Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Science of Birds
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Titre
Date
Durée
The Common Kingfisher
21 Aug 2024
00:50:09
In this episode—which is Number 102—we dive into the fascinating world of the Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), a small but mighty bird known for its striking blue and orange plumage and remarkable fish-hunting skills. We'll look at this species' behavior, from its iconic plunges into water to catch prey, to how it breeds, including courtship rituals, nest-building, and the challenges of raising chicks.
Learn about the kingfisher's diet and foraging strategies, including how it deals with challenges like refraction at the water’s surface to accurately target its prey. Additionally, I touch on the habitat and global distribution of the Common Kingfisher.
This episode offers a fun exploration of one of the most beloved birds in Eurasia. Tune in to learn more about the "Prince of Piscivory."
This is Episode 101. Today, we trace the origins of feathers back millions of years, exploring how they evolved from simple filaments to the complex structures we see in modern birds. We delve into the discovery of feathered dinosaurs like Archaeopteryx and the numerous fossil finds in northeastern China during the 1990s. These discoveries revealed that many non-avian dinosaurs sported feathers of various types and complexities, indicating that feathers were not unique to birds but were a common feature among many dinosaur lineages.
The evolutionary journey of feathers showcases their initial roles in insulation, display, and possibly tactile sensation, long before they were adapted for flight.
Join me as we walk through the Five-Stage Model of feather evolution, which parallels feather development in modern birds. This episode is a deep dive into the intricate and mesmerizing story of how feathers came to be.
This episode—which is Number 92—is all about the value of desert ecosystems as habitats for birds.
Deserts are important for the birds that are adapted to live in them—birds that can handle the harsh conditions.
Deserts are home to relatively few bird species. Only the polar regions and maybe some parts of the open ocean have less bird diversity.
Even if a bird species can handle the extremes of heat and cold in a desert, the desiccating winds, and the lack of water, that bird may not find much food.
Because where there are few plants, there are few invertebrates. So a bird in the desert can have a hard time finding any leaves, seeds, fruit, or bugs to eat.
And yet, an assortment of bird species from many disparate families have managed to carve out an existence in the world’s most arid lands. There may be nowhere near as many of them as in, say, a tropical rainforest or a temperate woodland…
BUT, the birds we do find in the desert are, I think, a particularly fascinating and admirable bunch. They’re tough little buggers. They’re resilient. Desert birds have interesting adaptations and behaviors that allow them to survive in places that would kill most other birds in a day.
CORRECTIONS: I realized after I recorded this episode that I mispronounced the names of the Namib and Thar deserts. Namib should be pronounced "NAH-mib." Thar is pronounced "Tar."
Error - 23:04 min: I say that the second type of competition between species is "exploitation interference". I meant to say exploitation competition. I make this error repeatedly in this section. My apologies!
Error - 05:39 min: I say that scientists have genome sequences for 'all living birds.' What I meant was that we have genome sequences for representative species within each of the living bird families.
This is Episode 91. It’s all about birds in the family Paridae. These are the chickadees, tits, and titmice—cute little forest-dwelling songbirds known and loved by many people around the world.
I’ve had a lot of requests to make a podcast episode about chickadees and their kind. Some species in this family are familiar visitors to backyard bird feeders. They’re highly active, vocal, bold, and sometimes quite confiding with people. It’s possible to gain the trust of tits and chickadees of some species by feeding them seeds out of the palm of your hand.
These birds not only visit bird feeders regularly, at least in winter, but they’ll also happily lay eggs in artificial nest boxes. All of these traits make birds in the Paridae family great subjects for scientists who want to study bird behavior and ecology.
So chickadees, tits, and titmice are among the most well-studied songbirds on the planet. Lucky for us here on The Science of Birds podcast, that means there’s a lot we can learn about them
Flowers and Feathers: The Importance of Birds as Pollinators
19 Jan 2024
00:44:40
This is Episode 90 and it’s all about the importance of birds as plant pollinators.
If I had to use only one word for the topic of this episode, it would be ornithophily. The definition of ornithophily is “the pollination of flowers by birds.”
