Bird Science

A mother Wild Turkey hen perches on a sturdy branch with her wings spread, protecting her small chicks.
The Wild Turkey Is a Comeback Bird We Can’t Take for Granted
September 19, 2025 — From bustling towns to rural woodlands, turkeys seem to be everywhere these days. But despite being an undeniable conservation success, questions still loom about the fate of this beloved yet confounding bird.
Feature Stories
Two researchers, with equipment and notebooks splayed across a boardwalk in a forest, sit cross-legged while they record data.
Scientists Can Now Track How High Songbirds Fly Over the Ocean—a Potential Lifesaver
September 19, 2025 — Researchers are gathering new insights that improve migration science and may help make offshore wind energy more friendly to small birds with big treks.
Bird Migration
A Common Myna stands on a railing with its beak open, vocalizing.
Sleepy Birds Are Lousy Singers, Study Finds
August 21, 2025 — Just like people, songbirds are groggy and quiet after a rough night’s sleep—a sign that urban noise and light may leave them less fit for reproduction and survival.
A Streaked Shearwater pooping while flying.
Poop-Cam Footage Shows These Seabirds Fertilize the Ocean With Their Body Weight Per Day in Guano
August 18, 2025 — Recording Streaked Shearwaters gave scientists a new window into the role seabirds play in fueling marine food webs—and possibly spreading avian flu—far from land.
A light gray seabird hovers on a wave with its beak open at the surface.
How Do Seabirds Drink Salt Water?
August 07, 2025 — Albatrosses, petrels, and other ocean-dwellers can stay hydrated without fresh water. The key? Little glands above their eyes.
Bird Questions and Facts
A collage of two taxidermied bird specimens, a cloacascope, a book, and two documents on a black background.
‘Feather Detective’ Roxie Laybourne’s Career in Six Objects
July 22, 2025 — From a gynandromorphic grosbeak to feathers collected at a murder investigation in Florida, biographer Chris Sweeney shares six unusual artifacts he found while researching his new book about the world’s first forensic ornithologist.
Books
A gull walking on pavement holding a piece of green baked good in its beak.
This Researcher Wants Your Photos of ‘Gulls Eating Stuff’
July 21, 2025 — A community science project examines how gull diets are shifting amid population declines.
A female mallard is harnessed with a tracking device.
To Solve the Mallard's Mysterious Decline, Researchers Turn to Hi-Tech Trackers
June 20, 2025 — Biologists are using the devices to better understand the bird's behavior and, ultimately, what might be driving our most common duck's population drop.
A male Anna's Hummingbird perches on a red hummingbird feeder.
This Hummingbird Rapidly Evolved a Longer Beak to Slurp More Nectar from Feeders, New Study Finds
May 29, 2025 — The 20th century expansion of nectar feeders drove Anna’s Hummingbirds to spread across California—and transformed the birds along the way.
Clear liquid trickles out of a hummingbird hovering in midair.
Do Birds Pee? Hummingbirds Do—a Lot
April 23, 2025 — Unlike most other avians, hummers urinate in a stream much like mammals, releasing liquid waste often and out of necessity.
Bird Questions and Facts