title: Oyster

text: Some oysters also harbor bacterial species which can cause human disease; of importance is "Vibrio vulnificus", which causes gastroenteritis, which is usually self-limiting, and cellulitis. Cellulitis can be severe and rapidly spreading, requiring antibiotics, medical care, and in some severe cases amputation. It is usually acquired when the contents of the oyster come in contact with a cut skin lesion, as when shucking an oyster.


title: House sparrow

text: The house sparrow (Passer domesticus) is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world. It is a small bird that has a typical length of and a mass of . Females and young birds are coloured pale brown and grey, and males have brighter black, white, and brown markings. One of about 25 species in the genus "Passer", the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia. Its intentional or accidental introductions to many regions, including parts of Australasia, Africa, and the Americas, make it the most widely distributed wild bird.


title: House sparrow

text: The house sparrow is strongly associated with human habitation, and can live in urban or rural settings. Though found in widely varied habitats and climates, it typically avoids extensive woodlands, grasslands, and deserts away from human development. It feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is an opportunistic eater and commonly eats insects and many other foods. Its predators include domestic cats, hawks, and many other predatory birds and mammals.


title: House sparrow

text: Because of its numbers, ubiquity, and association with human settlements, the house sparrow is culturally prominent. It is extensively, and usually unsuccessfully, persecuted as an agricultural pest. It has also often been kept as a pet, as well as being a food item and a symbol of lust, sexual potency, commonness, and vulgarity. Though it is widespread and abundant, its numbers have declined in some areas. The animal's conservation status is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List.


title: House sparrow

text: The house sparrow is typically about long, ranging from . The house sparrow is a compact bird with a full chest and a large, rounded head. Its bill is stout and conical with a culmen length of , strongly built as an adaptation for eating seeds. Its tail is short, at long. The wing chord is , and the tarsus is . Wingspan ranges from .


title: House sparrow

text: In mass, the house sparrow ranges from . Females usually are slightly smaller than males. The median mass on the European continent for both sexes is about , and in more southerly subspecies is around . Younger birds are smaller, males are larger during the winter, and females are larger during the breeding season. Birds at higher latitudes, colder climates, and sometimes higher altitudes are larger (under Bergmann's rule), both between and within subspecies.


title: House sparrow

text: The plumage of the house sparrow is mostly different shades of grey and brown. The sexes exhibit strong dimorphism: the female is mostly buffish above and below, while the male has boldly coloured head markings, a reddish back, and grey underparts. The male has a dark grey crown from the top of its bill to its back, and chestnut brown flanking its crown on the sides of its head. It has black around its bill, on its throat, and on the spaces between its bill and eyes (lores). It has a small white stripe between the lores and crown and small white spots immediately behind the eyes (postoculars), with black patches below and above them. The underparts are pale grey or white, as are the cheeks, ear coverts, and stripes at the base of the head. The upper back and mantle are a warm brown, with broad black streaks, while the lower back, rump and upper tail coverts are greyish brown.


title: House sparrow

text: The male is duller in fresh nonbreeding plumage, with whitish tips on many feathers. Wear and preening expose many of the bright brown and black markings, including most of the black throat and chest patch, called the "bib" or "badge". The badge is variable in width and general size, and may signal social status or fitness. This hypothesis has led to a "veritable 'cottage industry'" of studies, which have only conclusively shown that patches increase in size with age. The male's bill is dark grey, but black in the breeding season.


title: House sparrow

text: The female has no black markings or grey crown. Its upperparts and head are brown with darker streaks around the mantle and a distinct pale supercilium. Its underparts are pale grey-brown. The female's bill is brownish-grey and becomes darker in breeding plumage approaching the black of the male's bill.


title: House sparrow

text: Juveniles are similar to the adult female, but deeper brown below and paler above, with paler and less defined supercilia. Juveniles have broader buff feather edges, and tend to have looser, scruffier plumage, like moulting adults. Juvenile males tend to have darker throats and white postoculars like adult males, while juvenile females tend to have white throats. However, juveniles cannot be reliably sexed by plumage: some juvenile males lack any markings of the adult male, and some juvenile females have male features. The bills of young birds are light yellow to straw, paler than the female's bill. Immature males have paler versions of the adult male's markings, which can be very indistinct in fresh plumage. By their first breeding season, young birds generally are indistinguishable from other adults, though they may still be paler during their first year.


title: House sparrow

text: Most house sparrow vocalisations are variations on its short and frequent chirping call. Transcribed as "chirrup", "tschilp", or "philip", this note is made as a contact call by flocking or resting birds; or by males to proclaim nest ownership and invite pairing. In the breeding season, the male gives this call repetitively, with emphasis and speed, but not much rhythm, forming what is described either as a song or an "ecstatic call" similar to a song. Young birds also give a true song, especially in captivity, a warbling similar to that of the European greenfinch.


title: House sparrow

text: Aggressive males give a trilled version of their call, transcribed as "chur-"chur-r-r-it-it-it-it"". This call is also used by females in the breeding season, to establish dominance over males while displacing them to feed young or incubate eggs. House sparrows give a nasal alarm call, the basic sound of which is transcribed as "quer", and a shrill "chree" call in great distress. Another vocalisation is the "appeasement call", a soft "quee" given to inhibit aggression, usually given between birds of a mated pair. These vocalisations are not unique to the house sparrow, but are shared, with small variations, by all sparrows.


title: House sparrow

text: Some variation is seen in the 12 subspecies of house sparrows, which are divided into two groups, the Oriental "P. d. indicus" group, and the Palaearctic "P. d. domesticus" group. Birds of the "P. d. domesticus" group have grey cheeks, while "P. d. indicus" group birds have white cheeks, as well as bright colouration on the crown, a smaller bill, and a longer black bib. The subspecies "P. d. tingitanus" differs little from the nominate subspecies, except in the worn breeding plumage of the male, in which the head is speckled with black and underparts are paler. "P. d. balearoibericus" is slightly paler than the nominate, but darker than "P. d. bibilicus". "P. d. bibilicus" is paler than most subspecies, but has the grey cheeks of "P. d. domesticus" group birds. The similar "P. d. persicus" is paler and smaller, and "P. d. niloticus" is nearly identical but smaller. Of the less widespread "P. d. indicus" group subspecies, "P. d. hyrcanus" is larger than "P. d. indicus", "P. d. hufufae" is paler, "P. d. bactrianus" is larger and paler, and "P. d. parkini" is larger and darker with more black on the breast than any other subspecies.


title: House sparrow

text: The house sparrow can be confused with a number of other seed-eating birds, especially its relatives in the genus "Passer". Many of these relatives are smaller, with an appearance that is neater or "cuter", as with the Dead Sea sparrow. The dull-coloured female can often not be distinguished from other females, and is nearly identical to those of the Spanish and Italian sparrows. The Eurasian tree sparrow is smaller and slenderer with a chestnut crown and a black patch on each cheek. The male Spanish sparrow and Italian sparrow are distinguished by their chestnut crowns. The Sind sparrow is very similar but smaller, with less black on the male's throat and a distinct pale supercilium on the female.


title: House sparrow

text: The house sparrow was among the first animals to be given a scientific name in the modern system of biological classification, since it was described by Carl Linnaeus, in the 1758 10th edition of "Systema Naturae". It was described from a type specimen collected in Sweden, with the name "Fringilla domestica". Later, the genus name "Fringilla" came to be used only for the common chaffinch and its relatives, and the house sparrow has usually been placed in the genus "Passer" created by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.


title: House sparrow

text: The bird's scientific name and its usual English name have the same meaning. The Latin word "passer", like the English word "sparrow", is a term for small active birds, coming from a root word referring to speed. The Latin word "domesticus" means "belonging to the house", like the common name a reference to its association with humans. The house sparrow is also called by a number of alternative English names, including "English sparrow", chiefly in North America; and "Indian sparrow" or "Indian house sparrow", for the birds of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia. Dialectal names include "sparr", "sparrer", "spadger", "spadgick", and "philip", mainly in southern England; "spug" and "spuggy", mainly in northern England; "spur" and "sprig", mainly in Scotland; and "spatzie" or "spotsie", from the German "Spatz", in North America.


title: House sparrow

text: The genus "Passer" contains about 25 species, depending on the authority, 26 according to the "Handbook of the Birds of the World". Most "Passer" species are dull-coloured birds with short, square tails and stubby, conical beaks, between long. Mitochondrial DNA studies suggest that speciation in the genus occurred during the Pleistocene and earlier, while other evidence suggests speciation occurred 25,000 to 15,000 years ago. Within "Passer", the house sparrow is part of the "Palaearctic black-bibbed sparrows" group and a close relative of the Mediterranean "willow sparrows".


title: House sparrow

text: The taxonomy of the house sparrow and its Mediterranean relatives is complicated. The common type of "willow sparrow" is the Spanish sparrow, which resembles the house sparrow in many respects. It frequently prefers wetter habitats than the house sparrow, and it is often colonial and nomadic. In most of the Mediterranean, one or both species occur, with some degree of hybridisation. In North Africa, the two species hybridise extensively, forming highly variable mixed populations with a full range of characters from pure house sparrows to pure Spanish sparrows.


title: House sparrow

text: In most of Italy, the breeding species is the Italian sparrow, which has an appearance intermediate between those of the house and Spanish sparrows. Its specific status and origin are the subject of much debate, but it may be a case of long-ago hybrid speciation. In the Alps, the Italian sparrow intergrades over a narrow roughly strip with the house sparrow, and some house sparrows migrate into the Italian sparrow's range in winter. On the Mediterranean islands of Malta, Gozo, Crete, Rhodes, and Karpathos, other apparently intermediate birds are of unknown status.


title: House sparrow

text: A large number of subspecies have been named, of which 12 were recognised in the "Handbook of the Birds of the World". These subspecies are divided into two groups, the Palaearctic "P. d. domesticus" group, and the Oriental "P. d. indicus" group. Several Middle Eastern subspecies, including "P. d. biblicus", are sometimes considered a third, intermediate group. The subspecies "P. d. indicus" was described as a species, and was considered to be distinct by many ornithologists during the 19th century.


