Okay, But... Birds

E21. We're talking sense and scents with Dr. Danielle Whittaker, Oregon State, and author of The Secret Perfume of Birds, who spent a decade unraveling a 200-year-old myth that started with John James Audubon and a dead pig under a bush.
In this episode:
The bird that smells like a fresh-baked sugar cookie
Why preen oil is a dating profile written in chemistry, and how seabirds use the same chemical cue that's now leading albatross parents to feed their chicks plastic
The bonus myth Danielle wants gone

New here? Listen, follow, and tell a friend who still thinks birds can't smell.
All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:
Brown-headed Cowbird audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94262
Dark-eyed Junco audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94361
Red Knot audio contributed by Lucas DeCicco, ML516895
Crested Auklet audio contributed by Sampath Seneviratne, ML132014
Laysan Albatross audio contributed by Ted Miller, ML117679

E20. Less than 1% of what's in a museum is actually on display. So what's happening with the other 99%? Scott talks with Dr. Sushma Reddy, Breckenridge Chair of Ornithology at the Bell Museum and Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, about the extraordinary scientific afterlife of a specimen in a drawer.
In this episode:
How birds collected 150 years ago are answering questions their collectors never imagined, from air pollution to insect decline
Why falcons turned out to be closer to parrots than hawks, and what other surprises fell out of the bird family tree
The case for making museum collections more open, especially to scientists from the places these specimens originally came from

If you have a few seconds, please follow, rate, and leave a review for the show. It makes a huge difference in helping others discover it. Thanks for listening!
All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:
Bald eagle sound contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML 200943
Red-tailed hawk sound contributed by David McCartt, ML 229578
Gyrfalcon sound contributed by Lucas DeCicco, ML 516973
Kea sound contributed by William V. Ward, ML 8523
Small ground finch sound contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML 86711
Iiwi sound contributed by Doug Pratt, ML 5888
Sickle-billed vanga sound contributed by Anonymous, ML 100013

E19. More than 55 million Americans feed birds, and it's not exactly clear the birds asked us to. Dr. Olivia Sanderfoot, Research Scientist and Project Leader of FeederWatch at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, joins Scott to unpack what four decades of data tell us about whether feeding birds helps them, hurts them, or is really just for us.
In this episode you'll hear about:
Why bird feeding is mostly for us, and the handful of moments when it actually tips the scales for birds
What forty years of FeederWatch data reveal about shifting ranges, feeder dominance, and the bird that definitely should not be bossing everyone around
How to keep your yard from becoming an ecological trap, plus the best way to feed birds that doesn't involve a feeder at all

Ready to join the longest-running winter bird monitoring program in North America? Sign up for Project FeederWatch's 40th season at feederwatch.org. You don't even need a feeder.
Want more exclusive clips from this and future episodes. Signup for our newsletter, Bird Droppings, at okaybutbirds.com to get bonus content not available anywhere else!
All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:
European robin audio contributed by Matthew D. Medler, ML140049
Cooper's hawk audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94518
American crow video contributed by Jay McGowan, ML472843

E18. Turns out "bird brain" is less of an insult and more of a compliment. Scott sits down with Dr. Alex Kacelnik, Emeritus Professor at the University of Oxford, to dig into one of the most mind-bending questions in animal behavior: are birds actually building and using tools, or are we just projecting?
In this episode you'll hear about:
The experiment that left researchers completely flabbergasted and rewrote what we thought we knew about animal intelligence
Why flexibility, not raw smarts, is the real test of a thinking mind
Whether the drive to use tools is something birds are born with, learn, or some surprising combination of both

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:
Woodpecker Finch audio contributed by Robert Bowman, ML82522
New Caledonian Crow audio contributed by Lucas DeCicco, ML188764
Hawaiian Crow audio contributed by Tim Burr, ML218670
Hawaiian Crow video contributed by Timothy Barksdale, ML425081
Kea audio contributed by William V. Ward, ML8523

E17. From sparrow songs that go viral across a continent to cockatoos that watch each other to learn how to open bins, Dr. Lucy Aplin, Australian National University / University of Zurich, studies how birds learn from each other and why it matters. Doing it for the culture? Yep. Birds are that impressive!
In this episode you'll hear about:
How a new white-throated sparrow song spread over 3,000 kilometers in just two decades, replacing a tune that had been stable since the 1950s
The experiment that proved wild great tits can establish lasting cultural traditions through their social networks
Why losing a population of birds might also mean losing knowledge that took generations to build

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:
White-throated Sparrow audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML219799
White-throated Sparrow audio contributed by Jocelyn Lauzon, ML121581051
Great Tit audio contributed by Arnoud B. van den Berg, ML36198
Eurasian Sparrowhawk audio contributed by Ben F. King, ML335224
Regent Honeyeater audio contributed by Vicki Powys, ML223277
Pink-footed Goose audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML235508