Hello Life List Friends,

The dodo has been synonymous with foolishness for four centuries, but new research suggests it was clever, and possibly the only nocturnal bird in its family.

In a cave in Germany, ice age carvings roughly 40,000 years old show humans were already studying bird behavior.

Also in this issue: a rarely seen Northern Cassowary that stands six feet tall, evidence crows track which humans are trustworthy, the centuries-old Guga Hunt called off for the first time, and eighteen things hummingbirds do at a feeder that reveal how much calculation is involved.

There’s much more too, including upcoming trips with Hillstar Nature and Alvaro’s Adventures that still have spaces available.

Listen to our latest podcast episode. Pollinators for birds: Tips and traps with Doug Tallamy.

Share Life List Podcast Newsletter

Puerto Rico: Boricua Birds

February 12 - 18, 2027 with Phil Chaon

There aren’t many countries where you can hope to see all the endemic birds in about a week, especially while birding at a fairly relaxed pace. But then they don’t call it “The Island of Enchantment” for nothing. Join us for a quick getaway, see some tantalizing tropical birds, all while still on US soil.

“We seem to birds to be chained to planet Earth.” - Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Birding Headlines From Around The World

✅ A great way to enjoy birdwatching is by going to festivals - they’re organized to get you to well-known birding spots at the right time of year, and they’re a perfect way to meet people: Birding festivals and events.

✅ The Mauritian Dodo - a global symbol of human-caused extinction and one of the world's largest pigeons - may not have deserved its reputation as a silly simpleton and may have been the only member of its group to live in the dark: Dodo birds more clever than we thought.

✅ The roughly 40,000-year-old figures show that humans were already watching bird behavior: Ice Age bird figurines discovered in German cave.

✅ First recorded in 1549, the annual hunt involves a 64-kilometre (40-mile) journey across rough seas to the remote, uninhabited island of Sula Sgeir, off Scotland’s northwest coast: A centuries-old annual bird chick hunt, known as the Guga Hunt, has been banned this year.

✅ It can stand up to 1.8 metres tall. Despite its imposing stature and importance to local ecosystems, it is rarely seen in the wild and is poorly understood: In search of the Northern Cassowary.

✅ Seven-year-old Khalib Townsend hikes in the rain along the Audubon Discovery Center's nature trail. He's all suited up in a bright blue waterproof jacket, holding in his small hands a pair of binoculars that hang around his neck. We asked a first grader to interview his hero: A bird scientist.

✅ The famed archipelago may be home to a smooth hammerhead shark nursery: Mysterious shark spotted near the Galápagos Islands for the first time in over 20 years.

Costa Rica: Pacific Specials

March 15 - 24, 2027 with Joshua Covill

The sleepy southwest and the Pacific slope of Costa Rica’s Talamanca mountains feature a number of bird species that are tough to see elsewhere. This 9-night trip we hone in on key sites to seek special birds in a less visited part of this iconic birding country.

Bird Quiz

Darwin’s finches, famous for inspiring evolutionary theory in the Galápagos, actually belong to which bird family?

Hint: They are part of a diverse family spread throughout the Americas but with almost no representation in the United States and Canada.

Find the answer toward the bottom of this newsletter.

The Power and Beauty of Birds

🪶 The Barking Owl is a striking-looking hunter found in Australia’s woodlands. Compact, powerful and yellow-eyed, it spends the day roosting in foliage before emerging to hunt mammals, birds, reptiles and insects as the light fades: It barks like a dog and howls like a human – and is a silent, deadly hunter.

🪶 These birds may be judging your character more carefully than some people you know: Animal cognition suggests crows recognize honest and dishonest human behavior.

🪶 Conservationists hope a vulture photography competition can help improve the public’s perception of the animals, which play an important ecological role by disposing of carrion. Nature’s cleanup crew: Stunning photos show vultures in a different light.

🪶 Before the first true birds spread their feathers, vast winged reptiles called pterosaurs had already mastered powered flight, evolving into everything from tiny insect hunters to giants as tall as giraffes: 10 fascinating prehistoric creatures that ruled the skies before birds.

