Spring Migratory Birds

They leave their home, Mexico and South America, and begin the long migration. Each spring, millions of tropical birds and flocks fly upward to the North. Even with dangers like outdoor cats looking for a snack, or birds-of-prey, most of the birds make it to the place they will settle for the summer, between the mid-atlantic and the tip of the North American continent.

Like other tropical birds, they are often bright and colorful, with reds, blues, yellows, greens, and almost all the colors of the spectrum. The main families are the tanagers and the warblers.

Somehow, these birds have come almost completly unharmed from the vicious traps mankind has let them. They have survived hunters, domestic animals, and habitat loss. Some haven't been so lucky, though. The Bachman's Warbler is most likely extinct do to habitat loss. Many others seem to be dissapearing, the sightings lessening each year. One day, all the colorful migratory songbirds of the tropics may not exist, leaving nothing but ample photographs, study skins, and urban ledgends, of the beautiful and tiny birds that once inhabited the decidous forests of the eastern coasts.

You can help prevent this awful tragedy and do the world a favor by doing two things:

Keeping cats indoors.

Planting native plants and gardens.

By the way, tomorrow is global birding big day! Get your binoculars and camera ready!

The Link: http://ebird.org/ebird/globalbigday?siteLanguage=en