BirdNote

The Canyon Wren and Cactus Wren share common ancestry — and they’re close neighbors in the desert southwest. Yet their songs evolved along divergent acoustic lines. The rough trilled phrases of the Cactus Wren song pulse through the dense cactus, while the clear tones of the Canyon Wren echo off the

The Tui is one of New Zealand’s most remarkable birds, intelligent and with iridescent feathers. Its down-curved beak fits perfectly into native flowers. But the Tui is best known for its voice. Each Tui’s complex song is slightly different, a colorful mix of musical notes and offbeat sounds. It’s

Bananaquits are tiny songbirds with a sweet tooth. Their distinctive curved bills are perfect for sipping nectar from woodland flowers and urban hummingbird feeders. These songsters are widespread in Latin America from southern Mexico to northern Uruguay — and much of the Caribbean. Their plumage

In this episode, ornithologist J. Drew Lanham reads a letter he has written to a Kentucky Warbler, an “uber-skulky” species that’s hard to find but brings “warbler-iffic joy” when Drew hears them.

The King Eider is one of the most striking sea ducks in the Northern hemisphere. This male King Eider is trying to woo a mate with soft coos and brilliant colors — his beak and feathers are decked out in black, white, green, grey, tangerine, yellow, and ivory. Unlike her showy suitor, the female

Los ojos de un loro están ubicados a los lados de la cabeza. Así que, si el ave quiere ver algo — como un delicioso pedazo de fruta — tiene que ladear la cabeza hacia un lado o hacia el otro para hacerlo. Y si el loro observa con el ojo izquierdo, usará su pata izquierda para agarrar el bocado. Los

The Cinereous Mourner is a small, ashy-gray bird that lives in the forest understory of the Amazon Basin. And it’s taking mimicry to the next level: when viewed from above, lying alone in its cup-shaped nest, its chick is a near match to a highly toxic caterpillar — one that snakes and monkeys won’t

Dovekie are robin-sized seabirds related to auks and puffins. Their compact, black-and-white bodies are perfect for life on the water. In winter, birders and boaters can sometimes spot flocks of Dovekie as far south as coastal New England. In summer, Dovekie high-tail it to the Arctic where they

What’s the most colorful bird in the U.S.? The Scarlet Tanager? Maybe the Painted Bunting? Well, consider one more lustrous candidate: the Purple Gallinule. The Purple Gallinule’s feathers are so iridescent that they might not seem real. Despite its bold style, a Purple Gallinule can be hard to spot

The cheerful-voiced Chestnut-collared Longspur shares their northern prairie breeding range with grazing cattle. Although heavy grazing can have adverse effects, breeding densities of longspurs jump by two, three, or even 10 times when ranchers graze their cattle responsibly on native prairies. Two