BirdNote Daily

The Nasally Fish Crow

13 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The harsh caws of American Crows are one of the most familiar bird calls in North America. Fish Crows sometimes join flocks of American Crows as they ...

Singer's Brain Changes with the Seasons

12 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In higher animals, the brain is like a Lamborghini — amazing engineering, but expensive to run. In a human, the brain uses about 10 times more energ...

World of Warblers

11 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

May is the prime month across much of North America to celebrate the return of migratory birds from the tropics. Of all those coming back, it is the w...

Hornbill – the Lockdown Bird

10 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Does staying cooped up inside with your kids sometimes drive you up the wall? Take comfort in the bird that does it year after year — the hornbill. ...

Capuchinbirds

09 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The peace of the vast Guyanan jungle is abruptly broken with the dawn chorus of male Capuchinbirds, one of the most bizarre birds in South America. Th...

Wood Thrush Thrive In Health Forests

08 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

How Noise Pollution Affects Birds

07 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Clinton Francis is a sensory ecologist who studies how noise pollution affects birds, like this Black-headed Grosbeak. On the Bring Birds Back pod...

House Wrens and Dummy Nests

06 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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,...

Birding 101: Songs and Calls

05 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Spark Bird: Dara Wilson and the Blue-gray Tanager

04 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 son...

The Color of Birds' Eyes

03 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 pat...

Recognizing a Stranded Loon

02 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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...

BirdNoir: Nestboxes and Snake Skins

01 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Private Eye Michael Stein investigates a possible break in when a kindly neighbor fears a snake has attacked a nestbox occupied by nesting Great Crest...

An App That Helps You Hear High-Pitched Bird Songs

30 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Parrots Using Video Chat to Keep in Touch

29 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 h...

Milkweed: A Whole Ecosystem on a Plant

28 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Milkweed plants are important to Monarch butterflies, which depend on milkweed to raise their caterpillars. But Monarchs aren’t the only ones who be...

J. Drew Lanham’s Sparrow Envy

27 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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. Ornitho...

Songbirds Migrate Across the Gulf of Mexico

26 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In spring, millions of songbirds — like the Orchard Oriole — migrate north across the Gulf of Mexico, from the Yucatan to the southeastern U.S. Wh...

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

25 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

American Tree Sparrow

24 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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, ...

Pigeons Make Milk

23 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Pigeons, one of the most ancient of domesticated animals, feed their nestlings a peculiar, milky substance, straight from the adult’s beak to the ba...

Planting Oaks for Birds

22 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 sing...

Traci Brimhall: Intimacy and the Everyday

21 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Finding the Links Between Plants and Birds

20 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Cuckoos - Tent Caterpillar Birds

19 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 So...

Let The Birds Do The Talking

18 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

BirdNote is an independent nonprofit organization, and this week, we’re asking you to support BirdNote with a donation at birdnote.org. But today, r...

Contribute a Twig

17 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 lik...

Listener Support Keeps BirdNote On The Air

16 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

You’ve probably heard the expression “light as a feather.” But bird feathers aren’t just amazingly light — they’re also resilient. Somethi...

BirdNote Helps Kids Learn Their Birds

15 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 Bradmo...

Little Things Add Up

14 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 sup...

Rachel Carson’s Muse

13 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Rachel Carson found inspiration in the work of 19th-century writer Richard Jefferies, whose work helped  Carson develop her deep sense of connection...

Who, or What, Was Mother Goose?

12 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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, mothe...

Northern Flicker, Drummer

11 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Springtime brings the sound of a woodpecker, like the Northern Flicker, drumming on a hollow surface. Members of the woodpecker percussion band announ...

Sibelius and the Swans

10 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 so...

Rosalie Edge And The First Hawk Sanctuary

09 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 conse...

Nest Boxes For All Sorts Of Birds

08 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 s...

Sidney Wade – Blue

07 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 friend...

Creating Bird Habitat at Home

06 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

One of the biggest threats to birds is the decline in biodiversity due to habitat loss — and the traditional, manicured lawn isn’t helping. Growin...

The Red Warbler: Mexico’s Little Red Queen

05 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Red Warblers only sing on sunny mornings during the breeding season — so hearing their song is as good as checking the weather forecast. Weighing le...

Probing with Sandpipers

04 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The variety of bill sizes and shapes among the sandpipers is astounding! Many sandpipers have sensitive nerve receptors in their bill tips, so they ca...

Wonder and Awe with Aimee Nezhukumatathil

03 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 N...

Marbled Godwits

02 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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-curv...

Let BirdNote Immerse You In Soothing Birdsong

01 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

BirdNote prides itself on creating a sound-rich, immersive experience for listeners every day. Today’s episode, featuring the Tufted Puffin, the Gre...

Black Kites and Wildfires

31 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 freq...

