For owls, life and death relies on the ability to control noise. Owl wings and feathers have special adaptations to muffle their sound. It’s stealth, not speed that makes them deadly.

Can animals recognize distantly related, unfamiliar individuals of the same species? Siberian jays possess this ability as evolutionary biologists from the University of Zurich recently could demonstrate for the first time. This bird species belongs to the crow family and is able to accurately assess the degree of kinship to unfamiliar individuals. This ability provides advantages when sharing food and other forms of cooperation.

I’ve been involved in a few discussions of late on science-based sites around yon web on antibiotic resistance and agriculture–specifically, the campaign to get fast food giant Subway to stop using meat raised on antibiotics, and a graphic by CommonGround using Animal Health Institute data, suggesting that agricultural animals aren’t an important source of resistant bacteria.…

We’re slowly getting used to the idea that some dinosaurs may have looked more like birds than reptiles. But there’s been a long-running debate about what dinosaurs were like on the inside – and specifically on how they kept warm. Were they warm-blooded like modern birds and mammals, or cold-blooded like modern lizards and crocodiles?

Were dinosaurs really fast, aggressive hunters like the ones depicted in the movie "Jurassic World"?

No other geese nest as far north as the Brant, and few migrate as far. These small geese are characteristic of coastal areas in summer and winter; most birdwatchers know them from seeing their wintering flocks along both of our coasts. Traveling between their summer and winter outposts, they may fly at altitudes of several thousand feet as they cross great expanses of land or open ocean.

We pay our respects to the birds who never migrate.

One finding: Most land birds evolved from a predatory ancestor —meaning chickadees, woodpeckers and such are traceable to a meat-eater

The first ever photographs of the elusive male moustached kingfisher were recently released by the American Museum of Natural History. They show a vibrant blue adult bird in apparent good health. There is a sad footnote to the images, however, because researchers elected to kill the endangered bird in order to further study it.

Stain repellent and fire retardant chemicals that scientists know little about are increasingly showing up in herring gull eggs around the Great Lakes, spurring concern for potential health impacts.

National Geographic photographers reveal their intimate encounters with these unique coastal predators.

Tiny green-blooded vocalists croon among the forest vegetation on humid monsoon nights, composing a different melody every time they sing

After decades of hiding from humans, the rare moustached kingfisher was recently photographed for the first time. Now that we see how beautiful it is, maybe we'll save

A strikingly patterned warbler of leafy second growth and swamp edges. Once common in the northeast, it has been declining recently in southern parts of its breeding range. As it disappears, its close relative the Blue-winged Warbler has been advancing north. The Blue-wing may be driving the Golden-wing out of the best habitats, but the situation is not well understood. The two species interbreed, creating distinctive hybrid types known as "Brewster's" and "Lawrence's" warblers."

Species that live on small islands often barely resemble their mainland kin, thanks to evolution.

The two are the same species and live in the same areas, so why the two different names?

Rather than predators rising in number to match the available prey, predator populations are limited by the rate at which prey reproduce.

It can take more than just a keen ear to figure out what animals are saying. Sometimes, scientists are learning, you have to talk back to map the rich networks of conversation in a forest.

GrrlScientist: Free-living songbirds show increased stress hormone levels when nesting under white street lights. But different light spectra may have different physiological effects as this study finds, suggesting that using street lights with specific colour spectra may mitigate effects of light pollution on wildlife.

The Humboldt penguin is a medium-sized species of penguin that is found breeding on the coasts of South America.