April is National Poetry Month in the U.S., so we are featuring some of our favorite poets who write about our feathered friends. Traci Brimhall is an associate professor of poetry at Kansas State University. Her first published collection, from 2013, is called Rookery and features many poems about birds. But Brimhall didn't grow up birding ? her interest came later in life.

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There are many great tools for identifying birds, some of them right on your phone. If you?re stumped on an unfamiliar plant species, iNaturalist is a great resource. When you upload a photo to iNaturalist?s website or mobile app, it uses AI to make an educated guess on the species ID. A community of online naturalists then helps confirm the ID. Finding the links between plants and birds can show you how birds see the world, and what they need to survive and raise their young.

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The Yellow-billed Cuckoo, one of two species of cuckoos in North America, lives in broadleaf forests throughout the East and riparian stands in the Southwest. Cuckoos were common breeding birds in the Pacific Northwest as late as the 1920s, but then they disappeared. The Black-billed Cuckoo is a more northerly species that lives in dense woodland, even conifer forests. Cuckoos perch quietly and scan their surroundings for food. Hairy tent caterpillars, shunned by most birds, are often on their meal ticket.

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BirdNote is an independent nonprofit organization, and this week, we?re asking you to support BirdNote with a donation at birdnote.org. But today, rather than tell you all the great things about BirdNote, we?re going to let our feathered friends do the talking. In this show, enjoy a minute of uninterrupted birdsong.

Please support BirdNote with a tax-deductible donation today ? every gift helps us produce the stories you love and share them with your amazing local radio station.

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This week is fundraising week at BirdNote. Today, we?re asking you to support the show by making a gift of any amount. A donation to BirdNote is like a twig in a nest. Birds can?t lay their eggs on a twig, but when hundreds of twigs are weaved together, you have a safe and cozy place for baby birds to hatch and fledge. So think about contributing a twig to the nest that will fledge our next episode.

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You?ve probably heard the expression ?light as a feather.? But bird feathers aren?t just amazingly light ? they?re also resilient. Something that BirdNote and bird feathers share in common! Bird feathers are sturdy thanks to the cumulative strength of many tiny structures called barbules. In a similar fashion, BirdNote is only possible thanks to individual donations from listeners like you. Today, we?re asking you to support the show by making a gift of any amount.

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It's fundraising week at BirdNote. We hear from lots of people about how much they learn from listening to BirdNote shows. In this episode, Kim Bradmon and her son Ben share their stories.

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This week is fundraising week at BirdNote. The vast majority of BirdNote?s funding comes from listeners like you. It only takes a few minutes to support the show and make a big difference for birds. Make a donation of any amount today to help us share the wonder of birds with listeners around the world. Thank you for listening, and thank you for making BirdNote possible!

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Rachel Carson found inspiration in the work of 19th-century writer Richard Jefferies, whose work helped 
Carson develop her deep sense of connection with the natural world. Jefferies wrote, "Consider the grasses and the oaks, the swallows, the sweet blue butterfly ? they are one and all a sign and token, showing before our eyes earth made into life."

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Mother Goose was sometimes illustrated as an old country woman wearing a tall hat and riding on the back of a goose. Or sometimes as just a big, motherly goose wearing reading glasses and a bonnet, a friendly figure children could trust.

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Springtime brings the sound of a woodpecker, like the Northern Flicker, drumming on a hollow surface. Members of the woodpecker percussion band announce their territory and attract mates, as they pound away on metal roofs or gutters. Drilling holes in tree trunks calls for some specialized tools, and the North Flicker has them: big claws, two toes pointing forward and two backward, and a stiff tail to prop itself up.

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In April 1915, Finnish composer Jean Sibelius wrote in his diary about seeing 16 Whooper Swans overhead. He was entranced by both the sight and the sound of the swans. He watched them depart, ?like a gleaming silver ribbon,? and declared the image one of the great experiences of his life. He then transformed that breathtaking, natural moment into music.

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Rosalie Barrow Edge (1877-1962) was one of the 20th century?s most outspoken advocates for birds and a prominent figure in the modern American conservation movement. She famously preached that, "The time to protect a species is while it is still common." And while her conviction fell short of moving mountains in a literal sense, she once bought a mountain to protect birds of prey from bounty hunters. That land is now known as the world-renowned Hawk Mountain Sanctuary.

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Nancy Nordhoff, whose legacy of tenacious support for environmental conservation and opportunities for women will last for generations to come.

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Birds that historically nested in the cavities of dead trees are finding natural nest holes harder to come by ? but people can help. Many of these species will make use of a nest box in parks or near people's homes. Learn how to build nest boxes tailored to a species of your choice at NestWatch. BirdNote has inspired millions of people to take action for birds. Find out more about BirdNote's From Love to Action campaign and let us know how you're helping birds!

