A young male ruby-throated hummingbird sips nectar from bee balm in an Ohio backyard. Photo by Bud Hensley.

Indeed, in recent years, scientists and birders alike have noticed that several of the country’s 21 hummingbird species are showing up earlier, leaving later and ranging more widely than they once did. While the causes of such changes remain a topic of debate, experts agree that there’s never been a better time to entice hummingbirds to visit your garden.

It’s easy to attract hummingbirds to your yard. Here’s how:

1. Hang a feeder.

To prepare sugar water for the feeder, mix one part sugar to four parts boiling water. Never use honey or artificial sweetener. Both can cause a fungal infection in the birds. The addition of red dye is completely unnecessary and may even harm hummers. You can, however, make extra sugar water and store the excess in the refrigerator for as long as two weeks.

Change your feeders’ sugar water frequently, even if no birds seem to be visiting. The “nectar” can spoil quickly, sending a hummer away no matter how hungry it is. Replace the solution every five to seven days during the cooler months, and as often as every two days when summer temperatures remain above 90 degrees F. Rinse the feeder thoroughly—without soap—before refilling. Clean it once a month with a very mild, diluted bleach solution.

2. Fill your yard with flowering plants.

When you choose your plants, consider when they will bloom. One of the keys to luring hummers to your yard, and keeping them there, is to set out annuals and perennials with different blooming periods. By doing so, you’ll be certain there will be a steady supply of flowers in your yard from early spring until well into the fall. In warmer climates, some plants that bloom during the winter months will provide the birds with a year-round source of nectar.

Consider the color and shape of flowers. Almost anything red and tubular is a favorite. Pink and orange are also desirable, followed in descending order by purple, blue and yellow blossoms. As a rule, hummingbirds choose flowers that contain a lot of nectar and just a little fragrance.

Excellent hummingbird plants include native honeysuckles, most varieties of sages or salvia, many types of columbine and perennial penstemons. Other good bets are bee balm or wild bergamot, cardinal flower, trumpet creeper, ocotillo, lupines, scarlet monkey flower and fire pink. Check with a local native plant society or your local nursery to determine which of these native plants will grow best in your part of the country.

3. Avoid insecticides.

While most people think hummingbirds feed only on nectar, the birds feed their young a diet made up almost entirely of small insects. In addition, adult birds need regular doses of protein from mosquitoes, spiders, thrips, gnats and other arthropods. Some hummer lovers go so far as to hang an overripe melon or banana near one of their feeders to attract extra insects. Obviously, using a product that kills insects will also harm the birds.

4. Don’t forget water.

A constant source of water will complete any hummingbird haven. If you have a birdbath, place a couple of flat rocks in it to give the tiny birds a chance to bathe. Or add a drip fountain attachment, available at most garden centers. Running water seems to be a magnet to hummers—they will even fly through the spray of a sprinkler.

May is Garden for Wildlife Month—and the perfect time of year for making your yard more inviting to hummingbirds and other native wildlife!

The photo above of a ruby-throated hummingbird drinking nectar from bee balm was donated by photographer Bud Hensley and entered in the National Wildlife® Photo Contest. To enter your photos in this year’s contest, visit the official contest site.

Sources: “Creating a Haven for Hummingbirds” by Doreen Cubie, National Wildlife, October/November 2002 and “The Hummingbirds of Winter” by Doreen Cubie, National Wildlife, December/January 2011.

Create a haven for hummingbirds and other critters in your own backyard and have it designated as an official Certified Wildlife Habitat site. Certify in the month of May and we’ll plant a tree in your honor!

An adult male rose-breasted grosbeak in breeding plumage feeds on gumbo-limbo fruit in Florida. Photo by Michelle Wisniewski.

Glancing out the window at my feeder last weekend, I noticed something unusual: a streaky, buff-breasted, brown bird that was larger—and had a much bigger bill—than the dozen or so house sparrows that surrounded it. What the bird most reminded me of was a rose-breasted grosbeak, but the colors were all wrong (for either a male or female). So was the location. Though I’ve seen a handful of these lovely birds in my life, it’s been only in New England or the Blue Ridge Mountains, not particularly close to my Washington, DC, backyard.

