Birds

This "smart" mattress cover can track sleep patterns along with respiration and heart rates.

A "Smart" Mattress Cover and Other Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded

Don't have a green thumb? A sensor for your potted plants alerts you when they need watering

Save the Birds By Embarrassing Your Cat

Outfitting cats in colorful collars may be one key to preventing them from effectively preying on birds and other small animals

These fragmented black lines are actually seagulls flying

See the Swoops of Seagulls’ Flight Patterns

Special video effects shows more than an hours worth of seagull flight as curling paths

Close-up of a bald eagle at Klamath Basin.

Now's the Time to See Hundreds of Bald Eagles

The Winter Wings Festival at Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge is one of the longest-running bird festivals in the country

Dabbling around for a meal.

Ducks Help Explain How We Feel All the Feels

Highly sensitive nerves in duck bills are offering clues to the way we experience the sense of touch

Why 2015 Is Shaping Up to Be Another Good Year for Snowy Owls

Ornithologists are tracking the second major snowy owl southern migration in as many years, indicating that the birds’ numbers are still going strong

These Birds Take Turns So No One Gets Too Tired Flying in Formation

“Reciprocal altruism” in a migrating flock of birds means that the more exhausting lead position is deliberately and equally shared

A male houbara bustard putting on an infinitely sexy "booming" display to impress the ladies.

Old Male Bustards Have Less Desirable Sperm

Male birds don’t just lose their female-wooing prowess as they age, but also their ability to sire healthy chicks

A new study shows that birds do not seem to recognize how fast a vehicle is approaching.

Planes Fly Too Fast for Birds to Dodge

New research shows that birds are not adept at avoiding obstacles at such high speeds

Birds Get Drunk And Sing Drunken Songs

Like humans, birds just don’t sing as well drunk as they do when sober

Volunteers participate in the 2009 Audubon Christmas Bird Count. Now in its 115th year, Audubon touts the event as the largest and longest-running citizen science project in the world.

Top Three Results From a 115-Year-Old Citizen Science Project

The Audubon Christmas Bird Count is touted as the world's longest running citizen science project—so what has it taught us?

Wisdom, the World's Oldest Albatross, Laid an Egg

This is about the 35th time Wisdom has been a mother-to-be

An aerial view of the lower portion of the Colorado River shows the leading edge of the water pulse flow on May 12, before it connected with the sea.

The Colorado River Delta Turned Green After a Historic Water Pulse

The experimental flow briefly restored the ancient waterway and may have created new habitat for birds

Scientists Finally Figure Out the “Big Bang” of Bird Evolution

The genomes of 45 birds contributed to the most in-depth bird evolutionary tree ever created

The quantum realm can seem to defy common sense.

Five Practical Uses for "Spooky" Quantum Mechanics

Fifty years after Bell's Theorem, tools that harness the weird properties of quantum mechanics are at work all around you

A rufous hummingbird.

One Hummingbird's Unusual Flight: From Minnesota to Texas, on a Plane

Rufous hummingbirds have no business being in St. Paul amid freezing temperatures

The world's favorite edible bird.

Chinese Chickens May Have Been Domesticated 10,000 Years Ago

Bones found in ancient farming sites are lending insight into the origins of our favorite fowl

Pacific bluefin tuna populations have declined by up to 33 percent over the last 20 years.

300+ Species Just Joined the List of Threatened Plants And Animals

Overfishing, overhunting and habitat loss drove many of the new additions

Fred Tomaselli, Migrant Fruit Thugs, 2006.

The Threatened Birds in These Artworks Might One Day Go the Way of the Dodo

The Smithsonian American Art Museum's exhibition explores mankind's relationship to birds and the natural world

A male great bustard struttin' his stuff.

Male Great Bustards Eat Poison to Look Sexier for the Ladies

The toxic compound can kill mammals - including humans - but helps the birds rid themselves of pests

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