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migration

BirdingBirds storiesMigrationPhotography

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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Bird of the WeekBirding BasicsPhotography

How the Northern Cardinal is helping me through the virus crisis

by Anders Gyllenhaal
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

First of two parts

If there’s a singular song of spring, it’s the call of the Northern Cardinal.

That loud, distinctive whistle is often the earliest note of the morning in much of the country. When the full bird orchestra eventually joins in, the Cardinal still holds the first chair.

Ever since the virus chased us all into our homes, I’ve added a morning birding walk under the guise of exercise (a loophole where we live.) It’s an antidote to the uncertainty; the first arrivals of migration are showing up right on cue in eastern North Carolina, while the year-round birds are hard at work gathering food, building nests and pairing up.

The female cardinal with its mute plumage and bright beak.

Almost everywhere I walk, Northern Cardinals are there to serenade. Their repertoire is rich and familiar, including that flute-like “cheer-cheer” opening, their steady chirps, their staccato zip-zips that sound like something from a video game. It’s not too strong to call it incessant on some days.

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Birding researchConservationMigrationSpecies

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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BirdingBirding guidanceMigration

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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Bird of the WeekBirds storiesPhotography

How on earth? Great White Pelican shows up on the other side of the world

by Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal
written by Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal

It wasn’t a Great White Shark, but for Florida’s best birders, it may as well have been. When the first reports hit that a Great White Pelican – usually found in Africa or India – had been spotted in a wildlife refuge near Titusville, well, you can imagine what happened next.

This is one of the largest birds in the world with a wingspan that can reach 12 feet. And even though it has the strength to cross an ocean without stopping, people couldn’t quite believe it had somehow landed in Florida.

We’re getting ahead of ourselves, but here’s a close-up of our Great White Pelican.

The first photo two weeks ago showed a distant bird that looked like the American White Pelican, only much bigger with a striking orange and pinkish tint. There’s also a diamond-shaped patch of day-glow orange over its eyes.

Then came several sporadic sightings around the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, a vast wilderness spanning 140,000 acres with one 7-mile road winding through. More often than not, the reports were of dashed hopes and a flock of regular pelicans seen from afar.

But the spottings persisted, and Florida Facebook birding sites lit up with speculation about the pelican’s whereabouts. So without much to go on, we drove up from our camping spot an hour south of Titusville to see if we could find this guy.

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Birding researchBirds storiesConservation

How an invisible bird is saving the rainforest

by Anders Gyllenhaal
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

In almost every interview with scientists and researchers, a question comes up about why birds are important to people. One of the most compelling answers I’ve ever heard came in an interview for a piece running in the Washington Post this week exploring the powers of bioacoustic research. 

A Puaiohi Thrush (Photo by Lucal Behnke; cover photo by Behnke as well)

The bird in question was the Puaiohi Thrush, the last few hundred of which live so far up in the cliffs on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai it’s almost impossible to see them. To try to save them, a team had to turn to special recording devices placed at the foot of the cliffs to study their range and breeding.

But why is it important to save a bird that you never see in a place people cannot even get to?

Lisa “Cali” Crampton, who manages the Kauai Forest Bird Recovery Project, said while you rarely see the Puaiohi, its work is spread all across the island. That’s because these thrushes are one of the primary fruit eaters, which then in turn spread the around the island.

“I would hate to see us have to save only one bird, but it would be the Puaiohi,’’ she said. “We have no forest without the Puaiohi. Without forests we have no flood control. We have no drinking water. The forest is the backbone of these islands.’’

Not every bird plays such a pivotal roll. But all perform some part of the interlocking operation of nature, from pollination to pest control. 

Many people who study birds will talk about their profound beauty, or how they serve as an indicator of the environment. I love the Puaiohi story because it illustrates in such concrete terms what the impacts would be if species disappear the way many recent studies are predicting.

A bioacoustic recorder in California’s Sierra Nevadas is tracking Snowy Owls. (Photo by Connor Wood)

This week’s story in the Post is about how bioacoustic technology — basically capturing bird songs and calsl and then using technology to analyze the results — has advanced to become a powerful tool for learning about birds. Together with new uses of radar, citizen science and big data, bioacoustics helps uncover more about the complexities and threats to birds than ever before.

That knowledge makes it steadily more obvious that birds are both creatures of miraculous beauty and natural engineers that are fundamental to a healthy and functioning environment. 

That research also provides solutions for how we can keep species like the Puaiohi on the job of building the rainforests. We’ll save the details of that rescue plan — as well as many other breakthroughs from bioacoustics — for the story. Here is a link to both the Washington Post piece and a list of rescue projects using bioacoustics around the globe.

Puaiohi Thrushes (Photo by Patrick Blake)

 

 

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Birding researchMigration

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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BirdingBirding researchMigration

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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BirdingBirding guidanceMigration

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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