Dovekie are robin-sized seabirds related to auks and puffins. Their compact, black-and-white bodies are perfect for life on the water. In winter, birders and boaters can sometimes spot flocks of Dovekie as far south as coastal New England. In summer, Dovekie high-tail it to the Arctic where they form massive breeding colonies on rocky islands and cliffsides. Dovekie are one of the most abundant birds in the North Atlantic, but their populations have declined drastically since the 1970s. Like many ocean species, Dovekie face lethal threats from oil spills and chemical pollution. By advocating for clean water and green energy, we can protect our global oceans for people and birds — like Dovekie.

This episode is brought to you in loving memory of John Hardner, a father and educator who loved nature and public radio.

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What’s the most colorful bird in the U.S.? The Scarlet Tanager? Maybe the Painted Bunting? Well, consider one more lustrous candidate: the Purple Gallinule. The Purple Gallinule’s feathers are so iridescent that they might not seem real. Despite its bold style, a Purple Gallinule can be hard to spot. The colors create excellent camouflage among the greens, blues and floral highlights of a marsh.

Support comes from Wild Delight Bird Food, offering a variety of blends designed to mimic the natural resources wild birds crave, available at Chewy.com.

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The cheerful-voiced Chestnut-collared Longspur shares their northern prairie breeding range with grazing cattle. Although heavy grazing can have adverse effects, breeding densities of longspurs jump by two, three, or even 10 times when ranchers graze their cattle responsibly on native prairies. Two centuries ago, the birds were probably more abundant on prairies used by bison than on untouched stands of tall grass.

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For years, scientists debated whether the first flying dinosaurs, the ancestors of modern birds, began by running and making little hops off the ground, or leapt off a tree branch to glide. It’s called the “ground up vs. trees down” debate, for short. But a newer perspective on this mystery suggests that flying dinosaurs tried taking flight from more than one place. Recent findings suggest that the ability to fly could have evolved not just once but three separate times among dinosaurs.

Support comes from Wild Delight Bird Food, offering a variety of blends designed to mimic the natural resources wild birds crave, available at Chewy.com.

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Birds make a lot of sounds — so many that author and illustrator Becca Rowland had a hard time keeping them straight. That was until Becca began picking up on familiar noises in common bird calls — like when they heard a dog’s squeaky toy in the trees. Now she’s compiled her fun and functional findings in a new guide called, Bird Talk: Hilariously Accurate Ways to Identify Birds by the Sounds they Make.

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Birds have lost many habitats they’ve called home for millions of years, but people can help create bird habitats wherever they live. It all begins with native plants. If you have a yard, or even just a few outdoor plant pots, you can offer native plants to birds, butterflies, and other wildlife. Below, find online tools that show you native plant species ideal for your location.

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J. Drew Lanham is a poet and ornithologist whose work intertwines his lived experience as a Black man in the American south and his love of wilderness. Both have taught him that joy is a source of strength. On Bring Birds Back, Drew describes how he finds radical joy in spending time with birds, like the American Robins.

Hear more from Drew about radical joy in season 7 of Bring Birds Back!

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Millicent Ficken spent her career studying bird behavior and communication. The first woman to earn a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell in 1960, Ficken authored over 100 scientific papers. She discovered that male hummingbirds have a whole repertoire of songs rather than just one, outlined the linguistic differences between penguin species, and showed that chickadees take turns singing in the morning. She was especially fascinated by how birds play, showing that bird play almost always has a pressing purpose — they're practicing a skill they need to survive.

This episode is brought to you by Wild Delight Bird Food, which aims to support wild bird populations with clean, nutritious ingredients in every blend. Available at Chewy.com.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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