Okay, But... Birds
Hosted by evolutionary biologist Dr. Scott Taylor, this podcast explores the drama, brilliance, and science behind bird life. Each 30-minute episode blends smart storytelling, expert interviews, and humor to reveal how birds shape our world. No jargon or binoculars required—just real science and quirky insights.
Episodes
Okay, but what's it like as a bird at the top of the world?
E29. Standing at 11,000 feet, lungs burning, Scott watched birds go about their afternoon in the exact thin air that had nearly taken him out. This week he sits down with Dr. Chris Witt, evolutionary biologist at the University of New Mexico and curator of birds at the Museum of Southwestern Biology, who has spent his career figuring out how birds make a living in the thinnest air on Earth. From t
Okay, but does easy living make birds dumber?
E28. A bird's brain is the most expensive thing it owns, and evolution doesn't hand one out for free. Dr. Carlos Botero, Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has spent a decade tracing what variable, unforgiving environments actually do to bird cognition, and the answer flips a lot of conventional wisdom on its head.In this episode:Why the harshest places on Earth produce two
Okay, but... pigeons!
E27. They’ve been called "rats with wings," but pigeons are actually elite athletes, historical icons, and evolutionary marvels. Scott chats with Dr. Elizabeth Carlen, a postdoc at the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in St. Louis, to look past the common stereotypes and uncover the remarkable biology of the Rock Pigeon.In this episode, you’ll hear about:The deep historical bond
Okay, but did birds originate the open relationship?
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 a
Okay, but... boobies!
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 t
Okay, but what about birds that can't fly?
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 for
Okay, but can a bird really cooperate with humans?
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
Okay, but can birds predict the weather?
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 30
Okay, but can birds smell?
E21. We're talking sense and scents with Dr. Danielle Whittaker, Oregon State, and author of The Secret Perfume of Birds, who spent a decade unraveling a 200-year-old myth that started with John James Audubon and a dead pig under a bush.In this episode:The bird that smells like a fresh-baked sugar cookieWhy preen oil is a dating profile written in chemistry, and how seabirds use the same chemical
Okay, but what can we learn from a drawer of birds?
E20. Less than 1% of what's in a museum is actually on display. So what's happening with the other 99%? Scott talks with Dr. Sushma Reddy, Breckenridge Chair of Ornithology at the Bell Museum and Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, about the extraordinary scientific afterlife of a specimen in a drawer.In this episode:How birds collected 150 years ago are answering questions their c
Okay, but are bird feeders helping or hurting?
E19. More than 55 million Americans feed birds, and it's not exactly clear the birds asked us to. Dr. Olivia Sanderfoot, Research Scientist and Project Leader of FeederWatch at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, joins Scott to unpack what four decades of data tell us about whether feeding birds helps them, hurts them, or is really just for us.In this episode you'll hear about:Why bird feeding is most
Okay, but what's in a bird's toolbox?
E18. Turns out "bird brain" is less of an insult and more of a compliment. Scott sits down with Dr. Alex Kacelnik, Emeritus Professor at the University of Oxford, to dig into one of the most mind-bending questions in animal behavior: are birds actually building and using tools, or are we just projecting?In this episode you'll hear about:The experiment that left researchers completely flabbergasted
Okay, but do birds have culture?
E17. From sparrow songs that go viral across a continent to cockatoos that watch each other to learn how to open bins, Dr. Lucy Aplin, Australian National University / University of Zurich, studies how birds learn from each other and why it matters. Doing it for the culture? Yep. Birds are that impressive!In this episode you'll hear about:How a new white-throated sparrow song spread over 3,000 kil
Okay, but why put eggs in another bird’s basket?
E16. What if the secret to raising more babies was to never raise a single one yourself? Dr. Chris Balakrishnan, Associate Adjunct Professor of Biology at East Carolina University and co-founder of Nerd Nite, has spent his career studying the strangest birds on the planet: the ones that outsource parenthood entirely.In this episode you'll hear about:The evolutionary arms race between brood parasit
Okay, but what makes a yard a bird paradise?
E15. Most people picture a bird-friendly yard and imagine feeder, birdbath, maybe a decorative birdhouse with mortgage vibes. And feeders are great. But a feeder can give you the illusion of helping birds without creating the thing birds need most: habitat.In this episode, Dr. Doug Tallamy, Professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, joins Scott to
Okay, but what makes a bird… a bird? Hint: Dinosaurs!
E14. What do feathers, toothless beaks, and a 66-million-year-old asteroid have in common. Paleontologist Dr. Daniel Field, University of Cambridge, joins Scott to unpack how birds evolved from dinosaurs, and why defining "bird" is trickier than you think.In this episode you'll hear about:Why Archaeopteryx had half the features of a modern bird and lacked the other half, and what that tells us abo
Okay, but why do some birds babysit?