Today, I’ll be focusing mostly on the ecological relationships between plants and the birds that pollinate them. Another way to look at all of this would be through the lens of evolution—the fascinating ways that plants and birds have co-evolved with respect to pollination.
I’ll make another podcast episode, at some point, about bird and plant co-evolution. We’ll touch on it today, but the main focus is ecology.
Pollination ecology is actually an entire subdiscipline that many scientists have dedicated their careers to studying. It’s really interesting stuff!
Fascinating Things We Learned About Birds Last Year
06 Jan 2024
00:43:18
This is Episode 89. I’m publishing it right at the beginning of 2024, and it's a review of some fascinating things that happened in the world of ornithology and bird conservation over the last 12 months, in 2023.
Naturally, this isn’t an exhaustive review of every scientific discovery about birds in 2023. That would be too much. An exhaustive review would be, well, exhausting. Maybe not for you, but definitely for me.
Instead, I’ll tell you about a handful of studies and projects that I think you’ll find interesting. These gems were hand-selected by me for your educational pleasure.
This episode—which is number 88—is all about owls. Owls are fascinating birds that have captured our imaginations since the dawn of humankind. They have amazing camouflage that allows them to blend in with their surroundings, and they have several other avian superpowers that set them apart from all other birds.
Owls are divided into two families—Tytonidae and Strigidae—and we'll be discussing both of them today.
Avian Rebrand: New Names for Many North American Birds
26 Nov 2023
00:46:28
This episode—which is Number 87—is all about some big news in the birding world. The common names for about 150 North American bird species are going to change in the not-too-distant future.
This comes from an announcement made by the American Ornithological Society just a few weeks ago, on November 1st.
I couldn’t pass up the chance to talk about this. It’s a hot topic among birders right now. People have been asking me what I think about all these birds getting renamed. And so here we are.
If you’re hearing about this for the first time, and you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry—I’ll explain.
Yes, this is primarily relevant to birds and the humans who love them in the Western Hemisphere. Mostly North America for now.
But similar changes may be on the horizon for your local birds, wherever you live. So I think you’ll find this interesting, even if you don’t live in the US or Canada.
This episode—which is Number 85—is about the Meadowlarks of the world.
And it’s not just those three North American species: the Western, Eastern, and Chihuahuan.
There are actually 8 bird species we call meadowlarks. The other five are found primarily in South America. We’ll be talking about them today, too.
Meadowlarks belong to the New World Blackbird family, Icteridae. This family includes birds like Red-winged Blackbird, Baltimore Oriole, and the Great-tailed Grackle.
There’s a lot to admire about meadowlarks. The 3 yellow-breasted and 5 red-breasted meadowlark species bring color and music to the windswept grasslands of the Americas.
This is Episode 84. Our topic today is the challenge of saving bird species that are very close to extinction. Species like the Spix’s Macaw, which have tiny global populations—whether in the wild, or in captivity.
Other familiar examples are the California Condor and the Whooping Crane, whose populations bottomed out at 22 and 23, respectively. Rigorous conservation programs have since given these two North American species a fighting chance at long-term survival.
This episode is about species that we almost lost forever, but with great effort we’ve kept them from disappearing.
Many of these species, like the California Condor, aren’t out of the woods yet. They may be in better shape now than they were a couple of decades ago, but they still need lots of help.
In this episode, we’re first going to look at some of the biggest challenges faced by conservationists as they try to save species on the brink.
Second, we’ll talk about the tools and methods used to save birds.
This is Episode 83. It’s all about birds in the family Odontophoridae. These are the New World quails.
Why is this the family of "New World" quails?
Because there’s a whole mess of birds we call quails that live in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. But those birds all belong to the pheasant family, Phasianidae.
New World quails are shy birds ground-dwelling birds that walk or run around in the daytime, looking for tidbits of food in the leaf litter.
If they sense any kind of stranger danger, they hunker down and hide in bushes or other vegetation. Their first instinct is to sit still and rely on their camouflage, rather than to fly away.
These birds may be shy around strangers, but they’re generally very social with members of their own kind. They’re gregarious little buggers.
In this episode, I go into detail about what New World quails look and sound like, about their diversity, and about the ways they live their lives.
