Abstract Decoration with feathers is a universal phenomenon in human history. Objects decorated were regarded as fine artworks and hence enormously prized. In ancient China, dotting surface blue kingfisher was famous, complex delicate decoration technique called diancui. Although various diancui appear many museums around the world researchers have realized significant results studies of histor...

The reproductive biology encompassing phenology, floral biology, pollination and breeding systems, of Butea monosperma, a beautiful tree of the Indian subcontinent, was investigated in a protected dry, deciduous forest located in New Delhi. Phenological studies indicated that although the species shows a regular flowering season, all trees do not flower every year. Flowers are typically papilio...

This study describes the foraging ecology of birds during summer and winter in two different types of coffee agroecosystems in Chiapas, Mexico. Avian foraging behavior is documented in two agroecosystems of differing management intensity, structurally similar but with different levels of floristic diversity, during summer and winter seasons. The distribution of tree species used by birds was mo...

I examined the effects of two farm management variables, shade-tree species and crop structure, on the winter (dry season) arthropod and bird communities in a Jamaican shade coffee plantation. Birds and canopy arthropods were more abundant in areas of the plantation shaded by the tree Inga vera than by Pseudalbizia berteroana. The abundance of arthropods (potential pests) on the coffee crop, ho...

The shape and color of flowers are important for plant reproduction because they attract pollinators such as insects and birds. Therefore, it is thought that alterations in these traits may result in the attraction of different pollinators, genetic isolation, and ultimately, (sympatric) speciation. Petunia integrifolia and P. axillaris bear flowers with different shapes and colors that appear t...

Neotropical parrots usually forage in forest canopies for nectar, flowers, leaves, fruit pulp, and seeds. As they have no all-purpose territories, these birds usually exploit vegetation mosaics in order to use plentiful resources as they become available. In this study we examine the use of a gallery forest in the southern Pantanal (Brazil) by a diverse parrot community that ranged from Brotoge...

Computer Vision is growing day by day in terms of user specific applications. The first step of any such application is segmenting an image. In this paper, we propose a novel and grass-root level image segmentation algorithm for cases in which the background has uniform color distribution. This algorithm can be used for images of flowers, birds, insects and many more where such background condi...

The enormous increase in phylogenetic information in recent years has allowed many old questions to be reexamined from a macroevolutionary perspective. We have recently considered evolutionary convergence in floral colors within pollination syndromes, using bird-pollinated species in Australia. We combined quantitative measurements of floral reflectance spectra, models of avian color vision, an...