides is a species of saxifrage known by the common name of mossy saxifrage.", "In German it is known as .", "It is an inhabitant of the Arctic tundra but it also grows in the Alps and other European mountain ranges at high altitudes.", "Flower of Saxifraga bryoides Mossy saxifrage is a low growing, evergreen perennial plant forming dense mats of foliage which seldom exceed in height.", "The leaves are linear lanceolate fringed with bristly hairs.", "The leaves curl together in winter and this form of growth is typical of plants growing at high altitudes and under cold conditions because it conserves energy.", "The leaves in the mat are about long while those that are found on the flowering stem are long.", "The leaf buds in the axils of the leaves are at least as long as the protecting leaves, a fact that distinguishes this species from the rather similar rough saxifrage, Saxifraga aspera.", "The two species also occupy rather different habitats with the mossy saxifrage being found at higher altitudes, favouring rocky, exposed positions, while the rough saxifrage is often found on damp rocks by streams.", "The flowers are borne singly on erect stems and are relatively large.", "The stems are slightly hairy and are often tinged red, as are the five calyx lobes.", "There are usually five petals which are oval and do not overlap each other.", "They are white with the lower half copiously dotted with yellow spots.", "Mossy saxifrage is mainly a plant of the Arctic tundra.", "It is one of only two species in the section Trachyphyllum that occurs at high altitudes in continental Europe, the other being Saxifraga aspera.", "It occurs in the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Carpathians and the Balkan Mountains at altitudes between It occurs among silicaceous rocks and occupies ledges and fissures in the rock on cliffs, ridges and summits.", "Mossy saxifrage can be grown in a rockery in temperate climates and can be propagated from seed or by cuttings.", "It likes gritty, well drained soil.", "Apparently healthy, established plants sometimes detach themselves from their roots.", "This tendency is likely to be caused by excessively damp conditions."]}}
|
|
2797624_1193285
| 726
|
[
"Rumex alpinus"
] |
{"Rumex alpinus": {"keywords": ["Rumex alpinus, common name monk's-rhubarb, Munk's rhubarb or Alpine dock, is a leafy perennial herb in the family Polygonaceae.", "Rumex alpinus is a perennial plant with a creeping rhizome.", "Monk's rhubarb growing on the Feldalpe in the Alps below the Giebel mountain.", "This species prefers high-altitude environments rich in nitrates, at elevation of up to above sea level.", "It can be found in arable land, fields, yards, rubbish dumps, roadsides and shores."], "habitat_section": ["Monk's rhubarb growing on the Feldalpe in the Alps below the Giebel mountain.", "the Groer Wilder and Schneck.", "Monk's-rhubarb is native to Central and Southern Europe and to Western Asia.", "It is naturalized in Britain.", "This species prefers high-altitude environments rich in nitrates, at elevation of up to above sea level.", "It can be found in arable land, fields, yards, rubbish dumps, roadsides and shores."], "random_sentences": ["Rumex alpinus, common name monk's-rhubarb, Munk's rhubarb or Alpine dock, is a leafy perennial herb in the family Polygonaceae.", "It is native to upland areas of Europe and Western Asia.", "Rumex alpinus is a perennial plant with a creeping rhizome.", "It can reach a height of .", "The stem is erect, striated and unbranched until just below the inflorescence.", "The leaves are very large, ovate-round, with long stout leaf stalks and irregular margins.", "The basal leaves have a hairless upper surface but have some hairs beside the veins on the lower surface.", "The upper leaves are alternate and are smaller and more elongated.", "Where their stalks meet the stem there is a membranous ochrea formed by the fusion of two stipules into a sheath which surrounds the stem and has a ragged upper margin.", "The flowers are arranged in much-branched, dense terminal compound panicles.", "The flowers are dioecious and anemophilous.", "The perianth segments are in two whorls of three.", "The outer ones are recurved and the inner ones form fruit valves, which are roundly, wider than long, with cordate bases and entire margins.", "There are six stamens, a pistil formed of three fused carpels, and three styles.", "The fruits are brown, three-sided achenes.", "The flowers bloom from June to August.", "Monk's rhubarb growing on the Feldalpe in the Alps below the Giebel mountain.", "Behind: the Groer Wilder and Schneck.", "Monk's-rhubarb is native to Central and Southern Europe and to Western Asia.", "It is naturalized in Britain.", "This species prefers high-altitude environments rich in nitrates, at elevation of up to above sea level.", "It can be found in arable land, fields, yards, rubbish dumps, roadsides and shores."]}}
|
|
2684929_1248725
| 2053
|
[
"Dryocopus martius",
"Cornus sanguinea",
"Fagus sylvatica"
] |
{"Dryocopus martius": {"keywords": ["Black woodpecker drumming The black woodpecker is a large woodpecker that lives in mature forests across the northern Palearctic.", "This non-migratory species tends to make its home in old-growth forest or large forest stands and excavates a large tree hole to reside in.", "The black woodpecker is mainly found in forested regions, with a preference for extensive, mature woodland, including coniferous, tropical, subtropical and boreal forests.", "It is very widespread throughout mountainous and lowland forests.", "At one point, when much of Europe and Asia was deforested, this species declined and in some areas is still struggling today, including in the Pyrenees.", "However, with the restoration of some forested areas, black woodpeckers have increased in some parts of Europe.", "Dryocopus martius martius is thought to be the woodpecker referred to in the augural instructions on the early Italic Iguvine Tablets by the Umbrian word peiqu, a bird \" very prominent in early Italic religion and mythology."], "habitat_section": ["A black woodpecker taking anting bath in Hungary The range of the black woodpecker spreads east from Spain across the whole of Europe, excluding Great Britain, Ireland, and northern Scandinavia.", "It is also native to parts of Asia, including Korea, Japan and China, and to the Middle East, including Iran and Kazakhstan.", "The southern limits of this woodpecker's range are in Spain and Italy, and it has also been recorded as a vagrant in Portugal. The species is generally more uncommon and more discontinuous in distribution in the Asian part of its range.", "The black woodpecker is mainly found in forested regions, with a preference for extensive, mature woodland, including coniferous, tropical, subtropical and boreal forests.", "It is very widespread throughout mountainous and lowland forests.", "It is more likely to occur in marginal woods near human habitations during the non-breeding season.", "This species has been observed at elevations between .", "The black woodpecker is noticeably absent from the British Isles.", "Approximately 80 sightings of the species in the UK have been reported, but some of these are disputed, though the proximity of the British Isles to the species' range in Western Europe means that the species may cross over on a regular basis.", "Tree work by black woodpecker Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden The woodpecker feeds by using its bill to hammer on dead trees to dig out carpenter ants and wood-boring beetle grubs.", "The selection of foods is relatively predictable, narrow and consistent in this species.", "Like all woodpeckers, this species has a specially adapted neck containing very strong muscles, which allow it to endlessly hack away at tree bark.", "Due to the size of its bill and large size and great physical power of this bird, it can access prey fairly deep within a tree.", "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.", "It not only provides habitats for other species, but also controls populations of wood-boring insects, helping to protect the trees.", "When the nest is ready, the female lays a single clutch of two to eight eggs, the average being four to six.", "The nest hole is usually dug in a live poplar or pine tree.", "The breeding pair take it in turns to incubate the eggs, also sharing duties of feeding and brooding the chicks once they have hatched.", "The nestlings may fight their way to the entrance of the nest in order to be fed first.", "After 18 to 35 days, the young black woodpeckers will leave the nest, staying with the adults for another week."], "random_sentences": ["Black woodpecker drumming The black woodpecker is a large woodpecker that lives in mature forests across the northern Palearctic.", "It is the sole representative of its genus in that region.", "The black woodpecker is easily the largest woodpecker species in Europe as well as in the portion of Asia where it lives and is one of the largest species worldwide.", "This non-migratory species tends to make its home in old-growth forest or large forest stands and excavates a large tree hole to reside in.", "In turn, several species rely on black woodpeckers to secondarily reside in the holes made in trees by them.", "This woodpeckers diet is comprised mostly of carpenter ants.", "This species is closely related to, and fills the same ecological niche in Europe as, the pileated woodpecker of North America and the lineated woodpecker of South America, also being similar to the white-bellied woodpecker which is distributed to the south somewhat of the black woodpecker in Asia.", "The black woodpecker was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Picus martius.", "Linnaeus gave the locality as Europe, but this is now taken to be Sweden.", "The black woodpecker is now placed in the genus Dryocopus that was introduced by the German naturalist Friedrich Boie in 1826.", "Skull of a black woodpecker The black woodpecker measures long with a wingspan.", "Body weight is approximately on average.", "The piercing yellow eyes and manic, high-pitched calls of the black woodpecker have made it the villain of fairy tales throughout its range.", "Their voice is remarkable in that it has two different calls.", "One is a short single high-pitched note, a loud, whistling kree-kree-kree, done only twice in a row.", "The other is a screech-like shrill while in flight.", "Unlike other woodpecker species, the black woodpecker does not have a dipping, bounding flight, but instead flies with slow, unsteady-seeming wing beats with its head raised.", "A black woodpecker taking anting bath in Hungary The range of the black woodpecker spreads east from Spain across the whole of Europe, excluding Great Britain, Ireland, and northern Scandinavia.", "It is also native to parts of Asia, including Korea, Japan and China, and to the Middle East, including Iran and Kazakhstan.", "The southern limits of this woodpecker's range are in Spain and Italy, and it has also been recorded as a vagrant in Portugal. The species is generally more uncommon and more discontinuous in distribution in the Asian part of its range.", "The black woodpecker is mainly found in forested regions, with a preference for extensive, mature woodland, including coniferous, tropical, subtropical and boreal forests.", "It is very widespread throughout mountainous and lowland forests.", "It is more likely to occur in marginal woods near human habitations during the non-breeding season.", "This species has been observed at elevations between .", "The black woodpecker is noticeably absent from the British Isles.", "Approximately 80 sightings of the species in the UK have been reported, but some of these are disputed, though the proximity of the British Isles to the species' range in Western Europe means that the species may cross over on a regular basis.", "Tree work by black woodpecker Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden The woodpecker feeds by using its bill to hammer on dead trees to dig out carpenter ants and wood-boring beetle grubs.", "The selection of foods is relatively predictable, narrow and consistent in this species.", "Like all woodpeckers, this species has a specially adapted neck containing very strong muscles, which allow it to endlessly hack away at tree bark.", "Due to the size of its bill and large size and great physical power of this bird, it can access prey fairly deep within a tree.", "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.", "It not only provides habitats for other species, but also controls populations of wood-boring insects, helping to protect the trees.", "When the nest is ready, the female lays a single clutch of two to eight eggs, the average being four to six.", "The nest hole is usually dug in a live poplar or pine tree.", "The breeding pair take it in turns to incubate the eggs, also sharing duties of feeding and brooding the chicks once they have hatched.", "The nestlings may fight their way to the entrance of the nest in order to be fed first.", "After 18 to 35 days, the young black woodpeckers will leave the nest, staying with the adults for another week.", "The black woodpecker is a fairly widely distributed woodland species and can successfully breed in most areas where extensive woodland is left.", "At one point, when much of Europe and Asia was deforested, this species declined and in some areas is still struggling today, including in the Pyrenees.", "They normally require mature trees and ample stands of dead trees to sustain a viable breeding population.", "However, with the restoration of some forested areas, black woodpeckers have increased in some parts of Europe.", "northern goshawks , common buzzards and golden eagles .", "The black woodpecker in the coat of arms of Pielisjarvi The municipality of Nurmijarvi in Uusimaa, Finland has adopted the black woodpecker as the title bird of the municipality, because in addition to being the most common bird in the locality, it also appears in the literature of Aleksis Kivi, a Finnish national author, originally from the Nurmijarvi.", "Nurmijarvi's local football club NJS has also adopted the black woodpecker as the club's logo.", "Dryocopus martius martius is thought to be the woodpecker referred to in the augural instructions on the early Italic Iguvine Tablets by the Umbrian word peiqu, a bird \" very prominent in early Italic religion and mythology."]}, "Cornus sanguinea": {"keywords": ["Cornus sanguinea, the common dogwood or bloody dogwood, is a species of dogwood native to most of Europe and western Asia, from England and central Scotland east to the Caspian Sea.", "It is widely grown as an ornamental plant.", "It is a medium to large deciduous shrub, growing tall, with dark greenish-brown branches and twigs.", "It prefers moderate warmth in sunny places, though it can tolerate shade and in the more southern areas of its distribution area grows in the mountains.", "In cooler areas such as Scandinavia it grows at sea level.", "It requires light, often alkaline soils.", "It is especially abundant in riversides, especially in shady areas and ravines.", "It grows in the margins of forests or unforested areas as woods in regeneration, prickly woodland fringes, with other thorny shrub species .", "Many frugivorous passerines find them irresistible, and prefer them over fruits grown by humans.", "The plant is thus often grown in organic gardening and permaculture to prevent harm to orchard crops, while benefitting from the fact that even frugivorous birds will hunt pest insects during the breeding season, as their young require much protein to grow.", "Garden varieties are often called \" winter fire \" because the leaves turn orange-yellow in autumn and then fall to reveal striking red winter stems."], "habitat_section": ["It prefers moderate warmth in sunny places, though it can tolerate shade and in the more southern areas of its distribution area grows in the mountains.", "In cooler areas such as Scandinavia it grows at sea level.", "It requires light, often alkaline soils.", "The species spreads by seeds and stolons.", "Its natural range covers most of Europe and western Asia.", "It is especially abundant in riversides, especially in shady areas and ravines.", "It grows in the margins of forests or unforested areas as woods in regeneration, prickly woodland fringes, with other thorny shrub species .", "It reproduces by seed and root sprouts, which makes it effective at occupying areas of land and forming dense groves.", "Depending on circumstances, it can be invasive."], "random_sentences": ["Cornus sanguinea, the common dogwood or bloody dogwood, is a species of dogwood native to most of Europe and western Asia, from England and central Scotland east to the Caspian Sea.", "It is widely grown as an ornamental plant.", "Cornus sanguinea stems in winter.", "It is a medium to large deciduous shrub, growing tall, with dark greenish-brown branches and twigs.", "The leaves are opposite, long and broad, with an ovate to oblong shape and an entire margin", "they are green above, slightly paler below, and rough with short stiff pubescence.", "The hermaphrodite flowers are small, diameter, with four creamy white petals, produced in clusters diameter, and are insect pollinated.", "The fruit is a globose black berry diameter, containing a single seed.", "The berries are sometimes called \" dogberries \" .", "It prefers moderate warmth in sunny places, though it can tolerate shade and in the more southern areas of its distribution area grows in the mountains.", "In cooler areas such as Scandinavia it grows at sea level.", "It requires light, often alkaline soils.", "The species spreads by seeds and stolons.", "Its natural range covers most of Europe and western Asia.", "It is especially abundant in riversides, especially in shady areas and ravines.", "It grows in the margins of forests or unforested areas as woods in regeneration, prickly woodland fringes, with other thorny shrub species .", "It reproduces by seed and root sprouts, which makes it effective at occupying areas of land and forming dense groves.", "Depending on circumstances, it can be invasive.", "Cornus sanguinea berries The leaves provide food for some animals, including Lepidoptera such as the case-bearer moth Coleophora anatipennella.", "Dogberries are eaten by some mammals and many birds.", "Many frugivorous passerines find them irresistible, and prefer them over fruits grown by humans.", "The plant is thus often grown in organic gardening and permaculture to prevent harm to orchard crops, while benefitting from the fact that even frugivorous birds will hunt pest insects during the breeding season, as their young require much protein to grow.", "Garden varieties are often called \" winter fire \" because the leaves turn orange-yellow in autumn and then fall to reveal striking red winter stems.", "The straight woody shoots produced by the plant can be used as prods, skewers or arrows.", "The prehistoric archer known as Otzi the Iceman, discovered in 1991 on the border between Italy and Austria, was carrying arrow shafts made from dogwood."]}, "Fagus sylvatica": {"keywords": ["In cultivated forest stands trees are normally harvested at 80120 years of age.", "in forest areas, F. sylvatica grows to over , with branches being high up on the trunk.", "Flower and seed production is particularly abundant in years following a hot, sunny and dry summer, though rarely for two years in a row.", "In the southern part of its range around the Mediterranean, it grows only in mountain forests, at altitude.", "Although often regarded as native in southern England, recent evidence suggests that F. sylvatica did not arrive in England until about 4000 BC, or 2,000 years subsequent to the English Channel forming following the ice ages, it could have been an early introduction by Stone Age humans, who used the nuts for food.", "The beech is classified as a native in the south of England and as a non-native in the north where it is often removed from 'native' woods.", "If native, they would represent the northern range of the species.", "However, the beech in Vestfold and at Seim north of Bergen in Norway is now spreading naturally and regarded as native.", "a humid atmosphere and well-drained soil .", "It prefers moderately fertile ground, calcified or lightly acidic, therefore it is found more often on the side of a hill than at the bottom of clayey basin.", "It tolerates rigorous winter cold, but is sensitive to spring frost.", "In Norway's oceanic climate planted trees grow well north to Bod, and produce seedlings and can spread naturally in Trondheim.", "In Sweden, beech trees do not grow as far north as in Norway.", "A beech forest is very dark and few species of plant are able to survive there, where the sun barely reaches the ground.", "Young beeches prefer some shade and may grow poorly in full sunlight.", "In a clear-cut forest a European beech will germinate and then die of excessive dryness.", "species and Cenococcum geophilum have been found in Danish and Spanish beech forests.", "These fungi are important in enhancing uptake of water and nutrients from the soil.", "It is more precise in the north of its range than the south, and at than at sea level.", "Conditions in summer, particularly good rainfall, determine the number of leaves included in the buds.", "Later, after a wave of above ground growth, thicker roots grow in a steady fashion.", "A look down a steep gorge with European beech leading down to the ocean at Mns Klint, Denmark European beech is a very popular ornamental tree in parks and large gardens in temperate regions of the world.", "In North America, they are preferred for this purpose over the native F. grandifolia, which despite its tolerance of warmer climates, is slower growing, taking an average of 10 years longer to attain maturity.", "The town of Brookline, Massachusetts has one of the largest, if not the largest, grove of European beech trees in the United States.", "It is better for paper pulp than many other broadleaved trees though is only sometimes used for this, the high cellulose content can also be spun into modal, which is used as a textile akin to cotton."], "habitat_section": ["Fagus sylvatica pliocenica Museum of Toulouse The natural range extends from southern Sweden to northern Sicily, west to France, southern England, northern Portugal, central Spain, and east to northwest Turkey, where it intergrades with the oriental beech , which replaces it further east.", "In the Balkans, it shows some hybridisation with oriental beech, these hybrid trees are named Fagus taurica Popl.", "In the southern part of its range around the Mediterranean, it grows only in mountain forests, at altitude.", "Although often regarded as native in southern England, recent evidence suggests that F. sylvatica did not arrive in England until about 4000 BC, or 2,000 years subsequent to the English Channel forming following the ice ages, it could have been an early introduction by Stone Age humans, who used the nuts for food.", "The beech is classified as a native in the south of England and as a non-native in the north where it is often removed from 'native' woods.", "Localised pollen records have been recorded in the North of England from the Iron Age by Sir Harry Godwin.", "Changing climatic conditions may put beech populations in southern England under increased stress and while it may not be possible to maintain the current levels of beech in some sites it is thought that conditions for beech in north-west England will remain favourable or even improve.", "It is often planted in Britain.", "Similarly, the nature of Norwegian beech populations is subject to debate.", "If native, they would represent the northern range of the species.", "However, molecular genetic analyses support the hypothesis that these populations represent intentional introduction from Denmark before and during the Viking Age.", "However, the beech in Vestfold and at Seim north of Bergen in Norway is now spreading naturally and regarded as native.", "Though not demanding of its soil type, the European beech has several significant requirements.", "a humid atmosphere and well-drained soil .", "It prefers moderately fertile ground, calcified or lightly acidic, therefore it is found more often on the side of a hill than at the bottom of clayey basin.", "It tolerates rigorous winter cold, but is sensitive to spring frost.", "In Norway's oceanic climate planted trees grow well north to Bod, and produce seedlings and can spread naturally in Trondheim.", "In Sweden, beech trees do not grow as far north as in Norway.", "A beech forest is very dark and few species of plant are able to survive there, where the sun barely reaches the ground.", "Young beeches prefer some shade and may grow poorly in full sunlight.", "In a clear-cut forest a European beech will germinate and then die of excessive dryness.", "Under oaks with sparse leaf cover it will quickly surpass them in height and, due to the beech's dense foliage, the oaks will die from lack of sunlight.", "The root system is shallow, even superficial, with large roots spreading out in all directions.", "European beech forms ectomycorrhizas with a range of fungi including many Russula species, as well as Laccaria amethystina, and with the species Ramaria flavosaponaria.", "species and Cenococcum geophilum have been found in Danish and Spanish beech forests.", "These fungi are important in enhancing uptake of water and nutrients from the soil.", "and Izvoarele Nerei in Semenic-Cheile Carasului National Park, Romania.", "These habitats are the home of Europe's largest predators, .", "Many trees are older than 350 years in Izvoarele Nerei and even 500 years in Uholka-Shyrokyi Luh.", "Spring leaf budding by the European beech is triggered by a combination of day length and temperature.", "Bud break each year is from the middle of April to the beginning of May, often with remarkable precision .", "It is more precise in the north of its range than the south, and at than at sea level.", "The European beech invests significantly in summer and autumn for the following spring.", "Conditions in summer, particularly good rainfall, determine the number of leaves included in the buds.", "In autumn, the tree builds the reserves that will sustain it into spring.", "Given good conditions, a bud can produce a shoot with ten or more leaves.", "The terminal bud emits a hormonal substance in the spring that halts the development of additional buds.", "This tendency, though very strong at the beginning of their existence, becomes weaker in older trees.", "It is only after the budding that root growth of the year begins.", "The first roots to appear are very thin .", "Later, after a wave of above ground growth, thicker roots grow in a steady fashion.", "Detail of the tarcrust's structure"], "random_sentences": ["Fagus sylvatica, the European beech or common beech is a deciduous tree belonging to the beech family Fagaceae.", "Copper beech in autumn Shoot with nut cupules Fagus sylvatica is a large tree, capable of reaching heights of up to tall and trunk diameter, though more typically tall and up to trunk diameter.", "A 10-year-old sapling will stand about tall.", "It has a typical lifespan of 150200 years, though sometimes up to 300 years.", "In cultivated forest stands trees are normally harvested at 80120 years of age.", "30 years are needed to attain full maturity .", "Like most trees, its form depends on the location: in forest areas, F. sylvatica grows to over , with branches being high up on the trunk.", "In open locations, it will become much shorter and more massive.", "The leaves are alternate, simple, and entire or with a slightly crenate margin, long and 37 cm broad, with 67 veins on each side of the leaf .", "When crenate, there is one point at each vein tip, never any points between the veins.", "The buds are long and slender, long and thick, but thicker where the buds include flower buds.", "The leaves of beech are often not abscissed in the autumn and instead remain on the tree until the spring.", "This process is called marcescence.", "This particularly occurs when trees are saplings or when plants are clipped as a hedge , but it also often continues to occur on the lower branches when the tree is mature.", "Small quantities of seeds may be produced around 10 years of age, but not a heavy crop until the tree is at least 30 years old.", "F. sylvatica male flowers are borne in the small catkins which are a hallmark of the Fagales order .", "The female flowers produce beechnuts, small triangular nuts long and wide at the base", "there are two nuts in each cupule, maturing in the autumn 56 months after pollination.", "Flower and seed production is particularly abundant in years following a hot, sunny and dry summer, though rarely for two years in a row.", "Fagus sylvatica pliocenica Museum of Toulouse The natural range extends from southern Sweden to northern Sicily, west to France, southern England, northern Portugal, central Spain, and east to northwest Turkey, where it intergrades with the oriental beech , which replaces it further east.", "In the Balkans, it shows some hybridisation with oriental beech", "these hybrid trees are named Fagus taurica Popl.", "[Fagus moesiaca Czecz.", "In the southern part of its range around the Mediterranean, it grows only in mountain forests, at altitude.", "Although often regarded as native in southern England, recent evidence suggests that F. sylvatica did not arrive in England until about 4000 BC, or 2,000 years subsequent to the English Channel forming following the ice ages", "it could have been an early introduction by Stone Age humans, who used the nuts for food.", "The beech is classified as a native in the south of England and as a non-native in the north where it is often removed from 'native' woods.", "Localised pollen records have been recorded in the North of England from the Iron Age by Sir Harry Godwin.", "Changing climatic conditions may put beech populations in southern England under increased stress and while it may not be possible to maintain the current levels of beech in some sites it is thought that conditions for beech in north-west England will remain favourable or even improve.", "It is often planted in Britain.", "Similarly, the nature of Norwegian beech populations is subject to debate.", "If native, they would represent the northern range of the species.", "However, molecular genetic analyses support the hypothesis that these populations represent intentional introduction from Denmark before and during the Viking Age.", "However, the beech in Vestfold and at Seim north of Bergen in Norway is now spreading naturally and regarded as native.", "Though not demanding of its soil type, the European beech has several significant requirements: a humid atmosphere and well-drained soil .", "It prefers moderately fertile ground, calcified or lightly acidic, therefore it is found more often on the side of a hill than at the bottom of clayey basin.", "It tolerates rigorous winter cold, but is sensitive to spring frost.", "In Norway's oceanic climate planted trees grow well north to Bod, and produce seedlings and can spread naturally in Trondheim.", "In Sweden, beech trees do not grow as far north as in Norway.", "A beech forest is very dark and few species of plant are able to survive there, where the sun barely reaches the ground.", "Young beeches prefer some shade and may grow poorly in full sunlight.", "In a clear-cut forest a European beech will germinate and then die of excessive dryness.", "Under oaks with sparse leaf cover it will quickly surpass them in height and, due to the beech's dense foliage, the oaks will die from lack of sunlight.", "The root system is shallow, even superficial, with large roots spreading out in all directions.", "European beech forms ectomycorrhizas with a range of fungi including many Russula species, as well as Laccaria amethystina, and with the species Ramaria flavosaponaria.", "species and Cenococcum geophilum have been found in Danish and Spanish beech forests.", "These fungi are important in enhancing uptake of water and nutrients from the soil.", "and Izvoarele Nerei in Semenic-Cheile Carasului National Park, Romania.", "These habitats are the home of Europe's largest predators, .", "Many trees are older than 350 years in Izvoarele Nerei and even 500 years in Uholka-Shyrokyi Luh.", "Spring leaf budding by the European beech is triggered by a combination of day length and temperature.", "Bud break each year is from the middle of April to the beginning of May, often with remarkable precision .", "It is more precise in the north of its range than the south, and at than at sea level.", "The European beech invests significantly in summer and autumn for the following spring.", "Conditions in summer, particularly good rainfall, determine the number of leaves included in the buds.", "In autumn, the tree builds the reserves that will sustain it into spring.", "Given good conditions, a bud can produce a shoot with ten or more leaves.", "The terminal bud emits a hormonal substance in the spring that halts the development of additional buds.", "This tendency, though very strong at the beginning of their existence, becomes weaker in older trees.", "It is only after the budding that root growth of the year begins.", "The first roots to appear are very thin .", "Later, after a wave of above ground growth, thicker roots grow in a steady fashion.", "Detail of the tarcrust's structure", "Biscogniauxia nummularia is an ascomycete primary pathogen of beech trees, causing strip-canker and wood rot.", "It can be found at all times of year and is not edible.", "A look down a steep gorge with European beech leading down to the ocean at Mns Klint, Denmark European beech is a very popular ornamental tree in parks and large gardens in temperate regions of the world.", "In North America, they are preferred for this purpose over the native F. grandifolia, which despite its tolerance of warmer climates, is slower growing, taking an average of 10 years longer to attain maturity.", "The town of Brookline, Massachusetts has one of the largest, if not the largest, grove of European beech trees in the United States.", "The public park, called 'The Longwood Mall', was planted sometime before 1850 qualifying it as the oldest stand of European beeches in the United States.", "It is frequently kept clipped to make attractive hedges.", "Since the early 19th century there have been numerous cultivars of European beech made by horticultural selection, often repeatedly", "The nuts are eaten by humans and animals.", "Slightly toxic to humans if eaten in large quantities due to the tannins and alkaloids they contain, the nuts were nonetheless pressed to obtain an oil in 19th-century England that was used for cooking and in lamps.", "They were also ground to make flour, which could be eaten after the tannins were leached out by soaking.", "Primary Product AM 01, a smoke flavouring, is produced from Fagus sylvatica L.", "The wood of the European beech is used in the manufacture of numerous objects and implements.", "Its fine and short grain makes it an easy wood to work with, easy to soak, dye, varnish and glue.", "Steaming makes the wood even easier to machine.", "It has an excellent finish and is resistant to compression and splitting and it is stiff when flexed.", "Milling is sometimes difficult due to cracking.", "The density of the wood is per cubic meter.", "It is particularly well suited for minor carpentry, particularly furniture.", "From chairs to parquetry and staircases, the European beech can do almost anything other than heavy structural support, so long as it is not left outdoors.", "Its hardness make it ideal for making wooden mallets and workbench tops.", "The wood rots easily if it is not protected by a tar based on a distillate of its own bark .", "It is better for paper pulp than many other broadleaved trees though is only sometimes used for this, the high cellulose content can also be spun into modal, which is used as a textile akin to cotton.", "The code for its use in Europe is .", "Common beech is also considered one of the best firewoods for fireplaces."]}}
|
|
2578835_1182904
| 321
|
[
"Hippocrepis emerus"
] |
{"Hippocrepis emerus": {"keywords": ["This plant occurs in northeastern Spain and in central Mediterranean countries up to northern Europe and to Asia Minor and Tunisia.", "These shrubs are usually found in wooded and bushy areas, on sunny, warm and dry slopes and around forest edges."], "habitat_section": ["This plant occurs in northeastern Spain and in central Mediterranean countries up to northern Europe and to Asia Minor and Tunisia.", "These shrubs are usually found in wooded and bushy areas, on sunny, warm and dry slopes and around forest edges.", "They can be found at an altitude of ."], "random_sentences": ["Hippocrepis emerus, the scorpion senna, is a species of perennial plant belonging to the genus Hippocrepis in the family Fabaceae.", "Hippocrepis emerus reaches on average of height, with a maximum of .", "The plant has a lignified stem with green branches bearing five to nine leaflets.", "These leaves are glossy, obovate, and imparipinnate, with their maximum width being above the middle and often larger extremities.", "The pale yellow flowers are arranged in groups of 1 to 5, and measure long.", "The petals are \" nailed \" , meaning they have a long handle and a \" plate \" .", "The nails of the petals are two to three times longer than the calyx.", "These plants are hermaphroditic and entomophilous, and their flowering period extends from April through July.", "Their legumes are oblong-cylindrical and long, with three to twelve segments.", "This plant occurs in northeastern Spain and in central Mediterranean countries up to northern Europe and to Asia Minor and Tunisia.", "These shrubs are usually found in wooded and bushy areas, on sunny, warm and dry slopes and around forest edges.", "They can be found at an altitude of .", "H. emerus is one of the main host plants of the moth Zygaena ephialtes."]}}
|
|
2527907_1151079
| 014
|
[
"Fulica atra",
"Podiceps cristatus"
] |
{"Fulica atra": {"keywords": ["An extinct subspecies F. atra pontica, has been described from the Chalcolithic from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.", "The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.", "The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands.", "It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The nest is a bulky structure that either floats on the water or is built in shallow water on a low or barely submerged stump or log, making a neat, large bowl.", "Chick picking through wet leaves in Sweden .", "The coot is an omnivore, and will take a variety of small live prey including the eggs of other water birds, as well as algae, vegetation, seeds and fruit.", "In the water it may upend in the fashion of a mallard or dive in search of food."], "habitat_section": ["The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds.", "It occurs and breeds in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa.", "The species has recently expanded its range into New Zealand.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.", "The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands.", "It is an aggressive species, and strongly territorial during the breeding season, and both parents are involved in territorial defence.", "During the non-breeding season they may form large flocks, possibly related to predator avoidance.", "It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing.", "It does the same, but without actually flying, when travelling a short distance at speed in territorial disputes or on land to escape from intruders.", "As with many rails, its weak flight does not inspire confidence, but on migration, usually at night, it can cover surprisingly large distances.", "It bobs its head as it swims, and makes short dives from a little jump.", "When fighting other waterbirds , the coot attacks by charging its opponent and striking them with its long legs."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian coot , also known as the common coot, or Australian coot, is a member of the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae.", "It is found in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and parts of North Africa.", "It has a slaty-black body, a glossy black head and a white bill with a white frontal shield.", "Similar looking coot species are found throughout the world, with the largest variety of coot species living in South America.", "The Eurasian coot was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name Fulica atra.", "Linnaeus specified the locality as Europe but this is now restricted to Sweden.", "The binomial name is from Latin: Fulica means \" coot \" , and atra mean \" black \" .", "Four subspecies are recognised: An extinct subspecies F. atra pontica, has been described from the Chalcolithic from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.", "Legs and feet of Eurasian coot in St James's Park, London The Eurasian coot is in length with a wing-span of", "males weigh around and females .", "It is largely black except for the white bill and frontal shield .", "As a swimming species, the coot has partial webbing on its long strong toes.", "The sexes are similar in appearance.", "The juvenile is paler than the adult, has a whitish breast, and lacks the facial shield", "the adult black plumage develops when about 34 months old, but the white shield is only fully developed at about one year old.", "The Eurasian coot is a noisy bird with a wide repertoire of crackling, explosive, or trumpeting calls, often given at night.", "The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds.", "It occurs and breeds in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa.", "The species has recently expanded its range into New Zealand.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.", "The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands.", "It is an aggressive species, and strongly territorial during the breeding season, and both parents are involved in territorial defence.", "During the non-breeding season they may form large flocks, possibly related to predator avoidance.", "It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing.", "It does the same, but without actually flying, when travelling a short distance at speed in territorial disputes or on land to escape from intruders.", "As with many rails, its weak flight does not inspire confidence, but on migration, usually at night, it can cover surprisingly large distances.", "It bobs its head as it swims, and makes short dives from a little jump.", "When fighting other waterbirds , the coot attacks by charging its opponent and striking them with its long legs.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The nest is a bulky structure that either floats on the water or is built in shallow water on a low or barely submerged stump or log, making a neat, large bowl.", "It is constructed of plant stems and leaves with a lining of finer material. Normally concealed in vegetation the nest can sometimes be placed in the open.", "It is built by both sexes with the male collecting most of the material which is incorporated by the female.", "The eggs are laid at daily intervals.", "The clutch usually contains between six and ten smooth and slightly glossy buff coloured eggs that are covered with black or dark brown speckles.", "On average they are and weigh .", "The eggs are incubated by both sexes beginning after the second egg is laid and hatch asynchronously after 21 to 24 days.", "The chicks are precocial and nidifugous.", "The chicks are covered with a black down.", "On the body the down has yellow hair-like tips.", "On the sides of the head, nape and throat the hair-like tips are longer and orange-red.", "Between the eyes and on the lores, the tips are red.", "The shield is bright red and the bill is red with a white tip.", "The young are brooded by the female for the first three to four days during which time food is brought by the male.", "The male also builds one or more platforms that is used for roosting and brooding the chicks.", "On leaving the nest, the brood is sometimes split up with each parent taking care of a separate group.", "The young can feed themselves when they are around 30 days and fledge at 55 to 60 days.", "Eurasian coots normally only have a single brood each year but in some areas such as Britain they will sometimes attempt a second brood.", "They first breed when they are one to two years old.", "Chick mortality occurs mainly due to starvation rather than predation.", "Most chicks died in the first 10 days after hatching, when they are most dependent on adults for food.", "Coots can be very brutal to their own young under pressure such as the lack of food.", "They will bite young that are begging for food and repeatedly do this until it stops begging.", "If the begging continues, they may bite so hard that the chick is killed.", "Coots will also lay their eggs in the nests of other coots when their environment or physical condition limits their ability to breed, or to lengthen their reproductive life.", "adult with chicks, Trujillo, Spain Eurasian coot juvenile.", "chick in Marais Audomarois, France Baby Eurasian coot foraging .", "The coot is an omnivore, and will take a variety of small live prey including the eggs of other water birds, as well as algae, vegetation, seeds and fruit.", "It shows considerable variation in its feeding techniques, grazing on land or in the water.", "In the water it may upend in the fashion of a mallard or dive in search of food.", "The Eurasian coot is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies."]}, "Podiceps cristatus": {"keywords": ["Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The great crested grebe breeds in vegetated areas of freshwater lakes.", "It winters on freshwater lakes and reservoirs or the coast.", "The adults teach these skills to their young by carrying them on their back and diving, leaving the chicks to float on the surface, they then re-emerge a few feet away so that the chicks may swim back onto them."], "habitat_section": ["Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The great crested grebe breeds in vegetated areas of freshwater lakes.", "The subspecies P. c. cristatus is found across Europe and east across the Palearctic.", "It is resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from the colder regions.", "It winters on freshwater lakes and reservoirs or the coast.", "The African subspecies P. c. infuscatus and the Australasian subspecies P. c. australis are mainly sedentary."], "random_sentences": ["Podiceps cristatus The great crested grebe is a member of the grebe family of water birds noted for its elaborate mating display.", "The great crested grebe was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Colymbus cristatus.", "The great crested grebe is now the type species of the genus Podiceps that was erected by the English naturalist John Latham in 1787.", "The type locality is Sweden.", "The scientific name comes from Latin: the genus name Podiceps is from , \" vent \" and , \" foot \" , and is a reference to the placement of a grebe's legs towards the rear of its body", "the species name, cristatus, means \" crested \" .", "Young grebe, Moscow The great crested grebe is the largest member of the grebe family found in the Old World, with some larger species residing in the Americas.", "They measure long with a wingspan and weigh .", "It is an excellent swimmer and diver, and pursues its fish prey underwater.", "The adults are unmistakable in summer with head and neck decorations.", "In winter, this is whiter than most grebes, with white above the eye, and a pink bill.", "The young are distinctive because their heads are striped black and white.", "They lose these markings when they become adults.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The great crested grebe breeds in vegetated areas of freshwater lakes.", "The subspecies P. c. cristatus is found across Europe and east across the Palearctic.", "It is resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from the colder regions.", "It winters on freshwater lakes and reservoirs or the coast.", "The African subspecies P. c. infuscatus and the Australasian subspecies P. c. australis are mainly sedentary.", "The great crested grebe has an elaborate mating display.", "Like all grebes, it nests on the water's edge.", "The nest is built by both sexes.", "The clutch averages four chalky white eggs which average in size and weigh .", "Incubation is by both parents and begins as soon as the first egg is laid.", "The eggs hatch asynchronously after 27 to 29 days.", "The precocial young are cared for and fed by both parents.", "Young grebes are capable of swimming and diving almost at hatching.", "The adults teach these skills to their young by carrying them on their back and diving, leaving the chicks to float on the surface", "they then re-emerge a few feet away so that the chicks may swim back onto them.", "The great crested grebe feeds mainly on fish, but also small crustaceans, insects, small frogs and newts.", "A head of great crested grebe in the coat of arms of Kauvatsa This species was hunted almost to extinction in the United Kingdom in the 19th century for its head plumes, which were used to decorate ladies' hats and garments.", "The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was set up to help protect this species, which is again a common sight.", "The great crested grebe and its behaviour was the subject of one of the landmark publications in avian ethology: Julian Huxley's 1914 paper on The Courtshiphabits of the Great Crested Grebe ."]}}
|
|
2711696_1246621
| 524
|
[
"Euonymus europaeus"
] |
{"Euonymus europaeus": {"keywords": ["Euonymus europaeus, the spindle, European spindle, or common spindle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Celastraceae, native to much of Europe, where it inhabits the edges of forest, hedges and gentle slopes, tending to thrive on nutrient-rich, chalky and salt-poor soils.", "It is a deciduous shrub or small tree.", "Euonymus europaeus grows to tall, rarely , with a stem up to in diameter.", "The hermaphrodite flowers are produced in late spring and are insect-pollinated, they are rather inconspicuous, small, yellowish green and grow in cymes of 38 together.", "E. europaeus occurs as an understory shrub or small tree primarily in old hedgerows, open woodland clearings and margins, and scrubland on base-rich or calcareous soils, although it is also shade-tolerant.", "It rarely invades open habitats such as grasslands except in the presence of abundant hedges In Ireland, it can also be found growing on rocky limestone outcrops, rocky lake shores and limestone pavements.", "It is typical in Fraxinus excelsior Acer campestre Mercurialis perennis woodland , and it is a frequent companion of Cornus sanguinea in open-stand scrub over limestone, generally in low frequency and abundance throughout.", "Because of the potential economic loss from this insect that feeds on cultivated broad beans and sugar beet, spindle in the past was commonly removed from hedges and woodlands as a measure against black bean aphid outbreaks and agricultural yield losses, although this widespread removal does not appear to have impacted current populations.", "It is a popular ornamental plant in gardens and parks due to its bright pink or purple fruits and attractive autumn colouring.", "In cultivation in the UK, the cultivar 'Red Cascade' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit."], "habitat_section": ["E. europaeus occurs as an understory shrub or small tree primarily in old hedgerows, open woodland clearings and margins, and scrubland on base-rich or calcareous soils, although it is also shade-tolerant.", "It rarely invades open habitats such as grasslands except in the presence of abundant hedges In Ireland, it can also be found growing on rocky limestone outcrops, rocky lake shores and limestone pavements.", "It is typical in Fraxinus excelsior Acer campestre Mercurialis perennis woodland , and it is a frequent companion of Cornus sanguinea in open-stand scrub over limestone, generally in low frequency and abundance throughout.", "It is usually scattered in distribution but may occasionally occur remarkably commonly on a local scale, such as in the so-called Spindle Valley in the Chilterns.", "The scattered distribution is likely limited by dispersal of seeds via birds and rodents.", "E. europaeus is the almost exclusive winter host of the black bean aphid.", "Because of the potential economic loss from this insect that feeds on cultivated broad beans and sugar beet, spindle in the past was commonly removed from hedges and woodlands as a measure against black bean aphid outbreaks and agricultural yield losses, although this widespread removal does not appear to have impacted current populations.", "In 1944, The Biology War Committee also began a campaign to investigate the distribution and ecology of E. europeaus as a basis for aphid control measures."], "random_sentences": ["Euonymus europaeus, the spindle, European spindle, or common spindle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Celastraceae, native to much of Europe, where it inhabits the edges of forest, hedges and gentle slopes, tending to thrive on nutrient-rich, chalky and salt-poor soils.", "It is a deciduous shrub or small tree.", "Euonymus europaeus grows to tall, rarely , with a stem up to in diameter.", "The leaves are opposite, lanceolate to elliptical, 38 cm long and 13 cm broad, with a finely serrated edge.", "Leaves are dark green in summer.", "Autumn colour ranges from yellow-green to reddish-purple, depending on environmental conditions.", "The hermaphrodite flowers are produced in late spring and are insect-pollinated", "they are rather inconspicuous, small, yellowish green and grow in cymes of 38 together.", "The capsular fruit ripens in autumn, and is red to purple or pink in colour and approximately 11.5 cm wide.", "When ripe, the four lobes split open to reveal the orange seeds.", "E. europaeus occurs as an understory shrub or small tree primarily in old hedgerows, open woodland clearings and margins, and scrubland on base-rich or calcareous soils, although it is also shade-tolerant.", "It rarely invades open habitats such as grasslands except in the presence of abundant hedges In Ireland, it can also be found growing on rocky limestone outcrops, rocky lake shores and limestone pavements.", "It is typical in Fraxinus excelsior Acer campestre Mercurialis perennis woodland , and it is a frequent companion of Cornus sanguinea in open-stand scrub over limestone, generally in low frequency and abundance throughout.", "It is usually scattered in distribution but may occasionally occur remarkably commonly on a local scale, such as in the so-called Spindle Valley in the Chilterns.", "The scattered distribution is likely limited by dispersal of seeds via birds and rodents.", "E. europaeus is the almost exclusive winter host of the black bean aphid.", "Because of the potential economic loss from this insect that feeds on cultivated broad beans and sugar beet, spindle in the past was commonly removed from hedges and woodlands as a measure against black bean aphid outbreaks and agricultural yield losses, although this widespread removal does not appear to have impacted current populations.", "In 1944, The Biology War Committee also began a campaign to investigate the distribution and ecology of E. europeaus as a basis for aphid control measures.", "It is a popular ornamental plant in gardens and parks due to its bright pink or purple fruits and attractive autumn colouring.", "In cultivation in the UK, the cultivar 'Red Cascade' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "European spindle wood is very hard, and can be cut to a sharp point", "it was used in the past for making spindles for wool-spinning and for butchers' skewers.", "Charcoal produced from this plant is seen as superior among artists due to its strength and density.", "Parts of the plant have been used medicinally.", "However, the fruit is poisonous, containing, amongst other substances, the alkaloids theobromine and caffeine, as well as a large number of much more toxic substances and an extremely bitter terpene.", "Poisonings are more common in young children, who are enticed by the brightly coloured fruits.", "Ingestion can result in liver and kidney damage and even death."]}}
|
|
2609838_1143417
| 423
|
[
"Dryas octopetala"
] |
{"Dryas octopetala": {"keywords": ["Dryas octopetala, the mountain avens, eightpetal mountain-avens, white dryas or white dryad, is an Arcticalpine flowering plant in the family Rosaceae.", "It is a small prostrate evergreen subshrub forming large colonies.", "As a floral emblem, it is the official territorial flower of the Northwest Territories and the national flower of Iceland.", "Dryas octopetala has a widespread occurrence throughout mountainous areas where it is generally restricted to limestone outcrops.", "These include the entire Arctic, as well as the mountains of Scandinavia, Iceland, the Alps, Carpathian Mountains, Balkans, Caucasus and in isolated locations elsewhere.", "In Great Britain it occurs in the Pennines , at two locations in Snowdonia , and more widely in the Scottish Highlands, in Ireland it occurs on The Burren and a few other sites.", "In North America it is found in Alaska, most frequently on previously glaciated terrain, and through the Canadian rockies reaching as far south as Colorado in the Rocky Mountains.", "It grows in dry localities where snow melts early, on gravel and rocky barrens, forming a distinct heath community on calcareous soils.", "During these cold spells, Dryas octopetala was much more widely distributed than it is today, as large parts of the northern hemisphere that are now covered by forests were replaced in the cold periods by tundra.", "D. octopetala is cultivated in temperate regions as groundcover, or as an alpine or rock garden plant.", "It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit."], "habitat_section": ["Dryas octopetala has a widespread occurrence throughout mountainous areas where it is generally restricted to limestone outcrops.", "These include the entire Arctic, as well as the mountains of Scandinavia, Iceland, the Alps, Carpathian Mountains, Balkans, Caucasus and in isolated locations elsewhere.", "In Great Britain it occurs in the Pennines , at two locations in Snowdonia , and more widely in the Scottish Highlands, in Ireland it occurs on The Burren and a few other sites.", "In North America it is found in Alaska, most frequently on previously glaciated terrain, and through the Canadian rockies reaching as far south as Colorado in the Rocky Mountains.", "It grows in dry localities where snow melts early, on gravel and rocky barrens, forming a distinct heath community on calcareous soils."], "random_sentences": ["Dryas octopetala, the mountain avens, eightpetal mountain-avens, white dryas or white dryad, is an Arcticalpine flowering plant in the family Rosaceae.", "It is a small prostrate evergreen subshrub forming large colonies.", "The specific epithet octopetala derives from Greek octo 'eight' and petalon 'petal', referring to the eight petals of the flower, an unusual number in the Rosaceae, where five is the normal number.", "However, flowers with up to 16 petals also occur naturally.", "As a floral emblem, it is the official territorial flower of the Northwest Territories and the national flower of Iceland.", "The stems are woody, tortuous, with short, horizontal rooting branches.", "The leaves are glabrous above, densely white-tomentose beneath.", "The flowers are produced on stalks long, and have eight creamy white petals hence the specific epithet octopetala.", "The style is persistent on the fruit with white feathery hairs, functioning as a wind-dispersal agent.", "The feathery hairs of the seed head first appear twisted together and glossy before spreading out to an expanded ball which the wind quickly disperses.", "Dryas octopetala has a widespread occurrence throughout mountainous areas where it is generally restricted to limestone outcrops.", "These include the entire Arctic, as well as the mountains of Scandinavia, Iceland, the Alps, Carpathian Mountains, Balkans, Caucasus and in isolated locations elsewhere.", "In Great Britain it occurs in the Pennines , at two locations in Snowdonia , and more widely in the Scottish Highlands", "in Ireland it occurs on The Burren and a few other sites.", "In North America it is found in Alaska, most frequently on previously glaciated terrain, and through the Canadian rockies reaching as far south as Colorado in the Rocky Mountains.", "It grows in dry localities where snow melts early, on gravel and rocky barrens, forming a distinct heath community on calcareous soils.", "The Younger Dryas, Older Dryas and Oldest Dryas stadials are named after Dryas octopetala, because of the great quantities of its pollen found in cores dating from those times.", "During these cold spells, Dryas octopetala was much more widely distributed than it is today, as large parts of the northern hemisphere that are now covered by forests were replaced in the cold periods by tundra.", "D. octopetala is cultivated in temperate regions as groundcover, or as an alpine or rock garden plant.", "It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "The leaves are occasionally used as an herbal tea."]}}
|
|
2715204_1255450
| 2255
|
[
"Leontopodium nivale"
] |
{"Leontopodium nivale": {"keywords": ["Leontopodium nivale, commonly called edelweiss , is a mountain flower belonging to the daisy or sunflower family Asteraceae.", "The plant prefers rocky limestone places at about altitude.", "Its leaves and flowers are covered with dense hairs, which appear to protect the plant from cold, aridity, and ultraviolet radiation.", "It is a scarce, short-lived flower found in remote mountain areas and has been used as a symbol for alpinism, for rugged beauty and purity associated with the Alps and Carpathians.", "In Romania it is known as floare de colt which means 'cliffhanger's flower'.", "The flower is referred to as stella alpina in the Italian speaking Alps and etoile des Alpes in the French Alps, both names meaning 'star of the Alps'.", "Edelwei was one of several regional names for the plant and achieved wide usage during the first half of the 19th century, in the context of early Alpine tourism.", "Alternative names include Chatzen-Talpen , and the older Wullbluomen .", "In 2003, Leontopodium alpinum was re-classified as a subspecies of Leontopodium nivale.", "Thus, the alpine edelweiss is currently recognized as being divided into two subspecies, Leontopodium nivale subsp. alpinum and Leontopodium nivale subsp. nivale.", "Flowering stalks of edelweiss can grow to a size of in the wild, or, up to in cultivation.", "Leontopodium alpinum Szarotka alpejska 01.", "Specimen found in Poland's Tatra Mountains.", "Late season version with \" fat \" appearance from flowered-out central floret-pods and from longer petal- \" fuzz \" .", "Several edelweiss together with the typical growth form in the Zillertal Alps in South Tyrol.", "Leontopodium nivale is grown in gardens for its interesting inflorescence and silver foliage.", "It grows in the end of May The plants are short lived and can be grown from seed.", "The edelweiss has been used in traditional folk medicine in the Alps for centuries.", "It was also used by the mountain people as a durable flower in dry bouquets.", "Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth In the 19th century, the edelweiss became a symbol of the rugged purity of the Alpine region and of its native inhabitants.", "The focus is on an incident from 1856, when the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I went on a mountain hike to the Pasterzen Glacier on the Groglockner with his wife Sisi.", "There the emperor picked his wife an edelweiss from the steep rock with the words \" The first in my life that I picked myself \" .", "The affection for edelweiss was a common feature of the famous couple and this well-known story raised people's attention to this alpine plant.", "Austro-Hungarian alpine troops with the edelweiss on their uniform With the rise of mountain tourism at the end of the 19th century, the edelweiss became the badge and symbol of alpinists and mountaineers.", "The edelweiss was soon adopted as a symbol in the logo of numerous alpine clubs and associations.", "In the Austro-Hungarian Army in particular, the symbolic relationship between defiant, frugal and resilient alpine plants or the required perseverance, agility and cutting edge of the alpine troops was recognized and emphasized and often promoted by badges and designations.", "The Alpen-Edelweiss was assigned as a badge by Emperor Franz Joseph to troops of the Austro-Hungarian Army intended for use in the mountains.", "In Berthold Auerbach's novel Edelweiss , the difficulty for an alpinist to acquire an edelweiss flower was exaggerated to the point of claiming.", "\" This idea at the time was becoming part of the popular mythology of early alpinism.", "Together with the alpine gentian, the edelweiss is also a symbol of lonely peaks and pure air in the Alps today."], "habitat_section": ["Leontopodium nivale is considered a least concern species by the IUCN. The population of this species declined due to overcollection, but is now protected by laws, ex situ conservation and occurrence in national parks."], "random_sentences": ["Leontopodium nivale, commonly called edelweiss , is a mountain flower belonging to the daisy or sunflower family Asteraceae.", "The plant prefers rocky limestone places at about altitude.", "It is non-toxic and has been used in traditional medicine as a remedy against abdominal and respiratory diseases.", "Its leaves and flowers are covered with dense hairs, which appear to protect the plant from cold, aridity, and ultraviolet radiation.", "It is a scarce, short-lived flower found in remote mountain areas and has been used as a symbol for alpinism, for rugged beauty and purity associated with the Alps and Carpathians.", "It is a national symbol, especially of Romania, Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Italy.", "According to folk tradition, giving this flower to a loved one is a promise of dedication.", "The flower's common name Edelwei is German, and is a compound of edel \" noble \" and wei \" white \" .", "Slovenian name is planika, meaning mountain girl.", "In Romania it is known as floare de colt which means 'cliffhanger's flower'.", "The flower is referred to as stella alpina in the Italian speaking Alps and etoile des Alpes in the French Alps, both names meaning 'star of the Alps'.", "Edelwei was one of several regional names for the plant and achieved wide usage during the first half of the 19th century, in the context of early Alpine tourism.", "Alternative names include Chatzen-Talpen , and the older Wullbluomen .", "The scientific name Leontopodium is a latinisation of the Greek leontopodion, \" lion's paw \" .", "The Latin specific epithet nivale means \" white \" .", "Since 1822, Leontopodium has no longer been considered part of the genus Gnaphalium, but classified alongside it as a distinct genus within the tribe Gnaphalieae.", "In 2003, Leontopodium alpinum was re-classified as a subspecies of Leontopodium nivale.", "Thus, the alpine edelweiss is currently recognized as being divided into two subspecies, Leontopodium nivale subsp. alpinum and Leontopodium nivale subsp. nivale.", "The plant's leaves and flowers are covered with white hairs, and appear woolly .", "Flowering stalks of edelweiss can grow to a size of in the wild, or, up to in cultivation.", "Each bloom consists of five to six small yellow clustered spikelet-florets surrounded by fuzzy white \" petals \" in a double-star formation.", "The flowers bloom between July and September.", "Early-season version with central floret-pods not yet fully developed.", "Specimen found in Poland's Tatra Mountains.", "Specimen found in Italy's Bergamo Alps.", "Late season version with \" fat \" appearance from flowered-out central floret-pods and from longer petal- \" fuzz \" .", "Specimen found in the Stubai Alps.", "Several edelweiss together with the typical growth form in the Zillertal Alps in South Tyrol.", "Leontopodium nivale is considered a least concern species by the IUCN.", "The population of this species declined due to overcollection, but is now protected by laws, ex situ conservation and occurrence in national parks.", "Leontopodium nivale is grown in gardens for its interesting inflorescence and silver foliage.", "It grows in the end of May The plants are short lived and can be grown from seed.", "Compounds of different classes, such as terpenoids, phenylpropanoids, fatty acids and polyacetylenes are reported in various parts of edelweiss plants.", "Leoligin was reported as the major lignan constituent.", "The edelweiss has been used in traditional folk medicine in the Alps for centuries.", "Extracts from different parts of plants have been used to treat abdominal pain, respiratory diseases, heart disease, and against diarrhea.", "That is why it was also known as the bellyache flower for a long time.", "It was also used by the mountain people as a durable flower in dry bouquets.", "The cosmetics industry became aware of the plant and its extracts a few years ago.", "5, Dianthus silvestris, and Gnaphalium leontopodium, , chromolithograph by Helga von Cramm, with hymn by F. R. Havergal, 1877.", "Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth In the 19th century, the edelweiss became a symbol of the rugged purity of the Alpine region and of its native inhabitants.", "The passion for edelweiss, which had previously been neglected, began in the middle of the 19th century.", "The focus is on an incident from 1856, when the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I went on a mountain hike to the Pasterzen Glacier on the Groglockner with his wife Sisi.", "There the emperor picked his wife an edelweiss from the steep rock with the words \" The first in my life that I picked myself \" .", "The affection for edelweiss was a common feature of the famous couple and this well-known story raised people's attention to this alpine plant.", "The plant became known as a symbol of the Austrian Empress Elisabeth.", "A portrait by the painter Franz Xaver Winterhalter painted in 1865 shows Empress Elisabeth with nine artificial edelweiss stars braided in her hair.", "The jewelry made of precious metal and diamonds was designed in the years after 1850 by the then court and chamber jeweler Alexander Emanuel Kochert.", "Austro-Hungarian alpine troops with the edelweiss on their uniform With the rise of mountain tourism at the end of the 19th century, the edelweiss became the badge and symbol of alpinists and mountaineers.", "In order to prevent the extinction of the often picked symbolic species, it was placed under nature protection early on.", "The edelweiss was soon adopted as a symbol in the logo of numerous alpine clubs and associations.", "In the Austro-Hungarian Army in particular, the symbolic relationship between defiant, frugal and resilient alpine plants or the required perseverance, agility and cutting edge of the alpine troops was recognized and emphasized and often promoted by badges and designations.", "The Alpen-Edelweiss was assigned as a badge by Emperor Franz Joseph to troops of the Austro-Hungarian Army intended for use in the mountains.", "It was worn on the collar of the uniform skirt.", "In Berthold Auerbach's novel Edelweiss , the difficulty for an alpinist to acquire an edelweiss flower was exaggerated to the point of claiming: \" the possession of one is a proof of unusual daring.", "\" This idea at the time was becoming part of the popular mythology of early alpinism.", "Auerbach's novel appeared in English translation in 1869, prefaced with a quote attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson: Together with the alpine gentian, the edelweiss is also a symbol of lonely peaks and pure air in the Alps today.", "These plants are celebrated with songs and many souvenirs related to them are sold."]}}
|
|
2711507_1249318
| 2154
|
[
"Filipendula ulmaria"
] |
{"Filipendula ulmaria": {"keywords": ["Filipendula ulmaria, commonly known as meadowsweet or mead wort, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Rosaceae that grows in damp meadows.", "Meadowsweet has also been referred to as queen of the meadow, pride of the meadow, meadow-wort, meadow queen, lady of the meadow, dollof, meadsweet, and bridewort.", "Meadowsweet has delicate, graceful, creamy-white flowers clustered close together in irregularly-branched cymes, having a very strong, sweet smell redolent of antiseptic.", "They flower from early summer to early autumn and are visited by various types of insects, in particular Musca flies.", "Many insects and fungi cause disease in meadowsweet.", "The meadowsweet rust gall on leaf midrib Meadowsweet leaves are commonly galled by the bright orange-rust fungus Triphragmium ulmariae, which creates swellings and distortions on the stalk and/or midrib.", "The fungus Podosphaera filipendulae causes mildew on the leaves and flower heads, coating them with a white powder.", "The English common name meadowsweet dates from the 16th century.", "An earlier common name dating from the 15th century was 'meadsweet' Meadowsweet is known by many other names.", "In Europe, it took its name \" queen of the meadow \" for the way it can dominate a low-lying, damp meadow.", "Wild meadowsweet in Wharfedale, near Conistone, North Yorkshire, England Meadowsweet is common throughout the British Isles in damp areas and is dominant in fens and wet woods.", "Juncus subnodulosus-Cirsium palustre fen-meadow and Purple moor grass and rush pastures BAP habitat plant associations of Western Europe consistently include this plant.", "The whole plant is a traditional remedy for an acidic stomach, and the fresh root is often used in homeopathic preparations.", "The dried flowers are used in potpourri.", "In 1838, Raffaele Piria obtained salicylic acid from the buds of meadowsweet.", "Thereafter in 1899, scientists at the firm Bayer used salicylic acid derived from meadowsweet to synthesise acetylsalicylic acid , which was named after the old botanical name for meadowsweet, Spiraea ulmaria.", "White-flowered meadowsweet has been found with the cremated remains of three people and at least one animal in a Bronze Age cairn at Fan Foel, Carmarthenshire.", "In Welsh mythology, Gwydion and Math created a woman out of oak blossom, broom, and meadowsweet and named her Blodeuwedd ."], "habitat_section": ["Wild meadowsweet in Wharfedale, near Conistone, North Yorkshire, England Meadowsweet is common throughout the British Isles in damp areas and is dominant in fens and wet woods.", "Juncus subnodulosus-Cirsium palustre fen-meadow and Purple moor grass and rush pastures BAP habitat plant associations of Western Europe consistently include this plant."], "random_sentences": ["Filipendula ulmaria, commonly known as meadowsweet or mead wort, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Rosaceae that grows in damp meadows.", "It is native throughout most of Europe and Western Asia .", "It has been introduced and naturalised in North America.", "Meadowsweet has also been referred to as queen of the meadow, pride of the meadow, meadow-wort, meadow queen, lady of the meadow, dollof, meadsweet, and bridewort.", "left The stems, growing up to 120 cm, are tall, erect and furrowed, reddish to sometimes purple.", "The leaves are dark-green on the upper side and whitish and downy underneath, much divided, interruptedly pinnate, having a few large serrate leaflets and small intermediate ones.", "Terminal leaflets are large, 48 cm long, and three- to five-lobed.", "Meadowsweet has delicate, graceful, creamy-white flowers clustered close together in irregularly-branched cymes, having a very strong, sweet smell redolent of antiseptic.", "They flower from early summer to early autumn and are visited by various types of insects, in particular Musca flies.", "The flowers are small and numerous, they show 5 sepals and 5 petals with 7 to 20 stamens.", "Many insects and fungi cause disease in meadowsweet.", "The meadowsweet rust gall on leaf midrib Meadowsweet leaves are commonly galled by the bright orange-rust fungus Triphragmium ulmariae, which creates swellings and distortions on the stalk and/or midrib.", "The fungus Ramularia ulmariae causes purple blotches on the leaves.", "The fungus Podosphaera filipendulae causes mildew on the leaves and flower heads, coating them with a white powder.", "The midge Dasineura ulmariae causes pinkish-white galls on the leaves that can distort the leaf surface.", "The English common name meadowsweet dates from the 16th century.", "It did not originally mean 'sweet plant of the meadow', but a plant used for sweetening or flavouring mead.", "An earlier common name dating from the 15th century was 'meadsweet' Meadowsweet is known by many other names.", "In Chaucer's The Knight's Tale it is known as meadwort and was one of the ingredients in a drink called \" save \" .", "It was also known as bridewort, because it was strewn in churches for festivals and weddings, and often made into bridal garlands.", "In Europe, it took its name \" queen of the meadow \" for the way it can dominate a low-lying, damp meadow.", "The specific epithet ulmaria means \" elmlike \" , possibly in reference to its individual leaves which resemble those of the elm .", "The generic name, Filipendula, comes from filum, meaning \" thread \" and pendulus, meaning \" hanging \" .", "This is said to describe the slender attachment of root tubers, which hang characteristically on the genus, on fibrous roots.", "Wild meadowsweet in Wharfedale, near Conistone, North Yorkshire, England Meadowsweet is common throughout the British Isles in damp areas and is dominant in fens and wet woods.", "Juncus subnodulosus-Cirsium palustre fen-meadow and Purple moor grass and rush pastures BAP habitat plant associations of Western Europe consistently include this plant.", "The whole herb possesses a pleasant taste and flavour, the green parts having a similar aromatic character to the flowers, hence the use of the plant as a strewing herb, strewn on floors to give the rooms a pleasant aroma, and its use to flavour wine, beer, and many kinds of vinegar.", "The flowers can be added to stewed fruit and jams, giving them a subtle almond flavour.", "Some foragers also use the flowers to flavour desserts such as panna cotta.", "It has many medicinal properties.", "The whole plant is a traditional remedy for an acidic stomach, and the fresh root is often used in homeopathic preparations.", "The dried flowers are used in potpourri.", "It is also a frequently used spice in Scandinavian varieties of mead.", "Chemical constituents include salicin, flavone glycosides, essential oils, and tannins.", "In 1838, Raffaele Piria obtained salicylic acid from the buds of meadowsweet.", "Thereafter in 1899, scientists at the firm Bayer used salicylic acid derived from meadowsweet to synthesise acetylsalicylic acid , which was named after the old botanical name for meadowsweet, Spiraea ulmaria.", "The name then became aspirin.", "A natural black dye can be obtained from the roots by using a copper mordant.", "A tea made from Filipendula ulmaria flowers or leaves has been used in traditional Austrian herbal medicine for the treatment of rheumatism, gout, infections, and fever.", "White-flowered meadowsweet has been found with the cremated remains of three people and at least one animal in a Bronze Age cairn at Fan Foel, Carmarthenshire.", "Similar finds have also been found inside a beaker from Ashgrove, Fife, and a vessel from North Mains, Strathallan.", "These could indicate honey-based mead or flavoured ale, or might suggest that the plant was placed on the grave as a scented flower.", "In Welsh mythology, Gwydion and Math created a woman out of oak blossom, broom, and meadowsweet and named her Blodeuwedd .", "In the 16th century, when it was customary to strew floors with rushes and herbs , it was a favorite of Elizabeth I of England.", "She desired it above all other herbs in her chambers."]}}
|
|
2622712_1225377
| 1952
|
[
"Cyperus esculentus"
] |
{"Cyperus esculentus": {"keywords": ["It is often found in wet soils such as rice paddies and peanut farms as well as well-irrigated lawns and golf courses during warm weather.", "One plant can produce several hundred to several thousand tubers during a single growing season.", "With cool temperatures, the foliage, roots, rhizomes, and basal bulbs die, but the tubers survive and resprout the following spring when soil temperatures remain above .", "It is readily transported internationally, and is adaptable to in varied climate and soil environments.", "In Japan, it is an exotic clonal weed favorable to establish in wet habitats.", "Chufa is normally planted on previously tilled flat soils with ridges to facilitate irrigation.", "Low temperature, shade, and light intensity can inhibit flowering.", "Tuber initiation is inhibited by high levels of nitrogen, long photoperiods, and high levels of gibberellic acid.", "Tubers can develop in soil depths around 30 cm, but most occur in the top or upper part.", "They tolerate many adverse soil conditions including periods of drought and flooding and survive soil temperatures around .", "They grow best on sandy, moist soils at a pH between 5.0 7.5.", "The densest populations of C. esculentus are often found in low-lying wetlands.", "By competing for light, water and nutrients it can reduce the vigour of neighbouring plants.", "Tubers and seed disperse with agricultural activities, soil movement or by water and wind.", "When plants are small they are hard to distinguish from other weeds such as Dactylis glomerata and Elytrigia repens.", "Immediately after harvesting, the tiger nuts are washed with water in order to remove sand and small stones.", "The drying occurs usually in the sun and can take up to three months.", "The temperatures and humidity levels have to be monitored very carefully during this period.", "Tiger nut loses a considerable amount of water during drying and storage.", "Tiger nut can be stored dry and rehydrated by soaking without losing the crisp texture.", "It is made from soaked, ground and sweetened tiger nuts mixed with sugar and water.", "There it is served ice-cold as a natural refreshment in the summer, often served with fartons.", "They are quite hard and are generally soaked in water before they can be eaten, making them much softer and giving them a better texture.", "The tubers can also be dried and ground into flour.", "The nuts are soaked in water for 24 hours, and then boiled for 20 minutes or longer until fully expanded.", "This was originally thought to have been the cause of death of Benson, a large, well-known female carp weighing found floating dead in a fishing lake, with a bag of unprepared tiger nuts lying nearby, empty, on the bank.", "Roots of wild chufa have been found at Wadi Kubbaniya, north of Aswan, dating to around 16,000 BC. Dry tubers also appear later in tombs of the Predynastic period, around 3000 BC. During that time, C. esculentus tubers were consumed either boiled in beer, roasted, or as sweets made of ground tubers with honey."], "habitat_section": ["C. esculentus is a highly invasive species in Oceania, Mexico, some regions of the United States, and the Caribbean, mainly by seed dispersion.", "It is readily transported internationally, and is adaptable to in varied climate and soil environments.", "In Japan, it is an exotic clonal weed favorable to establish in wet habitats."], "random_sentences": ["Cyperus esculentus is a species of plant in the sedge family widespread across much of the world.", "It is found in most of the Eastern Hemisphere, including Southern Europe, Africa and Madagascar, as well as the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.", "C. esculentus is cultivated for its edible tubers, called earth almonds or tiger nuts , as a snack food and for the preparation of horchata de chufa, a sweet, milk-like beverage.", "It is often found in wet soils such as rice paddies and peanut farms as well as well-irrigated lawns and golf courses during warm weather.", "Young plant with tuber Cyperus esculentus is an annual or perennial plant, growing to tall, with solitary stems growing from a tuber.", "The plant is reproduced by seeds, creeping rhizomes, and tubers.", "Due to its clonal nature, C. esculentus can take advantage of soil disturbances caused by anthropogenic or natural forces.", "The stems are triangular in section and bear slender leaves wide.", "The spikelets of the plant are distinctive, with a cluster of flat, oval seeds surrounded by four hanging, leaf-like bracts positioned 90 degrees from each other.", "They are long and linear to narrowly elliptic with pointed tips and 8 to 35 florets.", "The color varies from straw-colored to gold-brown.", "They can produce up to 2420 seeds per plant.", "The plant foliage is very tough and fibrous and is often mistaken for a grass.", "The roots are an extensive and complex system of fine, fibrous roots and scaly rhizomes with small, hard, spherical tubers and basal bulbs attached.", "The tubers are in diameter and the colors vary between yellow, brown, and black.", "One plant can produce several hundred to several thousand tubers during a single growing season.", "With cool temperatures, the foliage, roots, rhizomes, and basal bulbs die, but the tubers survive and resprout the following spring when soil temperatures remain above .", "They can resprout up to several years later.", "When the tubers germinate, many rhizomes are initiated and end in a basal bulb near the soil surface.", "These basal bulbs initiate the stems and leaves above ground, and fibrous roots underground.", "C. esculentus is wind pollinated and requires cross pollination as it is selfincompatible.", "C. esculentus is a highly invasive species in Oceania, Mexico, some regions of the United States, and the Caribbean, mainly by seed dispersion.", "It is readily transported internationally, and is adaptable to in varied climate and soil environments.", "In Japan, it is an exotic clonal weed favorable to establish in wet habitats.", "Chufa is normally planted on previously tilled flat soils with ridges to facilitate irrigation.", "Seeds are planted manually on these ridges, which are approximately apart.", "Distances between seeds may vary from and seeding depth is around .", "A typical seeding rate for chufa is about 120 kg of tubers/ha .", "They are planted between April and May and must be irrigated every week until they are harvested in November and December.", "Tubers develop about 68 weeks after seedling emergence and grow quickly during July and August.", "The maturing is around 90110 days.", "The average yield can approach between 10 and 19 t/ha.", "Cyperus esculentus cultivation requires a mild climate.", "Low temperature, shade, and light intensity can inhibit flowering.", "Tuber initiation is inhibited by high levels of nitrogen, long photoperiods, and high levels of gibberellic acid.", "Flower initiation occurs under photoperiods of 12 to 14 hours per day.", "Tubers can develop in soil depths around 30 cm, but most occur in the top or upper part.", "They tolerate many adverse soil conditions including periods of drought and flooding and survive soil temperatures around .", "They grow best on sandy, moist soils at a pH between 5.0 7.5.", "The densest populations of C. esculentus are often found in low-lying wetlands.", "They do not tolerate salinity.", "The seed head of a Cyperus esculentus plant C. esculentus is extremely difficult to remove completely once established.", "This is due to the plant having a stratified and layered root system, with tubers and roots being interconnected to a depth of 36 cm or more.", "The tubers are connected by fragile roots that are prone to snapping when pulled, making the root system difficult to remove intact.", "Intermediate rhizomes can potentially reach a length of 60 cm.", "The plant can quickly regenerate if a single tuber is left in place.", "By competing for light, water and nutrients it can reduce the vigour of neighbouring plants.", "It can develop into a dense colony.", "Patch boundaries can increase by more than one meter per year.", "Tubers and seed disperse with agricultural activities, soil movement or by water and wind.", "They are often known as a contaminant in crop seeds.", "When plants are small they are hard to distinguish from other weeds such as Dactylis glomerata and Elytrigia repens.", "Thus it is hard to discover in an early stage and therefore hard to counteract.", "Once it is detected, mechanical removal, hand removal, grazing, damping, and herbicides can be used to inhibit C. esculentus.", "Harvest usually occurs in November or December and the leaves are scorched during the harvest.", "With a combine harvester, the tiger nut is pulled out of the ground.", "Immediately after harvesting, the tiger nuts are washed with water in order to remove sand and small stones.", "The drying occurs usually in the sun and can take up to three months.", "The temperatures and humidity levels have to be monitored very carefully during this period.", "The tiger nuts have to be turned every day to ensure uniform drying.", "The drying process ensures a longer shelf life.", "This prevents rot or other bacterial infections, securing quality and high nutrition levels.", "Disadvantages in the drying process are shrinkage, skin wrinkles and hard nut texture.", "Tiger nut loses a considerable amount of water during drying and storage.", "The starch content of the tiger nut tubers decreases and the reducing sugar content increases during storage.", "Tiger nut can be stored dry and rehydrated by soaking without losing the crisp texture.", "Soaking is often done overnight.", "Dried tiger nuts have a hard texture and soaking is required to render them more easily edible and to ensure acceptable sensory quality.", "According to the Consejo Regulador de Chufa de Valencia , the nutritional composition/100 ml of the Spanish beverage horchata de chufas is as follows: energy content around 66 kcal, proteins around 0.5 g, carbohydrates over 10 g with starch at least 1.9 g, fats at least 2 g.", "Dried tiger nut has a smooth, tender, sweet, and nutty taste.", "It can be consumed raw, roasted, dried, baked or as tiger nut milk, tiger nut drink or oil.", "In Spain, the drink now known as horchata de chufa is the original form of horchata.", "It is made from soaked, ground and sweetened tiger nuts mixed with sugar and water.", "According to researchers at the University of Ilorin, kunu made from tiger nuts is an inexpensive source of protein.", "It remains popular in Spain, where a regulating council exists to ensure the quality and traceability of the product in relation to the designation of origin.", "There it is served ice-cold as a natural refreshment in the summer, often served with fartons.", "Horchata de chufa is also used instead of dairy milk by the lactose-intolerant.", "The majority of the Spanish tiger nut crop is utilised in the production of horchata de chufa.", "Alboraya is the most important production centre.", "The tubers can be roasted and ground into a coffee substitute.", "Dried tubers sold at the market of Banfora, Burkina Faso.", "The tubers are edible raw or cooked.", "They have a slightly sweet, nutty flavour, compared to the more bitter-tasting tuber of the related Cyperus rotundus .", "They are quite hard and are generally soaked in water before they can be eaten, making them much softer and giving them a better texture.", "They are a popular snack in West Africa.", "The tubers can also be dried and ground into flour.", "In Northern Nigeria, it is called aya and it is usually eaten fresh.", "It is sometimes dried and later rehydrated and eaten.", "A snack made by toasting the nuts and sugar coating it is popular among the Hausa children of Northern Nigeria.", "Also, a drink known as kunun aya is made by processing the nuts with dates and later sieved and served chilled.", "In Egypt, tiger nuts are known by the name Hab el-Aziz and after softening it by soaking in water, it is sold on hand carts as a street food.", "Its popularity was depicted in movies, such as the song named after it: Hab el Aziz.", "Flour of roasted tiger nut is sometimes added to biscuits and other bakery products as well as in making oil, soap, and starch extracts.", "It is also used for the production of nougat, jam, beer, and as a flavoring agent in ice cream and in the preparation of kunu .", "Kunu is a nonalcoholic beverage prepared mainly from cereals by heating and mixing with spices and sugar.", "To make up for the poor nutritional value of kunu prepared from cereals, tiger nut was found to be a good substitute for cereal grains.", "Tiger nut oil can be used naturally with salads or for deep frying.", "It is considered to be a high quality oil.", "Tiger nut milk has been tried as an alternative source of milk in fermented products, such as yogurt production, and other fermented products common in some African countries and can thus be useful replacing milk in the diet of people intolerant to lactose to a certain extent.", "Since the tubers of C. esculentus contain 20-36% oil, it has been suggested as potential oil crop for the production of biodiesel.", "The boiled nuts are used in the UK as a bait for carp.", "The nuts have to be prepared in a prescribed manner to prevent harm to the fish.", "The nuts are soaked in water for 24 hours, and then boiled for 20 minutes or longer until fully expanded.", "Some anglers then leave the boiled nuts to ferment for 2448 hours, which can enhance their effectiveness.", "If the nuts are not properly prepared, they can be toxic to carp.", "This was originally thought to have been the cause of death of Benson, a large, well-known female carp weighing found floating dead in a fishing lake, with a bag of unprepared tiger nuts lying nearby, empty, on the bank.", "An examination of the fish by a taxidermist concluded tiger nut poisoning was not the cause of death, but rather the fish had died naturally.", "It has been suggested that the extinct hominin Paranthropus boisei subsisted on tiger nuts.", "C. esculentus was one of the oldest cultivated plants in prehistoric and Ancient Egypt, where it was an important food.", "Roots of wild chufa have been found at Wadi Kubbaniya, north of Aswan, dating to around 16,000 BC.", "Dry tubers also appear later in tombs of the Predynastic period, around 3000 BC.", "During that time, C. esculentus tubers were consumed either boiled in beer, roasted, or as sweets made of ground tubers with honey.", "The tubers were also used medicinally, taken orally, as an ointment, or as an enema, and used in fumigants to sweeten the smell of homes or clothing.", "Chufa continued to be an important source of food in the Dynastic period, and cultivation of the plant remained exclusively in Egypt.", "The tomb of the vizier Rekhmire from the 15th century BCE, shows peasants preparing and measuring tiger nuts to make votive cakes as offerings to the god Amun.", "The modern name for tiger nuts in Egypt is named after the Fatimid ruler who was reputedly fond of it."]}}
|
|
2744936_1153894
| 831
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[
"Caltha palustris",
"Tussilago farfara"
] |
{"Caltha palustris": {"keywords": ["Caltha palustris, known as marsh-marigold and kingcup, is a small to medium size perennial herbaceous plant of the buttercup family, native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "It flowers between April and August, dependent on altitude and latitude, but occasional flowers may occur at other times.", "Caltha palustris is a high, hairless, fleshy, perennial, herbaceous plant that dies down in autumn and overwinters with buds near the surface of the marshy soil.", "In their youth the leaves are protected by a membranous sheath, that may be up to long in fully grown plants.", "The common marsh-marigold mostly has several flowering stems of up to long, carrying mostly several seated leaflike stipules, although lower ones may be on a short petiole, and between four and six flowers.", "A Caltha palustris flower and bud at the Ljubljana Botanical Garden in Slovenia The generic name Caltha is derived from the Ancient Greek , meaning \" goblet \" , and is said to refer to the shape of the flower.", "These include in addition to the most common two, marsh marigold and kingcup, also brave bassinets, crazy Beth, horse blob, Molly-blob, May blob, mare blob, boots, water boots, meadow-bright, bullflower, meadow buttercup, water buttercup, soldier's buttons, meadow cowslip, water cowslip, publican's cloak, crowfoot, water dragon, drunkards, water goggles, meadow gowan, water gowan, yellow gowan, goldes, golds, goldings, gools, cow lily, marybuds, and publicans-and-sinners.", "Both are herbaceous plants with yellow flowers, but Primula veris is much smaller.", "The species is native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "The marsh-marigold on spring flood plains of the Narew river.", "The marsh-marigold grows in places with oxygen-rich water near the surface of the soil.", "It likes richer soils, but dislikes application of fertilizer and avoids high concentrations of phosphate and ammonium, and is also shy of brackish water.", "The resulting insoluble mineral appears as \" rusty \" flocs on the water soil and the surface of the stems of marsh plants.", "Around the edge of lakes and rivers it grows between reeds, and it can be found in black alder coppices and other regularly flooded and always moist forests.", "It also used to be common on wet meadows, but due to agricultural rationalization it is now limited to ditches.", "It is a component of purple moor grass and rush pastures a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK. It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe.", "In western Europe, the marsh-marigold moth Micropterix calthella bites open the anthers of the marsh-marigold and other plants to eat the pollen.", "The caterpillars that are present in summer and autumn also feed on marsh-marigold, although these are sometimes found on mosses too.", "The seeds also have some spongy tissue that makes them float on water, until they wash up in a location that may be suitable for this species to grow.", "Young leaves or buds should be submerged a few times in fresh boiling water until barely tender, cut into bite-sized pieces, lightly salted, and served with melted butter and vinegar.", "The common marsh marigold is planted as an ornamental throughout temperate regions in the world, and sometimes recommended for low maintenance wildlife gardens.", "The double-flowered cultivar 'Flore Pleno' has won the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "to-day all this young verdure smiled clear in sunlight, transparent emerald and amber gleams played over it and in Thomas Hardy's poem 'Overlooking the River Stour'."], "habitat_section": ["The species is native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "It can be found in much of the northeastern United States.", "The marsh-marigold on spring flood plains of the Narew river.", "The marsh-marigold grows in places with oxygen-rich water near the surface of the soil.", "It likes richer soils, but dislikes application of fertilizer and avoids high concentrations of phosphate and ammonium, and is also shy of brackish water.", "It is often associated with seepage that is rich in iron, because iron ions react with phosphate, thus making it unavailable for plants.", "The resulting insoluble mineral appears as \" rusty \" flocs on the water soil and the surface of the stems of marsh plants.", "Around the edge of lakes and rivers it grows between reeds, and it can be found in black alder coppices and other regularly flooded and always moist forests.", "When it is present it often visually dominates when it is in bloom.", "It also used to be common on wet meadows, but due to agricultural rationalization it is now limited to ditches.", "It is a component of purple moor grass and rush pastures a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK. It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe.", "In western Europe, the marsh-marigold moth Micropterix calthella bites open the anthers of the marsh-marigold and other plants to eat the pollen.", "The caterpillars that are present in summer and autumn also feed on marsh-marigold, although these are sometimes found on mosses too.", "Another visitor of Caltha palustris in western Europe is the leaf beetle Prasocuris phellandrii, which is black with four orange stripes and around cm and eats the sepals.", "Its larvae inhabit the hollow stems of members of the parsley family.", "In the USA two species of leaf beetle can be found on Caltha.", "Plateumaris nitida and Hydrothassa vittata.", "The maggots of some Phytomyza species are miners in Caltha leaves."], "random_sentences": ["Caltha palustris, known as marsh-marigold and kingcup, is a small to medium size perennial herbaceous plant of the buttercup family, native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "It flowers between April and August, dependent on altitude and latitude, but occasional flowers may occur at other times.", "Caltha palustris is a high, hairless, fleshy, perennial, herbaceous plant that dies down in autumn and overwinters with buds near the surface of the marshy soil.", "The plants have many, thick strongly branching roots.", "Its flowering stems are hollow, erect or more or less decumbent.", "The alternate true leaves are in a rosette, each of which consist of a leaf stem that is about four times as long as the kidney-shaped leaf blade, itself between long and wide, with a heart-shaped foot, a blunt tip, and a scalloped to toothed, sometime almost entire margin particularly towards the tip.", "In their youth the leaves are protected by a membranous sheath, that may be up to long in fully grown plants.", "The common marsh-marigold mostly has several flowering stems of up to long, carrying mostly several seated leaflike stipules, although lower ones may be on a short petiole", "and between four and six flowers.", "The flowers are approximately but range between in diameter.", "There are four to nine petal-like, brightly colored , inverted egg-shaped sepals, each about but ranging from long, and about , ranging from wide", "they have a blunt or sometimes acute tip.", "Real petals and nectaries are lacking.", "Between 50 and 120 stamens with flattened yellow filaments and yellow tricolpate or sometimes pantoporate pollen encircle 525 free, flattened, linear-oblong, yellow to green carpels, with a two-lobed, obliquely positioned stigma, and each with many seedbuds.", "This later develops into a seated, funnel-shaped fruit of long and wide, that opens with one suture at the side of the axis and contains 720 ovoid, brown to black seeds of about .", "The oldest description that is generally acknowledged in the botanical literature dates from 1700 under the name Populago by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in", "PA273 part 1 of his Institutiones rei herbariae.", "He distinguished between P. flore major, P. flore minor and P. flore plena, and already says all of these are synonymous to Caltha palustris, without mentioning any previous author.", "As a plant name published before 1 May 1753, Populago is invalid.", "And so is the first description as Caltha palustris by Carl Linnaeus in his Genera Plantarum of 1737.", "But Linnaeus re-describes the species under the same name in Species Plantarum of 1 May 1753, thus providing the correct name.", "A Caltha palustris flower and bud at the Ljubljana Botanical Garden in Slovenia The generic name Caltha is derived from the Ancient Greek , meaning \" goblet \" , and is said to refer to the shape of the flower.", "The species epithet palustris is Latin for \" of the marsh \" and indicates its common habitat.", "In the UK, Caltha palustris is known by a variety of vernacular names, varying by geographical region.", "These include in addition to the most common two, marsh marigold and kingcup, also brave bassinets, crazy Beth, horse blob, Molly-blob, May blob, mare blob, boots, water boots, meadow-bright, bullflower, meadow buttercup, water buttercup, soldier's buttons, meadow cowslip, water cowslip, publican's cloak, crowfoot, water dragon, drunkards, water goggles, meadow gowan, water gowan, yellow gowan, goldes, golds, goldings, gools, cow lily, marybuds, and publicans-and-sinners.", "The common name \" marigold \" refers to its use in medieval churches at Easter as a tribute to the Virgin Mary, as in \" Mary gold \" .", "In North America Caltha palustris is sometimes known as cowslip.", "However, cowslip more often refers to Primula veris, the original plant to go by that name.", "Both are herbaceous plants with yellow flowers, but Primula veris is much smaller.", "Subdivision, synonymy and culture varieties", "White form seen in the Himalayas in Kashmir, India Caltha palustris is a very variable species.", "Since most character states occur in almost any combination, this provides little basis for subdivisions.", "The following varieties are nevertheless widely recognised.", "They are listed with their respective synonyms.", "If an epithet based on the same type specimen is used at different levels, only the use at the highest taxonomic rank is listed, so as C. himalensis is already listed, C. palustris var. himalensis is not.", "Double flowered: \" Flore Pleno \" , \" Multiplex \" , \" Plena \" , \" Semiplena \" .", "The species is native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "It can be found in much of the northeastern United States.", "The marsh-marigold on spring flood plains of the Narew river.", "The marsh-marigold grows in places with oxygen-rich water near the surface of the soil.", "It likes richer soils, but dislikes application of fertilizer and avoids high concentrations of phosphate and ammonium, and is also shy of brackish water.", "It is often associated with seepage that is rich in iron, because iron ions react with phosphate, thus making it unavailable for plants.", "The resulting insoluble mineral appears as \" rusty \" flocs on the water soil and the surface of the stems of marsh plants.", "Around the edge of lakes and rivers it grows between reeds, and it can be found in black alder coppices and other regularly flooded and always moist forests.", "When it is present it often visually dominates when it is in bloom.", "It also used to be common on wet meadows, but due to agricultural rationalization it is now limited to ditches.", "It is a component of purple moor grass and rush pastures a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK.", "It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe.", "In western Europe, the marsh-marigold moth Micropterix calthella bites open the anthers of the marsh-marigold and other plants to eat the pollen.", "The caterpillars that are present in summer and autumn also feed on marsh-marigold, although these are sometimes found on mosses too.", "Another visitor of Caltha palustris in western Europe is the leaf beetle Prasocuris phellandrii, which is black with four orange stripes and around cm and eats the sepals.", "Its larvae inhabit the hollow stems of members of the parsley family.", "In the USA two species of leaf beetle can be found on Caltha: Plateumaris nitida and Hydrothassa vittata.", "The maggots of some Phytomyza species are miners in Caltha leaves.", "Caltha palustris pollination by a syrphid fly The flowers produce both nectar and copious amounts of pollen which attract many insect visitors.", "They may be most commonly pollinated by hoverflies .", "In Canada, beetles , thrips , bugs , butterflies , sawflies , bees , ants and flies have been observed to visit the leaves or flowers, many of which were found carrying Caltha pollen.", "In addition to other forms of pollination, this plant is adapted to rain-pollination.", "Caltha palustris is infertile when self-pollinated.", "Rather high fertility in crosses between sibling plants suggest that this phenomenon is genetically regulated by several genes.", "This regulation mechanism also occurs in Ranunculus and as far as known only in these two genera.", "In Caltha palustris up to two hundred seeds may be produced by each flower.", "When the follicles open, they form a \" splash cup \" .", "When a raindrop hits one at the right angle, the walls are shaped such that the seeds are expelled.", "The seeds also have some spongy tissue that makes them float on water, until they wash up in a location that may be suitable for this species to grow.", "The marsh-marigold is affected by the rust species Puccinia calthea and P. calthicola.", "Caltha contains several active substances of which the most important from a toxicological point of view is protoanemonin.", "Larger quantities of the plant may cause convulsions, burning of the throat, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, dizziness and fainting.", "Contact of the skin or mucous membranes with the juices can cause blistering or inflammation, and gastric illness if ingested.", "Younger parts seem to contain less toxics and heating breaks these substances down.", "Small amounts of Caltha in hay do not cause problems when fed to husbandry, but larger quantities lead to gastric illness.", "Additionally, plants that live in raw water may carry toxic organisms which can be neutralized by cooking.", "Early spring greens and buds of Caltha palustris are edible when cooked .", "Young leaves or buds should be submerged a few times in fresh boiling water until barely tender, cut into bite-sized pieces, lightly salted, and served with melted butter and vinegar.", "Very young flowerbuds have been prepared like capers and used as a spice.", "The common marsh marigold is planted as an ornamental throughout temperate regions in the world, and sometimes recommended for low maintenance wildlife gardens.", "The double-flowered cultivar 'Flore Pleno' has won the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Caltha palustris is a plant commonly mentioned in literature, including Shakespeare: :Winking Marybuds begin :To open their golden eyes (Cymbeline, ii.", "It also appears in Charlotte Bronte's Shirley: :They both halted on the green brow of the Common: they looked down on the deep valley robed in May raiment", "on varied meads, some pearled with daisies, and some golden with king-cups: to-day all this young verdure smiled clear in sunlight", "transparent emerald and amber gleams played over it and in Thomas Hardy's poem 'Overlooking the River Stour': :Closed were the kingcups", "and the mead/Dripped in monotonous green,/Though the day's morning sheen/Had shown it golden and honeybee'd.", "Kingcup Cottage by Racey Helps is a children's book which features the plant.", "In Latvia Caltha palustris is also known as , which is also used as a girls name and symbolizes fire.", "The word is made from 2 words and .", "This refers to the burning reaction that some people experience from contact with Caltha sap."]}, "Tussilago farfara": {"keywords": ["The leaves of coltsfoot, which appear after the flowers have set seed, wither and die in the early summer.", "The plant is often found in waste and disturbed places and along roadsides and paths."], "habitat_section": ["Coltsfoot is widespread across Europe, Asia, and North Africa, from Svalbard to Morocco to China and the Russian Far East.", "It is also a common plant in North and South America where it has been introduced, most likely by settlers as a medicinal item.", "The plant is often found in waste and disturbed places and along roadsides and paths.", "In some areas it is considered an invasive species."], "random_sentences": ["Tussilago farfara, commonly known as coltsfoot, is a plant in the tribe Senecioneae in the family Asteraceae, native to Europe and parts of western and central Asia.", "The name \" tussilago \" is derived from the Latin tussis, meaning cough, and ago, meaning to cast or to act on.", "It has had uses in traditional medicine, but the discovery of toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids in the plant has resulted in liver health concerns.", "Tussilago farfara is the only accepted species in the genus Tussilago, although more than two dozen other species have at one time or another been considered part of this group.", "Most of them are now regarded as members of other genera .", "Coltsfoot is a perennial herbaceous plant that spreads by seeds and rhizomes.", "Tussilago is often found in colonies of dozens of plants.", "The flowers, which superficially resemble dandelions, bear scale-leaves on the long stems in early spring.", "The leaves of coltsfoot, which appear after the flowers have set seed, wither and die in the early summer.", "The flower heads are of yellow florets with an outer row of bracts.", "The plant is typically in height.", "The leaves have angular teeth on their margins.", "Coltsfoot is widespread across Europe, Asia, and North Africa, from Svalbard to Morocco to China and the Russian Far East.", "It is also a common plant in North and South America where it has been introduced, most likely by settlers as a medicinal item.", "The plant is often found in waste and disturbed places and along roadsides and paths.", "In some areas it is considered an invasive species.", "The common name comes from the leaf's supposed resemblance in shape to a colt's foot.", "It is a 16th century translation of the medieval Latin name pes pulli, meaning \" foal's foot \" .", "Other common names include tash plant, ass's foot, bull's foot, coughwort , farfara, foal's foot, foalswort, and horse foot.", "Sometimes it is confused with Petasites frigidus, or western coltsfoot.", "It has been called bechion, bechichie, or bechie, from the Ancient Greek word for \" cough \" .", "Also ungula caballina , and chamleuce.", "Coltsfoot has been used in herbal medicine and has been consumed as a food product with some confectionery products, such as Coltsfoot Rock.", "Tussilago farfara leaves have been used in traditional Austrian medicine internally or externally for treatment of disorders of the respiratory tract, skin, locomotor system, viral infections, flu, colds, fever, rheumatism and gout.", "An extract of the fresh leaves has also been used to make cough drops and hard candy.", "Coltsfoot is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the Gothic and small angle shades.", "It is also visited by honeybees, providing pollen and nectar.", "Fruit of coltsfoot with pappus.", "Tussilago farfara contains tumorigenic pyrrolizidine alkaloids.", "Senecionine and senkirkine, present in coltsfoot, have the highest mutagenetic activity of any pyrrolozidine alkaloid, tested using Drosophila melanogaster to produce a comparative genotoxicity test.", "Two cases of supposed liver damage due to coltsfoot tea have been shown to actually be the result of mistaken identity.", "In one, coltsfoot tea causing severe liver problems in an infant was actually the result of Adenostyles alliariae .", "In another case, an infant developed liver disease and died because the mother drank tea originally believed to contain coltsfoot during her pregnancy, but which was later shown to be Petasites hybridus or a similar species.", "In one 27-year-old male, ingesting a multicomponent herbal supplement that included coltsfoot may have caused him to develop non-lethal deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.", "In response, the German government banned the sale of coltsfoot.", "Clonal plants of coltsfoot free of pyrrolizidine alkaloids were then developed in Austria and Germany.", "This has resulted in the development of the registered variety Tussilago farfara 'Wien', which has no detectable levels of these alkaloids."]}}
|
|
2683271_1247467
| 2154
|
[
"Corvus corone",
"Cyanistes caeruleus",
"Fulica atra",
"Anas platyrhynchos",
"Streptopelia decaocto",
"Passer domesticus",
"Cymbalaria muralis",
"Fringilla coelebs",
"Coloeus monedula",
"Turdus merula",
"Chroicocephalus ridibundus",
"Phalacrocorax carbo",
"Tachymarptis melba",
"Larus michahellis",
"Cygnus olor",
"Parus major",
"Columba livia",
"Marchantia polymorpha"
] |
{"Corvus corone": {"keywords": ["The carrion crow is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus Corvus which is native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic.", "Juvenile carrion crows can be identified by their brownish plumage and blue eyes, both of which darken to black and brown as the crow grows older.", "It is believed that this distribution might have resulted from the glaciation cycles during the Pleistocene, which caused the parent population to split into isolates which subsequently re-expanded their ranges when the climate warmed causing secondary contact.", "The carrion crow is also found in the mountains and forests of Japan and also in the cities of Japan.", "Scavenging around a dead bird in Paris, France The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks, moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts.", "Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.", "Crows are scavengers by nature, which is why they tend to frequent sites inhabited by humans in order to feed on their household waste.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden The bulky stick nest is usually placed in a tall tree, but cliff ledges, old buildings and pylons may be used as well."], "habitat_section": ["A map of Europe indicating the distribution of the carrion and hooded crows on either side of a contact zone separating the two species The carrion crow and hooded crow , including the former's slightly larger allied form or race C. c. orientalis, are two very closely related species, the geographic distributions of both forms of carrion crow across Europe are illustrated in the accompanying diagram.", "It is believed that this distribution might have resulted from the glaciation cycles during the Pleistocene, which caused the parent population to split into isolates which subsequently re-expanded their ranges when the climate warmed causing secondary contact.", "Poelstra and coworkers sequenced almost the entire genomes of both species in populations at varying distances from the contact zone to find that the two species were genetically identical, both in their DNA and in its expression , except for the lack of expression of a small portion of the genome in the hooded crow, which imparts the lighter plumage colouration on its torso.", "Thus the two species can viably hybridize, and occasionally do so at the contact zone, but the all-black carrion crows on the one side of the contact zone mate almost exclusively with other all-black carrion crows, while the same occurs among the hooded crows on the other side of the contact zone.", "It is therefore clear that it is only the outward appearance of the two species that inhibits hybridization.", "The authors attribute this to assortative mating , the advantage of which is not clear, and it would lead to the rapid appearance of streams of new lineages, and possibly even species, through mutual attraction between mutants.", "Unnikrishnan and Akhila propose, instead, that koinophilia is a more parsimonious explanation for the resistance to hybridization across the contact zone, despite the absence of physiological, anatomical or genetic barriers to such hybridization.", "The carrion crow is also found in the mountains and forests of Japan and also in the cities of Japan.", "Scavenging around a dead bird in Paris, France The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks, moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts.", "The most distinctive feature is the voice.", "The rook has a high-pitched kaaa, but the crow's guttural, slightly vibrant, deeper croaked kraa is distinct from any note of the rook.", "The carrion crow is noisy, perching on a vantage point such as a building or the top of a tree and calling three or four times in quick succession, with a slight pause between each series of croaks.", "During each series of calls, a crow may perform an accompanying gesture, raising its shoulders and bowing its head and neck downwards with each caw.", "The wing-beats are slower, more deliberate than those of the rook.", "Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.", "Like other species of corvid, carrion crows will actively harass predators and competitors that enter their territory or threaten them or their offspring, and will engage in group mobbing behaviour as a method to defend themselves."], "random_sentences": ["The carrion crow is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus Corvus which is native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic.", "The carrion crow was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, and it still bears its original name of Corvus corone.", "The binomial name is derived from the Latin , \" raven \" , and Greek , \" crow \" .", "The hooded crow, formerly regarded as a subspecies, has been split off as a separate species, and there is some discussion whether the eastern carrion crow (C.", "c. orientalis) is distinct enough to warrant specific status", "the two taxa are well separated, and it has been proposed they could have evolved independently in the wetter, maritime regions at the opposite ends of the Eurasian landmass.", "Along with the hooded crow, the carrion crow occupies a similar ecological niche in Eurasia to the American crow (C.", "Adult male carrion crow moulting at the Jardin des Plantes of Paris.", "The plumage of the carrion crow is black with a green or purple sheen, much greener than the gloss of the rook.", "The bill, legs and feet are also black.", "It can be distinguished from the common raven by its size of around in length as compared to an average of for ravens, and from the hooded crow by its black plumage.", "The carrion crow has a wingspan of and weighs .", "There is frequent confusion between the carrion crow and the rook, another black corvid found within its range.", "The beak of the crow is stouter and in consequence looks shorter, and whereas in the adult rook the nostrils are bare, those of the crow are covered at all ages with bristle-like feathers.", "As well as this, the wings of a carrion crow are proportionally shorter and broader than those of the rook when seen in flight.", "Juvenile carrion crows can be identified by their brownish plumage and blue eyes, both of which darken to black and brown as the crow grows older.", "Distribution and genetic relationship to hooded crows", "A map of Europe indicating the distribution of the carrion and hooded crows on either side of a contact zone separating the two species The carrion crow and hooded crow , including the former's slightly larger allied form or race C. c. orientalis, are two very closely related species", "the geographic distributions of both forms of carrion crow across Europe are illustrated in the accompanying diagram.", "It is believed that this distribution might have resulted from the glaciation cycles during the Pleistocene, which caused the parent population to split into isolates which subsequently re-expanded their ranges when the climate warmed causing secondary contact.", "Poelstra and coworkers sequenced almost the entire genomes of both species in populations at varying distances from the contact zone to find that the two species were genetically identical, both in their DNA and in its expression , except for the lack of expression of a small portion of the genome in the hooded crow, which imparts the lighter plumage colouration on its torso.", "Thus the two species can viably hybridize, and occasionally do so at the contact zone, but the all-black carrion crows on the one side of the contact zone mate almost exclusively with other all-black carrion crows, while the same occurs among the hooded crows on the other side of the contact zone.", "It is therefore clear that it is only the outward appearance of the two species that inhibits hybridization.", "The authors attribute this to assortative mating , the advantage of which is not clear, and it would lead to the rapid appearance of streams of new lineages, and possibly even species, through mutual attraction between mutants.", "Unnikrishnan and Akhila propose, instead, that koinophilia is a more parsimonious explanation for the resistance to hybridization across the contact zone, despite the absence of physiological, anatomical or genetic barriers to such hybridization.", "The carrion crow is also found in the mountains and forests of Japan and also in the cities of Japan.", "In Southend-on-Sea, England In flight right", "Scavenging around a dead bird in Paris, France The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks", "moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts.", "The most distinctive feature is the voice.", "The rook has a high-pitched kaaa, but the crow's guttural, slightly vibrant, deeper croaked kraa is distinct from any note of the rook.", "The carrion crow is noisy, perching on a vantage point such as a building or the top of a tree and calling three or four times in quick succession, with a slight pause between each series of croaks.", "During each series of calls, a crow may perform an accompanying gesture, raising its shoulders and bowing its head and neck downwards with each caw.", "The wing-beats are slower, more deliberate than those of the rook.", "Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.", "Like other species of corvid, carrion crows will actively harass predators and competitors that enter their territory or threaten them or their offspring, and will engage in group mobbing behaviour as a method to defend themselves.", "Like all corvids, carrion crows show intelligent behaviour.", "For example, they can discriminate between numerosities up to 30, flexibly switch between rules, and recognise human and crow faces.", "Given the difference in brain architecture in crows compared to primates, these abilities suggest that their intelligence is realised as a product of convergent evolution.", "Though an eater of carrion of all kinds, the carrion crow will eat insects, earthworms, other invertebrates, grain, fruits, seeds, nuts, small mammals, amphibians, fish, scraps and will also steal eggs.", "Crows are scavengers by nature, which is why they tend to frequent sites inhabited by humans in order to feed on their household waste.", "Crows will also harass birds of prey or even foxes for their kills.", "Crows actively hunt and occasionally co-operate with other crows to make kills, and are sometimes seen catching ducklings for food.", "Due to their gregarious lifestyle and defensive abilities, carrion crows have few natural predators.", "However, powerful raptors such as the northern goshawk, peregrine falcon, Eurasian eagle-owl and golden eagle will readily hunt them, and crows can become an important prey item locally.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden The bulky stick nest is usually placed in a tall tree, but cliff ledges, old buildings and pylons may be used as well.", "Nests are also occasionally placed on or near the ground.", "The nest resembles that of the common raven, but is less bulky.", "The 3 to 4 brown-speckled blue or greenish eggs are incubated for 1820 days by the female alone, who is fed by the male.", "The young fledge after 2930 days.", "Chicks in the nest It is not uncommon for an offspring from the previous years to stay around and help rear the new hatchlings.", "Instead of seeking out a mate, it looks for food and assists the parents in feeding the young."]}, "Cyanistes caeruleus": {"keywords": ["Eurasian blue tits, usually resident and non-migratory birds, are widespread and a common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and the western Palearctic in deciduous or mixed woodlands with a high proportion of oak.", "Outside the breeding season, they also eat seeds and other vegetable-based foods.", "The birds are famed for their acrobatic skills, as they can hold on to the outermost branches of trees and shrubs and hang upside down when looking for food.", "The Eurasian blue tit and the related hybrids are considered native species in areas of the European continent with a mainly temperate or Mediterranean climate, and in parts of the Middle East.", "Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Vatican City and Ukraine.", "In Great Britain the Eurasian blue tit can be found in a variety of environments, and is typically found in deciduous woodland, parks, gardens and even in the centre of towns.", "As a rule the bird roosts in ivy or evergreens, but in harsh winters will roost wherever there is a suitable small hole, be it in a tree or nesting box.", "Egg size appears to depend mostly on the size of individual females and secondarily on habitat, with smaller eggs found at higher altitudes.", "Scolding, for example, is used when a ground predator , a low flying predator or a perched owl are noticed.", "In addition, the instinct to strip bark from trees in search of insects has developed into a tendency to peel building materials such as thatch, wallpaper, stucco and window putty.", "Breeding seasons may be affected badly if the weather is cold and wet between May and July, particularly if this coincides with the emergence of the caterpillars on which the nestlings are fed."], "habitat_section": ["Reported range from observations reported to eBird Blue tit displaying aggression during ringing There are currently around 2044 million pairs in Europe.", "The Eurasian blue tit and the related hybrids are considered native species in areas of the European continent with a mainly temperate or Mediterranean climate, and in parts of the Middle East.", "These areas include Ireland, the United Kingdom and most of the European Union and EFTA , plus.", "Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Vatican City and Ukraine.", "In Great Britain the Eurasian blue tit can be found in a variety of environments, and is typically found in deciduous woodland, parks, gardens and even in the centre of towns.", "Eurasian blue and great tits form mixed winter flocks, and the former are perhaps the better gymnasts in the slender twigs.", "A Eurasian blue tit will often ascend a trunk in short jerky hops, reminiscent of a treecreeper.", "As a rule the bird roosts in ivy or evergreens, but in harsh winters will roost wherever there is a suitable small hole, be it in a tree or nesting box.", "They are very agile and can hang from almost anywhere.", "This is a common and popular European garden bird, due to its perky acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or suet.", "It swings beneath the holder, calling \" tee, tee, tee \" or a scolding \" churr \" .", "The Eurasian blue tit is classified as a least concern species on the IUCN Red List , and as a Green Status species, since 1996, by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the United Kingdom."], "random_sentences": ["Eurasian blue tit in Sweden, April 2018 The Eurasian blue tit is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae.", "It is easily recognisable by its blue and yellow plumage and small size.", "Eurasian blue tits, usually resident and non-migratory birds, are widespread and a common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and the western Palearctic in deciduous or mixed woodlands with a high proportion of oak.", "They usually nest in tree holes, although they easily adapt to nest boxes where necessary.", "Their main rival for nests and in the search for food is the larger and more common great tit.", "The Eurasian blue tit prefers insects and spiders for its diet.", "Outside the breeding season, they also eat seeds and other vegetable-based foods.", "The birds are famed for their acrobatic skills, as they can hold on to the outermost branches of trees and shrubs and hang upside down when looking for food.", "The Eurasian blue tit was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Parus caeruleus.", "Parus is the classical Latin for a tit and caeruleus is the Latin for dark blue or cerulean.", "Two centuries earlier, before the introduction of the binomial nomenclature, the same Latin name had been used by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner when he described and illustrated the blue tit in his Historiae animalium of 1555.", "In 2005, analysis of the mtDNA cytochrome b sequences of the Paridae indicated that Cyanistes was an early offshoot from the lineage of other tits, and more accurately regarded as a genus rather than a subgenus of Parus.", "The current genus name, Cyanistes, is from the Ancient Greek , \" dark blue \" .", "The African blue tit was formerly considered conspecific.", "Pleske's tit is a common interspecific hybrid between this species and the azure tit , in western Russia.", "The cap is usually darker than the azure tit, and the tail is paler than the Eurasian blue tit.", "The Eurasian blue tit is usually , long with a wingspan of for both sexes, and weighs about .", "A typical Eurasian blue tit has an azure-blue crown and dark blue line passing through the eye, and encircling the white cheeks to the chin, giving the bird a very distinctive appearance.", "The forehead and a bar on the wing are white.", "The nape, wings and tail are blue and the back is yellowish green.", "The underparts is mostly sulphur-yellow with a dark line down the abdomenthe yellowness is indicative of the number of yellowy-green caterpillars eaten, due to high levels of carotene pigments in the diet.", "The bill is black, the legs bluish grey, and the irides dark brown.", "The sexes are similar and often indistinguishable to human eyes, but under ultraviolet light, males have a brighter blue crown.", "Young blue tits are noticeably more yellow.", "Reported range from observations reported to eBird Blue tit displaying aggression during ringing There are currently around 2044 million pairs in Europe.", "The Eurasian blue tit and the related hybrids are considered native species in areas of the European continent with a mainly temperate or Mediterranean climate, and in parts of the Middle East.", "These areas include Ireland, the United Kingdom and most of the European Union and EFTA , plus: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Vatican City and Ukraine.", "In Great Britain the Eurasian blue tit can be found in a variety of environments, and is typically found in deciduous woodland, parks, gardens and even in the centre of towns.", "Eurasian blue and great tits form mixed winter flocks, and the former are perhaps the better gymnasts in the slender twigs.", "A Eurasian blue tit will often ascend a trunk in short jerky hops, reminiscent of a treecreeper.", "As a rule the bird roosts in ivy or evergreens, but in harsh winters will roost wherever there is a suitable small hole, be it in a tree or nesting box.", "They are very agile and can hang from almost anywhere.", "This is a common and popular European garden bird, due to its perky acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or suet.", "It swings beneath the holder, calling \" tee, tee, tee \" or a scolding \" churr \" .", "Feeding the young at a nest box in England Eggs of Cyanistes caeruleus ultramarinus MHNT right", "Few birds more readily accept the shelter of a nesting box", "the same hole is returned to year after year, and when one pair dies another takes possession.", "It is estimated by the RSPB that there are 3,535,000 breeding pairs in the UK.", "During the incubation period, female blue tits perform all of the incubation, however the male feeds the female during this time.", "During the nestling period both female nest attendance and male feeding rate are higher in the morning, declining throughout the day.", "Eggs are long and wide.", "Egg size appears to depend mostly on the size of individual females and secondarily on habitat, with smaller eggs found at higher altitudes.", "The clutch's total weight can be 1.5 times as heavy as the female bird.", "Juvenile in Pimlico, LondonA study found that the timing of breeding in blue tits is related to the expression of nestling carotenoidbased coloration, which could play a role in offspringparent communication.", "The bird is a close sitter, hissing and biting at an intruding finger.", "In the South West of England such behaviour has earned the Eurasian blue tit the colloquial nickname \" Little Billy Biter \" or \" Billy Biter \" , originating from the UK.", "When protecting its eggs it raises its crest, but this is a sign of excitement rather than anger, for it is also elevated during nuptial display.", "The nesting material is usually moss, wool, hair and feathers, and the eggs are laid in April or May.", "The number in the clutch is often very large, but seven or eight are normal, clutch size varies with latitude and other geographic parameters.", "Some bigger clutches may be laid by two or even more hens in some locations but single hen clutches of 14 have been verified in the UK.", "It is not unusual for a single bird to feed the chicks in the nest at a rate of one feed every 90 seconds during the height of the breeding season.", "In winter they form flocks with other tit species.", "In an analysis carried out using ring-recovery data in Britain, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 38%, while the adult annual survival rate was 53%.", "From these figures the typical lifespan is only three years.", "Within Britain, the maximum recorded age is 10 years and 3 months for a bird that was ringed in Bedfordshire.", "The maximum recorded age overall is 11 years and 7 months for a bird in the Czech Republic.", "Eating peanuts from a garden bird feeder in England right", "Eurasian blue tit eating peanuts from a string, Italy The Eurasian blue tit feeds on many insects, though it is fond of young buds of various trees, especially when insect prey is scarce, and may pull them to bits in the hope of finding insects.", "It is a well-known predator of many Lepidoptera species including the Wood Tiger moth.", "No species, however, destroys more coccids and aphids, the worst foes of many plants.", "It takes leaf miner grubs and green tortrix moths .", "In common with all members of the family, seeds are also eaten.", "Calls of a blue tit Eurasian blue tits use songs and calls throughout the year.", "Songs are mostly used in late winter and spring to defend the territory or to attract mates.", "Calls are used for multiple reasons.", "Communication with other Eurasian blue tits is the most important motivation for the use of calls.", "They inform one another on their location in trees by means of contact-calls.", "They use alarm-calls to warn others about the presence of predators in the neighbourhood.", "Scolding, for example, is used when a ground predator , a low flying predator or a perched owl are noticed.", "Sometimes this is followed by mobbing behaviour in which birds gather together in flocks to counter a predator.", "The alarm-whistle warns other birds about the proximity of a Eurasian sparrowhawk, a northern goshawk, a common buzzard or other flying predators that form a potential danger in the air.", "A series of high-pitched '' notes are given by both partners before and during copulation.", "The begging-call is used by juveniles to beg for food from parents.", "An interesting example of culturally transmitted learning in birds was the phenomenon dating from the 1920s of blue tits teaching one another how to open traditional British milk bottles with foil tops, to get at the cream underneath Such behaviour has been suppressed recently by the gradual change of human dietary habits , and the way of getting them .", "In addition, the instinct to strip bark from trees in search of insects has developed into a tendency to peel building materials such as thatch, wallpaper, stucco and window putty.", "The small size of the Eurasian blue tit makes it vulnerable to prey by larger birds such as jays who catch the vulnerable fledglings when they leave the nest.", "The most important predator is probably the sparrowhawk, closely followed by the domestic cat.", "Nests may be robbed by mammals such as weasels and red squirrels, as well as introduced grey squirrels in the UK.", "The successful breeding of chicks is dependent on sufficient supply of green caterpillars as well as satisfactory weather.", "Breeding seasons may be affected badly if the weather is cold and wet between May and July, particularly if this coincides with the emergence of the caterpillars on which the nestlings are fed.", "A bald blue tit with mite Eurasian blue tits are known to be host to feather mites, and rarely lice and flat flies.", "In Europe, the only feather mite species known to live on the blue tit host is Proctophyllodes stylifer.", "However, this mite seems to be of no concern to the bird as, until now, it is only known to feed on dead feather tissue.", "P. stylifer lives all its developmental stages, i.e. egg, larva, protonymph, tritonymph and adult, within the plumage of the same host.", "The usual sites where P. stylifer is encountered are the remiges and the rectrices of the bird where they can be found tandemly positioned between the barbs of the rachis.", "The Eurasian blue tit is classified as a least concern species on the IUCN Red List , and as a Green Status species, since 1996, by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the United Kingdom.", "The Eurasian blue tit has appeared on many stamps and ornaments.", "Its most recent appearance on a British stamp was the 2010 Birds of Britain series."]}, "Fulica atra": {"keywords": ["An extinct subspecies F. atra pontica, has been described from the Chalcolithic from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.", "The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.", "The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands.", "It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The nest is a bulky structure that either floats on the water or is built in shallow water on a low or barely submerged stump or log, making a neat, large bowl.", "Chick picking through wet leaves in Sweden .", "The coot is an omnivore, and will take a variety of small live prey including the eggs of other water birds, as well as algae, vegetation, seeds and fruit.", "In the water it may upend in the fashion of a mallard or dive in search of food."], "habitat_section": ["The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds.", "It occurs and breeds in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa.", "The species has recently expanded its range into New Zealand.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.", "The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands.", "It is an aggressive species, and strongly territorial during the breeding season, and both parents are involved in territorial defence.", "During the non-breeding season they may form large flocks, possibly related to predator avoidance.", "It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing.", "It does the same, but without actually flying, when travelling a short distance at speed in territorial disputes or on land to escape from intruders.", "As with many rails, its weak flight does not inspire confidence, but on migration, usually at night, it can cover surprisingly large distances.", "It bobs its head as it swims, and makes short dives from a little jump.", "When fighting other waterbirds , the coot attacks by charging its opponent and striking them with its long legs."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian coot , also known as the common coot, or Australian coot, is a member of the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae.", "It is found in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and parts of North Africa.", "It has a slaty-black body, a glossy black head and a white bill with a white frontal shield.", "Similar looking coot species are found throughout the world, with the largest variety of coot species living in South America.", "The Eurasian coot was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name Fulica atra.", "Linnaeus specified the locality as Europe but this is now restricted to Sweden.", "The binomial name is from Latin: Fulica means \" coot \" , and atra mean \" black \" .", "Four subspecies are recognised: An extinct subspecies F. atra pontica, has been described from the Chalcolithic from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.", "Legs and feet of Eurasian coot in St James's Park, London The Eurasian coot is in length with a wing-span of", "males weigh around and females .", "It is largely black except for the white bill and frontal shield .", "As a swimming species, the coot has partial webbing on its long strong toes.", "The sexes are similar in appearance.", "The juvenile is paler than the adult, has a whitish breast, and lacks the facial shield", "the adult black plumage develops when about 34 months old, but the white shield is only fully developed at about one year old.", "The Eurasian coot is a noisy bird with a wide repertoire of crackling, explosive, or trumpeting calls, often given at night.", "The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds.", "It occurs and breeds in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa.", "The species has recently expanded its range into New Zealand.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.", "The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands.", "It is an aggressive species, and strongly territorial during the breeding season, and both parents are involved in territorial defence.", "During the non-breeding season they may form large flocks, possibly related to predator avoidance.", "It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing.", "It does the same, but without actually flying, when travelling a short distance at speed in territorial disputes or on land to escape from intruders.", "As with many rails, its weak flight does not inspire confidence, but on migration, usually at night, it can cover surprisingly large distances.", "It bobs its head as it swims, and makes short dives from a little jump.", "When fighting other waterbirds , the coot attacks by charging its opponent and striking them with its long legs.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The nest is a bulky structure that either floats on the water or is built in shallow water on a low or barely submerged stump or log, making a neat, large bowl.", "It is constructed of plant stems and leaves with a lining of finer material. Normally concealed in vegetation the nest can sometimes be placed in the open.", "It is built by both sexes with the male collecting most of the material which is incorporated by the female.", "The eggs are laid at daily intervals.", "The clutch usually contains between six and ten smooth and slightly glossy buff coloured eggs that are covered with black or dark brown speckles.", "On average they are and weigh .", "The eggs are incubated by both sexes beginning after the second egg is laid and hatch asynchronously after 21 to 24 days.", "The chicks are precocial and nidifugous.", "The chicks are covered with a black down.", "On the body the down has yellow hair-like tips.", "On the sides of the head, nape and throat the hair-like tips are longer and orange-red.", "Between the eyes and on the lores, the tips are red.", "The shield is bright red and the bill is red with a white tip.", "The young are brooded by the female for the first three to four days during which time food is brought by the male.", "The male also builds one or more platforms that is used for roosting and brooding the chicks.", "On leaving the nest, the brood is sometimes split up with each parent taking care of a separate group.", "The young can feed themselves when they are around 30 days and fledge at 55 to 60 days.", "Eurasian coots normally only have a single brood each year but in some areas such as Britain they will sometimes attempt a second brood.", "They first breed when they are one to two years old.", "Chick mortality occurs mainly due to starvation rather than predation.", "Most chicks died in the first 10 days after hatching, when they are most dependent on adults for food.", "Coots can be very brutal to their own young under pressure such as the lack of food.", "They will bite young that are begging for food and repeatedly do this until it stops begging.", "If the begging continues, they may bite so hard that the chick is killed.", "Coots will also lay their eggs in the nests of other coots when their environment or physical condition limits their ability to breed, or to lengthen their reproductive life.", "adult with chicks, Trujillo, Spain Eurasian coot juvenile.", "chick in Marais Audomarois, France Baby Eurasian coot foraging .", "The coot is an omnivore, and will take a variety of small live prey including the eggs of other water birds, as well as algae, vegetation, seeds and fruit.", "It shows considerable variation in its feeding techniques, grazing on land or in the water.", "In the water it may upend in the fashion of a mallard or dive in search of food.", "The Eurasian coot is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies."]}, "Anas platyrhynchos": {"keywords": ["The mallard or wild duck is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa.", "Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes.", "The non-migratory mallard interbreeds with indigenous wild ducks of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring.", "Complete hybridisation of various species of wild duck gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl.", "This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domestic duck, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool has been genetically polluted by the domestic and feral mallard populations.", "The Aleutian Islands hold a population of mallards that appear to be evolving towards becoming a subspecies, as gene flow with other populations is very limited.", "Both male and female mallards have distinct iridescent purple-blue speculum feathers edged with white, which are prominent in flight or at rest but temporarily shed during the annual summer moult.", "Bergmann's Rule, which states that polar forms tend to be larger than related ones from warmer climates, has numerous examples in birds, as in case of the Greenland mallard which is larger than the mallards further south.", "Allen's Rule says that appendages like ears tend to be smaller in polar forms to minimise heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion, and that the polar taxa are stockier overall.", "The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and South Korea.", "It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south.", "For example, in North America, it winters south to the southern United States and northern Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.", "The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions.", "It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline.", "Water depths of less than are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep.", "They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.", "During the breeding season, male birds were recorded to have eaten 37.6% animal matter and 62.4% plant matter, most notably the grass Echinochloa crus-galli, and nonlaying females ate 37.0% animal matter and 63.0% plant matter, while laying females ate 71.9% animal matter and only 28.1% plant matter.", "It usually nests on a river bank, but not always near water.", "Nesting sites are typically on the ground, hidden in vegetation where the female's speckled plumage serves as effective camouflage, but female mallards have also been known to nest in hollows in trees, boathouses, roof gardens and on balconies, sometimes resulting in hatched offspring having difficulty following their parent to water.", "In New Zealand, where mallards are naturalised, the nesting season has been found to be longer, eggs and clutches are larger and nest survival is generally greater compared with mallards in their native range.", "In addition, mallards may occasionally breed during the autumn in cases of unseasonably warm weather, one such instance of a late clutch occurred in November 2011, in which a female successfully hatched and raised a clutch of eleven ducklings at the London Wetland Centre.", "Mallards are also preyed upon by other waterside apex predators, such as grey herons , great blue herons and black-crowned night herons , the European herring gull , the wels catfish , and the northern pike .", "Several drakes swim in a pond Since 1998, the mallard has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species.", "They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other human-made water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged in human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours.", "The mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domestic and feral populations.", "The last male Mariana mallard Mallards are causing severe \" genetic pollution \" to South Africa's biodiversity by breeding with endemic ducks If this continues, only hybrids occur and in the long term result in the extinction of various indigenous waterfowl.", "Mallards have often been ubiquitous in their regions among the ponds, rivers, and streams of human parks, farms, and other human-made waterwayseven to the point of visiting water features in human courtyards.", "The ideal location for hunting mallards is considered to be where the water level is somewhat shallow where the birds can be found foraging for food."], "habitat_section": ["The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and South Korea.", "Also in the east, it ranges to south-eastern and south-western Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere.", "It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south.", "For example, in North America, it winters south to the southern United States and northern Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.", "A drake later named \" Trevor \" attracted media attention in 2018 when it turned up on the island of Niue, an atypical location for mallards.", "The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions.", "It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline.", "Water depths of less than are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep.", "They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.", "Several drakes swim in a pond Since 1998, the mallard has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species.", "This is because it has a large rangemore than 20,000,000 km 2 and because its population is increasing, rather than declining by 30% over ten years or three generations and thus is not warranted a vulnerable rating.", "Also, the population size of the mallard is very large.", "Unlike many waterfowl, mallards have benefited from human alterations to the worldso much so that they are now considered an invasive species in some regions.", "They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other human-made water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged in human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours.", "The mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domestic and feral populations.", "Over time, a continuum of hybrids ranging between almost typical examples of either species develop, the speciation process is beginning to reverse itself.", "This has created conservation concerns for relatives of the mallard, such as the Hawaiian duck, the New Zealand grey duck subspecies of the Pacific black duck, the American black duck, the mottled duck, Meller's duck, the yellow-billed duck, and the Mexican duck, in the latter case even leading to a dispute as to whether these birds should be considered a species or included in the mallard species.", "Ecological changes and hunting have also led to a decline of local species, for example, the New Zealand grey duck population declined drastically due to overhunting in the mid-20th century.", "Hybrid offspring of Hawaiian ducks seem to be less well adapted to native habitat, and using them in re-introduction projects apparently reduces success.", "In summary, the problems of mallards \" hybridising away \" relatives is more a consequence of local ducks declining than of mallards spreading, allopatric speciation and isolating behaviour have produced today's diversity of mallard-like ducks despite the fact that, in most, if not all, of these populations, hybridisation must have occurred to some extent."], "random_sentences": ["The mallard or wild duck is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa.", "This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae.", "Males have purple patches on their wings, while the females have mainly brown-speckled plumage.", "Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent blue feathers called a speculum on their wings", "males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers.", "The mallard is long, of which the body makes up around two-thirds the length.", "The wingspan is and the bill is long.", "It is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks, weighing .", "Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes.", "The female lays 8 to 13 creamy white to greenish-buff spotless eggs, on alternate days.", "Incubation takes 27 to 28 days and fledging takes 50 to 60 days.", "The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch.", "The mallard is considered to be a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature .", "Unlike many waterfowl, mallards are considered an invasive species in some regions.", "It is a very adaptable species, being able to live and even thrive in urban areas which may have supported more localised, sensitive species of waterfowl before development.", "The non-migratory mallard interbreeds with indigenous wild ducks of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring.", "Complete hybridisation of various species of wild duck gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl.", "This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domestic duck, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool has been genetically polluted by the domestic and feral mallard populations.", "An American black duck and a male mallard in eclipse plumage The mallard was one of the many bird species originally described in the 1758 10thedition of Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus.", "The genome of Anas platyrhynchos was sequenced in 2013.", "The name mallard originally referred to any wild drake, and it is sometimes still used this way.", "It was derived from the Old French or for \" wild drake \" although its true derivation is unclear.", "It may be related to, or at least influenced by, an Old High German masculine proper name , clues lying in the alternative English forms \" maudelard \" and \" mawdelard \" .", "Masle has also been proposed as an influence.", "Mallards frequently interbreed with their closest relatives in the genus Anas, such as the American black duck, and also with species more distantly related, such as the northern pintail, leading to various hybrids that may be fully fertile.", "Mallards and their domestic conspecifics are also fully interfertile.", "Genetic analysis has shown that certain mallards appear to be closer to their Indo-Pacific relatives, while others are related to their American relatives.", "Mitochondrial DNA data for the D-loop sequence suggest that mallards may have evolved in the general area of Siberia.", "Mallard bones rather abruptly appear in food remains of ancient humans and other deposits of fossil bones in Europe, without a good candidate for a local predecessor species.", "The large Ice Age palaeosubspecies that made up at least the European and West Asian populations during the Pleistocene has been named Anas platyrhynchos palaeoboschas.", "Mallards are differentiated in their mitochondrial DNA between North American and Eurasian populations, but the nuclear genome displays a notable lack of genetic structure.", "Haplotypes typical of American mallard relatives and eastern spot-billed ducks can be found in mallards around the Bering Sea.", "The Aleutian Islands hold a population of mallards that appear to be evolving towards becoming a subspecies, as gene flow with other populations is very limited.", "Also, the paucity of morphological differences between the Old World mallards and the New World mallard demonstrates the extent to which the genome is shared among them such that birds like the Chinese spot-billed duck are highly similar to the Old World mallard, and birds such as the Hawaiian duck are highly similar to the New World mallard.", "The size of the mallard varies clinally", "for example, birds from Greenland, though larger, have smaller bills, paler plumage, and stockier bodies than birds further south and are sometimes classified as a separate subspecies, the Greenland mallard .", "Juvenile male and female Duckling The mallard is a medium-sized waterfowl species that is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks.", "It is longof which the body makes up around two-thirdshas a wingspan of , and weighs .", "Among standard measurements, the wing chord is , the bill is , and the tarsus is .", "The breeding male mallard is unmistakable, with a glossy bottle-green head and a white collar that demarcates the head from the purple-tinged brown breast, grey-brown wings, and a pale grey belly.", "The rear of the male is black, with white-bordered dark tail feathers.", "The bill of the male is a yellowish-orange tipped with black, with that of the female generally darker and ranging from black to mottled orange and brown.", "The female mallard is predominantly mottled, with each individual feather showing sharp contrast from buff to very dark brown, a coloration shared by most female dabbling ducks, and has buff cheeks, eyebrow, throat, and neck, with a darker crown and eye-stripe.", "Both male and female mallards have distinct iridescent purple-blue speculum feathers edged with white, which are prominent in flight or at rest but temporarily shed during the annual summer moult.", "Upon hatching, the plumage of the duckling is yellow on the underside and face and black on the back all the way to the top and back of the head.", "Its legs and bill are also black.", "2)the breast feathers are reddish-brown in males, but brown in females", "This change in plumage also applies to adult mallard males when they transition in and out of their non-breeding eclipse plumage at the beginning and the end of the summer moulting period.", "The adulthood age for mallards is fourteen months, and the average life expectancy is three years, but they can live to twenty.", "Several species of duck have brown-plumaged females that can be confused with the female mallard.", "The female gadwall has an orange-lined bill, white belly, black and white speculum that is seen as a white square on the wings in flight, and is a smaller bird.", "More similar to the female mallard in North America are the American black duck (A.", "rubripes), which is notably darker-hued in both sexes than the mallard, and the mottled duck (A.", "fulvigula), which is somewhat darker than the female mallard, and with slightly different bare-part colouration and no white edge on the speculum.", "Owing to their highly 'malleable' genetic code, mallards can display a large amount of variation, as seen here with this female, who displays faded or 'apricot' plumage.", "In captivity, domestic ducks come in wild-type plumages, white, and other colours.", "Most of these colour variants are also known in domestic mallards not bred as livestock, but kept as pets, aviary birds, etc.", ", where they are rare but increasing in availability.", "A noisy species, the female has the deep quack stereotypically associated with ducks.", "Male mallards make a sound phonetically similar to that of the female, a typical quack, but it is deeper and quieter compared to that of the female.", "When incubating a nest, or when offspring are present, females vocalise differently, making a call that sounds like a truncated version of the usual quack.", "This maternal vocalisation is highly attractive to their young.", "The repetition and frequency modulation of these quacks form the auditory basis for species identification in offspring, a process known as acoustic conspecific identification.", "In addition, females hiss if the nest or offspring are threatened or interfered with.", "When taking off, the wings of a mallard produce a characteristic faint whistling noise.", "The mallard is a rare example of both Allen's Rule and Bergmann's Rule in birds.", "Bergmann's Rule, which states that polar forms tend to be larger than related ones from warmer climates, has numerous examples in birds, as in case of the Greenland mallard which is larger than the mallards further south.", "Allen's Rule says that appendages like ears tend to be smaller in polar forms to minimise heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion, and that the polar taxa are stockier overall.", "Examples of this rule in birds are rare as they lack external ears, but the bill of ducks is supplied with a few blood vessels to prevent heat loss, and, as in the Greenland mallard, the bill is smaller than that of birds farther south, illustrating the rule.", "Due to the variability of the mallard's genetic code, which gives it its vast interbreeding capability, mutations in the genes that decide plumage colour are very common and have resulted in a wide variety of hybrids, such as Brewer's duck .", "The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres", "in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and South Korea.", "Also in the east, it ranges to south-eastern and south-western Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere.", "It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south.", "For example, in North America, it winters south to the southern United States and northern Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.", "A drake later named \" Trevor \" attracted media attention in 2018 when it turned up on the island of Niue, an atypical location for mallards.", "The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions.", "It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline.", "Water depths of less than are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep.", "They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.", "Drake mallard performing the grunt-whistle", "The mallard is omnivorous and very flexible in its choice of food.", "Its diet may vary based on several factors, including the stage of the breeding cycle, short-term variations in available food, nutrient availability, and interspecific and intraspecific competition.", "The majority of the mallard's diet seems to be made up of gastropods, insects , crustaceans, worms, many varieties of seeds and plant matter, and roots and tubers.", "During the breeding season, male birds were recorded to have eaten 37.6% animal matter and 62.4% plant matter, most notably the grass Echinochloa crus-galli, and nonlaying females ate 37.0% animal matter and 63.0% plant matter, while laying females ate 71.9% animal matter and only 28.1% plant matter.", "Plants generally make up the larger part of a bird's diet, especially during autumn migration and in the winter.", "The mallard usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing", "there are reports of it eating frogs.", "However, in 2017 a flock of mallards in Romania were observed hunting small migratory birds, including grey wagtails and black redstarts, the first documented occasion they had been seen attacking and consuming large vertebrates.", "It usually nests on a river bank, but not always near water.", "It is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and forms large flocks, which are known as \" sordes \" .", "Female mallard with five ducklings Mallards usually form pairs until the female lays eggs at the start of the nesting season, which is around the beginning of spring.", "At this time she is left by the male who joins up with other males to await the moulting period, which begins in June .", "During the brief time before this, however, the males are still sexually potent and some of them either remain on standby to sire replacement clutches or forcibly mate with females that appear to be isolated or unattached regardless of their species and whether or not they have a brood of ducklings.", "Nesting sites are typically on the ground, hidden in vegetation where the female's speckled plumage serves as effective camouflage, but female mallards have also been known to nest in hollows in trees, boathouses, roof gardens and on balconies, sometimes resulting in hatched offspring having difficulty following their parent to water.", "Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden Egg clutches number 813 creamy white to greenish-buff eggs free of speckles.", "They measure about in length and in width.", "The eggs are laid on alternate days, and incubation begins when the clutch is almost complete.", "Incubation takes 2728days and fledging takes 5060days.", "The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch.", "However, filial imprinting compels them to instinctively stay near the mother, not only for warmth and protection but also to learn about and remember their habitat as well as how and where to forage for food.", "Though adoptions are known to occur, female mallards typically do not tolerate stray ducklings near their broods, and will violently attack and drive away any unfamiliar young, sometimes going as far as to kill them.", "When ducklings mature into flight-capable juveniles, they learn about and remember their traditional migratory routes .", "In New Zealand, where mallards are naturalised, the nesting season has been found to be longer, eggs and clutches are larger and nest survival is generally greater compared with mallards in their native range.", "In cases where a nest or brood fails, some mallards may mate for a second time in an attempt to raise a second clutch, typically around early-to-mid summer.", "In addition, mallards may occasionally breed during the autumn in cases of unseasonably warm weather", "one such instance of a late clutch occurred in November 2011, in which a female successfully hatched and raised a clutch of eleven ducklings at the London Wetland Centre.", "During the breeding season, both male and female mallards can become aggressive, driving off competitors to themselves or their mate by charging at them.", "Males tend to fight more than females, and attack each other by repeatedly pecking at their rival's chest, ripping out feathers and even skin on rare occasions.", "Female mallards are also known to carry out 'inciting displays', which encourage other ducks in the flock to begin fighting.", "It is possible that this behaviour allows the female to evaluate the strength of potential partners.", "The drakes that end up being left out after the others have paired off with mating partners sometimes target an isolated female duck, even one of a different species, and proceed to chase and peck at her until she weakens, at which point the males take turns copulating with the female.", "Lebret calls this behaviour \" Attempted Rape Flight \" , and Stanley Cramp and K.E.L. Simmons speak of \" rape-intent flights \" .", "Male mallards also occasionally chase other male ducks of a different species, and even each other, in the same way.", "In one documented case of \" homosexual necrophilia \" , a male mallard copulated with another male he was chasing after the chased male died upon flying into a glass window.", "This paper was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 2003.", "Mallards are opportunistically targeted by brood parasites, occasionally having eggs laid in their nests by redheads, ruddy ducks, lesser scaup, gadwalls, northern shovelers, northern pintails, cinnamon teal, common goldeneyes, and other mallards.", "These eggs are generally accepted when they resemble the eggs of the host mallard, but the hen may attempt to eject them or even abandon the nest if parasitism occurs during egg laying.", "A male mute swan driving off a female mallard In addition to human hunting, mallards of all ages and in all locations must contend with a wide diversity of predators including raptors and owls, mustelids, corvids, snakes, raccoons, opossums, skunks, turtles, large fish, felids, and canids, the last two including domestic ones.", "The most prolific natural predators of adult mallards are red foxes and the faster or larger birds of prey, e.g. peregrine falcons, Aquila or Haliaeetus eagles.", "In North America, adult mallards face no fewer than 15 species of birds of prey, from northern harriers and short-eared owls to huge bald and golden eagles , and about a dozen species of mammalian predators, not counting several more avian and mammalian predators who threaten eggs and nestlings.", "Mallards are also preyed upon by other waterside apex predators, such as grey herons , great blue herons and black-crowned night herons , the European herring gull , the wels catfish , and the northern pike .", "Crows are also known to kill ducklings and adults on occasion.", "Also, mallards may be attacked by larger anseriformes such as swans and geese during the breeding season, and are frequently driven off by these birds over territorial disputes.", "Mute swans have been known to attack or even kill mallards if they feel that the ducks pose a threat to their offspring.", "Common loons are similarly territorial and aggressive towards other birds in such disputes, and will frequently drive mallards away from their territory.", "However, in 2019, a pair of common loons in Wisconsin were observed raising a mallard duckling for several weeks, having seemingly adopted the bird after it had been abandoned by its parents.", "The predation-avoidance behaviour of sleeping with one eye open, allowing one brain hemisphere to remain aware while the other half sleeps, was first demonstrated in mallards, although it is believed to be widespread among birds in general.", "Several drakes swim in a pond Since 1998, the mallard has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species.", "This is because it has a large rangemore than 20,000,000 km 2 and because its population is increasing, rather than declining by 30% over ten years or three generations and thus is not warranted a vulnerable rating.", "Also, the population size of the mallard is very large.", "Unlike many waterfowl, mallards have benefited from human alterations to the worldso much so that they are now considered an invasive species in some regions.", "They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other human-made water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged in human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours.", "The mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domestic and feral populations.", "Over time, a continuum of hybrids ranging between almost typical examples of either species develop", "the speciation process is beginning to reverse itself.", "This has created conservation concerns for relatives of the mallard, such as the Hawaiian duck, the New Zealand grey duck subspecies of the Pacific black duck, the American black duck, the mottled duck, Meller's duck, the yellow-billed duck, and the Mexican duck, in the latter case even leading to a dispute as to whether these birds should be considered a species or included in the mallard species.", "Ecological changes and hunting have also led to a decline of local species", "for example, the New Zealand grey duck population declined drastically due to overhunting in the mid-20th century.", "Hybrid offspring of Hawaiian ducks seem to be less well adapted to native habitat, and using them in re-introduction projects apparently reduces success.", "In summary, the problems of mallards \" hybridising away \" relatives is more a consequence of local ducks declining than of mallards spreading", "allopatric speciation and isolating behaviour have produced today's diversity of mallard-like ducks despite the fact that, in most, if not all, of these populations, hybridisation must have occurred to some extent.", "The last male Mariana mallard Mallards are causing severe \" genetic pollution \" to South Africa's biodiversity by breeding with endemic ducks If this continues, only hybrids occur and in the long term result in the extinction of various indigenous waterfowl.", "The mallard can crossbreed with 63 other species, posing a severe threat to indigenous waterfowl's genetic integrity.", "Mallards and their hybrids compete with indigenous birds for resources, including nest sites, roosting sites, and food.", "Mallard x Pacific black duck hybrid, Tasmania Availability of mallards, mallard ducklings, and fertilised mallard eggs for public sale and private ownership, either as poultry or as pets, is currently legal in the United States, except for the state of Florida, which has currently banned domestic ownership of mallards.", "This is to prevent hybridisation with the native mottled duck.", "The mallard is considered an invasive species in Australia and New Zealand, where it competes with the Pacific black duck which was over-hunted in the past.", "There, and elsewhere, mallards are spreading with increasing urbanisation and hybridising with local relatives.", "The Laysan duck is an insular relative of the mallard, with a very small and fluctuating population.", "Now, their range includes only Laysan Island.", "It is one of the successfully translocated birds, after having become nearly extinct in the early 20th century.", "Mallard resting on a poolside in San Francisco", "Mallards have often been ubiquitous in their regions among the ponds, rivers, and streams of human parks, farms, and other human-made waterwayseven to the point of visiting water features in human courtyards.", "George Hetzel, mallard still life painting, 18831884 Mallards have had a long relationship with humans.", "Almost all domestic duck breeds derive from the mallard, with the exception of a few Muscovy breeds, and are listed under the trinomial name A. p. domesticus.", "Mallards are generally monogamous while domestic ducks are mostly polygamous.", "Domestic ducks have no territorial behaviour and are less aggressive than mallards.", "Domestic ducks are mostly kept for meat", "their eggs are also eaten, and have a strong flavour.", "Because of this, mallards have been found to be contaminated with the genes of the domestic duck.", "While the keeping of domestic breeds is more popular, pure-bred mallards are sometimes kept for eggs and meat, although they may require wing clipping to restrict flying, or training to navigate and fly home.", "Mallards are one of the most common varieties of ducks hunted as a sport due to the large population size.", "The ideal location for hunting mallards is considered to be where the water level is somewhat shallow where the birds can be found foraging for food.", "Hunting mallards might cause the population to decline in some places, at some times, and with some populations.", "In certain countries, the mallard may be legally shot but is protected under national acts and policies.", "For example, in the United Kingdom, the mallard is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which restricts certain hunting methods or taking or killing mallards.", " Since ancient times, the mallard has been eaten as food.", "The wild mallard was eaten in Neolithic Greece.", "Usually, only the breast and thigh meat is eaten.", "It does not need to be hung before preparation, and is often braised or roasted, sometimes flavoured with bitter orange or with port."]}, "Streptopelia decaocto": {"keywords": ["The Eurasian collared dove is a dove species native to Europe and Asia, it was introduced to Japan, North America and islands in the Caribbean.", "Over the last century, it has been one of the great colonisers of the bird world, travelling far beyond its native range to colonise colder countries, becoming a permanent resident in several of them.", "Its original range at the end of the 19th century was warm temperate and subtropical Asia from Turkey east to southern China and south through India to Sri Lanka.", "In 1838 it was reported in Bulgaria, but not until the 20th century did it expand across Europe, appearing in parts of the Balkans between 1900 and 1920, and then spreading rapidly northwest, reaching Germany in 1945, Great Britain by 1953 , Ireland in 1959, and the Faroe Islands in the early 1970s.", "Subsequent spread was 'sideways' from this fast northwestern spread, reaching northeast to north of the Arctic Circle in Norway and east to the Ural Mountains in Russia, and southwest to the Canary Islands and northern Africa from Morocco to Egypt, by the end of the 20th century.", "From the Bahamas, the species spread to Florida, and is now found in nearly every state in the U.S. In Arkansas , the species was recorded first in 1989 and since then has grown in numbers and is now present in 42 of 75 counties in the state.", "However, the species is known as an aggressive competitor and there is concern that as populations continue to grow, native birds will be out-competed by the invaders.", "Carrying capacities appear to be highest in areas with higher temperatures and intermediate levels of development, such as suburban areas and some agricultural areas.", "While the spread of disease to native species has not been recorded in a study, Eurasian collared doves are known carriers of the parasite Trichomonas gallinae as well as pigeon paramyxovirus type 1.", "Pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 is an emergent disease and has the potential to affect domestic poultry, making the Eurasian collared dove a threat to not only native biodiversity, but a possible economic threat as well.", "Eurasian collared doves typically breed close to human habitation wherever food resources are abundant and there are trees for nesting, almost all nests are within of inhabited buildings.", "Breeding occurs throughout the year when abundant food is available, though only rarely in winter in areas with cold winters such as northeastern Europe.", "The Eurasian collared dove is not wary and often feeds very close to human habitation, including visiting bird tables, the largest populations are typically found around farms where spilt grain is frequent around grain stores or where livestock are fed.", "It is a gregarious species and sizeable winter flocks will form where there are food supplies such as grain as well as seeds, shoots and insects."], "habitat_section": ["Juvenile with early collar development The Eurasian collared dove is not migratory, but is strongly dispersive.", "Over the last century, it has been one of the great colonisers of the bird world, travelling far beyond its native range to colonise colder countries, becoming a permanent resident in several of them.", "Its original range at the end of the 19th century was warm temperate and subtropical Asia from Turkey east to southern China and south through India to Sri Lanka.", "In 1838 it was reported in Bulgaria, but not until the 20th century did it expand across Europe, appearing in parts of the Balkans between 1900 and 1920, and then spreading rapidly northwest, reaching Germany in 1945, Great Britain by 1953 , Ireland in 1959, and the Faroe Islands in the early 1970s.", "Subsequent spread was 'sideways' from this fast northwestern spread, reaching northeast to north of the Arctic Circle in Norway and east to the Ural Mountains in Russia, and southwest to the Canary Islands and northern Africa from Morocco to Egypt, by the end of the 20th century.", "In the east of its range, it has also spread northeast to most of central and northern China, and locally in Japan.", "It has also reached Iceland as a vagrant , but has not colonised successfully there."], "random_sentences": [" The Eurasian collared dove is a dove species native to Europe and Asia", "it was introduced to Japan, North America and islands in the Caribbean.", "Because of its vast global range and increasing population trend, it has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2014.", "Columba decaocto was the scientific name proposed by the Hungarian naturalist Imre Frivaldszky in 1838 who described a Eurasian collared dove.", "The type locality is Plovdiv in Bulgaria.", "The Burmese collared dove (S.", "xanthocycla) was formerly considered a subspecies of the Eurasian collared dove, but was split as a distinct species by the IOC in 2021.", "Two other subspecies were formerly sometimes accepted, S. d. stoliczkae from Turkestan in central Asia and S. d. intercedens from southern India and Sri Lanka.", "They are now considered junior synonyms of the nominate subspecies (S.", "The Eurasian collared dove is closely related to the Sunda collared dove of Southeast Asia and the African collared dove of Sub-Saharan Africa, forming a superspecies with these.", "The generic name is from the Ancient Greek streptos meaning \" collar \" and peleia meaning \" dove \"", "the specific epithet is Greek for \" eighteen \" .", "The number comes from a Greek myth.", "A maid who worked hard for little money was unhappy that she was only paid 18 coins a year and begged the gods to let the world know how little she was rewarded by her mistress.", "Thereupon Zeus created this dove that has called out \" Deca-octo \" ever since.", "altA pair 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.", "The short legs are red and the bill is black.", "The iris is red, but from a distance the eyes appear to be black, as the pupil is relatively large and only a narrow rim of reddish-brown iris can be seen around the black pupil.", "The eye is surrounded by a small area of bare skin, which is either white or yellow.", "The two sexes are virtually indistinguishable", "juveniles differ in having a poorly developed collar, and a brown iris.", "The subspecies S. d. xanthocycla differs in having yellow rather than white eye-rings, darker grey on the head and the underparts a slightly darker pink.", "The song is a goo-GOO-goo.", "The Eurasian collared dove also makes a harsh loud screeching call lasting about two seconds, particularly in flight just before landing.", "A rough way to describe the screeching sound is a hah-hah.", "Eurasian collared doves cooing in early spring are sometimes mistakenly reported as the calls of early-arriving common cuckoos and, as such, a mistaken sign of spring's return.", "Juvenile before collar formation right", "Juvenile with early collar development The Eurasian collared dove is not migratory, but is strongly dispersive.", "Over the last century, it has been one of the great colonisers of the bird world, travelling far beyond its native range to colonise colder countries, becoming a permanent resident in several of them.", "Its original range at the end of the 19th century was warm temperate and subtropical Asia from Turkey east to southern China and south through India to Sri Lanka.", "In 1838 it was reported in Bulgaria, but not until the 20th century did it expand across Europe, appearing in parts of the Balkans between 1900 and 1920, and then spreading rapidly northwest, reaching Germany in 1945, Great Britain by 1953 , Ireland in 1959, and the Faroe Islands in the early 1970s.", "Subsequent spread was 'sideways' from this fast northwestern spread, reaching northeast to north of the Arctic Circle in Norway and east to the Ural Mountains in Russia, and southwest to the Canary Islands and northern Africa from Morocco to Egypt, by the end of the 20th century.", "In the east of its range, it has also spread northeast to most of central and northern China, and locally in Japan.", "It has also reached Iceland as a vagrant , but has not colonised successfully there.", "Invasive status in North America", "In 1974, fewer than 50 Eurasian collared doves escaped captivity in Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas.", "From the Bahamas, the species spread to Florida, and is now found in nearly every state in the U.S. In Arkansas , the species was recorded first in 1989 and since then has grown in numbers and is now present in 42 of 75 counties in the state.", "It spread from the southeastern corner of the state in 1997 to the northwestern corner in five years, covering a distance of about at a rate of per year.", "This is more than double the rate of per year observed in Europe.", "As of 2012, few negative impacts have been demonstrated in Florida, where the species is most prolific.", "However, the species is known as an aggressive competitor and there is concern that as populations continue to grow, native birds will be out-competed by the invaders.", "However, one study found that Eurasian collared doves are not more aggressive or competitive than native mourning doves, despite similar dietary preferences.", "They can become hand-tame in urban areas - Szczecin, Poland Population growth has ceased in areas where the species has long been established, such as Florida, and in these regions recent observations suggest the population is in decline.", "The population is still growing exponentially in areas of more recent introduction: up to 2015, the Eurasian collared dove experienced a greater than 1.5% yearly population increase throughout nearly the entirety of its North American range.", "Carrying capacities appear to be highest in areas with higher temperatures and intermediate levels of development, such as suburban areas and some agricultural areas.", "While the spread of disease to native species has not been recorded in a study, Eurasian collared doves are known carriers of the parasite Trichomonas gallinae as well as pigeon paramyxovirus type 1.", "Both Trichomonas gallinae and pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 can spread to native birds via commingling at feeders and by consumption of doves by predators.", "Pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 is an emergent disease and has the potential to affect domestic poultry, making the Eurasian collared dove a threat to not only native biodiversity, but a possible economic threat as well.", "Eurasian collared doves typically breed close to human habitation wherever food resources are abundant and there are trees for nesting", "almost all nests are within of inhabited buildings.", "The female lays two white eggs in a stick nest, which she incubates during the night and which the male incubates during the day.", "Incubation lasts between 14 and 18 days, with the young fledging after 15 to 19 days.", "Breeding occurs throughout the year when abundant food is available, though only rarely in winter in areas with cold winters such as northeastern Europe.", "Three to four broods per year is common, although up to six broods in a year has been recorded.", "Eurasian collared doves are a monogamous species, and share parental duties when caring for young.", "Near Chandigarh The male's mating display is a ritual flight, which, as with many other pigeons, consists of a rapid, near-vertical climb to height followed by a long glide downward in a circle, with the wings held below the body in an inverted \" V \" shape.", "At all other times, flight is typically direct using fast and clipped wing beats and without use of gliding.", "The Eurasian collared dove is not wary and often feeds very close to human habitation, including visiting bird tables", "the largest populations are typically found around farms where spilt grain is frequent around grain stores or where livestock are fed.", "It is a gregarious species and sizeable winter flocks will form where there are food supplies such as grain as well as seeds, shoots and insects.", "Flocks most commonly number between 10 and 50, but flocks of up to 10,000 have been recorded.", "Eurasian collared dove near Chunni, Punjab.", "Eurasian collared dove near Mohali."]}, "Passer domesticus": {"keywords": ["One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia.", "Though found in widely varied habitats and climates, it typically avoids extensive woodlands, grasslands, and deserts away from human development.", "It feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is an opportunistic eater and commonly eats insects and many other foods.", "Younger birds are smaller, males are larger during the winter, and females are larger during the breeding season.", "Birds at higher latitudes, colder climates, and sometimes higher altitudes are larger , both between and within subspecies.", "The upper back and mantle are a warm brown, with broad black streaks, while the lower back, rump and upper tail coverts are greyish brown.", "Many of these relatives are smaller, with an appearance that is neater or \" cuter \" , as with the Dead Sea sparrow.", "The house sparrow is also called by a number of alternative English names, including English sparrow, chiefly in North America, and Indian sparrow or Indian house sparrow, for the birds of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia.", "Within Passer, the house sparrow is part of the \" Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrows \" group and a close relative of the Mediterranean \" willow sparrows \" .", "In the Alps, the Italian sparrow intergrades over a narrow roughly strip with the house sparrow, and some house sparrows migrate into the Italian sparrow's range in winter.", "On the Mediterranean islands of Malta, Gozo, Crete, Rhodes, and Karpathos, other apparently intermediate birds are of unknown status.", "By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona House sparrows perching on a roof, during winter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa.", "Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America , Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world.", "It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.", "House sparrows were introduced in New Zealand in 1859, and from there reached many of the Pacific islands, including Hawaii.", "It now occurs almost continuously from Tierra del Fuego to the fringes of the Amazon basin, with isolated populations as far north as coastal Venezuela.", "The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra.", "It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night.", "It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates.", "It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries.", "In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty.", "The house sparrow feeds mostly on the ground, but it flocks in trees and bushes.", "Outside of the reproductive season, they often roost communally in trees or shrubs.", "A female house sparrow feeding on rice grains As an adult, the house sparrow mostly feeds on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is opportunistic and adaptable, and eats whatever foods are available.", "Several studies of the house sparrow in temperate agricultural areas have found the proportion of seeds in its diet to be about 90%.", "In temperate areas, the house sparrow has an unusual habit of tearing flowers, especially yellow ones, in the spring.", "Various noninsect arthropods are eaten, as are molluscs and crustaceans where available, earthworms, and even vertebrates such as lizards and frogs.", "Some young birds disperse long distances, especially on coasts, and mountain birds move to lower elevations in winter.", "The house sparrow is also a common victim of roadkill, on European roads, it is the bird most frequently found dead.", "The house sparrow hosts avian pox and avian malaria, which it has spread to the native forest birds of Hawaii.", "Arboviruses such as the West Nile virus, which most commonly infect insects and mammals, survive winters in temperate areas by going dormant in birds such as the house sparrow.", "A few records indicate disease extirpating house sparrow populations, especially from Scottish islands, but this seems to be rare.", "House sparrows are also infected by haemosporidian parasites, but less so in urban than in rural areas Toxoplasma gondii has been detected in sparrows in northwestern China where they pose a risk due to their meat being consumed in the region.", "A number of chewing lice occupy different niches on the house sparrow's body.", "Menacanthus lice occur across the house sparrow's body, where they feed on blood and feathers, while Brueelia lice feed on feathers and Philopterus fringillae occurs on the head.", "Finally, house sparrows in constant darkness could be entrained to a cycle of high and low temperature, but only if the difference in temperature was large , some of the tested sparrows matched their activity to the warm phase, and others to the cold phase.", "Usually, the house sparrow is regarded as a pest, since it consumes agricultural products and spreads disease to humans and their domestic animals.", "Declines in insect populations result from an increase of monoculture crops, the heavy use of pesticides, the replacement of native plants in cities with introduced plants and parking areas, and possibly the introduction of unleaded petrol, which produces toxic compounds such as methyl nitrite."], "habitat_section": ["By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona House sparrows perching on a roof, during winter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa.", "Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America , Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world.", "It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.", "The extent of its range makes it the most widely distributed wild bird on the planet.", "The house sparrow is closely associated with human habitation and cultivation.", "It is not an obligate commensal of humans as some have suggested.", "birds of the migratory Central Asian subspecies usually breed away from humans in open country, and birds elsewhere are occasionally found away from humans.", "The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra.", "Well adapted to living around humans, it frequently lives and even breeds indoors, especially in factories, warehouses, and zoos.", "It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night.", "It reaches its greatest densities in urban centres, but its reproductive success is greater in suburbs, where insects are more abundant.", "On a larger scale, it is most abundant in wheat-growing areas such as the Midwestern United States.", "It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates.", "It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries.", "In most of eastern Asia, the house sparrow is entirely absent, replaced by the Eurasian tree sparrow.", "Where these two species overlap, the house sparrow is usually more common than the Eurasian tree sparrow, but one species may replace the other in a manner that ornithologist Maud Doria Haviland described as \" random, or even capricious \" .", "In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty."], "random_sentences": ["The house sparrow is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world.", "It is a small bird that has a typical length of and a mass of .", "Females and young birds are coloured pale brown and grey, and males have brighter black, white, and brown markings.", "One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia.", "Its intentional or accidental introductions to many regions, including parts of Australasia, Africa, and the Americas, make it the most widely distributed wild bird.", "The house sparrow is strongly associated with human habitation, and can live in urban or rural settings.", "Though found in widely varied habitats and climates, it typically avoids extensive woodlands, grasslands, and deserts away from human development.", "It feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is an opportunistic eater and commonly eats insects and many other foods.", "Its predators include domestic cats, hawks, and many other predatory birds and mammals.", "Because of its numbers, ubiquity, and association with human settlements, the house sparrow is culturally prominent.", "It is extensively, and usually unsuccessfully, persecuted as an agricultural pest.", "It has also often been kept as a pet, as well as being a food item and a symbol of lust, sexual potency, commonness, and vulgarity.", "Though it is widespread and abundant, its numbers have declined in some areas.", "The animal's conservation status is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List.", "An audio recording of a house sparrow", "The house sparrow is typically about long, ranging from .", "The house sparrow is a compact bird with a full chest and a large, rounded head.", "Its bill is stout and conical with a culmen length of , strongly built as an adaptation for eating seeds.", "Its tail is short, at long.", "The wing chord is , and the tarsus is .", "In mass, the house sparrow ranges from .", "Females usually are slightly smaller than males.", "The median mass on the European continent for both sexes is about , and in more southerly subspecies is around .", "Younger birds are smaller, males are larger during the winter, and females are larger during the breeding season.", "Birds at higher latitudes, colder climates, and sometimes higher altitudes are larger , both between and within subspecies.", "The plumage of the house sparrow is mostly different shades of grey and brown.", "The sexes exhibit strong dimorphism: the female is mostly buffish above and below, while the male has boldly coloured head markings, a reddish back, and grey underparts.", "The male has a dark grey crown from the top of its bill to its back, and chestnut brown flanking its crown on the sides of its head.", "It has black around its bill, on its throat, and on the spaces between its bill and eyes .", "It has a small white stripe between the lores and crown and small white spots immediately behind the eyes , with black patches below and above them.", "The underparts are pale grey or white, as are the cheeks, ear coverts, and stripes at the base of the head.", "The upper back and mantle are a warm brown, with broad black streaks, while the lower back, rump and upper tail coverts are greyish brown.", "The male is duller in fresh nonbreeding plumage, with whitish tips on many feathers.", "Wear and preening expose many of the bright brown and black markings, including most of the black throat and chest patch, called the \" bib \" or \" badge \" .", "The badge is variable in width and general size, and may signal social status or fitness.", "This hypothesis has led to a \" veritable 'cottage industry' \" of studies, which have only conclusively shown that patches increase in size with age.", "The male's bill is dark grey, but black in the breeding season.", "The female has no black markings or grey crown.", "Its upperparts and head are brown with darker streaks around the mantle and a distinct pale supercilium.", "Its underparts are pale grey-brown.", "The female's bill is brownish-grey and becomes darker in breeding plumage approaching the black of the male's bill.", "Juveniles are similar to the adult female, but deeper brown below and paler above, with paler and less defined supercilia.", "Juveniles have broader buff feather edges, and tend to have looser, scruffier plumage, like moulting adults.", "Juvenile males tend to have darker throats and white postoculars like adult males, while juvenile females tend to have white throats.", "However, juveniles cannot be reliably sexed by plumage: some juvenile males lack any markings of the adult male, and some juvenile females have male features.", "The bills of young birds are light yellow to straw, paler than the female's bill.", "Immature males have paler versions of the adult male's markings, which can be very indistinct in fresh plumage.", "By their first breeding season, young birds generally are indistinguishable from other adults, though they may still be paler during their first year.", "Most house sparrow vocalisations are variations on its short and incessant chirping call.", "Transcribed as chirrup, tschilp, or philip, this note is made as a contact call by flocking or resting birds, or by males to proclaim nest ownership and invite pairing.", "In the breeding season, the male gives this call repetitively, with emphasis and speed, but not much rhythm, forming what is described either as a song or an \" ecstatic call \" similar to a song.", "Young birds also give a true song, especially in captivity, a warbling similar to that of the European greenfinch.", "Aggressive males give a trilled version of their call, transcribed as \" chur-chur-r-r-it-it-it-it \" .", "This call is also used by females in the breeding season, to establish dominance over males while displacing them to feed young or incubate eggs.", "House sparrows give a nasal alarm call, the basic sound of which is transcribed as quer, and a shrill chree call in great distress.", "Another vocalisation is the \" appeasement call \" , a soft quee given to inhibit aggression, usually given between birds of a mated pair.", "These vocalisations are not unique to the house sparrow, but are shared, with small variations, by all sparrows.", "An immature of the Indian subspecies (P.", "d. indicus) in Rajasthan, India Some variation is seen in the 12 subspecies of house sparrows, which are divided into two groups, the Oriental P. d. indicus group, and the Palaearctic P. d. domesticus group.", "Birds of the P. d. domesticus group have grey cheeks, while P. d. indicus group birds have white cheeks, as well as bright colouration on the crown, a smaller bill, and a longer black bib.", "The subspecies P. d. tingitanus differs little from the nominate subspecies, except in the worn breeding plumage of the male, in which the head is speckled with black and underparts are paler.", "P. d. balearoibericus is slightly paler than the nominate, but darker than P. d. bibilicus.", "P. d. bibilicus is paler than most subspecies, but has the grey cheeks of P. d. domesticus group birds.", "The similar P. d. persicus is paler and smaller, and P. d. niloticus is nearly identical but smaller.", "Of the less widespread P. d. indicus group subspecies, P. d. hyrcanus is larger than P. d. indicus, P. d. hufufae is paler, P. d. bactrianus is larger and paler, and P. d. parkini is larger and darker with more black on the breast than any other subspecies.", "The house sparrow can be confused with a number of other seed-eating birds, especially its relatives in the genus Passer.", "Many of these relatives are smaller, with an appearance that is neater or \" cuter \" , as with the Dead Sea sparrow.", "The dull-coloured female can often not be distinguished from other females, and is nearly identical to those of the Spanish and Italian sparrows.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow is smaller and slenderer with a chestnut crown and a black patch on each cheek.", "The male Spanish sparrow and Italian sparrow are distinguished by their chestnut crowns.", "The Sind sparrow is very similar but smaller, with less black on the male's throat and a distinct pale supercilium on the female.", "The house sparrow was among the first animals to be given a scientific name in the modern system of biological classification, since it was described by Carl Linnaeus, in the 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "It was described from a type specimen collected in Sweden, with the name Fringilla domestica.", "Later, the genus name Fringilla came to be used only for the common chaffinch and its relatives, and the house sparrow has usually been placed in the genus Passer created by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.", "The bird's scientific name and its usual English name have the same meaning.", "The Latin word passer, like the English word \" sparrow \" , is a term for small active birds, coming from a root word referring to speed.", "The Latin word domesticus means \" belonging to the house \" , like the common name a reference to its association with humans.", "The house sparrow is also called by a number of alternative English names, including English sparrow, chiefly in North America", "and Indian sparrow or Indian house sparrow, for the birds of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia.", "Dialectal names include sparr, sparrer, spadger, spadgick, and philip, mainly in southern England", "spug and spuggy, mainly in northern England", "spur and sprig, mainly in Scotland", "and spatzie or spotsie, from the German Spatz, in North America.", "A pair of Italian sparrows, in Rome The genus Passer contains about 25 species, depending on the authority, 26 according to the Handbook of the Birds of the World.", "Most Passer species are dull-coloured birds with short, square tails and stubby, conical beaks, between long.", "Mitochondrial DNA studies suggest that speciation in the genus occurred during the Pleistocene and earlier, while other evidence suggests speciation occurred 25,000 to 15,000 years ago.", "Within Passer, the house sparrow is part of the \" Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrows \" group and a close relative of the Mediterranean \" willow sparrows \" .", "The taxonomy of the house sparrow and its Mediterranean relatives is complicated.", "The common type of \" willow sparrow \" is the Spanish sparrow, which resembles the house sparrow in many respects.", "It frequently prefers wetter habitats than the house sparrow, and it is often colonial and nomadic.", "In most of the Mediterranean, one or both species occur, with some degree of hybridisation.", "In North Africa, the two species hybridise extensively, forming highly variable mixed populations with a full range of characters from pure house sparrows to pure Spanish sparrows.", "In most of Italy, the breeding species is the Italian sparrow, which has an appearance intermediate between those of the house and Spanish sparrows.", "Its specific status and origin are the subject of much debate, but it may be a case of long-ago hybrid speciation.", "In the Alps, the Italian sparrow intergrades over a narrow roughly strip with the house sparrow, and some house sparrows migrate into the Italian sparrow's range in winter.", "On the Mediterranean islands of Malta, Gozo, Crete, Rhodes, and Karpathos, other apparently intermediate birds are of unknown status.", "By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona House sparrows perching on a roof, during winter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa.", "Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America , Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world.", "It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.", "The extent of its range makes it the most widely distributed wild bird on the planet.", "The house sparrow has become highly successful in most parts of the world where it has been introduced.", "This is mostly due to its early adaptation to living with humans, and its adaptability to a wide range of conditions.", "Other factors may include its robust immune response, compared to the Eurasian tree sparrow.", "Where introduced, it can extend its range quickly, sometimes at a rate over per year.", "In many parts of the world, it has been characterised as a pest, and poses a threat to native birds.", "A few introductions have died out or been of limited success, such as those to Greenland and Cape Verde.", "intended to control the ravages of the linden moth.", "In North America, the house sparrow now occurs from the Northwest Territories of Canada to southern Panama, The house sparrow was first introduced to Australia in 1863 at Melbourne and is common throughout the eastern part of the continent as far north as Cape York, but has been prevented from establishing itself in Western Australia, where every house sparrow found in the state is killed.", "House sparrows were introduced in New Zealand in 1859, and from there reached many of the Pacific islands, including Hawaii.", "In southern Africa, birds of both the European subspecies (P.", "d. domesticus) and the Indian subspecies (P.", "d. indicus) were introduced around 1900.", "Birds of P. d. domesticus ancestry are confined to a few towns, while P. d. indicus birds have spread rapidly, reaching Tanzania in the 1980s.", "Despite this rapid spread, native relatives such as the Cape sparrow also occur and thrive in urban habitats.", "In South America, it was first introduced near Buenos Aires around 1870, and quickly became common in most of the southern part of the continent.", "It now occurs almost continuously from Tierra del Fuego to the fringes of the Amazon basin, with isolated populations as far north as coastal Venezuela.", "The house sparrow is closely associated with human habitation and cultivation.", "It is not an obligate commensal of humans as some have suggested: birds of the migratory Central Asian subspecies usually breed away from humans in open country, and birds elsewhere are occasionally found away from humans.", "The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra.", "Well adapted to living around humans, it frequently lives and even breeds indoors, especially in factories, warehouses, and zoos.", "It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night.", "It reaches its greatest densities in urban centres, but its reproductive success is greater in suburbs, where insects are more abundant.", "On a larger scale, it is most abundant in wheat-growing areas such as the Midwestern United States.", "It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates.", "It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries.", "In most of eastern Asia, the house sparrow is entirely absent, replaced by the Eurasian tree sparrow.", "Where these two species overlap, the house sparrow is usually more common than the Eurasian tree sparrow, but one species may replace the other in a manner that ornithologist Maud Doria Haviland described as \" random, or even capricious \" .", "In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty.", "The house sparrow is a very social bird.", "It is gregarious during all seasons when feeding, often forming flocks with other species of birds.", "It roosts communally and while breeding nests are usually grouped together in clumps.", "House sparrows also engage in social activities such as dust or water bathing and \" social singing \" , in which birds call together in bushes.", "The house sparrow feeds mostly on the ground, but it flocks in trees and bushes.", "At feeding stations and nests, female house sparrows are dominant despite their smaller size, and they can fight over males in the breeding season.", "House sparrows sleep with the bill tucked underneath the scapular feathers.", "Outside of the reproductive season, they often roost communally in trees or shrubs.", "Much communal chirping occurs before and after the birds settle in the roost in the evening, as well as before the birds leave the roost in the morning.", "Some congregating sites separate from the roost may be visited by the birds prior to settling in for the night.", "Dust or water bathing is common and often occurs in groups.", "Head scratching is done with the leg over the drooped wing.", "A female house sparrow feeding on rice grains As an adult, the house sparrow mostly feeds on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is opportunistic and adaptable, and eats whatever foods are available.", "In towns and cities, it often scavenges for food in garbage containers and congregates in the outdoors of restaurants and other eating establishments to feed on leftover food and crumbs.", "It can perform complex tasks to obtain food, such as opening automatic doors to enter supermarkets, clinging to hotel walls to watch vacationers on their balconies, and nectar robbing kowhai flowers.", "In common with many other birds, the house sparrow requires grit to digest the harder items in its diet.", "Grit can be either stone, often grains of masonry, or the shells of eggs or snails", "oblong and rough grains are preferred.", "Several studies of the house sparrow in temperate agricultural areas have found the proportion of seeds in its diet to be about 90%.", "It will eat almost any seeds, but where it has a choice, it prefers corn, oats, and wheat.", "Rural birds tend to eat more waste seed from animal dung and seed from fields.", "In urban areas, the house sparrow feeds largely on food provided directly or indirectly by humans, such as bread, though it prefers raw seeds.", "The house sparrow also eats some plant matter besides seeds, including buds, berries, and fruits such as grapes and cherries.", "In temperate areas, the house sparrow has an unusual habit of tearing flowers, especially yellow ones, in the spring.", "Animals form another important part of the house sparrow's diet, chiefly insects, of which beetles, caterpillars, dipteran flies, and aphids are especially important.", "Various noninsect arthropods are eaten, as are molluscs and crustaceans where available, earthworms, and even vertebrates such as lizards and frogs.", "Young house sparrows are fed mostly on insects until about 15 days after hatching.", "They are also given small quantities of seeds, spiders, and grit.", "In most places, grasshoppers and crickets are the most abundant foods of nestlings.", "True bugs, ants, sawflies, and beetles are also important, but house sparrows take advantage of whatever foods are abundant to feed their young.", "House sparrows have been observed stealing prey from other birds, including American robins.", "The gut microbiota of house sparrows differs between chicks and adults, with Pseudomonadota decreasing in chicks when they get to around 9 days old, whilst the relative abundance of Bacillota increase.", "The house sparrow's flight is direct and flapping, averaging and about 15 wingbeats per second.", "On the ground, the house sparrow typically hops rather than walks.", "It can swim when pressed to do so by pursuit from predators.", "Captive birds have been recorded diving and swimming short distances under water.", "Most house sparrows do not move more than a few kilometres during their lifetimes.", "However, limited migration occurs in all regions.", "Some young birds disperse long distances, especially on coasts, and mountain birds move to lower elevations in winter.", "Two subspecies, P. d. bactrianus and P. d. parkini, are predominantly migratory.", "Unlike the birds in sedentary populations that migrate, birds of migratory subspecies prepare for migration by putting on weight.", "A pair of the Indian subspecies (P.", "d. indicus) mating in Kolkata House sparrows can breed in the breeding season immediately following their hatching, and sometimes attempt to do so.", "Some birds breeding for the first time in tropical areas are only a few months old and still have juvenile plumage.", "Birds breeding for the first time are rarely successful in raising young, and reproductive success increases with age, as older birds breed earlier in the breeding season, and fledge more young.", "As the breeding season approaches, hormone releases trigger enormous increases in the size of the sexual organs and changes in day length lead males to start calling by nesting sites.", "The timing of mating and egg-laying varies geographically, and between specific locations and years because a sufficient supply of insects is needed for egg formation and feeding nestlings.", "Males take up nesting sites before the breeding season, by frequently calling beside them.", "Unmated males start nest construction and call particularly frequently to attract females.", "When a female approaches a male during this period, the male displays by moving up and down while drooping and shivering his wings, pushing up his head, raising and spreading his tail, and showing his bib.", "Males may try to mate with females while calling or displaying.", "In response, a female will adopt a threatening posture and attack a male before flying away, pursued by the male.", "The male displays in front of her, attracting other males, which also pursue and display to the female.", "This group display usually does not immediately result in copulations.", "Other males usually do not copulate with the female.", "Copulation is typically initiated by the female giving a soft dee-dee-dee call to the male.", "Birds of a pair copulate frequently until the female is laying eggs, and the male mounts the female repeatedly each time a pair mates.", "The house sparrow is monogamous, and typically mates for life, but birds from pairs often engage in extra-pair copulations, so about 15% of house sparrow fledglings are unrelated to their mother's mate.", "Males guard their mates carefully to avoid being cuckolded, and most extra-pair copulation occurs away from nest sites.", "Males may sometimes have multiple mates, and bigamy is mostly limited by aggression between females.", "Many birds do not find a nest and a mate, and instead may serve as helpers around the nest for mated pairs, a role which increases the chances of being chosen to replace a lost mate.", "Lost mates of both sexes can be replaced quickly during the breeding season.", "The formation of a pair and the bond between the two birds is tied to the holding of a nest site, though paired house sparrows can recognise each other away from the nest.", "In adult house sparrows, annual survival is 4565%.", "After fledging and leaving the care of their parents, young sparrows have a high mortality rate, which lessens as they grow older and more experienced.", "Only about 2025% of birds hatched survive to their first breeding season.", "The oldest known wild house sparrow lived for nearly two decades", "it was found dead 19 years and 9 months after it was ringed in Denmark.", "The oldest recorded captive house sparrow lived for 23 years.", "The typical ratio of males to females in a population is uncertain due to problems in collecting data, but a very slight preponderance of males at all ages is usual.", "A male sparrow being eaten by a cat: Domestic cats are one of the main predators of the house sparrow.", "The house sparrow's main predators are cats and birds of prey, but many other animals prey on them, including corvids, squirrels, and even humansthe house sparrow has been consumed in the past by people in many parts of the world, and it still is in parts of the Mediterranean.", "Most species of birds of prey have been recorded preying on the house sparrow in places where records are extensive.", "Accipiters and the merlin in particular are major predators, though cats are likely to have a greater impact on house sparrow populations.", "The house sparrow is also a common victim of roadkill", "on European roads, it is the bird most frequently found dead.", "The house sparrow is host to a huge number of parasites and diseases, and the effect of most is unknown.", "Ornithologist Ted R. Anderson listed thousands, noting that his list was incomplete.", "The commonly recorded bacterial pathogens of the house sparrow are often those common in humans, and include Salmonella and Escherichia coli.", "Salmonella is common in the house sparrow, and a comprehensive study of house sparrow disease found it in 13% of sparrows tested.", "Salmonella epidemics in the spring and winter can kill large numbers of sparrows.", "The house sparrow hosts avian pox and avian malaria, which it has spread to the native forest birds of Hawaii.", "Many of the diseases hosted by the house sparrow are also present in humans and domestic animals, for which the house sparrow acts as a reservoir host.", "Arboviruses such as the West Nile virus, which most commonly infect insects and mammals, survive winters in temperate areas by going dormant in birds such as the house sparrow.", "A few records indicate disease extirpating house sparrow populations, especially from Scottish islands, but this seems to be rare.", "House sparrows are also infected by haemosporidian parasites, but less so in urban than in rural areas Toxoplasma gondii has been detected in sparrows in northwestern China where they pose a risk due to their meat being consumed in the region.", "The house sparrow is infested by a number of external parasites, which usually cause little harm to adult sparrows.", "In Europe, the most common mite found on sparrows is Proctophyllodes, the most common ticks are Argas reflexus and Ixodes arboricola, and the most common flea on the house sparrow is Ceratophyllus gallinae.", "Dermanyssus blood-feeding mites are also common ectoparasites of house sparrows, and these mites can enter human habitation and bite humans, causing a condition known as gamasoidosis.", "A number of chewing lice occupy different niches on the house sparrow's body.", "Menacanthus lice occur across the house sparrow's body, where they feed on blood and feathers, while Brueelia lice feed on feathers and Philopterus fringillae occurs on the head.", "An immature house sparrow sleeping House sparrows express strong circadian rhythms of activity in the laboratory.", "They were among the first bird species to be seriously studied in terms of their circadian activity and photoperiodism, in part because of their availability and adaptability in captivity, but also because they can \" find their way \" and remain rhythmic in constant darkness.", "Such studies have found that the pineal gland is a central part of the house sparrow's circadian system: removal of the pineal eliminates the circadian rhythm of activity, and transplant of the pineal into another individual confers to this individual the rhythm phase of the donor bird.", "The suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus have also been shown to be an important component of the circadian system of house sparrows.", "The photoreceptors involved in the synchronisation of the circadian clock to the external light-dark cycle are located in the brain and can be stimulated by light reaching them directly though the skull, as revealed by experiments in which blind sparrows, which normally can still synchronise to the light-dark cycle, failed to do so once India ink was injected as a screen under the skin on top of their skulls.", "Similarly, even when blind, house sparrows continue to be photoperiodic, i.e. show reproductive development when the days are long, but not when the days are short.", "This response is stronger when the feathers on top of the head are plucked, and is eliminated when India ink is injected under the skin at the top of the head, showing that the photoreceptors involved in the photoperiodic response to day length are located inside the brain.", "House sparrows have also been used in studies of nonphotic entrainment : for example, in constant darkness, a situation in which the birds would normally reveal their endogenous, non-24-hour, \" free-running \" rhythms of activity, they instead show 24-hour periodicity if they are exposed to two hours of chirp playbacks every 24 hours, matching their daily activity onsets with the daily playback onsets.", "House sparrows in constant dim light can also be entrained to a daily cycle based on the presence of food.", "Finally, house sparrows in constant darkness could be entrained to a cycle of high and low temperature, but only if the difference in temperature was large ", "some of the tested sparrows matched their activity to the warm phase, and others to the cold phase.", "Flocking and chirping together beneath a fluorescent tube light in Germany The house sparrow is closely associated with humans.", "They are believed to have become associated with humans around 10,000 years ago.", "d. bactrianus) is least associated with humans and considered to be evolutionarily closer to the ancestral noncommensal populations.", "Usually, the house sparrow is regarded as a pest, since it consumes agricultural products and spreads disease to humans and their domestic animals.", "Even birdwatchers often hold it in little regard because of its molestation of other birds.", "However, the house sparrow can be beneficial to humans, as well, especially by eating insect pests, and attempts at the large-scale control of the house sparrow have failed.", "The house sparrow has long been used as a food item.", "From around 1560 to at least the 19th century in northern Europe, earthenware \" sparrow pots \" were hung from eaves to attract nesting birds so the young could be readily harvested.", "Wild birds were trapped in nets in large numbers, and sparrow pie was a traditional dish, thought, because of the association of sparrows with lechery, to have aphrodisiac properties.", "A traditional Indian medicine, Cittukkuruvi lekiyam in Tamil, was sold with similar aphrodisiac claims.", "Sparrows were also trapped as food for falconers' birds and zoo animals.", "During the 1870s, there were debates on the damaging effects of sparrows in the House of Commons in England.", "In the early part of the 20th century, sparrow clubs culled many millions of birds and eggs in an attempt to control numbers of this perceived pest, but with only a localised impact on numbers.", "House sparrows have been kept as pets at many times in history, though they have no bright plumage or attractive songs, and raising them is difficult.", "The house sparrow has an extremely large range and population, so it is assessed as least concern for conservation on the IUCN Red List.", "The IUCN estimates for the global population runs up to nearly 1.4 billion individuals, second among all birds perhaps only to the red-billed quelea in abundance .", "However, populations have been declining in many parts of the world, especially near its Eurasian places of origin.", "These declines were first noticed in North America, where they were initially attributed to the spread of the house finch, but have been most severe in Western Europe.", "Declines have not been universal, as no serious declines have been reported from Eastern Europe, but have even occurred in Australia, where the house sparrow was introduced recently.", "In Great Britain, populations peaked in the early 1970s, but have since declined by 68% overall, and about 90% in some regions.", "The RSPB lists the house sparrow's UK conservation status as red.", "In London, the house sparrow almost disappeared from the central city.", "The numbers of house sparrows in the Netherlands have dropped in half since the 1980s, so the house sparrow is even considered an endangered species.", "This status came to widespread attention after a female house sparrow, referred to as the \" Dominomus \" , was killed after knocking down dominoes arranged as part of an attempt to set a world record.", "These declines are not unprecedented, as similar reductions in population occurred when the internal combustion engine replaced horses in the 1920s and a major source of food in the form of grain spillage was lost.", "Declines have been particularly apparent even in North America, where the house sparrow is invasive in some states.", "Introduced to Philadelphia initially in 1852 the house sparrow rapidly spread across the nation.", "However, the bird has largely disappeared from the city nowadays and overall, it is estimated to have declined in North America by 84% since 1966.", "In South Asia, the house sparrow has largely vanished from major cities such as Karachi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Lahore.", "Various causes for the dramatic decreases in population have been proposed, including predation, in particular by Eurasian sparrowhawks", "electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones", "and diseases A primary cause of the decline seems to be an insufficient supply of insect food for nestling sparrows.", "Declines in insect populations result from an increase of monoculture crops, the heavy use of pesticides, the replacement of native plants in cities with introduced plants and parking areas, and possibly the introduction of unleaded petrol, which produces toxic compounds such as methyl nitrite.", "Protecting insect habitats on farms and planting native plants in cities benefit the house sparrow, as does establishing urban green spaces.", "To raise awareness of threats to the house sparrow, World Sparrow Day has been celebrated on 20 March across the world since 2010.", "Over the recent years, the house sparrow population has been on the decline in many Asian countries, and this decline is quite evident in India.", "To promote the conservation of these birds, in 2012, the house sparrow was declared as the state bird of Delhi.", "To many people across the world, the house sparrow is the most familiar wild animal and, because of its association with humans and familiarity, it is frequently used to represent the common and vulgar, or the lewd.", "One of the reasons for the introduction of house sparrows throughout the world was their association with the European homeland of many immigrants.", "Birds usually described later as sparrows are referred to in many works of ancient literature and religious texts in Europe and western Asia.", "These references may not always refer specifically to the house sparrow, or even to small, seed-eating birds, but later writers who were inspired by these texts often had the house sparrow in mind.", "In particular, sparrows were associated by the ancient Greeks with Aphrodite, the goddess of love, due to their perceived lustfulness, an association echoed by later writers such as Chaucer and Shakespeare.", "Jesus's use of \" sparrows \" as an example of divine providence in the Gospel of Matthew also inspired later references, such as that in Shakespeare's Hamlet and the Gospel hymn His Eye Is on the Sparrow.", "\" The house sparrow is very rarely represented in ancient Egyptian art, but an Egyptian hieroglyph is based on it.", "The sparrow hieroglyph had no phonetic value and was used as a determinative in words to indicate small, narrow, or bad.", "An alternative view is that the hieroglyph meant \" a prolific man \" or \" the revolution of a year \" ."]}, "Cymbalaria muralis": {"keywords": ["Cymbalaria muralis, commonly called ivy-leaved toadflax or Kenilworth ivy, is a low, spreading, viney plant with small purple flowers, native to southern Europe.", "The flower stalk is unusual for seeking light until it is fertilized, after which it grows away from the light.", "It spreads quickly, growing up to tall it commonly grows in rock and wall crevices, and along footpaths.", "Epiphytic upon the trunk of a palm tree, Auckland, NZCymbalaria muralis is native to Mediterranean climates in south and southwest Europe, the Southern Alps, eastern Yugoslavia, southern Italy and Sicily."], "habitat_section": ["It spreads quickly, growing up to tall it commonly grows in rock and wall crevices, and along footpaths.", "The leaves are evergreen, rounded to heart-shaped, long and wide, 37-lobed, alternating on thin stems.", "The flowers are very small but distinctly spurred, similar in shape to snapdragon flowers.", "Flowers from May to September.", "Cymbalaria muralis - Leaf.", "Cymbalaria muralis - flower.", "Cymbalaria muralis - fruits.", "Fruits Epiphytic upon the trunk of a palm tree, Auckland, NZCymbalaria muralis is native to Mediterranean climates in south and southwest Europe, the Southern Alps, eastern Yugoslavia, southern Italy and Sicily.", "It has spread throughout the world as an invasive plant, including the United States, the British Isles, Australia and New Zealand.", "It is said to have been introduced into England by accident when a shipment of sculptures was brought to Oxford.", "It was first introduced early in the 17th century and was widely planted in the UK up to the 19th century."], "random_sentences": ["Cymbalaria muralis, commonly called ivy-leaved toadflax or Kenilworth ivy, is a low, spreading, viney plant with small purple flowers, native to southern Europe.", "It belongs to the plantain family , and is introduced in North America, Australia, and elsewhere.", "The flower stalk is unusual for seeking light until it is fertilized, after which it grows away from the light.", "Other names include coliseum ivy, Oxford ivy, mother of thousands, pennywort, and wandering sailor.", "It spreads quickly, growing up to tall it commonly grows in rock and wall crevices, and along footpaths.", "The leaves are evergreen, rounded to heart-shaped, long and wide, 37-lobed, alternating on thin stems.", "The flowers are very small but distinctly spurred, similar in shape to snapdragon flowers.", "Flowers from May to September.", "Epiphytic upon the trunk of a palm tree, Auckland, NZCymbalaria muralis is native to Mediterranean climates in south and southwest Europe, the Southern Alps, eastern Yugoslavia, southern Italy and Sicily.", "It has spread throughout the world as an invasive plant, including the United States, the British Isles, Australia and New Zealand.", "It is said to have been introduced into England by accident when a shipment of sculptures was brought to Oxford.", "It was first introduced early in the 17th century and was widely planted in the UK up to the 19th century.", "This plant has an unusual method of propagation.", "The flower stalk is initially positively phototropic and moves towards the light.", "After fertilisation, it becomes negatively phototropic and moves away from the light.", "This results in seed being pushed into dark crevices of rock walls, where it is more likely to germinate."]}, "Fringilla coelebs": {"keywords": ["The chaffinch breeds in much of Europe, across the Palearctic to Siberia and in northwestern Africa.", "Outside the breeding season, chaffinches form flocks in open countryside and forage for seeds on the ground.", "During the breeding season, they forage on trees for invertebrates, especially caterpillars, and feed these to their young.", "They are partial migrants, birds breeding in warmer regions are sedentary, while those breeding in the colder northern areas of their range winter further south.", "The ends of the feathers wear away over the winter so that by the spring breeding season the underlying brighter colours are displayed.", "The males of F. c. canariensis and F. c. palmae in the Canary Islands have deep slate-blue upperparts and lack a contrasting mantle.", "The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia.", "There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.", "The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century.", "In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species.", "In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.", "This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter.", "The date for breeding is dependent on the spring temperature and is earlier in southwest Europe and later in the northeast.", "The outside is covered with a layer of lichen and spider silk over an inner layer of moss and grass.", "Outside the breeding season, common chaffinches mainly eat seeds and other plant material that they find on the ground.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain.", "The endemic subspecies on the Macaronesian islands in the Atlantic are vulnerable to the loss of habitat, especially F. c. ombriosa on El Hierro in the Canary Islands, where the breeding population is between 1,000 and 5,000 pairs.", "\" In Great Britain, the practice of keeping common chaffinches as pets declined after the trapping of wild birds was outlawed by the Wild Birds Protection Acts of 1880 to 1896."], "habitat_section": ["The common chaffinch breeds in wooded areas where the July isotherm is between .", "The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia.", "There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.", "The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century.", "In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species.", "In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.", "This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter.", "It forms loose flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with bramblings.", "It occasionally strays to eastern North America, although some sightings may be escapees."], "random_sentences": ["ID composite The common chaffinch or simply the chaffinch is a common and widespread small passerine bird in the finch family.", "The male is brightly coloured with a blue-grey cap and rust-red underparts.", "The female is more subdued in colouring, but both sexes have two contrasting white wing bars and white sides to the tail.", "The male bird has a strong voice and sings from exposed perches to attract a mate.", "The chaffinch breeds in much of Europe, across the Palearctic to Siberia and in northwestern Africa.", "The female builds a nest with a deep cup in the fork of a tree.", "The clutch is typically four or five eggs, which hatch in about 13 days.", "The chicks fledge in around 14 days, but are fed by both adults for several weeks after leaving the nest.", "Outside the breeding season, chaffinches form flocks in open countryside and forage for seeds on the ground.", "During the breeding season, they forage on trees for invertebrates, especially caterpillars, and feed these to their young.", "birds breeding in warmer regions are sedentary, while those breeding in the colder northern areas of their range winter further south.", "The eggs and nestlings of the chaffinch are taken by a variety of mammalian and avian predators.", "Its large numbers and huge range mean that chaffinches are classed as of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.", "The common chaffinch was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name.", "Fringilla is the Latin word for finch, while caelebs means unmarried or single.", "Linnaeus remarked that during the Swedish winter, only the female birds migrated south through Belgium to Italy.", "The name spink is probably derived from the bird's call note.", "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 .", "The common chaffinch is about long, with a wingspan of and a weight of .", "The adult male of the nominate subspecies has a black forehead and a blue-grey crown, nape and upper mantle.", "The rump is a light olive-green", "the lower mantle and scapulars form a brown saddle.", "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.", "The flight feathers are black with white on the basal portions of the vanes.", "The secondaries and inner primaries have pale yellow fringes on the outer web whereas the outer primaries have a white outer edge.", "After the autumn moult, the tips of the new feathers have a buff fringe that adds a brown cast to the coloured plumage.", "The ends of the feathers wear away over the winter so that by the spring breeding season the underlying brighter colours are displayed.", "The eyes have dark brown irises and the legs are grey-brown.", "In winter the bill is a pale grey and slightly darker along the upper ridge or culmen, but in spring the bill becomes bluish-grey with a small black tip.", "The male of the subspecies resident in the British Isles (F.", "c. gengleri) closely resembles the nominate subspecies, but has a slightly darker mantle and underparts.", "The males of the two North African subspecies F. c. africana and F. c. spodiogenys have a blue-grey crown and nape that extends down to the sides of the head and neck, a black forehead and lore, a broken white eye-ring, a bright olive-green saddle and a pink-buff throat and breast.", "The males of F. c. canariensis and F. c. palmae in the Canary Islands have deep slate-blue upperparts and lack a contrasting mantle.", "Male chaffinches in Madeira (F.", "c. maderensis) and the Azores (F.", "c. moreletti) are similar in appearance to F. c. canariensis, but have a bright green mantle.", "The adult female is much duller in appearance than the male.", "The head and most of the upperparts are shades of grey-brown.", "The lower back and rump are a dull olive green.", "The wings and tail are similar to those of the male.", "The juvenile resembles the female.", "Males typically sing two or three different song types, and there are regional dialects also.", "The acquisition by the young common chaffinch of its song was the subject of an influential study by British ethologist William Thorpe.", "Thorpe determined that if the young common chaffinch is not exposed to the adult male's song during a certain critical period after hatching, it will never properly learn the song.", "He also found that in adult common chaffinches, castration eliminates the song, but injection of testosterone induces such birds to sing even in November, when they are normally silent.", "The common chaffinch breeds in wooded areas where the July isotherm is between .", "The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia.", "There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.", "The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century.", "In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species.", "In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.", "This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter.", "It forms loose flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with bramblings.", "It occasionally strays to eastern North America, although some sightings may be escapees.", "Nest of a chaffinch Eggs of Fringilla coelebs moreletti", "Common chaffinches first breed when they are 1 year old.", "They are mainly monogamous and the pair-bond for residential subspecies such as gengleri sometimes persists from one year to the next.", "The date for breeding is dependent on the spring temperature and is earlier in southwest Europe and later in the northeast.", "In Great Britain, most clutches are laid between late April and the middle of June.", "A male attracts a female to his territory through song.", " Nests are built entirely by the female and are usually located in the fork of a bush or a tree several metres above the ground.", "The nest has a deep cup and is lined with a layer of thin roots and feathers.", "The outside is covered with a layer of lichen and spider silk over an inner layer of moss and grass.", "The eggs are laid in early morning at daily intervals until the clutch is complete.", "The clutch is typically 45 eggs, which are smooth and slightly glossy, but very variable in colour.", "They range from pale-blueish green to light red with purple-brown blotches, spots or steaks.", "The average size of an egg is with a weight of .", "The eggs are incubated for 1016 days by the female.", "The chicks are altricial, hatching nearly naked with closed eyes, and are fed by both parents but mainly by the female, who broods them for around six days.", "They are mainly fed caterpillars.", "The nestlings fledge 1118 days after hatching and disperse.", "The young birds are then assisted with feeding by both parents for a further three weeks.", "The parents only very rarely start a second brood, but when they do so it is always in a new nest.", "Juveniles undergo a partial moult at around five weeks of age in which they replace their head, body and many of their covert feathers, but not their primary and secondary flight feathers.", "After breeding adult birds undergo a complete annual moult which lasts around ten weeks.", "In a study carried out in Britain using ring-recovery data, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 53 per cent, and the adult annual survival rate was 59 per cent.", "From these figures the typical lifespan is only 3 years, but the maximum age recorded is 15 years and 6 months for a bird in Switzerland.", "Outside the breeding season, common chaffinches mainly eat seeds and other plant material that they find on the ground.", "They often forage in open country in large flocks.", "Common chaffinches seldom take food directly from plants and only very rarely use their feet for handling food.", "During the breeding season, their diet switches to invertebrates, especially defoliating caterpillars.", "They forage in trees and also occasionally make short sallies to catch insects in the air.", "The young are entirely fed with invertebrates which include caterpillars, aphids, earwigs, spiders and grubs .", "The eggs and nestlings of the common chaffinch are predated by crows, Eurasian red and eastern grey squirrels, domestic cats and probably also by stoats and weasels.", "Clutches begun later in the spring suffer less predation, an effect that is believed to be due to the increased vegetation making nests more difficult to find.", " Unlike the case for the closely related brambling, the common chaffinch is not parasitised by the common cuckoo.", "The protozoal parasite Trichomonas gallinae was known to infect pigeons and raptors, but beginning in Great Britain in 2005, carcasses of dead European greenfinches and common chaffinches were found to be infected with the parasite.", "The disease spread and in 2008, infected carcasses were found in Norway, Sweden and Finland and a year later in Germany.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain.", "In Great Britain, the number of infected carcasses recovered each year declined after a peak in 2006.", "There was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches but no significant decline in the overall number of common chaffinches.", "A similar pattern occurred in Finland where, after the arrival of the disease in 2008, there was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches, but only a small change in the number of common chaffinches.", "Common chaffinches can develop tumors on their feet and legs caused by the Fringilla coelebs papillomavirus.", "The size of the papillomas range from a small nodule on a digit to a large growth involving both the foot and the leg.", "The disease is uncommon: in a 1973 study undertaken in the Netherlands, of around 25,000 common chaffinches screened, only 330 bore papillomas.", "The common chaffinch has an extensive range, estimated at 7 million square kilometres and a large population including an estimated 130240 million breeding pairs in Europe.", "Allowing for the birds breeding in Asia, the total population lies between 530 and 1,400 million individuals.", "There is no evidence of any serious overall decline in numbers, so the species is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of Least Concern.", "The endemic subspecies on the Macaronesian islands in the Atlantic are vulnerable to the loss of habitat, especially F. c. ombriosa on El Hierro in the Canary Islands, where the breeding population is between 1,000 and 5,000 pairs.", "A captive male chaffinch The common chaffinch was once popular as a caged songbird and large numbers of wild birds were trapped and sold.", "At the end of the 19th century, trapping even depleted the number of birds in London parks.", "In 1882, the English publisher Samuel Orchart Beeton issued a guide on the care of caged birds and included the recommendation: \" To parents and guardians plagued with a morose and sulky boy, my advice is, buy him a chaffinch.", "\" In Great Britain, the practice of keeping common chaffinches as pets declined after the trapping of wild birds was outlawed by the Wild Birds Protection Acts of 1880 to 1896.", "The common chaffinch is still a popular pet bird in some European countries.", "In Belgium, the traditional sport of vinkenzetting pits male common chaffinches against one another in a contest for the most bird calls in an hour."]}, "Coloeus monedula": {"keywords": ["Found across Europe, western Asia and North Africa, it is mostly resident, although northern and eastern populations migrate south in the winter.", "It is gregarious and vocal, living in small groups with a complex social structure in farmland, open woodland, on coastal cliffs, and in urban settings.", "Western jackdaws are monogamous and build simple nests of sticks in cavities in trees, cliffs, or buildings.", "Body colour becomes darker further north, in mountain regions and humid climates, and paler elsewhere.", "The western jackdaw is found from Northwest Africa through all of Europe, except for the subarctic north, and eastwards through central Asia to the eastern Himalayas and Lake Baikal. To the east, it occurs throughout Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwestern India.", "A western jackdaw on Inisheer, Ireland Most populations are resident, but the northern and eastern populations are more migratory, Their range expands northwards into Russia to Siberia during summer and retracts in winter.", "They are vagrants to the Faroe Islands, particularly in the winter and spring, and occasionally to Iceland.", "Elsewhere, western jackdaws congregate over winter in the Ural Valley in northwestern Kazakhstan, the northern Caspian, and the Tian Shan region of western China.", "A small number of western jackdaws reached northeastern North America in the 1980s and have been found from Atlantic Canada to Pennsylvania.", "Western jackdaws inhabit wooded steppes, pastures, cultivated land, coastal cliffs, and towns.", "They thrive when forested areas are cleared and converted to fields and open areas.", "Habitats with a mix of large trees, buildings, and open ground are preferred, open fields are left to the rook, and more wooded areas to the Eurasian jay .", "Along with other corvids such as the rook, common raven , and hooded crow , some western jackdaws spend the winter in urban parks, populations measured in three urban parks in Warsaw show increases from October to December, possibly due to western jackdaws migrating there from areas further north.", "The cause of the increase is unknown, but a reduction in the number of rooks may have benefited the species locally, or rooks overwintering in Belarus may have caused western jackdaws to relocate to Warsaw.", "They nest in cavities in trees or cliffs, in ruined or occupied buildings and in chimneys, the common feature being a sheltered site for the nest.", "Foraging takes place mostly on the ground in open areas and to some extent in trees.", "Landfill sites, bins, streets, and gardens are also visited, more often early in the morning when there are fewer people about.", "Earthworms are not usually extracted from the ground by western jackdaws but are eaten from freshly ploughed soil.", "Vegetable items consumed include farm grains , weed seeds, elderberries, acorns, and various cultivated fruits.", "Examination of the gizzards of western jackdaws shot in Cyprus in spring and summer revealed a diet of cereals and insects .", "A study in southern Spain examining western jackdaw pellets found that they contained significant amounts of silicaceous and calcareous grit to aid digestion of vegetable food and supply dietary calcium.", "They have been recorded taking eggs and nestlings from the nests of the skylark , Manx shearwater , razorbill , common murre , grey heron , rock pigeon , and Eurasian collared dove .", "After a series of poor harvests in the early 1500s, introduced a Vermin Act in 1532 \" ordeyned to dystroye Choughes , Crowes and Rokes \" to protect grain crops from their predations.", "The species was hunted for its threat to grain crops and for propensity for nesting in belfries until the mid-20th century."], "habitat_section": ["The western jackdaw is found from Northwest Africa through all of Europe, except for the subarctic north, and eastwards through central Asia to the eastern Himalayas and Lake Baikal. To the east, it occurs throughout Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwestern India.", "However, it is regionally extinct in Malta and Tunisia.", "The range is vast, with an estimated global extent between .", "It has a large global population, with an estimated 15.6 to 45 million individuals in Europe alone.", "Censuses of bird populations in marginal uplands in Great Britain show that western jackdaws greatly increased in numbers between the 1970s and 2010, although this increase may be related to recovery from previous periods when they were regarded as pests.", "The UK population was estimated at 2.5 million individuals in 1998, up from 780,000 in 1970.", "A western jackdaw on Inisheer, Ireland Most populations are resident, but the northern and eastern populations are more migratory, Their range expands northwards into Russia to Siberia during summer and retracts in winter.", "They are vagrants to the Faroe Islands, particularly in the winter and spring, and occasionally to Iceland.", "Elsewhere, western jackdaws congregate over winter in the Ural Valley in northwestern Kazakhstan, the northern Caspian, and the Tian Shan region of western China.", "They are winter visitors to the Quetta Valley in western Pakistan, and are winter vagrants to Lebanon, where they were first recorded in 1962.", "In Syria, they are winter vagrants and rare residents with some confirmed breeding taking place.", "The subspecies soemmerringii occurs in south-central Siberia and extreme northwestern China and is accidental to Hokkaido, Japan.", "A small number of western jackdaws reached northeastern North America in the 1980s and have been found from Atlantic Canada to Pennsylvania.", "They have also occurred as vagrants in Gibraltar, Mauritania, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and one is reported to have been seen in Egypt.", "Western jackdaws inhabit wooded steppes, pastures, cultivated land, coastal cliffs, and towns.", "They thrive when forested areas are cleared and converted to fields and open areas.", "Habitats with a mix of large trees, buildings, and open ground are preferred, open fields are left to the rook, and more wooded areas to the Eurasian jay .", "Along with other corvids such as the rook, common raven , and hooded crow , some western jackdaws spend the winter in urban parks, populations measured in three urban parks in Warsaw show increases from October to December, possibly due to western jackdaws migrating there from areas further north.", "The same data from Warsaw, collected from 1977 to 2003, showed that the wintering western jackdaw population had increased four-fold.", "The cause of the increase is unknown, but a reduction in the number of rooks may have benefited the species locally, or rooks overwintering in Belarus may have caused western jackdaws to relocate to Warsaw."], "random_sentences": ["Adult Juvenile The western jackdaw , also known as the Eurasian jackdaw, the European jackdaw, or simply the jackdaw, is a passerine bird in the crow family.", "Found across Europe, western Asia and North Africa", "it is mostly resident, although northern and eastern populations migrate south in the winter.", "Four subspecies are recognised, which differ mainly in the colouration of the plumage on the head and nape.", "Linnaeus first described it formally, giving it the name Corvus monedula.", "The common name derives from the word jack, denoting \" small \" , and daw, a less common synonym for \" jackdaw \" , and the native English name for the bird.", "Measuring in length, the western jackdaw is a black-plumaged bird with a grey nape and distinctive pale-grey irises.", "It is gregarious and vocal, living in small groups with a complex social structure in farmland, open woodland, on coastal cliffs, and in urban settings.", "Like its relatives, jackdaws are intelligent birds, and have been observed using tools.", "An omnivorous and opportunistic feeder, it eats a wide variety of plant material and invertebrates, as well as food waste from urban areas.", "Western jackdaws are monogamous and build simple nests of sticks in cavities in trees, cliffs, or buildings.", "About five pale blue or blue-green eggs with brown speckles are laid and incubated by the female.", "The young fledge in four to five weeks.", "The western jackdaw was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th century work Systema Naturae.", "Owing to its supposed fondness for picking up coins, Linnaeus gave it the binomial name Corvus monedula, choosing the specific name monedula, which is derived from moneta, the Latin stem of the word \" money \" .", "Jackdaws are sometimes placed in the genus Coloeus, from the Ancient Greek for jackdaw, though most subsequent works have retained the two jackdaw species in Corvus.", "The original Old English words ceo and ceahhe gave modern English \" chough \"", "Chaucer sometimes used this word to refer to the western jackdaw, The common name jackdaw first appeared in the 16th century, and is thought to be a compound of the forename Jack, used in animal names to signify a small form , and the archaic native English word daw.", "Formerly, western jackdaws were simply called \" daws \" .", "The metallic chyak call may be the origin of the jack part of the common name, but this is not supported by the Oxford English Dictionary.", "Daw, first used for the bird in the 15th century, is held by the Oxford English Dictionary to be derived from the postulated Old English dawe, citing the cognates in Old High German taha, Middle High German tahe or tachele, and modern German Dahle or Dohle, and dialectal Tach, Dahi, Dache and Dacha.", "Names in English dialects are numerous.", "Scottish and north English dialects have included ka or kae since the 14th century.", "The Midlands form of this word was co or coo.", "Caddow is potentially a compound of ka and dow, a variant of daw.", "Other dialectal or obsolete names include caddesse, cawdaw, caddy, chauk, college-bird .", " , jackerdaw, jacko, ka-wattie, chimney-sweep bird , and sea-crow .", "It was also frequently known quasi-nominally as Jack.", "An archaic collective noun for a group of jackdaws is a \" clattering \" .", "Another name for a flock is a \" train \" .", "A study in 2000 found that the genetic distance between western jackdaws and the other members of Corvus was greater than that within the rest of the genus.", "This led Pamela Rasmussen to reinstate the genus name Coloeus, created by Johann Kaup in 1829, in her Birds of South Asia , a treatment also used in a 1982 systematic list in German by Hans Edmund Wolters.", "A study of corvid phylogeny undertaken in 2007 compared DNA sequences in the mitochondrial control region of several corvids.", "It found that the western jackdaw, and the closely related Daurian jackdaw (C.", "dauuricus) of eastern Russia and China, were basal to the core Corvus clade.", "Adult C. m. spermologus, showing the rictal bristles cover much of the bill.", "Juvenile C. m. spermologus, Newcastle upon Tyne, England.", "Partially leucistic individual with white feathers in Naantali cemetery, Naantali, Finland The western jackdaw measures in length and weighs around .", "Most of the plumage is a shiny black, with a purple or blue sheen on the crown, forehead, and secondaries, and a green-blue sheen on the throat, primaries, and tail.", "The cheeks, nape and neck are light grey to greyish-silver, and the underparts are slate-grey.", "The legs are black, as is the short stout bill, Western jackdaws undergo a complete moult from June to September in the western parts of their range, and a month later in the east.", "The purplish sheen of the cap is most prominent just after moulting.", "Immature birds have duller and less demarcated plumage.", "The head is a sooty black, sometimes with a faint greenish sheen and brown feather bases visible", "the back and side of the neck are dark grey and the underparts greyish or sooty black.", "The tail has narrower feathers and a greenish sheen.", "There is very little geographic variation in size.", "The main differences are the presence or absence of a whitish partial collar at the base of the nape, the variations in the shade of the nape and the tone of the underparts.", "Populations in central Asia have slightly larger wings and western populations have a slightly heavier bill.", "Body colour becomes darker further north, in mountain regions and humid climates, and paler elsewhere.", "However, individual variation, particularly in juveniles and also during the months before moulting, can often be greater than geographic differences.", " A skilled flyer, the western jackdaw can manoeuvre tightly as well as tumble and glide.", "It has characteristic jerky wing beats when flying, though these are not evident when birds are migrating.", "Wind tunnel experiments show that the preferred gliding speed is between per second and that the wingspan decreases as the bird flies faster.", "On the ground, western jackdaws have an upright posture and strut briskly, their short legs giving them a rapid gait.", "They feed with their heads held down or horizontally.", "Flying western jackdaws are distinguishable from other corvids by their smaller size, faster and deeper wingbeats and proportionately narrower and less fingered wing tips.", "They also have shorter, thicker necks, much shorter bills and frequently fly in tighter flocks.", "They can be distinguished from choughs by their uniformly grey underwings and their black beaks and legs.", "The western jackdaw is very similar in morphology, behaviour, and calls to the Daurian jackdaw, with which its range overlaps in western Asia.", "Adults are readily distinguished, since the Daurian has a pied plumage, but immature birds are much more similar, both species having dark plumage and dark eyes.", "The Daurian tends to be darker, with a less contrasting nape than the Western.", "Western jackdaw calling in flight on Inisheer, Ireland Western jackdaws are voluble birds.", "The main call, frequently given in flight, is a metallic and squeaky chyak-chyak or kak-kak.", "Perched birds often chatter together, and before settling for the night, large roosting flocks make a cackling noise.", "Western jackdaws also have a hoarse, drawn-out alarm call, From day 25, the young cease calling and become silent if they hear an unfamiliar noise.", "The European jackdaw can be trained to imitate human speech.", "The western jackdaw is found from Northwest Africa through all of Europe, except for the subarctic north, and eastwards through central Asia to the eastern Himalayas and Lake Baikal. To the east, it occurs throughout Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwestern India.", "However, it is regionally extinct in Malta and Tunisia.", "The range is vast, with an estimated global extent between .", "It has a large global population, with an estimated 15.6 to 45 million individuals in Europe alone.", "Censuses of bird populations in marginal uplands in Great Britain show that western jackdaws greatly increased in numbers between the 1970s and 2010, although this increase may be related to recovery from previous periods when they were regarded as pests.", "The UK population was estimated at 2.5 million individuals in 1998, up from 780,000 in 1970.", "A western jackdaw on Inisheer, Ireland Most populations are resident, but the northern and eastern populations are more migratory, Their range expands northwards into Russia to Siberia during summer and retracts in winter.", "They are vagrants to the Faroe Islands, particularly in the winter and spring, and occasionally to Iceland.", "Elsewhere, western jackdaws congregate over winter in the Ural Valley in northwestern Kazakhstan, the northern Caspian, and the Tian Shan region of western China.", "They are winter visitors to the Quetta Valley in western Pakistan.", " and are winter vagrants to Lebanon, where they were first recorded in 1962.", "In Syria, they are winter vagrants and rare residents with some confirmed breeding taking place.", "The subspecies soemmerringii occurs in south-central Siberia and extreme northwestern China and is accidental to Hokkaido, Japan.", "A small number of western jackdaws reached northeastern North America in the 1980s and have been found from Atlantic Canada to Pennsylvania.", "They have also occurred as vagrants in Gibraltar, Mauritania, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and one is reported to have been seen in Egypt.", "Western jackdaws inhabit wooded steppes, pastures, cultivated land, coastal cliffs, and towns.", "They thrive when forested areas are cleared and converted to fields and open areas.", "Habitats with a mix of large trees, buildings, and open ground are preferred", "open fields are left to the rook, and more wooded areas to the Eurasian jay .", "Along with other corvids such as the rook, common raven , and hooded crow (C.", "cornix), some western jackdaws spend the winter in urban parks", "populations measured in three urban parks in Warsaw show increases from October to December, possibly due to western jackdaws migrating there from areas further north.", "The same data from Warsaw, collected from 1977 to 2003, showed that the wintering western jackdaw population had increased four-fold.", "The cause of the increase is unknown, but a reduction in the number of rooks may have benefited the species locally, or rooks overwintering in Belarus may have caused western jackdaws to relocate to Warsaw.", "A family group in Bushy Park, London.", "A western jackdaw in flight.", "Generally wary of people in the forest or countryside, western jackdaws are much tamer in urban areas.", "Western jackdaws frequently congregate with hooded crows Occasionally, a sick or injured western jackdaw is mobbed until it is killed.", "In his book King Solomon's Ring, Konrad Lorenz described and analysed the complex social interactions in a western jackdaw flock that lived around his house in Altenberg, Austria.", "He ringed them for identification and caged them in the winter to prevent their annual migration.", "He found that the birds have a linear hierarchical group structure, with higher-ranked individuals dominating lower-ranked birds, and pair-bonded birds sharing the same rank.", "Young males establish their individual status before pairing with females.", "Upon pairing, the female assumes the same social position as her partner.", "Unmated females are the lowest members in the pecking order, and are the last to have access to food and shelter.", "Lorenz noted one case in which a male, absent during the dominance struggles and pair bondings, returned to the flock, became the dominant male, and chose one of two unpaired females for a mate.", "This female immediately assumed a dominant position in the social hierarchy and demonstrated this by pecking others.", "According to Lorenz, the most significant factor in social behaviour was the immediate and intuitive grasp of the new hierarchy by each of the western jackdaws in the flock.", "Social hierarchy in western jackdaw flocks is determined by supplanting, fighting, and threat displaysseveral of which have been described.", "In the bill-up posture, the western jackdaw tilts its bill and head upwards and sleeks its plumage.", "Indicating both appeasement and assertiveness, the posture is used by birds intending to enter feeding flocks.", "A bill-down posture is another commonly used agonistic behaviour.", "In this display, a bird lowers its bill and erects its nape and head feathers, and sometimes slightly lifts its wings.", "Western jackdaws often face off in this posture until one backs down or a fight ensues.", "In the forward-threat posture, a bird holds its body horizontally and thrusts its head forwards.", "In intense versions, the bird ruffles its feathers and spreads or raises its tail and wings.", "This extreme is seen when facing off over nests or females.", " In the defensive-threat posture, the bird lowers its head and bill, spreads its tail and ruffles its feathers.", "Supplanting is where one bird moves in and displaces another from a perch-site.", "The second bird usually retreats without resorting to a fight.", "Western jackdaws fight by launching themselves at each other feet-first and then wrestling with their feet intertwined and pecking at each other.", "Other individuals gather and call noisily.", " Western jackdaws entreat their partners to preen them by showing their nape and ruffling their head feathers.", "Birds mainly preen each other's head and neck.", "Known as allopreening, this behaviour is almost always done between birds of a mated pair.", "Occupying a hole in a wall at Conwy Castle, Wales.", "Nest with a chick and eggs.