By Kathy Reshetiloff From Bay Journal News Service

International Migratory Bird Day celebrates and calls attention to one of the most important and spectacular events in the Americas — bird migration. Bird Day is celebrated in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean.

IMBD officially takes place on the second Saturday in May in the United States and Canada and in October in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean each year.

But this date doesn’t work well for all bird events or for the migratory birds themselves. To the south, migratory birds have left, heading for breeding sites in the north. Farther north, the birds haven’t arrived. Now, IMBD is celebrated almost year-round. Most U.S. and Canada events take place in April and May, while fall events are the norm in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Not everyone is aware of the diversity of birds around the world, the amazing migrations some species take or the phenomenal range of their behaviors, plumages and songs.

Some bird species provide practical solutions to problems, such as the need for insect and rodent control. Others disperse seeds, helping to revegetate disturbed areas. Others are pollinators, ensuring that we are graced with flowering plants, trees and shrubs. Beyond the utilitarian, birds are inspirations for the arts.

If that’s not enough, birds also contribute to the economy. The 2011 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation noted that 71.8 million Americans participated in some kind of wildlife-watching recreation, including observing, feeding or photographing.

Birds attract the biggest following of all U.S. wildlife. Approximately 46.7 million people observed birds around the home and on trips in 2011. A large majority, 88 percent (41.3 million), observed wild birds around the home, while 38 percent (17.8 million) took trips away from home to observe wild birds. Participants averaged a startling 110 days of birding in 2011. Home birders averaged 119 days, while away-from-home birders averaged 13 days.

Here are some birds one might see — or hear — near one’s home, as well as some of the benefits these species provide:

• Ruby-Throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris): Ruby-throated hummingbirds are well-known for transferring pollen from flower to flower. But they are also quite adept at capturing and eating small, flying insects: mosquitoes, gnats, fruit flies and small bees. As precision flyers, hummingbirds are able to stop quickly, hang in midair, and fly backward and sideways, all with fine-tuned control.

• Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicencis): Red-tailed Hawks play a vital role in controlling small mammal populations, with rodents making up about 85 percent of their diet. Their excellent eyesight helps them spot small mammals, such as mice, voles, shrews, squirrels, rabbits and opossums from heights of up to 100 feet before they swoop down from the air and use their sharp talons to capture their prey. Red-tailed hawks have a very wide range and are found throughout North America. It is one of the most common hawks, and one is likely to see this bird of prey perched on high wires and poles or slowly circling the sky in search of their next meal.

• Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechia): Yellow warblers control insects on both their breeding and wintering grounds. On their winter grounds, yellow warblers eat insects that attack coffee plants. Coffee drinkers should be happy about that! The small beautiful warbler is usually found in brushy areas near water, singing “Sweet sweet sweet, I’m so sweet.” Yellow warblers range widely across North America in breeding season and through Mexico, and Central and South America in the winter.

• Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura): Turkey vultures have earned recognition as nature’s sanitation crew. Flying low over the ground, they use their incredible sense of smell and keen eyesight to search for decaying animals to eat. It’s hard to miss a turkey vulture: One of the largest flying birds, it has a wingspan of almost 6 feet and a red head with no feathers. Unfortunately, the important role vultures play in nature has also given them a bad reputation.

• American Robin (Turdus migratorius) Many studies have shown that robins play an important role in dispersing the seeds of diverse trees and shrubs. American robins have a wide range and can be found breeding in Canada, wintering in Mexico or residing in the United States year-round. While most people think of worms as their preferred food, robins also eat fruit.

• Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus): Birds are important indicators of environmental change, and the decline in peregrine falcon and other raptor populations was an indicator of how dangerous DDT is to wildlife — and potentially humans. It was not too long ago that peregrine falcon populations were listed as endangered because of the impacts of the pesticide DDT, which was commonly used to control insects during the 1950s and 1960s. As DDT moved up the food chain from the plants to small mammals and birds — which peregrine falcons eat — the pesticide built up in their fat tissues. Eventually, chemicals in DDT affected the amount of calcium in the birds’ eggs. These thin-shelled eggs were crushed by adult birds before the young could hatch. Peregrine falcon populations began to increase after DDT was banned in the United States in 1972. The peregrine falcon was removed from the Endangered Species List in 1999.

For information on birds and international Bird Day events, as well as ways one can participate to conserve birds, visit www.birdday.org

—   Kathryn Reshetiloff is with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Chesapeake Bay Field Office in Annapolis. Distributed by Bay Journal News Service

PHOTO: American robins have a wide range and can be found breeding in Canada, wintering in Mexico or residing in the United States year-round. (Photo/www.tringa.org)

Related story:

Exciting Birding on the Caribbean Slope of Rincon de la Vieja

By Patrick O’Donnell From Costa Rica Living and Birding

Rincon de la Vieja is this large volcano that looms into the sky near Liberia in northern Costa Rica. Not sure where it is? Just look east and north of the highway anywhere around Liberia. You will see a mountain that stands out from the Guanacaste flatlands like a humongous sore thumb. It’s almost always topped with clouds and thus makes for a common, fine photography subject. As befits its stand-out character, Rincon de la Vieja also beckons to birders with a heck of a fine assemplage of birds.

