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From today's featured article

Subspecies versicolor

The grey currawong (Strepera versicolor) is a large passerine bird native to southern Australia, including Tasmania. One of three currawong species, it is a large crow-like bird, around 48 cm (19 in) long, with yellow irises, a heavy bill, and dark plumage, with a white undertail and wing patches. The male and female are similar in appearance. The six subspecies are distinguished by their overall plumage shade. They have a distinctive loud ringing or clinking call. The currawong is generally sedentary, although it is a winter visitor in south-easternmost Australia. Much of its behaviour and habits is poorly known. It is a ground-foraging omnivore and builds its nests high in trees. It is found in forests and scrubland in drier regions. Unlike its more common relatives, it has adapted poorly to human impact, and has declined in much of its range. (Full article...)

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Contempra telephone

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In the news

Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic

In tennis, Naomi Osaka wins the women's singles and Novak Djokovic wins the men's singles at the Australian Open (both winners pictured).
Porfirije is enthroned as the 46th Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
NASA's Perseverance rover, carrying the Ingenuity helicopter, successfully lands on Mars.
A winter storm in North America leaves at least 70 people dead and several million others without electricity or clean water.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala becomes the first woman and the first African to be appointed Director-General of the World Trade Organization.

On this day

February 25: Soviet Occupation Day in Georgia (1921); National Day in Kuwait (1961)

Lighting of the 1951 Pan American Games cauldron

138 – Roman emperor Hadrian adopted Antoninus Pius as his son and successor following the death of Hadrian's first adopted son Lucius Aelius.
1843 – Royal Navy captain Lord George Paulet began a five-month occupation of the Hawaiian Islands.
1951 – After being postponed due to World War II, the inaugural Pan American Games opened in Buenos Aires, Argentina (flame ceremony pictured).
2009 – At their headquarters in Pilkhana, members of the Bangladesh Rifles began a mutiny that resulted in 82 deaths.

Emma Catherine Embury (b. 1806)
George Harrison (b. 1943)
Don Bradman (d. 2001)

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Today's featured picture

Donner Pass is a 7,056-foot-high (2,151 m) mountain pass in California in the northern Sierra Nevada. This panoramic photograph shows the view from the pass towards the east, with Donner Lake visible in the distance. The pass has been used by the California Trail, the first transcontinental railroad, the Overland Route, the Lincoln Highway and the Victory Highway (both later U.S. Route 40), as well as indirectly by Interstate 80. The pass got its name from the Donner Party, many of whom died here during the winter of 1846–47.

Photograph credit: Frank Schulenburg

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