birds

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NYC Birders Excited About Mystery Bald Eagle

Young bird may be city's first native-born eagle in more than 100 years

(Newser) - Between seven to 10 bald eagles call Staten Island their home, but there may be one who can stake a special residency claim, per NBC New York . Although it's only circumstantial evidence so far, birders have recently spotted a young eagle with two adult birds and chowing down on...

In Hot Weather, Song Can Change an Unborn Finch
In Hot Weather,
Song Can Change
an Unborn Finch
STUDY SAYS
Aug 19, 2016 10:06 AM CDT

In Hot Weather, Song Can Change an Unborn Finch

Chicks who hear it grow smaller, choose warmer nests: study

(Newser) - Several types of birds sing to unhatched eggs so their young will recognize their voices once they've hatched—but what the zebra finch does is something else entirely. In a study called "paradigm-shifting" by one of its authors, researchers at Australia's Deakin University say the birds sing...

Scientists May Have Answer for Birds' Gross Deformity

An alarming number of birds are being spotted with mangled beaks

(Newser) - Just before the start of the 21st century, scientists spotted chickadees in Alaska with grossly deformed beaks that seriously impeded the animals' ability to do the most basic tasks for survival, such as eating and grooming. With sightings on the rise—throughout the lower 48 states and in chickadees as...

What Roar? Some Dinosaurs Likely Cooed

They perhaps made 'closed-mouth vocalizations' like birds

(Newser) - Dinosaurs may have been much more like modern birds than we knew—and not just because some had feathers . A new study suggests that mighty dinosaurs of yore didn't roar, contrary to every dinosaur movie you've ever seen. Instead, they made a decidedly less scary sound called a...

Hungry Seagull Gets Serious Dye Job From Vat of Curry

'He smelled amazing, he really smelled good'

(Newser) - A hapless seagull fell into a vat of chicken tikka masala and turned bright orange Monday in Britain. The Telegraph reports the hungry seabird was trying to fish some meat out of a vat at a factory in Wales when it fell into the curry. Workers fished it out, but...

Bird Takes Off With Knife From Crime Scene

 Bird Takes Off 
 With Knife 
 From Crime 
 Scene 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
May 26, 2016 1:49 AM CDT

Bird Takes Off With Knife From Crime Scene

Cops had to chase city's 'most notorious crow'

(Newser) - The CBC describes Canuck as "Vancouver's most notorious crow," and it's not hard to see why: After cops in the Canadian city shot and injured a man who confronted them with a knife on Tuesday, a crow believed to be Canuck—because of a distinctive red...

Only in Portland: Bold Bird Interrupts Sanders Speech

And just like that, 'put a bird on it' was relevant again

(Newser) - You know what they say: When in Portland, do as the Portlanders do. The Oregonian reports Bernie Sanders put a bird on it during a rally at the Moda Center in Portland on Friday. According to CNN , Sanders noticed a small green bird land near where he was speaking and...

Surprise: Dodos Were Actually Pretty Smart
 Surprise: Dodos Were 
 Actually Pretty Smart 
NEW STUDY
Feb 24, 2016 6:29 AM CST

Surprise: Dodos Were Actually Pretty Smart

They also had an unusually keen sense of smell

(Newser) - The poor dodo bird. It wasn't enough that the humans who happened upon the exotic creatures on the island of Mauritius in the late 1500s slaughtered them for food and brought about their extinction less than 100 years later, but we then started using their name to be synonymous...

Two Birds Might Be Purposely Starting Wildfires in Australia

Which opens the possibility that humans weren't the first to tame fire

(Newser) - Two species of birds might be deliberately starting wildfires in Australia, the Tech Times reports. This might seem outlandish, but cultural geographer Mark Bonta tells Newsweek it's "standard knowledge" among the aboriginal community and firefighters in northern Australia. According to the Washington Post , birds of prey are known...

