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Baby Birds' Bizarre Beaks
Most baby birds are adorable little floofs — but not all of them. The tongue and palate of estrildid finch chicks are strangely spotted and ringed. They display these markings while they beg for food…
Published on 1 year, 10 months ago
The Wonderchicken!
In 2018, paleontologist Daniel Field took a closer look at specimens from an amateur fossil collector. His team used micro-CT scanning, kind of like a high-energy CAT scan, to visualize the encased f…
Published on 1 year, 10 months ago
Birding 101: Bird Vocab Basics
Any hobby or special interest has its own jargon. You’ll pick up on the silly slang that birders use as you go – like calling the Yellow-rumped Warbler “butterbutt.” Still, learning a few basics of b…
Published on 1 year, 10 months ago
The Ferocious Feet of the Great Horned Owl
Great Horned Owls excel at nocturnal hunting, thanks to their acute senses and stealth — but their feet let them secure squirming prey. The outermost of their four toes can rotate forward or backward…
Published on 1 year, 10 months ago
Razorbills Swim in Synchrony
Razorbills, a cousin to the puffin, nest in colonies on cliffs. Before they lay eggs, Razorbills take part in two unique social behaviors. In one, the Razorbills swim round and round in a tight mass,…
Published on 1 year, 10 months ago
The Red-bellied Woodpecker and Its Curious Name
Red-bellied Woodpeckers are bold, conspicuous, and vocal, thriving in rural and urban areas east of the Mississippi. Like most woodpeckers, Red-bellieds eat lots of insects. But they also like nuts, …
Published on 1 year, 10 months ago
Songbirds: The Large and Small of It
The group of birds called “songbirds” — the perching birds — is incredibly broad. Half the world’s 10,000 birds are in the songbird group, and their range of body sizes is mind-boggling. One of the s…
Published on 1 year, 10 months ago
Blackbirds' Strange Music
Blackbird songs have a strange music. The Red-winged Blackbird can be heard in nearly every marsh on the continent — bold, brassy, and piercing. The songs may not seem musical, but they definitely ge…
Published on 1 year, 10 months ago
Ducks That Whistle
Whistling as they fly, Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks are gorgeous waterfowl with bright pink bills and legs, chestnut necks and backs, and black underparts. Though most whistling-ducks live in the tr…
Published on 1 year, 10 months ago
Bohemian Waxwings – Exquisite Winter Visitors
It's winter, and apples litter the ground. A few still hang, frozen and thawed again and again. Suddenly a flock of hundreds of birds rises from the ground beneath the trees, swarming in tight format…
Published on 1 year, 10 months ago