Birds

Find out everything there is to know about birds and stay updated on the latest bird research with the comprehensive articles, interactive features and bird pictures at LiveScience.com Learn more about these fascinating creatures as scientists continue to make amazing discoveries about birds.

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a group of ostriches taken from below, showing their necks and head, with one looking menacingly at the camera

12 of the biggest birds on Earth

By Scott Dutfield last updated

Reference From 9-foot tall ostriches to albatrosses with gargantuan wingspans, here are some of the biggest birds in the world.

Reference
A photograph of a carrion crow perched on a log

Crows can count out loud, startling study reveals

By Ben Turner published

This is the first time an animal other than humans has been seen performing the feat of vocal numeracy.

Birds
A black-backed dwarf kingfisher sitting on a branch.

32 of the most colorful birds on Earth

By Sascha Pare published

Birds are some of the most colorful animals on Earth, with a palette of rainbow tones to feast your eyes on. Here are our picks for some of our most flamboyant feathered friends.

Birds
Flamingos on the lake. Kenya. Africa. Nakuru National Park.

East Africa's Lake Nakuru almost doubled in size in 13 years — and that's bad news for flamingos

By Aidan Byrne published

Africa's soda lakes are rising and it's decimating the cyanobacteria flamingos have evolved to eat, putting the species at risk of drastic declines if current trends continue.

Birds
Wisdom the albatross courting a potential mate.

World's oldest wild bird is 'actively courting' after losing long-term mate

By Sascha Pare published

Biologists on Midway Atoll in the North Pacific Ocean have spotted a septuagenarian female Laysan albatross named Wisdom flirting with potential mates months after the end of the nesting season.

Birds
Eleonora's falcon perched on rocks with an orange hue

Eleonora's falcon: The raptor that imprisons birds live by stripping their feathers and stuffing them in rocks

By Megan Shersby published

One population of Eleonora's falcon is reported to keep little birds alive inside rocky prisons — a behavior not seen in any other raptor species.

Birds
Three screenshots from the video show a woodpecker yanking a starling out of a nest.

Watch woodpecker evict starling that stole its nest by yanking it out with its beak

By Sascha Pare published

A bird photographer in Michigan has captured dramatic footage of the moment a red-headed woodpecker found a starling in its tree trunk nest and evicted it by yanking it out.

Birds
Flightless aldabra rail walking on the grass.

Aldabra rail: The bird that came back from the dead by evolving twice

By Megan Shersby published

The flightless Aldabra rail went extinct 136,000 years ago when its atoll home sank beneath the waves. Then it evolved again.

Birds
Antarctica, Weddell Sea, Snow Hill Island, Emperor Penguins Aptenodytes forsteri, Adult Penguins Trying To Kidnap Chick.

4 never-before-seen emperor penguin colonies discovered in Antarctica, thanks to poop smears spotted from space

By Kiley Price published

A scientist scoured satellites for signs of unreported Emperor penguin colonies and made a shocking discovery.

Penguins
Loggerhead shrike on barbed wire.

Loggerhead shrike: The brutal 'butcherbird' that impales its prey on barbed wire

By Megan Shersby published

Loggerhead shrikes can kill prey bigger than themselves by stabbing and shaking them, before impaling them on sticks to eat later.

Birds
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