Steve Zack is coordinator of Bird Conservation for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Thanksgiving is upon us, as families and friends gather for food, drink and conversation.

Birds are vertebrate animals adapted for flight. Many can also run, jump, swim, and dive. Some, like penguins, have lost the ability to fly but retained their wings. Birds are found worldwide and ...

It was a small bird, about the size of a bluejay, but its tail was more than 150% the length of its body. And the tail's length isn't the only unusual thing about it.

Soaring birds -- like osprey, eagles, falcons, even vultures -- can stay aloft in the air seemingly forever, rarely flapping their wings. They glide along rising air currents in a way that has ...