Bird Podcast

In episode 28, we spoke to Dr. Samira Agnihotri about bird song and how the Solega tribals interacted so closely with the forest around them. This episode is about a recent visit to the BR Hills.  It talks about how humans and wildlife can live together in the forest.  Listen andWatch how the Solega tribals live and worship a Magnolia champaka tree or a Sampige tree as part of their culture.

This episode is about demoiselle cranes congregating in a village in India. Last month, on a trip to Rajasthan, I visited the village of Kheechan.  To get here, you have to fly to Jodhpur and drive two hours North.  The thing about this place is that every winter, some 20,000 Demoiselle cranes congregate here because they are fed morning and night with grains or jowar.  In this episode we explore the Demoiselle cranes that migrate to a Jain village in Western Rajasthan.  These are the smallest cranes among the 15 species of cranes in the world.  What’s interesting is the attachment that they have with the villagers of Kheechan.  Here, they have a daily routine.  Read about how a community feeds the cranes here.  And read about sacred spaces called orans here. From here: “Demoiselle cranes have to take one of the toughest migrations in the world. In late August through September, they gather in flocks of up to 400 individuals and prepare for their flight to their winter range. During their migratory fli

Our first episode was about the Great Indian Bustard. The logo of the Bird Podcast is the Great Indian Bustard or GIB as it is called.  Salim Ali wanted this bird to be India’s national bird for three reasons: it is indigenous to India, it is a large and charismatic bird, and it deserves protection because its numbers were dwindling, even in the 1950s when Ali made his plea. Instead the peacock won out.  Then, as now, the fate of the bustard hangs in balance.  Will we save the bustard?  The biggest problem for bustards: the powerlines that criss-cross the desert landscape.  Locals hate them because they are ugly.  Bustards cannot see them because their frontal vision is poor.  In October 2022, yet another bustard was killed because it flew into a power transmission line, prompting wildlife organizations such as the Bombay Natural History Society or BNHS to once again petition the government to lay these lines underground.   In 2017, when we interviewed forest officials in Desert National Park, there were

This episode gives a glimpse into the birds of Australia, told through the eyes of Franck Masna, an aboriginal elder who tells us the story of how birds got their colours and also through the eyes of Michael Simmons who runs Tweed Escapes to show tourists the sights and sounds of the Tweed River in Australia. This video is about the Tweed Valley, New South Wales, about an hour by flight from Sydney.   When people think of Australian birds, they commonly think of emus, parrots and maybe the Southern Cassowary.  But the country-continent 850 species of birds, 45% of them not found anywhere else.  Some spectacular species include the giant Southern Cassowary where fathers incubate the eggs, the tawny frogmouth- a master of disguise, the barking owl, the rainbow lorikeet, the superb and the splendid fairy-wren, which are beautiful blue birds, the laughing kookaburra which is the basis of a song that we learned as children even here in India, and a whole variety of parrots.  In fact, early Dutch explorers called t

This is a story about a wood stork called Flinthead.  He lived with his partner in Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Florida.  The wood stork couple depended on the wetlands in Florida for not just their survival but also to bring up their babies.  This is a post-episode trailer of Episode 5 where I interviewed Dr. Jerry Jackson. Even though the audio isn’t perfect, Episode 5 is worth listening to because he covers so much ground. Ecology, wood storks, wetlands, anhingas, and much more. Here I focus on one aspect of that episode: wood storks  

This episode is about wetlands.  This is a post-episode trailer of Episode 5 where I interviewed Dr. Jerry Jackson. Even though the audio isn’t perfect, Episode 5 is worth listening to because he covers so much ground. Ecology, wood storks, wetlands, anhingas, and much more. Here I focus on one aspect of that episode: wetlands What is the feeling that you get when I say these words? Swamps, marshes, bogs, mangroves, flood plains.  If you didn’t wince, good for you.  Humans seem fundamentally averse to wetland because we think of them as a breeding ground for insects– which they are.  But they are also the most diverse ecosystem there is. And for this reason, they are supremely important. There are three things every wetland needs: hydric soil, which is the scientific term for soil that is submerged in water for long periods of time.  Which results in oxygen-less soil in the upper part, which in turn causes a particular type of plant species called hydrophytes to grow.  These aquatic plants like water lilies a

In this episode, we have Professor Yossi Leshem from Israel joining us to discuss several things: tracking migratory storks with GPS, working with barn owls as pest control agents, regional cooperation, reducing aircraft collisions, and working with defense forces.  Dr. Leshem has won countless awards and is Professor Emeritus at the School of Zoology at Tel Aviv University and is the founder of the International Center for the Study of Bird Migration. 

