The American Birding Podcast brings together staff and friends of the American Birding Association as we talk about birds, birding, travel and conservation in North America and beyond. Join host Nate Swick every Thursday for news and happenings, recent rarities, guests from around the birding world, and features of interest to every birder.
It's the last Thursday of the month and that means it's time for another This Month in Birding panel. July marks the turning point of the year, and the inexorable slide to fall. This month's panel features Jody Allair, Stephanie Beilke, and Nick Lund, who join host Nate Swick to talk AI's intrusion into birding, wind turbines marked for birds, and our favorite bird frenemies. Links to articles discussed in the episode: AI-altered images on birdwatching forums putting research at risk Bio-informed blade patterns for mitigating bird collisions with wind turbines This Rugged New York Heron Is Suddenly Facing Extinction in the City. Why? 55-years of Tree Swallow monitoring sheds light on the consequences of insect decline Pigeons and People Have Been Frenemies for Longer Than You Think Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!
The White-eyes are coming! And in a few parts of the ABA Area, they are already here and spreading. Introduced non-native species often fly under the radar of birders until the moment comes that they simply cannot be ignored any longer, and it seems like we are at that point with White-eyes, who are an increasingly common part of the landscape in the west. Rajan Rao is a California birder and Cornell University student. whose article about white-eyes was the cover story of the May 2026 issue of Birding magazine ... Also, the US federal government proposes some significant changes to the Endangered Species Act. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!
Many birders across the continent have been aware of, and concerned by, the state of American Kestrels and their steady decline from places where they had once been common. Thankfully, the species the focus of a lot of conservation attention too, namely the construction and monitoring of nest boxes across the US and Canada. Emmy Broeg is one of those kestrel advocates in her role at New Jersey's Wild Bird Research Group. You might also know her as @emmybebirdin on Instagram and TikTok , where she shares that work with a wider community that is getting excited about birding. Also, Nate is all over the place this fall. Come and see him if your able. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!
Split and Lump season is here again, and as we have since this podcast began, we welcome Dr. Nick Block of Stonehill College to discuss the exciting bird taxonomy changes that might be coming to a life list near you via the AOS NACC . Could this be the year we finally see the long awaited splits of Willet and Marsh Wren? Will Great Egret be picked apart into its continental forms? Is Prairie-Chicken on the way out in favor of Prairie-Grouse? We answer all those questions and more! Also, Nate fact checks a phenomenal Short-eared Owl story from last week's Random Birds. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!
Host Nate Swick welcomes back Birding magazine editor Ted Floyd for another round of Random Birds. This time the random number generator wants to keep us ar the end of the checklist, prompting discussion on owls, jaegers, wrens, and finches. Also, Nates shares some observations about Breeding Bird Surveys in the drizzle. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!
It's the end of the month, and that means it's time for another This Month in Birding episode, featuring a panel of birders gathering to talk aout recent bird news and science. This month we welcome Jason Hall, Tim Healy, and Sarah Swanson to talk grassland birds, ravens and wolves, and the "unseen 95%" of birding. Links to articles discussed in this episode: The joys of reporting on 3 teenagers chasing glory in the World Series of Birding More grass, more birds, more problems Ravens anticipate wolf kill sites across broad scales The collective application of shorebird tracking data to conservation Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!
Alabama Audubon has invited your own podcast host, Nate Swick, to be the keynote speaker at the 2026 Black Belt Birding Festival . The festival highlights the birds, the ecology, and the civil rights heritage of the region. To get excited for this summer's event, we welcome Andrew Lydeard, Alabama Audubon's Program Coordinator, and Chris Joe, third generation farmer whose family's 200 acre cattle farm in Newbern, Alabama, is an important site for the festival and a great example of the conservation and community efforts that the festival seeks to highlights. We talk birding Alabama, festival highlights, and how the community has come to love birders. Also, the Breeding Bird Suvey is back and Nate is excited to get back on his routes. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!
The easternmost province in mainland Canada, Labrador doesn't get the attention afford to its island provincial partner Newfoundland. Its position on the continent, however, affords its birders the opportunity for some unique avian opportunities from unlikely rarities to birding by snowmobile. Labrador birder Vernon Buckle joins guest host Frank Izaguirre for a conversation about birds and birding in one of the continent's most unique places. Also, Frank shares some thoughts about the new internet of birding. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!
There are bird species that are extant and those that are extinct, but between those two seemingly immutable categories, lies one hundred odd species of birds that are considered "Lost". This means that they hasn't been documented in many years but have not yet been determined to be extinct by authorities for any number of reasons. It is the search for those birds that is the work of John Mittermeier, Director of the Search for Lost Birds , an effort from the American Bird Conservancy, BirdLife International ReWild, and Cornell Lab, to seek out those birds a determine not only whether they're not extinct, but what needs to be done to keep them that way. Also, so long and thanks for all your help, John Lowry! Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!
It's the end of May, the season for bald cardinals, baby birds, and buggy birding. But most importantly, it's the last Thursday of the month and that means it's time for This Month in Birding, our monthly panel discussion of bird news and science and we have rounded up another great group of birding friends to have that discussion. Host Nate Swick is joined by Mikko Jimenez, Jordan Rutter, and Brodie Cass Talbott, to talk vagrant birds, robo-grouse, and birdy World Cup crests. Links to articles discussed in this episode: When Primm resort-casinos go dark, what happens to the birds? Students fabricate randy robo-grouse whose strut could save birds at Jackson Hole Airport Demography and dispersion: evaluating the causes and consequences of vagrancy in North American migratory birds Inter- and intra-individual variation in the feather coloration of American crows Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!
