BirdNote Daily
Episodes
Why Do Birds Flick Their Tails?
26 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The way that some birds flick, wag, or flare their tails can be distinctive. A flicking or flashing tail might suggest to a predator that a bird is pa...
Whooping Cranes: A Song That Was Nearly Silenced
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Whooping Crane is the tallest flying bird in North America. These huge white cranes with a black mask and a splash of red on the crown came perilo...
The Music of Black Scoters
24 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Black Scoters are sea ducks that spend the winter on saltwater bays. They are large, strong ducks and buoyant swimmers with a habit of cocking their t...
Pulling Rank at the Bird Feeder
23 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bird feeders full of seeds or suet can spark nonstop action. Chickadees flitter in and out. Finches expertly crack one seed after another, while jays,...
Left Foot or Right? Handedness in Birds
22 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A parrot’s eyes are located on the sides of its head. So, if it wants to look at something — say, a delicious piece of fruit — it has to cock it...
Yellow Warblers in a Changing World
21 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In spring and summer, Yellow Warblers sing from treetops to stream sides. While their beauty and songs commonly light up our most vibrant months, they...
Birdsong Mnemonics with Christian Cooper
20 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Birder and author Christian Cooper says learning to identify bird calls feels like unlocking a sixth sense. Birding by ear is a skill that takes time ...
Play and Brain Size
19 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Many birds that play do it alone by swinging, sliding, or rolling around. Some species interact with objects, like dropping a stone and picking it up ...
The Eagle, the Cactus, and the City on the Lake
18 Nov 2025
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...
The Joy of Robins with J. Drew Lanham
17 Nov 2025
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...
A Library of Feathers
16 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Esha Munshi co-founded the Feather Library, a digital library that collects and documents the feathers of Indian birds. Launched in 2021, the library ...
Red-throated Loons of Deception Pass
15 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The word “loon” comes from the Old Norse word for “lame.” Because their feet are so far back on their bodies, loons cannot walk on land. But i...
Chestnut-collared Longspur
14 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The cheerful-voiced Chestnut-collared Longspur shares their northern prairie breeding range with grazing cattle. Although heavy grazing can have adver...
Great Black-backed Gull
13 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Great Black-backed Gulls have a reputation as serious predators of other birds like puffins, grebes, and songbirds as big as a grackle. Just over a ce...
Spark Bird: Thomas Poulsom and the LEGO Robin
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As he trained to be an arborist, Thomas Poulsom started developing two new interests: birds and building with LEGO bricks. After first building a Euro...
Red Knots Refuel in the Delaware Bay
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Red Knot is a true marathon traveler, flying up to 9,000 miles between the Arctic tundra and Tierra del Fuego. But their journey depends on a crit...
Art and Environmental Activism
10 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mustafa Santiago Ali has been an environmental activist and policymaker for nearly three decades. The work has taught him that everyone has a story to...
The Elusive Virginia Rail
09 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Virginia Rail is a secretive bird, a relative of coots and cranes. And it's a bird you'll more often hear than spy. The rail takes its name from i...
Clever Nuthatches
08 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Of the four nuthatch species living in the United States, the most common are the Red-breasted Nuthatch and the White-breasted Nuthatch. The nuthatch'...
The Unmistakable Ruddy Turnstone
07 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Ruddy Turnstone stands out among sandpipers. On taking flight, the turnstone flashes a vivid and unmistakable pattern of dark and light striping a...
Two Rare Wrens Serenade Southern Mexico
06 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sumichrast’s Wren and Nava’s Wren are both sooty-brown songbirds of southern Mexico. They both live in tropical forests where limestone outcrops p...
Vocal Learning is for the Birds
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Humans and songbirds are among a small group of animals that can learn to imitate the sounds we hear. It’s an ability called vocal learning that mak...
Swans Come Calling
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Trumpeter Swans are among the world's largest flying waterfowl. They can weight up to 25 pounds and have a wingspan of nearly seven feet! These swans ...
Volunteer for Project FeederWatch
03 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Project FeederWatch is a community science project studying over 100 species of birds that spend their winters in North America. From November through...
State Birds
02 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
All 50 states and the District of Columbia have official birds. To become a state bird, it helped to be familiar, colorful, and have a punchy song. Th...
The Mississippi Sandhill Crane Makes a Comeback
01 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
While most Sandhill Cranes migrate, the Mississippi population lives year-round in wet pine savanna near the Gulf Coast. Their dependence on this uniq...
