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Land Birds

Budgie love triangles are more complex than you might think

When Choosing a Mate, These Female Birds Prefer Brains Over Beauty or Brawn

After observing initially scorned male budgies performing complex cognitive tasks, females shifted mating preferences

New Research

Cardinals in Different Regions Could Actually Be Distinct Species, Their Songs Suggest

Populations of the ubiquitous red bird have different calls and genetics in the American southwest

Cool Finds

Adelie Penguins Poop So Much, Their Feces Can Be Seen From Space

Satellite images of the Adelie penguin’s pink guano shows how their colony size and diet have changed over the last 4 decades

The blue-fronted Amazon parrot lives up to 66 years in the wild.

Parrot Genes Reveal Why the Birds Are So Clever, Long-Lived

Researchers say the avian creatures are as genetically distant from other birds as humans are from other primates

Burket's warbler

New Research

This Rare Warbler Is Three Species in One

A warbler discovered in Pennsylvania is the offspring of a hybrid female and a male from a completely different genus

A crow named Mango successfully assembled three- and four-part compound tools

New Research

Crafty New Caledonian Crows Can Assemble Tools

The brainy birds successfully navigated feat previously accomplished by just two other species: humans and chimps

Cool Finds

You Thought Modern Life Was Bad. This Neanderthal Child Was Eaten By a Giant Bird

It’s not known if the bird killed the child or scavenged its remains, but finger bones found in Poland show they went through a bird’s digestive tract

Cool Finds

Moths Love Sipping the Salty Tears of Sleeping Birds

A researcher in the Amazon happened up on the rare sight in the dead of night while looking for reptiles and amphibians

A mesmerizing murmuration of starlings

New Research

Your Hysterical Tweet About That Spider in Your Sink Could Prove Useful for Science

A new study suggests mining social media for phenology data is fairly reliable and could assist researchers tracking how rapidly the world is changing

Spix's macaw.

New Research

In the Last Decade, Four Birds Went Extinct and Four More Are Likely Gone

Habitat loss is the main culprit in killing off the birds, including Spix’s macaw, the star of the popular 2011 film Rio

Blue-and-yellow macaws are capable of blushing (left).

Like Humans, Some Birds Blush to Communicate

Blue-and-yellow macaws are capable of the feathered equivalents of facial expressions, new research shows

Darwin, described by caretakers as a bit "goofy," befriended even the Zoo's cassowary, widely considered one of the world's most dangerous birds.

The National Zoo’s Beloved, Aging Emu Has Died

Darwin delighted zoo patrons for 21 years with his clever antics and charisma

New Research

Birds Can Learn “Foreign” Languages to Stay Safe

The superb fairywren was able to learn a new alarm call just by listening to the warnings of other species

The New Zealand Tomtit is one of the island-dwelling species included in the study

Why Island Birds Have Bigger Brains Than Their Mainland Counterparts

Researchers measured the brain sizes of 11,554 birds, including representatives of 110 island-dwelling species and 1,821 continental species

Aggressive or sexual behavior in crows interacting with dead bodies might happen more often when sex hormones run rampant.

It’s Not Without Caws That Crows Desecrate Their Dead

What dead crows can teach us about the connections between sex and aggression

Cool Finds

Murder Most Fowl: Forensic Scan Shows the Legendary Oxford Dodo Was Shot

Micro-CT scans shows lead scattered across the back of the skull of what is believed to be the taxidermied remains of the dodo brought to Britain

Creating a phylogeny of all bird life will help researchers map birds' evolutionary relationships and create conservation plans.

New Research

What We Can Learn From a New Bird Tree of Life

Sequencing the DNA of more than 10,000 birds could reveal how best to conserve our feathery friends—and when they evolved from dinosaurs

Mid-19th Century specimens collected in Latin America by Alfred Russel Wallace include parrot wings and marsupial pelts.

The Great Feather Heist

The curious case of a young American’s brazen raid on a British museum’s priceless collection

Cool Finds

Rare Yellow Cardinal Spotted at Alabama Bird Feeder

The bird’s distinctive coloration may be caused by a genetic mutation or a health issue

Snowy owls may be a nice surprise in more Southerly climes, but these charismatic birds are also at risk.

A Winter Boom of Snowy Owls Masks a Host of Climate Threats

Despite their seeming abundance, these far-flung raptors are in danger

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