Camouflaged Creatures
View allAll Photos Tagged Cryptic
Camouflage, also called cryptic coloration, is a defense or tactic that organisms use to disguise their appearance, usually to blend in with their surroundings. Organisms use camouflage to mask their location, identity, and movement. This allows prey to avoid predators, and for predators to sneak up on prey.
Stocks used:
11 different photos
As its name suggests, the Cryptic Wood White butterfly is very difficult to distinguish from the Wood White. This species only occurs in Ireland, where it is widespread. It was discovered to be different from the Wood White in 2001 and, more recently, its identification was changed again to this new name. The Wood White is very similar, but seems to be restricted to the Burren region in Ireland.
This example of Cryptic Wood White was one of many seen along the banks of the River Barrow in County Kilkenny.
Thanks for your visit… Any comment you make on my photograph is greatly appreciated and encouraging! But please do not use this image without permission.
The Cryptic Golden Tegu was once considered conspecific with the Golden Tegu. The Golden Tegu was split into three new species in 2019 or so.
Golden Tegus grow to be about 60 to 100 cm long on average, and up to 3.5 to 4.0 kg in weight, with a glossy body, powerful limbs and a thick tail. They have many black and gold stripes down their bodies. Golden Tegus live in the tropical forests of northern and central South America, as well as in Panama. They feed on insects, other invertebrates, small mammals, other reptiles and birds, as well as fish and sometimes fruit. (Wikipedia)
Speyside, Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago. January 2016.
Trinidad
Golden tegus are one of the largest land based lizards in South America. Their thick body is covered with glossy scales that are striped with orange and black. They have a thick tail which makes up as much as half of their body length.
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Cryptic colouring provides the Grayling with excellent camouflage, making it difficult to see when at rest on bare ground, tree trunks, or stones. The wings are kept closed when not in flight and the forewings are usually tucked behind the hind wings, concealing the eyespots and making the butterfly appear smaller. In flight this is a distinctive, large butterfly with a looping and gliding flight, during which the paler bands on the upperwings are visible.
Taken at The Bog, Stiperstones,
Shrewsbury
The Cryptic Wood White only occurs in Ireland. It was discovered to be different from the Wood White in 2001 and, more recently, its identification was changed again to this new name. The Wood White is very similar, but seems to be restricted to the Burren region in Ireland.
The upperwings are white with rounded edges. The males have a black mark in the edge of the forewing. The undersides are white, with indistinct grey or greenish markings.
Cryptic Plumage
Brown Creepers can seem to disappear against a tree trunk as they move up from base. I like the feather detail in this shot which is best seen if the zoom tool is used.
Edmonton, Alberta
Please, no invitations to award groups or to those with large/animated comment codes.
A small olive-gray honeyeater with a circular pale yellow cheek patch and a relatively fine bill. Can be confused with Lewin’s Honeyeater and Yellow-spotted Honeyeater, but note the shape of the cheek patch: crescent-shaped on Lewin’s Honeyeater and oval on Yellow-spotted Honeyeater. Adults also have a blue-gray eye while Lewin’s has a bluish eye and Yellow-spotted has a brown eye. Voice is a key ID feature—often a single short note rather than the loud repeated whistle of Yellow-spotted or the rapid staccato machine-gun call of Lewin’s. One of three easily confusable species found in far northern Queensland. Common in many wetter lowland habitats in wetter parts of northern Queensland. Formerly considered conspecific with Graceful Honeyeater, but no overlap in range. (eBird)
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A throwback to our birding trip in Australia in 2022. This lovely little honeyeater was one that we had to study for, to ensure that we ID'd it correctly. Luckily, he posed nicely for us so that we clearly see his identifying marks.
Kingfisher Park Birdwatcher's Lodge, Tablelands, Queensland, Australia. October 2022.
Eagle-eye Tours - Eastern Australia.
Island Of Madagascar
Off the East Coast of Africa
Palmarium Reserve
This chameleon is well camouflaged in its native habitat.
Calumma crypticum, commonly known as the cryptic chameleon, is a species of chameleon found in Madagascar. The species is endemic to Madagascar and has a broad latitudinal distribution between the Anosy Mountains in the south and the Tsaratanana Massif in the north.
It is a forest chameleon that occurs in mid-altitudes between 1,050 and 1,850 m elevation, where it appears to be more abundant in semi-open areas associated with trails, gaps and rivers.
