Hannah Waters

As sea-level rise transforms South Florida’s fringe of wetlands into open ocean, Roseate Spoonbills are moving north. Land managers are following their lead, restoring the ecosystem with an eye for...

As sea-level rise transforms South Florida’s fringe of wetlands into open ocean, Roseate Spoonbills are moving north. Land managers are following their lead, restoring the ecosystem with an eye for...

Photographer Chris Linder captured Brood X cicadas as they tunneled out of the earth, burst from their shells, and were devoured by birds.

The Mojave Desert is heating up and drying out so rapidly that birds can’t drink enough water to stay cool. The result is population “collapse.”

The California Condor is perhaps America’s most iconic endangered species and conservation success story. In the 1980s, the wild population dwindled to just 25 birds, which were brought into captivity as a last resort. By the end of 2019, 337 California Condors soared over the West Coast. It’s still an endangered species, but biologists’ hard work rearing condor chicks and releasing them to the wild has paid off. The population continues to recover and expand. But the condors may soon be a vict…

In 1908, Joseph Grinnell began a 30-year project to document the state’s wildlife. Now, a modern resurvey of his study sites is yielding unprecedented insights into birds’ vulnerabilities and...

While the internet got a kick out of the latest meme, Mariah Hillman rushed to the scene to save the birds from danger or even death.

The internet is no stranger to the wacky bird dance. Clips of smiling (and frowning) birds-of-paradise, moonwalking manakins, and other avian wonders abound online. So when I sat down to watch Dancing with the Birds, a new Netflix documentary produced by the team behind Our Planet and narrated by the English actor Stephen Fry, I assumed it would be akin to a circus: a series of performances stitched together without much storytelling or natural history. There are more than enough avian dancers o…

During the austral summer, Cape Crozier—a 40-minute helicopter ride from the McMurdo Antarctic research station—is home to a million or so Adélie Penguins. The curious and charismatic birds like to nest near productive open water to provide their fast-growing chicks with as much food as possible. Even in remote Antarctica, it would be hard for them to find a better site than here on the edge of the Ross Sea. Considered the world’s most pristine marine ecosystem, the Ross Sea teems with penguin…

The six flavors of junco were long considered separate species. Recent science shows that they instead boldly exhibit evolution in real time.