The American Birding Podcast

Latest Episodes:

07-23: 2023 Splits and Lumps with Nick Block Jun 08, 2023

Show notes

It's split and lump season again, and that means that we turn to our friend Nick Block, professor of Biology at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. He's the person we talk to when it comes to predicting the decisions of the American Ornithological Society's North America Classification Committee. It's another busy slate for this summer including a possible Western Flycatcher lump, splits to Northern Goshawk and Hepatic Tanager and more.

Also Black Birders Week wraps up another great year. And don't forget to sign up for our ABA Community Weekend in San Francisco, California, next weekend!

Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

07-22: For the Love of Birds Jun 01, 2023

Show notes

On May 19, 2023, the ABA and the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University hosted the For the Love of Birds panel as part of the Academy's Cheryl Beth Silverman lecture series. If you weren't able to join us in Philadelphia, we're excited to share it with you as a podcast. Panelists Holly Merker, Anwar Abdul-Qawi, and American Birding Podcast host Nate Swick talk about birding and the bird community with moderator Maurice Baynard.

Also, join Nate in San Francisco the weekend of June 17 for the next ABA Community Weekend.

And don't forget to donate to the ABA's Nesting Season Appeal.

Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

07-21: This Month in Birding - May 2023 May 25, 2023

Show notes

It's the last Thursday of the month of May and that means it is time to bring on a panel of birding friends to talk about bird news and goings on on the American Birding Podcast. And it's another excellent panel this month featuring Mollee Brown, Nicole Jackson, and Ryan Mandelbaum talking Lesser Prairie-Chicken delisting, fire loving birds, and bird safe windows among other things.

LInks to topics discussed in this episode:

House committee votes to delist the Lesser Prairie-Chicken

Incorporating pyrodiversity into wildlife habitat assessments for rapid post-fire management: A woodpecker case study

230K birds die annually by smashing into NYC windows. A new bill aims to save them.

Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

07-20: Halcyon Kingfisher Journeys with Marina Richie May 18, 2023

Show notes

Despite being such a charismatic bird, there are very few books about our 2023 Bird of the Year Belted Kingfisher, but this week's guest Marina Richie has written one. Her 2022 title, Halcyon Journey: In Search of the Belted Kingfisher documents the seven years she spent watching a pair of kingfishers near her home in Missoula, Montana, and her relationship with the birds and with herself. She also writes about it in an upcoming issue of Birding magazine

Also, Nate is back from the Biggest Week in American Birding

Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

07-19: The Big Year that Flew By with Arjan Dwarshuis May 11, 2023

Show notes

In 2016, Arjan Dwarshuis undertook a massive birding year that took him from his home in the Netherlands to 6 continents, 41 countries, and just over 6,800 species of birds. His global big year was a massive feat, breaking the record set, at the time, by Noah Strycker only a year earlier. He wrote about his adventure in a book, and forgive me for this, Een bevlogan jaar, translated this year into Egnlish as The Big Year that Flew By. He joins us to look back on that year.

Also, join Nate for a panel discussion in Philadelphia next week! And listeners can support this podcast and the ABA's programs and missions by contributing to our 2023 Nesting Season Appeal.

Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

07-18: The New Pyle Guide is Here with Peter Pyle! May 04, 2023

Show notes

2023 ABA Lifetime Achievement Awardee Peter Pyle has probably been one of the most influential American ornithologists of the last few decades. His Identification Guide to North American Birds, informally known as "the Pyle Guides", are widely known as the banding bible, and remain some of the most informative and intimidating bird books on birders' shelves. The much anticipated second edition of which came out this year. But the's also the chair of the ABA Checklist Committee, and was central to the effort to shepherd the birds of the Hawaiian Islands, at long last, onto the ABA Checklist. He joins us to talk about the new books, checklist committees, and Hawaii.

Also, join us in Philadelphia next weekend for an event with the Drexel University Academy of Natural Sciences.

Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

07-17: This Month in Birding - April 2023 Apr 27, 2023

Show notes

It is the most exciting time of year for birders in the ABA Area so it seems only fitting to celebrate it with an exciting group of panelists for April's This Month in Birding. Host Nate Swick is joined by Jennie Duberstein, Andrés Jimenez, and Jordan Rutter to talk about vulture love, nature TikTok, and Night Parrot skulls. Come for the spring migration talk and stay for the bird personality profiles. Also, don't forget to sign up for our first ABA Community Weekend!

Links to articles discussed in this episode:

They're Not Pretty, but Turkey Vultures Have Grace

TikTok's Falco tinnunculus: Getting to Know Urban Wildlife through Social Media

CT scans offer insights on Australia's rare Night Parrot

Flamingoes have big personalities—and their friendships prove it

Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

07-16: Creating a Kingfisher Mascot with Spencer Wilken Apr 20, 2023

Show notes

The sporting world is full of bird mascots. While there are countless eagles, hawks, and cardinals there are no, so far as we know, Belted Kingfishers. But that might change thanks to the efforts of students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This flagship university has a mascot vacancy that, according to guest Spencer Wilken, should be filled by our 2023 Bird of the Year. Spencer's story is featured in the April 2023 issue of Birding and she joins us to talk about the peculiar politics of bird mascots.

Also, the bird flu pandemic hits California Condors.

Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

07-15: Antpittas and Adventure in Colombia Apr 13, 2023

Show notes

There's no place on Earth like Colombia. One of the world's only "megadiverse" nations, Colombia boasts friendly people, stunning landscapes, and absolutely mind-blowing birds. In this encore episode, host Nate Swick and Colombian birders Diego Calderón (The Birders Show) and Eliana Ardila (Birding by Bus) travel through the Colombian Central Andes and explore what makes this place so amazing for birders, and how nature tourism is making a positive impact on the lives of so many people there.

Also, a throw back to the very first episode and Nate's very first trip to Colombia.

Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

07-14: How to Identify Flycatchers with Cin-Ty Lee & Andrew Birch Apr 06, 2023

Show notes

Birders have long considered the tyrant flycatchers, in particular the Empidonax species and Pewees to be one of the most difficult identification concerns in North America. Author Cin-Ty Lee and illustrator Andrew Birch seek to calm the fears of frustrated birders across the ABA Area with their new Field Guide to North American Flycatchers: Empidonax and Pewees, out just in time for spring migration. They join host Nate Swick to talk about what birders need to know about this group of birds.

Also, join us for an ABA Community Weekend! Our first one is in Toronto, Ontario later this month!

Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts, and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

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