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden right", "Fledgling C. m. spermologus in southern England.", "Western jackdaws become sexually mature in their second year.", "Genetic analysis of pairs and offspring shows no evidence of extra-pair copulation Some pairs do separate in the first few months, but almost all pairings of over six months' duration are lifelong, ending only when a partner dies.", "Widowed or separated birds fare badly, often being ousted from nests or territories and unable to rear broods alone.", "Western jackdaws usually breed in colonies with pairs collaborating to find a nest site, which they then defend from other pairs and predators during most of the year.", "They nest in cavities in trees or cliffs, in ruined or occupied buildings and in chimneys, the common feature being a sheltered site for the nest.", "The availability of suitable sites influences their presence in a locale.", " They may also use church steeples for nesting, a fact reported in verse by 18th century English poet William Cowper: Nest platforms can attain a great size.", "A mated pair usually constructs a nest by improving a crevice by dropping sticks into it", "it is then built on top of the platform formed.", "This behaviour has led to the blocking of chimneys and even resulted in nests crashing down into fireplaces, sometimes with birds still on them.", "In his The Natural History of Selborne, Gilbert White notes that western jackdaws used to nest in crevices beneath the lintels of Stonehenge, and describes an example of the bird using a rabbit burrow for nesting.", "and stock dove .", "Breeding colonies may also edge out those of the red-billed chough, but in turn be ousted by larger corvids such as the carrion crow, rook or magpie.", "The eggs are a lighter colour than those of other corvids, being smooth, a glossy pale blue or blue-green with darker speckles ranging from dark brown to olive or grey-violet.", "Egg size and weight varies slightly between subspecies", "those of subspecies monedula average and in weight, those of subspecies soemmerringii in size and in weight, and those of subspecies spermologus in size and in weight.", "Clutches usually contain 4 or 5 eggs, although a Slovakian study found clutch sizes ranging from 2 to 9 eggs.", "The eggs are incubated by the female for 1718 days until hatching as naked altricial chicks, which are completely dependent on the adults for food.", "They fledge after 2835 days, and the parents continue to feed them for another four weeks or so.", "Western jackdaws hatch asynchronously and incubation begins before clutch completion, which often leads to the death of the last-hatched young.", "If the supply of food is low, parental investment in the brood is kept to a minimum as little energy is wasted on feeding a chick that is unlikely to survive.", "Replacement clutches are very rarely laid in the event of clutch failure.", "The European pine marten raids isolated nests in Sweden but is less successful when nests are part of a colony.", "C. m. soemmerringii, foraging in pasture in Russia.", "Foraging takes place mostly on the ground in open areas and to some extent in trees.", "Landfill sites, bins, streets, and gardens are also visited, more often early in the morning when there are fewer people about.", "Various feeding methods are employed, such as jumping, pecking, clod-turning and scattering, probing the soil, and occasionally, digging.", "Flies around cow pats are caught by jumping from the ground or at times by dropping vertically from a few metres onto the cow pat.", "Earthworms are not usually extracted from the ground by western jackdaws but are eaten from freshly ploughed soil.", "Jackdaws will ride on the backs of sheep and other mammals, seeking ticks as well as actively gathering wool or hair for nests, and will catch flying ants in flight.", "Compared with other corvids, the western jackdaw spends more time exploring and turning over objects with its bill", "it also has a straighter and less downturned bill and increased binocular vision which are advantageous for this foraging strategy.", "The western jackdaw tends to feed on small invertebrates up to in length that are found above ground, including various species of beetle (particularly cockchafers of the genus Melolontha, and weevil larvae and pupae.", "), Diptera, and Lepidoptera species, as well as snails and spiders.", "Also eaten are small rodents, bats, the eggs and chicks of birds, and carrion such as roadkill.", "Vegetable items consumed include farm grains , weed seeds, elderberries, acorns, and various cultivated fruits.", "Examination of the gizzards of western jackdaws shot in Cyprus in spring and summer revealed a diet of cereals and insects .", "The diet averages 84% plant material except when breeding, when the main food source is insects.", "A study in southern Spain examining western jackdaw pellets found that they contained significant amounts of silicaceous and calcareous grit to aid digestion of vegetable food and supply dietary calcium.", "Opportunistic and highly adaptable, the western jackdaw varies its diet markedly depending on available food sources.", "They have been recorded taking eggs and nestlings from the nests of the skylark , Manx shearwater , razorbill , common murre , grey heron , rock pigeon , and Eurasian collared dove .", "A field study of a large city dump on the outskirts of Leon in northwestern Spain showed that western jackdaws forage there in the early morning and at dusk, and engage in some degree of kleptoparasitism.", "The saker falcon has been reported stealing food from western jackdaws on powerlines in Vojvodina in Serbia.", "Western jackdaws practice active food sharing where the initiative for the transfer lies with the donor with a number of individuals, regardless of sex or kinship.", "They also share more of a preferred food than a less preferred food.", "The active giving of food by most birds is found mainly in the context of parental care and courtship.", "Western jackdaws show much higher levels of active giving than has been documented for other species, including chimpanzees.", "The function of this behaviour is not fully understood, though it has been found to be detached from nutrition and compatible with hypotheses of mutualism, reciprocity and harassment avoidance.", "It has also been proposed that food sharing may be motivated by prestige enhancement.", "Western jackdaws have learned to peck open the foil caps of milk bottles left on the doorsteps after delivery by the milkman.", "The bacterium Campylobacter jejuni has been isolated from their beaks and cloacae so milk can become contaminated as they drink.", "This activity was linked to cases of Campylobacter gastroenteritis in Gateshead in northeast England and led the Department of Health to suggest that milk from bottles which had been pecked open should be discarded.", "It was recommended that steps be taken to prevent birds from pecking open bottles in the future.", "An outbreak of a gastrointestinal illness in Spain which was causing mortalities in humans has been linked to western jackdaws.", "During a post-mortem on an affected bird, a polyomavirus was isolated from the spleen.", "The illness appeared to be a co-infection of this with Salmonella and the virus has been provisionally named the crow polyomavirus .", "Segmented filamentous bacteria have been isolated from the small intestine of a western jackdaw, although their pathogenicity or role is unknown.", "The western jackdaw has been hunted as vermin, though not as heavily culled as other species of corvid.", "After a series of poor harvests in the early 1500s, introduced a Vermin Act in 1532 \" ordeyned to dystroye Choughes , Crowes and Rokes \" to protect grain crops from their predations.", "Western jackdaws were notorious as they also favoured fruit, especially cherries.", "This act was taken up in a piecemeal fashion, but passed the Act for the Preservation of Grayne in 1566 that was taken up with more vigour.", "The species was hunted for its threat to grain crops and for propensity for nesting in belfries until the mid-20th century.", "Particularly large numbers were culled in the county of Norfolk.", "Western jackdaws were also culled on game estates as they raid nests of other birds for eggs.", " In a 2003 dissertation on public opinion of corvids, Antonia Hereth notes that the German naturalist Alfred Brehm considered the western jackdaw to be a lovable bird, and did not describe any negative impacts of this species on agriculture.", "The western jackdaw is one of a very small number of birds that it is legal to use as a decoy or to trap in a cage in the United Kingdom.", "The other pest species that can be controlled by trapping are the crow, jay, magpie and rook.", "An authorised person must comply with the requirements of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and does not need to show that the birds were a nuisance before trapping them.", "As of 2003 the western jackdaw was listed as a potential species for targeted hunting in the European Union Birds Directive, and hunting has been encouraged by German hunting associations.", "Permission to shoot western jackdaws in spring and summer exists in Cyprus as they are thought to prey on gamebirds.", "Harrison Weir's 1881 illustration of a vain jackdaw wearing peacock feathers for \" The Bird in Borrowed Feathers \" fable upright", "A jackdaw pictured in the Coat of Arms of the Sauvo municipality .", "Woodcut from 1501, illustrating Aesop's fable The Jackdaw and the Peacocks An ancient Greek and Roman adage runs \" The swans will sing when the jackdaws are silent \" , meaning that educated or wise people will speak only after the foolish have become quiet.", "In Ancient Greek folklore, a jackdaw can be caught with a dish of oil.", "A narcissistic creature, it falls in while looking at its own reflection.", " The mythical Princess Arne Sithonis was bribed with gold by King Minos of Crete, and was punished by the gods for her greed by being transformed into an equally avaricious jackdaw, who still seeks shiny things.", "The Roman poet Ovid described jackdaws as harbingers of rain in his poetic work Amores.", "Pliny notes how the Thessalians, Illyrians, and Lemnians cherished jackdaws for destroying grasshoppers' eggs.", "The Veneti are fabled to have bribed the jackdaws to spare their crops.", "In some cultures, a jackdaw on the roof is said to predict a new arrival", "alternatively, a jackdaw settling on the roof of a house or flying down a chimney is an omen of death, and coming across one is considered a bad omen.", " A jackdaw standing on the vanes of a cathedral tower is said to foretell rain.", "The 12th-century historian William of Malmesbury records the story of a woman who, upon hearing a jackdaw chattering \" more loudly than usual, \" grew pale and became fearful of suffering a \" dreadful calamity \" , and that \" while yet speaking, the messenger of her misfortunes arrived \" .", "Czech superstition formerly held that if jackdaws are seen quarreling, war will follow, and that jackdaws will not build nests at Sazava after being banished by Saint Procopius.", "The jackdaw was considered sacred in Welsh folklore as it nested in church steeples it was shunned by the Devil because of its choice of residence.", "Nineteenth century belief in the Fens held that seeing a jackdaw on the way to a wedding was a good omen for a bride.", "The jackdaw is featured on the Ukrainian town of Halych's ancient coat of arms, the town's name allegedly being derived from the East Slavic word for the bird.", "In The Book of Laughter and Forgetting , Milan Kundera notes that Franz Kafka's father Hermann had a sign in front of his shop with a jackdaw painted next to his name, since \" kavka \" means jackdaw in Czech.", " Three jackdaws are featured on the Trzy Kawki coat of arms, used by several szlachta families under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.", "It is the symbolic bird of Southwest Finland.", "Coat of Arms of the Principality of Halych Recueil_d'armoiries_polonaises_-_COA_of_Halych_Land_crop2.", "Coat of Arms of Halych Land Alex_K_Grundwald_flags_1410-07.", "Flag of Halych land at the Battle of Grunwald 1410 Coat of Arms of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast."]}, "Turdus merula": {"keywords": ["This species breeds in woods and gardens, building a neat, cup-shaped nest, bound together with mud.", "Both sexes are territorial on the breeding grounds, with distinctive threat displays, but are more gregarious during migration and in wintering areas.", "Pairs stay in their territory throughout the year where the climate is sufficiently temperate.", "Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the blackbird is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary Islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "It is close in evolutionary terms to the island thrush of Southeast Asia and islands in the southwest Pacific, which probably diverged from T. merula stock fairly recently.", "The ouzel usage survived later in poetry, and still occurs as the name of the closely related ring ouzel , and in water ouzel, an alternative name for the unrelated but superficially similar white-throated dipper and American dipper .", "The common blackbird breeds in temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia.", "Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year.", "Female blackbirds in Scotland and the north of England migrate more in winter than do the males Common over most of its range in woodland, the common blackbird has a preference for deciduous trees with dense undergrowth.", "However, gardens provide the best breeding habitat with up to 7.3 pairs per hectare , with woodland typically holding about a tenth of that density, and open and very built-up habitats even less.", "The common blackbird also lives in parks, gardens and hedgerows.", "The common blackbird occurs at elevations up to in Europe, in North Africa, and at in peninsular India and Sri Lanka, but the large Himalayan subspecies range much higher, with T. m. maximus breeding at and remaining above even in winter.", "Migrants are more gregarious, travelling in small flocks and feeding in loose groups in the wintering grounds.", "In its native Northern Hemisphere range, the first-year male common blackbird of the nominate race may start singing as early as late January in fine weather in order to establish a territory, followed in late March by the adult male.", "In urban and suburban environments with high levels of anthropogenic noise, such as near airports, blackbirds have been observed modifying their song to successfully compensate and compete with the noise, singing for longer periods of time, at a higher volume, and earlier during their area's dawn chorus, when environmental sounds are less prominent.", "It pulls earthworms from the soil, usually finding them by sight, but sometimes by hearing, and roots through leaf litter for other invertebrates.", "Animal prey predominates, and is particularly important during the breeding season, with windfall apples and berries taken more in the autumn and winter.", "The nature of the fruit taken depends on what is locally available, and frequently includes exotics in gardens.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern but there have been local declines, especially on farmland, which may be due to agricultural policies that encouraged farmers to remove hedgerows , and to drain damp grassland and increase the use of pesticides, both of which could have reduced the availability of invertebrate food.", "The common blackbird was introduced to Australia by a bird dealer visiting Melbourne in early 1857, The introduced population in Australia is considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens, including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes.", "It is thought to spread weeds, such as blackberry, and may compete with native birds for food and nesting sites.", "Introduced there along with the song thrush in 1862, it has spread throughout the country up to an elevation of , as well as outlying islands such as the Campbell and Kermadecs.", "It eats a wide range of native and exotic fruit, and makes a major contribution to the development of communities of naturalised woody weeds.", "These communities provide fruit more suited to non-endemic native birds and naturalised birds than to endemic birds."], "habitat_section": ["The common blackbird breeds in temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia.", "It has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.", "Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year.", "Recoveries of blackbirds ringed on the Isle of May show that these birds commonly migrate from southern Norway to Scotland, and some onwards to Ireland.", "Scottish-ringed birds have also been recovered in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.", "Female blackbirds in Scotland and the north of England migrate more in winter than do the males Common over most of its range in woodland, the common blackbird has a preference for deciduous trees with dense undergrowth.", "However, gardens provide the best breeding habitat with up to 7.3 pairs per hectare , with woodland typically holding about a tenth of that density, and open and very built-up habitats even less.", "They are often replaced by the related ring ouzel in areas of higher altitude.", "The common blackbird also lives in parks, gardens and hedgerows.", "The common blackbird occurs at elevations up to in Europe, in North Africa, and at in peninsular India and Sri Lanka, but the large Himalayan subspecies range much higher, with T. m. maximus breeding at and remaining above even in winter.", "However, a 1994 record from Bonavista, Newfoundland, has been accepted as a genuine wild bird, Male blackbird with earthworm The male common blackbird defends its breeding territory, chasing away other males or utilising a \" bow and run \" threat display.", "This consists of a short run, the head first being raised and then bowed with the tail dipped simultaneously.", "If a fight between male blackbirds does occur, it is usually short and the intruder is soon chased away.", "The female blackbird is also aggressive in the spring when it competes with other females for a good nesting territory, and although fights are less frequent, they tend to be more violent.", "As long as winter food is available, both the male and female will remain in the territory throughout the year, although occupying different areas.", "Migrants are more gregarious, travelling in small flocks and feeding in loose groups in the wintering grounds.", "The flight of migrating birds comprises bursts of rapid wing beats interspersed with level or diving movement, and differs from both the normal fast agile flight of this species and the more dipping action of larger thrushes.", "The common blackbird has an extensive range, estimated at 32.4 million square kilometres , and a large population, including an estimated 110 to 174 million individuals in Europe alone.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern but there have been local declines, especially on farmland, which may be due to agricultural policies that encouraged farmers to remove hedgerows , and to drain damp grassland and increase the use of pesticides, both of which could have reduced the availability of invertebrate food.", "The common blackbird was introduced to Australia by a bird dealer visiting Melbourne in early 1857, The introduced population in Australia is considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens, including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes.", "It is thought to spread weeds, such as blackberry, and may compete with native birds for food and nesting sites.", "The introduced common blackbird is, together with the native silvereye , the most widely distributed avian seed disperser in New Zealand.", "Introduced there along with the song thrush in 1862, it has spread throughout the country up to an elevation of , as well as outlying islands such as the Campbell and Kermadecs.", "It eats a wide range of native and exotic fruit, and makes a major contribution to the development of communities of naturalised woody weeds.", "These communities provide fruit more suited to non-endemic native birds and naturalised birds than to endemic birds."], "random_sentences": ["The common blackbird is a species of true thrush.", "It is also called the Eurasian blackbird , or simply the blackbird where this does not lead to confusion with a local species.", "It breeds in Europe, Asiatic Russia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.", "It has a number of subspecies across its large range", "a few of the Asian subspecies are sometimes considered to be full species.", "Depending on latitude, the common blackbird may be resident, partially migratory, or fully migratory.", "The adult male of the common blackbird , which is found throughout most of Europe, is all black except for a yellow eye-ring and bill and has a rich, melodious song", "the adult female and juvenile have mainly dark brown plumage.", "This species breeds in woods and gardens, building a neat, cup-shaped nest, bound together with mud.", "It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, earthworms, berries, and fruits.", "Both sexes are territorial on the breeding grounds, with distinctive threat displays, but are more gregarious during migration and in wintering areas.", "Pairs stay in their territory throughout the year where the climate is sufficiently temperate.", "This common and conspicuous species has given rise to a number of literary and cultural references, frequently related to its song.", "Female T. m. mauretanicus The common blackbird was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Turdus merula .", "The binomial name derives from two Latin words, turdus, \" thrush \" , and merula, \" blackbird \" , the latter giving rise to its French name, merle, and its Scots name, merl.", "About 65 species of medium to large thrushes are in the genus Turdus, characterised by rounded heads, longish, pointed wings, and usually melodious songs.", "Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the blackbird is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary Islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "It is close in evolutionary terms to the island thrush (T.", "poliocephalus) of Southeast Asia and islands in the southwest Pacific, which probably diverged from T. merula stock fairly recently.", "Until about the 17th century, another name for the species was ouzel, ousel or wosel (from Old English osle, cf.", "Another variant occurs in Act 3 of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, where Bottom refers to \" The Woosell cocke, so blacke of hew, With Orenge-tawny bill \" .", "The ouzel usage survived later in poetry, and still occurs as the name of the closely related ring ouzel , and in water ouzel, an alternative name for the unrelated but superficially similar white-throated dipper and American dipper .", "Two related Asian Turdus thrushes, the white-collared blackbird (T.", "albocinctus) and the grey-winged blackbird (T.", "boulboul), are also named blackbirds, The icterid family of the New World is sometimes called the blackbird family because of some species' superficial resemblance to the common blackbird and other Old World thrushes, but they are not evolutionarily close, being related to the New World warblers and tanagers.", "The term is often limited to smaller species with mostly or entirely black plumage, at least in the breeding male, notably the cowbirds, the grackles, and for around 20 species with \" blackbird \" in the name, such as the red-winged blackbird and the melodious blackbird.", "In Europe, the common blackbird can be confused with the paler-winged first-winter ring ouzel or the superficially similar common starling .", "A number of similar Turdus thrushes exist far outside the range of the common blackbird, for example the South American Chiguanco thrush .", "The Indian blackbird, the Tibetan blackbird, and the Chinese blackbird were formerly considered subspecies of the common blackbird.", "Historic image of blackbird in Nederlandsche Vogelen The common blackbird of the nominate subspecies T. m. merula is in length, has a long tail, and weighs .", "The adult male has glossy black plumage, blackish-brown legs, a yellow eye-ring and an orange-yellow bill.", "The bill darkens somewhat in winter.", "The adult female is sooty-brown with a dull yellowish-brownish bill, a brownish-white throat and some weak mottling on the breast.", "The juvenile is similar to the female, but has pale spots on the upperparts, and the very young juvenile also has a speckled breast.", "Young birds vary in the shade of brown, with darker birds presumably males.", "The first year male resembles the adult male, but has a dark bill and weaker eye ring, and its folded wing is brown, rather than black like the body plumage.", "The common blackbird breeds in temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia.", "It has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.", "Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year.", "Recoveries of blackbirds ringed on the Isle of May show that these birds commonly migrate from southern Norway to Scotland, and some onwards to Ireland.", "Scottish-ringed birds have also been recovered in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.", "Female blackbirds in Scotland and the north of England migrate more in winter than do the males Common over most of its range in woodland, the common blackbird has a preference for deciduous trees with dense undergrowth.", "However, gardens provide the best breeding habitat with up to 7.3 pairs per hectare , with woodland typically holding about a tenth of that density, and open and very built-up habitats even less.", "They are often replaced by the related ring ouzel in areas of higher altitude.", "The common blackbird also lives in parks, gardens and hedgerows.", "The common blackbird occurs at elevations up to in Europe, in North Africa, and at in peninsular India and Sri Lanka, but the large Himalayan subspecies range much higher, with T. m. maximus breeding at and remaining above even in winter.", "However, a 1994 record from Bonavista, Newfoundland, has been accepted as a genuine wild bird,", "Male blackbird with earthworm The male common blackbird defends its breeding territory, chasing away other males or utilising a \" bow and run \" threat display.", "This consists of a short run, the head first being raised and then bowed with the tail dipped simultaneously.", "If a fight between male blackbirds does occur, it is usually short and the intruder is soon chased away.", "The female blackbird is also aggressive in the spring when it competes with other females for a good nesting territory, and although fights are less frequent, they tend to be more violent.", "As long as winter food is available, both the male and female will remain in the territory throughout the year, although occupying different areas.", "Migrants are more gregarious, travelling in small flocks and feeding in loose groups in the wintering grounds.", "The flight of migrating birds comprises bursts of rapid wing beats interspersed with level or diving movement, and differs from both the normal fast agile flight of this species and the more dipping action of larger thrushes.", "The male common blackbird attracts the female with a courtship display which consists of oblique runs combined with head-bowing movements, an open beak, and a \" strangled \" low song.", "The female remains motionless until she raises her head and tail to permit copulation.", "This species is monogamous, and the established pair will usually stay together as long as they both survive.", "Pair separation rates of up to 20% have been noted following poor breeding.", "Although the species is socially monogamous, there have been studies showing as much as 17% extra-pair paternity.", "The nominate T. merula may commence breeding in March, but eastern and Indian races are a month or more later, and the introduced New Zealand birds start nesting in August .", "Eggs of birds of the southern Indian races are paler than those from the northern subcontinent and Europe.", "The female incubates for 1214 days before the altricial chicks are hatched naked and blind.", "Fledging takes another 1019 days, with both parents feeding the young and removing faecal sacs.", "The nest is often ill-concealed compared with those of other species, and many breeding attempts fail due to predation.", "The young are fed by the parents for up to three weeks after leaving the nest, and will follow the adults begging for food.", "If the female starts another nest, the male alone will feed the fledged young.", "Second broods are common, with the female reusing the same nest if the brood was successful, and three broods may be raised in the south of the common blackbird's range.", "A common blackbird has an average life expectancy of 2.4 years, and, based on data from bird ringing, the oldest recorded age is 21 years and 10 months.", "In its native Northern Hemisphere range, the first-year male common blackbird of the nominate race may start singing as early as late January in fine weather in order to establish a territory, followed in late March by the adult male.", "The male's song is a varied and melodious low-pitched fluted warble, given from trees, rooftops or other elevated perches mainly in the period from March to June, sometimes into the beginning of July.", "It has a number of other calls, including an aggressive seee, a pook-pook-pook alarm for terrestrial predators like cats, and various chink and chook, chook vocalisations.", "The territorial male invariably gives chink-chink calls in the evening in an attempt to deter other blackbirds from roosting in its territory overnight.", "Like other passerine birds, it has a thin high seeet alarm call for threats from birds of prey since the sound is rapidly attenuated in vegetation, making the source difficult to locate.", "In urban and suburban environments with high levels of anthropogenic noise, such as near airports, blackbirds have been observed modifying their song to successfully compensate and compete with the noise, singing for longer periods of time, at a higher volume, and earlier during their area's dawn chorus, when environmental sounds are less prominent.", "Adult male feeding on cherries in Lausanne, Switzerland The common blackbird is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, spiders, snails, earthworms, seeds, berries and other fruits.", "It feeds mainly on the ground, running and hopping with a start-stop-start progress.", "It pulls earthworms from the soil, usually finding them by sight, but sometimes by hearing, and roots through leaf litter for other invertebrates.", "Small amphibians, lizards and small mammals are occasionally hunted.", "This species will also perch in bushes to take berries and collect caterpillars and other active insects, such as beetles and grasshoppers.", "Animal prey predominates, and is particularly important during the breeding season, with windfall apples and berries taken more in the autumn and winter.", "The nature of the fruit taken depends on what is locally available, and frequently includes exotics in gardens.", "As the blackbird lives in proximity to urbanized areas, it likely supplements its diet with man-made food.", "Near human habitation the main predator of the common blackbird is the domestic cat, with newly fledged young especially vulnerable.", "Foxes and predatory birds, such as the sparrowhawk and other accipiters, also take this species when the opportunity arises.", "However, there is little direct evidence to show that either predation of the adult blackbirds or loss of the eggs and chicks to corvids, such as the European magpie or Eurasian jay, decrease population numbers.", "A male attempting to distract a kestrel close to its nest This species is occasionally a host of parasitic cuckoos, such as the common cuckoo , but this is minimal because the common blackbird recognizes the adult of the parasitic species and its non-mimetic eggs.", "In the UK, only three nests of 59,770 examined contained cuckoo eggs.", "The introduced merula blackbird in New Zealand, where the cuckoo does not occur, has, over the past 130 years, lost the ability to recognize the adult common cuckoo but still rejects non-mimetic eggs.", "As with other passerine birds, parasites are common.", "Intestinal parasites were found in 88% of common blackbirds, most frequently Isospora and Capillaria species.", "and more than 80% had haematozoan parasites .", "Common blackbirds spend much of their time looking for food on the ground where they can become infested with ticks, which are external parasites that most commonly attach to the head of a blackbird.", "there is no evidence that this affects the fitness of blackbirds except when they are exhausted and run down after migration.", "The common blackbird is one of a number of species which has unihemispheric slow-wave sleep.", "One hemisphere of the brain is effectively asleep, while a low-voltage EEG, characteristic of wakefulness, is present in the other.", "The benefit of this is that the bird can rest in areas of high predation or during long migratory flights, but still retain a degree of alertness.", "The common blackbird has an extensive range, estimated at 32.4 million square kilometres , and a large population, including an estimated 110 to 174 million individuals in Europe alone.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern but there have been local declines, especially on farmland, which may be due to agricultural policies that encouraged farmers to remove hedgerows , and to drain damp grassland and increase the use of pesticides, both of which could have reduced the availability of invertebrate food.", "The common blackbird was introduced to Australia by a bird dealer visiting Melbourne in early 1857, The introduced population in Australia is considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens, including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes.", "It is thought to spread weeds, such as blackberry, and may compete with native birds for food and nesting sites.", "The introduced common blackbird is, together with the native silvereye , the most widely distributed avian seed disperser in New Zealand.", "Introduced there along with the song thrush in 1862, it has spread throughout the country up to an elevation of , as well as outlying islands such as the Campbell and Kermadecs.", "It eats a wide range of native and exotic fruit, and makes a major contribution to the development of communities of naturalised woody weeds.", "These communities provide fruit more suited to non-endemic native birds and naturalised birds than to endemic birds.", "\" Sing a Song for Sixpence \" cover illustration The common blackbird was seen as a sacred though destructive bird in Classical Greek folklore, and was said to die if it consumed pomegranates.", "Like many other small birds, it has in the past been trapped in rural areas at its night roosts as an easily available addition to the diet, Sing a song of sixpence, A pocket full of rye", " Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie!", " When the pie was opened the birds began to sing, Oh, wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?", " The common blackbird's melodious, distinctive song is mentioned in the poem Adlestrop by Edward Thomas", " And for that minute a blackbird sang Close by, and round him, mistier, Farther and farther, all the birds Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.", " In the English Christmas carol \" The Twelve Days of Christmas \" , the line commonly sung today as \" four calling birds \" is believed to have originally been written in the 18th century as \" four colly birds \" , an archaism meaning \" black as coal \" that was a popular English nickname for the common blackbird.", "The common blackbird, unlike many black creatures, is not normally seen as a symbol of bad luck, and it symbolised resignation in the 17th century tragic play The Duchess of Malfi", "an alternate connotation is vigilance, the bird's clear cry warning of danger.", "which has a breeding population of 12 million pairs, it has also featured on a number of other stamps issued by European and Asian countries, including a 1966 4d British stamp and a 1998 Irish 30p stamp.", "This birdarguablyalso gives rise to the Serbian name for Kosovo, which is the possessive adjectival form of Serbian , as in Kosovo polje .", "A common blackbird can be heard singing on the Beatles song \" Blackbird \" ."]}, "Chroicocephalus ridibundus": {"keywords": ["The black-headed gull is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic including Europe and also in coastal eastern Canada.", "They are an overwintering species, found in a variety of different habitats.", "The summer adult has a chocolate-brown head , pale grey body, black tips to the primary wing feathers, and red bill and legs.", "Immature birds have a mottled pattern of brown spots over most of the body, It breeds in colonies in large reed beds or marshes, or on islands in lakes, nesting on the ground.", "It is not a pelagic species and is rarely seen at sea far from coasts.", "Small numbers also breed in northeastern Canada and can be seen in winter in northeast North America as far south as Virginia, often with the similar-looking Bonaparte's Gull and also in some Caribbean islands.", "Although mothers show some form of aggressiveness when a predator is near, in the first 30 minutes, wet chicks can be easily taken by other black-headed gulls after hatching when the parents of the wet chick are distracted.", "Head-bobbing walking occurs during a seeking type foraging by walking through water and includes benefits such as enhancing motion and pattern detection and gathering depth information from motion parallax during the thrust phase."], "habitat_section": ["Black-headed gulls can be found over much of Europe.", "It is also found in across the Palearctic to Japan and east China.", "Small numbers also breed in northeastern Canada and can be seen in winter in northeast North America as far south as Virginia, often with the similar-looking Bonaparte's Gull and also in some Caribbean islands."], "random_sentences": ["The black-headed gull is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic including Europe and also in coastal eastern Canada.", "Most of the population is migratory and winters further south, but some birds reside in the milder westernmost areas of Europe.", "Small numbers also occur in northeastern North America, where it was formerly known as the common black-headed gull.", "As is the case with many gulls, it was previously placed in the genus Larus.", "The genus name Chroicocephalus is from Ancient Greek khroizo, \" to colour \" , and kephale, \" head \" .", "The specific ridibundus is Latin for \" laughing \" , from ridere \" to laugh \" .", "The black-headed gull displays a variety of compelling behaviours and adaptations.", "Some of these include removing eggshells from one's nest after hatching, begging co-ordination between siblings, differences between sexes, conspecific brood parasitism, and extra-pair paternity.", "They are an overwintering species, found in a variety of different habitats.", "This gull is long with a wingspan and weighs .", "In flight, the white leading edge to the wing is a good field mark.", "The summer adult has a chocolate-brown head , pale grey body, black tips to the primary wing feathers, and red bill and legs.", "The hood is lost in winter, leaving just two dark spots.", "Immature birds have a mottled pattern of brown spots over most of the body, It breeds in colonies in large reed beds or marshes, or on islands in lakes, nesting on the ground.", "Like most gulls, it is highly gregarious in winter, both when feeding or in evening roosts.", "It is not a pelagic species and is rarely seen at sea far from coasts.", "The black-headed gull is a bold and opportunistic feeder.", "It eats insects, fish, seeds, worms, scraps, and carrion in towns, or invertebrates in ploughed fields with equal relish.", "It is a noisy species, especially in colonies, with a familiar \" kree-ar \" call.", "Its scientific name means laughing gull.", "This species takes two years to reach maturity.", "First-year birds have a black terminal tail band, more dark areas in the wings, and, in summer, a less fully developed dark hood.", "Like most gulls, black-headed gulls are long-lived birds, with a maximum age of at least 32.9 years recorded in the wild, in addition to an anecdote now believed of dubious authenticity regarding a 63-year-old bird.", "Black-headed gulls can be found over much of Europe.", "It is also found in across the Palearctic to Japan and east China.", "Small numbers also breed in northeastern Canada and can be seen in winter in northeast North America as far south as Virginia, often with the similar-looking Bonaparte's Gull and also in some Caribbean islands.", "Eggshell removal is a behaviour seen in birds once the chicks have hatched, observed mostly to reduce risk of predation.", "Removing the eggshell acts as a way of camouflage to avoid predators seeing the nest.", "The further away egg shells are from the nest, the lower the predation risk.", "Black-headed gull eggs experience predation from different species of birds, foxes, stoats, and even other black-headed gulls.", "Although mothers show some form of aggressiveness when a predator is near, in the first 30 minutes, wet chicks can be easily taken by other black-headed gulls after hatching when the parents of the wet chick are distracted.", "Black headed gulls also carry away other objects that do not belong in the nest.", "The removal of eggshells and other objects is important not only in the incubation period but also during the first few days after the eggs hatch.", "However, the removal process seems to increase as time goes on.", "The removal is done by both the male and female parents, normally lasts a few seconds and is done three times a year.", "A black-headed gull is able to differentiate an egg shell from an egg by acknowledging its thin, serrated, white, edge.", "Therefore, the weight of the egg or eggshell does not play a role when determining its value.", "Black-headed gulls display both head-bobbing walking and non-bobbing walking .", "Head-bobbing walking is expressed by a hold phase and a thrust phase.", "The hold phase in black-headed gulls occurs mainly during the single support phase and is when the bird balances its head to equal the environment.", "Head-bobbing walking occurs during a seeking type foraging by walking through water and includes benefits such as enhancing motion and pattern detection and gathering depth information from motion parallax during the thrust phase.", "Non-bobbing walking occurs when black-headed gulls are displaying a waiting behaviour while foraging on flat surfaces.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The eggs of the black-headed gull are considered a delicacy by some in the UK and are eaten hard boiled.", "The collection of black-headed gull eggs is heavily regulated by the UK government.", "Eggs may only be taken by a small number of licensed individuals at six sites between April 1 and May 15 each year and only a single egg may be taken from each nest.", "No eggs are permitted to be sold after June 30.", "As the gulls tend to lay in late April and early May, the eggs are in effect, only available to purchase for 3 or 4 weeks per year.", "Observations on the behavior of black-headed gulls show that black-headed gulls individuals synchronize their vigilance activity with other black-headed gulls neighbors.", "Synchronization in black-headed gulls groups is dependent on the distance between the black-headed gulls members.", "On 19th October 1991, local Broome birder Brian Kane saw a strange species of bird while trawling the local sewer ponds.", "Upon seeing this bird, he contacted the Broome Bird Observatory by telephone to verify the species, however there was conjecture regarding its identity.", "Kane took photos of the bird and recorded field notes, before sending this information to the Appraisals Committee in Hobart, Tasmania, who were able to confirm that it was indeed a black-headed gull.", "This was the first recorded sighting of the species in Australia.", "In Richard Adams' 1972 novel Watership Down, a black-headed gull named Kehaar plays a major part in the story.", "Injured by a farm cat and left behind during the seasonal migrations, Kehaar finds himself stranded on the Downs and is taken in by a warren of European rabbits.", "He later becomes their friend and ally, and helps to save the rabbits from danger many times", "instincts eventually force him to return to his colony, but he promises to visit the rabbits each winter.", "True to Adams' stated intentions of trying to keep the animals' behavior close to reality, Kehaar is characterized as intelligent, gregarious, noisy, messy, and impatient.", "He has a guttural accent, inspired by a Norwegian Resistance fighter Adams once had known.", "Kehaar appears in all three screen adaptations of the novel", "the character was voiced by Zero Mostel in the 1978 film, Rik Mayall in the 1999 TV series, and Peter Capaldi in the 2018 miniseries."]}, "Phalacrocorax carbo": {"keywords": ["Texel, Netherlands The great cormorant , known as the black shag in New Zealand and formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds.", "It breeds in much of the Old World, Australia, and the Atlantic coast of North America.", "It feeds on the sea, in estuaries, and on freshwater lakes and rivers.", "Northern birds migrate south and winter along any coast that is well-supplied with fish.", "However, after 1945 many artificial lakes were formed in Serbia, some of them became potential habitats for cormorants.", "Currently, on the Lake Celije, formed in 1980, there is a resident colony of cormorants, who nest there and are present throughout the year, except JanuaryFebruary 1985 and February 2012 when the lake surface was completely frozen.", "The type subspecies, P. c. carbo, is found mainly in Atlantic waters and nearby inland areas.", "on western European coasts and east across the Palearctic to Siberia and to North Africa, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland, and on the eastern seaboard of North America.", "The great cormorant often nests in colonies near wetlands, rivers, and sheltered inshore waters.", "It builds its nest, which is made from sticks, in trees, on the ledges of cliffs, and on the ground on rocky islands that are free of predators.", "The average weight of fish taken by great cormorants increased with decreasing air and water temperature, being 30 g during summer, 109 g during a warm winter and 157 g during the cold winter .", "Cormorants consume all fish of appropriate size that they are able to catch in summer and noticeably select for larger, mostly torpedo-shaped fish in winter.", "Thus, the winter elevation of foraging efficiency described for cormorants by various researchers is due to capturing larger fish not due to capturing more fish.", "In some freshwater systems, the losses of fish due to overwintering great cormorants were estimated to be up to 80 kg per ha each year .", "An old legend states that for people who die far out at sea, whose bodies are never recovered, spend eternity on the island Utrst which can only occasionally be found by mortals."], "habitat_section": ["This is a very common and widespread bird species.", "It feeds on the sea, in estuaries, and on freshwater lakes and rivers.", "Northern birds migrate south and winter along any coast that is well-supplied with fish.", "In Serbia, the cormorant lives in Vojvodina.", "However, after 1945 many artificial lakes were formed in Serbia, some of them became potential habitats for cormorants.", "Currently, on the Lake Celije, formed in 1980, there is a resident colony of cormorants, who nest there and are present throughout the year, except JanuaryFebruary 1985 and February 2012 when the lake surface was completely frozen.", "The type subspecies, P. c. carbo, is found mainly in Atlantic waters and nearby inland areas.", "on western European coasts and east across the Palearctic to Siberia and to North Africa, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland, and on the eastern seaboard of North America.", "The subspecies P. c. novaehollandiae is found in Australian waters."], "random_sentences": ["Adult great cormorant in breeding plumage.", "Texel, Netherlands The great cormorant , known as the black shag in New Zealand and formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds.", "It breeds in much of the Old World, Australia, and the Atlantic coast of North America.", "The long white-breasted cormorant P. c. lucidus found in sub-Saharan Africa, has a white neck and breast.", "It is often treated as a full species, Phalacrocorax lucidus .", "In addition to the Australasian and African forms, Phalacrocorax carbo novaehollandiae and P. c. lucidus mentioned above, other geographically distinct subspecies are recognised, including P. c. sinensis , P. c. maroccanus , and P. c. hanedae .", "Some authors treat all these as allospecies of a P. carbo superspecies group.", "In New Zealand, the subspecies P. c. novaehollandiae is known as the black shag or by its Maori name", "The syntype is in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.", "The great cormorant is a large black bird, but there is a wide variation in size in the species' wide range.", "Weight is reported to vary from to .", "Males are typically larger and heavier than females, with the nominate race (P.", "c. carbo) averaging about 10% larger in linear measurements than the smallest race in Europe (P.", "The lightest average weights cited are in Germany (P.", "c. sinensis), where 36 males averaged and 17 females averaged .", "The highest come from Prince Edward Island in Canada (P.", "c. carbo), where 11 males averaged and 11 females averaged .", "Length can vary from and wingspan from .", "They are tied as the second largest extant species of cormorant after the flightless cormorant, with the Japanese cormorant averaging at a similar size.", "In bulk if not in linear dimensions, the Blue-eyed shag species complex of the Southern Oceans are scarcely smaller at average.", "It has a longish tail and yellow throat-patch.", "Adults have white patches on the thighs and on the throat in the breeding season.", "In European waters it can be distinguished from the common shag by its larger size, heavier build, thicker bill, lack of a crest and plumage without any green tinge.", "In eastern North America, it is similarly larger and bulkier than double-crested cormorant, and the latter species has more yellow on the throat and bill and lack the white thigh patches frequently seen on great cormorants.", "Great cormorants are mostly silent, but they make various guttural noises at their breeding colonies.", "A very rare variation of the great cormorant is caused by albinism.", "The Phalacrocorax carbo albino suffers from poor eyesight and/or hearing, thus it rarely manages to survive in the wild.", "This is a very common and widespread bird species.", "It feeds on the sea, in estuaries, and on freshwater lakes and rivers.", "Northern birds migrate south and winter along any coast that is well-supplied with fish.", "In Serbia, the cormorant lives in Vojvodina.", "However, after 1945 many artificial lakes were formed in Serbia", "some of them became potential habitats for cormorants.", "Currently, on the Lake Celije, formed in 1980, there is a resident colony of cormorants, who nest there and are present throughout the year, except JanuaryFebruary 1985 and February 2012 when the lake surface was completely frozen.", "The type subspecies, P. c. carbo, is found mainly in Atlantic waters and nearby inland areas: on western European coasts and east across the Palearctic to Siberia and to North Africa, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland", "and on the eastern seaboard of North America.", "The subspecies P. c. novaehollandiae is found in Australian waters.", "Cormorant swallowing a just caught eel Great cormorant with bronze featherback from Keoladeo Ghana National park, Bharatpur Great cormorant trying to swallow bronze featherback.", "from Keoladeo Ghana National park, Bharatpur Great cormorant from Ponnani Malappuram Kerala India", "The great cormorant often nests in colonies near wetlands, rivers, and sheltered inshore waters.", "Pairs will use the same nest site to breed year after year.", "It builds its nest, which is made from sticks, in trees, on the ledges of cliffs, and on the ground on rocky islands that are free of predators.", "This cormorant lays a clutch of three to five eggs that measure on average.", "The eggs are a pale blue or green, and sometimes have a white chalky layer covering them.", "These eggs are incubated for a period of about 28 to 31 days.", "The great cormorant feeds on fish caught through diving.", "This bird feeds primarily on wrasses, but it also takes sand smelt, flathead and common soles.", "The average weight of fish taken by great cormorants increased with decreasing air and water temperature, being 30 g during summer, 109 g during a warm winter and 157 g during the cold winter .", "Cormorants consume all fish of appropriate size that they are able to catch in summer and noticeably select for larger, mostly torpedo-shaped fish in winter.", "Thus, the winter elevation of foraging efficiency described for cormorants by various researchers is due to capturing larger fish not due to capturing more fish.", "In some freshwater systems, the losses of fish due to overwintering great cormorants were estimated to be up to 80 kg per ha each year .", "This cormorant forages by diving and capturing its prey in its beak.", "Studies suggest that their hearing has evolved for underwater usage, possibly aiding their detection of fish.", "These adaptations also have a cost on their hearing ability in air which is of lowered sensitivity.", "Cormorant fishing in Suzhou, China", "left Many fishermen see in the great cormorant a competitor for fish.", "Because of this, it was hunted nearly to extinction in the past.", "Due to conservation efforts, its numbers increased.", "At the moment, there are about 1.2 million birds in Europe (based on winter counts", "late summer counts would show higher numbers).", "Increasing populations have once again brought the cormorant into conflict with fisheries.", "For example, in Britain, where inland breeding was once uncommon, there are now increasing numbers of birds breeding inland, and many inland fish farms and fisheries now claim to be suffering high losses due to these birds.", "In the UK each year, some licences are issued to cull specified numbers of cormorants in order to help reduce predation", "it is, however, still illegal to kill a bird without such a licence.", "Cormorant fishing is practised in China, Japan, and elsewhere around the globe.", "In this practice, fishermen tie a line around the throats of cormorants, tight enough to prevent swallowing the larger fish they catch, and deploy them from small boats.", "The cormorants catch fish without being able to fully swallow them, and the fishermen are able to retrieve the fish simply by forcing open the cormorants' mouths, apparently engaging the regurgitation reflex.", "In Norway, the cormorant is a traditional game bird.", "Each year approximately 10,000 cormorants are shot to be eaten.", "In North Norway, cormorants are traditionally seen as semi-sacred.", "It is regarded as good luck to have cormorants gather near your village or settlement.", "An old legend states that for people who die far out at sea, whose bodies are never recovered, spend eternity on the island Utrst which can only occasionally be found by mortals.", "The inhabitants of Utrst can only visit their homes in the shape of cormorants."]}, "Tachymarptis melba": {"keywords": ["The alpine swift formerly Apus melba, is a species of swift found in Africa, southern Europe and Asia.", "They breed in mountains from southern Europe to the Himalaya.", "This is a large swift measuring 2022 cm in length with a wingspan of 5460 cm with broad wings and tail with a shallow fork, superficially similar to a large barn swallow or house martin although unrelated to these two species, since swifts are in the order Apodiformes.", "Alpine swifts breed in mountains from southern Europe to the Himalaya.", "The species seems to have been much more widespread during the last ice age, with a large colony breeding, for example in the Late Pleistocene Cave No 16, Bulgaria, around 18,00040,000 years ago.", "These apodiformes build their nests in colonies in a suitable cliff hole or cave, laying two or three eggs.", "Young swifts in the nest can drop their body temperature and become torpid if bad weather prevents their parents from catching insects nearby.", "They have adapted well to urban conditions, frequently nesting in old buildings in towns around the Mediterranean, where large, low-flying flocks are a familiar feature there in summer.", "Alpine swifts have a short forked tail and very long swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerang but may be held stretched straight out.", "Alpine swifts are readily distinguished from the common swifts by their larger size and their white belly and throat.", "It is a polytypic species found all year-round in eastern and southern Africa, Madagascar, western peninsular India and Sri Lanka, with larger non-breeding distributions in western, eastern and southern Africa, parts of the western edge of the Arabian peninsula, and breeding across southern Europe in the west across Turkey, northwards through the Caucasus and along the east coast of the Black Sea to the Crimean peninsula and Central Asia up to Turkestan and to the south along Iran and Afghanistan up to Balochistan in Western Pakistan and further east along the Himalayas.", "A. m. melba described originally by Linnaeus with type-locality Gibraltar distributed across southern Europe and northern Morocco and east through Asia Minor to northwest Iran and wintering in west, central and east Africa, A. m. tuneti described by von Tschusi in 1904 with type-locality in Tunisia and distributed across central and eastern Morocco eastwards to Libya and through Middle East and Iran to southeast Kazakhstan and up to western Pakistan, and wintering in west and east Africa, A. m. archeri described by Hartnert with type-locality Hargeisa, in Somaliland distributed from the Dead Sea depression at the borders of Israel and Jordan, south to southwest Arabia and Somalia, A. m. africanus described by Temminck with type-locality in South Africa distributed across east and southern Africa and southwest Angola with some populations of this sub-species wintering in east Africa, A. m. maximus described by Ogilvie-Grant with type-locality in the eastern slopes of the Rwenzori mountains at 10,000-12,000 ft distributed across Uganda and DR Congo, A. m. marjoriae described by R D Bradfield from Quickborn, Damaraland distributed in Namibia and adjacent western South Africa in the northwestern parts of Northern Cape, A. m. willsi described by Ernst Hartnert from Madagascar and endemic to the island, A. m. nubifugus described by Koelz distributed across the Himalayas and wintering in central India, A. m. dorabtatai described by Abdulali distributed in western peninsular India, A. m. bakeri described by Hartert from Sri Lanka distributed only on that island-nation.", "In the In the western palearctic, temperate and mediterranean zones, it is typically in the mountains but occasionally in lowlands, while in remainder of sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, it occurs in a larger variety of habitats ranging from sub-desert steppe to mountains.", "Alpine swifts spend most of their lives in the air, living on the insects they catch in their beaks.", "A study published in 2013 showed Alpine swifts can spend over six months flying without having to land.", "In 2011, Felix Liechti and his colleagues at the Swiss Ornithological Institute attached electronic tags that log movement to six alpine swifts and it was discovered that the birds could stay aloft in the air for more than 200 days straight."], "habitat_section": ["It is a polytypic species found all year-round in eastern and southern Africa, Madagascar, western peninsular India and Sri Lanka, with larger non-breeding distributions in western, eastern and southern Africa, parts of the western edge of the Arabian peninsula, and breeding across southern Europe in the west across Turkey, northwards through the Caucasus and along the east coast of the Black Sea to the Crimean peninsula and Central Asia up to Turkestan and to the south along Iran and Afghanistan up to Balochistan in Western Pakistan and further east along the Himalayas.", "There are also scattered populations in northwestern Africa with an isolated population in Northern Libya.", "The distribution of the 10 sub-species are.", "A. m. melba described originally by Linnaeus with type-locality Gibraltar distributed across southern Europe and northern Morocco and east through Asia Minor to northwest Iran and wintering in west, central and east Africa, A. m. tuneti described by von Tschusi in 1904 with type-locality in Tunisia and distributed across central and eastern Morocco eastwards to Libya and through Middle East and Iran to southeast Kazakhstan and up to western Pakistan, and wintering in west and east Africa, A. m. archeri described by Hartnert with type-locality Hargeisa, in Somaliland distributed from the Dead Sea depression at the borders of Israel and Jordan, south to southwest Arabia and Somalia, A. m. africanus described by Temminck with type-locality in South Africa distributed across east and southern Africa and southwest Angola with some populations of this sub-species wintering in east Africa, A. m. maximus described by Ogilvie-Grant with type-locality in the eastern slopes of the Rwenzori mountains at 10,000-12,000 ft distributed across Uganda and DR Congo, A. m. marjoriae described by R D Bradfield from Quickborn, Damaraland distributed in Namibia and adjacent western South Africa in the northwestern parts of Northern Cape, A. m. willsi described by Ernst Hartnert from Madagascar and endemic to the island, A. m. nubifugus described by Koelz distributed across the Himalayas and wintering in central India, A. m. dorabtatai described by Abdulali distributed in western peninsular India, A. m. bakeri described by Hartert from Sri Lanka distributed only on that island-nation.", "In the In the western palearctic, temperate and mediterranean zones, it is typically in the mountains but occasionally in lowlands, while in remainder of sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, it occurs in a larger variety of habitats ranging from sub-desert steppe to mountains.", "It typically breeds below 1500 m but may sometimes go up to 2300 m. In the tropical parts of it range in Kenya, it has been recorded breeding above 4000 m and in the Himalayas, it has been observed foraging at 3700 m. Seen entering probable nesting sites at 2100 m on Madagascar.", "It has a powerful and rapid flight with deep slow wing beats.", "They are known to engage in twilight ascent, which is characterised by increased flight activity and gaining altitude and longer-distance horizontal flights at dawn and dusk, possibly part of social interactions between individuals.", "Alpine swifts spend most of their lives in the air, living on the insects they catch in their beaks.", "They drink on the wing, but roost on vertical cliffs or walls.", "A study published in 2013 showed Alpine swifts can spend over six months flying without having to land.", "All vital physiological processes, including sleep, can be performed while in air.", "In 2011, Felix Liechti and his colleagues at the Swiss Ornithological Institute attached electronic tags that log movement to six alpine swifts and it was discovered that the birds could stay aloft in the air for more than 200 days straight."], "random_sentences": ["The alpine swift formerly Apus melba, is a species of swift found in Africa, southern Europe and Asia.", "They breed in mountains from southern Europe to the Himalaya.", "Like common swifts, they are migratory", "the southern European population winters further south in southern Africa.", "They have very short legs which are used for clinging to vertical surfaces.", "Like most swifts, they never settle voluntarily on the ground, spending most of their lives in the air living on the insects they catch in their beaks.", "The genus name is from the Ancient Greek takhus, \" fast \" , and marptis, \" seizer \" .", "The specific name melba comes from melano-alba or mel-alba, the two colours that Linnaeus referred to these in his description.", "A total of ten sub-species are currently recognised .", "This is a large swift measuring 2022 cm in length with a wingspan of 5460 cm with broad wings and tail with a shallow fork, superficially similar to a large barn swallow or house martin although unrelated to these two species, since swifts are in the order Apodiformes.", "The resemblance could be due to convergent evolution, reflecting similar lifestyles.", "Upper parts are olive-brown with sharp and long wings with wing-tips appearing blacker", "underparts with white throat and highly visible and distinctive oval white belly patch encircled by olive-brown breastband, flanks and undertail-coverts.", "Races tuneti and marjoriae paler, with grey-brown plumage", "archeri averages paler than tuneti, with shorter wings", "maximus is the largest race, with very dark, blackish plumage", "africanus and nubifugus smaller than nominate, with blacker plumage, smaller throat patch and blacker shaft-streaks on white areas", "willsi and bakeri both smaller, with darker plumage and broader and narrower breast bands, respectively", "dorabtatai has broader breast band and shorter wings than nubifugus and is separated from bakeri by its paler plumage and broader breast band.", "Alpine swifts breed in mountains from southern Europe to the Himalaya.", "Like common swifts, they are strongly migratory, and winter much further south in southern Africa.", "They wander widely on migration, and are regularly seen in much of southern Europe, middle east, and Asia.", "The species seems to have been much more widespread during the last ice age, with a large colony breeding, for example in the Late Pleistocene Cave No 16, Bulgaria, around 18,00040,000 years ago.", "The same situation has been found for Komarowa Cave near Czestochowa, Poland during a period about 20,00040,000 years ago.", "These apodiformes build their nests in colonies in a suitable cliff hole or cave, laying two or three eggs.", "Swifts will return to the same sites year after year, rebuilding their nests when necessary, and pairing for life.", "Young swifts in the nest can drop their body temperature and become torpid if bad weather prevents their parents from catching insects nearby.", "They have adapted well to urban conditions, frequently nesting in old buildings in towns around the Mediterranean, where large, low-flying flocks are a familiar feature there in summer.", "Alpine swifts have a short forked tail and very long swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerang but may be held stretched straight out.", "Their flight is slower and more powerful than that of their smaller relatives, with a call that is a drawn-out twittering .", "Alpine swifts are readily distinguished from the common swifts by their larger size and their white belly and throat.", "They are around twice as big as most other swifts in their range, about in length, with a wingspan of and a weight of around .", "By comparison, the common swift has a wingspan of around .", "They're largely dark brown in colour with a dark neck band that separates the white throat from the white belly.", "Juveniles are similar to adults, but their feathers are pale edged.", "It is a polytypic species found all year-round in eastern and southern Africa, Madagascar, western peninsular India and Sri Lanka, with larger non-breeding distributions in western, eastern and southern Africa, parts of the western edge of the Arabian peninsula, and breeding across southern Europe in the west across Turkey, northwards through the Caucasus and along the east coast of the Black Sea to the Crimean peninsula and Central Asia up to Turkestan and to the south along Iran and Afghanistan up to Balochistan in Western Pakistan and further east along the Himalayas.", "There are also scattered populations in northwestern Africa with an isolated population in Northern Libya.", "The distribution of the 10 sub-species are: A. m. melba described originally by Linnaeus with type-locality Gibraltar distributed across southern Europe and northern Morocco and east through Asia Minor to northwest Iran and wintering in west, central and east Africa, A. m. tuneti described by von Tschusi in 1904 with type-locality in Tunisia and distributed across central and eastern Morocco eastwards to Libya and through Middle East and Iran to southeast Kazakhstan and up to western Pakistan, and wintering in west and east Africa, A. m. archeri described by Hartnert with type-locality Hargeisa, in Somaliland distributed from the Dead Sea depression at the borders of Israel and Jordan, south to southwest Arabia and Somalia, A. m. africanus described by Temminck with type-locality in South Africa distributed across east and southern Africa and southwest Angola with some populations of this sub-species wintering in east Africa, A. m. maximus described by Ogilvie-Grant with type-locality in the eastern slopes of the Rwenzori mountains at 10,000-12,000 ft distributed across Uganda and DR Congo, A. m. marjoriae described by R D Bradfield from Quickborn, Damaraland distributed in Namibia and adjacent western South Africa in the northwestern parts of Northern Cape, A. m. willsi described by Ernst Hartnert from Madagascar and endemic to the island, A. m. nubifugus described by Koelz distributed across the Himalayas and wintering in central India, A. m. dorabtatai described by Abdulali distributed in western peninsular India, A. m. bakeri described by Hartert from Sri Lanka distributed only on that island-nation.", "In the In the western palearctic, temperate and mediterranean zones, it is typically in the mountains but occasionally in lowlands, while in remainder of sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, it occurs in a larger variety of habitats ranging from sub-desert steppe to mountains.", "It typically breeds below 1500 m but may sometimes go up to 2300 m. In the tropical parts of it range in Kenya, it has been recorded breeding above 4000 m and in the Himalayas, it has been observed foraging at 3700 m. Seen entering probable nesting sites at 2100 m on Madagascar.", "It has a powerful and rapid flight with deep slow wing beats.", "They are known to engage in twilight ascent, which is characterised by increased flight activity and gaining altitude and longer-distance horizontal flights at dawn and dusk, possibly part of social interactions between individuals.", "Alpine swifts spend most of their lives in the air, living on the insects they catch in their beaks.", "They drink on the wing, but roost on vertical cliffs or walls.", "A study published in 2013 showed Alpine swifts can spend over six months flying without having to land.", "All vital physiological processes, including sleep, can be performed while in air.", "In 2011, Felix Liechti and his colleagues at the Swiss Ornithological Institute attached electronic tags that log movement to six alpine swifts and it was discovered that the birds could stay aloft in the air for more than 200 days straight.", "Diet was mainly arthropods, principally insects but also spiders.", "Insects across 10 orders and 79 families were documented in the diets of individuals from Africa and Europe, the Homoptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera being the most often consumed."]}, "Larus michahellis": {"keywords": ["Mating on roof-top, Constanta, Romania The breeding range is centred on the Mediterranean Sea.", "In Europe, there are colonies all along the Mediterranean coast, and also on the Atlantic islands and coasts north to Brittany and west to the Azores.", "It also breeds on the western side of the Black Sea, here it overlaps with the Caspian gull but there is a difference in habitat, with the yellow-legged gull preferring sea cliffs and the Caspian gull flatter shores.", "Many birds remain in the same area all year round, but others migrate to spend the winter in mild areas of western Europe or head south as far as Senegal, Gambia and the Red Sea.", "There is also extensive northward post-breeding dispersal in the late summer, with numbers in southern England high from July to October.", "They will scavenge on rubbish tips and elsewhere, as well as seeking suitable prey in fields or on the coast, or robbing smaller gulls and other seabirds of their catches.", "Although urban populations are generally opportunistic scavengers, they can shift to a predatory diet if necessary, this was observed during the lockdown of Italy in 2020, when the lack of food scraps led the yellow-legged gulls of Rome to take prey as large as rats and rock doves.", "Atlantic gulls in Gibraltar have been observed and photographed picking and eating fruit from olive trees in flight.", "The nest is a sometimes sparse mound of vegetation built on the ground or on cliff ledges.", "In some places such as Gibraltar they have started nesting on buildings and even on trees."], "habitat_section": ["Mating on roof-top, Constanta, Romania The breeding range is centred on the Mediterranean Sea.", "In North Africa, it is common in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and increasing in places.", "Recent breeding has occurred in Libya and Egypt.", "In the Middle East, a few breed in Israel and Syria with larger numbers in Cyprus and Turkey.", "In Europe, there are colonies all along the Mediterranean coast, and also on the Atlantic islands and coasts north to Brittany and west to the Azores.", "It also breeds on the western side of the Black Sea, here it overlaps with the Caspian gull but there is a difference in habitat, with the yellow-legged gull preferring sea cliffs and the Caspian gull flatter shores.", "In recent decades birds have spread north into central and western Europe.", "One to four pairs have attempted to breed in southern England since 1995 , though colonisation has been very slow.", "Many birds remain in the same area all year round, but others migrate to spend the winter in mild areas of western Europe or head south as far as Senegal, Gambia and the Red Sea.", "There is also extensive northward post-breeding dispersal in the late summer, with numbers in southern England high from July to October.", "It is reported as a vagrant to northeastern North America and Nigeria."], "random_sentences": ["The yellow-legged gull is a large gull found in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, which has only recently achieved wide recognition as a distinct species.", "It was formerly treated as a subspecies of either the Caspian gull L. cachinnans, or more broadly as a subspecies of the herring gull L. argentatus.", "The genus name is from Latin Larus which appears to have referred to a gull or other large seabird, and the species name honours the German zoologist Karl Michahelles.", "In flight over the Gulf of Olbia", "It is now generally accepted that the yellow-legged gull is a full species, but until recently there was much disagreement.", "For example, British Birds magazine split the yellow-legged gull from the herring gull in 1993 but included the Caspian gull in the former, but the BOU in Great Britain retained the yellow-legged gull as a subspecies of the herring gull until 2007.", "DNA research, however, suggests that the yellow-legged gull is actually closest to the great black-backed gull L. marinus and the Armenian gull L. armenicus, while the Caspian gull is closer to the herring gull and the lesser black-backed gull L. fuscus, rather than being each other's closest relatives.", "There are two subspecies of the yellow-legged gull:", "Mating on roof-top, Constanta, Romania The breeding range is centred on the Mediterranean Sea.", "In North Africa, it is common in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and increasing in places.", "Recent breeding has occurred in Libya and Egypt.", "In the Middle East, a few breed in Israel and Syria with larger numbers in Cyprus and Turkey.", "In Europe, there are colonies all along the Mediterranean coast, and also on the Atlantic islands and coasts north to Brittany and west to the Azores.", "It also breeds on the western side of the Black Sea", "here it overlaps with the Caspian gull but there is a difference in habitat, with the yellow-legged gull preferring sea cliffs and the Caspian gull flatter shores.", "In recent decades birds have spread north into central and western Europe.", "One to four pairs have attempted to breed in southern England since 1995 , though colonisation has been very slow.", "Many birds remain in the same area all year round, but others migrate to spend the winter in mild areas of western Europe or head south as far as Senegal, Gambia and the Red Sea.", "There is also extensive northward post-breeding dispersal in the late summer, with numbers in southern England high from July to October.", "It is reported as a vagrant to northeastern North America and Nigeria.", "Nominate L. m. michahellis, Elba thumbnail", "Head of a two-year old yellow-legged gull taken at the Breton coast Juvenile with open beak The yellow-legged gull is a large gull, though the size does vary, with the smallest females being scarcely larger than a common gull and the largest males being roughly the size of a great black-backed gull.", "They range in length from in total length, from in wingspan and from in weight.", "Among standard measurements, the wing chord is , the bill is and the tarsus is .", "Adults are externally similar to herring gulls but have yellow legs.", "They have a grey back, slightly darker than herring gulls but lighter than lesser black-backed gulls.", "They are much whiter-headed in autumn, and have more extensively black wing tips with few white spots, just as lesser black-backed.", "They have a red spot on the bill as adults, like the entire complex.", "There is a red ring around the eye like in the lesser black-backed gull but unlike in the herring gull which has a dark yellow ring.", "First-year birds have a paler head, rump and underparts than those of the herring gull, more closely resembling first-year great black-backed gulls in plumage.", "They have a dark bill and eyes, pinkish grey legs, dark flight feathers and a well-defined black band on the tail.", "They become lighter in the underparts and lose the upperpart pattern subsequently.", "By their second winter, birds are essentially feathered like adults, save for the patterned feathers remaining on the wing coverts.", "However, their bill tips are black, their eyes still dark, and the legs are a light yellow flesh colour.", "The call is a loud laugh which is deeper and more nasal than the call of the herring gull.", "Larus michahellis juvenile in Rambla del Mar, Barcelona", "Yellow-legged gull eating a Eurasian collared dove in Barcelona Like most Larus gulls, they are omnivores and opportunistic foragers.", "They will scavenge on rubbish tips and elsewhere, as well as seeking suitable prey in fields or on the coast, or robbing smaller gulls and other seabirds of their catches.", "Although urban populations are generally opportunistic scavengers, they can shift to a predatory diet if necessary", "this was observed during the lockdown of Italy in 2020, when the lack of food scraps led the yellow-legged gulls of Rome to take prey as large as rats and rock doves.", "Atlantic gulls in Gibraltar have been observed and photographed picking and eating fruit from olive trees in flight.", "Larus michahellis atlantis - MHNT Yellow-legged gulls usually breed in colonies.", "Eggs, usually three, are laid from mid March to early May and are defended vigorously by this large gull.", "The nest is a sometimes sparse mound of vegetation built on the ground or on cliff ledges.", "In some places such as Gibraltar they have started nesting on buildings and even on trees.", "The eggs are incubated for 2731 days and the young birds fledge after 3540 days."]}, "Cygnus olor": {"keywords": ["It is native to much of Eurosiberia, and the far north of Africa.", "It is an introduced species in North America, home to the largest populations outside of its native range, with additional smaller introductions in Australasia and southern Africa.", "Mute swan subfossils, 6,000 years old, have been found in post-glacial peat beds of East Anglia, Great Britain.", "A related paleospecies recorded from fossils and subfossils is the Giant swan, Cygnus falconeri, a flightless species which lived on the islands of Malta and Sicily during the Middle Pleistocene.", "Fossils from the Pleistocene include Cygnus paloregonus from Fossil Lake, Oregon, Froman's Ferry, Idaho, and Arizona, referred to by Howard in The Waterfowl of the World as \" probably the mute type swan \" .", "Mute swans nest on large mounds that they build with waterside vegetation in shallow water on islands in the middle or at the very edge of a lake.", "They feed on a wide range of vegetation, both submerged aquatic plants which they reach with their long necks, and by grazing on land.", "The food commonly includes agricultural crop plants such as oilseed rape and wheat, and feeding flocks in the winter may cause significant crop damage, often as much through trampling with their large webbed feet, as through direct consumption.", "Unlike black swans, mute swans are usually strongly territorial with just a single pair on smaller lakes, though in a few locations where a large area of suitable feeding habitat is found they can be colonial. The largest colonies have over 100 pairs, such as at the colony at Abbotsbury Swannery in southern England, and at the southern tip of Oland Island, Ottenby Preserve, in the coastal waters of the Baltic Sea, and can have nests spaced as little as apart.", "A notable flock of non-breeding birds is found on the River Tweed estuary at Berwick-upon-Tweed in northeastern England, with a maximum count of 787 birds.", "Once the adults are mated they seek out their own territories and often live close to ducks and gulls, which may take advantage of the swan's ability to reach deep water weeds, which tend to spread out on the water surface.", "This limits the distribution of the species at the northern edge of its range as the cygnets need to learn to fly before the ponds and lakes freeze over.", "The mute swan is found naturally mainly in temperate areas of Europe then across the Palearctic as far east as Primorsky Krai, near Sidemi.", "It is partially migratory throughout northern latitudes in Europe and Asia, as far south as North Africa and the Mediterranean.", "While most of the current population in Japan is introduced, mute swans are depicted on scrolls more than 1,000 years old, and wild birds from the mainland Asian population still occur rarely in winter.", "The descendants of such birds have become naturalised in the eastern United States and Great Lakes, much as the Canada goose has done in Europe."], "habitat_section": ["The mute swan is found naturally mainly in temperate areas of Europe then across the Palearctic as far east as Primorsky Krai, near Sidemi.", "It is partially migratory throughout northern latitudes in Europe and Asia, as far south as North Africa and the Mediterranean.", "It is known and recorded to have nested in Iceland and is a vagrant to that area as well as to Bermuda, according to the UN Environment Programme chart of international status chart of bird species, which places it in 70 countries, breeding in 49 countries, and vagrant in 16 countries.", "While most of the current population in Japan is introduced, mute swans are depicted on scrolls more than 1,000 years old, and wild birds from the mainland Asian population still occur rarely in winter.", "Natural migrants to Japan usually occur along with whooper and sometimes Bewick's swans.", "The mute swan is protected in most of its range, but this has not prevented illegal hunting and poaching.", "It is often kept in captivity outside its natural range, as a decoration for parks and ponds, and escapes have happened.", "The descendants of such birds have become naturalised in the eastern United States and Great Lakes, much as the Canada goose has done in Europe."], "random_sentences": ["The mute swan is a species of swan and a member of the waterfowl family Anatidae.", "It is native to much of Eurosiberia, and the far north of Africa.", "It is an introduced species in North America, home to the largest populations outside of its native range, with additional smaller introductions in Australasia and southern Africa.", "The name 'mute' derives from it being less vocal than other swan species.", "Measuring in length, this large swan is wholly white in plumage with an orange beak bordered with black.", "It is recognizable by its pronounced knob atop the beak, which is larger in males.", "The mute swan was first formally described by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin as Anas olor in 1789, and was transferred by Johann Matthaus Bechstein to the new genus Cygnus in 1803.", "Both cygnus and olor mean \" swan \" in Latin", "cygnus is a variant form of cycnus, a borrowing from Greek kyknos, a word of the same meaning.", "Despite its Eurasian origin, its closest relatives are the black swan of Australia and the black-necked swan of South America, not the other Northern Hemisphere swans of the genus Cygnus.", "The species is monotypic, with no living subspecies.", "Mute swan subfossils, 6,000 years old, have been found in post-glacial peat beds of East Anglia, Great Britain.", "They have been recorded from Ireland east to Portugal and Italy, and from France, 13,000 BP .", "Cygnus olor bergmanni, which differed only in size from the living bird, is known from fossils found in Azerbaijan.", "A related paleospecies recorded from fossils and subfossils is the Giant swan, Cygnus falconeri, a flightless species which lived on the islands of Malta and Sicily during the Middle Pleistocene.", "Fossils of swan ancestors more distantly allied to the mute swan have been found in four U.S. states: California, Arizona, Idaho and Oregon.", "The timeline runs from the Miocene to the late Pleistocene, or 10,000 BP.", "The latest find was in Anza Borrego Desert, a state park in California.", "Fossils from the Pleistocene include Cygnus paloregonus from Fossil Lake, Oregon, Froman's Ferry, Idaho, and Arizona, referred to by Howard in The Waterfowl of the World as \" probably the mute type swan \" .", "Adults of this large swan typically range from long, although can range in extreme cases from , with a wingspan.", "Males are larger than females and have a larger knob on their bill.", "On average, this is the second largest waterfowl species after the trumpeter swan, although male mute swans can easily match or even exceed a male trumpeter in mass.", "Among standard measurements of the mute swan, the wing chord measures , the tarsus is and the bill is .", "The plumage is white, while the legs are dark grey.", "The beak of the mute swan is bright orange, with black around the nostrils and a black nail.", "The mute swan is one of the heaviest flying birds.", "In several studies from Great Britain, males were found to average from about , with a weight range of while the slightly smaller females averaged about , with a weight range of .", "Young birds, called cygnets, are not the bright white of mature adults, and their bill is dull greyish-black, not orange, for the first year.", "The down may range from pure white to grey to buff, with grey/buff the most common.", "The white cygnets have a leucistic gene.", "Cygnets grow quickly, reaching a size close to their adult size in approximately three months after hatching.", "Cygnets typically retain their grey feathers until they are at least one year old, with the down on their wings having been replaced by flight feathers earlier that year.", "All mute swans are white at maturity, though the feathers are often stained orange-brown by iron and tannins in the water.", "Two mute swan cygnets a few weeks old.", "The cygnet on the right is of the \" Polish swan \" colour morph, and carries a gene responsible for leucism.", "The colour morph C. o. morpha immutabilis , also known as the \" Polish swan \" , has pinkish legs and dull white cygnets", "as with white domestic geese, it is found only in populations with a history of domestication.", "Polish swans carry a copy of a gene responsible for leucism.", "Nest in Drilon, Pogradec, Albania.", "The cob is patrolling the area close to the nest to protect his mate.", "Mute swans nest on large mounds that they build with waterside vegetation in shallow water on islands in the middle or at the very edge of a lake.", "They are monogamous and often reuse the same nest each year, restoring or rebuilding it as needed.", "Male and female swans share the care of the nest, and once the cygnets are fledged it is not uncommon to see whole families looking for food.", "They feed on a wide range of vegetation, both submerged aquatic plants which they reach with their long necks, and by grazing on land.", "The food commonly includes agricultural crop plants such as oilseed rape and wheat, and feeding flocks in the winter may cause significant crop damage, often as much through trampling with their large webbed feet, as through direct consumption.", "Unlike black swans, mute swans are usually strongly territorial with just a single pair on smaller lakes, though in a few locations where a large area of suitable feeding habitat is found they can be colonial. The largest colonies have over 100 pairs, such as at the colony at Abbotsbury Swannery in southern England, and at the southern tip of Oland Island, Ottenby Preserve, in the coastal waters of the Baltic Sea, and can have nests spaced as little as apart.", "Non-mated juveniles up to 34 years old commonly form larger flocks, which can total several hundred birds, often at regular traditional sites.", "A notable flock of non-breeding birds is found on the River Tweed estuary at Berwick-upon-Tweed in northeastern England, with a maximum count of 787 birds.", "A large population exists near the Swan Lifeline Station in Windsor, and live on the Thames in the shadow of Windsor Castle.", "Once the adults are mated they seek out their own territories and often live close to ducks and gulls, which may take advantage of the swan's ability to reach deep water weeds, which tend to spread out on the water surface.", "The mute swan is less vocal than the noisy whooper and Bewick's swans", "they do, however, make a variety of sounds, often described as \" grunting, hoarse whistling, and snorting noises.", "\" During a courtship display, mute swans utter a rhythmic song.", "The song help synchronize the movements of their heads and necks.", "It could technically be employed to distinguish a bonded couple from two dating swans, as the rhythm of the song typically fails to match the pace of the head movements in two dating swans.", "Mute swans usually hiss at competitors or intruders trying to enter their territory.", "The most familiar sound associated with mute swans is the vibrant throbbing of the wings in flight which is unique to the species, and can be heard from a range of , indicating its value as a contact sound between birds in flight.", "Cygnets are especially vocal, and communicate through a variety of whistling and chirping sounds when content, as well as a harsh squawking noise when distressed or lost.", "Nesting in spring, Cologne, Germany Mute swans can be very aggressive in defence of their nests and are highly protective of their mate and offspring.", "Most defensive acts from a mute swan begin with a loud hiss and, if this is not sufficient to drive off the predator or intruder, are followed by a physical attack.", "Swans attack by striking at the threat with bony spurs in their wings, accompanied by biting with their large bill, while smaller waterbirds such as ducks are normally grabbed with the swan's bill and dragged or thrown clear of the swan and its offspring.", "The wings of the swan are very powerful, though not strong enough to break an adult man's leg, as is commonly misquoted.", "Large waterfowl, such as Canada geese, may be aggressively driven off, and mute swans regularly attack people who enter their territory.", "Healthy adults are rarely preyed upon, though canids such as coyotes, felids such as lynx, and bears can pose a threat to infirm ones (healthy adults can usually swim away from danger and nest defense is usually successful.", ") and there are a few cases of healthy adults falling prey to golden eagles.", "In England, there has been an increased rate of attacks on swans by out-of-control dogs, especially in parks where the birds are less territorial. This is considered criminal in British law, and the birds are placed under the highest protection due to their association with the monarch.", "Mute swans will readily attack dogs to protect themselves and their cygnets from an attack, and an adult swan is capable of overwhelming and drowning even large dog breeds.", "The familiar pose with neck curved back and wings half raised, known as busking, is a threat display.", "Both feet are paddled in unison during this display, resulting in more jerky movement.", "The swans may also use the busking posture for wind-assisted transportation over several hundred meters, so-called windsurfing.", "Like other swans, mute swans are known for their ability to grieve for a lost or dead mate or cygnet.", "Swans will go through a mourning process, and in the case of the loss of their mate, may either stay where its counterpart lived, or fly off to join a flock.", "Should one of the pair die while there are cygnets present, the remaining parent will take up their partner's duties in raising the clutch.", "Nest of a mute swan, Sweden Cygnets captured one day after they hatched.", "Newburg Lake, Livonia, MI, U.S. A three-day old cygnet Mute swans lay from 4 to 10 eggs.", "The female broods for around 36 days, with cygnets normally hatching between the months of May and July.", "The young swans do not achieve the ability to fly before about 120 to 150 days old.", "This limits the distribution of the species at the northern edge of its range as the cygnets need to learn to fly before the ponds and lakes freeze over.", "The mute swan is found naturally mainly in temperate areas of Europe then across the Palearctic as far east as Primorsky Krai, near Sidemi.", "It is partially migratory throughout northern latitudes in Europe and Asia, as far south as North Africa and the Mediterranean.", "It is known and recorded to have nested in Iceland and is a vagrant to that area as well as to Bermuda, according to the UN Environment Programme chart of international status chart of bird species, which places it in 70 countries, breeding in 49 countries, and vagrant in 16 countries.", "While most of the current population in Japan is introduced, mute swans are depicted on scrolls more than 1,000 years old, and wild birds from the mainland Asian population still occur rarely in winter.", "Natural migrants to Japan usually occur along with whooper and sometimes Bewick's swans.", "The mute swan is protected in most of its range, but this has not prevented illegal hunting and poaching.", "It is often kept in captivity outside its natural range, as a decoration for parks and ponds, and escapes have happened.", "The descendants of such birds have become naturalised in the eastern United States and Great Lakes, much as the Canada goose has done in Europe.", "The Threatened Swan by Jan Asselijn The mute swan has been the national bird of Denmark since 1984.", "Prior to that, the skylark was considered Denmark's national bird .", "The fairy tale \" The Ugly Duckling \" by Hans Christian Andersen tells the story of a cygnet ostracised by his fellow barnyard fowl because of his perceived unattractiveness.", "To his delight , he matures into a graceful swan, the most beautiful bird of all.", "Today, the British Monarch retains the right to ownership of all unmarked mute swans in open water, but Queen Elizabeth II exercised her ownership only on certain stretches of the Thames and its surrounding tributaries.", "This ownership is shared with the Vintners' and Dyers' Companies, who were granted rights of ownership by the Crown in the 15th century.", "The mute swans in the moat at the Bishops Palace at Wells Cathedral in Wells, England have for centuries been trained to ring bells via strings attached to them to beg for food.", "Two swans are still able to ring for lunch.", "The pair of swans in the Boston Public Garden are named Romeo and Juliet after the Shakespearean couple", "however, it was found that both of them are females."]}, "Parus major": {"keywords": ["Great tit in Sweden, winter 2016 The great tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.", "It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of North Africa where it is generally resident in any sort of woodland, most great tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters.", "It is predominantly insectivorous in the summer, but will consume a wider range of food items in the winter months, including small hibernating bats.", "The great tit has adapted well to human changes in the environment and is a common and familiar bird in urban parks and gardens.", "The 11 subspecies of the cinereous tit were once lumped with the great tit but recent genetic and bioacoustic studies now separate that group as a distinct species The great tit was formerly treated as ranging from Britain to Japan and south to the islands of Indonesia, with 36 described subspecies ascribed to four main species groups.", "The major group had 13 subspecies across Europe, temperate Asia and north Africa, the minor group's nine subspecies occurred from southeast Russia and Japan into northern southeast Asia and the 11 subspecies in the cinereus group were found from Iran across south Asia to Indonesia.", "This form was once thought to form a ring species around the Tibetan Plateau, with gene flow throughout the subspecies, but this theory was abandoned when sequences of mitochondrial DNA were examined, finding that the four groups were distinct and that the hybridisation zones between the groups were the result of secondary contact after a temporary period of isolation.", "The other subspecies have much more restricted distributions, four being restricted to islands and the remainder of the P. m. major subspecies representing former glacial refuge populations.", "Mixed forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe A nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia.", "It can be found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands.", "It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens.", "In dense forests, including conifer forests it prefers forest clearings.", "In northern Siberia it lives in boreal taiga.", "In North Africa it rather resides in oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves.", "In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest.", "Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan subspecies, as well as low scrubland, oases, at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.", "Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic and also to Netherlands, Britain, even as far as the southern Balkans.", " Male great tit on branch with sunflower seed Great tits are primarily insectivorous in the summer, feeding on insects and spiders which they capture by foliage gleaning.", "Seeds and fruit usually come from deciduous trees and shrubs, like for instance the seeds of beech and hazel.", "In particularly severe winters they may consume 44% of their body weight in sunflower seeds.", "Great tit nesting in nest box Great tits are cavity nesters, breeding in a hole that is usually inside a tree, although occasionally in a wall or rock face, and they will readily take to nest boxes.", "The nest inside the cavity is built by the female, and is made of plant fibres, grasses, moss, hair, wool and feathers.", "Insularity also affects clutch size, with great tits on offshore islands laying smaller clutches with larger eggs than mainland birds.", "This patch turns white after the first moult at age two months, and diminishes in size as the bird grows.", "Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.", "Reduced cold injury and heat loss is mediated by the great tits counter-current vascular arrangements, and peripheral vasoconstriction in major vessels in and around the birds bill and legs.", "In response to food restriction, the great tits bill temperature dropped, and once food availably was increased, bill temperatures gradually returned to normal. Vasoconstriction of blood vessels in the bill not only serves as an energy saving mechanism, but also reduces the amount of heat transferred from core body tissues to the skin , which, in turn, reduces heat loss rate by lowering skin temperature relative to the environment.", "It is more common and has better breeding success in areas with undisturbed forest cover, but it has adapted to human modified habitats.", "In areas with low frequency background noise pollution, the song has a higher frequency than in quieter areas."], "habitat_section": ["Mixed forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe A nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia.", "It can be found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands.", "In North Africa it lives in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.", "It also occurs across the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia from northern Iran and Afghanistan to Mongolia, as well as across northern Asia from the Urals as far east as northern China and the Amur Valley.", "The great tit occupies a range of habitats.", "It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens.", "In dense forests, including conifer forests it prefers forest clearings.", "In northern Siberia it lives in boreal taiga.", "In North Africa it rather resides in oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves.", "In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest.", "Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan subspecies, as well as low scrubland, oases, at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.", "The great tit is generally not migratory.", "Pairs will usually remain near or in their territory year round, even in the northern parts of their range.", "Young birds will disperse from their parents' territory, but usually not far.", "Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic and also to Netherlands, Britain, even as far as the southern Balkans.", "The great tit was unsuccessfully introduced into the United States, birds were set free near Cincinnati, Ohio between 1872 and 1874 but failed to become established.", "Suggestions that they were an excellent control measure for codling moths nearly led to their introduction to some new areas particularly in the United States of America, however this plan was not implemented.", "A small population is present in the upper Midwest, believed to be the descendants of birds liberated in Chicago in 2002 along with European goldfinches, Eurasian jays, common chaffinches, European greenfinches, saffron finches, blue tits and Eurasian linnets, although sightings of some of these species pre-date the supposed introduction date.", "Birds were introduced to the Almaty Province in what is now Kazakhstan in 196061 and became established, although their present status is unclear.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a predator of great tits, with the young from second broods being at higher risk partly because of the hawk's greater need for food for its own developing young.", "The nests of great tits are raided by great spotted woodpeckers, particularly when nesting in certain types of nest boxes.", "Other nest predators include introduced grey squirrels and least weasels, which are able to take nesting adults as well.", "A species of biting louse described as Rostrinirmus hudeci was isolated and described in 1981 from great tits in central Europe.", "The hen flea Ceratophyllus gallinae is exceedingly common in the nests of blue and great tits.", "It was originally a specialist tit flea, but the dry, crowded conditions of chicken runs enabled it to flourish with its new host.", "This flea is preferentially predated by the clown beetle Gnathoncus punctulatus, The rove beetle Microglotta pulla also feeds on fleas and their larvae.", "Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.", "Great tits compete with the pied flycatcher for nesting boxes, and can kill prospecting flycatcher males.", "Incidences of fatal competition are more frequent when nesting times overlap, and climate change has led to greater synchrony of nesting between the two species and flycatcher deaths.", "Having killed the flycatchers, the great tits may consume their brains."], "random_sentences": ["Great tit in Sweden, winter 2016 The great tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.", "It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of North Africa where it is generally resident in any sort of woodland", "most great tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters.", "Until 2005 this species was lumped with numerous other subspecies.", "DNA studies have shown these other subspecies to be distinct from the great tit and these have now been separated as two distinct species, the cinereous tit of southern Asia, and the Japanese tit of East Asia.", "The great tit remains the most widespread species in the genus Parus.", "The great tit is a distinctive bird with a black head and neck, prominent white cheeks, olive upperparts and yellow underparts, with some variation amongst the numerous subspecies.", "It is predominantly insectivorous in the summer, but will consume a wider range of food items in the winter months, including small hibernating bats.", "Like all tits it is a cavity nester, usually nesting in a hole in a tree.", "The female lays around 12 eggs and incubates them alone, although both parents raise the chicks.", "In most years the pair will raise two broods.", "The nests may be raided by woodpeckers, squirrels and weasels and infested with fleas, and adults may be hunted by sparrowhawks.", "The great tit has adapted well to human changes in the environment and is a common and familiar bird in urban parks and gardens.", "The great tit is also an important study species in ornithology.", "The great tit was described under its current binomial name by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "Its scientific name is derived from the Latin parus \" tit \" and maior \" larger \" .", "Francis Willughby had used the name in the 17th century.", "alt Bird with similar markings to great tit, but colours washed out and greyer, drinks from a leaking tap", "The 11 subspecies of the cinereous tit were once lumped with the great tit but recent genetic and bioacoustic studies now separate that group as a distinct species The great tit was formerly treated as ranging from Britain to Japan and south to the islands of Indonesia, with 36 described subspecies ascribed to four main species groups.", "The major group had 13 subspecies across Europe, temperate Asia and north Africa, the minor group's nine subspecies occurred from southeast Russia and Japan into northern southeast Asia and the 11 subspecies in the cinereus group were found from Iran across south Asia to Indonesia.", "The three bokharensis subspecies were often treated as a separate species, Parus bokharensis, the Turkestan tit.", "This form was once thought to form a ring species around the Tibetan Plateau, with gene flow throughout the subspecies, but this theory was abandoned when sequences of mitochondrial DNA were examined, finding that the four groups were distinct and that the hybridisation zones between the groups were the result of secondary contact after a temporary period of isolation.", "A study published in 2005 confirmed that the major group was distinct from the cinereus and minor groups and that along with P. m. bokharensis it diverged from these two groups around 1.5 million years ago.", "The divergence between the bokharensis and major groups was estimated to have been about half a million years ago.", "The study also examined hybrids between representatives of the major and minor groups in the Amur Valley where the two meet.", "Hybrids were rare, suggesting that there were some reproductive barriers between the two groups.", "The study recommended that the two eastern groups be split out as new species, the cinereous tit , and the Japanese tit , but that the Turkestan tit be lumped in with the great tit.", "This taxonomy has been followed by some authorities, for example the IOC World Bird List.", "The Handbook of the Birds of the World volume treating the Parus species went for the more traditional classification, treating the Turkestan tit as a separate species but retaining the Japanese and cinereous tits with the great tit, a move that has not been without criticism.", "The nominate subspecies of the great tit is the most widespread, its range stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to the Amur Valley and from Scandinavia to the Middle East.", "The other subspecies have much more restricted distributions, four being restricted to islands and the remainder of the P. m. major subspecies representing former glacial refuge populations.", "The dominance of a single, morphologically uniform subspecies over such a large area suggests that the nominate race rapidly recolonised a large area after the last glacial epoch.", "This hypothesis is supported by genetic studies which suggest a geologically recent genetic bottleneck followed by a rapid population expansion.", "In females and juveniles the mid-line stripe is narrower and sometimes discontinuous", "alt duller-plumaged great tit with weak breast and belly stripe The great tit is large for a tit at in length, and has a distinctive appearance that makes it easy to recognise.", "The nominate race P. major major has a bluish-black crown, black neck, throat, bib and head, and white cheeks and ear coverts.", "The breast is bright lemon-yellow and there is a broad black mid-line stripe running from the bib to vent.", "There is a dull white spot on the neck turning to greenish yellow on the upper nape.", "The rest of the nape and back are green tinged with olive.", "The wing-coverts are green, the rest of the wing is bluish-grey with a white wing-bar.", "The tail is bluish grey with white outer tips.", "The plumage of the female is similar to that of the male except that the colours are overall duller", "the bib is less intensely black, as is the line running down the belly, which is also narrower and sometimes broken.", "Young birds are like the female, except that they have dull olive-brown napes and necks, greyish rumps, and greyer tails, with less defined white tips.", "The plumage of the male is typically bright, although this varies by subspecies", "alt Great tit with strongly yellow sides perched on twig There is some variation in the subspecies.", "P. m. newtoni is like the nominate race but has a slightly longer bill, the mantle is slightly deeper green, there is less white on the tail tips, and the ventral mid-line stripe is broader on the belly.", "P. m. corsus also resembles the nominate form but has duller upperparts, less white in the tail and less yellow in the nape.", "P. m. mallorcae is like the nominate subspecies, but has a larger bill, greyer-blue upperparts and slightly paler underparts.", "P. m. ecki is like P. m. mallorcae except with bluer upperparts and paler underparts.", "P. m. excelsus is similar to the nominate race but has much brighter green upperparts, bright yellow underparts and no white on the tail.", "P. m. aphrodite has darker, more olive-grey upperparts, and the underparts are more yellow to pale cream.", "P. m. niethammeri is similar to P. m. aphrodite but the upperparts are duller and less green, and the underparts are pale yellow.", "P. m. terrasanctae resembles the previous two subspecies but has slightly paler upperparts.", "P. m. blandfordi is like the nominate but with a greyer mantle and scapulars and pale yellow underparts, and P. m. karelini is intermediate between the nominate and P. m. blandfordi, and lacks white on the tail.", "The plumage of P. m. bokharensis is much greyer, pale creamy white to washed out grey underparts, a larger white cheep patch, a grey tail, wings, back and nape.", "It is also slightly smaller, with a smaller bill but longer tail.", "The situation is similar for the two related subspecies in the Turkestan tit group.", "P. m. turkestanicus is like P. m. bokharensis but with a larger bill and darker upperparts.", "P. m. ferghanensis is like P. m. bokharensis but with a smaller bill, darker grey on the flanks and a more yellow wash on the juvenile birds.", "Female great tit and male The colour of the male bird's breast has been shown to correlate with stronger sperm, and is one way that the male demonstrates his reproductive superiority to females.", "Higher levels of carotenoid increase the intensity of the yellow of the breast its colour, and also enable the sperm to better withstand the onslaught of free radicals.", "Carotenoids cannot be synthesized by the bird and have to be obtained from food, so a bright colour in a male demonstrates his ability to obtain good nutrition.", "However, the saturation of the yellow colour is also influenced by environmental factors, such as weather conditions.", "The width of the male's ventral stripe, which varies with individual, is selected for by females, with higher quality females apparently selecting males with wider stripes.", "Great tit : song ", "Great tit : sonagram ", "Great tit twittering The great tit is, like other tits, a vocal bird, and has up to 40 types of calls and songs.", "The calls are generally the same between the sexes, but the male is much more vocal and the female rarely calls.", "Soft single notes such as \" pit \" , \" spick \" , or \" chit \" are used as contact calls.", "A loud \" tink \" is used by adult males as an alarm or in territorial disputes.", "One of the most familiar is a \" teacher, teacher \" , often likened to a squeaky wheelbarrow wheel, which is used in proclaiming ownership of a territory.", "In former times, English folk considered the \" saw-sharpening \" call to be a foretelling of rain.", "There is little geographic variation in calls, but tits from the two south Asian groups recently split from the great tit do not recognise or react to the calls of the temperate great tits.", "alt forest clearing with leaf strewn floor, low plants and saplings, and tall trees partly obscuring the sky", "Mixed forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe A nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia.", "It can be found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands.", "In North Africa it lives in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.", "It also occurs across the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia from northern Iran and Afghanistan to Mongolia, as well as across northern Asia from the Urals as far east as northern China and the Amur Valley.", "The great tit occupies a range of habitats.", "It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens.", "In dense forests, including conifer forests it prefers forest clearings.", "In northern Siberia it lives in boreal taiga.", "In North Africa it rather resides in oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves.", "In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest.", "Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan subspecies, as well as low scrubland, oases", "at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.", "The great tit is generally not migratory.", "Pairs will usually remain near or in their territory year round, even in the northern parts of their range.", "Young birds will disperse from their parents' territory, but usually not far.", "Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic and also to Netherlands, Britain, even as far as the southern Balkans.", "The great tit was unsuccessfully introduced into the United States", "birds were set free near Cincinnati, Ohio between 1872 and 1874 but failed to become established.", "Suggestions that they were an excellent control measure for codling moths nearly led to their introduction to some new areas particularly in the United States of America, however this plan was not implemented.", "A small population is present in the upper Midwest, believed to be the descendants of birds liberated in Chicago in 2002 along with European goldfinches, Eurasian jays, common chaffinches, European greenfinches, saffron finches, blue tits and Eurasian linnets, although sightings of some of these species pre-date the supposed introduction date.", "Birds were introduced to the Almaty Province in what is now Kazakhstan in 196061 and became established, although their present status is unclear.", "Like other tits, great tits transport food with their beak, and then transfer it to their feet, where it is held while they eat", "alt Male great tit on branch with sunflower seed Great tits are primarily insectivorous in the summer, feeding on insects and spiders which they capture by foliage gleaning.", "Their larger invertebrate prey include cockroaches, grasshoppers and crickets, lacewings, earwigs, bugs , ants, flies , caddis flies, beetles, scorpion flies, harvestmen, bees and wasps, snails and woodlice.", "A study published in 2007 found that great tits helped to reduce caterpillar damage in apple orchards by as much as 50%.", "Nestlings also undergo a period in their early development where they are fed a number of spiders, possibly for nutritional reasons.", "In autumn and winter, when insect prey becomes scarcer, great tits add berries and seeds to their diet.", "Seeds and fruit usually come from deciduous trees and shrubs, like for instance the seeds of beech and hazel.", "Where it is available they will readily take table scraps, peanuts and sunflower seeds from bird tables.", "In particularly severe winters they may consume 44% of their body weight in sunflower seeds.", "They often forage on the ground, particularly in years with high beech mast production.", "Great tits, along with other tits, will join winter mixed-species foraging flocks.", "Great tit feeding its young with an insect Large food items, such as large seeds or prey, are dealt with by \" hold-hammering \" , where the item is held with one or both feet and then struck with the bill until it is ready to eat.", "Using this method, a great tit can get into a hazelnut in about twenty minutes.", "When feeding young, adults will hammer off the heads of large insects to make them easier to consume, and remove the gut from caterpillars so that the tannins in the gut will not retard the chick's growth.", "Great tits combine dietary versatility with a considerable amount of intelligence and the ability to solve problems with insight learning, that is to solve a problem through insight rather than trial and error.", "In England, great tits learned to break the foil caps of milk bottles delivered at the doorstep of homes to obtain the cream at the top.", "This behaviour, first noted in 1921, spread rapidly in the next two decades.", "In 2009, great tits were reported killing, and eating the brains of roosting pipistrelle bats.", "This is the first time a songbird has been recorded preying on bats.", "The tits only do this during winter when the bats are hibernating and other food is scarce.", "They have also been recorded using tools, using a conifer needle in the bill to extract larvae from a hole in a tree.", "Great tits are monogamous breeders and establish breeding territories.", "These territories are established in late January and defence begins in late winter or early spring.", "Territories are usually reoccupied in successive years, even if one of the pair dies, so long as the brood is raised successfully.", "Females are likely to disperse to new territories if their nest is predated the previous year.", "If the pair divorces for some reason then the birds will disperse, with females travelling further than males to establish new territories.", "Although the great tit is socially monogamous, extra-pair copulations are frequent.", "One study in Germany found that 40% of nests contained some offspring fathered by parents other than the breeding male and that 8.5% of all chicks were the result of cuckoldry.", "Adult males tend to have a higher reproductive success compared to sub-adults.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden Young chicks in the nest", "alt nest with seven chicks.", "These are covered with grey down, and have bright yellow gapes Great tits are seasonal breeders.", "The exact timing of breeding varies by a number of factors, most importantly location.", "Most breeding occurs between January and September", "in Europe the breeding season usually begins after March.", "In Israel there are exceptional records of breeding during the months of October to December.", "The amount of sunlight and daytime temperatures will also affect breeding timing.", "One study found a strong correlation between the timing of laying and the peak abundance of caterpillar prey, which is in turn correlated to temperature.", "On an individual level, younger females tend to start laying later than older females.", "alt Great tit leaving its wooden nest box right", "Great tit nesting in nest box Great tits are cavity nesters, breeding in a hole that is usually inside a tree, although occasionally in a wall or rock face, and they will readily take to nest boxes.", "The nest inside the cavity is built by the female, and is made of plant fibres, grasses, moss, hair, wool and feathers.", "The number in the clutch is often very large, as many as 18, but five to twelve is more common.", "Clutch size is smaller when birds start laying later, and is also lower when the density of competitors is higher.", "Second broods tend to have smaller clutches.", "Insularity also affects clutch size, with great tits on offshore islands laying smaller clutches with larger eggs than mainland birds.", "The eggs are white with red spots.", "The female undertakes all incubation duties, and is fed by the male during incubation.", "The bird is a close sitter, hissing when disturbed.", "The timing of hatching, which is best synchronised with peak availability of prey, can be manipulated when environmental conditions change after the laying of the first egg by delaying the beginning of incubation, laying more eggs or pausing during incubation.", "The incubation period is between 12 and 15 days.", "alt Young bird with ruffled adult-like plumage and yellow gape The chicks, like those of all tits, hatch unfeathered and blind.", "Once feathers begin to erupt, the nestlings are unusual for altricial birds in having plumage coloured with carotenoids similar to their parents .", "The nape is yellow and attracts the attention of the parents by its ultraviolet reflectance.", "This may be to make them easier to find in low light, or be a signal of fitness to win the parents' attention.", "This patch turns white after the first moult at age two months, and diminishes in size as the bird grows.", "Chicks are fed by both parents, usually receiving of food a day.", "Inbreeding depression occurs when the offspring produced as a result of a mating between close relatives show reduced fitness.", "The reduced fitness is generally considered to be a consequence of the increased expression of deleterious recessive alleles in these offspring.", "In natural populations of P. major, inbreeding is avoided by dispersal of individuals from their birthplace, which reduces the chance of mating with a close relative.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a predator of great tits, with the young from second broods being at higher risk partly because of the hawk's greater need for food for its own developing young.", "The nests of great tits are raided by great spotted woodpeckers, particularly when nesting in certain types of nest boxes.", "Other nest predators include introduced grey squirrels and least weasels, which are able to take nesting adults as well.", "A species of biting louse described as Rostrinirmus hudeci was isolated and described in 1981 from great tits in central Europe.", "The hen flea Ceratophyllus gallinae is exceedingly common in the nests of blue and great tits.", "It was originally a specialist tit flea, but the dry, crowded conditions of chicken runs enabled it to flourish with its new host.", "This flea is preferentially predated by the clown beetle Gnathoncus punctulatus, The rove beetle Microglotta pulla also feeds on fleas and their larvae.", "Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.", "Great tits compete with the pied flycatcher for nesting boxes, and can kill prospecting flycatcher males.", "Incidences of fatal competition are more frequent when nesting times overlap, and climate change has led to greater synchrony of nesting between the two species and flycatcher deaths.", "Having killed the flycatchers, the great tits may consume their brains.", "Great tits have been found to possess special physiological adaptations for cold environments.", "When preparing for winter months, the great tit can increase how thermogenic its blood is.", "The mechanism for this adaptation is a seasonal increase in mitochondrial volume and mitochondrial respiration in red blood cells and increased uncoupling of the electron transport from ATP production.", "Reduced cold injury and heat loss is mediated by the great tits counter-current vascular arrangements, and peripheral vasoconstriction in major vessels in and around the birds bill and legs.", "This mechanism allows uninsulated regions to remain close to the surrounding temperature.", "In response to food restriction, the great tits bill temperature dropped, and once food availably was increased, bill temperatures gradually returned to normal. Vasoconstriction of blood vessels in the bill not only serves as an energy saving mechanism, but also reduces the amount of heat transferred from core body tissues to the skin , which, in turn, reduces heat loss rate by lowering skin temperature relative to the environment.", "The great tit's willingness to use bird-feeders and nesting boxes makes it popular with the general public and useful to scientists", "alt adult great tit perched on hand The great tit is a popular garden bird due to its acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or seed.", "Its willingness to move into nest boxes has made it a valuable study subject in ornithology", "it has been particularly useful as a model for the study of the evolution of various life-history traits, particularly clutch size.", "A study of a literature database search found 1,349 articles relating to Parus major for the period between 1969 and 2002.", "The great tit has generally adjusted to human modifications of the environment.", "It is more common and has better breeding success in areas with undisturbed forest cover, but it has adapted to human modified habitats.", "It can be very common in urban areas.", "For example, the breeding population in the city of Sheffield has been estimated at some 17,000 individuals.", "In adapting to human environments its song has been observed to change in noise-polluted urban environments.", "In areas with low frequency background noise pollution, the song has a higher frequency than in quieter areas.", "This tit has expanded its range, moving northwards into Scandinavia and Scotland, and south into Israel and Egypt.", "The total population is estimated at between 3001,100 million birds in a range of 32.4 million km 2 .", "While there have been some localised declines in population in areas with poorer quality habitats, its large range and high numbers mean that the great tit is not considered to be threatened, and it is classed as least concern on the IUCN Red List."]}, "Columba livia": {"keywords": ["Wild rock doves are pale grey with two black bars on each wing, whereas domestic and feral pigeons vary in colour and pattern.", "Cliffs and rock ledges are used for roosting and breeding in the wild.", "Originally found wild in Europe, North Africa, and western Asia, pigeons have become established in cities around the world.", "In Iran, reflecting its love of cliff-like perches In India The official common name is rock dove, as given by the International Ornithological Congress.", "Darwin posited that, despite wide-ranging morphological differences, the many hundreds of breeds of domestic pigeon could all be traced back to the wild rock dove, in essence human selection of pigeon breeds was analogous to natural selection.", "Weight for wild or feral rock doves ranges from , though overfed domestic and semidomestic individuals can exceed normal weights.", "It is strong and quick on the wing, dashing out from sea caves, flying low over the water, its lighter grey rump showing well from above.", "Feral pigeons are essentially the same size and shape as the original wild rock dove, but often display far greater variation in colour and pattern compared to their wild ancestors.", "The blue-barred pattern which the original wild rock dove displays is generally less common in more urban areas.", "A study of melanin in the feathers of both wild rock and domestic pigeons, of different coloration types and known genetic background, measured the concentration, distribution and proportions of eumelanin and pheomelanin and found that gene mutations affecting the distribution, amounts and proportions of pigments accounted for the greater variation of coloration in domesticated birds than in their wild relations.", "Despite these demonstrated abilities, wild rock doves are sedentary and rarely leave their local areas.", "It is hypothesized that in their natural, arid habitat, they rely on this sense to navigate back home after foraging as deserts rarely possess navigational landmarks that may be used.", "A rock pigeon's lifespan ranges from 35 years in the wild to 15 years in captivity, though longer-lived specimens have been reported.", "Perched on sea cliffs in Norfolk, England Before the Columbian Exchange, rock doves were restricted to a natural resident range in western and southern Europe, North Africa, and extending into South Asia.", "Wild pigeons reside in rock formations and cliff faces, settling in crevices to nest.", "Wild nesting sites include caves, canyons, and sea cliffs.", "They will even live in the Sahara so long as an area has rocks, water, and some plant matter.", "Human structures provide an excellent imitation of cliff structures, making rock doves very common around human habitation.", "Skyscrapers, highway overpasses, farm buildings, abandoned buildings, and other human structures with ample crevices are conducive to rock dove nesting.", "Agricultural settlements are favored over forested ones.", "Incubating an egg, showing their relatively flimsy nests Courtship display The rock dove breeds at any time of the year, but peak times are spring and summer.", "Nesting sites are along coastal cliff faces, as well as the artificial cliff faces created by apartment buildings with accessible ledges or roof spaces.", "A rock dove eating grains Rock doves are omnivorous, but prefer plant matter.", "Feral pigeons can be seen eating grass seeds and berries in parks and gardens in the spring, but plentiful sources exist throughout the year from scavenging Pigeons tend to congregate in large, often thick flocks when feeding on discarded food, and may be observed flying skillfully around trees, buildings, telephone poles and cables and even through moving traffic just to reach a food source.", "In cities they typically resort to scavenging human garbage, as unprocessed grain may be impossible to find.", "Domestic pigeons Rock doves have been domesticated for several thousand years, giving rise to the domestic pigeon .", "Research into whether pigeons play a part in spreading bird flu have shown pigeons do not carry the deadly H5N1 strain.", "Three studies have been done since the late 1990s by the US Agriculture Department's Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia, according to the center's director, David Swayne."], "habitat_section": ["Perched on sea cliffs in Norfolk, England Before the Columbian Exchange, rock doves were restricted to a natural resident range in western and southern Europe, North Africa, and extending into South Asia.", "They were carried into the New World aboard European ships between 1603 and 1607.", "The species has a large range, with an estimated global extent of occurrence of .", "It has a large global population, including an estimated 17 to 28 million individuals in Europe.", "Fossil evidence suggests the rock dove originated in southern Asia, and skeletal remains, unearthed in Israel, confirm its existence there for at least 300,000 years.", "However, this species has such a long history with humans that it is impossible to identify its original range exactly.", "Wild pigeons reside in rock formations and cliff faces, settling in crevices to nest.", "They nest communally, often forming large colonies of many hundreds of individuals.", "Wild nesting sites include caves, canyons, and sea cliffs.", "They will even live in the Sahara so long as an area has rocks, water, and some plant matter.", "They prefer to avoid dense vegetation.", "Rock doves have a commensal relationship with humans, gaining both ample access to food and nesting spots in civilized areas.", "Human structures provide an excellent imitation of cliff structures, making rock doves very common around human habitation.", "Skyscrapers, highway overpasses, farm buildings, abandoned buildings, and other human structures with ample crevices are conducive to rock dove nesting.", "Thus the modern range of the rock dove is due in large part to humans.", "Agricultural settlements are favored over forested ones.", "Ideal human nesting attributes combine areas with tall buildings, green spaces, ample access to human food, and schools.", "Conversely, suburban areas which are far from city centers and have high street density are the least conducive to pigeons.", "Their versatility among human structures is evidenced by a population living inside a deep well in Tunisia.", "Feral pigeons are usually unable to find these accommodations, so they must nest on building ledges, walls or statues.", "They may damage these structures via their feces, starving birds can only excrete urates, which over time corrodes masonry and metal. In contrast, a well-fed bird passes mostly solid feces, containing only small amounts of uric acid.", "Pigeons are often found in pairs in the breeding season, but are usually gregarious."], "random_sentences": ["The rock dove, rock pigeon, or common pigeon ( also", "Columba livia) is a member of the bird family Columbidae .", "In common usage, it is often simply referred to as the \" pigeon \" .", "The domestic pigeon descended from this species.", "Escaped domestic pigeons have increased the populations of feral pigeons around the world.", "Wild rock doves are pale grey with two black bars on each wing, whereas domestic and feral pigeons vary in colour and pattern.", "Few differences are seen between males and females.", "Habitats include various open and semi-open environments.", "Cliffs and rock ledges are used for roosting and breeding in the wild.", "Originally found wild in Europe, North Africa, and western Asia, pigeons have become established in cities around the world.", "The species is abundant, with an estimated population of 17 to 28 million feral and wild birds in Europe alone and up to 120 million worldwide.", "In Iran, reflecting its love of cliff-like perches In India The official common name is rock dove, as given by the International Ornithological Congress.", "The rock dove was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.", "He placed it with all the other doves and pigeons in the genus Columba and coined the binomial name Columba livia.", "The genus name Columba is the Latin word meaning \" pigeon, dove \" , whose older etymology comes from the Ancient Greek , \" a diver \" , from , \" dive, plunge headlong, swim \" .", "Aristophanes and others use the word , \" diver \" , for the name of the bird, because of its swimming motion in the air.", "The specific epithet livia is a medieval Latin variant of livida, \" livid, bluish-gray \"", "this was Theodorus Gaza's translation of Greek peleia, \" dove \" , itself thought to be derived from pellos, \" dark-colored \" .", "Its closest relative in the genus Columba is the hill pigeon, followed by the other rock pigeons: the snow, speckled, and white-collared pigeons.", "Pigeon chicks are called \" squabs \" .", "Note that members of the lesser known pigeon genus Petrophassa and the speckled pigeon , also have the common name rock pigeon.", "The rock dove was first described by German naturalist Johann Gmelin in 1789.", "The rock dove was central to Charles Darwin's discovery of evolution, and featured in four of his works from 1859 to 1872.", "Darwin posited that, despite wide-ranging morphological differences, the many hundreds of breeds of domestic pigeon could all be traced back to the wild rock dove", "in essence human selection of pigeon breeds was analogous to natural selection.", "A distinctive operculum is located on top of the beak.", "Centuries of domestication have greatly altered the rock dove.", "Feral pigeons, which have escaped domestication throughout history, have significant variations in plumage.", "The adult of the nominate subspecies of the rock dove is long with a wingspan.", "Weight for wild or feral rock doves ranges from , though overfed domestic and semidomestic individuals can exceed normal weights.", "It has a dark bluish-grey head, neck, and chest with glossy yellowish, greenish, and reddish-purple iridescence along its neck and wing feathers.", "The iris is orange, red, or golden with a paler inner ring, and the bare skin round the eye is bluish-grey.", "The bill is grey-black with a conspicuous off-white cere, and the feet are purplish-red.", "Among standard measurements, the wing chord is typically around , the tail is , the bill is around , and the tarsus is .", "A medium sized flock forages The adult female is almost identical in outward appearance to the male, but the iridescence on her neck is less intense and more restricted to the rear and sides, whereas that on the breast is often very obscure.", "The white lower back of the pure rock dove is its best identification characteristic", "the two black bars on its pale grey wings are also distinctive.", "The tail has a black band on the end, and the outer web of the tail feathers are margined with white.", "It is strong and quick on the wing, dashing out from sea caves, flying low over the water, its lighter grey rump showing well from above.", "Young birds show little lustre and are duller.", "Eye colour of the pigeon is generally orange, but a few pigeons may have white-grey eyes.", "The eyelids are orange and encapsulated in a grey-white eye ring.", "The feet are red to pink.", "In flight, British Columbia, Canada When circling overhead, the white underwing of the bird becomes conspicuous.", "In its flight, behaviour, and voice, which is more of a dovecot coo than the phrase of the wood pigeon, it is a typical pigeon.", "Although it is a relatively strong flier, it also glides frequently, holding its wings in a very pronounced V shape as it does.", "As prey birds, they must keep their vigilance, and when disturbed a pigeon within a flock will take off with a noisy clapping sound that cues for other pigeons to take to flight.", "The noise of the take-off increases the faster a pigeon beats its wings, thus advertising the magnitude of a perceived threat to its flockmates.", "Feral pigeons are essentially the same size and shape as the original wild rock dove, but often display far greater variation in colour and pattern compared to their wild ancestors.", "The blue-barred pattern which the original wild rock dove displays is generally less common in more urban areas.", "Urban pigeons tend to have darker plumage than those in more rural areas.", "Slow motion, demonstrating the wing movements", "altA pigeon in flight in slow motion, demonstrating the wing movements", "right Pigeons feathers have two types of melanin ", "A study of melanin in the feathers of both wild rock and domestic pigeons, of different coloration types and known genetic background, measured the concentration, distribution and proportions of eumelanin and pheomelanin and found that gene mutations affecting the distribution, amounts and proportions of pigments accounted for the greater variation of coloration in domesticated birds than in their wild relations.", "Eumelanin generally causes grey or black colouration, while pheomelanin results in a reddish-brown colour.", "Other shades of brown may be produced through different combinations and concentrations of the two colours.", "As in other animals, white pigeons have little to no pigment.", "Darker birds may be better able to store trace metals in their feathers due to their higher concentrations of melanin, which may help mitigate the negative effects of the metals, the concentrations of which are typically higher in urban areas.", "Pigeons, especially homing or carrier breeds, are well known for their ability to find their way home from long distances.", "Despite these demonstrated abilities, wild rock doves are sedentary and rarely leave their local areas.", "It is hypothesized that in their natural, arid habitat, they rely on this sense to navigate back home after foraging as deserts rarely possess navigational landmarks that may be used.", "A rock pigeon's lifespan ranges from 35 years in the wild to 15 years in captivity, though longer-lived specimens have been reported.", "The main causes of mortality in the wild are predators and persecution by humans.", "Some sources state the species was first introduced to North America in 1606 at Port Royal, Nova Scotia.", "Although other sources cite Plymouth and Jamestown settlements in the early 17th century as the first place for species introduction in North America.", "In Chandigarh, India, showing that the iridescence wraps around the whole neck", "The call is a soft, slightly wavering, coo.", "Ornithologist David Sibley describes the display call as a whoo, hoo-witoo-hoo, whereas the Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes it as a Coo, roo-c'too-coo.", "Variations include an alarm call, a nest call, and noises made by juveniles.", "Sibley describes the nest call as a repeated hu-hu-hurrr.", "When displaying, songs are partly sexual, partly threatening.", "They are accompanied by an inflated throat, tail fanning, strutting, and bowing.", "The alarm call, given at sight of predators, is a grunt-like oorhh.", "Non-vocal sounds include a loud flapping noise at take-off, feet stomping, hisses, and beak snapping.", "Wings may also be clapped during flights, usually during display fights or after copulation.", "Juveniles particularly snap their bills, usually to respond to nest invasion.", "The foot stomping appears deliberate, though for what purpose is unclear.", "Foot stomping is done with a certain foot first, showing that rock doves have \" footedness \" , similar to human handedness.", "Perched on sea cliffs in Norfolk, England Before the Columbian Exchange, rock doves were restricted to a natural resident range in western and southern Europe, North Africa, and extending into South Asia.", "They were carried into the New World aboard European ships between 1603 and 1607.", "The species has a large range, with an estimated global extent of occurrence of .", "It has a large global population, including an estimated 17 to 28 million individuals in Europe.", "Fossil evidence suggests the rock dove originated in southern Asia, and skeletal remains, unearthed in Israel, confirm its existence there for at least 300,000 years.", "However, this species has such a long history with humans that it is impossible to identify its original range exactly.", "Wild pigeons reside in rock formations and cliff faces, settling in crevices to nest.", "They nest communally, often forming large colonies of many hundreds of individuals.", "Wild nesting sites include caves, canyons, and sea cliffs.", "They will even live in the Sahara so long as an area has rocks, water, and some plant matter.", "They prefer to avoid dense vegetation.", "Rock doves have a commensal relationship with humans, gaining both ample access to food and nesting spots in civilized areas.", "Human structures provide an excellent imitation of cliff structures, making rock doves very common around human habitation.", "Skyscrapers, highway overpasses, farm buildings, abandoned buildings, and other human structures with ample crevices are conducive to rock dove nesting.", "Thus the modern range of the rock dove is due in large part to humans.", "Agricultural settlements are favored over forested ones.", "Ideal human nesting attributes combine areas with tall buildings, green spaces, ample access to human food, and schools.", "Conversely, suburban areas which are far from city centers and have high street density are the least conducive to pigeons.", "Their versatility among human structures is evidenced by a population living inside a deep well in Tunisia.", "Feral pigeons are usually unable to find these accommodations, so they must nest on building ledges, walls or statues.", "They may damage these structures via their feces", "starving birds can only excrete urates, which over time corrodes masonry and metal. In contrast, a well-fed bird passes mostly solid feces, containing only small amounts of uric acid.", "Pigeons are often found in pairs in the breeding season, but are usually gregarious.", "Two squabs, a few days old altA pigeon incubating its eggs", "Incubating an egg, showing their relatively flimsy nests Courtship display The rock dove breeds at any time of the year, but peak times are spring and summer.", "Nesting sites are along coastal cliff faces, as well as the artificial cliff faces created by apartment buildings with accessible ledges or roof spaces.", "Pigeons can compete with native birds for nest sites.", "For some avian species, such as seabirds, it could be a conservation issue.", "Current evidence suggests that wild, domestic and feral pigeons mate for life, although their long-term bonds are not unbreakable.", "They are socially monogamous, but extra-pair matings do occur, often initiated by males.", "Due to their ability to produce crop milk, pigeons can breed at any time of year.", "Pigeons breed when the food supply is abundant enough to support embryonic egg development, which in cities, can be any time of the year.", "Laying of eggs can take place up to six times per year.", "Pigeons are often found in pairs during the breeding season, but usually the pigeons are gregarious, living in flocks of 50 to 500 birds .", "Courtship rituals can be observed in urban parks at any time of the year.", "The male on the ground or rooftops puffs up the feathers on his neck to appear larger and thereby impress or attract attention.", "He approaches the female at a rapid walking pace while emitting repetitive quiet notes, often bowing and turning as he comes closer.", "At first, the female invariably walks or flies a short distance away and the male follows her until she stops.", "At this point, he continues the bowing motion and very often makes full- or half-pirouettes in front of the female.", "The male then proceeds to feed the female by regurgitating food, as they do when feeding the young.", "The male then mounts the female, rearing backwards to be able to join their cloacae.", "The mating is very brief, with the male flapping his wings to maintain balance on top of the female.", "The nest is a flimsy platform of straw and sticks, laid on a ledge, under cover, often on the window ledges of buildings.", "Two white eggs are laid", "incubation, shared by both parents, lasts 17 to 19 days.", "The newly hatched squab has pale yellow down and a flesh-coloured bill with a dark band.", "For the first few days, the baby squabs are tended and fed exclusively on \" crop milk \" .", "The pigeon milk is produced in the crops of both parents in all species of pigeon and dove.", "The fledging period is about 30 days.", "A rock dove eating grains Rock doves are omnivorous, but prefer plant matter: chiefly fruits and grains.", "Studies of pigeons in a semi-rural part of Kansas found that their diet includes the following: 92% maize, 3.2% oats, 3.7% cherry, along with small amounts of knotweed, elm, poison ivy and barley.", "Feral pigeons can be seen eating grass seeds and berries in parks and gardens in the spring, but plentiful sources exist throughout the year from scavenging Pigeons tend to congregate in large, often thick flocks when feeding on discarded food, and may be observed flying skillfully around trees, buildings, telephone poles and cables and even through moving traffic just to reach a food source.", "Pigeons feed on the ground in flocks or individually.", "Pigeons are naturally granivorous, eating seeds that fit down their gullet.", "They may sometimes consume small invertebrates such as worms or insect larvae as a protein supplement.", "As they do not possess an enlarged cecum as in European wood pigeons, they cannot digest adult plant tissue", "the various seeds they eat containing the appropriate nutrients they require.", "While most birds take small sips and tilt their heads backwards when drinking, pigeons are able to dip their bills into the water and drink continuously, without having to tilt their heads back.", "In cities they typically resort to scavenging human garbage, as unprocessed grain may be impossible to find.", "Pigeon groups typically consist of producers, which locate and obtain food, and scroungers, which feed on food obtained by the producers.", "Generally, groups of pigeons contain a greater proportion of scroungers than producers.", "Pigeons primarily use powder down feathers for preening, which gives a soft and silky feel to their plumage.", "They have no preen gland or at times have very rudimentary preen glands, so oil is not used for preening.", "Rather, powder down feathers are spread across the body.", "These have a tendency to disintegrate, and the powder, akin to talcum powder, helps maintain the plumage.", "Some varieties of domestic pigeon have modified feathers called \" fat quills \" .", "These feathers contain yellow, oil-like fat that derives from the same cells as powder down.", "This is used while preening and helps reduce bacterial degradation of feathers by feather bacilli.", "Domestic pigeons Rock doves have been domesticated for several thousand years, giving rise to the domestic pigeon .", "They may have been domesticated as long as 5,000 years ago.", "Numerous breeds of fancy pigeons of all sizes, colours, and types have been bred.", "Domesticated pigeons are used as homing pigeons as well as food and pets.", "They were in the past also used as carrier pigeons.", " does not consider bacteria Pigeons have been falsely associated with the spread of human diseases.", " Contact with pigeon droppings poses a minor risk of contracting histoplasmosis, cryptococcosis and psittacosis, and long-term exposure to both droppings and feathers can induce an allergy known as bird fancier's lung.", "Pigeons are not a major concern in the spread of West Nile virus: though they can contract it, they apparently do not transmit it.", "Some contagions are transmitted by pigeons", "for example, the bacteria Chlamydophila psittaci is endemic among pigeons and causes psittacosis in humans.", "It is generally transmitted from handling pigeons or their droppings .", "Psittacosis is a serious disease but rarely fatal .", "Pigeons are also important vectors for various species of the bacteria Salmonella, which causes diseases such as salmonellosis and paratyphoid fever.", "Pigeons are also known to host avian mites, which can infest human habitation and bite humans, a condition known as gamasoidosis.", "However, infesting mammals is relatively rare.", "Pigeons may, however, carry and spread avian influenza.", "One study has shown that adult pigeons are not clinically susceptible to the most dangerous strain of avian influenza, H5N1, and that they do not transmit the virus to poultry.", "Other studies have presented evidence of clinical signs and neurological lesions resulting from infection but found that the pigeons did not transmit the disease to poultry reared in direct contact with them.", "Pigeons were found to be \" resistant or minimally susceptible \" to other strains of avian influenza, such as the H7N7.", "Research into whether pigeons play a part in spreading bird flu have shown pigeons do not carry the deadly H5N1 strain.", "Three studies have been done since the late 1990s by the US Agriculture Department's Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia, according to the center's director, David Swayne.", "The lab has been working on bird flu since the 1970s.", "In one experiment, researchers squirted into pigeons' mouths liquid drops that contained the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus from a Hong Kong sample.", "The birds received 100 to 1,000 times the concentration that wild birds would encounter in nature.", "\" We couldn't infect the pigeons, \" Swayne said.", "\" So that's good news.", "altTwo eggs in the collection of the Museum de Toulouse"]}, "Marchantia polymorpha": {"keywords": ["U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory .", "Marchantia polymorpha subsp. ruderalis has a circumpolar boreo-arctic cosmopolitan distribution, found worldwide on all continents except Antarctica.", "Marchantia polymorpha grows on shaded moist soil and rocks in damp habitats such as the banks of streams and pools, bogs, fens and dune slacks.", "While most varieties grow on moist substrates, Marchantia polymorpha var. aquatica is semi-aquatic and is often found invading marshes, as well as small ponds that do not have a consistent water table.", "The species often grows in man-made habitats such as gardens, paths and greenhouses and can be a horticultural weed.", "Liners infested with M. polymorpha, often in association with silvery thread moss, are commonly grown in one region of the country, transported to another region to continue growth, and are shipped to a retail location before being planted.", "A study from Niagara Cave showed that under such conditions, Marchantia polymorpha was able to produce gemmae, indicating that the plant could be able to reproduce in illuminated caves.", "An important benefit of M. polymorpha is that it is frequently the first vegetation to appear after a large wildfire.", "Exposed mineral soil and high lime concentrations present after a severe fire provide favorable conditions for gametophyte establishment.", "After invading the burned area, M. polymorpha grows rapidly, sometimes covering the entire site.", "This is important to the prevention of soil erosion that frequently occurs after severe fires, causing significant, long-term, environmental damage.", "In addition, M. polymorpha renews the humus in the burned soil, and over time raises the quality of the soil to a point where other vegetation can be established.", "Not only does common liverwort secure burned soil and improve its quality, but after a certain point, when the soil health is restored, it can no longer compete with the vegetation that originally inhabited the area.", "In a USDA study in northeastern Minnesota, M. polymorpha dominated the landscape for 3 years after a severe fire, but after 5 years was replaced by lichen.", "After a similar fire in New Jersey M. polymorpha covered the ground for 23 years, but was then replaced with local shrubs and forbs.", "In Alaska the following vegetative successions were observed after a fire, again indicating that after soil rehabilitation has occurred the original flora returns and outcompetes M. polymorpha.", "The U.S. Department of Agriculture has studied M. polymorpha for its use in rehabilitating disturbed sites due to its ability to tolerate high lead concentrations in soils, along with other heavy metals."], "habitat_section": ["Marchantia polymorpha subsp. ruderalis has a circumpolar boreo-arctic cosmopolitan distribution, found worldwide on all continents except Antarctica.", "Marchantia polymorpha grows on shaded moist soil and rocks in damp habitats such as the banks of streams and pools, bogs, fens and dune slacks.", "While most varieties grow on moist substrates, Marchantia polymorpha var. aquatica is semi-aquatic and is often found invading marshes, as well as small ponds that do not have a consistent water table.", "The species often grows in man-made habitats such as gardens, paths and greenhouses and can be a horticultural weed.", "One method of spread is in the production and sale of liners.", "Liners infested with M. polymorpha, often in association with silvery thread moss, are commonly grown in one region of the country, transported to another region to continue growth, and are shipped to a retail location before being planted.", "Plants have the potential to pick up or disperse these species at each point of transfer.", "Marchantia polymorpha is known to be able to use artificial light to grow in places which are otherwise devoid of natural light.", "A study from Niagara Cave showed that under such conditions, Marchantia polymorpha was able to produce gemmae, indicating that the plant could be able to reproduce in illuminated caves.", "It has also been reported from Crystal Cave in Wisconsin.", "An important benefit of M. polymorpha is that it is frequently the first vegetation to appear after a large wildfire.", "Exposed mineral soil and high lime concentrations present after a severe fire provide favorable conditions for gametophyte establishment.", "After invading the burned area, M. polymorpha grows rapidly, sometimes covering the entire site.", "This is important to the prevention of soil erosion that frequently occurs after severe fires, causing significant, long-term, environmental damage.", "In addition, M. polymorpha renews the humus in the burned soil, and over time raises the quality of the soil to a point where other vegetation can be established.", "Not only does common liverwort secure burned soil and improve its quality, but after a certain point, when the soil health is restored, it can no longer compete with the vegetation that originally inhabited the area.", "In a USDA study in northeastern Minnesota, M. polymorpha dominated the landscape for 3 years after a severe fire, but after 5 years was replaced by lichen.", "After a similar fire in New Jersey M. polymorpha covered the ground for 23 years, but was then replaced with local shrubs and forbs.", "In Alaska the following vegetative successions were observed after a fire, again indicating that after soil rehabilitation has occurred the original flora returns and outcompetes M. polymorpha."], "random_sentences": ["Marchantia polymorpha is a species of large thalloid liverwort in the class Marchantiopsida.", "M. polymorpha is highly variable in appearance and contains several subspecies.", "This species is dioicous, having separate male and female plants.", "M. polymorpha has a wide distribution and is found worldwide.", "In: Fire Effects Information System, .", "U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory .", "Common names include common liverwort or umbrella liverwort.", "Marchantia polymorpha subsp. ruderalis has a circumpolar boreo-arctic cosmopolitan distribution, found worldwide on all continents except Antarctica.", "Marchantia polymorpha grows on shaded moist soil and rocks in damp habitats such as the banks of streams and pools, bogs, fens and dune slacks.", "While most varieties grow on moist substrates, Marchantia polymorpha var. aquatica is semi-aquatic and is often found invading marshes, as well as small ponds that do not have a consistent water table.", "The species often grows in man-made habitats such as gardens, paths and greenhouses and can be a horticultural weed.", "One method of spread is in the production and sale of liners.", "Liners infested with M. polymorpha, often in association with silvery thread moss, are commonly grown in one region of the country, transported to another region to continue growth, and are shipped to a retail location before being planted.", "Plants have the potential to pick up or disperse these species at each point of transfer.", "Marchantia polymorpha is known to be able to use artificial light to grow in places which are otherwise devoid of natural light.", "A study from Niagara Cave showed that under such conditions, Marchantia polymorpha was able to produce gemmae, indicating that the plant could be able to reproduce in illuminated caves.", "It has also been reported from Crystal Cave in Wisconsin.", "An important benefit of M. polymorpha is that it is frequently the first vegetation to appear after a large wildfire.", "Exposed mineral soil and high lime concentrations present after a severe fire provide favorable conditions for gametophyte establishment.", "After invading the burned area, M. polymorpha grows rapidly, sometimes covering the entire site.", "This is important to the prevention of soil erosion that frequently occurs after severe fires, causing significant, long-term, environmental damage.", "In addition, M. polymorpha renews the humus in the burned soil, and over time raises the quality of the soil to a point where other vegetation can be established.", "Not only does common liverwort secure burned soil and improve its quality, but after a certain point, when the soil health is restored, it can no longer compete with the vegetation that originally inhabited the area.", "In a USDA study in northeastern Minnesota, M. polymorpha dominated the landscape for 3 years after a severe fire, but after 5 years was replaced by lichen.", "After a similar fire in New Jersey M. polymorpha covered the ground for 23 years, but was then replaced with local shrubs and forbs.", "In Alaska the following vegetative successions were observed after a fire, again indicating that after soil rehabilitation has occurred the original flora returns and outcompetes M. polymorpha.", "Thallus of Marchantia polymorpha subsp. ruderalis showing dichotomous branching and gemma cups It is a thallose liverwort which forms a rosette of flattened thalli with forked branches.", "The thalli grow up to 10cm long with a width of up to 2cm.", "It is usually green in colour but older plants can become brown or purplish.", "The upper surface has a pattern of polygonal markings.", "The underside is covered by many root-like rhizoids which attach the plant to the soil.", "The complex oil bodies in Marchantia polymorpha, as in all Marchantiopsida species, are restricted to specialized cells where they occupy nearly the entire intracellular space.", "Life cycle of Marchantia polymorpha", "The life cycle has an alternation of generations.", "Haploid gametophytes produces haploid gametes, egg and sperm, which then fuse to form a diploid zygote.", "The zygote later develops into a sporophyte which later produces haploid spores through meiosis.", "Female and male gametophores of Marchantia polymorpha subsp. ruderalis", "The U.S. Department of Agriculture has studied M. polymorpha for its use in rehabilitating disturbed sites due to its ability to tolerate high lead concentrations in soils, along with other heavy metals.", "In turn, M. polymorpha colonies can be an indication that a site has high concentrations of heavy metals, especially when found in dense mats with little other vegetative species present.", "It has historically been thought to remedy liver ailments because of its perceived similarities to the shape and texture of animal livers.", "This is an example of the doctrine of signatures.", "Marchantia polymorpha produces the antifungal bis dihydrostilbenoids plagiochin E, 13,13'-O-isoproylidenericcardin D, riccardin H, marchantin E, neomarchantin A, marchantin A and marchantin B. Its strong fungicidal capability has been used successfully in the treatment of skin and nail fungi."]}}
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|
2610064_1142624
| 423
|
[
"Silene acaulis"
] |
{"Silene acaulis": {"keywords": ["Silene acaulis, known as moss campion or cushion pink, is a small mountain-dwelling wildflower that is common all over the high arctic and tundra in the higher mountains of Eurasia and North America, .", "It is an evergreen perennial flowering plant in the carnation family Caryophyllaceae.", "right Moss campion is a low, ground-hugging plant.", "The dead leaves from the previous season persist for years, and pink flowers are borne singly on short stalks that may be up to 1 \" long, but are usually much shorter.", "This genus, circumpolar in its distribution, is closely related to carnations.", "The other variety subacaulescens, from Wyoming and Colorado, has pale pink flowers all summer.", "Alpine fellfield, on windswept rocky ridges and summits above treeline.", "It grows mainly in dry, gravelly localities, but also in damper places.", "With the cushions it produces its own, warmer climate with higher temperatures inside, when the sun shines.", "Common all over the high arctic and the higher mountains of Eurasia and North America, .", "In the United States it inhabits Colorado, the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming, the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon, the Olympics, the northern Cascades of Washington and Alaska.", "Put the seedlings into separate pots, and it is recommended to let them winter in the greenhouse for their first winter season.", "They should be grown in well-drained soil with full sun.", "The climate can be cool.", "The raw root skin plants were consumed as a vegetable in Iceland and in Arctic regions.", "Experimental warming has been shown to start flowering substantially earlier than control cushions experiencing ambient temperature.", "However, a study on four populations across a latitudinal gradient in North America showed that southern populations of moss campion had lower survival and recruitment, but higher individual growth rates than more northern populations.", "Furthermore, vital rates such as growth, survival, and fruits per area were shown to increase in moderately warmer years yet declined in the very warmest years, suggesting that a change in climate into warmer conditions or more frequent unusually warm summers may eventually lead to negative impacts.", "Another study showed that while the short term responses were positive, they turned negative on medium-term, suggestion that moss campion may be at risk in future global warming.", "Projections produced under different climate scenarios suggest that S. acaulis will likely face climate-driven fast decline in suitable areas on the British Isles and across North America, and that upward and northward shifts to occupy new climatically suitable areas are improbable in the future.", "There is no listing that moss campion is toxic, though it does have saponins which, though toxic, are hard to absorb in the body."], "habitat_section": ["Alpine fellfield, on windswept rocky ridges and summits above treeline.", "It grows mainly in dry, gravelly localities, but also in damper places.", "With the cushions it produces its own, warmer climate with higher temperatures inside, when the sun shines.", "USDA North American distribution of Silene acaulis Jacq.", "Common all over the high arctic and the higher mountains of Eurasia and North America, .", "In the United States it inhabits Colorado, the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming, the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon, the Olympics, the northern Cascades of Washington and Alaska."], "random_sentences": ["Silene acaulis, known as moss campion or cushion pink, is a small mountain-dwelling wildflower that is common all over the high arctic and tundra in the higher mountains of Eurasia and North America, .", "It is an evergreen perennial flowering plant in the carnation family Caryophyllaceae.", "It is also called the compass plant, since the flowers appear first on the south side of the cushion.", "(Various other plants also have this name.", "right Moss campion is a low, ground-hugging plant.", "It may seem densely matted and moss-like.", "The dense cushions are up to a foot or more in diameter.", "The plants are usually about 2 \" tall but may be as high as 6 \" .", "The bright green leaves are narrow, arising from the base of the plant.", "The dead leaves from the previous season persist for years, and pink flowers are borne singly on short stalks that may be up to 1 \" long, but are usually much shorter.", "It usually has pink flowers, though very rarely they may be white.", "The flowers are held by a calyx which is rather firm and thick.", "The flowers are female, male or hermaphrodites.", "The sepals are joined together into a tube that conceals the bases of the petals, which are entire.", "The 10 stamens and 3 styles extend well beyond the throat of the flower.", "This genus, circumpolar in its distribution, is closely related to carnations.", "The stems and leaves are very sticky and viscid, which may discourage ants and beetles from climbing on the plant.", "The variety exscapa has shorter flowering stems.", "The other variety subacaulescens, from Wyoming and Colorado, has pale pink flowers all summer.", "Alpine fellfield, on windswept rocky ridges and summits above treeline.", "It grows mainly in dry, gravelly localities, but also in damper places.", "With the cushions it produces its own, warmer climate with higher temperatures inside, when the sun shines.", "USDA North American distribution of Silene acaulis (L.", "Common all over the high arctic and the higher mountains of Eurasia and North America, .", "In the United States it inhabits Colorado, the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming, the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon, the Olympics, the northern Cascades of Washington and Alaska.", "The seeds should be sown early in the spring time.", "Put the seedlings into separate pots, and it is recommended to let them winter in the greenhouse for their first winter season.", "To clean them rub the capsules through a screen.", "It's advised to plant them in the late spring or early summer because division takes place in the spring.", "They should be grown in well-drained soil with full sun.", "The climate can be cool.", "In Maine it is possibly extirpated, and in New Hampshire Silene acaulis var. exscapa is threatened.", "Plants in Colorado have been estimated to reach 75 to 100 years in age, and Alaskan plants may reach 300 years.", "The oldest known Moss campion is 350 years old and has a diameter of two feet.", "The plant used to be used for children with colic.", "The raw root skin plants were consumed as a vegetable in Iceland and in Arctic regions.", "Experimental warming has been shown to start flowering substantially earlier than control cushions experiencing ambient temperature.", "Both the male and female phases developed faster in the OTCs and capsules matured earlier, and the cushions produced more mature seeds and had a higher seed/ovule ratio contributing to an overall positive reproductive response.", "However, a study on four populations across a latitudinal gradient in North America showed that southern populations of moss campion had lower survival and recruitment, but higher individual growth rates than more northern populations.", "Furthermore, vital rates such as growth, survival, and fruits per area were shown to increase in moderately warmer years yet declined in the very warmest years, suggesting that a change in climate into warmer conditions or more frequent unusually warm summers may eventually lead to negative impacts.", "Another study showed that while the short term responses were positive, they turned negative on medium-term, suggestion that moss campion may be at risk in future global warming.", "Projections produced under different climate scenarios suggest that S. acaulis will likely face climate-driven fast decline in suitable areas on the British Isles and across North America, and that upward and northward shifts to occupy new climatically suitable areas are improbable in the future.", "There is no listing that moss campion is toxic, though it does have saponins which, though toxic, are hard to absorb in the body.", "They can be broken down by thorough cooking.", "Its advised to not consume large amounts of this plant."]}}
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|
2674130_1254767
| 1141
|
[
"Allium ursinum"
] |
{"Allium ursinum": {"keywords": ["Wild garlic in Hampshire, UK. Allium ursinum, known as wild garlic, ramsons, cowleekes, cows's leek, cowleek, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek, Eurasian wild garlic or bear's garlic, is a bulbous perennial flowering plant in the amaryllis family Amaryllidaceae.", "It is native to Europe and Asia, where it grows in moist woodland.", "Illustration from Otto Wilhelm Thome's book Flora von Deutschland, Osterreich und der Schweiz, 1885 Allium ursinum is a bulbous, perennial herbaceous monocot, that reproduces primarily by seed.", "starting before deciduous trees leaf in the spring.", "The flower stem is triangular in cross-section and the leaves are broadly lanceolate, similar to those of the toxic lily of the valley .", "It is native to temperate regions of Europe, from Britain east to the Caucasus.", "It is common in much of the lowland British Isles with the exception of the far north of Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, and the Channel Islands.", "It grows in deciduous woodlands with moist soils, preferring slightly acidic conditions."], "habitat_section": ["It is native to temperate regions of Europe, from Britain east to the Caucasus.", "It is common in much of the lowland British Isles with the exception of the far north of Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, and the Channel Islands.", "The ursinum subspecies is found in western and central Europe, while the ucrainicum subspecies is found in the east and southeast.", "A. ursinum completely covers the forest floor in early May.", "From the forest of Riis Skov in Denmark.", "It grows in deciduous woodlands with moist soils, preferring slightly acidic conditions.", "In the British Isles, colonies are frequently associated with bluebells , especially in ancient woodland.", "It is considered to be an ancient woodland indicator species.", "As its name suggests, A. ursinum is an important food for brown bears.", "The plant is also a favourite of wild boar.", "A. ursinum is the primary larval host plant for a specialised hoverfly, ramsons hoverfly .", "The flowers are pollinated by bees."], "random_sentences": ["Wild garlic in Hampshire, UK.", "Allium ursinum, known as wild garlic, ramsons, cowleekes, cows's leek, cowleek, buckrams, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, bear leek, Eurasian wild garlic or bear's garlic, is a bulbous perennial flowering plant in the amaryllis family Amaryllidaceae.", "It is native to Europe and Asia, where it grows in moist woodland.", "It is a wild relative of onion and garlic, all belonging to the same genus, Allium.", "There are two recognized subspecies: A. ursinum subsp. ursinum and A. ursinum subsp. ucrainicum.", "The Latin specific name ursinum translates to 'bear' and refers to the supposed fondness of the brown bear for the bulbs", "folk tales describe the bears consuming them after awakening from hibernation.", "Another theory is that the \" ursinum \" may refer to Ursa Major, as A. ursinum was perhaps one of the most northerly distributed Allium species known to the ancient Greeks, though this hypothesis is disputed.", "Common names for the plant in many languages also make reference to bears.", "Cows love to eat them, hence the modern vernacular name of cows's leek.", "In Devon, dairy farmers have occasionally had the milk of their herds rejected because of the garlic flavour imparted to it by the cows having grazed upon the plant.", "Ramsons is from the Saxon word hramsa, meaning \" garlic \" .", "There is evidence it has been used in English cuisine since Celtic Britons over 1,500 years ago.", "Early healers among the Celts, Teutonic tribes and ancient Romans were familiar with the wild herb and called it herba salutaris, meaning 'healing herb'.", "Illustration from Otto Wilhelm Thome's book Flora von Deutschland, Osterreich und der Schweiz, 1885 Allium ursinum is a bulbous, perennial herbaceous monocot, that reproduces primarily by seed.", "The narrow bulbs are formed from a single leaf base The flowers are star-like with six white tepals, about in diameter, with stamens shorter than the perianth.", "starting before deciduous trees leaf in the spring.", "The flower stem is triangular in cross-section and the leaves are broadly lanceolate, similar to those of the toxic lily of the valley .", "It is native to temperate regions of Europe, from Britain east to the Caucasus.", "It is common in much of the lowland British Isles with the exception of the far north of Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, and the Channel Islands.", "The ursinum subspecies is found in western and central Europe, while the ucrainicum subspecies is found in the east and southeast.", "Allium ursinum has been credited with many medicinal qualities and is a popular homeopathic ingredient.", "It is often used for treating cardiovascular, respiratory, and digestive problems, as well as for the sterilisation of wounds.", "Various minerals are found in much higher amounts in Allium ursinum than in clove garlic.", "It is sometimes called the magnesium king of plants because of the high levels of this mineral found in the leaves.", "Magnesium is known as the anti-stress mineral and protects the circulatory system, especially the heart.", "A. ursinum completely covers the forest floor in early May.", "From the forest of Riis Skov in Denmark.", "It grows in deciduous woodlands with moist soils, preferring slightly acidic conditions.", "In the British Isles, colonies are frequently associated with bluebells , especially in ancient woodland.", "It is considered to be an ancient woodland indicator species.", "All parts of the Allium ursinum plant are edible and have culinary uses, including the flower which can be used to garnish salads.", "The leaves of the Allium ursinum are the most popular part to be used in food.", "Leaves can be used in raw salads and carry a very subtle garlicky flavour similar to that of garlic chives.", "When picked the leaves bruise, making them smell even stronger.", "When cooked the flavour of the leaves becomes softer and sweeter.", "The leaf is often chopped and used to replace garlic and other herbs in many recipes.", "The bulb can be used in a similar way to clove garlic.", "Popular dishes using the plant include pesto, soups, pasta, cheese, scones and Devonnaise.", "The leaves of A. ursinum are edible", "they can be used as salad, herb, boiled as a vegetable, in soup, or as an ingredient for a sauce that may be a substitute for pesto in lieu of basil.", "Leaves are also often used to make garlic butter.", "The stems are preserved by salting and eaten as a salad in Russia.", "A variety of Cornish Yarg cheese has a rind coated in wild garlic leaves.", "The leaves can be pickled in the same way as Allium ochotense known as mountain garlic in Korea.", "The bulbs and flowers are also edible.", "It is used for preparing herbed cheese, a Van speciality in Turkey.", "The leaves are also used as fodder.", "Cows that have fed on ramsons give milk that tastes slightly of garlic, and butter made from this milk used to be very popular in 19th-century Switzerland.", "The first evidence of the human use of A. ursinum comes from the Mesolithic settlement of Barkr , where an impression of a leaf has been found.", "In the Swiss Neolithic settlement of Thayngen-Weier , a high concentration of pollen from A. ursinum was found in the settlement layer, interpreted by some as evidence for the use of A. ursinum as fodder.", "Plants that may be mistaken for A. ursinum include lily of the valley, Colchicum autumnale, Arum maculatum, and Veratrum viride or Veratrum album, all of which are poisonous.", "In Europe, where ramsons are popularly harvested from the wild, people are regularly poisoned after mistakenly picking lily of the valley or Colchicum autumnale.", "When the leaves of A. ursinum and Arum maculatum first sprout, they look similar, but unfolded Arum maculatum leaves have irregular edges and many deep veins, while ramsons leaves are convex with a single main vein.", "The leaves of lily of the valley are paired, dull green and come from a single reddish-purple stem, while the leaves of A. ursinum emerge individually are initially shiny and are bright green.", "Allium ursinum in an English woodland", "As its name suggests, A. ursinum is an important food for brown bears.", "The plant is also a favourite of wild boar.", "A. ursinum is the primary larval host plant for a specialised hoverfly, ramsons hoverfly .", "The flowers are pollinated by bees."]}}
|
|
2679196_1246728
| 1141
|
[
"Lonicera acuminata",
"Argynnis paphia",
"Aruncus dioicus",
"Equisetum sylvaticum"
] |
{"Lonicera acuminata": {"keywords": ["Lonicera acuminata grows as a several meters high, semi-evergreen and fast-growing lignifying vine.", "The hermaphroditic, narrowly funnelform, five-petalled and reddish to purple or yellow flowers with a dichlamydeous perianth usually grow in stalked pairs, more rarely in small panicles, axillary at the branch apices.", "It grows on neutral to alkaline soils up to 3200 meters above sea level."], "habitat_section": ["It grows on neutral to alkaline soils up to 3200 meters above sea level.", "Its origin is in Western China, Tibet, Nepal, Buthan, India and in the Asian tropics.", "Worldwide cultivation has led to spontaneous occurrences in other places.", "The nectar attracts insects and hummingbirds, the berry-fruits birds.", "The plants can be affected by powdery mildew, aphids and thrips.", "The species is used for insect- and bird-friendly green walls.", "Its stems are used in the Philippines as a binding material in fence construction.", "It can also be propagated via cuttings, in which use of the plant hormone 1-aminobenzotriazole improves rooting."], "random_sentences": ["Lonicera acuminata, commonly known as fragrant grove honeysuckle or vine honeysuckle, is a plant species of honeysuckle native to China to Southeast Asia and India.", "The taxonomy of this very variable species is not sufficiently understood.", "The initial species description by Nathaniel Wallich was published in 1824 by William Roxburgh in Flora indica 2 on page 176.", "Occasionally Lonicera henryi and giraldii are listed as separate species.", "Lonicera acuminata grows as a several meters high, semi-evergreen and fast-growing lignifying vine.", "The branches, petioles and peduncles are mostly hairy.", "The branches usually become hollow.", "The opposite or sometimes 3-whorled, simple leaves are short-stalked and with entire margins.", "The more or less hirsute to bare, leathery leaves with often somewhat ciliate edges measure 2.5 to 13 centimeters in length and 1.3 to 4.5 centimeters in width.", "They are ovoid to -lanceolate or obovate to inverted lanceolate, pointed to rounded and often slightly cordate toward the short 2 to 15 millimeter long stem and acuminate to caudate at the apex.", "To reduce the evaporation rate, the leaves can also get rolled in slightly.", "The hermaphroditic, narrowly funnelform, five-petalled and reddish to purple or yellow flowers with a dichlamydeous perianth usually grow in stalked pairs, more rarely in small panicles, axillary at the branch apices.", "They have both bracts and bracteoles.", "The small calyx is pitcher-shaped with small teeth and the corolla is double-lipped, with a recurved, tongue-shaped lower lip.", "The long corolla tube is more or less hairy inside.", "The ovary is inferior with a long, firm, more or less hairy style with a large, head-like stigma.", "The five filaments are about as long as the corolla and are partly hairy in the lower part.", "The plants bloom fragrantly between May and July and in October and November they bear 4-6 millimeters large, roundish to ovoid, pruinose and blue-black, smooth berries with several seeds and calyx remains at the top.", "The seeds are ellipsoid to elongated and somewhat compressed.", "It grows on neutral to alkaline soils up to 3200 meters above sea level.", "Its origin is in Western China, Tibet, Nepal, Buthan, India and in the Asian tropics.", "Worldwide cultivation has led to spontaneous occurrences in other places.", "The nectar attracts insects and hummingbirds, the berry-fruits birds.", "The plants can be affected by powdery mildew, aphids and thrips.", "The species is used for insect- and bird-friendly green walls.", "Its stems are used in the Philippines as a binding material in fence construction.", "It can also be propagated via cuttings, in which use of the plant hormone 1-aminobenzotriazole improves rooting."]}, "Argynnis paphia": {"keywords": ["The silver-washed fritillary is a common and variable butterfly found over much of the Palearctic realm Algeria, Europe, temperate Asia, and Japan.", "Adults feed on the nectar of bramble, thistles, and knapweeds, and also on aphid honeydew.", "Its preferred habitat is thin, sunny, deciduous woodland, especially oaks, but it has been known to live in coniferous woodland.", "Unusually for a butterfly, the female does not lay her eggs on the leaves or stem of the caterpillar's food source , but instead one or two meters above the woodland floor in the crevices of tree bark close to clumps of violets.", "The caterpillar usually feeds at night, and usually conceals itself during the day away from its food source, but during cool weather will bask in the sunny spots on the forest floor on dry, dead leaves.", "It will pupate amongst the ground vegetation, and the adults will emerge in June."], "habitat_section": ["The silver-washed fritillary was in decline in the UK for much of the 1970s and 1980s, but seems to be coming back to many of its old territories.", "Centaurea phrygia - Argynnis paphia female - Keila.", "Female Silver-washed fritillary butterfly male 3.", "Male Silver-washed fritillary butterfly male underside 2.", "Male underside Silver-washed fritillary female underside 2.", "Butterfly Silver-washed Fritillary - Argynnis paphia.", "Male Silver-washed fritillaries mating.", "Mating Silver-washed fritillary female Valesina."], "random_sentences": ["The silver-washed fritillary is a common and variable butterfly found over much of the Palearctic realm Algeria, Europe, temperate Asia, and Japan.", "The silver-washed fritillary butterfly is deep orange with black spots on the upperside of its wings, and has a wingspan of 5470 mm, with the male being smaller and paler than the female.", "The underside is green, and, unlike other fritillaries, has silver streaks instead of silver spots, hence the name silver-washed.", "The caterpillar is black brown with two yellow lines along its back and long reddish-brown spines.", "The male possesses scent scales on the upperside of the forewing that run along veins one to four.", "The scent produced from these scales attracts females and helps to distinguish it from other species.", "Male Argynnis paphia MHNT CUT 2013 3 24 PONT GERENDOINE Male Ventral.jpg", "Male underside Argynnis paphia MHNT CUT 2013 3 24 Cabrerets 46 Female Dorsal.jpg", "Female Argynnis paphia MHNT CUT 2013 3 24 Cabrerets 46 Female Ventral.jpg", "Adults feed on the nectar of bramble, thistles, and knapweeds, and also on aphid honeydew.", "The silver-washed is a strong flier, and more mobile than other fritillaries, and, as such, can be seen gliding above the tree canopy at high speed.", "Its preferred habitat is thin, sunny, deciduous woodland, especially oaks, but it has been known to live in coniferous woodland.", "The main larval food plant of the species is the common dog violet .", "Figs 1,1a,1b,1c,1d larva after last moult 1e pupa", "Unusually for a butterfly, the female does not lay her eggs on the leaves or stem of the caterpillar's food source , but instead one or two meters above the woodland floor in the crevices of tree bark close to clumps of violets.", "When the egg hatches in August, the caterpillar immediately goes into hibernation until spring.", "Upon awakening, it will drop to the ground, and feeds on violets close to the base of the tree.", "The caterpillar usually feeds at night, and usually conceals itself during the day away from its food source, but during cool weather will bask in the sunny spots on the forest floor on dry, dead leaves.", "It will pupate amongst the ground vegetation, and the adults will emerge in June.", "The silver-washed fritillary was in decline in the UK for much of the 1970s and 1980s, but seems to be coming back to many of its old territories.", "Female Silver-washed fritillary butterfly male 3.", "Male Silver-washed fritillary butterfly male underside 2.", "Male underside Silver-washed fritillary female underside 2.", "Female underside Image:Butterfly Silver-washed Fritillary - Argynnis paphia.", "Male Silver-washed fritillaries mating.", "Mating Silver-washed fritillary female Valesina."]}, "Aruncus dioicus": {"keywords": ["Aruncus dioicus, known as goat's beard, buck's-beard or bride's feathers, is a flowering herbaceous perennial plant in the family Rosaceae, found in Europe, Asia, and eastern and western North America.", "It has alternate, pinnately compound leaves, on thin, stiff stems, with plumes of feathery white or cream flowers borne in summer.", "Very small, 5-petaled white or cream flowers are displayed in showy panicles, blooming in late spring to early summer.", "This plant can be found in moist woodland, often at higher altitudes, throughout temperate areas of Europe, Asia, and eastern and western North America.", "In the UK it is considered suitable for planting in and around water areas, and has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Goat's beard prefers humus-rich soil and shade or partial shade.", "It can be grown in full sun if it has consistent moisture.", "Native Americans in the Northwest used the plant medicinally as a diuretic, as a poultice, and to treat blood diseases, smallpox, and sore throats."], "habitat_section": ["This plant can be found in moist woodland, often at higher altitudes, throughout temperate areas of Europe, Asia, and eastern and western North America.", "In the UK it is considered suitable for planting in and around water areas, and has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Goat's beard prefers humus-rich soil and shade or partial shade.", "It can be grown in full sun if it has consistent moisture.", "Aruncus dioicus is the host plant for the dusky azure butterfly."], "random_sentences": ["Aruncus dioicus, known as goat's beard, buck's-beard or bride's feathers, is a flowering herbaceous perennial plant in the family Rosaceae, found in Europe, Asia, and eastern and western North America.", "It is the type species of the genus Aruncus.", "It has alternate, pinnately compound leaves, on thin, stiff stems, with plumes of feathery white or cream flowers borne in summer.", "The Latin specific epithet dioicus means \" having the male reproductive organs on one plant, and the female on another \" .", "The leaves are alternate and pinnately compound.", "The species is from tall, with compound leaves consisting of 3 or 5 leaflets.", "Very small, 5-petaled white or cream flowers are displayed in showy panicles, blooming in late spring to early summer.", "Male and female flowers are borne on different plants.", "The flower spikes rise high above the plant, adding to the showiness of the species.", "Plants with male flowers have a showier bloom than the ones with female flowers.", "This plant can be found in moist woodland, often at higher altitudes, throughout temperate areas of Europe, Asia, and eastern and western North America.", "In the UK it is considered suitable for planting in and around water areas, and has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Goat's beard prefers humus-rich soil and shade or partial shade.", "It can be grown in full sun if it has consistent moisture.", "Aruncus dioicus is the host plant for the dusky azure butterfly.", "In Italy the young shoots are eaten, usually boiled briefly in herb infused water, and then cooked with eggs and cheese.", "In Friuli it is one of the ingredients in the local home-made soup based on wild greens called 'pistic'.", "Aruncus dioicus var. kamtschaticus has shown potent cytotoxicity against Jurkat T cells.", "Native Americans in the Northwest used the plant medicinally as a diuretic, as a poultice, and to treat blood diseases, smallpox, and sore throats."]}, "Equisetum sylvaticum": {"keywords": ["Equisetum sylvaticum, the wood horsetail, is a horsetail native to the Northern Hemisphere, occurring in North America and Eurasia.", "All the stems may continue to grow until fall and generally die back over winter.", "These creeping rhizomes occasionally produce tubers, and often outweigh the above-ground growth by 100 to 1.", "These horsetails are commonly found in wet or swampy forest, open woodlands, and meadow areas.", "The species name sylvaticum is Latin for \" of the forests \" , emphasizing that the wood horsetail is most commonly found in forested habitats.", "The plant is an indicator of boreal and cool-temperate climates, and very moist to wet, nitrogen-poor soils."], "habitat_section": ["These horsetails are commonly found in wet or swampy forest, open woodlands, and meadow areas.", "The species name sylvaticum is Latin for \" of the forests \" , emphasizing that the wood horsetail is most commonly found in forested habitats.", "The plant is an indicator of boreal and cool-temperate climates, and very moist to wet, nitrogen-poor soils."], "random_sentences": ["Equisetum sylvaticum, the wood horsetail, is a horsetail native to the Northern Hemisphere, occurring in North America and Eurasia.", "Because of its lacy appearance, it is considered among the most attractive of the horsetails.", "This perennial horsetail has erect, hollow stems that grow from 30 to 60 cm in length and from 14 mm thick.", "The branches themselves are compound and delicate, occurring in whorls and drooping downward.", "There are generally 12 or more branches per whorl.", "Fertile stems are at first tan-to-brown and unbranched, but later become like the sterile stems, which are more highly branched and green.", "All the stems have 10-18 spiny vertical ridges that contain silica spicules.", "The leaves are scales fused into sheaths that cover the stems and branches.", "These spiny leaves are larger and looser on the fertile stems.", "The fertile stems are shorter than the others", "on these develop the cones that bear the spore casings.", "The leaves develop on the fertile stems and the stems lengthen", "then the cones open to release their spores.", "The cones then drop off.", "This process takes a few weeks.", "All the stems may continue to grow until fall and generally die back over winter.", "This plant reproduces by spores, but its primary means of reproduction is done vegetatively by rhizomes.", "These rhizome systems are deep and extensive, as well as extremely long-lived.", "These creeping rhizomes occasionally produce tubers, and often outweigh the above-ground growth by 100 to 1.", "These horsetails are commonly found in wet or swampy forest, open woodlands, and meadow areas.", "The species name sylvaticum is Latin for \" of the forests \" , emphasizing that the wood horsetail is most commonly found in forested habitats.", "The plant is an indicator of boreal and cool-temperate climates, and very moist to wet, nitrogen-poor soils.", "Linnaeus was the first to describe wood horsetail with the binomial Equisetum sylvaticum in his Species Plantarum of 1753."]}}
|
|
2614768_1148495
| 1648
|
[
"Saxifraga aizoides"
] |
{"Saxifraga aizoides": {"keywords": ["Capsules and seeds Saxifraga aizoides, yellow mountain saxifrage or yellow saxifrage, is a flowering alpine plant of the genus Saxifraga.", "Saxifraga aizoides is an evergreen perennial which branches at or below ground level, and grows to .", "It prefers cold and moist well-draining neutral to basic bedrock, gravel, sand, or shale cliff environments.", "North America, including Alaska, across Canada, the Great Lakes region, and Greenland, and in Europe, including the Tatra Mountains, Alps, and Svalbard."], "habitat_section": ["It prefers cold and moist well-draining neutral to basic bedrock, gravel, sand, or shale cliff environments.", "It is found in.", "North America, including Alaska, across Canada, the Great Lakes region, and Greenland, and in Europe, including the Tatra Mountains, Alps, and Svalbard.", "It is a listed threatened species in New York state."], "random_sentences": ["Capsules and seeds Saxifraga aizoides, yellow mountain saxifrage or yellow saxifrage, is a flowering alpine plant of the genus Saxifraga.", "Saxifraga aizoides is an evergreen perennial which branches at or below ground level, and grows to .", "It spreads by short rhizomes, forming mats of small colonies.", "The flowers, with five sepals and petals, are yellowgreen.", "It prefers cold and moist well-draining neutral to basic bedrock, gravel, sand, or shale cliff environments.", "It is found in: North America, including Alaska, across Canada, the Great Lakes region, and Greenland", "and in Europe, including the Tatra Mountains, Alps, and Svalbard.", "It is a listed threatened species in New York state."]}}
|
|
2655379_1253329
| 2255
|
[
"Tettigonia viridissima",
"Phaneroptera falcata",
"Prunus mahaleb",
"Calliptamus italicus"
] |
{"Tettigonia viridissima": {"keywords": ["This species can be encountered in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm, in the Near East, and in North Africa, especially in meadows, grasslands, prairies and occasionally in gardens at an elevation up to above sea level.", "Tettigonia viridissima is distinguished by its very long and thin antennae, which can sometimes reach up to three times the length of the body, thus differentiating them from grasshoppers, which always carry short antennae."], "habitat_section": ["This species can be encountered in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm, in the Near East, and in North Africa, especially in meadows, grasslands, prairies and occasionally in gardens at an elevation up to above sea level."], "random_sentences": ["Tettigonia viridissima, the great green bush-cricket, is a large species of bush-cricket belonging to the subfamily Tettigoniinae.", "This species can be encountered in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm, in the Near East, and in North Africa, especially in meadows, grasslands, prairies and occasionally in gardens at an elevation up to above sea level.", "viridissima, female The adult males grow up to long, while females reach .", "This insect is most often completely green , excluding a rust-colored band on top of the body.", "The organ of the stridulation of the males is generally brown.", "Tettigonia viridissima is distinguished by its very long and thin antennae, which can sometimes reach up to three times the length of the body, thus differentiating them from grasshoppers, which always carry short antennae.", "It could be confused with Tettigonia cantans, whose wings are a centimeter shorter than the ovipositor, or Tettigonia caudata whose hind femurs bear conspicuous black spines.", "The morphology of both sexes is very similar, but the female has an egg-laying organ that can reach a length of .", "It reaches the end of the elytra and is slightly curved downward.", "The larvae are green and as the imago show on their back a thin brown longitudinal stripe.", "The ovipositor can be seen from the fifth stage", "the wings appear in both genders from the sixth stage.", "Tettigonia viridissima is carnivorous and arboreal. Its diet is mostly composed of flies, caterpillars and larvae.", "Unlike grasshoppers, it is essentially active in day and night, as testified by its endless crepuscular and nocturnal singing.", "The species can bite painfully but is not particularly aggressive.", "It is best to avoid holding the insect in the fist, as that almost guarantees a bite.", "They can fly, but they tend to avoid flying where possible.", "Most often they move \" on foot \" or jumps, which allow them to travel about in bushes and trees."]}, "Phaneroptera falcata": {"keywords": ["It lives mainly in very warm scrub and grasslands areas.", "also on dry shrubbery and in sand pits and gardens.", "But they are absent in the Alpine foothills and in many parts of the Swabian Alps."], "habitat_section": ["Phaneroptera falcata occurs in central and southern Europe, with the northern distribution limit about Cologne.", "But they are absent in the Alpine foothills and in many parts of the Swabian Alps.", "Phaneroptera falcata has been extending the northern limits of its range in mainland Europe in recent decades."], "random_sentences": ["Phaneroptera falcata, the sickle-bearing bush-cricket , is a species of bush-cricket belonging to the family Tettigoniidae subfamily Phaneropterinae.", "It is herbivorous and commonly measures 24 to 36 mm long.", "It lives mainly in very warm scrub and grasslands areas.", "also on dry shrubbery and in sand pits and gardens.", "Phaneroptera falcata occurs in central and southern Europe, with the northern distribution limit about Cologne.", "But they are absent in the Alpine foothills and in many parts of the Swabian Alps.", "Phaneroptera falcata has been extending the northern limits of its range in mainland Europe in recent decades."]}, "Prunus mahaleb": {"keywords": ["The tree is cultivated for a spice obtained from the seeds inside the cherry stones.", "It is adjudged to be native in northwestern Europe or at least it is naturalized there.", "It is a deciduous tree or large shrub, growing to 210 m tall with a trunk up to 40 cm diameter.", "The tree's bark is grey-brown, with conspicuous lenticels on young stems, and shallowly fissured on old trunks.", "The fruit is a small thin-fleshed cherry-like drupe 810 mm in diameter, green at first, turning red then dark purple to black when mature, with a very bitter flavour, flowering is in mid spring with the fruit ripening in mid to late summer.", "Prunus mahaleb occurs in thickets and open woodland on dry slopes, in central Europe at altitudes up to , and in highlands at 1,2002,000 m in southern Europe.", "It has become naturalised in some temperate areas, including Europe north of its native range , and locally in Australia and the United States.", "Away from its native range, the species is grown as an ornamental tree for its strongly fragrant flowers, throughout temperate regions of the world.", "St Lucie cherry stones The plant is also cultivated for mahleb, a spice obtained from the seeds inside the cherry stones.", "Ibn Al-Awwam in his book on agriculture dated late 12th century described how to cultivate the mahaleb tree.", "he says the tree is a vigorous grower, easy to grow, but a thing to watch out for is that it is not resistant to prolonged drought.", "One early record in Latin is year 1317 in an encyclopedia by Matthaeus Silvaticus who wrote that the \" mahaleb \" is the kernel seed of the fruit of both domesticated and wild cherry trees in Arabic countries."], "habitat_section": ["Prunus mahaleb occurs in thickets and open woodland on dry slopes, in central Europe at altitudes up to , and in highlands at 1,2002,000 m in southern Europe.", "It has become naturalised in some temperate areas, including Europe north of its native range , and locally in Australia and the United States.", "A scientific study discovered an ecological dependence between the plant and four species of frugivorous birds in southeastern Spain, blackbirds and blackcaps proved to be the most important seed dispersers.", "When P. mahaleb is fruiting, these birds consume the fruit almost exclusively, and disperse the seeds to the locations favourable for the tree's growth.", "The way in which some birds consume the fruits and the habitats those birds use may act as a selective force in determining which genetic variations of the cherry flourish."], "random_sentences": ["Prunus mahaleb, the mahaleb cherry or St Lucie cherry, is a species of cherry tree.", "The tree is cultivated for a spice obtained from the seeds inside the cherry stones.", "The seeds have a fragrant smell and have a taste comparable to bitter almonds with cherry notes.", "The tree is native to central and southern Europe, Iran and parts of central Asia.", "It is adjudged to be native in northwestern Europe or at least it is naturalized there.", "It is a deciduous tree or large shrub, growing to 210 m tall with a trunk up to 40 cm diameter.", "The tree's bark is grey-brown, with conspicuous lenticels on young stems, and shallowly fissured on old trunks.", "The leaves are long, 14 cm.", "wide, alternate, clustered at the end of alternately arranged twigs, ovate to cordate, pointed, have serrate edges, longitudinal venation and are glabrous and green.", "The petiole is 520 millimetres long, and may or may not have two glands.", "The flowers are fragrant, pure white, small, 820 mm diameter, with an 815 mm pedicel", "they are arranged 310 together on a 34 cm long raceme.", "The flower pollination is mainly by bees.", "The fruit is a small thin-fleshed cherry-like drupe 810 mm in diameter, green at first, turning red then dark purple to black when mature, with a very bitter flavour", "flowering is in mid spring with the fruit ripening in mid to late summer.", "It demonstrates selective fruit abortion, producing a high proportion of excess flowers that result in low fruit set levels.", "This reduces the number of \" poor quality \" fruit and increases the viability of its seeds.", "Prunus mahaleb occurs in thickets and open woodland on dry slopes", "in central Europe at altitudes up to , and in highlands at 1,2002,000 m in southern Europe.", "It has become naturalised in some temperate areas, including Europe north of its native range , and locally in Australia and the United States.", "A scientific study discovered an ecological dependence between the plant and four species of frugivorous birds in southeastern Spain", "blackbirds and blackcaps proved to be the most important seed dispersers.", "When P. mahaleb is fruiting, these birds consume the fruit almost exclusively, and disperse the seeds to the locations favourable for the tree's growth.", "The way in which some birds consume the fruits and the habitats those birds use may act as a selective force in determining which genetic variations of the cherry flourish.", "Away from its native range, the species is grown as an ornamental tree for its strongly fragrant flowers, throughout temperate regions of the world.", "A number of cultivars have been selected for their ornamental value, including 'Albomarginata', with variegated foliage, 'Bommii', a dwarf with strongly pendulous branches, 'Globosa', a compact dwarf clone, 'Pendula', with drooping branching, and 'Xanthocarpa' with yellow fruit.", "St Lucie cherry stones The plant is also cultivated for mahleb, a spice obtained from the seeds inside the cherry stones.", "It is fragrant and has the taste of bitter almonds.", "It is used in small quantities to sharpen sweet foods, such as the Turkish sweet-bread corek , the Greek sweet-bread tsoureki or the Armenian sweet-bread chorak.", "The chemical constituents are still uncertain, but the spice is prepared from the seeds, either by grinding and powdering the seed kernels, or in oil extracted from the seeds.", "The wood is hard, and is used in cabinet-making and for pipes.", "The bark, wood, and seeds contain coumarin.", "They have anti-inflammatory, sedative and vasodilation effects.", "The fruit of Prunus mahaleb is inedible.", "Prunus mahaleb is a likely candidate for the halub-tree mentioned in early Sumerian writings, a durable fruit-bearing hardwood with seeds and leaves known for their medicinal properties and associated with the goddess Inana.", "The Arabic mahleb or mahlab meaning the mahaleb cherry is in medieval Islamic writings by among others Al-Razi , Ibn al-Baitar and Ibn al-Awwam.", "Ibn Al-Awwam in his book on agriculture dated late 12th century described how to cultivate the mahaleb tree: he says the tree is a vigorous grower, easy to grow, but a thing to watch out for is that it is not resistant to prolonged drought.", "He also described how to prepare the mahaleb seeds by boiling them in sugared water.", "The word, and probably the mahaleb itself, does not appear in classical Latin, nor early or mid medieval Latin, and is rare in late medieval Latin.", "One early record in Latin is year 1317 in an encyclopedia by Matthaeus Silvaticus who wrote that the \" mahaleb \" is the kernel seed of the fruit of both domesticated and wild cherry trees in Arabic countries.", "Another early record in Latin is in a medical-botany book by Ioannis Mesuae in 1479 spelled almahaleb .", "Today its cultivation and use is largely restricted to the region that in the 19th and earlier centuries formed the Ottoman Empire.", "Syria is the main exporting country."]}, "Calliptamus italicus": {"keywords": ["This species is native of the steppes of Central Asia, but it is also present in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm, in North Africa, and in the Near East.", "Its range extends from North Africa and the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea to Central Europe, Central Asia, Mongolia and western Siberia.", "It thrives in warm dry habitats with sparse vegetation cover such as grasslands and rocky steppes, old quarries, gravel pits, rock-strewn areas beside rivers, sand dunes and fallow land.", "Calliptamus italicus is a polyphagous species, able to feed upon various wild plants, but also on crops, especially legumes.", "The egg-laying takes place in late August - early September, usually in rocky areas exposed to the south.", "It normally occurs in low densities in undisturbed sparse grassland but disappears when the land is cultivated.", "It occurs in high densities in uncultivated land that is invaded by Artemisia, and on overgrazed pastures with weeds and bare ground.", "After the breakup of the USSR in 1991, much agricultural land was left uncultivated."], "habitat_section": ["Calliptamus italicus is found in Western Europe and Central Asia.", "Its range extends from North Africa and the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea to Central Europe, Central Asia, Mongolia and western Siberia.", "These grasshoppers can be encountered from July through October.", "It thrives in warm dry habitats with sparse vegetation cover such as grasslands and rocky steppes, old quarries, gravel pits, rock-strewn areas beside rivers, sand dunes and fallow land.", "Calliptamus italicus is a polyphagous species, able to feed upon various wild plants, but also on crops, especially legumes.", "Alfalfa is among the species preferred by juveniles, but there have been reported sporadic cases of infestation on grains and grapevine.", "It feeds on a variety of plants in the families Asteraceae, Chenopodiaceae and Poaceae.", "Their life cycle lasts one year.", "The egg-laying takes place in late August - early September, usually in rocky areas exposed to the south.", "The female lays eggs in the soil within an ootheca that can hold 25 to 55 eggs wrapped in a spongy secretion.", "The appearance of the larvae takes place in MayJune, the first adults appear in July.", "In certain circumstances this species may develop a tendency to gregariousness with formation of very numerous aggregates, potentially harmful to crops.", "It normally occurs in low densities in undisturbed sparse grassland but disappears when the land is cultivated.", "It occurs in high densities in uncultivated land that is invaded by Artemisia, and on overgrazed pastures with weeds and bare ground.", "Under these conditions it can become gregarious and form locust swarms.", "After the breakup of the USSR in 1991, much agricultural land was left uncultivated.", "This gave ideal conditions for the Italian locust to breed and build up in numbers, and Kazakhstan suffered a devastating locust plague between 1998 and 2001."], "random_sentences": ["Italian locust female, Nature Park of Alvao, Portugal Calliptamus italicus, the Italian locust, is a species of 'short-horned grasshopper' belonging to the family Acrididae, subfamily Calliptaminae.", "This species is native of the steppes of Central Asia, but it is also present in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm, in North Africa, and in the Near East.", "Calliptamus italicus is found in Western Europe and Central Asia.", "Its range extends from North Africa and the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea to Central Europe, Central Asia, Mongolia and western Siberia.", "These grasshoppers can be encountered from July through October.", "It thrives in warm dry habitats with sparse vegetation cover such as grasslands and rocky steppes, old quarries, gravel pits, rock-strewn areas beside rivers, sand dunes and fallow land.", "Young Calliptamus italicus is a medium-sized grasshopper characterized by a significant sexual dimorphism.", "The adult males grow up to long, while females reach of length.", "This species is quite variable in size and colour.", "The basic coloration of the body varies from gray to brownish-reddish.", "The wings have a characteristic reddish or pinkish coloration, better visible when the insect is in flight.", "Quite evident is the dilating membrane of the subgenital plate of males.", "Calliptamus italicus is a polyphagous species, able to feed upon various wild plants, but also on crops, especially legumes.", "Alfalfa is among the species preferred by juveniles, but there have been reported sporadic cases of infestation on grains and grapevine.", "It feeds on a variety of plants in the families Asteraceae, Chenopodiaceae and Poaceae.", "Their life cycle lasts one year.", "The egg-laying takes place in late August - early September, usually in rocky areas exposed to the south.", "The female lays eggs in the soil within an ootheca that can hold 25 to 55 eggs wrapped in a spongy secretion.", "The appearance of the larvae takes place in MayJune", "the first adults appear in July.", "In certain circumstances this species may develop a tendency to gregariousness with formation of very numerous aggregates, potentially harmful to crops.", "It normally occurs in low densities in undisturbed sparse grassland but disappears when the land is cultivated.", "It occurs in high densities in uncultivated land that is invaded by Artemisia, and on overgrazed pastures with weeds and bare ground.", "Under these conditions it can become gregarious and form locust swarms.", "After the breakup of the USSR in 1991, much agricultural land was left uncultivated.", "This gave ideal conditions for the Italian locust to breed and build up in numbers, and Kazakhstan suffered a devastating locust plague between 1998 and 2001."]}}
|
|
2780565_1161680
| 726
|
[
"Arnica montana"
] |
{"Arnica montana": {"keywords": ["Arnica montana, also known as wolf's bane, leopard's bane, mountain tobacco and mountain arnica, is a moderately toxic European flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae.", "Arnica montana Arnica montana is a flowering plant about tall aromatic fragrant, herbaceous perennial. Its basal green ovate leaves with rounded tips are bright coloured and level to the ground.", "The flowering season is between May and August .", "The achenes have a one-piece rough pappus which opens in dry conditions.", "Arnica montana is a hemicryptophyte, which helps the plant to survive the extreme overwintering condition of its habitat.", "the rosette part grows at its front while its tail is slowly dying.", "The Latin specific epithet montana refers to mountains or coming from mountains.", "Arnica montana grows in nutrient-poor siliceous meadows or clay soils.", "It mostly grows on alpine meadows and up to nearly .", "However Arnica does not grow on lime soil, thus it is an extremely reliable bioindicator for nutrient poor and acidic soils.", "It is becoming rarer, particularly in the north of its distribution, largely due to increasingly intensive agriculture and commercial wildcrafting .", "Planting density for Arnica montana is of 20 plants/m 2 such that the maximum yield density will be achieved in the second flowering season.", "The flowers are harvested when fully developed and dried without their bract nor receptacles.", "Arnica montana is sometimes grown in herb gardens.", "Extensive agriculture has been replaced by intensive management."], "habitat_section": ["Distribution map of Arnica montana.", "Arnica montana is widespread across most of Europe.", "It is absent from the Celtic Isles and the Italian and Balkan peninsulas.", "In addition, it is considered extinct in Hungary and Lithuania.", "Arnica montana grows in nutrient-poor siliceous meadows or clay soils.", "It mostly grows on alpine meadows and up to nearly .", "In more upland regions, it may also be found on nutrient-poor moors and heaths.", "However Arnica does not grow on lime soil, thus it is an extremely reliable bioindicator for nutrient poor and acidic soils.", "It is rare overall, but may be locally abundant.", "It is becoming rarer, particularly in the north of its distribution, largely due to increasingly intensive agriculture and commercial wildcrafting .", "Nevertheless, it is cultivated on a large scale in Estonia."], "random_sentences": ["Arnica montana, also known as wolf's bane, leopard's bane, mountain tobacco and mountain arnica, is a moderately toxic European flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae.", "It is noted for its large yellow flower head.", "The names \" wolf's bane \" and \" leopard's bane \" are also used for another plant, aconitum, which is extremely poisonous.", "Arnica montana is used as an herbal medicine for analgesic and anti-inflammatory purposes, but there is insufficient high-quality clinical evidence for such effects, and it is toxic when taken internally or applied to injured skin.", "Arnica montana Arnica montana is a flowering plant about tall aromatic fragrant, herbaceous perennial. Its basal green ovate leaves with rounded tips are bright coloured and level to the ground.", "In addition, they are somewhat downy on their upper surface, veined and aggregated in rosettes.", "By contrast, the upper leaves are opposed, spear-shaped and smaller which is an exception within the Asteraceae.", "The chromosome number is 2n38.", "The flowering season is between May and August .", "The hairy flowers are composed of yellow disc florets in the center and orange-yellow ray florets at the external part.", "The achenes have a one-piece rough pappus which opens in dry conditions.", "Arnica montana is a hemicryptophyte, which helps the plant to survive the extreme overwintering condition of its habitat.", "In addition, Arnica forms rhizomes, which grow in a two-year cycle: the rosette part grows at its front while its tail is slowly dying.", "The Latin specific epithet montana refers to mountains or coming from mountains.", "Distribution map of Arnica montana.", "Arnica montana is widespread across most of Europe.", "It is absent from the Celtic Isles and the Italian and Balkan peninsulas.", "In addition, it is considered extinct in Hungary and Lithuania.", "Arnica montana grows in nutrient-poor siliceous meadows or clay soils.", "It mostly grows on alpine meadows and up to nearly .", "In more upland regions, it may also be found on nutrient-poor moors and heaths.", "However Arnica does not grow on lime soil, thus it is an extremely reliable bioindicator for nutrient poor and acidic soils.", "It is rare overall, but may be locally abundant.", "It is becoming rarer, particularly in the north of its distribution, largely due to increasingly intensive agriculture and commercial wildcrafting .", "Nevertheless, it is cultivated on a large scale in Estonia.", "Chemical structure of helenalin The main constituents of Arnica montana are essential oils, fatty acids, thymol, pseudoguaianolide sesquiterpene lactones and flavanone glycosides.", "Pseudoguaianolide sesquiterpenes constitute 0.20.8% of the flower head of Arnica montana.", "They are the toxin helenalin and their fatty esters.", "2,5-Dimethoxy-p-cymene and thymol methyl ether are the primary components of essential oils from both the plant's roots and rhizomes.", "The quality and chemical constitution of the plant substance Arnicae flos can be monitored by near-infrared spectroscopy.", "Arnica montana fruits and seeds Arnica montana: Photo taken at Botanical Garden in Erlangen, Germany.", "Arnica montana is propagated from seed.", "Generally, 20% of seeds do not germinate.", "For large scale planting, it is recommended to raise plants first in a nursery and then to transplant them in the field.", "Seeds sprout in 1420 days but germination rate depends highly on the seed quality.", "Planting density for Arnica montana is of 20 plants/m 2 such that the maximum yield density will be achieved in the second flowering season.", "While Arnica montana has high exigencies of soil quality, analyses should be done before any fertilizer input.", "The flowers are harvested when fully developed and dried without their bract nor receptacles.", "The roots can be harvested in autumn and dried as well after being carefully washed.", "Arnica montana is sometimes grown in herb gardens.", "Historically, Arnica montana has been used as an herbal medicine for centuries.", "Traditional uses for the plant are similar to those for willow bark, with it generally being employed for analgesic and anti-inflammatory purposes.", "Clinical trials of Arnica montana have yielded mixed results: .", " A. montana has also been the subject of studies of homeopathic preparations.", "A 1998 systematic review of homeopathic A. montana conducted at the University of Exeter found that there are no rigorous clinical trials that support the claim that it is efficacious beyond a placebo effect at the concentrations used in homeopathy.", "The US Food and Drug Administration has classified Arnica montana as an unsafe herb because of its toxicity.", "It should not be taken orally or applied to broken skin where absorption can occur.", "Arnica irritates mucous membranes and may elicit stomach pain, diarrhea, and vomiting.", "It may produce contact dermatitis when applied to skin.", "Contact with the plant can also cause skin irritation.", "In the Ames test, an extract of A. montana was found to be mutagenic.", "The demand for A. montana is 50 tonnes per year in Europe, but the supply does not cover the demand.", "it is protected in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and in some regions of Switzerland.", "France and Romania produce A. montana for the international market.", "Changes in agriculture in Europe during the last decades have led to a decline in the occurrence of A. montana.", "Extensive agriculture has been replaced by intensive management."]}}
|
|
2627206_1231539
| 1952
|
[
"Centaurea scabiosa"
] |
{"Centaurea scabiosa": {"keywords": ["It is native to Europe and bears purple flower heads.", "Greater knapweed is found growing in dry grasslands, hedgerows and cliffs on lime-rich soil.", "This perennial herb grows with an erect grooved stem up to 90 cm high.", "Dry grassland, roadsides and calcareous substrate."], "habitat_section": ["Dry grassland, roadsides and calcareous substrate.", "Found in Great Britain and Ireland."], "random_sentences": ["Centaurea scabiosa, or greater knapweed, is a perennial plant of the genus Centaurea.", "It is native to Europe and bears purple flower heads.", "Greater knapweed is found growing in dry grasslands, hedgerows and cliffs on lime-rich soil.", "Upright branched stems terminate in single thistle-like flowerheads, each having an outer ring of extended, purple-pink \" ragged \" bracts which form a crown around the central flowers.", "The plant has deeply dissected leaves which form a clump at the base.", "This species is very valuable to bees.", "It is also a magnet for many species of butterfly.", "Among them is the marbled white.", "This is the only known food plant for caterpillars of the Coleophoridae case-bearer moth Coleophora didymella.", "Centaurea scabiosa has been used in traditional herbal healing as either a vulnerary or an emollient.", "The plant is sometimes confused with devils-bit scabious, however the leaves on this plant are arranged alternately, whereas in devils-bit they are opposite.", "This perennial herb grows with an erect grooved stem up to 90 cm high.", "The leaves are alternate, pinnatifid and with stalks.", "The flower heads are 5 cm across and on long stalks.", "Dry grassland, roadsides and calcareous substrate.", "Found in Great Britain and Ireland."]}}
|
|
2519792_1175527
| 2255
|
[
"Campanula persicifolia"
] |
{"Campanula persicifolia": {"keywords": ["It is an herbaceous perennial growing to .", "Campanula persicifolia is a clump-forming perennial herbaceous plant growing to a height of .", "Campanula persicifolia is common in the Alps and other mountain ranges in Europe.", "It grows at lower altitudes in the north, and higher up further south, passing in Provence.", "Normally it flowers in June, a dry summer may reduce or inhibit its flowering.", "Despite this it can flower as late as September in a cold year.", "The natural habitat of this plant is broad-leaved forests, woodland margins, rocky outcrops in broad-leaved woods, meadows and banks."], "habitat_section": ["Campanula persicifolia is common in the Alps and other mountain ranges in Europe.", "It grows at lower altitudes in the north, and higher up further south, passing in Provence.", "Normally it flowers in June, a dry summer may reduce or inhibit its flowering.", "Despite this it can flower as late as September in a cold year.", "The natural habitat of this plant is broad-leaved forests, woodland margins, rocky outcrops in broad-leaved woods, meadows and banks."], "random_sentences": ["Campanula persicifolia, the peach-leaved bellflower, is a flowering plant species in the family Campanulaceae.", "It is an herbaceous perennial growing to .", "Its flowers are cup-shaped and can be either lilac-blue or white.", "Its foliage is narrow and glossy with a bright green appearance.", "It is widely considered an English cottage garden classic.", "Campanula persicifolia is a clump-forming perennial herbaceous plant growing to a height of .", "The stem is usually unbranched, erect and slightly angular.", "The basal leaves are short stalked and narrowly spatulate and usually wither before flowering time.", "The upper leaves are unstalked, lanceolate, almost linear with rounded teeth on the margins.", "The inflorescence is a few-flowered terminal raceme or there may be a single flower.", "The calyx is fused with five narrow lobes, eventually spreading.", "The corolla is five-lobed, long with five violet-blue fused petals.", "The corolla lobes are less long than they are wide.", "There are five stamens and a pistil formed from three fused carpels.", "The fruit is a strongly-veined conical capsule.", "The flowering period is from June to August.", "Campanula persicifolia is common in the Alps and other mountain ranges in Europe.", "It grows at lower altitudes in the north, and higher up further south, passing in Provence.", "Normally it flowers in June", "a dry summer may reduce or inhibit its flowering.", "Despite this it can flower as late as September in a cold year.", "The natural habitat of this plant is broad-leaved forests, woodland margins, rocky outcrops in broad-leaved woods, meadows and banks.", "In cultivation numerous varieties and cultivars have been developed in a range of colours including white, blue, pink and purple."]}}
|
|
2574304_1117647
| 1648
|
[
"Saxifraga exarata"
] |
{"Saxifraga exarata": {"keywords": ["Saxifraga is the largest genus in the family Saxifragaceae, containing about 473 species of holarctic perennial plants, known as saxifrages or rockfoils.", "It is usually thought to indicate a medicinal use for treatment of urinary calculi , rather than breaking rocks apart.", "Most saxifrages are small perennial, biennial or annual herbaceous plants whose basal or cauline leaves grow close to the ground, often in a rosette.", "The inflorescence or single flower clusters rise above the main plant body on naked stalks.", "Campanula saxifraga Celmisia saxifraga W.M.Curtis Cineraria saxifraga DC. Dryopteris saxifraga Petrorhagia saxifraga Tunicflower Pimpinella saxifraga Burnet saxifrage Ptychotis saxifraga Saxifragella Saxifragodes Saxifragopsis Small .", "Saxifrages are typical inhabitants of Arcticalpine ecosystems, and are hardly ever found outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, most members of this genus are found in subarctic climates.", "A good number of species grow in glacial habitats, such as S. biflora which can be found some 4,000 m above sea level in the Alps, or the East Greenland saxifrage .", "The genus is also abundant in the Eastern and Western Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows.", "Though the archetypal saxifrage is a small plant huddling between rocks high up on a mountain, many species do not occur in such a habitat and are larger plants found on wet meadows.", "Numerous species and cultivars of saxifrage are cultivated as ornamental garden plants, valued particularly as groundcover or as cushion plants in rock gardens and alpine gardens.", "Many require alkaline or neutral soil to thrive.", "S. urbium , a hybrid between Pyrenean saxifrage and St. Patrick's cabbage , is commonly grown as an ornamental plant.", "Some wild species are also used in gardening.", "Cambridge University Botanic Garden hosts the United Kingdom's national collection of saxifrages.", "The following species and cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit."], "habitat_section": ["Saxifrages are typical inhabitants of Arcticalpine ecosystems, and are hardly ever found outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, most members of this genus are found in subarctic climates.", "A good number of species grow in glacial habitats, such as S. biflora which can be found some 4,000 m above sea level in the Alps, or the East Greenland saxifrage .", "The genus is also abundant in the Eastern and Western Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows.", "Though the archetypal saxifrage is a small plant huddling between rocks high up on a mountain, many species do not occur in such a habitat and are larger plants found on wet meadows.", "Various Saxifraga species are used as food plants by the caterpillars of some butterflies and moths, such as the Phoebus Apollo .", "Charles Darwin erroneously believing Saxifraga to be allied to the sundew family suspected the sticky-leaved round-leaved saxifrage , rue-leaved saxifrage and Pyrenean saxifrage to be protocarnivorous plants, and conducted some experiments whose results supported his observations, but the matter has apparently not been studied since his time."], "random_sentences": ["Saxifraga is the largest genus in the family Saxifragaceae, containing about 473 species of holarctic perennial plants, known as saxifrages or rockfoils.", "The Latin word saxifraga means literally \"stone-breaker\", from Latin saxum + frangere .", "It is usually thought to indicate a medicinal use for treatment of urinary calculi , rather than breaking rocks apart.", "Most saxifrages are small perennial, biennial or annual herbaceous plants whose basal or cauline leaves grow close to the ground, often in a rosette.", "The leaves typically have a more or less incised margin", "they may be succulent, needle-like and/or hairy, reducing evaporation.", "The inflorescence or single flower clusters rise above the main plant body on naked stalks.", "The small actinomorphic hermaphrodite flowers have five petals and sepals and are usually white, but red to yellow in some species.", "Stamens, usually 10, rarely 8, insert at the junction of the floral tube and ovary wall, with filaments subulate or clavate.", "As in other primitive eudicots, some of the 5 or 10 stamens may appear petal-like.", "and it lives in tundral ecosystems.", "A genus of about 473 species.", "The former monotypic genus Saxifragella has been submersed within Saxifraga, the largest genus in Saxifragaceae, as Saxifraga bicuspidata.", "Also the genus Saxifragopsis was previously included in Saxifraga.", "Based on morphological criteria, up to 15 sections were recognised.", "Subsequent molecular phylogenetic studies reduced this to 13 sections with 9 subsections.", "The former sections Micranthes and Merkianae are more closely related to the Boykinia and Heuchera clades.", "Modern floras separate these groups as the genus Micranthes.", "The thirteen sections are: Irregulares Saxifragella Pseudocymbalaria Bronchiales Ciliatae Cymbalaria Cotylea Gymnopera Mesogyne Trachyphyllum Ligulatae Porphyrion Squarrosae Mutatae Oppositifoliae Florulentae Kabschia Saxifraga Tridactylites Androsaceae Arachnoideae Saxifraga", "Plants formerly placed in Saxifraga are mainly but not exclusively Saxifragaceae.", "They include: Astilboides tabularis, as S. tabularis Bergenia crassifolia, as S. cordifolia, S. crassifolia Bergenia pacumbis, as S. ligulata, S. pacumbis Bergenia purpurascens, as S. delavayi, S. purpurascens Boykinia jamesii, as S. jamesii Boykinia occidentalis , as S. elata Boykinia richardsonii , as S. richardsonii Darmera peltata , as S. peltata Leptarrhena pyrolifolia, as S. pyrolifolia Luetkea pectinata , as S. pectinata Micranthes, including: Micranthes integrifolia Micranthes howellii , as S. howellii Micranthes stellaris , as S. stellaris Mukdenia rossii , as S. rossii", "Several plant genera have names referring to saxifrages, although they might not be close relatives of Saxifraga.", "They include: Golden-saxifrages, Chrysosplenium Burnet-saxifrages, Pimpinella Pepper-saxifrage, Silaum silaus.", "The name \"silaum\" comes from the Latin word sil, which means yellow ochre.", "This refers to the sulphurous yellow colour of the flowers.", "Some plants refer to Saxifraga in their generic names or specific epithets, either because they are also \"rock-breaking\" or because they resemble members of the saxifrage genus: Campanula saxifraga Celmisia saxifraga (Benth.", ") W.M.Curtis Cineraria saxifraga DC.", "Dryopteris saxifraga Petrorhagia saxifraga Tunicflower Pimpinella saxifraga Burnet saxifrage Ptychotis saxifraga Saxifragella Saxifragodes Saxifragopsis Small", "Saxifrages are typical inhabitants of Arcticalpine ecosystems, and are hardly ever found outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere", "most members of this genus are found in subarctic climates.", "A good number of species grow in glacial habitats, such as S. biflora which can be found some 4,000 m above sea level in the Alps, or the East Greenland saxifrage (S.", "The genus is also abundant in the Eastern and Western Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows.", "Though the archetypal saxifrage is a small plant huddling between rocks high up on a mountain, many species do not occur in such a habitat and are larger plants found on wet meadows.", "Various Saxifraga species are used as food plants by the caterpillars of some butterflies and moths, such as the Phoebus Apollo .", "Charles Darwin erroneously believing Saxifraga to be allied to the sundew family suspected the sticky-leaved round-leaved saxifrage (S.", "tridactylites) and Pyrenean saxifrage (S.", "umbrosa) to be protocarnivorous plants, and conducted some experiments whose results supported his observations, but the matter has apparently not been studied since his time.", "Numerous species and cultivars of saxifrage are cultivated as ornamental garden plants, valued particularly as groundcover or as cushion plants in rock gardens and alpine gardens.", "Many require alkaline or neutral soil to thrive.", "S. urbium , a hybrid between Pyrenean saxifrage (S.", "umbrosa) and St. Patrick's cabbage (S.", "spathularis), is commonly grown as an ornamental plant.", "Another horticultural hybrid is Robertsoniana saxifrage (S.", "geum), derived from kidney saxifrage (S.", "Some wild species are also used in gardening.", "Cambridge University Botanic Garden hosts the United Kingdom's national collection of saxifrages.", "The following species and cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:-", "The leaves of some saxifrage species, such as creeping saxifrage (S.", "stolonifera) and S. pensylvanica, are edible.", "The former is a food in Korea and Japan.", "The flowers of purple saxifrage (S.", "oppositifolia) are eaten in Nunavut, Canada and the leaves and stems brewed as a tea.", "Species are also used in traditional medicine, such as creeping saxifrage in East Asia and round-leaved saxifrage (S.", "Two speciespurple saxifrage and creeping saxifrageare popular floral emblems.", "They are official flowers for: Nunavut, Canada - purple saxifrage County Londonderry, Northern Ireland - purple saxifrage Tsukuba, Japan - creeping saxifrage, \"hoshizaki\" form (S."]}}
|
|
2614562_1178833
| 2154
|
[
"Asplenium trichomanes",
"Podarcis muralis",
"Cymbalaria muralis"
] |
{"Asplenium trichomanes": {"keywords": ["It is a widespread and common species, occurring almost worldwide in a variety of rocky habitats.", "Asplenium trichomanes grows 10 to 30 cm tall forming tufts arising from a short, scaly rhizome.", "It is widespread in temperate and subarctic areas and also occurs in mountainous regions in the tropics.", "It grows in rocky habitats such as cliffs, scree slopes, walls and mine waste, the type of rock used as a substrate depending on the subspecies.", "It grows from sea-level up to 3000 metres in North America while in the British Isles it reaches 870 metres.", "It occurs on ledges and in crevices on moist, east-facing cliffs and occasionally on talus with similar conditions.", "It prefers a fully or partially shaded aspect.", "It has gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit."], "habitat_section": ["It is widespread in temperate and subarctic areas and also occurs in mountainous regions in the tropics.", "Its range includes most of Europe and much of Asia south to Turkey, Iran and the Himalayas with a population in Yemen.", "It occurs in northern, southern and parts of eastern Africa and also in eastern Indonesia, south-east Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand and Hawaii.", "It is found in North America and Central America and Cuba, and the northern and western regions of South America such as Chile.", "Even though its range is wide spread, it is often rare, and populations are widely spread out from each other based on the available of suitable habitat.", "It grows in rocky habitats such as cliffs, scree slopes, walls and mine waste, the type of rock used as a substrate depending on the subspecies.", "It grows from sea-level up to 3000 metres in North America while in the British Isles it reaches 870 metres.", "In the US state of Minnesota A. trichomanes is listed as a threatened species.", "It occurs on ledges and in crevices on moist, east-facing cliffs and occasionally on talus with similar conditions.", "The Minnesota populations are Asplenium trichomanes subsp. trichomanes."], "random_sentences": ["Asplenium trichomanes, the maidenhair spleenwort, is a small fern in the spleenwort genus Asplenium.", "It is a widespread and common species, occurring almost worldwide in a variety of rocky habitats.", "It is a variable fern with several subspecies.", "The specific epithet trichomanes refers to a Greek word for fern.", "Asplenium trichomanes grows 10 to 30 cm tall forming tufts arising from a short, scaly rhizome.", "The evergreen fronds are long and narrow, gradually tapering towards the tip.", "They are simply divided into small, yellow-green to dark-green, roundish pinnae.", "The stipe and rachis of the frond are dark all along their length.", "The fronds can reach 40 cm in length but are more commonly 820 cm.", "The indusia are linear to oval, straight, and attached to the upper-side of the fertile vein.", "There are 4 to 8 sori per pinna and each are 1 to 3.5 mm long.", "Diploid chromosome count is 72.", "It is widespread in temperate and subarctic areas and also occurs in mountainous regions in the tropics.", "Its range includes most of Europe and much of Asia south to Turkey, Iran and the Himalayas with a population in Yemen.", "It occurs in northern, southern and parts of eastern Africa and also in eastern Indonesia, south-east Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand and Hawaii.", "It is found in North America and Central America and Cuba, and the northern and western regions of South America such as Chile.", "Even though its range is wide spread, it is often rare, and populations are widely spread out from each other based on the available of suitable habitat.", "It grows in rocky habitats such as cliffs, scree slopes, walls and mine waste, the type of rock used as a substrate depending on the subspecies.", "It grows from sea-level up to 3000 metres in North America while in the British Isles it reaches 870 metres.", "In the US state of Minnesota A. trichomanes is listed as a threatened species.", "It occurs on ledges and in crevices on moist, east-facing cliffs and occasionally on talus with similar conditions.", "The Minnesota populations are Asplenium trichomanes subsp. trichomanes.", "Asplenium trichomanes is valued in cultivation for its hardiness , its evergreen foliage and its ability to colonise crevices in stone walls.", "It prefers a fully or partially shaded aspect.", "It has gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit.", "Linnaeus was the first to describe maidenhair spleenwort with the binomial Asplenium trichomanes in his Species Plantarum of 1753.", "Asplenium trichomanes has diploid, tetraploid and hexaploid cytotypes, which it has been argued should be recognised as distinct species.", "A triploid cytotype is also known.", "Within these cytotypes several subspecies are recognised, including"]}, "Podarcis muralis": {"keywords": ["The common wall lizard prefers rocky environments, including urban settings, where it can scurry between rock, rubble, debris and buildings.", "In the southern part of its range it tends to occur in humid or semi-humid habitats, compared to drier habitats in the north.", "It occurs as introduced populations in southern Britain, where one such population in the seaside town of Ventnor on the Isle of Wight has become somewhat famous, and also in North America.", "There has been some scientific debate as to whether the populations in Southern England represent the northern edge of their native range.", "It is commonly observed living in limestone outcrops, rock walls, and rubble along the Ohio River basin.", "The European wall lizard was also introduced to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada in 1970, when a dozen individuals were released into the wild from a small private zoo."], "habitat_section": ["The common wall lizard prefers rocky environments, including urban settings, where it can scurry between rock, rubble, debris and buildings.", "In the southern part of its range it tends to occur in humid or semi-humid habitats, compared to drier habitats in the north.", "The natural range spans much of the mainland Europe except from the north and very south and extends to Turkey.", "It occurs as introduced populations in southern Britain, where one such population in the seaside town of Ventnor on the Isle of Wight has become somewhat famous, and also in North America.", "There has been some scientific debate as to whether the populations in Southern England represent the northern edge of their native range."], "random_sentences": ["Podarcis muralis is a species of lizard with a large distribution in Europe and well-established introduced populations in North America, where it is also called the European wall lizard.", "It can grow to about in total length.", "The animal has shown variation in the places it has been introduced to.", "Fossils have been found in a cave in Greece dating to the early part of the Holocene.", "The common wall lizard is a small, thin lizard whose small scales are highly variable in colour and pattern.", "Its coloration is generally brownish or greyish, and may occasionally be tinged with green.", "In some individuals, the row of spots along their backs may form a line, while others may have a reticulated pattern with dark spots on the side and scattered white spots that can be blue in the shoulder region.", "The tail is brown, grey or rust in colour, and may also have light bars on the sides.", "The belly region has six rows of larger rectangular scales that are generally reddish, pink, or orangish.", "Common wall lizards may also have dark markings on the throat.", "This lizard has six distinct morphological forms which are identified by the colouration of its throat and underbelly.", "Three of these are pure morphs consisting only of solid colours on their scales: white, red or yellow, and three other morphs are distinguished by a combination of colours: white-yellow, white-red and yellow-red.", "The common wall lizard prefers rocky environments, including urban settings, where it can scurry between rock, rubble, debris and buildings.", "In the southern part of its range it tends to occur in humid or semi-humid habitats, compared to drier habitats in the north.", "Common wall lizards rely both on visual and chemical signals to communicate with conspecifics.", "Male wall lizards are equipped with femoral glands, which produce a waxy secretion used for chemical signalling.", "Both the proteinic and lipophilic compounds in the secretions are known to carry socially relevant information.", "The six morphs of this lizard are primarily identifiable by colour and can be distinguished with the naked eye.", "However, they are commonly confirmed by digital photo and colour analysis.", "For males, colouration is visible on the underbelly, but in females of all the morphs there is less colouration seen in this region, indicating that sexual dimorphism occurs within this species.", "A study found sexual dimorphism in the digit ratios.", "Namely, they found a significant difference of the 2D:4D ratio on both forepaws and the 2D:3D ratio on the left forepaw, with all ratios being larger in male animals.", "This study was conducted on a sample set of 18 male and 18 female museum specimens.", "Aside from differences in colour, the morphs vary by length, survival rate, and immune resistance/response to infection.", "Podarcis muralis photographed at Mosel valley Susceptibility to infection also varies between morphs, red and yellow-red morphs are the most susceptible to infection by the haemogregarine parasite, a common parasite for these lizards.", "White morphs are the most resistant to this parasite and the yellow morphs are at an intermediate value of immune resistance and intensity.", "Certain traits can also lead to a variation in snout-vent length in each of these morphs.", "For example, in orange morphs, sexual selection favours larger morphs which makes them, on average, larger than the other morphs.", "The femoral gland secretions of males differ in chemical composition according to each respective morph.", "Secretions are used by males for intra-species communication, such as marking of territories and attracting potential mates.", "Individuals share the same organics within the secretions, but the concentrations of certain key compounds differ.", "For example, -tocopherol is present in higher concentrations in the secretions of red morphs.", "This molecule allows for scents to remain in the environment longer by reducing the rate of oxidation in humid environments.", "This indicates that red morphs tend to be more territorial and maintain territories for longer periods of time compared to other morphs.", "This phenomenon is also seen when it comes to the age of lizards.", "Similarly, older, more territorial lizards have higher levels of -tocopherol compared to younger individuals who are more prone to roaming regardless of morph.", "Again, indicating that the composition of the secretions relate to the function.", "Furanones are found in higher concentrations in white morphs, followed by yellow, then red morphs.", "Among females, reproductive strategies differ by morph", "yellow females are r strategists, producing many smaller eggs in their clutch which would allow for numerous offspring to be produced and proliferate in smaller populations with less competition.", "White females are K strategists, producing fewer, larger eggs which makes offspring more likely to survive in harsher, more competitive environments.", "Red females can be r or K strategists based on the environment they are in.", "The existence of alternate strategies points to how morphs have adapted to different environments and hints to the maintenance of colour polymorphism as with fluctuations in environments each morph will eventually be the fittest and as such will not be selected out of the population.", "The differences observed between morphs are unique evolutionary trade offs employed by each morph to promote survival within the different environments they face in light of limited ability to adapt perfectly to each pressure.", "Such a trade off is seen when comparing orange morphs to white morphs: morphs, on average, have larger body sizes compared to the white morphs but, in exchange, they are more prone to parasitic infection.", "In orange morphs, more emphasis is placed on being larger and having the ability to physically compete and ward of potential threats, but in white morphs, metabolic emphasis is placed on having a more hardy immune system to resist infection.", "Again, these trade offs can arise as there are selective differences in the environment each morph prefers.", "The differences in the relative proportions of the morphs with respect to location show that environmental pressures differ and some morphs' trade offs are more successful in specific environments than another's.", "The natural range spans much of the mainland Europe except from the north and very south and extends to Turkey.", "It occurs as introduced populations in southern Britain, where one such population in the seaside town of Ventnor on the Isle of Wight has become somewhat famous, and also in North America.", "There has been some scientific debate as to whether the populations in Southern England represent the northern edge of their native range.", "Podarcis muralis has been introduced in the United States and is spreading throughout the Cincinnati metropolitan area.", "It is commonly observed living in limestone outcrops, rock walls, and rubble along the Ohio River basin.", "Podarcis muralis photographed in Cincinnati, Ohio - 2015.", "It is referred to locally in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area as the \" Lazarus lizard \" , as it was introduced to the area around 1950 by George Rau, a boy who was a member of the family who owned the Lazarus department store chain .", "After he returned from a family vacation to northern Italy, he released about 10 of the reptiles near his Cincinnati home.", "Genetic testing has revealed that as little as only three of these lizards survived long enough to reproduce, meaning they were subject to an extreme genetic bottleneck.", "This prolific lizard has reproduced exponentially", "it continues to expand its distribution range annually, and has established itself so well in southwest Ohio, it is now considered a naturalized species by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and is protected under state law .", "Besides Ohio, P. muralis has also been introduced in other U.S. states.", "Populations occur in Kenton and Campbell counties in Kentucky, and in parts of Indiana.", "The European wall lizard was also introduced to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada in 1970, when a dozen individuals were released into the wild from a small private zoo."]}, "Cymbalaria muralis": {"keywords": ["Cymbalaria muralis, commonly called ivy-leaved toadflax or Kenilworth ivy, is a low, spreading, viney plant with small purple flowers, native to southern Europe.", "The flower stalk is unusual for seeking light until it is fertilized, after which it grows away from the light.", "It spreads quickly, growing up to tall it commonly grows in rock and wall crevices, and along footpaths.", "Epiphytic upon the trunk of a palm tree, Auckland, NZCymbalaria muralis is native to Mediterranean climates in south and southwest Europe, the Southern Alps, eastern Yugoslavia, southern Italy and Sicily."], "habitat_section": ["It spreads quickly, growing up to tall it commonly grows in rock and wall crevices, and along footpaths.", "The leaves are evergreen, rounded to heart-shaped, long and wide, 37-lobed, alternating on thin stems.", "The flowers are very small but distinctly spurred, similar in shape to snapdragon flowers.", "Flowers from May to September.", "Cymbalaria muralis - Leaf.", "Cymbalaria muralis - flower.", "Cymbalaria muralis - fruits.", "Fruits Epiphytic upon the trunk of a palm tree, Auckland, NZCymbalaria muralis is native to Mediterranean climates in south and southwest Europe, the Southern Alps, eastern Yugoslavia, southern Italy and Sicily.", "It has spread throughout the world as an invasive plant, including the United States, the British Isles, Australia and New Zealand.", "It is said to have been introduced into England by accident when a shipment of sculptures was brought to Oxford.", "It was first introduced early in the 17th century and was widely planted in the UK up to the 19th century."], "random_sentences": ["Cymbalaria muralis, commonly called ivy-leaved toadflax or Kenilworth ivy, is a low, spreading, viney plant with small purple flowers, native to southern Europe.", "It belongs to the plantain family , and is introduced in North America, Australia, and elsewhere.", "The flower stalk is unusual for seeking light until it is fertilized, after which it grows away from the light.", "Other names include coliseum ivy, Oxford ivy, mother of thousands, pennywort, and wandering sailor.", "It spreads quickly, growing up to tall it commonly grows in rock and wall crevices, and along footpaths.", "The leaves are evergreen, rounded to heart-shaped, long and wide, 37-lobed, alternating on thin stems.", "The flowers are very small but distinctly spurred, similar in shape to snapdragon flowers.", "Flowers from May to September.", "Epiphytic upon the trunk of a palm tree, Auckland, NZCymbalaria muralis is native to Mediterranean climates in south and southwest Europe, the Southern Alps, eastern Yugoslavia, southern Italy and Sicily.", "It has spread throughout the world as an invasive plant, including the United States, the British Isles, Australia and New Zealand.", "It is said to have been introduced into England by accident when a shipment of sculptures was brought to Oxford.", "It was first introduced early in the 17th century and was widely planted in the UK up to the 19th century.", "This plant has an unusual method of propagation.", "The flower stalk is initially positively phototropic and moves towards the light.", "After fertilisation, it becomes negatively phototropic and moves away from the light.", "This results in seed being pushed into dark crevices of rock walls, where it is more likely to germinate."]}}
|
|
2613218_1119794
| 726
|
[
"Erynnis tages",
"Arctostaphylos uva-ursi",
"Cyaniris semiargus",
"Hippocrepis comosa",
"Erebia epiphron",
"Fabriciana niobe",
"Gentianella campestris",
"Capreolus capreolus",
"Juniperus communis",
"Lysandra coridon",
"Carduelis citrinella",
"Hirundo rustica",
"Turdus pilaris",
"Phoenicurus ochruros",
"Nucifraga caryocatactes",
"Arcyptera fusca"
] |
