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BirdNote Daily

Escape the daily grind and immerse yourself in the natural world. Rich in imagery, sound, and information, BirdNote inspires you to notice the world around you.

science natural sciences

All Episodes

00:01:45

Sage Thrasher and Sagebrush

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/03/04

The glorious song of the male Sage Thrasher rings out every spring from tracts of sagebrush throughout the West. Sagebrush was once widespread in the Great Basin region, and so were the thrashers. But huge areas of sagebrush were turned into alfalfa and potato farms, and the songs of the thrasher aren't so common today. Sagebrush badly needs advocacy. The Important Bird Areas program works to protect key habitats for birds.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to

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00:01:42

To Beta or Not to Beta

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/03/03

Male Lance-tailed Manakins pair up to perform choreographed courtship displays for females. Known as cooperative courtship, it involves one alpha male and one beta male, who are not closely related, working together to attract the female. While it might not seem like a good deal for the beta male, the betas gain experience in courtship that could come in handy when they attain alpha status.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for

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00:01:37

Diving Birds Are Dense

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/03/02

While many birds have hollow bones that make flying a breeze, diving birds are built differently. The bones of divers such as Common Loons are denser than those of songbirds and other expert fliers. With a lightweight skeleton, they’d be too buoyant to dive and chase fish. Instead, loons can kick their powerful legs and webbed feet to swim 200 feet or more underwater!More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free

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00:01:45

Black-billed Magpie

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/03/01

The Black-billed Magpie is a familiar sight throughout much of the West. The magpie's bulky nest is a rough sphere of sticks nearly three feet across, with entrance ports on the sides. Take a field trip with your local Audubon and see what you can see!More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

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00:01:45

Dreading the Terns

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/02/28

In June of 2022, Adé Ben-Salahuddin worked as a volunteer research assistant on a tiny island off the coast of Maine at a Common Tern breeding colony. Every once in a while, the colony would suddenly go dead silent as all the adult terns took flight and dove over the rocky cliffs, returning soon afterward. This strange behavior is called a “dread,” and sometimes occurs without a predator nearby. It remains unclear why terns do it.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote

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00:01:32

Northern Saw-whet Owl - A Bird with a Lot to Say

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/02/27

For such a small owl, the Northern Saw-whet has a lot to say. And a lot of ways to say it. Males weigh about as much as an American Robin. And they send out at least 11 different calls, including “toot-toot-toot” advertising calls, from late January through May. The rate of calling is partly determined by the nighttime temperature. And perhaps to keep other Saw-whets out of a food-rich territory, males may toot more frequently when their favorite prey, white-footed mice and deer mice, are

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00:01:45

Rough-legged Hawk

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/02/26

After breeding on Arctic cliffs and tundra hillsides in summer, Rough-legged Hawks winter throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Open country is their ideal territory, where the small rodents they depend on are usually so plentiful that the hawks have enough to eat. But the rodents are cyclic, with lower populations in some years, and in those winters, Rough-legs may migrate farther and be more abundant in the contiguous United States.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote

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00:01:38

Common Eiders Favor Close Relatives

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/02/25

Some species of birds try to save energy by tricking others into incubating their eggs. But if the parasitic female is a related species, she may have an advantage. After studying the nests of Common Eiders, such as the one pictured here, researchers at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden determined that trickery among close relatives of the nest owners caused no aggression. But the attempts of unrelated females often resulted in conflict. More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more

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00:01:45

Volunteer for Project FeederWatch

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/02/24

Project FeederWatch is a community science project studying over 100 species of birds that spend their winters in North America. From November through April, people count the birds they see at a bird feeder, whenever and wherever they’re able, and submit their bird list to the project.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes

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00:01:41

A Heron Nest Starts with Just One Stick

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/02/23

During winter and early spring, Great Blue Herons build their nests high in the treetops. The male delivers the supplies to the nest site stick by stick, as the female arranges things. It’s the perfect childhood home for their young, made without blueprints, architects or engineers. But by early May, the chicks are starting to test the limits of their nests!More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening

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00:01:45

On Pigeon Patrol at the Train Station

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/02/22

Vahé Alaverdian of Falcon Force, along with his Harris’s Hawk named PacMan, have partnered with the San Francisco Municipal Railway to deter pigeons from El Cerrito del Norte Station, where the situation had gotten dire. This form of pest management involves having a trained bird of prey fly around the area to frighten, not trap or kill.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other

