BirdNote Daily

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...

Albatrosses Saving Albatrosses

03 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Black-footed Albatrosses are masters of the high seas, but their fate is threatened by trouble on land. At their nesting grounds on Midway Atoll in Ha...

Conserving Wetlands for Black Rails

02 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Black Rails are marsh-inhabiting birds, more often heard than seen. Many Black Rails nest in marshes along the Atlantic seaboard and in the Midwest. B...

Voices and Vocabularies: House Finch or Purple Finch

01 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In parts of the United States, House Finches overlap with similar-looking Purple Finches. Their distinct songs help us sort them out. House Finch song...

Ornithographies

31 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Photographer Xavi Bou creates incredible images of birds and their movements by combining his love of photography and technology with his love for bir...

New Zealand Bellbird

30 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A forest in New Zealand rings with the sound of bellbirds, also known as Korimako or Makomako. Many bellbirds sing together, especially in the morning...

Wild Goose Dacha

29 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

No human dreams of relaxing on the shores of Novaya Zemlya, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean that’s best known as a Soviet testing site for nuclea...

The Value of a Dust Bath

28 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

It might sound strange, but dirt helps birds scrub themselves clean. Birds of all sizes, like the Eurasian Skylark, often scrape a depression in the g...

Ancient Birds Nested in the Arctic, Too

27 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Every summer, millions of birds flock to the Arctic Circle to find mates and raise their young. In a study published in 2025, paleontologists found ev...

Female Birds Sing in the Tropics

26 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In temperate climates like North America, it’s often male songbirds that sing the most. Typically the males migrate north before females and establi...

Preening 101

25 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

If a bird’s feathers get too dried out, they become brittle. To prevent that from happening, most birds have a gland located above the base of the t...

The Heart of a Bird

24 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Birds’ four-chambered hearts run larger than those of mammals, relative to body size, and they are coupled with extremely efficient cardiovascular s...

Magnificent Frigatebird Drum Roll

23 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Magnificent Frigatebirds are huge, gangly seabirds found around the warm waters of the Western Hemisphere. When it comes time to mate, males inflate g...

‘Ākohekohe

22 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Sporting a fancy tuft of feathers on its forehead and a bright orange nape, Maui island’s ‘ākohekohe is one Hawaiʻi’s strikingly beautiful nat...

Letter to a Pileated Woodpecker

21 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, ornithologist J. Drew Lanham reads a letter he has written to a Pileated Woodpecker, a large species of woodpecker that is sometimes ...

The Early Bird

20 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

We've all heard that the early bird gets the worm. But research shows that birds dining early and heavily may lower their life expectancy. Socially do...

Spark Bird: Murry Burgess and the Painted Bunting

19 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Urban ornithologist and children’s author Murry Burgess has always been interested in wildlife. But she first felt a spark for birds on a college fi...

Western Tanagers Are Flashes of Bright Color

18 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Western Tanagers dart from tree to tree, on the lookout for delicious bugs. They’ll find them by scanning the tree bark — or maybe snatching them ...

Ornate Hawk-Eagle: The Elegant Eagle

17 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Ornate Hawk-Eagles stand out from other raptors with their impressive crest that looks like an elegant crown in adults, and a punk hairdo over the whi...

Diving Birds Are Dense

16 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

While many birds have hollow bones that make flying a breeze, diving birds are built differently. The bones of divers such as Common Loons are denser ...

Razorbills Swim in Synchrony

15 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Razorbills, a cousin to the puffin, nest in colonies on cliffs. Before they lay eggs, Razorbills take part in two unique social behaviors. In one, the...

Welcoming Back Common Loons

14 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The call of the Common Loon is a symbol of the far north. But the species once nested as far south as southern New England, Ohio, Iowa, and California...

How Terns Read the Water

13 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Like an expert angler, a tern can read the surface of the water to find where to catch its next fish. Scientists piloted a drone to track the flight p...

Finches Singing Over the Sidewalk

12 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The songs of two common finches provide a steady soundtrack in cities across North America: the House Finch and the American Goldfinch. While they can...

