The last Thursday of the month means it's time for This Month in Birding, our round table discussion with birding friends about news in birding and ornithology. This week we welcome Jennie Duberstein, Nick Lund, and Brodie Cass Talbott to discuss casual eBirding, hybrid Jays, and what bird to patronize on Halloween night. 

Links to articles discussed in this episode:

The relaxed birder

The Unexpected Profundity of a Movie About Bird-Watching

An Intergeneric Hybrid Between Historically Isolated Temperate and Tropical Jays Following Recent Range Expansion

The hunt for the last great auks: ancient DNA resolves a 180-year-old mystery

Space use during the breeding season of three different forest-dwelling owl species in an area of sympatry: a case study of male hunting home-range sizes and overlaps

It’s hard to overstate in influence of Cornell’s Merlin on the growth of birding over the last few years.  What began as a simple tool for helping people to identify bird photos has become so much more, reaching millions of nature enthusiasts and even some celebrities. Miyoko Chu. Senior Director of Science Communitcations at the Lab, and Alli Smith, Project Coordinator for Merlin, join us to talk about what it's like to be in the middle of one this massive movement for nature lovers. 

If you're interested in taking advantage of the sound recording workshop offered by Cornell and mentioned earlier in the conversation, American Birding Podcast listeners can save 40% using the discount code RecordMerlin40 at checkout through December 31, 2025. 

Also, the ABA mourns Tony Fitzpatrick, and welcome birders to Fort Myers this weekend. 

Birding magazine editor and random birder Ted Floyd is back for another trip around the bird list. He and host Nate Swick take their list of birds and their random number generator and end up talking longspurs, vireos, and drama plovers in this edition of Random Birds. 

Also, check out the ABA Store for all sorts of fun Bird of the Year and logo wear stuff!

It's not hard to get birders talking about some of the big questions in our hobby. And this time we go back in the archives of Birding magazine to collect some historic hot takes for another edition of Take It or Leave It, the discussion panel for the most opinionated birders. This time we welcome Tim Healy and Martha Harbison to talk about Trumpeter Swan introductions, the proper plural of binoculars, and whether the internet was a good thing for birders. 

Also, don't forget to bid on some great original bird art from our Bird of the Year program. 

Have you ever had to describe birding to a friend or family member who just doesn’t get it? What analogies do you use? Is birding like a religion? A sport? An obsession? In this encore episode from 2018, Guest host Greg Neise brings Birding editor Ted Floyd and young birder liaison Jennie Duberstein to bear on the issue in a rollicking discussion in an attempt to figure it out.

Also, it looks like Nate is going to be at the ABA Community Weekend in Fort Meyers, Florida, next month!