This week, we’re turning the tables. Instead of interviewing a guest, Alex Harper takes over hosting duties and puts the Life List Podcast hosts in the hot seats to chat about how they became professional birding guides, what they do and don't like about their profession, and what their jobs are like. 

P.S. Thanks to our friends of the pod in this episode's cover photo - Jeff, Angela, and Surya!

Get more Life list by subscribing to our newsletter and joining our Patreon for bonus content. Talk to us and share your topic ideas at lifelistpodcast.com. 

Thanks to Kowa Optics for sponsoring our podcast! Want to know more about us? Check out George's company, Hillstar Nature; Alvaro's company, Alvaro's Adventures, and Mollee's company, Nighthawk Agency, to see more about what we're up to. 

Birds - crabs - fish - mammals...oh my! Spring birding gets us out there and finding all sorts of things. Alvaro, Mollee, and George are catching up on stories from their time in the field and their backyards throughout May. 

Get more Life list by subscribing to our newsletter and joining our Patreon for bonus content. Talk to us and share your topic ideas at lifelistpodcast.com. 

Thanks to Kowa Optics for sponsoring our podcast! Want to know more about us? Check out George's company, Hillstar Nature; Alvaro's company, Alvaro's Adventures, and Mollee's company, Nighthawk Agency, to see more about what we're up to. 

If you've read anything by Ed Yong, you know that he tackles the challenge of explaining some of the most difficult-to-grasp concepts in the animal world in ways that humans can (nearly) imagine. In this episode, we're chatting with Ed — Pulitzer Prize–winning science writer and bestselling author — about migration, animal senses, and seeing the world differently through nature. 

Get more Life list by subscribing to our newsletter and joining our Patreon for bonus content. Talk to us and share your topic ideas at lifelistpodcast.com. 

Thanks to Kowa Optics for sponsoring our podcast! Want to know more about us? Check out George's company, Hillstar Nature; Alvaro's company, Alvaro's Adventures, and Mollee's company, Nighthawk Agency, to see more about what we're up to. 

Jason Hall is back on the podcast to talk about mid-April spring migration, backyard adventures, and time on the other side of the world in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, India. 

Get more Life list by subscribing to our newsletter and joining our Patreon for bonus content. Talk to us and share your topic ideas at lifelistpodcast.com. 

Thanks to Kowa Optics for sponsoring our podcast! Want to know more about us? Check out George's company, Hillstar Nature; Alvaro's company, Alvaro's Adventures, and Mollee's company, Nighthawk Agency, to see more about what we're up to. 

Another classic Life List episode: a recipe of biological and ecological facts, rabbit holes, and a healthy dose of talk about life! Bryony Angell wrote The Migratory Suitor for a recent issue of BWD magazine, and she joined us along with Wenfei Tong, an evolutionary biologist, to discuss how pair bonding in birds could relate to that in humans. This is a fun one!

Helpful links: 

• Read The Migratory Suitor here as a free PDF download
• Wenfei's main book that we referenced throughout the episode is Bird Love: The Family Life of Birds
• More about Bryony and her work on her website 
• More about Wenfei and her work on her website 

One correction for this episode: It's prolactin that is involved in crop milk let down, not oxytocin 🙂

Get more Life list by subscribing to our newsletter and joining our Patreon for bonus content. Talk to us and share your topic ideas at lifelistpodcast.com. 

Thanks to Kowa Optics for sponsoring our podcast! Want to know more about us? Check out George's company, Hillstar Nature; Alvaro's company, Alvaro's Adventures, and Mollee's company, Nighthawk Agency, to see more about what we're up to. 

Mollee sat down with Alvaro to recount her visit to the UAE that was cut short when the US/Iran war broke out. From here, she talks about the journey to get out of the Middle East that ended up involving travel to three countries, closed airspace and canceled flights, a missed birding tour, and experiences missiles being intercepted overhead...plus exploration of dramatic wadis, the pyramids, and Ramadan across three unique cultures. 

Get more Life list by subscribing to our newsletter and joining our Patreon for bonus content. Talk to us and share your topic ideas at lifelistpodcast.com. 

Thanks to Kowa Optics for sponsoring our podcast! Want to know more about us? Check out George's company, Hillstar Nature; Alvaro's company, Alvaro's Adventures, and Mollee's company, Nighthawk Agency, to see more about what we're up to. 

Bonner Black is back! If you need a little quality hang with your birding friends, we've got you covered. 

A few links: 

• Check out all of Bonner's music and more on her website
• Plus, don't miss Beasts of Birdin on YouTube 
• And thanks to Lars Lachmann via Xeno-Canto for the Great Bustard recording! 

Get more Life list by subscribing to our newsletter and joining our Patreon for bonus content. Talk to us and share your topic ideas at lifelistpodcast.com. 

Thanks to Kowa Optics for sponsoring our podcast! Want to know more about us? Check out George's company, Hillstar Nature; Alvaro's company, Alvaro's Adventures, and Mollee's company, Nighthawk Agency, to see more about what we're up to. 

George and Alvaro are chatting about recent birds in their backyards, ABA rarities, sparrow speciation, recent South American travels, and more!

At the end of this episode, Alvaro cites a new paper about genetic expression with wheatears as the example species. Start here to dive into this research: https://www.the-scientist.com/variation-at-a-single-gene-controls-songbird-plumage-73606

Get more Life list by subscribing to our newsletter and joining our Patreon for bonus content. Talk to us and share your topic ideas at lifelistpodcast.com. 

Thanks to Kowa Optics for sponsoring our podcast! Want to know more about us? Check out George's company, Hillstar Nature; Alvaro's company, Alvaro's Adventures, and Mollee's company, Nighthawk Agency, to see more about what we're up to. 

Allison has worked coast to (Great Lakes) coast for years, and today, we're chatting about tales from the field and lessons learned from endless days of visible migration experiences. 

Come for the high counts...stay for the simple joys of watching the world go by!

Get more Life list by subscribing to our newsletter and joining our Patreon for bonus content. Talk to us and share your topic ideas at lifelistpodcast.com. 

Thanks to Kowa Optics for sponsoring our podcast! Want to know more about us? Check out George's company, Hillstar Nature; Alvaro's company, Alvaro's Adventures, and Mollee's company, Nighthawk Agency, to see more about what we're up to. 

New this episode: Check out our chapters in Apple Podcasts to preview our conversation!

The gang's all here to chat about winter birding, from backyard feeders to chilly pelagics, plus the consumption of atypical food sources (to us Americans, at least), great places for your first Neotropical birding trip, and a sweet tooth distraction. 

Come for the look back on recently extinct birds...stay for the cold- and warm-weather travel inspo!

Get more Life list by subscribing to our newsletter and joining our Patreon for bonus content. Talk to us and share your topic ideas at lifelistpodcast.com. 

Thanks to Kowa Optics for sponsoring our podcast! Want to know more about us? Check out George's company, Hillstar Nature; Alvaro's company, Alvaro's Adventures, and Mollee's company, Nighthawk Agency, to see more about what we're up to.