"Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area The Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area has one of the densest populations of nesting raptors. The National Conservation Area (NCA) is located south of Boise, Idaho along of the Snake River, and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The NCA covers . In descending order of land area it is located in Ada, Elmore, Owyhee, and Canyon counties. Section 2301 of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009, section 2301 renamed the area as the Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National"
"Pennaraptora Pennaraptora (Latin ""penna"" ""bird feather"" + ""raptor"" ""thief"", from ""rapere"" ""snatch""; a feathered bird-like predator) is a clade defined as the most recent common ancestor of ""Oviraptor philoceratops"", ""Deinonychus antirrhopus"", and ""Passer domesticus"" (the house sparrow), and all descendants thereof, by Foth ""et al."", 2014. The earliest known definitive member of this clade is ""Anchiornis"", from the late Jurassic period of China, about 160 million years ago. The clade ""Aviremigia"" was conditionally proposed along with several other apomorphy-based clades relating to birds by Jacques Gauthier and Kevin de Queiroz in a 2001 paper. Their proposed definition for the group"
"Bird of prey Birds of prey, or raptors, include species of bird that primarily hunt and feed on vertebrates that are large relative to the hunter. Additionally, they have keen eyesight for detecting food at a distance or during flight, strong feet equipped with talons for grasping or killing prey, and powerful, curved beaks for tearing flesh. The term ""raptor"" is derived from the Latin word ""rapere"", meaning to seize or take by force. In addition to hunting live prey, most also eat carrion, at least occasionally, and vultures and condors eat carrion as their main food source. Although the"
"here is from Hildebrand and Goslow (2001): This classification is the one most commonly encountered in school textbooks and popular works. While orderly and easy to use, it has come under critique from cladistics. The earliest tetrapods are grouped under Class Amphibia, although several of the groups are more closely related to amniotes than to modern day amphibians. Traditionally, birds are not considered a type of reptile, but crocodiles are more closely related to birds than they are to other reptiles, such as lizards. Birds themselves are thought to be descendents of theropod dinosaurs. Basal non-mammalian synapsids (""mammal-like reptiles"") traditionally"
"Reptile Reptiles are tetrapod animals in the class Reptilia, comprising today's turtles, crocodilians, snakes, amphisbaenians, lizards, tuatara, and their extinct relatives. The study of these traditional reptile orders, historically combined with that of modern amphibians, is called herpetology. Because some reptiles are more closely related to birds than they are to other reptiles (e.g., crocodiles are more closely related to birds than they are to lizards), the traditional groups of ""reptiles"" listed above do not together constitute a monophyletic grouping or clade (consisting of all descendants of a common ancestor). For this reason, many modern scientists prefer to consider the"
"Coraciiformes, which also includes the motmots, bee-eaters, todies, ground-rollers, cuckoo roller and three families of kingfishers. Apart from the ground-rollers, these families do not appear to be particularly closely related to the rollers, and the Coraciiformes are therefore probably polyphyletic. The Coraciiformes family gets its scientific name for Latin ""coracium"", ""like a raven"", and the English name ""roller"" from the aerial acrobatics some of these birds perform during courtship or territorial flights. Rollers are divided into two genera as follows. The roller family has two extant genera as follows: Rollers can be identified as medium-sized birds with strong, slightly hooked"
"Accipitrimorphae Accipitrimorphae is a clade of birds of prey that include the orders Cathartiformes (New World vultures) and Accipitriformes (diurnal birds of prey such as eagles, hawks, osprey and secretarybird). However, this group might be a junior synonym (or at least a subjective one) of Accipitriformes. The DNA-based proposal and the NACC and IOC classifications include the New World vultures in the Accipitriformes, but the SACC classifies the New World vultures as a separate order, the Cathartiformes which has been adopted here. The placement of the New World vultures has been unclear since the early 1990s. The reason for this"
