Migrating Birds

For birdwatchers in southern New Mexico, September can be highly entertaining. Good numbers of many diverse 1 are on the move during this time, 2 southward from northern breeding grounds to places they will spend the winter, and there's always a chance that some rare or unusual bird will turn 3 . Key to the flow of migrating birds through the area is our geography. Birds crossing over the southwest deserts tend to follow north-south watercourses like the Rio Grande and/or corridors of relatively green vegetation, whether that be cottonwoods and willows lining the valleys or the coniferous forests of the higher mountains. Shorebirds, gulls, ducks and other birds that are closely associated with water typically follow the river southward, unless a desert playa along the way happens to catch their eye and divert them. Migrating land birds, on the other hand, are looking for places to stop and rest on the southward journey, where they can feed on seeds, berries or insects to refuel for the next leg of their trip. Heading south out of Albuquerque, where the surrounding high mountains and lush, wide cottonwood bosques offer an abundance of habitat, they reach our area and are funneled into a relatively narrow sliver of foraging choices