Discoveries about birds, behaviors, migration, and more. Plus, Eldon Greij’s popular column, “Amazing Birds.”
This is a skeletal reconstruction of Mirarce eatoni, an extinct bird that lived in Utah about 75 million years ago. Mirarce was a very large, strong flier. Illustration by paleoartist Scott Hartman (skeletaldrawing.com)
The South Atlantic’s Inaccessible Island Rail split from a relative that lives on mainland South America 1.5 million years ago. Read More “Researchers unravel origins of world’s smallest flightless bird”
Scientists have known for some time that the New Caledonian Crow, a species found only on two islands in the South Pacific, is able to … Read More “Study: New Caledonian Crows can create compound tools”
Researchers from Singapore and Indonesia have described an unusual new songbird species. They named it the Rote Leaf-Warbler (Phylloscopus rotiensis) after the island of Rote, … Read More “New leaf-warbler discovered in Indonesia”
Eldon Greij explains how beaks evolved to fit the functionality of each bird species. Read More “How the many sizes and shapes of beaks came to be”
Using cloud computing and data from 143 weather radar stations across the continental United States, Cornell Lab of Ornithology researchers recently estimated how many birds migrate through the U.S. and the toll that winter and the birds’ migratory journeys take. Read More “Study: 4.7 billion birds leave the U.S. each fall”
In 2017, researchers working in the Ecuadorian Andes stumbled across a previously unknown species of hummingbird. They’ve announced the discovery of the bird, Blue-throated Hillstar, … Read More “New hummingbird discovered, is already critically endangered”
Founding Editor Eldon Greij explains how the unique feeding behaviors of flamingos help them thrive in highly alkaline lakes and lagoons. Read More “How flamingos thrive in harsh environments”