"between ""Archaeopteryx"" and modern birds, phylogenetic taxonomists, in keeping with tradition, almost always use ""Archaeopteryx"" as a specifier to help define Aves. Aves has more rarely been defined as a crown group consisting only of modern birds. Nearly all palaeontologists regard birds as coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs. Within Coelurosauria, multiple cladistic analyses have found support for a clade named Maniraptora, consisting of therizinosauroids, oviraptorosaurs, troodontids, dromaeosaurids, and birds. Of these, dromaeosaurids and troodontids are usually united in the clade Deinonychosauria, which is a sister group to birds (together forming the node-clade Eumaniraptora) within the stem-clade Paraves. Other studies have proposed alternative"
"birds of prey, excluding the Falconidae which are distantly related to other raptors, and are not close to storks. In this analysis, the New World vultures should be part of a new order Accipitriformes instead, or perhaps as part of an order (Cathartiformes) closely related to, but distinct from, other birds of prey (besides falcons). New World vultures are a sister group to Accipitriformes when the latter is viewed as a group consisting of Accipitridae, the osprey and secretarybird. Both groups are basal members of the recently recognized clade Afroaves. The fossil history of the Cathartidae is complex, and many"
"Marsh harrier The marsh harriers are birds of prey of the harrier subfamily. They are medium-sized raptors and the largest and broadest-winged harriers. Most of them are associated with marshland and dense reedbeds. They are found almost worldwide, excluding only the Americas. Until recently two species were generally recognized: the marsh harrier (""Circus aeruginosus"") and the African marsh harrier (""C. ranivorus""). The marsh harrier is now usually split into several species, sometimes as many as six. These are the western marsh harrier (""C. aeruginosus""), eastern marsh harrier (""C. spilonotus""), Papuan harrier (""C. spilonotus spilothorax"" or ""C. spilothorax""), swamp harrier (""C."
"Maniraptora Maniraptora is a clade of coelurosaurian dinosaurs that includes the birds and the non-avian dinosaurs that were more closely related to them than to ""Ornithomimus velox"". It contains the major subgroups Avialae, Deinonychosauria, Oviraptorosauria and Therizinosauria. ""Ornitholestes"" and the Alvarezsauroidea are also often included. Together with the next closest sister group, the Ornithomimosauria, Maniraptora comprises the more inclusive clade Maniraptoriformes. Maniraptorans first appear in the fossil record during the Jurassic Period (see ""Eshanosaurus""), and are regarded as surviving today as living birds. Maniraptorans are characterized by long arms and three-fingered hands (though reduced or fused in some lineages), as"
"Condor Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua ""kuntur"". They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere. They are: Condors are part of the family Cathartidae which contains the New World vultures, whereas the 15 species of Old World vultures are in the family Accipitridae, that also includes hawks, eagles, and kites. The New World and Old World vultures evolved from different ancestors. However, they both are carrion-eaters and have distinctive bare heads. Both condors are very large broad-winged soaring birds,"
"Condor Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua ""kuntur"". They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere. They are: Condors are part of the family Cathartidae which contains the New World vultures, whereas the 15 species of Old World vultures are in the family Accipitridae, that also includes hawks, eagles, and kites. The New World and Old World vultures evolved from different ancestors. However, they both are carrion-eaters and have distinctive bare heads. Both condors are very large broad-winged soaring birds,"
