Birds, features and articles | Educational Science

Dec 8, 2022

Oddly modern skull raises new questions about the early evolution of birds

The earliest birds on Earth may have been more modern-looking than scientists expected — a discovery that raises new questions about a murky period in evolutionary history. The first birds diverged from two-legged theropod dinosaurs around 165 million to 150 million years ago, during the Jurassic period, according to a...

Jan 19, 2023

Domesticated chickens could wipe out their wild ancestors — by having sex with them

Red junglefowl are under threat from domesticated chickens that want to mate with them, a new study shows. These wild birds, the ancestors of domesticated chickens, risk losing their genetic diversity because they are breeding with farmed chickens that putter around their natural habitat. If this crossbreeding continues, it could...

Feb 10, 2023

Cockatoos join humans and chimps as only species that can use a set of tools

Cockatoos can combine multiple tools to complete a complex task, a feat scientists previously thought only chimpanzees and humans could do, a new study reveals. Tool use has been observed in a handful of animals including chimps, gorillas, orangutans, sea otters, dolphins, octopuses and crows, as well as some cockatoos....

Feb 13, 2023

Do birds pee?

Dogs lift their legs. Cats use a litter box. And birds do their business just about everywhere. But is this whitish-colored splat only bird poop? What about bird pee? Their pee doesn't look like ours, said Sushma Reddy, an associate professor of ornithology at the University of Minnesota. It's not...

Apr 7, 2023

6 incredible egg facts, just in time for Easter

Every spring, colorful eggs show up in Easter egg hunts, and hard-boiled eggs grace Seder plates at Passover. But besides serving as an oval canvas for egg decorators and a symbol of rebirth and fertility, avian eggs are known for their diversity in shape and size. For instance, kiwi eggs...

Apr 30, 2023

Taxidermy birds are being turned into drones

Dead birds are getting a second chance at flying by being transformed into drones. Researchers think that by creating avian drones using taxidermy birds, they can not only learn about flight but eventually use the drones to monitor wildlife. I originally got the idea to do this in 2011, but...

May 9, 2023

Scientists discovered a 2,200-year-old condor poop pile in the Andes. Here's what it told them.

For the past 2,200 years, Andean condors (Vultur gryphus), among the largest known flying birds in the world, have been nesting — and pooping — at a cliffside grotto in northern Patagonia, Argentina. Now researchers are studying the massive pile of guano to learn more about the threatened species and...

May 26, 2023

Scientists changed scales on chicken feet to feathers by tweaking a single gene

By tweaking a specific gene, scientists have discovered a way to permanently transform the scales on a chicken's feet into feathers. The results provide new insight into the bird's evolutionary origins from dinosaurs. Like birds, it's clear today that many dinosaurs were partially covered with feathers as well as scales,...

Jun 27, 2023

Adult albatrosses found gnawed to death by mice on 3rd remote island

Adult albatrosses on a remote island are being attacked and eaten by an aggressive invasive species — mice. Invasive mice have been wreaking havoc on the ecosystem of Marion Island — located about halfway between South Africa and Antarctica — for decades, chowing down on native invertebrates and the chicks...

Aug 25, 2023

Animal sex: How birds do it

Sure, birds can fly, but do they have sex? Can they do it in the air? And where do they keep their reproductive organs? To understand how birds have sex, it is necessary to move beyond preconceived ideas of how other animals have sex — particularly mammals. Birds and mammals...

Sep 8, 2023

Moment falcon digs its talons into pelican's head to protect its nest captured in incredible photo

A striking image of a female falcon attacking a brown pelican mid-flight has been named winner of the 2023 Bird Photographer of the Year. The peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) can be seen swooping down on the large brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), striking the intruder's head with its talons. Jack Zhi,...

Oct 13, 2023

Upcoming solar maximum could scramble migrating birds' internal compass, new study shows

Migratory birds in the U.S. struggle to properly navigate when solar storms and other types of space weather disrupt their ability to sense Earth's magnetic field, a new study shows. The findings suggest that these birds may be seriously handicapped over the next few years as the sun ramps up...

Oct 26, 2023

1st-known 'highly pathogenic' bird flu cases in Antarctic could threaten penguins

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), a particularly lethal form of bird flu, has been detected in birds in Antarctica for the first time. Researchers with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) made the discovery after investigating reports of illness and unexplained deaths among seabirds on Bird Island, an island in the...

Nov 15, 2023

120 million-year-old birds tracks near South Pole are the oldest ever discovered in the Southern Hemisphere

Researchers have discovered the earliest bird footprints ever found in Australia, showing that these early birds once lived in southern polar regions on the supercontinent Gondwana. Palaeontologists unearthed the bird tracks in Wonthaggi Formation in Victoria, Australia, that date back to around 120 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous...

Nov 27, 2023

Stunning footage captures tiny bird's fight for survival in massive Saharan sandstorm

Incredible, first-of-its-kind footage reveals a tiny swallow's battle for survival inside a mammoth sandstorm as it migrates across the Sahara Desert. The bird, which weighed less than an ounce (28 grams), was recorded while undertaking the most difficult part of its epic journey north for the summer. Every year, European...