The American Birding Podcast

It's the last Thursday of the month and that means it's time once again for This Month in Birding. This month's esteemed panel this month has more of a western bent, significantly pulling the mean location of panelists a little bit closer to the Mississippi River at least. We welcome Canada-based bird educator and researcher Jody Allair , ABA Young-birder liaison and Sonoran Joint Venture coordina...

Birders on the mainland of the US and Canada have no shortage of options when it comes to field guides. Our friends in Hawaii, however, have not had such luxuries despite being home to some of the world's most spectacular birds. Now that Hawaii is included in the ABA Area, interest in the islands among birders is high, and the need for a good field guide was dire. Helen and André Raine have create...

If there's one thing that this year has taught birders, its how to appreciate your immediate surroundings. The cancellation of festivals, international trips, and even many local bird walks and meetings has encouraged us to be more present and local. It's something that Vermont naturalist Bridget Butler has been pushing for a long time as part of her "Slow Birding" initiative . She joins host Nate...

In 2020 birders have taken to the internet in droves, but the adoption of perhaps the history's most profound technological advancement by birders hasn't been entirely smooth. In all those fits and starts, one person who has been here since the beginning has been Mike Bergin.  Mike's blog, 10,000 Birds , which he now shares with Corey Finger, has been a nearly constant presence in the birdosphere...

Every bird organization on the planet encourages bird-friendly coffee, but what does that mean, why are there so many bird-friendly standards, and why is it so important for migratory birds? Dr. Ruth Bennett of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center has the answers. She's an avian ecologist with the Smithsonian Bird Friendly habitat initiative which works to optimize bird diversity in commercial co...

John James Audubon is frequently referred to with reverence as the father of the North American ornithology, and has a public reputation that is nearly impeccable. He has birds named after him, the country's best known bird organization has his name, and is widely acknowledged as both a skilled painter and the best of the gentleman naturalists of the 19th century. But not so fast, says ornithologi...

Birders are undoubtedly familiar with the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, at least by name, and recent proposed changes to that venerable piece of conservation legislation by the Trump Administration have environmental groups concerned about the long-term impacts on birds. Tykee James , host of On Word for Wildlife , a wildlife and politics podcast on the Wildlife Observer Network , and a government af...

When it comes to bird conservation in North America, there are so many groups that need to be engaged. You've got government agencies from many nations alongside multiple non-profits all invested in protecting birds. But how do they know to coordinate efforts, to spread their influence, or at least, how not to get in each other's way? Into this space comes the North American Bird Conservation Init...

It's This Month in Birding, a panel discussion covering the best bird news we might have missed here at the ABP for the last month. This episode features a panel of science writers and birders, Ryan Mandelbaum of IBM and Gizmodo, Purbita Saha of Popular Science and The Birdist Nick Lund ! We cover Black Birders Week, Female Bird Day, murder loons, politics that birders needs to watch out for, and...

Following birder Christian Cooper's encounter with a racist white woman in Central Park on Memorial Day, a group of Black birders and naturalists created #BlackBirdersWeek, an online event to celebrate Black naturalists and scientists and to draw attention to the unique issues birding can pose to Black people. Co-organizers Corina Newsome and Tykee James join host Nate Swick to talk about what the...

It's split and lump season again. And that means Dr. Nick Block, professor of Biology at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts and Secretary of the ABA's Recording Standards and Ethics Committee, is back on the podcast. He joins host Nate Swick  to talk Northwestern Crow, Great White Heron, messy duck genetics, and scrub-less jays.  #BlackBirdersWeek was last week! Don't miss the Birding whil...

David Sibley hardly needs an introduction to the ABA's audience. He is the author and illustrator of what is the most popular field guide in North America, and the one simply known by his name - The Sibley Guide , now in its second edition. David has a new book out earlier this year, What It's Like to Be a Bird: What Birds are doing and Why – from Flying to Nesting, Eating to Singing . It is a loo...

