The whitetips are a small group of hummingbirds in the genus Urosticte, which are restricted to humid forests growing on Andean slopes in north-western South America. Their common name, whitetips, refers to the conspicuous white tips on the central rectrices of the males. As the central rectrices are shorter than the outer, it appears as a large white spot on the central uppertail. Females, which have green-spotted white underparts, lack the white tips to the central rectrices, but instead have broad tips to the outer rectrices (white "tail-corners").
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The underwing coverts and outer webs to flight feathers were greyish blue. The breast, abdomen, and undertail coverts were olive yellow. The mid-rectrices were olive brown and outer rectrices grey. The irises were orange red in adults and brown in juveniles.
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The caudal feathers comprise the rudder or rectrix feathers and the upper and lower tail covers. The tail covers begin to shed before the rectrices. Generally, the upper tail covers begin to shed first. Certain birds lose some rectrices by the end of the third week of August.
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The flanks and upperparts are green, often tinged golden on the lower back and rump, while the underparts are white. The central rectrices are golden, while the outer rectrices are dark blue with narrow whitish tips. The slightly decurved bill is black with a flesh-coloured base to the lower mandible.
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"Tardy" tt chicks are more abnormal than "retarded" chicks. They show normal primary remiges at hatch, but lack secondary remiges. At ten days of age they still lack rectrices and show small or no development of secondary remiges (see Figure 3C). Rectrices do not appear until at least eight weeks of age.
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Their tails are green and black with white webbing along the base of the outer rectrices. Juveniles resemble adult females.
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These birds feed on nectar from flowers using a long extendable tongue or catch small insects on the wing. The next-to-outermost rectrices of the male are long, far longer than its bearer's body. Females lack the elongated rectrices, and are largely white below. Adult males in flight produce a distinctive whirring flight sound.
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Their wings are a dark contrast to their back. The primaries and secondaries are typically a dark black/brown and green. Their tail's central rectrices are a soft bronze and their wide blunt ended outer rectrices are nearly white. On their anterior, They have a metallic emerald green throat that may appear bronze or blue in certain angles.
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It has a length of roughly . C. rufigularis possesses a curved bill, a burnt reddish throat and breast, a black tail, and white-tipped rectrices.
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Ornaments: Have a peak-crested and small-muffed legs. Its wings are carried upon the tail, which has a minimum of 12 rectrices and an oil duct.
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Females of the two species are more difficult to distinguish. The rectrices of the Bornean species are morphologically and patterned intermediate between Palawan and Malayan peacock-pheasants.
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The black central rectrices and typical white lateral rectrices are also noticeable in flight. The iris is usually a light green-yellow or a yellow, but there have been instances of an orange color. The bill is black with a brownish black appearance at the base. The juvenile appearance is marked by its streaks on its back, distinguished spots and streaks on its chest, and a gray or grayish- green iris.
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Overall the wings are rounded at the tip compared to the pointed tips of the migratory species in Meropidae. The tail has twelve rectrices, the outer rectrices are washed with rufous and the center feathers are green. The tail has a subterminal black bar and is tipped with white. Furthermore, the tail has a shallow v -shape and is lacking tail- streamers present in other members of the family.
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The namesake striped tail is formed by dark bronze green central rectrices and outer rectrices which have black outer webs, white inner webs and broad black tips. The female has a metallic green back but her underparts and the sides of her face are light brownish grey. On both sexes, the bill is straight and black. The female lays two white eggs in a small cup nest lined with plant fibres.
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At the wing, the upper wing coverts grow moderately long and pointed, reaching over the primaries. At the tail, the longest of the upper tail coverts grow long and pointed, extending to or slightly beyond the rectrices, covering them almost entirely. The rectrices, on the other hand, grow rounded at the tips and taper in length along the three outer pairs, while the six inner pairs grow to a more blunt or truncated end.
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They were bad runners, with feet curved in a way that implies it did not move on the ground. The long feathers of the tail (central rectrices) of confuciusornithids are of disputed function. Sexual dimorphism is an explanation, with males presumed to possess the feathers as a mating display. However, it has been argued that the long rectrices were instead used as a defense against predators, as many birds shed feathers to protect themselves.
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In order to understand why there are differences in the drumming behaviour of the Wilson's snipe compared to the common snipe (Gallinago gallinago), their morphological differences must first be explained. Despite being very similar to the common snipe, there are some morphological differences to note in terms of the Wilson's snipe that includes how they typically have more rectrices (16 vs. 14); their outer rectrices are ≤ 9 mm wide with narrower and more distinct barring.Paulson, D. (2005).
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Unlike that species, the orange-breasted thornbird has dark reddish-brown eyes, extensive rufous to the underparts, a relatively large rufous crown-patch, and dark central rectrices (which contrast with the rufous outer rectrices). The two also have different voices and are locally sympatric in São Paulo without evidence of interbreeding.Simon, J. E., Pacheco, J. F., Whitney, B. M., Mattos, G. T., & Gagliardi, R. L. (2008). Phacellodomus ferrugineigula (Pelzeln, 1858) (Aves: Furnariidae) é uma espécie válida.
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The downy plumage of chicks is silky white on hatching, though it soon turns a smoky brown-grey. As in other sea eagles, remiges and rectrices of the first-year plumage are longer than those of adults. Juvenile plumage is largely a uniform dark soot- brown with occasional grey-brown streaking about the head and the neck, white feather bases, and light mottling on the rectrices. The tail of the immature eagle is white with black mottling distally.
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The wings exhibited a purplish hue. The rectrices were greenish. The crissum (these are the undertail coverts which surrounded the cloacal opening) was grey with a faint cinnamon hue at the edges.
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This distinctive bird has glossy, bluish-black upperparts which contrast markedly with its white crest, cheeks, neck and throat. It possesses a green mantle around the shoulders and violet wing coverts and rectrices.
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The area above the eyes, including the forehead, crown and nape, is a deep blue-black, through the top edge of the mantle. The mantle proper is a medium to dark gray-blue as are the tertials and upperwing-coverts, turning to a dark gray at the median, greater and primary coverts and the alula. The secondaries and inner primaries are fringed in gray-blue. The central rectrices are gray-blue, and the outer rectrices are a blackish-gray, paling towards the tips.
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Their rectrices are only partially stiffened (for arboreal support), and they readily take to terrestrial foraging. Ants and termites form important components of their diet. These are lapped up with a flexible and sticky tongue.
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The tail is also glossy black and has white tips on all the rectrices. The vents and undertail coverts are completely white in colour. The bill is relatively slim, conical, pointed, and black in color.
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Die Seeadler (1st edition). Neue Brehmn-Bucherei no. 221 (3d rev. ed. 1982). It is unique among all sea eagles in having a yellow bill even in juvenile birds, and possessing 14, not 12, rectrices.
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Their rectrices are only partially stiffened (for arboreal support), and they readily take to terrestrial foraging. Ants and termites form important components of their diet. These are lapped up with a flexible and sticky tongue.
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A wide range of common names apply to this combined species, including green-and-black streamertail, Jamaican streamertail or simply streamertail. The name streamertail is a reference to the greatly elongated rectrices of the males.
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Later such a double pair was reported for Shanweiniao. However, although the presence of two ribbon-like rectrices is certain (as in the related enantiornithean bird Protopteryx) the describers of Shanweiniao in 2012 voiced a suspicion that the second pair of rectrices in Paraprotopteryx might be the result of artifice.Jingmai K. O’Connor, Luis M. Chiappe, Cheng-ming Chuong, David J. Bottjer and Hailu You (2012) "Homology and Potential Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms for the Development of Unique Feather Morphologies in Early Birds." Geosciences, 2 157-177.
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The exact number of flight feathers cannot be determined from known specimens, however, as the preservation is too poor. The tails of several specimens preserve a fan of feathers (rectrices) at the tip, shorter than those on the forelimbs. The feather fan is similar to those of Microraptor and Caudipteryx, being restricted to the tip of the tail, unlike those of Archaeopteryx and Similicaudipteryx which have rectrices extending down much of the tail length. In at least one species, Jeholornis palmapenis, there were 11 tail feathers.
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Adult southern cassowaries are tall, although some females may reach ,buzzle.com and weigh . All cassowaries have feathers that consist of a shaft and loose barbules. They do not have rectrices (tail feathers) or a preen gland.
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The African species has only eight rectrices but four toes in a zygodactyl arrangement (a weak first digit), while the two Asian species have ten rectrices and only three toes (absent first digit, or hallux). In addition the African species differs from the Asian species in plumage colour of the adult, but not at all in plumage pattern, body anatomy or in habits. Their relationship with genus Picumnus has not been established, and the Picumninae may be either monophyleticBenz et al., 2006; Dufort, 2015; Webb and Moore, 2005 or paraphyletic.
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In the common nighthawk, all bodily plumage and rectrices are replaced in the post-juvenile moult. This moult commences in September at the breeding grounds; the majority of the body plumage is replaced but wing-coverts and rectrices are not completed until January–February, once the bird arrives at the wintering grounds. There is no other moult prior to the annual moult of the adult. Common nighthawk adults have a complete moult that occurs mostly or completely on wintering grounds and is not completed until January or February.
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Male (adult). Entirely jet black except rump, under tail- coverts, base and sides of tail which are white; central rectrices and terminal band of tail black. Female has black parts replaced by sooty black. 2\. White-bellied phase ('picata') Male (adult).
