The Extreme Breeding Ecology of Cliff-nesting Swifts
A Common Swift glides through golden evening light – briefly grounded in its breeding season before returning to a life spent almost entirely in the air. © Marcin Sidelnik

The Extreme Breeding Ecology of Cliff-nesting Swifts

Cliff-nesting swifts defy gravity – and ecological convention. This article explores how these aerial specialists adapted to breed in some of the planet’s most inhospitable vertical landscapes.


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Upstream of Science: The Role of Bird Art in Understanding — An Interview with Szabolcs Kókay
A reconstruction of a species now considered extinct, placed carefully within the landscape that once held it. Slender-billed Curlew with Eurasian Curlews on oil (2010). All Rights Reserved by Szabolcs Kókay

Upstream of Science: The Role of Bird Art in Understanding — An Interview with Szabolcs Kókay

Ornithology begins not with numbers, but with looking. This conversation with Szabolcs Kókay examines how bird art operates upstream from science – shaping what we notice, understand, and value.


Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly

The Ornithologist Launches ‘Conceptual Notes’: Exploring the Unanswered Questions in Ornithology
Oilbirds (Steatornis caripensis), among the few birds to use echolocation. Their nocturnal world challenges the assumption that birds are primarily visual animals – a fitting emblem for a series that explores what lies beyond familiar explanatory light. © Alex Berryman

The Ornithologist Launches ‘Conceptual Notes’: Exploring the Unanswered Questions in Ornithology

The Ornithologist has launched a new editorial series titled Conceptual Notes, designed to give space to questions, uncertainties, and unresolved patterns that sit just beyond the boundaries of conventional scientific publishing. The series responds to a familiar tension in ornithology and ecology: while journals excel at reporting methods, results, and conclusions, there is far less room to discuss the moments before hypotheses solidify, or the ambiguities that persist even after d


Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly