birds

In 1865, a physician brought Indian mynas to Hawaii to eat armyworms; the birds spread and can compete with native birds for nesting sites

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In 1865, a physician brought Indian mynas to Hawaii to eat armyworms; the birds spread and can compete with native birds for nesting sites

A bird built for city life As it turned out, mynas could do more than just eat caterpillars. In a 1933 description posted on the university’s page, E. L. Caum, an ornithologist, wrote that the bird also eats house scraps, fruits, grains, insects, and grubs. Its diverse diet seems to make it easy for the … Read more

For 35 years, Dolly Parton's Dollywood cared for non-releasable bald eagles; after storm damage, the birds will stay at a new 50-acre sanctuary

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Dolly Parton's Dollywood has partnered with the American Eagle Foundation for 35 years (AFP)

A theme park is probably not the first place you would look for bald eagles. Yet for 35 years, Dollywood in Tennessee was home to a large group of them. The American Eagle Foundation and Dollywood Parks & Resorts jointly announced that the non-releasable bald eagles that lived at Dollywood’s Eagle Mountain Sanctuary will have … Read more

A Miami airport passenger had an ‘unexplained bulge’; officers found 10 live birds hidden in his underwear

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A Miami airport passenger had an ‘unexplained bulge’; officers found 10 live birds hidden in his underwear

A Miami International Airport passenger returning from Cuba was arrested after US Customs and Border Protection officers found 10 live birds concealed in plastic tubes sewn into his underwear. Alberto Hernandez Castillo, 40, a Cuban national and permanent resident of the US, arrived from Havana on October 4 aboard World Atlantic Flight 503 and was … Read more

In 2004, Phillip Island launched a campaign to eliminate foxes after nine of its 10 little-penguin colonies had vanished; alongside habitat restoration, the surviving colony grew from 12,000 to 40,000 birds

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In 2004, Phillip Island launched a campaign to eliminate foxes after nine of its 10 little-penguin colonies had vanished; alongside habitat restoration, the surviving colony grew from 12,000 to 40,000 birds

Phillip Island’s little penguins once faced a crisis that threatened to erase much of their presence from the island. By the 1980s, nine of its 10 penguin colonies had disappeared, while the final colony on the Summerland Peninsula was also under pressure from introduced predators, habitat loss and human activity. According to Phillip Island Nature … Read more

She started raising butterflies at 7; by 16, this Florida girl had tracked birds and found populations rose by up to 159% after habitat restoration, she’s now headed to a national magazine

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She started raising butterflies at 7; by 16, this Florida girl had tracked birds and found populations rose by up to 159% after habitat restoration, she's now headed to a national magazine

A 16-year-old student from Sarasota, Florida, Sophia Haakman began growing butterflies at just 7. Over the years, her love for nature and its beings has evolved into a serious conservation effort. Haakman sought to find out if the hundreds of hours she spent rehabilitating local ecosystems were truly beneficial to wildlife. So she created her … Read more

A huge forested island appeared in a British Columbia reservoir, vanished, then resurfaced 30 km away 15 days later with trees, birds and other animals still aboard

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A huge forested island appeared in a British Columbia reservoir, vanished, then resurfaced 30 km away 15 days later with trees, birds and other animals still aboard

British Columbia reservoirRepresentative image from Canva In the summer of 2026, workers and residents around the Williston Reservoir in northern British Columbia witnessed something that sounded like folklore: a large, forested island broke free from the shoreline, drifted across the lake, disappeared from view, and then turned up again about 30 kilometres away, still carrying … Read more

Mike Tyson started keeping pigeons as a bullied Brooklyn boy, finding love and comfort in them; decades later, he still has hundreds of birds across the US

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Mike Tyson started keeping pigeons as a bullied Brooklyn boy, finding love and comfort in them; decades later, he still has hundreds of birds across the US

Long before Mike Tyson became one of boxing’s most feared heavyweight champions, pigeons were a source of love and comfort for him. Tyson has recalled being bullied as a child growing up in Brooklyn and finding refuge in the pigeons he kept, saying that spending time with them helped take his mind off the world … Read more

More than 100 years ago, red mangroves were introduced to Hawaii; now crews are trying to eradicate them from nearly 2 miles of waterways to restore wetlands and protect endangered birds

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More than 100 years ago, red mangroves were introduced to Hawaii; now crews are trying to eradicate them from nearly 2 miles of waterways to restore wetlands and protect endangered birds

Environmental crews and volunteers physically clear thickets of invasive red mangrove trees and tangled stilt roots from a coastal waterway in Kailua, Oahu Environmental teams in Hawaii have launched a major effort to remove invasive red mangroves from nearly two miles of waterways in Kailua. The project aims to reverse more than a century of … Read more

In 1902, edible dormice were released at an English estate; by 2018 Britain had an estimated 23,000, and the government now pays £40 per hectare a year to control damage to trees, crops and nesting birds

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In 1902, edible dormice were released at an English estate; by 2018 Britain had an estimated 23,000, and the government now pays £40 per hectare a year to control damage to trees, crops and nesting birds

dormouseRepresentative image from Canva In 1902, a small population of edible dormice was released at Tring Park, a private estate in Hertfordshire, as part of a Victorian-era fascination with exotic wildlife. More than a century later, that single introduction has grown into a national problem: by 2018, the Mammal Society estimated around 23,000 edible dormice … Read more

In 2022, bird flu caused an entire Sandwich tern colony in England to be abandoned; four breeding seasons later, the birds have returned in record numbers, creating one of the country’s largest colonies

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In 2022, bird flu caused an entire Sandwich tern colony in England to be abandoned; four breeding seasons later, the birds have returned in record numbers, creating one of the country’s largest colonies

Four breeding seasons after a deadly bird flu outbreak forced a colony of Sandwich Terns to leave their nesting ground, the seabirds have returned in record numbers, creating one of England’s largest breeding sites. Monitoring reports published by Rare Bird Alert confirm that Sandwich Terns (Thalasseus sandvicensis) nested at RSPB Pagham Harbour in West Sussex … Read more