Welcome to the 100th episode of The Science of Birds Podcast! I'm thrilled to celebrate this milestone with you. In this special episode, I reflect on the journey of creating this podcast, sharing some insights and gratitude for all of you, my listeners.
I also highlight three of my favorite bird species: the vibrant Green Jay, the Torrent Duck, and Egyptian Vulture.
Looking ahead, I'm excited to share my plans for the future of The Science of Birds. Thank you for being part of this journey, and here's to many more episodes to come!
This is Episode 82. It's all about the ways that scientists track the movements of individual birds.
The focus of today’s episode is not so much about the behaviors of birds, but about the technologies used by researchers to study bird behavior—the methods used to reveal the movements of birds.
And our focus will be on the tracking of individual birds. There are other methods scientists use to record the mass movements of birds, like using radar to track flocks of migrants.
But today we’re looking at techniques that can reveal the unique paths taken by an individual bird—a sandpiper, a hawk, albatross, pheasant, penguin, or whoever.
This is Episode 81. It’s all about birds in the family Nectariniidae. These are the sunbirds and the spiderhunters.
If you live in or have gone birding in places like Africa, India, Southeast Asia, or Indonesia, you’re probably familiar with sunbirds. Consider yourself lucky.
But if you have no idea what a sunbird or a spiderhunter is, or if you have only a vague idea, I’m excited to introduce you to this group of wonderful birds today.
This is Episode 80. It's all about flightless birds, and about the evolutionary processes that lead to flightlessness.
Flightlessness in birds is, in my opinion, a fascinating scientific topic. And so here we are with this episode.
Alive on the planet today, there are about 60 bird species that can’t fly. That’s only about 0.54 percent of the world’s approximately 11,000 species.
It turns out there were way more flightless bird species out there before humans started exploring and colonizing every corner of the Earth. It wasn’t just the Dodo that was killed off by people.
In today’s episode, we’ll look at the wonderful diversity of flightless bird species—in both the present and the past.
We’ll also talk about conservation and—perhaps the most interesting thing—the evolutionary process that leads to flightlessness. How does this weird thing happen in nature? What causes a bird species to give up its greatest superpower?
This is Episode 79. It's all about the Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis).
This is one of North America’s most common raptors. We find these birds from sea to shining sea across the continent.
The Redtail is a generalist predator. It can eat many kinds of prey and thrive in a broad range of habitats. Besides seeing these birds along the highway, you’re likely to spot a Red-tailed Hawk circling in the sky over a field, soaring or flapping slowly.
In this episode, I cover the key traits of the Red-tailed Hawk, it's diet, and its breeding behaviors.
This is Episode 78 and today we’re doing an overview of parental care in birds. How do birds raise their babies?
Parent birds feeding their chicks in a nest is an iconic image. It’s a symbol of the spring and summer seasons and of the annual rejuvenation of nature.
To the casual observer, birds generally come across as caring, attentive parents. Similar to the way mammals demonstrate good parenting behavior. We humans approve of this sort of thing. It makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
I mean, the behavior of birds and mammals is way better than what amphibians and reptiles do, right? Those cold-blooded critters just crank out a bunch of babies and then leave them to fend for themselves. No parental care to speak of. Despicable!
But to be fair, birds aren’t always the paragons of parental love that we might think they are. They sometimes do pretty messed up things when it comes to raising their offspring.
And this highlights the fact that humans like to project our own cultural values onto animals.
If, for example, we see a pair of adult geese dutifully tending to their adorable, fuzzy chicks, we might think, “Aww… What a cute little family. They all love each other.”
And when we hear about a female Blue-footed Booby that did nothing and just sat there indifferently while the older of her two chicks murdered its younger sibling… Well, in that case, we’d probably think that booby is a bad mommy. She should be locked up in bird prison, if there were such a thing.
I’ll admit I’m often guilty of this sort of thinking. I like to think that birds love their babies. I’m a total sucker for heartwarming scenes of parental care in birds.
But I also know it’s not really fair for us to judge birds based on human ideas of right and wrong. Birds are just being birds. They do whatever it takes to survive and reproduce in a challenging and mostly unpredictable world.
