Summary

2021 is over, yo! So it's time for the Annual Review Episode!

We’ll be looking back at some highlights of bird science in the year 2021. What fascinating things did ornithologists and other biologists discover about birds this year?

I’ve picked 5 studies to highlight for you. These are stories that, in most cases, were interesting enough to make the news.

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Links of Interest

• VIDEO: A snoozing fox meets a plucky little black-crested titmouse
• VIDEO: Tapaculos Hunt for Truffles

References

• Bird neurocranial and body mass evolution across the end-Cretaceous mass extinction: The avian brain shape left other dinosaurs behind
• Shape-shifting: changing animal morphologies as a response to climatic warming
• Facultative Parthenogenesis in California Condors
• Lifetime reproductive benefits of cooperative polygamy vary for males and females in the acorn woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus)
• Global abundance estimates for 9,700 bird species
• Drones and deep learning produce accurate and efficient monitoring of large-scale seabird colonies
• A supergene underlies linked variation in color and morphology in a Holarctic songbird
• A new genus and species of tanager (Passeriformes, Thraupidae) from the lower Yungas of western Bolivia and southern Peru
• Discovering the Role of Patagonian Birds in the Dispersal of Truffles and Other Mycorrhizal Fungi
• What the pluck? The theft of mammal hair by birds is an overlooked but common behavior with fitness implications

Attributions

• Acorn Woodpecker sounds (Xeno Canto recordings XC297453)