0:01

Hello and

0:04

welcome. This

0:07

is the

0:10

Science of

0:13

Birds. I

0:17

am your host, Ivan Phillips. The Science

0:20

of Birds podcast is a

0:23

lighthearted exploration of bird biology

0:25

for lifelong learners. In

0:27

this episode, which is number 96, I'll

0:30

be answering questions sent by

0:32

my listeners. So this

0:34

is what we would call an Ask Me

0:37

Anything episode. I really like

0:39

doing these, and it's really interesting to see

0:41

what sorts of questions people have about birds.

0:44

The listeners who get to contribute

0:47

questions for these Ask Me Anything

0:49

episodes are members of my community

0:51

on Patreon. There are

0:53

several tiers of support that people can

0:56

join, and at the helpful

0:58

hornbill and the awesome osprey levels,

1:00

one of the perks is getting

1:02

to ask questions for episodes like

1:04

this one. So if

1:06

you'd like to have me answer

1:09

your bird questions in a future

1:11

episode, consider signing up at patreon.com/Science

1:13

of Birds, and become a

1:15

helpful hornbill or an awesome osprey. I

1:18

got a lot of participation this time and

1:21

some great questions. Many of

1:23

the questions submitted are about things that

1:25

I hadn't thought about before. Some

1:28

of them are sort of out of left

1:30

field, which is cool. The

1:32

curiosity and unique perspectives of

1:34

my listeners, you guys, drive

1:36

me to expand my own

1:38

understanding of birds. And

1:40

I love that. Because honestly, with

1:43

many of these questions, I don't

1:45

have the answers prepackaged and already

1:47

rolling around in my brain. To

1:50

figure out the answers, I have to do

1:52

some homework, some research. And

1:54

even then, there isn't always a definitive answer.

1:57

Sometimes these questions bring our attention

1:59

to some unanswered bird mysteries.

2:02

And that, too, is super cool,

2:05

I think. Alright, we have

2:07

a lot to talk about, so let's

2:09

get started. I've

2:21

grouped today's questions loosely by

2:23

topic. First up, we

2:25

have a question from my Patreon member,

2:27

Ryan. He asks, how

2:30

many bird species potentially new to science

2:32

do you think are left in the

2:34

world? That's a great question,

2:36

Ryan. Personally, I'm fascinated

2:39

by the diversity of birds at

2:41

the levels of species, family, and

2:43

order, and how biologists

2:45

discover and define species is

2:47

a fascinating topic in itself.

2:51

At the moment, ornithologists have

2:53

identified about 10,800 bird

2:56

species alive on the planet. Bird

2:59

experts regularly update this number every

3:02

year as they continue to refine

3:04

our understanding of which birds deserve

3:06

to be treated as genuine species.

3:10

This is no simple task. It

3:12

isn't always clear which birds represent

3:14

species and which should be treated

3:17

as subspecies or hybrids or whatever.

3:20

If you'd like to learn more about

3:22

the ways scientists define bird species, go

3:24

back and listen to episode 15 of

3:27

this podcast. Anyway,

3:29

species can be distinguished by

3:31

physical differences like plumage structure

3:34

and color, by eye color,

3:36

egg color, etc. Or, species

3:39

can sometimes be distinguished by behavior

3:41

or by their songs. Using

3:44

physical and behavioral traits like this

3:46

is the more traditional way of

3:49

defining species. For the

3:51

last 20 years or so, however, the

3:54

best data source used to

3:56

tell one species from another

3:58

has become genetic information from

4:00

DNA. Genetic

4:02

information, sometimes combined with data

4:04

about physical and or behavioral

4:07

traits, is often used by

4:09

ornithologists to split one species

4:11

into two or more species.

4:14

The data tells us that what we

4:16

thought was just one species is actually

4:19

two or more species, and so we

4:21

need to update our classification system. That's

4:24

what we call splitting. But

4:26

it goes the other way too. Because

4:29

ornithologists look at the data and

4:31

they realize that two or more

4:33

birds that we thought were separate

4:35

species are actually so similar at

4:37

the genetic level, we should reclassify

4:39

them as belonging to a single

4:41

species. When this happens,

4:43

we call it lumping. Ornithologists

4:47

doing all this splitting and lumping

4:49

are trying to create the most

4:52

useful and most accurate taxonomy, a

4:54

system of classification for birds. Ideally,

4:58

this taxonomy reflects the true

5:00

genetic and evolutionary lineages that

5:02

exist among birth. It

5:05

should tell us about their evolutionary history. I

5:08

don't own a copy, but there is a

5:10

book called Birds New to Science. The

5:13

author is David Brewer and it was published in 2018.

5:17

The book covers about 300 species

5:19

that were discovered or described between 1960 and

5:21

2018. But

5:25

in a way, that book is already

5:27

outdated, right? Because quote-unquote new bird species

5:29

are added almost every year. New

5:32

species are added in one of two ways.

5:35

First, a bird species might

5:37

be a genuinely new discovery.

5:40

As in some ornithologists went to

5:42

some remote place, bushwhacked through the

5:44

jungle and found a bird that

5:46

has never been described by Western

5:48

scientists before. A major

5:51

discovery like this happened in 2020 when

5:53

a group of scientists found five new

5:55

bird species on a couple tiny islands

5:57

off the east coast of Sulawesi. in

6:00

the Indonesian archipelago. Examples

6:02

of the new birds are the

6:05

Tallyabu leaf warbler, Pelang leaf warbler,

6:07

and the Tallyabu mizamela. The

6:10

second way that new bird species get

6:12

added to the global list is through

6:14

splitting, which we already talked about. So,

6:17

for example, in 2023,

6:19

the most recent update of the Clements checklist

6:22

of birds of the world, the list used

6:24

by eBird and all of those guys, the

6:27

most recent update added three

6:29

newly described species. The

6:32

Wangy Wangy Whiteeye is one example.

6:35

And that's a fantastic name, isn't it? Wangy

6:37

Wangy Whiteeye. Then

6:40

there were 124 new species added

6:42

to the checklist because of splits.

6:46

But where there's splitting, there can also be

6:48

lumping. 16 species

6:50

were lost in 2023 because of

6:53

lumping. So the net gain

6:55

in species was 111 for

6:58

that year. That's quite a

7:00

lot if you think about it. If

7:02

there are roughly 11,000 bird species, 111 is about 10%. A 10%

7:04

increase. If we keep going like

7:11

this, adding 10% more bird

7:13

species every year, well, let

7:15

me bust out my calculator here and do a little

7:17

math. This is like

7:19

compound interest, right? You

7:22

got 11,000 birds, 10% every year. So

7:30

if I did my calculations right, by

7:32

the year 2050, we should have no

7:34

less than 128,716 species

7:40

in the world. Wow,

7:42

that's a lot of birds, yo. Maybe

7:45

that's too many bird species? Nah,

7:48

you can never have too many birds, right? Now,

7:51

all goofing around aside, let me

7:53

finally answer Ryan's question. The

7:56

question is, how many bird species potentially

7:58

new to science do you who,

8:00

Ivan, think are left in the world.