{"Erynnis tages": {"keywords": ["The Dingy Skipper is widespread from the Iberian Peninsula and Ireland in the west to the Pacific in East Asia.", "In southern Bavaria, the species is concentrated in the Alpine region, the valleys of the Alpine rivers, in particular the Lech and Isar, as well as the areas near the river in the Donaumoos.", "With the exception of the East Bavarian low mountain range, the occurrence of the Dingy Skipper coincides with the distribution of limestone areas or geological features .", "Erynnis tages favours open grassy habitats up to 2,000 metres above sea level.", "A variety of habitats are used including chalk downland, woodland clearings, coastal dunes, railway lines and waste ground.", "The habitats of the Dingy Skipper are mainly dry and poor grasslands.", "Extensive grassland with one or two-tier meadows and pastures as well as habitats with little vegetation with raw soil and initial plant communities are also regularly populated.", "In forests, the imagos fly in very sparse wooded stands or on forest meadows, on the edges of paths and forest edges.", "Suitable habitats are disturbances such as paths with a dry, warm microclimate.", "The imagos fly in two generations from May-June and July-August but in northern regions and at the high altitudes, there is only a single generation.", "The imagos prefer low-growing or very patchy vegetation and often stay on bare ground to sunbathe or to absorb moisture and minerals.", "Other suction plants are yellow-flowered Fabaceae such as Anthyllis vulneraria, Chamaecytisus ratisbonensis and Medicago falcata as well as blue- and violet-flowered mint flowers such as Salvia pratensis and Thymus sp. Visits to flowers on taller perennials such as Cirsium arvense, Eupatorium cannabinum or Echium vulgare are rare, as the imagos mainly stay near the ground.", "In addition to visiting flowers, the imagos regularly suckle on moist soil, carrion and excrement.", "Eggs are laid individually on the upper side of mostly terminal leaflets near the ground, with gaps or weak-growing, microclimatically favored locations being preferred.", "The caterpillar creates a shelter by spinning leaves together and feeds until fully grown in August.", "The winter web is dense like parchment, so that no water can penetrate.", "In accordance with its preference for low and gappy vegetation, grazing is particularly suitable for maintaining the habitats, which, in addition to the continuous shortening of the vegetation, also results in the formation of the open ground areas that are essential for the species due to the footfall.", "For the occurrence in poor meadows, the extensive renouncement of fertilization is necessary for survival. Another contribution to the protection of the species is the preservation of small structures with patchy vegetation on fields, embankments and roadsides.", "flood dams, embankments or disused mining sites, which are maintained in a low-growing and gappy state by largely dispensing with planting and corresponding subsequent care."], "habitat_section": ["The Dingy Skipper is widespread from the Iberian Peninsula and Ireland in the west to the Pacific in East Asia.", "In the north, the area boundary follows roughly the 62N. In Asia, the species penetrates south across the Caucasus to Pakistan, and in China the area boundary is far to the south.", "In Bavaria, the distribution shows a noticeable change from more or less densely populated areas to regions in which the species is absent over long stretches.", "In southern Bavaria, the species is concentrated in the Alpine region, the valleys of the Alpine rivers, in particular the Lech and Isar, as well as the areas near the river in the Donaumoos.", "In Northern Bavaria, the focus is on the Franconian Alb, in parts of the Franconian Keuper-Lias-Land and the Mainfrankische Platten.", "A secondary focus in the Upper Main hill country leads to scattered evidence along the northeastern border.", "Here the species occurs from the Vogtland over the Fichtelgebirge to the Upper Palatinate and Bavarian Forest.", "With the exception of the East Bavarian low mountain range, the occurrence of the Dingy Skipper coincides with the distribution of limestone areas or geological features .", "It is widely but patchily distributed across Britain.", "It occurs further north than any other skipper in Scotland with some isolated colonies in the Inverness region.", "It is also one of the two skippers to be found in Ireland, again with a patchy distribution but the main strongholds along the western side.", "It is on the decline in several European countries including the UK and Armenia.", "Erynnis tages favours open grassy habitats up to 2,000 metres above sea level.", "A variety of habitats are used including chalk downland, woodland clearings, coastal dunes, railway lines and waste ground.", "The habitats of the Dingy Skipper are mainly dry and poor grasslands.", "Extensive grassland with one or two-tier meadows and pastures as well as habitats with little vegetation with raw soil and initial plant communities are also regularly populated.", "In forests, the imagos fly in very sparse wooded stands or on forest meadows, on the edges of paths and forest edges.", "The species is also found in fens.", "Suitable habitats are disturbances such as paths with a dry, warm microclimate.", "The imagos fly in two generations from May-June and July-August but in northern regions and at the high altitudes, there is only a single generation.", "The flight period in Bavaria extends from the middle of April to the beginning of September with a focus from the beginning of May to the end of June and a maximum in the last May decade.", "First and second generation overlap.", "The second generation, which occurs only irregularly or regionally, is always significantly weaker.", "The imagos prefer low-growing or very patchy vegetation and often stay on bare ground to sunbathe or to absorb moisture and minerals.", "On the ground or on low plants, the males also move from perch in order to track down the females by approaching insects of suitable size.", "The flight is usually very fast and low, whereby the locally loyal imagos usually only cover short distances of a few meters and soon settle again.", "There is very little information on flower visits.", "In Bavaria out of a total of 14 listed plant species, only three are mentioned several times, in addition to the most important egg-laying plants Hippocrepis comosa and Lotus corniculatus, Ajuga reptans also is visited.", "Other suction plants are yellow-flowered Fabaceae such as Anthyllis vulneraria, Chamaecytisus ratisbonensis and Medicago falcata as well as blue- and violet-flowered mint flowers such as Salvia pratensis and Thymus sp. Visits to flowers on taller perennials such as Cirsium arvense, Eupatorium cannabinum or Echium vulgare are rare, as the imagos mainly stay near the ground.", "In addition to visiting flowers, the imagos regularly suckle on moist soil, carrion and excrement.", "Eggs are laid individually on the upper side of mostly terminal leaflets near the ground, with gaps or weak-growing, microclimatically favored locations being preferred.", "Observations of egg laying or of egg and caterpillar finds are only available in isolated cases.", "The following egg-laying and host plants have been reported from Bavaria.", "Hippocrepis comosa, Lotus corniculatus, Securigera varia, Tetragonalobus maritimus.", "Almost all reports relate to observations of oviposition or egg discoveries, only a single detection of an adult caterpillar was found in Lotus corniculatus.", "In Great Britain eggs were found on the tender young leaves of bird's-foot trefoil , the favoured food plant here and greater bird's-foot trefoil are sometimes used).", "Other larval host plants in Europe are Eryngium, Coronilla, Medicago, etc.", "The hemispherical egg with clear longitudinal ribs is initially light yellow and later orange-red in color and is easily recognizable on the green upper side of the leaf with a targeted search.", "This combination of features results in a further, reliable detection method for the species.", "During the day, the caterpillar hides in a hiding place made of spun leaves and mainly eats at night.", "The caterpillar creates a shelter by spinning leaves together and feeds until fully grown in August.", "It then creates a larger tent to form a hibernaculum where it hibernates.", "Pupation occurs the following spring without further feeding.", "The winter web is dense like parchment, so that no water can penetrate.", "Spun threads in summer, the pupae of which result in second generation butterflies, are of a loose texture.", "In accordance with its preference for low and gappy vegetation, grazing is particularly suitable for maintaining the habitats, which, in addition to the continuous shortening of the vegetation, also results in the formation of the open ground areas that are essential for the species due to the footfall.", "Extensive grazing with sheep or cattle must therefore be continued on lime lawns, the most important type of habitat in central Europe.", "If grazing is not possible on poor grass, mowing can also be considered.", "There are no restrictions with regard to the time of mowing, as the pre-imaginal stages almost always live close to the ground.", "For the occurrence in poor meadows, the extensive renouncement of fertilization is necessary for survival. Another contribution to the protection of the species is the preservation of small structures with patchy vegetation on fields, embankments and roadsides.", "It is essential to avoid the use of suction mowers or mulchers when caring for such structures.", "The creation of new habitats is also possible in sub-areas of the occurrence, for example on limestone gravel in the valleys of southern Bavaria, since the imagos often colonize anthropogenic secondary sites.", "Suitable areas are e.g.", "flood dams, embankments or disused mining sites, which are maintained in a low-growing and gappy state by largely dispensing with planting and corresponding subsequent care."], "random_sentences": ["The Dingy Skipper is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae.", "Figs 3 larva after 2nd moult 3a larva after 3rd moult 3b, 3c larva after 4th moult courting", "Erynnis tages is different from other skippers because of the predominantly monochrome, gray-brown wing coloration and the marbling, which is only present on the upper side of the forewings, as well as a series of small white dots on the wing edge.", "It is probably the most moth-like British butterfly and normally rests with its wings in a moth-like fashion.", "This well-camouflaged, brown and grey butterfly can be confused with the grizzled skipper, the Mother Shipton moth or the burnet companion moth.", "Faded specimens of Carcharodus alceae are distinguished by glass spots in the forewing and by a jagged rear wing edge.", "A special feature is the restraint of the imagos, which is reminiscent of an deltoid moth with its roof-shaped wings placed one on top of the other.", "The Dingy Skipper is widespread from the Iberian Peninsula and Ireland in the west to the Pacific in East Asia.", "In the north, the area boundary follows roughly the 62N.", "In Asia, the species penetrates south across the Caucasus to Pakistan, and in China the area boundary is far to the south.", "In Bavaria, the distribution shows a noticeable change from more or less densely populated areas to regions in which the species is absent over long stretches.", "In southern Bavaria, the species is concentrated in the Alpine region, the valleys of the Alpine rivers, in particular the Lech and Isar, as well as the areas near the river in the Donaumoos.", "In Northern Bavaria, the focus is on the Franconian Alb, in parts of the Franconian Keuper-Lias-Land and the Mainfrankische Platten.", "A secondary focus in the Upper Main hill country leads to scattered evidence along the northeastern border.", "Here the species occurs from the Vogtland over the Fichtelgebirge to the Upper Palatinate and Bavarian Forest.", "With the exception of the East Bavarian low mountain range, the occurrence of the Dingy Skipper coincides with the distribution of limestone areas or geological features .", "It is widely but patchily distributed across Britain.", "It occurs further north than any other skipper in Scotland with some isolated colonies in the Inverness region.", "It is also one of the two skippers to be found in Ireland, again with a patchy distribution but the main strongholds along the western side.", "It is on the decline in several European countries including the UK and Armenia.", "Erynnis tages favours open grassy habitats up to 2,000 metres above sea level.", "A variety of habitats are used including chalk downland, woodland clearings, coastal dunes, railway lines and waste ground.", "The habitats of the Dingy Skipper are mainly dry and poor grasslands.", "Extensive grassland with one or two-tier meadows and pastures as well as habitats with little vegetation with raw soil and initial plant communities are also regularly populated.", "In forests, the imagos fly in very sparse wooded stands or on forest meadows, on the edges of paths and forest edges.", "The species is also found in fens.", "Suitable habitats are disturbances such as paths with a dry, warm microclimate.", "The imagos fly in two generations from May-June and July-August but in northern regions and at the high altitudes, there is only a single generation.", "The flight period in Bavaria extends from the middle of April to the beginning of September with a focus from the beginning of May to the end of June and a maximum in the last May decade.", "First and second generation overlap.", "The second generation, which occurs only irregularly or regionally, is always significantly weaker.", "The imagos prefer low-growing or very patchy vegetation and often stay on bare ground to sunbathe or to absorb moisture and minerals.", "On the ground or on low plants, the males also move from perch in order to track down the females by approaching insects of suitable size.", "The flight is usually very fast and low, whereby the locally loyal imagos usually only cover short distances of a few meters and soon settle again.", "There is very little information on flower visits.", "In Bavaria out of a total of 14 listed plant species, only three are mentioned several times, in addition to the most important egg-laying plants Hippocrepis comosa and Lotus corniculatus, Ajuga reptans also is visited.", "Other suction plants are yellow-flowered Fabaceae such as Anthyllis vulneraria, Chamaecytisus ratisbonensis and Medicago falcata as well as blue- and violet-flowered mint flowers such as Salvia pratensis and Thymus spp.", "Visits to flowers on taller perennials such as Cirsium arvense, Eupatorium cannabinum or Echium vulgare are rare, as the imagos mainly stay near the ground.", "In addition to visiting flowers, the imagos regularly suckle on moist soil, carrion and excrement.", "Eggs are laid individually on the upper side of mostly terminal leaflets near the ground, with gaps or weak-growing, microclimatically favored locations being preferred.", "Observations of egg laying or of egg and caterpillar finds are only available in isolated cases.", "The following egg-laying and host plants have been reported from Bavaria: Hippocrepis comosa, Lotus corniculatus, Securigera varia, Tetragonalobus maritimus.", "Almost all reports relate to observations of oviposition or egg discoveries, only a single detection of an adult caterpillar was found in Lotus corniculatus.", "In Great Britain eggs were found on the tender young leaves of bird's-foot trefoil , the favoured food plant here and greater bird's-foot trefoil are sometimes used).", "Other larval host plants in Europe are Eryngium, Coronilla, Medicago, etc.", "The hemispherical egg with clear longitudinal ribs is initially light yellow and later orange-red in color and is easily recognizable on the green upper side of the leaf with a targeted search.", "This combination of features results in a further, reliable detection method for the species.", "During the day, the caterpillar hides in a hiding place made of spun leaves and mainly eats at night.", "The caterpillar creates a shelter by spinning leaves together and feeds until fully grown in August.", "It then creates a larger tent to form a hibernaculum where it hibernates.", "Pupation occurs the following spring without further feeding.", "The winter web is dense like parchment, so that no water can penetrate.", "Spun threads in summer, the pupae of which result in second generation butterflies, are of a loose texture.", "In accordance with its preference for low and gappy vegetation, grazing is particularly suitable for maintaining the habitats, which, in addition to the continuous shortening of the vegetation, also results in the formation of the open ground areas that are essential for the species due to the footfall.", "Extensive grazing with sheep or cattle must therefore be continued on lime lawns, the most important type of habitat in central Europe.", "If grazing is not possible on poor grass, mowing can also be considered.", "There are no restrictions with regard to the time of mowing, as the pre-imaginal stages almost always live close to the ground.", "For the occurrence in poor meadows, the extensive renouncement of fertilization is necessary for survival. Another contribution to the protection of the species is the preservation of small structures with patchy vegetation on fields, embankments and roadsides.", "It is essential to avoid the use of suction mowers or mulchers when caring for such structures.", "The creation of new habitats is also possible in sub-areas of the occurrence, for example on limestone gravel in the valleys of southern Bavaria, since the imagos often colonize anthropogenic secondary sites.", "Suitable areas are e.g. flood dams, embankments or disused mining sites, which are maintained in a low-growing and gappy state by largely dispensing with planting and corresponding subsequent care.", "\" A grandson of Jupiter \"", "Subspecies are little defined and include E. t. unicolor Freyer, 1852 found in Transcaucasia.", "Synonyms: Erynnis morio SCOPOLI, 1763"]}, "Arctostaphylos uva-ursi": {"keywords": ["Arctostaphylos uva-ursi is a plant species of the genus Arctostaphylos widely distributed across circumboreal regions of the subarctic Northern Hemisphere.", "Growing up to in height, the leaves are evergreen.", "Arctostaphylos uva-ursi is a small procumbent woody groundcover shrub growing to high.", "Native Americans and early pioneers smoked the dried uva-ursi leaves and bark alone or mixed with other herbs, tobacco or dried dogwood bark in pipes.", "Numerous common names exist, depending on region, such as mealberry, sandberry, mountain-box, fox-plum, hog-crawberry, and barren myrtle.", "The distribution of Arctostaphylos uva-ursi is circumpolar, and it is widespread in northern latitudes, but confined to high altitudes further south.", "It is a fire-tolerant species and may be a seedbanking species.", "One review indicated that ingestion of large doses can cause allergic reactions, with nausea and seizures, as a potential emergency condition.", "Dried bearberry leaves are the main component in many traditional North American Native smoking mixes, known collectively as \" kinnikinnick \" used especially among western First Nations, often including other herbs and sometimes tobacco.", "It is an attractive year-round evergreen groundcover for gardens, and is useful for controlling erosion on hillsides and slopes due to its deep roots.", "It is tolerant of sun and dry soils, and is thus common groundcover in urban areas, in naturalized areas, and in native plant or rock gardens."], "habitat_section": ["The distribution of Arctostaphylos uva-ursi is circumpolar, and it is widespread in northern latitudes, but confined to high altitudes further south.", "It is a fire-tolerant species and may be a seedbanking species.", "Arctostaphylos uva-ursi is an alternate host for spruce broom rust.", "Bears and other animals eat the berries.", "The plant is rare or endangered in several states of the Midwestern United States."], "random_sentences": ["Arctostaphylos uva-ursi is a plant species of the genus Arctostaphylos widely distributed across circumboreal regions of the subarctic Northern Hemisphere.", "Kinnikinnick is a common name in Canada and the United States.", "Growing up to in height, the leaves are evergreen.", "The flowers are white to pink and the fruit is a red berry.", "One of several related species referred to as bearberry, its specific epithet uva-ursi means \" grape of the bear \" in Latin , similar to the meaning of the generic epithet Arctostaphylos .", "Arctostaphylos uva-ursi is a small procumbent woody groundcover shrub growing to high.", "Wild stands of the species can be dense, with heights rarely taller than .", "Erect branching twigs emerge from long flexible prostrate stems, which are produced by single roots.", "The trailing stems will layer, sending out small roots periodically.", "The finely textured velvety branches are initially white to pale green, becoming smooth and red-brown with maturity.", "The small solitary three-scaled buds are dark brown.", "The leaves are shiny, small, and feel thick and stiff, They have rounded tips tapering back to the base, held vertically by a twisted leaf stalk in an alternate arrangement on the stem.", "The leaves remain green for 13 years before falling in autumn, when their colour changes to a reddish-green or purple, pale on the underside.", "Terminal clusters of small urn-shaped flowers bloom from May to June.", "The flowers are white to pink, and bear round, fleshy or mealy, bright red to pink fruits called drupes.", "The smooth, glossy skinned fruits range from in diameter.", "The red fruits persist on the plant into early winter.", "The fruits are bittersweet when raw, but sweeter when boiled and dried.", "Each drupe contains 1 to 5 hard seeds, which need to be scarified and stratified prior to germination to reduce the seed coat and break embryo dormancy.", "There is an average of 40,900 cleaned seeds per pound.", "The plant contains diverse phytochemicals, including ursolic acid, tannic acid, gallic acid, some essential oils and resin, hydroquinones , tannins , phenolic glycosides and flavonoids.", "The genus name of Arctostaphylos uva-ursi comes from the Greek words arctos and staphyle in reference to the fruits which form grape-like clusters.", "In the wild, the fruits are commonly eaten by bears.", "The specific epithet, uva-ursi, comes from the Latin words uva and ursus , reflected by the bearberry nickname.", "The common name, kinnikinnick, is an Algonquin word meaning \" smoking mixture \" .", "Native Americans and early pioneers smoked the dried uva-ursi leaves and bark alone or mixed with other herbs, tobacco or dried dogwood bark in pipes.", "Numerous common names exist, depending on region, such as mealberry, sandberry, mountain-box, fox-plum, hog-crawberry, and barren myrtle.", "The distribution of Arctostaphylos uva-ursi is circumpolar, and it is widespread in northern latitudes, but confined to high altitudes further south:", "It is a fire-tolerant species and may be a seedbanking species.", "Arctostaphylos uva-ursi is an alternate host for spruce broom rust.", "Bears and other animals eat the berries.", "The plant is rare or endangered in several states of the Midwestern United States.", "One review indicated that ingestion of large doses can cause allergic reactions, with nausea and seizures, as a potential emergency condition.", "Preliminary studies indicate that arbutin may be toxic when ingested in high doses.", "Uva ursi may cause adverse effects in people with liver or kidney disease, or pregnant and breastfeeding women.", "Historically, bearberry fruits and leaves were used by the Blackfeet Nation as food.", "While edible raw the fruits are fairly bland that way, but can be used to make jelly.", "The berries were used as seasoning and cooked with meat.", "The young leaves can be made into tea.", "Teas and extracts of the leaves have been used in traditional medicine of First Nations people over centuries as urinary tract antiseptics, diuretics, and laxatives.", "In herbalism, leaf tea is used to treat urinary tract inflammation.", "Though thought to be an astringent or cure for sexually transmitted diseases, as of 2017, there was no high-quality evidence from clinical research that such treatments are effective or safe.", "Dried bearberry leaves are the main component in many traditional North American Native smoking mixes, known collectively as \" kinnikinnick \" used especially among western First Nations, often including other herbs and sometimes tobacco.", "Native Americans also used the plant to make yellow dye.", "There are several cultivars that are propagated for use as ornamental plants.", "It is an attractive year-round evergreen groundcover for gardens, and is useful for controlling erosion on hillsides and slopes due to its deep roots.", "It is tolerant of sun and dry soils, and is thus common groundcover in urban areas, in naturalized areas, and in native plant or rock gardens."]}, "Cyaniris semiargus": {"keywords": ["This common species inhabits meadows, pastures, grasslands and flowery grassy damp areas up to 2200m.", "It overwinters as a young larva."], "habitat_section": ["The Mazarine blue's population is distributed throughout continental Europe, reaching into the Arctic Circle , Morocco, then east across the Palearctic to Siberia and the Russian Far East.", "There was a large native population in Britain in the early part of the 19th century, but it disappeared before the 20th century, though single vagrants have been spotted, and some estimates of British resident extinction are as late as 1906.", "In 2009, UNESCO was researching a possible reintroduction of the Mazarine blue to Britain.", "Recently, the Mazarine blue's numbers have been declining in its European range and the reason remains unclear.", "This common species inhabits meadows, pastures, grasslands and flowery grassy damp areas up to 2200m.", "It seems to prefer places which are not fertilized and not used for fodder production."], "random_sentences": ["Cyaniris semiargus, the Mazarine blue, is a Palearctic butterfly in the family Lycaenidae.", "The Mazarine blue's population is distributed throughout continental Europe, reaching into the Arctic Circle , Morocco, then east across the Palearctic to Siberia and the Russian Far East.", "There was a large native population in Britain in the early part of the 19th century, but it disappeared before the 20th century, though single vagrants have been spotted, and some estimates of British resident extinction are as late as 1906.", "In 2009, UNESCO was researching a possible reintroduction of the Mazarine blue to Britain.", "Recently, the Mazarine blue's numbers have been declining in its European range and the reason remains unclear.", "This common species inhabits meadows, pastures, grasslands and flowery grassy damp areas up to 2200m.", "It seems to prefer places which are not fertilized and not used for fodder production.", "The wingspan of the male and female are similar, at 3238 mm.", "The female Mazarine blue is brown.", "The underside of the wings is greyish or ocher, with a series of black spots surrounded by white and a blue scaling in the basal area.", "This species is rather similar to Cupido minimus, but in the underside hindwings of the Mazarine blue the black spot in space 6 and the two spots next to it form an obtuse angle, while in C. minimus they create an acute angle.", "The larva is yellow green with darker lines and has fine hairs and dark brown spiracles.", "The pupa is olive green and attached to the food plant with a silk girdle.", "This species has one brood each year.", "It overwinters as a young larva.", "Adults fly from May to August.", "Caterpillars mainly feed on Red Clover and other species of Trifolium , on Vicia cracca, Anthyllis, Genista and Melilotus."]}, "Hippocrepis comosa": {"keywords": ["It is a hardy plant that survives long periods of cold winters and dry summers years after year.", "Populations that support such butterflies occur on longstanding ungrazed meadows, quarries, edges of paths and wasteland, outside of southern England and the Midlands the climate is unsuitable for the butterflies."], "habitat_section": ["Hippocrepis comosa is found in the UK, predominantly in the south..", "Hippocrepis comosa is a calciole .", "It is a hardy plant that survives long periods of cold winters and dry summers years after year.", "Colonies are not harmed by sheep grazing, and are resistant to moderate trampling, they do not thrive after heavy ploughing or disturbance of the ground.", "In areas grazed by cattle they disappear, sometimes after several years Hippocrepis comosa is the exclusive food plant of the caterpillars of chalkhill blue and Adonis blue butterflies.", "Populations that support such butterflies occur on longstanding ungrazed meadows, quarries, edges of paths and wasteland, outside of southern England and the Midlands the climate is unsuitable for the butterflies.", "Re-establishment of a colony of H. comosa is best attempted by planting individual plants.", "direct sowing has poor rates of success.", "Even this however offers no guarantee of a permanent colony and even less likelihood that the new plants will be used by significant populations of chalkhill blue butterflies within another 50 years."], "random_sentences": ["Hippocrepis comosa, the horseshoe vetch, is a species of perennial flowering plant belonging to the genus Hippocrepis in the family Fabaceae.", "The overall appearance depends on its habitat: sometimes it forms upright clumps of flowers", "at other times, it sends prostrate leafy runners over a wide area", "sometimes it distributes itself as single flowers.", "The flowers are small, yellow or sometimes orange/red , and of typical shape for the family Fabaceae: these appear for a period of two weeks around May..", "The rate of seed production is variable: relatively low and sometimes negligible seed production.", "Seedlings remain the predominant method of extending its range.", "It has a low germination rate in the wild, although this can be improved in nurseries.", "Hippocrepis comosa is found in the UK, predominantly in the south..", "Hippocrepis comosa is a calciole .", "It is a hardy plant that survives long periods of cold winters and dry summers years after year.", "Colonies are not harmed by sheep grazing, and are resistant to moderate trampling", "they do not thrive after heavy ploughing or disturbance of the ground.", "In areas grazed by cattle they disappear, sometimes after several years (depending on grazing intensity.", "Hippocrepis comosa is the exclusive food plant of the caterpillars of chalkhill blue and Adonis blue butterflies.", "Populations that support such butterflies occur on longstanding ungrazed meadows, quarries, edges of paths and wasteland", "outside of southern England and the Midlands the climate is unsuitable for the butterflies.", "Re-establishment of a colony of H. comosa is best attempted by planting individual plants: direct sowing has poor rates of success.", "Even this however offers no guarantee of a permanent colony and even less likelihood that the new plants will be used by significant populations of chalkhill blue butterflies within another 50 years."]}, "Erebia epiphron": {"keywords": ["It is found in mountainous regions of southern and central Europe.", "Habitat in the Uri Alps .", "Mountain areas of Albania, Andorra, Austria, Great Britain, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Liechtenstein, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Yugoslavia .", "It is Britain's only true alpine species of butterfly.", "The larva feeds on moor matgrass near bogs and springs and the nectar-feeding adult visits bilberry, tormentil and heath bedstraw.", "Some larvae spend two years in this stage, the result of a late spring and short summer restricting growth.", "Recorded larval food plants are Aira praecox , Deschampsia cespitosa , Festuca ovina , Nardus stricta and Poa annua The pupa is formed deep in grass tussocks, encased within a loose silk structure.", "The full-grown caterpillar appears to be undescribed."], "habitat_section": ["Mountain areas of Albania, Andorra, Austria, Great Britain, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Liechtenstein, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Yugoslavia .", "Figures 2 and 2a"], "random_sentences": ["The small mountain ringlet or mountain ringlet is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae.", "It is found in mountainous regions of southern and central Europe.", "Habitat in the Uri Alps", "Mountain areas of Albania, Andorra, Austria, Great Britain, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Liechtenstein, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Yugoslavia .", "It is Britain's only true alpine species of butterfly.", "The larva feeds on moor matgrass near bogs and springs and the nectar-feeding adult visits bilberry, tormentil and heath bedstraw.", "The pale cream eggs are laid singly, each female laying up to 70.", "The egg stage lasts two or three weeks.", "The larva is green with a double dorsal and a single lateral white or yellowish line.", "The third instar larvae hibernate in grass tussocks.", "They emerge in the spring and recommence feeding.", "Some larvae spend two years in this stage, the result of a late spring and short summer restricting growth.", "Recorded larval food plants are Aira praecox , Deschampsia cespitosa , Festuca ovina , Nardus stricta and Poa annua The pupa is formed deep in grass tussocks, encased within a loose silk structure.", "The pupa stage lasts about three weeks.", "The flight period is extremely short, a few weeks only, June to August depending on altitude.", "Plate 77 Description in South .", "\" The typical form of this butterfly, epiphron, Knock, has the tawny bands unbroken on the fore wings, and almost so on the hind wings", "the black dots on the hind wings of the female are often pupilled with white, and more rarely this is so in the male also.", "It has been stated that specimens occur in Perthshire which exhibit these characters.", "All the British examples of the small mountain ringlet that I have seen are referable to the form known as cassiope, Fab.", "The tawny, or orange, bands are rarely so entire on the fore wings as in epiphron, and are generally rather narrower", "and that on the hind wing is broken up into three or four rings.", "The black dots are usually smaller and without white pupils.", "The female is somewhat larger and the bands or rings paler.", "Variation in the markings is extensive.", "The bands on the fore wings become less and less complete, until they are reduced to a series of mere rings around the black dots.", "The black dots decrease in size and in number until they, together with the tawny marking, entirely disappear, and a plain blackish-brown insect only remains.", "This extreme form has been named obsoleta, Tutt.", "The earliest rings to vanish seem to be the third on the fore wings and the first on the hind wings.", "Similar modifications occur on the underside also, but there may be an aberration on the upper side of a specimen, and not, or at least not in the same way, on the underside.", "\" The egg when first laid, is yellow, changing afterwards to fawn color with darker markings, especially towards the top.", "It is laid in July on blades of grass.", "The larva hatches in about sixteen days.", "The young caterpillar, before hibernation in October, is greenish, with darker green and yellow lines.", "Feeds in July and after hibernation on various grasses, among which Poa annua, Festuca ovina, Aira praecox, and A. caespitosa have been specified as eaten by caterpillars in confinement.", "A distinct preference, however, has been shown for mat grass , and it has been suggested that this may be the natural food.", "The full-grown caterpillar appears to be undescribed.", "The chrysalis is described by Buckler as being \" little more than three-eighths of an inch in length, rather thick in proportion, being less dumpy in form than hyperanthtis, but more so than blandina .", "The color of the back of the thorax and wing cases is a light green, rather glaucous", "the abdomen a pale drab or dirty whitish", "a dark brown dorsal streak is conspicuous on the thorax, and there is the faintest possible indication of its being continued as a stripe along the abdomen.", "The eye-, trunk-, antenna-, and leg-cases are margined with dark brown, and the wing nervures are indicated by the same colors."]}, "Fabriciana niobe": {"keywords": ["Fabriciana niobe is common throughout Europe, but absent from the United Kingdom and Northern Europe, and is also found in Siberia, Russia, Iran, China, and Korea These butterflies can be found in open grassy places, slopes, woodland and clearings at altitudes between sea level and .", "The hindwing beneath is without the even verdigris shading in the basal half, the latter bearing distinct leathery-yellow patches, which are often centred, edged or shaded with brownish green.", "It overwinters at the caterpillar stage in the egg shell."], "habitat_section": ["Fabriciana niobe is common throughout Europe, but absent from the United Kingdom and Northern Europe, and is also found in Siberia, Russia, Iran, China, and Korea These butterflies can be found in open grassy places, slopes, woodland and clearings at altitudes between sea level and ."], "random_sentences": ["The Niobe fritillary is a species of butterfly in the family Nymphalidae.", "The Latin species name niobe refers to Niobe, daughter of Tantalus in Greek mythology.", "Fabriciana niobe is common throughout Europe, but absent from the United Kingdom and Northern Europe, and is also found in Siberia, Russia, Iran, China, and Korea These butterflies can be found in open grassy places, slopes, woodland and clearings at altitudes between sea level and .", "Niobe fritillary Fabriciana niobe has a wingspan of .", "The females are rather bigger and have more marked wings.", "These medium-sized butterflies have a bright brown-orange background with black dots and crossbands, and a line of submarginal triangular patches.", "The forewings margin shows a rounded shape.", "The underside of the hindwings usually has small whitish-silvery spots, a black pupilled yellow spot and black lined submarginal lunules and veins in the basal area.", "Caterpillars have a dark basic colour with small, white spots and white thorns.", "This species is rather similar to the dark-green fritillary and high brown fritillary , but it is quite smaller, the silver centred brown spots are smaller and the postdiscal silver markings are not continuous.", "Seitz - A. niobe L. .", "Above very similar to aglaja, at once recognized by the much more variegated under-side.", "The hindwing beneath is without the even verdigris shading in the basal half, the latter bearing distinct leathery-yellow patches, which are often centred, edged or shaded with brownish green.", "The nymotypical form has abundant silver-spots beneath, more than aglaja, as the distal band has no silver in aglaja, while it bears silvery centres in niobe.", "It overwinters at the caterpillar stage in the egg shell.", "Adults fly from May to late August.", "The eggs are laid on the vegetation, near the host plants.", "The larvae hatch in March and mature in June.", "Caterpillars feed on Viola tricolor, Viola canina, Viola riviniana, Viola odorata, Viola hirta, Viola palustris and Plantago lanceolata."]}, "Gentianella campestris": {"keywords": ["Gentianella campestris, common name field gentian, is a small herbaceous biennial flowering plant in the Gentianaceae native to Europe.", "Field gentian is widespread in northern, central and southern Europe and its distribution range includes the European Alps and the Jura."], "habitat_section": ["Field gentian is widespread in northern, central and southern Europe and its distribution range includes the European Alps and the Jura."], "random_sentences": ["Gentianella campestris, common name field gentian, is a small herbaceous biennial flowering plant in the Gentianaceae native to Europe.", "Its bluish-purple flowers contain four petals.", "Close-up on flowers Gentianella campestris is a biennial plant of small size, reaching on average in height.", "It has erect stems, simple or branched at the base and the leaves are opposite, ovate-lanceolate and unstalked.", "The flowers are in size.", "Their color is usually bluish-purple, but may be white, pink or lilac, with petals and sepals fused .", "There are four petals, ciliate at the base.", "There are also four sepals, which differ in size .", "The flowering period extends from June to October.", "The fruit is a capsule.", "Field gentian is widespread in northern, central and southern Europe and its distribution range includes the European Alps and the Jura."]}, "Capreolus capreolus": {"keywords": ["The species is widespread in Europe, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, from Scotland to the Caucasus, and east to northern Iran and Iraq.", "Roe deer populations gradually become somewhat larger as one moves further to the east, peaking in Kazakhstan, then becoming smaller again towards the Pacific Ocean.", "Roe deer in a grassland area Young roe deer Roe deer antler The roe deer is a relatively small deer, with a body length of throughout its range, and a shoulder height of , and a weight of .", "Populations from Urals and northern Kazakhstan are larger on average growing to in length and at shoulder height, with body weights of up to , with the deer populations becoming smaller again further east in the Transbaikal, Amur Oblast, and Primorsky Krai regions.", "Males may speed up the process by rubbing their antlers on trees, so that their antlers are hard and stiff for the duels during the mating season.", "Within Europe the roe deer occurs in most areas with the exception of northernmost Scandinavia, in Norway it occurs throughout the country with the exception of parts of northern Vestland and northernmost Nordland , and the islands of Iceland, Ireland and those of the Mediterranean Sea islands.", "In the Mediterranean region, it is largely confined to mountainous areas, and is absent or rare at low altitudes.", "It is known that there are roe deer that live in the Red Forest near Chernobyl in Ukraine.", "At the start of the 20th century, they were almost extirpated in Southern England, but since then have hugely expanded their range, mostly due to restrictions and decrease in hunting, increases in forests and reductions in arable farming, changes in agriculture , a massive reduction in extensive livestock husbandry, and a general warming climate over the past 200 years.", "In 1884 roe were introduced from Wurttemberg in Germany into the Thetford Forest, and these spread to populate most of Norfolk, Suffolk, and substantial parts of Cambridgeshire.", "they occur in the Hyrcanian woodlands and agricultural lands of the Alborz Mountains .", "As new forests were planted in the country in the 20th century, the population began to expand rapidly.", "This species can utilize a large number of habitats, including open agricultural areas and above the tree line, but a requisite factor is access to food and cover.", "It retreats to dense woodland, especially among conifers, or bramble scrub when it must rest, but it is very opportunistic and a hedgerow may be good enough.", "A pioneer species commonly associated with biotic communities at an early stage of succession, during the Neolithic period in Europe when farming humans began to colonise the continent from the Middle East, the roe deer was abundant, taking advantage of areas of forest or woodland cleared by Neolithic farmers.", "It scrapes leaf litter off the ground to make a 'bed'.", "It particularly likes very young, tender grass with a high moisture content, i.e.", ", grass that has received rain the day before.", "Mortality is highest in the first weeks after birth due to predation, or sometimes farm machinery, or in the first winter due to starvation or disease, with up to 90% mortality.", "It is a main prey of the Persian leopard in the Alborz Mountains of Iran.", "In the 2000s there was growing interest among consumers in alternative and organic food products such as game meat.", "During the some periods during the last ice age it was present in central Europe, but during the Last Glacial Maximum it retreated to refugia in the Iberian Peninsula , southern France, Italy , the Balkans and the Carpathians.", "When the last Ice Age ended the species initially abruptly expanded north of the Alps to Germany during the Greenland Interstadial, 12.510.8 thousand years ago, but during the cooling of the Younger Dryas, 10.810 thousand years ago, it appears to have disappeared again from this region.", "It reappeared 9.79.5 thousand years ago, reaching northern central Europe."], "habitat_section": ["Within Europe the roe deer occurs in most areas with the exception of northernmost Scandinavia, in Norway it occurs throughout the country with the exception of parts of northern Vestland and northernmost Nordland , and the islands of Iceland, Ireland and those of the Mediterranean Sea islands.", "In the Mediterranean region, it is largely confined to mountainous areas, and is absent or rare at low altitudes.", "There is an early Neolithic fossil record from Jordan.", "It is known that there are roe deer that live in the Red Forest near Chernobyl in Ukraine.", "Please do not add anything about the island of Pohnpei, this is nonsense added by an editor as a scam/joke in 2010.", "It retreats to dense woodland, especially among conifers, or bramble scrub when it must rest, but it is very opportunistic and a hedgerow may be good enough.", "Deer in the southern Czech Republic live in almost completely open agricultural land.", "A pioneer species commonly associated with biotic communities at an early stage of succession, during the Neolithic period in Europe when farming humans began to colonise the continent from the Middle East, the roe deer was abundant, taking advantage of areas of forest or woodland cleared by Neolithic farmers.", "A roe deer can live up to 20 years, but it usually does not reach such an age.", "A normal life span in the wild is seven to eight years, or 10 years.", "it shows a retarded reaction to population density with females continuing to have a similar fecundity at high population densities.", "Population structure is modified by available nutrition, where populations are irrupting there are few animals over six years old.", "Where populations are stagnant or moribund, there is huge fawn mortality and a large part of the population is over seven years old.", "Mortality is highest in the first weeks after birth due to predation, or sometimes farm machinery, or in the first winter due to starvation or disease, with up to 90% mortality.", "It is a main prey of the Persian leopard in the Alborz Mountains of Iran.", "The nematode Spiculopteragia asymmetrica infects this deer.", "Compared to the other large herbivores and omnivores in Iran, it is a poor disperser of plant seeds, despite consuming relatively more of them.", "Populations are increasing throughout Europe, it is considered a species of 'least concern'."], "random_sentences": ["The roe deer , also known as the roe, western roe deer, or European roe, is a species of deer.", "The male of the species is sometimes referred to as a roebuck.", "The roe is a small deer, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapted to cold environments.", "The species is widespread in Europe, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, from Scotland to the Caucasus, and east to northern Iran and Iraq.", "English roe is from Old English ra or raha, from Proto-Germanic The word is attested on the 5th-century Caistor-by-Norwich astragalus -a roe deer talus bone, written in Elder Futhark as , transliterated as raihan.", "In the English language, this deer was originally simply called a 'roe', but over time the word 'roe' has become a qualifier, and it is now usually called 'roe deer'.", "The Koine Greek name , transliterated 'pygargos', mentioned in the Septuagint and the works of various writers such as Hesychius, Herodotus and later Pliny, was originally thought to refer to this species , although it is now more often believed to refer to the Addax.", "It is derived from the words 'buttocks' and 'white'.", "The taxonomic name Capreolus is derived from capra or caprea, meaning 'billy goat', with the diminutive suffix -olus.", "The meaning of this word in Latin is not entirely clear: it may have meant 'ibex' or 'chamois'.", "The roe was also known as capraginus or capruginus in Latin.", "Linnaeus first described the roe deer in the modern taxonomic system as Cervus capreolus in 1758.", "The initially monotypic genus Capreolus was first proposed by John Edward Gray in 1821, although he did not provide a proper description for this taxon.", "Gray was not actually the first to use the name Capreolus, it has been used by other authors before him.", "Nonetheless his publication is seen as taxonomically acceptable.", "He was generally ignored until the 20th century, most 19th-century works having continued to follow Linnaeus.", "The name Capreolus capreolus is a tautonym.", "Roe deer populations gradually become somewhat larger as one moves further to the east, peaking in Kazakhstan, then becoming smaller again towards the Pacific Ocean.", "The Soviet mammalogist Vladimir Sokolov had recognised this as a separate species from 1985 already using electrophoretic chromatography to show differences in the fractional protein content of the body tissues, the next year he showed that there were differences in the skull morphology, and a year after he used sonographs to demonstrate that the fawns, females and males made very different noises between species.", "Alexander S. Graphodatsky looked at the karyotypy to present more evidence to recognise these Russian and Asian populations as a separate species, now renamed the eastern or Siberian roe deer , in his 1990 paper.", "The taxa are differentiated by the B chromosomes found in C. pygargus, populations of this species gain more of these strange 'junk' chromosomes as one moves further east.", "This new taxonomic interpretation was first followed in the American book Mammals Species of the World in 1993.", "Populations of the roe from east of the Khopyor River and Don River to Korea are considered to be this species.", "Roe deer are most closely related to the water deer, and, counter-intuitively, the three species in this group, called the Capreolini, are most closely related to moose and reindeer.", "Although roe deer were once classified as belonging to the Cervinae subfamily, they are now classified as part of the Odocoileinae, which includes the deer from the New World.", "Both the European roe deer and Siberian roe deer have seen their populations increase, both around the 1930s.", "In recent times, since the 1960s, In line with Haldane's rule, female hybrids of the two taxa are fertile while male hybrids are not.", "Hybrids are much larger than normal and a cesarean section was sometimes needed to birth the fawns, becoming larger than their mothers at the age of 45 months.", "F1 hybrid males may be sterile, but backcrosses with the females are possible.", "22% of the animals around Moscow carry the mtDNA of the European roe deer and 78% of the Siberian.", "In the Volgograd region the European deer predominates.", "In Stavropol and Dnepropetrovsk regions of Ukraine most of the roe are Siberian.", "In northeastern Poland there is also evidence of introgression with the Siberian deer, which was likely introduced.", "In some cases, such as around Moscow, former introductions of European stock is likely responsible.", "Roe deer in a grassland area Young roe deer Roe deer antler The roe deer is a relatively small deer, with a body length of throughout its range, and a shoulder height of , and a weight of .", "Populations from Urals and northern Kazakhstan are larger on average growing to in length and at shoulder height, with body weights of up to , with the deer populations becoming smaller again further east in the Transbaikal, Amur Oblast, and Primorsky Krai regions.", "In healthy populations, where population density is restricted by hunting or predators, bucks are slightly larger than does.", "Under other conditions, males can be similar in size to females, or slightly smaller.", "Bucks in good conditions develop antlers up to long with two or three, rarely even four, points.", "When the male's antlers begin to regrow, they are covered in a thin layer of velvet-like fur which disappears later on after the hair's blood supply is lost.", "Males may speed up the process by rubbing their antlers on trees, so that their antlers are hard and stiff for the duels during the mating season.", "Unlike most cervids, roe deer begin regrowing antlers almost immediately after they are shed.", "Within Europe the roe deer occurs in most areas with the exception of northernmost Scandinavia, in Norway it occurs throughout the country with the exception of parts of northern Vestland and northernmost Nordland , and the islands of Iceland, Ireland and those of the Mediterranean Sea islands.", "In the Mediterranean region, it is largely confined to mountainous areas, and is absent or rare at low altitudes.", "There is an early Neolithic fossil record from Jordan.", "It is known that there are roe deer that live in the Red Forest near Chernobyl in Ukraine.", "In Flanders the deer was mostly confined to the hilly regions in the east, but like in neighbouring countries the population has expanded in recent times.", "A theory is that the expansion of maize cultivation, which are higher than traditional crops and afford more shelter, has aided their expansion to the west.", "In England and Wales roe have experienced a substantial expansion in their range in the latter half of the 20th century and continuing into the 21st century.", "This increase in population also appears to be affecting woodland ecosystems.", "At the start of the 20th century, they were almost extirpated in Southern England, but since then have hugely expanded their range, mostly due to restrictions and decrease in hunting, increases in forests and reductions in arable farming, changes in agriculture , a massive reduction in extensive livestock husbandry, and a general warming climate over the past 200 years.", "Furthermore, there are no large predators in Britain.", "In some cases roe have been introduced with human help.", "In 1884 roe were introduced from Wurttemberg in Germany into the Thetford Forest, and these spread to populate most of Norfolk, Suffolk, and substantial parts of Cambridgeshire.", "In southern England, they started their expansion in Sussex and from there soon spread into Surrey, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Dorset, and for the first half of the 20th century, most roe in southern England were to be found in these counties.", "By the end of the 20th century, they had repopulated much of southern England and had expanded into Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire, and had even spread into Wales from the Ludlow area where an isolated population had appeared.", "At the same time the surviving population in Scotland and the Lake District had pushed further south beyond Yorkshire and Lancashire and into Derbyshire and Humberside.", "In the 1970s the species was still completely absent from Wales.", "Roe can now be found in most of rural England except for south-east Kent and parts of Wales, anywhere in the UK mainland suitable for roe may have a population.", "Not being a species that needs large areas of woodland to survive, urban roe are now a feature of several cities, notably Glasgow and Bristol, where in particular they favour cemeteries.", "In Wales, they are the least common, but they are reasonably well established in Powys and Monmouthshire.", "Roe deer are found in northern Iran in the Caspian region: they occur in the Hyrcanian woodlands and agricultural lands of the Alborz Mountains .", "Scottish roe deer were introduced to the Lissadell Estate in County Sligo in Ireland around 1870 by Sir Henry Gore-Booth.", "The Lissadell deer were noted for their occasional abnormal antlers and survived in that general area for about 50 years before they died out.", "According to the National Biodiversity Data Centre, in 2014 there was a confirmed sighting of roe deer in County Armagh.", "There have been other, unconfirmed, sightings in County Wicklow.", "In the Netherlands roe deer were extirpated from the entirety of the country except for a two small areas around 1875.", "As new forests were planted in the country in the 20th century, the population began to expand rapidly.", "Although it was a protected species in 1950, the population is no longer considered threatened and it has lost legal protection.", "As of 2016 there are some 110,000 deer in the country.", "The population is primarily kept in check through the efforts of hunters.", "Please do not add anything about the island of Pohnpei, this is nonsense added by an editor as a scam/joke in 2010.", "It has now spread across internet, but it is FAKE!", "Ultrasonography of the uterine pregnancy of a roe deer in Bulgaria", "This species can utilize a large number of habitats, including open agricultural areas and above the tree line, but a requisite factor is access to food and cover.", "It retreats to dense woodland, especially among conifers, or bramble scrub when it must rest, but it is very opportunistic and a hedgerow may be good enough.", "Deer in the southern Czech Republic live in almost completely open agricultural land.", "A pioneer species commonly associated with biotic communities at an early stage of succession, during the Neolithic period in Europe when farming humans began to colonise the continent from the Middle East, the roe deer was abundant, taking advantage of areas of forest or woodland cleared by Neolithic farmers.", "In order to mitigate risk, roe deer remain within refuge habitats during the day.", "They are likelier to venture into more open habitats at night and during crepuscular periods when there is less ambient activity.", "It scrapes leaf litter off the ground to make a 'bed'.", "When alarmed it will bark a sound much like a dog and flash out its white rump patch.", "Rump patches differ between the sexes, with the white rump patches heart-shaped on females and kidney-shaped on males.", "Males may also bark or make a low grunting noise.", "Does make a high-pitched \" pheep \" whine to attract males during the rut in July and August.", "Initially the female goes looking for a mate and commonly lures the buck back into her territory before mating.", "The roe deer is territorial, and while the territories of a male and a female might overlap, other roe deer of the same sex are excluded unless they are the doe's offspring of that year.", "Roe deer tracks It feeds mainly on grass, leaves, berries, and young shoots.", "It particularly likes very young, tender grass with a high moisture content, i.e., grass that has received rain the day before.", "Roe deer will not generally venture into a field that has had or has livestock in it.", "Roe deer fawn, two to three weeks old The polygamous roe deer males clash over territory in early summer and mate in early autumn.", "During courtship, when the males chase the females, they often flatten the underbrush, leaving behind areas of the forest in the shape of a figure eight called 'roe rings'.", "Males may also use their antlers to shovel around fallen foliage and soil as a way of attracting a mate.", "Roebucks enter rutting inappetence during the July and August breeding season.", "Females are monoestrous and after delayed implantation usually give birth the following June, after a 10-month gestation period, typically to two spotted fawns of opposite sexes.", "The fawns remain hidden in long grass from predators", "they are suckled by their mother several times a day for around three months.", "Young female roe deer can begin to reproduce when they are around 6 months old.", "During the mating season, a male roe deer may mount the same doe several times over a duration of several hours.", "A roe deer can live up to 20 years, but it usually does not reach such an age.", "A normal life span in the wild is seven to eight years, or 10 years.", "it shows a retarded reaction to population density with females continuing to have a similar fecundity at high population densities.", "Population structure is modified by available nutrition, where populations are irrupting there are few animals over six years old.", "Where populations are stagnant or moribund, there is huge fawn mortality and a large part of the population is over seven years old.", "Mortality is highest in the first weeks after birth due to predation, or sometimes farm machinery", "or in the first winter due to starvation or disease, with up to 90% mortality.", "It is a main prey of the Persian leopard in the Alborz Mountains of Iran.", "The nematode Spiculopteragia asymmetrica infects this deer.", "Compared to the other large herbivores and omnivores in Iran, it is a poor disperser of plant seeds, despite consuming relatively more of them.", "The roe deer is a game animal of great economic value in Europe, providing large amounts of meat and earning millions of euros in sport hunting.", "In 1998, some 2,500,000 deer were shot per year in Western Europe.", "In Germany alone, 700,000 were shot a year in the 1990s.", "This is insufficient to slow down the population growth, and the roe deer continues to increase in number.", "It is the main source of venison in Europe.", "In the 2000s there was growing interest among consumers in alternative and organic food products such as game meat.", "Frozen roe venison should not be stored longer than 10 to 12 months at 25 C to maintain a high quality.", "Storage time and quality can decrease if the bullet has travelled through the digestive tract and contaminated the meat.", "The meat, like most game meat, is darker in colour than most farmed meat.", "Roe deer are thought to have evolved from a species in the Eurasian genus Procapreolus, with some 10 species occurring from the Late Miocene to the Early Pleistocene, which moved from the east to Central Europe over the millennia, where Procapreolus cusanus occurred.", "and the western species first appeared in Europe 600 thousand years ago.", "As of 2008 over 3,000 fossil specimens of this species have been recovered from Europe, which affords a good set of data to elucidate the prehistoric distribution.", "The distribution of the European species has fluctuated often since entering Europe.", "During the some periods during the last ice age it was present in central Europe, but during the Last Glacial Maximum it retreated to refugia in the Iberian Peninsula , southern France, Italy , the Balkans and the Carpathians.", "When the last Ice Age ended the species initially abruptly expanded north of the Alps to Germany during the Greenland Interstadial, 12.510.8 thousand years ago, but during the cooling of the Younger Dryas, 10.810 thousand years ago, it appears to have disappeared again from this region.", "It reappeared 9.79.5 thousand years ago, reaching northern central Europe.", "The modern population in this area appears to have recolonised it from the Carpathians and/or further east, but not the Balkans or other refugia.", "This is opposite to the red deer, which recolonised Europe from Iberia.", "There has been much admixture of these populations where they meet, also possibly due to human intervention in some cases.", "It is thought that during the Middle Ages the two species of roe deer were kept apart due to hunting pressure and an abundance of predators", "the different species may have met in the period just before that, and yet, during the Ice Age they were also kept apart.", "Populations are increasing throughout Europe", "it is considered a species of 'least concern'.", "In the Hebrew Bible Deuteronomy 14:5, the , yahmur, derived from 'to be red', is listed as the third species of animal that may be eaten.", "In most Bibles this word has usually been translated as 'roe deer', and it still means as much in Arabic -it was still said to be a common species in the Mount Carmel area in the 19th century.", "The King James Bible translated the word as 'fallow deer', and in other English Bible translations the word has been translated as a number of different species.", "When Modern Hebrew was reconstructed to serve as the language of the future Israel in late Ottoman and British Mandatory Palestine, the King James Bible interpretation was chosen, despite the fallow deer being fallow, not red.", "Bambi, the titular character of the book Bambi, A Life in the Woods and its sequel Bambi's Children was originally a roe deer.", "When the story was adapted to the animated film Bambi by Walt Disney Pictures, the main character was changed to a white-tailed deer.", "Albino roe deer were exceedingly rare in history, and they were regarded as national treasures or sacred animals in ancient times in China."]}, "Juniperus communis": {"keywords": ["Juniperus communis, the common juniper, is a species of small tree or shrub in the cypress family Cupressaceae.", "An evergreen conifer, it has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere.", "Juniperus communis is very variable in form, ranging from rarely tall to a low, often prostrate spreading shrub in exposed locations.", "The species has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic south in mountains to around 30N latitude in North America, Europe and Asia.", "Relict populations can be found in the Atlas Mountains of Africa.", "Teardrop-shaped J. communis in Hvaler, Norway Juniperus communis is cultivated in the horticulture trade and used as an evergreen ornamental shrub in gardens.", "The following cultivars gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit in 1993."], "habitat_section": ["The species has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic south in mountains to around 30N latitude in North America, Europe and Asia.", "Relict populations can be found in the Atlas Mountains of Africa.", "J. communis is one of Ireland's longest established plants."], "random_sentences": ["Juniperus communis, the common juniper, is a species of small tree or shrub in the cypress family Cupressaceae.", "An evergreen conifer, it has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere.", "Juniperus communis is very variable in form, ranging from rarely tall to a low, often prostrate spreading shrub in exposed locations.", "It has needle-like leaves in whorls of three", "the leaves are green, with a single white stomatal band on the inner surface.", "It never attains the scale-like adult foliage of other members of the genus.", "It is dioecious, with male and female cones on separate plants.", "The male cones are yellow, long, and fall soon after shedding their pollen in MarchApril.", "The fruit are berry-like cones known as juniper berries.", "They are initially green, ripening in 18 months to purple-black with a blue waxy coating", "they are spherical, diameter, and usually have three fleshy fused scales, each scale with a single seed.", "The seeds are dispersed when birds eat the cones, digesting the fleshy scales and passing the hard, unwinged seeds in their droppings.", "The juniper berry oil is composed largely of monoterpene hydrocarbons such as -pinene, myrcene, sabinene, limonene and -pinene.", "The species has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic south in mountains to around 30N latitude in North America, Europe and Asia.", "Relict populations can be found in the Atlas Mountains of Africa.", "J. communis is one of Ireland's longest established plants.", "Teardrop-shaped J. communis in Hvaler, Norway Juniperus communis is cultivated in the horticulture trade and used as an evergreen ornamental shrub in gardens.", "The following cultivars gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit in 1993:", "J. communis wood pieces, with a U.S. penny for scale, showing the narrow growth rings of the species It is too small to have any general lumber usage.", "In Scandinavia, however, juniper wood is used for making containers for storing small quantities of dairy products such as butter and cheese, and also for making wooden butter knives.", "It was also frequently used for trenails in wooden shipbuilding by shipwrights for its tough properties.", "In Estonia juniper wood is valued for its long lasting and pleasant aroma, very decorative natural structure of wood as well as good physical properties of wood due to slow growth rate of juniper and resulting dense and strong wood.", "Various decorative items are common in most Estonian handicraft shops and households.", "According to the old tradition, on Easter Monday Kashubian boys chase girls whipping their legs gently with juniper twigs.", "This is to bring good fortune in love to the chased girls.", "Juniper wood, especially burl wood, is frequently used to make knife handles for French pocketknives such as the Laguiole.", "Its astringent blue-black seed cones, commonly known as juniper berries, are too bitter to eat raw and are usually sold dried and used to flavour meats, sauces, and stuffings.", "They are generally crushed before use to release their flavour.", "Since juniper berries have a strong taste, they should be used sparingly.", "They are generally used to enhance meat with a strong flavour, such as game, including game birds, or tongue.", "The cones are used to flavour certain beers and gin .", "In Finland, juniper is used as a key ingredient in making sahti, a traditional Finnish ale.", "Also the Slovak alcoholic beverage Borovicka and Dutch Jenever are flavoured with juniper berry or its extract.", "Juniper is used in the traditional farmhouse ales of Norway, Brewing and beer traditions in Norway: The social anthropological background of the brewing industry, Odd Nordland, Universitetsforlaget, 1969.", "Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and Latvia.", "In Norway, the beer is brewed with juniper infusion instead of water, while in the other countries the juniper twigs are mainly used as filters to prevent the crushed malts from clogging the outlet of the lauter tun.", "The use of juniper in farmhouse brewing has been common in much of northern Europe, seemingly for a very long time.", "Juniper berries have long been used as medicine by many cultures including the Navajo people.", "Western American tribes combined the berries of J. communis with Berberis root bark in a herbal tea.", "Native Americans also used juniper berries as a female contraceptive.", "Juniper leaves were found to harbor fungi with potent anti-fungal compounds, including ibrexafungerp, which is now FDA approved to treat fungal infections."]}, "Lysandra coridon": {"keywords": ["It is a small butterfly that can be found throughout the Palearctic realm, where it occurs primarily in grasslands rich in chalk.", "Egg When they are ready they pupate on the ground within the leaf litter of the host plants.", ") Starting in the western tip of Hungary traveling into north-eastern Hungry along the Hungarian Mountains into eastern Slovakia 2.", ") Starts in western Hungary and travels along the eastern Alps into western Slovakia and Czech Republic The expansion caused there to be two unique genetic populations that were separated by mountain ranges.", "And the expansion also caused the movement of species that were only found in warmer areas to move into new habitats that were previously cooler in temperature and did not have the biotic components to support these new species.", "This species is considered by researchers to be an indicator species of calcareous grassland habitat quality and could also be a good model organism to help develop conservation programs for more At Risk species."], "habitat_section": ["This would be physical features of the environment that separate populations of the same species.", "One type of would be mountain ranges which separate west and east population of L. coridon, and this separation causes there to be changes in the allele frequency of both population and there can be mixing of these populations only when there is an area that is connected.", "Another type would be the loss of habitat which can lead to large habitat areas being fragmented, this loss can occur due to human interaction with the ecosystem in way that isolates populations of the species.", "The loss of habitat changes the number of individuals that the area can support or blocks the population off from a larger population.", "The limiting number of individuals in the population or the isolation can cause a decrease in the heterogeneity of population and leads to a decrease in fitness.", "Habitat fragmentation causes conservation efforts to be difficult because it has to be decided what areas get protect or have the best possible chance of helping increase a population without damaging the overall fitness of the population, so great care is taken when selecting what areas will be protected.", "Since this species is of Least Concern there are few conservation efforts being put forth.", "But in certain areas that have been having large decline or had large decline implemented conservation efforts.", "This species is considered by researchers to be an indicator species of calcareous grassland habitat quality and could also be a good model organism to help develop conservation programs for more At Risk species."], "random_sentences": ["The chalkhill blue is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae.", "It is a small butterfly that can be found throughout the Palearctic realm, where it occurs primarily in grasslands rich in chalk.", "Males have a pale blue colour, while females are dark brown.", "Both have chequered fringes around their wings.", "Lysandra coridon has a wingspan of .", "These small butterflies present a sexual dimorphism.", "The males having pale silvery-blue upperside of the wings with a submarginal line of grey spots on the hindwings and a thin brown and white chequered fringe.", "Females have dark brown upperside of wings, with marginal orange spots and also with chequered fringes.", "The underside of the wings show a light ochre colouration, several dark spots surrounded by white, a submarginal line of black marks, a series of marginal orange spots on the hindwings and a blue dusting near the body.", "As with many blue butterflies, separation from similar species in the field is on the underside markings.", "Note that information on this species applies to Great Britain and some details may not be consistent with the species in other parts of its range.", "Mating This species only produces one generation per year making them a univoltine, which means that this species only breeds once per year and will only produce one set of offspring.", "L. coridon is monophagous, which means that they only feeds on one specific species of plant.", "The larvae or caterpillars of this species feed on the leaves of horseshoe vetch .", "Egg When they are ready they pupate on the ground within the leaf litter of the host plants.", "The caterpillars are attend by several different ants of the genera Myrmica, Lasius, Formica, Plagiolepis, Tetramorium, Aphaenogaster and Tapinoma.", "This butterfly is usually seen on the wing from June to October.", "In the research into the effects of trophic interaction and fragmentation it was found that there are no known parasitoids that are specialized to this species, but there are other parasitoids that are related to other species that are part of the family Lycaenidae which will sometimes predate this species.", "It could be a viable option that the parasitoids that did predate upon this species became extinct due to the fragmentation of their habitat in the past.", "Upon using allozyme analyses when looking at the species L. hispana and L. slovacus showed a difference in evolutionary history with L. coridon.", "The analysis showed that L. hispana has a large genetic distance between the two species and that there was allopatric speciation from L. coridon.", "L. slovacus seems to show that there was sympatry with L. coridon but the genetic analysis could not prove this hypothesis, so the researchers made the conclusion that this particular species was a local population that has an atavism of bivoltinism.", "The expansion of the species travels from western Europe into eastern Europe from the ice-age refugium into the Balkans.", "The starting point for the expansion is in western Hungary traveling into the Balkans and then into Brandenburg and Poland.", "This expansion shows that are two routes due to the changes in gene allele frequencies and the degree of homogeneity of the species.", "The two routes are: 1.", ") Starting in the western tip of Hungary traveling into north-eastern Hungry along the Hungarian Mountains into eastern Slovakia 2.", ") Starts in western Hungary and travels along the eastern Alps into western Slovakia and Czech Republic The expansion caused there to be two unique genetic populations that were separated by mountain ranges.", "And the expansion also caused the movement of species that were only found in warmer areas to move into new habitats that were previously cooler in temperature and did not have the biotic components to support these new species.", "This would be physical features of the environment that separate populations of the same species.", "One type of would be mountain ranges which separate west and east population of L. coridon, and this separation causes there to be changes in the allele frequency of both population and there can be mixing of these populations only when there is an area that is connected.", "Another type would be the loss of habitat which can lead to large habitat areas being fragmented, this loss can occur due to human interaction with the ecosystem in way that isolates populations of the species.", "The loss of habitat changes the number of individuals that the area can support or blocks the population off from a larger population.", "The limiting number of individuals in the population or the isolation can cause a decrease in the heterogeneity of population and leads to a decrease in fitness.", "Habitat fragmentation causes conservation efforts to be difficult because it has to be decided what areas get protect or have the best possible chance of helping increase a population without damaging the overall fitness of the population, so great care is taken when selecting what areas will be protected.", "According to IUCN Red List for Threatened Species, this particular species is of Least Concern, and this is due to this species not having a significant decline in population in the last ten years, which would be a decline by 25% in the number of adults.", "Since this species is of Least Concern there are few conservation efforts being put forth.", "But in certain areas that have been having large decline or had large decline implemented conservation efforts.", "This species is considered by researchers to be an indicator species of calcareous grassland habitat quality and could also be a good model organism to help develop conservation programs for more At Risk species."]}, "Carduelis citrinella": {"keywords": ["The citril finch , also known as the Alpine citril finch, is a small songbird, a member of the true finch family, Fringillidae.", "This bird is a resident breeder in the mountains of southwestern Europe from Spain to the Alps.", "Its northernmost breeding area is found in the Black Forest of southwestern Germany.", "While the mainland citril finch is rather restricted to subalpine coniferous forests and Alpine meadows, the insular Corsican finch may be found in different habitats from sea level to the highest mountain slopes.", "The citril finch nests mainly in conifers such as pines and spruces while the Corsican finch uses also lower bushes such as tree Heath , juniper and bramble ."], "habitat_section": ["Carduelis citrinella MHNT The citril finch differs from the Corsican finch in habitat selection.", "While the mainland citril finch is rather restricted to subalpine coniferous forests and Alpine meadows, the insular Corsican finch may be found in different habitats from sea level to the highest mountain slopes.", "The citril finch nests mainly in conifers such as pines and spruces while the Corsican finch uses also lower bushes such as tree Heath , juniper and bramble .", "Ranging more widely than its equally common eastern relative, the citril finch is classified as a Species of Least Concern by the IUCN."], "random_sentences": ["The citril finch , also known as the Alpine citril finch, is a small songbird, a member of the true finch family, Fringillidae.", "For a long time, this cardueline finch was placed in the genus Serinus, but it is apparently very closely related to the European goldfinch (C.", "This bird is a resident breeder in the mountains of southwestern Europe from Spain to the Alps.", "Its northernmost breeding area is found in the Black Forest of southwestern Germany.", "The citril finch was formally described by the German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764 under the binomial name Fringilla citrinella.", "The current genus name Carduelis is the Latin word for the European goldfinch, and the specific epithet citrinella is the Italian word for a small yellow bird.", "It is a diminutive of the Latin citrinus meaning citrine or light greenish-yellow.", "The Corsican finch was at one time considered as conspecific with the citril finch, but is now treated as a separate species.", "Molecular genetic studies have shown that the citril finch is closely related to the European goldfinch .", "The citril finch has an overall length of and weighs around .", "It is greyish above, with a brown tinge to the back which also has black streaks.", "The underparts and the double wing bars are yellow.", "It shares with its relatives a bright face mask which in this species is also yellow.", "Sexes are similar, although young females may be duller below, and juvenile birds", "unlike in the European Serinus species", "are brown, lacking any yellow or green in the plumage.", "The song is a silvery twittering resembling that of the European goldfinch (C.", "carduelis) and that of the European serin .", "The main call is a tee-ee, quite similar to the Eurasian siskin .", "Carduelis citrinella MHNT The citril finch differs from the Corsican finch (C.", "While the mainland citril finch is rather restricted to subalpine coniferous forests and Alpine meadows, the insular Corsican finch may be found in different habitats from sea level to the highest mountain slopes.", "The citril finch nests mainly in conifers such as pines and spruces while the Corsican finch uses also lower bushes such as tree Heath , juniper and bramble .", "Ranging more widely than its equally common eastern relative, the citril finch is classified as a Species of Least Concern by the IUCN."]}, "Hirundo rustica": {"keywords": ["Four are strongly migratory, and their wintering grounds cover much of the Southern Hemisphere as far south as central Argentina, the Cape Province of South Africa, and northern Australia.", "This species is fairly quiet on the wintering grounds.", "The preferred habitat of the barn swallow is open country with low vegetation, such as pasture, meadows and farmland, preferably with nearby water.", "H. r. rustica juveniles In slow motion This species breeds across the Northern Hemisphere from sea level to , but to in the Caucasus and North America, and it is absent only from deserts and the cold northernmost parts of the continents.", "It is most common in open, low vegetation habitats, such as savanna and ranch land, and in Venezuela, South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago it is described as being particularly attracted to burnt or harvested sugarcane fields and the waste from the cane.", "Individual birds tend to return to the same wintering locality each year Migration of barn swallows between Britain and South Africa was first established on 23 December 1912 when a bird that had been ringed by James Masefield at a nest in Staffordshire, was found in Natal. As would be expected for a long-distance migrant, this bird has occurred as a vagrant to such distant areas as Hawaii, Bermuda, Greenland, Tristan da Cunha, the Falkland Islands, and even Antarctica.", "The barn swallow typically feeds in open areas above shallow water or the ground often following animals, humans or farm machinery to catch disturbed insects, but it will occasionally pick prey items from the water surface, walls and plants.", "On the wintering grounds, Hymenoptera, especially flying ants, are important food items.", "Isotope studies have shown that wintering populations may utilise different feeding habitats, with British breeders feeding mostly over grassland, whereas Swiss birds utilised woodland more.", "The barn swallow drinks by skimming low over lakes or rivers and scooping up water with its open mouth.", "Reed beds are an important source of food prior to and whilst on migration, although the barn swallow is a diurnal migrant that can feed on the wing whilst it travels low over ground or water, the reed beds enable fat deposits to be established or replenished.", "In Denmark, the average male tail length increased by 9% between 1984 and 2004, but it is possible that climatic changes may lead in the future to shorter tails if summers become hot and dry.", "In the northern part of the range, it usually starts late May to early June and ends the same time as the breeding season of the southernmost birds.", "As its name implies, the barn swallow typically nests inside accessible buildings such as barns and stables, or under bridges and wharves.", "The clutch size is influenced by latitude, with clutch sizes of northern populations being higher on average than southern populations.", "The barn swallow has been recorded as hybridising with the cliff swallow and the cave swallow in North America, and the house martin in Eurasia, the cross with the latter being one of the most common passerine hybrids.", "Climate change may affect the barn swallow, drought causes weight loss and slow feather regrowth, and the expansion of the Sahara will make it a more formidable obstacle for migrating European birds.", "Hot dry summers will reduce the availability of insect food for chicks.", "Conversely, warmer springs may lengthen the breeding season and result in more chicks, and the opportunity to use nest sites outside buildings in the north of the range might also lead to more offspring.", "Many literary references are based on the barn swallow's northward migration as a symbol of spring or summer."], "habitat_section": ["The preferred habitat of the barn swallow is open country with low vegetation, such as pasture, meadows and farmland, preferably with nearby water.", "This swallow avoids heavily wooded or precipitous areas and densely built-up locations.", "The presence of accessible open structures such as barns, stables, or culverts to provide nesting sites, and exposed locations such as wires, roof ridges or bare branches for perching, are also important in the bird's selection of its breeding range.", "Barn swallows are semi-colonial, settling in groups from a single pair to a few dozen pairs, particularly in larger wooden structures housing animals.", "The same individuals often breed at the same site year after year, although settlement choices have been experimentally shown to be predicted by nest availability rather than any characteristics of available mates.", "Because it takes around 2 weeks for a pair to build a nest from mud, hair, and other materials, old nests are highly prized.", "H. r. rustica juveniles In slow motion This species breeds across the Northern Hemisphere from sea level to , but to in the Caucasus and North America, and it is absent only from deserts and the cold northernmost parts of the continents.", "Over much of its range, it avoids towns, and in Europe is replaced in urban areas by the house martin.", "However, in Honshu, Japan, the barn swallow is a more urban bird, with the red-rumped swallow replacing it as the rural species.", "It is most common in open, low vegetation habitats, such as savanna and ranch land, and in Venezuela, South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago it is described as being particularly attracted to burnt or harvested sugarcane fields and the waste from the cane.", "In the absence of suitable roost sites, they may sometimes roost on wires where they are more exposed to predators.", "Individual birds tend to return to the same wintering locality each year Migration of barn swallows between Britain and South Africa was first established on 23 December 1912 when a bird that had been ringed by James Masefield at a nest in Staffordshire, was found in Natal. As would be expected for a long-distance migrant, this bird has occurred as a vagrant to such distant areas as Hawaii, Bermuda, Greenland, Tristan da Cunha, the Falkland Islands, and even Antarctica."], "random_sentences": ["The barn swallow is the most widespread species of swallow in the world.", "In fact, it appears to have the largest natural distribution of any of the world's passerines, ranging over 251 million square kilometres globally.", "It is a distinctive passerine bird with blue upperparts and a long, deeply forked tail.", "It is found in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.", "In Anglophone Europe it is just called the swallow", "in northern Europe it is the only common species called a \" swallow \" rather than a \" martin \" .", "There are six subspecies of barn swallow, which breed across the Northern Hemisphere.", "Four are strongly migratory, and their wintering grounds cover much of the Southern Hemisphere as far south as central Argentina, the Cape Province of South Africa, and northern Australia.", "Its huge range means that the barn swallow is not endangered, although there may be local population declines due to specific threats.", "The barn swallow is a bird of open country that normally uses man-made structures to breed and consequently has spread with human expansion.", "It builds a cup nest from mud pellets in barns or similar structures and feeds on insects caught in flight.", "This species lives in close association with humans, and its insect-eating habits mean that it is tolerated by humans", "this acceptance was reinforced in the past by superstitions regarding the bird and its nest.", "There are frequent cultural references to the barn swallow in literary and religious works due to both its living in close proximity to humans and its annual migration.", "The barn swallow is the national bird of Austria and Estonia.", "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.", "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.", "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.", "It also lacks the long tail streamers of the adult.", "Although both sexes sing, female song was only recently described.", "(See below for details about song.", ") Calls include witt or witt-witt and a loud splee-plink when excited .", "The alarm calls include a sharp siflitt for predators like cats and a flitt-flitt for birds of prey like the hobby.", "This species is fairly quiet on the wintering grounds.", "The distinctive combination of a red face and blue breast band renders the adult barn swallow easy to distinguish from the African Hirundo species and from the welcome swallow with which its range overlaps in Australasia.", "In Africa the short tail streamers of the juvenile barn swallow invite confusion with juvenile red-chested swallow , but the latter has a narrower breast band and more white in the tail.", "The barn swallow was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Hirundo rustica, characterised as \" H. rectricibus, exceptis duabus intermediis, macula alba notatis \" .", "Hirundo is the Latin word for \" swallow \"", "rusticus means \" of the country \" .", "This species is the only one of that genus to have a range extending into the Americas, with the majority of Hirundo species being native to Africa.", "This genus of blue-backed swallows is sometimes called the \" barn swallows \" .", "though an earlier instance of the collocation in an English-language context is in Gilbert White's popular book The Natural History of Selborne, originally published in 1789: The swallow, though called the chimney-swallow, by no means builds altogether in chimnies , but often within barns and out-houses against the rafters ...", "In Sweden she builds in barns, and is called ladusvala, the barn-swallow.", " This suggests that the English name may be a calque on the Swedish term.", "There are few taxonomic problems within the genus, but the red-chested swallowa resident of West Africa, the Congo Basin, and Ethiopiawas formerly treated as a subspecies of barn swallow.", "The red-chested swallow is slightly smaller than its migratory relative, has a narrower blue breast-band, and has shorter tail streamers.", "In flight, it looks paler underneath than barn swallow.", "The preferred habitat of the barn swallow is open country with low vegetation, such as pasture, meadows and farmland, preferably with nearby water.", "This swallow avoids heavily wooded or precipitous areas and densely built-up locations.", "The presence of accessible open structures such as barns, stables, or culverts to provide nesting sites, and exposed locations such as wires, roof ridges or bare branches for perching, are also important in the bird's selection of its breeding range.", "Barn swallows are semi-colonial, settling in groups from a single pair to a few dozen pairs, particularly in larger wooden structures housing animals.", "The same individuals often breed at the same site year after year, although settlement choices have been experimentally shown to be predicted by nest availability rather than any characteristics of available mates.", "Because it takes around 2 weeks for a pair to build a nest from mud, hair, and other materials, old nests are highly prized.", "r. rustica juveniles In slow motion This species breeds across the Northern Hemisphere from sea level to , but to in the Caucasus and North America, and it is absent only from deserts and the cold northernmost parts of the continents.", "Over much of its range, it avoids towns, and in Europe is replaced in urban areas by the house martin.", "However, in Honshu, Japan, the barn swallow is a more urban bird, with the red-rumped swallow replacing it as the rural species.", "It is most common in open, low vegetation habitats, such as savanna and ranch land, and in Venezuela, South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago it is described as being particularly attracted to burnt or harvested sugarcane fields and the waste from the cane.", "In the absence of suitable roost sites, they may sometimes roost on wires where they are more exposed to predators.", "Individual birds tend to return to the same wintering locality each year Migration of barn swallows between Britain and South Africa was first established on 23 December 1912 when a bird that had been ringed by James Masefield at a nest in Staffordshire, was found in Natal. As would be expected for a long-distance migrant, this bird has occurred as a vagrant to such distant areas as Hawaii, Bermuda, Greenland, Tristan da Cunha, the Falkland Islands, and even Antarctica.", "Chicks in the nest The barn swallow is similar in its habits to other aerial insectivores, including other swallow species and the unrelated swifts.", "It is not a particularly fast flier, with a speed estimated at about , up to and a wing beat rate of approximately 5, up to 79 times each second.", "The barn swallow typically feeds in open areas above shallow water or the ground often following animals, humans or farm machinery to catch disturbed insects, but it will occasionally pick prey items from the water surface, walls and plants.", "In the breeding areas, large flies make up around 70% of the diet, with aphids also a significant component.", "However, in Europe, the barn swallow consumes fewer aphids than the house or sand martins.", "On the wintering grounds, Hymenoptera, especially flying ants, are important food items.", "Grasshoppers, crickets, dragonflies, beetles and moths are also preyed upon.", "When egg-laying, barn swallows hunt in pairs, but otherwise will form often large flocks.", "The amount of food a clutch will get depends on the size of the clutch, with larger clutches getting more food on average.", "The timing of a clutch also determines the food given", "later broods get food that is smaller in size compared to earlier broods.", "This is because larger insects are too far away from the nest to be profitable in terms of energy expenditure.", "Isotope studies have shown that wintering populations may utilise different feeding habitats, with British breeders feeding mostly over grassland, whereas Swiss birds utilised woodland more.", "Another study showed that a single population breeding in Denmark actually wintered in two separate areas.", "The barn swallow drinks by skimming low over lakes or rivers and scooping up water with its open mouth.", "Swallows gather in communal roosts after breeding, sometimes thousands strong.", "Reed beds are regularly favoured, with the birds swirling en masse before swooping low over the reeds.", "Reed beds are an important source of food prior to and whilst on migration", "although the barn swallow is a diurnal migrant that can feed on the wing whilst it travels low over ground or water, the reed beds enable fat deposits to be established or replenished.", "Males sing to defend small territories and to attract mates.", "Males sing throughout the breeding season, from late April into August in many parts of the range.", "Their song is made up of a \" twitter warble, \" followed by a rising \" P-syllable \" in European H. r. rustica and the North American H. r. erythrogaster.", "In all subspecies, this is followed by a short \" Q-syllable \" and a trilled series of pulses, termed the \" rattle.", "\" The rattle is sometimes followed by a terminal \" -Note \" in some subspecies' populations, and always at the end of H. r. tytleri song.", "Female songs are much shorter than male songs, and are only produced during the early part of the breeding season.", "Females sing spontaneously, though infrequently, and will also countersing in response to each other.", "Four well-grown chicks in a nest H. r. rustica fledgling begging right", "Juvenile bird in Sussex Juveniles waiting for food The male barn swallow returns to the breeding grounds before the females and selects a nest site, which is then advertised to females with a circling flight and song.", "Males with longer tail feathers are generally longer-lived and more disease resistant, females thus gaining an indirect fitness benefit from this form of selection, since longer tail feathers indicate a genetically stronger individual which will produce offspring with enhanced vitality.", "Males in northern Europe have longer tails than those further south", "whereas in Spain the male's tail streamers are only 5% longer than the female's, in Finland the difference is 20%.", "In Denmark, the average male tail length increased by 9% between 1984 and 2004, but it is possible that climatic changes may lead in the future to shorter tails if summers become hot and dry.", "The breeding season of the barn swallow is variable", "in the southern part of the range, the breeding season usually is from February or March to early to mid September, although some late second and third broods finish in October.", "In the northern part of the range, it usually starts late May to early June and ends the same time as the breeding season of the southernmost birds.", "Both sexes defend the nest, but the male is particularly aggressive and territorial. Males guard females actively to avoid being cuckolded.", "Males may use deceptive alarm calls to disrupt extrapair copulation attempts toward their mates.", "As its name implies, the barn swallow typically nests inside accessible buildings such as barns and stables, or under bridges and wharves.", "The nest building ability of the male is also sexually selected", "females will lay more eggs and at an earlier date with males who are better at nest construction, with the opposite being true with males that are not.", "After building the nest, barn swallows may nest colonially where sufficient high-quality nest sites are available, and within a colony, each pair defends a territory around the nest which, for the European subspecies, is in size.", "Colony size tends to be larger in North America.", "In North America at least, barn swallows frequently engage in a mutualist relationship with ospreys.", "Barn swallows will build their nest below an osprey nest, receiving protection from other birds of prey that are repelled by the exclusively fish-eating ospreys.", "The ospreys are alerted to the presence of these predators by the alarm calls of the swallows.", "There are normally two broods, with the original nest being reused for the second brood and being repaired and reused in subsequent years.", "The female lays two to seven, but typically four or five, reddish-spotted white eggs.", "The clutch size is influenced by latitude, with clutch sizes of northern populations being higher on average than southern populations.", "The eggs are in size, and weigh , of which 5% is shell.", "In Europe, the female does almost all the incubation, but in North America the male may incubate up to 25% of the time.", "The incubation period is normally 1419 days, with another 1823 days before the altricial chicks fledge.", "The fledged young stay with, and are fed by, the parents for about a week after leaving the nest.", "Occasionally, first-year birds from the first brood will assist in feeding the second brood.", "Compared to those from early broods, juvenile barn swallows from late broods have been found to migrate at a younger age, fuel less efficiently during migration and have lower return rates the following year.", "The barn swallow will mob intruders such as cats or accipiters that venture too close to their nest, often flying very close to the threat.", "Adult barn swallows have few predators, but some are taken by accipiters, falcons, and owls.", "Brood parasitism by cowbirds in North America or cuckoos in Eurasia is rare.", "Hatching success is 90% and the fledging survival rate is 7090%.", "Average mortality is 7080% in the first year and 4070% for the adult.", "Although the record age is more than 11 years, most survive less than four years.", "Barn swallow nestlings have prominent red gapes, a feature shown to induce feeding by parent birds.", "An experiment in manipulating brood size and immune system showed the vividness of the gape was positively correlated with T-cellmediated immunocompetence, and that larger brood size and injection with an antigen led to a less vivid gape.", "The barn swallow has been recorded as hybridising with the cliff swallow and the cave swallow (P.", "fulva) in North America, and the house martin in Eurasia, the cross with the latter being one of the most common passerine hybrids.", "Feeding trace of Brueelia lice on a tail feather Barn swallows 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.", "In Texas, the swallow bug , which is common on species such as the cliff swallow, is also known to infest barn swallows.", "Predatory bats such as the greater false vampire bat are known to prey on barn swallows.", "Swallows at their communal roosts attract predators and several falcon species make use of these opportunities.", "Falcon species confirmed as predators include the peregrine falcon and the African hobby.", "The barn swallow has an enormous range, with an estimated global extent of about and a population of 190 million individuals.", "The species is evaluated as least concern on the 2019 IUCN Red List, This is a species that has greatly benefited historically from forest clearance, which has created the open habitats it prefers, and from human habitation, which have given it an abundance of safe man-made nest sites.", "There have been local declines due to the use of DDT in Israel in the 1950s, competition for nest sites with house sparrows in the US in the 19th century, and an ongoing gradual decline in numbers in parts of Europe and Asia due to agricultural intensification, reducing the availability of insect food.", "However, there has been an increase in the population in North America during the 20th century with the greater availability of nesting sites and subsequent range expansion, including the colonisation of northern Alberta.", "However, following detailed evaluation, advanced radar technology will be installed to enable planes using the airport to be warned of bird movements and, if necessary, take appropriate measures to avoid the flocks.", "Climate change may affect the barn swallow", "drought causes weight loss and slow feather regrowth, and the expansion of the Sahara will make it a more formidable obstacle for migrating European birds.", "Hot dry summers will reduce the availability of insect food for chicks.", "Conversely, warmer springs may lengthen the breeding season and result in more chicks, and the opportunity to use nest sites outside buildings in the north of the range might also lead to more offspring.", "In Nederlandsche Vogelen The barn swallow is an attractive bird that feeds on flying insects and has therefore been tolerated by humans when it shares their buildings for nesting.", "As one of the earlier migrants, this conspicuous species is also seen as an early sign of summer's approach.", "Many cattle farmers believed that swallows spread Salmonella infections", "however, a study in Sweden showed no evidence of the birds being reservoirs of the bacteria.", "Many literary references are based on the barn swallow's northward migration as a symbol of spring or summer.", "The proverb about the necessity for more than one piece of evidence goes back at least to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: \" For as one swallow or one day does not make a spring, so one day or a short time does not make a fortunate or happy man.", "\" The barn swallow symbolises the coming of spring and thus love in the Pervigilium Veneris, a late Latin poem.", "In his poem \" The Waste Land \" , T. S. Eliot quoted the line \" Quando fiam uti chelidon ?", "\" ( \" When will I be like the swallow, so that I can stop being silent?", "\" ) This refers to the myth of Philomela in which she turns into a nightingale, and her sister Procne into a swallow.", "Gilbert White studied the barn swallow in detail in his pioneering work The Natural History of Selborne, but even this careful observer was uncertain whether it migrated or hibernated in winter.", "In the past, the tolerance for this beneficial insectivore was reinforced by superstitions regarding damage to the barn swallow's nest.", "Such an act might lead to cows giving bloody milk, or no milk at all, or to hens ceasing to lay.", "This may be a factor in the longevity of swallows' nests.", "Survival, with suitable annual refurbishment, for 1015 years is regular, and one nest was reported to have been occupied for 48 years."]}, "Turdus pilaris": {"keywords": ["It breeds in woodland and scrub in northern Europe and across the Palearctic.", "It is strongly migratory, with many northern birds moving south during the winter.", "It is a very rare breeder in Great Britain and Ireland, but winters in large numbers in the United Kingdom, Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.", "It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of molluscs, insects and earthworms in the summer, and berries, grain and seeds in the winter.", "Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the fieldfare is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Caribbean islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "Fieldfares in winter The fieldfare is a migratory species with a palearctic distribution.", "It breeds in northern Norway, northern Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Siberia as far east as Transbaikal, the Aldan River and the Tian Shan Mountains in North West China.", "Its winter range extends through western and southern Europe to North Africa, though it is uncommon in the Mediterranean region.", "It is a vagrant to Iceland, Greenland, Spitsbergen, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Madeira, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, the United States, Malta and Cyprus.", "It is highly gregarious, quite shy and easily scared in the winter and bold and noisy in the breeding season.", "In woodland they do not skulk in the undergrowth as do blackbirds or song thrushes, instead they perch in the open on bushes and high branches.", "They roost socially, sometimes in overgrown hedges and shrubberies but usually on the ground.", "In the summer the fieldfare frequents mixed woodland of birch, alder, pine, spruce and fir, often near marshes, moorland or other open ground.", "It does not avoid the vicinity of humans and can be seen in cultivated areas, orchards, parks and gardens.", "It also inhabits open tundra and the slopes of hills above the tree line.", "In the winter, groups of fieldfares are chiefly found in open country, agricultural land, orchards and open woodland.", "Later in the year they move on to pastureland and cultivated fields.", "Later in the winter windfall apples are eaten, swedes attacked in the field and grain and seeds eaten.", "When these are exhausted, or in particularly harsh weather, the birds may move to marshes or even the foreshore where molluscs are to be found.", "The breeding season starts in May in Poland but further north in Scandinavia may not start until early July.", "The location is often in woodland but may be in a hedgerow, garden, among rocks, in a pile of logs, in a hut or on the ground.", "The nest is built of dried grasses and weeds with a few twigs and a little moss, with a lining of mud and an inner lining of fine grasses."], "habitat_section": ["Fieldfares in winter The fieldfare is a migratory species with a palearctic distribution.", "It breeds in northern Norway, northern Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Siberia as far east as Transbaikal, the Aldan River and the Tian Shan Mountains in North West China.", "Its winter range extends through western and southern Europe to North Africa, though it is uncommon in the Mediterranean region.", "Eastern populations migrate to Anatolia, Israel, Iran and Northwest India, and occasionally Northeast India.", "It is a vagrant to Iceland, Greenland, Spitsbergen, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Madeira, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, the United States, Malta and Cyprus.", "The flight of the fieldfare is slow and direct.", "It takes several strong beats then closes its wings briefly before flapping on.", "It is highly gregarious, quite shy and easily scared in the winter and bold and noisy in the breeding season.", "When a group is in a tree they all tend to face in the same direction, keeping up a constant chatter.", "When foraging on the ground, often in association with redwings, the group works its way up wind, each bird pausing every so often to stand erect and gaze around before resuming feeding.", "When alarmed they fly off down wind and the feeding group reforms elsewhere.", "In woodland they do not skulk in the undergrowth as do blackbirds or song thrushes, instead they perch in the open on bushes and high branches.", "They roost socially, sometimes in overgrown hedges and shrubberies but usually on the ground.", "Common sites are in rough grass among bushes or clumps of rushes, in young plantations, on stubble and in the furrows of ploughed fields.", "In the summer the fieldfare frequents mixed woodland of birch, alder, pine, spruce and fir, often near marshes, moorland or other open ground.", "It does not avoid the vicinity of humans and can be seen in cultivated areas, orchards, parks and gardens.", "It also inhabits open tundra and the slopes of hills above the tree line.", "In the winter, groups of fieldfares are chiefly found in open country, agricultural land, orchards and open woodland.", "They are nomadic, wandering wherever there is an abundance of berries and insects.", "Later in the year they move on to pastureland and cultivated fields.", "The fieldfare has an extensive range, estimated at 10 million square kilometres , and a large population, including an estimated forty two to seventy two million individuals in Europe.", "There are thought to be up to twenty million individuals in Russia and the global population is estimated to be between forty-four and ninety-six million individuals.", "The population size appears to be stable and the bird is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criteria of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , and is therefore evaluated as being of \" least concern \" .", "Turdus pilaris MWNH 2244."], "random_sentences": ["The fieldfare is a member of the thrush family Turdidae.", "It breeds in woodland and scrub in northern Europe and across the Palearctic.", "It is strongly migratory, with many northern birds moving south during the winter.", "It is a very rare breeder in Great Britain", "Ireland, but winters in large numbers in the United Kingdom, Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.", "It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of molluscs, insects and earthworms in the summer, and berries, grain and seeds in the winter.", "Fieldfares often nest in small colonies, possibly for protection from predators.", "The nest is built in a tree where five or six eggs are laid.", "The chicks are fed by both parents and leave the nest after a fortnight.", "There may be two broods in southern parts of the range but only one further north.", "Migrating birds and wintering birds often form large flocks, often in the company of redwings.", "The fieldfare is long, with a grey crown, neck and rump, a plain brown back, dark wings and tail and white underwings.", "The breast and flanks are heavily spotted.", "The breast has a reddish wash and the rest of the underparts are white.", "The sexes are similar in appearance but the females are slightly more brown.", "The male has a simple chattering song and the birds have various guttural flight and alarm calls.", "The English common name fieldfare dates back to at least the eleventh century.", "The Old English word feldefare perhaps meant traveller through the fields.", "The species was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under its current scientific name.", "The name Turdus pilaris comes from two separate Latin words for thrush.", "About 65 species of medium to large thrushes are in the genus Turdus, characterised by rounded heads, longish, pointed wings, and usually melodious songs.", "Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the fieldfare is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Caribbean islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "The fieldfare is easily recognisable with its slate-grey head, nape and rump, dark brown back, blackish tail and boldly speckled breast.", "In flight, its white under wing-coverts and axillaries are conspicuous.", "The harsh flight call \" tsak tsak \" is also distinctive.", "The forehead and crown of the male are bluish-grey and each feather has a central brownish-black band.", "The lores and under-eye regions are black and there are faint, pale streaks above the eyes.", "The ear coverts, nape, hind neck and rump are bluish-grey, usually with a white streak near the shaft of each rump feather.", "The scapulars and mantle feathers are dark chestnut-brown with dark central streaks and pale tips.", "There are fourteen tail feathers each with a pointed tip, the outer two slightly shorter than the others giving a rounded tail.", "They are brownish-black, with inconspicuous darker bars visible in some lights.", "The outer edge of each tail feather is fringed with grey near the base and the outer pair of feathers have a narrow white border on the inner edge.", "The chin, throat and upper breast are creamy-buff with bold streaks and speckles of brownish-black.", "The lower breast is creamy-white with a diminishing buff tinge and fewer speckles and the belly is similarly creamy-white, with the speckles restricted to the uppermost parts.", "The primaries are brownish-black with the leading edge fringed grey and the inner edge of the outer feathers grey near the base whereas the inner feathers are fringed with brown near the base.", "The secondaries are similar but fringed with chestnut-brown on the leading edge.", "The upper wing-coverts are brownish-black and similar to the outer primaries in their margin colouration.", "The axillaries and under wing-coverts are white and the under tail-coverts have dark greyish-brown bases and margins and white centres and tips.", "The beak is strong, with a slight curve and a notch near the tip.", "It is orange-yellow in winter, with the upper mandible somewhat brownish and both mandible tips brownish-black.", "In the summer both mandibles of the male's beak are yellow.", "The irises are dark brown and the legs and feet are brown.", "The average adult length is , the winglength is and the tarsal length .", "Wingspan ranges from 39 to 42 cm and weight ranges from 80 to 140 g. The female is very similar to the male but the upper parts are somewhat more brownish and the feathers on the crown have narrower black central stripes.", "The throat and breast are paler with fewer, smaller markings.", "The beak is similar to the male's winter beak.", "The juvenile are a duller colour than the adults with pale coloured streaks on the feathers that have dark streaks in the adult.", "The young assume their adult plumage after their first moult in the autumn.", "The call is mostly uttered in flight and is a harsh \" tsak tsak tsuk \" .", "The same sound, but softer, is made more conversationally when individuals gather in trees.", "When angry or alarmed they emit various warning sounds reminiscent of the mistle thrush .", "The male has a rather feeble song that he sings in the breeding season.", "It is a mixture of a few phrases like those of the common blackbird interspersed with whistles, guttural squeaks and call notes.", "This is sung on the wing and also from a tree and a subdued version of this song with more warbling notes is sung by a group of birds at communal roosts.", "Fieldfares in winter The fieldfare is a migratory species with a palearctic distribution.", "It breeds in northern Norway, northern Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Siberia as far east as Transbaikal, the Aldan River and the Tian Shan Mountains in North West China.", "Its winter range extends through western and southern Europe to North Africa, though it is uncommon in the Mediterranean region.", "Eastern populations migrate to Anatolia, Israel, Iran and Northwest India, and occasionally Northeast India.", "It is a vagrant to Iceland, Greenland, Spitsbergen, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Madeira, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, the United States, Malta and Cyprus.", "The flight of the fieldfare is slow and direct.", "It takes several strong beats then closes its wings briefly before flapping on.", "It is highly gregarious, quite shy and easily scared in the winter and bold and noisy in the breeding season.", "When a group is in a tree they all tend to face in the same direction, keeping up a constant chatter.", "When foraging on the ground, often in association with redwings, the group works its way up wind, each bird pausing every so often to stand erect and gaze around before resuming feeding.", "When alarmed they fly off down wind and the feeding group reforms elsewhere.", "In woodland they do not skulk in the undergrowth as do blackbirds or song thrushes, instead they perch in the open on bushes and high branches.", "They roost socially, sometimes in overgrown hedges and shrubberies but usually on the ground.", "Common sites are in rough grass among bushes or clumps of rushes, in young plantations, on stubble and in the furrows of ploughed fields.", "In the summer the fieldfare frequents mixed woodland of birch, alder, pine, spruce and fir, often near marshes, moorland or other open ground.", "It does not avoid the vicinity of humans and can be seen in cultivated areas, orchards, parks and gardens.", "It also inhabits open tundra and the slopes of hills above the tree line.", "In the winter, groups of fieldfares are chiefly found in open country, agricultural land, orchards and open woodland.", "They are nomadic, wandering wherever there is an abundance of berries and insects.", "Later in the year they move on to pastureland and cultivated fields.", "Migration southwards from the breeding range starts in October but the bulk of birds arrive in the United Kingdom in November.", "Some of these are still on passage and carry on into continental Europe but others remain.", "The passage-migrants return in April and they and the resident migrants depart from the United Kingdom mostly by early May.", "Animal food in the diet includes snails and slugs, earthworms, spiders and insects such as beetles and their larvae, flies and grasshoppers.", "When berries ripen in the autumn these are taken in great number.", "Hawthorn, holly, rowan, yew, juniper, dog rose, Cotoneaster, Pyracantha and Berberis are all relished.", "Later in the winter windfall apples are eaten, swedes attacked in the field and grain and seeds eaten.", "When these are exhausted, or in particularly harsh weather, the birds may move to marshes or even the foreshore where molluscs are to be found.", "The breeding season starts in May in Poland but further north in Scandinavia may not start until early July.", "The female fieldfare builds a cup-shaped nest with no attempt at concealment.", "The location is often in woodland but may be in a hedgerow, garden, among rocks, in a pile of logs, in a hut or on the ground.", "Fieldfares usually nest in close proximity to others of the same species.", "The adults will defend the nest aggressively and nesting gregariously may offer protection from predators.", "The nest is built of dried grasses and weeds with a few twigs and a little moss, with a lining of mud and an inner lining of fine grasses.", "There are usually five to six eggs in a clutch, but occasionally three, four, seven or eight eggs are laid.", "The eggs vary in size from and are variable in colour.", "Many are pale blue speckled with fine brown dots and resemble those of the common blackbird.", "Others are bright blue, with or without larger red-brown splotches.", "Incubation starts before all the eggs are laid and lasts for thirteen to fourteen days.", "The female does all or most of the incubation.", "The chicks are altricial and both parents bring food to them.", "They are usually ready to leave the nest after fourteen to sixteen days and there may be two broods in the season, especially in the southern parts of the breeding range.", "The fieldfare has an extensive range, estimated at 10 million square kilometres , and a large population, including an estimated forty two to seventy two million individuals in Europe.", "There are thought to be up to twenty million individuals in Russia and the global population is estimated to be between forty-four and ninety-six million individuals.", "The population size appears to be stable and the bird is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criteria of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , and is therefore evaluated as being of \" least concern \" ."]}, "Phoenicurus ochruros": {"keywords": ["It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but north-eastern birds migrate to winter in southern and western Europe and Asia, and north Africa.", "On passage it is fairly common on the east and south coasts, and in winter on the coasts of Wales and western and southern England, with a few also at inland sites.", "They also winter on the south and east coasts of Ireland.", "The species originally inhabited stony ground in mountains, particularly cliffs, but since about 1900 has expanded to include similar urban habitats including bombed areas during and after World War II, and large industrial complexes that have the bare areas and cliff-like buildings it favours, in Great Britain, most of the small breeding population nests in such industrial areas.", "It will catch passing insects in flight, and migrants often hunt in coastal tide-wrack for flies or tiny crustaceans.", "The nest is built by the female and is typically placed in a crevice or hole in rock or a wall or on a ledge of a building."], "habitat_section": ["It is a widespread breeder in south and central Europe and Asia and north-west Africa, from Great Britain and Ireland south to Morocco, east to central China.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but north-eastern birds migrate to winter in southern and western Europe and Asia, and north Africa.", "It nests in crevices or holes in buildings.", "In Britain, it is most common as a passage and winter visitor, with only 2050 pairs breeding.", "On passage it is fairly common on the east and south coasts, and in winter on the coasts of Wales and western and southern England, with a few also at inland sites.", "Migrant black redstarts arrive in Britain in October or November and either move on or remain to winter, returning eastward in March or April.", "They also winter on the south and east coasts of Ireland.", "The species originally inhabited stony ground in mountains, particularly cliffs, but since about 1900 has expanded to include similar urban habitats including bombed areas during and after World War II, and large industrial complexes that have the bare areas and cliff-like buildings it favours, in Great Britain, most of the small breeding population nests in such industrial areas.", "It will catch passing insects in flight, and migrants often hunt in coastal tide-wrack for flies or tiny crustaceans.", "Its quick ducks of head and body are robin-like, and its tail is often flicked.", "The male has a rattling song and a tick call.", "Eastern race birds are very rare vagrants in western Europe."], "random_sentences": ["The black redstart is a small passerine bird in the genus Phoenicurus.", "Like its relatives, it was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family , but is now known to be an Old World flycatcher .", "Obsolete common names include Tithys redstart, blackstart and black redtail.", "The first formal description of the black redstart was by the German naturalist Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin in 1774 under the binomial name Mottacilla ochruros.", " The species is now placed in the genus Phoenicurus that was introduced in 1817 by the English naturalist Thomas Forster.", "Both parts of the scientific name are from Ancient Greek and refer to the colour of the tail.", "The genus name Phoenicurus is from phoinix, \" red \" , and -ouros - \" tailed \" , and the specific ochruros is from okhros, \" pale yellow \" and -ouros.", "The black redstart is a member of a temperate Eurasian clade, which also includes the Daurian redstart, Hodgson's redstart, the white-winged redstart and perhaps Przevalski's redstart.", "The ancestors of the present species diverged from about 3 million years ago onwards and spread throughout much of Palearctic from 1.5 mya onward.", "It is not very closely related to the common redstart.", "As these are separated by different behaviour and ecological requirements and have not evolved fertilisation barriers, the two European species can produce apparently fertile and viable hybrids.", "There are a number of subspecies, which differ mainly in the underpart colours of the adult males", "different authorities accept between five and seven subspecies.", "They can be separated into three major groups, according to morphology, biogeography and mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data.", "Basal central and eastern Asian forms which diverged from the ancestral stock as the species slowly spread west .", "Females and juveniles light grey brown.", "Western Asian forms, whose lineage separated from the gibraltariensis group c. 1.50.5 mya.", "European population, which formed as a distinct subspecies probably during the last ice age.", "Females and juveniles dark grey.", "The black redstart is in length and in weight, similar to the common redstart.", "The adult male is overall dark grey to black on the upperparts and with a black breast", "the lower rump and tail are orange-red, with the two central tail feathers dark red-brown.", "The belly and undertail are either blackish-grey (western subspecies", "see Taxonomy and systematics, above) or orange-red ", "the wings are blackish-grey with pale fringes on the secondaries forming a whitish panel or all blackish .", "The female is grey to grey-brown overall except for the orange-red lower rump and tail, greyer than the common redstart", "at any age the grey axillaries and underwing coverts are also distinctive .", "Yearling males are similar to females but blacker", "the whitish wing panel of the western subspecies does not develop until the second year.", "Black redstart, Sector 38 West, Chandigarh, India right", "It is a widespread breeder in south and central Europe and Asia and north-west Africa, from Great Britain and Ireland south to Morocco, east to central China.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but north-eastern birds migrate to winter in southern and western Europe and Asia, and north Africa.", "It nests in crevices or holes in buildings.", "In Britain, it is most common as a passage and winter visitor, with only 2050 pairs breeding.", "On passage it is fairly common on the east and south coasts, and in winter on the coasts of Wales and western and southern England, with a few also at inland sites.", "Migrant black redstarts arrive in Britain in October or November and either move on or remain to winter, returning eastward in March or April.", "They also winter on the south and east coasts of Ireland.", "The species originally inhabited stony ground in mountains, particularly cliffs, but since about 1900 has expanded to include similar urban habitats including bombed areas during and after World War II, and large industrial complexes that have the bare areas and cliff-like buildings it favours", "in Great Britain, most of the small breeding population nests in such industrial areas.", "It will catch passing insects in flight, and migrants often hunt in coastal tide-wrack for flies or tiny crustaceans.", "Its quick ducks of head and body are robin-like, and its tail is often flicked.", "The male has a rattling song and a tick call.", "Eastern race birds are very rare vagrants in western Europe.", "Black redstarts are usually monogamous.", "They start breeding in mid-April.", "The nest is built by the female and is typically placed in a crevice or hole in rock or a wall or on a ledge of a building.", "The nest consists of a loose cup of grass and stems and is lined with hair, wool and feathers.", "The eggs are laid daily.", "The clutch consists of 4 to 6 eggs that are usually white but can also be pale blue.", "On average they measure and weigh .", "Beginning after the final egg is laid, the eggs are incubated by the female for 1317 days.", "The young are cared for and fed by both parents and fledge after 1219 days."]}, "Nucifraga caryocatactes": {"keywords": ["In western Uttarakhand, India The most important food resources for this species are the seeds of various pines , principally the cold-climate species of white pine with large seeds.", "Surplus seed is always stored for later use and it is this species that is responsible for the sowing of new trees of their favoured pines, including the re-establishment of the Swiss pine over large areas in the Alps of central Europe formerly cleared by man.", "The spotted nutcracker has an extensive range forming a broad swathe eastwest from Scandinavia right across northern Europe, Siberia and to eastern Asia, including Japan, inhabiting the huge taiga conifer forests in the north.", "Three further disjunct populations occur in mountain conifer forests further south, one centered on the mountains of central and southeast Europe , another in the western Himalayas, and the third in western China seaboard and separated from the northern population by a relatively small gap in the north centre of China."], "habitat_section": ["The spotted nutcracker has an extensive range forming a broad swathe eastwest from Scandinavia right across northern Europe, Siberia and to eastern Asia, including Japan, inhabiting the huge taiga conifer forests in the north.", "Three further disjunct populations occur in mountain conifer forests further south, one centered on the mountains of central and southeast Europe , another in the western Himalayas, and the third in western China seaboard and separated from the northern population by a relatively small gap in the north centre of China.", "See subspecies list above for race distributions.", "Some of the populations can be separated on bill size.", "This species has a large range, extending over 10,000,000 km 2 globally.", "It also has a large global population, with an estimate of between 800,000-1,700,000 individuals in Europe.", "Spotted nutcrackers are not migratory, but will erupt out of range when a cone crop failure leaves them short of a food supply, the thin-billed eastern race macrorhynchos being the more likely to do this.", "Britain records very sporadic vagrants, but in 1968 over 300 nutcrackers visited Britain as part of a larger irruption into western Europe, probably due to a spell of early cold weather in Siberia."], "random_sentences": ["The spotted nutcracker, Eurasian nutcracker, or simply nutcracker is a passerine bird slightly larger than the Eurasian jay.", "It has a much larger bill and a slimmer looking head without any crest.", "The feathering over its body is predominantly chocolate brown with distinct white spots and streaks .", "The wings and upper tail are virtually black with a greenish-blue gloss.", "The spotted nutcracker is one of three currently-recognized species of nutcracker.", "The Kashmir nutcracker was formerly considered a subspecies of the spotted.", "The other member of the genus, Clark's nutcracker (N.", "columbiana), occurs in western North America.", "Skeleton The nutcracker was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, and it still bears its original name Nucifraga caryocatactes.", "The scientific name is a reduplication", "nucifraga is a New Latin translation of German Nussbrecher, \" nut-breaker \" based on Latin nucis \" nut \" , and frangere \" to shatter \" , and caryocatactes based on Greek: karuon \" nut \" , and kataseio \" to shatter \" .", "The common English name nutcracker first appears in 1693 in a translation of a German travel guide, where it is a calque on the German name Nuknacker, as the bird was not recorded in England until 1753.", "Other Germanic languages have etymologically related names: Danish: nddekrige", "left The spotted nutcracker is a dark brown, broad-winged, short-tailed corvid.", "Body plumage is mid-to-dark chocolate brown, heavily spotted with white on face, neck, mantle and underparts.", "It has a large white loral spot, a white eye-ring, blackish-brown cap extending onto the nape, dark blackish wings with a greenish-blue gloss, all white vent, and dark tail with white corners above and a white terminal band on the undertail.", "In flight, broad wings, white vent and short tail are noticeable", "The black bill is slender and rather long, sharply pointed, and varies in size amongst races.", "The iris, legs and feet are black.", "Nutcrackers range from 3238 cm in length and have a wingspan ranging from 4953 cm.", "The voice is similar to that of the Eurasian jay and is loud and harsh.", "It is described as kraak-kraak-kraak-kraak.", "In western Uttarakhand, India The most important food resources for this species are the seeds of various pines , principally the cold-climate species of white pine with large seeds: P. armandii, P. bungeana, P. cembra, P. gerardiana, P. koraiensis, P. parviflora, P. peuce, Siberian dwarf pine", "pumila, P. sibirica and P. wallichiana.", "In some regions, where none of these pines occur, the seeds of spruce and hazel nuts form an important part of the diet too.", "The forms that take hazel nuts have thicker bills for cracking their hard shells, with a special ridge on the inside of the bill edge near the base.", "If the shell is too hard, it holds the nut between its feet and hacks at it with its bill like a chisel.", "A special adaptation is found in the tongue of the nutcracker.", "The tip of the tongue forks with two long pointed appendages which are keratinized into nail like surfaces.", "This is thought to help them handle and shell conifer seeds.", "Surplus seed is always stored for later use and it is this species that is responsible for the sowing of new trees of their favoured pines, including the re-establishment of the Swiss pine over large areas in the Alps of central Europe formerly cleared by man.", "Various insects are also taken, and also small birds, their eggs and nestlings, small rodents and carrion such as roadkills.", "It digs out bumble bee and wasp nests avidly to get at the grubs.", "Egg of spotted nutcracker Nutcracker couples stay together for life and their territory expands between 20 and 30 acres.", "Nesting is always early in this species across its whole range, so as to make the best use of pine nuts stored the previous autumn.", "The nest is usually built high in a conifer and usually on the sunny side.", "There are normally 2-4 eggs laid and incubated for 18 days.", "Both sexes feed the young which are usually fledged by about 23 days and stay with their parents for many months, following them to learn the food storage techniques essential for survival in their harsh environment.", "The spotted nutcracker has an extensive range forming a broad swathe eastwest from Scandinavia right across northern Europe, Siberia and to eastern Asia, including Japan, inhabiting the huge taiga conifer forests in the north.", "Three further disjunct populations occur in mountain conifer forests further south, one centered on the mountains of central and southeast Europe ", "another in the western Himalayas", "and the third in western China seaboard and separated from the northern population by a relatively small gap in the north centre of China.", "See subspecies list above for race distributions.", "Some of the populations can be separated on bill size.", "This species has a large range, extending over 10,000,000 km 2 globally.", "It also has a large global population, with an estimate of between 800,000-1,700,000 individuals in Europe.", "Spotted nutcrackers are not migratory, but will erupt out of range when a cone crop failure leaves them short of a food supply, the thin-billed eastern race macrorhynchos being the more likely to do this.", "Britain records very sporadic vagrants, but in 1968 over 300 nutcrackers visited Britain as part of a larger irruption into western Europe, probably due to a spell of early cold weather in Siberia."]}, "Arcyptera fusca": {"keywords": ["This species is native of the steppes of Central Asia, but it is nowadays present in most of Europe, in eastern Palearctic realm, and in the Near East .", "They can be encountered in the alpine dry meadows, glades, heath, mountain pastures and grasslands, at an elevation up to above sea level."], "habitat_section": ["This species is native of the steppes of Central Asia, but it is nowadays present in most of Europe, in eastern Palearctic realm, and in the Near East .", "They can be encountered in the alpine dry meadows, glades, heath, mountain pastures and grasslands, at an elevation up to above sea level."], "random_sentences": ["Arcyptera fusca, the large banded grasshopper, is a species of 'short-horned grasshoppers' belonging to the family Acrididae subfamily Gomphocerinae.", "This species is native of the steppes of Central Asia, but it is nowadays present in most of Europe, in eastern Palearctic realm, and in the Near East .", "They can be encountered in the alpine dry meadows, glades, heath, mountain pastures and grasslands, at an elevation up to above sea level.", "Arcyptera fusca can reach a body length of in males, while females reach a length of .", "These medium-sized grasshopper are characterized by a significant sexual dimorphism.", "Males have developed functional wings , shorter than abdomen and unfit for flight .", "The basic body color is ocher or yellow-green, with dark markings.", "The hind tibiae have a characteristic bright red color that extended to the inner face of femora.", "The knees are black, surrounded by a white band.", "Adults mainly feed on Poaceae species.", "Males use a range of different stridulations for signaling their presence in the territory, for engaging in a dispute with a rival of the same sex or for courting females.", "Eggs are spawned in oothecae in short tunnels dug in the ground."]}}
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[
"Oenanthe oenanthe"
] |
{"Oenanthe oenanthe": {"keywords": ["The northern wheatear is a migratory insectivorous species breeding in open stony country in Europe and east across the Palearctic with footholds in northeastern Canada and Greenland as well as in northwestern Canada and Alaska.", "The generic name, Oenanthe, is also the name of a plant genus, the water dropworts, and is derived from the Greek ainos \" wine \" and anthos \" flower \" , from the wine-like scent of the flowers.", "Its English name has nothing to do with wheat or with ear, but is an altered form of white-arse, which refers to its prominent white rump.", "The northern wheatear makes one of the longest journeys of any small bird, crossing ocean, ice, and desert.", "Arguably, some of the birds that breed in north Asia could take a shorter route and winter in south Asia, however, their inherited inclination to migrate takes them back to Africa, completing one of the longest migrations for its body size in the animal kingdom Birds of the large, bright Greenland race, leucorhoa, make one of the longest transoceanic crossings of any passerine.", "However, autumn sightings from ships suggest that some birds cross the North Atlantic directly from Canada and Greenland to southwest Europe, a distance of up to .", "Birds breeding in eastern Canada are thought to fly from Baffin Island and Newfoundland via Greenland, Ireland, and Portugal to the Azores, crossing of the North Atlantic) before flying onwards to Africa.", "Miniature tracking devices have recently shown that the northern wheatear has one of the longest migratory flights known - 30,000 km , from sub-Saharan Africa to their Arctic breeding grounds.", "The nest is placed in a cavity such as a rabbit burrow, a crevice among rocks or in a man-made object such as a wall or pipe.", "The nest typically has a foundation of untidy plant material. The nest cup is constructed of finer grasses, leaves, moss and lichen."], "habitat_section": ["The northern wheatear has an extensive range, estimated at 2.3 million square kilometres , and a large population estimated at 2.9 million individuals in the Old World and the Americas combined.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern."], "random_sentences": ["Northern wheatear juvenile The northern wheatear or wheatear is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae.", "It is the most widespread member of the wheatear genus Oenanthe in Europe and North and Central Asia.", "The northern wheatear is a migratory insectivorous species breeding in open stony country in Europe and east across the Palearctic with footholds in northeastern Canada and Greenland as well as in northwestern Canada and Alaska.", "It nests in rock crevices and rabbit burrows.", "All birds spend most of their winter in Africa.", "The northern wheatear was first formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae as Motacilla oenanthe.", "The species is now placed in the genus Oenanthe that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1816.", "The generic name, Oenanthe, is also the name of a plant genus, the water dropworts, and is derived from the Greek ainos \" wine \" and anthos \" flower \" , from the wine-like scent of the flowers.", "In the case of the wheatear, it refers to the birds' return to Greece in the spring at the time that the grapevines blossom.", "Its English name has nothing to do with wheat or with ear, but is an altered form of white-arse, which refers to its prominent white rump.", "The four generally accepted subspecies of the Northern Wheatear with their breeding range are as follows: O.o. seebohmi is regarded as a distinct species by some authorities such as the International Ornithological Committee, Seebohms or the Atlas wheatear.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden The northern wheatear is larger than the European robin at in length.", "The northern wheatear also has a wingspan of 26 32 cm and weighs 17-30 g. Both sexes have a white rump and tail, with a black inverted T-pattern at the end of the tail.", "The plumage of the summer male has grey upperparts, buff throat and black wings and face mask.", "In autumn it resembles the female apart from the black wings.", "The female is pale brown above and buff below with darker brown wings.", "The male has a whistling, crackly song.", "Its call is a typical chat chack noise, and the flight call is the same.", "The northern wheatear makes one of the longest journeys of any small bird, crossing ocean, ice, and desert.", "It migrates from Sub-Saharan Africa in spring over a vast area of the Northern Hemisphere that includes northern and central Asia, Europe, Greenland, Alaska, and parts of Canada.", "In autumn all return to Africa, where their ancestors had wintered.", "Arguably, some of the birds that breed in north Asia could take a shorter route and winter in south Asia", "however, their inherited inclination to migrate takes them back to Africa, completing one of the longest migrations for its body size in the animal kingdom Birds of the large, bright Greenland race, leucorhoa, make one of the longest transoceanic crossings of any passerine.", "In spring most migrate along a route from Africa via continental Europe, the British Isles, and Iceland to Greenland.", "However, autumn sightings from ships suggest that some birds cross the North Atlantic directly from Canada and Greenland to southwest Europe, a distance of up to .", "Birds breeding in eastern Canada are thought to fly from Baffin Island and Newfoundland via Greenland, Ireland, and Portugal to the Azores, crossing of the North Atlantic) before flying onwards to Africa.", "Other populations from western Canada and Alaska migrate by flying over much of Eurasia to Africa.", "Miniature tracking devices have recently shown that the northern wheatear has one of the longest migratory flights known - 30,000 km , from sub-Saharan Africa to their Arctic breeding grounds.", "\" Tiny songbird northern wheatear traverses the world \" by Victoria Gill.", " \" The Alaskan birds travelled almost 15,000km each way - crossing Siberia and the Arabian Desert, and travelling, on average, 290km per day.", "\" This is the longest recorded migration for a songbird as far as we know, \" said Dr Schmaljohann.", "Northern wheatears first breed when they are one year old.", "The nest is built entirely by the female while the male perches nearby, sings and sometimes performs song-flights.", "The nest is placed in a cavity such as a rabbit burrow, a crevice among rocks or in a man-made object such as a wall or pipe.", "The nest typically has a foundation of untidy plant material. The nest cup is constructed of finer grasses, leaves, moss and lichen.", "The female lays eggs at daily intervals.", "The clutch is 4-7 smooth but not glossy eggs that are around in size with an average weight of .", "The eggs are very pale blue in colour and sometimes have a few red-brown marks at the larger end.", "They are incubated almost entirely by the female beginning after the penultimate or final egg has been laid.", "The eggs hatch after approximately 13 days.", "The chicks are fed by both parents and are brooded by the female for the first five or six days.", "They fledge after 15 days and become independent of their parents when they are between 28 and 32 days old.", "Normally only a single brood is raised each year but when a clutch of eggs is lost, the female will lay a second clutch.", "The northern wheatear has an extensive range, estimated at 2.3 million square kilometres , and a large population estimated at 2.9 million individuals in the Old World and the Americas combined.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern.", "In the 18th and 19th centuries wheatears were considered a delicacy in England, called \" the English ortolan \" and Sussex shepherds supplemented their income by selling the birds they trapped."]}}
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2616898_1129437
| 1243
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[
"Satyrus ferula",
"Libelloides coccajus",
"Juniperus communis"
] |
{"Satyrus ferula": {"keywords": ["This species prefers grassy, rocky areas, calcareous grasslands, forest clearings at an elevation of above sea level ."], "habitat_section": ["It is found in southern Europe, Morocco, Asia Minor, Iran, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Transbaikal, western China and the Himalayas.", "This species prefers grassy, rocky areas, calcareous grasslands, forest clearings at an elevation of above sea level .", "Val Noci, Genova, Italy.", "Habitat of Satyrus ferula"], "random_sentences": ["Satyrus ferula, the great sooty satyr, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae.", "The length of the forewings is 25 to 30 mm.", "This species shows an evident sexual dimorphism and the males are much more close to each other in appearance than the females.", "The wings of the males are usually dark brown on both surfaces, while in the female the wings are paler, with broad greyish bands on the undersides of the hindwings.", "On both sides of the forewings they have two-four black ocelli with white pupils, the first one much larger than the lower ones.", "The flight period extends from June to early September and the butterflies lay their eggs on the grass.", "The larvae are recorded as feeding on various grasses, including Stipa, Festuca, Bromus erectus and Deschampsia caespitosa.", "It is found in southern Europe, Morocco, Asia Minor, Iran, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Transbaikal, western China and the Himalayas.", "This species prefers grassy, rocky areas, calcareous grasslands, forest clearings at an elevation of above sea level ."]}, "Libelloides coccajus": {"keywords": ["These owlflies mainly inhabit areas with tall grass and sunny rocky slopes, at an elevation up to above sea level.", "The Libelloides italicus type in the University of Copenhagen Zoological Museum, does not correspond to any endemic species of Ascalaphidae living exclusively in the Italian peninsula and it is now considered to be a junior synonym of Libelloides coccajus.", "They lie on the soil surface waiting for prey."], "habitat_section": ["This rare insect is present in France, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.", "These owlflies mainly inhabit areas with tall grass and sunny rocky slopes, at an elevation up to above sea level.", "They have been sighted at elevations of up to 1800m on the French/Italian border in the high Susa Valley"], "random_sentences": ["Libelloides coccajus, the \" owly sulphur \" , is an owlfly species belonging to the family Ascalaphidae, subfamily Ascalaphinae.", "This rare insect is present in France, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.", "These owlflies mainly inhabit areas with tall grass and sunny rocky slopes, at an elevation up to above sea level.", "They have been sighted at elevations of up to 1800m on the French/Italian border in the high Susa Valley", "The adults reach of length, with a wingspan of .", "The body is black and quite hairy.", "The eyes are large and bulging", "the antennae are long and clubbed.", "The wings do not have scales and are partly transparent, with bright yellow areas in the first third, dark brown on the external side.", "An elongated black area is present towards the end of the posterior edge of the wing.", "The wings are held spread at rest, as in dragonflies.", "This species is rather similar to Libelloides lacteus.", "The Libelloides italicus type in the University of Copenhagen Zoological Museum, does not correspond to any endemic species of Ascalaphidae living exclusively in the Italian peninsula and it is now considered to be a junior synonym of Libelloides coccajus.", "Adults can be encountered from April through July.", "They are diurnal predators of other flying insects.", "Eggs are laid in groups on stems of herbaceous plants.", "Larvae are fearsome predators too.", "They lie on the soil surface waiting for prey.", "They live for about two years.", "Owly Sulphur, Claviere, 1800amsl, Italy 2019"]}, "Juniperus communis": {"keywords": ["Juniperus communis, the common juniper, is a species of small tree or shrub in the cypress family Cupressaceae.", "An evergreen conifer, it has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere.", "Juniperus communis is very variable in form, ranging from rarely tall to a low, often prostrate spreading shrub in exposed locations.", "The species has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic south in mountains to around 30N latitude in North America, Europe and Asia.", "Relict populations can be found in the Atlas Mountains of Africa.", "Teardrop-shaped J. communis in Hvaler, Norway Juniperus communis is cultivated in the horticulture trade and used as an evergreen ornamental shrub in gardens.", "The following cultivars gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit in 1993."], "habitat_section": ["The species has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic south in mountains to around 30N latitude in North America, Europe and Asia.", "Relict populations can be found in the Atlas Mountains of Africa.", "J. communis is one of Ireland's longest established plants."], "random_sentences": ["Juniperus communis, the common juniper, is a species of small tree or shrub in the cypress family Cupressaceae.", "An evergreen conifer, it has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere.", "Juniperus communis is very variable in form, ranging from rarely tall to a low, often prostrate spreading shrub in exposed locations.", "It has needle-like leaves in whorls of three", "the leaves are green, with a single white stomatal band on the inner surface.", "It never attains the scale-like adult foliage of other members of the genus.", "It is dioecious, with male and female cones on separate plants.", "The male cones are yellow, long, and fall soon after shedding their pollen in MarchApril.", "The fruit are berry-like cones known as juniper berries.", "They are initially green, ripening in 18 months to purple-black with a blue waxy coating", "they are spherical, diameter, and usually have three fleshy fused scales, each scale with a single seed.", "The seeds are dispersed when birds eat the cones, digesting the fleshy scales and passing the hard, unwinged seeds in their droppings.", "The juniper berry oil is composed largely of monoterpene hydrocarbons such as -pinene, myrcene, sabinene, limonene and -pinene.", "The species has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic south in mountains to around 30N latitude in North America, Europe and Asia.", "Relict populations can be found in the Atlas Mountains of Africa.", "J. communis is one of Ireland's longest established plants.", "Teardrop-shaped J. communis in Hvaler, Norway Juniperus communis is cultivated in the horticulture trade and used as an evergreen ornamental shrub in gardens.", "The following cultivars gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit in 1993:", "J. communis wood pieces, with a U.S. penny for scale, showing the narrow growth rings of the species It is too small to have any general lumber usage.", "In Scandinavia, however, juniper wood is used for making containers for storing small quantities of dairy products such as butter and cheese, and also for making wooden butter knives.", "It was also frequently used for trenails in wooden shipbuilding by shipwrights for its tough properties.", "In Estonia juniper wood is valued for its long lasting and pleasant aroma, very decorative natural structure of wood as well as good physical properties of wood due to slow growth rate of juniper and resulting dense and strong wood.", "Various decorative items are common in most Estonian handicraft shops and households.", "According to the old tradition, on Easter Monday Kashubian boys chase girls whipping their legs gently with juniper twigs.", "This is to bring good fortune in love to the chased girls.", "Juniper wood, especially burl wood, is frequently used to make knife handles for French pocketknives such as the Laguiole.", "Its astringent blue-black seed cones, commonly known as juniper berries, are too bitter to eat raw and are usually sold dried and used to flavour meats, sauces, and stuffings.", "They are generally crushed before use to release their flavour.", "Since juniper berries have a strong taste, they should be used sparingly.", "They are generally used to enhance meat with a strong flavour, such as game, including game birds, or tongue.", "The cones are used to flavour certain beers and gin .", "In Finland, juniper is used as a key ingredient in making sahti, a traditional Finnish ale.", "Also the Slovak alcoholic beverage Borovicka and Dutch Jenever are flavoured with juniper berry or its extract.", "Juniper is used in the traditional farmhouse ales of Norway, Brewing and beer traditions in Norway: The social anthropological background of the brewing industry, Odd Nordland, Universitetsforlaget, 1969.", "Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and Latvia.", "In Norway, the beer is brewed with juniper infusion instead of water, while in the other countries the juniper twigs are mainly used as filters to prevent the crushed malts from clogging the outlet of the lauter tun.", "The use of juniper in farmhouse brewing has been common in much of northern Europe, seemingly for a very long time.", "Juniper berries have long been used as medicine by many cultures including the Navajo people.", "Western American tribes combined the berries of J. communis with Berberis root bark in a herbal tea.", "Native Americans also used juniper berries as a female contraceptive.", "Juniper leaves were found to harbor fungi with potent anti-fungal compounds, including ibrexafungerp, which is now FDA approved to treat fungal infections."]}}
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2817171_1185509
| 1243
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[
"Primula veris"
] |
{"Primula veris": {"keywords": ["Primula veris, the cowslip, common cowslip, or cowslip primrose , is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the primrose family Primulaceae.", "The species is native throughout most of temperate Europe and western Asia, and although absent from more northerly areas including much of northwest Scotland, it reappears in northernmost Sutherland and Orkney and in Scandinavia.", "The common name cowslip may derive from the old English for cow dung, probably because the plant was often found growing amongst the manure in cow pastures.", "An alternative derivation simply refers to slippery or boggy ground, again, a typical habitat for this plant.", "Other historical common names include cuy lippe, herb peter, paigle or pagil, peggle, key flower, key of heaven, fairy cups, petty mulleins, crewel, buckles, palsywort, and plumrocks.", "Albrecht Durer, Tuft of Cowslips, 1526, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., NGA 74162 Primula veris is a variable evergreen or semi-evergreen perennial plant growing to tall and broad, with a rosette of leaves 515 cm long and 26 cm broad.", "The deep yellow flowers are produced in spring, in clusters of 1030 blooms together on a single stem.", "Each flower is 915 mm broad.", "Red- and orange-flowered plants occur rarely but can be locally widespread in areas where coloured primula hybrids bloom at the same time as the native cowslip, enabling cross-pollination.", "The cowslip is frequently found on more open ground than the primrose, including open fields, meadows, coastal dunes, and clifftops.", "Additionally the seeds are now often included in wildflower seed mixes used to landscape motorway banks and similar civil engineering earthworks where the plants may be seen in dense stands.", "In cultivation this plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "The dried roots contain significant amounts of triterpene saponins, such as primula acid I/II, while in the flower these constituents are located in the sepals, and the dominating constituents are flavonoids.", "Rare side effects of the saponins can be nausea or diarrhoea while some of the phenolic constituents are possibly responsible for allergic reactions.", "Uses in English cookery include using the flowers to flavor country wine and vinegars, sugaring to be a sweet or eaten as part of a composed salad while the juice of the cowslip is used to prepare tansy for frying.", "This wine \" was more precious than elderberry wine, which was the drink for cold weather, for snow and sleet \" .", "In times when English wines were more used, every housewife in Warwickshire could produce her clear cowslip winethe cowslip is still sold in many markets for this purpose, and little cottage girls still ramble the meadows during April and May in search of itcountry people use it as a salad or boil it for the table."], "habitat_section": ["Primula veris in a meadow.", "The cowslip is frequently found on more open ground than the primrose, including open fields, meadows, coastal dunes, and clifftops.", "The plant suffered a decline due to changing agricultural practices throughout the 1970s and 1980s in Britain.", "It may therefore be rare locally, though where found it may be abundant.", "Additionally the seeds are now often included in wildflower seed mixes used to landscape motorway banks and similar civil engineering earthworks where the plants may be seen in dense stands.", "This practice has led to a revival in its fortunes."], "random_sentences": ["Primula veris, the cowslip, common cowslip, or cowslip primrose (syn.", "Primula officinalis ), is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the primrose family Primulaceae.", "The species is native throughout most of temperate Europe and western Asia, and although absent from more northerly areas including much of northwest Scotland, it reappears in northernmost Sutherland and Orkney and in Scandinavia.", "This species frequently hybridizes with other Primulas such as the common primrose Primula vulgaris to form false oxlip which is often confused with true oxlip , a much rarer plant.", "The common name cowslip may derive from the old English for cow dung, probably because the plant was often found growing amongst the manure in cow pastures.", "An alternative derivation simply refers to slippery or boggy ground", "again, a typical habitat for this plant.", "The name \" cowslop \" derived from Old English still exists in some dialects, but the politer-sounding cowslip became standard in the 16th century.", "The species name veris is the genitive case form of Latin .", "However, primrose P. vulgaris, flowers earlier, from December to May in the British Isles.", "Other historical common names include cuy lippe, herb peter, paigle or pagil, peggle, key flower, key of heaven, fairy cups, petty mulleins, crewel, buckles, palsywort, and plumrocks.", "Flowers Primula veris MHNT altImage of a trust of cowslips, gouache on vellum", "Albrecht Durer, Tuft of Cowslips, 1526, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., NGA 74162 Primula veris is a variable evergreen or semi-evergreen perennial plant growing to tall and broad, with a rosette of leaves 515 cm long and 26 cm broad.", "The deep yellow flowers are produced in spring, in clusters of 1030 blooms together on a single stem.", "Each flower is 915 mm broad.", "Red- and orange-flowered plants occur rarely but can be locally widespread in areas where coloured primula hybrids bloom at the same time as the native cowslip, enabling cross-pollination.", "Primula veris in a meadow.", "The cowslip is frequently found on more open ground than the primrose, including open fields, meadows, coastal dunes, and clifftops.", "The plant suffered a decline due to changing agricultural practices throughout the 1970s and 1980s in Britain.", "It may therefore be rare locally, though where found it may be abundant.", "Additionally the seeds are now often included in wildflower seed mixes used to landscape motorway banks and similar civil engineering earthworks where the plants may be seen in dense stands.", "This practice has led to a revival in its fortunes.", "In cultivation this plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Red-flowered Primula veris plants The cowslip may be confused with the closely related Primula elatior which has a similar general appearance and habitat, although the oxlip has larger, pale yellow flowers more like a primrose, and a corolla tube without folds.", "The roots of Primula veris contain several glycosides of 5-methoxysalicylic methyl ester, such as primeverin and primulaverin.", "In the crude dried root, their phenolic aglycones are responsible for the typical odour reminiscent of methyl salicylate or anethole.", "The dried roots contain significant amounts of triterpene saponins, such as primula acid I/II, while in the flower these constituents are located in the sepals, and the dominating constituents are flavonoids.", "Rare side effects of the saponins can be nausea or diarrhoea while some of the phenolic constituents are possibly responsible for allergic reactions.", "The subspecies macrocalyx, growing in Siberia, contains the phenolic compound riccardin C.", "Cowslip leaves have been traditionally used in Spanish cooking as a salad green.", "Uses in English cookery include using the flowers to flavor country wine and vinegars", "sugaring to be a sweet or eaten as part of a composed salad while the juice of the cowslip is used to prepare tansy for frying.", "The close cousin of the cowslip, the primrose P. vulgaris has often been confused with the cowslip and its uses in cuisine are similar with the addition of its flowers being used as a colouring agent in desserts.", "English children's writer Alison Uttley in her story \" The Country Child \" of family life on an English farm from the perspective of a 9-year-old farmer's daughter Susan describes cowslips among the favourite flowers of her heroine and mentions her participation in preparing them for making cowslip wine, a locally important process.", "After its initial preparation, cowslip wine \" would change to sparkling yellow wine \" offered in \" little fluted glasses \" with a biscuit to important \" morning visitors \" of the farm: such as the curate coming for subscriptions, the local squire and an occasional dealer .", "This wine \" was more precious than elderberry wine, which was the drink for cold weather, for snow and sleet \" .", " In the midland and southern counties of England, a sweet and pleasant wine resembling the muscadel is made from the cowslip flower, and it is one of the most wholesome and pleasant of home-made wines, and slightly narcotic in its effects.", "In times when English wines were more used, every housewife in Warwickshire could produce her clear cowslip winethe cowslip is still sold in many markets for this purpose, and little cottage girls still ramble the meadows during April and May in search of itcountry people use it as a salad or boil it for the table.", " Anne Pratt ", "This herb was already mentioned by Pliny the Elder for its early blooming attributes.", "Species from the genus Primula along with other ritual plants played a significant role in the pharmacy and mythology of the Celtic druids, likely as an ingredient of magical potions to increase the absorption of other herbal constituents.", "In the Middle-Ages it was also known as St. Peter's herb or Petrella and was sought after by Florentine apothecaries.", "Hildegard von Bingen recommended the medicinal parts only for topical use but the leaves were also consumed as food.", "Other common names at the time were 'Herba paralysis', 'Verbascum', primrose, or mullein leaves.", "It was frequently misidentified as or confused with similar species from the genus Primula."]}}
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|
2566672_1118684
| 2154
|
[
"Prunus avium"
] |
{"Prunus avium": {"keywords": ["Prunus avium, commonly called wild cherry, sweet cherry or gean is a species of cherry, a flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae.", "It is native to Europe, Anatolia, Maghreb, and Western Asia, from the British Isles south to Morocco and Tunisia, north to the Trondheimsfjord region in Norway and east to the Caucasus and northern Iran, with a small isolated population in the western Himalaya.", "The species is widely cultivated in other regions and has become naturalized in North America, New Zealand and Australia.", "Prunus avium is a deciduous tree growing to 518 metres tall, with a trunk up to 1.5 m in diameter.", "Young trees show strong apical dominance with a straight trunk and symmetrical conical crown, becoming rounded to irregular on old trees.", "The bark is smooth purplish-brown with prominent horizontal grey-brown lenticels on young trees, becoming thick dark blackish-brown and fissured on old trees.", "The name \"wild cherry\" is also commonly applied to other species of Prunus growing in their native habitats, particularly to the North American species Prunus serotina.", "The term is used particularly for the varieties of P. avium grown in North Devon and cultivated there, particularly in the British orchards at Landkey.", "The tree exudes a gum from wounds in the bark, by which it seals the wounds to exclude insects and fungal infections.", "It is often cultivated as a flowering tree.", "The double-flowered form, 'Plena', is commonly found, rather than the wild single-flowered forms.", "In the UK, P. avium 'Plena' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Two interspecific hybrids, P. schmittii and P. fontenesiana are also grown as ornamental trees.", "Wild cherries have been an item of human food for several thousands of years.", "In one dated example, wild cherry macrofossils were found in a core sample from the detritus beneath a dwelling at an Early and Middle Bronze Age pile-dwelling site on and in the shore of a former lake at Desenzano del Garda or Lonato, near the southern shore of Lake Garda, Italy.", "Various cherry cultivars are now grown worldwide wherever the climate is suitable, the number of cultivars is now very large.", "The species has also escaped from cultivation and become naturalised in some temperate regions, including southwestern Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the northeast and northwest of the United States.", "Wild cherry is used extensively in Europe for the afforestation of agricultural land and it is also valued for wildlife and amenity plantings.", "Although cultivated/domesticated varieties of Prunus avium did not exist in Britain or much of Europe, the tree in its wild state is native to most of Europe, including Britain.", "In 1882 Alphonse de Candolle pointed out that seeds of Prunus avium were found in the Terramare culture of north Italy and over the layers of the Swiss pile dwellings.", "Modern cultivated cherries differ from wild ones in having larger fruit, 23 cm diameter.", "The trees are often grown on dwarfing rootstocks to keep them smaller for easier harvesting.", "He notes that in the fifteenth century \"Cherries on the ryse\" was one of the street cries of London, but conjectures that these were the fruit of \"the native wild Cherry, or Gean-tree\"."], "habitat_section": ["The fruit are readily eaten by numerous kinds of birds and mammals, which digest the fruit flesh and disperse the seeds in their droppings.", "Some rodents, and a few birds , also crack open the stones to eat the kernel inside.", "The leaves provide food for some animals, including Lepidoptera such as the case-bearer moth Coleophora anatipennella.", "The tree exudes a gum from wounds in the bark, by which it seals the wounds to exclude insects and fungal infections.", "Prunus avium is thought to be one of the parent species of Prunus cerasus , by way of ancient crosses between it and Prunus fruticosa in the areas where the two species overlap.", "All three species can breed with one another.", "Prunus cerasus is now a species in its own right, having developed beyond a hybrid and stabilised."], "random_sentences": ["Prunus avium, commonly called wild cherry, sweet cherry or gean is a species of cherry, a flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae.", "It is native to Europe, Anatolia, Maghreb, and Western Asia, from the British Isles south to Morocco and Tunisia, north to the Trondheimsfjord region in Norway and east to the Caucasus and northern Iran, with a small isolated population in the western Himalaya.", "The species is widely cultivated in other regions and has become naturalized in North America, New Zealand and Australia.", "Prunus avium has a diploid set of sixteen chromosomes .", "All parts of the plant except for the ripe fruit are slightly toxic, containing cyanogenic glycosides.", "Prunus avium is a deciduous tree growing to 518 metres tall, with a trunk up to 1.5 m in diameter.", "Young trees show strong apical dominance with a straight trunk and symmetrical conical crown, becoming rounded to irregular on old trees.", "The bark is smooth purplish-brown with prominent horizontal grey-brown lenticels on young trees, becoming thick dark blackish-brown and fissured on old trees.", "The leaves are alternate, simple ovoid-acute, 714 centimetres long and 47 cm broad, glabrous matt or sub-shiny green above, variably finely downy beneath, with a serrated margin and an acuminate tip, with a green or reddish petiole 23.5 cm long bearing two to five small red glands.", "The tip of each serrated edge of the leaves also bear small red glands.", "In autumn, the leaves turn orange, pink or red before falling.", "The flowers are produced in early spring at the same time as the new leaves, borne in corymbs of two to six together, each flower pendent on a 25 cm peduncle, 2.53.5 cm in diameter, with five pure white petals, yellowish stamens, and a superior ovary", "they are hermaphroditic, and pollinated by bees.", "The ovary contains two ovules, only one of which becomes the seed.", "The fruit is a drupe 12 cm in diameter , bright red to dark purple when mature in midsummer, edible, variably sweet to somewhat astringent and bitter to eat fresh.", "Each fruit contains a single hard-shelled stone 812 mm long, 710 mm wide and 68 mm thick, grooved along the flattest edge", "the seed inside the stone is 68 mm long.", "The early history of its classification is somewhat confused.", "In the first edition of Species Plantarum , Linnaeus treated it as only a variety, Prunus cerasus var. avium, citing Gaspard Bauhin's Pinax theatri botanici .", "His description, Cerasus racemosa hortensis shows it was described from a cultivated plant.", "Linnaeus then changed from a variety to a species Prunus avium in the second edition of his Flora Suecica in 1755.", "Sweet cherry was known historically as gean or mazzard .", "Until recently, both were largely obsolete names in modern English.", "The name \"wild cherry\" is also commonly applied to other species of Prunus growing in their native habitats, particularly to the North American species Prunus serotina.", "Prunus avium means \"bird cherry\" in the Latin language, but in English \"bird cherry\" refers to Prunus padus.", "'Mazzard' has been used to refer to a selected self-fertile cultivar that comes true from seed, and which is used as a seedling rootstock for fruiting cultivars.", "The term is used particularly for the varieties of P. avium grown in North Devon and cultivated there, particularly in the British orchards at Landkey.", "The fruit are readily eaten by numerous kinds of birds and mammals, which digest the fruit flesh and disperse the seeds in their droppings.", "Some rodents, and a few birds , also crack open the stones to eat the kernel inside.", "The leaves provide food for some animals, including Lepidoptera such as the case-bearer moth Coleophora anatipennella.", "The tree exudes a gum from wounds in the bark, by which it seals the wounds to exclude insects and fungal infections.", "Prunus avium is thought to be one of the parent species of Prunus cerasus , by way of ancient crosses between it and Prunus fruticosa in the areas where the two species overlap.", "All three species can breed with one another.", "Prunus cerasus is now a species in its own right, having developed beyond a hybrid and stabilised.", "It is often cultivated as a flowering tree.", "Because of the size of the tree, it is often used in parkland, and less often as a street or garden tree.", "The double-flowered form, 'Plena', is commonly found, rather than the wild single-flowered forms.", "In the UK, P. avium 'Plena' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Two interspecific hybrids, P. schmittii (P.", "avium P. canescens) and P. fontenesiana (P.", "avium P. mahaleb) are also grown as ornamental trees.", "All parts of the plant except for the ripe fruit are slightly toxic, containing cyanogenic glycosides.", "Some 18th- and 19th-century botanical authors assumed a western Asian origin for the species based on the writings of Pliny", "however, archaeological finds of seeds from prehistoric Europe contradict this view.", "Wild cherries have been an item of human food for several thousands of years.", "The stones have been found in deposits at Bronze Age settlements throughout Europe, including in Britain.", "In one dated example, wild cherry macrofossils were found in a core sample from the detritus beneath a dwelling at an Early and Middle Bronze Age pile-dwelling site on and in the shore of a former lake at Desenzano del Garda or Lonato, near the southern shore of Lake Garda, Italy.", "The date is estimated at Early Bronze Age IA, carbon dated there to 2077 BCE plus or minus 10 years.", "The natural forest was largely cleared at that time.", "By 800 BCE, cherries were being actively cultivated in Asia Minor, and soon after in Greece.", "As the main ancestor of the cultivated cherry, the sweet cherry is one of the two cherry species which supply most of the world's commercial cultivars of edible cherry (the other is the sour cherry Prunus cerasus, mainly used for cooking", "a few other species have had a very small input).", "Various cherry cultivars are now grown worldwide wherever the climate is suitable", "the number of cultivars is now very large.", "The species has also escaped from cultivation and become naturalised in some temperate regions, including southwestern Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the northeast and northwest of the United States.", "The hard, reddish-brown wood is valued as a hardwood for woodturning, and making cabinets and musical instruments.", "Cherry wood is also used for smoking foods, particularly meats, in North America, as it lends a distinct and pleasant flavor to the product.", "The gum from bark wounds is aromatic and can be chewed as a substitute for chewing gum.", "Medicine can be prepared from the stalks of the drupes that is astringent, antitussive, and diuretic.", "A green dye can also be prepared from the plant.", "Wild cherry is used extensively in Europe for the afforestation of agricultural land and it is also valued for wildlife and amenity plantings.", "Many European countries have gene conservation and/or breeding programmes for wild cherry.", "Pliny distinguishes between Prunus, the plum fruit, and Cerasus, the cherry fruit.", "Already in Pliny quite a number of cultivars are cited, some possibly species or varieties, Aproniana, Lutatia, Caeciliana, and so on.", "Pliny grades them by flavour, including dulcis and acer .", "and goes so far as to say that before the Roman consul Lucius Licinius Lucullus defeated Mithridates in 74 BC, Cerasia non-fuere in Italia, \"There were no cherry trees in Italy\".", "According to him, Lucullus brought them in from Pontus and in the 120 years since that time they had spread across Europe to Britain.", "Although cultivated/domesticated varieties of Prunus avium did not exist in Britain or much of Europe, the tree in its wild state is native to most of Europe, including Britain.", "Evidence of consumption of the wild fruits has been found as far back as the Bronze Age at a Crannog in County Offaly, in Ireland.", "Seeds of a number of cherry species have however been found in Bronze Age and Roman archaeological sites throughout Europe.", "The reference to \"sweet\" and \"sour\" supports the modern view that \"sweet\" was Prunus avium", "there are no other candidates among the cherries found.", "In 1882 Alphonse de Candolle pointed out that seeds of Prunus avium were found in the Terramare culture of north Italy and over the layers of the Swiss pile dwellings.", "Of Pliny's statement he says (p.", "210): Since this error is perpetuated by its incessant repetition in classical schools, it must once more be said that cherry trees existed in Italy before Lucullus, and that the famous gourmet did not need to go far to seek the species with the sour or bitter fruit.", "De Candolle suggests that what Lucullus brought back was a particular cultivar of Prunus avium from the Caucasus.", "The origin of cultivars of P. avium is still an open question.", "Modern cultivated cherries differ from wild ones in having larger fruit, 23 cm diameter.", "The trees are often grown on dwarfing rootstocks to keep them smaller for easier harvesting.", "Folkard similarly identifies Lucullus's cherry as a cultivated variety.", "He states that it was planted in Britain a century after its introduction into Italy, but \"disappeared during the Saxon period\".", "He notes that in the fifteenth century \"Cherries on the ryse\" was one of the street cries of London, but conjectures that these were the fruit of \"the native wild Cherry, or Gean-tree\".", "The cultivated variety was reintroduced into Britain by the fruiterer of Henry VIII, who brought it from Flanders and planted a cherry orchard at Teynham."]}}
|
|
2666660_1235790
| 1952
|
[
"Geum rivale"
] |
{"Geum rivale": {"keywords": ["Geum rivale, the water avens, is a flowering plant in the genus Geum within the family Rosaceae.", "Other names for the plant are nodding avens, drooping avens, cure-all, water flower and Indian chocolate.", "It is native to the temperate regions of Europe, Central Asia and parts of North America, where it is known as purple avens.", "It grows in bogs and damp meadows, and produces nodding red flowers from May to September.", "It is absent from the Pannonian Basin and western France, on the Italian Peninsula it is found in scattered locations in the northern and central Apennines, It is found in the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula the Caucasus, northern Anatolia and northwestern Iran.", "It is also native to northern Ukraine and the central and northern parts of European Russia, Geum rivale is also native to a broad region in Canada and the United States.", "The plant is a native perennial of slow-draining or wet soils and can tolerate mildly acidic to calcareous conditions in full sun or under partial shade.", "Habitats include stream sides, pond edges, damp deciduous woodland and hay meadows.", "It is a component of purple moor grass and rush pastures is a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK. It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe.", "It begins flowering a little earlier than G. urbanum, so early pollinations will be within the gene-pool of the single species.", "The seeds of Water Avens are burr-like, and are distributed after being caught in the coats of rabbits and other small mammals, and by rhizomal growth.", "In North America it is known to hybridise with Geum aleppicum , with Geum macrophyllum var. perincisum , and with Geum macrophyllum var. macrophyllum ."], "habitat_section": ["Geum rivale is widespread in Europe, particularly in the northern and central parts.", "It is found throughout the British Isles, the Faroes, Iceland, Scandinavia, the Baltic States, and much of Central Europe .", "It is absent from the Pannonian Basin and western France, on the Italian Peninsula it is found in scattered locations in the northern and central Apennines, It is found in the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula the Caucasus, northern Anatolia and northwestern Iran.", "It is also native to northern Ukraine and the central and northern parts of European Russia, Geum rivale is also native to a broad region in Canada and the United States.", "The plant is a native perennial of slow-draining or wet soils and can tolerate mildly acidic to calcareous conditions in full sun or under partial shade.", "Habitats include stream sides, pond edges, damp deciduous woodland and hay meadows.", "It is a component of purple moor grass and rush pastures is a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK. It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe.", "It is found throughout the British Isles with the exception of south-east England, the Western Isles of Scotland and parts of the midlands and the west country.", "Geum rivale is pollinated primarily by bees, less often by flies and beetles.", "As the flower matures, elongation of the stamens ensures it self-fertilises if not already cross-pollinated.", "The flowers' stigmas mature before the stamens.", "It begins flowering a little earlier than G. urbanum, so early pollinations will be within the gene-pool of the single species.", "The seeds of Water Avens are burr-like, and are distributed after being caught in the coats of rabbits and other small mammals, and by rhizomal growth.", "Geum rivale is parasitised by Podosphaera aphanis a conidial powdery mildew.", "Yellow spots on the living leaf may be caused by Peronospora gei a downy mildew."], "random_sentences": ["Geum rivale, the water avens, is a flowering plant in the genus Geum within the family Rosaceae.", "Other names for the plant are nodding avens, drooping avens, cure-all, water flower and Indian chocolate.", "It is native to the temperate regions of Europe, Central Asia and parts of North America, where it is known as purple avens.", "It grows in bogs and damp meadows, and produces nodding red flowers from May to September.", "Geum rivale is widespread in Europe, particularly in the northern and central parts.", "It is found throughout the British Isles, the Faroes, Iceland, Scandinavia, the Baltic States, and much of Central Europe .", "It is absent from the Pannonian Basin and western France", "on the Italian Peninsula it is found in scattered locations in the northern and central Apennines, It is found in the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula the Caucasus, northern Anatolia and northwestern Iran.", "It is also native to northern Ukraine and the central and northern parts of European Russia, Geum rivale is also native to a broad region in Canada and the United States.", "The plant is a native perennial of slow-draining or wet soils and can tolerate mildly acidic to calcareous conditions in full sun or under partial shade.", "Habitats include stream sides, pond edges, damp deciduous woodland and hay meadows.", "It is a component of purple moor grass and rush pastures is a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK.", "It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe.", "It is found throughout the British Isles with the exception of south-east England, the Western Isles of Scotland and parts of the midlands and the west country.", "Geum rivale is pollinated primarily by bees, less often by flies and beetles.", "As the flower matures, elongation of the stamens ensures it self-fertilises if not already cross-pollinated.", "The flowers' stigmas mature before the stamens.", "It begins flowering a little earlier than G. urbanum, so early pollinations will be within the gene-pool of the single species.", "The seeds of Water Avens are burr-like, and are distributed after being caught in the coats of rabbits and other small mammals, and by rhizomal growth.", "Geum rivale is parasitised by Podosphaera aphanis a conidial powdery mildew.", "Yellow spots on the living leaf may be caused by Peronospora gei a downy mildew.", "Geum urbanum hybridises fairly regularly with Geum rivale as they are closely related and occur together.", "In North America it is known to hybridise with Geum aleppicum , with Geum macrophyllum var. perincisum , and with Geum macrophyllum var. macrophyllum ."]}}
|
|
2667808_1210195
| 014
|
[
"Leptinotarsa decemlineata",
"Papaver somniferum"
] |
{"Leptinotarsa decemlineata": {"keywords": ["Native to the Rocky Mountains, it spread rapidly in potato crops across America and then Europe from 1859 onwards.", "The beetles were collected in the Rocky Mountains, where they were feeding on the buffalo bur, Solanum rostratum.", "This tribe is characterised within the subfamily by round to oval-shaped convex bodies, which are usually brightly coloured, simple claws which separate at the base, open cavities behind the procoxae, and a variable apical segment of the maxillary palp.", "The beetle is most likely native to the area between Colorado and northern Mexico, and was discovered in 1824 by Thomas Say in the Rocky Mountains.", "By 1874 it had reached the Atlantic Coast.", "In the European Union, it remains a regulated pest for the Republic of Ireland, Balearic Islands, Cyprus, Malta, and southern parts of Sweden and Finland.", "The prepupae drop to the soil and burrow to a depth of several inches, then pupate.", "They then return to their host plants to mate and feed, overwintering adults may begin mating within 24 hours of spring emergence.", "In some locations, three or more generations may occur each growing season.", "Around 1840, L. decemlineata adopted the cultivated potato into its host range and it rapidly became a most destructive pest of potato crops.", "The large-scale use of insecticides in agricultural crops effectively controlled the pest until it became resistant to DDT in 1952 and dieldrin in 1958.", "Mulching the potato crop with straw early in the growing season may reduce the beetle's ability to locate potato fields, and the mulch creates an environment that favours beetle's predators, Plastic-lined trenches have been used as pitfall traps to catch the beetles as they move toward a field of potatoes in the spring, exploiting their inability to fly immediately after emergence, flamethrowers may also be used to kill the beetles when they are visible at the top of the plant's foliage.", "During the Cold War, some countries in the Warsaw Pact claimed that the beetles had been introduced by the CIA in an attempt to reduce food security by destroying the agriculture of the Soviet Union."], "habitat_section": ["The beetle is most likely native to the area between Colorado and northern Mexico, and was discovered in 1824 by Thomas Say in the Rocky Mountains.", "It is found in North America, and is present in every state and province except Alaska, California, Hawaii, and Nevada.", "It now has a wide distribution across Europe and Asia, totalling over 16 million km 2 .", "Its first association with the potato plant was not made until about 1859, when it began destroying potato crops in the region of Omaha, Nebraska.", "Its spread eastward was rapid, at an average distance of 140 km per year.", "By 1874 it had reached the Atlantic Coast.", "From 1871, American entomologist Charles Valentine Riley warned Europeans about the potential for an accidental infestation caused by the transportation of the beetle from America.", "From 1875, several Western European countries, including Germany, Belgium, France, and Switzerland, banned imports of American potatoes to avoid infestation by L. decemlineata.", "These controls proved ineffective, as the beetle soon reached Europe.", "In 1877, L. decemlineata reached the United Kingdom and was first recorded from Liverpool docks, but it did not become established.", "Many further outbreaks have occurred, the species has been eradicated in the UK at least 163 times.", "The last major outbreak was in 1976.", "It remains as a notifiable quarantine pest in the United Kingdom and is monitored by DEFRA to prevent it from becoming established.", "A cost-benefit analysis from 1981 suggested that the cost of the measures used to exclude L. decemlineata from the UK was less than the likely costs of control if it became established.", "Elsewhere in Europe, the beetle became established near USA military bases in Bordeaux during or immediately following World War I and had proceeded to spread by the beginning of World War II to Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain.", "The population increased dramatically during and immediately following World War II and spread eastward, and the beetle is now found over much of the continent.", "After World War II, in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, almost half of all potato fields were infested by the beetle by 1950.", "In East Germany, they were known as Amikafer following a governmental claim that the beetles were dropped by American planes.", "In the European Union, it remains a regulated pest for the Republic of Ireland, Balearic Islands, Cyprus, Malta, and southern parts of Sweden and Finland.", "It is not established in any of these member states, but occasional infestations can occur when, for example, wind blows adults from Russia to Finland.", "The beetle has the potential to spread to temperate areas of East Asia, India, South America, Africa, New Zealand, and Australia.", "Propagation du doryphore en Amerique du Nord.", "Doryphore - expansion en Europe.", "Expansion of the Colorado potato beetle's range in Europe, 19211964"], "random_sentences": ["The Colorado potato beetle , also known as the Colorado beetle, the ten-striped spearman, the ten-lined potato beetle, or the potato bug, is a major pest of potato crops.", "It is about long, with a bright yellow/orange body and five bold brown stripes along the length of each of its elytra.", "Native to the Rocky Mountains, it spread rapidly in potato crops across America and then Europe from 1859 onwards.", "Leptinotarsa decemlineata adult specimen The Colorado potato beetle was first observed in 1811 by Thomas Nuttall and was formally described in 1824 by American entomologist Thomas Say.", "The beetles were collected in the Rocky Mountains, where they were feeding on the buffalo bur, Solanum rostratum.", "The genus Leptinotarsa is assigned to the chrysolmelid beetle tribe Chrysomelini .", "Adult beetles typically are in length and in width.", "The beetles are orange-yellow in colour with 10 characteristic black stripes on their elytra.", "The specific name decemlineata, meaning 'ten-lined', derives from this feature.", "Adult beetles may, however, be visually confused with L. juncta, the false potato beetle, which is not an agricultural pest.", "L. juncta also has alternating black and white strips on its back, but one of the white strips in the center of each wing cover is missing and replaced by a light brown strip.", "The orange-pink larvae have a large, 9-segmented abdomen, black head, and prominent spiracles, and may measure up to in length in their final instar stage.", "The beetle larva has four instar stages.", "The head remains black throughout these stages, but the pronotum changes colour from black in first- and second-instar larvae to having an orange-brown edge in its third-instar.", "In fourth-instar larvae, about half the pronotum is coloured light brown.", "This tribe is characterised within the subfamily by round to oval-shaped convex bodies, which are usually brightly coloured, simple claws which separate at the base, open cavities behind the procoxae, and a variable apical segment of the maxillary palp.", "The beetle is most likely native to the area between Colorado and northern Mexico, and was discovered in 1824 by Thomas Say in the Rocky Mountains.", "It is found in North America, and is present in every state and province except Alaska, California, Hawaii, and Nevada.", "It now has a wide distribution across Europe and Asia, totalling over 16 million km 2 .", "Its first association with the potato plant was not made until about 1859, when it began destroying potato crops in the region of Omaha, Nebraska.", "Its spread eastward was rapid, at an average distance of 140 km per year.", "By 1874 it had reached the Atlantic Coast.", "From 1871, American entomologist Charles Valentine Riley warned Europeans about the potential for an accidental infestation caused by the transportation of the beetle from America.", "From 1875, several Western European countries, including Germany, Belgium, France, and Switzerland, banned imports of American potatoes to avoid infestation by L. decemlineata.", "These controls proved ineffective, as the beetle soon reached Europe.", "In 1877, L. decemlineata reached the United Kingdom and was first recorded from Liverpool docks, but it did not become established.", "Many further outbreaks have occurred", "the species has been eradicated in the UK at least 163 times.", "The last major outbreak was in 1976.", "It remains as a notifiable quarantine pest in the United Kingdom and is monitored by DEFRA to prevent it from becoming established.", "A cost-benefit analysis from 1981 suggested that the cost of the measures used to exclude L. decemlineata from the UK was less than the likely costs of control if it became established.", "Elsewhere in Europe, the beetle became established near USA military bases in Bordeaux during or immediately following World War I and had proceeded to spread by the beginning of World War II to Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain.", "The population increased dramatically during and immediately following World War II and spread eastward, and the beetle is now found over much of the continent.", "After World War II, in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, almost half of all potato fields were infested by the beetle by 1950.", "In East Germany, they were known as Amikafer following a governmental claim that the beetles were dropped by American planes.", "In the European Union, it remains a regulated pest for the Republic of Ireland, Balearic Islands, Cyprus, Malta, and southern parts of Sweden and Finland.", "It is not established in any of these member states, but occasional infestations can occur when, for example, wind blows adults from Russia to Finland.", "The beetle has the potential to spread to temperate areas of East Asia, India, South America, Africa, New Zealand, and Australia.", "Colorado potato beetle females are very prolific and are capable of laying over 500 eggs in a 4- to 5-week period.", "The eggs are yellow to orange, and are about long.", "They are usually deposited in batches of about 30 on the underside of host leaves.", "Development of all life stages depends on temperature.", "After 415 days, the eggs hatch into reddish-brown larvae with humped backs and two rows of dark brown spots on either side.", "They feed on the leaves of their host plants.", "Larvae progress through four distinct growth stages .", "First instars measure about long, and the last instars measure in length.", "The first through third instars each last about 23 days duration", "the fourth lasts 47 days.", "Upon reaching full size, each fourth instar spends several days as a nonfeeding prepupa, which can be recognized by its inactivity and lighter coloration.", "The prepupae drop to the soil and burrow to a depth of several inches, then pupate.", "In 5 to 10 days, the adult beetle emerges to feed and mate.", "This beetle can thus go from egg to adult in as little as 21 days.", "Depending on temperature, light conditions, and host quality, the adults may enter diapause and delay emergence until spring.", "They then return to their host plants to mate and feed", "overwintering adults may begin mating within 24 hours of spring emergence.", "In some locations, three or more generations may occur each growing season.", "L. decemlineata has a strong association with plants in the family Solanaceae, particularly those of the genus Solanum.", "It is directly associated with Solanum cornutum , Solanum nigrum , Solanum melongena , Solanum dulcamara , Solanum luteum , Solanum tuberosum , and Solanum elaeagnifolium .", "They are also associated with other plants in this family, namely the species Solanum lycopersicum and the genus Capsicum .", "Coleomegilla maculata preying upon Colorado beetle eggs At least 13 insect genera, three spider families, one phalangid , and one mite have been recorded as either generalist or specialized predators of the varying stages of L. decemlineata.", "These include the ground beetle Lebia grandis, the coccinellid beetles Coleomegilla maculata and Hippodamia convergens, the shield bugs Perillus bioculatus and Podisus maculiventris, various species of the lacewing genus Chrysopa, the wasp genus Polistes, and the damsel bug genus Nabis.", "The predatory ground beetle L. grandis is a predator of both the eggs and larvae of L. decemlineata, and its larvae are parasitoids of the pupae.", "An adult L. grandis may consume up to 23 eggs or 3.3 larvae in a single day.", "In a laboratory experiment, Podisus maculiventris was used as a predatory threat to female L. decemlineata specimens, resulting in the production of unviable trophic eggs alongside viable ones", "this response to a predator ensured that additional food was available for newly hatched offspring to increase their survival rate.", "The same experiment also demonstrated the cannibalism of unhatched eggs by newly hatched L. decemlineata larvae as an antipredator response.", "+ Examples of parasitoids, predators, and pathogens of different life stages of Leptinotarsa decemlineata Type Species Order Predates Location Reference Parasitoid Chrysomelobia labidomerae Acari Adults USA, Mexico Edovum puttleri Hymenoptera Eggs USA, Mexico, Colombia Anaphes flavipes Hymenoptera Eggs USA Myiopharus aberrans Diptera Eggs USA Myiopharus doryphorae Diptera Larvae USA, Canada Meigenia mutabilis Diptera Larvae Russia Megaselia rufipes Diptera Adults Germany Heterorhabditis bacteriophora Nematoda Adults Cosmopolitan Heterorhabditis heliothidis Nematoda Adults Cosmopolitan Predator Lebia grandis Coleoptera Eggs, Larvae, Adults USA Hippodamia convergens Coleoptera Eggs, Larvae USA, Mexico Euthyrhynchus floridanus Hemiptera Larvae USA Oplomus dichrous Hemiptera Eggs, Larvae USA, Mexico Perillus bioculatus Hemiptera Eggs, Larvae, Adults USA, Mexico, Canada Podisus maculiventris Hemiptera Larvae USA Pselliopus cinctus Hemiptera Larvae USA Sinea diadema Hemiptera Larvae USA Stiretrus anchorago Hemiptera Larvae USA, Mexico Pathogen Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. tenebrionis Bacillales Larvae USA, Canada, Europe Photorhabdus luminescens Enterobacterales Adults, Larvae Cosmopolitan Spiroplasma Entomoplasmatales Adults, Larvae North America, Europe Beauveria bassiana Hypocreales Adults, Larvae USA", "Around 1840, L. decemlineata adopted the cultivated potato into its host range and it rapidly became a most destructive pest of potato crops.", "It is today considered to be the most important insect defoliator of potatoes.", "Larvae may consume 40 cm 2 of potato leaves during the entire larval stage, but adults are capable of consuming 10 cm 2 of foliage per day.", "The economic cost of insecticide resistance is significant, but published data on the subject are minimal. In 1994, total costs of the insecticide and crop losses in the US state of Michigan were $13.3 million, representing 13.7% of the total value of the crop.", "The estimate of the cost implication of insecticides and crop losses per hectare is $138368.", "Long-term increased cost to the Michigan potato industry caused by insecticide resistance in Colorado potato beetle was estimated at $0.9 to $1.4 million each year.", "A Colorado beetle larva eating a leaf of a potato plant", "The large-scale use of insecticides in agricultural crops effectively controlled the pest until it became resistant to DDT in 1952 and dieldrin in 1958.", "Insecticides remain the main method of pest control on commercial farms.", "However, many chemicals are often unsuccessful when used against this pest because of the beetle's ability to rapidly develop insecticide resistance.", "Different populations in different geographic regions have, between them, developed resistance to all major classes of insecticide, although not every population is resistant to every chemical. The species as a whole has evolved resistance to 56 different chemical insecticides.", "The mechanisms used include improved metabolism of the chemicals, reduced sensitivity of target sites, less penetration and greater excretion of the pesticides, and some changes in the behavior of the beetles.", "+ Examples of insecticides available for the control of Colorado potato beetle on different crops in Kentucky, USA.", "Insecticide class Common examples Potato Eggplant Tomato Notes Organophosphates phosmet X on US Emergency Planning List of Extremely Hazardous Substances disulfoton X X Usage restricted by US government", "manufacturer Bayer exited US market 2009 Carbamates carbaryl X X X Widely used in US carbofuran X One of the most toxic carbamates Chlorinated hydrocarbons methoxychlor X X Banned in EU 2002, in USA 2003 endosulfan X X X Acutely toxic, bioaccumulates, endocrine disruptor.", "Global ban 2012 with exemptions until 2017 Insect growth regulator azadirachtin X X X Spinosin spinosad X X Avermectin abamectin X X", "East German Young Pioneers collecting beetles during the war against the potato beetle Bacterial insecticides can be effective if application is targeted towards the vulnerable early-instar larvae.", "Two strains of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis produce toxins that kill the larvae.", "Other forms of pest control, through nonpesticidal management are available.", "Feeding can be inhibited by applying antifeedants, such as fungicides or products derived from Neem , but these may have negative effects on the plants, as well.", "The steam distillate of fresh leaves and flowers of tansy contains high levels of camphor and umbellulone, and these chemicals are strongly repellent to L. decemlineata.", "Beauveria bassiana is a pathogenic fungus that infects a wide range of insect species, including the Colorado potato beetle.", "It has shown to be particularly effective as a biological pesticide for L. decemlineata when used in combination with B. thuringiensis.", "Crop rotation is, however, the most important cultural control of L. decemlineata.", "Rotation may delay the infestation of potatoes and can reduce the build-up of early-season beetle populations because the adults emerging from diapause can only disperse to new food sources by walking.", "One 1984 study showed that rotating potatoes with nonhost plants reduced the density of early-season adults by 95.8%.", "Other cultural controls may be used in combination with crop rotation: Mulching the potato crop with straw early in the growing season may reduce the beetle's ability to locate potato fields, and the mulch creates an environment that favours beetle's predators", "Plastic-lined trenches have been used as pitfall traps to catch the beetles as they move toward a field of potatoes in the spring, exploiting their inability to fly immediately after emergence", "flamethrowers may also be used to kill the beetles when they are visible at the top of the plant's foliage.", "During the Cold War, some countries in the Warsaw Pact claimed that the beetles had been introduced by the CIA in an attempt to reduce food security by destroying the agriculture of the Soviet Union.", "A widespread campaign was launched against the beetles", "posters were put up and school children were mobilized to gather the pests and kill them in benzene or spirit.", "Statue of the Colorado potato beetle in Hedervar, Hungary: It marks the discovery of the beetle at the site in 1947 during the rapid spread of the pest in Europe throughout the 20th century.", "L. decemlineata is an iconic species and has been used as an image on stamps because of its association with the recent history of both North America and Europe.", "For example, in 1956, Romania issued a set of four stamps calling attention to the campaign against insect pests, and it was featured on a 1967 stamp issued in Austria.", "The beetle also appeared on stamps issued in Benin, Tanzania, the United Arab Emirates, and Mozambique.", "Neapolitan mandolins are often called tater bugs, a nickname given by American luthier Orville Gibson, because the shape and stripes of the different color wood strips resemble the back of the Colorado beetle.", "The fans of Alemannia Aachen carry the nickname \" Kartoffelkafer \" , from the German name for the Colorado beetle, because of striped yellow-black jerseys of the team.", "During the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine, the word , from the Ukrainian and Russian term for Colorado beetle, gained popularity among Ukrainians as a derogatory term to describe pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts of Eastern Ukraine.", "The nickname reflects the similarity of black and orange stripes on St. George's ribbons worn by many of the separatists."]}, "Papaver somniferum": {"keywords": ["It is the species of plant from which both opium and poppy seeds are derived and is also a valuable ornamental plant, grown in gardens.", "Its native range is probably the eastern Mediterranean, but is now obscured by ancient introductions and cultivation, being naturalized across much of Europe and Asia.", "This poppy is grown as an agricultural crop on a large scale, for one of three primary purposes.", "The native range of opium poppy is probably the Eastern Mediterranean, but extensive cultivation and introduction of the species throughout Europe since ancient times have obscured its origin.", "It has escaped from cultivation, or has been introduced and become naturalized extensively in all regions of the British Isles, particularly in the south and east and in almost all other countries of the world with suitable, temperate climates.", "The fungal pathogen Peronospora arborescens, the causal agent of downy mildew, occurs preferentially during wet and humid conditions.", "Leaf blight caused by the fungus Helminthosporium papaveris is one of the most destructive poppy diseases worldwide.", "Early sowing of seeds and deep plowing of poppy residues can reduce fungal inoculum during the plant growing season in the following year on neighboring poppy stocks, respectively.", "The insect lives in the soil and migrates in spring to the poppy fields after crop emergence.", "The last step is biological maturity, dry seeds are ripened.", "Due to this fact the competition of weeds is very high in early stages.", "It is very important to control weeds effectively in the first 50 days after sowing.", "Poppies are sought after by gardeners for the vivid coloration of the blooms, the hardiness and reliability of the poppy plants, the exotic chocolate-vegetal fragrance note of some cultivars, and the ease of growing the plants from purchased flats of seedlings or by direct sowing of the seed.", "Poppy seed pods are also sold for dried flower arrangements.", "Though \" opium poppy and poppy straw \" are listed in Schedule II of the United States' Controlled Substances Act, P. somniferum can be grown legally in the United States as a seed crop or ornamental flower.", "During the summer, opium poppies can be seen flowering in gardens throughout North America and Europe, and displays are found in many private plantings, as well as in public botanical and museum gardens such as United States Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden, and North Carolina Botanical Garden.", "It is also prohibited to grow varieties with more than 0.8% of morphine in dry matter of their capsules, excluding research and experimental purposes .", "As the opium poppy is legal for culinary or esthetic reasons, poppies were once grown as a cash crop by farmers in California.", "In northern Burma bans have ended a century-old tradition of growing the opium poppy.", "Evidence of the early domestication of opium poppy has been discovered through small botanical remains found in regions of the Mediterranean and west of the Rhine River, predating circa 5000 BC. These samples found in various Neolithic sites show the incredibly early cultivation and natural spread of the plant throughout western Europe.", "They can be dry roasted and ground to be used in wet curry or dry curry.", "Raw opium contains about 814% morphine by dry weight, or more in high-yield cultivars."], "habitat_section": ["The native range of opium poppy is probably the Eastern Mediterranean, but extensive cultivation and introduction of the species throughout Europe since ancient times have obscured its origin.", "It has escaped from cultivation, or has been introduced and become naturalized extensively in all regions of the British Isles, particularly in the south and east and in almost all other countries of the world with suitable, temperate climates."], "random_sentences": ["Papaver somniferum, commonly known as the opium poppy or breadseed poppy, is a species of flowering plant in the family Papaveraceae.", "It is the species of plant from which both opium and poppy seeds are derived and is also a valuable ornamental plant, grown in gardens.", "Its native range is probably the eastern Mediterranean, but is now obscured by ancient introductions and cultivation, being naturalized across much of Europe and Asia.", "This poppy is grown as an agricultural crop on a large scale, for one of three primary purposes.", "The first is to produce seeds that are eaten by humans, known commonly as poppy seed.", "The second is to produce opium for use mainly by the pharmaceutical industry.", "The third is to produce other alkaloids, mainly thebaine and oripavine, that are processed by the pharmaceutical industry into drugs such as hydrocodone and oxycodone.", "A comparatively small amount of P. somniferum is also produced commercially for ornamental purposes.", "The common name \" opium poppy \" is increasingly a misnomer as many varieties have been bred that do not produce a significant quantity of opium.", "The cultivar 'Sujata' produces no latex at all.", "Breadseed poppy is more accurate as a common name today because all varieties of P. somniferum produce edible seeds.", "This differentiation has strong implications for legal policy surrounding the growing of this plant.", "Papaver somniferum is an annual herb growing to about tall.", "The plant is strongly glaucous, giving a greyish-green appearance, and the stem and leaves bear a sparse distribution of coarse hairs.", "The large leaves are lobed, the upper stem leaves clasping the stem, All parts of the plant exude white latex when wounded.", "In Australia, plant density for optimal cultivation is about 800,000 per hectare.", "The weed poppy Papaver rhoeas is a similar species.", "The alkaloids are organic nitrogenous compounds, derivatives of secondary metabolism, synthesized through the metabolic pathway of benzylisoquinoline.", "The poppy genome contains 51,213 genes encoding proteins distributed 81.6% in 11 individual chromosomes and 18.4% remaining in unplaced scaffolds.", "In addition, 70.9% of the genome is made up of repetitive elements, of which the most represented are the long terminal repeat retrotransposons.", "This enrichment of genes is related to the maintenance of homeostasis and a positive regulation of transcription.", "The analysis of synergy of the opium poppy reveals traces of segmental duplications 110 million years ago , before the divergence between Papaveraceae and Ranunculaceae, and an event of duplication of the complete genome makes 7.8 MYA.", "The genes are possibly grouped as follows:", "Papaver somniferum was formally described by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in his seminal publication Species Plantarum in 1753 on page 508.", "The native range of opium poppy is probably the Eastern Mediterranean, but extensive cultivation and introduction of the species throughout Europe since ancient times have obscured its origin.", "It has escaped from cultivation, or has been introduced and become naturalized extensively in all regions of the British Isles, particularly in the south and east and in almost all other countries of the world with suitable, temperate climates.", "P. somniferum is susceptible to several fungal, insect and virus infections including seed borne diseases such as downy mildew and root rot.", "The use of pesticides in combination to cultural methods have been considered as major control measures for various poppy diseases.", "The fungal pathogen Peronospora arborescens, the causal agent of downy mildew, occurs preferentially during wet and humid conditions.", "Another downy mildew species, Peronospora somniferi, produces systemic infections leading to stunting and deformation of poppy plants.", "Downy mildew can be controlled preventively at the initial stage of seed development through several fungicide applications.", "Leaf blight caused by the fungus Helminthosporium papaveris is one of the most destructive poppy diseases worldwide.", "The seed-borne fungus causes root rot in young plants and stunted stems in plants at a higher development stage, where leaf spots appear on the leaves and is being transmitted to capsules and seeds.", "Early sowing of seeds and deep plowing of poppy residues can reduce fungal inoculum during the plant growing season in the following year on neighboring poppy stocks, respectively.", "Mosaic diseases in p. somniferum are caused by rattle virus and the Carlavirus.", "In 2006, a novel virus tentatively called \" opium poppy mosaic virus \" from the genus Umbravirus was isolated from p. somniferum containing leaf mosaic and mottling symptoms, in New Zealand.", "There are only a few pests that can do harm to P. somniferum.", "Flea beetles perforate the leaves of young plants and aphids suck on the sap of the flower buds.", "The poppy root weevil is another significant pest.", "The insect lives in the soil and migrates in spring to the poppy fields after crop emergence.", "Adults damage the leaves of small plants by eating them.", "Female lay their eggs into the tissue of lower leaves.", "Insect larvae hatch and burrow into the soil to complete their life cycle on the poppy roots as adults.", "In the growth development of P. somniferum, six stages can be distinguished.", "The growth development starts with the growth of the seedlings.", "In a second step the rosette-type leaves and stalks are formed.", "After that budding takes place as a third step.", "The hook stage is followed by flowering.", "Subsequently, technical maturity is reached, which means that the plant is ready for cutting.", "The last step is biological maturity", "The photoperiod seems to be the main determinant of flower development of P. somniferum.", "P. somniferum shows a very slow development in the beginning of its vegetation period.", "Due to this fact the competition of weeds is very high in early stages.", "It is very important to control weeds effectively in the first 50 days after sowing.", "Additionally Papaver somniferum is rather susceptible to herbicides.", "The pre-emergence application of the herbicide chlortoluron has been shown to be effective in reducing weed levels.", "Especially the application of the two herbicides mesotrione and tembotrione has become very popular.", "The combined application of those two herbicides has been shown to be recommendable for effective weed management in Papaver somniferum.", "Papaver somniferum and Papaver rhoeas belong to the same plant family, which impedes the chemical control of this weed species.", "Therefore, weed management represents a big challenge and requires technological knowledge from the farmer.", "In order to increase the efficiency of weed control not only chemical weed control should be applied but also mechanical weed control.", "Live plants and seeds of the opium poppy are widely sold by seed companies and nurseries in most of the western world, including the United States.", "Poppies are sought after by gardeners for the vivid coloration of the blooms, the hardiness and reliability of the poppy plants, the exotic chocolate-vegetal fragrance note of some cultivars, and the ease of growing the plants from purchased flats of seedlings or by direct sowing of the seed.", "Poppy seed pods are also sold for dried flower arrangements.", "Though \" opium poppy and poppy straw \" are listed in Schedule II of the United States' Controlled Substances Act, P. somniferum can be grown legally in the United States as a seed crop or ornamental flower.", "During the summer, opium poppies can be seen flowering in gardens throughout North America and Europe, and displays are found in many private plantings, as well as in public botanical and museum gardens such as United States Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden, and North Carolina Botanical Garden.", "Many countries grow the plants, and some rely heavily on the commercial production of the drug as a major source of income.", "As an additional source of profit, the seeds of the same plants are sold for use in foods, so the cultivation of the plant is a significant source of income.", "This international trade in seeds of P. somniferum was addressed by a UN resolution \" to fight the international trade in illicit opium poppy seeds \" on 28 July 1998.", "Opium poppy fields near Metheringham, Lincolnshire, England In most of Central Europe, poppyseed is commonly used for traditional pastries and cakes, and it is legal to grow poppies throughout the region, although Germany requires a licence.", "Since January 1999 in the Czech Republic, according to the 167/1998 Sb.", "Addictive Substances Act, poppies growing in fields larger than is obliged for reporting to the local Custom Office.", "Extraction of opium from the plants is prohibited by law .", "It is also prohibited to grow varieties with more than 0.8% of morphine in dry matter of their capsules, excluding research and experimental purposes .", "The name Czech blue poppy refers to blue poppy seeds used for food.", "The United Kingdom does not require a licence for opium poppy cultivation, but does for extracting opium for medicinal products.", "In the United States, opium poppies and poppy straw are prohibited.", "As the opium poppy is legal for culinary or esthetic reasons, poppies were once grown as a cash crop by farmers in California.", "The law of poppy cultivation in the United States is somewhat ambiguous.", "The reason for the ambiguity is that the Opium Poppy Control Act of 1942 stated that any opium poppies should be declared illegal, even if the farmers were issued a state permit.", "3 of the Opium Poppy Control Act stated: It shall be unlawful for any person who is not the holder of a license authorizing him to produce the opium poppy, duly issued to him by the Secretary of the Treasury in accordance with the provisions of this Act, to produce the opium poppy, or to permit the production of the opium poppy in or upon any place owned, occupied, used, or controlled by him.", " This led to the Poppy Rebellion, and to the Narcotics Bureau arresting anyone planting opium poppies and forcing the destruction of poppy fields of anyone who defied the prohibition of poppy cultivation.", "Though the press of those days favored the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, the state of California supported the farmers who grew opium poppies for their seeds for uses in foods such as poppyseed muffins.", "Today, this area of law has remained vague and remains somewhat controversial in the United States.", "The Opium Poppy Control Act of 1942 was repealed on 27 October 1970.", "Canada forbids possessing, seeking or obtaining the opium poppy , its preparations, derivatives, alkaloids and salts, although an exception is made for poppyseed.", "In some parts of Australia, P. somniferum is illegal to cultivate, but in Tasmania, some 50% of the world supply is cultivated.", "In New Zealand, it is legal to cultivate the opium poppy as long as it is not used to produce banned drugs.", "In United Arab Emirates the cultivation of the opium poppy is illegal, as is possession of poppyseed.", "At least one man has been imprisoned for possessing poppyseed obtained from a bread roll.", "Burma bans cultivation in certain provinces.", "In northern Burma bans have ended a century-old tradition of growing the opium poppy.", "Between 20,000 and 30,000 former poppy farmers left the Kokang region as a result of the ban in 2002.", "People from the Wa region, where the ban was implemented in 2005, fled to areas where growing opium is still possible.", "In South Korea, the cultivation of the opium poppy is strictly prohibited.", "Use of the opium poppy predates written history.", "The making and use of opium was known to the ancient Minoans.", "Its sap was later named opion by the ancient Greeks.", "The English name is based on the Latin adaptation of the Greek form.", "Evidence of the early domestication of opium poppy has been discovered through small botanical remains found in regions of the Mediterranean and west of the Rhine River, predating circa 5000 BC.", "These samples found in various Neolithic sites show the incredibly early cultivation and natural spread of the plant throughout western Europe.", "Opium was used for treating asthma, stomach illnesses, and bad eyesight.", "Opium became a major colonial commodity, moving legally and illegally through trade networks on the Indian subcontinent, Colonial America, Qing China and others.", "Members of the East India Company saw the opium trade as an investment opportunity beginning in 1683.", "In 1773, the Governor of Bengal established a monopoly on the production of Bengal opium, on behalf of the East India Company administration.", "The cultivation and manufacture of Indian opium was further centralized and controlled through a series of acts issued between 1797 and 1949.", "East India Company merchants balanced an economic deficit from the importation of Chinese tea by selling Indian opium which was smuggled into China in defiance of Qing government bans.", "This trade led to the First and Second Opium Wars.", "Many modern writers, particularly in the 19th century, have written on the opium poppy and its effects, notably Thomas de Quincey in Confessions of an English Opium Eater.", "The French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz used opium for inspiration, subsequently producing his Symphonie Fantastique.", "In this work, a young artist overdoses on opium and experiences a series of visions of his unrequited love.", "In the US, the Drug Enforcement Administration raided Thomas Jefferson's Monticello estate in 1987.", "It removed the poppy plants that had been planted continually there since Jefferson was alive and using opium from them.", "Employees of the foundation also destroyed gift shop items like shirts depicting the poppy and packets of the heirloom seed.", "Dried blue, grey and white poppy seeds used for pastries in Germany Polish makowiec, a nut roll filled with poppy seed paste Poppy seeds from Papaver somniferum are an important food item and the source of poppyseed oil, an edible oil that has many uses.", "The seeds contain very low levels of opiates and the oil extracted from them contains even less.", "Both the oil and the seed residue also have commercial uses.", "The poppy press cake as a residue of the oil pressing can be used as fodder for different animals as e.g., poultry and fancy fowls.", "Especially in the time of the molt of the birds, the cake is nutritive and fits to their special needs.", "Next to the animal fodder, poppy offers other by-products.", "For example, the stem of the plant can be used for energy briquettes and pellets to heat.", "Poppy seeds are used as a food in many cultures.", "They may be used whole by bakers to decorate their products or milled and mixed with sugar as a sweet filling.", "They have a creamy and nut-like flavor, and when used with ground coconut, the seeds provide a unique and flavour-rich curry base.", "They can be dry roasted and ground to be used in wet curry or dry curry.", "When the European Union attempted to ban the cultivation of Papaver somniferum by private individuals on a small scale , citizens in EU countries where poppy seed is eaten heavily, such as countries in the Central-Eastern region, strongly resisted the plan, causing the EU to change course.", "Singapore, UAE, and Saudi Arabia are among nations that ban even having poppy seeds, not just growing the plants for them.", "The UAE has a long prison sentence for anyone possessing poppy seeds.", "Dried poppy seed pods and stems , and seeds The opium poppy, as its name indicates, is the principal source of opium, the dried latex produced by the seed pods.", "Opium contains a class of naturally occurring alkaloids known as opiates, that include morphine, codeine, thebaine, oripavine, papaverine and noscapine.", "The specific epithet somniferum means \" sleep-bringing \" , referring to the sedative properties of some of these opiates.", "The opiate drugs are extracted from opium.", "The latex oozes from incisions made on the green seed pods and is collected once dry.", "Tincture of opium or laudanum, consisting of opium dissolved in alcohol or a mixture of alcohol and water, is one of many unapproved drugs regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration .", "Its marketing and distribution persists because its historical use preceded the Federal Food, Drug", "Tincture of opium B.P., containing 1% w/v of anhydrous morphine, also remains in the British Pharmacopoeia, listed as a Class A substance under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.", "Morphine is the predominant alkaloid found in the cultivated varieties of opium poppy that are used for opium production.", "Other varieties produce minimal opium or none at all, such as the latex-free Sujata type.", "Non-opium cultivars that are planted for drug production feature a high level of thebaine or oripavine.", "Those are refined into drugs like oxycodone.", "Raw opium contains about 814% morphine by dry weight, or more in high-yield cultivars.", "It may be used directly or chemically modified to produce synthetic opioids such as heroin.", "Opium poppies appear on the coat of arms of the Royal College of Anaesthetists."]}}
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2670812_1243240
| 625
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[
"Linaria vulgaris"
] |
{"Linaria vulgaris": {"keywords": ["Linaria vulgaris, the common toadflax, yellow toadflax or butter-and-eggs, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae, native to Europe, Siberia and Central Asia.", "The flowers are similar to those of the snapdragon, long, pale yellow except for the lower tip which is orange, borne in dense terminal racemes from mid summer to mid autumn.", "thumb Pollination by garden bumblebee The plant is widespread on ruderal spots, along roads, in dunes, and on disturbed and cultivated land.", "While most commonly found as a wildflower, toadflax is sometimes cultivated for cut flowers, which are long-lasting in the vase.", "Like snapdragons , they are often grown in children's gardens for the \" snapping \" flowers which can be made to \" talk \" by squeezing them at the base of the corolla.", "The plant requires ample drainage, but is otherwise adaptable to a variety of conditions.", "It has escaped from cultivation in North America where it is common on roadsides and in poor soils, where it has now naturalized in many U.S. states and Canadian provinces.", "For skin diseases and piles, either a leaf tea or an ointment made from the flowers was used.", "Because this plant grows as a weed, it has acquired a large number of local colloquial names, including brideweed, bridewort, butter and eggs , butter haycocks, bread and butter, bunny haycocks, bunny mouths, calf's snout, Continental weed, dead men's bones, devil's flax, devil's flower, doggies, dragon bushes, eggs and bacon , eggs and butter, false flax, flaxweed, fluellen , gallweed, gallwort, impudent lawyer, Jacob's ladder , lion's mouth, monkey flower , North American ramsted, rabbit flower, rancid, ransted, snapdragon , wild flax, wild snapdragon, wild tobacco , yellow rod, yellow toadflax."], "habitat_section": ["thumb Pollination by garden bumblebee The plant is widespread on ruderal spots, along roads, in dunes, and on disturbed and cultivated land.", "Because the flower is largely closed by its underlip, pollination requires strong insects such as bees and bumblebees .", "Linaria vulgaris is a food plant for a large number of insects such as the sweet gale moth , mouse moth , silver Y , Calophasia lunula, gorgone checkerspot , toadflax pug , satyr pug , Falseuncaria ruficiliana, bog fritillary , Pyrrhia umbra, brown rustic , and Stenoptilia bipunctidactyla.", "It may be mildly toxic to livestock."], "random_sentences": ["Linaria vulgaris, the common toadflax, yellow toadflax or butter-and-eggs, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae, native to Europe, Siberia and Central Asia.", "It has also been introduced and is now common in North America.", "It is a perennial plant with short spreading roots, erect to decumbent stems high, with fine, threadlike, glaucous blue-green leaves long and broad.", "The flowers are similar to those of the snapdragon, long, pale yellow except for the lower tip which is orange, borne in dense terminal racemes from mid summer to mid autumn.", "The flowers are mostly visited by bumblebees.", "The fruit is a globose capsule long and broad, containing numerous small seeds.", "thumb Pollination by garden bumblebee The plant is widespread on ruderal spots, along roads, in dunes, and on disturbed and cultivated land.", "Because the flower is largely closed by its underlip, pollination requires strong insects such as bees and bumblebees .", "Linaria vulgaris is a food plant for a large number of insects such as the sweet gale moth , mouse moth , silver Y , Calophasia lunula, gorgone checkerspot , toadflax pug , satyr pug , Falseuncaria ruficiliana, bog fritillary , Pyrrhia umbra, brown rustic , and Stenoptilia bipunctidactyla.", "It may be mildly toxic to livestock.", "Seeds of the common toadflax, were identified from the Hoxnian interglacial strata at Clacton.", "Records have also come from the Weichselian glaciation strata in Essex, Huntingdonshire, Surrey and North Wales.", "This evidence makes the native status of the plant in Britain quite evident despite the very strong association that it has today with waste places and man-made habitats.", "While most commonly found as a wildflower, toadflax is sometimes cultivated for cut flowers, which are long-lasting in the vase.", "Like snapdragons , they are often grown in children's gardens for the \" snapping \" flowers which can be made to \" talk \" by squeezing them at the base of the corolla.", "The plant requires ample drainage, but is otherwise adaptable to a variety of conditions.", "It has escaped from cultivation in North America where it is common on roadsides and in poor soils, where it has now naturalized in many U.S. states and Canadian provinces.", "Despite its reputation as a weed, like the dandelion, this plant has also been used in folk medicine for a variety of ailments.", "A tea made from the leaves was taken as a laxative and strong diuretic as well as for jaundice, dropsy, and enteritis with drowsiness.", "For skin diseases and piles, either a leaf tea or an ointment made from the flowers was used.", "In addition, a tea made in milk instead of water has been used as an insecticide.", "It is confirmed to have diuretic and fever-reducing properties.", "Linaria acutiloba is a synonym.", "Because this plant grows as a weed, it has acquired a large number of local colloquial names, including brideweed, bridewort, butter and eggs , butter haycocks, bread and butter, bunny haycocks, bunny mouths, calf's snout, Continental weed, dead men's bones, devil's flax, devil's flower, doggies, dragon bushes, eggs and bacon , eggs and butter, false flax, flaxweed, fluellen , gallweed, gallwort, impudent lawyer, Jacob's ladder , lion's mouth, monkey flower , North American ramsted, rabbit flower, rancid, ransted, snapdragon , wild flax, wild snapdragon, wild tobacco , yellow rod, yellow toadflax."]}}
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2790689_1160810
| 1243
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[
"Lonicera caerulea",
"Filipendula ulmaria"
] |
{"Lonicera caerulea": {"keywords": ["Lonicera caerulea, also known by its common names blue honeysuckle , sweetberry honeysuckle, fly honeysuckle , blue-berried honeysuckle, or the honeyberry, is a non-climbing honeysuckle native throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere regions of North America, Europe, and Asia.", "Haskap is a deciduous shrub growing to tall.", "The plant is winter-hardy and can tolerate temperatures below .", "Haskap cultivars can survive a large range of soil acidity from 3.9-7.7 , requiring high organic matter, well drained soils, and plentiful sunlight for optimum productivity.", "Lonicera caerulea plants are more tolerant of wet conditions than most fruit species.", "The species is circumpolar, primarily found in or near wetlands of boreal forests in heavy peat soils of North America, Europe, and Asia.", "It also can be found in high-calcium soils, in mountains, and along the coasts of northeastern Asia and northwestern North America.", "Haskap products on retail display in a Japanese market The indigenous peoples of eastern Russia, northern Japan and northern China have long harvested the wild berries, but cultivation efforts are relatively recent, beginning in the Soviet Union in the 1950s.", "The plant is mostly unknown in the Western world, even while some varieties grow in northern Canada and northern United States.", "Powdery mildew is one disease documented to affect Lonicera caerulea, usually after fruit maturity in mid to to late summer."], "habitat_section": ["The species is circumpolar, primarily found in or near wetlands of boreal forests in heavy peat soils of North America, Europe, and Asia.", "It also can be found in high-calcium soils, in mountains, and along the coasts of northeastern Asia and northwestern North America.", "Different varieties are distributed across central and northern Canada, northern United States, northern and eastern Europe, Siberia, middle Asia, and northeastern China."], "random_sentences": ["Lonicera caerulea, also known by its common names blue honeysuckle .", " , sweetberry honeysuckle.", " fly honeysuckle .", " , blue-berried honeysuckle.", " or the honeyberry.", " is a non-climbing honeysuckle native throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere regions of North America, Europe, and Asia.", "The plant or its fruit has also come to be called haskap, derived from its name in the language of the native Ainu people of Hokkaido, Japan.", "Haskap is a deciduous shrub growing to tall.", "The leaves are opposite, oval, long and broad, greyish green, with a slightly waxy texture.", "The flowers are yellowish-white, 1216 mm long, with five equal lobes", "they are produced in pairs on the shoots.", "The fruit is an edible, blue berry, somewhat rectangular in shape weighing , and about in diameter.", "The plant is winter-hardy and can tolerate temperatures below .", "Each berry has approximately 20 seeds that resemble tomato seeds based on their size and shape, but the seeds are not noticeable during chewing.", "Haskap cultivars can survive a large range of soil acidity from 3.9-7.7 , requiring high organic matter, well drained soils, and plentiful sunlight for optimum productivity.", "Lonicera caerulea plants are more tolerant of wet conditions than most fruit species.", "The species is circumpolar, primarily found in or near wetlands of boreal forests in heavy peat soils of North America, Europe, and Asia.", "It also can be found in high-calcium soils, in mountains, and along the coasts of northeastern Asia and northwestern North America.", "Different varieties are distributed across central and northern Canada, northern United States, northern and eastern Europe, Siberia, middle Asia, and northeastern China.", "Haskap berry diversity Haskap berries and leaves The classification within the species is not settled.", "One classification uses nine botanical varieties:", "Improved cultivars include: According to research at the University of Saskatchewan, each variety can be distinguished by the size of berries, taste, and bush dimensions.", "Lonicera caerulea is known by several common names:", "Haskap products on retail display in a Japanese market The indigenous peoples of eastern Russia, northern Japan and northern China have long harvested the wild berries, but cultivation efforts are relatively recent, beginning in the Soviet Union in the 1950s.", "Research into commercial cultivation continued in Hokkaido, Japan in the 1970s.", "The plant is mostly unknown in the Western world, even while some varieties grow in northern Canada and northern United States.", "Haskap variety edulis has been used frequently in breeding efforts, but other varieties have been bred with it to increase productivity and flavor.", "In several haskap breeding programs, the variety emphyllocalyx has been the dominant one used.", "This plant is not affected by many pests and diseases.", "Powdery mildew is one disease documented to affect Lonicera caerulea, usually after fruit maturity in mid", "When the plant is affected, it is common for the leaves to turn white, with brown patches eventually developing.", "Honeysuckle is harvested in late spring or early summer two weeks before strawberries for Russian type varieties, with Japanese types ripening at a similar time to strawberries.", "The berries are ready to harvest when the inner layer is dark purple or blue.", "The outer layer is dark blue and looks ripened, but the inner layer may be green with a sour flavor.", "Two compatible varieties are needed for cross pollination and fruit set.", "In North America, most Russian varieties are adapted to hardiness zones 1 to 4.", "The plants may take three or four years to produce an abundant harvest.", "Average production on a good bush is about , and bushes can maintain productivity for 30 years.", "Honeysuckle can be used in various processed products, such as pastries, jams, juice, ice cream, yogurt, sauces, candies and a wine similar in color and flavor to red grape or cherry wine.", "As a blue pigmented fruit, Lonicera caerulea contains polyphenol compounds, including cyanidin 3-glucoside, cyanidin 3-rutinoside, and peonidin 3-glucoside.", "Other phytochemicals present are proanthocyanidins and organic acids, including a high content of citric acid.", "Over centuries in East Asian countries, Lonicera caerulea has been used for supposed therapeutic applications in traditional medicine."]}, "Filipendula ulmaria": {"keywords": ["Filipendula ulmaria, commonly known as meadowsweet or mead wort, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Rosaceae that grows in damp meadows.", "Meadowsweet has also been referred to as queen of the meadow, pride of the meadow, meadow-wort, meadow queen, lady of the meadow, dollof, meadsweet, and bridewort.", "Meadowsweet has delicate, graceful, creamy-white flowers clustered close together in irregularly-branched cymes, having a very strong, sweet smell redolent of antiseptic.", "They flower from early summer to early autumn and are visited by various types of insects, in particular Musca flies.", "Many insects and fungi cause disease in meadowsweet.", "The meadowsweet rust gall on leaf midrib Meadowsweet leaves are commonly galled by the bright orange-rust fungus Triphragmium ulmariae, which creates swellings and distortions on the stalk and/or midrib.", "The fungus Podosphaera filipendulae causes mildew on the leaves and flower heads, coating them with a white powder.", "The English common name meadowsweet dates from the 16th century.", "An earlier common name dating from the 15th century was 'meadsweet' Meadowsweet is known by many other names.", "In Europe, it took its name \" queen of the meadow \" for the way it can dominate a low-lying, damp meadow.", "Wild meadowsweet in Wharfedale, near Conistone, North Yorkshire, England Meadowsweet is common throughout the British Isles in damp areas and is dominant in fens and wet woods.", "Juncus subnodulosus-Cirsium palustre fen-meadow and Purple moor grass and rush pastures BAP habitat plant associations of Western Europe consistently include this plant.", "The whole plant is a traditional remedy for an acidic stomach, and the fresh root is often used in homeopathic preparations.", "The dried flowers are used in potpourri.", "In 1838, Raffaele Piria obtained salicylic acid from the buds of meadowsweet.", "Thereafter in 1899, scientists at the firm Bayer used salicylic acid derived from meadowsweet to synthesise acetylsalicylic acid , which was named after the old botanical name for meadowsweet, Spiraea ulmaria.", "White-flowered meadowsweet has been found with the cremated remains of three people and at least one animal in a Bronze Age cairn at Fan Foel, Carmarthenshire.", "In Welsh mythology, Gwydion and Math created a woman out of oak blossom, broom, and meadowsweet and named her Blodeuwedd ."], "habitat_section": ["Wild meadowsweet in Wharfedale, near Conistone, North Yorkshire, England Meadowsweet is common throughout the British Isles in damp areas and is dominant in fens and wet woods.", "Juncus subnodulosus-Cirsium palustre fen-meadow and Purple moor grass and rush pastures BAP habitat plant associations of Western Europe consistently include this plant."], "random_sentences": ["Filipendula ulmaria, commonly known as meadowsweet or mead wort, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Rosaceae that grows in damp meadows.", "It is native throughout most of Europe and Western Asia .", "It has been introduced and naturalised in North America.", "Meadowsweet has also been referred to as queen of the meadow, pride of the meadow, meadow-wort, meadow queen, lady of the meadow, dollof, meadsweet, and bridewort.", "left The stems, growing up to 120 cm, are tall, erect and furrowed, reddish to sometimes purple.", "The leaves are dark-green on the upper side and whitish and downy underneath, much divided, interruptedly pinnate, having a few large serrate leaflets and small intermediate ones.", "Terminal leaflets are large, 48 cm long, and three- to five-lobed.", "Meadowsweet has delicate, graceful, creamy-white flowers clustered close together in irregularly-branched cymes, having a very strong, sweet smell redolent of antiseptic.", "They flower from early summer to early autumn and are visited by various types of insects, in particular Musca flies.", "The flowers are small and numerous, they show 5 sepals and 5 petals with 7 to 20 stamens.", "Many insects and fungi cause disease in meadowsweet.", "The meadowsweet rust gall on leaf midrib Meadowsweet leaves are commonly galled by the bright orange-rust fungus Triphragmium ulmariae, which creates swellings and distortions on the stalk and/or midrib.", "The fungus Ramularia ulmariae causes purple blotches on the leaves.", "The fungus Podosphaera filipendulae causes mildew on the leaves and flower heads, coating them with a white powder.", "The midge Dasineura ulmariae causes pinkish-white galls on the leaves that can distort the leaf surface.", "The English common name meadowsweet dates from the 16th century.", "It did not originally mean 'sweet plant of the meadow', but a plant used for sweetening or flavouring mead.", "An earlier common name dating from the 15th century was 'meadsweet' Meadowsweet is known by many other names.", "In Chaucer's The Knight's Tale it is known as meadwort and was one of the ingredients in a drink called \" save \" .", "It was also known as bridewort, because it was strewn in churches for festivals and weddings, and often made into bridal garlands.", "In Europe, it took its name \" queen of the meadow \" for the way it can dominate a low-lying, damp meadow.", "The specific epithet ulmaria means \" elmlike \" , possibly in reference to its individual leaves which resemble those of the elm .", "The generic name, Filipendula, comes from filum, meaning \" thread \" and pendulus, meaning \" hanging \" .", "This is said to describe the slender attachment of root tubers, which hang characteristically on the genus, on fibrous roots.", "Wild meadowsweet in Wharfedale, near Conistone, North Yorkshire, England Meadowsweet is common throughout the British Isles in damp areas and is dominant in fens and wet woods.", "Juncus subnodulosus-Cirsium palustre fen-meadow and Purple moor grass and rush pastures BAP habitat plant associations of Western Europe consistently include this plant.", "The whole herb possesses a pleasant taste and flavour, the green parts having a similar aromatic character to the flowers, hence the use of the plant as a strewing herb, strewn on floors to give the rooms a pleasant aroma, and its use to flavour wine, beer, and many kinds of vinegar.", "The flowers can be added to stewed fruit and jams, giving them a subtle almond flavour.", "Some foragers also use the flowers to flavour desserts such as panna cotta.", "It has many medicinal properties.", "The whole plant is a traditional remedy for an acidic stomach, and the fresh root is often used in homeopathic preparations.", "The dried flowers are used in potpourri.", "It is also a frequently used spice in Scandinavian varieties of mead.", "Chemical constituents include salicin, flavone glycosides, essential oils, and tannins.", "In 1838, Raffaele Piria obtained salicylic acid from the buds of meadowsweet.", "Thereafter in 1899, scientists at the firm Bayer used salicylic acid derived from meadowsweet to synthesise acetylsalicylic acid , which was named after the old botanical name for meadowsweet, Spiraea ulmaria.", "The name then became aspirin.", "A natural black dye can be obtained from the roots by using a copper mordant.", "A tea made from Filipendula ulmaria flowers or leaves has been used in traditional Austrian herbal medicine for the treatment of rheumatism, gout, infections, and fever.", "White-flowered meadowsweet has been found with the cremated remains of three people and at least one animal in a Bronze Age cairn at Fan Foel, Carmarthenshire.", "Similar finds have also been found inside a beaker from Ashgrove, Fife, and a vessel from North Mains, Strathallan.", "These could indicate honey-based mead or flavoured ale, or might suggest that the plant was placed on the grave as a scented flower.", "In Welsh mythology, Gwydion and Math created a woman out of oak blossom, broom, and meadowsweet and named her Blodeuwedd .", "In the 16th century, when it was customary to strew floors with rushes and herbs , it was a favorite of Elizabeth I of England.", "She desired it above all other herbs in her chambers."]}}
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{"Sorbus aucuparia": {"keywords": ["Sorbus aucuparia, commonly called rowan and mountain-ash, is a species of deciduous tree or shrub in the rose family.", "It is a highly variable species, and botanists have used different definitions of the species to include or exclude trees native to certain areas, a recent definition includes trees native to most of Europe and parts of Asia, as well as northern Africa.", "The tree has a slender trunk with smooth bark, a loose and roundish crown, and its leaves are pinnate in pairs of leaflets on a central vein with a terminal leaflet.", "The plant is undemanding and frost hardy and colonizes disrupted and inaccessible places as a short-lived pioneer species.", "It is planted to fortify soil in mountain regions or as an ornamental tree and has several cultivars.", "Sorbus aucuparia occurs as a tree or shrub that grows up to between in height.", "The crown is loose and roundish or irregularly shaped but wide and the plant often grows multiple trunks.", "The bark of a young plant is yellowish gray and gleaming and becomes gray-black with lengthwise cracks in advanced age, it descales in small flakes.", "The plant does not often grow older than 80 years and is one of the shortest-lived trees in temperate climate.", "The flowers have an unpleasant trimethylamine smell.", "The names rowan and mountain ash may be applied to other species in Sorbus subgenus Sorbus, and mountain ash may be used for several other distantly related trees.", "The species is not closely related to either the true ash trees , which also carry pinnate leaves, or the species Eucalyptus regnans, also called mountain ash, native to Tasmania and Victoria in southeastern Australia.", "Growing with Mountain Pine in the Italian Alps Sorbus aucuparia is found in five subspecies.", "It can be found in almost all of Europe and the Caucasus up to Northern Russia and Siberia, but it is not native to Southern Spain, Southern Greece, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, the Azores, and the Faroe Islands.", "The species was introduced as an ornamental species in North America.", "It is widespread from plains to mountains up to the tree line where it grows as the only deciduous tree species among krummholz.", "In the Alps it grows at elevations of up to .", "S. aucuparia appears north of the boreal forest at the arctic tree line, in Norway, it is found up to the 71st parallel north.", "The plant is also resistant to air pollution, wind, and snow pressure.", "It mostly grows on soil that is moderately dry to moderately damp, acidic, low on nutrients, sandy, and loose.", "It often grows in stony soil or clay soil, but also sandy soil or wet peat.", "It can be found in light woodland of all kinds and as a pioneer species over fallen dead trees or in clearcuttings, and at the edge of forests or at the sides of roads.", "The seeds germinate easily, so the plant may appear on inaccessible rock, ruins, branch forks, or on hollow trees.", "In Central Europe it often grows in association with red elderberry, goat willow, Eurasian aspen, and silver birch.", "The main pests for S. aucuparia are the apple fruit moth Argyresthia conjugella and the mountain-ash sawfly Hoplocampa alpina.", "The robust qualities of S. aucuparia make it a source for fruit in harsh mountain climate and Maria Theresa, ruler of the Habsburg monarchy, recommended the planting of the species in 1779.", "Comparison of fruit from an edible cultivar and a roadside tree A more palatable variety, named Sorbus aucuparia var. dulcis Kraetzl, or var. edulis Dieck, or var. moravica Dippel, was first discovered in 1810 near Ostruzna in the Hruby Jesenik mountain range of Northern Moravia and became widespread in Germany and Austria the early 20th century.", "Two widespread cultivars of the Moravian variety are 'Konzentra' and 'Rosina', which were selected beginning in 1946 by the Institut fur Gartenbau Dresden-Pillnitz, an agricultural research institute in Saxony, from 75 specimens found mostly in the Ore Mountains, and made available in 1954.", "In folk medicine they are used as a laxative, against rheumatism and kidney disease, and as a gargled juice against hoarseness.", "It is also used as an ornamental plant in parks, gardens, or as an avenue tree.", "Sheerwater Seedling', an upright and slender cultivar, and 'Wisley Gold' with yellow fruits, have received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "In the Prose Edda, the Norse god Thor saves himself from a rapid river created by the giantess Gjalp by grabbing hold of a rowan, which became known as \" Thor's protection \" .", "In weather lore, a year with plentiful rowan fruit would have a good grain harvest but be followed by a severe winter.", "In Scottish folklore, boughs of rowan were traditionally taken into cattle byres in May to protect livestock from evil, and rowan trees were planted in pastures for similar purposes."], "habitat_section": ["Growing with Mountain Pine in the Italian Alps Sorbus aucuparia is found in five subspecies.", "It can be found in almost all of Europe and the Caucasus up to Northern Russia and Siberia, but it is not native to Southern Spain, Southern Greece, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, the Azores, and the Faroe Islands.", "The species was introduced as an ornamental species in North America.", "It is widespread from plains to mountains up to the tree line where it grows as the only deciduous tree species among krummholz.", "In the Alps it grows at elevations of up to .", "S. aucuparia appears north of the boreal forest at the arctic tree line, in Norway, it is found up to the 71st parallel north.", "It has naturalized in America from Washington to Alaska and eastward in Canada and the northeast of the US very successfully.", "S. aucuparia is an undemanding species and can withstand shade.", "The plant is also resistant to air pollution, wind, and snow pressure.", "It mostly grows on soil that is moderately dry to moderately damp, acidic, low on nutrients, sandy, and loose.", "It often grows in stony soil or clay soil, but also sandy soil or wet peat.", "It can be found in light woodland of all kinds and as a pioneer species over fallen dead trees or in clearcuttings, and at the edge of forests or at the sides of roads.", "The seeds germinate easily, so the plant may appear on inaccessible rock, ruins, branch forks, or on hollow trees.", "The tallest known specimen in Ireland is an tall specimen at Glenstal Abbey, County Limerick.", "Damage caused by game animal The species is pollinated by bees and flies.", "The fruit are eaten by about 60 bird species and several mammals.", "They are liked particularly by thrushes and other songbirds, and are also eaten by cloven-hoofed game, red fox, European badger, dormouse, and squirrel.", "The fruit are eaten by migratory birds in winter, including Bohemian waxwing, spotted nutcracker, and redwing.", "Cloven-hoofed game also excessively browse foliage and bark.", "The plant roots can be found in symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal and less commonly with ectomycorrhizal fungi.", "In Central Europe it often grows in association with red elderberry, goat willow, Eurasian aspen, and silver birch.", "Other species of the genus Sorbus easily hybridize with S. aucuparia and hybrid speciation can result, hybrids include Sorbus hybrida, a small tree with oval serrated leaves and 2 to 3 pairs of leaflets, which is a hybrid with Sorbus intermedia, and S. thuringiaca, a medium-size tree with elongated leaves and 1 to 3 pairs of leaflets that are sometimes fused at the central vein, which is a hybrid with S. aria.", "The main pests for S. aucuparia are the apple fruit moth Argyresthia conjugella and the mountain-ash sawfly Hoplocampa alpina.", "The leaves are not palatable to insects, but are used by insect larvae, including by the moth Venusia cambrica, the case-bearer moth Coleophora anatipennella, and leaf miners of the genus Stigmella.", "The snail Cornu aspersum feeds on the leaves."], "random_sentences": ["Sorbus aucuparia, commonly called rowan and mountain-ash, is a species of deciduous tree or shrub in the rose family.", "It is a highly variable species, and botanists have used different definitions of the species to include or exclude trees native to certain areas", "a recent definition includes trees native to most of Europe and parts of Asia, as well as northern Africa.", "The range extends from Madeira, the British Isles and Iceland to Russia and northern China.", "Unlike many plants with similar distributions, it is not native to Japan.", "The tree has a slender trunk with smooth bark, a loose and roundish crown, and its leaves are pinnate in pairs of leaflets on a central vein with a terminal leaflet.", "It blossoms from May to June in dense corymbs of small yellowish white flowers and develops small red pomes as fruit that ripen from August to October and are eaten by many bird species.", "The plant is undemanding and frost hardy and colonizes disrupted and inaccessible places as a short-lived pioneer species.", "The fruit and foliage have been used in the creation of dishes and beverages, as a folk medicine, and as fodder for livestock.", "Its tough and flexible wood has traditionally been used for woodworking.", "It is planted to fortify soil in mountain regions or as an ornamental tree and has several cultivars.", "Sorbus aucuparia occurs as a tree or shrub that grows up to between in height.", "The crown is loose and roundish or irregularly shaped but wide and the plant often grows multiple trunks.", "A trunk is slender and cylindrical and reaches up to in diameter, and the branches stick out and are slanted upwards.", "The bark of a young plant is yellowish gray and gleaming and becomes gray-black with lengthwise cracks in advanced age", "it descales in small flakes.", "The plant does not often grow older than 80 years and is one of the shortest-lived trees in temperate climate.", "The wood has a wide reddish white sapwood and a light brown to reddish brown heartwood.", "It is diffuse-porous, flexible, elastic, and tough, but not durable, with a density of in a dried state.", "The roots grow wide and deep, and the plant is capable of root sprouting and can regenerate after coppicing.", "The leaves are up to long, wide, and arranged in an alternate leaf pattern on a branch, Leaflets are covered in gray-silvery hairs after sprouting but become mostly bare after they unfold.", "Their upper side is dark green and their underside is a grayish green and felted.", "Young leaflets smell like marzipan when brayed.", "The leaflets are asymmetrical at the bottom.", "The buds are often longer than and have flossy to felted hairs.", "These hairs, which disappear over time, cover dark brown to black bud scales.", "The terminal buds are oval and pointed and larger than axillary buds, which are narrow, oval and pointed, close to the twig, and often curved towards it.", "The corymbs are large, upright, and bulging.", "The flowers are between in diameter and have five small, yellowish green, and triangular sepals that are covered in hairs or bare.", "The five round or oval petals are yellowish white and the flower has up to 25 stamens fused with the corolla to form a hypanthium and an ovary with two to five styles", "the style is fused with the receptacle.", "The flowers have an unpleasant trimethylamine smell.", "Their nectar is high in fructose and glucose.", "A corymb carries 80 to 100 pomes.", "A pome contains a star-shaped ovary with two to five locules each containing one or two flat, narrow, and pointed reddish seeds.", "The species has a chromosome number of 2n34.", "Fossils of Sorbus aucuparia have been described from the fossil flora of Kzlcahamam district in Turkey, which is of early Pliocene age.", "The binomial name Sorbus aucuparia is composed of the Latin words sorbus for service tree and aucuparia, which derives from the words avis for \" bird \" and capere for \" catching \" and describes the use of the fruit of S. aucuparia as bait for fowling.", "The names rowan and mountain ash may be applied to other species in Sorbus subgenus Sorbus, and mountain ash may be used for several other distantly related trees.", "The species is not closely related to either the true ash trees , which also carry pinnate leaves, or the species Eucalyptus regnans, also called mountain ash, native to Tasmania and Victoria in southeastern Australia.", "The common name mountain ash dates from the 16th century.", "It was first used by John Gerard in 1597, translating it directly from the then botanists' Latin Montana fraxinus S. aucuparia was previously categorized as Pyrus aucuparia.", "Sorbus aucuparia L. belongs to Carl Linnaeus.", "Growing with Mountain Pine in the Italian Alps Sorbus aucuparia is found in five subspecies: It can be found in almost all of Europe and the Caucasus up to Northern Russia and Siberia, but it is not native to Southern Spain, Southern Greece, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, the Azores, and the Faroe Islands.", "The species was introduced as an ornamental species in North America.", "It is widespread from plains to mountains up to the tree line where it grows as the only deciduous tree species among krummholz.", "In the Alps it grows at elevations of up to .", "S. aucuparia appears north of the boreal forest at the arctic tree line", "in Norway, it is found up to the 71st parallel north.", "It has naturalized in America from Washington to Alaska and eastward in Canada and the northeast of the US very successfully.", "S. aucuparia is an undemanding species and can withstand shade.", "The plant is also resistant to air pollution, wind, and snow pressure.", "It mostly grows on soil that is moderately dry to moderately damp, acidic, low on nutrients, sandy, and loose.", "It often grows in stony soil or clay soil, but also sandy soil or wet peat.", "It can be found in light woodland of all kinds and as a pioneer species over fallen dead trees or in clearcuttings, and at the edge of forests or at the sides of roads.", "The seeds germinate easily, so the plant may appear on inaccessible rock, ruins, branch forks, or on hollow trees.", "The tallest known specimen in Ireland is an tall specimen at Glenstal Abbey, County Limerick.", "Damage caused by game animal The species is pollinated by bees and flies.", "The fruit are eaten by about 60 bird species and several mammals.", "They are liked particularly by thrushes and other songbirds, and are also eaten by cloven-hoofed game, red fox, European badger, dormouse, and squirrel.", "The fruit are eaten by migratory birds in winter, including Bohemian waxwing, spotted nutcracker, and redwing.", "Cloven-hoofed game also excessively browse foliage and bark.", "The plant roots can be found in symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal and less commonly with ectomycorrhizal fungi.", "In Central Europe it often grows in association with red elderberry, goat willow, Eurasian aspen, and silver birch.", "Other species of the genus Sorbus easily hybridize with S. aucuparia and hybrid speciation can result", "hybrids include Sorbus hybrida, a small tree with oval serrated leaves and 2 to 3 pairs of leaflets, which is a hybrid with Sorbus intermedia, and S. thuringiaca, a medium-size tree with elongated leaves and 1 to 3 pairs of leaflets that are sometimes fused at the central vein, which is a hybrid with S. aria.", "The main pests for S. aucuparia are the apple fruit moth Argyresthia conjugella and the mountain-ash sawfly Hoplocampa alpina.", "The leaves are not palatable to insects, but are used by insect larvae, including by the moth Venusia cambrica, the case-bearer moth Coleophora anatipennella, and leaf miners of the genus Stigmella.", "The snail Cornu aspersum feeds on the leaves.", "The fruit of S. aucuparia were used in the past to lure and catch birds.", "To humans, the fruit are bitter, astringent, laxative, diuretic and a cholagogue.", "They have vitamin C, so they prevent scurvy, but the parasorbic acid irritates the gastric mucosa.", "The fruit contain sorbitol, which can be used as a sugar substitute by diabetics, but its production is no longer relevant.", "Sorbus aucuparia fruits have been used in the traditional Austrian medicine internally for treatment of disorders of the respiratory tract, fever, infections, colds, flu, rheumatism and gout.", "Fresh fruit are usually not tasty, but they can be debittered and made into compote, jelly, jam, a tangy syrup, a tart chutney, or juice, as well as wine and liqueur, or used for tea or to make flour.", "Fruit are served as a side dish to lamb or game.", "The robust qualities of S. aucuparia make it a source for fruit in harsh mountain climate and Maria Theresa, ruler of the Habsburg monarchy, recommended the planting of the species in 1779.", "Comparison of fruit from an edible cultivar and a roadside tree A more palatable variety, named Sorbus aucuparia var. dulcis Kraetzl, or var. edulis Dieck, or var. moravica Dippel, was first discovered in 1810 near Ostruzna in the Hruby Jesenik mountain range of Northern Moravia and became widespread in Germany and Austria the early 20th century.", "Its leaves are larger and pointed, only the front part of the leaflets is serrated, and they have darker bark, larger buds and larger fruit.", "Similar non-bitter varieties found in Southern Russia were first introduced in Central Europe in 1900 as 'Rossica' and 'Rossica Major', which has large fruit up to in diameter.", "Two widespread cultivars of the Moravian variety are 'Konzentra' and 'Rosina', which were selected beginning in 1946 by the Institut fur Gartenbau Dresden-Pillnitz, an agricultural research institute in Saxony, from 75 specimens found mostly in the Ore Mountains, and made available in 1954.", "The two cultivars are self-pollinating, yield fruit early, and the sugar content increases while the acid content decreases as the fruit ripen.", "'Beissneri' is a cultivar with reddish foliage and bark and serrated leaves.", "Other edible varieties originate in and are named after Klosterneuburg, Lower Austria.", "Russian botanist Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin began in 1905 to crossbreed common S. aucuparia with other species to create fruit trees.", "His experiments resulted in the cultivars 'Burka', 'Likjornaja', 'Dessertnaja', 'Granatnaja', 'Rubinovaja', and 'Titan'.", "The leaves were fermented with leaves of sweet gale and oak bark to create herb beer.", "Fruits are eaten as a mash in small amounts against lack of appetite or an upset stomach and stimulate production of gastric acid.", "In folk medicine they are used as a laxative, against rheumatism and kidney disease, and as a gargled juice against hoarseness.", "Freshly cross-cut sorbus aucuparia with visible heart-wood Freshly rip-cut sorbus aucuparia with visible heart-wood The wood is used for cartwright's work, turner's work, and woodcarving.", "The species is planted in mountain ranges to fortify landslides and avalanche zones.", "It is also used as an ornamental plant in parks, gardens, or as an avenue tree.", "Sheerwater Seedling', an upright and slender cultivar, and 'Wisley Gold' with yellow fruits, have received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Cultivars are vegetatively propagated via cuttings, grafting, or shield budding.", "In the Prose Edda, the Norse god Thor saves himself from a rapid river created by the giantess Gjalp by grabbing hold of a rowan, which became known as \" Thor's protection \" .", "In English folklore, twigs of S. aucuparia were believed to ward off evil spirits The plant was called \" the witch \" in England and dowsing rods to find ores were made out of its wood.", "The wooden shafts of forks and other farm implements were constructed from the species to protect farm animals and production from witches' spells.", "In weather lore, a year with plentiful rowan fruit would have a good grain harvest but be followed by a severe winter.", "In Scottish folklore, boughs of rowan were traditionally taken into cattle byres in May to protect livestock from evil, and rowan trees were planted in pastures for similar purposes.", "S. aucuparia is used in the coats of arms of the German municipalities Ebernhahn, Eschenrode, and Hermsdorf, and of the Vysocina Region of the Czech Republic.", "Rowan is part of the coat of arms of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and the logo of both Wigan Athletic and Wigan Warriors."]}}
