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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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

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

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

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:

• 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

E11. Bird vision isn’t just “better than ours,” It’s operating in a different color space, including ultraviolet. In Host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Allison Shultz, Associate Curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, to break down what birds can actually see, how scientists measure color in the real world, and why feather color is one of evolution’s most powerful (and misunderstood) tools.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• How birds see a whole extra dimension of color (including UV) and why we can’t truly experience “bird vision” without the biology to match
• How feathers make color through pigments and nano-structures
• How studying bird color is changing fast, from spectrophotometers to UV-capable cameras, plus why female coloration and “dirty birds” are reshaping what we think we know

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:

• Northern Cardinal audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML249823
• House Finch audio contributed by William R. Fish, ML12932
• Guinea Turaco audio contributed by Mike Andersen, ML140992
• Northern Jacana audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML140224
• Common Eider audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML235534
• Mountain Bluebird audio contributed by Dave Herr, ML47592
• Palm Tanager audio contributed by Curtis Marantz, ML88937
• Greater Bird-of-Paradise video contributed by Tim Laman, ML465370
• King Bird-of-Paradise video contributed by Tim Laman, ML455252
• Paradise Tanager audio contributed by Curtis Marantz, ML127399

Additional media used with permission under Creative Commons:

• Plum-throated Cotinga (Cotinga maynana) in Peru image contributed by Harsha Jayaramaiah, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
• Lovely Cotinga (Cotinga amabilis) image contributed by desertnaturalist, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

E10. Seasons used to feel predictable. Winter showed up, spring arrived on cue, and birds could run their annual schedules like clockwork. But now the timing is weird: early heat, late snow, shifting green-up, and food peaks that don’t always line up. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Morgan Tingley, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA, to unpack what “keeping up” with climate change actually means for birds, how scientists measure it, and what gives birds a fighting chance on a rapidly warming planet.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• How birds “keep up” by shifting their ranges to cooler places, and the clearest real-world examples of birds already moving north
• Why the story is more complicated than “north and uphill,” including microclimates, precipitation shifts, and the messy reality of predicting habitat changes
• The full bird toolkit for coping with climate change: movement, timing (phenology), and even shrinking body size over generations, plus what we can do right now that actually helps 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:

• Northern Cardinal audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML249823
• Carolina Wren audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML191224
• Red-bellied Woodpecker audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML306064
• Orange-crowned Warbler audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML206459
• Orange-crowned Warbler video contributed by Timothy Barksdale, ML402530
• House Finch audio contributed by William R. Fish, ML12932

E14. What do feathers, toothless beaks, and a 66-million-year-old asteroid have in common. Paleontologist Dr. Daniel Field, University of Cambridge, joins Scott to unpack how birds evolved from dinosaurs, and why defining "bird" is trickier than you think.

In this episode you'll hear about:

• Why Archaeopteryx had half the features of a modern bird and lacked the other half, and what that tells us about 150 million years of evolution
• The "Wonderchicken," a tiny fossil from the border of Belgium and the Netherlands that rewrote what we know about birds surviving the asteroid impact
• How micro CT scanning lets scientists digitally peer inside rocks to study fossils at micron scale without ever touching them

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

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:

• Great Spotted Kiwi, William V. Ward, ML810
• Southern Cassowary, Linda Macaulay, ML57219
• Elegant Trogon, David L. Ross, Jr., ML199536
• Green Heron,, Bob McGuire, ML229117

Asteriornis imagery and video courtesy of Dr. Daniel Field, University of Cambridge.

E13. Some birds skip having their own families and spend years helping raise their siblings instead. It sounds like altruism, but it's probably more complicated than that. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Nancy Chen, UCLA, to unpack the notion that it takes a village to raise a child chick.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• Why some birds spend years as unpaid helpers before starting families of their own
• What the Florida Scrub-Jay's 50-year study at Archbold Biological Station revealed about cooperative breeding
• Whether helping your siblings is really altruism or just evolution doing it’s thing

If you enjoy this one, follow Okay, But... Birds and share it with a friend who thinks family is complicated.

