Episode 21: Wetland and Grassland Birds from the Man who Discovered a Frog: with Seshadri K.S.
Dr. Seshadri KS grew up in Bangalore and started to watch birds at a young age. An avid naturalist with interests across many taxa, he has chosen to study natural history, ecology and conservation biology as a career. He was part of the team that described three new species of frogs from India and described a new behavior in frogs. Dr. Seshadri is currently a DST-INSPIRE Faculty Fellow at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc Bangalore. In this episode, we talk about wetland and grassland ecology, and bird photography.
Episode 20: Breeding Behavior of the Lance Tailed Manakin of Panama with Emily DuVal
Our guest in this episode is Dr. Emily Duval whose Duval lab at Florida State University studies behavioral ecology, population genetics, and in the role of sexual selection in speciation. Multiple mating, where one female bird copulates with more than one male is...
Episode 19: All the Birds of the World with Josep Del Hoyo
This episode features Josep Del Hoyo, one of the founders as well as the director of Lynx Edicions and an expert videographer of birds. This episode is a wide-ranging conversation about birds in different parts of the world.
Episode 18: Birding in South India and beyond with Deepa Mohan
Every good city needs a generous birding guide, one who is empathetic and loves to explore nature around her. If this intrepid explorer is empathetic, generous and inclusive, that’s even better. Deepa Mohan is one such wildlife enthusiast and explorer in Bangalore, India. In this podcast, we discuss the many aspects of Deepa’s birding all over India, about how to count birds, about going to the same location many times and some of her favourite birding areas in India.
Episode 17: About Striated Caracaras with Jonathan Meiburg
This episode is about striated caracaras, or rather, one man's obsession with them. The man in question is Jonathan Meiburg who is a musician, author and bird lover. In 1833, a young Charles Darwin was astonished by a strange animal he met in the Falkland...
Episode 16: How to attract birds to your garden– with Shubha Bhat
Visit the home of Shubha Bhat and you will find many birds enjoying birdbaths in her garden and its surroundings. An avid birder, Shubha has spoken about backyard birding in many forums including the Bangalore Bird Day, Manipal Bird Day and others. Her work has been...
Episode 15: Nest Boxes and Birding Through Time with J. N. Prasad
JN Prasad has been a keen naturalist and birdwatcher for the last 4 decades. Associated closely with the WWF-India Nature Clubs of India movement since its inception, he went on to co-found Merlin Nature Club, which became the cradle of learning for many of Bangalore’s most enthusiastic naturalists.
More recently, continuing the passion Dr. George had for nest boxes, especially for cavity nesters like Magpie-Robins, that are facing a huge challenge to find space to breed, he has started the Gubbi Goodu network of volunteers who build nest boxes for sparrows and other birds.
Episode 14: Data science in birding: the ebird experiment
Do you want to become a reviewer for ebird? Which bird is the logo of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology? Do you think sparrow populations are declining? What abour vireos? Can you “rent” land from farmers to help shorebirds? In this fascinating episode, we talk to Christopher Wood, who heads ebird at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Ashwin Viswanathan who is part of Bird Count India and NCF. Over one billion birders use ebird. How did it become this global behemoth? Hint, it wasn’t driven by America. How does ebird track and help avian populations, migration and mapping birds. How do different countries use it, and is India really the “global custodian” of so many species including the Common Rosefinch, Bar-headed Geese, or Blythe’s Reed Warbler?
Episode 13: Birdology and the Hummingbird’s gift with Sy Montgomery
To research books, films and articles, Sy Montgomery has been chased by an angry silverback gorilla in Zaire and bitten by a vampire bat in Costa Rica, worked in a pit crawling with 18,000 snakes in Manitoba and handled a wild tarantula in French Guiana. She has been...
Episode 12: The global Odyssey of migratory birds with Scott Weidensaul
"By the time a bar-tailed godwits dies, it would have flown to the moon and most of the way back," says ornithologist and author Scott Weidensaul. A bar-tailed godwit flies 18,000 miles a year. By the time it dies, it will have flown closer to 500,000 miles. In this...
