Today's featured article
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The Variegated Fairywren is a fairywren that lives in diverse habitats spread across most of Australia. Four subspecies are recognised. Exhibiting a high degree of sexual dimorphism, the brightly coloured breeding male has chestnut shoulders and blue crown and ear coverts, while non-breeding males, females and juveniles have predominantly grey-brown plumage. Notably, females of the two subspecies rogersi and dulcis have mainly blue-grey plumage. Like other fairywrens, the Variegated Fairywren is a cooperative breeding species, with small groups of birds maintaining and defending small territories year-round. Groups consist of a socially monogamous pair with several helper birds who assist in raising the young. Male wrens pluck yellow petals and display them to females as part of a courtship display. These birds are primarily insectivorous and forage and live in the shelter of scrubby vegetation across 90% of continental Australia, which is a wider range than that of any other fairywren. (more...)
Recently featured: Henry Cornelius Burnett – Nick Drake – Mauna Kea
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In the news
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On this day...
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January 21: Feast Day of Saint Agnes (Christianity); Flag Day in Quebec; National Hug Day in the United States
- 1789 – The Power of Sympathy by William Hill Brown, widely considered to be the first American novel, was published.
- 1931 – Sir Isaac Isaacs (pictured) became the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.
- 1941 – Sparked by the murder of a German officer in Bucharest, Romania, the day before, members of the Iron Guard engaged in a rebellion and pogrom, killing 125 Jews.
- 1968 – Vietnam War: The Vietnam People's Army attacked Khe Sanh Combat Base, a U.S. Marines outpost in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam, starting the Battle of Khe Sanh.
- 2008 – The Eyak language in Alaska became extinct after Marie Smith Jones, the language's last native speaker, died, an event that became a symbol in the fight against language extinction.
More anniversaries: January 20 – January 21 – January 22
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