Post Episode Trailers are short episodes in which I highlight an earlier episode that is worth watching. This episode is about Episode 12 of The Bird Podcast in which author and migration expert, Scott Weidensaul talks about the amazing feats that birds do in order to migrate.

In which we go behind the scenes to see the fascinating aspects of the bird specimen collection of one of America’s most well-respected museums. You really should watch this episode on our Youtube page (Bird Podcast) or our Instagram feed (bird_podcast), but in case you cannot, included here is also the audio only version.   In this episode, Dr. Shultz shows us house finches, parrots, frigatebirds, penguins, condors, munias, whydahs and the many marvelous specimens in the Natural History Museum’s collection. Allison Shultz is the assistant curator of ornithology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. In this fascinating episode, she takes us behind the scenes to show us the vast and varied collection of bird specimens at the museum.  Dr. Shultz , as you see in her website, has loved animals her whole life, and fell in love with birds during her undergraduate at UC Berkeley. She is a native Southern Californian, and loves the diversity of habitats (and birds!) available in a very small geographic area!

Where she talks about how multiple nations and habitats need to cooperate to help these champion migrants. In this episode, Dr. Yaara Aharon-Rotman speaks about long distance migration, mainly among shorebirds but also passerines.  We have explored migratory shorebirds before in Episode 43.  Here, Dr. Rotman talks about how national borders don’t apply to migrating birds and how we all need to cooperate to help them along.  Originally from Israel, Yaara has completed her PhD in Deakin University, Australia where she studied long distance migratory shorebirds. Inspired by the long migration of her studied species, she than joined research labs in Israel (to work on migratory passerines), China (where she worked on a vulnerable Asian habitat for migratory geese) and Australia, her current home where she study torpor in local and migratory species as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of New England. Her main interest focuses on how animals, mainly migratory species, respond to challenges, and specifically

Interview with a filmmaker who won the L’oiel d’or or Golden Eye in Cannes for best documentary film in 2022. We have a different sort of guest for this episode: a filmmaker.  Shaunak Sen’s film “All That Breathes” premiered at Sundance Festival, where it won the Grand Jury award and then won the L’Oeil d’Or (Golden Eye) for the best documentary at the 75th Cannes Film Festival.  You should really watch this episode in our Youtube Channel, Bird Podacast or our Instagram channel bird_podcast because we are playing clips from the film.  In this episode, director Shaunak Sen talks about human-animal relationships, and how the brothers are philosophers who wear their insights lightly. Questions: Tell us about the film? What made you decide to do this film? Are you a bird lover?  Speciestic difference is like jail.  What a line.  Do you believe that? How did you capture the birds close up? The kites, vultures, etc. The blackwinged stilt on the soapy river.  How did you get that? How did it feel to be near the i

Our guest today is the much-admired Bittu Sahgal.  Mention Mr. Sahgal and three words come up: Sanctuary, activism, and conservation.  He founded Sanctuary magazine in 1981. It morphed into Sanctuary Nature Foundation in 2001.  In these capacities, and in his role as the President of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Mr. Sahgal knows the wildlife and ecology of Asia intimately.   Today, he suggested that we talk about avians to the rescue.  We are the Bird Podcast after all.   Links: Wonderful article about Salim Ali written by Bittu Sahgal here. Wikipedia on Bittu Sahgal Some thought-provoking images from the Sanctuary Wildlife Photography awards Sanctuary Nature Foundation Santuary Asia magazine   Questions:   3:00 How does protecting birds and their habitats help us deal with what you call an existential crisis?  He talks about climate change and small interventions.  He compares tigers with avians in terms of conservation.  “You save the forest. You save the species.”  Talks about nematodes

