BirdNote Daily

This Bar-tailed Godwit makes one of the longest migrations of any animal — a 7,200-mile non-stop flight each autumn from western Alaska to New Zealand. In his book A World on the Wing, Scott Weidensaul explores the remarkable transformation godwits undergo to make this migration possible. Their digestive organs shrink as their weight more than doubles in stored fats and muscle mass.

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As most young male birds get ready to leave the nest, they learn their species’ song by hearing their male parent sing it again and again. They imprint on their father’s song. So how does a Brown-headed Cowbird, raised by parents of a different species, learn to sing the correct song? The “chatter call” of an adult cowbird triggers something in the young bird’s brain. Like a kind of “password,” the chatter call guides the young bird in recognizing what species to identify with, even though cowbirds are fostered by as many as 220 different species!

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Knowing how clever parrots are, researchers wanted to see how they’d respond to another parrot saying hi on a tablet or phone. After being trained how to start a call, many parrots chatted amiably on calls and stayed on for the maximum amount of time. Some birds even seemed to develop friendships, choosing to stay in touch even after the experiment ended.

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A forest in New Zealand rings with the sound of bellbirds, also known as Korimako or Makomako. Many bellbirds sing together, especially in the morning. Pairs sing duets. And a pair may counter-sing with its neighbors, perhaps letting them know that this patch of land is taken. It all builds to a brilliant, ringing dawn chorus.

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Like most juvenile shorebirds, this young Black-bellied Plover was abandoned by parents that began their southbound flights from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a few weeks earlier. It will join other young Black-bellied Plovers as they make their way south. This little flock of birds could arrive on the coast of Washington within a few days if they make a direct flight, or within a week or more if they stop at a wetland along the way. Some will stay, but others continue their continent-spanning journey, arriving in coastal Venezuela at the end of December.

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Jack Gedney’s book, The Private Lives of Public Birds, is dedicated to the familiar birds we see and hear in our neighborhoods. Illustrated by Anna Kus Park, the book shares charming vignettes about the birds’ behavior that are scientifically accurate but that also have an emotional weight to help us connect deeper to these birds.

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Aleutian Cackling Geese, which have a slighter build and shorter beak than Canada Geese, build their nests on a chain of islands off the western coast of Alaska. In the 1700s, fur traders introduced foxes to the islands, nearly wiping out the geese. For decades, they were believed to be extinct. But in the 1960s, a biologist discovered about 300 birds nesting on Buldir Island. Habitat protections have allowed their populations to recover.

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What could bring crowds of people out after sunset on a September evening to stare at  ... a chimney? Swifts, of course! Scores of swifts form a funnel-shaped cloud above the right kind of chimney, then they begin their descent. First one, then a few more, then dozens, then hundreds swirl right down into the chimney. You can help Chimney Swifts and Vaux's Swifts by providing a roosting tower.

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Adjusting the flaps on an airplane’s wing allows a pilot to control lift and drag — and the design of these flaps was inspired by the wings of birds. All flying birds have what’s called an alula on each wing. At the center of the front edge of the wing is a structure covered with three to five feathers that functions much like a flap on an airplane’s wing. The alula helps create lift and also prevents stall when a bird comes in for landing.

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Writer Jen Sizeland has found peace through watching birds throughout her life, so she wanted that for her child, too. When she was pregnant, she sought to introduce her unborn child to birdsong. As a newborn, she and her baby would listen to the dawn chorus together. Now as a toddler, he joins her watching raptors soar over parks and waterbirds paddling across lakes.

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