Image: The Ultimate Bird Drawing Throwdown Showdown Graphic featuring images of David Sibley and H. Jon Benjamin

Join BirdNote tomorrow, November 30th!

Illustrator David Sibley and actor H. Jon Benjamin will face off in the bird illustration battle of the century during BirdNote's Year-end Celebration and Auction!

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Shows With Contributions by Mark Bramhill

American Robin standing in sunny grass

Spark Bird: The First Robin of Spring

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 all started in kindergarten, with a teacher named Miss Beak and the first robin of spring.
Crows on street light

Spark Bird: Birding from the Bus

Kelsen Caldwell drives a bus in and around Seattle for King County Metro. As a bus driver, sometimes there’s downtime if your bus is moving too fast. What do you do with all that extra time? If you’re Kelsen, you fall in love with birds.
A Whimbrel in flight

Migrations: A Whimbrel’s Wayward Journey

Biologists with Manomet tagged a Whimbrel named Lindsay with a GPS tracker. She has spent the summer breeding in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on the northern coast of Alaska. As fall migration begins, she heads straight into a storm in the Gulf of Alaska. The tempest slingshots her…
Blackburnian Warbler perched on leafy branch and showing its bright orange breast, and black-and-orange striped head and dark wings

Migrations: Songbirds Flock to Urban Greenspaces

After flying all the way from South America, migratory songbirds that fly through cities often seek out urban green spaces such as parks and cemeteries. These modest-sized areas can act as verdant oases in the middle of pavement and metal and can be hidden gems for city dwellers hoping to…
European Robin in closeup, dark shiny eye, and soft grey and light brown feathers shading to orange on breast.

Migrations: Can Birds "See" Magnetic Fields?

Some migratory songbirds such as European Robins have special light-sensitive proteins called cryptochromes in their eyes. New research suggests how the cryptochromes could alter their behavior in the presence of magnetic fields, giving birds a visual cue for north and south. Other birds…
Brown Pelican coming in for landing, wings outstretched.

Protecting the Pelicans

Tim Arnold leads the Tybee Clean Beach Volunteers in keeping Tybee Island, Georgia, free of plastic pollution and other trash. His favorite bird is the Brown Pelican. Its bulky, awkward appearance contrasts with its agility as it dives for fish. But Arnold worries that pelicans are…
Yellow-green Vireo showing pale breast, yellow-green body and wings, and bright red shining eye

Migrations: You're Going the Wrong Way!

During migration, some birds change orientation, often by a full 180 degrees, and travel almost the same distance — but in the opposite direction — as the rest of their species. The phenomenon is called misorientation. First-year birds are particularly susceptible. Many vagrant birds never…
Yellow-throated Toucan with black body, yellow throat and large long bill, sitting on a berried branch

Saving Birds, One Cup at a Time

Most coffee is grown industrially in wide-open fields with few places for birds and other species to live. But some farmers are returning to a more sustainable method, growing coffee under layers of natural tree canopy. The Smithsonian Institute certifies coffee as Bird Friendly if it…
Rufous Hummingbird hovering in place, bronze body shining, wings a blur.

Migrations: Tiny Bird, Epic Journey

In the spring, Rufous Hummingbirds journey from Mexico to the northwest U.S., some as far north as Alaska! That’s almost 1000 miles one way for a bird measuring just under four inches beak to tail, making this the longest migration of any bird relative to body length. Not long after…
Illustration of a Baltimore Oriole, Osprey and American Tree Sparrow flying over our host, Tenijah Hamilton, smiling and holding binoculars, against a background of trees and tall buildings

How Can We Protect Birds From Plastics?

In the Bring Birds Back season finale, host Tenijah Hamilton heads to Tybee Island off the Georgia coast for a day at the beach... picking up trash. She joins Tim Arnold, founder of Tybee Clean Beach Volunteers, to see firsthand how plastics and trash can pose a threat to migratory…