BirdNote Daily

Gulls are notorious for snatching french fries from waste bins and flocking to landfills. But one Western Gull’s devotion to trash reached a new level with an 80-mile road trip aboard a waste transfer truck in California. The gull may have gotten trapped in the truck unintentionally, but it delivered her to 216-acres composting facility. And shortly after returning to her colony, she repeated her trek! It’s the first time scientists have documented such an unusual commute.

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Birds have always been a source of inspiration for writers. Edgar Allen Poe, Maya Angelou, and William Shakespeare, to name a few, have all written about birds. But what is it about them that so captures our literary imagination? Words in Flight is an hour-long celebration of contemporary poetry about birds, and what they teach us about ourselves and our world.

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Great Horned Owls excel at nocturnal hunting, thanks to their acute senses and stealth — but their feet let them secure squirming prey. The outermost of their four toes can rotate forward or backward, an advantage that most other birds of prey lack, letting them capture animals as large as raccoons. A four-pound owl can take flight with six pounds of prey.

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It's late winter at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, Florida. Many birds have finished nesting, and young birds are everywhere. This morning, wind and tide have conspired to strand schools of fish in backwater ditches. And the birds are taking advantage of it. It's a feeding frenzy! White Ibises, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, and American White Pelicans join in. Thanks to the National Wildlife Refuge System, these birds — and many others — can thrive in protected habitats.

Support comes from Wild Delight Bird Food, offering a variety of blends designed to mimic the natural resources wild birds crave, available at Chewy.com.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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There are 15 species of cranes across the globe, found everywhere but Antarctica and South America. During the winter, cranes forage and rest together by the thousands. Listen in to the voices of cranes from all over the world. Nothing evokes the spirit of the wild like the voices of these majestic birds.

This episode is brought to you by the Bobolink Foundation.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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In Mexico City, 73-year-old Catia Lattouf started a hummingbird hospital — in her apartment! She hosts dozens of hummingbirds as they recover from injuries. Catia, who once ran a French high-fashion boutique, began caring for hummingbirds in 2012, after she survived cancer that was considered terminal. She received her first injured hummingbird, and named him Gucci.

¡Escuche este episodio en BirdNote en Español!

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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Boldly patterned in black, white, and silver, Barnacle Geese are stunning birds. In Europe, huge flocks gather in pastures and mudflats where the geese feast on grasses and moss — but not barnacles. So where did they get that name?

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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Found in much of Central America, White-throated Magpie-Jay flocks are family groups led by a dominant female. They include a mate and several female offspring that bring food to the primary female and her young. It’s an example of cooperative breeding, when birds other than the parents help out to raise young.

Support comes from Wild Delight Bird Food, offering a variety of blends designed to mimic the natural resources wild birds crave, available at Chewy.com.

¡Escuche este episodio en BirdNote en Español!

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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Over 130,000 years ago, White-throated Rails migrated across hundreds of miles from Madagascar to the tiny island of Aldabra. Fossil records show that these wayward birds evolved to be entirely flightless, and went extinct when the island was lost to sea level rise. But some 20,000 years later, Aldabra reemerged from the Indian Ocean and a new wave of rails settled in. Today, the Aldabra subspecies of White-throated Rails are flightless once again! It’s a rare example of a phenomenon called iterative evolution.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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Do you ever see flocks of birds in your yard that show up in droves one year, but are completely absent the next? Some nomadic species such as Pine Siskins move based on the availability of food and habitat. It’s called irruptive migration, and it sometimes leads to backyards full of siskins. While these flocks are a delight for bird watchers, the dense groups can easily transmit diseases such as salmonellosis.

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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