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April is National Poetry Month in the United States, and to celebrate, we're featuring some of our favorite poets who write about our feathered friends. Today, in this extended podcast, we're sharing the work of poet Sidney Wade, professor emeritus at the University of Florida. Her collection of poems is called Bird Book and is all about birds.

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One of the biggest threats to birds is the decline in biodiversity due to habitat loss ? and the traditional, manicured lawn isn?t helping. Growing native plants in your yard allows you to protect birds at home, says ecologist Douglas Tallamy, who co-founded an organization called Homegrown National Park® to help people transform their lawns into havens for wildlife.

Homegrown National Park® is a grassroots call-to-action to regenerate diversity and ecosystem function by planting native plants and creating new ecological networks. Learn how to plant native and get on the HNP map here.

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Red Warblers only sing on sunny mornings during the breeding season ? so hearing their song is as good as checking the weather forecast. Weighing less than a AAA battery, Red Warblers are endemic to the highlands of Mexico and live in humid forests of pine, oak, and fir.

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The variety of bill sizes and shapes among the sandpipers is astounding! Many sandpipers have sensitive nerve receptors in their bill tips, so they can find unseen prey through touch, odor, and pressure changes. Those sandpipers with long, straight bills ? like the Long-billed Dowitcher ? are often described as "stitching." As the bird probes for food, its beak moves rapidly up and down, like the needle on a sewing machine.

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It?s National Poetry Month in the U.S., and each year we like to celebrate by sharing our favorite contemporary writers? work about birds. Aimee Nezhukumatathil is known for writing about nature, but more than that, wonder at the natural world. In this episode, Aimee describes precious moments she?s shared with birds, plants, and her teenage son.

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Marbled Godwits stand a foot and a half tall, on slender, dark legs. Their exquisitely long bills are pink, tipped in black, and just slightly up-curved. Altogether, a stunning bird. In April, godwits are on their way north. They have wintered along the coasts, including the Texas Gulf Coast, and along the Pacific from California to Washington. While most breed in the prairie provinces of Canada, some nest as far north as Alaska's Aleutian Islands.

This episode is brought to you by Wild Delight Bird Food, which aims to support wild bird populations with clean, nutritious ingredients in every blend. Available at Chewy.

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BirdNote prides itself on creating a sound-rich, immersive experience for listeners every day. Today?s episode, featuring the Tufted Puffin, the Great Horned Owl, and the Mallard is sure to bring you calm and get your day started on a gentle note.

And one more thing before we go: Happy April Fools' Day!

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The savanna country of northern Australia is one of the most fire-prone natural habitats in the world, and its plants have evolved to thrive with frequent, low-intensity blazes. As flames sweep across the savanna, Black Kites watch for prey like grasshoppers and lizards that flee the fire. Indigenous Australians have long known that Black Kites aren?t just opportunists ? the birds actually create some of these fires by carrying burning twigs in their talons and dropping them on a patch of savanna away from the original wildfire. The kites then pick off the escaping prey. Research suggests that setting a new area ablaze allows these "firehawks" to feed in a space where there aren?t so many rival predators.  

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The Keel-billed Toucan, also known as the Rainbow-billed Toucan, looks like a bird with a giant banana for a beak. They have a black body, a yellow patch from the face to the breast, and a huge rainbow-colored bill. The big beaks have more than one use: they can be used for fighting with rivals, but they can also help toucans regulate their body temperature in the tropical heat.

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The Canyon Wren and Cactus Wren share common ancestry ? and they?re close neighbors in the desert southwest. Yet their songs evolved along divergent acoustic lines. The rough trilled phrases of the Cactus Wren song pulse through the dense cactus, while the clear tones of the Canyon Wren echo off the hard stone, carrying a long distance.

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The Tui is one of New Zealand?s most remarkable birds, intelligent and with iridescent feathers. Its down-curved beak fits perfectly into native flowers. But the Tui is best known for its voice. Each Tui?s complex song is slightly different, a colorful mix of musical notes and offbeat sounds. It?s one of the few birds that can imitate human speech ? and even accents.

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Bananaquits are tiny songbirds with a sweet tooth. Their distinctive curved bills are perfect for sipping nectar from woodland flowers and urban hummingbird feeders. These songsters are widespread in Latin America from southern Mexico to northern Uruguay ? and much of the Caribbean. Their plumage colors vary by region, but Bananaquits typically have dark backs, white eyebrows and yellow bellies. Their songs are variable, too. Bananaquits have developed hundreds of local dialects!

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In this episode, ornithologist J. Drew Lanham reads a letter he has written to a Kentucky Warbler, an ?uber-skulky? species that?s hard to find but brings ?warbler-iffic joy? when Drew hears them.