Giving Your Cat a Great Life Indoors

11 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Outdoor cats kill billions of birds each year in North America — and they live much shorter lives than indoor cats. But life as an indoor cat doesn’...

Bald Eagles' Daredevil Cartwheel Flight

10 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Two eagles locking talons high above the ground might look like they’re risking injury, but it’s a normal courtship behavior called the “cartwhe...

Kelp in the Eagles’ Nest

09 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A pair of Bald Eagles will reuse their nest each year and repair it with new tree branches. But recently in British Columbia, scientists came across a...

Spark Bird: J’orge Garcia and the Finch Robot

08 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

J’orge Garcia loves making things. For several years at the Chicago Public Library, he helped people to design and build their own creations with ed...

The Music of Long-tailed Ducks

07 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Long-tailed Ducks are back for the winter from the north, where they nested on tundra ponds and marshes. These diving ducks spend the winter in deep s...

Bruno & La Güera: An Albatross Love Story

06 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Isla Guadalupe off the Western coast of Mexico is famous for its massive colonies of petrels, shearwaters, and Laysan Albatrosses. Now, conservationis...

Wrens from North to South

05 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

There are nearly ninety species of wrens in the world, and quite a few are exceptional singers. Nearly all of them reside in the Western Hemisphere, w...

An Indoor Wildlife Adventure

04 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The video game Alba: A Wildlife Adventure lets you have adventures in a stunning virtual landscape while curled up at home with a cup of hot cocoa. Th...

Peace in Wild Places

03 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Wendell Berry wrote: "When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's live...

Birding 101: The Fear of Getting Started

02 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

For folks looking to try birding for the first time, getting started can be daunting. Should you learn every species’ call, every subtle feather pat...

Rickie Lee Jones Helps Birds at Home

01 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

At her home in New Orleans, Grammy-winning musical artist Rickie Lee Jones has transformed her yard into a safe haven for birds. By putting out water ...

Kererū: Pigeons That Get Tipsy

31 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Kererū, green-blue pigeons native to New Zealand, like to sun themselves after dining on fruit. But in warm summer months, the bird’s sunbathing ha...

Golden Eagle: From Aztec Legend to the Steppes of Kazakhstan

30 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Golden Eagle is a bird of epic proportions not only for their impressive size but also for the many legends they’ve inspired across human histor...

Ivory Gull and Conservation

29 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Polar Bears symbolize the icy landscapes of the far north like no other animal. The bear's way of life — its very survival — is inseparable from t...

From the Start, Daffy Duck Has Been a Cartoon Original

28 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From his start in 1937, the gangly, black-feathered Daffy Duck was a cartoon original: wildly outspoken, volatile, and confrontational — a truly daf...

Lewis's Woodpeckers and Pine Forests

27 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A century of logging and fire control has taken its toll on the mature pine forests of the West, the preferred nest site for this Lewis's Woodpecker. ...

When ‘Terror Birds’ Ruled the Earth

26 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A bird known as Titanis walleri made its home in Florida just a few million years ago. Titanis, as its name suggests, was titanic indeed — a flightl...

What Makes an Efficient Flying Bird?

25 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Every bird species uses its wings a little differently, and some are specialized for highly efficient flight. But that means going without other abili...

Birds Move from Fresh to Salt Water

24 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

To hear a Common Loon in the wild during summer, you’ll need to find a northern, freshwater lake where a pair is nesting. But to find that same Comm...

Birdsong and Solitude

23 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Wall of Birds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a towering mural showing nearly 250 life-sized birds across a map of the world. To complete the...

Letter to a Dark-eyed Junco

22 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Writer and ornithologist J. Drew Lanham shares a note he has written to a Dark-eyed Junco, which he fondly nicknames “snowbird.”More info and tran...

Why Birds Eat Snow

21 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the depths of winter, when open water is frozen over, it can be challenging for birds to stay hydrated. Some birds eat the frozen water all around ...

Building Birds with LEGO

20 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Thomas Poulsom is a hobbyist LEGO builder best known for his models of birds. But making birds out of bricks isn't easy. That’s why he uses special ...