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Wing and tail flight feathers - rectrices and remiges - are between red and red-violet. The wing covert feathers are black and red with black tips. The leg feathers are bluish-purple. The feet are medium gray, and the claws are black.
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Yixianornis grabaui, one of the oldest known species with a pygostyle like that in living birds The other pygostyle type is plowshare-shaped. It is found in Ornithurae (living birds and their closest relatives), and in almost all flying species is associated with an array of well-developed rectrices used in maneuvering. The central pair of these attach directly to the pygostyle, just as in Confuciusornis. The other rectrices of Ornithurae are held in place and moved by structures called bulbi rectricium (rectricial bulbs), a complex feature of fat and muscles located on either side of the pygostyle.
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By then, some birds have not completed the molt of the feathers of the capital region and the helmsmen of the center of the tail and the internal secondary sprouts have only partially emerged from the pod. Virtually all individuals have completed their molts by mid-October. Birds do not begin their migration to wintering quarters until the two outer primary sprouts and the two inner or central rectrices have completed at least two-thirds of their development. Therefore, there is a correlation between molting, particularly replacement of the remies and rectrices, and fall migration in red-winged blackbirds.
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The undertail coverts are buffy. Most of the upper side of the tail is dark, dusky brown, but the central two rectrices are pale brownish gray with a serrated dark central strip that spreads out into a suggestion of faint crossbars. The lateral two rectrices are edged and tipped in pale gray or white, with smaller pale areas at the tips of the next two pairs inward. This is sometimes noticeable on a bird flushing or flying away, but it is not always apparent, and by late summer, pale tips may be partly or completely worn away.
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The long-billed's overall appearance has more contrasts in its pattern in comparison to the brown thrasher. The sage thrasher, which shares some its distribution with the long-billed, is smaller, grayer, and its rectrices are of a more distinguished white color.
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1185–1201 Though playing the role of "terrestrial dinosaur" in the "Archaeoraptor" affair, Microraptor, showing wings and clear traces of rectrices, is generally assumed to have had at least a gliding capacity and is itself an excellent example of a transitional fossil.
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It is large-headed with well- developed rictal and nasal bristles, which are used as sensory organs. The rectrices curve outwards, forming the forked tail for which the species is named. The hooked bill is black and heavy, and the eye is red.
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The female is slightly smaller than the male. Its contour plumage is cloudy silt in colouration. The mantle and breast are a dark sepia in coloration. The rectrices are essentially similar to those of the male, exhibiting marked adumbrations and stunning ocelli.
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Immature birds are overall very dark, having little to no buff-colored edging to the feathers of the mantle. Nearly completely dark heads and very heavily streaked ventral markings. Rectrices are usually unbarred. Feet and cere color varies from light blue to light yellow.
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Backward-pointing serrations line the mandibles. The primaries, secondaries, humerals and rectrices are brown-black. The inner webs of the secondaries are white at the base. The underwing is white except for the brown-black flight-feathers that are not covered by the white coverts.
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Illustration by Georg Forster from the 1770s The Norfolk triller was similar to other subspecies of the long-tailed triller, though it was slightly larger and had a richer buff wash on the underparts and rump and a broader white tip to the outer rectrices.
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Scapulars are blackish brown, with yellowish-brown dots and brown spots. The Primaries 7th-10th and the secondary feathers are brown with a midway white streak; the contour of P6-P1 is yellowish brown by the edges and brownish orange with small brown marks. Tertiaries feathers are greyish brown with brown dots. Tail is mainly brown; with white marks at the third and fifth rectrices with brownish orange and yellowish brown as contour, usually a 10mm white band is marked across half of the midd-upper innerweb, with white dots with yellowish brown at the outer edge over the band in third and second rectrices.
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Upper body At Parque das Aves, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil Red- tailed amazons weigh around and are approximately long. As expected from its common name, it has a broad red band on its tail, but as it largely is limited to the inner webs of the feathers, it is mainly visible from below or when the tail is spread open. Additionally, the tail has a broad yellow tip, and the outer rectrices are dark purplish-blue at the base. The remaining plumage is green, while the throat, cheeks and auriculars are purple-blue, the forecrown is red, and the rectrices are broadly tipped dark blue.
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The mountain trogon measures in length. It weighs between , with a mean of . Like all trogons, it is sexually dimorphic. The adult male is green on the crown, nape and upperparts; the upper side of its tail is bluish-green, with black tips to the rectrices.
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In immature birds, both male and female chicks have remiges, scapulars and wing coverts intermixed with buff, outer rectrices infused with white and feathers more narrow and pointed than adults. Immature females have a brown breast. Trogons are the only birds with a heterodactyl toe arrangement.
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It sometimes has pinkish or reddish patches on the forehead, throat and cheeks. The upperparts are brown, sometimes with scarlet patches on the uppertail coverts. The tail is blackish- brown with yellow fringes to all but the central pair of rectrices. The wings are blackish-brown.
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It is a small tchagra, measuring 16–17 cm from bill tip to tail tip. They are distinct from other tchagras in having a narrow, black median stripe over the crown, without any superciliary stripe. In addition the tertials and rectrices are mouse-brown in colour.
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Cicinnurus respublica Wilson's bird-of-paradise is rather small. Males can reach a length of (21 cm including central rectrices) and a weight of 53–67 g., while females can reach a length of 16 cm,but a weight of 52–60 g.Frith, C. & Frith, D. (2017).
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The sharply two-toned basic pattern of the rufous-tailed flatbill - an olive-green bird with a bright rufous tail and wings - is distinctive and easily identifiable. Compare to dusky-tailed flatbill (Ramphotrigon fuscicauda), which has dusky rectrices and remiges and a more heavily streaked breast.
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The iris is dark brown. Distinguished from the similar white-browed robin by its larger size, thicker and longer white superciliary stripe, duskier upper back, broad black face band, grey chest, broader white remigial bar, rich tawny to rufous flanks, and white tipping on all rectrices.
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The adult male is the most peacock-like member of the genus Polyplectron in appearance. It has an erectile crest and highly iridescent electric blue-violet, metallic green-turquoise dorsal plumage. It breast and ventral regions are dark black. The rectrices are wide, flat, and rigid.
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Its highly iridescent plumage is striking, being largely bluish-purple below and on the crown, greenish-blue on the back, green on the upperwing coverts, and rufous on the underwing coverts. In poor light it may appear all black, except for the strongly contrasting white outer rectrices.
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The rectrices are also have a warm brown color. The lores and ear-coverts are a mottled grey brown. The chin and throat are an off-white color with a blackish partial malar stripe. The chest is a buffy-white in color with stark black teardrop shaped spots.
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Members of the Poicephalus genus are stocky birds with short broad tails and relatively large heads and beaks relative to their size that often differ in color from their trunks. Although they are parrots with rectrices of medium length, their pinion feathers reach down almonst to the end of the rectrices, making their wings appear to be remarkably long. According to H. Strunden, Poicephalus, from Ancient Greek, means "grey head" (poliós = grey and kephalé = head). Several of the species show marked sexual dimorphism, where the adult male and female birds can be easily identified from variations in feather colouration, but in other species there is no sexual dimorphism or the differences are not so marked.
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K is another dominant allele of the allelic series which controls feather growth rate. One-day-old chicks have primary remiges and coverlets of the same length (see Figure 2B). In 8- to 12-day-old chicks rectrices are not yet developed (see Figure 1, chick on the right). Figure 2.
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Hooded Warbler in Audubon's Birds of America The hooded warbler is a small bird and mid-sized warbler, measuring in length and weighing . The hooded warbler has a wingspan of 6.9 in (17.5 cm). It has a plain olive/green-brown back, and yellow underparts. Their outer rectrices have whitish vanes.
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The nostrils were covered by a membrane. The wings were large and the tail was moderate with pointed rectrices. The nearest relatives might have been from the genus Loxops.Rothschild, Walter: The Avifauna of Laysan and the neighbouring islands with a complete history to date of the birds of the Hawaiian possession.
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The bold supercilium and the chin are also white. The rectrices are brown with white tips and white triangular markings on the outer webs. Dark phase birds replace medium with darker brown and white with light buff or tawny white. The flanks are brown, and the entire underparts are heavily barred that colour.
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In modern birds, this form of pygostyle attaches to tail muscles which control the advanced pennaceous rectrices of their fan-shaped tails. However, its presence in IVPP 21711, which has simple, hair-like tail feathers, throws doubt on the hypothesis that a plow-shaped pygostyle always correlates to an advanced, fan- shaped tail.
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The wings measure on average and the tail is about long with between 8 and 12 rectrices. The forehead, lores, crown, mantle, and scapular area are a neutral grey colour. There is a brown spot on the nape. The top of the tail is brown, and the bottom is faintly striped brown.
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The variegatum subspecies has buff forehead with a brownish gray crown. Trochalopteron variegatum simile is similar to Trochalopteron variegatum variegatum except has gray primary and secondary feathers along with gray outer rectrices. The area around the lower mandible is whiter in this subspecies and the buff on the forehead is more dull.
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Willoughby (2007) Black-backed goldfinch (S. p. psaltria) male from Borrego Springs (California, 116°22′19″W). Ear region is usually dark in typical psaltria. Males are easily recognized by their bright yellow underparts and big white patches in the tail (outer rectrices) and on the wings (the base of the primaries).
