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Migration

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In a world turned upside-down, birds can help restore some sanity

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal
written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

Second of two parts

There’s not a lot to be optimistic about during the virus meltdown, but here’s something bird enthusiasts can celebrate: The news is full of suggestions that people take up birdwatching to battle stay-at-home boredom and anxiety.

As birders all know, the more people get interested in birds, the more likely they are to want our state and federal government agencies to protect them.

A Carolina Chickadee among the buds outside our window / Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

I’m still giddy over the Slate magazine article a few days ago with the headline: “You Have No Choice But to Become a Backyard Birder.”

Slate’s article is a terrific, step-by-step guide on how to morph from a person who sort of likes birds into one who could possibly become a serious birder one day. Click here for the story.

This isn’t the only “Bird Now” headline landing in my Google feed. I’ve seen similar stories from local radio and television stations, newspapers and news websites.

“Riotous Explosion of Life Awaits Birding Newbies in This Stay-at-home Era” proclaims the March 28 headline from NPR station WHYY in Philadelphia.

 “[Birding] is a time-tested way of putting things back in perspective and realizing that life does go on and will go on,” said Jeffrey Gordon, president of the American Birding Association, in the WHYY interview. “It feels like a perfect fit.” Here’s that story. 

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Here’s a springtime gift: Powerful new birding tools arrive just in time for the migration

by Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal
written by Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal

For years, the twice-a-year migration of billions of birds was one of nature’s most spectacular events that we never really got to see. That’s because most of the action takes place out of sight, far above us and often at night.

That began to change in the last decade with new technologies for tracking birds, and last week brought a milestone: The Cornell Lab of Ornithology completed a massive project that creates maps and animations for nearly all North American species.

The result is an unprecedented view of how birds move, arriving just in time for the spring migration.

This is big news for anyone interested in birds. The data in this project, all of which is free, will strengthen everything from scientific research and conservation to the power and precision of the tools you use on the birding trail.

The impacts are so far-reaching that Beverly and I couldn’t agree on what’s most important here. So we thought we’d each make our case and let you come to your own conclusions.

Canada Warbler / Photo by James Hully, Macaulay Library, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Beverly: The best way to appreciate this work is to start by looking at one of these animations. They’re beautiful, with patches of bright colors flowing back and forth across a map of the hemisphere that represent migrating birds week by week throughout the year.  I think these are the most compelling — and entertaining — of all the maps and illustrations that come under Cornell’s eBird umbrella. You can find a complete list of the maps by species here on the Cornell website.

For example, here’s an animation of how the tiny Canada Warbler travels the length of the hemisphere twice a year. 

Not only can you watch the warblers’ weekly progress from far north Canada to Latin America and back, but you can use these maps to help figure out when they’re like to pass by you. And when you’re trying to find a bird you’ve never seen before, knowing exactly when the largest flocks are arriving is a huge help.

Anders: The point is that animations like the Canada Warbler, along with abundance, range and breeding maps, now exist for 610 species, which make up almost all of the species in North America, in archives Cornell calls status and trends maps.

The lab began putting these together about two years ago as a way to convert their raw bird data into compelling maps and show how birds move through the seasons of the year. The first batch of maps covered about 20 percent of the species, but the addition of the rest of the species opens all sorts of possibilities for comprehensive research and conservation approaches.

“This is a big jump in terms of the utility of the data project,’’ said Daniel Fink, a senior research associate at the Cornell Lab.

Go to the end of this post for a summary of the full lineup of birding options from Cornell. 
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How to get started as a birder: Six suggestions from the experts

by Anders Gyllenhaal
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

Somewhere in the inner workings of migratory birds, a signal goes off that tells them it’s time to head north. Is it just our imagination, or do birders get the same kind of inkling as spring comes within reach? Either way, it’s time to get ready for the best part of the year as the early birds are making their moves.

Here’s a recast of our post from last year about how new birders can get started, drawing on experts from  all the leading bird institutions — Audubon, Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology, and the American Bird Conservancy.

Smithsonian author and ornithologist Bruce Beehler

If you want to be a birder, they all say, there’s no better time to start than now. Every spring, about half of the 650 species in the Western Hemisphere are on the move. From mid-February to mid-June, between 4 and 5 billion birds will fly thousands of miles to reach their breeding grounds.

