We all decided to go to Jaffna for a vacation , actually my father and I wanted to go only, but my mother jumped in and we couldn’t leave my brother alone so he was forced to come, since he always sit in front of the computer he should have some experience about Jaffna.
And so we got our tickets to Jaffna and we got on the train at 10:30 traveled to vayunia and took a bus to Jaffna. We went to our grand mothers place, but somebody was there and he said that there is no place for us to live in, my father got tempered because our grandmother said that we can live there. My father said he can put them out, but they said they are paying to live there so my father left them alone and he’ll deal with it with my grandmother.
My family
Then after the argument we went off to my great grand father’s house. It was alright , we got a room ,Urg a room with no fan, only a light and two wooden beds, we managed .But the awesome thing was that there was a cat! I loved cats but I love dogs more than cats, there was a dog , but it always barked at us whenever he sees us, so we played with the cat it was great.
The cat on my brother's lap
After we settled , we went to a restaurant to eat , food was okay. The next day we took the bus to my grand father’s old house , where my father lived, it was all broken up , some people stole certain statues and oak wood that held the roof. The land was so huge! And when my father entered the house a coconut fell from a tree which my father planted when he was small. It was kind of a welcome back sign. I wanted to climb a tree , my father warned e that some trees have spike caterpillars on them, I climbed and when i touched the side of the tree , there was a whole much of spike caterpillars! After we looked around we went to a coconut field, but to our disappointment it was empty , they cut all the tree down. And we walked so long for that then we had to walk back again about 5km, we had no water, it was like we were in a desert.
Back side of the house
Front side of the house
Finally we reached a bus stand and came back to Jaffna city, we roamed around bought some items, prices are so high for the dried fishes and the auto guys are asking so much money to go to near places , just because we look so rich cause of the clothes we wear.
The interesting part was that my mother and I were the only ones wearing pants and a top, Everyone else was wearing Punjab , skirts or saris , everyone stared at us. So I wore a skirt and blouse , no body stared, so I was cool We went to the beach, too bad it was barricaded, we walked all the way there for nothing. Then we found another place, it wasn’t barricaded this time, we swam and the water was so clear that I found a big seashell , I found 4 of them . My mother wanted 3 to give to her friends. After all the laughter on our way , my dad spotted one of our relations house , it was very old obliviously . The walls were full of writings and hearts with arrows through them. We took pictures here and there. It was great.
After all that luck we went to a restaurant to eat dinner, went home and slept. The next day we headed for home, we took the bus at 9:30 and we took 2nd class tickets for the train , which cost 400/= RS each. But it was a disappointment, our seats were full of cockroaches , my father got angry and started swearing out loud! He made complaint, then we got another free seat. Oh well at least we got a free seats and then we headed for home. We arrived home at about 9:30 pm , took a bath, and slept…
And everyone liked Jaffna at last . Phew what a trip , it was a nice experience anyway.
Just how did the Shar-pei get its famous wrinkled appearance?
Wrinkled Dog
Scientists who have analysed the genetics of 10 pedigree dog breeds believe they now have the answer.
Their research identifies 155 distinct locations in the animals’ genetic code that could play a role in giving breeds their distinctive appearances.
In the Shar-pei, the team found differences in a gene known as HAS2 which makes an enzyme known to be important in the production of skin.
“There was probably a mutation that arose in that gene that led to a really wrinkly puppy and a breeder said, ‘hey, that looks interesting, I’m going to try to selectively breed this trait and make more of these dogs’,” explained Joshua Akey from the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle, US.
Small differences
The pedigree dog has become a fascination – and a remarkably useful research tool – for geneticists.
The domestication of the grey wolf more than 10,000 years ago, and the selective breeding that followed, has resulted in more than 400 breeds – each with a distinctive physique, coat colour and temperament.
Labrador (BBC)
The study compared the genetics of 10 pure-bred dog groups.
These discrete populations give scientists the opportunity to compare and contrast the genetics of the different groups, making it easier to find the causes of specific traits.
“Man’s best friend” is helping scientists locate the faulty genes that cause disease in both dogs and humans, as well giving a useful insight into how evolution works at a molecular level.
Dr Akey and colleagues studied 32 wrinkled and 18 smooth-coated Shar-peis and compared a specific stretch of their DNA with that of other breeds.
