BirdNote Daily

Tracking birds can be tricky — even with GPS technology. Around 70% of bird species are just too small to carry a GPS battery. But recently, Australian scientists developed GPS trackers that looked like little backpacks, weighed less than a gram, could charge wirelessly and could be quickly released with a magnet. When the researchers tested the trackers on Australian Magpies, though, the birds managed to pinpoint a tiny weak spot in the backpack and helped each other peck the trackers off. This showed evidence of altruism, a rare behavior among birds.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. 

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Each September, thousands of Vaux's Swifts roost in the chimney of Chapman Elementary School in Portland, Oregon, a stopover on their southern migration. Crowds gather every night to watch the spectacle. As a celebration of Poetry Month in the US, we offer this poem, Swifts, by Stefania Gomez.

You can read more of Stefania's work in her book, Once I Loved a Cowboy.

This interview originally aired in April 2020.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. 

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In the daytime, hot air rises as the sun heats the ground. The rising column of air is called a thermal, and it’s the perfect way for a Turkey Vulture to hitch a ride. Like an elevator to the skies, the thermal gently wafts the vultures upward. They move in a slowly ascending spiral around the thermal, rarely flapping and instead coasting on the breeze. When many vultures ride the same thermal, it’s called a kettle.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. 

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The Ruby-crowned Kinglet is one of the smallest songbirds on the continent, weighing in at just a little more than half a chickadee. Mostly green and hard to spot, it hovers in mid-air as it catches tiny insects. In early spring, the kinglet's rollicking song echoes from the forest edge in the lowlands. By late May, he is singing and nesting at mile-high altitudes in mountain forests.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. 

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Want to try building a nest? Consider this... An average American Robin weighs less than three ounces. An average person weighs 170 pounds, or 1,000 times as much as a robin. A robin's nest, made of grass and mud, weighs about seven ounces, so yours will weigh 450 pounds. You'll need to collect about 350 strands of grass, each about four feet long. And don't forget the mud: 150 pounds of it. You have five days to complete the job. That's 300 mouthfuls of mud.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. 

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One of two species of cuckoos in North America, the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, pictured here, lives in broadleaf forests throughout the East and riparian stands in the Southwest. They 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. 

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. 

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Throughout winter, Northern Bobwhites gather in groups called ‘coveys’ to search for food during the day and share warmth at night. These small quail arrange themselves in a circle, with their tails in the center and heads outward, huddled up like a wreath of plump birds to survive frost and snow. But as spring arrives, the coveys disband and bobwhites seek out mates. Males whistle from shrubs and tufts of grass, hoping to catch the attention of a female.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. 

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If you live in the U.S., parrots might seem like ambassadors from far-off rainforests. Especially since the Carolina Parakeet, a native species once common in the South and Midwest, went extinct in the early 20th Century. But more and more parrots are finding a home here. Since the 1960s at least, Monk Parakeets have been free-flying and reproducing in the U.S. Over twenty introduced parrot species are now nesting in the US, with hotspots in Florida and California.    

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. 

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Writer Camille T. Dungy’s book Trophic Cascade deals with themes of nature and becoming a mother. The title is an ecological term, referring to the far-reaching changes on an ecosystem caused by the removal or introduction of a top “trophy” predator. In the case of Camille’s book, that “trophy creature” is her daughter. Camille performs three poems from Trophic Cascade reckoning with these changes to her own ecosystem.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. 

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Scientists have long thought that new species took a very long time to emerge. This thinking has now changed dramatically. On an island in the Galápagos, researchers Rosemary and Peter Grant discovered that a hybrid union of two distinct species of finch produced descendants different from any of the island’s known species — and the speciation happened in just two generations.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. 

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