🪶 American robins have been on the menu for far longer than they’ve been off. While we associate their round, chubby bodies with pure cuteness, all early European settlers saw was a filling dinner: This small bird was once a dinner staple.

🪶 Seven-year-old Miles came up with the idea while feeding Eastern Rosellas at his grandparents' house on Raymond island, Australia: Earworm formula behind viral hit Eastern Rosellas.

🪶 Every single visit is packed with split-second decisions, silent threats, and calculated bets: 18 peculiar things hummingbirds do around a feeder.

India - The Western Ghats & The Deccan Plateau

February 20 - March 4, 2028 with George Armistead & Surya Ramachandran

Immerse yourself in one of the most unique places on earth. Blessed with extraordinary habitats that change drastically with altitude and proximity to the coast, the richness of species and the diversity of habitats have led to its classification as one of the top ten biodiversity hotspots on the planet.

And the answer is....

Tanagers (family Thraupidae). The birds called tanagers in the US and Canada such as Scarlet, Summer, Western, etc. are not in this family. They belong to genus Piranga, now classified under Cardinalidae, closer kin to cardinals than to true tanagers.”

Share Life List Podcast Newsletter

Copyright © 2026 Life List Podcast, All rights reserved.

Hello Life List Friends,

A Galah given the choice between walking and flying almost always flies, even with no predator, no urgency, nothing to run from.

Zoomed out to the scale of 3,000 species, birdsong itself turns out to reduce to just eight basic sound types.

Also in this issue: a Red-tailed Hawk adjusting its wingbeat mid-molt to keep flying straight, an app that identifies bird calls with no signal required, the flower colors hummingbirds can’t resist, a pigeon’s brief celebrity in East Oakland, and the quiet comeback of species once thought disappearing.

There’s much more too, including upcoming trips with Hillstar Nature and Alvaro’s Adventures that still have spaces available.

Listen to our latest podcast episode. Advanced birding: How to study birds you’ve already identified.

Share Life List Podcast Newsletter

Puerto Rico: Boricua Birds

February 12 - 18, 2027 with Phil Chaon

There aren’t many countries where you can hope to see all the endemic birds in about a week, especially while birding at a fairly relaxed pace. But then they don’t call it “The Island of Enchantment” for nothing. Join us for a quick getaway, see some tantalizing tropical birds, all while still on US soil.

"Tame birds sing of freedom. Wild birds fly." - John Lennon

Birding Headlines From Around The World

✅ A new study by researchers at Utrecht University shows that Galahs, Australian cockatoos, almost always choose to fly when given the opportunity: Do birds enjoy flying?

✅ The researchers worked with a flock of about 16 pigeons who were released along a route the birds already knew: Pigeons’ shifting gaze could help drones navigate more like birds.

✅ Tuning for feather loss: Wing–tail kinematic adjustments of a moulting Red-tailed Hawk during perching flight.

✅ A team analysed more than 100,000 songs from 3,000 bird species and revealed that they are all composed of eight fundamental types of sound that the researchers call "motifs": Scientists find the secret of birdsong’s ‘spectacular diversity’.

✅ Previous apps for identifying animal calls regularly hit practical limits. Without a stable internet connection, real-time identification in forests or high mountains was impossible. Identify birds offline using AI: New app records animal sounds directly on your smartphone.

✅ Theoretical reconstructions hint at versatile approaches to prehistoric flight: Everyone’s been drawing pterosaur wings wrong.

✅ Known locally as lik­weli, the newly described African monkey has black fur and produces loud, roar-like calls: Mysterious new monkey species with orange lips discovered in the Congo rainforest.

Colombia’s Santa Martas

February 12 - 19, 2027 with Joshua Covill

A trip on every birder’s bucket list, this one-week tour hits all the best birding hotspots in and around the incomparable, megadiverse Santa Martas, from the mountains to the Caribbean coast.

Bird Quiz

Two things are wrong with this bird’s name. What are they?

Olive Warbler

Find the answer toward the bottom of this newsletter.

