Words for Birds

E1: Bird Species Richness in the Los Angeles Region

Richness: The number of species in a community 
Topographic: Physical features on the earth’s surface such as hills, mountains etc. 
Endemic: Animals and plants that only live in one place and nowhere else in the world
Sedentary: The animal has the same locality throughout life
Subspecies: Physical and genetic differences between a species from being in different locations
Converge: To meet or gather at a point
Rain Shadow: Mountain range blocking weather patterns creating a desert landscape
Terrestrial: On land

E2: Bird Habitats Around Los Angeles

Generalists: Birds that can be found in most terrestrial habitats
Specialists: Birds that are usually found in specific types of habitats
Hardscape: The man-made features of landscape architecture, not plants
Riparian Habitats: Land along rivers and streams
Chaparral: Groups of drought-adapted shrubs, typically found in rocky and rapidly drained shallow soils

E3: Los Angeles Birds Through the Seasons

Molting: Shedding old feathers to make room for new growth
Migration: The large-scale movement of birds to a different environment
Energetically Expensive: Requires more energy/food to be able to perform the task
Fledgling: A young bird who has developed feathers for flight
Nestlings: A young bird not yet ready to leave the nest

E4: Bird Diversity in Los Angeles

Genera: A group of related living organisms
Families: A taxonomic rank that contains more than one genera
Orders: A taxonomic rank that contains more than one family
Life History Traits: A pattern of survival and reproduction and the attributes that allow this survival and reproduction

Passeriformes: An order of birds that contains more than half of all known bird species
Phylogeny: A branch of biology that studies phylogenetics, which is the relationship of species and evolution
Evolutionary History: The gradual change in characteristics in a species over generations of time

E5: Meet The House Finch

Fringillidae: A family of birds that includes finches
Mycoplasma Gallisepticum: A bacteria that causes respiratory disease and infectious sinusitis in avian species