8:03

Now obviously I can only speculate, but

8:06

I'd say that through the process of

8:08

splitting there are still quite a few

8:11

bird species that ornithologists will be able

8:13

to identify. But who knows,

8:15

maybe taxonomic splits will give us another

8:17

500 species? A thousand?

8:20

But adding new species the other, more

8:23

traditional way, as in going on an

8:25

expedition and finding them on a remote

8:27

island or wherever, I think

8:29

we won't be adding too many more bird species

8:31

that way, maybe another 50

8:34

at most. Part

8:36

of me kind of wishes I lived in the age

8:38

of discovery, or even into the 1800s, when it

8:41

was still possible for a western scientist

8:44

or naturalist to step on the shores

8:46

of some new land and find countless

8:48

new birds and other animals, species

8:51

that would be new to science. But

8:53

alas, those kinds of experiences are pretty

8:55

much a thing of the distant past.

8:59

Maybe when humans start landing on

9:01

distant planets we can once again

9:03

experience the thrill of discovering new

9:05

species. I mean just

9:07

think of all the space birds that must

9:09

be out there, waiting to be described and

9:11

named and put on a list by us.

9:15

Space finches, space hawks, space

9:17

penguins, space turkeys! It's

9:19

going to be amazing. Next

9:29

up we have a few questions that

9:31

are all related to long distance movements

9:33

and migration in birds. The

9:36

first comes from Alicia. She

9:39

says, I'm wondering what happens

9:41

to vagrants. Do they

9:43

make it back to where they're supposed to be

9:45

or are they lost forever? Okay,

9:48

cool. So we're talking about vagrants.

9:51

We should probably get on the same page

9:53

about what this term means in the world

9:55

of birds. I just

9:57

pulled a book called The Ornithologist's Dig.

10:00

dictionary off my shelf, and

10:02

the definition it gives for

10:04

vagrant is, quote, a

10:06

rare visitor found far beyond

10:08

its normal geographic range, typically

10:11

recorded only once or twice in

10:13

any area in question, also

10:16

called stray or accidental, end

10:19

quote. Vagrancy is

10:21

an interesting topic, and I plan to do an

10:23

entire episode on it. Birders

10:25

are interesting to scientists, but also to

10:28

birders. When for example,

10:30

a massive Steller's sea eagle shows

10:32

up in New England, like one

10:34

did in 2021, birders in

10:36

the region freak out and rush out to see

10:38

the bird. I know I sure would,

10:41

because Steller's sea eagle, a cousin

10:43

of the bald eagle, is normally

10:45

found only in the far east

10:47

of Asia, like in Siberia, so

10:50

on the opposite side of the planet. Being

10:53

this species in Maine, for example, would

10:55

probably be a once in a lifetime

10:57

experience for a birder. I'm

10:59

just guessing that some of you listening right now

11:02

have seen that exact bird. And

11:04

that particular eagle stuck around the east coast of

11:06

North America until at least the winter of 2023.

11:10

But I'm not sure if anyone knows where it is now. I

11:13

tried to figure that out. And

11:15

that brings us back to Alicia's question. When

11:17

a bird ends up so far from its

11:19

normal home, what is its fate likely going

11:22

to be? Naturally,

11:24

the answer is going to vary on

11:26

a case-by-case basis. But my

11:28

understanding is that most vagrant birds aren't

11:30

going to live all that long, especially

11:33

if they end up in what

11:36

is, for them, a totally strange

11:38

habitat with unrecognizable prey or food

11:41

plants, and or if

11:43

the vagrant isn't adapted to the local

11:45

climate. That's a

11:47

sad thought, right? None of us

11:49

wants to see a vagrant suffer and die. But

11:52

this is the harsh reality, most likely for

11:54

many of them. That

11:56

said, there are rare cases where the

11:59

bird miraculously finds its way home again. Another

12:02

possibility is that a vagrant bird survives for

12:04

years and years in the place it accidentally

12:07

ended up. It lives out

12:09

its semi-natural life. For

12:11

example, some vagrant black-browed albatrosses have

12:14

returned year after year to hang

12:16

out in northern

12:18

gannet colonies in the Atlantic Ocean. Black-browed

12:22

albatrosses normally live in the

12:24

Pacific Ocean. But

12:26

even if a vagrant bird survives for

12:29

years in its adopted home, it probably

12:31

isn't going to breed. The

12:33

chances of another vagrant of the same

12:35

species showing up in the same place

12:37

is exceedingly rare. A

12:40

vagrant sea eagle or albatross or

12:42

whoever is most likely going to

12:44

live as a bachelor or bachelorette

12:46

for the rest of their days.

12:49

Unless... unless the cause

12:52

of the vagrant sea in the first

12:54

place was a storm that blew a

12:56

flock of birds to the same far-flung

12:58

location. And such things

13:00

do happen. For example,

13:02

a flock of ring-necked ducks landed

13:04

in western Ireland in October 2008

13:08

after an Atlantic storm. That

13:10

sort of thing is rare, yes. But

13:13

it happens often enough, over thousands

13:15

or millions of years, that it's

13:17

a major way that birds have

13:20

colonized just about every corner of

13:22

the planet. The Hawaiian

13:24

archipelago, for example, is

13:26

one of the most isolated island groups in the

13:28

world. And yet, birds of

13:30

many kinds made their way to Hawaii and

13:32

set up shop. They

13:34

survived, made babies, and evolved

13:37

into wonderful new species. So

13:40

at least sometimes the story of a

13:42

vagrant bird can have a happy ending.

13:53

The next question, also about

13:56

migration, was submitted by Kyle.

13:58

He asks if... there is

14:01

quote an update on

14:03

phenological mismatch and annual

14:05

migration. Have birds been

14:07

adapting on a macro level or

14:10

trend end quote. This

14:12

is a good question. One that has to do

14:14

with the effects of climate change on birds. Kyle

14:17

used some fancy scientific terms in his

14:19

question that I should explain first. He's

14:23

asking about phenological mismatch or

14:25

phenological mismatch. Phenology

14:28

spelled p-h-e-n-o-l-o-g-y is the

14:30

study of cyclical and

14:33

seasonal patterns in bird

14:35

behavior and physiology, especially

14:38

as they're related to things like weather

14:40

and climate. Some

14:42

seasonal patterns in birds that

14:44

fall under the topic of

14:47

phenology include migration, breeding, and

14:49

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15:31

it. Okay,

15:38

so that's phenology. What

15:40

then is phenological mismatch? This

15:43

is what happens when the seasonal

15:45

timing is misaligned or off between

15:47

the availability of a resource on

15:49

the one hand and a species

15:52

demand for that resource on the

15:54

other hand. The two

15:56

events are mismatched in time. They're

15:58

not synced up. Let's

16:01

say you've got a migratory bird species. When

16:04

the climate was relatively normal, like 300 years

16:07

ago, this hypothetical bird species would

16:09

arrive in North America in the

16:11

spring at just the right time

16:13

to feed on hordes of grasshoppers

16:16

emerging from hibernation. Over

16:19

evolutionary time, the bird had adapted

16:21

so that its phenology closely

16:23

matched the phenology of the grasshoppers.

