Birding News 2

Join Liz Clayton Fuller for her free live bird sketching event that's sure to be a blast! Sketch moving birds along with Liz as we watch the stars of the Cornell Lab FeederWatch Cam – or just sit back and enjoy watching Liz create bird art live online. Liz will talk about her work, answer audience questions, and explain her techniques for sketching birds from live encounters. Whether you are interested in becoming a better sketcher, curious about the artistic process, or an artist yourself, you are sure to have a lot of fun if you participate next Monday, July 20, at 2:00pm Eastern Daylight Time, 11:00am Pacific. 

During the past 40 years, a steady range expansion at the northern limits of the nesting range of Orchard Orioles has been studied in Ontario using the annual Breeding Bird Atlas surveys as the basis to monitor this colorful species' expanding nesting range in southeast Ontario. Information reported by Birds Canada indicates that Orchard Orioles have a remarkable ability to adapt to the fragmented landscapes that are increasingly present across southern Ontario, such as scattered groves of trees and city parks. These spaces mimic the open woods and woodland edges that Orchard Orioles select for nesting, highlighting the value of prioritizing high-quality greenspaces in towns and wooded areas.

Visit Alabama's storied and historic Black Belt region to attend the Black Belt Birding Festival, scheduled for July 31 to August 2nd. Organized and conducted by Alabama Audubon, this region is a premier destination for birding in the Southeast that features open prairie grasslands adjacent to forests and bottomland swamps. These varied habitats provide festival attendees a variety of opportunities to observe many exciting species of birds in pristine settings. As the Southeast's largest prairie ecosystem, it is the only place you can find Wood Storks and Swallow-tailed Kites along with Painted Buntings, Dickcissels, and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers.

Drumming is an important form of communication for woodpeckers, and hearing a rapid rat-a-tat-tat-tat can help you identify which species is drumming. Similar to learning to identify songbird calls, with a little practice you can identify some woodpeckers by the speed, cadence, and rhythm of their drumming. Woodpecker drumming may not be as immediately distinctive as bird songs, but by carefully listening to duration and rhythm of the drumming – even the perceived loudness of the woodpecker with reference to its location – you can still tell many species apart.

A birder recently pointed out that "Birding has changed my life. Not only has birding made me more observant and patient, but it's given me a sense of belonging to the Earth. Birds remind me that I am part of nature – not separate from it. The beauty of birding is that there is no 'right way' to do it. Birding is a personal activity, and the way you enjoy birding can vary any time you plan an outing."

Most Birding Festivals held across the United States and Canada have a long and successful track record, with some continuing for more than 2 decades and a few prospering more than 4 decades! Each year, new communities and interested groups continue to start their own Birding Festivals to serve local and state birders, while also engaging the community. It seems that birding fests are destined to grow year after year with local citizens, businesses, and wildlife groups finding a sense of community in the events, while visiting birders generate impressive economic benefits. 

Celebrate the arrival of your favorite birds this spring and learn answers to common questions about how they make the migration from wintering areas to your neighborhood tomorrow, May 14th, presented by ornithologists from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This is a reminder to register for this informative presentation that emphasizes that bird migration isn't just a continental phenomenon, it is also super-local, and it is happening all around you now. Mid-May is prime time to enjoy the spring migration spectacle! Some of the new birds you see are just passing through during a short migration stopover, while others will be with you through the summer.

As we enter the most active period of bird migration, you can check live migration maps and other valuable information provided by BirdCast across the contiguous United States. This daily information is filed to be available to refer to anytime for any given night or day – and it's all free and available online 24-7. Using weather radar to detect the numbers and flight directions of migrating birds, BirdCast provides information to birders in a number of different ways, most notably on their Live Migration Map and Local Migration Dashboard. There are also 2 migration forecasting programs: Migration Forecasts and Migration Alerts, both of which look 3 days into the future. 

Just as the spring migration of warblers is beginning, you can download and print a free full-color Warbler Identification Guide from the Bird Academy. Warblers can be among the most challenging birds to identify due to varied plumage colors and patterns between species, sexes, age groups, and the seasons, so this timely guide provides a source of information that will improve your warbler ID IQ. There are actually 3 pages of warbles included in this excellent Warbler ID Guide, divided into Eastern, Western, and Widespread Warblers found in the United States and Canada. Print the .pdf pages and study them at home and take them with you in the field.

How do you choose just one birding festival out of this list of remarkable opportunities for birders to enjoy some social birding at a Birding Festival? May could be named Birding Festival month considering all the birding festivals available for people to attend across the United States and Canada. Each birding festival is different, but they are all created with opportunities for experienced and novice birders in mind. There is truly so much to enjoy during Birding Festival events, such as guided field trips, family friendly activities, informative workshops and presentations, photo-oriented birding trips, featured speakers, a birding marketplace, art exhibits, and other attractions.

