Hello and welcome. This is the Science of Birds. I am your host, Ivan Philipson.

The Science of Birds podcast is a lighthearted exploration of bird biology for lifelong learners.

And you know what day it is?

It's Random Bird Thursday.

Random Bird Thursday episodes are relatively short and unscripted.

They each spotlight a bird species that I probably won't feature in a full-length episode.

With over 11,000 bird species in the world,

Random Bird Thursday is a chance for us to celebrate a species we might otherwise overlook.

So without further ado, let's push the

random bird selector button and see who we're talking about today. Okay, we have the white

whiskered puffbird, malacoptola penamensis.

Now before we learn about this bird, the white-whiskered puffbird, I just want to mention a couple ways that you can support the work I'm doing here with the science of birds, if you'd like to do that.

The first way is by becoming a member of my Patreon community.

There are now hundreds of people in the Patreon community and that's amazing.

And their generous support is what keeps this podcast going.

And as a member, you not only provide support, but you also get some fun perks, things that

the average person doesn't get.

So if you're interested in that,

then check out my Patreon page over at patreon.com slash Science of Birds. And then the other way

you can support what I'm doing here is you can go to birdmerch.com and that's where you can find

t-shirts that I have designed related to birds and birding.

And you can pick up yourself a shirt or 10 shirts to show off to all your friends how much you love birds.

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