The American Birding Podcast

Birding magazine editor and random birder Ted Floyd is back for another trip around the bird list. He and host Nate Swick take their list of birds and their random number generator and end up talking longspurs, vireos, and drama plovers in this edition of Random Birds. Also, check out the ABA Store for all sorts of fun Bird of the Year and logo wear stuff! Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

It's not hard to get birders talking about some of the big questions in our hobby. And this time we go back in the archives of Birding magazine to collect some historic hot takes for another edition of Take It or Leave It, the discussion panel for the most opinionated birders. This time we welcome Tim Healy and Martha Harbison to talk about Trumpeter Swan introductions, the proper plural of binoculars, and whether the internet was a good thing for birders. Also, don't forget to bid on some great original bird art from our Bird of the Year program. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Have you ever had to describe birding to a friend or family member who just doesn't get it? What analogies do you use? Is birding like a religion? A sport? An obsession? In this encore episode from 2018, Guest host Greg Neise brings Birding editor Ted Floyd and young birder liaison Jennie Duberstein to bear on the issue in a rollicking discussion in an attempt to figure it out. Also, it looks like Nate is going to be at the ABA Community Weekend in Fort Meyers, Florida, next month! Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

The last Thursday of September means that it's time for another This Month in Birding, featuring friends from around the birding world gathering to talk about interesting bird news and science from the last month or so. This time around we welcome Frank Izaguirre, Andres Jimenez, and Sarah Swanson to talk about Barred Owls, baby cowbirds, and our favorite bird conservation success stories. Links to items discussed in this episode: Suddenly Birding Is the Hot-Girl Hobby of the Year Taking Action to Avoid Extinction: Successful Regional-Scale Lethal Control of Barred Owls Supports a Federal Strategy to Save Spotted Owls How a Parasitic Bird With No Parents Learns What Species It Is North American bird declines are driven by reductions in common species The surprising recovery of once-rare birds How many bird and mammal extinctions has recent conservation action prevented? Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

A Big Year is maybe the ultimate expression of birding obsession, with all the drama inherent to the effort. Brothers Quentin and Owen Reiser's attempt at a Big Year maybe most of all. It's the subject of their documentary, Listers, an attempt to throw themselves into the birding world through perhaps the most extreme expression of the hobby. It's profane, it's funny, it's honest, and it covers all aspects of the birding world, warts and all. Owen joins us to talk about the film and his experience undertaking what he calls a "fully dirtbag Big Year". Plus there's a companion book! Also, check out the ABA's biweekly What's This Bird show on YouTube! Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

For more than 40 year the National Geographic Field Guide has been an essential text in the library of US and Canadian birders. The venerable series is in its 8th edition now, published as East and West earlier this year and as as guide from coast to coast just recently. Ted Floyd, a regular on this podcast, is the author, but a field guide is only as good as its illustrations. Former Bird of the Year artist Andrew Guttenberg is the art coordinator for this series as it takes a turn into the 21st Century and he joins us to talk about it. Also, have you seen the new Listers documentary? Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Gray-headed Chickadee is certainly one of the most enigmatic species of breeding birds in the ABA Area. Though it is found broadly across northern Eurasian it was, until very recently, also known from an isolated breeding population in northern Alaska and far northwestern Canada. Those bird, long a bucket list objective for ABA Area birders, might be gone, and the reasons for that are unclear. Alaska birder and conservationist Brad Meiklejohn explores their disappearance in the Lost on the Frontier: The Mysterious Disappearance of North America's Rarest Breeding Bird, published in the July 2025 issue of Birding magazine, and he joins us to talk more about this avian mystery. Stay tuned for a publicly accessible version of this article. Also, the auction featuring some of our past Bird of the Year cover art is up and running! Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

