Sometimes we learn about animals not from their direct presence, but from the signs they leave behind: scat, tracks in the snow and sometimes their dead remains - bones or fur or feathers. A friend ...

Carla Dove and her team at the feather-identification lab at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, study snarge — that's the bird goo that is wiped off an aircraft after it ...

Carla Dove (right) and her team at the Smithsonian Institution’s Feather Identification Lab. Credit: Chip Clark, Smithsonian Collisions between birds and airplanes can result in a range of damage, the ...

Ornithologist Carla Dove explains how the microscopic structure of a bird's feather can help identify the species and at the same time, make air travel safer for humans The Wildest Reality Show in ...

"The introductory chapters give a detailed overview of the feather - how feathers developed, the parts of a single feather, and the variety of types of feathers on a bird. In the feather ...

Individual identification is important for both laboratory and pet birds. This column gives instructions for placement of microchips in birds and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of this ...

When a bird collides with an airplane, determining its species can help prevent future collisions. To do that, scientists need snarge. Roxie Laybourne, an ...