BirdNote Daily

The fluting song of the Wood Thrush is an ethereal sound of summer in North America. During the breeding season, these robin-sized songsters serenade deciduous forests of the eastern U.S. and Canada. Each fall, they migrate to rainforests from southern Mexico to Panama where they call to each other from the underbrush. For Wood Thrushes, not just any woods will do. They depend on large blocks of intact forest throughout their range. We can help these virtuosic songsters by conserving and restoring woodlands throughout the Americas. That includes planting native trees in urban green spaces and buying bird-friendly...

Dr. Clinton Francis is a sensory ecologist who studies how noise pollution affects birds, like this Black-headed Grosbeak. On the Bring Birds Back podcast, Clinton explains how sounds produced by human infrastructure can really disrupt bird behavior. Although birds rely on hearing to sense predators and prey, and to find mates, their sense of hearing isn’t very good, making them very sensitive to noise pollution from machines and vehicles. Fortunately, there are many ways to help birds by reducing noise pollution.

Learn more in season 5 of our long-form show, Bring Birds Back.

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There may be no busier bird during the nesting season than a male House Wren. Just a day or so after completing his spring migration from the tropics, the male House Wren claims a territory and checks out several potential nest cavities. And in each of these locations, he builds a starter nest using virtually anything twig-like to get the job done — from nails and bits of wire to paper clips and hairpins. The male House Wren stays at it until a female pairs with him. Then she picks one of the starter nests and takes over construction.

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Birds make all kinds of sounds — and they can have different meanings too. In this episode of BirdNote’s Birding 101 series, learn about the many ways that birds use songs and calls.

Support comes from Wild Delight Bird Food, offering a variety of blends designed to mimic the natural resources wild birds crave. Available at Chewy.com.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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While Dara Wilson was working at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in D.C., she introduced visitors to the Amazonia exhibit. She would describe the song of a bird she’d never had the chance to see in the wild, the Blue-gray Tanager. But when Dara moved to Panama, she heard the song that she knew by heart already. Encountering the Blue-gray Tanager in its natural habitat inspired her to keep learning about birds — and to share that knowledge with others as an educator. Dara helps organize Black Birders Week. Find out how you can participate in this year's event...

Peer into the world of birds, and eyes of many different colors peer back. While eye color isn’t tied to one group of birds or another, a common pattern is a change in eye color as immature birds grow to adulthood. Bald Eagles, Ring-billed Gulls, and ducks such as goldeneyes and scaup have brown eyes as youngsters, and yellow eyes as adults. Red-tailed Hawks reverse this pattern, with their eyes changing from yellow to brown. And the yellow eyes of a young Cooper’s Hawk, pictured here on the right, turn deep red as they reach maturity.

Mo...

Loons are built for life in the water – so much so that their legs don’t work well on land. During migration, loons sometimes mistake wet pavement for the reflective surface of deep water and try to land there, then become unable to take flight again. If you see a stranded loon on a road or parking lot, calling a wildlife rehabilitator can help start the process of returning that bird to safety and back on their migratory journey.

This episode is brought to you by Wild Delight Bird Food, which aims to support wild bird populations with...

Private Eye Michael Stein investigates a possible break in when a kindly neighbor fears a snake has attacked a nestbox occupied by nesting Great Crested Flycatchers. What he finds is an ingenious way that birds sometimes use a predator’s survival instincts to their own advantage.

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For years, nature recordist Lang Elliott came up with clever ways to hear high-pitched bird songs despite his high-frequency hearing loss. Lang teamed up with a programmer to develop an app called Hear Birds Again. Currently it’s only available for iPhones, but it’s able to take high-pitch bird songs and shift them down into a lower range.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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Knowing how clever parrots are, researchers wanted to see how they’d respond to another parrot saying hi on a tablet or phone. After being trained how to start a call, many parrots chatted amiably on calls and stayed on for the maximum amount of time. Some birds even seemed to develop friendships, choosing to stay in touch even after the experiment ended.

This episode is brought to you by Wild Delight Bird Food, which aims to support wild bird populations with clean, nutritious ingredients in every blend. Available at Chewy.com.

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Milkweed plants are important to Monarch butterflies, which depend on milkweed to raise their caterpillars. But Monarchs aren’t the only ones who benefit from milkweed. Scientists once documented hundreds of insect species they found eating some part of the common milkweed plant – including 132 species of beetles alone. When it’s part of a diverse community of plants, milkweed helps many species find food and shelter, including birds.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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It’s National Poetry Month in the U.S., and each year we like to celebrate by sharing our favorite contemporary writers’ work about birds. Ornithologist and poet J. Drew Lanham often writes about racial justice, and his experience as a Black man in the outdoors — both the joy of being in nature and the racism he faces in the field. Sometimes that's led him to birding spots that others might pass by. In this episode, Drew shares a poem inspired by little brown sparrows thriving in overlooked places.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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In spring, millions of songbirds — like the Orchard Oriole — migrate north across the Gulf of Mexico, from the Yucatan to the southeastern U.S. When birds encounter storms or headwinds, many may die. Why risk such an end, when they could migrate north along the length of Mexico? It's likely that many birds evolved to take the potentially perilous trans-Gulf route because it is direct and considerably faster, putting the birds on the best breeding territories more quickly.

