A white stork in its nest on a turret of Castle Hohenberg, Hohenberg an der Eger, Germany | image by Filip Singer

Late spring arrives in Sweden, with mute swans feeding at sunset on the unusually calm, shallow waters of Kungsbacka Fjord sea inlet | image by Will Rose

Owl and Mouse, Minnesota | image by Tom Samuelson

Alpine choughs (Pyrrhocorax graculus) | image by Arno Balzarini

| image by Sam Lim

A starling pokes its head out of a blossoming Japanese Yoshino cherry tree in Washington | image by Carolyn Kaster

Purple Moorhen (Porphyrio porphyrio) | image by Sharad Agrawal

Azure Kingfisher (Alcedo azurea) | image: JJ Harrison

Swallows huddle in a Spring Snowstorm | image by Keith Williams

An eastern screech-owl hides in a tiny hole in a tree in Providence, Rhode Island. Photographer Peter Green spent two years attempting to capture the moment after being tipped off by friends about the bird’s quirky behaviour | image by Peter Green

The Black-headed Ibis or Oriental White Ibis (Threskiornis melanocephalus) | image by Sharad Agrawal

I am a Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) | image by Eva Komenda

A honey sucker bird enjoys the nectar from a bird of paradise flower after the rains in Harare | image by Alexander Joe

Early birds flew on four wings

Instead of two wings, the first birds might have used four feathered limbs to stay aloft, according to research

Birdlike dinosaurs, such as Microraptor and Sinornithosaurus, are known to have had long, sturdy feathers on their hindlimbs. But until now, researchers were not sure whether the earliest birds had already abandoned this extra plumage when they emerged to take to the Cretaceous skies over 100 million years ago. (Read more)

| image: SCIENCE/AAAS