The team found four small, but significant, differences in the genetics of the two skin types of the Shar-pei versus the other breeds. These single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), as they are called, were located in the HAS2 gene.
New targets
“HAS2 makes hyaluronic acid synthase 2, and it’s an enzyme that makes hyaluronic acid, and that’s one of the principal constituents of the skin,” explained Dr Akey.
“There are rare human cases where there are mutations that lead to really severe wrinkling in humans, too.
“So, that suggested it was a good candidate to look at; and sure enough, when we sequenced it we saw that that gene explained wrinkling in Shar-peis,” he told BBC News.
As well as giving insights into the Shar-pei, the research has also identified a raft of other locations in the dog genome that can now be investigated further to understand better why pedigree animals look the way they do.
“The thing that excites me most about our study is that in the last five years, five genes have been identified that contribute to this vast diversity in dog breeds,” said Dr Akey.
“So our study found all five of those genes and then we found 150 new targets to explore. It’s a powerful approach to look at the genetic legacy of selective breeding.”
Dr Akey and colleagues report their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Kangaroos are the symbol of Australia. They adorn its postage stamps, coat-of-arms, coinage, and even its major international airline. At the zoo or in their natural habitat of Australia (and New Guinea), they remain the most recognized and obvious of Australia’s fauna.
Their faces, the way they carry their young in a pouch, their phenomenal leaping power, and their deadly ‘karate kicking’ have long intrigued people.
The whole family is best known as the Macropodidae—literally the “big-footed” family. This includes not just the six largest living species commonly called “kangaroos,” but also a further 48 species found in Australia alone, and another 13 found in New Guinea—67 modern species in all.
The range of two Australian species, the agile wallaby and the red-legged pademelon, spills into New Guinea as well. The term ‘modern’ is applied because this vast empire was once much greater, with over 100 species in Australia alone.
The term ‘wallaby’ is applied to those species where the adult male has a body mass less than about 20 kg (44 lbs) and feet less than 25 centimeters (10 inches) long. However, scientists can recognize no major anatomical difference between these and kangaroos.
Kangaroos’ superb design, their sophisticated reproductive methods and their amazing, energy-efficient locomotion did not come by any evolutionary process. For example, unless the pouch and the joey’s ability to find it were fully functional, they would have left no offspring.
They varied enormously in size. The tiny, scampering musky rat-kangaroo still lives in the tropical rain-forests of northern Queensland (Australia). However, the massive, blunt-faced Procoptodon is extinct.
Three basic size ranges are recognized today. At the other end of the scale from the six large types mentioned above are the rat/rabbit-sized bettongs, potoroos and rat-kangaroos. In between are the tree kangaroos (a specialized group comprising nine species that live and move about in the trees), and those commonly called wallabies.
Kangaroo Reproduction—Why the pouch?
In the desert species, carrying the baby in the pouch is convenient for the female, who may travel many miles for fresh food and water. The youngster stands a greater chance of survival because it does not have to keep up with her and is tucked away from predators.
During prolonged drought, kangaroos stop breeding. In some species, a doe [the female] is able to delay the development of a fertilized egg inside her until an older joey dies or vacates the pouch.
This remarkable phenomenon occurs in the red kangaroo, the eastern gray kangaroo, the common wallaroo (euro), the brush-tailed bettong, and several of the larger wallabies. It has also been noted in the honey possum and some non-marsupial mammals such as bats and seals.2
Another incredible aspect is that the doe can determine the sex of her offspring. How she does this is unknown, but she tends to put off bearing males until she is older. Males move away after about two years, but females stay with their mothers longer and benefit from ongoing support.3
A doe is nearly always pregnant. From sexual maturity to death, she is rarely without three offspring—an embryo in the womb, a joey in her pouch, and a larger youngster at her heels.
The joey is born after a gestation period of about 35 days (depending on the species) and in the largest species is the size of a human thumb nail. In the smallest, it is only the size of a rice grain. Naked, blind and deaf, it must make its way unaided from the birth canal to the pouch.
