Placement, construction, shape and material are essential nest considerations. Each species meets its own needs with its own style, developed over eons. Many bird species employ feathers in their ...

When going for walks in late July, much of the route is spent looking at summer wildflowers; many still in bloom while others have gone to seed. New ones are seen each day. In the woods, more moisture ...

PEN New England Award–winner and naturalist Heinrich (Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death) again translates his painstaking fieldwork into a fascinating narrative. Heinrich became interested in ...

Not so long ago, people believed that when swallows disappeared in the fall they dove into ponds and spent the winter sleeping in mud. We now know that they fly to Central America for the winter, but ...

A new paper in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry indicates high levels of exposure to "forever chemicals" in the environments of many tree swallow bird groups in the United States. Despite this, ...

Walk outside on a sunny midsummer day and look skyward from an open vantage point. Chances you’ll see a swallow in flight within the first minute.Swallows look like miniature fighter-jets gliding and ...

We studied the relationship among re-mating, site fidelity and breeding performance in the tree swallow Tachycineta bicolor using 16 y of data on reproductive biology in a population breeding in nest ...

Many backyard birders grow concerned when another species swoops into their bluebird boxes. A closer look at who’s moving in is warranted, since invasive species like house sparrows can harm and even ...

Mating by birds — the passage of sperm from the male to fertilize eggs produced by the female — is quite unlike that of mammals. It begins with the male Tree Swallow, in this case, finding an ...