Okay, But... Birds – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

Okay, But... Birds

Dr. Scott Taylor

Science

Education

Frequency: 1 episode/8d. Total Eps: 37

Hosted by evolutionary biologist Dr. Scott Taylor, Okay, But... Birds explores the drama, brilliance, and science behind bird life. Each snackable 30-minute episode blends smart storytelling, expert interviews, and a touch of humor to reveal how birds shape our world . No jargon. No binoculars required. Just real science, quirky insights, and bird-brained drama you’ll want to share at brunch. Because birds aren’t background. Birds are cool.

Read moreCollapse

Site

RSS

Apple

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

🇨🇦 Canada - nature
22/08/2026
#4
🇨🇦 Canada - science
22/08/2026
#33
🇬🇧 Great Britain - nature
22/08/2026
#27
🇩🇪 Germany - nature
22/08/2026
#74
🇺🇸 USA - nature
22/08/2026
#5
🇺🇸 USA - science
22/08/2026
#33
🇨🇦 Canada - nature
21/08/2026
#4
🇨🇦 Canada - science
21/08/2026
#43
🇬🇧 Great Britain - nature
21/08/2026
#14
🇬🇧 Great Britain - science
21/08/2026
#88

Spotify

No recent rankings available

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.

See all

https://homegrownnationalpark.org
2 shares
https://ovsanderfoot.com
2 shares
https://projectphoenix.study
2 shares

https://www.instagram.com/dmennill

RSS feed quality and score

Technical evaluation of the podcast's RSS feed quality and structure.

See all

RSS feed quality

Good

Score global : 83%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

Recent episodes with titles, durations, and descriptions.

See all

Trailer — Okay, But... Birds

Season 1

Saturday, November 15, 2025 • Duration 00:52

Okay, But... Birds is a weekly science-meets-storytelling podcast hosted by evolutionary biologist Dr. Scott Taylor. Each episode dives into one weird-but-true bird question through smart, funny storytelling and lively interviews with ornithologists, ecologists, artists, and unexpected experts.

Follow Okay, But... Birds wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop weekly, and yes, we will talk birdie to you.

Read moreCollapse

Okay, but is bird monogamy just PR?

Season 1 · Episode 1

Thursday, December 4, 2025 • Duration 24:20

E1. Birds “mate for life”… or do they? In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor and Dr. Carrie Branch, Assistant Professor at Western University, pull back the curtain on avian relationships and sort out what’s romance, what’s strategy, and what’s just really good PR.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

The difference between social and genetic monogamy in birds
Why “monogamous” birds engage in extra-pair copulations (a.k.a. extra-curricular behavior)
How males try to avoid cuckoldry with mate-guarding and other tactics
Whether birds “cheat” in secret or right out in the open
How researchers use DNA and multiple-paternity tests to see who really fathered which chicks

If you enjoy this one, follow Okay, But… Birds and share it with a friend who still thinks swans are relationship goals.

Read moreCollapse

Okay, but bird flu is really bad, right?

Season 1 · Episode 4

Thursday, January 1, 2026 • Duration 28:39

E4. Bird flu used to sound like a “poultry industry problem.” Now it’s showing up everywhere and rewriting the rules for wild birds, ecosystems, and what “outbreak” even means. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Nichola Hill, disease ecologist and Assistant Professor at UMass Boston, to unpack what’s different about the current H5N1 wave.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

How today’s H5N1 differs from past avian flu strains and why this version has scientists so alarmed
What changed in the virus (and the world) to make outbreaks more frequent, widespread, and severe
Why we’re seeing such intense impacts in wild bird populations right now, not just on farms
The cautious good news: what vaccines, immunity, resistance, and adaptation might look like and what’s still unknown

If you enjoy this one, follow Okay, But… Birds and share it with a friend who thinks bird flu is only a chicken story.

Read moreCollapse

Okay, but why did my life list just shrink?

Season 1 · Episode 3

Thursday, December 18, 2025 • Duration 26:52

E3. One day you’re proudly sitting at 312 species… and the next day your list is missing a bird (or two). What happened? In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Dave Toews, Assistant Professor at Penn State, to pull back the curtain on bird taxonomy: what a “species” even is, who decides when birds get split or lumped, and why those decisions ripple out into birding, field guides, and conservation.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

What “species” means (and why it’s messier than it sounds)
The split vs. lump process—and why your life list isn’t safe
Who actually makes the call (committees, checklists, and gatekeepers)
The kinds of evidence that move the needle (DNA, song, plumage, etc.)

If you enjoy this one, follow Okay, But… Birds and share it with a friend who keeps receipts for every rare bird they’ve ever seen.

Read moreCollapse

Okay, but how do you lose 3 billion birds?

Season 1 · Episode 2

Thursday, December 11, 2025 • Duration 35:06

E2. Bird populations are vanishing—quietly, and fast. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor and Dr. John Fitzpatrick, Director Emeritus of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, unpack the landmark “3 Billion Birds” study: what it actually showed, how scientists figured it out, and what it means for the birds we thought were common and safe.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

What the 2019 “3 Billion Birds” study really revealed, and how researchers combined decades of data to detect the losses
Which bird groups and regions have been hit hardest and why some familiar species are suddenly in trouble
How policymakers and the public have responded so far, and which conservation actions actually move the needle
The genesis of eBird and how a simple idea became a global tool for tracking birds (and helped make this science possible)

If you enjoy this one, follow Okay, But… Birds and share it with a friend who thinks “common” birds will always be here.

Read moreCollapse

Okay, but how do chickadees never forget?