All going well, the climb will take less than 10 minutes. The joey can survive only a few minutes unless it reaches the pouch and attaches to one of the four nipples. Once there, its mouth swells on the nipple so that it cannot be removed without injury. A ring of strong muscles, similar to human lips, seals off the opening to the pouch to protect the joey from bouncing out, and keeps the pouch waterproof if mother goes for a swim.
After three months, the developed joey emerges from the pouch to make short trips in the outside world. However, it will return to the pouch to suckle and sleep until eight months old.
Penguins are birds. A penguin has wings, feathers, a beak and two legs, and lays eggs, and is warm-blooded like other birds, but penguins do not fly. They swim and dive well and spend most of their time at sea where they find food. They have sleek bodies and they use their wings as flippers. Penguins come ashore to breed. Penguins live in cold water. They have more feathers than birds that fly. The undercoat of feathers is downy and keeps the bird warm. The outer layer is a waterproof coat of overlapping feathers. Each year, penguins molt, losing their old feathers and growing new ones.
There are seventeen kinds of penguins. They live in the bottom half of the world, called the Southern Hemisphere. Many live in the polar region, but some live in cool waters near the Equator. Penguins are defenseless birds and usually live on islands where there are no predators or in remote areas away from predators.
Top Facts about Penguins
While you may be an avid fan of penguins, there is likely some information you aren’t familiar with. Learning various facts is a great way to expand your knowledge. It can also fuel your interest to learn more about specific species of penguins or certain aspects of their lives.
1. Penguins are birds
Penguins are birds highly adapted to the aquatic life.
Penguins are avid swimmers and they have changed their wings by flippers as part of the adaptation process.
2. Penguin feed in the Ocean
Penguins feed on squid, fish, krill and some other forms of sealife.
3. The Emperor Penguin is the largest penguin
The Emperor Penguins are about 1.1 meters tall and about 35 Kg weigh. The Little Blue Penguins are the smallest penguins and they are about 40 cm tall and 1 Kg. weigh
Types of Penguins:
Stiff Tailed Penguins:
Chinstrap
The chinstrap can be identified by the black line on its chin, making it look as if it wears a hat that ties under its chin. It has orange feet and a black beak, and its eyes are black. It stands about 28 inches tall and weighs 9 to 14 pounds. Chinstraps live on icebergs in the ocean around Antarctica. Krill and small fish are their foods. The chinstrap is the boldest of the penguins. It will fight if other penguins threaten it. These penguins make nests of pebbles and stones. The female lays two eggs, both of which are kept warm and hatch. Raising two chicks is unusual, as most penguins are able to raise only one. Once the chicks are about a month old, the parents leave in groups for the open ocean to hunt for food. They return from time to time to feed the chicks. While the parents are gone, the chicks huddle together in crèches to stay warm and be safe from predators. As the chicks grow, they lose their downy feathers by molting. New sleek, smooth feathers grow in.
Gentoo
The gentoo penguin has a white patch on its head. It is about 32 inches tall and weighs 10 to 19 pounds. The gentoo is the largest of the stiff-tailed penguins. Its has beak is red and its feet are orange. Gentoos are the fastest swimmers. They eat mostly krill, but also eat some small fish. They hunt around the islands north of Antarctica where they live. Gentoos live in large colonies. They make nests, sometimes using old bones and feathers that have molted. The female lays two eggs. Sometimes both chicks survive to adulthood.
Adelie
The Adélie penguin has a distinctive white ring around its eye. This eye ring is brighter during the mating season. The Adélie is about 28 inches tall and weighs 8 to 14 pounds. It has a orange feet and a short orange beak. The black feathers cover much of the beak. Adélies are strong swimmers and can jump high when leaving the water. On land, they move by tobogganing on their bellies. The Adélie is a stiff-tailed penguin. Its tail is long and drags behind it as it waddles. Adélies nest on the shores of Antarctica where it is rocky. They gather in large colonies. They make nests of pebbles and stones, and sometimes Adélies steal the stones from each other. When the nest is ready, the female lays two eggs. Adélies are the fastest growing penguins, but only one chick survives.
