Birds (Page 2)

A flock. A gaggle. A murder. A look inside the curious world of our avian friends—from their brains, songs, courtship rituals, and ancient evolutionary history.

Latest in Birds

Artist illustration of Archaeopteryx

Weird bird mouths go all the way back to the first avian dinosaur

a bald eagle with an egg

Bald eagle chick watch 2026: Jackie lays first eggs

By Popular Science Team

several nesting pairs of birds on grass with a clear blue ocean water in the background

Snowed in? Watch albatrosses nest on a sunny Pacific island instead

By Laura Baisas

a bird with long legs and colorful feathers

A giant-footed bird showed up in a Massachusetts backyard. It didn’t belong there.

By Margherita Bassi

African penguin chick close-up

Aquarium welcomes third endangered penguin chick in less than a month

Pair of African penguin chicks

Newborn African penguin named after a hot dog

Close up of Nazca booby bird

Female Galápagos birds flaunt their sexual partners. The males don’t seem to mind.

Close-up of the mass of rocks in the throat of Chromeornis (the rocks are the gray mass just to the left of the neck bones).

Why did this ancient bird die with tiny rocks in its throat?

A dress inspired by the paradise riflebird, uses a new ultra-black fabric created in Cornell University’s Responsive Apparel Design Lab.

The darkest fabric ever made is now a dress

By Laura Baisas

an bird with white and black feathers called an albatross

Record-breaking 75-year-old mother bird prepares to nest

By Laura Baisas

A female kestrel in a cherry orchard in northern Michigan.

Falcons help keep bird poop off your delicious cherries

By Laura Baisas

A monk parakeet preens a friend. Researchers used dye markers to identify individuals for their social experiment.

Parakeets teach a lesson in friendship

By Laura Baisas

a small brown and white owl on a brown towel

Alaska’s smallest owl gets the royal treatment after life-threatening injury

By Margherita Bassi

R2-D2 is seen with Star Wars BDX Droids backstage during Star Wars Celebration Japan on April 19, 2025 in Tokyo, Japan.

Bird or droid? Starlings nail R2-D2 beeps and boops.

By Mack DeGeurin

a woodpecker with black white and a little bit of red plumage on a tree

Woodpeckers grunt like tennis players

By Laura Baisas

a bird with white and gray plummage

Rare seabird saved after swallowing four large fishhooks

By Laura Baisas

feather in dirt

You’re actually not allowed to keep bird feathers you find on hikes—and it’s all thanks to two women who got really mad about hats

By Popular Science Team

World’s only flightless parrot doing okay against ‘crusty bum’ disease

By Laura Baisas

Greater noctule bat mid-flight

Europe’s biggest bat captures and devours birds while flying

three birds crowding around a white foraging puzzle

Young birds get by with a little help from their…siblings

By Laura Baisas

a bird with aqua green feathers and red feathers that look like cheeks

Explore a bird database with 11,500 species

By Margherita Bassi

Close up view of bearded vulture

Multi-generational vulture nests hold 700 years of human artifacts

group of king penguins emerging from the ocean on a cloudy day

15 gorgeous images from the 2025 Bird Photographer of the Year awards

By Popular Science Team

Side by side comparisons of a blue jay, green jay, and a hybrid between the two birds with green plummage and a blue head

First known wild ‘grue jay’ hybrid spotted in Texas

a map showing where birds are migrating

262 million birds forecast to take to the skies tonight

By Laura Baisas

A black and white American Oystercatcher feeds a chick a mollusk with its long orange beak. Out of focus, rocks and sea surround the scene

18 majestic images from the 2025 Audubon Photography Awards

By Popular Science Team

a vet examining a seagull wrapped in a towel with a fishing bobber stuck in its mouth

Seagull survives swallowing a giant fish hook–thanks to local vets

By Laura Baisas

a vulture with a white feathers on its body and black, red, white, red, and yellow feathers near its beak

11 majestic photos of vultures for International Vulture Awareness Day

By Popular Science Team

A small-billed elaenia perched on the El Jumeal dam in Argentina

A rare South American bird took a wrong turn towards Florida

By Margherita Bassi

a bird with long wings and white and black plumage gliding over the oceanCREDIT: Yusuke Goto

These seabirds poop on the fly (literally)

By Lauren Leffer

Birds going to a smart bird feeder camera

Make birdwatching easy and save $50 with this Onlyfly smart bird feeder camera from Amazon

By Heather Kuldell-Ware

A nestling bald eagle in Arizona.

