"V formation A V formation (sometimes called a skein) is the symmetric V-shaped flight formation of flights of geese, ducks, and other migratory birds. V formations also improve the fuel efficiency of aircraft and are used on military flight missions. The V formation possibly improves the efficiency of flying birds, particularly over long migratory routes. All the birds except the first fly in the upwash from one of the wingtip vortices of the bird ahead. The upwash assists each bird in supporting its own weight in flight, in the same way a glider can climb or maintain height indefinitely in"
"process often includes a flying duet, with the male chasing the female through the air; and, often the flock will contain many breeding pairs. One of the distinctive features of flying flocks of geese is their typical ""V"" or wedge-shaped formation, and the loud vocalizations which accompany them on their flight. A lone goose is somewhat of an anomaly in nature. Geese and their eggs have been used for food, their feathers for thermal insulation and other purposes, and their arrivals and departures as seasonal indicators. Human interactions with geese have often included hunting wild geese with projectile weapons, raising"
"height indefinitely in rising air. Geese flying in a V formation save energy by flying in the updraft of the wingtip vortex generated by the previous animal in the formation. Thus, the birds flying behind do not need to work as hard to achieve lift. Studies show that birds in a V formation place themselves roughly at the optimum distance predicted by simple aerodynamic theory. Geese in a V-formation may conserve 12–20% of the energy they would need to fly alone. Red knots and dunlins were found in radar studies to fly 5 km per hour faster in flocks than"
"rising air. According to a 1970 paper, in a V formation of 25 members, each bird can achieve a reduction of induced drag and as a result increase their range by 71%. The birds flying at the tips and at the front are rotated in a timely cyclical fashion to spread flight fatigue equally among the flock members. Canada geese are a common example demonstrating the V formation. The ""V"", or ""Vic"" formation is a basic flight formation for military aircraft in many air forces. The Vic formation is also common in ceremonial flyovers and airshow flights. Air Mobility Command,"
"roughly 7 years. This noisy bird communicates by squeaky ""Wheedelee"" sounds. You can also hear them screaming ""jay-jay"". Many people who feed blue jays in their backyards are seeing one population of blue jays in the winter and another population in the summer. The Canada goose is the largest wild goose in the world. It is a monogamous species, which means when pairs form they stay together for life. Each flock has a king goose who leads their group. Most geese are found in Alberta. This animal migrates in a 'V' formation and they migrate September to October. In ten"
"and go through the migration much faster. The later birds usually spend more time at rest stops. Some geese return to the same nesting ground year after year and lay eggs with their mate, raising them in the same way each year. This is recorded from the many tagged geese which frequent the East Coast. Canada geese fly in a distinctive V-shaped flight formation, with an altitude of 1 km (3,000 feet) for migration flight. The maximum flight ceiling of Canada geese is unknown, but they have been reported at 9 km (29,000 feet). Flying in the V formation has"
"the ground is a ""gaggle""; when in flight, they are called a ""skein"", a ""team"", or a ""wedge""; when flying close together, they are called a ""plump"". The three living genera of true geese are: ""Anser"", grey geese, including the greylag goose, and domestic geese; ""Chen"", white geese (often included in ""Anser""); and ""Branta"", black geese, such as the Canada goose. Two genera of geese are only tentatively placed in the Anserinae; they may belong to the shelducks or form a subfamily on their own: ""Cereopsis"", the Cape Barren goose, and ""Cnemiornis"", the prehistoric New Zealand goose. Either these or,"
"migratory with the wintering range being most of the United States. The calls overhead from large groups of Canada geese flying in V-shaped formation signal the transitions into spring and autumn. In some areas, migration routes have changed due to changes in habitat and food sources. In mild climates from south western British Columbia to California to the Great Lakes, some of the population has become nonmigratory due to adequate winter food supply and a lack of former predators. Males exhibit agonistic behavior both on and off breeding and nesting grounds. This behavior rarely involves interspecific killing. One documented case"