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00:01:41

New Sam Peabody

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/02/21

In late winter, White-throated Sparrows erupt into song, easily set to human words: “Old Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody.” Or “Oh, sweet Canada, Canada, Canada.” But something changed since those classic memory aids were coined. Sixty years later, the bird sings a simpler, shorter song. Bird song, like human language, changes. By the 1960s, the bird’s longer song became rare. Researchers suggested that the “classic” song had — for some unknown reason — died out, to be replaced by a shorter

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00:01:45

Annakacygna – The Ultimate Bird

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/02/20

Like today’s swans, the extinct species Annakacygna hajimei and Annakacygna yoshiiensis were quite large. But unlike their modern relatives, these birds lived most of their lives out at sea, and their fossils reveal remarkable adaptations to this unusual lifestyle. This led the researchers who first described these species to dub them “the ‘ultimate bird’ that ever existed.”More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get

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00:01:41

Wilson’s Phalarope

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/02/19

If any bird is an anomaly, it’s the Wilson’s Phalarope. In a birdbook, Wilson’s Phalaropes are found among the sandpipers. But they forage while swimming. Spinning like tops, they create an upwelling, pulling food to the surface. The breeding of Wilson’s Phalaropes is anomalous, too. Females are the brightly colored sex, and courtship roles are reversed: female phalaropes compete for males, and, once they lay eggs, leave all parental duties to the males. In common with many birds, though, Wilson’s

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00:01:45

Feeding Frenzy

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/02/18

It's late winter at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, Florida. Many birds have finished nesting, and young birds are everywhere. This morning, wind and tide have conspired to strand schools of fish in backwater ditches. And the birds are taking advantage of it. It's a feeding frenzy! White Ibises, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, and American White Pelicans join in. Thanks to the National Wildlife Refuge System, these birds - and many others - can thrive in protected habitats.More

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00:01:34

The Cactus Wren’s Signature Voice

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/02/17

Most wrens in North America are small, furtive birds that stay deep in the vegetation. But the Cactus Wren is large, bold, and brassy. These wrens are well adapted to the desert and can get all the moisture they need from their food. Cactus Wren nests are a regular sight in their range of dry habitats from West Texas to California. The nest looks like a football made of twigs, stuck horizontally in a thorny tree or cholla cactus. It’s easily seen but well guarded by the spiky vegetation.More info

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00:01:45

Join the Great Backyard Bird Count

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/02/16

Over the course of four days in February, the Great Backyard Bird Count gathers heaps of info about birds all over the world — and helps people connect with their local birds. Anyone can participate with the Merlin Bird ID app. And if you’re familiar with your neighborhood birds, you can submit a checklist of all birds you see or hear on eBird. This year’s event is Feb. 17-20 – learn more here.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up

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00:01:43

Protecting the Rimatara Lorikeet

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/02/15

With brilliant crimson chests, green backs and blue crests, Rimatara Lorikeets are stunning birds. The last native population of the lorikeets survives on the island of Rimatara, thanks to the foresight of the island’s last queen, Temaeva Vahine, who placed a tapu on the birds, denoting them sacred. Rimatara residents, proud of their ‘rainbow’ birds, have teamed up with the Polynesian Ornithological Society to ensure the lorikeets are here for generations to come.More info and transcript at

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00:01:45

For White-throated Swifts, Love Is in the Air

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/02/14

For some birds, love is in the air. When a pair of White-throated Swifts wants to get to know each other, they meet up — on the wing — high above the ground. The birds grasp one another and, clinging together, tumble downward, for over 500 feet. Just before striking the earth, they separate, flying nonchalantly back up the canyon wall. Visit a Western canyon, and you might see a pair of swifts literally falling in love. More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our

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00:01:33

Salt Flats as Bird Habitat

BirdNote Daily ·

2023/02/13

In the Salt Flats of Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, the Indigenous Taino people found a way to harvest salt long before Europeans arrived. But this unique ecosystem isn’t just useful for sea salt production — the salty lagoons are full of brine shrimp for shorebirds to eat. Local residents banded together to protect the salt flats as bird habitat.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other

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1,680 results

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