This is bird now.

This is bird now.

One crucial challenge in bird conservation is a lack of knowledge about female birds.

Being able to understand what's driving the female segment of our populations is critical.

Michael Chamberlain, wildlife ecologist and co-founder of the Wild Turkey Lab, has spent most of his 30-plus-year career studying wild turkeys.

And he says, one recent important discovery came from researching the nesting habits of hens.

We thought for decades that they spent time before they laid that first egg picking the best spot. And what we've learned is that they don't do any of that.

They literally fly down the morning of, and it appears that their body says hey it's time to lay

some eggs and they go do that that's probably why no two nest sites look alike.

Wild turkeys are a generalist species

and can survive in a wide range of habitats.

But this also makes them vulnerable.

Hans lose nearly 30% of their population every year.

You have a bird that spends all year sleeping at night in a tree and then

suddenly for 28 days they're sleeping on the ground on a nest.

That's typically when they're killed.

Learn more about the importance of female birds to conservation on the new season of Bring Birds Back.

Available now in your favorite podcast app or at birdnote.org.

I'm Purbita Saha.