Birds News

November 20, 2024

Top Headlines

Thanksgiving Special: Dinosaur Drumsticks and the Story of the Turkey Trot

Nov. 20, 2024 — Wings may be the obvious choice when studying the connection between dinosaurs and birds, but a pair of paleontologists prefer drumsticks. That part of the leg, they say, is where fibular reduction among some dinosaurs tens of millions of years ago ...

Study Challenges Long-Held Theories on How Migratory Birds Navigate

Nov. 12, 2024 — Migratory birds are known for their ability to traverse thousands of kilometres to reach their breeding or wintering grounds. Research found that these birds, in this case, Eurasian reed warblers (Acrocephalus scirpaceus) are using only the Earth's ...

Vultures and Artificial Intelligence(s) as Death Detectors: High-Tech Approach for Wildlife Research and Conservation

Nov. 19, 2024 — In order to use remote locations to record and assess the behavior of wildlife and environmental conditions, the GAIA Initiative developed an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that reliably and ...

New Model Can Help Understand Coexistence in Nature

Nov. 18, 2024 — Different species of seabirds can coexist on small, isolated islands despite eating the same kind of fish. A researcher has been involved in developing a mathematical model that can be used to better understand how this ecosystem ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:16pm EST

Biodiversity in the City: Designing Urban Spaces for Humans and Animals

Nov. 15, 2024 — Animals and plants also live and thrive on public squares. This creates opportunities for greater biodiversity and well-being for the human population. Researchers have studied at 103 locations in ...

Biologists Reveal the Genetic 'Switch' Behind Parrot Color Diversity

Nov. 15, 2024 — From the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro to the shoulders of pirates: parrots are synonymous with color for people across the world. In a new study, scientists uncover a 'switch' in the DNA of parrots ...

Backyard Birds Learn from Their New Neighbors When Moving House

Nov. 14, 2024 — Scientists have found a trigger for social learning in wild animals. An experiment on great tits has pinpointed a single factor --immigration -- that can cause birds to pay close attention to others, ...

Bird Brain from the Age of Dinosaurs Reveals Roots of Avian Intelligence

Nov. 13, 2024 — A 'one of a kind' fossil discovery could transform our understanding of how the unique brains and intelligence of modern birds evolved, one of the most enduring mysteries of vertebrate ...

Scientists Find Space-for-Time Substitutions Exaggerate Urban Bird--Habitat Ecological Relationships

Nov. 7, 2024 — A common way ecologists predict population counts may be an unreliable way of forecasting future bird counts in urban areas, meaning scientists may ...

Scarlet Macaw Parents 'Play Favorites,' Purposefully Neglect Younger Chicks

Nov. 8, 2024 — Researchers have discovered that scarlet macaws purposefully neglect feeding the youngest chicks in most broods, even when resources are plentiful. This results in only one or two chicks being able ...

Research Reveals How Stormy Conditions Affect Albatrosses' Ability to Feed

Nov. 6, 2024 — Researchers used biologging technology to analyse movements, activity patterns and eating habits of two species of Southern Ocean albatrosses to see how they responded to extreme weather. The study ...

Fossil of Huge Terror Bird Offers New Information About Wildlife in South America 12 Million Years Ago

Nov. 4, 2024 — Evolutionary biologists report they have analyzed a fossil of an extinct giant meat-eating bird -- which they say could be the largest known member ...

Evolutionary Paths Vastly Differ for Birds, Bats

Nov. 1, 2024 — New research has found that, unlike birds, the evolution of bats' wings and legs is tightly coupled, which may have prevented them from filling as many ecological niches as ...

More Social Species Live Longer

Oct. 27, 2024 — New research has revealed that species that are more social live longer and produce offspring for a greater time-span. This is the first study on this topic which spans the animal kingdom, from ...

Washington Coast Avian Flu Outbreak Devastated Caspian Terns, Jumped to Seals

Nov. 6, 2024 — An epidemiological study found that 56 percent of a large breeding colony of Caspian terns died from a 2023 outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza at Rat Island in Washington state. ...

More Resources Needed to Protect Birds in Germany

Nov. 1, 2024 — Researchers developed citizen science platforms as a new data source to evaluate the effectiveness of the 742 protected areas for birds across Germany. This research shows that although these areas ...

