One population of female common yellowthroats prefers males with larger black masks, but another group of females favors a larger yellow bib. A new study has found that both kinds of ornaments are linked to superior genes.
Many North American migratory birds are shrinking in size as temperatures have warmed over the past 40 years. But those with very big brains, relative to their body size, did not shrink as much as smaller-brained birds, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis. The study is the first to identify a direct link between cognition and animal response to human-made climate change.
Cockatoos have shown an extraordinary ability to complete a task by combining simple tools, demonstrating that this cognitive ability is not found only in primates.
Using GPS tags attached to the birds, researchers discovered some surprising facts about the long migrations that eastern whip-poor-wills make from their Midwest breeding grounds to where they winter in Mexico and Central America.
Scientists from multiple universities now find there’s more than one level of hummingbird torpor: shallow and deep, plus the transition stage between levels of torpor and the normal sleep state.
For a quarter of a century the annual Great Backyard Bird Count has been a bright spot for nature lovers. The 25th edition of the event is coming up February 18 through 21.
A new film by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Center for Conservation Media tells the story of Purnima Devi Barman, who has created a movement to save the world's rarest stork.
Domesticated chickens in the United States alone produce more than 2 billion pounds of feathers annually. Those feathers have long been considered a waste product, especially when contaminated with blood, feces or bacteria that can prove hazardous to the environment.
Miller found the bird – a species never previously observed in the Ocean State – during an all-day event he organized in which dozens of local birders sought rare birds along the Rhode Island coast.
Spending time with offspring is beneficial to development, but it’s proving lifesaving to Galápagos Islands Darwin’s finches studied by Flinders University experts.
For thousands of years, people have been keeping wild birds. It is often a deeply ingrained part of the culture. A Cornell Lab of Ornithology examination of the scientific literature on this topic finds that bird-singing contests currently take place in at least 22 countries using at least 36 species of birds.
The perfect gift for any birdwatcher is the gift of knowledge. There's always something new to learn about birds! Here are holiday gift ideas that are meaningful and environmentally friendly.
A new study that looks at an eye disease in house finches shows how behavior and disease pathology interact to contribute to the spread of a pathogen. The study appears in the academic journal Biology Letters.
Global change is eroding life on earth at an unprecedented rate and scale. Species extinctions have accelerated over the last decades, with the concomitant loss of the functions and services they provide to human societies.
After a genetic study of the White-crowned Manakin, scientists say it's not just one species and one of the main drivers of its diversity is the South American landscape and its history of change.
Human-caused bird extinctions are driving losses of functional diversity on islands worldwide, and the gaps they leave behind are not being filled by introduced (alien) species, finds a new study led by UCL and University of Gothenburg researchers.
For the first time, researchers have shown that there is a genetic component underlying the amazing spatial memories of Mountain Chickadees. Although the genetic basis for spatial memory has been shown for humans and other mammals, direct evidence of that connection has never before been identified in birds.
Many people have turned to Project FeederWatch as an antidote to troubling times and long winter months. FeederWatch data are used to detect shifts in the numbers and distributions of winter birds in the United States and Canada. The 35th season of FeederWatch begins Saturday, November 13.
African grey parrots may be better able than macaws to delay gratification – rejecting an immediate reward in favour of a better one in the future – according to a study published in the journal Animal Cognition.
Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) is part of a collaborative team, led by Duke University, that has received a total of $7.5 million to assess the risks that offshore wind energy development along the East Coast may pose to birds, bats, and marine mammals. BRI’s role is to lead the avian research components for the five-year project Wildlife and Offshore Wind (WOW): A Systems Approach to Research and Risk Assessment for Offshore Wind Development from Maine to North Carolina.
Seabirds from Gough Island in the south Atlantic, Marion Island near Antarctica and the coasts of both Hawaii and Western Australia have a dangerous habit: eating plastic.
New Research from Oxford University has revealed that shifts in the timing of egg laying by great tits in response to climate change vary markedly between breeding sites within the same woodland and that this variation is linked to the health of nearby oak trees.
Researchers can predict what syllables a bird will sing—and when it will sing them—by reading electrical signals in its brain, reports a new study from the University of California San Diego. The work is an early step toward building vocal prostheses for humans who have lost the ability to speak.
In times of exacerbating biodiversity loss, reliable data on species occurrence are essential, in order for prompt and adequate conservation actions to be initiated.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and University of Konstanz in Germany have identified how large land birds fly nonstop for hundreds of kilometers over the open ocean—without taking a break for food or rest.
These findings challenge the results of past studies that vocal variations in humpback whale songs provide information about a singer’s reproductive fitness.
New research reveals the location and intensity of key threats to biodiversity on land and identifies priority areas to help inform conservation decision making at national and local levels.
A team of biologists and psychologists found that songbirds can identify rhythmic patterns in songs even when varied by tempo. The discovery may offer a new animal model for understanding childhood language disorders that also are linked to rhythmic processing in the human brain.
New research on the glittering White-necked Jacobin hummingbird reveals nearly 20% of the species’ adult females have male-like plumage. This strategy is all about dodging bullies and getting better access to food.
Urbanization is one of the most drastic forms of land-use change, and its negative consequences on biodiversity have been studied extensively in temperate countries such as Germany.
A predator doesn’t need to have the quickest speed or reflexes to catch a bird. In a paper publishing August 23 in the journal Current Biology, researchers report the first documented evidence of a tortoise going in for the kill: biting the head of, killing, and eating a tern chick.
Expert Q&A: Do breakthrough cases mean we will soon need COVID boosters? The extremely contagious Delta variant continues to spread, prompting mask mandates, proof of vaccination, and other measures. Media invited to ask the experts about these and related topics.
Scientists from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and partners have been looking for patterns in bird strike data from three New York City area airports. Their model predicts that the risk for damaging strikes during periods with very high migration intensity increases by as much as 400% to 700%.
The Arctic tern—which has the world record for the longest annual migration—uses just a few select routes, a key finding that could help efforts to conserve the species, according to a new University of British Columbia study.
A team of researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Stanford University, and the California Academy of Sciences (CAS) has uncovered new clues as to how poisonous frogs and birds avoid intoxicating themselves.
Woods Hole, MA (August 3, 2021) – A new study published today in Global Change Biology provides valuable new data that highlights how species extinction risk is accelerating due to rapid climate change and an increase in extreme climate events, such as glacial calving and sea ice loss. The study, led by Stephanie Jenouvrier, associate scientist, and seabird ecologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and co-authored by an international team of scientists, policy experts, ecologists, and climate scientists, provided pivotal research and projections tailored for use by the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS). Their work proposed that emperor penguins be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and this week, USFWS submitted that listing proposal.
Innovation arises through the transfer of research results into practiceValuable research results threaten to gather dust in university libraries if they are not put into practice. While transdisciplinary research seems to become increasingly important in sciences, funding programs and media, there are still many misunderstandings to be clarified.
A 17-year study in Oregon, Washington and California found that removal of invasive barred owls arrested the population decline of the northern spotted owl, a native species threatened by invading barred owls and the loss of old-forest habitats.
New findings from zoologists working with birds in Southeast Asia are shining fresh light on the connections between animal behaviour, geology, and evolution - underlining that species can diversify surprisingly quickly under certain conditions.
Whether you are driving by or visiting the Danforth Center, one of the first things you’ll notice is the six acres of reconstructed Missouri tallgrass prairie in front of our building.