Winging it

While people the world over are restricting their movements to help slow the spread of coronavirus — eliminating commutes by working at home, minimizing trips to the store for provisions, postponing travel for vacations, conferences, and special events — many bird species are in the midst of epic seasonal journeys.

In the spring and fall, many species of birds embark on remarkable journeys — sometimes thousands of miles — to reach breeding or wintering habitat.

So if you are feeling cooped up, just look out your window: you can live vicariously through the feathered travelers that are likely passing through your neighborhood right now during their spring migrations.

More than just a diversion, bird watching can be an antidote to the overwhelming uncertainty many of us feel right now. “It’s a way to track the seasons and the passage of time,” said Kevin Barnes, a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and a self-taught birder. “Learning to identify birds by ear is a great way to get out of your head too — when you are focused on listening, you enter a kind of meditative state.”

Birds also provide inspiration for resilience and adaptability in the face of challenges. “Evolutionarily, birds are impressive: they have figured out every possible way to utilize the environment,” Barnes said.

Some birds can swim underwater to great depths, some can nest underground, some have bills adapted to feed from specific plants. “They are mirrors of the spaces they occupy,” he said.

Here are some things you can do yourself or with your family to make your yard or neighborhood reflect the needs of birds, and to make space in your life to observe and learn from them.

Setting the stage

Ambiance: Birds are vulnerable to stealthy predators like hawks and house cats, so before you put up a bird feeder, figure out the safest spot for it, ideally near shelter like a shrub, a tree, or a pile of branches on the ground. Make sure it’s also a location you can observe from inside looking out a window. Cause, bird watching.

• Activity: Make a map that depicts the various features in your yard or immediate neighborhood (trees, shrubs, fire hydrants, the snow tires you just removed from your car and haven’t put away yet), and identify good and bad spots to place a feeder based on bird safety and viewing potential.

You can’t see the Baltimore Orioles play baseball right now, but you might be able to see Baltimore orioles out your window. USFWS

Menu planning: You don’t need to invest in a bird feeder to feed birds. If you want to attract ground-feeding birds like sparrows, you can just spread some seed on the ground. If you want to attract cardinals, chickadees, and nut hatches, you can put up small shelf to create a feeding platform. Heck you can slather a pine cone with peanut butter, roll it in seeds, and hang it from a tree, or put out a plate of orange slices to attract Baltimore orioles. Is anyone else getting hungry? Here is more guidance on feeder and food types for different kinds of birds.

• Activity: All you need to make a bird feeder at home is a plastic milk or water jug, a pair of scissors, and a piece of wire or twine. With some markers, stickers and googley eyes, you can make it a work of art too! Here are instructions for making a milk jug bird feeder.

Chickadees prefer to dine with a view on a perch or platform.

Hydration station: Dehydration is a major challenge for birds that migrate long distances, just like for long-distance runners. You can turn your yard into a water stop for birds during their race to breeding grounds.

• Activity: Rummage around in your cabinets for a wide shallow bowl or round cake pan, fill it with water, and place it in a safe place in your yard or neighborhood, maybe on a small table, tree stump, overturned bucket, or stack of tires. Make sure to change the water daily, and clean the bowl thoroughly once a week to support good bird hygiene.

Strike out: Sadly, billion of birds die each year because they fly into windows, disoriented by the reflection of the sky in the glass. So while we want to attract birds to our yards and neighborhoods, we want to keep them away from our windows.

• Activity: To scare birds away from your windows, create a silhouette of a bird of prey to tape to the glass (use painter’s tape, which won’t leave a sticky residue). Either try your hand at drawing a simple silhouette and coloring it in, or if you have a printer, just use this template.

Show time

Early birds: Birds are most active in the morning (and during bad weather when they hustle to get chow before things gets worse — much like how people flock to the store before a blizzard), so set aside time for bird watching early in the day.

• Activity: Pick a time each morning where you can spend 10 minutes (or five if you are limited by the attention spans of small children) quietly observing your feeder with a notebook in hand. Set a timer so you aren’t distracted by checking the clock. If you are new to birding, don’t worry about identification: start by simply counting the number of birds you see, observing their habits, and making notes about what they look like (e.g. size, color, bill shape).

This spring, remember to practice social distancing while birding. And no sharing binoculars! USFWS

Listening sessions: Birds have different calls for different occasions — mating, warning, morning announcements (thanks, roosters). Some are beautiful, some are eerie, some are kind of startling, but most are also a helpful way to figure out what kinds of birds are in your neighborhood.

• Activity: Pick a nice morning to sit outside, at a safe distance from your feeder if you have one. Close your eyes, and listen for five or 10 minutes (cue the timer). Have your notebook on hand and make a check mark each time you hear a bird call. You may hear some chipmunks too; they kind of sound like birds. Just roll with it. Then, pick another morning to go for a walk in a park, or along a trail. Find a place where you can sit and close your eyes. Do you hear anything different than you did in your yard?

Research and development: Once you have become familiar with the sights, sounds, and habits of your neighborhood birds, it’s rewarding to start to put names to faces. There are myriad resources to help you identify and learn about the birds in your community. Two great places to start are the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds website, and Audubon’s Guide to North American birds website. Both organizations also offer free bird ID smartphone apps, with filters to help you narrow down your search to the most likely species.

Can you figure out what kind of bird I sketched?

• Activity: One of the hardest things about observing birds is that they can fly away, whenever they feel like it! A good way to really get to know a bird is to reproduce it — in a drawing. Find a photo of a bird species that you have seen in your yard, or that is likely to be in your area, and try drawing it to scale. It doesn’t need to be pretty: the goal is to learn how it’s designed, and why, and hopefully, be better equipped to identify it by sight in the future.

There’s so much more to discover about birds at home! Check out the Cornell Lab’s insights on How to Make These Next Few Weeks a Little Easier Courtesy of Birds.

Young birders learning the ropes last spring in Roger Williams Park in Providence, Rhode Island, one of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Urban Bird Treaty cities. USFWS

And remember, cities and suburbs play an important role in supporting bird migration: research suggests migratory birds are drawn to brightly lit areas in and around urban areas, and use shrubs and trees in parks and neighborhoods as pit stops to rest and refuel on their journeys. Through our Urban Bird Treaty cities program, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service supports urban partners in protecting birds and their habitats and providing opportunities for citizen engagement in bird conservation. This bird’s-eye view can give us new perspective on what makes our communities special too. Learn more.