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 hear about:

• What each side gets out of one of the only known mutualisms between humans and a wild animal, and why this bird in particular evolved to seek us out
• The remarkable signal the honeyguide uses to communicate with people, and what playback experiments revealed when researchers tested it across very different communities
• What happens to a partnership built over generations when one side starts buying honey at the store

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:

• Greater Honeyguide audio contributed by Jennifer F. M. Horne, ML55972

Additional media courtesy of Dr. Claire Spottiswoode and Dr. Jessica van der Wal

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 bird
• A storm, some missing warblers, and a discovery nobody set out to make
• What 300 birds falling out of the sky over Texas can tell you about how much fuel is in the tank

Listen, follow, and tell a friend who’s a little superstitious.

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:

• Yellow-billed cuckoo audio, Wil Hershberger, ML94446
• Barnacle goose audio, Bob McGuire, ML235525
• Golden-winged warbler video, Benjamin Clock, ML476422
• Blue-winged warbler video, Eric Liner, ML469433
• Yellow-billed cuckoo video, Larry Arbanas, ML466566
• Eastern kingbird audio, Wil Hershberger, ML534398
• Tennessee warbler audio, Wil Hershberger, ML85236
• Tennessee warbler video, Eric Liner, ML466381
• Wood thrush video, Benjamin Clock, ML471755

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 cookie
• Why preen oil is a dating profile written in chemistry, and how seabirds use the same chemical cue that's now leading albatross parents to feed their chicks plastic
• The bonus myth Danielle wants gone

New here? Listen, follow, and tell a friend who still thinks birds can't smell.

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:

• Brown-headed Cowbird audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94262
• Dark-eyed Junco audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94361
• Red Knot audio contributed by Lucas DeCicco, ML516895
• Crested Auklet audio contributed by Sampath Seneviratne, ML132014
• Laysan Albatross audio contributed by Ted Miller, ML117679