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
In the “Ichneumon” Family (Kingdom Animalia (Animals), Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods), Class Insecta (Insects), Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies), No Taxon (parasitic Apocrita), Superfamily Ichneumonoidea (Braconids and Ichneumons), Family Ichneumonidae (Ichneumon Wasps)). According to Ross Hill, an Ichneumon expert, “[t]he exerted ovipositor, cylindric abdomen, orange coloration with black markings, and banded leg patterning are typical of many ichneumons in [the Pimplinae subfamily].” Going below the family (or subfamily) to Genus and species is very difficult (see below).
The larvae feed on a great variety of hosts, though most species attack only a few types of hosts; some ichneumons attack spiders. Most are internal parasites of the inmature stages of the host.
One of the largest families of insects with over 3100 species in North America (60,000 worldwide). The majority resemble slender wasps. They differ from the wasps that sting (Scolioidea, Vespoidea and Sphecoidea) in that they have the antennae longer and with more segments usually 16 or more). In many ichneumons the ovipositor is quite long, often longer than the body…
Many Ichneumons are of value in the control of noxious insects.
Ichneumonids are notoriously hard to identify: aside from the sheer number of species, there are numerous cases of distant relatives that appear almost identical. Any identification based solely on comparing images should be treated as suspect unless an expert has said there are no lookalikes for the species or group in question.
Photo taken with the Canon Digital Rebel XT / 350D and a Sigma 70-300mm Lens on May 25, 2009 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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