title: House sparrow

text: Migratory birds of the subspecies "P. d. bactrianus" in the "P. d. indicus" group were recorded overlapping with "P. d. domesticus" birds without hybridising in the 1970s, so the Soviet scientists Edward I. Gavrilov and M. N. Korelov proposed the separation of the "P. d. indicus" group as a separate species. However, "P. d. indicus" group and "P. d. domesticus" group birds intergrade in a large part of Iran, so this split is rarely recognised.


title: House sparrow

text: In North America, house sparrow populations are more differentiated than those in Europe. This variation follows predictable patterns, with birds at higher latitudes being larger and darker and those in arid areas being smaller and paler. However, how much this is caused by evolution or by environment is not clear. Similar observations have been made in New Zealand and in South Africa. The introduced house sparrow populations may be distinct enough to merit subspecies status, especially in North America and southern Africa, and American ornithologist Harry Church Oberholser even gave the subspecies name "P. d. plecticus" to the paler birds of western North America.


title: House sparrow

text: The house sparrow originated in the Middle East and spread, along with agriculture, to most of Eurasia and parts of North Africa. Since the mid-19th century, it has reached most of the world, chiefly due to deliberate introductions, but also through natural and shipborne dispersal. Its introduced range encompasses most of North America (including Bermuda), Central America, southern South America, southern Africa, part of West Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and islands throughout the world. It has greatly extended its range in northern Eurasia since the 1850s, and continues to do so, as was shown by its colonisation around 1990 of Iceland and Rishiri Island, Japan. The extent of its range makes it the most widely distributed wild bird on the planet.


title: House sparrow

text: The house sparrow has become highly successful in most parts of the world where it has been introduced. This is mostly due to its early adaptation to living with humans, and its adaptability to a wide range of conditions. Other factors may include its robust immune response, compared to the Eurasian tree sparrow. Where introduced, it can extend its range quickly, sometimes at a rate over per year. In many parts of the world, it has been characterised as a pest, and poses a threat to native birds. A few introductions have died out or been of limited success, such as those to Greenland and Cape Verde.


title: House sparrow

text: The first of many successful introductions to North America occurred when birds from England were released in New York City, in 1852, intended to control the ravages of the linden moth. In North America, the house sparrow now occurs from the Northwest Territories of Canada to southern Panama, and it is one of the most abundant birds of the continent. The house sparrow was first introduced to Australia in 1863 at Melbourne and is common throughout the eastern part of the continent as far north as Cape York, but has been prevented from establishing itself in Western Australia, where every house sparrow found in the state is killed. House sparrows were introduced in New Zealand in 1859, and from there reached many of the Pacific islands, including Hawaii.


title: House sparrow

text: In southern Africa, birds of both the European subspecies ("P. d. domesticus") and the Indian subspecies ("P. d. indicus") were introduced around 1900. Birds of "P. d. domesticus" ancestry are confined to a few towns, while "P. d. indicus" birds have spread rapidly, reaching Tanzania in the 1980s. Despite this rapid spread, native relatives such as the Cape sparrow also occur and thrive in urban habitats. In South America, it was first introduced near Buenos Aires around 1870, and quickly became common in most of the southern part of the continent. It now occurs almost continuously from Tierra del Fuego to the fringes of the Amazon basin, with isolated populations as far north as coastal Venezuela.


title: House sparrow

text: The house sparrow is closely associated with human habitation and cultivation. It is not an obligate commensal of humans as some have suggested: birds of the migratory Central Asian subspecies usually breed away from humans in open country, and birds elsewhere are occasionally found away from humans. The only terrestrial habitats that the house sparrow does not inhabit are dense forest and tundra. Well adapted to living around humans, it frequently lives and even breeds indoors, especially in factories, warehouses, and zoos. It has been recorded breeding in an English coal mine below ground, and feeding on the Empire State Building's observation deck at night. It reaches its greatest densities in urban centres, but its reproductive success is greater in suburbs, where insects are more abundant. On a larger scale, it is most abundant in wheat-growing areas such as the Midwestern United States.


title: House sparrow

text: It tolerates a variety of climates, but prefers drier conditions, especially in moist tropical climates. It has several adaptations to dry areas, including a high salt tolerance and an ability to survive without water by ingesting berries. In most of eastern Asia, the house sparrow is entirely absent, replaced by the Eurasian tree sparrow. Where these two species overlap, the house sparrow is usually more common than the Eurasian tree sparrow, but one species may replace the other in a manner that ornithologist Maud Doria Haviland described as "random, or even capricious". In most of its range, the house sparrow is extremely common, despite some declines, but in marginal habitats such as rainforest or mountain ranges, its distribution can be spotty.


title: House sparrow

text: The house sparrow is a very social bird. It is gregarious during all seasons when feeding, often forming flocks with other species of birds. It roosts communally and while breeding nests are usually grouped together in clumps. House sparrows also engage in social activities such as dust or water bathing and "social singing", in which birds call together in bushes. The house sparrow feeds mostly on the ground, but it flocks in trees and bushes. At feeding stations and nests, female house sparrows are dominant despite their smaller size, and they can fight over males in the breeding season.


title: House sparrow

text: House sparrows sleep with the bill tucked underneath the scapular feathers. Outside of the reproductive season, they often roost communally in trees or shrubs. Much communal chirping occurs before and after the birds settle in the roost in the evening, as well as before the birds leave the roost in the morning. Some congregating sites separate from the roost may be visited by the birds prior to settling in for the night.


title: House sparrow

text: Dust or water bathing is common and often occurs in groups. Anting is rare. Head scratching is done with the leg over the drooped wing.


title: House sparrow

text: As an adult, the house sparrow mostly feeds on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is opportunistic and adaptable, and eats whatever foods are available. In towns and cities, it often scavenges for food in garbage containers and congregates in the outdoors of restaurants and other eating establishments to feed on leftover food and crumbs. It can perform complex tasks to obtain food, such as opening automatic doors to enter supermarkets, clinging to hotel walls to watch vacationers on their balconies, and nectar robbing kowhai flowers. In common with many other birds, the house sparrow requires grit to digest the harder items in its diet. Grit can be either stone, often grains of masonry, or the shells of eggs or snails; oblong and rough grains are preferred.


title: House sparrow

text: Several studies of the house sparrow in temperate agricultural areas have found the proportion of seeds in its diet to be about 90%. It will eat almost any seeds, but where it has a choice, it prefers corn: oats, wheat or maize. Rural birds tend to eat more waste seed from animal dung and seed from fields. In urban areas, the house sparrow feeds largely on food provided directly or indirectly by humans, such as bread, though it prefers raw seeds. The house sparrow also eats some plant matter besides seeds, including buds, berries, and fruits such as grapes and cherries. In temperate areas, the house sparrow has an unusual habit of tearing flowers, especially yellow ones, in the spring.


title: House sparrow

text: Animals form another important part of the house sparrow's diet, chiefly insects, of which beetles, caterpillars, dipteran flies, and aphids are especially important. Various noninsect arthropods are eaten, as are molluscs and crustaceans where available, earthworms, and even vertebrates such as lizards and frogs. Young house sparrows are fed mostly on insects until about 15 days after hatching. They are also given small quantities of seeds, spiders, and grit. In most places, grasshoppers and crickets are the most abundant foods of nestlings. True bugs, ants, sawflies, and beetles are also important, but house sparrows take advantage of whatever foods are abundant to feed their young. House sparrows have been observed stealing prey from other birds, including American robins.


title: House sparrow

text: The gut microbiota of house sparrows differs between chicks and adults, with Pseudomonadota (formerly Proteobacteria) decreasing in chicks when they get to around 9 days old, whilst the relative abundance of Bacillota increase.


title: House sparrow

text: The house sparrow's flight is direct (not undulating) and flapping, averaging and about 15 wingbeats per second. On the ground, the house sparrow typically hops rather than walks. It can swim when pressed to do so by pursuit from predators. Captive birds have been recorded diving and swimming short distances under water.


title: House sparrow

text: Most house sparrows do not move more than a few kilometres during their lifetimes. However, limited migration occurs in all regions. Some young birds disperse long distances, especially on coasts, and mountain birds move to lower elevations in winter. Two subspecies, "P. d. bactrianus" and "P. d. parkini", are predominantly migratory. Unlike the birds in sedentary populations that migrate, birds of migratory subspecies prepare for migration by putting on weight.


title: House sparrow

text: House sparrows can breed in the breeding season immediately following their hatching, and sometimes attempt to do so. Some birds breeding for the first time in tropical areas are only a few months old and still have juvenile plumage. Birds breeding for the first time are rarely successful in raising young, and reproductive success increases with age, as older birds breed earlier in the breeding season, and fledge more young. As the breeding season approaches, hormone releases trigger enormous increases in the size of the sexual organs and changes in day length lead males to start calling by nesting sites. The timing of mating and egg-laying varies geographically, and between specific locations and years because a sufficient supply of insects is needed for egg formation and feeding nestlings.


title: House sparrow

text: Males take up nesting sites before the breeding season, by frequently calling beside them. Unmated males start nest construction and call particularly frequently to attract females. When a female approaches a male during this period, the male displays by moving up and down while drooping and shivering his wings, pushing up his head, raising and spreading his tail, and showing his bib. Males may try to mate with females while calling or displaying. In response, a female will adopt a threatening posture and attack a male before flying away, pursued by the male. The male displays in front of her, attracting other males, which also pursue and display to the female. This group display usually does not immediately result in copulations. Other males usually do not copulate with the female. Copulation is typically initiated by the female giving a soft "dee-dee-dee" call to the male. Birds of a pair copulate frequently until the female is laying eggs, and the male mounts the female repeatedly each time a pair mates.


