In demand actor, 7 time winner of the Teen Choice Award, and avid birder? Ian Harding is best known for his work on the Freeform network’s teen-drama Pretty Little Liars, but in his new memoir Odd Birds he talks about how birds and birding have provided him with opportunities to find peace and focus in a life in the public eye. Ian joins host Nate Swick to share some stories from his new book and thoughts on what it could mean for birding to have such a high-profile advocate. This interview orig...
Jul 08, 2021•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's Canada Day and this week sees an all Canada special episode of the American Birding Podcast, a tip of the cap to our friends in the northern part of the ABA Area. The Canada panel consists of some birders from across the country and features voices that podcast regulars probably recognize. From St, John’s, Newfoundland, we welcome Bird the Rock’s Jared Clarke . From Drumheller, Alberta (by way of Ontario) is Birds Canada's Jody Allair. And from Richmond, British Columbia, it's wildlife biol...
Jul 01, 2021•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast For June, the The Month in Birding Panel consists of Mo Stych of Bird Sh*t Podcast , Brodie Cass Talbott of Portland Audubon, and newcomer Joanna Wu of Audubon. The panel chats about Black Birders Week, bird habitat as climate sinks, and the many amazing uses of googly eyes. Links to items discussed: The second year of Black Birders Week (05:03) Floating Googly Eyes Scare Birds Away from Nets (10:35) Bird Habitats are Climate Sinks (16:35) Birds Respond More Aggressively in Multi-species Groups ...
Jun 24, 2021•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s time for the American Birding Podcast Birding Book Club and host Nate Swick welcomes bird media reviewers Frank Izaguirre from the ABA’s Birding magazine and Donna Schulman from the website 10,000 Birds to finally tackle birding's great contribution to world literature, the field guide. We start with guides to Mexico and Central America, popular destinations for US and Canada birders and a great place to begin the discussion about what makes a good field guide and who and what field guides ...
Jun 17, 2021•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Early summer means that it’s time to talk taxonomy, and that means Nick Block , professor of Biology at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. For the last several years, Nick is person we like to talk to when it comes to reading the tea-leaves of the American Ornithological Society’s North America Classification Committee . We chat storm-petrels, bunting lumps, and the curious case of the Swainson's Thrushes. Also, there's no better time to sign up to run your own Breeding Bird Survey rout...
Jun 10, 2021•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast One of the dreams of the "internet of nature" was a device that birders could put in their yard that picks up GPS fitted and tracked wildlife, and maybe even identifies them when they pass over your home. That device is here and it is called Terra. Mike Lanzone of Cellular Tracking Technologies and birder and writer Scott Whittle, are the creators of this magic device. They both join me to talk about what it can do, and how it will change migration monitoring forever. If you want to contribute t...
Jun 03, 2021•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sean Milnes , Jordan Rutter , and Purbita Saha join the May 2021 This Month in Birding panel to talk about some of the most important bird and birding related news items of the month. Links to items discussed: Female Bird Day (6:56) Colombia boycotts the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Global Big Day (8:52) AOS moves forward on changing English bird names (17:25) The period cicada's Brood X is here and impacting birds (24:15) Chicago releases feral cats into the city (33:40) Estimates of bird popul...
May 27, 2021•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the United States, we’re over 100 days into a new administration and five months into a new Congress, and our elected officials have been busy with some interesting environmental policies and legislation in that time. Interestingly, many of them impact birds. To chat about it, we bring back to the podcast, Tykee James , host of the On Word for Wildlife podcast from the Wildlife Observer Network. Tykee lays out what birders should be paying attention to, and talks about his new project, Freedo...
May 20, 2021•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Birding editor Ted Floyd is back to play a new birder game we're calling "Random Birds". Host Nate Swick has a list of birds and a random number generator and is ready to chat about whatever bird pops up. Nate and Ted chat about Snow Geese, Red Knots, Bobolinks, Blue Grosbeaks and more. Also, some birds in the news! California Condors and Vaux's Swifts invading homes in California. Thanks to Field Guides for sponsoring this episode. Check out their new video series, Out Birding with Field Guides...
May 13, 2021•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hummingbirds, perhaps more than any other bird family in the world, seem to elicit a strange sort of mania, and this seems to have been true for as long as human beings have been aware of them. Writer Jon Dunn is one of the obsessed, and his new book The Glitter in the Green - In Search of Hummingbirds is part history, part travelogue, and part quest to see as many of the world’s hummingbirds as possible, including some of the most iconic species on Earth. Also, another Pileated Woodpecker story...
