The Mascarene martin is a passerine bird in the swallow family that breeds in Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands. The nominate subspecies occurs on Mauritius and Réunion and has never been found away from the Mascarene Islands, but a smaller Madagascan subspecies is migratory and has been recorded wintering in East Africa or wandering to other Indian Ocean islands. The Mascarene martin is small with grey-brown underparts becoming white on the throat and lower abdomen, dark grey-brown upperparts and a slightly forked tail. The underparts are heavily streaked with black. It nests in small colonies anywhere with suitably sheltered sites for constructing a nest. It has a heavy flight with slow wingbeats interspersed with glides, and frequently perches on wires. It feeds on insects in flight, often hunting low over the ground or vegetation. A number of internal and external parasites have been detected in this species. Tropical cyclones can adversely affect populations on the smaller islands, but the Mascarene martin is a locally common bird with an apparently stable population and is classed as a species of Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. ( Full article...)

Part of the Phedina series, one of Wikipedia's featured topics.

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From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

• ... that Lieutenant General Raymond A. Thomas (pictured) was deployed to Afghanistan for part of every year for over a decade, except for one year when he was sent to Iraq?
• ... that The Fifteen Whispered Prayers by Imam Zayn al-Abidin contains different prayers to be recited in accordance with one's present mood?
• ... that the first European tofu factory was opened outside Paris in 1908 by the Chinese anarchist Li Shizeng?
• ... that St George's Church, Southport, has a tall broach spire with two tiers of lucarnes?
• ... that the galls of the golden wattle bud-galling wasp can be so heavy that branches break under their weight?
• ... that Djibouti's flag bearer at the 2008 Summer Olympics was not a competitor?
• ... that after Gabriel Wells bought a book whose 1,050-jewel binding had required two years to complete, he decided to send it to the U.S. via a passenger on the RMS Titanic?

• Researchers trace the origin of the AIDS pandemic to the Congolese city of Kinshasa in the 1920s.
• Physicists report the discovery of a new quasiparticle, the Majorana fermion, which is its own antiparticle.
• Sudan People's Liberation Movement factions of the South Sudanese Civil War agree to a proposal for federalisation.
• Protesters gather in Hong Kong (pictured) to demonstrate against proposed electoral changes announced by the Chinese government.
• In golf, the Ryder Cup concludes with Europe defeating the United States.
• Dennis Kimetto of Kenya sets a new world record at the Berlin Marathon.
• In Japan, Mount Ontake erupts, killing at least 47 people.

Ongoing: Ebola outbreak – Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Recent deaths: Jean-Claude Duvalier

October 6: German-American Day in the United States; 1,000th anniversary of the death of Samuel of Bulgaria (reconstruction pictured)

• 404 – Aelia Eudoxia, empress consort of Byzantine emperor Arcadius, died from complications of childbirth.
• 1777 – American Revolutionary War: British forces under the command of General Sir Henry Clinton captured Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery, and then dismantled the Hudson River Chain.
• 1908 – Austria-Hungary announced the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, causing a crisis that permanently damaged their relations with Russia and the Kingdom of Serbia.
• 1927 – The first successful feature sound film The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, was released.
• 1976 – A violent crackdown by Thai military and police units on students and protestors on the grounds of Thammasat University and at Sanam Luang in Bangkok led to 46 deaths, and a military coup against the government of Prime Minister Seni Pramoj.

More anniversaries: October 5 – October 6 – October 7

Chapters of the D.Gray-man manga series are written and illustrated by Katsura Hoshino (pictured) and follow Allen Walker and his comrades in the Black Order as they fight against demons created from human souls by an ancient sorcerer. The manga began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump on May 31, 2004 and are currently serialized in Shueisha's monthly Jump Square manga magazine. Since the premiere of the D.Gray-man manga series, over two hundred chapters, referred to as "nights", have been released in Japan. One chapter of the series was published in Akamaru Jump in August 2009 as the series transitioned to serialization in Jump Square, starting on November 4, 2009. The individual chapters are published in tankōbon by Shueisha. The first volume was released on October 9, 2004. The series has been licensed for an English-language release in North America by Viz Media. Viz released the first collected volume of the series on February 5, 2008, and twenty-four volumes have been released thus far. ( Full list...)