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Each ringed kingfisher possesses 10 primaries, 15 secondaries, 3 tertials and 12 rectrices. Wings are rounded, and tail is squared. Subspecies can be found in Texas, Mexico, Central America and South America, due to slight plumage differences. Individuals themselves vary slightly as a result of variable environmental constraints and day-length regimes.
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Boissonneaua is a small genus of hummingbirds in the family Trochilidae. They are found in humid Andean forests from western Venezuela to southern Peru. They have a straight black bill, contrasting outer rectrices, and a distinctive habit of quickly lifting both wings up shortly after landing, thereby revealing their rufous underwing coverts.
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Favored insects include termites, grasshoppers, ants, beetles, flies, and various small species. It may sit for a long time without moving on a horizontal perch. It often flicks its outer rectrices to the side "in scissor-like fashion". In Nigeria, a bird was seen in March collecting nesting material at the base of an epiphyte.
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The male of the species has a black hood, mandible, and throat, as well as a black tail. Wings are black, but the remiges and rectrices (flight feathers) are fringed with white. The secondary coverts form yellow epaulets. The back and vent are yellow washed with olive, and the underside is almost uniformly yellow.
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A crescent-shaped white patch formed by tertiary coverts; smaller on the underside of the wing. Ten primaries, twelve rectrices. Central tail feathers sooty brown with rusty tips; outer ones rusty with sooty brown barring. Bill blackish, lower mandible slightly paler, pointed, thin and short, rather like in an insectivorous passerine than a wader.
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Little swifts are readily identified by their small size. Their wingspan is only 33 cm compared to 42 cm in the case of common swift. Their plumage is black except for a white throat and rump, the white rump patch extending onto the flanks. They have a short square tail, with all rectrices round-tipped.
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All are small cryptic birds with long, usually cocked- tails, characterised by diagnostic distinctive interscapular gap in the feathering,Higgins, P. J.; Peter, J. M.; Steele, W. K. 2001. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds: Tyrant-flycatchers to Chats. Oxford University Press, Oxford. an enlarged auditory bulla (tympanic chambers) and ten rectrices.
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The mantle, back and wings are olive-greenish, and usually spotted or barred in buffy to golden yellow. The shafts of the remiges and rectrices are yellow to golden yellow. The underpart plumage is spotted black to a lesser or greater degree. Some species include drumming on dead wood as a means of non-vocal signaling.
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Wood, The Guinness Book of Animal Facts and Feats. Sterling Pub Co Inc. (1983), It is olive-green above with orange-ochraceous uppertail coverts and underparts (the belly often is greyer). As most other hermits, it has a long decurved bill, elongated central rectrices with whitish tips and a blackish mask bordered by a whitish-buff malar and supercilium.
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CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), . They typically have strong, stubby beaks, which in some species can be quite large; however, Hawaiian honeycreepers are famous for the wide range of bill shapes and sizes brought about by adaptive radiation. All true finches have 9 primary remiges and 12 rectrices.
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Racket-tails have pronounced sexual dimorphism (sexes have different plumage). Only the male has elongated outer rectrices (tail feathers) that are about 7.5 to 9 cm long. These tail feathers have bare shafts with long terminal oval shaped flags that have pointed ends. In perching birds, the rackets are held parallel with a slight overlap of the flags.
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Trochalopteron variegatum variegatum has distinctive yellow primary and secondary feathers with cinnamon-tipped greater coverts and black primary coverts. Trochalopteron variegatum variegatum has yellow outer rectrices. The area around the beak is black up until the eye, which is broken with a white eye ring. Buff area at the base of the mandible fades to whitish.
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On the crown, the feather shafts are dark, producing a somewhat streaked effect. The upper wings and back are blackish brown. The uppertail coverts are whitish buff again, and the rectrices are barred black and whitish, ending in white. The underside is uniformly pale buff; there may be a bit of dark speckling on the thighs, however.
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Bentsen State Park, Texas, US Both males and females have a black mandible and throat, as well as a black back and long black tail. Wings are black, but the remiges and rectrices (flight feathers) are fringed with white. These form a single white wing bar and white wing spots when folded. The secondary coverts form orange epaulets.
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In the places where they are sympatric, Stephanie's astrapia rather frequently hybridizes with the Ribbon-tailed astrapia. The hybrid offspring has been called "Barnes's astrapia". This form of astrapia has extremely long central rectrices that have variable amounts of black and white, and are sometimes seen in a mysterious, spiky shape near the end of the tail.
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The mantle, back and wings are olive- greenish, and usually spotted or barred in buffy to golden yellow. The shafts of the remiges and rectrices are yellow to golden yellow. The underpart plumage is spotted black to a lesser or greater degree. Some species include drumming on dead wood as a means of non-vocal signaling.
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Her undertail is black and white; the outer webs of the rectrices are barred black and white, while the inner webs are black, broadly tipped with white. Her primaries are blackish with white outer webs, which form white streaks along her folded wing. Her wing coverts are pale brown, with dusky vermiculations. The female is less colorful than the male.
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Shorebirds of North America: The Photographic Guide. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. As well, the outer rectrices of the Wilson's snipe are shorter and more narrow than those of the common snipe which contributes to differences in their drumming. Another difference that has been noted is that the tail of the Wilson's snipe extends well beyond its wing-tips.
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The wingspan of adult geese is . At Moscow Zoo The upperparts are greyish-brown, with thin light fringes to the larger feathers and a maroon hindneck and cap (reaching just below the eye). The remiges are blackish, as are the entire underwing and the white-tipped rectrices, while the upper- and undertail coverts are white. A thin white stripe surrounds the bill base.
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The upper parts, nape, auriculars, dorsum, tertials, wing covers, rump, upper-tail, and rectrices are bright green. The forehead, anterior crown, and ores are a pale blue. The malar area, breast, belly, and under-tail are a paler more yellowish green. No sexual dimorphism has been described as yet, although this could be because so little is known about the species.
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Peruvian Racket-tails have pronounced sexual dimorphism (sexes have different plumage). Only the male has elongated racket-shaped outer rectrices (tail feathers) that are about 7 to 7.5 cm long. These tail feathers have bare shafts with long terminal oval shaped flags that have blunted ends. In perching birds, the rackets are held parallel with a slight overlap of the flags.
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The undertail coverts are rust-colored, and the remiges and rectrices are black, some with white borders. The slim bill, the eyes, and the legs and feet are also blackish. Males and females cannot be distinguished by their looks; different behaviours in the breeding season is usually the only clue to the observer. Juveniles are even plainer in coloration, with buffy undertail coverts.
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The Variegated Laughingthrush is a medium-sized laughingthrush typically 24-16 centimeters in length and weights 57-79 grams. Both subspecies have a black stripe down the center of the throat and are overall olive and buffy in appearance. The large tail has a gray subterminal band with a white tip. The color of the outer rectrices vary based on the subspecies.
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Paraprotopteryx is a genus of enantiornithean birds from the Mesozoic of China.Zheng, X. Zhang, Z. & Hou, L. (2007) A new enantiornithine bird with four long rectrices from the Early Cretaceous of northern Hebei, China. Acta Geologica Sinica 81(5):703-708. In 2007, the type species Paraprotopeteryx gracilis was named and described by Zheng Xiaoting, Zhang Zihui and Hou Lianhai.
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They adopt various highly stereotyped and ritualised postures and associated plumage displays, which reveal prominent ocelli on remiges and rectrices. These behaviors are likewise used in self-defense. When utilised in pair-bonding behavior copulation may occur subsequent to lateral displays. Anterior displays are also performed which may include curious clicking and vibrating pulsations of feather quills created via stridulation.
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The blue of the flight feathers and coverts at the underwing is apparent when taking to the air. The upper tail coverts and rump are green tending to olive, perhaps with a red margin. The central tail rectrices are blue and green, outer tail feathers are a similar blue with a white tip. The undertail feathers are blue with white fringes.
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The four species inhabit undergrowth of montane forest in South and Southeast Asia, where they are resident or short- range migrants. They have longish legs and appear tailless, with (seemingly) only 8 rectrices. Their simple songs are fairly loud, and their nests are typically ball-shaped. Their name is derived from Tisi, the Nepalese name for the grey-bellied tesia (Tesia cyaniventer).
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This is usually done high up in exposed locations. When they spot a predator they give alarm calls to alert the rest of the group to the type of threat. Pied babbler adults have a white head and body with dark brown rectrices and remiges. thumb Pied babbler fledglings form short-term associations with foraging adults, where they follow and beg to gain food.
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Adults are colored predominantly green on their upper parts and back. The tail is mostly dark reddish-brown with faint black tips, but the inner two rectrices are green. The most prominent feature is the white eye stripe found in both males and females, and similar to the related White-eared Hummingbird. The stripe is further enhanced by a bolder black stripe that borders the lower side.
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This is a short-tailed robust bird with a long hook-tipped bill; like other tityras it has a peculiar vestigial ninth primary feather. The adult black-tailed tityra is about long and weighs about . The male is dull white above and white below. The rectrices, the primary and secondary remiges and a cap extending to below the eyes are black; the tertiary remiges are silvery grey.
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A black comma-shaped marking lies in front of and stretches over and behind the eye, which is deep red and surrounded by a black orbital ring. The leading edge of the outer wing is black. When perched, this gives the species its prominent black "shoulders". The central rectrices of the tail are pale grey, while the rest of the tail feathers are white.
