The Common Firecrest is a very small passerine bird in the kinglet
family. It breeds in most of temperate Europe and northwestern Africa,
and is partially migratory, with birds from central Europe wintering to
the south and west of their breeding range. Firecrests in the Balearic
Islands and north Africa are widely recognised as a separate
subspecies. The head crest, orange in the male and yellow in the
female, is displayed during breeding, and gives rise to the English and
scientific names for the species. The song is a repetition of high thin
notes, slightly lower-pitched than those of its relative. The Common
Firecrest breeds in broadleaved or coniferous woodland and gardens,
building its compact, three-layered nest on a tree branch. Seven to
twelve eggs are incubated by the female alone. Both parents feed the
chicks, which fledge 22–24 days after hatching. This kinglet is
constantly on the move and frequently hovers as it searches for insects
to eat, and in winter it is often found with flocks of tits. Despite
some possible local declines, the species is not the subject of
significant conservation concerns owing to its large European
population and an expansion of its range over the last century.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Firecrest>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1411:
The First Peace of Thorn was signed, ending the
Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_of_Thorn_%281411%29>
1814:
The most destructive eruption of the Mayon Volcano occurred, killing
over 2,000 people on the island of Luzon in the Philippines.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayon_Volcano>
1960:
Four African American students staged the first Greensboro sit-ins at a
lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensboro_sit-ins>
1972:
Kuala Lumpur gained city status, the first settlement in Malaysia to do
so after the nation's independence from the United Kingdom.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuala_Lumpur>
2001:
The Timor Leste Defence Force was established from the erstwhile
anti-Indonesian independence movement Falintil.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timor_Leste_Defence_Force>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
narwhal (n):
An Arctic cetacean, about twenty feet long; the male has a single
twisted, pointed {{soplink
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/narwhal>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore —
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over —
like a
syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
--Langston Hughes
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Langston_Hughes>