58: Tanagers with Kevin Burns

Birds of a Feather Talk Together

This week we talk to Kevin Burns about Tanagers. Kevin, an ornithologist and professor of biology at San Diego State University, goes way back with Shannon and John, and led the research that reclassified what exactly a tanager is and what it isn’t. Many birds which have the common name Tanager, such as the scarlet tanager or western tanager, aren’t actually tanagers, and birds like Darwin’s finches actually are tanagers. Many of you might already know this, but we get to talk to Kevin about what exactly went into this research, and what that process was like. We also hear some fun stories about Kevin, John, and Shannon in the field studying birds, and talk about how impressive many of the different tanagers are.
We also answer a question on fall migration.
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