During the hot summer months, some are wondering “where did all the birds go?”
After the excitement of spring migration has passed and all the “interesting” birds have moved through your area to their summer breeding grounds, some birders may feel there is not much going on until the fall. Summer birding however, definitely has some rewarding observations to be had if you have the patience. Late spring and summer is when birds are claiming a territory, building nests, incubating eggs and raising young. During the spring migration the sounds of birds singing and calling can be deafening at times while they announce their arrival and attract mates. Once these territories have been claimed and a suitable partner has been found it seems like everything goes quiet.Â
The early morning choruses of birds are much quieter and it seems as though all our feathered friends have left. The truth is, there are plenty of birds around but while they are hatching eggs and raising their young they don’t advertise their presence to protect their family. For the patient birder, the one who walks quietly through an open field or wooded area with their eyes open, scanning the landscape you can catch glimpses of movement. Summer birding takes a lot of observation as we no longer hear the birds before we see them as we do in the spring. That quick movement you catch out of the corner of your eye could be a bird gathering nesting material to make it’s nest or a mother bird foraging for food for her newly hatched babies. If you are quiet and patient that bird you spotted may lead you to where it is nesting or where it’s babies are.
Later in the summer, bushes and trees can be filled with fledglings, baby birds that can now fly and have left the nest. The parents continue to feed their babies as they often call out and quiver their wings while begging for food from their busy parents. There are many opportunities to see busy parents foraging for food or watching adult birds feed their fledglings. Sometimes, adult birds will scold and even dive at you if you happen to walk too close to where their babies are hidden. If you keep still and wait you may get to watch and even photograph baby birds as they strengthen their wings, accept food from the parent birds and learn to forage for seeds and insects on their own. Baby birds often haven’t perfected the beautiful songs of their parents but rather “squawk” or “screech” to beg for food. Therefore, identifying baby birds by their sound can be very difficult or even impossible.  Quite often, by the time fledglings leave the nest they have enough defining characteristics and plumage to identify the species but not always, sometimes you need to wait for the parents to return with food to determine what kind of baby bird you have found. For their first year, some juvenile birds have a drab appearance or a plumage with fewer markings or duller colours than the parent birds, many of them more resembling the female of the species despite the sex of the juvenile birds.
Once adult birds have raised their young and they are independently foraging, many adult birds go through a molt. Adults no longer require their bright plumage and fancy colouring to attract mates so they lose their feathers and grow in new ones. Birds feathers “wear out”, become dull from sun fading and can be damaged throughout the year so once a year birds complete a full molt where all feathers fall out and new ones grow in.  During this molt, birds can experience decreased strength and ability to fly while feathers are partially grown back making them vulnerable and thus don’t want to advertise their location so they lay low, foraging for food but not singing or moving around much to preserve their energy and maintain their safety. For many songbirds, the completion of their molt is their preparation to migrate back south. Birds usually sing to attract mates and defend or announce their territory. By mid summer when babies have fledged adult birds no longer maintain a nesting territory which also explains why that morning chorus has silenced. Some species join flocks consisting of adult and juvenile birds which does not require any singing to defend individual territory.
Ironically, despite the silence, summer is when the population of birds is high due to the presence of all those new babies out there so grab your cameras and binoculars and get out birding. Morning is best when it’s a bit cooler and birds are waking up and feeding, just be patient and keep your eyes open!
