Long-Tailed Paradise Whydah

The Long-Tailed Paradise Whydah (Vidua paradisaea) is a small, brown sparrow-like bird. It is also known as the Eastern Paradise Whydah. 

The male Long-Tailed Paradise Whydah has a black head and back, with a rusty-brown chest, bright yellow nape, and buffy-white abdomen with four broad, elongated black tail feathers. The female is brown and white and lacks the long black tail feathers. 

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Red Fox

The Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) is a common and widespread mammal.

The Red Fox has reddish fur with yellow tints. Its winter fur is dense, long, soft, and silky. It sides are lighter than its back and its chin, lower lips, throat and front of the chest are white. The tip of its fluffy tail is white. It has a long body, long narrow head, and short legs. Its front paws have five toes and its back paws have four toes. Each toe has a strong claw. It has oval-shaped pupils with excellent vision.

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What is the difference between the African Leopard, the North Chinese Leopard, the Persian Leopard and the Snow Leopard?

What is the difference between the African Leopard (Panthera pardus), the Amur Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis), the Persian Leopard (Panthera pardus saxicolor) and the Snow Leopard (Panthera uncia)?

The African Leopard, Amur Leopard, Persian Leopard, and Snow Leopard are all solitary, elusive, large felines or wild cats. All of the leopards have pale-green or grey eyes.

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Reeves’s Pheasant

The Reeves’s Pheasant (Syrmaticus reevesii) is a large galliform game bird.

The Reeves’s Pheasant has gold, white, black, and reddish feathers, grey legs, and bare red skin around its eyes. Its beak is pale-cream, and its head is white with a narrow black band across its brown eyes. It has a very long, silvery-white tail with chestnut-brown bars. The female is brown with a blackish crown, a buff face, and a barred greyish-brown tail.

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Long-Tailed Macaque

The Long-Tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis) is a monkey, a primate, and a mammal. It is also known as the Crab-Eating Macaque or the Cynomolgus Monkey.

The Long-Tailed Macaque is a monkey with short arms, short legs, and a very long tail. It has dark-grey fur with light golden-brown tips. Its underparts are light-grey, and its tail is dark-grey to brown. It has a crown with hairs pushed backwards. Its feet and ears are black. Its ears sometimes have white spots. The skin on its muzzle (nose) is light greyish-pink. Its eyelids have white markings. The male has a moustache and cheek whiskers, whereas the female does not have a moustache.

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Silver Pheasant

The Silver Pheasant (Lophura nycthemera) is a large game bird.

The Silver Pheasant has a bare red face and red legs. The male is black and white, with white upperparts and a white tail with some black markings. He has glossy blue-black underparts. His crest is blue-black. The female is mainly brown with grey upperparts, with a tail that has a lot of black markings. She has whitish underparts. The female has a shorter tail than the male.

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Oriental Magpie-Robin

The Oriental Magpie-Robin (Copsychus saularis) is a small passerine (perching) bird in the Muscicapidae family of flycatchers. 

The Oriental Magpie-Robin is black and white with an upright long tail. The male has black upperparts, black head and black throat, with a white shoulder patch. Its underparts and the sides of the long tail are white. The female has greyish-black upperparts and greyish white chest.

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Scarlet Macaw

The Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) is a large bird in the parrot family.

The Scarlet Macaw has bright blue, yellow, and red feathers. Its head is red, its back is red, yellow, and blue, and its long tail is red and blue. Its wings are also red and blue. It has a red throat and chest. It is featherless on its white cheeks. It has small, dark eyes with a white eye-ring. It has a large, strong creamy-white beak.

The Scarlet Macaw, like other parrots, has its first and fourth toes pointing backwards.

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East African Fork-Tailed Drongo

The East African Fork-Tailed Drongo (Dicrurus adsimilis fugax) is a medium-sized passerine songbird. It is also known as the Common Drongo, the African Drongo, or the Savannah Drongo.

The East African Fork-Tailed Drongo is glossy black, with duller black wings. It has patches of brown feathers. It has a large head, and a light-grey thick, hooked beak, with nasal bristles (hairs). It has orange-brown eyes. It has short legs. The feathers on its tail curve outwards, forming a fork tail.

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Undulate Ray

The Undulate Ray (Raja undulata) is a skate, not a ray. It is a cartilaginous fish (fish without bones, like a shark). Instead of a bony skeleton, it has cartilage, which is the same substance as the human nose and human ears.

The Undulate Ray has a flat disc-shape body, with a triangle-shaped front part (head) and nearly-round body. It is not perfectly round because it has elongated sides. It has a long tapering tail with two small dorsal fins at the end with two thorns between them. They are barbless.

It has bulging eyes that are close together and face the front. Its mouth is on its underside and is small. It has five pairs of small gills which enable it to breath underwater. It is light-brown or grey with dark bands on its tail and dark spots on its body. Its has a creamy-white underbelly.

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What is the difference between an African Lion and an Asiatic Lion?

What is the difference between an African Lion and an Asiatic Lion?

The African Lion (Panthera leo leo) and the Asiatic Lion (Panthera leo persica) are both predatory mammals.

The African Lion is native to sub-Saharan Africa and the Asiatic Lion is native only to the Gir Forest in Gujarat in India.

The African Lion is bigger and heavier than the Asiatic Lion.

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Asiatic Lion

The Asiatic Lion (Panthera leo leo) is an endangered lion, native only to the Gir Forest of India. It is also known as the Indian Lion.

The Asiatic Lion is a tawny beige colour, with some black speckles. The male has a mane of hair around its head, and the female (lioness) has no mane. It has a fold of skin along its belly, called a belly fold.

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Common Redstart

The Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) is a small bird. Redstart means red tail.

The Common Redstart is grey with a white forehead and a black throat. Its wings and two central tail feathers are brown, whereas the other tail feathers are orange-red. It has orange on its sides and a white belly. Its beak and legs are black. It has a pale eye-ring.

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Common Brushtail Possum

The Common Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus Vulpecula) is an Australian and New Zealand marsupial mammal. Trichosurus Vulpecula means furry tailed little fox, but it is not a fox, and it is not related to the fox.

The Common Brushtail Possum is silver-grey, brown, black, or a golden colour, with large pointed ears and an extremely bushy tail that can wrap around branches. Its inner ears and nose are pink. It has short, fine black whiskers, and big, round brown eyes. Its feet have sharp claws with a strong grip.

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African Red-Rumped Swallow

The Red-Rumped Swallow (Cecropis daurica) is a small bird from Europe, Asia, and Africa. The African Red-Rumped Swallow (Cecropis daurica emini) is from Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, and Zambia. Unlike the European swallows, which are migratory, the African Red-Rumped Swallows are resident (they do not fly to another location in winter).

The Red-Rumped Swallow is a blue-black with a rufous (red-brown) rump with rufous patches on the sides of its head. It has rufous underparts with a pale throat. Its tail is plain and forked. It has dark eyes, a small grey beak, and pink-grey legs.

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