Birds News

July 2, 2026

Top Headlines

From Pet to Pest, Goldfish Can Wreck Entire Ecosystems

June 26, 2026 A new study reveals that goldfish can do far more than survive in the wild—they can fundamentally reshape freshwater ecosystems. Researchers found they cloud water, damage food webs, and hurt native fish populations, sometimes triggering major ...

More Trees Can Mean Fewer Birds, New Study Reveals

June 22, 2026 Trees planted to protect farmland from wind may not be the biodiversity boost many assume. In Japan’s wetland farming landscapes, shelterbelts benefited some birds but sharply reduced grassland and wetland species that need open space. Researchers ...

These Bees Have Nowhere to Hide from Extreme Heat

June 18, 2026 A major study of Australian native bees found that stem-nesting species may be the first to feel the impact of climate change. Unlike bees that nest underground, they have few ways to escape dangerous heat. Researchers also discovered that tropical ...

The Deadly Tapeworm Spreading Across America Has Reached the Pacific Northwest

June 11, 2026 A potentially dangerous tapeworm linked to severe, cancer-like disease has now been found in the Pacific Northwest, marking its first detection in wild animals along the U.S. West Coast. Researchers ...

A New York Cemetery Was Hiding 5.5 Million Bees Underground

May 28, 2026 A casual walk through an Ithaca cemetery led to the discovery of a gigantic hidden bee population — roughly 5.5 million ground-nesting bees packed beneath the soil. Scientists believe it may be one of the largest bee aggregations ever documented ...

Humpback Whale Breaks Migration Record with 15,000 Kilometer Ocean Journey

May 19, 2026 Scientists have uncovered an astonishing new chapter in humpback whale migration: two whales were found to have traveled between breeding grounds in Australia and Brazil, crossing more than 14,000 kilometers of open ocean. One whale shattered ...

The People You Live with Could Be Changing Your Gut Bacteria

Apr. 13, 2026 Spending time with close companions might do more than strengthen bonds—it could also reshape your gut bacteria. In a study of island birds, those with stronger social ties shared more gut microbes, especially types that require direct contact to ...

Gray Whales Are Entering San Francisco Bay and Many Aren’t Surviving

Apr. 13, 2026 Gray whales are beginning to break their long-established migration patterns, venturing into risky new territory like San Francisco Bay as climate change disrupts their Arctic food supply. But this unexpected detour is proving deadly: nearly one in ...

Freshwater Fish Populations Plunge 81% as River Migrations Collapse

Mar. 26, 2026 A sweeping global report finds that migratory freshwater fish are in steep decline, with populations down roughly 81% since 1970. These species depend on long, connected rivers, but dams and human pressures are cutting off their routes. Hundreds of ...

Extreme Weather Is Hitting Baby Birds Hard in a 60-year Study

Mar. 12, 2026 Decades of data from over 80,000 great tits reveal that extreme weather can shape the fate of baby birds. Cold snaps soon after hatching and heavy rain later in development shrink nestling body mass and reduce survival odds. But moderate warm spells ...

Study Finds Wild Release Can Be Deadly for Rescued Slow Lorises

Mar. 3, 2026 Returning rescued slow lorises to the wild may sound like a conservation success, but a new study shows it can turn deadly. Researchers tracked nine released animals and found that only two survived, with most killed in territorial attacks by other ...

Pumas Are Back in Patagonia and Penguins Are Paying the Price

Feb. 8, 2026 Pumas returning to Patagonia have begun hunting mainland penguins that evolved without land predators. Scientists estimate that more than 7,000 adult penguins were killed in just four years, many of them left uneaten. While the losses are dramatic, ...

Latest Headlines

updated 4:09pm EDT

Scientists Recreated a Dinosaur Nest and Solved a 70-Million-Year-Old Mystery

July 1, 2026 A team of researchers recreated a life-size oviraptor nest to investigate how these bird-like dinosaurs incubated their eggs millions of years ago. ...