May 06, 2021•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast The last Thursday of the month and that means it's time for the This Month in Birding panel. April 2021 is a special month because it marks one year from the 1 st This Month in Birding, and one year since the podcast we went to a weekly format. We're joined by a panel of Birds Canada's Jody Allair , Orietta Estrada of the Birder's Fund, and The Birdist, Nick Lund , who come to talk about the AOS Bird Names Congress, Bald Eagles, big news for the Black & Latinx Scholarship Fund, and thoughts on t...
Apr 29, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast This time of year is a tough one for many birds, as they make their long dangerous journey from wintering grounds to breeding territories. The path taken by many sees them passing over or stopping to nest in increasingly urban landscapes. These landscape changes affect birds in many ways, some obvious, some more subtle. That is the work of researcher Lauren Pharr , a PhD student at North Carolina State studying urban noise and light pollution and their affect on birds. She’s with me now to chat ...
Apr 22, 2021•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast There are a few lucky places in the ABA Area where parrots still fly free, even if most have captive origins these day. But these big loud flashy birds have a history and future than is perhaps more interesting than many birders might imagine and these feral populations can even give us some insights into the frequently threatened wild birds in Mexico and Central America. John McCormack , director of the Moore Lab of Zoology at Occidental College in Los Angeles, is one of the authors of a paper ...
Apr 15, 2021•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Migratory birds undertake some of the most extraordinary and exhausting undertaking of any living things on the planet, an endurance test made all the more difficult by climate change, habitat loss, and illegal hunting. Few know this better than Scott Weidensaul, a bird researcher, prolific nature writer, and the author of more than 30 books, mostly about birds. He first tackled bird migration with 2000’s Living on the Wind . He comes back to the topic with a new book A World on the Wing: The Gl...
Apr 08, 2021•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s the time of year when Arctic birds are moving south into the populated parts of the continent, and citizen scientists are there to meet them, trap them, and use cutting edge technology to track their movements. It’s a testament to our interest in nomadic tundra birds that that could apply to a couple different projects, but this time around we are talking about Snow Buntings and the Canadian Snow Bunting Network . Dr. Emily McKinnon is a researcher at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg ...
Apr 01, 2021•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s the last Thursday in March and that means This Month in Birding. It's the first of 2021 that can officially, meteorologically, and birdingly, be said to be in spring, even if that spring is tumbling in like an awkward albatross landing. And to this first spring panel of 2021 we welcome three excellent birders Nicole Jackson of Black in National Parks week, Mikko Jimenez of Audubon's Migratory Bird Initiative, and Ryan Mandelbaum of the Finch Research Network and Birdmodo. Also, want to join...
Mar 25, 2021•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Spring is here and birders across North America, including new pandemic birders for whom this might be their very first spring migration as a birder, are looking forward to birds return. And to help them along, we're starting a new regular feature on the American Birding Podcast, an identification roundtable. This time we welcome Field Guides early spring ID challenges with a couple crack birders Tom Johnson from Field Guides and artist and ornithology graduate student Marky Mutchler . Join us a...
Mar 18, 2021•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Birding editor Ted Floyd and host Nate Swick try something a little different this time around. They went birding, each in their respective neighborhoods, and come back together to talk about it. Join them as they wend their way through sparrows, crows, and Bushtits of their homes, with a detour into gannets and gulls (which neither saw). It's birding, annotated. And in case you wanted to follow along, here's Ted's checklist from Lafayette, Colorado , and here's Nate's from Greensboro, North Car...
Mar 11, 2021•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast GPS devices have been a boon for migratory bird research, and it seems that every year a new species gets a turn in the spotlight. This year, it's the amazing Common Nighthawk's turn. Our guest this week is Elly Knight , a researcher at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and the leader an initiative to describe the migration of Common Nighthawks, the subject of a paper recently published in the journal Ecography . Check out a picture of "Maurice" the fake nighthawk at our website . Also, the ...
Mar 04, 2021•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s the last Thursday in February and that means it’s time for This Month in Birding! We're pleased to welcome some birding friends to talk about the birding news of the month, and in this month maybe more than most, we need each other. February's winning panel consists of Jennie Duberstein of Sonoran Joint Venture, Jordan Rutter of the American Bird Conservancy, and Brodie Cass Talbott of Portland Audubon, who come ready to talk about owl ethics, the debunking of the Patagonia Picnic Table Eff...
