The black vulture (Coragyps atratus) is a bird in the New World vulture family commonly found from the southeastern United States to Central Chile and Uruguay in South America. Despite the similar name and appearance, this species is unrelated to the Eurasian black vulture, an Old World vulture in the family Accipitridae (which includes eagles, hawks, kites and harriers). The American species is the only extant member of the New World vulture genus Coragyps in the family Cathartidae. It inhabits relatively open areas near scattered forests or shrublands. With a wingspan of 1.5 m (4.9 ft), it is a large bird though relatively small for a vulture. It has black plumage, a featherless, grayish-black head and neck, and a short, hooked beak. The black vulture is a scavenger and feeds on carrion, but will also eat eggs or kill newborn animals. In areas populated by humans, it also feeds at garbage dumps. It finds its meals with its keen eyesight and sense of smell. Lacking a syrinx—the vocal organ of birds—its only vocalizations are grunts or low hisses.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_vulture
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1542:
Anglo-Scottish Wars: England captured about 1,200 Scottish prisoners with its victory in the Battle of Solway Moss. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Solway_Moss
1642:
A Dutch expedition led by Abel Tasman reached what is now Tasmania, Australia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Tasman
1922:
Irish Civil War: Author and Irish nationalist Erskine Childers was executed by the Irish Free State for illegally carrying a semi- automatic pistol. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Erskine_Childers
1963:
Businessman Jack Ruby shot and fatally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald (shooting pictured), the assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, during a live television broadcast, fueling conspiracy theories on the matter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Harvey_Oswald
2015:
A Turkish fighter jet shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M, claiming the latter had strayed into Turkish airspace and ignored warnings to change course. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Russian_Sukhoi_Su-24_shootdown
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
Cambrian explosion: 1. (evolutionary biology) The relatively rapid appearance, during the Cambrian Period around 541 million years ago, of most major animal phyla, as demonstrated in the fossil record. 2. (by extension) The rapid appearance of anything. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Cambrian_explosion
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
The more a government strives to curtail freedom of speech, the more obstinately is it resisted; not indeed by the avaricious … but by those whom good education, sound morality, and virtue have rendered more free. Men in general are so constituted that there is nothing they will endure with so little patience as that views which they believe to be true should be counted crimes against the laws. … Under such circumstances they do not think it disgraceful, but most honorable, to hold the laws in abhorrence, and to refrain from no action against the government. --Tractatus Theologico-Politicus https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tractatus_Theologico-Politicus