You may have heard that feeding birds makes them dependent on humans for food, but it’s just not true. Even if you see your local birds ravenously eating at your feeder, those same birds are also finding wild sources of food from elsewhere at other times of the day. That being said, a…

Birds are resourceful. Wherever they live, even in the biggest cities, they find clever places to build their nests. An initiative from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology called Celebrate Urban Birds once asked people to share the funkiest and funniest places they’ve seen a bird nest. Among…

If you’re a new birder and find yourself feeling confused by lookalike birds, don’t be too hard on yourself. Some bird species look almost identical, and some of the most advanced birders get stumped. BirdNote is supported by the Tuttleman Foundation and by generous listeners like you.

The Northern Mockingbird isn’t the only mimic bird in town. Brown Thrashers also learn songs from nearby birds and add them to their repertoire. The species has been documented singing more than 1,100 different songs: a mix of imitations and invented little melodies. While mockingbirds…

In this episode of BirdNoir, Michael Stein — Private Eye — gets a call from a friend, Danny, who wants to know why the bluest bird he’s ever seen has vanished. But there are many birds that are blue besides the true bluebirds (which belong to the thrush family). To solve the mystery, the…

Like an expert angler, a tern can read the surface of the water to find where to catch its next fish. Scientists piloted a drone to track the flight paths of terns on the hunt. The terns sought out turbulent water. A vortex formed by colliding currents traps fish near the surface, where…

Looking at a Canada Goose, you might not think their bodies are designed for fancy flying. But watch as a flock of geese comes in for a landing at a lake and you might be surprised. If the flock comes in too fast or too high above the water, geese have a little trick to slow themselves…

In winter, many songbirds join flocks made up of multiple species that travel around looking for food, benefitting from safety in numbers. But a bird flock that doesn't move in the same direction soon scatters to the wind. It turns out that the Tufted Titmouse, a small gray songbird, is…

Many years ago, when writer and musician Ray Young Bear was training his singing voice, he took a kind of vocal lesson from the blackbirds. “They have the most complicated song in the world — high pitches and low notes, and then it smooths out, then it kicks up again,” he said. “I would…

En climas templados como los de Norteamérica, los pájaros cantores machos suelen ser los que más cantan. Por lo general, los machos migran al norte antes que las hembras y establecen territorios para la corta temporada de reproducción, utilizando sus canciones como una forma de reclamar un…