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From today's featured article

The Perijá tapaculo (Scytalopus perijanus) is a species of passerine bird in the tapaculo family. Endemic to the Serranía del Perijá mountain range on the Colombia–Venezuela border, it is found at altitudes of 1,600–3,225 metres (5,200–10,600 feet). It measures 10 to 12 centimetres (3.9 to 4.7 inches), and its tail is 40 mm (1.6 in) long. Specimens occurred in museums, but this species was only described in 2015 based on sixteen birds found between 2008 and 2009. It is considered vulnerable. Adults have grey heads, brown necks, brown-sepia-striped backs, and grey-white bellies, breasts, and throats. Males have some buff markings on their breasts, and less defined brown nape spots than females. This tapaculo is secretive and therefore difficult to observe, so its ecology is poorly known. It feeds on insects and reproduces between April and July. Its range is partially within Chamicero de Perijá Bird Reserve in Colombia and the Sierra de Perijá National Park in Venezuela. (Full article...)

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Panchkuta Basadi, Humcha

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In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Vaccines; Portal

The EU (blue) and the UK (orange)

An attack at Aden International Airport, Yemen, leaves twenty-five people dead and more than a hundred others injured.
An earthquake strikes Petrinja, Croatia, killing seven people.
The European Union and the United Kingdom (map shown) reach an agreement governing their relationship after Brexit.

On this day

January 2: Feast day of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus (Roman Rite Catholicism, Anglicanism)

Llandaff Cathedral

1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under the command of George Washington repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey.
1941 – Second World War: Llandaff Cathedral (pictured) in Cardiff, Wales, was severely damaged by German bombing during the Cardiff Blitz.
1991 – Sharon Pratt Dixon was sworn in as the mayor of Washington, D.C., becoming the first African-American woman to hold the position.
2016 – Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shia cleric in Saudi Arabia, was executed by the Saudi government along with 46 other people.

Salima Sultan Begum (d. 1613)
Michael Tippett (b. 1905)
Lynn Conway (b. 1938)

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Today's featured picture

Priscilla Horton (2 January 1818 – 18 March 1895), was a popular English singer and actress. She was a favourite of James Planché, Charles Dickens and Madame Vestris, and a mentor to W. S. Gilbert. Horton was known for her agile dancing and clear contralto singing voice. This drawing depicts Horton in the role of Ariel in the final scene of Act 5 of Shakespeare's play The Tempest in 1838. After she married the theatrical manager Thomas German Reed in 1844, the pair presented and performed in "Mr. and Mrs. German Reed's Entertainments", consisting of brief, small-scale, family-friendly comic operas, which served to improve the opinion of theatre amongst the British public (it was widely considered a den of immorality at the time). The first professional production of Arthur Sullivan's comic opera Cox and Box was one of their entertainments.

Drawing credit: Richard James Lane; restored by Adam Cuerden

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