Bird Song Revelations from Nature’s Finest Musicians with Cedar Mathis-Winn

This program is free and open to the public.

SAS Monthly Program
Monday, October 13 – Hope Lutheran Church
Bird Song Revelations from Nature’s Finest Musicians with Cedar Mathis-Winn

For millennia, humans have listened with awe to the songs of birds. However, it wasn’t until the 1970s that we began to understand the bizarre methods and structures that birds use to create their mesmerizing songs. Of course, there is still much left unknown, but we have learned a great deal about what is happening inside the body of a bird that allows him (or her) to produce the sounds we hear.

In this presentation, we will explore the mind-bending abilities that allow birds to produce some of the most extraordinary music in the world. We will discuss the variety of calls and songs that birds produce, as well as how these sounds are adapted to their specific uses and the lives of the birds who use them. Most of all, this talk is intended to open your ears to the fascinating depth and complexity of sounds that surround us anytime we’re outside.

Cedar Mathers-Winn is a naturalist, biologist, and educator based in Bozeman, MT. Particularly obsessed with the sounds of the natural world, he has taken a long and circuitous path through a variety of jobs and ecosystems. Cedar has been a recordist on an ethnomusicology expedition in Bhutan, and an audio archivist of music (Smithsonian Institute) and natural sound recordings (Cornell Lab of Ornithology). He started his career in biology as a chaser and observer of birds in the mountain West, the lush Northeast, the desert Southwest, the tropics of Australia, and the jungles of the Dominican Republic.  He earned his Master’s degree studying communication in wintering flocks of birds at the University of Montana. Cedar has always been passionate about sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm for nature. He has taught career biologists, professional guides, undergrads, and anyone else who will listen. As an educator, Cedar uses the everyday subtleties of nature to reveal worlds of wildness hidden in plain sight. Cedar produces and provides several of SAS’s educational workshops. He has also taught SAS’s Master Naturalist Course for the past two years.

The in-person meeting will be held Monday, October 13, 2025 at Hope Lutheran Church, 2152 West Graf (off S. 19th)  A social begins at 6:30 PM; the program begins at 7:00 PM. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own reusable cups.  
cFor virtual attendance, please register at sacajaweaaudubon.org/program.

Attendees—whether in person or virtual—are encouraged to share their bird sightings at this and every monthly program.

SAS monthly programs are free and open to the public, featuring a special guest speaker the 2nd Monday of each month, September through May. For more information, contact Chris Nixon at  programs@sacajaweaaudubon.org.