Okay, But... Birds

E46. Crows and ravens fill our oldest stories, and plenty of us want one as a friend. Dr. Claudia Wascher, professor of behavioral biology at Anglia Ruskin University, explains what makes corvids seem so clever, when clever turns out to be something simpler, and why befriending them is a bad idea.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• The crow named Hugo, and what his flock started saying once he was gone
• Why a walnut dropped at a red light may be less clever than it looks
• What a goose's heartbeat reveals about how birds feel

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

• American Crow audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML229089
• Common Raven audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML132161
• Steller's Jay audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML539738
• Hawaiian Crow video contributed by Timothy Barksdale, ML425081
• Rook audio contributed by James (Jim) Holmes, ML635593051
• Eurasian Jay audio contributed by James (Jim) Holmes, ML32278971
• Carrion Crow audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML231022
• Australian Magpie audio contributed by Emma Greig, ML218159
• House Crow video contributed by Raphaël Nussbaumer, ML241917321
• Red-tailed Hawk audio contributed by David McCartt, ML229578
• Graylag Goose audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML233387

E45. Lyrebirds can copy a chainsaw, a car alarm and a camera shutter, so it is easy to call them liars. Dr. Anastasia Dalziell of Western Sydney University has spent years recording them in the wild, and she explains what the famous Attenborough clip left out and some of the most surprising evolutionary reasons for mimicry.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• Why a female lyrebird starts sounding like an eagle when you get too close to her nest
• What a male does when the female he has been courting tries to walk away
• The other lyrebird, and the hooked rainforest vine it plays like an instrument

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

• Red-tailed Hawk audio contributed by David McCartt, ML229578
• Killdeer audio contributed by Mike Andersen, ML129054
• Superb Lyrebird audio contributed by Vicki Powys, ML229691
• Albert's Lyrebird audio contributed by Robert C. Stein, ML309505
• Gray Shrikethrush video contributed by Ramit Singal, ML641225345
• Gray Shrikethrush audio contributed by Vicki Powys, ML229649
• Golden Whistler video contributed by Ramit Singal, ML641948342
• Golden Whistler audio contributed by Ramit Singal, ML272346391
• Wedge-tailed Eagle audio contributed by Vicki Powys, ML223274
• Gray Goshawk audio contributed by Ramit Singal, ML246142551
• Albert's Lyrebird video contributed by Fiona Backhouse, ML615390207
• Albert's Lyrebird audio contributed by Ramit Singal, ML141465291
• Albert's Lyrebird video contributed by Fiona Backhouse, ML615390194
• Albert's Lyrebird video contributed by Fiona Backhouse, ML615390209
• Satin Bowerbird audio contributed by Newton Hobbs, ML16236
• Albert's Lyrebird video contributed by Fiona Backhouse, ML615390211
• Superb Lyrebird audio contributed by James (Jim) Holmes, ML463586881

Superb Lyrebird recordings (2024 films): Justin Welbergen, Jaden Thompson, Elle Heiser, Yoon Lee, Fiona Backhouse and Anastasia Dalziell, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Australia, and Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, USA.

E44. An adult eagle has no natural predators, so why are birds of prey declining? Dr. Todd Katzner, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, explains the surprising dangers facing golden eagles and their kin, from spinning wind turbines to a threat small enough to fit on a grain of rice.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• Why an eagle that can clearly see a wind turbine still flies into one
• How a hunter's choice of bullet ends up inside an eagle
• The flap count that tells a vulture whether to risk crossing the sea

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

• Bald Eagle audio contributed by Darrell Peterson, ML145265541
• Golden Eagle audio contributed by W. Douglas Robinson, ML612942188
• Golden Eagle audio contributed by Kathy Groschupf, ML57165
• American Goshawk video contributed by Dan J. MacNeal, ML297994251
• Harpy Eagle audio contributed by Curtis Marantz, ML81101
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird audio contributed by Trenton Voytko, ML604314061
• Ferruginous Hawk audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML172487

E43. For millions of years, South America’s top predators weren’t cats or bears. They were birds, some taller than a person. Paleontologist Dr. Federico "Dino" Degrange of the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba joins us to ask whether terror birds really earned their name.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• The surprising weapon a terror bird actually used to bring down its prey
• What left bite marks on one of the biggest terror birds ever found
• Why the last terror bird standing was one of the smallest

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

• Black-legged Seriema video contributed by Pablo Hernan Capovilla, ML662237304
• Red-legged Seriema audio contributed by Matthew D. Medler, ML189557
• Black-legged Seriema audio contributed by Steven L. Hilty, ML83854

E42. Birds get sick too, and a lot of what happens next looks surprisingly familiar. Dr. Andrea Townsend of Hamilton College has spent two decades following American crows through outbreaks, and she walks Scott through what illness really does to a bird, from the family it belongs to down to the clever brain it depends on.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• The surprising way crows choose their partners, and what it costs them when disease comes around
• What a stomach bug does to one of the cleverest birds you'll ever meet
• Why going it alone can be the riskier move while a virus is spreading

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

• American Crow video contributed by Jay McGowan, ML472843
• Common Raven audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML137574
• Burrowing Owl audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML188805

