Bugs and Birds: Celebrating World Migratory Bird Day

October 12th is World Migratory Bird Day, a global campaign that aims to raise awareness of migratory birds and the need for international cooperation to conserve them. This year's theme for the campaign is “Protect Insects, Protect Birds,” underscoring the importance of invertebrates to migratory birds. Xerces is also, for the first time, an official partner in World Migratory Bird Day, so we are focusing this episode on the intersection between birds and bugs.

To talk about this incredibly important relationship we are joined by Chris Elphick, Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut, where he is also affiliated with the university’s Center of Biological Risk. Chris is a conservation biologist, an applied ecologist, or an ornithologist, depending on his mood (his words, not mine). His research interests span behavioral, population, community, and landscape ecology.

Thank you for listening! For more information go to xerces.org/bugbanter.

Transcript

Matthew: Welcome to Bug Banter with the Xerces Society where we explore the world of invertebrates and discover how to help these extraordinary animals. If you want to support our work go to xerces.org/donate.

Rachel: Hi! I'm Rachel Dunham in Missoula, Montana.

Matthew: And I'm Matthew Shepherd in Portland, Oregon.

Rachel: October 12 is World Migratory Bird Day, a global campaign that aims to raise awareness of migratory birds and the need for international cooperation to conserve them. This year's theme for the campaign is “Protect Insects, Protect Birds,” underscoring the importance of invertebrates to migratory birds. Xerces is also, for the first time, an official partner in World Migratory Bird Day, so we are focusing today’s episode on the intersection between birds and bugs.

Rachel: To talk about this incredibly important relationship, we are joined by Chris Elphick, professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut, where he is also affiliated with the university’s Center of Biological Risk. Chris is a conservation biologist, an applied ecologist, or an ornithologist, depending on his mood (his words, not mine). His research interests span behavioral, population, community, and landscape ecology.

Rachel: Welcome, Chris! We're really excited to have you on today. 

Chris: Thank you for inviting me.

Matthew: Yeah, thanks for joining us today, Chris.

Matthew: Since we're talking about Migratory Bird Day, we thought we'd start with talking about birds and understanding migration. Can you tell us how many species of birds migrate, and maybe what—I mean, how would you define a migration? Is there like a minimum distance a bird has to move, for example?

Chris: So that's a really good question. And I'm gonna try to gracefully dodge the first part of it about how many birds, ‘cause I don't know that I can answer that question. But the reason I don't think I can easily answer it is because it depends what you mean by migration, and how we define it. And so, the way we typically define it is the back and forth movement that's tied to some seasonal things.

Chris: So, we typically think of, you know, summer migrants that go south for the winter, to the wintering grounds, or something like that. But that's a pretty simplistic way of thinking about it. And there certainly are lots of species that that do that. And we think of—we call them long distance migrants. 

Chris: They completely leave their breeding grounds, go somewhere else for the winter. But there are also short distance migrants, which may just travel relatively short distance, but still do it in this predictable, seasonal way. So, the great blue herons that live near where I do. They typically leave in the winter, but not until the very depths of winter, when all the water ice is over. And they may not go very far. They might just move from Central Connecticut, where I live, down to the coast. Or they might go further, or some of them might go a long way, and some of them might go a short distance. 

Chris: So, there's a lot of variation, even within a single species, in what they do. And then there are other types of migration, like altitudinal migration. So, things that live high in the mountains may only travel a couple of miles, but it's a big elevation change, and so that puts them in a place with very different conditions. 

Chris: And in the tropics, you know, migration is often seasonal, but it's tied to wet seasons and dry seasons, not what we think of as winter and summer. And so, there's lots of different types of migration.

Matthew: Yeah. I'm with all of that. Obviously you're saying some birds don't travel very far at all, but I know something that—it's like world records that people like to know. I mean, is there like a bird that might be considered the champion in terms of distance traveled?

Chris: So, the textbook example is probably the Arctic tern which breeds—as its name suggests—in the Arctic. But actually probably spends much of its life far from the Arctic. You know, they winter down around the Antarctic and they travel between those two extremes. But that's just one of many, I mean, you know—that's what we often point to as the example. 

Chris: But, you know, if you lived in the southern hemisphere, you might point to Wilson's storm petrel, which does the same thing, but only in reverse. They breed on islands around the Antarctic and then spend their summer in the, you know, in the North Atlantic. I can see them off the coast of New England in our summer, which would be the, you know, the winter for the south. 

