Discover the Fascinating Black-Billed Magpie – A Deep Dive into These Intelligent, Exotic Birds

In this exciting episode, RJ Pole and Amanda Marquart share their personal experiences with Black-billed Magpies from their time living in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. These incredible birds are known for their intelligence, striking appearance, and unique behaviors.

Join bird experts John Bates and Shannon Hackett as they provide insightful facts and fascinating information about the Black-billed Magpie, one of North America's most captivating species. From their smart problem-solving abilities to their beautiful plumage, this episode covers everything you need to know about these exotic birds.

Plus, don't miss our special segment where we answer a fun listener question about Wombat poop vs. bird poop!

Tune in now for an informative and fun-filled episode about Black-billed Magpies, with expert insights from our bird-loving hosts.

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You might know him from the cartoon - but there's a lot more to the Greater Roadrunner than just saying beep beep. We talk all about the adaptations these speedy birds have made to be able to live in the desert, some interesting facts from the actual cartoon, as well as answer a mailbag question on the book The Feather Thief. John Bates, Shannon Hackett, RJ Pole, and Amanda Marquart discuss the Greater Roadrunner in this week's episode.

Here is the link to the other podcast that Shannon was on that we referenced in the episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e32-chickadee/id1681354028?i=1000663586496

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Join us this week to talk about Burrowing Owls. These super cool and tiny owls live in burrows in the ground. Hear why, and all about their super unique behavior in this week's episode. Our usual hosts John Bates, Shannon Hackett, RJ Pole, and Amanda Marquart are joined by Aiyana Reissman to talk Burrowing Owls. Aiyana is the Animal Care Manager at the Living Coast Discovery Center in San Diego, California and has a ton of experience with these owls. 

In addition to the burrowing owls, we also get deep into some other topics like bird flu and changing big tech to get birds into the algorithm instead of cats :)

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This week a little different than our usual episodes. Instead of talking about a single bird species, we each brought a different topic to the table to talk about.  We talked about baby belted Kingfishers, CT scanning birds, different bird dialects, and a movie idea where a brown-headed cowbird leaves an egg in a human’s bassinet. What genre would that movie be? Listen to find out! Join John Bates, Shannon Hackett, RJ Pole, and Amanda Marquart for this week's episode of Birds of a Feather Talk Together. 

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Enjoy!

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This week we are talking about the Northern Flicker. We talk about the red-shafted and yellow-shafted flickers in different parts of the continent, and how they can hybridize. We also talk about whether or not woodpeckers get CTE from banging their heads while pecking. We answer a mailbag question on the white throated sparrow changing its call. Join John Bates, Shannon Hackett, RJ Pole, and Amanda Marquart discussing the Northern Flicker!

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This week’s episode is about the Giant Hummingbird. A recent study led by Jessie Williamson led to some groundbreaking discoveries about the Giant Hummingbird, including that there are actually two different species, one which has the longest migration of any hummingbird in the world. This amazing study, which included putting tiny backpacks on hummingbirds to track their movement, changed what we knew about Giant Hummingbirds. 

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Jack Turner AKA Jack Wildlife joins us to talk about Ospreys. Jack lives near the Chesapeake Bay, home to the most Osprey in the world. If you aren’t familiar with Jack Wildlife, he runs a popular birding meme account, and he’s also an accomplished wildlife photographer, tour guide, and Environmental Scientist. 

This episode is a ton of fun. We also talk about Jack's trip to Austin, Texas to see the endangered golden-cheeked warbler. 

Jack joined John Bates, Shannon Hackett, RJ Pole, and Amanda Marquart for another episode of Birds of a Feather Talk Together. 

There was an exciting story on Osprey in The America's with Tom Hanks recently, hope this helps tell that story as well!

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We'll be down this week for the Fourth of July - but back next week. Upcoming episodes on Osprey, Giant Hummingbird, and Northern Flicker. 

We have a few asks to spread the joy of birding over the Fourth of July. Listen to hear more.

Also here is a link to when John was on Ologies with Alie Ward: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/oology-eggs-with-john-bates/id1278815517?i=1000417763781

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We talk about the endangered Light-footed Ridgway's Rail this week with guest Aiyana Reissman. Aiyana is the Animal Care Manager at the Living Coast Discovery Center in San Diego, California. She oversees the care for 25+ species of rescued bird native to the area along with the propagation programs for the endangered Light Footed Ridgway’s Rails.

 Living Coast Discovery Center is the only facility in the world where the Light-footed Ridgway's Rail can be viewed and have had great success with the release program to boost the populations in Southern California over the last few years.

Aiyana joined John Bates, Shannon Hackett, RJ Pole, and Amanda Marquart for another episode of Birds of a Feather Talk Together. 

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This week is a little different as we aren't discussing a bird, but rather the cicada phenomenon happening in Illinois right now. Maureen Turcatel of the Field Museum joins us to talk about the two different broods of cicadas both happening at the same time (the 13 year cicada and the 17 year cicada). We talk about how this is impacting birds, the rare blue-eyed cicada, and also the fungus that is making cicadas hyper-sexual. 

Maureen is an insect taxonomist and systematist, especially interested in the diversity and phylogeny of horse flies. Her research focuses on using museum specimens to perform revisionary work on horse flies. She is the collections manager of all insects at the Field Museum, so she was happy to jump on and answer all of our cicada questions, as well as talk about horseflies. 

Maureen joined John Bates, Shannon Hackett, RJ Pole, and Amanda Marquart for another episode of Birds of a Feather Talk Together. 

Please send us your questions for us to answer as well! You can send them to [email protected]

There was a cool segment on cicadas in the tv show The Americas with Tom Hanks, we hope this helps tell that story too!

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