A quick look at The Sibley Guide to Birds I pulled from my bookshelf solved the mystery. It turned out that my baffling backyard visitor looked just like Sibley’s detailed drawing of a “1st winter male” rose-breasted grosbeak. And the map at the bottom of the page showed clearly that these birds—which spend summer north or west of Washington, DC, and winter far to the south—do indeed pass through my area during spring and fall migration.

Long-distance Travelers

Rose-breasted grosbeaks breed in deciduous and mixed woodlands across much of Canada and the northeastern to Midwestern United States. Their winter range extends from central-southern Mexico through the Caribbean and Central America to northern South America. Scientists have confirmed and published reports of a few grosbeaks that seem to be spending winters in Florida.

Out West, fire-prevention policies have encouraged forests to spread on the Great Plains, causing the range of the rose-breasted grosbeak to extend westward. In some places, the birds now overlap with black-headed grosbeaks, and the two species may hybridize in these areas. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, rose-breasted-black-headed grosbeak hybrids can look like either parent species or a mixture of the two, “with various combinations of pink, orange and black.”

Help Migratory Birds!

Rose-breasted grosbeaks and other Neotropical migrants—birds that breed in the United States or Canada and spend the winter in Mexico, Central America, South America or the Caribbean—are most vulnerable as they undertake their grueling, long-distance flights during the spring and fall. Throughout these marathon journeys, the birds are threatened by everything from predators and loss of habitat (critical for refueling and rest stops) to communication towers, high-rise buildings and cars. Some studies suggest that as many as half of all migrating birds never make it to their final destinations.

If you’d like to help Neotropical migrants, the American Bird Conservancy provides a list of ways to help migratory birds in and around your home. Among the conservancy’s top tips:

1. Keep your cat indoors. This is best for your cat as well as for the birds, as indoor cats live an average of three to seven times longer. Even well-fed cats kill birds, and bells on cats don’t effectively warn birds of cat strikes.
2. Prevent birds from hitting windows by using a variety of treatments to the glass on your home.
3. Eliminate pesticides from your yard. Even those pesticides that are not directly toxic to birds can pollute waterways and reduce insects that birds rely on for food.
4. Create backyard habitat. Establish a diverse landscape by planting native grasses, flowers, trees and shrubs that attract and nurture native birds.

Last weekend, I was thrilled to learn that seed from my backyard feeder was giving sustenance to a migrating rose-breasted grosbeak. As an NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat^®, my yard also provides grosbeaks and other migrants—as well as year-round residents—with water, cover and a variety of native plants brimming with tasty bugs and berries.

Explore More

• Find out how gardeners can help migrating birds and butterflies by cultivating fall-blooming plants that provide food and places to rest.
• Learn how scientists studying migratory birds are discovering surprising new records for distance and physical endurance.
• Read about threats facing birds and other migratory species.
• See top birders’ recommendations for the best places to watch birds during fall migration.
• Get 10 Tips for attracting migratory birds to your yard this fall.

Learn more about attracting wildlife to your garden and how to create a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat^® >>

A pair of northern pintails takes flight in Delaware's Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Larry Hitchens.

It’s easy to see why the northern pintail is known as the “greyhound of the air.” A long, slender, small-headed and long-necked duck—propelled by narrow, elongated wings—the sleek pintail seems designed for speed. This quick and graceful flier stands out easily in a mixed-species flock of ducks.

Legal Loopholes

But even the speedy pintail cannot escape threats facing its North American breeding habitat. One of the earliest-breeding waterfowl species, the northern pintail nests on the ground in open areas near shallow seasonal wetlands. As a result of two Supreme Court decisions, these wetlands no longer are guaranteed the protections they had for decades under the Clean Water Act.

Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972 to protect “waters of the United States.” For nearly 30 years, both the courts and the agencies responsible for administering the law interpreted it broadly to safeguard virtually all of our nation’s waters. But the court decisions, the first in 2001 and the second in 2006, ignored congressional intent by narrowing the act’s focus, putting in doubt protection for seasonal water bodies that pintails and scores of other species rely on.

“Duck-Nesting Basket” at Risk

Particularly critical to pintails and other ducks is the Prairie Pothole Region. Located in south-central Canada and the north-central United States—chiefly the Dakotas, Montana and Minnesota—more than 3 million potholes created by glaciers during the last Ice Age are scattered throughout the region. Most of them are seasonal, filling with rain and snowmelt each spring.

