Nature

U.S. Fish and Wildlife staff banding a tundra swan in the Willamette Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Photo: George Gentry/USFWS, via Flickr

Every week we post a funny animal photo that’s begging for a caption. Join in the fun! You’ve got til 11:59 pm (Eastern time) on Monday to enter your suggestion (click “Read more” below). On Tuesday we’ll choose our three favorite captions and list them under the image.

Photo: USFWS/Flickr

Every week we post a funny animal photo that’s begging for a caption. Join in the fun! You’ve got til 11:59 pm (Eastern time) on Sunday to enter your suggestion (click “Read more” below). On Monday we’ll choose our three favorite captions and list them under the image.

Photo: Chuck Rogers/Flickr

UPDATE: Choose the winner!

Every week we post a funny animal photo that’s begging for a caption. Join in the fun! You’ve got til 11:59 pm (Eastern time) on Sunday to enter your suggestion (click “Read more” below). On Monday we’ll choose our three favorite captions and list them under the image.

A peregrine falcon chick, born in a nest box atop NYC's Throgs Neck, being banded by a wildlife specialist with NYC Department of Environmental Protection. Photo: MTA/Patrick Cashin/CC BY 2.0

UPDATE: Choose the winner!

Every week we post a funny animal photo that’s begging for a caption. Join in the fun! You’ve got til 11:59 pm (Eastern time) on Sunday to enter your suggestion (click “Read more” below). On Monday we’ll choose our three favorite captions and list them under the image.

Photo: Francisco Martins/CC BY-NC 2.0

Every week we post a funny animal photo that’s begging for a caption. Join in the fun! You’ve got til 11:59 pm (Eastern time) on Sunday to enter your suggestion (click “Read more” below). On Monday we’ll choose our three favorite captions and list them under the image.

I’ve always thought ducks were pretty great. They’re beautiful birds big enough to see a good amount of detail. They tend to stay in one place long enough to offer a really satisfying look, sometimes with the naked eye. And often many species congregate together—on open water.

So when I heard that Rob Meyer and Luke Matheny’s new film “A Birder’s Guide to Everything” was about four high schoolers chasing a long-forgotten duck, I was pretty stoked. After seeing the movie Monday, I can say wholeheartedly that it didn’t disappoint.

A California condor in flight. Photo by USFWS Pacific Southwest Region/ CC BY 2.0

Since December, seven California condors, the largest and most endangered land bird in North America, have died around the Grand Canyon, the Center for Biological Diversity reports. The culprit in three of the cases—and suspected in the other four deaths—is poisoning from ingesting lead ammunition. Condors are scavengers that feed on carcasses and gut piles of elk, deer, and other animals; when those creatures have been shot by hunters who use lead ammunition, the birds ingest metal fragments with their meal.

Streaming live video by Ustream

The osprey cam is back, and it’s got all the drama of a modern-day soap. Female and male birds Rachel and Steve—named for environmentalist and author of Silent Spring Rachel Carson and Project Puffin founder Steve Kress—returned on April 5 to the nest near Bremen, Maine.

Photo: Raja Sambasivan/CC BY-NC 2.0

UPDATE: We've narrowed down the entries to these three. Which do you think is funniest?

Every week we post a funny animal photo that’s begging for a caption. Join in the fun! You’ve got til 11:59 pm (Eastern time) on Sunday to enter your suggestion (click “Read more” below). On Monday we’ll choose our three favorite captions and list them under the image.

A hermit crab in an eelgrass bed in the Salt Creek Recreation Area, Washington. Photo by: Luke McGuff/ CC BY-ND 2.0

Tiny crustaceans have a big impact on marine ecosystem health, new research shows. 

The shrimp-like herbivores, called mesograzers, are smaller than a thumbtack, but gobble up substantial amounts of algae. Keeping the plants in check makes for clearer waters, which gives seagrass beds access to light and oxygen, researchers report in Ecology. The wee arthropods, in turn, serve as a meal for small fish, which are eaten by larger fish and birds, and on up the food chain.