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

Join BirdNote tomorrow, November 30th!

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 Cosmo Sheldrake

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…
The episode artwork for Bring Birds Back: The Streaming Sanctuary

The Streaming Sanctuary

Maya Higa is a 24-year-old streamer, falconer and sole founder of Alveus Sanctuary, a wildlife reserve outside of Austin, TX. What's unusual about Alveus is its digital footprint — it's "a virtual conservation education center facility" primarily found on Twitch where Maya streams to teach…
Episode promotional graphic for Bring Birds Back: "Spooky Birds" featuring the podcast artwork and headshot of guest, Kaeli Swift

Spooky Birds That Squawk in the Dark

For Halloween, corvid researcher Kaeli Swift joins Tenijah for a show-and-tell of spooky birds. Corvids, vultures, and owls all have reputations as ominous and foreboding — and today, we’re digging into those ideas. Kaeli unpacks why the birds are seen as scary, shares cool facts beyond…
Episode promotional graphic for Bring Birds Back: "Birding On The Hill" featuring the podcast artwork and headshot of guest, Tykee James

Birding on the Hill

So many of the challenges facing birds are systemic, bigger than what any one person can fix — so how do we get governments to step in and do something? Tykee James, a Sr. Government Relations Representative for The Wilderness Society, has approached this issue in a creative way: by…
A graphic with the Bring Birds Back artwork on the right side, a photo of Ashley C. Ford in the top-left corner, and a photo of Tracy Clayton in the bottom-left corner.

Bird Heroes

Tenijah has been on a birding journey since she was drawn into bird watching at the start of the pandemic — and now, she’s inspiring new birders with Bring Birds Back. For our season finale, Tenijah talks to two of the heroes who inspired her: Tracy Clayton and Ashley C. Ford. They’re…
A graphic with the Bring Birds Back artwork on the right side, a group photo of Tenijah with a birding group in the top-left corner, and a photo of Freya McGregor in the bottom-left corner.

Birding is for Every Body

People with disabilities often face barriers to birding. These can be infrastructural and cultural. The organization Birdability is addressing those barriers by raising awareness, crowdsourcing information on what trails and birding spots are already accessible (or what other locations…
A graphic with the Bring Birds Back artwork on the right side, a headshot of Martha Harbison in the top-left corner, and a photo of David Lei in the bottom-left corner.

How to Be a More Ethical Birder

Since her bird journey began, Tenijah’s been learning how to be a better birder —but not just with new birding skills. There’s also the important lesson of how to be an “ethical birder” or treating the birds with respect. Tenijah talks to writer Martha Harbison about “the rules” of birding…
A graphic with the Bring Birds Back artwork on the right side, a headshot of Kasia Chmielinski in the top-left corner, and a photo of Jeana Fucello in the bottom-left corner.

Finding Your Flock

If we want as many people caring for birds as possible, we need people to not only become interested, but to have mentorship and community available for them. Tenijah speaks with Jeana Fucello and Kasia Chmielinski from the Feminist Bird Club, a birding group centered around being an…
A graphic with the Bring Birds Back artwork on the right side, a headshot of Joe Siegrist in the top-left corner, and a photo of Kieran MacDonald in the bottom-left corner.

The Past, Present, and Future of Purple Martins

Purple Martins and people have a long history. Native Americans started a practice of providing homes for the birds, which was copied by European colonizers. But those colonizers released invasive species and cleared habitats to the point that the species is entirely reliant on man-made…
A graphic with the Bring Birds Back artwork on the right side, a headshot of Caroline Brewer in the top-left corner, and a photo of Steve Hampton in the bottom-left corner.

What's in a Name?

Names have power. In North America, more than 100 species of birds have eponymous names, many honoring white colonizers. The “Bird Names for Birds” movement to change these names, or “verbal statues,” can be traced to Ph.D candidate Robert Driver’s 2018 proposal about the Thick-billed…