Tag: #birds — 64 segments on Living on Earth

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2026

May 22, 2026: Spring "Bursts" Forth
Springtime in the northern hemisphere brings many migrating birds returning from their winter havens, in a series of slowly breaking waves that sweep up from the south to the north. BirdNote’s Mary McCann reports.
March 27, 2026: BirdNote®: Meet the Tiniest Owl in the World
At just six inches tall, the desert-dwelling Elf Owl is the smallest known species of owl in the world. As BirdNote®’s Michael Stein reports, despite its tiny stature the Elf Owl is a fierce predator of crickets, scorpions, and mice.
March 06, 2026: BirdNote®: The Cuban Tody, A Caribbean Jewel
A “must-see” bird for anyone traveling in the West Indies, the Cuban Tody is a tiny bird with a lot of personality. In this week’s BirdNote®, Michael Stein introduces us to these striking Cuban natives.
February 27, 2026: Thirsty Hummingbirds
Hummingbirds are migrating north after a hot, dry winter in sunny Mexico, Central America or the Caribbean. And they’re ready for a drink. BirdNote®’s Mary McCann describes how you can help these thirsty birds by hanging a hummingbird feeder filled with the right kind of nectar.
February 13, 2026: BirdNote®: Common Yellowthroat
Common Yellowthroats, one of the most abundant warblers in North America, thrive in places that pickier warblers pass over. BirdNote®’s Ariana Remmel reports that they’re easy to find in urban areas, marshes, overgrown fields and more.
January 30, 2026: Punxsutawney Phil and Earlier Springtimes
While Punxsutawney Phil of Groundhog Day correctly predicts when spring will come only around 40% of the time, he has been predicting earlier springs more often in recent decades, trending with the reality of climate change.

