Learning to Hear the World of Bird Songs and Calls Around Us

The premise of California Bird Talk is that if you know just a bit about how and why birds sing or call out to each other, you'll have much more fun listening to them, no matter whether you live in a city or out in the country.

Each California Bird Talk program is 2 minutes long and uses lots of sound. Most of the sound, of course, is of the birds themselves. But we also use analogies to musical instruments or the human voice to understand how birds sing.

We ask bird song experts how birds make those wonderful sounds, and why. But mostly we listen to lots of California birds, repeating their songs and calls, or even slowing them down to hear what birds themselves can hear.


California Bird Talk is a public radio project produced and hosted by Rusten Hogness.


"With obvious affection for his cast of starlings, thrushes and mockingbirds, host Rusten Hogness gives us a two-minute nature walk from the comfort of our chairs."
-- Deb Hopewell, Talk and Information Director, KUSP-FM

"I'm not a scientist, and I don't have to be, because California Bird Talk gives me the science of bird song, flight, BEING, in a delightful and simple way. When birds sing now, my heart sings with them. Thanks Rusten!" --Lizzie Hannon, morning host, KRCB-FM

© 2005 - 2011 Rusten Hogness