Chris: And so, there are those examples. There are shorebirds that nest in Arctic Canada, and winter all the way down in the southern part of South America. There’s a bird called the northern wheatear, which is a kind of a songbird and like a little bit like a small thrush— which breed, you know, from Greenland all the way across Northern Eurasia, across Russia, to as far as Alaska. But they, you know, they all winter in Africa. So, you've got some birds that are just traveling from, you know, Europe to Africa, north and south. But you also have birds from Alaska that are flying to Africa. So, there's lots of extremes.

Matthew: Yeah, yeah. It sounds like in some cases, tens of thousands of miles, potentially, they travel around the loop.

Chris:  Yeah, yeah. Huge distances. Yeah, yeah.

Matthew: Yeah, I know it's quite remarkable. And with all that, I mean, why does a bird migrate? Is there a simple answer?

Chris: Haha. It's never a simple answer. So, basically to be somewhere with better conditions. You know, if you're an insectivore, you know, the center of Connecticut is not the best place to be in January. And so, you go somewhere you have a better supply of insects. For other types of birds, it might be other things. But, you know, you're shifting in a seasonal way, to track conditions, to maintain. So you're always somewhere where conditions are good.

Matthew: Yeah. And presumably with that, then there must be—I mean, if—okay, Central Connecticut isn't a place where there's insects all year, and so they go somewhere else. I mean, why would they come back, you know? Would they not be happy where they migrated to?

Chris: So, I mean, that is a great question. And again, I think, you know, the bias of where we live affects how we think about things. You know, we think of our birds leaving and going south for the winter. But, you know, really, these birds spend most of their lives—you know, the things that we think of as summer migrants—spend most of their lives in the tropics or farther south. 

Chris: And they come visit us in the north for a couple of months to breed and then go back. And so, it's more about, "Why do they come north?" rather than, "Why do they go south?" And I think that reason is that, you know, as you move to more temperate areas, into the boreal zone—as well in both the northern and southern atmosphere— there's often a lot of resources that are available to you. 

Chris: You know, if you live in the tropics, there's lots of other things that live in the tropics. So maybe that's why some species have evolved this capacity to move out of that, to take advantage of the summer bloom of food that is available, you know, elsewhere. And that requires these movements. But then, of course, they can't stay there all year long, because it's not as suitable when it gets cold, and so they go back to the tropics.

Matthew: Yeah, so, it seems to be a seasonal abundance that would allow them to rear their young for the summer.

Chris: Yeah, yeah. And if you've ever spent time in the Arctic or the, you know, the northern forests, there's lots and lots and lots of food if you eat insects. And so you can see how that kind of system would evolve.

Matthew: Yeah, totally. And I mean—and sort of my last thoughts about migration—is migration a behavior that's seen in all groups of birds?

Chris: I mean, not all. But some level of migration is present in a lot of groups. I mean, certainly—and again, this is a temperate zone bias, you know—in the tropics there are lots of groups that maybe don't have such—or don't have migration. But again, there I would correct myself. Because they probably do have migrations, but they're not these kind of north-south, hot-cold type migrations. They’re wet-season, dry-season type movements, or other ways of tracking variation.

Chris: But at least in, you know, North America and in Europe, you know, a lot of species are migratory, at least on some level. But not all, not all.

Matthew: Yeah, no. ‘Cause, I probably think about what I see in my own backyard. And there are certain species that I see all year. But I don't know if that's the same individuals, or whether there's—.

Chris: Well, exactly.

Matthew: Yeah. Well, I just happen to live within the overall range of that species. And you know, there's moving around and passing through in some way. So.

Chris: Yeah, and that's another really important point, you know. There, you know, there are—I see robins all year round. I see blue birds all year round. But both of those species are at least somewhat migratory. And I don't know that it's the same birds. It's probably not the same birds. So, yeah. So, there is a lot of this migratory turnover that we don't really notice, and we don't pay attention to, in addition to the, you know, recognizing that all the warblers have left.

