7,617 results
7,617 results for: Birds
- Ecosystems
Extinct moa ate purple trufflelike fungi, fossil bird droppings reveal
DNA analysis reveals the big, flightless moa birds ate — and pooped out — 13 kinds of fungi, including ones crucial for New Zealand’s forest ecosystem.
- Science & Society
The U.S. empire was built on bird dung
A mid-1850s act let the United States seize islands rich in bird guano. Those strategic outposts fueled the U.S. rise to power, a researcher says.
- Health & Medicine
What to know about the first bird flu–related death in the U.S.
H5N1 has infected 66 people in the United States since early 2024, mostly causing mild illness. A Louisiana man was the first to get severely sick.
- Paleontology
These crocodile-like beasts reached the Caribbean, outlasting mainland kin
Knife-toothed reptiles called sebecids went extinct on the mainland 10 million years ago. New fossil evidence puts them on an island 4 million years ago.
- Climate
Penguin poop gives Antarctic cloud formation a boost
Penguin poop provides ammonia for cloud formation in coastal Antarctica, potentially helping to mitigate the impacts of climate change in the region.
- Animals
How a puffin patrol in Iceland is saving the iconic seabirds
Light pollution disorients young puffins. The Puffling Patrol helps them find their way to the sea.
- Neuroscience
Parrots and humans share a brain mechanism for speech
Brain activity in vocalizing budgerigar parrots showed a pattern that harkened to those found in the brains of people.
- Health & Medicine
Why finding bird flu in a U.S. pig for the first time is raising new worries
Swine can act as so-called “mixing vessels” for human and bird flus, giving avian viruses an opportunity to adapt for spreading in people.
- Animals
Bird nests made with a toxic fungus seem to fend off attacking ants
Two species of birds in Costa Rica build nests in trees defended by ants. Ants that encounter the horsehair fungus in the nests develop odd behaviors.
- Planetary Science
In a first, the Webb telescope found a planet by actually ‘seeing’ it
Finding a Saturn-sized world around the young star TWA 7 could pave the way for the Webb space telescope’s direct observation of other exoplanets.
- Animals
Science has finally cracked male riflebirds’ flirty secrets
New video upsets the old notion that these birds of paradise use wing clapping to make percussive sounds while courting.
- Life
The ‘Blob,’ an unprecedented marine heat wave, killed 4 million seabirds
Millions of other animals may have perished too, suggesting the die-off event might be one of the worst in modern times.
