One of the biggest taxonomic changes of this year was the long-anticipated lump of the species formerly known as Pacific-slope and Cordilleran Flycatcher back into Western Flycatcher. It’s a story with all the taxonomic highs and lows packed into a slightly confusing and cryptic package. Alec Hopping is a birder and researcher whose article in North American Birds called Unraveling Western Flycatchers; A Case Against the Split played a large role in making the case to the relavant authorities. H...
Nov 09, 2023•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast This past summer, the ABA brought on our new Executive Director. Wayne Klockner comes to us after a long career with The Nature Conservancy in Maryland and beyond, with efforts that have led to the conservation of thousands of acres of natural areas, the restoration of commercial and shell fisheries and the establishment of TNC’s climate strategy. He lives and birds in Ocean City, Maryland, and it is our pleasure to welcome him to the podcast. Also, amazing new science suggests that albatrosses ...
Nov 02, 2023•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast This Month in Birding is The American Birding Podcast's monthly round table discussion on all things birds and birding. This month features Martha Harbison, Mikko Jimenez, and Dexter Patterson covering the USFWS's recent extinction news, Takahe reintroductions, birding at night, and the panel's spookiest birds. Links to article's discussed in this episode: 21 Species Delisted from the Endangered Species Act due to Extinction As city heat rises, bird diversity declines How L.A.’s bird population ...
Oct 26, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Manakins are among the most unique and fascinating neotropical bird families with displays that run the gamut from group line-dancing to bizarre percussive feather snaps. One species, in particularly, has long fascinated UCLA researcher Barney Schlinger, the Golden-collared Manakin of Panama and western Colombia. It is the subject of his book The Wingsnappers: Lessons from an Exuberant Tropical Bird and he joins host Nate Swick to talk about it. Also, the eBird taxonomy update is coming ! What d...
Oct 19, 2023•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2014, Dorian Anderson pushed pause on his life, which at the time included a career in neuroscience research, a burgeoning relationship, and the ongoing struggles with drug and alcohol addiction, for an ABA Area Big Year. But not just any Big Year, one that was entirely self-propelled. His Big Year plus cross-country trek by bike is recounted in a new memoire out this fall Birding Under the Influence: Cycling across America in search of Birds and Recovery . Also, a huge migration day in Chica...
Oct 12, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Birds are one of the most commonly encountered elements of human culture across time and across peoples in all parts of the world. Perhaps nowhere is that quite as evident as Las Vegas, Nevada, where humanity of every possible description comes together in a city that exists on the edge of habitability. Those fascinating and often odd relationships between birds and humans are the subject of the documentary The Public Lives of Birds , whose director and producer David Welch is the process of com...
Oct 05, 2023•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s the end of the month which means its time for This Month in Birding, and we’ve got a panel of ABA friends and staff here to talk about the beautiful fall season, every birder’s favorite time of year. In this episode Jennie Duberstein, Nick Lund, and Greg Neise join host Nate Swick to talk lost flamingos, eagles, both welcome and not, the incredible movement of rare North American vagrants to the British Isles, and more! Also, the ABA is going to be at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival ...
Sep 28, 2023•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast The Feminist Bird Club has been one of the more interesting and inspiring movements in the birding world over the last few years. They champion inclusivity, social justice, and an approach that is comfortable for novices and other folks who had perhaps not felt seen in birding before. Some of the leaders of that organization have collaborated on a new book, Birding for a Better World: A Guide to Finding Joy and Community in Nature . One of its authors, Sydney Golden Anderson, along with FBC co-c...
Sep 21, 2023•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's a random time for Random Birds, the American Birding Podcast segment with Birding editor Ted Floyd that involves host Nate Swick, a big bird list, and a random number generator. We never know exactly what we're going to get, but you'll always get a lot of great bird facts, stories, and appreciation. This session includes a smorgasbord of birds, with ducks, terns, thrushes, and more all making an appearance. Also, we're excited to announce another ABA webinar featuring author and former podc...
Sep 14, 2023•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Moving to Nepal to North Dakota offers quite the ornithological whiplash, but birder and graduate student Anuj Ghimire takes it all in good stride. He joins guest host and Birding magazine editor Frank Izaguirre to talk Himalayan pheasants, North Dakota nemeses, and where to find Nepali food in Fargo. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!...
