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Lee Ouzman - Wildlife photography terms Category: Animals and Nature > Wildlife Photography Date & country: 27/09/2013, USA Words: 570

Bib
Informal term for a distinctly pigmented area of the throat, usually a dark patch.

Bill
Birds do not have a mouth like humans, but instead have a bill or a beak. The bill reveals much about the bird

Belly
The ventral part of the bird, or the area between the flanks on each side and the crissum and breast. Flight muscles are located between the belly and the breast.

Belly band
A streak across the a bird's belly that is either lighter or darker than the main belly colour.

Basic plumage
In most bird species, the plumage worn during the nonbreeding season; often less strikingly patterned or coloured than breeding (or alternate) plumage.

Basypterygoid process
Protrusion of skull that prevents pterygoid bones from being disarticulated (e.g. in parrots).

Banding
A research activity in which birds are captured, examined, measured, and banded by having a metal band placed around their leg. Each band has a unique number, so if the bird is ever recaptured or recovered, data can be shared with the original banding station.

Back
The dorsal part of the bird between the base of the wings from the neck to the tail.

Backcross
Offspring resulting from the mating of a hybrid bird with one of its parental species.

Bailkiaea woodland
A broadleaved deciduous woodland type (usually tall), restricted to Kalahari sands and dominated by Baikiaea plurijuga, also known as 'teak' woodland. In the subcontinent mainly found in north-eastern Namibia, northern Botswana and north-western Zimbabwe.

Aviculture
The breeding and raising of birds in captivity; when such species are cross-bred, new

Axillaries
The feathers found where the underwing joins the body (the 'armpit').

Austral
Of the southern hemisphere.

Auriculars
Soft webbed feathers on the side of the bird's head. These feathers overlap the ear and as such are also called ear coverts or ear patch.

Aspect ratio
In birds, the ratio of wing length to wing breadth.

Asynchronous hatching
Staggered hatching of birds in a single clutch (group of eggs), often over several days.

Arthropod
Invertebrate with segmented body, jointed limbs and external skeleton (Phylum Arthropoda).

Ascendent
(of flight feather moult) From the outside of a feather tract inwards (e.g. P10 to P1).

Aquatic
Living in or on water.

Arboreal
Living in trees.

Arm
Informal term for the inner portion of the wing between the body and the carpal joint.

Apical
Terminal; refers to the apex or outer end.

Apteria (pl)
Unfeathered parts of bird's; body between feather tracts.

Anisodactyl
Foot arrangement with toes 2-4 pointing forwards, toe 1 backwards; found in most birds.

Anting
Bird on ground either lies down, wings and tail spread, allowing ants to crawl over plumage (passive), or picks up ants and rubs them over feathers (active). Function debated

Antiphonal
(of song) Given alternately (in duet) by two birds.

Alular quill coverts
Alular quill coverts are smaller feathers covering the quill of each flight feather. Each wing has primary, secondary and tertiary coverts based on the location of the feather.

Alular quills
Three feathers attached to the alula originating from the base of the primaries. They are essential for low speed flight and aid in coordinated landing and take-off.

Alula
Usually four small feathers found on a bird's 'thumb' (first digit), also known as the 'bastard' wing; controls airflow over the leading edge of the wing.

Altitudinal migration
Seasonal movements from one altitude to another, usually from high-altitude breeding grounds in summer to lower altitudes in winter.

Altricial
Describes a young bird that is more or less helpless at hatching and has to be fed in the nest by adults (see Precocial).

Altitudinal migrant
A bird that moves seasonally from one altitude to another, usually from high-altitude breeding grounds in summer to low-altitude non-breeding grounds in winter.

Allopreening
Preening of one bird by another.

Alternate plumage
In most bird species, the plumage worn during the breeding season; often more vividly colored and patterned than the nonbreeding (or basic) plumage, particularly in males.

Alien
Introduced from another part of the world.

Allopatric
The geographical range of one species (or taxon) not overlapping with that of another, similar, species (or taxon). (See also parapatric and sympatric).

Alate
Winged (usually in reference to winged termites).

Albinism
White plumage and pink soft parts resulting from a complete lack of the pigment melanin.

Afromontane
Term used for the mountainous ranges across the Afrotropical Region; mostly inland at high altitude and with temperate climate conditions.

Air sac
An expandable, featherless, often brightly colored and textured area on the sides of the neck in some birds; certain grouse and prairie-chickens inflate air sacs in courtship displays. In anatomical usage, the term refers to internal organs connected to the lungs in all birds.

Adaptation
A special physical or behavioural ability that has allowed a species adjust to a particular way of life.

Addled
(of eggs) Rotten, usually infertile.

Accipiter
A woodland bird of prey that hunts other birds by chasing them through trees. Accipiters have short, fat wings and a long tail for maneuvering through trees.

Activity Range
The area over which a bird regularly carries on its affairs.

Aberrant
Atypical; an aberrant bird differs strikingly in some aspect from most individuals of its species.

Abdomen
Ventral part of the bird; belly.

Acacia
Deciduous trees in the genus Acacia. In Africa these are thorny, with bipinnately compound leaves (each leaf is again divided into small leaflets) and small powderpuff

Wrist
The wrist refers to the base of the primaries in the bird

Wrist comma
A comma shaped mark at the middle joint on a bird's wing.

Xanthochroism (adj. xanthochroic)
Abnormal and excessive yellow pigmentation in feathers.