16:26

But in the present, springtime temperatures

16:28

in North America are warming up

16:31

earlier and earlier because of climate

16:33

change. Spring is

16:35

coming earlier. This has caused

16:37

the grasshoppers to emerge three weeks earlier

16:39

because they respond to temperature.

16:42

Unfortunately, our bird species is still

16:44

driven by its old instincts. Climate

16:48

change has happened so quickly that this

16:50

bird hasn't had enough time to adapt

16:52

to the new conditions. These

16:55

birds still arrive at the same time of

16:57

year that they have for thousands of years.

17:00

But now when they reach North America, they're

17:02

three weeks too late. The

17:04

grasshoppers have all been eaten up by

17:06

other predators. This

17:08

is kind of like when I show up

17:11

at Taco Bell at 6 a.m. on Thursday

17:13

like I do every Thursday to get myself

17:15

breakfast. A chalupa supreme,

17:17

some nacho fries, and five

17:19

or six spicy potatoes soft

17:21

tacos. But what if

17:23

I showed up at 6 a.m. and little

17:25

did I know my local Taco Bell changed

17:27

their hours and now they don't open until

17:29

8? Such

17:32

a phenological mismatch might result

17:34

in my death by starvation.

17:37

Or at least I'd feel mildly hungry for about

17:39

two hours. But those

17:41

birds that showed up three weeks too

17:44

late, they really are at risk of

17:46

starvation. That would be

17:48

a real phenological mismatch. Now

17:51

I think Kyle wants to know

17:53

what the current understanding among

17:55

scientists is regarding birds and phenological

17:57

mismatches. Have some birds been eaten?

18:00

able to adapt. This

18:02

is actually a pretty big topic, so I

18:04

can't go into all of the detail today,

18:06

and it's definitely an ongoing

18:08

area of research. But

18:10

there's at least one important study

18:13

I can highlight. It was published

18:15

just last month in PNAS, the

18:17

Proceedings of the National Academy of

18:20

Sciences, which is a well-respected authoritative

18:22

journal. In this study,

18:24

the researchers looked at the timing of migration in

18:27

150 bird species in the

18:29

Western Hemisphere. They also

18:31

looked at the historical and

18:33

present-day timing of what's known

18:35

as spring green-up. Green-up

18:38

is when habitats explode with new

18:40

plant growth in spring. The

18:43

landscape literally greens up, and

18:46

this is closely followed by a big

18:48

pulse of biomass in the form of

18:50

insects and other potential prey animals. Importantly,

18:54

the timing of when green-up

18:56

happens is strongly affected by

18:58

local temperature. Looking

19:00

at data from 2002 to 2021, the researchers found

19:02

that the migrations of most bird species are

19:08

more in sync with the historical

19:10

long-term average of spring green-up. Most

19:14

of those 150 bird species have not

19:16

adapted to the timing of green-up as

19:18

it's been happening more recently. In

19:21

a warming world, spring comes earlier

19:24

and earlier on average. We

19:26

might think that birds are smart enough to

19:28

recognize that spring is arriving early in a

19:30

given year. Now, birds

19:32

are indeed very smart, but the

19:35

signal, the cue that many, if

19:37

not most, species use to begin

19:39

their spring migrations is not temperature.

19:42

Instead, the cue they use is

19:44

day length, or photo period. In

19:48

other words, it's not like a bird in

19:50

its wintering habitat walks up to its friends

19:52

and says, Hey fellas, is it

19:54

just me or does it feel a lot warmer

19:56

than usual for this time of year? Like,

19:58

I seriously just pulled my shorts and flip flops

20:01

out of the closet. So I'm

20:03

thinking we better head north to make sure we don't

20:05

miss the spring greenup. But

20:07

to repeat, most birds do not

20:09

respond to temperature like that. They

20:12

respond to the amount of daylight each day.

20:15

The photo period. The problem

20:17

is that the photo period at a

20:19

specific location on a specific date never

20:21

changes. It's the same year

20:23

after year no matter what the climate is

20:25

doing. Birds

20:28

can adapt to climate change. They've been

20:30

doing that for millions of years, right?

20:33

But the challenge is that human-caused

20:35

climate change is happening really fast.

20:38

So fast that many species haven't

20:40

been able to evolve, to adapt

20:42

fast enough. The

20:44

phenological mismatches detailed in this recently

20:47

published study aren't happening to just

20:49

one type of bird. Mismatches

20:52

were found across many bird

20:54

families, from waterfowl, shorebirds, and

20:57

hummingbirds to raptors and songbirds.

21:00

Mismatches are occurring in both

21:02

long and short-distance migrants, and

21:04

among both herbivorous and carnivorous

21:06

birds. But

21:09

I know of at least one bird

21:11

species that seems to have avoided any

21:13

phenological mismatch. McQueen's

21:15

Busted, Clamidotus miquinii,

21:19

is a large Asian bird. Another

21:21

name for this bird is the Asian hubara. Populations

21:24

of this species that breed in Central

21:27

Asia are long-distance migrants. Apparently

21:30

McQueen's Busted does use local temperature

21:32

as the cue to start its

21:34

long northward journey in spring. A

21:38

paper published in 2021, also in

21:40

the journal PNAS, looked at phenology

21:42

in this species. The

21:44

researchers point out that because this

21:47

Busted species uses temperature as its

21:49

migration cue rather than photoperiod, it's

21:52

pre-adapted to respond to climate

21:54

change. It can adjust

21:56

the timing of its migration to match the

21:59

timing of growth. Danni

22:08

asks our next question. She

22:10

writes, quote, For the

22:12

past two years I've lived along the

22:14

North American Central Flyway. Twice

22:16

a year I see tens of thousands

22:19

of Canada geese coming or going in

22:21

what my partner and I call loud

22:23

clouds, flocks of hundreds of

22:25

birds that follow their migration routes

22:27

with a distinct honking chorus. I've

22:30

seen snow geese, sandhill cranes,

22:33

and ring-billed gulls flying overhead

22:35

this way, sometimes making an

22:37

absolute racket and sometimes without

22:39

a peep. Do we

22:41

have an idea of why sometimes

22:43

flocks tend to be on full

22:45

blast and other times silent, especially

22:47

during migration? End quote. Loud

22:51

clouds. I love it, Danni. Yeah,

22:54

so Canada geese and some other birds

22:56

that fly in flocks during migration call

22:58

loudly to each other, especially

23:01

waterfowl. Most of us

23:03

have witnessed this before. In

23:05

a more general sense, birds of many kinds

23:07

often call to each other while flying around

23:09

in a flock. It's

23:11

a way for them to keep in contact with

23:13

their buddies. Ornithologists call

23:16

these vocalizations contact calls.

