If the cost of living in the Bay Area has made travel too expensive, Matthew Dodder has another idea for how to experience the sights and sounds of faraway places: bird-watching.
“You’re basically seeing the world in motion,” said Dodder, the executive director of the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society. “You are seeing continents move, so to speak.”
The first week of May is an ideal time to break out the binoculars as the number of birds migrating through the Bay Area peaks for the season, with thousands taking flight each night on their annual trek northward for summer.
A western kingbird sits atop some branches with lupine blooming in the background at Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge on Thursday, April 23, in Antioch, California. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Bird migration through the Bay Area this year will be at its highest level through May 8, according to a map compiled by BirdCast, a collaboration among scientists at Cornell University, Colorado State University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst to track and predict bird migration. Santa Clara County had an estimated 92,000 birds in flight on the night of May 2, according to the site.
The migration marks an exciting time of year for birders and naturalists, Dodder said, and is also a great opportunity for people with an interest in birds to take the time to look for species just arriving and passing through.
Bird-watchers are likely to see not only more birds but also more species of bird than usual, said Dr. Katie LaBarbera, director of landbird science at the San Francisco Bay Observatory.
Amateur bird-watchers need only a notebook, field guide and a birding app to get started, though binoculars can take the activity to the next level, according to a guide from the National Audubon Society. The birds will be most active in the morning, starting after sunrise up until 10 a.m., LaBarbera said.
“As long as you get out of your downtown, you’re probably going to see something,” LaBarbera said. But “you will have to wake up earlier than you think” and “sit and be quiet for a little bit.”
Experts said beginner bird-watchers are likely to see migrating birds in almost any natural area, but there will be more passing by the coast and through canyons, making locations such as the Hayward Regional Shoreline, Mitchell Canyon or Coyote Hills Regional Park ideal. Even going to large parks in San Francisco, such as the Presidio, are likely to result in some sightings.
Aspiring bird-watchers will need to summon their patience and utilize all their senses for bird sightings. Look for flashes of bright colors in the bushes and listen closely, Dodder said.
“You’re going to be hearing sounds you haven’t heard in months,” he added.
Many of the bird species who migrate to the Bay Area come here for the natural resources, such as the bounty of food found in native plants and insects, Dodder said. Some species come from as far as South America, such as the flycatcher family, which weighs only an ounce and makes the flight between South America and the Bay Area twice per year.
“These migration routes have been determined over thousand and thousands of years,” Dodder said.
Some birds will be sticking around in the Bay Area for the next several months, but for others, the bay is just one stop on the route to a summer in Alaska or northern Canada. Other winter birds, such as geese, ducks and gulls, leave the Bay Area for the summer and will return in the fall migration. Now marks the last chance to see these birds until they return later this year.
Experienced bird-watchers recommend looking out for warblers, orioles and western tanagers, to name a few. Utilizing apps released by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, such as eBird and Merlin Bird ID, can help amateur bird-watchers keep track of sightings and identify species, said Daniel Karp, associate professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology at UC Davis.
A Western Tanager Adult Female near a puddle of water in summer in Santa Clara County. (Yuval Helfman/Getty Images)
“It’s this incredible treasure trove of information,” Karp said.
Many smaller species of birds will migrate primarily at night, despite not being nocturnal, said LaBarbera. Birds use a combination of natural navigation skills to get to their destination, including a sense of magnetism in their heads that tells them which direction they are flying and the ability to identify and follow the north star, according to experts. During the day, they will largely focus on refueling, making them easier to spot, LaBarbera said.
The long treks of these bird species are not without their challenges, but “the reward if you succeed in making it to your destination is enormous,” Dodder said. Birds face obstacles such as window strikes, bright city lights disrupting their natural guidance systems and house cats.
For those who wish to help birds along on their journey, Dodder recommends changing bright blue house lights to warmer yellows, as well as turning down their intensity and pointing lights toward the ground if possible. Turning off the lights on one house at night can be helpful, LaBarbera added, even if neighbors do not.
“Light is additive, so one less light is still good,” she said.
Karp, who has been bird-watching since he was eight years old, will be taking part in Global Big Day, a worldwide day of bird-watching on May 13 where participants can report their sightings to eBird. Karp said he plans to bird-watch for 24 hours straight with the aim of seeing more than 200 bird species, but amateur bird-watchers will not need to commit as much time as Karp to appreciate the migrating birds this spring.
“Bird-watching really opens your eyes to a lot of beauty that exists around you,” said Maya Xu, a junior at Stanford and an officer for the school’s bird-watching club. “I can’t go anywhere now without appreciating the bird life around me, and I feel like it just makes my life that much richer.”
Rufous hummingbirds are one of the birds that can be seen in California as they migrate nearly 4,000 miles to breeding grounds in Alaska and northwest Canada after wintering in Mexico. (Dave Hutchison/Getty Images)