What Animal Societies Can Teach Us About Aging

Oct. 28, 2024 — Red deer may become less sociable as they grow old to reduce the risk of picking up diseases, while older house sparrows seem to have fewer social interactions as their peers die off, according to ...

Bird Wings Inspire New Approach to Flight Safety

Oct. 28, 2024 — Engineers found a way to help airplanes avoid stall with lightweight plastic flaps that flutter with pressure changes. The flaps mimick a class of feathers that are key to birds' most daring ...

No Incentive for Older Birds to Make New Friends

Oct. 28, 2024 — Like people, birds have fewer friends as they age, but the reasons why are unclear. New research suggests they may just have no drive ...

Using Weather Radar to Track Australia's Migrating Birds

Oct. 28, 2024 — Scientists have used data from weather radar not to track storms, but to count birds as they travel across Australian ...

Move Along, Moose: Study Reveals the 'Most Canadian' Animals

Oct. 25, 2024 — What is the 'most Canadian' animal? Spoiler: it's not the beaver, or the moose. A new study ranks species of terrestrial vertebrates in Canada by their level of Canadian evolutionary ...

Bird Study Finds Sons Help Their Parents Less Than Daughters Because They're Scouting Future Prospects

Oct. 24, 2024 — Male birds help their parents less than females because they're too busy scouting for new places to live and breed, a study ...

Study of Chick Peeps Could Improve Understanding of Animal Emotions

Oct. 24, 2024 — Understanding animal emotions has been a long-running question at the forefront of welfare studies, but a new study may hold the key to decoding the chatter. The answer involves two baby chickens and ...

New Mapping Techniques Empower Bird Conservation in Colombia

Oct. 24, 2024 — Researchers have introduced a transformative approach to mapping bird species distribution across Colombia, harnessing community science data and innovative modeling ...

Will Tropical Biodiversity Run Dry Under Climate Change? Two Visions for the Future

Oct. 22, 2024 — Changing precipitation patterns in the Neotropics, one of Earth's most biodiverse regions, could threaten two-thirds of the area's bird species by the year 2100 if climate change goes ...

Artificial Nests Boost Penguin Breeding Success, but There's No One-Size-Fits-All Design

Oct. 17, 2024 — Artificial nests can boost the breeding success of endangered African penguins, but different designs are more effective at different colonies according to a new ...

Real-Time Visualization of Chick Embryo Development from Egg to Chick

Oct. 16, 2024 — Researchers have developed a method for culturing fertilized chick eggs without their shells. The eggs were placed in an artificial culture vessel made of transparent film, allowing for real-time ...

How Playing Songs to Darwin's Finches Helped Biologists Confirm Link Between Environment and the Emergence of New Species

Oct. 10, 2024 — They say that hindsight is 20/20, and though the theory of ecological speciation -- which holds that new species emerge in response to ecological changes -- seems to hold in retrospect, it has been ...

Newly Discovered Late Cretaceous Birds May Have Carried Heavy Prey Like Extant Raptors

Oct. 9, 2024 — Newly discovered birds from Late Cretaceous North America were hawk-sized and had powerful raptor-like feet, according to a new ...

Drier Winter Habitat Impacts Songbirds' Ability to Survive Migration

Oct. 4, 2024 — A new study shows environmental conditions in migratory birds' winter homes carry over to affect their ability to survive spring migration and the breeding ...

New Mechanism Uncovered for the Reduction of Emu Wings

Oct. 4, 2024 — Researchers have uncovered a fascinating mechanism behind the reduction and asymmetry of emu wing bones. The wings not only show significant shortening, but the skeletal elements also fuse ...

The True Global Impact of Species-Loss Caused by Humans Is Far Greater Than Expected

Oct. 3, 2024 — The extinction of hundreds of bird species caused by humans over the last 130,000 years has led to substantial reductions in avian functional diversity -- a measure of the range of different roles ...

Outdoor Businesses and Venues Could Benefit from Boosting Biodiversity

Oct. 3, 2024 — Visitors to vineyards enjoyed their tours more when they heard enhanced sounds of diverse birdsong, new research has ...

Drone Footage Provides New Insight Into Gray Whales' Acrobatic Feeding Behavior

Sep. 25, 2024 — Drone footage is offering new insight into the acrobatics undertaken by gray whales foraging in the waters off the coast of ...