Birds News

April 23, 2024

Top Headlines

Mountain Chickadees Have Remarkable Memories. A New Study Explains Why

Apr. 17, 2024 — Mountain chickadees have among the best spatial memory in the animal kingdom. New research identifies the genes at play and offers insight into how a shifting climate may impact the evolution of this unique ...

Tropical Forests Can't Recover Naturally Without Fruit-Eating Birds

Apr. 15, 2024 — Natural forest regeneration is hailed as a cost-effective way to restore biodiversity and sequester carbon. However, the fragmentation of tropical forests has restricted the movement of large birds limiting their capacity to disperse seeds and ...

Africa's Iconic Flamingos Threatened by Rising Lake Levels

Apr. 12, 2024 — It is one of the world's most spectacular sights -- huge flocks or 'flamboyances' of flamingos around East Africa's lakes -- as seen in the film Out of Africa or David Attenborough's A Perfect Planet. But new research has revealed how the lesser ...

Birdfeeders Are Designed to Keep Unwanted Guests Away

Apr. 9, 2024 — The first birdfeeders were made in the 19th century, and their design rapidly evolved during the 20th century. Researchers at the consider the evolution of the birdfeeder to be an example of multispecies design, where unwanted guests have shaped the ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:52pm EDT

Study Compares Salmonella Rates in Backyard, Commercial Poultry Farm Samples

Apr. 23, 2024 — Researchers find less Salmonella on backyard poultry farms. But concerns remain about the prevalance of multidrug-resistant bacteria on both large ...

'Itinerant Breeding' in East Coast Shorebird Species

Apr. 19, 2024 — A study has found direct evidence of a species -- the American woodcock, a migratory shorebird from eastern and central North America -- that overlaps periods of migration and reproduction, a rare ...

Storks Fly With a Little Help from Their Friends

Apr. 17, 2024 — All storks choose to migrate with conspecifics, but young storks rely more on social influences than adults ...

More Social Birds Are More Adventurous Feeders

Apr. 3, 2024 — A new study has found that birds that are more social are more likely to use novel sources of ...

Dinosaur Study Challenges Bergmann's Rule

Apr. 5, 2024 — A new study calls into question Bergmann's rule, an 1800s-era scientific principle stating that animals in high-latitude, cooler climates tend to be larger than close relatives living in warmer ...

Four in Five Bird Species Cannot Tolerate Intense Human Pressures

Apr. 5, 2024 — In a recent study, researchers found that 78% of the world's bird species do not thrive in the most modified human-dominated environments. These species are also most likely to have declining ...

We've Had Bird Evolution All Wrong

Apr. 1, 2024 — Genomic anamolies dating back to the time of the dinosaurs misled scientists about the evolutionary history of ...

When Did the Chicken Cross the Road? New Evidence from Central Asia

Apr. 2, 2024 — An international team of scholars present the earliest clear archaeological and biomolecular evidence for the raising of chickens for egg production, based on material from 12 archaeological sites ...

Computational Tools Fuel Reconstruction of New and Improved Bird Family Tree

Apr. 1, 2024 — Using cutting-edge computational methods and supercomputing infrastructure, researchers have built the largest and most detailed bird family tree to ...

Machine Learning Provides a New Picture of the Great Gray Owl

Apr. 1, 2024 — Researchers upend the notion that the iconic great gray owl -- known as the phantom of the North -- lives far from cities, towns and other markers of human ...

New Computer Vision Tool Wins Prize for Social Impact

Apr. 11, 2024 — A team of computer scientists working on two different problems -- how to quickly detect damaged buildings in crisis zones and how to accurately estimate the size of bird flocks -- recently announced ...

Small Birds Spice Up the Already Diverse Diet of Spotted Hyenas in Namibia

Mar. 28, 2024 — Hyenas are generalist predators (and scavengers) with a broad range of prey species. They are known for hunting (or scavenging) larger mammals such as antelopes and occasionally feed on smaller ...

Lyrebird Synchronizes Elements of Its Mating Dance

Mar. 28, 2024 — To woo a mate, the Albert's Lyrebird of Australia becomes a real song-and-dance bird. Each male first chooses a stage of entangled vines, then in performance he shakes the vines as part of his ...