title: House sparrow

text: The house sparrow is monogamous, and typically mates for life, but birds from pairs often engage in extra-pair copulations, so about 15% of house sparrow fledglings are unrelated to their mother's mate. Males guard their mates carefully to avoid being cuckolded, and most extra-pair copulation occurs away from nest sites. Males may sometimes have multiple mates, and bigamy is mostly limited by aggression between females. Many birds do not find a nest and a mate, and instead may serve as helpers around the nest for mated pairs, a role which increases the chances of being chosen to replace a lost mate. Lost mates of both sexes can be replaced quickly during the breeding season. The formation of a pair and the bond between the two birds is tied to the holding of a nest site, though paired house sparrows can recognise each other away from the nest.


title: House sparrow

text: Nest sites are varied, though cavities are preferred. Nests are most frequently built in the eaves and other crevices of houses. Holes in cliffs and banks, and tree hollows, are also used. A sparrow sometimes excavates its own nests in sandy banks or rotten branches, but more frequently uses the nests of other birds such as those of swallows in banks and cliffs, and old tree cavity nests. It usually uses deserted nests, though sometimes it usurps active ones by driving away or killing the occupants. Tree hollows are more commonly used in North America than in Europe, putting the sparrows in competition with bluebirds and other North American cavity nesters, and thereby contributing to their population declines.


title: House sparrow

text: Especially in warmer areas, the house sparrow may build its nests in the open, on the branches of trees, especially evergreens and hawthorns, or in the nests of large birds such as storks or magpies. In open nesting sites, breeding success tends to be lower, since breeding begins late and the nest can easily be destroyed or damaged by storms. Less common nesting sites include street lights and neon signs, favoured for their warmth; and the old open-topped nests of other songbirds, which are then domed over.


title: House sparrow

text: Usually the couples repeat copulation many times. Every copulation is followed by some break of 3 to 4 seconds, and in that time both pair change their position by some distance.


title: House sparrow

text: The nest is usually domed, though it may lack a roof in enclosed sites. It has an outer layer of stems and roots, a middle layer of dead grass and leaves, and a lining of feathers, as well as of paper and other soft materials. Nests typically have external dimensions of 20 × 30 cm (8 × 12 in), but their size varies greatly. The building of the nest is initiated by the unmated male while displaying to females. The female assists in building, but is less active than the male. Some nest building occurs throughout the year, especially after moult in autumn. In colder areas house sparrows build specially created roost nests, or roost in street lights, to avoid losing heat during the winter. House sparrows do not hold territories, but they defend their nests aggressively against intruders of the same sex.


title: House sparrow

text: House sparrows' nests support a wide range of scavenging insects, including nest flies such as "Neottiophilum praestum", "Protocalliphora" blowflies, and over 1,400 species of beetle.


title: House sparrow

text: Clutches usually comprise four or five eggs, though numbers from one to 10 have been recorded. At least two clutches are usually laid, and up to seven a year may be laid in the tropics or four a year in temperate latitudes. When fewer clutches are laid in a year, especially at higher latitudes, the number of eggs per clutch is greater. Central Asian house sparrows, which migrate and have only one clutch a year, average 6.5 eggs in a clutch. Clutch size is also affected by environmental and seasonal conditions, female age, and breeding density.


title: House sparrow

text: Some intraspecific brood parasitism occurs, and instances of unusually large numbers of eggs in a nest may be the result of females laying eggs in the nests of their neighbours. Such foreign eggs are sometimes recognised and ejected by females. The house sparrow is a victim of interspecific brood parasites, but only rarely, since it usually uses nests in holes too small for parasites to enter, and it feeds its young foods unsuitable for young parasites. In turn, the house sparrow has once been recorded as a brood parasite of the American cliff swallow.


title: House sparrow

text: The eggs are white, bluish white, or greenish white, spotted with brown or grey. Subelliptical in shape, they range from in length and in width, have an average mass of , and an average surface area of . Eggs from the tropical subspecies are distinctly smaller. Eggs begin to develop with the deposition of yolk in the ovary a few days before ovulation. In the day between ovulation and laying, egg white forms, followed by eggshell. Eggs laid later in a clutch are larger, as are those laid by larger females, and egg size is hereditary. Eggs decrease slightly in size from laying to hatching. The yolk comprises 25% of the egg, the egg white 68%, and the shell 7%. Eggs are watery, being 79% liquid, and otherwise mostly protein.


title: House sparrow

text: The female develops a brood patch of bare skin and plays the main part in incubating the eggs. The male helps, but can only cover the eggs rather than truly incubate them. The female spends the night incubating during this period, while the male roosts near the nest. Eggs hatch at the same time, after a short incubation period lasting 11–14 days, and exceptionally for as many as 17 or as few as 9. The length of the incubation period decreases as ambient temperature increases later in the breeding season.


title: House sparrow

text: Young house sparrows remain in the nest for 11 to 23 days, normally 14 to 16 days. During this time, they are fed by both parents. As newly hatched house sparrows do not have sufficient insulation, they are brooded for a few days, or longer in cold conditions. The parents swallow the droppings produced by the hatchlings during the first few days; later, the droppings are moved up to away from the nest.


title: House sparrow

text: The chicks' eyes open after about 4 days and, at an age of about 8 days, the young birds get their first down. If both parents perish, the ensuing intensive begging sounds of the young often attract replacement parents which feed them until they can sustain themselves. All the young in the nest leave it during the same period of a few hours. At this stage, they are normally able to fly. They start feeding themselves partly after 1 or 2 days, and sustain themselves completely after 7 to 10 days, 14 at the latest.


title: House sparrow

text: In adult house sparrows, annual survival is 45–65%. After fledging and leaving the care of their parents, young sparrows have a high mortality rate, which lessens as they grow older and more experienced. Only about 20–25% of birds hatched survive to their first breeding season. The oldest known wild house sparrow lived for nearly two decades; it was found dead 19 years and 9 months after it was ringed in Denmark. The oldest recorded captive house sparrow lived for 23 years. The typical ratio of males to females in a population is uncertain due to problems in collecting data, but a very slight preponderance of males at all ages is usual.


title: House sparrow

text: The house sparrow's main predators are cats and birds of prey, but many other animals prey on them, including corvids, squirrels, and even humans—the house sparrow has been consumed in the past by people in many parts of the world, and it still is in parts of the Mediterranean. Most species of birds of prey have been recorded preying on the house sparrow in places where records are extensive. Accipiters and the merlin in particular are major predators, though cats are likely to have a greater impact on house sparrow populations. The house sparrow is also a common victim of roadkill; on European roads, it is the bird most frequently found dead.


title: House sparrow

text: The house sparrow is host to a huge number of parasites and diseases, and the effect of most is unknown. Ornithologist Ted R. Anderson listed thousands, noting that his list was incomplete. The commonly recorded bacterial pathogens of the house sparrow are often those common in humans, and include "Salmonella" and "Escherichia coli". "Salmonella" is common in the house sparrow, and a comprehensive study of house sparrow disease found it in 13% of sparrows tested. "Salmonella" epidemics in the spring and winter can kill large numbers of sparrows. The house sparrow hosts avian pox and avian malaria, which it has spread to the native forest birds of Hawaii. Many of the diseases hosted by the house sparrow are also present in humans and domestic animals, for which the house sparrow acts as a reservoir host. Arboviruses such as the West Nile virus, which most commonly infect insects and mammals, survive winters in temperate areas by going dormant in birds such as the house sparrow. A few records indicate disease extirpating house sparrow populations, especially from Scottish islands, but this seems to be rare. House sparrows are also infected by haemosporidian parasites, but less so in urban than in rural areas "Toxoplasma gondii" has been detected in sparrows in northwestern China where they pose a risk due to their meat being consumed in the region.


title: House sparrow

text: The house sparrow is infested by a number of external parasites, which usually cause little harm to adult sparrows. In Europe, the most common mite found on sparrows is "Proctophyllodes", the most common ticks are "Argas reflexus" and "Ixodes arboricola", and the most common flea on the house sparrow is "Ceratophyllus gallinae". "Dermanyssus" blood-feeding mites are also common ectoparasites of house sparrows, and these mites can enter human habitation and bite humans, causing a condition known as gamasoidosis. A number of chewing lice occupy different niches on the house sparrow's body. "Menacanthus" lice occur across the house sparrow's body, where they feed on blood and feathers, while "Brueelia" lice feed on feathers and "Philopterus fringillae" occurs on the head.


title: House sparrow

text: House sparrows express strong circadian rhythms of activity in the laboratory. They were among the first bird species to be seriously studied in terms of their circadian activity and photoperiodism, in part because of their availability and adaptability in captivity, but also because they can "find their way" and remain rhythmic in constant darkness. Such studies have found that the pineal gland is a central part of the house sparrow's circadian system: removal of the pineal eliminates the circadian rhythm of activity, and transplant of the pineal into another individual confers to this individual the rhythm phase of the donor bird. The suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus have also been shown to be an important component of the circadian system of house sparrows. The photoreceptors involved in the synchronisation of the circadian clock to the external light-dark cycle are located in the brain and can be stimulated by light reaching them directly though the skull, as revealed by experiments in which blind sparrows, which normally can still synchronise to the light-dark cycle, failed to do so once India ink was injected as a screen under the skin on top of their skulls.


title: House sparrow

text: Similarly, even when blind, house sparrows continue to be photoperiodic, i.e. show reproductive development when the days are long, but not when the days are short. This response is stronger when the feathers on top of the head are plucked, and is eliminated when India ink is injected under the skin at the top of the head, showing that the photoreceptors involved in the photoperiodic response to day length are located inside the brain.


title: House sparrow

text: House sparrows have also been used in studies of nonphotic entrainment (i.e. synchronisation to an external cycle other than light and dark): for example, in constant darkness, a situation in which the birds would normally reveal their endogenous, non-24-hour, "free-running" rhythms of activity, they instead show 24-hour periodicity if they are exposed to two hours of chirp playbacks every 24 hours, matching their daily activity onsets with the daily playback onsets. House sparrows in constant dim light can also be entrained to a daily cycle based on the presence of food. Finally, house sparrows in constant darkness could be entrained to a cycle of high and low temperature, but only if the difference in temperature was large (38 °C versus 6 °C); some of the tested sparrows matched their activity to the warm phase, and others to the cold phase.


