Okay, But... Birds

E26. We borrowed a phrase from human dating and tried to pin it on birds. Turns out they never needed the rulebook. Dr. Wenfei Tong, biologist and author of Bird Love, joins Scott to unpack what bird partnerships actually look like once you stop projecting our scripts onto them, from females who run the territory to males who guard their paternity in deeply weird ways.In this episode you'll hear about:Why the drabbest little brown bird in the garden has one of the wildest sex lives in the animal kingdomHow a female calls the shots when she holds the better real estate, and what the males do about itThe cloacal pecking payoff you have to hear to believeAll 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. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:Laysan Albatross audio contributed by Ted Miller, ML117679Black-capped Chickadee audio contributed by Jay McGowan, ML202239Spotted Sandpiper audio contributed by Lucas DeCicco, ML516963Northern Jacana audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML140224Red-necked Phalarope audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML235440Black Coucal audio contributed by Myles E. W. North, ML3084Papuan Eclectus audio contributed by Thane Pratt, ML169808Red-winged Blackbird audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML249827Red-winged Blackbird audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94215Red-capped Manakin audio contributed by David L. Ross Jr., ML57360Blue-footed Booby audio contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML85906Greater Flamingo audio contributed by Myles E. W. North, ML2443Dunnock audio contributed by Niels Krabbe, ML249162

E25. The blue-footed booby has become an internet personality: cartoon feet, a goofy strut, a name that practically begs to be a punchline. But Scott sat down with Dr. Carlos Zavalaga, Universidad Científica del Sur, and one of the people who first taught him how to study seabirds in Peru, and the "fool" reputation falls apart fast. Get a booby in the air or underwater and you're watching one of the most specialized hunters in the bird family tree.In this episode you'll hear about:How six-plus booby species carve up the same ocean without starving each other outWhat 20 years of GPS loggers, depth tags, and bags of fresh fish revealed about who eats whatWhy El Niño, avian flu, and overfishing keep stacking the deck against these birdsAll 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. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:Blue-footed Booby audio contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML85906Red-footed Booby audio contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML85911Brown Booby audio contributed by Gerritt Vyn, ML136211Masked Booby audio contributed by Chandler Robbins, ML32604Nazca Booby audio contributed by Oliver H. Hewitt, ML31543Peruvian Booby audio contributed by Ted Parker, ML29399

E24. Flight is the thing we associate most with birds, so what does it mean when a lineage gives it up? Dr. Scott Edwards, Harvard, joins Scott to unpack how flightlessness evolves, why it keeps happening across the bird family tree, and what the genome reveals about how a bird loses the ability to fly.In this episode you'll hear about:How losing flight reshapes a bird's body, from feathers to forelimbs to that one famously enormous eggWhy the answer wasn't where geneticists expected to find itWhat an extinct giant and a tiny tropical relative can tell us about where moa actually came fromAll 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. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:Falkland Steamer-Duck audio contributed by Maurice A. E. Rumboll, ML4114Great Tinamou audio contributed by David L. Ross, Jr., ML57320

E23. Across sub-Saharan Africa, wild birds and people work together to find honey. No taming, no breeding, no domestication… just a partnership thousands of years in the making. Behavioral ecologist Dr. Jessica van der Wal, FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, joins Scott to unpack what's actually happening when a honey hunter calls and a greater honeyguide answers.In this episode you'll hear about:What each side gets out of one of the only known mutualisms between humans and a wild animal, and why this bird in particular evolved to seek us outThe remarkable signal the honeyguide uses to communicate with people, and what playback experiments revealed when researchers tested it across very different communitiesWhat happens to a partnership built over generations when one side starts buying honey at the storeAll 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. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:Greater Honeyguide audio contributed by Jennifer F. M. Horne, ML55972Additional media courtesy of Dr. Claire Spottiswoode and Dr. Jessica van der Wal

E22. Folklore says birds know a storm is coming before we do. Scott talks with Dr. Gunnar Kramer, Iowa State University, about what's actually happening when a tiny warbler decides it's time to fly, or time to bail.In this episode:Why the question itself might be slightly wrong, and what's really going on inside that birdA storm, some missing warblers, and a discovery nobody set out to makeWhat 300 birds falling out of the sky over Texas can tell you about how much fuel is in the tankListen, follow, and tell a friend who’s a little superstitious.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. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:Yellow-billed cuckoo audio, Wil Hershberger, ML94446Barnacle goose audio, Bob McGuire, ML235525Golden-winged warbler video, Benjamin Clock, ML476422Blue-winged warbler video, Eric Liner, ML469433Yellow-billed cuckoo video, Larry Arbanas, ML466566Eastern kingbird audio, Wil Hershberger, ML534398Tennessee warbler audio, Wil Hershberger, ML85236Tennessee warbler video, Eric Liner, ML466381Wood thrush video, Benjamin Clock, ML471755