When it comes to bird calls, every chirp, trill, and warble tells a story. From eerie screeches to melodic tunes, these distinctive sounds from nature are sure to surprise you. --- For more videos from Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/ Digital Editorial Director: Brian Wolly Supervising Producer: Michelle Mehrtens Producer: Nicki Marko Video Producer: Sierra Theobald Video Editor: Michael Kneller Script: Michelle Mehrtens, Michael Kneller Audio provided by the Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab

In the spring of 1961, black and white civil rights activists rode buses to protest the segregationist policies of the Deep South (Marian Holmes, Brian Wolly, Photos courtesy of Corbis, Getty Images and Library of Congress, Audio clips courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways. Read more at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-freedom-riders-then-and-now-45351758/

David Lynch | Smithsonian Magazine’s 2016 American Ingenuity Award Winner for Education As a filmmaker, Lynch has a reputation for creating dark, surreal movies such as Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart as well as the TV show “Twin Peaks.” In the education world, he's becoming known for something very different: promoting inner peace. Over the past decade, the David Lynch Foundation has sponsored Transcendental Meditation classes for half a million children in places as far-flung as the Bronx, Detroit, Los Angeles, Congo and the West Bank. The program, called Quiet Time, is now at the center of one of the largest-ever studies of meditation for children—a 6,800-pupil research project conducted by the Crime Lab at the University of Chicago and designed to learn if meditation can help kids in highly stressful environments fare better at home and in school. Read more about Lynch’s work: http://smithmag.co/9sHhtm | #IngenuityAwards And more about the American Ingenuity Awards: http://smithmag.co/77xPqy

Carleton Watkins' 19th-Century Photographs of Yosemite Valley (Produced and Narrated by: Brendan McCabe. Text by Bruce Hathaway). Read more at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/john-muirs-yosemite-10737/

Some researchers initially dismissed the remains of Palaeopascichnus lineari as teeny turds from a bygone era

In a 11-4 vote, the City Council decided to remove the 65-foot-tall monument from its location in the heart of the city

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A new paper analyzes three decades of fatalities around the world and predicts how "superbugs" will affect human health in the future

The annual award ceremony featured costumes, songs and paper airplanes as scientists recognized comedic research across ten disciplines

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The artist's cityscapes, once dismissed as too masculine, would later influence the floral artworks that became central to her iconic style

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The viewfinders are outfitted with special lenses that help people with red-green colorblindness distinguish between hues

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On this day in 1690, "Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick" attracted colonial officials' ire by repeating a scandalous rumor and condemning a British alliance with the Mohawk

Researchers analyzed tiny fossils embedded in the limestone to determine the age and origins of the grave maker, which marked the final resting place of a prominent Jamestown colonist

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While no written records exist, new research has illuminated key details of the battle fought in northern Germany during the 13th century B.C.E.

Researchers recently identified James Fitzjames, a captain on the ill-fated HMS Erebus that went looking for the Northwest Passage in 1845

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New research has revealed that the mysterious white substance found alongside three ancient mummies was once a soft cheese called kefir

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Two weeks ago, organizers of Project Skydrop stashed a golden statuette in a secret location somewhere in the northeastern United States

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The USS Stewart was purposefully sunk off the coast of California after the war

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Lizzy, the avatar based on the novel’s Elizabeth Bennet, will hold period-accurate conversations with visitors at Jane Austen’s cottage home

The new findings bring storm researchers one step closer to solving the mystery of how lightning forms

Experts say that the trove of silver currency is official treasure and includes coins from England and Ireland

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Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun discovered microRNA, tiny molecules that play a crucial role in how cells develop, paving the way for new treatments for diseases

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John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton shared the award for their work on artificial neural networks and machine learning

No one was injured in the blast, and authorities are investigating why the ordnance detonated after so many years underground

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The 4,000-year-old burial chamber featured hieroglyphs referring to the woman, known as Idi, as the "lady of the house"

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The notorious predators, nicknamed the “Man-Eaters of Tsavo,” terrorized railway workers in Kenya for roughly nine months

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Identified as an Arctic fox, the animal is believed to have been kept in captivity far from its native habitat in the tundra. Now, it's receiving care from wildlife officials