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 episode, you’ll hear about:

Which birds tend to become “city birds,” and why some species thrive in urban spaces while others disappear
The concrete benefits and hidden costs of city living, plus the traits that predict an urban “winner”
How scientists test whether birds are adapting and learning fast vs. being filtered by city conditions, and what the biology says about stress in urban birds

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:

House Sparrow audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML539706
Peregrine Falcon audio contributed by Mike Andersen, ML136378
Rosy-faced Lovebird audio contributed by Derek Solomon, ML168222
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo audio contributed by Mark Robbins, ML529861
White-crowned Sparrow audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML207181
Sharp-shinned Hawk (Northern) audio contributed by David McCartt, ML137605
Chimney Swift audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML107413
Chimney Swift video contributed by Timothy Barksdale, ML440546

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Episoder(36)

Okay, but what's the deal with Darwin's finches?

E35. Eighteen species of small brown bird on a pile of volcanic rock have taught us more about how evolution actually works than almost anything else on Earth. Not because Darwin figured them out. He ...

13 Aug 36min

Okay, but what's the deal with nests?

E34. Not all birds build one, but for the ones that do, a nest has a single job and a shockingly wide range of ways to get it done. Dr. Vanya Rohwer, Curator of Birds and Mammals at the Cornell Univer...

6 Aug 29min

Okay, but how do birds handle a heatwave?

E33. When the air temperature climbs past a bird's own body temperature, staying cool stops being free and starts to cost them water they may not have. Dr. Blair Wolf, University of New Mexico, has sp...

30 Jul 26min

Okay, but how does wildfire smoke impact birds?

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...

23 Jul 31min

Okay, but did birds invent music?

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 recordi...

16 Jul 29min

Okay, but is the dawn chorus getting quieter?

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 Windso...

9 Jul 34min

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 ...

2 Jul 34min

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 tr...

25 Jun 32min