E13. Some birds skip having their own families and spend years helping raise their siblings instead. It sounds like altruism, but it's probably more complicated than that. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Nancy Chen, UCLA, to unpack the notion that it takes a village to raise a child chick.In this episode, you'll hear about:Why some birds spend years as unpaid helpers before
Okay, but how do birds stay warm?
E12. Winter isn’t just “cold” for a bird, it’s a nightly survival math problem: generate enough heat, lose as little as possible, and don’t get eaten while you’re fueling up. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Maria Stager, UMass Amherst, to break down the clever physiology and weird little behaviors that let birds ride out freezing temps, from icy duck feet to “feather puffba
Okay, but why is a bird’s world more colorful?
E11. Bird vision isn’t just “better than ours,” It’s operating in a different color space, including ultraviolet. In Host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Allison Shultz, Associate Curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, to break down what birds can actually see, how scientists measure color in the real world, and why feather color is one of evolution’s most powerful (and mis
Okay, but can birds keep up with climate change?
E10. Seasons used to feel predictable. Winter showed up, spring arrived on cue, and birds could run their annual schedules like clockwork. But now the timing is weird: early heat, late snow, shifting green-up, and food peaks that don’t always line up. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Morgan Tingley, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA, to unpack what “keepi
Okay, but is birdwatching the original Pokémon?
E9. Birdwatching, birding, twitching… whatever you call it, it’s got everything: quests, rare finds, elaborate gear, a sprawling universe of characters, and a deeply committed fandom. Sound familiar? In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by NYT best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ed Yong to explore how modern birding became more accessible than ever (hello, Merlin
Okay, but why do some birds thrive in cities?
E8. Cities can look like a concrete nightmare for wildlife… yet some birds are absolutely crushing it, while others vanish. In this episode of Okay, But... Birds, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Fran Bonier, Professor at Queen’s University, to unpack what “urban birds” really are, why cities create winners and losers, and what it actually costs a bird to live the high-rise life.In this epis
Okay, but what does it take to record a bird? The inside scoop on Merlin!
E7. Every bird song you’ve ever heard on a hike, through an open window, or sampled in a nature documentary has a story behind it. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Linda Macaulay, Chairman of the Board of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, to explore how bird sounds get recorded, preserved, and shared with the world, and why audio might be one of the most powerful tools we have for
Okay, but how do chickadees never forget?
E6. While chickadees look cute, they are also running one of the most impressive memory systems in the animal world. They hide food across the landscape, then somehow return to an insane number of individual spots later, even after snow, wind, and chaos try to erase the evidence. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Vladimir Pravosudov, Professor at the University of Nevada, Ren
Okay, but why fly from the Arctic to Antarctica and back every year?
E5. Every spring and fall, billions of birds pull off the most ambitious commutes on Earth. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Nate Senner, Mass Audubon Bertrand Chair for Ornithology in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the UMass Amherst, to break down why birds migrate, how they navigate, and what happens when the world (or the bird) gets thrown off course.In t
Okay, but bird flu is really bad, right?
E4. Bird flu used to sound like a “poultry industry problem.” Now it’s showing up everywhere and rewriting the rules for wild birds, ecosystems, and what “outbreak” even means. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Nichola Hill, disease ecologist and Assistant Professor at UMass Boston, to unpack what’s different about the current H5N1 wave.In this episode, you’ll hear about:How
Okay, but why did my life list just shrink?
E3. One day you’re proudly sitting at 312 species… and the next day your list is missing a bird (or two). What happened? In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor is joined by Dr. Dave Toews, Assistant Professor at Penn State, to pull back the curtain on bird taxonomy: what a “species” even is, who decides when birds get split or lumped, and why those decisions ripple out into birding, field guides,
Okay, but how do you lose 3 billion birds?
E2. Bird populations are vanishing—quietly, and fast. In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor and Dr. John Fitzpatrick, Director Emeritus of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, unpack the landmark “3 Billion Birds” study: what it actually showed, how scientists figured it out, and what it means for the birds we thought were common and safe.In this episode, you’ll hear about:What the 2019 “3 Billion Bir
Okay, but is bird monogamy just PR?
E1. Birds “mate for life”… or do they? In this episode, host Dr. Scott Taylor and Dr. Carrie Branch, Assistant Professor at Western University, pull back the curtain on avian relationships and sort out what’s romance, what’s strategy, and what’s just really good PR.In this episode, you’ll hear about:The difference between social and genetic monogamy in birdsWhy “monogamous” birds engage in extra-p
Trailer — Okay, But... Birds
Okay, But... Birds is a weekly science-meets-storytelling podcast hosted by evolutionary biologist Dr. Scott Taylor. Each episode dives into one weird-but-true bird question through smart, funny storytelling and lively interviews with ornithologists, ecologists, artists, and unexpected experts.Follow Okay, But... Birds wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop weekly, and yes, we will talk
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