BirdNote Daily

BirdNote Daily® is a two-minute radio show that combines rich sounds with engaging stories, to illustrate the amazing lives of birds and give listeners a momentary respite from the news of the day.

Savannah Sparrow singing, perched on a flowering branch lit by the sun

2304 Results

Humboldt Penguin swimming below the water's surface

Why Are There Flightless Birds?

September 30, 2025

The ability to fly seems to define birds. But there are more than 50 species of flightless birds throughout the world — from the Ostrich and Kiwi to flightless rails, ducks, and this Humboldt Penguin. Why did they evolve the inability to fly? Many dwelt on islands. Others evolved until…

Spark Bird: Birding from the Bus

September 29, 2025

Kelsen Caldwell drives a bus in and around Seattle for King County Metro. As a bus driver, sometimes there’s downtime if your bus is moving too fast. What do you do with all that extra time? If you’re Kelsen, you fall in love with birds.

Chestnut-backed Chickadee perched on a branch in sunshine

Chickadee Line-up

September 28, 2025

Chickadees are tiny songbirds named for their characteristic song and there are seven species found in North America. You'll find the Black-capped Chickadee across the northern US into Canada. The Carolina Chickadee holds sway in the Southeast. Hear the husky voice of a Mountain Chickadee…

Red-breasted Sapsucker clinging to side of tree, the bark with small holes pecked in it

Sapsuckers

September 27, 2025

Sapsuckers drill small holes in the bark of favored trees, then return again and again to eat the sap that flows out. And hummingbirds, kinglets, and warblers come to the sap wells to eat the insects trapped in the sap. Although a sapsucker, like the Red-breasted Sapsucker pictured above…

A male Purple Finch facing forward, looking up to his right, in sunlight

An Ever-Growing Library of Bird Sounds

September 26, 2025

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…

A migrating bird is silhouetted against a near-full moon in the night sky.

Moon-Watching for Migrating Birds

September 25, 2025

Before the high-tech gadgets used to track bird migration today, there was moon-watching: a technique dreamed up in the 1940s by ornithologist George Lowery. Using telescopes pointed at the moon to see the silhouettes of migratory birds, Lowery helped show that birds regularly migrate…