Have you ever looked up in a tree and thought, ‘I wonder what kind of bird that is?’ Well, Audubon Dallas is here to help.
Karen Carpenter is on the board of Audubon Dallas, which supports wildlife conservation efforts in North Texas, and is a birder herself. She recently shared why North Texas has some of the best birdwatching and why cooler temperatures bring migratory birds to the area that you may not see year-round.
These interview highlights have been edited for length and clarity. To hear the conversation in full, click the play button above.
What are some of the bird species that are really special, that you can see here in North Texas?
We are lucky because North Texas and the Dallas area are on the central flyway of migration. So, not only do we have our resident species, the ones probably everybody knows — northern cardinals, blue jays, Carolina chickadees, everybody has those in their backyard — but we also get migrating species coming through.
We have summer breeding birds that stay here in the summer, and then winter residents that come down and spend the winters with us to enjoy some warmer weather when it’s freezing up in the northern part of the United States.
I know weather contributes to birding in many different ways. What is it about a cold front that makes for good birding?
Every bird species is different. Some birds spend the winters here with us. Some birds are here in the summer and breed here, like our famous painted buntings — which is our Audubon Dallas logo bird — and then scissortail flycatchers. People come from around the country to see scissortail flycatchers. It’s a spectacular bird that sits on wires, out in the open, very conspicuous.
In spring and fall, birds are migrating. Birds breed up in the northern part of the United States and Canada, and in the fall, they’ll head down for their wintering grounds. So in the fall we’ll get wintering birds, which is what’s happening right now. A cold front moved in, they got some tailwind, so a lot of birds decided to move. My phone is blowing up with a bunch of my friends that are saying, ‘Oh my gosh, I got a sprague’s pipit! I got to fly over a red crossbill!’
We’re having a bit of an eruption year this year, so a lot of species that we don’t normally see are coming through, but even the expected birds that are migrating down to South America, we get excited about. In the winter, sparrows come to visit. Some pass through and some stop. A lot of birders like identifying fox sparrows, which are really big, chunky, brightly marked birds. So when the birds are migrating, all the birders are out trying to catch those birds we don’t see normally.
Since 1970, we’ve lost almost 3 billion breeding birds. What’s causing the decline?
The number one cause is habitat loss, of course. Everybody can see how quickly North Texas is developing. Populations are expanding, we’re cutting down habitat, and that’s the biggest contributor to bird loss.
But there’s a lot of things that contribute to that. Outdoor cats kill a lot of birds. Pesticides kill a lot of foods that birds eat so they don’t find their food. Plastics can harm birds as well. All the things that we know that are good for the environment are also good for birds.
What is it about birding that you love?
Birds are really a charismatic and conspicuous element of nature where people can engage. Birds are everywhere. Anybody can see birds in any park, from common birds to rare birds, migrating birds and everything in between. It’s a really nice way to engage with nature.
There’s been more and more research coming out that birding is really good for our mental health, and there’s science to back that up now. Basically, it’s nothing special about birds. I love birds, so birds are good for my mental health, but what birds do is they connect you to nature. In our digital age, where we’re on our phones, we’re watching obsessive news, we’re more and more disconnected from nature. The truth is that human beings are a part of nature. It’s not separate from us. We can say that, ‘oh, I want to go experience some nature. I have to travel. I have to fly to experience nature.’ The truth is you can find nature right here.
Miranda Suarez and Ron Corning are the hosts of KERA’s NTX Now. Got a tip? Email Miranda at msuarez@kera.org or Ron at rcorning@kera.org.
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