Bruce Beehler’s book

“The birds are singing, and they have their spring plumage,’’ said Bruce Beehler, a Smithsonian research associate at the National Museum of Natural History’s Division of Birds and author of  encyclopedic book, Birds of Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia.  “In the spring, the birds are going to come to you, you don’t need to go to them. They’re going to pass right through your backyard, whether you know it or not. That can be pretty darn exciting.’’

We’ve boiled all of the advice we collected down to six short suggestions for how to get started — as well as how to make the most of the spring migration no matter what level of birder you are: 

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How did a Great White Pelican fly around the world? Here are some answers.

by Anders Gyllenhaal
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

How does a huge, lumbering bird like the Great White Pelican fly halfway around the world to reach a place like Florida?

Great White Pelican lands on Merritt Island Refuge/Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

It’s a question birders and experts alike have been asking in the weeks since one of these striking, exotic pelicans from Africa and Asia arrived on the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge south of Jacksonville. Although birds are always turning up in unexpected places, this visit set off a true kerfuffle as word got around.

Our Flying Lessons post on the Great White Pelican drew thousands of views and 600 shares on our Facebook page. With those came an avalanche of questions:

Did this bird fly all the way – or perhaps escape from a zoo in this hemisphere? Will it stay in the area, or find its way back home? Will it upset the balance of nature the way certain non-native plants and animals do? How does a bird get so far off course in the first place?

“I would love to know what his story is,’’ Linda Boccuti wrote on our Flying Lessons Facebook page.

Most of the answers are guesses, since the bird wasn’t tagged and certainly isn’t talking. But Andrew Farnsworth, a research associate with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology who specializes in migration, said the likely drivers are genetic migration instincts that go off track, lack of food back home and changing weather patterns that are becoming more frequent around the globe.

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Hummingbirds on the move: Evolution on fast-forward

by Anders Gyllenhaal
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

A few weeks ago, dozens of readers from around the country shared their hummingbird stories on our Facebook page after we ran a post on the growing numbers of the tiny birds that are skipping migration and staying in the U.S. for the winter.

Birdwatchers from Michigan to Texas, Seattle to North Carolina reported seeing the birds stay longer into the fall, and sometimes through the winter in the warmer states. Randell Fleet of Houston seemed to speak for everyone when he said: “I hope they’ll be OK.’’

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

The outpouring made us want to know more about what was going on. So we talked with scientists and researchers around the country who specialize in hummingbirds. The story that emerged, which is running in The News & Observer of Raleigh this week, is not just about the changing migration of hummingbirds.

It’s also a look at modern-day evolution on a fast-forward speed as birds struggle to adjust to their altered environments. The story focuses on North Carolina, because this is where a lot of the action is. But hummingbirds, particularly Ruby-throated and Rufous, are starting to stay the winter all along the southern Atlantic coast and down through the Gulf states.

Hummingbird researcher Susan Campbell explaining how she bands the tiny birds

“It’s a really fascinating subject,’’ said Scott Weidensaul, an author and researcher who’s one of the country’s leading experts on hummingbirds, “one that ties together a couple of important threats, including climate change and the adaptability of birds in the face of change.’’

One part of the story we found particularly intriguing, which we couldn’t delve too deeply into in The N&O piece, is how this break with the migration pattern places a spotlight on exactly how birds adjust – and how a pivot like this can play out for generations to come.

Nobody can say when the first hummingbirds decided to skip the long and arduous fall trip to the tropics. I loved the comment by the Audubon Society’s Geoffrey LeBaron, head of the Christmas bird count, who said: “If you don’t have to fly across the Gulf of Mexico, why do it?’’

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Third major report in succession establishes a new era of bird research

by Anders Gyllenhaal
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

We spent many hours during the last spring migration at the crest of Washington D.C.’s Rock Creek Park, hanging out with some of the area’s most experienced birders waiting to see what species would appear next.

When the mornings were slow, the conversation sometimes turned to how unpredictable the migration has become: Some days would be as quiet as July, and others suddenly filled with a flurry of unexpected migrants flying through.

Species in today’s study include many warblers, songbirds and wading birds, such as this Whimbrel. Photo from Cornell Lab by Kyle Horton. Cover photo of Long-billed Curlew is by Nick Saunders.

For years, birders around the country have watched the evidence gather that the bird world has been disrupted.

But this fall, three scientific reports in succession, including a major study released today, have fundamentally altered the picture of what’s happening. Modern technologies are enabling a new level of research about birds, migration, breeding and populations with a precision not possible just a few years ago.

