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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.

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Bushtits

BirdNote ·

2025/03/09

Weighing about as much as four paperclips, Bushtits are smaller than many hummingbirds. And they take full advantage of their diminutive size. While larger insect-eaters forage on the upper surfaces of leaves, Bushtits hang beneath them, plucking all the tiny insects and spiders hiding out of sight

Fastest Bird on Two Legs

BirdNote ·

2025/03/08

Imagine an Ostrich, an Emu, a roadrunner, and the world’s fastest man and woman, all lined up for a race. Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt holds the men’s record for the 100-meter dash — 28 mph — and Florence Griffith-Joyner ran it just a shade slower. But in this race, Africa’s Ostrich takes gold

Female Condors Have Offspring Without Males

BirdNote ·

2025/03/07

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

The Auspicious Chime of the Bare-throated Bellbird

BirdNote ·

2025/03/06

The sight and sound of the Bare-throated Bellbird — the national bird of Paraguay — inspires wonder and delight. Its presence as an indicator species and seed disperser also bodes well for ecosystem health in the Alto Paraná Atlantic Forests that stretch from Southeast Brazil through eastern

Danielle Whittaker and the Mystery of Bird Scent

BirdNote ·

2025/03/05

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

Tecolotito enano

BirdNote ·

2025/03/04

Hacia finales de febrero o marzo, los tecolotitos enanos emigran de México para reproducirse en Estados Unidos. Estos diminutos búhos pesan menos de 40 gramos, un poco menos que una pelota de golf. Durante la temporada de reproducción, los tecolotitos enanos viven en bosques y hábitats de cactus en

Healing Trauma with Animals at the Kyiv Zoo

BirdNote ·

2025/03/03

Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, zookeepers at the Kyiv Zoo shared audio recordings from the animal enclosures with BirdNote. The Zoo staff maintained care for the animals even as they slept in bomb shelters. Two and a half years later, Zoo Program Manager Olga

Kingbirds Steal from Wasps

BirdNote ·

2025/03/02

Kingbirds are robin-sized flycatchers that excel at plucking insects from the air. They’ll even tackle prey as big as cicadas. Finding naturally-camouflaged cicadas hidden among the leaves is hard work. But two species of kingbirds in Arizona found a shortcut — stealing them from cicada-killer wasps

Sage Thrasher and Sagebrush

BirdNote ·

2025/03/01

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

You Are What You Eat

BirdNote ·

2025/02/28

House Finches are familiar birds all across North America. Researchers have shown that the red coloration of males is produced from carotenoid pigments in the birds' diet. Male House Finches develop brighter plumage when they are growing in new feathers, if they eat more fruits containing

Long-lived Wisdom, the Albatross

BirdNote ·

2025/02/27

This month, we’re celebrating BirdNote’s 20th anniversary. Twenty years is a long time, but we can’t hold a candle to Wisdom the albatross, the world’s oldest-known wild bird who is at least 74 years old. Here’s to many more years — for BirdNote, and for Wisdom.

Nest Cavities – Book Early

BirdNote ·

2025/02/26

Tree Swallows and bluebirds — like this Western Bluebird — are among the earliest northbound migrants to arrive, heralding spring a month before the equinox. These species will nest only in cavities, such as old woodpecker holes or man-made nest boxes. But the supply of specialized nest sites is

La vida oscura del guácharo

BirdNote ·

2025/02/25

La naturaleza produce algunos animales extraordinariamente extraños. Una de estas criaturas es el guácharo del norte de Sudamérica. El guácharo tiene una dieta basada en bayas silvestres y frutas, especialmente de las que son ricas en grasas, como nueces de palmas de aceite y aguacates (lo que

Upland Sandpipers Whistling from Fences

BirdNote ·

2025/02/24

Upland Sandpipers are an emblematic bird of grassland habitats in many regions of the Americas. These shorebirds live far from sea with the largest breeding populations in the north central U.S. But Upland Sandpipers are losing breeding ground to row-crop agriculture, pushing some birds to nest at

Identifying a Bird in Flight

BirdNote ·

2025/02/23

One of the most difficult skills to pick up as a birder is how to identify birds in flight. You have to sort through a series of visual clues all at once, at high speed: silhouette, wing shape, how fast it flaps, and patterning. An experienced birder will take in all these and other clues that are

Meadowlark and the Monster

BirdNote ·

2025/02/22

In this story from Nimiipuu culture, Meadowlark is likened to the ‘reporter’ of Western grasslands, singing its song from the tops of fenceposts and trees. This story takes place before the time of people. Meadowlark warned Coyote about a Monster that was eating all the animals in the Kamiah Valley

BirdNote Celebrates 20 Years

BirdNote ·

2025/02/21

Twenty years ago today, the first BirdNote Daily episode aired on the public radio station now known as KNKX - 88.5 FM Tacoma/Seattle. Since then, through thousands of sound-rich stories about the lives of birds, BirdNote has inspired people to care about the natural world and take steps to protect

Spark Bird - Glenn Albrecht and the Gray Fantail

BirdNote ·

2025/02/20

Glenn Albrecht grew up in western Australia, where he became enamored with birds. As he grew up, Glenn witnessed how coal mining devastated the Australian countryside — and the birds that lived there. He’s since become an environmental philosopher. He’s developed a new vocabulary to describe human

Great Egrets Are Lovely and Lethal

BirdNote ·

2025/02/19

Standing over three-feet tall, Great Egrets have elegant white feathers and long slender necks. During the breeding season, both males and females grow long frilly feathers called aigrettes. Great Egrets were nearly hunted to extinction for their luxurious plumes in the late 1800s, until

Luz y canto - chispas en invierno

BirdNote ·

2025/02/18

Incluso en invierno, algunas aves, como el carbonero de gorra negra, los pinzones comunes y los zorzales americanos, saludan el amanecer con su canto. Normalmente escuchamos el coro del amanecer en primavera, cuando las aves cantan para marcar territorio y atraer parejas. Pero las aves no se

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