Instinct vs. Experience: Steppe Eagles Learn to Migrate Safely
A new study shows that young Steppe Eagles are drawn to human-altered landscapes during migration, while adults avoid them – revealing how instinct, experience, and learning shape survival strategies in an endangered raptor.
Beyond North and South: Vertical Migration in the White-chested Alethe
Using a barometric pressure logger, researchers documented seasonal vertical migration in a White-chested Alethe, revealing how African forest birds track rainfall, food availability, and elevation rather than latitude.
Gyorgy Szimuly
How European Is the European Roller?
Conceptual Note: This piece sits deliberately between observation and explanation: it outlines what is currently supported by evidence, then turns to the not knowing that remains — treating uncertainty not as a failure of understanding, but as a necessary part of how knowledge advances. The European Roller carries one of the most self-assured names in ornithology. It sounds precise, settled, geographically honest. Yet the bird it describes has always been only partly Eu
Gyorgy Szimuly
Is Woodpecker Drumming More Than Noise?
Conceptual Note: This piece sits deliberately between observation and explanation: it outlines what is currently supported by evidence, then turns to the not knowing that remains — treating uncertainty not as a failure of understanding, but as a necessary part of how knowledge advances. The forgotten song Among birds, few behaviours are as immediately recognisable as the drumming of a woodpecker. Long before the bird itself is seen, the rapid, percussive burst carries
Gyorgy Szimuly
American Oystercatchers Take to the Rooftops: A Desperate Response to a Shrinking Coastline
As coastal nesting habitats disappear, American Oystercatchers along Florida’s Gulf Coast are turning to gravel rooftops—an extraordinary but risky adaptation driven by urban expansion and shrinking shorelines.
Abigail McKay
Sound-based surveys uncover fine-scale habitat selection in the declining Crested Tit
New research from Finland suggests that Crested Tits respond more to fine-scale forest structure than to forest age in early spring, challenging assumptions about how habitat quality is defined in managed boreal forests.
Gyorgy Szimuly