“It’s easier than pulling out a hair from your chin,” says Kristen Ruegg, an assistant professor of biology at Colorado State University. Ruegg is a director at the Bird Genoscape Project, which ...

What is heavier: 1 kilogram of feathers or 1 kilogram of steel? Whilst the answer to this classic riddle is that they both weigh the same amount, it may be surprising to discover that the color of a ...

Ornithologist Edmund Selous made empathy for birds respectable and, in doing so, changed the world. Bird-watching became a popular pastime, eventually making birding scientific and playing a pivotal ...

“Birds of a feather flock together.” You’ve heard this phrase hundreds, or maybe even thousands of times — but do you know what it means? Do birds of a feather really flock together in nature, or is ...

Each Canada goose that you see flying around in formation around Lancaster County these days has between 20,000 and 25,000 feathers, most hidden from sight. A typical songbird at your backyard feeder ...

Birds boast some of the most vibrant colors among terrestrial animals. Our pretty avian friends have inspired our Democrat and Chronicle photographers for years and captured the imaginations of many ...

“Parakeet!” she shouts over the wind. Back aboard the Tiĝlax̂—the research vessel of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, pronounced TEKH-lah — Causey looks a bit like a seabird himself in ...

An extreme closeup of feathers from a bird with an uncanny ability to hold water while it flies could inspire the next generation of absorbent materials. With high resolution microscopes and 3D ...

Feathers are a sleek, intricate evolutionary innovation that makes flight possible for birds, but in addition to their stiff, aerodynamic feathers used for flight, birds also keep a layer of soft, ...