Life List: A Birding Podcast

Latest Episodes:

LISTERS: Inside the extreme birdwatching documentary with Owen and Quentin Reiser Sep 06, 2025

Show notes

We’re talking with Quentin and Owen, the filmmakers and brothers behind Listers: the indie documentary that’s both absurd and profound, and probably the funniest thing ever made about birding.

Highlights of our chat include:

How a family field guide, a bong, and a road trip turned into a continent-spanning big year
The van life: Cracker Barrel parking lots, Michelin-star minivan meals
Filming birds and birders like never before
The birding culture: from playback ethics to all-nighters to chase birds
What it’s like to make the birding movie everyone’s talking about

Come for the NyQuil-fueled ivory-billed woodpecker quest…stay for the most joyful, profane, and heartfelt celebration of birding we didn’t know we needed!

Links:

Watch Listers, free on YouTube
Buy the book: Field Guide of All the Birds We Found One Year in the United States by Quentin Reiser and Owen Reiser

Get more Life List by subscribing to our newsletter and joining our Patreon for bonus content. Talk to us and share your topic ideas at lifelistpodcast.com.
Thanks to Kowa Optics for sponsoring our podcast! Want to know more about us? Check out George's company, Hillstar Nature; Alvaro's company, Alvaro's Adventures, and Mollee's company, Nighthawk Agency, to see more about what we're up to.

Late summer birding: movements, migration, and surprises Aug 23, 2025

Show notes

The biggest surprise of all might be that George is learning to love summertime at home. We are chatting about birds and critters in our patches and recent travels, plus about books, media, and pizza.

By the way, you can learn more about Frontiers in Ornithology at https://frontiersinornithology.com/.

Come for the sightings that surprised us lately...stay for a slice of August birding joy!

Finding rare Alaskan birds and more wildlife encounters with Alex Harper and Phil Chaon Aug 09, 2025

Show notes

How to find rare birds with Jen Brumfield Jul 26, 2025

Show notes

This episode is a blast—and full of stuff you'll want to remember! George and Alvaro interview the legendary birder of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and beyond: Jen Brumfield. They dive into all it takes to be a rarity-finding machine, and then put their advice through a detailed walkthrough of jaeger identification. We always say it...this hour passed by too quickly.

Come for the gales and gulls… stay for the unabashed joy of birding!

Bird chases, misses, and surprises...and what birders can't let go of Jul 12, 2025

Show notes

This is what we do, folks! George and Alvaro are sharing the stories from the field and their yards, discussing scientific and hobbyist news in the birding world, and sharing travel tales. And karaoke dos and don'ts. And a skunk saga that seems to have included. Hang out with us for a spell!

Svalbard dreams and birds you wait a lifetime for Jul 01, 2025

Show notes

We're all here—Mollee, George, and Alvaro—to catch up on birding and nature stories from home and Alvaro's adventures spanning oceans...and two Great White Norths! Yup, with our usual dose of wildlife weirdness, too.

Highlights include:

An incredible polar bear sighting alongside Ivory Gulls and (cue Alvaro's scream) Ross's Gulls
Birding in Svalbard, Norway, and Finland
Pelagic reports from the Farallon Islands
Skunks, tomato juice, and what actually helps when your dog gets sprayed
Yard list joys and surprises—from mulberries to Least Bitterns
Plus, read about Cory's Least Bittern here

Come for the booby stakeouts and skunk drama…stay for the midnight sun, polar silence, and birding in life’s liminal spaces.

AviList: the new Global Avian Checklist and its effects on bird taxonomy with Marshall Iliff and Frank Rheindt Jun 14, 2025

Show notes

You like splits and lumps? Thinking about the intricacies of global taxonomy? Oh boy, are you in for a treat!

George and Alvaro sat down with Marshall Iliff and Frank Rheindt, two members of the AviList Core Team, to take a deep dive into what’s just been released: AviList, the Global Avian Checklist!

Learn how the process got started, what’s happened in the years it’s been in the making, and how decisions were made bird-by-bird. Plus, hear how the four existing global checklists—including IOC, eBird/Clements, and Birdlife—will align with Avilist (spoiler alert: it’s a global merge!).

We're exploring the importance of collaboration among various taxonomic committees, the challenges of aligning different naming conventions, and the significance of evidence in making taxonomic decisions.

AviList has just officially launched, and you can learn all about it at avilist.org.

Come for this special interview that takes an intricate look at the world’s bird taxonomy…stay for the splits!

Global conservation and the Birdfair that started a movement with Tim Appleton Jun 02, 2025

Show notes

This episode, we're catching up with Tim Appleton: co-founder of Global Birdfair and lifelong conservationist...and who possibly has the UK's best yard list.

Highlights of our chat include:

How one idea became the world’s largest nature tourism and bird conservation gathering—and what makes it unique
125 species and counting from Tim's Rutland cottage overlooking a reservoir he helped design
How Tim helped reintroduce breeding ospreys to England
The goals of Global Birding and Global Bird Weekends
Conservation results from Borneo to the Falklands, murals to migration corridors, and saving seabirds from longlines

Links:

Come for the whiskey tent stories… stay for the message of passion-driven conservation!

Deep-diving wild India: backyard leopards & a king-cobra's hiss with Surya Ramachandran May 17, 2025

Show notes

We caught up with our friend Surya Ramachandran: Indian naturalist, author, big-cat tracker, and awesome guy.

Highlights of our chat include:

Home patch leopards: Surya’s Nilgiri backyard hosts a multigenerational family of both black and rosetted leopards that he's watched closely for years
Snow-leopard obsession: why eight straight winters in Ladakh still haven’t dulled the thrill of the ghost of the Himalayas
King-cobra lore: nest-building serpents, roadside rescues, and the eerie pressure-cooker hiss they can emit
Himalayan lowland magic: the diversity of Assam’s Kaziranga–Manas–Nameri circuit—and why March should be peak time for Bengal floricans, Finn’s weavers, and maybe even tiger...
Life List tour: details on the 2026 Life List Assam Safari, with optional Taj Mahal/Bharatpur pre-trip and Kanha tiger post-extension
Field-guide series update: Surya’s next book covers India’s deserts, salt pans, and forests of Western India

Come for the leopard cubs and king-cobra growls...stay for the tips on getting to see the best of India's birds and animals!

Weird science and birding through life changes May 03, 2025

Show notes

Our travels have recently taken us across Costa Rica, Cuba, Argentina, Chile, and Tanzania — so it's high time for a catch-up! In this episode, George, Alvaro, and Mollee swap stories from the field, from color-changing marlins to Galápagos rail rediscoveries to grizzly bear rewilding efforts.

We also talk about how birds pick up dozens of local names (hello, timberdoodle!) and how birding stays with you even during major life changes. Yep, one of us is making an international move.

Come for the octopus escapes and marlin flash mobs, stay for a conversation about how birding threads through every part of life.

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