The Birds are Back in Town!
- Aspen Thies
- Apr 6
- 2 min read
During our mild and moody winter, the trees and the sky felt so empty (except for our raucous ravens) and I retired my hummingbird feeder for the season. But now it is officially Spring, and birds are migrating through the borderlands again, in search of food, mates, and water! At the Borderlands Wildlife Preserve, we maintain a series of wildlife drinkers that supply year round water for all species, whether it is the local packrat, wandering black bear, or seasonal residents like our magnificent Gray hawks (Buteo plagiatus) who fly north from Mexico to breed throughout parts of the Southwestern United States.
As the weather warms, some birds move altitudinally, rather than latitudinally, like our Gould’s turkeys. The Gould’s turkey is the largest subspecies of wild turkey, and has the smallest population out of the subspecies and is endemic to southern Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico. Their population is a conservation success story - they were completely extirpated from their range in the U.S. in the 19th century, but individuals from Mexico were relocated and introduced every few years from 1983 to 2006 to restore the species to their home range. Now their population is estimated to be 1,500 individuals, with groups inhabiting every Sky Island mountain range. Turkeys show up on our wildlife cameras a couple times of year, usually in late winter. They inhabit a general home range and move to lower elevations, like the mesquite savannah at Borderlands Wildlife Preserve, during the winter to avoid snow and to look for different food sources.
Some of my favorite returning residents of Patagonia are the vultures and the hummingbirds. Just yesterday I saw my first lazy swirl of vultures coasting on thermals above town. A few weeks ago, a pair of broad-billed hummingbirds started fighting over the newly stocked feeder.
Turkey vultures inhabit most of North America, and some individuals migrate as far south as South America during the winter. Vultures who spend their summers in Canada, will fly south for the winter to find carrion, their food source, that isn’t frozen!
Hummingbirds feed on gnats as well as nectar, and stick to warmer climates where both insects are available, and flowers are blooming. Hummingbirds cover incredible ground when migrating, sometimes over 1,000 miles. Rufous hummingbirds are known for traveling over 4,000 miles from Alaska to Mexico! The only species in the eastern United States, the ruby-throated hummingbird, makes a non-stop flight over the Gulf of Mexico! These birds are on the move so much, it’s hard to get a clear photo of them when they pop up in front of our cameras.
While it has already hit 90+ degrees (20 to 30 degrees above average temperatures!!) one thing that excites me about warmer weather is the spring bird migration. While I loved seeing the wintering Sandhill Cranes a couple months ago, I revel in the sound of hummingbirds buzzing and beefing in the yard, and seeing the turkey vultures sun themselves on telephone poles down the street. My goal this spring is to see some elegant trogons in the Santa Ritas, and finally spot a screech owl. What birds are you looking forward to seeing this year?
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