Whether you know your neighborhood inside-out or you just moved and are getting to know the area, BirdNote adds another dimension to how you understand the place you live — by understanding the birds. Our hope is that by spreading knowledge about birds, BirdNote is helping you become more connected to your local ecosystems. A gift of any amount right now helps us continue to accomplish this goal. More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.  Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks.  BirdNote is a nonprofit. Y ..read more

When a new generation of birds hatches, they copy the songs they hear from nearby adults. A young bird’s first attempts aren’t perfect. But like any young musician, they improve with practice. Here at BirdNote, we’ve heard from many listeners who say they enjoy listening to the show with children or grandchildren. Educators use our shows in classrooms as a teaching tool. Help support BirdNote’s mission to inspire the next generation of bird-lovers by making a donation now. More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.  Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNo ..read more

A bird of prey in the American Southeast takes grace to an utterly new level. It's the Swallow-tailed Kite. A sleek raptor with a deeply forked tail, the Swallow-tailed Kite almost never flaps its wings. The bird makes sudden tight turns, upside-down moves, and quick backward dives, all by pivoting and moving its tail. Kites snatch insects out of the air and take lizards and snakes off leaves with their talons. Then they transfer prey from their talons to their hooked beaks, all while on the wing. More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.  Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsl ..read more

Gulls seem so much a part of the sea that we often just call them "seagulls," a colloquial title for these graceful, ubiquitous creatures. Twenty-two species breed in North America. The Pacific coast is home to the aptly named Western Gulls. The familiar Ring-billed Gull nests all across the northern states and Canadian provinces. Herring Gulls breed along the Great Lakes and Northeast waterways, while these Laughing Gulls nest all along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.  Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to ..read more

Poet Craig Santos Perez grew up on the island of Guam, and later moved to Hawai‘i where his children were born. Both are places that once flourished with unique and diverse bird life, but because of invasive species and climate change, have seen so much loss and extinction. In this episode, he shares poetry that explores his relationship with lost and endangered wildlife and that reflects on the future his daughter will inherit. More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.  Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks ..read more

Morning is a great time for birding – that’s the peak of singing and foraging activity for many species. But it’s not the only time to experience birds. Some species, such as American Robins, sing for much of the day. Daytime predators such as hawks and cormorants are active in the middle of the day. Some birds such as Common Nighthawks sweep the sky for insects at dusks. And owls come awake at night. More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.  Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks.  BirdNote is a nonprof ..read more

Birds like finches, chickadees and Northern Cardinals love sunflower seeds, but each species uses a different strategy to extract the meat. When a finch plucks a sunflower seed from the feeder, it uses its tongue to maneuver the seed lengthwise into a groove on its beak. As it closes its beak, a slight back and forth action slices open the hull, and a small sideways movement husks the seed, while the tongue may help extract the kernel. But chickadees lack the heavy duty, seed-slicing beak of a finch. Instead, they hammer and chip the hull open with the tip of the bill to extract the goods. Mor ..read more

Poet Claire Wahmanholm's work focuses on nature and the environment. As she was walking around a nature preserve north of Chicago, Claire was listening for birds but realized there was something else she was hearing: the ever-present hum of a nearby highway. “When you're trying deliberately to hear something else you really notice it,” she says. That experience inspired a poem, “You Can Always Hear the Highway.” More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.  Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks.  BirdNote i ..read more

Green-winged Teal are North America's smallest dabbling duck, at just over a foot long and weighing less than a pound. The male has a cinnamon brown head with a band of green behind the eye. Both males and females have a green bar on the wing that gleams like an emerald when the sun strikes it. During courtship, up to 25 males may court a single female at once. More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.  Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks.  BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these ..read more

With invasive species and climate change, Hawai‘i has experienced so much loss and extinction since Western colonists arrived. But Sam ‘Ohu Gon, the Senior Scientist and Cultural Advisor for the Nature Conservancy of Hawai‘i, is native Hawaiian, and he has done a lot of work connecting Hawaiian culture and tradition to conservation ecology. He hopes that one day, Hawai‘i can be not just a microcosm of ecology, but of conservation as well. More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.  Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and ot ..read more