Birds

Just before sunrise, a hardy band of men and women gathered near a barley field in the remote San Luis Valley to await the dawn. Some fiddled with their cameras while others nervously scanned the cold, empty sky. As golden sunlight broke over the mountains, a distant trumpeting filled the air. Thousands of primeval-looking birds with long necks and dagger-like beaks appeared overhead. Their numbers were staggering, the noise deafening. As they spiraled raucously down onto the field, cameras fired from every direction.

Some of the earliest birds hailing from the age of the dinosaurs may have sported four flying limbs, a team of Chinese researchers says. If so, 11 fossils from the lower Cretaceous period, about 120 million years ago, could represent a missing link in the development of modern birds, according to a new paper released Thursday by the journal Science. Modern birds generally work with two wings, using small, clawed hind legs for ground travel. A few, like the golden eagle, have fuzzy down on their back limbs, which is for insulating their appendages, not flying.

It's long been a quandary for researchers and wildlife enthusiasts: How can they observe sensitive species without displacing or disturbing them? Remote cameras have solved the problem, and in some case web cams have created Internet stars of pandas munching on bamboo. Beginning this week, two of California's endangered bird species -- the western snowy plover and the California least tern - will get their shot at stardom.  The birds can be observed via a nest-cam at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach.

Rovio Entertainment is launching an animated series based on its popular "Angry Birds" game characters, which it will make available on television, smartphones and tablets. "Angry Birds Toons" will feature its familiar characters in a year's worth of episodes -- 52 weekly installments -- starting this weekend. New shows will appear on television Saturdays, then become available the next day through mobile apps and video-on-demand platforms. "Launching the channel, and partnering up with some of the best video-on-demand providers and TV networks, is an important milestone for us on our journey towards becoming a fully-fledged entertainment powerhouse," Rovio Chief Executive Mikael Hed said in a statement.

A new exhibition of Chinese Ming dynasty paintings includes just 10 works, one each by 10 artists, but it's more absorbing than many shows two or three times its size. These 15th and early-16th century paintings are high-wire acts of aesthetic dexterity, fusing philosophical perception with formal persuasion. At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, "Ming Masterpieces from the Shanghai Museum" is focused on court painters associated with the imperial painting academy in Beijing's Forbidden City.

The seductive new Century City restaurant Hinoki & the Bird , reviewed by Times restaurant critic Jonathan Gold last week, conveys a dark intensity. But take a closer look at some of the interior details and you'll find a degree of playfulness. Milo Garcia of MAI Studio in Los Angeles wanted the restaurant, the newest concept from chef-owner David Myers, to have a touch of glamour but also a sense of humor - a combination that plays out in two particular areas: bathroom subway tiles that cleverly double as mirrors and striking block-patterned denim banquettes.

Foreign auteurs tend to enjoy a good metaphoric image or three. And few like them more than Chan-wook Park, the South Korean filmmaker behind violent cult hits such as "Oldboy. " In "Stoker," Park's English-language debut starring Nicole Kidman that opened in Los Angeles last weekend, there are a number of memorable images. They're all there for a reason. "Stoker" centers on the loner India (Mia Wasikowska), her aloof and at times rivalrous mother (Kidman) and India's affectionate but mysterious uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode)

Donald A. Glaser Nobel Prize-winning physicist Donald A. Glaser, 86, a Nobel Prize-winning UC Berkeley physicist who invented a device called the bubble chamber, which allowed researchers to track the paths of high-energy atomic particles after collisions and which played a role in the discovery of new atomic particles, died in his sleep Thursday at his Berkeley home, the university announced. The specific cause was not given. Glaser, a longtime UC Berkeley professor of physics, as well as of molecular and cell biology, won the 1960 Nobel Prize in physics for the bubble chamber, which allowed scientists to track the movements of electrons, protons and other particles.

Hinoki is a fragrant cypress most Japanese associate with extremely expensive bathtubs, popular with the wealthy because the wood is used to build the soaking tubs at onsen , Japanese hot springs. Hinoki wood is also used to build the counters of the most prestigious sushi bars; long, smooth planks that are sanded every day and given weekly baths of milk. Hinoki & the Bird, on the other hand, is the new Century City restaurant from David Myers, who became well-known as the auteur behind restaurant Sona until it closed in 2010 and who runs the Melrose Avenue brasserie Comme Ça and the South Coast Plaza pizzeria Ortica.

David Myers returns to fine dining, inspired by - what else? - Japan. LOCATION 10 W. Century Drive, Century City, (310) 552-1200, hinokiandthebird.com PRICES Snacks, $6-$15; small plates, $11-$25; grilled dishes, $21-$38; vegetables, $5-$12; desserts, $4-$8. DETAILS Open 5:30-10 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays. Credit cards accepted. Full bar. Valet parking.