2025

December 12, 2025: The Unexpected"- Mallards Diving
Living on Earth’s Explorer-in-Residence, Mark Seth Lender provides a refuge for hungry ducks during hunting season. He also observed something remarkable: these “dabbling” ducks have learned to dive for the seed he offers them.
October 17, 2025: BirdNote®: Melanin Makes Feathers Stronger
Birds as different as gulls, pelicans, storks, and flamingos all have black-tipped wings. These flight feathers are rich in a pigment called melanin. BirdNote®’s Michael Stein reports that melanin doesn’t just provide color – it also helps make feathers stronger.
October 10, 2025: Science Note: Clever Cockatoos use Drinking Fountains
After observing sulfur-crested cockatoos using a drinking fountain, Australian researchers reported that most of the local population of cockatoos attempted to use the fountains, and around half were successful. Living on Earth’s Don Lyman reports on the research findings and hypotheses for why these clever cockatoos have developed this habit.
October 03, 2025: BirdNote®: Black Swifts Reach for the Moon
There are all sorts of ways that life on Earth takes advantage of the regular cycles of the moon, from horseshoe crabs and grunion fish that lay their eggs during the high tides of a full moon to corals that spawn en masse in the days afterwards. Michael Stein reports for BirdNote® on how black swifts are also synced to lunar cycles and fly higher during the full moon.
September 12, 2025: BirdNote®: The Auspicious Chime of the Bare-throated Bellbird
The exceptionally loud, metallic call of the Bare-throated Bellbird can be heard almost a mile away. BirdNote®’s Nick Bayard reports that the Bare-throated Bellbird is Paraguay’s national bird and has inspired Paraguayan harp music.
September 05, 2025: Birdnote®: Poisonous Birds
Nature has been tinkering with biology and chemistry for as long as life has existed on this planet. And as BirdNote®’s Michael Stein reports, some species have evolved to make use of special chemical weapons – a.k.a., poison.
May 30, 2025: Listening on Earth: California Coast and Crows
This week, sounds sent in by Living on Earth listeners include the crashing waves at Point Lobos near Monterey Bay on the California coast, and a crow in downtown San Francisco.
May 23, 2025: Listening on Earth: Cenzontle and Zocalo
This week’s “Listening on Earth” sounds come from listener Flynn Wendling, who shared the call of a mockingbird (or Cenzontle in Spanish) in Mexico that became his morning wake-up call; and from Living on Earth Producer Paloma Beltran, who visited Mexico City’s Zocalo and captured the sounds of a celebration of 700 years since the founding of Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City.
May 16, 2025: Birdnote®: Toucan - Tropical Icon
In the Peruvian Amazon not far from where Pope Leo XIV lived for many years, you can find a most distinctive bird with a comically huge bill. BirdNote’s Mary McCann reports on the toucan, a tropical icon.
May 16, 2025: Countermeasures"- Dunlin
On the placid saltpans of Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in coastal Massachusetts, the shorebirds known as dunlin are feeding. Then, just like that, they rise and fly in almost perfect unison to evade an intruder, Living on Earth’s Explorer-in-Residence Mark Seth Lender reports.
May 16, 2025: Oystercatchers Bounce Back
The American oystercatcher is a conservation success story thanks in part to efforts to educate the public and protect their ground nests from unaware beachgoers. Host Aynsley O’Neill shares with Host Steve Curwood the story of how conservationists worked together to boost the numbers of this charismatic species.
May 02, 2025: Listener Postcards
We asked you, our listeners, to submit snippets of the sounds around you. Here are a couple more of your submissions.
April 11, 2025: Listening on Earth
At Living on Earth we encourage listeners to share glimpses of their world through audio recording. We feature a collage of different audio recordings from across the country.
April 04, 2025: Listening on Earth: Cardinal and Robin
Two of the most common birdsongs of the New England springtime are those of cardinals and robins. Host Jenni Doering shares a snippet of a recording from her neighborhood and invites listeners to send in their own audio postcards.
April 04, 2025: What I Want to Believe About the Vireos
The songbirds called vireos have increased in number by more than 50 percent in recent decades, while birds overall are struggling. That was the inspiration for Poet Laureate of Mississippi Catherine Pierce’s poem, “What I Want to Believe About the Vireos.” She joins Host Jenni Doering to share and discuss.
February 07, 2025: BirdNote®: City Owls
Some owls, like Barred Owls and Great Horned Owls, are happy to call our cities home. There’s plenty of rats and squirrels to eat, and BirdNote’s Michael Stein offers some tips on how to spot these urban owls.
January 31, 2025: Birdnote®: Goldeneyes and Whistling Wings
On a still winter afternoon, you may hear Common Goldeneyes flying low across the water. As Ernest Hemingway wrote, their wings make the sound of ripping silk. BirdNote®’s Michael Stein reports.
January 17, 2025: BirdNote®: Waxwing Nightlight
Waxwings were once believed to glow in the dark, and Pliny the Elder reported that their feathers were said to “shine like flames” in the dark forests of central Europe. That is, until one sixteenth-century Italian birder decided to take a closer look, says BirdNote®’s Mary McCann.