The Power and Beauty of Birds

🪶 Turn your garden into a hummingbird magnet: The flower colors hummingbirds can’t resist, according to ornithologists.

🪶 A pigeon walked up to a fire engine in East Oakland, CA and became the most beloved bird on the internet. The firefighters administered oxygen through a mask, and the bird recovered enough to fly away within moments.

🪶 "The park wasn't a particularly attractive environment, it was just old farmland," Mike Connor visited the same park for 40 years. His notebooks filled with birds are invaluable.

🪶 From sky to sea, and then back to the lab, here are the top images from Nature’s 2026 photo competition: Five winning images of scientists at work.

🪶 “It’s deadlier than cyanide and causes paralysis and death. And, unfortunately, there’s no known antidote...” 8 most poisonous birds on the planet.

🪶 If nothing else, the online misunderstanding serves as a helpful reminder that cigarette waste remains a major health concern for both people and the planet itself: No, crows aren’t cleaning up cigarette butts in Sweden.

🪶 What has brought these species back while others are disappearing? The surprising recovery of once‑rare birds

India - A High Himalayan Quest

August 27 - September 9, 2028 with George Armistead & Surya Ramachandran

It’s the most humbling landscape on Earth and it hosts some of the planet's most legendary animals and seldom-seen birds. Join us for a unique high Himalayan adventure.

And the answer is....

It’s not olive-colored, and it’s not a warbler, it’s the sole member of its own family, Peucedramida

Share Life List Podcast Newsletter

Copyright © 2026 Life List Podcast, All rights reserved.

Hello Life List Friends,

Most birds fly by pushing against the air. Penguins do the opposite, and a new muscle map reveals how the same skeleton manages both an ungainly waddle on land and a graceful “flight” underwater.

Flocks pose their own puzzle. Each bird responds only to the birds ahead and beside it, never behind - a pattern that quietly breaks one of Newton’s oldest laws. Physicists have finally figured out how to model it.

A 120-million-year-old fossil from northwestern China reveals a bizarre gliding predator that preyed on birds long before anything resembling a modern bird existed. Closer to home, one of North America’s rarest birds - a Whooping Crane - turned up in central Alberta this week, hundreds of miles from where anyone expected it.

Also in this issue: a £7.5 million effort to protect one of the world’s great migratory flyways, how hummingbirds accelerated the evolution of an entire plant family, and the European Roller’s remarkable commute between Africa and Central Asia.

There’s much more too, including upcoming trips with Hillstar Nature and Alvaro’s Adventures that still have spaces available.

Listen to our latest podcast episode: What bird conservation can teach us with Scott Weidensaul.

Share Life List Podcast Newsletter

Puerto Rico: Boricua Birds

February 12 - 18, 2027 with Phil Chaon

There aren’t many countries where you can hope to see all the endemic birds in about a week, especially while birding at a fairly relaxed pace. But then they don’t call it “The Island of Enchantment” for nothing. Join us for a quick getaway, see some tantalizing tropical birds, all while still on US soil.

“If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows.” – Henry Ward Beecher

Birding Headlines From Around The World

✅ Whooping Cranes, which nest in the far north, are a ‘mega rarity’ for birdwatchers: Endangered Whooping Crane makes rare appearance in central Alberta.

✅ On-the-ground initiatives will deliver habitat restoration and protection work in Romania, Bulgaria, Iraq, Jordan, Uganda, Malawi and Zimbabwe, alongside efforts to grow nature-based economies and jobs: BirdLife awarded £7.5 million to protect and restore one of the world’s great flyways.

✅ Unlike most birds, penguins don't fly through the air, they "fly" through water. To do this, their bodies have evolved dramatically: Penguin muscle map reveals how waddles and underwater ‘flight’ both work.

✅ China has made significant progress in bird conservation, with populations of many endangered species continuing to recover, according to data released by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) on Thursday: China reports recovery of endangered bird populations, strengthens AI-powered protection.

