BirdNote Daily

Birds are often admired for their ability to fly. But braking just in time to avoid a crash landing is amazing by itself. How does a robin go from full-out flight to a dead stop at a tree? If we coul…

Identifying birds by ear means getting familiar with each species’ unique voice. And that means learning the other voices in the ecosystem, too. Squirrels and chipmunks make calls that can sound a bi…

Rasheena Fountain studied environmental science and worked at her local Audubon Society. Now she writes about nature and diversity in the outdoors. And what got her interested in the first place? It …

Alison Vilag has worked for half a decade as a fall and spring waterbird counter at remote migration hotspots around Lake Superior. For weeks, every day from sunrise to nearly sunset, Alison is outsi…

The world is full of poisonous creatures. Some butterflies, beetles and frogs use bright colors to warn birds and other predators that they’re full of toxins. But you might be surprised to learn that…

Some of the largest populations of Tufted Puffins are in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska and other northern coastlines. But University of Puget Sound professor Peter Hodum says the smaller colonies th…

Weighing about as much as four paperclips, Bushtits are smaller than many hummingbirds. And they take full advantage of their diminutive size. While larger insect-eaters forage on the upper surfaces …

Imagine an Ostrich, an Emu, a roadrunner, and the world’s fastest man and woman, all lined up for a race. Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt holds the men’s record for the 100-meter dash — 28 mph — and Flor…

A captive breeding program has helped set California Condors on the path to recovery. But when biologists reviewed the family tree for the breeding program, they found a big surprise. Two chicks had …

The sight and sound of the Bare-throated Bellbird—the national bird of Paraguay—inspires wonder and delight. Its presence as an indicator species and seed disperser also bodes well for ecosystem heal…

When biologist Danielle Whittaker started studying bird odors, some scientists tried to discourage her, claiming that birds can’t smell. But that only deepened her curiosity. Once, she caught a whiff…

The Black-billed Magpie is a familiar sight throughout much of the west. The magpie's bulky nest is a rough sphere of sticks nearly three feet across, with entrance ports on the sides. Take a field t…

Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, zookeepers at the Kyiv Zoo shared audio recordings from the animal enclosures with BirdNote. The Zoo staff maintained care for the a…

Kingbirds are robin-sized flycatchers that excel at plucking insects from the air. They’ll even tackle prey as big as cicadas. Finding naturally-camouflaged cicadas hidden among the leaves is hard wo…

The glorious song of the male Sage Thrasher rings out every Spring from tracts of sagebrush throughout the west. Sagebrush was once widespread in the Great Basin region, and so were the thrashers. Bu…

House Finches are familiar birds all across North America. Researchers have shown that the red coloration of males is produced from carotenoid pigments in the birds' diet. Male House Finches develop …

A Laysan Albatross named Wisdom has been nesting and raising chicks on the island of Midway for nearly 60 years. She was banded back in 1956 and was rediscovered, still alive and healthy, in 2002. Si…

Tree Swallows and bluebirds — like this Western Bluebird — are among the earliest northbound migrants to arrive, heralding spring a month before the equinox. These species will nest only in cavities,…

During winter and early spring, Great Blue Herons build their nests high in the treetops. The male delivers the supplies to the nest site stick by stick, as the female arranges things. It’s the perfe…

Upland Sandpipers are an emblematic bird of grassland habitats in many regions of the Americas. These shorebirds live far from sea with the largest breeding populations in the north central U.S. But …