Satellite telemetry, tiny geolocation tags and passive acoustic recording are providing new insights into bird migration and vital data for conservation.
Birds will shriek and dive at each other over food, territory or mates, but only a small number of species sport actual weapons. The reason: Flying matters more for their survival than fighting.
Could mating preferences, like females preferring males who sing complex songs, affect the evolution of learning? Insights from birds could have clues for how people learn throughout their lives.
Birds spend a lot of time and energy singing, but they don’t do it the same way in every season of the year. And some can’t sing at all. What’s the purpose of birdsong?
Biologists investigated whether birds that search for multiple mates would evolve ever more elaborate songs to attract them. What they found might have surprised Darwin.