Neurons in zebra finch brains operate as a barcode reader to detect songs of the same species during learning, report scientists. Like humans learning to speak, juvenile birds learn to sing by ...

One rainy morning a week ago, I hear a beautiful bird song that I cannot quite identify. It’s longish, sweet and melodic. From in the bedroom, I glance over at the feeders and there’s the usual ...

Thanks to the free Merlin Bird ID app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, you'll never have to guess at the source of a birdsong again. With a groundbreaking new update, you can now identify a bird ...

Birds play an important role in a wide variety of ecosystems as both predator and prey, in controlling insect populations, pollinating and seed dispersal for many plants, and in releasing nutrients on ...

They say that hindsight is 20/20, and though the theory of ecological speciation—which holds that new species emerge in response to ecological changes—seems to hold in retrospect, it has been ...

Male zebra finches learn their song by imitating conspecifics. To stand out in the crowd, each male develops its own unique song. Because of this individual-specific song, it was long assumed that ...

I was recently creeping through a clearing of downed trees in a wooded Brooklyn park with my iPhone in hand. Birds were singing everywhere, but through the din, I was recording a peculiar song: It was ...

Heard a chirp or spotted a flutter? These free apps identify backyard birds by sight or sound — no binoculars or in-depth ...

In our quest to find what makes humans unique, we often compare ourselves with our closest relatives: the great apes. But when it comes to understanding the quintessentially human capacity for ...