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:

• Florida Scrub-Jay audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML229211
• American Crow video contributed by Jay McGowan, ML472843
• Superb Fairywren audio contributed by Vicki Powys, ML233810
• Superb Starling audio contributed by Myles E. W. North, ML14855
• Red-necked Phalarope audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML235440
• Northern Jacana audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML140224

E12. Winter isn’t just “cold” for a bird, it’s a nightly survival math problem: generate enough heat, lose as little as possible, and don’t get eaten while you’re fueling up. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Maria Stager, UMass Amherst, to break down the clever physiology and weird little behaviors that let birds ride out freezing temps, from icy duck feet to “feather puffball” mode to energy-saving torpor.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• How birds keep their feet from freezing
• How feathers and shivering muscles act like a built-in winter jacket
• How birds manage energy overnight, including fat, roosting, and torpor

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:

• Dark-eyed Junco audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94361
• Purple Martin audio contributed by Arthur A. Allen, ML8086
• Willow Ptarmigan audio contributed by Leonard J. Peyton, ML50031
• Common Poorwill audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML191125
• Snowy Owl audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML138288
• Ruffed Grouse audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML216783
• Mallard audio contributed by Mike Andersen, ML136504
• Tree Swallow audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML233306
• Black-capped Chickadee audio contributed by Jay McGowan, ML202239
• Redpoll (Common) audio contributed by William V. Ward, ML12745

E15. Most people picture a bird-friendly yard and imagine feeder, birdbath, maybe a decorative birdhouse with mortgage vibes. And feeders are great. But a feeder can give you the illusion of helping birds without creating the thing birds need most: habitat.

In this episode, Dr. Doug Tallamy, Professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, joins Scott to explain why your yard is conservation infrastructure in disguise, and what it actually takes to turn it into a place birds can live, breed, and thrive.

In this episode you'll hear about:

• Why "plant natives" is just the beginning, and which keystone plants actually move the needle for birds
• The surprising reason a beautiful all-native garden can still function like a food desert
• What Homegrown National Park is, and how your yard fits into a continent-wide conservation strategy

Ready to do more than feed birds? Join the Homegrown National Park pledge at homegrownnationalpark.org and start shifting your patch of earth.

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:

• Chestnut-sided warbler audio contributed by Jay McGowan, ML191085
• Northern parula audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML79471
• Carolina chickadee audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML100756
• Oriental pied-hornbill audio contributed by Warren Y. Brockelman, ML170843
• Northern cardinal audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML249823
• Black-capped chickadee audio contributed by Jay McGowan, ML202239

E16. What if the secret to raising more babies was to never raise a single one yourself? Dr. Chris Balakrishnan, Associate Adjunct Professor of Biology at East Carolina University and co-founder of Nerd Nite, has spent his career studying the strangest birds on the planet: the ones that outsource parenthood entirely.

In this episode you'll hear about:

• The evolutionary arms race between brood parasites and their hosts, from mimetic eggs to alien-looking chick mouth patterns
• How the "password hypothesis" explains how brown-headed cowbirds avoid imprinting on the wrong species
• Why host-switching in African parasitic finches can drive the rapid formation of new species

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:

• Brown-headed Cowbird audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94262
• Brown-headed Cowbird audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML516718
• Redhead audio contributed by Jessie Berry, ML139672
• Canvasback audio contributed by Arthur A. Allen, ML3537
• Greater Honeyguide audio contributed by Mike Andersen, ML140981
• Pin-tailed Whydah audio contributed by Myles E. W. North, ML14489
• Village Indigobird audio contributed by Myles E. W. North, ML14484
• Zebra Finch (Australian) audio contributed by Vicki Powys, ML226233
• Prothonotary Warbler audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML85158
• Kirtland's Warbler audio contributed by Rudolph Little, ML13982

E20. Less than 1% of what's in a museum is actually on display. So what's happening with the other 99%? Scott talks with Dr. Sushma Reddy, Breckenridge Chair of Ornithology at the Bell Museum and Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, about the extraordinary scientific afterlife of a specimen in a drawer.

In this episode:

• How birds collected 150 years ago are answering questions their collectors never imagined, from air pollution to insect decline
• Why falcons turned out to be closer to parrots than hawks, and what other surprises fell out of the bird family tree
• The case for making museum collections more open, especially to scientists from the places these specimens originally came from

If you have a few seconds, please follow, rate, and leave a review for the show. It makes a huge difference in helping others discover it. Thanks for listening!

