The transition from April to May in the bird world is abrupt and consequential. Like someone flipped a switch, suddenly several neighborhood breeding birds who disappeared last fall are back and bursting forth with song and color, acting like they never left. After a slow slog through March and April, migration found a higher gear. But, of course, among the familiar favorites are likely to be some more interesting fare, like the bird that brought an early summer to my yard yesterday.
It began on the 1st with a Great Crested Flycatcher - I typically get my first anytime between April 24 and May 3 - announcing itself with characteristically insistent calls. Back from as far away as northern South America, this bird is looking for a mate and a suitable nest cavity, often a bird box or sometimes weird things like old mailboxes. They’re the only eastern flycatcher to nest in cavities, and are famous for adding snake skin, or snake-skin-esque plastic, to their nests. Research apparently showed this really does have a scarecrow-effect on nest predators, but only for cavity nesters.
Baltimore Orioles were also back in numbers on the 1st, though I had to go to the office to get mine – my neighborhood bird didn’t show until the 5th. After a winter sucking nectar and fruit juice in some orange grove or shade-grown coffee plantation in Costa Rica or Colombia, male orioles are also looking to get busy, in every sense. Listen for their ever cheerful song anywhere with some deciduous trees right now, especially near water.
The most anticipated May arrival for most is the bird that somehow manages to be both hyper and charming at the same time, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. The earliest reports on the Cape always come in mid-April, but I never see any until sometime between April 27 and May 4. Apparently the orioles, hummingbirds, and Great-crested Flycatchers in my neighborhood share a travel agent. I was late getting my feeder out this year thanks to an April vacation Florida trip followed by the “Great Sugar Shortage of late April” in the Faherty household, so I suppose the male I saw first on Sunday could have been around before that. And here I’m always telling people “put your feeders out in mid-April” – what a fraud.
These aren’t the only new arrivals – Northern Parulas, Eastern Kingbirds, House Wrens, Common and Roseate Terns, and on the Vineyard, Black Skimmers, are all back as well. Another Vineyard oddity, a Yellow-throated Warbler several states north of it’s normal breeding range, is back for an 8th year in West Tisbury.
And now for my own oddity. After my customary birding time in the neighborhood after getting the kids on the bus, and noting my first House Wrens of the year, I moved on to chores, or so I thought. As I was in my attic putting away winter clothes, a faint but familiar staccato call drifted in through the gable vents, sounding like this. It took a second, but I realized this was a rare Summer Tanager, and managed to hustle down the death-trap fold-away attic stairs without any major injuries. I got outside and tracked down the calls in time to spot a bit of red in a neighbor’s Norway Maple. I managed a couple of blurry photos after it moved further off. This is one of just two Summer Tanagers in New England right now, so it felt like a win to identify one not just on my property, but from a windowless part of my house. It’s like a birding version of a trick shot, I suppose.
Heavy migration was predicted overnight, so I recommend you get out there ASAP to see what’s around. If I can find cool birds in my attic, imagine what birds you can discover in the actual out-of-doors!