The chameleon species is only found in humid forest and the loss or severe degradation of these habitats due to agricultural conversion and logging is a threat, especially outside of protected areas. – Wikipedia
The camouflage underwing of the Red Admiral is especially appealing to me because of the cryptic patterns and the varied tones of brown, red, pink, blue, green, and cream.
Cryptic heron of freshwater marshes in tropical lowlands. Usually in areas with tall grasses or rushes, rarely in open situations. When alarmed, often freezes motionless with neck upstretched. The neck is finely barred horizontally, but the body plumage is vertically streaked (not horizontally barred and banded, as on immature tiger-herons). Compare with immature night-herons, which have streaked, not finely barred necks. (eBird)
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One of our target birds at the wetlands was this bittern. As with any bittern, it can be hard to find but after just a few minutes scanning, I spotted it in the grass a few hundred metres from us. I was so excited - it was on my lifer wish list for the trip and to find it so easily was a dream. The biggest problem was getting the rest of the group on to it as there were few landmarks to help guide the eyes. Eventually we all got excellent views.
Here’s the link to our Costa Rica trip list: ebird.org/tripreport/477692
Medio Queso Wetland, Alajuela, Costa Rica. February 2026.
Eagle-Eye Tours.
The Cryptic Wood White only occurs in Ireland. It was discovered to be different from the Wood White in 2001 and, more recently, its identification was changed again to this new name. The Wood White is very similar, but seems to be restricted to the Burren region in Ireland.
The upperwings are white with rounded edges. The males have a black mark in the edge of the forewing. The undersides are white, with indistinct grey or greenish markings.
If you visit Pawnee National Grassland at any point throughout the summer, there's a fine chance you'll see one of these cryptically-colored goatsuckers sleeping atop a post or a tree branch. They're rather tame, probably because they rely on their apparent camouflage to protect them... unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work well when they're out in the open.
Well, the 'Bombus terrestris group' of Bumblebees has four kinds that are very difficult to distinguish from each other; hence my 'cryptic'. First I thought perhaps Olymp's Bee was a 'Cryptic', which in Dutch is known as the Wilgenhommel, Willow Bumblebee. My patch of Ground Ivy happened to be directly under a copse of Willows. But looking more carefully at my insect I though its tongue was rather too long for the Cryptic Bumblebee. So then I thought perhaps 'Lucorum', or even specific 'Terrestris'. But I just couldn't choose. So I'll just leave you with the general name of Bombus terrestris, which covers for four very similar Beasties.
Tiny, cryptic woodland songbird, unique in North America. White below and streaked brown-and-buff above; blends into tree bark very easily. Also note narrow, decurved bill and long tail. In flight, shows a bold buffy wing stripe. When foraging, often starts near the base of a tree trunk, hitches upward in short, jerky motions until it nears the top, then flies to the base of a nearby tree to begin the process again. Found in mature woodland, especially with conifers. Often joins mixed flocks with other songbirds, especially in winter. Listen for high, thin calls and sweet cascading song. (eBird)
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Walking along the trail, we heard the call of the creeper, so began the usually fruitless attempt to actually see it. A hint of motion and there it was on this huge old tree. Then the attempt to photograph it. For a change, I was successful and got a couple of shots as it searched under the branch for lunch.
Andrew Haydon Park, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. September 2023.
The attractive, arresting, pleasing, and also the cryptic and camouflaged patterns of butterflies and moths are the ancestral form of pointillism, a style of painting that reached its zenith around 1890. But butterflies and moths were perfecting this art form 300 million to 100 million years ago, using colored scales rather than dots of color.
See the antecedent to pointillism by zooming in on this lichen moth, Leuconycta diphteroides (I think), which uses black, white, grey and green scales to accumulate a convincing likeness of a lichen. Not a bad imitation of rough concrete, either.
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Location: Selangor.
Length: A tiny frog, 30 to 35 mm (1.2 to 1.4 inches) in snout-vent length.
Found during our monthly night walk with visitors.
Cryptic night bird, more often heard than seen. Listen for namesake song, a whistled "whip-poor-WILL," repeated endlessly. Found in forests, often with a mixture of pines and deciduous trees with open areas nearby for foraging. Forages for flying insects from the ground at night. Intricately patterned with gray, brown, and black. Similar to Chuck-will's-widow but with smaller head and shorter wings and tail. Eastern and Mexican Whip-poor-wills were recently split into separate species; they differ mainly in voice and do not overlap in range.
This bird was caught in a major storm overnight. The tree branch it was sitting on broke, and it ended up on the ground.
