Category:

Migration

Hummingbirds on the move: Evolution on fast-forward

by Anders Gyllenhaal December 31, 2019

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?’’

December 31, 2019 0 comment

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

by Anders Gyllenhaal December 16, 2019

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:

December 16, 2019 0 comment

Birding research Conservation Migration Video

Probing a hummingbird mystery — one band at a time

by Anders Gyllenhaal November 7, 2019

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:

November 7, 2019 1 comment

Birding Birding guidance Migration

Headed for the birding superhighway and a perfect migration pit stop

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal October 12, 2019

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.

October 12, 2019 1 comment

Bird of the Week Birding Migration Photography

Great Egrets: Putting on a bird ballet

by Anders Gyllenhaal September 12, 2019

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.

September 12, 2019 1 comment

Bird of the Week Birding Basics Migration Photography

Nature’s jewels: Ruby-throated Hummingbirds on the move

by Anders Gyllenhaal August 30, 2019

written by Anders Gyllenhaal

The statistics for Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are almost as stunning as a close-up look at their iridescent plumage.

Zeroing in on the male hummingbird

Their wings can flap up to 80 times a second. They weigh about 3 grams – a wisp of a bird at a tenth of an ounce. They can go from breakneck speed to a full stop in an instant.

And when they do hang suspended in midair, their wings a blur of motion, the sight is one of nature’s most precious moments. It evaporates as suddenly as it appears, making the encounters all the more intriguing.

The Ruby-throated is one of 300 hummingbird species worldwide, only a few dozen of which are in the U.S. and Canada. The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the single species found in the Eastern United States, but it’s plentiful and not particularly shy. So these spectacular hummingbirds are not hard to spot, particularly this time of year.

In late summer, as the hummingbirds are preparing to migrate halfway across the hemisphere, they are in the midst of a feeding frenzy to bulk up for the journey. They consume their entire weight in nectar each day, which the Audubon Society calculated was the equivalent of a human drinking 18 gallons of milk.

August 30, 2019 3 comments

Birding Birding research Migration Photography

Spoonbills flee South Florida’s troubles. But what about the others?

by Anders Gyllenhaal June 13, 2019

written by Anders Gyllenhaal

One of the biggest questions hanging over the birding world is what will the rapid changes in the environment mean for various species. In a piece in The Miami Herald running this weekend, we return to a topic from a few months ago and try to go much deeper into what’s known — and what so far is unknowable — about the affects of climate and habitat change.

Here’s a link to the Miami Herald package: It’s built around the story of the Roseate Spoonbill, which is showing surprising flexibility in adapting to Florida’s shifting environment. For reasons that date to its origins in the dinosaur era, the Spoonbill has found a solution to rising levels and dropping quality of water in its breeding grounds in southernmost Florida.

A Roseate Spoonbill stands atop one of the islands in Central Florida’s Stick Marsh rookery.

It has moved inland, even though it prefers coastal areas for breeding, and has ranged as far north as the Carolinas, even though it tends to be a homebody. As Mark Cook, a scientist with the South Florida Water Management District, put it, “It’s amazing to me that they’re able to move inland and become more of a freshwater species.”

But this isn’t altogether a good news story. The Spoonbill’s success stands out at a time when so many species are showing signs of decline around the world. That’s driven by a host of human factors, including the loss of habitat, the deterioration in quality of the environment they rely on, the loss of food sources, the rise in the outdoor cat populations and hazards such as the spread of windmills and tall glass buildings that millions of birds crash into every year.

June 13, 2019 0 comment

Birding Breeding and Nesting Featured Migration

Love is in the Air: As the migration slows, the woods are heating up

by Anders Gyllenhaal May 23, 2019

written by Anders Gyllenhaal

When I was in the fifth grade in my little hometown in Pennsylvania, the school put on dancing lessons. At the start of each session, the boys and girls would line up on either side of the auditorium and then race toward each other in a chaotic rush to find partners for that day.

I’m reminded of that frantic and frightening pairing as the spring migration comes to a close across the U.S. and billions of birds are searching for mates. Instead of a few weeks of dancing lessons, they will commit to building homes, starting families and raising their young.

A pair of Great Blue Herons meet up in Viera, Florida.

It’s no wonder that the woods, fields and marshes are filled with birds howling at the top of their lungs. They have a lot riding on a song.

A few species, including Bald Eagles, Atlantic Puffins, Black Vultures and Blue Jays, mate for life. But most of North America’s 1,000 or so species have to find new mates every spring.

Romance is very much in the air in the birding world.

Click for our gallery of two amorous Barn Swallows — offered for biology’s sake only.

May 23, 2019 3 comments

Birding Migration Photography

The feeding frenzy that powers the migration

by Anders Gyllenhaal May 14, 2019

written by Anders Gyllenhaal

Much about the spring and fall migrations are cloaked in mystery, from how birds know when to leave to what helps them determine exactly where they’re going.

But there’s no question about one element of their twice-a-year extreme feats of travel: the moment the birds stop for breaks, they go to work eating seeds, beetles, worms, flies, moths, bees, lizards, caterpillars, fruit, nuts, nectar, fish, spiders, snakes, suet, mice, and sometimes other birds.

The migration is a feeding frenzy.

A Yellow-rumped Warbler wrestles with an inch worm.

Dining is a vital part of the day – and a fascinating element of the journeys that four to five billion birds are in the midst of about now across the U.S. They need to eat meals that for us would be pretty much impossible.

The hummingbird, for instance, has to consume its entire weight in nectar every day. For a normal sized human, that’s the equivalent of drinking 18 gallons of milk, according to the Audubon Society.

The Chickadee has to eat about a third of its weight in seeds, berries, insects and worms daily. For us, Audubon says, that would translate into eating 600 granola bars every day.

May 14, 2019 0 comment