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E46. Crows and ravens fill our oldest stories, and plenty of us want one as a friend. Dr. Claudia Wascher, professor of behavioral biology at Anglia Ruskin University, explains what makes corvids seem so clever, when clever turns out to be something simpler, and why befriending them is a bad idea. In this episode, you'll hear about: The crow named Hugo, and what his flock started saying once he was gone Why a walnut dropped at a red light may be less clever than it looks What a goose's heartbeat reveals about how birds feel 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. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: American Crow audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML229089 Common Raven audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML132161 Steller's Jay audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML539738 Hawaiian Crow video contributed by Timothy Barksdale, ML425081 Rook audio contributed by James (Jim) Holmes, ML635593051 Eurasian Jay audio contributed by James (Jim) Holmes, ML32278971 Carrion Crow audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML231022 Australian Magpie audio contributed by Emma Greig, ML218159 House Crow video contributed by Raphaël Nussbaumer, ML241917321 Red-tailed Hawk audio contributed by David McCartt, ML229578 Graylag Goose audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML233387

E45. Lyrebirds can copy a chainsaw, a car alarm and a camera shutter, so it is easy to call them liars. Dr. Anastasia Dalziell of Western Sydney University has spent years recording them in the wild, and she explains what the famous Attenborough clip left out and some of the most surprising evolutionary reasons for mimicry. In this episode, you'll hear about: Why a female lyrebird starts sounding like an eagle when you get too close to her nest What a male does when the female he has been courting tries to walk away The other lyrebird, and the hooked rainforest vine it plays like an instrument 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. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Red-tailed Hawk audio contributed by David McCartt, ML229578 Killdeer audio contributed by Mike Andersen, ML129054 Superb Lyrebird audio contributed by Vicki Powys, ML229691 Albert's Lyrebird audio contributed by Robert C. Stein, ML309505 Gray Shrikethrush video contributed by Ramit Singal, ML641225345 Gray Shrikethrush audio contributed by Vicki Powys, ML229649 Golden Whistler video contributed by Ramit Singal, ML641948342 Golden Whistler audio contributed by Ramit Singal, ML272346391 Wedge-tailed Eagle audio contributed by Vicki Powys, ML223274 Gray Goshawk audio contributed by Ramit Singal, ML246142551 Albert's Lyrebird video contributed by Fiona Backhouse, ML615390207 Albert's Lyrebird audio contributed by Ramit Singal, ML141465291 Albert's Lyrebird video contributed by Fiona Backhouse, ML615390194 Albert's Lyrebird video contributed by Fiona Backhouse, ML615390209 Satin Bowerbird audio contributed by Newton Hobbs, ML16236 Albert's Lyrebird video contributed by Fiona Backhouse, ML615390211 Superb Lyrebird audio contributed by James (Jim) Holmes, ML463586881 Superb Lyrebird recordings (2024 films): Justin Welbergen, Jaden Thompson, Elle Heiser, Yoon Lee, Fiona Backhouse and Anastasia Dalziell, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Australia, and Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, USA.

E44. An adult eagle has no natural predators, so why are birds of prey declining? Dr. Todd Katzner, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, explains the surprising dangers facing golden eagles and their kin, from spinning wind turbines to a threat small enough to fit on a grain of rice. In this episode, you'll hear about: Why an eagle that can clearly see a wind turbine still flies into one How a hunter's choice of bullet ends up inside an eagle The flap count that tells a vulture whether to risk crossing the sea 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. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Bald Eagle audio contributed by Darrell Peterson, ML145265541 Golden Eagle audio contributed by W. Douglas Robinson, ML612942188 Golden Eagle audio contributed by Kathy Groschupf, ML57165 American Goshawk video contributed by Dan J. MacNeal, ML297994251 Harpy Eagle audio contributed by Curtis Marantz, ML81101 Ruby-throated Hummingbird audio contributed by Trenton Voytko, ML604314061 Ferruginous Hawk audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML172487