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There is geographical variation in plumage across the four subspecies. Adults have pale yellow eyes and a faint cream coloured supercilium. The throat feathers are grey, often with striation, and the flight feathers on the wings are pale brown. The tail feathers are brown with a black bar and white spot on the tip of all the rectrices, except the central pairs, which are completely dark.
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The male Swinhoe's pheasant can grow up to 79 cm. He has a glossy blue-purple chest, belly and rump, white nape, red wattles, white tail feathers, and a white crest. The female is brown marked with yellow arrow-shaped spots and complex barring patterns, and has maroon outer rectrices. The juvenile male is dark blue with brown and yellow patterns on its wings.
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Rhodospiza obsoleta The desert finch (Rhodospiza obsoleta), sometimes called Lichtenstein's desert finch, is a large brown true finch found in southern Eurasia. Its taxonomy is confused, and it has formerly been placed in Fringilla, Bucanetes, Carduelis and Rhodopechys. It has an average wingspan of . It has a stout black bill, black and white remiges and rectrices, and a slash of rosy-pink on each wing.
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Paraprotopteryx has four, ten centimetres long, rectrices (flight feathers on the tail), more than doubling the total body length, which may represent an important step in feather evolution. They have a very elongated ribbon-like shaft and only the tips are barbed and expanded. In Paraprotopteryx they may have served as a secondary sex characteristic. This was the first time a tail fan was reported for Enantiornithes.
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The juvenile has a white lower forehead, face, chin and throat, with a brownish orange band across the forehead, neck and breast. It has a similar dark eye patch to the adult, and the eyes themselves are dark brown. The hindneck is grey-brown, and the upperpart feathers are grey-brown with orange tips. The rump and central tail rectrices are pale grey tipped with orange.
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The most critical period of feather molting runs from late August to early September. When viewed in flight, they have a misaligned or "moth-eaten" appearance and generally slower and more laborious travel. Their mobility is reduced due to the lack of several remiges or rectrices or these are not entirely renewed. Most of the red-winged blackbird have moved almost entirely by October.
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Legs are also yellow, though shade and brightness varies. Fledgling birds have undefined, fluffy light grey chests without scalloping. Immature birds can be identified in the hand by retained juvenile remiges and rectrices, which are more brownish. Yellow-throated miners are distinctive from the other miners by their clean white rump, instead of the continuous grey from the back that the noisy and black-eared miners have.
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The female is warm brown on her head and upperparts; her tail is rufous-brown on the upperside, with black tips to the rectrices. She has a small white crescent in front of her eye and a bold white crescent behind her eye. Her bill is dark above. Her chest is warm brown, separated from her brown lower chest and red belly by a narrow band of white.
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Paroaria coronata is a medium-sized species showing a red head, with a red bib and a short red crest that the bird raises when excited. Belly, breast and undertail are white, with a gray back, wings, and tail. Wing coverts are gray, but the primaries, secondaries, and rectrices show a darker gray. Juveniles are similar to the adults, but they show a dull brownish orange head and bib.
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The tail is rounded, with rigid rectrices with shortened barbs ending in small spines up to 9 mm long. A large white zone covers the treerunner's cheek and throat, descending to the middle of the chest. The rest of the lower parts, to the undertail coverts, are made up of white feathers largely bordered with dark brown, giving an irregularly spotted appearance. Both sexes of adults look similar.
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In some passerines, filoplumes arise exposed beyond the pennaceous feathers on the neck. The remiges, or flight feathers of the wing, and rectrices, or flight feathers of the tail, are the most important feathers for flight. A typical vaned feather features a main shaft, called the rachis. Fused to the rachis are a series of branches, or barbs; the barbs themselves are also branched and form the barbules.
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Belly and flanks become brown or yellowish brown. When flight sights, male has a white marks at the edge of the first four primaries, as well with a white band on the first and fourth rectrices. The female does not possess the white mark on the tail. The face of the male can be greyish brown with brown marks; crown and margins of the forehead are greyish white.
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The upper parts are mostly a darker fawn-brown, with the central rectrices and the primary remiges a little darker still; the head is colored like the underside, with a darker cap and light nape patch, somewhat reminiscent of some tits and chickadees, especially those from the genera Parus sensu stricto and Periparus. The bill, legs and feet are black. Males and females look alike.Londei (1998), del Hoyo et al.
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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.
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Bruce (1999) pp 34–75, Svensson et al. (1999) pp. 212–213 The bird's head and upper body typically vary between pale brown and some shade of grey (especially on the forehead and back) in most subspecies. Some are purer, richer brown instead, and all have fine black-and-white speckles except on the remiges and rectrices (main wing and tail feathers), which are light brown with darker bands.
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His face and throat are blackish, with an orange-red orbital ring and a bright yellow bill. He is green on the chest and red on the belly and undertail; the two colors are separated by a narrow band of white. The underside of his tail is black with three large white blocks created by white tips to the outer rectrices. His primaries are blackish, with black and white vermiculations on the wing coverts.
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The male has elongated feathers on the forehead, creating a short crest. The white tips of outermost rectrix are 50 mm long, next 55mm, and next 32 mm long. Adult females are less iridescent, with no frontal crest and the throat, belly and breast appearing brown-grey bordered by a green band. The female bill and feet are yellowish-brown to grey and their three outermost rectrices are also narrowly tipped with white.
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The plumage is glossy black with a purplish sheen overall, though the rectrices and primary and secondary coverts have a greenish sheen and the remiges are a duller blackish-brown color showing reduced sheen. The female is less glossy than the male, and juveniles are brownish-gray with mottling below. The legs are black. The bill, which is black and shorter than the head, has a generally straight culmen, decurved toward the tip.
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Before breeding the male snipe also perform nocturnal aerial "hakawai" displays with calls followed by a non-vocal roar created by diving birds driving fast moving air across the rectrices of the tail. This display is thought to be the origin of the Māori legends about the Hakawai, a term which has been extended to refer to the aerial displays. Both sexes choose the nesting site, although only the female builds the nest.
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The base of the outer rectrices was partially blackish blue. The tail feathers and tail coverts were maroon. The legs were dark slate-grey. The iris was reddish orange and had an inner yellow ring. The bird was 30 cm (12 in) in length, the wings were 208 mm (8.2 in), the tail was 132 mm (5.2 in), the culmen was 25 mm (1 in), and the tarsals were 28 mm (1.10 in).
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During this display the oesophagus inflates to as much as four times its normal size and resembles a balloon. They also puff out their frontal neck feathers which are splayed upwards showing their white underside. The white may be visible up to away during display. Their wings are drooped and their tails are raised upwards and forwards onto their backs like a turkey, the rectrices being held vertically and their undertail coverts fluffed out.
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The primary coverts of juveniles are also more closely lined with blue, and the underparts are paler overall, especially on the chest. Adults perform a complete moult after the breeding season, whereas juveniles only have a partial moult, in which they replace a variable number of rectrices. The bird is large as compared with other members of the genus Sitta, measuring in length. The folded wing measure in males and in females.
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It has iridescent blue-green eyespots with a buff border on its upperwings, back, and on the 22 rectrices, a white throat running down to the center of the breast, and a loose, pointed and upturned dark blue-green crest on its forehead. A bare facial skin surrounds the eyes with their bluish-white iris; usually pink, it becomes bright orange-red during courtship. The bill and legs are blackish.McGowan (1994, 1998), Kimball et al.
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The upperparts, rectrices and undertail coverts are blackish- brown, as are at least the distal undersides of the remiges, but sometimes the entire feathers. The rest of the underparts are white, as is the head below eye level. The iris is dark, the feet are dull pink with a black wash and black toenails, and the bill is grey, darker towards the tip, and with a pinkish hue. Males and females look alike.
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Juveniles have a dark back with a brown head and underside. Due to its appearance it was often assigned to the tiger herons (Tigrisoma and allies). But in fact, it is a true bittern, having like these only 10 rectrices (other Ardeidae have 12) and being unequivocally placed in the bittern lineage by DNA sequence data too. Short legs and necks and cryptic plumage may thus be plesiomorphic among Ardeidae in general.
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A white stripe is present at the base of the bill and is surrounded by brown and black malar stripes. These malar stripes and the black breastband frame a white throat. The tail has 15 to 20 dark brown bars marking it, while the outer rectrices are sky blue; this sky blue is also present on the wing-coverts. In flight, the bird's two black and white bands on the primaries and secondaries are conspicuous.
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The central tail feathers are greenish while the outer feathers are rufous with greenish bars. The outer rectrices are barred black and white. The breast is whitish with bronze-green bars and variably washed rufous markings. Juveniles have barred rufous and greenish bronze feathers on the upper parts of the body, a bright rufous crown, rufous and mottled green or brown wings, a barred brown and rufous tail and brown-barred white under parts.
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White eared pheasants tend to fly a great deal more than their close relatives, such as the brown eared pheasant (C. mantchuricum) and the blue eared pheasant (C. auritum). All three species are capable of hovering or volplaning over deep snow, with the aid of their great, wide tails. Eared pheasants move across deep snow by whirring their wings and fluttering close to the ground, and supporting their weight on their rectrices.
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Similar to male, with most significant differences in the brilliance of the plumage, more buff colouring, and patterned tails. The head becomes brown or greyish, and the bill is much more grey bill with a black tip (LEBBIN). The tips of the wing feathers turn much more buff, and the abdomen develops into more of a brownish red. The rectrices have an alternating bar pattern of black and white, and the upper tail coverts are shorter than in males.
