birds

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Calif. Pelicans Hit by Mystery Illness

Experts puzzled as dying birds turn up miles from coastal home

(Newser) - A mystery disease causing disoriented pelicans to crash to earth in unusual locations near the California coast has wildlife experts stumped, reports the Los Angeles Times. Bruised and fatigued birds are being found on highways and in backyards far from their usual seaside haunts. Some appear to be dying, but...

Sorry, Chicken; Fossil Proves Egg Came First

(Newser) - The contents of a fossilized dinosaur nest may help resolve the age-old chicken-and-egg question, LiveScience reports. That birds evolved from dinosaurs is no secret, but the new discovery shows that the pointy-ended bird egg developed before the bird itself, paleontologists say. The nest is believed to have belonged to one...

Cops Tase, Kill Renegade Emu
 Cops Tase, Kill Renegade Emu 
Sep 3, 2008 1:31 PM CDT

Cops Tase, Kill Renegade Emu

Bird dies after state troopers are forced to tase it

(Newser) - An Emu ran wild on the Pennsylvania Turnpike for two hours Monday and died after state troopers used a taser on it, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports. Motorists said the bird ran up and down the shoulder of the road until getting stuck in traffic lanes with high barriers on either...

Crows Recognize Human Faces: Study

Birds distinguished friendly and unfriendly masks, squawked at perceived foe

(Newser) - If you ever offend a crow, don’t expect it to forgive and forget. University of Washington researchers found that the birds recognize human faces long after an encounter, the New York Times reports. Participants wore specific masks when they captured campus crows; after their release, the birds angrily scolded...

Rising Seas to Swallow Reserve
 Rising Seas to Swallow Reserve
Aug 25, 2008 1:46 PM CDT

Rising Seas to Swallow Reserve

Caretakers forced to retreat before rising waters

(Newser) - A portion of a major UK nature reserve is being abandoned to the rising tides, the Independent reports. In the face of eroding sea defenses, Titchwell Marsh has decided to make a “managed retreat” inland, giving up much on a substantial portion of the birdwatching hotspot. “The erosion...

Doom Looms for Spotted Owl
 Doom Looms for Spotted Owl
Aug 14, 2008 3:01 AM CDT

Doom Looms for Spotted Owl

Invasion of aggressive Eastern owl threatens controversial bird

(Newser) - The outlook appears bleak for America's most controversial bird, reports the Seattle Times. Despite logging bans in huge swathes of old-growth forests initiated 14 years ago to protect the northern spotted owl, researchers have discovered its numbers have dropped by nearly half. The decline is blamed on pre-1994 habitat loss...

'One in a Million' Conjoined Birds Found in Arkansas

Pair dies after landowner rescues them fallen from tree

(Newser) - A pair of barn swallows born joined at the hip are being sent to the Smithsonian Institute for study, the AP reports. An Arkansas landowner found them fallen out of a tree this week and kept them for a day, but they refused to eat and died. Conjoined birds are...

Study Rewrites Birds' Family Tree

DNA research reveals new information about bird relations

(Newser) - A five-year study of bird DNA is turning the world of ornithology on its head. The study revealed such drastic new information about the evolution of birds that dozens will need new scientific names, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Notable finds: Falcons are not related to hawks or eagles; hummingbirds—colorful...

Condors Pulled From Calif. Fires

Calif. wildlife group moves to protect rare birds

(Newser) - Wildfires in Northern California spurred the rescue of eight California condors from their Monterey County refuge, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The unusual operation was performed by a US Coast Guard helicopter crew after a wildlife organization said that the fires threatened the condor sanctuary. The birds were taken to...

Polly Wanna Get Home: Here's My Address

Lost Japanese parrot tells vet how to find his home

(Newser) - A vet in Japan was stumped on how to reunite a lost parrot with its owners—until the brainy bird told him his address and his owner's name. The well-trained African gray has been safely reunited with his human family, the BBC reports. The bird kept mum in police custody...

