Neocene-Project

Opuntia Swallow (Neohirunda Africana)Order: PasseriformesFamily: HirundinidaeHabitat: Baobab opuntias of AfricaThe so-called barn swallow of the Holocene, although it disappeared in the Neocene, managed to give birth to many child species. Some of them live in North America - for example, the so-called red-winged swallow - and others in Africa. One of these species is the so-called cactus swallow, because it lives mainly among the tree-like cacti - the baobab opuntias.Externally, this species of swallows is similar to the ancestor’s appearance - pointy wings, short beak, dark blue back and fawn or pale rusty belly and throat. This bird is a good and a manoeuvrable flyer, and can overtake in the air almost any other bird and bat.Like the other swallows, it feeds on insects that usually fly, but unlike other swallows, it catches insects from the trunks of baobab opuntias as well: it has a shorter tail than the ancestral species did, and the tail isn’t ‘forked’ either, but is more square ins shape, which allows the opuntia swallows to move along the trunks of the tree-shaped cacti without problems. There they are also drink - in the holes made by beaks of more powerful parrots of the wood of the trunks of baobab opuntias. The juice of these cacti does not quite replace the water, in addition, these cacti have their own parasites – the zulal beetles, but the opuntia swallows can simply leave the groves of these plants and fly to the rivers, lakes and other reservoirs to drink there instead. There, however, their main enemies – the local birds of prey - attack them but the swallow of this species can usually fly away from enemies.The nests of these swallows are made from shore mud, and the swallows attach them to the branches of baobab opuntias, and line with grass and their own feathers. In a clutch, there are from 4 to 8 eggs, white or pinkish, with brown specks. Both birds incubate them for 2-3 weeks, and the chicks leave the nest after the same amount of time. After a couple of weeks, the chicks leave their parents, and the families break up. However, these birds do not have a mating period, and the memory of this species of swallows is good, and usually the partners soon reunite with each other.This species of swallow lives until about 16-20 years of age, but often dies earlier.

Watchbird (Leistes neglecta)Order: PasseriformesFamily: IcteridaeHabitat: South America's open spacesIn the Neocene, South America returned to the state it was in before the Pliocene era: it is an island continent, separate from all others. In the result of this new isolation, its’ wildlife also became starkly different from the ecosystems of the other continents; for example, its pampas are ruled not by animals, but by birds – flightless herons who hunt different animals, sometimes of a large size, (and even very much so), like the giant paca, but more often not very big ones, like the pampas deer. The flightless herons themselves should beware of even larger birds, such as the acatou, which is one of the largest birds in the world of the Neocene... but still, most South American birds are not so impressive in appearance. The watchbird is one of these birds.Externally, this bird is quite unweaving: about 20 cm in length, robust body build, covered with feathers with black-yellow stripes, (males are brighter and more contrasting than females). Only tail feathers are white, with them these birds transmit signals. The legs are long, but the wings are short and stiff - this bird is a bad flyer (by bird standards), and its prey - different small invertebrates – is usually hunted on the ground, rather than in the air. Therefore, the watchbird follows herds of different animals of the South American pampas and catch all the small animals that will crawl out, run out, or fly out from under big hooves and paws. Sometimes this species even rides on the other animals’ backs to catch its’ prey from above, not from below. In exchange for this service, this bird alerts its partners when a predator approaches them from the sky or from the grassy thickets, (that is why the name).The mating period of this bird begins at the end of the drought, when the males begin to notify the females of their species with songs about the fact that they are ready for mating. The females evaluate the males by the volume, duration and strength of the song, and choose the best males with the best songs, (by their standards). These birds weave their nests from grass and attach them to the branches of local trees, high above the ground and away from predators, the small mammals and snakes that hunt these birds. The clutch is usually 4 eggs, pale blue with brown spots. Only the female incubates, for about 2 weeks, and the male feeds her. The chicks stay in the nest for a week and a half or two, after which they leave it forever, and the same amount of time they spend with their parents, and then they begin to live an independent life - these birds form pairs only for one season, and each year they start all over again.The watchbird can live for about 10-11 years, but usually dies much earlier.

