Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: What bird lays the smallest egg?
Many cuckoos are obligate brood parasites, meaning they only lay eggs in other birds' nests and never take care of their own young. Birds that do this, such as the common cuckoo or the brown-headed cowbird, lay relatively small eggs because their expected hosts are usually smaller birds. Cuckoos in the genus "Coccyzus", lay relatively large eggs even though they still parasitize smaller birds. Yellow warblers are the smallest birds recorded caring for black-billed cuckoo eggs. In experiments, these wood warblers were found to accept the cuckoo eggs 63% of the time even though their own eggs are only a quarter of the size. Even with the size difference, the warbler parent is often still able to raise the cuckoo as long as it can provide the chick with sufficient nutrition and incubation.
The black-billed cuckoo was originally placed in genus "Cuculus". This genus comprises Old World cuckoos that are all obligate brood parasites. Upon further genetic testing, it was placed into genus "Coccyzus" that comprises nine species of New World cuckoos. The black-billed and yellow-billed cuckoos are the only two that migrate into North America while the other seven are permanent residents of either Central or South America. Even though these two cuckoos overlap in range, they are not sister taxa. This suggests that the two species invaded North America separately. Although family Cuculidae is monophyletic, the genus "Coccyzus" was found to be polyphyletic.
Superb fairywrens are predominantly insectivorous. They eat a wide range of small creatures (mostly insects such as ants, grasshoppers, shield bugs, flies, weevils and various larvae) as well as small quantities of seeds, flowers, and fruit. Their foraging, termed 'hop-searching', occurs on the ground or in shrubs that are less than two metres high. Because this foraging practice renders them vulnerable to predators, birds tend to stick fairly close to cover and forage in groups. During winter, when food may be scarce, ants are an important 'last resort' food, constituting a much higher proportion of the diet. Nestlings, in contrast to adult birds, are fed a diet of larger items such as caterpillars and grasshoppers.
The stapedius is the smallest skeletal muscle in the human body. At just over one millimeter in length, its purpose is to stabilize the smallest bone in the body, the stapes.
472 species of birds have been recorded in Trinidad and Tobago (and the list of recorded species seems be still slowly increasing from year to year). There are few places in the world where so many birds can be seen in such a small area (with probably one of the highest bird species to area ratios of any country). Many of the species are very rare or are of particular interest. They range from the many species of hummingbirds to the primitive cave-dwelling oilbird (that uses sonar to fly in the dark) to the spectacularly beautiful scarlet ibis. The islands are within a few miles of Venezuela, and the species are therefore typical of tropical South America. However, the variety (although quite exceptional for such a small geographic area) is somewhat impoverished compared to the mainland, as would be expected with small islands.
The Virginia rail probe with its bill in mud or shallow water, also picking up food by sight. It mainly eat insects and other aquatic invertebrates, like beetles, flies, dragonflies, crayfish, snails and earthworms. It can also eat aquatic animals like frogs, fish and some small snakes, as well as seeds. Animal preys constitute the biggest part of this bird's diet, but vegetation contributes to its diet in the fall and winter.
The Eurasian eagle-owl ("Bubo bubo") is a species of eagle-owl that resides in much of Eurasia. It is also called the European eagle-owl and in Europe, it is occasionally abbreviated to just eagle-owl. It is one of the largest species of owl, and females can grow to a total length of 75 cm (30 in), with a wingspan of 188 cm (6 ft 2 in), males being slightly smaller. This bird has distinctive ear tufts, with upper parts that are mottled with darker blackish colouring and tawny. The wings and tail are barred. The underparts are a variably hued buff, streaked with darker colour. The facial disc is poorly developed and the orange eyes are distinctive.
The beel is a natural habitat to many varieties of birds. 219 species of birds including more than 70 migratory species are reported in the beel area. The largest congregations of aquatic birds can be seen, particularly in winter, with a reported recorded count of 19,000 water birds in a day. Some of the globally threatened species of birds like spotbilled pelican ("Pelecanus philippensis"), lesser adjutant stork ("Leptoptilos javanicus"), Baer’s pochard ("Aythya baeri"), Pallas' sea eagle ("Haliaeetus leucogaster"), greater adjutant stork ("Leptoptilos dubius").
The majority of squid are no more than long, although the giant squid may reach . The smallest species are probably the benthic pygmy squids "Idiosepius", which grow to a mantle length of , and have short bodies and stubby arms.
