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PODCAST

BirdNote

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. Join us for daily two-minute stories about birds, the environment, and more.

All Episodes

00:01:37

An Enormous Eagle Evolves

BirdNote ·

2022/03/21

Evolution on islands can produce unusually large species. Haast’s Eagle lived on the islands now known as New Zealand. With a wingspan of 9 feet and weighing up to 30 pounds, the eagle hunted the moa — a flightless bird that stood over ten feet tall. The eagles probably vanished not long after their moa prey went extinct, about 500 to 600 years ago. A site called the Cave of the Eagle contains Maori paintings of Haast’s Eagles, preserving the legacy of this immense raptor.

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00:01:45

Surviving Hail Storms

BirdNote ·

2022/03/21

As it began to hail, Marlon Inniss saw several Canada Geese doing something odd. Rather than trying to shield their heads, the geese pointed their bills skyward, directly into the path of the hail. The geese were pointing the smallest surface area of their sensitive bills, the narrow tip, into the hail — minimizing the impact. Inniss’s video of the behavior helped reaffirm an observation made by naturalist Aldo Leopold one hundred years before of Northern Pintails adopting the same stance.

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00:01:45

BirdNoir: The Wild Tom Turkey

BirdNote ·

2022/03/21

In this episode of BirdNoir, the private eye gets a call from H. Jon Benjamin about unusual Wild Turkey behavior. A male turkey (known as a “tom”) won’t leave his car alone. He keeps tapping his beak on the car. Then the turkey starts circling the house and looking in all the windows. The private eye reveals how things look from the turkey’s perspective, which points the way to a possible solution.

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00:01:39

How Cliff Swallows Build a Nest

BirdNote ·

2022/03/21

When Cliff Swallows arrive on the breeding grounds in North America, the dirty work begins. The swallows scoop up mud in their beaks and carefully build a gourd-shaped nest with a tapered opening. They add a lining of dry grass to keep eggs warm. It takes days of work and a thousand mouthfuls of mud to finish a single nest—and it’s just one part of a large colony.

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00:04:22

Donika Kelly and the Bowerbird

BirdNote ·

2022/03/21

A number of years ago, poet Donika Kelly was trying to figure out how to date, when she saw a nature documentary about a bowerbird. Male Satin Bowerbirds will gather all the blue items they can find, build a beautiful structure called a bower, and do a dance to try to woo the females. Donika found herself wishing that human courtship had such a clear structure, and wrote a series of poems inspired by the bowerbird.

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00:01:41

Planting Oaks for Birds

BirdNote ·

2022/03/21

Oak trees are an important resource for birds finding insects to feed their young. It takes thousands of caterpillars from an oak tree to raise a single nest of baby birds. By planting an oak species native to your area, you can help ensure that birds are able to raise their young successfully. Homegrown National Park® is a grassroots call-to-action to regenerate diversity and ecosystem function by planting native plants and creating new ecological networks

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00:01:45

I Dream of Grosbeaks

BirdNote ·

2022/03/21

Science educator Chidi Paige was working hard preparing her students for the World Series of Birding. Chidi’s students were studying with the goal of identifying the most birds in the kid’s competition. And then something happened that made Chidi wonder if they were thinking about birds a little too much: one of the students began seeing a Rose-breasted Grosbeak in her dreams. The dream ended up having unexpected relevance in the competition.

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00:01:40

The Cool, Rugged Life of a Snow Bunting

BirdNote ·

2022/03/21

The Arctic is still wintry when male Snow Buntings return to nesting areas in April. There's a big benefit to arriving early enough to claim a prime nest cavity in a rock face or under boulders, where it will be safer from predators. Nesting in chilly rock cavities means extra care must be taken to keep eggs and nestlings warm. That’s why, unlike many other bird species, female Snow Buntings never come off the nest. The males bring them food, giving them more continuous time on the eggs.

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00:07:50

Ada Limón and the Birds of Kentucky

BirdNote ·

2022/03/21

When poet Ada Limón moved to Kentucky with her husband for his work, she was having trouble adjusting to her new home. To connect with the place, she began learning about the local birds and plants. She found comfort in the idea of the nearly omnipresent state bird, the Northern Cardinal. That inspired a poem in which the state bird becomes a metaphor for love.

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00:01:45

Adopt a Tree to Save the Birds

BirdNote ·

2022/03/21

Many birds depend on caterpillars often found on trees lining city sidewalks. But few insects spend their whole lives on the tree: the next stage is in the leaves and soil under the tree. In cities, that habitat is often compacted and leafless. By adopting a tree and creating a “soft landing” for caterpillars, anyone can help keep birds supplied with the insects they need to survive. Homegrown National Park® is a grassroots call-to-action to regenerate diversity and ecosystem function by planting

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00:02:26

Bird...NOT! with H. Jon Benjamin

BirdNote ·

2022/03/21

During the COVID-19 pandemic, actor H. Jon Benjamin began sharing his experiences with birds in his “Morning Bird Report” videos on social media. For April Fools Day, BirdNote has invited him to test out his birding-by-sound skills on a one-of-a-kind quiz show: Bird…NOT! Jon has to guess whether the sound is a bird or not — which isn’t always as easy as it sounds.

