A blip on weather radar might not be a cloud — it could be thousands of birds! Biologists use radar to keep track of migratory birds, insects, and bats. An online resource called BirdCast combines decades of biological research, citizen science observations, and radar data to forecast the movements of migratory birds. You can use these predictions to help plan a birding trip.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

Hooded Mergansers, affectionately known as “Hoodies,” nest across most of the northern US and well into Canada. They’re especially prevalent around the Great Lakes, though some winter as far south as Florida. By November, courtship and pair formation is well under way. And by early spring, Hoodies will seek out secluded woodland ponds, where they nest in tree cavities or manmade nestboxes. Hooded Merganser eggs are nearly spherical, with surprisingly thick shells. They’re ideally suited to the Hooded Merganser’s nest of choice — a cavity or a hole.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

In this episode, ornithologist J. Drew Lanham reads a letter he has written to a wood-pewee, a flycatcher with an “understatedly simple and definitive” song that says the bird’s name.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

After hawks and eagles, some of the sharpest eyes belong to hawk-watchers, experienced spotters who count raptors during spring and fall migration. Groups like HawkWatch International organize census counts of hawks (like this Red-tailed Hawk) and other raptors. HawkWatch sites lie along primary migration routes like mountain ridges and coastlines, where updrafts of rising air funnel the birds’ north-south movement. Different species peak at slightly different times.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

The song of the Black-capped Chickadee pretty much the same throughout the U.S. and Canada — with just a few exceptions, like on some Massachusetts islands. Chickadees on Martha’s Vineyard and tiny Tuckernuck Island nearby have developed songs entirely their own. It’s likely that the birds’ isolation from mainland birds led them to develop unique behaviors.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

Monk Parakeets, also known as Argentine Parrots, are native to South America but have become popular as pets – thanks in part to their intelligence and ability to mimic human speech. But in some areas, such as Mexico, these birds have become invasive. After being released or escaping, some Monk Parakeets have formed feral populations that have quickly spread, competing with native bird species for resources.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

Millicent Ficken spent her career studying bird behavior and communication. The first woman to earn a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell in 1960, Ficken authored over 100 scientific papers. She discovered that male hummingbirds have a whole repertoire of songs rather than just one, outlined the linguistic differences between penguin species, and showed that chickadees take turns singing in the morning. She was especially fascinated by how birds play, showing that bird play almost always has a pressing purpose — they're practicing a skill they need to survive.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

Chickadees and titmice, nuthatches and jays, and woodpeckers, like the Pileated pictured here, all love suet. As do birds whose beaks can’t open seeds, like tiny kinglets, and almost any wintering warbler. The Brown Creeper, usually creeping up tree trunks, is a cool bird to discover at your suet feeder. And in the West, look for mobs of tiny Bushtits, taking a break from their normal diet of insects and spiders.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

Many Brown-headed Nuthatches make their home in the tall longleaf pines of the Apalachicola National Forest in Florida. Twittering constantly, the birds probe for tiny insects or extract seeds from cones in the trees’ upper branches. Forests of longleaf pine once dominated the sandy coastal plain from Virginia to Texas, but the tall, straight pines proved irresistible for their lumber. Now, much of the forest is gone, replaced by dense planted stands of quicker-growing slash pines.As our population grows, and more and more land is devoted to human uses, our national forests become increasingly important for birds, both rare and common.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

If you're enjoying BirdNote Daily, we think you'll love the podcast, Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant! Journey deep into the heart of the world’s most remote jungles, savannas, tundras, mountains, and deserts with wildlife biologist Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant as she studies wild animals in their natural habitats. Rae and her teams spend years studying these animals – in order to protect their futures. Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant takes you inside their hidden worlds – and the action-packed adventures of the wildlife conservationists who track them. In season three, they invite you to explore your place in the wild by asking one simple question: how can we, humans, look at our relationship to nature differently? This season, on top of stories about animals, take a journey through the entire ecological web — from the tiniest of life forms to apex predators. Join the scientists, activists and adventurers featured and discover the many different ways the natural world is interconnected.Find Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant in your favorite podcast app.