Amniotes

There are three different songs here sung by a Western Meadowlark. The first repeats three times, the second song repeats 4 times, and the third song is repeated three times. This was recorded on Marble Hot Springs Road at the 2nd 90 degree turn as the Meadowlark sang from the telephone wire above. In the background you will hear cows moo and a few other birds call as well, but the Western Meadowlark is clearly the focal subject of the recording. This was recorded with a Fostex FR-2 and Sennheiser shotgun microphone, ME66. The photo attached is a spectrogram of Western Meadowlark made in Raven Pro. (taxonomy:binomial="Sturnella neglecta")

A Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) coos this soft purring sound as he leaves his perch in a dead Juniper in Sedona, Arizona.

Imagine yourself immersed in a chilly, blue, three-dimensional world, one where vision isn’t much use but sound travels far. That’s the leap of the imagination demanded of scientists like Volker Deecke who study killer whales. Deecke and his colleagues must sort myth from science to learn the secrets of these consummate predators. Ari Daniel Shapiro reports from the Shetland Islands. Photo Credit: Orcinus orca (Linnaeus, 1758). Public Domain. read moreDuration: 5:30Published: Wed, 25 Jul 2012 15:31:01 +0000

This bird was recorded across the street from our apartment. I have not been able to actually see the bird, but for weeks I have been listening to it sing/call every morning. To be singing on our busy street (Massachusetts Ave, NE, just a few blocks from the Capitol in Washington, DC), it must be a common bird that thrives in the city, so I'd like to know this city dweller's name. I'll update this note when I learn who it is. UPDATE: HOUSE WREN! Thank you, Mark, Perry, Martyn, Lang, Kristen, and Seth! June 15, 2012, recorded with a Fostex FR-2, Sennheiser ME-66 Shotgun mic, Rycote windscreen. Sonnogram created using Cornell's Raven Pro Sound Analysis software. (taxonomy:binomial="Troglodytes aedon")

Northern Goshawks (Accipiter gentilis) have a distinctive call. This one was sitting in a large sycamore tree in Andrew Molero State Park, near Big Sur, California in April, 1999. He had been chased there by a Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus).

Every morning when he walks the dog, retired professor of natural history Peter Slater can identify as many as thirty birds by their song alone. On a walk in a Scottish town with Ari Daniel Shapiro, Slater explains what two common songsters, the chaffinch and winter wren, are singing about, and how even city dwellers can learn to “bird by ear” in their own neighborhoods, with rewarding results. Download a transcript of the podcast Chaffinch, Photo Credit: Blake Matheson read moreDuration: 5:21Published: Wed, 23 Jan 2013 20:30:18 +0000

On the forested mountain slopes of the Basque country, we follow two Spanish biologists on the track of a pair of secretive mammals. Pine and stone martens are elusive carnivores that make their homes among the moss-covered, ancient oaks, leaving few clues to their presence. Determining just how changes to the forest are affecting the two species requires some scientific detective work—and the willingness to gather some rather smelly data. Photo Credit: Martes martes, SD Lund, BioPix read moreDuration: 5:48Published: Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:19:34 +0000

Spotted Sandpipers (Actitis macularius) are the most numerous Sandpipers in Costa Rica, especially inland. They are neotropical migrants. This is a flight call.

An altercation among adults escalates to include the young as well. Recorded at Dyson Lane in Sierra Nevada Valley in California on June 17, 2100 11:30 am with a Fostex FR-2 and Sennheiser ME66 shotgun mic. (taxonomy:binomial="Fulica americana")

This was from a Wilson Snipe that landed in the grass. It then walked through the tall grass towards us making this alarm call and when in sight we could see the tail was fanned and wings dropped in a distracting display to lure us from the nest toward her. At the end you can hear the wings flap as she flies off into the sky. The photo is of the habitat -- a beautiful meadow along the northern coral fence west of the old shepherd's shack. Recorded in Carman Valley in Sierra Nevada region of California on June 27, 2011 9:58AM with Fostex FR-2, Sennheiser ME66 shotgun mic. (taxonomy:binomial="Gallinago delicata")

Scottish Wildcats or Felis sylvestris grampia have been around since the last ice age. A symbol of strength and independence, the cats used to roam the whole of Great Britain, but researchers believe there are now fewer than 400 left in the rugged highlands. We journey to Highland Wildlife Park in Scotland to learn about the threats that have this secretive species on the run and what the Cairngorms Wildcat Project is doing to help protect them.  Download a transcript of this podcast read moreDuration: 5:25Published: Wed, 29 May 2013 17:07:27 +0000

Spotted Sandpipers (Actitis macularius) are the most numerous Sandpipers in Costa Rica, especially inland. They are neotropical migrants. This is a call from a foraging bird.