More than half the U.S. and Canadian population of nesting ducks breeds in the Prairie Pothole Region. “The pothole region is absolutely crucial to migratory waterfowl,” says U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wetlands biologist Tom Dahl. “This is the duck-nesting basket of the North American continent.”

Restoring the Clean Water Act

To restore protection for millions of acres of prairie potholes and other wetlands, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently released draft Clean Water guidance. With the comment period over, the Obama administration is ready to move forward on the guidance but, through a rider attached to the Interior and Environment appropriations bill and other 2012 budget bills, Congress is trying to block the administration’s attempt to restore the Clean Water Act’s protections.

Pintails need your help. Once among the continent’s most abundant ducks, the birds “have suffered a disturbing decline since the 1950s,” notes Ducks Unlimited. “More than any other North American waterfowl species, the northern pintail population has suffered from persistent drought and loss of grassland habitat in the Prairie Pothole Region.” More than half the potholes themselves have been drained for agriculture, and the Clean Water Act loophole means the rest are even more vulnerable to destruction.

Speak up for Northern Pintails and Other Wildlife

Help northern pintails by urging the administration to restore Clean Water Act protections for the waters so crucial to these ducks, and by urging Congress to stand aside and let the expert agencies do their job to protect the nation’s waters.

Learn more about:

• The Supreme Court decision that weakened the Clean Water Act
• The Prairie Pothole Region in North America
• The Obama administration’s attempt to restore the Clean Water Act protections
• How the otter is also threatened

Wildlife in the Crossfire – About this Series

This  four-part blog series highlights wildlife caught in the crossfire of the federal budget battle raging in Congress and gives you the tools to fight back. Congress is in recess and members are back in their home districts. Now is the time to stand up for wildlife.

Fact: America’s investment in wildlife is not to blame for the budget problems we face today. Over the past 30 years, America’s investment in parks, wildlife, clean water and clean air has fallen from 1.7%  to 0.6% of federal spending.

A male American goldfinch perches in Block Creek Natural Area near Comfort, Texas. Photo by Lara Hardesty.

A few years ago, the editors of National Wildlife magazine asked readers to vote for which North American bird species they’d most like to see. In the emails and letters that followed, the number one choice, by far, was the American goldfinch. It’s easy to see why: Although data compiled by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Project FeederWatch shows that the goldfinch is among the most common backyard birds nationwide, it also is one of the most brightly colored—especially this time of year when the songbirds are just beginning their breeding season.

Starting in spring and continuing through much of summer, male goldfinches are a bright lemon yellow with black foreheads, black wings and white markings above and beneath their tails. (Females are olive above and dull yellow beneath.) Come winter, both sexes turn a drab brown—so dull they often are mistaken for sparrows. The change occurs through the process of molting. According to the Cornell lab, the American goldfinch is the only finch species that molts its body feathers twice a year, once in late winter and again in late summer.

Late Breeders

Frequent molting is both time-consuming and physiologically taxing for the birds. Some scientists suggest this may be the reason goldfinches breed so late in the season—rarely beginning in earnest until mid-July. Another possibility is that the birds wait to nest until thistle, milkweed and other plants have produced fibrous seeds, which goldfinches not only eat but also use to build their nests.

According to Cornell, “goldfinches are among the strictest vegetarians in the bird world, selecting an entirely vegetable diet and only inadvertently swallowing an occasional insect.” This diet helps protect goldfinches from cowbirds: Though the parasitic birds may lay eggs in goldfinch nests, the hatchlings cannot survive long on an all-seed diet.

Color and Fitness

Like backyard bird-watchers, some scientists also are intrigued by the goldfinch’s striking color. For the past decade, Keith Tarvin and colleagues at Oberlin College in Ohio and Trinity University in Texas have been studying the relationship between color, status and sex in the lives of the birds. They’ve discovered that choosy female goldfinches prefer to mate with males that have the brightest plumage. “Color matters,” says Tarvin.

Why? One possibility stems from the fact that the male’s color comes from carotenoid pigments (the chemicals that make carrots orange) that he acquires through his diet. Tarvin suggests that by selecting the brightest males, females also may be getting the best food providers for their offspring.

Backyard Tips

Enticing goldfinches is easy. During winter, they’ll show up by the dozens at almost any kind of feeder.  In summer, the birds also visit backyards, but in smaller numbers. Niger (also called thistle) seed is their favorite, but goldfinches will devour black oil sunflower seeds as well. Gardeners also can lure them in by growing native sunflowers, thistles, goldenrod, coreopsis, elm and alder. These plants are important sources of food, and female goldfinches use thistledown to line their nests.