2024

December 27, 2024: Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in An Age of Extinction
Animals like the American Bison, bald eagle, and giant panda are just a few of the charismatic species that have come dangerously close to extinction. But thanks to some visionaries, species like these have been saved from that fate. In her 2021 book Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction, science writer Michelle Nijhuis shares the stories of some conservation heroes, and she joins Host Jenni Doering to discuss.
December 27, 2024: Tamed and Untamed: Close Encounters of the Animal Kind
The science of animal psychology is still developing and what exactly your family dogs, or wild rabbits are thinking is a fascinating topic for many, including committed animal observers, Sy Montgomery and Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. These best-selling writers believe these and all creatures, wild or domesticated, deserve respect. Their new collaborative book of essays, Tamed and Untamed, dives into the curious mental and emotional space among creatures and humans, as they explained to host Steve Curwood, when he visited Sy Montgomery’s New Hampshire farmhouse.
December 13, 2024: BirdNote®: Bright Yellow Northern Cardinals
: Cardinals are known for their bright scarlet plumage but turns out some cardinals have yellow feathers instead of the classic red. BirdNote®’s Ariana Remmel explains why.
November 15, 2024: BirdNote®: Great Tinamou
The jungles of Colombia are home to a bird with a haunting call. BirdNote’s Mary McCann reports.
November 01, 2024: The Hawk’s Way
Falconry, also known as the practice of hunting with birds, can be traced back perhaps as far as the Ice Age. Many modern aficionados, like author Sy Montgomery, consider the sport to be more about the interaction with these hawks, falcons, and owls, rather than about the hunting itself. Her book The Hawk’s Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty shares her exploration of the art of falconry. Sy joined Host Steve Curwood for a Living on Earth Book Club Event to discuss the wondrous world of these birds of prey.
October 25, 2024: BirdNote®: Rivers of Birds
Along the four major North American flyways, huge “rivers” of Arctic Terns and other migrating birds are now making their way south again. BirdNote®’s Mary McCann describes their incredible journey.
October 18, 2024: BirdNote®: A Bird in the Hand
Pennsylvania is known for its unusual town names, which include Burnt Cabins, Intercourse, Pillow, Chinchilla, Hazard and Panic. In today’s BirdNote®, Michael Stein shares how one small community came to be called “Bird-in-Hand”, Pennsylvania.
October 18, 2024: Eagle!
Rise early in the morning and head out to a nearby national wildlife refuge, and you’ve got a good shot of being rewarded with the sights and sounds of all kinds of birds. And on this birdwatching trip, you might be watched back, Living on Earth’s Explorer in Residence Mark Seth Lender reports.
October 04, 2024: Birdnote®: Here Come the Merlins
The Merlin is one of the world’s smallest falcons yet it’s something of a trailblazer. Rising global temperatures are forcing many species to head north, but as BirdNote®’s Mary McCann reports, these adaptive predators have begun to move south to occupy the abandoned homes of other avian migrants.
September 27, 2024: BirdNote®: The Crows' Night Roost
Crows are social creatures that can gather by the thousands in night roosts. BirdNote®’s Ashley Ahearn reports that these gatherings may provide benefits like warmth, protection from predators, and a chance to find a mate.
September 27, 2024: Tree Swallow Funnel
One of the smallest and most agile migrating birds is the tree swallow. Living on Earth’s Explorer in Residence Mark Seth Lender marvels at how these little fliers gather in huge airborne displays as they prepare for the fall migration.
June 28, 2024: Listening on Earth: African Penguin Calls and Chicks
In this short segment we hear why African penguins are sometimes nicknamed “jackass” penguins. Also, four chicks that recently hatched at the New England Aquarium are giving some hope to this threatened species.
June 07, 2024: BIRDNOTE®: Resplendent Quetzal
Birds tend not to pay attention to borders between nations, and many routinely migrate between the United States and Mexico each spring and fall without showing any papers whatsoever. But if you happen to live north of that border, you’ll need your passport to go see one incredibly remarkable bird called the Resplendent Quetzal. BirdNote®’s Lucina Melesio has more.
May 31, 2024: BIRDNOTE®: Encounter the Cassowary
BirdNote's Mary McCann describes an interaction with a Southern Cassowary, a huge, flightless, and almost-prehistoric looking bird. Found in the forests of Northern Australia, it has the lowest-pitched birdcall in the world.
May 17, 2024: Nature and the Beat
From the chirp of a Katydid to the screech of a parrot, the sounds of nature are all around us and now can be used to help humans make music. Living on Earth’s Bobby Bascomb reports on Beast Box, a website that allows users to create their own unique songs using catchy beats and animal calls as the instruments.
April 05, 2024: Migrations: A Powerful Novel About A World Losing Life
In the 2020 novel Migrations set in the future, polar bears are extinct. So are chimpanzees and wolves and big cats. For the novel’s protagonist, this mass extinction is personal. So, she does the first thing that comes to mind: she makes her way onto a fishing boat to follow what might be the very last migration of the Arctic Tern from pole to pole. Host Steve Curwood speaks with author Charlotte McConaghy about her masterful debut work of environmental fiction.
March 29, 2024: BIRDNOTE®: The Birds of Yoga
Bird-inspired yoga poses, from eagle to crow to peacock pose, have deep roots in Hindu mythology and philosophy. BirdNote®’s Trisha Mukherjee explains.