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The King Eider is one of the most striking sea ducks in the Northern hemisphere. This male King Eider is trying to woo a mate with soft coos and brilliant colors ? his beak and feathers are decked out in black, white, green, grey, tangerine, yellow, and ivory. Unlike her showy suitor, the female King Eider is mottled brown ? the perfect camouflage for blending into the Arctic tundra. After incubating her nest for nearly 3 weeks by herself, the female eider leads her fluffy chicks to the sea where the ducks spend the winter diving amidst the pack ice in search of tasty shellfish.

This episode is dedicated to Gary and Liz Kennedy Ketcheson, who are grateful to BirdNote for sharing the wonder of birds with listeners around the world.

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The Cinereous Mourner is a small, ashy-gray bird that lives in the forest understory of the Amazon Basin. And it?s taking mimicry to the next level: when viewed from above, lying alone in its cup-shaped nest, its chick is a near match to a highly toxic caterpillar ? one that snakes and monkeys won?t eat. The chick even waves its head like a caterpillar, increasing the illusion.

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Dovekie are robin-sized seabirds related to auks and puffins. Their compact, black-and-white bodies are perfect for life on the water. In winter, birders and boaters can sometimes spot flocks of Dovekie as far south as coastal New England. In summer, Dovekie high-tail it to the Arctic where they form massive breeding colonies on rocky islands and cliffsides. Dovekie are one of the most abundant birds in the North Atlantic, but their populations have declined drastically since the 1970s. Like many ocean species, Dovekie face lethal threats from oil spills and chemical pollution. By advocating for clean water and green energy, we can protect our global oceans for people and birds ? like Dovekie.

This episode is brought to you in loving memory of John Hardner, a father and educator who loved nature and public radio.

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What?s the most colorful bird in the U.S.? The Scarlet Tanager? Maybe the Painted Bunting? Well, consider one more lustrous candidate: the Purple Gallinule. The Purple Gallinule?s feathers are so iridescent that they might not seem real. Despite its bold style, a Purple Gallinule can be hard to spot. The colors create excellent camouflage among the greens, blues and floral highlights of a marsh.

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The cheerful-voiced Chestnut-collared Longspur shares their northern prairie breeding range with grazing cattle. Although heavy grazing can have adverse effects, breeding densities of longspurs jump by two, three, or even 10 times when ranchers graze their cattle responsibly on native prairies. Two centuries ago, the birds were probably more abundant on prairies used by bison than on untouched stands of tall grass.

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For years, scientists debated whether the first flying dinosaurs, the ancestors of modern birds, began by running and making little hops off the ground, or leapt off a tree branch to glide. It?s called the ?ground up vs. trees down? debate, for short. But a newer perspective on this mystery suggests that flying dinosaurs tried taking flight from more than one place. Recent findings suggest that the ability to fly could have evolved not just once but three separate times among dinosaurs.

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Birds make a lot of sounds ? so many that author and illustrator Becca Rowland had a hard time keeping them straight. That was until Becca began picking up on familiar noises in common bird calls ? like when they heard a dog?s squeaky toy in the trees. Now she?s compiled her fun and functional findings in a new guide called, Bird Talk: Hilariously Accurate Ways to Identify Birds by the Sounds they Make.

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Birds have lost many habitats they?ve called home for millions of years, but people can help create bird habitats wherever they live. It all begins with native plants. If you have a yard, or even just a few outdoor plant pots, you can offer native plants to birds, butterflies, and other wildlife. Below, find online tools that show you native plant species ideal for your location.

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J. Drew Lanham is a poet and ornithologist whose work intertwines his lived experience as a Black man in the American south and his love of wilderness. Both have taught him that joy is a source of strength. On Bring Birds Back, Drew describes how he finds radical joy in spending time with birds, like the American Robins.

Hear more from Drew about radical joy in season 7 of Bring Birds Back!

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Millicent Ficken spent her career studying bird behavior and communication. The first woman to earn a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell in 1960, Ficken authored over 100 scientific papers. She discovered that male hummingbirds have a whole repertoire of songs rather than just one, outlined the linguistic differences between penguin species, and showed that chickadees take turns singing in the morning. She was especially fascinated by how birds play, showing that bird play almost always has a pressing purpose ? they're practicing a skill they need to survive.

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Circling silently above the earth on broad, black wings, vultures need little introduction. We know them as nature's clean-up crew, dining on dead and decaying animals. A unique range of adaptations allows vultures such as this Black Vulture to feast on food that?s off limits for many other organisms. Vultures also appear to have a remarkable immune system. For them, and for many other organisms, one key to understanding their place in nature is understanding their relationship with other elements in their environment.

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In birding lingo, a lifer ? or life bird ? is any species you see or hear for the first time. Birders get very excited about lifers. Some even mark the occasion with a special dessert called lifer pie. The tradition started at a birding festival in northwest Ohio ? called the Biggest Week in American Birding ? where attendees celebrate new life birds at the local tavern over a slice of homemade pie. Any flavor will do! Lifer pie is more about the feeling than the filling ? making it easy for anyone to join in.

