Photographer Mark Harvey captured these stunning portraits of birds in flight. From acrobatic songbirds to soaring raptors, the images show the incredible morphology of a bird’s wing during flight. Most Keep reading
Tag: birds
Swimming in Line
When swimming in open waters, it pays to keep your ducks (or your goslings!) in a row. A recent study examined the waves generated behind adult water fowl and found Keep reading
Starlings Over Rome
Each winter millions of starlings migrate to Rome, where they form enormous murmurations in the sky above. The ephemeral and amorphous displays are driven by each bird responding to its Keep reading
Whiffling Geese
This wild photograph shows a goose flying upside down with its head turned 180 degrees in a behavior known as whiffling. In this orientation, the bird’s typical lift characteristics are Keep reading
Hovering Hawk
Birds have a level of control in flight that would make any engineer jealous. This 2021 Audubon Photography Award winning video by Bill Bryant shows off the skills of a Keep reading
Fish Versus Bird
You’ve seen birds catch fish, but have you ever seen a fish that catches birds? In this video, giant trevally fish hunt fledgling terns — including those in flight! To Keep reading
Loopy Networks and Bird Lungs
When mammals breathe, air flows back and forth inside our lungs. But in birds that inhale and exhale get transformed into one-directional flow inside their lungs. To figure out how, Keep reading
Adjusting for Gusts
In flight, birds must adjust quickly to wind gusts or risk crashing. Research shows that the structure of birds’ wings enables them to respond faster than their brains can. The Keep reading
The Best of FYFD 2020
2020 was certainly a strange year, and I confess that I mostly want to congratulate all of us for making it through and then look forward to a better, happier, Keep reading
Audubon Photography Awards
Several of this year’s Audubon-Photography-Award-winning photos feature birds interacting with fluids. The Grand Prize Winner, by Joanna Lentini, features a diving double-crested cormorant. Like many other species, these cormorants launch Keep reading