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 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 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 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
Spotted Cucumber Beetle - Diabrotica undecimpunctata - also known as the Southern Corn Rootworm.
Field Marigold - Calendula arvensis.
Adult Cucumber Beetles are yellow to green with eleven black / dark spots on the elytra (for a better look at the coloration and spots, try this photo). This particular specimen was bright yellow but appeared orange underneath the petal of this Field Marigold.
Spotted Cucumber Beetles, or Southern Corn Rootworm Beetles, are considered big-time pests of crops and other plants. Click here for information on a related species, the Northern Corn Rootworm. Both beetles are known as skeletonizing leaf beetles (along with flea beetles and a host of others), because they eat the fleshy parts of the leaf but leave the “veins” and other thicker parts of the leaf untouched, leaving the leaves looking like skeletons.
For most of the year I only noticed a few Spotted Cucumber Beetles and only in my yellow Day Lillies. I now have dozens of them all over my Mums (especially the yellow ones), as well as the Field Marigolds, sunflowers, and yellow Day Lillies. Maybe they flew in from the nearby corn fields now that it is getting harvest time… In any event, they seem to prefer the yellow flowers.
Photo taken with the Canon Digital Rebel XT / 350D and the Sigma 70-300mm Lens on October 5, 2008 in Davenport, Iowa.
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
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