Man Allegedly Smuggled Live Birds in His Pants

Authorities say he had a few more in a fanny pack

(Newser) - We would have been concerned about birds' well-documented taste for worms, but to each their own. A traveler arriving from Cuba was caught trying to smuggle nine live birds—three of them in the "groin area" of his pants—Jan. 9 at Miami International Airport, according to US Customs...

The Going Is Getting Tougher for World's Migratory Birds

Study finds only 9% have adequate protection along their routes

(Newser) - Migrating birds are impressive—one species is known to travel more than 6,800 miles in a single flight—but they're no match for human development, the Los Angeles Times reports. That's why researchers behind a study published Friday in Science say the world needs to band together...

Baby Whale Killers May Have Come From the Sky

It might be from 'gull harassment,' scientists say

(Newser) - Scientists have been scratching their heads over hundreds of baby whales that perished off the coast of Argentina between 2013 and 2014, but a new study points the finger at a possible cause, or at least a contributing factor: pesky seagulls, Live Science reports. The study published in PLoS One ...

Alaskan Cod Are Eating Seabirds

And scientists have no idea why

(Newser) - In what could definitely be the inspiration for a SyFy original movie, it appears Pacific cod are working their way up the food chain. A few years ago, Alaskan seafood workers started finding partially digested bird remains inside the stomachs of cod caught in the Aleutian Islands region, the Anchorage ...

Widow: I Planned on Feeding Husband to Birds

Ila Solomon wanted to grant dead husband's wish

(Newser) - The widow of a an 88-year-old Indiana man whose body remained in his home for as long as nine months after death has pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges, and admitted that she wanted his body to be eaten by birds. Fifty-six-year-old Ila Solomon of Lafayette pleaded guilty to failure...

Scientist Stumbles Onto Elusive Bird —Then Kills It

Christopher E. Filardi stirs up a controversy

(Newser) - Christopher E. Filardi, a director at the American Museum of Natural History, stumbled upon an elusive male moustached kingfisher while on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands recently—and then killed it. In scientific terms, he "collected" it, but that means euthanasia, the Washington Post reports. Moustached kingfishers were first...

There's Something Seriously Wrong With Our Seabirds

Seabirds that soared for 60M years crashed in just 60 years

(Newser) - There are nearly 350 species of seabirds roaming the planet, ranging from the wandering albatross (with the world's largest wingspan) and the child-size emperor penguin (the only bird to breed in Antarctic winters) to tiny storm petrels that dance on the water as they eat, reports the Guardian . But...

Neighbors Sue Family Who Gained Fame Feeding Crows

Say they're now plagued by constant cawing, feces, rats

(Newser) - A sweet BBC story in February documented the relationship between 8-year-old Gabi Mann of Seattle and her close bond with the crows in her neighborhood: Since 2013, she'd been feeding them daily, sometimes even offering them her own lunch, then collecting the "gifts" they'd bring back for...

How This Bird Communicates Like Humans

Its calls show 'a very basic form of word generation': researcher

(Newser) - Scientists have discovered a talent never seen outside of humans in a small Australian bird: the ability to string sounds together to convey different meanings. Essentially, "it's a very basic form of word generation," researcher Andy Russell tells the BBC . The team started out by listening to...

How the Turtle Got Its Shell
 How the Turtle Got Its Shell 
Jun 25, 2015 8:20 AM CDT

How the Turtle Got Its Shell

The 240M-year-old 'grandfather' turtle had no shell and a very long tail

(Newser) - For at least a century, scientists have puzzled over the turtle. Thanks to a gap in the fossil record between 260 million and 220 million years ago, it's unclear how the turtle got its shell and to whom it's most closely related. Now a fossil from 240 million...

Sexed-Up 'Bachelor' Birds Could Save Their Species

Single male hihi birds can cut down inbreeding, ensure genetic diversity

(Newser) - Is the male hihi bird native to the Jersey Shore? Because, like The Situation and Pauly D, the single male birds in this endangered species (they're actually only found in New Zealand) are decidedly boorish, creeping for already taken ladies to mate with. But this actually might save the...

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