Bird...NOT! with H. Jon Benjamin

During the COVID-19 pandemic, actor H. Jon Benjamin began sharing his experiences with birds in his “Morning Bird Report” videos on social media. For April Fools Day, BirdNote has invited him to test out his birding-by-sound skills on a one-of-a-kind quiz show: Bird…NOT! Jon has to guess whether the sound is a bird or not — which isn’t always as easy as it sounds.

BirdNote^®

Bird...NOT! with H. Jon Benjamin

Written by Allison Wilson, Conor Gearin, and Mark Bramhill

[game show music]

H. Jon Benjamin: This is Bird Not. I'm H. Jon Benjamin. [applause]

Today the good people at BirdNote have put together a little quiz for me to test my birding-by-sound skills. They're going to play me a sound. And I just have to guess if it's a bird…or not. I really hope I pass. Okay. Sound number one, hit me.

[Black-capped Chickadee call, ML 202239]

That's a bird. [ding!] [applause] It's a small songbird. That narrows it down. Uh… sparrow. [buzzer] Oh my God. Okay. That was a Black-capped Chickadee.

All right. So I got the first one wrong, but now I think I'm going to go on a roll.

[Cat meows]

That is not a bird. [ding!] That is my grandmother seeing a mouse. [buzz] [crowd groans] Ha! That’s close. So close. That's a domestic cat.

[Northern Cardinal song, ML 24184651]

That’s a giant bird. That was a massive bird. Was that Big Bird from Sesame Street? [buzzer] [crowd sighs] Northern Cardinal. One of my favorites.

[Tina from Bob’s Burgers sounding stressed with wind in the background]

[laughs] I can assure you that that is Tina from Bob's Burgers. [ding ding ding!]
[applause]

[Squeaky hinge with wave noises in background]

I feel like that's like some sort of porpoise or dolphin, or that's a crazy bird that's splashing around in a massive bird bath. [buzz] [crowd groans] Oh, my God, it was a squeaky cabinet door! …or there's a porpoise in that cabinet.

[Blue Jay call, ML 216524141]

That’s probably some sort of raptor, maybe a hawk. If not, a Blue Jay impersonating a Hawk. [ding ding ding!] [applause] HA!!!

Wow. I can't believe I got one. For BirdNote, this has been H. Jon Benjamin.

[outro music]

###

Senior Producer: John Kessler
Content Director: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Special thanks to H. Jon Benjamin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Black-capped Chickadee ML 202239 recorded by J. McGowan, Northern Cardinal ML 24184651 recorded by P. Marvin, and Blue Jay ML 216524141 recorded by J. McGowan.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2022 BirdNote April 2022 Narrator: H. Jon Benjamin

ID# birdNOT-01-2022-04-01 birdNOT-01