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The adult male white-tipped quetzal is identified by a golden, green-bronze crown and nape with bright green breast, back, rump and upper tail-coverts. The male bill is butter yellow and feet are brownish-black. The under tail-coverts and belly are a striking red, wings and upper tail are black with the under tail appearing white, thus the ‘White-tipped’ descriptive name. These broad, white backed outer rectrices occupy about a third of their length.
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Buff-tailed coronet in Bellavista Cloud Forest Reserve, Ecuador The buff- tailed coronet (Boissonneaua flavescens) is a species of hummingbird from the family Trochilidae. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Distinguishing characteristics are the short bill, glittering green coloration, and buffy color under the remiges (flight feathers) and rectrices (tail feathers). Like other hummingbirds, the buff-tailed coronet is often found in mid-level forest to canopy searching for flowers with nectar and some insects.
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There are two main types of pygostyle: one, found in Confuciusornithidae, Enantiornithes, and some other Mesozoic birds, as well as in some oviraptorosaurs like Nomingia, is long and rod- or dagger blade-like. None of the known fossils with such pygostyles show traces of well-developed rectrices. The tail feathers in these animals consisted of downy fuzz and sometimes 2–4 central "streamers" such as those found in some specimens of Confuciusornis or in Paraprotopteryx.Clarke et al.
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Restoration The bones of the tail have not been preserved in any known specimen, but comparison with related species suggest it was short with a small, plowshare-shaped pygostyle bone, to which the tail feathers anchored. A mass of muscles, called the rectorial bulb, probably was present to control the fanning of the trail feathers. The tail feathers were long, with symmetrical vanes. There were at least 10 tail feathers (rectrices), more than in other primitive fan-tailed birds.
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The wings are barred with white, and the chin, throat and breast are in the male pure white, but of a bright reddish-orange in the female. The remiges are very short, rounded and much incurved, showing a bird of weak flight. The rectrices are very broad, the shafts stiff, and towards the tip divested of barbs. The population which is found locally in New Guinea is now generally considered a separate species, the Papuan logrunner, Orthonyx novaeguineae.
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The rectrices are green-gray in color, and have bright green edges. The undertail is very pale. The throat, breast, and belly are off-white or grayish-white in color, with a greenish tinge to the flank and sides of the breast. The upper mandible of the beak varies in color from black to blackish brown or a dusky gray, with the mandible being pale to blue-gray in color with a dark tip and paler base.
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Most birds' tails end in long feathers called rectrices. These feathers are used as a rudder, helping the bird steer and maneuver in flight; they also help the bird to balance while it is perched. In some species--such as birds of paradise, lyrebirds, and most notably peafowl--modified tail feathers play an important role in courtship displays. The extra-stiff tail feathers of other species, including woodpeckers and woodcreepers, allow them to brace themselves firmly against tree trunks.
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Preserved feather traces in a fossil Zhenyuanlong suni. There is a large body of evidence showing that dromaeosaurids were covered in feathers. Some dromaeosaurid fossils preserve long, pennaceous feathers on the hands and arms (remiges) and tail (rectrices), as well as shorter, down-like feathers covering the body. Other fossils, which do not preserve actual impressions of feathers, still preserve the associated bumps on the forearm bones where long wing feathers would have attached in life.
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The birds can be aged by their plumage; juveniles look similar to adults but have fresh plumage and two dark or dark grey spots on the tongue. Cetti's warbler is unusual among passerine birds in having ten tail feathers (rectrices) rather than the usual twelve. Cetti's warblers signal their presence with loud song. Their song is distinct, comes in loud bursts, and has a unique structure that allows the birds to avoid mating with other species.
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50, No. 8. Govt. Print. In terms of body mass, two Puerto Rican males were found to average and two females averaged . Although claimed as the most sexually dimorphic subspecies by size, neither body mass nor linear dimensions seem to support this. This subspecies has less mottling than northern red-tails on the back, lacks the white tip at the end of the rectrices and, most characteristically, has a very broad, but raggedly edged, and black belly band.
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Illustration of a male and female T. pyra from John Gould's A monograph of the Trochilidae, or family of humming-birds, Volume 2, 1861. This species is very similar to crimson topaz.John Gould: twenty new species of Trochilidae or Humming Birds Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. Bd. 14, Nr. 164, 1846, S. 85-90 Topaza pyra can be distinguished from the closely related Topaza pella by their shorter beaks, longer wings, longer tail, and thinner rectrices.
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Feathers of the back, breast, median wing coverts, rump and upper tail coverts are all iridescent green with a black base and some that are edged with bronze. The feathers on the head give a golden brown to golden green appearance, while the belly stands out as a brilliant red. The remaining feathers on the wings (remiges: primaries, secondaries; greater wing coverts), rectrices, and thighs are all black. The bill recalls the red of the belly, and yellows to the tip.
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This so-called "living gem"Designing Social Interfaces: Principles, Patterns, and Practices for Improving the User Experience by Christian Crumlish and Erin Malone (17 September 2009) is the smallest and most vividly colored among birds-of-paradise. The king bird-of- paradise is small, measuring approximately long, but if central rectrices of adult males included. Females weight about , males . The adult male has a overall metallic crimson color, slightly orange under certain lights, and more particularly so in the crown.
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The throat is unmarked white, the foreneck is white broadly streaked with pale brown, and the rest of the neck is buff with thin black barring. The breast and belly are white with broad pale brown streaks, while the back is buff, heavily streaked and barred with black. Rectrices are black in males and brown in females; the slate-grey remiges create a conspicuous two-toned effect in flight. The bill is stout and strong, yellowish overall with a dusky upper mandible.
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Ford noted that individuals from southeastern Queensland northwards had more yellow- tinged upperparts and paler underparts; and that those of northeastern Queensland more matched the golden-backed subspecies, though the bare skin around their eyes remained aqua-blue. The golden-backed subspecies differs by having a yellow nape and rump, green-yellow back, smaller black on chin, more grey-white than buff breast, white flanks and abdomen, lighter brown wings, green-edged rectrices, and yellow-green bare skin around the eyes.
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The wings, legs, and tail supported long but relatively narrow vaned feathers. Two types of simpler, downy (plumaceous) feathers covered the rest of the body, as in Sinornithosaurus: down feathers made up of filaments attached at their bases, and more complex down feathers with barbs attached along a central quill. Long, simple feathers covered almost the entire head and neck, torso, upper legs, and the first half of the tail. The rest of the tail bore pennaceous tail feathers (rectrices).
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Analysis of its skeletal bones suggest that it had an ontogeny and slow growth like Archaeopteryx and small carnivorous dinosaurs, rather than the explosively fast growth seen in modern birds. In absolute number of features shared with modern birds, S. chaoyangensis is about as advanced as Confuciusornis. However, the apomorphies were largely different from Confuciusornis, and a character analysis demonstrates that these two were not closely related. The tail plumage of Sapeornis consisted of rectrices that formed a graded, fan-like structure.
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Their down thickens as they age, and the chicks are quite fluffy by week 5–6. The primaries and rectrices appear by week 8, and appear by week 10. They begin losing their down from week 12 onwards, until they are wholly covered by juvenile plumage by week 15 or 16, and fledge at around 120 days (17 weeks) of age. After leaving the nest, young birds are dependent on their parents for 3–4 weeks before dispersing out to sea.
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Juvenile bird at Samburu National Reserve in central Kenya – it has rufous- tawny chest plumage, and its outer rectrices lack the streamers of adult plumage. Both subspecies are probably monogamous and nest solitary. The sexes are not readily distinguishable, and their displays have not been definitively linked to either male or female. Pairs are protective of their nest and one of the pair will fly in a rolling pattern as a territorial display against intruders or to detract nest predators.
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It has large deep-red eyes, which are surrounded by a black eye patch. Its bill is black, with a dark grey-brown cere at its base. Its wings are marked with a black shoulder patch above and a striking black line underneath, which runs from the primary coverts to the body, and which resembles a letter 'M' or 'W' when flying. The central rectrices of the tail are pale grey, while the rest of the tail feathers are white.
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The black jacobin (Florisuga fusca), previously placed in the monotypic Melanotrochilus, is a species of hummingbird in the family Trochilidae. It is found in or near the Atlantic Forest of eastern Brazil, Uruguay, eastern Paraguay, and far north-eastern Argentina. It is generally common, and therefore considered to be of least concern by BirdLife International and consequently the IUCN. Adults of both sexes are overall black with green- tinged back and wing-coverts, and white lower flanks and outer rectrices.
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Lynx Edicions. . They have long legs and an upright stance, and appear to almost lack a tail, as their tail rectrices are shorter than the tail coverts.Captain J. Delacour (1942) "The Bush-Warblers of the Genera Cettia and Bradypterus, with Notes on Allied Genera and Species". Ibis 84 (4): 509-519, The plumage of the northern species is olive backs and wings and grey bellies (darker slate in the slaty-bellied tesia); the southern species have brown wings and backs.
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Most have moderately long to long tails, while the stubtails and tesias have tiny tails that do not even emerge past their tail rectrices. The group is typically clad in dull plumage, often with a line above the eye. Altogether the Cettiidae are a quite variable group containing many aberrant birds that hitherto had been uncomfortably placed with a wide range of unrelated families. The Megaluridae which contain birds which appear very similar to many cettiids are far more uniform by contrast.