title: House sparrow

text: The house sparrow is closely associated with humans. They are believed to have become associated with humans around 10,000 years ago. The Turkestan subspecies ("P. d. bactrianus") is least associated with humans and considered to be evolutionarily closer to the ancestral noncommensal populations. Usually, the house sparrow is regarded as a pest, since it consumes agricultural products and spreads disease to humans and their domestic animals. Even birdwatchers often hold it in little regard because of its molestation of other birds. In most of the world, the house sparrow is not protected by law. Attempts to control house sparrows include the trapping, poisoning, or shooting of adults; the destruction of their nests and eggs; or less directly, blocking nest holes and scaring off sparrows with noise, glue, or porcupine wire. However, the house sparrow can be beneficial to humans, as well, especially by eating insect pests, and attempts at the large-scale control of the house sparrow have failed.


title: House sparrow

text: The house sparrow has long been used as a food item. From around 1560 to at least the 19th century in northern Europe, earthenware "sparrow pots" were hung from eaves to attract nesting birds so the young could be readily harvested. Wild birds were trapped in nets in large numbers, and sparrow pie was a traditional dish, thought, because of the association of sparrows with lechery, to have aphrodisiac properties. A traditional Indian medicine, "Ciṭṭukkuruvi lēkiyam" in Tamil, was sold with similar aphrodisiac claims. Sparrows were also trapped as food for falconers' birds and zoo animals. During the 1870s, there were debates on the damaging effects of sparrows in the House of Commons in England. In the early part of the 20th century, sparrow clubs culled many millions of birds and eggs in an attempt to control numbers of this perceived pest, but with only a localised impact on numbers. House sparrows have been kept as pets at many times in history, though they have no bright plumage or attractive songs, and raising them is difficult. The house sparrow has an extremely large range and population, so it is assessed as least concern for conservation on the IUCN Red List.


title: House sparrow

text: The IUCN estimates for the global population runs up to nearly 1.4 billion individuals, second among all birds perhaps only to the red-billed quelea in abundance (although the quelea is, unlike the sparrow, restricted to a single continent and has never been subject to human introductions). However, populations have been declining in many parts of the world, especially near its Eurasian places of origin. These declines were first noticed in North America, where they were initially attributed to the spread of the house finch, but have been most severe in Western Europe. Declines have not been universal, as no serious declines have been reported from Eastern Europe, but have even occurred in Australia, where the house sparrow was introduced recently.


title: House sparrow

text: In Great Britain, populations peaked in the early 1970s, but have since declined by 68% overall, and about 90% in some regions. The RSPB lists the house sparrow's UK conservation status as red. In London, the house sparrow almost disappeared from the central city. The numbers of house sparrows in the Netherlands have dropped in half since the 1980s, so the house sparrow is even considered an endangered species. This status came to widespread attention after a female house sparrow, referred to as the "Dominomus", was killed after knocking down dominoes arranged as part of an attempt to set a world record. These declines are not unprecedented, as similar reductions in population occurred when the internal combustion engine replaced horses in the 1920s and a major source of food in the form of grain spillage was lost.


title: House sparrow

text: Declines have been particularly apparent even in North America, where the house sparrow is invasive in some states. Introduced to Philadelphia initially in 1852 the house sparrow rapidly spread across the nation. However, the bird has largely disappeared from the city nowadays and overall, it is estimated to have declined in North America by 84% since 1966.


title: House sparrow

text: In South Asia, the house sparrow has largely vanished from major cities such as Karachi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Lahore.


title: House sparrow

text: Various causes for the dramatic decreases in population have been proposed, including predation, in particular by Eurasian sparrowhawks; electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones; and diseases such as avian malaria. A shortage of nesting sites caused by changes in urban building design is probably a factor, and conservation organisations have encouraged the use of special nest boxes for sparrows. A primary cause of the decline seems to be an insufficient supply of insect food for nestling sparrows. Declines in insect populations result from an increase of monoculture crops, the heavy use of pesticides, the replacement of native plants in cities with introduced plants and parking areas, and possibly the introduction of unleaded petrol, which produces toxic compounds such as methyl nitrite.


title: House sparrow

text: Protecting insect habitats on farms and planting native plants in cities benefit the house sparrow, as does establishing urban green spaces. To raise awareness of threats to the house sparrow, World Sparrow Day has been celebrated on 20 March across the world since 2010.


title: House sparrow

text: Over the recent years, the house sparrow population has been on the decline in many Asian countries, and this decline is quite evident in India. To promote the conservation of these birds, in 2012, the house sparrow was declared as the state bird of Delhi.


title: House sparrow

text: To many people across the world, the house sparrow is the most familiar wild animal and, because of its association with humans and familiarity, it is frequently used to represent the common and vulgar, or the lewd. One of the reasons for the introduction of house sparrows throughout the world was their association with the European homeland of many immigrants. Birds usually described later as sparrows are referred to in many works of ancient literature and religious texts in Europe and western Asia. These references may not always refer specifically to the house sparrow, or even to small, seed-eating birds, but later writers who were inspired by these texts often had the house sparrow in mind. In particular, sparrows were associated by the ancient Greeks with Aphrodite, the goddess of love, due to their perceived lustfulness, an association echoed by later writers such as Chaucer and Shakespeare. Jesus's use of "sparrows" as an example of divine providence in the Gospel of Matthew also inspired later references, such as that in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and the Gospel hymn "His Eye Is on the Sparrow".


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: Erich Maria Remarque (, ; born Erich Paul Remark; 22 June 1898 – 25 September 1970) was a German-born novelist. His landmark novel "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1928), based on his experience in the Imperial German Army during World War I, was an international bestseller which created a new literary genre, and was adapted into multiple films. Remarque's anti-war themes led to his condemnation by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels as "unpatriotic". He was able to use his literary success to relocate to Switzerland and the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen.


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: Remarque was born on 22 June 1898, as Erich Paul Remark, to Peter Franz Remark and Anna Maria (), a working-class Roman Catholic family in Osnabrück. He was never close with his father, a bookbinder, but he was close with his mother and he began using the middle name Maria after World War I in her honor. Remarque was the third of four children of Peter and Anna. His siblings were his older sister Erna, older brother Theodor Arthur (who died at the age of five or six), and younger sister Elfriede.


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: The spelling of his last name was changed to Remarque when he published "All Quiet on the Western Front" in honor of his French ancestors and in order to dissociate himself from his earlier novel . His grandfather had changed the spelling from Remarque to Remark in the 19th century. Research by Remarque's childhood and lifelong friend Hanns-Gerd Rabe proved that Remarque had French ancestors his great-grandfather Johann Adam Remarque, who was born in 1789, came from a French family in Aachen. This is contrary to the falsehood perpetuated by Nazi propaganda that his real last name was Kramer ("Remark" spelled backwards) and that he was Jewish.


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: During World War I, Remarque was conscripted into the Imperial German Army at the age of 18. On 12 June 1917, he was transferred to the Western Front, 2nd Company, Reserves, Field Depot of the 2nd Guards Reserve Division at Hem-Lenglet. On 26 June 1917 he was posted to the 15th Reserve Infantry Regiment, 2nd Company, Engineer Platoon Bethe, and fought in the trenches between Torhout and Houthulst. On 31 July 1917 he was wounded by shell shrapnel in the left leg, right arm and neck, and after being medically evacuated from the field was repatriated to an army hospital in Germany, where he spent the rest of the war, recovering from his wounds, before being demobilized from the army.


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: After the war he continued his teacher training and worked from 1 August 1919 as a primary-school teacher in Lohne, at that time in the county of Lingen, now in the county of Bentheim. From May 1920 he worked in Klein Berssen in the former County of Hümmling, now Emsland, and from August 1920 in Nahne, which has been a part of Osnabrück since 1972. On 20 November 1920 he applied for leave of absence from teaching. He worked at a number of different jobs in this phase of his life, including librarian, businessman, journalist, and editor. His first paid writing job was as a technical writer for the Continental Rubber Company, a German tire manufacturer.


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: Remarque had made his first attempts at writing at the age of 16. Among them were essays, poems, and the beginnings of a novel that was finished later and published in 1920 as "The Dream Room" (). Between 1923 and 1926 he also scripted a comic series, , drawn by Hermann Schütz, published in the magazine Echo Continental, a publication by the rubber and tire company Continental AG.


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: After coming back from the war, the atrocities of war along with his mother’s death caused him a great deal of mental trauma and grief. In later years as a professional writer, he started using "Maria" as his middle name instead of "Paul", to commemorate his mother. When he published "All Quiet on the Western Front", he had his surname reverted to an earlier spelling from Remark to Remarque to dissociate himself from his novel .


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: In 1927, he published the novel "Station at the Horizon" (). It was serialised in the sports journal for which Remarque was working. (It was first published in book form in 1998.) "All Quiet on the Western Front" () (1929), his career-defining work, was also written in 1927. Remarque was at first unable to find a publisher for it. Its text described the experiences of German soldiers during World War I. On publication it became an international bestseller and a landmark work in twentieth-century literature. It inspired a new genre of veterans writing about conflict, and the commercial publication of a wide variety of war memoirs. It also inspired dramatic representations of the war in theatre and cinema, in Germany as well as in countries that had fought in the conflict against the German Empire, particularly the United Kingdom and the United States.


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: Riding on the tail of the success of "All Quiet on the Western Front", a number of similar works followed from Remarque. In simple, emotive language, they described wartime and the postwar years in Germany. In 1931, after finishing "The Road Back" (), he bought a villa in Ronco, Switzerland with the substantial financial wealth that his published works had brought him. He planned to live both there and in France.