Make your yard more attractive to goldfinches and other birds by turning it into an NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat!

Voice: Song is a pleasant jumble of distinct, high, sweet, tinkling notes, usually with paired phrases. Flight call is a sweet pe-CHI-pee-pee.

Sources: “Going for the Gold” by Doreen Cubie, National Wildlife, August/September 2010; Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds and National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Birds of North America.

A male snowy owl hovers over a field near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Photo by Barbara J. Fleming.

With the final Harry Potter movie opening this week, J.K. Rowling fans across the country will once again have their minds on owls. On her website, The Owls of Harry Potter, writer, photographer and radio producer Laura Erickson notes: “In J.K. Rowling’s wonderful universe, owls bridge the magical and muggle world, carrying messages, packages and even Nimbus 2000s with ease as they make it clear to muggles that when a message needs to get through, it WILL get through.”

Potter’s fans may be focusing particularly on snowy owls, because the young wizard keeps one, named Hedwig, as a pet. Though Hedwig is supposed to be female, Erickson points out that the “actors” who have played her—seven different individuals—are all male birds. Unlike snow-white mature males, females and juveniles have dark markings on their bodies.

The Truth About Snowy Owls

In the real world, snowy owls live in the arctic tundra of North America, Europe and Asia, moving down to southern Canada and the northern United States during winter. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the species is “the northernmost, heaviest and most distinctively marked owl of North America.” And unlike most owl species, snowy owls are primarily diurnal: active during the daytime rather than at night.

Once ranging farther south than they do today, snowy owls are depicted in cave drawings etched by Paleolithic people in what is now France—the oldest recognizable bird species shown in prehistoric art anywhere in the world.

Boom and Bust Cycles

Snowy owls depend heavily on lemmings as their major food source. When lemmings are scarce, however, they will prey on nearly anything, from snowshoe hares, ground squirrels, voles, mice and rats to grebes, ducks, pheasants and ptarmigan to fish and carrion. Trappers report that some of the raptors have learned to follow trap lines where they nab both captured animals and bait.

How far south snowy owls migrate for the winter can depend on the abundance of lemmings, whose populations periodically crash. In years with few lemmings, the owls may not breed at all. Their nestlings need to eat about two lemmings per day, and an owl family may consume 1,500 of the rodents during the course of the breeding season. Some scientists worry that global warming may shift the distribution of lemmings in the Arctic, potentially threatening snowy owls in the future.

Too Much Love?

In Harry Potter’s magical world, Hedwig and the rest of the owls have no such worries. But the popularity of the movies and books could itself pose a threat to owls in the wild. According to an article published in Mother Jones, India’s minister of the environment has attributed an increase in illegal owl trading to Potter’s fame. “Following Harry Potter, there seems to be a strange fascination even among urban middle classes for presenting their children with owls,” minister Jairam Ramesh told the BBC.

A report from the environmental group Traffic found that more than a dozen species of owls are illegally caught and sold in India—for as little as $4.50 apiece. Some birds are sold as pets, but the majority are used in folk medicine or magic. In the United States, owls are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. It is illegal to possess an owl unless you have a federal permit to use it for research or education. Even then, the owl must be a rescued bird that is too damaged to be released back to the wild.

Voice: Snowy owls are virtually silent except during the breeding season. A courting male (rarely heard) gives a deep, hoarse hoot, a crowlike bark and a long, reedy screech.

Sources: Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds, The Owls of Harry Potter, The Owl Pages and National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Birds of North America.

Last Chance to Enter Our Photo Contest!

Barbara J. Fleming of Colorado Springs, Colorado, took the above photo of a male snowy owl hovering over a field near her home—winning second place in the Amateur Birds category of last year’s National Wildlife photo contest. Why not enter your best shots this year in the 41st annual National Wildlife Photo Contest? Winners in seven categories will appear in National Wildlife magazine alongside images taken by some of the world’s top nature photographers. The deadline to enter is July 14th!

View a slide show of owl species from around the world: Each image is an entry in the photo contest!

A gray catbird soaks in a backyard birdbath. Photo by Robert Strickland.

