As thousands of army ants march through a rainforest in Panama looking for food, countless insects try to escape. Antbirds follow the ants, waiting for flying insects to leave their hiding spots so they can swoop down and catch them. About 300 species of animals, including 29 bird species…

For years, scientists debated whether the first flying dinosaurs, the ancestors of modern birds, began by running and making little hops off the ground, or leapt off a tree branch to glide. It’s called the “ground up vs. trees down” debate, for short. But a newer perspective on this…

In this episode, we meet Aviary: the superhero alter-ego of a mild-mannered birder bitten by a radioactive feather mite. Aviary became able to shapeshift into any of the birds they've seen in their travels — taking on the ultra-fast flight of a falcon or the super-swimming skills of a…

Hummingbirds are built for hovering flight, with flexible wrists that rotate their wings in a rapid figure-eight motion that generates almost constant lift. Eurasian Skylarks, on the other hand, hovers by fluttering its wings 10-12 times per second, singing all the while. Some raptors such…

In the 1990s, train engineers in Japan built trains able to travel nearly 170 miles per hour. The problem was that when the trains exited a tunnel, the air in front of their bullet-shaped noses expanded rapidly, creating a loud “tunnel boom.” The chief engineer, a birder, looked to the…

While many shorebirds have gone south, tiny sandpipers called Sanderlings are easy to find on winter shores. They follow the waves as they lap in and out, probing the swirling sand for prey. They often eat various small crustaceans such as mole crabs, isopods, and amphipods. But they also…

When the shorebirds called Lesser Yellowlegs sense a threat to their nest, they’ll put up an unforgettable racket to drive the danger away. Smaller and with a shorter bill than the Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser Yellowlegs sing to attract mates, while flying or perching up in a tree like a…

In several neighborhoods of Sydney, Sulphur-crested Cockatoos have learned ways to open trash bins and grab some leftover food. Researchers found that birds in a given suburb seem to learn their trash bin opening technique from nearby birds, leading to subtle differences in how cockatoos…

Trumpeter Swans weigh over 25 pounds and measure about five feet from beak to tail. They were nearly hunted to extinction by the turn of the twentieth century. In Arkansas, a small flock of Trumpeter Swans began spending the winter at Magness Lake in the 1990s. It has now grown to one of…

Trumpeter Swans weigh over 25 pounds and measure about five feet from beak to tail. They were nearly hunted to extinction by the turn of the twentieth century. In Arkansas, a small flock of Trumpeter Swans began spending the winter at Magness Lake in the 1990s. It has now grown to one of…