Many birders in Central America think of July as slow birding. Most of the migrants aren’t back yet, while the residents don’t sing as much as they do in April or May. But July birding can be just as rewarding, when you think about it.
For example, July is a great month to look for resident empids like White-throated Flycatcher, when the potentially confusing migrant lookalikes are all still up north. Look for this species in open scrubby habitats at high elevations, where they breed. Knowing their distinctive calls may help you find them. In August, they migrate to lower elevations, and between August and March can be found at the edges of marshes.
Of the northern migrants, shorebirds are among the first to show up this month. Many species that were absent in June have already started to come back, like Semipalmated and Western Sandpipers, yellowlegs, Willets etc. Even some passerines are early migrants, like Black-and-white Warbler, Orchard Oriole and Louisiana Waterthrush. The first ones will be back this month.
Valuable contributions to eBird in July can be those records documenting breeding, using eBird’s breeding codes. Many recent fledglings are still with their parents and are easily observed noisily begging for food.
July is also a great month for pelagic birding. Some pelagic species that breed in the Southern Hemisphere spend their ‘winter’ in North and Central American waters, like Pink-footed Shearwater, Wedge-rumped Storm-petrel and Nazca Booby.
If you want to contribute to our knowledge of bird distribution in space and time, there’s really no better month to do so than July, for which we have fewer data than any other month. Your July observations may help to fill in gaps in bar charts or support absence of a species.
There’s plenty of reasons to go out birding this July. To encourage birders to submit checklists to eBird, we challenge you to submit 50 checklists. If you do, you will be eligible for this month’s eBirder of the month challenge, sponsored by Carl Zeiss Sports Optic. Our winner will be drawn from eBirders world-wide who submit at least 50 complete checklists this month (July 2014). Winners will be notified by the 10th of the following month.
Do your best to submit 50 checklists and who knows, you may just win the ZEISS Conquest HD 8×42! But more importantly, you’ll be contributing to our understanding of what makes July so fun.
Each month we will feature a new eBird challenge and set of selection criteria. The monthly winners will each receive a new ZEISS Conquest HD 8×42 binocular and a selection of books from another great eBird sponsor, Princeton University Press.
Carl Zeiss Sports Optics is a proven leader in sports optics and is the official optics sponsor for eBird. “Carl Zeiss feels strongly that by partnering with the Cornell Lab we can provide meaningful support for their ability to carry out their research, conservation, and education work around the world,” says Mike Jensen, President of Carl Zeiss Sports Optics, North America. “The Cornell Lab is making a difference for birds, and from the highest levels of our company we’re committed to promoting birding and the Lab’s work, so there’s a great collaboration. eBird is a truly unique and synergistic portal between the Lab and birders, and we welcome the opportunity to support them both.”
Princeton University Press publishes many of the best books about birds and natural history, including the popular new “Warbler Guide” from Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle. “We are delighted to be able to support the Cornell Lab’s innovative and ambitious range of programs in science and conservation,” says Robert Kirk at PUP. “The rapid expansion of eBird has had a major impact on our understanding of bird populations and movements in North America and beyond, and is a testament to the Lab’s commitment to game-changing citizen science.”