When you think of habitat, think of home. For a jay that lives in the forest, the forest is its habitat – where it finds food, water, shelter, and the company of other jays. Or it might live in your back yard or the bank parking lot down the street. Some birds live in different habitats at different times of year. Many sandpipers summer on the Arctic tundra, but during the rest of the year, they live on coastal tide flats.
BirdNote®
There’s No Place Like Habitat
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote.
Science conversations can sometimes be confusing. There are so many technical, jargony terms thrown around. Even science professionals can get overwhelmed and tune out.
But the next time you hear the word “habitat,” perk up your ears a little.
When you hear the word habitat, think of home.
Sure, science can make habitat sound a lot more complicated. But basically, it’s where a living thing, a bird for example, [[Brown Thrasher http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/219704]] prefers to live. It’s that bird’s natural home.
For a jay that lives in the forest, [Blue Jay calling, https://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/49716, 0.06-.09] the forest is its habitat – where it finds food, water, shelter, and the company of other jays.
[Blue Jay calling, https://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/49716, 0.06-.09].
But a jay’s habitat may also be your back yard or the bank parking lot down the street.
If you want to understand a bird’s habitat, you need to look at the world from the bird’s point of view. Some birds live in different habitats at different times of year. Many sandpipers summer in the Arctic tundra, where they breed. But during the rest of the year, they live on tide flats along the coasts.
From their point of view, it might be a lot like going from Kansas to Oz and back, over and over.
For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.
BirdNote gives you the sounds of birds every day, and you can get the sights as well when you follow us on Instagram, at BirdNote radio. / @BirdNoteRadio
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Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recorded by Bob McGuire and William R Evans.
BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Managing Producer: Jason Saul
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
© 2017 Tune In to Nature.org November 2017/2021 Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# habitat-01-2017-11-29 habitat-01
Bob Sundstrom
Writer