Birds
Tiny Cameras Show Albatrosses on the Hunt
Scientists from Britain and Japan used sophisticated techniques to study the feeding behavior of the black-browed albatross (Thalassarche melanophrys) at sea. A lot of useful information came out of this study, but the single item you will likely hear most about is a really cool photograph, taken ...
October 07, 2009 |
By Greg Laden
Return of the Sandpiper
Thanks to the Delaware Bay's horseshoe crabs, the tide may be turning for an imperiled shorebird
October 2009 |
By Abigail Tucker
Tyrannosaurus Suffered From Bird Disease
By now it should not surprise anyone that birds and theropod dinosaurs were closely related. Numerous discoveries have revealed that many "bird" characteristics, like feathers, first evolved in dinosaurs and were passed on to the avian descendants of one group of theropods called coelurosaurs. Tyra...
September 30, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Feathers Before Archaeopteryx
Ever since the first skeleton of Archaeopteryx was discovered in 1861, the feathered dinosaur has been considered the oldest bird. During the last several decades, however, scientists have found that many "bird" features, such as feathers, first appeared among theropod dinosaurs. What defines a bir...
September 25, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
The Curse of the Labrador Duck
You have never seen a live Labrador Duck (Camptorhynchus labradorius); the species went extinct in the late 1800s. The rather plain-looking bird isn't found on display in many museums, and other extinct birds like auks and moas get more attention, all of which might explain why I had never heard of...
September 08, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Five Favorite Penguins Outside Antarctica
Of all the species of penguins, more than half can be found only outside Antarctica. One of our favorites is in the Galapagos
August 10, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Georgia Elementary School Trades One Dinosaur for Another
If the principal of Thomson Elementary School in Thomson, Georgia, thinks she has rid her school of dinosaurs, the joke's on her. According to the McDuffie Mirror, principal Anita Cummings recently decided to paint over a dinosaur mural and remove dinosaur tracks from the school because:
The dinosa...
August 04, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Oversized Beak Keeps Toucan Cool
It turns out there’s more to a toucan’s bill than pretty colors and a penchant for Fruit Loops.Originally described as “grossly monstrous” by the Comte de Buffon, the toucan's beak was theorized by Charles Darwin to be related to sexual selection. The toucans with the biggest bills were thought to ...
July 30, 2009 |
By Ashley Luthern
Did Dinosaurs Roar?
I will never forget seeing Jurassic Park for the first time in the summer of 1993. Not only did the dinosaurs look real, but they sounded real, each dinosaur having its own array of chirps, bellows, hoots, and roars. According to paleontologist Phil Senter, however, dinosaurs may not have been able...
July 13, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
What Color Was That Moa?
Moas have been extinct for hundreds of years. The entire family—ten species of flightless birds, some as tall as 12 feet—was wiped out shortly after humans occupied New Zealand around 1280. Now a team of scientists in Australia and New Zealand has painstakingly analyzed 2,500-year-old feather fragm...
July 07, 2009 |
By Laura Helmuth
Day 5: Bird Watching and Animal Tracking
Living among the African wildlife, Smithsonian researchers are busy studying the symbiotic relationships between flora and fauna
June 26, 2009 |
By G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
A Dancing Parrot and More
That's Snowball dancing to the Backstreet Boys' "Everybody." The sulfur-crested cockatoo has our web staff hooked, and they're not even angry about the earworm I unintentionally planted in their brains. Snowball is featured on our Wild Things page in the July issue, which just went online last week...
June 22, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Dinosaur Finger Points to Bird Evolution
As I have written about many times here on Dinosaur Tracking, paleontologists presently have an overwhelming amount of evidence that birds are living dinosaurs. That doesn't mean that everything about the dinosaur-to-bird transition is well-understood, though. For years scientists have been faced w...
June 19, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Picture of the Week—Laysan Albatross Pair
Female Laysan albatrosses, like the ones above, can pair bond for life; about a third of all bonded pairs in Hawaii are actually same-sex female couples. This pairing helps chicks because coupled birds are better at rearing young than single females, and it may also help colony stability by reducin...
June 19, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Filling in the Dinosaur Family Tree
Dinosaurs are often mentioned in discussions about evolution, yet many people do not know how dinosaurs evolved. That birds are living dinosaurs has been a hot topic during the last decade or so, but what about all those other dinosaurs? How did they emerge and diversify during the ancient past? In...
June 15, 2009 |
By Brian Switek
Migratory Canada Geese Brought Down Flight 1549
Smithsonian scientists have determined just what forced Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger to land U.S. Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River on January 15: migratory Canada geese that had probably come to the area looking for food and open water in response to a cold snap and snow on their win...
June 08, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Penguin Dispatch 1: Arriving in Punta Tombo, Argentina
The winter residents of Punta Tombo fly in steadily over the course of a few days, eventually swarming the small land mass
June 04, 2009 |
By Eric Wagner
Penguin Dispatch 2: The Scientists of Punta Tombo
For over 25 years, researcher Dee Boersma has been coming with students in tow to Punta Tombo to study the penguins
June 04, 2009 |
By Eric Wagner
Penguin Dispatch 3: Penguin Wrangling
Handling and tagging a penguin can be no easy task, leaving oneself open to a vicious and potentially dangerous beak attack
June 04, 2009 |
By Eric Wagner
Penguin Dispatch 4: How to Study a Penguin Egg
Females guard their eggs closely, so scientists must tread carefully when temporarily extracting the eggs for research
June 04, 2009 |
By Eric Wagner
