7,465 results
- Ecosystems
Noise pollution can harm birds even before they hatch
Exposing zebra finch eggs and hatchlings to traffic sounds had lifelong health impacts, raising concerns about increased anthropogenic noise.
- Animals
A new book explores the transformative power of bird-watching
In Birding to Change the World, environmental scientist Trish O’Kane shows how birds and humans can help one another heal.
- Animals
50 years ago, scientists wondered how birds find their way home
In the 1970s, lab tests hinted that birds can navigate using magnetic fields. New studies suggest that beak and eye proteins are behind the ability.
- Health & Medicine
Traces of bird flu are showing up in cow milk. Here’s what to know
We asked the experts: Should people be worried? Pasteurization and the H5N1 virus’s route to infection suggests risks to people remains low.
- Genetics
Here’s why some pigeons do backflips
Meet the scientist homing in on the genes involved in making parlor roller pigeons do backward somersaults.
- Health & Medicine
Bird flu has infected a person after spreading to cows. Here’s what to know
H5N1 has wreaked havoc on birds around the globe and occasionally made the jump to mammals, including cows. The risk to people remains low.
- Animals
By fluttering its wings, this bird uses body language to tell its mate ‘after you’
New observations suggest that Japanese tits gesture to communicate complex messages — a rare ability in the animal kingdom and a first seen in birds.
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- Animals
A bird flu outbreak is sweeping the globe. Its long-term effects are unclear
A reporter’s recent trip to the Galápagos offered a chance to reflect on the bird flu outbreak, which has killed millions of birds and other animals.
- Microbes
Bird flu viruses may pack tools that help them infect human cells
Bringing along their own ANP32 proteins may give avian flu viruses a jump-start on copying themselves to adapt to and infect humans and other animals.
- Animals
These bats are the only mammals known to mate more like birds
Male serotine bats have penises too large for penetration. To mate, the animals rub their genitals against each other, somewhat like birds’ cloacal kiss.
- Neuroscience
Chickadees use memory ‘bar codes’ to find their hidden food stashes
Unique subsets of neurons in a chickadee’s memory center light up for each distinct cache, hinting at how episodic memories are encoded in the brain.
