Okay, But... Birds

E23. Across sub-Saharan Africa, wild birds and people work together to find honey. No taming, no breeding, no domestication…  just a partnership thousands of years in the making. Behavioral ecologist Dr. Jessica van der Wal, FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, joins Scott to unpack what's actually happening when a honey hunter calls and a greater honeyguide answers.

In this episode you'll hear about:

What each side gets out of one of the only known mutualisms between humans and a wild animal, and why this bird in particular evolved to seek us out

The remarkable signal the honeyguide uses to communicate with people, and what playback experiments revealed when researchers tested it across very different communities

What happens to a partnership built over generations when one side starts buying honey at the store

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:

Greater Honeyguide audio contributed by Jennifer F. M. Horne, ML55972

Additional media courtesy of Dr. Claire Spottiswoode and Dr. Jessica van der Wal.

E22. Folklore says birds know a storm is coming before we do. Scott talks with Dr. Gunnar Kramer, Iowa State University, about what's actually happening when a tiny warbler decides it's time to fly, or time to bail.

In this episode:

Why the question itself might be slightly wrong, and what's really going on inside that bird

A storm, some missing warblers, and a discovery nobody set out to make

What 300 birds falling out of the sky over Texas can tell you about how much fuel is in the tank

Listen, follow, and tell a friend who’s a little superstitious.

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:

Yellow-billed cuckoo audio, Wil Hershberger, ML94446

Barnacle goose audio, Bob McGuire, ML235525

Golden-winged warbler video, Benjamin Clock, ML476422

Blue-winged warbler video, Eric Liner, ML469433

Yellow-billed cuckoo video, Larry Arbanas, ML466566

Eastern kingbird audio, Wil Hershberger, ML534398

Tennessee warbler audio, Wil Hershberger, ML85236

Tennessee warbler video, Eric Liner, ML466381

Wood thrush video, Benjamin Clock, ML471755

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