Bald eagles stun scientists with bizarre migration pattern

By Margherita Bassi

a a small bird with brown and white feather and a long skinny beak sits on a tree

Scientists find male bird that laid an egg

By Laura Baisas

an injured owl with wide eyes

Throwing food out of your car can kill owls

By Margherita Bassi

birds everywhere near the road

Riding a bike through the world’s largest albatross colony

By Margherita Bassi

a penguin looks directly at the camera. it has black and white feathers with some red around the eyes

The clever way Magellanic penguins ride—and adjust to—ocean currents

By Laura Baisas

Masked boobies on Johnston Atoll

Pacific island wildlife refuge spared from SpaceX rocket project

Birdfy smart bird feeders on a plain background

Our favorite budget smart bird feeder is cheaper than it has been all year at Amazon

By Stan Horaczek

A bird on a feeder eating seeds.

How to pick the right bird feeder and feed for your area

By John Alexander

an adult osprey looks on as the heads of three chicks pop out over a nest

Three osprey chicks hatch in 500-pound steel nest boxes

By Laura Baisas

Thrush songbird

Ancient Romans snacked on deep-fried songbirds

Hammerhead shark in water

Osprey drops hammerhead shark onto disc golf field

Sunny (top) practicing her hovering skills on May 29. She remained airborne for 3.3 seconds.

Famous eaglets Sunny and Gizmo have both officially left the nest

By Laura Baisas

Close up of white cockatoo

Wild cockatoos are learning how to use water fountains

two birds with black and white plumage with dots of yellow or blue feathers neat their beaks sit near a nest

Male hornbills are at their mates’ every beck and call

By Margherita Bassi

Adélie penguins walking along the Antarctic coastline.

How pungent poop could help Antarctica’s penguins

By Laura Baisas

a bird sits in several paper towels forming a circular donut-shaped nest

Why a ‘donut’ can help injured birds

By Margherita Bassi

Blue jay on city sidewalk.

What to do if you find a baby bird out of its nest

By RJ Mackenzie

thousands of birds take to the sky

Weather radar picks up over 1 million migrating birds

By Margherita Bassi

four puffins with white and black plumage and bright orange bills stand on a rock overlooking the north sea

Puffin-counting season begins with two new livestreams

By Laura Baisas

The Chicago Archaeopteryx, under UV light to expose soft tissues.

Feathered fossil shows famed dinosaur could fly (like a chicken)

two eaglets with black feathers sitting in nest

Bittersweet fledge watch begins for bald eagles Sunny and Gizmo

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of a pink flamingo feeding in a shallow pool. a swirling vortex of water is near its beak

Flamingos conjure ‘water tornadoes’ to trap their prey

By Laura Baisas

a papier mache bird sits in a field

Grand Teton deploys papier-mâché birds

By Popular Science Team

A blue tit flies to a feeder in a garden, where a great spotted woodpecker is currently sitting.

Are backyard bird feeders safe? How to stop illness and intruders.

By Laura Baisas

Bald eaglets in canoe with caps over eyes

Rescuers borrow canoe to save baby bald eagles in river

an owl has a full juvenile turtle in her beak. an owlet stands at her feet staring up

Watch an owl try to eat a turtle whole

By Laura Baisas

An osprey sits on its nest protected by a human-made basket.

To protect birds and motorists, engineers build a steel nest box on bridge

By Laura Baisas

An Emperor chick begs and squaks at its parent to be fed.

Filmmaker James Cameron on penguins, arctic cold, and lowlight cameras

a large bird with brown, gray, and white plumage walks in an open grassland

Ancient funerals may have included a ritual feast on a giant bird

By Laura Baisas

a side view of an injured eagle beak that is regrowing some keratin

Images show bald eagle’s beak healing from gunshot wound

By Laura Baisas

A Birdfy Netvue bird feeder in front of trees with a red bird on it on sale at Amazon

Amazon has this bird feeder with a built-in camera for its cheapest price ever

By Stan Horaczek

goose wearing cubs hat

‘Geesekeepers’ protect Canada goose nesting at Chicago’s Wrigley Field

By Annie Colbert

an adult eagle tends to two chicks on a nest

Jackie and Shadow’s eaglets officially named: Meet Sunny and Gizmo

By Laura Baisas