|
|
2594441_1122352
| 1040
|
[
"Primula veris"
] |
{"Primula veris": {"keywords": ["Primula veris, the cowslip, common cowslip, or cowslip primrose , is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the primrose family Primulaceae.", "The species is native throughout most of temperate Europe and western Asia, and although absent from more northerly areas including much of northwest Scotland, it reappears in northernmost Sutherland and Orkney and in Scandinavia.", "The common name cowslip may derive from the old English for cow dung, probably because the plant was often found growing amongst the manure in cow pastures.", "An alternative derivation simply refers to slippery or boggy ground, again, a typical habitat for this plant.", "Other historical common names include cuy lippe, herb peter, paigle or pagil, peggle, key flower, key of heaven, fairy cups, petty mulleins, crewel, buckles, palsywort, and plumrocks.", "Albrecht Durer, Tuft of Cowslips, 1526, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., NGA 74162 Primula veris is a variable evergreen or semi-evergreen perennial plant growing to tall and broad, with a rosette of leaves 515 cm long and 26 cm broad.", "The deep yellow flowers are produced in spring, in clusters of 1030 blooms together on a single stem.", "Each flower is 915 mm broad.", "Red- and orange-flowered plants occur rarely but can be locally widespread in areas where coloured primula hybrids bloom at the same time as the native cowslip, enabling cross-pollination.", "The cowslip is frequently found on more open ground than the primrose, including open fields, meadows, coastal dunes, and clifftops.", "Additionally the seeds are now often included in wildflower seed mixes used to landscape motorway banks and similar civil engineering earthworks where the plants may be seen in dense stands.", "In cultivation this plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "The dried roots contain significant amounts of triterpene saponins, such as primula acid I/II, while in the flower these constituents are located in the sepals, and the dominating constituents are flavonoids.", "Rare side effects of the saponins can be nausea or diarrhoea while some of the phenolic constituents are possibly responsible for allergic reactions.", "Uses in English cookery include using the flowers to flavor country wine and vinegars, sugaring to be a sweet or eaten as part of a composed salad while the juice of the cowslip is used to prepare tansy for frying.", "This wine \" was more precious than elderberry wine, which was the drink for cold weather, for snow and sleet \" .", "In times when English wines were more used, every housewife in Warwickshire could produce her clear cowslip winethe cowslip is still sold in many markets for this purpose, and little cottage girls still ramble the meadows during April and May in search of itcountry people use it as a salad or boil it for the table."], "habitat_section": ["Primula veris in a meadow.", "The cowslip is frequently found on more open ground than the primrose, including open fields, meadows, coastal dunes, and clifftops.", "The plant suffered a decline due to changing agricultural practices throughout the 1970s and 1980s in Britain.", "It may therefore be rare locally, though where found it may be abundant.", "Additionally the seeds are now often included in wildflower seed mixes used to landscape motorway banks and similar civil engineering earthworks where the plants may be seen in dense stands.", "This practice has led to a revival in its fortunes."], "random_sentences": ["Primula veris, the cowslip, common cowslip, or cowslip primrose (syn.", "Primula officinalis ), is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the primrose family Primulaceae.", "The species is native throughout most of temperate Europe and western Asia, and although absent from more northerly areas including much of northwest Scotland, it reappears in northernmost Sutherland and Orkney and in Scandinavia.", "This species frequently hybridizes with other Primulas such as the common primrose Primula vulgaris to form false oxlip which is often confused with true oxlip , a much rarer plant.", "The common name cowslip may derive from the old English for cow dung, probably because the plant was often found growing amongst the manure in cow pastures.", "An alternative derivation simply refers to slippery or boggy ground", "again, a typical habitat for this plant.", "The name \" cowslop \" derived from Old English still exists in some dialects, but the politer-sounding cowslip became standard in the 16th century.", "The species name veris is the genitive case form of Latin .", "However, primrose P. vulgaris, flowers earlier, from December to May in the British Isles.", "Other historical common names include cuy lippe, herb peter, paigle or pagil, peggle, key flower, key of heaven, fairy cups, petty mulleins, crewel, buckles, palsywort, and plumrocks.", "Flowers Primula veris MHNT altImage of a trust of cowslips, gouache on vellum", "Albrecht Durer, Tuft of Cowslips, 1526, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., NGA 74162 Primula veris is a variable evergreen or semi-evergreen perennial plant growing to tall and broad, with a rosette of leaves 515 cm long and 26 cm broad.", "The deep yellow flowers are produced in spring, in clusters of 1030 blooms together on a single stem.", "Each flower is 915 mm broad.", "Red- and orange-flowered plants occur rarely but can be locally widespread in areas where coloured primula hybrids bloom at the same time as the native cowslip, enabling cross-pollination.", "Primula veris in a meadow.", "The cowslip is frequently found on more open ground than the primrose, including open fields, meadows, coastal dunes, and clifftops.", "The plant suffered a decline due to changing agricultural practices throughout the 1970s and 1980s in Britain.", "It may therefore be rare locally, though where found it may be abundant.", "Additionally the seeds are now often included in wildflower seed mixes used to landscape motorway banks and similar civil engineering earthworks where the plants may be seen in dense stands.", "This practice has led to a revival in its fortunes.", "In cultivation this plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Red-flowered Primula veris plants The cowslip may be confused with the closely related Primula elatior which has a similar general appearance and habitat, although the oxlip has larger, pale yellow flowers more like a primrose, and a corolla tube without folds.", "The roots of Primula veris contain several glycosides of 5-methoxysalicylic methyl ester, such as primeverin and primulaverin.", "In the crude dried root, their phenolic aglycones are responsible for the typical odour reminiscent of methyl salicylate or anethole.", "The dried roots contain significant amounts of triterpene saponins, such as primula acid I/II, while in the flower these constituents are located in the sepals, and the dominating constituents are flavonoids.", "Rare side effects of the saponins can be nausea or diarrhoea while some of the phenolic constituents are possibly responsible for allergic reactions.", "The subspecies macrocalyx, growing in Siberia, contains the phenolic compound riccardin C.", "Cowslip leaves have been traditionally used in Spanish cooking as a salad green.", "Uses in English cookery include using the flowers to flavor country wine and vinegars", "sugaring to be a sweet or eaten as part of a composed salad while the juice of the cowslip is used to prepare tansy for frying.", "The close cousin of the cowslip, the primrose P. vulgaris has often been confused with the cowslip and its uses in cuisine are similar with the addition of its flowers being used as a colouring agent in desserts.", "English children's writer Alison Uttley in her story \" The Country Child \" of family life on an English farm from the perspective of a 9-year-old farmer's daughter Susan describes cowslips among the favourite flowers of her heroine and mentions her participation in preparing them for making cowslip wine, a locally important process.", "After its initial preparation, cowslip wine \" would change to sparkling yellow wine \" offered in \" little fluted glasses \" with a biscuit to important \" morning visitors \" of the farm: such as the curate coming for subscriptions, the local squire and an occasional dealer .", "This wine \" was more precious than elderberry wine, which was the drink for cold weather, for snow and sleet \" .", " In the midland and southern counties of England, a sweet and pleasant wine resembling the muscadel is made from the cowslip flower, and it is one of the most wholesome and pleasant of home-made wines, and slightly narcotic in its effects.", "In times when English wines were more used, every housewife in Warwickshire could produce her clear cowslip winethe cowslip is still sold in many markets for this purpose, and little cottage girls still ramble the meadows during April and May in search of itcountry people use it as a salad or boil it for the table.", " Anne Pratt ", "This herb was already mentioned by Pliny the Elder for its early blooming attributes.", "Species from the genus Primula along with other ritual plants played a significant role in the pharmacy and mythology of the Celtic druids, likely as an ingredient of magical potions to increase the absorption of other herbal constituents.", "In the Middle-Ages it was also known as St. Peter's herb or Petrella and was sought after by Florentine apothecaries.", "Hildegard von Bingen recommended the medicinal parts only for topical use but the leaves were also consumed as food.", "Other common names at the time were 'Herba paralysis', 'Verbascum', primrose, or mullein leaves.", "It was frequently misidentified as or confused with similar species from the genus Primula."]}}
|
|
2675907_1210169
| 1952
|
[
"Lamium galeobdolon"
] |
{"Lamium galeobdolon": {"keywords": ["Lamium galeobdolon, commonly known as yellow archangel, artillery plant, aluminium plant, or yellow weasel-snout, is a widespread wildflower in Europe, and has been introduced elsewhere as a garden plant.", "The flowers are soft yellow and borne in axial clusters, with a prominent 'hood' .", "It spreads easily and so has been commonly used as an ornamental ground cover.", "Yellow archangel is a large-leaved perennial plant with underground runners growing to a height of about .", "The flowers grow in whorls in a terminal spike.", "This, and in particular its large-flowered and even stronger-marked cultivar 'Variegatum', is the taxon most often met with as a garden escapee."], "habitat_section": ["It is native to Europe, and found through Europe and Western Asia.", "An introduced species in the United States, Washington state has declared it a \" noxious weed \" and banned its sale."], "random_sentences": ["Lamium galeobdolon, commonly known as yellow archangel, artillery plant, aluminium plant, or yellow weasel-snout, is a widespread wildflower in Europe, and has been introduced elsewhere as a garden plant.", "It displays the zygomorphic flower morphology, opposite leaves, and square stems typical of the mint family, Lamiaceae.", "The flowers are soft yellow and borne in axial clusters, with a prominent 'hood' .", "It spreads easily and so has been commonly used as an ornamental ground cover.", "It can be invasive in places where it is not native and caution must be taken when planting in these areas.", "Yellow archangel is a large-leaved perennial plant with underground runners growing to a height of about .", "The paired opposite leaves are stalked, broadly ovate with a cordate base and toothed margin.", "The underside of the leaves is often purplish.", "The flowers grow in whorls in a terminal spike.", "The corolla is yellow, long, the petals fused with a long tube and two lips.", "The upper lip is hooded and the lower lip has three similar-sized lobes with the central one being triangular and often streaked with orange.", "There are two short stamens and two long ones.", "The carpels are fused and the fruit is a four-chambered schizocarp.", "There are a number of closely related taxa which hybridize with L. galeobdolon and in some cases are not unequivocally accepted as distinct species but considered subspecies or varieties by many authors.", "Most well known among these is variegated yellow archangel , whose leaves often have variegation, showing as silver patches arranged as a wide semicircle.", "This, and in particular its large-flowered and even stronger-marked cultivar 'Variegatum', is the taxon most often met with as a garden escapee.", "It is native to Europe, and found through Europe and Western Asia.", "An introduced species in the United States, Washington state has declared it a \" noxious weed \" and banned its sale."]}}
|
|
2605114_1107895
| 1243
|
[
"Rupicapra rupicapra"
] |
{"Rupicapra rupicapra": {"keywords": ["The chamois or Alpine chamois is a species of goat-antelope native to mountains in Europe, from west to east, including the Alps, the Dinarides, the Tatra and the Carpathian Mountains, the Balkan Mountains, the RilaRhodope massif, Pindus, the northeastern mountains of Turkey, and the Caucasus.", "The latter is derived from Gaulish camox , itself perhaps borrowing from some Alpine language .", "Rupicapra rupicapra tatrica in the Tatra Mountains The chamois is a very small bovid.", "A fully grown chamois reaches a height of and measures .", "In summer, the fur has a rich brown colour which turns to a light grey in winter.", "The kid is weaned at six months of age and is fully grown by one year of age.", "Chamois eat various types of vegetation, including highland grasses and herbs during the summer and conifers, barks and needles from trees in winter.", "Rupicapra rupicapra carpatica in the Retezat Mountains The chamois is native to the Pyrenees, the mountains of south and central Europe, Turkey, and the Caucasus.", "It lives in precipitous, rugged, rocky terrain at moderately high elevations of up to at least .", "In Europe, the chamois spends the summer months in alpine meadows above the tree line, but moves to elevations of around to spend the winter in pine-dominated forests.", "Alpine chamois arrived in New Zealand in 1907 as a gift from the Austrian Emperor, Franz Joseph I in exchange for specimens of living ferns, rare birds and lizards.", "Mr Albert E.L. Bertling, formerly head keeper of the Zoological Society's Gardens, Regents Park, London, accepted an invitation from the New Zealand Government to deliver a consignment of chamois to the colony.", "In New Zealand, chamois hunting is unrestricted and even encouraged by the Department of Conservation to limit the animal's impact on New Zealand's native alpine flora.", "The tuft of hair from the back of the neck, the gamsbart , is traditionally worn as a decoration on hats throughout the alpine countries."], "habitat_section": ["Rupicapra rupicapra carpatica in the Retezat Mountains The chamois is native to the Pyrenees, the mountains of south and central Europe, Turkey, and the Caucasus.", "It lives in precipitous, rugged, rocky terrain at moderately high elevations of up to at least .", "In Europe, the chamois spends the summer months in alpine meadows above the tree line, but moves to elevations of around to spend the winter in pine-dominated forests."], "random_sentences": ["The chamois or Alpine chamois is a species of goat-antelope native to mountains in Europe, from west to east, including the Alps, the Dinarides, the Tatra and the Carpathian Mountains, the Balkan Mountains, the RilaRhodope massif, Pindus, the northeastern mountains of Turkey, and the Caucasus.", "The chamois has also been introduced to the South Island of New Zealand.", "Some subspecies of chamois are strictly protected in the EU under the European Habitats Directive.", "Chamois herd engraved on reindeer antler from Gourdan grotto, Haute Garonne.", "The English name comes from French .", "The latter is derived from Gaulish camox , itself perhaps borrowing from some Alpine language .", "The Gaulish form also underlies German , , , Italian , Ladin .", "The usual pronunciation for the animal is or , approximating the French pronunciation .", "However, when referring to chamois leather, and in New Zealand often for the animal itself, it is , and sometimes spelt shammy or chamy.", "The plural of chamois is spelled the same as the singular, and it may be pronounced with the final \" s \" sounded.", "However, as with many other quarry species, the plural for the animal is often pronounced the same as the singular.", "The Dutch name for the chamois is , and the male is called a .", "In Afrikaans, the name came to refer to a species of Subsaharan antelope of the genus Oryx, and this meaning of gemsbok has been adopted into English.", "The species R. rupicapra is categorized into seven subspecies: Image Subspecies Distribution R. r. asiatica Turkey R. r. balcanica Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, northern Greece , North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Slovenia R. r. carpatica Romania R. r. cartusiana France R. r. caucasica Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia R. r. rupicapra Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Slovenia, Slovakia R. r. tatrica Slovakia and Poland ", "Rupicapra rupicapra tatrica in the Tatra Mountains The chamois is a very small bovid.", "A fully grown chamois reaches a height of and measures .", "Males, which weigh , are slightly larger than females, which weigh .", "Both males and females have short, straightish horns which are hooked backwards near the tip, the horn of the male being thicker.", "In summer, the fur has a rich brown colour which turns to a light grey in winter.", "Distinct characteristics are white contrasting marks on the sides of the head with pronounced black stripes below the eyes, a white rump and a black stripe along the back.", "Footprint at Rila National Park, Bulgaria, 2014 Chamois in the Gran Paradiso National Park in Italy Female chamois and their young live in herds of up to 15 to 30 individuals", "adult males tend to live solitarily for most of the year.", "During the rut , males engage in fierce battles for the attention of unmated females.", "An impregnated female undergoes a gestation period of 170 days, after which a single kid is usually born in May or early June.", "On rare occasions, twins may be born.", "If a mother is killed, other females in the herd may try to raise the young.", "The kid is weaned at six months of age and is fully grown by one year of age.", "However, the kids do not reach sexual maturity until they are three to four years old, although some females may mate at as early two years old.", "At sexual maturity, young males are forced out of their mother's herds by dominant males , and then wander somewhat nomadically until they can establish themselves as mature breeding specimens at eight to nine years of age.", "Chamois eat various types of vegetation, including highland grasses and herbs during the summer and conifers, barks and needles from trees in winter.", "Primarily diurnal in activity, they often rest around mid-day and may actively forage during moonlit nights.", "Chamois can reach an age of 22 years in captivity, although the average recorded age in the wild ranges from 15 to 17 years.", "Common causes of mortality can include avalanches, epidemics and predation.", "At present, humans are the main predator of chamois.", "In the past, the principal predators were Eurasian lynxes, Persian leopards and gray wolves", "with some predation possibly by brown bears and golden eagles.", "Chamois usually use speed and stealthy evasion to escape predators and can run at and can jump vertically into the air or over a distance of .", "Rupicapra rupicapra carpatica in the Retezat Mountains The chamois is native to the Pyrenees, the mountains of south and central Europe, Turkey, and the Caucasus.", "It lives in precipitous, rugged, rocky terrain at moderately high elevations of up to at least .", "In Europe, the chamois spends the summer months in alpine meadows above the tree line, but moves to elevations of around to spend the winter in pine-dominated forests.", "Alpine chamois arrived in New Zealand in 1907 as a gift from the Austrian Emperor, Franz Joseph I in exchange for specimens of living ferns, rare birds and lizards.", "Mr Albert E.L. Bertling, formerly head keeper of the Zoological Society's Gardens, Regents Park, London, accepted an invitation from the New Zealand Government to deliver a consignment of chamois to the colony.", "They arrived in Wellington, New Zealand, on 23 January 1907, on board the SS Turakina.", "From Wellington the chamois were transhipped to the Manaroa and conveyed to Lyttelton, then by rail to Fairlie in South Canterbury and a four-day horse trek to Mount Cook.", "The first surviving releases were made in the Aoraki / Mount Cook region and these animals gradually spread over much of the South Island.", "In New Zealand, chamois hunting is unrestricted and even encouraged by the Department of Conservation to limit the animal's impact on New Zealand's native alpine flora.", "New Zealand chamois tend to weigh about 20% less than European individuals of the same age, suggesting that food supplies may be limited.", "Chamois on the Piz Beverin mountain, Switzerland", "As their meat is considered tasty, chamois are popular game animals.", "Chamois have two traits that are exploited by hunters: the first is that they are most active in the morning and evening when they feed", "the second is that they tend to look for danger originating from below, which means that a hunter stalking chamois from above is less likely to be observed and more likely to be successful.", "The tuft of hair from the back of the neck, the gamsbart , is traditionally worn as a decoration on hats throughout the alpine countries.", "Chamois leather Chamois leather, traditionally made from the hide of the chamois, is very smooth and absorbent and is favoured in cleaning, buffing, and polishing because it produces no scratching.", "Modern chamois leather may be made from chamois hides, but hides of deer or domestic goats or sheep are commonly used.", "A fabric known as chamois is made variously from cotton flannel, PVA, Viscose, and other materials with similar qualities.", "It is napped to produce a plush surface similar to moleskin or chamois leather."]}}
|
|
2586944_1191598
| 2457
|
[
"Milvus milvus",
"Vulpes vulpes"
] |
{"Milvus milvus": {"keywords": ["The species currently breeds in the Western Palearctic region of Europe and northwest Africa, though it formerly also occurred in northern Iran.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range in western Europe and northwest Africa, but birds from northeastern and Central Europe winter further south and west, reaching south to Turkey.", "The red kite has been known to successfully hybridize with the black kite in captivity where both species were kept together, and in the wild on the Cape Verde Islands and infrequently in other places.", "The red kites on the Cape Verde Islands are quite distinct in morphology, being somewhat intermediate with black kites.", "In some parts of the United Kingdom, red kites are also deliberately fed in domestic gardens, explaining the presence of red kites in urban areas.", "Red kite in flight in Gredos Mountains, Avila, Spain Red kites inhabit broadleaf woodlands, valleys and wetland edges, to .", "They are native to the western Palearctic, with the European population of 19,00025,000 pairs encompassing 95% of its global breeding range.", "It breeds from Spain and Portugal east into central Europe and Ukraine, north to southern Sweden, Latvia and the UK, and south to southern Italy.", "Northern birds move south in winter, mostly staying in the west of the breeding range, but also to eastern Turkey, northern Tunisia and Algeria.", "The main threats to red kites are poisoning, through illegal direct poisoning and indirect poisoning from pesticides, particularly in the wintering ranges in France and Spain, and changes in agricultural practices causing a reduction in food resources.", "The populations of the northern foothills of the Harz Mountains suffered an estimated 50% decline from 1991 to 2001.", "The Balearic Islands population has declined from 41 to 47 breeding pairs in 1993 to just 10 in 2003.", "Shakespeare's King Lear describes his daughter Goneril as a detested kite, and he wrote \" when the kite builds, look to your lesser linen \" in reference to them stealing washing hung out to dry in the nesting season.", "In Northern Ireland, 80 birds from wild stock in Wales were released between 2008 and 2010, and the first successful breeding was recorded in 2010.", "Thirty Spanish birds were introduced into Rockingham Forest near Corby in 2000, and by 2010, the RSPB estimated that over 200 chicks had been reared from the initial release.", "So successful has the reintroduction been that 30 chicks have been transported from Rockingham Forest for release in Cumbria.", "In June 2010, the Forestry Commission North West England announced a three-year project to release 90 red kites in Grizedale Forest, Cumbria under a special licence issued by Natural England.", "In May 2007, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Dick Roche announced an agreement to bring at least 100 birds from Wales to restock the population as part of a 5-year programme in the Wicklow Mountains, similar to the earlier golden eagle reintroduction programme.", "On 22 May 2010, 2 newly hatched red kite chicks were discovered in the Wicklow mountains, bringing the number of chicks hatched since reintroduction to 7.", "Sweden is one location where the red kite seems to be increasing, with around 2,000 pairs in 2009, some of which are overwintering and some flying south to the Mediterranean for the winter.", "The kite is often seen along the roadsides and roaming the open colourful wheat and rapeseed fields of Scania.", "In Switzerland, they are a common sight in all rural areas, excluding the Alps and its foothills."], "habitat_section": ["Red kite in flight in Gredos Mountains, Avila, Spain Red kites inhabit broadleaf woodlands, valleys and wetland edges, to .", "They are native to the western Palearctic, with the European population of 19,00025,000 pairs encompassing 95% of its global breeding range.", "It breeds from Spain and Portugal east into central Europe and Ukraine, north to southern Sweden, Latvia and the UK, and south to southern Italy.", "There is a population in northern Morocco.", "Northern birds move south in winter, mostly staying in the west of the breeding range, but also to eastern Turkey, northern Tunisia and Algeria.", "The three largest populations declined between 1990 and 2000, and overall the species declined by almost 20% over the ten years.", "The main threats to red kites are poisoning, through illegal direct poisoning and indirect poisoning from pesticides, particularly in the wintering ranges in France and Spain, and changes in agricultural practices causing a reduction in food resources.", "Other threats include electrocution, hunting and trapping, deforestation, egg-collection and possibly competition with the generally more successful black kite M. migrans."], "random_sentences": ["Red Kite at Bwlch Nant yr Arian, Wales, a local feeding ground.", "The red kite is a medium-large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as eagles, buzzards, and harriers.", "The species currently breeds in the Western Palearctic region of Europe and northwest Africa, though it formerly also occurred in northern Iran.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range in western Europe and northwest Africa, but birds from northeastern and Central Europe winter further south and west, reaching south to Turkey.", "Vagrants have reached north to Finland and south to Israel, Libya and Gambia.", "The red kite was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Falco milvus.", "The word milvus was the Latin name for the bird.", "In 1799 the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacepede moved the species to the genus Milvus creating the tautonym.", "The subspecies M. m. fasciicauda is almost certainly extinct.", "The genus Milvus contains two other species: the black kite (M.", "migrans) and the yellow-billed kite (M.", "The red kite has been known to successfully hybridize with the black kite in captivity where both species were kept together, and in the wild on the Cape Verde Islands and infrequently in other places.", "The red kites on the Cape Verde Islands are quite distinct in morphology, being somewhat intermediate with black kites.", "The question whether the Cape Verde kite should be considered a distinct species or a red kite subspecies has not been settled.", "A mitochondrial DNA study on museum specimens suggested that Cape Verde birds did not form a monophyletic lineage among or next to red kites.", "This interpretation is problematic: mtDNA analysis is susceptible to hybridization events, the evolutionary history of the Cape Verde population is not known, and the genetic relationship of red kites is confusing, with geographical proximity being no indicator of genetic relatedness and the overall genetic similarity high, perhaps indicating a relict species.", "Given the morphological distinctness of the Cape Verde birds and that the Cape Verde population was isolated from other populations of red kites, it cannot be conclusively resolved as to whether the Cape Verde population was not a distinct subspecies or even species that frequently absorbed stragglers from the migrating European populations into its gene pool.", "The Cape Verde population became effectively extinct since 2000, all surviving birds being hybrids with black kites.", "The English word \" kite \" is from the Old English cyta which is of unknown origin.", "A kite is mentioned by Geoffrey Chaucer's in his Knight's Tale.", "The early fifteenth century Hengwrt manuscript contains the lines: \" Ther cam a kyte, whil t they were so wrothe That bar awey the boon bitwix hem bothe.", "\" The first recorded use of the word \" kite \" for a toy that is attached to a length of string and flown in the air dates from the seventeenth century.", "Leucistic form A red kite skull Red kite, falconry Adlerwarte Obernberg am Inn, Upper Austria Red kites are long with a wingspan", "males weigh , and females .", "It is an elegant bird, soaring on long wings held at a dihedral, and long forked tail, twisting as it changes direction.", "The body, upper tail and wing coverts are rufous.", "The white primary flight feathers contrast with the black wing tips and dark secondaries.", "Apart from the weight difference, the sexes are similar, but juveniles have a buff breast and belly.", "Its call is a thin piping sound, similar to but less mewling than the common buzzard.", "There is a rare white leucistic form accounting for approximately 1% of hatchlings in the Welsh population, but this variation confers a disadvantage in the survival stakes.", "Differences between adults and juveniles", "Adults differ from juveniles in a number of characteristics: These differences hold throughout most of the first year of a bird's life.", "Eggs in the natural history collection of the Museum Wiesbaden, Germany right", "Juveniles at nest, Berlin Usually red kites first breed when they are two years old, although exceptionally they can successfully breed when they are only one year old.", "They are monogamous and the pair-bond in populations is probably maintained during the winter, particularly when the pair remain on their breeding territory.", "For migrant populations the fidelity to a particular nesting site means that the pair-bond is likely to be renewed each breeding season.", "The nest is normally placed in a fork of a large hardwood tree at a height of between above the ground.", "A pair will sometimes use a nest from the previous year and can occasionally occupy an old nest of the common buzzard.", "The nest is built by both sexes.", "The male brings dead twigs in length which are placed by the female.", "The nest is lined with grass and sometimes also with sheep's wool.", "Unlike the black kite, no greenery is added to the nest.", "Both sexes continue to add material to the nest during the incubation and nestling periods.", "Nests vary greatly in size and can become large when the same nest is occupied for several seasons.", "The eggs are laid at three-day intervals.", "The clutch is usually between one and three eggs but four and even five eggs have occasionally been recorded.", "The eggs are non-glossy with a white ground and red-brown spots.", "The average size is with a calculated weight of .", "In Britain and central Europe, laying begins at the end of March but in the Mediterranean area laying begins in early March.", "The eggs are mainly incubated by the female, but the male will relieve her for short periods while she feeds.", "The male will also bring food for the female.", "Incubation starts as soon as the first egg is laid.", "Each egg hatches after 31 to 32 days but as they hatch asynchronously a clutch of three eggs requires 38 days of incubation.", "The chicks are cared for by both parents.", "The female them for the first 14 days while the male brings food to the nest which the female feeds to the chicks.", "Later both parents bring items of food which are placed in the nest to allow the chicks to feed themselves.", "The nestlings begin climbing onto branches around their nest from 45 days but they rarely before 4850 days and sometimes not until they are 6070 days of age.", "The young spend a further 1520 days in the neighbourhood of the nest being fed by their parents.", "Only a single brood is raised each year but if the eggs are lost the female will relay.", "The maximum age recorded is 25 years and 8 months for a ringed bird in Germany.", "The longevity record for Britain and Ireland is 23 years and 10 months for a bird found dead in Wales in 2012.", "Side view of adult, Wales The red kite's diet consists mainly of small mammals such as mice, voles, shrews, young hares and rabbits.", "It feeds on a wide variety of carrion including sheep carcasses and dead game birds.", "Live birds are also taken and occasionally reptiles and amphibians.", "Earthworms form an important part of the diet, especially in spring.", "In some parts of the United Kingdom, red kites are also deliberately fed in domestic gardens, explaining the presence of red kites in urban areas.", "Here, up to 5% of householders have provided supplementary food for red kites, with chicken the predominant meat provided.", "As scavengers, red kites are particularly susceptible to poisoning.", "Illegal poison baits set for foxes or crows are indiscriminate and kill protected birds and other animals.", "There have also been a number of incidents of red kites and other raptors being targeted by wildlife criminals.", "In the United Kingdom, there have been several unusual instances of red kites stealing food from people in a similar manner to gulls.", "One such occurrence took place in Marlow, Buckinghamshire , in which Red Kites swooped down to steal sandwiches from people in one of the town's parks.", "Red kite in flight in Gredos Mountains, Avila, Spain Red kites inhabit broadleaf woodlands, valleys and wetland edges, to .", "They are native to the western Palearctic, with the European population of 19,00025,000 pairs encompassing 95% of its global breeding range.", "It breeds from Spain and Portugal east into central Europe and Ukraine, north to southern Sweden, Latvia and the UK, and south to southern Italy.", "There is a population in northern Morocco.", "Northern birds move south in winter, mostly staying in the west of the breeding range, but also to eastern Turkey, northern Tunisia and Algeria.", "The three largest populations declined between 1990 and 2000, and overall the species declined by almost 20% over the ten years.", "The main threats to red kites are poisoning, through illegal direct poisoning and indirect poisoning from pesticides, particularly in the wintering ranges in France and Spain, and changes in agricultural practices causing a reduction in food resources.", "Other threats include electrocution, hunting and trapping, deforestation, egg-collection and possibly competition with the generally more successful black kite M. migrans.", "Nestling red kites, Barnim, Germany German populations declined by 25%30% between 1991 and 1997, but have remained stable since.", "The populations of the northern foothills of the Harz Mountains suffered an estimated 50% decline from 1991 to 2001.", "In Spain, the species showed an overall decline in breeding population of up to 43% for the period 1994 to 200102, and surveys of wintering birds in 200304 suggest a similarly large decline in core wintering areas.", "The Balearic Islands population has declined from 41 to 47 breeding pairs in 1993 to just 10 in 2003.", "In France, breeding populations have decreased in the northeast, but seem to be stable in southwest and central France and Corsica.", "Populations elsewhere are stable or undergoing increases.", "In Sweden, the species has increased from 30 to 50 pairs in the 1970s to 1,200 breeding pairs in 2003.", "In Switzerland, populations increased during the 1990s, and have stabilised.", "Red kite, Gigrin Farm, Wales Red kites at the feeding station, Laurieston, Scotland.", "In the United Kingdom, red kites were ubiquitous scavengers that lived on carrion and rubbish.", "Shakespeare's King Lear describes his daughter Goneril as a detested kite, and he wrote \" when the kite builds, look to your lesser linen \" in reference to them stealing washing hung out to dry in the nesting season.", "In the mid-15th century, King James II of Scotland decreed that they should be \" killed wherever possible \" , but they remained protected in England and Wales for the next 100 years as they kept the streets free of carrion and rotting food.", "Under Tudor \" vermin laws \" many creatures were seen as competitors for the produce of the countryside and bounties were paid by the parish for their carcasses.", "By the 20th century, the breeding population was restricted to a handful of pairs in South Wales, but recently the Welsh population has been supplemented by re-introductions in England and Scotland.", "In 2004, from 375 occupied territories identified, at least 216 pairs were thought to have hatched eggs and 200 pairs reared at least 286 young.", "In 1989, six Swedish birds were released at a site in north Scotland and four Swedish and one Welsh bird in Buckinghamshire.", "Altogether, 93 birds of Swedish and Spanish origin were released at each of the sites.", "In the second stage of reintroduction in 1995 and 1996, further birds were brought from Germany to populate areas of Dumfries and Galloway.", "Between 2004 and 2006, 94 birds were brought from the Chilterns and introduced into the Derwent Valley in north East England.", "In Northern Ireland, 80 birds from wild stock in Wales were released between 2008 and 2010, and the first successful breeding was recorded in 2010.", "The reintroductions in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty have been a success.", "Between 1989 and 1993, 90 birds were released there and by 2002, 139 pairs were breeding.", "They can commonly be seen taking advantage of thermals from the M40 motorway.", "Another successful reintroduction has been in Northamptonshire, which has become a stronghold for the red kite.", "Thirty Spanish birds were introduced into Rockingham Forest near Corby in 2000, and by 2010, the RSPB estimated that over 200 chicks had been reared from the initial release.", "So successful has the reintroduction been that 30 chicks have been transported from Rockingham Forest for release in Cumbria.", "From the Chilterns they have spread as far east as Essex and can be seen over Harlow.", "To the west they have recently spread along the M4 as far as the Cotswold Edge overlooking the Severn near Bristol.", "A sighting of the first red kite in London for 150 years was reported in The Independent newspaper in January 2006 and in June of that year, the UK-based Northern Kites Project reported that kites had bred in the Derwent Valley in and around Rowlands Gill, Tyne and Wear for the first time since the re-introduction.", "In 1999, the red kite was named 'Bird of the Century' by the British Trust for Ornithology.", "According to the Welsh Kite Trust, it has been voted \" Wales's favourite bird \" .", "In June 2010, the Forestry Commission North West England announced a three-year project to release 90 red kites in Grizedale Forest, Cumbria under a special licence issued by Natural England.", "The Grizedale programme was the ninth reintroduction of red kites into different regions of the UK and the final re-introduction phase in England.", "The stated aims of the Grizedale project were: As of July 2011, non-breeding birds are regularly seen in all parts of Britain, and the number of breeding pairs is too large for the RSPB to continue to survey them on an annual basis.", "Red kites were extinct in Ireland by the middle nineteenth century, due to persecution, poisoning and woodland clearance.", "In May 2007, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Dick Roche announced an agreement to bring at least 100 birds from Wales to restock the population as part of a 5-year programme in the Wicklow Mountains, similar to the earlier golden eagle reintroduction programme.", "On 19 July 2007, the first thirty red kites were released in County Wicklow.", "On 22 May 2010, 2 newly hatched red kite chicks were discovered in the Wicklow mountains, bringing the number of chicks hatched since reintroduction to 7.", "Sweden is one location where the red kite seems to be increasing, with around 2,000 pairs in 2009, some of which are overwintering and some flying south to the Mediterranean for the winter.", "The red kite is the landscape bird of Scania, and the coat of arms of the municipality of Tomelilla.", "The kite is often seen along the roadsides and roaming the open colourful wheat and rapeseed fields of Scania.", "Populations and trends by country", "A young red kite in Cookham, Berkshire.", "The following figures have been collated from various sources.", "They cover most of the countries in which red kites are believed to have bred.", "All information must be referenced A short video on Red Kite feeding at Bwlch Nant yr Arian visitor centre in Ceredigion, Wales One of the best places to see the red kite in Scandinavia is Scania in southern Sweden.", "It may be observed in one of its breeding locations such as the Kullaberg Nature Preserve near Molle.", "In Switzerland, they are a common sight in all rural areas, excluding the Alps and its foothills.", "Some of the best places to see them in the United Kingdom are Gigrin Farm near Rhayader, mid Wales, where hundreds are fed by the local farmer as a tourist attraction, a Red Kite Feeding Station at Llanddeusant in the Brecon Beacons, visited daily by over 50 birds, and the Bwlch Nant yr Arian forest visitor centre in Ceredigion where the rare leucistic variant can be seen.", "In the UK, the Oxfordshire part of the Chilterns has many red kites, especially near Henley-on-Thames and Watlington, where they were introduced on John Paul Getty's estate.", "Red Kites are also becoming common in Buckinghamshire, often being seen near Stokenchurch, where a population was released in the 1990s, and Flackwell Heath near High Wycombe.", "They can also be seen around Harewood near Leeds where they were re-introduced in 1999.", "In Ireland they can be best observed at Redcross, near Avoca, County Wicklow."]}, "Vulpes vulpes": {"keywords": ["the large northern foxes and the small, basal southern grey desert foxes of Asia and North Africa.", "Although the Arctic fox has a small native population in northern Scandinavia, and while the corsac fox's range extends into European Russia, the red fox is the only fox native to Western Europe, and so is simply called \" the fox \" in colloquial British English.", "In the far north, red fox fossils have been found in Sangamonian Stage deposits in the Fairbanks District and Medicine Hat.", "Although they ranged far south during the Wisconsinan, the onset of warm conditions shrank their range toward the north, and they have only recently reclaimed their former American ranges because of human-induced environmental changes.", "In addition, no evidence is seen of interbreeding of eastern American red foxes in California with the montane Sierra Nevada red fox or other populations in the Intermountain West .", "The tail, which is longer than half the body length is fluffy and reaches the ground when in a standing position.", "A red fox in its winter coat in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado U.S.A. The winter fur is dense, soft, silky and relatively long.", "The remaining lower surface of the body is dark, brown or reddish.", "The anal sacs act as fermentation chambers in which aerobic and anaerobic bacteria convert sebum into odorous compounds, including aliphatic acids.", "Its range covers nearly including as far north as the Arctic Circle.", "It occurs all across Europe, in Africa north of the Sahara Desert, throughout Asia apart from extreme Southeast Asia, and across North America apart from most of the southwestern United States and Mexico.", "It is absent in Greenland, Iceland, the Arctic islands, the most northern parts of central Siberia, and in extreme deserts.", "The red fox has been implicated in the extinction or decline of several native Australian species, particularly those of the family Potoroidae, including the desert rat-kangaroo.", "The spread of red foxes across the southern part of the continent has coincided with the spread of rabbits in Australia, and corresponds with declines in the distribution of several medium-sized ground-dwelling mammals, including brush-tailed bettongs, burrowing bettongs, rufous bettongs, bilbys, numbats, bridled nail-tail wallabies and quokkas.", "According to the Tasmanian government, red foxes were accidentally introduced to the previously fox-free island of Tasmania in 1999 or 2000, posing a significant threat to native wildlife, including the eastern bettong, and an eradication program was initiated, conducted by the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries and Water.", "A pair of European foxes at the British Wildlife Centre, Surrey, England Red fox pressed against the trunk of a pine tree in Ilmatsalu, Estonia A pregnant red fox in the Abruzzo National Park, Italy .", "Side and above view of a red fox den Outside the breeding season, most red foxes favour living in the open, in densely vegetated areas, though they may enter burrows to escape bad weather.", "A pair of Wasatch Mountains foxes squabbling Red foxes have a wide vocal range, and produce different sounds spanning five octaves, which grade into each other.", "A 20082010 study of 84 red foxes in the Czech Republic and Germany found that successful hunting in long vegetation or under snow appeared to involve an alignment of the red fox with the Earth's magnetic field.", "Arctic foxes generally escape competition from red foxes by living farther north, where food is too scarce to support the larger-bodied red species.", "Although the red species' northern limit is linked to the availability of food, the Arctic species' southern range is limited by the presence of the former.", "Red and Arctic foxes were both introduced to almost every island from the Aleutian Islands to the Alexander Archipelago during the 1830s1930s by fur companies.", "The red foxes invariably displaced the Arctic foxes, with one male red fox having been reported to have killed off all resident Arctic foxes on a small island in 1866.", "In Israel, Blanford's foxes escape competition with red foxes by restricting themselves to rocky cliffs and actively avoiding the open plains inhabited by red foxes.", "However, interactions have become more frequent due to deforestation, allowing red foxes to colonise grey fox-inhabited areas.", "The Eurasian lynxes chase red foxes into deep snow, where their longer legs and larger paws give them an advantage over red foxes, especially when the depth of the snow exceeds one metre.", "A mysterious fatal disease near Lake Sartlan in the Novosibirsk Oblast was noted among local red foxes, but the cause was undetermined.", "Although already native to North America, red foxes from England were imported for sporting purposes to Virginia and Maryland in 1730 by prosperous tobacco planters.", "Red foxes living in southern Alaska's coastal areas and the Aleutian Islands are an exception, as they have extremely coarse pelts that rarely exceed one-third of the price of their northern Alaskan cousins.", "Red foxes may prey on domestic rabbits and guinea pigs if they are kept in open runs or are allowed to range freely in gardens."], "habitat_section": ["Multi-coloured North American red fox The red fox is a wide-ranging species.", "Its range covers nearly including as far north as the Arctic Circle.", "It occurs all across Europe, in Africa north of the Sahara Desert, throughout Asia apart from extreme Southeast Asia, and across North America apart from most of the southwestern United States and Mexico.", "It is absent in Greenland, Iceland, the Arctic islands, the most northern parts of central Siberia, and in extreme deserts.", "It is not present in New Zealand and is classed as a \" prohibited new organism \" under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996, which does not allow import.", "Red foxes either establish stable home ranges within particular areas or are itinerant with no fixed abode.", "They use their urine to mark their territories.", "A male fox raises one hind leg and his urine is sprayed forward in front of him, whereas a female fox squats down so that the urine is sprayed in the ground between the hind legs.", "Urine is also used to mark empty cache sites, used to store found food, as reminders not to waste time investigating them.", "The use of up to 12 different urination postures allows them to precisely control the position of the scent mark.", "Red foxes live in family groups sharing a joint territory.", "In favourable habitats and/or areas with low hunting pressure, subordinate foxes may be present in a range.", "Subordinate foxes may number one or two, sometimes up to eight in one territory.", "These subordinates could be formerly dominant animals, but are mostly young from the previous year, who act as helpers in rearing the breeding vixen's kits.", "Alternatively, their presence has been explained as being in response to temporary surpluses of food unrelated to assisting reproductive success.", "Non-breeding vixens will guard, play, groom, provision and retrieve kits, an example of kin selection.", "Red foxes may leave their families once they reach adulthood if the chances of winning a territory of their own are high.", "If not, they will stay with their parents, at the cost of postponing their own reproduction."], "random_sentences": ["The red fox is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus parts of North Africa.", "It is listed as least concern by the IUCN.", "Its range has increased alongside human expansion, having been introduced to Australia, where it is considered harmful to native mammals and bird populations.", "Due to its presence in Australia, it is included on the list of the \" world's 100 worst invasive species \" .", "The red fox originated from smaller-sized ancestors from Eurasia during the Middle Villafranchian period, Apart from its large size, the red fox is distinguished from other fox species by its ability to adapt quickly to new environments.", "Despite its name, the species often produces individuals with other colourings, including leucistic and melanistic individuals.", "Forty-five subspecies are currently recognised, which are divided into two categories: the large northern foxes and the small, basal southern grey desert foxes of Asia and North Africa.", "Red foxes are usually together in pairs or small groups consisting of families, such as a mated pair and their young, or a male with several females having kinship ties.", "The young of the mated pair remain with their parents to assist in caring for new kits.", "The species primarily feeds on small rodents, though it may also target rabbits, squirrels, game birds, reptiles, invertebrates Although the red fox tends to kill smaller predators, including other fox species, it is vulnerable to attack from larger predators, such as wolves, coyotes, golden jackals, large predatory birds such as golden eagles and Eurasian eagle owls, and medium- and large-sized felines.", "The species has a long history of association with humans, having been extensively hunted as a pest and furbearer for many centuries, as well as being represented in human folklore and mythology.", "Because of its widespread distribution and large population, the red fox is one of the most important furbearing animals harvested for the fur trade.", "Too small to pose a threat to humans, it has extensively benefited from the presence of human habitation, and has successfully colonised many suburban and urban areas.", "Domestication of the red fox is also underway in Russia, and has resulted in the domesticated red fox.", "Juvenile red foxes are known as kits Males are called tods or dogs, females are called vixens, and young cubs are known as kits.", "Although the Arctic fox has a small native population in northern Scandinavia, and while the corsac fox's range extends into European Russia, the red fox is the only fox native to Western Europe, and so is simply called \" the fox \" in colloquial British English.", "The word \" fox \" comes from Old English, which derived from Proto-Germanic The scientific term vulpes derives from the Latin word for fox, and gives the adjectives vulpine and vulpecular.", "Comparative illustration of skulls of the red fox and Ruppell's fox : note the more developed facial area of the former.", "The red fox is considered a more specialised form of Vulpes than the Afghan, corsac and Bengal foxes in the direction of size and adaptation to carnivory", "the skull displays far fewer neotenous traits than in other species, and its facial area is more developed.", "It is, however, not as adapted for a purely carnivorous diet as the Tibetan fox.", "The species is Eurasian in origin, and may have evolved from either Vulpes alopecoides or the related Chinese V. chikushanensis, both of which lived during the Middle Villafranchian.", "The earliest fossil specimens of V. vulpes were uncovered in Baranya, Hungary dating from 3.4 to 1.8 million years ago.", "The ancestral species was likely smaller than the current one, as the earliest red fox fossils are smaller than modern populations.", "Red foxes colonised the North American continent in two waves: before or during the Illinoian glaciation, and during the Wisconsinan glaciation.", "In the far north, red fox fossils have been found in Sangamonian Stage deposits in the Fairbanks District and Medicine Hat.", "Fossils dating from the Wisconsinan are present in 25 sites in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming.", "Although they ranged far south during the Wisconsinan, the onset of warm conditions shrank their range toward the north, and they have only recently reclaimed their former American ranges because of human-induced environmental changes.", "v. crucigera) were introduced to portions of the United States in the 1900s, recent genetic investigation indicates an absence of European fox haplotypes in any North American populations.", "Also, introduced eastern American red foxes have colonized southern California, the San Joaquin Valley, and San Francisco Bay Area, but appear to have mixed with the Sacramento Valley red fox (V.", "v. patwin) only in a narrow hybrid zone.", "In addition, no evidence is seen of interbreeding of eastern American red foxes in California with the montane Sierra Nevada red fox (V.", "v. necator) or other populations in the Intermountain West .", "Red fox and corsac fox yawning The red fox has an elongated body and relatively short limbs.", "The tail, which is longer than half the body length is fluffy and reaches the ground when in a standing position.", "Their pupils are oval and vertically oriented.", "Vixens normally have four pairs of teats, though vixens with seven, nine, or ten teats are not uncommon.", "The testes of males are smaller than those of Arctic foxes.", "Their skulls are fairly narrow and elongated, with small braincases.", "Their canine teeth are relatively long.", "Sexual dimorphism of the skull is more pronounced than in corsac foxes, with female red foxes tending to have smaller skulls than males, with wider nasal regions and hard palates, as well as having larger canines.", "Their skulls are distinguished from those of dogs by their narrower muzzles, less crowded premolars, more slender canine teeth, and concave rather than convex profiles.", "Red foxes are the largest species of the genus Vulpes.", "However, relative to dimensions, red foxes are much lighter than similarly sized dogs of the genus Canis.", "Their limb bones, for example, weigh 30 percent less per unit area of bone than expected for similarly sized dogs.", "They display significant individual, sexual, age and geographical variation in size.", "On average, adults measure high at the shoulder and in body length with tails measuring .", "The ears measure and the hind feet .", "Weights range from , with vixens typically weighing 1520% less than males.", "The largest red fox on record in Great Britain was a , long male, killed in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in early 2012.", "A red fox in its winter coat in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado U.S.A. The winter fur is dense, soft, silky and relatively long.", "For the northern foxes, the fur is very long, dense and fluffy, but it is shorter, sparser and coarser in southern forms.", "Among northern foxes, the North American varieties generally have the silkiest guard hairs, while most Eurasian red foxes have coarser fur.", "The fur in \" thermal windows \" areas such as the head and the lower legs is kept dense and short all year round, while fur in other areas changes with the seasons.", "The foxes actively control the peripheral vasodilation and peripheral vasoconstriction in these areas to regulate heat loss.", "There are three main colour morphs", "red, silver/black and cross .", "In the typical red morph, their coats are generally bright reddish-rusty with yellowish tints.", "A stripe of weak, diffuse patterns of many brown-reddish-chestnut hairs occurs along the spine.", "Two additional stripes pass down the shoulder blades, which, together with the spinal stripe, form a cross.", "The lower back is often a mottled silvery colour.", "The flanks are lighter coloured than the back, while the chin, lower lips, throat and front of the chest are white.", "The remaining lower surface of the body is dark, brown or reddish.", "During lactation, the belly fur of vixens may turn brick red.", "The upper parts of the limbs are rusty reddish, while the paws are black.", "The frontal part of the face and upper neck is bright brownish-rusty red, while the upper lips are white.", "The backs of the ears are black or brownish-reddish, while the inner surface is whitish.", "The top of the tail is brownish-reddish, but lighter in colour than the back and flanks.", "The underside of the tail is pale grey with a straw-coloured tint.", "A black spot, the location of the supracaudal gland, is usually present at the base of the tail.", "The tip of the tail is white.", "Red foxes have binocular vision, but their sight reacts mainly to movement.", "Their auditory perception is acute, being able to hear black grouse changing roosts at 600 paces, the flight of crows at and the squeaking of mice at about .", "They are capable of locating sounds to within one degree at 7003,000 Hz, though less accurately at higher frequencies.", "Their sense of smell is good, but weaker than that of specialised dogs.", "Red foxes have a pair of anal sacs lined by sebaceous glands, both of which open through a single duct.", "The anal sacs act as fermentation chambers in which aerobic and anaerobic bacteria convert sebum into odorous compounds, including aliphatic acids.", "The oval-shaped caudal gland is long and wide, and reportedly smells of violets.", "The presence of foot glands is equivocal. The interdigital cavities are deep, with a reddish tinge and smell strongly.", "Sebaceous glands are present on the angle of the jaw and mandible.", "Multi-coloured North American red fox The red fox is a wide-ranging species.", "Its range covers nearly including as far north as the Arctic Circle.", "It occurs all across Europe, in Africa north of the Sahara Desert, throughout Asia apart from extreme Southeast Asia, and across North America apart from most of the southwestern United States and Mexico.", "It is absent in Greenland, Iceland, the Arctic islands, the most northern parts of central Siberia, and in extreme deserts.", "It is not present in New Zealand and is classed as a \" prohibited new organism \" under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996, which does not allow import.", "In Australia, estimates in 2012 indicated that there were more than 7.2 million red foxes, with a range extending throughout most of the continental mainland.", "On the mainland, however, the species was successful as an apex predator.", "The fox is generally less common in areas where the dingo is more prevalent, but it has, primarily through its burrowing behaviour, achieved niche differentiation with both the feral dog and the feral cat.", "Consequently, the fox has become one of the continent's most destructive invasive species.", "The red fox has been implicated in the extinction or decline of several native Australian species, particularly those of the family Potoroidae, including the desert rat-kangaroo.", "The spread of red foxes across the southern part of the continent has coincided with the spread of rabbits in Australia, and corresponds with declines in the distribution of several medium-sized ground-dwelling mammals, including brush-tailed bettongs, burrowing bettongs, rufous bettongs, bilbys, numbats, bridled nail-tail wallabies and quokkas.", "Most of those species are now limited to areas where red foxes are absent or rare.", "Local fox eradication programs exist, although elimination has proven difficult due to the fox's denning behaviour and nocturnal hunting, so the focus is on management, including the introduction of state bounties.", "According to the Tasmanian government, red foxes were accidentally introduced to the previously fox-free island of Tasmania in 1999 or 2000, posing a significant threat to native wildlife, including the eastern bettong, and an eradication program was initiated, conducted by the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries and Water.", "The origin of the ichnusae subspecies in Sardinia, Italy is uncertain, as it is absent from Pleistocene deposits in their current homeland.", "It is possible it originated during the Neolithic following its introduction to the island by humans.", "It is likely then that Sardinian fox populations stem from repeated introductions of animals from different localities in the Mediterranean.", "This latter theory may explain the subspecies' phenotypic diversity.", "A pair of European foxes (V.", "v. crucigera) at the British Wildlife Centre, Surrey, England Red fox pressed against the trunk of a pine tree in Ilmatsalu, Estonia A pregnant red fox in the Abruzzo National Park, Italy", "Red foxes either establish stable home ranges within particular areas or are itinerant with no fixed abode.", "They use their urine to mark their territories.", "A male fox raises one hind leg and his urine is sprayed forward in front of him, whereas a female fox squats down so that the urine is sprayed in the ground between the hind legs.", "Urine is also used to mark empty cache sites, used to store found food, as reminders not to waste time investigating them.", "The use of up to 12 different urination postures allows them to precisely control the position of the scent mark.", "Red foxes live in family groups sharing a joint territory.", "In favourable habitats and/or areas with low hunting pressure, subordinate foxes may be present in a range.", "Subordinate foxes may number one or two, sometimes up to eight in one territory.", "These subordinates could be formerly dominant animals, but are mostly young from the previous year, who act as helpers in rearing the breeding vixen's kits.", "Alternatively, their presence has been explained as being in response to temporary surpluses of food unrelated to assisting reproductive success.", "Non-breeding vixens will guard, play, groom, provision and retrieve kits, an example of kin selection.", "Red foxes may leave their families once they reach adulthood if the chances of winning a territory of their own are high.", "If not, they will stay with their parents, at the cost of postponing their own reproduction.", "European fox kit in Oxfordshire Red foxes reproduce once a year in spring.", "Two months prior to oestrus , the reproductive organs of vixens change shape and size.", "By the time they enter their oestrus period, their uterine horns double in size, and their ovaries grow 1.52 times larger.", "Sperm formation in males begins in AugustSeptember, with the testicles attaining their greatest weight in DecemberFebruary.", "The vixen's oestrus period lasts three weeks, during which the dog-foxes mate with the vixens for several days, often in burrows.", "The male's bulbus glandis enlarges during copulation, forming a copulatory tie which may last for more than an hour.", "The gestation period lasts 4958 days.", "Though foxes are largely monogamous, DNA evidence from one population indicated large levels of polygyny, incest and mixed paternity litters.", "Subordinate vixens may become pregnant, but usually fail to whelp, or have their kits killed postpartum by either the dominant female or other subordinates.", "Red fox kit Red fox kits coming out of their den The average litter size consists of four to six kits, though litters of up to 13 kits have occurred.", "Large litters are typical in areas where fox mortality is high.", "Kits are born blind, deaf and toothless, with dark brown fluffy fur.", "At birth, they weigh and measure in body length and in tail length.", "At birth, they are short-legged, large-headed and have broad chests.", "Mothers remain with the kits for 23 weeks, as they are unable to thermoregulate.", "During this period, the fathers or barren vixens feed the mothers.", "Vixens are very protective of their kits, and have been known to even fight off terriers in their defence.", "If the mother dies before the kits are independent, the father takes over as their provider.", "The kits' eyes open after 1315 days, during which time their ear canals open and their upper teeth erupt, with the lower teeth emerging 34 days later.", "Their eyes are initially blue, but change to amber at 45 weeks.", "Coat colour begins to change at three weeks of age, when the black eye streak appears.", "By one month, red and white patches are apparent on their faces.", "During this time, their ears erect and their muzzles elongate.", "Kits begin to leave their dens and experiment with solid food brought by their parents at the age of 34 weeks.", "The lactation period lasts 67 weeks.", "Their woolly coats begin to be coated by shiny guard hairs after 8 weeks.", "By the age of 34 months, the kits are long-legged, narrow-chested and sinewy.", "They reach adult proportions at the age of 67 months.", "Some vixens may reach sexual maturity at the age of 910 months, thus bearing their first litters at one year of age.", "In captivity, their longevity can be as long as 15 years, though in the wild they typically do not survive past 5 years of age.", "Side and above view of a red fox den Outside the breeding season, most red foxes favour living in the open, in densely vegetated areas, though they may enter burrows to escape bad weather.", "v. crucigera) in an inquisitive posture Red fox body language consists of movements of the ears, tail and postures, with their body markings emphasising certain gestures.", "Postures can be divided into aggressive/dominant and fearful/submissive categories.", "Some postures may blend the two together.", "Inquisitive foxes will rotate and flick their ears whilst sniffing.", "Playful individuals will perk their ears and rise on their hind legs.", "Male foxes courting females, or after successfully evicting intruders, will turn their ears outwardly, and raise their tails in a horizontal position, with the tips raised upward.", "When afraid, red foxes grin in submission, arching their backs, curving their bodies, crouching their legs and lashing their tails back and forth with their ears pointing backwards and pressed against their skulls.", "When merely expressing submission to a dominant animal, the posture is similar, but without arching the back or curving the body.", "Submissive foxes will approach dominant animals in a low posture, so that their muzzles reach up in greeting.", "When two evenly matched foxes confront each other over food, they approach each other sideways and push against each other's flanks, betraying a mixture of fear and aggression through lashing tails and arched backs without crouching and pulling their ears back without flattening them against their skulls.", "When launching an assertive attack, red foxes approach directly rather than sideways, with their tails aloft and their ears rotated sideways.", "During such fights, red foxes will stand on each other's upper bodies with their forelegs, using open mouthed threats.", "Such fights typically only occur among juveniles or adults of the same sex.", "A pair of Wasatch Mountains foxes (V.", "v. macroura) squabbling Red foxes have a wide vocal range, and produce different sounds spanning five octaves, which grade into each other.", "Recent analyses identify 12 different sounds produced by adults and 8 by kits.", "The majority of sounds can be divided into \" contact \" and \" interaction \" calls.", "The former vary according to the distance between individuals, while the latter vary according to the level of aggression.", "Another call that does not fit into the two categories is a long, drawn-out, monosyllabic \" waaaaah \" sound.", "As it is commonly heard during the breeding season, it is thought to be emitted by vixens summoning males.", "When danger is detected, foxes emit a monosyllabic bark.", "At close quarters, it is a muffled cough, while at long distances it is sharper.", "Kits make warbling whimpers when nursing, these calls being especially loud when they are dissatisfied.", "Diet, hunting and feeding behaviour", "A red fox with a coypu Red foxes are omnivores with a highly varied diet.", "Research conducted in the former Soviet Union showed red foxes consuming over 300 animal species and a few dozen species of plants.", "They primarily feed on small rodents like voles, mice, ground squirrels, hamsters, gerbils, woodchucks, pocket gophers and deer mice.", "Secondary prey species include birds , leporids, porcupines, raccoons, opossums, reptiles, insects, other invertebrates, flotsam and carrion.", "On very rare occasions, foxes may attack young or small ungulates.", "They typically target mammals up to about in weight, and they require of food daily.", "Red foxes readily eat plant material and in some areas fruit can amount to 100% of their diet in autumn.", "Commonly consumed fruits include blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherries, persimmons, mulberries, apples, plums, grapes and acorns.", "Other plant material includes grasses, sedges and tubers.", "Red foxes are implicated in the predation of game and song birds, hares, rabbits, muskrats and young ungulates, particularly in preserves, reserves and hunting farms where ground-nesting birds are protected and raised, as well as in poultry farms.", "While the popular consensus is that olfaction is very important for hunting, two studies that experimentally investigated the role of olfactory, auditory and visual cues found that visual cues are the most important ones for hunting in red foxes and coyotes.", "Red foxes prefer to hunt in the early morning hours before sunrise and late evening.", "When hunting mouse-like prey, they first pinpoint their prey's location by sound, then leap, sailing high above their quarry, steering in mid-air with their tails, before landing on target up to away.", "They typically only feed on carrion in the late evening hours and at night.", "They are extremely possessive of their food and will defend their catches from even dominant animals.", "Red foxes may occasionally commit acts of surplus killing", "during one breeding season, four red foxes were recorded to have killed around 200 black-headed gulls each, with peaks during dark, windy hours when flying conditions were unfavourable.", "Losses to poultry and penned game birds can be substantial because of this.", "Red foxes seem to dislike the taste of moles, but will nonetheless catch them alive and present them to their kits as playthings.", "A 20082010 study of 84 red foxes in the Czech Republic and Germany found that successful hunting in long vegetation or under snow appeared to involve an alignment of the red fox with the Earth's magnetic field.", "A red fox confronting a grey fox Red foxes typically dominate other fox species.", "Arctic foxes generally escape competition from red foxes by living farther north, where food is too scarce to support the larger-bodied red species.", "Although the red species' northern limit is linked to the availability of food, the Arctic species' southern range is limited by the presence of the former.", "Red and Arctic foxes were both introduced to almost every island from the Aleutian Islands to the Alexander Archipelago during the 1830s1930s by fur companies.", "The red foxes invariably displaced the Arctic foxes, with one male red fox having been reported to have killed off all resident Arctic foxes on a small island in 1866.", "Where they are sympatric, Arctic foxes may also escape competition by feeding on lemmings and flotsam rather than voles, as favoured by red foxes.", "Both species will kill each other's kits, given the opportunity.", "Red foxes are serious competitors of corsac foxes, as they hunt the same prey all year.", "The red species is also stronger, is better adapted to hunting in snow deeper than and is more effective in hunting and catching medium-sized to large rodents.", "Corsac foxes seem to only outcompete red foxes in semi-desert and steppe areas.", "In Israel, Blanford's foxes escape competition with red foxes by restricting themselves to rocky cliffs and actively avoiding the open plains inhabited by red foxes.", "Red foxes dominate kit and swift foxes.", "Kit foxes usually avoid competition with their larger cousins by living in more arid environments, though red foxes have been increasing in ranges formerly occupied by kit foxes due to human-induced environmental changes.", "Red foxes will kill both species and compete with them for food and den sites.", "Grey foxes are exceptional, as they dominate red foxes wherever their ranges meet.", "Historically, interactions between the two species were rare, as grey foxes favoured heavily wooded or semiarid habitats as opposed to the open and mesic ones preferred by red foxes.", "However, interactions have become more frequent due to deforestation, allowing red foxes to colonise grey fox-inhabited areas.", "Wolves may kill and eat red foxes in disputes over carcasses.", "In areas in North America where red fox and coyote populations are sympatric, red fox ranges tend to be located outside coyote territories.", "The principal cause of this separation is believed to be active avoidance of coyotes by the red foxes.", "Interactions between the two species vary in nature, ranging from active antagonism to indifference.", "The majority of aggressive encounters are initiated by coyotes, and there are few reports of red foxes acting aggressively toward coyotes except when attacked or when their kits were approached.", "Foxes and coyotes have sometimes been seen feeding together.", "In Israel, red foxes share their habitat with golden jackals.", "Where their ranges meet, the two canids compete due to near-identical diets.", "Red foxes ignore golden jackal scents or tracks in their territories and avoid close physical proximity with golden jackals themselves.", "In areas where golden jackals become very abundant, the population of red foxes decreases significantly, apparently because of competitive exclusion.", "A golden eagle feeding on a red fox A red fox challenging two Eurasian badgers Red foxes dominate raccoon dogs, sometimes killing their kits or biting adults to death.", "Cases are known of red foxes killing raccoon dogs after entering their dens.", "Both species compete for mouse-like prey.", "This competition reaches a peak during early spring when food is scarce.", "In Tatarstan, red fox predation accounted for 11.1% of deaths among 54 raccoon dogs and amounted to 14.3% of 186 raccoon dog deaths in northwestern Russia.", "Red foxes may kill small mustelids like weasels, pine martens, stoats, kolonoks, polecats and young sables.", "Eurasian badgers may live alongside red foxes in isolated sections of large burrows.", "Wolverines may kill red foxes, often while the latter are sleeping or near carrion.", "Red foxes may compete with striped hyenas on large carcasses.", "Red foxes may give way to striped hyenas on unopened carcasses, as the latter's stronger jaws can easily tear open flesh that is too tough for red foxes.", "Red foxes may harass striped hyenas, using their smaller size and greater speed to avoid the hyena's attacks.", "Sometimes, red foxes seem to deliberately torment striped hyenas even when there is no food at stake.", "Some red foxes may mis-time their attacks and are killed.", "Red fox remains are often found in striped hyena dens and striped hyenas may steal red foxes from traps.", "In Eurasia, red foxes may be preyed upon by leopards, caracals and Eurasian lynxes.", "The Eurasian lynxes chase red foxes into deep snow, where their longer legs and larger paws give them an advantage over red foxes, especially when the depth of the snow exceeds one metre.", "v. crucigera) with mange Red foxes are the most important rabies vector in Europe.", "In London, arthritis is common in foxes, being particularly frequent in the spine.", "Foxes may be infected with leptospirosis and tularemia, though they are not overly susceptible to the latter.", "They may also fall ill from listeriosis and spirochetosis, as well as acting as vectors in spreading erysipelas, brucellosis and tick-borne encephalitis.", "A mysterious fatal disease near Lake Sartlan in the Novosibirsk Oblast was noted among local red foxes, but the cause was undetermined.", "The possibility was considered that it was caused by an acute form of encephalomyelitis, which was first observed in captive-bred silver foxes.", "Individual cases of foxes infected with Yersinia pestis are known.", "Red foxes are not readily prone to infestation with fleas.", "Species like Spilopsyllus cuniculi are probably only caught from the fox's prey species, while others like Archaeopsylla erinacei are caught whilst traveling.", "Fleas that feed on red foxes include Pulex irritans, Ctenocephalides canis and Paraceras melis.", "Ticks such as Ixodes ricinus and I. hexagonus are not uncommon in red foxes, and are typically found on nursing vixens and kits still in their earths.", "The louse Trichodectes vulpis specifically targets red foxes, but is found infrequently.", "The mite Sarcoptes scabiei is the most important cause of mange in red foxes.", "It causes extensive hair loss, starting from the base of the tail and hindfeet, then the rump before moving on to the rest of the body.", "In the final stages of the condition, red foxes can lose most of their fur, 50% of their body weight and may gnaw at infected extremities.", "In the epizootic phase of the disease, it usually takes red foxes four months to die after infection.", "Other endoparasites include Demodex folliculorum, Notoderes, Otodectes cynotis , Linguatula serrata and ringworms.", "Up to 60 helminth species are known to infect captive-bred foxes in fur farms, while 20 are known in the wild.", "Several coccidian species of the genera Isospora and Eimeria are also known to infect them.", "the latter two infect their lungs.", "Capillaria plica infects the red fox's bladder.", "Trichinella spiralis rarely affects them.", "The most common tapeworm species in red foxes are Taenia spiralis and T. pisiformis.", "Others include Echinococcus granulosus and E. multilocularis.", "Eleven trematode species infect red foxes, including Metorchis conjunctus.", "In folklore, religion and mythology", "Reynard the Fox in an 1869 children's book right", "Nine-tailed fox, from the Qing edition of the Shan Hai Jing Red foxes feature prominently in the folklore and mythology of human cultures with which they are sympatric.", "In Greek mythology, the Teumessian fox, or Cadmean vixen, was a gigantic fox that was destined never to be caught.", "The fox was one of the children of Echidna.", "In Celtic mythology, the red fox is a symbolic animal. In the Cotswolds, witches were thought to take the shape of foxes to steal butter from their neighbours.", "In later European folklore, the figure of Reynard the Fox symbolises trickery and deceit.", "He originally appeared as a secondary character in the 1150 poem \" Ysengrimus \" .", "He reappeared in 1175 in Pierre Saint Cloud's Le Roman de Renart, and made his debut in England in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Nun's Priest's Tale.", "Many of Reynard's adventures may stem from actual observations on fox behaviour", "he is an enemy of the wolf and has a fondness for blackberries and grapes.", "Chinese folk tales tell of fox-spirits called huli jing that may have up to nine tails, or kumiho as they are known in Korea.", "In Japanese mythology, the kitsune are fox-like spirits possessing magical abilities that increase with their age and wisdom.", "Foremost among these is the ability to assume human form.", "While some folktales speak of kitsune employing this ability to trick others, other stories portray them as faithful guardians, friends, lovers, and wives.", "In Arab folklore, the fox is considered a cowardly, weak, deceitful, and cunning animal, said to feign death by filling its abdomen with air to appear bloated, then lies on its side, awaiting the approach of unwitting prey.", "The cunning Fox is commonly found in Native American mythology, where it is portrayed as an almost constant companion to Coyote.", "Fox, however, is a deceitful companion that often steals Coyote's food.", "In the Achomawi creation myth, Fox and Coyote are the co-creators of the world, that leave just before the arrival of humans.", "The Yurok tribe believed that Fox, in anger, captured the Sun, and tied him to a hill, causing him to burn a great hole in the ground.", "An Inuit story tells of how Fox, portrayed as a beautiful woman, tricks a hunter into marrying her, only to resume her true form and leave after he offends her.", "A Menominee story tells of how Fox is an untrustworthy friend to Wolf.", "Beagle and Fox by Bruno Liljefors The earliest historical records of fox hunting come from the 4th century BC", "Alexander the Great is known to have hunted foxes and a seal dated from 350 BC depicts a Persian horseman in the process of spearing a fox.", "Xenophon, who viewed hunting as part of a cultured man's education, advocated the killing of foxes as pests, as they distracted hounds from hares.", "The Romans were hunting foxes by AD 80.", "During the Dark Ages in Europe, foxes were considered secondary quarries, but gradually grew in importance.", "Cnut the Great re-classed foxes as Beasts of the Chase, a lower category of quarry than Beasts of Venery.", "Foxes were gradually hunted less as vermin and more as Beasts of the Chase, to the point that by the late 1200s, Edward I had a royal pack of foxhounds and a specialised fox huntsman.", "In this period, foxes were increasingly hunted above ground with hounds, rather than underground with terriers.", "Edward, Second Duke of York assisted the climb of foxes as more prestigious quarries in his The Master of Game.", "By the Renaissance, fox hunting became a traditional sport of the nobility.", "After the English Civil War caused a drop in deer populations, fox hunting grew in popularity.", "By the mid-1600s, Great Britain was divided into fox hunting territories, with the first fox hunting clubs being formed .", "The popularity of fox hunting in Great Britain reached a peak during the 1700s.", "Although already native to North America, red foxes from England were imported for sporting purposes to Virginia and Maryland in 1730 by prosperous tobacco planters.", "These American fox hunters considered the red fox more sporting than the grey fox.", "New Mexico 69 .", "Red fox pelts A red fox in a fur farm in Vora, Finland Red foxes are among the most important fur-bearing animals harvested by the fur trade.", "Their pelts are used for trimmings, scarfs, muffs, jackets and coats.", "They are principally used as trimming for both cloth coats and fur garments, including evening wraps.", "The pelts of silver foxes are popular as capes, while cross foxes are mostly used for scarves and rarely for trimming.", "The number of sold fox scarves exceeds the total number of scarves made from other fur-bearers.", "However, this amount is overshadowed by the total number of red fox pelts used for trimming purposes.", "The silver colour morphs are the most valued by furriers, followed by the cross colour morphs and the red colour morphs, respectively.", "In the early 1900s, over 1,000 American red fox skins were imported to Great Britain annually, while 500,000 were exported annually from Germany and Russia.", "The total worldwide trade of wild red foxes in 198586 was 1,543,995 pelts.", "Red foxes amounted to 45% of U.S. wild-caught pelts worth $50 million.", "Pelt prices are increasing, with 2012 North American wholesale auction prices averaging $39 and 2013 prices averaging $65.78.", "North American red foxes, particularly those of northern Alaska, are the most valued for their fur, as they have guard hairs of a silky texture which, after dressing, allow the wearer unrestricted mobility.", "Red foxes living in southern Alaska's coastal areas and the Aleutian Islands are an exception, as they have extremely coarse pelts that rarely exceed one-third of the price of their northern Alaskan cousins.", "Most European peltries have coarse-textured fur compared to North American varieties.", "The only exceptions are the Nordic and Far Eastern Russian peltries, but they are still inferior to North American peltries in terms of silkiness.", "A carcass of a lamb near a red fox den A red fox in a Birmingham garden investigating a rabbit hutch Red foxes may on occasion prey on lambs.", "Usually, lambs targeted by red foxes tend to be physically weakened specimens, but not always.", "Lambs belonging to small breeds, such as the Scottish Blackface, are more vulnerable than larger breeds, such as the Merino.", "Twins may be more vulnerable to red foxes than singlets, as ewes cannot effectively defend both simultaneously.", "Crossbreeding small, upland ewes with larger, lowland rams can cause difficult and prolonged labour for ewes due to the heaviness of the resulting offspring, thus making the lambs more at risk to red fox predation.", "Lambs born from gimmers are more often killed by red foxes than those of experienced mothers, who stick closer to their young.", "Red foxes may prey on domestic rabbits and guinea pigs if they are kept in open runs or are allowed to range freely in gardens.", "This problem is usually averted by housing them in robust hutches and runs.", "Urban red foxes frequently encounter cats and may feed alongside them.", "In physical confrontations, the cats usually have the upper hand.", "Authenticated cases of red foxes killing cats usually involve kittens.", "Although most red foxes do not prey on cats, some may do so and may treat them more as competitors rather than food.", "A young boy holding a tame red fox kit In their unmodified wild state, red foxes are generally unsuitable as pets.", "Many supposedly abandoned kits are adopted by well-meaning people during the spring period, though it is unlikely that vixens would abandon their young.", "Actual orphans are rare and the ones that are adopted are likely kits that simply strayed from their den sites.", "Kits require almost constant supervision", "when still suckling, they require milk at four-hour intervals day and night.", "Once weaned, they may become destructive to leather objects, furniture and electric cables.", "Though generally friendly toward people when young, captive red foxes become fearful of humans, save for their handlers, once they reach 10 weeks of age.", "They maintain their wild counterparts' strong instinct of concealment and may pose a threat to domestic birds, even when well-fed.", "Although suspicious of strangers, they can form bonds with cats and dogs, even ones bred for fox hunting.", "Tame red foxes were once used to draw ducks close to hunting blinds.", "White to black individual red foxes have been selected and raised on fur farms as \" silver foxes \" .", "In the second half of the 20th century, a lineage of domesticated silver foxes was developed by Russian geneticist Dmitry Belyayev who, over a 40-year period, bred several generations selecting only those individuals that showed the least fear of humans.", "Eventually, Belyayev's team selected only those that showed the most positive response to humans, thus resulting in a population of silver foxes whose behaviour and appearance was significantly changed.", "After about 10 generations of controlled breeding, these foxes no longer showed any fear of humans and often wagged their tails and licked their human caretakers to show affection.", "These behavioural changes were accompanied by physical alterations, which included piebald coats, floppy ears in kits and curled tails, similar to the traits that distinguish domestic dogs from grey wolves."]}}
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"Caltha palustris"
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{"Caltha palustris": {"keywords": ["Caltha palustris, known as marsh-marigold and kingcup, is a small to medium size perennial herbaceous plant of the buttercup family, native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "It flowers between April and August, dependent on altitude and latitude, but occasional flowers may occur at other times.", "Caltha palustris is a high, hairless, fleshy, perennial, herbaceous plant that dies down in autumn and overwinters with buds near the surface of the marshy soil.", "In their youth the leaves are protected by a membranous sheath, that may be up to long in fully grown plants.", "The common marsh-marigold mostly has several flowering stems of up to long, carrying mostly several seated leaflike stipules, although lower ones may be on a short petiole, and between four and six flowers.", "A Caltha palustris flower and bud at the Ljubljana Botanical Garden in Slovenia The generic name Caltha is derived from the Ancient Greek , meaning \" goblet \" , and is said to refer to the shape of the flower.", "These include in addition to the most common two, marsh marigold and kingcup, also brave bassinets, crazy Beth, horse blob, Molly-blob, May blob, mare blob, boots, water boots, meadow-bright, bullflower, meadow buttercup, water buttercup, soldier's buttons, meadow cowslip, water cowslip, publican's cloak, crowfoot, water dragon, drunkards, water goggles, meadow gowan, water gowan, yellow gowan, goldes, golds, goldings, gools, cow lily, marybuds, and publicans-and-sinners.", "Both are herbaceous plants with yellow flowers, but Primula veris is much smaller.", "The species is native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "The marsh-marigold on spring flood plains of the Narew river.", "The marsh-marigold grows in places with oxygen-rich water near the surface of the soil.", "It likes richer soils, but dislikes application of fertilizer and avoids high concentrations of phosphate and ammonium, and is also shy of brackish water.", "The resulting insoluble mineral appears as \" rusty \" flocs on the water soil and the surface of the stems of marsh plants.", "Around the edge of lakes and rivers it grows between reeds, and it can be found in black alder coppices and other regularly flooded and always moist forests.", "It also used to be common on wet meadows, but due to agricultural rationalization it is now limited to ditches.", "It is a component of purple moor grass and rush pastures a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK. It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe.", "In western Europe, the marsh-marigold moth Micropterix calthella bites open the anthers of the marsh-marigold and other plants to eat the pollen.", "The caterpillars that are present in summer and autumn also feed on marsh-marigold, although these are sometimes found on mosses too.", "The seeds also have some spongy tissue that makes them float on water, until they wash up in a location that may be suitable for this species to grow.", "Young leaves or buds should be submerged a few times in fresh boiling water until barely tender, cut into bite-sized pieces, lightly salted, and served with melted butter and vinegar.", "The common marsh marigold is planted as an ornamental throughout temperate regions in the world, and sometimes recommended for low maintenance wildlife gardens.", "The double-flowered cultivar 'Flore Pleno' has won the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "to-day all this young verdure smiled clear in sunlight, transparent emerald and amber gleams played over it and in Thomas Hardy's poem 'Overlooking the River Stour'."], "habitat_section": ["The species is native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "It can be found in much of the northeastern United States.", "The marsh-marigold on spring flood plains of the Narew river.", "The marsh-marigold grows in places with oxygen-rich water near the surface of the soil.", "It likes richer soils, but dislikes application of fertilizer and avoids high concentrations of phosphate and ammonium, and is also shy of brackish water.", "It is often associated with seepage that is rich in iron, because iron ions react with phosphate, thus making it unavailable for plants.", "The resulting insoluble mineral appears as \" rusty \" flocs on the water soil and the surface of the stems of marsh plants.", "Around the edge of lakes and rivers it grows between reeds, and it can be found in black alder coppices and other regularly flooded and always moist forests.", "When it is present it often visually dominates when it is in bloom.", "It also used to be common on wet meadows, but due to agricultural rationalization it is now limited to ditches.", "It is a component of purple moor grass and rush pastures a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK. It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe.", "In western Europe, the marsh-marigold moth Micropterix calthella bites open the anthers of the marsh-marigold and other plants to eat the pollen.", "The caterpillars that are present in summer and autumn also feed on marsh-marigold, although these are sometimes found on mosses too.", "Another visitor of Caltha palustris in western Europe is the leaf beetle Prasocuris phellandrii, which is black with four orange stripes and around cm and eats the sepals.", "Its larvae inhabit the hollow stems of members of the parsley family.", "In the USA two species of leaf beetle can be found on Caltha.", "Plateumaris nitida and Hydrothassa vittata.", "The maggots of some Phytomyza species are miners in Caltha leaves."], "random_sentences": ["Caltha palustris, known as marsh-marigold and kingcup, is a small to medium size perennial herbaceous plant of the buttercup family, native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "It flowers between April and August, dependent on altitude and latitude, but occasional flowers may occur at other times.", "Caltha palustris is a high, hairless, fleshy, perennial, herbaceous plant that dies down in autumn and overwinters with buds near the surface of the marshy soil.", "The plants have many, thick strongly branching roots.", "Its flowering stems are hollow, erect or more or less decumbent.", "The alternate true leaves are in a rosette, each of which consist of a leaf stem that is about four times as long as the kidney-shaped leaf blade, itself between long and wide, with a heart-shaped foot, a blunt tip, and a scalloped to toothed, sometime almost entire margin particularly towards the tip.", "In their youth the leaves are protected by a membranous sheath, that may be up to long in fully grown plants.", "The common marsh-marigold mostly has several flowering stems of up to long, carrying mostly several seated leaflike stipules, although lower ones may be on a short petiole", "and between four and six flowers.", "The flowers are approximately but range between in diameter.", "There are four to nine petal-like, brightly colored , inverted egg-shaped sepals, each about but ranging from long, and about , ranging from wide", "they have a blunt or sometimes acute tip.", "Real petals and nectaries are lacking.", "Between 50 and 120 stamens with flattened yellow filaments and yellow tricolpate or sometimes pantoporate pollen encircle 525 free, flattened, linear-oblong, yellow to green carpels, with a two-lobed, obliquely positioned stigma, and each with many seedbuds.", "This later develops into a seated, funnel-shaped fruit of long and wide, that opens with one suture at the side of the axis and contains 720 ovoid, brown to black seeds of about .", "The oldest description that is generally acknowledged in the botanical literature dates from 1700 under the name Populago by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in", "PA273 part 1 of his Institutiones rei herbariae.", "He distinguished between P. flore major, P. flore minor and P. flore plena, and already says all of these are synonymous to Caltha palustris, without mentioning any previous author.", "As a plant name published before 1 May 1753, Populago is invalid.", "And so is the first description as Caltha palustris by Carl Linnaeus in his Genera Plantarum of 1737.", "But Linnaeus re-describes the species under the same name in Species Plantarum of 1 May 1753, thus providing the correct name.", "A Caltha palustris flower and bud at the Ljubljana Botanical Garden in Slovenia The generic name Caltha is derived from the Ancient Greek , meaning \" goblet \" , and is said to refer to the shape of the flower.", "The species epithet palustris is Latin for \" of the marsh \" and indicates its common habitat.", "In the UK, Caltha palustris is known by a variety of vernacular names, varying by geographical region.", "These include in addition to the most common two, marsh marigold and kingcup, also brave bassinets, crazy Beth, horse blob, Molly-blob, May blob, mare blob, boots, water boots, meadow-bright, bullflower, meadow buttercup, water buttercup, soldier's buttons, meadow cowslip, water cowslip, publican's cloak, crowfoot, water dragon, drunkards, water goggles, meadow gowan, water gowan, yellow gowan, goldes, golds, goldings, gools, cow lily, marybuds, and publicans-and-sinners.", "The common name \" marigold \" refers to its use in medieval churches at Easter as a tribute to the Virgin Mary, as in \" Mary gold \" .", "In North America Caltha palustris is sometimes known as cowslip.", "However, cowslip more often refers to Primula veris, the original plant to go by that name.", "Both are herbaceous plants with yellow flowers, but Primula veris is much smaller.", "Subdivision, synonymy and culture varieties", "White form seen in the Himalayas in Kashmir, India Caltha palustris is a very variable species.", "Since most character states occur in almost any combination, this provides little basis for subdivisions.", "The following varieties are nevertheless widely recognised.", "They are listed with their respective synonyms.", "If an epithet based on the same type specimen is used at different levels, only the use at the highest taxonomic rank is listed, so as C. himalensis is already listed, C. palustris var. himalensis is not.", "Double flowered: \" Flore Pleno \" , \" Multiplex \" , \" Plena \" , \" Semiplena \" .", "The species is native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.", "It can be found in much of the northeastern United States.", "The marsh-marigold on spring flood plains of the Narew river.", "The marsh-marigold grows in places with oxygen-rich water near the surface of the soil.", "It likes richer soils, but dislikes application of fertilizer and avoids high concentrations of phosphate and ammonium, and is also shy of brackish water.", "It is often associated with seepage that is rich in iron, because iron ions react with phosphate, thus making it unavailable for plants.", "The resulting insoluble mineral appears as \" rusty \" flocs on the water soil and the surface of the stems of marsh plants.", "Around the edge of lakes and rivers it grows between reeds, and it can be found in black alder coppices and other regularly flooded and always moist forests.", "When it is present it often visually dominates when it is in bloom.", "It also used to be common on wet meadows, but due to agricultural rationalization it is now limited to ditches.", "It is a component of purple moor grass and rush pastures a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK.", "It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe.", "In western Europe, the marsh-marigold moth Micropterix calthella bites open the anthers of the marsh-marigold and other plants to eat the pollen.", "The caterpillars that are present in summer and autumn also feed on marsh-marigold, although these are sometimes found on mosses too.", "Another visitor of Caltha palustris in western Europe is the leaf beetle Prasocuris phellandrii, which is black with four orange stripes and around cm and eats the sepals.", "Its larvae inhabit the hollow stems of members of the parsley family.", "In the USA two species of leaf beetle can be found on Caltha: Plateumaris nitida and Hydrothassa vittata.", "The maggots of some Phytomyza species are miners in Caltha leaves.", "Caltha palustris pollination by a syrphid fly The flowers produce both nectar and copious amounts of pollen which attract many insect visitors.", "They may be most commonly pollinated by hoverflies .", "In Canada, beetles , thrips , bugs , butterflies , sawflies , bees , ants and flies have been observed to visit the leaves or flowers, many of which were found carrying Caltha pollen.", "In addition to other forms of pollination, this plant is adapted to rain-pollination.", "Caltha palustris is infertile when self-pollinated.", "Rather high fertility in crosses between sibling plants suggest that this phenomenon is genetically regulated by several genes.", "This regulation mechanism also occurs in Ranunculus and as far as known only in these two genera.", "In Caltha palustris up to two hundred seeds may be produced by each flower.", "When the follicles open, they form a \" splash cup \" .", "When a raindrop hits one at the right angle, the walls are shaped such that the seeds are expelled.", "The seeds also have some spongy tissue that makes them float on water, until they wash up in a location that may be suitable for this species to grow.", "The marsh-marigold is affected by the rust species Puccinia calthea and P. calthicola.", "Caltha contains several active substances of which the most important from a toxicological point of view is protoanemonin.", "Larger quantities of the plant may cause convulsions, burning of the throat, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, dizziness and fainting.", "Contact of the skin or mucous membranes with the juices can cause blistering or inflammation, and gastric illness if ingested.", "Younger parts seem to contain less toxics and heating breaks these substances down.", "Small amounts of Caltha in hay do not cause problems when fed to husbandry, but larger quantities lead to gastric illness.", "Additionally, plants that live in raw water may carry toxic organisms which can be neutralized by cooking.", "Early spring greens and buds of Caltha palustris are edible when cooked .", "Young leaves or buds should be submerged a few times in fresh boiling water until barely tender, cut into bite-sized pieces, lightly salted, and served with melted butter and vinegar.", "Very young flowerbuds have been prepared like capers and used as a spice.", "The common marsh marigold is planted as an ornamental throughout temperate regions in the world, and sometimes recommended for low maintenance wildlife gardens.", "The double-flowered cultivar 'Flore Pleno' has won the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Caltha palustris is a plant commonly mentioned in literature, including Shakespeare: :Winking Marybuds begin :To open their golden eyes (Cymbeline, ii.", "It also appears in Charlotte Bronte's Shirley: :They both halted on the green brow of the Common: they looked down on the deep valley robed in May raiment", "on varied meads, some pearled with daisies, and some golden with king-cups: to-day all this young verdure smiled clear in sunlight", "transparent emerald and amber gleams played over it and in Thomas Hardy's poem 'Overlooking the River Stour': :Closed were the kingcups", "and the mead/Dripped in monotonous green,/Though the day's morning sheen/Had shown it golden and honeybee'd.", "Kingcup Cottage by Racey Helps is a children's book which features the plant.", "In Latvia Caltha palustris is also known as , which is also used as a girls name and symbolizes fire.", "The word is made from 2 words and .", "This refers to the burning reaction that some people experience from contact with Caltha sap."]}}
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[
"Turdus merula",
"Turdus philomelos",
"Parus major",
"Milvus milvus",
"Fringilla coelebs",
"Passer domesticus",
"Corvus corax",
"Columba palumbus"
] |
{"Turdus merula": {"keywords": ["This species breeds in woods and gardens, building a neat, cup-shaped nest, bound together with mud.", "Both sexes are territorial on the breeding grounds, with distinctive threat displays, but are more gregarious during migration and in wintering areas.", "Pairs stay in their territory throughout the year where the climate is sufficiently temperate.", "Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the blackbird is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary Islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "It is close in evolutionary terms to the island thrush of Southeast Asia and islands in the southwest Pacific, which probably diverged from T. merula stock fairly recently.", "The ouzel usage survived later in poetry, and still occurs as the name of the closely related ring ouzel , and in water ouzel, an alternative name for the unrelated but superficially similar white-throated dipper and American dipper .", "The common blackbird breeds in temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia.", "Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year.", "Female blackbirds in Scotland and the north of England migrate more in winter than do the males Common over most of its range in woodland, the common blackbird has a preference for deciduous trees with dense undergrowth.", "However, gardens provide the best breeding habitat with up to 7.3 pairs per hectare , with woodland typically holding about a tenth of that density, and open and very built-up habitats even less.", "The common blackbird also lives in parks, gardens and hedgerows.", "The common blackbird occurs at elevations up to in Europe, in North Africa, and at in peninsular India and Sri Lanka, but the large Himalayan subspecies range much higher, with T. m. maximus breeding at and remaining above even in winter.", "Migrants are more gregarious, travelling in small flocks and feeding in loose groups in the wintering grounds.", "In its native Northern Hemisphere range, the first-year male common blackbird of the nominate race may start singing as early as late January in fine weather in order to establish a territory, followed in late March by the adult male.", "In urban and suburban environments with high levels of anthropogenic noise, such as near airports, blackbirds have been observed modifying their song to successfully compensate and compete with the noise, singing for longer periods of time, at a higher volume, and earlier during their area's dawn chorus, when environmental sounds are less prominent.", "It pulls earthworms from the soil, usually finding them by sight, but sometimes by hearing, and roots through leaf litter for other invertebrates.", "Animal prey predominates, and is particularly important during the breeding season, with windfall apples and berries taken more in the autumn and winter.", "The nature of the fruit taken depends on what is locally available, and frequently includes exotics in gardens.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern but there have been local declines, especially on farmland, which may be due to agricultural policies that encouraged farmers to remove hedgerows , and to drain damp grassland and increase the use of pesticides, both of which could have reduced the availability of invertebrate food.", "The common blackbird was introduced to Australia by a bird dealer visiting Melbourne in early 1857, The introduced population in Australia is considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens, including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes.", "It is thought to spread weeds, such as blackberry, and may compete with native birds for food and nesting sites.", "Introduced there along with the song thrush in 1862, it has spread throughout the country up to an elevation of , as well as outlying islands such as the Campbell and Kermadecs.", "It eats a wide range of native and exotic fruit, and makes a major contribution to the development of communities of naturalised woody weeds.", "These communities provide fruit more suited to non-endemic native birds and naturalised birds than to endemic birds."], "habitat_section": ["The common blackbird breeds in temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia.", "It has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.", "Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year.", "Recoveries of blackbirds ringed on the Isle of May show that these birds commonly migrate from southern Norway to Scotland, and some onwards to Ireland.", "Scottish-ringed birds have also been recovered in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.", "Female blackbirds in Scotland and the north of England migrate more in winter than do the males Common over most of its range in woodland, the common blackbird has a preference for deciduous trees with dense undergrowth.", "However, gardens provide the best breeding habitat with up to 7.3 pairs per hectare , with woodland typically holding about a tenth of that density, and open and very built-up habitats even less.", "They are often replaced by the related ring ouzel in areas of higher altitude.", "The common blackbird also lives in parks, gardens and hedgerows.", "The common blackbird occurs at elevations up to in Europe, in North Africa, and at in peninsular India and Sri Lanka, but the large Himalayan subspecies range much higher, with T. m. maximus breeding at and remaining above even in winter.", "However, a 1994 record from Bonavista, Newfoundland, has been accepted as a genuine wild bird, Male blackbird with earthworm The male common blackbird defends its breeding territory, chasing away other males or utilising a \" bow and run \" threat display.", "This consists of a short run, the head first being raised and then bowed with the tail dipped simultaneously.", "If a fight between male blackbirds does occur, it is usually short and the intruder is soon chased away.", "The female blackbird is also aggressive in the spring when it competes with other females for a good nesting territory, and although fights are less frequent, they tend to be more violent.", "As long as winter food is available, both the male and female will remain in the territory throughout the year, although occupying different areas.", "Migrants are more gregarious, travelling in small flocks and feeding in loose groups in the wintering grounds.", "The flight of migrating birds comprises bursts of rapid wing beats interspersed with level or diving movement, and differs from both the normal fast agile flight of this species and the more dipping action of larger thrushes.", "The common blackbird has an extensive range, estimated at 32.4 million square kilometres , and a large population, including an estimated 110 to 174 million individuals in Europe alone.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern but there have been local declines, especially on farmland, which may be due to agricultural policies that encouraged farmers to remove hedgerows , and to drain damp grassland and increase the use of pesticides, both of which could have reduced the availability of invertebrate food.", "The common blackbird was introduced to Australia by a bird dealer visiting Melbourne in early 1857, The introduced population in Australia is considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens, including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes.", "It is thought to spread weeds, such as blackberry, and may compete with native birds for food and nesting sites.", "The introduced common blackbird is, together with the native silvereye , the most widely distributed avian seed disperser in New Zealand.", "Introduced there along with the song thrush in 1862, it has spread throughout the country up to an elevation of , as well as outlying islands such as the Campbell and Kermadecs.", "It eats a wide range of native and exotic fruit, and makes a major contribution to the development of communities of naturalised woody weeds.", "These communities provide fruit more suited to non-endemic native birds and naturalised birds than to endemic birds."], "random_sentences": ["The common blackbird is a species of true thrush.", "It is also called the Eurasian blackbird , or simply the blackbird where this does not lead to confusion with a local species.", "It breeds in Europe, Asiatic Russia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.", "It has a number of subspecies across its large range", "a few of the Asian subspecies are sometimes considered to be full species.", "Depending on latitude, the common blackbird may be resident, partially migratory, or fully migratory.", "The adult male of the common blackbird , which is found throughout most of Europe, is all black except for a yellow eye-ring and bill and has a rich, melodious song", "the adult female and juvenile have mainly dark brown plumage.", "This species breeds in woods and gardens, building a neat, cup-shaped nest, bound together with mud.", "It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, earthworms, berries, and fruits.", "Both sexes are territorial on the breeding grounds, with distinctive threat displays, but are more gregarious during migration and in wintering areas.", "Pairs stay in their territory throughout the year where the climate is sufficiently temperate.", "This common and conspicuous species has given rise to a number of literary and cultural references, frequently related to its song.", "Female T. m. mauretanicus The common blackbird was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Turdus merula .", "The binomial name derives from two Latin words, turdus, \" thrush \" , and merula, \" blackbird \" , the latter giving rise to its French name, merle, and its Scots name, merl.", "About 65 species of medium to large thrushes are in the genus Turdus, characterised by rounded heads, longish, pointed wings, and usually melodious songs.", "Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the blackbird is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary Islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "It is close in evolutionary terms to the island thrush (T.", "poliocephalus) of Southeast Asia and islands in the southwest Pacific, which probably diverged from T. merula stock fairly recently.", "Until about the 17th century, another name for the species was ouzel, ousel or wosel (from Old English osle, cf.", "Another variant occurs in Act 3 of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, where Bottom refers to \" The Woosell cocke, so blacke of hew, With Orenge-tawny bill \" .", "The ouzel usage survived later in poetry, and still occurs as the name of the closely related ring ouzel , and in water ouzel, an alternative name for the unrelated but superficially similar white-throated dipper and American dipper .", "Two related Asian Turdus thrushes, the white-collared blackbird (T.", "albocinctus) and the grey-winged blackbird (T.", "boulboul), are also named blackbirds, The icterid family of the New World is sometimes called the blackbird family because of some species' superficial resemblance to the common blackbird and other Old World thrushes, but they are not evolutionarily close, being related to the New World warblers and tanagers.", "The term is often limited to smaller species with mostly or entirely black plumage, at least in the breeding male, notably the cowbirds, the grackles, and for around 20 species with \" blackbird \" in the name, such as the red-winged blackbird and the melodious blackbird.", "In Europe, the common blackbird can be confused with the paler-winged first-winter ring ouzel or the superficially similar common starling .", "A number of similar Turdus thrushes exist far outside the range of the common blackbird, for example the South American Chiguanco thrush .", "The Indian blackbird, the Tibetan blackbird, and the Chinese blackbird were formerly considered subspecies of the common blackbird.", "Historic image of blackbird in Nederlandsche Vogelen The common blackbird of the nominate subspecies T. m. merula is in length, has a long tail, and weighs .", "The adult male has glossy black plumage, blackish-brown legs, a yellow eye-ring and an orange-yellow bill.", "The bill darkens somewhat in winter.", "The adult female is sooty-brown with a dull yellowish-brownish bill, a brownish-white throat and some weak mottling on the breast.", "The juvenile is similar to the female, but has pale spots on the upperparts, and the very young juvenile also has a speckled breast.", "Young birds vary in the shade of brown, with darker birds presumably males.", "The first year male resembles the adult male, but has a dark bill and weaker eye ring, and its folded wing is brown, rather than black like the body plumage.", "The common blackbird breeds in temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia.", "It has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.", "Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year.", "Recoveries of blackbirds ringed on the Isle of May show that these birds commonly migrate from southern Norway to Scotland, and some onwards to Ireland.", "Scottish-ringed birds have also been recovered in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.", "Female blackbirds in Scotland and the north of England migrate more in winter than do the males Common over most of its range in woodland, the common blackbird has a preference for deciduous trees with dense undergrowth.", "However, gardens provide the best breeding habitat with up to 7.3 pairs per hectare , with woodland typically holding about a tenth of that density, and open and very built-up habitats even less.", "They are often replaced by the related ring ouzel in areas of higher altitude.", "The common blackbird also lives in parks, gardens and hedgerows.", "The common blackbird occurs at elevations up to in Europe, in North Africa, and at in peninsular India and Sri Lanka, but the large Himalayan subspecies range much higher, with T. m. maximus breeding at and remaining above even in winter.", "However, a 1994 record from Bonavista, Newfoundland, has been accepted as a genuine wild bird,", "Male blackbird with earthworm The male common blackbird defends its breeding territory, chasing away other males or utilising a \" bow and run \" threat display.", "This consists of a short run, the head first being raised and then bowed with the tail dipped simultaneously.", "If a fight between male blackbirds does occur, it is usually short and the intruder is soon chased away.", "The female blackbird is also aggressive in the spring when it competes with other females for a good nesting territory, and although fights are less frequent, they tend to be more violent.", "As long as winter food is available, both the male and female will remain in the territory throughout the year, although occupying different areas.", "Migrants are more gregarious, travelling in small flocks and feeding in loose groups in the wintering grounds.", "The flight of migrating birds comprises bursts of rapid wing beats interspersed with level or diving movement, and differs from both the normal fast agile flight of this species and the more dipping action of larger thrushes.", "The male common blackbird attracts the female with a courtship display which consists of oblique runs combined with head-bowing movements, an open beak, and a \" strangled \" low song.", "The female remains motionless until she raises her head and tail to permit copulation.", "This species is monogamous, and the established pair will usually stay together as long as they both survive.", "Pair separation rates of up to 20% have been noted following poor breeding.", "Although the species is socially monogamous, there have been studies showing as much as 17% extra-pair paternity.", "The nominate T. merula may commence breeding in March, but eastern and Indian races are a month or more later, and the introduced New Zealand birds start nesting in August .", "Eggs of birds of the southern Indian races are paler than those from the northern subcontinent and Europe.", "The female incubates for 1214 days before the altricial chicks are hatched naked and blind.", "Fledging takes another 1019 days, with both parents feeding the young and removing faecal sacs.", "The nest is often ill-concealed compared with those of other species, and many breeding attempts fail due to predation.", "The young are fed by the parents for up to three weeks after leaving the nest, and will follow the adults begging for food.", "If the female starts another nest, the male alone will feed the fledged young.", "Second broods are common, with the female reusing the same nest if the brood was successful, and three broods may be raised in the south of the common blackbird's range.", "A common blackbird has an average life expectancy of 2.4 years, and, based on data from bird ringing, the oldest recorded age is 21 years and 10 months.", "In its native Northern Hemisphere range, the first-year male common blackbird of the nominate race may start singing as early as late January in fine weather in order to establish a territory, followed in late March by the adult male.", "The male's song is a varied and melodious low-pitched fluted warble, given from trees, rooftops or other elevated perches mainly in the period from March to June, sometimes into the beginning of July.", "It has a number of other calls, including an aggressive seee, a pook-pook-pook alarm for terrestrial predators like cats, and various chink and chook, chook vocalisations.", "The territorial male invariably gives chink-chink calls in the evening in an attempt to deter other blackbirds from roosting in its territory overnight.", "Like other passerine birds, it has a thin high seeet alarm call for threats from birds of prey since the sound is rapidly attenuated in vegetation, making the source difficult to locate.", "In urban and suburban environments with high levels of anthropogenic noise, such as near airports, blackbirds have been observed modifying their song to successfully compensate and compete with the noise, singing for longer periods of time, at a higher volume, and earlier during their area's dawn chorus, when environmental sounds are less prominent.", "Adult male feeding on cherries in Lausanne, Switzerland The common blackbird is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, spiders, snails, earthworms, seeds, berries and other fruits.", "It feeds mainly on the ground, running and hopping with a start-stop-start progress.", "It pulls earthworms from the soil, usually finding them by sight, but sometimes by hearing, and roots through leaf litter for other invertebrates.", "Small amphibians, lizards and small mammals are occasionally hunted.", "This species will also perch in bushes to take berries and collect caterpillars and other active insects, such as beetles and grasshoppers.", "Animal prey predominates, and is particularly important during the breeding season, with windfall apples and berries taken more in the autumn and winter.", "The nature of the fruit taken depends on what is locally available, and frequently includes exotics in gardens.", "As the blackbird lives in proximity to urbanized areas, it likely supplements its diet with man-made food.", "Near human habitation the main predator of the common blackbird is the domestic cat, with newly fledged young especially vulnerable.", "Foxes and predatory birds, such as the sparrowhawk and other accipiters, also take this species when the opportunity arises.", "However, there is little direct evidence to show that either predation of the adult blackbirds or loss of the eggs and chicks to corvids, such as the European magpie or Eurasian jay, decrease population numbers.", "A male attempting to distract a kestrel close to its nest This species is occasionally a host of parasitic cuckoos, such as the common cuckoo , but this is minimal because the common blackbird recognizes the adult of the parasitic species and its non-mimetic eggs.", "In the UK, only three nests of 59,770 examined contained cuckoo eggs.", "The introduced merula blackbird in New Zealand, where the cuckoo does not occur, has, over the past 130 years, lost the ability to recognize the adult common cuckoo but still rejects non-mimetic eggs.", "As with other passerine birds, parasites are common.", "Intestinal parasites were found in 88% of common blackbirds, most frequently Isospora and Capillaria species.", "and more than 80% had haematozoan parasites .", "Common blackbirds spend much of their time looking for food on the ground where they can become infested with ticks, which are external parasites that most commonly attach to the head of a blackbird.", "there is no evidence that this affects the fitness of blackbirds except when they are exhausted and run down after migration.", "The common blackbird is one of a number of species which has unihemispheric slow-wave sleep.", "One hemisphere of the brain is effectively asleep, while a low-voltage EEG, characteristic of wakefulness, is present in the other.", "The benefit of this is that the bird can rest in areas of high predation or during long migratory flights, but still retain a degree of alertness.", "The common blackbird has an extensive range, estimated at 32.4 million square kilometres , and a large population, including an estimated 110 to 174 million individuals in Europe alone.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern but there have been local declines, especially on farmland, which may be due to agricultural policies that encouraged farmers to remove hedgerows , and to drain damp grassland and increase the use of pesticides, both of which could have reduced the availability of invertebrate food.", "The common blackbird was introduced to Australia by a bird dealer visiting Melbourne in early 1857, The introduced population in Australia is considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens, including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes.", "It is thought to spread weeds, such as blackberry, and may compete with native birds for food and nesting sites.", "The introduced common blackbird is, together with the native silvereye , the most widely distributed avian seed disperser in New Zealand.", "Introduced there along with the song thrush in 1862, it has spread throughout the country up to an elevation of , as well as outlying islands such as the Campbell and Kermadecs.", "It eats a wide range of native and exotic fruit, and makes a major contribution to the development of communities of naturalised woody weeds.", "These communities provide fruit more suited to non-endemic native birds and naturalised birds than to endemic birds.", "\" Sing a Song for Sixpence \" cover illustration The common blackbird was seen as a sacred though destructive bird in Classical Greek folklore, and was said to die if it consumed pomegranates.", "Like many other small birds, it has in the past been trapped in rural areas at its night roosts as an easily available addition to the diet, Sing a song of sixpence, A pocket full of rye", " Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie!", " When the pie was opened the birds began to sing, Oh, wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?", " The common blackbird's melodious, distinctive song is mentioned in the poem Adlestrop by Edward Thomas", " And for that minute a blackbird sang Close by, and round him, mistier, Farther and farther, all the birds Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.", " In the English Christmas carol \" The Twelve Days of Christmas \" , the line commonly sung today as \" four calling birds \" is believed to have originally been written in the 18th century as \" four colly birds \" , an archaism meaning \" black as coal \" that was a popular English nickname for the common blackbird.", "The common blackbird, unlike many black creatures, is not normally seen as a symbol of bad luck, and it symbolised resignation in the 17th century tragic play The Duchess of Malfi", "an alternate connotation is vigilance, the bird's clear cry warning of danger.", "which has a breeding population of 12 million pairs, it has also featured on a number of other stamps issued by European and Asian countries, including a 1966 4d British stamp and a 1998 Irish 30p stamp.", "This birdarguablyalso gives rise to the Serbian name for Kosovo, which is the possessive adjectival form of Serbian , as in Kosovo polje .", "A common blackbird can be heard singing on the Beatles song \" Blackbird \" ."]}, "Turdus philomelos": {"keywords": ["The song thrush breeds in forests, gardens and parks, and is partially migratory with many birds wintering in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, it has also been introduced into New Zealand and Australia.", "They are less closely related to other European thrush species such as the blackbird which are descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "It has brown upperparts which are warmer in tone than those of the nominate form, an olive-tinged rump and rich yellow background colour to the underparts.", "Juvenile in New Zealand The song thrush breeds in most of Europe , and across Ukraine and Russia almost to Lake Baikal. It reaches to 75N in Norway, but only to about 60N in Siberia.", "Birds from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Russia winter around the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East, but only some of the birds in the milder west of the breeding range leave their breeding areas.", "Such areas include parks, gardens, coniferous and deciduous woodland and hedgerows.", "In New Zealand, where it was introduced on both the main islands, the song thrush quickly established itself and spread to surrounding islands such as the Kermadecs, Chatham and Auckland Islands.", "Juvenile in a forest near Dombaih, Russia The song thrush typically nests in forest with good undergrowth and nearby more open areas, and in western Europe also uses gardens and parks.", "The island subspecies T. p. hebridensis breeds in more open country, including heathland, and in the east of the song thrush's Eurasian range, the nominate subspecies is restricted to the edge of the dense conifer forests.", "In intensively farmed areas where agricultural practices appear to have made cropped land unsuitable, gardens are an important breeding habitat.", "In one English study, only 3.5% of territories were found in farmland, whereas gardens held 71.5% of the territories, despite that habitat making up only 2% of the total area.", "The remaining nests were in woodlands .", "The winter habitat is similar to that used for breeding, except that high ground and other exposed localities are avoided, however, the island subspecies T. p. hebridensis will frequent the seashore in winter.", "It flies in loose flocks which cross the sea on a broad front rather than concentrating at short crossings , and calls frequently to maintain contact.", "Return migration varies between mid-February around the Mediterranean to May in northern Sweden and central Siberia.", "Vagrants have been recorded in Greenland, various Atlantic islands, and West Africa.", "Three eggs in a nest The female song thrush builds a neat cup-shaped nest lined with mud and dry grass in a bush, tree or creeper, or, in the case of the Hebridean subspecies, on the ground.", "Ixodes ticks are also common, and can carry pathogens, including tick-borne encephalitis in forested areas of central and eastern Europe and Russia, and, more widely, Borrelia bacteria.", "Some species of Borrelia cause Lyme disease, and ground-feeding birds like the song thrush may act as a reservoir for the disease.", "Like its relative, the blackbird, the song thrush finds animal prey by sight, has a run-and-stop hunting technique on open ground, and will rummage through leaf-litter seeking potential food items.", "The thrush often uses a favorite stone as an \" anvil \" on which to break the shell of the snail before extracting the soft body and invariably wiping it on the ground before consumption.", "In gardens, the use of poison bait to control slugs and snails may pose a threat.", "In urban areas, some thrushes are killed while using the hard surface of roads to smash snails.", "The song thrush's characteristic song, with melodic phrases repeated twice or more, is described by the nineteenth-century British poet Robert Browning in his poem Home Thoughts, from Abroad."], "habitat_section": ["Juvenile in New Zealand The song thrush breeds in most of Europe , and across Ukraine and Russia almost to Lake Baikal. It reaches to 75N in Norway, but only to about 60N in Siberia.", "Birds from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Russia winter around the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East, but only some of the birds in the milder west of the breeding range leave their breeding areas.", "In Great Britain song thrushes are commonly found where there are trees and bushes.", "Such areas include parks, gardens, coniferous and deciduous woodland and hedgerows.", "Birds of the nominate subspecies were introduced to New Zealand and Australia by acclimatisation societies between 1860 and 1880, apparently for purely sentimental reasons.", "In New Zealand, where it was introduced on both the main islands, the song thrush quickly established itself and spread to surrounding islands such as the Kermadecs, Chatham and Auckland Islands.", "Although it is common and widespread in New Zealand, in Australia only a small population survives around Melbourne.", "In New Zealand, there appears to be a limited detrimental effect on some invertebrates due to predation by introduced bird species, and the song thrush also damages commercial fruit crops in that country.", "As an introduced species it has no legal protection in New Zealand, and can be killed at any time.", "Juvenile in a forest near Dombaih, Russia The song thrush typically nests in forest with good undergrowth and nearby more open areas, and in western Europe also uses gardens and parks.", "It breeds up to the tree-line, reaching in Switzerland.", "The island subspecies T. p. hebridensis breeds in more open country, including heathland, and in the east of the song thrush's Eurasian range, the nominate subspecies is restricted to the edge of the dense conifer forests.", "In intensively farmed areas where agricultural practices appear to have made cropped land unsuitable, gardens are an important breeding habitat.", "In one English study, only 3.5% of territories were found in farmland, whereas gardens held 71.5% of the territories, despite that habitat making up only 2% of the total area.", "The remaining nests were in woodlands .", "The winter habitat is similar to that used for breeding, except that high ground and other exposed localities are avoided, however, the island subspecies T. p. hebridensis will frequent the seashore in winter.", "Breaking the shell of a snail The song thrush is not usually gregarious, although several birds may roost together in winter or be loosely associated in suitable feeding habitats, perhaps with other thrushes such as the blackbird, fieldfare, redwing and dark-throated thrush.", "Unlike the more nomadic fieldfare and redwing, the song thrush tends to return regularly to the same wintering areas.", "This is a monogamous territorial species, and in areas where it is fully migratory, the male re-establishes its breeding territory and starts singing as soon as he returns.", "In the milder areas where some birds stay year round, the resident male remains in his breeding territory, singing intermittently, but the female may establish a separate individual wintering range until pair formation begins in the early spring.", "During migration, the song thrush travels mainly at night with a strong and direct flight action.", "It flies in loose flocks which cross the sea on a broad front rather than concentrating at short crossings , and calls frequently to maintain contact.", "Migration may start as early as late August in the most easterly and northerly parts of the range, but the majority of birds, with shorter distances to cover, head south from September to mid-December.", "However, hard weather may force further movement.", "Return migration varies between mid-February around the Mediterranean to May in northern Sweden and central Siberia.", "Vagrants have been recorded in Greenland, various Atlantic islands, and West Africa.", "In New Zealand The song thrush has an extensive range, estimated at , and a large population, with an estimated 40 to 71 million individuals in Europe alone.", "In the western Palaearctic, there is evidence of population decline, but at a level below the threshold required for global conservation concern and the IUCN Red List categorises this species as of \" Least Concern \" .", "In Great Britain and the Netherlands, there has been a more than 50% decline in population, and the song thrush is included in regional Red Lists.", "The decreases are greatest in farmlands and believed to be due to changes in agricultural practices in recent decades.", "The precise reasons for the decline are not known but may be related to the loss of hedgerows, a move to sowing crops in autumn rather than spring, and possibly the increased use of pesticides.", "These changes may have reduced the availability of food and of nest sites.", "In gardens, the use of poison bait to control slugs and snails may pose a threat.", "In urban areas, some thrushes are killed while using the hard surface of roads to smash snails."], "random_sentences": ["The song thrush is a thrush that breeds across the West Palearctic.", "It has brown upper-parts and black-spotted cream or buff underparts and has three recognised subspecies.", "Its distinctive song, which has repeated musical phrases, has frequently been referred to in poetry.", "The song thrush breeds in forests, gardens and parks, and is partially migratory with many birds wintering in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East", "it has also been introduced into New Zealand and Australia.", "Although it is not threatened globally, there have been serious population declines in parts of Europe, possibly due to changes in farming practices.", "The song thrush builds a neat mud-lined cup nest in a bush or tree and lays four to five dark-spotted blue eggs.", "It is omnivorous and has the habit of using a favourite stone as an \" anvil \" on which to break open the shells of snails.", "Like other perching birds , it is affected by external and internal parasites and is vulnerable to predation by cats and birds of prey.", "The song thrush was described by German ornithologist Christian Ludwig Brehm in 1831, and still bears its original scientific name, Turdus philomelos.", "The generic name, Turdus, is the Latin for thrush, and the specific epithet refers to a character in Greek mythology, Philomela, who had her tongue cut out, but was changed into a singing bird.", "Her name is derived from the Ancient Greek philo- , and melos .", "The dialect names throstle and mavis both mean thrush, being related to the German drossel and French mauvis respectively.", "Throstle dates back to at least the fourteenth century and was used by Chaucer in the Parliament of Fowls.", "Mavis is derived via Middle English mavys and Old French mauvis from Middle Breton milhuyt meaning \" thrush.", "\" Mavis can also mean \" purple \" in Greek.", "A parent feeding chicks in their nest in a New Zealand garden", "altA brown spotted bird standing on the rim of a nest with food for four chicks seen with open gapes A molecular study indicated that the song thrush's closest relatives are the similarly plumaged mistle thrush (T.", "viscivorus) and Chinese thrush (T.", "these three species are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa.", "They are less closely related to other European thrush species such as the blackbird (T.", "merula) which are descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "The song thrush has three subspecies, with the nominate subspecies, T. p. philomelos, covering the majority of the species' range.", "T. p. hebridensis, described by British ornithologist William Eagle Clarke in 1913, is a mainly sedentary form found in the Outer Hebrides and Isle of Skye in Scotland.", "It is the darkest subspecies, with a dark brown back, greyish rump, pale buff background colour to the underparts and grey-tinged flanks.", "T. p. clarkei, described by German zoologist Ernst Hartert in 1909, and named for William Eagle Clarke, breeds in the rest of Great Britain and Ireland and on mainland Europe in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and possibly somewhat further east.", "It has brown upperparts which are warmer in tone than those of the nominate form, an olive-tinged rump and rich yellow background colour to the underparts.", "It is a partial migrant with some birds wintering in southern France and Iberia.", "This form intergrades with the nominate subspecies in central Europe, and with T. p. hebridensis in the Inner Hebrides and western Scotland, and in these areas birds show intermediate characteristics.", "Additional subspecies, such as T. p. nataliae of Siberia, proposed by the Russian Sergei Buturlin in 1929, are not widely accepted.", "Song thrush in Slovenia upright", "In flight The song thrush is in length and weighs .", "The sexes are similar, with plain brown backs and neatly black-spotted cream or yellow-buff underparts, becoming paler on the belly.", "The underwing is warm yellow, the bill is yellowish and the legs and feet are pink.", "The upperparts of this species become colder in tone from west to east across the breeding range from Sweden to Siberia.", "The juvenile resembles the adult, but has buff or orange streaks on the back and wing coverts.", "The most similar European thrush species is the redwing (T.", "iliacus), but that bird has a strong white supercilium, red flanks, and shows a red underwing in flight.", "viscivorus) is much larger and has white tail corners, and the Chinese thrush (T.", "mupinensis), although much more similar in plumage, has black face markings and does not overlap in range.", "The song thrush has a short, sharp tsip call, replaced on migration by a thin high seep, similar to the redwing's call but shorter.", "The alarm call is a chook-chook becoming shorter and more strident with increasing danger.", "The male's song, given from trees, rooftops or other elevated perches, is a loud clear run of musical phrases, repeated two to four times, filip filip filip codidio codidio quitquiquit tittit tittit tereret tereret tereret, and interspersed with grating notes and mimicry.", "It is given mainly from February to June by the Outer Hebridean race, but from November to July by the more widespread subspecies.", "For its weight, this species has one of the loudest bird calls.", "An individual male may have a repertoire of more than 100 phrases, many copied from its parents and neighbouring birds.", "Mimicry may include the imitation of man-made items like telephones, and the song thrush will also repeat the calls of captive birds, including exotics such as the white-faced whistling duck.", "Juvenile in New Zealand The song thrush breeds in most of Europe , and across Ukraine and Russia almost to Lake Baikal. It reaches to 75N in Norway, but only to about 60N in Siberia.", "Birds from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Russia winter around the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East, but only some of the birds in the milder west of the breeding range leave their breeding areas.", "In Great Britain song thrushes are commonly found where there are trees and bushes.", "Such areas include parks, gardens, coniferous and deciduous woodland and hedgerows.", "Birds of the nominate subspecies were introduced to New Zealand and Australia by acclimatisation societies between 1860 and 1880, apparently for purely sentimental reasons.", "In New Zealand, where it was introduced on both the main islands, the song thrush quickly established itself and spread to surrounding islands such as the Kermadecs, Chatham and Auckland Islands.", "Although it is common and widespread in New Zealand, in Australia only a small population survives around Melbourne.", "In New Zealand, there appears to be a limited detrimental effect on some invertebrates due to predation by introduced bird species, and the song thrush also damages commercial fruit crops in that country.", "As an introduced species it has no legal protection in New Zealand, and can be killed at any time.", "Juvenile in a forest near Dombaih, Russia The song thrush typically nests in forest with good undergrowth and nearby more open areas, and in western Europe also uses gardens and parks.", "It breeds up to the tree-line, reaching in Switzerland.", "The island subspecies T. p. hebridensis breeds in more open country, including heathland, and in the east of the song thrush's Eurasian range, the nominate subspecies is restricted to the edge of the dense conifer forests.", "In intensively farmed areas where agricultural practices appear to have made cropped land unsuitable, gardens are an important breeding habitat.", "In one English study, only 3.5% of territories were found in farmland, whereas gardens held 71.5% of the territories, despite that habitat making up only 2% of the total area.", "The remaining nests were in woodlands .", "The winter habitat is similar to that used for breeding, except that high ground and other exposed localities are avoided", "however, the island subspecies T. p. hebridensis will frequent the seashore in winter.", "Breaking the shell of a snail The song thrush is not usually gregarious, although several birds may roost together in winter or be loosely associated in suitable feeding habitats, perhaps with other thrushes such as the blackbird, fieldfare, redwing and dark-throated thrush.", "Unlike the more nomadic fieldfare and redwing, the song thrush tends to return regularly to the same wintering areas.", "This is a monogamous territorial species, and in areas where it is fully migratory, the male re-establishes its breeding territory and starts singing as soon as he returns.", "In the milder areas where some birds stay year round, the resident male remains in his breeding territory, singing intermittently, but the female may establish a separate individual wintering range until pair formation begins in the early spring.", "During migration, the song thrush travels mainly at night with a strong and direct flight action.", "It flies in loose flocks which cross the sea on a broad front rather than concentrating at short crossings , and calls frequently to maintain contact.", "Migration may start as early as late August in the most easterly and northerly parts of the range, but the majority of birds, with shorter distances to cover, head south from September to mid-December.", "However, hard weather may force further movement.", "Return migration varies between mid-February around the Mediterranean to May in northern Sweden and central Siberia.", "Vagrants have been recorded in Greenland, various Atlantic islands, and West Africa.", "Three eggs in a nest The female song thrush builds a neat cup-shaped nest lined with mud and dry grass in a bush, tree or creeper, or, in the case of the Hebridean subspecies, on the ground.", "She lays four or five bright glossy blue eggs which are lightly spotted with black or purple", "they are typically size and weigh , of which 6% is shell.", "The female incubates the eggs alone for 1017 days, and after hatching a similar time elapses until the young fledge.", "Two or three broods in a year is normal, although only one may be raised in the north of the range.", "On average, 54.6% of British juveniles survive the first year of life, and the adult annual survival rate is 62.2%.", "The typical lifespan is three years, but the maximum recorded age is 10 years 8 months.", "The song thrush is occasionally a host of parasitic cuckoos, such as the common cuckoo, but this is very rare because the thrush recognizes the cuckoo's non-mimetic eggs.", "However, the song thrush does not demonstrate the same aggression toward the adult cuckoo that is shown by the blackbird.", "The introduced birds in New Zealand, where the cuckoo does not occur, have, over the past 130 years, retained the ability to recognize and reject non-mimetic eggs.", "Adult birds may be killed by cats, little owls and sparrowhawks, and eggs and nestlings are taken by magpies, jays, and, where present, grey squirrels.", "As with other passerine birds, parasites are common, and include endoparasites, such as the nematode Splendidofilaria mavis whose specific name mavis derives from this thrush.", "A Russian study of blood parasites showed that all the fieldfares, redwings and song thrushes sampled carried haematozoans, particularly Haemoproteus and Trypanosoma.", "Ixodes ticks are also common, and can carry pathogens, including tick-borne encephalitis in forested areas of central and eastern Europe and Russia, and, more widely, Borrelia bacteria.", "Some species of Borrelia cause Lyme disease, and ground-feeding birds like the song thrush may act as a reservoir for the disease.", "Broken shells of grove snails on an 'anvil' Foraging in hedgerow The song thrush is omnivorous, eating a wide range of invertebrates, especially earthworms and snails, as well as soft fruit and berries.", "Like its relative, the blackbird, the song thrush finds animal prey by sight, has a run-and-stop hunting technique on open ground, and will rummage through leaf-litter seeking potential food items.", "Land snails are an especially important food item when drought or hard weather makes it hard to find other food.", "The thrush often uses a favorite stone as an \" anvil \" on which to break the shell of the snail before extracting the soft body and invariably wiping it on the ground before consumption.", "Young birds initially flick objects and attempt to play with them until they learn to use anvils as tools to smash snails.", "The nestlings are mainly fed on animal food such as worms, slugs, snails and insect larvae.", "The grove snail is regularly eaten by the song thrush, and its polymorphic shell patterns have been suggested as evolutionary responses to reduce predation", "however, song thrushes may not be the only selective force involved.", "In New Zealand The song thrush has an extensive range, estimated at , and a large population, with an estimated 40 to 71 million individuals in Europe alone.", "In the western Palaearctic, there is evidence of population decline, but at a level below the threshold required for global conservation concern and the IUCN Red List categorises this species as of \" Least Concern \" .", "In Great Britain and the Netherlands, there has been a more than 50% decline in population, and the song thrush is included in regional Red Lists.", "The decreases are greatest in farmlands and believed to be due to changes in agricultural practices in recent decades.", "The precise reasons for the decline are not known but may be related to the loss of hedgerows, a move to sowing crops in autumn rather than spring, and possibly the increased use of pesticides.", "These changes may have reduced the availability of food and of nest sites.", "In gardens, the use of poison bait to control slugs and snails may pose a threat.", "In urban areas, some thrushes are killed while using the hard surface of roads to smash snails.", " Deleted image removed: upright", "West Bromwich Albion's former club crest, replaced in 2006 with a modified crest also featuring a song thrush The song thrush's characteristic song, with melodic phrases repeated twice or more, is described by the nineteenth-century British poet Robert Browning in his poem Home Thoughts, from Abroad: That's the wise thrush", "he sings each song twice over, Lest you should think he never could recapture The first fine careless rapture!", " The song also inspired the nineteenth-century British writer Thomas Hardy, who spoke in Darkling Thrush of the bird's \" full-hearted song evensong/Of joy illimited \" , but twentieth-century British poet Ted Hughes in Thrushes concentrated on its hunting prowess: \" Nothing but bounce and/stab/and a ravening second \" .", "Nineteenth-century Welsh poet Edward Thomas wrote 15 poems concerning blackbirds or thrushes, including The Thrush: I hear the thrush, and I see Him alone at the end of the lane Near the bare poplar's tip, Singing continuously.", " Dunfermline, Scotland In The Tables Turned, Romantic poet William Wordsworth references the song thrush, writing Hark, how blithe the throstle sings And he is no mean preacher Come forth into the light of things Let Nature be your teacher The song thrush is the emblem of West Bromwich Albion Football Club, chosen because the public house in which the team used to change kept a pet thrush in a cage.", "It also gave rise to Albion's early nickname, The Throstles.", "Thrushes have been trapped for food from as far back as 12,000 years ago and an early reference is found in the Odyssey: \" Then, as doves or thrushes beating their spread wings against some snare rigged up in thicketsflying in for a cosy nest but a grisly bed receives them.", "\" Hunting continues today around the Mediterranean, but is not believed to be a major factor in this species' decline in parts of its range.", "In Spain, this species is normally caught as it migrates through the country, often using birdlime which, although banned by the European Union, is still tolerated and permitted in the Valencian Community.", "In 2003 and 2004 the EU tried, but failed, to stop this practice in the Valencian region.", "Up to at least the nineteenth century the song thrush was kept as a cage bird because of its melodious voice.", "As with hunting, there is little evidence that the taking of wild birds for aviculture has had a significant effect on wild populations."]}, "Parus major": {"keywords": ["Great tit in Sweden, winter 2016 The great tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.", "It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of North Africa where it is generally resident in any sort of woodland, most great tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters.", "It is predominantly insectivorous in the summer, but will consume a wider range of food items in the winter months, including small hibernating bats.", "The great tit has adapted well to human changes in the environment and is a common and familiar bird in urban parks and gardens.", "The 11 subspecies of the cinereous tit were once lumped with the great tit but recent genetic and bioacoustic studies now separate that group as a distinct species The great tit was formerly treated as ranging from Britain to Japan and south to the islands of Indonesia, with 36 described subspecies ascribed to four main species groups.", "The major group had 13 subspecies across Europe, temperate Asia and north Africa, the minor group's nine subspecies occurred from southeast Russia and Japan into northern southeast Asia and the 11 subspecies in the cinereus group were found from Iran across south Asia to Indonesia.", "This form was once thought to form a ring species around the Tibetan Plateau, with gene flow throughout the subspecies, but this theory was abandoned when sequences of mitochondrial DNA were examined, finding that the four groups were distinct and that the hybridisation zones between the groups were the result of secondary contact after a temporary period of isolation.", "The other subspecies have much more restricted distributions, four being restricted to islands and the remainder of the P. m. major subspecies representing former glacial refuge populations.", "Mixed forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe A nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia.", "It can be found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands.", "It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens.", "In dense forests, including conifer forests it prefers forest clearings.", "In northern Siberia it lives in boreal taiga.", "In North Africa it rather resides in oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves.", "In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest.", "Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan subspecies, as well as low scrubland, oases, at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.", "Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic and also to Netherlands, Britain, even as far as the southern Balkans.", " Male great tit on branch with sunflower seed Great tits are primarily insectivorous in the summer, feeding on insects and spiders which they capture by foliage gleaning.", "Seeds and fruit usually come from deciduous trees and shrubs, like for instance the seeds of beech and hazel.", "In particularly severe winters they may consume 44% of their body weight in sunflower seeds.", "Great tit nesting in nest box Great tits are cavity nesters, breeding in a hole that is usually inside a tree, although occasionally in a wall or rock face, and they will readily take to nest boxes.", "The nest inside the cavity is built by the female, and is made of plant fibres, grasses, moss, hair, wool and feathers.", "Insularity also affects clutch size, with great tits on offshore islands laying smaller clutches with larger eggs than mainland birds.", "This patch turns white after the first moult at age two months, and diminishes in size as the bird grows.", "Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.", "Reduced cold injury and heat loss is mediated by the great tits counter-current vascular arrangements, and peripheral vasoconstriction in major vessels in and around the birds bill and legs.", "In response to food restriction, the great tits bill temperature dropped, and once food availably was increased, bill temperatures gradually returned to normal. Vasoconstriction of blood vessels in the bill not only serves as an energy saving mechanism, but also reduces the amount of heat transferred from core body tissues to the skin , which, in turn, reduces heat loss rate by lowering skin temperature relative to the environment.", "It is more common and has better breeding success in areas with undisturbed forest cover, but it has adapted to human modified habitats.", "In areas with low frequency background noise pollution, the song has a higher frequency than in quieter areas."], "habitat_section": ["Mixed forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe A nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia.", "It can be found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands.", "In North Africa it lives in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.", "It also occurs across the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia from northern Iran and Afghanistan to Mongolia, as well as across northern Asia from the Urals as far east as northern China and the Amur Valley.", "The great tit occupies a range of habitats.", "It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens.", "In dense forests, including conifer forests it prefers forest clearings.", "In northern Siberia it lives in boreal taiga.", "In North Africa it rather resides in oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves.", "In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest.", "Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan subspecies, as well as low scrubland, oases, at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.", "The great tit is generally not migratory.", "Pairs will usually remain near or in their territory year round, even in the northern parts of their range.", "Young birds will disperse from their parents' territory, but usually not far.", "Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic and also to Netherlands, Britain, even as far as the southern Balkans.", "The great tit was unsuccessfully introduced into the United States, birds were set free near Cincinnati, Ohio between 1872 and 1874 but failed to become established.", "Suggestions that they were an excellent control measure for codling moths nearly led to their introduction to some new areas particularly in the United States of America, however this plan was not implemented.", "A small population is present in the upper Midwest, believed to be the descendants of birds liberated in Chicago in 2002 along with European goldfinches, Eurasian jays, common chaffinches, European greenfinches, saffron finches, blue tits and Eurasian linnets, although sightings of some of these species pre-date the supposed introduction date.", "Birds were introduced to the Almaty Province in what is now Kazakhstan in 196061 and became established, although their present status is unclear.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a predator of great tits, with the young from second broods being at higher risk partly because of the hawk's greater need for food for its own developing young.", "The nests of great tits are raided by great spotted woodpeckers, particularly when nesting in certain types of nest boxes.", "Other nest predators include introduced grey squirrels and least weasels, which are able to take nesting adults as well.", "A species of biting louse described as Rostrinirmus hudeci was isolated and described in 1981 from great tits in central Europe.", "The hen flea Ceratophyllus gallinae is exceedingly common in the nests of blue and great tits.", "It was originally a specialist tit flea, but the dry, crowded conditions of chicken runs enabled it to flourish with its new host.", "This flea is preferentially predated by the clown beetle Gnathoncus punctulatus, The rove beetle Microglotta pulla also feeds on fleas and their larvae.", "Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.", "Great tits compete with the pied flycatcher for nesting boxes, and can kill prospecting flycatcher males.", "Incidences of fatal competition are more frequent when nesting times overlap, and climate change has led to greater synchrony of nesting between the two species and flycatcher deaths.", "Having killed the flycatchers, the great tits may consume their brains."], "random_sentences": ["Great tit in Sweden, winter 2016 The great tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.", "It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of North Africa where it is generally resident in any sort of woodland", "most great tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters.", "Until 2005 this species was lumped with numerous other subspecies.", "DNA studies have shown these other subspecies to be distinct from the great tit and these have now been separated as two distinct species, the cinereous tit of southern Asia, and the Japanese tit of East Asia.", "The great tit remains the most widespread species in the genus Parus.", "The great tit is a distinctive bird with a black head and neck, prominent white cheeks, olive upperparts and yellow underparts, with some variation amongst the numerous subspecies.", "It is predominantly insectivorous in the summer, but will consume a wider range of food items in the winter months, including small hibernating bats.", "Like all tits it is a cavity nester, usually nesting in a hole in a tree.", "The female lays around 12 eggs and incubates them alone, although both parents raise the chicks.", "In most years the pair will raise two broods.", "The nests may be raided by woodpeckers, squirrels and weasels and infested with fleas, and adults may be hunted by sparrowhawks.", "The great tit has adapted well to human changes in the environment and is a common and familiar bird in urban parks and gardens.", "The great tit is also an important study species in ornithology.", "The great tit was described under its current binomial name by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "Its scientific name is derived from the Latin parus \" tit \" and maior \" larger \" .", "Francis Willughby had used the name in the 17th century.", "alt Bird with similar markings to great tit, but colours washed out and greyer, drinks from a leaking tap", "The 11 subspecies of the cinereous tit were once lumped with the great tit but recent genetic and bioacoustic studies now separate that group as a distinct species The great tit was formerly treated as ranging from Britain to Japan and south to the islands of Indonesia, with 36 described subspecies ascribed to four main species groups.", "The major group had 13 subspecies across Europe, temperate Asia and north Africa, the minor group's nine subspecies occurred from southeast Russia and Japan into northern southeast Asia and the 11 subspecies in the cinereus group were found from Iran across south Asia to Indonesia.", "The three bokharensis subspecies were often treated as a separate species, Parus bokharensis, the Turkestan tit.", "This form was once thought to form a ring species around the Tibetan Plateau, with gene flow throughout the subspecies, but this theory was abandoned when sequences of mitochondrial DNA were examined, finding that the four groups were distinct and that the hybridisation zones between the groups were the result of secondary contact after a temporary period of isolation.", "A study published in 2005 confirmed that the major group was distinct from the cinereus and minor groups and that along with P. m. bokharensis it diverged from these two groups around 1.5 million years ago.", "The divergence between the bokharensis and major groups was estimated to have been about half a million years ago.", "The study also examined hybrids between representatives of the major and minor groups in the Amur Valley where the two meet.", "Hybrids were rare, suggesting that there were some reproductive barriers between the two groups.", "The study recommended that the two eastern groups be split out as new species, the cinereous tit , and the Japanese tit , but that the Turkestan tit be lumped in with the great tit.", "This taxonomy has been followed by some authorities, for example the IOC World Bird List.", "The Handbook of the Birds of the World volume treating the Parus species went for the more traditional classification, treating the Turkestan tit as a separate species but retaining the Japanese and cinereous tits with the great tit, a move that has not been without criticism.", "The nominate subspecies of the great tit is the most widespread, its range stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to the Amur Valley and from Scandinavia to the Middle East.", "The other subspecies have much more restricted distributions, four being restricted to islands and the remainder of the P. m. major subspecies representing former glacial refuge populations.", "The dominance of a single, morphologically uniform subspecies over such a large area suggests that the nominate race rapidly recolonised a large area after the last glacial epoch.", "This hypothesis is supported by genetic studies which suggest a geologically recent genetic bottleneck followed by a rapid population expansion.", "In females and juveniles the mid-line stripe is narrower and sometimes discontinuous", "alt duller-plumaged great tit with weak breast and belly stripe The great tit is large for a tit at in length, and has a distinctive appearance that makes it easy to recognise.", "The nominate race P. major major has a bluish-black crown, black neck, throat, bib and head, and white cheeks and ear coverts.", "The breast is bright lemon-yellow and there is a broad black mid-line stripe running from the bib to vent.", "There is a dull white spot on the neck turning to greenish yellow on the upper nape.", "The rest of the nape and back are green tinged with olive.", "The wing-coverts are green, the rest of the wing is bluish-grey with a white wing-bar.", "The tail is bluish grey with white outer tips.", "The plumage of the female is similar to that of the male except that the colours are overall duller", "the bib is less intensely black, as is the line running down the belly, which is also narrower and sometimes broken.", "Young birds are like the female, except that they have dull olive-brown napes and necks, greyish rumps, and greyer tails, with less defined white tips.", "The plumage of the male is typically bright, although this varies by subspecies", "alt Great tit with strongly yellow sides perched on twig There is some variation in the subspecies.", "P. m. newtoni is like the nominate race but has a slightly longer bill, the mantle is slightly deeper green, there is less white on the tail tips, and the ventral mid-line stripe is broader on the belly.", "P. m. corsus also resembles the nominate form but has duller upperparts, less white in the tail and less yellow in the nape.", "P. m. mallorcae is like the nominate subspecies, but has a larger bill, greyer-blue upperparts and slightly paler underparts.", "P. m. ecki is like P. m. mallorcae except with bluer upperparts and paler underparts.", "P. m. excelsus is similar to the nominate race but has much brighter green upperparts, bright yellow underparts and no white on the tail.", "P. m. aphrodite has darker, more olive-grey upperparts, and the underparts are more yellow to pale cream.", "P. m. niethammeri is similar to P. m. aphrodite but the upperparts are duller and less green, and the underparts are pale yellow.", "P. m. terrasanctae resembles the previous two subspecies but has slightly paler upperparts.", "P. m. blandfordi is like the nominate but with a greyer mantle and scapulars and pale yellow underparts, and P. m. karelini is intermediate between the nominate and P. m. blandfordi, and lacks white on the tail.", "The plumage of P. m. bokharensis is much greyer, pale creamy white to washed out grey underparts, a larger white cheep patch, a grey tail, wings, back and nape.", "It is also slightly smaller, with a smaller bill but longer tail.", "The situation is similar for the two related subspecies in the Turkestan tit group.", "P. m. turkestanicus is like P. m. bokharensis but with a larger bill and darker upperparts.", "P. m. ferghanensis is like P. m. bokharensis but with a smaller bill, darker grey on the flanks and a more yellow wash on the juvenile birds.", "Female great tit and male The colour of the male bird's breast has been shown to correlate with stronger sperm, and is one way that the male demonstrates his reproductive superiority to females.", "Higher levels of carotenoid increase the intensity of the yellow of the breast its colour, and also enable the sperm to better withstand the onslaught of free radicals.", "Carotenoids cannot be synthesized by the bird and have to be obtained from food, so a bright colour in a male demonstrates his ability to obtain good nutrition.", "However, the saturation of the yellow colour is also influenced by environmental factors, such as weather conditions.", "The width of the male's ventral stripe, which varies with individual, is selected for by females, with higher quality females apparently selecting males with wider stripes.", "Great tit : song ", "Great tit : sonagram ", "Great tit twittering The great tit is, like other tits, a vocal bird, and has up to 40 types of calls and songs.", "The calls are generally the same between the sexes, but the male is much more vocal and the female rarely calls.", "Soft single notes such as \" pit \" , \" spick \" , or \" chit \" are used as contact calls.", "A loud \" tink \" is used by adult males as an alarm or in territorial disputes.", "One of the most familiar is a \" teacher, teacher \" , often likened to a squeaky wheelbarrow wheel, which is used in proclaiming ownership of a territory.", "In former times, English folk considered the \" saw-sharpening \" call to be a foretelling of rain.", "There is little geographic variation in calls, but tits from the two south Asian groups recently split from the great tit do not recognise or react to the calls of the temperate great tits.", "alt forest clearing with leaf strewn floor, low plants and saplings, and tall trees partly obscuring the sky", "Mixed forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe A nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia.", "It can be found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands.", "In North Africa it lives in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.", "It also occurs across the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia from northern Iran and Afghanistan to Mongolia, as well as across northern Asia from the Urals as far east as northern China and the Amur Valley.", "The great tit occupies a range of habitats.", "It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens.", "In dense forests, including conifer forests it prefers forest clearings.", "In northern Siberia it lives in boreal taiga.", "In North Africa it rather resides in oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves.", "In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest.", "Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan subspecies, as well as low scrubland, oases", "at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.", "The great tit is generally not migratory.", "Pairs will usually remain near or in their territory year round, even in the northern parts of their range.", "Young birds will disperse from their parents' territory, but usually not far.", "Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic and also to Netherlands, Britain, even as far as the southern Balkans.", "The great tit was unsuccessfully introduced into the United States", "birds were set free near Cincinnati, Ohio between 1872 and 1874 but failed to become established.", "Suggestions that they were an excellent control measure for codling moths nearly led to their introduction to some new areas particularly in the United States of America, however this plan was not implemented.", "A small population is present in the upper Midwest, believed to be the descendants of birds liberated in Chicago in 2002 along with European goldfinches, Eurasian jays, common chaffinches, European greenfinches, saffron finches, blue tits and Eurasian linnets, although sightings of some of these species pre-date the supposed introduction date.", "Birds were introduced to the Almaty Province in what is now Kazakhstan in 196061 and became established, although their present status is unclear.", "Like other tits, great tits transport food with their beak, and then transfer it to their feet, where it is held while they eat", "alt Male great tit on branch with sunflower seed Great tits are primarily insectivorous in the summer, feeding on insects and spiders which they capture by foliage gleaning.", "Their larger invertebrate prey include cockroaches, grasshoppers and crickets, lacewings, earwigs, bugs , ants, flies , caddis flies, beetles, scorpion flies, harvestmen, bees and wasps, snails and woodlice.", "A study published in 2007 found that great tits helped to reduce caterpillar damage in apple orchards by as much as 50%.", "Nestlings also undergo a period in their early development where they are fed a number of spiders, possibly for nutritional reasons.", "In autumn and winter, when insect prey becomes scarcer, great tits add berries and seeds to their diet.", "Seeds and fruit usually come from deciduous trees and shrubs, like for instance the seeds of beech and hazel.", "Where it is available they will readily take table scraps, peanuts and sunflower seeds from bird tables.", "In particularly severe winters they may consume 44% of their body weight in sunflower seeds.", "They often forage on the ground, particularly in years with high beech mast production.", "Great tits, along with other tits, will join winter mixed-species foraging flocks.", "Great tit feeding its young with an insect Large food items, such as large seeds or prey, are dealt with by \" hold-hammering \" , where the item is held with one or both feet and then struck with the bill until it is ready to eat.", "Using this method, a great tit can get into a hazelnut in about twenty minutes.", "When feeding young, adults will hammer off the heads of large insects to make them easier to consume, and remove the gut from caterpillars so that the tannins in the gut will not retard the chick's growth.", "Great tits combine dietary versatility with a considerable amount of intelligence and the ability to solve problems with insight learning, that is to solve a problem through insight rather than trial and error.", "In England, great tits learned to break the foil caps of milk bottles delivered at the doorstep of homes to obtain the cream at the top.", "This behaviour, first noted in 1921, spread rapidly in the next two decades.", "In 2009, great tits were reported killing, and eating the brains of roosting pipistrelle bats.", "This is the first time a songbird has been recorded preying on bats.", "The tits only do this during winter when the bats are hibernating and other food is scarce.", "They have also been recorded using tools, using a conifer needle in the bill to extract larvae from a hole in a tree.", "Great tits are monogamous breeders and establish breeding territories.", "These territories are established in late January and defence begins in late winter or early spring.", "Territories are usually reoccupied in successive years, even if one of the pair dies, so long as the brood is raised successfully.", "Females are likely to disperse to new territories if their nest is predated the previous year.", "If the pair divorces for some reason then the birds will disperse, with females travelling further than males to establish new territories.", "Although the great tit is socially monogamous, extra-pair copulations are frequent.", "One study in Germany found that 40% of nests contained some offspring fathered by parents other than the breeding male and that 8.5% of all chicks were the result of cuckoldry.", "Adult males tend to have a higher reproductive success compared to sub-adults.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden Young chicks in the nest", "alt nest with seven chicks.", "These are covered with grey down, and have bright yellow gapes Great tits are seasonal breeders.", "The exact timing of breeding varies by a number of factors, most importantly location.", "Most breeding occurs between January and September", "in Europe the breeding season usually begins after March.", "In Israel there are exceptional records of breeding during the months of October to December.", "The amount of sunlight and daytime temperatures will also affect breeding timing.", "One study found a strong correlation between the timing of laying and the peak abundance of caterpillar prey, which is in turn correlated to temperature.", "On an individual level, younger females tend to start laying later than older females.", "alt Great tit leaving its wooden nest box right", "Great tit nesting in nest box Great tits are cavity nesters, breeding in a hole that is usually inside a tree, although occasionally in a wall or rock face, and they will readily take to nest boxes.", "The nest inside the cavity is built by the female, and is made of plant fibres, grasses, moss, hair, wool and feathers.", "The number in the clutch is often very large, as many as 18, but five to twelve is more common.", "Clutch size is smaller when birds start laying later, and is also lower when the density of competitors is higher.", "Second broods tend to have smaller clutches.", "Insularity also affects clutch size, with great tits on offshore islands laying smaller clutches with larger eggs than mainland birds.", "The eggs are white with red spots.", "The female undertakes all incubation duties, and is fed by the male during incubation.", "The bird is a close sitter, hissing when disturbed.", "The timing of hatching, which is best synchronised with peak availability of prey, can be manipulated when environmental conditions change after the laying of the first egg by delaying the beginning of incubation, laying more eggs or pausing during incubation.", "The incubation period is between 12 and 15 days.", "alt Young bird with ruffled adult-like plumage and yellow gape The chicks, like those of all tits, hatch unfeathered and blind.", "Once feathers begin to erupt, the nestlings are unusual for altricial birds in having plumage coloured with carotenoids similar to their parents .", "The nape is yellow and attracts the attention of the parents by its ultraviolet reflectance.", "This may be to make them easier to find in low light, or be a signal of fitness to win the parents' attention.", "This patch turns white after the first moult at age two months, and diminishes in size as the bird grows.", "Chicks are fed by both parents, usually receiving of food a day.", "Inbreeding depression occurs when the offspring produced as a result of a mating between close relatives show reduced fitness.", "The reduced fitness is generally considered to be a consequence of the increased expression of deleterious recessive alleles in these offspring.", "In natural populations of P. major, inbreeding is avoided by dispersal of individuals from their birthplace, which reduces the chance of mating with a close relative.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a predator of great tits, with the young from second broods being at higher risk partly because of the hawk's greater need for food for its own developing young.", "The nests of great tits are raided by great spotted woodpeckers, particularly when nesting in certain types of nest boxes.", "Other nest predators include introduced grey squirrels and least weasels, which are able to take nesting adults as well.", "A species of biting louse described as Rostrinirmus hudeci was isolated and described in 1981 from great tits in central Europe.", "The hen flea Ceratophyllus gallinae is exceedingly common in the nests of blue and great tits.", "It was originally a specialist tit flea, but the dry, crowded conditions of chicken runs enabled it to flourish with its new host.", "This flea is preferentially predated by the clown beetle Gnathoncus punctulatus, The rove beetle Microglotta pulla also feeds on fleas and their larvae.", "Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.", "Great tits compete with the pied flycatcher for nesting boxes, and can kill prospecting flycatcher males.", "Incidences of fatal competition are more frequent when nesting times overlap, and climate change has led to greater synchrony of nesting between the two species and flycatcher deaths.", "Having killed the flycatchers, the great tits may consume their brains.", "Great tits have been found to possess special physiological adaptations for cold environments.", "When preparing for winter months, the great tit can increase how thermogenic its blood is.", "The mechanism for this adaptation is a seasonal increase in mitochondrial volume and mitochondrial respiration in red blood cells and increased uncoupling of the electron transport from ATP production.", "Reduced cold injury and heat loss is mediated by the great tits counter-current vascular arrangements, and peripheral vasoconstriction in major vessels in and around the birds bill and legs.", "This mechanism allows uninsulated regions to remain close to the surrounding temperature.", "In response to food restriction, the great tits bill temperature dropped, and once food availably was increased, bill temperatures gradually returned to normal. Vasoconstriction of blood vessels in the bill not only serves as an energy saving mechanism, but also reduces the amount of heat transferred from core body tissues to the skin , which, in turn, reduces heat loss rate by lowering skin temperature relative to the environment.", "The great tit's willingness to use bird-feeders and nesting boxes makes it popular with the general public and useful to scientists", "alt adult great tit perched on hand The great tit is a popular garden bird due to its acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or seed.", "Its willingness to move into nest boxes has made it a valuable study subject in ornithology", "it has been particularly useful as a model for the study of the evolution of various life-history traits, particularly clutch size.", "A study of a literature database search found 1,349 articles relating to Parus major for the period between 1969 and 2002.", "The great tit has generally adjusted to human modifications of the environment.", "It is more common and has better breeding success in areas with undisturbed forest cover, but it has adapted to human modified habitats.", "It can be very common in urban areas.", "For example, the breeding population in the city of Sheffield has been estimated at some 17,000 individuals.", "In adapting to human environments its song has been observed to change in noise-polluted urban environments.", "In areas with low frequency background noise pollution, the song has a higher frequency than in quieter areas.", "This tit has expanded its range, moving northwards into Scandinavia and Scotland, and south into Israel and Egypt.", "The total population is estimated at between 3001,100 million birds in a range of 32.4 million km 2 .", "While there have been some localised declines in population in areas with poorer quality habitats, its large range and high numbers mean that the great tit is not considered to be threatened, and it is classed as least concern on the IUCN Red List."]}, "Milvus milvus": {"keywords": ["The species currently breeds in the Western Palearctic region of Europe and northwest Africa, though it formerly also occurred in northern Iran.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range in western Europe and northwest Africa, but birds from northeastern and Central Europe winter further south and west, reaching south to Turkey.", "The red kite has been known to successfully hybridize with the black kite in captivity where both species were kept together, and in the wild on the Cape Verde Islands and infrequently in other places.", "The red kites on the Cape Verde Islands are quite distinct in morphology, being somewhat intermediate with black kites.", "In some parts of the United Kingdom, red kites are also deliberately fed in domestic gardens, explaining the presence of red kites in urban areas.", "Red kite in flight in Gredos Mountains, Avila, Spain Red kites inhabit broadleaf woodlands, valleys and wetland edges, to .", "They are native to the western Palearctic, with the European population of 19,00025,000 pairs encompassing 95% of its global breeding range.", "It breeds from Spain and Portugal east into central Europe and Ukraine, north to southern Sweden, Latvia and the UK, and south to southern Italy.", "Northern birds move south in winter, mostly staying in the west of the breeding range, but also to eastern Turkey, northern Tunisia and Algeria.", "The main threats to red kites are poisoning, through illegal direct poisoning and indirect poisoning from pesticides, particularly in the wintering ranges in France and Spain, and changes in agricultural practices causing a reduction in food resources.", "The populations of the northern foothills of the Harz Mountains suffered an estimated 50% decline from 1991 to 2001.", "The Balearic Islands population has declined from 41 to 47 breeding pairs in 1993 to just 10 in 2003.", "Shakespeare's King Lear describes his daughter Goneril as a detested kite, and he wrote \" when the kite builds, look to your lesser linen \" in reference to them stealing washing hung out to dry in the nesting season.", "In Northern Ireland, 80 birds from wild stock in Wales were released between 2008 and 2010, and the first successful breeding was recorded in 2010.", "Thirty Spanish birds were introduced into Rockingham Forest near Corby in 2000, and by 2010, the RSPB estimated that over 200 chicks had been reared from the initial release.", "So successful has the reintroduction been that 30 chicks have been transported from Rockingham Forest for release in Cumbria.", "In June 2010, the Forestry Commission North West England announced a three-year project to release 90 red kites in Grizedale Forest, Cumbria under a special licence issued by Natural England.", "In May 2007, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Dick Roche announced an agreement to bring at least 100 birds from Wales to restock the population as part of a 5-year programme in the Wicklow Mountains, similar to the earlier golden eagle reintroduction programme.", "On 22 May 2010, 2 newly hatched red kite chicks were discovered in the Wicklow mountains, bringing the number of chicks hatched since reintroduction to 7.", "Sweden is one location where the red kite seems to be increasing, with around 2,000 pairs in 2009, some of which are overwintering and some flying south to the Mediterranean for the winter.", "The kite is often seen along the roadsides and roaming the open colourful wheat and rapeseed fields of Scania.", "In Switzerland, they are a common sight in all rural areas, excluding the Alps and its foothills."], "habitat_section": ["Red kite in flight in Gredos Mountains, Avila, Spain Red kites inhabit broadleaf woodlands, valleys and wetland edges, to .", "They are native to the western Palearctic, with the European population of 19,00025,000 pairs encompassing 95% of its global breeding range.", "It breeds from Spain and Portugal east into central Europe and Ukraine, north to southern Sweden, Latvia and the UK, and south to southern Italy.", "There is a population in northern Morocco.", "Northern birds move south in winter, mostly staying in the west of the breeding range, but also to eastern Turkey, northern Tunisia and Algeria.", "The three largest populations declined between 1990 and 2000, and overall the species declined by almost 20% over the ten years.", "The main threats to red kites are poisoning, through illegal direct poisoning and indirect poisoning from pesticides, particularly in the wintering ranges in France and Spain, and changes in agricultural practices causing a reduction in food resources.", "Other threats include electrocution, hunting and trapping, deforestation, egg-collection and possibly competition with the generally more successful black kite M. migrans."], "random_sentences": ["Red Kite at Bwlch Nant yr Arian, Wales, a local feeding ground.", "The red kite is a medium-large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as eagles, buzzards, and harriers.", "The species currently breeds in the Western Palearctic region of Europe and northwest Africa, though it formerly also occurred in northern Iran.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range in western Europe and northwest Africa, but birds from northeastern and Central Europe winter further south and west, reaching south to Turkey.", "Vagrants have reached north to Finland and south to Israel, Libya and Gambia.", "The red kite was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Falco milvus.", "The word milvus was the Latin name for the bird.", "In 1799 the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacepede moved the species to the genus Milvus creating the tautonym.", "The subspecies M. m. fasciicauda is almost certainly extinct.", "The genus Milvus contains two other species: the black kite (M.", "migrans) and the yellow-billed kite (M.", "The red kite has been known to successfully hybridize with the black kite in captivity where both species were kept together, and in the wild on the Cape Verde Islands and infrequently in other places.", "The red kites on the Cape Verde Islands are quite distinct in morphology, being somewhat intermediate with black kites.", "The question whether the Cape Verde kite should be considered a distinct species or a red kite subspecies has not been settled.", "A mitochondrial DNA study on museum specimens suggested that Cape Verde birds did not form a monophyletic lineage among or next to red kites.", "This interpretation is problematic: mtDNA analysis is susceptible to hybridization events, the evolutionary history of the Cape Verde population is not known, and the genetic relationship of red kites is confusing, with geographical proximity being no indicator of genetic relatedness and the overall genetic similarity high, perhaps indicating a relict species.", "Given the morphological distinctness of the Cape Verde birds and that the Cape Verde population was isolated from other populations of red kites, it cannot be conclusively resolved as to whether the Cape Verde population was not a distinct subspecies or even species that frequently absorbed stragglers from the migrating European populations into its gene pool.", "The Cape Verde population became effectively extinct since 2000, all surviving birds being hybrids with black kites.", "The English word \" kite \" is from the Old English cyta which is of unknown origin.", "A kite is mentioned by Geoffrey Chaucer's in his Knight's Tale.", "The early fifteenth century Hengwrt manuscript contains the lines: \" Ther cam a kyte, whil t they were so wrothe That bar awey the boon bitwix hem bothe.", "\" The first recorded use of the word \" kite \" for a toy that is attached to a length of string and flown in the air dates from the seventeenth century.", "Leucistic form A red kite skull Red kite, falconry Adlerwarte Obernberg am Inn, Upper Austria Red kites are long with a wingspan", "males weigh , and females .", "It is an elegant bird, soaring on long wings held at a dihedral, and long forked tail, twisting as it changes direction.", "The body, upper tail and wing coverts are rufous.", "The white primary flight feathers contrast with the black wing tips and dark secondaries.", "Apart from the weight difference, the sexes are similar, but juveniles have a buff breast and belly.", "Its call is a thin piping sound, similar to but less mewling than the common buzzard.", "There is a rare white leucistic form accounting for approximately 1% of hatchlings in the Welsh population, but this variation confers a disadvantage in the survival stakes.", "Differences between adults and juveniles", "Adults differ from juveniles in a number of characteristics: These differences hold throughout most of the first year of a bird's life.", "Eggs in the natural history collection of the Museum Wiesbaden, Germany right", "Juveniles at nest, Berlin Usually red kites first breed when they are two years old, although exceptionally they can successfully breed when they are only one year old.", "They are monogamous and the pair-bond in populations is probably maintained during the winter, particularly when the pair remain on their breeding territory.", "For migrant populations the fidelity to a particular nesting site means that the pair-bond is likely to be renewed each breeding season.", "The nest is normally placed in a fork of a large hardwood tree at a height of between above the ground.", "A pair will sometimes use a nest from the previous year and can occasionally occupy an old nest of the common buzzard.", "The nest is built by both sexes.", "The male brings dead twigs in length which are placed by the female.", "The nest is lined with grass and sometimes also with sheep's wool.", "Unlike the black kite, no greenery is added to the nest.", "Both sexes continue to add material to the nest during the incubation and nestling periods.", "Nests vary greatly in size and can become large when the same nest is occupied for several seasons.", "The eggs are laid at three-day intervals.", "The clutch is usually between one and three eggs but four and even five eggs have occasionally been recorded.", "The eggs are non-glossy with a white ground and red-brown spots.", "The average size is with a calculated weight of .", "In Britain and central Europe, laying begins at the end of March but in the Mediterranean area laying begins in early March.", "The eggs are mainly incubated by the female, but the male will relieve her for short periods while she feeds.", "The male will also bring food for the female.", "Incubation starts as soon as the first egg is laid.", "Each egg hatches after 31 to 32 days but as they hatch asynchronously a clutch of three eggs requires 38 days of incubation.", "The chicks are cared for by both parents.", "The female them for the first 14 days while the male brings food to the nest which the female feeds to the chicks.", "Later both parents bring items of food which are placed in the nest to allow the chicks to feed themselves.", "The nestlings begin climbing onto branches around their nest from 45 days but they rarely before 4850 days and sometimes not until they are 6070 days of age.", "The young spend a further 1520 days in the neighbourhood of the nest being fed by their parents.", "Only a single brood is raised each year but if the eggs are lost the female will relay.", "The maximum age recorded is 25 years and 8 months for a ringed bird in Germany.", "The longevity record for Britain and Ireland is 23 years and 10 months for a bird found dead in Wales in 2012.", "Side view of adult, Wales The red kite's diet consists mainly of small mammals such as mice, voles, shrews, young hares and rabbits.", "It feeds on a wide variety of carrion including sheep carcasses and dead game birds.", "Live birds are also taken and occasionally reptiles and amphibians.", "Earthworms form an important part of the diet, especially in spring.", "In some parts of the United Kingdom, red kites are also deliberately fed in domestic gardens, explaining the presence of red kites in urban areas.", "Here, up to 5% of householders have provided supplementary food for red kites, with chicken the predominant meat provided.", "As scavengers, red kites are particularly susceptible to poisoning.", "Illegal poison baits set for foxes or crows are indiscriminate and kill protected birds and other animals.", "There have also been a number of incidents of red kites and other raptors being targeted by wildlife criminals.", "In the United Kingdom, there have been several unusual instances of red kites stealing food from people in a similar manner to gulls.", "One such occurrence took place in Marlow, Buckinghamshire , in which Red Kites swooped down to steal sandwiches from people in one of the town's parks.", "Red kite in flight in Gredos Mountains, Avila, Spain Red kites inhabit broadleaf woodlands, valleys and wetland edges, to .", "They are native to the western Palearctic, with the European population of 19,00025,000 pairs encompassing 95% of its global breeding range.", "It breeds from Spain and Portugal east into central Europe and Ukraine, north to southern Sweden, Latvia and the UK, and south to southern Italy.", "There is a population in northern Morocco.", "Northern birds move south in winter, mostly staying in the west of the breeding range, but also to eastern Turkey, northern Tunisia and Algeria.", "The three largest populations declined between 1990 and 2000, and overall the species declined by almost 20% over the ten years.", "The main threats to red kites are poisoning, through illegal direct poisoning and indirect poisoning from pesticides, particularly in the wintering ranges in France and Spain, and changes in agricultural practices causing a reduction in food resources.", "Other threats include electrocution, hunting and trapping, deforestation, egg-collection and possibly competition with the generally more successful black kite M. migrans.", "Nestling red kites, Barnim, Germany German populations declined by 25%30% between 1991 and 1997, but have remained stable since.", "The populations of the northern foothills of the Harz Mountains suffered an estimated 50% decline from 1991 to 2001.", "In Spain, the species showed an overall decline in breeding population of up to 43% for the period 1994 to 200102, and surveys of wintering birds in 200304 suggest a similarly large decline in core wintering areas.", "The Balearic Islands population has declined from 41 to 47 breeding pairs in 1993 to just 10 in 2003.", "In France, breeding populations have decreased in the northeast, but seem to be stable in southwest and central France and Corsica.", "Populations elsewhere are stable or undergoing increases.", "In Sweden, the species has increased from 30 to 50 pairs in the 1970s to 1,200 breeding pairs in 2003.", "In Switzerland, populations increased during the 1990s, and have stabilised.", "Red kite, Gigrin Farm, Wales Red kites at the feeding station, Laurieston, Scotland.", "In the United Kingdom, red kites were ubiquitous scavengers that lived on carrion and rubbish.", "Shakespeare's King Lear describes his daughter Goneril as a detested kite, and he wrote \" when the kite builds, look to your lesser linen \" in reference to them stealing washing hung out to dry in the nesting season.", "In the mid-15th century, King James II of Scotland decreed that they should be \" killed wherever possible \" , but they remained protected in England and Wales for the next 100 years as they kept the streets free of carrion and rotting food.", "Under Tudor \" vermin laws \" many creatures were seen as competitors for the produce of the countryside and bounties were paid by the parish for their carcasses.", "By the 20th century, the breeding population was restricted to a handful of pairs in South Wales, but recently the Welsh population has been supplemented by re-introductions in England and Scotland.", "In 2004, from 375 occupied territories identified, at least 216 pairs were thought to have hatched eggs and 200 pairs reared at least 286 young.", "In 1989, six Swedish birds were released at a site in north Scotland and four Swedish and one Welsh bird in Buckinghamshire.", "Altogether, 93 birds of Swedish and Spanish origin were released at each of the sites.", "In the second stage of reintroduction in 1995 and 1996, further birds were brought from Germany to populate areas of Dumfries and Galloway.", "Between 2004 and 2006, 94 birds were brought from the Chilterns and introduced into the Derwent Valley in north East England.", "In Northern Ireland, 80 birds from wild stock in Wales were released between 2008 and 2010, and the first successful breeding was recorded in 2010.", "The reintroductions in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty have been a success.", "Between 1989 and 1993, 90 birds were released there and by 2002, 139 pairs were breeding.", "They can commonly be seen taking advantage of thermals from the M40 motorway.", "Another successful reintroduction has been in Northamptonshire, which has become a stronghold for the red kite.", "Thirty Spanish birds were introduced into Rockingham Forest near Corby in 2000, and by 2010, the RSPB estimated that over 200 chicks had been reared from the initial release.", "So successful has the reintroduction been that 30 chicks have been transported from Rockingham Forest for release in Cumbria.", "From the Chilterns they have spread as far east as Essex and can be seen over Harlow.", "To the west they have recently spread along the M4 as far as the Cotswold Edge overlooking the Severn near Bristol.", "A sighting of the first red kite in London for 150 years was reported in The Independent newspaper in January 2006 and in June of that year, the UK-based Northern Kites Project reported that kites had bred in the Derwent Valley in and around Rowlands Gill, Tyne and Wear for the first time since the re-introduction.", "In 1999, the red kite was named 'Bird of the Century' by the British Trust for Ornithology.", "According to the Welsh Kite Trust, it has been voted \" Wales's favourite bird \" .", "In June 2010, the Forestry Commission North West England announced a three-year project to release 90 red kites in Grizedale Forest, Cumbria under a special licence issued by Natural England.", "The Grizedale programme was the ninth reintroduction of red kites into different regions of the UK and the final re-introduction phase in England.", "The stated aims of the Grizedale project were: As of July 2011, non-breeding birds are regularly seen in all parts of Britain, and the number of breeding pairs is too large for the RSPB to continue to survey them on an annual basis.", "Red kites were extinct in Ireland by the middle nineteenth century, due to persecution, poisoning and woodland clearance.", "In May 2007, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Dick Roche announced an agreement to bring at least 100 birds from Wales to restock the population as part of a 5-year programme in the Wicklow Mountains, similar to the earlier golden eagle reintroduction programme.", "On 19 July 2007, the first thirty red kites were released in County Wicklow.", "On 22 May 2010, 2 newly hatched red kite chicks were discovered in the Wicklow mountains, bringing the number of chicks hatched since reintroduction to 7.", "Sweden is one location where the red kite seems to be increasing, with around 2,000 pairs in 2009, some of which are overwintering and some flying south to the Mediterranean for the winter.", "The red kite is the landscape bird of Scania, and the coat of arms of the municipality of Tomelilla.", "The kite is often seen along the roadsides and roaming the open colourful wheat and rapeseed fields of Scania.", "Populations and trends by country", "A young red kite in Cookham, Berkshire.", "The following figures have been collated from various sources.", "They cover most of the countries in which red kites are believed to have bred.", "All information must be referenced A short video on Red Kite feeding at Bwlch Nant yr Arian visitor centre in Ceredigion, Wales One of the best places to see the red kite in Scandinavia is Scania in southern Sweden.", "It may be observed in one of its breeding locations such as the Kullaberg Nature Preserve near Molle.", "In Switzerland, they are a common sight in all rural areas, excluding the Alps and its foothills.", "Some of the best places to see them in the United Kingdom are Gigrin Farm near Rhayader, mid Wales, where hundreds are fed by the local farmer as a tourist attraction, a Red Kite Feeding Station at Llanddeusant in the Brecon Beacons, visited daily by over 50 birds, and the Bwlch Nant yr Arian forest visitor centre in Ceredigion where the rare leucistic variant can be seen.", "In the UK, the Oxfordshire part of the Chilterns has many red kites, especially near Henley-on-Thames and Watlington, where they were introduced on John Paul Getty's estate.", "Red Kites are also becoming common in Buckinghamshire, often being seen near Stokenchurch, where a population was released in the 1990s, and Flackwell Heath near High Wycombe.", "They can also be seen around Harewood near Leeds where they were re-introduced in 1999.", "In Ireland they can be best observed at Redcross, near Avoca, County Wicklow."]}, "Fringilla coelebs": {"keywords": ["The chaffinch breeds in much of Europe, across the Palearctic to Siberia and in northwestern Africa.", "Outside the breeding season, chaffinches form flocks in open countryside and forage for seeds on the ground.", "During the breeding season, they forage on trees for invertebrates, especially caterpillars, and feed these to their young.", "They are partial migrants, birds breeding in warmer regions are sedentary, while those breeding in the colder northern areas of their range winter further south.", "The ends of the feathers wear away over the winter so that by the spring breeding season the underlying brighter colours are displayed.", "The males of F. c. canariensis and F. c. palmae in the Canary Islands have deep slate-blue upperparts and lack a contrasting mantle.", "The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia.", "There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.", "The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century.", "In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species.", "In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.", "This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter.", "The date for breeding is dependent on the spring temperature and is earlier in southwest Europe and later in the northeast.", "The outside is covered with a layer of lichen and spider silk over an inner layer of moss and grass.", "Outside the breeding season, common chaffinches mainly eat seeds and other plant material that they find on the ground.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain.", "The endemic subspecies on the Macaronesian islands in the Atlantic are vulnerable to the loss of habitat, especially F. c. ombriosa on El Hierro in the Canary Islands, where the breeding population is between 1,000 and 5,000 pairs.", "\" In Great Britain, the practice of keeping common chaffinches as pets declined after the trapping of wild birds was outlawed by the Wild Birds Protection Acts of 1880 to 1896."], "habitat_section": ["The common chaffinch breeds in wooded areas where the July isotherm is between .", "The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia.", "There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.", "The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century.", "In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species.", "In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.", "This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter.", "It forms loose flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with bramblings.", "It occasionally strays to eastern North America, although some sightings may be escapees."], "random_sentences": ["ID composite The common chaffinch or simply the chaffinch is a common and widespread small passerine bird in the finch family.", "The male is brightly coloured with a blue-grey cap and rust-red underparts.", "The female is more subdued in colouring, but both sexes have two contrasting white wing bars and white sides to the tail.", "The male bird has a strong voice and sings from exposed perches to attract a mate.", "The chaffinch breeds in much of Europe, across the Palearctic to Siberia and in northwestern Africa.", "The female builds a nest with a deep cup in the fork of a tree.", "The clutch is typically four or five eggs, which hatch in about 13 days.", "The chicks fledge in around 14 days, but are fed by both adults for several weeks after leaving the nest.", "Outside the breeding season, chaffinches form flocks in open countryside and forage for seeds on the ground.", "During the breeding season, they forage on trees for invertebrates, especially caterpillars, and feed these to their young.", "birds breeding in warmer regions are sedentary, while those breeding in the colder northern areas of their range winter further south.", "The eggs and nestlings of the chaffinch are taken by a variety of mammalian and avian predators.", "Its large numbers and huge range mean that chaffinches are classed as of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.", "The common chaffinch was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name.", "Fringilla is the Latin word for finch, while caelebs means unmarried or single.", "Linnaeus remarked that during the Swedish winter, only the female birds migrated south through Belgium to Italy.", "The name spink is probably derived from the bird's call note.", "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 .", "The common chaffinch is about long, with a wingspan of and a weight of .", "The adult male of the nominate subspecies has a black forehead and a blue-grey crown, nape and upper mantle.", "The rump is a light olive-green", "the lower mantle and scapulars form a brown saddle.", "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.", "The flight feathers are black with white on the basal portions of the vanes.", "The secondaries and inner primaries have pale yellow fringes on the outer web whereas the outer primaries have a white outer edge.", "After the autumn moult, the tips of the new feathers have a buff fringe that adds a brown cast to the coloured plumage.", "The ends of the feathers wear away over the winter so that by the spring breeding season the underlying brighter colours are displayed.", "The eyes have dark brown irises and the legs are grey-brown.", "In winter the bill is a pale grey and slightly darker along the upper ridge or culmen, but in spring the bill becomes bluish-grey with a small black tip.", "The male of the subspecies resident in the British Isles (F.", "c. gengleri) closely resembles the nominate subspecies, but has a slightly darker mantle and underparts.", "The males of the two North African subspecies F. c. africana and F. c. spodiogenys have a blue-grey crown and nape that extends down to the sides of the head and neck, a black forehead and lore, a broken white eye-ring, a bright olive-green saddle and a pink-buff throat and breast.", "The males of F. c. canariensis and F. c. palmae in the Canary Islands have deep slate-blue upperparts and lack a contrasting mantle.", "Male chaffinches in Madeira (F.", "c. maderensis) and the Azores (F.", "c. moreletti) are similar in appearance to F. c. canariensis, but have a bright green mantle.", "The adult female is much duller in appearance than the male.", "The head and most of the upperparts are shades of grey-brown.", "The lower back and rump are a dull olive green.", "The wings and tail are similar to those of the male.", "The juvenile resembles the female.", "Males typically sing two or three different song types, and there are regional dialects also.", "The acquisition by the young common chaffinch of its song was the subject of an influential study by British ethologist William Thorpe.", "Thorpe determined that if the young common chaffinch is not exposed to the adult male's song during a certain critical period after hatching, it will never properly learn the song.", "He also found that in adult common chaffinches, castration eliminates the song, but injection of testosterone induces such birds to sing even in November, when they are normally silent.", "The common chaffinch breeds in wooded areas where the July isotherm is between .", "The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia.", "There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.", "The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century.", "In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species.", "In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.", "This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter.", "It forms loose flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with bramblings.", "It occasionally strays to eastern North America, although some sightings may be escapees.", "Nest of a chaffinch Eggs of Fringilla coelebs moreletti", "Common chaffinches first breed when they are 1 year old.", "They are mainly monogamous and the pair-bond for residential subspecies such as gengleri sometimes persists from one year to the next.", "The date for breeding is dependent on the spring temperature and is earlier in southwest Europe and later in the northeast.", "In Great Britain, most clutches are laid between late April and the middle of June.", "A male attracts a female to his territory through song.", " Nests are built entirely by the female and are usually located in the fork of a bush or a tree several metres above the ground.", "The nest has a deep cup and is lined with a layer of thin roots and feathers.", "The outside is covered with a layer of lichen and spider silk over an inner layer of moss and grass.", "The eggs are laid in early morning at daily intervals until the clutch is complete.", "The clutch is typically 45 eggs, which are smooth and slightly glossy, but very variable in colour.", "They range from pale-blueish green to light red with purple-brown blotches, spots or steaks.", "The average size of an egg is with a weight of .", "The eggs are incubated for 1016 days by the female.", "The chicks are altricial, hatching nearly naked with closed eyes, and are fed by both parents but mainly by the female, who broods them for around six days.", "They are mainly fed caterpillars.", "The nestlings fledge 1118 days after hatching and disperse.", "The young birds are then assisted with feeding by both parents for a further three weeks.", "The parents only very rarely start a second brood, but when they do so it is always in a new nest.", "Juveniles undergo a partial moult at around five weeks of age in which they replace their head, body and many of their covert feathers, but not their primary and secondary flight feathers.", "After breeding adult birds undergo a complete annual moult which lasts around ten weeks.", "In a study carried out in Britain using ring-recovery data, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 53 per cent, and the adult annual survival rate was 59 per cent.", "From these figures the typical lifespan is only 3 years, but the maximum age recorded is 15 years and 6 months for a bird in Switzerland.", "Outside the breeding season, common chaffinches mainly eat seeds and other plant material that they find on the ground.", "They often forage in open country in large flocks.", "Common chaffinches seldom take food directly from plants and only very rarely use their feet for handling food.", "During the breeding season, their diet switches to invertebrates, especially defoliating caterpillars.", "They forage in trees and also occasionally make short sallies to catch insects in the air.", "The young are entirely fed with invertebrates which include caterpillars, aphids, earwigs, spiders and grubs .", "The eggs and nestlings of the common chaffinch are predated by crows, Eurasian red and eastern grey squirrels, domestic cats and probably also by stoats and weasels.", "Clutches begun later in the spring suffer less predation, an effect that is believed to be due to the increased vegetation making nests more difficult to find.", " Unlike the case for the closely related brambling, the common chaffinch is not parasitised by the common cuckoo.", "The protozoal parasite Trichomonas gallinae was known to infect pigeons and raptors, but beginning in Great Britain in 2005, carcasses of dead European greenfinches and common chaffinches were found to be infected with the parasite.", "The disease spread and in 2008, infected carcasses were found in Norway, Sweden and Finland and a year later in Germany.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain.", "In Great Britain, the number of infected carcasses recovered each year declined after a peak in 2006.", "There was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches but no significant decline in the overall number of common chaffinches.", "A similar pattern occurred in Finland where, after the arrival of the disease in 2008, there was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches, but only a small change in the number of common chaffinches.", "Common chaffinches can develop tumors on their feet and legs caused by the Fringilla coelebs papillomavirus.", "The size of the papillomas range from a small nodule on a digit to a large growth involving both the foot and the leg.", "The disease is uncommon: in a 1973 study undertaken in the Netherlands, of around 25,000 common chaffinches screened, only 330 bore papillomas.", "The common chaffinch has an extensive range, estimated at 7 million square kilometres and a large population including an estimated 130240 million breeding pairs in Europe.", "Allowing for the birds breeding in Asia, the total population lies between 530 and 1,400 million individuals.", "There is no evidence of any serious overall decline in numbers, so the species is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of Least Concern.", "The endemic subspecies on the Macaronesian islands in the Atlantic are vulnerable to the loss of habitat, especially F. c. ombriosa on El Hierro in the Canary Islands, where the breeding population is between 1,000 and 5,000 pairs.", "A captive male chaffinch The common chaffinch was once popular as a caged songbird and large numbers of wild birds were trapped and sold.", "At the end of the 19th century, trapping even depleted the number of birds in London parks.", "In 1882, the English publisher Samuel Orchart Beeton issued a guide on the care of caged birds and included the recommendation: \" To parents and guardians plagued with a morose and sulky boy, my advice is, buy him a chaffinch.", "\" In Great Britain, the practice of keeping common chaffinches as pets declined after the trapping of wild birds was outlawed by the Wild Birds Protection Acts of 1880 to 1896.", "The common chaffinch is still a popular pet bird in some European countries.", "In Belgium, the traditional sport of vinkenzetting pits male common chaffinches against one another in a contest for the most bird calls in an hour."]}, "Passer domesticus": {"keywords": ["One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia.", "Though found in widely varied habitats and climates, it typically avoids extensive woodlands, grasslands, and deserts away from human development.", "It feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is an opportunistic eater and commonly eats insects and many other foods.", "Younger birds are smaller, males are larger during the winter, and females are larger during the breeding season.", "Birds at higher latitudes, colder climates, and sometimes higher altitudes are larger , both between and within subspecies.", "The upper back and mantle are a warm brown, with broad black streaks, while the lower back, rump and upper tail coverts are greyish brown.", "Many of these relatives are smaller, with an appearance that is neater or \" cuter \" , as with the Dead Sea sparrow.", "The house sparrow is also called by a number of alternative English names, including English sparrow, chiefly in North America, and Indian sparrow or Indian house sparrow, for the birds of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia.", "Within Passer, the house sparrow is part of the \" Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrows \" group and a close relative of the Mediterranean \" willow sparrows \" .", "In the Alps, the Italian sparrow intergrades over a narrow roughly strip with the house sparrow, and some house sparrows migrate into the Italian sparrow's range in winter.", "On the Mediterranean islands of Malta, Gozo, Crete, Rhodes, and Karpathos, other apparently intermediate birds are of unknown status.", "By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona House sparrows perching on a roof, during winter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa.", "Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America , Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world.", "It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.", "House sparrows were introduced in New Zealand in 1859, and from there reached many of the Pacific islands, including Hawaii.", "It now occurs almost continuously from Tierra del Fuego to the fringes of the Amazon basin, with isolated populations as far north as coastal Venezuela.", "The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra.", "It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night.", "It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates.", "It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries.", "In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty.", "The house sparrow feeds mostly on the ground, but it flocks in trees and bushes.", "Outside of the reproductive season, they often roost communally in trees or shrubs.", "A female house sparrow feeding on rice grains As an adult, the house sparrow mostly feeds on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is opportunistic and adaptable, and eats whatever foods are available.", "Several studies of the house sparrow in temperate agricultural areas have found the proportion of seeds in its diet to be about 90%.", "In temperate areas, the house sparrow has an unusual habit of tearing flowers, especially yellow ones, in the spring.", "Various noninsect arthropods are eaten, as are molluscs and crustaceans where available, earthworms, and even vertebrates such as lizards and frogs.", "Some young birds disperse long distances, especially on coasts, and mountain birds move to lower elevations in winter.", "The house sparrow is also a common victim of roadkill, on European roads, it is the bird most frequently found dead.", "The house sparrow hosts avian pox and avian malaria, which it has spread to the native forest birds of Hawaii.", "Arboviruses such as the West Nile virus, which most commonly infect insects and mammals, survive winters in temperate areas by going dormant in birds such as the house sparrow.", "A few records indicate disease extirpating house sparrow populations, especially from Scottish islands, but this seems to be rare.", "House sparrows are also infected by haemosporidian parasites, but less so in urban than in rural areas Toxoplasma gondii has been detected in sparrows in northwestern China where they pose a risk due to their meat being consumed in the region.", "A number of chewing lice occupy different niches on the house sparrow's body.", "Menacanthus lice occur across the house sparrow's body, where they feed on blood and feathers, while Brueelia lice feed on feathers and Philopterus fringillae occurs on the head.", "Finally, house sparrows in constant darkness could be entrained to a cycle of high and low temperature, but only if the difference in temperature was large , some of the tested sparrows matched their activity to the warm phase, and others to the cold phase.", "Usually, the house sparrow is regarded as a pest, since it consumes agricultural products and spreads disease to humans and their domestic animals.", "Declines in insect populations result from an increase of monoculture crops, the heavy use of pesticides, the replacement of native plants in cities with introduced plants and parking areas, and possibly the introduction of unleaded petrol, which produces toxic compounds such as methyl nitrite."], "habitat_section": ["By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona House sparrows perching on a roof, during winter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa.", "Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America , Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world.", "It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.", "The extent of its range makes it the most widely distributed wild bird on the planet.", "The house sparrow is closely associated with human habitation and cultivation.", "It is not an obligate commensal of humans as some have suggested.", "birds of the migratory Central Asian subspecies usually breed away from humans in open country, and birds elsewhere are occasionally found away from humans.", "The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra.", "Well adapted to living around humans, it frequently lives and even breeds indoors, especially in factories, warehouses, and zoos.", "It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night.", "It reaches its greatest densities in urban centres, but its reproductive success is greater in suburbs, where insects are more abundant.", "On a larger scale, it is most abundant in wheat-growing areas such as the Midwestern United States.", "It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates.", "It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries.", "In most of eastern Asia, the house sparrow is entirely absent, replaced by the Eurasian tree sparrow.", "Where these two species overlap, the house sparrow is usually more common than the Eurasian tree sparrow, but one species may replace the other in a manner that ornithologist Maud Doria Haviland described as \" random, or even capricious \" .", "In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty."], "random_sentences": ["The house sparrow is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world.", "It is a small bird that has a typical length of and a mass of .", "Females and young birds are coloured pale brown and grey, and males have brighter black, white, and brown markings.", "One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia.", "Its intentional or accidental introductions to many regions, including parts of Australasia, Africa, and the Americas, make it the most widely distributed wild bird.", "The house sparrow is strongly associated with human habitation, and can live in urban or rural settings.", "Though found in widely varied habitats and climates, it typically avoids extensive woodlands, grasslands, and deserts away from human development.", "It feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is an opportunistic eater and commonly eats insects and many other foods.", "Its predators include domestic cats, hawks, and many other predatory birds and mammals.", "Because of its numbers, ubiquity, and association with human settlements, the house sparrow is culturally prominent.", "It is extensively, and usually unsuccessfully, persecuted as an agricultural pest.", "It has also often been kept as a pet, as well as being a food item and a symbol of lust, sexual potency, commonness, and vulgarity.", "Though it is widespread and abundant, its numbers have declined in some areas.", "The animal's conservation status is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List.", "An audio recording of a house sparrow", "The house sparrow is typically about long, ranging from .", "The house sparrow is a compact bird with a full chest and a large, rounded head.", "Its bill is stout and conical with a culmen length of , strongly built as an adaptation for eating seeds.", "Its tail is short, at long.", "The wing chord is , and the tarsus is .", "In mass, the house sparrow ranges from .", "Females usually are slightly smaller than males.", "The median mass on the European continent for both sexes is about , and in more southerly subspecies is around .", "Younger birds are smaller, males are larger during the winter, and females are larger during the breeding season.", "Birds at higher latitudes, colder climates, and sometimes higher altitudes are larger , both between and within subspecies.", "The plumage of the house sparrow is mostly different shades of grey and brown.", "The sexes exhibit strong dimorphism: the female is mostly buffish above and below, while the male has boldly coloured head markings, a reddish back, and grey underparts.", "The male has a dark grey crown from the top of its bill to its back, and chestnut brown flanking its crown on the sides of its head.", "It has black around its bill, on its throat, and on the spaces between its bill and eyes .", "It has a small white stripe between the lores and crown and small white spots immediately behind the eyes , with black patches below and above them.", "The underparts are pale grey or white, as are the cheeks, ear coverts, and stripes at the base of the head.", "The upper back and mantle are a warm brown, with broad black streaks, while the lower back, rump and upper tail coverts are greyish brown.", "The male is duller in fresh nonbreeding plumage, with whitish tips on many feathers.", "Wear and preening expose many of the bright brown and black markings, including most of the black throat and chest patch, called the \" bib \" or \" badge \" .", "The badge is variable in width and general size, and may signal social status or fitness.", "This hypothesis has led to a \" veritable 'cottage industry' \" of studies, which have only conclusively shown that patches increase in size with age.", "The male's bill is dark grey, but black in the breeding season.", "The female has no black markings or grey crown.", "Its upperparts and head are brown with darker streaks around the mantle and a distinct pale supercilium.", "Its underparts are pale grey-brown.", "The female's bill is brownish-grey and becomes darker in breeding plumage approaching the black of the male's bill.", "Juveniles are similar to the adult female, but deeper brown below and paler above, with paler and less defined supercilia.", "Juveniles have broader buff feather edges, and tend to have looser, scruffier plumage, like moulting adults.", "Juvenile males tend to have darker throats and white postoculars like adult males, while juvenile females tend to have white throats.", "However, juveniles cannot be reliably sexed by plumage: some juvenile males lack any markings of the adult male, and some juvenile females have male features.", "The bills of young birds are light yellow to straw, paler than the female's bill.", "Immature males have paler versions of the adult male's markings, which can be very indistinct in fresh plumage.", "By their first breeding season, young birds generally are indistinguishable from other adults, though they may still be paler during their first year.", "Most house sparrow vocalisations are variations on its short and incessant chirping call.", "Transcribed as chirrup, tschilp, or philip, this note is made as a contact call by flocking or resting birds, or by males to proclaim nest ownership and invite pairing.", "In the breeding season, the male gives this call repetitively, with emphasis and speed, but not much rhythm, forming what is described either as a song or an \" ecstatic call \" similar to a song.", "Young birds also give a true song, especially in captivity, a warbling similar to that of the European greenfinch.", "Aggressive males give a trilled version of their call, transcribed as \" chur-chur-r-r-it-it-it-it \" .", "This call is also used by females in the breeding season, to establish dominance over males while displacing them to feed young or incubate eggs.", "House sparrows give a nasal alarm call, the basic sound of which is transcribed as quer, and a shrill chree call in great distress.", "Another vocalisation is the \" appeasement call \" , a soft quee given to inhibit aggression, usually given between birds of a mated pair.", "These vocalisations are not unique to the house sparrow, but are shared, with small variations, by all sparrows.", "An immature of the Indian subspecies (P.", "d. indicus) in Rajasthan, India Some variation is seen in the 12 subspecies of house sparrows, which are divided into two groups, the Oriental P. d. indicus group, and the Palaearctic P. d. domesticus group.", "Birds of the P. d. domesticus group have grey cheeks, while P. d. indicus group birds have white cheeks, as well as bright colouration on the crown, a smaller bill, and a longer black bib.", "The subspecies P. d. tingitanus differs little from the nominate subspecies, except in the worn breeding plumage of the male, in which the head is speckled with black and underparts are paler.", "P. d. balearoibericus is slightly paler than the nominate, but darker than P. d. bibilicus.", "P. d. bibilicus is paler than most subspecies, but has the grey cheeks of P. d. domesticus group birds.", "The similar P. d. persicus is paler and smaller, and P. d. niloticus is nearly identical but smaller.", "Of the less widespread P. d. indicus group subspecies, P. d. hyrcanus is larger than P. d. indicus, P. d. hufufae is paler, P. d. bactrianus is larger and paler, and P. d. parkini is larger and darker with more black on the breast than any other subspecies.", "The house sparrow can be confused with a number of other seed-eating birds, especially its relatives in the genus Passer.", "Many of these relatives are smaller, with an appearance that is neater or \" cuter \" , as with the Dead Sea sparrow.", "The dull-coloured female can often not be distinguished from other females, and is nearly identical to those of the Spanish and Italian sparrows.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow is smaller and slenderer with a chestnut crown and a black patch on each cheek.", "The male Spanish sparrow and Italian sparrow are distinguished by their chestnut crowns.", "The Sind sparrow is very similar but smaller, with less black on the male's throat and a distinct pale supercilium on the female.", "The house sparrow was among the first animals to be given a scientific name in the modern system of biological classification, since it was described by Carl Linnaeus, in the 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "It was described from a type specimen collected in Sweden, with the name Fringilla domestica.", "Later, the genus name Fringilla came to be used only for the common chaffinch and its relatives, and the house sparrow has usually been placed in the genus Passer created by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.", "The bird's scientific name and its usual English name have the same meaning.", "The Latin word passer, like the English word \" sparrow \" , is a term for small active birds, coming from a root word referring to speed.", "The Latin word domesticus means \" belonging to the house \" , like the common name a reference to its association with humans.", "The house sparrow is also called by a number of alternative English names, including English sparrow, chiefly in North America", "and Indian sparrow or Indian house sparrow, for the birds of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia.", "Dialectal names include sparr, sparrer, spadger, spadgick, and philip, mainly in southern England", "spug and spuggy, mainly in northern England", "spur and sprig, mainly in Scotland", "and spatzie or spotsie, from the German Spatz, in North America.", "A pair of Italian sparrows, in Rome The genus Passer contains about 25 species, depending on the authority, 26 according to the Handbook of the Birds of the World.", "Most Passer species are dull-coloured birds with short, square tails and stubby, conical beaks, between long.", "Mitochondrial DNA studies suggest that speciation in the genus occurred during the Pleistocene and earlier, while other evidence suggests speciation occurred 25,000 to 15,000 years ago.", "Within Passer, the house sparrow is part of the \" Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrows \" group and a close relative of the Mediterranean \" willow sparrows \" .", "The taxonomy of the house sparrow and its Mediterranean relatives is complicated.", "The common type of \" willow sparrow \" is the Spanish sparrow, which resembles the house sparrow in many respects.", "It frequently prefers wetter habitats than the house sparrow, and it is often colonial and nomadic.", "In most of the Mediterranean, one or both species occur, with some degree of hybridisation.", "In North Africa, the two species hybridise extensively, forming highly variable mixed populations with a full range of characters from pure house sparrows to pure Spanish sparrows.", "In most of Italy, the breeding species is the Italian sparrow, which has an appearance intermediate between those of the house and Spanish sparrows.", "Its specific status and origin are the subject of much debate, but it may be a case of long-ago hybrid speciation.", "In the Alps, the Italian sparrow intergrades over a narrow roughly strip with the house sparrow, and some house sparrows migrate into the Italian sparrow's range in winter.", "On the Mediterranean islands of Malta, Gozo, Crete, Rhodes, and Karpathos, other apparently intermediate birds are of unknown status.", "By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona House sparrows perching on a roof, during winter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa.", "Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America , Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world.", "It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.", "The extent of its range makes it the most widely distributed wild bird on the planet.", "The house sparrow has become highly successful in most parts of the world where it has been introduced.", "This is mostly due to its early adaptation to living with humans, and its adaptability to a wide range of conditions.", "Other factors may include its robust immune response, compared to the Eurasian tree sparrow.", "Where introduced, it can extend its range quickly, sometimes at a rate over per year.", "In many parts of the world, it has been characterised as a pest, and poses a threat to native birds.", "A few introductions have died out or been of limited success, such as those to Greenland and Cape Verde.", "intended to control the ravages of the linden moth.", "In North America, the house sparrow now occurs from the Northwest Territories of Canada to southern Panama, The house sparrow was first introduced to Australia in 1863 at Melbourne and is common throughout the eastern part of the continent as far north as Cape York, but has been prevented from establishing itself in Western Australia, where every house sparrow found in the state is killed.", "House sparrows were introduced in New Zealand in 1859, and from there reached many of the Pacific islands, including Hawaii.", "In southern Africa, birds of both the European subspecies (P.", "d. domesticus) and the Indian subspecies (P.", "d. indicus) were introduced around 1900.", "Birds of P. d. domesticus ancestry are confined to a few towns, while P. d. indicus birds have spread rapidly, reaching Tanzania in the 1980s.", "Despite this rapid spread, native relatives such as the Cape sparrow also occur and thrive in urban habitats.", "In South America, it was first introduced near Buenos Aires around 1870, and quickly became common in most of the southern part of the continent.", "It now occurs almost continuously from Tierra del Fuego to the fringes of the Amazon basin, with isolated populations as far north as coastal Venezuela.", "The house sparrow is closely associated with human habitation and cultivation.", "It is not an obligate commensal of humans as some have suggested: birds of the migratory Central Asian subspecies usually breed away from humans in open country, and birds elsewhere are occasionally found away from humans.", "The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra.", "Well adapted to living around humans, it frequently lives and even breeds indoors, especially in factories, warehouses, and zoos.", "It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night.", "It reaches its greatest densities in urban centres, but its reproductive success is greater in suburbs, where insects are more abundant.", "On a larger scale, it is most abundant in wheat-growing areas such as the Midwestern United States.", "It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates.", "It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries.", "In most of eastern Asia, the house sparrow is entirely absent, replaced by the Eurasian tree sparrow.", "Where these two species overlap, the house sparrow is usually more common than the Eurasian tree sparrow, but one species may replace the other in a manner that ornithologist Maud Doria Haviland described as \" random, or even capricious \" .", "In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty.", "The house sparrow is a very social bird.", "It is gregarious during all seasons when feeding, often forming flocks with other species of birds.", "It roosts communally and while breeding nests are usually grouped together in clumps.", "House sparrows also engage in social activities such as dust or water bathing and \" social singing \" , in which birds call together in bushes.", "The house sparrow feeds mostly on the ground, but it flocks in trees and bushes.", "At feeding stations and nests, female house sparrows are dominant despite their smaller size, and they can fight over males in the breeding season.", "House sparrows sleep with the bill tucked underneath the scapular feathers.", "Outside of the reproductive season, they often roost communally in trees or shrubs.", "Much communal chirping occurs before and after the birds settle in the roost in the evening, as well as before the birds leave the roost in the morning.", "Some congregating sites separate from the roost may be visited by the birds prior to settling in for the night.", "Dust or water bathing is common and often occurs in groups.", "Head scratching is done with the leg over the drooped wing.", "A female house sparrow feeding on rice grains As an adult, the house sparrow mostly feeds on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is opportunistic and adaptable, and eats whatever foods are available.", "In towns and cities, it often scavenges for food in garbage containers and congregates in the outdoors of restaurants and other eating establishments to feed on leftover food and crumbs.", "It can perform complex tasks to obtain food, such as opening automatic doors to enter supermarkets, clinging to hotel walls to watch vacationers on their balconies, and nectar robbing kowhai flowers.", "In common with many other birds, the house sparrow requires grit to digest the harder items in its diet.", "Grit can be either stone, often grains of masonry, or the shells of eggs or snails", "oblong and rough grains are preferred.", "Several studies of the house sparrow in temperate agricultural areas have found the proportion of seeds in its diet to be about 90%.", "It will eat almost any seeds, but where it has a choice, it prefers corn, oats, and wheat.", "Rural birds tend to eat more waste seed from animal dung and seed from fields.", "In urban areas, the house sparrow feeds largely on food provided directly or indirectly by humans, such as bread, though it prefers raw seeds.", "The house sparrow also eats some plant matter besides seeds, including buds, berries, and fruits such as grapes and cherries.", "In temperate areas, the house sparrow has an unusual habit of tearing flowers, especially yellow ones, in the spring.", "Animals form another important part of the house sparrow's diet, chiefly insects, of which beetles, caterpillars, dipteran flies, and aphids are especially important.", "Various noninsect arthropods are eaten, as are molluscs and crustaceans where available, earthworms, and even vertebrates such as lizards and frogs.", "Young house sparrows are fed mostly on insects until about 15 days after hatching.", "They are also given small quantities of seeds, spiders, and grit.", "In most places, grasshoppers and crickets are the most abundant foods of nestlings.", "True bugs, ants, sawflies, and beetles are also important, but house sparrows take advantage of whatever foods are abundant to feed their young.", "House sparrows have been observed stealing prey from other birds, including American robins.", "The gut microbiota of house sparrows differs between chicks and adults, with Pseudomonadota decreasing in chicks when they get to around 9 days old, whilst the relative abundance of Bacillota increase.", "The house sparrow's flight is direct and flapping, averaging and about 15 wingbeats per second.", "On the ground, the house sparrow typically hops rather than walks.", "It can swim when pressed to do so by pursuit from predators.", "Captive birds have been recorded diving and swimming short distances under water.", "Most house sparrows do not move more than a few kilometres during their lifetimes.", "However, limited migration occurs in all regions.", "Some young birds disperse long distances, especially on coasts, and mountain birds move to lower elevations in winter.", "Two subspecies, P. d. bactrianus and P. d. parkini, are predominantly migratory.", "Unlike the birds in sedentary populations that migrate, birds of migratory subspecies prepare for migration by putting on weight.", "A pair of the Indian subspecies (P.", "d. indicus) mating in Kolkata House sparrows can breed in the breeding season immediately following their hatching, and sometimes attempt to do so.", "Some birds breeding for the first time in tropical areas are only a few months old and still have juvenile plumage.", "Birds breeding for the first time are rarely successful in raising young, and reproductive success increases with age, as older birds breed earlier in the breeding season, and fledge more young.", "As the breeding season approaches, hormone releases trigger enormous increases in the size of the sexual organs and changes in day length lead males to start calling by nesting sites.", "The timing of mating and egg-laying varies geographically, and between specific locations and years because a sufficient supply of insects is needed for egg formation and feeding nestlings.", "Males take up nesting sites before the breeding season, by frequently calling beside them.", "Unmated males start nest construction and call particularly frequently to attract females.", "When a female approaches a male during this period, the male displays by moving up and down while drooping and shivering his wings, pushing up his head, raising and spreading his tail, and showing his bib.", "Males may try to mate with females while calling or displaying.", "In response, a female will adopt a threatening posture and attack a male before flying away, pursued by the male.", "The male displays in front of her, attracting other males, which also pursue and display to the female.", "This group display usually does not immediately result in copulations.", "Other males usually do not copulate with the female.", "Copulation is typically initiated by the female giving a soft dee-dee-dee call to the male.", "Birds of a pair copulate frequently until the female is laying eggs, and the male mounts the female repeatedly each time a pair mates.", "The house sparrow is monogamous, and typically mates for life, but birds from pairs often engage in extra-pair copulations, so about 15% of house sparrow fledglings are unrelated to their mother's mate.", "Males guard their mates carefully to avoid being cuckolded, and most extra-pair copulation occurs away from nest sites.", "Males may sometimes have multiple mates, and bigamy is mostly limited by aggression between females.", "Many birds do not find a nest and a mate, and instead may serve as helpers around the nest for mated pairs, a role which increases the chances of being chosen to replace a lost mate.", "Lost mates of both sexes can be replaced quickly during the breeding season.", "The formation of a pair and the bond between the two birds is tied to the holding of a nest site, though paired house sparrows can recognise each other away from the nest.", "In adult house sparrows, annual survival is 4565%.", "After fledging and leaving the care of their parents, young sparrows have a high mortality rate, which lessens as they grow older and more experienced.", "Only about 2025% of birds hatched survive to their first breeding season.", "The oldest known wild house sparrow lived for nearly two decades", "it was found dead 19 years and 9 months after it was ringed in Denmark.", "The oldest recorded captive house sparrow lived for 23 years.", "The typical ratio of males to females in a population is uncertain due to problems in collecting data, but a very slight preponderance of males at all ages is usual.", "A male sparrow being eaten by a cat: Domestic cats are one of the main predators of the house sparrow.", "The house sparrow's main predators are cats and birds of prey, but many other animals prey on them, including corvids, squirrels, and even humansthe house sparrow has been consumed in the past by people in many parts of the world, and it still is in parts of the Mediterranean.", "Most species of birds of prey have been recorded preying on the house sparrow in places where records are extensive.", "Accipiters and the merlin in particular are major predators, though cats are likely to have a greater impact on house sparrow populations.", "The house sparrow is also a common victim of roadkill", "on European roads, it is the bird most frequently found dead.", "The house sparrow is host to a huge number of parasites and diseases, and the effect of most is unknown.", "Ornithologist Ted R. Anderson listed thousands, noting that his list was incomplete.", "The commonly recorded bacterial pathogens of the house sparrow are often those common in humans, and include Salmonella and Escherichia coli.", "Salmonella is common in the house sparrow, and a comprehensive study of house sparrow disease found it in 13% of sparrows tested.", "Salmonella epidemics in the spring and winter can kill large numbers of sparrows.", "The house sparrow hosts avian pox and avian malaria, which it has spread to the native forest birds of Hawaii.", "Many of the diseases hosted by the house sparrow are also present in humans and domestic animals, for which the house sparrow acts as a reservoir host.", "Arboviruses such as the West Nile virus, which most commonly infect insects and mammals, survive winters in temperate areas by going dormant in birds such as the house sparrow.", "A few records indicate disease extirpating house sparrow populations, especially from Scottish islands, but this seems to be rare.", "House sparrows are also infected by haemosporidian parasites, but less so in urban than in rural areas Toxoplasma gondii has been detected in sparrows in northwestern China where they pose a risk due to their meat being consumed in the region.", "The house sparrow is infested by a number of external parasites, which usually cause little harm to adult sparrows.", "In Europe, the most common mite found on sparrows is Proctophyllodes, the most common ticks are Argas reflexus and Ixodes arboricola, and the most common flea on the house sparrow is Ceratophyllus gallinae.", "Dermanyssus blood-feeding mites are also common ectoparasites of house sparrows, and these mites can enter human habitation and bite humans, causing a condition known as gamasoidosis.", "A number of chewing lice occupy different niches on the house sparrow's body.", "Menacanthus lice occur across the house sparrow's body, where they feed on blood and feathers, while Brueelia lice feed on feathers and Philopterus fringillae occurs on the head.", "An immature house sparrow sleeping House sparrows express strong circadian rhythms of activity in the laboratory.", "They were among the first bird species to be seriously studied in terms of their circadian activity and photoperiodism, in part because of their availability and adaptability in captivity, but also because they can \" find their way \" and remain rhythmic in constant darkness.", "Such studies have found that the pineal gland is a central part of the house sparrow's circadian system: removal of the pineal eliminates the circadian rhythm of activity, and transplant of the pineal into another individual confers to this individual the rhythm phase of the donor bird.", "The suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus have also been shown to be an important component of the circadian system of house sparrows.", "The photoreceptors involved in the synchronisation of the circadian clock to the external light-dark cycle are located in the brain and can be stimulated by light reaching them directly though the skull, as revealed by experiments in which blind sparrows, which normally can still synchronise to the light-dark cycle, failed to do so once India ink was injected as a screen under the skin on top of their skulls.", "Similarly, even when blind, house sparrows continue to be photoperiodic, i.e. show reproductive development when the days are long, but not when the days are short.", "This response is stronger when the feathers on top of the head are plucked, and is eliminated when India ink is injected under the skin at the top of the head, showing that the photoreceptors involved in the photoperiodic response to day length are located inside the brain.", "House sparrows have also been used in studies of nonphotic entrainment : for example, in constant darkness, a situation in which the birds would normally reveal their endogenous, non-24-hour, \" free-running \" rhythms of activity, they instead show 24-hour periodicity if they are exposed to two hours of chirp playbacks every 24 hours, matching their daily activity onsets with the daily playback onsets.", "House sparrows in constant dim light can also be entrained to a daily cycle based on the presence of food.", "Finally, house sparrows in constant darkness could be entrained to a cycle of high and low temperature, but only if the difference in temperature was large ", "some of the tested sparrows matched their activity to the warm phase, and others to the cold phase.", "Flocking and chirping together beneath a fluorescent tube light in Germany The house sparrow is closely associated with humans.", "They are believed to have become associated with humans around 10,000 years ago.", "d. bactrianus) is least associated with humans and considered to be evolutionarily closer to the ancestral noncommensal populations.", "Usually, the house sparrow is regarded as a pest, since it consumes agricultural products and spreads disease to humans and their domestic animals.", "Even birdwatchers often hold it in little regard because of its molestation of other birds.", "However, the house sparrow can be beneficial to humans, as well, especially by eating insect pests, and attempts at the large-scale control of the house sparrow have failed.", "The house sparrow has long been used as a food item.", "From around 1560 to at least the 19th century in northern Europe, earthenware \" sparrow pots \" were hung from eaves to attract nesting birds so the young could be readily harvested.", "Wild birds were trapped in nets in large numbers, and sparrow pie was a traditional dish, thought, because of the association of sparrows with lechery, to have aphrodisiac properties.", "A traditional Indian medicine, Cittukkuruvi lekiyam in Tamil, was sold with similar aphrodisiac claims.", "Sparrows were also trapped as food for falconers' birds and zoo animals.", "During the 1870s, there were debates on the damaging effects of sparrows in the House of Commons in England.", "In the early part of the 20th century, sparrow clubs culled many millions of birds and eggs in an attempt to control numbers of this perceived pest, but with only a localised impact on numbers.", "House sparrows have been kept as pets at many times in history, though they have no bright plumage or attractive songs, and raising them is difficult.", "The house sparrow has an extremely large range and population, so it is assessed as least concern for conservation on the IUCN Red List.", "The IUCN estimates for the global population runs up to nearly 1.4 billion individuals, second among all birds perhaps only to the red-billed quelea in abundance .", "However, populations have been declining in many parts of the world, especially near its Eurasian places of origin.", "These declines were first noticed in North America, where they were initially attributed to the spread of the house finch, but have been most severe in Western Europe.", "Declines have not been universal, as no serious declines have been reported from Eastern Europe, but have even occurred in Australia, where the house sparrow was introduced recently.", "In Great Britain, populations peaked in the early 1970s, but have since declined by 68% overall, and about 90% in some regions.", "The RSPB lists the house sparrow's UK conservation status as red.", "In London, the house sparrow almost disappeared from the central city.", "The numbers of house sparrows in the Netherlands have dropped in half since the 1980s, so the house sparrow is even considered an endangered species.", "This status came to widespread attention after a female house sparrow, referred to as the \" Dominomus \" , was killed after knocking down dominoes arranged as part of an attempt to set a world record.", "These declines are not unprecedented, as similar reductions in population occurred when the internal combustion engine replaced horses in the 1920s and a major source of food in the form of grain spillage was lost.", "Declines have been particularly apparent even in North America, where the house sparrow is invasive in some states.", "Introduced to Philadelphia initially in 1852 the house sparrow rapidly spread across the nation.", "However, the bird has largely disappeared from the city nowadays and overall, it is estimated to have declined in North America by 84% since 1966.", "In South Asia, the house sparrow has largely vanished from major cities such as Karachi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Lahore.", "Various causes for the dramatic decreases in population have been proposed, including predation, in particular by Eurasian sparrowhawks", "electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones", "and diseases A primary cause of the decline seems to be an insufficient supply of insect food for nestling sparrows.", "Declines in insect populations result from an increase of monoculture crops, the heavy use of pesticides, the replacement of native plants in cities with introduced plants and parking areas, and possibly the introduction of unleaded petrol, which produces toxic compounds such as methyl nitrite.", "Protecting insect habitats on farms and planting native plants in cities benefit the house sparrow, as does establishing urban green spaces.", "To raise awareness of threats to the house sparrow, World Sparrow Day has been celebrated on 20 March across the world since 2010.", "Over the recent years, the house sparrow population has been on the decline in many Asian countries, and this decline is quite evident in India.", "To promote the conservation of these birds, in 2012, the house sparrow was declared as the state bird of Delhi.", "To many people across the world, the house sparrow is the most familiar wild animal and, because of its association with humans and familiarity, it is frequently used to represent the common and vulgar, or the lewd.", "One of the reasons for the introduction of house sparrows throughout the world was their association with the European homeland of many immigrants.", "Birds usually described later as sparrows are referred to in many works of ancient literature and religious texts in Europe and western Asia.", "These references may not always refer specifically to the house sparrow, or even to small, seed-eating birds, but later writers who were inspired by these texts often had the house sparrow in mind.", "In particular, sparrows were associated by the ancient Greeks with Aphrodite, the goddess of love, due to their perceived lustfulness, an association echoed by later writers such as Chaucer and Shakespeare.", "Jesus's use of \" sparrows \" as an example of divine providence in the Gospel of Matthew also inspired later references, such as that in Shakespeare's Hamlet and the Gospel hymn His Eye Is on the Sparrow.", "\" The house sparrow is very rarely represented in ancient Egyptian art, but an Egyptian hieroglyph is based on it.", "The sparrow hieroglyph had no phonetic value and was used as a determinative in words to indicate small, narrow, or bad.", "An alternative view is that the hieroglyph meant \" a prolific man \" or \" the revolution of a year \" ."]