James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

It’s all too easy to discount the chicken. They are such a commonplace bird in the modern world, comprising a multi-billion-dollar meat industry, that people have trouble thinking of them as anything ...

If you’ve ever been to a farm (or a homestead!), you’ve probably noticed that chickens are almost never kept alone. Their coops contain numerous hens, as well as a rooster or two, and they seem to ...

After a long, lingering, warm September, autumn is in full fig! Leaves are turning, a little muted this year from the lack of rain. The old sugar maples in front of the house haven’t a speck of ...

Dear Readers: The Mexican must take the week off because his home paper is publishing its annual Best Of issue. To honor our Best Of, here’s a doozy from 2006. This infamous edición got a man in ...

Royalty-free licenses let you pay once to use copyrighted images and video clips in personal and commercial projects on an ongoing basis without requiring additional payments each time you use that ...

Recently I heard the familiar “coo-oo, coo, coo” of a Mourning Dove and it got me thinking about how I used to believe it was an owl hooting (I always heard it as a “hoo” and not a “coo”). Although ...

Barn owls, like the one pictured here, do not hoot, instead their call is an ear-piercing shriek. Recently I heard the familiar “coo-oo, coo, coo” of a Mourning Dove and it got me thinking about how I ...

So you’re fixin’ to hit the road for a little R&R—maybe the beach is callin’, or you’re just headin’ down yonder to visit kin. But hang on… what about your feathered family back home? Chickens may be ...

Royalty-free licenses let you pay once to use copyrighted images and video clips in personal and commercial projects on an ongoing basis without requiring additional payments each time you use that ...

A hummingbird alerted me. It darted about very erratically rather than the smooth flying while taking nectar from flowers. And it wasn’t darting around flowers but zig-zagging around like a fly over ...

The eastern screech-owl is a hole-nester that requires pre-existing holes of an adequate size. It cannot live where trees do not have a sufficient diameter to provide such holes. As the climate warms, ...