The white-winged fairywren (Malurus leucopterus) is a bird species in the family Maluridae, unrelated to true wrens. It lives in the drier parts of central Australia, from central Queensland and South Australia to Western Australia. Like other fairywrens, this species displays marked sexual dimorphism, and one or more males of a social group grow brightly coloured blue plumage during the breeding season. The females, sandy-brown with light-blue tail feathers, are smaller, and almost indistinguishable from the younger sexually mature males. A subspecies is found on Dirk Hartog Island, and another on Barrow Island off the coast of Western Australia, both having black rather than blue male plumage. The white-winged fairywren mainly eats insects, and lives in heathland and arid scrubland. It is a cooperative breeding species, and small groups of birds maintain and defend territories year-round. Groups consist of a socially monogamous pair with several helper birds who assist in raising the young. As part of a courtship display, the male wren plucks petals from flowers and brings them to female birds.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-winged_fairywren
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1577:
Queen Elizabeth I of England's principal secretary and spymaster Francis Walsingham was knighted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Walsingham
1828:
Juan Lavalle, returning to Buenos Aires with troops that fought in the Cisplatine War, deposed the provincial governor Manuel Dorrego, reigniting the Argentine Civil Wars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decembrist_revolution_(Argentina)
1918:
With the signing of the Act of Union, Denmark recognized the Kingdom of Iceland as a fully sovereign state in personal union with Denmark through a common monarch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Iceland
1966:
The Pit, one of college basketball's premier arenas in the US, opened on the campus of the University of New Mexico. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pit_(arena)
1991:
Over 92% of Ukrainian voters approved their country's independence as declared by the Ukrainian parliament on 24 August. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_independence_referendum,_1991
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
snowdrop: Any of the 20 species of the genus Galanthus of the Amaryllidaceae, bulbous flowering plants, bearing a solitary, pendulous, white, bell- shaped flower that appears, depending on species, between autumn and late winter or early spring, all native to temperate Eurasia. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/snowdrop
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
There are times when all the little demons disappear down their ratholes, and ugliness itself takes on the shape of beauty; when the darkest corner is touched by light; when the coldest heart feels the glow of warmth; when the trumpet call of good will and good cheer drowns out all the Babel of mean little noises. This is such a time. Merry Christmas! Merry merry merry! --Christmas Party https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nero_Wolfe#Christmas_Party_.281957.29