View allAll Photos Tagged pigmentation
Smile on Saturday ~ Two-gether (2025/02/08)
The southern yellow-billed hornbill (Tockus leucomelas) is a hornbill found in southern Africa. Yellow-billed hornbills feed mainly on the ground, where they forage for seeds, small insects, spiders and scorpions. This hornbill species is a common and widespread resident of dry thornveldt and broad-leafed woodlands. They can often be seen along roads and water courses.
t is a medium-sized bird, 48–60 centimetres (19–24 in) in length, 132–242 grams (0.291–0.534 lb) in weight and is characterized by a long yellow and down-curved beak. This beak is huge in comparison to its body and can account for up 1/6th of the entire body length. Male beaks are on average 90 mm long while female beaks are an average of 74 mm. Males are generally bigger than females but there is overlap between the sexes. The size difference of the beak is a fairly reliable way of differentiating sex in wild hornbills.
The casque that characterizes all hornbills is of a very modest size in the southern yellow-billed hornbill. It is small, but it covers almost the entire length of the beak in males (less so in females), and may give the impression that they do not actually have a casque. As in all hornbills, the size of the beak actually intrudes on the frontal vision of the bird and the first two neck vertebrae are fused together.
Also, like most other hornbills, they possess a long tail, long eyelashes, stubby legs and stubby toes. The front three toes are fused together near the base.
They have white belly, grey neck, and black back plumage with abundant white spots and stripes. The neck has gray spots and the chest is lightly striated with black. Southern yellow-billed hornbills have no plumage pigmentation save for melanin, which can only produce shades of black and white. The eyes are usually yellow, though brown has also been seen. The skin around the eyes and in the malar stripe is pinkish. The related eastern yellow-billed hornbill from north-eastern Africa has blackish skin around the eyes.
They have been known to live for up to 20 years in captivity, though their longevity in the wilds remains unknown.
Hornbills have a unique look, so many cultures give them an important place in their beliefs. Some indigenous tribes revere hornbills as sacred beings that must not be harmed. Others will hunt them for food, to use them in the confection of traditional medicine or to use them in rituals.
Dikhololo
Brits Rural Area
Northwest Province
South Africa
Last Saturday, 23-06, I was, accompanied by a guide in the nature reserve "Cortenbroeck" in Vlezenbeek, on springtail hunt. It was a real safari trip :-)
8 different springtails I could capture on photo, 24 june.
This are 2 Entomobrya nivalis eating...
Artwork at RHS Bridgewater drawing attention to spicies in danger.
The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) has a complex and fascinating life cycle, characterized by its long migrations. Born in the Sargasso Sea, near Bermuda, the eel begins its life as a larva, drifting for up to three years across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. Once it reaches the continental waters, the larvae transform into juvenile eels called "glass eels," which are transparent and migrate into rivers, lakes, and estuaries. Over the next several years, they grow into adult eels, developing a dark pigmentation. These adults can live up to 20 years, often in freshwater environments, before undergoing a mysterious migration back to the Sargasso Sea to spawn and die. This life cycle, particularly the journey back to the Sargasso Sea, remains one of nature's great mysteries.
It's currently facing a significant decline in population, with numbers plummeting by over 90% in recent decades. Overfishing, habitat loss, pollution, and the construction of barriers like dams have severely impacted their migration routes, breeding success, and overall survival. The eel's complex life cycle, combined with environmental pressures, has made recovery difficult. Additionally, climate change and oceanic changes threaten the eel's spawning grounds in the Sargasso Sea. This drastic decrease in numbers has led the species to be listed as critically endangered, sparking conservation efforts to protect the eel's remaining habitats and ensure its survival.
Appears to be a little Leucism going on here.
Can show a wide variety of conditions that result in the partial loss of pigmentation in an animal—causing white, pale, or patchy , feathers, , but not the eyes.
White-cheeked Turaco (Menelikornis leucotis) is green with deep greenish-blue tail and wings. The ventral surfaces of their wings are crimson. They have a white patch in front of their eyes and on the side of their neck. These birds have a red beak and eye ring and a blue-green crest.
This species has a very large range and can be found in Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Sudan.
Turacos are the only birds to possess true red and green pigmentation. When you look at most birds, the colour you are seeing is a reflection produced by the feather structure. Their red pigment (turacin) and green pigment (turacoverdin) both contain copper.
