The American Birding Podcast

You don’t have to be a birder for a long time to appreciate that birds are capable of producing an astonishing array of colors and patterns, even those beyond what our weak human eyes can discern. Hidden in that avian rainbow are clues to bird taxonomy and evolution, which is the work of our guest Whitney Tsai Nakashima [https://moorelab.oxy.edu/person/whitney-tsai-nakashima], a researcher at Occidental College’s Moore Lab of Zoology. Also, great news for one of south Texas's best birding sites.  Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts [https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/american-birding-podcast/id1186824033?mt=2], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/66zR2yB4AyXb4kRs90QBdo], or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Break out your checklists and get ready for another summer of splits and lumps from the AOS North American Classification Committee [https://americanornithology.org/about/committees/nacc/current-prior-proposals/2025-proposals/]. It’s time for our annual look at the proposed changes to the bird lists, the longest running segment on this podcast. And for every single one of those episodes, we've turned to biologist and birder Dr Nick Block of Stonehill College in Massachusetts. It's an interesting set of proposals this year, with Warbling Vireo splits, titmouse lumps, and lots of genetic mayhem.  Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts [https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/american-birding-podcast/id1186824033?mt=2], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/66zR2yB4AyXb4kRs90QBdo], or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

An interesting study discussed on the monthly This Month in Birding segment led us to Miranda Zammarelli, a PhD student at Dartmouth who has taken 50 years of hand drawn paper maps of bird territories at a New Hampshire forest, collected over many years by Dartmouth students, and brought those maps into the modern era to learn about how bird territories ebb and flow over the seasons. It's a great story of how the path of discovery winds its way from one researcher to the next. Miranda joins us to talk about her work. If you'd like to see what the maps look like,  check out this write-up about her project [https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2025/03/fifty-years-songbird-maps-take-flight-new-hands].  Also, the Breeding Bird Survey and the Bird Banding Lab are set to be eliminated if a budget bill passes the US Senate, greatly threatening bird research not only in the US, but across the hemisphere. Learn more about it and what you can do [https://www.aba.org/proposed-bird-banding-lab-closure-endangers-bird-research/].  Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts [https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/american-birding-podcast/id1186824033?mt=2], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/66zR2yB4AyXb4kRs90QBdo], or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

The end of May means, for many of us, the end of spring. But before this magical month is over we bring a great panel of birdy friends together to talk about some of the interesting bird news that has come across our vitual desks. Welcome Stephanie Beilke, Tim Healy, and Brodie Cass Talbott to talk birding without tech, warbler foraging strategies and the birds and bees, literally.  Links to items discussed in this episode: The Wonders of Bird-Watching without Tech [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bird-watching-is-better-when-you-unplug/] Crows [https://www.earth.com/news/crows-can-recognize-geometric-patterns-in-shapes/] understand [https://www.earth.com/news/crows-can-recognize-geometric-patterns-in-shapes/] shapes and use geometry in everyday life [https://www.earth.com/news/crows-can-recognize-geometric-patterns-in-shapes/] Foraging on the wing: How can ecologically similar birds live together? [https://phys.org/news/2025-04-foraging-wing-ecologically-similar-birds.html] Where the wild bees are: Birds improve indicators of bee richness [https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0321496] Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts [https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/american-birding-podcast/id1186824033?mt=2], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/66zR2yB4AyXb4kRs90QBdo], or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

The 2025 Biggest Week in American Birding is in the books and the American Birding Podcast was there to host a fun little game with a few friends. Test your luck with our birdy quiz featuring a quartet of Biggest Week birders and guides along with special guests Wendell Troutner and Tyler Ficker! We've got modified anagrams, Star Wars crossovers, and more! Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts [https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/american-birding-podcast/id1186824033?mt=2], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/66zR2yB4AyXb4kRs90QBdo], or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!