Rachel: Well, Chris, I really appreciate your perspective on migration. I took a movements and migrations course in grad school, and I didn't realize how much nuance there is to migration. And we all had to pick an animal and write a paper and argue whether they actually migrate or not. And I was unfortunately stuck with lemmings, and it felt like a trick question. And I hated that paper. And in the end, I still don't know if they migrate or not. Haha. But I appreciate that you're saying it's about perspective, right? Like how far, whether it's an elevations that they're changing, or, you know, where you live and what you think is migration. 

Rachel: So Migratory Bird Day is meant to bring awareness to the fact that because birds migrate, their habitat needs span across boundaries of states, countries, and oceans, making their conservation a bit more complicated than just protecting birds in your backyard. So, when thinking about protecting their habitat and their habitat needs, where do insects fit into that? What role do they play?

Chris: So, yes. I mean, migration makes conservation difficult. You know, you have many places to think about, but also many jurisdictions. And so that—you know, laws change, which influences how you can do conservation. So, there's—it really does complicate things, a lot. The way that insects fit in—and this is not unique to the migratory species—but, I mean, I think that the first place in which insects fit in is that, you know, to a first approximation, pretty much every species of bird eats insects.  

Chris: You know, there's a few that don't. They're mostly marine species. You know, seabirds, for the most part, don't. But other than those, most eat insects. And those that don't eat insects eat things that eat insects. Haha. 

Chris: And so, you know, insects are completely fundamental to not just birds, but vertebrate life on the planet. And you know, there's some things we think of as being insectivores—so flycatchers or swallows—aerial species. But, you know, and we often think of sparrows as eating seeds, for example, which is true in the winter. 

Chris: But during the breeding season, those sparrows are eating insects, and that's what they're feeding their young. And we think, you know, humming birds—people think, "Hummingbirds. Well they drink nectar out of flowers, right? And out of hummingbird feeders." Well, yes, but drinking nectar isn't gonna provide them with what they need to grow in feathers when they molt, which they do every year, or to make eggs, or to feed their young, which need to grow and develop. 

Chris: So, even these—what we think as very specialized things that feed on things other than insects, they're also eating insects. Haha. And so, you know, I mean it—where insects fit in is that they're just fundamental to being birds. That's where most of the food is. It's in the insects. 

Rachel: And let's say, hypothetically, if they weren't available at a particular point in their migration, when they needed them, would they turn to another food source, or is it sort of insects or nothing?

Chris: So, that's a great question. I mean, you know, when you—most birds eat a lot of different types of things. And they probably, many of them, could turn to some extent to other food types. You know, if you're a robin, you eat worms and you eat insects and you eat berries. And if there's no insects, maybe you could eat more worms, and maybe you could eat more berries. But that assumes that there are more worms and berries around. 

Chris: And it also assumes that the thing that led to the loss of insects isn't also affecting all the other things you might need. And if, you know, if that thing is—you know, be it land use change or whatever—is having effects on the berry-producing plants and the soil fauna, then that alternative is not going to be there either. And so, I don't know. When you asked that question, I mean, it's a bit like saying, "Well, what would happen to humans if we got rid of agriculture?"

Rachel: Hmm.

Chris: You know, there would still be things we could eat. You know, not everything I eat comes from agriculture, but most of it does. And I think that, you know, if we got rid of agriculture, you know, some humans would do okay. Most of us probably wouldn't. The big picture repercussions would be pretty profound. And so, I think that that's kind of the analogy to what if we lost all the insects.

Chris: And not just in a direct way. I mean in an indirect way. We talk about pollinators because they're important for producing food for us. But all those berry-eating birds, they're reliant on insects to do the pollination to lead to those berries. Or to lead to the seeds down the road—you know, for many types of seeds, not all seeds, but—. So they're just this—insects just drive everything.

Matthew: Many of our listeners may be wondering why we're talking about insects being eaten rather than protecting them. But as you were describing there, they're fundamentally important to everything. And I know it was E.O. Wilson who coined the phrase that they're "the little things that run the world," which is just such a neat way of describing their importance. 

Matthew: But are there some insects that are more important than others for birds? I mean, does it vary on the species of birds? I mean, again, I'm just—I'm kind of musing out loud—but presumably different species of birds must prefer or specialize on particular species, or groups of insects?

Chris: I mean, that's certainly true. But across all birds, you know, birds collectively eat lots and lots of different types of insects. And so kind of in a big picture sense, I—it's a little hard for me to really say that certain groups are more important than others. What matters is a diversity of insects, you know. If we just protect butterflies and honey bees, that’s not going to be good enough. You know, we need all the flies. We need all the beetles. We need—you know.

