birds

ff the coast of South Africa, Cape Gannets spot their targets from the air and dive like a squadron of bombers to pursue their prey. A Cape Gannet can snap up a fish before it realizes it's even being chased. Photographer Alexander Safonov is astounded as he watches these amazing birds dive 25 feet (8 meters) underwater to catch a meal from a school of sardines.

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Philososeagull always asks the tough questions.

New research led by the American Museum of Natural History provides evidence that dinosaurs evolved the brainpower necessary for flight well before they actually took to the air as birds.

Scientists have long suspected that corvids -- the family of birds including ravens, crows and magpies -- are highly intelligent. Now, Tübingen neurobiologists Lena Veit und Professor Andreas Nieder have demonstrated how the brains of crows produce intelligent behavior when the birds have to make strategic decisions.

Their results are published in the latest edition of Nature Communications. Crows are no bird-brains. Behavioral biologists have even called them "feathered primates" because the birds make and use tools, are able to remember large numbers of feeding sites, and plan their social behavior according to what other members of their group do.

The crouched stance developed to compensate for the growth of larger forelimbs that eventually made flight possible, according to new research that digitally "fleshed out" fossils to show physical changes over the eons as bipedal dinosaurs evolved into birds.

It's everyone's favorite question when it comes to record-setting birds: which is the fastest? The peregrine falcon has taken the trophy for fastest, reaching an incredible 242 mph on a high-speed dive. The much larger golden eagle is not far behind with a maximum dive speed of 200 mph. However, this is on a dive, when gravity is certainly helping the bird reach such mind-blowing speeds.

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