2023

December 29, 2023: Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Hard-Luck Blue Jay
Raising an injured baby blue jay named Jemima turned out to be one of the most challenging, and rewarding, experiences of wildlife rehabilitator Julie Zickefoose’s life. In her book Saving Jemima, which she also illustrated, Zickefoose gives a peek inside the mind of her young charge learning how to be a blue jay and shares the balance of emotions involved in raising a wild bird for release. Julie Zickefoose joins Host Bobby Bascomb to tell her story as part of the Living on Earth Good Reads on Earth series.
December 29, 2023: Wildly Magical: Animal Encounters in the Galapagos
Writer Jennifer Junghans had always dreamed of going to the Galapagos to swim with the marine iguanas. In 2017 she finally had her chance, and although the iguanas stayed high and dry, the experience brought her up close with blue-footed boobies and blacktip sharks, and face-to-face with a curious pufferfish. Jennifer shares her story of visiting “the remote wilderness of her dreams” with Aynsley O’Neill, who spent a memorable summer studying in the Galapagos.
December 15, 2023: The Hawk’s Way
Falconry, also known as the practice of hunting with birds, can be traced back perhaps as far as the Ice Age. Many modern aficionados, like author Sy Montgomery, consider the sport to be more about the interaction with these hawks, falcons, and owls, rather than about the hunting itself. Her book The Hawk’s Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty shares her exploration of the art of falconry. Sy joined Host Steve Curwood for a Living on Earth Book Club Event to discuss the wondrous world of these birds of prey.
November 24, 2023: BIRDNOTE®: There's More Than One Way to Climb a Tree
Time and again nature has come up with diverse ways that species can succeed in their environments. Birds have feathers to keep them aloft, while bats use a thin membrane of skin stretched over their wing bones. And in today’s BirdNote®, Mary McCann tells us how two species of birds have evolved different ways to move around their forest homes.
November 17, 2023: Listening on Earth: The Many Sounds of Wild Turkeys
The wild cousins of the centerpiece on many Thanksgiving tables do more than just gobble. Turkeys squawk, chirp, and even softly “purr” to express contentment in a flock.
November 03, 2023: BirdNote®: Return of the Extinct Little Blue Macaw
With a little help, some species can make a miraculous comeback, even from extinction in the wild. BirdNote’s Lucina Melesio has this story about a recent avian recovery.
October 27, 2023: BirdNote®: Spooky Shearwaters
At Halloween, we think of ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggitty beasties – indeed, you may even get some of them at your door demanding candy. And as Michael Stein tells us in today’s BirdNote®, some of our avian acquaintances would fit right in.
October 20, 2023: BirdNote®: Ducks—-Dabbling and Diving
The fall migration in the Northern Hemisphere is a great time to keep an eye out for birds that usually live elsewhere, as BirdNote®’s Mary McCann reports.
September 08, 2023: BIRDNOTE®: Birds and Plants of Hawaii
For millions of years the Hawaiian Islands have been forged with fiery lava, a destructive as well as life-bringing force. BirdNote®’s Michael Stein reports on how this rocky archipelago became so abundant in life.
August 25, 2023: The Hawk’s Way
Falconry, also known as the practice of hunting with birds, can be traced back perhaps as far as the Ice Age. Many modern aficionados, like author Sy Montgomery, consider the sport to be more about the interaction with these hawks, falcons, and owls, rather than about the hunting itself. Her book The Hawk’s Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty shares her exploration of the art of falconry. Sy joined Host Steve Curwood for a Living on Earth Book Club Event to discuss the wondrous world of these birds of prey.