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The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher nests in the open country of Texas, Oklahoma, and the south-central region. It's an elegant bird with a slender, deeply forked tail longer than its body. Agile in flight, it can spread and fold its tail, altering the surface area, like an extra pair of wings. When displaying to a female, the male dives again and again, opening and closing his tail. He may even perform a reverse somersault, flashing his pink sides and that long streamer of a tail.

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The American Tree Sparrow is a common winter visitor in the northern U.S. Despite their name, these sparrows stay close to the ground. When foraging, they’ll kick through leaf litter with their powerful feet, beat seedheads open with their wings or grab a bite from a backyard feeder. Sadly, American Tree Sparrow populations have steeply declined since the 1970s. You can welcome these birds to your neighborhood by growing native plants, keeping cats indoors, and filling bird feeders with a millet-rich seed mix.

This episode is dedicated in memory of Pat and Jo Ann Adams of...

Pigeons, one of the most ancient of domesticated animals, feed their nestlings a peculiar, milky substance, straight from the adult’s beak to the baby’s throat. It’s called pigeon milk, a fat-rich substance loaded with antioxidants and immunity factors that enhance the survival of newborns — much like mammals’ milk does.

This episode is brought to you by Wild Delight Bird Food, which aims to support wild bird populations with clean, nutritious ingredients in every blend. Available at Chewy.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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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. Learn how to plant native and get on the HNP map here.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

April is National Poetry Month in the U.S., so we are featuring some of our favorite poets who write about our feathered friends. Traci Brimhall is an associate professor of poetry at Kansas State University. Her first published collection, from 2013, is called Rookery and features many poems about birds. But Brimhall didn't grow up birding — her interest came later in life.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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There are many great tools for identifying birds, some of them right on your phone. If you’re stumped on an unfamiliar plant species, iNaturalist is a great resource. When you upload a photo to iNaturalist’s website or mobile app, it uses AI to make an educated guess on the species ID. A community of online naturalists then helps confirm the ID. Finding the links between plants and birds can show you how birds see the world, and what they need to survive and raise their young.

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The Yellow-billed Cuckoo, one of two species of cuckoos in North America, lives in broadleaf forests throughout the East and riparian stands in the Southwest. Cuckoos were common breeding birds in the Pacific Northwest as late as the 1920s, but then they disappeared. The Black-billed Cuckoo is a more northerly species that lives in dense woodland, even conifer forests. Cuckoos perch quietly and scan their surroundings for food. Hairy tent caterpillars, shunned by most birds, are often on their meal ticket.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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BirdNote is an independent nonprofit organization, and this week, we’re asking you to support BirdNote with a donation at birdnote.org. But today, rather than tell you all the great things about BirdNote, we’re going to let our feathered friends do the talking. In this show, enjoy a minute of uninterrupted birdsong.

Please support BirdNote with a tax-deductible donation today — every gift helps us produce the stories you love and share them with your amazing local radio station.

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This week is fundraising week at BirdNote. Today, we’re asking you to support the show by making a gift of any amount. A donation to BirdNote is like a twig in a nest. Birds can’t lay their eggs on a twig, but when hundreds of twigs are weaved together, you have a safe and cozy place for baby birds to hatch and fledge. So think about contributing a twig to the nest that will fledge our next episode.

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You’ve probably heard the expression “light as a feather.” But bird feathers aren’t just amazingly light — they’re also resilient. Something that BirdNote and bird feathers share in common! Bird feathers are sturdy thanks to the cumulative strength of many tiny structures called barbules. In a similar fashion, BirdNote is only possible thanks to individual donations from listeners like you. Today, we’re asking you to support the show by making a gift of any amount.

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It's fundraising week at BirdNote. We hear from lots of people about how much they learn from listening to BirdNote shows. In this episode, Kim Bradmon and her son Ben share their stories.

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This week is fundraising week at BirdNote. The vast majority of BirdNote’s funding comes from listeners like you. It only takes a few minutes to support the show and make a big difference for birds. Make a donation of any amount today to help us share the wonder of birds with listeners around the world. Thank you for listening, and thank you for making BirdNote possible!

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Rachel Carson found inspiration in the work of 19th-century writer Richard Jefferies, whose work helped 
Carson develop her deep sense of connection with the natural world. Jefferies wrote, "Consider the grasses and the oaks, the swallows, the sweet blue butterfly — they are one and all a sign and token, showing before our eyes earth made into life."

