Where Bird(er)s Go on Vacation

By Scott Jorgenson

People and birds look for surprisingly similar things when they go south in the winter. People look for clean, comfortable hotels with decent restaurants and things to do. Birds migrate to places with some protective cover, a good supply of food, and suitable habitat. And just as it can be very distressing to get to your hotel and find they have no room, when winter range habitat is destroyed by hurricanes or development, birds must look for somewhere new to roost and forage. On their wintering grounds some birds also wear their more “casua”’ winter plumage, just like we do. Since it seems that people and birds are looking for basically the same things, why not visit a few of “our” birds in their winter range?

Cuban Parrot. Photo by Scott Jorgenson

Last winter my wife and I went to the Bahamas in search of a little warmth and a lot of birds. We found a lovely birding group on the island of Nassau. It was wonderful looking for the many resident species with local birders since they know where the best spots are. Seeing birds like the Red-legged Thrush, Smooth-billed Ani, and Cuban Parrot was exciting, and we were able to add them to our life list, along with White-cheeked Pintails and Loggerhead Kingbirds. It was also nice to see some of the birds we know from Detroit in their winter habitat. We saw several species of ducks (including Blue-winged Teal), grebes, and herons that  are all regulars on DBA’s spring walks at Pointe Mouillee, as well as woodpeckers, Ovenbirds and Common Yellowthroats, and many species of warblers, including a Michigan specialty – the Kirtland’s warbler. The Kirtland’s Warbler nests mainly in Michigan’s early Jack Pine forests and winters mostly in the Bahamas on the island of Eleuthera, where they can find their preferred foods: Black Torch and White Sage.

White-cheeked Pintails. Photo by Scott Jorgenson

The hotels were clean and comfortable and the food was quite tasty; we recommend the Bahamas as a destination. The birds seemed to agree.

Kirtland’s Warbler. Photo by Scott Jorgenson