Birding Balcones by Sight & Sound

Want a unique experience to improve your birding skills by learning bird songs?  According to the following description written by one of Jeff’s previous tour participants, this tour is for you! Seeing birds while they sing is a great learning experience.

"Pull over, I just heard our bird."  What? Within 30 seconds the bird we were searching for is perched atop a bush, singing away. "How'd you do that?" I asked incredulously. "Well, he told me!" One of the great experiences of birding is to be able to identify birds before you even see them!  Yes, it's challenging, but so much fun, and the satisfaction is enormous.  

Wherever there are birds, there are bird songs! Bird songs and other vocalizations provide a wealth of information that birders can use to quickly identify familiar birds, distinguish between closely related species, and perhaps decipher some of the more complex communications that go on between birds. Jeff Patterson can get you started in quickly identifying many of the birds of central Texas.

Jeff’s tour alternates between brief discussions of birdsong, and listening to (and yes seeing) the springtime birds that vocalize at the refuge, while taking a hike through the beautiful landscape behind Refuge Headquarters. You will be a better birder after just one class, honest!

CLASSROOM & FIELD TRIP

Targets: Painted Bunting, Blue Grosbeak, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Purple Martin, White-eyed Vireo, Summer Tanager, Eastern Phoebe, Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, Carolina Chickadee, Black-crested Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Bewick’s Wren, Northern Cardinal, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow and (possibly) Golden-cheeked Warbler.