BirdNote listener Catherine Alexander recently told of watching a Bushtit, in search of the perfect bit of stuff for its nest. It found a tattered, old sock, hanging from a tree. The Bushtit grabbed a frayed bit of elastic and pulled. The elastic held strong. Bushtit pulled. Elastic held…

African Penguins stand just over two feet tall and weigh up to nine pounds. They nest in burrows six feet deep. The African Penguin now faces severe challenges. But even today, at Boulders Beach near Cape Town, it's possible to walk the beach among these charming birds and hear their…

Roughly 99% of a swallow's diet is flying insects. They gulp down millions of flies, mosquitoes, and agricultural pests, in the course of feeding themselves and their young. The world population of Barn Swallows is estimated to be 190 million. If each ate just 350 insects per day, that…

April 22, 2010 -- the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day. On Earth Day, we're reminded to honor the earth and preserve the balance of nature. Few things remind us more of the fundamental need to conserve and enjoy nature than the voices of birds - the irreplaceable voices of birds. This Eastern…

Back in September, BirdNote began following a tiny Wilson's Warbler as it migrated south to the tropics. We visited the warbler again in December, on its wintering grounds on a shade-grown coffee farm in Belize. As April arrives, the sprightly bird is migrating northward, with males…

The evocative, booming voices of male Greater Prairie-Chickens displaying at dawn were once heard throughout the American Midwest. On its courtship lek, the male bird puffs out the great orange air-sacs at the side of its neck. He erects and flares his tail. His wings droop, but the neck…

It's March, and - following a winter sojourn in Mexico - thousands of fiery-orange male Rufous Hummingbirds are migrating northward, ahead of the females. Many pass through California on their way to breeding sites in the Northwest. To learn more about how to attract hummingbirds to your…

On Diamond Head on Oahu, Hawaii, on a vacant lot in the middle of an exclusive neighborhood, Wedge-tailed Shearwaters are nesting. The nesting success of shearwaters - including the Newell's Shearwaters seen here - has been greatly reduced on all of the main Hawaiian Islands. But Carolyn…

The American Dipper makes its living in the boulder-strewn rapids of mountain streams. The dipper starts to belt out its sprightly song while icicles still hang thickly from frozen waterfalls. John Muir wrote of this bird: "His music is that of the streams refined and spiritualized. The…

John Burroughs, one of the masters of American nature writing, wrote "The birds do indeed begin with the day. The farmer who is in the field at work while he can yet see stars catches their first matin hymns. In the longest June days the robin strikes up about half past three o'clock..."…