}, "Corvus corax": {"keywords": ["In many cultures, including the indigenous cultures of Scandinavia, ancient Ireland and Wales, Bhutan, the northwest coast of North America, and Siberia and northeast Asia, the common raven has been revered as a spiritual figure or godlike creature.", ", the Icelandic raven Iceland and the Faroe Islands It is less glossy than C. c. principalis or the nominate C. c. corax, is intermediate in size, and the bases of its neck feathers are whitish .", ", the North African raven North Africa and the Canary Islands It is the smallest subspecies, with the shortest throat hackles and a distinctly oily plumage gloss.", "The Canary Islands raven is browner than the North African raven, leading some authorities to treat them as separate subspecies with the latter maintaining the name C. c. tingitanus and the former known as C. c. canariensis.", ", the Kamchatkan raven Northeastern Asia Intergrades into the nominate subspecies in the Lake Baikal region.", ", the northern raven Northern North America and Greenland It has a large body and the largest bill, its plumage is strongly glossed, and its throat hackles are well developed.", "The common raven evolved in the Old World and crossed the Bering land bridge into North America.", "Recent genetic studies, which examined the DNA of common ravens from across the world, have determined that the birds fall into at least two clades.", "a California clade, found only in the southwestern United States, and a Holarctic clade, found across the rest of the Northern Hemisphere.", "A 2011 study suggested that there are no restrictions on gene flow between the Californian and Holarctic common raven groups, and that the lineages can remerge, effectively reversing a potential speciation.", "A recent study of raven mitochondrial DNA showed that the isolated population from the Canary Islands is distinct from other populations.", "Birds from colder regions such as the Himalayas and Greenland are generally larger with slightly larger bills, while those from warmer regions are smaller with proportionally smaller bills.", "The voice of ravens is also quite distinct, its usual call being a deep croak of a much more sonorous quality than a crow's call.", "In North America, the Chihuahuan raven is fairly similar to the relatively small common ravens of the American southwest and is best distinguished by the still relatively smaller size of its bill, beard and body and relatively longer tail.", "In the Faroe Islands, a now-extinct white-and-black colour morph of this species existed, known as the pied raven.", "They range throughout the Holarctic from Arctic and temperate habitats in North America and Eurasia to the deserts of North Africa, and to islands in the Pacific Ocean.", "In Tibet, they have been recorded at altitudes up to 5,000 m , and as high as 6,350 m on Mount Everest.", "In the United Kingdom, the common raven's range has been increasing, though it favours mountainous or coastal terrain, but can also be found in parks with tall trees suitable for use as habitation.", "Common Ravens panting to cool down in heat in Palm Desert California Most common ravens prefer wooded areas with large expanses of open land nearby, or coastal regions for their nesting sites and feeding grounds.", "On coasts, individuals of this species are often evenly distributed and prefer to build their nest sites along sea cliffs.", "Common ravens are often located in coastal regions because these areas provide easy access to water and a variety of food sources.", "Also, coastal regions have stable weather patterns without extreme cold or hot temperatures.", "The nest is a deep bowl made of large sticks and twigs, bound with an inner layer of roots, mud, and bark and lined with a softer material, such as deer fur.", "The nest is usually placed in a large tree or on a cliff ledge, or less frequently in old buildings or utility poles.", "In colder climates, it is later, e.g.", "For example, those foraging on tundra on the Arctic North Slope of Alaska obtained about half their energy needs from predation, mainly of microtine rodents, and half by scavenging, mainly of caribou and ptarmigan carcasses.", "They sometimes associate with another canine, the grey wolf, as a kleptoparasite, following to scavenge wolf-kills in winter.", "Flock feeding at a garbage dump Common ravens nesting near sources of human garbage included a higher percentage of food waste in their diet, birds nesting near roads consumed more road-killed vertebrates, and those nesting far from these sources of food ate more arthropods and plant material. Fledging success was higher for those using human garbage as a food source.", "In contrast, a 19841986 study of common raven diet in an agricultural region of southwestern Idaho found that cereal grains were the principal constituent of pellets, though small mammals, grasshoppers, cattle carrion and birds were also eaten.", "Furthermore, there has been research suggesting that the common raven is involved in seed dispersal. In the wild, the common raven chooses the best habitat and disperses seeds in locations best suited for its survival. .", "They have been observed to slide down snowbanks, apparently purely for fun.", "Compared to many smaller Corvus species , ravens prefer undisturbed mountain or forest habitat or rural areas over urban areas.", "Common ravens can cause damage to crops, such as nuts and grain, or can harm livestock, particularly by killing young goat kids, lambs and calves.", "Ravens generally attack the faces of young livestock, but the more common raven behaviour of scavenging may be misidentified as predation by ranchers.", "Towns, landfills, sewage treatment plants and artificial ponds create sources of food and water for scavenging birds.", "Ravens also find nesting sites in utility poles and ornamental trees, and are attracted to roadkill on highways.", "A valkyrie speaks with a raven in a 19th-century illustration of the Old Norse poem Hrafnsmal by Frederick Sandys ."], "habitat_section": ["Two juveniles in Iceland The common raven can thrive in varied climates, indeed this species has the largest range of any member of the genus, and one of the largest of any passerine.", "They range throughout the Holarctic from Arctic and temperate habitats in North America and Eurasia to the deserts of North Africa, and to islands in the Pacific Ocean.", "In the British Isles, they are more common in Scotland, Wales, northern England and the west of Ireland.", "In Tibet, they have been recorded at altitudes up to 5,000 m , and as high as 6,350 m on Mount Everest.", "In the United Kingdom, the common raven's range has been increasing, though it favours mountainous or coastal terrain, but can also be found in parks with tall trees suitable for use as habitation.", "Its population is at its most dense in the north and west of the country, though the species is expanding its population southwards.", "Common Ravens panting to cool down in heat in Palm Desert California Most common ravens prefer wooded areas with large expanses of open land nearby, or coastal regions for their nesting sites and feeding grounds.", "In some areas of dense human population, such as California in the United States, they take advantage of a plentiful food supply and have seen a surge in their numbers.", "On coasts, individuals of this species are often evenly distributed and prefer to build their nest sites along sea cliffs.", "Common ravens are often located in coastal regions because these areas provide easy access to water and a variety of food sources.", "Also, coastal regions have stable weather patterns without extreme cold or hot temperatures.", "In general, common ravens live in a wide array of environments but prefer heavily contoured landscapes.", "When the environment changes in vast degrees, these birds will respond with a stress response.", "The hormone known as corticosterone is activated by the hypothalamicpituitaryadrenal axis.", "Corticosterone is activated when the bird is exposed to stress, such as migrating great distances.", "Compared to many smaller Corvus species , ravens prefer undisturbed mountain or forest habitat or rural areas over urban areas.", "In other areas, their numbers have increased dramatically and they have become agricultural pests.", "Common ravens can cause damage to crops, such as nuts and grain, or can harm livestock, particularly by killing young goat kids, lambs and calves.", "Ravens generally attack the faces of young livestock, but the more common raven behaviour of scavenging may be misidentified as predation by ranchers.", "In the western Mojave Desert, human settlement and land development have led to an estimated 16-fold increase in the common raven population over 25 years.", "Towns, landfills, sewage treatment plants and artificial ponds create sources of food and water for scavenging birds.", "Ravens also find nesting sites in utility poles and ornamental trees, and are attracted to roadkill on highways.", "The explosion in the common raven population in the Mojave has raised concerns for the desert tortoise, a threatened species.", "Common ravens prey upon juvenile tortoises, which have soft shells and move slowly.", "Plans to control the population have included shooting and trapping birds, as well as contacting landfill operators to ask that they reduce the amount of exposed garbage.", "A hunting bounty as a method of control was historically used in Finland from the mid-18th century until 1923.", "Culling has taken place to a limited extent in Alaska, where the population increase in common ravens is threatening the vulnerable Steller's eider .", "Ravens, like other corvids, are definitive hosts of West Nile Virus .", "The transmission can be from infected birds to humans, and ravens are susceptible to WNV. However, in a 2010 study, it was shown that the California Common Ravens did not have a high positivity rate of WNV."], "random_sentences": ["The common raven , also known as the western raven or northern raven when discussing the raven at the subspecies level, is a large all-black passerine bird.", "Found across the Northern Hemisphere, it is the most widely distributed of all corvids.", "There are at least eight subspecies with little variation in appearance, although recent research has demonstrated significant genetic differences among populations from various regions.", "It is one of the two largest corvids, alongside the thick-billed raven, and is possibly the heaviest passerine bird", "at maturity, the common raven averages in length and in mass.", "Although their typical lifespan is considerably shorter, common ravens can live more than 23 years in the wild.", "Young birds may travel in flocks but later mate for life, with each mated pair defending a territory.", "Common ravens have coexisted with humans for thousands of years and in some areas have been so numerous that people have regarded them as pests.", "Part of their success as a species is due to their omnivorous diet: they are extremely versatile and opportunistic in finding sources of nutrition, feeding on carrion, insects, cereal grains, berries, fruit, small animals, nesting birds, and food waste.", "Some notable feats of problem-solving provide evidence that the common raven is unusually intelligent.", "Over the centuries, it has been the subject of mythology, folklore, art, and literature.", "In many cultures, including the indigenous cultures of Scandinavia, ancient Ireland and Wales, Bhutan, the northwest coast of North America, and Siberia and northeast Asia, the common raven has been revered as a spiritual figure or godlike creature.", "The common raven was one of the many species originally described, with its type locality given as Europe, by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, and it still bears its original name of Corvus corax.", "It is the type species of the genus Corvus, derived from the Latin word for 'raven'.", "The specific epithet corax is the Latinized form of the Greek word , meaning 'raven' or 'crow'.", "The modern English word raven has cognates in many other Germanic languages, including Old Norse and Old High German , all which descend from Proto-Germanic .", "An old Scottish word or , akin to the French , has been used for both this bird and the carrion crow.", "Collective nouns for a group of ravens include \" unkindness \" and \" conspiracy \" .", "The closest relatives of the common raven are the brown-necked raven (C.", "ruficollis), the pied crow (C.", "albus) of Africa, and the Chihuahuan raven (C.", "cryptoleucus) of the North American Southwest.", "While some authorities have recognized as many as 11 subspecies, others recognize only eight: Subspecies Image Distribution Notes , the North Eurasian raven From Europe eastwards to Lake Baikal, south to the Caucasus region and northern Iran It has a relatively short, arched bill.", "The population in southwestern Europe has an even more arched bill and shorter wings than the \" typical \" nominate, leading some authorities to recognize it as a separate subspecies, the Hispanic raven (C.", ", the Icelandic raven Iceland and the Faroe Islands It is less glossy than C. c. principalis or the nominate C. c. corax, is intermediate in size, and the bases of its neck feathers are whitish .", "An extinct white-and-black color morph found only on the Faroes was known as the pied raven (C.", "the black color morph's scientific name is C. c. varius morpha typicus).", ", the South Eurasian raven From Greece eastwards to northwestern India, Central Asia and western China, though not in the Himalayan region It is larger than the nominate form, but has relatively short throat feathers .", "Its plumage is generally all black, though its neck and breast have a brownish tone similar to that of the brown-necked raven", "this is more evident when the plumage is worn.", "The bases of its neck feathers, although somewhat variable in colour, are often almost whitish.", "The name C. c. laurencei is sometimes used instead of C. c. subcorax.", "and is sometimes preferred, since the type specimen of subcorax collected by Nikolai Severtzov is possibly a brown-necked raven.", "The population restricted to the Sindh district of Pakistan and adjoining regions of northwestern India is sometimes known as the Punjab raven.", ", the North African raven North Africa and the Canary Islands It is the smallest subspecies, with the shortest throat hackles and a distinctly oily plumage gloss.", "Its bill is short but markedly stout, and the culmen is strongly arched.", "The Canary Islands raven is browner than the North African raven, leading some authorities to treat them as separate subspecies with the latter maintaining the name C. c. tingitanus and the former known as C. c. canariensis.", ", the Tibetan raven The Himalayas It is the largest and glossiest subspecies, with the longest throat hackles.", "Its bill is large, but less imposing than that of C. c. principalis and the bases of its neck feathers are grey.", ", the Kamchatkan raven Northeastern Asia Intergrades into the nominate subspecies in the Lake Baikal region.", "It is intermediate in size between C. c. principalis and C. c. corax and has a distinctly larger and thicker bill than the nominate subspecies does.", ", the northern raven Northern North America and Greenland It has a large body and the largest bill, its plumage is strongly glossed, and its throat hackles are well developed.", ", the western raven South-central North America and Central America It is smaller, with a smaller and narrower bill than C. c. principalis.", "Populations in the far southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico are the smallest in North America.", "They are sometimes included in C. c. sinuatus, while other authorities recognize them as a distinct subspecies, the southwestern raven (C.", "The common raven evolved in the Old World and crossed the Bering land bridge into North America.", "Recent genetic studies, which examined the DNA of common ravens from across the world, have determined that the birds fall into at least two clades: a California clade, found only in the southwestern United States, and a Holarctic clade, found across the rest of the Northern Hemisphere.", "Birds from both clades look alike, but the groups are genetically distinct and began to diverge about two million years ago.", "Ravens in the Holarctic clade are more closely related to the pied crow (C.", "albus) than they are to the California clade.", "Thus, the common raven species as traditionally delimited is considered to be paraphyletic.", "One explanation for these genetic findings is that common ravens settled in California at least two million years ago and became separated from their relatives in Europe and Asia during a glacial period.", "One million years ago, a group from the California clade evolved into a new species, the Chihuahuan raven.", "Other members of the Holarctic clade arrived later in a separate migration from Asia, perhaps at the same time as humans.", "A 2011 study suggested that there are no restrictions on gene flow between the Californian and Holarctic common raven groups, and that the lineages can remerge, effectively reversing a potential speciation.", "A recent study of raven mitochondrial DNA showed that the isolated population from the Canary Islands is distinct from other populations.", "The study did not include any individuals from the North African population, and its position is therefore unclear, though its morphology is very close to the population of the Canaries .", "In sunlight, the plumage can display a blue or purple sheen which is a result of iridescence.", "A mature common raven ranges between 54 and 67 cm long, with a wingspan of 115 to 150 cm .", "Recorded weights range from 0.69 to 2 kg , thus making the common raven one of the heaviest passerines.", "Birds from colder regions such as the Himalayas and Greenland are generally larger with slightly larger bills, while those from warmer regions are smaller with proportionally smaller bills.", "Representative of the size variation in the species, ravens from California weighed an average of , those from Alaska weighed an average of and those from Nova Scotia weighed an average of .", "The bill is large and slightly curved, with a culmen length of , easily one of the largest bills amongst passerines .", "It has a longish, strongly graduated tail, at , and mostly black iridescent plumage, and a dark brown iris.", "The throat feathers are elongated and pointed and the bases of the neck feathers are pale brownish-grey.", "The legs and feet are good-sized, with a tarsus length of .", "Juvenile plumage is similar but duller with a blue-grey iris.", "Apart from its greater size, the common raven differs from its cousins, the crows, by having a larger and heavier black beak, shaggy feathers around the throat and above the beak, and a wedge-shaped tail.", "Flying ravens are distinguished from crows by their tail shape, larger wing area, and more stable soaring style, which generally involves less wing flapping.", "Despite their bulk, ravens are easily as agile in flight as their smaller cousins.", "In flight the feathers produce a creaking sound that has been likened to the rustle of silk.", "The voice of ravens is also quite distinct, its usual call being a deep croak of a much more sonorous quality than a crow's call.", "In North America, the Chihuahuan raven (C.", "cryptoleucus) is fairly similar to the relatively small common ravens of the American southwest and is best distinguished by the still relatively smaller size of its bill, beard and body and relatively longer tail.", "corone) in Europe may suggest a raven due to their largish bill but are still distinctly smaller and have the wing and tail shapes typical of crows.", "In the Faroe Islands, a now-extinct white-and-black colour morph of this species existed, known as the pied raven.", "White ravens are occasionally found in the wild.", "Birds in British Columbia lack the pink eyes of an albino, and are instead leucistic, a condition where an animal lacks any of several different types of pigment, not simply melanin.", "Vocalising Common ravens have a wide range of vocalizations which are of interest to ornithologists.", "Gwinner carried out important studies in the early 1960s, recording and photographing his findings in great detail.", "Like other corvids, the common raven can mimic sounds from their environment, including human speech.", "Non-vocal sounds produced by the common raven include wing whistles and bill snapping.", "Clapping or clicking has been observed more often in females than in males.", "If a member of a pair is lost, its mate reproduces the calls of its lost partner to encourage its return.", "Two juveniles in Iceland The common raven can thrive in varied climates", "indeed this species has the largest range of any member of the genus, and one of the largest of any passerine.", "They range throughout the Holarctic from Arctic and temperate habitats in North America and Eurasia to the deserts of North Africa, and to islands in the Pacific Ocean.", "In the British Isles, they are more common in Scotland, Wales, northern England and the west of Ireland.", "In Tibet, they have been recorded at altitudes up to 5,000 m , and as high as 6,350 m on Mount Everest.", "In the United Kingdom, the common raven's range has been increasing, though it favours mountainous or coastal terrain, but can also be found in parks with tall trees suitable for use as habitation.", "Its population is at its most dense in the north and west of the country, though the species is expanding its population southwards.", "Common Ravens panting to cool down in heat in Palm Desert California Most common ravens prefer wooded areas with large expanses of open land nearby, or coastal regions for their nesting sites and feeding grounds.", "In some areas of dense human population, such as California in the United States, they take advantage of a plentiful food supply and have seen a surge in their numbers.", "On coasts, individuals of this species are often evenly distributed and prefer to build their nest sites along sea cliffs.", "Common ravens are often located in coastal regions because these areas provide easy access to water and a variety of food sources.", "Also, coastal regions have stable weather patterns without extreme cold or hot temperatures.", "In general, common ravens live in a wide array of environments but prefer heavily contoured landscapes.", "When the environment changes in vast degrees, these birds will respond with a stress response.", "The hormone known as corticosterone is activated by the hypothalamicpituitaryadrenal axis.", "Corticosterone is activated when the bird is exposed to stress, such as migrating great distances.", "Group of ravens gathered around dead member Common ravens usually travel in mated pairs, although young birds may form flocks.", "Relationships between common ravens are often quarrelsome, yet they demonstrate considerable devotion to their families.", "Owing to its size, gregariousness and its defensive abilities, the common raven has few natural predators.", "Predators of its eggs include owls, martens, and sometimes eagles.", "Ravens are quite vigorous at defending their young and are usually successful at driving off perceived threats.", "They attack potential predators by flying at them and lunging with their large bills.", "Humans are occasionally attacked if they get close to a raven nest, though serious injuries are unlikely.", "There are a few records of predation by large birds of prey.", "Their attackers in America have reportedly included great horned owls, northern goshawks, bald eagles, golden eagles and red-tailed hawks.", "It is possible that the two hawk species only attack young ravens", "in one instance a peregrine falcon swooped at a newly fledged raven but was chased off by the parent ravens.", "In Eurasia, their reported predators include, in addition to golden eagles, Eurasian eagle-owls, white-tailed eagles, Steller's sea-eagles, eastern imperial eagles and gyrfalcons.", "Because they are potentially hazardous prey for raptorial birds, raptors must usually take them by surprise and most attacks are on fledgling ravens.", "More rarely still, large mammalian predators such as lynxes, coyotes and cougars have also attacked ravens.", "This principally occurs at a nest site and when other prey for the carnivores are scarce.", "Ravens are highly wary around novel carrion sites and, in North America, have been recorded waiting for the presence of American crows and blue jays before approaching to eat.", "Young on a nest Hvitserkur, Iceland Eggs of Corvus corax Juveniles begin to court at a very early age, but may not bond for another two or three years.", "Aerial acrobatics, demonstrations of intelligence, and ability to provide food are key behaviours of courting.", "Once paired, they tend to nest together for life, usually in the same location.", "Instances of non-monogamy have been observed in common ravens, by males visiting a female's nest when her mate is away.", "Breeding pairs must have a territory of their own before they begin nest-building and reproduction, and thus they aggressively defend a territory and its food resources.", "Nesting territories vary in size according to the density of food resources in the area.", "The nest is a deep bowl made of large sticks and twigs, bound with an inner layer of roots, mud, and bark and lined with a softer material, such as deer fur.", "The nest is usually placed in a large tree or on a cliff ledge, or less frequently in old buildings or utility poles.", "Females lay between three and seven pale bluish-green, brown-blotched eggs.", "Incubation is about 18 to 21 days, by the female only.", "The male may stand or crouch over the young, sheltering but not actually brooding them.", "Young fledge at 35 to 42 days, and are fed by both parents.", "They stay with their parents for another six months after fledging.", "In most of their range, egg-laying begins in late February.", "In colder climates, it is later, e.g. April in Greenland and Tibet.", "In Pakistan, egg-laying takes place in December.", "They have been observed dropping stones on potential predators that venture close to their nests.", "Common ravens can be very long-lived, especially in captive or protected conditions", "individuals at the Tower of London have lived for more than 40 years.", "which among passerines only is surpassed by a few Australian species such as the satin bowerbird.", "Feeding Common ravens are omnivorous and highly opportunistic: their diet may vary widely with location, season and serendipity.", "For example, those foraging on tundra on the Arctic North Slope of Alaska obtained about half their energy needs from predation, mainly of microtine rodents, and half by scavenging, mainly of caribou and ptarmigan carcasses.", "In some places they are mainly scavengers, feeding on carrion as well as the associated maggots and carrion beetles.", "With large-bodied carrion, which they are not equipped to tear through as well as birds such as hook-billed vultures, they must wait for the prey to be torn open by another predator or flayed by other means.", "They are also known to eat the afterbirth of ewes and other large mammals.", "Plant food includes cereal grains, acorns, buds, berries and fruit.", "They prey on small invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals and birds.", "Ravens may also consume the undigested portions of animal feces, and human food waste.", "They store surplus food items, especially those containing fat, and will learn to hide such food out of the sight of other common ravens.", "Ravens also raid the food caches of other species, such as the Arctic fox.", "They sometimes associate with another canine, the grey wolf, as a kleptoparasite, following to scavenge wolf-kills in winter.", "Ravens are regular predators at bird nests, brazenly picking off eggs, nestlings and sometimes adult birds when they spot an opportunity.", "They are considered perhaps the primary natural threat to the nesting success of the critically endangered California condor, since they readily take condor eggs and are very common in the areas where the species is being re-introduced.", "On the other hand, when they defend their own adjacent nests, they may incidentally benefit condors since they chase golden eagles out of the area that may otherwise prey upon larger nestling and fledging condors.", "Condors, despite their large size, do not seem to have well developed nest defenses.", "Flock feeding at a garbage dump Common ravens nesting near sources of human garbage included a higher percentage of food waste in their diet, birds nesting near roads consumed more road-killed vertebrates, and those nesting far from these sources of food ate more arthropods and plant material. Fledging success was higher for those using human garbage as a food source.", "In contrast, a 19841986 study of common raven diet in an agricultural region of southwestern Idaho found that cereal grains were the principal constituent of pellets, though small mammals, grasshoppers, cattle carrion and birds were also eaten.", "One behaviour is recruitment, where juvenile ravens call other ravens to a food bonanza, usually a carcass, with a series of loud yells.", "In Ravens in Winter, Bernd Heinrich posited that this behaviour evolved to allow the juveniles to outnumber the resident adults, thus allowing them to feed on the carcass without being chased away.", "A more mundane explanation is that individuals co-operate in sharing information about carcasses of large mammals because they are too big for just a few birds to exploit.", "Experiments with baits however show that such recruitment behaviour is independent of the size of the bait.", "Furthermore, there has been research suggesting that the common raven is involved in seed dispersal. In the wild, the common raven chooses the best habitat and disperses seeds in locations best suited for its survival.", "The brain of the common raven is among the largest of any bird species.", "Specifically, their hyperpallium is large for a bird.", "They display ability in problem-solving, as well as other cognitive processes such as imitation and insight.", "Dilapidated NIKE Missile radar dome in Alaska with an evening roost Linguist Derek Bickerton, building on the work of biologist Bernd Heinrich, has argued that ravens are one of only four known animals who have demonstrated displacement, the capacity to communicate about objects or events that are distant in space or time.", "Subadult ravens roost together at night, but usually forage alone during the day.", "However, when one discovers a large carcass guarded by a pair of adult ravens, the unmated raven will return to the roost and communicate the find.", "The following day, a flock of unmated ravens will fly to the carcass and chase off the adults.", "Bickerton argues that the advent of linguistic displacement was perhaps the most important event in the evolution of human language, and that ravens are the only other vertebrate to share this with humans.", "One experiment designed to evaluate insight and problem-solving ability involved a piece of meat attached to a string hanging from a perch.", "To reach the food, the bird needed to stand on the perch, pull the string up a little at a time, and step on the loops to gradually shorten the string.", "Four of five common ravens eventually succeeded, and \" the transition from no success to constant reliable access occurred with no demonstrable trial-and-error learning.", "\" This supports the hypothesis that common ravens are 'inventors', implying that they can solve problems.", "Many of the feats of common ravens were formerly argued to be stereotyped innate behaviour, but it now has been established that their aptitudes for solving problems individually and learning from each other reflect a flexible capacity for intelligent insight unusual among non-human animals.", "Another experiment showed that some common ravens could intentionally deceive their conspecifics.", "A study published in 2011 found that ravens can recognise when they are given an unfair trade during reciprocal interactions with conspecifics or humans, retaining memory of the interaction for a prolonged period of time.", "Birds that were given a fair trade by experimenters were found to prefer interacting with these experimenters compared to those that did not.", "Furthermore, ravens in the wild have also been observed to stop cooperating with other ravens if they observe them cheating during group tasks.", "Common ravens have been observed calling wolves to the site of dead animals.", "The wolves open the carcass, leaving the scraps more accessible to the birds.", "They watch where other common ravens bury their food and remember the locations of each other's food caches, so they can steal from them.", "This type of theft occurs so regularly that common ravens will fly extra distances from a food source to find better hiding places for food.", "They have also been observed pretending to make a cache without actually depositing the food, presumably to confuse onlookers.", "Common ravens are known to steal and cache shiny objects such as pebbles, pieces of metal, and golf balls.", "One theory is that they hoard shiny objects to impress other ravens.", "Other research indicates that juveniles are deeply curious about all new things, and that common ravens retain an attraction to bright, round objects based on their similarity to bird eggs.", "Mature birds lose their intense interest in the unusual, and become highly neophobic.", "The first large-scale assessment of ravens' cognitive abilities suggests that, by four months of age, ravens do about as well as adult chimps and orangutans on tests of causal reasoning, social learning, theory of mind, etc.", "There has been increasing recognition of the extent to which birds engage in play.", "Juvenile common ravens are among the most playful of bird species.", "They have been observed to slide down snowbanks, apparently purely for fun.", "They even engage in games with other species, such as playing catch-me-if-you-can with wolves, otters and dogs.", "Common ravens are known for spectacular aerobatic displays, such as flying in loops or interlocking talons with each other in flight.", "They are also one of only a few wild animals who make their own toys.", "They have been observed breaking off twigs to play with socially.", "Compared to many smaller Corvus species , ravens prefer undisturbed mountain or forest habitat or rural areas over urban areas.", "In other areas, their numbers have increased dramatically and they have become agricultural pests.", "Common ravens can cause damage to crops, such as nuts and grain, or can harm livestock, particularly by killing young goat kids, lambs and calves.", "Ravens generally attack the faces of young livestock, but the more common raven behaviour of scavenging may be misidentified as predation by ranchers.", "In the western Mojave Desert, human settlement and land development have led to an estimated 16-fold increase in the common raven population over 25 years.", "Towns, landfills, sewage treatment plants and artificial ponds create sources of food and water for scavenging birds.", "Ravens also find nesting sites in utility poles and ornamental trees, and are attracted to roadkill on highways.", "The explosion in the common raven population in the Mojave has raised concerns for the desert tortoise, a threatened species.", "Common ravens prey upon juvenile tortoises, which have soft shells and move slowly.", "Plans to control the population have included shooting and trapping birds, as well as contacting landfill operators to ask that they reduce the amount of exposed garbage.", "A hunting bounty as a method of control was historically used in Finland from the mid-18th century until 1923.", "Culling has taken place to a limited extent in Alaska, where the population increase in common ravens is threatening the vulnerable Steller's eider .", "Ravens, like other corvids, are definitive hosts of West Nile Virus .", "The transmission can be from infected birds to humans, and ravens are susceptible to WNV.", "However, in a 2010 study, it was shown that the California Common Ravens did not have a high positivity rate of WNV.", "Bill Reid's sculpture The Raven and the First Men, showing part of a Haida creation myth.", "Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia.", "Across its range in the Northern Hemisphere, and throughout human history, the common raven has been a powerful symbol and a popular subject of mythology and folklore.", "In some Western traditions, ravens have long been considered to be birds of ill omen, death and evil in general, in part because of the negative symbolism of their all-black plumage and the eating of carrion.", "In Sweden, ravens are known as the ghosts of murdered people, and in Germany as the souls of the damned.", "In Danish folklore, valravne that ate a king's heart gained human knowledge, could perform great malicious acts, could lead people astray, had superhuman powers, and were \" terrible animals \" .", "As in traditional mythology and folklore, the common raven features frequently in more modern writings such as the works of William Shakespeare, and, perhaps most famously, in the poem \" The Raven \" by Edgar Allan Poe.", "Ravens have appeared in the works of Charles Dickens, J. R. R. Tolkien, Stephen King, George R. R. Martin and Joan Aiken among others.", "It continues to be used as a symbol in areas where it once had mythological status: as the national bird of Bhutan , official bird of the Yukon territory, and on the coat of arms of the Isle of Man .", "In Persia and Arabia the raven was held as a bird of bad omen but a 14th-century Arabic work reports use of the raven in falconry.", "The modern unisex given name Raven is derived from the English word \" raven \" .", "As a masculine name, Raven parallels the Old Norse Hrafn, and Old English upright", "A valkyrie speaks with a raven in a 19th-century illustration of the Old Norse poem Hrafnsmal by Frederick Sandys"]}, "Columba palumbus": {"keywords": ["Photograph taken in Cambridge, England The common wood pigeon or common woodpigeon , also known as simply wood pigeon, wood-pigeon or woodpigeon, is a large species in the dove and pigeon family , native to the western Palearctic.", "It has a flexible diet, predominantly feeding on vegetable matter, including cereal crops, leading to them being regarded as an agricultural pest.", "In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.", "In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities.", "Like many species of pigeon, wood pigeons take advantage of trees and buildings to gain a vantage point over the surrounding area, and their distinctive call means that they are usually heard before they are seen.", "Two young Columba palumbus in a nest It breeds in trees in woods, parks and gardens, laying two white eggs in a simple stick nest which hatch after 17 to 19 days.", "Wood pigeons seem to have a preference for trees near roadways and rivers.", "Their plumage becomes much darker, especially the head, during hot summer periods.", "For birds that survive the first year the typical lifespan is thus only three years, but the maximum recorded age is 17 years and 8 months for a bird ringed and recovered on the Orkney Islands.", "Most of its diet is vegetable, round and fleshy leaves from Caryophyllaceae, Asteraceae, and cruciferous vegetables taken from open fields or gardens and lawns, young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain, pine nuts, and certain fruits and berries.", "In the autumn they also eat figs and acorns, and in winter buds of trees and bushes.", "This is an extremely rich fluid that is produced in the adult birds' crops during the breeding season.", "Due to their feeding on cereal crops, wood pigeons are considered an agricultural pest."], "habitat_section": ["In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.", "In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities."], "random_sentences": ["altA large common wood pigeon standing on a garden fence", "Common wood pigeon perched on a fence.", "Photograph taken in Cambridge, England The common wood pigeon or common woodpigeon , also known as simply wood pigeon, wood-pigeon or woodpigeon, is a large species in the dove and pigeon family , native to the western Palearctic.", "It belongs to the genus Columba, which includes closely related species such as the rock dove .", "It has historically been known as the ring dove, and is locally known in southeast England as the \" culver \"", "the latter name has given rise to several areas known for keeping pigeons to be named after it, such as Culver Down.", "It has a flexible diet, predominantly feeding on vegetable matter, including cereal crops, leading to them being regarded as an agricultural pest.", "Wood pigeons are extensively hunted over large parts of their range, but this does not seem to have a great impact on their population.", "The common wood pigeon was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.", "He placed it with all the other pigeons in the genus Columba and coined the binomial name Columba palumbus.", "The specific epithet palumbus is from the Latin palumbes for a wood pigeon.", "Five subspecies are recognised, one of which is now extinct: extinct", "Adult common wood pigeon, photograph taken in Birmingham, England The three Western European Columba pigeons, common wood pigeon, stock dove and rock dove, though superficially alike, have very distinctive characteristics", "the common wood pigeon may be identified at once by its larger size at and weight , and the white on its neck and wing.", "It is otherwise a basically grey bird, with a pinkish breast.", "The wingspan can range from and the wing chord measures .", "The tail measures , the bill is and the tarsus is .", "Adult birds bear a series of green and white patches on their necks, and a pink patch on their chest.", "The eye colour is a pale yellow, in contrast to that of rock doves, which is orange-red, and the stock pigeon, which is black.", "Juvenile birds do not have the white patches on either side of the neck.", "When they are about 6 months old they gain small white patches on both sides of the neck, which gradually enlarge until they are fully formed when the bird is about 68 months old (approx.", "Juvenile birds also have a greyer beak and an overall lighter grey appearance than adult birds.", "The call is a characteristic cooing, coo-COO-coocoo-coo.", "In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.", "In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities.", "A flock of common wood pigeons feeding in a field right", "Adult sitting on its nest in a tree Egg Hatching of a Common Wood Pigeon Its flight is quick, performed by regular beats, with an occasional sharp flick of the wings, characteristic of pigeons in general. It takes off with a loud clattering.", "It perches well, and in its nuptial display walks along a horizontal branch with swelled neck, lowered wings, and fanned tail.", "During the display flight the bird climbs, the wings are smartly cracked like a whiplash, and the bird glides down on stiff wings.", "The common wood pigeon is gregarious, often forming very large flocks outside the breeding season.", "Like many species of pigeon, wood pigeons take advantage of trees and buildings to gain a vantage point over the surrounding area, and their distinctive call means that they are usually heard before they are seen.", "Wood pigeons are known to fiercely defend their territory, and will fight each other to gain access to nesting and roosting locations.", "Male wood pigeons will typically attempt to drive competitors off by threat displays and pursuit, but will also directly fight, jumping and striking their rival with both wings.", "This species can be an agricultural pest, and it is often shot, being a legal quarry species in most European countries.", "It is wary in rural areas, but often quite tame where it is not persecuted.", "Two young Columba palumbus in a nest It breeds in trees in woods, parks and gardens, laying two white eggs in a simple stick nest which hatch after 17 to 19 days.", "Wood pigeons seem to have a preference for trees near roadways and rivers.", "Males exhibit aggressive behaviour towards each other during the breeding season by jumping and flapping wings at each other.", "Their plumage becomes much darker, especially the head, during hot summer periods.", "Breeding can happen year round if there is food abundant however breeding season most commonly occurs in autumn usually in the months of August and September.", "The nests are vulnerable to attack, particularly by crows.", "The young usually fly at 33 to 34 days", "however, if the nest is disturbed, some young may be able to survive having left the nest as early as 20 days from hatching.", "In a study carried out using ring-recovery data, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 52 per cent, and the adult annual survival rate was 61 per cent.", "For birds that survive the first year the typical lifespan is thus only three years, but the maximum recorded age is 17 years and 8 months for a bird ringed and recovered on the Orkney Islands.", "Most of its diet is vegetable, round and fleshy leaves from Caryophyllaceae, Asteraceae, and cruciferous vegetables taken from open fields or gardens and lawns", "young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain, pine nuts, and certain fruits and berries.", "In the autumn they also eat figs and acorns, and in winter buds of trees and bushes.", "They will also eat larvae, ants, and small worms.", "They need open water to drink and bathe in.", "Young common wood pigeons swiftly become fat, as a result of the crop milk they are fed by their parents.", "This is an extremely rich fluid that is produced in the adult birds' crops during the breeding season.", "Due to their feeding on cereal crops, wood pigeons are considered an agricultural pest.", "In Ireland and the UK, the traditional mnemonic for the distinctive call of the bird has been interpreted as \" Take two cows, Teddy \" , or \" Take two cows, Taffy \" .", "Another interpretation for the birdsong has been \" My toe bleeds, Betty \" .", "AS PER NEW WIKIPEDIA POLICY, GALLERY MUST BE REFERENCED TO AS COMMONS.", "DON'T ADD IT HERE PLEASE "]}}
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2546494_1151331
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[
"Fagus sylvatica",
"Prunus spinosa",
"Mercurialis perennis"
] |
{"Fagus sylvatica": {"keywords": ["In cultivated forest stands trees are normally harvested at 80120 years of age.", "in forest areas, F. sylvatica grows to over , with branches being high up on the trunk.", "Flower and seed production is particularly abundant in years following a hot, sunny and dry summer, though rarely for two years in a row.", "In the southern part of its range around the Mediterranean, it grows only in mountain forests, at altitude.", "Although often regarded as native in southern England, recent evidence suggests that F. sylvatica did not arrive in England until about 4000 BC, or 2,000 years subsequent to the English Channel forming following the ice ages, it could have been an early introduction by Stone Age humans, who used the nuts for food.", "The beech is classified as a native in the south of England and as a non-native in the north where it is often removed from 'native' woods.", "If native, they would represent the northern range of the species.", "However, the beech in Vestfold and at Seim north of Bergen in Norway is now spreading naturally and regarded as native.", "a humid atmosphere and well-drained soil .", "It prefers moderately fertile ground, calcified or lightly acidic, therefore it is found more often on the side of a hill than at the bottom of clayey basin.", "It tolerates rigorous winter cold, but is sensitive to spring frost.", "In Norway's oceanic climate planted trees grow well north to Bod, and produce seedlings and can spread naturally in Trondheim.", "In Sweden, beech trees do not grow as far north as in Norway.", "A beech forest is very dark and few species of plant are able to survive there, where the sun barely reaches the ground.", "Young beeches prefer some shade and may grow poorly in full sunlight.", "In a clear-cut forest a European beech will germinate and then die of excessive dryness.", "species and Cenococcum geophilum have been found in Danish and Spanish beech forests.", "These fungi are important in enhancing uptake of water and nutrients from the soil.", "It is more precise in the north of its range than the south, and at than at sea level.", "Conditions in summer, particularly good rainfall, determine the number of leaves included in the buds.", "Later, after a wave of above ground growth, thicker roots grow in a steady fashion.", "A look down a steep gorge with European beech leading down to the ocean at Mns Klint, Denmark European beech is a very popular ornamental tree in parks and large gardens in temperate regions of the world.", "In North America, they are preferred for this purpose over the native F. grandifolia, which despite its tolerance of warmer climates, is slower growing, taking an average of 10 years longer to attain maturity.", "The town of Brookline, Massachusetts has one of the largest, if not the largest, grove of European beech trees in the United States.", "It is better for paper pulp than many other broadleaved trees though is only sometimes used for this, the high cellulose content can also be spun into modal, which is used as a textile akin to cotton."], "habitat_section": ["Fagus sylvatica pliocenica Museum of Toulouse The natural range extends from southern Sweden to northern Sicily, west to France, southern England, northern Portugal, central Spain, and east to northwest Turkey, where it intergrades with the oriental beech , which replaces it further east.", "In the Balkans, it shows some hybridisation with oriental beech, these hybrid trees are named Fagus taurica Popl.", "In the southern part of its range around the Mediterranean, it grows only in mountain forests, at altitude.", "Although often regarded as native in southern England, recent evidence suggests that F. sylvatica did not arrive in England until about 4000 BC, or 2,000 years subsequent to the English Channel forming following the ice ages, it could have been an early introduction by Stone Age humans, who used the nuts for food.", "The beech is classified as a native in the south of England and as a non-native in the north where it is often removed from 'native' woods.", "Localised pollen records have been recorded in the North of England from the Iron Age by Sir Harry Godwin.", "Changing climatic conditions may put beech populations in southern England under increased stress and while it may not be possible to maintain the current levels of beech in some sites it is thought that conditions for beech in north-west England will remain favourable or even improve.", "It is often planted in Britain.", "Similarly, the nature of Norwegian beech populations is subject to debate.", "If native, they would represent the northern range of the species.", "However, molecular genetic analyses support the hypothesis that these populations represent intentional introduction from Denmark before and during the Viking Age.", "However, the beech in Vestfold and at Seim north of Bergen in Norway is now spreading naturally and regarded as native.", "Though not demanding of its soil type, the European beech has several significant requirements.", "a humid atmosphere and well-drained soil .", "It prefers moderately fertile ground, calcified or lightly acidic, therefore it is found more often on the side of a hill than at the bottom of clayey basin.", "It tolerates rigorous winter cold, but is sensitive to spring frost.", "In Norway's oceanic climate planted trees grow well north to Bod, and produce seedlings and can spread naturally in Trondheim.", "In Sweden, beech trees do not grow as far north as in Norway.", "A beech forest is very dark and few species of plant are able to survive there, where the sun barely reaches the ground.", "Young beeches prefer some shade and may grow poorly in full sunlight.", "In a clear-cut forest a European beech will germinate and then die of excessive dryness.", "Under oaks with sparse leaf cover it will quickly surpass them in height and, due to the beech's dense foliage, the oaks will die from lack of sunlight.", "The root system is shallow, even superficial, with large roots spreading out in all directions.", "European beech forms ectomycorrhizas with a range of fungi including many Russula species, as well as Laccaria amethystina, and with the species Ramaria flavosaponaria.", "species and Cenococcum geophilum have been found in Danish and Spanish beech forests.", "These fungi are important in enhancing uptake of water and nutrients from the soil.", "and Izvoarele Nerei in Semenic-Cheile Carasului National Park, Romania.", "These habitats are the home of Europe's largest predators, .", "Many trees are older than 350 years in Izvoarele Nerei and even 500 years in Uholka-Shyrokyi Luh.", "Spring leaf budding by the European beech is triggered by a combination of day length and temperature.", "Bud break each year is from the middle of April to the beginning of May, often with remarkable precision .", "It is more precise in the north of its range than the south, and at than at sea level.", "The European beech invests significantly in summer and autumn for the following spring.", "Conditions in summer, particularly good rainfall, determine the number of leaves included in the buds.", "In autumn, the tree builds the reserves that will sustain it into spring.", "Given good conditions, a bud can produce a shoot with ten or more leaves.", "The terminal bud emits a hormonal substance in the spring that halts the development of additional buds.", "This tendency, though very strong at the beginning of their existence, becomes weaker in older trees.", "It is only after the budding that root growth of the year begins.", "The first roots to appear are very thin .", "Later, after a wave of above ground growth, thicker roots grow in a steady fashion.", "Detail of the tarcrust's structure"], "random_sentences": ["Fagus sylvatica, the European beech or common beech is a deciduous tree belonging to the beech family Fagaceae.", "Copper beech in autumn Shoot with nut cupules Fagus sylvatica is a large tree, capable of reaching heights of up to tall and trunk diameter, though more typically tall and up to trunk diameter.", "A 10-year-old sapling will stand about tall.", "It has a typical lifespan of 150200 years, though sometimes up to 300 years.", "In cultivated forest stands trees are normally harvested at 80120 years of age.", "30 years are needed to attain full maturity .", "Like most trees, its form depends on the location: in forest areas, F. sylvatica grows to over , with branches being high up on the trunk.", "In open locations, it will become much shorter and more massive.", "The leaves are alternate, simple, and entire or with a slightly crenate margin, long and 37 cm broad, with 67 veins on each side of the leaf .", "When crenate, there is one point at each vein tip, never any points between the veins.", "The buds are long and slender, long and thick, but thicker where the buds include flower buds.", "The leaves of beech are often not abscissed in the autumn and instead remain on the tree until the spring.", "This process is called marcescence.", "This particularly occurs when trees are saplings or when plants are clipped as a hedge , but it also often continues to occur on the lower branches when the tree is mature.", "Small quantities of seeds may be produced around 10 years of age, but not a heavy crop until the tree is at least 30 years old.", "F. sylvatica male flowers are borne in the small catkins which are a hallmark of the Fagales order .", "The female flowers produce beechnuts, small triangular nuts long and wide at the base", "there are two nuts in each cupule, maturing in the autumn 56 months after pollination.", "Flower and seed production is particularly abundant in years following a hot, sunny and dry summer, though rarely for two years in a row.", "Fagus sylvatica pliocenica Museum of Toulouse The natural range extends from southern Sweden to northern Sicily, west to France, southern England, northern Portugal, central Spain, and east to northwest Turkey, where it intergrades with the oriental beech , which replaces it further east.", "In the Balkans, it shows some hybridisation with oriental beech", "these hybrid trees are named Fagus taurica Popl.", "[Fagus moesiaca Czecz.", "In the southern part of its range around the Mediterranean, it grows only in mountain forests, at altitude.", "Although often regarded as native in southern England, recent evidence suggests that F. sylvatica did not arrive in England until about 4000 BC, or 2,000 years subsequent to the English Channel forming following the ice ages", "it could have been an early introduction by Stone Age humans, who used the nuts for food.", "The beech is classified as a native in the south of England and as a non-native in the north where it is often removed from 'native' woods.", "Localised pollen records have been recorded in the North of England from the Iron Age by Sir Harry Godwin.", "Changing climatic conditions may put beech populations in southern England under increased stress and while it may not be possible to maintain the current levels of beech in some sites it is thought that conditions for beech in north-west England will remain favourable or even improve.", "It is often planted in Britain.", "Similarly, the nature of Norwegian beech populations is subject to debate.", "If native, they would represent the northern range of the species.", "However, molecular genetic analyses support the hypothesis that these populations represent intentional introduction from Denmark before and during the Viking Age.", "However, the beech in Vestfold and at Seim north of Bergen in Norway is now spreading naturally and regarded as native.", "Though not demanding of its soil type, the European beech has several significant requirements: a humid atmosphere and well-drained soil .", "It prefers moderately fertile ground, calcified or lightly acidic, therefore it is found more often on the side of a hill than at the bottom of clayey basin.", "It tolerates rigorous winter cold, but is sensitive to spring frost.", "In Norway's oceanic climate planted trees grow well north to Bod, and produce seedlings and can spread naturally in Trondheim.", "In Sweden, beech trees do not grow as far north as in Norway.", "A beech forest is very dark and few species of plant are able to survive there, where the sun barely reaches the ground.", "Young beeches prefer some shade and may grow poorly in full sunlight.", "In a clear-cut forest a European beech will germinate and then die of excessive dryness.", "Under oaks with sparse leaf cover it will quickly surpass them in height and, due to the beech's dense foliage, the oaks will die from lack of sunlight.", "The root system is shallow, even superficial, with large roots spreading out in all directions.", "European beech forms ectomycorrhizas with a range of fungi including many Russula species, as well as Laccaria amethystina, and with the species Ramaria flavosaponaria.", "species and Cenococcum geophilum have been found in Danish and Spanish beech forests.", "These fungi are important in enhancing uptake of water and nutrients from the soil.", "and Izvoarele Nerei in Semenic-Cheile Carasului National Park, Romania.", "These habitats are the home of Europe's largest predators, .", "Many trees are older than 350 years in Izvoarele Nerei and even 500 years in Uholka-Shyrokyi Luh.", "Spring leaf budding by the European beech is triggered by a combination of day length and temperature.", "Bud break each year is from the middle of April to the beginning of May, often with remarkable precision .", "It is more precise in the north of its range than the south, and at than at sea level.", "The European beech invests significantly in summer and autumn for the following spring.", "Conditions in summer, particularly good rainfall, determine the number of leaves included in the buds.", "In autumn, the tree builds the reserves that will sustain it into spring.", "Given good conditions, a bud can produce a shoot with ten or more leaves.", "The terminal bud emits a hormonal substance in the spring that halts the development of additional buds.", "This tendency, though very strong at the beginning of their existence, becomes weaker in older trees.", "It is only after the budding that root growth of the year begins.", "The first roots to appear are very thin .", "Later, after a wave of above ground growth, thicker roots grow in a steady fashion.", "Detail of the tarcrust's structure", "Biscogniauxia nummularia is an ascomycete primary pathogen of beech trees, causing strip-canker and wood rot.", "It can be found at all times of year and is not edible.", "A look down a steep gorge with European beech leading down to the ocean at Mns Klint, Denmark European beech is a very popular ornamental tree in parks and large gardens in temperate regions of the world.", "In North America, they are preferred for this purpose over the native F. grandifolia, which despite its tolerance of warmer climates, is slower growing, taking an average of 10 years longer to attain maturity.", "The town of Brookline, Massachusetts has one of the largest, if not the largest, grove of European beech trees in the United States.", "The public park, called 'The Longwood Mall', was planted sometime before 1850 qualifying it as the oldest stand of European beeches in the United States.", "It is frequently kept clipped to make attractive hedges.", "Since the early 19th century there have been numerous cultivars of European beech made by horticultural selection, often repeatedly", "The nuts are eaten by humans and animals.", "Slightly toxic to humans if eaten in large quantities due to the tannins and alkaloids they contain, the nuts were nonetheless pressed to obtain an oil in 19th-century England that was used for cooking and in lamps.", "They were also ground to make flour, which could be eaten after the tannins were leached out by soaking.", "Primary Product AM 01, a smoke flavouring, is produced from Fagus sylvatica L.", "The wood of the European beech is used in the manufacture of numerous objects and implements.", "Its fine and short grain makes it an easy wood to work with, easy to soak, dye, varnish and glue.", "Steaming makes the wood even easier to machine.", "It has an excellent finish and is resistant to compression and splitting and it is stiff when flexed.", "Milling is sometimes difficult due to cracking.", "The density of the wood is per cubic meter.", "It is particularly well suited for minor carpentry, particularly furniture.", "From chairs to parquetry and staircases, the European beech can do almost anything other than heavy structural support, so long as it is not left outdoors.", "Its hardness make it ideal for making wooden mallets and workbench tops.", "The wood rots easily if it is not protected by a tar based on a distillate of its own bark .", "It is better for paper pulp than many other broadleaved trees though is only sometimes used for this, the high cellulose content can also be spun into modal, which is used as a textile akin to cotton.", "The code for its use in Europe is .", "Common beech is also considered one of the best firewoods for fireplaces."]}, "Prunus spinosa": {"keywords": ["The species is native to Europe, western Asia, and locally in northwest Africa.", "It is locally naturalized in New Zealand, Tasmania and the Pacific Northwest and New England regions of the United States.", "Prunus spinosa is a large deciduous shrub or small tree growing to tall, with blackish bark and dense, stiff, spiny branches.", "Blackthorn usually grows as a bush but can grow to become a tree to a height of 6 m. Its branches usually grow forming a tangle.", "They can be distinguished in winter by the shrubbier habit with stiffer, wider-angled branches of P. spinosa, in summer by the relatively narrower leaves of P. spinosa, more than twice as long as broad, Prunus spinosa has a tetraploid set of chromosomes.", "The common name \" \" is due to the thorny nature of the shrub, and possibly its very dark bark.", "The species is native to Europe, western Asia, and locally in northwest Africa.", "Pocket plum gall on blackthorn, caused by the fungus Taphrina pruni The foliage is sometimes eaten by the larvae of Lepidoptera, including the small eggar moth, emperor moth, willow beauty, white-pinion spotted, common emerald, November moth, pale November moth, mottled pug, green pug, brimstone moth, feathered thorn, brown-tail, yellow-tail, short-cloaked moth, lesser yellow underwing, lesser broad-bordered yellow underwing, double square-spot, black hairstreak, brown hairstreak, hawthorn moth and the case-bearer moth Coleophora anatipennella.", "Global plum and sloe output in 2005 The shrub, with its long, sharp thorns, is traditionally used in Britain and other parts of northern Europe to make a cattle-proof hedge.", "Since the plant is hardy, and grows in a wide range of conditions, it is used as a rootstock for many other species of plum, as well as some other fruit species.", "Blackthorn makes an excellent fire wood that burns slowly with a good heat and little smoke."], "habitat_section": ["The species is native to Europe, western Asia, and locally in northwest Africa.", "It is also locally naturalized in New Zealand, Tasmania and eastern North America.", "Pocket plum gall on blackthorn, caused by the fungus Taphrina pruni The foliage is sometimes eaten by the larvae of Lepidoptera, including the small eggar moth, emperor moth, willow beauty, white-pinion spotted, common emerald, November moth, pale November moth, mottled pug, green pug, brimstone moth, feathered thorn, brown-tail, yellow-tail, short-cloaked moth, lesser yellow underwing, lesser broad-bordered yellow underwing, double square-spot, black hairstreak, brown hairstreak, hawthorn moth and the case-bearer moth Coleophora anatipennella.", "Dead blackthorn wood provides food for the caterpillars of the concealer moth Esperia oliviella."], "random_sentences": ["Prunus spinosa, called blackthorn or sloe, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae.", "The species is native to Europe, western Asia, and locally in northwest Africa.", "It is locally naturalized in New Zealand, Tasmania and the Pacific Northwest and New England regions of the United States.", "The fruits are used to make sloe gin in Britain and patxaran in Spain.", "The wood is used to make walking sticks, including the Irish shillelagh.", "Prunus spinosa is a large deciduous shrub or small tree growing to tall, with blackish bark and dense, stiff, spiny branches.", "The leaves are oval, long and broad, with a serrated margin.", "The flowers are about in diameter, with five creamy-white petals", "they are produced shortly before the leaves in early spring, and are hermaphroditic and insect-pollinated.", "The fruit, called a \" sloe \" , is a drupe in diameter, black with a purple-blue waxy bloom, ripening in autumn and harvestedtraditionally, at least in the UKin October or November after the first frosts.", "Sloes are thin-fleshed, with a very strongly astringent flavour when fresh.", "Blackthorn usually grows as a bush but can grow to become a tree to a height of 6 m. Its branches usually grow forming a tangle.", "Prunus spinosa is frequently confused with the related P. cerasifera , particularly in early spring when the latter starts flowering somewhat earlier than P. spinosa.", "They can be distinguished by flower colour, pure white in P. spinosa, creamy white in P. cerasifera.", "In addition, the sepals are bent backwards in P. cerasifera, but not in P. spinosa.", "They can be distinguished in winter by the shrubbier habit with stiffer, wider-angled branches of P. spinosa", "in summer by the relatively narrower leaves of P. spinosa, more than twice as long as broad", "Prunus spinosa has a tetraploid set of chromosomes.", "Like many other fruits with pits, the pit of the sloe contains trace amounts of hydrogen cyanide.", "The specific name is a Latin term indicating the pointed and thornlike spur shoots characteristic of this species.", "The common name \" \" is due to the thorny nature of the shrub, and possibly its very dark bark: it has a much darker bark than the white-thorn , to which it is contrasted.", "The names related to 'sloe' come from the common Germanic root .", "Compare Old Slavic, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Ukrainian and Russian (sliva, Ukr.", "slyva), West Slavic / Polish", "plum of any species, including sloe root present in other Slavic languages, e.g. Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian / .", "The species is native to Europe, western Asia, and locally in northwest Africa.", "It is also locally naturalized in New Zealand, Tasmania and eastern North America.", "Pocket plum gall on blackthorn, caused by the fungus Taphrina pruni The foliage is sometimes eaten by the larvae of Lepidoptera, including the small eggar moth, emperor moth, willow beauty, white-pinion spotted, common emerald, November moth, pale November moth, mottled pug, green pug, brimstone moth, feathered thorn, brown-tail, yellow-tail, short-cloaked moth, lesser yellow underwing, lesser broad-bordered yellow underwing, double square-spot, black hairstreak, brown hairstreak, hawthorn moth and the case-bearer moth Coleophora anatipennella.", "Dead blackthorn wood provides food for the caterpillars of the concealer moth Esperia oliviella.", "Global plum and sloe output in 2005 The shrub, with its long, sharp thorns, is traditionally used in Britain and other parts of northern Europe to make a cattle-proof hedge.", "The fruit is similar to a small damson or plum, suitable for preserves, but rather tart and astringent for eating, unless it is picked after the first few days of autumn frost.", "This effect can be reproduced by freezing harvested sloes.", "Since the plant is hardy, and grows in a wide range of conditions, it is used as a rootstock for many other species of plum, as well as some other fruit species.", "The juice is used in the manufacture of fake port wine, and used as an adulterant to impart roughness to genuine port, into the 20th century.", "In Navarre, Spain, a popular liqueur called is made with sloes.", "In France a liqueur called or epinette or troussepinette is made from the young shoots in spring rather than from fruits in autumn.", "In Italy, the infusion of spirit with the fruits and sugar produces a liqueur called bargnolino .", "In France, eau de vie de prunelle is distilled from fermented sloes in regions such as the Alsace and vin d'epine is an infusion of early shoots of blackthorn macerated with sugar in wine .", "Wine made from fermented sloes is made in Britain, and in Germany and other central European countries.", "It is also sometimes used in the brewing of lambic beer in Belgium.", "Sloes can also be made into jam, chutney, and used in fruit pies.", "Sloes preserved in vinegar are similar in taste to Japanese umeboshi.", "The juice of the fruits dyes linen a reddish colour that washes out to a durable pale blue.", "The leaves resemble tea leaves, and were used as an adulterant of tea.", "Blackthorn makes an excellent fire wood that burns slowly with a good heat and little smoke.", "The wood takes a fine polish and is used for tool handles and canes.", "Straight blackthorn stems have traditionally been made into walking sticks or clubs .", "In the British Army, blackthorn sticks are carried by commissioned officers of the Royal Irish Regiment", "this is a tradition also in Irish regiments in some Commonwealth countries.", "Rashi, a Talmudist and Tanakh commentator of the High Middle Ages, writes that the sap of P. spinosa was used as an ingredient in the making of some inks used for manuscripts.", "A \" sloe-thorn worm \" used as fishing bait is mentioned in the 15th-century work, The Treatyse of Fishing with an Angle, by Juliana Berners.", "In Middle English, slo has been used to denote something of trifling value.", "The expression \" \" for a person with dark eyes comes from the fruit, and is first attested in A. J. Wilson's 1867 novel Vashti.", "The flowering of the blackthorn may have been associated with the ancient Celtic celebration of Imbolc, traditionally celebrated on February 1 in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.", "The name of the dark-coloured cloth prunella was derived from the French word , meaning sloe."]}, "Mercurialis perennis": {"keywords": ["It characteristically forms dense, extensive carpets on the floor of woodlands and beneath hedgerows.", "It usually grows in dense masses often in the ground flora of beech, oak, ash, elm and other types of woodlands in Europe.", "It also grows under the shade of hedgerows and scrub.", "It is able to colonize new deciduous woods on dry, calcareous soils at an annual rate of a meter or more.", "Its period of reproductive activity depends upon a number of factors such as illumination, soil reaction, soil moisture, etc.", "Mercurialis perennis extends from sea level to the mountain range.", "The ultimate height attained in different mountainous regions, e.g.", "Existing colonies in some parts of Britain , are expanding and showing increased vigor, perhaps as a result of deeper shade in woodlands where coppicing has ceased.", "The genus Mercurialis itself consists of nine species and the main taxonomic characteristics used in distinguishing them are the clusters of floration, the annual or perennial habit, and the glabrous or hairy condition of the vegetative organs, but chiefly the ovary and the capsule, the woody or herbaceous nature of the plant, and lastly the character of the lamina.", "A researcher induced toxicity with dog's mercury, frozen at different stages of growth and fed it to sheep."], "habitat_section": ["Besides those three variations of M. perennis there are six habitat forms in nature."], "random_sentences": ["Mercurialis perennis, commonly known as dog's mercury, is a poisonous woodland plant found in much of Europe as well as in Algeria, Iran, Turkey, and the Caucasus, but almost absent from Ireland, Orkney and Shetland.", "A member of the spurge family , it is a herbaceous, downy perennial with erect stems bearing simple, serrate leaves.", "The dioecious inflorescences are green, bearing inconspicuous flowers from February to April.", "It characteristically forms dense, extensive carpets on the floor of woodlands and beneath hedgerows.", "Mercurialis perennis is a herbaceous plant.", "It usually grows in dense masses often in the ground flora of beech, oak, ash, elm and other types of woodlands in Europe.", "It also grows under the shade of hedgerows and scrub.", "It has a preference for moderately shady to densely shady habitats.", "It is able to colonize new deciduous woods on dry, calcareous soils at an annual rate of a meter or more.", "Under such conditions, the plants, especially the females, often display a darker green color.", "Its period of reproductive activity depends upon a number of factors such as illumination, soil reaction, soil moisture, etc.", "These factors also affect the duration of reproductive activity.", "but in the open, it eventually gives way to other plants.", "Mercurialis perennis extends from sea level to the mountain range.", "The ultimate height attained in different mountainous regions, e.g. in Scotland, England, Germany, and Switzerland, naturally varies with the latitude and other geographical factors.", "Existing colonies in some parts of Britain , are expanding and showing increased vigor, perhaps as a result of deeper shade in woodlands where coppicing has ceased.", "The plant's common name derives from the plant's resemblance to the unrelated Chenopodium bonus-henricus .", "Since Mercurialis perennis is highly poisonous, it was named \" dog's \" mercury .", "It has also been known as boggard posy.", "There are separate male and female plants .", "the plants are born at the base of the leaves similar to nettles.", "The flower spikes appear between February and May.", "The catkin-like male flowers have a yellow color and female flowers have 3 tepals .", "The genus Mercurialis belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae and to the subfamily Crotonoideae.", "It is included in the tribe Acalyphae, which is characterized by clusters of flowers It is also characterized by the lack of any laticiferous tissue, in the place of which tanniniferous cells are sometimes found.", "According to Pax , there are three other genera related to Mercurialis", "The differences between these are based on the characteristics of the calyx and stamens.", "The genus Mercurialis itself consists of nine species and the main taxonomic characteristics used in distinguishing them are the clusters of floration, the annual or perennial habit, and the glabrous or hairy condition of the vegetative organs, but chiefly the ovary and the capsule, the woody or herbaceous nature of the plant, and lastly the character of the lamina.", "Dog's mercury is one of the characteristic plants of several woodland types, in particular:", "M. perennis has variation in its morphological characters.", "This is noticeable in the outline, shape, and hairiness of its leaves, in the size of the lower leaves, in the number of stamens, and in the size of the seeds and fruits.", "M. perennis possesses three distinct varieties are: M. perennis L. var. genuina Miiller-Aarg M. perennis L. var. Salisburyana Mukerji .", "M. perennis L. var. leiocarpa Mukerji (syn.", ") Note:- M. perennis L. var. Salisburyana Mukerji was discovered in March 1926 at Staplehurst .", "It differs from M. perennis L. var. genuina Miiller-Aarg in the following respects:", "Besides those three variations of M. perennis there are six habitat forms in nature:", "All parts of the dog's mercury are highly poisonous.", " but boiling or drying destroys the toxins.", " Methylamine and trimethylamine are thought to be present, together with a volatile basic oil, mercurialine, and saponins.", "The scent of the plant is often described as 'foetid' due to the presence of trimethylamine which often gives off a rotting fish smell.", "Mercurialine is thought to be one of the active principle parts that are responsible for the toxicity of the herb.", "It is known to induce hemorrhagic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract and kidneys.", "There is apparently some narcotic action, which induces drowsiness, and mild muscular spasms.", "One hypothesized mechanism of toxicity was discovered in 1900s.", "A researcher induced toxicity with dog's mercury, frozen at different stages of growth and fed it to sheep.", "Based on this experiment, these effects may be due to different toxic factors that are developed at different growth stages.", "Another hypothesis is that one toxin might be culpable for the symptoms and illness.", "Symptoms of poisoning appear within a few hours", "they can include vomiting, pain, gastric and kidney inflammation, and sometimes inflammation of the cheeks and jaw and drowsiness.", "Larger doses cause lethargy, jaundice, painful urination, apparently by making the urine acid, and coma before death.", "The first-known account of this phenomenon probably dates from 1693, when a family of five became seriously ill as a result of eating the plant ", "one of the children died some days later as a result.", "Apart from Chenopodium bonus-henricus and some other edible members of the Chenopodiaceae , the most similar-looking species is probably Mercurialis annua, annual mercury, which is also thought to be poisonous.", "Dog's mercury has been eaten in mistake for brooklime.", "In 1983, a couple was reported of having eaten a large quantity of leaves after washing and boiling the plant after mistaking it for brooklime.", "Both patients were hospitalized complaining of nausea, vomiting, and severe bilateral colicky loin pain and present signs of malar erythema but no signs of cardiovascular/respiratory disorders.", "They presented signs similar to an allergic reaction.", "They suffered severe gastrointestinal complications which led to dehydration.", "Once the toxin was identified, they were given sodium bicarbonate four times a day to neutralize the acidity of the urine.", "They recovered after two days of rest and continuous observation and monitoring.", "The dog's mercury is poisonous by itself but with a thorough drying/heating, one is able to destroy its poisonous quality.", "The juice of the plant is emetic, ophthalmic and purgative.", "It can be used externally to treat menstrual pain, ear, and eye problems, warts, and sores.", "A lotion can be made from the plant for antiseptic external dressing due to its ability to soften and moisturize the skin.", "A fine blue dye can be obtained from the leaves although it is able to be turned red by acids and destroyed by alkalis.", "It is often permanent and colouration is similar to indigo.", "A yellow dye can be obtained from the leaves.", "The seeds are also a good source of drying oil."]}}
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|
2660864_1172305
| 524
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[
"Anthoxanthum odoratum"
] |
{"Anthoxanthum odoratum": {"keywords": ["Anthoxanthum odoratum is a short-lived perennial grass, commonly known as sweet vernal grass, that is native to acidic grassland in Eurasia and northern Africa.", "It is grown as a lawn grass and a house plant, due to its sweet scent, and can also be found on unimproved pastures and meadows.", "Anthoxanthum odaoratum is a short-lived perennial grass that grows in tufts with stems up to 70 cm tall.", "306 It flowers in late spring and early summer, i.e.", "quite early in the season, with flower spikes of 46 centimetres long and crowded spikelets of 610 mm , oblong shaped, which can be quite dark when young.", "The scent is particularly strong when dried, and is due to coumarin, a glycoside, and benzoic acid it smells like fresh hay with a hint of vanilla.", "Anthoxanthum odoratum is native to Europe and temperate parts of Asia, but is widely introduced and naturalised so that distribution is now Circumpolar Wide-temperate.", "It is grown by scattering seed on tilled ground in the spring through fall, germinating in 4 to 5 days.", "It prefers sandy loam and acidic conditions .", "As an agricultural grass it has a low yield, but can grow on land too acidic for other grasses."], "habitat_section": ["Anthoxanthum odoratum is native to Europe and temperate parts of Asia, but is widely introduced and naturalised so that distribution is now Circumpolar Wide-temperate.", "It is ubiquitous at the 10 km square level in Britain."], "random_sentences": ["Anthoxanthum odoratum is a short-lived perennial grass, commonly known as sweet vernal grass, that is native to acidic grassland in Eurasia and northern Africa.", "It is grown as a lawn grass and a house plant, due to its sweet scent, and can also be found on unimproved pastures and meadows.", "The specific epithet odoratum is Latin for 'odorous'.", "Anthoxanthum odaoratum is a short-lived perennial grass that grows in tufts with stems up to 70 cm tall.", "The leaves are short and broad, 35 mm wide, and glabrous to loosely hairy.", ":306 It flowers in late spring and early summer, i.e. quite early in the season, with flower spikes of 46 centimetres long and crowded spikelets of 610 mm , oblong shaped, which can be quite dark when young.", "The lower lemmas have projecting awns.", "The ligules are quite long, up to 5 mm , blunt, with hairy fringes around the side.", "The scent is particularly strong when dried, and is due to coumarin, a glycoside, and benzoic acid it smells like fresh hay with a hint of vanilla.", "The seed head is bright yellow in color.", "Anthoxanthum odoratum is experiencing parapatric speciation in areas of mine contamination.", "Anthoxanthum odoratum is native to Europe and temperate parts of Asia, but is widely introduced and naturalised so that distribution is now Circumpolar Wide-temperate.", "It is ubiquitous at the 10 km square level in Britain.", "It is grown by scattering seed on tilled ground in the spring through fall, germinating in 4 to 5 days.", "It prefers sandy loam and acidic conditions .", "As an agricultural grass it has a low yield, but can grow on land too acidic for other grasses."]}}
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2649512_1258336
| 1141
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[
"Fagus sylvatica"
] |
{"Fagus sylvatica": {"keywords": ["In cultivated forest stands trees are normally harvested at 80120 years of age.", "in forest areas, F. sylvatica grows to over , with branches being high up on the trunk.", "Flower and seed production is particularly abundant in years following a hot, sunny and dry summer, though rarely for two years in a row.", "In the southern part of its range around the Mediterranean, it grows only in mountain forests, at altitude.", "Although often regarded as native in southern England, recent evidence suggests that F. sylvatica did not arrive in England until about 4000 BC, or 2,000 years subsequent to the English Channel forming following the ice ages, it could have been an early introduction by Stone Age humans, who used the nuts for food.", "The beech is classified as a native in the south of England and as a non-native in the north where it is often removed from 'native' woods.", "If native, they would represent the northern range of the species.", "However, the beech in Vestfold and at Seim north of Bergen in Norway is now spreading naturally and regarded as native.", "a humid atmosphere and well-drained soil .", "It prefers moderately fertile ground, calcified or lightly acidic, therefore it is found more often on the side of a hill than at the bottom of clayey basin.", "It tolerates rigorous winter cold, but is sensitive to spring frost.", "In Norway's oceanic climate planted trees grow well north to Bod, and produce seedlings and can spread naturally in Trondheim.", "In Sweden, beech trees do not grow as far north as in Norway.", "A beech forest is very dark and few species of plant are able to survive there, where the sun barely reaches the ground.", "Young beeches prefer some shade and may grow poorly in full sunlight.", "In a clear-cut forest a European beech will germinate and then die of excessive dryness.", "species and Cenococcum geophilum have been found in Danish and Spanish beech forests.", "These fungi are important in enhancing uptake of water and nutrients from the soil.", "It is more precise in the north of its range than the south, and at than at sea level.", "Conditions in summer, particularly good rainfall, determine the number of leaves included in the buds.", "Later, after a wave of above ground growth, thicker roots grow in a steady fashion.", "A look down a steep gorge with European beech leading down to the ocean at Mns Klint, Denmark European beech is a very popular ornamental tree in parks and large gardens in temperate regions of the world.", "In North America, they are preferred for this purpose over the native F. grandifolia, which despite its tolerance of warmer climates, is slower growing, taking an average of 10 years longer to attain maturity.", "The town of Brookline, Massachusetts has one of the largest, if not the largest, grove of European beech trees in the United States.", "It is better for paper pulp than many other broadleaved trees though is only sometimes used for this, the high cellulose content can also be spun into modal, which is used as a textile akin to cotton."], "habitat_section": ["Fagus sylvatica pliocenica Museum of Toulouse The natural range extends from southern Sweden to northern Sicily, west to France, southern England, northern Portugal, central Spain, and east to northwest Turkey, where it intergrades with the oriental beech , which replaces it further east.", "In the Balkans, it shows some hybridisation with oriental beech, these hybrid trees are named Fagus taurica Popl.", "In the southern part of its range around the Mediterranean, it grows only in mountain forests, at altitude.", "Although often regarded as native in southern England, recent evidence suggests that F. sylvatica did not arrive in England until about 4000 BC, or 2,000 years subsequent to the English Channel forming following the ice ages, it could have been an early introduction by Stone Age humans, who used the nuts for food.", "The beech is classified as a native in the south of England and as a non-native in the north where it is often removed from 'native' woods.", "Localised pollen records have been recorded in the North of England from the Iron Age by Sir Harry Godwin.", "Changing climatic conditions may put beech populations in southern England under increased stress and while it may not be possible to maintain the current levels of beech in some sites it is thought that conditions for beech in north-west England will remain favourable or even improve.", "It is often planted in Britain.", "Similarly, the nature of Norwegian beech populations is subject to debate.", "If native, they would represent the northern range of the species.", "However, molecular genetic analyses support the hypothesis that these populations represent intentional introduction from Denmark before and during the Viking Age.", "However, the beech in Vestfold and at Seim north of Bergen in Norway is now spreading naturally and regarded as native.", "Though not demanding of its soil type, the European beech has several significant requirements.", "a humid atmosphere and well-drained soil .", "It prefers moderately fertile ground, calcified or lightly acidic, therefore it is found more often on the side of a hill than at the bottom of clayey basin.", "It tolerates rigorous winter cold, but is sensitive to spring frost.", "In Norway's oceanic climate planted trees grow well north to Bod, and produce seedlings and can spread naturally in Trondheim.", "In Sweden, beech trees do not grow as far north as in Norway.", "A beech forest is very dark and few species of plant are able to survive there, where the sun barely reaches the ground.", "Young beeches prefer some shade and may grow poorly in full sunlight.", "In a clear-cut forest a European beech will germinate and then die of excessive dryness.", "Under oaks with sparse leaf cover it will quickly surpass them in height and, due to the beech's dense foliage, the oaks will die from lack of sunlight.", "The root system is shallow, even superficial, with large roots spreading out in all directions.", "European beech forms ectomycorrhizas with a range of fungi including many Russula species, as well as Laccaria amethystina, and with the species Ramaria flavosaponaria.", "species and Cenococcum geophilum have been found in Danish and Spanish beech forests.", "These fungi are important in enhancing uptake of water and nutrients from the soil.", "and Izvoarele Nerei in Semenic-Cheile Carasului National Park, Romania.", "These habitats are the home of Europe's largest predators, .", "Many trees are older than 350 years in Izvoarele Nerei and even 500 years in Uholka-Shyrokyi Luh.", "Spring leaf budding by the European beech is triggered by a combination of day length and temperature.", "Bud break each year is from the middle of April to the beginning of May, often with remarkable precision .", "It is more precise in the north of its range than the south, and at than at sea level.", "The European beech invests significantly in summer and autumn for the following spring.", "Conditions in summer, particularly good rainfall, determine the number of leaves included in the buds.", "In autumn, the tree builds the reserves that will sustain it into spring.", "Given good conditions, a bud can produce a shoot with ten or more leaves.", "The terminal bud emits a hormonal substance in the spring that halts the development of additional buds.", "This tendency, though very strong at the beginning of their existence, becomes weaker in older trees.", "It is only after the budding that root growth of the year begins.", "The first roots to appear are very thin .", "Later, after a wave of above ground growth, thicker roots grow in a steady fashion.", "Detail of the tarcrust's structure"], "random_sentences": ["Fagus sylvatica, the European beech or common beech is a deciduous tree belonging to the beech family Fagaceae.", "Copper beech in autumn Shoot with nut cupules Fagus sylvatica is a large tree, capable of reaching heights of up to tall and trunk diameter, though more typically tall and up to trunk diameter.", "A 10-year-old sapling will stand about tall.", "It has a typical lifespan of 150200 years, though sometimes up to 300 years.", "In cultivated forest stands trees are normally harvested at 80120 years of age.", "30 years are needed to attain full maturity .", "Like most trees, its form depends on the location: in forest areas, F. sylvatica grows to over , with branches being high up on the trunk.", "In open locations, it will become much shorter and more massive.", "The leaves are alternate, simple, and entire or with a slightly crenate margin, long and 37 cm broad, with 67 veins on each side of the leaf .", "When crenate, there is one point at each vein tip, never any points between the veins.", "The buds are long and slender, long and thick, but thicker where the buds include flower buds.", "The leaves of beech are often not abscissed in the autumn and instead remain on the tree until the spring.", "This process is called marcescence.", "This particularly occurs when trees are saplings or when plants are clipped as a hedge , but it also often continues to occur on the lower branches when the tree is mature.", "Small quantities of seeds may be produced around 10 years of age, but not a heavy crop until the tree is at least 30 years old.", "F. sylvatica male flowers are borne in the small catkins which are a hallmark of the Fagales order .", "The female flowers produce beechnuts, small triangular nuts long and wide at the base", "there are two nuts in each cupule, maturing in the autumn 56 months after pollination.", "Flower and seed production is particularly abundant in years following a hot, sunny and dry summer, though rarely for two years in a row.", "Fagus sylvatica pliocenica Museum of Toulouse The natural range extends from southern Sweden to northern Sicily, west to France, southern England, northern Portugal, central Spain, and east to northwest Turkey, where it intergrades with the oriental beech , which replaces it further east.", "In the Balkans, it shows some hybridisation with oriental beech", "these hybrid trees are named Fagus taurica Popl.", "[Fagus moesiaca Czecz.", "In the southern part of its range around the Mediterranean, it grows only in mountain forests, at altitude.", "Although often regarded as native in southern England, recent evidence suggests that F. sylvatica did not arrive in England until about 4000 BC, or 2,000 years subsequent to the English Channel forming following the ice ages", "it could have been an early introduction by Stone Age humans, who used the nuts for food.", "The beech is classified as a native in the south of England and as a non-native in the north where it is often removed from 'native' woods.", "Localised pollen records have been recorded in the North of England from the Iron Age by Sir Harry Godwin.", "Changing climatic conditions may put beech populations in southern England under increased stress and while it may not be possible to maintain the current levels of beech in some sites it is thought that conditions for beech in north-west England will remain favourable or even improve.", "It is often planted in Britain.", "Similarly, the nature of Norwegian beech populations is subject to debate.", "If native, they would represent the northern range of the species.", "However, molecular genetic analyses support the hypothesis that these populations represent intentional introduction from Denmark before and during the Viking Age.", "However, the beech in Vestfold and at Seim north of Bergen in Norway is now spreading naturally and regarded as native.", "Though not demanding of its soil type, the European beech has several significant requirements: a humid atmosphere and well-drained soil .", "It prefers moderately fertile ground, calcified or lightly acidic, therefore it is found more often on the side of a hill than at the bottom of clayey basin.", "It tolerates rigorous winter cold, but is sensitive to spring frost.", "In Norway's oceanic climate planted trees grow well north to Bod, and produce seedlings and can spread naturally in Trondheim.", "In Sweden, beech trees do not grow as far north as in Norway.", "A beech forest is very dark and few species of plant are able to survive there, where the sun barely reaches the ground.", "Young beeches prefer some shade and may grow poorly in full sunlight.", "In a clear-cut forest a European beech will germinate and then die of excessive dryness.", "Under oaks with sparse leaf cover it will quickly surpass them in height and, due to the beech's dense foliage, the oaks will die from lack of sunlight.", "The root system is shallow, even superficial, with large roots spreading out in all directions.", "European beech forms ectomycorrhizas with a range of fungi including many Russula species, as well as Laccaria amethystina, and with the species Ramaria flavosaponaria.", "species and Cenococcum geophilum have been found in Danish and Spanish beech forests.", "These fungi are important in enhancing uptake of water and nutrients from the soil.", "and Izvoarele Nerei in Semenic-Cheile Carasului National Park, Romania.", "These habitats are the home of Europe's largest predators, .", "Many trees are older than 350 years in Izvoarele Nerei and even 500 years in Uholka-Shyrokyi Luh.", "Spring leaf budding by the European beech is triggered by a combination of day length and temperature.", "Bud break each year is from the middle of April to the beginning of May, often with remarkable precision .", "It is more precise in the north of its range than the south, and at than at sea level.", "The European beech invests significantly in summer and autumn for the following spring.", "Conditions in summer, particularly good rainfall, determine the number of leaves included in the buds.", "In autumn, the tree builds the reserves that will sustain it into spring.", "Given good conditions, a bud can produce a shoot with ten or more leaves.", "The terminal bud emits a hormonal substance in the spring that halts the development of additional buds.", "This tendency, though very strong at the beginning of their existence, becomes weaker in older trees.", "It is only after the budding that root growth of the year begins.", "The first roots to appear are very thin .", "Later, after a wave of above ground growth, thicker roots grow in a steady fashion.", "Detail of the tarcrust's structure", "Biscogniauxia nummularia is an ascomycete primary pathogen of beech trees, causing strip-canker and wood rot.", "It can be found at all times of year and is not edible.", "A look down a steep gorge with European beech leading down to the ocean at Mns Klint, Denmark European beech is a very popular ornamental tree in parks and large gardens in temperate regions of the world.", "In North America, they are preferred for this purpose over the native F. grandifolia, which despite its tolerance of warmer climates, is slower growing, taking an average of 10 years longer to attain maturity.", "The town of Brookline, Massachusetts has one of the largest, if not the largest, grove of European beech trees in the United States.", "The public park, called 'The Longwood Mall', was planted sometime before 1850 qualifying it as the oldest stand of European beeches in the United States.", "It is frequently kept clipped to make attractive hedges.", "Since the early 19th century there have been numerous cultivars of European beech made by horticultural selection, often repeatedly", "The nuts are eaten by humans and animals.", "Slightly toxic to humans if eaten in large quantities due to the tannins and alkaloids they contain, the nuts were nonetheless pressed to obtain an oil in 19th-century England that was used for cooking and in lamps.", "They were also ground to make flour, which could be eaten after the tannins were leached out by soaking.", "Primary Product AM 01, a smoke flavouring, is produced from Fagus sylvatica L.", "The wood of the European beech is used in the manufacture of numerous objects and implements.", "Its fine and short grain makes it an easy wood to work with, easy to soak, dye, varnish and glue.", "Steaming makes the wood even easier to machine.", "It has an excellent finish and is resistant to compression and splitting and it is stiff when flexed.", "Milling is sometimes difficult due to cracking.", "The density of the wood is per cubic meter.", "It is particularly well suited for minor carpentry, particularly furniture.", "From chairs to parquetry and staircases, the European beech can do almost anything other than heavy structural support, so long as it is not left outdoors.", "Its hardness make it ideal for making wooden mallets and workbench tops.", "The wood rots easily if it is not protected by a tar based on a distillate of its own bark .", "It is better for paper pulp than many other broadleaved trees though is only sometimes used for this, the high cellulose content can also be spun into modal, which is used as a textile akin to cotton.", "The code for its use in Europe is .", "Common beech is also considered one of the best firewoods for fireplaces."]}}
|
|
2783152_1192611
| 726
|
[
"Silene acaulis"
] |
{"Silene acaulis": {"keywords": ["Silene acaulis, known as moss campion or cushion pink, is a small mountain-dwelling wildflower that is common all over the high arctic and tundra in the higher mountains of Eurasia and North America, .", "It is an evergreen perennial flowering plant in the carnation family Caryophyllaceae.", "right Moss campion is a low, ground-hugging plant.", "The dead leaves from the previous season persist for years, and pink flowers are borne singly on short stalks that may be up to 1 \" long, but are usually much shorter.", "This genus, circumpolar in its distribution, is closely related to carnations.", "The other variety subacaulescens, from Wyoming and Colorado, has pale pink flowers all summer.", "Alpine fellfield, on windswept rocky ridges and summits above treeline.", "It grows mainly in dry, gravelly localities, but also in damper places.", "With the cushions it produces its own, warmer climate with higher temperatures inside, when the sun shines.", "Common all over the high arctic and the higher mountains of Eurasia and North America, .", "In the United States it inhabits Colorado, the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming, the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon, the Olympics, the northern Cascades of Washington and Alaska.", "Put the seedlings into separate pots, and it is recommended to let them winter in the greenhouse for their first winter season.", "They should be grown in well-drained soil with full sun.", "The climate can be cool.", "The raw root skin plants were consumed as a vegetable in Iceland and in Arctic regions.", "Experimental warming has been shown to start flowering substantially earlier than control cushions experiencing ambient temperature.", "However, a study on four populations across a latitudinal gradient in North America showed that southern populations of moss campion had lower survival and recruitment, but higher individual growth rates than more northern populations.", "Furthermore, vital rates such as growth, survival, and fruits per area were shown to increase in moderately warmer years yet declined in the very warmest years, suggesting that a change in climate into warmer conditions or more frequent unusually warm summers may eventually lead to negative impacts.", "Another study showed that while the short term responses were positive, they turned negative on medium-term, suggestion that moss campion may be at risk in future global warming.", "Projections produced under different climate scenarios suggest that S. acaulis will likely face climate-driven fast decline in suitable areas on the British Isles and across North America, and that upward and northward shifts to occupy new climatically suitable areas are improbable in the future.", "There is no listing that moss campion is toxic, though it does have saponins which, though toxic, are hard to absorb in the body."], "habitat_section": ["Alpine fellfield, on windswept rocky ridges and summits above treeline.", "It grows mainly in dry, gravelly localities, but also in damper places.", "With the cushions it produces its own, warmer climate with higher temperatures inside, when the sun shines.", "USDA North American distribution of Silene acaulis Jacq.", "Common all over the high arctic and the higher mountains of Eurasia and North America, .", "In the United States it inhabits Colorado, the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming, the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon, the Olympics, the northern Cascades of Washington and Alaska."], "random_sentences": ["Silene acaulis, known as moss campion or cushion pink, is a small mountain-dwelling wildflower that is common all over the high arctic and tundra in the higher mountains of Eurasia and North America, .", "It is an evergreen perennial flowering plant in the carnation family Caryophyllaceae.", "It is also called the compass plant, since the flowers appear first on the south side of the cushion.", "(Various other plants also have this name.", "right Moss campion is a low, ground-hugging plant.", "It may seem densely matted and moss-like.", "The dense cushions are up to a foot or more in diameter.", "The plants are usually about 2 \" tall but may be as high as 6 \" .", "The bright green leaves are narrow, arising from the base of the plant.", "The dead leaves from the previous season persist for years, and pink flowers are borne singly on short stalks that may be up to 1 \" long, but are usually much shorter.", "It usually has pink flowers, though very rarely they may be white.", "The flowers are held by a calyx which is rather firm and thick.", "The flowers are female, male or hermaphrodites.", "The sepals are joined together into a tube that conceals the bases of the petals, which are entire.", "The 10 stamens and 3 styles extend well beyond the throat of the flower.", "This genus, circumpolar in its distribution, is closely related to carnations.", "The stems and leaves are very sticky and viscid, which may discourage ants and beetles from climbing on the plant.", "The variety exscapa has shorter flowering stems.", "The other variety subacaulescens, from Wyoming and Colorado, has pale pink flowers all summer.", "Alpine fellfield, on windswept rocky ridges and summits above treeline.", "It grows mainly in dry, gravelly localities, but also in damper places.", "With the cushions it produces its own, warmer climate with higher temperatures inside, when the sun shines.", "USDA North American distribution of Silene acaulis (L.", "Common all over the high arctic and the higher mountains of Eurasia and North America, .", "In the United States it inhabits Colorado, the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming, the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon, the Olympics, the northern Cascades of Washington and Alaska.", "The seeds should be sown early in the spring time.", "Put the seedlings into separate pots, and it is recommended to let them winter in the greenhouse for their first winter season.", "To clean them rub the capsules through a screen.", "It's advised to plant them in the late spring or early summer because division takes place in the spring.", "They should be grown in well-drained soil with full sun.", "The climate can be cool.", "In Maine it is possibly extirpated, and in New Hampshire Silene acaulis var. exscapa is threatened.", "Plants in Colorado have been estimated to reach 75 to 100 years in age, and Alaskan plants may reach 300 years.", "The oldest known Moss campion is 350 years old and has a diameter of two feet.", "The plant used to be used for children with colic.", "The raw root skin plants were consumed as a vegetable in Iceland and in Arctic regions.", "Experimental warming has been shown to start flowering substantially earlier than control cushions experiencing ambient temperature.", "Both the male and female phases developed faster in the OTCs and capsules matured earlier, and the cushions produced more mature seeds and had a higher seed/ovule ratio contributing to an overall positive reproductive response.", "However, a study on four populations across a latitudinal gradient in North America showed that southern populations of moss campion had lower survival and recruitment, but higher individual growth rates than more northern populations.", "Furthermore, vital rates such as growth, survival, and fruits per area were shown to increase in moderately warmer years yet declined in the very warmest years, suggesting that a change in climate into warmer conditions or more frequent unusually warm summers may eventually lead to negative impacts.", "Another study showed that while the short term responses were positive, they turned negative on medium-term, suggestion that moss campion may be at risk in future global warming.", "Projections produced under different climate scenarios suggest that S. acaulis will likely face climate-driven fast decline in suitable areas on the British Isles and across North America, and that upward and northward shifts to occupy new climatically suitable areas are improbable in the future.", "There is no listing that moss campion is toxic, though it does have saponins which, though toxic, are hard to absorb in the body.", "They can be broken down by thorough cooking.", "Its advised to not consume large amounts of this plant."]}}
|
|
2611437_1266540
| 2053
|
[
"Certhia brachydactyla",
"Corvus corone",
"Cyanistes caeruleus",
"Turdus philomelos",
"Sciurus vulgaris",
"Chloris chloris",
"Streptopelia decaocto",
"Ostrya carpinifolia",
"Passer domesticus",
"Falco peregrinus",
"Fringilla coelebs",
"Sylvia atricapilla",
"Carduelis carduelis",
"Columba palumbus",
"Turdus merula",
"Tachymarptis melba",
"Oxycarenus lavaterae",
"Crocus tommasinianus",
"Ficaria verna",
"Parus major",
"Milvus milvus",
"Pica pica",
"Phoenicurus ochruros",
"Garrulus glandarius",
"Columba livia",
"Ciconia ciconia",
"Ficedula hypoleuca"
] |
{"Certhia brachydactyla": {"keywords": ["Certhia brachydactyla dorotheae, Cyprus The short-toed treecreeper is a small passerine bird found in woodlands through much of the warmer regions of Europe and into north Africa.", "The short-toed treecreeper tends to prefer deciduous trees and lower altitudes than its relative in these overlap areas.", "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.", "It is a resident in woodlands throughout its range, and nests in tree crevices or behind bark flakes, laying about six eggs.", "The short-toed treecreeper belongs to the northern group, along with the North American brown creeper, C. americana, the common treecreeper, C. familaris, of temperate Eurasia, and Hodgson's treecreeper, C. hodgsoni, from the southern rim of the Himalayas.", "Cork oak is a preferred nesting tree in Spain The short-toed treecreeper breeds in temperate woodlands across Europe from Portugal to Turkey and Greece, and in north west Africa.", "It prefers well-grown trees, especially oak and avoids pure stands of conifers.", "Where it shares its European range with common treecreeper, the latter species tends to be found mainly in coniferous forest and at higher altitudes.", "It has occurred as a vagrant to England, Sweden, Lithuania and the Balearic Islands.", "Eggs of Certhia brachydactyla MHNT Adult foraging on a trunk The short-toed nests in tree crevices or behind bark flakes.", "The nest has an often bulky base of twigs, pine needles, grass or bark, and a lining of finer material such as feathers, wool, moss, lichen or spider web.", "Although normally found on trees, it will occasionally feed on walls or bare ground, or amongst fallen pine needles.", "As a small woodland bird with cryptic plumage and a quiet call, the short-toed treecreeper is easily overlooked as it hops mouse-like up a vertical trunk, progressing in short hops, using its stiff tail and widely splayed feet as support.", "It is solitary in winter, but in cold weather up to twenty or more birds will roost together in a suitable sheltered crevice, or in a star formation under eaves of buildings.", "It is common through much of its range, but is rare in the Caucasus and on the smaller Channel Islands."], "habitat_section": ["Cork oak is a preferred nesting tree in Spain The short-toed treecreeper breeds in temperate woodlands across Europe from Portugal to Turkey and Greece, and in north west Africa.", "It prefers well-grown trees, especially oak and avoids pure stands of conifers.", "Where it shares its European range with common treecreeper, the latter species tends to be found mainly in coniferous forest and at higher altitudes.", "This treecreeper is essentially non-migratory but post-breeding dispersal may lead to vagrancy outside the normal range.", "It has occurred as a vagrant to England, Sweden, Lithuania and the Balearic Islands.", "Three birds on Corsica in 1969 appeared to be of the North African subspecies C. b. mauritanica''.", "This species has an extensive range of between 1 to 10 million square kilometres .", "It has a large population, estimated at between 4.1 to 14 million individuals.", "Population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List .", "For these reasons, the short-toed treecreeper is evaluated as Least Concern.", "It is common through much of its range, but is rare in the Caucasus and on the smaller Channel Islands.", "In the west of its range it is spreading north through Denmark, where it first bred in 1946."], "random_sentences": ["Certhia brachydactyla dorotheae, Cyprus The short-toed treecreeper is a small passerine bird found in woodlands through much of the warmer regions of Europe and into north Africa.", "It has a generally more southerly distribution than the other European treecreeper species, the common treecreeper, with which it is easily confused where they both occur.", "The short-toed treecreeper tends to prefer deciduous trees and lower altitudes than its relative in these overlap areas.", "Although mainly sedentary, vagrants have occurred outside the breeding range.", "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.", "The short-toed treecreeper was first described by Christian Ludwig Brehm in 1820.", "The binomial name is derived from Greek", "kerthios is a small tree-dwelling bird described by Aristotle and others, and brachydactyla comes from brakhus, \" short \" and dactulos \" finger \" , which refers, like the English name, to the fact that this species has shorter toes than the common treecreeper.", "This species is one of a group of very similar treecreeper species, all placed in the single genus Certhia.", "Eight species are currently recognised, in two evolutionary lineages, a Holarctic radiation, and a Sino-Himalayan group south and east of the Himalayas.", "The former group has a more warbling song, always starting or ending with a shrill sreeh.", "The Himalayan species, in contrast, have a faster-paced trill without the sreeh sound.", "The short-toed treecreeper belongs to the northern group, along with the North American brown creeper, C. americana, the common treecreeper, C. familaris, of temperate Eurasia, and Hodgson's treecreeper, C. hodgsoni, from the southern rim of the Himalayas.", "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.", "The sexes are similar, but juveniles have whitish underparts, sometimes with a buff belly.", "The call of this species is a repeated shrill tyt...", "tyt tyt-tyt and the song of the nominate subspecies is an evenly spaced sequence of notes teet-teet-teet-e-roi-tiit.", "There is some geographical variation", "the song of Danish birds is shorter, that of the Cyprus subspecies is very short and simple, and the North African version is lower pitched.", "European birds do not respond to latter two song variants.", "The brown treecreeper has never been recorded in Europe, but would be difficult to separate from the short-toed treecreeper, which it much resembles in appearance.", "Its call is more like the common treecreeper's, but a vagrant brown treecreeper might still not be possible to identify with certainty given the similarities between the three species.", "Cork oak is a preferred nesting tree in Spain The short-toed treecreeper breeds in temperate woodlands across Europe from Portugal to Turkey and Greece, and in north west Africa.", "It prefers well-grown trees, especially oak and avoids pure stands of conifers.", "Where it shares its European range with common treecreeper, the latter species tends to be found mainly in coniferous forest and at higher altitudes.", "This treecreeper is essentially non-migratory but post-breeding dispersal may lead to vagrancy outside the normal range.", "It has occurred as a vagrant to England, Sweden, Lithuania and the Balearic Islands.", "Three birds on Corsica in 1969 appeared to be of the North African subspecies C. b. mauritanica''.", "Eggs of Certhia brachydactyla MHNT Adult foraging on a trunk The short-toed nests in tree crevices or behind bark flakes.", "Old woodpecker nests, crevices in buildings or walls, and artificial nest boxes or flaps are also used.", "The nest has an often bulky base of twigs, pine needles, grass or bark, and a lining of finer material such as feathers, wool, moss, lichen or spider web.", "The eggs are laid between April and mid June (typical clutch 5", "they are white with purple-red blotches, in size.", "The eggs are incubated by the female alone for 13 15 days until the altricial downy chicks hatch", "they are then fed by both parents, but brooded by the female alone, for a further 15 18 days to fledging.", "This species often raises a second brood.", "The male starts constructing a new nest while the female is still feeding the first brood, and when the chicks are 1012 days old, he takes over feeding duties while the female completes the new nest.", "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.", "It may add some seeds to its diet in the colder months.", "As a small woodland bird with cryptic plumage and a quiet call, the short-toed treecreeper is easily overlooked as it hops mouse-like up a vertical trunk, progressing in short hops, using its stiff tail and widely splayed feet as support.", "Nevertheless, it is not wary, and is largely indifferent to the presence of humans.", "It has a distinctive erratic and undulating flight, alternating fluttering butterfly-like wing beats with side-slips and tumbles.", "It is solitary in winter, but in cold weather up to twenty or more birds will roost together in a suitable sheltered crevice, or in a star formation under eaves of buildings.", "This species has an extensive range of between 1", "10 million square kilometres (0.4", "It has a large population, estimated at between 4.1", "Population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List .", "For these reasons, the short-toed treecreeper is evaluated as Least Concern.", "It is common through much of its range, but is rare in the Caucasus and on the smaller Channel Islands.", "In the west of its range it is spreading north through Denmark, where it first bred in 1946."]}, "Corvus corone": {"keywords": ["The carrion crow is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus Corvus which is native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic.", "Juvenile carrion crows can be identified by their brownish plumage and blue eyes, both of which darken to black and brown as the crow grows older.", "It is believed that this distribution might have resulted from the glaciation cycles during the Pleistocene, which caused the parent population to split into isolates which subsequently re-expanded their ranges when the climate warmed causing secondary contact.", "The carrion crow is also found in the mountains and forests of Japan and also in the cities of Japan.", "Scavenging around a dead bird in Paris, France The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks, moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts.", "Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.", "Crows are scavengers by nature, which is why they tend to frequent sites inhabited by humans in order to feed on their household waste.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden The bulky stick nest is usually placed in a tall tree, but cliff ledges, old buildings and pylons may be used as well."], "habitat_section": ["A map of Europe indicating the distribution of the carrion and hooded crows on either side of a contact zone separating the two species The carrion crow and hooded crow , including the former's slightly larger allied form or race C. c. orientalis, are two very closely related species, the geographic distributions of both forms of carrion crow across Europe are illustrated in the accompanying diagram.", "It is believed that this distribution might have resulted from the glaciation cycles during the Pleistocene, which caused the parent population to split into isolates which subsequently re-expanded their ranges when the climate warmed causing secondary contact.", "Poelstra and coworkers sequenced almost the entire genomes of both species in populations at varying distances from the contact zone to find that the two species were genetically identical, both in their DNA and in its expression , except for the lack of expression of a small portion of the genome in the hooded crow, which imparts the lighter plumage colouration on its torso.", "Thus the two species can viably hybridize, and occasionally do so at the contact zone, but the all-black carrion crows on the one side of the contact zone mate almost exclusively with other all-black carrion crows, while the same occurs among the hooded crows on the other side of the contact zone.", "It is therefore clear that it is only the outward appearance of the two species that inhibits hybridization.", "The authors attribute this to assortative mating , the advantage of which is not clear, and it would lead to the rapid appearance of streams of new lineages, and possibly even species, through mutual attraction between mutants.", "Unnikrishnan and Akhila propose, instead, that koinophilia is a more parsimonious explanation for the resistance to hybridization across the contact zone, despite the absence of physiological, anatomical or genetic barriers to such hybridization.", "The carrion crow is also found in the mountains and forests of Japan and also in the cities of Japan.", "Scavenging around a dead bird in Paris, France The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks, moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts.", "The most distinctive feature is the voice.", "The rook has a high-pitched kaaa, but the crow's guttural, slightly vibrant, deeper croaked kraa is distinct from any note of the rook.", "The carrion crow is noisy, perching on a vantage point such as a building or the top of a tree and calling three or four times in quick succession, with a slight pause between each series of croaks.", "During each series of calls, a crow may perform an accompanying gesture, raising its shoulders and bowing its head and neck downwards with each caw.", "The wing-beats are slower, more deliberate than those of the rook.", "Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.", "Like other species of corvid, carrion crows will actively harass predators and competitors that enter their territory or threaten them or their offspring, and will engage in group mobbing behaviour as a method to defend themselves."], "random_sentences": ["The carrion crow is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus Corvus which is native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic.", "The carrion crow was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, and it still bears its original name of Corvus corone.", "The binomial name is derived from the Latin , \" raven \" , and Greek , \" crow \" .", "The hooded crow, formerly regarded as a subspecies, has been split off as a separate species, and there is some discussion whether the eastern carrion crow (C.", "c. orientalis) is distinct enough to warrant specific status", "the two taxa are well separated, and it has been proposed they could have evolved independently in the wetter, maritime regions at the opposite ends of the Eurasian landmass.", "Along with the hooded crow, the carrion crow occupies a similar ecological niche in Eurasia to the American crow (C.", "Adult male carrion crow moulting at the Jardin des Plantes of Paris.", "The plumage of the carrion crow is black with a green or purple sheen, much greener than the gloss of the rook.", "The bill, legs and feet are also black.", "It can be distinguished from the common raven by its size of around in length as compared to an average of for ravens, and from the hooded crow by its black plumage.", "The carrion crow has a wingspan of and weighs .", "There is frequent confusion between the carrion crow and the rook, another black corvid found within its range.", "The beak of the crow is stouter and in consequence looks shorter, and whereas in the adult rook the nostrils are bare, those of the crow are covered at all ages with bristle-like feathers.", "As well as this, the wings of a carrion crow are proportionally shorter and broader than those of the rook when seen in flight.", "Juvenile carrion crows can be identified by their brownish plumage and blue eyes, both of which darken to black and brown as the crow grows older.", "Distribution and genetic relationship to hooded crows", "A map of Europe indicating the distribution of the carrion and hooded crows on either side of a contact zone separating the two species The carrion crow and hooded crow , including the former's slightly larger allied form or race C. c. orientalis, are two very closely related species", "the geographic distributions of both forms of carrion crow across Europe are illustrated in the accompanying diagram.", "It is believed that this distribution might have resulted from the glaciation cycles during the Pleistocene, which caused the parent population to split into isolates which subsequently re-expanded their ranges when the climate warmed causing secondary contact.", "Poelstra and coworkers sequenced almost the entire genomes of both species in populations at varying distances from the contact zone to find that the two species were genetically identical, both in their DNA and in its expression , except for the lack of expression of a small portion of the genome in the hooded crow, which imparts the lighter plumage colouration on its torso.", "Thus the two species can viably hybridize, and occasionally do so at the contact zone, but the all-black carrion crows on the one side of the contact zone mate almost exclusively with other all-black carrion crows, while the same occurs among the hooded crows on the other side of the contact zone.", "It is therefore clear that it is only the outward appearance of the two species that inhibits hybridization.", "The authors attribute this to assortative mating , the advantage of which is not clear, and it would lead to the rapid appearance of streams of new lineages, and possibly even species, through mutual attraction between mutants.", "Unnikrishnan and Akhila propose, instead, that koinophilia is a more parsimonious explanation for the resistance to hybridization across the contact zone, despite the absence of physiological, anatomical or genetic barriers to such hybridization.", "The carrion crow is also found in the mountains and forests of Japan and also in the cities of Japan.", "In Southend-on-Sea, England In flight right", "Scavenging around a dead bird in Paris, France The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks", "moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts.", "The most distinctive feature is the voice.", "The rook has a high-pitched kaaa, but the crow's guttural, slightly vibrant, deeper croaked kraa is distinct from any note of the rook.", "The carrion crow is noisy, perching on a vantage point such as a building or the top of a tree and calling three or four times in quick succession, with a slight pause between each series of croaks.", "During each series of calls, a crow may perform an accompanying gesture, raising its shoulders and bowing its head and neck downwards with each caw.", "The wing-beats are slower, more deliberate than those of the rook.", "Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.", "Like other species of corvid, carrion crows will actively harass predators and competitors that enter their territory or threaten them or their offspring, and will engage in group mobbing behaviour as a method to defend themselves.", "Like all corvids, carrion crows show intelligent behaviour.", "For example, they can discriminate between numerosities up to 30, flexibly switch between rules, and recognise human and crow faces.", "Given the difference in brain architecture in crows compared to primates, these abilities suggest that their intelligence is realised as a product of convergent evolution.", "Though an eater of carrion of all kinds, the carrion crow will eat insects, earthworms, other invertebrates, grain, fruits, seeds, nuts, small mammals, amphibians, fish, scraps and will also steal eggs.", "Crows are scavengers by nature, which is why they tend to frequent sites inhabited by humans in order to feed on their household waste.", "Crows will also harass birds of prey or even foxes for their kills.", "Crows actively hunt and occasionally co-operate with other crows to make kills, and are sometimes seen catching ducklings for food.", "Due to their gregarious lifestyle and defensive abilities, carrion crows have few natural predators.", "However, powerful raptors such as the northern goshawk, peregrine falcon, Eurasian eagle-owl and golden eagle will readily hunt them, and crows can become an important prey item locally.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden The bulky stick nest is usually placed in a tall tree, but cliff ledges, old buildings and pylons may be used as well.", "Nests are also occasionally placed on or near the ground.", "The nest resembles that of the common raven, but is less bulky.", "The 3 to 4 brown-speckled blue or greenish eggs are incubated for 1820 days by the female alone, who is fed by the male.", "The young fledge after 2930 days.", "Chicks in the nest It is not uncommon for an offspring from the previous years to stay around and help rear the new hatchlings.", "Instead of seeking out a mate, it looks for food and assists the parents in feeding the young."]}, "Cyanistes caeruleus": {"keywords": ["Eurasian blue tits, usually resident and non-migratory birds, are widespread and a common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and the western Palearctic in deciduous or mixed woodlands with a high proportion of oak.", "Outside the breeding season, they also eat seeds and other vegetable-based foods.", "The birds are famed for their acrobatic skills, as they can hold on to the outermost branches of trees and shrubs and hang upside down when looking for food.", "The Eurasian blue tit and the related hybrids are considered native species in areas of the European continent with a mainly temperate or Mediterranean climate, and in parts of the Middle East.", "Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Vatican City and Ukraine.", "In Great Britain the Eurasian blue tit can be found in a variety of environments, and is typically found in deciduous woodland, parks, gardens and even in the centre of towns.", "As a rule the bird roosts in ivy or evergreens, but in harsh winters will roost wherever there is a suitable small hole, be it in a tree or nesting box.", "Egg size appears to depend mostly on the size of individual females and secondarily on habitat, with smaller eggs found at higher altitudes.", "Scolding, for example, is used when a ground predator , a low flying predator or a perched owl are noticed.", "In addition, the instinct to strip bark from trees in search of insects has developed into a tendency to peel building materials such as thatch, wallpaper, stucco and window putty.", "Breeding seasons may be affected badly if the weather is cold and wet between May and July, particularly if this coincides with the emergence of the caterpillars on which the nestlings are fed."], "habitat_section": ["Reported range from observations reported to eBird Blue tit displaying aggression during ringing There are currently around 2044 million pairs in Europe.", "The Eurasian blue tit and the related hybrids are considered native species in areas of the European continent with a mainly temperate or Mediterranean climate, and in parts of the Middle East.", "These areas include Ireland, the United Kingdom and most of the European Union and EFTA , plus.", "Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Vatican City and Ukraine.", "In Great Britain the Eurasian blue tit can be found in a variety of environments, and is typically found in deciduous woodland, parks, gardens and even in the centre of towns.", "Eurasian blue and great tits form mixed winter flocks, and the former are perhaps the better gymnasts in the slender twigs.", "A Eurasian blue tit will often ascend a trunk in short jerky hops, reminiscent of a treecreeper.", "As a rule the bird roosts in ivy or evergreens, but in harsh winters will roost wherever there is a suitable small hole, be it in a tree or nesting box.", "They are very agile and can hang from almost anywhere.", "This is a common and popular European garden bird, due to its perky acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or suet.", "It swings beneath the holder, calling \" tee, tee, tee \" or a scolding \" churr \" .", "The Eurasian blue tit is classified as a least concern species on the IUCN Red List , and as a Green Status species, since 1996, by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the United Kingdom."], "random_sentences": ["Eurasian blue tit in Sweden, April 2018 The Eurasian blue tit is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae.", "It is easily recognisable by its blue and yellow plumage and small size.", "Eurasian blue tits, usually resident and non-migratory birds, are widespread and a common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and the western Palearctic in deciduous or mixed woodlands with a high proportion of oak.", "They usually nest in tree holes, although they easily adapt to nest boxes where necessary.", "Their main rival for nests and in the search for food is the larger and more common great tit.", "The Eurasian blue tit prefers insects and spiders for its diet.", "Outside the breeding season, they also eat seeds and other vegetable-based foods.", "The birds are famed for their acrobatic skills, as they can hold on to the outermost branches of trees and shrubs and hang upside down when looking for food.", "The Eurasian blue tit was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Parus caeruleus.", "Parus is the classical Latin for a tit and caeruleus is the Latin for dark blue or cerulean.", "Two centuries earlier, before the introduction of the binomial nomenclature, the same Latin name had been used by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner when he described and illustrated the blue tit in his Historiae animalium of 1555.", "In 2005, analysis of the mtDNA cytochrome b sequences of the Paridae indicated that Cyanistes was an early offshoot from the lineage of other tits, and more accurately regarded as a genus rather than a subgenus of Parus.", "The current genus name, Cyanistes, is from the Ancient Greek , \" dark blue \" .", "The African blue tit was formerly considered conspecific.", "Pleske's tit is a common interspecific hybrid between this species and the azure tit , in western Russia.", "The cap is usually darker than the azure tit, and the tail is paler than the Eurasian blue tit.", "The Eurasian blue tit is usually , long with a wingspan of for both sexes, and weighs about .", "A typical Eurasian blue tit has an azure-blue crown and dark blue line passing through the eye, and encircling the white cheeks to the chin, giving the bird a very distinctive appearance.", "The forehead and a bar on the wing are white.", "The nape, wings and tail are blue and the back is yellowish green.", "The underparts is mostly sulphur-yellow with a dark line down the abdomenthe yellowness is indicative of the number of yellowy-green caterpillars eaten, due to high levels of carotene pigments in the diet.", "The bill is black, the legs bluish grey, and the irides dark brown.", "The sexes are similar and often indistinguishable to human eyes, but under ultraviolet light, males have a brighter blue crown.", "Young blue tits are noticeably more yellow.", "Reported range from observations reported to eBird Blue tit displaying aggression during ringing There are currently around 2044 million pairs in Europe.", "The Eurasian blue tit and the related hybrids are considered native species in areas of the European continent with a mainly temperate or Mediterranean climate, and in parts of the Middle East.", "These areas include Ireland, the United Kingdom and most of the European Union and EFTA , plus: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Vatican City and Ukraine.", "In Great Britain the Eurasian blue tit can be found in a variety of environments, and is typically found in deciduous woodland, parks, gardens and even in the centre of towns.", "Eurasian blue and great tits form mixed winter flocks, and the former are perhaps the better gymnasts in the slender twigs.", "A Eurasian blue tit will often ascend a trunk in short jerky hops, reminiscent of a treecreeper.", "As a rule the bird roosts in ivy or evergreens, but in harsh winters will roost wherever there is a suitable small hole, be it in a tree or nesting box.", "They are very agile and can hang from almost anywhere.", "This is a common and popular European garden bird, due to its perky acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or suet.", "It swings beneath the holder, calling \" tee, tee, tee \" or a scolding \" churr \" .", "Feeding the young at a nest box in England Eggs of Cyanistes caeruleus ultramarinus MHNT right", "Few birds more readily accept the shelter of a nesting box", "the same hole is returned to year after year, and when one pair dies another takes possession.", "It is estimated by the RSPB that there are 3,535,000 breeding pairs in the UK.", "During the incubation period, female blue tits perform all of the incubation, however the male feeds the female during this time.", "During the nestling period both female nest attendance and male feeding rate are higher in the morning, declining throughout the day.", "Eggs are long and wide.", "Egg size appears to depend mostly on the size of individual females and secondarily on habitat, with smaller eggs found at higher altitudes.", "The clutch's total weight can be 1.5 times as heavy as the female bird.", "Juvenile in Pimlico, LondonA study found that the timing of breeding in blue tits is related to the expression of nestling carotenoidbased coloration, which could play a role in offspringparent communication.", "The bird is a close sitter, hissing and biting at an intruding finger.", "In the South West of England such behaviour has earned the Eurasian blue tit the colloquial nickname \" Little Billy Biter \" or \" Billy Biter \" , originating from the UK.", "When protecting its eggs it raises its crest, but this is a sign of excitement rather than anger, for it is also elevated during nuptial display.", "The nesting material is usually moss, wool, hair and feathers, and the eggs are laid in April or May.", "The number in the clutch is often very large, but seven or eight are normal, clutch size varies with latitude and other geographic parameters.", "Some bigger clutches may be laid by two or even more hens in some locations but single hen clutches of 14 have been verified in the UK.", "It is not unusual for a single bird to feed the chicks in the nest at a rate of one feed every 90 seconds during the height of the breeding season.", "In winter they form flocks with other tit species.", "In an analysis carried out using ring-recovery data in Britain, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 38%, while the adult annual survival rate was 53%.", "From these figures the typical lifespan is only three years.", "Within Britain, the maximum recorded age is 10 years and 3 months for a bird that was ringed in Bedfordshire.", "The maximum recorded age overall is 11 years and 7 months for a bird in the Czech Republic.", "Eating peanuts from a garden bird feeder in England right", "Eurasian blue tit eating peanuts from a string, Italy The Eurasian blue tit feeds on many insects, though it is fond of young buds of various trees, especially when insect prey is scarce, and may pull them to bits in the hope of finding insects.", "It is a well-known predator of many Lepidoptera species including the Wood Tiger moth.", "No species, however, destroys more coccids and aphids, the worst foes of many plants.", "It takes leaf miner grubs and green tortrix moths .", "In common with all members of the family, seeds are also eaten.", "Calls of a blue tit Eurasian blue tits use songs and calls throughout the year.", "Songs are mostly used in late winter and spring to defend the territory or to attract mates.", "Calls are used for multiple reasons.", "Communication with other Eurasian blue tits is the most important motivation for the use of calls.", "They inform one another on their location in trees by means of contact-calls.", "They use alarm-calls to warn others about the presence of predators in the neighbourhood.", "Scolding, for example, is used when a ground predator , a low flying predator or a perched owl are noticed.", "Sometimes this is followed by mobbing behaviour in which birds gather together in flocks to counter a predator.", "The alarm-whistle warns other birds about the proximity of a Eurasian sparrowhawk, a northern goshawk, a common buzzard or other flying predators that form a potential danger in the air.", "A series of high-pitched '' notes are given by both partners before and during copulation.", "The begging-call is used by juveniles to beg for food from parents.", "An interesting example of culturally transmitted learning in birds was the phenomenon dating from the 1920s of blue tits teaching one another how to open traditional British milk bottles with foil tops, to get at the cream underneath Such behaviour has been suppressed recently by the gradual change of human dietary habits , and the way of getting them .", "In addition, the instinct to strip bark from trees in search of insects has developed into a tendency to peel building materials such as thatch, wallpaper, stucco and window putty.", "The small size of the Eurasian blue tit makes it vulnerable to prey by larger birds such as jays who catch the vulnerable fledglings when they leave the nest.", "The most important predator is probably the sparrowhawk, closely followed by the domestic cat.", "Nests may be robbed by mammals such as weasels and red squirrels, as well as introduced grey squirrels in the UK.", "The successful breeding of chicks is dependent on sufficient supply of green caterpillars as well as satisfactory weather.", "Breeding seasons may be affected badly if the weather is cold and wet between May and July, particularly if this coincides with the emergence of the caterpillars on which the nestlings are fed.", "A bald blue tit with mite Eurasian blue tits are known to be host to feather mites, and rarely lice and flat flies.", "In Europe, the only feather mite species known to live on the blue tit host is Proctophyllodes stylifer.", "However, this mite seems to be of no concern to the bird as, until now, it is only known to feed on dead feather tissue.", "P. stylifer lives all its developmental stages, i.e. egg, larva, protonymph, tritonymph and adult, within the plumage of the same host.", "The usual sites where P. stylifer is encountered are the remiges and the rectrices of the bird where they can be found tandemly positioned between the barbs of the rachis.", "The Eurasian blue tit is classified as a least concern species on the IUCN Red List , and as a Green Status species, since 1996, by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the United Kingdom.", "The Eurasian blue tit has appeared on many stamps and ornaments.", "Its most recent appearance on a British stamp was the 2010 Birds of Britain series."]}, "Turdus philomelos": {"keywords": ["The song thrush breeds in forests, gardens and parks, and is partially migratory with many birds wintering in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, it has also been introduced into New Zealand and Australia.", "They are less closely related to other European thrush species such as the blackbird which are descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "It has brown upperparts which are warmer in tone than those of the nominate form, an olive-tinged rump and rich yellow background colour to the underparts.", "Juvenile in New Zealand The song thrush breeds in most of Europe , and across Ukraine and Russia almost to Lake Baikal. It reaches to 75N in Norway, but only to about 60N in Siberia.", "Birds from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Russia winter around the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East, but only some of the birds in the milder west of the breeding range leave their breeding areas.", "Such areas include parks, gardens, coniferous and deciduous woodland and hedgerows.", "In New Zealand, where it was introduced on both the main islands, the song thrush quickly established itself and spread to surrounding islands such as the Kermadecs, Chatham and Auckland Islands.", "Juvenile in a forest near Dombaih, Russia The song thrush typically nests in forest with good undergrowth and nearby more open areas, and in western Europe also uses gardens and parks.", "The island subspecies T. p. hebridensis breeds in more open country, including heathland, and in the east of the song thrush's Eurasian range, the nominate subspecies is restricted to the edge of the dense conifer forests.", "In intensively farmed areas where agricultural practices appear to have made cropped land unsuitable, gardens are an important breeding habitat.", "In one English study, only 3.5% of territories were found in farmland, whereas gardens held 71.5% of the territories, despite that habitat making up only 2% of the total area.", "The remaining nests were in woodlands .", "The winter habitat is similar to that used for breeding, except that high ground and other exposed localities are avoided, however, the island subspecies T. p. hebridensis will frequent the seashore in winter.", "It flies in loose flocks which cross the sea on a broad front rather than concentrating at short crossings , and calls frequently to maintain contact.", "Return migration varies between mid-February around the Mediterranean to May in northern Sweden and central Siberia.", "Vagrants have been recorded in Greenland, various Atlantic islands, and West Africa.", "Three eggs in a nest The female song thrush builds a neat cup-shaped nest lined with mud and dry grass in a bush, tree or creeper, or, in the case of the Hebridean subspecies, on the ground.", "Ixodes ticks are also common, and can carry pathogens, including tick-borne encephalitis in forested areas of central and eastern Europe and Russia, and, more widely, Borrelia bacteria.", "Some species of Borrelia cause Lyme disease, and ground-feeding birds like the song thrush may act as a reservoir for the disease.", "Like its relative, the blackbird, the song thrush finds animal prey by sight, has a run-and-stop hunting technique on open ground, and will rummage through leaf-litter seeking potential food items.", "The thrush often uses a favorite stone as an \" anvil \" on which to break the shell of the snail before extracting the soft body and invariably wiping it on the ground before consumption.", "In gardens, the use of poison bait to control slugs and snails may pose a threat.", "In urban areas, some thrushes are killed while using the hard surface of roads to smash snails.", "The song thrush's characteristic song, with melodic phrases repeated twice or more, is described by the nineteenth-century British poet Robert Browning in his poem Home Thoughts, from Abroad."], "habitat_section": ["Juvenile in New Zealand The song thrush breeds in most of Europe , and across Ukraine and Russia almost to Lake Baikal. It reaches to 75N in Norway, but only to about 60N in Siberia.", "Birds from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Russia winter around the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East, but only some of the birds in the milder west of the breeding range leave their breeding areas.", "In Great Britain song thrushes are commonly found where there are trees and bushes.", "Such areas include parks, gardens, coniferous and deciduous woodland and hedgerows.", "Birds of the nominate subspecies were introduced to New Zealand and Australia by acclimatisation societies between 1860 and 1880, apparently for purely sentimental reasons.", "In New Zealand, where it was introduced on both the main islands, the song thrush quickly established itself and spread to surrounding islands such as the Kermadecs, Chatham and Auckland Islands.", "Although it is common and widespread in New Zealand, in Australia only a small population survives around Melbourne.", "In New Zealand, there appears to be a limited detrimental effect on some invertebrates due to predation by introduced bird species, and the song thrush also damages commercial fruit crops in that country.", "As an introduced species it has no legal protection in New Zealand, and can be killed at any time.", "Juvenile in a forest near Dombaih, Russia The song thrush typically nests in forest with good undergrowth and nearby more open areas, and in western Europe also uses gardens and parks.", "It breeds up to the tree-line, reaching in Switzerland.", "The island subspecies T. p. hebridensis breeds in more open country, including heathland, and in the east of the song thrush's Eurasian range, the nominate subspecies is restricted to the edge of the dense conifer forests.", "In intensively farmed areas where agricultural practices appear to have made cropped land unsuitable, gardens are an important breeding habitat.", "In one English study, only 3.5% of territories were found in farmland, whereas gardens held 71.5% of the territories, despite that habitat making up only 2% of the total area.", "The remaining nests were in woodlands .", "The winter habitat is similar to that used for breeding, except that high ground and other exposed localities are avoided, however, the island subspecies T. p. hebridensis will frequent the seashore in winter.", "Breaking the shell of a snail The song thrush is not usually gregarious, although several birds may roost together in winter or be loosely associated in suitable feeding habitats, perhaps with other thrushes such as the blackbird, fieldfare, redwing and dark-throated thrush.", "Unlike the more nomadic fieldfare and redwing, the song thrush tends to return regularly to the same wintering areas.", "This is a monogamous territorial species, and in areas where it is fully migratory, the male re-establishes its breeding territory and starts singing as soon as he returns.", "In the milder areas where some birds stay year round, the resident male remains in his breeding territory, singing intermittently, but the female may establish a separate individual wintering range until pair formation begins in the early spring.", "During migration, the song thrush travels mainly at night with a strong and direct flight action.", "It flies in loose flocks which cross the sea on a broad front rather than concentrating at short crossings , and calls frequently to maintain contact.", "Migration may start as early as late August in the most easterly and northerly parts of the range, but the majority of birds, with shorter distances to cover, head south from September to mid-December.", "However, hard weather may force further movement.", "Return migration varies between mid-February around the Mediterranean to May in northern Sweden and central Siberia.", "Vagrants have been recorded in Greenland, various Atlantic islands, and West Africa.", "In New Zealand The song thrush has an extensive range, estimated at , and a large population, with an estimated 40 to 71 million individuals in Europe alone.", "In the western Palaearctic, there is evidence of population decline, but at a level below the threshold required for global conservation concern and the IUCN Red List categorises this species as of \" Least Concern \" .", "In Great Britain and the Netherlands, there has been a more than 50% decline in population, and the song thrush is included in regional Red Lists.", "The decreases are greatest in farmlands and believed to be due to changes in agricultural practices in recent decades.", "The precise reasons for the decline are not known but may be related to the loss of hedgerows, a move to sowing crops in autumn rather than spring, and possibly the increased use of pesticides.", "These changes may have reduced the availability of food and of nest sites.", "In gardens, the use of poison bait to control slugs and snails may pose a threat.", "In urban areas, some thrushes are killed while using the hard surface of roads to smash snails."], "random_sentences": ["The song thrush is a thrush that breeds across the West Palearctic.", "It has brown upper-parts and black-spotted cream or buff underparts and has three recognised subspecies.", "Its distinctive song, which has repeated musical phrases, has frequently been referred to in poetry.", "The song thrush breeds in forests, gardens and parks, and is partially migratory with many birds wintering in southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East", "it has also been introduced into New Zealand and Australia.", "Although it is not threatened globally, there have been serious population declines in parts of Europe, possibly due to changes in farming practices.", "The song thrush builds a neat mud-lined cup nest in a bush or tree and lays four to five dark-spotted blue eggs.", "It is omnivorous and has the habit of using a favourite stone as an \" anvil \" on which to break open the shells of snails.", "Like other perching birds , it is affected by external and internal parasites and is vulnerable to predation by cats and birds of prey.", "The song thrush was described by German ornithologist Christian Ludwig Brehm in 1831, and still bears its original scientific name, Turdus philomelos.", "The generic name, Turdus, is the Latin for thrush, and the specific epithet refers to a character in Greek mythology, Philomela, who had her tongue cut out, but was changed into a singing bird.", "Her name is derived from the Ancient Greek philo- , and melos .", "The dialect names throstle and mavis both mean thrush, being related to the German drossel and French mauvis respectively.", "Throstle dates back to at least the fourteenth century and was used by Chaucer in the Parliament of Fowls.", "Mavis is derived via Middle English mavys and Old French mauvis from Middle Breton milhuyt meaning \" thrush.", "\" Mavis can also mean \" purple \" in Greek.", "A parent feeding chicks in their nest in a New Zealand garden", "altA brown spotted bird standing on the rim of a nest with food for four chicks seen with open gapes A molecular study indicated that the song thrush's closest relatives are the similarly plumaged mistle thrush (T.", "viscivorus) and Chinese thrush (T.", "these three species are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa.", "They are less closely related to other European thrush species such as the blackbird (T.", "merula) which are descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "The song thrush has three subspecies, with the nominate subspecies, T. p. philomelos, covering the majority of the species' range.", "T. p. hebridensis, described by British ornithologist William Eagle Clarke in 1913, is a mainly sedentary form found in the Outer Hebrides and Isle of Skye in Scotland.", "It is the darkest subspecies, with a dark brown back, greyish rump, pale buff background colour to the underparts and grey-tinged flanks.", "T. p. clarkei, described by German zoologist Ernst Hartert in 1909, and named for William Eagle Clarke, breeds in the rest of Great Britain and Ireland and on mainland Europe in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and possibly somewhat further east.", "It has brown upperparts which are warmer in tone than those of the nominate form, an olive-tinged rump and rich yellow background colour to the underparts.", "It is a partial migrant with some birds wintering in southern France and Iberia.", "This form intergrades with the nominate subspecies in central Europe, and with T. p. hebridensis in the Inner Hebrides and western Scotland, and in these areas birds show intermediate characteristics.", "Additional subspecies, such as T. p. nataliae of Siberia, proposed by the Russian Sergei Buturlin in 1929, are not widely accepted.", "Song thrush in Slovenia upright", "In flight The song thrush is in length and weighs .", "The sexes are similar, with plain brown backs and neatly black-spotted cream or yellow-buff underparts, becoming paler on the belly.", "The underwing is warm yellow, the bill is yellowish and the legs and feet are pink.", "The upperparts of this species become colder in tone from west to east across the breeding range from Sweden to Siberia.", "The juvenile resembles the adult, but has buff or orange streaks on the back and wing coverts.", "The most similar European thrush species is the redwing (T.", "iliacus), but that bird has a strong white supercilium, red flanks, and shows a red underwing in flight.", "viscivorus) is much larger and has white tail corners, and the Chinese thrush (T.", "mupinensis), although much more similar in plumage, has black face markings and does not overlap in range.", "The song thrush has a short, sharp tsip call, replaced on migration by a thin high seep, similar to the redwing's call but shorter.", "The alarm call is a chook-chook becoming shorter and more strident with increasing danger.", "The male's song, given from trees, rooftops or other elevated perches, is a loud clear run of musical phrases, repeated two to four times, filip filip filip codidio codidio quitquiquit tittit tittit tereret tereret tereret, and interspersed with grating notes and mimicry.", "It is given mainly from February to June by the Outer Hebridean race, but from November to July by the more widespread subspecies.", "For its weight, this species has one of the loudest bird calls.", "An individual male may have a repertoire of more than 100 phrases, many copied from its parents and neighbouring birds.", "Mimicry may include the imitation of man-made items like telephones, and the song thrush will also repeat the calls of captive birds, including exotics such as the white-faced whistling duck.", "Juvenile in New Zealand The song thrush breeds in most of Europe , and across Ukraine and Russia almost to Lake Baikal. It reaches to 75N in Norway, but only to about 60N in Siberia.", "Birds from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Russia winter around the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East, but only some of the birds in the milder west of the breeding range leave their breeding areas.", "In Great Britain song thrushes are commonly found where there are trees and bushes.", "Such areas include parks, gardens, coniferous and deciduous woodland and hedgerows.", "Birds of the nominate subspecies were introduced to New Zealand and Australia by acclimatisation societies between 1860 and 1880, apparently for purely sentimental reasons.", "In New Zealand, where it was introduced on both the main islands, the song thrush quickly established itself and spread to surrounding islands such as the Kermadecs, Chatham and Auckland Islands.", "Although it is common and widespread in New Zealand, in Australia only a small population survives around Melbourne.", "In New Zealand, there appears to be a limited detrimental effect on some invertebrates due to predation by introduced bird species, and the song thrush also damages commercial fruit crops in that country.", "As an introduced species it has no legal protection in New Zealand, and can be killed at any time.", "Juvenile in a forest near Dombaih, Russia The song thrush typically nests in forest with good undergrowth and nearby more open areas, and in western Europe also uses gardens and parks.", "It breeds up to the tree-line, reaching in Switzerland.", "The island subspecies T. p. hebridensis breeds in more open country, including heathland, and in the east of the song thrush's Eurasian range, the nominate subspecies is restricted to the edge of the dense conifer forests.", "In intensively farmed areas where agricultural practices appear to have made cropped land unsuitable, gardens are an important breeding habitat.", "In one English study, only 3.5% of territories were found in farmland, whereas gardens held 71.5% of the territories, despite that habitat making up only 2% of the total area.", "The remaining nests were in woodlands .", "The winter habitat is similar to that used for breeding, except that high ground and other exposed localities are avoided", "however, the island subspecies T. p. hebridensis will frequent the seashore in winter.", "Breaking the shell of a snail The song thrush is not usually gregarious, although several birds may roost together in winter or be loosely associated in suitable feeding habitats, perhaps with other thrushes such as the blackbird, fieldfare, redwing and dark-throated thrush.", "Unlike the more nomadic fieldfare and redwing, the song thrush tends to return regularly to the same wintering areas.", "This is a monogamous territorial species, and in areas where it is fully migratory, the male re-establishes its breeding territory and starts singing as soon as he returns.", "In the milder areas where some birds stay year round, the resident male remains in his breeding territory, singing intermittently, but the female may establish a separate individual wintering range until pair formation begins in the early spring.", "During migration, the song thrush travels mainly at night with a strong and direct flight action.", "It flies in loose flocks which cross the sea on a broad front rather than concentrating at short crossings , and calls frequently to maintain contact.", "Migration may start as early as late August in the most easterly and northerly parts of the range, but the majority of birds, with shorter distances to cover, head south from September to mid-December.", "However, hard weather may force further movement.", "Return migration varies between mid-February around the Mediterranean to May in northern Sweden and central Siberia.", "Vagrants have been recorded in Greenland, various Atlantic islands, and West Africa.", "Three eggs in a nest The female song thrush builds a neat cup-shaped nest lined with mud and dry grass in a bush, tree or creeper, or, in the case of the Hebridean subspecies, on the ground.", "She lays four or five bright glossy blue eggs which are lightly spotted with black or purple", "they are typically size and weigh , of which 6% is shell.", "The female incubates the eggs alone for 1017 days, and after hatching a similar time elapses until the young fledge.", "Two or three broods in a year is normal, although only one may be raised in the north of the range.", "On average, 54.6% of British juveniles survive the first year of life, and the adult annual survival rate is 62.2%.", "The typical lifespan is three years, but the maximum recorded age is 10 years 8 months.", "The song thrush is occasionally a host of parasitic cuckoos, such as the common cuckoo, but this is very rare because the thrush recognizes the cuckoo's non-mimetic eggs.", "However, the song thrush does not demonstrate the same aggression toward the adult cuckoo that is shown by the blackbird.", "The introduced birds in New Zealand, where the cuckoo does not occur, have, over the past 130 years, retained the ability to recognize and reject non-mimetic eggs.", "Adult birds may be killed by cats, little owls and sparrowhawks, and eggs and nestlings are taken by magpies, jays, and, where present, grey squirrels.", "As with other passerine birds, parasites are common, and include endoparasites, such as the nematode Splendidofilaria mavis whose specific name mavis derives from this thrush.", "A Russian study of blood parasites showed that all the fieldfares, redwings and song thrushes sampled carried haematozoans, particularly Haemoproteus and Trypanosoma.", "Ixodes ticks are also common, and can carry pathogens, including tick-borne encephalitis in forested areas of central and eastern Europe and Russia, and, more widely, Borrelia bacteria.", "Some species of Borrelia cause Lyme disease, and ground-feeding birds like the song thrush may act as a reservoir for the disease.", "Broken shells of grove snails on an 'anvil' Foraging in hedgerow The song thrush is omnivorous, eating a wide range of invertebrates, especially earthworms and snails, as well as soft fruit and berries.", "Like its relative, the blackbird, the song thrush finds animal prey by sight, has a run-and-stop hunting technique on open ground, and will rummage through leaf-litter seeking potential food items.", "Land snails are an especially important food item when drought or hard weather makes it hard to find other food.", "The thrush often uses a favorite stone as an \" anvil \" on which to break the shell of the snail before extracting the soft body and invariably wiping it on the ground before consumption.", "Young birds initially flick objects and attempt to play with them until they learn to use anvils as tools to smash snails.", "The nestlings are mainly fed on animal food such as worms, slugs, snails and insect larvae.", "The grove snail is regularly eaten by the song thrush, and its polymorphic shell patterns have been suggested as evolutionary responses to reduce predation", "however, song thrushes may not be the only selective force involved.", "In New Zealand The song thrush has an extensive range, estimated at , and a large population, with an estimated 40 to 71 million individuals in Europe alone.", "In the western Palaearctic, there is evidence of population decline, but at a level below the threshold required for global conservation concern and the IUCN Red List categorises this species as of \" Least Concern \" .", "In Great Britain and the Netherlands, there has been a more than 50% decline in population, and the song thrush is included in regional Red Lists.", "The decreases are greatest in farmlands and believed to be due to changes in agricultural practices in recent decades.", "The precise reasons for the decline are not known but may be related to the loss of hedgerows, a move to sowing crops in autumn rather than spring, and possibly the increased use of pesticides.", "These changes may have reduced the availability of food and of nest sites.", "In gardens, the use of poison bait to control slugs and snails may pose a threat.", "In urban areas, some thrushes are killed while using the hard surface of roads to smash snails.", " Deleted image removed: upright", "West Bromwich Albion's former club crest, replaced in 2006 with a modified crest also featuring a song thrush The song thrush's characteristic song, with melodic phrases repeated twice or more, is described by the nineteenth-century British poet Robert Browning in his poem Home Thoughts, from Abroad: That's the wise thrush", "he sings each song twice over, Lest you should think he never could recapture The first fine careless rapture!", " The song also inspired the nineteenth-century British writer Thomas Hardy, who spoke in Darkling Thrush of the bird's \" full-hearted song evensong/Of joy illimited \" , but twentieth-century British poet Ted Hughes in Thrushes concentrated on its hunting prowess: \" Nothing but bounce and/stab/and a ravening second \" .", "Nineteenth-century Welsh poet Edward Thomas wrote 15 poems concerning blackbirds or thrushes, including The Thrush: I hear the thrush, and I see Him alone at the end of the lane Near the bare poplar's tip, Singing continuously.", " Dunfermline, Scotland In The Tables Turned, Romantic poet William Wordsworth references the song thrush, writing Hark, how blithe the throstle sings And he is no mean preacher Come forth into the light of things Let Nature be your teacher The song thrush is the emblem of West Bromwich Albion Football Club, chosen because the public house in which the team used to change kept a pet thrush in a cage.", "It also gave rise to Albion's early nickname, The Throstles.", "Thrushes have been trapped for food from as far back as 12,000 years ago and an early reference is found in the Odyssey: \" Then, as doves or thrushes beating their spread wings against some snare rigged up in thicketsflying in for a cosy nest but a grisly bed receives them.", "\" Hunting continues today around the Mediterranean, but is not believed to be a major factor in this species' decline in parts of its range.", "In Spain, this species is normally caught as it migrates through the country, often using birdlime which, although banned by the European Union, is still tolerated and permitted in the Valencian Community.", "In 2003 and 2004 the EU tried, but failed, to stop this practice in the Valencian region.", "Up to at least the nineteenth century the song thrush was kept as a cage bird because of its melodious voice.", "As with hunting, there is little evidence that the taking of wild birds for aviculture has had a significant effect on wild populations."]}, "Sciurus vulgaris": {"keywords": ["The red squirrel is an arboreal, primarily herbivorous rodent.", "Underparts are generally white-cream-coloured Profile of the Eurasian red squirrel in grey winter coat Skull of a red squirrel The red squirrel has a typical head-and-body length of , a tail length of , and a mass of .", "The red squirrel, like most tree squirrels, has sharp curved claws to help it to climb and descend broad tree trunks, thin branches, and even house walls.", "The red squirrel sheds its coat twice a year, switching from a thinner summer coat to a thicker, darker winter coat with noticeably larger ear-tufts between August and November.", "The red colour is for camouflage when seen against the bark of pine trees.", "Red squirrel in the Urals region, grey winter coat Red squirrels occupy boreal, coniferous woods in northern Europe and Siberia, preferring Scots pine, Norway spruce and Siberian pine.", "In western and southern Europe they are found in broad-leaved woods where the mixture of tree and shrub species provides a better year-round source of food.", "In most of the British Isles and in Italy, broad-leaved woodlands are now less suitable due to the better competitive feeding strategy of introduced grey squirrels.", "A red squirrel takes and loses a walnut The red squirrel is found in both coniferous forest and temperate broadleaf woodlands.", "This is lined with moss, leaves, grass and bark.", "However, outside the breeding season and particularly in winter, several red squirrels may share a drey to keep warm.", "A red squirrel eating The red squirrel eats mostly the seeds of trees, neatly stripping conifer cones to get at the seeds within, fungi, nuts , berries, vegetables, garden flowers, tree sap and young shoots.", "Two-week-old red squirrel Mating can occur in late winter during February and March and in summer between June and July.", "Arboreal predators include small mammals such as the pine marten, wildcats and the stoat, which preys on nestlings, birds, including owls and raptors such as the goshawk and buzzards, may also take the red squirrel.", "Humans influence the population size and mortality of the red squirrel by destroying or altering habitats, by causing road casualties, and by introducing non-native populations of the North American eastern grey squirrels.", "The population decrease in Britain is often ascribed to the introduction of the eastern grey squirrel from North America, but the loss and fragmentation of its native woodland habitat has also played a significant role.", "Protecting the red squirrel in Clocaenog Forest, Wales In January 1998, eradication of the non-native North American grey squirrel began on the North Wales island of Anglesey.", "It was followed by the successful reintroduction of the red squirrel into the pine stands of Newborough Forest.", "Subsequent reintroductions into broadleaved woodland followed and today the island has the single largest red squirrel population in Wales.", "Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour is also populated exclusively by red rather than grey squirrels .", "Other notable projects include red squirrel projects in the Greenfield Forest, including the buffer zones of Mallerstang, Garsdale and Widdale, the Northumberland Kielder Forest Project, and within the National Trust reserve in Formby.", "Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, it is an offense to release captured grey squirrels, indicating that any captured individuals must be culled.", "Research undertaken in 2007 in the UK credits the pine marten with reducing the population of the invasive eastern grey squirrel.", "During October 2012, four male and one female red squirrel, on permanent loan from the British Wildlife Centre, were transported to Tresco in the Isles of Scilly by helicopter, and released into Abbey Wood, near the Abbey Gardens.", "Although the red squirrel is not indigenous to the Isles of Scilly, those who supported this work intend to use Tresco as a safe haven for the endangered mammal, as the islands are free of predators such as foxes, and of the squirrel pox-carrying grey squirrel.", "Within Great Britain, widespread leprosy is found early in East Anglia, to which many of the squirrel furs were traded, and the strain is the same as that found in modern red squirrels on Brownsea Island."], "habitat_section": ["Red squirrel in the Urals region, grey winter coat Red squirrels occupy boreal, coniferous woods in northern Europe and Siberia, preferring Scots pine, Norway spruce and Siberian pine.", "In western and southern Europe they are found in broad-leaved woods where the mixture of tree and shrub species provides a better year-round source of food.", "In most of the British Isles and in Italy, broad-leaved woodlands are now less suitable due to the better competitive feeding strategy of introduced grey squirrels.", "A red squirrel takes and loses a walnut The red squirrel is found in both coniferous forest and temperate broadleaf woodlands.", "The squirrel makes a drey out of twigs in a branch-fork, forming a domed structure about 25 to 30 cm in diameter.", "This is lined with moss, leaves, grass and bark.", "Tree hollows and woodpecker holes are also used.", "The red squirrel is a solitary animal and is shy and reluctant to share food with others.", "However, outside the breeding season and particularly in winter, several red squirrels may share a drey to keep warm.", "Social organization is based on dominance hierarchies within and between sexes, although males are not necessarily dominant to females, the dominant animals tend to be larger and older than subordinate animals, and dominant males tend to have larger home ranges than subordinate males or females.", "A red squirrel eating The red squirrel eats mostly the seeds of trees, neatly stripping conifer cones to get at the seeds within, fungi, nuts , berries, vegetables, garden flowers, tree sap and young shoots.", "More rarely, red squirrels may also eat bird eggs or nestlings.", "A Swedish study shows that out of 600 stomach contents of red squirrels examined, only 4 contained remnants of birds or eggs.", "A red squirrel burying hazelnuts Squirrel on a tree Excess food is put into caches, either buried or in nooks or holes in trees, and eaten when food is scarce.", "Although the red squirrel remembers where it created caches at a better-than-chance level, its spatial memory is substantially less accurate and durable than that of grey squirrels.", "Between 60% and 80% of its active period may be spent foraging and feeding.", "The active period for the red squirrel is in the morning and in the late afternoon and evening.", "It often rests in its nest in the middle of the day, avoiding the heat and the high visibility to birds of prey that are dangers during these hours.", "During the winter, this mid-day rest is often much briefer, or absent entirely, although harsh weather may cause the animal to stay in its nest for days at a time.", "No territories are claimed between the red squirrels, and the feeding areas of individuals overlap considerably.", "The red squirrel is protected in most of Europe, as it is listed in Appendix III of the Bern Convention, it is listed as being of least concern on the IUCN Red List.", "However, in some areas it is abundant and is hunted for its fur.", "Although not thought to be under any threat worldwide, the red squirrel has nevertheless drastically reduced in number in the United Kingdom, especially after the grey squirrels were introduced from North America in the 1870s.", "Fewer than 140,000 individuals are thought to be left in 2013, approximately 85% of which are in Scotland, with the Isle of Wight being the largest haven in England.", "A local charity, the Wight Squirrel Project, supports red squirrel conservation on the island, and islanders are actively recommended to report any invasive greys.", "The population decrease in Britain is often ascribed to the introduction of the eastern grey squirrel from North America, but the loss and fragmentation of its native woodland habitat has also played a significant role.", "In contrast, the red squirrel may present a threat if introduced to regions outside its native range.", "It is classed as a \" prohibited new organism \" under New Zealand's Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 preventing it from being imported into the country."], "random_sentences": ["The red squirrel is a species of tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus common throughout Europe and Asia.", "The red squirrel is an arboreal, primarily herbivorous rodent.", "In Great Britain, Ireland, and in Italy numbers have decreased drastically in recent years.", "This decline is associated with the introduction by humans of the eastern grey squirrel from North America.", "However, the population in Scotland is stabilising due to conservation efforts, awareness and the increasing population of the pine marten, a European predator that selectively controls grey squirrels.", "Underparts are generally white-cream-coloured Profile of the Eurasian red squirrel in grey winter coat Skull of a red squirrel The red squirrel has a typical head-and-body length of , a tail length of , and a mass of .", "Males and females are the same size.", "The red squirrel is somewhat smaller than the eastern grey squirrel which has a head-and-body length of and weighs between .", "The long tail helps the squirrel to balance and steer when jumping from tree to tree and running along branches and may keep the animal warm during sleep.", "The red squirrel, like most tree squirrels, has sharp curved claws to help it to climb and descend broad tree trunks, thin branches, and even house walls.", "Its strong hind legs let it leap gaps between trees.", "The red squirrel also can swim.", "The coat of the red squirrel varies in colour with time of year and location.", "There are several coat colour morphs ranging from black to red.", "Red coats are most common in Great Britain", "in other parts of Europe and Asia different coat colours coexist within populations, much like hair colour in some human populations.", "The underside of the squirrel is always white-cream in colour.", "The red squirrel sheds its coat twice a year, switching from a thinner summer coat to a thicker, darker winter coat with noticeably larger ear-tufts between August and November.", "A lighter, redder overall coat colour, along with the ear-tufts and smaller size, distinguish the Eurasian red squirrel from the American eastern grey squirrel.", "The red colour is for camouflage when seen against the bark of pine trees.", "Red squirrel in the Urals region, grey winter coat Red squirrels occupy boreal, coniferous woods in northern Europe and Siberia, preferring Scots pine, Norway spruce and Siberian pine.", "In western and southern Europe they are found in broad-leaved woods where the mixture of tree and shrub species provides a better year-round source of food.", "In most of the British Isles and in Italy, broad-leaved woodlands are now less suitable due to the better competitive feeding strategy of introduced grey squirrels.", "A red squirrel takes and loses a walnut The red squirrel is found in both coniferous forest and temperate broadleaf woodlands.", "The squirrel makes a drey out of twigs in a branch-fork, forming a domed structure about 25 to 30 cm in diameter.", "This is lined with moss, leaves, grass and bark.", "Tree hollows and woodpecker holes are also used.", "The red squirrel is a solitary animal and is shy and reluctant to share food with others.", "However, outside the breeding season and particularly in winter, several red squirrels may share a drey to keep warm.", "Social organization is based on dominance hierarchies within and between sexes", "although males are not necessarily dominant to females, the dominant animals tend to be larger and older than subordinate animals, and dominant males tend to have larger home ranges than subordinate males or females.", "A red squirrel eating The red squirrel eats mostly the seeds of trees, neatly stripping conifer cones to get at the seeds within, fungi, nuts , berries, vegetables, garden flowers, tree sap and young shoots.", "More rarely, red squirrels may also eat bird eggs or nestlings.", "A Swedish study shows that out of 600 stomach contents of red squirrels examined, only 4 contained remnants of birds or eggs.", "A red squirrel burying hazelnuts Squirrel on a tree Excess food is put into caches, either buried or in nooks or holes in trees, and eaten when food is scarce.", "Although the red squirrel remembers where it created caches at a better-than-chance level, its spatial memory is substantially less accurate and durable than that of grey squirrels.", "Between 60% and 80% of its active period may be spent foraging and feeding.", "The active period for the red squirrel is in the morning and in the late afternoon and evening.", "It often rests in its nest in the middle of the day, avoiding the heat and the high visibility to birds of prey that are dangers during these hours.", "During the winter, this mid-day rest is often much briefer, or absent entirely, although harsh weather may cause the animal to stay in its nest for days at a time.", "No territories are claimed between the red squirrels, and the feeding areas of individuals overlap considerably.", "Skeleton of a squirrel right", "Two-week-old red squirrel Mating can occur in late winter during February and March and in summer between June and July.", "Up to two litters a year per female are possible.", "Each litter averages three young, called kits.", "Gestation is about 38 to 39 days.", "The young are looked after by the mother alone and are born helpless, blind, and deaf.", "They weigh between 10 and 15 g. Their body is covered by hair at 21 days, their eyes and ears open after three to four weeks, and they develop all their teeth by 42 days.", "Juvenile red squirrels can eat solids around 40 days following birth and from that point can leave the nest on their own to find food", "however, they still suckle from their mother until weaning occurs at 8 to 10 weeks.", "During mating, males detect females that are in oestrus by an odour that they produce, and although there is no courtship, the male will chase the female for up to an hour prior to mating.", "Usually, several males will chase a single female until the dominant male, usually the largest in the group, mates with the female.", "Males and females will mate several times with many partners.", "Females must reach a minimum body mass before they enter oestrus, and heavy females on average produce more young.", "If food is scarce breeding may be delayed.", "Typically a female will produce her first litter in her second year.", "Close up of a young red squirrel Red squirrels that survive their first winter have a life expectancy of 3 years.", "Individuals may reach 7 years of age, and 10 in captivity.", "Survival is positively related to the availability of autumn-winter tree seeds", "on average, 7585% of juveniles die during their first winter, and mortality is approximately 50% for winters following the first.", "Arboreal predators include small mammals such as the pine marten, wildcats and the stoat, which preys on nestlings", "birds, including owls and raptors such as the goshawk and buzzards, may also take the red squirrel.", "The red fox, cats and dogs can prey upon the red squirrel when it is on the ground.", "Humans influence the population size and mortality of the red squirrel by destroying or altering habitats, by causing road casualties, and by introducing non-native populations of the North American eastern grey squirrels.", "The eastern grey squirrel and the red squirrel are not directly antagonistic, and violent conflict between these species is not a factor in the decline in red squirrel populations.", "However, the eastern grey squirrel appears to be able to decrease the red squirrel population due to several reasons: In the UK, due to the above circumstances, the population has today fallen to 160,000 red squirrels or fewer .", "Outside the UK and Ireland, the impact of competition from the eastern grey squirrel has been observed in Piedmont, Italy, where two pairs escaped from captivity in 1948.", "A significant drop in red squirrel populations in the area has been observed since 1970, and it is feared that the eastern grey squirrel may expand into the rest of Europe.", "The red squirrel is protected in most of Europe, as it is listed in Appendix III of the Bern Convention", "it is listed as being of least concern on the IUCN Red List.", "However, in some areas it is abundant and is hunted for its fur.", "Although not thought to be under any threat worldwide, the red squirrel has nevertheless drastically reduced in number in the United Kingdom", "especially after the grey squirrels were introduced from North America in the 1870s.", "Fewer than 140,000 individuals are thought to be left in 2013", "approximately 85% of which are in Scotland, with the Isle of Wight being the largest haven in England.", "A local charity, the Wight Squirrel Project, supports red squirrel conservation on the island, and islanders are actively recommended to report any invasive greys.", "The population decrease in Britain is often ascribed to the introduction of the eastern grey squirrel from North America, but the loss and fragmentation of its native woodland habitat has also played a significant role.", "In contrast, the red squirrel may present a threat if introduced to regions outside its native range.", "It is classed as a \" prohibited new organism \" under New Zealand's Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 preventing it from being imported into the country.", "Protecting the red squirrel in Clocaenog Forest, Wales In January 1998, eradication of the non-native North American grey squirrel began on the North Wales island of Anglesey.", "This facilitated the natural recovery of the small remnant red squirrel population.", "It was followed by the successful reintroduction of the red squirrel into the pine stands of Newborough Forest.", "Subsequent reintroductions into broadleaved woodland followed and today the island has the single largest red squirrel population in Wales.", "Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour is also populated exclusively by red rather than grey squirrels .", "With a brown coat Mainland initiatives in southern Scotland and the north of England also rely upon grey squirrel control as the cornerstone of red squirrel conservation strategy.", "A local programme known as the \" North East Scotland Biodiversity Partnership \" , an element of the national Biodiversity Action Plan was established in 1996.", "This programme is administered by the Grampian Squirrel Society, with an aim of protecting the red squirrel", "the programme centres on the Banchory and Cults areas.", "In 2008, the Scottish Wildlife Trust announced a four-year project which commenced in the spring of 2009 called \" Saving Scotland's Red Squirrels \" .", "Other notable projects include red squirrel projects in the Greenfield Forest, including the buffer zones of Mallerstang, Garsdale and Widdale", "the Northumberland Kielder Forest Project", "and within the National Trust reserve in Formby.", "These projects were originally part of the Save Our Squirrels campaign that aimed to protect red squirrels in the north of England, but now form part of a five-year Government-led partnership conservation project called \" Red Squirrels Northern England \" to undertake grey squirrel control in areas important for red squirrels.", "On the Isle of Wight, local volunteers are encouraged to record data on the existing red squirrel population, and to monitor it for the presence of invasive greys", "as the red squirrel is still dominant on the island, these volunteers are also requested to cull any greys they find.", "In order to protect existing populations, increasing amounts of legislation have been issued to prevent the further release and expansion of grey squirrel populations.", "Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, it is an offense to release captured grey squirrels, indicating that any captured individuals must be culled.", "Additional rules covered under the WCA's Schedules 5 and 6 include limitations on the keeping of red squirrels in captivity, and also prohibits the culling of red squirrels.", "Research undertaken in 2007 in the UK credits the pine marten with reducing the population of the invasive eastern grey squirrel.", "Where the range of the expanding pine marten population meets that of the eastern grey squirrel, the population of these squirrels retreats.", "It is theorised that, because the grey squirrel spends more time on the ground than the red, they are far more likely to come in contact with this predator.", "During October 2012, four male and one female red squirrel, on permanent loan from the British Wildlife Centre, were transported to Tresco in the Isles of Scilly by helicopter, and released into Abbey Wood, near the Abbey Gardens.", "Only two survived and a further 20 were transported and released in October 2013.", "Although the red squirrel is not indigenous to the Isles of Scilly, those who supported this work intend to use Tresco as a safe haven for the endangered mammal, as the islands are free of predators such as foxes, and of the squirrel pox-carrying grey squirrel.", "Historical, cultural and financial significance", "A red squirrel in the coat of arms of Kauniainen, a town in Finland upright", "\" Squirrel \" illustration from \" British Mammals \" by A. Thorburn, 1920 Squirrel Nutkin is a character, always illustrated as a red squirrel, in English author Beatrix Potter's books for children.", "\" Ekorren \" is a well-known and appreciated children's song in Sweden.", "Text and lyrics by Alice Tegner in 1892.", "Charles Dennim, protagonist of Geoffrey Household's novel Watcher in the Shadows, is a zoologist who studies and writes about red squirrels.", "In Norse mythology, Ratatoskr is a red squirrel who runs up and down with messages in the world tree, Yggdrasil, and spreads gossip.", "In particular, he carried messages between the unnamed eagle at the top of Yggdrasill and the wyrm Nihoggr beneath its roots.", "The red squirrel used to be widely hunted for its pelt.", "In Finland, squirrel pelts were used as currency in ancient times, before the introduction of coinage.", "The expression \" squirrel pelt \" is still widely understood there to be a reference to money.", "It has been suggested that the trade in red squirrel fur, highly prized in the medieval period and intensively traded, may have been responsible for the leprosy epidemic in medieval Europe.", "Within Great Britain, widespread leprosy is found early in East Anglia, to which many of the squirrel furs were traded, and the strain is the same as that found in modern red squirrels on Brownsea Island.", "The red squirrel is the national mammal of Denmark.", "Red squirrels are a common feature in English heraldry, where they are always depicted sitting up and often in the act of cracking a nut.", "A) S. v. vulgaris from Sweden, B) S. v. fuscoater from Germany, C) S. v. infuscatus from central Spain upright", "v. mantchuricus from South Korea There have been over 40 described subspecies of the red squirrel, but the taxonomic status of some of these is uncertain.", "A study published in 1971 recognises 16 subspecies and has served as a basis for subsequent taxonomic work.", "Although the validity of some subspecies is labelled with uncertainty because of the large variation in red squirrels even within a single region, others are relatively distinctive and one of these, S. v. meridionalis of South Italy, was elevated to species status as the Calabrian black squirrel in 2017.", "At present, there are 23 recognized subspecies of the red squirrel.", "Genetic studies indicate that another, S. v. hoffmanni of Sierra Espuna in southeast Spain , deserves recognition as distinct."]}, "Chloris chloris": {"keywords": ["Woodland edges, farmland hedges and gardens with relatively thick vegetation are favoured for breeding.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain."], "habitat_section": ["Woodland edges, farmland hedges and gardens with relatively thick vegetation are favoured for breeding.", "It nests in trees or bushes, laying 3 to 6 eggs.", "This species can form large flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixing with other finches and buntings.", "They feed largely on seeds, but also take berries."], "random_sentences": ["Nest with eggs in Nottinghamshire, England The European greenfinch or simply the greenfinch is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.", "This bird is widespread throughout Europe, North Africa and Southwest Asia.", "It is mainly resident, but some northernmost populations migrate further south.", "The greenfinch has also been introduced into Australia, New Zealand, Uruguay, and Argentina.", "The greenfinch was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under the binomial name Loxia chloris.", "The specific epithet is from khloris, the Ancient Greek name for this bird, from khloros, \" green \" .", "The finch family, Fringillidae, is divided into two subfamilies, the Carduelinae, containing around 28 genera with 141 species and the Fringillinae containing a single genus, Fringilla, with four species.", "The finch family 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 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.", "They have therefore been placed in the resurrected genus Chloris that had originally been introduced by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1800, with the European greenfinch as the type species.", "The European greenfinch is long with a wingspan of .", "It is similar in size and shape to a house sparrow, but is mainly green, with yellow in the wings and tail.", "The female and young birds are duller and have brown tones on the back.", "The bill is thick and conical. The song contains a lot of trilling twitters interspersed with wheezes, and the male has a \" butterfly \" display flight.", "Male greenfinch birds exhibit higher degrees of fluctuating asymmetry.", "The development of bones of males may be more easily disrupted than that of females.", "Woodland edges, farmland hedges and gardens with relatively thick vegetation are favoured for breeding.", "It nests in trees or bushes, laying 3 to 6 eggs.", "This species can form large flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixing with other finches and buntings.", "They feed largely on seeds, but also take berries.", "Cuculus canorus bangsi in a clutch of Carduelis chloris - MHNT Breeding season occurs in spring, starting in the second half of March, until June, with fledging young in early July.", "Incubation lasts about 1314 days, by the female.", "The male feeds her at the nest during this period.", "Chicks are covered with thick, long, greyish-white down at hatching.", "They are fed on insect larvae by both adults during the first days, and later, by a frequently regurgitated yellowish paste made of seeds.", "They leave the nest about 13 days later, but they are not able to fly.", "Usually, they fledge 1618 days after hatching.", "This species produces two or three broods per year.", "In Australasia, the European greenfinch's breeding season is from October to March.", "The protozoal parasite Trichomonas gallinae was known to infect pigeons and raptors, but, beginning in Great Britain in 2005, carcasses of dead European greenfinches and common chaffinches were found to be infected with the parasite.", "The disease spread and in 2008, infected carcasses were found in Norway, Sweden and Finland and a year later in Germany.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain.", "In Great Britain, the number of infected carcasses recovered each year declined after a peak in 2006.", "There was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches from around 4.3 million to around 2.8 million, but no significant decline in the overall number of common chaffinches.", "A similar pattern occurred in Finland where, after the arrival of the disease in 2008, there was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches but only a small change in the number of common chaffinches.", "The English poet William Wordsworth wrote a poem about this species entitled The Green Linnet in 1803."]}, "Streptopelia decaocto": {"keywords": ["The Eurasian collared dove is a dove species native to Europe and Asia, it was introduced to Japan, North America and islands in the Caribbean.", "Over the last century, it has been one of the great colonisers of the bird world, travelling far beyond its native range to colonise colder countries, becoming a permanent resident in several of them.", "Its original range at the end of the 19th century was warm temperate and subtropical Asia from Turkey east to southern China and south through India to Sri Lanka.", "In 1838 it was reported in Bulgaria, but not until the 20th century did it expand across Europe, appearing in parts of the Balkans between 1900 and 1920, and then spreading rapidly northwest, reaching Germany in 1945, Great Britain by 1953 , Ireland in 1959, and the Faroe Islands in the early 1970s.", "Subsequent spread was 'sideways' from this fast northwestern spread, reaching northeast to north of the Arctic Circle in Norway and east to the Ural Mountains in Russia, and southwest to the Canary Islands and northern Africa from Morocco to Egypt, by the end of the 20th century.", "From the Bahamas, the species spread to Florida, and is now found in nearly every state in the U.S. In Arkansas , the species was recorded first in 1989 and since then has grown in numbers and is now present in 42 of 75 counties in the state.", "However, the species is known as an aggressive competitor and there is concern that as populations continue to grow, native birds will be out-competed by the invaders.", "Carrying capacities appear to be highest in areas with higher temperatures and intermediate levels of development, such as suburban areas and some agricultural areas.", "While the spread of disease to native species has not been recorded in a study, Eurasian collared doves are known carriers of the parasite Trichomonas gallinae as well as pigeon paramyxovirus type 1.", "Pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 is an emergent disease and has the potential to affect domestic poultry, making the Eurasian collared dove a threat to not only native biodiversity, but a possible economic threat as well.", "Eurasian collared doves typically breed close to human habitation wherever food resources are abundant and there are trees for nesting, almost all nests are within of inhabited buildings.", "Breeding occurs throughout the year when abundant food is available, though only rarely in winter in areas with cold winters such as northeastern Europe.", "The Eurasian collared dove is not wary and often feeds very close to human habitation, including visiting bird tables, the largest populations are typically found around farms where spilt grain is frequent around grain stores or where livestock are fed.", "It is a gregarious species and sizeable winter flocks will form where there are food supplies such as grain as well as seeds, shoots and insects."], "habitat_section": ["Juvenile with early collar development The Eurasian collared dove is not migratory, but is strongly dispersive.", "Over the last century, it has been one of the great colonisers of the bird world, travelling far beyond its native range to colonise colder countries, becoming a permanent resident in several of them.", "Its original range at the end of the 19th century was warm temperate and subtropical Asia from Turkey east to southern China and south through India to Sri Lanka.", "In 1838 it was reported in Bulgaria, but not until the 20th century did it expand across Europe, appearing in parts of the Balkans between 1900 and 1920, and then spreading rapidly northwest, reaching Germany in 1945, Great Britain by 1953 , Ireland in 1959, and the Faroe Islands in the early 1970s.", "Subsequent spread was 'sideways' from this fast northwestern spread, reaching northeast to north of the Arctic Circle in Norway and east to the Ural Mountains in Russia, and southwest to the Canary Islands and northern Africa from Morocco to Egypt, by the end of the 20th century.", "In the east of its range, it has also spread northeast to most of central and northern China, and locally in Japan.", "It has also reached Iceland as a vagrant , but has not colonised successfully there."], "random_sentences": [" The Eurasian collared dove is a dove species native to Europe and Asia", "it was introduced to Japan, North America and islands in the Caribbean.", "Because of its vast global range and increasing population trend, it has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2014.", "Columba decaocto was the scientific name proposed by the Hungarian naturalist Imre Frivaldszky in 1838 who described a Eurasian collared dove.", "The type locality is Plovdiv in Bulgaria.", "The Burmese collared dove (S.", "xanthocycla) was formerly considered a subspecies of the Eurasian collared dove, but was split as a distinct species by the IOC in 2021.", "Two other subspecies were formerly sometimes accepted, S. d. stoliczkae from Turkestan in central Asia and S. d. intercedens from southern India and Sri Lanka.", "They are now considered junior synonyms of the nominate subspecies (S.", "The Eurasian collared dove is closely related to the Sunda collared dove of Southeast Asia and the African collared dove of Sub-Saharan Africa, forming a superspecies with these.", "The generic name is from the Ancient Greek streptos meaning \" collar \" and peleia meaning \" dove \"", "the specific epithet is Greek for \" eighteen \" .", "The number comes from a Greek myth.", "A maid who worked hard for little money was unhappy that she was only paid 18 coins a year and begged the gods to let the world know how little she was rewarded by her mistress.", "Thereupon Zeus created this dove that has called out \" Deca-octo \" ever since.", "altA pair 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.", "The short legs are red and the bill is black.", "The iris is red, but from a distance the eyes appear to be black, as the pupil is relatively large and only a narrow rim of reddish-brown iris can be seen around the black pupil.", "The eye is surrounded by a small area of bare skin, which is either white or yellow.", "The two sexes are virtually indistinguishable", "juveniles differ in having a poorly developed collar, and a brown iris.", "The subspecies S. d. xanthocycla differs in having yellow rather than white eye-rings, darker grey on the head and the underparts a slightly darker pink.", "The song is a goo-GOO-goo.", "The Eurasian collared dove also makes a harsh loud screeching call lasting about two seconds, particularly in flight just before landing.", "A rough way to describe the screeching sound is a hah-hah.", "Eurasian collared doves cooing in early spring are sometimes mistakenly reported as the calls of early-arriving common cuckoos and, as such, a mistaken sign of spring's return.", "Juvenile before collar formation right", "Juvenile with early collar development The Eurasian collared dove is not migratory, but is strongly dispersive.", "Over the last century, it has been one of the great colonisers of the bird world, travelling far beyond its native range to colonise colder countries, becoming a permanent resident in several of them.", "Its original range at the end of the 19th century was warm temperate and subtropical Asia from Turkey east to southern China and south through India to Sri Lanka.", "In 1838 it was reported in Bulgaria, but not until the 20th century did it expand across Europe, appearing in parts of the Balkans between 1900 and 1920, and then spreading rapidly northwest, reaching Germany in 1945, Great Britain by 1953 , Ireland in 1959, and the Faroe Islands in the early 1970s.", "Subsequent spread was 'sideways' from this fast northwestern spread, reaching northeast to north of the Arctic Circle in Norway and east to the Ural Mountains in Russia, and southwest to the Canary Islands and northern Africa from Morocco to Egypt, by the end of the 20th century.", "In the east of its range, it has also spread northeast to most of central and northern China, and locally in Japan.", "It has also reached Iceland as a vagrant , but has not colonised successfully there.", "Invasive status in North America", "In 1974, fewer than 50 Eurasian collared doves escaped captivity in Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas.", "From the Bahamas, the species spread to Florida, and is now found in nearly every state in the U.S. In Arkansas , the species was recorded first in 1989 and since then has grown in numbers and is now present in 42 of 75 counties in the state.", "It spread from the southeastern corner of the state in 1997 to the northwestern corner in five years, covering a distance of about at a rate of per year.", "This is more than double the rate of per year observed in Europe.", "As of 2012, few negative impacts have been demonstrated in Florida, where the species is most prolific.", "However, the species is known as an aggressive competitor and there is concern that as populations continue to grow, native birds will be out-competed by the invaders.", "However, one study found that Eurasian collared doves are not more aggressive or competitive than native mourning doves, despite similar dietary preferences.", "They can become hand-tame in urban areas - Szczecin, Poland Population growth has ceased in areas where the species has long been established, such as Florida, and in these regions recent observations suggest the population is in decline.", "The population is still growing exponentially in areas of more recent introduction: up to 2015, the Eurasian collared dove experienced a greater than 1.5% yearly population increase throughout nearly the entirety of its North American range.", "Carrying capacities appear to be highest in areas with higher temperatures and intermediate levels of development, such as suburban areas and some agricultural areas.", "While the spread of disease to native species has not been recorded in a study, Eurasian collared doves are known carriers of the parasite Trichomonas gallinae as well as pigeon paramyxovirus type 1.", "Both Trichomonas gallinae and pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 can spread to native birds via commingling at feeders and by consumption of doves by predators.", "Pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 is an emergent disease and has the potential to affect domestic poultry, making the Eurasian collared dove a threat to not only native biodiversity, but a possible economic threat as well.", "Eurasian collared doves typically breed close to human habitation wherever food resources are abundant and there are trees for nesting", "almost all nests are within of inhabited buildings.", "The female lays two white eggs in a stick nest, which she incubates during the night and which the male incubates during the day.", "Incubation lasts between 14 and 18 days, with the young fledging after 15 to 19 days.", "Breeding occurs throughout the year when abundant food is available, though only rarely in winter in areas with cold winters such as northeastern Europe.", "Three to four broods per year is common, although up to six broods in a year has been recorded.", "Eurasian collared doves are a monogamous species, and share parental duties when caring for young.", "Near Chandigarh The male's mating display is a ritual flight, which, as with many other pigeons, consists of a rapid, near-vertical climb to height followed by a long glide downward in a circle, with the wings held below the body in an inverted \" V \" shape.", "At all other times, flight is typically direct using fast and clipped wing beats and without use of gliding.", "The Eurasian collared dove is not wary and often feeds very close to human habitation, including visiting bird tables", "the largest populations are typically found around farms where spilt grain is frequent around grain stores or where livestock are fed.", "It is a gregarious species and sizeable winter flocks will form where there are food supplies such as grain as well as seeds, shoots and insects.", "Flocks most commonly number between 10 and 50, but flocks of up to 10,000 have been recorded.", "Eurasian collared dove near Chunni, Punjab.", "Eurasian collared dove near Mohali."]}, "Ostrya carpinifolia": {"keywords": ["It is found in the medium elevations, in southern Italy and Sicily, in the South Apennine mixed montane forests ecoregion of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub Biome.", "Ostrya carpinifolia is a broadleaf deciduous tree, that can reach up to ."], "habitat_section": ["Fruits of Ostrya carpinifolia MHNT Ostrya carpinifolia is found in Lebanon, Italy, France, Austria, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, southern Switzerland and Turkey.", "It is found in the medium elevations, in southern Italy and Sicily, in the South Apennine mixed montane forests ecoregion of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub Biome.", "The wood of Ostrya carpinifolia"], "random_sentences": ["Ostrya carpinifolia, the European hop-hornbeam, is a tree in the family Betulaceae.", "It is the only species of the genus Ostrya that is native to Europe.", "The specific epithet carpinifolia means \" hornbeam-leaved \" , from , the Latin word for \" hornbeam \" .", "Fruits of Ostrya carpinifolia MHNT Ostrya carpinifolia is found in Lebanon, Italy, France, Austria, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, southern Switzerland and Turkey.", "It is found in the medium elevations, in southern Italy and Sicily, in the South Apennine mixed montane forests ecoregion of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub Biome.", "The wood of Ostrya carpinifolia", "Ostrya carpinifolia is a broadleaf deciduous tree, that can reach up to .", "It has a conical or irregular crown and a scaly, rough bark, and alternate and double-toothed birch-like leaves 310 cm long.", "The flowers are produced in spring, with male catkins long and female catkins long.", "The fruit form in pendulous clusters long with 620 seeds", "each seed is a small nut long, fully enclosed in a bladder-like involucre.", "The wood is very heavy and hard, and was historically used to fashion plane soles.", "Ostrya are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species."]}, "Passer domesticus": {"keywords": ["One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia.", "Though found in widely varied habitats and climates, it typically avoids extensive woodlands, grasslands, and deserts away from human development.", "It feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is an opportunistic eater and commonly eats insects and many other foods.", "Younger birds are smaller, males are larger during the winter, and females are larger during the breeding season.", "Birds at higher latitudes, colder climates, and sometimes higher altitudes are larger , both between and within subspecies.", "The upper back and mantle are a warm brown, with broad black streaks, while the lower back, rump and upper tail coverts are greyish brown.", "Many of these relatives are smaller, with an appearance that is neater or \" cuter \" , as with the Dead Sea sparrow.", "The house sparrow is also called by a number of alternative English names, including English sparrow, chiefly in North America, and Indian sparrow or Indian house sparrow, for the birds of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia.", "Within Passer, the house sparrow is part of the \" Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrows \" group and a close relative of the Mediterranean \" willow sparrows \" .", "In the Alps, the Italian sparrow intergrades over a narrow roughly strip with the house sparrow, and some house sparrows migrate into the Italian sparrow's range in winter.", "On the Mediterranean islands of Malta, Gozo, Crete, Rhodes, and Karpathos, other apparently intermediate birds are of unknown status.", "By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona House sparrows perching on a roof, during winter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa.", "Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America , Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world.", "It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.", "House sparrows were introduced in New Zealand in 1859, and from there reached many of the Pacific islands, including Hawaii.", "It now occurs almost continuously from Tierra del Fuego to the fringes of the Amazon basin, with isolated populations as far north as coastal Venezuela.", "The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra.", "It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night.", "It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates.", "It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries.", "In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty.", "The house sparrow feeds mostly on the ground, but it flocks in trees and bushes.", "Outside of the reproductive season, they often roost communally in trees or shrubs.", "A female house sparrow feeding on rice grains As an adult, the house sparrow mostly feeds on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is opportunistic and adaptable, and eats whatever foods are available.", "Several studies of the house sparrow in temperate agricultural areas have found the proportion of seeds in its diet to be about 90%.", "In temperate areas, the house sparrow has an unusual habit of tearing flowers, especially yellow ones, in the spring.", "Various noninsect arthropods are eaten, as are molluscs and crustaceans where available, earthworms, and even vertebrates such as lizards and frogs.", "Some young birds disperse long distances, especially on coasts, and mountain birds move to lower elevations in winter.", "The house sparrow is also a common victim of roadkill, on European roads, it is the bird most frequently found dead.", "The house sparrow hosts avian pox and avian malaria, which it has spread to the native forest birds of Hawaii.", "Arboviruses such as the West Nile virus, which most commonly infect insects and mammals, survive winters in temperate areas by going dormant in birds such as the house sparrow.", "A few records indicate disease extirpating house sparrow populations, especially from Scottish islands, but this seems to be rare.", "House sparrows are also infected by haemosporidian parasites, but less so in urban than in rural areas Toxoplasma gondii has been detected in sparrows in northwestern China where they pose a risk due to their meat being consumed in the region.", "A number of chewing lice occupy different niches on the house sparrow's body.", "Menacanthus lice occur across the house sparrow's body, where they feed on blood and feathers, while Brueelia lice feed on feathers and Philopterus fringillae occurs on the head.", "Finally, house sparrows in constant darkness could be entrained to a cycle of high and low temperature, but only if the difference in temperature was large , some of the tested sparrows matched their activity to the warm phase, and others to the cold phase.", "Usually, the house sparrow is regarded as a pest, since it consumes agricultural products and spreads disease to humans and their domestic animals.", "Declines in insect populations result from an increase of monoculture crops, the heavy use of pesticides, the replacement of native plants in cities with introduced plants and parking areas, and possibly the introduction of unleaded petrol, which produces toxic compounds such as methyl nitrite."], "habitat_section": ["By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona House sparrows perching on a roof, during winter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa.", "Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America , Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world.", "It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.", "The extent of its range makes it the most widely distributed wild bird on the planet.", "The house sparrow is closely associated with human habitation and cultivation.", "It is not an obligate commensal of humans as some have suggested.", "birds of the migratory Central Asian subspecies usually breed away from humans in open country, and birds elsewhere are occasionally found away from humans.", "The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra.", "Well adapted to living around humans, it frequently lives and even breeds indoors, especially in factories, warehouses, and zoos.", "It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night.", "It reaches its greatest densities in urban centres, but its reproductive success is greater in suburbs, where insects are more abundant.", "On a larger scale, it is most abundant in wheat-growing areas such as the Midwestern United States.", "It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates.", "It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries.", "In most of eastern Asia, the house sparrow is entirely absent, replaced by the Eurasian tree sparrow.", "Where these two species overlap, the house sparrow is usually more common than the Eurasian tree sparrow, but one species may replace the other in a manner that ornithologist Maud Doria Haviland described as \" random, or even capricious \" .", "In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty."], "random_sentences": ["The house sparrow is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world.", "It is a small bird that has a typical length of and a mass of .", "Females and young birds are coloured pale brown and grey, and males have brighter black, white, and brown markings.", "One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia.", "Its intentional or accidental introductions to many regions, including parts of Australasia, Africa, and the Americas, make it the most widely distributed wild bird.", "The house sparrow is strongly associated with human habitation, and can live in urban or rural settings.", "Though found in widely varied habitats and climates, it typically avoids extensive woodlands, grasslands, and deserts away from human development.", "It feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is an opportunistic eater and commonly eats insects and many other foods.", "Its predators include domestic cats, hawks, and many other predatory birds and mammals.", "Because of its numbers, ubiquity, and association with human settlements, the house sparrow is culturally prominent.", "It is extensively, and usually unsuccessfully, persecuted as an agricultural pest.", "It has also often been kept as a pet, as well as being a food item and a symbol of lust, sexual potency, commonness, and vulgarity.", "Though it is widespread and abundant, its numbers have declined in some areas.", "The animal's conservation status is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List.", "An audio recording of a house sparrow", "The house sparrow is typically about long, ranging from .", "The house sparrow is a compact bird with a full chest and a large, rounded head.", "Its bill is stout and conical with a culmen length of , strongly built as an adaptation for eating seeds.", "Its tail is short, at long.", "The wing chord is , and the tarsus is .", "In mass, the house sparrow ranges from .", "Females usually are slightly smaller than males.", "The median mass on the European continent for both sexes is about , and in more southerly subspecies is around .", "Younger birds are smaller, males are larger during the winter, and females are larger during the breeding season.", "Birds at higher latitudes, colder climates, and sometimes higher altitudes are larger , both between and within subspecies.", "The plumage of the house sparrow is mostly different shades of grey and brown.", "The sexes exhibit strong dimorphism: the female is mostly buffish above and below, while the male has boldly coloured head markings, a reddish back, and grey underparts.", "The male has a dark grey crown from the top of its bill to its back, and chestnut brown flanking its crown on the sides of its head.", "It has black around its bill, on its throat, and on the spaces between its bill and eyes .", "It has a small white stripe between the lores and crown and small white spots immediately behind the eyes , with black patches below and above them.", "The underparts are pale grey or white, as are the cheeks, ear coverts, and stripes at the base of the head.", "The upper back and mantle are a warm brown, with broad black streaks, while the lower back, rump and upper tail coverts are greyish brown.", "The male is duller in fresh nonbreeding plumage, with whitish tips on many feathers.", "Wear and preening expose many of the bright brown and black markings, including most of the black throat and chest patch, called the \" bib \" or \" badge \" .", "The badge is variable in width and general size, and may signal social status or fitness.", "This hypothesis has led to a \" veritable 'cottage industry' \" of studies, which have only conclusively shown that patches increase in size with age.", "The male's bill is dark grey, but black in the breeding season.", "The female has no black markings or grey crown.", "Its upperparts and head are brown with darker streaks around the mantle and a distinct pale supercilium.", "Its underparts are pale grey-brown.", "The female's bill is brownish-grey and becomes darker in breeding plumage approaching the black of the male's bill.", "Juveniles are similar to the adult female, but deeper brown below and paler above, with paler and less defined supercilia.", "Juveniles have broader buff feather edges, and tend to have looser, scruffier plumage, like moulting adults.", "Juvenile males tend to have darker throats and white postoculars like adult males, while juvenile females tend to have white throats.", "However, juveniles cannot be reliably sexed by plumage: some juvenile males lack any markings of the adult male, and some juvenile females have male features.", "The bills of young birds are light yellow to straw, paler than the female's bill.", "Immature males have paler versions of the adult male's markings, which can be very indistinct in fresh plumage.", "By their first breeding season, young birds generally are indistinguishable from other adults, though they may still be paler during their first year.", "Most house sparrow vocalisations are variations on its short and incessant chirping call.", "Transcribed as chirrup, tschilp, or philip, this note is made as a contact call by flocking or resting birds, or by males to proclaim nest ownership and invite pairing.", "In the breeding season, the male gives this call repetitively, with emphasis and speed, but not much rhythm, forming what is described either as a song or an \" ecstatic call \" similar to a song.", "Young birds also give a true song, especially in captivity, a warbling similar to that of the European greenfinch.", "Aggressive males give a trilled version of their call, transcribed as \" chur-chur-r-r-it-it-it-it \" .", "This call is also used by females in the breeding season, to establish dominance over males while displacing them to feed young or incubate eggs.", "House sparrows give a nasal alarm call, the basic sound of which is transcribed as quer, and a shrill chree call in great distress.", "Another vocalisation is the \" appeasement call \" , a soft quee given to inhibit aggression, usually given between birds of a mated pair.", "These vocalisations are not unique to the house sparrow, but are shared, with small variations, by all sparrows.", "An immature of the Indian subspecies (P.", "d. indicus) in Rajasthan, India Some variation is seen in the 12 subspecies of house sparrows, which are divided into two groups, the Oriental P. d. indicus group, and the Palaearctic P. d. domesticus group.", "Birds of the P. d. domesticus group have grey cheeks, while P. d. indicus group birds have white cheeks, as well as bright colouration on the crown, a smaller bill, and a longer black bib.", "The subspecies P. d. tingitanus differs little from the nominate subspecies, except in the worn breeding plumage of the male, in which the head is speckled with black and underparts are paler.", "P. d. balearoibericus is slightly paler than the nominate, but darker than P. d. bibilicus.", "P. d. bibilicus is paler than most subspecies, but has the grey cheeks of P. d. domesticus group birds.", "The similar P. d. persicus is paler and smaller, and P. d. niloticus is nearly identical but smaller.", "Of the less widespread P. d. indicus group subspecies, P. d. hyrcanus is larger than P. d. indicus, P. d. hufufae is paler, P. d. bactrianus is larger and paler, and P. d. parkini is larger and darker with more black on the breast than any other subspecies.", "The house sparrow can be confused with a number of other seed-eating birds, especially its relatives in the genus Passer.", "Many of these relatives are smaller, with an appearance that is neater or \" cuter \" , as with the Dead Sea sparrow.", "The dull-coloured female can often not be distinguished from other females, and is nearly identical to those of the Spanish and Italian sparrows.", "The Eurasian tree sparrow is smaller and slenderer with a chestnut crown and a black patch on each cheek.", "The male Spanish sparrow and Italian sparrow are distinguished by their chestnut crowns.", "The Sind sparrow is very similar but smaller, with less black on the male's throat and a distinct pale supercilium on the female.", "The house sparrow was among the first animals to be given a scientific name in the modern system of biological classification, since it was described by Carl Linnaeus, in the 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "It was described from a type specimen collected in Sweden, with the name Fringilla domestica.", "Later, the genus name Fringilla came to be used only for the common chaffinch and its relatives, and the house sparrow has usually been placed in the genus Passer created by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.", "The bird's scientific name and its usual English name have the same meaning.", "The Latin word passer, like the English word \" sparrow \" , is a term for small active birds, coming from a root word referring to speed.", "The Latin word domesticus means \" belonging to the house \" , like the common name a reference to its association with humans.", "The house sparrow is also called by a number of alternative English names, including English sparrow, chiefly in North America", "and Indian sparrow or Indian house sparrow, for the birds of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia.", "Dialectal names include sparr, sparrer, spadger, spadgick, and philip, mainly in southern England", "spug and spuggy, mainly in northern England", "spur and sprig, mainly in Scotland", "and spatzie or spotsie, from the German Spatz, in North America.", "A pair of Italian sparrows, in Rome The genus Passer contains about 25 species, depending on the authority, 26 according to the Handbook of the Birds of the World.", "Most Passer species are dull-coloured birds with short, square tails and stubby, conical beaks, between long.", "Mitochondrial DNA studies suggest that speciation in the genus occurred during the Pleistocene and earlier, while other evidence suggests speciation occurred 25,000 to 15,000 years ago.", "Within Passer, the house sparrow is part of the \" Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrows \" group and a close relative of the Mediterranean \" willow sparrows \" .", "The taxonomy of the house sparrow and its Mediterranean relatives is complicated.", "The common type of \" willow sparrow \" is the Spanish sparrow, which resembles the house sparrow in many respects.", "It frequently prefers wetter habitats than the house sparrow, and it is often colonial and nomadic.", "In most of the Mediterranean, one or both species occur, with some degree of hybridisation.", "In North Africa, the two species hybridise extensively, forming highly variable mixed populations with a full range of characters from pure house sparrows to pure Spanish sparrows.", "In most of Italy, the breeding species is the Italian sparrow, which has an appearance intermediate between those of the house and Spanish sparrows.", "Its specific status and origin are the subject of much debate, but it may be a case of long-ago hybrid speciation.", "In the Alps, the Italian sparrow intergrades over a narrow roughly strip with the house sparrow, and some house sparrows migrate into the Italian sparrow's range in winter.", "On the Mediterranean islands of Malta, Gozo, Crete, Rhodes, and Karpathos, other apparently intermediate birds are of unknown status.", "By a nest in a saguaro cactus in Arizona House sparrows perching on a roof, during winter in the Southern Alps of New Zealand The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa.", "Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America , Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world.", "It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan.", "The extent of its range makes it the most widely distributed wild bird on the planet.", "The house sparrow has become highly successful in most parts of the world where it has been introduced.", "This is mostly due to its early adaptation to living with humans, and its adaptability to a wide range of conditions.", "Other factors may include its robust immune response, compared to the Eurasian tree sparrow.", "Where introduced, it can extend its range quickly, sometimes at a rate over per year.", "In many parts of the world, it has been characterised as a pest, and poses a threat to native birds.", "A few introductions have died out or been of limited success, such as those to Greenland and Cape Verde.", "intended to control the ravages of the linden moth.", "In North America, the house sparrow now occurs from the Northwest Territories of Canada to southern Panama, The house sparrow was first introduced to Australia in 1863 at Melbourne and is common throughout the eastern part of the continent as far north as Cape York, but has been prevented from establishing itself in Western Australia, where every house sparrow found in the state is killed.", "House sparrows were introduced in New Zealand in 1859, and from there reached many of the Pacific islands, including Hawaii.", "In southern Africa, birds of both the European subspecies (P.", "d. domesticus) and the Indian subspecies (P.", "d. indicus) were introduced around 1900.", "Birds of P. d. domesticus ancestry are confined to a few towns, while P. d. indicus birds have spread rapidly, reaching Tanzania in the 1980s.", "Despite this rapid spread, native relatives such as the Cape sparrow also occur and thrive in urban habitats.", "In South America, it was first introduced near Buenos Aires around 1870, and quickly became common in most of the southern part of the continent.", "It now occurs almost continuously from Tierra del Fuego to the fringes of the Amazon basin, with isolated populations as far north as coastal Venezuela.", "The house sparrow is closely associated with human habitation and cultivation.", "It is not an obligate commensal of humans as some have suggested: birds of the migratory Central Asian subspecies usually breed away from humans in open country, and birds elsewhere are occasionally found away from humans.", "The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra.", "Well adapted to living around humans, it frequently lives and even breeds indoors, especially in factories, warehouses, and zoos.", "It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night.", "It reaches its greatest densities in urban centres, but its reproductive success is greater in suburbs, where insects are more abundant.", "On a larger scale, it is most abundant in wheat-growing areas such as the Midwestern United States.", "It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates.", "It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries.", "In most of eastern Asia, the house sparrow is entirely absent, replaced by the Eurasian tree sparrow.", "Where these two species overlap, the house sparrow is usually more common than the Eurasian tree sparrow, but one species may replace the other in a manner that ornithologist Maud Doria Haviland described as \" random, or even capricious \" .", "In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty.", "The house sparrow is a very social bird.", "It is gregarious during all seasons when feeding, often forming flocks with other species of birds.", "It roosts communally and while breeding nests are usually grouped together in clumps.", "House sparrows also engage in social activities such as dust or water bathing and \" social singing \" , in which birds call together in bushes.", "The house sparrow feeds mostly on the ground, but it flocks in trees and bushes.", "At feeding stations and nests, female house sparrows are dominant despite their smaller size, and they can fight over males in the breeding season.", "House sparrows sleep with the bill tucked underneath the scapular feathers.", "Outside of the reproductive season, they often roost communally in trees or shrubs.", "Much communal chirping occurs before and after the birds settle in the roost in the evening, as well as before the birds leave the roost in the morning.", "Some congregating sites separate from the roost may be visited by the birds prior to settling in for the night.", "Dust or water bathing is common and often occurs in groups.", "Head scratching is done with the leg over the drooped wing.", "A female house sparrow feeding on rice grains As an adult, the house sparrow mostly feeds on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is opportunistic and adaptable, and eats whatever foods are available.", "In towns and cities, it often scavenges for food in garbage containers and congregates in the outdoors of restaurants and other eating establishments to feed on leftover food and crumbs.", "It can perform complex tasks to obtain food, such as opening automatic doors to enter supermarkets, clinging to hotel walls to watch vacationers on their balconies, and nectar robbing kowhai flowers.", "In common with many other birds, the house sparrow requires grit to digest the harder items in its diet.", "Grit can be either stone, often grains of masonry, or the shells of eggs or snails", "oblong and rough grains are preferred.", "Several studies of the house sparrow in temperate agricultural areas have found the proportion of seeds in its diet to be about 90%.", "It will eat almost any seeds, but where it has a choice, it prefers corn, oats, and wheat.", "Rural birds tend to eat more waste seed from animal dung and seed from fields.", "In urban areas, the house sparrow feeds largely on food provided directly or indirectly by humans, such as bread, though it prefers raw seeds.", "The house sparrow also eats some plant matter besides seeds, including buds, berries, and fruits such as grapes and cherries.", "In temperate areas, the house sparrow has an unusual habit of tearing flowers, especially yellow ones, in the spring.", "Animals form another important part of the house sparrow's diet, chiefly insects, of which beetles, caterpillars, dipteran flies, and aphids are especially important.", "Various noninsect arthropods are eaten, as are molluscs and crustaceans where available, earthworms, and even vertebrates such as lizards and frogs.", "Young house sparrows are fed mostly on insects until about 15 days after hatching.", "They are also given small quantities of seeds, spiders, and grit.", "In most places, grasshoppers and crickets are the most abundant foods of nestlings.", "True bugs, ants, sawflies, and beetles are also important, but house sparrows take advantage of whatever foods are abundant to feed their young.", "House sparrows have been observed stealing prey from other birds, including American robins.", "The gut microbiota of house sparrows differs between chicks and adults, with Pseudomonadota decreasing in chicks when they get to around 9 days old, whilst the relative abundance of Bacillota increase.", "The house sparrow's flight is direct and flapping, averaging and about 15 wingbeats per second.", "On the ground, the house sparrow typically hops rather than walks.", "It can swim when pressed to do so by pursuit from predators.", "Captive birds have been recorded diving and swimming short distances under water.", "Most house sparrows do not move more than a few kilometres during their lifetimes.", "However, limited migration occurs in all regions.", "Some young birds disperse long distances, especially on coasts, and mountain birds move to lower elevations in winter.", "Two subspecies, P. d. bactrianus and P. d. parkini, are predominantly migratory.", "Unlike the birds in sedentary populations that migrate, birds of migratory subspecies prepare for migration by putting on weight.", "A pair of the Indian subspecies (P.", "d. indicus) mating in Kolkata House sparrows can breed in the breeding season immediately following their hatching, and sometimes attempt to do so.", "Some birds breeding for the first time in tropical areas are only a few months old and still have juvenile plumage.", "Birds breeding for the first time are rarely successful in raising young, and reproductive success increases with age, as older birds breed earlier in the breeding season, and fledge more young.", "As the breeding season approaches, hormone releases trigger enormous increases in the size of the sexual organs and changes in day length lead males to start calling by nesting sites.", "The timing of mating and egg-laying varies geographically, and between specific locations and years because a sufficient supply of insects is needed for egg formation and feeding nestlings.", "Males take up nesting sites before the breeding season, by frequently calling beside them.", "Unmated males start nest construction and call particularly frequently to attract females.", "When a female approaches a male during this period, the male displays by moving up and down while drooping and shivering his wings, pushing up his head, raising and spreading his tail, and showing his bib.", "Males may try to mate with females while calling or displaying.", "In response, a female will adopt a threatening posture and attack a male before flying away, pursued by the male.", "The male displays in front of her, attracting other males, which also pursue and display to the female.", "This group display usually does not immediately result in copulations.", "Other males usually do not copulate with the female.", "Copulation is typically initiated by the female giving a soft dee-dee-dee call to the male.", "Birds of a pair copulate frequently until the female is laying eggs, and the male mounts the female repeatedly each time a pair mates.", "The house sparrow is monogamous, and typically mates for life, but birds from pairs often engage in extra-pair copulations, so about 15% of house sparrow fledglings are unrelated to their mother's mate.", "Males guard their mates carefully to avoid being cuckolded, and most extra-pair copulation occurs away from nest sites.", "Males may sometimes have multiple mates, and bigamy is mostly limited by aggression between females.", "Many birds do not find a nest and a mate, and instead may serve as helpers around the nest for mated pairs, a role which increases the chances of being chosen to replace a lost mate.", "Lost mates of both sexes can be replaced quickly during the breeding season.", "The formation of a pair and the bond between the two birds is tied to the holding of a nest site, though paired house sparrows can recognise each other away from the nest.", "In adult house sparrows, annual survival is 4565%.", "After fledging and leaving the care of their parents, young sparrows have a high mortality rate, which lessens as they grow older and more experienced.", "Only about 2025% of birds hatched survive to their first breeding season.", "The oldest known wild house sparrow lived for nearly two decades", "it was found dead 19 years and 9 months after it was ringed in Denmark.", "The oldest recorded captive house sparrow lived for 23 years.", "The typical ratio of males to females in a population is uncertain due to problems in collecting data, but a very slight preponderance of males at all ages is usual.", "A male sparrow being eaten by a cat: Domestic cats are one of the main predators of the house sparrow.", "The house sparrow's main predators are cats and birds of prey, but many other animals prey on them, including corvids, squirrels, and even humansthe house sparrow has been consumed in the past by people in many parts of the world, and it still is in parts of the Mediterranean.", "Most species of birds of prey have been recorded preying on the house sparrow in places where records are extensive.", "Accipiters and the merlin in particular are major predators, though cats are likely to have a greater impact on house sparrow populations.", "The house sparrow is also a common victim of roadkill", "on European roads, it is the bird most frequently found dead.", "The house sparrow is host to a huge number of parasites and diseases, and the effect of most is unknown.", "Ornithologist Ted R. Anderson listed thousands, noting that his list was incomplete.", "The commonly recorded bacterial pathogens of the house sparrow are often those common in humans, and include Salmonella and Escherichia coli.", "Salmonella is common in the house sparrow, and a comprehensive study of house sparrow disease found it in 13% of sparrows tested.", "Salmonella epidemics in the spring and winter can kill large numbers of sparrows.", "The house sparrow hosts avian pox and avian malaria, which it has spread to the native forest birds of Hawaii.", "Many of the diseases hosted by the house sparrow are also present in humans and domestic animals, for which the house sparrow acts as a reservoir host.", "Arboviruses such as the West Nile virus, which most commonly infect insects and mammals, survive winters in temperate areas by going dormant in birds such as the house sparrow.", "A few records indicate disease extirpating house sparrow populations, especially from Scottish islands, but this seems to be rare.", "House sparrows are also infected by haemosporidian parasites, but less so in urban than in rural areas Toxoplasma gondii has been detected in sparrows in northwestern China where they pose a risk due to their meat being consumed in the region.", "The house sparrow is infested by a number of external parasites, which usually cause little harm to adult sparrows.", "In Europe, the most common mite found on sparrows is Proctophyllodes, the most common ticks are Argas reflexus and Ixodes arboricola, and the most common flea on the house sparrow is Ceratophyllus gallinae.", "Dermanyssus blood-feeding mites are also common ectoparasites of house sparrows, and these mites can enter human habitation and bite humans, causing a condition known as gamasoidosis.", "A number of chewing lice occupy different niches on the house sparrow's body.", "Menacanthus lice occur across the house sparrow's body, where they feed on blood and feathers, while Brueelia lice feed on feathers and Philopterus fringillae occurs on the head.", "An immature house sparrow sleeping House sparrows express strong circadian rhythms of activity in the laboratory.", "They were among the first bird species to be seriously studied in terms of their circadian activity and photoperiodism, in part because of their availability and adaptability in captivity, but also because they can \" find their way \" and remain rhythmic in constant darkness.", "Such studies have found that the pineal gland is a central part of the house sparrow's circadian system: removal of the pineal eliminates the circadian rhythm of activity, and transplant of the pineal into another individual confers to this individual the rhythm phase of the donor bird.", "The suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus have also been shown to be an important component of the circadian system of house sparrows.", "The photoreceptors involved in the synchronisation of the circadian clock to the external light-dark cycle are located in the brain and can be stimulated by light reaching them directly though the skull, as revealed by experiments in which blind sparrows, which normally can still synchronise to the light-dark cycle, failed to do so once India ink was injected as a screen under the skin on top of their skulls.", "Similarly, even when blind, house sparrows continue to be photoperiodic, i.e. show reproductive development when the days are long, but not when the days are short.", "This response is stronger when the feathers on top of the head are plucked, and is eliminated when India ink is injected under the skin at the top of the head, showing that the photoreceptors involved in the photoperiodic response to day length are located inside the brain.", "House sparrows have also been used in studies of nonphotic entrainment : for example, in constant darkness, a situation in which the birds would normally reveal their endogenous, non-24-hour, \" free-running \" rhythms of activity, they instead show 24-hour periodicity if they are exposed to two hours of chirp playbacks every 24 hours, matching their daily activity onsets with the daily playback onsets.", "House sparrows in constant dim light can also be entrained to a daily cycle based on the presence of food.", "Finally, house sparrows in constant darkness could be entrained to a cycle of high and low temperature, but only if the difference in temperature was large ", "some of the tested sparrows matched their activity to the warm phase, and others to the cold phase.", "Flocking and chirping together beneath a fluorescent tube light in Germany The house sparrow is closely associated with humans.", "They are believed to have become associated with humans around 10,000 years ago.", "d. bactrianus) is least associated with humans and considered to be evolutionarily closer to the ancestral noncommensal populations.", "Usually, the house sparrow is regarded as a pest, since it consumes agricultural products and spreads disease to humans and their domestic animals.", "Even birdwatchers often hold it in little regard because of its molestation of other birds.", "However, the house sparrow can be beneficial to humans, as well, especially by eating insect pests, and attempts at the large-scale control of the house sparrow have failed.", "The house sparrow has long been used as a food item.", "From around 1560 to at least the 19th century in northern Europe, earthenware \" sparrow pots \" were hung from eaves to attract nesting birds so the young could be readily harvested.", "Wild birds were trapped in nets in large numbers, and sparrow pie was a traditional dish, thought, because of the association of sparrows with lechery, to have aphrodisiac properties.", "A traditional Indian medicine, Cittukkuruvi lekiyam in Tamil, was sold with similar aphrodisiac claims.", "Sparrows were also trapped as food for falconers' birds and zoo animals.", "During the 1870s, there were debates on the damaging effects of sparrows in the House of Commons in England.", "In the early part of the 20th century, sparrow clubs culled many millions of birds and eggs in an attempt to control numbers of this perceived pest, but with only a localised impact on numbers.", "House sparrows have been kept as pets at many times in history, though they have no bright plumage or attractive songs, and raising them is difficult.", "The house sparrow has an extremely large range and population, so it is assessed as least concern for conservation on the IUCN Red List.", "The IUCN estimates for the global population runs up to nearly 1.4 billion individuals, second among all birds perhaps only to the red-billed quelea in abundance .", "However, populations have been declining in many parts of the world, especially near its Eurasian places of origin.", "These declines were first noticed in North America, where they were initially attributed to the spread of the house finch, but have been most severe in Western Europe.", "Declines have not been universal, as no serious declines have been reported from Eastern Europe, but have even occurred in Australia, where the house sparrow was introduced recently.", "In Great Britain, populations peaked in the early 1970s, but have since declined by 68% overall, and about 90% in some regions.", "The RSPB lists the house sparrow's UK conservation status as red.", "In London, the house sparrow almost disappeared from the central city.", "The numbers of house sparrows in the Netherlands have dropped in half since the 1980s, so the house sparrow is even considered an endangered species.", "This status came to widespread attention after a female house sparrow, referred to as the \" Dominomus \" , was killed after knocking down dominoes arranged as part of an attempt to set a world record.", "These declines are not unprecedented, as similar reductions in population occurred when the internal combustion engine replaced horses in the 1920s and a major source of food in the form of grain spillage was lost.", "Declines have been particularly apparent even in North America, where the house sparrow is invasive in some states.", "Introduced to Philadelphia initially in 1852 the house sparrow rapidly spread across the nation.", "However, the bird has largely disappeared from the city nowadays and overall, it is estimated to have declined in North America by 84% since 1966.", "In South Asia, the house sparrow has largely vanished from major cities such as Karachi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Lahore.", "Various causes for the dramatic decreases in population have been proposed, including predation, in particular by Eurasian sparrowhawks", "electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones", "and diseases A primary cause of the decline seems to be an insufficient supply of insect food for nestling sparrows.", "Declines in insect populations result from an increase of monoculture crops, the heavy use of pesticides, the replacement of native plants in cities with introduced plants and parking areas, and possibly the introduction of unleaded petrol, which produces toxic compounds such as methyl nitrite.", "Protecting insect habitats on farms and planting native plants in cities benefit the house sparrow, as does establishing urban green spaces.", "To raise awareness of threats to the house sparrow, World Sparrow Day has been celebrated on 20 March across the world since 2010.", "Over the recent years, the house sparrow population has been on the decline in many Asian countries, and this decline is quite evident in India.", "To promote the conservation of these birds, in 2012, the house sparrow was declared as the state bird of Delhi.", "To many people across the world, the house sparrow is the most familiar wild animal and, because of its association with humans and familiarity, it is frequently used to represent the common and vulgar, or the lewd.", "One of the reasons for the introduction of house sparrows throughout the world was their association with the European homeland of many immigrants.", "Birds usually described later as sparrows are referred to in many works of ancient literature and religious texts in Europe and western Asia.", "These references may not always refer specifically to the house sparrow, or even to small, seed-eating birds, but later writers who were inspired by these texts often had the house sparrow in mind.", "In particular, sparrows were associated by the ancient Greeks with Aphrodite, the goddess of love, due to their perceived lustfulness, an association echoed by later writers such as Chaucer and Shakespeare.", "Jesus's use of \" sparrows \" as an example of divine providence in the Gospel of Matthew also inspired later references, such as that in Shakespeare's Hamlet and the Gospel hymn His Eye Is on the Sparrow.", "\" The house sparrow is very rarely represented in ancient Egyptian art, but an Egyptian hieroglyph is based on it.", "The sparrow hieroglyph had no phonetic value and was used as a determinative in words to indicate small, narrow, or bad.", "An alternative view is that the hieroglyph meant \" a prolific man \" or \" the revolution of a year \" ."]