Stimulating interest in ornithology: The “Masturbation in birds” project

Dr. Price’s “Masturbation in birds” project aims to stimulate interest in ornithology. Dr. Price, based at the University of Liverpool, explains: One of the projects I work on is trying to understand why some species of bird seem to masturbate loads, and other species don’t seem to do it at all. Masturbation is a pretty […]

Farewell, Robert W. Dickerman, the biologist who coined ‘Davian Behavior’

Sad news. ‘Ornithology Exchange’ reported the death of Dr. Robert W. Dickerman (1926). Dickerman was the biologist who gave necrophilia a good name. Chiefly known as a specimen-based ornithologist and tireless collector of scientific specimens, Bob Dickerman has enriched the collections of natural history museums, from Alaska to New Mexico, and described dozens of new […]

A luxury gift for hawking

Ornithologists are people, too. They enjoy luxury items, especially luxury items advertised in videos stocked with furniture, a hooded hawk, a fashion model, and children’s music. This video, in which (if you watch it) you can hear children’s music and see a fashion model, a hooded hawk, and furniture, seems to have been made with ornithologists […]