BirdNote Daily

Birds of the same species don’t always sing exactly the same as each other. But those that live near each other sometimes have similar songs. Scientists refer to this pattern as a song neighborhood. It’s less like a regional dialect among people that’s found over a large area. It’s more local than that, like a group of friends copying each other's mannerisms.

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A male Montezuma Oropendola holds forth in a tree bedecked with twenty or more hanging nests. The nests are intricately woven sacks hanging three feet or more from the branches. Oropendolas favor trees that are separate from other trees and often build near large nests of wasps, whose stinging attacks deter both potential nest predators and parasitic insects.

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It was only in 1939 that this Altamira Oriole was first found north of the Rio Grande River. Now it happily visits residents on the Texas side of the river, especially where a juicy orange half waits in a backyard feeder. Northerly breeding orioles, like Bullock's in the West and the Baltimore in the East, nest as far north as Canada, but winter mostly in Central America. 

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It can feel like there’s nowhere to hide in the shortgrass prairie. But the Thick-billed Longspur calls this place home. The bird’s burbling song helps create the high plains’ soundscape. The species was formerly named McCown’s Longspur after a Confederate general who participated in genocide against Native Americans. In 2020, after pressure from the “Bird Names for Birds” movement and others, the species was renamed for its thick ...

You might have heard of the Phoenix, the legendary bird who bursts into flames and is reborn from its ashes. Well, its literary cousin is the Slavic myth of the Firebird, an elusive creature whose feathers burn and light up the night. Stories about Phoenix-like birds have spread all over, and Firebird legends are found in most Slavic cultures. These stories, like connective tissue, help unite people throughout the world. 

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The family of seabirds called alcids is an eclectic bunch that includes puffins and murres. The largest alcids are about the size of a duck, but the smallest — called the Least Auklet — could fit in the palm of your hand. With their short wings whirring, these miniature seabirds look like swarms of feathered bumblebees as they forage for tiny crustaceans on the ocean’s surface. Least Auklets form massive breeding colonies on rocky ...

eBird, an online tool for submitting bird observations, allows scientists to keep track of birds around the world. eBird now has over one billion bird observations from more than 700,000 people — most of them community scientists who care about their local birds. And as more people in more places join in, eBird becomes an even better way for researchers to understand birds. In this show, learn how you can make your birding more use...

A bird’s crest is made up of a slender array of feathers on top of their head. These feathers are a bit longer and can be spiked up or slicked back, depending on what the bird is trying to communicate. Even birds without crests, like crows or sparrows, sometimes puff up their short crown feathers.

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Sharp-shinned Hawks are swift, bird-catching predators. The male is jay-sized. The female stands a head taller and weighs almost twice as much. Female birds of prey are most notably bigger than males among hawk species that hunt very agile prey, such as other birds. The smaller male will tend to hunt smaller prey. The female takes somewhat larger prey, so together they can tap a wider range of resources.

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Rosemary Moscoe’s latest book is a tongue-in-cheek guide that defines many of the terms that you might hear on a bird outing, like calling a particularly cute bird a "birb" or shortening the word binoculars to just "bins" or "nocs."

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Greater Yellowlegs — not surprisingly — have bright yellow legs and feet. And why? While foraging through shallow water, a yellowlegs can keep track of its legs by the color, which contrasts with the sometimes dark and irregular bottom. A Sanderling, on the other hand, has black legs and feet. Its black toes really stand out against the pale sand. And the brilliant orange legs of Ruddy Turnstones? They stand out like a neon light o...

While camping in the mountains, you might see this Canada Jay (formerly known as the Gray Jay — but before that, as the Canada Jay!), boldly swooping into your camp. This handsome jay’s big, black eyes seem to miss nothing — especially food. But the one food Canada Jays don’t eat is conifer seeds. The jays hide other food in conifer needles and tuck it under the bark of trees with their sticky saliva. With terrific visual memories,...

Writer Amy Tan’s work is known all over the world. And thanks to her latest best-seller, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, she’s now also known for her deep love of birds. Tan not only spends time interacting with birds, she also comes up with creative ways to help them.

This episode was produced as part of BirdNote’s From Love to Action Campaign, an effort to inspire one million people to take action to help birds by 2027. To learn mor...

Except around Easter, chicken eggs usually come in a predictable range of colors: white, brown, and sometimes pale blue or green. Chickens are descended from the Red Jungle Fowl of Southeast Asia, which has been providing eggs for humans for thousands of years. The final color of an egg comes from a pigment the hen’s body adds to the shell just before the egg is laid. Breeds that lay white eggs don’t add any pigment.

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Piping Plovers are tiny, sand-colored shorebirds that nest on the beach. They’re threatened in much of their range. But plovers have gotten a boost from something rather surprising: hurricanes. Superstorm Sandy left behind plant-free, sandy beaches on barrier islands in New York and New Jersey, which actually offers better camouflage for nesting plovers. Where these hurricane-created habitats were protected, Piping Plovers have boo...

Although many seabirds utter groans and croaks, the Pigeon Guillemot produces a lovely series of trills and whistles. As part of their courtship, they fly side by side in large circles and loops, a perfectly synchronized flying act. These guillemots do not breed until they are between three and five years old. The male chooses a site in a crevice or cave, among boulders, under driftwood, on a wharf, or even in a pipe.

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Why are blackbirds black? One possible answer is that black is conspicuous against just about all of Nature's backgrounds. Blackbirds, like this flock of Red-winged Blackbirds and Yellow-headed Blackbirds, feed on the ground. Whenever a predator approaches, they take flight. Coming together quickly in a dense mass may confuse the predator and thwart its attempts to catch one of the birds.

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Young birds leave their nests in different ways. Some shuffle tentatively along the nearest branch and practice flapping their wings, while others take the "big leap." Which path they take depends upon their species and the location of the nest. Young Great Horned Owls clamber out of the nest to nearby branches where they flap their wings and make short, cautious flights, while they continue to be fed by their parents.

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Crested Auklets are small seabirds that nest on remote cliffs in the Northern Pacific and the Bering Sea. But it’s their smell that really sets these birds apart. They smell like tangerines! Experiments show that females go for males that emit the strongest scents.

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