In the Salt Flats of Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, the Indigenous Taino people found a way to harvest salt long before Europeans arrived. But this unique ecosystem isn’t just useful for sea salt production — the salty lagoons are full of brine shrimp for shorebirds to eat. Local residents banded…

Organized by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Project NestWatch is made up of volunteers around the world who monitor bird nests, reporting whether the birds successfully raise their young. Joining the project involves a bit of online training, finding a nearby bird nest, and briefly…

In Puerto Rico, there is an area of saline lagoons, salt flats and mangrove swamps where humans have extracted salt for over 500 years. We often describe the effects of human activity on the environment as negative. But the migratory birds that eat and rest in one of the most visited…

En Puerto Rico hay un área de lagunas salinas, salinas y manglares donde los humanos han extraído sal por más de 500 años. Por lo general, describimos el efecto de la actividad humana sobre el medio ambiente como negativo. Pero las aves migratorias que comen y descansan en uno de los…

The Puerto Rican Tody is a tiny green bird found only in Puerto Rico, where the species is called San Pedrito. But the scientific name for these birds is Todus mexicanus, despite the fact that they don’t live in Mexico — due to a mistake made by European scientists in the 1800s. People in…

An organization called Journey North consists of a network of community scientists who observe local animal migrations – everything from monarch butterflies to Gray Whales to birds. Observing these seasonal changes can help make you a well-rounded community scientist, attuned to life’s…

Las aves tienen su nombre común en español y un nombre en los idiomas de todos los lugares por los que pueden volar. Y luego tienen su nombre en latín, que es su nombre taxonómico, el que usan los científicos. En este episodio aprendemos sobre un esfuerzo de décadas en Puerto Rico para…

Birds have their common English name and a name in the languages of all the places they might fly through. And then they have their Latin name, which is their taxonomic name, the one scientists use. In this episode, we learn about a decades-long effort in Puerto Rico to change San Pedrito…

If you see a wild bird with a small metal band around its leg, that means researchers have given the bird a unique ID to keep track of it over the course of its life. You can report the sighting to the Bird Banding Laboratory, a part of the U.S. Geological Survey that studies banded birds…

¿Cómo organizas a un grupo de personas para proteger a un pájaro de fuerzas poderosas? El Julián Chiví, o Vireo de bigotes negros, revela la historia de una comunidad que se une para salvar a una especie, su medio ambiente y, en última instancia, a las personas mismas. Los organizadores…