Dynamic Bird Migration Map
Recently Visited Bird Species You haven't viewed anything yet. Select a bird species to get started.
Stay updated with the latest in technology, AI, cybersecurity, and more
Recently Visited Bird Species You haven't viewed anything yet. Select a bird species to get started.
It’s been a while since Tim Schafer’s done press briefings, he admits. The head of Double Fine, a studio best known for the Psychonauts series, is trying to explain Keeper, a puzzle adventure game where you are, literally, a sentient, walking lighthouse. Double Fine is now one of several studios bought up by Microsoft and the team apparently took the opportunity to lean into all the resources available and, he said, “make something weird.” It’s definitely that. The colors and atmosphere of Keep
It’s been a while since Tim Schafer’s done press briefings, he admits. The head of Double Fine, a studio best known for the Psychonauts series, is trying to explain Keeper, a puzzle adventure game where you are, literally, a sentient, walking lighthouse. Double Fine is now one of several studios bought up by Microsoft and the team apparently took the opportunity to lean into all the resources available and, he said, “make something weird.” It’s definitely that. The colors and atmosphere of Keep
If the songbirds in your neighborhood are waking you up earlier and chirping well into the evening, blame light pollution. Artificial light touches nearly every corner of Earth’s surface, and a new study shows that it’s messing with birds’ biological clocks. Researchers analyzed a global acoustic dataset of more than 60 million recorded birdsongs representing more than 580 diurnal bird species. The findings, published Thursday, August 21, in the journal Science, show that light pollution has pr
Serious badminton players are constantly exploring different techniques to give them an edge over opponents. One of the latest innovations is the spin serve, a devastatingly effective method in which a player adds a pre-spin just before the racket contacts the shuttlecock (aka the birdie). It's so effective—some have called it "impossible to return"—that the Badminton World Federation (BWF) banned the spin serve in 2023, at least until after the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. The sanction wasn
Thunderbird Pro August 2025 Update In April of this year we announced Thunderbird Pro, additional subscription services from Thunderbird meant to help you get more done with the app you already use and love. These services include a first ever email service from Thunderbird, called Thundermail. They also include Appointment, for scheduling meetings and appointments and Send, an end-to-end encrypted filesharing tool. Each of these services are open source, repositories are linked down below. Th
If the songbirds in your neighborhood are waking you up earlier and chirping well into the evening, blame light pollution. Artificial light touches nearly every corner of Earth’s surface, and a new study shows that it’s messing with birds’ biological clocks. Researchers analyzed a global acoustic dataset of more than 60 million recorded birdsongs representing more than 580 diurnal bird species. The findings, published Thursday, August 21, in the journal Science, show that light pollution has pr
Fusion is always 10 years away, it seems. To expedite development, some scientists have turned to the prospect of cold fusion—a hypothetical technology that seeks to achieve fusion at room temperature with simpler machines. Needless to say, no one has achieved this vaunted goal, but a team of chemists believes they’re getting closer. A paper published today in Nature introduces Thunderbird: a particle accelerator roughly the size of a beer fridge. The bench-top reactor operates on plasma scienc
Fusion is always 10 years away, it seems. To expedite development, some scientists have turned to the prospect of cold fusion—a hypothetical technology that seeks to achieve fusion at room temperature with simpler machines. Needless to say, no one has achieved this vaunted goal, but a team of chemists believes they’re getting closer. A paper published today in Nature introduces Thunderbird: a particle accelerator roughly the size of a beer fridge. The bench-top reactor operates on plasma scienc
Serious badminton players are constantly exploring different techniques to give them an edge over opponents. One of the latest innovations is the spin serve, a devastatingly effective method in which a player adds a pre-spin just before the racket contacts the shuttlecock (aka the birdie). It's so effective—some have called it "impossible to return"—that the Badminton World Federation (BWF) banned the spin serve in 2023, at least until after the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. The sanction wasn
