Feature Channels: Birds

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The prime directive for Project FeederWatch has been and continues to be gathering data about how bird populations and distributions are changing across the United States and Canada—vital information for conservation.

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Tropical forests are among the most important habitats on our planet. They are characterised by extremely high species diversity and play an eminent role in the global carbon cycle and the world climate.

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It's tough to catch the eye of a potential mate when you’re dressed all in black with no fancy feathers to jiggle around. But a tiny bird called the Blue-black Grassquit has found a way. Learn about this fascinating species during the 2023 Paul C. Mundinger Distinguished Lectureship presented by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

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For the first time, big data and artificial intelligence (AI) are being used to model hidden patterns in nature, not just for one bird species, but for entire ecological communities across continents. And the models follow each species’ full annual life cycle, from breeding to fall migration to nonbreeding grounds, and back north again during spring migration.

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His mind might have been set on finding water or on perfecting a song he learned as a chick from his dad. But all of that gets pushed down the to-do list for an adult male zebra finch when he notices a female has drawn nigh.

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Powerful X-rays generated at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory help researchers shed new light on feather evolution.

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Palaeontologists at University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland have discovered X-ray evidence of proteins in fossil feathers that sheds new light on feather evolution.

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The bright lights of big cities could be causing an evolutionary adaptation for smaller eyes in some birds, a new study indicates.

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This article reviews conservation measures taken in recent decade to protect waterbirds in China's coastal wetlands and provides recommendations for future conservation action from three aspects: policy and administration, habitat conservation and management, and multiparty participation.

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A study shows nest temperatures affect leatherback hatchling shape, performance and nest success. Lower temperatures produced longer hatchlings; highest temperatures produced hatchlings with thicker body depths. Hatchlings from the highest nest temperatures had shorter flippers.

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For the first time, researchers have estimated the Spotted Owl population across the entire Sierra Nevada ecosystem.

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Birds native to the tropical Andes, many of which cannot be found anywhere else, are threatened by increasing agricultural development in the region.

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A study done on 336 cities in China concludes that heat-retaining buildings and paved surfaces are directly related to a loss in bird diversity. It is likely that the patterns documented in this study are occurring in other large cities across the globe that have abundant asphalt, steel, and concrete with little green vegetation

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A Cornell research team has developed a new way to design complex microscale machines, one that draws inspiration from the operation of proteins and hummingbird beaks.