This is Episode 77. It's an overview of seabirds. Some might call them Oceanic birds or Marine Birds.
How do we define what is or isn’t a sea bird?
Well, it depends on who you ask. There’s no one definition, since “seabird” is an informal term, rather than a scientific one. It doesn’t correspond to a single taxonomic category, or to a single evolutionary lineage.
Here’s what the authors of the book Oceanic Birds of the World have to say about it:
“To our mind, true seabirds are birds of the ocean, birds you generally go on a boat to see. Yes, some of these species can be seen from shore (and almost all come ashore somewhere to breed), but the birds we include here are species that make their living from the ocean for all or most of the year, and often not from coastal waters.”
Oceanic Birds of the World is a field guide, and it includes about 270 species. Other authorities might say there are between 300 and 350 seabird species.
In this episode, we'll talk about the various types of seabirds and what taxonomic groups they belong to.
We'll look at how seabirds face the challenges of live on the ocean, how and where they breed, and how they find food.
In this episode—which is Number 76—I’ll be answering some interesting questions sent to me by my listeners. Questions about birds, of course.
The questions in today’s episode came from not just any old listeners, but from my supporters on Patreon. At the two higher tiers of support, one perk for my patrons is the chance to send me questions for these “Ask Me Anything” episodes. So if you’d like to ask your own question for a future episode, consider becoming a supporter of this show on Patreon.
This is Episode 75. It’s all about shrikes—birds in the family Laniidae.
These are true songbirds—members of the avian suborder Passeri within the order Passeriformes—even though they act (and sort of look like) tiny falcons or hawks.
Shrikes are sit and wait predators. They typically sit upright on an exposed, conspicuous perch and then wait for something tasty to come along. Some small animal, like a Vesper Sparrow, a rodent, lizard, grasshopper, and so on.
Shrikes are such cool birds that they have many fans among ornithologists. In fact, there’s a subdiscipline of ornithology called shrikeology. For real. And those who study these fascinating birds are known as shrikeologists.
So for today, at least, let’s all be honorary shrikeologists. Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty details of shrike biology.
Errors and Updates
I said that Germans call the Great Gray Shrike "Nine Murder." Several of my German listeners emailed and kindly corrected me. The species they call Nine Murder is the Red-backed Shrike.
This episode—which is Number 74—is all about edible bird’s nests and Bird’s Nest Soup.
Edible bird nests are a traditional delicacy in east Asia. Especially in China. For centuries, wealthy Chinese people have consumed edible bird nests. Usually in the form of bird’s nest soup.
Throughout much of recent history, this dish has been one of the most expensive foods in the world.
No wonder people have called edible bird nests the “caviar of the east,” or “white gold.”
Perhaps the primary reason people spend ungodly amounts of money on bird’s nest soup is because of its medicinal properties. Well… It’s supposed medicinal properties, anyway.
In traditional Chinese medicine, it’s believed that the benefits you can get from eating these nests include: a prolonged life, increased attractiveness, increased libido, brain health, bone strength, no more diabetes, no more cancer, a stronger immune system, more energy, better looking skin, and better circulation.
Wow. So basically, it sounds like an edible bird’s nest is a cure-all—a panacea. That’s pretty impressive!
But is it true?
And where do these nests come from? What do they look like?
In today's episode, we'll get into all of that. We’ll talk about which birds make these amazing nests, and how they do it.
We’ll also look at the way people harvest edible bird’s nests, the global industry for this product, and some ethical concerns.
This is Episode 73. It’s all about birds in the avian family Gruidae… the cranes.
These tall birds are charismatic and super interesting. It’s going to be fun to do a deep dive into all things crane today.
Humans around the world have celebrated cranes for thousands of years, for their graceful beauty and their exuberant courtship dances.
Across many cultures, cranes have inspired paintings, songs, dances, legends, martial arts, heavy construction machinery apparently, and the most iconic animal design in the fine art of origami.
It’s spring in the Northern Hemisphere right now, and that means that in many parts of the world, cranes are on the move. They’re migrating north. Along the way, they stop to rest and refuel at certain staging areas. Hundreds or thousands of cranes can end up at a single staging area or stopover and this can be a wonderful sight to see for birders and other nature lovers.