23:19

These relatively short, simple sounds

23:22

are little exclamations. Each

23:24

bird is yelling to its pals,

23:26

hey, hey, here, here, I'm over

23:29

here, hey. But

23:34

the honking sounds of geese are perhaps

23:37

a little more specialized. Geese

23:39

are famous for flying in V

23:41

formations during migration. This

23:43

is a behavioral adaptation that allows the

23:46

geese to save energy on long flights.

23:49

While in a V formation, a goose

23:51

can get a bit of extra aerodynamic

23:53

lift from the air currents spinning off

23:55

the wingtips of its friend flying just

23:58

ahead. So a goose Goose

24:00

behind another goose doesn't need to

24:02

burn as many calories while flying.

24:05

However, the lead goose, the one at

24:07

the front end of the V, doesn't

24:09

get this benefit, so the

24:11

geese rotate their positions within the formation

24:14

every so often. Isn't

24:16

that ever so courteous of them? Some

24:19

researchers hypothesize that the noisy flight

24:21

calls made by geese help them

24:23

coordinate their position changes within the

24:25

V. Now as

24:27

to why these same flocks

24:30

sometimes fly silently as Danny

24:32

has observed, I don't know. I

24:35

couldn't dig up any research that explains this. Maybe

24:38

nobody knows what causes these

24:40

loud clouds to occasionally turn

24:43

into soundless clouds. The

24:53

next couple of questions have to do with breeding

24:55

in birds. The first one

24:58

is from Emily. Emily was

25:00

watching a nest cam of barn

25:02

owls in Indiana this spring. Of

25:05

the seven chicks that hatched, none of

25:07

them survived more than a day, sadly.

25:10

The male owl, Dad, did his

25:12

job in bringing small rodents to

25:14

the nest, but these went

25:16

uneaten for some reason. And

25:19

Emily observed the female owl

25:21

occasionally stepping on her nestlings,

25:23

presumably by accident. It's

25:26

uncertain how old this female barn

25:28

owl is, but folks watching

25:30

the nest cam speculated that she's young

25:32

and inexperienced when it comes to raising

25:35

a family. So Emily's

25:37

question is this. Quote,

25:40

Do older, more experienced birds generally

25:42

have a higher success when it

25:44

comes to getting chicks to the

25:46

point of fledging? If

25:48

yes, is this effect more pronounced

25:50

in species with longer average lifespans,

25:52

or maybe in more social species?

25:56

The answer is yes. Yes,

25:58

there is a lot of scientific evidence that

26:01

older, more experienced birds tend to

26:03

have a higher success rate in

26:05

raising chicks to the fledgling stage.

26:08

And just as a reminder, a fledgling

26:10

is a very young bird whose bones,

26:12

muscles, and feathers are finally large and

26:15

strong enough to support flight. The

26:17

fledgling stage is when a bird can first fly.

26:21

Let's imagine a graph of breeding

26:23

success. And this graph will

26:25

also show us the typical pattern for many birds. On

26:29

the y-axis we have the number

26:31

of surviving fledglings. From bottom

26:33

to top it goes from zero to, let's

26:35

say, 10. The x-axis

26:38

is the age of the parent

26:40

in years, which increases from left

26:42

to right. The

26:44

line plotted on the graph reflects

26:46

the relationship between the age of

26:48

a parent bird and its reproductive

26:50

success. The line

26:53

starts low on the left because

26:55

young parents aren't all that awesome

26:57

at raising babies. Then

26:59

the line goes up steadily for a

27:01

few years. It peaks around middle

27:03

age for the parent bird. Then

27:06

it either goes down steadily or

27:08

it stabilizes. But with

27:10

maybe a sharp drop-off at the end just

27:12

before the parent bird kicks the bucket. For

27:16

a real-world example, there was this

27:18

21-year study of blue-footed boobies in

27:20

a breeding colony on a small

27:22

island off the west coast of

27:24

Mexico. This paper was published

27:26

in 2011 in the journal PLOS ONE. The

27:31

researchers found that the survival of young boobies

27:33

is highest when they're raised by parents that

27:35

are between 6 and 12 years old. Younger

27:40

and older parents are less successful

27:42

at raising chicks. The

27:45

line plotted on the graph for these

27:47

blue-footed boobies in Mexico has the shape

27:49

of an arch, or an upside-down ewe,

27:52

pretty much like what I described earlier, the

27:55

typical shape for many birds. But

27:57

some other long-lived birds show a difference. different

28:00

pattern. The snow

28:02

petrel, Pagadroma nivea, is a

28:04

beautiful white seabird that breeds

28:06

in Antarctica. Hard to

28:09

believe, but yes, there are actually a

28:11

few other birds in Antarctica besides penguins.

28:14

A snow petrel can live for 45 years

28:17

in the wild. The likelihood

28:19

of successfully raising chicks in this

28:21

species increases from age 6 to

28:24

about 12. But unlike

28:26

blue-footed boobies, snow petrels have

28:28

been shown to keep on cranking

28:30

out and successfully raising one baby

28:32

every year pretty much until they

28:34

die. They just have one chick

28:36

at a time. So why

28:39

might older birds have this peak in

28:41

their performance when it comes to raising

28:43

chicks? Some possibilities

28:45

are that 1. birds

28:47

in their prime have mastered

28:49

their nesting and foraging skills. 2.

28:52

they may have relatively low

28:54

stress levels and 3.

28:56

they may have the highest level

28:59

of disease resistance. Yes,

29:01

it does seem like the effects of

29:03

a parent's age on reproductive success can

29:06

be more significant for bird species that

29:08

live a long time. Short-lived

29:10

birds may have only a few years

29:13

to breed or even just one year.

29:15

They don't really have the luxury or

29:17

even the opportunity to get better at

29:19

raising a brood. Lastly,

29:21

Emily asked about how this

29:24

all plays out with social

29:26

species. In my search

29:28

of the scientific literature, I couldn't

29:30

find studies that specifically addressed the

29:32

effects of the sociality variable on

29:34

the relationship between a parent's age

29:36

and the survival of its offspring.

29:39

In other words, does that relationship change

29:41

when you're talking about a very social

29:43

species versus a species that is not

29:46

social at all? I couldn't

29:48

find any research on that. In

29:50

any case, the research does tell

29:53

us that sledglings in many social

29:55

species seem to have higher chances

29:57

of survival than in non-social species.

30:00

especially in cooperatively breeding species.

30:03

In cooperative breeding, the chicks are often

30:05

raised by not just mom and dad,

30:07

but also by older siblings and other

30:10

relatives. Our

30:18

second breeding related question comes

30:20

from Eric. He

30:22

recently observed a female American robin

30:24

searching for her wayward fledgling. Eric

30:28

asks, quote, how

30:30

often do bird parents lose track of

30:32

their fledglings? And at what point do

30:34

they give up looking for them? Also,

30:37

how are adults able to keep track of

30:40

fledglings in busy cities when they can't hear

30:42

their calls? End quote. Eric's

30:45

first question is so good that I

30:47

think someone needs to conduct some research

30:49

to answer it. Research on how

30:52

long it takes a parent bird to give

30:54

up searching for a lost fledgling. I

30:56

assume the duration would vary a lot

30:59

among species, but who knows? Someone

31:02

needs to do this research because I could

31:04

not find an answer to that question. Maybe

31:06

it's out there, but I just could not find it.