Rainbow-Billed Toucan: The Flying Banana

30 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 pa...

The Songs of Desert Wrens

29 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Canyon Wren and Cactus Wren share common ancestry — and they’re close neighbors in the desert southwest. Yet their songs evolved along diverge...

The Tui of New Zealand

28 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Tui is one of New Zealand’s most remarkable birds, intelligent and with iridescent feathers. Its down-curved beak fits perfectly into native flo...

Bananaquits Love Sweets

27 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Bananaquits are tiny songbirds with a sweet tooth. Their distinctive curved bills are perfect for sipping nectar from woodland flowers and urban hummi...

Letter to a Kentucky Warbler

26 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, ornithologist J. Drew Lanham reads a letter he has written to a Kentucky Warbler, an “uber-skulky” species that’s hard to find ...

The Stunning King Eider

25 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The King Eider is one of the most striking sea ducks in the Northern hemisphere. This male King Eider is trying to woo a mate with soft coos and brill...

How a Bird Came to Look Like a Caterpillar

24 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Cinereous Mourner is a small, ashy-gray bird that lives in the forest understory of the Amazon Basin. And it’s taking mimicry to the next level:...

Dovekie At Sea

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Dovekie are robin-sized seabirds related to auks and puffins. Their compact, black-and-white bodies are perfect for life on the water. In winter, bird...

The Lustrous Purple Gallinule

22 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What’s the most colorful bird in the U.S.? The Scarlet Tanager? Maybe the Painted Bunting? Well, consider one more lustrous candidate: the Purple Ga...

Chestnut-collared Longspur

21 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The cheerful-voiced Chestnut-collared Longspur shares their northern prairie breeding range with grazing cattle. Although heavy grazing can have adver...

Flying Dinosaurs: Leaping and Gliding

20 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

For years, scientists debated whether the first flying dinosaurs, the ancestors of modern birds, began by running and making little hops off the groun...

Hilarious Bird Sounds With Becca Rowland

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Birds make a lot of sounds — so many that author and illustrator Becca Rowland had a hard time keeping them straight. That was until Becca began pic...

Create Bird Habitat at Home with Native Plants

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Birds have lost many habitats they’ve called home for millions of years, but people can help create bird habitats wherever they live. It all begins ...

The Joy of Robins with J. Drew Lanham

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

J. Drew Lanham is a poet and ornithologist whose work intertwines his lived experience as a Black man in the American south and his love of wilderness...

Millicent Ficken Studied How Birds Play

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Millicent Ficken spent her career studying bird behavior and communication. The first woman to earn a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cor...

The Vulture's Iron Stomach

15 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Circling silently above the earth on broad, black wings, vultures need little introduction. We know them as nature's clean-up crew, dining on dead and...

Lifer Pie

14 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In birding lingo, a lifer — or life bird — is any species you see or hear for the first time. Birders get very excited about lifers. Some even mar...

The Eagle, the Cactus, and the City on the Lake

13 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In one of the most iconic founding legends of the Americas, a Golden Eagle devouring a serpent atop a cactus marked the spot where the Mexicas would b...

Robins Nest On Moving Solar Arrays

12 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Solar panels are a popular source of renewable energy, but large groupings of them — called arrays — can take up a lot of space. Chelse Prather, a...

BirdNoir: That Raptor’s an Impostor!

11 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of BirdNoir, the Private Eye gets a call from his friend Frank, his eyes and ears in the neighborhood. He’s hearing a Red-shouldered...

The Sword-billed Hummingbird

10 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

To out-sip their competition, Sword-billed Hummingbirds have a distinct adaptation: these birds’ beaks are longer than their bodies. Found in temper...

Feathered Females in Charge

09 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Male birds are often the larger, flashier sex that courts choosy females, who in turn raise their chicks. But not always. Female phalaropes -- like th...

Connecticut Warbler

08 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Connecticut Warblers nest in the northern boreal forests, migrate through the Midwest, and winter in the rainforests of South America. Even with all t...

Baby Birds' Bizarre Beaks

07 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Most baby birds are adorable little floofs — but not all of them. The tongue and palate of estrildid finch chicks are strangely spotted and ringed. ...

Rickie Lee Jones Sings To The Birds

06 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Grammy-winning musician Rickie Lee Jones has performed on stages around the world. At home in New Orleans, she found a new audience: backyard birds! R...

Birding 101: Learning How to Strike Out

05 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When you go birding, sometimes you’re in the right place at the right time and there are more species than you can count. Other times, not so lucky....

Legends of the Jackdaw

04 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The catchy name “Jackdaw” belongs to a European bird that looks like a compact crow drawn in shades of light and dark gray. They are comfortable a...

Some Birds Have Two Voices

03 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The amazing vocal organ found in most birds, the syrinx, has two sides, with different sets of muscles and nerves controlling each side.  That lets s...