A Guanacaste view with Rincon de la Vieja in the background.

The Pacific slope parts of the volcano are good for just about every dry forest species and host quite a few Caribbean slope birds as you move into the evergreen forests at higher elevations but what about the northern side of the volcano? What are the forests like there? Well, I paid a weekend visit a couple of weeks ago with the Birding Club of Costa Rica and the forests are pretty darn good.

During approximately two full days of birding while staying at the Las Bromelias cabinas (cheap!), we identified somewhere around 170 species and would have got more with further exploration. While there is the usual disheartening deforestation for cattle pastures at various places en route, the road to the place also passes near and through nice moist forests and foothill rainforests that act as a corridor to extensive areas of rainforest on Volcan Cacao. We didn’t have the time to stop and bird in those corridor areas but I bet they are good for a wide variety of Caribbean slope rainforest species.

Bromelias

As one gets close to Las Bromelias, edge habitats and second growth are quite birdy and host expected species along with goodies possible like Black-crested Coquette (we had one in a flowering tree), and Bare-crowned Antbird (not too rare!). At the cabins, there is a nice and birdy riparian grove, second growth, and a good area of forest along one of their trails. We had toucans and various expected edge species at the cabins and some nice forest birds on the trails.

The area in front of Bromelias.

Red-eyed Vireo was one of the few tail end migrants still around.

By nice forest birds, I mean things like Rufous-tailed Jacamar, Red-throated Ant tanager, Northern Bentbill, Bay and Black-throated Wrens, Bare-crowned Antbird, Dusky Antbird, an army of White-collared Manakins, Song Wren, and one of the stars of the show, Keel-billed Motmot. We got excellent scope looks at a pair in the back of the quarry and I was very pleased to record it to see if I can parse some sort of difference between its call and that of Broad-billed Motmot. The two species sound so similar that they respond to each other’s calls so I don’t know if I will discern a difference but at least I now have a recording of a definite Keel-billed Motmot.

There is nice forest at the back of the quarry. That is where we had the motmot.

We didn’t get a chance to do much birding back in the nice forested area but I would love to do some surveys there to see if Tawny-faced Quail and White-fronted Nunbird occur. The R V G Cuckoo might be there too but you can’t really survey for that mega avian wizard of the understory anyways.

The other main area for birding was the road up to good forest and hot springs. We didn’t make it to the volcanic waters but who cares, this was a birding trip by golly! We also had some definite by golly birds. At the edge of the forest, one of our best was a pair of Tawny-chested Flycatchers. It’s always nice to see this colorful Empid.-like bird because they are rare, very localized, and easy to identify. There are only a few reliable sites for them anywhere but based on the places I have seen them, it looks like one of their preferred habitats may be slopes with fairly old second growth (60 year old trees) and various vine tangles near the edge of rainforest.

Tawny-chested Flycatcher habitat.

Further on, we had an antswarm in the forest and had excellent looks at Ocellated, Spotted, and Bicolored Antbirds. No ground cuckoo and few birds overall but we weren’t complaining!

While we watched the swarm, we were entertained by the calls of a couple of Tody Motmots and one eventually showed very well for scope views! In my opinion, this seemed to be even better for Tody Motmot than the Heliconias area at Bijagua because we saw more than one and heard several. We also got Broad-billed Motmot along the road for a nice motmot trip trio.

The road ends at an upscale place known as “Sensoria”. Cars can be parked there and one can continue on foot through nice forest. That spot was especially birdy and gave several hummingbirds coming to flowering Ingas including brief looks at another Black-crested Coquette, Steely-vented Hummingbirds, Blue-throated Goldentail, Violet Sabrewing, and others (we had at least 17 species for the trip). A few tanagers also moved through the trees, the best being Scarlet-thighed Dacnis and Rufous-winged Tanager (!).

We also had Double-toothed Kite.

We picked up Stripe-breasted Wren there and also had excellent looks at Nightingale Wren. While walking in the forest, we were entertained by the songs of Slaty-backed and Black-headed Nightingale Thrushes and White-throated Thrushes. We also flushed a quail dove that could have been Ruddy or Chiriqui, and although we didn’t make it to an area where umbrellabirds have been seen, we also had White-ruffed and Long-tailed Manakins, and an Eyelash Viper!

Eyelash Viper.

The trip ended all too soon but next time, I hope to survey the road from Buenos Aires to the Santa Maria sector because it passes through a good-sized area of intact habitat. Probably some nice surprises along that stretch of road!

As a final bonus, the site had the best swift watching I have ever seen in Costa Rica. I’m not sure if it was due to the cloudy weather, or proximity to waterfalls in good forest, but we had fairly low, good looks at such uncommon species as White-chinned and Black Swifts among more common species like White-collared, Lesser Swallow-tailed, and Vaux’s Swifts.

For more on this story go to: http://birdingcraft.com/wordpress/2014/05/15/exciting-birding-on-the-caribbean-slope-of-rincon-de-la-vieja/