Songbirding

The Lincoln’s Sparrow is a very secretive songbird that looks almost like it’s got a tailored plumage: complete with the stripes, spots, and the streaks of typical brownish North American sparrow. Most notably its chest is buffy coloured and has visible fine streaks. The song of the Lincoln’s Sparrow is a song of jumbled notes, and to me is reminiscent of an abbreivated House Wren song. This species is found almost everywhere in Canada except for southern Ontario, the south central prairies and the arctic. It can also be found in limited parts of the western United States. For this species in focus episode I’ll be sharing my recordings of the Lincoln’s Sparrow from Sibbald Meadows Pond, Jumpingpound Demonstration Forest, and the Fullerton Loop Hiking Trail. Credits Songbirding: Kananaskis Country is a Songbirding Studios production. Recorded, engineered, narrated and created by Rob Porter. The Songbirding cover art (Townsend's Warbler) is by Lauren Helton: https://tinylongwing.carbonmade.com/projects/5344062 Creative Commons music is from Bluedot Sessions. Learn how to support the show at https://songbirding.com/support

In Alberta, many road and highways are actually called trails. One such trail I’ll be exploring at lot is the Sibbald Creek Trail, a very wide, winding gravel road that passes through a diversity of mountain habitats. One of those habitats is the Sibbald Meadows Pond, a popular fishing spot surrounded on all sides by mountains, which also happens to be a fantastic birding location. For the next few episodes I’ll be sharing my experiences at this location during my first trip here in mid-July of 2023. Credits Songbirding: Kananaskis Country is a Songbirding Studios production. Recorded, engineered, narrated and created by Rob Porter. The Songbirding cover art (Townsend's Warbler) is by Lauren Helton: https://tinylongwing.carbonmade.com/projects/5344062 Creative Commons music is from Bluedot Sessions. Learn how to support the show at https://songbirding.com/support

About an hour’s drive west of Calgary, Alberta in the foothills and front ranges of the Canadian Rocky Mountains is an area known as Kananaskis Country. Within this nearly 1 million acres of land are towering mountains, alpine meadows, glaciers, forests, lakes, wetlands, grasslands, and thickets. Over 130 species of birds nest in Kananaskis Country, including many songbirds. I’ve felt a draw to return to this place ever since I first camped here when I was 13. The imagery of the mountains, sky, and forests have never left me. But I didn’t remember much about how it sounded. Now, 30 years after I first visited Kananaskis Country, I’m back once again, this time with some field recorders and the skills and knowledge to help me identify the birdsongs I hear. Credits Songbirding: Kananaskis Country is a Songbirding Studios production. Recorded, engineered, narrated and created by Rob Porter. The Songbirding cover art (Townsend's Warbler) is by Lauren Helton: https://tinylongwing.carbonmade.com/projects/5344062 Creative Commons music is from Bluedot Sessions. Learn how to support the show at https://songbirding.com/support

Here in the wilderness of the Canadian Rockies, the birds are our hosts. We are their guests. Premieres March 2, 2026. Credits Songbirding: Kananaskis Country is a Songbirding Studios production. Recorded, engineered, narrated and created by Rob Porter. The Songbirding cover art (Townsend's Warbler) is by Lauren Helton: https://tinylongwing.carbonmade.com/ Creative Commons music is PlainGrey by Blue Dot Sessions: https://app.sessions.blue/browse/track/362688 Learn how to support the show at https://songbirding.com/support

The Common Grackle is a blackbird with bright yellow eyes and a glossy-irridescent plumage. Their vocalizations are a mix of croaks, creaks, squeaks, and whistles. Common Grackles are typically found in most of Canada and the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, and are present year-round in the south-eastern half of that range. For this Species in Focus episode I’ll be sharing a spring walk at Fifty Point Conservation Area in Grimsby, Ontario in March 2022 and at Valens Conservation Area in March 2023. Credits Songbirding: Species in Focus is a Songbirding Studios production. Recorded, engineered, narrated and created by Rob Porter. The Songbirding cover art (Blackburnian Warbler) is by Lauren Helton: https://tinylongwing.carbonmade.com/projects/5344062 Creative Commons music is from Universfield. Learn how to support the show at https://songbirding.com/support

The Christmas Bird Count is a census of birds in the western hemisphere that is held between December 14 and January 5 each winter. It was devised originally as an alternative to the 19th century tradition of hunting birds at Christmas, and has evolved to become the longest running citizen science project. There are tens of thousands of participants - seeking out and counting tens of millions of birds each year. 2025 will be the 126th year of the Christmas Bird Count. If you don’t already participate in one, as of this episode’s release, you still have time to find and join a count local to you. This episode was recorded during the 48th Cambridge Christmas Bird Count in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Credits Songbirding is a Songbirding Studios production, and was recorded, engineered, narrated and created by Rob Porter. The Songbirding cover art (Blackburnian Warbler) is by Lauren Helton: https://tinylongwing.carbonmade.com/projects/5344062 Creative Commons music is by Scott Buckley. For more information about the Christmas Bird Count, see: https://www.audubon.org/conservation/science/christmas-bird-count Support Songbirding by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/songbirding This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-da20d0 for 40% off for 4 months, and support Songbirding.

