Transcript: Migratory Songbirds

About Migratory Species

Here at Natural Bridge, and in this area, we have, I guess, probably twenty, thirty different species that will fly all the way down to Central America and back every single year. When you see, you know, species coming back year after year to these sites it really it really tells you how important there are because there are not many of these sites left in our state.

A lot of these birds really need intact large tracks of forested area to survive. They’re not necessarily what we considered endangered, but many of them are declining species. We estimate some of our our forest birds might be 25% might have a 25% decline over the past 40 to 50 years. So, they’re not doing that great and it is mainly because of habitat loss. So areas like this, and any place where we have thousands of intact forested acres are really, really important.

Red-Eyed Vireo

This is a Red-Eyed Vireo, and they’re relatively common in mature woodlands throughout Kentucky, but they do need forested tracks, pretty big, forested areas. They breed here in this area, in Kentucky along the Red River Gorge area, like I said, in a lot of forested areas. And uh he is another sign that you have a pretty healthy forest component. He is an upper-canopy bird. You hear him a lot more than you see him. (bird noises)

Funniest things about these birds I’ve worked with throughout these years is uh the same birds in the same species tend to act kind of similar. Vireos tend to be kind of ornery and do a lot of biting and don’t like being messed with.

Hooded Warbler

This is a Hooded Warbler. We have uh a bunch of different kinds of warblers in Kentucky. This is one that is pretty common in the Natural Bridge area, Red River Gorge area, you can find him on the Kentucky river, different places throughout the state. They kind of like brushy areas, rhododendron thickets. That is why they like it around here so much. They are really pretty.