It's This Month in Birding for August 2025 and, as we do at the end of every month, we've got a great panel of birders to discuss the month's birding news and scientific publications. Jason Hall, Mikko Jimenez, and Jordan Rutter join host Nate Swick to talk about grackle behavior, museums, and our very favorite penguins. Links to articles discussed in this episode: The Rodrigues parakeet's last day: What one extinct bird tells us about the role of museums Exploration and dispersal are key traits involved in rapid range expansion, urban bird study finds Conservation sweet spots: How protecting nature helps both birds and humans in the US Fighting isn't sexy in lekking greater sage-grouse: a relational event model approach for mating interactions Dagger beaks and strong wings: New fossils rewrite the penguin story and affirm NZ as a cradle of their evolution Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Every once in a while, Birding editor Ted Floyd drops in for for another episode of Random Birds. The Birding Gods smile on Ted and Nate's random number generator for an eclectic bunch of birds from warblers to gulls, and one incredibly apropos selection. The AOS Classification Committee decisions are in, and Michael Retter has all the changes to your list laid out at aba.org. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Bird tourism is booming, and in many parts of the world we've seen countries invest in conservation and tourism infrastructure to take advantage of it. Certainly birders are drawn by unique species, but perhaps our choices for bird-watching destinations have as much to do with other factors as they do with the presence of really great birds. It's the subject of a paper to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal People and Nature by Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela and Scott Winton, who join us to talk "bird capital" and birder wants. Also, a much loved birding hotspot in Fort Worth, Texas is closed indefinitely. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Writer Amy Tan is perhaps best known for her many novels including The Joy Luck Club and The Bonesetter's Daughter, exploring themes of identity, family, and the immigrant experience. Her newest book, however, explores something rather different. The Backyard Bird Chronicles is a collection of nature writing and sketching focuses on the many avian visitors to Amy's California backyard over a period of several years. The book was published in 2024, bit more recently Amy is the subject of an upcoming Birding magazine interview and The Backyard Bird Chronicles was recently reviewed in the magazine as well. She joins us to talk backyard birding and finding community among the birds and her nature sketching peers. Also, does a recent Salon commentary suggests a return to the "birders are weird" genre of writing? Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

The end of the month means This Month in Birding, and for July 2025 we've got a great panel of fun birders to discuss the month's birding news and scientific publications. Birders know Rebecca Heisman, Nick Lund, and Dexter Patterson for their great work in the birding world, and they join host Nate Swick to talk about hummingbird bills, drinking birds, and the best bird tribute to Ozzy Osbourne. Links to articles discussed in this episode: AvianLexiconAtlas: A database of descriptive categories of English-language bird names around the world A new study knocks down a popular hypothesis about why birds sing at dawn Bird feeders have caused a dramatic evolution of California hummingbirds Birds are consuming alcohol more often than we realized Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

The ABA's 2025 Bird of the Year Common Loon is beloved across the United States and Canada, and though we at the ABA will only celebrate it for a short time, there are other organizations that have made protection and awareness of Common Loons their reason for being. The National Loon Center in Crosslake, Minnesota, is one such organization. They aim to restore and protect loon habitat, enhance responsible recreation, and promote research and education of not only Common Loon, but the habitats they enjoy. Natasha Bartolotta is the Science and Stewardship Manager for the National Loon Center, and she joins us to talk about loon outreach and wetlands conservation. Also, urban Cooper's Hawks show surprisingly clever adaptations. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

The search for the perfect mnemonic is the bane of any field guide author, from Roger Tory Peterson to your podcast host. It's the part of writing about birds and birding that requires the most creativity, ans Nova Scotia author and artist Becca Rowland, The Girl in White Glasses, has come up with an entire book devoted to the weird and wonderful sounds birds make, and the weirdest and cleverest ways to describe those sounds. It's called Bird Talk: Hilariously Accurate Ways to Identify Birds by the Sounds they Make from Storey Publishing. She joins us to talk bird noises and bird community. Also, some thoughts about the new taxonomy at Avilist. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

The state of Hawaii's birds is a topic that is frequently front of mind to those of us who care about bird conservation, and on every island there are bird researchers and conservationists on the ground putting any number of conservation efforts into practice. Dr Hannah Mounce is the program manager of the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project, and she joins us to talk about some of the most pressing efforts on the island. Also, Nate finished his Breeding Bird Surveys and hopes that this isn't the last year for the venerable conservation project. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

The story of the Florida Scrub-Jay is one that encompasses many modern conservation angles and concerns. Local government, bedrock federal legislation, development, climate change, eBird, and at the center of it, a remarkable and friendly endemic bird species. Recent challenges to conservation efforts in Florida have prompted the public interest group Earthjustice to intervene to help defend protections for the Florida Scrub Jay and lead attorney Aaron Bloom joins us to to lay out the threats to the jays and to all endangered species, and how birders have helped to make his case. Also, the 2026 Young Birder of the Year Mentoring Program is open for registration! If you're a young birder, or you know a young birder, sign up now! Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

