You have three types of color-sensing cones in your retina; most birds have four, including one tuned to ultraviolet. Many plumages that look plain to us actually carry vivid UV patterns. In blue tits, for instance, the crown strongly reflects ultraviolet light, and that sheen, invisible to you, plays a role in choosing a mate.
In 2022, a young tagged bar-tailed godwit flew from Alaska to Tasmania in about 11 days of nonstop flight, covering 13,560 km without eating, drinking or landing. Before departure, these birds pile on huge fat reserves and shrink their digestive organs, which are useless during the journey.
To escape rivals, a dung beetle rolls its ball of dung in a straight line. At night, it holds its course using the glowing band of the Milky Way. In a planetarium, researchers showed that beetles rolled straight under a starry sky but wandered aimlessly when the galaxy was switched off. It was the first animal known to navigate this way.