Date: 7/2/26 7:52 am From: Duncan, Scot via groups.io <scotduncan99...> Subject: [ALbirds] shout out from the ABA to Auburn's Dr. Geoff Hill
I was listening to the latest American Birding Association podcast that came out today and was pleased to hear several references to Alabama. Nate Swick runs the podcast and will be the Alabama Audubon keynote speaker at the 6th Annual Black Belt Birding Festival <https://alaudubon.org/black-belt-birding-festival>July 31-Aug 2.
One mention was of the work by Dr Jeff Hill at Auburn to decode the causes of pigmentation variation in birds, including house finches which was a species of discussion in the podcast. Nate and Ted Floyd also praised us for having the Northern Flicker as our state bird (we're the only state with NOFL as the official state bird; and we're the only state with a woodpecker as an official state bird).
I'll also share that our very own Andrew Lydeard (Alabama Audubon's Program Coordinator) and Chris Joe (Birds and Nature Tours) were guests on the ABA podcast two weeks ago and did a fabulous job of presenting the Black Belt as a wonderful hidden treasure for birding in the Eastern US.
You can enjoy the ABA podcasts here <https://www.aba.org/podcast/>, or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc. The podcast is a great way to keep up on the latest in birding, unusual bird sightings and phenomena, and relevant new bird science.