✅ Hummingbirds make bromeliad plants split into new species twice as fast as other pollinators do, scientists at the University of Reading have found: Hummingbirds speed up pineapple family’s evolution.

✅ When researchers played underwater recordings of pushy males, females that were capable of becoming pregnant swam away from the sounds: Female dolphins seem to remember which males were aggressive during mating season.

✅ A 120 million-year-old fossil found in what’s now northwestern China is changing how scientists think about an unusual group of predatory dinosaurs known as microraptors: Fossil reveals bizarre gliding creature that hunted birds 120 million years ago.

Costa Rica: A Birder’s Paradise

March 7 - 15, 2027 with Joshua Covill

The original pioneer of ecotravel and in birding tourism, Costa Rica is a birder’s paradise. With amazing eco-lodges, fantastic food, and rich biodiversity packed into a country the size of West Virginia, over ¼ of the nation is protected in national park land, wildlife sanctuaries or private nature reserves.

Bird Quiz

Which of these bird names is made up?

A) Inaccessible Island Rail

B) Copper-crested Marsh Piper

C) Long-wattled Umbrella Bird

Find the answer toward the bottom of this newsletter.

The Power and Beauty of Birds

🪶 This film introduces audiences to critically endangered African Penguins from South Africa and fairy penguins, the smallest penguin in the world, from New Zealand and Australia: New England Aquarium to screen new documentary exploring penguin love and conservation.

🪶 And talking about penguins….watch: Simon Pegg reads an apology letter to penguins.

🪶 The European roller is a small, striking migratory bird that breeds in open woodlands - or farms and orchards - across Europe and Central Asia: From Africa to Central Asia, the European Roller’s migration builds relationships.

🪶 MIT and EPFL engineers built a bird-like robot that swims, plunges, and launches from water using only flapping wings: Bird-inspired robot swims, plunges, and flies using flapping wings.

🪶 Feathers, flight, and drama: 36 winning bird photos from the Academy Photo Awards 2026.

🪶 Birding English: Exploring the History of a Language Through 50 Birds, a book review by Donna.

🪶 Birds in flocks, bacteria and cells: In many collective systems, individual elements respond to only part of their surroundings, seemingly defying Newton's third law of motion - action equals reaction. Why birds ignore Newton: New theory could sharpen models of flocks, crowds and cells.

India - The Ghats & The Deccan Plateau

February 20 - March 4, 2028 with George Armistead & Surya Ramachandran

Immerse yourself in one of the most unique places on earth. Blessed with extraordinary habitats that change drastically with altitude and proximity to the coast, the richness of species and the diversity of habitats have led to its classification as one of the top ten biodiversity hotspots on the planet.

And the answer is....

B) Copper-crested Marsh Piper

A) Inaccessible Island Rail, and C) Long-wattled Umbrella Bird exist

Share Life List Podcast Newsletter

Copyright © 2026 Life List Podcast, All rights reserved.

Barn Owls are white, which sounds like a liability for a nocturnal predator. New research suggests it might actually be the point. The brightness startles prey into a split-second freeze. Ravens also get a second look this week. The old legend had them following wolves to kills. A tracking study shows they’re not following at all, they’re predicting, positioning themselves near likely kill sites before the hunt even begins.

Pygmy Falcons depend entirely on nests built by Sociable Weavers, never building their own. GPS tracking now shows they raise their young within less than a square kilometer of territory. And in a separate study, researchers mapped the ideal wing shape for flight, then checked it against real birds. Most don’t measure up.

Also in this issue: parrots shifting how they communicate in the wild, bumblebees that can perceive rhythm, and a Wisconsin creamery restoring 105 acres of wetland.

There’s much more too, including upcoming trips with Hillstar Nature and Alvaro’s Adventures that still have spaces available.

Listen to our latest podcast episode: Interpreting migration data, cataloging our backyards, and El Niño predictions.

Share Life List Podcast Newsletter

Brazil: The Mata Atlantica

August 22 - September 3, 2026 with Joshua Covill

The Atlantic Rainforest of southeast Brazil, or the “Mata Atlantica” as it is known locally, is world-famous for the fabulous birding and for endemism. Sporting over 200 unique species to this biome, and over 100 species endemic to the country, this is one of the most bird-rich and biodiverse hotspots on the planet.

