Birds, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 28, 2014

Amazing Migration: Photos of Sandhill Cranes

Found across the world (Image credit: Linda & Dr. Dick Buscher.)Sandhill Cranes (Grus Canadensis) are large-bodied birds with long legs and tall necks that have a wide distribution over two continents. They are the most common members of the crane family found across the world. Breeding pairs of Sandhill Cranes...

Feb 28, 2014

Images of Rare Passenger Pigeon Museum Specimens

100th anniversary of extinction (Image credit: Laura Poppick, www.hmnh.harvard.edu/ )The passenger pigeon once clouded North American skies, with flocks of millions traveling across the continent. They went extinct in 1914 due to over hunting. The Harvard Museum of Natural History recently opened an exhibit commemorating the 100th anniversary of the...

Nov 30, 2015

As Habitat Vanishes, Migratory Birds Are in Free Fall (Op-Ed)

Claire Runge is a postdoctoral scholar at the National Centre for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, previously at the University of Queensland; James Watson is director of science and research with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and an associate professor at the University...

Aug 31, 2015

Ancient Peru Tar Pools Trapped Hundreds of Songbirds

A dusty, windy desert in extreme northwestern Peru was once a grassland, replete with hundreds of songbirds. But this grassland, which may have been dotted with seasonal dry forests, was also a trap. Tar seeps bubbling up from the oil-rich ground snared animals, including saber-toothed cats, dire wolves and jaguars....

Mar 31, 2015

Songbirds Emerge for Spring, But Is the Timing Off? (Essay)

Naomi Eide is a master's student in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park. She contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Just before dawn, birds wreak havoc on the stillness, cackling and calling to the world that spring has...

Dec 31, 2014

What Beagles Reveal about Alzheimer's in Humans

This article was originally published on The Conversation. The publication contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Every 67 seconds someone in the United States is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and new estimates suggest that it may be the third leading cause of death of older...

May 31, 2016

Airplane-Size Seabird Flew Above Antarctica 50 Million Years Ago

A prehistoric seabird that was the size of a small airplane and had a mouthful of sharp teeth once soared over ancient Antarctica, occasionally stopping to snag fish and squid, a new study finds. Researchers found a broken 3.3-inch-long (8.5 centimeters) piece of the bird's humerus (upper arm bone) on...

Sep 30, 2018

Exquisitely Preserved Lungs from 120 Million Years Ago Stun Scientists Studying Early Bird

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Ancient organs rarely fossilize, so paleontologists were stunned to find the incredibly well-preserved remains of a lung that belonged to bird from the dinosaur age. Initially, scientists were excited to describe the specimen of Archaeorhynchus spathula, a bird that lived about 120 million years ago, because its...

Aug 31, 2018

This Was the World's Largest Bird. It Weighed As Much As a Dinosaur.

The world's largest bird — a newly identified species of elephant bird — weighed as much as a dinosaur when it strutted around Madagascar more than 1,000 years ago, a new study finds. This monster bird is now extinct, but it weighed as much as 1,760 lbs. (800 kilograms), or...

Jan 31, 2018

Does All That Headbanging Leave a Mark on Woodpeckers' Brains?

Scientists may have just pecked new holes in the widely held idea that woodpeckers' brains suffer no ill effects from the considerable force generated by their high-speed pecking. A new study — the first to examine the birds' brains — shows that woodpecker brains are not immune to these repeated...

Apr 30, 2019

This Bird Evolved into Existence Twice — Thousands of Years Apart

On a ring-shaped reef in the Indian Ocean, a species of bird evolved to be flightless — twice. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, white-throated rails (Dryolimnas cuvieri) flew from their native home in Madagascar to the Aldabra atoll, a ring-shaped reef among the Seychelle Islands. The reef, free of...

Jan 31, 2019

This Bird's Body Is Half Male, Half Female. So Is Its Brain.

Male cardinals are red. Female cardinals are tan. The odd bird that's been roosting outside Jeff and Shirley Caldwell's kitchen in Erie, Pennsylvania, is an even split of both. Divided down the middle like a winged black-and-white-cookie, the rare cardinal is plumed in feathers that are scarlet on its right...

Dec 31, 2018

Trevor, the World's Loneliest Duck, Has Died As He Lived — Alone in a Puddle

Live Science is sad to report that Trevor the mallard, billed by some as the world's loneliest duck, has died as he lived — alone in a puddle. Known as the only duck on the small west Pacific island of Niue (population around 1,600), Trevor was found dead in the...

Jul 31, 2020

What is taxonomy?

If you saw a feathered, two-footed critter on the lawn, what would you tell people you saw? A robin? A blackbird? How about a dinosaur? From a taxonomist's perspective, you couldn't go wrong with dinosaur. According to taxonomy, the discipline that assigns official scientific names to all known organisms, all...

Jun 30, 2020

Albatrosses: Facts about the biggest flying birds

Albatrosses are big, majestic birds that can be found soaring above most of the world’s oceans. These frequent fliers are known for spending months in the air without touching down, as well as having some unique mating arrangements. However, thanks to harmful fishing techniques and predation by invasive species, albatrosses...