The American Birding Podcast brings you This Month in Birding, a panel discussion covering the best bird news we might have missed here at the ABP for the last month. This episode features a panel of birding podcasts, Sean Milnes of Fowl Mouths Podcast and Sarah Bloemers and Mo Stych of Bird Sh't . It's a conversation that covers the gamut from Piping Plover love and the best birding clothes to Fa...

More than ever, birders are turning their attention to the birds immediately outside their front door, and for millions of North Americans there is scarcely a more ubiquitous bird than the feral Rock Pigeon. But that humble Rock Pigeon can provide some interesting insights into how natural selection is impacted by the urban environment. In fact, that is the work of Elizabeth Carlen , a PhD candida...

In recent years it has seemed as though doing an ABA Area Big Year means that you have to write a book about it, but the form's roots can be traced to Roger Tory Peterson himself. What makes them so popular? Are they travelogue, sporting conquest, adventure, or some combination? Or is the appeal as simple as wish fulfillment? 10,000 Birds media reviewer Donna Schulman and Birding magazine media re...

Welcome to the new weekly American Birding Podcast! Jennifer Ackerman is the New York Times best-selling author and essayist who wrote The Genius of Birds and a great many other science books. Her newest, out this week, is The Bird Way: A New Look at how Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think . It's a companion to that much loved earlier book, exploring the many creative, novel, and bizarre way...

The COVID-19 crisis has forced us all to take stock of how we do everything, and birding and birding community events are hardly unique. It's impossible to think about anything else so we just decided to devote an entire episode to it. Host Nate Swick is joined by Brodie Cass Talbott, an educator from Portland Audubon , in Portland, Oregon, who have been adapting to this situation in novel ways, a...

It's hard to step out your backdoor these days without being overwhelmed by birdsong. Spring is easing northward across the continent and with it, an increase in the activities of birds. Few people know this like ornithologist and author Donald Kroodsma, professor emeritus or ornithology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the author of a great many books on bird vocalizations. He jo...

The world of bird rehabilitation is a unique aspect of the way that people interact with birds, and those that do the dirty work of helping wild birds get back to normal following scrapes with human things get an up close and personal look at birds that many of us just look at through binoculars or scopes. Birding Magazine Associate Editor Ioana Seritan does just that in her day job. She's a Wildl...

Of the 1116 species on the ABA checklist, around 50 are what we classify as "non-native". These are species from other parts of the world introduced either to the North American mainland or, frequently, to Hawaii. The ABA has always tried to keep track of those non-native species through our checklist committee, and whether or not these populations can be counted on an ABA list is always a hot top...

Many states and provinces are increasingly interested in tackling a comprehensive survey of the birds in their regions. With the help help of technology, this ambitious undertaking is more achievable than ever. Maybe you've heard of Breeding Bird Atlases. Maybe you've participated in them in the past. But it's easy to get involved with this important conservation and natural history initiative. Ga...

When we seek out to bird with others, it is to share in the joy of birds. Whether intended or not, along the way we build a sense of community. In order to appreciate that joy to its fullest, we shouldn't have to worry about who we are or be second guessing our most basic actions around others in that community. And it's that concept, that birding is an extension of our true selves, that prompted...

We're back to the Bird of the Year basics for 2020-- Cedar Waxwing ! While the past two ABA Birds of the Year have been extremely range restricted (Iiwi 2018) or a vagrant to the ABA Area (Red-billed Tropicbird 2019), the 2020 Bird of the Year is truly a bird of the people. The Cedar Waxwing is an exquisite example of North American birddom and a favorite of so many birders in the US, Canada, and...

When birders think of southeastern Arizona, they think of hummingbirds. And when they think of hummingbirds, they think of Sheri Williamson. The author of the Peterson Field Guide to Hummingbirds of North America and director of the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory, she played a crucial role in protecting one of the region's most beloved birding hotspots, the Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary. She ta...

The end of 2019 means that we're coming to the end of the ABA's 50 th , looking forward to the our next 50. Any big milestone encourages taking stock of where you've been, where you're going. And here at the ABA we've been doing a lot of that internally, and in our various publications this year. But to sort of close the book on these 50 years we bring you a conversation about the ABA at 50 and be...