Bird tails are complex structures that give us clues about bird flight and bird behavior. Knowing the variety of tail patterns helps us to identify birds, so let's talk bird tails. A bird's tail ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder. Well, if ...

If you had to describe a male peacock’s tail feathers, you might pick words like “dazzling” or “beautiful.” You probably wouldn’t go with “stealthy,” “aerodynamic,” or “subtle.” Peacock tails are just ...

Scientists have uncovered the fossil of a bird that lived 120 million years ago, and it definitely had flair, including unusually long tail feathers. These flashy feathers probably didn’t help the ...

Peacock tails are just one example of how evolution walks a line between favoring traits that make it easier to survive, and traits that make it easier to find a mate. In a new study, scientists have ...

An artistic rendering of the early Cretaceous era fukuipteryx prima, a dino-bird with a tail feather-supporting skeleton, which was discovered by researchers in central Japan. (Masanori Yoshida) (CN) ...

A 115-million-year-old fossilized bird with a pair of long, ribbon-like tail feathers is the oldest bird ever found in Brazil. It was about the size of a hummingbird, and it likely boasted bright ...

In the hotly debated matter of bird-tail aerodynamics, the first wind tunnel measurements indicate that the prevailing theory may be wrong. The basic avian tail has the triangular shape of supersonic ...

A pigeon-sized dinosaur that lived more than 100 million years ago sported four ribbon-like tail feathers that likely helped the creature balance on tree branches. That picture comes from a fossil of ...

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