Representative images of individuals representing short beak (left four birds) and medium or long beak (right four birds) pigeon breeds (image credit: Thomas Hellmann). Short beak pigeons, from left ...

When the world slowed down during the COVID-19 pandemic, its effects extended beyond humans. A recent study found that it reshaped urban ecosystems to such an extent that certain city-dwelling birds ...

Biologists discovered that a mutation in the ROR2 gene is linked to beak size reduction in numerous breeds of domestic pigeons. Surprisingly, different mutations in ROR2 also underlie a human disorder ...

Charles Darwin bred pigeons, and used them to learn more about the inheritance of different characteristics. For pigeons, beak size is one of those characteristics. There are 350 pigeon breeds or more ...

Sometimes nature surprises us with extraordinary products of evolution. One prime example is the extraordinary sword-billed hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera). These relatively small birds have carved a ...

We get captivated by a bird’s plumage and may not think to notice its beak, which is critical to the bird’s identity. I’ve often heard people yell “flamingo!” when they see a pink-plumed bird feeding ...

Confuciusornis was a crow-like fossil bird that lived in the Cretaceous ~120 million years ago. It was one of the first birds to evolve a beak. Early beak evolution remains understudied. Using an ...

Charles Darwin was obsessed with domestic pigeons. He thought they held the secrets of selection in their beaks. Free from the bonds of natural selection, the 350-plus breeds of domestic pigeons have ...