E41. Centaurs, mermaids, minotaurs: we have been inventing creatures that are two things at once for as long as we have told stories. Birds do it for real. Dr. Glaucia Del-Rio of the Florida Museum of Natural History studies two Amazonian antbirds that meet where a river runs out, and what their offspring say about where one species ends.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• Why a river can be an impossible barrier for a bird with perfectly good wings, and what researchers found when they carried birds out into the middle of one and let go
• How to spot a hybrid antbird at a glance, once you know which colors belong to which parent
• The German-Brazilian ornithologist an all-women expedition was named for, and the injury she dealt with herself, a long way from any hospital

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

• Red-capped Manakin audio contributed by David L. Ross Jr., ML57360
• Streak-headed Woodcreeper audio contributed by Ted Parker, ML21543
• American Flamingo audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML172484
• Lawrence's Warbler (hybrid) audio contributed by Curtis Marantz, ML113786
• Brewster's Warbler (hybrid) audio contributed by Curtis Marantz, ML76906

Additional photos and video courtesy of Glaucia Del-Rio: Marco Rego, Fabio Schunck, Luis Morais, and Angela Prochilo. Harlequin Antbird photo by Hector Bottai, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).

E40. There are only 15 crane species on the planet, and 11 of them are in trouble. Dr. Andy Caven, Director of Central Flyway Programs for the International Crane Foundation, has spent his career on two of them: the sandhill cranes that pour into one stretch of Nebraska's Platte River every spring, and the whooping crane, which came back from the edge and is still nowhere near safe. Scott asks him what it actually takes to keep a bird like that on the landscape, and the answer runs through soggy grassland, private ranches, and one river worth fighting over.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• The number Andy gives for how many cranes stand on that stretch of river, which Scott makes him say twice
• How a bird that was down to a couple of dozen individuals ended up stopping a dam
• What a wet meadow is, and why one is so much easier to lose than to build back

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

• Mallard audio contributed by Mike Andersen, ML136504
• Wilson's Phalarope audio contributed by W. Douglas Robinson, ML474658841
• Swamp Sparrow audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94352

E39. Every August the questions start: there is a cardinal at the feeder with no head feathers, and it looks terrible. Nothing is wrong with it. It is molting, which every bird does at least every year. Dr. Ryan Terrill of the San Diego Natural History Museum studies what a feather endures over a year and what it takes to replace one, and he makes the case that the few weeks a bird spends looking its worst may be the most consequential weeks it has.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• Why the cardinal at your feeder in late summer looks like it lost a fight
• What a bird quietly gives up during the weeks it is growing new feathers
• The hundreds of miles some birds fly for the sake of a new set of feathers

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

• Northern Cardinal audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML191165
• American Goldfinch audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94457
• Blue Jay audio contributed by Gaetan Dupont, ML173749
• Herring Gull audio contributed by Sarah MacLean, ML165927
• American Herring Gull video contributed by Steve Kelling, ML540908261
• Snow Bunting audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML130973
• Red-tailed hawk audio contributed by David McCartt, ML229578
• White-throated Sparrow audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML219799
• Great Hornbill audio contributed by Linda Macaulay, ML111527
• Flightless Cormorant audio contributed by Linda Macaulay, ML237486

E38. You have pulled one out of a jacket sleeve at a bad angle, picked one up on a walk, and you are almost certainly within arm's reach of a few thousand of them right now. Dr. Cody Limber, who recently finished his PhD at Yale, spent it taking growing feathers apart one cell at a time to find out what they are actually made of. A feather is not a fancy scale, it does not grow the way you would guess, and after all this time nobody can say what the first ones were for.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• The strangest things growing out of birds, and which of them actually count as feathers
• What a feather is actually made of, once you smash one into individual cells and read what every cell was doing
• What a feather actually is, whether it is alive or dead, how it is put together, and the coordination that color and pattern demand

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

• Eastern Whip-poor-will audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML195774
• Red-bellied Woodpecker audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML306064
• Indian Peafowl audio contributed by Rounak choudhary, ML621021542
• Common Raven audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML132161
• Mallard audio contributed by Mike Andersen, ML136504
• Double-crested Cormorant audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML233274
• Zebra Finch (Australian) audio contributed by Vicki Powys, ML226233
• American Herring Gull video contributed by Steve Kelling, ML540908261
• Golden-winged Warbler video contributed by Benjamin Clock, ML476422
• Great Argus audio contributed by Arnoud B. van den Berg, ML71122
• Horned Screamer audio contributed by Paul A. Schwartz, ML58925
• Wild Turkey audio contributed by James (Jim) Holmes, ML73964601

E37. A bird called Wisdom was banded on Midway Atoll in 1956 and is still laying eggs today, which makes her at least 75 and the oldest known wild bird on the planet. She has also outlived the man who banded her, and most of the scientists who tracked her since. Dr. Etienne Rouby studies long-lived seabirds at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at CU Boulder, working with data from the French sub-Antarctic islands where wandering albatross have been followed for more than half a century. Scott asks him what you can learn from a bird that will outlast your career, your funding, and possibly your field station.

In this episode you'll hear about:

• What a fledgling albatross does for the first five years of its life, and why nobody really knows
• The fishing gear change that pulled a colony back from the brink, and how long it took to see it working
• Why a very good year for female albatross is a very bad year for the males

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

• Snowy Albatross audio contributed by Ted Parker, ML42306
• Black-browed Albatross audio contributed by Jan Hansen, ML650026815