Continuing with our regular theme exploring the interactions between birds in urban settings, and the humans that have created and live in them, Grant spoke with ecologist and author, Emeritus Professor Darryl Jones, of the Centre for Planetary Health & Food Security and the School of Environment & Science at Griffith University about the idea some some species are adapting their behaviours to thrive in the built environment, perhaps on the road to becoming new species. You can read...

Should we be feeding our local wild birds? Dr. Holly Parsons, Manager of the Urban Birds program at Birdlife Australia, Dr. Johanne Martens and Prof. David Phalen from the University of Sydney, discuss this issue with Grant, who has been feeding his local birds in the park. Where did they end up on this disputed topic?  If you are interested in this issue, be sure to batch Grant talking to Darryl Jones, who wrote "The Birds At My Table" which you can find at thebirdemergency.com/live Follow...

Camilo Carniero is a biologist and ecologist and postdoc researcher at the South Iceland Research Centre, after completing a PhD in Biology and Ecology of Global Change; University of Aveiro. His masters thesis was the "Breeding parameters, diet and growth of the Red Heron (Ardea purpurea) in Salreu, Aveiro" and his PhD thesis was about whimbrels in Iceland, titled "Bridging from the arctic to the tropics: implications of long-distance migration to individual fitness." I spoke with Camilo...

Yoav Perlman is based in a region of the world that is not often the first thought when bird nerds begin thinking about destinations to sate our birdwatching desires, but the Middle East is a great destination.  It is on an avian highway, and the movement between Africa and Europe and Asia is comparable to the annual migrations between the American land masses. Yoav is into birding, photography, ringing, sound recording, twitching, and dipping. In this episode her shares his experiences with...

The term "biodiversity" is thrown around and inserted into conversations all the time. But when one person says biodiversity, is the full meaning of the term conveyed to anybody listening? Dr. Holly Parsons from Birdlife Australia (Birds In Backyards) is joined by Jacinta Humphrey, a PhD candidate at LaTrobe University in Melbourne. Her research focuses on the impacts of urban development on birds at the landscape scale. Holly and Jacinta kick around a lot of the issues that are picked up in...

What is it like to be involved in a breeding program and managing part of an insurance population of an endangered species that is under human care?  How important are the birds that you see in free-flight displays at zoos and sanctuaries around the world? How do the birds in those shows get selected, and is it a good purpose for those birds to be put to? If you have ever wondered about any of those issues, you will enjoy hearing Chad Crittle, Senior Keeper of Birds and Free Flight at...

Dr. Sally Bryant is the Chair of the Forty-spotted Pardalote Recovery Team. The Recovery Plan for the 40-Spot is currently being updated, so the team are busy doing that. (Yes, I know we love this bird!). Over more than 30 years, Sally has worked in government and in the non-government and private sectors that are becoming increasingly important in order to adequately protect species, intact habitat and to repair potentially suitable habitat for ongoing mananagement of endangered species. ...

If you have a copy of the Australian Bird Guide, then you already are familiar with some of the work of Rohan Clarke.  If you have been a keen Bird Nerd for many, many years, and consume as much information as you can about Australian Birds, then you have probably read many articles where Rohan is an author, or cited as a reference. (I know I have!) Rohan is an ecologist and ornithologist, is a Master of Environment and Sustainability, a Senior Lecturer in Ecology and Head of the 'Research...

Dr. Holly Parsons, Manager of the Urban Birds Program at Birdlife Australia, and Grant Williams recently spoke with Dr. Joe Welklin, one of the principal researchers who originated The Fairywren Project, which has been looking into the ecology, distribution and relationships between the genus Malurus, better know as Fairywrens, in Australia. To see much more detail, the habitat photographs provided by Joe and all the updates regarding the follow-up live stream coming up on Monday May 30th,...

This episode began as a celebration of one of the most curiously named, most loved and interesting migratory species of North and Central America, the Prothonotary Warbler.  It became a very free-flowing and wide-ranging discussion about a bird that Jarod is obviously very passionate about, his connection to the migratory birds that he sees and appreciates each season, and the efforts he takes to encourage the PROWs that visit his area to breed in artificial nest boxes, made from juice or...

Celebrating World Migratory Bird Day (WorldMigratoryBirdDay.org) and this episode we talk to Scott Pursner from the Taiwan Wild Bird Federation about the birds that move thorough Taiwan, that reside in Taiwan and the reclaimation project to maintain some disused salt pans, that had become important habitat for some rare bird species. Scott talks about the variation of the habitats that are present on Taiwain, the co-operation of the different conservation groups, citizen science and the...

Celebrating World Migratory Bird Day (WorldMigratoryBirdDay.org), PhD candidate, David Tan, tells us about the stunning Pittas that needlessly fall victim to BirdStrike as the migrate thorough SIngapore, why SIngapore is a great birding spot, and his adventures in Arizona, a bird hotspot in the USA. Visit David's website - https://davidbirdtan.com/ Follow David on Twitter - @g33k5p34k You can watch many of the past conversations, and see the upsoming interviews live at...

