Male Bobolinks are first to arrive on their breeding grounds in the grasslands. Why are there fewer Bobolinks than in decades past? Probably because the landscape of North America has changed so much. Bobolinks originally nested on native prairies of the Midwest and southern Canada. Much of the land where they nested has come under intense cultivation.

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The Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary in Northwest California is an important stop along the Pacific Flyway, one of the four main routes for bird migration through North America. Visitors are sometimes surprised to learn that this wildlife sanctuary is also the city of Arcata’s wastewater treatment facility. By combining conventional wastewater treatment to natural wetlands, the city has created habitat homes and migratory resting places for over 300 species of birds, including many shorebirds.

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The first Sunday of May is International Dawn Chorus Day, a day to appreciate the beauty of birds’ dawn songs. Dawn Chorus Day began as a small event in Birmingham, England in the 1980s and has grown to be a worldwide celebration of birdsong. You can join in wherever you are by listening to the singers in your neighborhood – like this Eurasian Wren. Just make sure you get up nice and early!

Today’s show brought to you by the Bobolink Foundation. 

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There’s just something about penguins. Pleasantly plump, they stand upright and teeter like toddlers. Although often depicted in black and white, most are actually more colorful. Seven species have long, jaunty golden feather tufts above their eyes. King Penguins and Emperor Penguins have necks that glisten gold. The Little Penguin is blue and white. Penguins are found in the Southern Hemisphere, from the Equator to Antarctica.

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Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are the only hummingbirds that nest in the Eastern states. Most Ruby-throats spend the winter in Central America. By March, some males are already returning to the Southeast. But it's well into April before they reach the northern states. Female hummingbirds arrive a couple weeks later. What hummingbird might you see in your region? Check out hummingbirds.net. Put up a feeder and attract one to your yard.

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Puffins are known for their flashy bills, striped like a giant piece of candy-corn. New research has found that the bills of Atlantic Puffins glow brightly under ultraviolet blacklights. Neon, curved streaks appeared between the different colored segments of a puffin’s bill in this lighting. It’s possible that the UV highlights help the birds further stand out to potential mates. For the experiment, researchers made special puffin sunglasses to protect the birds’ eyes.

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It's dawn on a spring day in the Big Cypress Swamp of Florida. Mist rises from quiet water into Spanish moss hanging from the cypress branches. A Limpkin is foraging for apple snails. When it touches a big, round shell, it grabs it quickly and pulls it from the water. Then, moving to solid ground, the Limpkin positions the shell, and using the curved tip of its lower mandible, it scissors loose the operculum and pulls out the snail.

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The month of April inspires poets, sometimes with contradictory results. Poet TS Eliot describes April as "the cruelest month." Shakespeare strikes an upbeat note, writing, "April hath put a spirit of youth in everything." Let April speak for itself. Listen to the birds.

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A Red-tailed Hawk soars on broad, rounded wings, the epitome of effortless flight. Without flapping, it traces a leisurely, rising circle. The hawk is riding a thermal, a column of warm rising air generated near the earth's surface by heat from the sun. The Red-tail periodically circles to stay within the thermal. Riding thermals is an energy-efficient way to search for prey below.

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A Burrowing Owl is about as big as a can of beans on stilts. Between the long legs, bright yellow eyes, and signature bobbing salute, these little birds are comical members of the western ecosystem. Cowboys riding Western rangelands have a nickname for these little owls. They call them “howdy birds” for the way they bob up and down in front of their nests.

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