"and locally in western Canada and northern Mexico. The calls overhead from large groups of cackling geese flying in V-shaped formation signal the transitions into spring and fall. In some areas, migration routes have changed due to changes in habitat and food sources. Cackling geese have occasionally reached western Europe naturally, as has been proved by ringing recoveries. The birds are of at least the subspecies ""hutchinsii"", and possibly others. Cackling geese are also found naturally on occasions in the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Siberia, eastern China, and throughout Japan. These birds feed mainly on plant material. When feeding in"
"Geese are monogamous, living in permanent pairs throughout the year; however, unlike most other permanently monogamous animals, they are territorial only during the short nesting season. Paired geese are more dominant and feed more, two factors that result in more young. Some mainly Southern Hemisphere birds are called ""geese"", most of which belong to the shelduck subfamily Tadorninae. These are: Others: Well-known sayings about geese include: Goose Geese are waterfowl of the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera ""Anser"" (the grey geese) and ""Branta"" (the black geese)."" Chen"", a genus comprising 'white geese', is sometimes used to refer to"
"fuel saving. Tests in 2013 produced even greater fuel savings. Cooperative fluid dynamics techniques like drafting are also found in nature. Flocks of geese and some other birds fly in a V formation because the wingtip vortices generated by the front bird will create up-wash circulations. The birds flying behind will receive lift force from these up-wash vortices. Thus other birds in the flock do not need to work as hard to achieve lift. Studies show that birds in a V formation place themselves roughly at the optimum distance predicted by simple aerodynamic theory. Drafting (aerodynamics) Drafting or slipstreaming is"
"the wild. Wild cavies are found on grassy plains and occupy an ecological niche similar to that of cattle. They are social, living in the wild in small groups that consist of several females (sows), a male (boar), and the young (which, in a break with the preceding porcine nomenclature, are called ""pups"" not ""piglets""). They move together in groups (herds) eating grass or other vegetation, and do not store food. While they do not burrow themselves or build nests, they frequently seek shelter in the burrows of other animals, as well as in crevices and tunnels formed by vegetation."
"led to conflicts with farming, when large flocks of geese graze crops in the winter. Anser (bird) The waterfowl genus Anser includes all grey geese (and sometimes the white geese). Its name is derived from ""anser"" the Latin for ""goose"". It belongs to the true geese and swan subfamily (Anserinae). The genus has a Holarctic distribution, with at least one species breeding in any open, wet habitats in the subarctic and cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in summer. Some also breed further south, reaching into warm temperate regions. They mostly migrate south in winter, typically to regions in"
"A group of vultures is called a kettle, committee or wake. The term ""kettle"" refers to vultures in flight, while ""committee"" refers to vultures resting on the ground or in trees. ""Wake"" is reserved for a group of vultures that are feeding. The word ""Geier"" (taken from the German language) does not have a precise meaning in ornithology; it is occasionally used to refer to a vulture in English, as in some poetry. The Old World vultures found in Africa, Asia, and Europe belong to the family Accipitridae, which also includes eagles, kites, buzzards, and hawks. Old World vultures find"
"Vega gull The Vega gull, East Siberian gull, or East Siberian herring gull (""Larus vegae"") is a large gull of the herring gull/lesser black-backed gull complex which breeds in North-east Asia. Its classification is still controversial and uncertain. It is variously treated as a separate species, as a subspecies of American herring gull (""L. smithsonianus"") or included with both the American herring gull and European herring gull in ""L. argentatus"". The Mongolian gull, ""Larus mongolicus"", has previously been regarded as a subspecies of the Caspian gull (""L. cachinnans"") but is now sometimes lumped with the Vega gull. The Vega gull"
"Ovis Ovis is a genus of mammals, part of the goat-antelope subfamily of the ruminant family Bovidae. Its five or more highly sociable species are known as sheep. The domestic sheep is one member of the genus, and is thought to be descended from the wild mouflon of central and southwest Asia. Female sheep are called ""ewes"", males are called ""rams"" (sometimes also called ""bucks"" or ""tups""), and young sheep are called ""lambs"". The adjective applying to sheep is ""ovine"", and the collective term for sheep is ""flock"" or ""mob"". The term ""herd"" is also occasionally used in this sense."