Bronte Bluffs Park, Burlington, Ontario, Canada. May 2018.
Ornate Tree Lizard
Tubac, AZ
These guys are normally so cryptic you barely see them but this guy sort of stood out against the log
I didn't take this photo intending to do anything with it. It was taken in store even, but I got inspired to see if I could edit it in photoshop. This was the result.
Cryptic messages in this long abandoned farmhouse have some roots in reality....Happy window Wednesday everyone!
Moynaguri Tea Estate, Shalbahan, Tetulia, Panchagarh, Bangladesh
The red-wattled lapwing (Vanellus indicus) is an Asian lapwing or large plover, a wader in the family Charadriidae. Like other lapwings they are ground birds that are incapable of perching. Their characteristic loud alarm calls are indicators of human or animal movements and the sounds have been variously rendered as did he do it or pity to do it leading to the colloquial name of did-he-do-it bird. Usually seen in pairs or small groups and usually not far from water they sometimes form large aggregations in the non-breeding season (winter). They nest in a ground scrape laying three to four camouflaged eggs. Adults near the nest fly around, diving at potential predators while calling noisily. The cryptically patterned chicks hatch and immediately follow their parents to feed, hiding by lying low on the ground or in the grass when threatened.
Source: Wikipedia
Island Of Madagascar
Off The East Coast Of Africa
Palmarium Reserve
Two Chameleons Cryptic Chameleon (Calumma crypticum) And O'shaughnessy's Chameleon (Calumma oshaughnessyi) side by side on a branch at the reserve.
O'Shaughnessy's chameleon (Calumma oshaughnessyi) is a species of chameleon endemic to Madagascar. It was named after the British poet and herpetologist Arthur O'Shaughnessy.
O'Shaughnessy's chameleon has a range of about 18,000 square kilometers throughout the southeastern portion of the central highlands of Madagascar. Its distribution extends from Tsinjoarivo, Ambatolampy in the north to Andohahela National Park in the south. The species is highly dependent on intact, humid forest as its habitat, living in lower densities on selectively logged territories.
Calumma crypticum, commonly known as the cryptic chameleon, is a species of chameleon found in Madagascar.
The species is endemic to Madagascar and has a broad latitudinal distribution between the Anosy Mountains in the south and the Tsaratanana Massif in the north.
It is a forest chameleon that occurs in mid-altitudes between 1,050 and 1,850 m elevation, where it appears to be more abundant in semi-open areas associated with trails, gaps and rivers.
The chameleon species is only found in humid forest and the loss or severe degradation of these habitats due to agricultural conversion and logging is a threat, especially outside of protected areas.
Island Of Madagascar
Off the East Coast of Africa
Palmarium Reserve
Our guide had to show us where this chameleon was at the reserve. We could not have found it on our own.
Calumma crypticum, commonly known as the cryptic chameleon, is a species of chameleon found in Madagascar.
The species is endemic to Madagascar and has a broad latitudinal distribution between the Anosy Mountains in the south and the Tsaratanana Massif in the north.
It is a forest chameleon that occurs in mid-altitudes between 1,050 and 1,850 m elevation, where it appears to be more abundant in semi-open areas associated with trails, gaps and rivers.
The chameleon species is only found in humid forest and the loss or severe degradation of these habitats due to agricultural conversion and logging is a threat, especially outside of protected areas.
A cryptically patterned Senegal Thick-knee seeks cover in long grass near Brenu Beach in Ghana, West Africa. The Senegal Thick-knee is a stone-curlew, a group of waders in the family Burhinidae. It is a resident breeder in Africa between the Sahara and the equator, and in the Nile valley.
Thanks for your visit… Any comment you make on my photograph is greatly appreciated and encouraging! But please do not use this image without permission.
5 pictures of a day full of surprises:
www.ticklebear4u.com/2013/10/oh-happy-day-282365-days-30....
:)
Thought that I would try cryptic, rather than literal for the theme "Three". Thanks to all who take time to view my offerings, and even more to those who comment. HMM. Steve
A few days ago I posted a shot of a Coyote trotting through a fresh coating of snow in Grand Teton National Park. About five minutes prior to that shot, I had been photographing a herd of bison when I heard the familiar call of a Long-billed Curlew. The bird blended in to the setting so well it took me a while to spot it. The curlew's camouflage is impressive in any grassy setting but even more so with a dusting of snow. Once I finally spotted it, I was able to get a few shots before it flew off.