Carla Dove and her team at the feather-identification lab at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, study snarge — that's the bird goo that is wiped off an aircraft after it ...

This video is no longer available. Have you ever wondered why planes don’t often hit birds while in the sky? Hidden behind a maze of “employees only” elevators, hallways and doors on the secluded ...

"The introductory chapters give a detailed overview of the feather - how feathers developed, the parts of a single feather, and the variety of types of feathers on a bird. In the feather ...

Bird tails tell tales that help us clinch a bird’s identification. The tail’s shape and hues, as well as the way the bird holds its tail, are identifying characteristics. A bird's tail consists of a ...

Ornithologist Carla Dove explains how the microscopic structure of a bird's feather can help identify the species and at the same time, make air travel safer for humans Vint Cerf of Google on the ...

A paper published last year in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface described a feather as a masterpiece of engineering, one comprising nine orders of magnitude, from the nanoscale to the meter ...

Individual identification is important for both laboratory and pet birds. This column gives instructions for placement of microchips in birds and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of this ...

Feathers are a sleek, intricate evolutionary innovation that makes flight possible for birds, but in addition to their stiff, aerodynamic feathers used for flight, birds also keep a layer of soft, ...

Research assistant James Whatton confirms the feathers in front of him belong to a gray catbird. Credit: Smithsonian In the hallways of the National Museum of Natural History—past the bathrooms, the ...