10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

Jennifer Ackerman points out in the introduction to What the Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds , that we don’t know much, but that very soon we may know a lot more. What the Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds is a joyous, fascinating read.

Owls 224

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 224

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

They may be about bird eggs ( The Most Perfect Thing: The Inside (and Outside) of a Bird’s Egg , 2016), or a 17th-century ornithologist ( Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby, 2016), or How Bullfinches learn songs from humans ( The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology.

Dissection 234

Dissection Birds Research Europe 234

Critter News

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

The author is Nick Cooney and he's the Director of The Humane League, an animal advocacy non-profit with offices in Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington DC. Change Of Heart provides science-based answers to many questions that are hotly debated among animal activists. In the author's words.

Advocacy 100

Advocacy Factory Farm Factory Farming Companion Animal 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 29, 2024

Location, location, location – some practical advice for River Lapwings aiming to have a family: “ River Lapwing nests on open, unvegetated river banks achieved significantly greater nesting success than those in crop fields” ( source ). Which sounds like a species name taken from a science fiction novel for children.

Squirrels 141

Squirrels Birds China Bears 141

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2022

While hoopoes are in their own family, DNA studies suggest that the hoopoe diverged from hornbills, and the wood-hoopoes and scimitarbills from the hoopoe. However, it is kind of sophisticated in that the females lay very individualized eggs in order to be able to detect the added eggs of parasite cuckoo finches.

Zimbabwe 147

Zimbabwe Birds South Africa Benin 147

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 18, 2014

In the former, a female lays her fertilized egg in the nest of another species, in the hopes that her offspring will be raised by the unwitting hosts. A recent paper in Science, Brood Parasitism and the Evolution of Cooperative Breeding in Birds by Feeney, Medina, Somveille, et al, looks into this interesting possible relationship.

Breeders 210

Breeders Breeding Birds Groups 210

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 1, 2022

I have written about the interesting sex life of these jacanas a few times already (short version: female mates with male, lays a bunch of eggs for him to incubate and raise the chicks, leaves him, finds another male, repeat). Apparently, after a male first mates with a female, he throws out the first one or two eggs she lays in their nest.

Birds 147

Birds China Eggs Breeding 147