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 Conor Gearin

Behind a blue sky with white clouds, a wood stork soars

Keeping Wood Storks on the Road to Recovery

With their bare heads, long legs and massive bills, Wood Storks seem to have flown out of a fairytale — but in the American South they’re a real-life part of the ecosystem. Developers drained large areas of wetlands, causing the Florida Everglades population to decline to just 5,000…
Janet Ng, wearing gray baseball cap and blue jacket, holds an immature Golden Eagle in her arms

Janet Ng on Becoming a Wildlife Biologist

When Janet Ng was a kid, there was a very specific moment when she realized what she wanted to be as a grown-up: seeing a wildlife biologist being interviewed in a documentary and realizing that was a possible career path. Now working for the Canadian Wildlife Service and surveying birds…
Closeup image of a Great Horned Owl in flight

Introducing Aviary, the Shapeshifting Bird Superhero

In this episode, we meet Aviary: the superhero alter-ego of a mild-mannered birder bitten by a radioactive feather mite. Aviary became able to shapeshift into any of the birds they've seen in their travels — taking on the ultra-fast flight of a falcon or the super-swimming skills of a…
Swifts enter chimney to roost

Giving Chimney Swifts a Place to Live

Before chimneys existed, Chimney Swifts relied on old hollow trees for nesting and roosting. They can’t perch, they can only cling to a rough vertical surface. As developers cleared old growth forests, Chimney Swifts began using human-built structures. But building styles have changed…
A Painted Bunting perches with head turned to the left

Observe First, Photograph Second

When Day Scott teaches people how to take pictures of birds, she emphasizes observing birds carefully before picking up the camera. Sometimes that means choosing whether or not to even attempt a photo. In this episode, Day shares a story about choosing whether or not to try and photograph…
A painted plexiglass panel with an abstract depiction of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Creating Abstract Paintings of Migratory Birds

Artist Debra Ramsay became fascinated with the way that birds and their colors mark changes in the seasons. In her “Migrations” project, she painted species seen in New York’s Central Park, creating an abstract design from the three main colors of each bird. Debra layered colors into thick…
A Lesser Yellowlegs walks along a beach on a sunny day

Lesser Yellowlegs, Loud and Proud

When the shorebirds called Lesser Yellowlegs sense a threat to their nest, they’ll put up an unforgettable racket to drive the danger away. Smaller and with a shorter bill than the Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser Yellowlegs sing to attract mates, while flying or perching up in a tree like a…
A Lesser Yellowlegs walks along a beach on a sunny day. "BirdNote en Español" appears in the bottom left corner.

Patamarillas menores, escandalosas y orgullosas

Cuando las aves playeras conocidas como patamarillas menores perciben una amenaza para su nido, arman un tremendo escándalo para ahuyentar el peligro. Estas aves son más pequeñas y tienen un pico más corto que las patamarillas mayores. Las patamarillas menores cantan para atraer a sus…
Closeup of three Sulphur-crested Cockatoos perched in a row

Cockatoos and People Trying to Outwit Each Other

In several neighborhoods of Sydney, Sulphur-crested Cockatoos have learned ways to open trash bins and grab some leftover food. Researchers found that birds in a given suburb seem to learn their trash bin opening technique from nearby birds, leading to subtle differences in how cockatoos…
Bring Birds Back Podcast art

A Will and a Wildway

Have you ever worried you’d hit a wild animal while driving down a highway or country road? In this special season closer, we learn about a new and promising future for wildlife and battered cars: wildways. As technology and development continue to expand, infrastructure and fragmentation…