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…

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…

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…

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…

How do you organize a group of people to protect a bird from powerful forces? The Julián Chiví, or Black-whiskered Vireo, reveals a story of a community banding together to save a species, its environment, and ultimately, the people themselves. The organizers in Puerto Rico decided to go…

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…

En el estreno de la temporada viajamos a Puerto Rico para conocer a un ave que ha sobrevivido a la deforestación, a los huracanes y al comercio de mascotas exóticas. La cotorra puertorriqueña vio disminuir sus números a casi cero en un punto. Pero hoy, su población está creciendo y…

In the season premiere, we travel to Puerto Rico to meet a bird that has survived deforestation, hurricanes and the exotic pet trade. The Puerto Rican parrot saw its numbers drop to almost zero at one point. But today, its population is growing and stabilizing. To achieve this, the people…