"the mature bird is its black, yellow-tipped beak; the mature eagle has a fully yellow beak. The bald eagle has sometimes been considered the largest true raptor (accipitrid) in North America. The only larger species of raptor-like bird is the California condor (""Gymnogyps californianus""), a New World vulture which today is not generally considered a taxonomic ally of true accipitrids. However, the golden eagle, averaging and in wing chord length in its American race (""A. c. canadensis""), is merely lighter in mean body mass and exceeds the bald eagle in mean wing chord length by around . Additionally, the bald"
"for various purposes. In the Western world, some snakes (especially docile species such as the ball python and corn snake) are kept as pets. Reptile Reptiles are tetrapod animals in the class Reptilia, comprising today's turtles, crocodilians, snakes, amphisbaenians, lizards, tuatara, and their extinct relatives. The study of these traditional reptile orders, historically combined with that of modern amphibians, is called herpetology. Because some reptiles are more closely related to birds than they are to other reptiles (e.g., crocodiles are more closely related to birds than they are to lizards), the traditional groups of ""reptiles"" listed above do not together"
"and some birds, such as blue jays, Steller's jay, common grackles, American crows, and common ravens. Adults are primarily taken by ""Accipiter"" hawks, cats, dogs, and larger snakes (especially rat snakes). They may be taken by nearly every variety of North American accipitrid, from the smallest, the sharp-shinned hawk, to one of the two largest, the golden eagle, most every North American falcon from the smallest, the American kestrel, to the largest, the gyrfalcon, and almost all owl species from northern pygmy owls to snowy owls. Overall, 28 raptorial bird species are known to hunt robins. Adult robins are most"
"""Buitreraptor"" and ""Neuquenraptor"" (which might be the same species as ""Unenlagia""). Makovicky ""et al."" in 2005 also recovered the 'flying raptor' ""Rahonavis"" as a member of this group, which would mean that either ""Unenlagia"" is secondarily flightless, having evolved from flying, ""Rahonavis""-like ancestors, or that bird-like flight evolved at least twice. Norell ""et al."" in 2006 also found ""Rahonavis"" to be the sister taxon of ""Unenlagia"". This position has not been unanimously accepted. In 2011 Novas and Federico Agnolín published a study in which an Unenlagiidae was positioned within Avialae. Unenlagia Unenlagia (meaning ""half-bird"" in latinized mapudungun) is a genus"
"Microraptor Microraptor (Greek, μικρός, ""mīkros"": ""small""; Latin, ""raptor"": ""one who seizes"") is a genus of small, four-winged paravian dinosaurs. Numerous well-preserved fossil specimens have been recovered from Liaoning, China. They date from the early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation (Aptian stage), 120 million years ago. Three species have been named (""M. zhaoianus"", ""M. gui"", and ""M. hanqingi""), though further study has suggested that all of them represent variation in a single species, which is properly called ""M. zhaoianus"". Cryptovolans, initially described as another four-winged dinosaur, is usually considered to be a synonym of ""Microraptor"". Like ""Archaeopteryx"", well-preserved fossils of ""Microraptor"" provide important"
"Parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 393 species in 92 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoidea (""true"" parrots), the Cacatuoidea (cockatoos), and the Strigopoidea (New Zealand parrots). Parrots have a generally pantropical distribution with several species inhabiting temperate regions in the Southern Hemisphere, as well. The greatest diversity of parrots is in South America and Australasia. Characteristic features of parrots include a strong, curved bill, an upright stance, strong legs, and clawed zygodactyl feet. Many parrots are"
"was ""the clade stemming from the first panavian with ... remiges and rectrices, that is, enlarged, stiff-shafted, closed-vaned (= barbules bearing hooked distal pennulae), pennaceous feathers arising from the distal forelimbs and tail"". Pennaraptora Pennaraptora (Latin ""penna"" ""bird feather"" + ""raptor"" ""thief"", from ""rapere"" ""snatch""; a feathered bird-like predator) is a clade defined as the most recent common ancestor of ""Oviraptor philoceratops"", ""Deinonychus antirrhopus"", and ""Passer domesticus"" (the house sparrow), and all descendants thereof, by Foth ""et al."", 2014. The earliest known definitive member of this clade is ""Anchiornis"", from the late Jurassic period of China, about 160 million years"
