Like dinosaurs, the avian ankle joint is positioned in the middle of the foot (or tarsal) bones. On either side of the ankle, birds have unique, fused leg bones called...
Category: Wild Birds
'Touch' is a complicated sense. When we casually speak of 'touch,' we are bundling together different information derived from separate types of receptors, each indicating a different property of an...
Although they have been underestimated in the past, the olfactory abilities of most birds are comparable to those of some mammals. The avian sense of smell is produced by chemosensory receptors that...
The sounds of birds are an everyday pleasure of the natural world. For ornithologists, bird sounds can be an essential tool for their work in the field. This is because bird sounds can contain...
Prior to the evolution of eyes, the ways that animals were able to gain information about their worlds were both slow and intimate. It depended primarily upon the transmission of chemicals through...
A bird's bill shape is intimately linked with how it feeds. Altogether, dozens of different bill shapes give birds access to an enormous range of food. Many songbirds, such as the blackbird, have...