E32. Wildfire smoke is blanketing more of the map every year, and it turns out a smoky sky changes everything for birds, from how they breathe to whether we can find them at all. Dr. Olivia Sanderfoot, Research Scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is back to walk Scott through what all that haze is doing to the birds living in it.

In this episode:

• Birds don't breathe the way we do, and that single fact shapes everything about how smoke hits them
• Stay, shift, or go: the framework for what a bird actually does when the air turns toxic
• When the birds go quiet, it isn't always because they left

Data collection for Project Phoenix is open now through the end of November. If you're on the West Coast, you can sign up at projectphoenix.study and log a 10-minute count from wherever you are, even your own window.

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:

• Northern Yellow Warbler audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML516692
• Black-Crowned Night Heron audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML225814
• Tufted Titmouse audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML100712
• Cooper’s Hawk audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94518
• Bornean Orangutan audio contributed by John MacKinnon, ML82019
• American Robin audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML206448

E31. If a bird sings a phrase worthy of Beethoven, is that music, or just biology in a nice outfit? Dr. Hollis Taylor, a violinist, composer, and ornithologist, has spent more than two decades recording and transcribing the songs of the Pied Butcherbird, an Australian songbird whose vocal life keeps blurring that line.

In this episode:

• How a single pied butcherbird can sing for seven hours through the night, almost never repeating itself, then return the next spring with a brand new repertoire
• What a violin can and can't reproduce when it tries to follow a butcherbird, from steep glissandos to rattles a human instrument simply cannot make
• The case for birdsong as music

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:

• Winter Wren audio contributed by Matthew D. Medler, ML136183
• Hermit Thrush audio contributed by Matthew D. Medler, ML169025
• Wood Thrush audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML168331
• White-throated Sparrow audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML219799
• Australian Magpie audio contributed by Emma Greig, ML218159
• Willie-wagtail audio contributed by Cedar Mathers-Winn, ML188954
• Humpback Whale audio contributed by Flip Harrington, ML123414

Pied Butcherbird song and composition excerpts courtesy of Dr. Hollis Taylor (piedbutcherbird.net, piedbutcherbird.com).

E30. That wall of birdsong outside your window at sunrise has a name, a structure, and a surprising amount of drama. This week Scott talks with Dr. Dan Mennill, a professor at the University of Windsor who wires whole forests with microphones to eavesdrop on the entire neighborhood at once, about what the dawn chorus is actually for, and what it means when it starts to thin out.

In this episode:

• Why dawn, why so loud, and who gets to sing first (hint: it's not about who's the best singer)
• What 16 microphones and kilometers of cable revealed about birds negotiating in real time
• What happened when one field site went quiet, and why that quiet is louder than it sounds

Listen now, then tell us what your morning chorus sounds like.

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:

• Soundscape contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML516838
• Black-throated Green Warbler contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML79475
• American Redstart contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML100804
• Tufted Titmouse contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML100712
• Northern Cardinal contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML191165
• Northern Flicker contributed by William V. Ward, ML3
• Black-capped Chickadee contributed by Bob McGuire, ML197114
• American Robin contributed by Bob McGuire, ML206448
• Alder Flycatcher contributed by Mike Andersen, ML132247
• Savannah Sparrow contributed by Gerritt Vyn, ML137843
• Chipping Sparrow contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML534466
• White-crowned Sparrow contributed by Bob McGuire, ML207181
• Red-tailed Hawk contributed by David McCartt, ML229578