Posted on 8. April, 2013.

A new study by scientists from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the US Fish and Wildlife Service has found that bird and mammal mortality caused by outdoor cats in the United States is much higher than has been widely reported. The study which was based on a review of 90 previous studies, was published in the online research journal Nature Communications.

Posted on 8. April, 2013.

Science Progress commissions world authorities to contribute articles on the most interesting, important and meaningful topics - ranging from cosmology to the environment, and publishes occasional issues on specific topics.

Posted on 2. April, 2013.

According to a study of more than 30 years of Savannah sparrows recordings, the birds are singing distinctly different songs today than their ancestors did 30 years ago. These changes have been passed along generation to generation, according to a new study by University of Guelph researchers published in Animal Behaviour.

Posted on 2. April, 2013.

Red colouration—historically seen as costly in vertebrates—might represent some physiological benefit after all, according to research published in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.

Posted on 2. April, 2013.

Research by the Zoological Society of London and University of Cambridge shows that male hihi birds develop more colourful and attractive breeding feathers if they receive a nest diet rich in carotenoids – natural pigments found mainly in fruit and vegetables. The paper, published in Proceedings of The Royal Society B, looks at the effects of newborn nutrition on male plumage in the rare New Zealand hihi (Notiomystis concta) over the course of a year.

Posted on 28. March, 2013.

The first known nest of one of the world's rarest birds – the Critically Endangered Stresemann's Bristlefront – has been discovered in Brazil, according to the American Bird Conservancy. Of perhaps equal significance is that strong evidence of active nestlings was also found.

Posted on 28. March, 2013.

Mass poultry vaccination programmes introduced to combat Salmonella infections have led to a dramatic fall in the number of cases since the late 1990s, according to research at the University of Liverpool. The results were published in the 1 March 2013 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.