Everybody knows birds have hollow bones, right? With air pockets so they can fly better? Right. Let me introduce you to the club-winged manakin, a bird with two solid bones in each wing. I wrote about it for ScienceNOW this week. There’s a video and everything. You should watch it.

Fun fact: The scientist I mention in this story is Kim Bostwick, who was a graduate student of Rick Prum, who I wrote about for a story on blue birds in the March issue of Smithsonian. Kim, who I have never talked to, but who was so nice about responding to my six billion e-mails this week that I will refer to her by her first name, also stars in one of the best nature videos of all time, the one about the moonwalking bird.

Photo: Tim Laman