Tag birds

All Work and No Play

The cover image was sourced from  If you’ve ever fallen down the easily addictive, low-stress rabbit hole that is the world of wonderfully awesome animal videos, you might have come across this video of a crow in Russia, sliding down…

A day in the life of a field ecologist

Details from my summer experience conducting fieldwork in the Colorado Rockies Photo caption: View of the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, with Gothic Mountain towering above. 4:30 AM: Good morning! To arrive at my research sites in time to start my…

Don’t call me bird-brained!

What’s wrong with you humans, using us as insults? Just the other day, I heard one of you call your boss a vulture! Now, I’m not here to deny that man’s covetous proclivities, but I happen to have a friend…

The Prehistoric Origins of Birds

You may have heard that modern birds evolved from dinosaurs before. More specifically, modern birds descend from theropods, which is a clade of dinosaurs. A clade is a group of species that share some key traits as well as common…

Where do Great Blue Herons catch their snacks?

Introduction Great blue herons are part of the Ardea genus, which is a genus of birds that includes the herons, egrets, and bitterns. These birds are typically pretty large in size, with lengths usually greater than 80–100 cm. You’re most…

Red-Shouldered Hawks

Introduction The red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) is a raptor that is found in forests throughout North America. Year round, the red-shouldered hawk is found throughout much of the Eastern and Midwestern United states. During their breeding season, they can be…

Insect robots: How do they fly?

“How do airplanes stay afloat?” “The same way a bird stays afloat.” When we give that answer to a kid, we fondly realize the connection between nature’s creatures and machines, and that the nature influenced creation of many machines from…