Steppe Crail (Rallogeranus aridophilus)Order: GruiformesFamily: NeogruidaeHabitat: Central AsiaWhen the Neocene began "for real", many species of animals, birds and fish - especially larger ones - had already died out, leaving no direct descendants. Among them were the true cranes from the Gruidae family. Their remaining econiche were taken over by the other birds - usually unrelated to them, (storks, herons, ibis, etc.), but also other crane-like birds - descendants of the rail birds, (Rallidae). The most famous of these are crails, birds living in Asia and North America. The steppe crail is one of these birds.The steppe crail is not a very large bird: about a meter in length, and it weighs about 3.5 kg. It has a relatively large wingspan - about 1.8 m and its’ plumage is colored in a mottled, dark gray color. On its’ head is a crest of darker, bright black feathers, on the cheeks are red-white spots, on the neck is a skin resonator, with which the steppe crails can shout out to each other at a distance of several km: its’ voice is a thin and piercing whistle.Oddly enough, but when it comes to nesting, the steppe crail prefers to nest not on the ground, but on the steppe trees, or among tall shrubs, to be more safe from predators, even if it’s relatively so. Therefore, this bird is more territorial and aggressive than other species of this family are, and it drives away from its nesting territory not only its relatives, but also other large birds, and even large animals; it even charges at the giant saigachenia, though in the latter case - usually to no avail.The mating season of the steppe crail occurs in the spring: adult males renew their nests and call out to the females, and the younger bachelors try to take the nests away from them. Then these birds fight quite intensely, kicking and pecking each other, but their beaks are proportionally shorter than those of their relatives, because this species of bird feeds mainly on land than in the water or near water – it eats small animals, insects, but especially this bird loves cereals, especially in autumn, when the grown-up chicks have already left the nest, and families of these birds roam the steppe.The eggs in a clutch usually number 2, more rarely - 1 or 3. Both parents incubate for 5 weeks; a nest is a platform on a tree or among tall shrubs. The running monitors, (and their relatives), and large snakes can eat chicks, while adult birds are attacked by giant carnivorous corvids and similar birds; at about 10 weeks old, the chicks of the steppe crail can fly, and at 18 weeks of age they become independent. Sexual maturity occurs at 2-3 years of age, (in females earlier than in males).A steppe crail can live several decades, but more often it dies much earlier from predators and winter starvation.

Lesser Crail (Rallogeranus minor)Order: GruiformesFamily: NeogruidaeHabitat: North AmericaWhen the Neocene started "for real", many species of animals, birds and fish - especially larger ones - had already died out, leaving no direct descendants. Among them were real cranes from the Gruidae family. Their remaining econiche were taken over by the other birds - usually unrelated to them, (storks, herons, ibis, etc.), but also other crane-like birds - descendants of rails, (Rallidae). The most famous of these are the crails, birds living in Asia and North America. The lesser crane is one of these birds.The lesser crane is not a very impressive bird: about 90 cm tall and with shorter and thicker legs, neck and beak than other species in its’ family possess. It is covered with a green and rusty brown (striped) plumage with a lighter colored beak. This coloration, and the difference in size of a lesser crail is because it does not swamps, but prefers dry places - the undergrowth of deciduous forests, scrubland, prairie, less often - foothills of the mountains, (especially the Appalachians). This species lacks the throat sack present in the other species of crails; instead, this species has a fiery red crest, which they can lift and lower, giving each other alarms, warnings, threats, courtship signals, etc.Like the other crails, the lesser crail feeds on animal food - usually insects and other invertebrates, less often – on small vertebrates. This bird does not eat carrion, and it serves as prey for larger animals and birds. In the clutch - this bird usually nests in a secluded place on the ground – there are 2-3 speckled eggs and both parents incubate them for 2-3 weeks. The chicks are born covered with fluff and with their eyes open, and after 2-3 days they and their parents leave their nest forever; the lesser crail in general forms permanent couples - often until the death of one of the spouses - but here this species lacks a regular nest, instead every year mated couples of this species either build new nests, or find abandoned empty ones, either of the other lesser crails or of any other terrestrial birds. By winter, the chicks of the lesser crail become independent, but the sexual maturing of this species comes only in 2-3 years of age.The lesser crail can live a few decades, but more often it dies much earlier from predators and winter starvation.

