The Blue-faced Honeyeater is a passerine bird of the Honeyeater family Meliphagidae and is common in northern and eastern Australia and southern New Guinea. A large honeyeater at around 29.5 cm (11.6 in) in length, it has distinctive plumage, with olive upperparts, white underparts and a black head and throat with white nape and cheeks. Males and females are similar in external appearance. Adults have a blue area of bare skin on each side of the face readily distinguishing them from juveniles, which have yellow or green patches of bare skin. Found in open woodland, parks, and gardens, it appears to be sedentary in parts of its range and locally nomadic in other parts; however, the species has been little studied since it was first described by the ornithologist John Latham in 1802. Its diet is mostly composed of invertebrates, supplemented with nectar and fruit. Its propensity for feeding on the flowers and fruit of bananas in north Queensland has given it the common name of "Bananabird". Blue-faced Honeyeaters often take over and renovate old babbler nests, in which the female lays and incubates two or rarely three eggs. Three subspecies are recognised.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-faced_Honeyeater

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1529:

The Siege of Vienna ended as the Austrians repelled the invading Turks, turning the tide against almost a century of unchecked conquest throughout eastern and central Europe by the Ottoman Empire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Vienna

1764:

English historian Edward Gibbon observed friars singing Vespers at Capitoline Hill in Rome, inspiring him to write The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon

1970:

Thirty-five construction workers were killed when a section of the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapsed due to structural failure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Gate_Bridge

1997:

On the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, the first supersonic land speed record was set by Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green in the jet- propelled car ThrustSSC when it achieved a speed of 1,228 km/h (763 mph). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThrustSSC

2003:

Chinese space program: Shenzhou 5, China's first manned space mission, was launched, carrying astronaut Yang Liwei. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhou_5

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

allomother: A human or other animal that provides some maternal care for the young born by another. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/allomother

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Facilis descensus Averni: noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis; sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras. hoc opus, hic labor est. The gates of hell are open night and day; Smooth the descent, and easy is the way: But to return, and view the cheerful skies, In this the task and mighty labor lies. with translation by   --John Dryden https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dryden