I have four goldfishes in my room. They are very beautiful. I love them very much. On weekdays, I’m always busy. I must study and do homework and so on, so I have no time to care(照顾) them.

But today is Sunday, I am very free. Then, I start to enjoy my goldfishes. They are colorful, but each has a big mouth, two small eyes and a long tail. I take the food and intend(打算)to feed them. They are very intelligent(聪明). It seems that they know I will feed them, so they are coming up from everywhere. Everyone is opening up its big mouth and waiting for the delicious food. I am smiling! They look very lovely! Then, I put the food into the tank(水缸). They are eating it very quickly. I enjoy this process very much!

Today, I am really happy! What a happy Sunday!

I noticed two male bluebirds. They appeared to be helping a female with a group of newly-born birds. I wanted to know if one of the males was an invader (入侵者). This is the fun of bird watching — you never know when you’ll find something exciting and unusual.

Like 90% of the bird world, one male bluebird pairs with only one female, and together they raise a family. But sometimes a third adult shows up and helps the pair raise the young. Often it is a relative. The most likely reasons a lone bluebird becomes a “helper bird” are that it either has lost its mate (配偶) or failed to get one during the mating season.

Both the mated pair and the helper get some advantages when helping happens. Every time the helper brings food to the nest (巢), one of the parents is free to take care of its own needs for a few minutes. Helpers also protect the nest by driving away possible enemies. The helper’s gain is less direct but equally valuable. He or she (helpers can be male or female) learns how to be a parent. Though raising babies is natural, skilled parents usually are more successful.

The Florida scrub jay is a kind of bird living in the U.S. state of Florida. Many pairs of Florida scrub jays “have” one to six helpers. Usually the helpers are older children, and they do their job very well. Nests with helpers have 50% more young than nests without helpers (about half the jays don’t use helpers). Helping in scrub jays seems related to a shortage of nesting habitats. Young jays must wait for older birds to die to get a nest. During the time, they help raise their younger brothers and sisters.

Scientists have long known that a crow （乌鸦）native to New Caledonia is able to use tools. The birds use them to remove food from deep holes. Now, American researchers have discovered a second species of crow with the same ability. They reported on their experiments with Alala crows, which are from the Hawaiian Islands.

In the experiment, the researchers placed pieces of food in holes inside the wood. The holes were too deep for the crows to reach with their beaks(鸟喙). But, by using small pieces of wood held in their beaks, Alala crows quickly got the food. They used small objects as tools, sometimes changing them by shortening too-long sticks. They also made tools from plant materials.

“The crows use their beaks as people use thumbs on their hands. Tool use is rare in the animal kingdom. ” said Chritian Rutz of University of St. Andrews. “Current evidence strongly suggests that tool use is part of the species’ natural behavioral pattern(行为模式). These birds had no special training in the study, yet most of them were skilled at handling stick tools. ”

Bird experts claim finding out that the crows use tools is important discovery. “It makes us rethink how to look at the whole tool-use idea now and encourages us to go out and look for things that we may have ignored before. ”

All the Alala crows left in the world live in Hawaii. There were less than 20 Alalas left in the late 1990s when scientists decided to bring them into a protected area. Now, it is reported that there are over 100 birds living there. Scientists plan to release a small number of the birds back into the wild later.