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Birds

The cover of the 2014 State of the Birds 2014, the most extensive study of birds in the U.S. ever published.

The Most Extensive Report Ever on American Birds Says There’s Cause for Concern

Researchers from 23 groups just released the fifth State of the Birds report, which contains good and bad news

From the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

100 Years After Her Death, Martha, the Last Passenger Pigeon, Still Resonates

The famed bird now finds itself at the center of a flap over de-extinction

A dense flock of starlings in the sky above Rome.

How Just One Bird Can Urge an Entire Flock to Change Directions

The equations that describe these movements are equivalent to those that govern waves

A typical 15th century banquet.

New Research

Before He Died, Richard III Lived Large

Bone chemistry sheds light on the monarch’s shifting diet throughout his brief life

Not so mysterious: This is not a realistic depiction of a T. rex dinner.

The Ten Biggest Dinosaur Mysteries We Have Yet to Solve

Which one was the first, the biggest, the fuzziest? These puzzles continue to perplex paleontologists

An artistic depiction of the duck.

Cool Finds

Copenhagen Might Install a Giant, Energy-Gathering Duck in Its Harbor

The duck would be both a tourist attraction and a means of helping the city become carbon-neutral by 2025

New Research

How a Flock of 400 Flying Birds Manages to Turn in Just Half a Second

The birds’ patterns of movement are surprisingly similar to that of superfluid helium

The comet Cheryumov-Gerasimenko seems to be shaped like a rubber duckie

Cool Finds

The ESA is on a Mission to Harpoon a Duck-Shaped Comet

As if catching a comet wasn’t already hard enough

Adult Common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) with gathered insect prey. This is one of the fifteen species shown to be affected by elevated imidacloprid concentrations in surface water in the Netherlands.

New Research

Popular Pesticides Linked to Drops in Bird Populations

This is the latest in a string of studies suggesting that some pesticides impact birds as well as pollinators

When the Last of the Great Auks Died, It Was by the Crush of a Fisherman’s Boot

Birds once plentiful and abundant, are the subject of a new exhibition at the Natural History Museum

Great Spotted Cuckoo

New Research

Cuckoos Don’t Sneak Into Other Birds’ Nests—They Barge Right In

Cuckoos don’t just make other bird’s raise their young, they lay their eggs while the other bird is in the nest

The NaturePatternMatch software identifies visual features on eggs.

New Research

Software Used for Facial Recognition Teases Out Secret Messages Hidden on Bird Eggs

Some bird eggs have visual signatures that help them distinguish they own clutch from impostor cuckoo eggs

Cool Finds

In Maya Lin’s New Exhibition, a Singing Ring Contains the Sounds of Endangered Worlds

The Sound Ring represents places as diverse as California forests and the Indian Ocean

Kiwis: Also a type of bird.

Trending Today

The Very Large, Very Extinct Elephant Bird Is the Closest Cousin to the Wee, Flightless Kiwi

Proof that you should never judge a bird by its feathers

A red-winged blackbird, the males of which (pictured) feature bright red spots. Females, on the other hand, are a mottled brown.

New Research

Drab Female Birds Were Once As Flashy As Their Male Mates

Biologists always assumed that sexual selection primarily drove differences in looks between male and female birds, but a new study challenges that notion

New Research

One More Way Cities Might Mess With Birds—By Throwing Radio Waves at Them

Radio waves disrupt birds’ migratory patterns, but birds may have a natural work-around

Dinosaurs came in all shapes and sizes, but only the small, feathered variety survived.

New Research

Ancient Birds Avoided Mass Extinction By Shrinking

The shrinkage process was well underway before an asteroid brought doom to the dinosaurs 66 million years ago

This is the face of deception.

New Research

This Bird Tricks Other Animals Into Handing Over Their Meals

The African drongo mimics warning calls of other animals to scare them away from food, but mixes true warnings with lies to keep those animals guessing

Artist Todd McGrain's sculptures of five extinct North American birds are now on display in Smithsonian gardens.

Art Meets Science

Bronze Sculptures of Five Extinct Birds Land in Smithsonian Gardens

Artist Todd McGrain memorializes species long-vanished, due to human impact on their habitats, in his “Lost Bird Project”

New Research

Why Dark-Colored Pigeons Are More Common in Cities

Melanin seems to help the birds get rid of potentially toxic compounds from the environment

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