Large Penguins:
Emperor
The emperor penguin stands about 4 feet tall and is the largest of the penguins. It weighs 70 to 90 pounds. It has yellow patches on each side of its head and a yellow patch on its breast. The feet and eyes are black. The beak is dark purple. It breeds on Antarctica, surviving the bitter cold. The female emperor lays one egg during the winter, then gives it to the male to incubate or keep warm. He keeps it on his feet for nine weeks, warming it with his brood pouch. The female returns to the sea to feed. When she returns, the male goes to sea to feed. He returns, and they both feed the chick. The parent keeps the chick warm with the brood pouch. When the chicks are older, they huddle together in a crèche to keep warm and to be protected against skuas. The emperor penguin can dive up to 900 feet deep. That is as deep as three football fields end to end. By diving so deep, this penguin can catch large fish.
King
The king penguin is the most colorful penguin. It has an orange collar and a bright golden breast. The king penguin is the second largest penguin, standing about 3 feet tall. It weighs 30 to 40 pounds. The feet are black, and the eyes are black. The very long beak is black with orange on the sides. This penguin breeds on the islands north of Antarctica. The female king penguin lays only one egg. Once it is laid, the female returns to the ocean to feed, while the male keeps the egg warm on his feet. When she returns, the male leaves to feed. He returns and both parents take turns feeding the chick. King penguins raise only one chick every other year. King penguins were once hunted for their blubber which was made into oil.
Crested Penguins:
Rockhopper
The rockhopper penguin is one of the crested penguins. It moves not by waddling, but by hopping. It is an aggressive penguin and is quick to attack other penguins, if bothered. The rockhopper is about 20 inches tall, and weighs 5 to 10 pounds. It has long yellow feathers that form eyebrows and stick out from both sides of its head. The beak and feet are orange, and the eyes are red. Rockhoppers live on the islands north of Antarctica. A pair makes a nest by creating a bowl shape in the ground and lining it with dried grasses. Usually, the female lays two eggs. The second is the larger, and that is the one that the parents raise. The male and female take turns caring for the egg. Once the egg hatches, the female goes to sea to feed, while the male cares for the chick. When the female returns, she feeds the chick by bringing food up from her belly. Rockhoppers seem to “pop” out of the water onto the rocks when they return to shore. They live in huge colonies and one after the other can be seen jumping from the water onto the ice.
Little Penguins:
Little Blue
The little blue penguin, also called fairy penguin, it is the smallest of all penguins. It is only about 14 inches tall and weighs 2 to 4 pounds. The feathers on its back are abluish gray, thus giving it its name. This penguin’s beak is dark gray and the feet are pinkish. Little blue penguins live on the southern shores of New Zealand and Australia. It is warmer here than in Antarctica, and the penguins are able to dig burrows to sleep in at night. During the day, they swim in the waters looking for small fish and squid to eat. They enter and leave the water in the dark, but because they swim in shallow water close to shore, they can be seen during the day. Because little blues live where people have settled, dogs, rats, and foxes are predators. These penguins swim close to shore, hunting for small fish. Because the waters are more shallow here, leopard seals and killer whales are not major predators of the little blue penguins.
Giraffes are well adapted to a life in a savannah. They drink water when it is aivailable but can go weeks without it, they rely on morning dew and the water content of their food. Their very long necks are an adaption to feeding at high levels in the treetops. Their physical adaption, a long neck, does not only help them to graze but also helps them keep track of predators and it enables visual communication with other giraffe over several miles.
In the giraffe did not have a long neck it would be an easier pray for predators and it would not get as much food.
Similar to giraffes are elephants. They use long trunks to reach high tree-tops.
I read in BBC that a Polar Bear and a Grizzly bear was put in a zoo together, and they made babies. And the babies were brownish whitish.
What do you get when you cross a polar bear and a grizzly bear
Scientists can now answer the question, following the first study of a polar bear/grizzly bear hybrid.
Only one hybrid bear has ever been seen in the wild, so the study evaluated two hybrid bears kept in captivity, which are among 17 such bears known to exist.
Elephants are the largest land animals now living. The elephant’s gestation period is 22 months, the longest of any land animal. At birth it is common for an elephant calf to weigh 120 kilograms (260 lb). They typically live for 50 to 70 years, but the oldest recorded elephant lived for 82 years. The largest elephant ever recorded was shot in Angola in 1956. This male weighed about 12,000 kilograms (26,000 lb), with a shoulder height of 4.2 meters (14 ft), a meter (yard) taller than the average male African elephant. The smallest elephants, about the size of a calf or a large pig, were a prehistoric species that lived on the island of Crete during the Pleistocene epoch.