"known as the Swan Goose or the Chinese Goose. True geese are difficult to differentiate into genus or species based on anatomical differences other than coloration, especially if the geese occur, as they often do in poetry, in the distance, flying, and perhaps even more heard than seen: but, the genus and species identification is not generally of importance in Chinese poetry, although whether the goose is wild or domestic is of importance. Geese are social animals, and tend to appear in flocks of many individuals; and, as they tend to pair up to mate, which as part of the"
"cliffs (厂) in flocks that are in the shape of the character 人 (rén, meaning ""person"": the actual form used [亻] is a variant for character composition). The Classical character for domestic goose is 鵝 (Hanyu Pinyin ""é"", Tang ""ngɑ""). Another character commonly used for a wild goose is 鴻 (Pinyin: ""hóng"", Tang *hung4): this is sometimes translated as a ""bean goose"", in English; however, since these species are similar to other geese in the genus ""Anser"", this is not particularly important for most poetry, especially since there is less than complete agreement among the scientific experts in regard to"
"Egyptian geese, Eurasian wigeon, gadwall, garden warbler, garganey, great crested grebe, great spotted woodpecker, green sandpiper, greenshank, green woodpecker, grey heron, greylag geese, hobby, jay, kingfisher, lapwing, lesser whitethroat, linnet, little egret, little grebe, little ringed plover, mallard, Mandarin, marsh harrier, marsh tit, Mediterranean gull, moorhen, mute swan, northern pochard, northern wheatear, nuthatch, osprey, oystercatcher, peregrine falcon, pied flycatcher, pintail, red-crested pochard, red kite, red knot, redshank, reed warbler, ruff, spotted flycatcher, sand martin, Savi's warbler, sedge warbler, shelduck, shoveler, sinensis cormorant, spotted crake, stock dove, swallow, swift, tawny owl, treecreeper, tufted duck, water rail, whimbrel, whooper swan, willow warbler,"
"would periodically pop-up and make a joke or comment on user actions or system events. Moose The moose (North America) or elk (Eurasia), ""Alces alces"" is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the largest and heaviest extant species in the Deer family. Moose are distinguished by the broad, palmate (""open-hand shaped"") antlers of the males; other members of the deer family have antlers with a dendritic (""twig-like"") configuration. Moose typically inhabit boreal forests and temperate broadleaf and mixed forests of the Northern Hemisphere in temperate to subarctic climates. Hunting and other human activities have caused a"
"and who leaves no trace. Geophaps Geophaps is a small genus of doves in the order Columbiformes. Established by George Robert Gray, it contains three extant species. A fourth species, the crested pigeon is placed within the genus ""Geophaps"" in some works. The plumage and distribution of ""Geophaps"" species suggests that all species within the genus have formed from a common ancestor and that through adaptive radiation they have varied greatly in size, shape and ecology The name ""Geophaps"" is a combination of the Greek words ""geō"" meaning ""ground"" and ""phaps"", meaning ""pigeon"". Pigeons and doves are placed in their"
"Vagaceratops Vagaceratops (meaning ""wandering (""vagus"", Latin) horned face"", in reference to its close relationship with ""Kosmoceratops"" from Utah) is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur. It is a chasmosaurine ceratopsian which lived during the Late Cretaceous period (late Campanian) in what is now Alberta. Its fossils have been recovered from the Upper Dinosaur Park Formation. ""Vagaceratops"" is known primarily from three fossil skulls. Although the general structure was typical of ceratopsids (i.e. a parrot-like beak, large neck frill, and nasal horn) it has some peculiarities. The skulls are characterized by a reduced supraorbital horn, brow horns that are reduced to"
"the ground in a bare scrape near water, laying 6-10 eggs. It is territorial in the breeding season, but otherwise forms small flocks. It had been considered a member of the genus ""Chloephaga"", but recent studies suggest placement in the genus ""Neochen"". Andean geese have developed a mutation in their hemoglobin that has led to a vast increase in hemoglobin-oxygen affinity. More specifically, Hiebl et al. found that the Andean goose has developed mutations that lead to five amino-acid substitutions in the alpha-chain and five substitutions in the beta-chain of their hemoglobin. A particular substitution in the Andean goose beta-chain"
"ducks, geese, and other basal neognaths. In 2017 a phylogenetic study Agnolín and colleagues have found ""Vegavis"" to be stem-anseriforms along with ""Polarornis"", ""Neogaeornis"" and ""Australornis"" in the family Vegaviidae. Vegavis Vegavis is a genus of extinct bird that lived during the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian stage) of Antarctica, some 68 to 66 mya. Among modern birds, ""Vegavis"" is most closely related to ducks and geese (Anatidae), but it is not considered to be a direct ancestor of them. The genus name, ""Vegavis"", is a combination of the name of Vega Island and ""avis"", the Latin word for bird. The species"
