### animal | vertebrate | bird:

Gallinule
* Most gallinules have eyes
  - green plumages
  - toes
* Some gallinules have birds
  - bones
  - breeds
  - wing birds
* are noisy and inquisitive birds, less furtive in their actions than most rails.
* build their nests on rough platforms of reeds and grasses in marshes.
* can fly and swim, but prefer to dash into thick weeds to escape their enemies.
* includes air sacs
  - bird's feet
  - brains
  - breasts
  - cell membranes
  - cells
  - chest cavities
  - chests
  - corpi
  - cytoplasm
  - ears
  - faces
  - flight feathers
  - heads
  - lips
  - mouths
  - nuclei
  - plasma membranes
  - quill feathers
  - rib cages
  - second joints
  - sections
  - skulls
  - sterna
  - talons
  - vacuoles
  - wishbones
* manage to migrate great distances in spite of a feeble-appearing flight.
* moult all flight feathers simultaneously.
* remain concealed most of the time in marsh grasses.

### animal | vertebrate | bird | gallinule:

Common gallinule
* Most common gallinules have toes.
* Some common gallinules lift feet.
* can breed within a year of hatching.

Giant bird
* Most giant birds prey on animals.
* Most giant birds prey on large animals
  - game animals

Healthy bird
* can adapt to any comfortable room temperature
  - be carriers and infect others
* eat often and are active
  - make lots of droppings
* have bright, clear eyes.

Herbivorous bird
* Most herbivorous birds have long necks
* Some herbivorous birds live on leaves.

### animal | vertebrate | bird | heron:

Bittern
* are herons
  - most active at dusk and through the night
  - relatives of herons and have a very low booming call
* call most often in the spring.
* contain magnesium sulfate, potassium chloride, bromine, iodine and other toxic compounds.
* feed mostly near natural reed edge, especially if water levels are low in the reedbed.
* require marshes and other wetland habits, commonly bordering on lakes.

Blue great heron
* have feathers.
* live for years.
* make croaks.
* nest in colonies.

### animal | vertebrate | bird | heron:

Egret
* are beautiful white birds that roost on the back of cows
  - excellent at hunting fish
* arise in the dawn.
* build nests on the channel markers, and beautiful old trees overhang the water.
* eat fish, frogs, snakes, crawfish, and large insects.
* fly overhead and monkeys chatter nearby
* inhabit swamps, brushy lake borders, ponds, Susquehanna River shallows, islands and mudflats.
* nest in rookeries.
* perch on moss-covered rocks and falcons soar overhead, in hunt of their prey
  - the gray skeleton of an abandoned fishing shack
* squawk in the reeds at the water's edge.
* swoop down to feast on worms.
* use their long legs to wade about the shore, catching minnows, shrimps, and frogs for dinner.

### animal | vertebrate | bird | heron | egret:

Cattle egret
* are birds that spend their time following cattle
  - native to Africa and Asia
  - self introduced and are therefore deemed natives and are fully protected
* consume large numbers and to a lesser extent so do robins, mocking birds and crows.
* exploit drier and open habitats more than other heron species.
* feed primarily in pastures with cattle.
* follow cattle to feed on the insects stirred up by the grazing cattle.
* live in colonies and are very sociable.
* reduce the number of tabanids and, thereby, the incidence of bovine anaplasmosis.
* walk behind cows and eat insects stirred up from the grass.

Great egret
* are among the most graceful and showy of all wading birds
  - eurythermal
  - heterotrophs
  - predators at the top of the food chain
  - sympatric with other species of wading birds
* eat more large fish of more different species than do other wading birds.
* like to nest halfway up the tree.