Feathered vertebrates, beaked and toothless, nearly all of them able to fly.
What it means
Birds are the most numerous and most conspicuous group of land vertebrates, and the only living descendants of the dinosaurs. The feather is their exclusive trait and does three jobs at once — flight, insulation and communication through colour — while a light skeleton and a two-pass respiratory system sustain a very high metabolism. Birds are also the best-documented group on the planet, thanks to centuries of amateur observation, which is why trends in their populations are used as an indicator for the state of entire ecosystems.
Species
Natural phenomena
Ruby-throated hummingbird migrationEmperor penguins raising their chicksLesser flamingo breeding at Lake NatronSandhill crane migration on the Platte RiverKing penguin breeding in South GeorgiaPuffin colonies in Scotland and Iceland
Starling murmurations in the United Kingdom
Northern gannet colony on Bass Rock
Macaw clay licks at Tambopata
Magellanic penguin colony at Punta Tombo
Migratory flamingos at Ras Al Khor
Pelican colonies in the Danube Delta
Bird migration in Donana
Common crane wintering at Gallocanta Lagoon
Soaring bird migration across the Strait of Gibraltar
