Tiny black-capped chickadees are bird brains savvy enough that other species heed their calls
Unique among birds, tiny chickadees’ have brains that grow and shed neurons – and memories of where food is stored – so they’re not too heavy to fly with. Yet other species flock with chickadees for their valuable information.
Brown creepers are great friends to their trees, ridding them of pests while making their nests
The tiny brown creeper blends in thoroughly with tree trunks as it goes about its meticulous work, and when it nests, it does so under loose bark.
Our dogs are descended from Eurasian wolves, awesome powers packaged behind a cold nose
Our dogs are funny, with their butt-smelling and sometimes bizarre eating habits, but each of their peculiar traits are astonishing, with a basis in thousands of years of evolution from Eurasian wolves as many as 30,000 years ago.
Pigeons navigate home through freezing cold, and the one called GI Joe saved soldiers’ lives
World War II bomber crews carried pigeons into battle wearing oxygen masks and heated suits at 20,000 feet – while even at temperatures 45 degrees below zero, the birds just fluffed their feathers and closed their eyes, suffering no apparent ill effects.
Merlins are fierce and fast hunters of other birds, and accustomed to resting on the arms of royalty
In the Middle Ages, falconers called this bird the “Lady’s hawk.” Mary Queen of Scots and Russia’s Catherine the Great used them for the hunt.
Orange-crowned warblers are a bright spot during our sometimes long, bitter winters
This is a remarkable but often overlooked winter bird – feathers cover the orange patch at the top of the head that give the warbler its name.
Hooded merganser are named for their crest, wild look for a creature with amazing abilities
A carnivorous diving sea duck can as fly as fast as 50 mph, nest as high as 50 feet off the ground and adjust the lens of their eye to see well in the air or underwater – all with a funny-looking pouf that “hood” barely begins to cover.
Ash-throated flycatchers are birds of the desert. How is it we can find spot them in the Northeast?
To see a West Coast desert bird without traveling there, head to Neighborhood 9 and look around at eye level for this itinerant bird. Don’t wait too long.
Northern cardinals bless our region year-round with brilliant color, unique song and avian antics
For some early settlers in North America, this bird’s bright red feathers made them think of the robes and caps of Roman Catholic church officials. The name cardinal was born, and to this day, some collective nouns for a flock of cardinals are a conclave, Vatican or college of cardinals.
Long-tailed weasels are sleek rodent hunters with lives that will surprise – even before birth
In most of New England, weasels turn white in winter? They have a musk like skunks? Babies are about the weight of a penny? What isn’t remarkable about these non-hibernating animals we can spot in Cambridge and Somerville?