It's our 350th episode! And to celebrate, we've brought you a super-sized This Month in Birding, and not only because the panel of Jody Allair, Jennie Duberstein, and Martha Harbison had so much to say about truck-riding gulls, prehistoric birds, and the state of same-sex bird science. We hope you enjoy this summer-solstice sized episode. Links to articles mentioned in the episode: The First GPS Observation of a Western Gull (Larus occidentalis) Riding in a Long-Haul Garbage Transfer Truck Study Reveals Birds Nested in the Arctic During the Age of Dinosaurs Same-sex partnerships in birds: a review of the current literature and a call for more data Study reveals songbirds change flight patterns over Midwest's vast farmlands Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

You don't have to be a birder for a long time to appreciate that birds are capable of producing an astonishing array of colors and patterns, even those beyond what our weak human eyes can discern. Hidden in that avian rainbow are clues to bird taxonomy and evolution, which is the work of our guest Whitney Tsai Nakashima, a researcher at Occidental College's Moore Lab of Zoology. Also, great news for one of south Texas's best birding sites. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Break out your checklists and get ready for another summer of splits and lumps from the AOS North American Classification Committee. It's time for our annual look at the proposed changes to the bird lists, the longest running segment on this podcast. And for every single one of those episodes, we've turned to biologist and birder Dr Nick Block of Stonehill College in Massachusetts. It's an interesting set of proposals this year, with Warbling Vireo splits, titmouse lumps, and lots of genetic mayhem. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

An interesting study discussed on the monthly This Month in Birding segment led us to Miranda Zammarelli, a PhD student at Dartmouth who has taken 50 years of hand drawn paper maps of bird territories at a New Hampshire forest, collected over many years by Dartmouth students, and brought those maps into the modern era to learn about how bird territories ebb and flow over the seasons. It's a great story of how the path of discovery winds its way from one researcher to the next. Miranda joins us to talk about her work. If you'd like to see what the maps look like, check out this write-up about her project. Also, the Breeding Bird Survey and the Bird Banding Lab are set to be eliminated if a budget bill passes the US Senate, greatly threatening bird research not only in the US, but across the hemisphere. Learn more about it and what you can do. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

The end of May means, for many of us, the end of spring. But before this magical month is over we bring a great panel of birdy friends together to talk about some of the interesting bird news that has come across our vitual desks. Welcome Stephanie Beilke, Tim Healy, and Brodie Cass Talbott to talk birding without tech, warbler foraging strategies and the birds and bees, literally. Links to items discussed in this episode: The Wonders of Bird-Watching without Tech Crows understand shapes and use geometry in everyday life Foraging on the wing: How can ecologically similar birds live together? Where the wild bees are: Birds improve indicators of bee richness Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

The 2025 Biggest Week in American Birding is in the books and the American Birding Podcast was there to host a fun little game with a few friends. Test your luck with our birdy quiz featuring a quartet of Biggest Week birders and guides along with special guests Wendell Troutner and Tyler Ficker! We've got modified anagrams, Star Wars crossovers, and more! Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Nate is in Ohio for the Biggest Week, but hew had time to grab Birding editor Ted Floyd for another Random Birds before he headed off. Ted and Nate trust the random number generator to turn up some exciting birds for discussion including jaegers, pelicans, and shorebirds. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

When a person gets into birding they are not only confronted with a wide variety of wonderful and weird organisms but an equally wide variety of wonderful and weird terminology and jargon. It's enough to confuse even the most enthusiastic novice, but hankfully, bird cartoonist Rosemary Mosco of Bird and Moon is on the case with a new book called The Birding Dictionary. This very funny addition to the birding lexicon features definitions for everything from adorbler to zygodactyl illustrated with Rosemary's wonderful illustrations and she joins us to chat about the language of birders. Plus, let us know if you'll be at Biggest Week and want to participate in the American Birding Podcast bird quiz! Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

It's time for another This Month in Birding, this time for April, despite the fact that this episode technically comes out in May. That's bonus for May rather than a loss for April. Which is all the more appropriate because this is the time of year that we've all been waiting for. This tim around, we welcome Gabriel Foley, Frank Izaguirre, and Purbita Saha to talk bird study bias, hummingbird hives, and whether or not birds "sit". Links to articles discussed in this episode: Six-decade research bias towards fancy and familiar bird species Hummingbirds Living in a Hive Found for the First Time Angler perceptions of pelican entanglement reveal opportunities for seabird conservation on fishing piers in Tampa Bay Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Regular listeners to this podcast certainly know science writer Ryan Mandelbaum from their regular appearances on This Month in Birding. Those listeners who enjoy Ryan's wit and passion for wildlife will no doubt be exited to learn that Ryan has a new book, Wild NYC, a guidebook to nature observation in the United State's largest city. While birds are this podcast's focus, the city's nature bona fides cannot be denied, and Ryan chats about the incredible geology, botany, and subway ferns that can be found in The Big Apple. Also, the ABA is heading to the Biggest Week! We hope to see you there. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

A warmer and drier world means, unfortunately, a world in which wildfire becomes a greater risk. We know, all too well, the risk these fires pose to wild places, but there is surprisingly little we know about the risk to wildlife. That is the work of Dr. Olivia Sanderfoot, a researcher at UCLA looking at the impacts of wildfire smoke on wild birds and trying to answer a few of those increasingly relevant questions. Also, Nate is out of town and hoping to see Mississippi Kites. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

A deeply felt love of birds is something that can wind its way into all aspects of our lives. It is a journey that writer and pastor Courtney Ellis weaves into her most recent book, Looking Up: A Birder's Guide to Hope Through Grief, published last year and now available in audiobook. She is also the host of The Thing with Feathers podcast, available in a lot of the same places you can find this one. Also, the recent news about the "de-extinction" of an extinct wolf poses lots of questions for conservation. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Migrating warblers are heading back to our backyards and patches, and included among that wonderful diversity come the weirdo "winged" warblers, Golden and Blue, whose intermixed genetics have long been fascinating and confusing. We welcome Nick Block, professor of biology at Stonehill College in Massachusetts, as well as Matt Hale, professor of biology at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, the authors of an article covering the current state of winged warblers, published in the most recent issue of North American Birds to talk about them. Also, a Cuban dove is now the poster-bird for ancient biogeography. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

March 2025 brings another This Month in Birding featuring a panel of birding friends here to talk about the month's new bird news and get ready for spring. This time around we welcome Jennie Duberstein, Bird Joy Pod's Jason Hall, and Nicole Jackson to talk plastics in seabirds, new eyes on old maps, and the best bird to party with. Links to articles discussed in this episode: Fifty years of songbird maps take flight in new hands Plastic pollution leaves seabirds with brain damage similar to Alzheimer's, study shows How a hummingbird chick acts like a caterpillar to survive Coming off dry January, these birds are getting a little drunk Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

The State of the Birds is a report put out by a veritable who's who of bird-related non-profit organizations, with the goal of sharing the current state, both positive and negative, of bird populations and bird conservation intiatives in the United States. The 2025 report builds on on the last incationation of the SOTB, but unfortunately finds many of the same issues vexing birds and bird conservation. In a podcast crossover episode with Mike Braesher of Ducks Unlimited and the Ducks Unlimited Podcast, the ABA welcomes Mike, Amanda Rodewald of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Bradley Wilkinson of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies to talk about the report, and what birders can continue to do to support bird science and bird conservation. Also, the recent loss of birding lunimary Victor Emmanuel stung many in the bird world. We celebrate him here. For more, see Pete Dunne's essay on Victor's legacy on the ABA website. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Birding editor Ted Floyd is back for another edition of Random Birds. Ted and Nate talk about avocets, sparrows, and more with the help of a random number generator and a big list of birds. Plus, some talk about the brand-new National Geographic guides written by Ted Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Birders know about Big Data. We're all familiar with eBird and the Avian Knowledge Network, but the Christmas Bird Count or the Breeding Bird Survey are giant pools of data that inform everything from conservation decisions to where to spend time tomorrow morning. But how can we use that data to encourage new birders or convince policy-makers to care about birds. It's something data artist Jer Thorp likes to think about. He is among other things, the New York Time's first Data Artist in residence, and the creator of Bincoulars and Binomials and the author of the upcoming We Were Out Counting Birds. Also, a new discovery about bird brains could have huge impacts about what we can learn about bird intelligence. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

February brings an all-star lineup to This Month in Birding, with long-time friends Jody Allair, Nick Lund, and Jordan Rutter joining us to talk about all manner of birdy topics. The panel discuss the latest birding news including bird communication, low-impact journals, snakeskin in bird nests, and our favorite signs of spring, even if the season itself seems far off. Also, our 2025 slate of ABA Community Weekends is up. Come join us this year! LInks to items discussed this month: Evaluating biotic and abiotic drivers of avian community mobbing responses along urban gradients in Southern California Snakeskin Isn't Just a Fashion Statement for Birds Want to get a species protected? Publish in a small, niche journal Songbirds socialize on the wing during migration, study suggests Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