Sep 07, 2023•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's This Month in Birding for August 2023, our monthly round table discussion featuring voices from around the birding world. This month, we welcome back our friends Jody Allair of Birds Canada, Jordan Rutter of the American Bird Conservancy, and Brodie Cass Talbott of Portland Audubon to talk about American Kestrels, Canada Jay siblings, 50 years of Project Puffin and more. Links to topics discussed in this episode: The Mystery of the Vanishing Kestrels: What’s Happening to This Flashy Falcon?...
Aug 31, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast How would you describe summer birding? Hot? Humid? Buggy? Unbearable? For many birders it has always been the least exciting and most taxing season for getting in the field, but there’s a lot to be excited about for those who make the effort. ABA colleagues Jennie Duberstein and Greg Neise join host Nate Swick to talk about what excites them about the season, from molt to shorebirds to birding camp, and how to be prepared to handle the difficulties. Special granola bars for everyone! Also, Hurri...
Aug 24, 2023•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Birders love books, and with so many options out there it’s nice to have some friends around to make suggestions, talk about what we like a lot, maybe what we don’t like quite as much, and celebrate the literary side of the birding lifestyle. That's right, it's time for another meeting of the Birding Book Club. This time, we're setting birds aside and talking about our favorite books about nature other than birds. They're the perfect supplements to your birding library. We're joined once again b...
Aug 17, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nestled in the Central Africa’s Great Rift Valley, Rwanda, the Land of a Thousand Hills, is one of the most biodiverse nations on the continent, all the more impressive given its small size. With nearly 700 species of birds and an impressive diversity of large mammals, including Mountain Gorillas, Rwanda is increasingly a popular destination for nature tourists, including the ABA, which is heading there this winter . Winnie Kyamujara is a nature guide with the Ususambi Crane Preserve and she int...
Aug 10, 2023•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast The birding community is collectively mourning the recent loss of Cape May birder Tom Johnson. Tom was a world-renowned birder and a prodigious contributor to the ABA's media, with insightful articles, phenomenal photography, and occasional appearances on the American Birding Podcast. We've collected a few of his appearances here on the podcast and offer them in remembrance of his incredible influence on all of us with his amazing skill, his generous spirit, and his good humor. We at the ABA, al...
Aug 03, 2023•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to the end of the July, the turn of the year as we heard into the second half of 2023. It’s also time, once again, for This Month in Birding, our monthly panel discussion about bird news and birds in the news. We're excited to welcome a panel of Stephanie Bielke , Tim Healy and Purbita Saha to talk rare birds at private residences, hummingbirds and alcohol, the most metal bird nests, and more! Links to articles discussed in this episode: Badgers and birds may be teaming up to steal honey...
Jul 27, 2023•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Humans have loved birds for as long as there have been humans. And while many of us in the birding world stay a birder for similar reasons, every birder, bird-watcher or bird enthusiasts has their own path to this world, to this interest, and it is one that frequently leads to a greater appreciation of love of the natural world more generally. Alyssa Bardy has a unique take on that journey . Her’s is a story of indigenous reconnection and revitalization though birds, nature-study, and photograph...
Jul 20, 2023•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast The connections between weather and birds seem both obvious and arcane to many birders. This is especially true in this time of global warming, when weather seems particularly wonky. This summer the globe is experiencing El Niño, a warm phase in the Pacific that causes all sorts of strange things. But what does that mean for birds? To help answer that complicated question, we welcome our friend Alvaro Jaramillo, one of the hosts of the Life List podcast , a pelagic operator with Alvaro’s Adventu...
Jul 13, 2023•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast It is an inevitability that as a birder ages, they lose the ability to hear some birds, particularly those with high pitched songs and calls. It is a struggle that nature recordist Lang Elliot has dealt with for decades, but he offers, with the help of modern technology, a solution of sorts called Hear Birds Again. Lang has also written an article introducing this new product in the July 2023 issue of Birding magazine. Also, does Merlin really help in a Breeding Bird Survey? FInally we have data...
Jul 06, 2023•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s the end of June and that means it’s time for This Month in Birding, where we round up a panel of interesting and thoughtful birding friends to round up the latest birding news from around the ABA Area and beyond. Here in the northern hemisphere, June has the longest days of the year, and we might just have the longest episode of the podcast with the sort of items we have to discuss today. We welcome Gabriel Foley , Sean Milnes , and Mo Stych of the newly resurrected Bird Sh*t podcast to tal...
