Noticing birds changes the way you see the natural world around you.
That’s what we’ve found in the many stories we’ve told about birds in New England - from the pigeons on our streets to the ducks in our rivers to the red-tailed hawks high overhead. In our ongoing Instagram series on Our New England, we’re making these stories accessible to everyone - avid birders and non-birders alike - with creative, engaging short videos.
The videos are often hosted and produced by NENC visual journalist Raquel C. Zaldívar, but any of the stations in the New England News Collaborative can contribute. In 2025, we saw significant audience growth on Our New England thanks to the series. And because all of the videos are co-published with stations in our collaborative, those stations also saw the benefits of that growth. The success of the series is opening up opportunities to attract new audiences to our station journalism.
The origins of this series also came from a pilot effort to improve the way NPR works with stations. With help from a grant, NPR hired two journalists to work exclusively with the NENC from October 2024-October 2025, to help all of our stations level up their work on short-form video platforms. The help of those journalists, in particular producer Elena Eberwein, provided the extra support we needed to launch this series and develop a plan for sustaining it after the grant year ended.
The series is ongoing with new videos publishing every two weeks. Here are some of our most popular videos of 2025:
The amazing flying skills of pigeons
Produced by Raquel C. Zaldívar, NENC and Elena Eberwein, NPR
Pigeons are sophisticated aviators. They have to be in order to outrun predators — like the peregrine falcon.
They can take off vertically like a helicopter to get out of harm's way. And sometimes you can see them dive- bomb off tall buildings, with their wings pulled tight.
Rosemary Mosco (@rosemarymosco), author of “A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching: Getting to Know the World’s Most Misunderstood Bird,” says they do this to use the pull of gravity to gain speed.
A puffin far from home
Produced by Raquel C. Zaldívar, NENC
On October 11, a chartered boat took a juvenile puffin from Provincetown, Massachusetts to a few miles off the coast of Maine and tossed it overboard. That toss was the little seabird’s return back to his natural habitat after having been found far from home and several miles inland in Wrentham, Mass.
Sheida Soleimani, founder of Congress of the Birds (@congress.of.the.birds), and her team received a call about the puffin a week prior and almost didn’t believe it. But it was, in fact, a young puffin that they brought to their rehab center in Rhode Island.
Puffins spend most of their life at sea, so finding one on land is unusual and often an indicator that something is wrong. “You know, they're either, like, really emaciated. Maybe there's a fishing line situation,” Soleimani said. “There's a multitude of reasons. And this bird had none of those issues. He had not even really lost his waterproofing.”
Even so, Soleimani said only about 30% of patients that come through her rescue make it.
The rescuers stayed cautiously optimistic and made sure the young puffin got the right care. He was ultimately released, and if all continues to go well, he will live a normal life in the ocean until he’s ready to rejoin the puffin colony where he was born.
Soleimani says it’s a good reminder for anyone who finds a bird in need of help. “Always call a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. It's really important that birds get correct care.”
The secret lives of loons
Produced by Tulley Hescock, Maine Public
Loons spend the spring and summer fiercely protecting their chicks and their territories on lakes. But in late fall, their behavior shifts, and loons start to become social birds.
Tracy Hart, a conservation biologist with Maine Audubon (@maineaudubon), says in late summer and early fall loons start to join rafting groups, or groups of loons gathering together. Even loons like a good party! ✨
“They are socializing,” says Hart. “You'll see them right around each other. They'll be diving sometimes together. They'll be feeding together, and they just stay close to each other. You don't see them doing those kind of aggressive splash dives. And it's all just calm.”
Hart says she’s not exactly sure what causes this brain switch in loons. Soon after, they begin their annual migration to the ocean, which is also when they change their look. Their distinctive black and white plumage turns a dull grey brown and their striking red eyes also switch to a muted brown color.
What bald eagles actually sound like
Produced by Elena Eberwein, NPR
Bald eagles sound different in real life than they do in pop culture.
Hollywood often dubs over them with the call of the red-tailed hawk – the most common bird of prey in North America.
Anna Morris, director of wildlife ambassador programs at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science (@vinsraptors) says the dubbing is “rampant” in TV and movies. “It just pulls me right out of my suspension of disbelief,” she said.
What do bald eagles actually sound like? Well, more like a type of gull.
“It doesn't match the image of our nation's symbol when one chirps at you like that,” said Mary-Beth Kaeser, the founder of Horizon Wings (@horizon_wings_), a wildlife rehabilitation center in Ashford, Connecticut.
She said bald eagles don’t have a huge repertoire of vocalizations. But like most birds, they have “different calls for mating, for territory, for announcing their arrival, for hunger.”
Though some may not consider their vocalizations to be quite as regal as that of the red-tailed hawk, there are a lot of other reasons bald eagles have earned their reputation as a majestic American bird.
They are physically intimidating with a wingspan of 6-feet. They’re also incredible hunters with talons that act as knives.
The mysteries of saw-whet owls
Produced by Raquel C. Zaldívar, NENC
Saw-whet owls are the smallest owls in the Northeast, and although they are predators, their small size also makes them prey. One of their defense mechanisms is camouflage, and they are so good at blending in that they were once thought to be rare.
Project Owlnet has been studying these birds since 1994 when the organization was founded. Researchers like Brett Amy Thelen at the @harriscenterforconservationed, Larry Fischer with @aspetucklt and Ben Nickley with the @berkshire_bird_observatory work to band owls and gather data such as a bird’s size, age and sex. This information helps ornithologists to log and share information about owl migration and biology.
Nickley says birds are indicators for all kinds of ecological change, making it vital for researchers to keep a pulse on bird populations.
Nature’s clean up crew
Produced by Elena Eberwein, NPR
In pop culture, vultures are often portrayed as an ominous sign or a warning that death is imminent. But in reality, many of the behaviors we see vultures doing in movies and shows are just misunderstood.
For example, when you see vultures circling above, they’re often just riding thermals, or rising air currents, to save energy while they look for something to eat. And if you’ve seen a vulture hold its wings wide open on a sunny day, the bird is actually just sunning itself as a way to get clean.
Part of the lore around vultures comes from what they eat. Vultures are scavengers so they mostly eat dead animals, like the roadkill we see on highways.
“I think it's reasonable that they're associated with death and disease,” says Emily Peters, the school programs coordinator at New Hampshire Audubon (@nhaudubon), “but that's because they are the cleanup crew, and our ecosystems and people actually rely on them a lot more than they think they do.”
And those who have worked with vultures in research or rehabilitation say they’re intelligent and fun to be around. The birds can be silly, playful and curious about new things.
New England Wildlife Centers (@newenglandwildlifecenters) Executive Director Zak Mertz says you should observe vultures whenever you get the chance. “I would challenge you to leave without laughing and without a smile on your face,” he said.