"raptors, many of which are strong fliers. One, exclusively in the Old World, milvine or ""large"" kites, are relatively large, often quite common, very generalized and often weakly predaceous feeders whereas the other kites, also known as elanine or ""small"" kites and mostly found in the New World, are supremely aerial, active hunters that generally alternate their primary food between insects and small mammals. One species allied with the latter kite group, the bat hawk (""Macheiramphus alcinus""), has come to specialize in hunting bats. ""Eagles"" are several raptors that are not necessarily closely related, but can be broadly defined by"
"I. Kirkland, Donald D. DeBlieux, Scott Madsen and Natalie Toth. Microraptor Microraptor (Greek, μικρός, ""mīkros"": ""small""; Latin, ""raptor"": ""one who seizes"") is a genus of small, four-winged paravian dinosaurs. Numerous well-preserved fossil specimens have been recovered from Liaoning, China. They date from the early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation (Aptian stage), 120 million years ago. Three species have been named (""M. zhaoianus"", ""M. gui"", and ""M. hanqingi""), though further study has suggested that all of them represent variation in a single species, which is properly called ""M. zhaoianus"". Cryptovolans, initially described as another four-winged dinosaur, is usually considered to be a synonym"
"""Accipitres"", subdividing this into four genera: ""Vultur"" (vultures), ""Falco"" (eagles, hawks, falcons, etc.), ""Strix"" (owls), and ""Lanius"" (shrikes). This approach was followed by subsequent authors such as Gmelin, Latham, and Turnton. Louis Pierre Veillot used additional ranks: order, tribe, family, genus, species. Birds of prey (order Accipitres) were divided into diurnal and nocturnal tribes; the owls remained monogeneric (family Ægolii, genus ""Strix""), whilst the diurnal raptors were divided into three families: Vulturini, Gypaëti, and Accipitrini. Thus Veillot's families were similar to the Linnaean genera, with the difference that shrikes were no longer included amongst the birds of prey. In addition"
"extensively that, today, nearly one out of every three species of land vertebrate is a bird species. The cladogram presented here illustrates the ""family tree"" of sauropsids, and follows a simplified version of the relationships found by M.S. Lee, in 2013. All genetic studies have supported the hypothesis that turtles are diapsid reptiles; some have placed turtles within archosauriformes, though a few have recovered turtles as lepidosauriformes instead. The cladogram below used a combination of genetic (molecular) and fossil (morphological) data to obtain its results. Sauropsida Sauropsida (""lizard faces"") is a group of amniotes that includes all existing birds and"
"Telluraves Telluraves (also called land birds or core landbirds) is a recently defined clade of birds with controversial content. Based on most recent genetic studies, the clade unites a variety of bird groups, including the australavians (passerines, parrots, seriamas, and falcons) as well as the afroavians (including the Accipitrimorphae – eagles, hawks, buzzards, vultures etc – owls and woodpeckers, among others). They appear to be the sister group of a newly defined clade centered on Aequornithes. Given that the most basal extant members of both Afroaves (Accipitrimorphae, Strigiformes) and Australaves (Cariamiformes, Falconiformes) are carnivorous, it has been suggested that the"
"least. Acrocephalus (bird) The Acrocephalus warblers are small, insectivorous passerine birds belonging to the genus ""Acrocephalus"". Formerly in the paraphyletic Old World warbler assemblage, they are now separated as the namesake of the marsh and tree warbler family Acrocephalidae. They are sometimes called marsh warblers or reed warblers, but this invites confusion with marsh warbler and reed warbler proper, especially in North America, where it is common to use lower case for bird species. These are rather drab brownish warblers usually associated with marshes or other wetlands. Some are streaked, others plain. Many species breeding in temperate regions are migratory."
