A woodpecker may not make a good football mascot, but Mississippi State University researchers think this bird’s shock-absorbing beak may help them design a better football helmet. Lakiesha Williams, ...

The highest rate of beak abnormalities ever recorded in wild bird populations has been detected in Alaska and the Northwest, according to a new study. "The prevalence of these strange deformities is ...

Researchers in Anchorage are working to crack a tough nut in the form of a beak deformity affecting a large portion of black-capped chickadees and other birds in parts of Alaska, including the Kenai ...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska --Biologist Colleen Handel saw her first black-capped chickadee with the heartrending disorder in 1998. The tiny birds showed up at birdfeeders in Alaska’s largest city with ...

Birds are susceptible to many health conditions, from vitamin deficiencies to respiratory infections. Yet, scissor beak is among the most obvious because it’s a clear deformity of a bird’s upper and ...

Look at a bird’s beak to see what family the bird belongs to and the kind of food it eats. Seeing a bird with a long, needlelike beak would tell us it’s in the hummingbird family that probes flowers ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. GrrlScientist writes about evolution, ecology, behavior and health. I ran across a sweet little paper in Science recently that ...