This Four-Winged Dinosaur May Have Terrorized Earth's Earliest Birds

June 23, 2026 A newly discovered feathered dinosaur called Jian changmaensis may be the missing predator responsible for mysterious piles of crushed prehistoric bird bones in China. The four-winged glider, a close ...

Scientists Found a Way to Explain Bird Flocks That “defy” Newton’s Third Law

June 16, 2026 Physicists have solved a long-standing problem involving systems that appear to violate Newton’s third law, such as bird flocks and bacterial ...

This Blood-Feeding Fly Sacrifices Its Sight After Finding a Host

June 2, 2026 Deer keds rely on flight and vision to find a host, but everything changes once they land. After shedding their wings forever, these parasites reduce the activity of key vision-related genes by about ...

Paleontology Rocked by Discovery of Organic Molecules in 66-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Bones

May 14, 2026 Scientists have uncovered compelling evidence that dinosaur fossils may still contain traces of their original proteins, overturning a long-standing ...

Mammal Ancestors Laid Eggs, and This 250-Million-Year-Old Fossil Finally Proves It

Apr. 14, 2026 In the aftermath of Earth’s most catastrophic extinction event, one unlikely survivor rose to dominate a shattered world: Lystrosaurus. Now, a ...

Ancient Bees Found Nesting Inside Fossil Bones in Rare Cave Discovery

Apr. 3, 2026 Thousands of years ago in a cave on Hispaniola, an unusual chain of events left behind a rare scientific treasure: bees nesting inside fossilized bones. After giant barn owls repeatedly brought prey ...

This Cow Uses Tools Like a Primate—and Scientists Are Stunned

Mar. 26, 2026 A cow named Veronika has stunned scientists by using tools in a flexible and purposeful way. She chooses different ends of a brush depending on the part of her body and adjusts her movements ...

Scientists Just Discovered Bees and Hummingbirds Are Drinking Alcohol

Mar. 25, 2026 Flower nectar often contains small amounts of alcohol, meaning pollinators like hummingbirds are drinking it all day long. Despite consuming human-equivalent amounts, they show no signs of ...

Scientists Recreated a Dinosaur Nest to Solve a 70-Million-Year-Old Mystery

Mar. 19, 2026 Scientists recreated a life-size oviraptor nest to understand how these dinosaurs hatched their eggs. Their experiments showed the parent likely couldn’t heat all the eggs directly, meaning ...

Almost Every Forest Bird in Hawaiʻi Is Spreading Avian Malaria

Feb. 11, 2026 Avian malaria is spreading across Hawaiʻi in a way scientists didn’t fully grasp until now: nearly every forest bird species can help keep the disease alive. Researchers found the parasite at 63 ...

H5N1 Bird Flu Kills More Than 50 Skuas in First Antarctica Wildlife Die Off

Feb. 12, 2026 For the first time, deadly H5N1 bird flu has been confirmed as the cause of a wildlife die-off in Antarctica, killing more than 50 skuas during the 2023–2024 summers. Researchers on an Antarctic ...

Even Remote Pacific Fish Are Full of Microplastics

Feb. 3, 2026 Even in some of the most isolated corners of the Pacific, plastic pollution has quietly worked its way into the food web. A large analysis of fish caught around Fiji, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu found ...

This AI App Can Tell Which Dinosaur Made a Footprint

Feb. 1, 2026 Dinosaur footprints have always been mysterious, but a new AI app is cracking their secrets. DinoTracker analyzes photos of fossil tracks and predicts which dinosaur made them, with accuracy rivaling ...

How the Frog Meat Trade Helped Spread a Deadly Fungus Worldwide

Jan. 19, 2026 A deadly fungus that has wiped out hundreds of amphibian species worldwide may have started its global journey in Brazil. Genetic evidence and trade data suggest the fungus hitchhiked across the ...