Episode 11: Rohini Nilekani on the Pleasures of Being in Nature
"To be able to conserve and protect, you have to observe and love," says philanthropist Rohini Nilekani. "Being in nature, you get this sense of continuing renewing wonder," she says. In this episode, Rohini talks about her favourite birds and why conserving nature is...
Episode 10: Birding in Columbia, India, Costa Rica and New Guinea with Maitreya Sukumar
Maitreya Sukumar, 18, who has been birding since he was 4, has seen 850 + bird species in the Indian subcontinent and around 2500 species overall . He was named Sanctuary Asia’s Young Naturalist of the year in 2018. Apart from birds, he is interested in frogs,...
Episode 9: Bird Identification and Ecology with M. B. Krishna
Dr. Krishna MB is an ecologist and ornithologist from Bangalore who has been interested in bird and habitat conservation and improvement. A legend in the Bangalore birding community, he has studied zoology and pursued his research on bird ecology.
Krishna is a regular fixture at birding walks at the Lalbagh Botanical Garden and is a wealth of knowledge on ecology and bird identification. He has advised many corporate and individuals on modifying landscape garden plans to make them more urban-wildlife friendly. It is in this capacity that he has advised SAP Labs and Robert Bosch on making their campus gardens more functional. He has also advised other corporates like the Taj West End, Trans Indus, Fanuc India, Benson Company, TVS Motors and others, and the Karnataka State Forest Department on issues related to birds, bird habits and landscaping.
Episode 8: Dominique Homberger on parrots, cockatoos and Psittaciformes
Are you interested in how parrot species and their beaks evolved? How do parrots eat? What is the link between the length of parrot beaks and what they eat– fruits versus nuts? Have feathers evolved to insulate the birds? Why do feathers fluff up? Why is the body of the bird spindle-shaped? How do vultures soar? Parrots and the connection to Gondwanaland. Why is it bad when parrots in a cage start to speak? Contact calls among flocks of birds, how birds land on trees, are some of the other things she talks about.
Episode 7: Jairam Ramesh on his tenure as India’s environment minister
A few years ago, I cold-emailed Jairam Ramesh, then minister of rural development, with one question: how could urban individuals contribute to rural India? He called me from Gumla, Jharkand. “Do you know where Gumla is?” he asked. Sheepishly, I said No. After some small talk—his mother lives in Bangalore— I asked how the average urban citizen could help rural India, should they desire to. What were his top five priorities?
Episode 6: Jennifer Ackerman on the genius of birds
Jennifer Ackerman has been writing about science and nature for 30 years. Her most recent book, The Genius of Birds (Penguin Press, April 2016), explores the intelligence of birds.
A contributor to Scientific American, National Geographic Magazine, The New York Times, and many other publications, Jennifer is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including an NEA Literature Fellowship in Nonfiction, a Bunting Institute Fellowship, and a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Episode 5: Dr. Jerry Jackson on bird adaptations and the Ivory-billed woodpecker
Dr. Jerry Jackson is a legend in ornithology, for his life-long fascination with the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.
Interview with Dr. Jerome Jackson, a noted ornithologist based in Florida. And we are talking about Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary near Naples, Florida. Located in the heart of the Everglades ecosystem of Southwest Florida, Corkscrew swamp is home to raptors, barred owls, songbirds—there were a ton of Northern Cardinals and Carolina Wrens when I visited in April.
Episode 4: Shashank Dalvi’s “Big Year of Birding” across India
Shashank Dalvi talks about his Big Year of Birding all over India.
Episode 3: Destination Bharatpur
The Keoladeo Ghana National Park is arguably India's most famous national park for birds. This episode offers you a bird's eye view of the park. [podcast...
Episode 2: The Peacock
This episode is about the peacock, not because it is the national bird of India, which it is. But because it gave rise to the second most important work in evolutionary biology. I speak of course of Charles Darwin’s theory of sexual selection. Darwin has referred to...
Episode 1: Great Indian Bustard: can it be saved from the brink of extinction?
Hear more about Great Indian Bustard: can we can save it from the brink of extinction?