You buy new clothes. Birds grow their own. The donning of fresh plumage is called molt, with new feathers replacing old. The feathers we see are dead once completely grown. They break and show wear.

Researchers used 13 years' worth of data on 134 bird species to come to their conclusion. They studied molting patterns from 2011 to 2024 and found that fall migratory birds consistently molted a day ...

"Molt," said my friend Ashley, "sounds dull." .We were talking about this column, and my effort to make bird molt interesting. "Molt doesn't sound interesting," she said. "Well, you don't know ...

Summer is a busy time for birds. The adults must help their new brood(s) of youngsters learn valuable life skills so they survive the coming winter; many species change their diet from insects to ...

As we head toward the end of summer, many people may wonder where all the birds have gone. Experts say the birds haven’t gone anywhere; they’re just in hiding. August is the peak molting time for ...

Most backyard feeder birds molt from July through September, although some may molt through December. Molting is the process by which a bird replaces its feathers. Every molting bird needs extra ...

Every bird you've ever seen—every robin, every pigeon, every penguin at the zoo—is a living dinosaur. Birds are the only group of dinosaurs that survived the asteroid-induced mass extinction 66 ...

Explore the colors of songbird migration in a photo essay that displays the ways distance and timing affect plumage. In late summer and autumn, millions of birds fly above our heads, often at night, ...

A recent University of Utah study found that birds are molting at earlier dates. The underlying reason? Our planet's warming. Researchers used 13 years' worth of data on 134 bird species to come to ...