Corvids keep embarrassing the primates. Two carrion crows named Iggy and Lemmy, which is reason enough to read it, beat monkeys handily on a classic perception task, and their neurons gave the game away within 70 milliseconds. The open question of why bird brains run so fast is the fun part.

We tend to tell bird evolution as a straight line towards the sky, and this one walks right off that script. Barely past Archaeopteryx on the family tree, it already had stubby arms and runner's legs, plus a raptor-style sickle claw for good measure. Bird science with a dinosaur chaser.

A properly hopeful bird story from the neighbourhood: every rediscovery here is from the Philippines, Indonesian Papua or Papua New Guinea. Each came from patient local birders and guides with a camera rather than a big expedition, which a solo birder may find encouraging.

A local bird with a solid-ivory battering ram on its face and a call that speeds up into maniacal laughter audible kilometres away. The section on males jousting in mid-air is the highlight. Also worth noticing the Malay folk name, which hints at what people thought that laugh sounded like.