The male Carolina wren builds several nests and lets the female choose the one she prefers – and they might be in mailboxes, flowerpots, buckets, old boots or even the pocket of an old coat hanging on a porch.

Without enough larvae to feed and be fed by, wasps scavenge for alternate food such as sugary drinks or fruits on picnic tables. Worker wasps at this time of year are near the end of their life cycle, and they are hungry and aggressive.

Red-tailed hawks are relatively common and well-known in the city. But you might see thousands of a different kind of hawk – a broad-winged hawk – in a single day if you look in the right place.

Fruit flies have made enormous contributions to our understanding of genetics, human development and medical conditions, but there are aspects to them that are bizarre and even a little gruesome.

This large and unusual insect is called a praying mantis because of its folded front legs. A better name might be preying mantis – this critter is a voracious predator, feeding on almost anything it can catch.

American toads require only insects to eat, some dense vegetation to hide in and a bit of water to soak in to absorb moisture, so they can live almost anywhere – including even industrial area of Cambridge Somerville.

There are a few fascinating things about the green heron, lesser known among nine species of Massachusetts herons, but wait until you learn how these plucky birds earned the nicknames “shitepoke” and “chalk-line.”

Moths fly from flower to flower feeding on nectar at night, much like bees do during the day – except for species such as the clearwing moth, which can resemble other flying insects such as bees, hornets, wasps or hummingbirds.

Water snakes have evolved to look a lot like the venomous cottonmouth or water moccasin, but with the Northern water snake a bite causes little real harm.

The parasitical horsehair worm grows and grows for two to three months inside its host until it takes up most of the body – then engineers its way out.