I was recently creeping through a clearing of downed trees in a wooded Brooklyn park with my iPhone in hand. Birds were singing everywhere, but through the din, I was recording a peculiar song: It was ...

NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with Matthew Medler of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology about the best bird sounds of 2025 from their vast collection of recordings, and why their selections made the list.

DETROW: That chirping you're hearing right now is the western meadowlark. It's one of the sounds that made the Macauley Library's list of best audio recordings of 2025. The library is an online ...