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: On 10 May 1933, at the initiative of the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, Remarque's writing was publicly declared as "unpatriotic" and was banned in Germany. Copies were removed from all libraries and restricted from being sold or published anywhere in the country.


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: Germany was rapidly descending into a totalitarian society, leading to mass arrests of elements of the population of which the new governing order disapproved. Remarque left Germany to live at his villa in Switzerland. His French background as well as his Catholic faith were also publicly attacked by the Nazis. They continued to decry his writings in his absence, proclaiming that anyone who would change the spelling of his name from the German "Remark" to the French "Remarque" could not be a true German. The Nazis further made the false claim that Remarque had not seen active service during World War I. In 1938, Remarque's German citizenship was revoked. In 1939, he and his ex-wife were remarried to prevent her repatriation to Germany. Just before the outbreak of World War II in Europe, they left Porto Ronco, Switzerland for the United States. They became naturalised citizens of the United States in 1947.


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: Remarque continued to write about the German experience after WWI. His next novel, "Three Comrades" (), spans the years of the Weimar Republic, from the hyperinflation of 1923 to the end of the decade. His fourth novel, "Flotsam" (in German titled , or "Love Thy Neighbour"), first appeared in a serial version in English translation in "Collier's" magazine in 1939. He spent another year revising the text for its book publication in 1941, both in English and German. His next work, the novel "Arch of Triumph", was first published in 1945 in English, and the next year in German as . Another instant bestseller, it reached worldwide sales of nearly five million. His final novel was "Shadows in Paradise". He wrote it while living at 320 East 57th Street in New York City. The apartment building "played a prominent role in his novel".


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: In 1943, the Nazis arrested his youngest sister, , who had stayed behind in Germany with her husband and two children. After a trial at the notorious (Hitler's extra-constitutional "People's Court"), she was found guilty of "undermining morale" for stating that she considered the war lost. Court President Roland Freisler declared, "" ("Your brother is unfortunately beyond our reach you, however, will not escape us.") Scholz was beheaded on 16 December 1943. Remarque later said that his sister had been involved in anti-Nazi resistance activities.


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: In exile, Remarque was unaware of his sister Elfriede's fate until after the war. He would dedicate his 1952 novel "Spark of Life" () to her. The dedication was omitted in the German version of the book, reportedly because he was still seen as a traitor by some Germans.


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: In 1948, Remarque returned to Switzerland, where he spent the remainder of his life. There was a gap of seven years a long silence for Remarque between "Arch of Triumph" and his next work, "Spark of Life" (), which appeared both in German and in English in 1952. While he was writing "The Spark of Life" he was also working on a novel ("Time to Live and Time to Die"). It was published first in English translation in 1954 with the not-quite-literal title "A Time to Love and a Time to Die". In 1958, Douglas Sirk directed the film "A Time to Love and a Time to Die" in Germany, based on Remarque's novel. Remarque made a cameo appearance in the film in the role of the Professor.


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: In 1955, Remarque wrote the screenplay for an Austrian film "The Last Act" (), about Hitler's final days in the bunker of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, which was based on the book "Ten Days to Die" (1950) by Michael Musmanno. In 1956, Remarque wrote a drama "Full Circle" () for the stage, which played in both Germany and on Broadway. An English translation was published in 1974. "Heaven Has No Favorites" was serialised (as "Borrowed Life") in 1959 before appearing as a book in 1961 and was made into the 1977 film "Bobby Deerfield". "The Night in Lisbon" (), published in 1962, is the last work Remarque finished. The novel sold about 900,000 copies in Germany.


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: Remarque's first marriage was to the actress Ilse Jutta Zambona in 1925. The marriage was stormy and unfaithful on both sides. Remarque and Zambona divorced in 1930, but in 1933 they fled together to Switzerland. In 1938, they remarried, to prevent her from being forced to return to Germany, and in 1939 they emigrated to the United States, where they both became naturalized citizens in 1947. They divorced again on 20 May 1957, this time for good. Ilse Remarque died on 25 June 1975.


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: During the 1930s, Remarque had relationships with Austrian actress Hedy Lamarr, Mexican actress Dolores del Río and German actress Marlene Dietrich. The affair with Dietrich began in September 1937, when they met on the Lido while in Venice for the film festival, and continued until at least 1940, maintained mostly by way of letters, telegrams and telephone calls. A selection of their letters was published in 2003 in the book ("Tell Me That You Love Me") and then in the 2011 play "Puma".


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: Remarque died of heart failure at the age of 72 in Locarno on 25 September 1970. His body was buried in the Ronco Cemetery in Ronco, Ticino, Switzerland. Paulette Goddard, Remarque's wife, died in 1990, and her body was interred next to her husband's. She left a bequest of US$20 million to New York University to fund an institute for European studies, which is named in honour of Remarque, as well as funding "Goddard Hall" on the Greenwich Village campus in New York City.


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: The first director of The Remarque Institute was Professor Tony Judt. Remarque's papers are housed at NYU's Fales Library.


title: Erich Maria Remarque

text: In November 2010, efforts to raise 6.2 million Swiss francs (US$7M), to buy and save the villa of Erich Maria Remarque and Paulette Goddard from almost certain demolition were underway. The intent was to transform the "Casa Monte Tabor" into a museum and home to an artist-in-residence program.


title: Neatsville, Kentucky

text: Neatsville is an unincorporated community in Adair County, in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is located at the junction of Kentucky Route 206 and Kentucky Route 76. Its elevation is 705 feet (215 m). For unknown reasons, the town's name was spelled as Neetsville from 1876 until 1886, when the town's post office closed. In its early history from around the 1810s to 1900, Neatsville progressively grew to become a well-established, incorporated town. It has been relocated twice through the years, once due to flooding circa 1900–1902, which decimated the town, and once in the 1960s when the Green River was impounded to make way for the Green River Reservoir.


title: Neatsville, Kentucky

text: Various sources and accounts have referred to Neatsville as a village, as a postal village, as a hamlet and as a town at different times in its history.


title: Neatsville, Kentucky

text: The community was settled in the early 1800s by the Neats, with Randolph Neat being the first to acquire land there. As it expanded, the community grew to encompass several stores, a hotel, a doctor's office, mills, a sawmill, distilleries, a saloon, a salt works, a cooper shop, a carding machine, and a Masonic Lodge. It was incorporated as a town on February 23, 1847. Its post office was established on March 13, 1844, and closed in 1886. In 1848 the town's population was estimated to be around 50, and in 1876 the town's population was estimated at 60. The Masonic Lodge was relocated to Pellyton in 1917.


title: Neatsville, Kentucky

text: Sometime circa 1900–1902, a significant flood decimated the town, necessitating its relocation from the north bank to the south bank of the Green River, at which time the former location was abandoned. Erosion had occurred in the foundations of the buildings in the former location due to the flooding. A 1916 local account of the town's former site after the flooding characterized it as "nearly obliterated" and "in ruins". Neatsville was later relocated to its present location sometime in the 1960s, when the Green River was impounded to enable the creation of the Green River Reservoir.


title: Alexandra Shipp

text: Alexandra Ruth Shipp is an American actress and singer who rose to prominence for portraying singer Aaliyah in the Lifetime television film "" (2014) and Kimberly Woodruff in the Oscar-nominated film "Straight Outta Compton" (2015).


title: Alexandra Shipp

text: Shipp is best known for playing Storm in the "X-Men" franchise, starting with "", Abby Suso in the 2018 romantic comedy "Love, Simon", and Susan Wilson in musical drama "tick, tick... BOOM!".


title: Alexandra Shipp

text: Shipp was born in Phoenix, Arizona. Her mother is a Kundalini yoga teacher, and her father is a musician. Her father is black and her mother is white. She has two brothers, James and Jordan, and a stepsister, Kasia. Shipp was educated at Squaw Peak Elementary School, Arizona School for the Arts, and St. Mary's Catholic High School in Phoenix. She moved to Los Angeles at the age of 17 to pursue an acting career.


title: Alexandra Shipp

text: In 2009, Shipp made her acting debut with a minor role in "". She went on to star in the third season of Nickelodeon's mystery teen drama series "House of Anubis", playing the role of KT Rush.


title: Alexandra Shipp

text: In 2014, Shipp gained attention for her roles as Dani Raymond in the VH1 television film sequel "" and Aaliyah Haughton, the title role, in the Lifetime television film "". For the latter performance, Shipp also sang. She next portrayed Ice Cube's wife, Kimberly Woodruff, in the biographical drama film "Straight Outta Compton", which chronicled the careers of hip hop group N.W.A. In 2016, she co-starred in Bryan Singer's superhero film "" as Ororo Munroe/Storm, a weather-controlling mutant previously portrayed by Halle Berry. In 2018, she starred alongside Nick Robinson and Jorge Lendeborg Jr. in "Love, Simon" and Kathryn Prescott and Lucy Hale in "Dude", both high school comedy films.


title: Alexandra Shipp

text: She reprised the role of Ororo Munroe / Storm in the 2019 film "Dark Phoenix", and, the same summer, also starred as Sasha Arias in the "Shaft" sequel.


title: Alexandra Shipp

text: Shipp publicly came out as a member of the LGBT community in June 2021, though she did not specify a label.


title: Courtney Henggeler

text: Courtney Henggeler (born December 11, 1978) is an American actress known for her starring role as Amanda LaRusso in the Netflix comedy-drama television series "Cobra Kai". She is also known as playing the adult version of Sheldon Cooper's twin sister, Missy, in "The Big Bang Theory".


title: Courtney Henggeler

text: Born in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, Henggeler grew up in Pennsylvania in the Poconos until she was 14 when she moved to her parents' hometown of Seaford, New York on the South Shore of Long Island. After graduating from Seaford High School in 1997, Henggeler enrolled at SUNY Fredonia but dropped out and moved to Los Angeles two years later, where she received her first acting lessons. She credits her childhood best friend Patti for making her audition for a high school production of "Carousel" when she was in 9th grade.


