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News tagged with sparrow

For monogamous sparrows, it doesn't pay to stray (but they do it anyway)

It's quite common for a female song sparrow to stray from her breeding partner and mate with the male next door, but a new study shows that sleeping around can be costly.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 22, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

Scientists learn much about humans from birds' singing lessons

Why wasn't this intruder getting the message? The lord of the manor had warned him repeatedly to back off, with threatening gestures and loud admonitions. But the trespasser just sat there - singing.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 18, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Sparrows change their tune to be heard in noisy cities

Sparrows in San Francisco's Presidio district changed their tune to soar above the increasing cacophony of car horns and engine rumbles, details new George Mason University research in the April edition of ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Apr 02, 2012 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Scared of a younger rival? Not for some male songbirds

When mature male white-crowned sparrows duel to win a mate or a nesting territory, a young bird just doesn't get much respect.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Elaborate plumage due to testosterone?

(PhysOrg.com) -- In many bird species males have a more elaborate plumage than females. This elaborate plumage is often used to signal body condition, to intimidate rivals or to attract potential mates. In ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 21, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Brainy lizards pass test for birds

Tropical lizards may be slow. But they aren't dumb. They can do problem-solving tasks just as well as birds and mammals, a new study shows.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jul 13, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Birdsong independent of brain size

(PhysOrg.com) -- The brains of all vertebrates display gender-related differences. In songbirds, for example, the size of the brain areas that control their singing behaviour could be linked to the size of ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jun 13, 2011 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Migrating birds can't control themselves

During the Spring and Fall migratory seasons, sparrows become significantly less capable of resisting temptation. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Neuroscience investigated impulse control and sleep in Whi ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jul 28, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Status symbols of house sparrows: High testosterone darkens their bill

(PhysOrg.com) -- The size of the black breast bib - the badge - and bill colour of male House Sparrows change over the course of the year. Such ornaments usually signal quality and dominance of a male to his ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jun 04, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Birds of a feather don't always respond together to infection

(PhysOrg.com) -- A Princeton University-led research team is the first to have documented that different populations of the same animal species respond differently with fever when fighting infection in the ...

Biology / Ecology

created Apr 14, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Researchers Identify the Most Promiscuous Birds in the World

(PhysOrg.com) -- UConn ornithologist Chris Elphick and his colleagues carried out DNA tests to discover the paternity of Saltmarsh Sparrow nestlings.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 09, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

It takes two to tutor a sparrow

(PhysOrg.com) -- It may take a village to raise a child, and apparently it takes at least two adult birds to teach a young song sparrow how and what to sing.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 21, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 2

Bird songs change with environment

Just as a changing radio landscape has made it tough for Foghat to get much airplay these days, so it is for birdsongs according to new research published in The American Naturalist.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 20, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Why the swamp sparrow is hitting the high notes

Birdsongs are used extensively as models for animal signaling and human speech, offering a glimpse of how our own communicating abilities developed. A new study by Adrienne DuBois, a graduate student at the ...

Biology /

created Jan 09, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

New technology tracks sparrow migration for first time from California to Alaska

Using tiny tags to track a bird's location, biologists from PRBO Conservation Science (PRBO) have unlocked the mystery of where Golden-crowned Sparrows, which overwinter in California, go to breed in the spring. Published ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Apr 11, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0