The humble sparrow represents a conduit to nature for many, and its wellbeing is connected to ours. That’s reason enough to celebrate World Sparrow Day.
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Articles on Birds
Displaying 401 - 420 of 522 articles
Emperor penguins are adapted to the bitter cold of Antarctica, but a new study reveals that during the last ice age it got too cold even for them.
Drones, robots and unmanned submarines used to be for military use only. But these days the technology is rapidly advancing and becoming more available for emergency services, farmers, film-makers or the…
There aren’t many animals high up in the Himalayas, but the odd bird passes by. Each year bar-headed geese (Anser indicus) travel from their breeding grounds in China and Mongolia to spend winter in the…
Today’s land birds, from ducks to eagles, shared a common ancestor after dinosaurs went extinct – just one finding from bird gene studies published in journals, including Science and GigaScience, today…
Here’s an activity for you this weekend: either staying at home or heading bush, count the number and type of birds you see. It’s all part of BirdLife Australia’s Challenge Count, an annual event that’s…
Great tits are opportunistic copycats. Entire populations can be found performing the same arbitrary behaviour simply because birds copy one another, following a fashion. And it’s this behaviour, reported…
Imagine a sky full of autonomous flying machines delivering anything from fast-food to important documents, medical supplies or just a surprise gift for someone special. How do you stop them all colliding…
Despite its name, the Crimson Rosella is perhaps Australia’s most colour-variable bird and a cause of this striking and beautiful diversity seems to be a disease that’s potentially deadly to many other…
While a week can be a long time in politics, palaeontology typically moves more sedately, in keeping with its subject matter (the slow progression of the aeons). But one area of fossil research is seeing…
From Roman classics to British tabloids, humans have long celebrated the curious and remarkable ability of birds to imitate the sounds of humans and other animals. A recent surge of research is revealing…
Native Australian bronze-cuckoos trick other cuckoos as they compete to take over other birds’ nests. Australian National…
Across the open heather moors of upland Britain, last-minute preparations are being put in place for the start of the red grouse shooting season on August 12. On average about 200,000 grouse are shot every…
Rufous Scrub-birds have been calling loudly from the mountains of eastern Australia ever since Australia parted from Gondwana 65 million years ago. They are still there today – as noisy as ever, though…
That starling at your birdfeeder? It is a dinosaur. The chicken on your dinner plate? Also a dinosaur. That mangy seagull scavenging for chips on the beach? Apart from being disgusting, yet again it is…
By examining a swallow-sized fossil from China, researchers have concluded that rather than descending from dinosaurs, the…
Ratites – a group of flightless birds including the emu, ostrich and extinct moa – were long believed to have evolved from a single flightless ancestor, but research published today in Molecular Biology…
Birds may owe their success to the shrinking bodies of their dinosaur ancestors. An international team, led by paleontologist…
Swift parrots are one of Australia’s most endangered birds, but until very recently we didn’t know why. New research shows that they’re being eaten by sugar gliders at their breeding grounds in Tasmania…
In Aesop’s fable of the boy who cried wolf, the boy warns farmers of imaginary wolves threatening their flocks just to laugh at the sight of them running to the rescue for no reason. Of course, when the…
Top contributors
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Professor of Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University
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Professor of Avian Behavioural Ecology, Macquarie University
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Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, University of New England
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Professor of Conservation Biology, Charles Darwin University
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Postdoctoral Fellow, Australian National University
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Professor in Evolutionary Biology (jointly appointed with South Australian Museum), Flinders University
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Researcher, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University
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Professor of Environmental Management, The University of Queensland
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Adjunct Lecturer/ Ecologist, University of New England
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Associate Professor, Vertebrate Palaeontology Group, Flinders University
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Reader, Manchester Metropolitan University
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Professor in Conservation Science, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland
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Professor of Evolutionary and Conservation Biology, Australian National University
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Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University
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Research Director and Curator, Australian National Wildlife Collection, CSIRO, Canberra, CSIRO
