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 lucky us, it's Random Bird Thursday.

Random Bird Thursday episodes are relatively short and sweet.

In each of them, I spotlight a bird species that probably won't get featured in a full-length episode.

There are over 11,000 bird species in the world, so Random Bird Thursday gives us a chance to celebrate a species that we might otherwise overlook.

Now, I've had some questions recently, and I think there's a little bit of confusion. Some people think I actually choose

these birds, but I don't. It's really random. I literally have a button on my desk that I push,

and it pulls up one of those 11,000-plus bird species, and that's the bird we have for the

episode. Now, that said, I do sometimes choose to veto whatever bird pops up, because either

I've already talked about it, or it's a bird species I think is worthy of an entire full-length

podcast episode, because there's just a lot to say about

it, or there's just so little information about the species that it would be kind of hard to make

a random bird Thursday episode about it. So yes, random bird Thursday is truly, definitely random.

And that's the fun. That's why I think it's really cool,

because I have no idea what bird I'm going to talk about until I do. And I have no shame in

admitting that I have to research these birds. It's not like I know the bird all of the ins

and outs of the species when it first pops up. But that again is part of the fun.

I like learning about these random birds from around the world right alongside you,

and then I add in whatever knowledge I already have about all the things.

...