The American Birding Podcast

We at the ABA are big fans of the growing birding podcast scene and one of the more interesting ones out now is Your Bird Story, which focuses on everyday people's experiences with birds in cities. The host of Your Bird Story, Dr. Georgia Silvera Seamans, is, among other things, the director of Washington Square Park Eco Projects, an urban and community forester, and of one the co-organizers of Black Botanists Week. She joins us to talk about collecting bird stories from everyone and the importance of wild places in urban spaces. Also, Nate is back from Florida wowed by Swallow-tailed Kites and Pileated Woodpeckers. Help support the ABA and the American Birding Podcast by contributing to our Nesting Season Appeal. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

In demand actor, 7 time winner of the Teen Choice Award, and avid birder? Ian Harding is best known for his work on the Freeform network's teen-drama Pretty Little Liars, but in his new memoir Odd Birds he talks about how birds and birding have provided him with opportunities to find peace and focus in a life in the public eye. Ian joins host Nate Swick to share some stories from his new book and thoughts on what it could mean for birding to have such a high-profile advocate. This interview originally ran on June 29, 2017. Also, Birding editor Ted Floyd shares a commentary about the magic of birding in the mundaneness of regular life. This commentary originally ran on September 7, 2017. Help support the ABA and the American Birding Podcast by contributing to our Nesting Season Appeal. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

It's Canada Day and this week sees an all Canada special episode of the American Birding Podcast, a tip of the cap to our friends in the northern part of the ABA Area. The Canada panel consists of some birders from across the country and features voices that podcast regulars probably recognize. From St, John's, Newfoundland, we welcome Bird the Rock's Jared Clarke. From Drumheller, Alberta (by way of Ontario) is Birds Canada's Jody Allair. And from Richmond, British Columbia, it's wildlife biologist and keeper of the BC Rare Bird Alert, Melissa Hafting. We talk about the amazing birding opportunities found across the country and the special conservation issues unique to Canada. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

For June, the The Month in Birding Panel consists of Mo Stych of Bird Sh*t Podcast, Brodie Cass Talbott of Portland Audubon, and newcomer Joanna Wu of Audubon. The panel chats about Black Birders Week, bird habitat as climate sinks, and the many amazing uses of googly eyes. Links to items discussed: The second year of Black Birders Week (05:03) Floating Googly Eyes Scare Birds Away from Nets (10:35) Bird Habitats are Climate Sinks (16:35) Birds Respond More Aggressively in Multi-species Groups (28:25) Herpers Move Away from Cute Names, Birders Lean in (39:46) Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

It's time for the American Birding Podcast Birding Book Club and host Nate Swick welcomes bird media reviewers Frank Izaguirre from the ABA's Birding magazine and Donna Schulman from the website 10,000 Birds to finally tackle birding's great contribution to world literature, the field guide. We start with guides to Mexico and Central America, popular destinations for US and Canada birders and a great place to begin the discussion about what makes a good field guide and who and what field guides are for. Help support the ABA and the American Birding Podcast by contributing to our Nesting Season Appeal. For the list of books we discuss, check out the ABA Podcast home page!

Early summer means that it's time to talk taxonomy, and that means Nick Block, professor of Biology at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. For the last several years, Nick is person we like to talk to when it comes to reading the tea-leaves of the American Ornithological Society's North America Classification Committee. We chat storm-petrels, bunting lumps, and the curious case of the Swainson's Thrushes. Also, there's no better time to sign up to run your own Breeding Bird Survey route! Help support the ABA and the American Birding Podcast by contributing to our Nesting Season Appeal. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

One of the dreams of the "internet of nature" was a device that birders could put in their yard that picks up GPS fitted and tracked wildlife, and maybe even identifies them when they pass over your home. That device is here and it is called Terra. Mike Lanzone of Cellular Tracking Technologies and birder and writer Scott Whittle, are the creators of this magic device. They both join me to talk about what it can do, and how it will change migration monitoring forever. If you want to contribute to their kickstarter, here's the link. Also, do you have birding enemies? Billy Baker of the Boston Globe thinks he does and Nate has thoughts. Help support the ABA and the American Birding Podcast by contributing to our Nesting Season Appeal. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Sean Milnes, Jordan Rutter, and Purbita Saha join the May 2021 This Month in Birding panel to talk about some of the most important bird and birding related news items of the month. Links to items discussed: Female Bird Day (6:56) Colombia boycotts the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Global Big Day (8:52) AOS moves forward on changing English bird names (17:25) The period cicada's Brood X is here and impacting birds (24:15) Chicago releases feral cats into the city (33:40) Estimates of bird populations mean there are 6 wild birds per human (42:35) And don't forget that Black Birders Week is next week! Thanks to Field Guides for sponsoring this episode. Check out their new video series, Out Birding with Field Guides. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

In the United States, we're over 100 days into a new administration and five months into a new Congress, and our elected officials have been busy with some interesting environmental policies and legislation in that time. Interestingly, many of them impact birds. To chat about it, we bring back to the podcast, Tykee James, host of the On Word for Wildlife podcast from the Wildlife Observer Network. Tykee lays out what birders should be paying attention to, and talks about his new project, Freedom Birders. Plus, another Pileated Woodpecker story from Christy Esmahan in Austin, Texas, and a wild Wall Street Journal article about threatening Bald Eagles. Thanks to Field Guides for sponsoring this episode. Check out their new video series, Out Birding with Field Guides. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Birding editor Ted Floyd is back to play a new birder game we're calling "Random Birds". Host Nate Swick has a list of birds and a random number generator and is ready to chat about whatever bird pops up. Nate and Ted chat about Snow Geese, Red Knots, Bobolinks, Blue Grosbeaks and more. Also, some birds in the news! California Condors and Vaux's Swifts invading homes in California. Thanks to Field Guides for sponsoring this episode. Check out their new video series, Out Birding with Field Guides. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!