Golden Fenghuang (Fenghuang aurata) In the Holocene, some pheasant’s species are among the most beautiful birds, with males having vivid colors. In the Neocene the pheasants continued with their beautiful colors, an example is the golden fenghuang (fenghuang in mythology is the name of the Chinese phoenix), a descendant of the golden pheasant. Living in the forests of Far East, the male golden fenghuang have a length of 195 cm from the beak to their long tail and the female have 87 cm. The males have a golden erectile crest, which is usually left flat, giving a hammerhead shape to head. During the courtship, the male open their crests like a fan and start to display to the female, standing in front of them with their crest raised and wings outstretched, vocalizing. When raised, the crest displays a remarkable combination of scarlet and yellow. They form leks of close related males. At a lek, the males maintain small territories next to each other. Besides the crest, the males have more colorful plumage in their bodies. Their face, throat, chin, and the sides of neck are orange. The wattles and orbital skin are both yellow in color. The upper back is green and the rest of the back and rump is golden-yellow. The tertiaries are metallic blue whereas the scapulars are metallic red. Their long central tail feathers are reddish golden with black spots. The upper tail coverts are the same color as the central tail feathers. The male also has a scarlet breast, and scarlet and light yellow flanks and underparts. The females have a duller mottled brown plumage all over and their tail is short (50 cm) if compared to the males (100 cm). In both sexes the beaks, legs and feet are a dull yellow. They eat berries, grubs, seeds and invertebrates. The golden fenghuang is polygamous, the male will mate with several females. The nest is a shallow scrape in the ground lined with leaves, sticks and other debris. The female lay 7 to 12 eggs and are incubated only by her for 24-28 days. The chicks are nidifugous and follow the mother around after hatching, staying with the female for two months. The young males are similar to the female until they reach their sexual maturity with six months, at this time they acquire the plumage of the male. Their lifespan is of 27 years. Another species, the Silver fenghuang (Fenghuang argentata) lives in the montane forests near the Himalayas. Their main features of the males are the metallic white crest and white central tail feathers with black spots. The females are similar to the golden species. The males have 120 cm and the females 79 cm.
Red-headed shelduck (Tadorna rubrocephala) The red-headed shelduck is a member of the Genus Tadorna, a descendant of the ruddy shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea). This duck lives on the Baikal Lake and Siberia wetlands, in the winter they migrate to the marshes of Southeastern Asian.
The red-headed shelduck grows to a length of 60 cm and has a 124 cm wingspan. The male has white body plumage, a chestnut breast and a bright red neck and head, separated from the neck by a narrow black collar. The rump, flight feathers, tail-coverts and tail feathers are black and there are iridescent green speculum feathers on the inner surfaces of the wings. Both upper and lower wing-coverts are orange-brown, this feature being particularly noticeable in flight but hardly visible when the bird is at rest. The bill is and legs are dark grey. The female is similar but has a pale red head and neck and lacks the black collar, and in both sexes, the color of the head fades as the feathers age.
It is omnivorous and feeds on grasses, the young shoots of plants, grain and water plants as well as both aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates. On land it grazes on the foliage, in the water it dabbles in the shallows, and at greater depths, it up-ends, but it does not dive.
There is a strong pair bond between the male and female and they pair for life. During the breeding, the birds are very aggressive towards their own kind and towards other species. The female in particular approaches intruders with head lowered and neck outstretched, uttering anger calls. If the intruder stands its ground, the female returns to the male and runs round him, inciting him to attack. He may or may not do so. Mating takes place on the water after a brief courtship ritual involving neck stretching, head dipping and tail rising. The nesting site is often far away from water in a hole, a crevice in a cliff, among sand-dunes or in an animal burrow. The nest is constructed by the female using feathers and down and some grasses.
The female lay 6-12 creamy-white eggs. Incubation is done by the female while the male stands in attendance nearby. The eggs hatch after about 27 days and both parents care for the young, which fledge in a further 53 days. After breeding the adults moult, losing the power of flight for about a month while they do so. Before moulting they move to large water bodies where they can more easily avoid predation while they are flightless. The family may stay together as a group for some time, joining the flocks during the migration. The young reach sexual maturity in their second year, when the males acquire the bright red head and neck of the adults. Their lifespan is of 28 years.
