Image: The Ultimate Bird Drawing Throwdown Showdown Graphic featuring images of David Sibley and H. Jon Benjamin

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Illustrator David Sibley and actor H. Jon Benjamin will face off in the bird illustration battle of the century during BirdNote's Year-end Celebration and Auction!

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Shows With Contributions by Mark Bramhill

A male Northern Flicker atop a vertical branch, giving a quizzical head-tilted look at the viewer

Spark Bird: H. Jon Benjamin’s Bird Reports

When the COVID pandemic started, comedian and actor H. Jon Benjamin and his family moved to a secluded house by a creek in upstate New York. And living there, he started to get really interested in birds. He began videotaping himself getting excited about seeing birds and sharing these…
A Wood Thrush lit by filtered light as it perches amidst dense greenery

The Wood Thrush as a Symbol for Inner Peace

When we think of a bird to represent peace, many of us might think of doves. Deja Perkins, an urban ecologist, says that the Wood Thrush is the bird that best represents inner peace and peace of mind.
A Steller's Jay faces the viewer, showing bright blue while gripping a branch

Dave Mull and the Courage of Steller’s Jays

Skateboarder and birder Dave Mull remembers the first time he heard a Steller’s Jay imitating a Red-tailed Hawk. “These Steller's Jays were pretending to be something they were not, kind of tricking the world,” he says. It got him into the mindset that he could attempt a terrifying new…
A Clark's Nutcracker bird perched atop a vertical branch of Whitebark Pine

Clark’s Nutcracker and the Whitebark Pine

Clark’s Nutcracker is a clever corvid that has a special relationship with a tree called the whitebark pine. The tree’s cones don’t open on their own, and Clark’s Nutcracker is one of the few species that can pry them open. When the nutcrackers cache the seeds for the winter, they’ll leave…
Male Red-tailed Hawk, wings extended in flight against a clear blue sky

Spark Bird: Maya Higa and Bean

When Maya Higa started interning at a zoo, she wasn't especially into birds — until she began rehabilitating a Red-tailed Hawk named Bean. Meanwhile, Maya was doing live-streams of herself singing and playing guitar on the website Twitch, just for fun, to a pretty small audience. The video…
The episode artwork for Bring Birds Back: This is Your Brain on Birds

This is Your Brain on Birds

In order for us to show up for birds, we must first show up for ourselves. Our show is all about ways we can help our bird friends, but today we’re looking at how birds and nature can help restore us. Over the past few decades, researchers have found strong links between our connection to…
Episode promotional graphic for Bring Birds Back: "The Birds and the Trees"

The Birds and the Trees

Clark’s Nutcracker and the whitebark pine have a strong mutualistic relationship: the tree is the bird’s best source of food, and the bird is the tree’s most dependable seed disperser. But several factors are putting the tree at risk — and the decline in whitebark pines is making that…
A pair of Acorn Woodpeckers perched on a branch, looking at each other.

Wenfei Tong on Seeing Ourselves in Birds

For biologist and writer Wenfei Tong, the line between people and animals has always felt fuzzy — or maybe feathery, in the case of birds. Wenfei loves to highlight commonalities we share with birds, like how young adult Acorn Woodpeckers sometimes stay with their parents if there aren't…
The episode artwork for Bring Birds Back: The Fascinating World of Bird Behavior

The Fascinating World of Bird Behavior

Since Tenijah Hamilton began birding, a lot of questions have come up about why birds do some of the strange things that they do. Writer and biologist Wenfei Tong joins Tenijah to answer some burning questions about what’s going on with our bird friends – questions about different…
A squirrel balances on a metal hook that holds a birdfeeder

BirdNoir: The Squirrel Mafia

In this episode of BirdNoir, the Private Eye hears from his friend Danny, who is having his bird feeders pilfered by a pack of rowdy squirrels. While a determined squirrel thief is hard to stop, the detective gives Danny suggestions on the best ways to foil these clever critters.