Chris: Because different species are feeding on different things. And so, you know, in kind of a big picture sense, I think that that's really where we're at. And I would say that, you know—one thing, you know—birds are often—we often turn to birds and say well they're one of the better known group of organisms. We've studied them a lot. We know a lot more about them than some other groups. 

Chris: But I think that the details of diet is an area where we don't have very good information. I mean, we know, broadly speaking, that warblers eat insects. And we know, broadly speaking, that swallows eat aerial insects. But do we know exactly which types of insects are most important to every species of birds? No. We're not even close to knowing that for even a few species, I would argue. 

Chris: So, I think that's an area where we don't have very good information, partly because there are simply so many types of insects that it just makes it very hard to do those identifications. But also because it's really hard to know what a swallow is eating. How do you collect those data? And that's kind of shifting, you know? DNA-based studies are allowing us to figure out what species are eating in a way that we never could before. And so, we are starting to understand diet better, but I think we're kind of at the infancy of trying to—of really understanding that for large numbers of species of birds.

Matthew: Yeah, cause I'm thinking—one of the figures that I've read and seen quoted a number of times is how many caterpillars like a Carolina chickadee pair needs to collect. And that's because someone must have sat there and counted, you know?

Chris: So, caterpillars are clearly very important to many species of birds. They're often fed to young birds during the summer, at least—but again—in the northern hemisphere. But again, you know, we're limited by the species of birds that we've studied in detail, and there is a fairly limited number of species that we've really studied carefully.

Chris: And often they're not necessarily representative. So, a group of those—you mentioned chickadees. Well, the reason we know a lot about chickadees is they nest in nest boxes, so they're pretty easy to study.  We know a lot about certain types of flycatchers that nest in nest boxes in Europe. And we know a lot about bluebirds. They nest in nest boxes. It's really easy to find the nests then, because you basically provided them. So, that makes it easy to track what food is being brought to the young.

Chris: We don't have that kind of information for lots and lots of other species. And so even our—even the things we think we know well, may kind of bias our understanding of what's true for birds as a whole.

Matthew: No, we, we definitely, we do tend to generalize based upon the little nuggets that we know. And I realize as well, that we're talking about insects. But really, we should be saying invertebrates.

Chris: Yes, definitely.

Matthew: 'Cause, I mean, shorebirds—you mentioned the seabirds, and so on. I mean, I go to the coast and I watch the birds on the beach or in the estuaries, and they're pulling crustaceans and worms and all sorts out of the sand there. So, it's definitely broader than just insects.

Chris: Yep, absolutely. And even the kind of land birds hopping around in our yards, I mean—I mentioned robins eating worms earlier. But spiders—spiders are tremendously important for a lot of species as food. I mentioned hummingbirds earlier. Many hummingbirds, you know, they'll collect bits of spider web to build their nests. They're not just eating them. There are some species of hummingbirds that will kind of glean insects that have been caught in spider webs, you know.

Chris:  So, there are just many connections. And you're right. It's not just insects. It's this broader group of invertebrates.

Rachel: So, we talk a lot about just general population status of these animals. And I know that some birds are definitely in decline, much like insects. Are there any migratory birds that are in trouble, in particular? And do you see any correlation between insect decline and bird decline?

Chris: So, there are certainly lots of species of birds that are declining, and at a kind of macro scale. We know that there have been widespread losses of bird numbers and diversity. Not all species are declining. Some are increasing. But the increases are not great enough to compensate for all the species that are declining.

Chris: We have good information on that in North America. Good information in Europe. We have less good information from any other parts of the world, but presumably the patterns—well, there's good reason to believe that the patterns are similar in a lot of places.

Chris: Understanding the links to insect decline, I think, is hard. Partly because we don't have those kinds of one-to-one understanding of which birds eat which insects. But it makes sense that if there's widespread losses of insects, and birds eat insects, there's a pretty good chance that there's a link there, at least for some species. You know, the thing that really complicates it, though, is that—you know, it could be that some other factor is affecting both the birds and the insects, and that's a problem. 

Chris: That's almost certainly true to some extent too. And you know, in particular, you know, the fact that we have radically changed land use across the planet, you know, that's probably—. You know, most species on the planet—their population trends are influenced by habitat loss and land use change. And we know that's true for birds. We know that's true for insects. And probably that one thing is what is fundamentally most important for most things that are declining. 