E43. For millions of years, South America’s top predators weren’t cats or bears. They were birds, some taller than a person. Paleontologist Dr. Federico "Dino" Degrange of the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba joins us to ask whether terror birds really earned their name. In this episode, you'll hear about: The surprising weapon a terror bird actually used to bring down its prey What left bite marks on one of the biggest terror birds ever found Why the last terror bird standing was one of the smallest 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. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Black-legged Seriema video contributed by Pablo Hernan Capovilla, ML662237304 Red-legged Seriema audio contributed by Matthew D. Medler, ML189557 Black-legged Seriema audio contributed by Steven L. Hilty, ML83854

E42. Birds get sick too, and a lot of what happens next looks surprisingly familiar. Dr. Andrea Townsend of Hamilton College has spent two decades following American crows through outbreaks, and she walks Scott through what illness really does to a bird, from the family it belongs to down to the clever brain it depends on. In this episode, you'll hear about: The surprising way crows choose their partners, and what it costs them when disease comes around What a stomach bug does to one of the cleverest birds you'll ever meet Why going it alone can be the riskier move while a virus is spreading 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. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: American Crow video contributed by Jay McGowan, ML472843 Common Raven audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML137574 Burrowing Owl audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML188805

E41. Centaurs, mermaids, minotaurs: we have been inventing creatures that are two things at once for as long as we have told stories. Birds do it for real. Dr. Glaucia Del-Rio of the Florida Museum of Natural History studies two Amazonian antbirds that meet where a river runs out, and what their offspring say about where one species ends. In this episode, you'll hear about: Why a river can be an impossible barrier for a bird with perfectly good wings, and what researchers found when they carried birds out into the middle of one and let go How to spot a hybrid antbird at a glance, once you know which colors belong to which parent The German-Brazilian ornithologist an all-women expedition was named for, and the injury she dealt with herself, a long way from any hospital 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. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Red-capped Manakin audio contributed by David L. Ross Jr., ML57360 Streak-headed Woodcreeper audio contributed by Ted Parker, ML21543 American Flamingo audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML172484 Lawrence's Warbler (hybrid) audio contributed by Curtis Marantz, ML113786 Brewster's Warbler (hybrid) audio contributed by Curtis Marantz, ML76906 Additional photos and video courtesy of Glaucia Del-Rio: Marco Rego, Fabio Schunck, Luis Morais, and Angela Prochilo. Harlequin Antbird photo by Hector Bottai, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).

E40. There are only 15 crane species on the planet, and 11 of them are in trouble. Dr. Andy Caven, Director of Central Flyway Programs for the International Crane Foundation, has spent his career on two of them: the sandhill cranes that pour into one stretch of Nebraska's Platte River every spring, and the whooping crane, which came back from the edge and is still nowhere near safe. Scott asks him what it actually takes to keep a bird like that on the landscape, and the answer runs through soggy grassland, private ranches, and one river worth fighting over. In this episode, you'll hear about: The number Andy gives for how many cranes stand on that stretch of river, which Scott makes him say twice How a bird that was down to a couple of dozen individuals ended up stopping a dam What a wet meadow is, and why one is so much easier to lose than to build back 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. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Mallard audio contributed by Mike Andersen, ML136504 Wilson's Phalarope audio contributed by W. Douglas Robinson, ML474658841 Swamp Sparrow audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94352

E39. Every August the questions start: there is a cardinal at the feeder with no head feathers, and it looks terrible. Nothing is wrong with it. It is molting, which every bird does at least every year. Dr. Ryan Terrill of the San Diego Natural History Museum studies what a feather endures over a year and what it takes to replace one, and he makes the case that the few weeks a bird spends looking its worst may be the most consequential weeks it has. In this episode, you'll hear about: Why the cardinal at your feeder in late summer looks like it lost a fight What a bird quietly gives up during the weeks it is growing new feathers The hundreds of miles some birds fly for the sake of a new set of feathers 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. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Northern Cardinal audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML191165 American Goldfinch audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94457 Blue Jay audio contributed by Gaetan Dupont, ML173749 Herring Gull audio contributed by Sarah MacLean, ML165927 American Herring Gull video contributed by Steve Kelling, ML540908261 Snow Bunting audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML130973 Red-tailed hawk audio contributed by David McCartt, ML229578 White-throated Sparrow audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML219799 Great Hornbill audio contributed by Linda Macaulay, ML111527 Flightless Cormorant audio contributed by Linda Macaulay, ML237486

