E28. A bird's brain is the most expensive thing it owns, and evolution doesn't hand one out for free. Dr. Carlos Botero, Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has spent a decade tracing what variable, unforgiving environments actually do to bird cognition, and the answer flips a lot of conventional wisdom on its head.

In this episode:

• Why the harshest places on Earth produce two kinds of birds: the puzzle-solving geniuses and the brute-force survivors, with almost nothing in between
• How big brains might not have evolved for the reasons we always assumed
• Why being one of the smartest birds in the sky can come with a hidden cost

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

• Willow Ptarmigan audio contributed by Leonard J. Peyton, ML50031
• American Crow audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML229089
• Blue Jay audio contributed by Gaetan Dupont, ML173749
• Black-capped Chickadee audio contributed by Jay McGowan, ML202239
• Snowy Owl audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML138288

E27. They’ve been called "rats with wings," but pigeons are actually elite athletes, historical icons, and evolutionary marvels. Scott chats with Dr. Elizabeth Carlen, a postdoc at the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in St. Louis, to look past the common stereotypes and uncover the remarkable biology of the Rock Pigeon.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• The deep historical bond between humans and pigeons and how domestic birds successfully transitioned back into the wild.
• How pigeons navigate the constant threat of specialized hunters like Peregrine Falcons and Red-tailed Hawks.
• How mapping the DNA of feral pigeons across the Northeastern US revealed that their population structure surprisingly mirrors human geography, and what flight distances can tell us about their urban evolution.

If you enjoy this one, follow Okay, But… Birds and share it with a friend who needs to give pigeons a second look.

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

• Blue Jay audio contributed by Gaetan Dupont, ML173749
• Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) audio contributed by James Kimball, ML3891
• Peregrine Falcon audio contributed by Mike Andersen, ML136378
• Red-tailed Hawk audio contributed by David McCartt, ML229578

E26. We borrowed a phrase from human dating and tried to pin it on birds. Turns out they never needed the rulebook. Dr. Wenfei Tong, biologist and author of Bird Love, joins Scott to unpack what bird partnerships actually look like once you stop projecting our scripts onto them, from females who run the territory to males who guard their paternity in deeply weird ways.

In this episode you'll hear about:

• Why the drabbest little brown bird in the garden has one of the wildest sex lives in the animal kingdom
• How a female calls the shots when she holds the better real estate, and what the males do about it
• The cloacal pecking payoff you have to hear to believe

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

• Laysan Albatross audio contributed by Ted Miller, ML117679
• Black-capped Chickadee audio contributed by Jay McGowan, ML202239
• Spotted Sandpiper audio contributed by Lucas DeCicco, ML516963
• Northern Jacana audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML140224
• Red-necked Phalarope audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML235440
• Black Coucal audio contributed by Myles E. W. North, ML3084
• Papuan Eclectus audio contributed by Thane Pratt, ML169808
• Red-winged Blackbird audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML249827
• Red-winged Blackbird audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94215
• Red-capped Manakin audio contributed by David L. Ross Jr., ML57360
• Blue-footed Booby audio contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML85906
• Greater Flamingo audio contributed by Myles E. W. North, ML2443
• Dunnock audio contributed by Niels Krabbe, ML249162