Photo courtesy - Marcus Salton What could be for fun than talking again about penguins, with somebody who has summed up their research project in a haiku? Well, in this episode, as part of the @PintOfScienceAU Takeover for 2022, you will meet Javed Riaz, who is a undertaking PhD studies on the foraging habits and prey of the Adelie Penguin, in the Australian Antarctic territory. Adélie penguins are indicators of the health of their ecosystem. By studying the foraging behaviour and habitat,...

Something we have returned to time and time again in The Bird Emergency is how we have removed the nesting opportunities for birds that require hollows, and the need for shelter by all sorts of wildlife. Thankfully, there are many people looking at other options, other than waiting 100 years or so for natural hollows to form. Dr. Kylie Soanes tells me about some of the options being explored in Melbourne, and some of the new materials being employed. Here's a link to a Pursuit article...

Have you ever considered brushing up on your bird-watching skills in a more formal and structured way?  Are you just starting out and would like to get a headstart on the years it takes to get to know the best methods to identify any bird you see around you?  Do you have kids, or know someone who is just getting into the great pasttime of bird-watching, and you would like to encourage them to take the interest further? If you thought "YES" to any of those things, then you might be interested...

As we move from traditional power generation methods we may be introducing significant new threats into the landscape. For many years Hamish Cumming has been trying to protect the Brolgas of western Victoria against the proliferation of windfarms in the prime habitat of the southern population of the Brolga, one of Australia's two crane species, and the only endemic. Trying to increase the safe buffer zone distance between wind turbines and the feeding, roosting and breeding grounds of the...

World Penguin Day has ambushed me! Truth be know, I did not even know it existed!  Luckily when I saw some Twitter talk about it, I had an episode just about ready to go!  Please enjoy hearing Dr Ursula Ellenberg, from the Tawaki Project tell me about the marvellous penguin, the Tawaki, or as we know it in Australia, the Fiordland Penguin. Tawaki is one of the crested penguins, that are found in the sub-antarctic zone, and the vulnerable Tawaki is found in the southernmost parts of the South...

When I was a youngster, I used to imagine being able to venture into the dense schlerophyll eucalyptus forests of eastern Australia with the chance to see the majestic, slightly terrifying but aptly named Powerful Owl.  This bird is the largest of the Australian owls, and has adapted to living in the suburbs and cities, as agriculture, forestry, bushfires and urban sprawl alter or eliminate the preferred habitat of this possum hunter. Bronwyn Isaac has studied some of the Powerful Owls that...

Birdlife Australia always has a range of projects underway to learn more about our endangered birds, and to design the important programs to try to ensure the survival of the most at-risk species in Australia. Dr. Holly Parsons, Manager of the Urban Birds program at Birdlife Australia talks to Grant about these projects. (There was too much for one episode - next one follows) Bird-friendly Gardens Orange-bellied Parrot surveys Act For Birds petitions Glossy Black-Cockatoos Gang-gang...

Birdlife Australia always has a range of projects underway to learn more about our endangered birds, and to design the important programs to try to ensure the survival of the most at-risk species in Australia. Dr. Holly Parsons, Manager of the Urban Birds program at Birdlife Australia talks to Grant about these projects. (There was too much for one episode - next one follows) Wings on King (King Island Bird surveys) Bitterns - Soundscapes Shorebirds Powerful Owls Gang-gang Cockatoos Birds...

You may have always been familiar with turtle doves the same way I was - a childhood song that also references pear trees and partridges....  It may surprise you to know that turtle doves are becoming scarce in the UK. I wanted to know more, so I spoke with Charlotte O'Neill, who is a student in Falmouth in the UK, a dab hand with a camera, and really interested in the wildlife around her...  including turtle doves. Hear about the demise, and some of the actions being undertaken to arrest...

Grant and Dr. Holly Parsons, Manager of the Urban Birds program at Birdlife Australia, are joined by Fiona Backhouse and Matthew Hall, who have both recently completed their fieldword, analysis and writing their PhD theses, on the Albert's Lyrebird and Brush Turkey, respectively. This is the recording of the regular live stream, when Holly joins Grant at 1.00 pm every second Monday afternoon to discuss birds getting along with people.  More information is available on The Bird Emergency...

Milly Formby is amazing! A zoologist, artist, author and now, an Adventurer! Meet Milly and learn about the amazing Wing Threads project, which will see her fly a microlight aircraft around Australia, visiting schools and communities along the way, Sharing The Awesomeness of Shorebirds from 5000ft! Hear Milly discuss the origin of the project, the plannings, the setbacks and why she loves the migratory shorebirds that journey from southern Australia to north Asia and beyond each year, and...

Dr. Holly Parsons, the Manager - Urban Birds programs at Birdlife Australia, joins Grant Williams regularly to talk about issues of interest to Bird Nerds, and to meet some of the fabulous people running the Citizen Science projects, or undertaking vital research. Here is part of the most recent live stream, focusing on the upcoming Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo surveys, where there are opportunities for anyone to be involved. Grant and Holly were joined by Skye McPherson, Project Coordinator...

In this episode we talk to Cat Davidson, one of the organisers of the Bruny Island Bird Festival, which is on from the 25th to the 27th of March 2022, and celebrates the birds that make the small island, off the eastern coast of Tasmania, their home. Bruny Island is one the stronghold of the Forty-spotted Pardalote, a bird loved by this show, because of it's unique agricutural tendancies, it's relationship with the manna gum, and the passion of all of the people working for it's survival. ...