title: Courtney Henggeler

text: Henggeler started off her acting career with a main role in the horror B-movie "The Bog Creatures" in 2003. Two years later, she made a guest appearance in the medical drama "House". In 2008, and again in 2018, Henggeler took on the guest role of Missy Cooper, the twin sister of Sheldon Cooper, in the sitcom "The Big Bang Theory". After other guest roles in various movies and TV shows over the years and a recurring role on the CBS sitcom "Mom", Henggeler made her breakthrough in 2018 when she landed a starring role on "Cobra Kai" as Amanda LaRusso, the wife of the original "Karate Kid" Daniel LaRusso. In 2019 she was featured in Hulu's episodic holiday horror series "In the Dark".


title: Katherine McNamara

text: Katherine Grace McNamara (born November 22, 1995) is an American actress, known for playing Clary Fray on the 2016–2019 supernatural drama television series "Shadowhunters", and Mia Smoak in the superhero series "Arrow". She has also starred as Julie Lawry in the post-apocalyptic miniseries "The Stand". Her film roles include Lily Bowman in the 2011 romantic comedy "New Year's Eve", Rosa in the 2015 drama "A Sort of Homecoming", Sonya in the dystopian science fiction film series "Maze Runner", and Amy in the 2021 thriller "Trust". McNamara won a Teen Choice Award and a People's Choice Award for her work on "Shadowhunters."


title: Katherine McNamara

text: McNamara was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the only child of Ursula and Evan McNamara, who served in the U.S. military. She was raised in Lee's Summit, Missouri, and moved to Los Angeles, California in 2011.


title: Katherine McNamara

text: While growing up, McNamara was an advanced student in certain subjects, resulting in her being partly homeschooled; she received her high school diploma at age 14. At age 17, McNamara graduated "summa cum laude" with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Drexel University, completing much of her course work online. In July 2017, she said that she was enrolled in an online master's degree literature program at Johns Hopkins University.


title: Katherine McNamara

text: McNamara began her acting career on stage in Kansas City. She then participated in motion picture productions filmed in the Kansas City area, such as "Matchmaker Mary" in 2008 and the short film "Get Off My Porch". In 2010, she appeared in the 2009 Broadway revival of "A Little Night Music" with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury. She began making guest appearances in television series, including "", "30 Rock", and "Drop Dead Diva". McNamara appeared in theatrical movies such as "New Year's Eve" and in the Disney Channel original movie "Girl vs. Monster", playing the role of Myra Santelli. She co-starred in the film "Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn", playing the role of Tom's girlfriend Becky Thatcher. McNamara also appeared in the independent films "Contest" and "A Sort of Homecoming".


title: Katherine McNamara

text: She appeared on three episodes of the Disney XD series "Kickin' It", in which she had a recurring role as Claire, Kim's rival, and in two episodes of the Disney Channel series "Jessie", playing Bryn Brietbart, a rival to Emma Ross. She also appeared in an episode of the Nickelodeon series "The Thundermans". McNamara was cast in the MTV series "Happyland" as Harper Munroe, a theme park photographer. It was announced that McNamara would playing the recurring role of Kat on the third season of "The Fosters" in 2015.


title: Katherine McNamara

text: On May 6, 2015, ABC Family (now Freeform) announced that McNamara would be playing the lead character Clary Fray in "Shadowhunters", a television adaptation of Cassandra Clare's bestselling book series "The Mortal Instruments". McNamara appeared in "The Maze Runner" film sequel, "", as Sonya, a co-leader of Group B. She reprised the role in the 2018 sequel, "".


title: Katherine McNamara

text: In September 2018, McNamara was cast in the seventh season of "Arrow" as the recurring character of Mia Smoak, the daughter of Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak; McNamara was later promoted to a series regular for "Arrow"s eighth and final season. In October 2019, The CW announced plans for a potential "Arrow" spin-off featuring Mia Smoak. A backdoor pilot for the spin-off aired as the ninth episode of "Arrow"'s final season. However, in January 2021, The CW passed on ordering the spin-off to series. In August 2021, The CW announced that McNamara would return as Mia Queen in the five-episode "Armageddon" storyline at the beginning of "The Flash" Season 8.


title: Katherine McNamara

text: In October 2019, McNamara was cast as Julie Lawry in the CBS All Access limited series adaptation of Stephen King's "The Stand". Principal photography on the limited series was completed in March 2020, and CBS All Access announced a premiere date of December 17, 2020.


title: Katherine McNamara

text: In November 2018, McNamara joined the cast of an untitled Charlie Day film, formerly known as "El Tonto". During May and June 2020, McNamara participated in the making of "Untitled Horror Movie", a movie that was shot by cast members receiving direction from Nick Simon via remote videoconferencing. This was due to restrictions necessitated by COVID-19 distancing protocols. In 2021, QCode released "The Burned Photo", a horror podcast, with McNamara as a member of the voice cast. The same year, she was also added to the voice cast of the animated film "The Adventures of Bunny Bravo". In March 2021, she was cast in the film "Agent Game", though the role was subsequently recast.


title: Katherine McNamara

text: In March 2022, McNamara was cast in the lead role in the pilot to "", a planned prequel series to "Walker". She will be portraying Abby Walker, the ancestor of Jared Padalecki's Cordell Walker. The same month, she was added to the cast of the film "Jade", which is stuntman James Bamford's directorial debut. On April 11, 2022, she is set to begin hosting a "Shadowhunters" rewatch podcast with co-star Dominic Sherwood called "Return to the Shadows".


title: Katherine McNamara

text: During the course of her career, McNamara has sung songs that were used in movies or television series in which she appeared. She wrote and sang "Chatter" for "Contest", and she also appeared in a music video for that song. She wrote "My Heart Can Fly", which her character sings during a talent competition in "Little Savages". She sang "Wait for You", the end credits song for "A Sort of Homecoming". She also sang "Stay True", the end credits song for "R.L. Stine's Monsterville: Cabinet of Souls". Her song "Ember" was played during the 20th episode of the second season of "Shadowhunters".


title: Katherine McNamara

text: In December 2019, McNamara was featured as the voice of singer Sally Jessup in the animated Christmas special episode of the Dreamworks series "Spirit Riding Free" entitled "Spirit of Christmas", which premiered on Netflix. She also provided the vocals for several songs featured in the special.


title: Katherine McNamara

text: In November 2020, McNamara released "What Do We Got to Lose" on digital music platforms. Her song "Making a Monster Out of Me" became available on digital music platforms on December 17, 2020. She released "Love Me Like That" across various digital music platforms on February 14, 2021. All of these songs were recorded several years earlier, when McNamara was building a music portfolio.


title: Katherine McNamara

text: McNamara has participated in anti-bullying efforts by describing how she was bullied as a child. McNamara has also worked with the Lollipop Theater Network, visiting children who are confined to hospitals due to the severity of their illnesses. In 2017, she recorded the song "Glass Slipper", which was used as part of a charity campaign for the United Nations Girl Up program. She also created a t-shirt with the "Glass Slipper" lyrics as part of this campaign. In 2018 and 2019, she participated in the Big Slick Celebrity Weekend, which raises donations for the Kansas City Children's Mercy Hospital.


title: Katherine McNamara

text: On March 31, 2020, McNamara announced that she was working on a song originally recorded in 2014 called "Just Like James" which was released April 8 in the Google Play Store, Apple's iTunes store, and Spotify. Proceeds from the song were donated to the World Health Organization (WHO) for Covid-19 relief efforts. Google donated funds matching sales from the first 30 days.


title: Katherine McNamara

text: On May 8, 2020, McNamara participated in a live-reading adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride & Prejudice" with Acting for a Cause.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: Nathaniel Charles Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild, (born 29 April 1936) is a British peer, investment banker and a member of the Rothschild banking family.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: Now mostly retired, he has held many important roles in business, finance and British public life, and has been active in several charitable and philanthropic areas.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: Born in Berkshire, England,} he is the eldest son of Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild, by his first wife Barbara Judith Rothschild (née Hutchinson). His father was born into a Jewish family, while his mother converted to Orthodox Judaism when they married. Rothschild was educated at Eton College and then at Christ Church, Oxford, where he gained a First in history, tutored by Hugh Trevor-Roper. Emma Georgina Rothschild and Amschel Rothschild are his half-siblings.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: From 1963 Rothschild worked at the family bank N M Rothschild & Sons in London, before resigning in 1980 due to a family dispute. The chairmanship of the bank had passed from his father, who had chosen to follow a scientific career and had lost control of the majority voting shares, to his distant cousin Sir Evelyn Robert de Rothschild. He sold his minority stake in the bank, but took independent control of Rothschild Investment Trust (now RIT Capital Partners plc), an investment trust listed on the London Stock Exchange.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: After resigning from the bank in 1980, Jacob Rothschild went on to found J. Rothschild Assurance Group (now St. James's Place plc) with Sir Mark Weinberg in 1991. In 1989, he joined forces with Sir James Goldsmith and Kerry Packer in an unsuccessful bid for British American Tobacco.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: Rothschild is Chairman of RIT Capital Partners plc, one of the largest investment trusts quoted on the London Stock Exchange with a net asset value of about £2 billion. He is Chairman of J Rothschild Capital Management, a subsidiary of RIT Capital Partners plc. He also retains many other venture capital and property interests.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: From November 2003 until his retirement in 2008, he was Deputy Chairman of BSkyB Television and until 2008 he was a Director of RHJ International. He has also been a Member of the council for the Duchy of Cornwall for the Prince of Wales and a member of the International Advisory Board of The Blackstone Group.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: He was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to the Duchy of Cornwall.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: In 2003, it was reported that Russian oil industrialist Mikhail Khodorkovsky's shares in YUKOS passed to him under a deal which they had concluded prior to Khodorkovsky's arrest.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: In November 2010, an entity affiliated with Rothschild purchased a 5% equity interest in Genie Energy, a subsidiary of IDT Corporation, for $10 million. In 2013, Israel granted Genie Energy exclusive oil and gas exploration rights to a 153-square mile area in the southern part of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: In 1961, Rothschild married Serena Mary Dunn, a granddaughter of the Canadian financier Sir James Dunn, and they had four children. Lady Rothschild died in 2019. Their four children are:


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: Jacob Rothschild has played a prominent part in Arts philanthropy in Britain. He was Chairman of Trustees of the National Gallery from 1985 to 1991, and from 1992 to 1998, chairman of the National Heritage Memorial Fund. From 1994 to 1998, and at the invitation of the Prime Minister, he was chairman of the Heritage Lottery Fund, responsible for distributing the proceeds of the National Lottery to the heritage sector, an influential post which oversaw the distribution of £1.2 billion in grants.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: In the past, he has also been a Trustee of the State Hermitage Museum of St Petersburg (retired 2008); a Trustee of the Qatar Museums Authority (retired 2010); Chairman of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture (2002–2004); Chairman of both the Gilbert Collection Trust and the Hermitage Development Trust, Somerset House; a Trustee and Honorary Fellow of the Courtauld Institute, Somerset House; and a Fellow, Benefactor, and member of the Visitors' Committees of the Ashmolean Museum Oxford (retired 2008). In 2014, he received the J. Paul Getty Medal "for extraordinary achievement in the fields of museology, art historical research, philanthropy, conservation and conservation science".