Jynx!
31 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A birder may have a target bird so elusive that the bird becomes a kind of "jinx bird." But there was a real bird by that name! The bird once called t...
Owl Sounds with Becca Rowland
30 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When author and illustrator Becca Rowland first started learning to identify bird calls, they were delighted to discover that owls say more than just ...
American Bittern: Thunder-Pumper
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
American Bitterns nest in marshes across the northern half of the United States and throughout much of Canada, and they winter along both US coasts so...
Hummingbirds Caught in a Dark World of Love Spells
28 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hummingbirds are celebrated for their beauty and grace, but in some places, they are trapped in a dark and deadly tradition. In parts of Mexico, hummi...
Annakacygna – The Ultimate Bird
27 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Like today’s swans, the extinct species Annakacygna hajimei and Annakacygna yoshiiensis were quite large. But unlike their modern relatives, these b...
Towhees' Distractive Plumage
26 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Both this Eastern Towhee and the Spotted Towhee of the West sport a black or dark brown hood and back. And when they fly, their tails flash white. Whe...
The Endangered 'Akiapōlā'au
25 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The 'Akiapōlā'au is a bright yellow bird with a black eye mask, found only in the upper elevations on the Big Island of Hawai'i. But its most distin...
Quirky Words for Patterned Birds
24 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Descriptive names can be a great help when you’re getting to know a new bird. Some species have common names that put their plumage pattern front an...
The Elegant Black Tern
23 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Elegant Black Terns breed in summer on secluded wetlands across the northern states and Canada. Because of major losses of wetlands in their breeding ...
Dave Mull and the Courage of Steller’s Jays
22 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Skateboarder and birder Dave Mull remembers the first time he heard a Steller’s Jay imitating a Red-tailed Hawk. “These Steller's Jays were preten...
Nature’s Alarm Clock: Which Rooster Crows First?
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Roosters don’t need to set an alarm to tell them when it’s time to crow — their internal circadian clock lets them anticipate sunrise with remar...
Hudsonian Godwit
20 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hudsonian Godwits are tough birds to find, and they were once thought extinct due to overhunting. After nesting at sites scattered in the High Arctic,...
Seabirds Thriving on Volcanic Slopes
19 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In August 2008, Kasatochi Island erupted in the middle of auklet breeding season, burying tens of thousands of chicks in hot ash. At first, the auklet...
Beaks and Grosbeaks
18 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Beaks suited for opening tough, hard seeds — thick, conical beaks — evolved in more than one lineage of birds. Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are related...
Seeing the Rainbow in a Bird’s Feathers
17 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We make it a habit to detail the broad and beautiful spectrum of bird colors, but iridescent feathers are undoubtedly among the most mesmerizing. When...
Sister Species: Snow Goose and Ross’s Goose
16 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ross’s Geese and Snow Geese are both white-bodied waterfowl with black wingtips that can be difficult to tell apart. The pair are a great example of...
Arizona Woodpecker and the Sierra Madre
15 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Found in the Sierra Madre, the Arizona Woodpecker has a special connection to the mountain range. Sharing mid-elevation pine and oaks with fellow bord...
The 'Grasshopper' Hawk's High-Stakes Migration
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Swainson’s Hawks make an incredible journey every year, migrating 12,000 miles round-trip from North America’s prairies to Argentina’s pampas. W...
Silly Willow Ptarmigan
13 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Some bird songs leave us in admiration of their beauty, some with a sense of wonder at their complexity—and others are downright comical. As a maker...
Birds Crossing the Pacific
12 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Over 12,000 miles across at its widest point, you might think the Pacific Ocean is a barrier that even high-flying birds can’t cross. Think again –...
Migration Routes Evolve
11 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why do birds consistently follow certain routes in their migrations? Pathways of migration evolved, shaped by the wind. During the height of the last ...
Stand-still Birding
10 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
While full-speed-ahead birding can mean spotting a large number of species, there's quiet joy in stand-still birding. Pick a place-forest, field, or m...
A Closer Look at Sparrows
09 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At first glance, many of the sparrows in North America look pretty much the same: like small, drab-colored songbirds hanging out on the ground. But th...
Migrations: The Triumphant Comeback of the Aleutian Cackling Goose
08 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Aleutian Cackling Geese, which have a slighter build and shorter beak than Canada Geese, build their nests on a chain of islands off the western coast...