The elephant has appeared in cultures across the world. They are a symbol of wisdom in Asian cultures and are famed for their memory and intelligence, where they are thought to be on par with cetaceans and hominids. Aristotle once said the elephant was “the beast which passeth all others in wit and mind. The word “elephant” has its origins in the Greek ἐλέφας, meaning “ivory” or “elephant”.
Healthy adult elephants have no natural predators, although lions may take calves or weak individuals. They are, however, increasingly threatened by human intrusion and poaching. Once numbering in the millions, the African elephant population has dwindled to between 470,000 and 690,000 individuals according to a March 2007 estimate.[14] While the elephant is a protected species worldwide, with restrictions in place on capture, domestic use, and trade in products such as ivory, CITES reopening of “one time” ivory stock sales, has resulted in increased poaching. Certain African nations report a decrease of their elephant populations by as much as two-thirds, and populations in certain protected areas are in danger of being eliminated. Since recent poaching has increased by as much as 45%, the current population is unknown (2008).
Elephant Facts
The name of an adult male is referred to as a bull
The name of an adult female is referred to as a cow
The name or offspring, or a baby Elephant, is a calf
The average size of a litter is just one elephant
The collective name for a group of Elephants is a herd
The sounds made by an adult Elephant are referred to as grunts, purrs, bellows, whistles and trumpeting
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world or material world. “Nature” refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. It ranges in scale from the subatomic to the cosmic.
The word nature is derived from the Latin word natura, or “essential qualities, innate disposition”, and literally means “birth”.Natura was a Latin translation of the Greek word physis (φύσις), which originally related to the intrinsic characteristics that plants, animals, and other features of the world develop of their own accord. The concept of nature as a whole, the physical universe, is one of several expansions of the original notion; it began with certain core applications of the word φύσις by pre-Socratic philosophers, and has steadily gained currency ever since. This usage was confirmed during the advent of modern scientific method in the last several centuries.
Within the various uses of the word today, “nature” may refer to the general realm of various types of living plants and animals, and in some cases to the processes associated with inanimate objects–the way that particular types of things exist and change of their own accord, such as the weather and geology of the Earth, and the matter and energy of which all these things are composed. It is often taken to mean the “natural environment” or wilderness–wild animals, rocks, forest, beaches, and in general those things that have not been substantially altered by human intervention, or which persist despite human intervention. For, example, manufactured objects and human interaction generally are not considered part of nature, unless qualified as, for example, “human nature” or “the whole of nature”. This more traditional concept of natural things which can still be found today implies a distinction between the natural and the artificial, with the artificial being understood as that which has been brought into being by a human consciousness or a human mind. Depending on the particular context, the term “natural” might also be distinguished from the terms unnatural, the supernatural, and the artefactual.
Oceans
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface (an area of some 361 million square kilometers) is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas. More than half of this area is over 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) deep. Average oceanic salinity is around 35 parts per thousand (ppt) (3.5%), and nearly all seawater has a salinity in the range of 30 to 38 ppt. Though generally recognized as several ’separate’ oceans, these waters comprise one global, interconnected body of salt water often referred to as the World Ocean or global ocean. This concept of a global ocean as a continuous body of water with relatively free interchange among its parts is of fundamental importance to oceanography.
The major oceanic divisions are defined in part by the continents, various archipelagos, and other criteria: these divisions are (in descending order of size) the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean Arctic Ocean (which is sometimes considered a sea of the Atlantic). The Pacific and Atlantic may be further subdivided by the equator into northerly and southerly portions. Smaller regions of the oceans are called seas, gulfs, bays and other names. There are also salt lakes, which are smaller bodies of landlocked saltwater that are not interconnected with the World Ocean. Two notable examples of salt lakes are the Aral Sea and the Great Salt Lake.
