Birding News 1

Texas has long been a birding mecca throughout the year, and the economic benefits of highlighting birding and eco-tourism in San Antonio, Texas is showing that residents and businesses are seeing the positive impacts economically, ecologically, and emotionally. According to Steven Nivin, PhD, for every $1 invested in birding-related projects it is forecast that $9 will be realized in direct and indirect benefits to the people and city of San Antonio. Birding-based eco-tourism has been acknowledged as an economic opportunity, and the city, Audubon, and other interested groups are investing as a result.

As the first groups of birders rang in the season to identify and count birds for the Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) last Sunday, this special birding tradition continues through January 5th. That means you can still get involved in some CBC counts. Some groups are asking for more help, although some may be filled with participants at this point – check with the local “count compiler” to see if you can help in some way. The 126th CBC is bringing people together with a common goal of documenting local information about “where the birds are” during this winter count period.

They are bearers of universal mysteries, holders of ancient wisdom, seekers of the wildest animals – they are birders. Focused, intense, devoted; they speak in reverent tones and hushed whispers and can walk with surprising silence across a bed of leaves. They wield binoculars with nonchalance and speak in a code-like vocabulary that birders use among themselves – species, plumage, nape, talons, pishing, magnification, wing bars, big days, big sits, and big years. They have lists in notebooks or online lists of birds they see and hear – they are birders.

Audubon's 126th Christmas Bird Count (CBC) will be held during one day between December 14 and January 5, leaving it up to the count compiler that organizes the local count circles across the country to pick the magic day for the CBC in each location. That day birders and anyone interested can join in to help identify and count all birds with the count circle. Count locations are spread out across the Western Hemisphere, stretching from Canada and the United States to Mexico thru Panama, the Caribbean Isles, and South America from Colombia to Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, and beyond.

December had an especially short list of birding festivals, the least of any month, but now there is just one birding festival left for 2025 in the United States – the popular North Shore Birding Festival in Florida, considered one of the top annual birding festivals, will cap off the year December 11 to 15. Unfortunately, due to the historically long federal government shutdown and the subsequent effects to the national wildlife refuge system, the ever-popular Celebration of Cranes at Bosque del Apache Refuge in central New Mexico has been Canceled.

In case you are missing the hummingbirds of summer, or if you are interested in the tropical birds, you will surely be interested in viewing the dazzling color and high-speed flights provided by the Panama Hummingbird Feeder Cam, a live camera view that is focused on the nectar feeder that attracts a flurry of tropical hummingbirds at Canopy Tower in Soberania National Park in central Panama. Watch as White-necked Jacobins are joined by other colorful hummingbirds, such as Snowy-bellied Hummingbirds and Blue-chested Hummingbirds.

Join a live presentation about Northern Saw-whet Owls, Boreal Owls, and Long-eared Owls as revealed by a banding project that focuses on these owls of the boreal forest. The live presentation will be delivered next Wednesday, November 19 at 11:00am CST by Bruce Murphy, bander and educator at the Hilliardton Marsh Research and Education Center in east-central Ontario. Register free for the live Zoom presentation provided by the Hawk Migration Association to find out what has been discovered as a result of the banding project that began in 2000.

Imagine the progress of hawks and vultures migrating in the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even topping a million during prime migration days when the sky fills with soaring Swainson’s Hawks, Turkey Vultures, and Broad-winged Hawks. This, as they migrate south along migration corridors stretching along the Gulf and Caribbean from Veracruz, Mexico to similar hawkwatch sites in Costa Rica and Panama on their way even farther south to wintering areas in Brazil, Argentina, and neighboring countries.

Birders from around the world collectively participated in this fall’s October Big Day, which was held Saturday October 11th. This year birders joined in this global celebration of birds and birding to report a total of 7,876 different species of birds! While American birders topped the numbers of birders participating, Colombian birders topped the number of species sighted during this single day of birding that was shared by birders in 200 nations! eBird is the global platform where everyone’s contributions were compiled into a number of interesting October Big Day lists.

The survival of the only self-sustaining population of migrating Whooping Cranes depends on the tallest birds in North America making a perilous 2,500-mile migration along the Central Flyway twice a year, during spring and fall. Now, photographer Michael Forsberg shows us what that migration is like after following Whooping Cranes by plane along the “Whooper Airway” to show the landscape as the migrating Whoopers see it. His insightful story is illustrated by a variety of impressive photographs of Whooping Crane flocks, families, and individuals in his recent book Into Whooperland, and in a newly published article in the Fall issue of The Living Bird.

Birders from around the world will join together for October Big Day on Saturday the 11th to share in the biggest birding event we all look forward to each fall season! Join the fun of birding by identifying and counting the birds you see and hear on October 11; then report your list of birds to eBird to contribute to a collective overview of the distribution of bird species during mid-fall migration - it’s that simple! You can make more than one birding list too, then report the birds you see at each location you visit. Or you can contribute by just participating for just 15 minutes from anywhere you can, including your own yard.

October is one of the best months to enjoy some social birding at a Birding Festival near you that brings birders together to share time at a birding hotspot during peak migration days. And there is so much to enjoy during events including information-packed workshops, children’s activities, featured speakers, banquets and food trucks, a birding marketplace, and guided field trips including photo-oriented outings. Every birding festival is different, but they are all created with opportunities for experienced and novice birders in mind.

It’s time to mark your calendar for the biggest day of birding this fall – the worldwide October Big Day on October 11th! Last year a record number of birders joined in this global celebration of birds and birding to report a record number of 7,994 different species of birds! Now let’s collectively break the 8,000 species mark during this single day of birding as a team formed by birders in more than 200 nations! Participating is especially easy: Wherever you are on October 11th, plan to take a few minutes or a few hours to enjoy birds and share what you find on eBird. You can participate from anywhere – including your own yard!

A new online guide to birding sites, BirdingPlaces is a new resource for birders to learn about the best locations to enjoy birding in a given area – worldwide. Fellow birders have already described more than 9,000 locations to share their favorite birding areas in detail, and new birding sites are being added almost daily to the map of BirdingPlaces. This free online service has attracted a community of birders that has grown to more than a million active users, and that number is growing fast. Discover birding areas all over the world, as described by enthusiastic birders like you.

As we enter the beginning of a new birding season that marks the beginning of a new migration, BirdCast is again providing birders with a most impressive suite of migration monitoring opportunities for the fall migration season – and they are all Free! “Fall” migration really begins in early July for individuals of some species – some shorebirds in particular, but some songbirds too. As the post-nesting dispersal ensues and early migrants relocate to stopover and wintering areas, BirdCast provides a wealth of information for your county, your state, and across the Lower 48 States.

The simple act of banding Common Loons by biologists has produced some remarkable information about this popular species of waterbirds during the past 4 decades. A simple numbered aluminum leg band with a tell-tale colored leg band on 2 special Common Loons at Seney National Wildlife Refuge in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan has provided some interesting information about loon longevity, pairing behavior, and reproductive success. To begin with, the male is known to be 38 years old this summer, and the female is even older!

From Alabama to Alaska, August provides a resurgence of Birding Festivals, which are truly celebrations of birds and birding, shared by participants that range from every age to every level of interest in birds. During August, you can observe resident birds, early migrates, and endemic bird species on field trips with accomplished birders, including bird photographers, and learn more about birds and bird behavior during a variety of programs, workshops, and keynote presentations, children’s events, and possibly a birding marketplace where you can shop for optics, field gear, books, and more from vendors.