"Herd A herd is a social group of certain animals of the same species, either wild or domestic. The form of collective animal behavior associated with this is referred to as ""herding"". The term ""herd"" is generally applied to mammals, and most particularly to the grazing ungulates that classically display this behaviour. Different terms are used for similar groupings in other species; in the case of birds, for example, the word is ""flocking"", but ""flock"" may also be used, in certain instances, for mammals, particularly sheep or goats. A group of quail is often referred to as a covey. Large"
"Inverted wedge The inverted wedge is a military formation resembling a ""V"" or inverted triangle, and is sometimes known as a ""V-formation"". In the inverted wedge, two units advance abreast of each other, and a third unit follows behind and between the two, in reserve. It is roughly the reverse of the flying wedge formation. The inverted wedge is particularly effective for encircling an enemy force, village, or other strategic objective. The leading units envelop the objective to the right and left, while the remaining unit is free to search, attack, or support one or both of the leading units"
"Snow goose The snow goose (""Anser caerulescens""), consisting of both a white phase and blue phase (blue goose), is a North American species of goose commonly collectively referred to as ""light geese"". Its name derives from the typically white plumage. Many taxonomic authorities placed this species and the other ""white geese"" in the genus ""Chen"". Most authorities now follow the traditional treatment of placing these species in the ""gray goose"" genus ""Anser"". The scientific name is from the Latin ""anser"", ""goose"", and "" caerulescens"", ""bluish"", derived from ""caeruleus "", ""dark blue"". This goose breeds north of the timberline in Greenland,"
"using agricultural land a short distance inland, feeding extensively on grass and winter-sown cereals. This may be behavior learned by following other species of geese. Food resource pressure may also be important in forcing this change, as the world population has risen over 10-fold to 400,000-500,000 by the mid-1980s, possibly reaching the carrying capacity of the estuaries. In the breeding season, it uses low-lying wet coastal tundra for both breeding and feeding. The nest is bowl-shaped, lined with grass and down, in an elevated location, often in a small pond. The brant goose is one of the species to which"
"the tale can be a good or a bad omen. The motif was eventually introduced from Chinese to Japanese and Korean cultures. The constellation Vulpecula represents a fox. Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. Foxes have a flattened skull, upright triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ""brush""). Twelve species belong to the monophyletic ""true foxes"" group of genus ""Vulpes"". Approximately another 25 current or extinct species are always or sometimes called foxes; these foxes are either part of the paraphyletic group of the South American"
"Vanguard Formation The Vanguard Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Callovian to Oxfordian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It takes the name from Vanguard, and was first defined by R.L. Milner and G.E. Thomas in 1954. The Vanguard Formation is composed of calcareous shale with a median quartzose sandstone. The Vanguard Formation Lateral reaches a maximum thickness of in the Williston Basin along the Saskatchewan/Montana border. The Vanguard Formation is unconformably overlain by the Mannville Group and disconformably overlays the Shaunavon Formation. It is equivalent to the Ellis Group in Montana and North Dakota. in south-western Saskatchewan, Vanguard"
"the subsurface of West Virginia and thus these formations are reduced from ""group"" to ""formation"" as the Greenland Gap Formation. Rossbach and Dennison (1994) extended the Foreknobs into the Catawba syncline of southwestern Virginia. The Foreknobs is divided into the following Members, in ascending order: Mallow Member, Briery Gap Sandstone Member, Blizzard Member, Pound Sandstone Member, and Red Lick Member Red beds within the Foreknobs contain scattered marine fossils, such as brachiopods. Type section: along WV Highway 42, 0.48 km northwest of Scherr, Grant County, West Virginia Relative age dating places the Foreknobs in the Late Devonian. Foreknobs Formation The"
"America. It breeds in northern Canada and Alaska in a variety of tundra habitats. However, the nest is usually located in an elevated area near water. The eggs are laid in a shallow depression lined with plant material and down. Males can be very aggressive in defending territory. A pair may mate for life (up to around 20 years). Adult geese are often seen leading their goslings in a line with one parent at the front, and the other at the back of the ""parade"". Like most geese, it is naturally migratory, the wintering range being most of the U.S.,"
"Viking Formation The Viking Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Cretaceous age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It takes the name from the town of Viking, Alberta, and was first described in the Viking-Kinsella oil field by Dowling in 1919. The Viking Formation is composed of fine to coarse grained sandstone with interbeds of conglomerate and cherty conglomeratic sandstone. Nodular phosphorite, coal fragments and concretionary siderite occur in the coarse beds. Oil is produced from the Viking Formation in eastern and central Alberta as well as in west-central Saskatchewan. The Viking Formation had an initial established recoverable oil reserve"