Over 600 species of bird have been recorded in Japan and more than 250 of these breed. A number of birds are endemic including the Japanese woodpecker ("Picus awokera"), copper pheasant ("Syrmaticus soemmerringii") and Japan's national bird, the green pheasant ("Phasianus versicolor"). Several species are unique to the smaller islands including the Okinawa rail ("Gallirallus okinawae"), Izu thrush ("Turdus celaenops") and Bonin white-eye ("Apalopteron familiare "). Most of the non-endemic birds are shared with China but a few originate in Siberia or south-east Asia.
In rare cases, other predators may kill a Eurasian eagle-owl. In Europe, there is one case of a white-tailed eagle killing an eagle-owl and there are at least four known incidents of eagle-owls being killed by golden eagles. Also, an eagle-owl was found among the prey remains at a golden eagle eyrie in Mongolia. An eagle-owl was also found amongst the prey in the nest of steppe eagles ("Aquila nipalensis") in Altai Krai, Russia. In 2016, a large female subadult Bonelli's eagle ("Aquila fasciata") apparently preyed upon a three-year-old male Eurasian eagle-owl in Spain. Pine martens ("Martes martes") and stone martens ("Martes foina") are opportunistic nest predators. Although martens could probably reach most eagle-owl nests due to their agility and climbing abilities, they probably will attack nests when disturbance or low food supply result in lower nest attendance by the parent owls. Cases where nests have atypically been accessible on foot (for both humans and wild predators) have resulted in Eurasian eagle-owl nests being predated. Eurasian badgers, wild boars and raccoon dogs and raccoons, the latter two both where non-native in Germany, have also reportedly preyed on nests that they can access. In coastal areas of Spain, red foxes were reported to have preyed on four eagle-owls, including one unsexed brooding adult, at nests found to be reachable on foot by researchers. Cases of red foxes killing Eurasian eagle-owls at nests have reported elsewhere albeit very rarely, normally the eagle-owl is a greater danger to the foxes (and many of its other nest predators) than vice versa. In May 2017, a red fox was filmed killing two chicks and raiding the larder of an eagle-owl in Denmark.
This is a list of the fastest flying birds in the world. A bird's velocity is necessarily variable; a hunting bird will reach much greater speeds while diving to catch prey than when gliding. The bird with the greatest airspeed velocity is the Peregrine falcon, able to exceed 321.8 km/h (200 mph) in its hunting dives. The greatest self-powered horizontal speed is achieved by Homing Racing Pigeons. They can fly 1100 km (700 miles) in a single day, and they have been recorded flying at 177 km/h (110 miles per hour), making them the birds with the fastest speed ever recorded on a self-powered flight, and the fastest endurance flight.
The great size, bulky, barrel-shaped build, erect ear tufts and orange eyes render this as a distinctive species. Other than general morphology, the above features differ markedly from those of two of the next largest subarctic owl species in Europe and western Asia, which are the great grey owl and the greyish to chocolate-brown Ural owl ("Strix uralensis"), both of which have no ear tufts and have a distinctly rounded head, rather than the blocky shape of the eagle-owl’s head. The snowy owl is obviously distinctive from most eagle-owls, but during winter the palest Eurasian eagle-owl race ("B. b. sibiricus") can appear off-white. Nevertheless, the latter is still distinctively an ear-tufted Eurasian eagle-owl and lacks the pure white background colour and variable black spotting of the slightly smaller species (which has relatively tiny, vestigial ear tufts that have only been observed to have flared on rare occasions). The long-eared owl has a somewhat similar plumage to the eagle-owl but is considerably smaller (an average female eagle-owl may be twice as long and ten times heavier than an average long-eared owl).
Common ostriches usually weigh from , or as much as two adult humans. The Masai ostriches of East Africa ("S. c. massaicus") averaged in males and in females, while the nominate subspecies, the North African ostrich ("S. c. camelus"), was found to average in unsexed adults. Exceptional male ostriches (in the nominate subspecies) can weigh up to . At sexual maturity (two to four years), male common ostriches can be from in height, while female common ostriches range from tall. New chicks are fawn in colour, with dark brown spots. During the first year of life, chicks grow at about per month. At one year of age, common ostriches weigh approximately . Their lifespan is up to 40–45 years.
Gestation lasts from 65 to 83 days and normally results in the birth of a litter of three to six pups, although larger litters of up to 10 have been reported. The young are born blind and helpless and initially weigh . The eyes open after 14 to 19 days and the pups first emerge from the nativity den shortly thereafter. The young are weaned at around four weeks and reach sexual maturity at one year. They can live for up to 10 years in captivity.
