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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

Bushtits

BirdNote Daily ·

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. They pair off to nest. (This male Bushtit is working on his nest.) Where they live in Western suburbia, a flock of Bushtits can help rid a garden of harmful aphids and scale insects. Shun the pesticides

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00:01:45

Fastest Bird on Two Legs

BirdNote Daily ·

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, crossing the finish line at an incredible 43 mph. The Emu from Australia takes silver, topping 30 mph. The roadrunner comes in last.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to

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00:01:41

Female Condors Have Offspring Without Males

BirdNote Daily ·

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 parthenogenesis, developing from unfertilized eggs without sperm from a male. These condors are the first known case of parthenogenesis in a wild bird species where the females had access to fertile

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00:01:45

The Auspicious Chime of the Bare-throated Bellbird

BirdNote Daily ·

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 Paraguay and into Northern Argentina. The loud, metallic call of the Bare-throated Bellbird also inspires music played on another emblem of Paraguay—the harp. The species is considered Near Threatened because of

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00:01:34

Danielle Whittaker and the Mystery of Bird Scent

BirdNote Daily ·

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 Juncos and found that they produce many odors that help influence breeding behavior. Learn more in Danielle Whittaker’s book, The Secret Perfume of Birds: Uncovering the Science of Avian Scent.More info

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00:01:41

Black-billed Magpie

BirdNote Daily ·

2025/03/04

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

Healing Trauma with Animals at the Kyiv Zoo

BirdNote Daily ·

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 Baratynska shares new audio of animals at the zoo and a report on their animal therapy program, called “The Good Phasmatidae,” which has treated nearly 200,000 people, including children, displaced people,

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00:01:35

Kingbirds Steal from Wasps

BirdNote Daily ·

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! The female wasps, nearly two inches long, paralyze cicadas and bring them to their burrows for their young to eat. The kingbirds have learned to ambush wasps carrying cicadas on the way back to their

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00:01:38

Sage Thrasher and Sagebrush

BirdNote Daily ·

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 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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00:01:41

You Are What You Eat

BirdNote Daily ·

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 carotenoids. Females prefer more brightly colored males. Redder males also attract females in better condition, and such a pair raises, on the average, more young. You can learn more at AAAS.org.More info and

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00:01:45

Long-lived Wisdom, the Albatross

BirdNote Daily ·

2025/02/27

A Laysan Albatross named Wisdom has been nesting and raising chicks on the island of Midway for nearly 60 years. She was banded back in 1956 and was rediscovered, still alive and healthy, in 2002. Since that time, scientists have watched Wisdom closely. Every year, she has managed to navigate the many perils facing her species and successfully raise a new chick.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

Nest Cavities – Book Early

BirdNote Daily ·

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 limited, and competition is intense. By arriving early, these swallows and bluebirds improve their chances of securing unoccupied cavities.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote

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00:01:38

A Heron Nest Starts with Just One Stick

BirdNote Daily ·

2025/02/25

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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00:01:42

Upland Sandpipers Whistling from Fences

BirdNote Daily ·

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 airports as a substitute for natural prairies. Preserving grasslands throughout their range will help ensure that the Upland Sandpiper’s signature whistling song continues to ring out.This episode is

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00:01:45

Identifying a Bird in Flight

BirdNote Daily ·

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 hard to put into words. So if you hang around long enough, you might hear some interesting slang.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up

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00:01:44

Meadowlark and the Monster

BirdNote Daily ·

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 in the north-central part of what is today called Idaho.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

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00:02:00

BirdNote Celebrates 20 years

BirdNote Daily ·

2025/02/21

Twenty years ago today, the first BirdNote Daily episode aired on the radio in Seattle and Tacoma, Washington. Since then, through sound-rich stories, we’ve explored the lives of countless birds – and inspired action to protect birds around the world. Join us in celebrating 20 years of stories. Now and forever, this is BirdNote.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

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00:01:41

Spark Bird – Glenn Albrecht and the Gray Fantail

BirdNote Daily ·

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 relationships with the natural world.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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00:01:45

Great Egrets Are Lovely and Lethal

BirdNote Daily ·

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 conservationists banded together to outlaw their killing.This episode is dedicated to Adrienne Ottenberg and Bob Hartman, with love from BirdNote supporter Jane Curley.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want

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00:01:34

The Cactus Wren's Signature Voice

BirdNote Daily ·

2025/02/18

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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1,657 results

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