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Both males and females have a brownish-grey crown, brownish-red upper wing coverts, deep red rump and upper tail coverts, and white-spotted dark grey flanks and under wing coverts. The wings are dark reddish-brown and the tail is black with red edges on the outer rectrices. Rock firefinches have broad primaries and average wing length of 54mm. Juvenile rock firefinches are characterized by a paler greyish-brown face and crown and a less red overall plumage compared to adults.
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Their proposed definition for the group was "the clade stemming from the first panavian with ... remiges and rectrices, that is, enlarged, stiff-shafted, closed-vaned (= barbules bearing hooked distal pennulae), pennaceous feathers arising from the distal forelimbs and tail".Gauthier, J. and de Queiroz, K. (2001). "Feathered dinosaurs, flying dinosaurs, crown dinosaurs, and the name 'Aves'". Pp. 7-41 in Gauthier, J. and L.F. Gall (eds.), New Perspectives on the Origin and Early Evolution of Birds: Proceedings of the International Symposium in Honor of John H. Ostrom.
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The down is greyer in older chicks. The primaries, rectrices and scapulars are evident in the third week, and chicks are mostly feathered with residual down on underparts and under the wings after six weeks, and fully feathered by 11 weeks. Juvenile birds have a glossy white forehead, chin, throat and underparts, and prominent black barring and scaling on their crown, nape, mantle, back, rump and upper wing coverts. Their bills are blackish grey with a light blue-grey base, and grey legs and feet.
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There are only a few muscles in the trunk and the tail, but they are very strong and are essential for the bird. These include the lateralis caudae and the levator caudae which control movement of the tail and the spreading of rectrices, giving the tail a larger surface area which helps keep the bird in the air as well as aiding in turning. Muscle composition and adaptation differ by theories of muscle adaptation in whether evolution of flight came from flapping or gliding first.
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With the bird facing upwards, the pattern gives the impression of a broken black "M", with light grey interspersing areas.Carboneras (1992) The underside is bright white; on the head the upperside's grey extends town to eye height and the white cheeks may shine up conspicuously, as in the smaller shearwaters of Puffinus sensu stricto. The rectrices are blackish and the tail is wedge-shaped; the bill and irises are dark. Fledged juveniles already have the adult's colouration; the nestlings are covered in grey down feathers.
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This feature is variable among other kinds of swamphen. The softness of the rectrices (tail feathers) and the lengths of the secondary and wing covert feathers relative to the primary feathers appear to have been intermediate between those of the purple swamphen and the takahē. Although the known skins are mostly white, contemporary illustrations depict some blue individuals; others had a mixture of white and blue feathers. Their legs were red or yellow, but the latter colour may be present only on dried specimens.
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In handling mousebirds the tail should be avoided, as the long rectrices come out so easily as to suggest that it is a sacrificial defence mechanism. This is a markedly social bird, with small groups of presumably related birds feeding together and engaging in mutual preening. It roosts in groups at night. Its perching habits are amusingly parrot-like; it often almost hangs from its legs rather than squatting on them like most birds, and commonly with each leg gripping a different upright branch.
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Flight feathers also have the ability to twist their rachis inside the pulp cavity, allowing the barbules of the feather to interlock on the down stroke, decreasing the amount of air flow between the feathers, creating a more efficient lift. The flight feathers of the wing are remiges; those located on the tail are rectrices. Flight feathers are separated into three separate groups—primary, secondary and tertiary. The primaries are at the far end of the wing and provide the forward thrust during takeoff and flight.
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It was once believed that the drumming sound was produced by the vocal organs, though it has since been confirmed that is not the case. The specifics of how this extraordinary sound is produced can be explained by looking at the tail feathers. The sound is generated by vibration of the outer rectrices in the airstream modified by the set of wings. Drumming in G. galinaga and G. delicata begins quite soft, increasing in volume and frequency as the dive progresses--reaching a crescendo just before the dive concludes.
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The bird has distinct coloration and body features, namely lack of a white eye-ring; longer toes, wing and tail, and the pointed shape of the rectrices (part of the tail).Rufous-throated White-eye, Hokkaido Institute of Environmental Sciences and Japan Science and Technology Agency A 2015 DNA analysis indicates the species is more closely related to the pipits than the white-eyes, and some taxonomic authorities now tend to regard it as being a member of the family Motacillidae within the clade containing pipits in the genus Anthus.
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It is long, with the very long tail accounting for about two-thirds of this, but weighs as little as .Johnson, Alfredo William (author) and Goodall, J.D. (illustrator); The birds of Chile and adjacent regions of Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru, Volume II; pp. 171-173. The tail consists of just six feathers which are very narrow and filament-like: so few rectrices are elsewhere seen only in the emu-wrens of Australia.Sibley, Charles Gald and Alquist, John E.; Phylogeny and Classification of the Birds: A Study in Molecular Evolution; p. 576.
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The edges of black flight feathers and greater primary and secondary coverts are bright yellow, as are those of the tail feathers, which also have white tips. The striking colour contrast in the feathers of the remiges and rectrices is one of the species' most distinctive traits, along with its pink bill, which has a grey tip. Feet and legs are also grey, while the irises of the eyes are reddish-brown . Females are slightly smaller than the males and are paler in colour, with fewer spots running down the flanks.
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The central rectrices of the long tail are dark green changing to dark blue at the tips, while the other feathers are dark blue with two bands of pale blue and white tips. The undertail is pale blue with a white tip. The wings have a wide purplish blue shoulder patch at rest, with the secondary feathers edged darker blue and the primaries black edged with blue. The beak is off-white with a grey cere, the legs and feet are grey, and the iris is dark brown.
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Two or three distinct lineages, bred for centuries, were merged to form the modern-day Ice pigeon: one was light-winged with dark eyes, and another one or two had black wing markings and reddish eyes. Light-winged variety with unfeathered legs, photographed in bright daylight The Ice pigeon has several varieties, differing in the type and color of their wing pattern. All are otherwise unpatterned, except for a wide black tail-end band; the ends of the rectrices are white. The basic color of Ice pigeons is a pale grey.
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The central rectrices are sooty-brown and bluish. This colouration indicates that the Liverpool specimen was a younger bird than the Vienna specimen, and the latter had reached the final stage of maturity. Since the Liverpool specimen preserves some of its original colour, van Grouw and Hume were able to reconstruct its natural colouration before becoming white. It differed from other swamphens in having blackish-blue lores, forehead, crown, nape and hind neck, purple-blue mantle, back, and wings, a darker rump and upper-tail covert feathers, and dark greyish-blue underparts.
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The drongo fantail (Chaetorhynchus papuensis), also known as the pygmy drongo, is a species of passerine bird endemic to the island of New Guinea. It is the only species in the genus Chaetorhynchus. The species was long placed within the drongo family Dicruridae, but it differs from others in that family in having twelve rectrices instead of ten. Molecular analysis also supports moving the species out from the drongo family, instead placing it as a sister species to the silktail of Fiji, and both those species in the fantail family Rhipiduridae.
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Dorsal view of Mangrove robin showing white in outer rectrices The mangrove robin has an average weight of for males and for females. Their wingspan differs between subspecies – the leucura subspecies have spans of to for males and to for females, while the alligator subspecies have spans of to for males and to for females. For cinereiceps, male birds have wingspans of to long; on the other hand, female wingspans are to long. They feature a "dull pale bar" at the bottom of their remiges, although this is not very noticeable.
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This strong attachment is accomplished by ligaments under the skin, which in some birds and other feathered dinosaurs results in raised bumps or marks along the rear forelimb bone (ulna). These bumps, called quill knobs (ulnar papillae), are often used as an indirect indication of strongly-attached forelimb feathers in fossil species, and can also indirectly indicate the number of secondary remiges in a given specimen. Flight feathers (remiges and rectrices) are specialized types of pennaceous feathers, adapted for high loadings and often strongly asymmetric for improved flight performance.
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The planalto hermit (Phaethornis pretrei) is a species of bird in the family Trochilidae, the hummingbirds. It is found in eastern and south-central Brazil, eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, and marginally in north-western Argentina. It is usually easily recognized by its relatively large size, broad white tips to all the rectrices, and cinnamon-buff underparts and rump – the latter contrasting clearly with its tail and remaining upperparts. This is essentially a non-forest hermit, being found in a wide range of open and semi- open habitats, including Caatinga, Cerrado, and the Pantanal.
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The ornithologist John Latham described the pheasant coucal as Cuculus phasianinus in 1801, based on a drawing by Thomas Watling. Six subspecies are recognised, two of which are found in Australia with an abrupt demarcation between them occurring around the Burdekin River in Central Queensland. South is the nominate subspecies phasianinus, while north is the subspecies melanurus, which is larger in size and has darker and more prominent black bands on its rectrices. The little known subspecies mui is found in eastern Timor, and has distinctive white plumage of its upperparts, head and breast.
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Confusion of wintering birds is possible with the winter Lapland longspur (Calcarius lapponicus) but that species is much shorter- tailed with white outer rectrices, has rich rufous in greater coverts, and is strictly terrestrial on open ground. The song of the Harris's sparrow is usually delivered from a high perch. The song consists of a series of one or more clear high wavering whistles followed by another series in higher or lower pitch. They have also been known to call out a strong, metallic chink, as well as some variable musical twittering.
