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Picture Of The Day The spinifex pigeon (Geophaps plumifera) is a bird in the pigeon family, Columbidae. It is endemic to Australia, occurring throughout much of the arid and semi-arid northern and central parts of the continent. It lives in stony habitats on rocky hills and mountainous terrain, gorges, dry rocky creek beds and nearby gibber plains. The spinifex pigeon weighs 80 to 110 grams (2.8 to 3.9 ounces), with a mean body length of 200 to 235 millimetres (7.9 to 9.3 inches) and a wingspan of 300 to 350 millimetres (12 to 14 inches). Its plumage is distinctively rufous-brown with thin black bars on the wings and back. The forehead, the sides of the crown and the ear coverts are grey, while the bill is black, and it has distinctive facial markings including a bright red facial mask and a white band extending from the chin to behind the eye. This spinifex pigeon was photographed in Watarrka National Park in Australia's Northern Territory. Photograph credit: John Harrison Recently featured: Oroblanco John Milton Brannan Sphex ichneumoneus

Featured List Miroslav Penkov There have been eighteen recipients of the BBC National Short Story Award, an annual short-story contest that is open to residents and nationals of the United Kingdom. It is the richest literary prize in the world for a single short story. Established in 2005 and announced at that year's Edinburgh International Book Festival, the first winner of the award was James Lasdun for An Anxious Man in 2006. At the age of 26, Canadian writer D. W. Wilson became the youngest-ever recipient of the award in 2011. Sarah Hall, who won the award in 2013 and 2020, is the only writer to have won the award twice. In honour of the 2012 Summer Olympics hosted in London, the competition was open to a global audience that year; ten stories were shortlisted instead of five, and Bulgarian writer Miroslav Penkov (pictured) won. The winner of the 2024 award is scheduled to be announced on 12 September. (Full list...) Recently featured: Games by Supermassive Games Vegas Golden Knights draft picks Basshunter discography