Modern birds capable of flight all have a specialized wing structure called the propatagium without which they could not fly. The evolutionary origin of this structure has remained a mystery, but new ...

Tens of millions of years ago, a diverse array of bird species soared, swam, and thrived amid their scaly reptile cousins—and set the stage for modern birdlife.

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 ...

Researchers have discovered a 149-million-year-old bird fossil in southeastern China, featuring a short tail structure that could rewrite the evolutionary history of birds. As detailed in a study ...

Kevin Padian is in the Department of Integrative Biology and at the Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. Why was the question of the origin of bird flight ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. After the infamous asteroid impact wiped out the dinosaurs, ...

“Birds of a feather flock together.” You’ve heard this phrase hundreds, or maybe even thousands of times — but do you know what it means? Do birds of a feather really flock together in nature, or is ...

Drawing of an ivory-billed woodpecker by Michael DiGiorgio. Community members are invited to learn about avian artworks at A Brief History of Bird Illustration and Painting, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 25 in ...

Nest researcher Auke-Florian Hiemstra stumbled upon a bird nest that appeared to go back 30 years in time – filled with historical plastics. His discovery of successive layers of plastic in birds’ ...

Scientists found biofluorescence in most species of birds-of-paradise, including the emperor bird-of-paradise (Paradisaea guilielmi), shown here from the American Museum of Natural History's ...