He had a cold, and he was calling in from an outbuilding at a ranch in remote northwest Colorado, but that didn't stop Birding Editor Ted Floyd from going off on random birds for nearly an hour with the podcast's gracious and patient host Nate Swick. Listen to Ted and Nate's random musings on Blue-headed Vireos, Marbled Godwits, Turkey Vultures, western spotted orbweavers (yes, spiders), and Antonín Dvořák (yes, the composer).

Holly Greenberg, an artist with Bird Collisions in the Anthropocene, is making a difference for birds by engaging communities about the perils of buildings and other structures for migrating birds. She joins host Nate Swick to talk about how art workshops can translate directly into reduced mortalities for birds on migration.

Birding experts Martha Harbison, Frank Izaguirre, and Ryan Mandelbum join host Nate Swick to discuss recent news in the world of birding and ornithology, including a new study on urban birds, recent research on the lifespan of female birds, and the death of legendary bird artist Guy Tudor.

Singer, songwriter, and birder Bonner Black joins host Nate Swick to discuss bird festivals, the joy of birding, and her forthcoming EP, Little Bird in a Big Sky, which releases . . . today! (Aug. 20)

Where there are forests . . . there are birds. In this week's episode, award-winning nature writer Marina Richie joins Nate Swick to talk about the iconic forests of the Pacific Northwest, home to everything from Pacific Wrens foraging under tangled roots to Marbled Murrelets tending nests high in the canopy.

With host Nate Swick at the Black Belt Birding Festival in Alabama, we go into the podcast archives for sobering but important content from Lauren Pharr, at the time a doctoral student studying the effects of noise pollution and artificial light on birds.

In this month's wrap-up of important and sometimes offbeat birding news, panelists Jody Allair, Stephanie Beilke, and Nick Lund join host Nate Swick to talk about the perils of AI-generated images for ornithology, "smart" wind turbines that reduce bird collisions, and the remarkable shared history of humans and Rock Pigeons.

Meet the white-eyes! California birding expert Rajan Rao joins host Nate Swick to get listeners up to speed on these tiny, cute, and adaptable birds, introduced to the ABA Area in Hawaii and California.

The American Kestrel is exquisitely beautiful—and, across large swaths of its range, in longterm decline. Our guest this week is kestrel expert Emmy Broeg, who brings us up to date on effective work to install kestrel nest boxes and boost populations regionally.

It's one of the most eagerly awaited podcast episodes of the year! Nick Block joins host Nate Swick to discuss proposed bird taxonomy changes. Headliners include proposed splits of the Marsh Wren (East vs. West) and Willet (coastal vs. prairie).

It's time for another episode of "Random Birds," when guest Ted Floyd and host Nate Swick are subject to the whims of a random number generator. What do randomly selected Short-eared Owls, Pomarine Jaegers, Sedge Wrens, and Pine Siskins have in common? Answer: Not much perhaps, but that didn't stop Ted and Nate from having a fun and freeform conversation about those and other random birds!

Bird experts Sarah Swanson, Tim Healy, and Jason Hall join host Nate Swick for a round-up of recent ornithology research and birding news—everything from raven behavior to shorebird tracking to invasive species biology.

Andrew Lydeard and Chris Joe join Nate Swick for a conversation about the Alabama Black Belt, named for the biologically and culturally rich region stretching across the state's mid-section. Learn about this fascinating landscape, with a special focus on the upcoming Black Belt Birding Festival, highlighting the birds, the ecology, and the civil rights heritage of the region.

Vast and sparsely populated, Labrador isn't nearly as heavily birded as its provincial partner Newfoundland. But its extensive coastline, facing the Labrador Sea, makes it ideally situated for intercepting rarities from the western Palearctic. Labrador-based field ornithologist Vernon Buckle joins guest host Frank Izaguirre to discuss the under-appreciated yet exciting birding there.

The distinction between "extinct" and "extant" can seem clear-cut. The Dodo is in the former category, the Killdeer in the latter. But more than a few are in the gray aware in between—undocumented in recent decades but possibly still hanging on somewhere. Ornithologist John C. Mittermeier joins host Nate Swick to discuss a multi-agency partnership to clarify the status of these "lost birds."

It's time for another episode of "This Month in Birding"—a friendly and relatable roundup of the ornithological science behind so much of our experience as birders. Mikko Jimenez, Jordan Rutter, and Brodie Cass Talbott and join host Nate Swick to unpack and decode a diversity of recent research on birds.

Birders have opinions! And every once in a while, the American Birding podcast runs a "Take It or Leave It" episode of hot takes. Podcast regulars Nick Lund and Martha Harbison join host Nate Swick for a fun romp through the minefield of four-letter codes, ugly birds, and more.

Birds are well-known inspirations for art, music, and human culture more generally, but they also have played a role—sometimes a very major role—in economics and even geopolitics. Stephen Moss, an influential and widely admired natural historian in the U.K., joins host Nate Swick to discuss Moss's latest book, Ten Birds That Changed the World, exploring the theme of the importance of birds in human affairs.

What do our "spark bird" stories say about us—as individual birders and as a community of bird lovers? Jenn Lodi-Smith, a birder and professor of psychology, joins host Nate Swick to discuss the Spark Bird Project, an exciting initiative that is revealing fascinating insights about birding.

It's the end of the month, time for the ever-popular "This Month in Birding" spot on the podcast. In this episode, Jody Allair, Gabriel Foley, and Jennie Duberstein—all widely admired as science communicators—join host Nate Swick for a conversation on recent research on the diverse and often surprising ways that birds influence humans, both individually and as societies.