North American Cities May See a Major Species Turnover by the End of the Century

Mar. 27, 2024 — Climate change may dramatically affect the animal species observed in North American cities, according to a new ...

Wild Bird Gestures 'After You'

Mar. 25, 2024 — A small-bird species, the Japanese tit (Parus minor), uses wing movements as a gesture to convey the message 'after you,' according to new research. When a mating pair arrives at their nest ...

Arctic Nightlife: Seabird Colony Bursts With Sound at Night

Mar. 15, 2024 — Acoustic recordings of a colony of little auks reveal their nocturnal activities and offer valuable monitoring means for avian biology in the ...

Tropical Birds Could Tolerate Warming Better Than Expected, Study Suggests

Mar. 14, 2024 — We expect tropical animals to handle a certain degree of heat, but not wild swings in temperature. That seems to be true for tropical ectotherms, or 'cold-blooded' animals such as ...

High Resolution Imagery Advances the Ability to Monitor Decadal Changes in Emperor Penguin Populations

Mar. 13, 2024 — Emperor penguin populations have been exceedingly difficult to monitor because of their remote locations, and because individuals form breeding colonies on seasonal sea ice fastened to land (known as ...

Who Knew That Coprophagy Was So Vital for Birds' Survival?

Mar. 13, 2024 — New research explains how eating feces (known as coprophagy) shapes wild birds' digestive tracts (gut biota), enabling them to absorb lost or deficient nutrients and adjust to seasonal ...

Alaska Dinosaur Tracks Reveal a Lush, Wet Environment

Mar. 12, 2024 — A large find of dinosaur tracks and fossilized plants and tree stumps in far northwestern Alaska provides new information about the climate and movement of animals near the time when they began ...

The Crow's Best Friend: Humans

Mar. 10, 2024 — A new study has found that when humans are suddenly absent from the urban environment, the activity of the crows and ringneck parakeets that 'live' in the area reduces significantly. ...

Fossil Named 'Attenborough's Strange Bird' Was the First in Its Kind Without Teeth

Mar. 5, 2024 — A new fossil, named 'Attenborough's strange bird' after naturalist and documentarian Sir David Attenborough, is the first of its kind to evolve a toothless beak. It's from a ...

New Research Shows Migrating Animals Learn by Experience

Mar. 4, 2024 — Individual white storks incrementally straightened their migration routes to find more direct ways to move between destinations during the spring migration to summer breeding and nesting grounds, ...

Birds and Bee Lessons as Pacific Field Trips Also Solve 'Michener's Mystery'

Feb. 29, 2024 — Eight new Pacific bee species and new insights into Fijian bird behaviour on Viti Levu Island have been described in new scientific studies. The research highlights the potential for species ...

Avian Influenza Virus Is Adapting to Spread to Marine Mammals

Feb. 28, 2024 — Avian influenza virus H5N1 has adapted to spread between birds and marine mammals, finds a new ...

Counting Rays: Aerial Surveys Reveal Ample Populations in Southeast Florida

Feb. 28, 2024 — A unique long-term study quantified the abundance of whitespotted eagle and giant manta rays in Southeast Florida. Researchers conducted 120 survey flights between 2014 and 2021 from Miami north to ...

Butterflies Mimic Each Other's Flight Behavior to Avoid Predators

Feb. 26, 2024 — Researchers have shown that inedible species of butterfly that mimic each others' color patterns have also evolved similar flight behaviors to warn predators and avoid being ...

Tawny Owl's Pale Grey Color Linked to Vital Functions Ensuring Survival in Extreme Conditions

Feb. 14, 2024 — A recent genetic discovery has revealed that the pale grey plumage of the tawny owl is linked to crucial functions that aid the bird's survival in cold environments. As global temperatures rise, ...

New Understanding of Avian Eggshell Attachment -- Implications for Medical Procedures and Egg Industry

Feb. 14, 2024 — Athletes often suffer injuries to ligaments in their knees, particularly to the anterior cruciate ligament or ACL. While surgery to replace these torn ligaments is becoming increasingly common around ...

Australia's Most at-Risk Bird Species Share Some Common Traits

Feb. 13, 2024 — Australian birds that live on islands are among the species most at risk of extinction, a first-of-its-kind study has shown. Australia has over 750 native bird species. But many of them are facing an ...