In the early 1980s, the city of Austin, Texas needed to enlarge its Congress Avenue Bridge. The new bridge design included expansion joints that inadvertently created roosting cavities for bats - tiny Mexican Free-tailed Bats - eventually one and one-half million of them! At first, many…

Years ago, Yellow-billed Cuckoos like this one were frequent visitors to the Pacific Northwest. They’re one of the few birds that eat tent caterpillars, a species that can wreak havoc on the leaves of trees. It’s a mystery why the cuckoos no longer come. During a tent caterpillar outbreak…

A Bald Eagle that was feeding on the ground suddenly rises up. With two powerful strokes, its massive wings carry it high into a tree, where it lands and looks down. Nature is impersonal, but we feel a connection, don't we? How can we not draw strength from wild creatures we admire?

Photographer and naturalist Paul Bannick tells of a time in the forests of North Carolina, when he heard Northern Flicker parents urging their chicks to fledge. "There was a young, timid, brown head sticking out of that cavity. I could imagine this bird would be nervous about taking its…

Thanks to Tom Vanderpoel and Citizens For Conservation, grassland birds like this Eastern Meadowlark are benefiting from expanded habitat in northeast Illinois, where volunteers are restoring native prairies. In autumn, volunteers collect seeds from restored grasslands. In spring, they…

The song of a Western Meadowlark rings out across the eastern slope of Washington’s Cascade Mountains. Come Memorial Day weekend, members of Audubon and friends will celebrate 50 years of gathering at the Wenas Campground to welcome the birds and wildflowers of spring. Two hundred and…

In the United States and Canada, International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD) is celebrated in May. Justin Pepper of the Audubon Chicago Region shares his insights about this special time of year, when birds like this Blackburnian Warbler are on the move. “It’s awe inspiring to realize that our…

The crisp song of a cardinal . . . the goofy call of a Willow Ptarmigan . . . You can hear these recordings and 150,000 others when you log on to the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The bird sounds you hear on BirdNote come from this library. Linda Macaulay, after whom…

Dawn breaks in Costa Rica. As in many places around the world, people wake to the crowing of roosters . . . or in Costa Rica, it might be howler monkeys! Costa Rican birding guide Roger Melendez says that the male wants to know… “Is everybody awake? Is everybody listenin' to what I’m…

Why do birds start their songs so early in the morning? Many are announcing that they've made it through the night. Some males grab the first opportunity to remind others of their territories and to fend off other males. Certain migratory males signal their location and availability to…