Today’s study is the first to document how birds are starting their spring migration journeys a great deal earlier to keep up with climate change. And while migratory birds are trying to adjust, the research based on 24 years of weather radar data suggests that the intricate balance of when plants flower, insects arrive and birds start breeding are falling out of sync for some of these species.

“How bird populations respond in an era of such rapid and extreme changes in climate has been a black box,” said Andrew Farnsworth, a co-author of the migration study and researcher at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “Capturing scales and magnitudes of migration change over time has been impossible until recently.”

Here are some of the Cornell Lab photos of species that are part of the migration research: 
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Probing a hummingbird mystery — one band at a time

by Anders Gyllenhaal
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

The tiny captive is a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, held firmly in fingers that are far bigger than he is. What happens next will help solve an intriguing migration mystery affecting one of the world’s most intriguing birds.

Along the North Carolina coast, hummingbirds are creating a birders’ kerfuffle by staying into the winter when they’re expected to be headed to South American with millions of their fellow migrants. Susan Campbell, an ornithologist from Southern Pines, and the state’s leading expert on hummingbirds, is trying to figure out why.

First, Campbell tags the hummingbird with a small aluminum band on his leg, then weighs and measures him and puts a dollop of white paint on his forehead. After a sip of nectar, this young male is ready to be set free in the woods near North Carolina’s Hatteras Island to join the research project.

Susan Campbell

“This is one of the last frontiers in bird research right now,’’ Campbell said. Over the past 20 years, she has banded some 4,000 hummingbirds in North Carolina in hopes of tracking their travels to try to make sense of these migratory patterns.

The banding last month was part of a demonstration to raise visibility of the volunteer campaign to study the 15 species of hummingbirds that migrate through North Carolina. This is one of the best places there is to do it: More hummingbirds have been spotted in North Carolina than anywhere in the U.S. but Arizona.

Here’s a video of the banding process: 

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Headed for the birding superhighway and a perfect migration pit stop

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal
written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

We’re on our way to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to witness something magical.

By the hundreds, flocks of songbirds, ducks, swans, skimmers and other shorebirds will touch down on this chain of islands and wildlife preserves to take advantage of nature’s perfect pit stop.

A Black Skimmer at the Pea Island preserve

When it comes to the fall migration, an 85-mile swath of northeastern North Carolina, from roughly the Virginia line to Cape Hatteras, won the geographic lottery. It has some of the richest and most diverse natural habitats for birds in the United States.

“This area is the halfway stopover point on the Atlantic Flyway for birds that are migrating to tropical areas,” said Becky Harrison, head biologist for the N.C. Coastal Refuge Complex. “And there is a continuous stretch of geographic features and habitats that’s easy for the birds to follow.”

Flying thousands of miles requires enormous energy, so periodically birds must stop, rest and refuel. “Birds are following the resources,” Harrison said. “Because this area is so connected, it means there aren’t a lot of decisions for them to make.”

American Oystercatchers speed along the surf on the Outer Banks

Flying Lesson:  Birds of every species will come when there’s a path of supportive habitat. This unique string of refuges is a model for how we can care for birds. 
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Great Egrets: Putting on a bird ballet

by Anders Gyllenhaal
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

Our trip along the storied Montezuma wildlife drive in upstate New York had been all but devoid of birds the first hour. Then we turned the corner at the halfway mark and came upon a scene that instantly made up for the quiet start.

Two dozen Great Egrets stood clustered in a shallow pond as if in a ballet rehearsal. They moved along in groups of threes and fours in precise formation. With their long thin necks lining up one minute and crisscrossing the next, they seemed choreographed for elegance.

Great Egrets are such compelling birds to watch – and they don’t seem to mind an audience that keeps its distance. Much of the time, they prefer to forage alone, researchers say. But they will come together in small groups when there’s plenty of fish. From time to time, they’ll form big flocks like the one we came upon at Montezuma.

They aren’t hard to find all across the wetlands in the United States. Although hunted nearly to extinction during the feathered-hat craze of the late 1900s, migratory protection laws have helped Great Egrets become one of the strongest wading bird species today.

They’re flexible and adaptable, enabling them to adjust to the habitat loss that has undermined other species. The North American Waterbird Conservation survey estimates that there are 180,000 breeding Egrets in the U.S.

The egret’s green eyes in breeding season

They stand out in marshes and coastal areas — sheer white, with yellow beaks, long dark legs and a wingspan of almost 5 feet. During the spring breeding season, the area around their eyes turns lime-green, a striking accent that signals their readiness for mating.

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