Okay, But... Birds

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

E31. If a bird sings a phrase worthy of Beethoven, is that music, or just biology in a nice outfit? Dr. Hollis Taylor, a violinist, composer, and ornithologist, has spent more than two decades recording and transcribing the songs of the Pied Butcherbird, an Australian songbird whose vocal life keeps blurring that line.
In this episode:
How a single pied butcherbird can sing for seven hours through the night, almost never repeating itself, then return the next spring with a brand new repertoire
What a violin can and can't reproduce when it tries to follow a butcherbird, from steep glissandos to rattles a human instrument simply cannot make
The case for birdsong as music

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:
Winter Wren audio contributed by Matthew D. Medler, ML136183
Hermit Thrush audio contributed by Matthew D. Medler, ML169025
Wood Thrush audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML168331
White-throated Sparrow audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML219799
Australian Magpie audio contributed by Emma Greig, ML218159
Willie-wagtail audio contributed by Cedar Mathers-Winn, ML188954
Humpback Whale audio contributed by Flip Harrington, ML123414

Pied Butcherbird song and composition excerpts courtesy of Dr. Hollis Taylor (piedbutcherbird.net, piedbutcherbird.com).

E30. That wall of birdsong outside your window at sunrise has a name, a structure, and a surprising amount of drama. This week Scott talks with Dr. Dan Mennill, a professor at the University of Windsor who wires whole forests with microphones to eavesdrop on the entire neighborhood at once, about what the dawn chorus is actually for, and what it means when it starts to thin out.
In this episode:
Why dawn, why so loud, and who gets to sing first (hint: it's not about who's the best singer)
What 16 microphones and kilometers of cable revealed about birds negotiating in real time
What happened when one field site went quiet, and why that quiet is louder than it sounds

Listen now, then tell us what your morning chorus sounds like.
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:
Soundscape contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML516838
Black-throated Green Warbler contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML79475
American Redstart contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML100804
Tufted Titmouse contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML100712
Northern Cardinal contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML191165
Northern Flicker contributed by William V. Ward, ML3
Black-capped Chickadee contributed by Bob McGuire, ML197114
American Robin contributed by Bob McGuire, ML206448
Alder Flycatcher contributed by Mike Andersen, ML132247
Savannah Sparrow contributed by Gerritt Vyn, ML137843
Chipping Sparrow contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML534466
White-crowned Sparrow contributed by Bob McGuire, ML207181
Red-tailed Hawk contributed by David McCartt, ML229578

E29. Standing at 11,000 feet, lungs burning, Scott watched birds go about their afternoon in the exact thin air that had nearly taken him out. This week he sits down with Dr. Chris Witt, evolutionary biologist at the University of New Mexico and curator of birds at the Museum of Southwestern Biology, who has spent his career figuring out how birds make a living in the thinnest air on Earth. From the hummingbird blood that rewrites itself to match a mountainside to a five-pound coot that has no business existing, this one is about the birds thriving where our bodies would quit.
In this episode:
Why a single Andean slope can stack dozens of hummingbird species right on top of each other, each locked to its own band of elevation
How the same oxygen-grabbing protein keeps evolving the same way, over and over, in a pattern so predictable it runs in reverse
The record-holders pulling off things up high that sound like they shouldn't be possible

Chris doesn't just tell us about these birds, he shows us, so you may want to watch this one.
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:
House Finch audio contributed by William R. Fish, ML12932
Giant Coot audio contributed by Steven L. Hilty, ML56377

E28. A bird's brain is the most expensive thing it owns, and evolution doesn't hand one out for free. Dr. Carlos Botero, Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has spent a decade tracing what variable, unforgiving environments actually do to bird cognition, and the answer flips a lot of conventional wisdom on its head.
In this episode:
Why the harshest places on Earth produce two kinds of birds: the puzzle-solving geniuses and the brute-force survivors, with almost nothing in between
How big brains might not have evolved for the reasons we always assumed
Why being one of the smartest birds in the sky can come with a hidden cost

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:
Willow Ptarmigan audio contributed by Leonard J. Peyton, ML50031
American Crow audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML229089
Blue Jay audio contributed by Gaetan Dupont, ML173749
Black-capped Chickadee audio contributed by Jay McGowan, ML202239
Snowy Owl audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML138288