The speedy rufous hummingbird is the size of a human pinkie and the fastest little bird around most backyards. But it hasn't been able to avoid a more than 50 percent decline in its population in the past three decades.
The little hummingbird's decline has been documented with the help of thousands of amateur bird-watchers across the United States who participate each year in the Great Backyard Bird Count. This year's count is Feb. 13-16.
The four-day annual event allows people of all ages to become citizen scientists, helping track bird populations in all 50 states. All participants need is a little time, a good bird guide or someone with them who knows a little about birds, and some tracking sheets downloaded from the Backyard Bird Count Web site. The bird count is a joint project of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the National Audubon Center. All the counts sent in are entered into an online database, and participants can compare counts in their towns or states to other places or prior years. People can turn in bird counts from one or multiple sites.
Suzanne Fahey has participated in the count the past two years from her home off Old Las Vegas Highway.
"It's so great because it makes very few demands on you so that just about anyone can do it," she said.
A volunteer at the Randall Davey Audubon Center, Fahey said she has noticed changes in the patterns of birds visiting her home in just the last three years. "Birds are definitely changing where they're going," Fahey said. "It doesn't mean there's fewer, but they are changing their patterns."
She and other bird-watchers she's talked to have noticed fewer birds at backyard feeders this winter, possibly because of a good crop of piñon nuts last fall, a major source of bird food.
The kinds of birds lighting on trees, bushes and backyard feeders can change dramatically every year. One year Fahey saw 10 pygmy nuthatches during the Great Backyard Bird Count. That year, only 12 were reported to Cornell University. "I saw 10 of the 12," she said. "That was exciting."
Linda Newberry, center manager at the Randall Davey Audubon Center in Santa Fe, said last year Cornell and Audubon took a hard look at numbers compiled over the years from the Christmas Count and Backyard bird counts, and reached a surprising, disturbing conclusion: Many common bird species appeared to be declining — not to the point of being endangered, but still a dramatic drop in populations.
The groups created a list of the 20 top "common birds in decline," based on data collected back to 1967.
Among the hardest hit species commonly found in New Mexico were the evening grosbeak, a yellow, white and black bird whose population has declined by 78 percent. The northern pintail's numbers declined 77 percent and the loggerhead shrike by 71 percent. The horned lark, seen now around Eldorado, declined by 56 percent.
Some of that decline is because of habitat loss as agriculture fields and open space are replaced with housing developments, highways and oil fields, Newberry said.
The data couldn't have been collected without the thousands of volunteer backyard bird counters, Newberry said. Last year, 85,000 people participated in the count, identifying 634 bird species and sending in thousands of "stunning" bird photos for the project's archives.
Volunteer participants provide scientists with a broad snapshot of what birds are doing across the country during the same period of time.
Bird-watching benefits participants, too. "Looking for birds leads people to really look at the landscape in a different way," said Newberry. "And it's fun."
The Randall Davey Audubon Center is looking for volunteers to help count birds during the event, which officially begins at 8:15 a.m. Feb. 14. The center also is hosting a series of bird classes from 6:30-8:30 p.m. beginning Feb. 18.
Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or
smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.