}, "Falco peregrinus": {"keywords": ["The peregrine's breeding range includes land regions from the Arctic tundra to the tropics.", "It can be found nearly everywhere on Earth, except extreme polar regions, very high mountains, and most tropical rainforests, the only major ice-free landmass from which it is entirely absent is New Zealand.", "The peregrine is a highly successful example of urban wildlife in much of its range, taking advantage of tall buildings as nest sites and an abundance of prey such as pigeons and ducks.", "The Barbary falcon is a subspecies of the peregrine falcon that inhabits parts of North Africa, namely, from the Canary Islands to the Arabian Peninsula.", "Compared to the other peregrine falcon subspecies, Barbary falcons sport a slimmer body Barbary falcons have a red neck patch, but otherwise differ in appearance from the peregrine falcon proper merely according to Gloger's rule, relating pigmentation to environmental humidity.", "Silhouette in normal flight and at the start of a stoop In its habitat in the Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, India The peregrine falcon lives mostly along mountain ranges, river valleys, coastlines, and increasingly in cities.", "Only populations that breed in Arctic climates typically migrate great distances during the northern winter.", "This falcon tends to nest on tall buildings or bridges, and these urban dwelling birds subsist mostly on different pigeons.", "In North America, prey has varied in size from hummingbirds to a sandhill crane , although most prey taken by peregrines weigh from to .", "Coastal populations of the large subspecies pealei feed almost exclusively on seabirds.", "The peregrine requires open space in order to hunt, and therefore often hunts over open water, marshes, valleys, fields, and tundra, searching for prey either from a high perch or from the air.", "The female chooses a nest site, where she scrapes a shallow hollow in the loose soil, sand, gravel, or dead vegetation in which to lay eggs.", "Cliff nests are generally located under an overhang, on ledges with vegetation.", "In some regions, as in parts of Australia and on the west coast of northern North America, large tree hollows are used for nesting.", "In remote, undisturbed areas such as the Arctic, steep slopes and even low rocks and mounds may be used as nest sites.", "In many parts of its range, peregrines now also nest regularly on tall buildings or bridges, these human-made structures used for breeding closely resemble the natural cliff ledges that the peregrine prefers for its nesting locations.", "The pair defends the chosen nest site against other peregrines, and often against ravens, herons, and gulls, and if ground-nesting, also such mammals as foxes, wolverines, felids, bears, wolves, and mountain lions.", "The date of egg-laying varies according to locality, but is generally from February to March in the Northern Hemisphere, and from July to August in the Southern Hemisphere, although the Australian subspecies macropus may breed as late as November, and equatorial populations may nest anytime between June and December.", "If the eggs are lost early in the nesting season, the female usually lays another clutch, although this is extremely rare in the Arctic due to the short summer season.", "In the Arctic, Peregrine falcons chasing away small rodent predators from their nesting territory and Rough-legged Hawks could use these hot spots as a nesting territory.", "To release a captive-bred falcon, the bird is placed in a special cage at the top of a tower or cliff ledge for some days or so, allowing it to acclimate itself to its future environment.", "Due to the extirpation of the eastern population of Falco peregrinus anatum, the near-extirpation of anatum in the Midwest and the limited gene pool within North American breeding stock, the inclusion of non-native subspecies was justified to optimize the genetic diversity found within the species as a whole.", "Peregrines now breed in many mountainous and coastal areas, especially in the west and north, and nest in some urban areas, capitalising on the urban feral pigeon populations for food."], "habitat_section": ["Silhouette in normal flight and at the start of a stoop In its habitat in the Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, India The peregrine falcon lives mostly along mountain ranges, river valleys, coastlines, and increasingly in cities.", "In mild-winter regions, it is usually a permanent resident, and some individuals, especially adult males, will remain on the breeding territory.", "Only populations that breed in Arctic climates typically migrate great distances during the northern winter.", "The peregrine falcon reaches faster speeds than any other animal on the planet when performing the stoop, which involves soaring to a great height and then diving steeply at speeds of over , hitting one wing of its prey so as not to harm itself on impact.", "The air pressure from such a dive could possibly damage a bird's lungs, but small bony tubercles on a falcon's nostrils are theorized to guide the powerful airflow away from the nostrils, enabling the bird to breathe more easily while diving by reducing the change in air pressure.", "To protect their eyes, the falcons use their nictitating membranes to spread tears and clear debris from their eyes while maintaining vision.", "The distinctive malar stripe or 'moustache', a dark area of feathers below the eyes, is thought to reduce solar glare and improve contrast sensitivity when targeting fast moving prey in bright light condition, the malar stripe has been found to be wider and more pronounced in regions of the world with greater solar radiation supporting this solar glare hypothesis.", "Peregrine falcons have a flicker fusion frequency of 129 Hz , very fast for a bird of its size, and much faster than mammals.", "A study testing the flight physics of an \" ideal falcon \" found a theoretical speed limit at for low-altitude flight and for high-altitude flight.", "In 2005, Ken Franklin recorded a falcon stooping at a top speed of .", "The life span of peregrine falcons in the wild is up to 19 years 9 months.", "Mortality in the first year is 5970%, declining to 2532% annually in adults.", "Apart from such anthropogenic threats as collision with human-made objects, the peregrine may be killed by larger hawks and owls."], "random_sentences": ["The peregrine falcon , also known as the peregrine, and historically as the duck hawk in North America, is a cosmopolitan bird of prey in the family Falconidae.", "A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-grey back, barred white underparts, and a black head.", "The peregrine is renowned for its speed, reaching up to during its characteristic hunting stoop , making it the fastest member of the animal kingdom.", "According to a National Geographic TV program, the highest measured speed of a peregrine falcon is .", "As is typical for bird-eating raptors, peregrine falcons are sexually dimorphic, with females being considerably larger than males.", "The peregrine's breeding range includes land regions from the Arctic tundra to the tropics.", "It can be found nearly everywhere on Earth, except extreme polar regions, very high mountains, and most tropical rainforests", "the only major ice-free landmass from which it is entirely absent is New Zealand.", "This makes it the world's most widespread raptor, and one of the most widely found bird species.", "In fact, the only land-based bird species found over a larger geographic area is not always naturally occurring, but one widely introduced by humans, the rock pigeon, which in turn now supports many peregrine populations as a prey species.", "The peregrine is a highly successful example of urban wildlife in much of its range, taking advantage of tall buildings as nest sites and an abundance of prey such as pigeons and ducks.", "Both the English and scientific names of this species mean \" wandering falcon, \" referring to the migratory habits of many northern populations.", "Experts recognize 17 to 19 subspecies, which vary in appearance and range", "disagreement exists over whether the distinctive Barbary falcon is represented by two subspecies of Falco peregrinus, or is a separate species, F. pelegrinoides.", "The two species' divergence is relatively recent, during the time of the last ice age, therefore the genetic differential between them is relatively tiny.", "They are only about 0.60.8% genetically differentiated.", "Although its diet consists almost exclusively of medium-sized birds, the peregrine will sometimes hunt small mammals, small reptiles, or even insects.", "Reaching sexual maturity at one year, it mates for life and nests in a scrape, normally on cliff edges or, in recent times, on tall human-made structures.", "The peregrine falcon became an endangered species in many areas because of the widespread use of certain pesticides, especially DDT.", "Since the ban on DDT from the early 1970s, populations have recovered, supported by large-scale protection of nesting places and releases to the wild.", "The peregrine falcon is a well-respected falconry bird due to its strong hunting ability, high trainability, versatility, and availability via captive breeding.", "It is effective on most game bird species, from small to large.", "It has also been used as a religious, royal, or national symbol across multiple eras and areas of human civilization.", "Royal National Park, New South Wales, Australia The peregrine falcon has a body length of and a wingspan from .", "The male and female have similar markings and plumage but, as with many birds of prey, the peregrine falcon displays marked sexual dimorphism in size, with the female measuring up to 30% larger than the male.", "Males weigh and the noticeably larger females weigh .", "In most subspecies, males weigh less than and females weigh more than , and cases of females weighing about 50% more than their male breeding mates are not uncommon.", "The standard linear measurements of peregrines are: the wing chord measures , the tail measures and the tarsus measures .", "The back and the long pointed wings of the adult are usually bluish black to slate grey with indistinct darker barring ", "The white to rusty underparts are barred with thin clean bands of dark brown or black.", "The tail, coloured like the back but with thin clean bars, is long, narrow, and rounded at the end with a black tip and a white band at the very end.", "The top of the head and a \" moustache \" along the cheeks are black, contrasting sharply with the pale sides of the neck and white throat.", "The cere is yellow, as are the feet, and the beak and claws are black.", "The upper beak is notched near the tip, an adaptation which enables falcons to kill prey by severing the spinal column at the neck.", "An immature bird is much browner, with streaked, rather than barred, underparts, and has a pale bluish cere and orbital ring.", "A study shows that their black malar stripe exists to reduce glare from solar radiation, allowing them to see better.", "Photos from The Macaulay Library and iNaturalist showed that the malar stripe is thicker where there is more solar radiation.", "That supports the solar glare hypothesis.", "Illustration by John James Audubon Falco peregrinus was first described under its current binomial name by English ornithologist Marmaduke Tunstall in his 1771 work Ornithologia Britannica.", "The scientific name Falco peregrinus is a Medieval Latin phrase that was used by Albertus Magnus in 1225.", "The specific name is taken from the fact that juvenile birds were taken while journeying to their breeding location rather than from the nest, as falcon nests were difficult to get at.", "The Latin term for falcon, , is related to , meaning \" sickle \" , in reference to the silhouette of the falcon's long, pointed wings in flight.", "The peregrine falcon belongs to a genus whose lineage includes the hierofalcons and the prairie falcon (F.", "This lineage probably diverged from other falcons towards the end of the Late Miocene or in the Early Pliocene, about 58 million years ago .", "As the peregrine-hierofalcon group includes both Old World and North American species, it is likely that the lineage originated in western Eurasia or Africa.", "Its relationship to other falcons is not clear, as the issue is complicated by widespread hybridization confounding mtDNA sequence analyses.", "For example, a genetic lineage of the saker falcon (F.", "cherrug) is known which originated from a male saker producing fertile young with a female peregrine ancestor, and the descendants further breeding with sakers.", "Today, peregrines are regularly paired in captivity with other species such as the lanner falcon (F.", "biarmicus) to produce the \" perilanner \" , a somewhat popular bird in falconry as it combines the peregrine's hunting skill with the lanner's hardiness, or the gyrfalcon to produce large, strikingly coloured birds for the use of falconers.", "As can be seen, the peregrine is still genetically close to the hierofalcons, though their lineages diverged in the Late Pliocene .", "The Barbary falcon is a subspecies of the peregrine falcon that inhabits parts of North Africa", "namely, from the Canary Islands to the Arabian Peninsula.", "There is discussion concerning the taxonomic status of the bird, with some considering it a subspecies of the peregrine falcon and others considering it a full species with two subspecies .", "Compared to the other peregrine falcon subspecies, Barbary falcons sport a slimmer body Barbary falcons have a red neck patch, but otherwise differ in appearance from the peregrine falcon proper merely according to Gloger's rule, relating pigmentation to environmental humidity.", "The Barbary falcon has a peculiar way of flying, beating only the outer part of its wings like fulmars sometimes do", "this also occurs in the peregrine falcon, but less often and far less pronounced.", "The Barbary falcon's shoulder and pelvis bones are stout by comparison with the peregrine falcon and its feet are smaller.", "Barbary falcons breed at different times of year than neighboring peregrine falcon subspecies, but they are capable of interbreeding.", "There is a 0.60.7% genetic distance in the peregrine falcon-Barbary falcon complex.", "Silhouette in normal flight and at the start of a stoop In its habitat in the Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, India The peregrine falcon lives mostly along mountain ranges, river valleys, coastlines, and increasingly in cities.", "In mild-winter regions, it is usually a permanent resident, and some individuals, especially adult males, will remain on the breeding territory.", "Only populations that breed in Arctic climates typically migrate great distances during the northern winter.", "The peregrine falcon reaches faster speeds than any other animal on the planet when performing the stoop, which involves soaring to a great height and then diving steeply at speeds of over , hitting one wing of its prey so as not to harm itself on impact.", "The air pressure from such a dive could possibly damage a bird's lungs, but small bony tubercles on a falcon's nostrils are theorized to guide the powerful airflow away from the nostrils, enabling the bird to breathe more easily while diving by reducing the change in air pressure.", "To protect their eyes, the falcons use their nictitating membranes to spread tears and clear debris from their eyes while maintaining vision.", "The distinctive malar stripe or 'moustache', a dark area of feathers below the eyes, is thought to reduce solar glare and improve contrast sensitivity when targeting fast moving prey in bright light condition", "the malar stripe has been found to be wider and more pronounced in regions of the world with greater solar radiation supporting this solar glare hypothesis.", "Peregrine falcons have a flicker fusion frequency of 129 Hz , very fast for a bird of its size, and much faster than mammals.", "A study testing the flight physics of an \" ideal falcon \" found a theoretical speed limit at for low-altitude flight and for high-altitude flight.", "In 2005, Ken Franklin recorded a falcon stooping at a top speed of .", "The life span of peregrine falcons in the wild is up to 19 years 9 months.", "Mortality in the first year is 5970%, declining to 2532% annually .", "correct if needed in adults.", "Apart from such anthropogenic threats as collision with human-made objects, the peregrine may be killed by larger hawks and owls.", "A peregrine falcon carrying the carcass of a feral pigeon it had killed.", "The peregrine falcon feeds almost exclusively on medium-sized birds such as pigeons and doves, phasianids, waterfowl, songbirds, and waders.", "This falcon tends to nest on tall buildings or bridges, and these urban dwelling birds subsist mostly on different pigeons.", "Worldwide, it is estimated that between 1,500 and 2,000 bird species are predated somewhere by these falcons.", "In North America, prey has varied in size from hummingbirds to a sandhill crane , although most prey taken by peregrines weigh from to .", "The peregrine falcon takes the most diverse range of bird species of any raptor in North America, with more than 300 species having fallen victim to the falcon, including nearly 100 shorebirds.", "Smaller hawks and owls are regularly predated, mainly smaller falcons such as the American kestrel, merlin and sharp-shinned hawks.", "In urban areas, the main component of the peregrine's diet is the rock or feral pigeon, which comprise 80% or more of the dietary intake for peregrines in some cities.", "Other common city birds are also taken regularly, including mourning doves, common wood pigeons, common swifts, northern flickers, common starlings, American robins, common blackbirds, and corvids .", "Other than bats taken at night, the peregrine rarely hunts mammals, but will on occasion take small species such as rats, voles, lemmings, hares, shrews, mice and squirrels.", "Coastal populations of the large subspecies pealei feed almost exclusively on seabirds.", "In the Brazilian mangrove swamp of Cubatao, a wintering falcon of the subspecies tundrius was observed while successfully hunting a juvenile scarlet ibis.", "Insects and reptiles make up a small proportion of the diet, which varies greatly depending on what prey is available.", "A peregrine falcon plucking its prey.", "The peregrine falcon hunts most often at dawn and dusk, when prey are most active, but also nocturnally in cities, particularly during migration periods when hunting at night may become prevalent.", "Nocturnal migrants taken by peregrines include species as diverse as yellow-billed cuckoo, black-necked grebe, Virginia rail, and common quail.", "The peregrine requires open space in order to hunt, and therefore often hunts over open water, marshes, valleys, fields, and tundra, searching for prey either from a high perch or from the air.", "Large congregations of migrants, especially species that gather in the open like shorebirds, can be quite attractive to hunting peregrines.", "Once prey is spotted, it begins its stoop, folding back the tail and wings, with feet tucked.", "Prey is typically struck and captured in mid-air", "the peregrine falcon strikes its prey with a clenched foot, stunning or killing it with the impact, then turns to catch it in mid-air.", "If its prey is too heavy to carry, a peregrine will drop it to the ground and eat it there.", "If they miss the initial strike, peregrines will chase their prey in a twisting flight.", "Although previously thought rare, several cases of peregrines contour-hunting, i.e. using natural contours to surprise and ambush prey on the ground, have been reported and even rare cases of prey being pursued on foot.", "In addition, peregrines have been documented preying on chicks in nests, from birds such as kittiwakes.", "Prey is plucked before consumption.", "A recent study showed the presence of peregrines benefits non-preferred species while at the same time causing a decline in its preferred prey.", "As of 2018, the fastest recorded falcon was at .", "Researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and at Oxford University used 3D computer simulations in 2018 to show that the high speed allows peregrines to gain better maneuverability and precision in strikes.", "At nest, France Egg, Museum Wiesbaden The peregrine falcon is sexually mature at one to three years of age, but in larger populations they breed after two to three years of age.", "A pair mates for life and returns to the same nesting spot annually.", "The courtship flight includes a mix of aerial acrobatics, precise spirals, and steep dives.", "The male passes prey it has caught to the female in mid-air.", "To make this possible, the female actually flies upside-down to receive the food from the male's talons.", "During the breeding season, the peregrine falcon is territorial", "nesting pairs are usually more than apart, and often much farther, even in areas with large numbers of pairs.", "The distance between nests ensures sufficient food supply for pairs and their chicks.", "Within a breeding territory, a pair may have several nesting ledges", "the number used by a pair can vary from one or two up to seven in a 16-year period.", "The peregrine falcon nests in a scrape, normally on cliff edges.", "The female chooses a nest site, where she scrapes a shallow hollow in the loose soil, sand, gravel, or dead vegetation in which to lay eggs.", "No nest materials are added.", "Cliff nests are generally located under an overhang, on ledges with vegetation.", "South-facing sites are favoured in the Northern Hemisphere.", "In some regions, as in parts of Australia and on the west coast of northern North America, large tree hollows are used for nesting.", "Before the demise of most European peregrines, a large population of peregrines in central and western Europe used the disused nests of other large birds.", "In remote, undisturbed areas such as the Arctic, steep slopes and even low rocks and mounds may be used as nest sites.", "In many parts of its range, peregrines now also nest regularly on tall buildings or bridges", "these human-made structures used for breeding closely resemble the natural cliff ledges that the peregrine prefers for its nesting locations.", "The pair defends the chosen nest site against other peregrines, and often against ravens, herons, and gulls, and if ground-nesting, also such mammals as foxes, wolverines, felids, bears, wolves, and mountain lions.", "Both nests and adults are predated by larger-bodied raptorial birds like eagles, large owls, or gyrfalcons.", "The most serious predators of peregrine nests in North America and Europe are the great horned owl and the Eurasian eagle owl.", "When reintroductions have been attempted for peregrines, the most serious impediments were these two species of owls routinely picking off nestlings, fledglings and adults by night.", "Peregrines defending their nests have managed to kill raptors as large as golden eagles and bald eagles that have come too close to the nest by ambushing them in a full stoop.", "In one instance, when a snowy owl killed a newly fledged peregrine, the larger owl was in turn killed by a stooping peregrine parent.", "The date of egg-laying varies according to locality, but is generally from February to March in the Northern Hemisphere, and from July to August in the Southern Hemisphere, although the Australian subspecies macropus may breed as late as November, and equatorial populations may nest anytime between June and December.", "If the eggs are lost early in the nesting season, the female usually lays another clutch, although this is extremely rare in the Arctic due to the short summer season.", "Generally three to four eggs, but sometimes as few as one or as many as five, are laid in the scrape.", "The eggs are white to buff with red or brown markings.", "They are incubated for 29 to 33 days, mainly by the female, with the male also helping with the incubation of the eggs during the day, but only the female incubating them at night.", "The average number of young found in nests is 2.5, and the average number that fledge is about 1.5, due to the occasional production of infertile eggs and various natural losses of nestlings.", "After hatching, the chicks are covered with creamy-white down and have disproportionately large feet.", "The male and the female both leave the nest to gather prey to feed the young.", "The hunting territory of the parents can extend a radius of from the nest site.", "Chicks fledge 42 to 46 days after hatching, and remain dependent on their parents for up to two months.", "The peregrine falcon is host to a range of parasites and pathogens.", "It is a vector for Avipoxvirus, Newcastle disease virus, Falconid herpesvirus 1 , and some mycoses and bacterial infections.", "Endoparasites include Plasmodium relictum , Strigeidae trematodes, Serratospiculum amaculata , and tapeworms.", "Known peregrine falcon ectoparasites are chewing lice, Ceratophyllus garei , and Hippoboscidae flies .", "In the Arctic, Peregrine falcons chasing away small rodent predators from their nesting territory and Rough-legged Hawks could use these hot spots as a nesting territory.", "Tame peregrine striking a red grouse, by Louis Agassiz Fuertes The peregrine falcon has been used in falconry for more than 3,000 years, beginning with nomads in central Asia.", "Its advantages in falconry include not only its athleticism and eagerness to hunt, but an equable disposition that leads to it being one of the easier falcons to train.", "The peregrine falcon has the additional advantage of a natural flight style of circling above the falconer for game to be flushed, and then performing an effective high-speed diving stoop to take the quarry.", "The speed of the stoop not only allows the falcon to catch fast flying birds, it also enhances the falcon's ability to exert maneuvers to catch highly agile prey, and allows the falcon to deliver a knockout blow with a fist-like clenched talon against game that may be much larger than itself.", "Additionally the versatility of the species, with agility allowing capture of smaller birds and a strength and attacking style allowing capture of game much larger than themselves, combined with the wide size range of the many peregrine subspecies, means there is a subspecies suitable to almost any size and type of game bird.", "This size range, evolved to fit various environments and prey species, is from the larger females of the largest subspecies to the smaller males of the smallest subspecies, approximately five to one .", "The males of smaller and medium-sized subspecies, and the females of the smaller subspecies, excel in the taking of swift and agile small game birds such as dove, quail, and smaller ducks.", "The females of the larger subspecies are capable of taking large and powerful game birds such as the largest of duck species, pheasant, and grouse.", "They were handled by falconers and are also occasionally used to scare away birds at airports to reduce the risk of bird-plane strikes, improving air-traffic safety.", "They were also used to intercept homing pigeons during World War II.", "Peregrine falcons have been successfully bred in captivity, both for falconry and for release into the wild.", "Until 2004 nearly all peregrines used for falconry in the US were captive-bred from the progeny of falcons taken before the US Endangered Species Act was enacted and from those few infusions of wild genes available from Canada and special circumstances.", "Peregrine falcons were removed from the United States' endangered species list in 1999.", "The successful recovery program was aided by the effort and knowledge of falconers in collaboration with The Peregrine Fund and state and federal agencies through a technique called hacking.", "Finally, after years of close work with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, a limited take of wild peregrines was allowed in 2004, the first wild peregrines taken specifically for falconry in over 30 years.", "The peregrine falcon became an endangered species over much of its range because of the use of organochlorine pesticides, especially DDT, during the 1950s, '60s, and '70s.", "Pesticide biomagnification caused organochlorine to build up in the falcons' fat tissues, reducing the amount of calcium in their eggshells.", "With thinner shells, fewer falcon eggs survived until hatching.", "In addition, the PCB concentrations found in these falcons is dependent upon the age of the falcon.", "While high levels are still found in young birds and even higher concentrations are found in more mature falcons, further increasing in adult peregrine falcons.", "These pesticides caused falcon prey to also have thinner eggshells.", "In several parts of the world, such as the eastern United States and Belgium, this species became extirpated as a result.", "An alternate point of view is that populations in the eastern North America had vanished due to hunting and egg collection.", "Following the ban of organochlorine pesticides, the reproductive success of Peregrines increased in Scotland in terms of territory occupancy and breeding success, although spatial variation in recovery rates indicate that in some areas Peregrines were also impacted by other factors such as persecution.", "Peregrine falcon recovery teams breed the species in captivity.", "The chicks are usually fed through a chute or with a hand puppet mimicking a peregrine's head, so they cannot see to imprint on the human trainers.", "Then, when they are old enough, the rearing box is opened, allowing the bird to train its wings.", "As the fledgling gets stronger, feeding is reduced, forcing the bird to learn to hunt.", "This procedure is called hacking back to the wild.", "To release a captive-bred falcon, the bird is placed in a special cage at the top of a tower or cliff ledge for some days or so, allowing it to acclimate itself to its future environment.", "Worldwide recovery efforts have been remarkably successful.", "The widespread restriction of DDT use eventually allowed released birds to breed successfully.", "The peregrine falcon was removed from the U.S. Endangered Species list on 25 August 1999.", "Some controversy has existed over the origins of captive breeding stock used by the Peregrine Fund in the recovery of peregrine falcons throughout the contiguous United States.", "Several peregrine subspecies were included in the breeding stock, including birds of Eurasian origin.", "Due to the extirpation of the eastern population of Falco peregrinus anatum, the near-extirpation of anatum in the Midwest and the limited gene pool within North American breeding stock, the inclusion of non-native subspecies was justified to optimize the genetic diversity found within the species as a whole.", "During the 1970s, peregrine falcons in Finland experienced a population bottleneck as a result of large declines associated with bio-accumulation of organochloride pesticides.", "However, the genetic diversity of peregrines in Finland is similar to other populations, indicating that high dispersal rates have maintained the genetic diversity of this species.", "Since peregrine falcon eggs and chicks are still often targeted by illegal poachers, it is common practice not to publicize unprotected nest locations.", "A Peregrine falcon in flight, on its way to hunt.", "Populations of the peregrine falcon have bounced back in most parts of the world.", "In the United Kingdom, there has been a recovery of populations since the crash of the 1960s.", "This has been greatly assisted by conservation and protection work led by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.", "The RSPB has estimated that there are 1,402 breeding pairs in the UK.", "), the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada declared the species no longer at risk in December 2017.", "They continue to be protected against hunting and sale in the U.S. through the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.", "Restoration programs throughout the country have had an effect", "for example, in 2015 peregrines were removed from the Illinoiss Endangered and Threatened Species List.", "Peregrine falcons are listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species meaning international trade is regulated and commercial international trade of wild-sourced specimens is prohibited.", "Peregrines now breed in many mountainous and coastal areas, especially in the west and north, and nest in some urban areas, capitalising on the urban feral pigeon populations for food.", "In Southampton, a nest prevented restoration of mobile telephony services for several months, after Vodafone engineers despatched to repair a faulty transmitter mast discovered a nest in the mast, and were prevented by the Wildlife and Countryside Act on pain of a possible prison sentence from proceeding with repairs until the chicks fledged.", "In many parts of the world peregrine falcons have adapted to urban habitats, nesting on cathedrals, skyscraper window ledges, tower blocks, and the towers of suspension bridges.", "Many of these nesting birds are encouraged, sometimes gathering media attention and often monitored by cameras.", "Due to its striking hunting technique, the peregrine has often been associated with aggression and martial prowess.", "The ancient Egyptians used the falconmodeled on the peregrine and the related lanner falconas a symbol of royal power and divine authority.", "Their solar deity Ra in particular was often represented as a man with the head of a peregrine adorned with the solar disk, while the royal tutelary deity Horus was depicted either as a falcon or a falcon-headed man in much the same manner.", "Native Americans of the Mississippian culture (c.", "8001500) used the peregrine, along with several other birds of prey, in imagery as a symbol of \" aerial power \" and buried men of high status in costumes associating to the ferocity of raptorial birds.", "In the late Middle Ages, the Western European nobility that used peregrines for hunting, considered the bird associated with princes in formal hierarchies of birds of prey, just below the gyrfalcon associated with kings.", "It was considered \" a royal bird, more armed by its courage than its claws \" .", "Terminology used by peregrine breeders also used the Old French term , \" of noble birth", "aristocratic \" , particularly with the peregrine.", "The peregrine falcon is the national animal of the United Arab Emirates.", "Since 1927, the peregrine falcon has been the official mascot of Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.", "The 2007 U.S. Idaho state quarter features a peregrine falcon.", "The peregrine falcon has been designated the official city bird of Chicago.", "Peregrine falcon became a namesake and symbol of the Czech gymnastic organization Sokol which played a crucial role in the development of Czech patriotism.", "Partly due to this symbolism it has been proposed to proclaim the peregrine falcon a national bird of the Czech Republic, although the discussions are still ongoing .", "The Peregrine, by J. A. Baker, is widely regarded as one of the best nature books in English written in the twentieth century.", "Admirers of the book include Robert Macfarlane, Mark Cocker, who regards the book as \" one of the most outstanding books on nature in the twentieth century \" and Werner Herzog, who called it \" the one book I would ask you to read if you want to make films \" , and said elsewhere \" it has prose of the calibre that we have not seen since Joseph Conrad \" .", "An episode of the hour-long TV series Starman in 1986 titled \" Peregrine \" was about an injured peregrine falcon and the endangered species program.", "It was filmed with the assistance of the University of California's peregrine falcon project in Santa Cruz.", "Streamed footage from several webcams at the University of California, Berkeley, that followed a breeding pair on a university bell tower achieved notoriety in the early2020s.", "Webcams such as these which livestream the daily lives of urban peregrines are immensely popular, and are essential for the outreach programmes of raptor conservationists around the world."]}, "Fringilla coelebs": {"keywords": ["The chaffinch breeds in much of Europe, across the Palearctic to Siberia and in northwestern Africa.", "Outside the breeding season, chaffinches form flocks in open countryside and forage for seeds on the ground.", "During the breeding season, they forage on trees for invertebrates, especially caterpillars, and feed these to their young.", "They are partial migrants, birds breeding in warmer regions are sedentary, while those breeding in the colder northern areas of their range winter further south.", "The ends of the feathers wear away over the winter so that by the spring breeding season the underlying brighter colours are displayed.", "The males of F. c. canariensis and F. c. palmae in the Canary Islands have deep slate-blue upperparts and lack a contrasting mantle.", "The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia.", "There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.", "The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century.", "In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species.", "In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.", "This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter.", "The date for breeding is dependent on the spring temperature and is earlier in southwest Europe and later in the northeast.", "The outside is covered with a layer of lichen and spider silk over an inner layer of moss and grass.", "Outside the breeding season, common chaffinches mainly eat seeds and other plant material that they find on the ground.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain.", "The endemic subspecies on the Macaronesian islands in the Atlantic are vulnerable to the loss of habitat, especially F. c. ombriosa on El Hierro in the Canary Islands, where the breeding population is between 1,000 and 5,000 pairs.", "\" In Great Britain, the practice of keeping common chaffinches as pets declined after the trapping of wild birds was outlawed by the Wild Birds Protection Acts of 1880 to 1896."], "habitat_section": ["The common chaffinch breeds in wooded areas where the July isotherm is between .", "The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia.", "There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.", "The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century.", "In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species.", "In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.", "This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter.", "It forms loose flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with bramblings.", "It occasionally strays to eastern North America, although some sightings may be escapees."], "random_sentences": ["ID composite The common chaffinch or simply the chaffinch is a common and widespread small passerine bird in the finch family.", "The male is brightly coloured with a blue-grey cap and rust-red underparts.", "The female is more subdued in colouring, but both sexes have two contrasting white wing bars and white sides to the tail.", "The male bird has a strong voice and sings from exposed perches to attract a mate.", "The chaffinch breeds in much of Europe, across the Palearctic to Siberia and in northwestern Africa.", "The female builds a nest with a deep cup in the fork of a tree.", "The clutch is typically four or five eggs, which hatch in about 13 days.", "The chicks fledge in around 14 days, but are fed by both adults for several weeks after leaving the nest.", "Outside the breeding season, chaffinches form flocks in open countryside and forage for seeds on the ground.", "During the breeding season, they forage on trees for invertebrates, especially caterpillars, and feed these to their young.", "birds breeding in warmer regions are sedentary, while those breeding in the colder northern areas of their range winter further south.", "The eggs and nestlings of the chaffinch are taken by a variety of mammalian and avian predators.", "Its large numbers and huge range mean that chaffinches are classed as of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.", "The common chaffinch was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name.", "Fringilla is the Latin word for finch, while caelebs means unmarried or single.", "Linnaeus remarked that during the Swedish winter, only the female birds migrated south through Belgium to Italy.", "The name spink is probably derived from the bird's call note.", "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 .", "The common chaffinch is about long, with a wingspan of and a weight of .", "The adult male of the nominate subspecies has a black forehead and a blue-grey crown, nape and upper mantle.", "The rump is a light olive-green", "the lower mantle and scapulars form a brown saddle.", "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.", "The flight feathers are black with white on the basal portions of the vanes.", "The secondaries and inner primaries have pale yellow fringes on the outer web whereas the outer primaries have a white outer edge.", "After the autumn moult, the tips of the new feathers have a buff fringe that adds a brown cast to the coloured plumage.", "The ends of the feathers wear away over the winter so that by the spring breeding season the underlying brighter colours are displayed.", "The eyes have dark brown irises and the legs are grey-brown.", "In winter the bill is a pale grey and slightly darker along the upper ridge or culmen, but in spring the bill becomes bluish-grey with a small black tip.", "The male of the subspecies resident in the British Isles (F.", "c. gengleri) closely resembles the nominate subspecies, but has a slightly darker mantle and underparts.", "The males of the two North African subspecies F. c. africana and F. c. spodiogenys have a blue-grey crown and nape that extends down to the sides of the head and neck, a black forehead and lore, a broken white eye-ring, a bright olive-green saddle and a pink-buff throat and breast.", "The males of F. c. canariensis and F. c. palmae in the Canary Islands have deep slate-blue upperparts and lack a contrasting mantle.", "Male chaffinches in Madeira (F.", "c. maderensis) and the Azores (F.", "c. moreletti) are similar in appearance to F. c. canariensis, but have a bright green mantle.", "The adult female is much duller in appearance than the male.", "The head and most of the upperparts are shades of grey-brown.", "The lower back and rump are a dull olive green.", "The wings and tail are similar to those of the male.", "The juvenile resembles the female.", "Males typically sing two or three different song types, and there are regional dialects also.", "The acquisition by the young common chaffinch of its song was the subject of an influential study by British ethologist William Thorpe.", "Thorpe determined that if the young common chaffinch is not exposed to the adult male's song during a certain critical period after hatching, it will never properly learn the song.", "He also found that in adult common chaffinches, castration eliminates the song, but injection of testosterone induces such birds to sing even in November, when they are normally silent.", "The common chaffinch breeds in wooded areas where the July isotherm is between .", "The breeding range includes northwestern Africa and most of Europe and extends eastwards across temperate Asia to the Angara River and the southern end of Lake Baikal in Siberia.", "There are also a number of distinctive subspecies on the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Madeira Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.", "The common chaffinch was introduced from Great Britain into several of its overseas territories in the second half of the 19th century.", "In New Zealand, the common chaffinch had colonised both the North and South Islands by 1900 and is now one of the most widespread and common passerine species.", "In South Africa, a very small breeding colony in the suburbs of Constantia, Hout Bay, Pinelands and Camps Bay in Cape Town is the only remnant of another such introduction.", "This bird is not migratory in the milder parts of its range, but vacates the colder regions in winter.", "It forms loose flocks outside the breeding season, sometimes mixed with bramblings.", "It occasionally strays to eastern North America, although some sightings may be escapees.", "Nest of a chaffinch Eggs of Fringilla coelebs moreletti", "Common chaffinches first breed when they are 1 year old.", "They are mainly monogamous and the pair-bond for residential subspecies such as gengleri sometimes persists from one year to the next.", "The date for breeding is dependent on the spring temperature and is earlier in southwest Europe and later in the northeast.", "In Great Britain, most clutches are laid between late April and the middle of June.", "A male attracts a female to his territory through song.", " Nests are built entirely by the female and are usually located in the fork of a bush or a tree several metres above the ground.", "The nest has a deep cup and is lined with a layer of thin roots and feathers.", "The outside is covered with a layer of lichen and spider silk over an inner layer of moss and grass.", "The eggs are laid in early morning at daily intervals until the clutch is complete.", "The clutch is typically 45 eggs, which are smooth and slightly glossy, but very variable in colour.", "They range from pale-blueish green to light red with purple-brown blotches, spots or steaks.", "The average size of an egg is with a weight of .", "The eggs are incubated for 1016 days by the female.", "The chicks are altricial, hatching nearly naked with closed eyes, and are fed by both parents but mainly by the female, who broods them for around six days.", "They are mainly fed caterpillars.", "The nestlings fledge 1118 days after hatching and disperse.", "The young birds are then assisted with feeding by both parents for a further three weeks.", "The parents only very rarely start a second brood, but when they do so it is always in a new nest.", "Juveniles undergo a partial moult at around five weeks of age in which they replace their head, body and many of their covert feathers, but not their primary and secondary flight feathers.", "After breeding adult birds undergo a complete annual moult which lasts around ten weeks.", "In a study carried out in Britain using ring-recovery data, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 53 per cent, and the adult annual survival rate was 59 per cent.", "From these figures the typical lifespan is only 3 years, but the maximum age recorded is 15 years and 6 months for a bird in Switzerland.", "Outside the breeding season, common chaffinches mainly eat seeds and other plant material that they find on the ground.", "They often forage in open country in large flocks.", "Common chaffinches seldom take food directly from plants and only very rarely use their feet for handling food.", "During the breeding season, their diet switches to invertebrates, especially defoliating caterpillars.", "They forage in trees and also occasionally make short sallies to catch insects in the air.", "The young are entirely fed with invertebrates which include caterpillars, aphids, earwigs, spiders and grubs .", "The eggs and nestlings of the common chaffinch are predated by crows, Eurasian red and eastern grey squirrels, domestic cats and probably also by stoats and weasels.", "Clutches begun later in the spring suffer less predation, an effect that is believed to be due to the increased vegetation making nests more difficult to find.", " Unlike the case for the closely related brambling, the common chaffinch is not parasitised by the common cuckoo.", "The protozoal parasite Trichomonas gallinae was known to infect pigeons and raptors, but beginning in Great Britain in 2005, carcasses of dead European greenfinches and common chaffinches were found to be infected with the parasite.", "The disease spread and in 2008, infected carcasses were found in Norway, Sweden and Finland and a year later in Germany.", "The spread of the disease is believed to have been mediated by common chaffinches, as large numbers of the birds breed in northern Europe and winter in Great Britain.", "In Great Britain, the number of infected carcasses recovered each year declined after a peak in 2006.", "There was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches but no significant decline in the overall number of common chaffinches.", "A similar pattern occurred in Finland where, after the arrival of the disease in 2008, there was a reduction in the number of European greenfinches, but only a small change in the number of common chaffinches.", "Common chaffinches can develop tumors on their feet and legs caused by the Fringilla coelebs papillomavirus.", "The size of the papillomas range from a small nodule on a digit to a large growth involving both the foot and the leg.", "The disease is uncommon: in a 1973 study undertaken in the Netherlands, of around 25,000 common chaffinches screened, only 330 bore papillomas.", "The common chaffinch has an extensive range, estimated at 7 million square kilometres and a large population including an estimated 130240 million breeding pairs in Europe.", "Allowing for the birds breeding in Asia, the total population lies between 530 and 1,400 million individuals.", "There is no evidence of any serious overall decline in numbers, so the species is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of Least Concern.", "The endemic subspecies on the Macaronesian islands in the Atlantic are vulnerable to the loss of habitat, especially F. c. ombriosa on El Hierro in the Canary Islands, where the breeding population is between 1,000 and 5,000 pairs.", "A captive male chaffinch The common chaffinch was once popular as a caged songbird and large numbers of wild birds were trapped and sold.", "At the end of the 19th century, trapping even depleted the number of birds in London parks.", "In 1882, the English publisher Samuel Orchart Beeton issued a guide on the care of caged birds and included the recommendation: \" To parents and guardians plagued with a morose and sulky boy, my advice is, buy him a chaffinch.", "\" In Great Britain, the practice of keeping common chaffinches as pets declined after the trapping of wild birds was outlawed by the Wild Birds Protection Acts of 1880 to 1896.", "The common chaffinch is still a popular pet bird in some European countries.", "In Belgium, the traditional sport of vinkenzetting pits male common chaffinches against one another in a contest for the most bird calls in an hour."]}, "Sylvia atricapilla": {"keywords": ["The blackcap breeds in much of Europe, western Asia and northwestern Africa, and its preferred habitat is mature deciduous woodland.", "The blackcap is a partial migrant, birds from the colder areas of its range winter in scrub or trees in northwestern Europe, around the Mediterranean and in tropical Africa.", "Some birds from Germany and western continental Europe have adapted to spending the winter in gardens in Great Britain and Ireland.", "Garden birds also eat bread, fat and peanuts in winter.", "Despite extensive hunting in Mediterranean countries and the natural hazards of predation and disease, the blackcap has been extending its range for several decades, and is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as least concern.", "In some geographically isolated areas, such as islands, peninsulas and valleys in the Alps, a simplified fluting song occurs, named the Leiern song by the German ornithologists who first described it.", "The main call is a hard tac-tac, like stones knocking together, and other vocalisations include a squeaking sweet alarm, and a low-pitched trill similar to that of a garden warbler.", "Wintering birds in Africa are quiet initially, but start singing in January or February prior to their return north.", "A grey bird with a brown cap The continental breeding range of the blackcap lies between the 1430 July isotherms, and is occupied by the nominate subspecies, the other forms being restricted to islands or fringe areas in the Caucasus and eastern Iberia.", "Cross-breeding in captivity of birds from the resident population on the Canary Islands with migratory blackcaps from Germany showed the urge to migrate is genetically controlled, the offspring showing intermediate behaviour in terms of restlessness at migration time.", "Climate change appears to be affecting the migration pattern of the garden warbler and blackcap.", "Left graph shows likelihood of individual blackcaps being seen in a garden plotted against date, right graph shows likelihood plotted against air temperature.", "Although the British climate is sub-optimal, compensatory factors include the ready availability of food, , a shorter migration distance, and the avoidance of the Alps and the Sahara Desert.", "The steady supply of winter food in gardens gives even Spanish-breeding birds an opportunity to put on weight quicker than in their home range.", "Adults that frequented gardens had better body condition, smaller fat stores, longer bills, and rounder wing tips.", "Blackcaps did not exclusively feed in gardens, visits were linked to harsher weather.", "Individuals generally stayed at garden sites until immediately before spring departure, and supplemental feeding may have benefits for winter survival, When preparing for migration, abundant supplemental food may allow blackcaps to attain better body condition and may facilitate earlier and more successful breeding attempts.", "In the Iberian Peninsula, migratory blackcaps track similar climatic conditions over the season, which sedentary individuals must cope with great variation in climate over the year.", "Deciduous woodland is the preferred breeding habitat.", "A woodland glade The blackcap's main breeding habitat is mature deciduous woodland, with good scrub cover below the trees.", "Other habitats, such as parks, large gardens and overgrown hedges, are used as long as they meet the essential requirements of tall trees for songposts and an established understory.", "Densities are much lower in poorer habitats such as conifer forests.", "Breeding occurs in Europe at altitudes up to .", "The blackcap normally raises just one brood, but second nestings are sometimes recorded, particularly in the milder climate of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic islands, triple brooding has been observed once, the female laying a total of 23 eggs in the season.", "A male blackcap eating a berry from a tree The blackcap feeds mainly on insects during the breeding season, then switches to fruit in late summer, the change being triggered by an internal biological rhythm.", "Although any suitable fruit may be eaten, some have seasonal or local importance, elder makes up a large proportion of the diet of northern birds preparing for migration, and energy-rich olives and lentisc are favoured by blackcaps wintering in the Mediterranean.", "Blackcaps defend good winter food sources in the wild, and at garden feeding stations they repel competitors as large as starlings and blackbirds.", "Seventeen strains of H. parabelopolskyi are found only in the blackcap, and form a monophyletic group, three further members of that group are found only in the garden warbler, and another three occur in the African hill babbler, supporting the shared ancestry of the three bird species.", "A painting of a seated man in a brown jacket and buff waistcoat Aristotle, in his History of Animals, considered that the garden warbler eventually metamorphosed into a blackcap."], "habitat_section": ["A grey bird with a brown cap The continental breeding range of the blackcap lies between the 1430 July isotherms, and is occupied by the nominate subspecies, the other forms being restricted to islands or fringe areas in the Caucasus and eastern Iberia.", "There is a migratory divide in Europe at longitude 1011E. Birds to the west of this line head southwest towards Iberia or West Africa, whereas populations to the east migrate to the eastern Mediterranean and on to East Africa.", "Cross-breeding in captivity of birds from the resident population on the Canary Islands with migratory blackcaps from Germany showed the urge to migrate is genetically controlled, the offspring showing intermediate behaviour in terms of restlessness at migration time.", "Similar experiments using birds from southern Germany and eastern Austria, on opposite sides of the migratory divide, demonstrated that the direction of migration is also genetically determined.", "Climate change appears to be affecting the migration pattern of the garden warbler and blackcap.", "Both are arriving in Europe earlier than previously, and blackcaps and juvenile garden warblers are departing nearly two weeks later than in the 1980s.", "Birds of both species are longer-winged and lighter than in the past, suggesting a longer migration as the breeding range expands northwards.", "Left graph shows likelihood of individual blackcaps being seen in a garden plotted against date, right graph shows likelihood plotted against air temperature.", "where the blackcap was formerly just a summer visitor.", "Although the British climate is sub-optimal, compensatory factors include the ready availability of food, , a shorter migration distance, and the avoidance of the Alps and the Sahara Desert.", "It now appears that the wintering birds in the UK come from a much wider area than previously thought.", "The majority come from France, and some individuals come from as far away as Spain and Poland.", "The steady supply of winter food in gardens gives even Spanish-breeding birds an opportunity to put on weight quicker than in their home range.", "A 2021 paper showed that blackcaps, particularly adults, wintering in Britain and Ireland showed high site fidelity and low movement between wintering sites, in contrast to blackcaps wintering in their traditional winter ranges.", "Adults that frequented gardens had better body condition, smaller fat stores, longer bills, and rounder wing tips.", "The bill and wing tip shapes reflected a more generalist diet than that of birds in traditional winter sites.", "Blackcaps did not exclusively feed in gardens, visits were linked to harsher weather.", "Individuals generally stayed at garden sites until immediately before spring departure, and supplemental feeding may have benefits for winter survival, When preparing for migration, abundant supplemental food may allow blackcaps to attain better body condition and may facilitate earlier and more successful breeding attempts.", "In the Iberian Peninsula, migratory blackcaps track similar climatic conditions over the season, which sedentary individuals must cope with great variation in climate over the year.", "This suggests a trade-off between the cost of travelling long distances of migrants, and the flexibility required by sedentary individuals to tolerate a wide variety of environmental conditions.", "Deciduous woodland is the preferred breeding habitat.", "A woodland glade The blackcap's main breeding habitat is mature deciduous woodland, with good scrub cover below the trees.", "Other habitats, such as parks, large gardens and overgrown hedges, are used as long as they meet the essential requirements of tall trees for songposts and an established understory.", "Where other Sylvia warblers also breed, blackcaps tend to use taller trees than their relatives, preferably those with a good canopy, such as pedunculate oak.", "In prime habitat, breeding densities reach 100200 pairs per square kilometre in northern Europe, and 500900 pairs per square kilometre in Italy.", "Densities are much lower in poorer habitats such as conifer forests.", "Breeding occurs in Europe at altitudes up to .", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany When male blackcaps return to their breeding areas, they establish a territory.", "Adults that have previously bred return to the site they have used in previous summers, whereas inexperienced birds either wander until they find a suitable area, or establish a very large initial territory which contracts under pressure from neighbours.", "Territorial boundaries are established initially by loud singing, performed while the male displays with his crown raised, tail fanned and slow wingbeats.", "This display is followed, if necessary, by a chase, often leading to a fight.", "The typical territory size in a French study was , but in insect-rich tall maquis in Gibraltar, the average was only .", "Females feed within a home range which may overlap other blackcap territories, and covers up to six times the area of the defended zone.", "The eggs normally take about 11 days to hatch.", "Two eggs in a cup-shaped nest Sylvia warblers are unusual in that they vigorously defend their territories against other members of their genus as well as conspecifics.", "Blackcaps and garden warblers use identical habits in the same wood, yet aggressive interactions mean that their territories never overlap.", "Similar songs are a feature of the Sylvia warblers as a group, and it has been suggested that this promotes interspecific competition and helps to segregate territories between related species.", "It appears more likely from later studies that segregation of sympatric species, other than the blackcap and garden warbler, is due to subtle habitat preferences rather than interspecies aggression."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian blackcap , usually known simply as the blackcap, is a common and widespread typical warbler.", "It has mainly olive-grey upperparts and pale grey underparts, and differences between the five subspecies are small.", "Both sexes have a neat coloured cap to the head, black in the male and reddish-brown in the female.", "The male's typical song is a rich musical warbling, often ending in a loud high-pitched crescendo, but a simpler song is given in some isolated areas, such as valleys in the Alps.", "The blackcap's closest relative is the garden warbler, which looks quite different but has a similar song.", "The blackcap breeds in much of Europe, western Asia and northwestern Africa, and its preferred habitat is mature deciduous woodland.", "The male holds a territory when breeding, which is defended against garden warblers as well as other blackcaps.", "The nest is a neat cup, built low in brambles or scrub, and the clutch is typically 46 mainly buff eggs, which hatch in about 11 days.", "The chicks fledge in 1112 days, but are cared for by both adults for some time after leaving the nest.", "The blackcap is a partial migrant", "birds from the colder areas of its range winter in scrub or trees in northwestern Europe, around the Mediterranean and in tropical Africa.", "Some birds from Germany and western continental Europe have adapted to spending the winter in gardens in Great Britain and Ireland.", "Insects are the main food in the breeding season, but, for the rest of the year, blackcaps survive primarily on small fruit.", "Garden birds also eat bread, fat and peanuts in winter.", "Despite extensive hunting in Mediterranean countries and the natural hazards of predation and disease, the blackcap has been extending its range for several decades, and is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as least concern.", "Its rich and varied song has led to it being described as the \" mock nightingale \" and it has featured in literature, films and music.", "In Messiaen's opera Saint Francois d'Assise, the saint is represented by themes based on the blackcap's song.", "The genus Sylvia, the typical warblers, forms part of a large family of Old World warblers, the Sylviidae.", "The blackcap and its nearest relative, the garden warbler, are an ancient species pair which diverged very early from the rest of the genus at between 12 and 16 million years ago.", "In the course of time, these two species have become sufficiently distinctive that they have been placed in separate subgenera, with the blackcap in subgenus Sylvia and the garden warbler in Epilais.", "These sister species have a breeding range which extends farther northeast than all other Sylvia species except the lesser whitethroat and common whitethroat.", "The nearest relatives of the garden warbler outside the sister group are believed to be the African hill babbler and Dohrn's thrush-babbler, both of which should probably be placed in Sylvia rather than their current genera, Pseudoalcippe and Horizorhinus respectively.", "The blackcap was one of the many bird species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, as Motacilla atricapilla.", "The current genus name is from Modern Latin silvia, a woodland sprite, related to silva, a wood.", "The species name, like the English name, refers to the male's black cap.", "Atricapilla is from the Latin ater, \" black \" , and capillus, \" hair \" .", "Fossils and subfossils of the blackcap have been found in a number of European countries", "the oldest, dated to 1.21.0 million years ago, are from the Early Pleistocene of Bulgaria.", "Fossils from France show that the genus Sylvia dates back at least 20 million years.", "Male S. a. heineken in the Canary Islands, Spain", "altA male blackcap perched in a tree The blackcap is a mainly grey warbler with distinct male and female plumages.", "The nominate subspecies is about long with a wing length.", "Blackcaps have a complete moult in their breeding areas in August and September prior to migration.", "Some birds, typically those migrating the greatest distances, have a further partial moult between December and March.", "Juveniles replace their loosely structured body feathers with adult plumage, starting earlier, but taking longer to complete, than the adults.", "Blackcaps breeding in the north of the range have an earlier and shorter post-juvenile moult than those further south, and cross-breeding of captive birds shows that the timing is genetically controlled.", "Song of male, Moscow Song of a male, Surrey, England Calls of a male, Surrey, England The male's song is a rich musical warbling, often ending in a loud high-pitched crescendo, which is given in bursts of up to 30 seconds.", "The song is repeated for about two-and-a-half minutes, with a short pause before each repetition.", "In some geographically isolated areas, such as islands, peninsulas and valleys in the Alps, a simplified fluting song occurs, named the Leiern song by the German ornithologists who first described it.", "The song's introduction is like that of other blackcaps, but the final warbling part is a simple alternation between two notes, as in a great tit's call but more fluting.", "The main song is confusable with that of the garden warbler, but it is slightly higher pitched than in that species, more broken into discrete song segments, and less mellow.", "Both species have a quiet subsong, a muted version of the full song, which is even harder to separate.", "The blackcap occasionally mimics the song of other birds, the most frequently copied including the garden warbler and the common nightingale.", "The main call is a hard tac-tac, like stones knocking together, and other vocalisations include a squeaking sweet alarm, and a low-pitched trill similar to that of a garden warbler.", "Wintering birds in Africa are quiet initially, but start singing in January or February prior to their return north.", "Adult female in Sweden showing reddish brown cap", "altA grey bird with a brown cap The continental breeding range of the blackcap lies between the 1430 July isotherms, and is occupied by the nominate subspecies, the other forms being restricted to islands or fringe areas in the Caucasus and eastern Iberia.", "There is a migratory divide in Europe at longitude 1011E.", "Birds to the west of this line head southwest towards Iberia or West Africa, whereas populations to the east migrate to the eastern Mediterranean and on to East Africa.", "Cross-breeding in captivity of birds from the resident population on the Canary Islands with migratory blackcaps from Germany showed the urge to migrate is genetically controlled, the offspring showing intermediate behaviour in terms of restlessness at migration time.", "Similar experiments using birds from southern Germany and eastern Austria, on opposite sides of the migratory divide, demonstrated that the direction of migration is also genetically determined.", "Climate change appears to be affecting the migration pattern of the garden warbler and blackcap.", "Both are arriving in Europe earlier than previously, and blackcaps and juvenile garden warblers are departing nearly two weeks later than in the 1980s.", "Birds of both species are longer-winged and lighter than in the past, suggesting a longer migration as the breeding range expands northwards.", "Left graph shows likelihood of individual blackcaps being seen in a garden plotted against date, right graph shows likelihood plotted against air temperature.", "where the blackcap was formerly just a summer visitor.", "Although the British climate is sub-optimal, compensatory factors include the ready availability of food, , a shorter migration distance, and the avoidance of the Alps and the Sahara Desert.", "It now appears that the wintering birds in the UK come from a much wider area than previously thought.", "The majority come from France, and some individuals come from as far away as Spain and Poland.", "The steady supply of winter food in gardens gives even Spanish-breeding birds an opportunity to put on weight quicker than in their home range.", "A 2021 paper showed that blackcaps, particularly adults, wintering in Britain and Ireland showed high site fidelity and low movement between wintering sites, in contrast to blackcaps wintering in their traditional winter ranges.", "Adults that frequented gardens had better body condition, smaller fat stores, longer bills, and rounder wing tips.", "The bill and wing tip shapes reflected a more generalist diet than that of birds in traditional winter sites.", "Blackcaps did not exclusively feed in gardens", "visits were linked to harsher weather.", "Individuals generally stayed at garden sites until immediately before spring departure, and supplemental feeding may have benefits for winter survival, When preparing for migration, abundant supplemental food may allow blackcaps to attain better body condition and may facilitate earlier and more successful breeding attempts.", "In the Iberian Peninsula, migratory blackcaps track similar climatic conditions over the season, which sedentary individuals must cope with great variation in climate over the year.", "This suggests a trade-off between the cost of travelling long distances of migrants, and the flexibility required by sedentary individuals to tolerate a wide variety of environmental conditions.", "Deciduous woodland is the preferred breeding habitat.", "altA woodland glade The blackcap's main breeding habitat is mature deciduous woodland, with good scrub cover below the trees.", "Other habitats, such as parks, large gardens and overgrown hedges, are used as long as they meet the essential requirements of tall trees for songposts and an established understory.", "Where other Sylvia warblers also breed, blackcaps tend to use taller trees than their relatives, preferably those with a good canopy, such as pedunculate oak.", "In prime habitat, breeding densities reach 100200 pairs per square kilometre in northern Europe, and 500900 pairs per square kilometre in Italy.", "Densities are much lower in poorer habitats such as conifer forests.", "Breeding occurs in Europe at altitudes up to .", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany When male blackcaps return to their breeding areas, they establish a territory.", "Adults that have previously bred return to the site they have used in previous summers, whereas inexperienced birds either wander until they find a suitable area, or establish a very large initial territory which contracts under pressure from neighbours.", "Territorial boundaries are established initially by loud singing, performed while the male displays with his crown raised, tail fanned and slow wingbeats.", "This display is followed, if necessary, by a chase, often leading to a fight.", "The typical territory size in a French study was , but in insect-rich tall maquis in Gibraltar, the average was only .", "Females feed within a home range which may overlap other blackcap territories, and covers up to six times the area of the defended zone.", "The eggs normally take about 11 days to hatch.", "altTwo eggs in a cup-shaped nest Sylvia warblers are unusual in that they vigorously defend their territories against other members of their genus as well as conspecifics.", "Blackcaps and garden warblers use identical habits in the same wood, yet aggressive interactions mean that their territories never overlap.", "Similar songs are a feature of the Sylvia warblers as a group, and it has been suggested that this promotes interspecific competition and helps to segregate territories between related species.", "It appears more likely from later studies that segregation of sympatric species, other than the blackcap and garden warbler, is due to subtle habitat preferences rather than interspecies aggression.", "Young chicks begging for food.", "These are still largely unfeathered.", "altThree small chicks with open red mouths in a nest Cuculus canorus bangsi in a clutch of Sylvia atricapilla MHNT Blackcaps first breed when they are one year old, and are mainly monogamous, although both sexes may sometimes deviate from this.", "A male attracts a female to his territory through song and a display involving raising the black crown feathers, fluffing the tail, slow wingbeats, and a short flapping flight.", "He also builds one or more simple nests , usually near his songpost.", "The eggs are incubated for an average of 11 days .", "Both adults incubate, although only the female stays on the nest at night.", "The chicks are altricial, hatching naked and with closed eyes, and are fed by both parents.", "They fledge about 1112 days after hatching, leaving the nest shortly before they are able to fly.", "They are assisted with feeding for a further two or three weeks.", "If the nest is threatened, the non-incubating bird gives an alarm call so that the sitting parent and chicks stay still and quiet.", "A male blackcap may mob a potential predator, or try to lure it away with disjointed runs and flaps on the ground.", "The blackcap normally raises just one brood, but second nestings are sometimes recorded, particularly in the milder climate of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic islands", "triple brooding has been observed once, the female laying a total of 23 eggs in the season.", "Of eggs laid, 6593% hatch successfully, and 7592% of the chicks go on to fledge.", "The productivity varies with location, level of predation and quality of habitat, but the national figure for the UK was 2.5.", "The adult annual survival rate is 43% , and 36% of juveniles live through their first year.", "The typical life expectancy is two years,", "Male eating an olive from a tree in France in December", "altA male blackcap eating a berry from a tree The blackcap feeds mainly on insects during the breeding season, then switches to fruit in late summer, the change being triggered by an internal biological rhythm.", "When migrants arrive on their territories they initially take berries, pollen and nectar if there are insufficient insects available, then soon switch to their preferred diet.", "They mainly pick prey off foliage and twigs, but may occasionally hover, flycatch or feed on the ground.", "Blackcaps eat a wide range of invertebrate prey, although aphids are particularly important early in the season, and flies, beetles and caterpillars are also taken in large numbers.", "Small snails are swallowed whole, since the shell is a source of calcium for the bird's eggs.", "Chicks are mainly fed soft-bodied insects, fruit only if invertebrates are scarce.", "In July, the diet switches increasingly to fruit.", "The protein needed for egg-laying and for the chicks to grow is replaced by fruit sugar which helps the birds to fatten for migration.", "Aphids are still taken while they are available, since they often contain sugars from the plant sap on which they feed.", "Blackcaps eat a wide range of small fruit, and squeeze out any seeds on a branch before consuming the pulp.", "This technique makes them an important propagator of mistletoe.", "The mistle thrush, which also favours that plant, is less beneficial since it tends to crush the seeds.", "Although any suitable fruit may be eaten, some have seasonal or local importance", "elder makes up a large proportion of the diet of northern birds preparing for migration, and energy-rich olives and lentisc are favoured by blackcaps wintering in the Mediterranean.", "Blackcaps defend good winter food sources in the wild, and at garden feeding stations they repel competitors as large as starlings and blackbirds.", "Birds occasionally become tame enough to feed from the hand.", "The common cuckoo is an occasional brood parasite of the blackcap.", "altA bird with a grey back, pale underparts and along tail perched on a post Blackcaps are caught by Eurasian sparrowhawks in the breeding range, and by Eleonora's falcons on migration.", "Eurasian jays and Eurasian magpies take eggs and young, as do mammals such as stoats, weasels and squirrels.", "Domestic cats are the most important predator, possibly killing up to 10% of blackcaps.", "Blackcaps are occasionally hosts of the common cuckoo, a brood parasite.", "The level of parasitism is low because the cuckoo's eggs are often rejected.", "Blackcaps have evolved adaptations which make it difficult for the parasitic species to succeed, despite the cuckoo's tendency to lay eggs which resemble those of their host.", "Blackcaps are good at spotting alien eggs, and their own eggs are very alike within a clutch, making it easier to spot the intruder.", "There is, however, considerable variation between different clutches, making it harder for the cuckoo to convincingly mimic a blackcap egg.", "The open habitat and cup nest of the warbler make it a potential target for the cuckoo", "it may have experienced much higher levels of parasitism in the past, and countermeasures would have spread rapidly once they evolved.", "The only blood parasites found in a study of blackcaps trapped on migration were protozoans from the genera Haemoproteus and Plasmodium.", "The study concluded that 45.5% of the males and 22.7% of the females were affected, but the number of parasites was small, and the ability to store fat for the migration flight was unimpaired.", "Seventeen strains of H. parabelopolskyi are found only in the blackcap, and form a monophyletic group", "three further members of that group are found only in the garden warbler, and another three occur in the African hill babbler, supporting the shared ancestry of the three bird species.", "Blackcaps may carry parasitic worms that sometimes kill their hosts.", "External parasites include chewing lice and feather mites.", "The latter do little damage, although heavy infestations cause individual tail feathers to develop asymmetrically.", "The English poet John Clare described the blackcap as the \" March Nightingale \" .", "altA painting of a seated man in a brown jacket and buff waistcoat Aristotle, in his History of Animals, considered that the garden warbler eventually metamorphosed into a blackcap.", "The blackcap's song has led to it being described as the \" mock nightingale \" or \" country nightingale \" , and John Clare, in \" The March Nightingale \" describes the listener as believing that the rarer species has arrived prematurely.", "\" He stops his own and thinks the nightingale/Hath of her monthly reckoning counted wrong \" .", "The song is also the topic of Italian poet Giovanni Pascoli's \" La Capinera \" .", "Giovanni Verga's 1871 novel Storia di una capinera, according to its author, was inspired by a story of a blackcap trapped and caged by children.", "The bird, silent and pining for its lost freedom, eventually dies.", "In the book, a nun evacuated from her convent by cholera falls in love with a family friend, only to have to return to her confinement when the disease wanes.", "The novel was adapted as films of the same name in 1917, 1943 and 1993.", "The last version was directed by Franco Zeffirelli, and its English-language version was retitled as Sparrow.", "In Saint Francois d'Assise, an opera by Messiaen, the orchestration is based on bird song.", "St Francis himself is represented by the blackcap.", "Folk names for the blackcap often refer to its most obvious plumage feature or to its song, as in the \" nightingale \" names above.", "Other old names are based on its choice of nesting material .", "There is a tradition of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm bases being named for birds.", "A former base near Stretton in Cheshire was called HMS Blackcap.", "The blackcap has a very large range, and its population in Europe is estimated at 4165 million breeding pairs.", "Allowing for birds breeding in Africa and Asia, the total population estimate is between 101 and 161 million individuals.", "It is therefore classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of least concern."]}, "Carduelis carduelis": {"keywords": ["The European goldfinch or simply the goldfinch is a small passerine bird in the finch family that is native to Europe, North Africa and western and central Asia.", "The sexes are broadly similar, with a red face, black and white head, warm brown upper parts, white underparts with buff flanks and breast patches, and black and yellow wings.", "After moult birds appear less colourful, until the tips of the newly grown feathers wear away.", "The European goldfinch is native to Europe, North Africa, and western and central Asia.", "It is found in open, partially wooded lowlands and is a resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from colder regions.", "It was introduced to Bermuda, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands, Uruguay, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand in the 19th century, and their populations quickly increased and their range expanded greatly.", "In the United States, they have become established in the western Great Lakes region.", "It is constructed of mosses and lichens and lined with plant down such as that from thistles.", "European goldfinches are attracted to back gardens in Europe and North America by birdfeeders containing seed."], "habitat_section": ["The European goldfinch is native to Europe, North Africa, and western and central Asia.", "It is found in open, partially wooded lowlands and is a resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from colder regions.", "It will also make local movements, even in the west, to escape bad weather.", "It has been introduced to many areas of the world.", "It was introduced to Bermuda, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands, Uruguay, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand in the 19th century, and their populations quickly increased and their range expanded greatly.", "In Australia, they now occur from Brisbane to the Eyre Peninsula, and are also spread throughout New Zealand.", "In the United States, they have become established in the western Great Lakes region.", "A European goldfinch nest and eggs"], "random_sentences": ["The European goldfinch or simply the goldfinch is a small passerine bird in the finch family that is native to Europe, North Africa and western and central Asia.", "It has been introduced to other areas, including Australia, New Zealand and Uruguay.", "The breeding male has a red face with black markings around the eyes, and a black-and-white head.", "The back and flanks are buff or chestnut brown.", "The black wings have a broad yellow bar.", "The tail is black and the rump is white.", "Males and females are very similar, but females have a slightly smaller red area on the face.", "The goldfinch is often depicted in Italian Renaissance paintings of the Madonna and Child.", "The European goldfinch was one of the birds described and illustrated by Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner in his Historiae animalium of 1555.", "The first formal description was by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae published in 1758.", "He introduced the binomial name, Fringilla carduelis.", "Carduelis is the Latin word for 'goldfinch'.", "The European goldfinch is now placed in the genus Carduelis that was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 by tautonomy based on Linnaeus's specific epithet.", "Modern molecular genetic studies have shown that the European goldfinch is closely related to the citril finch and the Corsican finch .", "The English word 'goldfinch' was used in the second half of the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer in his unfinished The Cook's Tale: \" Gaillard he was as goldfynch in the shawe \" .", "The European goldfinch originated in the late Miocene-Pliocene and belongs to the clade of cardueline finches.", "The citril finch and the Corsican finch are its sister taxa.", "Their closest relatives are the greenfinches, crossbills and redpolls.", "The monophyly of the subfamily Carduelinae is suggested in previous studies.", "The average European goldfinch is long with a wingspan of and a weight of .", "The sexes are broadly similar, with a red face, black and white head, warm brown upper parts, white underparts with buff flanks and breast patches, and black and yellow wings.", "On closer inspection, male European goldfinches can often be distinguished by a larger, darker red mask that extends just behind the eye.", "The shoulder feathers are black, whereas they are brown on the female.", "In females, the red face does not extend past the eye.", "The ivory-coloured bill is long and pointed, and the tail is forked.", "Goldfinches in breeding condition have a white bill, with a greyish or blackish mark at the tip for the rest of the year.", "Juveniles have a plain head and a greyer back but are unmistakable due to the yellow wing stripe.", "Birds in central Asia have a plain grey head behind the red face, lacking the black and white head pattern of European and western Asian birds.", "Adults moult after the breeding season, with some individuals beginning in July and others not completing their moult until November.", "After moult birds appear less colourful, until the tips of the newly grown feathers wear away.", "The song is a pleasant silvery twittering.", "The call is a melodic , and the song is a pleasant tinkling medley of trills and twitters, but always including the tri-syllabic call phrase or a .", "The European goldfinch is native to Europe, North Africa, and western and central Asia.", "It is found in open, partially wooded lowlands and is a resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from colder regions.", "It will also make local movements, even in the west, to escape bad weather.", "It has been introduced to many areas of the world.", "It was introduced to Bermuda, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands, Uruguay, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand in the 19th century, and their populations quickly increased and their range expanded greatly.", "In Australia, they now occur from Brisbane to the Eyre Peninsula, and are also spread throughout New Zealand.", "In the United States, they have become established in the western Great Lakes region.", "A European goldfinch nest and eggs", "The nest is built entirely by the female and is generally completed within a week.", "The male accompanies the female, but does not contribute.", "The nest is neat and compact and is generally located several metres above the ground, hidden by leaves in the twigs at the end of a swaying branch.", "It is constructed of mosses and lichens and lined with plant down such as that from thistles.", "It is attached to the twigs of the tree with spider silk.", "A deep cup prevents the loss of eggs in windy weather.", "Beginning within a couple of days after the completion of the nest, the eggs are laid in early morning at daily intervals.", "The clutch is typically 4-6 eggs, which are whitish with reddish-brown speckles.", "They have a smooth surface and are slightly glossy.", "The average size is with a calculated weight of .", "The eggs are incubated for 1113 days by the female, who is fed by the male.", "The chicks are fed by both parents.", "Initially they receive a mixture of seeds and insects, but as they grow the proportion of insect material decreases.", "For the first 79 days the young are brooded by the female.", "The nestlings fledge 1318 days after hatching.", "The young birds are fed by both parents for a further 79 days.", "The parents typically raise two broods each year and occasionally three.", "The European goldfinch's preferred food is small seeds such as those from thistles , cornflowers, and teasels, but insects are also taken when feeding young.", "It also regularly visits bird feeders in winter.", "In the winter, European goldfinches group together to form flocks of up to 40, occasionally more.", "European goldfinches are attracted to back gardens in Europe and North America by birdfeeders containing seed.", "This seed of an annual from Africa is small, and high in oils.", "Special polycarbonate feeders with small oval slits at which the European goldfinches feed are sometimes used.", "Madonna of the Goldfinch by Raphael, upright", "The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius, 1654 European goldfinches are commonly kept and bred in captivity around the world because of their distinctive appearance and pleasant song.", "If European goldfinches are kept with domestic canaries, they tend to lose their native song and call in favour of their cagemates' songs.", "This is considered undesirable, as it detracts from the allure of keeping European goldfinches.", "In Great Britain during the 19th century, many thousands of European goldfinches were trapped each year to be sold as cage birds.", "One of the earliest campaigns of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was directed against this trade.", "Wildlife conservation attempts to limit bird trapping and the destruction of the open space habitats of European goldfinches.", "Steglitz, a borough of the German city of Berlin is named after the European goldfinch.", "The surname Goldspink is based on the Scots word for the European goldfinch.", "Because of the thistle seeds it eats, in Christian symbolism the European goldfinch is associated with Christ's Passion and his crown of thorns.", "The European goldfinch, appearing in pictures of the Madonna and Christ child, represents the foreknowledge Jesus and Mary had of the Crucifixion.", "Examples include the Madonna del cardellino or Madonna of the Goldfinch, painted by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael in about 15056, in which John the Baptist offers a European goldfinch to Christ in a warning of his future.", "In Barocci's Holy Family, a European goldfinch is held in the hand of John the Baptist, who holds it high out of reach of an interested cat.", "In Cima da Conegliano's Madonna and Child, a European goldfinch flutters in the hand of the Christ child.", "It is also an emblem of endurance, fruitfulness, and persistence.", "Because it symbolizes the Passion, the European goldfinch is considered a \" saviour \" bird and may be pictured with the common housefly .", "The European goldfinch is also associated with Saint Jerome and appears in some depictions of him.", "Antonio Vivaldi composed a Concerto in D major for Flute \" Il Gardellino \" (RV 428, Op.", "3), where the singing of the European goldfinch is imitated by a flute.", "An anonymous Italian Neapolitan poem titled Il Cardellino was put to music by Saverio Mercadante and sung by Jose Carreras.", "European goldfinches, with their \" wanton freak \" and \" yellow flutterings \" , are among the many natural \" luxuries \" that delight the speaker of John Keats' poem 'I stood tip-toe upon a little hill...", "In the poem The Great Hunger by Patrick Kavanagh, the European goldfinch is one of the rare glimpses of beauty in the life of an elderly Irish farmer: Donna Tartt's novel The Goldfinch won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.", "A turning point in the plot occurs when the narrator, Theo, sees his mother's favourite painting, Carel Fabritius's The Goldfinch, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art."]}, "Columba palumbus": {"keywords": ["Photograph taken in Cambridge, England The common wood pigeon or common woodpigeon , also known as simply wood pigeon, wood-pigeon or woodpigeon, is a large species in the dove and pigeon family , native to the western Palearctic.", "It has a flexible diet, predominantly feeding on vegetable matter, including cereal crops, leading to them being regarded as an agricultural pest.", "In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.", "In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities.", "Like many species of pigeon, wood pigeons take advantage of trees and buildings to gain a vantage point over the surrounding area, and their distinctive call means that they are usually heard before they are seen.", "Two young Columba palumbus in a nest It breeds in trees in woods, parks and gardens, laying two white eggs in a simple stick nest which hatch after 17 to 19 days.", "Wood pigeons seem to have a preference for trees near roadways and rivers.", "Their plumage becomes much darker, especially the head, during hot summer periods.", "For birds that survive the first year the typical lifespan is thus only three years, but the maximum recorded age is 17 years and 8 months for a bird ringed and recovered on the Orkney Islands.", "Most of its diet is vegetable, round and fleshy leaves from Caryophyllaceae, Asteraceae, and cruciferous vegetables taken from open fields or gardens and lawns, young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain, pine nuts, and certain fruits and berries.", "In the autumn they also eat figs and acorns, and in winter buds of trees and bushes.", "This is an extremely rich fluid that is produced in the adult birds' crops during the breeding season.", "Due to their feeding on cereal crops, wood pigeons are considered an agricultural pest."], "habitat_section": ["In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.", "In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities."], "random_sentences": ["altA large common wood pigeon standing on a garden fence", "Common wood pigeon perched on a fence.", "Photograph taken in Cambridge, England The common wood pigeon or common woodpigeon , also known as simply wood pigeon, wood-pigeon or woodpigeon, is a large species in the dove and pigeon family , native to the western Palearctic.", "It belongs to the genus Columba, which includes closely related species such as the rock dove .", "It has historically been known as the ring dove, and is locally known in southeast England as the \" culver \"", "the latter name has given rise to several areas known for keeping pigeons to be named after it, such as Culver Down.", "It has a flexible diet, predominantly feeding on vegetable matter, including cereal crops, leading to them being regarded as an agricultural pest.", "Wood pigeons are extensively hunted over large parts of their range, but this does not seem to have a great impact on their population.", "The common wood pigeon was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.", "He placed it with all the other pigeons in the genus Columba and coined the binomial name Columba palumbus.", "The specific epithet palumbus is from the Latin palumbes for a wood pigeon.", "Five subspecies are recognised, one of which is now extinct: extinct", "Adult common wood pigeon, photograph taken in Birmingham, England The three Western European Columba pigeons, common wood pigeon, stock dove and rock dove, though superficially alike, have very distinctive characteristics", "the common wood pigeon may be identified at once by its larger size at and weight , and the white on its neck and wing.", "It is otherwise a basically grey bird, with a pinkish breast.", "The wingspan can range from and the wing chord measures .", "The tail measures , the bill is and the tarsus is .", "Adult birds bear a series of green and white patches on their necks, and a pink patch on their chest.", "The eye colour is a pale yellow, in contrast to that of rock doves, which is orange-red, and the stock pigeon, which is black.", "Juvenile birds do not have the white patches on either side of the neck.", "When they are about 6 months old they gain small white patches on both sides of the neck, which gradually enlarge until they are fully formed when the bird is about 68 months old (approx.", "Juvenile birds also have a greyer beak and an overall lighter grey appearance than adult birds.", "The call is a characteristic cooing, coo-COO-coocoo-coo.", "In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.", "In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities.", "A flock of common wood pigeons feeding in a field right", "Adult sitting on its nest in a tree Egg Hatching of a Common Wood Pigeon Its flight is quick, performed by regular beats, with an occasional sharp flick of the wings, characteristic of pigeons in general. It takes off with a loud clattering.", "It perches well, and in its nuptial display walks along a horizontal branch with swelled neck, lowered wings, and fanned tail.", "During the display flight the bird climbs, the wings are smartly cracked like a whiplash, and the bird glides down on stiff wings.", "The common wood pigeon is gregarious, often forming very large flocks outside the breeding season.", "Like many species of pigeon, wood pigeons take advantage of trees and buildings to gain a vantage point over the surrounding area, and their distinctive call means that they are usually heard before they are seen.", "Wood pigeons are known to fiercely defend their territory, and will fight each other to gain access to nesting and roosting locations.", "Male wood pigeons will typically attempt to drive competitors off by threat displays and pursuit, but will also directly fight, jumping and striking their rival with both wings.", "This species can be an agricultural pest, and it is often shot, being a legal quarry species in most European countries.", "It is wary in rural areas, but often quite tame where it is not persecuted.", "Two young Columba palumbus in a nest It breeds in trees in woods, parks and gardens, laying two white eggs in a simple stick nest which hatch after 17 to 19 days.", "Wood pigeons seem to have a preference for trees near roadways and rivers.", "Males exhibit aggressive behaviour towards each other during the breeding season by jumping and flapping wings at each other.", "Their plumage becomes much darker, especially the head, during hot summer periods.", "Breeding can happen year round if there is food abundant however breeding season most commonly occurs in autumn usually in the months of August and September.", "The nests are vulnerable to attack, particularly by crows.", "The young usually fly at 33 to 34 days", "however, if the nest is disturbed, some young may be able to survive having left the nest as early as 20 days from hatching.", "In a study carried out using ring-recovery data, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 52 per cent, and the adult annual survival rate was 61 per cent.", "For birds that survive the first year the typical lifespan is thus only three years, but the maximum recorded age is 17 years and 8 months for a bird ringed and recovered on the Orkney Islands.", "Most of its diet is vegetable, round and fleshy leaves from Caryophyllaceae, Asteraceae, and cruciferous vegetables taken from open fields or gardens and lawns", "young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain, pine nuts, and certain fruits and berries.", "In the autumn they also eat figs and acorns, and in winter buds of trees and bushes.", "They will also eat larvae, ants, and small worms.", "They need open water to drink and bathe in.", "Young common wood pigeons swiftly become fat, as a result of the crop milk they are fed by their parents.", "This is an extremely rich fluid that is produced in the adult birds' crops during the breeding season.", "Due to their feeding on cereal crops, wood pigeons are considered an agricultural pest.", "In Ireland and the UK, the traditional mnemonic for the distinctive call of the bird has been interpreted as \" Take two cows, Teddy \" , or \" Take two cows, Taffy \" .", "Another interpretation for the birdsong has been \" My toe bleeds, Betty \" .", "AS PER NEW WIKIPEDIA POLICY, GALLERY MUST BE REFERENCED TO AS COMMONS.", "DON'T ADD IT HERE PLEASE "]}, "Turdus merula": {"keywords": ["This species breeds in woods and gardens, building a neat, cup-shaped nest, bound together with mud.", "Both sexes are territorial on the breeding grounds, with distinctive threat displays, but are more gregarious during migration and in wintering areas.", "Pairs stay in their territory throughout the year where the climate is sufficiently temperate.", "Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the blackbird is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary Islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "It is close in evolutionary terms to the island thrush of Southeast Asia and islands in the southwest Pacific, which probably diverged from T. merula stock fairly recently.", "The ouzel usage survived later in poetry, and still occurs as the name of the closely related ring ouzel , and in water ouzel, an alternative name for the unrelated but superficially similar white-throated dipper and American dipper .", "The common blackbird breeds in temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia.", "Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year.", "Female blackbirds in Scotland and the north of England migrate more in winter than do the males Common over most of its range in woodland, the common blackbird has a preference for deciduous trees with dense undergrowth.", "However, gardens provide the best breeding habitat with up to 7.3 pairs per hectare , with woodland typically holding about a tenth of that density, and open and very built-up habitats even less.", "The common blackbird also lives in parks, gardens and hedgerows.", "The common blackbird occurs at elevations up to in Europe, in North Africa, and at in peninsular India and Sri Lanka, but the large Himalayan subspecies range much higher, with T. m. maximus breeding at and remaining above even in winter.", "Migrants are more gregarious, travelling in small flocks and feeding in loose groups in the wintering grounds.", "In its native Northern Hemisphere range, the first-year male common blackbird of the nominate race may start singing as early as late January in fine weather in order to establish a territory, followed in late March by the adult male.", "In urban and suburban environments with high levels of anthropogenic noise, such as near airports, blackbirds have been observed modifying their song to successfully compensate and compete with the noise, singing for longer periods of time, at a higher volume, and earlier during their area's dawn chorus, when environmental sounds are less prominent.", "It pulls earthworms from the soil, usually finding them by sight, but sometimes by hearing, and roots through leaf litter for other invertebrates.", "Animal prey predominates, and is particularly important during the breeding season, with windfall apples and berries taken more in the autumn and winter.", "The nature of the fruit taken depends on what is locally available, and frequently includes exotics in gardens.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern but there have been local declines, especially on farmland, which may be due to agricultural policies that encouraged farmers to remove hedgerows , and to drain damp grassland and increase the use of pesticides, both of which could have reduced the availability of invertebrate food.", "The common blackbird was introduced to Australia by a bird dealer visiting Melbourne in early 1857, The introduced population in Australia is considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens, including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes.", "It is thought to spread weeds, such as blackberry, and may compete with native birds for food and nesting sites.", "Introduced there along with the song thrush in 1862, it has spread throughout the country up to an elevation of , as well as outlying islands such as the Campbell and Kermadecs.", "It eats a wide range of native and exotic fruit, and makes a major contribution to the development of communities of naturalised woody weeds.", "These communities provide fruit more suited to non-endemic native birds and naturalised birds than to endemic birds."], "habitat_section": ["The common blackbird breeds in temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia.", "It has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.", "Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year.", "Recoveries of blackbirds ringed on the Isle of May show that these birds commonly migrate from southern Norway to Scotland, and some onwards to Ireland.", "Scottish-ringed birds have also been recovered in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.", "Female blackbirds in Scotland and the north of England migrate more in winter than do the males Common over most of its range in woodland, the common blackbird has a preference for deciduous trees with dense undergrowth.", "However, gardens provide the best breeding habitat with up to 7.3 pairs per hectare , with woodland typically holding about a tenth of that density, and open and very built-up habitats even less.", "They are often replaced by the related ring ouzel in areas of higher altitude.", "The common blackbird also lives in parks, gardens and hedgerows.", "The common blackbird occurs at elevations up to in Europe, in North Africa, and at in peninsular India and Sri Lanka, but the large Himalayan subspecies range much higher, with T. m. maximus breeding at and remaining above even in winter.", "However, a 1994 record from Bonavista, Newfoundland, has been accepted as a genuine wild bird, Male blackbird with earthworm The male common blackbird defends its breeding territory, chasing away other males or utilising a \" bow and run \" threat display.", "This consists of a short run, the head first being raised and then bowed with the tail dipped simultaneously.", "If a fight between male blackbirds does occur, it is usually short and the intruder is soon chased away.", "The female blackbird is also aggressive in the spring when it competes with other females for a good nesting territory, and although fights are less frequent, they tend to be more violent.", "As long as winter food is available, both the male and female will remain in the territory throughout the year, although occupying different areas.", "Migrants are more gregarious, travelling in small flocks and feeding in loose groups in the wintering grounds.", "The flight of migrating birds comprises bursts of rapid wing beats interspersed with level or diving movement, and differs from both the normal fast agile flight of this species and the more dipping action of larger thrushes.", "The common blackbird has an extensive range, estimated at 32.4 million square kilometres , and a large population, including an estimated 110 to 174 million individuals in Europe alone.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern but there have been local declines, especially on farmland, which may be due to agricultural policies that encouraged farmers to remove hedgerows , and to drain damp grassland and increase the use of pesticides, both of which could have reduced the availability of invertebrate food.", "The common blackbird was introduced to Australia by a bird dealer visiting Melbourne in early 1857, The introduced population in Australia is considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens, including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes.", "It is thought to spread weeds, such as blackberry, and may compete with native birds for food and nesting sites.", "The introduced common blackbird is, together with the native silvereye , the most widely distributed avian seed disperser in New Zealand.", "Introduced there along with the song thrush in 1862, it has spread throughout the country up to an elevation of , as well as outlying islands such as the Campbell and Kermadecs.", "It eats a wide range of native and exotic fruit, and makes a major contribution to the development of communities of naturalised woody weeds.", "These communities provide fruit more suited to non-endemic native birds and naturalised birds than to endemic birds."], "random_sentences": ["The common blackbird is a species of true thrush.", "It is also called the Eurasian blackbird , or simply the blackbird where this does not lead to confusion with a local species.", "It breeds in Europe, Asiatic Russia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.", "It has a number of subspecies across its large range", "a few of the Asian subspecies are sometimes considered to be full species.", "Depending on latitude, the common blackbird may be resident, partially migratory, or fully migratory.", "The adult male of the common blackbird , which is found throughout most of Europe, is all black except for a yellow eye-ring and bill and has a rich, melodious song", "the adult female and juvenile have mainly dark brown plumage.", "This species breeds in woods and gardens, building a neat, cup-shaped nest, bound together with mud.", "It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, earthworms, berries, and fruits.", "Both sexes are territorial on the breeding grounds, with distinctive threat displays, but are more gregarious during migration and in wintering areas.", "Pairs stay in their territory throughout the year where the climate is sufficiently temperate.", "This common and conspicuous species has given rise to a number of literary and cultural references, frequently related to its song.", "Female T. m. mauretanicus The common blackbird was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Turdus merula .", "The binomial name derives from two Latin words, turdus, \" thrush \" , and merula, \" blackbird \" , the latter giving rise to its French name, merle, and its Scots name, merl.", "About 65 species of medium to large thrushes are in the genus Turdus, characterised by rounded heads, longish, pointed wings, and usually melodious songs.", "Although two European thrushes, the song thrush and mistle thrush, are early offshoots from the Eurasian lineage of Turdus thrushes after they spread north from Africa, the blackbird is descended from ancestors that had colonised the Canary Islands from Africa and subsequently reached Europe from there.", "It is close in evolutionary terms to the island thrush (T.", "poliocephalus) of Southeast Asia and islands in the southwest Pacific, which probably diverged from T. merula stock fairly recently.", "Until about the 17th century, another name for the species was ouzel, ousel or wosel (from Old English osle, cf.", "Another variant occurs in Act 3 of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, where Bottom refers to \" The Woosell cocke, so blacke of hew, With Orenge-tawny bill \" .", "The ouzel usage survived later in poetry, and still occurs as the name of the closely related ring ouzel , and in water ouzel, an alternative name for the unrelated but superficially similar white-throated dipper and American dipper .", "Two related Asian Turdus thrushes, the white-collared blackbird (T.", "albocinctus) and the grey-winged blackbird (T.", "boulboul), are also named blackbirds, The icterid family of the New World is sometimes called the blackbird family because of some species' superficial resemblance to the common blackbird and other Old World thrushes, but they are not evolutionarily close, being related to the New World warblers and tanagers.", "The term is often limited to smaller species with mostly or entirely black plumage, at least in the breeding male, notably the cowbirds, the grackles, and for around 20 species with \" blackbird \" in the name, such as the red-winged blackbird and the melodious blackbird.", "In Europe, the common blackbird can be confused with the paler-winged first-winter ring ouzel or the superficially similar common starling .", "A number of similar Turdus thrushes exist far outside the range of the common blackbird, for example the South American Chiguanco thrush .", "The Indian blackbird, the Tibetan blackbird, and the Chinese blackbird were formerly considered subspecies of the common blackbird.", "Historic image of blackbird in Nederlandsche Vogelen The common blackbird of the nominate subspecies T. m. merula is in length, has a long tail, and weighs .", "The adult male has glossy black plumage, blackish-brown legs, a yellow eye-ring and an orange-yellow bill.", "The bill darkens somewhat in winter.", "The adult female is sooty-brown with a dull yellowish-brownish bill, a brownish-white throat and some weak mottling on the breast.", "The juvenile is similar to the female, but has pale spots on the upperparts, and the very young juvenile also has a speckled breast.", "Young birds vary in the shade of brown, with darker birds presumably males.", "The first year male resembles the adult male, but has a dark bill and weaker eye ring, and its folded wing is brown, rather than black like the body plumage.", "The common blackbird breeds in temperate Eurasia, North Africa, the Canary Islands, and South Asia.", "It has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand.", "Urban males are more likely to overwinter in cooler climes than rural males, an adaptation made feasible by the warmer microclimate and relatively abundant food that allow the birds to establish territories and start reproducing earlier in the year.", "Recoveries of blackbirds ringed on the Isle of May show that these birds commonly migrate from southern Norway to Scotland, and some onwards to Ireland.", "Scottish-ringed birds have also been recovered in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.", "Female blackbirds in Scotland and the north of England migrate more in winter than do the males Common over most of its range in woodland, the common blackbird has a preference for deciduous trees with dense undergrowth.", "However, gardens provide the best breeding habitat with up to 7.3 pairs per hectare , with woodland typically holding about a tenth of that density, and open and very built-up habitats even less.", "They are often replaced by the related ring ouzel in areas of higher altitude.", "The common blackbird also lives in parks, gardens and hedgerows.", "The common blackbird occurs at elevations up to in Europe, in North Africa, and at in peninsular India and Sri Lanka, but the large Himalayan subspecies range much higher, with T. m. maximus breeding at and remaining above even in winter.", "However, a 1994 record from Bonavista, Newfoundland, has been accepted as a genuine wild bird,", "Male blackbird with earthworm The male common blackbird defends its breeding territory, chasing away other males or utilising a \" bow and run \" threat display.", "This consists of a short run, the head first being raised and then bowed with the tail dipped simultaneously.", "If a fight between male blackbirds does occur, it is usually short and the intruder is soon chased away.", "The female blackbird is also aggressive in the spring when it competes with other females for a good nesting territory, and although fights are less frequent, they tend to be more violent.", "As long as winter food is available, both the male and female will remain in the territory throughout the year, although occupying different areas.", "Migrants are more gregarious, travelling in small flocks and feeding in loose groups in the wintering grounds.", "The flight of migrating birds comprises bursts of rapid wing beats interspersed with level or diving movement, and differs from both the normal fast agile flight of this species and the more dipping action of larger thrushes.", "The male common blackbird attracts the female with a courtship display which consists of oblique runs combined with head-bowing movements, an open beak, and a \" strangled \" low song.", "The female remains motionless until she raises her head and tail to permit copulation.", "This species is monogamous, and the established pair will usually stay together as long as they both survive.", "Pair separation rates of up to 20% have been noted following poor breeding.", "Although the species is socially monogamous, there have been studies showing as much as 17% extra-pair paternity.", "The nominate T. merula may commence breeding in March, but eastern and Indian races are a month or more later, and the introduced New Zealand birds start nesting in August .", "Eggs of birds of the southern Indian races are paler than those from the northern subcontinent and Europe.", "The female incubates for 1214 days before the altricial chicks are hatched naked and blind.", "Fledging takes another 1019 days, with both parents feeding the young and removing faecal sacs.", "The nest is often ill-concealed compared with those of other species, and many breeding attempts fail due to predation.", "The young are fed by the parents for up to three weeks after leaving the nest, and will follow the adults begging for food.", "If the female starts another nest, the male alone will feed the fledged young.", "Second broods are common, with the female reusing the same nest if the brood was successful, and three broods may be raised in the south of the common blackbird's range.", "A common blackbird has an average life expectancy of 2.4 years, and, based on data from bird ringing, the oldest recorded age is 21 years and 10 months.", "In its native Northern Hemisphere range, the first-year male common blackbird of the nominate race may start singing as early as late January in fine weather in order to establish a territory, followed in late March by the adult male.", "The male's song is a varied and melodious low-pitched fluted warble, given from trees, rooftops or other elevated perches mainly in the period from March to June, sometimes into the beginning of July.", "It has a number of other calls, including an aggressive seee, a pook-pook-pook alarm for terrestrial predators like cats, and various chink and chook, chook vocalisations.", "The territorial male invariably gives chink-chink calls in the evening in an attempt to deter other blackbirds from roosting in its territory overnight.", "Like other passerine birds, it has a thin high seeet alarm call for threats from birds of prey since the sound is rapidly attenuated in vegetation, making the source difficult to locate.", "In urban and suburban environments with high levels of anthropogenic noise, such as near airports, blackbirds have been observed modifying their song to successfully compensate and compete with the noise, singing for longer periods of time, at a higher volume, and earlier during their area's dawn chorus, when environmental sounds are less prominent.", "Adult male feeding on cherries in Lausanne, Switzerland The common blackbird is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, spiders, snails, earthworms, seeds, berries and other fruits.", "It feeds mainly on the ground, running and hopping with a start-stop-start progress.", "It pulls earthworms from the soil, usually finding them by sight, but sometimes by hearing, and roots through leaf litter for other invertebrates.", "Small amphibians, lizards and small mammals are occasionally hunted.", "This species will also perch in bushes to take berries and collect caterpillars and other active insects, such as beetles and grasshoppers.", "Animal prey predominates, and is particularly important during the breeding season, with windfall apples and berries taken more in the autumn and winter.", "The nature of the fruit taken depends on what is locally available, and frequently includes exotics in gardens.", "As the blackbird lives in proximity to urbanized areas, it likely supplements its diet with man-made food.", "Near human habitation the main predator of the common blackbird is the domestic cat, with newly fledged young especially vulnerable.", "Foxes and predatory birds, such as the sparrowhawk and other accipiters, also take this species when the opportunity arises.", "However, there is little direct evidence to show that either predation of the adult blackbirds or loss of the eggs and chicks to corvids, such as the European magpie or Eurasian jay, decrease population numbers.", "A male attempting to distract a kestrel close to its nest This species is occasionally a host of parasitic cuckoos, such as the common cuckoo , but this is minimal because the common blackbird recognizes the adult of the parasitic species and its non-mimetic eggs.", "In the UK, only three nests of 59,770 examined contained cuckoo eggs.", "The introduced merula blackbird in New Zealand, where the cuckoo does not occur, has, over the past 130 years, lost the ability to recognize the adult common cuckoo but still rejects non-mimetic eggs.", "As with other passerine birds, parasites are common.", "Intestinal parasites were found in 88% of common blackbirds, most frequently Isospora and Capillaria species.", "and more than 80% had haematozoan parasites .", "Common blackbirds spend much of their time looking for food on the ground where they can become infested with ticks, which are external parasites that most commonly attach to the head of a blackbird.", "there is no evidence that this affects the fitness of blackbirds except when they are exhausted and run down after migration.", "The common blackbird is one of a number of species which has unihemispheric slow-wave sleep.", "One hemisphere of the brain is effectively asleep, while a low-voltage EEG, characteristic of wakefulness, is present in the other.", "The benefit of this is that the bird can rest in areas of high predation or during long migratory flights, but still retain a degree of alertness.", "The common blackbird has an extensive range, estimated at 32.4 million square kilometres , and a large population, including an estimated 110 to 174 million individuals in Europe alone.", "The species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List , and is therefore evaluated as least concern but there have been local declines, especially on farmland, which may be due to agricultural policies that encouraged farmers to remove hedgerows , and to drain damp grassland and increase the use of pesticides, both of which could have reduced the availability of invertebrate food.", "The common blackbird was introduced to Australia by a bird dealer visiting Melbourne in early 1857, The introduced population in Australia is considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens, including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes.", "It is thought to spread weeds, such as blackberry, and may compete with native birds for food and nesting sites.", "The introduced common blackbird is, together with the native silvereye , the most widely distributed avian seed disperser in New Zealand.", "Introduced there along with the song thrush in 1862, it has spread throughout the country up to an elevation of , as well as outlying islands such as the Campbell and Kermadecs.", "It eats a wide range of native and exotic fruit, and makes a major contribution to the development of communities of naturalised woody weeds.", "These communities provide fruit more suited to non-endemic native birds and naturalised birds than to endemic birds.", "\" Sing a Song for Sixpence \" cover illustration The common blackbird was seen as a sacred though destructive bird in Classical Greek folklore, and was said to die if it consumed pomegranates.", "Like many other small birds, it has in the past been trapped in rural areas at its night roosts as an easily available addition to the diet, Sing a song of sixpence, A pocket full of rye", " Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie!", " When the pie was opened the birds began to sing, Oh, wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?", " The common blackbird's melodious, distinctive song is mentioned in the poem Adlestrop by Edward Thomas", " And for that minute a blackbird sang Close by, and round him, mistier, Farther and farther, all the birds Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.", " In the English Christmas carol \" The Twelve Days of Christmas \" , the line commonly sung today as \" four calling birds \" is believed to have originally been written in the 18th century as \" four colly birds \" , an archaism meaning \" black as coal \" that was a popular English nickname for the common blackbird.", "The common blackbird, unlike many black creatures, is not normally seen as a symbol of bad luck, and it symbolised resignation in the 17th century tragic play The Duchess of Malfi", "an alternate connotation is vigilance, the bird's clear cry warning of danger.", "which has a breeding population of 12 million pairs, it has also featured on a number of other stamps issued by European and Asian countries, including a 1966 4d British stamp and a 1998 Irish 30p stamp.", "This birdarguablyalso gives rise to the Serbian name for Kosovo, which is the possessive adjectival form of Serbian , as in Kosovo polje .", "A common blackbird can be heard singing on the Beatles song \" Blackbird \" ."]}, "Tachymarptis melba": {"keywords": ["The alpine swift formerly Apus melba, is a species of swift found in Africa, southern Europe and Asia.", "They breed in mountains from southern Europe to the Himalaya.", "This is a large swift measuring 2022 cm in length with a wingspan of 5460 cm with broad wings and tail with a shallow fork, superficially similar to a large barn swallow or house martin although unrelated to these two species, since swifts are in the order Apodiformes.", "Alpine swifts breed in mountains from southern Europe to the Himalaya.", "The species seems to have been much more widespread during the last ice age, with a large colony breeding, for example in the Late Pleistocene Cave No 16, Bulgaria, around 18,00040,000 years ago.", "These apodiformes build their nests in colonies in a suitable cliff hole or cave, laying two or three eggs.", "Young swifts in the nest can drop their body temperature and become torpid if bad weather prevents their parents from catching insects nearby.", "They have adapted well to urban conditions, frequently nesting in old buildings in towns around the Mediterranean, where large, low-flying flocks are a familiar feature there in summer.", "Alpine swifts have a short forked tail and very long swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerang but may be held stretched straight out.", "Alpine swifts are readily distinguished from the common swifts by their larger size and their white belly and throat.", "It is a polytypic species found all year-round in eastern and southern Africa, Madagascar, western peninsular India and Sri Lanka, with larger non-breeding distributions in western, eastern and southern Africa, parts of the western edge of the Arabian peninsula, and breeding across southern Europe in the west across Turkey, northwards through the Caucasus and along the east coast of the Black Sea to the Crimean peninsula and Central Asia up to Turkestan and to the south along Iran and Afghanistan up to Balochistan in Western Pakistan and further east along the Himalayas.", "A. m. melba described originally by Linnaeus with type-locality Gibraltar distributed across southern Europe and northern Morocco and east through Asia Minor to northwest Iran and wintering in west, central and east Africa, A. m. tuneti described by von Tschusi in 1904 with type-locality in Tunisia and distributed across central and eastern Morocco eastwards to Libya and through Middle East and Iran to southeast Kazakhstan and up to western Pakistan, and wintering in west and east Africa, A. m. archeri described by Hartnert with type-locality Hargeisa, in Somaliland distributed from the Dead Sea depression at the borders of Israel and Jordan, south to southwest Arabia and Somalia, A. m. africanus described by Temminck with type-locality in South Africa distributed across east and southern Africa and southwest Angola with some populations of this sub-species wintering in east Africa, A. m. maximus described by Ogilvie-Grant with type-locality in the eastern slopes of the Rwenzori mountains at 10,000-12,000 ft distributed across Uganda and DR Congo, A. m. marjoriae described by R D Bradfield from Quickborn, Damaraland distributed in Namibia and adjacent western South Africa in the northwestern parts of Northern Cape, A. m. willsi described by Ernst Hartnert from Madagascar and endemic to the island, A. m. nubifugus described by Koelz distributed across the Himalayas and wintering in central India, A. m. dorabtatai described by Abdulali distributed in western peninsular India, A. m. bakeri described by Hartert from Sri Lanka distributed only on that island-nation.", "In the In the western palearctic, temperate and mediterranean zones, it is typically in the mountains but occasionally in lowlands, while in remainder of sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, it occurs in a larger variety of habitats ranging from sub-desert steppe to mountains.", "Alpine swifts spend most of their lives in the air, living on the insects they catch in their beaks.", "A study published in 2013 showed Alpine swifts can spend over six months flying without having to land.", "In 2011, Felix Liechti and his colleagues at the Swiss Ornithological Institute attached electronic tags that log movement to six alpine swifts and it was discovered that the birds could stay aloft in the air for more than 200 days straight."], "habitat_section": ["It is a polytypic species found all year-round in eastern and southern Africa, Madagascar, western peninsular India and Sri Lanka, with larger non-breeding distributions in western, eastern and southern Africa, parts of the western edge of the Arabian peninsula, and breeding across southern Europe in the west across Turkey, northwards through the Caucasus and along the east coast of the Black Sea to the Crimean peninsula and Central Asia up to Turkestan and to the south along Iran and Afghanistan up to Balochistan in Western Pakistan and further east along the Himalayas.", "There are also scattered populations in northwestern Africa with an isolated population in Northern Libya.", "The distribution of the 10 sub-species are.", "A. m. melba described originally by Linnaeus with type-locality Gibraltar distributed across southern Europe and northern Morocco and east through Asia Minor to northwest Iran and wintering in west, central and east Africa, A. m. tuneti described by von Tschusi in 1904 with type-locality in Tunisia and distributed across central and eastern Morocco eastwards to Libya and through Middle East and Iran to southeast Kazakhstan and up to western Pakistan, and wintering in west and east Africa, A. m. archeri described by Hartnert with type-locality Hargeisa, in Somaliland distributed from the Dead Sea depression at the borders of Israel and Jordan, south to southwest Arabia and Somalia, A. m. africanus described by Temminck with type-locality in South Africa distributed across east and southern Africa and southwest Angola with some populations of this sub-species wintering in east Africa, A. m. maximus described by Ogilvie-Grant with type-locality in the eastern slopes of the Rwenzori mountains at 10,000-12,000 ft distributed across Uganda and DR Congo, A. m. marjoriae described by R D Bradfield from Quickborn, Damaraland distributed in Namibia and adjacent western South Africa in the northwestern parts of Northern Cape, A. m. willsi described by Ernst Hartnert from Madagascar and endemic to the island, A. m. nubifugus described by Koelz distributed across the Himalayas and wintering in central India, A. m. dorabtatai described by Abdulali distributed in western peninsular India, A. m. bakeri described by Hartert from Sri Lanka distributed only on that island-nation.", "In the In the western palearctic, temperate and mediterranean zones, it is typically in the mountains but occasionally in lowlands, while in remainder of sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, it occurs in a larger variety of habitats ranging from sub-desert steppe to mountains.", "It typically breeds below 1500 m but may sometimes go up to 2300 m. In the tropical parts of it range in Kenya, it has been recorded breeding above 4000 m and in the Himalayas, it has been observed foraging at 3700 m. Seen entering probable nesting sites at 2100 m on Madagascar.", "It has a powerful and rapid flight with deep slow wing beats.", "They are known to engage in twilight ascent, which is characterised by increased flight activity and gaining altitude and longer-distance horizontal flights at dawn and dusk, possibly part of social interactions between individuals.", "Alpine swifts spend most of their lives in the air, living on the insects they catch in their beaks.", "They drink on the wing, but roost on vertical cliffs or walls.", "A study published in 2013 showed Alpine swifts can spend over six months flying without having to land.", "All vital physiological processes, including sleep, can be performed while in air.", "In 2011, Felix Liechti and his colleagues at the Swiss Ornithological Institute attached electronic tags that log movement to six alpine swifts and it was discovered that the birds could stay aloft in the air for more than 200 days straight."], "random_sentences": ["The alpine swift formerly Apus melba, is a species of swift found in Africa, southern Europe and Asia.", "They breed in mountains from southern Europe to the Himalaya.", "Like common swifts, they are migratory", "the southern European population winters further south in southern Africa.", "They have very short legs which are used for clinging to vertical surfaces.", "Like most swifts, they never settle voluntarily on the ground, spending most of their lives in the air living on the insects they catch in their beaks.", "The genus name is from the Ancient Greek takhus, \" fast \" , and marptis, \" seizer \" .", "The specific name melba comes from melano-alba or mel-alba, the two colours that Linnaeus referred to these in his description.", "A total of ten sub-species are currently recognised .", "This is a large swift measuring 2022 cm in length with a wingspan of 5460 cm with broad wings and tail with a shallow fork, superficially similar to a large barn swallow or house martin although unrelated to these two species, since swifts are in the order Apodiformes.", "The resemblance could be due to convergent evolution, reflecting similar lifestyles.", "Upper parts are olive-brown with sharp and long wings with wing-tips appearing blacker", "underparts with white throat and highly visible and distinctive oval white belly patch encircled by olive-brown breastband, flanks and undertail-coverts.", "Races tuneti and marjoriae paler, with grey-brown plumage", "archeri averages paler than tuneti, with shorter wings", "maximus is the largest race, with very dark, blackish plumage", "africanus and nubifugus smaller than nominate, with blacker plumage, smaller throat patch and blacker shaft-streaks on white areas", "willsi and bakeri both smaller, with darker plumage and broader and narrower breast bands, respectively", "dorabtatai has broader breast band and shorter wings than nubifugus and is separated from bakeri by its paler plumage and broader breast band.", "Alpine swifts breed in mountains from southern Europe to the Himalaya.", "Like common swifts, they are strongly migratory, and winter much further south in southern Africa.", "They wander widely on migration, and are regularly seen in much of southern Europe, middle east, and Asia.", "The species seems to have been much more widespread during the last ice age, with a large colony breeding, for example in the Late Pleistocene Cave No 16, Bulgaria, around 18,00040,000 years ago.", "The same situation has been found for Komarowa Cave near Czestochowa, Poland during a period about 20,00040,000 years ago.", "These apodiformes build their nests in colonies in a suitable cliff hole or cave, laying two or three eggs.", "Swifts will return to the same sites year after year, rebuilding their nests when necessary, and pairing for life.", "Young swifts in the nest can drop their body temperature and become torpid if bad weather prevents their parents from catching insects nearby.", "They have adapted well to urban conditions, frequently nesting in old buildings in towns around the Mediterranean, where large, low-flying flocks are a familiar feature there in summer.", "Alpine swifts have a short forked tail and very long swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerang but may be held stretched straight out.", "Their flight is slower and more powerful than that of their smaller relatives, with a call that is a drawn-out twittering .", "Alpine swifts are readily distinguished from the common swifts by their larger size and their white belly and throat.", "They are around twice as big as most other swifts in their range, about in length, with a wingspan of and a weight of around .", "By comparison, the common swift has a wingspan of around .", "They're largely dark brown in colour with a dark neck band that separates the white throat from the white belly.", "Juveniles are similar to adults, but their feathers are pale edged.", "It is a polytypic species found all year-round in eastern and southern Africa, Madagascar, western peninsular India and Sri Lanka, with larger non-breeding distributions in western, eastern and southern Africa, parts of the western edge of the Arabian peninsula, and breeding across southern Europe in the west across Turkey, northwards through the Caucasus and along the east coast of the Black Sea to the Crimean peninsula and Central Asia up to Turkestan and to the south along Iran and Afghanistan up to Balochistan in Western Pakistan and further east along the Himalayas.", "There are also scattered populations in northwestern Africa with an isolated population in Northern Libya.", "The distribution of the 10 sub-species are: A. m. melba described originally by Linnaeus with type-locality Gibraltar distributed across southern Europe and northern Morocco and east through Asia Minor to northwest Iran and wintering in west, central and east Africa, A. m. tuneti described by von Tschusi in 1904 with type-locality in Tunisia and distributed across central and eastern Morocco eastwards to Libya and through Middle East and Iran to southeast Kazakhstan and up to western Pakistan, and wintering in west and east Africa, A. m. archeri described by Hartnert with type-locality Hargeisa, in Somaliland distributed from the Dead Sea depression at the borders of Israel and Jordan, south to southwest Arabia and Somalia, A. m. africanus described by Temminck with type-locality in South Africa distributed across east and southern Africa and southwest Angola with some populations of this sub-species wintering in east Africa, A. m. maximus described by Ogilvie-Grant with type-locality in the eastern slopes of the Rwenzori mountains at 10,000-12,000 ft distributed across Uganda and DR Congo, A. m. marjoriae described by R D Bradfield from Quickborn, Damaraland distributed in Namibia and adjacent western South Africa in the northwestern parts of Northern Cape, A. m. willsi described by Ernst Hartnert from Madagascar and endemic to the island, A. m. nubifugus described by Koelz distributed across the Himalayas and wintering in central India, A. m. dorabtatai described by Abdulali distributed in western peninsular India, A. m. bakeri described by Hartert from Sri Lanka distributed only on that island-nation.", "In the In the western palearctic, temperate and mediterranean zones, it is typically in the mountains but occasionally in lowlands, while in remainder of sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, it occurs in a larger variety of habitats ranging from sub-desert steppe to mountains.", "It typically breeds below 1500 m but may sometimes go up to 2300 m. In the tropical parts of it range in Kenya, it has been recorded breeding above 4000 m and in the Himalayas, it has been observed foraging at 3700 m. Seen entering probable nesting sites at 2100 m on Madagascar.", "It has a powerful and rapid flight with deep slow wing beats.", "They are known to engage in twilight ascent, which is characterised by increased flight activity and gaining altitude and longer-distance horizontal flights at dawn and dusk, possibly part of social interactions between individuals.", "Alpine swifts spend most of their lives in the air, living on the insects they catch in their beaks.", "They drink on the wing, but roost on vertical cliffs or walls.", "A study published in 2013 showed Alpine swifts can spend over six months flying without having to land.", "All vital physiological processes, including sleep, can be performed while in air.", "In 2011, Felix Liechti and his colleagues at the Swiss Ornithological Institute attached electronic tags that log movement to six alpine swifts and it was discovered that the birds could stay aloft in the air for more than 200 days straight.", "Diet was mainly arthropods, principally insects but also spiders.", "Insects across 10 orders and 79 families were documented in the diets of individuals from Africa and Europe, the Homoptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera being the most often consumed."]}, "Oxycarenus lavaterae": {"keywords": ["Historically it was mainly found in the Mediterranean Basin, including North Africa, but beginning in the 1970s, it has been found further north, into the Benelux counties, Central Europe and Eastern Europe.", "These bugs form large aggregates on trunks and branches of the trees to overwinter, typically on lime trees , less frequently on other plants ."], "habitat_section": ["Historically it was mainly found in the Mediterranean Basin, including North Africa, but beginning in the 1970s, it has been found further north, into the Benelux counties, Central Europe and Eastern Europe."], "random_sentences": ["Oxycarenus lavaterae, common name lime seed bug, is a species of ground bug of the family Lygaeidae, subfamily Oxycareninae.", "Historically it was mainly found in the Mediterranean Basin, including North Africa, but beginning in the 1970s, it has been found further north, into the Benelux counties, Central Europe and Eastern Europe.", "Oxycarenus lavaterae - Nymph Oxycarenus lavaterae can reach a length of in adult females, and in males.", "Adult bugs are mostly red, white and black colored.", "The head, the entire prothorax, the scutellum and the antennae are black.", "The upper part of the abdomen is brick-red, while the connexivum is blackish.", "The front wings are colorless and transparent and reach the top of the abdomen or are a little longer.", "The nymphs can be easily recognized by their black head and the red-colored abdomen.", "The wing pads of the nymphs are completely black.", "A colony of O. lavaterae hybernating on Tilia sp.", "There are usually two annual generations.", "These bugs are found on and feed upon plants in the family Malvaceae, such as Lavatera , Althea, Hibiscus, and Malva.", "They are considered an invasive pest in some countries.", "In warmer countries Oxycarenus lavaterae hibernates as adults.", "These bugs form large aggregates on trunks and branches of the trees to overwinter, typically on lime trees , less frequently on other plants ."]}, "Crocus tommasinianus": {"keywords": ["It is a cormous perennial of the genus Crocus in the family Iridaceae with a lilac flower, and is one of the smaller of the cultivated species.", "The species in found growing around 1000 meters in woods and on shady hillsides, commonly on limestone with flowering occurring in January and February, the narrow leaves are fully developed by the time the purple flowers with white tubes blooms.", "It is often planted in large drifts in gardens and parks.", "This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit."], "habitat_section": ["The species in found growing around 1000 meters in woods and on shady hillsides, commonly on limestone with flowering occurring in January and February, the narrow leaves are fully developed by the time the purple flowers with white tubes blooms."], "random_sentences": ["Crocus tommasinianus, the woodland crocus, early crocus, or Tommasini's crocus, was named after the botanist Muzio G. Spirito de Tommasini .", "It is native to Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania, and the former Yugoslavia.", "It is often referred to as the early or snow crocus, but these terms are shared with several other species, although C. tommasinianus is amongst the first to bloom.", "Multiple plants are often called tommies in the horticultural trade.", "It is a cormous perennial of the genus Crocus in the family Iridaceae with a lilac flower, and is one of the smaller of the cultivated species.", "It has slender flowers about long, with white perianth tubes, petals pale silvery lilac to reddish purple, while the outer petals may be overlaid with silver and darker tips.", "A variant, C. tommasinianus f. albus, is white.", "Its cultivars are used as ornamental plants.", "The species in found growing around 1000 meters in woods and on shady hillsides, commonly on limestone with flowering occurring in January and February", "the narrow leaves are fully developed by the time the purple flowers with white tubes blooms.", "It naturalizes easily earning an official recognition as a weed and is naturalized in the US state of Delaware.", "It is often planted in large drifts in gardens and parks.", "This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit."]}, "Ficaria verna": {"keywords": ["Ficaria verna , commonly known as lesser celandine or pilewort, is a low-growing, hairless perennial flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae native to Europe and Western Asia.", "nevertheless, many specialist plantsmen, nursery owners and discerning gardeners in the UK and Europe collect selected cultivars of the plant, including bronze-leaved and double-flowered ones.", "Emerging in late winter with flowers appearing late February through May in the UK, its appearance across the landscape is regarded by many as a harbinger of spring.", "thumb Lesser celandine is a hairless perennial plant to about 25 cm high, growing in clumps of 4-10 short stems, on which the leaves are spirally-arranged or all basal. The leaf stalks have sheathing bases, no stipules, a groove along their upper surface, and two hollows within.", "Ficaria verna sensu lato is native to central Europe, north Africa and the Caucasus.", "It is not native in North America.", "Flowers appear in early spring Lesser celandine grows on land that is seasonally wet or flooded, especially in sandy soils, but is not found in permanently waterlogged sites.", "In both shaded woodlands and open areas, Ficaria verna begins growth in the winter when temperatures are low and days are short.", "Growth and reproduction is poor in dry or acidic conditions, though the plants can handle drought well once dormant.", "By emerging before the forest canopy leafs out, Ficaria verna is able to take advantage of the higher levels of sunlight reaching the forest floor during late winter and early spring.", "If disturbed, separation of the plant's numerous basal tubers is an efficient means of vegetative propagation.", "Once established, native plants are displaced and ground is left barren and susceptible to erosion, from June to February, during the plant's six-month dormancy phase.", "In the United States, where lesser celandine is considered a plant pest to gardens, lawns, and natural areas, many governmental agencies have attempted to slow the spread of this species with limited success.", "The U.S. National Park Service's Plant Conservation Alliance recommends avoiding planting lesser celandine, and instead planting native ephemeral wildflowers such as Asarum canadense, bloodroot, the native twinleaf , and various species of Trillium as alternatives.", "Christopher Lloyd is one of several horticulturists who have recommended one of the double-flowered Flore Pleno Group for planting at the base of a hedge next to a lawn.", "The Daily Telegraph has even given advice on how to plant them, provided by the Royal Horticultural Society.", "The RHS specialist quarterly publication The Plantsman published a lengthy, well-illustrated article on double-flowered lesser celandine cultivars by Belgian gardener and alpine plant specialist Wim Boens in December 2017.", "On drying of these plants, the protoanemonin toxin dimerizes to non-toxic anemonin, which is further hydrolyzed to non-toxic dicarboxylic acids.", "Cooking of the plants also eliminates the toxicity of the plants and the plant has been incorporated in diets or herbal medicine after being dried, and ground for flour, or boiled and consumed as a vegetable.", "Most guides today point out that medicines should be made from the dried herb or by heat extraction as the untreated plants and extracts will contain protoanemonin, a mild toxin.", "He also remarked on banks of celandines in his early prose work \" In Pursuit of Spring \" .", "Coming suddenly round a corner into a glade of silver birch trees Edmund saw the ground covered in all directions with little yellow flowers - celandines \" ."], "habitat_section": ["Ficaria verna sensu lato is native to central Europe, north Africa and the Caucasus.", "It is not native in North America.", " In many parts of the Eastern and Northwestern United States and Canada, lesser celandine is cited as an invasive species.", "Once established, native plants are displaced and ground is left barren and susceptible to erosion, from June to February, during the plant's six-month dormancy phase.", "In the United States, where lesser celandine is considered a plant pest to gardens, lawns, and natural areas, many governmental agencies have attempted to slow the spread of this species with limited success.", "As of 2014, the species was reported to be invasive and established in 25 states.", "USDA APHIS considers Ficaria verna to be a high risk weed which could spread across 79 percent of the United States, anticipating possible impacts to threatened and endangered riparian species.", "The U.S. National Park Service's Plant Conservation Alliance recommends avoiding planting lesser celandine, and instead planting native ephemeral wildflowers such as Asarum canadense, bloodroot, the native twinleaf , and various species of Trillium as alternatives."], "random_sentences": ["Ficaria verna , commonly known as lesser celandine or pilewort, is a low-growing, hairless perennial flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae native to Europe and Western Asia.", "It has fleshy dark green, heart-shaped leaves and distinctive flowers with bright yellow, glossy petals.", "It is now introduced in North America, where it is known by the common name fig buttercup and considered an invasive species.", "The plant is poisonous if ingested raw and potentially fatal to grazing animals and livestock such as horses, cattle, and sheep.", "For these reasons, several US states have banned the plant or listed it as a noxious weed.", "nevertheless, many specialist plantsmen, nursery owners and discerning gardeners in the UK and Europe collect selected cultivars of the plant, including bronze-leaved and double-flowered ones.", "Emerging in late winter with flowers appearing late February through May in the UK, its appearance across the landscape is regarded by many as a harbinger of spring.", "thumb Lesser celandine is a hairless perennial plant to about 25 cm high, growing in clumps of 4-10 short stems, on which the leaves are spirally-arranged or all basal. The leaf stalks have sheathing bases, no stipules, a groove along their upper surface, and two hollows within.", "The leaves are cordate, 1-4 cm across, dark-green above with a distinctive variegated or mottled pattern, and pale green below.", "The margins of the leaves are sometimes entire but more often angled or weakly lobed, with hydathodes at the tips.", "There are two types of roots: dense clusters of thick, pale-coloured elongated tubers surrounded by patches of short, fibrous roots.", "Some clumps give rise to long stolons to 10 cm or more, allowing vegetative spread to produce extensive carpets of plants.", "Closed-up flowerhead of lesser celandine, showing the sepals and outside of the petals.", "It produces large actinomorphic flowers, up to 3 cm diameter, on long stalks arising individually from the leaf axils or in loose cymes at the top of the stem.", "The flowers have a whorl of 3 sepaloid tepals and 7 to 12 glossy It blooms between March and May in the UK.", "Ficaria verna sensu lato is native to central Europe, north Africa and the Caucasus.", "It is not native in North America.", "Flowers appear in early spring Lesser celandine grows on land that is seasonally wet or flooded, especially in sandy soils, but is not found in permanently waterlogged sites.", "In both shaded woodlands and open areas, Ficaria verna begins growth in the winter when temperatures are low and days are short.", "although some subspecies are capable of producing up to 73 seeds per flower.", "Germination of seeds begins in the spring, and continues into summer.", "Seedlings remain small for their first year, producing only one or two leaves until the second year.", "Growth and reproduction is poor in dry or acidic conditions, though the plants can handle drought well once dormant.", "By emerging before the forest canopy leafs out, Ficaria verna is able to take advantage of the higher levels of sunlight reaching the forest floor during late winter and early spring.", "By late spring, second year plants quickly age as daylight hours lengthen and temperatures rise.", "By the end of May, foliage has died back and plants enter a six month dormancy phase.", "If disturbed, separation of the plant's numerous basal tubers is an efficient means of vegetative propagation.", "Typical root tubers: these structures separate easily and can become new plants, allowing the plant to colonize new areas rapidly", " Bulbils form in the leaf axils of some subspecies after flowering", " Ficaria verna exists in both diploid and tetraploid forms which are very similar in appearance.", "in addition to root tubers.", "Subspecies F. verna calthifolia and F. verna verna are diploid and hybrids between subspecies often create sterile triploid forms.", "Ecology as an invasive species", "As an invasive species it forms a dense carpet in a floodplain forest in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania", " In many parts of the Eastern and Northwestern United States and Canada, lesser celandine is cited as an invasive species.", "Once established, native plants are displaced and ground is left barren and susceptible to erosion, from June to February, during the plant's six-month dormancy phase.", "In the United States, where lesser celandine is considered a plant pest to gardens, lawns, and natural areas, many governmental agencies have attempted to slow the spread of this species with limited success.", "As of 2014, the species was reported to be invasive and established in 25 states.", "USDA APHIS considers Ficaria verna to be a high risk weed which could spread across 79 percent of the United States, anticipating possible impacts to threatened and endangered riparian species.", "The U.S. National Park Service's Plant Conservation Alliance recommends avoiding planting lesser celandine, and instead planting native ephemeral wildflowers such as Asarum canadense, bloodroot, the native twinleaf , and various species of Trillium as alternatives.", "Christopher Lloyd is one of several horticulturists who have recommended one of the double-flowered Flore Pleno Group for planting at the base of a hedge next to a lawn.", "The Daily Telegraph has even given advice on how to plant them, provided by the Royal Horticultural Society.", "Double-flowered plants were noted as long ago as 1625 when one was found by John Ray.", "The RHS specialist quarterly publication The Plantsman published a lengthy, well-illustrated article on double-flowered lesser celandine cultivars by Belgian gardener and alpine plant specialist Wim Boens in December 2017.", "\" RHS Plant Finder \" online lists around 220 named cultivars (many of these may well be very similar", "nevertheless, this indicates the interest in the species among gardeners).", "All plants of the buttercup family contain a compound known as protoanemonin.", "When the plant is wounded, the unstable glucoside ranunculin turns into the toxin protoanemonin.", "In one case, a patient experienced acute hepatitis and jaundice when taking untreated lesser celandine extracts internally as an herbal remedy for hemorrhoids.", "On drying of these plants, the protoanemonin toxin dimerizes to non-toxic anemonin, which is further hydrolyzed to non-toxic dicarboxylic acids.", "Cooking of the plants also eliminates the toxicity of the plants and the plant has been incorporated in diets or herbal medicine after being dried, and ground for flour, or boiled and consumed as a vegetable.", "The plant is known as pilewort by some herbalists because it has historically been used to treat piles .", "Lesser celandine is still recommended in several \" current \" herbal guides for treatment of hemorrhoids by applying an ointment of raw leaves as a cream or lanolin to the affected area.", "Supposedly, the knobby tubers of the plant resemble piles, and according to the doctrine of signatures this resemblance suggests that pilewort could be used to cure piles.", "Nicholas Culpepper , is claimed to have treated his daughter for 'scrofula' with the plant.", "The German vernacular skorbutkraut derives from the use of young leaves, which are high in vitamin C, to prevent scurvy.", "The German Hager's Manual of pharmacy practice of 1900 states Ranunculus ficaria and C. officinalis both share this name and use, though there was little documentation of the toxicity of untreated Ficaria species at the time.", "Most guides today point out that medicines should be made from the dried herb or by heat extraction as the untreated plants and extracts will contain protoanemonin, a mild toxin.", "The plant has been widely used in Russia and is sold in most pharmacies as a dried herb.", "The protoanemonin found in fresh leaves is an irritant and mildly toxic but is suggested to have antibacterial properties if used externally.", "The process of heating or drying turns the Ranunculaceae toxin to anemonin which is non-toxic and may have antispasmodic and analgesic properties.", "Killynether wood, Northern Ireland Mesolithic Hunter gatherers in Europe consumed the roots of the plant as a source of carbohydrates boiled, fried or roasted.", "The poet William Wordsworth was very fond of the flower and it inspired him to write three poems including the following from his ode to the celandine: :: I have seen thee, high and low, :: Thirty years or more, and yet :: 'T was a face I did not know", "Near Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic Upon Wordsworth's death it was proposed that a celandine be carved on his memorial plaque inside St Oswald's Church, Grasmere, but unfortunately the greater celandine Chelidonium majus was mistakenly used.", "Edward Thomas wrote a poem entitled \" Celandine \" .", "Encountering the flowers in a field, the narrator is reminded of a past love, now dead.", "He also remarked on banks of celandines in his early prose work \" In Pursuit of Spring \" .", "C. S. Lewis mentions celandines in a key passage of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when Aslan comes to Narnia and the whole wood passes \" in a few hours or so from January to May \" .", "The children notice \" wonderful things happening.", "Coming suddenly round a corner into a glade of silver birch trees Edmund saw the ground covered in all directions with little yellow flowers - celandines \" .", "D. H. Lawrence mentions celandines frequently in Sons and Lovers.", "They appear to be a favorite of the protagonist, Paul Morel", "going down the hedgeside with the girl, he noticed the celandines, scalloped splashes of gold, on the side of the ditch.", "'I like them,' he said, 'when their petals go flat back with the sunshine.", "They seem to be pressing themselves at the sun.", "' And then the celandines ever after drew her with a little spell."]}, "Parus major": {"keywords": ["Great tit in Sweden, winter 2016 The great tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.", "It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of North Africa where it is generally resident in any sort of woodland, most great tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters.", "It is predominantly insectivorous in the summer, but will consume a wider range of food items in the winter months, including small hibernating bats.", "The great tit has adapted well to human changes in the environment and is a common and familiar bird in urban parks and gardens.", "The 11 subspecies of the cinereous tit were once lumped with the great tit but recent genetic and bioacoustic studies now separate that group as a distinct species The great tit was formerly treated as ranging from Britain to Japan and south to the islands of Indonesia, with 36 described subspecies ascribed to four main species groups.", "The major group had 13 subspecies across Europe, temperate Asia and north Africa, the minor group's nine subspecies occurred from southeast Russia and Japan into northern southeast Asia and the 11 subspecies in the cinereus group were found from Iran across south Asia to Indonesia.", "This form was once thought to form a ring species around the Tibetan Plateau, with gene flow throughout the subspecies, but this theory was abandoned when sequences of mitochondrial DNA were examined, finding that the four groups were distinct and that the hybridisation zones between the groups were the result of secondary contact after a temporary period of isolation.", "The other subspecies have much more restricted distributions, four being restricted to islands and the remainder of the P. m. major subspecies representing former glacial refuge populations.", "Mixed forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe A nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia.", "It can be found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands.", "It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens.", "In dense forests, including conifer forests it prefers forest clearings.", "In northern Siberia it lives in boreal taiga.", "In North Africa it rather resides in oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves.", "In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest.", "Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan subspecies, as well as low scrubland, oases, at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.", "Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic and also to Netherlands, Britain, even as far as the southern Balkans.", " Male great tit on branch with sunflower seed Great tits are primarily insectivorous in the summer, feeding on insects and spiders which they capture by foliage gleaning.", "Seeds and fruit usually come from deciduous trees and shrubs, like for instance the seeds of beech and hazel.", "In particularly severe winters they may consume 44% of their body weight in sunflower seeds.", "Great tit nesting in nest box Great tits are cavity nesters, breeding in a hole that is usually inside a tree, although occasionally in a wall or rock face, and they will readily take to nest boxes.", "The nest inside the cavity is built by the female, and is made of plant fibres, grasses, moss, hair, wool and feathers.", "Insularity also affects clutch size, with great tits on offshore islands laying smaller clutches with larger eggs than mainland birds.", "This patch turns white after the first moult at age two months, and diminishes in size as the bird grows.", "Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.", "Reduced cold injury and heat loss is mediated by the great tits counter-current vascular arrangements, and peripheral vasoconstriction in major vessels in and around the birds bill and legs.", "In response to food restriction, the great tits bill temperature dropped, and once food availably was increased, bill temperatures gradually returned to normal. Vasoconstriction of blood vessels in the bill not only serves as an energy saving mechanism, but also reduces the amount of heat transferred from core body tissues to the skin , which, in turn, reduces heat loss rate by lowering skin temperature relative to the environment.", "It is more common and has better breeding success in areas with undisturbed forest cover, but it has adapted to human modified habitats.", "In areas with low frequency background noise pollution, the song has a higher frequency than in quieter areas."], "habitat_section": ["Mixed forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe A nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia.", "It can be found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands.", "In North Africa it lives in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.", "It also occurs across the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia from northern Iran and Afghanistan to Mongolia, as well as across northern Asia from the Urals as far east as northern China and the Amur Valley.", "The great tit occupies a range of habitats.", "It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens.", "In dense forests, including conifer forests it prefers forest clearings.", "In northern Siberia it lives in boreal taiga.", "In North Africa it rather resides in oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves.", "In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest.", "Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan subspecies, as well as low scrubland, oases, at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.", "The great tit is generally not migratory.", "Pairs will usually remain near or in their territory year round, even in the northern parts of their range.", "Young birds will disperse from their parents' territory, but usually not far.", "Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic and also to Netherlands, Britain, even as far as the southern Balkans.", "The great tit was unsuccessfully introduced into the United States, birds were set free near Cincinnati, Ohio between 1872 and 1874 but failed to become established.", "Suggestions that they were an excellent control measure for codling moths nearly led to their introduction to some new areas particularly in the United States of America, however this plan was not implemented.", "A small population is present in the upper Midwest, believed to be the descendants of birds liberated in Chicago in 2002 along with European goldfinches, Eurasian jays, common chaffinches, European greenfinches, saffron finches, blue tits and Eurasian linnets, although sightings of some of these species pre-date the supposed introduction date.", "Birds were introduced to the Almaty Province in what is now Kazakhstan in 196061 and became established, although their present status is unclear.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a predator of great tits, with the young from second broods being at higher risk partly because of the hawk's greater need for food for its own developing young.", "The nests of great tits are raided by great spotted woodpeckers, particularly when nesting in certain types of nest boxes.", "Other nest predators include introduced grey squirrels and least weasels, which are able to take nesting adults as well.", "A species of biting louse described as Rostrinirmus hudeci was isolated and described in 1981 from great tits in central Europe.", "The hen flea Ceratophyllus gallinae is exceedingly common in the nests of blue and great tits.", "It was originally a specialist tit flea, but the dry, crowded conditions of chicken runs enabled it to flourish with its new host.", "This flea is preferentially predated by the clown beetle Gnathoncus punctulatus, The rove beetle Microglotta pulla also feeds on fleas and their larvae.", "Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.", "Great tits compete with the pied flycatcher for nesting boxes, and can kill prospecting flycatcher males.", "Incidences of fatal competition are more frequent when nesting times overlap, and climate change has led to greater synchrony of nesting between the two species and flycatcher deaths.", "Having killed the flycatchers, the great tits may consume their brains."], "random_sentences": ["Great tit in Sweden, winter 2016 The great tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae.", "It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and east across the Palearctic to the Amur River, south to parts of North Africa where it is generally resident in any sort of woodland", "most great tits do not migrate except in extremely harsh winters.", "Until 2005 this species was lumped with numerous other subspecies.", "DNA studies have shown these other subspecies to be distinct from the great tit and these have now been separated as two distinct species, the cinereous tit of southern Asia, and the Japanese tit of East Asia.", "The great tit remains the most widespread species in the genus Parus.", "The great tit is a distinctive bird with a black head and neck, prominent white cheeks, olive upperparts and yellow underparts, with some variation amongst the numerous subspecies.", "It is predominantly insectivorous in the summer, but will consume a wider range of food items in the winter months, including small hibernating bats.", "Like all tits it is a cavity nester, usually nesting in a hole in a tree.", "The female lays around 12 eggs and incubates them alone, although both parents raise the chicks.", "In most years the pair will raise two broods.", "The nests may be raided by woodpeckers, squirrels and weasels and infested with fleas, and adults may be hunted by sparrowhawks.", "The great tit has adapted well to human changes in the environment and is a common and familiar bird in urban parks and gardens.", "The great tit is also an important study species in ornithology.", "The great tit was described under its current binomial name by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "Its scientific name is derived from the Latin parus \" tit \" and maior \" larger \" .", "Francis Willughby had used the name in the 17th century.", "alt Bird with similar markings to great tit, but colours washed out and greyer, drinks from a leaking tap", "The 11 subspecies of the cinereous tit were once lumped with the great tit but recent genetic and bioacoustic studies now separate that group as a distinct species The great tit was formerly treated as ranging from Britain to Japan and south to the islands of Indonesia, with 36 described subspecies ascribed to four main species groups.", "The major group had 13 subspecies across Europe, temperate Asia and north Africa, the minor group's nine subspecies occurred from southeast Russia and Japan into northern southeast Asia and the 11 subspecies in the cinereus group were found from Iran across south Asia to Indonesia.", "The three bokharensis subspecies were often treated as a separate species, Parus bokharensis, the Turkestan tit.", "This form was once thought to form a ring species around the Tibetan Plateau, with gene flow throughout the subspecies, but this theory was abandoned when sequences of mitochondrial DNA were examined, finding that the four groups were distinct and that the hybridisation zones between the groups were the result of secondary contact after a temporary period of isolation.", "A study published in 2005 confirmed that the major group was distinct from the cinereus and minor groups and that along with P. m. bokharensis it diverged from these two groups around 1.5 million years ago.", "The divergence between the bokharensis and major groups was estimated to have been about half a million years ago.", "The study also examined hybrids between representatives of the major and minor groups in the Amur Valley where the two meet.", "Hybrids were rare, suggesting that there were some reproductive barriers between the two groups.", "The study recommended that the two eastern groups be split out as new species, the cinereous tit , and the Japanese tit , but that the Turkestan tit be lumped in with the great tit.", "This taxonomy has been followed by some authorities, for example the IOC World Bird List.", "The Handbook of the Birds of the World volume treating the Parus species went for the more traditional classification, treating the Turkestan tit as a separate species but retaining the Japanese and cinereous tits with the great tit, a move that has not been without criticism.", "The nominate subspecies of the great tit is the most widespread, its range stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to the Amur Valley and from Scandinavia to the Middle East.", "The other subspecies have much more restricted distributions, four being restricted to islands and the remainder of the P. m. major subspecies representing former glacial refuge populations.", "The dominance of a single, morphologically uniform subspecies over such a large area suggests that the nominate race rapidly recolonised a large area after the last glacial epoch.", "This hypothesis is supported by genetic studies which suggest a geologically recent genetic bottleneck followed by a rapid population expansion.", "In females and juveniles the mid-line stripe is narrower and sometimes discontinuous", "alt duller-plumaged great tit with weak breast and belly stripe The great tit is large for a tit at in length, and has a distinctive appearance that makes it easy to recognise.", "The nominate race P. major major has a bluish-black crown, black neck, throat, bib and head, and white cheeks and ear coverts.", "The breast is bright lemon-yellow and there is a broad black mid-line stripe running from the bib to vent.", "There is a dull white spot on the neck turning to greenish yellow on the upper nape.", "The rest of the nape and back are green tinged with olive.", "The wing-coverts are green, the rest of the wing is bluish-grey with a white wing-bar.", "The tail is bluish grey with white outer tips.", "The plumage of the female is similar to that of the male except that the colours are overall duller", "the bib is less intensely black, as is the line running down the belly, which is also narrower and sometimes broken.", "Young birds are like the female, except that they have dull olive-brown napes and necks, greyish rumps, and greyer tails, with less defined white tips.", "The plumage of the male is typically bright, although this varies by subspecies", "alt Great tit with strongly yellow sides perched on twig There is some variation in the subspecies.", "P. m. newtoni is like the nominate race but has a slightly longer bill, the mantle is slightly deeper green, there is less white on the tail tips, and the ventral mid-line stripe is broader on the belly.", "P. m. corsus also resembles the nominate form but has duller upperparts, less white in the tail and less yellow in the nape.", "P. m. mallorcae is like the nominate subspecies, but has a larger bill, greyer-blue upperparts and slightly paler underparts.", "P. m. ecki is like P. m. mallorcae except with bluer upperparts and paler underparts.", "P. m. excelsus is similar to the nominate race but has much brighter green upperparts, bright yellow underparts and no white on the tail.", "P. m. aphrodite has darker, more olive-grey upperparts, and the underparts are more yellow to pale cream.", "P. m. niethammeri is similar to P. m. aphrodite but the upperparts are duller and less green, and the underparts are pale yellow.", "P. m. terrasanctae resembles the previous two subspecies but has slightly paler upperparts.", "P. m. blandfordi is like the nominate but with a greyer mantle and scapulars and pale yellow underparts, and P. m. karelini is intermediate between the nominate and P. m. blandfordi, and lacks white on the tail.", "The plumage of P. m. bokharensis is much greyer, pale creamy white to washed out grey underparts, a larger white cheep patch, a grey tail, wings, back and nape.", "It is also slightly smaller, with a smaller bill but longer tail.", "The situation is similar for the two related subspecies in the Turkestan tit group.", "P. m. turkestanicus is like P. m. bokharensis but with a larger bill and darker upperparts.", "P. m. ferghanensis is like P. m. bokharensis but with a smaller bill, darker grey on the flanks and a more yellow wash on the juvenile birds.", "Female great tit and male The colour of the male bird's breast has been shown to correlate with stronger sperm, and is one way that the male demonstrates his reproductive superiority to females.", "Higher levels of carotenoid increase the intensity of the yellow of the breast its colour, and also enable the sperm to better withstand the onslaught of free radicals.", "Carotenoids cannot be synthesized by the bird and have to be obtained from food, so a bright colour in a male demonstrates his ability to obtain good nutrition.", "However, the saturation of the yellow colour is also influenced by environmental factors, such as weather conditions.", "The width of the male's ventral stripe, which varies with individual, is selected for by females, with higher quality females apparently selecting males with wider stripes.", "Great tit : song ", "Great tit : sonagram ", "Great tit twittering The great tit is, like other tits, a vocal bird, and has up to 40 types of calls and songs.", "The calls are generally the same between the sexes, but the male is much more vocal and the female rarely calls.", "Soft single notes such as \" pit \" , \" spick \" , or \" chit \" are used as contact calls.", "A loud \" tink \" is used by adult males as an alarm or in territorial disputes.", "One of the most familiar is a \" teacher, teacher \" , often likened to a squeaky wheelbarrow wheel, which is used in proclaiming ownership of a territory.", "In former times, English folk considered the \" saw-sharpening \" call to be a foretelling of rain.", "There is little geographic variation in calls, but tits from the two south Asian groups recently split from the great tit do not recognise or react to the calls of the temperate great tits.", "alt forest clearing with leaf strewn floor, low plants and saplings, and tall trees partly obscuring the sky", "Mixed forests are one of the habitats great tits use in Europe A nest box in Altenbeken, Germany The great tit has a wide distribution across much of Eurasia.", "It can be found across all of Europe except for Iceland and northern Scandinavia, including numerous Mediterranean islands.", "In North Africa it lives in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.", "It also occurs across the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia from northern Iran and Afghanistan to Mongolia, as well as across northern Asia from the Urals as far east as northern China and the Amur Valley.", "The great tit occupies a range of habitats.", "It is most commonly found in open deciduous woodland, mixed forests, forest edges and gardens.", "In dense forests, including conifer forests it prefers forest clearings.", "In northern Siberia it lives in boreal taiga.", "In North Africa it rather resides in oak forests as well as stands of Atlas cedar and even palm groves.", "In the east of its range in Siberia, Mongolia and China it favours riverine willow and birch forest.", "Riverine woodlands of willows, poplars are among the habitats of the Turkestan subspecies, as well as low scrubland, oases", "at higher altitudes it occupies habitats ranging from dense deciduous and coniferous forests to open areas with scattered trees.", "The great tit is generally not migratory.", "Pairs will usually remain near or in their territory year round, even in the northern parts of their range.", "Young birds will disperse from their parents' territory, but usually not far.", "Populations may become irruptive in poor or harsh winters, meaning that groups of up to a thousand birds may unpredictably move from northern Europe to the Baltic and also to Netherlands, Britain, even as far as the southern Balkans.", "The great tit was unsuccessfully introduced into the United States", "birds were set free near Cincinnati, Ohio between 1872 and 1874 but failed to become established.", "Suggestions that they were an excellent control measure for codling moths nearly led to their introduction to some new areas particularly in the United States of America, however this plan was not implemented.", "A small population is present in the upper Midwest, believed to be the descendants of birds liberated in Chicago in 2002 along with European goldfinches, Eurasian jays, common chaffinches, European greenfinches, saffron finches, blue tits and Eurasian linnets, although sightings of some of these species pre-date the supposed introduction date.", "Birds were introduced to the Almaty Province in what is now Kazakhstan in 196061 and became established, although their present status is unclear.", "Like other tits, great tits transport food with their beak, and then transfer it to their feet, where it is held while they eat", "alt Male great tit on branch with sunflower seed Great tits are primarily insectivorous in the summer, feeding on insects and spiders which they capture by foliage gleaning.", "Their larger invertebrate prey include cockroaches, grasshoppers and crickets, lacewings, earwigs, bugs , ants, flies , caddis flies, beetles, scorpion flies, harvestmen, bees and wasps, snails and woodlice.", "A study published in 2007 found that great tits helped to reduce caterpillar damage in apple orchards by as much as 50%.", "Nestlings also undergo a period in their early development where they are fed a number of spiders, possibly for nutritional reasons.", "In autumn and winter, when insect prey becomes scarcer, great tits add berries and seeds to their diet.", "Seeds and fruit usually come from deciduous trees and shrubs, like for instance the seeds of beech and hazel.", "Where it is available they will readily take table scraps, peanuts and sunflower seeds from bird tables.", "In particularly severe winters they may consume 44% of their body weight in sunflower seeds.", "They often forage on the ground, particularly in years with high beech mast production.", "Great tits, along with other tits, will join winter mixed-species foraging flocks.", "Great tit feeding its young with an insect Large food items, such as large seeds or prey, are dealt with by \" hold-hammering \" , where the item is held with one or both feet and then struck with the bill until it is ready to eat.", "Using this method, a great tit can get into a hazelnut in about twenty minutes.", "When feeding young, adults will hammer off the heads of large insects to make them easier to consume, and remove the gut from caterpillars so that the tannins in the gut will not retard the chick's growth.", "Great tits combine dietary versatility with a considerable amount of intelligence and the ability to solve problems with insight learning, that is to solve a problem through insight rather than trial and error.", "In England, great tits learned to break the foil caps of milk bottles delivered at the doorstep of homes to obtain the cream at the top.", "This behaviour, first noted in 1921, spread rapidly in the next two decades.", "In 2009, great tits were reported killing, and eating the brains of roosting pipistrelle bats.", "This is the first time a songbird has been recorded preying on bats.", "The tits only do this during winter when the bats are hibernating and other food is scarce.", "They have also been recorded using tools, using a conifer needle in the bill to extract larvae from a hole in a tree.", "Great tits are monogamous breeders and establish breeding territories.", "These territories are established in late January and defence begins in late winter or early spring.", "Territories are usually reoccupied in successive years, even if one of the pair dies, so long as the brood is raised successfully.", "Females are likely to disperse to new territories if their nest is predated the previous year.", "If the pair divorces for some reason then the birds will disperse, with females travelling further than males to establish new territories.", "Although the great tit is socially monogamous, extra-pair copulations are frequent.", "One study in Germany found that 40% of nests contained some offspring fathered by parents other than the breeding male and that 8.5% of all chicks were the result of cuckoldry.", "Adult males tend to have a higher reproductive success compared to sub-adults.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden Young chicks in the nest", "alt nest with seven chicks.", "These are covered with grey down, and have bright yellow gapes Great tits are seasonal breeders.", "The exact timing of breeding varies by a number of factors, most importantly location.", "Most breeding occurs between January and September", "in Europe the breeding season usually begins after March.", "In Israel there are exceptional records of breeding during the months of October to December.", "The amount of sunlight and daytime temperatures will also affect breeding timing.", "One study found a strong correlation between the timing of laying and the peak abundance of caterpillar prey, which is in turn correlated to temperature.", "On an individual level, younger females tend to start laying later than older females.", "alt Great tit leaving its wooden nest box right", "Great tit nesting in nest box Great tits are cavity nesters, breeding in a hole that is usually inside a tree, although occasionally in a wall or rock face, and they will readily take to nest boxes.", "The nest inside the cavity is built by the female, and is made of plant fibres, grasses, moss, hair, wool and feathers.", "The number in the clutch is often very large, as many as 18, but five to twelve is more common.", "Clutch size is smaller when birds start laying later, and is also lower when the density of competitors is higher.", "Second broods tend to have smaller clutches.", "Insularity also affects clutch size, with great tits on offshore islands laying smaller clutches with larger eggs than mainland birds.", "The eggs are white with red spots.", "The female undertakes all incubation duties, and is fed by the male during incubation.", "The bird is a close sitter, hissing when disturbed.", "The timing of hatching, which is best synchronised with peak availability of prey, can be manipulated when environmental conditions change after the laying of the first egg by delaying the beginning of incubation, laying more eggs or pausing during incubation.", "The incubation period is between 12 and 15 days.", "alt Young bird with ruffled adult-like plumage and yellow gape The chicks, like those of all tits, hatch unfeathered and blind.", "Once feathers begin to erupt, the nestlings are unusual for altricial birds in having plumage coloured with carotenoids similar to their parents .", "The nape is yellow and attracts the attention of the parents by its ultraviolet reflectance.", "This may be to make them easier to find in low light, or be a signal of fitness to win the parents' attention.", "This patch turns white after the first moult at age two months, and diminishes in size as the bird grows.", "Chicks are fed by both parents, usually receiving of food a day.", "Inbreeding depression occurs when the offspring produced as a result of a mating between close relatives show reduced fitness.", "The reduced fitness is generally considered to be a consequence of the increased expression of deleterious recessive alleles in these offspring.", "In natural populations of P. major, inbreeding is avoided by dispersal of individuals from their birthplace, which reduces the chance of mating with a close relative.", "The Eurasian sparrowhawk is a predator of great tits, with the young from second broods being at higher risk partly because of the hawk's greater need for food for its own developing young.", "The nests of great tits are raided by great spotted woodpeckers, particularly when nesting in certain types of nest boxes.", "Other nest predators include introduced grey squirrels and least weasels, which are able to take nesting adults as well.", "A species of biting louse described as Rostrinirmus hudeci was isolated and described in 1981 from great tits in central Europe.", "The hen flea Ceratophyllus gallinae is exceedingly common in the nests of blue and great tits.", "It was originally a specialist tit flea, but the dry, crowded conditions of chicken runs enabled it to flourish with its new host.", "This flea is preferentially predated by the clown beetle Gnathoncus punctulatus, The rove beetle Microglotta pulla also feeds on fleas and their larvae.", "Although these beetles often remain in deserted nests, they can only breed in the elevated temperatures produced by brooding birds, tits being the preferred hosts.", "Great tits compete with the pied flycatcher for nesting boxes, and can kill prospecting flycatcher males.", "Incidences of fatal competition are more frequent when nesting times overlap, and climate change has led to greater synchrony of nesting between the two species and flycatcher deaths.", "Having killed the flycatchers, the great tits may consume their brains.", "Great tits have been found to possess special physiological adaptations for cold environments.", "When preparing for winter months, the great tit can increase how thermogenic its blood is.", "The mechanism for this adaptation is a seasonal increase in mitochondrial volume and mitochondrial respiration in red blood cells and increased uncoupling of the electron transport from ATP production.", "Reduced cold injury and heat loss is mediated by the great tits counter-current vascular arrangements, and peripheral vasoconstriction in major vessels in and around the birds bill and legs.", "This mechanism allows uninsulated regions to remain close to the surrounding temperature.", "In response to food restriction, the great tits bill temperature dropped, and once food availably was increased, bill temperatures gradually returned to normal. Vasoconstriction of blood vessels in the bill not only serves as an energy saving mechanism, but also reduces the amount of heat transferred from core body tissues to the skin , which, in turn, reduces heat loss rate by lowering skin temperature relative to the environment.", "The great tit's willingness to use bird-feeders and nesting boxes makes it popular with the general public and useful to scientists", "alt adult great tit perched on hand The great tit is a popular garden bird due to its acrobatic performances when feeding on nuts or seed.", "Its willingness to move into nest boxes has made it a valuable study subject in ornithology", "it has been particularly useful as a model for the study of the evolution of various life-history traits, particularly clutch size.", "A study of a literature database search found 1,349 articles relating to Parus major for the period between 1969 and 2002.", "The great tit has generally adjusted to human modifications of the environment.", "It is more common and has better breeding success in areas with undisturbed forest cover, but it has adapted to human modified habitats.", "It can be very common in urban areas.", "For example, the breeding population in the city of Sheffield has been estimated at some 17,000 individuals.", "In adapting to human environments its song has been observed to change in noise-polluted urban environments.", "In areas with low frequency background noise pollution, the song has a higher frequency than in quieter areas.", "This tit has expanded its range, moving northwards into Scandinavia and Scotland, and south into Israel and Egypt.", "The total population is estimated at between 3001,100 million birds in a range of 32.4 million km 2 .", "While there have been some localised declines in population in areas with poorer quality habitats, its large range and high numbers mean that the great tit is not considered to be threatened, and it is classed as least concern on the IUCN Red List."]}, "Milvus milvus": {"keywords": ["The species currently breeds in the Western Palearctic region of Europe and northwest Africa, though it formerly also occurred in northern Iran.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range in western Europe and northwest Africa, but birds from northeastern and Central Europe winter further south and west, reaching south to Turkey.", "The red kite has been known to successfully hybridize with the black kite in captivity where both species were kept together, and in the wild on the Cape Verde Islands and infrequently in other places.", "The red kites on the Cape Verde Islands are quite distinct in morphology, being somewhat intermediate with black kites.", "In some parts of the United Kingdom, red kites are also deliberately fed in domestic gardens, explaining the presence of red kites in urban areas.", "Red kite in flight in Gredos Mountains, Avila, Spain Red kites inhabit broadleaf woodlands, valleys and wetland edges, to .", "They are native to the western Palearctic, with the European population of 19,00025,000 pairs encompassing 95% of its global breeding range.", "It breeds from Spain and Portugal east into central Europe and Ukraine, north to southern Sweden, Latvia and the UK, and south to southern Italy.", "Northern birds move south in winter, mostly staying in the west of the breeding range, but also to eastern Turkey, northern Tunisia and Algeria.", "The main threats to red kites are poisoning, through illegal direct poisoning and indirect poisoning from pesticides, particularly in the wintering ranges in France and Spain, and changes in agricultural practices causing a reduction in food resources.", "The populations of the northern foothills of the Harz Mountains suffered an estimated 50% decline from 1991 to 2001.", "The Balearic Islands population has declined from 41 to 47 breeding pairs in 1993 to just 10 in 2003.", "Shakespeare's King Lear describes his daughter Goneril as a detested kite, and he wrote \" when the kite builds, look to your lesser linen \" in reference to them stealing washing hung out to dry in the nesting season.", "In Northern Ireland, 80 birds from wild stock in Wales were released between 2008 and 2010, and the first successful breeding was recorded in 2010.", "Thirty Spanish birds were introduced into Rockingham Forest near Corby in 2000, and by 2010, the RSPB estimated that over 200 chicks had been reared from the initial release.", "So successful has the reintroduction been that 30 chicks have been transported from Rockingham Forest for release in Cumbria.", "In June 2010, the Forestry Commission North West England announced a three-year project to release 90 red kites in Grizedale Forest, Cumbria under a special licence issued by Natural England.", "In May 2007, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Dick Roche announced an agreement to bring at least 100 birds from Wales to restock the population as part of a 5-year programme in the Wicklow Mountains, similar to the earlier golden eagle reintroduction programme.", "On 22 May 2010, 2 newly hatched red kite chicks were discovered in the Wicklow mountains, bringing the number of chicks hatched since reintroduction to 7.", "Sweden is one location where the red kite seems to be increasing, with around 2,000 pairs in 2009, some of which are overwintering and some flying south to the Mediterranean for the winter.", "The kite is often seen along the roadsides and roaming the open colourful wheat and rapeseed fields of Scania.", "In Switzerland, they are a common sight in all rural areas, excluding the Alps and its foothills."], "habitat_section": ["Red kite in flight in Gredos Mountains, Avila, Spain Red kites inhabit broadleaf woodlands, valleys and wetland edges, to .", "They are native to the western Palearctic, with the European population of 19,00025,000 pairs encompassing 95% of its global breeding range.", "It breeds from Spain and Portugal east into central Europe and Ukraine, north to southern Sweden, Latvia and the UK, and south to southern Italy.", "There is a population in northern Morocco.", "Northern birds move south in winter, mostly staying in the west of the breeding range, but also to eastern Turkey, northern Tunisia and Algeria.", "The three largest populations declined between 1990 and 2000, and overall the species declined by almost 20% over the ten years.", "The main threats to red kites are poisoning, through illegal direct poisoning and indirect poisoning from pesticides, particularly in the wintering ranges in France and Spain, and changes in agricultural practices causing a reduction in food resources.", "Other threats include electrocution, hunting and trapping, deforestation, egg-collection and possibly competition with the generally more successful black kite M. migrans."], "random_sentences": ["Red Kite at Bwlch Nant yr Arian, Wales, a local feeding ground.", "The red kite is a medium-large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as eagles, buzzards, and harriers.", "The species currently breeds in the Western Palearctic region of Europe and northwest Africa, though it formerly also occurred in northern Iran.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range in western Europe and northwest Africa, but birds from northeastern and Central Europe winter further south and west, reaching south to Turkey.", "Vagrants have reached north to Finland and south to Israel, Libya and Gambia.", "The red kite was described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Falco milvus.", "The word milvus was the Latin name for the bird.", "In 1799 the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacepede moved the species to the genus Milvus creating the tautonym.", "The subspecies M. m. fasciicauda is almost certainly extinct.", "The genus Milvus contains two other species: the black kite (M.", "migrans) and the yellow-billed kite (M.", "The red kite has been known to successfully hybridize with the black kite in captivity where both species were kept together, and in the wild on the Cape Verde Islands and infrequently in other places.", "The red kites on the Cape Verde Islands are quite distinct in morphology, being somewhat intermediate with black kites.", "The question whether the Cape Verde kite should be considered a distinct species or a red kite subspecies has not been settled.", "A mitochondrial DNA study on museum specimens suggested that Cape Verde birds did not form a monophyletic lineage among or next to red kites.", "This interpretation is problematic: mtDNA analysis is susceptible to hybridization events, the evolutionary history of the Cape Verde population is not known, and the genetic relationship of red kites is confusing, with geographical proximity being no indicator of genetic relatedness and the overall genetic similarity high, perhaps indicating a relict species.", "Given the morphological distinctness of the Cape Verde birds and that the Cape Verde population was isolated from other populations of red kites, it cannot be conclusively resolved as to whether the Cape Verde population was not a distinct subspecies or even species that frequently absorbed stragglers from the migrating European populations into its gene pool.", "The Cape Verde population became effectively extinct since 2000, all surviving birds being hybrids with black kites.", "The English word \" kite \" is from the Old English cyta which is of unknown origin.", "A kite is mentioned by Geoffrey Chaucer's in his Knight's Tale.", "The early fifteenth century Hengwrt manuscript contains the lines: \" Ther cam a kyte, whil t they were so wrothe That bar awey the boon bitwix hem bothe.", "\" The first recorded use of the word \" kite \" for a toy that is attached to a length of string and flown in the air dates from the seventeenth century.", "Leucistic form A red kite skull Red kite, falconry Adlerwarte Obernberg am Inn, Upper Austria Red kites are long with a wingspan", "males weigh , and females .", "It is an elegant bird, soaring on long wings held at a dihedral, and long forked tail, twisting as it changes direction.", "The body, upper tail and wing coverts are rufous.", "The white primary flight feathers contrast with the black wing tips and dark secondaries.", "Apart from the weight difference, the sexes are similar, but juveniles have a buff breast and belly.", "Its call is a thin piping sound, similar to but less mewling than the common buzzard.", "There is a rare white leucistic form accounting for approximately 1% of hatchlings in the Welsh population, but this variation confers a disadvantage in the survival stakes.", "Differences between adults and juveniles", "Adults differ from juveniles in a number of characteristics: These differences hold throughout most of the first year of a bird's life.", "Eggs in the natural history collection of the Museum Wiesbaden, Germany right", "Juveniles at nest, Berlin Usually red kites first breed when they are two years old, although exceptionally they can successfully breed when they are only one year old.", "They are monogamous and the pair-bond in populations is probably maintained during the winter, particularly when the pair remain on their breeding territory.", "For migrant populations the fidelity to a particular nesting site means that the pair-bond is likely to be renewed each breeding season.", "The nest is normally placed in a fork of a large hardwood tree at a height of between above the ground.", "A pair will sometimes use a nest from the previous year and can occasionally occupy an old nest of the common buzzard.", "The nest is built by both sexes.", "The male brings dead twigs in length which are placed by the female.", "The nest is lined with grass and sometimes also with sheep's wool.", "Unlike the black kite, no greenery is added to the nest.", "Both sexes continue to add material to the nest during the incubation and nestling periods.", "Nests vary greatly in size and can become large when the same nest is occupied for several seasons.", "The eggs are laid at three-day intervals.", "The clutch is usually between one and three eggs but four and even five eggs have occasionally been recorded.", "The eggs are non-glossy with a white ground and red-brown spots.", "The average size is with a calculated weight of .", "In Britain and central Europe, laying begins at the end of March but in the Mediterranean area laying begins in early March.", "The eggs are mainly incubated by the female, but the male will relieve her for short periods while she feeds.", "The male will also bring food for the female.", "Incubation starts as soon as the first egg is laid.", "Each egg hatches after 31 to 32 days but as they hatch asynchronously a clutch of three eggs requires 38 days of incubation.", "The chicks are cared for by both parents.", "The female them for the first 14 days while the male brings food to the nest which the female feeds to the chicks.", "Later both parents bring items of food which are placed in the nest to allow the chicks to feed themselves.", "The nestlings begin climbing onto branches around their nest from 45 days but they rarely before 4850 days and sometimes not until they are 6070 days of age.", "The young spend a further 1520 days in the neighbourhood of the nest being fed by their parents.", "Only a single brood is raised each year but if the eggs are lost the female will relay.", "The maximum age recorded is 25 years and 8 months for a ringed bird in Germany.", "The longevity record for Britain and Ireland is 23 years and 10 months for a bird found dead in Wales in 2012.", "Side view of adult, Wales The red kite's diet consists mainly of small mammals such as mice, voles, shrews, young hares and rabbits.", "It feeds on a wide variety of carrion including sheep carcasses and dead game birds.", "Live birds are also taken and occasionally reptiles and amphibians.", "Earthworms form an important part of the diet, especially in spring.", "In some parts of the United Kingdom, red kites are also deliberately fed in domestic gardens, explaining the presence of red kites in urban areas.", "Here, up to 5% of householders have provided supplementary food for red kites, with chicken the predominant meat provided.", "As scavengers, red kites are particularly susceptible to poisoning.", "Illegal poison baits set for foxes or crows are indiscriminate and kill protected birds and other animals.", "There have also been a number of incidents of red kites and other raptors being targeted by wildlife criminals.", "In the United Kingdom, there have been several unusual instances of red kites stealing food from people in a similar manner to gulls.", "One such occurrence took place in Marlow, Buckinghamshire , in which Red Kites swooped down to steal sandwiches from people in one of the town's parks.", "Red kite in flight in Gredos Mountains, Avila, Spain Red kites inhabit broadleaf woodlands, valleys and wetland edges, to .", "They are native to the western Palearctic, with the European population of 19,00025,000 pairs encompassing 95% of its global breeding range.", "It breeds from Spain and Portugal east into central Europe and Ukraine, north to southern Sweden, Latvia and the UK, and south to southern Italy.", "There is a population in northern Morocco.", "Northern birds move south in winter, mostly staying in the west of the breeding range, but also to eastern Turkey, northern Tunisia and Algeria.", "The three largest populations declined between 1990 and 2000, and overall the species declined by almost 20% over the ten years.", "The main threats to red kites are poisoning, through illegal direct poisoning and indirect poisoning from pesticides, particularly in the wintering ranges in France and Spain, and changes in agricultural practices causing a reduction in food resources.", "Other threats include electrocution, hunting and trapping, deforestation, egg-collection and possibly competition with the generally more successful black kite M. migrans.", "Nestling red kites, Barnim, Germany German populations declined by 25%30% between 1991 and 1997, but have remained stable since.", "The populations of the northern foothills of the Harz Mountains suffered an estimated 50% decline from 1991 to 2001.", "In Spain, the species showed an overall decline in breeding population of up to 43% for the period 1994 to 200102, and surveys of wintering birds in 200304 suggest a similarly large decline in core wintering areas.", "The Balearic Islands population has declined from 41 to 47 breeding pairs in 1993 to just 10 in 2003.", "In France, breeding populations have decreased in the northeast, but seem to be stable in southwest and central France and Corsica.", "Populations elsewhere are stable or undergoing increases.", "In Sweden, the species has increased from 30 to 50 pairs in the 1970s to 1,200 breeding pairs in 2003.", "In Switzerland, populations increased during the 1990s, and have stabilised.", "Red kite, Gigrin Farm, Wales Red kites at the feeding station, Laurieston, Scotland.", "In the United Kingdom, red kites were ubiquitous scavengers that lived on carrion and rubbish.", "Shakespeare's King Lear describes his daughter Goneril as a detested kite, and he wrote \" when the kite builds, look to your lesser linen \" in reference to them stealing washing hung out to dry in the nesting season.", "In the mid-15th century, King James II of Scotland decreed that they should be \" killed wherever possible \" , but they remained protected in England and Wales for the next 100 years as they kept the streets free of carrion and rotting food.", "Under Tudor \" vermin laws \" many creatures were seen as competitors for the produce of the countryside and bounties were paid by the parish for their carcasses.", "By the 20th century, the breeding population was restricted to a handful of pairs in South Wales, but recently the Welsh population has been supplemented by re-introductions in England and Scotland.", "In 2004, from 375 occupied territories identified, at least 216 pairs were thought to have hatched eggs and 200 pairs reared at least 286 young.", "In 1989, six Swedish birds were released at a site in north Scotland and four Swedish and one Welsh bird in Buckinghamshire.", "Altogether, 93 birds of Swedish and Spanish origin were released at each of the sites.", "In the second stage of reintroduction in 1995 and 1996, further birds were brought from Germany to populate areas of Dumfries and Galloway.", "Between 2004 and 2006, 94 birds were brought from the Chilterns and introduced into the Derwent Valley in north East England.", "In Northern Ireland, 80 birds from wild stock in Wales were released between 2008 and 2010, and the first successful breeding was recorded in 2010.", "The reintroductions in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty have been a success.", "Between 1989 and 1993, 90 birds were released there and by 2002, 139 pairs were breeding.", "They can commonly be seen taking advantage of thermals from the M40 motorway.", "Another successful reintroduction has been in Northamptonshire, which has become a stronghold for the red kite.", "Thirty Spanish birds were introduced into Rockingham Forest near Corby in 2000, and by 2010, the RSPB estimated that over 200 chicks had been reared from the initial release.", "So successful has the reintroduction been that 30 chicks have been transported from Rockingham Forest for release in Cumbria.", "From the Chilterns they have spread as far east as Essex and can be seen over Harlow.", "To the west they have recently spread along the M4 as far as the Cotswold Edge overlooking the Severn near Bristol.", "A sighting of the first red kite in London for 150 years was reported in The Independent newspaper in January 2006 and in June of that year, the UK-based Northern Kites Project reported that kites had bred in the Derwent Valley in and around Rowlands Gill, Tyne and Wear for the first time since the re-introduction.", "In 1999, the red kite was named 'Bird of the Century' by the British Trust for Ornithology.", "According to the Welsh Kite Trust, it has been voted \" Wales's favourite bird \" .", "In June 2010, the Forestry Commission North West England announced a three-year project to release 90 red kites in Grizedale Forest, Cumbria under a special licence issued by Natural England.", "The Grizedale programme was the ninth reintroduction of red kites into different regions of the UK and the final re-introduction phase in England.", "The stated aims of the Grizedale project were: As of July 2011, non-breeding birds are regularly seen in all parts of Britain, and the number of breeding pairs is too large for the RSPB to continue to survey them on an annual basis.", "Red kites were extinct in Ireland by the middle nineteenth century, due to persecution, poisoning and woodland clearance.", "In May 2007, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Dick Roche announced an agreement to bring at least 100 birds from Wales to restock the population as part of a 5-year programme in the Wicklow Mountains, similar to the earlier golden eagle reintroduction programme.", "On 19 July 2007, the first thirty red kites were released in County Wicklow.", "On 22 May 2010, 2 newly hatched red kite chicks were discovered in the Wicklow mountains, bringing the number of chicks hatched since reintroduction to 7.", "Sweden is one location where the red kite seems to be increasing, with around 2,000 pairs in 2009, some of which are overwintering and some flying south to the Mediterranean for the winter.", "The red kite is the landscape bird of Scania, and the coat of arms of the municipality of Tomelilla.", "The kite is often seen along the roadsides and roaming the open colourful wheat and rapeseed fields of Scania.", "Populations and trends by country", "A young red kite in Cookham, Berkshire.", "The following figures have been collated from various sources.", "They cover most of the countries in which red kites are believed to have bred.", "All information must be referenced A short video on Red Kite feeding at Bwlch Nant yr Arian visitor centre in Ceredigion, Wales One of the best places to see the red kite in Scandinavia is Scania in southern Sweden.", "It may be observed in one of its breeding locations such as the Kullaberg Nature Preserve near Molle.", "In Switzerland, they are a common sight in all rural areas, excluding the Alps and its foothills.", "Some of the best places to see them in the United Kingdom are Gigrin Farm near Rhayader, mid Wales, where hundreds are fed by the local farmer as a tourist attraction, a Red Kite Feeding Station at Llanddeusant in the Brecon Beacons, visited daily by over 50 birds, and the Bwlch Nant yr Arian forest visitor centre in Ceredigion where the rare leucistic variant can be seen.", "In the UK, the Oxfordshire part of the Chilterns has many red kites, especially near Henley-on-Thames and Watlington, where they were introduced on John Paul Getty's estate.", "Red Kites are also becoming common in Buckinghamshire, often being seen near Stokenchurch, where a population was released in the 1990s, and Flackwell Heath near High Wycombe.", "They can also be seen around Harewood near Leeds where they were re-introduced in 1999.", "In Ireland they can be best observed at Redcross, near Avoca, County Wicklow."]}, "Pica pica": {"keywords": ["The range of the magpie extends across temperate Eurasia from Portugal, Spain and Ireland in the west to the Kamchatka Peninsula.", "The preferred habit is open countryside with scattered trees and magpies are normally absent from treeless areas and dense forests.", "They sometimes breed at high densities in suburban settings such as parks and gardens.", "Magpies are normally sedentary and spend winters close to their nesting territories but birds living near the northern limit of their range in Sweden, Finland and Russia can move south in harsh weather.", "The magpie is omnivorous, eating young birds and eggs, small mammals, insects, scraps and carrion, acorns, grain, and other vegetable substances.", "Like other corvids, such as ravens and crows, their total brain-to-body mass ratio is equal to most great apes and cetaceans."], "habitat_section": ["The range of the magpie extends across temperate Eurasia from Portugal, Spain and Ireland in the west to the Kamchatka Peninsula.", "The preferred habit is open countryside with scattered trees and magpies are normally absent from treeless areas and dense forests.", "They sometimes breed at high densities in suburban settings such as parks and gardens.", "They can often be found close to the centre of cities.", "Magpies are normally sedentary and spend winters close to their nesting territories but birds living near the northern limit of their range in Sweden, Finland and Russia can move south in harsh weather.", "P. p. bactriana in Ladakh Young bird"], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian magpie or common magpie is a resident breeding bird throughout the northern part of the Eurasian continent.", "It is one of several birds in the crow family designated magpies, and belongs to the Holarctic radiation of \" monochrome \" magpies.", "In Europe, \" magpie \" is used by English speakers as a synonym for the Eurasian magpie: the only other magpie in Europe is the Iberian magpie , which is limited to the Iberian Peninsula.", "The Eurasian magpie is one of the most intelligent birds, and it is believed to be one of the most intelligent of all non-human animals.", "The expansion of its nidopallium is approximately the same in its relative size as the brain of chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and humans.", "It is the only bird known to pass the mirror test, along with very few other non-avian species.", "The magpie was described and illustrated by Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner in his Historiae animalium of 1555.", "In 1758 Linnaeus included the species in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Corvus pica.", "The magpie was moved to a separate genus Pica by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.", "Pica is the Classical Latin word for this magpie.", "The Eurasian magpie is almost identical in appearance to the North American black-billed magpie and at one time the two species were considered to be conspecific.", "In 2000, the American Ornithologists' Union decided to treat the black-billed magpie as a separate species based on studies of the vocalization and behaviour that indicated that the black-billed magpie was closer to the yellow-billed magpie than to the Eurasian magpie.", "The gradual clinal variation over the large geographic range and the intergradation of the different subspecies means that the geographical limits, and acceptance of the various subspecies, vary between authorities.", "The International Ornithological Congress recognises six subspecies : Others now considered as distinct species: An analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences published in 2003 confirmed that the black-billed magpie and the yellow-billed magpie were closely related to each other.", "The study also found that magpies in Korea are as different from the nominate subspecies as they are to the North American magpie species.", "These results imply that the species Pica pica is not monophyletic.", "A more recent study using both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA found that magpies in eastern and northeastern China are genetically very similar to each other, but differ from those in northwestern China and Spain.", "Magpies were originally known as simply \" pies \" .", "This is hypothesized to derive from a Proto-Indo-European root", "The adult male of the nominate subspecies, P. p. pica, is in length, of which more than half is the tail.", "The head, neck and breast are glossy black with a metallic green and violet sheen", "the belly and scapulars are pure white", "the wings are black glossed with green or purple, and the primaries have white inner webs, conspicuous when the wing is open.", "The graduated tail is black, glossed with green and reddish purple.", "The legs and bill are black", "the iris is dark brown.", "The plumage of the sexes is similar but females are slightly smaller.", "The tail feathers of both sexes are quite long, about 1228 cm long.", "Males of the nominate subspecies weigh while females weigh .", "The young resemble the adults, but are at first without much of the gloss on the sooty plumage.", "The young have the malar region pink, and somewhat clear eyes.", "The tail is much shorter than the adults.", "The subspecies differ in their size, the amount of white on their plumage and the colour of the gloss on their black feathers.", "The Asian subspecies P. p. bactriana has more extensive white on the primaries and a prominent white rump.", "Adults undergo an annual complete moult after breeding.", "Moult begins in June or July and ends in September or October.", "The primary flight feathers are replaced over a period of three months.", "Juvenile birds undergo a partial moult beginning about one month later than the adult birds in which their body feathers are replaced but not those of the wings or the tail.", "Eurasian magpies have a well-known call.", "It is a choking chatter \" chac-chac \" or a repetitive \" chac-chac-chac-chac \" .", "The young also emit the previous call, although they also emit an acute call similar to a \" Uik Uik \" , which may resemble the barking of a small dog.", "Both adults and young can emit a kind of hiss barely noticeable from afar.", "The range of the magpie extends across temperate Eurasia from Portugal, Spain and Ireland in the west to the Kamchatka Peninsula.", "The preferred habit is open countryside with scattered trees and magpies are normally absent from treeless areas and dense forests.", "They sometimes breed at high densities in suburban settings such as parks and gardens.", "They can often be found close to the centre of cities.", "Magpies are normally sedentary and spend winters close to their nesting territories but birds living near the northern limit of their range in Sweden, Finland and Russia can move south in harsh weather.", "p. bactriana in Ladakh Young bird", "Eurasian magpie egg Pica pica pica - Magpie nest.", "Some magpies breed after their first year, while others remain in the non-breeding flocks and first breed in their second year .", " BTO Birdfacts has First Breeding: 2 years.", "HBWalive has Able to breed for first time when 1517 months old.", "They are monogamous, and the pairs often remain together from one breeding season to the next.", "They generally occupy the same territory on successive years.", "Mating takes place in spring.", "In the courtship display, males rapidly raise and depress their head feathers, uplift, open and close their tails like fans, and call in soft tones quite distinct from their usual chatter.", "The loose feathers of the flanks are brought over the primaries, and the shoulder patch is spread so the white is conspicuous, presumably to attract females.", "Short buoyant flights and chases follow.", "Magpies prefer tall trees for their bulky nest, firmly attaching them to a central fork in the upper branches.", "A framework of the sticks is cemented with earth and clay, and a lining of the same is covered with fine roots.", "Above is a stout though loosely built dome of prickly branches with a single well-concealed entrance.", "These huge nests are conspicuous when the leaves fall.", "Where trees are scarce, though even in well-wooded country, nests are at times built in bushes and hedgerows.", "In Europe, clutches are typically laid in April, and usually contain five or six eggs, but clutches with as few as three and as many as ten have been recorded.", "The eggs are laid in early morning, usually at daily intervals.", "On average, the eggs of the nominate species measure and weigh .", "Small for the size of the bird, they are typically pale blue-green, with close specks and spots of olive brown, but show much variation in ground and marking.", "The eggs are incubated for 2122 days by the female, who is fed on the nest by the male.", "The chicks are altricial, hatching nearly naked with closed eyes.", "They are brooded by the female for the first 510 days and fed by both parents.", "Initially the parents eat the faecal sacs of the nestlings, but as the chicks grow larger, they defecate on the edge of the nest.", "The nestlings open their eyes 7 to 8 days after hatching.", "Their body feathers start to appear after around 8 days and the primary wing feathers after 10 days.", "For several days before they are ready to leave the nest, the chicks clamber around the nearby branches.", "They fledge at around 27 days.", "The parents then continue to feed the chicks for several more weeks.", "They also protect the chicks from predators, as their ability to fly is poor, making them vulnerable.", "On average, only 3 or 4 chicks survive to fledge successfully.", "Some nests are lost to predators, but an important factor causing nestling mortality is starvation.", "Magpie eggs hatch asynchronously, and if the parents have difficulty finding sufficient food, the last chicks to hatch are unlikely to survive.", "Only a single brood is reared, unless disaster overtakes the first clutch.", "A study conducted near Sheffield in Britain, using birds with coloured rings on their legs, found that only 22% of fledglings survived their first year.", "For subsequent years, the survival rate for the adult birds was 69%, implying that for those birds that survive the first year, the average total lifespan was 3.7 years .", " this is 1 + life expectancy where life expectancy -).", "htm gives a \" typical lifespan \" of 5 years but doesn't cite a source.", "Siriwardena et al 1998 do not include magpies .", "The maximum age recorded for a magpie is 21 years and 8 months for a bird from near Coventry in England that was ringed in 1925 and shot in 1947.", "The magpie is omnivorous, eating young birds and eggs, small mammals, insects, scraps and carrion, acorns, grain, and other vegetable substances.", "The Eurasian magpie is believed to be not only among the most intelligent of birds, but also among the most intelligent of all animals.", "Along with the western jackdaw, the Eurasian magpie's nidopallium is approximately the same relative size as those in chimpanzees and humans and significantly larger than the gibbons.", "Like other corvids, such as ravens and crows, their total brain-to-body mass ratio is equal to most great apes and cetaceans.", "A 2004 review suggests that the intelligence of the corvid family to which the Eurasian magpie belongs is equivalent to that of the great apes in terms of social cognition, causal reasoning, flexibility, imagination and prospection.", "Magpies have been observed engaging in elaborate social rituals, possibly including the expression of grief.", "Mirror self-recognition has been demonstrated in European magpies, making them one of only a few species to possess this capability.", "The cognitive abilities of the Eurasian magpie are regarded as evidence that intelligence evolved independently in both corvids and primates.", "This is indicated by tool use, an ability to hide and store food across seasons, episodic memory, and using their own experience to predict the behavior of conspecifics.", "Another behaviour exhibiting intelligence is cutting their food in correctly sized proportions for the size of their young.", "In captivity, magpies have been observed counting up to get food .", " , imitating human voices, and regularly using tools to clean their own cages.", "In the wild, they organise themselves into gangs and use complex strategies hunting other birds and when confronted by predators.", "The Eurasian magpie has an extremely large range.", "The European population is estimated to be between 7.5 and 19 million breeding pairs.", "Allowing for the birds breeding in other continents, the total population is estimated to be between 46 and 228 million individuals.", "The population trend in Europe has been stable since 1980.", "There is no evidence of any serious overall decline in numbers, so the species is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of Least Concern."]}, "Phoenicurus ochruros": {"keywords": ["It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but north-eastern birds migrate to winter in southern and western Europe and Asia, and north Africa.", "On passage it is fairly common on the east and south coasts, and in winter on the coasts of Wales and western and southern England, with a few also at inland sites.", "They also winter on the south and east coasts of Ireland.", "The species originally inhabited stony ground in mountains, particularly cliffs, but since about 1900 has expanded to include similar urban habitats including bombed areas during and after World War II, and large industrial complexes that have the bare areas and cliff-like buildings it favours, in Great Britain, most of the small breeding population nests in such industrial areas.", "It will catch passing insects in flight, and migrants often hunt in coastal tide-wrack for flies or tiny crustaceans.", "The nest is built by the female and is typically placed in a crevice or hole in rock or a wall or on a ledge of a building."], "habitat_section": ["It is a widespread breeder in south and central Europe and Asia and north-west Africa, from Great Britain and Ireland south to Morocco, east to central China.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but north-eastern birds migrate to winter in southern and western Europe and Asia, and north Africa.", "It nests in crevices or holes in buildings.", "In Britain, it is most common as a passage and winter visitor, with only 2050 pairs breeding.", "On passage it is fairly common on the east and south coasts, and in winter on the coasts of Wales and western and southern England, with a few also at inland sites.", "Migrant black redstarts arrive in Britain in October or November and either move on or remain to winter, returning eastward in March or April.", "They also winter on the south and east coasts of Ireland.", "The species originally inhabited stony ground in mountains, particularly cliffs, but since about 1900 has expanded to include similar urban habitats including bombed areas during and after World War II, and large industrial complexes that have the bare areas and cliff-like buildings it favours, in Great Britain, most of the small breeding population nests in such industrial areas.", "It will catch passing insects in flight, and migrants often hunt in coastal tide-wrack for flies or tiny crustaceans.", "Its quick ducks of head and body are robin-like, and its tail is often flicked.", "The male has a rattling song and a tick call.", "Eastern race birds are very rare vagrants in western Europe."], "random_sentences": ["The black redstart is a small passerine bird in the genus Phoenicurus.", "Like its relatives, it was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family , but is now known to be an Old World flycatcher .", "Obsolete common names include Tithys redstart, blackstart and black redtail.", "The first formal description of the black redstart was by the German naturalist Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin in 1774 under the binomial name Mottacilla ochruros.", " The species is now placed in the genus Phoenicurus that was introduced in 1817 by the English naturalist Thomas Forster.", "Both parts of the scientific name are from Ancient Greek and refer to the colour of the tail.", "The genus name Phoenicurus is from phoinix, \" red \" , and -ouros - \" tailed \" , and the specific ochruros is from okhros, \" pale yellow \" and -ouros.", "The black redstart is a member of a temperate Eurasian clade, which also includes the Daurian redstart, Hodgson's redstart, the white-winged redstart and perhaps Przevalski's redstart.", "The ancestors of the present species diverged from about 3 million years ago onwards and spread throughout much of Palearctic from 1.5 mya onward.", "It is not very closely related to the common redstart.", "As these are separated by different behaviour and ecological requirements and have not evolved fertilisation barriers, the two European species can produce apparently fertile and viable hybrids.", "There are a number of subspecies, which differ mainly in the underpart colours of the adult males", "different authorities accept between five and seven subspecies.", "They can be separated into three major groups, according to morphology, biogeography and mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data.", "Basal central and eastern Asian forms which diverged from the ancestral stock as the species slowly spread west .", "Females and juveniles light grey brown.", "Western Asian forms, whose lineage separated from the gibraltariensis group c. 1.50.5 mya.", "European population, which formed as a distinct subspecies probably during the last ice age.", "Females and juveniles dark grey.", "The black redstart is in length and in weight, similar to the common redstart.", "The adult male is overall dark grey to black on the upperparts and with a black breast", "the lower rump and tail are orange-red, with the two central tail feathers dark red-brown.", "The belly and undertail are either blackish-grey (western subspecies", "see Taxonomy and systematics, above) or orange-red ", "the wings are blackish-grey with pale fringes on the secondaries forming a whitish panel or all blackish .", "The female is grey to grey-brown overall except for the orange-red lower rump and tail, greyer than the common redstart", "at any age the grey axillaries and underwing coverts are also distinctive .", "Yearling males are similar to females but blacker", "the whitish wing panel of the western subspecies does not develop until the second year.", "Black redstart, Sector 38 West, Chandigarh, India right", "It is a widespread breeder in south and central Europe and Asia and north-west Africa, from Great Britain and Ireland south to Morocco, east to central China.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but north-eastern birds migrate to winter in southern and western Europe and Asia, and north Africa.", "It nests in crevices or holes in buildings.", "In Britain, it is most common as a passage and winter visitor, with only 2050 pairs breeding.", "On passage it is fairly common on the east and south coasts, and in winter on the coasts of Wales and western and southern England, with a few also at inland sites.", "Migrant black redstarts arrive in Britain in October or November and either move on or remain to winter, returning eastward in March or April.", "They also winter on the south and east coasts of Ireland.", "The species originally inhabited stony ground in mountains, particularly cliffs, but since about 1900 has expanded to include similar urban habitats including bombed areas during and after World War II, and large industrial complexes that have the bare areas and cliff-like buildings it favours", "in Great Britain, most of the small breeding population nests in such industrial areas.", "It will catch passing insects in flight, and migrants often hunt in coastal tide-wrack for flies or tiny crustaceans.", "Its quick ducks of head and body are robin-like, and its tail is often flicked.", "The male has a rattling song and a tick call.", "Eastern race birds are very rare vagrants in western Europe.", "Black redstarts are usually monogamous.", "They start breeding in mid-April.", "The nest is built by the female and is typically placed in a crevice or hole in rock or a wall or on a ledge of a building.", "The nest consists of a loose cup of grass and stems and is lined with hair, wool and feathers.", "The eggs are laid daily.", "The clutch consists of 4 to 6 eggs that are usually white but can also be pale blue.", "On average they measure and weigh .", "Beginning after the final egg is laid, the eggs are incubated by the female for 1317 days.", "The young are cared for and fed by both parents and fledge after 1219 days."]}, "Garrulus glandarius": {"keywords": ["The Eurasian jay is a woodland bird that occurs over a vast region from western Europe and north-west Africa to the Indian subcontinent and further to the eastern seaboard of Asia and down into south-east Asia.", "G. g. glaszneri Troodos Mountains, Cyprus .", "The complex colouring on the upper surface of the wing includes black and white bars and a prominent bright blue patch with fine black bars.", "A member of the widespread jay group, it inhabits mixed woodland, particularly with oaks, and is a habitual acorn hoarder.", "Before humans began planting the trees commercially on a wide scale, Eurasian jays were the main source of movement and propagation for the European oak , each bird having the ability to spread more than a thousand acorns each year.", "Jays have been recorded carrying single acorns as far as 20 km, and are credited with the rapid northward spread of oaks following the last ice age.", "Both sexes build the nest which is usually placed in a fork or on a branch of a tree close to the main trunk at a height of above the ground.", "The nest has a base of twigs in diameter and a lining of thinner twigs, roots, grass, moss and leaves.", "Jay eating a walnut Feeding in both trees and on the ground, it takes a wide range of invertebrates including many pest insects, acorns , beech and other seeds, fruits such as blackberries and rowan berries, young birds and eggs, bats, and small rodents.", "Like most species, the jay's diet changes with the seasons but is noteworthy for its prolific caching of foodespecially oak acorns and beechnutsfor winter and spring."], "habitat_section": ["A member of the widespread jay group, it inhabits mixed woodland, particularly with oaks, and is a habitual acorn hoarder.", "In recent years, the bird has begun to migrate into urban areas, possibly as a result of continued erosion of its woodland habitat.", "Before humans began planting the trees commercially on a wide scale, Eurasian jays were the main source of movement and propagation for the European oak , each bird having the ability to spread more than a thousand acorns each year.", "Eurasian jays will also bury the acorns of other oak species, and have been cited by the National Trust as a major propagator of the largest population of holm oak in Northern Europe, situated in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.", "Jays have been recorded carrying single acorns as far as 20 km, and are credited with the rapid northward spread of oaks following the last ice age."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian jay is a species of passerine bird in the crow family Corvidae.", "It has pinkish brown plumage with a black stripe on each side of a whitish throat, a bright blue panel on the upper wing and a black tail.", "The Eurasian jay is a woodland bird that occurs over a vast region from western Europe and north-west Africa to the Indian subcontinent and further to the eastern seaboard of Asia and down into south-east Asia.", "Across this vast range, several distinct racial forms have evolved which look different from each other, especially when comparing forms at the extremes of its range.", "The bird is called jay, without any epithets, by English speakers in Great Britain and Ireland.", "The Eurasian jay was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Corvus glandarius.", "Linnaeus specified the locality as \" Europa \" but this was restricted to Sweden by Ernst Hartert in 1903.", "The Eurasian jay is now one of three species placed in the genus Garrulus that was established in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson.", "The genus name Garrulus is a Latin word meaning \" chattering \" , \" babbling \" or \" noisy \" .", "The specific epithet glandarius is Latin meaning \" of acorns \" .", "Eight racial groups were recognised by Steve Madge", "Hilary Burn in 1994: The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Birdlife International split the Eurasian jay into three species.", "The subspecies G. g. leucotis becomes the white-face jay and the bispecularis group containing six subspecies becomes the plain-crowned jay .", "g. bispecularis Uttarakhand, India Garrulus glandarius IL Jerusalem.", "g. atricapillus Jerusalem, Israel Cyprus jay .", "Eurasian Jay in a tree The Eurasian jay is a relatively small corvid, similar in size to a western jackdaw with a length of and a wingspan of .", "The nominate race has light rufous brown to a pinkish brown body plumage.", "The whitish throat is bordered on each side by a prominent black moustache stripe.", "The forehead and crown are whitish with black stripes.", "The complex colouring on the upper surface of the wing includes black and white bars and a prominent bright blue patch with fine black bars.", "The tail is mainly black.", "Singing of Eurasian jay, Paris right", "Calls of Eurasian jay, Crimea The most characteristic call is a harsh, rasping screech that is used upon sighting various predators and as a advertising call.", "The jay is well known for its mimicry, often sounding so like a different species that it is difficult to distinguish its true identity unless the bird is seen.", "It will imitate the calls of birds of prey such as the mew of the common buzzard and the cackle of the northern goshawk.", "A member of the widespread jay group, it inhabits mixed woodland, particularly with oaks, and is a habitual acorn hoarder.", "In recent years, the bird has begun to migrate into urban areas, possibly as a result of continued erosion of its woodland habitat.", "Before humans began planting the trees commercially on a wide scale, Eurasian jays were the main source of movement and propagation for the European oak (Q.", "robur), each bird having the ability to spread more than a thousand acorns each year.", "Eurasian jays will also bury the acorns of other oak species, and have been cited by the National Trust as a major propagator of the largest population of holm oak (Q.", "ilex) in Northern Europe, situated in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.", "Jays have been recorded carrying single acorns as far as 20 km, and are credited with the rapid northward spread of oaks following the last ice age.", "Eurasian jays normally first breed when two years of age, although they occasionally breed when only one year.", "Both sexes build the nest which is usually placed in a fork or on a branch of a tree close to the main trunk at a height of above the ground.", "Very occasionally the nest is located on a building.", "The nest has a base of twigs in diameter and a lining of thinner twigs, roots, grass, moss and leaves.", "The eggs are laid daily, normally early in the morning.", "The clutch is 36 eggs which are pale green to pale olive brown and are covered with fine darker speckles.", "They sometimes have brown or black streaks concentrated at the broader end.", "The eggs are and weigh around .", "They are incubated by the female and hatch after 1619 days.", "While the female is on the nest the male brings her food.", "Both parents feed and care for the young which fledge after 1923 days.", "The parents continue to feed the fledgelings until they are 68 weeks of age.", "Only a single brood is raised each year.", "The maximum recorded age is 16 years and 9 months for a bird in Skelton, York, United Kingdom, that was ringed in 1966 and found dead in 1983.", "Juvenile Eurasian jay in South Korea Garrulus glandarius atricapillus MHNT.", "Jay eating a walnut Feeding in both trees and on the ground, it takes a wide range of invertebrates including many pest insects, acorns , beech and other seeds, fruits such as blackberries and rowan berries, young birds and eggs, bats, and small rodents.", "Like most species, the jay's diet changes with the seasons but is noteworthy for its prolific caching of foodespecially oak acorns and beechnutsfor winter and spring.", "While caching occurs throughout the year, it is most intense in the autumn.", "In order to keep its plumage free from parasites, it lies on top of anthills with spread wings and lets its feathers be sprayed with formic acid.", "Similar to other corvids, Eurasian jays have been reported to plan for future needs.", "Male Eurasian jays also take into account the desires of their partner when sharing food with her as a courtship ritual and when protecting food items from stealing conspecifics."]