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The Notre-Dame fire broke out in the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris on 15 April 2019, causing severe damage to the building's spire, roof, and upper walls. The fire resulted in the contamination of the site and nearby areas of the city with toxic dust and lead. Investigators believed that the fire was caused by a cigarette or an electrical short circuit; the prosecutor of Paris found no evidence showing the fire was started deliberately. The cathedral's wooden spire, or flèche, was built by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in the Gothic Revival style and installed in 1859, weighing around 250 tons. This photograph, taken during the 2019 fire, depicts the spire of Notre-Dame aflame; it collapsed shortly afterwards.

Photograph credit: Guillaume Levrier

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp is a 1632 oil-on-canvas painting by Rembrandt housed in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The painting is regarded as one of Rembrandt's early masterpieces. In the work, Nicolaes Tulp is pictured explaining the musculature of the arm to a group of doctors. Some of the spectators are various doctors who paid to be included in the painting. The painting is signed in the top-left hand corner Rembrandt. f[ecit] 1632. This may be the first instance of Rembrandt signing a painting with his forename (in its original form) as opposed to the monogram RHL ("Rembrandt Harmenszoon of Leiden"), and is thus a sign of his growing artistic confidence.

Painting credit: Rembrandt

Haboku sansui (破墨山水図, Broken Ink Landscape) is a splashed-ink landscape painting on a hanging scroll. It was made by the Japanese artist Sesshū Tōyō in 1495, in the Muromachi period. Sesshū Tōyō was a Zen Buddhist monk and painter. The work is a development of suibokuga paintings made with Chinese ink, using dark and light shades on a silk or paper medium. The monochromatic style can result in artworks similar to calligraphy. In spite of its title, the work is not one of "broken ink" (haboku) but rather one of "splashed ink" (hatsuboku). In this style, the painter avoids strongly defined outlines, with shapes indicated by colour washes in lighter and darker tones.

Credit: Sesshū Tōyō; photographed by Bamse

The red wattlebird (Anthochaera carunculata) is a passerine bird native to southern Australia. At 33 to 37 centimetres (13 to 14+1⁄2 in) in length, it is the second-largest species of Australian honeyeater. The species is found in open forest and woodland, and is a common visitor to urban gardens and parks. Loud and conspicuous, the red wattlebird is generally found in trees, where it gets most of its food; occasionally it forages on the ground. It is one of the largest nectarivorous birds in the world, feeding from a wide variety of flowering plants, though insects also comprise part of its diet. It is territorial and at times aggressive towards birds of other species, often defending rich sources of nectar. Although it has declined in places from land clearing, it is classified as a least-concern species on the IUCN Red List.

Pictures of the day are chosen from the pool of featured pictures on the English Wikipedia. Editors may vote on featured picture candidates here.

Photograph credit: Andreas Trepte

Rhacophorus kio is a species of frog in the family Rhacophoridae. First described from Laos, the species is also known from southern China (Yunnan and Guangxi), northern Thailand, eastern India, Vietnam, and Cambodia. It is an arboreal species that has been recorded from primary and secondary evergreen rainforests with a closed canopy, generally at low elevations. This R. kio frog was photographed in Kui Buri National Park, Thailand.

Photograph credit: Rushenb

Glyphoglossus molossus is a species of frog in the family Microhylidae. Its common names include the blunt-headed burrowing frog and the balloon frog. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, moist savanna, intermittent freshwater marshes, rural gardens, temporary ponds, and heavily degraded former forest in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. This G. molossus frog was photographed in the district of Mueang Loei in northern Thailand.

Photograph credit: Rushen

Theloderma corticale is a species of frog in the family Rhacophoridae. It is found in northern Vietnam and China, and possibly also in Laos. Its common name, the mossy frog, arises from the fact that its skin is a mottled green and brown that resembles moss growing on rock, forming an effective camouflage. It has large sticky pads on its toes and a soft underbelly, with a snout–vent length of 61 millimetres (2.4 in). The females grow larger than the males and can reach sizes of 8 to 9 centimetres (3.1 to 3.5 in). When frightened, it will curl into a ball and play dead. This T. corticale frog was photographed at Karlsruhe Zoo in Germany.

Photograph credit: H. Zell

The northern gannet (Morus bassanus) is a seabird, the largest species of the gannet family, Sulidae. It is native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, breeding in Western Europe and northeastern North America.

Nesting takes place in

The northern gannet was previously hunted for food in certain parts of its range, and although that practice still continues in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland and the Faroe Islands, the bird faces few other natural or man-made threats.

Photograph credit: Hobbyfotowiki

Trimeresurus albolabris, the white-lipped pit viper or white-lipped tree viper, is a venomous pit viper species endemic to Southeast Asia. Its meals consist of birds, small frogs, and small mammals. This snake does not strike and release its prey; like many arboreal snakes, it strikes and holds on to the prey item until the prey dies.

This photograph was taken in Thailand's Kaeng Krachan National Park.