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Separated for millennia by vast ice sheets, the survivors evolved into two species which are still separated by a wide gap across the continent's midsection. It is also closely related to the Chapman's swift; in the past, the three were sometimes treated as a single species. The chimney swift's genus name, Chaetura, is a combination of two Ancient Greek words: chaite, which means "bristle" or "spine", and oura which means "tail". This is an apt description of the bird's tail, as the shafts of all ten tail feathers (rectrices) end in sharp, protruding points.
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Skeletal restoration E. hui is known from a well-preserved partial skeleton that includes four long feathers on the tail, composed of a central rachis and vanes. However, unlike in modern-style rectrices (tail feathers), the vanes were not branched into individual filaments but made up of a single ribbon- like sheet. Epidexipteryx also preserved a covering of simpler body feathers, composed of parallel barbs as in more primitive feathered dinosaurs. However, the body feathers of Epidexipteryx are unique in that some appear to arise from a "membranous structure" at the base of each feather.
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After hatch, the juvenile completes its preformative plumage between March and August, and finish developing its definitive prebasic plumage at the same period (i.e. March–August) of the following year. During its first year after hatch, the female juvenile's plumage changes. The blackish culmen fades away into a more dusky one with some red wash on 50% of the basal, the throat's initial greenish-blue spotting turn into more extensive dark-blue spotting, and the outer rectrices display cinnamon tips that then vanish as the female's plumage alters.
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They start to grow feathers 5 days or so after hatching, starting with the remiges; the rectrices begin to emerge about 3 days later. The young are fed 1-2 times per hour on average, and the female spends about half of the day brooding and feeding her offspring, and the other half flying around and feeding. The young fledge after 22–24 days but still return to the nest to sleep and be brooded for some more days; they are independent some 2–3 weeks after fledging.
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2, A field guide. Christopher Helm. Juvenile hook-billed kite (Chondrohierax uncinatus) are also potentially confusable with juvenile ornates but the kite is much smaller and more dumpily built with more paddle- shaped wings, a squarer tail, with clearer bars on remiges and rectrices and bare tarsi. Another kite, the gray-headed kite (Leptodon cayanensis) can be considered similar in plumage in its adult plumage to the juvenile ornate but it is rather smaller with very different shape in all respects (especially in its small, pigeon-like head), completely different underwing pattern and unmarked body but for grey crown and nape.
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Remsen (2003a), Freile & Chaves (2004) The species lives on the ground, where it feeds on invertebrates found by flicking through leaf litter, digging in moist soil or in rotting wood, often using the tail to anchor itself; the tips of the rectrices become abraded by this behavior and before moult often just the resilient feather shafts remain. Tawny-throated leaftossers are encountered singly or in pairs; they may be attracted by recordings of their alarm calls. These birds typically move by hopping about and are reluctant to fly if they do not have to. They are not migratory.
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In common with other honeyeaters, the red wattlebird has a long, specialized tongue to extract nectar from flowers. The tongue can extend well beyond the tip of the bill, and is divided at the end to form a brush-like structure with over a hundred bristles that soak up nectar by capillary action. The red wattlebird begins moulting after the breeding season, starting with the primary flight feathers in November or December, and finishing between the following March and May. The feathers of the breast, back, median and lesser covert feathers are moulted before those of the crown, remiges, and rectrices.
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The central rectrices are black, while the outer are white (consequently, the tail appears primarily black from above, white from below), and there is a white patch in the wing (caused by broad white edging to the tertials). Males of the southern and western group (including subspecies saturata), the masked gnatcatchers in the strict sense, have grey underparts and a broad black mask. Females lack the mask, but instead have a black patch behind the eyes on the auriculars. The northern nominate subspecies dumicola is distinctive, with white underparts in both sexes, and a narrow black mask in the male.
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The end of the tail is destroyed in the holotype; no rectrices are preserved and while the pygostyle is complete in other skeletons, only halos of short feathers are preserved. While the related Shanweiniao and some other enantiornithines preserve two, four, or eight long display feathers on the tail, the absence of such feathers in any known specimen of Longipteryx probably indicates that they were absent in this species. Longipteryx probably dived or probed for fish, crustaceans, or other aquatic animals of appropriate size. Altogether, it was perhaps closest to a modern-day kingfisher in its ecological niche.
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In juvenile plumage, the head, neck and upper body are rusty brown with faint barring of light cream, the back is dark brown, upper wing-coverts white with buff tips, with a narrow white bar on the bend of the wing, white tipping on the rectrices and tail, similar to adult but paler. First immature plumage resembles adults, but individuals retain a dark buff colouration on the throat, lores, forehead and crown, mixed grey and rusty brown on the chest, light buff on the flanks and belly, with white feathers emerging on the supercilium and malar region.
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Pigeon skeleton with "plowshare"-type pygostyle (number 17) Confuciusornis sanctus with "rod"-type pygostyle and the two central tail feathers Pygostyle describes a skeletal condition in which the final few caudal vertebrae are fused into a single ossification, supporting the tail feathers and musculature. In modern birds, the rectrices attach to these. The pygostyle is the main component of the uropygium, a structure colloquially known as the bishop's nose, parson's nose, pope's nose, or sultan's nose. This is the fleshy protuberance visible at the posterior end of a bird (most commonly a chicken or turkey) that has been dressed for cooking.
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The white feathers of the head and rump have concealed dark brown bases, while those of the mantle, back, tail rectrices and tail coverts have dark brown shaft bases. The two long tail feathers are orange or red with white bases for around a tenth of their length, and can be hard to see when the bird is flying. The white wings are marked by dark chevron-shaped patches on the tertials, and the dark shafts of the primary flight feathers are visible. The pink tinge is often more pronounced in the remiges of the upper wing.
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Within its genus, the bird is a typical member of the plain-coloured group due to its relatively small wings, fairly uniform upperparts and underparts without strong markings, relatively high tail / wing ratio, a convolute inner edge of the tarsus, and 12 rectrices. It is evidently most closely related to the brown-banded antpitta, G. milleri, because of similarities in voice and measurements and its generally plain plumage. Barrera and Bartels and other ornithologists have suggested that it is most closely related to the probably extinct subspecies G. m. gilesi,Salaman, Donegan and Prŷs-Jones (2009).
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The scapulars (shoulder feathers) are white, and the wings are black with a white bar made up by the bases of the primary remiges, continuing slightly offset onto the bases of the secondary remiges in some regions. The tail is black, long, and pointed at the tip; the outer rectrices have white outer vanes. The underparts are white, slightly tinged with grey in most subspecies. In particular the breast is usually darker and sometimes browner than the rest of the light underside, and may appear as an indistinct band between the lighter belly and white throat.
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Life restoration by Emily Willoughby The skeletal morphology of Serikornis suggests a terrestrial ecology without flying adaptations. The tail is covered proximally by filaments and distally by fine rectrices. Symmetrical, barbule- free remiges are attached along the forelimbs and elongated feathers of the hind limbs extend to the toes, suggesting that the remiges of the hind legs had evolved in the maniraptorans residing on the ground before being co-opted to an arboreal lifestyle and possibly, gliding. The coracoid of Serikornis is devoid of diagnostic ornamentation present in Anchiornis but is distinguished by having the tuberculous coracoid elongated to form a crest.
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Despite being quite similar in their appearance, the common snipe and the Wilson's snipe have several morphological differences that allow for there to be differences in their drumming behaviour. The most noted difference being that the Wilson's snipe has more rectrices compared to the common snipe. When the discovery was made that this mysterious drumming sound was produced by snipe, there were many naturalists that wanted to learn how the sound was actually being produced — this led to a number of experimental studies. The first of many was conducted in the year 1830 by a German scientist Johann Friedrich Naumann who proposed that the sound was being produced by the wings.
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Lanius tephronotus.Gray Backed Shrike by 李享，China 21–25 cm; 39-54g. Shrike with long tail. Nominate race has black lowermost forehead (just over base of bill) and facial mask through lores and eye to rear ear-coverts; crown to nape and most of upperparts dark grey, small rufous rump patch; upperwing black, most wing-coverts, secondaries and tertials fringed pale rufous to whitish, sometimes tiny white patch at base of primaries (often lacking); tail chestnut-brown, tipped buffish, outermost pair of rectrices light brown; throat and undertail brownish-grey; iris dark brown; bill black or dark green; legs dull black or dark green.
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The dull-mantled antbird is long and weighs around . Overall, these birds look essentially blackish grey in the front half and dark reddish brown in the hind part, with a black wing-patch with white spots right where the two main colors meet. But in the dusky forest understory, the birds may appear all-black, with only the white spotting standing out.Zimmer & Isler (2003a) The plumage of the male is blackish grey on the head, neck, upper mantle and on the underside up to the upper belly, and reddish brown on most of the remaining upperparts and underparts; remiges and rectrices are somewhat darker, with dark reddish brown edges.
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The adult tropical gnatcatcher is long, and weighs . Its "jizz" is similar to that of other gnatcatchers; a small bird with a relatively long thin bill, a long frequently cocked tail, grey upperparts and whitish underparts. The central rectrices are black, while the outer are white (consequently, the tail appears primarily black from above, white from below), and there is a white patch in the wing (caused by broad white edging to the tertials). Males of the nominate group have a contrasting black cap that reaches just below the eye, while this is lacking in females, which instead have a grey cap (same colour as back).