}, "Columba livia": {"keywords": ["Wild rock doves are pale grey with two black bars on each wing, whereas domestic and feral pigeons vary in colour and pattern.", "Cliffs and rock ledges are used for roosting and breeding in the wild.", "Originally found wild in Europe, North Africa, and western Asia, pigeons have become established in cities around the world.", "In Iran, reflecting its love of cliff-like perches In India The official common name is rock dove, as given by the International Ornithological Congress.", "Darwin posited that, despite wide-ranging morphological differences, the many hundreds of breeds of domestic pigeon could all be traced back to the wild rock dove, in essence human selection of pigeon breeds was analogous to natural selection.", "Weight for wild or feral rock doves ranges from , though overfed domestic and semidomestic individuals can exceed normal weights.", "It is strong and quick on the wing, dashing out from sea caves, flying low over the water, its lighter grey rump showing well from above.", "Feral pigeons are essentially the same size and shape as the original wild rock dove, but often display far greater variation in colour and pattern compared to their wild ancestors.", "The blue-barred pattern which the original wild rock dove displays is generally less common in more urban areas.", "A study of melanin in the feathers of both wild rock and domestic pigeons, of different coloration types and known genetic background, measured the concentration, distribution and proportions of eumelanin and pheomelanin and found that gene mutations affecting the distribution, amounts and proportions of pigments accounted for the greater variation of coloration in domesticated birds than in their wild relations.", "Despite these demonstrated abilities, wild rock doves are sedentary and rarely leave their local areas.", "It is hypothesized that in their natural, arid habitat, they rely on this sense to navigate back home after foraging as deserts rarely possess navigational landmarks that may be used.", "A rock pigeon's lifespan ranges from 35 years in the wild to 15 years in captivity, though longer-lived specimens have been reported.", "Perched on sea cliffs in Norfolk, England Before the Columbian Exchange, rock doves were restricted to a natural resident range in western and southern Europe, North Africa, and extending into South Asia.", "Wild pigeons reside in rock formations and cliff faces, settling in crevices to nest.", "Wild nesting sites include caves, canyons, and sea cliffs.", "They will even live in the Sahara so long as an area has rocks, water, and some plant matter.", "Human structures provide an excellent imitation of cliff structures, making rock doves very common around human habitation.", "Skyscrapers, highway overpasses, farm buildings, abandoned buildings, and other human structures with ample crevices are conducive to rock dove nesting.", "Agricultural settlements are favored over forested ones.", "Incubating an egg, showing their relatively flimsy nests Courtship display The rock dove breeds at any time of the year, but peak times are spring and summer.", "Nesting sites are along coastal cliff faces, as well as the artificial cliff faces created by apartment buildings with accessible ledges or roof spaces.", "A rock dove eating grains Rock doves are omnivorous, but prefer plant matter.", "Feral pigeons can be seen eating grass seeds and berries in parks and gardens in the spring, but plentiful sources exist throughout the year from scavenging Pigeons tend to congregate in large, often thick flocks when feeding on discarded food, and may be observed flying skillfully around trees, buildings, telephone poles and cables and even through moving traffic just to reach a food source.", "In cities they typically resort to scavenging human garbage, as unprocessed grain may be impossible to find.", "Domestic pigeons Rock doves have been domesticated for several thousand years, giving rise to the domestic pigeon .", "Research into whether pigeons play a part in spreading bird flu have shown pigeons do not carry the deadly H5N1 strain.", "Three studies have been done since the late 1990s by the US Agriculture Department's Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia, according to the center's director, David Swayne."], "habitat_section": ["Perched on sea cliffs in Norfolk, England Before the Columbian Exchange, rock doves were restricted to a natural resident range in western and southern Europe, North Africa, and extending into South Asia.", "They were carried into the New World aboard European ships between 1603 and 1607.", "The species has a large range, with an estimated global extent of occurrence of .", "It has a large global population, including an estimated 17 to 28 million individuals in Europe.", "Fossil evidence suggests the rock dove originated in southern Asia, and skeletal remains, unearthed in Israel, confirm its existence there for at least 300,000 years.", "However, this species has such a long history with humans that it is impossible to identify its original range exactly.", "Wild pigeons reside in rock formations and cliff faces, settling in crevices to nest.", "They nest communally, often forming large colonies of many hundreds of individuals.", "Wild nesting sites include caves, canyons, and sea cliffs.", "They will even live in the Sahara so long as an area has rocks, water, and some plant matter.", "They prefer to avoid dense vegetation.", "Rock doves have a commensal relationship with humans, gaining both ample access to food and nesting spots in civilized areas.", "Human structures provide an excellent imitation of cliff structures, making rock doves very common around human habitation.", "Skyscrapers, highway overpasses, farm buildings, abandoned buildings, and other human structures with ample crevices are conducive to rock dove nesting.", "Thus the modern range of the rock dove is due in large part to humans.", "Agricultural settlements are favored over forested ones.", "Ideal human nesting attributes combine areas with tall buildings, green spaces, ample access to human food, and schools.", "Conversely, suburban areas which are far from city centers and have high street density are the least conducive to pigeons.", "Their versatility among human structures is evidenced by a population living inside a deep well in Tunisia.", "Feral pigeons are usually unable to find these accommodations, so they must nest on building ledges, walls or statues.", "They may damage these structures via their feces, starving birds can only excrete urates, which over time corrodes masonry and metal. In contrast, a well-fed bird passes mostly solid feces, containing only small amounts of uric acid.", "Pigeons are often found in pairs in the breeding season, but are usually gregarious."], "random_sentences": ["The rock dove, rock pigeon, or common pigeon ( also", "Columba livia) is a member of the bird family Columbidae .", "In common usage, it is often simply referred to as the \" pigeon \" .", "The domestic pigeon descended from this species.", "Escaped domestic pigeons have increased the populations of feral pigeons around the world.", "Wild rock doves are pale grey with two black bars on each wing, whereas domestic and feral pigeons vary in colour and pattern.", "Few differences are seen between males and females.", "Habitats include various open and semi-open environments.", "Cliffs and rock ledges are used for roosting and breeding in the wild.", "Originally found wild in Europe, North Africa, and western Asia, pigeons have become established in cities around the world.", "The species is abundant, with an estimated population of 17 to 28 million feral and wild birds in Europe alone and up to 120 million worldwide.", "In Iran, reflecting its love of cliff-like perches In India The official common name is rock dove, as given by the International Ornithological Congress.", "The rock dove was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.", "He placed it with all the other doves and pigeons in the genus Columba and coined the binomial name Columba livia.", "The genus name Columba is the Latin word meaning \" pigeon, dove \" , whose older etymology comes from the Ancient Greek , \" a diver \" , from , \" dive, plunge headlong, swim \" .", "Aristophanes and others use the word , \" diver \" , for the name of the bird, because of its swimming motion in the air.", "The specific epithet livia is a medieval Latin variant of livida, \" livid, bluish-gray \"", "this was Theodorus Gaza's translation of Greek peleia, \" dove \" , itself thought to be derived from pellos, \" dark-colored \" .", "Its closest relative in the genus Columba is the hill pigeon, followed by the other rock pigeons: the snow, speckled, and white-collared pigeons.", "Pigeon chicks are called \" squabs \" .", "Note that members of the lesser known pigeon genus Petrophassa and the speckled pigeon , also have the common name rock pigeon.", "The rock dove was first described by German naturalist Johann Gmelin in 1789.", "The rock dove was central to Charles Darwin's discovery of evolution, and featured in four of his works from 1859 to 1872.", "Darwin posited that, despite wide-ranging morphological differences, the many hundreds of breeds of domestic pigeon could all be traced back to the wild rock dove", "in essence human selection of pigeon breeds was analogous to natural selection.", "A distinctive operculum is located on top of the beak.", "Centuries of domestication have greatly altered the rock dove.", "Feral pigeons, which have escaped domestication throughout history, have significant variations in plumage.", "The adult of the nominate subspecies of the rock dove is long with a wingspan.", "Weight for wild or feral rock doves ranges from , though overfed domestic and semidomestic individuals can exceed normal weights.", "It has a dark bluish-grey head, neck, and chest with glossy yellowish, greenish, and reddish-purple iridescence along its neck and wing feathers.", "The iris is orange, red, or golden with a paler inner ring, and the bare skin round the eye is bluish-grey.", "The bill is grey-black with a conspicuous off-white cere, and the feet are purplish-red.", "Among standard measurements, the wing chord is typically around , the tail is , the bill is around , and the tarsus is .", "A medium sized flock forages The adult female is almost identical in outward appearance to the male, but the iridescence on her neck is less intense and more restricted to the rear and sides, whereas that on the breast is often very obscure.", "The white lower back of the pure rock dove is its best identification characteristic", "the two black bars on its pale grey wings are also distinctive.", "The tail has a black band on the end, and the outer web of the tail feathers are margined with white.", "It is strong and quick on the wing, dashing out from sea caves, flying low over the water, its lighter grey rump showing well from above.", "Young birds show little lustre and are duller.", "Eye colour of the pigeon is generally orange, but a few pigeons may have white-grey eyes.", "The eyelids are orange and encapsulated in a grey-white eye ring.", "The feet are red to pink.", "In flight, British Columbia, Canada When circling overhead, the white underwing of the bird becomes conspicuous.", "In its flight, behaviour, and voice, which is more of a dovecot coo than the phrase of the wood pigeon, it is a typical pigeon.", "Although it is a relatively strong flier, it also glides frequently, holding its wings in a very pronounced V shape as it does.", "As prey birds, they must keep their vigilance, and when disturbed a pigeon within a flock will take off with a noisy clapping sound that cues for other pigeons to take to flight.", "The noise of the take-off increases the faster a pigeon beats its wings, thus advertising the magnitude of a perceived threat to its flockmates.", "Feral pigeons are essentially the same size and shape as the original wild rock dove, but often display far greater variation in colour and pattern compared to their wild ancestors.", "The blue-barred pattern which the original wild rock dove displays is generally less common in more urban areas.", "Urban pigeons tend to have darker plumage than those in more rural areas.", "Slow motion, demonstrating the wing movements", "altA pigeon in flight in slow motion, demonstrating the wing movements", "right Pigeons feathers have two types of melanin ", "A study of melanin in the feathers of both wild rock and domestic pigeons, of different coloration types and known genetic background, measured the concentration, distribution and proportions of eumelanin and pheomelanin and found that gene mutations affecting the distribution, amounts and proportions of pigments accounted for the greater variation of coloration in domesticated birds than in their wild relations.", "Eumelanin generally causes grey or black colouration, while pheomelanin results in a reddish-brown colour.", "Other shades of brown may be produced through different combinations and concentrations of the two colours.", "As in other animals, white pigeons have little to no pigment.", "Darker birds may be better able to store trace metals in their feathers due to their higher concentrations of melanin, which may help mitigate the negative effects of the metals, the concentrations of which are typically higher in urban areas.", "Pigeons, especially homing or carrier breeds, are well known for their ability to find their way home from long distances.", "Despite these demonstrated abilities, wild rock doves are sedentary and rarely leave their local areas.", "It is hypothesized that in their natural, arid habitat, they rely on this sense to navigate back home after foraging as deserts rarely possess navigational landmarks that may be used.", "A rock pigeon's lifespan ranges from 35 years in the wild to 15 years in captivity, though longer-lived specimens have been reported.", "The main causes of mortality in the wild are predators and persecution by humans.", "Some sources state the species was first introduced to North America in 1606 at Port Royal, Nova Scotia.", "Although other sources cite Plymouth and Jamestown settlements in the early 17th century as the first place for species introduction in North America.", "In Chandigarh, India, showing that the iridescence wraps around the whole neck", "The call is a soft, slightly wavering, coo.", "Ornithologist David Sibley describes the display call as a whoo, hoo-witoo-hoo, whereas the Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes it as a Coo, roo-c'too-coo.", "Variations include an alarm call, a nest call, and noises made by juveniles.", "Sibley describes the nest call as a repeated hu-hu-hurrr.", "When displaying, songs are partly sexual, partly threatening.", "They are accompanied by an inflated throat, tail fanning, strutting, and bowing.", "The alarm call, given at sight of predators, is a grunt-like oorhh.", "Non-vocal sounds include a loud flapping noise at take-off, feet stomping, hisses, and beak snapping.", "Wings may also be clapped during flights, usually during display fights or after copulation.", "Juveniles particularly snap their bills, usually to respond to nest invasion.", "The foot stomping appears deliberate, though for what purpose is unclear.", "Foot stomping is done with a certain foot first, showing that rock doves have \" footedness \" , similar to human handedness.", "Perched on sea cliffs in Norfolk, England Before the Columbian Exchange, rock doves were restricted to a natural resident range in western and southern Europe, North Africa, and extending into South Asia.", "They were carried into the New World aboard European ships between 1603 and 1607.", "The species has a large range, with an estimated global extent of occurrence of .", "It has a large global population, including an estimated 17 to 28 million individuals in Europe.", "Fossil evidence suggests the rock dove originated in southern Asia, and skeletal remains, unearthed in Israel, confirm its existence there for at least 300,000 years.", "However, this species has such a long history with humans that it is impossible to identify its original range exactly.", "Wild pigeons reside in rock formations and cliff faces, settling in crevices to nest.", "They nest communally, often forming large colonies of many hundreds of individuals.", "Wild nesting sites include caves, canyons, and sea cliffs.", "They will even live in the Sahara so long as an area has rocks, water, and some plant matter.", "They prefer to avoid dense vegetation.", "Rock doves have a commensal relationship with humans, gaining both ample access to food and nesting spots in civilized areas.", "Human structures provide an excellent imitation of cliff structures, making rock doves very common around human habitation.", "Skyscrapers, highway overpasses, farm buildings, abandoned buildings, and other human structures with ample crevices are conducive to rock dove nesting.", "Thus the modern range of the rock dove is due in large part to humans.", "Agricultural settlements are favored over forested ones.", "Ideal human nesting attributes combine areas with tall buildings, green spaces, ample access to human food, and schools.", "Conversely, suburban areas which are far from city centers and have high street density are the least conducive to pigeons.", "Their versatility among human structures is evidenced by a population living inside a deep well in Tunisia.", "Feral pigeons are usually unable to find these accommodations, so they must nest on building ledges, walls or statues.", "They may damage these structures via their feces", "starving birds can only excrete urates, which over time corrodes masonry and metal. In contrast, a well-fed bird passes mostly solid feces, containing only small amounts of uric acid.", "Pigeons are often found in pairs in the breeding season, but are usually gregarious.", "Two squabs, a few days old altA pigeon incubating its eggs", "Incubating an egg, showing their relatively flimsy nests Courtship display The rock dove breeds at any time of the year, but peak times are spring and summer.", "Nesting sites are along coastal cliff faces, as well as the artificial cliff faces created by apartment buildings with accessible ledges or roof spaces.", "Pigeons can compete with native birds for nest sites.", "For some avian species, such as seabirds, it could be a conservation issue.", "Current evidence suggests that wild, domestic and feral pigeons mate for life, although their long-term bonds are not unbreakable.", "They are socially monogamous, but extra-pair matings do occur, often initiated by males.", "Due to their ability to produce crop milk, pigeons can breed at any time of year.", "Pigeons breed when the food supply is abundant enough to support embryonic egg development, which in cities, can be any time of the year.", "Laying of eggs can take place up to six times per year.", "Pigeons are often found in pairs during the breeding season, but usually the pigeons are gregarious, living in flocks of 50 to 500 birds .", "Courtship rituals can be observed in urban parks at any time of the year.", "The male on the ground or rooftops puffs up the feathers on his neck to appear larger and thereby impress or attract attention.", "He approaches the female at a rapid walking pace while emitting repetitive quiet notes, often bowing and turning as he comes closer.", "At first, the female invariably walks or flies a short distance away and the male follows her until she stops.", "At this point, he continues the bowing motion and very often makes full- or half-pirouettes in front of the female.", "The male then proceeds to feed the female by regurgitating food, as they do when feeding the young.", "The male then mounts the female, rearing backwards to be able to join their cloacae.", "The mating is very brief, with the male flapping his wings to maintain balance on top of the female.", "The nest is a flimsy platform of straw and sticks, laid on a ledge, under cover, often on the window ledges of buildings.", "Two white eggs are laid", "incubation, shared by both parents, lasts 17 to 19 days.", "The newly hatched squab has pale yellow down and a flesh-coloured bill with a dark band.", "For the first few days, the baby squabs are tended and fed exclusively on \" crop milk \" .", "The pigeon milk is produced in the crops of both parents in all species of pigeon and dove.", "The fledging period is about 30 days.", "A rock dove eating grains Rock doves are omnivorous, but prefer plant matter: chiefly fruits and grains.", "Studies of pigeons in a semi-rural part of Kansas found that their diet includes the following: 92% maize, 3.2% oats, 3.7% cherry, along with small amounts of knotweed, elm, poison ivy and barley.", "Feral pigeons can be seen eating grass seeds and berries in parks and gardens in the spring, but plentiful sources exist throughout the year from scavenging Pigeons tend to congregate in large, often thick flocks when feeding on discarded food, and may be observed flying skillfully around trees, buildings, telephone poles and cables and even through moving traffic just to reach a food source.", "Pigeons feed on the ground in flocks or individually.", "Pigeons are naturally granivorous, eating seeds that fit down their gullet.", "They may sometimes consume small invertebrates such as worms or insect larvae as a protein supplement.", "As they do not possess an enlarged cecum as in European wood pigeons, they cannot digest adult plant tissue", "the various seeds they eat containing the appropriate nutrients they require.", "While most birds take small sips and tilt their heads backwards when drinking, pigeons are able to dip their bills into the water and drink continuously, without having to tilt their heads back.", "In cities they typically resort to scavenging human garbage, as unprocessed grain may be impossible to find.", "Pigeon groups typically consist of producers, which locate and obtain food, and scroungers, which feed on food obtained by the producers.", "Generally, groups of pigeons contain a greater proportion of scroungers than producers.", "Pigeons primarily use powder down feathers for preening, which gives a soft and silky feel to their plumage.", "They have no preen gland or at times have very rudimentary preen glands, so oil is not used for preening.", "Rather, powder down feathers are spread across the body.", "These have a tendency to disintegrate, and the powder, akin to talcum powder, helps maintain the plumage.", "Some varieties of domestic pigeon have modified feathers called \" fat quills \" .", "These feathers contain yellow, oil-like fat that derives from the same cells as powder down.", "This is used while preening and helps reduce bacterial degradation of feathers by feather bacilli.", "Domestic pigeons Rock doves have been domesticated for several thousand years, giving rise to the domestic pigeon .", "They may have been domesticated as long as 5,000 years ago.", "Numerous breeds of fancy pigeons of all sizes, colours, and types have been bred.", "Domesticated pigeons are used as homing pigeons as well as food and pets.", "They were in the past also used as carrier pigeons.", " does not consider bacteria Pigeons have been falsely associated with the spread of human diseases.", " Contact with pigeon droppings poses a minor risk of contracting histoplasmosis, cryptococcosis and psittacosis, and long-term exposure to both droppings and feathers can induce an allergy known as bird fancier's lung.", "Pigeons are not a major concern in the spread of West Nile virus: though they can contract it, they apparently do not transmit it.", "Some contagions are transmitted by pigeons", "for example, the bacteria Chlamydophila psittaci is endemic among pigeons and causes psittacosis in humans.", "It is generally transmitted from handling pigeons or their droppings .", "Psittacosis is a serious disease but rarely fatal .", "Pigeons are also important vectors for various species of the bacteria Salmonella, which causes diseases such as salmonellosis and paratyphoid fever.", "Pigeons are also known to host avian mites, which can infest human habitation and bite humans, a condition known as gamasoidosis.", "However, infesting mammals is relatively rare.", "Pigeons may, however, carry and spread avian influenza.", "One study has shown that adult pigeons are not clinically susceptible to the most dangerous strain of avian influenza, H5N1, and that they do not transmit the virus to poultry.", "Other studies have presented evidence of clinical signs and neurological lesions resulting from infection but found that the pigeons did not transmit the disease to poultry reared in direct contact with them.", "Pigeons were found to be \" resistant or minimally susceptible \" to other strains of avian influenza, such as the H7N7.", "Research into whether pigeons play a part in spreading bird flu have shown pigeons do not carry the deadly H5N1 strain.", "Three studies have been done since the late 1990s by the US Agriculture Department's Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia, according to the center's director, David Swayne.", "The lab has been working on bird flu since the 1970s.", "In one experiment, researchers squirted into pigeons' mouths liquid drops that contained the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus from a Hong Kong sample.", "The birds received 100 to 1,000 times the concentration that wild birds would encounter in nature.", "\" We couldn't infect the pigeons, \" Swayne said.", "\" So that's good news.", "altTwo eggs in the collection of the Museum de Toulouse"]}, "Ciconia ciconia": {"keywords": ["The white stork is a long-distance migrant, wintering in Africa from tropical Sub-Saharan Africa to as far south as South Africa, or on the Indian subcontinent.", "When migrating between Europe and Africa, it avoids crossing the Mediterranean Sea and detours via the Levant in the east or the Strait of Gibraltar in the west, because the air thermals on which it depends for soaring do not form over water.", "It takes most of its food from the ground, among low vegetation, and from shallow water.", "It benefited from human activities during the Middle Ages as woodland was cleared, but changes in farming methods and industrialisation saw it decline and disappear from parts of Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries.", "A Ciconia fossil representing the distal end of a right humerus has been recovered from Miocene beds of Rusinga Island, Lake Victoria, Kenya.", "White storks avoid areas overgrown with tall grass and shrub.", "Several black and white birds with long red legs and long red beaks walk in a green grassy area.", "The nominate race of the white stork has a wide although disjunct summer range across Europe, clustered in the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa in the west, and much of eastern and central Europe, with 25% of the world's population concentrated in Poland, as well as parts of western Asia.", "The asiatica population of about 1450 birds is restricted to a region in central Asia between the Aral Sea and Xinjiang in western China.", "The white stork's preferred feeding grounds are grassy meadows, farmland and shallow wetlands.", "It avoids areas overgrown with tall grass and shrubs.", "In the Chernobyl area of northern Ukraine, white stork populations declined after the 1986 nuclear accident there as farmland was succeeded by tall grass shrubs.", "The white stork breeds in greater numbers in areas with open grasslands, particularly grassy areas which are wet or periodically flooded, and less in areas with taller vegetation cover such as forest and shrubland.", "They make use of grasslands, wetlands, and farmland on the wintering grounds in Africa.", "A decline in population began in the 19th century due to industrialisation and changes in agricultural methods.", "In the Iberian Peninsula, populations are concentrated in the southwest, and have also declined due to agricultural practices.", "The white stork is a gregarious bird, flocks of thousands of individuals have been recorded on migration routes and at wintering areas in Africa.", "The white stork has also been noted for tool use by squeezing moss in the beak to drip water into the mouths of its chicks.", "Used in a variety of social interactions, bill-clattering generally grows louder the longer it lasts, and takes on distinctive rhythms depending on the situationfor example, slower during copulation and briefer when given as an alarm call.", "The white stork breeds in open farmland areas with access to marshy wetlands, building a large stick nest in trees, on buildings, or on purpose-built man-made platforms.", "Egg The temperature and weather around the time of hatching in spring is important, cool temperatures and wet weather increase chick mortality and reduce breeding success rates.", "They prefer to forage in meadows that are within roughly 5 km of their nest and sites where the vegetation is shorter so that their prey is more accessible.", "Less commonly, they also eat bird eggs and young birds, fish, molluscs, crustaceans and scorpions.", "The diet of non-breeding birds is similar to that of breeding birds, but food items are more often taken from dry areas.", "White storks wintering in western India have been observed to follow blackbuck to capture insects disturbed by them.", "White storks can exploit landfill sites for food during the breeding season, migration period and winter.", "Chewing lice such as Colpocephalum zebra tend to be found on the wings, and Neophilopterus incompletus elsewhere on the body.", "Results of the 2004/05 white stork census in Europe The white stork's decline due to industrialisation and agricultural changes began in the 19th century.", "Threats include the continued loss of wetlands, collisions with overhead power lines, use of persistent pesticides to combat locusts in Africa, and largely illegal hunting on migration routes and wintering grounds.", "The first known pair in Finland , representing a northward expansion compared to the species' historical breeding range In the early 1980s, the population had fallen to fewer than nine pairs in the entire upper Rhine River valley, an area closely identified with the white stork for centuries.", "In August 2019, 24 juveniles were released at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex, and others at a site near Tunbridge Wells and at the Wintershall Estate, near Godalming, as part of a project to reintroduce the white stork as a breeding species in South East England, for the first time since 1416.", "The 3rd century Roman writer Aelian citing the authority of Alexander of Myndus noted in his De natura animalium that aged storks flew away to oceanic islands where they were transformed into humans as a reward for their piety towards their parents.", "Supposed filial virtues of the stork in a children's moral education text from 1831 Storks have little fear of humans if not disturbed, and often nest on buildings in Europe.", "German folklore held that storks found babies in caves or marshes and brought them to households in a basket on their backs or held in their beaks.", "These caves contained adebarsteine or \" stork stones \" .", "Birds have long been associated with the maternal symbols from pagan goddesses such as Juno to the Holy Ghost, and the stork may have been chosen for its white plumage size, and flight at high altitude ."], "habitat_section": ["A flock foraging in Turkey.", "White storks avoid areas overgrown with tall grass and shrub.", "Several black and white birds with long red legs and long red beaks walk in a green grassy area.", "The nominate race of the white stork has a wide although disjunct summer range across Europe, clustered in the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa in the west, and much of eastern and central Europe, with 25% of the world's population concentrated in Poland, as well as parts of western Asia.", "The asiatica population of about 1450 birds is restricted to a region in central Asia between the Aral Sea and Xinjiang in western China.", "The Xinjiang population is believed to have become extinct around 1980.", "Migration routes extend the range of this species into many parts of Africa and India.", "Some populations adhere to the eastern migration route, which passes across Israel into eastern and central Africa.", "A few records of breeding from South Africa have been known since 1933 at Calitzdorp, and about 10 birds have been known to breed since the 1990s around Bredasdorp.", "A small population of white storks winters in India and is thought to derive principally from the C. c. asiatica population In recent years, the range has expanded into western Russia.", "The white stork's preferred feeding grounds are grassy meadows, farmland and shallow wetlands.", "It avoids areas overgrown with tall grass and shrubs.", "In the Chernobyl area of northern Ukraine, white stork populations declined after the 1986 nuclear accident there as farmland was succeeded by tall grass shrubs.", "In parts of Poland, poor natural foraging grounds have forced birds to seek food at rubbish dumps since 1999.", "White storks have also been reported foraging in rubbish dumps in the Middle East, North Africa and South Africa.", "The white stork breeds in greater numbers in areas with open grasslands, particularly grassy areas which are wet or periodically flooded, and less in areas with taller vegetation cover such as forest and shrubland.", "They make use of grasslands, wetlands, and farmland on the wintering grounds in Africa.", "as part of an re-introduction initiative in West Sussex called the White Stork Project.", "A decline in population began in the 19th century due to industrialisation and changes in agricultural methods.", "White storks no longer nest in many countries, and the current strongholds of the western population are in Portugal, Spain, Ukraine and Poland.", "In the Iberian Peninsula, populations are concentrated in the southwest, and have also declined due to agricultural practices.", "White storks arriving in Poznan province in western Poland in spring to breed did so some 10 days earlier in the last twenty years of the 20th century than at the end of the 19th century.", "Results of the 2004/05 white stork census in Europe The white stork's decline due to industrialisation and agricultural changes began in the 19th century.", "the last wild individual in Belgium was seen in 1895, in Sweden in 1955, in Switzerland in 1950 and in the Netherlands in 1991.", "However, the species has since been reintroduced to many regions.", "It has been rated as least concern by the IUCN since 1994, after being evaluated as near threatened in 1988.", "Parties to the agreement are required to engage in a wide range of conservation strategies described in a detailed action plan.", "The plan is intended to address key issues such as species and habitat conservation, management of human activities, research, education, and implementation.", "Threats include the continued loss of wetlands, collisions with overhead power lines, use of persistent pesticides to combat locusts in Africa, and largely illegal hunting on migration routes and wintering grounds.", "A man-made nest platform in Poland built as a conservation measure and to prevent storks disrupting electricity supplies through nesting on pylons.", "Three young white storks are on the top of the nest and two Eurasian tree sparrows are perching on the side of the nest.", "A large population of white storks breeds in central and southern Europe .", "There were around 5,500 pairs in Romania, 5,300 in Hungary and an estimated 4,956 breeding pairs in Bulgaria.", "In Germany, the majority of the total 4,482 pairs were in the eastern region, especially in the states of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern .", "Apart from Spain and Portugal , populations are generally much less stable.", "In the eastern Mediterranean region Turkey has a sizeable population of 6,195 pairs, and Greece 2,139 pairs.", "In Western Europe the white stork remains a rare bird despite conservation efforts.", "In 2004 France had only 973 pairs, and the Netherlands 528 pairs.", "Since then, it has reestablished itself and the population has slowly started to increase, reaching 8 pairs in 2022.", "In Armenia the population of the white stork slightly increased in the period between 2005 and 2015, and by last data reached 652 pairs.", "The first known pair in Finland , representing a northward expansion compared to the species' historical breeding range In the early 1980s, the population had fallen to fewer than nine pairs in the entire upper Rhine River valley, an area closely identified with the white stork for centuries.", "Conservation efforts successfully increased the population of birds there to 270 pairs , largely due to the actions of the Association for the Protection and Reintroduction of Storks in Alsace and Lorraine.", "The reintroduction of zoo-reared birds has halted further declines in Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.", "There were 601 pairs breeding in Armenia and around 700 pairs in the Netherlands in 2008, and few pairs also breed in South Africa, typically recent colonists from within the normal wintering population.", "In Poland, electric poles have been modified with a platform at the top to prevent the white stork's large nest from disrupting the electricity supply, and sometimes nests are moved from an electric pole to a man-made platform.", "Introductions of zoo-reared birds in the Netherlands has been followed up by feeding and nest-building programs by volunteers.", "where 175 pairs were recorded breeding in 2000.", "Long-term viability of the population in Switzerland is unclear as breeding success rates are low, and supplementary feeding does not appear to be of benefit.", "However, as of 2017, 470 adults and 757 young ones were recorded in Switzerland.", "Historically, the species' northern breeding limit was at Estonia, but it has moved slowly northwards into Karelia and in 2015 the first ever known breeding happened in Finland.", "In August 2019, 24 juveniles were released at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex, and others at a site near Tunbridge Wells and at the Wintershall Estate, near Godalming, as part of a project to reintroduce the white stork as a breeding species in South East England, for the first time since 1416.", "In 2020, the program was successful with the birth of five baby storks."], "random_sentences": ["The white stork is a large bird in the stork family, Ciconiidae.", "Its plumage is mainly white, with black on the bird's wings.", "Adults have long red legs and long pointed red beaks, and measure on average from beak tip to end of tail, with a wingspan.", "The two subspecies, which differ slightly in size, breed in Europe , northwestern Africa, southwestern Asia and southern Africa.", "The white stork is a long-distance migrant, wintering in Africa from tropical Sub-Saharan Africa to as far south as South Africa, or on the Indian subcontinent.", "When migrating between Europe and Africa, it avoids crossing the Mediterranean Sea and detours via the Levant in the east or the Strait of Gibraltar in the west, because the air thermals on which it depends for soaring do not form over water.", "A carnivore, the white stork eats a wide range of animal prey, including insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals and small birds.", "It takes most of its food from the ground, among low vegetation, and from shallow water.", "It is a monogamous breeder, but does not pair for life.", "Both members of the pair build a large stick nest, which may be used for several years.", "Each year the female can lay one clutch of usually four eggs, which hatch asynchronously 3334 days after being laid.", "Both parents take turns incubating the eggs and both feed the young.", "The young leave the nest 5864 days after hatching, and continue to be fed by the parents for a further 720 days.", "The white stork has been rated as least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature .", "It benefited from human activities during the Middle Ages as woodland was cleared, but changes in farming methods and industrialisation saw it decline and disappear from parts of Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries.", "Conservation and reintroduction programs across Europe have resulted in the white stork resuming breeding in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.", "It has few natural predators, but may harbour several types of parasite", "the plumage is home to chewing lice and feather mites, while the large nests maintain a diverse range of mesostigmatic mites.", "This conspicuous species has given rise to many legends across its range, of which the best-known is the story of babies being brought by storks.", "English naturalist Francis Willughby wrote about the white stork in the 17th century, having seen a drawing sent to him by his friend and natural history enthusiast Sir Thomas Brown of Norwich.", "He named it Ciconia alba.", "They noted they were occasional vagrants to England, blown there by storms.", "It was one of the many bird species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, where it was given the binomial name of Ardea ciconia.", "It was reclassified to the new genus Ciconia by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.", "Both the genus and specific epithet, ciconia, are the Latin word for \" stork \" .", "Skeleton There are two subspecies: The stork family contains six genera in three broad groups: the open-billed and wood storks , the giant storks and the \" typical \" storks .", "The typical storks include the white stork and six other extant species, which are characterised by straight pointed beaks and mainly black and white plumage.", "Its closest relatives are the larger, black-billed Oriental stork of East Asia, which was formerly classified as a subspecies of the white stork, and the maguari stork (C.", "Close evolutionary relationships within Ciconia are suggested by behavioural similarities and, biochemically, through analysis of both mitochondrial cytochrome b gene sequences and DNA-DNA hybridization.", "A Ciconia fossil representing the distal end of a right humerus has been recovered from Miocene beds of Rusinga Island, Lake Victoria, Kenya.", "A juvenile feeding on an insect The white stork is a large bird.", "It has a length of , and a standing height of .", "The wingspan is and its weight is .", "Like all storks, it has long legs, a long neck and a long straight pointed beak.", "The sexes are identical in appearance, except that males are larger than females on average.", "The plumage is mainly white with black flight feathers and wing coverts", "the black is caused by the pigment melanin.", "The breast feathers are long and shaggy forming a ruff which is used in some courtship displays.", "The irises are dull brown or grey, and the peri-orbital skin is black.", "The adult has a bright red beak and red legs, the colouration of which is derived from carotenoids in the diet.", "In parts of Spain, studies have shown that the pigment is based on astaxanthin obtained from an introduced species of crayfish and the bright red beak colours show up even in nestlings, in contrast to the duller beaks of young white storks elsewhere.", "White storks fly with their necks outstretched.", "As with other storks, the wings are long and broad enabling the bird to soar.", "In flapping flight its wingbeats are slow and regular.", "It flies with its neck stretched forward and with its long legs extended well beyond the end of its short tail.", "It walks at a slow and steady pace with its neck upstretched.", "In contrast, it often hunches its head between its shoulders when resting.", " Moulting has not been extensively studied, but appears to take place throughout the year, with the primary flight feathers replaced over the breeding season.", "altHead, neck and upper body of a white stork with a long beak with is reddish at the base fading to black at the tip", "An older juvenile at Vogelpark Avifauna, Netherlands.", "Beaks turn red starting at the base.", "Upon hatching, the young white stork is partly covered with short, sparse, whitish down feathers.", "This early down is replaced about a week later with a denser coat of woolly white down.", "By three weeks, the young bird acquires black scapulars and flight feathers.", "On hatching the chick has pinkish legs, which turn to greyish-black as it ages.", "Its beak is black with a brownish tip.", "By the time it fledges, the juvenile bird's plumage is similar to that of the adult, though its black feathers are often tinged with brown, and its beak and legs are a duller brownish-red or orange.", "The beak is typically orange or red with a darker tip.", "The bills gain the adults' red colour the following summer, although the black tips persist in some individuals.", "Young storks adopt adult plumage by their second summer.", "Within its range the white stork is distinctive when seen on the ground.", "The winter range of C. c. asiatica overlaps that of the Asian openbill, which has similar plumage but a different bill shape.", "When seen at a distance in flight, the white stork can be confused with several other species with similar underwing patterns, such as the yellow-billed stork, great white pelican and Egyptian vulture.", "The yellow-billed stork is identified by its black tail and a longer, slightly curved, yellow beak.", "The white stork also tends to be larger than the yellow-billed stork.", "The great white pelican has short legs which do not extend beyond its tail, and it flies with its neck retracted, keeping its head near to its stocky body, giving it a different flight profile.", "Pelicans also behave differently, soaring in orderly, synchronised flocks rather than in disorganised groups of individuals as the white stork does.", "The Egyptian vulture is much smaller, with a long wedge-shaped tail, shorter legs and a small yellow-tinged head on a short neck.", "The common crane, which can also look black and white in strong light, shows longer legs and a longer neck in flight.", "A flock foraging in Turkey.", "White storks avoid areas overgrown with tall grass and shrub.", "altSeveral black and white birds with long red legs and long red beaks walk in a green grassy area.", "The nominate race of the white stork has a wide although disjunct summer range across Europe, clustered in the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa in the west, and much of eastern and central Europe, with 25% of the world's population concentrated in Poland, as well as parts of western Asia.", "The asiatica population of about 1450 birds is restricted to a region in central Asia between the Aral Sea and Xinjiang in western China.", "The Xinjiang population is believed to have become extinct around 1980.", "Migration routes extend the range of this species into many parts of Africa and India.", "Some populations adhere to the eastern migration route, which passes across Israel into eastern and central Africa.", "A few records of breeding from South Africa have been known since 1933 at Calitzdorp, and about 10 birds have been known to breed since the 1990s around Bredasdorp.", "A small population of white storks winters in India and is thought to derive principally from the C. c. asiatica population In recent years, the range has expanded into western Russia.", "The white stork's preferred feeding grounds are grassy meadows, farmland and shallow wetlands.", "It avoids areas overgrown with tall grass and shrubs.", "In the Chernobyl area of northern Ukraine, white stork populations declined after the 1986 nuclear accident there as farmland was succeeded by tall grass shrubs.", "In parts of Poland, poor natural foraging grounds have forced birds to seek food at rubbish dumps since 1999.", "White storks have also been reported foraging in rubbish dumps in the Middle East, North Africa and South Africa.", "The white stork breeds in greater numbers in areas with open grasslands, particularly grassy areas which are wet or periodically flooded, and less in areas with taller vegetation cover such as forest and shrubland.", "They make use of grasslands, wetlands, and farmland on the wintering grounds in Africa.", "as part of an re-introduction initiative in West Sussex called the White Stork Project.", "A decline in population began in the 19th century due to industrialisation and changes in agricultural methods.", "White storks no longer nest in many countries, and the current strongholds of the western population are in Portugal, Spain, Ukraine and Poland.", "In the Iberian Peninsula, populations are concentrated in the southwest, and have also declined due to agricultural practices.", " White storks arriving in Poznan province in western Poland in spring to breed did so some 10 days earlier in the last twenty years of the 20th century than at the end of the 19th century.", "In 1822, the Rostocker Pfeilstorch provided early evidence of long-distance stork migration A flock in migration over Israel.", "Migrating white storks use the uplift of air thermals to reduce the effort of long-distance flying.", "altA blue sky with many tiny silhouettes of distant flying birds Systematic research into migration of the white stork began with German ornithologist Johannes Thienemann who commenced bird ringing studies in 1906 at the Rossitten Bird Observatory, on the Curonian Spit in what was then East Prussia.", "Although not many storks passed through Rossitten itself, the observatory coordinated the large-scale ringing of the species throughout Germany and elsewhere in Europe.", "Between 1906 and the Second World War about 100,000, mainly juvenile, white storks were ringed, with over 2,000 long-distance recoveries of birds wearing Rossitten rings reported between 1908 and 1954.", "An adult in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya.", "The lower parts of its legs are a whitish colour due to being covered with its droppingsan example of thermoregulation by urohidrosis.", "The white stork is a gregarious bird", "flocks of thousands of individuals have been recorded on migration routes and at wintering areas in Africa.", "Non-breeding birds gather in groups of 40 or 50 during the breeding season.", "The smaller dark-plumaged Abdim's stork is often encountered with white stork flocks in southern Africa.", "Breeding pairs of white stork may gather in small groups to hunt, and colony nesting has been recorded in some areas.", "However, groups among white stork colonies vary widely in size and the social structure is loosely defined", "young breeding storks are often restricted to peripheral nests, while older storks attain higher breeding success while occupying the better quality nests toward the centres of breeding colonies.", "Social structure and group cohesion is maintained by altruistic behaviours such as allopreening.", "White storks exhibit this behaviour exclusively at the nest site.", "Standing birds preen the heads of sitting birds, sometimes these are parents grooming juveniles, and sometimes juveniles preen each other.", "Unlike most storks, it never adopts a spread-winged posture, though it is known to droop its wings when its plumage is wet.", "carrying twig to nest White stork in flight with transmitter.", "bird with transmitter carrying plastic to nest White stork nest.", "The resulting evaporation provides cooling and is termed urohidrosis.", "Birds that have been ringed can sometimes be affected by the accumulation of droppings around the ring leading to constriction and leg trauma.", "The white stork has also been noted for tool use by squeezing moss in the beak to drip water into the mouths of its chicks.", "The adult white stork's main sound is noisy bill-clattering, which has been likened to distant machine gun fire.", "The bird makes these sounds by rapidly opening and closing its beak so that a knocking sound is made each time its beak closes.", "The clattering is amplified by its throat pouch, which acts as a resonator.", "Used in a variety of social interactions, bill-clattering generally grows louder the longer it lasts, and takes on distinctive rhythms depending on the situationfor example, slower during copulation and briefer when given as an alarm call.", "The only vocal sound adult birds generate is a weak barely audible hiss", "however, young birds can generate a harsh hiss, various cheeping sounds, and a cat-like mew they use to beg for food.", "Like the adults, young also clatter their beaks.", "The up-down display is used for a number of interactions with other members of the species.", "Here a stork quickly throws its head backwards so that its crown rests on its back before slowly bringing its head and neck forwards again, and this is repeated several times.", "The display is used as a greeting between birds, post coitus, and also as a threat display.", "Breeding pairs are territorial over the summer, and use this display, as well as crouching forward with the tails cocked and wings extended.", "Nests on a belfry in Spain.", "White storks often form small nesting colonies.", "altAt least eight tall, black and white birds, in three nests on the roof of a building.", "The white stork breeds in open farmland areas with access to marshy wetlands, building a large stick nest in trees, on buildings, or on purpose-built man-made platforms.", "Each nest is in depth, in diameter, and in weight.", "Nests are built in loose colonies.", "Not persecuted as it is viewed as a good omen, it often nests close to human habitation", "in southern Europe, nests can be seen on churches and other buildings.", "The nest is typically used year after year especially by older males.", "The males arrive earlier in the season and choose the nests.", "Larger nests are associated with greater numbers of young successfully fledged, and appear to be sought after.", "Nest change is often related to a change in the pairing and failure to raise young the previous year, and younger birds are more likely to change nesting sites.", "Although a pair may be found to occupy a nest, partners may change several times during the early stages and breeding activities begin only after a stable pairing is achieved.", "Mating Several bird species often nest within the large nests of the white stork.", "Regular occupants are house sparrows, tree sparrows, and common starlings", "less common residents include Eurasian kestrels, little owls, European rollers, white wagtails, black redstarts, Eurasian jackdaws, and Spanish sparrows.", "Paired birds greet by engaging in up-down and head-shaking crouch displays, and clattering the beak while throwing back the head.", "Pairs copulate frequently throughout the month before eggs are laid.", "High-frequency pair copulation is usually associated with sperm competition and high frequency of extra-pair copulation", "however, extra-pair copulation is infrequent in white storks.", "A white stork pair raises a single brood a year.", "The female typically lays four eggs, though clutches of one to seven have been recorded.", "The eggs are white, but often look dirty or yellowish due to a glutinous covering.", "They typically measure , Incubation begins as soon as the first egg is laid, so the brood hatches asynchronously, beginning 33 to 34 days later.", "The first hatchling typically has a competitive edge over the others.", "While stronger chicks are not aggressive towards weaker siblings, as is the case in some species, weak or small chicks are sometimes killed by their parents.", "This behaviour occurs in times of food shortage to reduce brood size and hence increase the chance of survival of the remaining nestlings.", "White stork nestlings do not attack each other, and their parents' method of feeding them means that stronger siblings cannot outcompete weaker ones for food directly, hence parental infanticide is an efficient way of reducing brood size.", "Despite this, this behaviour has not commonly been observed.", "Egg The temperature and weather around the time of hatching in spring is important", "cool temperatures and wet weather increase chick mortality and reduce breeding success rates.", "Somewhat unexpectedly, studies have found that later-hatching chicks which successfully reach adulthood produce more chicks than do their earlier-hatching nestmates.", "The body weight of the chicks increases rapidly in the first few weeks and reaches a plateau of about in 45 days.", "The length of the beak increases linearly for about 50 days.", "Young birds are fed with earthworms and insects, which are regurgitated by the parents onto the floor of the nest.", "Older chicks reach into the mouths of parents to obtain food.", "Chicks fledge 58 to 64 days after hatching.", "White storks generally begin breeding when about four years old, although the age of first breeding has been recorded as early as two years and as late as seven years.", "The oldest known wild white stork lived for 39 years after being ringed in Switzerland, while captive birds have lived for more than 35 years.", "White storks consume a wide variety of animal prey.", "They prefer to forage in meadows that are within roughly 5 km of their nest and sites where the vegetation is shorter so that their prey is more accessible.", "Their diet varies according to season, locality and prey availability.", "Common food items include insects , earthworms, reptiles, amphibians, particularly frog species such as the edible frog (Pelophylax kl.", "esculentus) and common frog and small mammals such as voles, moles and shrews.", "Less commonly, they also eat bird eggs and young birds, fish, molluscs, crustaceans and scorpions.", "They hunt mainly during the day, swallowing small prey whole, but killing and breaking apart larger prey before swallowing.", "Rubber bands are mistaken for earthworms and consumed, occasionally resulting in fatal blockage of the digestive tract.", "White stork picking at a dead young European rabbit Birds returning to Latvia during spring have been shown to locate their prey, moor frogs , by homing in on the mating calls produced by aggregations of male frogs.", "The diet of non-breeding birds is similar to that of breeding birds, but food items are more often taken from dry areas.", "White storks wintering in western India have been observed to follow blackbuck to capture insects disturbed by them.", "Wintering white storks in India sometimes forage along with the woolly-necked stork .", "Food piracy has been recorded in India with a rodent captured by a western marsh harrier appropriated by a white stork, while Montagu's harrier is known to harass white storks foraging for voles in some parts of Poland.", "White storks can exploit landfill sites for food during the breeding season, migration period and winter.", "White stork nests are habitats for an array of small arthropods, particularly over the warmer months after the birds arrive to breed.", "Nesting over successive years, the storks bring more material to line their nests and layers of organic material accumulate within them.", "Not only do their bodies tend to regulate temperatures within the nest, but excrement, food remains and feather and skin fragments provide nourishment for a large and diverse population of free-living mesostigmatic mites.", "A survey of twelve nests found 13,352 individuals of 34 species, the most common being Macrocheles merdarius, M. robustulus, Uroobovella pyriformis and Trichouropoda orbicularis, which together represented almost 85% of all the specimens collected.", "These feed on the eggs and larvae of insects and on nematodes, which are abundant in the nest litter.", "These mites are dispersed by coprophilous beetles, often of the family Scarabaeidae, or on dung brought by the storks during nest construction.", "Parasitic mites do not occur, perhaps being controlled by the predatory species.", "The overall effect of the mite population is unclear, the mites may have a role in suppressing harmful organisms , or they may themselves have an adverse effect on nestlings.", "The birds themselves host species belonging to more than four genera of feather mites.", "These mites, including Freyanopterolichus pelargicus, and Pelargolichus didactylus The fungi found on the plumage may feed on the keratin of the outer feathers or on feather oil.", "Chewing lice such as Colpocephalum zebra tend to be found on the wings, and Neophilopterus incompletus elsewhere on the body.", "The white stork also carries several types of internal parasites, including Toxoplasma gondii and intestinal parasites of the genus Giardia.", "A study of 120 white stork carcasses from Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg in Germany yielded eight species of trematode , four cestode species, and at least three species of nematode.", "One species of fluke, Chaunocephalus ferox, caused lesions in the wall of the small intestine in a number of birds admitted to two rehabilitation centres in central Spain, and was associated with reduced weight.", "It is a recognised pathogen and cause of morbidity in the Asian openbill .", "More recently, the thorough study performed by J. Sitko and P. Heneberg in the Czech Republic in 19622013 suggested that the central European white storks host 11 helminth species.", "Chaunocephalus ferox, Tylodelphys excavata and Dictymetra discoidea were reported to be the dominant ones.", "The other species found included Cathaemasia hians, Echinochasmus spinulosus, Echinostoma revolutum, Echinostoma sudanense, Duboisia syriaca, Apharyngostrigea cornu, Capillaria sp. and Dictymetra discoidea.", "Juvenile white storks were shown to host less species, but the intensity of infection was higher in the juveniles than in the adult storks.", "West Nile virus is mainly a bird infection that is transmitted between birds by mosquitos.", "Migrating birds appear to be important in spread of the virus, the ecology of which remains poorly known.", "On 26 August 1998, a flock of about 1,200 migrating white storks that had been blown off course on their southward journey landed in Eilat, in southern Israel.", "The flock was stressed as it had resorted to flapping flight to return to its migratory route, and a number of birds died.", "A virulent strain of West Nile virus was isolated from the brains of eleven dead juveniles.", "Other white storks subsequently tested in Israel have shown anti-WNV antibodies.", "In 2008 three juvenile white storks from a Polish wildlife refuge yielded seropositive results indicating exposure to the virus, but the context or existence of the virus in Poland is unclear.", "Results of the 2004/05 white stork census in Europe The white stork's decline due to industrialisation and agricultural changes began in the 19th century: the last wild individual in Belgium was seen in 1895, in Sweden in 1955, in Switzerland in 1950 and in the Netherlands in 1991.", "However, the species has since been reintroduced to many regions.", "It has been rated as least concern by the IUCN since 1994, after being evaluated as near threatened in 1988.", "Parties to the agreement are required to engage in a wide range of conservation strategies described in a detailed action plan.", "The plan is intended to address key issues such as species and habitat conservation, management of human activities, research, education, and implementation.", "Threats include the continued loss of wetlands, collisions with overhead power lines, use of persistent pesticides to combat locusts in Africa, and largely illegal hunting on migration routes and wintering grounds.", "altThree long-legged, long-billed black and white birds stand on a huge pile of sticks atop an artificial platform on a pole", "A man-made nest platform in Poland built as a conservation measure and to prevent storks disrupting electricity supplies through nesting on pylons.", "Three young white storks are on the top of the nest and two Eurasian tree sparrows are perching on the side of the nest.", "A large population of white storks breeds in central and southern Europe .", "There were around 5,500 pairs in Romania, 5,300 in Hungary and an estimated 4,956 breeding pairs in Bulgaria.", "In Germany, the majority of the total 4,482 pairs were in the eastern region, especially in the states of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern .", "Apart from Spain and Portugal , populations are generally much less stable.", "In the eastern Mediterranean region Turkey has a sizeable population of 6,195 pairs, and Greece 2,139 pairs.", "In Western Europe the white stork remains a rare bird despite conservation efforts.", "In 2004 France had only 973 pairs, and the Netherlands 528 pairs.", "Since then, it has reestablished itself and the population has slowly started to increase, reaching 8 pairs in 2022.", "In Armenia the population of the white stork slightly increased in the period between 2005 and 2015, and by last data reached 652 pairs.", "The first known pair in Finland , representing a northward expansion compared to the species' historical breeding range In the early 1980s, the population had fallen to fewer than nine pairs in the entire upper Rhine River valley, an area closely identified with the white stork for centuries.", "Conservation efforts successfully increased the population of birds there to 270 pairs , largely due to the actions of the Association for the Protection and Reintroduction of Storks in Alsace and Lorraine.", "The reintroduction of zoo-reared birds has halted further declines in Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.", "There were 601 pairs breeding in Armenia and around 700 pairs in the Netherlands in 2008, and few pairs also breed in South Africa, typically recent colonists from within the normal wintering population.", "In Poland, electric poles have been modified with a platform at the top to prevent the white stork's large nest from disrupting the electricity supply, and sometimes nests are moved from an electric pole to a man-made platform.", "Introductions of zoo-reared birds in the Netherlands has been followed up by feeding and nest-building programs by volunteers.", "where 175 pairs were recorded breeding in 2000.", "Long-term viability of the population in Switzerland is unclear as breeding success rates are low, and supplementary feeding does not appear to be of benefit.", "However, as of 2017, 470 adults and 757 young ones were recorded in Switzerland.", "Historically, the species' northern breeding limit was at Estonia, but it has moved slowly northwards into Karelia and in 2015 the first ever known breeding happened in Finland.", "In August 2019, 24 juveniles were released at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex, and others at a site near Tunbridge Wells and at the Wintershall Estate, near Godalming, as part of a project to reintroduce the white stork as a breeding species in South East England, for the first time since 1416.", "In 2020, the program was successful with the birth of five baby storks.", "Bociany , an oil painting of 1900, 150x198 cm by Jozef Chemonski , National Museum in Warsaw.", "Due to its large size, predation on vermin, and nesting behaviour close to human settlements and on rooftops, the white stork has an imposing presence that has influenced human culture and folklore.", "Greek and Roman mythology portray storks as models of parental devotion.", "The 3rd century Roman writer Aelian citing the authority of Alexander of Myndus noted in his De natura animalium that aged storks flew away to oceanic islands where they were transformed into humans as a reward for their piety towards their parents.", "The bird is featured in at least three of Aesop's Fables: The Fox and the Stork, The Farmer and the Stork, and The Frogs Who Desired a King.", "Storks were also thought to care for their aged parents, feeding them and even transporting them, and children's books depicted them as a model of filial values.", "A Greek law called Pelargonia, from the Ancient Greek word pelargos for stork, required citizens to take care of their aged parents.", "The Greeks also held that killing a stork could be punished with death.", "Storks were allegedly protected in Ancient Thessaly as they hunted snakes, and widely held to be Virgil's \" white bird \" .", "Roman writers noted the white stork's arrival in spring, which alerted farmers to plant their vines.", "Followers of Islam revered storks because they made an annual pilgrimage to Mecca on their migration.", "Supposed filial virtues of the stork in a children's moral education text from 1831 Storks have little fear of humans if not disturbed, and often nest on buildings in Europe.", "In Germany, the presence of a nest on a house was believed to protect against fires.", "They were also protected because of the belief that their souls were human.", "German, Dutch and Polish households would encourage storks to nest on houses, sometimes by constructing purpose-built high platforms, to bring good luck.", "The white stork is a popular motif on postage stamps, and it is featured on more than 120 stamps issued by more than 60 stamp-issuing entities.", "It is the national bird of Lithuania, Belarus and Poland, and it was a Polish mascot at the Expo 2000 Fair in Hanover.", "Storks nesting in Polish villages such as Zywkowo have made them tourist attractions, drawing 20005000 visitors a year in 2014.", "In the 19th century, storks were also thought to only live in countries having a republican form of government.", "Polish poet Cyprian Kamil Norwid mentioned storks in his poem Moja piosnka \" ): In 1942 Heinrich Himmler sought to use storks to carry Nazi propaganda leaflets so as to win support from the Boers in South Africa.", "The idea for this \" Storchbein-Propaganda \" plan was a secret that was transmitted by Walter Schellenberg to be examined by the German ornithologist Ernst Schuz at the Rossiten bird observatory, who pointed out that the probability of finding marked storks in Africa was less than one percent, requiring a 1000 birds to transmit 10 leaflets successfully.", "The plan was then dropped.", "Storks and delivery of babies", "Der Klapperstorch , a painting by Carl Spitzweg According to European folklore, the stork is responsible for bringing babies to new parents.", "The legend is very ancient, but was popularised by a 19th-century Hans Christian Andersen story called \" The Storks \" .", "German folklore held that storks found babies in caves or marshes and brought them to households in a basket on their backs or held in their beaks.", "These caves contained adebarsteine or \" stork stones \" .", "The babies would then be given to the mother or dropped down the chimney.", "Households would notify when they wanted children by placing sweets for the stork on the window sill.", " Cites previous four sentences.", " From there the folklore has spread around the world to the Philippines and countries in South America.", "Birthmarks on the back of the head of newborn baby, nevus flammeus nuchae, are sometimes referred to as stork-bite.", "Stork bringing baby - Colmar, Alsace Neon sign depicting a stork on the Rotunda Hospital, an Irish maternity hospital In Slavic mythology and pagan religion, storks were thought to carry unborn souls from Vyraj to Earth in spring and summer.", "This belief still persists in the modern folk culture of many Slavic countries, in the simplified child story that \" storks bring children into the world \" .", "Storks were seen by Early Slavs as bringing luck, and killing one would bring misfortune.", "Likewise, in Norse mythology, the god Hnir, responsible for giving reason to the first humans, Ask and Embla, has been connected with the stork through his epithets long-legs and mud-king, along with Indo-European cognates such as Greek 'swan' and Sanskrit .", "A long-term study that showed a spurious correlation between the numbers of stork nests and human births is widely used in the teaching of basic statistics as an example to highlight that correlation does not necessarily indicate causation.", "Psychoanalyst Marvin Margolis suggests the enduring nature of the stork fable of the newborn is linked to its addressing a psychological need, in that it allays the discomfort of discussing sex and procreation with children.", "Birds have long been associated with the maternal symbols from pagan goddesses such as Juno to the Holy Ghost, and the stork may have been chosen for its white plumage size, and flight at high altitude .", "In fact, Jung recalled being told the story himself upon the birth of his own sister.", "The traditional link with the newborn continues with their use in advertising for such products as nappies and baby announcements.", "There were negative aspects to stork folklore as well", "a Polish folk tale relates how God made the stork's plumage white, while the Devil gave it black wings, imbuing it with both good and evil impulses.", "They were also associated with handicapped or stillborn babies in Germany, explained as the stork having dropped the baby en route to the household, or as revenge or punishment for past wrongdoing.", "A mother who was confined to bed around the time of childbirth was said to have been \" bitten \" by the stork.", "Children of African American slaves were sometimes told that white babies were brought by storks, while black babies were born from buzzard eggs.", "Patrick Leigh Fermor describes a flock of storks migrating south across the Balkans in 1934 in his memoir published as The Broken Road.", "Lord Byron describes a stork devouring a snake at the climax of his vampire tale, Fragment of a Novel."]}, "Ficedula hypoleuca": {"keywords": ["It is migratory, wintering mainly in tropical Africa.", "European pied flycatcher vocalization They are birds of deciduous woodlands, parks and gardens, with a preference for oak trees.", "The very similar Atlas pied flycatcher, of the mountains of north west Africa was formerly classed as subspecies of the European pied flycatcher.", "More specifically, the nominate subspecies F. h. hypoleuca inhabits the UK, central Europe and Scandinavia, F. h. speculigera inhabits Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, F. h. iberiae inhabits in the Iberian Peninsula, and F. h. tomensis in eastern Europe and Russia.", "This flycatcher typically spends winter in tropical Africa.", "The European pied flycatcher is a terrestrial bird, typically inhabiting open forests, woodlands, and towns.", "In an experiment conducted from 1948 to 1964 in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, two hundred and fifty nest boxes were carefully recorded for their locations and then analyzed for their inhabitance.", "In fact, their name comes from their habit of catching flying insects, but they also catch insects or arthropods from tree trunks, branches, or from the ground.", "It was also found that airborne prey were captured more during the early part of the season than in the later part , the converse trend appeared in prey taken from trees.", "They breed in upland broadleaf woodland.", "They require very high horizontal visibility - a low abundance of shrub and understorey, but with high proportion of moss and grass.", "They also like lichens that grow on trees."], "habitat_section": ["The European pied flycatcher has a very large range and population size, and is thus deemed to be of least concern by the IUCN. This species occupies areas of many different countries in Europe and northern Africa, also being present in the west Asian portion of Russia.", "More specifically, the nominate subspecies F. h. hypoleuca inhabits the UK, central Europe and Scandinavia, F. h. speculigera inhabits Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, F. h. iberiae inhabits in the Iberian Peninsula, and F. h. tomensis in eastern Europe and Russia.", "The species is noted as a vagrant species in places in other countries in Africa and South Asia, such as Sudan and Afghanistan.", "This flycatcher typically spends winter in tropical Africa.", "The European pied flycatcher is a terrestrial bird, typically inhabiting open forests, woodlands, and towns.", "In 2005, the European population was listed to hold 3 to 7 million pairs.", "They breed in upland broadleaf woodland.", "This means that in Britain they are limited due to geography to the North and West.", "They prefer mature oak woodland, but also breed in mature upland ash and birch woods.", "They require very high horizontal visibility - a low abundance of shrub and understorey, but with high proportion of moss and grass.", "Grazing needs to be managed to maintain this open character, but also allow the occasional replacement trees.", "They will sometimes use mature open conifer woodland where natural tree holes occur.", "Generally they prefer trees that have tree holes, i.e.", "dead trees, or dead limbs on healthy trees.", "They also like lichens that grow on trees."], "random_sentences": ["European pied flycatchers, 2010 in Texel, Netherlands The European pied flycatcher is a small passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family.", "One of the four species of Western Palearctic black-and-white flycatchers, it hybridizes to a limited extent with the collared flycatcher.", "It breeds in most of Europe and across the Western Palearctic.", "It is migratory, wintering mainly in tropical Africa.", "It usually builds its nests in holes on oak trees.", "This species practices polygyny, usually bigamy, with the male travelling large distances to acquire a second mate.", "The male will mate with the secondary female and then return to the primary female in order to help with aspects of child rearing, such as feeding.", "The European pied flycatcher is mainly insectivorous, although its diet also includes other arthropods.", "This species commonly feeds on spiders, ants, bees and similar prey.", "The European pied flycatcher has a very large range and population size and so it is of least concern according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature .", "The European pied flycatcher is an Old World flycatcher, part of a family of insectivorous songbirds which typically feed by darting after insects.", "The Latin word ficedula means \" small fig-eating bird \" .", "The term hypoleuca comes from two Greek roots, hupo, \" below \" , and leukos, \" white \" .", "The species was described in Linnaeus's Fauna Svecica , a work that was not binomial and that is therefore unavailable nomenclaturally.", "Later, in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae and the next edition of Fauna Svecica , Linnaeus confounded this flycatcher with the Eurasian blackcap and the whinchat.", "To this point, the European pied flycatcher still lacked a proper valid binominal name.", "The species was finally named as Motacilla hypoleuca by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764.", "However, he described this species anonymously in the appendix of a sales catalogue of the collection of Adriaan Vroeg, popularly known simply as the \" Adumbratiunculae \" among ornithologists.", "The authorship of the Adumbratiunculae would later be attributed to Pallas.", "Given the initial anonymity of the publication and the inferred authorship by external evidence, the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature advocates that Pallas's name should appear enclosed in square brackets in the species' name.", "Thus, the correct form of the scientific name of the European pied plycatcher is Ficedula hypoleuca .", "Ficedula hypoleuca currently has four recognized subspecies: the nominate F. h. hypoleuca , F. h. speculigera , F. h. iberiae , and F. h. tomensis .", "The subspecies F. h. muscipeta is currently considered synonymous with F. h. hypoleuca, but could represent an actual distinct subspecies.", "The name F. h. atricapilla is a junior subjective synonym of F. h. hypoleuca", "and the name F. h. sibirica Khakhlov, 1915 is invalid, the correct form being F. h. tomensis .", "This is a long bird.", "The breeding male is mainly black above and white below, with a large white wing patch, white tail sides and a small forehead patch.", "The Iberian subspecies iberiae has a larger forehead patch and a pale rump.", "Non-breeding males, females and juveniles have the black replaced by a pale brown, and may be very difficult to distinguish from other Ficedula flycatchers, particularly the collared flycatcher, with which this species hybridizes to a limited extent.", "The bill is black, and has the broad but pointed shape typical of aerial insectivores.", "As well as taking insects in flight, this species hunts caterpillars amongst the oak foliage, and will take berries.", "It is therefore a much earlier spring migrant than the more aerial spotted flycatcher, and its loud rhythmic and melodious song is characteristic of oak woods in spring.", "European pied flycatcher vocalization They are birds of deciduous woodlands, parks and gardens, with a preference for oak trees.", "They build an open nest in a tree hole, and will readily adapt to an open-fronted nest box.", "The very similar Atlas pied flycatcher, of the mountains of north west Africa was formerly classed as subspecies of the European pied flycatcher.", "The European pied flycatcher has a very large range and population size, and is thus deemed to be of least concern by the IUCN.", "This species occupies areas of many different countries in Europe and northern Africa, also being present in the west Asian portion of Russia.", "More specifically, the nominate subspecies F. h. hypoleuca inhabits the UK, central Europe and Scandinavia, F. h. speculigera inhabits Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, F. h. iberiae inhabits in the Iberian Peninsula, and F. h. tomensis in eastern Europe and Russia.", "The species is noted as a vagrant species in places in other countries in Africa and South Asia, such as Sudan and Afghanistan.", "This flycatcher typically spends winter in tropical Africa.", "The European pied flycatcher is a terrestrial bird, typically inhabiting open forests, woodlands, and towns.", "In 2005, the European population was listed to hold 3", "The European pied flycatcher predominately practices a mixed mating system of monogamy and polygyny.", "Their mating system has also been described as successive polygyny.", "Gender difference in mating behavior", "The male mating behavior has two key characteristics: desertion of the primary female and polyterritoriality.", "The males travel large distances, an average of , to find his second mate.", "After breeding with the secondary female, the males return to their first mate.", "The males of this species are polyterritorial", "the males will acquire multiple nest sites to attract a female.", "Upon breeding with this first female, the male will procure more nesting sites, typically some distance from the site of the primary female, in order to attract a second female for mating.", "The males that have better success at polygyny are typically larger, older and more experienced at arriving earlier to the mating sites.", "Polygyny threshold model graph The female behaviour has also been studied in depth, especially due to the fact that some females accept polygyny while others are able to maintain monogamous relationships.", "The first female in a polygynous relationship does not suffer much in comparison to females in monogamous situations.", "These primary females gain greater reproductive success because they are able to secure full-time help from the male once he returns from his search for a second mate.", "The second female, however, often suffers from polygyny.", "These females have 60% less offspring than females that are in a monogamous relationship.", "These findings are consistent with the polygyny threshold model, which is depicted at the right.", "Additionally, the secondary female lays a smaller clutch which she is more likely to be able to rear on her own.", "Another behavior that is relatively frequent in European pied flycatchers is the practice of extra-pair copulations .", "Thus, the male practicing EPC will have a group of offspring raised successfully without any parental investment on his part.", "The female may benefit from EPC if the second male is judged to have superior genes to the original male.", "Another benefit that EPC adds is that there is an increase in genetic variability.", "However, females are not typically very welcoming of EPC.", "A female that is being pursued for an EPC will either passively allow the male to copulate with her, or will resist it and risk injury due to the male's aggression.", "In an experiment conducted from 1948 to 1964 in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, two hundred and fifty nest boxes were carefully recorded for their locations and then analyzed for their inhabitance.", "The median breeding dispersal of the European pied flycatcher ranges from about , with the average distance between nest sites being about .", "This distance typically depended on the breeding density in each year.", "The study found little evidence to suggest a difference in breeding dispersal between years or between monogamous and polygynous males.", "As a result, the data for the separate categories could be combined.", "The breeding dispersal over longer distances could result in both mate fidelity as well as mate change, the latter of which occurs either while the previous mate is still alive, or following the death of the mate.", "The breeding dispersal distances of birds that survive more than three breeding seasons were studied, and the results showed that the site fidelity increased with more successive breeding attempts.", "The same long-term study also found that older European pied flycatchers, both male and female, were more likely to move shorter distances between breeding seasons than younger birds were.", "When mates were observed to re-establish their pair bond, they tended to occupy certain areas that were near the nest site established in the previous breeding season.", "In addition, female birds were less likely to return to a former breeding site following the death of, or divorce from, their former partner.", "When a pair divorces, the females have been observed to move greater distances away than the males.", "As a result, females that keep the same mates from year to year end up moving shorter distances for each mating period than those that divorce.", "Divorce has little influence on the likelihood of males moving away from their original nest site.", "The study found that males that keep the same mate do not move significantly smaller distances than males that divorce.", "Since most bird species exhibit monogamous mating behaviors, the polygynous behavior of the European pied flycatcher has sparked much research.", "There are three main hypotheses that seek to explain why females settle polygynously when it lowers their overall fitness and reproductive success compared to a monogamous relationship.", "F. hypoleuca and F. albicollis are speciating from each other, providing evidence for speciation by reinforcement .", "The two species diverged less than two million years ago, which is considered recent on the time scale of evolution.", "Still, hybrids of the two species already suffer from low fertility and metabolic dysfunction.", "It was also believed that sexual selection causes reinforcement and pied flycatcher evolved different colouration in sympatry versus allopatry to prevent hybridization, though some evidence suggests heterospecific competition instead of reinforcement as the underlying mechanism.", "Mating choice tests of the species find that females of both species choose conspecific males in sympatry, but heterospecific males in allopatry .", "The patterns could suggest mimicry, driven by interspecific competition", "however, song divergence has been detected that shows a similar pattern to the mating preferences.", "Male flycatcher returning to nest Studies were also done to examine the amount of contribution the male European pied flycatcher provided in parental care as well as why some females choose to mate with mated males.", "When older and younger monogamous males were compared, there was no difference in feeding rate between each nest.", "When females were studied, scientists found that monogamous and primary females benefited significantly more from the male in terms of parental care than polygynous females did.", "The latter group could only partially compensate for the absence of a male, leading to secondary females and widows raising fewer offspring than the monogamous pairs did.", "In the study, differences in mates and the qualities of the territories were slight and therefore not considered, since they lead to no advantages for females to choose between the territories belonging to monogamous or already-mated males.", "The results of the study suggest that the males can control multiple territories and are thus able to deceive females into accepting polygyny, while the females do not have enough time to discover the marital status of the males.", "In terms of male parental care to clutches, the rate of male incubation feeding was directly related to the physical condition of the males, and negatively correlated with the ambient temperature.", "Polygynously mated females also received far less feeds than monogamously mated females, despite having no difference in the food delivery rates by the male.", "The reduction in delivery rate to the polygynously mated females led to a negative effect on their incubation efficiency, because the females needed to spend more time away from the nest acquiring food.", "This also prolonged the incubation period when compared to monogamous females.", "The male feeding behavior is related to the reproductive value as represented by the nests, as well as to the costs and benefits of incubation feeding.", "The main diet of the European pied flycatcher is insects.", "In fact, their name comes from their habit of catching flying insects, but they also catch insects or arthropods from tree trunks, branches, or from the ground.", "Studies have found that the majority of food catches were made from the ground.", "It was also found that airborne prey were captured more during the early part of the season than in the later part ", "the converse trend appeared in prey taken from trees.", "There are also many overlaps in the foraging techniques with the collared flycatcher, the spotted flycatcher, and the common redstart.", "Courtship feeding, or incubation feeding, occurs when the male feeds the female in the pairing, egglaying stages, and incubation.", "An interpretation of this behavior is that it strengthens the pair bond between mates.", "Eggs off Ficedula speculigera MHNT Pied flycatcher chicks The diet of the European pied flycatcher is composed nearly entirely of insects.", "One study analyzed the stomach contents of birds during the breeding season and found that ants, bees, wasps and beetles made up the main diet.", "Ants made up approximately 25% of the diet.", "Food given to nestlings include spiders, butterflies, moths, flies, mosquitoes, ants, bees, wasps, and beetles.", "For Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera, larvae appear to be consumed more than adult insects", "the opposite is true for other insect orders.", "There is also variation between the proportions of larvae and adult insects between different habitats.", "Nestlings were also found to consume more spiders, butterfly, and moth larvae, while adult flycatchers consume more ants.", "It has on average decreased in population by 25% within the last 25 years.", "It has ceased to breed in several parts of its former range within Britain.", "It is a very rare and irregular breeder in Ireland, with only one or two pairs recorded as breeding in most years.", "Records of its location can be found on that National Biodiversity Network.", "In the Netherlands it have declined by 90% due to nestlings peaks mistiming.", "Female in a nestbox in Finland", "They breed in upland broadleaf woodland.", "This means that in Britain they are limited due to geography to the North and West.", "They prefer mature oak woodland, but also breed in mature upland ash and birch woods.", "They require very high horizontal visibility - a low abundance of shrub and understorey, but with high proportion of moss and grass.", "Grazing needs to be managed to maintain this open character, but also allow the occasional replacement trees.", "They will sometimes use mature open conifer woodland where natural tree holes occur.", "Generally they prefer trees that have tree holes, i.e. dead trees, or dead limbs on healthy trees.", "They also like lichens that grow on trees."]}}
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2607403_1132416
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[
"Graphosoma italicum",
"Juniperus communis",
"Bartsia alpina"
] |
{"Graphosoma italicum": {"keywords": ["G. italicum is distributed across the Western Palearctic and occurs in the entire Mediterranean area, with the northern limit of distribution fluctuating strongly.", "In recent decades, the northern border in western and central Europe has expanded strongly to the north, so that the species now occurs as far as the North Sea and Baltic Sea .", "The insects populate open to half-shady areas in dry to more humid habitats.", "G. italicum is an insect of warm and sunny areas.", "It prefers warm slopes and meadows located on south-facing slopes."], "habitat_section": ["G. italicum is distributed across the Western Palearctic and occurs in the entire Mediterranean area, with the northern limit of distribution fluctuating strongly.", "In recent decades, the northern border in western and central Europe has expanded strongly to the north, so that the species now occurs as far as the North Sea and Baltic Sea .", "In Germany, the type occurs everywhere with exception of the northwest and is not rare regionally.", "In Austria, it is widespread, but only locally frequent.", "The insects populate open to half-shady areas in dry to more humid habitats.", "The subspecies G. i. sardiniensis occurs only in Sardinia."], "random_sentences": ["Graphosoma italicum is a species of shield bug in the family Pentatomidae.", "It is also known as the striped bug and minstrel bug.", "italicum can reach a length of 812 mm .", "The body is almost round, with a large shield.", "The basic color of the upperside of the body is red, with wide black longitudinal stripes.", "The pronotum has six black bands.", "Also the sides of the abdominal segments are red with many small black spots.", "The legs are mostly black, which distinguishes it from its relative, G. lineatum.", "Graphosoma italicum had been regarded as either a subspecies, or a synonym, of G. lineatum for over 100 years, so nearly all of the existing literature prior to 2007 referred to this species under the name lineatum.", "The validity of G. italicum was reestablished via DNA analysis, which demonstrated that the sister species to G. italicum is G. rubrolineatum, while G. lineatum is more closely related to G. semipunctatum.", "Graphosoma lineatum - The legs are orange.", "The distribution is restricted to Northern Africa and Sicily.", "Graphosoma semipunctatum - The legs are orange, the red and black bands are interrupted on the pronotum, where they form black points.", "The distribution is restricted to the Mediterranean region.", "Graphosoma melanoxanthum Horvath, 1903 - Dark connexivi with small red points, it is distributed in South Russia, Turkey, and Iran.", "italicum is distributed across the Western Palearctic and occurs in the entire Mediterranean area, with the northern limit of distribution fluctuating strongly.", "In recent decades, the northern border in western and central Europe has expanded strongly to the north, so that the species now occurs as far as the North Sea and Baltic Sea .", "In Germany, the type occurs everywhere with exception of the northwest and is not rare regionally.", "In Austria, it is widespread, but only locally frequent.", "The insects populate open to half-shady areas in dry to more humid habitats.", "The subspecies G. i. sardiniensis occurs only in Sardinia.", "italicum is an insect of warm and sunny areas.", "It prefers warm slopes and meadows located on south-facing slopes.", "The orange and black warning colours indicate that the insects are foul-tasting, protecting them from predators.", "The nymphs do not have the orange-black stripe pattern, instead they are mostly brownish.", "These shield bugs are frequently found on the umbels of Apiaceae (Daucus, Heracleum, Anthriscus, Foeniculum, etc.", "), plants which themselves are chemically-protected."]}, "Juniperus communis": {"keywords": ["Juniperus communis, the common juniper, is a species of small tree or shrub in the cypress family Cupressaceae.", "An evergreen conifer, it has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere.", "Juniperus communis is very variable in form, ranging from rarely tall to a low, often prostrate spreading shrub in exposed locations.", "The species has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic south in mountains to around 30N latitude in North America, Europe and Asia.", "Relict populations can be found in the Atlas Mountains of Africa.", "Teardrop-shaped J. communis in Hvaler, Norway Juniperus communis is cultivated in the horticulture trade and used as an evergreen ornamental shrub in gardens.", "The following cultivars gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit in 1993."], "habitat_section": ["The species has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic south in mountains to around 30N latitude in North America, Europe and Asia.", "Relict populations can be found in the Atlas Mountains of Africa.", "J. communis is one of Ireland's longest established plants."], "random_sentences": ["Juniperus communis, the common juniper, is a species of small tree or shrub in the cypress family Cupressaceae.", "An evergreen conifer, it has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere.", "Juniperus communis is very variable in form, ranging from rarely tall to a low, often prostrate spreading shrub in exposed locations.", "It has needle-like leaves in whorls of three", "the leaves are green, with a single white stomatal band on the inner surface.", "It never attains the scale-like adult foliage of other members of the genus.", "It is dioecious, with male and female cones on separate plants.", "The male cones are yellow, long, and fall soon after shedding their pollen in MarchApril.", "The fruit are berry-like cones known as juniper berries.", "They are initially green, ripening in 18 months to purple-black with a blue waxy coating", "they are spherical, diameter, and usually have three fleshy fused scales, each scale with a single seed.", "The seeds are dispersed when birds eat the cones, digesting the fleshy scales and passing the hard, unwinged seeds in their droppings.", "The juniper berry oil is composed largely of monoterpene hydrocarbons such as -pinene, myrcene, sabinene, limonene and -pinene.", "The species has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic south in mountains to around 30N latitude in North America, Europe and Asia.", "Relict populations can be found in the Atlas Mountains of Africa.", "J. communis is one of Ireland's longest established plants.", "Teardrop-shaped J. communis in Hvaler, Norway Juniperus communis is cultivated in the horticulture trade and used as an evergreen ornamental shrub in gardens.", "The following cultivars gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit in 1993:", "J. communis wood pieces, with a U.S. penny for scale, showing the narrow growth rings of the species It is too small to have any general lumber usage.", "In Scandinavia, however, juniper wood is used for making containers for storing small quantities of dairy products such as butter and cheese, and also for making wooden butter knives.", "It was also frequently used for trenails in wooden shipbuilding by shipwrights for its tough properties.", "In Estonia juniper wood is valued for its long lasting and pleasant aroma, very decorative natural structure of wood as well as good physical properties of wood due to slow growth rate of juniper and resulting dense and strong wood.", "Various decorative items are common in most Estonian handicraft shops and households.", "According to the old tradition, on Easter Monday Kashubian boys chase girls whipping their legs gently with juniper twigs.", "This is to bring good fortune in love to the chased girls.", "Juniper wood, especially burl wood, is frequently used to make knife handles for French pocketknives such as the Laguiole.", "Its astringent blue-black seed cones, commonly known as juniper berries, are too bitter to eat raw and are usually sold dried and used to flavour meats, sauces, and stuffings.", "They are generally crushed before use to release their flavour.", "Since juniper berries have a strong taste, they should be used sparingly.", "They are generally used to enhance meat with a strong flavour, such as game, including game birds, or tongue.", "The cones are used to flavour certain beers and gin .", "In Finland, juniper is used as a key ingredient in making sahti, a traditional Finnish ale.", "Also the Slovak alcoholic beverage Borovicka and Dutch Jenever are flavoured with juniper berry or its extract.", "Juniper is used in the traditional farmhouse ales of Norway, Brewing and beer traditions in Norway: The social anthropological background of the brewing industry, Odd Nordland, Universitetsforlaget, 1969.", "Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and Latvia.", "In Norway, the beer is brewed with juniper infusion instead of water, while in the other countries the juniper twigs are mainly used as filters to prevent the crushed malts from clogging the outlet of the lauter tun.", "The use of juniper in farmhouse brewing has been common in much of northern Europe, seemingly for a very long time.", "Juniper berries have long been used as medicine by many cultures including the Navajo people.", "Western American tribes combined the berries of J. communis with Berberis root bark in a herbal tea.", "Native Americans also used juniper berries as a female contraceptive.", "Juniper leaves were found to harbor fungi with potent anti-fungal compounds, including ibrexafungerp, which is now FDA approved to treat fungal infections."]}, "Bartsia alpina": {"keywords": ["Bartsia alpina is a species of perennial flowering plant, known by the common name alpine bartsia or velvetbells.", "It is found in the mountainous regions of Europe and also occurs in Iceland, Greenland and northeastern Canada.", "Bartsia alpina is a hemiparasitic perennial plant with a woody rhizome, growing to a height of between .", "Bartsia alpina has a European Arctic-montane distribution, and is also known from North America.", "It occurs in the mountainous regions of northern Russia, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and in the Alps and other mountains in Central Europe, as far south as the Pyrenees and southwest Bulgaria, it also occurs in Iceland, Greenland and northeastern Canada."], "habitat_section": ["Bartsia alpina has a European Arctic-montane distribution, and is also known from North America.", "It occurs in the mountainous regions of northern Russia, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and in the Alps and other mountains in Central Europe, as far south as the Pyrenees and southwest Bulgaria, it also occurs in Iceland, Greenland and northeastern Canada."], "random_sentences": ["Bartsia alpina is a species of perennial flowering plant, known by the common name alpine bartsia or velvetbells.", "It is found in the mountainous regions of Europe and also occurs in Iceland, Greenland and northeastern Canada.", "Bartsia alpina is a hemiparasitic perennial plant with a woody rhizome, growing to a height of between .", "The stem is erect and sometimes branched, hairy and purple in colour.", "The leaves are in opposite pairs, with oval leaf blades up to long and toothed margins.", "At the base of the plant, the leaves are green, but higher up they are tinged with purple.", "The corolla is dark purple and is about long.", "It is narrow at the base and has two lips, an obtuse upper lip and a smaller lower one, with three blunt, equal-sized lobes.", "It has four stamens fused to the corolla and two ovaries fused to the style.", "The fruit is an oval brown capsule.", "Bartsia alpina has a European Arctic-montane distribution, and is also known from North America.", "It occurs in the mountainous regions of northern Russia, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and in the Alps and other mountains in Central Europe, as far south as the Pyrenees and southwest Bulgaria", "it also occurs in Iceland, Greenland and northeastern Canada."]}}
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2679160_1253836
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[
"Hedera helix",
"Tussilago farfara",
"Prunus avium"
] |
{"Hedera helix": {"keywords": ["Berries Stems with rootlets used to cling to walls and tree trunks Hedera helix, the common ivy, English ivy, European ivy, or just ivy, is a species of flowering plant of the ivy genus in the family Araliaceae, native to most of Europe and western Asia.", "A rampant, clinging evergreen vine, it is a familiar sight in gardens, waste spaces, and wild areas, where it grows on walls, fences, tree trunks, etc.", "As a result of its hardy nature, and its tendency to grow readily without human assistance, ivy attained popularity as an ornamental plant, but escaped plants have become naturalised outside its native range and grow unchecked in myriad wild and cultivated areas.", "Hedera helix is an evergreen climbing plant, growing to high where suitable surfaces are available, and also growing as groundcover where no vertical surfaces occur.", "Hedera helix prefers non-reflective, darker and rough surfaces with near-neutral pH. It generally thrives in a wide range of soil pH with 6.5 being ideal, prefers moist, shady locations and avoids exposure to direct sunlight, the latter promoting drying out in winter.", "The leaves are alternate, long, with a petiole, they are of two types, with palmately five-lobed juvenile leaves on creeping and climbing stems, and unlobed cordate adult leaves on fertile flowering stems exposed to full sun, usually high in the crowns of trees or the top of rock faces.", "The flowers are produced from late summer until late autumn, individually small, in umbels, greenish-yellow, and very rich in nectar, an important late autumn food source for bees and other insects.", "Common ivy clinging on a London plane tree in Agde, France The range of European ivy is from Ireland northeast to southern Scandinavia, south to Portugal, and east to Ukraine and Iran and northern Turkey.", "In Britain, it is very common and widespread, but absent from the Isle of Man and Channel Islands The northern and eastern limits are at about the winter isotherm, while to the west and southwest, it is replaced by other species of ivy.", "Hedera helix itself is much more winter-hardy and survives temperatures of and above.", "Ivy-covered entrance to Malbork Castle in Poland Variegated ivy leaves growing at the Enchanted Floral Gardens of Kula, Maui Ivy is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant.", "Within its native range, the species is greatly valued for attracting wildlife.", "In Europe, it is frequently planted to cover walls and the Bavarian government recommends growing it on buildings for its ability to cool the interior in summer, while providing insulation in winter, as well as protecting the covered building from soil moisture, temperature fluctuations and direct exposure to heavy weather.", "Further uses include weed suppression in plantings, beautifying unsightly facades and providing additional green by growing on tree trunks.", "Previous studies showed that the Hedera helix extract contains alpha- and beta-hederin , falcarinol, didehydrofalcarinol, rutin, caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, emetine, nicotiflorin, hederasaponin B and hederacoside C. However, only three extracted components were detectable more than 1.5% in the European ivy leaves .", "Ivy can easily escape from cultivated gardens and invade nearby parks, forests and other natural areas.", "In the absence of active and ongoing measures to control its growth, it tends to crowd out all other plants, including shrubs and trees.", "Ivy can climb into the canopy of young or small trees in such density that the trees fall over from the weight, a problem that does not normally occur in its native range.", "In its mature form, dense ivy can destroy habitat for native wildlife and creates large sections of solid ivy where no other plants can develop.", "However, the UK Woodland Trust considers that it does not damage trees and hence does not require removal. .", "It has insulating as well as weather protection benefits, dries the soil and prevents wet walls, but can be problematic if not managed correctly.", "Ivy, and especially European ivy grows vigorously and clings by means of fibrous roots, which develop along the entire length of the stems.", "Hedera helix is able to climb relatively smooth vertical surfaces, creating a strong, long lasting adhesion with a force of around 300 nN. This is accomplished through a complex method of attachment starting as adventitious roots growing along the stem make contact with the surface and extend root hairs that range from 20 to 400 m in length.", "As they dry out, the hairs shrink and curl, effectively pulling the root closer to the surface."], "habitat_section": ["Common ivy clinging on a London plane tree in Agde, France The range of European ivy is from Ireland northeast to southern Scandinavia, south to Portugal, and east to Ukraine and Iran and northern Turkey.", "In Britain, it is very common and widespread, but absent from the Isle of Man and Channel Islands The northern and eastern limits are at about the winter isotherm, while to the west and southwest, it is replaced by other species of ivy.", "Hedera helix itself is much more winter-hardy and survives temperatures of and above."], "random_sentences": ["Berries Stems with rootlets used to cling to walls and tree trunks Hedera helix, the common ivy, English ivy, European ivy, or just ivy, is a species of flowering plant of the ivy genus in the family Araliaceae, native to most of Europe and western Asia.", "A rampant, clinging evergreen vine, it is a familiar sight in gardens, waste spaces, and wild areas, where it grows on walls, fences, tree trunks, etc.", "across its native and introduced habitats.", "As a result of its hardy nature, and its tendency to grow readily without human assistance, ivy attained popularity as an ornamental plant, but escaped plants have become naturalised outside its native range and grow unchecked in myriad wild and cultivated areas.", "Synonyms include Hedera acuta, Hedera arborea , Hedera baccifera, and Hedera grandifolia.", "Other common names are bindwood and lovestone.", "The genus name is the Classical Latin word for 'ivy', which is cognate with Greek 'to get, grasp', both deriving ultimately from Proto-Indo-European", "Hedera helix is an evergreen climbing plant, growing to high where suitable surfaces are available, and also growing as groundcover where no vertical surfaces occur.", "It climbs by means of aerial rootlets with matted pads which cling strongly to the substrate.", "The ability to climb on surfaces varies with the plants variety and other factors: Hedera helix prefers non-reflective, darker and rough surfaces with near-neutral pH.", "It generally thrives in a wide range of soil pH with 6.5 being ideal, prefers moist, shady locations and avoids exposure to direct sunlight, the latter promoting drying out in winter.", "The leaves are alternate, long, with a petiole", "they are of two types, with palmately five-lobed juvenile leaves on creeping and climbing stems, and unlobed cordate adult leaves on fertile flowering stems exposed to full sun, usually high in the crowns of trees or the top of rock faces.", "The flowers are produced from late summer until late autumn, individually small, in umbels, greenish-yellow, and very rich in nectar, an important late autumn food source for bees and other insects.", "The fruit are purple-black to orange-yellow berries in diameter, ripening in late winter, and are an important food source for many birds.", "One to five seeds are in each berry, which are dispersed after being eaten by birds.", "Common ivy clinging on a London plane tree in Agde, France The range of European ivy is from Ireland northeast to southern Scandinavia, south to Portugal, and east to Ukraine and Iran and northern Turkey.", "In Britain, it is very common and widespread, but absent from the Isle of Man and Channel Islands The northern and eastern limits are at about the winter isotherm, while to the west and southwest, it is replaced by other species of ivy.", "Hedera helix itself is much more winter-hardy and survives temperatures of and above.", "Ivy-covered entrance to Malbork Castle in Poland Variegated ivy leaves growing at the Enchanted Floral Gardens of Kula, Maui Ivy is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant.", "Within its native range, the species is greatly valued for attracting wildlife.", "The flowers are visited by over 70 species of nectar-feeding insects, and the berries eaten by at least 16 species of birds.", "The foliage provides dense evergreen shelter, and is also browsed by deer.", "In Europe, it is frequently planted to cover walls and the Bavarian government recommends growing it on buildings for its ability to cool the interior in summer, while providing insulation in winter, as well as protecting the covered building from soil moisture, temperature fluctuations and direct exposure to heavy weather.", "Further uses include weed suppression in plantings, beautifying unsightly facades and providing additional green by growing on tree trunks.", "However, ivy can be problematic.", "It is a fast-growing, self-clinging climber that is capable of causing damage to brickwork, guttering, etc.", ", and hiding potentially serious structural faults, as well as harbouring unwelcome pests.", "Careful planning and placement are essential.", "Ivy berries are somewhat poisonous to humans, but ivy extracts are part of current cough medicines.", "In the past, the leaves and berries were taken orally as an expectorant to treat cough and bronchitis.", "In 1597, the British herbalist John Gerard recommended water infused with ivy leaves as a wash for sore or watering eyes.", "The leaves can cause severe contact dermatitis in some people.", "People who have this allergy are also likely to react to carrots and other members of the Apiaceae as they contain the same allergen, falcarinol.", "Previous studies showed that the Hedera helix extract contains alpha- and beta-hederin , falcarinol, didehydrofalcarinol, rutin, caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, emetine, nicotiflorin, hederasaponin B and hederacoside C. However, only three extracted components were detectable more than 1.5% in the European ivy leaves .", "Other components were detectable in very few amounts or not detectable in some studies.", "Owing to the large number of saponins in the leaves and fruits of H. helix, it is mildly poisonous to animals like rabbits and can lead to anemia.", "Like other exotic species, ivy has predominantly been spread to areas by human action.", "H. helix is labeled as an invasive species in many parts of the United States, and its sale or import is banned in the state of Oregon.", "With a great capacity for adaptation, ivy will grow wherever development conditions and habitat similar to that of its European origins exist, occurring as opportunistic species across a wide distribution with close vicariant relatives and few species, indicating recent speciation.", "Decorative ivy in Hyde Park, Sydney.", "Ivy on a wall in Ecublens, SwitzerlandIt is considered a noxious weed across southern, especially south-eastern, Australia and local councils provide free information and limited services for removal. In some councils it is illegal to sell the plant.", "It is a weed in the Australian state of Victoria.", "H. helix has been listed as an \" environmental weed \" by the Department of Conservation since 1990.", "In the United States, H. helix is considered weedy or invasive in a number of regions and is on the official noxious weed lists in Oregon and Washington.", "Its sale or import is banned in Oregon.", "Ivy can easily escape from cultivated gardens and invade nearby parks, forests and other natural areas.", "Although popular as a winter holiday decoration, H. helix is invasive and is a pathogen alternate host in British Columbia.", "Ivy should not be planted or encouraged in areas where it is invasive.", "Where it is established, it is very difficult to control or eradicate.", "In the absence of active and ongoing measures to control its growth, it tends to crowd out all other plants, including shrubs and trees.", "Ivy can climb into the canopy of young or small trees in such density that the trees fall over from the weight, a problem that does not normally occur in its native range.", "In its mature form, dense ivy can destroy habitat for native wildlife and creates large sections of solid ivy where no other plants can develop.", "It is also thought to be a reservoir for leaf scorch bacteria.", "However, the UK Woodland Trust considers that it does not damage trees and hence does not require removal.", "Use as building facade green", "As with any self-climbing facade green, some care is required to make best use of the positive effects: Ivy covering the walls of an old building is a familiar and often attractive sight.", "It has insulating as well as weather protection benefits, dries the soil and prevents wet walls, but can be problematic if not managed correctly.", "Ivy, and especially European ivy (H.", "helix) grows vigorously and clings by means of fibrous roots, which develop along the entire length of the stems.", "These are difficult to remove, leaving an unsightly \" footprint \" on walls, and possibly resulting in expensive resurfacing work.", "Additionally, ivy can quickly invade gutters and roofspaces, lifting tiles and causing blockages.", "It also harbors mice and other creatures.", "The plants have to be cut off at the base, and the stumps dug out or killed to prevent regrowth.", "Therefore, if a green facade is desired, this decision has to be made consciously, since later removal would be tedious.", "Hedera helix is able to climb relatively smooth vertical surfaces, creating a strong, long lasting adhesion with a force of around 300 nN.", "This is accomplished through a complex method of attachment starting as adventitious roots growing along the stem make contact with the surface and extend root hairs that range from 20 to 400 m in length.", "These tiny hairs grow into any small crevices available, secrete glue-like nanoparticles, and lignify.", "As they dry out, the hairs shrink and curl, effectively pulling the root closer to the surface.", "The glue-like substance is a nano composite adhesive that consists of uniform spherical nanoparticles 50-80 nm in diameter in a liquid polymer matrix.", "Chemical analyses of the nanoparticles detected only trace amounts of metals, once thought to be responsible for their high strength, indicating that they are largely organic.", "Recent work has shown that the nanoparticles are likely composed in large part of arabinogalactan proteins , which exist in other plant adhesives as well.", "The matrix portion of the composite is made of pectic polysaccharides.", "Calcium ions present in the matrix induce interactions between carboxyl groups of these components, causing a cross linking that hardens the adhesive."]}, "Tussilago farfara": {"keywords": ["The leaves of coltsfoot, which appear after the flowers have set seed, wither and die in the early summer.", "The plant is often found in waste and disturbed places and along roadsides and paths."], "habitat_section": ["Coltsfoot is widespread across Europe, Asia, and North Africa, from Svalbard to Morocco to China and the Russian Far East.", "It is also a common plant in North and South America where it has been introduced, most likely by settlers as a medicinal item.", "The plant is often found in waste and disturbed places and along roadsides and paths.", "In some areas it is considered an invasive species."], "random_sentences": ["Tussilago farfara, commonly known as coltsfoot, is a plant in the tribe Senecioneae in the family Asteraceae, native to Europe and parts of western and central Asia.", "The name \" tussilago \" is derived from the Latin tussis, meaning cough, and ago, meaning to cast or to act on.", "It has had uses in traditional medicine, but the discovery of toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids in the plant has resulted in liver health concerns.", "Tussilago farfara is the only accepted species in the genus Tussilago, although more than two dozen other species have at one time or another been considered part of this group.", "Most of them are now regarded as members of other genera .", "Coltsfoot is a perennial herbaceous plant that spreads by seeds and rhizomes.", "Tussilago is often found in colonies of dozens of plants.", "The flowers, which superficially resemble dandelions, bear scale-leaves on the long stems in early spring.", "The leaves of coltsfoot, which appear after the flowers have set seed, wither and die in the early summer.", "The flower heads are of yellow florets with an outer row of bracts.", "The plant is typically in height.", "The leaves have angular teeth on their margins.", "Coltsfoot is widespread across Europe, Asia, and North Africa, from Svalbard to Morocco to China and the Russian Far East.", "It is also a common plant in North and South America where it has been introduced, most likely by settlers as a medicinal item.", "The plant is often found in waste and disturbed places and along roadsides and paths.", "In some areas it is considered an invasive species.", "The common name comes from the leaf's supposed resemblance in shape to a colt's foot.", "It is a 16th century translation of the medieval Latin name pes pulli, meaning \" foal's foot \" .", "Other common names include tash plant, ass's foot, bull's foot, coughwort , farfara, foal's foot, foalswort, and horse foot.", "Sometimes it is confused with Petasites frigidus, or western coltsfoot.", "It has been called bechion, bechichie, or bechie, from the Ancient Greek word for \" cough \" .", "Also ungula caballina , and chamleuce.", "Coltsfoot has been used in herbal medicine and has been consumed as a food product with some confectionery products, such as Coltsfoot Rock.", "Tussilago farfara leaves have been used in traditional Austrian medicine internally or externally for treatment of disorders of the respiratory tract, skin, locomotor system, viral infections, flu, colds, fever, rheumatism and gout.", "An extract of the fresh leaves has also been used to make cough drops and hard candy.", "Coltsfoot is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the Gothic and small angle shades.", "It is also visited by honeybees, providing pollen and nectar.", "Fruit of coltsfoot with pappus.", "Tussilago farfara contains tumorigenic pyrrolizidine alkaloids.", "Senecionine and senkirkine, present in coltsfoot, have the highest mutagenetic activity of any pyrrolozidine alkaloid, tested using Drosophila melanogaster to produce a comparative genotoxicity test.", "Two cases of supposed liver damage due to coltsfoot tea have been shown to actually be the result of mistaken identity.", "In one, coltsfoot tea causing severe liver problems in an infant was actually the result of Adenostyles alliariae .", "In another case, an infant developed liver disease and died because the mother drank tea originally believed to contain coltsfoot during her pregnancy, but which was later shown to be Petasites hybridus or a similar species.", "In one 27-year-old male, ingesting a multicomponent herbal supplement that included coltsfoot may have caused him to develop non-lethal deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.", "In response, the German government banned the sale of coltsfoot.", "Clonal plants of coltsfoot free of pyrrolizidine alkaloids were then developed in Austria and Germany.", "This has resulted in the development of the registered variety Tussilago farfara 'Wien', which has no detectable levels of these alkaloids."]}, "Prunus avium": {"keywords": ["Prunus avium, commonly called wild cherry, sweet cherry or gean is a species of cherry, a flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae.", "It is native to Europe, Anatolia, Maghreb, and Western Asia, from the British Isles south to Morocco and Tunisia, north to the Trondheimsfjord region in Norway and east to the Caucasus and northern Iran, with a small isolated population in the western Himalaya.", "The species is widely cultivated in other regions and has become naturalized in North America, New Zealand and Australia.", "Prunus avium is a deciduous tree growing to 518 metres tall, with a trunk up to 1.5 m in diameter.", "Young trees show strong apical dominance with a straight trunk and symmetrical conical crown, becoming rounded to irregular on old trees.", "The bark is smooth purplish-brown with prominent horizontal grey-brown lenticels on young trees, becoming thick dark blackish-brown and fissured on old trees.", "The name \"wild cherry\" is also commonly applied to other species of Prunus growing in their native habitats, particularly to the North American species Prunus serotina.", "The term is used particularly for the varieties of P. avium grown in North Devon and cultivated there, particularly in the British orchards at Landkey.", "The tree exudes a gum from wounds in the bark, by which it seals the wounds to exclude insects and fungal infections.", "It is often cultivated as a flowering tree.", "The double-flowered form, 'Plena', is commonly found, rather than the wild single-flowered forms.", "In the UK, P. avium 'Plena' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Two interspecific hybrids, P. schmittii and P. fontenesiana are also grown as ornamental trees.", "Wild cherries have been an item of human food for several thousands of years.", "In one dated example, wild cherry macrofossils were found in a core sample from the detritus beneath a dwelling at an Early and Middle Bronze Age pile-dwelling site on and in the shore of a former lake at Desenzano del Garda or Lonato, near the southern shore of Lake Garda, Italy.", "Various cherry cultivars are now grown worldwide wherever the climate is suitable, the number of cultivars is now very large.", "The species has also escaped from cultivation and become naturalised in some temperate regions, including southwestern Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the northeast and northwest of the United States.", "Wild cherry is used extensively in Europe for the afforestation of agricultural land and it is also valued for wildlife and amenity plantings.", "Although cultivated/domesticated varieties of Prunus avium did not exist in Britain or much of Europe, the tree in its wild state is native to most of Europe, including Britain.", "In 1882 Alphonse de Candolle pointed out that seeds of Prunus avium were found in the Terramare culture of north Italy and over the layers of the Swiss pile dwellings.", "Modern cultivated cherries differ from wild ones in having larger fruit, 23 cm diameter.", "The trees are often grown on dwarfing rootstocks to keep them smaller for easier harvesting.", "He notes that in the fifteenth century \"Cherries on the ryse\" was one of the street cries of London, but conjectures that these were the fruit of \"the native wild Cherry, or Gean-tree\"."], "habitat_section": ["The fruit are readily eaten by numerous kinds of birds and mammals, which digest the fruit flesh and disperse the seeds in their droppings.", "Some rodents, and a few birds , also crack open the stones to eat the kernel inside.", "The leaves provide food for some animals, including Lepidoptera such as the case-bearer moth Coleophora anatipennella.", "The tree exudes a gum from wounds in the bark, by which it seals the wounds to exclude insects and fungal infections.", "Prunus avium is thought to be one of the parent species of Prunus cerasus , by way of ancient crosses between it and Prunus fruticosa in the areas where the two species overlap.", "All three species can breed with one another.", "Prunus cerasus is now a species in its own right, having developed beyond a hybrid and stabilised."], "random_sentences": ["Prunus avium, commonly called wild cherry, sweet cherry or gean is a species of cherry, a flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae.", "It is native to Europe, Anatolia, Maghreb, and Western Asia, from the British Isles south to Morocco and Tunisia, north to the Trondheimsfjord region in Norway and east to the Caucasus and northern Iran, with a small isolated population in the western Himalaya.", "The species is widely cultivated in other regions and has become naturalized in North America, New Zealand and Australia.", "Prunus avium has a diploid set of sixteen chromosomes .", "All parts of the plant except for the ripe fruit are slightly toxic, containing cyanogenic glycosides.", "Prunus avium is a deciduous tree growing to 518 metres tall, with a trunk up to 1.5 m in diameter.", "Young trees show strong apical dominance with a straight trunk and symmetrical conical crown, becoming rounded to irregular on old trees.", "The bark is smooth purplish-brown with prominent horizontal grey-brown lenticels on young trees, becoming thick dark blackish-brown and fissured on old trees.", "The leaves are alternate, simple ovoid-acute, 714 centimetres long and 47 cm broad, glabrous matt or sub-shiny green above, variably finely downy beneath, with a serrated margin and an acuminate tip, with a green or reddish petiole 23.5 cm long bearing two to five small red glands.", "The tip of each serrated edge of the leaves also bear small red glands.", "In autumn, the leaves turn orange, pink or red before falling.", "The flowers are produced in early spring at the same time as the new leaves, borne in corymbs of two to six together, each flower pendent on a 25 cm peduncle, 2.53.5 cm in diameter, with five pure white petals, yellowish stamens, and a superior ovary", "they are hermaphroditic, and pollinated by bees.", "The ovary contains two ovules, only one of which becomes the seed.", "The fruit is a drupe 12 cm in diameter , bright red to dark purple when mature in midsummer, edible, variably sweet to somewhat astringent and bitter to eat fresh.", "Each fruit contains a single hard-shelled stone 812 mm long, 710 mm wide and 68 mm thick, grooved along the flattest edge", "the seed inside the stone is 68 mm long.", "The early history of its classification is somewhat confused.", "In the first edition of Species Plantarum , Linnaeus treated it as only a variety, Prunus cerasus var. avium, citing Gaspard Bauhin's Pinax theatri botanici .", "His description, Cerasus racemosa hortensis shows it was described from a cultivated plant.", "Linnaeus then changed from a variety to a species Prunus avium in the second edition of his Flora Suecica in 1755.", "Sweet cherry was known historically as gean or mazzard .", "Until recently, both were largely obsolete names in modern English.", "The name \"wild cherry\" is also commonly applied to other species of Prunus growing in their native habitats, particularly to the North American species Prunus serotina.", "Prunus avium means \"bird cherry\" in the Latin language, but in English \"bird cherry\" refers to Prunus padus.", "'Mazzard' has been used to refer to a selected self-fertile cultivar that comes true from seed, and which is used as a seedling rootstock for fruiting cultivars.", "The term is used particularly for the varieties of P. avium grown in North Devon and cultivated there, particularly in the British orchards at Landkey.", "The fruit are readily eaten by numerous kinds of birds and mammals, which digest the fruit flesh and disperse the seeds in their droppings.", "Some rodents, and a few birds , also crack open the stones to eat the kernel inside.", "The leaves provide food for some animals, including Lepidoptera such as the case-bearer moth Coleophora anatipennella.", "The tree exudes a gum from wounds in the bark, by which it seals the wounds to exclude insects and fungal infections.", "Prunus avium is thought to be one of the parent species of Prunus cerasus , by way of ancient crosses between it and Prunus fruticosa in the areas where the two species overlap.", "All three species can breed with one another.", "Prunus cerasus is now a species in its own right, having developed beyond a hybrid and stabilised.", "It is often cultivated as a flowering tree.", "Because of the size of the tree, it is often used in parkland, and less often as a street or garden tree.", "The double-flowered form, 'Plena', is commonly found, rather than the wild single-flowered forms.", "In the UK, P. avium 'Plena' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Two interspecific hybrids, P. schmittii (P.", "avium P. canescens) and P. fontenesiana (P.", "avium P. mahaleb) are also grown as ornamental trees.", "All parts of the plant except for the ripe fruit are slightly toxic, containing cyanogenic glycosides.", "Some 18th- and 19th-century botanical authors assumed a western Asian origin for the species based on the writings of Pliny", "however, archaeological finds of seeds from prehistoric Europe contradict this view.", "Wild cherries have been an item of human food for several thousands of years.", "The stones have been found in deposits at Bronze Age settlements throughout Europe, including in Britain.", "In one dated example, wild cherry macrofossils were found in a core sample from the detritus beneath a dwelling at an Early and Middle Bronze Age pile-dwelling site on and in the shore of a former lake at Desenzano del Garda or Lonato, near the southern shore of Lake Garda, Italy.", "The date is estimated at Early Bronze Age IA, carbon dated there to 2077 BCE plus or minus 10 years.", "The natural forest was largely cleared at that time.", "By 800 BCE, cherries were being actively cultivated in Asia Minor, and soon after in Greece.", "As the main ancestor of the cultivated cherry, the sweet cherry is one of the two cherry species which supply most of the world's commercial cultivars of edible cherry (the other is the sour cherry Prunus cerasus, mainly used for cooking", "a few other species have had a very small input).", "Various cherry cultivars are now grown worldwide wherever the climate is suitable", "the number of cultivars is now very large.", "The species has also escaped from cultivation and become naturalised in some temperate regions, including southwestern Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the northeast and northwest of the United States.", "The hard, reddish-brown wood is valued as a hardwood for woodturning, and making cabinets and musical instruments.", "Cherry wood is also used for smoking foods, particularly meats, in North America, as it lends a distinct and pleasant flavor to the product.", "The gum from bark wounds is aromatic and can be chewed as a substitute for chewing gum.", "Medicine can be prepared from the stalks of the drupes that is astringent, antitussive, and diuretic.", "A green dye can also be prepared from the plant.", "Wild cherry is used extensively in Europe for the afforestation of agricultural land and it is also valued for wildlife and amenity plantings.", "Many European countries have gene conservation and/or breeding programmes for wild cherry.", "Pliny distinguishes between Prunus, the plum fruit, and Cerasus, the cherry fruit.", "Already in Pliny quite a number of cultivars are cited, some possibly species or varieties, Aproniana, Lutatia, Caeciliana, and so on.", "Pliny grades them by flavour, including dulcis and acer .", "and goes so far as to say that before the Roman consul Lucius Licinius Lucullus defeated Mithridates in 74 BC, Cerasia non-fuere in Italia, \"There were no cherry trees in Italy\".", "According to him, Lucullus brought them in from Pontus and in the 120 years since that time they had spread across Europe to Britain.", "Although cultivated/domesticated varieties of Prunus avium did not exist in Britain or much of Europe, the tree in its wild state is native to most of Europe, including Britain.", "Evidence of consumption of the wild fruits has been found as far back as the Bronze Age at a Crannog in County Offaly, in Ireland.", "Seeds of a number of cherry species have however been found in Bronze Age and Roman archaeological sites throughout Europe.", "The reference to \"sweet\" and \"sour\" supports the modern view that \"sweet\" was Prunus avium", "there are no other candidates among the cherries found.", "In 1882 Alphonse de Candolle pointed out that seeds of Prunus avium were found in the Terramare culture of north Italy and over the layers of the Swiss pile dwellings.", "Of Pliny's statement he says (p.", "210): Since this error is perpetuated by its incessant repetition in classical schools, it must once more be said that cherry trees existed in Italy before Lucullus, and that the famous gourmet did not need to go far to seek the species with the sour or bitter fruit.", "De Candolle suggests that what Lucullus brought back was a particular cultivar of Prunus avium from the Caucasus.", "The origin of cultivars of P. avium is still an open question.", "Modern cultivated cherries differ from wild ones in having larger fruit, 23 cm diameter.", "The trees are often grown on dwarfing rootstocks to keep them smaller for easier harvesting.", "Folkard similarly identifies Lucullus's cherry as a cultivated variety.", "He states that it was planted in Britain a century after its introduction into Italy, but \"disappeared during the Saxon period\".", "He notes that in the fifteenth century \"Cherries on the ryse\" was one of the street cries of London, but conjectures that these were the fruit of \"the native wild Cherry, or Gean-tree\".", "The cultivated variety was reintroduced into Britain by the fruiterer of Henry VIII, who brought it from Flanders and planted a cherry orchard at Teynham."]}}
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2581123_1213224
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[
"Tachybaptus ruficollis",
"Chroicocephalus ridibundus",
"Phalacrocorax carbo",
"Larus michahellis",
"Podiceps cristatus",
"Cygnus olor",
"Ardea alba",
"Fulica atra",
"Mareca strepera",
"Anas platyrhynchos",
"Aythya ferina",
"Aythya fuligula",
"Motacilla alba"
] |
{"Tachybaptus ruficollis": {"keywords": ["This bird breeds in small colonies in heavily vegetated areas of freshwater lakes across Europe, much of Asia down to New Guinea, and most of Africa.", "Most birds move to more open or coastal waters in winter, but it is only migratory in those parts of its range where the waters freeze.", "Outside of breeding season, it moves into more open water, occasionally even appearing on the coast in small bays.", "The little grebe is an excellent swimmer and diver and pursues its fish and aquatic invertebrate prey underwater.", "When the adult bird leaves the nest it usually takes care to cover the eggs with weeds.", "In India, the species breeds during the rainy season."], "habitat_section": ["This bird breeds in small colonies in heavily vegetated areas of freshwater lakes across Europe, much of Asia down to New Guinea, and most of Africa.", "Most birds move to more open or coastal waters in winter, but it is only migratory in those parts of its range where the waters freeze.", "Outside of breeding season, it moves into more open water, occasionally even appearing on the coast in small bays."], "random_sentences": ["The little grebe , also known as dabchick, is a member of the grebe family of water birds.", "The genus name is from Ancient Greek takhus \" fast \" and bapto \" to sink under \" .", "The specific ruficollis is from Latin rufus \" red \" and Modern Latin -collis, \" -necked \" , itself derived from Latin collum \" neck \" .", "At in length it is the smallest European member of its family.", "It is commonly found in open bodies of water across most of its range.", "The little grebe was described by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764 and given the binomial name Colymbus ruficollis.", "The tricolored grebe was considered conspecific, with some taxonomic authorities still considering it so.", "There are six currently-recognized subspecies, separated principally by size and colouration.", "The little grebe is a small water bird with a pointed bill.", "The adult is unmistakable in summer, predominantly dark above with its rich, rufous colour neck, cheeks and flanks, and bright yellow gape.", "The rufous is replaced by a dirty brownish grey in non-breeding and juvenile birds.", "Juvenile birds have a yellow bill with a small black tip, and black and white streaks on the cheeks and sides of the neck as seen below.", "This yellow bill darkens as the juveniles age, eventually turning black in adulthood.", "In winter, its size, buff plumage, with a darker back and cap, and powder puff rear end enable easy identification of this species.", "The little grebe's breeding call, given singly or in duet, is a trilled repeated weet-weet-weet or wee-wee-wee which sounds like a horse whinnying.", "This bird breeds in small colonies in heavily vegetated areas of freshwater lakes across Europe, much of Asia down to New Guinea, and most of Africa.", "Most birds move to more open or coastal waters in winter, but it is only migratory in those parts of its range where the waters freeze.", "Outside of breeding season, it moves into more open water, occasionally even appearing on the coast in small bays.", "The little grebe is an excellent swimmer and diver and pursues its fish and aquatic invertebrate prey underwater.", "It uses the vegetation skilfully as a hiding place.", "Like all grebes, it nests at the water's edge, since its legs are set very far back and it cannot walk well.", "Usually four to seven eggs are laid.", "When the adult bird leaves the nest it usually takes care to cover the eggs with weeds.", "This makes it less likely to be detected by predators.", "The young leave the nest and can swim soon after hatching, and chicks are often carried on the backs of the swimming adults.", "In India, the species breeds during the rainy season."]}, "Chroicocephalus ridibundus": {"keywords": ["The black-headed gull is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic including Europe and also in coastal eastern Canada.", "They are an overwintering species, found in a variety of different habitats.", "The summer adult has a chocolate-brown head , pale grey body, black tips to the primary wing feathers, and red bill and legs.", "Immature birds have a mottled pattern of brown spots over most of the body, It breeds in colonies in large reed beds or marshes, or on islands in lakes, nesting on the ground.", "It is not a pelagic species and is rarely seen at sea far from coasts.", "Small numbers also breed in northeastern Canada and can be seen in winter in northeast North America as far south as Virginia, often with the similar-looking Bonaparte's Gull and also in some Caribbean islands.", "Although mothers show some form of aggressiveness when a predator is near, in the first 30 minutes, wet chicks can be easily taken by other black-headed gulls after hatching when the parents of the wet chick are distracted.", "Head-bobbing walking occurs during a seeking type foraging by walking through water and includes benefits such as enhancing motion and pattern detection and gathering depth information from motion parallax during the thrust phase."], "habitat_section": ["Black-headed gulls can be found over much of Europe.", "It is also found in across the Palearctic to Japan and east China.", "Small numbers also breed in northeastern Canada and can be seen in winter in northeast North America as far south as Virginia, often with the similar-looking Bonaparte's Gull and also in some Caribbean islands."], "random_sentences": ["The black-headed gull is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic including Europe and also in coastal eastern Canada.", "Most of the population is migratory and winters further south, but some birds reside in the milder westernmost areas of Europe.", "Small numbers also occur in northeastern North America, where it was formerly known as the common black-headed gull.", "As is the case with many gulls, it was previously placed in the genus Larus.", "The genus name Chroicocephalus is from Ancient Greek khroizo, \" to colour \" , and kephale, \" head \" .", "The specific ridibundus is Latin for \" laughing \" , from ridere \" to laugh \" .", "The black-headed gull displays a variety of compelling behaviours and adaptations.", "Some of these include removing eggshells from one's nest after hatching, begging co-ordination between siblings, differences between sexes, conspecific brood parasitism, and extra-pair paternity.", "They are an overwintering species, found in a variety of different habitats.", "This gull is long with a wingspan and weighs .", "In flight, the white leading edge to the wing is a good field mark.", "The summer adult has a chocolate-brown head , pale grey body, black tips to the primary wing feathers, and red bill and legs.", "The hood is lost in winter, leaving just two dark spots.", "Immature birds have a mottled pattern of brown spots over most of the body, It breeds in colonies in large reed beds or marshes, or on islands in lakes, nesting on the ground.", "Like most gulls, it is highly gregarious in winter, both when feeding or in evening roosts.", "It is not a pelagic species and is rarely seen at sea far from coasts.", "The black-headed gull is a bold and opportunistic feeder.", "It eats insects, fish, seeds, worms, scraps, and carrion in towns, or invertebrates in ploughed fields with equal relish.", "It is a noisy species, especially in colonies, with a familiar \" kree-ar \" call.", "Its scientific name means laughing gull.", "This species takes two years to reach maturity.", "First-year birds have a black terminal tail band, more dark areas in the wings, and, in summer, a less fully developed dark hood.", "Like most gulls, black-headed gulls are long-lived birds, with a maximum age of at least 32.9 years recorded in the wild, in addition to an anecdote now believed of dubious authenticity regarding a 63-year-old bird.", "Black-headed gulls can be found over much of Europe.", "It is also found in across the Palearctic to Japan and east China.", "Small numbers also breed in northeastern Canada and can be seen in winter in northeast North America as far south as Virginia, often with the similar-looking Bonaparte's Gull and also in some Caribbean islands.", "Eggshell removal is a behaviour seen in birds once the chicks have hatched, observed mostly to reduce risk of predation.", "Removing the eggshell acts as a way of camouflage to avoid predators seeing the nest.", "The further away egg shells are from the nest, the lower the predation risk.", "Black-headed gull eggs experience predation from different species of birds, foxes, stoats, and even other black-headed gulls.", "Although mothers show some form of aggressiveness when a predator is near, in the first 30 minutes, wet chicks can be easily taken by other black-headed gulls after hatching when the parents of the wet chick are distracted.", "Black headed gulls also carry away other objects that do not belong in the nest.", "The removal of eggshells and other objects is important not only in the incubation period but also during the first few days after the eggs hatch.", "However, the removal process seems to increase as time goes on.", "The removal is done by both the male and female parents, normally lasts a few seconds and is done three times a year.", "A black-headed gull is able to differentiate an egg shell from an egg by acknowledging its thin, serrated, white, edge.", "Therefore, the weight of the egg or eggshell does not play a role when determining its value.", "Black-headed gulls display both head-bobbing walking and non-bobbing walking .", "Head-bobbing walking is expressed by a hold phase and a thrust phase.", "The hold phase in black-headed gulls occurs mainly during the single support phase and is when the bird balances its head to equal the environment.", "Head-bobbing walking occurs during a seeking type foraging by walking through water and includes benefits such as enhancing motion and pattern detection and gathering depth information from motion parallax during the thrust phase.", "Non-bobbing walking occurs when black-headed gulls are displaying a waiting behaviour while foraging on flat surfaces.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The eggs of the black-headed gull are considered a delicacy by some in the UK and are eaten hard boiled.", "The collection of black-headed gull eggs is heavily regulated by the UK government.", "Eggs may only be taken by a small number of licensed individuals at six sites between April 1 and May 15 each year and only a single egg may be taken from each nest.", "No eggs are permitted to be sold after June 30.", "As the gulls tend to lay in late April and early May, the eggs are in effect, only available to purchase for 3 or 4 weeks per year.", "Observations on the behavior of black-headed gulls show that black-headed gulls individuals synchronize their vigilance activity with other black-headed gulls neighbors.", "Synchronization in black-headed gulls groups is dependent on the distance between the black-headed gulls members.", "On 19th October 1991, local Broome birder Brian Kane saw a strange species of bird while trawling the local sewer ponds.", "Upon seeing this bird, he contacted the Broome Bird Observatory by telephone to verify the species, however there was conjecture regarding its identity.", "Kane took photos of the bird and recorded field notes, before sending this information to the Appraisals Committee in Hobart, Tasmania, who were able to confirm that it was indeed a black-headed gull.", "This was the first recorded sighting of the species in Australia.", "In Richard Adams' 1972 novel Watership Down, a black-headed gull named Kehaar plays a major part in the story.", "Injured by a farm cat and left behind during the seasonal migrations, Kehaar finds himself stranded on the Downs and is taken in by a warren of European rabbits.", "He later becomes their friend and ally, and helps to save the rabbits from danger many times", "instincts eventually force him to return to his colony, but he promises to visit the rabbits each winter.", "True to Adams' stated intentions of trying to keep the animals' behavior close to reality, Kehaar is characterized as intelligent, gregarious, noisy, messy, and impatient.", "He has a guttural accent, inspired by a Norwegian Resistance fighter Adams once had known.", "Kehaar appears in all three screen adaptations of the novel", "the character was voiced by Zero Mostel in the 1978 film, Rik Mayall in the 1999 TV series, and Peter Capaldi in the 2018 miniseries."]}, "Phalacrocorax carbo": {"keywords": ["Texel, Netherlands The great cormorant , known as the black shag in New Zealand and formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds.", "It breeds in much of the Old World, Australia, and the Atlantic coast of North America.", "It feeds on the sea, in estuaries, and on freshwater lakes and rivers.", "Northern birds migrate south and winter along any coast that is well-supplied with fish.", "However, after 1945 many artificial lakes were formed in Serbia, some of them became potential habitats for cormorants.", "Currently, on the Lake Celije, formed in 1980, there is a resident colony of cormorants, who nest there and are present throughout the year, except JanuaryFebruary 1985 and February 2012 when the lake surface was completely frozen.", "The type subspecies, P. c. carbo, is found mainly in Atlantic waters and nearby inland areas.", "on western European coasts and east across the Palearctic to Siberia and to North Africa, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland, and on the eastern seaboard of North America.", "The great cormorant often nests in colonies near wetlands, rivers, and sheltered inshore waters.", "It builds its nest, which is made from sticks, in trees, on the ledges of cliffs, and on the ground on rocky islands that are free of predators.", "The average weight of fish taken by great cormorants increased with decreasing air and water temperature, being 30 g during summer, 109 g during a warm winter and 157 g during the cold winter .", "Cormorants consume all fish of appropriate size that they are able to catch in summer and noticeably select for larger, mostly torpedo-shaped fish in winter.", "Thus, the winter elevation of foraging efficiency described for cormorants by various researchers is due to capturing larger fish not due to capturing more fish.", "In some freshwater systems, the losses of fish due to overwintering great cormorants were estimated to be up to 80 kg per ha each year .", "An old legend states that for people who die far out at sea, whose bodies are never recovered, spend eternity on the island Utrst which can only occasionally be found by mortals."], "habitat_section": ["This is a very common and widespread bird species.", "It feeds on the sea, in estuaries, and on freshwater lakes and rivers.", "Northern birds migrate south and winter along any coast that is well-supplied with fish.", "In Serbia, the cormorant lives in Vojvodina.", "However, after 1945 many artificial lakes were formed in Serbia, some of them became potential habitats for cormorants.", "Currently, on the Lake Celije, formed in 1980, there is a resident colony of cormorants, who nest there and are present throughout the year, except JanuaryFebruary 1985 and February 2012 when the lake surface was completely frozen.", "The type subspecies, P. c. carbo, is found mainly in Atlantic waters and nearby inland areas.", "on western European coasts and east across the Palearctic to Siberia and to North Africa, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland, and on the eastern seaboard of North America.", "The subspecies P. c. novaehollandiae is found in Australian waters."], "random_sentences": ["Adult great cormorant in breeding plumage.", "Texel, Netherlands The great cormorant , known as the black shag in New Zealand and formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds.", "It breeds in much of the Old World, Australia, and the Atlantic coast of North America.", "The long white-breasted cormorant P. c. lucidus found in sub-Saharan Africa, has a white neck and breast.", "It is often treated as a full species, Phalacrocorax lucidus .", "In addition to the Australasian and African forms, Phalacrocorax carbo novaehollandiae and P. c. lucidus mentioned above, other geographically distinct subspecies are recognised, including P. c. sinensis , P. c. maroccanus , and P. c. hanedae .", "Some authors treat all these as allospecies of a P. carbo superspecies group.", "In New Zealand, the subspecies P. c. novaehollandiae is known as the black shag or by its Maori name", "The syntype is in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.", "The great cormorant is a large black bird, but there is a wide variation in size in the species' wide range.", "Weight is reported to vary from to .", "Males are typically larger and heavier than females, with the nominate race (P.", "c. carbo) averaging about 10% larger in linear measurements than the smallest race in Europe (P.", "The lightest average weights cited are in Germany (P.", "c. sinensis), where 36 males averaged and 17 females averaged .", "The highest come from Prince Edward Island in Canada (P.", "c. carbo), where 11 males averaged and 11 females averaged .", "Length can vary from and wingspan from .", "They are tied as the second largest extant species of cormorant after the flightless cormorant, with the Japanese cormorant averaging at a similar size.", "In bulk if not in linear dimensions, the Blue-eyed shag species complex of the Southern Oceans are scarcely smaller at average.", "It has a longish tail and yellow throat-patch.", "Adults have white patches on the thighs and on the throat in the breeding season.", "In European waters it can be distinguished from the common shag by its larger size, heavier build, thicker bill, lack of a crest and plumage without any green tinge.", "In eastern North America, it is similarly larger and bulkier than double-crested cormorant, and the latter species has more yellow on the throat and bill and lack the white thigh patches frequently seen on great cormorants.", "Great cormorants are mostly silent, but they make various guttural noises at their breeding colonies.", "A very rare variation of the great cormorant is caused by albinism.", "The Phalacrocorax carbo albino suffers from poor eyesight and/or hearing, thus it rarely manages to survive in the wild.", "This is a very common and widespread bird species.", "It feeds on the sea, in estuaries, and on freshwater lakes and rivers.", "Northern birds migrate south and winter along any coast that is well-supplied with fish.", "In Serbia, the cormorant lives in Vojvodina.", "However, after 1945 many artificial lakes were formed in Serbia", "some of them became potential habitats for cormorants.", "Currently, on the Lake Celije, formed in 1980, there is a resident colony of cormorants, who nest there and are present throughout the year, except JanuaryFebruary 1985 and February 2012 when the lake surface was completely frozen.", "The type subspecies, P. c. carbo, is found mainly in Atlantic waters and nearby inland areas: on western European coasts and east across the Palearctic to Siberia and to North Africa, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland", "and on the eastern seaboard of North America.", "The subspecies P. c. novaehollandiae is found in Australian waters.", "Cormorant swallowing a just caught eel Great cormorant with bronze featherback from Keoladeo Ghana National park, Bharatpur Great cormorant trying to swallow bronze featherback.", "from Keoladeo Ghana National park, Bharatpur Great cormorant from Ponnani Malappuram Kerala India", "The great cormorant often nests in colonies near wetlands, rivers, and sheltered inshore waters.", "Pairs will use the same nest site to breed year after year.", "It builds its nest, which is made from sticks, in trees, on the ledges of cliffs, and on the ground on rocky islands that are free of predators.", "This cormorant lays a clutch of three to five eggs that measure on average.", "The eggs are a pale blue or green, and sometimes have a white chalky layer covering them.", "These eggs are incubated for a period of about 28 to 31 days.", "The great cormorant feeds on fish caught through diving.", "This bird feeds primarily on wrasses, but it also takes sand smelt, flathead and common soles.", "The average weight of fish taken by great cormorants increased with decreasing air and water temperature, being 30 g during summer, 109 g during a warm winter and 157 g during the cold winter .", "Cormorants consume all fish of appropriate size that they are able to catch in summer and noticeably select for larger, mostly torpedo-shaped fish in winter.", "Thus, the winter elevation of foraging efficiency described for cormorants by various researchers is due to capturing larger fish not due to capturing more fish.", "In some freshwater systems, the losses of fish due to overwintering great cormorants were estimated to be up to 80 kg per ha each year .", "This cormorant forages by diving and capturing its prey in its beak.", "Studies suggest that their hearing has evolved for underwater usage, possibly aiding their detection of fish.", "These adaptations also have a cost on their hearing ability in air which is of lowered sensitivity.", "Cormorant fishing in Suzhou, China", "left Many fishermen see in the great cormorant a competitor for fish.", "Because of this, it was hunted nearly to extinction in the past.", "Due to conservation efforts, its numbers increased.", "At the moment, there are about 1.2 million birds in Europe (based on winter counts", "late summer counts would show higher numbers).", "Increasing populations have once again brought the cormorant into conflict with fisheries.", "For example, in Britain, where inland breeding was once uncommon, there are now increasing numbers of birds breeding inland, and many inland fish farms and fisheries now claim to be suffering high losses due to these birds.", "In the UK each year, some licences are issued to cull specified numbers of cormorants in order to help reduce predation", "it is, however, still illegal to kill a bird without such a licence.", "Cormorant fishing is practised in China, Japan, and elsewhere around the globe.", "In this practice, fishermen tie a line around the throats of cormorants, tight enough to prevent swallowing the larger fish they catch, and deploy them from small boats.", "The cormorants catch fish without being able to fully swallow them, and the fishermen are able to retrieve the fish simply by forcing open the cormorants' mouths, apparently engaging the regurgitation reflex.", "In Norway, the cormorant is a traditional game bird.", "Each year approximately 10,000 cormorants are shot to be eaten.", "In North Norway, cormorants are traditionally seen as semi-sacred.", "It is regarded as good luck to have cormorants gather near your village or settlement.", "An old legend states that for people who die far out at sea, whose bodies are never recovered, spend eternity on the island Utrst which can only occasionally be found by mortals.", "The inhabitants of Utrst can only visit their homes in the shape of cormorants."]}, "Larus michahellis": {"keywords": ["Mating on roof-top, Constanta, Romania The breeding range is centred on the Mediterranean Sea.", "In Europe, there are colonies all along the Mediterranean coast, and also on the Atlantic islands and coasts north to Brittany and west to the Azores.", "It also breeds on the western side of the Black Sea, here it overlaps with the Caspian gull but there is a difference in habitat, with the yellow-legged gull preferring sea cliffs and the Caspian gull flatter shores.", "Many birds remain in the same area all year round, but others migrate to spend the winter in mild areas of western Europe or head south as far as Senegal, Gambia and the Red Sea.", "There is also extensive northward post-breeding dispersal in the late summer, with numbers in southern England high from July to October.", "They will scavenge on rubbish tips and elsewhere, as well as seeking suitable prey in fields or on the coast, or robbing smaller gulls and other seabirds of their catches.", "Although urban populations are generally opportunistic scavengers, they can shift to a predatory diet if necessary, this was observed during the lockdown of Italy in 2020, when the lack of food scraps led the yellow-legged gulls of Rome to take prey as large as rats and rock doves.", "Atlantic gulls in Gibraltar have been observed and photographed picking and eating fruit from olive trees in flight.", "The nest is a sometimes sparse mound of vegetation built on the ground or on cliff ledges.", "In some places such as Gibraltar they have started nesting on buildings and even on trees."], "habitat_section": ["Mating on roof-top, Constanta, Romania The breeding range is centred on the Mediterranean Sea.", "In North Africa, it is common in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and increasing in places.", "Recent breeding has occurred in Libya and Egypt.", "In the Middle East, a few breed in Israel and Syria with larger numbers in Cyprus and Turkey.", "In Europe, there are colonies all along the Mediterranean coast, and also on the Atlantic islands and coasts north to Brittany and west to the Azores.", "It also breeds on the western side of the Black Sea, here it overlaps with the Caspian gull but there is a difference in habitat, with the yellow-legged gull preferring sea cliffs and the Caspian gull flatter shores.", "In recent decades birds have spread north into central and western Europe.", "One to four pairs have attempted to breed in southern England since 1995 , though colonisation has been very slow.", "Many birds remain in the same area all year round, but others migrate to spend the winter in mild areas of western Europe or head south as far as Senegal, Gambia and the Red Sea.", "There is also extensive northward post-breeding dispersal in the late summer, with numbers in southern England high from July to October.", "It is reported as a vagrant to northeastern North America and Nigeria."], "random_sentences": ["The yellow-legged gull is a large gull found in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, which has only recently achieved wide recognition as a distinct species.", "It was formerly treated as a subspecies of either the Caspian gull L. cachinnans, or more broadly as a subspecies of the herring gull L. argentatus.", "The genus name is from Latin Larus which appears to have referred to a gull or other large seabird, and the species name honours the German zoologist Karl Michahelles.", "In flight over the Gulf of Olbia", "It is now generally accepted that the yellow-legged gull is a full species, but until recently there was much disagreement.", "For example, British Birds magazine split the yellow-legged gull from the herring gull in 1993 but included the Caspian gull in the former, but the BOU in Great Britain retained the yellow-legged gull as a subspecies of the herring gull until 2007.", "DNA research, however, suggests that the yellow-legged gull is actually closest to the great black-backed gull L. marinus and the Armenian gull L. armenicus, while the Caspian gull is closer to the herring gull and the lesser black-backed gull L. fuscus, rather than being each other's closest relatives.", "There are two subspecies of the yellow-legged gull:", "Mating on roof-top, Constanta, Romania The breeding range is centred on the Mediterranean Sea.", "In North Africa, it is common in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and increasing in places.", "Recent breeding has occurred in Libya and Egypt.", "In the Middle East, a few breed in Israel and Syria with larger numbers in Cyprus and Turkey.", "In Europe, there are colonies all along the Mediterranean coast, and also on the Atlantic islands and coasts north to Brittany and west to the Azores.", "It also breeds on the western side of the Black Sea", "here it overlaps with the Caspian gull but there is a difference in habitat, with the yellow-legged gull preferring sea cliffs and the Caspian gull flatter shores.", "In recent decades birds have spread north into central and western Europe.", "One to four pairs have attempted to breed in southern England since 1995 , though colonisation has been very slow.", "Many birds remain in the same area all year round, but others migrate to spend the winter in mild areas of western Europe or head south as far as Senegal, Gambia and the Red Sea.", "There is also extensive northward post-breeding dispersal in the late summer, with numbers in southern England high from July to October.", "It is reported as a vagrant to northeastern North America and Nigeria.", "Nominate L. m. michahellis, Elba thumbnail", "Head of a two-year old yellow-legged gull taken at the Breton coast Juvenile with open beak The yellow-legged gull is a large gull, though the size does vary, with the smallest females being scarcely larger than a common gull and the largest males being roughly the size of a great black-backed gull.", "They range in length from in total length, from in wingspan and from in weight.", "Among standard measurements, the wing chord is , the bill is and the tarsus is .", "Adults are externally similar to herring gulls but have yellow legs.", "They have a grey back, slightly darker than herring gulls but lighter than lesser black-backed gulls.", "They are much whiter-headed in autumn, and have more extensively black wing tips with few white spots, just as lesser black-backed.", "They have a red spot on the bill as adults, like the entire complex.", "There is a red ring around the eye like in the lesser black-backed gull but unlike in the herring gull which has a dark yellow ring.", "First-year birds have a paler head, rump and underparts than those of the herring gull, more closely resembling first-year great black-backed gulls in plumage.", "They have a dark bill and eyes, pinkish grey legs, dark flight feathers and a well-defined black band on the tail.", "They become lighter in the underparts and lose the upperpart pattern subsequently.", "By their second winter, birds are essentially feathered like adults, save for the patterned feathers remaining on the wing coverts.", "However, their bill tips are black, their eyes still dark, and the legs are a light yellow flesh colour.", "The call is a loud laugh which is deeper and more nasal than the call of the herring gull.", "Larus michahellis juvenile in Rambla del Mar, Barcelona", "Yellow-legged gull eating a Eurasian collared dove in Barcelona Like most Larus gulls, they are omnivores and opportunistic foragers.", "They will scavenge on rubbish tips and elsewhere, as well as seeking suitable prey in fields or on the coast, or robbing smaller gulls and other seabirds of their catches.", "Although urban populations are generally opportunistic scavengers, they can shift to a predatory diet if necessary", "this was observed during the lockdown of Italy in 2020, when the lack of food scraps led the yellow-legged gulls of Rome to take prey as large as rats and rock doves.", "Atlantic gulls in Gibraltar have been observed and photographed picking and eating fruit from olive trees in flight.", "Larus michahellis atlantis - MHNT Yellow-legged gulls usually breed in colonies.", "Eggs, usually three, are laid from mid March to early May and are defended vigorously by this large gull.", "The nest is a sometimes sparse mound of vegetation built on the ground or on cliff ledges.", "In some places such as Gibraltar they have started nesting on buildings and even on trees.", "The eggs are incubated for 2731 days and the young birds fledge after 3540 days."]}, "Podiceps cristatus": {"keywords": ["Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The great crested grebe breeds in vegetated areas of freshwater lakes.", "It winters on freshwater lakes and reservoirs or the coast.", "The adults teach these skills to their young by carrying them on their back and diving, leaving the chicks to float on the surface, they then re-emerge a few feet away so that the chicks may swim back onto them."], "habitat_section": ["Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The great crested grebe breeds in vegetated areas of freshwater lakes.", "The subspecies P. c. cristatus is found across Europe and east across the Palearctic.", "It is resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from the colder regions.", "It winters on freshwater lakes and reservoirs or the coast.", "The African subspecies P. c. infuscatus and the Australasian subspecies P. c. australis are mainly sedentary."], "random_sentences": ["Podiceps cristatus The great crested grebe is a member of the grebe family of water birds noted for its elaborate mating display.", "The great crested grebe was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Colymbus cristatus.", "The great crested grebe is now the type species of the genus Podiceps that was erected by the English naturalist John Latham in 1787.", "The type locality is Sweden.", "The scientific name comes from Latin: the genus name Podiceps is from , \" vent \" and , \" foot \" , and is a reference to the placement of a grebe's legs towards the rear of its body", "the species name, cristatus, means \" crested \" .", "Young grebe, Moscow The great crested grebe is the largest member of the grebe family found in the Old World, with some larger species residing in the Americas.", "They measure long with a wingspan and weigh .", "It is an excellent swimmer and diver, and pursues its fish prey underwater.", "The adults are unmistakable in summer with head and neck decorations.", "In winter, this is whiter than most grebes, with white above the eye, and a pink bill.", "The young are distinctive because their heads are striped black and white.", "They lose these markings when they become adults.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The great crested grebe breeds in vegetated areas of freshwater lakes.", "The subspecies P. c. cristatus is found across Europe and east across the Palearctic.", "It is resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from the colder regions.", "It winters on freshwater lakes and reservoirs or the coast.", "The African subspecies P. c. infuscatus and the Australasian subspecies P. c. australis are mainly sedentary.", "The great crested grebe has an elaborate mating display.", "Like all grebes, it nests on the water's edge.", "The nest is built by both sexes.", "The clutch averages four chalky white eggs which average in size and weigh .", "Incubation is by both parents and begins as soon as the first egg is laid.", "The eggs hatch asynchronously after 27 to 29 days.", "The precocial young are cared for and fed by both parents.", "Young grebes are capable of swimming and diving almost at hatching.", "The adults teach these skills to their young by carrying them on their back and diving, leaving the chicks to float on the surface", "they then re-emerge a few feet away so that the chicks may swim back onto them.", "The great crested grebe feeds mainly on fish, but also small crustaceans, insects, small frogs and newts.", "A head of great crested grebe in the coat of arms of Kauvatsa This species was hunted almost to extinction in the United Kingdom in the 19th century for its head plumes, which were used to decorate ladies' hats and garments.", "The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was set up to help protect this species, which is again a common sight.", "The great crested grebe and its behaviour was the subject of one of the landmark publications in avian ethology: Julian Huxley's 1914 paper on The Courtshiphabits of the Great Crested Grebe ."]}, "Cygnus olor": {"keywords": ["It is native to much of Eurosiberia, and the far north of Africa.", "It is an introduced species in North America, home to the largest populations outside of its native range, with additional smaller introductions in Australasia and southern Africa.", "Mute swan subfossils, 6,000 years old, have been found in post-glacial peat beds of East Anglia, Great Britain.", "A related paleospecies recorded from fossils and subfossils is the Giant swan, Cygnus falconeri, a flightless species which lived on the islands of Malta and Sicily during the Middle Pleistocene.", "Fossils from the Pleistocene include Cygnus paloregonus from Fossil Lake, Oregon, Froman's Ferry, Idaho, and Arizona, referred to by Howard in The Waterfowl of the World as \" probably the mute type swan \" .", "Mute swans nest on large mounds that they build with waterside vegetation in shallow water on islands in the middle or at the very edge of a lake.", "They feed on a wide range of vegetation, both submerged aquatic plants which they reach with their long necks, and by grazing on land.", "The food commonly includes agricultural crop plants such as oilseed rape and wheat, and feeding flocks in the winter may cause significant crop damage, often as much through trampling with their large webbed feet, as through direct consumption.", "Unlike black swans, mute swans are usually strongly territorial with just a single pair on smaller lakes, though in a few locations where a large area of suitable feeding habitat is found they can be colonial. The largest colonies have over 100 pairs, such as at the colony at Abbotsbury Swannery in southern England, and at the southern tip of Oland Island, Ottenby Preserve, in the coastal waters of the Baltic Sea, and can have nests spaced as little as apart.", "A notable flock of non-breeding birds is found on the River Tweed estuary at Berwick-upon-Tweed in northeastern England, with a maximum count of 787 birds.", "Once the adults are mated they seek out their own territories and often live close to ducks and gulls, which may take advantage of the swan's ability to reach deep water weeds, which tend to spread out on the water surface.", "This limits the distribution of the species at the northern edge of its range as the cygnets need to learn to fly before the ponds and lakes freeze over.", "The mute swan is found naturally mainly in temperate areas of Europe then across the Palearctic as far east as Primorsky Krai, near Sidemi.", "It is partially migratory throughout northern latitudes in Europe and Asia, as far south as North Africa and the Mediterranean.", "While most of the current population in Japan is introduced, mute swans are depicted on scrolls more than 1,000 years old, and wild birds from the mainland Asian population still occur rarely in winter.", "The descendants of such birds have become naturalised in the eastern United States and Great Lakes, much as the Canada goose has done in Europe."], "habitat_section": ["The mute swan is found naturally mainly in temperate areas of Europe then across the Palearctic as far east as Primorsky Krai, near Sidemi.", "It is partially migratory throughout northern latitudes in Europe and Asia, as far south as North Africa and the Mediterranean.", "It is known and recorded to have nested in Iceland and is a vagrant to that area as well as to Bermuda, according to the UN Environment Programme chart of international status chart of bird species, which places it in 70 countries, breeding in 49 countries, and vagrant in 16 countries.", "While most of the current population in Japan is introduced, mute swans are depicted on scrolls more than 1,000 years old, and wild birds from the mainland Asian population still occur rarely in winter.", "Natural migrants to Japan usually occur along with whooper and sometimes Bewick's swans.", "The mute swan is protected in most of its range, but this has not prevented illegal hunting and poaching.", "It is often kept in captivity outside its natural range, as a decoration for parks and ponds, and escapes have happened.", "The descendants of such birds have become naturalised in the eastern United States and Great Lakes, much as the Canada goose has done in Europe."], "random_sentences": ["The mute swan is a species of swan and a member of the waterfowl family Anatidae.", "It is native to much of Eurosiberia, and the far north of Africa.", "It is an introduced species in North America, home to the largest populations outside of its native range, with additional smaller introductions in Australasia and southern Africa.", "The name 'mute' derives from it being less vocal than other swan species.", "Measuring in length, this large swan is wholly white in plumage with an orange beak bordered with black.", "It is recognizable by its pronounced knob atop the beak, which is larger in males.", "The mute swan was first formally described by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin as Anas olor in 1789, and was transferred by Johann Matthaus Bechstein to the new genus Cygnus in 1803.", "Both cygnus and olor mean \" swan \" in Latin", "cygnus is a variant form of cycnus, a borrowing from Greek kyknos, a word of the same meaning.", "Despite its Eurasian origin, its closest relatives are the black swan of Australia and the black-necked swan of South America, not the other Northern Hemisphere swans of the genus Cygnus.", "The species is monotypic, with no living subspecies.", "Mute swan subfossils, 6,000 years old, have been found in post-glacial peat beds of East Anglia, Great Britain.", "They have been recorded from Ireland east to Portugal and Italy, and from France, 13,000 BP .", "Cygnus olor bergmanni, which differed only in size from the living bird, is known from fossils found in Azerbaijan.", "A related paleospecies recorded from fossils and subfossils is the Giant swan, Cygnus falconeri, a flightless species which lived on the islands of Malta and Sicily during the Middle Pleistocene.", "Fossils of swan ancestors more distantly allied to the mute swan have been found in four U.S. states: California, Arizona, Idaho and Oregon.", "The timeline runs from the Miocene to the late Pleistocene, or 10,000 BP.", "The latest find was in Anza Borrego Desert, a state park in California.", "Fossils from the Pleistocene include Cygnus paloregonus from Fossil Lake, Oregon, Froman's Ferry, Idaho, and Arizona, referred to by Howard in The Waterfowl of the World as \" probably the mute type swan \" .", "Adults of this large swan typically range from long, although can range in extreme cases from , with a wingspan.", "Males are larger than females and have a larger knob on their bill.", "On average, this is the second largest waterfowl species after the trumpeter swan, although male mute swans can easily match or even exceed a male trumpeter in mass.", "Among standard measurements of the mute swan, the wing chord measures , the tarsus is and the bill is .", "The plumage is white, while the legs are dark grey.", "The beak of the mute swan is bright orange, with black around the nostrils and a black nail.", "The mute swan is one of the heaviest flying birds.", "In several studies from Great Britain, males were found to average from about , with a weight range of while the slightly smaller females averaged about , with a weight range of .", "Young birds, called cygnets, are not the bright white of mature adults, and their bill is dull greyish-black, not orange, for the first year.", "The down may range from pure white to grey to buff, with grey/buff the most common.", "The white cygnets have a leucistic gene.", "Cygnets grow quickly, reaching a size close to their adult size in approximately three months after hatching.", "Cygnets typically retain their grey feathers until they are at least one year old, with the down on their wings having been replaced by flight feathers earlier that year.", "All mute swans are white at maturity, though the feathers are often stained orange-brown by iron and tannins in the water.", "Two mute swan cygnets a few weeks old.", "The cygnet on the right is of the \" Polish swan \" colour morph, and carries a gene responsible for leucism.", "The colour morph C. o. morpha immutabilis , also known as the \" Polish swan \" , has pinkish legs and dull white cygnets", "as with white domestic geese, it is found only in populations with a history of domestication.", "Polish swans carry a copy of a gene responsible for leucism.", "Nest in Drilon, Pogradec, Albania.", "The cob is patrolling the area close to the nest to protect his mate.", "Mute swans nest on large mounds that they build with waterside vegetation in shallow water on islands in the middle or at the very edge of a lake.", "They are monogamous and often reuse the same nest each year, restoring or rebuilding it as needed.", "Male and female swans share the care of the nest, and once the cygnets are fledged it is not uncommon to see whole families looking for food.", "They feed on a wide range of vegetation, both submerged aquatic plants which they reach with their long necks, and by grazing on land.", "The food commonly includes agricultural crop plants such as oilseed rape and wheat, and feeding flocks in the winter may cause significant crop damage, often as much through trampling with their large webbed feet, as through direct consumption.", "Unlike black swans, mute swans are usually strongly territorial with just a single pair on smaller lakes, though in a few locations where a large area of suitable feeding habitat is found they can be colonial. The largest colonies have over 100 pairs, such as at the colony at Abbotsbury Swannery in southern England, and at the southern tip of Oland Island, Ottenby Preserve, in the coastal waters of the Baltic Sea, and can have nests spaced as little as apart.", "Non-mated juveniles up to 34 years old commonly form larger flocks, which can total several hundred birds, often at regular traditional sites.", "A notable flock of non-breeding birds is found on the River Tweed estuary at Berwick-upon-Tweed in northeastern England, with a maximum count of 787 birds.", "A large population exists near the Swan Lifeline Station in Windsor, and live on the Thames in the shadow of Windsor Castle.", "Once the adults are mated they seek out their own territories and often live close to ducks and gulls, which may take advantage of the swan's ability to reach deep water weeds, which tend to spread out on the water surface.", "The mute swan is less vocal than the noisy whooper and Bewick's swans", "they do, however, make a variety of sounds, often described as \" grunting, hoarse whistling, and snorting noises.", "\" During a courtship display, mute swans utter a rhythmic song.", "The song help synchronize the movements of their heads and necks.", "It could technically be employed to distinguish a bonded couple from two dating swans, as the rhythm of the song typically fails to match the pace of the head movements in two dating swans.", "Mute swans usually hiss at competitors or intruders trying to enter their territory.", "The most familiar sound associated with mute swans is the vibrant throbbing of the wings in flight which is unique to the species, and can be heard from a range of , indicating its value as a contact sound between birds in flight.", "Cygnets are especially vocal, and communicate through a variety of whistling and chirping sounds when content, as well as a harsh squawking noise when distressed or lost.", "Nesting in spring, Cologne, Germany Mute swans can be very aggressive in defence of their nests and are highly protective of their mate and offspring.", "Most defensive acts from a mute swan begin with a loud hiss and, if this is not sufficient to drive off the predator or intruder, are followed by a physical attack.", "Swans attack by striking at the threat with bony spurs in their wings, accompanied by biting with their large bill, while smaller waterbirds such as ducks are normally grabbed with the swan's bill and dragged or thrown clear of the swan and its offspring.", "The wings of the swan are very powerful, though not strong enough to break an adult man's leg, as is commonly misquoted.", "Large waterfowl, such as Canada geese, may be aggressively driven off, and mute swans regularly attack people who enter their territory.", "Healthy adults are rarely preyed upon, though canids such as coyotes, felids such as lynx, and bears can pose a threat to infirm ones (healthy adults can usually swim away from danger and nest defense is usually successful.", ") and there are a few cases of healthy adults falling prey to golden eagles.", "In England, there has been an increased rate of attacks on swans by out-of-control dogs, especially in parks where the birds are less territorial. This is considered criminal in British law, and the birds are placed under the highest protection due to their association with the monarch.", "Mute swans will readily attack dogs to protect themselves and their cygnets from an attack, and an adult swan is capable of overwhelming and drowning even large dog breeds.", "The familiar pose with neck curved back and wings half raised, known as busking, is a threat display.", "Both feet are paddled in unison during this display, resulting in more jerky movement.", "The swans may also use the busking posture for wind-assisted transportation over several hundred meters, so-called windsurfing.", "Like other swans, mute swans are known for their ability to grieve for a lost or dead mate or cygnet.", "Swans will go through a mourning process, and in the case of the loss of their mate, may either stay where its counterpart lived, or fly off to join a flock.", "Should one of the pair die while there are cygnets present, the remaining parent will take up their partner's duties in raising the clutch.", "Nest of a mute swan, Sweden Cygnets captured one day after they hatched.", "Newburg Lake, Livonia, MI, U.S. A three-day old cygnet Mute swans lay from 4 to 10 eggs.", "The female broods for around 36 days, with cygnets normally hatching between the months of May and July.", "The young swans do not achieve the ability to fly before about 120 to 150 days old.", "This limits the distribution of the species at the northern edge of its range as the cygnets need to learn to fly before the ponds and lakes freeze over.", "The mute swan is found naturally mainly in temperate areas of Europe then across the Palearctic as far east as Primorsky Krai, near Sidemi.", "It is partially migratory throughout northern latitudes in Europe and Asia, as far south as North Africa and the Mediterranean.", "It is known and recorded to have nested in Iceland and is a vagrant to that area as well as to Bermuda, according to the UN Environment Programme chart of international status chart of bird species, which places it in 70 countries, breeding in 49 countries, and vagrant in 16 countries.", "While most of the current population in Japan is introduced, mute swans are depicted on scrolls more than 1,000 years old, and wild birds from the mainland Asian population still occur rarely in winter.", "Natural migrants to Japan usually occur along with whooper and sometimes Bewick's swans.", "The mute swan is protected in most of its range, but this has not prevented illegal hunting and poaching.", "It is often kept in captivity outside its natural range, as a decoration for parks and ponds, and escapes have happened.", "The descendants of such birds have become naturalised in the eastern United States and Great Lakes, much as the Canada goose has done in Europe.", "The Threatened Swan by Jan Asselijn The mute swan has been the national bird of Denmark since 1984.", "Prior to that, the skylark was considered Denmark's national bird .", "The fairy tale \" The Ugly Duckling \" by Hans Christian Andersen tells the story of a cygnet ostracised by his fellow barnyard fowl because of his perceived unattractiveness.", "To his delight , he matures into a graceful swan, the most beautiful bird of all.", "Today, the British Monarch retains the right to ownership of all unmarked mute swans in open water, but Queen Elizabeth II exercised her ownership only on certain stretches of the Thames and its surrounding tributaries.", "This ownership is shared with the Vintners' and Dyers' Companies, who were granted rights of ownership by the Crown in the 15th century.", "The mute swans in the moat at the Bishops Palace at Wells Cathedral in Wells, England have for centuries been trained to ring bells via strings attached to them to beg for food.", "Two swans are still able to ring for lunch.", "The pair of swans in the Boston Public Garden are named Romeo and Juliet after the Shakespearean couple", "however, it was found that both of them are females."]}, "Ardea alba": {"keywords": ["Distributed across most of the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world, it builds tree nests in colonies close to water.", "Adult sitting on a bridge in California The great egret is generally a very successful species with a large and expanding range, occurring worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats.", "It is ubiquitous across the Sun Belt of the United States and in the Neotropics.", "However, in some parts of the southern United States, its numbers have declined due to habitat loss, particularly wetland degradation through drainage, grazing, clearing, burning, increased salinity, groundwater extraction and invasion by exotic plants.", "Nevertheless, the species adapts well to human habitation and can be readily seen near wetlands and bodies of water in urban and suburban areas.", "The great egret is partially migratory, with northern hemisphere birds moving south from areas with colder winters.", "The species breeds in colonies in trees close to large lakes with reed beds or other extensive wetlands, preferably at height of .", "Spearing a fish The great egret forages in shallow water or in drier habitats, feeding mainly on fish, frogs, other amphibians, small mammals , and occasionally small reptiles , crustaceans and insects ."], "habitat_section": ["Adult sitting on a bridge in California The great egret is generally a very successful species with a large and expanding range, occurring worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats.", "It is ubiquitous across the Sun Belt of the United States and in the Neotropics.", "In North America, large numbers of great egrets were killed around the end of the 19th century so that their plumes, known as \" aigrettes \" , could be used to decorate hats.", "Numbers have since recovered as a result of conservation measures.", "Its range has expanded as far north as southern Canada.", "However, in some parts of the southern United States, its numbers have declined due to habitat loss, particularly wetland degradation through drainage, grazing, clearing, burning, increased salinity, groundwater extraction and invasion by exotic plants.", "Nevertheless, the species adapts well to human habitation and can be readily seen near wetlands and bodies of water in urban and suburban areas.", "The great egret is partially migratory, with northern hemisphere birds moving south from areas with colder winters.", "It is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "In 1953, the great egret in flight was chosen as the symbol of the National Audubon Society, which was formed in part to prevent the killing of birds for their feathers.", "and a second breeding site was announced at Holkham National Nature Reserve in Norfolk where a pair fledged three young.", "In January 2021, Bird Guides, a UK website and magazine which reports sightings of rare birds, dropped the species from its list of nationally rare birds because sightings had become so numerous.", "A similar move northwards has been observed in the Nordic countries where historically it only was a rare visitor.", "The first confirmed breeding in Sweden was 2012 and in Denmark in 2014, and both countries now have small colonies.", "In 2018, a pair of great egrets nested in Finland for the first time, raising four young in a grey heron colony in Porvoo.", "The species breeds in colonies in trees close to large lakes with reed beds or other extensive wetlands, preferably at height of .", "It begins to breed at 23 years of age by forming monogamous pairs each season.", "Whether the pairing carries over to the next season is not known.", "The male selects the nest area, starts a nest, and then attracts a female.", "The nest, made of sticks and lined with plant material, could be up to 3 feet across.", "Up to six bluish green eggs are laid at one time.", "Both sexes incubate the eggs, and the incubation period is 2326 days.", "The young are fed by regurgitation by both parents and are able to fly within 67 weeks."], "random_sentences": ["The great egret , also known as the common egret, large egret, or great white egret or great white heron is a large, widely distributed egret, with four subspecies found in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and southern Europe, recently also spreading to more northern areas of Europe.", "Distributed across most of the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world, it builds tree nests in colonies close to water.", "Like all egrets, it is a member of the heron family, Ardeidae.", "Traditionally classified with the storks in the Ciconiiformes, the Ardeidae are closer relatives of pelicans and belong in the Pelecaniformes, instead.", "The great egretunlike the typical egretsdoes not belong to the genus Egretta, but together with the great herons is today placed in Ardea.", "In the past, however, it was sometimes placed in Egretta or separated in a monotypic genus Casmerodius.", "The Old World population is often referred to as the \" great white egret \" .", "This species is sometimes confused with the great white heron of the Caribbean, which is a white morph of the closely related great blue heron.", "The scientific name comes from Latin ardea, \" heron \" , and alba, \" white \" .", "Adult In flight The great egret is a large heron with all-white plumage.", "Standing up to tall, this species can measure in length and have a wingspan of .", "Body mass can range from , with an average around .", "It is thus only slightly smaller than the great blue or grey heron (A.", "Apart from size, the great egret can be distinguished from other white egrets by its yellow bill and black legs and feet, though the bill may become darker and the lower legs lighter in the breeding season.", "In breeding plumage, delicate ornamental feathers are borne on the back.", "Males and females are identical in appearance", "juveniles look like nonbreeding adults.", "Differentiated from the intermediate egret by the gape, which extends well beyond the back of the eye in case of the great egret, but ends just behind the eye in case of the intermediate egret.", "It has a slow flight, with its neck retracted.", "This is characteristic of herons and bitterns, and distinguishes them from storks, cranes, ibises, and spoonbills, which extend their necks in flight.", "The great egret walks with its neck extended and wings held close.", "The great egret is not normally a vocal bird", "it gives a low, hoarse croak when disturbed, and at breeding colonies, it often gives a loud croaking cuk cuk cuk and higher-pitched squawks.", "Adult sitting on a bridge in California The great egret is generally a very successful species with a large and expanding range, occurring worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats.", "It is ubiquitous across the Sun Belt of the United States and in the Neotropics.", "In North America, large numbers of great egrets were killed around the end of the 19th century so that their plumes, known as \" aigrettes \" , could be used to decorate hats.", "Numbers have since recovered as a result of conservation measures.", "Its range has expanded as far north as southern Canada.", "However, in some parts of the southern United States, its numbers have declined due to habitat loss, particularly wetland degradation through drainage, grazing, clearing, burning, increased salinity, groundwater extraction and invasion by exotic plants.", "Nevertheless, the species adapts well to human habitation and can be readily seen near wetlands and bodies of water in urban and suburban areas.", "The great egret is partially migratory, with northern hemisphere birds moving south from areas with colder winters.", "It is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "In 1953, the great egret in flight was chosen as the symbol of the National Audubon Society, which was formed in part to prevent the killing of birds for their feathers.", "and a second breeding site was announced at Holkham National Nature Reserve in Norfolk where a pair fledged three young.", "In January 2021, Bird Guides, a UK website and magazine which reports sightings of rare birds, dropped the species from its list of nationally rare birds because sightings had become so numerous.", "A similar move northwards has been observed in the Nordic countries where historically it only was a rare visitor.", "The first confirmed breeding in Sweden was 2012 and in Denmark in 2014, and both countries now have small colonies.", "In 2018, a pair of great egrets nested in Finland for the first time, raising four young in a grey heron colony in Porvoo.", "The species breeds in colonies in trees close to large lakes with reed beds or other extensive wetlands, preferably at height of .", "It begins to breed at 23 years of age by forming monogamous pairs each season.", "Whether the pairing carries over to the next season is not known.", "The male selects the nest area, starts a nest, and then attracts a female.", "The nest, made of sticks and lined with plant material, could be up to 3 feet across.", "Up to six bluish green eggs are laid at one time.", "Both sexes incubate the eggs, and the incubation period is 2326 days.", "The young are fed by regurgitation by both parents and are able to fly within 67 weeks.", "Spearing a fish The great egret forages in shallow water or in drier habitats, feeding mainly on fish, frogs, other amphibians, small mammals , and occasionally small reptiles , crustaceans and insects .", "This species normally impales its prey with its long, sharp bill by standing still and allowing the prey to come within the striking distance of its bill, which it uses as a spear.", "It often waits motionless for prey or slowly stalks its victim.", "A long-running field study suggested that the great egrets of central Europe host 17 different helminth species.", "Juvenile great egrets were shown to host fewer species, but the intensity of infection was higher in the juveniles than in the adults.", "Of the digeneans found in central European great egrets, numerous species likely infected their definitive hosts outside of central Europe itself.", "The great egret is depicted on the reverse side of a 5-Brazilian reais banknote.", "The great egret is the symbol of the National Audubon Society.", "An airbrushed photograph of a great egret in breeding plumage by Werner Krutein is featured in the cover art of the 1992 Faith No More album Angel Dust.", "In Belarus, a commemorative coin has the image of a great egret.", "The great egret also features on the New Zealand $2 coin and on the Hungarian 5-forint coin."]}, "Fulica atra": {"keywords": ["An extinct subspecies F. atra pontica, has been described from the Chalcolithic from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.", "The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.", "The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands.", "It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The nest is a bulky structure that either floats on the water or is built in shallow water on a low or barely submerged stump or log, making a neat, large bowl.", "Chick picking through wet leaves in Sweden .", "The coot is an omnivore, and will take a variety of small live prey including the eggs of other water birds, as well as algae, vegetation, seeds and fruit.", "In the water it may upend in the fashion of a mallard or dive in search of food."], "habitat_section": ["The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds.", "It occurs and breeds in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa.", "The species has recently expanded its range into New Zealand.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.", "The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands.", "It is an aggressive species, and strongly territorial during the breeding season, and both parents are involved in territorial defence.", "During the non-breeding season they may form large flocks, possibly related to predator avoidance.", "It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing.", "It does the same, but without actually flying, when travelling a short distance at speed in territorial disputes or on land to escape from intruders.", "As with many rails, its weak flight does not inspire confidence, but on migration, usually at night, it can cover surprisingly large distances.", "It bobs its head as it swims, and makes short dives from a little jump.", "When fighting other waterbirds , the coot attacks by charging its opponent and striking them with its long legs."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian coot , also known as the common coot, or Australian coot, is a member of the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae.", "It is found in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and parts of North Africa.", "It has a slaty-black body, a glossy black head and a white bill with a white frontal shield.", "Similar looking coot species are found throughout the world, with the largest variety of coot species living in South America.", "The Eurasian coot was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name Fulica atra.", "Linnaeus specified the locality as Europe but this is now restricted to Sweden.", "The binomial name is from Latin: Fulica means \" coot \" , and atra mean \" black \" .", "Four subspecies are recognised: An extinct subspecies F. atra pontica, has been described from the Chalcolithic from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.", "Legs and feet of Eurasian coot in St James's Park, London The Eurasian coot is in length with a wing-span of", "males weigh around and females .", "It is largely black except for the white bill and frontal shield .", "As a swimming species, the coot has partial webbing on its long strong toes.", "The sexes are similar in appearance.", "The juvenile is paler than the adult, has a whitish breast, and lacks the facial shield", "the adult black plumage develops when about 34 months old, but the white shield is only fully developed at about one year old.", "The Eurasian coot is a noisy bird with a wide repertoire of crackling, explosive, or trumpeting calls, often given at night.", "The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds.", "It occurs and breeds in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa.", "The species has recently expanded its range into New Zealand.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.", "The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands.", "It is an aggressive species, and strongly territorial during the breeding season, and both parents are involved in territorial defence.", "During the non-breeding season they may form large flocks, possibly related to predator avoidance.", "It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing.", "It does the same, but without actually flying, when travelling a short distance at speed in territorial disputes or on land to escape from intruders.", "As with many rails, its weak flight does not inspire confidence, but on migration, usually at night, it can cover surprisingly large distances.", "It bobs its head as it swims, and makes short dives from a little jump.", "When fighting other waterbirds , the coot attacks by charging its opponent and striking them with its long legs.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The nest is a bulky structure that either floats on the water or is built in shallow water on a low or barely submerged stump or log, making a neat, large bowl.", "It is constructed of plant stems and leaves with a lining of finer material. Normally concealed in vegetation the nest can sometimes be placed in the open.", "It is built by both sexes with the male collecting most of the material which is incorporated by the female.", "The eggs are laid at daily intervals.", "The clutch usually contains between six and ten smooth and slightly glossy buff coloured eggs that are covered with black or dark brown speckles.", "On average they are and weigh .", "The eggs are incubated by both sexes beginning after the second egg is laid and hatch asynchronously after 21 to 24 days.", "The chicks are precocial and nidifugous.", "The chicks are covered with a black down.", "On the body the down has yellow hair-like tips.", "On the sides of the head, nape and throat the hair-like tips are longer and orange-red.", "Between the eyes and on the lores, the tips are red.", "The shield is bright red and the bill is red with a white tip.", "The young are brooded by the female for the first three to four days during which time food is brought by the male.", "The male also builds one or more platforms that is used for roosting and brooding the chicks.", "On leaving the nest, the brood is sometimes split up with each parent taking care of a separate group.", "The young can feed themselves when they are around 30 days and fledge at 55 to 60 days.", "Eurasian coots normally only have a single brood each year but in some areas such as Britain they will sometimes attempt a second brood.", "They first breed when they are one to two years old.", "Chick mortality occurs mainly due to starvation rather than predation.", "Most chicks died in the first 10 days after hatching, when they are most dependent on adults for food.", "Coots can be very brutal to their own young under pressure such as the lack of food.", "They will bite young that are begging for food and repeatedly do this until it stops begging.", "If the begging continues, they may bite so hard that the chick is killed.", "Coots will also lay their eggs in the nests of other coots when their environment or physical condition limits their ability to breed, or to lengthen their reproductive life.", "adult with chicks, Trujillo, Spain Eurasian coot juvenile.", "chick in Marais Audomarois, France Baby Eurasian coot foraging .", "The coot is an omnivore, and will take a variety of small live prey including the eggs of other water birds, as well as algae, vegetation, seeds and fruit.", "It shows considerable variation in its feeding techniques, grazing on land or in the water.", "In the water it may upend in the fashion of a mallard or dive in search of food.", "The Eurasian coot is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies."]}, "Mareca strepera": {"keywords": ["The gadwall breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic, and central North America.", "In North America, its breeding range lies along the Saint Lawrence River, through the Great Lakes, Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Dakotas, south to Kansas, west to California, and along coastal Pacific Canada and southern coastal Alaska.", "This dabbling duck is strongly migratory, and winters farther south than its breeding range, from coastal Alaska, south into Central America, and east into Idaho, Kansas, Ohio, Virginia, and then south all the way into Central America.", "Female and male dabbling, WWT London Wetland Centre, Barnes The gadwall is a bird of open wetlands, such as prairie or steppe lakes, wet grassland or marshes with dense fringing vegetation, and usually feeds by dabbling for plant food with head submerged.", "It nests on the ground, often some distance from water.", "Pair formation begins during fall migration or on breeding grounds, but has also been reported to occur in August when males are still in eclipse plumage.", "Young birds feed on insects at first, adults also eat some molluscs and insects during the nesting season."], "habitat_section": ["The gadwall breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic, and central North America.", "In North America, its breeding range lies along the Saint Lawrence River, through the Great Lakes, Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Dakotas, south to Kansas, west to California, and along coastal Pacific Canada and southern coastal Alaska.", "The range of this bird appears to be expanding into eastern North America.", "This dabbling duck is strongly migratory, and winters farther south than its breeding range, from coastal Alaska, south into Central America, and east into Idaho, Kansas, Ohio, Virginia, and then south all the way into Central America.", "In Great Britain, the gadwall is a scarce-breeding bird and winter visitor, though its population has increased in recent years.", "It is likely that its expansion was partly through introduction, mainly to England, and partly through colonization by continental birds staying to breed in Scotland.", "In Ireland a small breeding population has recently become established, centred on County Wexford in the south and Lough Neagh in the north.", "The Gadwall is also seen in some parts of South Asia, particularly the southern part of India.", "Currently, the gadwall is listed as least concern in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.", "The gadwall is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "Populations have increased approximately 2.5% over the course of 49 years , and continue to grow.", "Gadwalls are one of the most hunted duck species , with 1.7 million shot each year.", "Because of the efforts of the United States and Canadian groups Ducks Unlimited, Delta Waterfowl Foundation and other private conservation groups, the species continues to be sustainably hunted there."], "random_sentences": ["The gadwall is a common and widespread dabbling duck in the family Anatidae.", "The gadwall was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.", "The gadwall is long with a wingspan.", "The male is slightly larger than the female, weighing on average against her .", "In non-breeding plumage, the drake looks more like the female, but retains the male wing pattern, and is usually greyer above and has less orange on the bill.", "The female is light brown, with plumage much like a female mallard.", "It can be distinguished from that species by the dark orange-edged bill, smaller size, the white speculum, and white belly.", "Both sexes go through two moults annually, following a juvenile moult.", "The gadwall is a quieter duck, except during its courtship display.", "Females give a call similar to the quack of a female mallard but higher-pitched, transcribed as gag-ag-ag-ag.", "Males give a grunt, transcribed as mep, and a whistle.", "The gadwall breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic, and central North America.", "In North America, its breeding range lies along the Saint Lawrence River, through the Great Lakes, Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Dakotas, south to Kansas, west to California, and along coastal Pacific Canada and southern coastal Alaska.", "The range of this bird appears to be expanding into eastern North America.", "This dabbling duck is strongly migratory, and winters farther south than its breeding range, from coastal Alaska, south into Central America, and east into Idaho, Kansas, Ohio, Virginia, and then south all the way into Central America.", "In Great Britain, the gadwall is a scarce-breeding bird and winter visitor, though its population has increased in recent years.", "It is likely that its expansion was partly through introduction, mainly to England, and partly through colonization by continental birds staying to breed in Scotland.", "In Ireland a small breeding population has recently become established, centred on County Wexford in the south and Lough Neagh in the north.", "The Gadwall is also seen in some parts of South Asia, particularly the southern part of India.", "Female and male dabbling, WWT London Wetland Centre, Barnes The gadwall is a bird of open wetlands, such as prairie or steppe lakes, wet grassland or marshes with dense fringing vegetation, and usually feeds by dabbling for plant food with head submerged.", "They can also dive underwater for food, more proficiently than other dabbling ducks, and may also steal food from diving birds such as coots.", "It nests on the ground, often some distance from water.", "It is not as gregarious as some dabbling ducks outside the breeding season and tends to form only small flocks.", "Gadwalls are monogamous and may start breeding after their first year.", "Pair formation begins during fall migration or on breeding grounds, but has also been reported to occur in August when males are still in eclipse plumage.", "Gadwalls are generally quiet, except during courtship.", "The male utters a mep call during a display known as the burp, where he raises his head pointing his bill towards a female.", "The grunt-whistle is similar to that of mallards, where the male rears his outstretched head with the bill dipped into water, displacing a stream of water droplets towards a nearby female as the bill is raised against the chest.", "During this display the male makes a loud whistle call followed by a low burp.", "Paired males may follow other females in flight displays.", "Young birds feed on insects at first", "adults also eat some molluscs and insects during the nesting season.", "Currently, the gadwall is listed as least concern in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.", "The gadwall is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "Populations have increased approximately 2.5% over the course of 49 years , and continue to grow.", "Gadwalls are one of the most hunted duck species , with 1.7 million shot each year.", "Because of the efforts of the United States and Canadian groups Ducks Unlimited, Delta Waterfowl Foundation and other private conservation groups, the species continues to be sustainably hunted there."]}, "Anas platyrhynchos": {"keywords": ["The mallard or wild duck is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa.", "Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes.", "The non-migratory mallard interbreeds with indigenous wild ducks of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring.", "Complete hybridisation of various species of wild duck gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl.", "This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domestic duck, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool has been genetically polluted by the domestic and feral mallard populations.", "The Aleutian Islands hold a population of mallards that appear to be evolving towards becoming a subspecies, as gene flow with other populations is very limited.", "Both male and female mallards have distinct iridescent purple-blue speculum feathers edged with white, which are prominent in flight or at rest but temporarily shed during the annual summer moult.", "Bergmann's Rule, which states that polar forms tend to be larger than related ones from warmer climates, has numerous examples in birds, as in case of the Greenland mallard which is larger than the mallards further south.", "Allen's Rule says that appendages like ears tend to be smaller in polar forms to minimise heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion, and that the polar taxa are stockier overall.", "The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and South Korea.", "It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south.", "For example, in North America, it winters south to the southern United States and northern Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.", "The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions.", "It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline.", "Water depths of less than are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep.", "They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.", "During the breeding season, male birds were recorded to have eaten 37.6% animal matter and 62.4% plant matter, most notably the grass Echinochloa crus-galli, and nonlaying females ate 37.0% animal matter and 63.0% plant matter, while laying females ate 71.9% animal matter and only 28.1% plant matter.", "It usually nests on a river bank, but not always near water.", "Nesting sites are typically on the ground, hidden in vegetation where the female's speckled plumage serves as effective camouflage, but female mallards have also been known to nest in hollows in trees, boathouses, roof gardens and on balconies, sometimes resulting in hatched offspring having difficulty following their parent to water.", "In New Zealand, where mallards are naturalised, the nesting season has been found to be longer, eggs and clutches are larger and nest survival is generally greater compared with mallards in their native range.", "In addition, mallards may occasionally breed during the autumn in cases of unseasonably warm weather, one such instance of a late clutch occurred in November 2011, in which a female successfully hatched and raised a clutch of eleven ducklings at the London Wetland Centre.", "Mallards are also preyed upon by other waterside apex predators, such as grey herons , great blue herons and black-crowned night herons , the European herring gull , the wels catfish , and the northern pike .", "Several drakes swim in a pond Since 1998, the mallard has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species.", "They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other human-made water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged in human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours.", "The mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domestic and feral populations.", "The last male Mariana mallard Mallards are causing severe \" genetic pollution \" to South Africa's biodiversity by breeding with endemic ducks If this continues, only hybrids occur and in the long term result in the extinction of various indigenous waterfowl.", "Mallards have often been ubiquitous in their regions among the ponds, rivers, and streams of human parks, farms, and other human-made waterwayseven to the point of visiting water features in human courtyards.", "The ideal location for hunting mallards is considered to be where the water level is somewhat shallow where the birds can be found foraging for food."], "habitat_section": ["The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and South Korea.", "Also in the east, it ranges to south-eastern and south-western Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere.", "It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south.", "For example, in North America, it winters south to the southern United States and northern Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.", "A drake later named \" Trevor \" attracted media attention in 2018 when it turned up on the island of Niue, an atypical location for mallards.", "The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions.", "It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline.", "Water depths of less than are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep.", "They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.", "Several drakes swim in a pond Since 1998, the mallard has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species.", "This is because it has a large rangemore than 20,000,000 km 2 and because its population is increasing, rather than declining by 30% over ten years or three generations and thus is not warranted a vulnerable rating.", "Also, the population size of the mallard is very large.", "Unlike many waterfowl, mallards have benefited from human alterations to the worldso much so that they are now considered an invasive species in some regions.", "They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other human-made water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged in human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours.", "The mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domestic and feral populations.", "Over time, a continuum of hybrids ranging between almost typical examples of either species develop, the speciation process is beginning to reverse itself.", "This has created conservation concerns for relatives of the mallard, such as the Hawaiian duck, the New Zealand grey duck subspecies of the Pacific black duck, the American black duck, the mottled duck, Meller's duck, the yellow-billed duck, and the Mexican duck, in the latter case even leading to a dispute as to whether these birds should be considered a species or included in the mallard species.", "Ecological changes and hunting have also led to a decline of local species, for example, the New Zealand grey duck population declined drastically due to overhunting in the mid-20th century.", "Hybrid offspring of Hawaiian ducks seem to be less well adapted to native habitat, and using them in re-introduction projects apparently reduces success.", "In summary, the problems of mallards \" hybridising away \" relatives is more a consequence of local ducks declining than of mallards spreading, allopatric speciation and isolating behaviour have produced today's diversity of mallard-like ducks despite the fact that, in most, if not all, of these populations, hybridisation must have occurred to some extent."], "random_sentences": ["The mallard or wild duck is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa.", "This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae.", "Males have purple patches on their wings, while the females have mainly brown-speckled plumage.", "Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent blue feathers called a speculum on their wings", "males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers.", "The mallard is long, of which the body makes up around two-thirds the length.", "The wingspan is and the bill is long.", "It is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks, weighing .", "Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes.", "The female lays 8 to 13 creamy white to greenish-buff spotless eggs, on alternate days.", "Incubation takes 27 to 28 days and fledging takes 50 to 60 days.", "The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch.", "The mallard is considered to be a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature .", "Unlike many waterfowl, mallards are considered an invasive species in some regions.", "It is a very adaptable species, being able to live and even thrive in urban areas which may have supported more localised, sensitive species of waterfowl before development.", "The non-migratory mallard interbreeds with indigenous wild ducks of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring.", "Complete hybridisation of various species of wild duck gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl.", "This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domestic duck, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool has been genetically polluted by the domestic and feral mallard populations.", "An American black duck and a male mallard in eclipse plumage The mallard was one of the many bird species originally described in the 1758 10thedition of Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus.", "The genome of Anas platyrhynchos was sequenced in 2013.", "The name mallard originally referred to any wild drake, and it is sometimes still used this way.", "It was derived from the Old French or for \" wild drake \" although its true derivation is unclear.", "It may be related to, or at least influenced by, an Old High German masculine proper name , clues lying in the alternative English forms \" maudelard \" and \" mawdelard \" .", "Masle has also been proposed as an influence.", "Mallards frequently interbreed with their closest relatives in the genus Anas, such as the American black duck, and also with species more distantly related, such as the northern pintail, leading to various hybrids that may be fully fertile.", "Mallards and their domestic conspecifics are also fully interfertile.", "Genetic analysis has shown that certain mallards appear to be closer to their Indo-Pacific relatives, while others are related to their American relatives.", "Mitochondrial DNA data for the D-loop sequence suggest that mallards may have evolved in the general area of Siberia.", "Mallard bones rather abruptly appear in food remains of ancient humans and other deposits of fossil bones in Europe, without a good candidate for a local predecessor species.", "The large Ice Age palaeosubspecies that made up at least the European and West Asian populations during the Pleistocene has been named Anas platyrhynchos palaeoboschas.", "Mallards are differentiated in their mitochondrial DNA between North American and Eurasian populations, but the nuclear genome displays a notable lack of genetic structure.", "Haplotypes typical of American mallard relatives and eastern spot-billed ducks can be found in mallards around the Bering Sea.", "The Aleutian Islands hold a population of mallards that appear to be evolving towards becoming a subspecies, as gene flow with other populations is very limited.", "Also, the paucity of morphological differences between the Old World mallards and the New World mallard demonstrates the extent to which the genome is shared among them such that birds like the Chinese spot-billed duck are highly similar to the Old World mallard, and birds such as the Hawaiian duck are highly similar to the New World mallard.", "The size of the mallard varies clinally", "for example, birds from Greenland, though larger, have smaller bills, paler plumage, and stockier bodies than birds further south and are sometimes classified as a separate subspecies, the Greenland mallard .", "Juvenile male and female Duckling The mallard is a medium-sized waterfowl species that is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks.", "It is longof which the body makes up around two-thirdshas a wingspan of , and weighs .", "Among standard measurements, the wing chord is , the bill is , and the tarsus is .", "The breeding male mallard is unmistakable, with a glossy bottle-green head and a white collar that demarcates the head from the purple-tinged brown breast, grey-brown wings, and a pale grey belly.", "The rear of the male is black, with white-bordered dark tail feathers.", "The bill of the male is a yellowish-orange tipped with black, with that of the female generally darker and ranging from black to mottled orange and brown.", "The female mallard is predominantly mottled, with each individual feather showing sharp contrast from buff to very dark brown, a coloration shared by most female dabbling ducks, and has buff cheeks, eyebrow, throat, and neck, with a darker crown and eye-stripe.", "Both male and female mallards have distinct iridescent purple-blue speculum feathers edged with white, which are prominent in flight or at rest but temporarily shed during the annual summer moult.", "Upon hatching, the plumage of the duckling is yellow on the underside and face and black on the back all the way to the top and back of the head.", "Its legs and bill are also black.", "2)the breast feathers are reddish-brown in males, but brown in females", "This change in plumage also applies to adult mallard males when they transition in and out of their non-breeding eclipse plumage at the beginning and the end of the summer moulting period.", "The adulthood age for mallards is fourteen months, and the average life expectancy is three years, but they can live to twenty.", "Several species of duck have brown-plumaged females that can be confused with the female mallard.", "The female gadwall has an orange-lined bill, white belly, black and white speculum that is seen as a white square on the wings in flight, and is a smaller bird.", "More similar to the female mallard in North America are the American black duck (A.", "rubripes), which is notably darker-hued in both sexes than the mallard, and the mottled duck (A.", "fulvigula), which is somewhat darker than the female mallard, and with slightly different bare-part colouration and no white edge on the speculum.", "Owing to their highly 'malleable' genetic code, mallards can display a large amount of variation, as seen here with this female, who displays faded or 'apricot' plumage.", "In captivity, domestic ducks come in wild-type plumages, white, and other colours.", "Most of these colour variants are also known in domestic mallards not bred as livestock, but kept as pets, aviary birds, etc.", ", where they are rare but increasing in availability.", "A noisy species, the female has the deep quack stereotypically associated with ducks.", "Male mallards make a sound phonetically similar to that of the female, a typical quack, but it is deeper and quieter compared to that of the female.", "When incubating a nest, or when offspring are present, females vocalise differently, making a call that sounds like a truncated version of the usual quack.", "This maternal vocalisation is highly attractive to their young.", "The repetition and frequency modulation of these quacks form the auditory basis for species identification in offspring, a process known as acoustic conspecific identification.", "In addition, females hiss if the nest or offspring are threatened or interfered with.", "When taking off, the wings of a mallard produce a characteristic faint whistling noise.", "The mallard is a rare example of both Allen's Rule and Bergmann's Rule in birds.", "Bergmann's Rule, which states that polar forms tend to be larger than related ones from warmer climates, has numerous examples in birds, as in case of the Greenland mallard which is larger than the mallards further south.", "Allen's Rule says that appendages like ears tend to be smaller in polar forms to minimise heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion, and that the polar taxa are stockier overall.", "Examples of this rule in birds are rare as they lack external ears, but the bill of ducks is supplied with a few blood vessels to prevent heat loss, and, as in the Greenland mallard, the bill is smaller than that of birds farther south, illustrating the rule.", "Due to the variability of the mallard's genetic code, which gives it its vast interbreeding capability, mutations in the genes that decide plumage colour are very common and have resulted in a wide variety of hybrids, such as Brewer's duck .", "The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres", "in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and South Korea.", "Also in the east, it ranges to south-eastern and south-western Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere.", "It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south.", "For example, in North America, it winters south to the southern United States and northern Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.", "A drake later named \" Trevor \" attracted media attention in 2018 when it turned up on the island of Niue, an atypical location for mallards.", "The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions.", "It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline.", "Water depths of less than are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep.", "They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.", "Drake mallard performing the grunt-whistle", "The mallard is omnivorous and very flexible in its choice of food.", "Its diet may vary based on several factors, including the stage of the breeding cycle, short-term variations in available food, nutrient availability, and interspecific and intraspecific competition.", "The majority of the mallard's diet seems to be made up of gastropods, insects , crustaceans, worms, many varieties of seeds and plant matter, and roots and tubers.", "During the breeding season, male birds were recorded to have eaten 37.6% animal matter and 62.4% plant matter, most notably the grass Echinochloa crus-galli, and nonlaying females ate 37.0% animal matter and 63.0% plant matter, while laying females ate 71.9% animal matter and only 28.1% plant matter.", "Plants generally make up the larger part of a bird's diet, especially during autumn migration and in the winter.", "The mallard usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing", "there are reports of it eating frogs.", "However, in 2017 a flock of mallards in Romania were observed hunting small migratory birds, including grey wagtails and black redstarts, the first documented occasion they had been seen attacking and consuming large vertebrates.", "It usually nests on a river bank, but not always near water.", "It is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and forms large flocks, which are known as \" sordes \" .", "Female mallard with five ducklings Mallards usually form pairs until the female lays eggs at the start of the nesting season, which is around the beginning of spring.", "At this time she is left by the male who joins up with other males to await the moulting period, which begins in June .", "During the brief time before this, however, the males are still sexually potent and some of them either remain on standby to sire replacement clutches or forcibly mate with females that appear to be isolated or unattached regardless of their species and whether or not they have a brood of ducklings.", "Nesting sites are typically on the ground, hidden in vegetation where the female's speckled plumage serves as effective camouflage, but female mallards have also been known to nest in hollows in trees, boathouses, roof gardens and on balconies, sometimes resulting in hatched offspring having difficulty following their parent to water.", "Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden Egg clutches number 813 creamy white to greenish-buff eggs free of speckles.", "They measure about in length and in width.", "The eggs are laid on alternate days, and incubation begins when the clutch is almost complete.", "Incubation takes 2728days and fledging takes 5060days.", "The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch.", "However, filial imprinting compels them to instinctively stay near the mother, not only for warmth and protection but also to learn about and remember their habitat as well as how and where to forage for food.", "Though adoptions are known to occur, female mallards typically do not tolerate stray ducklings near their broods, and will violently attack and drive away any unfamiliar young, sometimes going as far as to kill them.", "When ducklings mature into flight-capable juveniles, they learn about and remember their traditional migratory routes .", "In New Zealand, where mallards are naturalised, the nesting season has been found to be longer, eggs and clutches are larger and nest survival is generally greater compared with mallards in their native range.", "In cases where a nest or brood fails, some mallards may mate for a second time in an attempt to raise a second clutch, typically around early-to-mid summer.", "In addition, mallards may occasionally breed during the autumn in cases of unseasonably warm weather", "one such instance of a late clutch occurred in November 2011, in which a female successfully hatched and raised a clutch of eleven ducklings at the London Wetland Centre.", "During the breeding season, both male and female mallards can become aggressive, driving off competitors to themselves or their mate by charging at them.", "Males tend to fight more than females, and attack each other by repeatedly pecking at their rival's chest, ripping out feathers and even skin on rare occasions.", "Female mallards are also known to carry out 'inciting displays', which encourage other ducks in the flock to begin fighting.", "It is possible that this behaviour allows the female to evaluate the strength of potential partners.", "The drakes that end up being left out after the others have paired off with mating partners sometimes target an isolated female duck, even one of a different species, and proceed to chase and peck at her until she weakens, at which point the males take turns copulating with the female.", "Lebret calls this behaviour \" Attempted Rape Flight \" , and Stanley Cramp and K.E.L. Simmons speak of \" rape-intent flights \" .", "Male mallards also occasionally chase other male ducks of a different species, and even each other, in the same way.", "In one documented case of \" homosexual necrophilia \" , a male mallard copulated with another male he was chasing after the chased male died upon flying into a glass window.", "This paper was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 2003.", "Mallards are opportunistically targeted by brood parasites, occasionally having eggs laid in their nests by redheads, ruddy ducks, lesser scaup, gadwalls, northern shovelers, northern pintails, cinnamon teal, common goldeneyes, and other mallards.", "These eggs are generally accepted when they resemble the eggs of the host mallard, but the hen may attempt to eject them or even abandon the nest if parasitism occurs during egg laying.", "A male mute swan driving off a female mallard In addition to human hunting, mallards of all ages and in all locations must contend with a wide diversity of predators including raptors and owls, mustelids, corvids, snakes, raccoons, opossums, skunks, turtles, large fish, felids, and canids, the last two including domestic ones.", "The most prolific natural predators of adult mallards are red foxes and the faster or larger birds of prey, e.g. peregrine falcons, Aquila or Haliaeetus eagles.", "In North America, adult mallards face no fewer than 15 species of birds of prey, from northern harriers and short-eared owls to huge bald and golden eagles , and about a dozen species of mammalian predators, not counting several more avian and mammalian predators who threaten eggs and nestlings.", "Mallards are also preyed upon by other waterside apex predators, such as grey herons , great blue herons and black-crowned night herons , the European herring gull , the wels catfish , and the northern pike .", "Crows are also known to kill ducklings and adults on occasion.", "Also, mallards may be attacked by larger anseriformes such as swans and geese during the breeding season, and are frequently driven off by these birds over territorial disputes.", "Mute swans have been known to attack or even kill mallards if they feel that the ducks pose a threat to their offspring.", "Common loons are similarly territorial and aggressive towards other birds in such disputes, and will frequently drive mallards away from their territory.", "However, in 2019, a pair of common loons in Wisconsin were observed raising a mallard duckling for several weeks, having seemingly adopted the bird after it had been abandoned by its parents.", "The predation-avoidance behaviour of sleeping with one eye open, allowing one brain hemisphere to remain aware while the other half sleeps, was first demonstrated in mallards, although it is believed to be widespread among birds in general.", "Several drakes swim in a pond Since 1998, the mallard has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species.", "This is because it has a large rangemore than 20,000,000 km 2 and because its population is increasing, rather than declining by 30% over ten years or three generations and thus is not warranted a vulnerable rating.", "Also, the population size of the mallard is very large.", "Unlike many waterfowl, mallards have benefited from human alterations to the worldso much so that they are now considered an invasive species in some regions.", "They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other human-made water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged in human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours.", "The mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domestic and feral populations.", "Over time, a continuum of hybrids ranging between almost typical examples of either species develop", "the speciation process is beginning to reverse itself.", "This has created conservation concerns for relatives of the mallard, such as the Hawaiian duck, the New Zealand grey duck subspecies of the Pacific black duck, the American black duck, the mottled duck, Meller's duck, the yellow-billed duck, and the Mexican duck, in the latter case even leading to a dispute as to whether these birds should be considered a species or included in the mallard species.", "Ecological changes and hunting have also led to a decline of local species", "for example, the New Zealand grey duck population declined drastically due to overhunting in the mid-20th century.", "Hybrid offspring of Hawaiian ducks seem to be less well adapted to native habitat, and using them in re-introduction projects apparently reduces success.", "In summary, the problems of mallards \" hybridising away \" relatives is more a consequence of local ducks declining than of mallards spreading", "allopatric speciation and isolating behaviour have produced today's diversity of mallard-like ducks despite the fact that, in most, if not all, of these populations, hybridisation must have occurred to some extent.", "The last male Mariana mallard Mallards are causing severe \" genetic pollution \" to South Africa's biodiversity by breeding with endemic ducks If this continues, only hybrids occur and in the long term result in the extinction of various indigenous waterfowl.", "The mallard can crossbreed with 63 other species, posing a severe threat to indigenous waterfowl's genetic integrity.", "Mallards and their hybrids compete with indigenous birds for resources, including nest sites, roosting sites, and food.", "Mallard x Pacific black duck hybrid, Tasmania Availability of mallards, mallard ducklings, and fertilised mallard eggs for public sale and private ownership, either as poultry or as pets, is currently legal in the United States, except for the state of Florida, which has currently banned domestic ownership of mallards.", "This is to prevent hybridisation with the native mottled duck.", "The mallard is considered an invasive species in Australia and New Zealand, where it competes with the Pacific black duck which was over-hunted in the past.", "There, and elsewhere, mallards are spreading with increasing urbanisation and hybridising with local relatives.", "The Laysan duck is an insular relative of the mallard, with a very small and fluctuating population.", "Now, their range includes only Laysan Island.", "It is one of the successfully translocated birds, after having become nearly extinct in the early 20th century.", "Mallard resting on a poolside in San Francisco", "Mallards have often been ubiquitous in their regions among the ponds, rivers, and streams of human parks, farms, and other human-made waterwayseven to the point of visiting water features in human courtyards.", "George Hetzel, mallard still life painting, 18831884 Mallards have had a long relationship with humans.", "Almost all domestic duck breeds derive from the mallard, with the exception of a few Muscovy breeds, and are listed under the trinomial name A. p. domesticus.", "Mallards are generally monogamous while domestic ducks are mostly polygamous.", "Domestic ducks have no territorial behaviour and are less aggressive than mallards.", "Domestic ducks are mostly kept for meat", "their eggs are also eaten, and have a strong flavour.", "Because of this, mallards have been found to be contaminated with the genes of the domestic duck.", "While the keeping of domestic breeds is more popular, pure-bred mallards are sometimes kept for eggs and meat, although they may require wing clipping to restrict flying, or training to navigate and fly home.", "Mallards are one of the most common varieties of ducks hunted as a sport due to the large population size.", "The ideal location for hunting mallards is considered to be where the water level is somewhat shallow where the birds can be found foraging for food.", "Hunting mallards might cause the population to decline in some places, at some times, and with some populations.", "In certain countries, the mallard may be legally shot but is protected under national acts and policies.", "For example, in the United Kingdom, the mallard is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which restricts certain hunting methods or taking or killing mallards.", " Since ancient times, the mallard has been eaten as food.", "The wild mallard was eaten in Neolithic Greece.", "Usually, only the breast and thigh meat is eaten.", "It does not need to be hung before preparation, and is often braised or roasted, sometimes flavoured with bitter orange or with port."]}, "Aythya ferina": {"keywords": ["The scientific name is derived from Greek aithuia an unidentified seabird mentioned by authors including Hesychius and Aristotle, and Latin ferina, \" wild game \" , from ferus, \" wild \" .", "Their breeding habitat consists of marshes and lakes with a metre or more water depth.", "Pochards breed in much of temperate and northern Europe and across the Palearctic.", "In the British Isles, birds breed in eastern England and lowland Scotland, in small numbers in Northern Ireland with numbers increasing gradually, and sporadically in the Republic of Ireland, where it may also be increasing.", "Large numbers stay overwinter in Great Britain, after the birds retreat from Russia and Scandinavia.", "They eat aquatic plants with some molluscs, aquatic insects and small fish."], "habitat_section": ["Their breeding habitat consists of marshes and lakes with a metre or more water depth.", "Pochards breed in much of temperate and northern Europe and across the Palearctic.", "They are migratory, and spend winter in the south and west of Europe.", "In the British Isles, birds breed in eastern England and lowland Scotland, in small numbers in Northern Ireland with numbers increasing gradually, and sporadically in the Republic of Ireland, where it may also be increasing.", "While uncommon, individuals are also occasionally seen in the south of England, and small populations are sometimes observed on the River Thames.", "Large numbers stay overwinter in Great Britain, after the birds retreat from Russia and Scandinavia.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany These are gregarious birds, forming large flocks in winter, often mixed with other diving ducks such as the tufted duck.", "These birds feed mainly by diving or dabbling.", "They eat aquatic plants with some molluscs, aquatic insects and small fish.", "They often feed at night, and will up-end for food as well as the more characteristic diving.", "According to the article 'Patterns in the diving behaviour of the pochard, Aythya ferina.", "a test of an optimality model' Pochard's have a behavioral preference when it comes to their feeding patterns.", "This behavioral preference is that Pochards prefer shallower water in comparison to deeper water even though the food concentration in deeper water may be higher.", "In a number of countries the population of Common Pochard is decreasing mainly due to urbanization of the natural habitats and their transformation, as well as due to overhunting.", "The pochard is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies."], "random_sentences": ["Aythya ferina) is a medium-sized diving duck.", "The scientific name is derived from Greek aithuia an unidentified seabird mentioned by authors including Hesychius and Aristotle, and Latin ferina, \" wild game \" , from ferus, \" wild \" .", "The adult male has a long dark bill with a grey band, a red head and neck, a black breast, red eyes and a grey back.", "The adult female has a brown head and body and a narrower grey bill-band.", "The triangular head shape is distinctive.", "Pochards are superficially similar to the closely related North American redhead and canvasback.", "Males have whistles cut off by a final nasal note aaoo-oo-haa.", "Their breeding habitat consists of marshes and lakes with a metre or more water depth.", "Pochards breed in much of temperate and northern Europe and across the Palearctic.", "They are migratory, and spend winter in the south and west of Europe.", "In the British Isles, birds breed in eastern England and lowland Scotland, in small numbers in Northern Ireland with numbers increasing gradually, and sporadically in the Republic of Ireland, where it may also be increasing.", "While uncommon, individuals are also occasionally seen in the south of England, and small populations are sometimes observed on the River Thames.", "Large numbers stay overwinter in Great Britain, after the birds retreat from Russia and Scandinavia.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany These are gregarious birds, forming large flocks in winter, often mixed with other diving ducks such as the tufted duck.", "These birds feed mainly by diving or dabbling.", "They eat aquatic plants with some molluscs, aquatic insects and small fish.", "They often feed at night, and will up-end for food as well as the more characteristic diving.", "According to the article 'Patterns in the diving behaviour of the pochard, Aythya ferina: a test of an optimality model' Pochard's have a behavioral preference when it comes to their feeding patterns.", "This behavioral preference is that Pochards prefer shallower water in comparison to deeper water even though the food concentration in deeper water may be higher.", "In a number of countries the population of Common Pochard is decreasing mainly due to urbanization of the natural habitats and their transformation, as well as due to overhunting.", "The pochard is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies."]}, "Aythya fuligula": {"keywords": ["The tufted duck breeds throughout temperate and northern Eurasia.", "It occasionally can be found as a winter visitor along both coasts of the United States and Canada.", "These ducks are migratory in most of their range, and overwinter in the milder south and west of Europe, southern Asia and all year in the British Isles.", "They form large flocks on open water in winter.", "Their breeding habitat is close to marshes and lakes with plenty of vegetation to conceal the nest.", "They are also found on coastal lagoons, shorelines and sheltered ponds.", "They eat molluscs, aquatic insects and some plants and sometimes feed at night."], "habitat_section": ["The tufted duck breeds throughout temperate and northern Eurasia.", "It occasionally can be found as a winter visitor along both coasts of the United States and Canada.", "It is believed to have expanded its traditional range with the increased availability of open water due to gravel extraction, and the spread of freshwater mussels, a favourite food.", "These ducks are migratory in most of their range, and overwinter in the milder south and west of Europe, southern Asia and all year in the British Isles.", "One individual has been reported as far south as Melbourne, Australia.", "They form large flocks on open water in winter.", "Their breeding habitat is close to marshes and lakes with plenty of vegetation to conceal the nest.", "They are also found on coastal lagoons, shorelines and sheltered ponds."], "random_sentences": ["The tufted duck or tufted pochard is a small diving duck with a population of close to one million birds, found in northern Eurasia.", "The scientific name is derived from Ancient Greek aithuia, an unidentified seabird mentioned by authors including Hesychius and Aristotle, and Latin fuligo \" soot \" and gula \" throat \" .", "The adult male is all black except for white flanks and a blue-grey bill with gold-yellow eyes, along with a thin crest on the back of its head.", "It has an obvious head tuft that gives the species its name.", "The adult female is brown with paler flanks, and is more easily confused with other diving ducks.", "In particular, some have white around the bill base which resembles the scaup species, although the white is never as extensive as in those ducks.", "The females' call is a harsh, growling \" karr \" , mostly given in flight.", "The males are mostly silent but they make whistles during courtship based on a simple \" wit-oo \" .", "The only ducks which are similar are the greater scaup and lesser scaup, but these species have no tuft and a different call.", "The tufted duck is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.", "The tufted duck breeds throughout temperate and northern Eurasia.", "It occasionally can be found as a winter visitor along both coasts of the United States and Canada.", "It is believed to have expanded its traditional range with the increased availability of open water due to gravel extraction, and the spread of freshwater mussels, a favourite food.", "These ducks are migratory in most of their range, and overwinter in the milder south and west of Europe, southern Asia and all year in the British Isles.", "One individual has been reported as far south as Melbourne, Australia.", "They form large flocks on open water in winter.", "Their breeding habitat is close to marshes and lakes with plenty of vegetation to conceal the nest.", "They are also found on coastal lagoons, shorelines and sheltered ponds.", "These birds feed mainly by diving, but they will sometimes upend from the surface.", "They eat molluscs, aquatic insects and some plants and sometimes feed at night."]}, "Motacilla alba": {"keywords": ["The species breeds in much of Europe and the Asian Palearctic and parts of North Africa.", "As many as six subspecies may be present in the wintering ground in India or Southeast Asia and here they can be difficult to distinguish.", "Yellow denotes summer range, green year round range, blue winter range.", "This species breeds throughout Eurasia up to latitudes 75N, only being absent in the Arctic from areas where the July isotherm is less than 4 C. It also breeds in the mountains of Morocco and western Alaska.", "Northern European breeders winter around the Mediterranean and in tropical and subtropical Africa, and Asiatic birds move to the Middle East, India, Birds from the North American population also winter in tropical Asia."], "habitat_section": ["Worldwide distribution of the white wagtail.", "Yellow denotes summer range, green year round range, blue winter range.", "This species breeds throughout Eurasia up to latitudes 75N, only being absent in the Arctic from areas where the July isotherm is less than 4 C. It also breeds in the mountains of Morocco and western Alaska.", "It occupies a wide range of habitats, but is absent from deserts.", "White wagtails are residents in the milder parts of its range such as western Europe and the Mediterranean, but migratory in much of the rest of its range.", "Northern European breeders winter around the Mediterranean and in tropical and subtropical Africa, and Asiatic birds move to the Middle East, India, Birds from the North American population also winter in tropical Asia.", "The most conspicuous habit of this species is a near-constant tail wagging, a trait that has given the species, and indeed the genus, its common name.", "In spite of the ubiquity of this behaviour, the reasons for it are poorly understood.", "It has been suggested that it may flush prey, or signal submissiveness to other wagtails.", "A study in 2004 has suggested instead that it is a signal of vigilance to potential predators."], "random_sentences": ["The white wagtail is a small passerine bird in the family Motacillidae, which also includes pipits and longclaws.", "The species breeds in much of Europe and the Asian Palearctic and parts of North Africa.", "It has a toehold in Alaska as a scarce breeder.", "It is resident in the mildest parts of its range, but otherwise migrates to Africa.", "In Ireland and Great Britain, the darker subspecies, the pied wagtail or water wagtail (M.", "this is also called in Ireland willie wagtail, not to be confused with the Australian species Rhipidura leucophrys which bears the same common name.", "In total, there are between 9 and 11 subspecies of M. alba.", "The white wagtail is an insectivorous bird of open country, often near habitation and water.", "It prefers bare areas for feeding, where it can see and pursue its prey.", "In urban areas it has adapted to foraging on paved areas such as car parks.", "It nests in crevices in stone walls and similar natural and man-made structures.", "It is the national bird of Latvia and has featured on the stamps of several countries.", "Though it is 'of least concern', there are several threats against it, like being kept as pets and being used as food.", "Breeding ranges of the major races The white wagtail was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, and it still bears its original name Motacilla alba.", "The Latin genus name originally meant \" little mover \" , but certain medieval writers thought it meant \" wag-tail \" , giving rise to a new Latin word cilla for \" tail \" .", "The specific epithet alba is Latin for \" white \" .", "Within the wagtail genus Motacilla, the white wagtail's closest genetic relatives appear to be other black-and-white wagtails such as the Japanese wagtail, Motacilla grandis, and the white-browed wagtail, Motacilla madaraspatensis , with which it appears to form a superspecies.", "However, mtDNA cytochrome b and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 sequence data suggests that the white wagtail is itself polyphyletic or paraphyletic .", "Other phylogenetic studies using mtDNA still suggest that there is considerable gene flow within the races and the resulting closeness makes Motacilla alba a single species.", "A study has suggested the existence of only two groups: the alboides group, with M. a. alboides, M. a. leucopsis and M. a. personata", "and the alba group, with M. a. alba, M. a. yarrellii, M. a. baicalensis, M. a. ocularis, M. a. lugens, and M. a. subpersonata.", "An adult with a juvenile in Kazakhstan thumbnail", "White wagtails sitting on a spruce and flying away you can see their characteristic flightpattern.", "Spring 2021 The white wagtail is a slender bird, in length , with the characteristic long, constantly wagging tail of its genus.", "Its average weight is and the maximum lifespan in the wild is about 12 years.", "There are a number of other subspecies, some of which may have arisen because of partial geographical isolation, such as the resident British and Irish form, the pied wagtail M. a. yarrellii, which now also breeds in adjacent areas of the neighbouring European mainland.", "The pied wagtail, named for naturalist William Yarrell, exchanges the grey colour of the nominate form with black , but is otherwise identical in its behaviour.", "Other subspecies, the validity of some of which is questionable, differ in the colour of the wings, back, and head, or other features.", "Some races show sexual dimorphism during the breeding season.", "As many as six subspecies may be present in the wintering ground in India or Southeast Asia and here they can be difficult to distinguish.", "Phylogenetic studies using mtDNA suggest that some morphological features have evolved more than once, including the back and chin colour.", "Breeding M. a. yarrellii look much like the nominate race except for the black back, and M. a. alboides of the Himalayas differs from the Central Asian M. a. personata only by its black back.", "M. a. personata has been recorded breeding in the Siddar Valley of Kashmir of the Western Himalayas.", "It has also been noted that both back and chin change colour during the pre-basic moult", "all black-throated subspecies develop white chins and throats in winter and some black-backed birds are grey-backed in winter.", "The call of the white wagtail is a sharp chisick, slightly softer than the version given by the pied wagtail.", "The song is more regular in white than pied, but with little territorial significance, since the male uses a series of contact calls to attract the female.", "Worldwide distribution of the white wagtail.", "Yellow denotes summer range, green year round range, blue winter range.", "This species breeds throughout Eurasia up to latitudes 75N, only being absent in the Arctic from areas where the July isotherm is less than 4 C. It also breeds in the mountains of Morocco and western Alaska.", "It occupies a wide range of habitats, but is absent from deserts.", "White wagtails are residents in the milder parts of its range such as western Europe and the Mediterranean, but migratory in much of the rest of its range.", "Northern European breeders winter around the Mediterranean and in tropical and subtropical Africa, and Asiatic birds move to the Middle East, India, Birds from the North American population also winter in tropical Asia.", "The most conspicuous habit of this species is a near-constant tail wagging, a trait that has given the species, and indeed the genus, its common name.", "In spite of the ubiquity of this behaviour, the reasons for it are poorly understood.", "It has been suggested that it may flush prey, or signal submissiveness to other wagtails.", "A study in 2004 has suggested instead that it is a signal of vigilance to potential predators.", "The exact composition of the diet of white wagtails varies by location, but terrestrial and aquatic insects and other small invertebrates form the major part of the diet.", "These range from beetles, dragonflies, small snails, spiders, worms, crustaceans, to maggots found in carcasses and, most importantly, flies.", "Small fish fry have also been recorded in the diet.", "The white wagtail is somewhat unusual in the parts of its range where it is non-migratory as it is an insectivorous bird that continues to feed on insects during the winter .", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany right", "Juvenile M. a. alba in northern Norway, showing the grey face and chest White wagtails are monogamous and defend breeding territories.", "Around three to eight eggs are laid, with the usual number being four to six.", "The eggs are cream-coloured, often with a faint bluish-green or turquoise tint, and heavily spotted with reddish brown", "they measure, on average, .", "Both parents incubate the eggs, although the female generally does so for longer and incubates at night.", "The eggs begin to hatch after 12 days .", "Both parents feed the chicks until they fledge after between 12 and 15 days, and the chicks are fed for another week after fledging.", "Though it is known to be a host species for the common cuckoo, the white wagtail typically deserts its nest if it has been parasitised.", "Moksnes et al. theorised that this occurs because the wagtail is too small to push the intruding egg out of the nest, and too short-billed to destroy the egg by puncturing it.", "This species has a large range, with an estimated extent of more than .", "The population size is between 130 and 230 million.", "Population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List .", "For these reasons, the species is evaluated to be of least concern.", "The population in Europe appears to be stable.", "The species has adapted well to human changes to the environment and has exploited human changes such as man-made structures that are used for nesting sites and increased open areas that are used for foraging.", "In a number of cities, notably Dublin, large flocks gather in winter to roost.", "They are therefore rated as of least concern.", "However, they are caught for sport and often then placed into collections.", "They are also kept as pets and eaten as food.", "Climate change may be affecting the time of their migration.", "They have featured on stamps from Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Finland, Georgia, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Jersey, Kuwait, Latvia, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom and Vietnam.", "The white wagtail is the national bird of Latvia, and has been often mentioned in Latvian and Madheshi folk songs.", "It is called Khirlichi in Madheshi language and is worshipped during festivals of Sama Chakewa and Jitiya."]}}
|
|
2604183_1172266
| 726
|
[
"Epipactis atrorubens"
] |
{"Epipactis atrorubens": {"keywords": ["The dark-red helleborine is widespread across Europe, and is found in the north to the subarctic, in the south to the Mediterranean, and in the east to Western Siberia and the Caucasus.", "The orchid grows at altitudes from sea level to 2,400 m , and so can be found in mountainous regions such as the southern Alps.", "The dark-red helleborine favours warm and dry locations, with soil basic to neutral in pH, nutrient-poor, and permeable.", "It grows in loose rock, scree, or sandy soils above a limestone substrate, including dunes, lawns, or open forest.", "It is also a pioneer species, which settles in fallow areas, road embankments, and waste dumps, in the early to middle stages of ecological succession, among communities of grass and bush and light birch stands.", "Pezizales are some of the least abundant fungal species in the forests where this orchid species grows."], "habitat_section": ["The dark-red helleborine is widespread across Europe, and is found in the north to the subarctic, in the south to the Mediterranean, and in the east to Western Siberia and the Caucasus.", "The orchid grows at altitudes from sea level to 2,400 m , and so can be found in mountainous regions such as the southern Alps.", "In Central Europe it has been in decline in recent decades.", "It is not, however, one of the most severely threatened species of orchid.", "The species is also reportedly naturalized in one location in the US State of Vermont.", "The dark-red helleborine favours warm and dry locations, with soil basic to neutral in pH, nutrient-poor, and permeable.", "It grows in loose rock, scree, or sandy soils above a limestone substrate, including dunes, lawns, or open forest.", "It is also a pioneer species, which settles in fallow areas, road embankments, and waste dumps, in the early to middle stages of ecological succession, among communities of grass and bush and light birch stands.", "Epipactis atrorubens relies upon mycorrhizal associations with several fungi species in the order Pezizales.", "Pezizales are some of the least abundant fungal species in the forests where this orchid species grows.", "The flowers of this orchid species are often pollinated by insects, particularly bees.", "This species is assessed as conservation status \"least concern\" in Europe and in the United Kingdom, however, its distribution in some countries is scarce and it has been noted to be threatened in some areas by overgrazing and quarrying."], "random_sentences": ["Epipactis atrorubens, the dark-red helleborine or royal helleborine, is an herbaceous plant in the orchid family, Orchidaceae.", "As with many other species of orchids, the species is legally protected in some countries.", "Plantlife designated the dark-red helleborine as the county flower for Banffshire, Scotland.", "The plant is hardy and has a short rootstalk, often with multiple, fleshy roots.", "It blooms from June to August with erect, mostly purple inflorescences with dense hair on the tops, standing between 2080 cm in height.", "The blossoms emit a strong vanilla scent, especially in warm weather.", "The flowers sometimes vary in color, but are in general reddish-brown.", "The fruit is a capsule, out of which the light, dustlike seeds are spread by the wind.", "A number of natural hybrids with other Epipactis species are known.", ") Besser is an accepted species, though Epipactis atrorubens Rostk.", "is a synonym of Epipactis microphylla.", "The dark-red helleborine is widespread across Europe, and is found in the north to the subarctic, in the south to the Mediterranean, and in the east to Western Siberia and the Caucasus.", " The orchid grows at altitudes from sea level to 2,400 m , and so can be found in mountainous regions such as the southern Alps.", "In Central Europe it has been in decline in recent decades.", "It is not, however, one of the most severely threatened species of orchid.", "The species is also reportedly naturalized in one location in the US State of Vermont.", "The dark-red helleborine favours warm and dry locations, with soil basic to neutral in pH, nutrient-poor, and permeable.", "It grows in loose rock, scree, or sandy soils above a limestone substrate, including dunes, lawns, or open forest.", "It is also a pioneer species, which settles in fallow areas, road embankments, and waste dumps, in the early to middle stages of ecological succession, among communities of grass and bush and light birch stands.", "Epipactis atrorubens relies upon mycorrhizal associations with several fungi species in the order Pezizales.", "Pezizales are some of the least abundant fungal species in the forests where this orchid species grows.", "The flowers of this orchid species are often pollinated by insects, particularly bees.", "This species is assessed as conservation status \"least concern\" in Europe and in the United Kingdom, however, its distribution in some countries is scarce and it has been noted to be threatened in some areas by overgrazing and quarrying."]}}
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|
2687210_1252306
| 2154
|
[
"Zeuzera pyrina",
"Pararge aegeria",
"Coreus marginatus",
"Leptoglossus occidentalis",
"Zoropsis spinimana",
"Libellula depressa",
"Helix pomatia",
"Pyrrhosoma nymphula",
"Euplagia quadripunctaria",
"Clytus arietis"
] |