There are a bunch of crane festivals around this time every year. It’s a rare thing for any kind of bird to get so much attention and adoration like this. Cranes are just that special.
So how about we have our own little crane festival today. Let’s get to know these amazing birds.
In this episode—which is Number 99—we dive into the fascinating world of cormorants and shags, members of the avian family Phalacrocoracidae. These sleek, hook-billed birds are known for their distinctive silhouettes, often seen drying their wings on seaside cliffs or wetland trees. Cormorants and shags have a long history of varied human interactions, from being vilified and hunted to being revered and even trained to catch fish.
These birds are exceptional divers, utilizing their streamlined bodies and webbed feet to hunt underwater. Their feathers are less waterproof than those of other aquatic birds, which aids in diving but necessitates their iconic wing-drying behavior. Cormorants can be found across the world, thriving in diverse habitats from coastal cliffs to freshwater lakes.
They face significant conservation challenges. Human persecution and disturbances, habitat destruction, and climate change threaten several species, some of which are critically endangered.
Hurricanes and Heatwaves: How Does Extreme Weather Affect Birds?
13 Mar 2023
00:38:33
This episode—which is Number 72—is about what happens to birds, not just in bad weather, but in really bad weather. We’re talking hurricanes, floods, droughts, heat waves, tornadoes, maybe even the occasional sharknado, and so on.
How do birds deal with all these natural disasters? We’ll get into that.
We'll be talking mostly about the more immediate effects of storms and other extreme weather on the survival of individual birds and their populations.
Birds are tough little buggers. They’re tougher than they might look. Many of them live long lives in the face of continual challenges like predators, aggressive rivals, wild temperature swings, strong wind, and heavy precipitation.
But an extreme weather event can often be the ultimate test of survival for a bird.
This episode—which is Number 71—is about one particular scientific article. An article that’s near and dear to my heart.
This study was published in 2020, in the Scientific Journal of Research and Reviews. You already know the title of the study itself. It’s the same as the title of this podcast episode… "What’s the Deal With Birds?"
The study's author is Doctor Daniel T. Baldassarre.
Listen to the episode to find out why I love this paper...
Today’s episode is number 68. It’s all about the family of birds called Bucerotidae. These are the hornbills.
Maybe you’ve heard about hornbills and know a few facts about them. Or maybe you’ve never even heard about these birds. Either way, I think you’ll enjoy today’s podcast episode. Hornbills are just so cool!
The family Bucerotidae includes several dozen hornbill species. But there’s a second, much smaller avian family that contains birds we also call hornbills. The name of that family is Bucorvidae, the ‘ground-hornbills.’ There are only 2 species of ground-hornbills. I’ll be including them in our conversation today too. Besides, until recently, scientists grouped ground-hornbills into the larger Bucerotidae family.
Hornbill are key players in the tropical ecosystems of both Africa and Asia. There are many fascinating things for us to learn about them.
This is Episode Number 67. It’s the last episode of 2022, so that means it’s the Annual Review!
We’re going to look back at 2022, at some of the most interesting scientific studies of birds that were published this year.
Will this be a painstakingly thorough review of everything that scientists learned about birds in 2022?
No. Not so much. The studies I’m telling you about today—while they did make it into the newsfeed—are just the ones that I found most exciting. Or at least interesting. I decided they’re worth yapping about.
15 Simple (and Several Complicated) Ways You Can Help Birds
15 Dec 2022
00:21:13
This episode—which is Number 66—is all about the ways you can help birds. How you can make a difference in their conservation.
It’s one thing to enjoy learning about birds in an objective, scientific way. They’re fascinating organisms.
But does our interest in the biology of birds also come bundled with a care and concern for them? With warm and fuzzy feelings?
I’d say heck yes, it does! For most of us, anyway, including yours truly.
We want birds out there in the wide world to survive and thrive. For their own intrinsic worth as living beings.
But also because of our selfish desire to have them around for us—so we can enjoy them, and take Instagram-worthy photos of them, and write their names down on our lifelists.