Of all the wonderful birds that visit my Washington, DC, Certified Wildlife Habitat^® each summer, my very favorite species is the gray catbird. Mostly slate gray—with a small black cap, darker gray tail and rusty patch just under the tail—the catbird is hardly the most spectacular bird on the block. So, why am I so drawn  to it? I can think of five reasons:

1. Gray catbirds go away for the winter and come back in spring. Though the birds breed throughout most of the United States east of the Rockies, the majority spend the winter in the Tropics of Mexico and Central America (the exception being birds right along the Atlantic Coast). Each spring, I eagerly await the return of catbirds to my yard—and like to think that the same individuals are coming back every year. Some scientists believe the birds are indeed faithful to summer nesting sites.

2. You can find catbirds along with less common birds in relatively pristine habitats. Sure, catbirds seem happy enough breeding in my urban backyard, but on a recent trip to Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, I also spotted them sharing breeding habitat with colorful wood warblers (American redstarts as well as Blackburnian and chestnut-sided warblers) at 3,500 feet above sea level in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

3. I enjoy observing the behavior of catbirds. Skulking about in dense tangles of vegetation, the birds initially appear to be extremely skittish, yet they don’t fly off when you approach them. Admitting to shameless anthropomorphism here, I often feel like “my” catbirds are observing and even even trying to communicate with me as they energetically hop from branch to branch around me.

4. Catbirds really do sound like cats. “If you’re convinced you’ll never be able to learn bird calls, start with the gray catbird,” advises the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “Once you’ve heard its catty mew, you won’t forget it.”

5. When catbirds are singing—not just mewing—their songs are complex and lovely. Closely related to mockingbirds, gray catbirds are highly skilled songsters, often copying and stringing together the tunes of other species. Their intricate songs can last for up to 10 minutes at a time. Catbirds may start singing before dawn and continue until after after the sun goes down.

Adaptable Songbirds

“Unlike almost all Neotropical migratory songbirds, the catbird has adapted well to the widespread urban and suburban habitats created by people,” notes Gregory Gough of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoological Park. One adaptation is that catbirds will attempt two or more nests in a season if a predator eats their eggs or young; many songbird species wait until the following year to try again if they lose a nest.

Still, according to the Cornell lab, catbirds have declined in recent years in the southeastern United States. In addition, the lab notes that catbirds “tend to winter near the coast, making development of coastal habitat a possible concern for the future.”

Catbirds and Cats

A recent study on the effects of urbanization on wildlife tracked the early lives of gray catbirds in three suburbs of Washington, DC. Conducted by Peter Marra and Thomas Ryder of the Smithsonian Institution and Anne L. Balogh of Towson University, the study involved affixing very small radio transmitters to 69 newly hatched gray catbird chicks. The transmitters recorded the birds’ locations every other day until the animals left the study area or died.

Of the 42 young catbirds that died, nearly 80 percent were killed by predators, and domestic cats were responsible for nearly half the known predation.

The study “adds more validation to what we’ve been saying for years: that outdoor cats are a highly destructive predatory force that is causing havoc in the world of native wildlife,” says Darin Schroeder, vice president for conservation advocacy at the American Bird Conservancy.

Backyard Tips

According to the national zoo’s Gough, “catbirds are one of the few Neotropical migratory songbirds that will use bird feeders.” They do not eat seeds, he says, but relish halved oranges, raisins, fruit-flavored suet and peanut butter. “They are also quite fond of bird baths, and whole families will communally bathe.”

You can also attract and nurture catbirds by planting native fruit-bearing shrubs and trees, including dogwood, holly and serviceberry.

Make your yard more inviting to catbirds and other wildlife by turning it into a Certified Wildlife Habitat^®.

Voice: Song is a meandering series of sweet phrases, squeals and nasal mewing notes (mewing call gives species its name); also gives a low wurt and an abrupt, rattling kkkk alarm call, sounding like a mechanical noisemaker.

Sources: Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds, Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoological Park and National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Birds of North America.

Enter Our Photo Contest!

Robert Strickland took the above photo of a gray catbird in his yard and entered it in National Wildlife magazine’s photo contest last year. Why not enter your best shots this year in the 41st annual National Wildlife Photo Contest? Winners in seven categories (including birds) will appear in National Wildlife alongside images taken by some of the world’s top nature photographers.

Lesser long-nosed bat by Greg Tucker

Welcome to June 2011—a month that has been designated Great Outdoors Month by President Barack Obama and by dozens of states across the country.

