Birds Coming and Going | Outdoors My Window

October 23, 2024

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Nashville warbler, Frick Park, 20 Oct 2024 (picture by Charity Kheshgi)

23 October 2024

Throughout fall migration birds are coming and going on a regular basis. Some shorebirds move via in August, September is warbler season, October is sparrow season, and November ought to be geese. Once we noticed a Nashville warbler in Frick Park final Sunday, eBird squawked “That species has left already. Your fowl is Uncommon! You need to justify it.”

In autumn Nashville warblers arrive in southwestern PA throughout the first week of September and are fully passed by 18 October. Charity Kheshgi’s picture on 20 October is proof that one nonetheless lingered.

Swainson’s thrushes have already come and gone, 13 September to 11 October

Bear in mind once we noticed plenty of Swainson’s thrushes a few weeks in the past? Properly, they breed in Canada and solely go to the Pittsburgh space briefly on migration, roughly 13 September to 11 October (see the map animation).

Swainson’s Thrush (picture by Chuck Tague)

Leaving quickly: ruby-crowns, chipping and yellow-rumps will probably be (principally) passed by 8 November.

This month we’re having fun with ruby-crowned kinglets, chipping sparrows and yellow-rumped warblers however eBird’s weekly abundance maps present that, apart from stragglers, these three will go away southwestern Pennsylvania by 8 November. That’s why I used to be amazed the primary time I noticed ruby-crowned kinglets overwintering in japanese PA.

Ruby-crowned kinglet, Frick Park, 20 Oct 2024 (picture by Charity Kheshgi)

Chipping sparrow, Oct 2012 (picture by Steve Gosser)

Yellow-rumped warbler consuming poison ivy berries in 2013 (picture by Cris Hamilton)

Right here till 29 November:

Apart from just a few stragglers, most red-winged blackbirds will go away southwestern PA by the tip of November. For those who’re determined to see one within the winter, go to northeastern Ohio close to Akron.

Crimson-winged blackbirds foraging on the floor of a pond (picture from Wikimedia Commons)

Golden-crowned kinglets, white-throated sparrows and dark-eyed juncos are winter birds.

In line with eBird’s weekly abundance maps:

Golden-crowned kinglets arrive by 4 October and go away by 26 April.
White-throated sparrows arrive round 1 October and go away within the first two weeks of Could.
Darkish-eyed juncos get right here 25 October and go away by 26 April. (I’ve seen just a few already.)