Adjacent to the Lake Erie Marsh Area in northwest Ohio is an area known as the "Warbler Capitol of the World," which offers some of the most intense and enjoyable spring songbird migration experiences in North America! The Biggest Week in American Birding will take place May 8 to 17 to celebrate the peak of spring songbird migration during 10 days of birding events and activities hosted by the Black Swamp Bird Observatory. During this period the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area stands as one of the best birding destinations, and it is bordered by Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge and Oak Harbor – and admission is Free!

While birding this spring, be sure to look for bands on the birds you observe. Although a very small percentage of birds we observe are banded, if you do see a banded bird, especially a bird with colored bands, try to record all the information you can – and start by taking a photograph of the bird and its band(s). Bird banding has provided a wealth of information about the birds of North America and beyond, and while biologists can use much more sophisticated methods of monitoring bird migrations and behavior in the form of telemetry, bird bands continue to provide new and interesting information. 

An apparent breakthrough that should be instrumental in protecting birds from crashing into windows and tall buildings when migrating at night. Photometrics AI, a street-lighting optimization company, is now using bird migration forecasts as part of its lighting management platform. Cities can now use the Photometrics AI platform, which provides an automated feature that dims lights when information from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's BirdCast bird migration monitoring system signals a big migration night that poses high risks for bird-window collisions. Their new AI technology helps to protect birds by automatically dimming lights when it matters most.

The Great Texas Birding Classic is celebrating 30 years of birding, conservation, and friendly competition, and you are invited to be part of this milestone event – pick your date or dates between April 15 and May 15. Organized by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Birding Classic offers several tournament categories for all ages, abilities, and experience levels of birders to participate. You can choose to be birding in your yard, at a favorite state park, or during an all-out statewide adventure.

It turns out that if you are an advanced birder, your interest and activities in birding appear to alter the structure and function of your brain in ways that may enhance cognition – the mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses – even as you age. According to a new research study, seasoned birders had denser tissue in parts of the brain associated to attention and perception. Such tissue density may indicate increased communication between neurons, and these structural differences were associated with more accurate bird identification. 

Each year, thousands of people gather on ridges, coasts, and other lookouts at raptor concentration points across North America and around the world to watch migrating hawks, eagles, falcons, and kites as they pass by during spring and fall. The awe-inspiring spectacles spark a curiosity and provide a fun and accessible point of entry to birding and in-flight identification to the public, while also helping us all better understand raptor movements, migration dynamics, and population trends. All this with the Hawk Migration Association at the forefront of providing daily count information, research reports, and conservation insights within an open, united group.

The annual Audubon Bird Photography Awards contest is open for entries in 8 categories, and if you take videos of birds, there is a Video category for your best production too. You have until noon EST next Wednesday, March 4th to enter your photos or videos, so be sure to get your entries in pronto! Having alerted readers to this prestigious photo competition in the January 28 issue of The Birding Wire, it's getting down to the wire. Judges will score photographs and videos on their technical quality, originality, and artistic merit (1/3 each). Significant cash prizes will be awarded to the winners in 7 categories. 

March is Sandhill Crane month along the Platte River in central Nebraska as hundreds of thousands of Sandhills add their voices to the valley. The annual spring stopover concentration of Sandhill Cranes becomes the largest assemblage of cranes anywhere in the world, which attracts people nationwide to witness the morning and evening flights of cranes along the Platte River and observe flocks feeding in adjacent harvested ag fields. It's a compelling experience, and beginning the first week of March, the Audubon Center at the Rowe Sanctuary in the Platte River Valley near the city of Kearny will begin providing a variety of opportunities for birders to join guided tours including photo tours, and to visit the Center.

Young Birders Alert:  The Cornell Lab will be hosting the annual Young Birders Event this June 25 thru 28th in Ithaca, New York. If you are a high school student interested in pursuing a career that connects with birds, this event is for you, and the application deadline is March 8th. This 4-day event is held at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which is staffed by a variety of professionals who all work with birds in different ways: As bird biologists, ecologists, artists, communicators, educators, audio specialists, computer scientists, app designers, and more.

Taxonomists just completed creating the most updated version of the "Bird Family Tree" that includes all recognized 11,167 bird species! You can refer to the new illustrated Phylogeny Explorer to see the connections between different birds you encounter and others that interest you. Understanding bird systematics and the connections between different birds and bird families is an interesting part of becoming a better birder, and now Birds of the World provides a way for users to trace any bird's lineage, compare species relationships, and explore major evolutionary milestones with a click of a button online.