Jun 29, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Birding magazine editor and all-around bird-knower Ted Floyd is back for another bout of Random Birds. He joins host Nate Swick, a big bird list, and a random number generator to create podcast magic. This session includes a smorgasbord of birds, with gulls, warblers, and finches all making an appearance. Also, Nate reports on the latest ABA Community Weekend in California’s Bay Area. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Stitcher , and Google Podcasts , and please leave a rating or a rev...
Jun 22, 2023•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Birders and bird enthusiasts are so fortunate that science writer Jennifer Ackerman so frequently turns her mind to birds. This year, she follows the critically acclaimed The Genius of Birds and The Bird Way with the new What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds . Owls have amazed and mystified humans for as long as there have been humans, and new research undertaken by passionate individuals has revealed new insights into these alluring, nocturnal birds. Also, the s...
Jun 15, 2023•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s split and lump season again, and that means that we turn to our friend Nick Block, professor of Biology at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. He's the person we talk to when it comes to predicting the decisions of the American Ornithological Society’s North America Classification Committee . It's another busy slate for this summer including a possible Western Flycatcher lump, splits to Northern Goshawk and Hepatic Tanager and more. Also Black Birders Week wraps up another great yea...
Jun 08, 2023•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast On May 19, 2023, the ABA and the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University hosted the For the Love of Birds panel as part of the Academy’s Cheryl Beth Silverman lecture series. If you weren’t able to join us in Philadelphia, we’re excited to share it with you as a podcast. Panelists Holly Merker, Anwar Abdul-Qawi, and American Birding Podcast host Nate Swick talk about birding and the bird community with moderator Maurice Baynard. Also, join Nate in San Francisco the weekend of June 17 fo...
Jun 01, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s the last Thursday of the month of May and that means it is time to bring on a panel of birding friends to talk about bird news and goings on on the American Birding Podcast. And it’s another excellent panel this month featuring Mollee Brown , Nicole Jackson , and Ryan Mandelbaum talking Lesser Prairie-Chicken delisting, fire loving birds, and bird safe windows among other things. LInks to topics discussed in this episode: House committee votes to delist the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Incorporat...
May 25, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Despite being such a charismatic bird, there are very few books about our 2023 Bird of the Year Belted Kingfisher, but this week's guest Marina Richie has written one. Her 2022 title, Halcyon Journey: In Search of the Belted Kingfisher documents the seven years she spent watching a pair of kingfishers near her home in Missoula, Montana, and her relationship with the birds and with herself. She also writes about it in an upcoming issue of Birding magazine Also, Nate is back from the Biggest Week ...
May 18, 2023•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2016, Arjan Dwarshuis undertook a massive birding year that took him from his home in the Netherlands to 6 continents, 41 countries, and just over 6,800 species of birds. His global big year was a massive feat, breaking the record set, at the time, by Noah Strycker only a year earlier. He wrote about his adventure in a book, and forgive me for this, Een bevlogan jaar , translated this year into Egnlish as The Big Year that Flew By . He joins us to look back on that year. Also, join Nate for a...
May 11, 2023•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast 2023 ABA Lifetime Achievement Awardee Peter Pyle has probably been one of the most influential American ornithologists of the last few decades. His Identification Guide to North American Birds, informally known as “the Pyle Guides”, are widely known as the banding bible, and remain some of the most informative and intimidating bird books on birders’ shelves. The much anticipated second edition of which came out this year. But the's also the chair of the ABA Checklist Committee, and was central t...
May 04, 2023•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast It is the most exciting time of year for birders in the ABA Area so it seems only fitting to celebrate it with an exciting group of panelists for April's This Month in Birding. Host Nate Swick is joined by Jennie Duberstein , Andrés Jimenez , and Jordan Rutter to talk about vulture love, nature TikTok, and Night Parrot skulls. Come for the spring migration talk and stay for the bird personality profiles. Also, don't forget to sign up for our first ABA Community Weekend ! Links to articles discus...
Apr 27, 2023•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast The sporting world is full of bird mascots. While there are countless eagles, hawks, and cardinals there are no, so far as we know, Belted Kingfishers. But that might change thanks to the efforts of students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This flagship university has a mascot vacancy that, according to guest Spencer Wilken, should be filled by our 2023 Bird of the Year. Spencer's story is featured in the April 2023 issue of Birding and she joins us to talk about the peculiar ...
Apr 20, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
