Okay, but how do birds handle a heatwave?

E33. When the air temperature climbs past a bird's own body temperature, staying cool stops being free and starts to cost them water they may not have. Dr. Blair Wolf, University of New Mexico, has spent his career studying how desert birds survive heat that should kill them, and what happens when it finally gets too hot.

In this episode you'll hear about:

Why some backyard birds can shrug off oven-like temperatures while others just a few feet away don't make it

The strange, water-saving trick birds use to dump heat without a single drop of sweat

What the birds dying in these heatwaves are trying to tell us about what's coming

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

White-winged Dove audio contributed by Raphaël Nussbaumer, ML571978241

Verdin audio contributed by Bob McGuire, ML197163

Black-throated Sparrow audio contributed by James (Jim) Holmes, ML573935831

Black-throated Sparrow video contributed by Benjamin Clock, ML483211

Mourning Dove audio contributed by James (Jim) Holmes, ML583603101

Mourning Dove audio contributed by Anonymous, ML658417476