Migrations: Veeries Predict Hurricanes
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In some years, tawny-colored thrushes called Veeries cut their breeding season short. Researchers discovered that Veeries tend to stop breeding early ...
Nineteen Owls
06 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Owls have a reputation for hooting and hunting at night. But when you take a look – and listen – to the 19 species that live in the U.S. and Canad...
Creating an Inviting Habitat
05 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bird feeders and birdbaths are great ways to attract birds to your yard, but they aren’t the only ways to entice our feathered friends. Planting an ...
The First North American Wildlife Refuge
04 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the center of Oakland, California, is Lake Merritt. People row in it, picnic and jog around it, and it's a place of respite within the city. And it...
Waterfowl heritage with Kelsey Leonard
03 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kelsey Leonard is a leading scholar in Indigenous water governance, climate justice, and Earth law. In the latest season of Bring Birds Back, Kelsey e...
Júlia d’Oliveira on Recreating Extinct Animals
02 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Júlia d’Oliveira is a paleoartist who brings extinct species to life in artwork. For each species she illustrates, she learns everything she can ab...
Snowy Albatross Molt
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Most birds molt and regrow their flight or wing feathers — one at a time along each wing — to stay in prime condition for flying. But for a Wander...
Why Are There Flightless Birds?
30 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The ability to fly seems to define birds. But there are more than 50 species of flightless birds throughout the world — from the Ostrich and Kiwi to...
Spark Bird: Birding from the Bus
29 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kelsen Caldwell drives a bus in and around Seattle for King County Metro. As a bus driver, sometimes there’s downtime if your bus is moving too fast...
Chickadee Line-up
28 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chickadees are tiny songbirds named for their characteristic song and there are seven species found in North America. You'll find the Black-capped Chi...
Sapsuckers
27 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sapsuckers drill small holes in the bark of favored trees, then return again and again to eat the sap that flows out. And hummingbirds, kinglets, and ...
An Ever-Growing Library of Bird Sounds
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Most of the bird sounds you hear on BirdNote come from the Macaulay Library, a vast collection of over one million bird calls and songs curated by the...
Moon-Watching for Migrating Birds
25 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Before the high-tech gadgets used to track bird migration today, there was moon-watching: a technique dreamed up in the 1940s by ornithologist George ...
How Jays Helped Restore an Oak Forest
24 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Corvids, like crows and jays, are known for caching seeds instead of eating them immediately. Sometimes, those seeds take root before the birds return...
Migrations: Indigo Bunting, Master Stargazer
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The stars appear to rotate in the sky, raising the question of how birds can use stars to navigate during migration. Ornithologist Stephen Emlen broug...
Lee Ann Roripaugh: Utsuroi
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today is the Autumnal Equinox, when the sun crosses the equator and day and night are of approximately equal length across the globe. In her poem ‘U...
Southern Lapwings Defend Their Nest
21 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nature educator Johanne Ryan shares her observations of Southern Lapwings, shorebirds that make their nests on the ground in open areas and vigorously...
T and Dart
20 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Author Kira Jane Buxton loves crows — so much that she’s written two novels about a crow named S.T. navigating the extinction of humanity. When sh...
Williamson's Sapsucker
19 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Williamson's Sapsuckers nest in western mountain forests. The radically different plumages of the male and female so confounded 19th-century naturalis...
A Lost Hummingbird is Found Again
18 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Santa Marta Sabrewing is a hummingbird species so rare, they’ve only been documented twice in recent years. Native to the mountains of Colombia,...
Thick-billed Euphonia – Deceitful Mimic
17 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Northern Mockingbirds can learn to mimic the sounds of just about any bird. They mimic to show off, not to deceive. But this Thick-billed Euphonia, a ...
Bicknell's Thrush
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Bicknell’s Thrush is known for scarcity… and promiscuity. Unlike most songbirds, the female thrush establishes a territory and then mates with...
The Delightfully Odd Magellanic Plover
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Magellanic Plover is known for being a bit of an oddball. These shorebirds have a round body like a dove and even feed their young with milk produ...
Where Birds Sleep
14 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
All birds need to sleep — or at least snooze — sometime during each 24-hour period. And most sleep at night. A bird, like a Mallard Duckling, may ...
The Music of Birds Migrating in the Night
13 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ornithologist Bill Evans has helped us better understand the sounds that birds make as they migrate at night. Known as nocturnal flight calls, many sp...
