I so clearly remember my first Dark-eyed Junco, my first White-breasted Nuthatch, my first Carolina Wren. Those birds were like thunderbolts.
—Ted Floyd
On the evening of May 12, while spring migration was in full swing, I was making dinner and perusing some of the Allegheny County rare bird alerts that had found their way to my email inbox. One checklist from the previous day jumped out at me, not only because of the eye-popping number of species (76), or the number of hours spent birding (over 6), or the inclusion of a bird I’ve never seen in Pennsylvania (Summer Tanager), but also because of the name of the birder who had submitted the checklist (Ted Floyd).
THAT Ted Floyd?, I remarked to myself before remembering that THAT Ted Floyd grew up in Pittsburgh, and there was nothing shocking about a native son birding his old stomping grounds. THAT Ted Floyd is also the editor of the American Birding Association’s Birding magazine and the author of Field Guide to the Birds of the United States and Canada, the eighth iteration of National Geographic’s guide to ABA-area birds.
That’s one birdwalk I wish I could have been on.
By some miracle, I was able to shake off the sudden acute onset of FOMO and continue preparing supper, determined the only cure for having missed out on birding with Ted Floyd was to talk birds with him. Shortly thereafter, the invitation to Ten Birding Questions was emailed and, to my eternal gratitude, accepted.
I hope you’ll enjoy this episode and Ted’s insightful, informative, sometimes self-deprecating approach to all we discussed, including:
How compulsory journaling at a young age led to a life spent among the birds and an almost out-of-body experience with a plover.
How birding and birds have changed over 45+ years in the field.
The surprising “rocket science” behind writing a field guide (spoiler alert—it ain’t the writing).
Pittsburgh birding, then and now.
His current home base of Boulder County, Colorado and the staggering diversity of bird life (and animal and plant life in general) to be found in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
An unbroken eBird checklist streak of 7,000+ consecutive days and what motivates him to bird and submit at least one checklist every day.
Perhaps ironically, we only discussed Birding in passing. Not because there was nothing to say about the ABA’s magnificent publication, but because I wanted to take a relatively deep dive into the NatGeo guide, and it was a great time getting to know just what it takes (read: how many people it takes) to write an authoritative field guide.
I came away from our talk with a brand-new case of FOMO—I really blew it living two years in Boulder without having birded once. Just behold some of the Colorado birds we discussed in the episode (including one Ted named as his top favorite among a quintet of favorite birds.
Yep, I sure blew it. A mistake I won’t make again. Meanwhile don’t you blow it by passing up on the spectacular field guide Ted and his team have gifted to the world.
I would love to have talked to Ted about his 2019 book How to Know the Birds. I would love to have talked about many more things, but that would have required fifteen or twenty birding questions and another hour (or four) of Ted’s time, and he was gracious enough as it was in going overtime with me.
If you haven’t already, I highly recommend Ted’s “Random Birds” appearances with Nate Swick on the American Birding Podcast. You’ll learn a ton about birds, and it’s just great fun to listen to two super knowledgeable birding minds riff on our favorite flying creatures. Here are a few recent episodes:
April 2026
February 2026
December 2025
Finally, if you’re curious (as I was) to hear the Nightingale that Ted references, the one recorded over 100 years ago and approved by Ottorino Respighi to accompany his Pines of Rome, here it is!
Note: I was delighted when June guest Ted Floyd mentioned May guest Holly Merker in his comment about daily birding in its good health implications.
That’s all for this month. Do you have the new National Geographic guide? Are physical field guides a part of your birding life in the age of apps and cell phones? How have you seen birding and birds change over time, particularly in the places you’ve lived? As always, the comment section awaits you!👇
Until next time, thanks for listening, and don’t forget to bird like Ted!
nwb
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On July 25, a pair of earthquakes caused mass destruction in Venezuela that resulted in 2,000 deaths. My wife Alexandra Hidalgo, a Caracas native whose family still resides there, wrote about it in her Substack. Luckily, they were unharmed. For others less fortunate, her post includes a link where you can donate to the rescue and recovery efforts, if you are able.
This post was human generated.
Developmental edits by Alexandra Hidalgo.
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