birds

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Crab Is Seen Hunting a Bird in 'Gruesome' First

Coconut crabs were previously thought to be scavengers

(Newser) - Seabirds apparently have a surprising new predator to worry about. A researcher who worked on the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean in 2016 says he witnessed a large coconut crab attack a sleeping seabird, which then became dinner. Mark Laidre of Dartmouth College says he first spotted a crab...

How to Build a New Beak? 3D Print One

Karl the hornbill was born with half a bottom beak

(Newser) - For Karl the hornbill, the pickings were slim. With only half a bottom beak, the black-plumed bird at Washington's National Zoo couldn't eat anything smaller than a mouse. And to do that, he had to sort of scrape his beak along the ground while tilting his head at...

The Dodo May Be Dead, but We Just Learned More About Its Life

New study reveals life cycle of famously extinct bird

(Newser) - Big dodo news out of the science world this week. Yes, it's still extinct, but a study published Thursday in Scientific Reports finally sheds light on the life cycle of the famously dead bird. “We know so little about these birds that everything was basically a surprise,”...

Think Ducks Are Cute? This Might Change Your Mind

Mallards spotted eating birds in Romania

(Newser) - You probably thought ducks were cute waddlers who liked to eat your stale bread. Poof, your bubble has been burst. The BBC reports wild mallard ducks have been spotted eating other birds, swallowing one nearly whole, an "extraordinary" behavior that has never been observed before. Zoologist Silviu Petrovan of...

Knife-Stealing Crow Wreaking Havoc Again

This time Canuck attacked a mail carrier

(Newser) - It’s been awhile since Canuck stole a knife from a crime scene, so perhaps boredom had set in. Or perhaps the crow just has a taste for blood. Either way, the local celebrity in Vancouver, Canada, shut down mail service to several addresses in the city for more than...

Trump Admin Sets Sights on Protections for Sage Grouse

A conservation plan to protect the rare bird could be in jeopardy

(Newser) - The sage grouse, which is known for its unique mating dance and only found in North America, has lost up to 90% of its population over the past few decades, dwindling to between 200,000 and 500,000 birds. Now a plan to save the sage grouse that took years...

Miracle on the Hudson Legacy: 70K Dead Birds

NYC airports kill the birds that were blamed for crash, with little evidence skies are safer

(Newser) - Birds took the blame for bringing down the jetliner that "Sully" Sullenberger landed on the Hudson River eight years ago this weekend. They have been paying for it with their lives ever since. An AP analysis of bird-killing programs at the New York City area's three major airports...

The World's Oldest Known Seabird Is Expecting—Again

Wisdom is 60-something years old and has dozens of offspring

(Newser) - The world's oldest known seabird is expecting—again. Biologists spotted the Laysan albatross called Wisdom at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge earlier this month after she returned to the island to nest, the AP reports. She was incubating an egg at the same nest she uses each year with...

Smell of Plastic Makes Seabirds Think It's a Meal

Turns out, the scent is similar to krill

(Newser) - Scientists think they've figured out why so many seabirds feast on plastic floating in the ocean, often with deadly consequences. It turns out that the plastic smells an awful lot like the small crustaceans known as krill that are a staple of the birds' diet, reports New Scientist . The...

Tiny Bird Doesn&#39;t Land for 10 Months
Tiny Bird Doesn't
Land for 10 Months
Oct 28, 2016 12:58 PM CDT

Tiny Bird Doesn't Land for 10 Months

Common swift steals longest continuous flight for a bird

(Newser) - The common swift makes its cousin's six months in continuous flight look like nothing more than a hop, skip, and a jump. The tiny bird easily steals the record for longest continuous flight by spending 10 months in the air without landing once, reports NPR , by way of a...

Dozens of Birds Fall From Sky in Boston Neighborhood

And no one knows why

(Newser) - Dozens of birds fell from the sky—and at least one house cat died—Thursday afternoon on a street in Boston, and no one knows why. The Boston Globe reports a resident called animal services when she noticed her cat was seriously ill and there were birds littering the ground....

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...

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