The Science of Birds – Details, episodes & analysis

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."

Links of Interest

• Kingfisher Diving in Slow Motion [VIDEO]
• Kingfisher Coughing up a Pellet [VIDEO]
• Two male kingfishers fighting [VIDEO]
• Kingfisher family in the nest cavity [VIDEO]

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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.

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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."
 

Links of Interest

•  Grayish Miner in the Atacama Desert [VIDEO] 

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Episode: 2

Summary

Learn about the ways that different bird species compete with each other over food and other resources.

I first talk about the concept of the ecological niche, since this is so important to this episode's topic.

Then, I get into the different forms of competition between bird species and present the possible outcomes of that competition. 

Lastly, I briefly touch on the general approaches that scientists take in studying interspecies competition in birds.

Links to Some Things Mentioned in this Episode

• Project FeederWatch
• eBird
• iNaturalist

Research Citations

• Competition among scavenging birds in Peru (Wallace and Temple. 1987. The Auk)
• Red-winged Blackbirds vs. Yellow-headed Blackbirds (Weller and Spatcher. 1965. Special Report)
• Birdfeeder dominance hierarchy among 136 bird species in North America (Miller et al. 2017. Behavioral Ecology)
• Competition among tits in Swedish Winter (Alatalo et al. 1987. Ecology)

Errors and Clarifications

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!

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Episode: 1

Summary

Learn about the deep evolutionary origin of birds and follow their history up to the great extinction that happened 66 million years ago.

First, I discuss what we mean when we say “bird.” What characteristics separate modern birds from other animal groups?

Then I discuss the evidence—both historical and recent—that scientists have used to determine the evolutionary history of birds. 

Finally, we arrive at the answer of where birds fit on the tree of life.

Research Citations

• Discovery of collagen protein in Tyrannosaurus femur (Asara et al. 2007. Science)‍
• Archaeornithura, the earliest known true ancestor of birds (Wang et al. 2015. Nature Communications)

Errors and Clarifications

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.

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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
 

Links of Interest

•  Ground Tit [VIDEO] 

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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!

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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.

Links of Interest

• Colossal Biosciences
• Birds, Not Mosquitoes
• How Wolbachia Can Save Forest Birds [VIDEO]
• Puzzle-solving caracaras [VIDEO]

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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.

Links of Interest

• Owl Notes–Denver Holt Shares the Short eared Owl's Courtship Flight [VIDEO]
• Long-whiskered Owlet (Xenoglaux loweryi) [VIDEO]
• The silent flight of an owl [VIDEO]
• Pellet.com
• What an Owl Knows [BOOK]

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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.
 

Links of Interest

• American Ornithological Society (AOS) Council Statement on English Bird Names
• AOS Community Congress on English Bird Names [VIDEO]

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