The white-headed duck is “one of the true eccentrics of the waterfowl world because almost everything about it seems unusual,” says waterfowl expert Nicky Petkov.

Spain’s White-Headed Ducks Have a Signature Color Right in the Name. And That Isn’t Even Their Most Remarkable Hue

The first thing you’re likely to notice is the blue bill. But beyond appearances, the duck has an exciting story to tell about conservation and recovery

Cheryl Katz
Photographs by Javier Aznar González de Rueda

Dice from the now-closed Southern Club, established in 1893.

Travel

Before Vegas Became Vegas, Hot Springs Was America’s Sin City. Now the Arkansas Spa Town Embraces Its Colorful and Seedy History

September/October 2026

Smart News

These 20 Breathtaking Bird Images From the Audubon Photography Awards Capture the Wonder of the Winged World

September 2, 2026 3:48 p.m.

Blue Crabs Have Taken Over the Adriatic Sea. To Fight Them Off, Italian Researchers Just Released Thousands of Baby Octopuses

September 2, 2026 2:48 p.m.

Archaeologists Discover a 4,000-Year-Old Tomb With a False Door at Egypt’s Ancient Saqqara Necropolis

September 2, 2026 2:43 p.m.

World War II Sugar Rationing Data Hints That Limiting Intake of the Sweet Stuff Early in Life Lowers the Risk of Dementia and Cancer

September 2, 2026 11:48 a.m.

Corals Reveal El Niño Events Have Become Stronger in Recent Decades, Probably Because Humans Have Been Heating Up the Planet

September 2, 2026 10:00 a.m.

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Latest Features

Science

Spain’s White-Headed Ducks Have a Signature Color Right in the Name. And That Isn’t Even Their Most Remarkable Hue

September/October 2026

In loud conditions, a tokay gecko adjusts its call, which is typically used to find a mate or defend territory.

Science

Reptiles Make a Surprising Amount of Noise. Here’s What Those Sounds Might Mean, From Pops to Hoots to Bellows

September 2, 2026 7:30 a.m.

Travel

Before Vegas Became Vegas, Hot Springs Was America’s Sin City. Now the Arkansas Spa Town Embraces Its Colorful and Seedy History

September/October 2026

Flight attendant Lorraine Bay carefully recorded every flight she worked in this log book, found near the wreckage of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

At the Smithsonian

Thirty-Seven Smithsonian Artifacts That Tell the Story of 9/11, From a Flight 93 Logbook to a Squeegee Handle Used to Escape From the World Trade Center

Updated: September 1, 2026 | Originally Published: September 8, 2021

Innovation

We’ve Been Strapping Cargo to Our Backs for Millions of Years, but Backpack Innovation Really Took Off Around the Civil War

September/October 2026

Toby Rawlinson in his Hudson roadster after the First Battle of Ypres, November 1914.

History

Some of the Earliest Automobile Enthusiasts Signed Up to Help the Allies in WWI. They Also Ushered in the Mechanization of War

September/October 2026

Uncovering the past. Understanding the present. Informing the future.

Give a Gift Renew

Summer 2026

The “Ether Dome” at Massachusetts General Hospital is now a National Historic Landmark.

Science Theater of Relief

Medical procedures used to be a scream-filled endurance test until doctors at this Boston institution learned to tame the pain of patients

The view from Olana State Historic Site in Hudson, New York.

Travel Rediscovering America’s Original Grand Tour

Follow along as we retrace the route one journalist laid out in “The Fashionable Tour,” from New York City to Niagara Falls, when memories of the fight for independence were still fresh

History How to Build a Character

Silence Dogood. Richard Saunders. Benevolus. Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim. All were pen names that allowed Franklin to say things he couldn’t have otherwise said

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Smart News

1,800 Volunteers Pull a 400-Ton Japanese Castle Keep Back Toward Its Original Location After a Decade of Restoration Work

Smart News

Historical Pollution, Not Current Industrial Emissions, Damaged the World’s Largest and Oldest Collection of Ancient Rock Art, Study Suggests

History

The Prehistoric Paintings on the Walls of Caves Have Always Been Moving. But With the Right Kind of Light, Some Actually Seem to Move

Smart News

Why Was This 17th-Century Polish Woman Buried With a Padlock on Her Toe and an Iron Sickle Across Her Neck?

