EGRETS

An egret ( /ˈiːɡrət/) is any of several herons, most of which are white or buff, and several of

which develop fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Many egrets are

members of the genera Egretta or Ardea which contain other species named as herons rather

than egrets. The distinction between a heron and an egret is rather vague, and depends more

on appearance than biology. The word "egret" comes from the French word "aigrette" that

means both "silver heron" and "brush," referring to the long filamentous feathers that seem

to cascade down an egret's back during the breeding season.

DUCK

Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds,

which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the

Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group (the group of all descendants of

a single common ancestral species) but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not

considered ducks. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than the swans and geese,

and may be found in both fresh water and sea water.

SPOONBILL

Spoonbills are a group of large, long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae,

which also includes the Ibises.

All have large, flat, spatulate bills and feed by wading through shallow water, sweeping the

partly opened bill from side to side. The moment any small aquatic creature touches the

inside of the bill—an insect, crustacean, or tiny fish—it is snapped shut. Spoonbills generally

prefer fresh water to salt but are found in both environments. They need to feed many hours

each day.

SNAKES

Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be

distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all

squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many

species of snakes have skulls with many more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling

them to swallow prey much larger than their heads with their highly mobile jaws. To

accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in

front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some

species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca.

LIZARDS

Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 3800 species, [1] ranging

across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains. The group,

traditionally recognized as the suborder Lacertilia, is defined as all extant members of the

Lepidosauria (reptiles with overlapping scales), which are neither sphenodonts (i.e., tuatara)

nor snakes – they form an evolutionary grade.[2] While the snakes are recognized as falling

phylogenetically within the Toxicofera clade from which they evolved, the Sphenodonts are

the sister group to the Squamates, the larger monophyletic group, which includes both the

lizards and the snakes.

PELICAN

A pelican, derived from the Greek word πελεκυς pelekys (meaning “axe” and applied to birds

that cut wood with their bills or beaks) is a large water bird with a large throat pouch,

belonging to the bird family Pelecanidae.

Along with the darters, cormorants, gannets, boobies, frigatebirds, and tropicbirds, pelicans

make up the order Pelecaniformes. Modern pelicans, of which there are eight species, are

found on all continents except Antarctica. They primarily inhabit warm regions, though

breeding ranges reach 45° south (Australian Pelican, P. conspicillatus) and 60° North

(American White Pelicans, P. erythrorhynchos, in western Canada).[1] Birds of inland and

coastal waters, they are absent from polar regions, the deep ocean, oceanic islands, and

inland South America.

GOOSE GEESE

The word goose (plural: geese) is the English name for a group of waterfowl, belonging to

the family Anatidae. This family also includes swans, most of which are larger than true

geese, and ducks, which are smaller.

A number of other waterbirds, mostly related to the shelducks, have "goose" as part of their

name.