Season 1 · Episode 6

Thursday, January 15, 2026 • Duration 24:46

E6. While chickadees look cute, they are also running one of the most impressive memory systems in the animal world. They hide food across the landscape, then somehow return to an insane number of individual spots later, even after snow, wind, and chaos try to erase the evidence. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Vladimir Pravosudov, Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, to dig into how chickadee brains pull off this feat, what we know from decades of experiments.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

How many caches chickadees actually make
Why birds from harsher climates often have larger hippocampi
How flexible brain structure really can be within an individual’s lifetime (we’re busting some myths here!)
Studying these little geniuses in the lab vs. the wild

If you enjoy this one, follow Okay, But… Birds and share it with a friend who thinks “bird brain” is an insult.

Read moreCollapse

Okay, but why fly from the Arctic to Antarctica and back every year?

Season 1 · Episode 5

Thursday, January 8, 2026 • Duration 27:15

E5. Every spring and fall, billions of birds pull off the most ambitious commutes on Earth. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Nate Senner, Mass Audubon Bertrand Chair for Ornithology in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the UMass Amherst, to break down why birds migrate, how they navigate, and what happens when the world (or the bird) gets thrown off course.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

Why birds migrate
How birds navigate long-distance routes, and what’s instinct vs. learned
How scientists track migration across continents and the wildest journey Nate has followed
What happens when birds drift off course, and how climate change is reshaping routes and timing

If you enjoy this one, follow Okay, But… Birds and share it with a friend who thinks migration is as simple as just “flying south.”

Read moreCollapse

Okay, but what does it take to record a bird? The inside scoop on Merlin!

Season 1 · Episode 7

Thursday, January 22, 2026 • Duration 25:39

E7. Every bird song you’ve ever heard on a hike, through an open window, or sampled in a nature documentary has a story behind it. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Linda Macaulay, Chairman of the Board of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, to explore how bird sounds get recorded, preserved, and shared with the world, and why audio might be one of the most powerful tools we have for understanding and protecting birds. And yes, it’s THAT Macaulay; the one with the library named after her. Casual.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

How Linda helped build the world’s bird sound library and why it matters
What it takes to record a clean bird vocalization in the wild and the even wilder stories behind the scenes
The role of the Macaulay Library and what’s next for apps like Merlin

If you enjoy this one, follow Okay, But… Birds and share it with a friend who thinks bird songs are just background noise.

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But… Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows::

Merlin (Taiga) audio contributed by George B. Reynard, ML4408
Egyptian Plover audio contributed by Linda Macaulay, ML50441
Whitehead’s Trogon audio contributed by Linda Macaulay, ML75416
Yellow-Rumped Warbler (Myrtle) audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML85245
Yellow-Rumped Warbler (Myrtle) video contributed by Eric Liner, ML472204
Red-Backed Fairywren audio contributed by Tony Baylis, ML233591
Superb Lyrebird audio contributed by Linda Macaulay, ML128376

Read moreCollapse

Okay, but why do some birds thrive in cities?

Season 1 · Episode 8

Thursday, January 29, 2026 • Duration 31:06

E8. Cities can look like a concrete nightmare for wildlife… yet some birds are absolutely crushing it, while others vanish. In this episode of Okay, But... Birds, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Fran Bonier, Professor at Queen’s University, to unpack what “urban birds” really are, why cities create winners and losers, and what it actually costs a bird to live the high-rise life.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

Which birds tend to become “city birds,” and why some species thrive in urban spaces while others disappear
The concrete benefits and hidden costs of city living, plus the traits that predict an urban “winner”
How scientists test whether birds are adapting and learning fast vs. being filtered by city conditions, and what the biology says about stress in urban birds

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

House Sparrow audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML539706
Peregrine Falcon audio contributed by Mike Andersen, ML136378
Rosy-faced Lovebird audio contributed by Derek Solomon, ML168222
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo audio contributed by Mark Robbins, ML529861
White-crowned Sparrow audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML207181
Sharp-shinned Hawk (Northern) audio contributed by David McCartt, ML137605
Chimney Swift audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML107413
Chimney Swift video contributed by Timothy Barksdale, ML440546

Read moreCollapse

Okay, but is birdwatching the original Pokémon?

Season 1 · Episode 9

Thursday, February 5, 2026 • Duration 36:00

E9. Birdwatching, birding, twitching… whatever you call it, it’s got everything: quests, rare finds, elaborate gear, a sprawling universe of characters, and a deeply committed fandom. Sound familiar? In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by NYT best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ed Yong to explore how modern birding became more accessible than ever (hello, Merlin and eBird), why it can feel like an open-world RPG, and what the Pokémon comparison misses.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

How Ed Yong fell into birding after moving to Oakland, and why the “virtuous cycle” of noticing more makes you want to keep looking
Why Merlin is more than an ID tool, and how eBird functions like “the last good social network” without clout-chasing
The ethics and culture of birding today, from playback debates to the weird social dynamics of rare sightings, plus why birding is such a powerful way to connect to place, community, and change

Oak Titmouse audio contributed by Thomas G. Sander, ML110924
Oak Titmouse video contributed by Timothy Barksdale, ML406704
Northern Pygmy-Owl (Rocky Mts.) audio contributed by Rob Faucett, ML25653
Pine Siskin audio contributed by Matthew D. Medler, ML163369
Northern Shrike (American) audio contributed by Lucas DeCicco, ML515306
Surf Scoter video contributed by Timothy Barksdale, ML402125

Read moreCollapse

Okay, But... Birds – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Okay, But... Birds – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other11

Instagram1

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other11

Instagram1

Blueskye1

Apple Podcasts

Spotify