The bird family tree has some surprises tucked away in its branches, according to a new study by Shannon Hackett of Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History and her fellow researchers.

Though they perch far apart on the avian family tree, birds with the ability to learn songs use similar brain structures to sing their tunes. Neurobiologists at Duke University Medical Center now have an explanation for this puzzling likeness.

Keep feeding the birds over winter: that’s the message from research by the University of Exeter and Queen’s University Belfast, published today (6 February 2008) in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. The study shows for the first time that the extra food we provide garden birds in winter makes for a more successful breeding season in the spring.

With the aid of various alarm calls the Siberian jay bird species tells other members of its group what their main predators-¬hawks¬-are doing. The alarm calls are sufficient for Siberian jays to evince situation-specific fleeing behaviors, which enhances their chances of survival.

The earliest birds acted more like turkeys than common cuckoos, according to a new report in the November 6th issue of Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press. By comparing the claw curvatures of ancient and modern birds, the researchers provide new evidence that the evolutionary ancestors of birds primarily made their livings on the ground rather than in trees.

Wind farms get very popular since their work spares environment, but they can have bad impact on birds and bats. Ducks in Dakota, tanagers in Texas, grosbeaks in Mexico - all may be negativly affected by wind power.