The Superb Fairywren is a common and familiar passerine bird of the Maluridae family. Sedentary and territorial, it is found across south-eastern Australia. The species exhibits a high degree of sexual dimorphism; the male in breeding plumage has a striking bright blue forehead, ear coverts, mantle, and tail, with a black mask and black or dark blue throat. Non-breeding males, females and juveniles are predominantly grey-brown in colour; this gave the early impression that males were polygamous as all dull-coloured birds were taken for females. Two subspecies are recognised: the larger and darker Tasmanian form cyaneus and the smaller and paler mainland form cyanochlamys. Like other fairywrens, the Superb Fairywren is notable for several peculiar behavioural characteristics; the birds are socially monogamous and sexually promiscuous, meaning that although they form pairs between one male and one female, each partner will mate with other individuals and even assist in raising the young from such pairings. Male wrens pluck yellow petals and display them to females as part of a courtship display. (more...)

Recently featured: Flower – Ceawlin of Wessex – "We Are the World"

From Wikipedia's newest articles:

• ... that The Mars Project, written by Wernher von Braun in 1948, has been regarded as "the most influential book" on manned missions to Mars (artist's conception pictured)?
• ... that one common route up New York's Balsam Mountain follows the steepest section of trail in the Catskills?
• ... that medical student Bob Kolesar was one of Michigan's renowned "Seven Oak Posts" in 1942?
• ... that Francisco Goya's etching Unfortunate events in the front seats of the ring of Madrid, and the death of the Mayor of Torrejón records an event from 1801 when a Spanish politician was impaled and killed after a bull crashed through the barriers at a Madrid bullfight?
• ... that Tofiri Kibuuka, one of the first blind men to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, was the first African to compete at the Winter Paralympic Games?
• ... that three Byzantine emperors in the 6th century served as commanders of the imperial guard, known as the Excubitors, prior to assuming the throne?
• ... that American architect Kemper Nomland was a conscientious objector who spent World War II at Civilian Public Service camps in Oregon along with several other artists and writers?
• ... that American Idol season 8 finalist Danny Gokey's best days are ahead of him?
  
  Archive – Start a new article – Nominate an article

• An earthquake in Turkey's Elâzığ Province kills more than 50 people and injures at least 50 others.
• The Hurt Locker wins six Academy Awards including Best Picture and the first female Best Director, Kathryn Bigelow (pictured).
• A series of storms passes through Victoria, Australia, producing flash floods and 5-cm (2-in) hail in Greater Melbourne.
• Inter-religious attacks result in hundreds of deaths near Jos, Nigeria.
• Icelanders reject a plan to pay €3.8 billion to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands as compensation for the collapse of Icesave bank.
• A paper in the journal Science, authored by a team of 41 scientists, affirms that an asteroid impact likely caused the mass extinction of dinosaurs and other species 65.5 million years ago.
  Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...

March 10

• 241 BC – The Roman Republic defeated Carthage in a naval battle off the coast of the Aegadian Islands near the western coast of the island of Sicily, ending the First Punic War.
• 1831 – King Louis-Philippe of France created the French Foreign Legion (emblem pictured) as a unit of foreign volunteers because foreigners were forbidden to serve in the French Army after the 1830 July Revolution.
• 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell made his first successful bi-directional telephone call, saying, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."
• 1906 – More than a thousand coal miners were killed in the Courrières mine disaster in Northern France, Europe's worst mining accident.
• 1959 – An anti-Chinese uprising erupted in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, as about 300,000 Tibetans surrounded the Potala Palace to prevent the 14th Dalai Lama from leaving or being removed by the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
• 1977 – Astronomers using NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory, an observatory aboard a highly modified jet aircraft, discovered a faint planetary ring system around Uranus.

More anniversaries: March 9 – March 10 – March 11