With their excellent sense of smell, pigs are renowned for sniffing out truffles, a fungus that grows underground and is prized for its taste. But it turns out that some bird species can also find their way to a truffle treat. Researchers working in the Patagonia region of Chile had…

For birds, learning starts early. Birds listen to their parents’ songs and calls from inside the egg. Recent findings have shown that calls from Zebra Finch parents can even prepare their chicks for warmer temperatures before they hatch. Researchers noticed that Zebra Finches make a…

When woodpeckers drum, they slam their beaks against bark many times per second. Scientists have long hypothesized that woodpeckers have a way of protecting their brains from injury. However, more recent work provides a different picture. High-speed cameras showed scientists that…

Broad-tailed Hummingbirds are small but hardy creatures built for life in the mountains. They survive freezing cold nights by slowing their heart rate and metabolism. And they perform a death-defying stunt for potential mates. Male Broad-tailed Hummingbirds begin their performance by…

Many people take an interest in birds as they get older. But others start very early, like one young BirdNote listener named Ben Bradmon. He has been learning how to identify birds by their calls. His favorite is the Tufted Titmouse. He has also begun deepening his knowledge of birds by…

There are promising signs that a native Hawaiian bird called the ulūlu is on the way to recovery. Also known as the Millerbird, this small gray songbird nearly disappeared when invasive species including rabbits destroyed most of their habitats on the island of Laysan in the early 1900s…

Great-tailed Grackles are known for their long, expressive tails, and their wide vocabulary of odd sounds. But this bird has another special trait. A researcher named Jessica Yorzinski has shown that Great-tailed Grackles can look at two different objects at once. In a careful experiment…

Though half the size of a robin, the Carolina Wren has a powerful singing voice that seems to come from a much bigger bird. Many people remember their song with the phrase, “teakettle-teakettle-teakettle!” When these secretive birds venture into the open, look for their cocked tail, bright…

Owls are magnificent animals that share our cities with us, and live in some of the most extreme environments on Earth. They range in size from huge, like the Blakiston’s Fish-Owl of Eastern Asia, to the songbird-sized Elf Owl, weighing less than half a deck of cards. Owls play key roles…

We often think of birds migrating south in the fall. But many species kick off their big trips surprisingly early in the year. Shorebirds nesting in the Arctic tundra are an extreme example. Birds like the American Golden-Plover have a small window of time to build a nest, find a mate, and…