The broader birding community was first introduced to Christian Cooper though the documentary The Central Park Effect, where he featured as one of eclectic crew of Central Park birders. Since then, his memoir, Better Living Through Birding and his Emmy-winning NatGeo program Extraordinary Birder, have seen his star only rise. His most recent project is a children's book, once again focusing on Central Park called The Urban Owls: How Flaco and Friends Made the City Their Home, written by Cooper and illustrated by Kristen Adam. He joins me today to talk books, television, and what Central Park means to him. Also, recent federal funding freezes and firings will likely have large impacts on birds and birders. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

It's time to talk 2024 ABA Area Rarities! This episode is our annual attempt to look back on all the exciting rare bird observations and trends of the previous year. It ended up being a very good year for rarities and North American Birds editor Amy Davis and educator and writer at The Nemesis Bird Tim Healy are here to share their favorites. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

We love a good field guide around these parts. The more unique, the better. Phil Chaon and Iain Campbell have certainly done that with their new book, Habitats of North America; A Field Guide for Birders, Naturalists, and Ecologists. It's a spin-off of sorts, from their 2021 book Habitats of the World and is a deep and detailed look at some of the place that we love to bird and experience nature. They join us to talk about why birders should pay attention to habitats, but also why birds are the perfect proxy for learning about habitats. Also, USAID is one of the most effective conservation agencies in the US government, and its loss would be tragic for birders, birders, and biodiversity. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Welcome to the new year! For this month's This Month in Birding, we welcome an all star panel of naturalists and writers to talk about the month's bird news. Rebecca Heisman, Dexter Patterson, and Sarah Swanson join host Nate Swick to talk about loons, mosquito killing birds, cold weather birding tips, and much more! Links to items discussed in this episode: A focus on females can improve science and conservation Coated seeds turn birds into mosquito-killing machines Drivers of agricultural producers' tolerance towards less-charismatic avian species Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

For many of us, an interest in birds and nature started with an interest in dinosaurs. Which is approriate since that's the path modern birds took when they became birds. We still don't know a lot about how dinosaurs looked and lived, but it stands to reason that if one were looking to recreate things that came before and are no longer with us that you would want to look at their closest living relatives. That is, in fact what my guest Christopher DiPiazza, of Prehistoric Beast of the Week, is all about. He is a middle school teacher and a dinosaur educator, but also a birder and paleoartist. We talk about the overlap between bird science and dino science and how he creates prehistoric art based on the birds he watches. Also, are you getting burnt out on social media? Perhaps give ABA Community a try! Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

It's cold outside and that calls for some hot birding takes. We've collected some for another edition of Take It or Leave It, the discussion panel for the most opinionated birders. This time we welcome Chris Sloan and Martha Harbison to talk about mentorship in the internet age, whether birders underappreciate Canada, and what would it take to get back to the old rarity phone trees. Also, the ABA is not the only organization with a Bird of the Year in 2025. Let's celebrate some more! Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Modern optics give birders the opportunities to feel as though they are up close and personal with the bird we watch, but nothing we experience through binoculars compares to the experience with birds that wildlife rehabbers get to enjoy. Rehabilitators not only get to know birds on the individual level, but they get broader insight into the impacts of humans on bird populations as well. Tim Jasinski is a Wildlife Rehabilitation Specialist at the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center in Bay Village, Ohio. He oins us to talk about his experiences working with birds near Cleveland. Also, Purple Martins will be heading northward soon, but the number of landlords waiting for them continues to decline. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

2025 is the year of the Common Loon here at the American Birding Association! Our 2025 Bird of the Year artist, Sam Zimmerman, gets to appreciate these birds frequently from his home in northern Minnesota. He is an artist, author and educator whose work explores the landscapes and creatures of the western Great Lakes, with an eye towards capturing and preserving stories from his Ojibwe heritage. His Common Loon art is featured on the cover of an upcoming issue of Birding magazine. He joins us to launch the Year of the Loon with stories about his own experiences and insight into his art. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Thanks for another great year here at the American Birding Podcast. To close out 2024 we host another This Month in Birding panel featuring Jennie Duberstein, Mikko Jimenez, and Brodie Cass Talbott who join Nate to talk about bird brains, CBC memories, and old albatrosses. Plus, we make our predictions for what to look forward to in the bird world in 2025. Links to items discussed in this episode: World's oldest known wild bird is expecting again, aged 74 Experiments show backyard birds learn from their new neighbors when moving house Study suggests there's no incentive for older birds to make new friends Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it! And don't forget to give to the ABA's End of Year Appeal! Thanks!

