• Young pigeon fanciers: meet the new kids on the flock

    Young pigeon fanciers: meet the new kids on the flock
    Pigeons are friendly, acrobatic and affordable, and these days they are winning the hearts of more and more youthful pigeoneersWhen Boris the fantail arrived in Callum Percy’s life in 2020, the 29-year-old trainee teacher was immediately smitten. Boris had been discovered by a family friend in a dishevelled state after what looked like a run-in with a sparrow hawk, its blond-white tail as fluffy as a cumulus cloud.
    “We called him Boris after the prime minister as his feathers were al
  • Vampire finches and deadly tree snakes: how birds went worldwide – and their battles for survival

    Vampire finches and deadly tree snakes: how birds went worldwide – and their battles for survival
    A new exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London includes ‘tragic’ tales of species wiped out from their natural habitatsDouglas Russell, a senior curator at London’s Natural History Museum, was examining a collection of nests gathered on the island of Guam when he made an unsettling discovery.“The nests had been picked up more than 100 years ago, and I was curating them with the aim of adding them to the museum’s main collection. They turned out to be one o

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