BirdNote Daily

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 offspring from several years ago. After the breeding season, families will stick together for the journey south and the winter, even in large flocks. The parents often remain together for the rest of their lives.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 World War II. Conservationists have worked to restore the ecosystem. Seabirds such as Black Noddies and Red-footed Boobies nest in the island’s rainforest. Their guano enriches the soil, and the soil’s nutrients help support the coral ecosystem that provides fish for the birds.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Explore the fascinating world of oology, the study of bird eggs. Discover how museum collections reveal crucial insights into nesting habits and habitats. Learn about the alarming link between DDT and the thinning of eggshells that led to a crash in Peregrine Falcon populations. This research played a vital role in banning DDT, paving the way for the falcon's remarkable recovery. Join us as we uncover the hidden stories behind five million bird eggs that help us understand avian health and environmental changes.

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 restricted to a tiny region of high elevation forest on the slopes of Haleakalā. A translocation effort to expand their range was unsuccessful due to the rapid spread of mosquito-borne avian malaria.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 around. It’s called altitudinal migration. In the warm summer months, some Yellow-eyed Juncos prefer to nest at higher elevations. In winter, however, the scarcity of food pushes them back down to the valleys.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 of colorful birds spread across a map of the world. That painting, called the Wall of Birds by Jane Kim, got Isaiah curious about how many of those species he might see for himself. In this episode, Isaiah shares how the artwork sparked his love of birding.There’s more to our conversation with Isaiah Scott in season 4 of Bring Birds Back!More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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-collared Sunbird, appears to have kept the same song for at least 500,000 years. That’s the amount of time that two populations of the species split up into two separate mountain ranges. Despite a lack of contact between those populations, they sing a nearly identical song, suggesting that it’s very similar to the one their ancestors sang long ago.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When the air is thick with wildfire smoke, people are advised to stay home. At Hastings Natural History Preserve in California, Acorn Woodpeckers do the same. These gregarious birds live in family groups and frequently visit their neighbors while foraging. Using tiny radio transmitters, scientists tracked the movements of Acorn Woodpeckers during the summer of 2020 when wildfire smoke blanketed the preserve. On smoky days, woodpeckers spent more of their time at home. And when they did leave their territories, they didn’t venture far and visited fewer neighbors than usual. Published in Current Biology in 2023, the findings suggest that harm caused by wildfires go far beyond the blaze itself. As megafires become more common in our changing climate, even more birds could be affected by wildfire smoke in the future.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 generally share the same nondescript appearance. But when it’s time to mate, the male sprouts extravagant, long, black tail feathers two or three times the length of his body. The feathers make it look like he’s wearing a long black cape, thus the nickname, “widow bird.”More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Every summer, puffins — like this Horned Puffin — grow blazingly colorful layers over the bases of their huge beaks. But in the winter, puffins lead very different lives, and they shed their bright ornamentation. Puffins in winter are largely solitary — and silent. They spend about seven months alone at sea, before returning once again to their colonies to breed.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.