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00:01:35

Listening from Inside the Egg

BirdNote ·

2022/02/22

Shorebird chicks hatch into a dangerous world, so they need to be vigilant from the start. Researchers in Australia noticed that some shorebird chicks began chirping in their final days in the egg. The chirps fell silent when the researchers played recordings of a Little Raven, which hunts for young birds. The finding suggests the chicks are listening carefully and may be able to tell threatening sounds from non-threatening ones.

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00:01:42

Beautiful and Beneficial Gardening for Birds

BirdNote ·

2022/02/22

Buying enough birdseed to keep all your backyard birds satisfied can run up a big bill. Homegrown National Park® co-founder Douglas Tallamy says that growing native plants in your garden can provide a balanced diet for birds. While there’s a misconception that native plants lead to a messy garden, Tallamy explains that native wildflowers, shrubs and trees can provide both splashes of color and nutritious meals for birds. Homegrown National Park® is a grassroots call-to-action to regenerate diversity

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00:01:38

Singing with Fox Sparrows

BirdNote ·

2022/02/22

A modest thicket of trees along a street can be the perfect place to hear one of the earliest bird songs of spring: the Fox Sparrow. You can hear their loud, spirited songs from dense vegetation throughout much of the U.S. The easternmost birds have the rufous color of a Red Fox. Others found further west are a mix of brown, rust and gray. The stocky sparrow reveals itself by vigorously kicking the leaf litter with both feet.

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00:01:45

The Brown Thrasher's Never-Ending Songbook

BirdNote ·

2022/02/22

The Northern Mockingbird isn’t the only mimic bird in town. Brown Thrashers also learn songs from nearby birds and add them to their repertoire. The species has been documented singing over eleven hundred different songs: a mix of imitations and invented little melodies. While mockingbirds usually repeat a song or phrase three or more times before moving on, Brown Thrashers tend to repeat a phrase only twice.

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00:01:43

Creating Bird Habitat at Home

BirdNote ·

2022/02/22

One of the biggest threats to birds is the decline in biodiversity due to habitat loss — and the traditional, manicured lawn isn’t helping. Growing native plants in your yard allows you to protect birds at home, says ecologist Douglas Tallamy, who co-founded an organization called Homegrown National Park® to help people transform their lawns into havens for wildlife. Homegrown National Park® is a grassroots call-to-action to regenerate diversity and ecosystem function by planting native plants and

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00:01:45

Female Condors Have Offspring Without Mating

BirdNote ·

2022/02/22

A captive breeding program has helped set California Condors on the path to recovery. But when biologists reviewed the family tree for the breeding program, they found a big surprise. Two chicks had DNA that linked them perfectly to their mothers but didn’t match a single male. They arose through parthenogenesis, developing from unfertilized eggs without sperm from a male. These condors are the first case of parthenogenesis in a wild bird species where the females had access to fertile males.

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00:01:40

T and Dart

BirdNote ·

2022/02/22

Author Kira Jane Buxton loves crows — so much that she’s written two novels about a crow named S.T. navigating the extinction of humanity. When she was writing those books, she tried befriending the crows in her neighborhood, and wound up bonding with a pair of them. She named them T and Dart. T, the female, is clumsy and playful. Dart, her mate, is more aloof towards Kira but always shares his food with T. This crow couple helped inspire the fictional crows in Kira’s books.

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00:01:45

BirdNoir: Vultures Come to Town

BirdNote ·

2022/02/22

On this episode of BirdNoir, the Mayor of Bricksville calls the Private Eye with a bit of a problem: “several dozen giant bird-punks loitering on top of City Hall!” The detective figures out the most likely reason why these birds have chosen the top of a building as their hangout, and reveals a side of the story that the mayor hadn’t considered before.

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00:01:34

Danielle Whittaker on the Mystery of Bird Scent

BirdNote ·

2022/02/22

When biologist Danielle Whittaker started studying bird odors, some scientists tried to discourage her, claiming that birds can’t smell. But that only deepened her curiosity. Once, she caught a whiff of a cowbird, which smelled to her like sugar cookies. Danielle and her colleagues studied Dark-eyed Juncos and found that they produce many odors that help influence breeding behavior. Learn more in Danielle Whittaker’s new book, The Secret Perfume of Birds: Uncovering the Science of Avian Scent.

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