"Picathartes The picathartes, rockfowl or bald crows are a small genus of two passerine bird species forming the family Picathartidae found in the rain-forests of tropical west and central Africa. They have unfeathered heads, and feed on insects and invertebrates picked from damp rocky areas. Both species are totally non-migratory, being dependent on a specialised rocky jungle habitat. Both species are listed as vulnerable to extinction on the IUCN Red List. The taxonomic position of the clade and its two species has been confusing. At various times, it has been grouped with the babblers, flycatchers, starlings, crows and others before"
"of Venus, Alexandre Guy Pingré encountered no solitaires, although he had been assured that they survived. Explanatory notes Citations Raphinae The Raphinae are a clade of extinct flightless birds formerly called didines or didine birds. They inhabited the Mascarene Islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues, but became extinct through hunting by humans and predation by introduced non-native mammals following human colonisation in the 17th century. Historically, many different groups have been named for both the dodo and the Rodrigues solitaire, not all grouping them together. Most recently, it is considered that the two birds can be classified in Columbidae, often under"
"small reptiles and hairy caterpillars, which are distasteful to many birds. The great spotted cuckoo's call is a loud ""cher-cher-kri-kri"" and variations. Great spotted cuckoo The great spotted cuckoo (""Clamator glandarius"") is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, the Cuculiformes, which also includes the roadrunners, the anis and the coucals. The genus name ""clamator"" is Latin for ""shouter"" from ""clamare"", ""to shout"". The specific ""glandarius"" is derived from Latin ""glans, glandis"", ""acorn"". It is widely spread throughout Africa and the Mediterranean Basin. It is a brood parasite that lays its eggs in the nests of corvids, in particular"
"therefore concluded that oviraptorosaurs were flightless birds rather than non-avian dinosaurs, and noted that the boundary between birds and dinosaurs was becoming more and more difficult to delineate. Other researchers have instead found dromaeosaurs and troodontids to be most closely related to birds, together forming the group Paraves; oviraptorosaurs, therizinosaurs, and alvarezsaurs are just outside this group. The wider group that includes oviraptorosaurs and Paraves is called Pennaraptora, and this group is defined by the presence of pennaceous feathers (feathers with a stalk). Oviraptorosaurs are known from Asia (where they may have originated) and North America, and are mainly known"
"Microraptoria Microraptoria (Greek, μίκρος, mīkros: ""small""; Latin, raptor: ""one who seizes"") is a clade of basal dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaurs. The first microraptorians appeared 125 million years ago in China. Many are known for long feathers on their legs and may have been semi-arboreal powered fliers, some of which even capable of launching from the ground. Most microraptorians were relatively small; adult specimens of ""Microraptor"" range between ) and weigh up to , making them some of the smallest known dinosaurs. Microraptorians were a group of basal dromaeosaurids (popularly known as 'raptors') with slender proportions and long limbs. With the exception"
"Clamator Clamator is a genus of large brood-parasitic cuckoos with crests and graduated tails. The genus was erected by German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1829 with the great spotted cuckoo (""Clamator glandarius"") as the type species. The name ""Clamator"" is Latin for ""shouter"" from ""clamare"", ""to shout"". There are four species: ""Clamator"" cuckoos are found in warmer parts of southern Europe and Asia, and in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. These are birds of warm open scrubby habitats, but some species are at least partially migratory, leaving for warmer and wetter areas in winter. These are large cuckoos,"
"dromaeosaurids, tyrannosaurids, and abelisaurids, along with many Crocodyliformes, and squamates (e.g. mosasaurids). Modern non-avian reptiles inhabit all the continents except Antarctica, although some birds are found on the periphery of Antarctica. Several living subgroups are recognized: Testudines (turtles and tortoises), 350 species; Rhynchocephalia (tuatara from New Zealand), 1 species; Squamata (lizards, snakes, and worm lizards), over 10,200 species; Crocodilia (crocodiles, gavials, caimans, and alligators), 24 species; and Aves (birds), approximately 10,000 species. Reptiles are tetrapod vertebrates, creatures that either have four limbs or, like snakes, are descended from four-limbed ancestors. Unlike amphibians, reptiles do not have an aquatic larval stage."