Episode 28: Of birds and birdsong with Dr. Samira Agnihotri
With us today is Dr. Samira Agnihotri, who has studied bird song, racket-tailed drongos and ethno-ornithology. Dr. Agnihotri has worked in the Biligiri Rangana Betta or BR Hills from 2005 when she began to study birdsong while pursuing a Master’s degree in Wildlife Biology and Conservation from the National Centre for Biological Sciences....
Episode 27: Birders of Africa with Professor Nancy J. Jacobs
Our guest today is Nancy Jacobs is Professor of History at Brown University. The topic of our discussion is based on her third book, third book, Birders of Africa: History of a Network (Yale University, 2016. Her current work is on the “Global Grey Parrot.” She specializes in South Africa, colonial Africa, the environment, knowledge, and...
Episode 26: How Audubon Americas is ramping up conservation
This episode features two senior conservation specialists from Audubon: Aurelio Ramos and Gloria Lentijo. They talk about Audubon's new strategies in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada. This hemispheric approach stems from the recognition that the majority of vulnerable bird species found in the U.S. spend most of their lives in...
Episode 25: The Allure And Majesty Of Hornbills With Dr. Aparajita Datta
Dr. Aparajita Datta leads The Nature Conservation Foundation’s Eastern Himalaya programme, under which research and community-based conservation with hornbills as a flagship have been carried out for over two decades. She completed her PhD on hornbill biology and their role in seed dispersal in 2000. Since then, she along with her team have...
Episode 24: The Real James Bond: Birds, Theft and a Spy.
Is there a link between birds and 007? Well, author and American birder, Jim Wright says there is. The title of his latest book says it all. “The Real James Bond: A True Story of Identity Theft, Avian Intrigue and Ian Fleming.” The book says, “Long before Ian Lancaster Fleming became a bestselling author, a...
Episode 23: Jonathan Franzen talks about birding
Jonathan Franzen is arguably America's greatest living fiction writer. He has won numerous accolades and awards. His latest book, Crossroads, is just out. Like many of his novels, it has little to do with his other passion. As Jonathan says in this interview, he doesn't bird very much when he is working. Now to birding. In his New...
Episode 22: How climate change affects birds with Dr. Umesh Srinivasan
Life on Earth is undergoing its sixth ever mass extinction, one that is entirely driven by humans. Amongst the multitude of “global change” factors causing species’ extinctions, climate change and the loss and degradation of natural habitats are major causes. This is especially the case for species in tropical mountain ranges, where most of...
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 common throughout the bird, and animal kingdom. This ain’t easy, particularly in...
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.