31:10

I'm trying to imagine what those experiments would

31:12

look like though. A researcher

31:14

in a lab removes a fledgling from

31:16

its parents, then records the parents' behavior.

31:19

How long does it take the parent

31:21

to go from, where's my baby? Has

31:23

anyone seen my baby? My sweet baby

31:25

is missing. To go from

31:27

that to, now what

31:29

was I looking for? Was it my

31:32

car keys, my phone? Hmm, well,

31:35

whatever it was, I guess it wasn't that important.

31:38

In any case, post-fledged parental care is

31:40

an important part of the life history

31:43

for most birds. The

31:45

effort of care and the duration of care

31:47

vary a lot from one species to another.

31:50

One of the key requirements

31:53

of post-fledged care is parent

31:55

offspring recognition. A young

31:57

bird needs to be able to recognize its parents

31:59

and vital care. This is

32:01

often accomplished with vocal communication. Sometimes

32:05

birds use special calls just for the

32:07

purpose of communicating with their chicks or

32:09

in the case of fledglings with their

32:11

parents. The second

32:13

part of Eric's question was, how are

32:16

adults able to keep track of fledglings

32:18

in busy cities when they can't hear

32:20

their calls? It seems

32:22

likely that adult birds would have a

32:24

harder time keeping track of their rambunctious

32:27

fledglings in urban environments. There

32:29

is, thankfully, plenty of research on the

32:31

effects of urban noise on the behavior

32:33

and ecology of birds. Maybe

32:36

not specifically about losing your fledglings, but

32:38

I'll give you one example. There's

32:41

a paper titled, When

32:43

Ambient Noise Imperes Parent

32:45

Offspring Communication. It

32:47

was published in 2016 in the

32:49

journal Environmental Pollution. This

32:52

study, conducted in Belgium, looked

32:54

at parent offspring communication in

32:56

the blue tit, Sianistes ceruleus.

32:59

The researchers used previously recorded traffic

33:01

noise and played it near the

33:03

nest boxes of blue tits in

33:05

the experiment. Now this

33:07

study was using nestlings and not fledglings,

33:10

but it still seems relevant to Eric's

33:12

question. The result was

33:14

that parent birds beavers are more likely to

33:16

be able to keep track of their fledglings.

33:21

See, it's hard to hear anything over

33:24

that obnoxious traffic, isn't it? Kind

33:26

of illustrates the point. Because

33:29

what I was saying is that this

33:31

study showed that parent birds feed their

33:33

chicks at a lower rate at the

33:35

nest when there's loud traffic noise nearby.

33:38

The explanation for this behavior offered by

33:41

the researchers is that with loud traffic

33:43

noise, the chicks in the nest had

33:45

a hard time hearing their parents returning

33:47

to the nest. If

33:50

the chicks didn't hear their parents, they didn't

33:52

beg for food. Without the

33:54

stimulus of screaming begging chicks, the parents

33:56

were less likely to bring the little

33:58

guy's food. So

34:00

yeah, city life can be hard for many

34:02

reasons, including making it harder to talk to

34:04

your kids or to get your parents to

34:06

give you food. Candy

34:18

asks us another question about

34:20

breeding, specifically about the

34:22

morning dove, Zenaida macroura.

34:25

Candy's question is, quote,

34:28

why do morning doves throw like two sticks

34:30

and a rock in a pile for a

34:32

nest and call it good? Other

34:35

birds are painstakingly building intricate nests, but

34:37

these guys just put in very little

34:40

effort. And they often nest

34:42

in what seem to be horrible places for

34:44

a nest. Yet they

34:46

must have success because their species

34:48

numbers are doing quite well, end

34:50

quote. Indeed, morning doves

34:53

are doing pretty well. This

34:55

is one of the most familiar and common

34:57

birds in North America. And

35:05

indeed, morning doves make flimsy little

35:07

nests out of pine needles, twigs,

35:09

and grass. There's no

35:11

lining or softer material for comfort

35:13

or insulation. A

35:15

morning dove nest would probably fail miserably

35:18

in any building code inspection. As

35:21

Candy points out, these doves build their

35:23

rickety nests in all sorts of odd

35:25

places, in rain gutters, on

35:29

lamp posts, on a shelf in someone's garage on

35:31

top of a coiled up extension cord, and so on. You

35:35

can find morning dove nests on the ground and

35:37

all the way up to 100 feet or more in a tree. Flimsy

35:41

platform nests are not unique to morning

35:43

doves. This is actually a common

35:46

feature for birds in the family, Columba Dee. I

35:49

talked about all of this in episode 32 of the podcast,

35:52

which was about this avian family. I'll

35:55

answer the question of why doves

35:57

build nests like this. The

36:00

one rule in nature is that whatever

36:02

works, with the minimal amount of effort

36:04

and risk, is good enough. The

36:06

path of least resistance. As

36:09

long as birds can survive long enough and

36:11

leave behind a few offspring, that's good enough.

36:14

Morning dove nests probably wouldn't work very

36:16

well for many other kinds of birds,

36:19

but they do the job for the doves who build them.

