2025 was an exciting year for rare bird sightings in the ABA Area, with two first ABA records and a fascinating array of interesting and unexpected records from all corners of the US and Canada. North American Birds editor Alex Lamoreaux and writer and teacher Tim Healy join host Nate Swick to have some fun remembering the highlights of last year.

Check out the 2026 Bird of the Year merch available NOW at aba.org/store

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Science writer Ed Yong was an invaluable resource for many of us navigating the strange pandemic landscape. His writing about Covid-19 at The Atlantic earned him a Pulitzer Prize, but left him looking for an outlet to recalibrate after that anxiety-ridden period. Inspired by his own writing in his book, An Immense World, he turned to bird-watching despite not expecting to be any good at it. It has turned into a passion, a way to explore both his home and the wider world, and an inspiration for his writing.

Also, Nate shares his experience wrangling endemics in Puerto Rico.

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2026 is officially the year of the Horned Lark!

This dapper little songbird can be found just about everywhere in the ABA Area, and we're excited to put a spotlight on it this year as our Bird of the Year for 2026. As is tradition, the species is featured on the January issue of the ABA's Birding magazine, depicted by Indiana artist Kristina Knowski, who bird art afficianados might know from her work as artist in residence for the Indiana Dunes Birding Festival.

And it's not just the magazine, we will have a whole range of fun Horned Lark merch, including the return of our Bird of the Year t-shirts, at the ABA shop!

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Jody Allair, Martha Harbison, and Rebecca Heisman join host Nate Swick for the last American Birding Podcast episode of the year, with a wide-ranging discussion of some of the latest bird and birding news. The panel talks warbler hybrids, vacant lots, and how to best yell at gulls among other things! Thanks for a great year!

Also, don't forget to join the ABA for our 2026 Bird of the Year reveal on January 5, 2026, at 4 PM ET.

Links to articles discussed in this episode:

Look at those nasty and lovely birds! Assessing preferences and emotional responses of visitors to a National Park

The role of vacant lots in promoting avian species diversity and occupancy in a post-industrial city

Genetic confirmation of an "uncommon mourningthroat" (Geothlypis philadelphia × G. trichas): A rare but persistent hybrid warbler

Want gulls to back off? Here's how to talk to them

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We get one more go-round with the list and the random number generator for 2025 as Ted Floyd joins host Nate Swick to talk about, well, whatever birds we randomly turn up. This Random Birds covers an impressivley random suite of birds with kites, warblers, waders, and flycatchers all on the agenda.

Also, ABA membership makes a great holiday gift!

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Central America is home to five great tropical forests, whose presence and protection are critical to the conservation of just about every one of our neotropical migrant birds. It is the subject of a recent study from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Wildlife Conservation Society published last month in the journal Biological Conservation. Anna Lello-Smith, bird conservation scientist from the WCS is the lead author and she joins is to talk about what this means for bird conservation.

Also, it's the first weekend of the Christmas Bird Count. Hope you're ready!

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The Birding Book Club is back again to do our annual Best Bird Books of the Year episode for 2025. There's no better time to give the gift of bird books to the birder in your life. And why not something for yourself while you're at it? Nate Swick is joined by 10,000 Birds book reviewer Donna Schulman and Birding magazine media and book review editor Rebecca Minardi to talk about what we loved this very unique year of birds in books.

Links to all of our choices at the ABA website.

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Happy Thanksgiving! At the ABA, we're thankful for birders - their passion, their deep knowledge base, and the willingness of some to come on the American Birding Podcast to discuss recent bird science and news. This month we welcome Stephanie Beilke, Tim Healy, and Ryan Mandelbaum to talk corvid mimicry, gator loving grebes, and the best birds to assign to all those other holidays.

Links to articles discussed in this episode:

Humans outperform Merlin Sound ID in field-based point-count surveys

Vocal mimicry in Corvids

Coordinated movements of multiple pied-billed grebes in association with an American alligator

Wintering closer to breeding grounds comes at a cost in an Arctic-specialized songbird,

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What do birding and board games have in common? More than you'd expect! Birder and game designer Elizabeth Hargrave has made it a mission to bring these two things together and her bird-themed game Wingspan does just that. Wingspan has been covered by the New York Times, Smithsonian, and Science magazine among other places and has managed to elicit interest at a time when enthusiasm among the general public for both birding and board games are at an all-time high. She joined host Nate Swick in 2019 me to talk about both.

Also, the Philadelphia Eagles are getting in the bird conservation business, which opens up opportunities for all sorts of bird and professional sports crossovers.

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Smithsonian researcher Roxie Laybourne may be the most influential ornithologist you've never heard of. Over the more than half a century she was a pioneering figure in the fields of forensics and aviation, all through her work with birds, and, more specifically, their feathers. Her incredible life is documented by journalist Chris Sweeney in the book, The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem, and the Magnificent Life of Roxie Laybourne, released earlier this year. Chris joins us to talk about Laybourne's legacy in fields that go far beyond birds.

Also, the big eBird update is here and our lists are looking a lot different this week. What does this mean for our muddled taxonomic authorities in North America?

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