As a seabird researcher, Leo Uesaka spends most of his time reviewing hours of bird footage. That can get quite tedious and demanding at times, but every second is worth paying attention to—after all, that’s how you notice things like the penchant for seabirds to poop only while airborne. In a first-of-its-kind study published today in Current Biology, Uesaka and his team report that streaked shearwaters—large, unassuming seabirds common in East Asian waters—engage in a very specific type of ba
Scientists have uncovered a hidden pattern in birdsong that mirrors a core rule of human language. A new study, led by researchers at The University of Manchester, in collaboration with Chester Zoo, found that birds appear to follow Zipf’s Law of Abbreviation (ZLA) – the idea that more frequently used sounds tend to be shorter. This rule, found in all human languages, helps make communication more efficient. The findings, published in the journal PLoS Computational Biology today, offer new ins
I've downloaded countless meditation apps and tried all the breathing exercises to stay present. Yet, the app I wasn't expecting to help me with mindfulness is the one I've had the most success with. It's an app for identifying birds. I was just as surprised as you are. Merlin Bird ID was launched in 2014 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to help people identify the birds around them. Thanks to eBird, the world's largest database of bird sounds and photos based on 800 million global sightings,
Migrating stork which has been hit by an arrow The Rostocker Pfeilstorch, found in 1822, demonstrated that birds migrated rather than hibernating or changing form in winter. A Pfeilstorch (German for 'arrow stork', pronounced [ˈpfaɪ̯l.ˌʃtɔɐ̯ç]; plural Pfeilstörche, [-ˌʃtœɐ̯.çə]) is a white stork that is injured by an arrow or spear while wintering in Africa and returns to Europe with the projectile stuck in its body. As of 2003, about 25 Pfeilstörche have been documented in Germany.[1] The fi
AI is giving a huge efficiency boost to one of the biggest nuclear fusion facilities in the world—but perhaps not in the way you think. In research published today in Science, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory report how its newly developed deep learning model accurately predicted the results of a 2022 fusion experiment at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). The model, which assigned 74% probability for ignition in that experiment, outperforms traditional supercomputing met
If you're looking for an easy way to slow down and enjoy the outdoors, adding a bird feeder to your outdoor space is an excellent choice. Whether you have your own trees out in the suburbs or you have a small backyard patio in the city, adding a bird feeder to your space can invite feathered friends to visit for a few minutes each day. Along with the joys of birdsong, taking a few minutes to hang out with birds can deliver benefits to your mental health. Studies show that spending time around b
I've done everything I can think of to improve my mindfulness. I've tried countless meditation apps and breathing exercises to stay in the present, and I'm always working on improving my mental health. What helps me stay grounded has nothing to do with any of that. It's an app for identifying birds. Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Merlin Bird ID launched in 2014 to help people identify the birds they see and hear. Thanks to eBird, the world's largest database of bird sounds and photos based on 80
Snowball the dancing cockatoo gets down with his bad self to the Backstreet Boys. In 2008, a YouTube video featuring an Eleanora cockatoo named Snowball dancing to the beat of the Backstreet Boys went viral. His killer moves stunned scientists, since the ability to synchronize body movements to music was believed to be a uniquely human activity. Nor is Snowball an isolated case. Griffi the Dancing Cockatoo has his own YouTube channel, for example, and a recent TikTok video showed two sister coc
Being mindful of our current thoughts, feelings and surroundings can be a challenge, especially in modern times. I, personally, find it difficult to ground myself in the present and have often tried using meditation apps to help. However, the app that has given me the most success when it comes to being mindful and present isn't one for breathing exercises or mental health but one for identifying the birds around me. Since 2014, Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Merlin Bird ID was launched to help p
You don't need to hike into the wilderness to feel closer to nature. Sometimes, all it takes is a simple bird feeder and putting it in the right spot. Whether you're living in the suburbs or just got access to a backyard after years in the city, attracting feathered friends can bring surprising benefits for your mental health. Studies show that spending time around birds and hearing birdsong can lower stress, ease anxiety and even help with depression symptoms. But if your feeder isn't seeing m
