09-52: This Month in Birding - December 2025

Jody Allair, Martha Harbison, and Rebecca Heisman join host Nate Swick for the last American Birding Podcast episode of the year, with a wide-ranging discussion of some of the latest bird and birding news. The panel talks warbler hybrids, vacant lots, and how to best yell at gulls among other things! Thanks for a great year! Also, don't forget to join the ABA for our 2026 Bird of the Year reveal on January 5, 2026, at 4 PM ET.  Links to articles discussed in this episode: Look at those nasty and lovely birds! Assessing preferences and emotional responses of visitors to a National Park The role of vacant lots in promoting avian species diversity and occupancy in a post-industrial city Genetic confirmation of an "uncommon mourningthroat" (Geothlypis philadelphia  ×  G. trichas): A rare but persistent hybrid warbler Want gulls to back off? Here's how to talk to them Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!  

We get one more go-round with the list and the random number generator for 2025 as Ted Floyd joins host Nate Swick to talk about, well, whatever birds we randomly turn up. This Random Birds covers an impressivley random suite of birds with kites, warblers, waders, and flycatchers all on the agenda.  Also, ABA membership makes a great holiday gift! Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Central America is home to five great tropical forests, whose presence and protection are critical to the conservation of just about every one of our neotropical migrant birds. It is the subject of a recent study from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Wildlife Conservation Society published last month in the journal Biological Conservation. Anna Lello-Smith, bird conservation scientist from the WCS is the lead author and she joins is to talk about what this means for bird conservation.  Also, it's the first weekend of the Christmas Bird Count. Hope you're ready! Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

The Birding Book Club is back again to do our annual Best Bird Books of the Year episode for 2025. There's no better time to give the gift of bird books to the birder in your life. And why not something for yourself while you're at it? Nate Swick is joined by 10,000 Birds book reviewer Donna Schulman and Birding magazine media and book review editor Rebecca Minardi to talk about what we loved this very unique year of birds in books. Links to all of our choices at the ABA website.  Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Happy Thanksgiving! At the ABA, we're thankful for birders - their passion, their deep knowledge base, and the willingness of some to come on the American Birding Podcast to discuss recent bird science and news. This month we welcome Stephanie Beilke, Tim Healy, and Ryan Mandelbaum to talk corvid mimicry, gator loving grebes, and the best birds to assign to all those other holidays.  Links to articles discussed in this episode: Humans outperform Merlin Sound ID in field-based point-count surveys Vocal mimicry in Corvids Coordinated movements of multiple pied-billed grebes in association with an American alligator  Wintering closer to breeding grounds comes at a cost in an Arctic-specialized songbird, Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

What do birding and board games have in common? More than you'd expect! Birder and game designer Elizabeth Hargrave has made it a mission to bring these two things together and her bird-themed game Wingspan does just that. Wingspan has been covered by the New York Times, Smithsonian, and Science magazine among other places and has managed to elicit interest at a time when enthusiasm among the general public for both birding and board games are at an all-time high. She joined host Nate Swick in 2019 me to talk about both. Also, the Philadelphia Eagles are getting in the bird conservation business, which opens up opportunities for all sorts of bird and professional sports crossovers.  Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!  

Smithsonian researcher Roxie Laybourne may be the most influential ornithologist you've never heard of. Over the more than half a century she was a pioneering figure in the fields of forensics and aviation, all through her work with birds, and, more specifically, their feathers. Her incredible life is documented by journalist Chris Sweeney in the book, The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem, and the Magnificent Life of Roxie Laybourne,  released earlier this year. Chris joins us to talk about Laybourne's legacy in fields that go far beyond birds.  Also, the big eBird update is here and our lists are looking a lot different this week. What does this mean for our muddled taxonomic authorities in North America? Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Can the various mating rituals, displays, and behaviors of birds apply to the lives of humans in the 21st Century, with our own uniue rituals, displays and behaviors? It's a question that birder and writer Bryony Angell asks as she approached her own renewed dating life in an article The Migratory Suiter, published in the most recent issue of BWD. In doing so, she enlists the help of Dr Wenfei Tong. author of Bird Love: The Family Life of Birds, to compare the respective courtship drama of birds and humans. Also, Nate is back from the ABA's latest Community Weekend! Learn more about these fun free ABA events! Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!      

The last Thursday of the month means it's time for This Month in Birding, our round table discussion with birding friends about news in birding and ornithology. This week we welcome Jennie Duberstein, Nick Lund, and Brodie Cass Talbott to discuss casual eBirding, hybrid Jays, and what bird to patronize on Halloween night.  Links to articles discussed in this episode: The relaxed birder The Unexpected Profundity of a Movie About Bird-Watching An Intergeneric Hybrid Between Historically Isolated Temperate and Tropical Jays Following Recent Range Expansion The hunt for the last great auks: ancient DNA resolves a 180-year-old mystery Space use during the breeding season of three different forest-dwelling owl species in an area of sympatry: a case study of male hunting home-range sizes and overlaps Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

It's hard to overstate in influence of Cornell's Merlin on the growth of birding over the last few years.  What began as a simple tool for helping people to identify bird photos has become so much more, reaching millions of nature enthusiasts and even some celebrities. Miyoko Chu. Senior Director of Science Communitcations at the Lab, and Alli Smith, Project Coordinator for Merlin, join us to talk about what it's like to be in the middle of one this massive movement for nature lovers.  If you're interested in taking advantage of the sound recording workshop offered by Cornell and mentioned earlier in the conversation, American Birding Podcast listeners can save 40% using the discount code RecordMerlin40 at checkout through December 31, 2025.  Also, the ABA mourns Tony Fitzpatrick, and welcome birders to Fort Myers this weekend.  Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!