The Arctic Tern is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. This bird
has a circumpolar distribution, breeding colonially in Arctic and
sub-Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America (as far south as
Brittany and Massachusetts). The species is strongly migratory, seeing
two summers each year as it migrates from its northern breeding
grounds to the oceans around Antarctica and back each year. This is
the longest regular migration by any known animal. Arctic Terns are
medium-sized birds, with a length of 33-39 centimetres (13-15 in) and
a wingspan of 76-85 cm (26-30 in). They are mainly grey and white
plumaged, with a red beak (as long as the head, straight, with
pronounced gonys) and feet, white forehead, a black nape and crown
(streaked white), and white cheeks. The Arctic Tern is K-selected,
caring for and aggressively defending a small number of young. Parents
feed them fish for a considerable time, and help them fly south to
winter. Arctic Terns are long-lived birds, with many reaching twenty
years of age. They eat mainly fish and small marine invertebrates. The
species is abundant, with an estimated one million individuals. While
the trend in the number of individuals in the species as a whole is
not known, exploitation in the past has reduced this bird's numbers in
the southern reaches of its range.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Tern
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1770:
James Cook and the crew of HM Bark Endeavour made their first landfall
on Australia.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HM_Bark_Endeavour)
1882:
Ernst Werner von Siemens began operating his "Elektromote", the
world's first trolleybus.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolleybus)
1945:
Adolf Hitler dictated his last will and testament to his secretary
Traudl Junge in the Führerbunker, and then married Eva Braun in a
brief ceremony.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_will_and_testament_of_Adolf_Hitler)
1991:
A powerful tropical cyclone struck Chittagong, killing at least
138,000 people and leaving as many as 10 million homeless in
Bangladesh.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Bangladesh_cyclone)
1992:
The acquittal of policemen who had beaten Rodney King sparked civil
unrest in Los Angeles.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots)
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Wikiquote of the day:
I have been in a multitude of shapes, Before I assumed a consistent
form. I have been a sword, narrow, variegated, I will believe when it
is apparent. I have been a tear in the air, I have been the dullest of
stars. I have been a word among letters, I have been a book in the
origin. -- Taliesin
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Taliesin)