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…

Most of the bird sounds you hear on BirdNote come from the Macaulay Library, a vast collection of over one million bird calls and songs curated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The library relies on both professional field recordists and dedicated volunteers to capture the sounds of…

eBird, an online tool for submitting bird observations, allows scientists to keep track of birds around the world. eBird now has over one billion bird observations from more than 700,000 people — most of them community scientists who care about their local birds. And as more people in more…

Just off the southern coast of Iceland, the Westman Islands are home to many of the country’s several million Atlantic Puffins. When puffin hatchlings, known as pufflings, get confused by the lights of the city, volunteers of all ages search for wayward pufflings on the street and bring…

The poet Ray Young Bear writes in both English and Meskwaki, his first language. He says that the task of passing on Indigenous languages feels especially urgent now as linguistic scholars predict the loss of languages. The Meskwaki language is rich with bird names, like Tti Tti Ka Kwa Ha…

Every spring in Northwest Ohio, the shores of Lake Erie transform into a birder’s paradise. Birder and author Kenn Kaufman, who lives in this area, says that of the many species that migrate through here, one group of vibrant, vivacious songbirds stands out from the rest: warblers. Trees…

Many bird species can eat the fruits of plants that are toxic to humans —even the white berries found on poison ivy. These birds just aren’t sensitive to the compounds in the berries that are irritating or poisonous to people. While you probably want to stay away from poison ivy, you can…

For many species of birds, scientists know more about the males than the females. And that’s a problem when making a conservation plan for a species that maps out which habitats to protect. Joanna Wu, a PhD student at UCLA, says that in some species of warblers, males and females live in…

In this episode of BirdNoir, the P.I. gets a call from Mrs. Pico, a friendly woman who always has homemade cookies ready for visitors. But someone’s playing a trick on her: knocking on the door and then disappearing! The P.I. suspects the culprit is a bird and helps Mrs. Pico narrow down…

Many shorebirds breed in the Arctic tundra. It’s such an important ecosystem that every year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issues an Arctic Report Card that details how the region has been affected by rising global temperatures. Over the last ten years, satellite…