Fossilized feathers of an extinct bird show it molted differently than modern birds. The prehistoric bird lost its feathers all at once, while many modern birds molt in waves. Regrowing feathers uses ...

“Awkward” would probably be the most benevolent word I could use to describe the explosive launch into flight of the California quail. Certainly, the words graceful or athletic do not come to mind. A ...

Birds tend to be more colorful in the tropics, and scientists wanted to find out how they got there: if colorful feathers evolved in the tropics, or if tropical birds have brightly-colored ancestors ...

"The introductory chapters give a detailed overview of the feather - how feathers developed, the parts of a single feather, and the variety of types of feathers on a bird. In the feather ...

Vanya, curator of birds and mammals at the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates, studies a turkey vulture wing at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. — Photos: BRYAN ANSELM/The New York Times Vanya ...