The Superb Fairywren is a common and familiar passerine bird of the
Maluridae family. Sedentary and territorial, it is found across
south-eastern Australia. The species exhibits a high degree of sexual
dimorphism; the male in breeding plumage has a striking bright blue
forehead, ear coverts, mantle, and tail, with a black mask and black or
dark blue throat. Non-breeding males, females and juveniles are
predominantly grey-brown in colour; this gave the early impression that
males were polygamous as all dull-coloured birds were taken for
females. Two subspecies are recognised: the larger and darker Tasmanian
form cyaneus and the smaller and paler mainland form cyanochlamys. Like
other fairywrens, the Superb Fairywren is notable for several peculiar
behavioural characteristics; the birds are socially monogamous and
sexually promiscuous, meaning that although they form pairs between one
male and one female, each partner will mate with other individuals and
even assist in raising the young from such pairings. Male wrens pluck
yellow petals and display them to females as part of a courtship
display.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superb_Fairywren>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
241 BC:
The Roman Republic defeated Carthage in a naval battle off the coast of
the Aegadian Islands near the western coast of the island of Sicily,
ending the First Punic War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Aegates_Islands>
1831:
King Louis-Philippe of France created the French Foreign Legion as a
unit of foreign volunteers because foreigners were forbidden to serve
in the French Army after the 1830 July Revolution.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Foreign_Legion>
1876:
Alexander Graham Bell made his first successful bi-directional
telephone call, saying, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_the_telephone>
1906:
More than a thousand coal miners were killed in the Courrières mine
disaster in Northern France, Europe's worst mining accident.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courri%C3%A8res_mine_disaster>
1959:
An anti-Chinese uprising erupted in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, as
about 300,000 Tibetans surrounded the Potala Palace to prevent the 14th
Dalai Lama from leaving or being removed by the Chinese People's
Liberation Army.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_Tibetan_uprising>
1977:
Astronomers using NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory, an observatory
aboard a highly modified jet aircraft, discovered a faint planetary
ring system around Uranus.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Uranus>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
opportunely (adv):
1. In a manner suitable for some particular purpose.
2. In a manner convenient or advantageous at some particular time
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/opportunely>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
In men whom men condemn as ill
I find so much of goodness still,
In men whom men pronounce divine
I find so much of sin and blot,
I do not dare to draw a line
Between the two, where God has not.
--Joaquin Miller
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joaquin_Miller>
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