{"Zeuzera pyrina": {"keywords": ["It is considered a pest by fruit growers, as the larvae feed on branches of many kinds of fruit trees .", "These moths are associated with woodland, gardens and orchards.", "They feed on the wood of various deciduous trees and shrubs , feeding internally for two or three years in the stems and branches before emerging to pupate under the bark."], "habitat_section": ["This species can be found primarily in Europe but also in northern Africa and Asia .", "It was introduced into the northeastern United States prior to 1879 and has a range extending from Maine, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas.", "These moths are associated with woodland, gardens and orchards."], "random_sentences": ["Zeuzera pyrina, the leopard moth or wood leopard moth, is a moth of the family Cossidae.", "It is considered a pest by fruit growers, as the larvae feed on branches of many kinds of fruit trees .", "Olive trees in particular are very susceptible and can be killed by the larvae burrowing within them.", "This species can be found primarily in Europe but also in northern Africa and Asia .", "It was introduced into the northeastern United States prior to 1879 and has a range extending from Maine, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas.", "These moths are associated with woodland, gardens and orchards.", "Zeuzera pyrina has a wingspan of 3560 mm.", "This is a highly distinctive species.", "The male is slightly smaller than the female.", "The length of the abdomen of the female is about 4550 mm.", "These moths have a white head, with a black forehead and a very furry white thorax marked with six black spots.", "The abdomen is black, with short white hair-like scales on the posterior edge of each segment and a flat brush of scales on the apex.", "Forewings are whitish, long and narrow, with numerous black spots or black spots with white interior spots, arranged in rows along the veins.", "Hindwings are translucent, except in the anal area, with small black spots.", "In addition to the dimensions, the two sexes differ in the shape of the antennas, thinner in the female, while in the male they are markedly bipectinate, with the exception of terminals articles.", "The moth flies from June to September depending on the location.", "They feed on the wood of various deciduous trees and shrubs , feeding internally for two or three years in the stems and branches before emerging to pupate under the bark.", "It can be a pest of fruit production."]}, "Pararge aegeria": {"keywords": ["The speckled wood is a butterfly found in and on the borders of woodland areas throughout much of the Palearctic realm.", "Pararge xiphia occurs on the Atlantic island of Madeira.", "Pararge xiphioides occurs on the Canary Islands.", "The northern butterflies in this species have a bigger size, adult body mass, and wing area.", "This is due to the fact that in the cooler temperatures of the northern part of this butterfly's range, the butterflies need larger forewings for thermoregulation.", "The speckled wood occupies a diversity of grassy, flowery habitats in forest, meadow steppe, woods, and glades.", "It can also be found in urban areas alongside hedges, in wooded urban parks, and occasionally in gardens.", "The species is able to overwinter in two totally separated developmental stages, as pupae or as half-grown larvae.", "Larval food plants include a variety of grass species such as Agropyron , Brachypodium , Brachypodium sylvaticum , Bromus , Cynodon dactylon , Dactylis glomerata , Elymus repens , Elytrigia repens , Holcus lanatus , Hordeum , Melica nutans , Melica uniflora , Oryzopsis miliacea , Poa annua , Poa nemoralis , Poa trivialis , but the preferred species of grass is the couch grass .", "The choice is most likely dependent on the search costs associated with finding a mate.", "Territorial defense involves a male flying or perching in a spot of sunlight that pierces through the forest canopy.", "The males often perch on vegetation near the forest floor.", "This pattern is correlated with the progression of the season, as temperature and male density rise.", "Sunspots are more attractive when temperatures are low, as they provide the warmth needed for higher levels of activity.", "Within male speckled wood butterflies, the melanic form shows greater directional asymmetry and grows more slowly than the pale, territorial males.", "In addition to body mass, the number of eggs laid by a female may also be related to the time spent searching for an oviposition site."], "habitat_section": ["The speckled wood occupies a diversity of grassy, flowery habitats in forest, meadow steppe, woods, and glades.", "It can also be found in urban areas alongside hedges, in wooded urban parks, and occasionally in gardens.", "Within its range the speckled wood typically prefers damp areas.", "P. a. tricis and P. a. aegeria gradually intergrade into each other.", "Speckled wood male.", "Male P. a. aegeria Portugal Speckled wood male underside.", "Male P. a. aegeria Portugal Speckled wood female Cyprus.", "Female P. a. aegeria Cyprus Territorial defense involves a male flying or perching in a spot of sunlight that pierces through the forest canopy.", "The speckled wood butterfly spends the night high up in the trees, and territorial activity commences once sunlight passes through the canopy.", "The males often remain in the same sunspot until the evening, following the sunspot as it moves across the forest floor.", "The males often perch on vegetation near the forest floor.", "If a female flies into the territory, the resident male flies after her, the pair drop to the ground, and copulation follows.", "If another species flies through the sunspot, the resident male ignores the intruder.", "However, if a conspecific, a male of the same species, enters the sunspot, the resident male flies towards the intruder almost bumping into him, and the pair fly upwards.", "The winner flies back towards the forest floor within the sunspot, while the defeated male flies away from the territory.", "The pattern of flight during this encounter depends on the vegetation.", "In an open understory, the pair fly straight upwards.", "In a dense understory, this flight pattern is not possible, so the pair spiral upwards.", "In most of these interactions, the conflict is relatively short, and the resident male wins.", "The intruder most likely backs down as a serious confrontation could be costly, and there is an abundance of equally desirable sunspots.", "However, if both males believe they are the \" resident \" male, the conflict escalates.", "If a previous owner of the sunspot tries to reclaim his territory after he has left for mating, a longer and more costly fight ensues.", "In these serious fights, the winner of the contest is not predictable.", "The abundance of territorial behavior depends on the environmental conditions.", "At the beginning of the mating season, fights over ownership of a sunspot territory are lengthy.", "The duration of the conflict quickly decreases during a period of two weeks.", "This pattern is correlated with the progression of the season, as temperature and male density rise.", "Sunspots are more attractive when temperatures are low, as they provide the warmth needed for higher levels of activity.", "As male density increases, it becomes increasingly difficult to hold onto a territory, so territoriality decreases and more males exhibit patrolling behavior.", "In butterflies, asymmetrical wings are observed in three different ways.", "fluctuating , directional , and antisymmetry .", "Also, females show more asymmetry in general compared to males.", "Within male speckled wood butterflies, the melanic form shows greater directional asymmetry and grows more slowly than the pale, territorial males.", "Furthermore, males that are most successful in territorial disputes are only slightly asymmetrical, as opposed to complete symmetry or asymmetry, this indicates that sexual selection affects asymmetry."], "random_sentences": ["The speckled wood is a butterfly found in and on the borders of woodland areas throughout much of the Palearctic realm.", "The species is subdivided into multiple subspecies, including Pararge aegeria aegeria, Pararge aegeria tircis, Pararge aegeria oblita, and Pararge aegeria insula.", "The color of this butterfly varies between subspecies.", "The existence of these subspecies is due to variation in morphology down a gradient corresponding to a geographic cline.", "The background of the wings ranges from brown to orange, and the spots are either pale yellow, white, cream, or a tawny orange.", "The speckled wood feeds on a variety of grass species.", "The males of this species exhibit two types of mate locating behaviors: territorial defense and patrolling.", "The proportion of males exhibiting these two strategies changes based on ecological conditions.", "The monandrous female must choose which type of male can help her reproduce successfully.", "Her decision is heavily influenced by environmental conditions.", "The speckled wood belongs to the genus Pararge, which comprises three species: Pararge aegeria, Pararge xiphia, and Pararge xiphioides.", "Pararge xiphia occurs on the Atlantic island of Madeira.", "Pararge xiphioides occurs on the Canary Islands.", "Molecular studies suggest that the African and Madeiran populations are closely related and distinct from European populations of both subspecies, suggesting that Madeira was colonized from Africa and that the African population has a long history of isolation from European populations.", "Furthermore, the species Pararge aegeria comprises four subspecies: Pararge aegeria aegeria, Pararge aegeria tircis, Pararge aegeria oblita, and Pararge aegeria insula.", "These subspecies stem from the fact that the speckled wood butterfly exhibits a cline across their range.", "This butterfly varies morphologically down the 700 km cline, resulting in the different subspecies corresponding to geographical areas.", "The average wingspan of both males and females is , although males tend to be slightly smaller than females.", "Furthermore, males possess a row of grayish-brown scent scales on their forewings that is absent in the females.", "Females have brighter and more distinct markings than males.", "The subspecies P. a. tircis is brown with pale yellow or cream spots and darker upperwing eyespots.", "The subspecies P. a. aegeria has a more orange background and the hindwing underside eyespots are reddish brown rather than black or dark gray.", "The two forms gradually intergrade into each other.", "Subspecies P. a. oblita is a darker brown, often approaching black with white rather than cream spots.", "The underside of its hindwings has a marginal pale purple band and a row of conspicuous white spots.", "The spots of subspecies P. a. insula are a tawny orange rather than a cream color.", "The underside of the forewings has patches of pale orange, and the underside of the hindwing has a purple-tinged band.", "Although there is considerable variation with each subspecies, identification of the different subspecies is manageable.", "Female Speckled wood female underside 2.", "Female underside Speckled wood female 2 head.", "Head of female Speckled wood female 3 head.", "The northern butterflies in this species have a bigger size, adult body mass, and wing area.", "These measurements decrease as one moves in a southerly direction in the speckled wood's range.", "Forewing length on the other hand increases moving in a northerly direction.", "This is due to the fact that in the cooler temperatures of the northern part of this butterfly's range, the butterflies need larger forewings for thermoregulation.", "Finally, the northern butterflies are darker than their southern counterpart, and there is a coloration gradient, down their geographical cline.", "The speckled wood occupies a diversity of grassy, flowery habitats in forest, meadow steppe, woods, and glades.", "It can also be found in urban areas alongside hedges, in wooded urban parks, and occasionally in gardens.", "Within its range the speckled wood typically prefers damp areas.", "P. a. tricis and P. a. aegeria gradually intergrade into each other.", "Male P. a. aegeria Portugal Speckled wood male underside.", "Male P. a. aegeria Portugal Speckled wood female Cyprus.", "First instar and fourth instar are shown next to a human finger for scale.", "Pupa The eggs are laid on a variety of grass host plants.", "The caterpillar is green with a short, forked tail, and the chrysalis is green or dark brown.", "The species is able to overwinter in two totally separated developmental stages, as pupae or as half-grown larvae.", "This leads to a complicated pattern of several adult flights per year.", "Larval food plants include a variety of grass species such as Agropyron , Brachypodium , Brachypodium sylvaticum , Bromus , Cynodon dactylon , Dactylis glomerata , Elymus repens , Elytrigia repens , Holcus lanatus , Hordeum , Melica nutans , Melica uniflora , Oryzopsis miliacea , Poa annua , Poa nemoralis , Poa trivialis , but the preferred species of grass is the couch grass .", "The adult is nectar feeding.", "The growth and development of the speckled wood butterfly is dependent on the larval density and the sex of the individual. High larval densities result in decreased survivorship as well as a longer development and smaller adults.", "However, females are much more adversely affected by this phenomenon.", "They depend on their larval food stores during oviposition, so a high larval density in the larva stage can result in lower fecundity for females in the adult stage.", "Males can compensate for their smaller size by feeding as adults or switching mate-locating tactics, so they are less affected by high larval densities.", "A high growth rate can also negatively affect larval survivorship.", "Those with high growth rates will also have high weight-loss rates if food becomes scarce.", "They are less likely to survive if food becomes available once again.", "In the speckled wood butterfly females are monandrous", "they typically only mate once within their lifetime.", "On the other hand, males are polygynous and typically mate multiple times.", "In order to locate females, males employ one of two strategies: territorial defense and patrolling.", "The choice is most likely dependent on the search costs associated with finding a mate.", "When actively searching for a male, a female must spend her precious time and energy, which results in search costs, especially when she has a limited life span.", "As search costs increase, female choosiness for a mate decreases.", "For example, if a female's life span is shorter, she has a higher cost associated with searching for the ideal mate.", "Therefore, she is likely to mate within a day of her emergence as an adult, and will most likely mate with a patrolling male, as they are easier to find.", "However, if a female lifespan is longer, then the search costs associated with finding a mate are lower.", "The female is then more likely to actively search for a territorial male.", "Since the search costs vary depending on environmental conditions, strategies vary from population to population.", "Males employing different strategies, territorial defense or patrolling, can be differentiated by the number of spots on their hindwings.", "Those with three spots are more likely to be patrolling males, while those with four spots are more likely to be defending males.", "The frequency of the two phenotypes depends on the location and time of year.", "For example, there are more territorial males in areas where there are many sunny spots.", "Furthermore, the development of wingspots is influenced by environmental conditions.", "Therefore, the strategy employed by males is heavily dependent on environmental conditions.", "Territorial defense involves a male flying or perching in a spot of sunlight that pierces through the forest canopy.", "The speckled wood butterfly spends the night high up in the trees, and territorial activity commences once sunlight passes through the canopy.", "The males often remain in the same sunspot until the evening, following the sunspot as it moves across the forest floor.", "The males often perch on vegetation near the forest floor.", "If a female flies into the territory, the resident male flies after her, the pair drop to the ground, and copulation follows.", "If another species flies through the sunspot, the resident male ignores the intruder.", "However, if a conspecific, a male of the same species, enters the sunspot, the resident male flies towards the intruder almost bumping into him, and the pair fly upwards.", "The winner flies back towards the forest floor within the sunspot, while the defeated male flies away from the territory.", "The pattern of flight during this encounter depends on the vegetation.", "In an open understory, the pair fly straight upwards.", "In a dense understory, this flight pattern is not possible, so the pair spiral upwards.", "In most of these interactions, the conflict is relatively short, and the resident male wins.", "The intruder most likely backs down as a serious confrontation could be costly, and there is an abundance of equally desirable sunspots.", "However, if both males believe they are the \" resident \" male, the conflict escalates.", "If a previous owner of the sunspot tries to reclaim his territory after he has left for mating, a longer and more costly fight ensues.", "In these serious fights, the winner of the contest is not predictable.", "The abundance of territorial behavior depends on the environmental conditions.", "At the beginning of the mating season, fights over ownership of a sunspot territory are lengthy.", "The duration of the conflict quickly decreases during a period of two weeks.", "This pattern is correlated with the progression of the season, as temperature and male density rise.", "Sunspots are more attractive when temperatures are low, as they provide the warmth needed for higher levels of activity.", "As male density increases, it becomes increasingly difficult to hold onto a territory, so territoriality decreases and more males exhibit patrolling behavior.", "In butterflies, asymmetrical wings are observed in three different ways: fluctuating , directional , and antisymmetry (similar to directional but half of the individuals of the species find that a particular wing, such as their left, is larger, and the other half of the individuals find that their right is larger.", "Both genders of the speckled wood butterfly exhibit asymmetrical wings", "however, only males show directional asymmetry .", "Also, females show more asymmetry in general compared to males.", "Within male speckled wood butterflies, the melanic form shows greater directional asymmetry and grows more slowly than the pale, territorial males.", "Furthermore, males that are most successful in territorial disputes are only slightly asymmetrical, as opposed to complete symmetry or asymmetry", "this indicates that sexual selection affects asymmetry.", "A female's fecundity is dependent on body mass, as females deprived from sucrose during their oviposition period have reduced fecundity.", "Therefore, heavier females will produce a larger number of eggs.", "In addition to body mass, the number of eggs laid by a female may also be related to the time spent searching for an oviposition site.", "The number of eggs laid is inversely proportional to egg size.", "However, egg size was not found to have any influence on egg or larval survival, larval development time, or pupal weight under experimental conditions.", "One explanation may be that there is a tradeoff between the number of eggs laid and the time spent searching for the optimal oviposition site.", "A female would produce more eggs in an optimal environment, so she can produce more offspring and increase her reproductive fitness.", "During copulation in butterfly species, the male deposits a spermatophore in the female consisting of sperm and a secretion high in proteins and lipids.", "The female uses the nutrients in the spermatophore in egg production.", "In a polyandrous mating system, where sperm competition is present, it is beneficial for males to deposit a large spermatophore in order to fertilize the largest amount of eggs possible and possibly prevent the female from mating again.", "Since most females in the speckled wood butterfly behave monandrously, there is decreased sperm competition, and the male's spermatophore is much smaller relative to other species.", "The speckled wood male's spermatophore size increases as body mass of the male increases.", "The spermatophore in the second copulation is significantly smaller, so copulation with a virgin male results in a higher number of larval offspring.", "Therefore, there is a cost to females associated with mating with a non-virgin male."]}, "Coreus marginatus": {"keywords": ["They are heavily spined, less uniform in colouration and have disproportionately large antennae compared to their body size.", "Like other Coreidae, Coreus marginatus has scent glands with small pores in the middle of its thorax which can release strong-smelling, irritating, volatile defensive chemicals when disturbed.", "It overwinters as an adult and copulates in the typical heteropteran back-to-back position, laying large brown eggs between late May and early July."], "habitat_section": ["Linnaeus originally described the species from Europe with only one of his specimens having a specific locality of England.", "Other early specimens collected by Goeze are from France The current distribution is extensive and covers.", "Europe, from Portugal to Finland, Asia, from Russia to China, and Africa, known only from Algeria."], "random_sentences": ["Coreus marginatus is a herbivorous species of true bug in the family Coreidae.", "It is commonly known as the dock bug as it feeds on the leaves and seeds of docks and sorrels.", "It is a medium-sized speckled brown insect, between 13 and 15 mm long as an adult, with a broad abdomen.", "It occurs throughout Europe, Asia and northern Africa.", "It is often found in dense vegetation, such as hedgerows and wasteland.", "This species was among the first Hemiptera formally described in the scientific literature by the Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus in 1758, under the name Cimex marginatus.", "It was transferred to the genus Coreus by the Danish zoologist Johan Fabricius in 1794.", "It has numerous synonyms and was historically placed in the genus Syromastus.", "The specific epithet marginatus refers to the prominent margins of the abdomen.", "The head, pronotum and abdomen of an adult dock bug are speckled reddish brown.", "The antennae are composed of four segments, red-orange in colour except for the final fourth segment which is black.", "Between the antennae are two small projections, known as antenniferous tubercles, which can be used to distinguish this species from other superficially similar species.", "The pronotum has angular upward facing projections and the scutellum is clearly visible.", "The rounded edge of the abdomen has lighter coloured markings.", "Adults are between 13 and 15 millimetres long and males are typically smaller than females but have longer antennae.", "Young nymphs look different in appearance to the adults.", "They are heavily spined, less uniform in colouration and have disproportionately large antennae compared to their body size.", "Older nymphs looks more similar to adults with a more uniform speckled brown colouration but lacking developed wings.", "Like other Coreidae, Coreus marginatus has scent glands with small pores in the middle of its thorax which can release strong-smelling, irritating, volatile defensive chemicals when disturbed.", "The pores have an ultrastructure composed of mushroom-like structures that are connected to each other via ridges and Trabeculae.", "The chemical composition of the scent gland secretions is similar between males and females, although the relative proportions are different.", "In females the most prevalent chemical compound is hexanoic acid while in males it is stearic acid.", "Linnaeus originally described the species from Europe with only one of his specimens having a specific locality of England.", "Other early specimens collected by Goeze are from France The current distribution is extensive and covers: Europe, from Portugal to Finland", "Asia, from Russia to China", "and Africa, known only from Algeria.", "Like other Coreidae the dock bug has an annual life cycle consisting of an egg followed by five successive nymphal instars before becoming an adult.", "It overwinters as an adult and copulates in the typical heteropteran back-to-back position, laying large brown eggs between late May and early July.", "The eggs take around 3 to 4 weeks to hatch.", "The young nymphs will feed on leaves and stems while the older nymphs, like the adults, feed on seeds.", "The nymphs mature to adults from August onwards.", "The dock bug is herbivorous and feeds on a wide variety of plants from different families.", "While the common name in English refers to its preferred diet of docks and sorrels and other plants in the family Polygonaceae, they also readily feed on certain species of Asteraceae and Rosaceae.", "Adults are known to feed on raspberry, gooseberry and sometimes blackcurrant."]}, "Leptoglossus occidentalis": {"keywords": ["It is native to North America west of the Rocky Mountains but has in recent times expanded its range to eastern North America, to include Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Maine, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, and has become an accidental introduced species in parts of Europe.", "Its host plants in the native range include conifers such as Douglas-fir , ponderosa pine , lodgepole pine , and white spruce .", "Outside the native range, it is found on species such as eastern white pine and red pine in eastern North America and Europe, and mountain pine , black pine , Scots pine and pistachio in Europe.", "In the northern parts of its range, these bugs start to move about widely by September or so to seek crevices for overwintering, they may become a nuisance in areas with extensive conifer woods, as they will sometimes enter houses in considerable numbers.", "This insect is common in its native range along the temperate and warmer regions of the Pacific coast of North America and has steadily expanded eastwards.", "On its native continent, L. occidentalis has been located as far northeast as Nova Scotia.", "By 2007, it had established itself in the northern Balkans , the Alps , and parts of the Czech Republic, France, Germany and Hungary, in 2003, it was found to occur in Spain, though this population probably derives from a separate introduction.", "In June 2021 Agence France Presse carried a report into devastation caused by the bug in the Qsaybeh pine forest east of Beirut, Lebanon, resulting in the collapse of pine nut production."], "habitat_section": ["A WCSB found on a window in Maine in 2005 In its native range, the western conifer seed bug feeds on the sap of developing conifer cones throughout its life, and its sap-sucking causes the developing seeds to wither and misdevelop.", "It is therefore considered a minor tree pest in North America, but becoming sometimes more harmful e.g.", "However, it is not monophagous and even adaptable enough to feed on angiosperms if it has to, though it seems to prefer resiniferous plants that are rich in terpenes.", "As these are produced by plants to deter herbivores, it might be that in evolving its ability to overcome these defenses, L. occidentalis actually became somewhat dependent on such compounds.", "Its host plants in the native range include conifers such as Douglas-fir , ponderosa pine , lodgepole pine , and white spruce .", "Outside the native range, it is found on species such as eastern white pine and red pine in eastern North America and Europe, and mountain pine , black pine , Scots pine and pistachio in Europe.", "The eggs are laid in small groups on the needles or leaf stems of its host plants, and hatch in spring.", "The nymphs go through 5 instar stages before moulting into adults.", "In the United States, the species is univoltine, but in southern Europe, it completes two generations a year, and in tropical Mexico even three.", "In the northern parts of its range, these bugs start to move about widely by September or so to seek crevices for overwintering, they may become a nuisance in areas with extensive conifer woods, as they will sometimes enter houses in considerable numbers.", "They have the potential to become structural pests, as it has been found that they will sometimes pierce PEX tubing with their mouthparts, resulting in leakage.", "This insect is common in its native range along the temperate and warmer regions of the Pacific coast of North America and has steadily expanded eastwards.", "On its native continent, L. occidentalis has been located as far northeast as Nova Scotia.", "In Europe, this species was first reported in 1999 from northern Italy, it had probably been accidentally imported with timber and, as it seems, more than once, as its presence was subsequently reported from that country almost simultaneously from locations a considerable distance apart.", "By 2007, it had established itself in the northern Balkans , the Alps , and parts of the Czech Republic, France, Germany and Hungary, in 2003, it was found to occur in Spain, though this population probably derives from a separate introduction.", "The 2007 records from Weymouth College and Ostend might also represent one or two further independent introductions.", "In late 2007, it was found at Wrocaw and Miechow , these animals probably represent a further range expansion out of the Czech Republic.", "During the autumn of 2008, a large influx of this species arrived on the south coast of England, indicating natural immigration from continental Europe.", "In late 2009, a large group of western conifer seed bugs invaded Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey.", "The same thing happened in October 2012 in most of the cities of the French Alps, like Moutiers.", "In 2017 it appears for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere, with several records from Chile.", "It was also first recorded from Tokyo, Japan in 2008, and some additional records from Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture have been added until 2009.", "In 2010 the first detection was made in Ukraine, in Dniprorudne, and the next year in Russia, in Rostov-on-Don.", "On October 21, 2020 the first sighting in Andorra was posted to iNaturalist, and in September this species was found in Kozhukhovka in Kyiv region, Ukraine.", "In June 2021 Agence France Presse carried a report into devastation caused by the bug in the Qsaybeh pine forest east of Beirut, Lebanon, resulting in the collapse of pine nut production.", "Present in North Macedonia."], "random_sentences": ["The western conifer seed bug , sometimes abbreviated as WCSB, is a species of true bug in the family Coreidae.", "It is native to North America west of the Rocky Mountains but has in recent times expanded its range to eastern North America, to include Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Maine, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, and has become an accidental introduced species in parts of Europe.", "This species is a member of the insect family Coreidae, or leaf-footed bugs, which also includes the similar Leptoglossus phyllopus and Acanthocephala femorata, both known as the \" Florida leaf-footed bug \" .", "Western conifer seed bugs are sometimes colloquially called stink bugs.", "While they do use a foul-smelling spray as a defense, they are not classified in the stink bug family Pentatomidae.", "In Chile, it has been confused with kissing bugs , causing unjustified alarm.", "The average length is with males being smaller than females.", "They are able to fly, making a buzzing noise when airborne.", "Western conifer seed bugs are somewhat similar in appearance to the wheel bug Arilus cristatus and other Reduviidae .", "These, being Cimicomorpha, are not very closely related to leaf-footed bugs as Heteroptera go", "though both have a proboscis, but only the assassin bugs bite even if unprovoked, and L. occidentalis like its closest relatives can be most easily recognized by the expanded hindleg tibiae and by the alternating light and dark bands which run along the outer wing edges on the flaring sides of the abdomen.", "Their primary defense is to emit an unpleasant-smelling alarm pheromone", "however, if handled roughly they will stab with their proboscis, though they are hardly able to cause injury to humans as it is adapted only to suck plant sap and not, as in the assassin bugs, to inject poison.", "Profile Leptoglossus occidentalis MHNT abdomen.", "Abdomen Western conifer seed bug back.", "Back Cabeza de un Leptoglossus occidentalis, Hartelholz, Munich, Alemania, 2014-04-05, DD 01.", "Detail of the head Leptoglossus occidentalis macro eyes.", "A WCSB found on a window in Maine in 2005 In its native range, the western conifer seed bug feeds on the sap of developing conifer cones throughout its life, and its sap-sucking causes the developing seeds to wither and misdevelop.", "It is therefore considered a minor tree pest in North America, but becoming sometimes more harmful e.g. in conifer plantations.", "However, it is not monophagous and even adaptable enough to feed on angiosperms if it has to, though it seems to prefer resiniferous plants that are rich in terpenes.", "As these are produced by plants to deter herbivores, it might be that in evolving its ability to overcome these defenses, L. occidentalis actually became somewhat dependent on such compounds.", "Its host plants in the native range include conifers such as Douglas-fir , ponderosa pine , lodgepole pine , and white spruce .", "Outside the native range, it is found on species such as eastern white pine (P.", "strobus) and red pine (P.", "resinosa) in eastern North America and Europe, and mountain pine (P.", "sylvestris) and pistachio in Europe.", "The eggs are laid in small groups on the needles or leaf stems of its host plants, and hatch in spring.", "The nymphs go through 5 instar stages before moulting into adults.", "In the United States, the species is univoltine, but in southern Europe, it completes two generations a year, and in tropical Mexico even three.", "In the northern parts of its range, these bugs start to move about widely by September or so to seek crevices for overwintering", "they may become a nuisance in areas with extensive conifer woods, as they will sometimes enter houses in considerable numbers.", "They have the potential to become structural pests, as it has been found that they will sometimes pierce PEX tubing with their mouthparts, resulting in leakage.", "This insect is common in its native range along the temperate and warmer regions of the Pacific coast of North America and has steadily expanded eastwards.", "On its native continent, L. occidentalis has been located as far northeast as Nova Scotia.", "In Europe, this species was first reported in 1999 from northern Italy", "it had probably been accidentally imported with timber and, as it seems, more than once, as its presence was subsequently reported from that country almost simultaneously from locations a considerable distance apart.", "By 2007, it had established itself in the northern Balkans , the Alps , and parts of the Czech Republic, France, Germany and Hungary", "in 2003, it was found to occur in Spain, though this population probably derives from a separate introduction.", "The 2007 records from Weymouth College and Ostend might also represent one or two further independent introductions.", "In late 2007, it was found at Wrocaw and Miechow ", "these animals probably represent a further range expansion out of the Czech Republic.", "During the autumn of 2008, a large influx of this species arrived on the south coast of England, indicating natural immigration from continental Europe.", "In late 2009, a large group of western conifer seed bugs invaded Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey.", "The same thing happened in October 2012 in most of the cities of the French Alps, like Moutiers.", "In 2017 it appears for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere, with several records from Chile.", "It was also first recorded from Tokyo, Japan in 2008, and some additional records from Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture have been added until 2009.", "In 2010 the first detection was made in Ukraine, in Dniprorudne, and the next year in Russia, in Rostov-on-Don.", "On October 21, 2020 the first sighting in Andorra was posted to iNaturalist, and in September this species was found in Kozhukhovka in Kyiv region, Ukraine.", "In June 2021 Agence France Presse carried a report into devastation caused by the bug in the Qsaybeh pine forest east of Beirut, Lebanon, resulting in the collapse of pine nut production."]}, "Zoropsis spinimana": {"keywords": ["The front body is brownish with broad darker markings.", "Ecologists assume that climate change enabled the spiders to take hold and reproduce north of the Alps.", "Spiders of the species can be found on forest edges under rocks and tree bark, where they hunt for prey during the night.", "Since this spider cannot survive in a harsh climate, it often seeks refuge in human habitation and is frequently found in houses where the temperature is milder and food is more abundant."], "habitat_section": ["Zoropsis spinimana is distributed widely in the Mediterranean, but reaches into Russia, and was introduced to the United States, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the United Kingdom, primarily the London area.", "Since the mid-1990s, the species has been sighted along Europe's North-South transport routes, like Lucerne, Basel, Freiburg im Breisgau, Duisburg and Innsbruck.", "It is not clear why the relatively large spider was not found there earlier, as Mediterranean holidays with mobile homes were popular in the 1970s, and would have provided the spiders with many suitable habitats and transport opportunities.", "Ecologists assume that climate change enabled the spiders to take hold and reproduce north of the Alps.", "Recent finds presumably near the Northern border of the current distribution range include a 2023 find in Copenhagen.", "Spiders of the species can be found on forest edges under rocks and tree bark, where they hunt for prey during the night.", "Like all zoropsid spiders, Z. spinimana does not build a web, but hunts freely.", "Since this spider cannot survive in a harsh climate, it often seeks refuge in human habitation and is frequently found in houses where the temperature is milder and food is more abundant."], "random_sentences": ["Zoropsis spinimana is a spider species belonging to the family Zoropsidae.", "Males of Z. spinimana reach a length around 1012 mm , while females are 1518 mm long.", "This spider resembles a wolf spider, as its eyes are of the same configuration, but unlike wolf spiders, the eyes of Zoropsis spiders are more spread out along the front third of the cephalothorax.", "The front body is brownish with broad darker markings.", "The abdomen has median black markings.", "The legs are mainly a speckled brown color.", "The abdominal black marking evokes the vampire of the 1922 German silent film Nosferatu, which led to the common German name of the spider, Nosferatu-Spinne.", "Zoropsis spinimana is distributed widely in the Mediterranean, but reaches into Russia, and was introduced to the United States, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the United Kingdom, primarily the London area.", "Since the mid-1990s, the species has been sighted along Europe's North-South transport routes, like Lucerne, Basel, Freiburg im Breisgau, Duisburg and Innsbruck.", "It is not clear why the relatively large spider was not found there earlier, as Mediterranean holidays with mobile homes were popular in the 1970s, and would have provided the spiders with many suitable habitats and transport opportunities.", "Ecologists assume that climate change enabled the spiders to take hold and reproduce north of the Alps.", "Recent finds presumably near the Northern border of the current distribution range include a 2023 find in Copenhagen.", "Spiders of the species can be found on forest edges under rocks and tree bark, where they hunt for prey during the night.", "Like all zoropsid spiders, Z. spinimana does not build a web, but hunts freely.", "Since this spider cannot survive in a harsh climate, it often seeks refuge in human habitation and is frequently found in houses where the temperature is milder and food is more abundant.", "Spiders of this species are sexually mature in autumn.", "The females lay eggs in spring, resting in a brood chamber on the cocoon."]}, "Libellula depressa": {"keywords": ["It range extends northwards to southern Scotland, southern Sweden and southern Finland and it occurs on some Mediterranean islands including Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and Menorca.", "L. depressa is seen near still-water lakes and ponds, feeding on many types of small insects.", "They occur in both bare and sunny locations, where it is often the first dragonfly to colonise new habitats such as newly created ponds, and well vegetated ponds.", "The pair separate and the female will find a suitable location for ovipositing, usually a stretch of open water with submerged vegetation."], "habitat_section": ["L. depressa is found in central and southern Europe, central Asia and the Middle East.", "It range extends northwards to southern Scotland, southern Sweden and southern Finland and it occurs on some Mediterranean islands including Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and Menorca.", "Its range does not extend beyond southern Europe into Africa.", "L. depressa is seen near still-water lakes and ponds, feeding on many types of small insects.", "They occur in both bare and sunny locations, where it is often the first dragonfly to colonise new habitats such as newly created ponds, and well vegetated ponds.", "L. depressa are often seen away from water as the adults are very mobile and undergo a period of maturation away from water after emergence.", "The adults are also migratory."], "random_sentences": ["Libellula depressa, the broad-bodied chaser or broad-bodied darter, is one of the most common dragonflies in Europe and central Asia.", "It is very distinctive with a very broad flattened abdomen, four wing patches and, in the male, the abdomen becomes pruinose blue.", "The male and female have a broad, flattened abdomen which is brown with yellow patches down the sides.", "In the male the abdomen develops a blue pruinosity that covers the brown colour.", "Both fore and hind wings have a dark patch at the base.", "Both the male and female have broad antehumeral stripes.", "The average wingspan is approximately 70 mm.", "L. depressa is very distinctive and should not be confused with any other dragonflies in the region.", "Broad-bodied Chaser, maturing male, South of France Broad-bodied Chaser, adult female, South of France Hunting and returning to a favoured perch", "L. depressa is found in central and southern Europe, central Asia and the Middle East.", "It range extends northwards to southern Scotland, southern Sweden and southern Finland and it occurs on some Mediterranean islands including Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and Menorca.", "Its range does not extend beyond southern Europe into Africa.", "L. depressa is seen near still-water lakes and ponds, feeding on many types of small insects.", "They occur in both bare and sunny locations, where it is often the first dragonfly to colonise new habitats such as newly created ponds, and well vegetated ponds.", "L. depressa are often seen away from water as the adults are very mobile and undergo a period of maturation away from water after emergence.", "The adults are also migratory.", "The flight period is from April to September but are mostly seen in May and June.", "Their flight is very fast as they dart and dive above the water.", "They are very territorial and will fight with rival males and any other dragonflies they happen to encounter.", "They characteristically return to a favoured perch, in the sun.", "When a female enters a male's territory the male will fly up and grab the female.", "Mating occurs on the wing and the pair are in tandem for only a brief period, often less than a minute.", "The pair separate and the female will find a suitable location for ovipositing, usually a stretch of open water with submerged vegetation.", "The female oviposits in flight, hovering above the water and dipping the tip of her abdomen in.", "The eggs hatch in 4 or 5 weeks and the larvae take one to two years to develop.", "The larvae live in the silt and detritus at the bottom of the pond, lying buried in mud with just the head and eyes showing.", "After emergence the adults move away from water and undergo a period of maturation which lasts 10 to 14 days.", "This species is usually placed in the genus Libellula but there is some evidence, based on RNA and DNA analysis, that this species should be placed within the genus Ladona .", "This change is not yet generally accepted and books and field guides list this species as Libellula"]}, "Helix pomatia": {"keywords": ["In southeastern Europe, H. pomatia lives in forests, open habitats, gardens, and vineyards, especially along rivers, confined to calcareous substrate.", "In Central Europe, it occurs in open forests and shrubland on calcareous substrate.", "It prefers high humidity and lower temperatures, and needs loose soil for burrowing to hibernate and lay its eggs.", "It lives up to 2100 m above sea level in the Alps, but usually below 2000 m. In the south of England, it is restricted to undisturbed grassy or bushy wastelands, usually not in gardens, it has a low reproduction rate and low powers of dispersal. .", "The life span is up to 20 years, but snails die faster often because of drying in summer and freezing in winter.", "During estivation or hibernation, H. pomatia is one of the few species that is capable of creating a calcareous epiphragm to seal the opening of its shell.", "H. pomatia is threatened by continuous habitat destructions and drainage, usually less threatened by commercial collections."], "habitat_section": ["Distribution map of H. pomatia showing the European countries where the species is present In Odenwald, Germany Helix pomatia, light micrograph of an eye, 1 anterior chamber, 2 lens, 3 retina, 4 optic nerv Distribution of H. pomatia includes.", "Southeastern and Central Europe.", "In southeastern Europe, H. pomatia lives in forests, open habitats, gardens, and vineyards, especially along rivers, confined to calcareous substrate.", "In Central Europe, it occurs in open forests and shrubland on calcareous substrate.", "It prefers high humidity and lower temperatures, and needs loose soil for burrowing to hibernate and lay its eggs.", "It lives up to 2100 m above sea level in the Alps, but usually below 2000 m. In the south of England, it is restricted to undisturbed grassy or bushy wastelands, usually not in gardens, it has a low reproduction rate and low powers of dispersal. This species is listed in IUCN Red List, and in European Red List of Non-marine Molluscs as of least concern.", "H. pomatia is threatened by continuous habitat destructions and drainage, usually less threatened by commercial collections.", "Many unsuccessful attempts have been made to establish the species in various parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, it only survived in natural habitats in southern England, and is threatened by intensive farming and habitat destruction.", "It is of lower concern in Switzerland and Austria, but many regions restrict commercial collecting."], "random_sentences": ["Helix pomatia, common names the Roman snail, Burgundy snail, or escargot, is a species of large, edible, air-breathing land snail, a pulmonate gastropod terrestrial mollusc in the family Helicidae.", "It is one of Europe's biggest species of land snail.", "Distribution map of H. pomatia showing the European countries where the species is present In Odenwald, Germany Helix pomatia, light micrograph of an eye", "1 anterior chamber, 2 lens, 3 retina, 4 optic nerv Distribution of H. pomatia includes: Southeastern and Central Europe: Western Europe: Northern Europe: Eastern Europe: Southern Europe:", "View of a shell of Helix pomatiaThe shell is creamy white to light brownish, often with indistinct brown colour bands.", "The shell has five to six whorls.", "The apertural margin is white and slightly reflected in adult snails.", "The umbilicus is narrow and partly covered by the reflected columellar margin.", "The width of the shell is .", "The height of the shell is .", "In southeastern Europe, H. pomatia lives in forests, open habitats, gardens, and vineyards, especially along rivers, confined to calcareous substrate.", "In Central Europe, it occurs in open forests and shrubland on calcareous substrate.", "It prefers high humidity and lower temperatures, and needs loose soil for burrowing to hibernate and lay its eggs.", "It lives up to 2100 m above sea level in the Alps, but usually below 2000 m. In the south of England, it is restricted to undisturbed grassy or bushy wastelands, usually not in gardens", "it has a low reproduction rate and low powers of dispersal.", "Average distance of migration reaches 3.56.0 m. Helix pomatia laying eggs altA picture about an Helix pomatia juvenile", "A picture about an H. pomatia juvenile, about 2-3 years oldThis snail is hermaphroditic.", "Reproduction in Central Europe begins at the end of May.", "Juveniles hatch after three to four weeks, and may consume their siblings under unfavourable climate conditions.", "Maturity is reached after two to five years.", "The life span is up to 20 years, but snails die faster often because of drying in summer and freezing in winter.", "Ten-year-old individuals are probably not uncommon in natural populations.", "The maximum lifespan is 35 years.", "During estivation or hibernation, H. pomatia is one of the few species that is capable of creating a calcareous epiphragm to seal the opening of its shell.", "This species is listed in IUCN Red List, and in European Red List of Non-marine Molluscs as of least concern.", "H. pomatia is threatened by continuous habitat destructions and drainage, usually less threatened by commercial collections.", "Many unsuccessful attempts have been made to establish the species in various parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland", "it only survived in natural habitats in southern England, and is threatened by intensive farming and habitat destruction.", "It is of lower concern in Switzerland and Austria, but many regions restrict commercial collecting.", "In Japan, the Mie Escargot Farm succeeded in the complete cultivation of Burgundy species .", "The intestinal juice of H. pomatia contains large amounts of aryl, steroid, and glucosinolate sulfatase activities.", "These sulfatases have a broad specificity, so are commonly used as a hydrolyzing agent in analytical procedures such as chromatography to prepare the sample for analysis.", "Cooked snails are called escargots.", "Roman snails were eaten by both Ancient Greeks and Romans.", "Nowadays, these snails are especially popular in French cuisine.", "In the English language, it is called by the French name escargot when used in cooking .", "Although this species is highly prized as a food, it is difficult to cultivate and rarely farmed commercially."]}, "Pyrrhosoma nymphula": {"keywords": ["These damselflies inhabit small ponds, lakes and dikes, and occasionally slow-moving rivers.", "They tend to avoid fast flowing water.", "Larvae feed on aquatic insect larvae, protozoa, rotifers or small crustaceans."], "habitat_section": ["This species is a mainly European damselfly, with some populations in Northern Africa and Western Asia.", "These damselflies inhabit small ponds, lakes and dikes, and occasionally slow-moving rivers.", "They tend to avoid fast flowing water."], "random_sentences": ["The large red damselfly is a species of damselflies belonging to the family Coenagrionidae.", "This species is a mainly European damselfly, with some populations in Northern Africa and Western Asia.", "These damselflies inhabit small ponds, lakes and dikes, and occasionally slow-moving rivers.", "They tend to avoid fast flowing water.", "Immature female, form typica, Cumnor Hill, Oxford Pyrrhosoma nymphula can reach a body length of .", "These large and robust damselflies show black legs and wing spots in both sexes.", "Wings are hyaline, with a blackish pterostigma.", "Mature females occur in three colour forms , from mostly black to mostly red, but all have yellow bands around the abdominal segments.", "Some intermediate forms also exist.", "The form typica has more black on its abdominal segments than the form fulvipes, particularly on segment 6.", "Immatures have lighter eyes and have yellow stripes on the thorax, not red.", "In the form melanotum females show the upper surface of the abdomen almost entirely black.", "These damselflies can easily be confused with small red damselflies, but the latter has orange legs, while the large red damselfly has black legs.", "In Greece and Albania a closely related species occurs, the Greek red damsel .", "They look very much the same, the females only having a slightly different pronotum with deep folds in the hind margin.", "The males differ in their lower appendages, which are longer than the upper ones, while the black hook on the lower appendages is half as long as in the large red damselfly.", "The great red damselfly is often the first damselfly to emerge, usually in April or May.", "Adults can be found until September, according to locality.", "Immature adults mature in about two weeks.", "The female during the laying of eggs is accompanied by the male, she immerses into the water only the abdomen.", "Eggs hatch in two-three weeks.", "Development of larvae takes two years.", "Larvae feed on aquatic insect larvae, protozoa, rotifers or small crustaceans."]}, "Euplagia quadripunctaria": {"keywords": ["The larvae are polyphagous, feeding from September to May on nettles and raspberries , dandelion , white deadnettle , ground ivy , groundsel , plantain , borage , lettuce , and hemp-agrimony .", "The insect overwinters as a small larva.", "Euplagia quadripunctaria is widely distributed in Europe from Estonia and Latvia in the north to the Mediterranean coast and islands in the south.", "It is also found in western Russia, the southern Urals, Asia Minor, Rhodes and nearby islands, the Near East, Caucasus, southern Turkmenistan, and Iran.", "Individuals are known to migrate northwards from their regular breeding grounds during the summer.", "Aside from being frequent in the Channel Islands , this species was rarely seen in the British Isles in Victorian times.", "They have been seen regularly and in numbers every year in London first discovered at Devonshire Road Nature Reserve in Forest Hill since 2004, so it is probable that they have established a breeding colony."], "habitat_section": ["Euplagia quadripunctaria is widely distributed in Europe from Estonia and Latvia in the north to the Mediterranean coast and islands in the south.", "It is also found in western Russia, the southern Urals, Asia Minor, Rhodes and nearby islands, the Near East, Caucasus, southern Turkmenistan, and Iran.", "Individuals are known to migrate northwards from their regular breeding grounds during the summer.", "This is the only lepidopteran which has been designated as a 'priority species' under Annex II of the Habitats Directive in the European Union, as of 1992, which means areas in which it occurs can be declared Special Areas of Conservation."], "random_sentences": ["Euplagia quadripunctaria, the Jersey Tiger, or Spanish Flag, is a day-flying moth of the family Erebidae.", "The species was first described by Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus in 1761.", "The adult wingspan is , and they fly from July to September, depending on the location.", "They tend to fly close to Eupatorium cannabinum.", "The larvae are polyphagous, feeding from September to May on nettles and raspberries , dandelion , white deadnettle , ground ivy , groundsel , plantain , borage , lettuce , and hemp-agrimony .", "The insect overwinters as a small larva.", "Euplagia quadripunctaria is widely distributed in Europe from Estonia and Latvia in the north to the Mediterranean coast and islands in the south.", "It is also found in western Russia, the southern Urals, Asia Minor, Rhodes and nearby islands, the Near East, Caucasus, southern Turkmenistan, and Iran.", "Individuals are known to migrate northwards from their regular breeding grounds during the summer.", "Aside from being frequent in the Channel Islands , this species was rarely seen in the British Isles in Victorian times.", "It was described by William Forsell Kirby as, \" a great rarity in the South of England, except one locality in Devonshire.", "\" Since then however it has spread more widely in Devon and Cornwall, and has recently been seen more frequently in southern England, especially on the Isle of Wight, in northern Kent, and south London.", "They have been seen regularly and in numbers every year in London first discovered at Devonshire Road Nature Reserve in Forest Hill since 2004, so it is probable that they have established a breeding colony.", "These are disconnected from the block of sightings in South-West England and so probably came from the Continent directly.", "This is the only lepidopteran which has been designated as a 'priority species' under Annex II of the Habitats Directive in the European Union, as of 1992, which means areas in which it occurs can be declared Special Areas of Conservation."]}, "Clytus arietis": {"keywords": ["The wasp beetle's habitat includes farmlands, woodlands and towns and gardens.", "The larvae live in warm, dry dead wood, such as fence posts and dead branches.", "They particularly favour willow and birch, but have been seen using a wide range of broadleaf species including Acer, Betula, Castanea, Crataegus, Fagus, Pyrus, Tilia, Salix and Ulmus.", "Sometimes eggs hatch out of firewood that has been brought into the house to dry over winter.", "When about half-grown they tunnel into the xylem of the host organism.", "When fully grown, they construct a pupal cell, parallel to the wood grain, around 3-5cm long at the end of the tunnel.", "Adults feed on flowers along woodland rides and hedgerows during the summer.", "This is described as the palps exerting a stroking action on the back of the female.", "During this \"lick-tapping\" movement, chemoreceptors in the palps would have a concentrated smell of the female.", "Once mated, the adult generation will die at the end of the summer, leaving offspring to emerge either in the Fall or in the next Spring.", "They can be seen wandering around on flowers from late spring to early summer, and they are easily mistaken for wasps.", "This behaviour by insects of mimicking other species was first articulated by Henry Walter Bates in the Brazilian rainforest.", "Larvae feed on dry deciduous deadwood where they are also housed for the winter.", "Significant long-term concerns for Saproxylic species include loss of habitat due to logging and wood harvesting and the decline of older, old-growth trees throughout the landscape, as well as the lack of land management strategies aimed at recruiting new tree generations."], "habitat_section": ["The wasp beetle is widespread in England and Wales, and rare in Scotland.", "It has also been spotted throughout Europe, ranging from Portugal to Southwestern Russia and Southern Norway to Southern Italy.", "The wasp beetle's habitat includes farmlands, woodlands and towns and gardens.", "Adults may be seen visiting flowers far from any obviously suitable habitat, such as in flower pots in urban areas.", "For breeding areas, it prefers hedgerow vegetation and well-wooded areas.", "This is a common species of no concern.", "It is widespread in England and Wales, being fairly common in Leicestershire and Rutland.", "It is scarcer in Scotland.", "The Wasp Beetle is native to where it is found throughout Europe, according to recent sources."], "random_sentences": ["Clytus arietis, the wasp beetle, is a wasp-mimicking longhorn beetle species in the genus Clytus.", "It reaches 918 millimetres in length.", "It features prominent yellow and black patterns along its head and abdomen, in what is believed to be an evolutionary attempt to mimic wasps and avoid predation.", "It also possesses thin legs and antennae that move in small, quick movements, which supports the wasp-mimicking hypothesis.", "It has relatively short antennae compared to other beetles of the same Family.", "Usually, other longhorn beetles will also have more pointed bodies in comparison.", "See here for a very detailed physical description that can be used for species identification.", "The wasp beetle has very little variation in its markings, and colour varieties are very rare.", "A variety lacking the yellow V shaped elytral mark is described by Allen .", "Its larvae are small white grubs that live in deadwood, like old fence posts.", "The wasp beetle is widespread in England and Wales, and rare in Scotland.", "It has also been spotted throughout Europe, ranging from Portugal to Southwestern Russia and Southern Norway to Southern Italy.", "The wasp beetle's habitat includes farmlands, woodlands and towns and gardens.", "Adults may be seen visiting flowers far from any obviously suitable habitat, such as in flower pots in urban areas.", "For breeding areas, it prefers hedgerow vegetation and well-wooded areas.", "The larvae live in warm, dry dead wood, such as fence posts and dead branches.", "They particularly favour willow and birch, but have been seen using a wide range of broadleaf species including Acer, Betula, Castanea, Crataegus, Fagus, Pyrus, Tilia, Salix and Ulmus.", "They have also been recorded developing in Juniperus and Picea abies.", "Sometimes eggs hatch out of firewood that has been brought into the house to dry over winter.", "The eggs are laid under the bark, and larvae initially live there, consuming the plant matter.", "When about half-grown they tunnel into the xylem of the host organism.", "When fully grown, they construct a pupal cell, parallel to the wood grain, around 3-5cm long at the end of the tunnel.", "Pupation occurs either during September or October or in the spring of the following year.", "Adults feed on flowers along woodland rides and hedgerows during the summer.", "There is no research available about the parental roles of Clytus arietis or the family Cerambycidae.", "Other beetles, however, have some decades-old research available, such as dung beetles.", "For the dung beetle Onthophagus taurus, for example, parental investment in offspring varies based on environmental conditions, especially for males.", "O. taurus adults provision dung for their offspring in tunnels until the larva matures.", "Horned males assist females considerably in tunnel excavation and transport of dung, while hornless males spend their energy instead on mate-securing behaviours.", "This varies with the number of potential competitors in the area.", "Although this information is about an unrelated beetle, it opens a window of possibilities into what could be found with further research on Clytus arietis.", "Reproduction in this species happens when adult beetles emerge throughout Spring and lay eggs in deadwood.", "Research around sexual behaviours and courtship of Clytus arietis is quite dated, with many sources from the 1960s.", "A paper from 1963 states that both male and female wasp beetles engage in a \"courtship song\", without offering further explanation.", "In this species and other similar ones, \"licking\" behaviour by the male is also described in studies one or more times during courtship.", "This is described as the palps exerting a stroking action on the back of the female.", "In some species, this movement only occurs when the female is restless, so it has been proposed that it is a calming action.", "For Clytus arietis, the \"licking\" is combined with a \"tapping\" movement, when the male rhythmically \"ducks\" their head towards the female's thorax, \"lick-tapping\" them.", "This is very likely a stimulus for the female's sake, but there is a research gap here, as it may also be a stimulus to the male.", "During this \"lick-tapping\" movement, chemoreceptors in the palps would have a concentrated smell of the female.", "In a few beetles within the same subfamily Lepturinae, the males establish copulation by mounting the females with their head placed over the female's and grasping an antenna with their mouthparts.", "They pull on the antennae until they are copulating, with the male's abdomen probing down to make contact with the female's ovipositor.", "With copulation undergoing successfully, the male then releases the antennae and performs the aforementioned \"lick-tapping\" movement to calm the female.", "Copulation in total lasts 10 to 40 minutes, with an average of 20 minutes.", "The entire life cycle of the wasp beetle generally takes two years but adults have been known to finish development and emerge from furniture after several years.", "The adult beetle has a relatively short life, emerging in May to find a mate and reproduce.", "Once mated, the adult generation will die at the end of the summer, leaving offspring to emerge either in the Fall or in the next Spring.", "Adults can be spotted foraging for food or looking for mates from April until July.", "The wasp beetle flies well in sunshine from May to July, often visiting flowers for pollen and nectar.", "It is harmless but is protected by its wasp-like colours and movements, making it a Batesian mimic.", "It also emanates a wasp buzz-like noise when threatened, even though it is harmless.", "They can be seen wandering around on flowers from late spring to early summer, and they are easily mistaken for wasps.", "They are not to be confused with another wasp-mimicking longhorn beetle, Rutpela maculata.", "Other similar species commonly confused for the Clytus arietis include the Clytus ruricola , the Xylotrechus undulatus, and the Plagionotus arcuatus.", "This behaviour by insects of mimicking other species was first articulated by Henry Walter Bates in the Brazilian rainforest.", "He observed a day-flying moth mimicking a wasp and wrote \"the imitation is intended to protect the otherwise defenceless insect by deceiving insectivorous animals, which persecute the moth, but avoid the wasp.\" This behaviour is overwhelmingly seen in tropical insects, but has also been seen in vertebrates, invertebrates, and plants.", "Research about the senses and communication methods of Clytus arietis specifically has not been done, but there is some research available about other beetles in the family Cerambycidae.", "This presents another interesting research opportunity for this species.", "As an example, the senses of the species Glenea cantor were thoroughly analyzed in a 2020 paper, which showed that the sensors, or sensilla throughout its body are largely consistent with those reported for other long-horned beetle species.", "Antennae on this species have predominantly olfactory and gustatory sensilla.", "On the joints and abdomen, the beetle holds most of its mechanical sensilla, possibly because these body parts are more involved in mechanical sensing.", "Other studies have supported that the density of sensors is closely related to their function.", "Similar to the above section, there is no research available for the communication of Clytus arietis, but there is research for the family Cerambycidae.", "Adults in the Cerambycidae family are attracted to plant volatile chemicals , to the pheromones of bark beetles, and to their own long- and short-range sex pheromones.", "Non-host plant chemicals in some cases repel Cerambycids during host selection and some Cerambycids may use defensive compounds to avoid predation.", "Chemical cues also regulate oviposition through stimulating the female at available host plants and through deterrence at occupied or unsuitable host plants.", "Adult wasp beetles feed on pollen and occasionally small insects.", "It has been hypothesized that this may be particularly so for the female to provide protein for egg production.", "Among the most frequently visited flowers by adults are Umbels and dog rose.", "Larvae feed on dry deciduous deadwood where they are also housed for the winter.", "The most common predators of the Wasp Beetle are birds.", "Although as mentioned above, it is theorized that the Batesian mimicry exhibited by the Wasp Beetle is to avoid predation, there is little research on its effectiveness.", "Recent research done in 2023 investigated this and an overall difference in predation between mimics and beetles without mimicry was not observed, but predation risk increased with canopy openness, bird abundance, and exposure time, which peaked in July.", "This shows that environmental factors have a higher importance for predation risk than the actual coloration of the beetles.", "More studies are needed to support this conclusion, however, since this is the only study to date analyzing this effect.", "Clytus arietis and other Cerambycidae beetles are only a small part of the biodiversity of many ecosystems throughout Europe, as well as Mediterranean ecosystems in Spain.", "Saproxylic beetles play an essential role in these ecosystems by taking part in decomposition processes essential for the nutrient cycle and by interacting with other groups of organisms which are also important for the well-being and economy of the ecosystem, such as mites, nematodes, bacteria and fungi.", "Beetles carry these organisms from tree to tree, aiding their spread throughout the habitat.", "Beetles also play a major role in pollination.", "Significant long-term concerns for Saproxylic species include loss of habitat due to logging and wood harvesting and the decline of older, old-growth trees throughout the landscape, as well as the lack of land management strategies aimed at recruiting new tree generations.", "More short-term and localized threats come from sanitation works and the removal of old trees due to safety concerns in places subject to intense human use.", "As mentioned above, Clytus arietis and other Saproxylic beetles are economically important due to their maintenance role in many ecosystems.", "Clytus arietis is especially economically important due to its level of pollination, since adults rely on pollen for sustenance.", "This is important for many economic activities such as agriculture.", "This is a common species of no concern.", "It is widespread in England and Wales, being fairly common in Leicestershire and Rutland.", "It is scarcer in Scotland.", "The Wasp Beetle is native to where it is found throughout Europe, according to recent sources.", "This species was named by Carl Linnaeus in 1758.", "It was added to the suborder polyphaga by Emery in 1886.", "In 1802, Latreille added it to the superfamily chrysomeloidea, the family cerambycidae and the subfamily cerambycinae.", "Additionally, in 1839, Mulsant added it to the tribe clytini and Laicharting added it to the genus Clytus in 1784.", "cz, there are three subspecies of Clytus arietis, which include Clytus arietis arietis named by Linnaeus in 1758, Clytus arietis lederi named by Ganglbauer in 1881, and Clytus arietis oblitus, named by Roubal in 1932.", "These subspecies, however, are not supported by genetic data as seen in the Barcode of Life Data System .", "Although this species is well documented throughout the Biodiversity Heritage Library, no type specimen can be found at this time.", "Up until 2021, the tribe Clytini was considered monophyletic based on morphological analysis.", "A study published in 2021 challenged this hypothesis using three mitochondrial genes 12S rRNA 16S rRNA COI and two nuclear genes 18S rRNA 28S rRNA.", "It showed that the tribe contains three distinct clades.", "These are still unnamed, and further research is warranted.", "Several genes have been analyzed as part of the International Barcode of Life and are available in the National Centre for Biotechnology Information GenBank These include the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 gene and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene, the 18S ribosomal RNA gene, partial Su3-9 gene exons 1-3 and partial eIF2g gene exons 1-2 and joined CDS features, partial eIF2g gene exon 7 and partial Su3-9 gene exon 8, partial eIF2g gene exons 3-6 and partial Su3-9 gene exons 4-7, heterochromatin protein sequence, and the initiation factor 2 gamma sequence.", "The Barcode of Life Data System also has genetic information from Clytus arietis publicly available, but no whole genome has been recorded to date."]}}
|
|
2676356_1284080
| 1040
|
[
"Lepidium draba"
] |
{"Lepidium draba": {"keywords": ["Whitetop has slightly domed flower clusters in which the individual flower stalks grow upward from various points off the branch to approximately the same height .", "It is native to western Asia and southeastern Europe and is an invasive species in North America, introduced by contaminated seeds in the early 1900s.", "It has been suggested that native grasses from the Poa genera may be able to outcompete hoary cress in North America."], "habitat_section": ["It is native to western Asia and southeastern Europe and is an invasive species in North America, introduced by contaminated seeds in the early 1900s.", "Also known as Cardaria draba, hoary cress is a weed in much of south-east and south-west Australia as well.", "It has been suggested that native grasses from the Poa genera may be able to outcompete hoary cress in North America."], "random_sentences": ["Lepidium draba, also known as whitetop, hoary cress, or Thanet cress, is a rhizomatous perennial flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae.", "It is native to western Asia and southeastern Europe and has been widely introduced elsewhere.", "Whitetop is a perennial herb that reproduces by seeds and by horizontal creeping roots.", "The stem is stoutish, erect or spreading, 10 to 80 cm tall, branched, covered sparsely with ash-colored soft hairs to heavily covered.", "The leaves are alternating, simple, and mostly toothed.", "The basal leaves are 4 to 10 cm, have a slight stem , and are long and flat, lance-shaped to egg-shaped, with the narrow end attached to the stalk.", "On the upper part of the stem the leaves are attached directly to the stalk , are 2 to 6.5 cm long, and are oblong or tapering the point, with broad bases that clasp the stalk.", "Whitetop has slightly domed flower clusters in which the individual flower stalks grow upward from various points off the branch to approximately the same height .", "The petals are white, clawed, and 3 to 5 mm long, about twice the length of the sepals.", "Typically, each flower has four petals.", "Hoary cress was traditionally used for medicinal purposes, including anti-inflammatory and antibacterial treatments.", "It is native to western Asia and southeastern Europe and is an invasive species in North America, introduced by contaminated seeds in the early 1900s.", "Also known as Cardaria draba, hoary cress is a weed in much of south-east and south-west Australia as well.", "It has been suggested that native grasses from the Poa genera may be able to outcompete hoary cress in North America."]}}
|
|
2599367_1202843
| 1952
|
[
"Osmia bicornis"
] |
{"Osmia bicornis": {"keywords": ["Further, females can determine the sex ratio of their offspring based on their body size, where larger females will invest more in diploid females eggs than small bees.", "Body size in O. bicornis decreases as temperature in brood cells increases.", "Beyond 25 C, body growth can be severely truncated, leading to small adult body size or mortality.", "Additionally, these bees make their nests in such sites as sandy banks, decaying trees planted in clay soil like the willow tree, old-mortared walls, flint stone holes, garden shed fifes, and window frame holes and cracks.", "These bees store mostly pollen moistened with a small amount of nectar, which is eaten by the larvae during the summer before they rest through the winter in a cocoon.", "During mating season, male behaviour with respect to pursuing females is varied, with some males establishing territories close to nesting sites where females emerge and other males observing flowering sites nearby.", "Further, females do not always choose the male with the largest body size, a choice that possibly indicates a preference exists for an optimum male body size, often, females choose males with intermediate body sizes.", "The ovaries of females are not completely inactive during overwintering, as the development of oocytes continues in the vitellarium region.", "The two phases of overwintering in O. bicornis are diapause and postdipause quiescence.", "During diapause, the values of the supercooling point decreases, but diapause itself is independent of temperature variation.", "Larvae decrease their food intake as temperature rises and start cocoon-spinning earlier, resulting in smaller body mass."], "habitat_section": ["O. bicornis is found in England, southern Scotland , Wales, Ireland, mainland Europe, Sweden, Norway, North Africa, Georgia, Turkey, and Iran.", "Of the 11 species identified of Osmia in England, O. bicornis is both the largest and most common species present.", "O. bicornis occupies a variety of nesting sites within nature and in sites of human construction.", "These bees have been known to nest in key holes, empty snail shells, plant stems, and empty beetle hollows.", "O. bicornis occupies the old shells of these three species.", "Helix nemoralis, Helix hortensis, and Helix pomatia and the nests of Anthophora species.", "Additionally, these bees make their nests in such sites as sandy banks, decaying trees planted in clay soil like the willow tree, old-mortared walls, flint stone holes, garden shed fifes, and window frame holes and cracks.", "The maximum foraging distance for O. bicornis is about 600 m, though generally high plant density around the nests allow bees to forage closer to the nest and for a shorter duration."], "random_sentences": ["Osmia bicornis is a species of mason bee, and is known as the red mason bee due to its covering of dense gingery hair.", "It is a solitary bee that nests in holes or stems and is polylectic, meaning it forages pollen from various different flowering plants.", "These bees can be seen aggregating together and nests in preexisting hollows, choosing not to excavate their own.", "These bees are not aggressive", "they will only sting if handled very roughly and are safe to be closely observed by children.", "Females only mate once, usually with closely related males.", "Further, females can determine the sex ratio of their offspring based on their body size, where larger females will invest more in diploid females eggs than small bees.", "These bees also have trichromatic colour vision and are important pollinators in agriculture.", "This species is part of the order Hymenoptera, which consists of bees, wasps, ants, and sawflies, and a member of the family Megachilidae, which mostly consists of solitary bees, and is among 11 species of Osmia identified in Britain.", "O. bicornis is the current scientific name for this bee, although it was formerly known as O. rufa.", "In 1758, Linnaeus described the male of this species under the name Apis rufa and described the female as a separate species Apis bicornis.", "In 1802 Kirby recognised that A. bicornis and A. rufa were the same species and he named this species Apis bicornis.", "Subsequently, the opinion was put forth that A. rufa was the correct name, because it appeared before bicornis in the Systema Naturae.", "The use of the name rufa does not comply with the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature's rules, however", "the concept of \" line priority \" does not exist in the rules, and the action of the first revising author, Kirby, must be followed.", "Thus the correct scientific name for the species is Osmia bicornis, although O. rufa is still widely used.", "Three subspecies of O. bicornis are often recognized, namely O. b. bicornis, and O. b. fracticornis.", "O. bicornis is about the same body size as the honeybee.", "Sexual dimorphism is observed in this species", "females are larger than males, because the female larvae are provisioned with more pollen.", "Body size in O. bicornis decreases as temperature in brood cells increases.", "Beyond 25 C, body growth can be severely truncated, leading to small adult body size or mortality.", "The male and females are also distinguishable by antenna length, with males possessing an additional antenna segment, .", "Males are 810 mm long.", "They have a grey-white tuft of hair on their faces, including on the clypeus.", "The females have two horns and darker hairs on their heads, and are 1012 mm long.", "Clypeal hairs are absent in females.", "O. bicornis is found in England, southern Scotland , Wales, Ireland, mainland Europe, Sweden, Norway, North Africa, Georgia, Turkey, and Iran.", "Of the 11 species identified of Osmia in England, O. bicornis is both the largest and most common species present.", "O. bicornis occupies a variety of nesting sites within nature and in sites of human construction.", "These bees have been known to nest in key holes, empty snail shells, plant stems, and empty beetle hollows.", "O. bicornis occupies the old shells of these three species: Helix nemoralis, Helix hortensis, and Helix pomatia and the nests of Anthophora species.", "Additionally, these bees make their nests in such sites as sandy banks, decaying trees planted in clay soil like the willow tree, old-mortared walls, flint stone holes, garden shed fifes, and window frame holes and cracks.", "The maximum foraging distance for O. bicornis is about 600 m, though generally high plant density around the nests allow bees to forage closer to the nest and for a shorter duration.", "The nest of O. bicornis consists of an array of partitioned cylindrical cells in holes in wood or reed tubes.", "These bees accept a diverse range of pre-existing cavities as nest sites.", "The cells are arranged linearly within a narrow tube.", "If the internal diameter of the tube exceeds 12 mm, then this linear arrangement may be forced into two rows instead of one.", "The length of each cell can vary from 10 to 21 mm.", "The inner sides of the partitions are rough and convex, while the outer sides are smooth and concave.", "Between the cells and the terminal plug is a space known as the vestibular cell.", "The sequence of nesting behavior is: cell construction, provisioning, egg-laying, and sealing the cell.", "A cross-sectional view of an O. bicornis nest: Partitioned cells can be seen in a tube.", "Cells containing females are typically larger than those containing males, due to the sexual dimorphism of the species.", "Additionally, cells containing females are situated towards the back of the nest, while those with males are closer to the nest entrance.", "Because of this, male offspring leave the nest sooner than females.", "Due to the linear arrangement of cells in the nest, the youngest bee leaves earlier than older ones.", "Although these bees may be seen into late June, they are most active during the spring and early summer.", "Each year, one generation of bees is formed, making an appearance during the spring.", "About one week after eggs are laid in the brood cells, the eggs hatch and larvae develop through the summer.", "The larvae then enter the pupal stage upon spinning cocoons, in which the anterior collar, nipple area, and outer meshwork of the cocoon are spun simultaneously.", "The adults then hibernate through the winter in the cocoons and finally emerge as mature bees in the spring.", "The eggs hatch after about one week", "the larvae start spinning a cocoon about one month after hatching.", "The bees become adults in fall, but stay quiescent until next spring.", "Both the imago's body weight and fat body weight decrease.", "Male larvae are placed in front of the females within the nest, allowing the males to emerge first in the spring.", "Specifically, female eggs are laid in inner brood cells, while male eggs are laid in the outer brood cells.", "Upon emergence, females fly around for about eight weeks.", "These bees store mostly pollen moistened with a small amount of nectar, which is eaten by the larvae during the summer before they rest through the winter in a cocoon.", "Red mason bee hatching from cocoon", "O. bicornis bees possess a trichromatic colour system, which they use in foraging for pollen from flowers", "the three colours are ultraviolet, blue, and green.", "A similar colour system is found in these bee species: Apis mellifera, Bombus terrestris, B. lapidarius, B. monticola, B. jonellus, Vespula germanica, and V. vulgaris.", "Studies comparing the colour systems of O. bicornis and A. mellifera show both species share the same spectral sensitivity functions in ultraviolet and blue receptors, while the green receptor in O. bicornis is sensitive to longer wavelengths than in A. mellifera", "During mating season, male behaviour with respect to pursuing females is varied, with some males establishing territories close to nesting sites where females emerge and other males observing flowering sites nearby.", "Males do not normally engage in intrasexual aggression, though they do inspect each other.", "When a specific mate of interest is present, however, signs of aggression are evident among males.", "When several males become aware of a receptive female, all males try to mount her", "the males do not assault each other directly.", "In some cases, females may escape and not mate with any of the males.", "Females are monogamous, mating with one male within a few days after emergence in the spring.", "However, males encounter difficulties in completing successful copulation with females, including male inability to determine from where and when females will emerge.", "Nests are dispersed widely, increasing the number of sites from which new females can emerge.", "Additionally, females fly away from the nests as soon as they emerge, increasing the mating challenge for males.", "To counteract these difficulties, males can increase their mating chances by positioning themselves close to foraging sites.", "Factors including value, patrolling time, and the number of competing males are taken into account when males roam foraging sites for females.", "Successful mating of females does not depend on male body size, but on the speed with which males discover female mates.", "Further, females do not always choose the male with the largest body size, a choice that possibly indicates a preference exists for an optimum male body size", "often, females choose males with intermediate body sizes.", "Yet, the sperm supply of each male limits males to only performing seven copulations in their lifetimes.", "Female body size is indicative of the sex allocation of offspring.", "Larger females are able to collect more pollen than smaller females, making larger females less prone to open-cell parasitism while away from the nest.", "To \" make the best of a bad job \" , or counteract the disadvantage they have, smaller females deliberately produce more male offspring and reduce female offspring body size.", "These changes occur because the smaller females are obtaining less pollen", "investing in offspring that require fewer food provisions males therefore allows smaller females to combat their handicap.", "Larger females, in contrast, had more female offspring.", "In addition to increased foraging efficiency, females hold other advantages over small females, including increased egg production and longevity.", "Because it does not benefit males to be larger in size, due to the independence of body size on female mating selection, females normally invest more in female offspring.", "Female age also predicts sex allocation in offspring.", "Older females are less efficient at foraging for pollen in nest construction than younger females.", "Thus, they produce more male offspring and reduce the size of offspring.", "Diapause allows O. bicornis to survive harsh winter conditions.", "Typically in adult insects, reproductive diapause is characterized by a late development of gonads and a buildup of energy reserves.", "However, diapause in O. bicornis is somewhat different.", "The ovaries of females are not completely inactive during overwintering, as the development of oocytes continues in the vitellarium region.", "O. bicornis begins diapause in November, and diapause termination occurs toward the end of January.", "Diapause typically lasts around 100 days.", "The two phases of overwintering in O. bicornis are diapause and postdipause quiescence.", "During diapause, the values of the supercooling point decreases, but diapause itself is independent of temperature variation.", "Temperatures of 20 C lead to the bees death.", "During postdiapause quiescence, the bees develop normally, but their development is inhibited by temperature variation.", "Females spend between 80 and 95% of their time invested for preparing cells in foraging.", "O. bicornis has shown a strong inclination towards collecting pollen from maple and oak trees, like most other solitary bees.", "These bees require nectar along with pollen, and while maple provides both, oak provides only pollen.", "Those females that collect pollen from oak trees must also collect nectar from other plant sources.", "While the species is polylectic, females temporarily and locally forage on one or two plant species with great pollen abundance to maximize pollen mass collected per unit time.", "This is done to reduce provisioning time to exploit as much pollen as possible in a short period of time during unstable environmental conditions in the spring and to reduce the risk of open-cell parasitism.", "Pollen diversity has shown no effect on the developmental success of O. bicornis offspring, hence it is more beneficial for females to maximize pollen mass from a few species than to regard pollen diversity.", "Protein consumption is one of the major factors influencing the growth of bees.", "Since maple and oak pollen have similar protein content , larvae reared on the diet of either plant do not differ in cocoon weight hence the offspring of O. bicornis develop equally on the pollen of both zoophilous and anemophilous plants.", "When oak and maple are no longer in bloom, the bees tend to forage on pollen from poppy and buttercup plants.", "Environmental temperature and cocoon weight are negatively related for O. bicornis.", "Larvae decrease their food intake as temperature rises and start cocoon-spinning earlier, resulting in smaller body mass.", "Kin recognition is associated with mate selection in O. bicornis.", "Females select males for mating with which they are more closely related.", "This behavior suggests that females may select males from within their population as opposed to more distance populations.", "One rationale for this behavior is that males within the same populations as females are better adapted to local environmental conditions than more distant males.", "O. bicornis feeds on pollen, the amount of which affects larval growth.", "A majority of the pollen these bees consume comes from Ranunculus acris, R. bulbosus, R. repens, and Quercus robur flowering species.", "Pollen consumption has also been suggested to impact the fitness of individuals in the colony.", "These bees also consume nectar.", "When the nectar supply is limited, however, they may consume honeydew.", "Predators and parasites of O. bicornis include birds, mice, Monodontomerus obscurus Westwood, Chaetodactylus osmiae, Cacoxenus indagator, and Anthrax anthrax.", "C. osmiae hypopi parasitizes nests through phoresy and affects both adults and broods.", "Both C. indagator and A. anthrax lay their eggs while the O.bicornis female adds food to the nest cells.", "For instance, C. indagator, a member of the family Drosophilidae, may be found in nest cells eating pollen.", "The organism's activity sometimes results in the bee larvae dying from lack of sufficient food.", "Red mason bees are excellent pollinators, particularly of apple trees.", "Normally, O. bicornis does not sting unless it is threatened and must defend itself.", "The female does have a sting, but it is much less severe than honeybees or wasps.", "The venom within the stinging apparatus has been shown to be like that of the honeybee.", "However, the venom apparatus from O. bicornis contains fewer barbs than that of honeybees, possibly explaining why O. bicornis venom does not penetrate human skin like that of the honeybee.", "Protein components in the venom, such as osmin, have been linked to antimicrobial, antifungal, and haemolytic activities."]}}
|
|
2613057_1148836
| 423
|
[
"Aster alpinus"
] |
{"Aster alpinus": {"keywords": ["Aster alpinus, the alpine aster or blue alpine daisy, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to the mountains of Europe , with a subspecies native to Canada and the United States.", "This herbaceous perennial has purple, pink, white or blue flowers in summer.", "Aster alpinus is a caespitose herbaceous perennial that grows 1035 cm tall.", "In the UK this plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Leaves are untoothed, lanceolate-spatulate, and basal. The Latin specific epithet alpinus means alpine and from high mountains above the timber line.", "It grows very slowly in clay, silt, loam, silty clay, and sandy clay.", "Aster alpinus is native to the mountains of Europe such as the Alps and Pyrenees.", "Aster Alpinus is the only true aster growing in North America.", "It does better in generally cooler climates.", "Usually it is adapted to clay, silt, loam, silty clay, sandy clay, clay loam, silt loam, sandy loam, silty clay loam and sandy clay loam soils, and prefers low fertility.", "It can survive medium heat of fire and requires at least 90 frost free days for proper growth.", "NatureServe lists variety Aster alpinus var. vierhapperi as Secure Variety in Canada, but Critically Imperiled in Ontario and Vulnerable in Alberta."], "habitat_section": ["It grows very slowly in clay, silt, loam, silty clay, and sandy clay.", "Its minimum pH scale is 6 and maximum pH scale is 7.5.", "Flowers are erect, and always solitary.", "Aster alpinus is native to the mountains of Europe such as the Alps and Pyrenees.", "Aster Alpinus is the only true aster growing in North America.", "It does better in generally cooler climates.", "Usually it is adapted to clay, silt, loam, silty clay, sandy clay, clay loam, silt loam, sandy loam, silty clay loam and sandy clay loam soils, and prefers low fertility.", "The plant can tolerate only a minimum temperature of -28 C / -18.4F after the occurrence of cell damage.", "It can survive medium heat of fire and requires at least 90 frost free days for proper growth.", "It is herbaceous and attractive to bees, butterflies, and birds.", "NatureServe lists variety Aster alpinus var. vierhapperi as Secure Variety in Canada, but Critically Imperiled in Ontario and Vulnerable in Alberta.", "In the United States, it is Critically Imperiled in Colorado and Wyoming."], "random_sentences": ["Aster alpinus, the alpine aster or blue alpine daisy, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to the mountains of Europe , with a subspecies native to Canada and the United States.", "This herbaceous perennial has purple, pink, white or blue flowers in summer.", "Aster alpinus is a caespitose herbaceous perennial that grows 1035 cm tall.", "The bloom color may be blue, indigo, violet, white, or pink.", "In the UK this plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "Leaves are untoothed, lanceolate-spatulate, and basal. The Latin specific epithet alpinus means alpine and from high mountains above the timber line.", "It grows very slowly in clay, silt, loam, silty clay, and sandy clay.", "Its minimum pH scale is 6 and maximum pH scale is 7.5.", "Flowers are erect, and always solitary.", "Aster alpinus is native to the mountains of Europe such as the Alps and Pyrenees.", "Aster Alpinus is the only true aster growing in North America.", "It does better in generally cooler climates.", "Usually it is adapted to clay, silt, loam, silty clay, sandy clay, clay loam, silt loam, sandy loam, silty clay loam and sandy clay loam soils, and prefers low fertility.", "The plant can tolerate only a minimum temperature of -28 C / -18.4F after the occurrence of cell damage.", "It can survive medium heat of fire and requires at least 90 frost free days for proper growth.", "It is herbaceous and attractive to bees, butterflies, and birds.", "NatureServe lists variety Aster alpinus var. vierhapperi as Secure Variety in Canada, but Critically Imperiled in Ontario and Vulnerable in Alberta.", "In the United States, it is Critically Imperiled in Colorado and Wyoming."]}}
|
|
2609236_1128372
| 1040
|
[
"Hippocrepis emerus",
"Chelidonium majus"
] |
{"Hippocrepis emerus": {"keywords": ["This plant occurs in northeastern Spain and in central Mediterranean countries up to northern Europe and to Asia Minor and Tunisia.", "These shrubs are usually found in wooded and bushy areas, on sunny, warm and dry slopes and around forest edges."], "habitat_section": ["This plant occurs in northeastern Spain and in central Mediterranean countries up to northern Europe and to Asia Minor and Tunisia.", "These shrubs are usually found in wooded and bushy areas, on sunny, warm and dry slopes and around forest edges.", "They can be found at an altitude of ."], "random_sentences": ["Hippocrepis emerus, the scorpion senna, is a species of perennial plant belonging to the genus Hippocrepis in the family Fabaceae.", "Hippocrepis emerus reaches on average of height, with a maximum of .", "The plant has a lignified stem with green branches bearing five to nine leaflets.", "These leaves are glossy, obovate, and imparipinnate, with their maximum width being above the middle and often larger extremities.", "The pale yellow flowers are arranged in groups of 1 to 5, and measure long.", "The petals are \" nailed \" , meaning they have a long handle and a \" plate \" .", "The nails of the petals are two to three times longer than the calyx.", "These plants are hermaphroditic and entomophilous, and their flowering period extends from April through July.", "Their legumes are oblong-cylindrical and long, with three to twelve segments.", "This plant occurs in northeastern Spain and in central Mediterranean countries up to northern Europe and to Asia Minor and Tunisia.", "These shrubs are usually found in wooded and bushy areas, on sunny, warm and dry slopes and around forest edges.", "They can be found at an altitude of .", "H. emerus is one of the main host plants of the moth Zygaena ephialtes."]}, "Chelidonium majus": {"keywords": ["Chelidonium majus, the greater celandine, is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the poppy family Papaveraceae.", "One of two species in the genus Chelidonium, it is native to Europe and western Asia and introduced widely in North America.", "The flowers appear from late spring to summer, May to September , in umbelliform cymes of about 4 flowers.", "The above-ground parts are gathered during the flowering season and dried at high temperatures."], "habitat_section": ["Chelidonium majus is native in most regions of Europe.", "It is also found in North Africa in Macaronesia, Algeria and Morocco.", "In Western Asia it is found in the Caucasus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia, Iran and Turkey.", "It is considered an aggressive invasive plant in parts of North America, and an invasive plant in other areas.", "In Wisconsin, for example, it is a restricted plant.", "Control is obtained mainly via pulling or spraying the plant before seed dispersal."], "random_sentences": ["Chelidonium majus, the greater celandine, is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the poppy family Papaveraceae.", "One of two species in the genus Chelidonium, it is native to Europe and western Asia and introduced widely in North America.", "The plant known as lesser celandine is not closely related, as it belongs to the buttercup family Ranunculaceae.", "Greater celandine is a perennial herbaceous plant with an erect habit, and reaches high.", "The blue-green The flowers consist of four yellow petals, each about long, with two sepals.", "A double-flowered variety occurs naturally.", "The flowers appear from late spring to summer, May to September , in umbelliform cymes of about 4 flowers.", "The seeds are small and black, borne in a long, cylindrical capsule.", "Each has an elaiosome, which attracts ants to disperse the seeds .", "The greater celandine is one of the many species described by the father of taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus, in volume one of his Species Plantarum in 1753.", "According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the name celandine comes from Late Latin celidonia, from earlier Latin chelidonia or chelidonium, and ultimately from Ancient Greek , from \" swallow \" , hence the common name \" swallowwort \" .", "Ancient writers said that the flower bloomed when the swallows returned and faded when they left.", "Chelidonium majus has also been called great celandine,, nipplewort, tetterwort, or simply \" celandine \" .", "The common name tetterwort also refers to Sanguinaria canadensis.", "In Devon it is also known as St John's wort.", "Chelidonium majus is native in most regions of Europe.", "It is also found in North Africa in Macaronesia, Algeria and Morocco.", "In Western Asia it is found in the Caucasus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia, Iran and Turkey.", "It is considered an aggressive invasive plant in parts of North America, and an invasive plant in other areas.", "In Wisconsin, for example, it is a restricted plant.", "Control is obtained mainly via pulling or spraying the plant before seed dispersal.", "A cut stem exuding yellow latex The whole plant is toxic in moderate doses as it contains a range of isoquinoline alkaloids", "use in herbal medicine requires the correct dose.", "The main alkaloid present in the herb and root is coptisine.", "Other alkaloids present include methyl 2'-acetate, allocryptopine, stylopine, protopine, norchelidonine, berberine, chelidonine, sanguinarine, chelerythrine, and 8-hydroxydihydrosanguinarine.", "Sanguinarine is particularly toxic with an of 18 mg per kg body weight .", "Caffeic acid derivatives, such as caffeoylmalic acid, are also present.", "The characteristic latex also contains proteolytic enzymes and the phytocystatin chelidostatin, a cysteine protease inhibitor.", "It is a traditional folk remedy against warts in France and the UK.", "It is used in the preparation of a range of off-the-shelf treatments for warts and skin conditions.", "Chelidonium is used to make Ukrain, a drug that has been promoted for, but is not known to be effective for, the treatment of cancer and viral infections.", "The fresh herb is no longer used officially.", "No dose-finding studies exist and the reported clinical studies are characterised by a considerable heterogeneity.", "Except for homeopathic medicines, the drug is no longer used in most English-speaking countries.", "In Germany and Switzerland, extracts of Chelidoni herba are a controversial component of the gastric remedy \" Iberogast \" .", "The OTC-preparation is a top-selling product for the company Bayer, which is now under investigation for not warning consumers from possible hepatotoxic side-effects when taking the drug.", "Elevated liver-enzymes and toxic hepatitis with a documented fatality have been reported.", " F. Pantano, G. Mannocchi, E. Marinelli, S. Gentili, S. Graziano, F.P. Busardo, N.M. di Luca \" Hepatotoxicity induced by greater celandine : a review of the literature.", "\" Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci 2017", "Retrieved 21 July 2019 The plant is poisonous to chickens.", "The aerial parts and roots of greater celandine are used in herbalism.", "The above-ground parts are gathered during the flowering season and dried at high temperatures.", "The root is harvested in autumn between August and October and dried.", "The fresh rhizome is also used.", "Celandine has a hot and bitter taste.", "Preparations are made from alcoholic and hot aqueous extractions .", "The related plant bloodroot has similar chemical composition and uses as greater celandine.", "As far back as Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides this herb has been recognized as a useful detoxifying agent.", "The root has been chewed to relieve toothache.", "John Gerard's Herball states that \" the juice of the herbe is good to sharpen the sight, for it cleanseth and consumeth away slimie things that cleave about the ball of the eye and hinder the sight and especially being boiled with honey in a brasen vessell.", "\" It was formerly used by some Romani people as a foot refresher", "modern herbalists use its purgative properties.", "The modern herbalist Juliette de Bairacli Levy recommended greater celandine diluted with milk for the eyes and the latex for getting rid of warts.", "Chelidonium was a favourite herb of the French herbalist Maurice Messegue.", "Chelidonium majus has traditionally been used for treatment of various inflammatory diseases including atopic dermatitis.", "It is also traditionally used in the treatment of gallstones and dyspepsia.", "The Iroquois give an infusion of whole plant, another plant and milk to pigs that drool and have sudden movements.", "It was also once used to treat liver disorders, owing to the juice's resemblance to bile."]}}
|
|
2688155_1290186
| 1952
|
[
"Vicia sepium"
] |
{"Vicia sepium": {"keywords": ["A nitrogen-fixing, perennial, leguminous climbing plant that grows in hedgerows, grasslands, the edges of woodland, roadsides and rough ground.", "It is native to, and has been recorded in, almost all parts of Britain, Ireland and associated islands.", "Can by used for hay or silage, particularly arable silage, from perennial grass-vetch mixtures."], "habitat_section": ["Hedges and grass thickets."], "random_sentences": ["Vicia sepium or bush vetch is a species of flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae.", "A nitrogen-fixing, perennial, leguminous climbing plant that grows in hedgerows, grasslands, the edges of woodland, roadsides and rough ground.", "It occurs in western Europe, Russia including Siberia, Crimea, Caucasus and Central Asia.", "It can also be found in eastern Canada, north-eastern states of the USA and, where suitable habitat occurs, in Greenland.", "It is native to, and has been recorded in, almost all parts of Britain, Ireland and associated islands.", "Its climbing habit is enabled by branched tendrils at the end of each leaf stem, which curl around surrounding plants.", "The stems are not branched, are almost glabrous, sometimes with rare soft hairs, single, mostly 30 to 40 cm long but sometimes as much as 100 cm.", "The leaves are compound and pinnate with 4 to 8 pairs of opposite leaflets ending in branched tendrils.", "Leaflets are 20 to 30 mm long, 8 to 10 mm wide, elongated elliptical in form with broad bases and glabrous at both sides.", "Flower stalks are very short with 2 to 6 almost sessile flowers on each.", "Flowers are 12 to 15 mm long, reddish-lilac or lilac-blue.", "Similar in appearance to common vetch but each stem of the latter has more flowers, and bush vetch is usually hairless whereas V. sativa is slightly hairy.", "Flowers between May to August, occasionally into November.", "Mainly cross pollinated by insects.", "The resultant pods or legumes ripen mainly during July to August, are 30 to 40 mm long, 6 to 8 mm wide, elongated, rhomboid and black in colour.", "The seeds within are black or brown.", "A good potential forage crop with high nutritional value, characterized by high seed productivity in less favourable years.", "Can by used for hay or silage, particularly arable silage, from perennial grass-vetch mixtures.", "Bush vetch supports a variety of generalist legume feeders including beetles, weevils and caterpillars.", "Bumblebees and honeybees seek out the flowers for their nectar."]}}
|
|
2671734_1266701
| 1141
|
[
"Pholidoptera griseoaptera",
"Chorthippus brunneus",
"Gomphocerippus rufus"
] |
{"Pholidoptera griseoaptera": {"keywords": ["On the Isle of Man the species is legally protected under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife Act 1990, being found at only two coastal sites at the extreme north of the species British Isles distribution.", "The dark bush-cricket colonizes a variety of habitats, but avoids sandy soils and are accordingly rare in sandy areas.", "It is mainly present in forest edges or clearings, but can be found also in wasteland, parks and gardens, at an elevation of about above sea level.", "The females lay their eggs in the soil, in dead branches, in bark crevices and rotting wood."], "habitat_section": ["This species can be found in Europe from northern Spain up to Crimea, Caucasus and the Near East.", "It is fairly common in Great Britain, but not recorded from Ireland.", "On the Isle of Man the species is legally protected under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife Act 1990, being found at only two coastal sites at the extreme north of the species British Isles distribution.", "Adults are omnivorous, feeding primarily on small insects such as aphids and caterpillars, but eat also plants such as bramble , dandelion and nettles .", "The stridulation is a brief and penetrating sound, repeatedly irregularly night and day.", "The dark bush-cricket colonizes a variety of habitats, but avoids sandy soils and are accordingly rare in sandy areas.", "It is mainly present in forest edges or clearings, but can be found also in wasteland, parks and gardens, at an elevation of about above sea level.", "The females lay their eggs in the soil, in dead branches, in bark crevices and rotting wood.", "The eggs need high humidity.", "The larvae require two years for their full development, with seven larval stages.", "They feed exclusively on vegetables.", "Nymphs appear at the end of April of the third year, while the first adults appear in June."], "random_sentences": ["The dark bush-cricket is a flightless species of European bush-cricket", "it is the type species of its genus with no subspecies.", "Nymph Pholidoptera griseoaptera can reach a body length of 11 to 21 mm and 15 to 20 mm , much smaller than the similar Pholidoptera aptera.", "The sickle-shaped and upward curved ovipositor of the females is 8 to 10 mm long, while the males have two short cerci.", "The antennae and the hind legs are quite long.", "The rounded brachypterous wings of the males are brown with light brown to ochre-coloured edges and are about 5 mm in length .", "The females are almost wingless or have half-round, grey-brown fore-wings that are 1-2 mm long.", "Long-winged forms are not recorded.", "This species can be found in Europe from northern Spain up to Crimea, Caucasus and the Near East.", "It is fairly common in Great Britain, but not recorded from Ireland.", "On the Isle of Man the species is legally protected under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife Act 1990, being found at only two coastal sites at the extreme north of the species British Isles distribution.", "Adults are omnivorous, feeding primarily on small insects such as aphids and caterpillars, but eat also plants such as bramble , dandelion and nettles .", "The stridulation is a brief and penetrating sound, repeatedly irregularly night and day.", "The dark bush-cricket colonizes a variety of habitats, but avoids sandy soils and are accordingly rare in sandy areas.", "It is mainly present in forest edges or clearings, but can be found also in wasteland, parks and gardens, at an elevation of about above sea level.", "The females lay their eggs in the soil, in dead branches, in bark crevices and rotting wood.", "The eggs need high humidity.", "The larvae require two years for their full development, with seven larval stages.", "They feed exclusively on vegetables.", "Nymphs appear at the end of April of the third year, while the first adults appear in June."]}, "Chorthippus brunneus": {"keywords": ["C. brunneus are found in Europe, north Africa, and temperate Asia.", "They prefer dry habitats.", "They are present in higher numbers in heathland areas compared to agricultural areas.", "Fine leaved grass species and taller sward heights occur more commonly in heathlands where less human alteration of the land occurs compared to agricultural sites.", "Additionally C. brunneus are only found in valley habitats while C. jacobsi are found in both valley and mountain habitats This suggests both seasonal and temporal isolation between the two species.", "C. brunneus lay eggs in a variety of habitats from chalk hills to sandy hills but most commonly lay their eggs in sandy, dry habitats.", "In the lab, C. brunneus prefer dry and compact substrates composed of fine particles such as sand.", "This can be explained by higher overwintering temperatures.", "Research suggests that there is no correlation between stage of development and water uptake.", "In later hatchlings warmer weather and decreased food availability promotes more rapid development resulting in a smaller body size compared to earlier hatchlings.", "C. brunneus overwinter via obligate egg diapause.", "The longer summers in East Anglia may facilitate earlier hatching and an increased growth rate permitting the inclusion of instar IIa allowing the females to reach a larger size.", "Development rate is not affected by humidity but is affected by heat source.", "In England, northern populations of C. brunneus have faster development and shorter growth periods compared to southern populations.", "They are commonly found living in habitats that are polluted with heavy metals such as Szopienice and Olkusz in Poland.", "Because C. brunneus in non polluted reference sites do not experience the same decrease in enzyme activities, researchers have suggested that the decreased enzyme activities can be contributed to the tradeoff associated with adapting to living in heavily polluted habitats."], "habitat_section": ["C. brunneus are found in Europe, north Africa, and temperate Asia.", "They prefer dry habitats.", "They are present in higher numbers in heathland areas compared to agricultural areas.", "This can be explained by the difference in sward height in the two areas.", "C. brunneus prefer habitats with sward heights of 100 to 200 mm and fine leaved grass species.", "In fact a positive correlation between C. brunneus and both Agrostis species and Festuca species exists.", "Fine leaved grass species and taller sward heights occur more commonly in heathlands where less human alteration of the land occurs compared to agricultural sites.", "Sward height also influences abundance.", "A greater number of C. brunneus are found in taller swards although some scientific literature suggests C. brunneus thrives in wastelands.", "Vertebrate grazing also influences C. brunneus density by directly influencing sward height.", "Ungrazed areas have higher densities of C. brunneus than grazed areas.", "Vertebrate grazing is thought to alter plant hormones two of which are known to effect fecundity, abscisic acid, and gibberellins.", "Additionally grazing results in the production of proteinase inhibitors in plants and the alteration of nitrogen levels.", "In areas that experience less vertebrate grazing C. brunneus have increased rates of development, higher adult weights, and increased fecundity."], "random_sentences": ["Chorthippus brunneus, also known as the common field grasshopper, is a species of grasshopper of the subfamily Gomphocerinae.", "It was first described by Thunberg in 1815.", "It is also known as Gryllus brunneus, although this name has not been adopted by the IUCN.", "The IUCN lists C. brunneus as Least Concern.", "C. brunneus are predominantly brown.", "However, they show a large variation in colour and can also be black, green, purple, or white.", "Wing patterns vary between individuals and can be mottled, striped, striped-mottled, or plain.", "Both green and purple grasshoppers tend to have plain forewing patterns while black grasshoppers primarily have mottled forewing patterns.", "Brown grasshoppers do not consistently have the same forewing pattern instead they have variable forewing patterns.", "At least two loci are responsible for pronotum color in C. brunneus.", "Green alleles are dominant to all other colors while brown alleles are recessive to all other colors.", "Wing pattern is determined by a separate locus than colour.", "The plain forewing pattern is dominant and the striped and mottled forewing patterns are codominant.", "C. brunneus are found in Europe, north Africa, and temperate Asia.", "They are present in higher numbers in heathland areas compared to agricultural areas.", "This can be explained by the difference in sward height in the two areas.", "C. brunneus prefer habitats with sward heights of 100 to 200 mm and fine leaved grass species.", "In fact a positive correlation between C. brunneus and both Agrostis species and Festuca species exists.", "Fine leaved grass species and taller sward heights occur more commonly in heathlands where less human alteration of the land occurs compared to agricultural sites.", "Sward height also influences abundance.", "A greater number of C. brunneus are found in taller swards although some scientific literature suggests C. brunneus thrives in wastelands.", "Vertebrate grazing also influences C. brunneus density by directly influencing sward height.", "Ungrazed areas have higher densities of C. brunneus than grazed areas.", "Vertebrate grazing is thought to alter plant hormones two of which are known to effect fecundity, abscisic acid, and gibberellins.", "Additionally grazing results in the production of proteinase inhibitors in plants and the alteration of nitrogen levels.", "In areas that experience less vertebrate grazing C. brunneus have increased rates of development, higher adult weights, and increased fecundity.", "C. brunneus are herbivores and polyphagous.", "They feed primarily on grasses.", "Males attract females by singing via stridulation.", "An interested female will respond singing a similar-sounding song.", "The male will respond to the female by singing again.", "This can continue until copulation or the female becomes disinterested.", "Although a female response to male song does not guarantee mating it does increase the likelihood of copulation.", "Upon contact the male will produce a soft song and mount the female.", "While the average weight of females does not differ between high and low-density population conditions reproductive output is greater in low-density conditions compared to high-density conditions.", "Females in high-density conditions also experience a higher mortality rate.", "In a study by Wall and Begon 10 of 29 females in high-density conditions died while no females died in the low-density conditions.", "A positive correlation also exists between the number of eggs per pod and the length of a female's hind femur.", "Females in high-density conditions produced only half of the eggs produced by females in low-density conditions.", "Larger females in high-density conditions produce eggs at a faster rate than smaller females.", "While smaller females in low-density groups produce eggs faster than larger females resulting in an equal reproductive output between small and large females.", "In northern Spain C. brunneus and C. jacobsi form a hybrid zone.", "It has been suggested that the two species diverged during Pleistocene ice age.", "Both have the same number of chromosomes with three pairs of long metacentric, four pairs of medium acrocentric, and one pair of short acrocentric chromosomes.", "Using in situ hybridization an extra rDNA sequence is consistently found on the X chromosome in C. brunneus that is absent in C. jacobsi.", "The additional rDNA is not expressed in either C. brunneus or the hybrids that possess the rDNA sequence.", "C. brunneus and C. jacobsi can also be differentiated based on song and by the difference in number of stridulatory pegs located on the hind femur.", "Using a mark and recapture procedure, the lifetime dispersal of C. brunneus and C. jacobsi were estimated to be similar to other grasshopper species that form hybrid zones.", "C. brunneus and C. jacobsi are dominant during different months.", "C. brunneus are dominant in August while C. jacobsi are dominant in June and July.", "Additionally C. brunneus are only found in valley habitats while C. jacobsi are found in both valley and mountain habitats This suggests both seasonal and temporal isolation between the two species.", "C. brunneus, C. jacobsi, and hybrid females all show a preference for male C. brunneus and C. jacobsi songs over hybrid male songs.", "Differences in song traits echeme, syllable, and phrase length have a small epistatic effect but cannot be fully explained by genetic factors.", "Low genetic variation was found to occur between the three song characteristics in C. brunneus and C. jacobsi and no sex linkage was found.", "Peg numbers on the stridulatory file, while different between the two species, are surprisingly not dependent on song characteristics.", "Genetics cannot account for the difference in peg number.", "Instead additive effects explain the phenotypic variation in both song characteristics and peg number between C. brunneus, C. jacobsi, and their hybrids.", "Females lay eggs over a 10-week period in the soil.", "Eggs hatch as early as April.", "Hatchlings typically go through four nymphal stages before becoming adults.", "Adults can live into the late autumn.", "C. brunneus lay eggs in a variety of habitats from chalk hills to sandy hills but most commonly lay their eggs in sandy, dry habitats.", "In the lab, C. brunneus prefer dry and compact substrates composed of fine particles such as sand.", "They produce the largest number of eggs between 28-35 C degrees.", "In theory, smaller eggs should have higher mortality rates because of reduced provisions provided within the egg.", "However researchers found that egg viability is greater in the southern populations where eggs are smaller.", "This can be explained by higher overwintering temperatures.", "Egg size is influenced by a number of factors.", "As maternal age increases so does egg size.", "At the beginning of the breeding season females lay smaller eggs compared to the end of the breeding season.", "Eggs laid in the last part of the breeding season are smaller in size due to deteriorating maternal health.", "Research suggests that there is no correlation between stage of development and water uptake.", "While eggs can withstand a large amount of water loss they cannot survive complete desiccation.", "Therefore, it is not important at what point water is absorbed, it is only important that water is absorbed at some point.", "A larger egg size generally results in a larger hatchling and adult size.", "Eggs laid by C. brunneus from late August to early September are the heaviest, hatch the latest, and have heavier hatchlings.", "While earlier hatchlings are initially smaller, earlier hatchlings achieve a larger body size than later hatchlings.", "Maximum temperatures rather than minimum temperatures influence the weight of hatchlings unless the minimum temperature exceeds the tolerance limit.", "In later hatchlings warmer weather and decreased food availability promotes more rapid development resulting in a smaller body size compared to earlier hatchlings.", "The heaviest hatchlings come from colder habitats.", "Increased population density also results in decreased adult size as well as slower development.", "C. brunneus overwinter via obligate egg diapause.", "Research suggests that diapause can be broken regardless of the stage of development.", "Eggs can be kept for up to a year at 5 C and still hatch.", "In the lab, diapause can be broken by keeping the eggs at 25 C for two weeks before lowering the temperature to approximately 4 C for several weeks.", "Two populations of C. brunneus have females that have an additional instar inserted between instar II and III termed instar IIa.", "Morphological characteristics of instar IIa are a mixture of instars II and III.", "Females are of an intermediate size and length between instars II and III.", "Wing buds closely resemble the wing buds of instar II but have more venation than the typical wing buds of instar II.", "Genitalia development is closer to the development of instar III development.", "Additional instars have been found in other acridid species that display sexual dimorphism in which females are larger than males such as C. parallelus.", "C. brunneus females on average are 3 to 4 times larger than males.", "The occurrence of the additional instar most likely reflects the habitat the C. brunneus females occur.", "Females with the additional instar have only been found to occur in the region of East Anglia in Britain.", "The longer summers in East Anglia may facilitate earlier hatching and an increased growth rate permitting the inclusion of instar IIa allowing the females to reach a larger size.", "Decreased availability of food may encourage rapid development also explaining the inclusion of an additional instar.", "Development rate is not affected by humidity but is affected by heat source.", "C. brunneus reared with a radiant heat source take six to seven weeks less to reach their adult instar than those that are not.", "Development is also quicker in nymphs reared in low-density populations.", "Males and females weigh the same until the third instar where females outweigh the males.", "Females take a longer time to develop as they have longer instars than males.", "However, males develop more uniformly and live longer than females.", "In England, northern populations of C. brunneus have faster development and shorter growth periods compared to southern populations.", "C. brunneus produce song by moving stridulatory pegs against their elytra.", "The normal calling song consists of 5-12 notes that range between 0.25 and 0.50 seconds in length.", "Notes are followed by a 3-second period of rest.", "Males will repeat the song at intervals.", "Males produce a rival song when they come into contact with other males.", "C. brunneus males produce sounds during the pauses of the other males' song.", "Notes in the rival song are produced three to four times faster than notes produced in the normal song.", "In the normal song notes are produced every 1.52 seconds but in the rival song notes are produced every 0.350.57 seconds.", "Courtship songs are produced after the male produces some notes from his normal song and fails to copulate.", "Courtship songs in C. brunneus consist of softer notes similar to the normal song produced at higher frequencies.", "After producing the song for a duration the male will attempt to copulate with the female.", "If he is unsuccessful he will produce several short, loud notes before producing the courtship song again.", "A receptive female will respond to the male's song leading to the alteration of song between her and the male.", "This is called the attraction song.", "Male C. brunneus not only produce several different types of calls, they also show variation in characteristics of the same song.", "Stabilizing selection has acted on male C. brunneus song.", "Males with intermediate song characteristics are most successful while males with extreme characteristics are the least successful in attracting a mate.", "Song production is sensitive to the environment.", "C. brunneus are used as a bioindicators for heavy metal pollution.", "They are commonly found living in habitats that are polluted with heavy metals such as Szopienice and Olkusz in Poland.", "Some sites have heavy metal concentrations as high as 124.315.9 mgkg-1.", "Individuals can have heavy metal concentrations as larger as 21.25 mgkg-1.", "Exposure to heavy metal concentrations alters catalytic ability of enzymes.", "Individuals from heavily polluted sites have increased glutathione concentrations and decreased glutathione S-transferase activity.", "In the lab, individuals exposed to zinc during diapause have lower glutathione concentrations.", "Dimethoate exposure enhances the effect of heavy metal exposure decreasing glutathione concentrations and reducing acetylcholinesterase activity by almost 50%.", "Exposure to dimethoate also decreases glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, and carboxylesterases activity.", "Because C. brunneus in non polluted reference sites do not experience the same decrease in enzyme activities, researchers have suggested that the decreased enzyme activities can be contributed to the tradeoff associated with adapting to living in heavily polluted habitats.", "Individuals are forced to allocate more energy towards neutralizing harmful effects of heavy metals instead of allocating the energy to growth and development."]}, "Gomphocerippus rufus": {"keywords": ["It is a medium-sized, broad, brown, short-horned grasshopper with clubbed antennae that are tipped with a conspicuous white or pale colour.", "It can be encountered from late July through mid-December, usually in dry or slightly moist habitats.", "The environments in which it typically resides include dry grassland on calcareous soils, sheltered valleys with scrub, and the open borders of forests.", "It feeds on grasses and various herbaceous plants.", "The rufous grasshopper is usually found in open land, particularly terrain such as meadows, pastures, and forest edges that feature tall grass.", "More specifically, it can often be found in chalk grassland.", "It has been found on southern slopes of the Alps up to approximately 8100 feet.", "It prefers warm environments of moisture levels ranging from dry to moist.", "These adept climbers prefer to avoid remaining on the ground, and instead perch on plants in sunny, elevated areas.", "As rabbits have the effect of cropping grass short to eat it, this decrease in the population led to less cropped grass.", "Some wildlife, such as the large blue butterfly, suffered immensely because of their dependence on short grass, but other organisms, like the rufous grasshopper, prospered because the lack of rabbits led to an increase in long grass.", "Grasshoppers in general, including this species, are herbivorous and subsist mainly on grasses.", "Poaceae is a family of flowering monocots whose members are referred to as true grasses.", "Pooideae includes lawn grasses and cereals such as wheat and barley.", "Bromus is composed of grasses called brome grasses or cheat grasses.", "Holcus lanatus, more commonly known as Yorkshire fog or velvet grass, is a species of perennial pasture grass noted for its hairy texture.", "Nymph Females lay eggs, usually five per egg packet, in semi-arid soil in the roots of grasses around autumn and winter.", "Despite this tolerance, they prefer warm weather and more individuals tend to survive through hotter summers than cooler summers...............", "The male begins by orienting himself close to his target female, and continues with a set of rhythmic movements of various body parts, including swiveling of the head, trembling of the palps, and other movement of the antennae and hind legs.", "This technique likely changed from the more typical search strategy, in which male grasshoppers travel while making songs and responding to females.", "Searching males are at a disadvantage since males who display long courtship guard the passive females they have sung to, and the females return to a defensive state, in which they do not permit mating, after copulation, so there are fewer available females.", "During secondary defense, the female will respond to male attempts at copulation with strong, directed kicks of the hindlegs, which will deter the males and make forced mating impossible since the female may be almost twice as large as the male.", "Female grasshoppers who have not yet copulated with a male and are in the defensive state are exhibiting primary defense."], "habitat_section": ["The rufous grasshopper is usually found in open land, particularly terrain such as meadows, pastures, and forest edges that feature tall grass.", "More specifically, it can often be found in chalk grassland.", "It has been found on southern slopes of the Alps up to approximately 8100 feet.", "It prefers warm environments of moisture levels ranging from dry to moist.", "Very common locations include regions of Europe, including Germany, Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom.", "In fact, it can be found across almost all of Europe and Asia, ranging from France to parts of Siberia and from Scandinavia to northern Germany.", "These adept climbers prefer to avoid remaining on the ground, and instead perch on plants in sunny, elevated areas.", "As such they tend to live near herbaceous, taller plants and only by short plants infrequently.", "One situation that illustrates this preference well was the outbreak of the myxomatosis virus in rabbits in Britain in the 1950s.", "The rabbit population became severely depleted.", "As rabbits have the effect of cropping grass short to eat it, this decrease in the population led to less cropped grass.", "Some wildlife, such as the large blue butterfly, suffered immensely because of their dependence on short grass, but other organisms, like the rufous grasshopper, prospered because the lack of rabbits led to an increase in long grass.", "Predators includes bats such as the greater mouse-eared bat."], "random_sentences": ["The rufous grasshopper is a species of grasshopper.", "It is a medium-sized, broad, brown, short-horned grasshopper with clubbed antennae that are tipped with a conspicuous white or pale colour.", "It is fairly large, averaging 14 to 22 mm in length.", "It is of the subfamily Gomphocerinae in the family Acrididae, the predominant family of grasshoppers.", "This species is present in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm, and in the Near East.", "It can be encountered from late July through mid-December, usually in dry or slightly moist habitats.", "The environments in which it typically resides include dry grassland on calcareous soils, sheltered valleys with scrub, and the open borders of forests.", "It feeds on grasses and various herbaceous plants.", "It is known for its distinctive courtship song and accompanying display.", "Males range from 14 to 16 mm, while females range from 17 to 22 mm.", "The coloration is usually shades of brown, but features some grey, yellow, and red.", "The mature male has an abdomen tipped with orange-red.", "The female has similar coloration, but it is much less pronounced than in males.", "Some females are reddish purple.", "The pronotum features a central seam.", "The wings are present in both sexes.", "The forewings are longer in the males, where they reach just beyond the primary joint of the hind legs, than in the females, where they fall short of this joint.", "The rufous grasshopper is usually found in open land, particularly terrain such as meadows, pastures, and forest edges that feature tall grass.", "More specifically, it can often be found in chalk grassland.", "It has been found on southern slopes of the Alps up to approximately 8100 feet.", "It prefers warm environments of moisture levels ranging from dry to moist.", "Very common locations include regions of Europe, including Germany, Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom.", "In fact, it can be found across almost all of Europe and Asia, ranging from France to parts of Siberia and from Scandinavia to northern Germany.", "These adept climbers prefer to avoid remaining on the ground, and instead perch on plants in sunny, elevated areas.", "As such they tend to live near herbaceous, taller plants and only by short plants infrequently.", "One situation that illustrates this preference well was the outbreak of the myxomatosis virus in rabbits in Britain in the 1950s.", "The rabbit population became severely depleted.", "As rabbits have the effect of cropping grass short to eat it, this decrease in the population led to less cropped grass.", "Some wildlife, such as the large blue butterfly, suffered immensely because of their dependence on short grass, but other organisms, like the rufous grasshopper, prospered because the lack of rabbits led to an increase in long grass.", "Predators includes bats such as the greater mouse-eared bat.", "Grasshoppers in general, including this species, are herbivorous and subsist mainly on grasses.", "Scientists have gained knowledge of the diet of G. rufus through the use of feces as a source of DNA.", "It has been documented to eat plants of the genus Bromus, the species Holcus lanatus, and the subfamily Pooideae, all within the family Poaceae.", "Poaceae is a family of flowering monocots whose members are referred to as true grasses.", "Pooideae includes lawn grasses and cereals such as wheat and barley.", "Bromus is composed of grasses called brome grasses or cheat grasses.", "Holcus lanatus, more commonly known as Yorkshire fog or velvet grass, is a species of perennial pasture grass noted for its hairy texture.", "The rufous grasshopper has also been known to sparingly eat other plants such as rushes.", "Nymph Females lay eggs, usually five per egg packet, in semi-arid soil in the roots of grasses around autumn and winter.", "Nymphs hatch around late May, and adults appear beginning in late July.", "Development depends greatly on the temperature.", "Most are fully developed by the end of August.", "When autumn conditions are not too harsh, they are relatively tolerant of cold weather and adults may survive until early December.", "Despite this tolerance, they prefer warm weather and more individuals tend to survive through hotter summers than cooler summers...............", "The process of courtship consists of identical courtship units, each of which end in sound and are repeated without cessation.", "A sequence of such units is termed a courtship song.", "A song usually consists of three subunits.", "The male begins by orienting himself close to his target female, and continues with a set of rhythmic movements of various body parts, including swiveling of the head, trembling of the palps, and other movement of the antennae and hind legs.", "The entire process may last up to 15 continuous minutes.", "The first subunit is composed of head-rolling of various speeds, and the second and the third subunits contain different types of leg stridulation.", "If the female is willing to copulate, she will respond with sound and permit him to mate.", "Other than the sound produced at the end of each courtship unit, this grasshopper produces sound when no female is present, and when a female is moving away from him.", "The song produced when no female is present, the ordinary song, is similar to that of the sound within the courtship song.", "All sound is produced via movement of the legs.", "When in the active state, the female may even be induced to sing and permit copulation by even the male's ordinary song.", "Also, this grasshopper may make pursuit sounds if a female becomes near and then moves further away.", "Sound can be elicited via electrical stimulation.", "A study in which freely moving or partially restrained males were stimulated with sharpened wires and semi-microelectrodes caused the males to create the courtship song and the ordinary song, with most of the expected locomotion.", "This study found that the supraesophageal ganglion, or brain, controls songtype, and the sequence and coordination of courtship subunits.", "When induced by a stimulus, this stimulus overrode other behaviors, such as feeding or copulation.", "Rufous grasshopper males perform an unusually long courtship.", "Their song has a reductive effect on locomotor activity within passive-state females.", "The exact mechanisms are not known, although scientists hypothesize that it somehow causes a hormonal change within the females.", "The result is advantageous, as this lack of movement ensures that the female will remain nearby.", "The resultant improved chances of copulation allow mating and fertilization to occur approximately one to two days earlier than it would without such an enduring display.", "Ultimately, the female will lay one or two more sets of eggs during that mating period, since it is the first egg deposition that determines when the following eggs are deposited.", "Additionally, the male can ensure that the female does not mate with another male during this period, since she is always nearby, although this is not always preventable.", "He also is capable of attracting active-state females with his long courtship song.", "This technique likely changed from the more typical search strategy, in which male grasshoppers travel while making songs and responding to females.", "Searching males are at a disadvantage since males who display long courtship guard the passive females they have sung to, and the females return to a defensive state, in which they do not permit mating, after copulation, so there are fewer available females.", "The existence of females whose locomotor activity was reduced by the songs precipitated the evolution of the long courtship technique.", "The stages of female behavior: overview and pre-mating", "Female behavior toward males is composed of three stages, beginning after the imaginal molt, through which the grasshopper reaches the adult phase.", "Which courtship stage a female is in is affected by age and whether she has mated in the past.", "First, there is rejection of the males, which lasts approximately four days.", "In this stage, the males can do nothing to induce copulation.", "Second, there is the two-day phase of passive acceptance without singing.", "Third, the female actively attracts the male by singing, and those in this state, which lasts several days, permit immediate copulation after a short courtship or without it.", "It is hypothesized that this active state exists as a method for individuals in populations of low densities to have a chance to copulate.", "It may be difficult in these populations to encounter other individuals by chance, and sounds produced by the males and females makes it easier for them to find one another.", "After successful copulation, she returns to a defensive state and lays eggs.", "After egg-laying, she once again reaches a state of passive acceptance.", "If she fails to mate during this stage, she will lay eggs fertilized by the previous male and return to active attraction.", "The cycle continues as it did at the first time entering the active phase, and follows this sequence for the rest of the adult life.", "Pre-mating behaviors and the growth and development of the ovaries are controlled by the juvenile hormone-III, which is produced in the corpus allata.", "The production of this juvenile hormone fluctuates.", "Patterns of behavior are correlated with the increasing or decreasing rate of the concentration of this hormone.", "It is possible that the production by the corpus allata may be affected by nervous stimulation or inhibition of the glands.", "The hormone concentration within the hemolymph may be affected by esterases.", "Corpus allata activity is also affected by external factors, as it tends to be greater when mating and egg-laying are occurring, but much lower when they are prevented.", "When activity is lower, egg production is lower.", "Remating shortly after copulation is impossible for these grasshoppers.", "The act of copulation prompts a physiological and behavioral response in females termed secondary defense.", "During secondary defense, the female will respond to male attempts at copulation with strong, directed kicks of the hindlegs, which will deter the males and make forced mating impossible since the female may be almost twice as large as the male.", "This is advantageous for the male, as it protects his sperm from competition with other males before the pair's eggs are laid.", "This stage may last 3 to 4 days.", "This defense is usually induced through contact of the proteins of the liquid white secretions of the white secretory tubule 1 of a male's accessory glands with the female's spermathecal duct .", "More specifically, this is caused by a pheromone which is spurred by one of these proteins, of size less than 90 kDa.", "It can also be triggered by eggs exerting pressure against the walls of the oviduct on the pathway to oviposition.", "It is hypothesized that the secretion stimulates a bristle field of contact chemoreceptors where the spermathecal duct enters the endbulb.", "In other words, this defensive behavior is caused by both chemical and mechanical means.", "In terms of the four different stages of female behavior toward males, after copulation the female returns to a defensive state in which she rejects all male advances.", "There are additional reasons for the inability to remate.", "The spermatophore actually blocks the spermathecal duct so that another spermatophore cannot physiologically be planted.", "Additionally, after mating is completed, the genitalia of the pair hook firmly together for 40 to 90 minutes due to the clasping reflex, which prevents other males from mating with the female before she reaches the defensive state.", "Other than the loss of sexual receptivity after a copulation, refusal to mate occurs during the juvenile stage, when the insect is not yet fully sexually mature.", "Female grasshoppers who have not yet copulated with a male and are in the defensive state are exhibiting primary defense.", "During this phase, the females also respond to males with strong kicks of the hindlegs, but more heavily rely on escaping and evading the male.", "After finishing the defensive state , the female enters the state of passive acceptance.", "This willingness appears to be due to ablation of a bristle field of contact receptors in the duck or denervation, or loss of nerve supply, to the spermatheca, or alternatively it is due to the severance of the ventral nerve cord.", "Sperm not used in fertilization of the eggs can be maintained in the spermathecal bulb, which connects to the duct.", "This creates sperm competition between the sperm of previous mates and more recent ones.", "Newly obtained sperm enters the bulb, pushing older sperm to the back, and remains near the exit.", "So newer sperm is used before the older sperm.", "So, the outcome of this sperm competition is essentially determined by the shape of the bulb."]}}
|
|
2675065_1253698
| 1141
|
[
"Orchis purpurea",
"Dioscorea communis"
] |
{"Orchis purpurea": {"keywords": ["The leaves are broad and oblong-lanceolate, forming a rosette about the base of the plant and surrounding the flower spike.", "It usually grows in sloping woodlands, particularly in mixed deciduous / oak forests, but occasionally occur in meadows.", "It prefers limestone or chalk soil and partially shaded locations at an altitude of above sea level.", "Human activity - woodland clearance, picking flowers or uprooting plants - is a major concern."], "habitat_section": ["This orchid can be found in most parts of Europe, northern Africa, Turkey and the Caucasus.", "It usually grows in sloping woodlands, particularly in mixed deciduous / oak forests, but occasionally occur in meadows.", "It prefers limestone or chalk soil and partially shaded locations at an altitude of above sea level."], "random_sentences": ["Orchis purpurea, the lady orchid, is a herbaceous plant belonging to the genus Orchis of the family Orchidaceae.", "Inflorescence Orchis purpurea reaches on average of height.", "The leaves are broad and oblong-lanceolate, forming a rosette about the base of the plant and surrounding the flower spike.", "They are fleshy and bright green, and can be up to 15 cm long.", "The inflorescence is densely covered with up to 50 flowers.", "The sepals and upper petals are violaceous or purple .", "The flower's labellum is pale pink or white, with a center spotted by clusters of violaceous or purple hairs.", "It is divided into three lobes", "the outer two are small and narrow, and the inner is large, rounded, and heart-shaped.", "Flowering occurs in late April to June.", "This orchid can be found in most parts of Europe, northern Africa, Turkey and the Caucasus.", "It usually grows in sloping woodlands, particularly in mixed deciduous / oak forests, but occasionally occur in meadows.", "It prefers limestone or chalk soil and partially shaded locations at an altitude of above sea level.", "Orchis purpurea may be mistaken for the military orchid or monkey orchid .", "The three species often hybridize, making them difficult to identify, although the shape of the labellum is distinct to each species.", "Deer, especially the muntjac, and slugs are among the greatest threats to this orchid.", "Human activity - woodland clearance, picking flowers or uprooting plants - is a major concern."]}, "Dioscorea communis": {"keywords": ["Dioscorea communis or Tamus communis is a species of flowering plant in the yam family Dioscoreaceae and is commonly known as black bryony, lady's-seal or black bindweed.", "It is a climbing herbaceous plant growing to 24 m tall, with stems that twine anticlockwise.", "Dioscorea communis is native and widespread throughout southern and central Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia, from Ireland to the Canary Islands, east to Iran and Crimea.", "Dioscorea communis is a typical plant of the forest understory, from the sea to the mountains, usually in dense woods, but it can also be found in meadows and hedges.", "Studies have isolated calcium oxalate deposits and histamines in the berry juice and rhizomes, which may contribute to skin irritation and contact dermatitis associated with black bryony."], "habitat_section": ["Dioscorea communis is native and widespread throughout southern and central Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia, from Ireland to the Canary Islands, east to Iran and Crimea.", "Dioscorea communis is a typical plant of the forest understory, from the sea to the mountains, usually in dense woods, but it can also be found in meadows and hedges."], "random_sentences": ["Dioscorea communis or Tamus communis is a species of flowering plant in the yam family Dioscoreaceae and is commonly known as black bryony, lady's-seal or black bindweed.", "It is a climbing herbaceous plant growing to 24 m tall, with stems that twine anticlockwise.", "The leaves are spirally arranged, heart-shaped, up to 10 cm long and 8 cm broad, with a petiole up to 5 cm long.", "It is dioecious, with separate male and female plants.", "The flowers are individually inconspicuous, greenish-yellow, 36 mm diameter, with six petals", "the male flowers produced in slender 510 cm racemes, the female flowers in shorter clusters.", "The fruit is a bright red berry, 1 cm diameter.", "Its fairly large tuber is, like the rest of the plant, poisonous.", "Dioscorea communis is native and widespread throughout southern and central Europe, northwest Africa and western Asia, from Ireland to the Canary Islands, east to Iran and Crimea.", "Dioscorea communis is a typical plant of the forest understory, from the sea to the mountains, usually in dense woods, but it can also be found in meadows and hedges.", "All components of the black bryony plant, including the tubers, are poisonous due to saponin content, so it is not typically used internally", "however, it has been used as a poultice for bruises and inflamed joints.", "It has been suggested that black bryony be used topically with caution, due to a tendency for the plant to cause painful blisters.", "Studies have isolated calcium oxalate deposits and histamines in the berry juice and rhizomes, which may contribute to skin irritation and contact dermatitis associated with black bryony.", "Black Bryony is highly poisonous and should not be ingested at all at least when raw.", "When cooked, young shoots are commonly eaten in southern France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Croatia.", "The rhizome contains phenanthrenes ."]}}
|
|
2536392_1151477
| 2053
|
[
"Sedum acre"
] |
{"Sedum acre": {"keywords": ["Goldmoss stonecrop Sedum acre, commonly known as the goldmoss stonecrop, mossy stonecrop, goldmoss sedum, biting stonecrop and wallpepper, is a perennial flowering plant in the family Crassulaceae.", "It is native to Europe, but also naturalised in North America, Japan and New Zealand.", "Biting stonecrop is a tufted evergreen perennial that forms mat-like stands some tall.", "Biting stonecrop is a low-growing plant that cannot compete with more vigorous, fast-growing species.", "It is specially adapted for growing on thin dry soils and can be found on shingle, beaches, drystone walls, dry banks, seashore rocks, roadside verges, wasteland and in sandy meadows near the sea.", "It is used in hanging baskets and container gardens, as a trailing accent, in borders, or as groundcover.", "This plant grows as a creeping ground cover, often in dry sandy soil, but also in the cracks of masonry.", "It grows well in poor soils, sand, rock gardens, and rich garden soil, under a variety of light levels."], "habitat_section": ["Biting stonecrop is a low-growing plant that cannot compete with more vigorous, fast-growing species.", "It is specially adapted for growing on thin dry soils and can be found on shingle, beaches, drystone walls, dry banks, seashore rocks, roadside verges, wasteland and in sandy meadows near the sea."], "random_sentences": ["Goldmoss stonecrop Sedum acre, commonly known as the goldmoss stonecrop, mossy stonecrop, goldmoss sedum, biting stonecrop and wallpepper, is a perennial flowering plant in the family Crassulaceae.", "It is native to Europe, but also naturalised in North America, Japan and New Zealand.", "Biting stonecrop is a tufted evergreen perennial that forms mat-like stands some tall.", "For much of the year the stems are short, semi-prostrate and densely clad in leaves.", "At the flowering time in June and July, the stems lengthen and are erect, somewhat limp and often pinkish-brown with the leaves further apart.", "The leaves are alternate, fleshy and shortly cylindrical with a rounded tip.", "They are also sometimes tinged with red.", "The starry flowers form a three to six-flowered cyme.", "The calyx has five fleshy sepals fused at the base, the corolla consists of five regular bright yellow petals, there are ten stamens, a separate gynoecium and five pistils.", "The fruit consists of five united, many-seeded follicles.", "The leaves contain an acrid fluid that can cause skin rashes.", "Biting stonecrop is a low-growing plant that cannot compete with more vigorous, fast-growing species.", "It is specially adapted for growing on thin dry soils and can be found on shingle, beaches, drystone walls, dry banks, seashore rocks, roadside verges, wasteland and in sandy meadows near the sea.", "Biting stonecrop spreads when allowed to do so, but is easily controlled, being shallow-rooted.", "It is used in hanging baskets and container gardens, as a trailing accent, in borders, or as groundcover.", "This plant grows as a creeping ground cover, often in dry sandy soil, but also in the cracks of masonry.", "It grows well in poor soils, sand, rock gardens, and rich garden soil, under a variety of light levels."]}}
|
|
2733862_1189782
| 831
|
[
"Galium anisophyllon",
"Schoenus nigricans",
"Saxifraga androsacea"
] |
{"Galium anisophyllon": {"keywords": ["It is present in the mountains, in meadows, rocky crevices and in forests, at altitudes above 1000 m. ."], "habitat_section": ["Galium anisophyllon is widespread in Central and Southern Europe from France to Poland and Ukraine.", "It is present in the mountains, in meadows, rocky crevices and in forests, at altitudes above 1000 m."], "random_sentences": ["Galium anisophyllon, common name bedstraw or gaillet, is a flowering perennial plant in the family Rubiaceae.", "Galium anisophyllon can reach a height of .", "It is a herbaceous plant with quadrangular and branched stem, oblong or lanceolate-linear leaves, 15 mm long and 2 mm wide.", "Flowers are white to yellowish-white, in loose umbels.", "Corolla is up to 4 mm wide.", "They bloom from June to September.", "Galium anisophyllon is widespread in Central and Southern Europe from France to Poland and Ukraine.", "It is present in the mountains, in meadows, rocky crevices and in forests, at altitudes above 1000 m."]}, "Schoenus nigricans": {"keywords": ["It is native to Eurasia, parts of Africa, Australia, and southern North America, including Mexico and the southernmost United States.", "This perennial plant grows in low, tight clumps 20 to 70 centimeters tall, with threadlike leaves bearing wide, dark brown ligules.", "S. nigricans grows in many types of wetlands and other moist and alkaline habitat, including marshes, springs, seeps, peat bogs, heath, and alkali flats."], "habitat_section": ["S. nigricans grows in many types of wetlands and other moist and alkaline habitat, including marshes, springs, seeps, peat bogs, heath, and alkali flats."], "random_sentences": ["Schoenus nigricans is a species of sedge known by the common names black bog-rush and black sedge.", "It is native to Eurasia, parts of Africa, Australia, and southern North America, including Mexico and the southernmost United States.", "This perennial plant grows in low, tight clumps 20 to 70 centimeters tall, with threadlike leaves bearing wide, dark brown ligules.", "The inflorescence is a small, flattened cluster of dark spikelets.", "The fruit is an achene coated in a hard, white shell.", "nigricans grows in many types of wetlands and other moist and alkaline habitat, including marshes, springs, seeps, peat bogs, heath, and alkali flats."]}, "Saxifraga androsacea": {"keywords": ["Saxifraga is the largest genus in the family Saxifragaceae, containing about 473 species of holarctic perennial plants, known as saxifrages or rockfoils.", "It is usually thought to indicate a medicinal use for treatment of urinary calculi , rather than breaking rocks apart.", "Most saxifrages are small perennial, biennial or annual herbaceous plants whose basal or cauline leaves grow close to the ground, often in a rosette.", "The inflorescence or single flower clusters rise above the main plant body on naked stalks.", "Campanula saxifraga Celmisia saxifraga W.M.Curtis Cineraria saxifraga DC. Dryopteris saxifraga Petrorhagia saxifraga Tunicflower Pimpinella saxifraga Burnet saxifrage Ptychotis saxifraga Saxifragella Saxifragodes Saxifragopsis Small .", "Saxifrages are typical inhabitants of Arcticalpine ecosystems, and are hardly ever found outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, most members of this genus are found in subarctic climates.", "A good number of species grow in glacial habitats, such as S. biflora which can be found some 4,000 m above sea level in the Alps, or the East Greenland saxifrage .", "The genus is also abundant in the Eastern and Western Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows.", "Though the archetypal saxifrage is a small plant huddling between rocks high up on a mountain, many species do not occur in such a habitat and are larger plants found on wet meadows.", "Numerous species and cultivars of saxifrage are cultivated as ornamental garden plants, valued particularly as groundcover or as cushion plants in rock gardens and alpine gardens.", "Many require alkaline or neutral soil to thrive.", "S. urbium , a hybrid between Pyrenean saxifrage and St. Patrick's cabbage , is commonly grown as an ornamental plant.", "Some wild species are also used in gardening.", "Cambridge University Botanic Garden hosts the United Kingdom's national collection of saxifrages.", "The following species and cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit."], "habitat_section": ["Saxifrages are typical inhabitants of Arcticalpine ecosystems, and are hardly ever found outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, most members of this genus are found in subarctic climates.", "A good number of species grow in glacial habitats, such as S. biflora which can be found some 4,000 m above sea level in the Alps, or the East Greenland saxifrage .", "The genus is also abundant in the Eastern and Western Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows.", "Though the archetypal saxifrage is a small plant huddling between rocks high up on a mountain, many species do not occur in such a habitat and are larger plants found on wet meadows.", "Various Saxifraga species are used as food plants by the caterpillars of some butterflies and moths, such as the Phoebus Apollo .", "Charles Darwin erroneously believing Saxifraga to be allied to the sundew family suspected the sticky-leaved round-leaved saxifrage , rue-leaved saxifrage and Pyrenean saxifrage to be protocarnivorous plants, and conducted some experiments whose results supported his observations, but the matter has apparently not been studied since his time."], "random_sentences": ["Saxifraga is the largest genus in the family Saxifragaceae, containing about 473 species of holarctic perennial plants, known as saxifrages or rockfoils.", "The Latin word saxifraga means literally \"stone-breaker\", from Latin saxum + frangere .", "It is usually thought to indicate a medicinal use for treatment of urinary calculi , rather than breaking rocks apart.", "Most saxifrages are small perennial, biennial or annual herbaceous plants whose basal or cauline leaves grow close to the ground, often in a rosette.", "The leaves typically have a more or less incised margin", "they may be succulent, needle-like and/or hairy, reducing evaporation.", "The inflorescence or single flower clusters rise above the main plant body on naked stalks.", "The small actinomorphic hermaphrodite flowers have five petals and sepals and are usually white, but red to yellow in some species.", "Stamens, usually 10, rarely 8, insert at the junction of the floral tube and ovary wall, with filaments subulate or clavate.", "As in other primitive eudicots, some of the 5 or 10 stamens may appear petal-like.", "and it lives in tundral ecosystems.", "A genus of about 473 species.", "The former monotypic genus Saxifragella has been submersed within Saxifraga, the largest genus in Saxifragaceae, as Saxifraga bicuspidata.", "Also the genus Saxifragopsis was previously included in Saxifraga.", "Based on morphological criteria, up to 15 sections were recognised.", "Subsequent molecular phylogenetic studies reduced this to 13 sections with 9 subsections.", "The former sections Micranthes and Merkianae are more closely related to the Boykinia and Heuchera clades.", "Modern floras separate these groups as the genus Micranthes.", "The thirteen sections are: Irregulares Saxifragella Pseudocymbalaria Bronchiales Ciliatae Cymbalaria Cotylea Gymnopera Mesogyne Trachyphyllum Ligulatae Porphyrion Squarrosae Mutatae Oppositifoliae Florulentae Kabschia Saxifraga Tridactylites Androsaceae Arachnoideae Saxifraga", "Plants formerly placed in Saxifraga are mainly but not exclusively Saxifragaceae.", "They include: Astilboides tabularis, as S. tabularis Bergenia crassifolia, as S. cordifolia, S. crassifolia Bergenia pacumbis, as S. ligulata, S. pacumbis Bergenia purpurascens, as S. delavayi, S. purpurascens Boykinia jamesii, as S. jamesii Boykinia occidentalis , as S. elata Boykinia richardsonii , as S. richardsonii Darmera peltata , as S. peltata Leptarrhena pyrolifolia, as S. pyrolifolia Luetkea pectinata , as S. pectinata Micranthes, including: Micranthes integrifolia Micranthes howellii , as S. howellii Micranthes stellaris , as S. stellaris Mukdenia rossii , as S. rossii", "Several plant genera have names referring to saxifrages, although they might not be close relatives of Saxifraga.", "They include: Golden-saxifrages, Chrysosplenium Burnet-saxifrages, Pimpinella Pepper-saxifrage, Silaum silaus.", "The name \"silaum\" comes from the Latin word sil, which means yellow ochre.", "This refers to the sulphurous yellow colour of the flowers.", "Some plants refer to Saxifraga in their generic names or specific epithets, either because they are also \"rock-breaking\" or because they resemble members of the saxifrage genus: Campanula saxifraga Celmisia saxifraga (Benth.", ") W.M.Curtis Cineraria saxifraga DC.", "Dryopteris saxifraga Petrorhagia saxifraga Tunicflower Pimpinella saxifraga Burnet saxifrage Ptychotis saxifraga Saxifragella Saxifragodes Saxifragopsis Small", "Saxifrages are typical inhabitants of Arcticalpine ecosystems, and are hardly ever found outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere", "most members of this genus are found in subarctic climates.", "A good number of species grow in glacial habitats, such as S. biflora which can be found some 4,000 m above sea level in the Alps, or the East Greenland saxifrage (S.", "The genus is also abundant in the Eastern and Western Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows.", "Though the archetypal saxifrage is a small plant huddling between rocks high up on a mountain, many species do not occur in such a habitat and are larger plants found on wet meadows.", "Various Saxifraga species are used as food plants by the caterpillars of some butterflies and moths, such as the Phoebus Apollo .", "Charles Darwin erroneously believing Saxifraga to be allied to the sundew family suspected the sticky-leaved round-leaved saxifrage (S.", "tridactylites) and Pyrenean saxifrage (S.", "umbrosa) to be protocarnivorous plants, and conducted some experiments whose results supported his observations, but the matter has apparently not been studied since his time.", "Numerous species and cultivars of saxifrage are cultivated as ornamental garden plants, valued particularly as groundcover or as cushion plants in rock gardens and alpine gardens.", "Many require alkaline or neutral soil to thrive.", "S. urbium , a hybrid between Pyrenean saxifrage (S.", "umbrosa) and St. Patrick's cabbage (S.", "spathularis), is commonly grown as an ornamental plant.", "Another horticultural hybrid is Robertsoniana saxifrage (S.", "geum), derived from kidney saxifrage (S.", "Some wild species are also used in gardening.", "Cambridge University Botanic Garden hosts the United Kingdom's national collection of saxifrages.", "The following species and cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:-", "The leaves of some saxifrage species, such as creeping saxifrage (S.", "stolonifera) and S. pensylvanica, are edible.", "The former is a food in Korea and Japan.", "The flowers of purple saxifrage (S.", "oppositifolia) are eaten in Nunavut, Canada and the leaves and stems brewed as a tea.", "Species are also used in traditional medicine, such as creeping saxifrage in East Asia and round-leaved saxifrage (S.", "Two speciespurple saxifrage and creeping saxifrageare popular floral emblems.", "They are official flowers for: Nunavut, Canada - purple saxifrage County Londonderry, Northern Ireland - purple saxifrage Tsukuba, Japan - creeping saxifrage, \"hoshizaki\" form (S."]}}
|
|
2684092_1237782
| 2255
|
[
"Cornus sanguinea",
"Lysimachia punctata"
] |
{"Cornus sanguinea": {"keywords": ["Cornus sanguinea, the common dogwood or bloody dogwood, is a species of dogwood native to most of Europe and western Asia, from England and central Scotland east to the Caspian Sea.", "It is widely grown as an ornamental plant.", "It is a medium to large deciduous shrub, growing tall, with dark greenish-brown branches and twigs.", "It prefers moderate warmth in sunny places, though it can tolerate shade and in the more southern areas of its distribution area grows in the mountains.", "In cooler areas such as Scandinavia it grows at sea level.", "It requires light, often alkaline soils.", "It is especially abundant in riversides, especially in shady areas and ravines.", "It grows in the margins of forests or unforested areas as woods in regeneration, prickly woodland fringes, with other thorny shrub species .", "Many frugivorous passerines find them irresistible, and prefer them over fruits grown by humans.", "The plant is thus often grown in organic gardening and permaculture to prevent harm to orchard crops, while benefitting from the fact that even frugivorous birds will hunt pest insects during the breeding season, as their young require much protein to grow.", "Garden varieties are often called \" winter fire \" because the leaves turn orange-yellow in autumn and then fall to reveal striking red winter stems."], "habitat_section": ["It prefers moderate warmth in sunny places, though it can tolerate shade and in the more southern areas of its distribution area grows in the mountains.", "In cooler areas such as Scandinavia it grows at sea level.", "It requires light, often alkaline soils.", "The species spreads by seeds and stolons.", "Its natural range covers most of Europe and western Asia.", "It is especially abundant in riversides, especially in shady areas and ravines.", "It grows in the margins of forests or unforested areas as woods in regeneration, prickly woodland fringes, with other thorny shrub species .", "It reproduces by seed and root sprouts, which makes it effective at occupying areas of land and forming dense groves.", "Depending on circumstances, it can be invasive."], "random_sentences": ["Cornus sanguinea, the common dogwood or bloody dogwood, is a species of dogwood native to most of Europe and western Asia, from England and central Scotland east to the Caspian Sea.", "It is widely grown as an ornamental plant.", "Cornus sanguinea stems in winter.", "It is a medium to large deciduous shrub, growing tall, with dark greenish-brown branches and twigs.", "The leaves are opposite, long and broad, with an ovate to oblong shape and an entire margin", "they are green above, slightly paler below, and rough with short stiff pubescence.", "The hermaphrodite flowers are small, diameter, with four creamy white petals, produced in clusters diameter, and are insect pollinated.", "The fruit is a globose black berry diameter, containing a single seed.", "The berries are sometimes called \" dogberries \" .", "It prefers moderate warmth in sunny places, though it can tolerate shade and in the more southern areas of its distribution area grows in the mountains.", "In cooler areas such as Scandinavia it grows at sea level.", "It requires light, often alkaline soils.", "The species spreads by seeds and stolons.", "Its natural range covers most of Europe and western Asia.", "It is especially abundant in riversides, especially in shady areas and ravines.", "It grows in the margins of forests or unforested areas as woods in regeneration, prickly woodland fringes, with other thorny shrub species .", "It reproduces by seed and root sprouts, which makes it effective at occupying areas of land and forming dense groves.", "Depending on circumstances, it can be invasive.", "Cornus sanguinea berries The leaves provide food for some animals, including Lepidoptera such as the case-bearer moth Coleophora anatipennella.", "Dogberries are eaten by some mammals and many birds.", "Many frugivorous passerines find them irresistible, and prefer them over fruits grown by humans.", "The plant is thus often grown in organic gardening and permaculture to prevent harm to orchard crops, while benefitting from the fact that even frugivorous birds will hunt pest insects during the breeding season, as their young require much protein to grow.", "Garden varieties are often called \" winter fire \" because the leaves turn orange-yellow in autumn and then fall to reveal striking red winter stems.", "The straight woody shoots produced by the plant can be used as prods, skewers or arrows.", "The prehistoric archer known as Otzi the Iceman, discovered in 1991 on the border between Italy and Austria, was carrying arrow shafts made from dogwood."]}, "Lysimachia punctata": {"keywords": ["Lysimachia punctata is a rhizomatous perennial herbaceous plant growing up to about 1.2m in height.", "It is native to SE Europe east to the Caucasus, introduced as a garden plant and widely naturalized as a garden escape on rough ground, roadsides and damp places."], "habitat_section": ["It is native to SE Europe east to the Caucasus, introduced as a garden plant and widely naturalized as a garden escape on rough ground, roadsides and damp places."], "random_sentences": ["Lysimachia punctata, the dotted loosestrife, large yellow loosestrife, circle flower, or spotted loosestrife, is a flowering plant species in the family Primulaceae.", "Lysimachia punctata is a rhizomatous perennial herbaceous plant growing up to about 1.2m in height.", "The flowers have five petals, sepals and stamens and are produced in dense groups in the axils of leaves.", "The leaves are opposite and ovate.", "Both the leaves and the flower parts are hairy.", "The petals are fringed with hairs and the hairy sepals all-green, without the orange margin of L. vulgaris.", "It is native to SE Europe east to the Caucasus, introduced as a garden plant and widely naturalized as a garden escape on rough ground, roadsides and damp places."]}}
|
|
2675631_1209458
| 2154
|
[
"Chroicocephalus ridibundus",
"Phalacrocorax carbo",
"Corvus corone",
"Podiceps cristatus",
"Cygnus olor",
"Gallinula chloropus",
"Fulica atra",
"Larus michahellis",
"Anas platyrhynchos"
] |
{"Chroicocephalus ridibundus": {"keywords": ["The black-headed gull is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic including Europe and also in coastal eastern Canada.", "They are an overwintering species, found in a variety of different habitats.", "The summer adult has a chocolate-brown head , pale grey body, black tips to the primary wing feathers, and red bill and legs.", "Immature birds have a mottled pattern of brown spots over most of the body, It breeds in colonies in large reed beds or marshes, or on islands in lakes, nesting on the ground.", "It is not a pelagic species and is rarely seen at sea far from coasts.", "Small numbers also breed in northeastern Canada and can be seen in winter in northeast North America as far south as Virginia, often with the similar-looking Bonaparte's Gull and also in some Caribbean islands.", "Although mothers show some form of aggressiveness when a predator is near, in the first 30 minutes, wet chicks can be easily taken by other black-headed gulls after hatching when the parents of the wet chick are distracted.", "Head-bobbing walking occurs during a seeking type foraging by walking through water and includes benefits such as enhancing motion and pattern detection and gathering depth information from motion parallax during the thrust phase."], "habitat_section": ["Black-headed gulls can be found over much of Europe.", "It is also found in across the Palearctic to Japan and east China.", "Small numbers also breed in northeastern Canada and can be seen in winter in northeast North America as far south as Virginia, often with the similar-looking Bonaparte's Gull and also in some Caribbean islands."], "random_sentences": ["The black-headed gull is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic including Europe and also in coastal eastern Canada.", "Most of the population is migratory and winters further south, but some birds reside in the milder westernmost areas of Europe.", "Small numbers also occur in northeastern North America, where it was formerly known as the common black-headed gull.", "As is the case with many gulls, it was previously placed in the genus Larus.", "The genus name Chroicocephalus is from Ancient Greek khroizo, \" to colour \" , and kephale, \" head \" .", "The specific ridibundus is Latin for \" laughing \" , from ridere \" to laugh \" .", "The black-headed gull displays a variety of compelling behaviours and adaptations.", "Some of these include removing eggshells from one's nest after hatching, begging co-ordination between siblings, differences between sexes, conspecific brood parasitism, and extra-pair paternity.", "They are an overwintering species, found in a variety of different habitats.", "This gull is long with a wingspan and weighs .", "In flight, the white leading edge to the wing is a good field mark.", "The summer adult has a chocolate-brown head , pale grey body, black tips to the primary wing feathers, and red bill and legs.", "The hood is lost in winter, leaving just two dark spots.", "Immature birds have a mottled pattern of brown spots over most of the body, It breeds in colonies in large reed beds or marshes, or on islands in lakes, nesting on the ground.", "Like most gulls, it is highly gregarious in winter, both when feeding or in evening roosts.", "It is not a pelagic species and is rarely seen at sea far from coasts.", "The black-headed gull is a bold and opportunistic feeder.", "It eats insects, fish, seeds, worms, scraps, and carrion in towns, or invertebrates in ploughed fields with equal relish.", "It is a noisy species, especially in colonies, with a familiar \" kree-ar \" call.", "Its scientific name means laughing gull.", "This species takes two years to reach maturity.", "First-year birds have a black terminal tail band, more dark areas in the wings, and, in summer, a less fully developed dark hood.", "Like most gulls, black-headed gulls are long-lived birds, with a maximum age of at least 32.9 years recorded in the wild, in addition to an anecdote now believed of dubious authenticity regarding a 63-year-old bird.", "Black-headed gulls can be found over much of Europe.", "It is also found in across the Palearctic to Japan and east China.", "Small numbers also breed in northeastern Canada and can be seen in winter in northeast North America as far south as Virginia, often with the similar-looking Bonaparte's Gull and also in some Caribbean islands.", "Eggshell removal is a behaviour seen in birds once the chicks have hatched, observed mostly to reduce risk of predation.", "Removing the eggshell acts as a way of camouflage to avoid predators seeing the nest.", "The further away egg shells are from the nest, the lower the predation risk.", "Black-headed gull eggs experience predation from different species of birds, foxes, stoats, and even other black-headed gulls.", "Although mothers show some form of aggressiveness when a predator is near, in the first 30 minutes, wet chicks can be easily taken by other black-headed gulls after hatching when the parents of the wet chick are distracted.", "Black headed gulls also carry away other objects that do not belong in the nest.", "The removal of eggshells and other objects is important not only in the incubation period but also during the first few days after the eggs hatch.", "However, the removal process seems to increase as time goes on.", "The removal is done by both the male and female parents, normally lasts a few seconds and is done three times a year.", "A black-headed gull is able to differentiate an egg shell from an egg by acknowledging its thin, serrated, white, edge.", "Therefore, the weight of the egg or eggshell does not play a role when determining its value.", "Black-headed gulls display both head-bobbing walking and non-bobbing walking .", "Head-bobbing walking is expressed by a hold phase and a thrust phase.", "The hold phase in black-headed gulls occurs mainly during the single support phase and is when the bird balances its head to equal the environment.", "Head-bobbing walking occurs during a seeking type foraging by walking through water and includes benefits such as enhancing motion and pattern detection and gathering depth information from motion parallax during the thrust phase.", "Non-bobbing walking occurs when black-headed gulls are displaying a waiting behaviour while foraging on flat surfaces.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The eggs of the black-headed gull are considered a delicacy by some in the UK and are eaten hard boiled.", "The collection of black-headed gull eggs is heavily regulated by the UK government.", "Eggs may only be taken by a small number of licensed individuals at six sites between April 1 and May 15 each year and only a single egg may be taken from each nest.", "No eggs are permitted to be sold after June 30.", "As the gulls tend to lay in late April and early May, the eggs are in effect, only available to purchase for 3 or 4 weeks per year.", "Observations on the behavior of black-headed gulls show that black-headed gulls individuals synchronize their vigilance activity with other black-headed gulls neighbors.", "Synchronization in black-headed gulls groups is dependent on the distance between the black-headed gulls members.", "On 19th October 1991, local Broome birder Brian Kane saw a strange species of bird while trawling the local sewer ponds.", "Upon seeing this bird, he contacted the Broome Bird Observatory by telephone to verify the species, however there was conjecture regarding its identity.", "Kane took photos of the bird and recorded field notes, before sending this information to the Appraisals Committee in Hobart, Tasmania, who were able to confirm that it was indeed a black-headed gull.", "This was the first recorded sighting of the species in Australia.", "In Richard Adams' 1972 novel Watership Down, a black-headed gull named Kehaar plays a major part in the story.", "Injured by a farm cat and left behind during the seasonal migrations, Kehaar finds himself stranded on the Downs and is taken in by a warren of European rabbits.", "He later becomes their friend and ally, and helps to save the rabbits from danger many times", "instincts eventually force him to return to his colony, but he promises to visit the rabbits each winter.", "True to Adams' stated intentions of trying to keep the animals' behavior close to reality, Kehaar is characterized as intelligent, gregarious, noisy, messy, and impatient.", "He has a guttural accent, inspired by a Norwegian Resistance fighter Adams once had known.", "Kehaar appears in all three screen adaptations of the novel", "the character was voiced by Zero Mostel in the 1978 film, Rik Mayall in the 1999 TV series, and Peter Capaldi in the 2018 miniseries."]}, "Phalacrocorax carbo": {"keywords": ["Texel, Netherlands The great cormorant , known as the black shag in New Zealand and formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds.", "It breeds in much of the Old World, Australia, and the Atlantic coast of North America.", "It feeds on the sea, in estuaries, and on freshwater lakes and rivers.", "Northern birds migrate south and winter along any coast that is well-supplied with fish.", "However, after 1945 many artificial lakes were formed in Serbia, some of them became potential habitats for cormorants.", "Currently, on the Lake Celije, formed in 1980, there is a resident colony of cormorants, who nest there and are present throughout the year, except JanuaryFebruary 1985 and February 2012 when the lake surface was completely frozen.", "The type subspecies, P. c. carbo, is found mainly in Atlantic waters and nearby inland areas.", "on western European coasts and east across the Palearctic to Siberia and to North Africa, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland, and on the eastern seaboard of North America.", "The great cormorant often nests in colonies near wetlands, rivers, and sheltered inshore waters.", "It builds its nest, which is made from sticks, in trees, on the ledges of cliffs, and on the ground on rocky islands that are free of predators.", "The average weight of fish taken by great cormorants increased with decreasing air and water temperature, being 30 g during summer, 109 g during a warm winter and 157 g during the cold winter .", "Cormorants consume all fish of appropriate size that they are able to catch in summer and noticeably select for larger, mostly torpedo-shaped fish in winter.", "Thus, the winter elevation of foraging efficiency described for cormorants by various researchers is due to capturing larger fish not due to capturing more fish.", "In some freshwater systems, the losses of fish due to overwintering great cormorants were estimated to be up to 80 kg per ha each year .", "An old legend states that for people who die far out at sea, whose bodies are never recovered, spend eternity on the island Utrst which can only occasionally be found by mortals."], "habitat_section": ["This is a very common and widespread bird species.", "It feeds on the sea, in estuaries, and on freshwater lakes and rivers.", "Northern birds migrate south and winter along any coast that is well-supplied with fish.", "In Serbia, the cormorant lives in Vojvodina.", "However, after 1945 many artificial lakes were formed in Serbia, some of them became potential habitats for cormorants.", "Currently, on the Lake Celije, formed in 1980, there is a resident colony of cormorants, who nest there and are present throughout the year, except JanuaryFebruary 1985 and February 2012 when the lake surface was completely frozen.", "The type subspecies, P. c. carbo, is found mainly in Atlantic waters and nearby inland areas.", "on western European coasts and east across the Palearctic to Siberia and to North Africa, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland, and on the eastern seaboard of North America.", "The subspecies P. c. novaehollandiae is found in Australian waters."], "random_sentences": ["Adult great cormorant in breeding plumage.", "Texel, Netherlands The great cormorant , known as the black shag in New Zealand and formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a widespread member of the cormorant family of seabirds.", "It breeds in much of the Old World, Australia, and the Atlantic coast of North America.", "The long white-breasted cormorant P. c. lucidus found in sub-Saharan Africa, has a white neck and breast.", "It is often treated as a full species, Phalacrocorax lucidus .", "In addition to the Australasian and African forms, Phalacrocorax carbo novaehollandiae and P. c. lucidus mentioned above, other geographically distinct subspecies are recognised, including P. c. sinensis , P. c. maroccanus , and P. c. hanedae .", "Some authors treat all these as allospecies of a P. carbo superspecies group.", "In New Zealand, the subspecies P. c. novaehollandiae is known as the black shag or by its Maori name", "The syntype is in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.", "The great cormorant is a large black bird, but there is a wide variation in size in the species' wide range.", "Weight is reported to vary from to .", "Males are typically larger and heavier than females, with the nominate race (P.", "c. carbo) averaging about 10% larger in linear measurements than the smallest race in Europe (P.", "The lightest average weights cited are in Germany (P.", "c. sinensis), where 36 males averaged and 17 females averaged .", "The highest come from Prince Edward Island in Canada (P.", "c. carbo), where 11 males averaged and 11 females averaged .", "Length can vary from and wingspan from .", "They are tied as the second largest extant species of cormorant after the flightless cormorant, with the Japanese cormorant averaging at a similar size.", "In bulk if not in linear dimensions, the Blue-eyed shag species complex of the Southern Oceans are scarcely smaller at average.", "It has a longish tail and yellow throat-patch.", "Adults have white patches on the thighs and on the throat in the breeding season.", "In European waters it can be distinguished from the common shag by its larger size, heavier build, thicker bill, lack of a crest and plumage without any green tinge.", "In eastern North America, it is similarly larger and bulkier than double-crested cormorant, and the latter species has more yellow on the throat and bill and lack the white thigh patches frequently seen on great cormorants.", "Great cormorants are mostly silent, but they make various guttural noises at their breeding colonies.", "A very rare variation of the great cormorant is caused by albinism.", "The Phalacrocorax carbo albino suffers from poor eyesight and/or hearing, thus it rarely manages to survive in the wild.", "This is a very common and widespread bird species.", "It feeds on the sea, in estuaries, and on freshwater lakes and rivers.", "Northern birds migrate south and winter along any coast that is well-supplied with fish.", "In Serbia, the cormorant lives in Vojvodina.", "However, after 1945 many artificial lakes were formed in Serbia", "some of them became potential habitats for cormorants.", "Currently, on the Lake Celije, formed in 1980, there is a resident colony of cormorants, who nest there and are present throughout the year, except JanuaryFebruary 1985 and February 2012 when the lake surface was completely frozen.", "The type subspecies, P. c. carbo, is found mainly in Atlantic waters and nearby inland areas: on western European coasts and east across the Palearctic to Siberia and to North Africa, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland", "and on the eastern seaboard of North America.", "The subspecies P. c. novaehollandiae is found in Australian waters.", "Cormorant swallowing a just caught eel Great cormorant with bronze featherback from Keoladeo Ghana National park, Bharatpur Great cormorant trying to swallow bronze featherback.", "from Keoladeo Ghana National park, Bharatpur Great cormorant from Ponnani Malappuram Kerala India", "The great cormorant often nests in colonies near wetlands, rivers, and sheltered inshore waters.", "Pairs will use the same nest site to breed year after year.", "It builds its nest, which is made from sticks, in trees, on the ledges of cliffs, and on the ground on rocky islands that are free of predators.", "This cormorant lays a clutch of three to five eggs that measure on average.", "The eggs are a pale blue or green, and sometimes have a white chalky layer covering them.", "These eggs are incubated for a period of about 28 to 31 days.", "The great cormorant feeds on fish caught through diving.", "This bird feeds primarily on wrasses, but it also takes sand smelt, flathead and common soles.", "The average weight of fish taken by great cormorants increased with decreasing air and water temperature, being 30 g during summer, 109 g during a warm winter and 157 g during the cold winter .", "Cormorants consume all fish of appropriate size that they are able to catch in summer and noticeably select for larger, mostly torpedo-shaped fish in winter.", "Thus, the winter elevation of foraging efficiency described for cormorants by various researchers is due to capturing larger fish not due to capturing more fish.", "In some freshwater systems, the losses of fish due to overwintering great cormorants were estimated to be up to 80 kg per ha each year .", "This cormorant forages by diving and capturing its prey in its beak.", "Studies suggest that their hearing has evolved for underwater usage, possibly aiding their detection of fish.", "These adaptations also have a cost on their hearing ability in air which is of lowered sensitivity.", "Cormorant fishing in Suzhou, China", "left Many fishermen see in the great cormorant a competitor for fish.", "Because of this, it was hunted nearly to extinction in the past.", "Due to conservation efforts, its numbers increased.", "At the moment, there are about 1.2 million birds in Europe (based on winter counts", "late summer counts would show higher numbers).", "Increasing populations have once again brought the cormorant into conflict with fisheries.", "For example, in Britain, where inland breeding was once uncommon, there are now increasing numbers of birds breeding inland, and many inland fish farms and fisheries now claim to be suffering high losses due to these birds.", "In the UK each year, some licences are issued to cull specified numbers of cormorants in order to help reduce predation", "it is, however, still illegal to kill a bird without such a licence.", "Cormorant fishing is practised in China, Japan, and elsewhere around the globe.", "In this practice, fishermen tie a line around the throats of cormorants, tight enough to prevent swallowing the larger fish they catch, and deploy them from small boats.", "The cormorants catch fish without being able to fully swallow them, and the fishermen are able to retrieve the fish simply by forcing open the cormorants' mouths, apparently engaging the regurgitation reflex.", "In Norway, the cormorant is a traditional game bird.", "Each year approximately 10,000 cormorants are shot to be eaten.", "In North Norway, cormorants are traditionally seen as semi-sacred.", "It is regarded as good luck to have cormorants gather near your village or settlement.", "An old legend states that for people who die far out at sea, whose bodies are never recovered, spend eternity on the island Utrst which can only occasionally be found by mortals.", "The inhabitants of Utrst can only visit their homes in the shape of cormorants."]}, "Corvus corone": {"keywords": ["The carrion crow is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus Corvus which is native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic.", "Juvenile carrion crows can be identified by their brownish plumage and blue eyes, both of which darken to black and brown as the crow grows older.", "It is believed that this distribution might have resulted from the glaciation cycles during the Pleistocene, which caused the parent population to split into isolates which subsequently re-expanded their ranges when the climate warmed causing secondary contact.", "The carrion crow is also found in the mountains and forests of Japan and also in the cities of Japan.", "Scavenging around a dead bird in Paris, France The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks, moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts.", "Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.", "Crows are scavengers by nature, which is why they tend to frequent sites inhabited by humans in order to feed on their household waste.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden The bulky stick nest is usually placed in a tall tree, but cliff ledges, old buildings and pylons may be used as well."], "habitat_section": ["A map of Europe indicating the distribution of the carrion and hooded crows on either side of a contact zone separating the two species The carrion crow and hooded crow , including the former's slightly larger allied form or race C. c. orientalis, are two very closely related species, the geographic distributions of both forms of carrion crow across Europe are illustrated in the accompanying diagram.", "It is believed that this distribution might have resulted from the glaciation cycles during the Pleistocene, which caused the parent population to split into isolates which subsequently re-expanded their ranges when the climate warmed causing secondary contact.", "Poelstra and coworkers sequenced almost the entire genomes of both species in populations at varying distances from the contact zone to find that the two species were genetically identical, both in their DNA and in its expression , except for the lack of expression of a small portion of the genome in the hooded crow, which imparts the lighter plumage colouration on its torso.", "Thus the two species can viably hybridize, and occasionally do so at the contact zone, but the all-black carrion crows on the one side of the contact zone mate almost exclusively with other all-black carrion crows, while the same occurs among the hooded crows on the other side of the contact zone.", "It is therefore clear that it is only the outward appearance of the two species that inhibits hybridization.", "The authors attribute this to assortative mating , the advantage of which is not clear, and it would lead to the rapid appearance of streams of new lineages, and possibly even species, through mutual attraction between mutants.", "Unnikrishnan and Akhila propose, instead, that koinophilia is a more parsimonious explanation for the resistance to hybridization across the contact zone, despite the absence of physiological, anatomical or genetic barriers to such hybridization.", "The carrion crow is also found in the mountains and forests of Japan and also in the cities of Japan.", "Scavenging around a dead bird in Paris, France The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks, moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts.", "The most distinctive feature is the voice.", "The rook has a high-pitched kaaa, but the crow's guttural, slightly vibrant, deeper croaked kraa is distinct from any note of the rook.", "The carrion crow is noisy, perching on a vantage point such as a building or the top of a tree and calling three or four times in quick succession, with a slight pause between each series of croaks.", "During each series of calls, a crow may perform an accompanying gesture, raising its shoulders and bowing its head and neck downwards with each caw.", "The wing-beats are slower, more deliberate than those of the rook.", "Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.", "Like other species of corvid, carrion crows will actively harass predators and competitors that enter their territory or threaten them or their offspring, and will engage in group mobbing behaviour as a method to defend themselves."], "random_sentences": ["The carrion crow is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus Corvus which is native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic.", "The carrion crow was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, and it still bears its original name of Corvus corone.", "The binomial name is derived from the Latin , \" raven \" , and Greek , \" crow \" .", "The hooded crow, formerly regarded as a subspecies, has been split off as a separate species, and there is some discussion whether the eastern carrion crow (C.", "c. orientalis) is distinct enough to warrant specific status", "the two taxa are well separated, and it has been proposed they could have evolved independently in the wetter, maritime regions at the opposite ends of the Eurasian landmass.", "Along with the hooded crow, the carrion crow occupies a similar ecological niche in Eurasia to the American crow (C.", "Adult male carrion crow moulting at the Jardin des Plantes of Paris.", "The plumage of the carrion crow is black with a green or purple sheen, much greener than the gloss of the rook.", "The bill, legs and feet are also black.", "It can be distinguished from the common raven by its size of around in length as compared to an average of for ravens, and from the hooded crow by its black plumage.", "The carrion crow has a wingspan of and weighs .", "There is frequent confusion between the carrion crow and the rook, another black corvid found within its range.", "The beak of the crow is stouter and in consequence looks shorter, and whereas in the adult rook the nostrils are bare, those of the crow are covered at all ages with bristle-like feathers.", "As well as this, the wings of a carrion crow are proportionally shorter and broader than those of the rook when seen in flight.", "Juvenile carrion crows can be identified by their brownish plumage and blue eyes, both of which darken to black and brown as the crow grows older.", "Distribution and genetic relationship to hooded crows", "A map of Europe indicating the distribution of the carrion and hooded crows on either side of a contact zone separating the two species The carrion crow and hooded crow , including the former's slightly larger allied form or race C. c. orientalis, are two very closely related species", "the geographic distributions of both forms of carrion crow across Europe are illustrated in the accompanying diagram.", "It is believed that this distribution might have resulted from the glaciation cycles during the Pleistocene, which caused the parent population to split into isolates which subsequently re-expanded their ranges when the climate warmed causing secondary contact.", "Poelstra and coworkers sequenced almost the entire genomes of both species in populations at varying distances from the contact zone to find that the two species were genetically identical, both in their DNA and in its expression , except for the lack of expression of a small portion of the genome in the hooded crow, which imparts the lighter plumage colouration on its torso.", "Thus the two species can viably hybridize, and occasionally do so at the contact zone, but the all-black carrion crows on the one side of the contact zone mate almost exclusively with other all-black carrion crows, while the same occurs among the hooded crows on the other side of the contact zone.", "It is therefore clear that it is only the outward appearance of the two species that inhibits hybridization.", "The authors attribute this to assortative mating , the advantage of which is not clear, and it would lead to the rapid appearance of streams of new lineages, and possibly even species, through mutual attraction between mutants.", "Unnikrishnan and Akhila propose, instead, that koinophilia is a more parsimonious explanation for the resistance to hybridization across the contact zone, despite the absence of physiological, anatomical or genetic barriers to such hybridization.", "The carrion crow is also found in the mountains and forests of Japan and also in the cities of Japan.", "In Southend-on-Sea, England In flight right", "Scavenging around a dead bird in Paris, France The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks", "moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts.", "The most distinctive feature is the voice.", "The rook has a high-pitched kaaa, but the crow's guttural, slightly vibrant, deeper croaked kraa is distinct from any note of the rook.", "The carrion crow is noisy, perching on a vantage point such as a building or the top of a tree and calling three or four times in quick succession, with a slight pause between each series of croaks.", "During each series of calls, a crow may perform an accompanying gesture, raising its shoulders and bowing its head and neck downwards with each caw.", "The wing-beats are slower, more deliberate than those of the rook.", "Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.", "Like other species of corvid, carrion crows will actively harass predators and competitors that enter their territory or threaten them or their offspring, and will engage in group mobbing behaviour as a method to defend themselves.", "Like all corvids, carrion crows show intelligent behaviour.", "For example, they can discriminate between numerosities up to 30, flexibly switch between rules, and recognise human and crow faces.", "Given the difference in brain architecture in crows compared to primates, these abilities suggest that their intelligence is realised as a product of convergent evolution.", "Though an eater of carrion of all kinds, the carrion crow will eat insects, earthworms, other invertebrates, grain, fruits, seeds, nuts, small mammals, amphibians, fish, scraps and will also steal eggs.", "Crows are scavengers by nature, which is why they tend to frequent sites inhabited by humans in order to feed on their household waste.", "Crows will also harass birds of prey or even foxes for their kills.", "Crows actively hunt and occasionally co-operate with other crows to make kills, and are sometimes seen catching ducklings for food.", "Due to their gregarious lifestyle and defensive abilities, carrion crows have few natural predators.", "However, powerful raptors such as the northern goshawk, peregrine falcon, Eurasian eagle-owl and golden eagle will readily hunt them, and crows can become an important prey item locally.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden The bulky stick nest is usually placed in a tall tree, but cliff ledges, old buildings and pylons may be used as well.", "Nests are also occasionally placed on or near the ground.", "The nest resembles that of the common raven, but is less bulky.", "The 3 to 4 brown-speckled blue or greenish eggs are incubated for 1820 days by the female alone, who is fed by the male.", "The young fledge after 2930 days.", "Chicks in the nest It is not uncommon for an offspring from the previous years to stay around and help rear the new hatchlings.", "Instead of seeking out a mate, it looks for food and assists the parents in feeding the young."]}, "Podiceps cristatus": {"keywords": ["Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The great crested grebe breeds in vegetated areas of freshwater lakes.", "It winters on freshwater lakes and reservoirs or the coast.", "The adults teach these skills to their young by carrying them on their back and diving, leaving the chicks to float on the surface, they then re-emerge a few feet away so that the chicks may swim back onto them."], "habitat_section": ["Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The great crested grebe breeds in vegetated areas of freshwater lakes.", "The subspecies P. c. cristatus is found across Europe and east across the Palearctic.", "It is resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from the colder regions.", "It winters on freshwater lakes and reservoirs or the coast.", "The African subspecies P. c. infuscatus and the Australasian subspecies P. c. australis are mainly sedentary."], "random_sentences": ["Podiceps cristatus The great crested grebe is a member of the grebe family of water birds noted for its elaborate mating display.", "The great crested grebe was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Colymbus cristatus.", "The great crested grebe is now the type species of the genus Podiceps that was erected by the English naturalist John Latham in 1787.", "The type locality is Sweden.", "The scientific name comes from Latin: the genus name Podiceps is from , \" vent \" and , \" foot \" , and is a reference to the placement of a grebe's legs towards the rear of its body", "the species name, cristatus, means \" crested \" .", "Young grebe, Moscow The great crested grebe is the largest member of the grebe family found in the Old World, with some larger species residing in the Americas.", "They measure long with a wingspan and weigh .", "It is an excellent swimmer and diver, and pursues its fish prey underwater.", "The adults are unmistakable in summer with head and neck decorations.", "In winter, this is whiter than most grebes, with white above the eye, and a pink bill.", "The young are distinctive because their heads are striped black and white.", "They lose these markings when they become adults.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The great crested grebe breeds in vegetated areas of freshwater lakes.", "The subspecies P. c. cristatus is found across Europe and east across the Palearctic.", "It is resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from the colder regions.", "It winters on freshwater lakes and reservoirs or the coast.", "The African subspecies P. c. infuscatus and the Australasian subspecies P. c. australis are mainly sedentary.", "The great crested grebe has an elaborate mating display.", "Like all grebes, it nests on the water's edge.", "The nest is built by both sexes.", "The clutch averages four chalky white eggs which average in size and weigh .", "Incubation is by both parents and begins as soon as the first egg is laid.", "The eggs hatch asynchronously after 27 to 29 days.", "The precocial young are cared for and fed by both parents.", "Young grebes are capable of swimming and diving almost at hatching.", "The adults teach these skills to their young by carrying them on their back and diving, leaving the chicks to float on the surface", "they then re-emerge a few feet away so that the chicks may swim back onto them.", "The great crested grebe feeds mainly on fish, but also small crustaceans, insects, small frogs and newts.", "A head of great crested grebe in the coat of arms of Kauvatsa This species was hunted almost to extinction in the United Kingdom in the 19th century for its head plumes, which were used to decorate ladies' hats and garments.", "The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was set up to help protect this species, which is again a common sight.", "The great crested grebe and its behaviour was the subject of one of the landmark publications in avian ethology: Julian Huxley's 1914 paper on The Courtshiphabits of the Great Crested Grebe ."]}, "Cygnus olor": {"keywords": ["It is native to much of Eurosiberia, and the far north of Africa.", "It is an introduced species in North America, home to the largest populations outside of its native range, with additional smaller introductions in Australasia and southern Africa.", "Mute swan subfossils, 6,000 years old, have been found in post-glacial peat beds of East Anglia, Great Britain.", "A related paleospecies recorded from fossils and subfossils is the Giant swan, Cygnus falconeri, a flightless species which lived on the islands of Malta and Sicily during the Middle Pleistocene.", "Fossils from the Pleistocene include Cygnus paloregonus from Fossil Lake, Oregon, Froman's Ferry, Idaho, and Arizona, referred to by Howard in The Waterfowl of the World as \" probably the mute type swan \" .", "Mute swans nest on large mounds that they build with waterside vegetation in shallow water on islands in the middle or at the very edge of a lake.", "They feed on a wide range of vegetation, both submerged aquatic plants which they reach with their long necks, and by grazing on land.", "The food commonly includes agricultural crop plants such as oilseed rape and wheat, and feeding flocks in the winter may cause significant crop damage, often as much through trampling with their large webbed feet, as through direct consumption.", "Unlike black swans, mute swans are usually strongly territorial with just a single pair on smaller lakes, though in a few locations where a large area of suitable feeding habitat is found they can be colonial. The largest colonies have over 100 pairs, such as at the colony at Abbotsbury Swannery in southern England, and at the southern tip of Oland Island, Ottenby Preserve, in the coastal waters of the Baltic Sea, and can have nests spaced as little as apart.", "A notable flock of non-breeding birds is found on the River Tweed estuary at Berwick-upon-Tweed in northeastern England, with a maximum count of 787 birds.", "Once the adults are mated they seek out their own territories and often live close to ducks and gulls, which may take advantage of the swan's ability to reach deep water weeds, which tend to spread out on the water surface.", "This limits the distribution of the species at the northern edge of its range as the cygnets need to learn to fly before the ponds and lakes freeze over.", "The mute swan is found naturally mainly in temperate areas of Europe then across the Palearctic as far east as Primorsky Krai, near Sidemi.", "It is partially migratory throughout northern latitudes in Europe and Asia, as far south as North Africa and the Mediterranean.", "While most of the current population in Japan is introduced, mute swans are depicted on scrolls more than 1,000 years old, and wild birds from the mainland Asian population still occur rarely in winter.", "The descendants of such birds have become naturalised in the eastern United States and Great Lakes, much as the Canada goose has done in Europe."], "habitat_section": ["The mute swan is found naturally mainly in temperate areas of Europe then across the Palearctic as far east as Primorsky Krai, near Sidemi.", "It is partially migratory throughout northern latitudes in Europe and Asia, as far south as North Africa and the Mediterranean.", "It is known and recorded to have nested in Iceland and is a vagrant to that area as well as to Bermuda, according to the UN Environment Programme chart of international status chart of bird species, which places it in 70 countries, breeding in 49 countries, and vagrant in 16 countries.", "While most of the current population in Japan is introduced, mute swans are depicted on scrolls more than 1,000 years old, and wild birds from the mainland Asian population still occur rarely in winter.", "Natural migrants to Japan usually occur along with whooper and sometimes Bewick's swans.", "The mute swan is protected in most of its range, but this has not prevented illegal hunting and poaching.", "It is often kept in captivity outside its natural range, as a decoration for parks and ponds, and escapes have happened.", "The descendants of such birds have become naturalised in the eastern United States and Great Lakes, much as the Canada goose has done in Europe."], "random_sentences": ["The mute swan is a species of swan and a member of the waterfowl family Anatidae.", "It is native to much of Eurosiberia, and the far north of Africa.", "It is an introduced species in North America, home to the largest populations outside of its native range, with additional smaller introductions in Australasia and southern Africa.", "The name 'mute' derives from it being less vocal than other swan species.", "Measuring in length, this large swan is wholly white in plumage with an orange beak bordered with black.", "It is recognizable by its pronounced knob atop the beak, which is larger in males.", "The mute swan was first formally described by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin as Anas olor in 1789, and was transferred by Johann Matthaus Bechstein to the new genus Cygnus in 1803.", "Both cygnus and olor mean \" swan \" in Latin", "cygnus is a variant form of cycnus, a borrowing from Greek kyknos, a word of the same meaning.", "Despite its Eurasian origin, its closest relatives are the black swan of Australia and the black-necked swan of South America, not the other Northern Hemisphere swans of the genus Cygnus.", "The species is monotypic, with no living subspecies.", "Mute swan subfossils, 6,000 years old, have been found in post-glacial peat beds of East Anglia, Great Britain.", "They have been recorded from Ireland east to Portugal and Italy, and from France, 13,000 BP .", "Cygnus olor bergmanni, which differed only in size from the living bird, is known from fossils found in Azerbaijan.", "A related paleospecies recorded from fossils and subfossils is the Giant swan, Cygnus falconeri, a flightless species which lived on the islands of Malta and Sicily during the Middle Pleistocene.", "Fossils of swan ancestors more distantly allied to the mute swan have been found in four U.S. states: California, Arizona, Idaho and Oregon.", "The timeline runs from the Miocene to the late Pleistocene, or 10,000 BP.", "The latest find was in Anza Borrego Desert, a state park in California.", "Fossils from the Pleistocene include Cygnus paloregonus from Fossil Lake, Oregon, Froman's Ferry, Idaho, and Arizona, referred to by Howard in The Waterfowl of the World as \" probably the mute type swan \" .", "Adults of this large swan typically range from long, although can range in extreme cases from , with a wingspan.", "Males are larger than females and have a larger knob on their bill.", "On average, this is the second largest waterfowl species after the trumpeter swan, although male mute swans can easily match or even exceed a male trumpeter in mass.", "Among standard measurements of the mute swan, the wing chord measures , the tarsus is and the bill is .", "The plumage is white, while the legs are dark grey.", "The beak of the mute swan is bright orange, with black around the nostrils and a black nail.", "The mute swan is one of the heaviest flying birds.", "In several studies from Great Britain, males were found to average from about , with a weight range of while the slightly smaller females averaged about , with a weight range of .", "Young birds, called cygnets, are not the bright white of mature adults, and their bill is dull greyish-black, not orange, for the first year.", "The down may range from pure white to grey to buff, with grey/buff the most common.", "The white cygnets have a leucistic gene.", "Cygnets grow quickly, reaching a size close to their adult size in approximately three months after hatching.", "Cygnets typically retain their grey feathers until they are at least one year old, with the down on their wings having been replaced by flight feathers earlier that year.", "All mute swans are white at maturity, though the feathers are often stained orange-brown by iron and tannins in the water.", "Two mute swan cygnets a few weeks old.", "The cygnet on the right is of the \" Polish swan \" colour morph, and carries a gene responsible for leucism.", "The colour morph C. o. morpha immutabilis , also known as the \" Polish swan \" , has pinkish legs and dull white cygnets", "as with white domestic geese, it is found only in populations with a history of domestication.", "Polish swans carry a copy of a gene responsible for leucism.", "Nest in Drilon, Pogradec, Albania.", "The cob is patrolling the area close to the nest to protect his mate.", "Mute swans nest on large mounds that they build with waterside vegetation in shallow water on islands in the middle or at the very edge of a lake.", "They are monogamous and often reuse the same nest each year, restoring or rebuilding it as needed.", "Male and female swans share the care of the nest, and once the cygnets are fledged it is not uncommon to see whole families looking for food.", "They feed on a wide range of vegetation, both submerged aquatic plants which they reach with their long necks, and by grazing on land.", "The food commonly includes agricultural crop plants such as oilseed rape and wheat, and feeding flocks in the winter may cause significant crop damage, often as much through trampling with their large webbed feet, as through direct consumption.", "Unlike black swans, mute swans are usually strongly territorial with just a single pair on smaller lakes, though in a few locations where a large area of suitable feeding habitat is found they can be colonial. The largest colonies have over 100 pairs, such as at the colony at Abbotsbury Swannery in southern England, and at the southern tip of Oland Island, Ottenby Preserve, in the coastal waters of the Baltic Sea, and can have nests spaced as little as apart.", "Non-mated juveniles up to 34 years old commonly form larger flocks, which can total several hundred birds, often at regular traditional sites.", "A notable flock of non-breeding birds is found on the River Tweed estuary at Berwick-upon-Tweed in northeastern England, with a maximum count of 787 birds.", "A large population exists near the Swan Lifeline Station in Windsor, and live on the Thames in the shadow of Windsor Castle.", "Once the adults are mated they seek out their own territories and often live close to ducks and gulls, which may take advantage of the swan's ability to reach deep water weeds, which tend to spread out on the water surface.", "The mute swan is less vocal than the noisy whooper and Bewick's swans", "they do, however, make a variety of sounds, often described as \" grunting, hoarse whistling, and snorting noises.", "\" During a courtship display, mute swans utter a rhythmic song.", "The song help synchronize the movements of their heads and necks.", "It could technically be employed to distinguish a bonded couple from two dating swans, as the rhythm of the song typically fails to match the pace of the head movements in two dating swans.", "Mute swans usually hiss at competitors or intruders trying to enter their territory.", "The most familiar sound associated with mute swans is the vibrant throbbing of the wings in flight which is unique to the species, and can be heard from a range of , indicating its value as a contact sound between birds in flight.", "Cygnets are especially vocal, and communicate through a variety of whistling and chirping sounds when content, as well as a harsh squawking noise when distressed or lost.", "Nesting in spring, Cologne, Germany Mute swans can be very aggressive in defence of their nests and are highly protective of their mate and offspring.", "Most defensive acts from a mute swan begin with a loud hiss and, if this is not sufficient to drive off the predator or intruder, are followed by a physical attack.", "Swans attack by striking at the threat with bony spurs in their wings, accompanied by biting with their large bill, while smaller waterbirds such as ducks are normally grabbed with the swan's bill and dragged or thrown clear of the swan and its offspring.", "The wings of the swan are very powerful, though not strong enough to break an adult man's leg, as is commonly misquoted.", "Large waterfowl, such as Canada geese, may be aggressively driven off, and mute swans regularly attack people who enter their territory.", "Healthy adults are rarely preyed upon, though canids such as coyotes, felids such as lynx, and bears can pose a threat to infirm ones (healthy adults can usually swim away from danger and nest defense is usually successful.", ") and there are a few cases of healthy adults falling prey to golden eagles.", "In England, there has been an increased rate of attacks on swans by out-of-control dogs, especially in parks where the birds are less territorial. This is considered criminal in British law, and the birds are placed under the highest protection due to their association with the monarch.", "Mute swans will readily attack dogs to protect themselves and their cygnets from an attack, and an adult swan is capable of overwhelming and drowning even large dog breeds.", "The familiar pose with neck curved back and wings half raised, known as busking, is a threat display.", "Both feet are paddled in unison during this display, resulting in more jerky movement.", "The swans may also use the busking posture for wind-assisted transportation over several hundred meters, so-called windsurfing.", "Like other swans, mute swans are known for their ability to grieve for a lost or dead mate or cygnet.", "Swans will go through a mourning process, and in the case of the loss of their mate, may either stay where its counterpart lived, or fly off to join a flock.", "Should one of the pair die while there are cygnets present, the remaining parent will take up their partner's duties in raising the clutch.", "Nest of a mute swan, Sweden Cygnets captured one day after they hatched.", "Newburg Lake, Livonia, MI, U.S. A three-day old cygnet Mute swans lay from 4 to 10 eggs.", "The female broods for around 36 days, with cygnets normally hatching between the months of May and July.", "The young swans do not achieve the ability to fly before about 120 to 150 days old.", "This limits the distribution of the species at the northern edge of its range as the cygnets need to learn to fly before the ponds and lakes freeze over.", "The mute swan is found naturally mainly in temperate areas of Europe then across the Palearctic as far east as Primorsky Krai, near Sidemi.", "It is partially migratory throughout northern latitudes in Europe and Asia, as far south as North Africa and the Mediterranean.", "It is known and recorded to have nested in Iceland and is a vagrant to that area as well as to Bermuda, according to the UN Environment Programme chart of international status chart of bird species, which places it in 70 countries, breeding in 49 countries, and vagrant in 16 countries.", "While most of the current population in Japan is introduced, mute swans are depicted on scrolls more than 1,000 years old, and wild birds from the mainland Asian population still occur rarely in winter.", "Natural migrants to Japan usually occur along with whooper and sometimes Bewick's swans.", "The mute swan is protected in most of its range, but this has not prevented illegal hunting and poaching.", "It is often kept in captivity outside its natural range, as a decoration for parks and ponds, and escapes have happened.", "The descendants of such birds have become naturalised in the eastern United States and Great Lakes, much as the Canada goose has done in Europe.", "The Threatened Swan by Jan Asselijn The mute swan has been the national bird of Denmark since 1984.", "Prior to that, the skylark was considered Denmark's national bird .", "The fairy tale \" The Ugly Duckling \" by Hans Christian Andersen tells the story of a cygnet ostracised by his fellow barnyard fowl because of his perceived unattractiveness.", "To his delight , he matures into a graceful swan, the most beautiful bird of all.", "Today, the British Monarch retains the right to ownership of all unmarked mute swans in open water, but Queen Elizabeth II exercised her ownership only on certain stretches of the Thames and its surrounding tributaries.", "This ownership is shared with the Vintners' and Dyers' Companies, who were granted rights of ownership by the Crown in the 15th century.", "The mute swans in the moat at the Bishops Palace at Wells Cathedral in Wells, England have for centuries been trained to ring bells via strings attached to them to beg for food.", "Two swans are still able to ring for lunch.", "The pair of swans in the Boston Public Garden are named Romeo and Juliet after the Shakespearean couple", "however, it was found that both of them are females."]}, "Gallinula chloropus": {"keywords": ["The common moorhen lives around well-vegetated marshes, ponds, canals and other wetlands.", "The species is not found in the polar regions or many tropical rainforests.", "\" Water rail \" usually refers to Rallus aquaticus, again not closely related.", "This is a common breeding bird in marsh environments, well-vegetated lakes and even in city parks.", "Populations in areas where the waters freeze, such as eastern Europe, will migrate to more temperate climates.", "In China, common moorhen populations are largely resident south of the Yangtze River, whilst northern populations migrate in the winter, therefore these populations show high genetic diversity.", "This species will consume a wide variety of vegetable material and small aquatic creatures.", "The birds are territorial during breeding season, and will fight with other members of their species, as well as other water birds such as ducks, to drive them out of their territory.", "The nest is a basket built on the ground in dense vegetation.", "Laying starts in spring, between mid-March and mid-May in Northern hemisphere temperate regions.", "In the Lake Ngardok wetlands of Babeldaob, a few dozen still occur, but the total number of common moorhens on Palau is about in the same region as the Guam population."], "habitat_section": ["This is a common breeding bird in marsh environments, well-vegetated lakes and even in city parks.", "Populations in areas where the waters freeze, such as eastern Europe, will migrate to more temperate climates.", "In China, common moorhen populations are largely resident south of the Yangtze River, whilst northern populations migrate in the winter, therefore these populations show high genetic diversity."], "random_sentences": ["The common moorhen , also known as the waterhen or swamp chicken, is a bird species in the rail family .", "It is distributed across many parts of the Old World.", "The common moorhen lives around well-vegetated marshes, ponds, canals and other wetlands.", "The species is not found in the polar regions or many tropical rainforests.", "Elsewhere it is likely the most common rail species, except for the Eurasian coot in some regions.", "The closely related common gallinule of the New World has been recognized as a separate species by most authorities, starting with the American Ornithologists' Union and the International Ornithological Committee in 2011.", "The name mor-hen has been recorded in English since the 13th century.", "The word moor here is an old sense meaning marsh", "the species is not usually found in moorland.", "An older name, common waterhen, is more descriptive of the bird's habitat.", "A \" watercock \" is not a male \" waterhen \" but the rail species Gallicrex cinerea, not closely related to the common moorhen.", "\" Water rail \" usually refers to Rallus aquaticus, again not closely related.", "The scientific name Gallinula chloropus comes from the Latin Gallinula and the Greek chloropus .", "Common moorhen feet have no webbing The moorhen is a distinctive species, with dark plumage apart from the white undertail, yellow legs and a red frontal shield.", "The young are browner and lack the red shield.", "The frontal shield of the adult has a rounded top and fairly parallel sides", "the tailward margin of the red unfeathered area is a smooth waving line.", "In the related common gallinule of the Americas, the frontal shield has a fairly straight top and is less wide towards the bill, giving a marked indentation to the back margin of the red area.", "The common moorhen gives a wide range of gargling calls and will emit loud hisses when threatened.", "A midsized to large rail, it can range from in length and span across the wings.", "The body mass of this species can range from .", "This is a common breeding bird in marsh environments, well-vegetated lakes and even in city parks.", "Populations in areas where the waters freeze, such as eastern Europe, will migrate to more temperate climates.", "In China, common moorhen populations are largely resident south of the Yangtze River, whilst northern populations migrate in the winter, therefore these populations show high genetic diversity.", "This species will consume a wide variety of vegetable material and small aquatic creatures.", "They forage beside or in the water, sometimes walking on lilypads or upending in the water to feed.", "They are often secretive, but can become tame in some areas.", "Despite loss of habitat in parts of its range, the common moorhen remains plentiful and widespread.", "The birds are territorial during breeding season, and will fight with other members of their species, as well as other water birds such as ducks, to drive them out of their territory.", "The nest is a basket built on the ground in dense vegetation.", "Laying starts in spring, between mid-March and mid-May in Northern hemisphere temperate regions.", "About 8 eggs are usually laid per female early in the season", "a brood later in the year usually has only 58 or fewer eggs.", "Nests may be re-used by different females.", "Incubation lasts about three weeks.", "Both parents incubate and feed the young.", "These fledge after 4050 days, become independent usually a few weeks thereafter, and may raise their first brood the next spring.", "When threatened, the young may cling to the parents' body, after which the adult birds fly away to safety, carrying their offspring with them.", "Moorhen sighted in Fangu, Corsica On a global scale all subspecies taken together the common moorhen is as abundant as its vernacular name implies.", "It is therefore considered a species of Least Concern by the IUCN.", "However, small populations may be prone to extinction.", "The population of Palau, belonging to the widespread subspecies G. c. orientalis and locally known as debar , is very rare, and apparently the birds are hunted by locals.", "Most of the population on the archipelago occurs on Angaur and Peleliu, while the species is probably already gone from Koror.", "In the Lake Ngardok wetlands of Babeldaob, a few dozen still occur, but the total number of common moorhens on Palau is about in the same region as the Guam population: fewer than 100 adult birds have been encountered in any survey.", "Other localised groups of common moorhen are starting to come under threat.", "The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the United Kingdom has the common moorhen classified as one of its 103 species whose conservation status is of moderate concern due to its recent population decine.", "The number of breeding pairs has fallen to its lowest level in the UK since 1966 and has been protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act .", "The common moorhen is one of the birds from which the cyclocoelid flatworm parasite Cyclocoelum mutabile was first described.", "The bird is also parasitised by the moorhen flea, Dasypsyllus gallinulae.", "on nest, Wolvercote, Oxfordshire Image:Waterhoennest.", "c. chloropus nest with small clutch of eggs at Wilgenhoek, Deerlijk Image:Teichhuhn 0507241b.", "Moorhen feeding chick some regurgitated food."]}, "Fulica atra": {"keywords": ["An extinct subspecies F. atra pontica, has been described from the Chalcolithic from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.", "The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.", "The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands.", "It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The nest is a bulky structure that either floats on the water or is built in shallow water on a low or barely submerged stump or log, making a neat, large bowl.", "Chick picking through wet leaves in Sweden .", "The coot is an omnivore, and will take a variety of small live prey including the eggs of other water birds, as well as algae, vegetation, seeds and fruit.", "In the water it may upend in the fashion of a mallard or dive in search of food."], "habitat_section": ["The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds.", "It occurs and breeds in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa.", "The species has recently expanded its range into New Zealand.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.", "The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands.", "It is an aggressive species, and strongly territorial during the breeding season, and both parents are involved in territorial defence.", "During the non-breeding season they may form large flocks, possibly related to predator avoidance.", "It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing.", "It does the same, but without actually flying, when travelling a short distance at speed in territorial disputes or on land to escape from intruders.", "As with many rails, its weak flight does not inspire confidence, but on migration, usually at night, it can cover surprisingly large distances.", "It bobs its head as it swims, and makes short dives from a little jump.", "When fighting other waterbirds , the coot attacks by charging its opponent and striking them with its long legs."], "random_sentences": ["The Eurasian coot , also known as the common coot, or Australian coot, is a member of the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae.", "It is found in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and parts of North Africa.", "It has a slaty-black body, a glossy black head and a white bill with a white frontal shield.", "Similar looking coot species are found throughout the world, with the largest variety of coot species living in South America.", "The Eurasian coot was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name Fulica atra.", "Linnaeus specified the locality as Europe but this is now restricted to Sweden.", "The binomial name is from Latin: Fulica means \" coot \" , and atra mean \" black \" .", "Four subspecies are recognised: An extinct subspecies F. atra pontica, has been described from the Chalcolithic from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.", "Legs and feet of Eurasian coot in St James's Park, London The Eurasian coot is in length with a wing-span of", "males weigh around and females .", "It is largely black except for the white bill and frontal shield .", "As a swimming species, the coot has partial webbing on its long strong toes.", "The sexes are similar in appearance.", "The juvenile is paler than the adult, has a whitish breast, and lacks the facial shield", "the adult black plumage develops when about 34 months old, but the white shield is only fully developed at about one year old.", "The Eurasian coot is a noisy bird with a wide repertoire of crackling, explosive, or trumpeting calls, often given at night.", "The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds.", "It occurs and breeds in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa.", "The species has recently expanded its range into New Zealand.", "It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze.", "The Eurasian coot is much less secretive than most of the rail family, and can be seen swimming on open water or walking across waterside grasslands.", "It is an aggressive species, and strongly territorial during the breeding season, and both parents are involved in territorial defence.", "During the non-breeding season they may form large flocks, possibly related to predator avoidance.", "It is reluctant to fly and when taking off runs across the water surface with much splashing.", "It does the same, but without actually flying, when travelling a short distance at speed in territorial disputes or on land to escape from intruders.", "As with many rails, its weak flight does not inspire confidence, but on migration, usually at night, it can cover surprisingly large distances.", "It bobs its head as it swims, and makes short dives from a little jump.", "When fighting other waterbirds , the coot attacks by charging its opponent and striking them with its long legs.", "Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany The nest is a bulky structure that either floats on the water or is built in shallow water on a low or barely submerged stump or log, making a neat, large bowl.", "It is constructed of plant stems and leaves with a lining of finer material. Normally concealed in vegetation the nest can sometimes be placed in the open.", "It is built by both sexes with the male collecting most of the material which is incorporated by the female.", "The eggs are laid at daily intervals.", "The clutch usually contains between six and ten smooth and slightly glossy buff coloured eggs that are covered with black or dark brown speckles.", "On average they are and weigh .", "The eggs are incubated by both sexes beginning after the second egg is laid and hatch asynchronously after 21 to 24 days.", "The chicks are precocial and nidifugous.", "The chicks are covered with a black down.", "On the body the down has yellow hair-like tips.", "On the sides of the head, nape and throat the hair-like tips are longer and orange-red.", "Between the eyes and on the lores, the tips are red.", "The shield is bright red and the bill is red with a white tip.", "The young are brooded by the female for the first three to four days during which time food is brought by the male.", "The male also builds one or more platforms that is used for roosting and brooding the chicks.", "On leaving the nest, the brood is sometimes split up with each parent taking care of a separate group.", "The young can feed themselves when they are around 30 days and fledge at 55 to 60 days.", "Eurasian coots normally only have a single brood each year but in some areas such as Britain they will sometimes attempt a second brood.", "They first breed when they are one to two years old.", "Chick mortality occurs mainly due to starvation rather than predation.", "Most chicks died in the first 10 days after hatching, when they are most dependent on adults for food.", "Coots can be very brutal to their own young under pressure such as the lack of food.", "They will bite young that are begging for food and repeatedly do this until it stops begging.", "If the begging continues, they may bite so hard that the chick is killed.", "Coots will also lay their eggs in the nests of other coots when their environment or physical condition limits their ability to breed, or to lengthen their reproductive life.", "adult with chicks, Trujillo, Spain Eurasian coot juvenile.", "chick in Marais Audomarois, France Baby Eurasian coot foraging .", "The coot is an omnivore, and will take a variety of small live prey including the eggs of other water birds, as well as algae, vegetation, seeds and fruit.", "It shows considerable variation in its feeding techniques, grazing on land or in the water.", "In the water it may upend in the fashion of a mallard or dive in search of food.", "The Eurasian coot is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies."]}, "Larus michahellis": {"keywords": ["Mating on roof-top, Constanta, Romania The breeding range is centred on the Mediterranean Sea.", "In Europe, there are colonies all along the Mediterranean coast, and also on the Atlantic islands and coasts north to Brittany and west to the Azores.", "It also breeds on the western side of the Black Sea, here it overlaps with the Caspian gull but there is a difference in habitat, with the yellow-legged gull preferring sea cliffs and the Caspian gull flatter shores.", "Many birds remain in the same area all year round, but others migrate to spend the winter in mild areas of western Europe or head south as far as Senegal, Gambia and the Red Sea.", "There is also extensive northward post-breeding dispersal in the late summer, with numbers in southern England high from July to October.", "They will scavenge on rubbish tips and elsewhere, as well as seeking suitable prey in fields or on the coast, or robbing smaller gulls and other seabirds of their catches.", "Although urban populations are generally opportunistic scavengers, they can shift to a predatory diet if necessary, this was observed during the lockdown of Italy in 2020, when the lack of food scraps led the yellow-legged gulls of Rome to take prey as large as rats and rock doves.", "Atlantic gulls in Gibraltar have been observed and photographed picking and eating fruit from olive trees in flight.", "The nest is a sometimes sparse mound of vegetation built on the ground or on cliff ledges.", "In some places such as Gibraltar they have started nesting on buildings and even on trees."], "habitat_section": ["Mating on roof-top, Constanta, Romania The breeding range is centred on the Mediterranean Sea.", "In North Africa, it is common in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and increasing in places.", "Recent breeding has occurred in Libya and Egypt.", "In the Middle East, a few breed in Israel and Syria with larger numbers in Cyprus and Turkey.", "In Europe, there are colonies all along the Mediterranean coast, and also on the Atlantic islands and coasts north to Brittany and west to the Azores.", "It also breeds on the western side of the Black Sea, here it overlaps with the Caspian gull but there is a difference in habitat, with the yellow-legged gull preferring sea cliffs and the Caspian gull flatter shores.", "In recent decades birds have spread north into central and western Europe.", "One to four pairs have attempted to breed in southern England since 1995 , though colonisation has been very slow.", "Many birds remain in the same area all year round, but others migrate to spend the winter in mild areas of western Europe or head south as far as Senegal, Gambia and the Red Sea.", "There is also extensive northward post-breeding dispersal in the late summer, with numbers in southern England high from July to October.", "It is reported as a vagrant to northeastern North America and Nigeria."], "random_sentences": ["The yellow-legged gull is a large gull found in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, which has only recently achieved wide recognition as a distinct species.", "It was formerly treated as a subspecies of either the Caspian gull L. cachinnans, or more broadly as a subspecies of the herring gull L. argentatus.", "The genus name is from Latin Larus which appears to have referred to a gull or other large seabird, and the species name honours the German zoologist Karl Michahelles.", "In flight over the Gulf of Olbia", "It is now generally accepted that the yellow-legged gull is a full species, but until recently there was much disagreement.", "For example, British Birds magazine split the yellow-legged gull from the herring gull in 1993 but included the Caspian gull in the former, but the BOU in Great Britain retained the yellow-legged gull as a subspecies of the herring gull until 2007.", "DNA research, however, suggests that the yellow-legged gull is actually closest to the great black-backed gull L. marinus and the Armenian gull L. armenicus, while the Caspian gull is closer to the herring gull and the lesser black-backed gull L. fuscus, rather than being each other's closest relatives.", "There are two subspecies of the yellow-legged gull:", "Mating on roof-top, Constanta, Romania The breeding range is centred on the Mediterranean Sea.", "In North Africa, it is common in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and increasing in places.", "Recent breeding has occurred in Libya and Egypt.", "In the Middle East, a few breed in Israel and Syria with larger numbers in Cyprus and Turkey.", "In Europe, there are colonies all along the Mediterranean coast, and also on the Atlantic islands and coasts north to Brittany and west to the Azores.", "It also breeds on the western side of the Black Sea", "here it overlaps with the Caspian gull but there is a difference in habitat, with the yellow-legged gull preferring sea cliffs and the Caspian gull flatter shores.", "In recent decades birds have spread north into central and western Europe.", "One to four pairs have attempted to breed in southern England since 1995 , though colonisation has been very slow.", "Many birds remain in the same area all year round, but others migrate to spend the winter in mild areas of western Europe or head south as far as Senegal, Gambia and the Red Sea.", "There is also extensive northward post-breeding dispersal in the late summer, with numbers in southern England high from July to October.", "It is reported as a vagrant to northeastern North America and Nigeria.", "Nominate L. m. michahellis, Elba thumbnail", "Head of a two-year old yellow-legged gull taken at the Breton coast Juvenile with open beak The yellow-legged gull is a large gull, though the size does vary, with the smallest females being scarcely larger than a common gull and the largest males being roughly the size of a great black-backed gull.", "They range in length from in total length, from in wingspan and from in weight.", "Among standard measurements, the wing chord is , the bill is and the tarsus is .", "Adults are externally similar to herring gulls but have yellow legs.", "They have a grey back, slightly darker than herring gulls but lighter than lesser black-backed gulls.", "They are much whiter-headed in autumn, and have more extensively black wing tips with few white spots, just as lesser black-backed.", "They have a red spot on the bill as adults, like the entire complex.", "There is a red ring around the eye like in the lesser black-backed gull but unlike in the herring gull which has a dark yellow ring.", "First-year birds have a paler head, rump and underparts than those of the herring gull, more closely resembling first-year great black-backed gulls in plumage.", "They have a dark bill and eyes, pinkish grey legs, dark flight feathers and a well-defined black band on the tail.", "They become lighter in the underparts and lose the upperpart pattern subsequently.", "By their second winter, birds are essentially feathered like adults, save for the patterned feathers remaining on the wing coverts.", "However, their bill tips are black, their eyes still dark, and the legs are a light yellow flesh colour.", "The call is a loud laugh which is deeper and more nasal than the call of the herring gull.", "Larus michahellis juvenile in Rambla del Mar, Barcelona", "Yellow-legged gull eating a Eurasian collared dove in Barcelona Like most Larus gulls, they are omnivores and opportunistic foragers.", "They will scavenge on rubbish tips and elsewhere, as well as seeking suitable prey in fields or on the coast, or robbing smaller gulls and other seabirds of their catches.", "Although urban populations are generally opportunistic scavengers, they can shift to a predatory diet if necessary", "this was observed during the lockdown of Italy in 2020, when the lack of food scraps led the yellow-legged gulls of Rome to take prey as large as rats and rock doves.", "Atlantic gulls in Gibraltar have been observed and photographed picking and eating fruit from olive trees in flight.", "Larus michahellis atlantis - MHNT Yellow-legged gulls usually breed in colonies.", "Eggs, usually three, are laid from mid March to early May and are defended vigorously by this large gull.", "The nest is a sometimes sparse mound of vegetation built on the ground or on cliff ledges.", "In some places such as Gibraltar they have started nesting on buildings and even on trees.", "The eggs are incubated for 2731 days and the young birds fledge after 3540 days."]}, "Anas platyrhynchos": {"keywords": ["The mallard or wild duck is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa.", "Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes.", "The non-migratory mallard interbreeds with indigenous wild ducks of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring.", "Complete hybridisation of various species of wild duck gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl.", "This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domestic duck, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool has been genetically polluted by the domestic and feral mallard populations.", "The Aleutian Islands hold a population of mallards that appear to be evolving towards becoming a subspecies, as gene flow with other populations is very limited.", "Both male and female mallards have distinct iridescent purple-blue speculum feathers edged with white, which are prominent in flight or at rest but temporarily shed during the annual summer moult.", "Bergmann's Rule, which states that polar forms tend to be larger than related ones from warmer climates, has numerous examples in birds, as in case of the Greenland mallard which is larger than the mallards further south.", "Allen's Rule says that appendages like ears tend to be smaller in polar forms to minimise heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion, and that the polar taxa are stockier overall.", "The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and South Korea.", "It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south.", "For example, in North America, it winters south to the southern United States and northern Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.", "The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions.", "It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline.", "Water depths of less than are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep.", "They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.", "During the breeding season, male birds were recorded to have eaten 37.6% animal matter and 62.4% plant matter, most notably the grass Echinochloa crus-galli, and nonlaying females ate 37.0% animal matter and 63.0% plant matter, while laying females ate 71.9% animal matter and only 28.1% plant matter.", "It usually nests on a river bank, but not always near water.", "Nesting sites are typically on the ground, hidden in vegetation where the female's speckled plumage serves as effective camouflage, but female mallards have also been known to nest in hollows in trees, boathouses, roof gardens and on balconies, sometimes resulting in hatched offspring having difficulty following their parent to water.", "In New Zealand, where mallards are naturalised, the nesting season has been found to be longer, eggs and clutches are larger and nest survival is generally greater compared with mallards in their native range.", "In addition, mallards may occasionally breed during the autumn in cases of unseasonably warm weather, one such instance of a late clutch occurred in November 2011, in which a female successfully hatched and raised a clutch of eleven ducklings at the London Wetland Centre.", "Mallards are also preyed upon by other waterside apex predators, such as grey herons , great blue herons and black-crowned night herons , the European herring gull , the wels catfish , and the northern pike .", "Several drakes swim in a pond Since 1998, the mallard has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species.", "They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other human-made water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged in human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours.", "The mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domestic and feral populations.", "The last male Mariana mallard Mallards are causing severe \" genetic pollution \" to South Africa's biodiversity by breeding with endemic ducks If this continues, only hybrids occur and in the long term result in the extinction of various indigenous waterfowl.", "Mallards have often been ubiquitous in their regions among the ponds, rivers, and streams of human parks, farms, and other human-made waterwayseven to the point of visiting water features in human courtyards.", "The ideal location for hunting mallards is considered to be where the water level is somewhat shallow where the birds can be found foraging for food."], "habitat_section": ["The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and South Korea.", "Also in the east, it ranges to south-eastern and south-western Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere.", "It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south.", "For example, in North America, it winters south to the southern United States and northern Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.", "A drake later named \" Trevor \" attracted media attention in 2018 when it turned up on the island of Niue, an atypical location for mallards.", "The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions.", "It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline.", "Water depths of less than are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep.", "They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.", "Several drakes swim in a pond Since 1998, the mallard has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species.", "This is because it has a large rangemore than 20,000,000 km 2 and because its population is increasing, rather than declining by 30% over ten years or three generations and thus is not warranted a vulnerable rating.", "Also, the population size of the mallard is very large.", "Unlike many waterfowl, mallards have benefited from human alterations to the worldso much so that they are now considered an invasive species in some regions.", "They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other human-made water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged in human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours.", "The mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domestic and feral populations.", "Over time, a continuum of hybrids ranging between almost typical examples of either species develop, the speciation process is beginning to reverse itself.", "This has created conservation concerns for relatives of the mallard, such as the Hawaiian duck, the New Zealand grey duck subspecies of the Pacific black duck, the American black duck, the mottled duck, Meller's duck, the yellow-billed duck, and the Mexican duck, in the latter case even leading to a dispute as to whether these birds should be considered a species or included in the mallard species.", "Ecological changes and hunting have also led to a decline of local species, for example, the New Zealand grey duck population declined drastically due to overhunting in the mid-20th century.", "Hybrid offspring of Hawaiian ducks seem to be less well adapted to native habitat, and using them in re-introduction projects apparently reduces success.", "In summary, the problems of mallards \" hybridising away \" relatives is more a consequence of local ducks declining than of mallards spreading, allopatric speciation and isolating behaviour have produced today's diversity of mallard-like ducks despite the fact that, in most, if not all, of these populations, hybridisation must have occurred to some extent."], "random_sentences": ["The mallard or wild duck is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa.", "This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae.", "Males have purple patches on their wings, while the females have mainly brown-speckled plumage.", "Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent blue feathers called a speculum on their wings", "males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers.", "The mallard is long, of which the body makes up around two-thirds the length.", "The wingspan is and the bill is long.", "It is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks, weighing .", "Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes.", "The female lays 8 to 13 creamy white to greenish-buff spotless eggs, on alternate days.", "Incubation takes 27 to 28 days and fledging takes 50 to 60 days.", "The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch.", "The mallard is considered to be a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature .", "Unlike many waterfowl, mallards are considered an invasive species in some regions.", "It is a very adaptable species, being able to live and even thrive in urban areas which may have supported more localised, sensitive species of waterfowl before development.", "The non-migratory mallard interbreeds with indigenous wild ducks of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring.", "Complete hybridisation of various species of wild duck gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl.", "This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domestic duck, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool has been genetically polluted by the domestic and feral mallard populations.", "An American black duck and a male mallard in eclipse plumage The mallard was one of the many bird species originally described in the 1758 10thedition of Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus.", "The genome of Anas platyrhynchos was sequenced in 2013.", "The name mallard originally referred to any wild drake, and it is sometimes still used this way.", "It was derived from the Old French or for \" wild drake \" although its true derivation is unclear.", "It may be related to, or at least influenced by, an Old High German masculine proper name , clues lying in the alternative English forms \" maudelard \" and \" mawdelard \" .", "Masle has also been proposed as an influence.", "Mallards frequently interbreed with their closest relatives in the genus Anas, such as the American black duck, and also with species more distantly related, such as the northern pintail, leading to various hybrids that may be fully fertile.", "Mallards and their domestic conspecifics are also fully interfertile.", "Genetic analysis has shown that certain mallards appear to be closer to their Indo-Pacific relatives, while others are related to their American relatives.", "Mitochondrial DNA data for the D-loop sequence suggest that mallards may have evolved in the general area of Siberia.", "Mallard bones rather abruptly appear in food remains of ancient humans and other deposits of fossil bones in Europe, without a good candidate for a local predecessor species.", "The large Ice Age palaeosubspecies that made up at least the European and West Asian populations during the Pleistocene has been named Anas platyrhynchos palaeoboschas.", "Mallards are differentiated in their mitochondrial DNA between North American and Eurasian populations, but the nuclear genome displays a notable lack of genetic structure.", "Haplotypes typical of American mallard relatives and eastern spot-billed ducks can be found in mallards around the Bering Sea.", "The Aleutian Islands hold a population of mallards that appear to be evolving towards becoming a subspecies, as gene flow with other populations is very limited.", "Also, the paucity of morphological differences between the Old World mallards and the New World mallard demonstrates the extent to which the genome is shared among them such that birds like the Chinese spot-billed duck are highly similar to the Old World mallard, and birds such as the Hawaiian duck are highly similar to the New World mallard.", "The size of the mallard varies clinally", "for example, birds from Greenland, though larger, have smaller bills, paler plumage, and stockier bodies than birds further south and are sometimes classified as a separate subspecies, the Greenland mallard .", "Juvenile male and female Duckling The mallard is a medium-sized waterfowl species that is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks.", "It is longof which the body makes up around two-thirdshas a wingspan of , and weighs .", "Among standard measurements, the wing chord is , the bill is , and the tarsus is .", "The breeding male mallard is unmistakable, with a glossy bottle-green head and a white collar that demarcates the head from the purple-tinged brown breast, grey-brown wings, and a pale grey belly.", "The rear of the male is black, with white-bordered dark tail feathers.", "The bill of the male is a yellowish-orange tipped with black, with that of the female generally darker and ranging from black to mottled orange and brown.", "The female mallard is predominantly mottled, with each individual feather showing sharp contrast from buff to very dark brown, a coloration shared by most female dabbling ducks, and has buff cheeks, eyebrow, throat, and neck, with a darker crown and eye-stripe.", "Both male and female mallards have distinct iridescent purple-blue speculum feathers edged with white, which are prominent in flight or at rest but temporarily shed during the annual summer moult.", "Upon hatching, the plumage of the duckling is yellow on the underside and face and black on the back all the way to the top and back of the head.", "Its legs and bill are also black.", "2)the breast feathers are reddish-brown in males, but brown in females", "This change in plumage also applies to adult mallard males when they transition in and out of their non-breeding eclipse plumage at the beginning and the end of the summer moulting period.", "The adulthood age for mallards is fourteen months, and the average life expectancy is three years, but they can live to twenty.", "Several species of duck have brown-plumaged females that can be confused with the female mallard.", "The female gadwall has an orange-lined bill, white belly, black and white speculum that is seen as a white square on the wings in flight, and is a smaller bird.", "More similar to the female mallard in North America are the American black duck (A.", "rubripes), which is notably darker-hued in both sexes than the mallard, and the mottled duck (A.", "fulvigula), which is somewhat darker than the female mallard, and with slightly different bare-part colouration and no white edge on the speculum.", "Owing to their highly 'malleable' genetic code, mallards can display a large amount of variation, as seen here with this female, who displays faded or 'apricot' plumage.", "In captivity, domestic ducks come in wild-type plumages, white, and other colours.", "Most of these colour variants are also known in domestic mallards not bred as livestock, but kept as pets, aviary birds, etc.", ", where they are rare but increasing in availability.", "A noisy species, the female has the deep quack stereotypically associated with ducks.", "Male mallards make a sound phonetically similar to that of the female, a typical quack, but it is deeper and quieter compared to that of the female.", "When incubating a nest, or when offspring are present, females vocalise differently, making a call that sounds like a truncated version of the usual quack.", "This maternal vocalisation is highly attractive to their young.", "The repetition and frequency modulation of these quacks form the auditory basis for species identification in offspring, a process known as acoustic conspecific identification.", "In addition, females hiss if the nest or offspring are threatened or interfered with.", "When taking off, the wings of a mallard produce a characteristic faint whistling noise.", "The mallard is a rare example of both Allen's Rule and Bergmann's Rule in birds.", "Bergmann's Rule, which states that polar forms tend to be larger than related ones from warmer climates, has numerous examples in birds, as in case of the Greenland mallard which is larger than the mallards further south.", "Allen's Rule says that appendages like ears tend to be smaller in polar forms to minimise heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion, and that the polar taxa are stockier overall.", "Examples of this rule in birds are rare as they lack external ears, but the bill of ducks is supplied with a few blood vessels to prevent heat loss, and, as in the Greenland mallard, the bill is smaller than that of birds farther south, illustrating the rule.", "Due to the variability of the mallard's genetic code, which gives it its vast interbreeding capability, mutations in the genes that decide plumage colour are very common and have resulted in a wide variety of hybrids, such as Brewer's duck .", "The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres", "in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and South Korea.", "Also in the east, it ranges to south-eastern and south-western Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere.", "It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south.", "For example, in North America, it winters south to the southern United States and northern Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May.", "A drake later named \" Trevor \" attracted media attention in 2018 when it turned up on the island of Niue, an atypical location for mallards.", "The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions.", "It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline.", "Water depths of less than are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep.", "They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.", "Drake mallard performing the grunt-whistle", "The mallard is omnivorous and very flexible in its choice of food.", "Its diet may vary based on several factors, including the stage of the breeding cycle, short-term variations in available food, nutrient availability, and interspecific and intraspecific competition.", "The majority of the mallard's diet seems to be made up of gastropods, insects , crustaceans, worms, many varieties of seeds and plant matter, and roots and tubers.", "During the breeding season, male birds were recorded to have eaten 37.6% animal matter and 62.4% plant matter, most notably the grass Echinochloa crus-galli, and nonlaying females ate 37.0% animal matter and 63.0% plant matter, while laying females ate 71.9% animal matter and only 28.1% plant matter.", "Plants generally make up the larger part of a bird's diet, especially during autumn migration and in the winter.", "The mallard usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing", "there are reports of it eating frogs.", "However, in 2017 a flock of mallards in Romania were observed hunting small migratory birds, including grey wagtails and black redstarts, the first documented occasion they had been seen attacking and consuming large vertebrates.", "It usually nests on a river bank, but not always near water.", "It is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and forms large flocks, which are known as \" sordes \" .", "Female mallard with five ducklings Mallards usually form pairs until the female lays eggs at the start of the nesting season, which is around the beginning of spring.", "At this time she is left by the male who joins up with other males to await the moulting period, which begins in June .", "During the brief time before this, however, the males are still sexually potent and some of them either remain on standby to sire replacement clutches or forcibly mate with females that appear to be isolated or unattached regardless of their species and whether or not they have a brood of ducklings.", "Nesting sites are typically on the ground, hidden in vegetation where the female's speckled plumage serves as effective camouflage, but female mallards have also been known to nest in hollows in trees, boathouses, roof gardens and on balconies, sometimes resulting in hatched offspring having difficulty following their parent to water.", "Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden Egg clutches number 813 creamy white to greenish-buff eggs free of speckles.", "They measure about in length and in width.", "The eggs are laid on alternate days, and incubation begins when the clutch is almost complete.", "Incubation takes 2728days and fledging takes 5060days.", "The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch.", "However, filial imprinting compels them to instinctively stay near the mother, not only for warmth and protection but also to learn about and remember their habitat as well as how and where to forage for food.", "Though adoptions are known to occur, female mallards typically do not tolerate stray ducklings near their broods, and will violently attack and drive away any unfamiliar young, sometimes going as far as to kill them.", "When ducklings mature into flight-capable juveniles, they learn about and remember their traditional migratory routes .", "In New Zealand, where mallards are naturalised, the nesting season has been found to be longer, eggs and clutches are larger and nest survival is generally greater compared with mallards in their native range.", "In cases where a nest or brood fails, some mallards may mate for a second time in an attempt to raise a second clutch, typically around early-to-mid summer.", "In addition, mallards may occasionally breed during the autumn in cases of unseasonably warm weather", "one such instance of a late clutch occurred in November 2011, in which a female successfully hatched and raised a clutch of eleven ducklings at the London Wetland Centre.", "During the breeding season, both male and female mallards can become aggressive, driving off competitors to themselves or their mate by charging at them.", "Males tend to fight more than females, and attack each other by repeatedly pecking at their rival's chest, ripping out feathers and even skin on rare occasions.", "Female mallards are also known to carry out 'inciting displays', which encourage other ducks in the flock to begin fighting.", "It is possible that this behaviour allows the female to evaluate the strength of potential partners.", "The drakes that end up being left out after the others have paired off with mating partners sometimes target an isolated female duck, even one of a different species, and proceed to chase and peck at her until she weakens, at which point the males take turns copulating with the female.", "Lebret calls this behaviour \" Attempted Rape Flight \" , and Stanley Cramp and K.E.L. Simmons speak of \" rape-intent flights \" .", "Male mallards also occasionally chase other male ducks of a different species, and even each other, in the same way.", "In one documented case of \" homosexual necrophilia \" , a male mallard copulated with another male he was chasing after the chased male died upon flying into a glass window.", "This paper was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 2003.", "Mallards are opportunistically targeted by brood parasites, occasionally having eggs laid in their nests by redheads, ruddy ducks, lesser scaup, gadwalls, northern shovelers, northern pintails, cinnamon teal, common goldeneyes, and other mallards.", "These eggs are generally accepted when they resemble the eggs of the host mallard, but the hen may attempt to eject them or even abandon the nest if parasitism occurs during egg laying.", "A male mute swan driving off a female mallard In addition to human hunting, mallards of all ages and in all locations must contend with a wide diversity of predators including raptors and owls, mustelids, corvids, snakes, raccoons, opossums, skunks, turtles, large fish, felids, and canids, the last two including domestic ones.", "The most prolific natural predators of adult mallards are red foxes and the faster or larger birds of prey, e.g. peregrine falcons, Aquila or Haliaeetus eagles.", "In North America, adult mallards face no fewer than 15 species of birds of prey, from northern harriers and short-eared owls to huge bald and golden eagles , and about a dozen species of mammalian predators, not counting several more avian and mammalian predators who threaten eggs and nestlings.", "Mallards are also preyed upon by other waterside apex predators, such as grey herons , great blue herons and black-crowned night herons , the European herring gull , the wels catfish , and the northern pike .", "Crows are also known to kill ducklings and adults on occasion.", "Also, mallards may be attacked by larger anseriformes such as swans and geese during the breeding season, and are frequently driven off by these birds over territorial disputes.", "Mute swans have been known to attack or even kill mallards if they feel that the ducks pose a threat to their offspring.", "Common loons are similarly territorial and aggressive towards other birds in such disputes, and will frequently drive mallards away from their territory.", "However, in 2019, a pair of common loons in Wisconsin were observed raising a mallard duckling for several weeks, having seemingly adopted the bird after it had been abandoned by its parents.", "The predation-avoidance behaviour of sleeping with one eye open, allowing one brain hemisphere to remain aware while the other half sleeps, was first demonstrated in mallards, although it is believed to be widespread among birds in general.", "Several drakes swim in a pond Since 1998, the mallard has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species.", "This is because it has a large rangemore than 20,000,000 km 2 and because its population is increasing, rather than declining by 30% over ten years or three generations and thus is not warranted a vulnerable rating.", "Also, the population size of the mallard is very large.", "Unlike many waterfowl, mallards have benefited from human alterations to the worldso much so that they are now considered an invasive species in some regions.", "They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other human-made water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged in human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours.", "The mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domestic and feral populations.", "Over time, a continuum of hybrids ranging between almost typical examples of either species develop", "the speciation process is beginning to reverse itself.", "This has created conservation concerns for relatives of the mallard, such as the Hawaiian duck, the New Zealand grey duck subspecies of the Pacific black duck, the American black duck, the mottled duck, Meller's duck, the yellow-billed duck, and the Mexican duck, in the latter case even leading to a dispute as to whether these birds should be considered a species or included in the mallard species.", "Ecological changes and hunting have also led to a decline of local species", "for example, the New Zealand grey duck population declined drastically due to overhunting in the mid-20th century.", "Hybrid offspring of Hawaiian ducks seem to be less well adapted to native habitat, and using them in re-introduction projects apparently reduces success.", "In summary, the problems of mallards \" hybridising away \" relatives is more a consequence of local ducks declining than of mallards spreading", "allopatric speciation and isolating behaviour have produced today's diversity of mallard-like ducks despite the fact that, in most, if not all, of these populations, hybridisation must have occurred to some extent.", "The last male Mariana mallard Mallards are causing severe \" genetic pollution \" to South Africa's biodiversity by breeding with endemic ducks If this continues, only hybrids occur and in the long term result in the extinction of various indigenous waterfowl.", "The mallard can crossbreed with 63 other species, posing a severe threat to indigenous waterfowl's genetic integrity.", "Mallards and their hybrids compete with indigenous birds for resources, including nest sites, roosting sites, and food.", "Mallard x Pacific black duck hybrid, Tasmania Availability of mallards, mallard ducklings, and fertilised mallard eggs for public sale and private ownership, either as poultry or as pets, is currently legal in the United States, except for the state of Florida, which has currently banned domestic ownership of mallards.", "This is to prevent hybridisation with the native mottled duck.", "The mallard is considered an invasive species in Australia and New Zealand, where it competes with the Pacific black duck which was over-hunted in the past.", "There, and elsewhere, mallards are spreading with increasing urbanisation and hybridising with local relatives.", "The Laysan duck is an insular relative of the mallard, with a very small and fluctuating population.", "Now, their range includes only Laysan Island.", "It is one of the successfully translocated birds, after having become nearly extinct in the early 20th century.", "Mallard resting on a poolside in San Francisco", "Mallards have often been ubiquitous in their regions among the ponds, rivers, and streams of human parks, farms, and other human-made waterwayseven to the point of visiting water features in human courtyards.", "George Hetzel, mallard still life painting, 18831884 Mallards have had a long relationship with humans.", "Almost all domestic duck breeds derive from the mallard, with the exception of a few Muscovy breeds, and are listed under the trinomial name A. p. domesticus.", "Mallards are generally monogamous while domestic ducks are mostly polygamous.", "Domestic ducks have no territorial behaviour and are less aggressive than mallards.", "Domestic ducks are mostly kept for meat", "their eggs are also eaten, and have a strong flavour.", "Because of this, mallards have been found to be contaminated with the genes of the domestic duck.", "While the keeping of domestic breeds is more popular, pure-bred mallards are sometimes kept for eggs and meat, although they may require wing clipping to restrict flying, or training to navigate and fly home.", "Mallards are one of the most common varieties of ducks hunted as a sport due to the large population size.", "The ideal location for hunting mallards is considered to be where the water level is somewhat shallow where the birds can be found foraging for food.", "Hunting mallards might cause the population to decline in some places, at some times, and with some populations.", "In certain countries, the mallard may be legally shot but is protected under national acts and policies.", "For example, in the United Kingdom, the mallard is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which restricts certain hunting methods or taking or killing mallards.", " Since ancient times, the mallard has been eaten as food.", "The wild mallard was eaten in Neolithic Greece.", "Usually, only the breast and thigh meat is eaten.", "It does not need to be hung before preparation, and is often braised or roasted, sometimes flavoured with bitter orange or with port."]}}
|
|
2645165_1181485
| 726
|
[
"Chorthippus biguttulus",
"Euthystira brachyptera"
] |
{"Chorthippus biguttulus": {"keywords": ["Chorthippus biguttulus, the bow-winged grasshopper, is one of the most common species of grasshopper found in the dry grassland of northern and central Europe.", "The range of the bow-winged grasshopper extends from the Finland and Scandinavia in the north to the Alps and Pyrenees in the south, and goes well into Asia including Japan."], "habitat_section": ["The range of the bow-winged grasshopper extends from the Finland and Scandinavia in the north to the Alps and Pyrenees in the south, and goes well into Asia including Japan."], "random_sentences": ["Chorthippus biguttulus, the bow-winged grasshopper, is one of the most common species of grasshopper found in the dry grassland of northern and central Europe.", "It is part of a group of species that are very difficult to identify morphologically.", "Chorthippus biguttulus was previously classified as a single species Stauroderus variabilis.", "The three species were distinguished using song characteristics.", "The range of the bow-winged grasshopper extends from the Finland and Scandinavia in the north to the Alps and Pyrenees in the south, and goes well into Asia including Japan.", "Females grow to approximately and are larger than males that grow to approximately .", "Males often have a red tip to the abdomen while females do not.", "They can be extremely variable in colour from green to black-brown to rose.", "C. brunneus and C. bigguttulus are morphologically indistinguishable but will not mate due to difference in their calls.", "If a proper call is produced while the two species are placed in proximity, mating will occur with fertile offspring resulting.", "This is thought to be the early stages of species divergence in progress."]}, "Euthystira brachyptera": {"keywords": ["It prefers mountain and subalpine meadows with tall grasses, heaths with rough vegetation and woodland clearings.", "It is quite common in calcareous grasslands with Brachypodium pinnatum."], "habitat_section": ["This species is present in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm, and in the Near East.", "It prefers mountain and subalpine meadows with tall grasses, heaths with rough vegetation and woodland clearings.", "It is quite common in calcareous grasslands with Brachypodium pinnatum."], "random_sentences": ["Euthystira brachyptera, the small gold grasshopper, is a species of grasshopper belonging to the family Acrididae.", "Euthystira brachyptera can reach a length of 1326 millimetres .", "The body color is shiny yellow-green.", "The wings of the males reach the center of the abdomen, while the wings of the females are very small and usually purplish.", "This species could be confused with Euchorthippus declivus and Chrysochraon dispar.", "It can be distinguished by means of the sharper top of head and the proportionally smaller eyes.", "Adults can be found from July to September.", "This species is present in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm, and in the Near East.", "It prefers mountain and subalpine meadows with tall grasses, heaths with rough vegetation and woodland clearings.", "It is quite common in calcareous grasslands with Brachypodium pinnatum."]}}
|
|
2606114_1204378
| 1952
|
[
"Lysimachia nummularia"
] |
{"Lysimachia nummularia": {"keywords": ["It is a vigorous, prostrate, evergreen perennial growing to in height and spreading rapidly and indefinitely by stem-rooting.", "It has rounded leaves arranged in opposite pairs, and cup-shaped yellow flowers 2 cm in diameter, in summer.", "It is particularly associated with damp or even wet areas, though in cultivation it will tolerate drier conditions.", "It is native to Europe, but has been introduced to North America, where it is considered an invasive species in some areas.", "It aggressively spreads in favorable conditions, such as low wet ground or near ponds.", "The cultivar 'Aurea' It is cultivated as an ornamental plant, for groundcover where the range of its growth can be limited.", "It is also suitable as a bog garden or aquatic marginal plant.", "It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit."], "habitat_section": ["It is native to Europe, but has been introduced to North America, where it is considered an invasive species in some areas.", "It aggressively spreads in favorable conditions, such as low wet ground or near ponds.", "It is moderately difficult to remove by hand pulling.", "Any tiny piece left behind will regrow."], "random_sentences": ["Lysimachia nummularia is a species of flowering plant in the primrose family Primulaceae.", "Its common names include moneywort, creeping jenny, herb twopence and twopenny grass.", "It is a vigorous, prostrate, evergreen perennial growing to in height and spreading rapidly and indefinitely by stem-rooting.", "It has rounded leaves arranged in opposite pairs, and cup-shaped yellow flowers 2 cm in diameter, in summer.", "It is particularly associated with damp or even wet areas, though in cultivation it will tolerate drier conditions.", "It is hardy, surviving lows of .", "It is native to Europe, but has been introduced to North America, where it is considered an invasive species in some areas.", "It aggressively spreads in favorable conditions, such as low wet ground or near ponds.", "It is moderately difficult to remove by hand pulling.", "Any tiny piece left behind will regrow.", "The Latin specific epithet nummularia means \" like a coin \" , referring to the shape of the leaves", "hence the common names, such as \" moneywort \" , which also references coins.", "The cultivar 'Aurea' It is cultivated as an ornamental plant, for groundcover where the range of its growth can be limited.", "It is also suitable as a bog garden or aquatic marginal plant.", "has yellow leaves, and is somewhat less aggressive than the species.", "It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.", "The plant contains a number of phenolic acids."]}}
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