October 2015

Bird DNA

For many years, ornithologists classified birds on the basis of their anatomy and behavior – feather color, plumage patterns, leg length, bill curvature, song, nest structure, and hundreds of other characteristics. In the last twenty or so years, however, DNA has been used to clarify relationships among birds, as we do now with humans. Without …

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Ivory-billed Woodpecker and UFOs

On occasion someone e-mails me telling me that they have just spotted an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. It is almost certain that what they saw was the Pileated Woodpecker, found throughout the eastern U.S., the Pacific Northwest, and southern Canada, and a close relative of the Ivory-billed. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) was one of the largest woodpeckers in …

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Bird Eggs

Here is the long-sought answer to the age-old question “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” : the egg. Eggs have been around since some of the earliest animals – like sponges and jellyfish – evolved, about 600 million years ago. Birds have been around for about 150 million years and chickens perhaps 2000 …

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