The American Birding Podcast

Science writer Ed Yong was an invaluable resource for many of us navigating the strange pandemic landscape. His writing about Covid-19 at  The Atlantic earned him a Pulitzer Prize, but left him looking for an outlet to recalibrate after that anxiety-ridden period. Inspired by his own writing in his book, An Immense World, he turned to bird-watching despite not expecting to be any good at it. It ha...

2026 is officially the year of the Horned Lark ! This dapper little songbird can be found just about everywhere in the ABA Area, and we're excited to put a spotlight on it this year as our Bird of the Year for 2026. As is tradition, the species is featured on the January issue of the ABA's Birding magazine, depicted by Indiana artist  Kristina Knowski , who bird art afficianados might know from he...

Jody Allair, Martha Harbison, and Rebecca Heisman join host Nate Swick for the last American Birding Podcast episode of the year, with a wide-ranging discussion of some of the latest bird and birding news. The panel talks warbler hybrids, vacant lots, and how to best yell at gulls among other things! Thanks for a great year! Also, don't forget to join the ABA for our 2026 Bird of the Year reveal o...

We get one more go-round with the list and the random number generator for 2025 as Ted Floyd joins host Nate Swick to talk about, well, whatever birds we randomly turn up. This Random Birds covers an impressivley random suite of birds with kites, warblers, waders, and flycatchers all on the agenda.  Also, ABA membership makes a great holiday gift! Subscribe to the podcast at  Apple Podcasts ,  Spo...

Central America is home to five great tropical forests, whose presence and protection are critical to the conservation of just about every one of our neotropical migrant birds. It is the subject of a recent study from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Wildlife Conservation Society published last month in the journal Biological Conservation. Anna Lello-Smith, bird conservation scientist from t...

The Birding Book Club is back again to do our annual Best Bird Books of the Year episode for 2025. 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...

Happy Thanksgiving! At the ABA, we're thankful for birders - their passion, their deep knowledge base, and the willingness of some to come on the American Birding Podcast to discuss recent bird science and news. This month we welcome Stephanie Beilke, Tim Healy, and Ryan Mandelbaum to talk corvid mimicry, gator loving grebes, and the best birds to assign to all those other holidays.  Links to arti...

What do birding and board games have in common? More than you'd expect! Birder and game designer Elizabeth Hargrave has made it a mission to bring these two things together and her bird-themed game  Wingspan  does just that. Wingspan has been covered by the  New York Times ,  Smithsonian,  and  Science magazine among other places and has managed to elicit interest at a time when enthusiasm among t...

Smithsonian researcher Roxie Laybourne may be the most influential ornithologist you've never heard of. Over the more than half a century she was a pioneering figure in the fields of forensics and aviation, all through her work with birds, and, more specifically, their feathers. Her incredible life is documented by journalist Chris Sweeney in the book, The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem, and t...

Can the various mating rituals, displays, and behaviors of birds apply to the lives of humans in the 21 st Century, with our own uniue rituals, displays and behaviors? It's a question that birder and writer Bryony Angell asks as she approached her own renewed dating life in an article The Migratory Suiter , published in the most recent issue of BWD. In doing so, she enlists the help of Dr Wenfei T...

The last Thursday of the month means it's time for This Month in Birding, our round table discussion with birding friends about news in birding and ornithology. This week we welcome Jennie Duberstein, Nick Lund, and Brodie Cass Talbott to discuss casual eBirding, hybrid Jays, and what bird to patronize on Halloween night.  Links to articles discussed in this episode: The relaxed birder The Unexpec...

It's hard to overstate in influence of Cornell's Merlin on the growth of birding over the last few years.  What began as a simple tool for helping people to identify bird photos has become so much more, reaching millions of nature enthusiasts and even some celebrities. Miyoko Chu. Senior Director of Science Communitcations at the Lab, and Alli Smith, Project Coordinator for Merlin, join us to talk...

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 Pod...

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 binocu...

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 lik...

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 t...

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 a...

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 8 th 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...

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. Ala...

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 d...

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...

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 upcom...

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 peri...

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...

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 re...