Date: 7/6/26 8:53 am From: Duncan, Scot via groups.io <scotduncan99...> Subject: Re: [ALbirds] shout out from the ABA to Auburn's Dr. Geoff Hill
My apologies to Geoff Hill for misspelling his name in my recent post (it's
Geoff, not Jeff). I certainly know better, but was using voice-to-text
translation for a draft of that email and I didn't catch the substitution.
Sorry Geoff!
Scottt
On Thu, Jul 2, 2026 at 9:52 AM Scot Duncan <scotduncan99...> wrote:
> 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.
>
> Scot
>
> R. Scot Duncan, Ph.D.
> Conservation biologist, author, advocate, and birder.
> https://www.rsduncan.com/ > Author of *Southern Wonder <https://www.rsduncan.com/swonder>* and *Southern
> Rivers <https://www.rsduncan.com/srivers>* > Executive Director, Alabama Audubon <https://alaudubon.org/> > For Alabama Audubon matters, please use <Scot...>
>
