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How Art Inspired a Young Birder
Isaiah Scott was in middle school when his family took him to visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. He remembers seeing a huge mural showing hundreds of colorful birds spread across a map of the worl…
Published on 1 week, 3 days ago
A Song That Has Survived for Thousands of Years
Sometimes, a species’ song changes over the course of a few decades. But a bird that lives in the mountains of eastern Africa, the Forest Double-collared Sunbird, appears to have kept the same song f…
Published on 1 week, 4 days ago
What Do Woodpeckers Do on Smoky Days?
When the air is thick with wildfire smoke, people are advised to stay home. At Hastings Natural History Preserve in California, Acorn Woodpeckers do the same. These gregarious birds live in family gr…
Published on 1 week, 5 days ago
Paradise-Whydah
A few times each year, the Eastern Paradise-Whydah puts on his party clothes. This small finch is found in East Africa, and males and females generally share the same nondescript appearance. But when…
Published on 1 week, 6 days ago
In Winter, Puffins Lead Very Different Lives
Every summer, puffins — like this Horned Puffin — grow blazingly colorful layers over the bases of their huge beaks. But in the winter, puffins lead very different lives, and they shed their bright o…
Published on 2 weeks ago
Double-jointed Hawks and Convergent Evolution
Crane Hawks of Central and South America and African Harrier-Hawks both have legs that bend forward and backward. Each bird’s wonderfully peculiar leg adaptation is completely original — it evolved a…
Published on 2 weeks, 1 day ago
Protecting the Madagascar Fish-Eagle
Biodiversity conservationist Lily-Arison Rene de Roland works with some of the rarest birds in the world. He’s the Madagascar program director for the Peregrine Fund, a non-profit conservation organi…
Published on 2 weeks, 2 days ago
Common Potoo: Branch or Bird?
Common Potoos are champions of camouflage. In the daytime these nocturnal creatures perch perfectly still on branches: heads pointed upward, bodies outstretched, and eyes closed down to tiny slits. I…
Published on 2 weeks, 3 days ago
The Gyrfalcon – A Circumpolar Raptor
Gyrfalcons are circumpolar, nesting in the far north of Asia, North America, and Europe, including Iceland and Greenland. They evolved as a distinct species in the Pleistocene Era, around 100,000 yea…
Published on 2 weeks, 4 days ago
Jane Kim and the Wall of Birds
Walk into the visitor center at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and you’ll be greeted by a massive mural called the Wall of Birds. About the size of a tennis court, the mural shows a map of the world …
Published on 2 weeks, 5 days ago