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:

• Bald eagle sound contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML 200943
• Red-tailed hawk sound contributed by David McCartt, ML 229578
• Gyrfalcon sound contributed by Lucas DeCicco, ML 516973
• Kea sound contributed by William V. Ward, ML 8523
• Small ground finch sound contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML 86711
• Iiwi sound contributed by Doug Pratt, ML 5888
• Sickle-billed vanga sound contributed by Anonymous, ML 100013

E19. More than 55 million Americans feed birds, and it's not exactly clear the birds asked us to. Dr. Olivia Sanderfoot, Research Scientist and Project Leader of FeederWatch at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, joins Scott to unpack what four decades of data tell us about whether feeding birds helps them, hurts them, or is really just for us.

In this episode you'll hear about:

• Why bird feeding is mostly for us, and the handful of moments when it actually tips the scales for birds
• What forty years of FeederWatch data reveal about shifting ranges, feeder dominance, and the bird that definitely should not be bossing everyone around
• How to keep your yard from becoming an ecological trap, plus the best way to feed birds that doesn't involve a feeder at all

Ready to join the longest-running winter bird monitoring program in North America? Sign up for Project FeederWatch's 40th season at feederwatch.org. You don't even need a feeder.

Want more exclusive clips from this and future episodes. Signup for our newsletter, Bird Droppings, at okaybutbirds.com to get bonus content not available anywhere else!

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:

• European robin audio contributed by Matthew D. Medler, ML140049
• Cooper's hawk audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94518
• American crow video contributed by Jay McGowan, ML472843

E18. Turns out "bird brain" is less of an insult and more of a compliment. Scott sits down with Dr. Alex Kacelnik, Emeritus Professor at the University of Oxford, to dig into one of the most mind-bending questions in animal behavior: are birds actually building and using tools, or are we just projecting?

In this episode you'll hear about:

• The experiment that left researchers completely flabbergasted and rewrote what we thought we knew about animal intelligence
• Why flexibility, not raw smarts, is the real test of a thinking mind
• Whether the drive to use tools is something birds are born with, learn, or some surprising combination of both

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:

• Woodpecker Finch audio contributed by Robert Bowman, ML82522
• New Caledonian Crow audio contributed by Lucas DeCicco, ML188764
• Hawaiian Crow audio contributed by Tim Burr, ML218670
• Hawaiian Crow video contributed by Timothy Barksdale, ML425081
• Kea audio contributed by William V. Ward, ML8523

E17. From sparrow songs that go viral across a continent to cockatoos that watch each other to learn how to open bins, Dr. Lucy Aplin, Australian National University / University of Zurich, studies how birds learn from each other and why it matters. Doing it for the culture? Yep. Birds are that impressive!

In this episode you'll hear about:

• How a new white-throated sparrow song spread over 3,000 kilometers in just two decades, replacing a tune that had been stable since the 1950s
• The experiment that proved wild great tits can establish lasting cultural traditions through their social networks
• Why losing a population of birds might also mean losing knowledge that took generations to build

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:

• White-throated Sparrow audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML219799
• White-throated Sparrow audio contributed by Jocelyn Lauzon, ML121581051
• Great Tit audio contributed by Arnoud B. van den Berg, ML36198
• Eurasian Sparrowhawk audio contributed by Ben F. King, ML335224
• Regent Honeyeater audio contributed by Vicki Powys, ML223277
• Pink-footed Goose audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML235508

E21. We're talking sense and scents with Dr. Danielle Whittaker, Oregon State, and author of The Secret Perfume of Birds, who spent a decade unraveling a 200-year-old myth that started with John James Audubon and a dead pig under a bush.

In this episode:

• The bird that smells like a fresh-baked sugar cookie
• Why preen oil is a dating profile written in chemistry, and how seabirds use the same chemical cue that's now leading albatross parents to feed their chicks plastic
• The bonus myth Danielle wants gone

New here? Listen, follow, and tell a friend who still thinks birds can't smell.

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:

• Brown-headed Cowbird audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94262
• Dark-eyed Junco audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94361
• Red Knot audio contributed by Lucas DeCicco, ML516895
• Crested Auklet audio contributed by Sampath Seneviratne, ML132014
• Laysan Albatross audio contributed by Ted Miller, ML117679

E24. Flight is the thing we associate most with birds, so what does it mean when a lineage gives it up? Dr. Scott Edwards, Harvard, joins Scott to unpack how flightlessness evolves, why it keeps happening across the bird family tree, and what the genome reveals about how a bird loses the ability to fly.

