The American Birding Podcast

Latest Episodes:

07-13: This Month in Birding - March 2023 Mar 30, 2023

Show notes

Spring is in the air in March, at least theoretically across much of the ABA Area. And the last Thursday of the montg means This Month in Birding, our monthy panel discussion the covers all the important and not-so-important bits of birding news from the month that was. This month's panel features Brodie Cass Talbott and Sarah Swanson from Portland Audubon and aeroecologist Mikko Jimenez talking Audubon's name, Bell Bowl Prairie, and what to do about the famous Flaco the Eagle-Owl.

Links to stories discussion in this episode:

National Audubon Society Announces Decision to Retain Current Name

U.S. birds' Eastern, Western behavior patterns are polar opposites

Priceless Bell Bowl Prairie Demolished in Rockford

Latin American and Caribbean researchers detail colonialism in ornithology

Flaco, Central Park Zoo Owl, Tastes Freedom and Isn't Rushing to Return

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07-12: The Rise of Birding Culture in Colombia with Jose Martinez Mar 23, 2023

Show notes

Birding is booming in Colombia helped, in part, by bird fairs and festivals held throughout the country for Colombian birders in addition to the increased interest shown by visiting birders from around the world. Last month, host Nate Swick got to visit the Colombia Birdfair in Calí, where he met Jose Manuel Martinez, a Colombian birder, and one of a team of birders putting on the event. He's had a front row seat to Colombia's fascinating rise as not only a birding destination, but a birding culture.

Interested in traveling to some of the places we talk about? Check out the ABA's trip to Colombia later in 2023!

Also, the California Spotted Owl finally gets endangered species protection.

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07-11: Flight Paths, and the Wonder of Migration, with Rebecca Heisman Mar 16, 2023

Show notes

We are in a golden age of bird migration science, and birders can only wonder at the ways in which we learn about bird migration in the 21st Century. Rebecca Heisman's new book, "Flight Paths: How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the Mystery of Bird Migration" tells the story of bird migration research to the present, with all the amazing techniques and entertaining characters involved in figuring so much of it out. Also, the Kowa Scopers are our champions for Champions of the Flyway.

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07-10: Birding, Annotated, Yet Again with Ted Floyd Mar 09, 2023

Show notes

Birding editor Ted Floyd returns to join host Nate Swick for "Birding, Annotated". In the doldrums of early March, both Ted and Nate each took a birding outing to a local spot and return chat about it. Hear their thoughts on the coming spring, junco diversity, counting birds in eBird, the importance of the regular checklist. Check out Ted's checklist from Lafayette, Colorado, and Nate's from Greensboro, North Carolina.

Also, the Dusky Tetraka is back! Or perhaps more accurately, no one was really looking for it.

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07-09: Wildest Vagrants of 2022 with Amy Davis & Tim Healy Mar 02, 2023

Show notes

2022 was an exceptional year for rare bird sightings in the ABA Area, with no fewer than three first ABA records and an absolute avian smorgasbord of interesting and unexpected records from all corners of the US and Canada. As difficult as it is to choose the best, North American Birds editor Amy Davis and writer and teacher Tim Healy join host Nate Swick to attempt to do so, or at the very least, have some fun remembering the highlights of last year.

Also, Nate is back from a fantastic trip to the Colombia Birdfair.

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07-08: This Month in Birding - February 2023 Feb 23, 2023

Show notes

February might be the shortest month, but that doesn't mean it gets the short shrift when it comes to This Month in Birding. We've got a great panel this month that absolutely adores as is appropriate for the season. Jody Allair from Birds Canada, Sarah Bloemers of the Bird Sh*t Podcast, and our friend Nick Lund, the Birdist, join us to talk about Steller's Jay splits, Hawaiian Island Restoration, the possible return of the Dodo, and much more!

Links to stories discussed in this episode:

eBird Exotic Species Update

Steller's Jay Might be Multiple Species

Lahua Island Restoration Efforts

A "De-Extinction" Company Wants to Bring Back the Dodo

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07-07: The Avian Rainbow with Whitney Tsai Nakashima Feb 16, 2023

Show notes

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, can hummingbirds inspire robot drones?

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07-06: Mindful Birding Ethics with Holly Merker Feb 09, 2023

Show notes

Young birders who have participated in the ABA's Camp Avocet or Maine's well known Hog Island Audubon Camp, are no doubt familiar with Holly Merker. But that only scratches the surface of her contributions to the birding world. A former member of the ABA's Recording Standards and Ethics Committee, and one of the authors of the well-received and timely Ornitherapy, she is the recipient of the ABA's Award for Conservation and Education, formerly the Betty Peterson Award. She joins The American Birding Podcast to talk about mindful birding and applying ethics.

Also, the wild story of the Pfeilstorch.

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07-05: A Whole World of Seabirds with Peter Harrison Feb 02, 2023

Show notes

When it was first released in 1983, Peter Harrison's Seabirds: An Identification Guide was immediately hailed as a classic of the birding literature, an accolade it not relinquished in 40 years. And so it was with much excitement that Peter released the New Identification Guide in 2021, practically a different and far more comprehensive book. Peter Harrison is an artist, an author and a conservationist, an MBE, and still perhaps the authority on the birds of the world's largest biome.

Plus, an ignoble end to a first ABA Area record.

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07-04: This Month in Birding - January 2023 Jan 26, 2023

Show notes

We have reached the end of the first month of 2023 and it is once again time for This Month in Birding on The American Birding Podcast. For this panel we welcome a fascinating group of birders to geek out a little about birds. Martha Harbison, Dexter Patterson, and Jordan Rutter join us to talk about molt terminology, shushers, bright white woodcock tails and more.

Links to topics discussed in this podcast:

WhatsApp-ened to bird news?

Moult terminology. Let's make it simpler!

'Astonishing' snowy owl spotted in Southern California neighborhood

Eurasian Woodcock has the brightest feathers ever measured

A lyrebird at Taronga Zoo has been mimicking the "evacuate now" alarm

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