Here at the National Wildlife Federation, we’re gearing up to celebrate the great outdoors with NWF’s Great American Backyard Campout, scheduled for June 25. If you participate, consider nocturnal wildlife-watching as an activity that will keep you and the family entertained even without your computer or TV. Once the sun sets, the cast of critters that roams your yard changes completely. Depending on where you live, here are five species you may be able to spot:

1. Lesser Long-nosed Bat (left): If you live in the Desert Southwest, you may be lucky enough to see one of these nectar-feeding bats on your property. Along with the Mexican long-tongued bat and Mexican long-nosed bat, lesser long-nosed bats migrate 1,000 miles or more from Mexico to feed on nectar and pollen from cacti and agaves in Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.  To attract them, plant agaves or columnar cacti such as saguaro, cardon or organpipe. The bats may also visit your hummingbird feeders at night.

2. Virginia Opossum: This common backyard visitor is the only species of marsupial found in North America north of Mexico. Native to the East, opossums were introduced to the West during the 1930s as a potential source of food. The animals are best known for the behavior of “playing possum”—reacting to perceived threats by pretending to be dead. In backyards, you can watch the nocturnal creatures chow down on berries, fruit or food spilled from bird feeders.

Luna moth by June Cristino

3. Luna Moth (right): A resident of forests and wooded yards across the eastern United States, the luna moth is one of about two dozen giant silk moth species native to North America. The best way to attract these beautiful insects is to grow the plants favored by their larvae—sassafras, wild cherry, birch, blueberry and dogwood, for example. The lifespan of adult silk moths is short: Because they lack mouthparts, the moths cannot feed and live for only a few days, just long enough to reproduce.

4. Raccoon: Like Virginia opossums, raccoons also are common—frequently unwelcome—backyard visitors during the night. These unmistakable masked mammals feed on nearly everything, from earthworms, birds’ eggs and frogs to birdseed, garbage and fruits and vegetables nabbed from your garden. Lots of fun to watch—particularly youngsters, which romp around like puppies—raccoons are wild animals and should remain that way.  Resist the temptation to feed them!

Great horned owl by Larry Hitchens

5. Great Horned Owl (left): These large powerful owls range across the entire North American continent, breeding in a variety of habitats, from tundra edges to forests to deserts. The birds emerge from hiding spots at dusk and survey open areas from favorite perches. They feed on just about any kind of prey: skunks, opossums, snakes, insects and even other owls.

Explore More: Check out “Enjoying the Nightlife” by Janet Marinelli in National Wildlife magazine to learn more about nocturnal backyard animals and how to attract and nurture wildlife that comes out after the sun sets.

Certify Your Yard: Make your backyard more attractive to wildlife active both day and night by turning it into an NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat.

Enter our Photo Contest!
The photos shown above were donated by competitors in National Wildlife magazine’s annual photo contest. Why not enter your best shots in this year’s 41st annual National Wildlife Photo Contest? Winners in seven categories will appear in the magazine alongside images taken by some of the world’s top nature photographers.

A brown pelican flies above Tampa Bay. Photo by Jim Gray.

This Friday, May 20, 2011, the nation will celebrate Endangered Species Day. Of the nearly 2,000 plant and animal species listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act— first passed in 1966 and updated in 1973—few provide better examples of the act’s power to bring species back from the brink than the brown pelican.

Conservation Success Story

By the late 1950s, U.S. populations of the brown pelican had crashed as a result of illegal hunting and, especially, use of the pesticide DDT—which led to fatal thinning of pelican eggshells after parents ingested contaminated fish. Pelicans disappeared entirely from the Pelican State of Louisiana.

In 1970, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) listed the brown pelican as endangered throughout its range. A 1972 ban on DDT—along with transplanting thousands of chicks from Florida to Louisiana—led to remarkable population recoveries. The bird’s range in the east even expanded north to include Maryland and Virginia.

In 1985, Atlantic coast populations of the brown pelican were removed from the endangered species list. In November 2009, the species was removed from the list completely. “They’ve been doing very well,” says biologist Kelly Hornaday of the FWS endangered species program. “Annual surveys by our state partners show either stable or increasing numbers with good nesting success.”

It’s critical that conservation funding for endangered species is protected for the health of wildlife.

