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Bird Science

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
Juvenile bird resting on egg
Silver Lining for Shorebirds: New Study Shows Arctic Nesting Species Are Cued into Climate Change
July 28, 2025 — Attentive long-distance migrants are following environmental cues better than expected, showing some shorebirds to be surprisingly adaptable.
ALASKA
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.
Shorebird feeding in mud
Let Them Eat Mud: How Biofilm Can Change Shorebird Conservation
May 05, 2025 — And how the biofilm “film” documents this scientific breakthrough for Western Sandpipers while highlighting a dangerous development project on a crucial stopover site.
ALASKA