36:23

The morning dove is one of those

36:25

species with a short lifespan. The

36:27

expected lifespan of a morning dove is just

36:29

one year. That's right,

36:32

they live for one year on average. So

36:35

like we were talking about earlier, these

36:37

birds don't have a lot of time

36:39

to perfect their nest-building skills over years

36:41

and years. They just

36:43

throw together a pile of twigs and grass

36:46

in an old bucket or on top of

36:48

a mailbox or wherever, and that'll do. But

36:51

I should point out that morning doves compensate

36:54

for their short lifespans by breeding more than

36:56

once in a year. A

36:58

monogamous pair sticks together for the

37:00

long breeding season, often reusing their

37:03

same flimsy nest to raise multiple

37:05

broods. Tracy

37:12

asks the next question, which has to

37:14

do with bird behavior. Quote,

37:17

When it rains, many worms come out

37:20

onto my neighbor's paved driveway. But

37:23

I don't see robins or other birds taking

37:25

advantage of this buffet. Why

37:27

don't worm-eating birds gorge themselves on

37:30

this bonanza? The worms are

37:32

right out in the open, no digging needed. End

37:35

quote. We've all seen

37:37

this phenomenon, right? It's been raining

37:39

heavily for a while, and then the

37:41

wet sidewalks, roads, and driveways are literally

37:44

crawling with worms. But

37:46

before we talk about the birds' behavior, let's

37:48

look at the worms. Why

37:50

do they do this? Why would

37:52

they come to the surface and put themselves in

37:55

danger by crawling around out in the open? People

37:58

have scratched their heads and hypothesized

38:00

about this for ages. The

38:03

standard old answer was that when

38:05

it rains the soil where worms

38:07

live gets saturated with water. Worms

38:10

can absorb oxygen through their skin

38:12

so they don't necessarily need air

38:14

but oxygen diffuses much slower through

38:17

water than through air. So

38:19

the worms come to the surface

38:21

to avoid drowning or suffocation. That's

38:24

the old answer and there's

38:26

probably some truth to it. But

38:29

another, perhaps complementary explanation is that

38:31

some worm species leave the safety

38:33

of the soil so that they

38:35

can move around more easily. It's

38:38

much easier for a worm to cover distance

38:40

on the surface compared to pushing its way

38:43

through dirt. Some worm

38:45

species naturally migrate in search of

38:47

mates or new territory. But

38:50

coming to the surface on a sunny

38:52

dry day would spell doom for them

38:54

since they would quickly dehydrate and shrivel

38:57

up. A rainy day or

38:59

night on the other hand is the perfect time

39:01

to move around on the surface. Except

39:04

for when the birds show up. But

39:06

Tracy is pointing out that birds in her

39:09

neighborhood anyway don't seem to be taking the

39:11

bait. They don't seem to take advantage of

39:13

the easy pickings. And

39:15

that's been my experience too. I have

39:17

not witnessed birds swooping in to gorge

39:19

on the rainy day worm buffet. So

39:23

what did I do? I turned

39:25

to YouTube to see if anybody

39:27

else has documented this behavior. And sure

39:30

enough I came across multiple videos

39:32

of people watching flocks of birds

39:34

gobbling up worms after it rained.

39:38

So I guess maybe if we

39:40

spent enough time systematically looking for

39:42

this behavior, like undertaking a scientific study,

39:44

we might find it to be

39:46

more common than we realized. My

39:49

anecdotal experience is similar to Tracy's.

39:51

But I'd have to see some

39:53

hardcore scientific data before I'd say

39:55

that birds are actually being foolish.

39:58

That they're truly missing out on on great

40:00

opportunities to slurp up mouthfuls of

40:03

wriggling worms. Alright,

40:09

we're moving along here. The

40:13

next four questions all have to do

40:15

with bird anatomy in one way or

40:17

another. The first

40:19

comes from Catherine. She asks,

40:22

quote, I understand birds

40:24

see a wider range of color than

40:26

humans due to having four receptors rather

40:28

than hour three. Do

40:30

birds hear songs and calls with

40:33

a wider sense or ability to

40:35

receive sound in a similar way

40:37

as sight perception? End

40:39

quote. Excellent question,

40:41

Catherine. Hearing

40:43

in birds is most sensitive to

40:45

sounds with frequencies between roughly one

40:48

and five kilohertz. Sensitivity

40:50

above or below that range drops off,

40:53

and the range of course varies among

40:55

species. This range of

40:57

frequencies and the peak of hearing

40:59

sensitivity in birds are, perhaps surprisingly,

41:01

similar to those of humans. So

41:05

their hearing isn't all that different. But

41:07

there is one key difference. Birds

41:09

have the superpower of being able

41:12

to tease apart the minute differences

41:14

in frequencies over very short time

41:16

intervals. Their hearing is

41:18

more discerning than ours on the axis

41:20

of time. Let's

41:23

say you hear this complex song from a

41:25

Pacific wren that I'm about to play for

41:28

you. You can hear all the frequencies and you can

41:30

tell there's a lot going on in there, but it's

41:32

a bit of a jumble. To

41:42

another bird, another Pacific wren, we

41:44

can imagine that that bird would hear

41:46

that song something like this. That

42:03

was the same song I just slowed it down a

42:05

bit. The wiring

42:07

in bird brains that's related to

42:10

hearing allows them to detect and

42:12

understand frequency changes that, for us,

42:14

happen so fast that they sort

42:17

of blur together. On

42:24

a related topic, Sam has a

42:26

question about some unusual members of

42:28

the Blackbird family. Sam's

42:31

question is, how do

42:33

oral pendulas make their crazy bubbly

42:35

noises? Oh,

42:37

you mean like this, Sam? Those

42:55

crazy bubbly noises were

42:57

the songs of some

42:59

Montezuma orapendulas, Saracolius Montezuma,

43:02

recorded in Costa Rica. Orapendula

43:06

is spelled O-R-O-P-E-N-D-O-L-A.

43:10

There are nine orapendula species, all

43:13

in the genus Saracolius. Imagine

43:16

a very large Blackbird with

43:18

a supersized, super-thick, pointy bill.

43:21

In some species, the bill extends onto

43:23

the bird's forehead, forming a frontal shield.

43:27

Some orapendula species are mostly

43:29

green, some mostly black, and

43:31

some, like the Montezuma orapendula,

43:33

are mostly a chestnut brown

43:36

color. The latter species

43:38

has a two-toned bill, like a black

43:40

bill that was dipped in orange-red paint.

43:43

There's also some colorful bare skin on

43:45

the bird's face, in blue, white, and

43:47

pink. Orapendulas,

43:49

in general, weave large hanging

43:51

nests, and they breed in

43:53

colonies. Apparently, male

43:56

Montezuma orapendulas all sing pretty

43:58

much the same song. with

44:00

little variation among individuals. The

44:03

song is thought to be used as a means of communication at

44:06

close range within the colony. This

44:09

differs from the function of singing

44:11

in many other bird species which

44:13

use song to broadcast information over greater

44:15

distances. One researcher

44:17

described the song of the

44:19

Montezuma oropendola as, quote, a

44:22

liquid gurgle, an undulatory sound

44:24

ascending in pitch. When

44:27

heard in a distance it is most melodious,

44:29

but when the performer is

44:31

nearby his screeching overtones somewhat

44:33

mar the effect, end

44:36

quote. Listen again

44:38

to these Montezuma oropendolas singing.

44:41

Do they sound most melodious to you? Do

44:43

you hear any screeching overtones? Ooh,

44:47

there's another possible band name to

44:49

add to my list, the screeching

44:51

overtones. Okay, here's

44:53

the recording again. As

45:02

he sings his song, the male

45:04

oropendola makes his bow display. As

45:07

he makes his undulatory song, he raises

45:09

his yellow tail and falls forward on

45:11

his perch. At the end

45:13

it looks like he's going to fall face forward

45:15

off the branch and he saves himself just in

45:17

time. I'll put a link

45:19

in the show notes to a video of this

45:21

bird singing and making his bow display. It's

45:24

pretty cool. Sam, who

45:26

asked this question about oropendolas,

45:28

is probably like, yeah,

45:30

yeah, Ivan, I know all that, but my

45:33

question is how do these birds make their

45:35

crazy noises? Right. So

45:38

I couldn't find any research specifically

45:40

on the vocal anatomy of oropendolas.

