Fabulous Animals Whose Names Begin with The Letter “F"

The animal kingdom offers dozens of animals whose names begin with the letter F. Here are 10 of these fabulous F animals.

Ask any kid to name 10 animals whose names start with the letter F, and probably these animals will occupy a place in his list: fish, frog, fox, and flamingo. But the animal kingdom offers us with a dozen of F animals. Read on to find out what these animals are.

Finch

photo link

There are hundreds finch species, however, the “classical” true finches are passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Most are native to the Southern Hemisphere, inhabiting well-wooded areas, and some species live on mountains or even in deserts. They vary in size from 9.5-23 cm in length and weigh from 8.5 g to 80 g. True finches are mainly seed-eating songbirds but some species include berries and arthropods in their diet.

Finches typically have strong, short beaks, Plumage color varies, depending on the species. The basic plumage color is brownish, or at times greenish.

Frill-necked Lizard

photo link

The Frill-necked Lizardis a large lizard that grows up to 90 cm long, about two-thirds of which is tail. They are found in northern Australia and southern New Guinea inhibiting tropical savannah woodlands. These arboreal lizards come in no specific colors, but is characterized by its frill. They occasionally come down from trees to search for food and to protect its territory. When threatened, it stands on its hind legs, opens its yellow-colored mouth, spreads out its colorful frill around its head and hisses.

Like many lizards, the Frill-necked Lizard is insectivorous. Its diet includes ants, spiders, termites, cicadas, and small lizards. Other menu items include spiders, cicadas, termites, and small mammals. Females lay 8-12 small, soft-shelled eggs which are laid at the onset of the wet season. Hatchlings emerge totally independent and able to hunt using their frill.

Fairy Bluebird

photo link

Fairy-Bluebirds are two small species of passerine birds that inhibit the lowland rainforests throughout southern Asia and the Philippine island of Palawan. These large and colorful birds can grow to about 25 cm long and weigh 75 grams. The adult males have crowns and typically with cobalt blue or black plumage, while the females wear purple or dull blue-green plumage. Fairy-bluebirds are famous for their melodious whistle.

Fairy-bluebirds usually live and traveled in pairs or seen gathering in fig trees in small groups (about 30 birds). These birds bathe in streams occasionally. They make their nest in dense trees about 20 feet above the ground. The nest is made from sprouting twigs and rootlets and camouflaged with moss. These birds lay two to three eggs greenish-white eggs. They feed on fruits, especially that of fig trees. They occasionally eat insects and nectar.

Ferret

photo link

Ferrets are domestic mammals that are very playful, and are very entertaining to watch. They typically come in white, black, brown, or mixed fur. Ferrets grow in size to an average of 51 cm long including a 13 cm tail. On average, they weigh about .7-2 kg. Males are bigger in length and weight than females, where adult females grow between 13-14 in. long. Ferrets live 7-10 years on average.

Ferrets spend much of the day sleeping, usually consuming up to 18 hours. They have a keen sense of hearing and smell, but have relatively poor eyesight. They have a reputation of being smelly. In the wild, ferrets feed on small prey, such as meat, bones, feathers, skins, organs and fur. However, kept as pets, they will do with meat-based diet that includes mice, rabbits, chicken meat, beef and wallaby.

Firefly

photo link

Firefly or winged beetles have over 2,000 species found in marshes, wet wooden throughout tropical and temperate areas around the world. They are a familiar sight during summer evenings flashing their signature “cold light”.

Firefly average 5-25 mm in length and live in the wild for about 2 months. Their soft, flattened black or dark brown bodies are often stained with yellow or orange. Their most notable feature is the greenish-yellow underside of the abdomen where flashes of lights are produced. Their diet consists of pollen and nectar. Some adults eat other insects, insect larvae and snails.

Fiddler Crab

photo link

Fiddler crabs are any of the 97 species of small, semi-terrestrial crabs of the genus Uca. They got their name because the male has one claw that is much larger than the other. They are found in tropical and temperate environments around the world inhibiting beaches, lagoons, sandbars, mudflats swamps or mangrove forests. A fiddler crab’s life span is about 2 years.

Fiddler crabs body size ranges from about 2.5 to 3 cm (1 to 1.2 inches). Aside from their big claw, males appear more brightly colored than females. are more brightly colored than the females. The typical color patterns are: bright green, red, yellow to light blue. Like all crabs, fiddler crabs shed their shells as they grow. Lost appendages are re-grown when they molt. Fiddlers diet consist mainly of algae, bacteria, fungus, and detritus.

Flicker

photo link

Northern Flickers are medium-sized, brown woodpeckers that are local to most of North America, parts of Central America, Cayman Islands and Cuba. There are more than 100 common names for the only bird that frequently feeds on the ground such as: Common Flicker, Yellow-shafted flicker, Yellowhammer, clape, harry-wicket, wick-up, wake-up and gawker bird. They live in forest edges, orchards, woodlands, farmlands, parks and even roadsides. Northern Flicker averages 13 inches long, weigh about 4 to 6 ounces and with a wingspan of 18 to 21 inches. They have slim, rounded head, long, flared tail and slightly down-curved bill.

Typical adult flickers are brown with a white rump patch and black bars on the back and wings. Eastern birds own bright yellow feathers while western ones have red tail feathers. Northern flickers main source of food is insects specially ants, but they also eat fruits, seeds, berries and nuts.

Northern flickers build their nests in trees. Both male and female shared building the nest that will take about 1-2 weeks to finish. The entrance hole is roughly 5 cm to 10 cm wide. Females lay about 6-8 white and glossy-shelled eggs.

Fruit bat

photo link

Megabats or fruit bats are relatively large flying mammals. There are over 160 known species of fruit bats that live that live in dense forests in Asia, Australia, Africa, and Europe. Also known as flying foxes, their sizes vary from the smallest species about 6 cm to the largest that reach 40 cm. These large-eyes nocturnal animals sleep hanging from their feet during the day.

Fruit bats have furry body and their wings are long fingers covered by thin skin. They have weak legs and experienced difficulty while walking. Their sense of smell is excellent, however, with one exception, Egyptian fruit bat, does use echolocation to navigate in caves. They tend to live in large colonies, or “camps.” Fruit bats mainly eat fruit and flowers. These bats normally chew the flowers and fruit, then spit out the remaining pulp, seeds and peel.

Finnish Spitz

photo link

A Finnish Spitz is a breed of dog that originated in Finland. On average, it grows to about 15-20 inches (38-51 cm.) tall and weighs about 31-35 pounds (14-16 kg.) Its appearance resembles a fox. The body is muscular and square with a head that is flat, the ears rounding slightly at the forehead. Finnish Spitz lips and nose are black with dark almond-shaped eyes. The ears are erect and open towards the front of the dog. The Finnish Spitz is a double coated breed which consists of a soft, dense undercoat and long, harsh guard hairs. Coat color patterns includes red-brown, honey-colored, golden-red to yellowish-red.

Fire-bellied toad

photo link

Oriental fire-bellied toads belongs to a group of eight species of Bombina. Their range covers Korea, northeastern China, southern Japan, and southern parts of Russia found in ponds and in slow-moving streams and ponds. These small toads grow between 4-7 cm long and are characterized by its brightly colored red or yellow-and-black patterns on their lower abdomen. The rest of the toad’s skin carries green or dark brown. The skin on their dorsal side is covered with small tubercles. In the wild, Oriental fire-bellied toads thrive on small aquatic arthropods.

Check out the entire Animal Alphabet list here:
Amazing Animal Alphabet Series 1
Amazing Animal Alphabet Series 2