February 2010 BirdNote Episodes:

Rock Pigeon, Urban Bird

The Rock Pigeon is the quintessential urban bird. Early European settlers at Jamestown and Plymouth introduced it to North America in the 1600s, and it is now found across the entire country.
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Learn more about the plight of the Brown Pelican off the West Coast, and how you can help.

Swan Song

The idea of the “swan song” recurs from Aesop to Ovid to Plato to Tennyson. It's based on a sweet fallacy -- that a swan sings only when it nears death. Learn more about this Mute Swan at Cornell's AllAboutBirds.
Would you like to make a gift to BirdNote? Begin here.
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Learn more about the plight of the Brown Pelican off the West Coast, and how you can help.

A Bird of Two Colors

Related to shearwaters and petrels, the Northern Fulmar will eat just about anything it finds on the surface of the ocean, from fish and squids to dead whales. Fulmars are polymorphic, that is to say they come in more than one color. This difference is independent of sex and age. The reason for their color variation remains a mystery. Learn more about polymorphism from UWM.edu. Find out more about the Northern Fulmar at Cornell's AllAboutBirds.

Consider the Ostrich

The flightless Ostrich is a bird of superlatives ... the largest and tallest bird on the planet ... growing to maybe eight feet tall ... weighing 250 pounds! It’s also the fastest creature on two legs, capable of running at 40 miles an hour. Ostriches have never been observed to stick their heads in the sand. When threatened, they’re more likely to run away. But if an Ostrich senses danger and can’t run away, it lies down and remains still, with head and neck outstretched. Send this show to a friend! Copy this link http://bit.ly/cFlTqC and paste it in email. Thanks!

Myth of the Thunderbird

Legend tells of a huge bird called the Thunderbird. Its origin remains a mystery, even to Native Americans. According to myth, Thunderbird was so large and flew so high, it carried the rain on its back and created thunder and lightning. Perhaps Teratornis merriami was the creature that inspired the myth. Probably the largest bird ever to fly, it died out following the last ice age. For a short time, thousands of years ago, the bird shared territory with early Native Americans.
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Interview with Gerrit Vyn

Imagine carrying heavy battery-operated equipment — along with all your camping gear — across the tundra. That’s what recordist Gerrit Vyn did on assignment for Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology. His mission? To record the calls of this Yellow-billed Loon. Learn more about the lab and about The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds.
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Sizing Up Sharp-shinned Hawks

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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Birders and Hunters

Thanks in part to the political will and financial contributions of waterfowl hunters and such organizations as Ducks Unlimited, natural wetlands that might otherwise have been lost have been preserved. Take a field trip with your local Audubon chapter to see what you can see. Start here! Maybe you'll see one of these Blue-winged Teal.
Learn more about duck stamps and how they help protect habitat for migratory waterfowl.

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