Sometimes we learn about animals not from their direct presence, but from the signs they leave behind: scat, tracks in the snow and sometimes their dead remains - bones or fur or feathers. A friend ...

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 ...

Carla Dove (right) and her team at the Smithsonian Institution’s Feather Identification Lab. Credit: Chip Clark, Smithsonian Collisions between birds and airplanes can result in a range of damage, the ...

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 Exoplanets: The Mind-Blowing ...

"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 ...

While Sibley's (The Sibley Guide to Birds) book is a field guide primer, it provides useful information for not only novice bird watchers, but also for veterans hoping to expand their life lists. This ...

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 ...

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 Need a New Organ? Surgeon ...