Category: Animals

This category is dedicated to animal related topics

What Are Waterfowl?

| Comments Off on What Are Waterfowl?

By: David Torres

A fowl is another word for bird, so a waterfowl is a bird that spends most of its life in and around water. the term Waterfowl is typically used for the birds that belong to the Anatidae family, the ducks, geese, and swans. However occasionally other birds such as loons, grebes, coots, and cormorants are considered waterfowl. This article will focus on the Anatidae family since ducks, geese, and swans are more typically considered waterfowl.

Waterfowl are found on every continent except Antarctica and are usually migratory birds, which means they like to fly south … Continue

What Are Puffins?

| Comments Off on What Are Puffins?

Puffins are seabirds that are a part of the Alcidae family. Puffins can reach speeds of around 90kmh when flying. They can flap their wings up to 400 times in one minute. The lifespan of these birds extends up to 20 years in the wild, and the oldest recorded age of a puffin was 36 years of age.

Diet

Puffins are carnivores, they eat small fish and zooplankton. Mainly puffins eat herrings, sand eels, hake, and capelin. The specific types of fish which are eaten by different puffin species vary due to the different islands that they inhabit.

During the … Continue

What Are Woodpeckers?

| Comments Off on What Are Woodpeckers?
A female Pileated Woodpecker(Dryocopus pileatus)

Woodpeckers are birds that are part of the Picidae family. There are over 200 species of woodpeckers in the world, and they live in different habitats such as forests, urban settings, jungles, and even deserts.

Habitat

Woodpeckers inhabit different types of areas all over the world. The only places that woodpeckers are not found in are New Zealand, Madagascar, Australia, and Antarctica. Woodpeckers usually live in wooded habitats, as they thrive most in these places.

Diet

Woodpeckers have quite a flexible diet as they feed on insects and other invertebrates (animals without a backbone), which … Continue

What Are Arachnids?

| Comments Off on What Are Arachnids?
Closeup of a cross spider in its web

Arachnids are a group of animals which are joint-legged invertebrates. There are over 100,000 described species of Arachnids and an even larger number of undescribed species. As time passes, the number of described species will continuously increase. When a species is undescribed it means that it has been discovered but hasn’t been formally named or described.

There are various types of animals which belong to the Arachnid animal class. These animals include spiders, mites and ticks, harvestmen, and scorpions. All Arachnids have 8 legs and do not have any antenna or wings, unlike insects. Arachnids have exoskeletons which protect … Continue

What Are Auks?

| Comments Off on What Are Auks?

Auks are birds which belong to the Alcidae family. Auks are also known as auks. The Alcidae family includes murres, puffins, guillemot, auklet, and Dovekie. Auks are birds which look like penguins for multiple reasons; their black and white exterior, the way that they stand, and the environment that they live in. However, auks are not related to penguins. Additionally, male and female auks look similar in appearance, which is referred to as monomorphic.

Auks have the ability to fly. However, since their wings are small, they need to flap them very quickly in order to actually take flight. Auks … Continue