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PODCAST

The American Birding Podcast

American Birding Association

The American Birding Podcast brings together staff and friends of the American Birding Association as we talk about birds, birding, travel and conservation in North America and beyond. Join host Nate Swick every Thursday for news and happenings, recent rarities, guests from around the birding world, and features of interest to every birder.

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All Episodes

01:12:25

09-39: This Month in Birding - September 2025

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/09/25

The last Thursday of September means that it's time for another This Month in Birding, featuring friends from around the birding world gathering to talk about interesting bird news and science from the last month or so. This time around we welcome Frank Izaguirre, Andres Jimenez, and Sarah Swanson to talk about Barred Owls, baby cowbirds, and our favorite bird conservation success stories. Links to items discussed in this episode: Suddenly Birding Is the Hot-Girl Hobby of the Year Taking Action to

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42:21

09-38: A Dirtbag Big Year with Owen Reiser

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/09/18

A Big Year is maybe the ultimate expression of birding obsession, with all the drama inherent to the effort. Brothers Quentin and Owen Reiser’s attempt at a Big Year maybe most of all. It’s the subject of their documentary, Listers, an attempt to throw themselves into the birding world through perhaps the most extreme expression of the hobby. It’s profane, it’s funny, it's honest, and it covers all aspects of the birding world, warts and all. Owen joins us to talk about the film and his experience

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40:15

09-37: New Art in the New Nat Geo Guide with Andrew...

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/09/11

For more than 40 year the National Geographic Field Guide has been an essential text in the library of US and Canadian birders. The venerable series is in its 8th edition now, published as East and West earlier this year and as as guide from coast to coast just recently. Ted Floyd, a regular on this podcast, is the author, but a field guide is only as good as its illustrations. Former Bird of the Year artist Andrew Guttenberg is the art coordinator for this series as it takes a turn into the 21st

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41:59

09-36: Where Have the Gray-headed Chickadees Gone...

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/09/04

Gray-headed Chickadee is certainly one of the most enigmatic species of breeding birds in the ABA Area. Though it is found broadly across northern Eurasian it was, until very recently, also known from an isolated breeding population in northern Alaska and far northwestern Canada. Those bird, long a bucket list objective for ABA Area birders, might be gone, and the reasons for that are unclear. Alaska birder and conservationist Brad Meiklejohn explores their disappearance in the Lost on the

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01:13:08

09-35: This Month in Birding - August 2025

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/08/28

It's This Month in Birding for August 2025 and, as we do at the end of every month, we’ve got a great panel of birders to discuss the month’s birding news and scientific publications. Jason Hall, Mikko Jimenez, and Jordan Rutter join host Nate Swick to talk about grackle behavior, museums, and our very favorite penguins. Links to articles discussed in this episode: The Rodrigues parakeet's last day: What one extinct bird tells us about the role of museums Exploration and dispersal are key traits

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01:03:43

09-34: Random Birds, August 2025, with Ted Floyd

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/08/21

Every once in a while, Birding editor Ted Floyd drops in for for another episode of Random Birds. The Birding Gods smile on Ted and Nate's random number generator for an eclectic bunch of birds from warblers to gulls, and one incredibly apropos selection. The AOS Classification Committee decisions are in, and Michael Retter has all the changes to your list laid out at aba.org. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating

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36:59

09-33: Why Birders Go Where They Go with Natalia...

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/08/14

Bird tourism is booming, and in many parts of the world we’ve seen countries invest in conservation and tourism infrastructure to take advantage of it. Certainly birders are drawn by unique species, but perhaps our choices for bird-watching destinations have as much to do with other factors as they do with the presence of really great birds. It’s the subject of a paper to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal People and Nature by Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela and Scott Winton, who join us to

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40:15

09-32: The Backyard Bird Chronicles with Amy Tan

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/08/07

Writer Amy Tan is perhaps best known for her many novels including The Joy Luck Club and The Bonesetter’s Daughter, exploring themes of identity, family, and the immigrant experience. Her newest book, however, explores something rather different. The Backyard Bird Chronicles is a collection of nature writing and sketching focuses on the many avian visitors to Amy’s California backyard over a period of several years. The book was published in 2024, bit more recently Amy is the subject of an upcoming

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49:41

09-31: This Month in Birding - July 2025

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/07/31

The end of the month means This Month in Birding, and for July 2025 we've got a great panel of fun birders to discuss the month's birding news and scientific publications. Birders know Rebecca Heisman, Nick Lund, and Dexter Patterson for their great work in the birding world, and they join host Nate Swick to talk about hummingbird bills, drinking birds, and the best bird tribute to Ozzy Osbourne. Links to articles discussed in this episode: AvianLexiconAtlas: A database of descriptive categories

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32:17

09-30: Loon News you can use with Natasha Bartolotta

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/07/24

The ABA’s 2025 Bird of the Year Common Loon is beloved across the United States and Canada, and though we at the ABA will only celebrate it for a short time, there are other organizations that have made protection and awareness of Common Loons their reason for being. The National Loon Center in Crosslake, Minnesota, is one such organization. They aim to restore and protect loon habitat, enhance responsible recreation, and promote research and education of not only Common Loon, but the habitats they