Mottled basket-mouth (Xiao asiaticus)Order: ApodiformesFamily: CalathostomornitidaeHabitat: Far EastIn the Neocene, new families of birds inhabited the skies of Earth; among them are the so-called basket-mouth birds, one of the more unusual descendants of swifts. They are called so, because around their beaks grows a ring of elastic feathers with sparsely distributed grooves, which help the basket-mouth birds to catch several insects in a single swoop.Most of the basket-mouth birds are not very large, and the mottled basket-mouth is one of the larger ones. It reaches up to 20 cm in length, has a wingspan of up to 30 cm, and weighs up to 37 grams. Compared to other members of its’ family, it is a stronger and stockier bird, with proportionally longer wings. Its plumage is brown on top and gray or brownish from below, covered with white spots. There are white rings around the eyes. The beak is light, even pinkish.The mottled basket-mouth birds hunts just as its’ relatives do, by grabbing insects while swooping with an open beak and outspread ‘basket’ feathers. However, it is a larger bird, therefore it eats larger insects, and also sometimes it attacks "from an ambush": it sits on a tree and waits until a large insect flies past it, and then the mottled basket-mouth will fly off its branch and swallow the prey. It also can - unlike most of its’ relatives - catch insects, (more rarely - other invertebrates too), which do not fly, but crawl, past it on a tree.This lifestyle has left some other differences on the mottled basket-mouth – it is not the same hardy flier as the other members of its’ family are, and although it can sleep on the wing, it also sleeps while sitting on a tree. Like the other Apodiformes birds, it can hardly move on the ground, but on branches, (sometimes trunks) of trees it moves freely; its legs are short but strong, and its’ claws are short but sharp.The mottled basket-mouth bird does not make nests; it glues its eggs - 1-2 - to the branch of the tree, less often - in an abandoned hollow. The eggs are white or pinkish, very noticeable, so the parents always sit on them and feed in turn. On the contrary, the chicks are covered with cryptically colored down, and can remain on their own for quite a long time, allowing the food for them to be taken by both parents. The chicks grow fast, and by autumn, they already fly no worse than their parents do, and fly with them to the south, (this species of basket-mouth bird lives in northern Asia, where in winter it is cold and snowy). There the families break up – this species has a kind of monogamous relationship, but does not form permanent pairs - and in the spring, these birds return to the north, and it all starts again.The lifespan of a mottled basket-mouth does not exceed 7-8 years.

Carnabo (Asio carnabo)<b>Order:</b> Strigiformes<b>Family:</b> Strigdae<b>Habitat:</b> Southern EuropeThe beginning of time between the Holocene and the Neocene was marked by climatic cataclysms and mass extinctions of many species of animals and birds, especially the larger ones. Smaller species survived, and took up new niches, forming new species. Sometimes these new species were larger than their ancestors, but not always. The carnabo, a descendant of the Holocene short-horned owl, is such an exception.The carnabo is a fairly small owl, about 30 cm long, (the wingspan is about 50-60 cm), and weighing 150-250 grams. It is colored in a non-showy, but contrasting manner: the head and wings are gray, and the chest and stomach are white, (but also with gray bars or markings).The carnabo is found along the entire European south, so local variations in the color of this species are very common. Its’ legs are long and strong – this owl spends more time on the ground than on trees, and runs well. It can fly, but does not like to, preferring to hide in bushes, less often on trees or in burrows of small animals.The carnabo are active around the clock, but especially during the day and night; in the morning and in the evening, this bird prefers to sleep. It hunts mainly small vertebrates, less often insects; it itself is prey to the larger carnivores; there are cases of cannibalistic predation, especially among chicks. This owl does not like the cold, and in the Central, and even more so in Northern Europe, it is not found.The mating period of this owl is in the first half of spring. In its’ clutch, the carnabo has 4 to 12 white eggs. These owls do not make their own nests; they occupy someone else's, or live in a tree hollow, or even in a burrow of some small beast. Only the female incubates the eggs, for about a month. The male does not incubate, but gets food to the female. Later, when the chicks hatch, they are fed by both parents. They grow fast, and after a month, they can fly, after three months they are already independent, and by the next year, they can have their own families.The carnabo usually does not live more than 10 years.