This is Episode 65, and it’s all about waxwings—birds in the family Bombycillidae.
The Cedar Waxwing is one species, and there are two others that we’ll talk about.
These beautiful, elegant songbirds are loved by people across the Northern Hemisphere.
Waxwings are easy on the eyes, for sure, and that’s great. I mean, personally, I think they’re just about the most gorgeous songbirds we have in North America.
But their biology is also really interesting. So much of how waxwings live and behave is dictated by what they eat… By their specialized diet.
What is that special diet? Is it maybe something like scorpions, psychedelic mushrooms, or the blood of their enemies?
This episode—which is Number 64—is all about the importance of temperate grasslands as habitat for birds.
When we say “temperate grasslands,” we mean those generally occurring in the middle latitudes.
Temperate grasslands exist in several parts of the world. Some of them cover vast areas. Here in North America, we have the Great Plains as a “great” example.
The steppes of Mongolia and the Pampas of South America are similarly vast temperate grasslands.
Many, many bird species around the world depend on such grasslands for food and breeding habitat. Among them are raptors, sparrows, blackbirds, larks, pipits, a bunch of South American species in the ovenbird family, Furnariidae… and the list goes on.
But, unfortunately, temperate grasslands are also among the most threatened ecosystems on the planet. Many of the bird species that call them home are, not surprisingly, also in trouble.
Today, we’re going to dive into what makes temperate grasslands special, and why they’re so important to birds. I’ll give you several examples of bird species that depend on grassland habitats.
And we’ll also talk a bit about grassland conservation. Because you know we can’t get through this without a little gloom and doom.
This episode—which is Number 98—delves into the fascinating world of the avian brain. Despite the long-standing misconception that "bird brain" equates to being unintelligent, recent scientific research reveals that birds possess remarkably sophisticated brains, rivaling the intelligence of primates and even humans in some respects. By tracing the evolutionary paths of both mammals and birds from a common ancestor, I explain how birds have developed unique brain structures that enable complex thought processes, decision-making, and problem-solving.
We'll explore the anatomical intricacies of a bird's brain, breaking down its basic architecture into the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain. I highlight the critical role of structures like the hyperpallium and the dorsal ventricular ridge in enabling advanced cognitive abilities. Additionally, the discussion touches on brain plasticity, neuron density, and the specific regions involved in vocalization and memory.
This episode—which is Number 62—is all about the major geographic divisions among birds across the planet.
Why are bowerbirds found only in Australia and on the islands of New Guinea? Why are the birds you see in India so different from those in China? Does North America have any unique, endemic bird families?
Questions like these fall within the domain of biogeography. Biogeography is the study of where living things are found and why they’re found there—both in the present and the past.
Today, we’ll be sketching out the big picture of what types of birds are found where across the world map.
By learning the basics of bird biogeography, you can get a deeper appreciation for the uniqueness of bird communities in different parts of the world.
This is Episode 61, and it’s all about Ostriches. These are the birds in the avian family Struthionidae.
Ostriches are among the most recognizable and charismatic birds. No living bird is bigger than an ostrich. If you’ve ever seen one up close, you know how impressive these giants can be. They’re amazing.
So I’m excited to dig into their biology with you today. You probably know a thing or two about Ostriches already, but let’s see if we can get a deeper understanding of them. We’ll look at their basic traits, their distribution, habitat, diet, and more.
This episode—which is Number 60—is about Feeding Wild Birds. As in, humans providing supplemental food for wild birds.
This typically involves a contraption called a birdfeeder. When you or I hang up a birdfeeder, we’re feeding wild birds intentionally. This intentional feeding is what today’s episode is about.
Millions and millions of people all around the world feed wild birds intentionally. At such a massive scale, you have to imagine this would affect birds significantly, and in many ways. And it absolutely does.
Which brings us to the big question: should we or shouldn’t we feed wild birds? This is still being debated. By scientists, conservation organizations, and bird lovers everywhere.
Today, I’ll do my best to give you objective, scientific information about feeding birds. We’ll look at the pros and cons. Then, we’ll see if there’s any sort of conclusion we can come to at the end of the episode.
