Birds are winged, bipedal, endothermic (warm-blooded), egg-laying, vertebrate animals. There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from the 5 cm (2 in) Bee Hummingbird to the 3 m (10 ft) Ostrich. The fossil record indicates that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs during the Jurassic period, around 150–200 Ma (million years ago). Some birds, especially corvids and parrots, are among the most intelligent animal species; a number of bird species have been observed manufacturing and using tools, and many social species exhibit cultural transmission of knowledge across generations. Birds are social; they communicate using visual signals and through calls and songs, and participate in social behaviours including cooperative breeding and hunting, flocking, and mobbing of predators. About 120–130 species have become extinct as a result of human activity since the 17th century, and hundreds more before then. Currently about 1,200 species of birds are threatened with extinction by human activities, though efforts are underway to protect them.
Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1493:
Pope Alexander VI issued the papal bull Inter caetera, establishing a line of demarcation dividing the New World between Spain and Portugal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter_caetera
1886:
An unknown assailant threw a bomb into a crowd of police, turning a peaceful labor rally in Chicago into the Haymarket massacre, resulting in the deaths of seven police officers and many bystanders. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair
1919:
The May Fourth Movement began in China with large-scale student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, Peking against the Paris Peace Conference and Japan's Twenty-One Demands. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Fourth_Movement
1942:
World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy engaged Allied naval forces at the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first fleet action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other, and the first naval battle in history in which neither side's ships sighted or fired directly upon the other. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Coral_Sea
1990:
The Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR declared the restoration of independence of Latvia, stating that the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 were illegal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Restoration_of_Independence_of_the_Republic_of_Latvia
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
flourish (n): 1. A dramatic gesture, such as the waving of a flag. 2. An ornamentation. 3. (music) A ceremonious passage, such as a fanfare http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flourish
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Beneficence is godlike, and he who does most good to his fellow-man is the Master of Masters, and has learned the Art of Arts. Enrich and embellish the universe as you will, it is only a fit temple for the heart that loves truth with a supreme love. Inanimate vastness excites wonder; knowledge kindles admiration, but love enraptures the soul. Scientific truth is marvellous, but moral truth is divine; and whoever breathes its air and walks by its light, has found the lost paradise. For him, a new heaven and a new earth have already been created. His home is the sanctuary of God, the Holy of Holies. --Horace Mann http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Horace_Mann