E38. You have pulled one out of a jacket sleeve at a bad angle, picked one up on a walk, and you are almost certainly within arm's reach of a few thousand of them right now. Dr. Cody Limber, who recently finished his PhD at Yale, spent it taking growing feathers apart one cell at a time to find out what they are actually made of. A feather is not a fancy scale, it does not grow the way you would guess, and after all this time nobody can say what the first ones were for. In this episode, you'll hear about: The strangest things growing out of birds, and which of them actually count as feathers What a feather is actually made of, once you smash one into individual cells and read what every cell was doing What a feather actually is, whether it is alive or dead, how it is put together, and the coordination that color and pattern demand 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. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Eastern Whip-poor-will audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML195774 Red-bellied Woodpecker audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML306064 Indian Peafowl audio contributed by Rounak choudhary, ML621021542 Common Raven audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML132161 Mallard audio contributed by Mike Andersen, ML136504 Double-crested Cormorant audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML233274 Zebra Finch (Australian) audio contributed by Vicki Powys, ML226233 American Herring Gull video contributed by Steve Kelling, ML540908261 Golden-winged Warbler video contributed by Benjamin Clock, ML476422 Great Argus audio contributed by Arnoud B. van den Berg, ML71122 Horned Screamer audio contributed by Paul A. Schwartz, ML58925 Wild Turkey audio contributed by James (Jim) Holmes, ML73964601

E37. A bird called Wisdom was banded on Midway Atoll in 1956 and is still laying eggs today, which makes her at least 75 and the oldest known wild bird on the planet. She has also outlived the man who banded her, and most of the scientists who tracked her since. Dr. Etienne Rouby studies long-lived seabirds at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at CU Boulder, working with data from the French sub-Antarctic islands where wandering albatross have been followed for more than half a century. Scott asks him what you can learn from a bird that will outlast your career, your funding, and possibly your field station. In this episode you'll hear about: What a fledgling albatross does for the first five years of its life, and why nobody really knows The fishing gear change that pulled a colony back from the brink, and how long it took to see it working Why a very good year for female albatross is a very bad year for the males 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. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Snowy Albatross audio contributed by Ted Parker, ML42306 Black-browed Albatross audio contributed by Jan Hansen, ML650026815

E36. Hummingbirds run one of the fastest metabolisms of any animal with a backbone, which is why we picture them as permanently buzzing. Scott sits down with Dr. Anusha Shankar, assistant professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, who studies how hummingbirds budget energy in a world that keeps moving the goalposts. It turns out the blur at your feeder is the exception, not the rule. In this episode you'll hear about: Why the same bird might spend three hours a day flying, or thirteen, depending entirely on what the flowers are doing What happens overnight when a hummingbird lets itself go cold, and how long it takes to come back Seven months in the Ecuadorian cloud forest, and the hummingbirds that sat on the nets and waited Plus: the doubly labeled water method, a sugar concentration threshold you can taste-test at your own feeder at your own risk, and the reason Anusha gets called the hummingbird pee person. The "snoring" hummingbird video Scott and Anusha discuss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uEfmQt34Nc 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. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Ruby-throated Hummingbird audio contributed by Trenton Voytko, ML604314061 Black Metaltail audio contributed by Pedro Allasi Condo, ML663268821 Violet-tailed Sylph audio contributed by Paul Coopmans, ML58045 White-booted Racket-tail audio contributed by Daniel Cadena, ML256331 Bee Hummingbird video contributed by Timothy Barksdale, ML440270 Black Metaltail photograph by Thibaud Aronson, via iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

