For the past 50 years, international animal cognition research has focused on how tool use is related to animal intelligence. But new research casts doubt on long-held assumptions.
Magpie attacks aren't as common as you (and the media) might think. But here are a few tricks to get you through swooping season unscathed - and a few classic tactics that don't work.
The composition of black and white in a magpie’s poo differs between species. Some splatter more of the uric acid (white), some have more black (indigestible solids). It depends on their diet.
Gisela Kaplan
Like reptiles, birds do not have two separate exits from the body. They have one, called the cloaca. It is quite similar to the human anus but the cloaca expels both indigestible bits and toxins.
Australian magpies are clever enough to tailor their risk-avoidance behaviours to different locations.
Gail Hampshire/Wikimedia Commons
Magpies living near airports are less likely to flee from the sound of passing planes, new research shows. But it's unclear whether this makes them more or less likely to actually get hit.
Magpies playing together often link feet and lie on the ground.
Danielle, the Magpie Whisperer
If you come across a young cuckoo this summer, you’ll be witness to one of the most bizarre sights in nature. Cuckoo chicks are interlopers in the nests of other species, and can be seen being frantically…
The flap of wings, the click of the beak … every cyclist knows the sounds of an impending aerial attack.
romanjoost
September is the peak of Australia’s own version of “home-grown terrorism” (as memorably described to me by a distraught and bleeding school principal, valiantly attempting to protect his pupils), when…