birds

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>

African Honey Foragers Have a Unique Guide
This Bird
Really
Likes to Share
Nature's Secrets
new study
Dec 31, 2023 2:00 PM CST

This Bird Really Likes to Share Nature's Secrets

The Greater Honeyguide leads foragers to beehives, learns to recognize their human calls

(Newser) - Honeyguide birds in Africa know all the best places to score the sweet stuff from hives hidden in trees—and luckily for human foragers, they are apparently eager to share this info. NPR takes a look at new research in the journal Science that demonstrates the birds have learned to...

Honk for These New Prison Guards in Brazil

Vigilant geese replace dogs at the Penitentiary Complex near Florianopolis

(Newser) - Who needs guard dogs when you have guard geese? Perhaps not as intimidating as a dog with bared teeth, a gaggle of the vigilant, honking birds have replaced canines as guards at a prison in Brazil's southern state of Santa Catarina, Reuters reports. "We have electronic surveillance, in-person...

Bird Crashed Through Chopper Windshield, Right Into Pilot

Helicopter pilot 'covered in blood and feathers' after accident with waterfowl that struck him in head

(Newser) - While Americans carved their turkeys during Thanksgiving dinner this year, Iowa's Troy McCormick spent the holiday dealing with an entirely different kind of bird. The pilot with the Wings Air Rescue critical-care helicopter service out of Sioux City tells KCAU that he was flying his chopper toward a Storm...

In Birdlike Tracks, an Evolution Mystery
'We're Pretty Sure
It's Not a Bird'
NEW STUDY
Dec 5, 2023 12:53 PM CST

'We're Pretty Sure It's Not a Bird'

But what made bird-like tracks before birds existed isn't clear

(Newser) - The earliest known fossils attributed to ancestors of modern birds date to around 160 million years ago, which is why birdlike tracks discovered in southern Africa and dated to tens of millions of years earlier have become a fascinating topic of discussion for paleontologists. In reviewing 163 tracks found across...

John Oliver Wrecked New Zealand&#39;s Bird of the Century Competition
New Zealand Was
Having a Nice Bird
Contest. Then
Came John Oliver
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Nov 19, 2023 3:45 PM CST

New Zealand Was Having a Nice Bird Contest. Then Came John Oliver

'Last Week Tonight' host wins with his viral campaign to get puking bird voted 'Bird of the Century'

(Newser) - Comedian John Oliver has succeeded in his campaign to have what he describes as a weird, puking bird with a colorful mullet win New Zealand's Bird of the Century contest. As the AP reports, he even managed to elbow out the iconic national bird, the kiwi. Conservation group Forest...

All American Birds That Honor People to Be Renamed

American Ornithological Society announced the decision Wednesday

(Newser) - It's being framed as a "fairly radical" decision in a fairly traditional domain. The American Ornithological Society on Wednesday said it will rename all US and Canadian bird species that honor people in order to remove painful associations that can come with the eponymous practice. NPR places the...

Researchers See Bad News for Birds on Farms
Researchers
See Bad News
for Birds on Farms
new study
Oct 19, 2023 2:38 PM CDT

Researchers See Bad News for Birds on Farms

They're more vulnerable to extreme heat than their cousins in the forest

(Newser) - As climate change intensifies extreme heat, farms are becoming less hospitable to nesting birds, a new study found. Researchers who examined data on over 150,000 nesting attempts found that birds in agricultural lands were 46% less likely to successfully raise at least one chick when it got really hot...

21 Species Off Endangered List—Because They're Extinct

US Fish and Wildlife Service pulls 10 bird species, 8 types of mussels, 2 fish, 1 fruit bat

(Newser) - Twenty-one animals have been removed from the Endangered Species Act because, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, they're not endangered—they're extinct. The majority of the species—10 types of birds, eight types of mussels, two species of fish, and one type of bat—were listed...

964 Birds Fatally Strike Chicago Building in One Night

The sheer amount of migrating birds to die in a single night is called an 'outlier'

(Newser) - On a typical morning, as many as 15 birds might be found dead outside Chicago's McCormick Place Lakeside Center, having fatally struck the building the night prior. On Thursday morning, a nearly unimaginable 964 of them were found dead, and another 80 were found stunned but still alive, according...