E35. Eighteen species of small brown bird on a pile of volcanic rock have taught us more about how evolution actually works than almost anything else on Earth. Not because Darwin figured them out. He didn't. Because a handful of scientists went back, banded every bird on one island, and watched it happen in real time. Scott heads to the Galapagos with Dr. Erik Enbody, Assistant Professor of Computational Biology at Cornell University, to find out how one ancestor became eighteen, why the beak is the only thing worth looking at, and what happens when species that aren't supposed to interbreed start swapping genes anyway. In this episode you'll hear about: The island so small you can band every bird on it, and the drought that killed almost all of them One gene that explains 40% of beak size, when nothing in human height explains even 1% The finch that does something mind-blowingly villainous and what it says about how far evolution will go 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. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows: Large Ground-Finch audio contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML85965 Common Cactus-Finch audio contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML86715 Small Tree-Finch audio contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML85464 Vegetarian Finch audio contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML82506 Galapagos Mockingbird audio contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML45963 Española Mockingbird audio contributed by Herb Elliott, ML638777433 Floreana Mockingbird audio contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML85455 San Cristobal Mockingbird audio contributed by Arnoud B. van den Berg, ML28656 Palm Tanager audio contributed by Curtis Marantz, ML88937 Blue-footed Booby audio contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML85906 Vampire Ground-Finch audio contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML86756 Woodpecker Finch audio contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML82522 Paradise Tanager audio contributed by Curtis Marantz, ML127399 Galápagos Sea Lion audio contributed by Arnoud B. van den Berg, ML125020

E34. Not all birds build one, but for the ones that do, a nest has a single job and a shockingly wide range of ways to get it done. Dr. Vanya Rohwer, Curator of Birds and Mammals at the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates, joins Scott to walk the far end of that spectrum, from nests made entirely of spit to a colony structure heavy enough to snap the tree it sits in. In this episode you'll hear about: The complete and comical inventory of one hamerkop nest, read aloud, contents included What a bird does when you hand it a nest somebody else already built Why a shed snakeskin in a tree cavity is a calculated decoration New episodes every Thursday. If the show is doing it for you, leave a rating or hit follow. 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: American Robin audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML206448 Baltimore Oriole audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML219606 Black-legged Kittiwake audio contributed by Roger Charters, ML202491 White-nest Swiftlet audio contributed by Arnoud B. van den Berg, ML36421 Cliff Swallow audio contributed by James (Jim) Holmes, ML92053871 Chimney Swift audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML107413 Hamerkop audio contributed by Anonymous, ML97562 Eastern Whip-poor-will audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML195774 Montezuma Oropendola audio contributed by David L. Ross Jr., ML215446 Western Grebe audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML195029 Rufous Hornero audio contributed by Mike Andersen, ML132447 Northern Yellow Warbler audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML516692 Sociable Weaver audio contributed by Jacob Henry, ML637193738 Great Crested Flycatcher audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94314 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML534430 White-breasted Nuthatch audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML306062

E33. When the air temperature climbs past a bird's own body temperature, staying cool stops being free and starts to cost them water they may not have. Dr. Blair Wolf, University of New Mexico, has spent his career studying how desert birds survive heat that should kill them, and what happens when it finally gets too hot. In this episode you'll hear about: Why some backyard birds can shrug off oven-like temperatures while others just a few feet away don't make it The strange, water-saving trick birds use to dump heat without a single drop of sweat What the birds dying in these heatwaves are trying to tell us about what's coming 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-winged Dove audio contributed by Raphaël Nussbaumer, ML571978241 Verdin audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML197163 Black-throated Sparrow audio contributed by James (Jim) Holmes, ML573935831 Black-throated Sparrow video contributed by Benjamin Clock, ML483211 Mourning Dove audio contributed by James (Jim) Holmes, ML583603101 Mourning Dove audio contributed by Anonymous, ML658417476 Palm Cockatoo audio contributed by Emma Greig, ML201266 Rosy-faced Lovebird audio contributed by Derek Solomon, ML168222 Common Eider audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML235534

E32. Wildfire smoke is blanketing more of the map every year, and it turns out a smoky sky changes everything for birds, from how they breathe to whether we can find them at all. Dr. Olivia Sanderfoot, Research Scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is back to walk Scott through what all that haze is doing to the birds living in it. In this episode: Birds don't breathe the way we do, and that single fact shapes everything about how smoke hits them Stay, shift, or go: the framework for what a bird actually does when the air turns toxic When the birds go quiet, it isn't always because they left Data collection for Project Phoenix is open now through the end of November. If you're on the West Coast, you can sign up at projectphoenix.study and log a 10-minute count from wherever you are, even your own window. 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: Northern Yellow Warbler audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML516692 Black-Crowned Night Heron audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML225814 Tufted Titmouse audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML100712 Cooper’s Hawk audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94518 Bornean Orangutan audio contributed by John MacKinnon, ML82019 American Robin audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML206448