BirdNote Daily

The Greater Roadrunner is a common species in the desert and brush country of the Southwest, but its full range reaches from California to western Louisiana. Its soft cooing voice hints at its connections to another bird: scientists group roadrunners with the cuckoos. Where to see a roadrunner? In the US Southwest, you might spot one along the roadside, standing atop a boulder. It can reach speeds of nearly 20 miles an hour and can fly — but doesn't very often.  Learn more at BirdNote.org.

Magnificent Frigatebirds are huge, gangly seabirds found around the warm waters of the Western Hemisphere. When it comes time to mate, males inflate giant red throat sacs, then rattle and drum their bills against them to create jazzy percussive sounds. Learn more at BirdNote.org.

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Have you seen a larger bird dipping its sharp bill into your hummingbird feeder? It’s probably an oriole. These brightly colored birds winter in the tropics, where they often drink nectar from flowers. Tennessee Warblers — like this one — are often seen at flowers during migration. These birds have an adaptive advantage, since many birds can’t digest the sucrose of nectar. When they fly to the tropics in winter, their sweet tooth allows them an added source of nutrition. Learn more at BirdNote.org.

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. Learn more at BirdNote.org.

Avalanches tend to follow historic channels down the face of a mountain, sweeping with them standing trees and boulders, while adjacent slopes remain clad in evergreens. Such natural snow courses are known as avalanche chutes. Soil often remains, creating a new opening for pioneering vegetation. A new zone of habitat takes form, habitat favored by diverse wildlife. In the West, the shrubby cover of avalanche chutes attracts nesting Fox Sparrows and provides ideal habitat for MacGillivray’s Warblers. Look along mountainsides for the elongated, vertical stripes that announce an avalanche chute. Learn more at BirdNote.org.

For years, we thought that when a bird perched on a branch to sleep, a specific tendon in its heel kept its feet locked on tightly. Another hypothesis claimed that it’s the internal structure of the birds’ toes that keeps them securely perched. But an experiment suggests that the answer could be simpler. European Starlings with toe tendons removed could still perch and sleep through the night. Learn more at BirdNote.org.

Where some noises — like TV, traffic and random conversations — can make it hard to concentrate, birdsong may make it easier. In Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, England, the sweet sounds of birdsong carry along the hallways. In an Amsterdam airport, a lounge plays bird sounds to help travelers relax before flights. One expert thinks that birdsong relaxes people physically while stimulating them cognitively — the body relaxes while the mind becomes alert. Learn more at BirdNote.org.

Christopher Joe has invited people to witness the aerial acrobatics of Swallow-tailed Kites on his family’s farm in the Black Belt region of Alabama. The kites swoop after insects stirred up by hay-cutting. Christopher says he intends for Joe Farms to be a place where Black people, and all birdwatchers, can feel safe and connect with wildlife.

Hear more about the Joe Farm and Swallow-tailed Kites on the Threatened podcast.

The Toco Toucan of South America has evolved to stay cool in the sweltering heat of the tropics. Relative to its body size, the Toco Toucan has the largest bill of any bird in the world, accounting for a third of the body’s entire surface area. It’s also laced with blood vessels and wholly without insulation — features that make it a superb structure for getting rid of excess body heat. Learn more at BirdNote.org.