The family of seabirds called alcids is an eclectic bunch that includes puffins and murres. The largest alcids are about the size of a duck, but the smallest — called the Least Auklet — could fit in the palm of your hand. With their short wings whirring, these miniature seabirds look like swarms of

eBird, an online tool for submitting bird observations, allows scientists to keep track of birds around the world. eBird now has over one billion bird observations from more than 700,000 people — most of them community scientists who care about their local birds. And as more people in more places

A bird’s crest is made up of a slender array of feathers on top of their head. These feathers are a bit longer and can be spiked up or slicked back, depending on what the bird is trying to communicate. Even birds without crests, like crows or sparrows, sometimes puff up their short crown feathers

Sharp-shinned Hawks are swift, bird-catching predators. The male is jay-sized. The female stands a head taller and weighs almost twice as much. Female birds of prey are most notably bigger than males among hawk species that hunt very agile prey, such as other birds. The smaller male will tend to

Rosemary Mosco’s latest book, The Birding Dictionary, is a tongue-in-cheek guide that defines many of the terms that you might hear on a bird outing, like calling a particularly cute bird a "birb" or shortening the word binoculars to just "bins" or "nocs."

Greater Yellowlegs — not surprisingly — have bright yellow legs and feet. And why? While foraging through shallow water, a yellowlegs can keep track of its legs by the color, which contrasts with the sometimes dark and irregular bottom. A Sanderling, on the other hand, has black legs and feet. Its

Los dispositivos de rastreo revelaron que los vencejos negros ( Cypseloides niger) pasaron más del 99 % del invierno en el aire, casi sin tocar el suelo durante meses. Y no solo eso: ¡llegaron a alturas increíbles, alcanzando sus mayores altitudes durante las noches de luna llena, a veces por encima

While camping in the mountains, you might see this Canada Jay (formerly known as the Gray Jay — but before that, as the Canada Jay!), boldly swooping into your camp. This handsome jay’s big, black eyes seem to miss nothing — especially food. But the one food Canada Jays don’t eat is conifer seeds

Writer Amy Tan’s work is known all over the world. And thanks to her latest best-seller, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, she’s now also known for her deep love of birds. Tan not only spends time interacting with birds, she also comes up with creative ways to help them. This episode was produced as

Except around Easter, chicken eggs usually come in a predictable range of colors: white, brown, and sometimes pale blue or green. Chickens are descended from the Red Jungle Fowl of Southeast Asia, which has been providing eggs for humans for thousands of years. The final color of an egg comes from a