Male and female kittiwakes smell different from each other, according to research by Sarah Leclaire from the Centre national de la recherche scientifique at the Université Paul Sabatier in France and her team.

One of Britain's best known seabirds winters on opposite sides of the Atlantic depending on whether its breeding attempt has been successful.

An Austrian-led study has found the black-legged kittiwake bird, a monogamous species, has the ability to choose partners with a different genetic profile. The researchers, led by Richard Wagner from the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Ethology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, said avoidance of inbreeding is evident among humans, and has been demonstrated in some shorebirds, mice and sand lizards.

A new report shows that Scotland's seabird numbers plunged by 19 percent between 2000 and 2008.

A couple of ivory gulls, which usually live in the high Arctic, have been spotted in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Audubon Society said birders are flocking to Gloucester, Mass., where an ivory gull was spotted Saturday -- the first sighting of the species in the Bay State in two decades, The Boston