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.

 A juvenile marbled murrelet out on the water (Photo by USFWS / CC BY 2.0)

Californian State Park officials are proposing recreational developments in Big Basin Redwoods State Park that threaten the marbled murrelet, a federally endangered seabird. Murrelets are among the only seabirds that nest in trees, seeking refuge in the dense, moss-cloaked branches of old-growth redwoods. Big Basin’s redwoods harbor the largest population of the central coast marbled murrelet, which is genetically distinct from its cousins up north—and therefore vital to protect.

We all knew the cicadas were coming, but just when and where they’d emerge has remained a bit mysterious.

Well, the 17-year wait is over.

Hard to believe, but it’s our 12^th Birds Make the Art post. One of our highlighted artists makes realistic-looking paper bird models. Another cuts intricate bird designs. The third creates beautiful paintings.

Those seeking to understand fungi have, for the most part, had only two resources available: field guides to edible mushrooms, or graduate level textbooks. 

Now, with the publication of The Kingdom of Fungi by Jens H. Petersen, we have a beautifully illustrated source of information about the phylogeny, ecology, and biology of these fascinating and important organisms.

 A vervet monkey considering corn. (Photo by tullis / CC BY 2.0)

What do monkeys and whales have in common? Not much—besides a tendency to latch onto certain fads. Last week, two separate studies of monkeys and whales fueled the argument that animals’ adoption of some lasting behavioral 'fads' amounts to something we could call ‘culture’. What the researchers found is touted as the most powerful evidence we have that animals are indeed cultured—at least to a degree.

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 2012 map showing Keystone's original pipeline route across Nebraska in blue, and TransCanada's preferred alternative in green. (Photo by SkyTruth / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The State Department’s draft environmental impact statement on the Keystone XL pipeline—which in March concluded that the pipeline would have negligible climate impact—was criticized by environmental groups when it came out. Now, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is questioning the report, suggesting that the State Department has underrepresented Keystone’s climate impacts, the associated safety concerns, and alternative pipeline routes.

A lion cub goes slack in its mother's grip (Photo by BrianScott / CC BY-ND-ND 2.0)

Some of us might vaguely recall the sense of being carried, or lulled to sleep in a parent’s arms. Even if we don’t, we know the motion is synonymous with comfort and security. Recently, researchers published a study in Current Biology that tapped into the physiological effects of carrying on babies, and have linked it to the protective maternal instincts that mothers in the wild display when they scoop up their offspring by the scruff of the neck.