Welcome to Natural History Stories - a podcast of classic writings on natural history and nature observation. Our first four episodes take us through the John Burroughs collection, "Bird and Bees, Sharp Eyes and other papers." Published in 1887, the works were written between 1875 and 1886.

This episode contains the Birds section of this collection. There are two chapters, Bird Enemies and The Tragedies of the Nests.

Given the age of the writings, these stories contain outdated thoughts and ideas including the reckless killing of wildlife, human interference in nature systems and racist tropes about Native Americans, These are the thoughts and ideas of the writer and are presented only as such. We respect the Wabanaki People as the original stewards of the land where we stand today.

In this episode, there are also outdated or regional common names used for birds. Here are the names used along with their modern accepted common names.

High Hole = Northern Flicker

Cheewink = Eastern Towhee

Social Sparrow = Chipping Sparrow

Cedar Bird = Cedar Waxwing

Snowbird = Dark-eyed Junco

English Sparrow = House Sparrow

Hair Bird - Chipping Sparrow

Blue-back = Black-throated Blue Warbler

Blue Yellow-back = Northern Parula