Imagine zooming out on a giant family tree that includes every bird you have ever seen. Ostriches sprint across open plains, hummingbirds hover at flowers, penguins slice through cold seas, and eagles ...

Birds are the most diverse land vertebrate on the planet, and now scientists have constructed a complete evolutionary tree of the 11,000 or so known species. This data came from hundreds of studies ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. Fossil discoveries unlock chapters of our planet’s storied ...

The study found that bird species who nest in tree cavities have independently evolved heightened aggression across lineages, particularly in females. Scientists have long wondered whether evolution ...

A part of the brain called the pallium is responsible for many complex functions. In mammals, the pallium is thought to be where the neocortex forms, and gives rise to the cerebral cortex and ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Research suggests that the dark-eyed junco songbird experienced rapid evolution while college campuses were shuttered during the ...

Mapping 11,000 species back through time represents a new milestone in avian evolutionary research. The Interactive Avian Tree presents technical challenges when reconciling 11,000 distinct bird ...

Evolution is the primary hypothesis, but the authors note there are other explanations that need to be ruled out, such as gene flow, when individuals from elsewhere, such as the mountain birds, enter ...

(CNN) — Dark-eyed junco songbirds have been serenading the University of California, Los Angeles campus for decades as they forage for food. The species from the sparrow family is not usually found in ...