Chris: Climate change is also clearly a player. I think that it's probably not as big a player—in the past, and maybe not, almost certainly not as big a player right now—as land use change, but it's getting more and more important and will become probably just as important in the future. When we think about these problems, it's these fundamental driving forces of change on the planet that are affecting all of these species. And land use changes is just way up there in terms of being the thing that is most important for most species.

Matthew: I like the idea of migratory birds and invertebrate conservation, because—it's like we have some very well-known insects that migrate. The monarch butterfly is the most obvious one. There's also the painted lady butterfly, and lesser well-known things like the common green darner dragonfly that migrates. And it's a physical connection between me and my neighbor, and, you know, the folks in the next state, and people across the country. 

Matthew: What I do in my garden really can help, and, you know, is influenced by what someone else does as well. Because we're working to achieve broad scale landscape level change, to support these species that are moving. You can't just focus on one small area.

Matthew: So, what would you recommend for folks who do want to help in their own backyard or in their own neighborhood? Are there steps they can take?

Chris: Well as I guess I kind of suggested, I mean ultimately, it's about having habitat. And it's about having places where things can live. And if you provide the right habitat, the odds are pretty good that the things that they need will be there. It's not guaranteed. You know, if there’s pesticides, you might lose insects while still having the habitat. But, if you don't have the habitat, the pesticide question maybe becomes irrelevant. 

Chris: I think the number one thing is to try to maintain native natural habitats that are as close an approximation to what would be the natural thing as you can come up with. And what that means is going to be different in different places, you know. If you live in a rural area that has not been as heavily influenced by humans as others, then it might be, you know, protecting native forests. It might be protecting patches of grassland or protecting wetlands. I mean, you know, getting involved in a local land trust or a local town conservation commission to do those things, as well as of course you know, protecting what you can on your own properties, and providing habitat there. 

Chris: But I think it's easy to feel that if you can't protect lands, you can't do anything. And I think that that's not the case. I think we can always make things a bit better. You know, earlier in my career, I worked in agricultural systems—very intensively farmed agricultural systems in California, where, you know, it's among the most intensively farmed land in the world. But if you can make very small changes, you can still make—have a difference. Because if you can make a small change across a huge area, then that magnifies the effect. 

Chris: It doesn't need to be turning it all back to native habitat, if you could make it a little bit better, but you can do that over thousands and thousands of square miles or square kilometers. Then that matters. And that will have consequences. So, trying to find those things. Or if you live in a city, you know, and you can do something to shift the management of an urban park, so that maybe they don't mow the lawn quite as much, or maybe they plant wildflower meadows in parts of it, or little strips of abandoned land and trying to just make them a little bit more natural. 

Chris: So, I think that there are these little things we can do everywhere. And I'm a real believer that, you know, the grand gestures are good, and we need to do—we need protected wilderness spaces. But the small things, if they're done in lots and lots and lots of places, then that adds up. And can have maybe even a bigger effect over the long haul.

Matthew: Yeah. And I read that one of the overriding themes in your work is to try and reconcile conservation with human activities. And I remember—it's probably a huge topic in itself. But what do you think are the maybe more common conflicts or barriers that people may encounter when trying to conserve birds?

Chris: I think it's hard. I mean, I think we have to think about human needs, as well. We can't deny the fact that the planet is dominated by humans. And there are a lot of people. And they need stuff. They need food. We were talking agriculture just now. We need a viable farming system that gives people food security. But that doesn't mean we can't have some conservation value out of agricultural lands. 

Chris: Similarly, we need places for people to live, and we need to provide housing for people. And that requires some level of development. But that doesn't mean that we necessarily should just let anybody build a house anywhere, you know. That's an, you know, inefficient way to do it for a lot of societal reasons. But it's also, you know, probably not a great way to do it from the perspective of trying to protect natural spaces. 

Chris: So, I recently heard this great idea. So, in Britain—where I'm from—there are these green spaces that kind of encircle a lot of the cities. And so, it's a big debate about whether we should continue to protect those areas. And some people feel very strongly that we should. But at the same time there's a real housing crisis, and there's a lack of affordable housing, especially for younger people. And so, you know, one proposal that I heard recently was well, we should allow some building in these green spaces that have been set aside. 

