nationalgeographic.com — Illustration: a colony of Avimaia schweitzerae nests on a lakeshore in what would become northwest China. Somehow, one female ended up dead in the water—eventually yielding the first fossil bird ever found with an unlaid egg inside. About 115 million years ago in what's now northwest China, a fem…

sciencealert.com — My ideas about animal behaviour were turned upside down in 2002 when I watched Betty, a New Caledonian crow, fashion a hook from a piece of wire and use it to pull a small container with meat from a tube. Betty's behaviour captivated scientists because it seemed so creative: there was no obvious so…

mashable.com — With the end of 2018 comes the near-certain reality that some critters, after millions of years of existence on Earth, are gone for good. There's little question that humanity's continued exploitation of wild animals and the depletion of their habitats have left many species either clinging to exi…

npr.org — Wisdom is known to be at least 68 years old and nests each year at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge. She survived a tsunami and is believed to have laid nearly 40 eggs over her life. Wisdom, who returns each year to Midway Atoll to nest, was seen back at her favorite nest site in late Nove…

dailymail.co.uk — A parrot stuck on a roof for three days greeted firefighters sent to its aid with a four-letter tirade. Jessie, the multi-lingual Macaw, flipped the bird after escaping from her owner's home in Edmonton, north London. When she could not be lured down from a neighbour's roof, firefighters were call…

iflscience.com — Everybody loves a good escaped animal story (and the race to give it a Twitter handle). Today’s comes in the form of a flamingo that has been on the run ever since its daring escape over a decade ago, that has been found living it up in Texas.

theguardian.com — Winning and shortlisted images from this year’s competition, from awe-inspiring action shots to charming portraits, featured in a new book celebrating some of the best bird photography of the year

abc.net.au — If you want to avoid being attacked by magpies this spring, perhaps you should try making friends with them.

news.nationalgeographic.com — Are birds that feed fish good Samaritans or just confused? Experts weigh in.