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: He was especially active in the project to restore Somerset House in London, for which he helped secure the Gilbert Collection and ensured the long-term future of the Courtauld Institute of Art. As a private project, he carried out the restoration of Spencer House, one of the finest surviving 18th century London townhouses, adjacent to his own offices.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: In 1993 he joined with John Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Preston Candover to set up the Butrint Foundation to record and conserve the archaeological site of Butrint in Albania, close to his holiday home on Corfu. Today, Jacob remains Chairman of the Butrint Foundation.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: Jacob Rothschild has also followed the Rothschild family's charitable interests in Israel and was the chairman of Yad Hanadiv, the family foundation which gave the Knesset and the Supreme Court buildings to Israel between 1989 and 2018. He is also president of The Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe, and Patron and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Rothschild Foundation. In addition, he is Honorary President of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: He has served as a Member of the Arts & Humanities Research Board, set up by the British government, is an honorary fellow of the British Academy, and a Trustee of The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund. He is also honorary president of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: In the past, he has been a Member of the UK Main Honours Board (retired 2008); Chairman of the Honours Committee for Arts and Media (retired 2008); Trustee of the Edmond J Safra Foundation (retired 2010); and a Member of committee of the Henry J Kravis Prize for Creative Philanthropy (retired 2010).


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: In 1988 he inherited from his aunt Dorothy de Rothschild, the Waddesdon and Eythrope estates in Buckinghamshire, and began a close association with Waddesdon Manor, the house and grounds which were built by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in the 1880s and bequeathed to the National Trust in 1957 by his cousin, James A. de Rothschild. He has been a major benefactor of the restoration of Waddesdon Manor through a private family charitable trust and, in an unusual arrangement, has been given authority by the National Trust to run Waddesdon Manor as a semi-independent operation. The cellars at Waddesdon Manor house his personal collection of 15,000 bottles of Rothschild wines dating as far back as 1870.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: Open to the public, Waddesdon attracted over 466,000 visitors in 2018, with 157,000 visiting the house in 2015. Waddesdon has won many awards over the last 20 years, including Visit England's "Large Visitor Attraction of the Year" category in 2017, Museum of the Year Award and Best National Trust Property.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: He commissioned the 2015 RIBA Award winner Flint House on the Waddesdon Manor estate in Buckinghamshire, UK. Rothschild donated the property to the Rothschild Foundation which manages the rest of the estate for the National Trust.