45:43

But since these are songbirds, we know that

45:45

they have a syrinx. S Y

45:47

R I N X. This

45:50

is the sound producing organ that

45:52

sits where a songbirds trachea splits

45:54

into the two tubes called bronchi

45:56

that lead to the lungs. Each

45:59

half of a songbird's syrinx can

46:01

make sound independently. The

46:04

bird controls the fine muscles of the

46:06

syrinx with its brain and nervous system

46:09

to make amazing complex sounds, often

46:11

two different sounds at the same time,

46:13

layered together. I

46:15

suspect that auropendolas make good use

46:18

of that particular superpower, the

46:20

ability to combine two sounds into

46:23

one crazy bubbling song. We're

46:38

on a roll with the topic of

46:40

bird songs here, because our next question

46:42

also has to do with bird vocalizations.

46:45

Liz, who lives in Australia,

46:47

says, quote, Hey, Ivan,

46:50

I'm just wondering why magpies have

46:52

so many different sounds. We

46:54

have heaps in our backyard in Brisbane. Sometimes

46:57

they have a beautiful cooing song, but they also

46:59

have lots of other calls. Do you know what

47:01

they are all for? End

47:04

quote. The Australian

47:06

magpie, Jim Narina Tibbison, is

47:08

in the family Artamidae. Though

47:11

this bird looks somewhat like an American

47:13

or European magpie, it's not a close

47:15

relative of those birds, which are in

47:17

the family Corvidae. In

47:20

case you've never heard an Australian

47:22

magpie, here's an example of its

47:24

strange, flute-like, cooing or gurgling song.

47:41

These are intelligent, social birds.

47:44

Listening to each other's vocal sounds, they can tell

47:46

whether a bird is a member of their own

47:49

breeding group or an outsider.

47:52

And if it turns out you're an outsider,

47:54

uh-oh, you better look out, buddy, because

47:56

Australian magpies are highly territorial and

47:59

they're gonna... attack you. As

48:02

for their songs, yes, this species has

48:04

a repertoire of many vocal sounds. Researchers

48:07

have figured out the purposes of some, but

48:09

not all of these. The

48:12

most famous is the caroling song.

48:15

That's spelled C-A-R-O-L-I-N-G,

48:17

caroling. But the

48:19

British spelling has two L's. Imagine

48:22

the sound I played for you a moment ago.

48:24

That's more or less a caroling song. Multiple

48:27

individuals often make this caroling

48:29

song together. The dominant male

48:31

or female in the group gets it

48:33

started and everybody else joins the chorus.

48:36

Like a bunch of people singing Christmas carols. And

48:39

like Christmas carols, the function of

48:42

caroling in magpies is for the

48:44

group to announce itself and aggressively

48:46

defend its territory. I

48:48

mean, that's what I do Christmas carols for. I

48:50

go out and I defend my territory. I just

48:52

sing super loud so nobody messes with me. Anyway,

48:55

magpies also carol when they discover

48:57

an exciting bounty of food. This

49:00

species eats mostly insects and small

49:02

vertebrates like lizards and frogs. So

49:06

that's caroling. Then there are

49:08

some softer warbling songs. For

49:11

example, during the breeding season, a

49:13

magpie might sing the dusk song,

49:15

the dawn song, or the moonlight

49:17

song. The moonlight song

49:19

is, of course, the most romantic

49:21

of the three. Perched

49:26

on a balcony and wearing

49:28

a flowing ball gown, an

49:30

Australian magpie looks longingly into

49:32

the night sky, singing about

49:34

true love and defying societal

49:36

expectations. But

49:39

seriously, the Australian magpie really does

49:41

have a moonlight song that it

49:44

sings on moonlit nights. Again,

49:46

this is during the breeding season and the

49:49

singers are likely to be males. Then

49:52

there are many kinds of alarm calls. These

49:54

would be to warn others in the group

49:56

of any lurking danger, like a snake or

49:59

other predator. Now, I'm not sure,

50:01

but I wouldn't be surprised if they have

50:03

different alarm calls for different kinds of predators.

50:06

Snakes versus hawks, for example. The

50:08

rally call, which has been described

50:11

as, quote, a loud descending whistle

50:13

of two or three syllables. Magpies

50:16

can hear their buddies making this call from far

50:18

away. As its name suggests,

50:20

the function of the rally call is to

50:23

summon the members of a group. It's

50:25

kind of like, Magpies assemble!

50:29

Magpies is usually in response to a

50:31

predator attack or territorial dispute with another

50:33

group. And then, of

50:36

course, there are some begging calls made

50:38

by nestlings and fledglings. Australian

50:41

Magpies are also good at mimicking

50:43

the sounds of other bird species

50:45

and other animals. They even mimic

50:47

artificial sounds like emergency sirens.

50:50

So, I hope that sheds a little

50:53

light on the functions of all the

50:55

many Magpie calls. Phythologists

50:57

are still trying to decipher their

50:59

meanings, so there's still a lot

51:01

to learn. Our

51:10

next question comes from Dan. This

51:13

does not have to do with songs or

51:15

vocalizations. Well, actually, I

51:17

guess it sort of does. Dan

51:19

says, quote, Walking through the woods

51:22

in the spring, there's all kinds of pollen in the

51:24

air. While I'm looking

51:26

for warblers, I've definitely sneezed. But

51:28

come to think of it, I've never heard a bird

51:30

sneeze. Or cough. Is

51:33

this a thing? The birds must

51:35

get particles from the air caught in their

51:37

windpipe sometimes, just like we do. How

51:39

do birds deal with this? End

51:41

quote. Good question,

51:43

Dan. Yeah, my allergies

51:45

have been terrible this year. It

51:48

sucks because at exactly the time when the

51:50

bird activity is at its peak, when the

51:52

birding is as good as it gets around

51:54

here, that's the time of year when my

51:56

stupid allergies kick into high gear. Anyway.

52:00

As Dan points out, birds must

52:02

occasionally inhale small particles and they

52:04

need to expel those particles from

52:06

their respiratory systems. And

52:09

indeed birds do sneeze. I've

52:11

had pet chickens and have watched them

52:13

sneeze on many occasions. They

52:16

close their eyes and often shake their

52:18

heads as they sneeze. The sneeze clears

52:20

particles from the nasal passages. But

52:23

just to make sure that this isn't

52:25

just a chicken thing, that it's more

52:27

universal among birds, I turned once again

52:30

to YouTube. And sure

52:32

enough I found some videos of

52:34

various kinds of birds, including songbirds,

52:36

sneezing. As for

52:38

coughing, this is interesting, because in

52:41

humans our diaphragm muscle contracts forcefully

52:43

when we cough. But

52:45

birds don't have a diaphragm. Nevertheless,

52:48

they do cough if they have an

52:50

infection or if something irritates their respiratory

52:52

system. The bird cough

52:54

sounds more like a chirping sound rather

52:56

than a human cough. But

52:59

let's keep in mind that there are

53:01

major anatomical differences between birds and humans.