Photograph credit: Rushen

Nemateleotris magnifica, known by common names including the fire goby, the magnificent fire fish, the fire dartfish, or the red fire goby, is a species of dartfish native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, from the eastern coast of Africa to the Hawaiian Islands and from the Austral Islands north to the Ryukyu Islands. It inhabits coral reefs, where it can be found at depths of 6 to 70 metres (20 to 230 ft). It is usually found just above the bottom, facing into the current, where it awaits its prey of small invertebrates. This N. magnifica fish was photographed near the island of Morotai in the Indonesian Maluku Islands.

Photograph credit: Rickard Zerpe

Trimeresurus gumprechti, commonly known as Gumprecht's green pit viper, is a species of venomous pit viper in the family Viperidae. Endemic to Asia, it is found in parts of China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, and is strikingly bright green in color. This female T. gumprechti snake was photographed in Phu Suan Sai National Park in northern Thailand.

Photograph credit: Rushen

The rosy-faced lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis), also known as the rosy-collared or peach-faced lovebird, is a species of lovebird native to arid regions in southwestern Africa such as the Namib. A loud and constant chirper, they are very social and often congregate in small groups in the wild. They eat throughout the day and take frequent baths. Coloration can vary widely among populations, and plumage is identical in males and females. Lovebirds are renowned for their sleep position in which they sit side-by-side and turn their faces in towards each other. Females are well noted to tear raw materials into long strips, "twisty-tie" them onto their backs, and fly substantial distances back to make a nest. These photographs of a rosy-faced lovebird of the subspecies A. r. roseicollis, seen from the front (top) and the back (bottom), were taken in Erongo Region, Namibia.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

A mudpot, or mud pool, is a type of acidic hot spring, or fumarole, with limited water. It usually takes the form of a pool of bubbling mud. The acid and microorganisms decompose surrounding rock into clay and mud. The mud of a mudpot takes the form of a viscous, often bubbling, slurry. As the boiling mud is often squirted over the brims of the mudpot, a sort of mini-volcano of mud starts to build up, sometimes reaching heights of 1 to 1.5 meters (3 to 5 ft). The mud is generally of white to greyish color, sometimes stained with reddish or pink spots from iron compounds. When the slurry is particularly colorful, the feature may be referred to as a paint pot. This video of a bubbling mudpot was captured in Lassen Volcanic National Park in northern California.

Video credit: Frank Schulenburg

Wilhering Abbey is a Cistercian monastery in Wilhering in Upper Austria, about 8 km (5 mi) from the city of Linz. The buildings, re-constructed in the 18th century, are known for their spectacular Rococo decoration. According to the German art historian Cornelius Gurlitt, "the abbey church of Wilhering is the most brilliant achievement of the Rococo style in the German-speaking world". This photograph depicts the interior of the church, looking towards the high altar, featuring the intricate ceiling frescoes and stucco work.

Photograph credit: Uoaei1

The Adoration of the Shepherds is an episode in the story of the Nativity of Jesus in which shepherds are near witnesses to Jesus's birth in Bethlehem. It is based on the account in the Gospel of Luke and follows the Annunciation to the Shepherds, in which the shepherds are summoned by an angel to the scene of the birth. Like the episode preceding it, the Adoration of the Shepherds is a common subject in art, where it is often combined with the Adoration of the Magi. Depictions of the shepherds' adoration of the Christ Child as a subject distinct from that of the biblical Magi began to appear around the 15th century in artworks and altarpieces in the western Christian world. The shepherds are sometimes shown presenting simpler gifts than those of the Magi, such as lambs. This Adoration of the Shepherds is an oil-on-canvas painting by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, a Spanish Baroque artist. Painted around 1650, the work is now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

Painting credit: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

The Orchid Pavilion Gathering, also known as the Lanting Gathering, was a cultural and poetic event held in China in 353, during the Jin dynasty of the Six Dynasties era. During the Spring Purification Festival, forty-two literati met at the Orchid Pavilion (Lanting) on Mount Kuaiji, near present-day Shaoxing in Zhejiang. This 7th-century scroll, now at the Palace Museum in Beijing, is considered to be the best of the surviving copies of the Lantingji Xu, written by Wang Xizhi as a preface to the collection of poems produced at the Orchid Pavilion Gathering. Copies of the work were made throughout Chinese history. The text reads, in part: "Reading past compositions, I can recognize the same melancholy from the ancients. I can only lament before their words without being able to verbalize my feelings. [...] The future generations will look upon us, just like we look upon our past. How sad! Hence, we record the people presented here today and their works; even though time and circumstances will be different, the feelings expressed will remain unchanged."

Calligraphy credit: Feng Chengsu, after Wang Xizhi

Sphaerechinus granularis is a species of sea urchin in the family Toxopneustidae, commonly known as the violet sea urchin. Its range includes the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Atlantic Ocean, from the Channel Islands south to Cape Verde and the Gulf of Guinea. It favours sheltered locations and lives on rocks covered with seaweed or gravelly substrates. It is usually found in the neritic zone down to about thirty metres (100 ft) but occasionally down to a hundred metres (330 ft) in more exposed locations. It is also found in meadows of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica. It grazes on algae, especially encrusting coralline algae, seagrass blades and their epiphytic organisms and detritus. This S. granularis sea urchin was photographed off the coast of Madeira.

Photograph credit: Diego Delso