A wild turkey

The Great American Turkey

The turkey was semi-domesticated and kept in pens in the American Southwest some 2,000 years ago—but not for the reason you think.
Plate 82 of Birds of America by John James Audubon depicting Whip-poor-will.

The Whip-Poor-Will Has Been an Omen of Death for Centuries

What happened to this iconic bird of American horror?
Ostrich farm in the desert

Ostrich Bubbles

The birds aren’t the only ones with their heads in the sand.
Hesperornis on the shoreline.

A Brief Guide to Birdwatching in the Age of Dinosaurs

Archaeopteryx and Hesperornis should be on the lists of any dino bird watcher.
A Kākāpō in New Zealand

New Zealand’s Quest to Save Its Rotund, Flightless Parrots

DNA sequencing, GPS tracking and tailored diets are slowly restoring the endangered kākāpō.
Ali Wallace, 1905

Ali: Alfred Russel Wallace’s Right-Hand Gun

Wallace wouldn't have become a famous naturalist without help from colonial networks and hundreds of locals, including his indefatigable Sarawak servant, Ali.

What it Sounds Like When Doves Cry

A century ago, an ornithologist proposed a system for transcribing bird sound as human speech. It did not catch on.
Illustration of two house sparrows

Words for Birds

From the meaning of birdsong to the history of birdwatching, from the effects of climate change to the cunning of crows—our bird stories have it all.
Das Vogelkonzert (The Bird Concert) by Jan Brueghel the Younger, c. 1640-1645

Every Good Bird Does Fine

Is birdsong music, speech, or something else altogether? The question has raged for millennia, drawing in everyone from St. Augustine to Virginia Woolf.