BirdNote

Pigeons, one of the most ancient of domesticated animals, feed their nestlings a peculiar, milky substance, straight from the adult’s beak to the baby’s throat. It’s called pigeon milk, a fat-rich substance loaded with antioxidants and immunity factors that enhance the survival of newborns — much

Oak trees are an important resource for birds finding insects to feed their young. It takes thousands of caterpillars from an oak tree to raise a single nest of baby birds. By planting an oak species native to your area, you can help ensure that birds are able to raise their young successfully

In this episode, Dr. Deja Perkins speaks with aeroecologist, Dr. Adriaan Dokter about the study of bird migration with weather radar. Using the vast supply of radars, primarily in the United States, Adriaan and his colleagues at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology research the failure and successes of

April is National Poetry Month in the U.S., so we are featuring some of our favorite poets who write about our feathered friends. Traci Brimhall is an associate professor of poetry at Kansas State University. Her first published collection, from 2013, is called Rookery and features many poems about

Las calandrias castañas ( Icterus spurius) son aves muy sociales que construyen sus nidos en árboles altos, cerca de arroyos y humedales. Los machos tienen el pecho de un tono castaño intenso y el dorso y las alas negras, mientras que las hembras y las aves jóvenes son en su mayoría amarillas

There are many great tools for identifying birds, some of them right on your phone. If you’re stumped on an unfamiliar plant species, iNaturalist is a great resource. When you upload a photo to iNaturalist’s website or mobile app, it uses AI to make an educated guess on the species ID. A community

The Yellow-billed Cuckoo, one of two species of cuckoos in North America, lives in broadleaf forests throughout the East and riparian stands in the Southwest. Cuckoos were common breeding birds in the Pacific Northwest as late as the 1920s, but then they disappeared. The Black-billed Cuckoo is a

BirdNote is an independent nonprofit organization, and this week, we’re asking you to support BirdNote with a donation at birdnote.org. But today, rather than tell you all the great things about BirdNote, we’re going to let our feathered friends do the talking. In this show, enjoy a minute of

This week is fundraising week at BirdNote. Today, we’re asking you to support the show by making a gift of any amount. A donation to BirdNote is like a twig in a nest. Birds can’t lay their eggs on a twig, but when hundreds of twigs are weaved together, you have a safe and cozy place for baby birds

You’ve probably heard the expression “light as a feather.” But bird feathers aren’t just amazingly light — they’re also resilient. Something that BirdNote and bird feathers share in common! Bird feathers are sturdy thanks to the cumulative strength of many tiny structures called barbules. In a