When it’s predictable and wildlife is well adapted, natural flooding can create a biological bonanza. In the Amazon River Basin, which holds one-fifth of the world’s fresh water, annual rains can raise water levels 30 to 40 feet in just days. Forests turn into vast lakes, dotted with trees, while a massive push of sediment erects new islands almost overnight. It’s a lush world that’s home to some of the world’s most iconic birds, including toucans, macaws, kingfishers, tiger-herons, and this Russet-backed Oropendola.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks.

BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

Musician Andrew Bird is known as a songwriter, violinist, and, like his namesake, a virtuoso whistler. He showcases all of these skills in the song Rare Birds, which was created as part of The Birdsong Project in 2020. Whistling melodies inspired by Mourning Doves and the Kaua‘i ‘O‘o alongside his violin, Andrew creates a kind of otherworldly natural soundscape.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks.

BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

The song Tico-Tico no Fuba, like Carmen Miranda, came to us from Brazil. Believe it or not, the song is about a bird. The Portuguese lyrics tell the story of the tico-tico, a local name for the Rufous-collared Sparrow. Like so many birds, tico-tico was named for its song. In the song, the bird keeps coming back to the singer's yard to dine on her cornmeal, piled in a backyard granary. Tico-tico loves her cornmeal.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks.

BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

A bird’s bill is an incredible multi-tool — good for preening feathers, building a nest, self-defense, scratching, displaying, building a nest, and egg-turning. And a bill must be the right size and shape for the bird’s diet, whether that’s probing for worms, cracking open seeds, or tear apart prey.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks.

BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

Birds of the same species don’t always sing exactly the same as each other. But those that live near each other sometimes have similar songs. Scientists refer to this pattern as a song neighborhood. It’s less like a regional dialect among people that’s found over a large area. It’s more local than that, like a group of friends copying each other's mannerisms.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks.

BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

A male Montezuma Oropendola holds forth in a tree bedecked with twenty or more hanging nests. The nests are intricately woven sacks hanging three feet or more from the branches. Oropendolas favor trees that are separate from other trees and often build near large nests of wasps, whose stinging attacks deter both potential nest predators and parasitic insects.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks.

BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

It was only in 1939 that this Altamira Oriole was first found north of the Rio Grande River. Now it happily visits residents on the Texas side of the river, especially where a juicy orange half waits in a backyard feeder. Northerly breeding orioles, like Bullock's in the West and the Baltimore in the East, nest as far north as Canada, but winter mostly in Central America.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks.

BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.

It can feel like there’s nowhere to hide in the shortgrass prairie. But the Thick-billed Longspur calls this place home. The bird’s burbling song helps create the high plains’ soundscape. The species was formerly named McCown’s Longspur after a Confederate general who participated in genocide against Native Americans. In 2020, after pressure from the “Bird Names for Birds” movement and others, the species was renamed for its thick bill, which is pale on females and black on breeding males.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks.

BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.