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Spark Bird: A Blackburnian Warbler’s Journey
A biologist reunites with a warbler from childhood.
© Ryan Mandelbaum FCC
Justine Bowe fell in love with birds when she was a kid, on a hike with her dad when she saw the fiery colors of a Blackburnian Warbler. Justine now manages the Bird Friendly Coffee program at the Smithsonian Institute's Migratory Bird Center, working with coffee farmers to preserve habitat for birds that migrate to Central and South America. In Colombia, she got to see Blackburnian Warblers spending winter on bird-friendly farms.
BirdNote®
Spark Bird: A Blackburnian Warbler’s Journey
Written by Mark Bramhill
Mark Bramhill: This is BirdNote.
Justine Bowe fell in love with birds when she was a kid, on a hike in New Hampshire with her dad.
Justine Bowe: And he kept saying to me, “oh, I hope we see a Blackburnian Warbler. I hope we see a Blackburnian Warbler.” We did the whole hike — I don't know how long it was, felt like an eternity to me — didn't see it. And then we're about to exit the trail and then he heard the call and we saw it above us. And it's a really striking bird. It's fiery orange and black and white, and it was super captivating and a really beautiful surprise.
[Blackburnian Warbler song, ML 239219211, 0:03-0:05]
Mark Bramhill: Today, Justine manages the Bird Friendly Coffee program at the Smithsonian Institute's Migratory Bird Center, working with coffee farmers to preserve habitat for birds that migrate to Central and South America. And when visiting some of those farms in Colombia...
Justine Bowe: I got to see the same Blackburnian Warblers that I see at home. And it's just this really interesting and kind of beautiful mirror image of what we're doing here in the states. You know, we're looking at the same birds. I got to sip coffee and sit under a bird-friendly canopy, thinking about that interconnectivity between the species that connect us and the same coffee that we're drinking. It's a pretty moving thing.
[Blackburnian Warbler song, ML 239219211, 0:12-0:14]
Mark Bramhill: You can learn more about bird friendly coffee on our website, BirdNote.org. I’m Mark Bramhill.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Content Director: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Blackburnian Warbler song ML 239219211 recorded by M. Chapman.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2021 BirdNote December 2021 Narrator: Mark Bramhill
ID# sparkbird-12-2021-12-1 sparkbird-12
Mark Bramhill
Writer