Why Evolution Rewarded Ants That Sacrificed Protection

Dec. 22, 2025 Some ants thrive by choosing numbers over strength. Instead of heavily protecting each worker, they invest fewer resources in individual armor and produce far more ants. Larger colonies then ...

These Dinosaurs Had Wings but Couldn’t Fly

Mar. 18, 2026 Some feathered dinosaurs may have briefly taken to the skies—only to give it up later. By studying rare fossils with preserved feathers, researchers uncovered a surprising clue hidden in molting ...

Giant Sea Monsters Lived in Rivers at the End of the Dinosaur Age

Dec. 15, 2025 Giant mosasaurs, once thought to be strictly ocean-dwelling predators, may have spent their final chapter prowling freshwater rivers alongside dinosaurs and crocodiles. A massive tooth found in North ...

Doomed Ants Send a Final Scent to Save Their Colony

Dec. 3, 2025 Ant pupae that are fatally sick don’t hide their condition; instead, they release a special scent that warns the rest of the colony. This signal prompts worker ants to open the pupae’s cocoons ...

Bird Flu’s Surprising Heat Tolerance Has Scientists Worried

Nov. 28, 2025 Researchers discovered why bird flu can survive temperatures that stop human flu in its tracks. A key gene, PB1, gives avian viruses the ability to replicate even at fever-level heat. Mice ...

Fossil Brain Scans Show Pterosaurs Evolved Flight in a Flash

Dec. 9, 2025 Ancient pterosaurs may have taken to the skies far earlier and more explosively than birds, evolving flight at their very origin despite having relatively small brains. Using advanced CT imaging, ...

Why Consciousness Exists at All

Dec. 15, 2025 Consciousness evolved in stages, starting with basic survival responses like pain and alarm, then expanding into focused awareness and self-reflection. These layers help organisms avoid danger, learn ...

The Five Great Forests That Keep North America’s Birds Alive

Nov. 22, 2025 Migratory birds that fill North American forests with spring songs depend on Central America’s Five Great Forests far more than most people realize. New research shows these tropical strongholds ...

A Crisis Deepens as African Penguins Compete With Fishing Fleets for Food

Nov. 17, 2025 During years of scarce fish, African penguins crowd into the same areas as commercial fishing vessels, heightening competition for dwindling prey. A new metric called “overlap intensity” shows ...

Antarctic Robot ‘Lassie’ Uncovers Thousands of Icefish Nests Beneath Antarctic Ice

Oct. 29, 2025 Beneath the ice of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea, scientists discovered a vast, organized city of fish nests revealed after the colossal A68 iceberg broke away. Using robotic explorers, they found over ...

Dinosaur Mummy Found With Hooves and a Hidden Crest

Nov. 30, 2025 Scientists have reconstructed the most complete and lifelike profile of Edmontosaurus annectens thanks to an extraordinary preservation process called clay templating, in which a thin clay film ...

Birds, Not Wind, Brought Life to Iceland’s Youngest Island

Nov. 4, 2025 When Surtsey erupted from the sea in 1963, it became a living experiment in how life begins anew. Decades later, scientists discovered that the plants colonizing this young island weren’t carried ...

This Tiny Worm Uses Static Electricity to Hunt Flying Insects

Oct. 15, 2025 A parasitic worm uses static electricity to launch itself onto flying insects, a mechanism uncovered by physicists and biologists at Emory and Berkeley. By generating opposite charges, the worm and ...

After 25 Years, Scientists Solve the Bird-Eating Bat Mystery

Nov. 2, 2025 After decades of mystery, scientists have finally proven that Europe’s largest bat, the greater noctule, hunts and eats small songbirds mid-air—more than a kilometer above ground. Using tiny ...

Birds Around the World Share a Mysterious Warning Cry

Oct. 6, 2025 Birds across the globe independently evolved a shared warning call against parasites, blending instinct and learning in a remarkable evolutionary pattern. The finding offers a rare glimpse into how ...