A new species of feathered dinosaur has been discovered in China, and described by American and Chinese authors and published today in the journal, The Anatomical Record.

Parrots are considered extraordinarily clever animals. Alex, the famous Harvard-based African grey parrot, communicated with a vocabulary of more than 500 human words, could answer questions and classify objects spontaneously. Scientists from the Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology based at the research station outpost for parrot comparative cognition in the Loro Parque in Tenerife, Spain, have shown that parrots exhibit a high level of social intelligence and cooperativeness. They readily […]

Acting selflessly to help others in need was long thought to be a trait confined to mammals, in particular humans and some great ape species like bonobos and orangutans.

Three researchers from the University of Oxford and the South Iceland Nature Research Centre have found evidence of tool use by puffins—the first evidence of tool use by any seabird. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Annette Fayet, Erpur Snær Hansen and Dora Biro describe their evidence of puffins using sticks to scratch a part of their body.

If you're a predator that eats baby birds—say, an American Crow—eavesdropping on the begging calls of nestlings can be an easy way to find your next meal. But do baby birds change their begging behavior when predators are nearby to avoid being detected and eaten? Very few studies have investigated whether nestlings react to the sounds of predators, but new research published in The Auk: Ornithological Advances shows that when their parents are away, baby Red-winged Blackbirds beg […]