Hollywood Has Gone To The Birds

02 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Some of Hollywood’s most iconic beasts owe their signature sounds to the squawks, tweets, and even hisses of birds. More info and transcript at Bird...

Telling Apart Two Cheery Bird Songs

01 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The American Robin and the Baltimore Oriole both have cheery, upbeat songs. At first, you might think there’s no way to tell these two singers apart...

Rapid Evolution in the Galápagos Islands

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Scientists have long thought that new species took a very long time to emerge. This thinking has now changed dramatically. On an island in the Galápa...

Ducks That Whistle

27 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Whistling as they fly, Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks are gorgeous waterfowl with bright pink bills and legs, chestnut necks and backs, and black under...

The Delightfully Round Bearded Reedling

26 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Bearded Reedling is a wetland songbird that’s enjoying a boom in both population and popularity. Barely larger than a chickadee, the male reedli...

Birding 101: Bird Vocab Basics

25 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Any hobby or special interest has its own jargon. You’ll pick up on the silly slang that birders use as you go – like calling the Yellow-rumped Wa...

The Gull and the Garbage Truck

24 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Gulls are notorious for snatching french fries from waste bins and flocking to landfills. But one Western Gull’s devotion to trash reached a new lev...

BONUS EPISODE: Words in Flight

23 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Birds have always been a source of inspiration for writers. Edgar Allen Poe, Maya Angelou, and William Shakespeare, to name a few, have all written ab...

The Ferocious Feet of the Great Horned Owl

23 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Great Horned Owls excel at nocturnal hunting, thanks to their acute senses and stealth — but their feet let them secure squirming prey. The outermos...

Feeding Frenzy

22 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

It's late winter at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, Florida. Many birds have finished nesting, and young birds are everywhere...

Cranes' Voices Across the Globe

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

There are 15 species of cranes across the globe, found everywhere but Antarctica and South America. During the winter, cranes forage and rest together...

A Hummingbird Hospital in a Mexico City Apartment

20 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Mexico City, 73-year-old Catia Lattouf started a hummingbird hospital — in her apartment! She hosts dozens of hummingbirds as they recover from i...

How the Barnacle Goose Was Named

19 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Boldly patterned in black, white, and silver, Barnacle Geese are stunning birds. In Europe, huge flocks gather in pastures and mudflats where the gees...

Magpie-Jay Flocks Are Led by Females

18 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Found in much of Central America, White-throated Magpie-Jay flocks are family groups led by a dominant female. They include a mate and several female ...

Aldabra Rail: The Bird that Evolved Twice

17 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Over 130,000 years ago, White-throated Rails migrated across hundreds of miles from Madagascar to the tiny island of Aldabra. Fossil records show that...

Migrations: Pine Siskin Irruption

16 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Do you ever see flocks of birds in your yard that show up in droves one year, but are completely absent the next? Some nomadic species such as Pine Si...

Mating for Life

15 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Most bird species in North America mate for a single breeding season. Some may team up again the following year, just because both stay in - or return...

Seeds of Attraction

14 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What is it that draws us to a romantic partner? Birds have lots of ways to catch the attention of a mate. Most cranes duet with prospective partners f...

eBird: Contribute to Science While Birding

13 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

eBird, a project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, lets you log the bird species you observe on a smartphone app or on the web. Whether you’re goin...

Join the Great Backyard Bird Count

12 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Over the course of four days in February, the Great Backyard Bird Count gathers heaps of info about birds all over the world — and helps people conn...

The Best Nest

11 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Some birds woo a mate by building the best nest. Males of many weaverbird species construct a series of intricately woven nests to impress a prospecti...

Participate in Project NestWatch

10 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Organized by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Project NestWatch is made up of volunteers around the world who monitor bird nests, reporting whether the...

Finding Mom's Favorite Bird

09 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Author and illustrator Becca Rowland likes to keep an eye out for cardinals. Her mom loves them and is pretty good at finding them, too. Becca didn’...

A Bird in the Hand

08 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

You’ve probably heard the old saying: “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” Well, it’s a very old saying, and it’s gone through som...

February Summer in Argentina

07 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In February, winter still holds sway over much of North America. But in Argentina, it’s summer, and birds are in full voice. Argentina’s national ...

Family Time with Red-throated Loons

06 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Millions of birds from around the world begin their lives in the Teshekpuk Wetlands of northern Alaska. In 2025, author and environment reporter Lynda...

To Breathe Like a Bird

05 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Birds have a highly efficient breathing anatomy that powers the exertion of flight. It is driven by large, thin-walled air sacs located throughout the...

The Wild Parrots of San Francisco

04 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Flocks of Cherry-headed Conures, a species native to South America, are now found throughout San Francisco. While a local legend claims that a pet sho...