title: Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

text: The estate has been a venue for visiting heads of state including Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Margaret Thatcher received French President François Mitterrand there at a summit in 1990. It hosted the European Economic Round Table conference in 2002, organised by Warren Buffett and attended by James Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at State Farm Arena.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: The team's origins can be traced to the establishment of the Buffalo Bisons in 1946 in Buffalo, New York, a member of the National Basketball League (NBL) owned by Ben Kerner and Leo Ferris. After 38 days in Buffalo, the team moved to Moline, Illinois, where they were renamed the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. In 1949, they joined the NBA as part of the merger between the NBL and the Basketball Association of America (BAA), and briefly had Red Auerbach as coach. In 1951, Kerner moved the team to Milwaukee, where they changed their name to the Milwaukee Hawks. Kerner and the team moved again in 1955 to St. Louis, where they won their only NBA Championship in 1958 and qualified to play in the NBA Finals in 1957, 1960 and 1961. The Hawks played the Boston Celtics in all four of their trips to the NBA Finals. The St. Louis Hawks moved to Atlanta in 1968, when Kerner sold the franchise to Thomas Cousins and former Georgia Governor Carl Sanders.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: The Hawks currently own the second-longest drought (behind the Sacramento Kings) of not winning an NBA championship at 63 seasons. The franchise's lone NBA championship, as well as all four NBA Finals appearances, occurred when the team was based in St. Louis. Meanwhile, they went 48 years without advancing past the second round of the playoffs in any format, until finally breaking through in 2015. However, the Hawks are one of only four NBA teams that have qualified to play in the NBA playoffs in 10 consecutive seasons in the 21st century. They achieved this feat between 2008 and 2017.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: The origins of the Atlanta Hawks can be traced to the Buffalo Bisons franchise, which was founded in 1946. The Bisons were a member of the National Basketball League, and played their games at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. The club was organized by Leo Ferris and the Erie County American Legion and was coached by Nat Hickey. Their first game – a 50–39 victory over the Syracuse Nationals – was played on November 8, 1946. On the team was William "Pop" Gates, who, along with William "Dolly" King, was one of the first two African-American players in the NBL. The team, which needed to draw 3,600 fans per game to break even, struggled to draw 1,000 fans per game to the Auditorium. The franchise lasted only 38 days (13 games) in Buffalo when, on December 25, 1946, Leo Ferris, the team's general manager and co-owner, announced that the team would be moving to Moline, Illinois, which at that time was part of an area then known as the "Tri-Cities": Moline, Illinois, Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: Upon relocation to Moline, the team was renamed the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, and played their home games at Wharton Field House, a 6,000-seat arena in Moline. The team featured guard/forward and coach Deanglo King, and was owned by Leo Ferris and Ben Kerner. Pop Gates remained on the Blackhawks roster, and finished second on the team in scoring behind future 1949 NBL MVP Don Otten. A Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame member, Gates helped to integrate the league and later became the first African-American coach in a major sports league, coaching Dayton in 1948.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: In 1949, the Blackhawks became one of the National Basketball Association's 17 original teams after a merger of the 12-year-old NBL and the three-year-old Basketball Association of America (BAA). They reached the playoffs in the NBA's inaugural year under the leadership of coach Red Auerbach. The following season, they drafted three-time All-American Bob Cousy, but they were unable to reach a deal and traded him to the Chicago Stags (who would later surrender him in a dispersal draft to the Boston Celtics when the Stags folded). The Blackhawks finished last in the Western Division and missed the playoffs. By then, it was obvious that the Tri-Cities area was too small to support an NBA team. After the season, the franchise relocated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and became the Milwaukee Hawks.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: In 1954, the Hawks drafted Bob Pettit, a future NBA MVP. Despite this, the Hawks were one of the league's worst teams, and in 1955 the Hawks moved, this time to St. Louis, Missouri, Milwaukee's rival in the beer industry, and became the St. Louis Hawks.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: In 1956, Bob Pettit captured the league's first official Most Valuable Player award, and the St. Louis Hawks drafted legendary Bill Russell in the first round (second overall pick). They immediately traded Russell to the Boston Celtics for Cliff Hagan and Ed Macauley, both Hall of Fame members.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: In 1957, the Hawks finished four games under .500. However, the Western Division was extremely weak that year; no team in the division had a winning record. They won the division title and a bye to the division finals after defeating the Minneapolis Lakers and Fort Wayne Pistons in one-game tiebreakers. They then defeated the Lakers in the division finals to advance to the Finals, losing to the Boston Celtics in a double-overtime thriller in game seven. In 1958, after tallying their first winning record, they again advanced to the Finals, where they avenged their defeat against the Celtics from the previous year, winning the series 4–2 and giving the Hawks their first and only NBA Championship. Bob Pettit scored 50 points in the final game of the series. The following season Bob Pettit led the Hawks to a Western Division-best 49–23 record, helping him capture his second MVP award.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: The Hawks remained one of the NBA's premier teams for the next decade. In 1960, under coach Ed Macauley, the team advanced to the Finals, but lost to the Celtics in another game seven thriller. The following year, with the acquisition of rookie Lenny Wilkens, the Hawks repeated their success, but met the Celtics in the 1961 NBA Finals again and lost in five games. They would remain contenders for most of the 1960s, advancing deep into the playoffs and also capturing several division titles.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: Despite the success, Kerner became weary of the Hawks' longtime home, Kiel Auditorium. The 33-year-old arena seated only 10,000 and was starting to show its age. The Hawks occasionally played at the larger St. Louis Arena, mostly against popular opponents, but Kerner was not willing to move the team there full-time because it had not been well-maintained since the 1940s. Even though it was being heavily renovated to accommodate the arrival of the NHL's Blues in 1967, Kerner was still not willing to move to the St. Louis Arena. He wanted a new arena to increase revenue. However, Kerner was rebuffed by the city on several occasions. In early 1967, Kerner briefly put the Hawks up for sale. One of the bidders was a New Orleans group led by future talk show host Morton Downey Jr., but the deal collapsed and Kerner temporarily took his team off the market.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: Unable to resolve the arena situation, Kerner sold the Hawks to Atlanta real estate developer Tom Cousins and former Georgia governor Carl Sanders, who moved the team to Atlanta in 1968. While a new arena was being constructed, the team spent its first four seasons playing at Alexander Memorial Coliseum on the campus of Georgia Tech, winning their first Division title in the 1969–70 season with a record in the Western Division. Cousins' firm soon developed the Omni Coliseum, a 16,500-seat, state-of-the-art downtown Atlanta arena, for the Hawks and the expansion Atlanta Flames ice hockey franchise, which opened in 1972 as the first phase of a massive sports, office, hotel, and retail complex, most of which is now the CNN Center. Also in 1972, the Hawks debuted a new logo and new colors, trading the green and blue color scheme that the team had used for two years, in favor of white, gold, and red, the same colors the Flames used. The hawk head silhouette inside a circle remained as the team's logo, albeit simplified.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: The years after the move showcased a talented Hawks team, including Pete Maravich and Lou Hudson. However, after this period of success, the team experienced some years of rebuilding. Despite appearing to be moving in the right direction when they ended up with the first and third picks overall in the 1975 NBA draft, the players drafted with those two picks, David Thompson of North Carolina State and Marvin Webster of Morgan State, both signed with the Denver Nuggets of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and never played for the Hawks.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: Cable network entrepreneur and Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner bought the team in 1977 and hired Hubie Brown to become head coach. The Hawks were the only NBA team in the Deep South, just as the Atlanta Braves were the only Major League Baseball team in the region for many years to come. Turner's ownership was instrumental in keeping both teams in the region. Coach Brown won coach of the year in 1978. In the 1979–80 season, the Hawks finished with a 50–32 record and won the Central Division. It was their first division title in the Central Division and second in the city of Atlanta. The next season, the Hawks got off to a 4–0 start, then lost 13 of the next 14 games and with 3 games left in the season, the Hawks fired head coach Hubie Brown en route to the team's 31–51 record.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: In 1982, the franchise acquired superstar Dominique Wilkins (a University of Georgia alumni) and promoted Mike Fratello to head coach a year later. Due to sagging attendance, 12 home games during the 1984–85 season were played at the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana. The New Orleans games were paid for by Barry Mendelson for $1.2 million with the Hawks going 6–6 in Louisiana. Dominique Wilkins won the Slam Dunk Contest in 1985 and 1990, engaging in an iconic rivalry with Michael Jordan. Spud Webb won the Slam Dunk Contest and Fratello won the Coach of the Year Award in 1986.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: From 1985 to 1989, the Hawks were among the league's elite, winning 50 games or more each season. They won a division title in 1986–87 going 57–25 which was a franchise record that would last until the 2014–15 season. However, the team could not advance past the semifinals of the Eastern Conference playoffs, losing to the eventual Eastern Conference (and in some years, NBA) champions Boston and Detroit. The Hawks drafted Stacey Augmon with their ninth overall pick in the 1991 NBA draft, who would make the All-Rookie First Team. However, Wilkins had a season-ending injury in the middle of the season, and without him, the Hawks were unable to make it to the playoffs. In 1992, the Hawks acquired guard Mookie Blaylock from the New Jersey Nets; he would spend seven years of his career as a Hawk, leading them in career steals and three-point field goals while earning an All-Star appearance in 1994. After seasons of mediocrity, Lenny Wilkens was hired as head coach in 1993. In 1993–94, the Hawks won 57 games, tying a team record. They also won a fourth division title in Atlanta, and third in the Central Division. Coach Wilkens was named Coach of the Year for his work with the team. However, the team fell short again in the playoffs, losing to the fifth-seeded Indiana Pacers in the Eastern semis in six games. The season was also marred by the trading of Dominique Wilkins, who remains the franchise all-time leading scorer, to the Los Angeles Clippers for Danny Manning, who quickly left via free agency to the Phoenix Suns after the season ended. On March 6, 2015, Dominique Wilkins received a statue in front of Philips Arena.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: At the beginning of the 1994–95 season, the Hawks traded forward Kevin Willis to the Miami Heat for Steve Smith and Grant Long. During the season, coach Wilkens broke the record (previously held by coach Red Auerbach) for most victories by an NBA head coach with victory number 939. They ended up fifth in the Central Division with a 42–40 record, they would be swept by the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the playoffs. The Hawks finished the 1995–96 season with a 46–36 record, fourth in the Central Division. Midway through the season, they acquired Christian Laettner from the Minnesota Timberwolves; Laettner would get an All-Star appearance in 1997. They upset the third-seeded Pacers in the first round in five games, however lost in five games to the Orlando Magic in the semifinals.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: Around this time, it was decided that the Omni should be replaced by a new arena. The Omni was designed with weathering steel that was intended to rust into a seal around the arena so it could last for decades. However, the designers and architects did not reckon on Atlanta's humid subtropical climate. As a result, it never stopped rusting, and looked somewhat dated despite being 25 years old. When Turner won an NHL franchise, the Atlanta Thrashers, one condition was that a new arena had to be in place before the new team took the ice for the first time, as The Omni was unusable even for temporary use. Eventually, it was decided that The Omni would be demolished and a new arena for the Hawks and the expansion NHL Thrashers would be built on the same area. Following the 1997 playoffs, the Hawks moved back to Georgia Tech's Alexander Memorial Coliseum, with the Georgia Dome used for larger-capacity games, until Philips Arena opened before the 1999–2000 season.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: The Hawks had two 50+ win seasons in 1996–97 (56–26) and 1997–98 (50–32), with center Dikembe Mutombo winning defensive player of the year awards back to back. The Hawks defeated the Detroit Pistons in five games in the first round of the 1997 NBA playoffs, but lost in five games in the second round to the defending champs Chicago Bulls. Game 4, an 89–80 loss, would be the last game at The Omni. In 1997–98, forward Alan Henderson won Most Improved Player award. However, the Hawks would lose in four games in the first round of the playoffs to the Charlotte Hornets. The Hawks would end up with a 31-win campaign in the lockout-shortened 1998–99 season. In the first round they defeated the Pistons in five games again, but they could not advance past the second round of the playoffs, as they were swept by the eighth-seeded New York Knicks.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: In the 1999–2000 season, their first season at Philips Arena, the Hawks traded Steve Smith to Portland for Isaiah Rider and Jim Jackson, and sent Mookie Blaylock and a first-round draft pick to the Golden State Warriors for Bimbo Coles and a first-round draft pick. Smith and Blaylock had been two of the Hawks' most popular players during the 1990s, and Smith had recently been awarded the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award for his charitable endeavors, as well as being selected in the 1998 NBA All-Star Game. By contrast, Rider had a history of behavioral problems both on and off the court. Rider's troubled conduct continued after his arrival in Atlanta. Rider missed the first day of training camp and was late for two games. After reports that he smoked marijuana in an Orlando hotel room during a January road trip, the league demanded that he attend drug counseling, and fined him a total of $200,000 until he agreed to go. When he showed up late for a March game, the Hawks released him. The Smith/Rider trade sent the Hawks into a downward spiral. After only missing the playoffs four times since 1977, they fell to seventh place in the Central Division with a 28–54 record; they would not return to the playoffs for eight years.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: Point guard Jason Terry became the team's scoring leader during the 2000–01 season, leading them with 19.7 ppg. After the All-Star break, the Hawks traded Mutombo to the Philadelphia 76ers for Theo Ratliff, Toni Kukoč, and Nazr Mohammed. However, Ratliff was injured and did not play with the Hawks until next season. They ended the season with a 25–57 record. In 2001, the Hawks drafted Spanish star Pau Gasol 3rd, but his rights were ceded to the Memphis Grizzlies in a trade involving Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Abdur-Rahim became the team's scoring leader, and made his only All-Star appearance in 2002. The team ended up 33–49 for the 2001–02 season. The Hawks sent Kukoc to the Milwaukee Bucks for All-Star Glenn Robinson in 2002, Robinson lead the team with 20.8 ppg. But the Hawks still failed to make the playoffs for the 2002–03 season, finishing with a 35–47 record.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: In February 2004, the Hawks had the distinction of having NBA All-Star Rasheed Wallace play one game for the team. Wallace was traded from Portland to the Hawks along with Wesley Person for Abdur-Rahim, Ratliff, and Dan Dickau. In his lone game for the Hawks, Wallace scored 20 points, had 6 rebounds, 5 blocks, 2 assists and a steal in a loss to the New Jersey Nets. After the game he was dealt to the Detroit Pistons in a three-way trade with the Boston Celtics. In turn, Detroit sent guard Bob Sura, center Željko Rebrača, and a first-round draft pick to the Hawks. The Boston Celtics also sent forward Chris Mills to Atlanta to complete the deal, but Mills never had a chance to play in a Hawks uniform. The Hawks ended their 2003–04 season with a 28–54 record. In 2003, Atlanta hosted the All-Star game, the last an Eastern Conference team would host for nine years.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: On March 31, 2004, the team was sold to a group of executives by the name of Atlanta Spirit LLC by Time Warner (who inherited the Hawks, Braves and Thrashers upon its merger with Turner Broadcasting in 1996). During the off-season, the Hawks sent Jason Terry, Alan Henderson, and a future first-round draft pick to the Dallas Mavericks for Antoine Walker and Tony Delk. After the change in ownership, the Hawks still struggled. In the 2004–05 season, the Hawks were the league's worst team with a mere 13 victories (five fewer than even the expansion Charlotte Bobcats and the struggling New Orleans Hornets). It was also the year Josh Smith won the 2005 Slam Dunk Contest.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: In the summer of 2005, the Hawks completed a sign and trade deal with the Phoenix Suns to acquire Joe Johnson in return for Boris Diaw and two future 1st round picks. They also signed Zaza Pachulia from the Milwaukee Bucks. These changes occurred after an apparent power struggle between the owners for nearly three weeks before the moves were made.


title: Atlanta Hawks

text: Despite their league-worst record the previous season, the Hawks only landed the number two pick in the 2005 NBA draft lottery (the first pick went to the Milwaukee Bucks). With the second pick, the Hawks selected Marvin Williams of North Carolina. In the 2006 draft, the Hawks selected former Duke star Shelden Williams with the fifth overall pick.