53:04

Birds might have reflexes that have the

53:06

same end result as our sneezes and

53:08

cough do, but the underlying mechanisms

53:11

might be different. In

53:13

any case, if you haven't heard birds

53:15

sneezing or coughing yet, maybe

53:17

it's just a matter of time. Get

53:20

yourself some pet chickens, or

53:22

disguise yourself as an oversized blue-footed booby

53:24

and sit in the middle of a

53:26

teeming seabird colony all day every day

53:28

for several months. I

53:30

bet you'll hear some sneezes. Eventually.

53:39

We have just a couple more questions to answer,

53:42

and I'd say these are in the miscellaneous

53:44

category. First up is

53:46

a question from Katie. She asks, quote,

53:49

How do I tell crows apart

53:51

from ravens? We have tremendous flocks

53:53

here in the Coachella Valley in

53:56

California and in the surrounding mountains.

53:58

End quote. Ah, yeah. Yes,

54:00

this is the age-old challenge, a question

54:02

that many of us have asked. How

54:05

do you know whether that blackbird you're looking

54:07

at is a crow or a raven? Katie

54:10

lives in California, so for her

54:12

we'd be talking about the American

54:15

crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos, versus the common

54:17

raven, Corvus corac. First

54:21

there's the size difference. A

54:23

raven is about twice as big as a crow,

54:26

but unless you can see them side by

54:28

side or you have some other object to

54:30

use for comparison, size isn't the best way

54:32

to tell the two birds apart. But

54:35

we can always look at the relative sizes of

54:37

the bill. The specific

54:39

epithet of the American crow's

54:41

scientific name, brachyrhynchos, is actually

54:43

Greek for short bill. The

54:47

common raven's bill is thicker. It's usually

54:49

as long or longer than the bird's

54:51

head. The raven's bill

54:53

has longer bristle feathers at the base

54:55

and it has a more distinct hook

54:57

at the tip. You

54:59

can also tell these species apart when they

55:01

fly overhead in a couple of ways. American

55:05

crows tend to flap frequently. They

55:07

rarely soar. Ravens on

55:10

the other hand spend a lot more time soaring.

55:13

A raven's wings make a whooshing sound in flight.

55:15

So if you hear that, you've got a raven,

55:17

but you will not hear that when a crow

55:19

flies by. Another

55:22

thing to look at when these birds are flying is the

55:24

shape of the tail. The American

55:26

crow has a rounded off or a

55:28

blunt looking tail. A common

55:30

raven's tail on the other hand is diamond

55:32

or wedge shaped. That's because

55:34

the central tail feathers of the raven are longer

55:37

than the outer feathers. And

55:39

you can often tell these birds apart by their

55:41

voices. Common ravens in American

55:43

crows make distinct sounds. Crows

55:46

make the classic ca-ca sound, like

55:48

this. Raven

55:55

calls are somewhat similar, but they're

55:57

lower pitched. Ravens croak rather

55:59

than ca- Here are some

56:01

ravens calling. Ravens

56:06

make a bunch of other vocalizations too. Some

56:09

of them sound like human screams or

56:11

like chimpanzee calls. Recognizing

56:14

the differences between crows and ravens

56:16

can be challenging, even when

56:18

you know what to look and listen for. So

56:21

just know that you are not alone,

56:23

Katie. This is a classic ID challenge

56:25

for many bird lovers. Alright

56:33

I've got just one last question here. Janice

56:36

says, I'd love

56:38

to know your top picks for amazing

56:40

birding spots. Where is the

56:42

most interesting bird population? Cool,

56:45

this one will be fun. I don't need to

56:47

do any research to find the answer. I just

56:50

need to sift through my own thoughts and my

56:52

happy memories about birding. There

56:54

are still many places in North America and

56:56

the rest of the world where I have

56:58

not gone birding. That

57:01

said, I've been around a little bit. I

57:03

work as a guide for the birding tour

57:05

company I co-own, Wild Latitudes. That

57:08

work has given me many wonderful opportunities to

57:10

see birds around the world. Just

57:13

thinking about the US, I'd have

57:15

to say my favorite birding destination

57:18

is southeast Arizona. And

57:20

this is a well-known birding hotspot. It's

57:23

a combination of desert, mountain,

57:25

and riparian habitats that bring

57:27

together many interesting bird species

57:29

into a relatively small geographic

57:31

area. And southeast

57:33

Arizona is also where several major

57:36

eco-regions come together. It's

57:38

one of those places in the US with

57:41

birds that are otherwise found only south of

57:43

the border, in Mexico and beyond. We're

57:46

talking species like elegant trogan,

57:48

Mexican jay, rose-throated beckered, monozuma

57:50

quail, olive warbler, and maybe

57:53

one of my favorites, the

57:55

red-faced warbler. Also,

57:57

southeast Arizona is the number one...

58:00

hummingbird hotspot in the US. You

58:03

can find about 15 species there

58:05

including Rivoli's hummingbird, Lucifer

58:07

hummingbird, Broad-billed hummingbird, and

58:09

the blue-throated mountain gem.

58:12

As for other countries where I've

58:15

had amazing birding experiences, I'd have

58:17

to say the top of the

58:19

list includes Australia, Uganda,

58:21

Ecuador, and Spain. Those

58:24

are places I've been to more than once and

58:26

that I hope to return to someday. And

58:29

there you have it. We did it! That

58:31

wraps up the latest Ask Me

58:33

Anything podcast episode. Thank

58:35

you so much to all of my Patreon

58:37

members who offered questions. You guys came up

58:39

with some really good ones. I

58:42

hope I appeased your curiosity and

58:44

thirst for bird knowledge. At

58:47

least for a little while. This

58:52

is or that was episode 96

58:55

of the Science of Birds podcast. We're

58:57

seriously closing in on 100, you guys.

59:00

I hope you enjoyed listening to this

59:02

question-and-answer style episode. There's a support the

59:04

show link in the show notes if

59:06

you would like to become a Patreon

59:09

member so you can contribute questions

59:11

for future episodes like this. And

59:13

thanks to my entire Patreon

59:16

community, you guys rock! There's

59:18

a community chat feature now on my Patreon

59:20

page and it's been really fun to interact

59:22

with you guys there. My

59:25

newest members are Julius

59:27

the Burbnerb, Steph Stout,

59:29

and Galadriel. Welcome to

59:31

all of you and thank you very much

59:33

for the generous support. Any

59:36

of my listeners can shoot me an

59:38

email if they have something to share

59:40

with me. Perhaps you have some kind

59:43

words about the podcast or you want

59:45

to tell me all the ways that

59:47

you, much like a lovestruck Australian magpie,

59:49

defy societal expectations. In

59:52

any case, my email address is ivan

59:55

at scienceofbirds.com. I'm

59:57

often slow to respond to email. That's

1:00:00

how it is, but I try to get back to everyone. You

1:00:03

can check out the show notes for

1:00:05

today's episode on the Science of Birds

1:00:07

website, scienceofbirds.com. And don't

1:00:09

forget that I've got a little shop

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1:00:19

is Ivan Phillipson, I hope you're having and

1:00:21

will continue to have a great day. Peace.