This episode—which is Number 59—is a bit different. Today, I’m going to be answering questions from my listeners. More specifically, these questions come from my supporters on Patreon.
I have several “tiers” or “membership levels” on my Patreon page. Each level comes with perks. One perk for the “Helpful Hornbill” and “Awesome Osprey” tiers is getting to submit questions for episodes like this.
So, today, we’ve got a fun grab-bag of questions to ponder.
Today’s episode—which is Episode 58—is all about birds in the family Troglodytidae. These are the wrens.
Wrens are small, perky songbirds, most of which are some shade of brown.
All the species in this family of birds are found in the New World—In North, Central, and South America. All of them, that is, except for one species found in the Old World.
In this episode, we'll cover many aspects of wren biology: their behavior, voices, diversity, evolution, conservation, and breeding.
This episode—which is Number 57— is all about the flocking behavior of birds.
Birds of many species spend at least part of their yearly cycle hanging out in groups. This could be just a handful of individuals or it could be a gathering of millions of birds.
Today, we’ll look at some explanations for why—as the saying goes—birds of a feather flock together. What benefits do birds get from forming groups like this?
We’ll also look at how flocks work. As in, their mechanics. For example, how do birds communicate and coordinate their movements in a flock?
This episode—which is Number 56— is all about the colors of birds.
The diversity of color in bird plumages is one of the things we love most about these animals.
But bird plumages are impressive not only when they display vibrant colors plucked from the rainbow. Thousands of species aren’t what we’d call colorful, but they do have gorgeous, intricately patterned feathers in combinations of black, brown, and white.
Today, we’re looking at how feathers get their colors, from white to subtle earth tones to scintillating displays of wild iridescence.
This is Episode 55. It’s all about birds in the avian family Phoenicopteridae. These are the flamingos.
No doubt you already know a fun fact or two about flamingos. These birds are crowd pleasers that get a lot of attention. But today we’re doing a deep dive into their biology. I’m hoping that along the way, you’ll pick up some new flamingo trivia that you can impress your friends with.
This episode—which is Number 54—is all about bird eggs.
This is an important topic. Eggs are a fundamental aspect of bird biology. Recently, in Episode 49 of the podcast, I covered the topic of nests. So it seems like a logical next step for us to get the lowdown on eggs.
Oology is the science of studying bird eggs. So today, we are all honorary oologists. We’re egg-heads on a mission to better understand how baby birds come into the world.
This episode—which is Number 53—is all about Avian Influenza. Or colloquially what we call the Avian Flu or Bird Flu.
Depending on where you live, you might have noticed news headlines in recent months about the frightening spread of Avian Flu among both domestic and wild birds. I thought you might have some questions about this emerging disease, and so here we are with an entire podcast episode on the subject.
This is Episode 97. It’s all about bluebirds: the three North American species in the genus Sialia: The Eastern Bluebird, Western Bluebird, and Mountain Bluebird.
For centuries, these beloved birds have been celebrated in paintings, poems, songs, and Disney cartoons.
The Eastern Bluebird is the state bird of Missouri and New York, while the Mountain Bluebird is the state bird of Idaho and Nevada.
And, apparently, the Mountain Bluebird was the inspiration for the original Twitter logo.
But bluebirds aren’t just cultural icons. They’ve also become valuable study subjects for scientists in the fields of ornithology and general biology. Research on these little birds has led to insights about the way the natural world works—from evolution, to ecology, behavior, diseases, and genetics.
Today, we’re talking about bird species that are way, way bigger than your average chickadee or finch.
Our focus will be on evolutionary lineages that spawned some very large bird species. Species whose ancestors had been much smaller, millions of years earlier.
We’ll look at a bunch of interesting giant birds throughout history. Then we’ll talk about some scientific explanations for why these critters got so big in the first place.
This is Episode 51. Our bird of interest today is the Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis.
This species is widespread across the eastern and southern US. It’s so well-known and loved that it’s the state bird for 7 states—more than any other species.
Northern Cardinals are among the most abundant birds in North America. They’re familiar denizens of backyards that visit feeders all year long. So it shouldn’t be surprising to hear that ornithologists have done a lot of research on this abundant and conspicuous species.