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They found that P. cerviniventris showed distinct morphological and plumage variation when compared to P. superciliosa, including larger size, rich tawny-rufous flanks, white tipping on all rectrices, and duskier grey-brown upper dorsum. Schodde and Mason also note that there is no evidence of recent genetic flow between the two taxa across the Gulf of Carpentaria, and morphological differences are most extreme for populations that are closest in terms of distribution. Subsequent genetic analysis indicates that while they are closely related, the two taxa display a degree of genetic divergence that is consistent with their recognition as separate species.Christidis, L. and Boles, W. (2008).
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Though mimids were widely considered Turdidae until the 1850s, this was not any more correct than treating them as Old World flycatchers, as these three families are distinct lineages of the superfamily Muscicapoidea. In the mid-20th century, the Turdidae and even most of the Sylvioidea were lumped in the Muscicapidae—but the Mimidae were not. Lastly, the smaller gray catbirds from Bermuda, which have proportionally narrow and shorter rectrices and primary remiges, were described as subspecies bermudianus ("from Bermuda") by Outram Bangs in 1901. But this taxon was never widely accepted, and today the gray catbird is generally considered monotypic as a species, too.
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The helmsmen in the center of the queue are the last rectrices to be renovated. Molting in the capital region involves changing the feathers of the pileus and the sides of the head. It is one of the last parts of the body to begin feather replacement, but the renewal of most of the capital feathers is complete before that of the secondary feathers, tail feathers, and under-wing feathers. The beginning of the molt in this region coincides with the beginning of the development of the primary remige V or VI. Some individuals have already started replacing the capital feathers by mid- August.
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As the name implies, Antillean crested hummingbird is one of the few hummingbirds with a crest. It demonstrates the general sexual dimorphism for hummingbirds where the male is bright and colorful whilst the female is more tannish and dull. Males have a short straight black bill; head with green crest, tipped metallic green to bright blue-green, upperparts dull metallic bronze-green; underparts sooty black; tail black, rounded. The female bill is similar to male’s but it's head is without a crest; the forehead, crown and upperparts are metallic bronzy-green; underparts light grey; tail blackish, rounded, four outer rectrices broadly tipped whitish grey.
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An unusual arrangement of the wing bones would have prevented any flapping motion. The tail was very short compared to most troodontids and dromaeosaurids and also unlike members of those groups, the feet and toes were very slender, lacking highly curved claws for predation or climbing. Unusually, the tail of the only known fossil does not show signs of the presence of complex vaned feathers (rectrices), and the lower tarsals and feet appear to have been featherless, unlike many related species with "hind wings" on the lower legs and feet. A researcher from the University of Southampton said in 2013 the discovery of Eosinopteryx suggests "that the origin of flight was much more complex than previously thought".
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The remiges, rectrices, alula, medium, greater and primary coverts are a dark grey colour with a brown tinge, with bright greyish-green outer edges. The juvenile resembles the adults, but has looser, fluffier plumage and, possibly as a result of this, slightly less yellow underparts. It has marginally whiter and more clear-cut pale tips to the greater coverts, and probably slightly more green on the anterior part of the lateral crown-stripes. “In plumage, the Limestone Leaf Warbler appears to be largely indistinguishable from P. ricketti, although as a result of the small number of specimens available for the Limestone Leaf Warbler and their poor quality, detailed comparisons are difficult to make.
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Similicaudipteryx also differed from its relatives by possessing a dagger-shaped pygostyle (the bone at the end of the tail to which feathers anchor in birds) consisting of the two most extreme tail vertebrae and several unique features of the back vertebrae. The pubic bone was exceptionally long relative to the ilium. The only other oviraptorosaur reported to have a pygostyle is Nomingia, though the feature is widespread in more advanced birds and appears to have evolved at least twice. The holotype specimen lacks traces of feathers, but He and colleagues speculated that they were probably present based on its pygostyle, the anchor point of long tail feathers (rectrices) in modern birds.
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The black grouse is a large bird with males measuring roughly around in length and weighing , sometimes up to , with females approximately and weighing . The cock's fancy plumage is predominantly black with deep-blue hues on his neck and back, which contrasts the white wingline and undertail coverts, as well as red bare skin above each eye. On the other hand, the hen is much drabber and cryptically-colored to blend in easily with the dense undergrowth, especially when nesting. The black grouse, along with the Caucasian grouse, has long outer rectrices (tail feathers) that curl outward and arranged in a way it resembles the frame of a Greek lyre, hence the genus name, Lyrurus.
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Adult individuals have a black sub-ocular line starting from the gape to the nape (McGregor, 1909) followed by a white line from the posterior border of the eye to the nape (Carino, 2009; McGregor, 1909). In general, these birds have brown feathers but the crown is pale gray and the chin and upper throat is tawny (Baptista et al., 2017). In addition, lower breast and abdomen are slightly pale yellow which is much paler than the posterior part, the under tail- coverts are dark pearl-gray and the wings are brown with the primaries having pale edges, and the rectrices each having a wide gray band on the terminal end (McGregor, 1909).
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The adult males (drakes) in alternate plumage have a black, iridescent head and a small tuft at the hindcrown, a black breast, a whitish-grey back and wings with darker vermiculations and black outer and greyish-brown inner primary remiges. The underparts are white with some olive vermiculations on the flanks, and the rectrices and tail coverts are black. Adult females (hens) have a white band at the base of the bill, often a lighter ear region, and are otherwise dark brown all over, shading to white on the mid-belly. Drakes in eclipse plumage look similar, but with a very dark head and breast, little or no white on the head and usually some greyish vermiculations on the wings.
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The sexes of this icterid are very different in size: the male is 52 cm (21 in) long and weighs 550 g (1.2 lbs); the smaller female is 41 cm (16 in) long and weighs 260 g (9.2 oz). Confusingly, the name "olive oropendola" is usually used for this combined species, despite the fact that the nominate subspecies has no olive to its plumage, as its head and chest are black (these are olive in P. b. yuracares). The back, wings and belly of this large oropendola are brown, the outer rectrices are yellow (i.e. tail appears all yellow from below), the bare facial skin is pink, the eyes are brown, and the bill is black with an orange tip.
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Because many enantiornitheans lacked complex tails and possessed radically different wing anatomy compared to modern birds, they have been the subject of several studies testing their flight capabilities. Traditionally, they have been considered inferior flyers, due to the shoulder girdle anatomy being assumed to be more primitive and unable to support a ground-based launching mechanism, as well as due to the absence of rectrices in many species. However, several studies have shown that they were efficient flyers, like modern birds, possessing a similarly complex nervous system and wing feather ligaments. Additionally, the lack of a complex tail appears to not have been very relevant for avian flight as a whole - some extinct birds like lithornids also lacked complex tail feathers but were good flyers,Houde, Peter W. (1988).
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The bill and frontal shield were red, and the iris was red or brown. According to notes written on an illustration by an unknown artist (in the collection of the artist Thomas Watling, inaccurately dated 1792), the chicks were black and became bluish-grey and then white as they matured. The Vienna specimen is pure white, but the Liverpool specimen has yellowish reflections on its neck and breast, blackish-blue feathers speckled on the head (concentrated near the upper surface of the shield) and neck, blue feathers on the breast, and purplish-blue feathers on the shoulders, back, scapular and lesser covert feathers. Some of the rectrices (tail feathers) are purplish-brown, and some of the scapular feathers and those on the mid-back are sooty-brown at the base and sooty-blue further up.
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The upperwing is mostly black, with white edges on the secondaries; the underwing coverts are white (with some fragments of black on the "arm"), while the underside of the flight feathers are light grey. The tail feathers (rectrices) are mostly black above (but may appear brown in some lighting) with nearly invisible white tips, and mainly white to a very light grey below. The bill is mostly black, as well as the upward-facing nostrils (which are unique only to the diving-petrels), the legs and feet are a light slate-blue to light blue with black-brownish webs, and black claws, and the eyes are a very dark brown color. It only overlaps with the Peruvian diving-petrel, P. garnotii, but the two are distinguishable by the visible white crescent of the Magellanic vs.
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Within the trogon family, there are two subfamilies: Apaloderminae, or African trogons (example genus: Apaloderma); and Trogoninae, or non-African trogons. In the non-African trogons, the two front toes are always at least partially fused, which serves them like spades in excavation of nesting sites. P. pavoninus falls within the tribe Trogonini, which only includes the new world trogons and the quetzals. A few other defining characteristics of this tribe include physical descriptors such as uniform and iridescent green to blue head, throat, upper breast and upper parts; and contrasting red to yellow underparts; as well as a colourful, bare eye ring; a serrated or notched upper mandible near the tip of the bill only; and in females and juveniles, the presence of noticeable black and white patterns on the three outer pairs of tail feathers (rectrices).
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Juveniles are similar to adults with a brown back, feathers with buffy tips and darker brown central streaks, greater coverts edged with white, and light streaking on breast and throat. noted that some birds, mainly in the eastern part of their range, tend to be more rufous above, slightly buffier below, and have plainer tails with less obvious shaft streaks and barring on the central rectrices. Although rarer, even in the eastern part of the range, the rufous morph has been observed as far away as the Farallon Islands off California.J. Dunning personal communication cited by reports on an unusual sequence of molts and plumages in Cassin's and Bachman's sparrows – replacement of all pennaceous body plumage twice within a bird's first six months of age, and a gradual molt of body feathers in adults throughout the breeding season.
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