Wikipedia:Picture of the day/May 2012

The Crescent Honeyeater (Phylidonyris pyrrhopterus) is a passerine bird native to south-eastern Australia. It is a fairly nondescript bird of dark grey plumage and paler underparts, highlighted by yellow wing patches and a broad, black crescent, outlined in white, down the sides of its breast. Females are slightly duller than males. It is found in areas of dense vegetation and its diet is made up of nectar and invertebrates.

Photo: JJ Harrison

Seeds of the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis), an economically important tree because its sap-like extract (known as latex) is the primary source of natural rubber. The seeds themselves can be pressed to make rubber seed oil or used to feed livestock.

Photo: Luis Fernández García

Women of the Gondi, the largest tribe of Indian aboriginals in central India. They are classified as a Scheduled Tribe in most Indian states. The Gondi language is related to Telugu and other Dravidian languages. About half of Gonds speak Gondi languages, while the rest speak Indo-Aryan languages including Hindi. For many years during the British colonial period, the Gonds were considered to have performed human sacrifices, although this notion was later discredited.

Photo: Yann

A monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) at the Cape May Bird Observatory in New Jersey, US, with a plastic sticker on it to help researchers track animal migration. Tracking information is used to study the migration patterns of monarchs, including how far and where they fly.

Photo: Derek Ramsey

The Nefertiti Bust is a 3300-year-old painted limestone bust of Nefertiti, the Great Royal Wife of the Pharaoh Akhenaten and one of the most copied works of Ancient Egypt. It is believed to have been crafted in 1345 BC by the sculptor Thutmose, in whose workshop it was discovered in 1912 by a German archaeological team led by Ludwig Borchardt. It is part of the Egyptian Museum of Berlin collection, currently on display in the Neues Museum and has been the subject of an intense argument between Egypt and Germany over the Egyptian demands for its repatriation.

Photo: Philip Pikart

Parodia tenuicylindrica is a small species of cactus native to the Rio Grande do Sul region of Brazil. It grows 4–8 cm (1.6–3.1 in) in height and 2–3 cm (0.8–1.2 in) in width. It has yellow and red-brown spines, white wool and yellow flowers. It produces yellow-green fruit and black seeds.

Photo: Laitche

Vials of electric glow discharge of five of the six naturally occurring noble gases (left to right: helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon—radon is not pictured). Under standard conditions, the noble gases are odorless, colorless, monatomic gases, with very low chemical reactivity. They have several important applications in industries such as lighting, welding, and space exploration.

Photos: Jurii

A reproductive cone of Encephalartos sclavoi, a cycad tree native to Africa. Some species of the genus Encephalartos are known as "bread trees" because a bread-like starchy food can be prepared from the centre of the stem. Male cones are elongated, and three or four may appear at a time. Female cones are borne singly, or up to three at a time, and may weigh up to 60 lb (27 kg). All the species of Encephalartos are endangered.

Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

The impala (Aepyceros melampus) is a medium-sized African antelope. The name comes from the Zulu language. They are normally reddish-brown, with lighter flanks, white underbellies, and a characteristic "M" marking on the rear. Males have lyre-shaped horns, which can reach up to 90 cm (35 in) in length. They are strong jumpers, able to reach distances more than 10 m (33 ft) in a single bound. They are also fast runners, capable of reaching speeds up to 90 km/h (56 mph).

Photo: Ikiwaner

Lakota Sioux Sitting Bull (left) and American showman William F. Cody (right), better known as "Buffalo Bill", 1885. Buffalo Bill was best known as the inventor of the Wild West show, traveling vaudeville performances that introduced a romanticized version of the American Old West to a wide audience. Sitting Bull was a tribal chief who led his people during years of resistance to United States government policies, most notably in the victory against U.S. Army troops in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, although he eventually surrendered. In 1884, he joined Bill's troupe for four months, during which time he gave speeches advocating education for the young and reconciling relations between the Sioux and whites.

Photo: William Notman Studios; Restoration: PLW/Adam Cuerden

The Koppelpoort is a medieval gate in the Dutch town Amersfoort. Completed around 1425, it is a well-preserved example of medieval fortification. It is a combined land and water gate and is part of Amersfoort's second city wall, which was constructed between 1380 and 1450. The gate was opened and closed every day by twelve appointed raddraaiers, "wheel-turners". The wall was last restored in 1996.

Photo: Bert Kaufmann

The Black-headed Bunting (Emberiza melanocephala) is a passerine bird in the bunting family. It breeds in southeast Europe east to Iran. It is migratory, wintering in India. It is a rare but regular wanderer to western Europe. The breeding male (shown here) has bright yellow underparts, chestnut upperparts and a black hood.

Photo: Mark S Jobling

The jaw of Ambondro mahabo, seen in lingual view (from the side of the tongue). The scale bar is 1 mm (0.039 in) long. This mammal species is known only from this fragmentary lower jaw with three teeth, interpreted as the last premolar and the first two molars. It is the oldest known mammal with putatively tribosphenic teeth.

Photo: André R. Wyss

The larva of tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta), a moth that is present throughout much of the Americas. The caterpillars feed on plants of the family Solanaceae, principally tobacco, tomatoes and members of the genus Datura. It is a common model organism, especially in neurobiology, due to its easily accessible nervous system and short life cycle.

Photo: Daniel Schwen

The olive baboon (Papio anubis) is an Old World monkey found in 25 countries throughout Africa, making it the most widely ranging of all baboons. It is named for its coat, which, at a distance, is a shade of green-grey. At closer range, its coat is multi-colored, due to rings of yellow-brown and black on the hairs. It is omnivorous, finding nutrition in almost any environment, and able to adapt with different foraging tactics.

Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

The western front of Mespelbrunn Castle, a moated castle in the town of Mespelbrunn, between Frankfurt and Würzburg, Germany. It dates to 1427, when the family who lived in that location began to build it as defense against brigands who lived in the nearby Spessart mountains. Only the round tower (center-right) remains from that time; the remainder was constructed in the mid-1500s.

Photo: Rainer Lippert

The Sukhoi Su-30 is a twin-engine, two-seat supermanoeuverable fighter aircraft developed by Russia's Sukhoi Aviation Corporation. It is a multirole fighter for all-weather, air-to-air and air-to-surface deep interdiction missions. Its primary users are Russia, India, China, Venezuela, and Malaysia.

Photo: Sergey Krivchikov

A single crystal of rhenium made by the floating zone process (left), an ebeam remelted rhenium bar (center), as well as a 1 cm³ cube. Rhenium is a silvery-white, heavy transition metal that is one of the rarest elements in the Earth's crust. It was the last stable element to be discovered and is named after the river Rhine in Europe.

Photo: Alchemist-hp

USS Oregon (BB-3) was a pre-dreadnought Indiana-class battleship of the United States Navy. Her voyage from California around South America to the East Coast in March 1898 in preparation for war with Spain popularized the ship with the American public and demonstrated the need for a shorter route, which led to construction of the Panama Canal.

Photo: Edward H. Hart

The coconut octopus (Amphioctopus marginatus) is a medium-sized cephalopod found in tropical waters of the western Pacific Ocean. It commonly preys upon shrimp, crabs, and clams, and displays unusual behaviour, including bipedal walking and gathering and using coconut shells and seashells for shelter.

Photo: Nick Hobgood

On August 1, 2010, almost the entire Earth-facing side of the sun erupted in a tumult of activity. This image of the solar event shows the C3-class solar flare (white area on upper left), a solar tsunami (wave-like structure, upper right), multiple filaments of magnetism lifting off the stellar surface, large-scale shaking of the solar corona, radio bursts, a coronal mass ejection and more. Different colors in the image represent different gas temperatures.

Photo: NASA/SDO/AIA

The blue wildebeest (or gnu, Connochaetes taurinus) is one of two species of wildebeest. It is native to the open plains, bushveld, and dry woodlands of Southern and East Africa. The largest population is in the Serengeti, numbering over one million animals. They are a major prey item for lions, hyenas, and crocodiles.

Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

A Japanese lithograph depicting the capture of Blagoveshchensk, Siberia, by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Siberian Intervention, part of a larger effort by the western powers and Japan to support White Russian forces against the Bolshevik Red Army during the Russian Civil War. The Allied invasion took place in August 1918, and Japanese troops remained in Russia until October 1922.

Image: Shobido & Co.; Restoration: Adam Cuerden

The Arnolfini Portrait is an oil painting on oak panel dated 1434 by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck. This painting is believed to be a portrait of the Italian merchant Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife, presumably in their home in the Flemish city of Bruges. It is considered one of the most original and complex paintings in Western art history. The illusionism of the painting was remarkable for its time, in part for the rendering of detail, but particularly for the use of light to evoke space in an interior.

A 1918 poster urging the reader to purchase war savings stamps, a series of savings stamps issued by the United States Treasury to help fund participation in World War I. The stamps were available in ten cent and twenty-five cent versions, and provided interest. In some cases collections of stamps could be redeemed for war bonds. The caption reads, "Joan of Arc saved France. Women of America, save your country. Buy war savings stamps."

Artist: Haskell Coffin; Restoration: Lise Broer

The Red-and-yellow Barbet (Trachyphonus erythrocephalus) is a species of African barbet found in eastern Africa. The males of the species have distinctive black (spotted white), red and yellow plumage, while youngsters and females are similar, but a little more dull. The species lives in broken terrain and both nests and roosts in burrows. Omnivores, the species is generally very tame, feeding on seeds, fruit and invertebrates.

Photo: Ikiwaner

A Century of Progress International Exposition was a world's fair held in Chicago from 1933 to 1934 to celebrate the city's centennial. The theme of the fair was technological innovation. Its motto was "Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Adapts" and its architectural symbol was the Sky Ride, a transporter bridge perpendicular to the shore on which one could ride from one side of the fair to the other. Originally, the fair was scheduled only to run until November 12, 1933, but it was so successful that it was opened again to run from May 26 to October 31, 1934. Much of the fair site is now home to Northerly Island park and McCormick Place.

Artist: Weimer Pursell; Restoration: Jujutacular

The F-22 Raptor is a single-seat, twin-engine fifth-generation supermaneuverable fighter aircraft that uses stealth technology. Introduced into service with the United States Air Force in 2005, production finished in 2011 after 195 were built.

Photo: Rob Shenk

Sceliphron spirifex is a species of sphecid wasp. It has a medium sized body (17–27 millimetres or 0.7–1.1 inches), which is dull black with a long, yellow petiole (waist). The legs are black with yellow bands, the antennae are black and the wings are clear.

Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

The "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" rock formation in the Wadi Rum valley of Jordan. It is named after British Army officer T. E. Lawrence's autobiography of the same name, which details events that took place in the area during the Arab Revolt of 1916–18, although the rocks have nothing to do with the book itself. The area is now one of Jordan's important tourist destinations.

Photo: Tomobe03

The Australian spotted jellyfish (Phyllorhiza punctata) is a species of jellyfish native to the southwestern Pacific, but has also been found in the Gulf of Mexico and the western Atlantic. It feeds primarily on zooplankton and grows to an average of 45–50 cm (18–20 in) in diameter. They have only a mild venom and are not considered a threat to humans.

Photo: Nick Hobgood