Lakes
A lake (from Latin lacus) is a terrain feature (or physical feature), a body of liquid on the surface of a world that is localized to the bottom of basin (another type of landform or terrain feature; that is, it is not global) and moves slowly if it moves at all. On Earth, a body of water is considered a lake when it is inland, not part of the ocean, is larger and deeper than a pond, and is fed by a river. The only world other than Earth known to harbor lakes is Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, which has lakes of ethane, most likely mixed with methane. It is not known if Titan’s lakes are fed by rivers, though Titan’s surface is carved by numerous river beds. Natural lakes on Earth are generally found in mountainous areas, rift zones, and areas with ongoing or recent glaciation. Other lakes are found in endorheic basins or along the courses of mature rivers. In some parts of the world, there are many lakes because of chaotic drainage patterns left over from the last Ice Age. All lakes are temporary over geologic time scales, as they will slowly fill in with sediments or spill out of the basin containing them.
Rivers
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, a sea or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill; there is no general rule that defines what can be called a river. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location; one example is Burn but this is not always the case, due to vagueness in the language. A river is part of the hydrological cycle. Water within a river is generally collected from precipitation through surface runoff, groundwater recharge, springs, and the release of stored water in natural ice and snow packs (i.e., from glaciers).
Plants And Animals
The distinction between plant and animal life is not sharply drawn, with some categories of life that stand between or across the two. Originally Aristotle divided all living things between plants, which generally do not move, and animals. In Linnaeus’ system, these became the kingdoms Vegetabilia (later Plantae) and Animalia. Since then, it has become clear that the Plantae as originally defined included several unrelated groups, and the fungi and several groups of algae and some classifications use the term bacterial flora separately from plant flora.
Among the many ways of classifying plants are by regional floras, which, depending on the purpose of study, can also include fossil flora, remnants of plant life from a previous era. People in many regions and countries take great pride in their individual arrays of characteristic flora, which can vary widely across the globe due to differences in climate and terrain.
Regional floras commonly are divided into categories such as native flora and agricultural and garden flora, the lastly mentioned of which are intentionally grown and cultivated. Some types of “native flora” actually have been introduced centuries ago by people migrating from one region or continent to another, and become an integral part of the native, or natural flora of the place to which they were introduced. This is an example of how human interaction with nature can blur the boundary of what is considered nature.
Another category of plant has historically been carved out for weeds. Though the term has fallen into disfavor among botanists as a formal way to categorize “useless” plants, the informal use of the word “weeds” to describe those plants that are deemed worthy of elimination is illustrative of the general tendency of people and societies to seek to alter or shape the course of nature. Similarly, animals are often categorized in ways such as domestic, farm animals, wild animals, pests, etc. according to their relationship to human life.
Animals as a category have several characteristics that generally set them apart from other living things, though not traced by scientists to having legs or wings instead of roots and leaves. Animals are eukaryotic and usually multicellular (although see Myxozoa), which separates them from bacteria, archaea and most protists. They are heterotrophic, generally digesting food in an internal chamber, which separates them from plants and algae. They are also distinguished from plants, algae, and fungi by lacking cell walls.
With a few exceptions, most notably the sponges (Phylum Porifera), animals have bodies differentiated into separate tissues. These include muscles, which are able to contract and control locomotion, and a nervous system, which sends and processes signals. There is also typically an internal digestive chamber. The eukaryotic cells possessed by all animals are surrounded by a characteristic extracellular matrix composed of collagen and elastic glycoproteins. This may be calcified to form structures like shells, bones, and spicules, a framework upon which cells can move about and be reorganized during development and maturation, and which supports the complex anatomy required for mobility.
Shorebirds such as Plovers, Sandpipers, Gulls and Terns (Order Charadriiformes)
Cuckoos, Roadrunners Order: Cuculiformes
Nighthawks Order Caprimulgiformes
Doves and Pigeons (Order Columbiformes)
Owls (Order Strigiformes)
Swifts, Hummingbirds (Order Apodiformes)
Kingflisher (Order Coraciiformes)
Woodpeckers (Order Piciformes)
Everything else (Order Passeriformes)
Almost one-half of North American species fit into the Passeriformes order, the perching birds. Passerines (sparrows, finches, cardinals, jays, crows, warblers and more), as they are collectively known, are the most common birds seen in residential areas and backyard feeders.
With the exception of Loons, Albatross and Nighthawks, the links in the box on the right point to pictorial essays covering all the different types of birds found in the United States. The pictures of birds link leads to a complete list of about 150 different birds.