The red-eared firetail is a seed eating estrildid, discreet and unusually solitary for an Australian grass finch species. This species often remains unobserved in dense vegetation while foraging in the lower storey. Their presence is revealed by distinctive calls and the bird is most frequently seen when perched high on the limb of a tree such as marri. The individuals form mated pairs rather than grouping. Their individual range is an area around one to two hundred metres across and they may join others while feeding where their territories overlap. Earnest defence of sites only occurs close to the nest, so boundaries between pairs may intersect without incident. Fledglings are eventually fought and driven from the nest site.
The birds of New Zealand evolved into an avifauna that included a large number of endemic species. As an island archipelago New Zealand accumulated bird diversity and when Captain James Cook arrived in the 1770s he noted that the bird song was deafening. The mix includes species with unusual biology such as the kakapo which is the world's only flightless, nocturnal, lek breeding parrot, but also many species that are similar to neighboring land areas. Some of the more well known and distinctive bird species in New Zealand are the kiwi, kea, takahe, kakapo, mohua, tui and the bellbird. The tuatara is a notable reptile endemic to New Zealand.
New Zealand has a high proportion of ground-nesting and flightless birds, due to its long geographical isolation and a lack of mammal predators. Native birds have evolved to fill niches that are occupied by mammals in most other places. Stoats are the greatest threat to these ground-nesting and hole-nesting birds, which have very limited means of escaping stoat predation. In some areas the whio population is now 70% male, from stoats attacking female ducks incubating eggs.
The Paridae are mainly small stocky woodland species with short stout bills. Some have crests. They are adaptable birds, with a mixed diet including seeds and insects. Four species have been recorded in Washington.Order: PasseriformesFamily: Aegithalidae
Birds were almost always shown in full profile, stylized, but with characteristic features of the species. Partial representations of some birds––mostly domestic fowl––are often seen on pysanky. Bird parts (eyes, feet, beaks, combs, feathers) are said carry the same meaning as the entire bird. Thus hen's feet represent fertility and the rooster's comb signifies masculinity.
The length of the adult is typically between 3mm and 6mm. The smallest known mosquitoes are around , and the largest around . Mosquitoes typically weigh around 5 mg. All mosquitoes have slender bodies with three segments: a head, a thorax and an abdomen.
The red-eared firetail ("Stagonopleura oculata"), also known as the boorin, is a small finch-like species of bird. It occurs in dense wetland vegetation of coastal to sub-coastal regions in Southwest Australia. Its appearance is considered appealing, with white spots, black barring and vivid crimson marks at the ear and upper tail. Red-eared firetails are usually only glimpsed briefly, if at all, as they move rapidly and discreetly through their habitat. Most observations occur when their soft voice is heard, or in flight when flushed from the dense scrub. Males and females are similar in colouring and bond as lifelong pairs that occupy a territory centred on their roosting and brooding nest site. The species occupy a similar ecological niche to the beautiful firetail "Stagonopleura bella" found in the east of Australia, although unlike other species of the genus they only occasionally group together and are almost never seen in large flocks.
Bird eggs are laid by females and incubated for a time that varies according to the species; a single young hatches from each egg. Average clutch sizes range from one (as in condors) to about 17 (the grey partridge). Some birds lay eggs even when not fertilized (e.g. hens); it is not uncommon for pet owners to find their lone bird nesting on a clutch of unfertilized eggs, which are sometimes called wind-eggs.
In "Big Bird's Egg Catch", the player controls Big Bird as he saves eggs produced by chickens at the top of the screen. These eggs travel down variously contorted chutes to land safely in the basket perched on Big Bird's head. Most eggs count for a single point, but a golden egg will periodically appear that is worth five points. When an egg is dropped, a number of points are lost. At higher levels, the eggs move faster, the chutes become more convoluted, there are more egg-laying hens, and the chutes may even flash invisible. "Turkey in the Straw", the song that plays during the egg-catching, also increases in tempo.
Kiwi ( ) or kiwis are flightless birds native to New Zealand, in the genus Apteryx and family Apterygidae. Approximately the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites (which also consist of ostriches, emus, rheas, and cassowaries), and lay the largest egg in relation to their body size of any species of bird in the world.
Bird eggs are laid by the females and incubated for a time that varies according to the species; a single young hatches from each egg. Average clutch sizes range from one (as in condors) to about 17 (the grey partridge). Clutch size may vary latitudinally within a species. Some birds lay eggs even when the eggs have not been fertilized; it is not uncommon for pet owners to find their lone bird nesting on a clutch of infertile eggs, which are sometimes called wind-eggs.