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The horned sungem (Heliactin bilophus) is a species of hummingbird native to Brazil, Bolivia and Suriname. It prefers open habitats such as savanna, grassland and garden, and expanded its range into southern Amazonas and Espírito Santo, probably due to deforestation. It is a small hummingbird with a long tail and a short, black bill. The sexes differ in appearance, with males having two shiny red, golden, and green feather "horns" above the eyes, a shiny blue head crest and a black throat with a pointed "beard". The female is plainer, with a brown or yellow–buff throat. It is a nomadic species, responding to the seasonal flowering of its food plants. If a flower's shape is unsuited to the bird's short bill, it may rob nectar through a hole at its base. It also eats small insects. Only the female builds the small cup nest, incubates the two white eggs, and rears the chicks. The species is currently classified as least concern, and its population is thought to be increasing. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Prince Philip

... that Prince Philip (pictured) was the first member of the British royal family to fly in a helicopter?
... that the 1910–1916 publication Raḥamim was the first newspaper in the Judeo-Tajik language?
... that football player Dick Harris was selected in professional drafts four times, including twice as a first-round pick, but never played professionally?
... that Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker helped fundraise to save a Merseyside flat that has been called "the first example of outsider art to be nationally listed"?
... that in 1911 the Butterfly Theater featured a pipe organ worth $10,000 (equivalent to $327,000 in 2023)?
... that environmental economist V. Kerry Smith has been described as a "Renaissance Man of Economics"?
... that a year after objecting to the unauthorised use of his own AI-generated vocals, Drake used vocals of other rappers generated that way to respond to a diss against him?
... that in 1919 nurse Hilda Hope McMaugh became the first Australian woman to qualify as a pilot?
... that employees of a Florida TV station joked that their studio building would survive "as long as the termites don't stop holding hands"?

In the news

Flooding in Porto Alegre

Flooding (pictured) in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, leaves more than 100 people dead and at least 130 others missing.
Kyren Wilson wins the World Snooker Championship.
In horse racing, Mystik Dan wins the Kentucky Derby.
Following the Solomon Islands general election, Jeremiah Manele becomes the prime minister.
Acting prime minister of Haiti Ariel Henry resigns, and the Transitional Presidential Council is sworn in.

On this day

May 9: Europe Day in the European Union; Liberation Day in the Channel Islands (1945)

Hotel Polen fire

1877 – An earthquake struck northern Chile, leading to the deaths of 2,385 people, mostly victims of the ensuing tsunami, as far away as Hawaii and Fiji.
1944 – World War II: The Japanese Take Ichi convoy arrived at Halmahera in the Dutch East Indies after losing many ships and thousands of troops to Allied attacks while attempting to carry two divisions of troops from China to New Guinea.
1977 – The Hotel Polen in Amsterdam was destroyed by fire (pictured), leaving 33 people dead.
1980 – Part of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida collapsed after a pier was struck by the MV Summit Venture, killing 35 people.
2001 – Police at the Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra, Ghana, fired tear gas to quell unrest at a football match, leading to a stampede that killed 126 people.

Al-Adid (b. 1151)
John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair (d. 1747)
Yukiya Amano (b. 1947)

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Today's featured picture

The acorn woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus) is a bird in the woodpecker family, Picidae. It is found across Central America, as well as the western United States and parts of Colombia. A medium-sized bird, it has a length of around 20 cm and is mostly black, and adult males have a red cap starting at the forehead and females a black area between the forehead and the cap. As their name implies, acorn woodpeckers are heavily dependent on acorns for food, which they store in small holes that they drill into trees, known as "granaries" or "storage trees". This acorn woodpecker was photographed in the grounds of California State University, Chico, United States.

Photograph credit: Frank Schulenburg

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