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

Pine Warbler sitting on a slender pine tree branch

The Warbler That Loves Pines

The Pine Warbler is one of the few warblers that make appearances at bird feeders. They live year round in pine forests of the southeast U.S. and several Caribbean islands. Early spring is a good time to see them migrating through cities in the Midwest and the East Coast. If there’s a pine…
Pair of Ocellated Antbirds perched in Panamanian forest

Birds on the March with Army Ants

As thousands of army ants march through a rainforest in Panama looking for food, countless insects try to escape. Antbirds follow the ants, waiting for flying insects to leave their hiding spots so they can swoop down and catch them. About 300 species of animals, including 29 bird species…
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…