The ABA hosted a membership drive livestream earlier this week, and part of the four hours of birdy entertainment was a LIVE version of the American Birding Podcast favorite segment, Take it or Leave it. Panelists Nick Lund and Martha Harbison joined host Nate Swick to hash out some very hot birding takes on topics like four-letter codes, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and ugly birds. You can find the livestream on the ABA's YouTube channel . The membership drive is still live until the end of the month! Help us reach our goal at aba.org/join Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!
Birds and humanity have interacted for as long as there has been humanity, and various bird species have proven to be constants, influencing mythologies, religions, art, economics, and even warfare. Natural history, as it turns out, is human history, and that is the idea behind the book 10 Birds that Changed the World . Stephen Moss is the author, he is one of Britain's most influential nature writers and broadcasters. You can find him writing a monthly Birdwatch column for the Guardian and appearing regularly on BBC Radio, among many other places. Also, a recent hantavirus outbreak on a nature cruise has the wider world looking at birders and landfills with a critical ey e, even though birders have been part of the solution . Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!
The concept of the "spark bird", the transformative moment with a particular species that turns you from a normal person into a real-deal birder, is one that many birders are familiar with. These personal testimonies frequently tell you as much about the birder as they do about the spark bird itself. The human element of a natural experience is what excites Dr Jenn Lodi-Smith, a professor of psychology at Canisius University and scholar in residence at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, and it's what inspired her to create the Spark Bird Project , an online collection of spark birds and the birders they inspire. Also, if you're going to be at the Biggest Week festibal next week, come say hi! Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!
It's the end of April and that means it's time again for another This Month in Birding panel with a great group of birding friends joining host Nate Swick to talk about recent birding news and science. Jody Allair, Gabriel Foley, and Jennie Duberstein discuss birding and your brain, guano and civilization, and our favorite birding April Fools. Links to items discussed in this podcast: Backyard birdwatchers help scientists uncover what hawks really like to eat Becoming an Expert Birder Can Reshape Your Brain and Might Help Protect It From Aging, New Research Suggests Seabirds shaped the expansion of pre-Inca society in Peru Feeling you belong may keep scientists in ornithology, study suggests Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!
Pishing, mob tapes, and playback are all tools that birders frequently use to supplement their birding experience, be it to show other birders a great bird or to bring birds close for photographs. They have typically been seen in the community as benign but the ease of their use certainly raises questions about how they affect the birds we enjoy. Marty Freeland is a Stanford student who has not only been thinking about these questions, but has attempted to answer them in a scientific manner. His work helped inform an essay by Peter Pyle that was published both in the most recent issue of Birding magazine and on the ABA website. He joins Nate Swick to talk about his work, his thoughts on the use of "electronic pishing", and the amazing pishing behavior of lyrebirds . Also, the ABA is hosting a membership drive this spring ! By joining or renewing now, you can help unlock an additional $100 per member for the ABA's programs! Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!
Scott Weidensaul is the author of nearly 30 books about birds, birding, and natural history. His latest is The Return of the Oystercatcher: Saving Birds to Save the Planet , a globe-trotting look at look at bird conservation successes from re-wilding efforts in England to vultures in Romania, to the puffins and plovers of North America. It is a soothing balm in this time of great anxiety about bird populations and a critical look at what still nees to be done. He joins host Nate Swick to talk about it all. Also, we're coming up on The Biggest Week in American Birding! Nate will be there. Will you? Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!
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, Peter Pyle has some interesting thoughts on "electronic pishing" in the most recent issue of Birding Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it! This episode is brought to you by Birding Louisiana .
Host Nate Swick leans once again on Birding magazine editor Ted Floyd for another Random Birds discussion. The Random Number Generator has a certain late winter/early spring bias with warblers and gulls and warblers and gulls on the agenda. Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it! This episode is brought to you by Birding Louisiana .
They say March comes in like a lion and out like an American Birding Podcast This Month in Birding episode, and this month panel is an exceptional one to end a month with. Host Nate Swick is joined by Stephanie Beilke, Andres Jimenez, and Ryan Mandelbaum for a fun and birdy conversation covering Airtags on birds, the most bouba and kiki species, and Tom Johnson's last piece of amazing bird science. Links to topics covered in this episode: Using Apple AirTags to Document Dispersal and Exploratory Movements of Harris's Hawks Indigenous Peoples and local communities report a consistent decline in the body mass of birds across three continents Seeing in the dark: Using thermal imaging to directly observe nocturnal migration The bouba-kiki effect: Baby chicks match sounds to shapes just like humans Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it! This episode is brought to you by All4Birding .
The early years of bird conservation in North America, is a fascinating period, featuring colorful characters and countless battles fought in the pages of newspapers and magazines regarding the need for conserving the continent's wildlife. It is a history thoroughly recounted in the book The Feather Wars and Great Crusade to Save America's Birds by James H. McCommons. The author joins the American Birding Podcast to talk about the creation of the bird conservation movement that not only saved a number of species from extinction, but provides the basis of our the conservation landscape we enjoy today. Registration is open for the ABA's Community Weekend in Philadelphia! It's free! Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it! This episode is brought to you by Naturalist Journeys .
