Bird eggs can be many colours.
Different bird species lay different coloured eggs. The eggs can be all one colour or they can have stains, called blotches, spots, patterns, speckles, and markings.
Most birds lay white, cream, or light beige eggs.
Birds that have nests in trees and shrubs usually have blue to green eggs, plain or spotted.
Continue reading “Bird Eggs: Colours and Stains”
What shape is a bird egg?
Zoologists can list several egg shapes, usually 6 or 8 different shapes.
Here are 6 different bird egg shapes: (1) conical, (2) pyriform (pointy or pear-shaped), (3) longitudinal, (4) spherical (round, ball-shaped), (5) oval, and (6) elliptical.
Some zoologists add the cylindrical shape and the biconical shape.
Continue reading “What shape is a bird egg?”
The Greater Rhea has large eggs, but they are not as large as ostrich eggs.
When a female Rhea lays an egg, it is greenish-yellow at first, and quickly changes to dull creamy-white.
A Rhea egg measures about 13 centimetres (5 inches) long and 9 centimetres (3.5 inches) high, which is half the size of an ostrich egg, and almost twice the size of a chicken egg.
Continue reading “Rhea Eggs”
The Greater Rhea (Rhea Americana) is a large bird. It is also known as the American Rhea. It cannot fly. Birds that cannot fly are called ratites. The Ostrich, Kiwi, and Cassowary are also ratites.
The Greater Rhea is emu-like with a body of large fluffy grey or brown feathers, a long neck, and long legs. It has three toes like the emu (the ostrich has two toes). Its head, neck, rump, and thighs are feathered.
Continue reading “Greater Rhea”
The Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a semi-aquatic monotreme (egg-laying) marsupial (pouched) mammal. It is also known as the Duck-Billed Platypus.
The Platypus has a duck-like beak, webbed feet with sharp claws like an otter, an elongated mole-like body, and a broad, flat, beaver-like tail. Its waterproof fur is brown with a whitish underbelly. The male has a venomous spur on it hind (back) feet. The female has a spur, but it is not venomous. It has small brown eyes and small nostrils.
Continue reading “Platypus”
Bird eggs can be different sizes, shapes, and colours.
Large birds, such as the ostrich and the emu, have large eggs.
Small birds, such as the finch and the sparrow, have small eggs.
Bird eggs can be round, oval, or pointed.
Continue reading “Bird Eggs”
Butterfly eggs are small.
Females lay eggs singly or in a group, called a cluster or a batch. There can be up to 200 eggs, depending on the species of butterfly.
Butterfly eggs have a hard, protective shell, called a chorion. It is coated with wax, which prevents the egg from drying or dehydrating.
What is the difference between a skate (Raja undulata) and a ray (Dasyatis)?
Both the skate (an undulate ray) and the ray are marine (saltwater) cartilaginous fish related to the shark. Not all rays are stingrays.
Both the skate and the ray have flat, boneless bodies. Instead of bone, they have cartilage (the human nose and ears are made of cartilage).
Both the skate and the ray glide through the water.
The skate has an almost-rounded body, whereas the ray is usually diamond-shaped or kite-shaped.
Continue reading “What is the difference between a skate and a ray?”
The Golden Apple Snail (Pomacea canaliculata) is a freshwater South American snail. It is an aquatic gastropod mollusc (mollusk). It is also called the Channeled Apple Snail.
The Golden Apple Snail has a boneless foot with a brown globe-shaped shell, called a mantle. It has both external gills (like a fish) on the right-hand side of its body to enable it to breathe underwater, and an internal lung on the left-hand side of its body (like a frog) to enable it to breath on land. This means that the Golden Apple Snail lives in the water and on land – it is amphibious, like a frog or a toad. It also has an operculum, which is a little lid, that enables it to close the shell entrance to prevent it from drying out when it is buried in the mud during dry seasons.
The Haitian Sea Anemone (Condylactis gigantean) is a tropical marine ball-type animal. It is also called the Giant Caribbean Sea Anemone. The Haitian Sea Anemone is found as individuals or small, loose groups, but never in colonies like coral. It is related to coral and jellyfish.