Yard egg
Single egg laid and abandoned (by pelicans and flamingos) in roosting or loafing area.

Zygodactyl
Toes 2 and 3 pointing forwards, and toes 1 and 4 pointing backwards, e.g. in woodpeckers, cuckoos, coucals and barbets.

Wingpit
Also called the axillary, is located between the body and the wing of the bird, similar to the area of the human armpit.

Wingspan
The distance between the tips of the spread wings.

Wing-loading
The weight of a bird divided by its wing area.

Wing lining
The short and softer median, lesser and marginal coverts on the underwing. The entire underwing-coverts.

Wing panel
A pale or dark band across the upperwing (often formed by pale edges to the remiges or coverts), broader and generally more diffuse than a wing-bar.

Wing stripe
The area at the base of the wing which is made up of pale or white tips on the flight feathers.

Wing formula
Schematic representation of the relative lengths and shapes of the primaries of a bird's wing; used to identify some species in the hand (e.g. Acrocephalus warblers).

Wing coverts
The feathers that cover and protect the flight feathers.

Wave moult
see Staffelmauser.

Wetland
Low-lying area, such as a marsh or swamp, that is saturated with moisture for at least some period of time during a year or cycle.

Whisker
Also called the moustache, malar steak or stripe, it is the contrasting coloured feathers on each side of the chin down through the throat area.

Wing
The wing is the feathered appendage that allows a bird to fly. Strong flight muscles are attached to the wing such that the bird can lifts its own bodyweight.

Vlei
A wetland.

Wattle (adj. wattled)
Bare fleshy structure around eye, base of bill, throat or elsewhere on the head of a bird.

Ventral
Pertaining to the undersurface of the body (see Underparts).

Vermiculations/Vermiculated
Patterned with dense, fine lines.

Vestigial
Describes a morphological structure or behaviour pattern that is so reduced through long disuse as to be almost absent.

Upperwing
Visible part of the wing when looking at the bird from a top view while the bird is stationary and has its wings pressed against its body.

Vagrant
A bird found in an area that is not within its usual distribution, having strayed there by mistake, e.g. through disorientation, or by adverse winds.

Vent
The feathers around the cloacal area (anus, oviduct/sperm-duct openings) between the belly and the undertail coverts. Birds do not have two separate cavities for excrement and reproduction like humans do. In birds, there is one single entrance/exit that suits both functions called the vent, cloaca or anus.

Uppertail coverts
Short feathers covering the upper side of the base of the tail.

Uppertail
The dorsal surface of a bird.

Upperparts
The dorsal surface of a bird, i.e. the frons, lores, face, crown, nape, mantle, back, upper wing, rump, base of tail and uppertail.

Undertail coverts
Also called crissum, they are feathers in a triangular area on the underside of a bird between its vent and the base of its tail feathers. Adult females tend to have conspicuous dusky edging to most of these feathers. Juvenile females tend to have nearly pure white undertail coverts.

Updraft
Air that rises when the wind meet a ridge or rock outcrop.

Upper mandibular tomia
The cutting edge of the upper bill.

Type specimen
The single specimen that is the type of a nominal species or subspecies. (See also Holotype).

Uapaca (or Uapaca woodland)
A group of trees in the Euphorbia family of plants. In parts of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi, Uapaca kirkiana forms the dominant species within the woodland.

Ulnar bar
Area of dark plumage in the underwing coverts that extends from the humerals to the carpal joint.

Underparts
Under surface of body from throat to under tail coverts.

Tree line
The elevation in a mountainous region above which trees do not grow or the northern (or southern) latitude beyond which trees do not grow; also called

Tremolo
Rapid repetition of a single tone with a tremulous quality, similar to vibrato in human singing.

Tropics
The region of earth centered on the equator and lying between the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer.

Type locality
The location where the type specimen was collected.

Type species
The nominal species that is the type of a genus or a subspecies.

Trailing edge
The back or hind edge of a wing or flipper.

Tongue spot
Spot (usually several) that forms part of characteristic pattern on tongues of nestlings of certain species (e.g. warblers and waxbills).

Tomium
Cutting edge of bill.

Toe
The toes are digits attached to the feet just like human toes. Most birds have four toes. The first toe points backwards while the other three toes point forward. The second, third and fourth digits or toes are counted from the inside of the foot out and have 2, 3 and 4 phalanges respectively. Most birds do not have a fifth toe, except for some where it has evolved into a defensive spur, such as in the Spurfowl.

Tomial notch
Toothlike serration in the edge of the maxilla, as seen in shrikes and vireos.

Thicket
A number of shrubs or low trees growing very close together, usually with a bare understorey. In the steep river valleys of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, thicket-type vegetation is often dominant and has recently been recognised as a distinct biome.

Throat
Area of the underparts bounded by the malars and the breast.

Throat patch
Feathers of a contrasting colour found on the throat.

Tibia
Part of the leg above the knee.

Tideline
Area where two different water masses or currents meet, often concentrating nutrients, prey items, and flotsam.

Territory
Area occupied by a single bird, mated pair, or group and often vigorously defended against intruders, especially those of the same species.

Tertials
innermost flight feathers on a bird's 'upper arm' (humerus). Often applied incorrectly to modified, conspicuous inner secondaries, e.g. those of pipits. The third set of flight feathers located closest to the body.

Thermal
A rising column of warm air, often found above rock outcrops, areas of rock or sand or burnt areas of land.