August 11, 2023: An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
Every animal species experiences the world in a way that is totally unique to them. Mantis shrimp, for example, have many more photoreceptors than humans and can filter polarized light, and star-nosed moles can smell under water. At a Living on Earth Book Club event, author Ed Yong joined Living on Earth’s Steve Curwood to share the fascinating sensory abilities he learned about in researching his new book, “An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us”.
July 28, 2023: BIRIDNOTE®: Bird Habitat at Home
Cultivating natural habitat for native birds can help combat biodiversity loss, as Ariana Remmel reports in today’s BirdNote.
June 30, 2023: Oh, Say Can You See?": Kingfisher on Long Island Sound
The fourth of July is a time for Americans to feast on hot dogs, veggie burgers and corn on the cob. But as Living on Earth’s Explorer in Residence Mark Seth Lender observers, the kingfisher has its own version of an Independence Day picnic.
June 23, 2023: BirdNote®: The Power Of Albatross Partnerships
Raising a chick is no small feat for Albatrosses and both parents play a vital role. BirdNote®’s Wenfei Tong describes the strong and unique bonds that help albatrosses raise their young.
May 19, 2023: BirdNote®: Pigeons Love Cities - But We Loved Them First
Pigeons are everywhere in our cities, and even though some may seem them as winged rats, pigeons and people have a long-standing bond. Ashley Ahearn reports in this BirdNote®.
May 05, 2023: What I Want to Believe About the Vireos
The songbirds called vireos have increased in number by more than 50 percent in recent decades, while birds overall are struggling. That was the inspiration for Poet Laureate of Mississippi Catherine Pierce’s poem, “What I Want to Believe About the Vireos.” She joins Host Jenni Doering to share and discuss.
May 05, 2023: BirdNote®: Wetland Birds Thrive
While nearly a third of North American bird species are in decline, many birds that depend on wetlands are thriving. BirdNote®’s Michael Stein reports.
April 28, 2023: BIRDNOTE®: The World's Most Abundant Bird
The red-billed Quelea is a small finch-like African bird that migrates long distances in massive flocks. BirdNote®’s Michael Stein reports.
April 21, 2023: “Earth, Sometimes I Try to Play It Casual”
Poet Catherine Pierce joins Living on Earth’s Jenni Doering to read her poem, “Earth, Sometimes I Try to Play It Casual” and her thoughts about the meaning of “celebrating the Earth” by being present to the wonders around us.
March 31, 2023: Natl Audubon Keeps Enslaver’s Name
The namesake of the National Audubon Society was an enslaver, racist and white supremacist, so several local chapters are changing their names. But the leadership of the national group has rejected making a change. DC chapter President Tykee James joins Host Steve Curwood to say the decision is an obstacle to a more inclusive birding community.
March 03, 2023: Cliff Hanger
Along the east coast of the Falklands, an agile cormorant soars and dives among the cliffs. Living on Earth's Explorer-in-Residence, Mark Seth Lender, reflects on the empire of this majestic but much-maligned bird.
February 17, 2023: BirdNote®: Red-Crowned Cranes Dance on Hokkaido
In Japan cranes are said to be a totem of luck and longevity. BirdNote®’s Michael Stein describes their remarkable dance ritual.
January 27, 2023: Science Note: Hurricanes, Lizards, and Leafblowers
Hurricanes may act as a force of natural selection for Caribbean lizards, according to a study in the journal Nature. Living on Earth’s Don Lyman explains how scientists used leaf blowers to simulate hurricane-force winds and learn how the hardiest lizards hang on.

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