TAKE ACTION: Help Wildlife this Endangered Species Day >>

An Unusual Pelican

The brown pelican is unusual among the world’s eight pelican species. Along with the Peruvian pelican—a new species until recently considered the same as the brown pelican—it is the only one that lives strictly in coastal habitats, never venturing more than about 20 miles inland or out to sea.

Brown pelicans feed exclusively on fish they capture by diving headfirst into the water. The birds have excellent eyesight and can spot fish from as high as 60 feet. After nabbing their catch, pelicans scoop or dip the fish into their pouches, rise to the water’s surface, tilt their bills forward to drain the water, then toss their heads up and back to swallow.

It turns out to be true that a pelican’s “bill can hold more than his belly can”: The bird’s pouch can accommodate about three gallons of water while its stomach holds only about one.

Pelicans in the Gulf Oil Spill

The brown pelican was hit hard by the massive Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, which began just over a year ago in April 2010. More than 700 pelicans were collected in the vicinity of the spill, two-thirds of them dead. Oil also contaminated mangrove thickets on several islands where pelicans nest. And scientists still are studying potential effects of the oil on populations of fish brown pelicans feed on.

Still, Hornaday remains cautiously optimistic. “The species may take a hit for a few years,” she says. But as its recovery in recent decades demonstrates, “this is a pretty resilient bird.” Brown pelicans evolved to cope with challenges such as hurricanes and periodic crashes in prey caused by El Niño, she adds. “These birds are adapted to boom and bust cycles.”

Voice: Low grunting, rarely heard. Begging nestlings give distinctive piping and moaning sounds, by which adults identify them.

Sources: “Oil Spill Hammers Brown Pelicans” by Laura Tangley, National Wildlife, October/November 2010; Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds and National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Birds of North America.

Enter Our Photo Contest!

Jim Gray took the above photo of a brown pelican flying over Tampa Bay, Florida, and entered it in last year’s National Wildlife photo contest. Why not enter your best shots in the 41st annual National Wildlife Photo Contest this year? Winners in seven categories (including birds) will appear in National Wildlife magazine alongside images taken by some of the world’s top nature photographers.

A male Canada warbler rests on a branch in Ohio's Crane Creek State Park. Photo by Darlene Friedman.

Across the United States, tens of thousands of birds that have wintered in Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean are on the move this month, making their way toward breeding grounds in North America. To celebrate the amazing long-distance feats performed by these birds, as well as raise awareness about the threats migratory species face, communities throughout the continent are sponsoring a variety of activities for International Migratory Bird Day, this Saturday, May 14.

Frequent Fliers

Among the hundreds of species migrating this month, one of the most remarkable is the Canada warbler,  a colorful little insect eater that spends less time on its summer breeding grounds than do most Neotropical migrants—no more than two months total. The birds breed in cool, moist forests across the northeastern United States, boreal Canada and along the central ridge of the Allegheny Mountains as far south as Georgia. They winter  along the western slope of the Andes Mountains, from western Guyana to northwestern Bolivia. The Canada warbler is one of the last warblers to arrive north in spring and one of the first to leave in fall.

Biologists still know very little about the behavior of Canada warblers,  but according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the species appears to be monogamous year-round—somewhat unusual among birds. Pairs of the warblers have been spotted together during both spring and fall as far from their breeding territory as Panama.

Declining Populations

Scientists also know that the Canada warbler has been declining in recent decades. According to the Boreal Songbird Initiative, the species’ numbers in the southern part of its breeding range initially decreased due to forest clearing during the 1700s and 1800s. Beginning in the 1900s, its populations grew to, then surpassed, original levels as farmland was returned to forest.

But data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey show a 3.2 percent annual decline (in the species’ breeding range) since 1980. Forest fragmentation and disturbance are most likely to blame. Meanwhile, Andean forests in the warblers’ winter range also are being lost as are critical stopover sites along the birds’ spring and fall migratory routes.

Voice: Song is an irregular jumble of rich, sweet notes, with an introductory tchip note and syncopated rhythm. Call is a sharp tsik.

Sources: Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds, Boreal Songbird Initiative and National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Birds of North America.

Explore more:
Learn about the threats confronting warblers and other migratory species.
Find out what you can do to help migratory birds in and around your home.
Six top birders share the best places to go birding during spring migration.

