birds
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Loud, grumpy parrot is back from the brink of extinction, and it wants to have sex with your head
The kakapo is probably the best parrot. It has the face and personality of Walter Matthau and regularly tries to get it on with human heads. What's not to like?
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Scientists create Facebook for great tits
We know that more people than like to admit it troll Facebook to check out ladies, but scientists have actually created a social network that they use for nothing but looking at tits. Our more astute and wildlife-oriented readers will have guessed that the tits scientists are ogling are wild great tits — a type […]
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Giant mice are eating all the endangered baby birds
Considering all the threats facing endangered seabirds — extreme weather, pollution, oil spills — I would not guess that “giant mice” would really rate concern. But on Gough Island in the South Atlantic, 10-inch mice have been decimating Atlantic petrel populations by eating the birds’ young. This is especially bad news because Gough Island is […]
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Critical List: Eating organic makes people judgey; U.S. selling drones to Iraq to protect oil
Eating organic food makes people more judgmental about others’ actions and less altruistic, according to a totally bogus study. The U.S. is selling drones to Iraq to protect oil exports. White-tailed deer are eating so many leaves, they’re keeping migratory birds from being able to build their nests.
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Feed a hummingbird from your face
How many ways do I love this face-mounted hummingbird feeder? It looks like an off-brand Iron Man costume! It lets hummingbirds drink from the bridge of your nose! It’s called :–2<:, which is pronounced “Eye to Eye” but is really a pictogram of a long-nosed human and a beaky bird facing off! This video about […]
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Your cell phone is killing millions of birds
I know that it is a tragedy when a person wants to check Twitter on her phone, and the service sucks and — aaaaahhhh — now she is bored. Bored, bored, bored, and AT&T is the worst, and why didn’t you wait for the Verizon iPhone? Luckily for bored humans, there are 84,000 communications towers […]
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Climate change is screwing up bird migration
According to UNC Chapel Hill researchers who just crunched 10 years’ worth of data, climate change is throwing bird migration patterns just a tiny bit off-kilter — and that small disruption could have major effects on the health of bird populations.
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Climate change threatens traditional [bird] marriage
Here’s a reason for Republicans to finally care about climate change: It threatens straight monogamous bird marriage. According to a new study, unpredictable climates cause birds to Gingrich it up, making them more likely to play the field rather than sticking with one partner.
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Hidden risk: Mercury pollution’s costs to wildlife and people
A new report details the widespread presence of mercury in nature -- and its effects on birds and bats should make humans worried, too.