This week, we hear a story in two acts about a very familiar bird—the common starling. It's a non-native species that is omnivorous, gregarious, adaptable, and highly successful in its adopted land. It turns out we humans have inadvertently put out the welcome mat for this alien species. Act One tells the story about this winged invader with an $800 million appetite for fruit crops. As for Act Two, we’ll let independent producer Josh Kurz and the theater troupe Higher Mammals explain. read moreDuration: 6:06Published: Thu, 23 Feb 2012 21:06:37 +0000

A Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) sings atop a fence at a small finca (farm) near Fortuna Falls. This was the only singing red-wing that I found on the 6/98 trip. His song and calls are "thin" compared to ours in the US, but I have only this one sample to go by.

Red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) inhabit the marshes around Peck's Lake [Arizona] along with their cousins, the Yellow-Headed Blackbirds. They have several vocalizations, three of which are represented in this sample.

You have probably seen cans of tuna in your local supermarket marked “dolphin safe.” That label means the tuna was fished in a way that spares most dolphins from being killed in the tuna fleet’s giant nets. In this podcast, biologist and guest reporter Matt Leslie brings us a story about tuna, the intertwined fate of fisheries and dolphins, and the work of scientists. It’s a story that lies behind the label of every can of tuna. It spans two generations of scientists and a revolution in scientific methods. Matt reports from a dolphin morgue in La Jolla, California, USA. read moreDuration: 6:00Published: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 16:12:47 +0000

In a Beijing green space larger than New York’s Central Park, biologist Bao Weidong is scanning the trees, looking for a shy bird that’s increasingly scarce: the long-eared owl. There used to be dozens of them across the city, but they’re vanishing. On the other side of the city, a wildlife rescue center is working to save other raptors that have run afoul of the city’s many perils. Can the raptors of Beijing stage a comeback, in the face of runaway development? Will the people of Beijing make room for raptors? Image Credit: Asio otus, Piet Reens. CC BY-SA read moreDuration: 5:28Published: Wed, 22 Aug 2012 03:35:39 +0000

And here are "Four and Twenty" Blackbirds (Red-Winged) all singing at once.

Does the mane really make the lion? Certainly, luxurious locks are the feature that sets Panthera leo apart from the other large cats. But surprisingly, not all male lions have manes. And manes used to cover more of the lion than just the head. Ari Daniel Shapiro speaks with archivist Connie Rinaldo of Harvard University and curator of mammals Bruce Patterson of Chicago’s Field Museum to learn about the diversity of lions in the distant past and the challenges they face in the present. Image Credit: H. Vannoy Davis, CalPhotos, California Academy of Sciences. CC BY-NC-SA read moreDuration: 5:32Published: Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:36:15 +0000

Here's that gurgling song that everyone associates with wetlands. This one is in Peck's Lake [Arizona] in mid-March, staking his claim on a prime piece of marshy real estate. Listen for his "chacks" and whistles between the loud calls.

The batman of Mexico has his own bat-cave. He just shares it with 4,000 Mexican long-nosed bats. In this episode, join researcher Rodrigo Medellin as he descends into the Devil’s Cave just north of Mexico City. It’s a journey that started decades ago when Medellin was on a game show as a boy. He lost the game show, but won a prize far more valuable—for himself, his students, and Mexico’s bats. Ari Daniel Shapiro reports from Tepoztlán. read moreDuration: 5:30Published: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 18:16:14 +0000

This unusual "piping" by a male Red-winged Blackbird was directed at an interloping male. The calls were actually about 5 seconds apart, but I took out some silence in the interest of bandwidth here. I'd not heard this call used to warn another male before, but the intruder got the point and soon left the area.

We humans learn some of our earliest life lessons from our brothers and sisters, watching what toys our siblings play with and what treats they stash away for later. In this Halloween season podcast, Ari Daniel Shapiro journeys to Austria to learn how such social learning happens in a spooky bird—the raven. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain Download a transcript of this podcast read moreDuration: 5:26Published: Thu, 01 Nov 2012 14:52:05 +0000

Another group songfest - this time from a "Lek" of 25 or so Red-wings in the morning. I'm not sure this is a true Lek, but the ingredients are all there - lots of males (2/3 of those in attendance are male) singing with lots of females listening, and since it's in the Spring (2/16/99) and in the morning, it seems like Lek behavior. Note the silence midway through the sample - sudden and almost orchestrated - something distracted them for a moment.