Plate 66 of Birds of America by John James Audubon depicting Ivory-billed Woodpecker

Is the Ivory-billed Woodpecker Still Around?

With the US government poised to declare the Ivory-billed Woodpecker extinct, scientists work to determine what counts as evidence of existence.
Yellow Jacobins

Our Long-Running Love Affair with Pigeons

Through crazes of pigeon-fancying, these birds have been reshaped into a dizzying variety of forms.
An illustration of a Culiseta melanura mosquito.

A Deadly Virus is Lurking in East Coast Mosquitoes

Eastern Equine Encephalitis may be brewing in the bog near you. Should you worry?
sargassum seaweed dumped on beach

The Great Seaweed Invasion

In the Caribbean, sargassum deposits have grown to unprecedented sizes, obscuring the sand and turning nearshore waters into seething sargassum soup.
Blackfoot Albatross chick

The Strange Tale of the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program

In the 1960s, over seventy scientists and graduate students traveled to U.S. outlying islands as part of the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program.
Two Hummingbirds and an Orchid

Are There “Transgender” Proclivities in Animals?

We tend to think of gender expression as uniquely human. But many species gain advantages by projecting an opposite-sex appearance.
frigate bird

The Astounding Adaptations of Long-Distance Flyers

Frigate birds are truly champion fliers. The birds can fly for weeks without stopping. How do they do it?
European Starlings

What If We Had All the Birds from Shakespeare in Central Park?

According to birding lore, two of America's most invasive bird species were introduced by a misguided Shakespeare fan named Eugene Schieffelin.
Science jars of formalin and fish

What Lies Beneath the Museum?

Paradoxically, museum specimens of long-dead animals may offer us the keys to protecting live ones.
Sapayoa aenigma, Nusagandi, Panama

The Sex Lives of Birds

Deep in a Central American rainforest, ornithologists have discovered that a rare bird has an unusual lifestyle.