Diving Pelican Leaves Swimmer in Stitches

Big bird after fish cuts sunbather's face

(Newser) - A swimmer in Florida needed 20 stitches to her face after a pelican diving for a fish slammed into her. The big bird died in the collision near Tampa. "It was like I got punched in the face, super hard. Blood was gushing out," said the Ohio housecleaner...

Pandemic Risk Real, Mounting
 Pandemic Risk Real, Mounting 
May 6, 2008 3:55 PM CDT

Pandemic Risk Real, Mounting

Experts fear spread of disease, entrenched in avian population, to humans

(Newser) - The danger of a worldwide bird flu epidemic is growing as the virus becomes established in the avian population, Reuters reports. World Health Organization experts today urged all nations to prepare in case the H5N1 virus mutates into a form easily transferable between humans. In birds, the strain has spread...

Baby Birds' Babbling Suggests Intricate Brain

How our feathered friends learn, play back song may hold answers for human speech

(Newser) - Being bird-brained might not be much of an insult: New MIT research paints a more intricate portrait of how songbirds learn to sing, with one part of the brain used for learning and another for singing itself. Rather than maturing from babbling to birdsong, the independent but overlapping pathways work...

'Magnet Molecule' May Guide Bird Migration

Inner compass guides journeys, researchers believe

(Newser) - Migrating birds may rely on a special molecule discovered in their eyes that allows them to  perceive the Earth’s magnetic field lines as a kind of road map, new research shows. The molecule may help birds navigate much the same way humans follow lines to stay on a highway...

Tyrannosaurus Rex: Tastes Like Chicken?

Study says birds are dinosaurs' closest living descendants

(Newser) - Dinosaurs are more closely related to birds than reptiles, protein extracted from a Tyrannosaurus rex bone suggests. T. rex collagen, the main protein in bones, is similar to chicken and ostrich collagen but much different than material from alligators and lizards, scientists say. The findings could remap the evolutionary tree...

Swan-Boat Romance Takes Wing (Again)

After actual feathered male forsakes her, Petra flocks back to plastic paramour

(Newser) - After her real-life avian lover flew the coop, a German black swan has returned to her ex—a swan-shaped paddleboat, the AP reports. Petra was joined at the wing with the craft in 2006—but that relationship seemed to have sung its swan song when both were taken to a...

'Extinct' Bird Flies Again
'Extinct' Bird Flies Again
Mar 8, 2008 10:45 AM CST

'Extinct' Bird Flies Again

Beck's petrel hadn't been seen since 1920s

(Newser) - The Beck’s petrel, a bird last seen in the 1920s and long thought extinct, appears to be very much alive, the AP reports. Spurred by unconfirmed sightings in Australia two years ago, an Israeli ornithologist set out for a group of islands off Papua New Guinea and brought back...

When Bird Meets Plane, Air Force Takes Action

It studies spatters to avoid collisions

(Newser) - When a bird smacks into a military plane, it is not a pretty picture, neither for bird nor plane. It is, however, a serious, if messy, problem, and one that jeopardizes the safety of pilots and some very expensive Air Force hardware. The Wall Street Journal visits a base in...

Polly Wanna $10K Reward? Find Franklin

After someone steals beloved parrot, NYC owners put up bounty

(Newser) - He answers to Franklin, talks with a Brooklyn accent, and does a mean impersonation of a truck backing up. Find the missing parrot and it's worth $10,000 to his distraught Manhattan owners. They put up the bounty when their beloved African grey was stolen from a pet boarding shop...

Puffin Love Flies High in Maine
Puffin Love Flies High in Maine
Aug 26, 2007 5:28 PM CDT

Puffin Love Flies High in Maine

Penguin lookalikes need 24-hour protection from swooping gulls

(Newser) - Puffin-love is flying high in Maine, where hundreds of these penguin look-a-likes are lured by wooden decoys and given 24-hour protection, the AP reports. Supervisors endure screeching gulls and pooping dive-bombers to protect these finned waddlers and their nests. So just what are puffins? Birds that look like penguins, but...

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