May is Garden for Wildlife Month

May is peak migration time for hundreds of species of birds that breed throughout North America. Here at the National Wildlife Federation, it is also when we celebrate Garden for Wildlife Month. During spring and fall migration, birds particularly need food, water and safe places to rest during their long journeys–and you easily can provide these in your own backyard.

Enter Our Photo Contest!

Darlene Friedman took this photo of a Canada warbler in Ohio’s Crane Creek State Park and entered it in the annual National Wildlife photo contest two years ago. Why not enter your best shots this year in the 41st annual National Wildife Photo Contest? Winners in seven categories (including birds) will appear in National Wildlife magazine alongside images taken by some of the world’s top nature photographers.

A male ruby-throated hummingbird. Photo by William Heban.

If you live anywhere within the eastern or midwestern part of the country, you already may have spotted your first ruby-throated hummingbird of the season—or maybe not. These tiny jewels of the bird world, which breed from southern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, can take their time getting from wintering grounds in Central America and Mexico to their summer territories in North America.

According to the experts at hummingbirds.net, wintering ruby-throated hummingbirds begin to fly north as early as January, reaching the northern coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula by the end of February. There they gorge on insects and spiders to bulk up before beginning their long flight across the Gulf of Mexico. Before setting off over the gulf, each bird will nearly double its weight, but will lose more than it has gained by the time it reaches U.S. shores.

“Migratory Marvels”

In her article, “Migratory Marvels,” in the current issue of National Wildlife magazine, science journalist Jessica Snyder Sachs notes that until the 1950s, many ornithologists scoffed at the idea that ruby-throated hummingbirds can travel  nonstop across the Gulf of Mexico to the United States—a distance of 600 miles. “Weighing in at a fraction of an ounce, hummingbirds are the world’s smallest birds and also have the highest oxygen consumption relative to their size,” she writes.

Sachs goes on to explain the tricks scientists have discovered hummingbirds use to accomplish such feats—including flying just above the waves to decrease water loss and “an unusual ability to abruptly flip from metabolizing carbohydrates to fat immediately prior to migration.”

Still, the birds are pooped—not to mention extremely hungry—by the time they make landfall. That’s why it is important to protect remaining patches of forest along the U.S. Gulf Coast, not just for hummingbirds, but for millions of other gulf-migrating songbirds, including vireos, thrushes, warblers, tanagers and orioles.

Protracted Migration

Ruby-throated hummingbirds head north from the Yucatan over the course of several months, a strategy that “prevents a catastrophic weather event from wiping out the entire species,” notes hummingbirds.net. “Once in North America, migration proceeds at an average rate of about 20 miles per day, generally following the earliest blooming of flowers hummingbirds prefer.” Depending on where you live, you may see your first ruby-throat anytime between February and late May, when the species’ migration is complete.

If you live in the Southeast, it’s possible that your hummingbirds will not head south of the border for winter after all.  In a recent National Wildlife article, “The Hummingbirds of Winter,” South Carolina-based writer and hummingbird bander Doreen Cubie describes how backyard birders and volunteer banders like herself have been discovering apparent shifts in the cold-weather ranges of several hummingbird species—including ruby throats, which are being spotted more frequently in this country during winter.

Voice: Call is a short tew, tzip or t-tip.

Backyard Tips: It’s easy to attract ruby-throated hummingbirds to your yard by setting up sugar-water feeders and planting the tubular flowers the birds favor. Make sugar water by mixing about one-quarter cup of sugar with one cup of water.  Do not use food coloring and make sure to change the solution frequently. Watch out for cats, which pose a threat to hummingbirds: Some of these predators have learned to lie in wait near sugar-water feeders.

May is Garden for Wildlife Month, a perfect time to make your yard more inviting to birds and other backyard critters by creating an NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat.

Sources: hummingbirds.net, “Migratory Marvels” by Jessica Snyder Sachs, National Wildlife, April/May 2011, “The Hummingbirds of Winter” by Doreen Cubie, National Wildlife, December/January 2011, Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds, and National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Birds of North America.

Enter our Photo Contest!

Like this portrait of a ruby-throated hummingbird? Photographer William Heban took it from a photo blind in Toledo, Ohio, and entered the image in last year’s 40th annual National Wildlife Photo Contest. Why not enter your nature photos in the 41st annual National Wildlife Photo Contest? Winners in seven categories will appear in National Wildlife magazine alongside images taken by some of the world’s top nature photographers.