Roughly a quarter of chocolate sales in the US and the UK occur around the holidays at the end of the year. And if you are listening to this podcast, you are statistically almost certain to be participating. What does that have to do with birds? Well, like coffee before it, chocolate now comes in a bird friendly version. It's the subject of a recent article in Birdwatcher's Digest by Bryony Angell a Washington based birder and writer on birding culture. She joins us to talk about what that certification means for birds and chocolate-lovers alike. Also, congratulations to the full slate of 2024 ABA Awards recipients and thanks for all you do for the birding community. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it! And don't forget to give to the ABA's End of Year Appeal! Thanks!

It's the Birding Book Club's biggest meeting of the year!. We're back again to do our annual Best Bird Books of the Year episode for 2024. There's no better time to give the gift of bird books to the birder in your life. And why not something for yourself while you're at it? Nate Swick is joined by 10,000 Birds book reviewer Donna Schulman and Birding magazine media and book review editor Rebecca Minardi to talk about what we loved this exceptional year in bird books. Links to out lists can be found on the ABA Podcast website. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it! And don't forget to give to the ABA's End of Year Appeal! Thanks!

The humble Rock Pigeon can provide some interesting insights into how natural selection is impacted by the urban environment. That is the work of Elizabeth Carlen, a former PhD candidate at Fordham University in New York City and the lead author of a recent article in Evolutionary Applications that looks at genetic connectivity of Rock Pigeons populations in various cities in the Northeast United States. She joins host Nate Swick to talk about the unique issues with studying urban Rock Pigeons. Also, how geotagged gulls are like Thanksgiving celebrations. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it! And don't forget to join the ABA to support this podcast and the many things we do for birds and birders!

Birding editor Ted Floyd is back for another episode of Random Birds. Ted and Nate talk turkey, and lots of other birds, with the help of a random number generator and a big list of birds. Also, Slender-billed Curlew has been declared extinct. What does it tell us about bird conservation? Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it! And don't forget to join the ABA to support this podcast and the many things we do for birds and birders!

On Veteran's Day, here in the United States, we commemorate military veterans of the US Armed Forces, and this Veteran's Day we at the American Birding Podcast commemorate the work done by the Department of Defense to protect and conserve out national natural heritage. People might not realize that the US Department of Defense is one of the largest land-owners in the country, and on that land live a number of birds of conservation concern that are monitored and protected by US military personnel. Dr Rich Fischer is the national coordinator of the Department of Defense Partners in Flight and the lead for the US Army Corp of Engineers Threatened and Endangered Species Team, and he joins us to talk about endangered birds on military installations. Also, it could be a really exciting winter for White-winged Crossbills. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it! And don't forget to join the ABA to support this podcast and the many things we do for birds and birders!

The friendly and familiar chickadees are endearing yard birds in nearly all parts of the ABA Area, but there is more than meets the eye for these feeder friends, especially in places where two species interact. Chickadees and chickadee hybrids are allowing researchers to ask some fascinating questions about hybrid fitness, evolution, and climate change. Drs Amber Rice of Lehigh University and Scott Taylor of the University of Colorado-Boulder are exploring some of these questions with Carolina, Black-capped, and Mountain Chickadees and they join us to talk about their findings and the program they've developed for secondary students. Also, more on smart feeders from Nate's backyard. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it! And don't forget to join the ABA to support this podcast and the many things we do for birds and birders!

It's spooky season for birders and for this month's TMIB panel we've assembled a most terrifying group of birders to discuss this month's birding and ornithology news. Jason Hall, Nick Lund, and Purbita Saha join host Nate Swick to talk Canad Geese, vagrancy science, and couples costumes for birders. Links to items discussed in this episode: Offshore vagrancy in passerines is predicted by season, wind-drift, and species characteristics Love island: Bird's refusal to leave resort life leads to genetic change Get to Know the Misunderstood Canada Goose Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it! And don't forget to join the ABA to support this podcast and the many things we do for birds and birders!