We are kicking it off the new year by revisiting an older episode that we did on the Willard’s Sooty Boubou. This was a bird that John and the team at the Field Museum were responsible for describing as a new species. We are doing a mini-series on the book The Feather Thief in a few weeks, so we wanted to share an episode that highlighted what John and Shannon do at the Field Museum before we kick that off. Bird specimen at The Field Museum led to describing the new species, and John tells us about his trips to Africa to study this new species.

Join John Bates, Shannon Hackett, RJ Pole, and Amanda Marquart for Birds of a Feather Talk Together.

Please send us your questions for us to answer as well! You can send them to podcast.birdsofafeather@gmail.com

Make sure to follow us on Instagram, Blue Sky Social and tik tok as well!!

We're still down for the holidays but are sharing a segment that we did on the Archaeopteryx at The Field Museum. Birds are the only group of dinosaurs that survived when an asteroid hit the Earth 66 million years ago. A fossil called Archaeopteryx, with feathers, hollow bones, clawed wings, tiny teeth, and a long tail, is the earliest known dinosaur that also qualifies as a bird, and is on display at the Field Museum where two of our hosts John and Shannon work.

Join John Bates, Shannon Hackett, RJ Pole, and Amanda Marquart for Birds of a Feather Talk Together.

Please send us your questions for us to answer as well! You can send them to podcast.birdsofafeather@gmail.com

Make sure to follow us on Instagram, Blue Sky Social and tik tok as well!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! This week we revisit a segment on the Christmas Bird Count. We also answer a question on the book the Feather Thief. We also finish it off with an exciting announcment for 2025 (spoiler, we are going to do a mini-series all about The Feather Thief!)

Join John Bates, Shannon Hackett, RJ Pole, and Amanda Marquart for Birds of a Feather Talk Together.

Please send us your questions for us to answer as well! You can send them to podcast.birdsofafeather@gmail.com

Make sure to follow us on Instagram, Blue Sky Social and tik tok as well!!