Birders in Awe as Storm Delivers 'Uber-Rare' Species

16 North American species spotted in UK and Ireland, some for the first time

(Newser) - The height of excitment in England is having your soccer team win the Premier League. Bird-watchers say the feeling is akin to what they experienced over the weekend as 16 North American bird species, blown across the Atlantic with the remnants of Hurricane Lee, arrived on British and Irish shores....

Flamingos Show Up Way North for First Time Ever

Five of them appear in Wisconsin, along a Lake Michigan beach

(Newser) - Five flamingos that showed up in Wisconsin to wade along a Lake Michigan beach attracted a big crowd of onlookers eager to see the unusual visitors venturing far from their usual tropical setting. The American flamingos spotted Friday in Port Washington, about 25 miles north of Milwaukee, marked the first...

Birds Found Under Power Lines Didn't Die the Way You'd Expect

A surprising number of them had been shot, study finds

(Newser) - You might understandably think that most of the birds found dead under power lines had been electrocuted. But you'd be wrong, at least according to a recent study flagged by the New York Times . Wildlife biologist Eve Thomason of Boise State University and her colleagues repeatedly walked or drove...

Crabs Face Double Whammy: From Scientists and Birds

The AP looks at the plight of horseshoe crabs, whose blood is sought for medicine

(Newser) - A primordial sea animal that lives on the tidal mudflats of the East Coast and serves as a linchpin for the production of vital medicines stands to benefit from new protective standards. But conservationists who have been trying for years to save a declining bird species that depends on horseshoe...

For Him, the 'Lottery' Is an Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

'Garden & Gun' profiles Bobby Harrison and his decades-long quest

(Newser) - "To win the lottery, you've got to buy a ticket," says Bobby Harrison. In Harrison's case, winning the lottery equates to spotting an ivory-billed woodpecker. And buying the ticket equates to getting in his canoe and mucking about the swamps of eastern Arkansas, which he has...

Crow and Magpie Nests Show the 'Birds Are Outsmarting Us'

Study finds they have made nests using anti-bird spikes

(Newser) - Crows in particular have long demonstrated spooky levels of intelligence, but a new Dutch study shows they, along with magpies, have an ability to adapt to their urban environments that isn't just clever but ironic as well. The Guardian reports that researchers with Rotterdam's Natural History Museum and...

'Devil Bird' in New York Shows a Shift in Migration Patterns

Climate change is opening new areas to Southern bird species

(Newser) - A bird known as the anhinga, or "devil bird," rarely seen in New York, has taken up residence around Brooklyn's Prospect Park Lake for the past two weeks, reports the New York Times . This marks the first ever anhinga sighting in Kings County, and only the second...

Eagle Who Tried to Hatch a Rock Gets His Dad Wish

Murphy wanted to be a father so bad that Missouri sanctuary is now letting him foster its new eaglet

(Newser) - Father's Day isn't for a couple of more months, but there's one dad who deserves acknowledgment now. That would be Murphy, a bald eagle living at the World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, Missouri, who had paternal cravings so strong that he actually tried to hatch a...

'Bird' Heard in Home's Walls Was Something Else Entirely

Animal rescue called off after UK resident discovered creature was a stuffed 'Harry Potter' toy

(Newser) - It can be quite distressing to discover there's a wild animal trapped in the walls of your house, as one UK resident thought had happened in their case. Per UPI , a call was recently made to Cleethorpes Wildlife Rescue about a bird in such a predicament in a North...

We&#39;ve Given Seabirds a New Disease
We've Given Seabirds
a New Disease
new study
Mar 3, 2023 1:07 PM CST

We've Given Seabirds a New Disease

'Plasticosis' is doing serious damage to digestive tracts

(Newser) - Scientists who examined dozens of dead fledgling seabirds have identified a new disease caused by plastic pollution. In a study published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials , researchers describe "plasticosis" as a "novel, plastic-induced fibrotic disease." Researchers say the disease is caused by ingestion of small pieces...

Cops Looking Into Death of Pigeon Dyed Pink

NYPD is on the case of death of 'Flamingo,' who may have been dyed for a gender reveal

(Newser) - The sad news of the death of Flamingo , the white king pigeon found in Manhattan last month dyed pink, has now attracted the attention of local law enforcement. The New York Times reports that the NYPD's animal cruelty unit has opened an investigation into what happened to the bird,...

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