We’re talking about the birds. Great tits are small, yellowish songbirds common to the woodlands of Europe. Tit pairs are known to be monogamous during breeding season, splitting up after fully raising their offspring. But new research suggests that this “tit divorce” may be the product of complex social relationships formed during and after the breeding season. Published July 30 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the paper reports that not all tit pairs separate in late summer when breedi
Mindfulness is grounding ourselves in the present moment, which means paying attention to our inner feelings and thoughts as well as what's going on around us. Easier said than done. Like many, I struggle to keep my mind stationed in the present and often turn to meditation apps for assistance. Yet, what has helped me practice mindfulness the most came in the form of an unexpected app -- not one for breathing exercises or mental health, but one for identifying birds. Merlin Bird ID was created
Flying animals need to accurately detect, identify and track fast-moving objects and these behavioral requirements are likely to strongly select for abilities to resolve visual detail in time. However, evidence of highly elevated temporal acuity relative to non-flying animals has so far been confined to insects while it has been missing in birds. With behavioral experiments on three wild passerine species, blue tits, collared and pied flycatchers, we demonstrate temporal acuities of vision far e
WTF?! While researchers previously theorized that homing pigeons could transport data faster than gigabit internet in certain scenarios, a birder recently explored how birdsong might store and reproduce data. More research is needed to fully explore the phenomenon, but the possibilities are intriguing. A recent YouTube video from birder Benn Jordan explains how a songbird retained and reproduced information from a PNG image file, theoretically enabling data transfers reaching 2 MB/s. The feat i
Taking time out of your busy day to sit and listen to the birds might sound hokey, but as a wellness writer and birdwatcher, I can tell you firsthand that it can transform your daily routine. Hanging out with the birds or listening to birdsong has real benefits like lowering stress, easing anxiety and even helping reduce symptoms of depression. It might not seem like much, but it's an easy way to slow down and connect with nature. Until recently, I lived in an apartment in the heart of a city.
Sometime between 16 and 11.6 million years ago, a young caiman came upon a tasty snack in modern-day South America. The meal, however, turned out to be rather ambitious, because the croc hadn’t come upon just any old prey. It was a phorusrhacid, a large carnivore in its own right, aptly known as a “terror bird.” The now-extinct terror bird wouldn’t have given in without a fight—unless, of course, it was already dead, and the opportunistic croc simply scavenged its dead body. That doesn’t seem t
As someone who writes about wellness and loves birdwatching, I've experienced firsthand how much joy birds can bring to your daily routine. And science backs it up. Listening to birdsong and spending time watching feathered visitors has been shown to lower stress, ease anxiety and even help reduce symptoms of depression. It's a simple but powerful way to feel more grounded and connected to nature. Until recently, I lived in an apartment in the heart of a city. I had to actively seek out nature
Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET I didn't think the world needed yet another web browser. However, when I considered the potential, a few issues bubbled to the surface. Also: I speed-tested 11 browsers - and the fastest might surprise you Some web browsers were created by companies with the hope of monetizing anything and everything. From search deals with Google and crypto-mining ads to sponsored content and just about every other way they can make a buck off your browsing. After mulling over
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a man whose brain was partially eaten by a worm and who once admitted to keeping jars full of roadkill in his freezer, is begging the Canadian government to spare the lives of 400 ostriches who may have been exposed to bird flu. Kennedy, who also happens to be in charge of America’s federal health policy, believes those ostriches could help scientists “better understand the virus.” The ostriches in question are at the heart of a legal battle in Ottawa, where federal judge
FluentBird FluentBird is a userChrome.css theme for Mozilla Thunderbird, that implemenets Windows 11 Fluent Design and Mica transparency materials. Created by Danny King - www.dannyking.co.uk Released under the MIT License Features Implements Fluent Design styling in Thunderbird Supports both dark and light modes (system theme) Enhances and highlights Mica transparency on Windows 11 systems This will likely be the last beta release, unless more issues are raised, with 1.0 release to occu