“The songs of the morning birds reverberate the glory of the eternal life.” – Amit Ray

Birding Headlines From Around The World

✅ They fly silently through the night air and swoop down on unsuspecting prey with their sharp talons. But they have something you would think goes against being a stealth predator - their white feathers: White Barn Owls may use moonlight to startle prey.

✅ Legend had it that ravens followed wolves to fresh kills. A tracking study reveals a much more interesting scavenging strategy: Ravens anticipate wolf kill sites across broad scales.

✅ A defining characteristic of the pygmy falcon's ecology is its unusual nesting strategy. Unlike most raptors that construct their own nests, the pygmy falcon depends entirely on the nests constructed by the sociable weavers. Tiny raptor, tiny range: GPS tracking reveals Pygmy Falcons use less than 1 km² to raise nestlings.

✅ The project, which encompasses about 105 acres, will restore wetlands and native upland habitat and include reforestation efforts. Birding and banana splits just got sweeter: Barnside Creamery restores wetlands.

✅ Burning the candle at both ends: Two sympatric thrushes are equally detectable and sing at similar rates at dawn and dusk.

✅ After identifying the ideal theoretical wings, they mapped real bird wings on top to see how they measured up: Most bird wings aren’t optimized for flight.

✅ New research, published in the journal Science, shows humans are not alone in mastering rhythm: Bumblebees can perceive rhythm, despite their brains being the size of a sesame seed.

Costa Rica: Pacific Specials

March 15 - 24, 2027 with Joshua Covill

The sleepy southwest and the Pacific slope of Costa Rica’s Talamanca mountains feature a number of bird species that are tough to see elsewhere. This 9-night trip we hone in on key sites to seek special birds in a less visited part of this iconic birding country.

Bird Quiz

What bird family does the Lark Bunting (Calamospiza melanocorys) belong to?

Hint: it’s neither a true lark (Alaudidae) nor a bunting (Cardinalidae or Emberizidae)

Find the answer toward the bottom of this newsletter.

The Power and Beauty of Birds

🪶 Deep within the world’s tropical forests, a remarkable evolution is taking place. Parrots, known for their vibrant colors and impressive vocal abilities, are adapting their communication methods in response to changing environments: Parrots are changing the way they communicate in the wild.

🪶 Higher temperatures, splintered landscapes, artificial light, noise, and pollution are driving changes in animal and plant species. Urban evolution: How life is adapting to concrete jungles.

🪶 With its electric blue skin, helmet-like casque, and dagger-sharp claws, the cassowary looks like it’s strolled straight off the set of Jurassic Park: The cassowary is a dinosaur in disguise - and it knows it.

🪶 While the hummingbird dips its beak into the feeder, the camera zooms in on the action, capturing both the bird and the girl’s priceless reaction in frame: Little girl’s priceless reaction to hummingbird encounter is pure magic.

🪶 Resplendent in red, gold and blue, the male of this spectacular species sports a crest like a barrister’s wig – even if it leaves him with massive blind spots: 8 photos of the world’s most beautiful pheasant.

🪶 This is too funny: Boston comedian Matt Lyons hilariously poked gentle fun at the obsessive knowledge of birds that many people develop after installing a bird feeder in their yard. 😅

🪶 While birds take it easy during the hottest months, set your sights on smaller wonders: Give bugwatching a go this summer.

India - The Ghats & The Deccan Plateau

February 20 - March 4, 2028 with George Armistead & Surya Ramachandran

Immerse yourself in one of the most unique places on earth. Blessed with extraordinary habitats that change drastically with altitude and proximity to the coast, the richness of species and the diversity of habitats have led to its classification as one of the top ten biodiversity hotspots on the planet.

And the answer is....

Passerellidae - New World Sparrows

Share Life List Podcast Newsletter

Copyright © 2026 Life List Podcast, All rights reserved.