White-headed scoter (Melanitta leucocephala)
A descendant of white-winged scoter, the white-headed scoter breeds in the Baikal Lake and winters in the coastal areas of the Sea of Japan, with the entire population of the species forming a large flock during migration.
The white-headed scoter is a large duck; the males have 65 cm of length and the females 58 cm of length, their wingspan is of 135 cm. The males have a black body plumage and a white head. The females and juveniles are brown with pale head patches. Both sexes have bulky shape and large bill, which is yellow with a black knob in the base. Their legs are dark grey.
When in the lake, they eat insects and crustaceans, with the amphipods being the most eat prey. During the winter at the sea, the white-headed scoter eats crustaceans and mollusks. Both in freshwater and in saltwater, they dive in search of their prey.
The males perform a display, the body is low in the water and the head is tilted forward and downward, after chose the female will mimic the male. Pair-bonds are normally renewed each year, with pair-forming behavior beginning on wintering areas. Males leave their mates during early stages of incubation and make extensive flights to their feeding areas in the lake.
The lined nest is built on the ground close to the lake and 6–12 pinkish eggs are laid. The incubation period can range from 25 to 30 days. After about 21 days, neighboring females may start to behave aggressively towards other nesting females, resulting in confusion and mixing of broods. By the time she is done brooding, a female may be tending to as much as 40 offspring due to the mixing from these conflicts. The female will tend to her brood for up to 3 weeks and then abandon them, but the young will usually stay together from another 3 weeks. Flight capacity is thought to be gained at 63 to 77 days of age. The young reach the sexual maturity with 2 years, at this age the young males acquire their characteristic white head.
Отправлено: 11.01.26 21:37. Заголовок: I made the descripti..
I made the description of another mammal for Seram Island:
Ant-eater bandicoot (Marsupiomyrmercophaga bandicoota) Order: Peramelemorphia Family: Peramelidae Habitat: Tropical rainforests of Seram Island The ice age during the boundary between the Holocene and Neocene resulted in the decreasing of the sea level, allowing the connection between the North of Meganesia and the nearby islands. As a result, some species moved into these new areas. One of these areas was Seram Island. Among these that arrived there was the striped bandicoot (Microperoryctes longicauda), who replaced the rare Seram bandicoot (Rhynchomeles prattorum) that didn’t survive in the Neocene. In the isolation of the tropical rainforests of Seram Island, the striped bandicoot gave rise to the ant-eater bandicoot. The ant-eater bandicoot is larger than its ancestor. It weighs between 60 and 80 kilograms. The body length is usually between 105 and 130 centimetres, with a tail that can be up to 70 cm. It stands 60 cm tall at the shoulder. It has a soft coat with a light brown back and upper torso. The face is sandy-brown with black face stripes. It has a greatly elongated head, similar to that of an aardvark (Orycteropus afer). The end of the snout bears a disc, which houses the nostrils. The hair surrounding it is dense to help filter particulate matter out as it digs. It has large and elongated ears. The claws are long, with those of the forelimbs being longer. They have a long tongue with stick saliva. This species eats mostly insects such as ants, termites and beetle larvae. It uses their strong claws to break ground nests of ants and termites to reach the insects, before using their long tongue and stick saliva to collect them. The ant-eater bandicoot also uses its claws to break the bark of dead trees to collect beetle larvae, using its developed ears to hear the sound of larvae eating the wood. The ant-eater bandicoot is solitary. Males occupy large home ranges compared to females and only consort with females for mating. This species is nocturnal, during the day it rests in a grass-lined nest inside an excavated den or a cave. Females have 8 nipples and can produce a maximum of 5 young in one litter with an average of 2 to 3 young. Gestation lasts just 30 days. Young are weaned at 67 days, and emergent juveniles remain dependent upon their mothers and forage with them until day 95. Given ideal conditions, females can have up to five litters per year although reproduction decreases during the dry season. Sexual maturity is reached within one year and the lifespan of the ant-eater bandicoot is 17 years.
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