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34:10

09-29: Bird Talk with Becca Rowland

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/07/17

The search for the perfect mnemonic is the bane of any field guide author, from Roger Tory Peterson to your podcast host. It's the part of writing about birds and birding that requires the most creativity, ans Nova Scotia author and artist Becca Rowland, The Girl in White Glasses, has come up with an entire book devoted to the weird and wonderful sounds birds make, and the weirdest and cleverest ways to describe those sounds. It's called Bird Talk: Hilariously Accurate Ways to Identify Birds by the

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38:30

09-28: The State of Maui's Birds with Hannah Mounce

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/07/10

The state of Hawaii’s birds is a topic that is frequently front of mind to those of us who care about bird conservation, and on every island there are bird researchers and conservationists on the ground putting any number of conservation efforts into practice. Dr Hannah Mounce is the program manager of the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project, and she joins us to talk about some of the most pressing efforts on the island. Also, Nate finished his Breeding Bird Surveys and hopes that this isn't the last

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30:46

09-27: The Case for Saving Scrub Jays with Aaron Bloom

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/07/03

The story of the Florida Scrub-Jay is one that encompasses many modern conservation angles and concerns. Local government, bedrock federal legislation, development, climate change, eBird, and at the center of it, a remarkable and friendly endemic bird species. Recent challenges to conservation efforts in Florida have prompted the public interest group Earthjustice to intervene to help defend protections for the Florida Scrub Jay and lead attorney Aaron Bloom joins us to to lay out the threats to

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01:15:13

09-26: This Month in Birding - June 2025

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/06/26

It's our 350th episode! And to celebrate, we've brought you a super-sized This Month in Birding, and not only because the panel of Jody Allair, Jennie Duberstein, and Martha Harbison had so much to say about truck-riding gulls, prehistoric birds, and the state of same-sex bird science. We hope you enjoy this summer-solstice sized episode. Links to articles mentioned in the episode: The First GPS Observation of a Western Gull (Larus occidentalis) Riding in a Long-Haul Garbage Transfer Truck Study

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31:16

09-25: The Avian Rainbow with Whitney Tsai Nakashima

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/06/19

You don’t have to be a birder for a long time to appreciate that birds are capable of producing an astonishing array of colors and patterns, even those beyond what our weak human eyes can discern. Hidden in that avian rainbow are clues to bird taxonomy and evolution, which is the work of our guest Whitney Tsai Nakashima, a researcher at Occidental College’s Moore Lab of Zoology. Also, great news for one of south Texas's best birding sites. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or

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59:12

09-24: 2025 Splits and Lumps with Nick Block

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/06/12

Break out your checklists and get ready for another summer of splits and lumps from the AOS North American Classification Committee. It’s time for our annual look at the proposed changes to the bird lists, the longest running segment on this podcast. And for every single one of those episodes, we've turned to biologist and birder Dr Nick Block of Stonehill College in Massachusetts. It's an interesting set of proposals this year, with Warbling Vireo splits, titmouse lumps, and lots of genetic

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32:55

09-23: 50 Years of Songbird Maps with Miranda Zammerelli

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/06/05

An interesting study discussed on the monthly This Month in Birding segment led us to Miranda Zemmerelli, a PhD student at Dartmouth University who has taken 50 years of hand drawn paper maps of bird territories at a New Hampshire forest, collected over many years by Dartmouth students, and brought those maps into the modern era to learn about how bird territories ebb and flow over the seasons. It's a great story of how the path of discovery winds its way from one researcher to the next. Miranda

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59:03

09-22: This Month in Birding - May 2025

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/05/29

The end of May means, for many of us, the end of spring. But before this magical month is over we bring a great panel of birdy friends together to talk about some of the interesting bird news that has come across our vitual desks. Welcome Stephanie Beilke, Tim Healy, and Brodie Cass Talbott to talk birding without tech, warbler foraging strategies and the birds and bees, literally. Links to items discussed in this episode: The Wonders of Bird-Watching without Tech Crows understand shapes and

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01:01:10

09-21: The Biggest Week in American Birding Podcast...

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/05/22

The 2025 Biggest Week in American Birding is in the books and the American Birding Podcast was there to host a fun little game with a few friends. Test your luck with our birdy quiz featuring a quartet of Biggest Week birders and guides along with special guests Wendell Troutner and Tyler Ficker! We've got modified anagrams, Star Wars crossovers, and more! Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so

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01:00:47

09-20: Random Birds, May 2025, with Ted Floyd

The American Birding Podcast ·

2025/05/15

Nate is in Ohio for the Biggest Week, but hew had time to grab Birding editor Ted Floyd for another Random Birds before he headed off. Ted and Nate trust the random number generator to turn up some exciting birds for discussion including jaegers, pelicans, and shorebirds. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

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