There's a BirdNote for that!
12 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Do you have a question about birds? BirdNote’s Content Director Jonese Franklin says that when people bring her bird queries, she often finds the an...
Helping BirdNote Continue Its Journey
11 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When you provide places for migratory birds to rest and refuel, you’re helping them complete their long journeys and reach their destination safely....
Bird Books with BirdNote
10 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For many of us nature nerds, books and birds go hand in hand. That’s why BirdNote brings you conversations with award-winning writers about how bird...
BirdNote Helps You Get to Know Your Neighborhood
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Whether you know your neighborhood inside-out or you just moved and are getting to know the area, BirdNote adds another dimension to how you understan...
The Multiplier Effect
08 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This summer, the U.S. Congress revoked more than $1 billion in previously allocated funding for public media. Because BirdNote provides its shows to s...
Darwin's Birds
07 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The finches of the Galapagos Islands are famous in the history of evolutionary theory. But Charles Darwin spent four years studying other birds as wel...
Henry David Thoreau and the Wood Thrush
06 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In June 1853, Thoreau wrote of an enchanting encounter with the Wood Thrush: "This is the only bird whose note affects me like music. It lifts and exh...
Raptors in the Mojave Desert
05 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Desert raptors get most of their water from eating prey animals. Biologist Blair Wolf explains, “if you think of any insect or a mouse or something ...
Sitting in the Catbird Seat
04 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Longtime baseball announcer Red Barber often described a player in a winning situation as "sitting in the catbird seat." So what is "sitting in the ca...
Spark Bird: Ryan Mandelbaum and the Great Blue Heron
03 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As a kid, science writer Ryan Mandelbaum avoided birds, thinking they were gross and kind of scary. But doing a video project in journalism school, Ry...
Starlings and Roman Divination
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
European Starlings were present in great numbers in ancient Rome. They swarmed in massive flocks or murmurations — thousands of individuals cascadin...
Remembering Martha: The Last Passenger Pigeon
01 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 1800s, the Passenger Pigeon was one of the most abundant bird species in North America — possibly the world. But by 1910, the last surv...
Highways as Habitat for Hawks
31 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1956, the Eisenhower Administration announced plans for the nation’s new interstate highway system. Planners foresaw 41,000 miles of superior hig...
Fruit as a Bribe
30 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In summer, many shrubs bear fruit that birds find irresistible. Elderberries, serviceberries, blackberries, dogwood berries, mulberries, and currants ...
What Do Desert Birds Drink?
29 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the desert Southwest, water can be scarce. Yet some birds, like this Black-throated Sparrow, thrive in a scorching landscape. The birds obtain mois...
How High Do Birds Fly?
28 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For the majority of the year, most birds stay under 500 feet. During migration, many species fly at 2,000 to 5,000 feet or above, using prevailing win...
Letter to an Eastern Wood-Pewee
27 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, ornithologist J. Drew Lanham reads a letter he has written to a wood-pewee, a flycatcher with an “understatedly simple and definiti...
Long-billed Curlews Whistle from the Sky
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Long-billed Curlews are the largest shorebirds in North America. In his courtship display, the male Long-billed Curlew flies a series of arcs across t...
Slowing Down and Observing Female Birds
25 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The colorful feathers and loud songs of male songbirds often catch a birder’s attention first. Observing females often means birding more slowly, no...
David Sibley – Sketching and Painting Impressions
24 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
David Sibley’s paintings connect millions of people with the lives of birds. His talent in observing and portraying birds culminated in The Sibley G...
Birds That Say Their Own Names
23 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Some birds, such as the Northern Bobwhite, get their name from their songs or vocalizations: "Bobwhite! Bobwhite!" The Killdeer is another bird named ...
Quirky Words for Brown Birds
22 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What do Fulvous Whistling-Ducks, Bay-breasted Warblers, Ferruginous Hawks, and Rufous Hummingbirds have in common? They are all birds whose names refe...
How Birds Stay Cool
21 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On a hot summer’s day, watch a bird such as a crow — or this Bald Eagle — very carefully. You’ll never see them sweat, because birds don’t h...
The Royal Ravens
20 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Tower of London has a long and notorious history of murderous political intrigue, dungeons, and famous beheadings. And for more than 300 years, th...
How Brown Pelicans Dive
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Brown Pelicans fly just above the surface of the water. They circle high, then diving headfirst, plunge under water to catch fish. But doesn't that hu...