'Just' A Blue Jay? Don't Overlook These Magnificent Common Birds

<p>It’s that time of year: the <a href="https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/christmas-bird-count-common-birds/?utm_source=wnyc&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=scifri" target="_blank">Christmas Bird Count</a>, when birders go out in flocks to record all the birds they see in a single day. The data collected during this annual tradition gets compiled by the National Audubon Society, and helps scientists understand bird population trends across the Americas. </p><p>If you participate in the bird count, chances are you’ll see a lot of the same birds you’d see any other day of the year—think sparrows, blue jays, blackbirds, cardinals. But that doesn’t make them any less special. So this year we’re turning our binoculars on a few (wrongfully) overlooked <a href="https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/christmas-bird-count-common-birds/?utm_source=wnyc&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=scifri" target="_blank">common birds</a>.  </p><p>Producer Kathleen Davis talks with two of our favorite bir...