This episode is brought to you by Wild Delight Bird Food, which aims to support wild bird populations with clean, nutritious ingredients in every blend. Available at Chewy.com.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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In one of the most iconic founding legends of the Americas, a Golden Eagle devouring a serpent atop a cactus marked the spot where the Mexicas would build Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire. Over the centuries, that ancient metropolis transformed into what we now call Mexico City. Though the mythical eagle is now commemorated on the national flag of Mexico, real Golden Eagles need our help through conservation research and habitat protections.

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Solar panels are a popular source of renewable energy, but large groupings of them ? called arrays ? can take up a lot of space. Chelse Prather, an ecologist at the University of Dayton, wanted to know how wildlife are using the habitats underneath two arrays in Ohio. The first site was a fixed array with panels that are locked in place. The second was a tracking array where panels tilt to follow the sun. Chelse and her students found American Robin nests at both sites, but the tracking array nest looked? weird. In their study published in 2025, the team confirmed that these nests were unusually tall and mounted to the support beams at odd angles. It?s a new example of how birds are adapting to a changing world.

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In this episode of BirdNoir, the Private Eye gets a call from his friend Frank, his eyes and ears in the neighborhood. He?s hearing a Red-shouldered Hawk call, but there?s no hawk in sight. Going through the lineup of usual suspects found in backyards, they examine the surprising talent for mimicry found among common birds and finally put the finger on the trickster.

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To out-sip their competition, Sword-billed Hummingbirds have a distinct adaptation: these birds? beaks are longer than their bodies. Found in temperate forests from Venezuela to Bolivia, these hummingbirds rely entirely on tube-like flowers that other species could never reach. While most birds can use their tongues to clean their feathers, the Sword-billed Hummingbird?s long beak gets in the way ? so they use their legs to scratch themselves instead.

This episode is brought to you by Wild Delight Bird Food, which aims to support wild bird populations with clean, nutritious ingredients in every blend. Available at Chewy.com.  

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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Male birds are often the larger, flashier sex that courts choosy females, who in turn raise their chicks. But not always. Female phalaropes -- like this Wilson's Phalarope ? challenge each other over territories in which to house a cluster of males half their size. And the males do all the childcare. Other stay-at-home dads include most of the ratites, like ostriches and emus, as well as several species of jacanas.

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Connecticut Warblers nest in the northern boreal forests, migrate through the Midwest, and winter in the rainforests of South America. Even with all that traveling, you rarely see one of these birds. Though their loud, ringing song might be easy to identify, it often seems to emanate from low in a tree when the warbler is perched high in the crown, frustrating birders from Canada to Brazil.

This episode is brought to you by Wild Delight Bird Food, which aims to support wild bird populations with clean, nutritious ingredients in every blend. Available at Chewy.com.  

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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Most baby birds are adorable little floofs ? but not all of them. The tongue and palate of estrildid finch chicks are strangely spotted and ringed. They display these markings while they beg for food. Most species? chicks have mouth markings in colors ranging from black or white to bright yellow, orange, red or blue. The function of these markings has long puzzled scientists.

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Grammy-winning musician Rickie Lee Jones has performed on stages around the world. At home in New Orleans, she found a new audience: backyard birds! Rickie welcomes wildlife to her yard with feeders and bird baths. She loves watching her feathered friends and learning their calls. You can help songbirds at home by keeping feeders clean, growing native plants, and turning off outdoor lights at night. You can even show your appreciation in song!

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When you go birding, sometimes you?re in the right place at the right time and there are more species than you can count. Other times, not so lucky. Striking out when looking for birds is frustrating. But a bad day of birding can teach you a lot. Try doing some research into the conditions that day and talking to people that know about birds in your area ? they?ll probably commiserate with their own stories about striking out.

BirdNote is supported by Wild Delight Bird Food, with special blends designed to attract the extraordinary. Available at Chewy.com. 

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The catchy name ?Jackdaw? belongs to a European bird that looks like a compact crow drawn in shades of light and dark gray. They are comfortable around people, which helps explain their place in folklore. Some cultures saw the Jackdaw as a predictor of rain, others as a savior of crops. Or possibly an omen of death. They flourish in urban landscapes, making them familiar to many people.

This episode is brought to you by Wild Delight Bird Food, which aims to support wild bird populations with clean, nutritious ingredients in every blend. Available at Chewy.com. 

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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The amazing vocal organ found in most birds, the syrinx, has two sides, with different sets of muscles and nerves controlling each side.  That lets some songbirds sing two separate melodies at the same time. The Veery, a species of Thrush, can even sing a rising melody and a falling melody simultaneously with the two halves of the syrinx!

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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