The sea urchin that won’t die

Teaching us resilience in these dark times

Citizen science helps assess the state of India’s birds

Using eBird data, the State of India’s Birds 2020 report shows that most bird species have declined in India.

The art of making paper birds

For Atlas Obscura, I interviewed an artist who makes sculptures of birds out of paper and wire.

Plastic-free seals

Scientists examined the stomachs of Arctic seals. They found food (surprise, surprise) and rocks but no plastic inside. How did seals manage to escape the scourge of plastic?

A burning desire to save birds

The Burning Birds of India’s colorful matchboxes are designed to inspire people to care about the disappearance of birds.

Of fiddler crabs and their fiddles

Male fiddler crabs’ oversized claws are attractive to females, but they slow them down.

Fish eggs hatch after being pooped

It took a fish egg pooped by a swan to stop an old-age theory from flushing down the drain.

London’s wild side

Meet the grebes, jays, woodpeckers and other birds that call London home.

Finding seashells on the seashore

Spoiler alert: the story refers to The BFG.

This moth supplements its diet with bird tears

It probably gets its fix of salt from those tears.

Egg theft might cause seabird decline

It could dissuade seabirds from nesting and even cause local extinction.

Little auks slurp like fish

They eat almost 60,000 prey in a day. And can store over 4,000 in their food pouch at one time.

When predator turns prey

In a bizarre interaction between a frog and an insect, it’s the frog that ends up as food.

How are India’s birds faring?

Several bird species are about to go extinct. Why? Because of us.

Bird Ballet

The huge mass of birds swirled through the sky — twisting and turning, splitting and merging, singing all the while.