Ref: seaworld.org
File: zR23H4549
Anthocharis cardamines, the orange tip, is a butterfly in the family Pieridae, which contains 1100 species of butterfly. A. cardamines is mainly found throughout Europe and temperate Asia (Palearctic) The males feature wings with a signature orange pigmentation
The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus Megaptera.
The adult humpback whale is generally 14–15 m (46–49 ft), though longer lengths of 16–17 m (52–56 ft) have been recorded. Females are usually 1–1.5 m (3 ft 3 in – 4 ft 11 in) longer than males.
The species can reach body masses of 40 metric tons (44 short tons). Calves are born at around 4.3 m (14 ft) long with a weight of 680 kg (1,500 lb).
The body is bulky with a thin rostrum and proportionally long flippers, each around one-third of its body length.[15][16] It has a short dorsal fin that varies from nearly non-existent to somewhat long and curved.
As a rorqual, the humpback has grooves between the tip of the lower jaw and the navel. They are relatively few in number in this species, ranging from 14–35. The mouth is lined with baleen plates, which number 270-400 for both sides.
Unique among large whales, humpbacks have bumps or tubercles on the head and front edge of the flippers; the tail fluke has a jagged trailing edge.
The tubercles on the head are 5–10 cm (2.0–3.9 in) thick at the base and poke up to 6.5 cm (2.6 in). They are mostly hollow in the center, often containing at least one fragile hair that erupts 1–3 cm (0.39–1.18 in) from the skin and is 0.1 mm (0.0039 in) thick. The tubercles develop early in the womb and may have a sensory function as they are rich in nerves.
The dorsal or upper-side of the animal is generally black; the ventral or underside has various levels of black and white coloration. Whales in the southern hemisphere tend to have more white pigmentation. The flippers can vary from all-white to white only on the undersurface.
The varying color patterns and scars on the tail flukes distinguish individual animals. The end of the genital slit of the female is marked by a round feature, known as the hemispherical lobe, which visually distinguishes males and females.
This image was taken from the beakwater at Honningsvag Harbour in Norway
A very pale one with a special patch found in the park (Itterdal) in Opitter.
stack in zerene : 10 images used
Nel periodo autunnale, in alta Valle del Vanoi in Trentino, la natura dimostra un esplosione di colori dai toni caldi. In particolare gli alberi che sono prossimi a perdere le foglie, si colorano di giallo, rosso e arancione, questo effetto nominato "Foliage" è dovuto alla spostamento della clorofilla dalle stesse foglie alle radice della pianta, cambiando cosi la pigmentazione. Qui siamo in località Zortea nel comune di Canal San Bovo (TN).
In autumn, in the upper Vanoi Valley in Trentino, the nature demonstrates an explosion of colors in warm tones. In particular, trees that are close to losing their leaves turn yellow, red and orange, this effect called "Foliage" is due to the displacement of chlorophyll from the same leaves to the root of the plant, thus changing the pigmentation. Here we are at Zortea in the municipality of Canal San Bovo (TN).
The yellow meadow ant feeds on the honeydew from root aphids, which they breed in their nests. During winter, the aphids themselves are sometimes eaten. As a consequence of their feeding habits, the species only occasionally forages outside the nest. Evidence of their underground lives is their lack of pigmentation and the smaller size of their eyes,[3] compared to closely related species like the black garden ant. They are a timid species and will often simply barricade their tunnels to fight off invaders.
Alates (winged, unmated queens and males) can be seen on warm days and evenings of July and August. This is one of the rare times that they are seen, as workers open up their nest entrances and herd the young winged ants out of the nest. Colonies are often founded by multiple queens (pleometrosis). Later on, when the first workers emerge, fights between the founder queens will erupt, with only one queen left (monogyne). However, this species is also known to have single colonies with multiple queens and up to 250,000 workers, when they are spread out over multiple interconnected nests.[4]
I've never seen leucism (lack of pigmentation) on this species before. I've seen in a few other species though. There was another sibling just like it too. I find it interesting because I have never ever seen leucism in more than one bird at a time. The parents nearby had their common slate-gray plumage intact as you can see in the adult one.
Calopteryx virgo can reach a body length of 49–54 millimetres (1.9–2.1 in), with a length of hindwings of 31–37 millimetres (1.2–1.5 in). These large, dark damselflies have small hemispherical eyes located laterally on the head, two pairs of wings similar in shape and a slender abdomen. The basal area of the wings is transparent, otherwise wings are uniformly colored. The wings are also traversed by a dense network of veins. This species presents an evident sexual dimorphism in colour pattern.
