John is back from his trip to the Falkland Islands to study Gentoo Penguins, so we ask him all about his trip. We also answer a mailbag question on what birds do in the rain when it storms.

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 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!!

We talk about what the four of us have learned so far on our podcast journey. It's a fun reflection from RJ, Shannon, John, and Amanda. Enjoy!

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!!

This week's episode is a little different. John is going on a trip to the Falkland Islands to study Gentoo Penguins, so we ask him all about his upcoming trip. We end up discussing avian influenza a bit as well, as Bird Flu is a major concern for the trip.

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!!

This week we discuss the Rusty Blackbird. Rusty Blackbird is one of North America’s most rapidly declining species. The population has dropped between 85-99 percent over the past forty years, and Amanda and RJ saw one a few weeks ago so we decided to talk about them. Join John Bates, Shannon Hackett, RJ Pole, and Amanda Marquart for Birds of a Feather Talk Together.

We also answer a mailbag question on The Big Year (the movie with Owen Wilson, Steve Martin, and Jack Black, and also the book by Mark Obmascik.)

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 revisit an old episode on the Wild Turkey this week. These birds are a major conservation success story. We also talk about John seeing a turkey in the Democratic Republic of Congo, how turkeys got their name, and learn all about their magnificent feathers. Join John Bates, Shannon Hackett, RJ Pole, and Amanda Marquart for Birds of a Feather Talk Together.

This week we are also joined by Jacob Drucker. Jacob Drucker is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Chicago and the Field Museum studying how birds interact with tropical climates over ecological and evolutionary time. We also did a couple episodes on Hawaiian Honeycreepers with Jacob, please go back and check those out if you haven't heard them yet.

Email us your questions at podcast.birdsofafeather@gmail.com

Follow us on Instagram for pictures of the birds we discuss, specimen, and more info! @birds_of_a_feather_podcast

We are also on Tiktok and Blue Sky Social!