This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato. As is our custom, it's our annual bird watching segment where we team up with Audubon's annual Christmas bird count.

We're devotees of the avian kind bundle up with binoculars in hand to count up all the noisy nut hatches.

The diving ducks, and maybe one of these. Of course, it's everybody's favorite. Really, that's just a preview because later in the hour, we're going to play Name that Bird Quiz. We're going to play a call, and we want you to make the call and call in with your guests for the bird that made that sound. But first we're going to talk about what birds you've seen this winter. Did you participate in a bird count?

Or maybe you're taking count from your kitchen window.

Some listeners checked in on the Science Friday Vox Pop app to tell us what they've seen.

My bird feeder typically attracts gold finches, house finches, towies, but suddenly a nut hatch has arrived and I'm very

excited to have found a new member of the bird club in my backyard. I was drinking coffee early

on Christmas morning and heard this lovely bird song in my backyard. It's a Carolina Wren and it's

not real common in Iowa, so I felt

really lucky to hear it.

Don't you love that sound? It's so soothing the birds out there on the feeder. Those folks were Debbie in Citrus Heights, California, Lisa in Iowa City. And we want to hear about what birds you have spotted this winter migration. Maybe a wayward wax wing or an owl that's come back every year. Or maybe you need help identifying a bird you saw.

Well, that's what we're going to be talking about, and you can give us a call.

Our number 844-724-8255, 844 SciTalk, or tweet us at SciFRI, S-E-I-F-R-I.

Now let me introduce our bird guides for the hour.

Karina Newsom is a birder and graduate students studying bird conservation at Georgia Southern

University in Statesboro, Georgia.

She joins us by Skype.

Welcome to Science Friday.

Thank you so much for having me.

Nice to have you.

Jeff LeBaron is the National Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count Director based out of Leemsburg, Massachusetts. Nice to have you back, Jeff. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me on, Ira. You're welcome. Let's first talk to you, Jeff. The bird count is wrapping up this weekend, and your team will go back and look through the data. Can you give us an idea of what trends you're seeing from the season?

It's a bit early time. and your team will go back and look through the data. Can you give us an idea of what trends you're seeing from the season?

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