BirdNote Daily

Poet Claire Wahmanholm's work focuses on nature and the environment. As she was walking around a nature preserve north of Chicago, Claire was listening for birds but realized there was something else she was hearing: the ever-present hum of a nearby highway. “When you're trying deliberately to hear something else you really notice it,” she says. That experience inspired a poem, “You Can Always Hear the Highway.”

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Cactus Wrens, which may nest several times between March and September, carefully orient their nests in tune with the season. These bulky twig structures have a side entrance that curves toward the inner chamber. When building a nest for the hot months, the wren faces the opening to receive the afternoon breeze. By contrast, a Cactus Wren building a nest in early March orients the entrance away from the cold winds of that season, keeping the chicks snug and warm.

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Green-winged Teal are North America's smallest dabbling duck, at just over a foot long and weighing less than a pound. The male has a cinnamon brown head with a band of green behind the eye. Both males and females have a green bar on the wing that gleams like an emerald when the sun strikes it. During courtship, up to 25 males may court a single female at once.

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The eerie sound of the Great Tinamou can be heard in the lowland jungle throughout much of Central and South America. Secretive — and almost impossible to see — Great Tinamous call early and late in the day. And their voices carry a long distance.

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With invasive species and climate change, Hawai‘i has experienced so much loss and extinction since Western colonists arrived. But Sam ‘Ohu Gon, the Senior Scientist and Cultural Advisor for the Nature Conservancy of Hawai‘i, believes Hawaiian culture and tradition are key to advancing conservation ecology and has done a lot of work connecting these two worlds. He hopes that one day, Hawai‘i can be not just a microcosm of ecology, but of conservation as well.  

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When Cliff Swallows arrive on the breeding grounds in North America, the dirty work begins. The swallows scoop up mud in their beaks and carefully build a gourd-shaped nest with a tapered opening. They add a lining of dry grass to keep eggs warm. It takes days of work and a thousand mouthfuls of mud to finish a single nest—and it’s just one part of a large colony.

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One of the biggest threats to birds is the decline in biodiversity due to habitat loss — and the traditional, manicured lawn isn’t helping. Growing native plants in your yard allows you to protect birds at home, says ecologist Douglas Tallamy, who co-founded an organization called Homegrown National Park® to help people transform their lawns into havens for wildlife.

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Northern Cardinals have vocal abilities that surpass even the most accomplished human singers. When cardinals sing, they sweep their voices from the high to low end of their ranges many times in just seconds. The secret is in the clever way cardinals use their two-sided vocal organ, called the syrinx. By dividing their vocal range between the two sides, cardinals can sing complex songs rapidly.

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Loons are built for life in the water – so much so that their legs don’t work well on land. During migration, loons sometimes mistake wet pavement for the reflective surface of deep water and try to land there, then become unable to take flight again. If you see a stranded loon on a road or parking lot, calling a wildlife rehabilitator can help start the process of returning that bird to safety and back on their migratory journey.

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Aplomado Falcons were once widespread residents of the American Southwest, but by the 1950s, they'd disappeared entirely from the region. Loss of habitat, loss of prey, and pesticides all played a role. But in the 1980s, a group called The Peregrine Fund began breeding captive Aplomado Falcons. Over the next 25 years, 1,500 fledglings were set free in South Texas. At the same time, conservation pacts with private landowners provided more than two million acres of habitat. Learn more in Related Resources below.

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