Feb 25, 2021•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast One of the most underrated bird stories of the last few years, has been the rapid decline of the resident Florida subspecies of Grasshopper Sparrow. In 2017, that population reached a record low of 75 wild birds, and many thought it would fade into extinction much like Dusky Seaside Sparrow before it. But a working group of biologists and conservationists led by the Fish & wildlife Foundation of Florida have stopped that decline. The foundation's president Andrew Walker joins Nate Swick to talk ...
Feb 18, 2021•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast The year 2020 was an especially difficult one for many of us, but for writer and birder Rebecca Heisman , perhaps more than most. In addition to the responsibilities of being the parent of a young child in a year of pandemic, she dealt with a cancer diagnosis that upturned what was already something of a turbulent year. Through it all, birds became, what she calls in an essay recently published at Audubon , a thread of sanity She joins Nate Swick to talk about her trying year and what comes next...
Feb 11, 2021•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Pity the poor cowbird. Under-appreciated at best and outright hated at worst, the cowbird and its nest parasitic ways certain lend themselves to strong opinions. But it is a remarkable bird in its own right, capable of amazing developmental feats that allow it to fit into its very odd niche. Ornithologist Sarah Winnicki of the University of Illinois's "cowbird lab " makes the case for cowbirds, arguing that you don't have to love the, but you should respect them. Also, a Snowy Owl in Central Par...
Feb 04, 2021•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's This Month in Birding for January 2021, and we start the new year off with a panel as impressive as Lady Gaga's gigantic bird pin. Guests including #cemeterybirder Danielle Belleny , host of Always Be Birdin' Sam DeJarnett, and host of Fowl Mouths podcast Sean Milnes talk Audubon internal issues, condor recovery in the northwest, weird birdy presidential pardons and much more! Articles to topics discussed: Audubon in hot water Condors and the Yurok An MBTA presidential pardon Great Snobbery...
Jan 28, 2021•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Long-time bird blog fans might remember Clare Kines and his blog The House and other Arctic Musings . It was was a familiar voice on the birding internet, with stories about the nature of Arctic Bay, Nunavut, on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. Clare is still out there as a birder and photographer sharing stories and images of a part of the world we don’t get to see very often, and he joins Nate Swick to talk about his home north of the Arctic Circle. ABA members are eligible for a 15% disc...
Jan 21, 2021•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast The wide open spaces of the North American west are frequently spotted with signs of human industrial energy production. Oil and gas wells, massive wind turbines, and the like are impossible to miss and impact, occasionally significantly, the birds that live in these vast prairie ecosystems. Dr Janet Ng studies the effects of this industrial incursion into these wild places in the southern Canadian plains, and works with various partners to keep landscapes "hawky". Also the first batch of North ...
Jan 14, 2021•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast John Kricher is well known by anyone with an interest in tropical ecology. He's professer emeritus of biology at Wheaton College in Massachusetts and the author of many books, notably Tropical Ecology and A Neotropical Companion , re-released as A New Neotropical Companion in 2017. His most recent book, however, is about birds and their behavior, appropriately titled the Peterson Reference Guide to Bird Behavior, and podcast regulars might remember that it was one of our favorite books of 2020. ...
Jan 07, 2021•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast We didn't intend to make an episode this week, but friend of the podcast Jordan Rutter came to me and suggested that instead of the regular podcast we should do a special one where she interviews *me* for a change. So that's what we did. Enjoy and Happy New Year! ABA members are eligible for a 15% discount to Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Birds of the World subscription. Log into your ABA account to get the code. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Stitcher , and Google Play , and please...
Dec 31, 2020•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast The winter of 2020-21 is one the likes of which we have not seen before. It's a finch superflight year, with boreal grosbeaks, finches, siskins, crossbills, and more pouring out of the north and into places where birders can more easily experience them. This means that it’s an incredible opportunity for us to learn more about why this phenomenon happens, and Matt Young has always been one to have that conversation. He is a leading authority on Red Crossbill call types and now the founder of the ...
Dec 17, 2020•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s finally December of 2020, the month of annual superlatives. It was a pretty interesting year for bird books and we convene the Birding Book Club crew to talk about them. 10,000 Birds book review columnist Donna Schulman and Birding media review editor Frank Izaguirre join host Nate Swick to run down our favorites for 2020, including new field guides, books on bird behavior, and lots of fantastic narrative prose in both memoire and essay form. Find all of their lists here! Thanks to our frie...
Dec 10, 2020•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
