Study examines attitudes toward non-native birds

A new study from scientists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology examines public attitudes toward non-native bird species and whether people are willing to manage them to protect native cavity-nesting birds, such as Eastern ...

Victorian efforts to export animals to new worlds failed, mostly

In 1890, a New York bird enthusiast released several dozen starlings in Central Park. No one knows for sure why Eugene Schieffelin set the birds aloft, but he may have been motivated by a sentimental desire to make the American ...

Bird immune systems reveal harshness of city life

They may peck greedily at feeding tables—and have it easier than country birds do in the warmer urban winters—but city birds, it turns out, are in turmoil on the inside.

How the house sparrows came to be

House sparrows are closely associated with humans and are found in most parts of the world. By investigating the DNA of several species of sparrows, researchers have shown that the house sparrow diverged from a sparrow in ...

Hybridization can give rise to different genome combinations

Researchers have for the first time determined that hybridization between two bird species can give rise to several novel and fully functional hybrid genomic combinations. This could potentially be because hybrid species ...

Ugly Betty forced to aim for Average Joe

Less-pretty female house sparrows tend to lower their aim when selecting a mate. Addressing the lack of studies on condition-dependency of female mate choice, researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary ...

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