birds news stories on Newser

Mission Plays Mating Call to Woo Swallows

Thu, 03 May 2012 14:21:05 CDT

Reminders of cliff swallows are everywhere on the grounds of the 236-year-old Mission San Juan Capistrano, where the birds have migrated each spring for centuries. Trouble is, the swallows themselves have gone missing in recent years . So the California mission is putting all its eggs in the basket of a...

Kill Geese to Protect Jets: Sen. Gillibrand

Matt Cantor — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:41:05 CDT

Jets' collisions with birds have caused two emergency landings in New York in the past week , and geese in the engine prompted the near-disaster before the miracle landing on the Hudson in 2009 . Now, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand says it's time to let wildlife officials cull the goose population near JFK...

Birds Again Ground NY Plane

Polly Davis Doig — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 05:07:00 CDT

It's a bird, it's a plane ... it's a collision. Or so went an aborted JetBlue flight taking off from New York's Westchester airport last night, reports the New York Post . Two geese plowed into the windshield of the cockpit of the West Palm Beach-bound flight, forcing it to land just...

Why Woodpeckers' Brains Don't Burst

Dustin Lushing — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 09:47:26 CDT

After jackhammering their heads into trees all day, how is it that woodpeckers don't head home with the mother of all headaches, much less brain injury? The key is an astonishingly strong skull, say researchers in Beijing. Scientists discovered that the birds' skulls are insulated with a remarkably thick, spongy...

City Sparrows Sing Louder to Trump Cars

John Johnson — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:38:05 CDT

Sparrows who live in the big city have learned to speak up in order to be heard: Researchers examined the songs of those that live around the Golden Gate Bridge and found that the calls are in a higher pitch now than they were in 1965, according to an Animal...

So Who Is the 'Bird Man'?

Mary Papenfuss — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 01:31:00 CDT

Oh-oh. The credentials of the supposedly flying "Bird Man" of Holland have flown the coop. "Jarno Smeets," who posted a wildly popular YouTube video apparently showing him flapping giant wings to take flight , posted credentials on Facebook and LinkedIn that don't check out. Film experts at Industrial Light and Magic...

Can Birdsong Cut Crime?

Matt Cantor — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:30:08 CST

Crime has dropped in a California town, and residents should be thanking their fine feathered friends, says the mayor. Last year, he began piping recorded birdsong to 70 speakers on a highway. Minor crime dropped 15% from 2010 while serious crimes dropped 6%, the Wall Street Journal reports. It's no...

Pigeons Ace Math Tests

Matt Cantor — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:56:35 CST

Don't let those blank stares fool you: Pigeons, it seems, are the math nerds of the bird world. Researchers found that the creatures can do more than count—they can handle numbers in the abstract sense, an ability never before seen outside primates, the New York Times reports. Pigeons were...

1,500 Birds Crash, Die in Utah

Kevin Spak — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:23:05 CST

Storm clouds gathered over Utah on Monday, but what wound up raining down from the sky were birds. Thousands of eared grebes dived into roads and parking lots across Cedar City and St. George, apparently mistaking the flat surfaces for water, the LA Times reports. About 1,500 birds died...