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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Mother Goose was sometimes illustrated as an old country woman wearing a tall hat and riding on the back of a goose. Or sometimes as just a big, motherly goose wearing reading glasses and a bonnet, a friendly figure children could trust.

Support comes from Wild Delight Bird Food, offering a variety of blends designed to mimic the natural resources wild birds crave, available at Chewy.

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Springtime brings the sound of a woodpecker, like the Northern Flicker, drumming on a hollow surface. Members of the woodpecker percussion band announce their territory and attract mates, as they pound away on metal roofs or gutters. Drilling holes in tree trunks calls for some specialized tools, and the North Flicker has them: big claws, two toes pointing forward and two backward, and a stiff tail to prop itself up.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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In April 1915, Finnish composer Jean Sibelius wrote in his diary about seeing 16 Whooper Swans overhead. He was entranced by both the sight and the sound of the swans. He watched them depart, “like a gleaming silver ribbon,” and declared the image one of the great experiences of his life. He then transformed that breathtaking, natural moment into music.

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Rosalie Barrow Edge (1877-1962) was one of the 20th century’s most outspoken advocates for birds and a prominent figure in the modern American conservation movement. She famously preached that, "The time to protect a species is while it is still common." And while her conviction fell short of moving mountains in a literal sense, she once bought a mountain to protect birds of prey from bounty hunters. That land is now known as the world-renowned Hawk Mountain Sanctuary.

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Nancy Nordhoff, whose legacy of tenacious support for environmental conservation an...

Birds that historically nested in the cavities of dead trees are finding natural nest holes harder to come by — but people can help. Many of these species will make use of a nest box in parks or near people's homes. Learn how to build nest boxes tailored to a species of your choice at NestWatch. BirdNote has inspired millions of people to take action for birds. Find out more about BirdNote's From Love to Action campaign and let us know how you're helping birds!

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April is National Poetry Month in the United States, and to celebrate, we're featuring some of our favorite poets who write about our feathered friends. Today, in this extended podcast, we're sharing the work of poet Sidney Wade, professor emeritus at the University of Florida. Her collection of poems is called Bird Book and is all about birds.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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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 creating new ecological networks. Learn how to plant native and get on the HNP map here.

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Red Warblers only sing on sunny mornings during the breeding season — so hearing their song is as good as checking the weather forecast. Weighing less than a AAA battery, Red Warblers are endemic to the highlands of Mexico and live in humid forests of pine, oak, and fir.

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The variety of bill sizes and shapes among the sandpipers is astounding! Many sandpipers have sensitive nerve receptors in their bill tips, so they can find unseen prey through touch, odor, and pressure changes. Those sandpipers with long, straight bills — like the Long-billed Dowitcher — are often described as "stitching." As the bird probes for food, its beak moves rapidly up and down, like the needle on a sewing machine.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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It’s National Poetry Month in the U.S., and each year we like to celebrate by sharing our favorite contemporary writers’ work about birds. Aimee Nezhukumatathil is known for writing about nature, but more than that, wonder at the natural world. In this episode, Aimee describes precious moments she’s shared with birds, plants, and her teenage son.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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Marbled Godwits stand a foot and a half tall, on slender, dark legs. Their exquisitely long bills are pink, tipped in black, and just slightly up-curved. Altogether, a stunning bird. In April, godwits are on their way north. They have wintered along the coasts, including the Texas Gulf Coast, and along the Pacific from California to Washington. While most breed in the prairie provinces of Canada, some nest as far north as Alaska's Aleutian Islands.

This episode is brought to you by Wild Delight Bird Food, which aims to support wild bird populations with clean, nutritious ingredients...

BirdNote prides itself on creating a sound-rich, immersive experience for listeners every day. Today’s episode, featuring the Tufted Puffin, the Great Horned Owl, and the Mallard is sure to bring you calm and get your day started on a gentle note.

And one more thing before we go: Happy April Fools' Day!

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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The savanna country of northern Australia is one of the most fire-prone natural habitats in the world, and its plants have evolved to thrive with frequent, low-intensity blazes. As flames sweep across the savanna, Black Kites watch for prey like grasshoppers and lizards that flee the fire. Indigenous Australians have long known that Black Kites aren’t just opportunists — the birds actually create some of these fires by carrying burning twigs in their talons and dropping them on a patch of savanna away from the original wildfire. The kites then pick off the escaping prey. Research suggests that setting a ne...

The Keel-billed Toucan, also known as the Rainbow-billed Toucan, looks like a bird with a giant banana for a beak. They have a black body, a yellow patch from the face to the breast, and a huge rainbow-colored bill. The big beaks have more than one use: they can be used for fighting with rivals, but they can also help toucans regulate their body temperature in the tropical heat.

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