Birds, features and articles | Educational Science

May 31, 2007

Stowaway Penguins Hop Hemispheres

A Humboldt penguin known only from the Southern Hemisphere but recently found thousands of miles from home likely was a stowaway on a fishing ship, say scientists. The seemingly peripatetic penguin turned up in July 2002 when fisherman Guy Demmert netted an atypical batch of salmon off the coast of...

Feb 28, 2007

Study Reveals Real Reason Birds Migrate

It's food scarcity, not dietary preferences, that motivates birds to migrate thousands of miles back and forth between breeding and non-breeding areas each year, new research shows. It's not whether you eat insects, fruit, nectar or candy bars or where you eat them--it matters how reliable that food source is...

Feb 28, 2007

Bird Eavesdrops on Another Bird's Alarm Calls

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nuthatches appear to have learned to understand a foreign language -- chickadee. It's not unusual for one animal to react to the alarm call of another, but nuthatches seem to go beyond that -- interpreting the type of alarm and what sort of predator poses a threat....

Jan 31, 2007

Bats Found to Feed On Migrating Birds at Night

The blood of the largest bat in Europe reveals it can devour birds in midair at night, the only animal known to do so thus far, evidence now strongly suggests. Roughly five billion songbirds migrate across the Mediterranean Sea every year, mainly at night. Although more than 90 percent of...

Jan 31, 2007

You Can Help: Great Backyard Bird Count

People from all walks of life will don binoculars, if they can find them, and trek outside this weekend to count birds ranging from finches to juncos for 15 minutes as part of the Great Backyard Bird Count. In its 10th year, the project relies on participants to create a...

Jun 30, 2008

Superfast Muscles Power Songbird Singing

Some songbirds can contract their vocal muscles with the fastest muscle movements yet described — about 100 times faster than humans can blink an eye, according to new research. The study found that two types of songbirds produce their tunes with superfast muscles, similar to those used by rattlesnakes, several...

May 31, 2008

Birds Kill Siblings, Hormones Blamed

If you ever felt at least metaphorically like you wanted to kill your brother or sister, your sibling is lucky you're not a booby. A Nazca booby, a Galápagos Island seabird, is eager and able to kill a sibling in the nest. A new study links the murderous behavior to...

Apr 30, 2008

Birds Babble Like Babies

Baby birds are like baby humans on at least one score: they both babble. But as songbirds grow up, they make the switch from babbling to singing by flipping to a different brain circuit, new research finds, suggesting a new view of human infant behavior. We should toss out the...

Nov 30, 2009

Birds Favor Most Promising Offspring

Parasites can lessen a young bird’s chance of survival. If parents can detect signs of infection early, they may cut their losses by reducing their efforts to feed and care for parasitized broods—thus saving energy for healthy offspring or future breeding attempts. A new study suggests that such parental vetting...

Oct 31, 2009

Aussie Birds Shrinking, Heading Poleward

Australia’s average surface temperature has risen more than 1 Fahrenheit degree since 1900. During roughly the same period, the body size of Australian passerine (perching) birds has declined by as much as 3.6 percent. Zoologist Janet L. Gardner of the Australian National University in Canberra and colleagues, who detected the...

Sep 30, 2009

'First Bird' Not Very Bird-Like

A feathered beast that lived some 150 million years ago and which is considered the first bird likely grew more like its sluggish ancestors, the dinosaurs. That's according to new analyses of tiny bone chips taken from Archaeopteryx and detailed this week in the journal PLoS ONE. The study researchers...

Jul 31, 2009

Charge: T. Rex Was a Chicken and a Baby Killer

Although past research has suggested Tyrannosaurus rex was related to chickens, now findings hint this giant predator might have acted chicken too. Instead of picking on dinosaurs its own size, researchers now suggest T. rex was a baby killer that liked to swallow defenseless prey whole. Fossil evidence of attacks...

Jul 31, 2009

Prehistoric 'Runway' Used by Flying Reptile

A prehistoric runway for flying pterosaurs has been discovered for the first time. Scientists uncovered the first known landing tracks of one of these extinct flying reptiles at a site dubbed Pterosaur Beach, in the fine-grained limestone deposits of an ancient lagoon in southwestern France dating back some 140 million...

Jun 30, 2009

Toucan's Bill Acts as Giant Radiator

Some animals sweat to cool off. Toucans can't. Instead, they use their enormous orange bills as radiators to dump heat and stay chilled. The toco toucan (Ramphastos toco), which hangs out in the canopies of tropical rainforests in South America, sports the largest bill relative to body size of any...

Jun 30, 2009

Newfound Bird Is Bald

Scientists have discovered a rare new bird species with a bald head. The creature, dubbed the bare-faced bulbul, was found in Laos, and is the only known bald songbird in mainland Asia. It's also the first time in over 100 years that a new Asian species of bulbul bird has...