Painting Birdsong with Jane Kim

19 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At the visitor center of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, artist and scientific illustrator Jane Kim painted the Wall of Birds to celebrate the evoluti...

Dining with Sanderlings

18 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

While many shorebirds have gone south, tiny sandpipers called Sanderlings are easy to find on winter shores. They follow the waves as they lap in and ...

Kittiwake, Kittiwake

17 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Named for its rhythmic calls, the Black-legged Kittiwake is a dapper, oceanic gull. As described by Roger Tory Peterson, the tips of its pale gray win...

Andean Condors Sail the Wind

16 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Andean Condor is one of the largest flying birds in the world. With a wingspan that can stretch over 10 feet across, the condor doesn’t flap so ...

Sandhill Crane Families Stick Together

15 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sandhill Crane families form a close bond. A pair of adults might travel north with their young from the previous summer, along with grown-up offsprin...

Seabirds, Trees and Coral

14 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Palmyra Atoll is a ring-shaped island encircling a lagoon in the South Pacific. The atoll lost many native trees due to U.S. military activity during ...

Museum Eggs Help Solve Mysteries

13 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There are five million bird eggs stowed away in museums across the world — and the study of eggs, called oology, can give us great insight into bird...

Kiwikiu

12 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Kiwikiu, also known as Maui Parrotbill, used to be found all over Maui and Molokaʻi. Now, fewer than 150 individuals exist and kiwikiu are currently ...

Altitudinal Migration

11 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Yellow-eyed Juncos sometimes make a migration of sorts — not from north to south, but from the high mountains to the lowlands or the other way aroun...

How Art Inspired a Young Birder

10 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Isaiah Scott was in middle school when his family took him to visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. He remembers seeing a huge mural showing hundreds ...

A Song That Has Survived for Thousands of Years

09 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sometimes, a species’ song changes over the course of a few decades. But a bird that lives in the mountains of eastern Africa, the Forest Double-col...

What Do Woodpeckers Do on Smoky Days?

08 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When the air is thick with wildfire smoke, people are advised to stay home. At Hastings Natural History Preserve in California, Acorn Woodpeckers do t...

Paradise-Whydah

07 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A few times each year, the Eastern Paradise-Whydah puts on his party clothes. This small finch is found in East Africa, and males and females generall...

In Winter, Puffins Lead Very Different Lives

06 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Every summer, puffins — like this Horned Puffin — grow blazingly colorful layers over the bases of their huge beaks. But in the winter, puffins le...

Double-jointed Hawks and Convergent Evolution

05 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Crane Hawks of Central and South America and African Harrier-Hawks both have legs that bend forward and backward. Each bird’s wonderfully peculiar l...

Protecting the Madagascar Fish-Eagle

04 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Biodiversity conservationist Lily-Arison Rene de Roland works with some of the rarest birds in the world. He’s the Madagascar program director for t...

Common Potoo: Branch or Bird?

03 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Common Potoos are champions of camouflage. In the daytime these nocturnal creatures perch perfectly still on branches: heads pointed upward, bodies ou...

The Gyrfalcon – A Circumpolar Raptor

02 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Gyrfalcons are circumpolar, nesting in the far north of Asia, North America, and Europe, including Iceland and Greenland. They evolved as a distinct s...

Jane Kim and the Wall of Birds

01 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Walk into the visitor center at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and you’ll be greeted by a massive mural called the Wall of Birds. About the size of ...

Costa Rica Pulses with Life

30 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It’s early morning in Costa Rica. Tiny bats nestle in a tree after a night on the wing. A Great Kiskadee calls. Gray-capped Flycatchers sally forth ...

The Birds of Yoga

29 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Pigeon Pose. Crow Pose. Eagle pose. Bird of paradise. Writer Trisha Mukherjee, who is also a yoga teacher, discusses the connections these bird-inspir...

Sparrow Loves Birds

28 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From an early age, urban ornithologist Murry Burgess loved to draw and tell stories – and that passion stayed with her as her love for birds grew as...

A Grandchild’s Song for Robins

27 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ray Young Bear is a writer, musician and a member of Meskwaki Nation. He considers himself a word collector, writing poetry in both English and Meskwa...