Birds, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 30, 2005

Mystery of Empty Chicken Sex Solved

Many animals copulate now and then without the delivery of semen. The act is mysterious, because animal sex is thought to be driven solely by the need to reproduce. Are they just fooling around? New research suggests there's a deeper reason. Males, it seems, are insuring their bets by encouraging...

May 31, 2005

Giant Extinct Birds Grew Up Slow

The moa, a large extinct bird from New Zealand, apparently had a decade-long adolescence.? This is unheard of in birds, but it may help explain how early hunters were able to wipe out the giant birds. Moa, which have been extinct for several centuries, were ratites - a group of...

May 31, 2005

Bird's Warning Chirps Reveal Surprising Smarts

Birds squawk and chirp to attract mates and warn of danger. But much of their intelligent chatter has until now eluded human comprehension. The black-capped chickadee not only warns its flock of danger but also communicates the predator's size and relative threat, a new study finds. All with a familiar...

May 31, 2005

How Hummingbirds Hover

As it hovers in front of a flower or feeder, a hummingbird gets lift not only from the down stroke of its wings but also the up stroke. This is similar to the lift generated by insect wings, but new research shows that hummers are not simply bugs with feathers....

Mar 31, 2005

Murder and Deceit: How One Bird Gets a Meal

If birds could read, this tale of deceit and murder would shock the avian world. A parasitic bird called the Horsfield's hawk-cuckoo lays an egg in the nest of another bird species, such as the bushrobin. That's just the beginning of the treachery. When the hawk-cuckoo chick is born, it...

Nov 30, 2006

Scientists Puzzled by Extreme Penguin Dives

When emperor penguins dive below the Antarctic sea ice in search of food, they can descend five times as deep as a human and can swim on a single breath for up to 20 minutes. Researchers are trying to find out how they manage these incredible feats to potentially help...

Nov 30, 2006

Mammals Might Have Soared Before Birds

Mammals might have taken to the sky before birds, scientists announced today. A new order of mammals has been named based on a recently discovered fossil of a squirrel-sized Mesozoic-era animal [image] that lived at least 130 million years ago and was capable of gliding flight. The ancient mammal, Volaticotherium...

Sep 30, 2006

Tool Time: Crows Share Tricks of the Trade

Bird brained they might be, but crows are the MacGyvers of the avian world, able to turn twigs and even their own feathers into tools for getting at hard-to-reach food. But while young crows are born with a propensity for crafting tools, it's only after watching their elders make and...

May 31, 2006

Sexy Songs Induce Larger Canary Eggs

Male canaries hone their songs to get girls, but their sexy tweets might do more than that. A new study reveals that female songbirds alter the size of their eggs, and possibly their chicks' sex, in response to hearing a sexy song from a male. Researchers played an assortment of...

Feb 28, 2006

Ivory-billed Woodpecker Debate Heats Up

Last June researchers triumphantly announced the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker, thought extinct for nearly 60 years. But another group of ornithologists said a video used to identify the bird was too fuzzy and that plumage color patterns don't rule out the bird being a common pileated woodpecker. The original...

Feb 28, 2006

How Songbirds Change Tune

New research reveals that songbirds add style to their songs using the same mechanism as humans. In humans, an ah sound originating from the vocal cords can be turned into an ooh by moving the lips, tongue, and jaw. Birds mostly communicate using a variety of up and down sweeping...

Nov 30, 2007

Birds Glad Cats Eat Rats

A rare burrowing bird known as a Cook's petrel seems to have dug a real hole for itself: it lives on a small island crawling with hungry rats and cats. Although the pests eat both eggs and chicks, new research suggests that the old adage my enemy's enemy is my...

Jul 31, 2007

Promiscuous Mama Birds Bank on 'Nannies'

Child care can be costly, even in the avian world. Some clever and promiscuous mama birds save their energy and get a boost in health by relying on helper birds for free offspring-care, new research shows. The study reveals how female superb fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus) skimp on allocating energy-costing nutrition...

Jun 30, 2007

Mystery Solved: How Airplane-Sized Bird Flew

With a wingspan of more than 20 feet, a condor the size of a Cessna airplane relied on updrafts to glide up to 40 mph above the plains of Argentina some 6 million years ago. Scientists have known the ancient bird could fly. But they didn't know if Argentavis magnificens,...

Jun 30, 2007

Hundreds of Oil-Covered Penguins Surface in South America

Hundreds of oil-covered Magellanic penguins have surfaced off the Atlantic coast of South America in the past few weeks, according to an animal welfare organization. Magellanic penguins are medium-sized South American penguins. The species is classified as near threatened because of its vulnerability to oil spills, which kill tens of...