In this episode you'll hear about:

• How losing flight reshapes a bird's body, from feathers to forelimbs to that one famously enormous egg
• Why the answer wasn't where geneticists expected to find it
• What an extinct giant and a tiny tropical relative can tell us about where moa actually came from

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:

• Falkland Steamer-Duck audio contributed by Maurice A. E. Rumboll, ML4114
• Great Tinamou audio contributed by David L. Ross, Jr., ML57320

E23. Across sub-Saharan Africa, wild birds and people work together to find honey. No taming, no breeding, no domestication… just a partnership thousands of years in the making. Behavioral ecologist Dr. Jessica van der Wal, FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, joins Scott to unpack what's actually happening when a honey hunter calls and a greater honeyguide answers.

In this episode you'll hear about:

• What each side gets out of one of the only known mutualisms between humans and a wild animal, and why this bird in particular evolved to seek us out
• The remarkable signal the honeyguide uses to communicate with people, and what playback experiments revealed when researchers tested it across very different communities
• What happens to a partnership built over generations when one side starts buying honey at the store

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:

• Greater Honeyguide audio contributed by Jennifer F. M. Horne, ML55972

Additional media courtesy of Dr. Claire Spottiswoode and Dr. Jessica van der Wal

E22. Folklore says birds know a storm is coming before we do. Scott talks with Dr. Gunnar Kramer, Iowa State University, about what's actually happening when a tiny warbler decides it's time to fly, or time to bail.

In this episode:

• Why the question itself might be slightly wrong, and what's really going on inside that bird
• A storm, some missing warblers, and a discovery nobody set out to make
• What 300 birds falling out of the sky over Texas can tell you about how much fuel is in the tank

Listen, follow, and tell a friend who’s a little superstitious.

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:

• Yellow-billed cuckoo audio, Wil Hershberger, ML94446
• Barnacle goose audio, Bob McGuire, ML235525
• Golden-winged warbler video, Benjamin Clock, ML476422
• Blue-winged warbler video, Eric Liner, ML469433
• Yellow-billed cuckoo video, Larry Arbanas, ML466566
• Eastern kingbird audio, Wil Hershberger, ML534398
• Tennessee warbler audio, Wil Hershberger, ML85236
• Tennessee warbler video, Eric Liner, ML466381
• Wood thrush video, Benjamin Clock, ML471755

E25. The blue-footed booby has become an internet personality: cartoon feet, a goofy strut, a name that practically begs to be a punchline. But Scott sat down with Dr. Carlos Zavalaga, Universidad Científica del Sur, and one of the people who first taught him how to study seabirds in Peru, and the "fool" reputation falls apart fast. Get a booby in the air or underwater and you're watching one of the most specialized hunters in the bird family tree.

In this episode you'll hear about:

• How six-plus booby species carve up the same ocean without starving each other out
• What 20 years of GPS loggers, depth tags, and bags of fresh fish revealed about who eats what
• Why El Niño, avian flu, and overfishing keep stacking the deck against these 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:

• Blue-footed Booby audio contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML85906
• Red-footed Booby audio contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML85911
• Brown Booby audio contributed by Gerritt Vyn, ML136211
• Masked Booby audio contributed by Chandler Robbins, ML32604
• Nazca Booby audio contributed by Oliver H. Hewitt, ML31543
• Peruvian Booby audio contributed by Ted Parker, ML29399

E26. We borrowed a phrase from human dating and tried to pin it on birds. Turns out they never needed the rulebook. Dr. Wenfei Tong, biologist and author of Bird Love, joins Scott to unpack what bird partnerships actually look like once you stop projecting our scripts onto them, from females who run the territory to males who guard their paternity in deeply weird ways.

In this episode you'll hear about:

• Why the drabbest little brown bird in the garden has one of the wildest sex lives in the animal kingdom
• How a female calls the shots when she holds the better real estate, and what the males do about it
• The cloacal pecking payoff you have to hear to believe

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:

• Laysan Albatross audio contributed by Ted Miller, ML117679
• Black-capped Chickadee audio contributed by Jay McGowan, ML202239
• Spotted Sandpiper audio contributed by Lucas DeCicco, ML516963
• Northern Jacana audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML140224
• Red-necked Phalarope audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML235440
• Black Coucal audio contributed by Myles E. W. North, ML3084
• Papuan Eclectus audio contributed by Thane Pratt, ML169808
• Red-winged Blackbird audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML249827
• Red-winged Blackbird audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94215
• Red-capped Manakin audio contributed by David L. Ross Jr., ML57360
• Blue-footed Booby audio contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML85906
• Greater Flamingo audio contributed by Myles E. W. North, ML2443
• Dunnock audio contributed by Niels Krabbe, ML249162