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!

RESERVE YOUR SPOT

Shows With Contributions by Conor Gearin

Artwork for episode 1 Bring Birds Back, featuring a photo of Corina Newsome and an illustration of Tenijah Hamilton

The Zero Sum of it All with Corina Newsome

In the season four premiere, we’re joined by wildlife advocate, ornithologist and (social media star) birder, Corina Newsome! Tenijah speaks with Corina about the latest findings in the State of the Birds report, the impact of environmental racism on urban communities and birds, and the…
A Gray Catbird with soft light gray plumage and dark eye, its short sharp beak open as it calls

Birds that Sound Like Cats

Named after their distinctive cat-like “mew” call, Gray Catbirds are mimic thrushes, related to mockingbirds and thrashers. They can imitate a wide variety of noises, from songbirds to mammals to frogs. Noisy and boisterous in the spring, a migrating flock of catbirds can fill a city park…
A pair of small round birds sit close to each other in a flowering landscape

Kari Sasportas on Advocating for Autistic Birders

For Kari Sasportas, who helps lead the Feminist Bird Club of Boston, birding is a way to become absorbed in the sensations of the outside world — something that can be difficult for them to do elsewhere as an autistic person with an auditory processing disorder. Kari advocates for making…
View of Cabo Rojo salt flats beneath a partly cloudy sky

Salt Flats as Bird Habitat

In the Salt Flats of Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, the Indigenous Taino people found a way to harvest salt long before Europeans arrived. But this unique ecosystem isn’t just useful for sea salt production — the salty lagoons are full of brine shrimp for shorebirds to eat. Local residents banded…
"Un Lugar Inusual Para Comer y Descansar"

Un lugar inusual para comer y descansar

En Puerto Rico hay un área de lagunas salinas, salinas y manglares donde los humanos han extraído sal por más de 500 años. Por lo general, describimos el efecto de la actividad humana sobre el medio ambiente como negativo. Pero las aves migratorias que comen y descansan en uno de los…
An illustration of a Black-necked stilt. It's has a white underside and a black top. The text under it reads "An Unusual Place to Eat and Rest"

An Unusual Place to Eat and Rest

In Puerto Rico, there is an area of saline lagoons, salt flats and mangrove swamps where humans have extracted salt for over 500 years. We often describe the effects of human activity on the environment as negative. But the migratory birds that eat and rest in one of the most visited…
A small green, white and red bird perched on a diagonal branch.

Renaming the San Pedrito

The Puerto Rican Tody is a tiny green bird found only in Puerto Rico, where the species is called San Pedrito. But the scientific name for these birds is Todus mexicanus, despite the fact that they don’t live in Mexico — due to a mistake made by European scientists in the 1800s. People in…
Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird in flight, with diffuse greenery in background

Watch Animals Migrate with Journey North

An organization called Journey North consists of a network of community scientists who observe local animal migrations – everything from monarch butterflies to Gray Whales to birds. Observing these seasonal changes can help make you a well-rounded community scientist, attuned to life’s…
Threatened episode artwork for "The Scientific name Doesn't Do It Justice"

The Scientific Name Doesn’t Do It Justice

Birds have their common English name and a name in the languages of all the places they might fly through. And then they have their Latin name, which is their taxonomic name, the one scientists use. In this episode, we learn about a decades-long effort in Puerto Rico to change San Pedrito…
The Threatened en Español artwork for "El nombre científico no le hace justicia"

El nombre científico no le hace justicia

Las aves tienen su nombre común en español y un nombre en los idiomas de todos los lugares por los que pueden volar. Y luego tienen su nombre en latín, que es su nombre taxonómico, el que usan los científicos. En este episodio aprendemos sobre un esfuerzo de décadas en Puerto Rico para…