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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...)

Contempra telephone

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• ... that British jazz saxophonist Nubya Garcia's debut album Source, which incorporates reggae, cumbia, calypso, hip-hop, and soul, is an ode to her musical history?
• ... that Libuše Domanínská, a soprano of Prague's National Theatre, performed in all of Janáček's operas, and a recording she made as his Jenůfa made his works better known beyond their home country?
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• ... that in 2019 Joel Farabee became the first player born in the 2000s to become a Philadelphia Flyers player?
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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.

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.