Eastern steppe grouse (Pavonasia asiaticus)<b>Order:</b> Galliformes<b>Family:</b> TetraonidaeHabitat: Far EastThe end of the Holocene and the beginning of the Neocene were marked by another ice age, which, like a giant wall, pushed the northern species to the south, making the north of Earth a very uncomfortable place to live. Then the glaciers melted, Earth warmed up again, the northern species returned from south to north, but with various successes; some descendants of the northerners remained to live south, spawning new species. Thus, in the swamps of Siberia and the Far East lives the peacock grouse, quite a large bird, up to 2 kg in weight, outwardly resembling a Holocene capercaille, while slightly more to the south, where the dense marshy forests are replaced by drier scrubland, lives its’ distant relative - the eastern steppe grouse.This bird has typical features of the inhabitants of the steppes, and outwardly resembles not so much its relatives, as the various bustards of the Holocene. It has a relatively light physique, (it weighs about 1.5-1.8 kg), long legs, neck and beak. The males have a crest on their heads, which they spread out in front of the females. The plumage is darker and more monotonous than that of the ancestor: the variously colored bars on the feathers remained, but they are inconspicuous on the black-brown feathers: when the eastern steppe grouse rests, it usually hides the head and neck "under the wing", bends its legs, and resembles a stone slash boulder among the steppe grasses. If it is disturbed, it takes off with a sharp cry, scaring off and dumbfounding the enemy with a lighter, almost white plumage of the inside of the wings and belly. The chicks are colored more traditionally, with dark stripes and ripples on light fluff. Usually the eastern steppe grouse does not like to fly, but runs on the steppe and scrubland, (as well as in the chaparral), and quite fast. The repertoire of its’ cries is quite diverse – there are piercing cries, shouts of alarms, squeaks with which adult birds talk to chicks, and whistles for conversation between the adults themselves ...The eastern steppe grouse is a relatively omnivorous bird - it eats plant matter too, especially the seeds of the different steppe grasses and cereals, (especially in autumn), as well as animal matter - mostly it is different invertebrates and small vertebrates. It himself serves as prey to various predators - birds of prey and carnivorous animals catch adult birds, and large reptiles like running monitor can destroy the clutches of this bird. Younger and older birds sometimes die during the lean winter months, but this rarely happens.The mating period is in the first half to the middle of spring. Males find a suitable place for a lek, usually it is an elevation like a tall stone, a low tree, a steppe hill, and declare themselves to the surroundings with a loud, piercing whistle. Unlike most other game birds the eastern steppe grouse is a non-communal bird, and large public leks does not form; each male is for itself; the males of this species are monogamous, and although they do not incubate the eggs themselves, but the females are fed by them, and the chicks are taken care of too.In the clutch are 8 - 10 eggs. The female incubates them for two weeks or a little more. Usually all of the eggs hatch, and the parents take the chicks out of the nest. The nest itself is quite unremarkable - a hole on the ground in a secluded place, lined with grass and feathers of the grouse itself. The chicks are able to run from hatching, and in two or three weeks they can already flutter, (they are able to fly in two or three weeks of age). By six months of age, they are already leaving their parents, but usually hold on to each other until the onset of puberty - in females it is in one and a half to two years, in males - in two or two and a half.The maximum lifespan of the eastern steppe grouse is up to 16 years, but most of these birds die much earlier.

Balkan forest pigeon (Paracolumba balkanensis)<b>Order:</b> Columbiformes<b>Family:</b> Columbidae<b>Habitat:</b> subtropical forests of the Balkan PeninsulaIn the Neocene, the Balkans have become one of the warmest and most favorable places in Europe, (even in the south). In view of various geological reasons, they stand separate from the rest of the continent, and the flora and fauna that lives there - too. Thus, there are Balkan cave pigeons that are among the more unusual and not standard inhabitants of caves – they are not very large birds with a modest coloration and some semblance of a facial disk, which makes this bird similar to an owl. However, the cave pigeon feeds on the fruits of plants, as does its cousin, the "common" pigeon of the Balkan forests.In its’ common features, the Balkan forest pigeon actually resembles the ancestral species, only its beak is longer and thinner. It is a rather small bird - about 20-22 cm long with a wingspan of 30-35 cm and with the appropriate weight. It is covered with a plumage of greenish color, only on the head the feathers are rather yellow in color, but around the eye and up to the beak there are "glasses" of more greenish feathers, which gives the Balkan forest pigeon a distant, superficial resemblance to its cave relative. (Males and females of this species are colored the same way, but females are dimmer in color than males).Unlike the cave pigeon, this bird does not nest near caves or even more so in caves, but in the forest, in the crowns of trees. The nest is a simple platform of sticks, where the females lay-3-4 gray or whitish eggs with dark specks. Both parents incubate the chicks, taking turns. Their chicks hatch in about a month and a half, and spend another month in the nest. Then for another month and a half they live with their parents, and then leave them forever - the Balkan forest pigeon is a non-communal bird, these birds live in separate families in the Balkan forests and do not form large flocks, as do some of the other wild pigeon and dove species.Like the cave pigeon, the Balkan forest pigeon is a fruit-eating bird, but it also eats insects and other invertebrates. Its behavior is not particularly complicated, and it itself is hunted by local birds of prey, as well as tree snakes and predatory animals, (mostly mustelids).The Balkan forest pigeon lives no more than 10-15 years.