The Haitian Sea Anemone is a large columnar sessile (non-moving) animal of many colours: white, pink, orange, pale-red, or light-brown. Its body has an adhesive pedal (foot) disc, a cylindrical body, and a central mouth surrounded by 100 or more tentacles. The tentacles often have a coloured tip (such as purple or pink).
What do crocodile eggs look like?
Crocodile eggs are slightly elongated and cream-coloured with a smooth, thick, hard shell.
Crocodile eggs vary in size, depending upon the species, but are similar to the size and weight of chicken eggs.
Crocodile eggs occur in cluches of 7-95 individual eggs, depending upon the species of crocodile.
The Leopard Tortoise (Geochelone pardalis) is a high-domed land reptile from Africa. It is a chelonian (all turtles, terrapins and tortoises are chelonians).
The Leopard Tortoise has a high-domed carapace (shell) with nearly vertical sides and a V-shaped notch at the front of its shell. It has a background yellow or yellow-brown colour with dark brown or black spots in a leopard-like pattern. Its head, legs, and tail are yellow-brown.
Ostrich eggs are the largest of all bird eggs, relative to the size of the adult female.
Ostrich eggs are shiny and cream-coloured with a thick shell that has small dents all over it.
The Anchor Coral (Euphyllia ancora) is a hard, stony coral found in tropical marine waters in coral reefs. It is similar to the Hammer Coral (Euphyllia fimbriata).
The Anchor Coral has blue-grey (and many other coloured) polyps, or tentacles, with puffy, tubular, sausage-shaped, or curved C-shaped tips.
The Feather Duster Worm (Sabellastarte spectabilis) is a tropical marine worm, or bristleworm – a polychaete. It is also called the Fan Worm. Some are sedentary (sessile) and some are mobile (errant). It is an annelid. It looks like a plant, but it is an animal.
The sedentary Feather Duster Worm lives in an elongated tube. The tube looks like a rolled-up parchment. It has segments that have appendages, called setae, or bristles, or tentacles, that look like a feather duster. The appendages are brown with white bands.
The Australorp is an Australian breed of chicken. It is also called the Australian Black Orpington.
The Australorp has various colours, such as black (with an iridescent green sheen), blue, or white. Black is the most common colour.
The Speckled Green Snake (Philothamnus punctatus) is a large non-venomous colubrid African snake.
The Speckled Green Snake is slim and green or blue with black speckles. It has raised ‘eyebrows’ and distinctive huge round eyes. It has a light cream-coloured or pale-yellow belly.
The African Helmeted Terrapin (Pelomedusa subrufa) is also known as the Marsh Terrapin, the Crocodile Terrapin, or the African Side-Necked Terrapin. It is a semi-aquatic reptile from Africa, like tortoises and turtles – a chelonian.
The African Helmeted Terrapin looks like a helmet. Instead of its neck sticking in and out, it has a side-necked position where it places its head sideways in its shell. It black or brown shell (carapace) is slightly domed. Its tail and legs are grey-brown, and its underbelly is yellowish. The male has a long thick tail. The female has a shorter tail.
The Rhinoceros Iguana (Cyclura cornuta) is a large reptile – it is a lizard.
The Rhinoceros Iguana is grey-brown or grey-green. It has a bony horn-like lump on its nose, which looks like a rhinoceros horn. It has a crest of pointed scales from the nape of its neck to to the tip of its long tail. It has blue eyes.
The Big Bellied Seahorse (Hippocampus abdominalis) is also called the Pot-Bellied Seahorse. It is found in the oceans of New Zealand and southeast Australia. It is one of the largest seahorses in the world. It is a teleostfish.
The Big Bellied Seahorse is beige-brown, mottled with yellow-brown and darker blotches. Its tail often has yellow bands. It has a protruding stomach. It has a forward tilt, a long nose, and a long, coiled tail. Males have a smooth, soft pouch-like area at the base of their abdomen, with a small fin. Females have a pointed stomach and a larger fin at the base of the abdomen.
Each eye moves separately, enabling them to see their predators from all directions.