Chris: But we shouldn't just let it happen wherever. We should identify the places that are least valuable for nature, providing least conservation value. And we should compensate by investing in the other places and making them even better. You know, doing real restoration, you know, doing lots of trees so that, you know, we can think about this problem holistically and try to balance the problems that human society faces with the need to ensure that we have nature, and we have all the things that nature provides for us.

Chris: And so, trying to think about what those solutions are. And you know, we like to talk about win-win solutions, and that's a little—can be a little naïve at times, you know. There are there are going to be tradeoffs. But trying to figure out how to optimize the benefits while minimizing the costs is, I think, fundamental to trying to solve some of these problems, rather than just kind of blindly walking into them, and just going—doing whatever we think. It's hard and it requires thought, and it requires compromise, and those things are difficult.

Matthew: Now I know from my experience—I also grew up in Britain and worked within city councils there for a few years, and so I've seen like the system they have for planning and managing development. And then I—here in the United States it's so very different. Even around Portland, which is relatively forward thinking in trying to plan for development and build natural area, or at least build green spaces into neighborhoods, I think Britain is quite a long way ahead of the US in terms of trying to manage development in a way that does—I won't say minimizes, but certainly reduces impacts.

Matthew: And you know, some of the expectations that people have in Britain, I think it's like, "Of course! Of course we put natural areas in. And of course, we build a pond with, you know—which is more than just ornamental." No, it's interesting to hear you reflecting on what might happen with the green belts there.

Chris: Yeah, I mean it was, you know, not something I'd thought about very hard. But it's hard. You know, these problems are not simple. And we tend, as we do in many aspects of our politics, to try to simplify everything down to the lowest possible denominators rather than really confronting the fact that there are real challenges and they’re complicated and we need to kind of figure out how to balance the desires of different people with different perspectives. And that's no different in conservation as in any other area of life.

Matthew: Yeah definitely. It's also important that people are doing actions, as you said. Small change over a large area has a significant impact. Sometimes the problems seem a little overwhelming, but there's always gonna be something we can do to keep stepping forward.

Rachel: I love that all of your suggestions are the same suggestions we have for folks to conserve invertebrates, and it really reinforces the idea that birds need insects and providing habitat for insects is also gonna help birds. So, I love the theme of Migratory Bird Day this year. I think it's great.

Rachel: So, we're gonna end on our favorite question. And that is what inspired you to become a conservation biologist or applied ecologist or ornithologist, depending on your mood? And studying birds?

Chris: Depending on my lack of focus. Haha. Yeah, so I've been a birder since I was a little kid. My dad was a birder. And I grew up bird watching. I grew up, you know, being around bird-banding operations, bird ringing it would be in England. So, I spent a lot of time outside as a kid. You know, I did—you know, I hiked a lot as a teenager. I got involved in doing bird surveys as a teenager. And so, it's really just been a part of my life, my whole life. So, it's a little bit hard for me to isolate anything beyond it's just the thing that I do. Haha. 

Chris: But the transition from just bird watching to kind of thinking about conservation and how we solve some of these problems, I think very much just comes from a recognition that the world is changing very, very rapidly. And that's gonna continue, no matter what we do. And so, if we want parts of what we've experienced and what people in the past have experienced to persist, we have to be proactive and we have to do something to try to make that happen. But we also have to do it in this complicated world where other people want other things. And so, how do we work around those competing demands of sectors of society?

Matthew: It's a difficult balancing act.

Rachel: Well, Chris, this has been great. Thank you. I've learned a lot—such great information. We're so happy that you took the time to join us, and I'm sure our listeners really enjoyed this intersection between birds and invertebrates—I should say, other than just bugs, as well. But we hope you enjoyed your time with us, and thank you so much.

Chris: Yeah, it was great. Thank you so much for your questions, and for being interested, in the birds, as well as the invertebrates.

Rachel: Birds are really cool.

Matthew: They are.

Chris:  But we need all the other stuff, too.

Rachel: They're all connected.

Matthew: Exactly.

Rachel: Bug Banter is brought to you by the Xerces Society, a donor-based nonprofit that is working to protect insects and other invertebrates—the life that sustains us. 

Rachel: If you’re already a donor, thank you so much. If you want to support our work go to xerces.org/donate. For information about this podcast and for show notes go to xerces.org/bugbanter.