Our guest today is distinguished academic, author and ultra-marathoner, Dr. Bernd Heinrich.  He talks about owls, ravens, tree swallows, painted snipes, great horned owls, crows and much more.  This episode is about the various birds that Dr. Heinrich has encountered and why he enjoys them. Dr. Heinrich is a professor emeritus in the biology department at the University of Vermont and is the author of a number of books about nature writing and biology. Dr. Heinrich has made major contributions to the study of insect physiology and behavior, as well as bird behavior.   Here are some of the books mentioned in this episode. One Man’s Owl Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death  A Naturalist at Large: The Best Essays of Bernd Heinrich The Homing Instinct: Meaning & Mystery in Animal Migration White Feathers: The Nesting Lives of Tree Swallows Ravens in Winter Racing the Clock: Running Across a Lifetime Questions: Can ravens think, and how could you know? Ravens share food. Are they  altruistic? Wh

Today we are talking with Dr. Erica Nol of Ontario, Canada about challenges of the arctic-breeding shorebird.  Dr. Nol is a professor at Trent University in Canada.  Her research interests lie in the biology and conservation of shorebirds across many areas in Canada and beyond.  In particular, she studies the impacts of climate change on the habitats and life histories of arctic and subarctic breeding shorebirds.  

How to bird watch: Part 4. Last Part In which the author loops in some history and fables and talks about her habitat. Birds are the stuff of myth and legend in every culture. Some of the most beautiful poetic images come from birds. My father, an English professor, loved the Romantic poets: Keats, Shelley, and Wordsworth, who lived in the Yorkshire moors in close proximity to nature and wrote lyrical poems about what they saw. John Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale," is one of his favorites. I have read the poem, but I don't really understand it. What speaks to me is Maya Angelou's "I know why the caged bird sings." The eagle is a singular image in Allama Iqbal’s poetry. Iqbal reveres the eagle because it proudly disdains eating dead prey or anything other than what it has caught. As Mustansir Mir says in the website, allamaiqbal.com, this description might apply to a hawk rather than an eagle. Iqbal gets a number of bird facts wrong, but as this website points out, the eagle, for him, is a poetic construct. My f

In which the author talks about how to see. Ayurveda divides us into three phenotypes: vata, pitta and kapha. Vatas have acute hearing and enjoy the sense of touch— if my memory serves right. Pittas have acute vision and enjoy the sense of smell. Kaphas have acute taste and enjoy the sense of touch. As a classic vata, I have acute hearing, as a result of which I'm very sensitive to the sound of birds. As I write this, I hear three birds: a wagtail, a bulbul, and a parakeet. This can become a curse when I hear the sound of a bird that I cannot identify. I obsess about it and go to an app called "Bird Calls," that is loaded on my phone to try to figure it out. It has to do with a way of seeing that is cultivable but not necessarily common. If you have it; that’s a gift. Some people can see owls just by walking past. The trick to quick identification is observing size and shape, colour patterns, behavior and habitat according to this website. I have still not cultivated this way of seeing yet. Mostly I stare at

Like most things that require identification, be it wine, textiles, or art, identifying birds is figuring out patterns; like recognizing an artistic or musical signature, or the terroir of wine.  It is about seeing patterns, not just on the birds but also on the trees that they inhabit. Nature is both generous and opportunistic. Trees attract birds during certain seasons; and then allow other trees to get that opportunity. The best thing that is happened to me as a result of this year-long journey is the cliché: I feel connected with the universe. Let me be clear. I don't think you wake up one morning and suddenly feel at one with the cosmos. It is a gradual process of shedding layers of armor that you have built around yourself. As I stand in the balcony every morning, gazing through my binoculars, feeling the warmth of the sun on my back and the wind on my skin, watching the dance of birds and the wave of leaves, I sniff the air and smile.  This precious, fragile planet that we are privileged to occupy has

Part 1 of 4. This episode addresses a question that every bird watcher hears at some point or other.  People who watch us stand still at balconies gazing skywards or at trees, peering through binoculars at walks, or getting excited by some random tiny green bird.  Some of us get this question from puzzled spouses or confused friends and the question in: What are you guys doing?

This episode is about the Upupa epops.

Today’s guest, Anusha Shankar studies hummingbirds as a Rose Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. She has lived and worked on four continents and loves being an Indian woman in science. She is fascinated by hummingbirds’ ability to use a hibernation-like state called torpor to save energy at night. She is investigating how they can get cold (10°C / 50°F) and rewarm safely every night, without damaging organs like their hearts and brains. During her PhD, Anusha captured hummingbird nightlife with infrared video, and before that tracked king cobras and studied giant birds—hornbills—in India. Anusha is also a National Geographic Explorer and Young Leader and loves mentoring students, dancing salsa, bachata, and swing, and reading fiction.