The male usually has much more extensive pigmentation on the wings than other Calopteryx species in its range: in the south east of its range (the Balkans and Turkey) the wings are entirely metallic blue while in other areas, there are clear areas at the base and tip of the wing. Immature males show brown wings, as the metallic blue wing color develops only with age. They have metallic blue-green bodies and blue-green eyes.
The female has dark brown iridescent wings, a white patch near the tip of the wings (called a pseudopterostigma) and a metallic green body with a bronze tip of the abdomen.
The vibrant colors on a hummingbird's throat are caused by iridescence in the arrangement of feathers, not by feather pigmentation.
The red kite is usually a deep reddish-brown in colour – but this one is almost all-white, with icy-blue eyes, due to leucism, or a partial loss of pigmentation.
This bird, which I photographed at a red kite feeding station in Rhayader, is believed to be one of just two leucistic red kites in the whole of the mid-Wales region.
Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
Where have you been? It's alright we know where you've been.
You've been in the pipeline, filling in time,
provided with toys and scouting for boys.
You bought a guitar to punish your ma,
And you didn't like school, and you know you're nobody's fool,
So welcome to the machine.
Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
What did you dream? It's alright we told you what to dream.
You dreamed of a big star, he played a mean guitar,
He always ate in the Steak Bar. He loved to drive in his Jaguar.
So welcome to the machine.
Pink Floyd
I've been trying to get a shot of this guy for the past few months as he visits all of the feeders with seed but he's been so skittish any time I've tried to get close. This is the first black squirrel I've had in the yard.
The black squirrel is a melanistic phase (increased amount of black pigmentation) of the Eastern Grey Squirrel.
I hope everyone has a terrific Sunday!
About two-thirds of the Persicaria maculosa plants along my Meuse walk have those dark blotches more or less midway their foliage. It's from those that it gets its English common but imaginative name 'Lady's Thumb'`. Much nicer than the Dutch common 'Perzikkruid' (=Peach-herb), after the shape of its foliage. It's as if a Lady's come along to pick a bunch of wildflowers and left her thumb squeeze on the delicate foliage.
I don't know what purpose that pigmentation serves. Anyone out there in Flickrland?
Myrmica rubra, also known in the UK as the common red ant, is a species of ant of the genus Myrmica. It is found across Europe and is now invasive in some parts of North America[2] and Asia.[1] It is mainly red in colour, with slightly darker pigmentation on the head. These ants live under stones and fallen trees, and in soil. They are aggressive, often attacking rather than running away, and are equipped with a stinger, though they lack the ability to spray formic acid like the genus Formica.
The lake contains borax islands, whose white color contrasts with the reddish color of its waters, which is caused by red sediments and pigmentation of some algae.
James's flamingos abound in the area Also it is possible to find Andean and Chilean flamingos, but in a minor quantity.
Southwest Bolivia
Wikipedia
J'attendais que le balbuzard pêcheur qui avait quitté sa perche revienne.
De loin je voyais ce grand oiseau envahir mon viseur et tournoyer très haut dans le ciel. Surprise et primeur...un urubu à tête rouge.
Enfin de nom seulement car il s'agit d'un juvénile dont la tête n'a pas encore pris cette pigmentation caractéristique. D'où la primeur.
While waiting for the return of the osprey, I noticed this large bird coming towards me and circling very high in the sky. A first for me. A Juvenile Turkey Vulture in flight.
I had never seen one young enough where the characteristic pigmentation of the head was still absent.
Summerstown, ON, Canada.
Probably my best photograph of this raptor, and shot with an inexpensive kit lens.
The Leucistic or "white" Red Kite photographed at Gigrin farm, Rhayader. It's unusual colour is caused by a rare genetic mutation which prevents normal pigmentation of the feathers resulting in predominantly white or pale plumage.
Eristalis tenax, the common drone fly, is a common, migratory, cosmopolitan species of hover fly It is the most widely distributed syrphid species in the world, and is known from all regions except the Antarctic. It has been introduced into North America and is widely established. It can be found in gardens and fields in Europe and Australia. It has also been found in the Himalayas..Eristalis tenax is a large, stocky bee mimic. The eyes are marbled in black. Males have hovering displays. The average wing length is 9.75–13 mm and their average wingspan is 15 mm.
The exact appearance of the drone fly can vary considerably.The abdomen can vary in color from dark brown to orange. Pigmentation has an important role in the control of body temperature; the black areas down the center of the drone-flies abdomen may absorb solar radiation and so warm the dorsal blood vessel, which is right underneath