Okay, But... Birds

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.