BirdNote Daily

The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher nests in the open country of Texas, Oklahoma, and the south-central region. It's an elegant bird with a slender, deeply forked tail longer than its body. Agile in flight, it can spread and fold its tail, altering the surface area, like an extra pair of wings. When displaying to a female, the male dives again and again, opening and closing his tail. He may even perform a reverse somersault, flashing his pink sides and that long streamer of a tail.

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The American Tree Sparrow is a common winter visitor in the northern U.S. Despite their name, these sparrows stay close to the ground. When foraging, they’ll kick through leaf litter with their powerful feet, beat seedheads open with their wings or grab a bite from a backyard feeder. Sadly, American Tree Sparrow populations have steeply declined since the 1970s. You can welcome these birds to your neighborhood by growing native plants, keeping cats indoors, and filling bird feeders with a millet-rich seed mix.

This episode is dedicated in memory of Pat and Jo Ann Adams of Hartville, Ohio — who enjoyed caring for backyard birds and shared that joy with others.

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Pigeons, one of the most ancient of domesticated animals, feed their nestlings a peculiar, milky substance, straight from the adult’s beak to the baby’s throat. It’s called pigeon milk, a fat-rich substance loaded with antioxidants and immunity factors that enhance the survival of newborns — much like mammals’ milk does.

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.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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Oak trees are an important resource for birds finding insects to feed their young. It takes thousands of caterpillars from an oak tree to raise a single nest of baby birds. By planting an oak species native to your area, you can help ensure that birds are able to raise their young successfully.

Homegrown National Park® is a grassroots call-to-action to regenerate diversity and ecosystem function by planting native plants and creating new ecological networks. Learn how to plant native and get on the HNP map here.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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April is National Poetry Month in the U.S., so we are featuring some of our favorite poets who write about our feathered friends. Traci Brimhall is an associate professor of poetry at Kansas State University. Her first published collection, from 2013, is called Rookery and features many poems about birds. But Brimhall didn't grow up birding — her interest came later in life.

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org.

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