Every bird watcher and nature observer has his or her "lists." Here are mine for Birds, Insects, Mammals, Plants, Reptiles, and Crustaceans, complete with pull down menus.
BIRDS
Categorized by genus/species, placed chronologically by common name
American Coot
American Crow
American Flamingo*
American Goldfinch
American Kestrel
American Robin
American Tree Sparrow
American White Pelican
Bald Eagle
Baltimore Oriole
Barn Swallow
Belted Kingfisher
Black-Capped Chickadee
Black-Headed Gull*
Black Vulture*
Blue Jay
Blue-Winged Teal
Bobwhite
Broad-Winged Hawk
Brown Creeper
Brown-Headed Cowbird
Brown Thrasher
Bufflehead
Canada Goose
Canvasback
Cedar Waxwing
Chipping Sparrow
Common Grackle
Common Goldeneye
Common Pochard*
Common Redpoll
Cooper's Hawk
Dark-Eyed Junco
Double-Crested Cormorant
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Bluebird
Eastern Goldfinch - See American Goldfinch
Eastern Kingbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Towhee
Eurasian Coot*
European Starling
Fox Sparrow
Golden-Crowned Kinglet
Gray Catbird
Graylag Goose
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Greater Flamingo*
Hairy Woodpecker
Harlequin Duck
Hermit Thrush
Herring Gull
Horned Lark
House Finch
House Sparrow
House Wren
Indigo Bunting
Killdeer
Lesser Scaup
Lincoln's Sparrow
Mallard (Domestic)
Mallard (Wild)
Mourning Dove
Northern Cardinal
Northern Flicker
Northern Rough-Winged Swallow
Northern Shoveler
Orange-Crowned Warbler
Palm Warbler
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Red-Breasted Nuthatch
Red-Headed Woodpecker
Red-Tailed Hawk
Red-Winged Blackbird
Ring-Billed Gull
Ring-Necked Duck
Rock Pigeon
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
Scarlet Tanager
Solitary Sandpiper
Song Sparrow
Spotted Sandpiper
Swamp Sparrow
Tufted Duck*
Tufted Titmouse
Turkey Vulture
White-Breasted Nuthatch
White-Crowned Sparrow
White-Throated Sparrow
Wild Turkey
Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
Yellow-Rumped Warbler
INSECTS, ARACHNIDS, MYRIAPODS & GASTROPODS
Categorized by family, placed chronologically by common name
Flower Fly - In the Family Syrphidae (there are over 200 genera and 5,000 species), and thus are often called syrphid flies. This particular fly’s genus and species is possibly Toxomerus marginatus.
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Diptera (Flies)
No Taxon (Aschiza)
Family Syrphidae (Syrphid Flies)
Subfamily Syrphinae
Tribe Toxomerini
Genus Toxomerus
Species marginatus (Toxomerus marginatus)
Spiderwort - from the Genus Tradescantia (there are about 70 species).
At first I thought these little guys were honey bees, but their big red eyes made me think they might be some sort of a fly. Well, it turns out they are flower flies (also known as “hoverflies” and “syrphid flies”), but it’s not because they have big red eyes - it’s their wings. Bees have four wings while flies only have two. Their resemblance to bees merely serves as a form of protection from predators.
The spiderwort is a great natural wildflower that is a perennial in Iowa (actually, its range extends from Canada to Argentina). We found a small clump of it in a wooded area many years ago, transplanted a small stalk back home, and now have it growing in huge clumps in the yards of many of my relatives. Because it spreads, it is often considered a weed. How a beautiful purple flower that likes to come up every year in new places counts as a weed, I’ll never know! Also known as Spider-lily, Cradle-lily, Oyster-plant and Flowering Inch Plant.
This blog is about: Iowa, Illinois, Midwest, United States, nature, wildlife, animals, birds, ornithology, insects, bugs, entomology, Davenport, Bettendorf, Rock Island, Moline, Quad, City, Cities
Leave a Reply
For the most part, free speech rules. But I do reserve the right to delete offensive comments.