Smart News

When Fruit Is Scarce, These Monkeys Hunt Animals. The Behavior May Offer Clues About the Origins of Humans’ Meat-Eating Habits

Special Report

America at 250: The Revolutionary Spark

A Smithsonian magazine special issue in celebration of the nation's 250th

View Full Report

Featured Stories

Arts & Culture

Georgia O’Keeffe Ignored Advice to Mimic Great European Masters. Her Goal Instead Was to Be a Great American Painter

O’Keeffe’s New Mexico studio Ghost Ranch. Opposite, a 1918 photo portrait by future husband Alfred Stieglitz.

History

Born in 1810, Margaret Fuller Was Labeled a Child Prodigy. She Later Used Her Intellect to Ask Important Questions About Women’s Role in America

A portrait of Fuller, inspired by her 1845 Woman in the Nineteenth Century, which argued for equality of the sexes. The book’s opening illustration featured mystical symbols of harmonizing opposites, including the Ouroboros, a snake eating its own tail.

History

The American Revolution’s Overlooked Influence? Physics. How ‘Common Sense’ Spelled Out Astronomical Expectations for a New Nation

After Isaac Newton, above, revolutionized celestial mechanics, admirers such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Paine, left, saw in Newton’s natural laws a model for democratic self-government.

Photo of the Day

A container sculpture on Pier 2 art area in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Pier 2, Kaohsiung

By Eugene Reshetov

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Smithsonian Podcast: There’s More to That

Smithsonian magazine covers history, science and culture in the way only it can — through a lens on the world that is insightful and grounded in richly reported stories. In There’s More to That, meet the magazine’s journalists and hear how they discover the forces behind the biggest issues of our time.

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Latest Episodes

The Remarkable, Amazing Stories of Route 66 Reflect the Twists and Turns of 100 Years of Americana

April 23, 2026 | 34 minutes

A Photographer’s Glimpse Into the Dwindling World of the Cascade Red Fox

April 9, 2026 | 32 minutes

The Real Story Behind Abigail Adams’ ‘Remember the Ladies’ Letter

March 26, 2026 | 31 minutes

Venomous Snakes Represent a Serious Public Health Problem. Scientists Are Biting Back With a Groundbreaking Antidote

March 12, 2026 | 28 minutes

History

Records uncovered by researcher Christopher Moore indicate that stones from Sandown Castle were repurposed in a Victorian-era extension of Constable's Gate at Dover Castle (pictured here).

Stones From One of Henry VIII’s Fortresses Spent More Than a Century Hidden in Plain Sight. New Research Suggests the Victorians Repurposed Them as Building Materials

Recently discovered archival records indicate that workers constructing an extension of the Constable’s Gate at Dover Castle in the late 19th century reused fragments of the Tudor-era Sandown Castle

September 1, 2026

Why Was This 17th-Century Polish Woman Buried With a Padlock on Her Toe and an Iron Sickle Across Her Neck?

August 27, 2026

This American Commando Parachuted Behind Enemy Lines in Both the European and Pacific Theaters of World War II

August 27, 2026

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Science

Reptiles Make a Surprising Amount of Noise. Here’s What Those Sounds Might Mean, From Pops to Hoots to Bellows

Scientists are realizing that turtles, lizards and crocodilians communicate vocally more than they once thought

September 2, 2026 7:30 a.m.

Tennis Matches Are Heating Up, Literally. Here’s How the Court Became a Living Laboratory for Managing Extreme Temperatures

August 27, 2026