House finches show up at bird feeders all year, but on most visits, their plumage is hardly eye-catching. They have dense brown streaking on the underside and a robust conical beak. Both males and ...

What: The gray-crowned, brown-capped and black rosy-finch (and yes, the birds’ common names properly takes a hyphen). Where: All three species winter in Colorado’s mountains and have been flocking to ...

If you have a bird feeder in the continental United States, you have almost certainly been visited by house finches. On both sides of the Mississippi their hungry flocks coat feeders like displays of ...

CANFIELD — Several years ago, I relocated our bird feeders from the backyard to the pergola over our deck. Yes, it is messy requiring a thorough spring cleanup, but there are also two advantages. One: ...

House finches are some of the most numerous birds at my feeder right now, always there in cheery little groups of bright red males and subtly brown-streaked females. They are fun to take photos of ...

Zebra finches don’t just mimic sounds—they understand them, revealing surprising insights into animal communication and cognition.

In studying animal communication, it’s hard to know whether animals react instinctively to the vocalizations of others or ...

Scientists have identified a genetic mechanism that explains how birds develop different beak shapes in response to changes in their environment, a vivid illustration of evolution working at the most ...

Yes, there is such a thing as a vampire finch. By Joshua Sokol For half the year, a little brown bird on the northernmost islands of the Galápagos uses its wickedly sharp beak to pick at seeds, nectar ...