In the process of digging up information about the life forms I find in the yard, I have collected a list of favorite websites, most of which have become popular because of the breadth, depth, and quality of the information they provide.
General Taxonomy
- Catalog of Life - This is a global catalog of life forms, with contributions of many national and international taxonomic organizations. Its monthly taxonomic updates serve as the taxonomic backbone for the Encyclopedia of Life.
- Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) - ITIS is the North American contributor to the Catalog of Life. Along with Species 2000 in the UK, it manages the CoL effort. Some areas of its taxonomies are still missing information, especially below the family level.
Plants
- Foraging Texas - This is the go-to website for wild edible plants in the Houston area.
Veganic Gardening
- Veganic Agricultural Network - This organization promotes plant-based farming and gardening throughout North America. It has how-to articles and a forum where you can share information with others.
Birds
- All About Birds, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology - This is an outstanding source for the kinds of field information most people are looking for. It also has more in-depth information in a paid section, with what seems like a small book's worth of info on each bird. The writing in this section reads like notes sometimes, with incomplete sentences like "Can be from ground to tree tops.." and the omission of articles, as in "Working from inside, female constructs the outer wall.."
Insects
- BugGuide - For identifying insects and other arthropods, there is no better website than Bug Guide. It has a very large number of North American species, and a "browse" feature that lets you search for an insect you want to ID by starting at a higher level, say, moths, then drilling-down by selecting photos of the most similar-looking family, subfamily, genus, and so on.
- Featured Creatures by University of Florida - Despite the corny name, this site provides very useful and scientific information about the insects it covers, along with abundant photographs showing different stages of insect life cycles.
Mushrooms and Other Fungi
A group of organizations maintains the current catalog of approved scientific names for fungi:
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