Alpine accentor Alpine accentor The alpine accentor ("Prunella collaris") is a small passerine bird. The word "accentor" is from post-classical Latin and means a person who sings with another. The genus name "Prunella" is from the German "Braunelle", "dunnock", a diminutive of "braun", "brown", and the specific "collaris" is from Latin "collum", "neck". This species, along with the Altai accentor is sometimes separated from the other accentors, into the genus "Laiscopus". This is a robin-sized bird at 15-17.5 cm in length, slightly larger than its relative, the dunnock. It has a streaked brown back, somewhat resembling a house sparrow, but adults have
Common ostrich is scarce in dry and hot environment, and this poses a challenge to the ostrich's water consumption. Also the ostrich is a ground bird and cannot fly to find water sources, which poses a further challenge. Because of their size, common ostriches cannot easily escape the heat of their environment; however, they dehydrate less than their small bird counterparts because of their small surface area to volume ratio. Hot, arid habitats pose osmotic stress, such as dehydration, which triggers the common ostrich’s homeostatic response to osmoregulate. The common ostrich is well adapted to hot, arid environments through specialization of excretory