The American Birding Podcast

2025 is the year of the Common Loon here at the American Birding Association! Our 2025 Bird of the Year artist, Sam Zimmerman, gets to appreciate these birds frequently from his home in northern Minnesota. He is an artist, author and educator whose work explores the landscapes and creatures of the western Great Lakes, with an eye towards capturing and preserving stories from his Ojibwe heritage. His Common Loon art is featured on the cover of an upcoming issue of Birding magazine. He joins us to launch the Year of the Loon with stories about his own experiences and insight into his art.  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!

Thanks for another great year here at the American Birding Podcast. To close out 2024 we host another This Month in Birding panel featuring Jennie Duberstein, Mikko Jimenez, and Brodie Cass Talbott who join Nate to talk about bird brains, CBC memories, and old albatrosses. Plus, we make our predictions for what to look forward to in the bird world in 2025.  Links to items discussed in this episode: World's oldest known wild bird is expecting again, aged 74 Experiments show backyard birds learn from their new neighbors when moving house Study suggests there's no incentive for older birds to make new friends 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! And don’t forget to give to the ABA’s End of Year Appeal! Thanks!

Roughly a quarter of chocolate sales in the US and the UK occur around the holidays at the end of the year. And if you are listening to this podcast, you are statistically almost certain to be participating. What does that have to do with birds? Well, like coffee before it, chocolate now comes in a bird friendly version. It's the subject of a recent article in Birdwatcher's Digest by Bryony Angell a Washington based birder and writer on birding culture. She joins us to talk about what that certification means for birds and chocolate-lovers alike.  Also, congratulations to the full slate of 2024 ABA Awards recipients and thanks for all you do for the birding community.  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! And don’t forget to give to the ABA’s End of Year Appeal! Thanks!

It's the Birding Book Club's biggest meeting of the year!. We're back again to do our annual Best Bird Books of the Year episode for 2024. There’s no better time to give the gift of bird books to the birder in your life. And why not something for yourself while you’re at it? Nate Swick is joined by 10,000 Birds book reviewer Donna Schulman and Birding magazine media and book review editor Rebecca Minardi to talk about what we loved this exceptional year in bird books. Links to out lists can be found on the ABA Podcast website. 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!  And don't forget to give to the ABA's End of Year Appeal! Thanks!