The Christmas Bird Count is a census of birds in the western hemisphere that is held between December 14 and January 5 each winter. It was devised originally as an alternative to the 19th century tradition of hunting birds at Christmas, and has evolved to become the longest running citizen science project. There are tens of thousands of participants - seeking out and counting tens of millions of birds each year. 2025 will be the 126th year of the Christmas Bird Count. If you don’t already participate in one, as of this episode’s release, you still have time to find and join a count local to you. For the next two episodes I’ll be sharing with you my experiences out in the field during two of the 2024 Christmas Bird Counts, starting with the 49th Hanover-Walkerton Christmas Bird Count in Bruce County, Ontario, Canada. Credits Songbirding is a Songbirding Studios production, and was recorded, engineered, narrated and created by Rob Porter. The Songbirding cover art (Blackburnian Warbler) is by Lauren Helton: https://tinylongwing.carbonmade.com/projects/5344062 Creative Commons music is by Scott Buckley. For more information about the Christmas Bird Count, see: https://www.audubon.org/conservation/science/christmas-bird-count The eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S124632617 Support Songbirding by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/songbirding This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-da20d0 for 40% off for 4 months, and support Songbirding.

The Northern Yellow Warbler is a bright and cheerful sounding songbird found during the breeding season all across North America. Males of the species are yellow with some red flecks along their chest, and are very songful. They have a number of different songs, but their most common one can be described as sounding like “sweet sweet, sweeter than sweet”. In 2025, this species was split from what was called simply the Yellow Warbler, so this might be the first you’re hearing of it being a Northern Yellow Warbler. This is in contrast to the Mangrove Yellow Warbler, which has a reddish head and is a nonmigratory species found along the mangrove shores from Florida, south to Mexico, the Caribbean, through Central America down to South America. Credits Songbirding: Species in Focus is a Songbirding Studios production. Recorded, engineered, narrated and created by Rob Porter. The Songbirding cover art (Blackburnian Warbler) is by Lauren Helton: https://tinylongwing.carbonmade.com/projects/5344062 Creative Commons music is from Universfield. Learn how to support the show at https://songbirding.com/support Support Songbirding by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/songbirding This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-da20d0 for 40% off for 4 months, and support Songbirding.

Tonight, we take a walk after dark through a swamp full of katydids, crickets, grasshoppers, and maybe an owl... Credits Songbirding: Species in Focus is a Songbirding Studios production. Recorded, engineered, narrated and created by Rob Porter. The Songbirding cover art (Blackburnian Warbler) is by Lauren Helton: https://tinylongwing.carbonmade.com/projects/5344062 Creative Commons music is from Scott Buckley. Learn how to support the show at https://songbirding.com/support Support Songbirding by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/songbirding This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-da20d0 for 40% off for 4 months, and support Songbirding.

The Sedge Wren is a small, russet coloured energetic songbird found breeding in fields and shallow marshes in many parts of inland North America. Their song consists of several dry-sounding chirps followed by a short trill. Unlike other wren species they tend to be more shy, and without their loud song, can easily go unnoticed. This episode we will be exploring Taquanyah Conservation Area near Cayuga Ontario, in May of 2022. Credits Songbirding: Species in Focus is a Songbirding Studios production. Recorded, engineered, narrated and created by Rob Porter. The Songbirding cover art (Blackburnian Warbler) is by Lauren Helton: https://tinylongwing.carbonmade.com/projects/5344062 Creative Commons music is from Universfield. Learn how to support the show at https://songbirding.com/support Support Songbirding by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/songbirding This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-da20d0 for 40% off for 4 months, and support Songbirding.

The Marsh Wren is a small, brownish, energetic songbird found in wetlands across a large swath of North America. Their song is a mix of harsh trills, gurgles, and buzzes. And, like most wren species, are much louder than their small size might suggest. This episode we will be exploring Taquanyah Conservation Area near Cayuga Ontario, first on two dates in 2024, then in the conclusion you’ll hear a surprise I found there in May of 2022. Credits Songbirding: Species in Focus is a Songbirding Studios production. Recorded, engineered, narrated and created by Rob Porter. The Songbirding cover art (Blackburnian Warbler) is by Lauren Helton: https://tinylongwing.carbonmade.com/projects/5344062 Creative Commons music is from Universfield. Learn how to support the show at https://songbirding.com/support Support Songbirding by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/songbirding This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-da20d0 for 40% off for 4 months, and support Songbirding.

In the upcoming special episodes I’m going to feature songbird species who fit three criteria: that I have plenty of recordings of them, that I have not significantly featured them before, and that they are not likely to be featured in the next season of Songbirding because they do no occur in the west, or have not shown up significantly in my western recordings as of right now. The Orchard Oriole has a curious song. Much like the Baltimore Oriole, each bird might have a slightly different song, with their own unique phrases. This songbird has quite a varied appearance, with lemony-yellow females, and males with two plumages: one of a yellow bird with a black beard, typically seen in the second year of the bird’s life, followed up with a more mature plumage of a dark back and hood with what I like to refer to as a blood-orange chest, though some describe this more as a chestnut colour. Either way, the older males are quite a dark bird. I find that the Orchard Oriole usually sounds like it is frequently interrupting its own whistle-y songs with terse, harsh interjections. And to my ears, sounds almost like an Eastern Warbling Vireo, except that it is interrupting its own songs. For this episode we’ll be exploring three locations within my Ontario breeding bird atlas square, in Haldimand County, Ontario. I’ve found over the years of this survey that this species is highly successful in Haldimand, showing up in a high proportion of my random point count surveys. Credits Songbirding: Species in Focus is a Songbirding Studios production. Recorded, engineered, narrated and created by Rob Porter. The Songbirding cover art (Blackburnian Warbler) is by Lauren Helton: https://tinylongwing.carbonmade.com/projects/5344062 Creative Commons music is from Universfield. Learn how to support the show at https://songbirding.com/support Support Songbirding by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/songbirding This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-da20d0 for 40% off for 4 months, and support Songbirding.