Lovebirds? The Great Backyard Bird Count begins Valentine’s Day

House finches are common sights in Arkansas during the Great Backyard Bird Count. AGFC photo by Mike Wintroath.

LITTLE ROCK — Valentine’s day isn’t the only big event for birds-of-a-feather this year. The 28th edition of the annual Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up Feb. 14-17, and anyone who wants to join is welcome.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is a joint project of the National Audubon Society, Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Birds Canada to help scientists track changes in bird populations over time.

Male and female northern cardinals are easily spotted against the backdrop of winter. AGFC photo by Mike Wintroath. 

Roughly 300,000 people worldwide participate in the annual event. Their combined records reported 7,920 species during last year’s citizen science project. These records are extremely valuable to researchers, ornithologists and other conservationists who are keeping tabs on the world’s avian species.

The count takes place each February to get a snapshot of bird distribution just before spring migrations carry many species back to their nesting grounds. Combined with data from counts held at other times of the year, the data collected during the BBC delivers insight into how species are reacting to changes in climate and environments.

This pair of female American goldfinches is collecting seed from a homemade feeding platform. AGFC photo by Mike Wintroath.

It only takes 15 minutes to participate, but you can choose to record bird sightings throughout the entire event if you choose. And because bird-watching can be done from practically anywhere, people from all skill levels and all walks of life can contribute to the valuable data being collected through the program.

“The Great Backyard Bird Count is a great reason to get outdoors this weekend, and it’s a great way for people of all skill levels to get involved in conservation,” Kirsten Bartlow, Watchable Wildlife Program coordinator for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said. “There are tons of resources online for people who may be new to identifying the many species that can be found in Arkansas. The Merlin app from Cornell is a great start, and you can even participate in the count through it. The AGFC has a portal to Arkansas eBird to give a more customized experience here in The Natural State.”

The tufted titmouse is an easily recognizable backyard bird that lives in Arkansas year-round. AGFC photo by Mike Wintroath.

To learn more about how to take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count, visit birdcount.org.  For those Arkansans interested in taking their birding to the next level, visit www.agfc.com/wingsoverarkansas, a special bird-watching program established by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission that rewards participants with pins and recognition for recording bird species throughout The Natural State.

Brush up on winter weather and wildlife

BY Randy Zellers

LITTLE ROCK — Take a moment while stocking up on the bread, milk and eggs in preparation for this week’s snowstorm and think about how you can better prepare your yard for the local wildlife. 

The good news is that native wildlife are highly adaptable to a random winter storm if they have the right habitat nearby. Reptiles and amphibians have already found burrows and shallow pools to ride out the winter. Songbirds can easily relocate to more habitable areas and make the best of a temporary situation. Cottontail rabbits and other mammals make the best use of brush and other low-lying cover. But there are a few things landowners can do to give them a little boost during heavy snowfalls and icy conditions.  

CARDINAL
A female northern cardinal weathers a snowstorm near the safety of heavy weeds and brush. AGFC photo by Mike Wintroath.

During harsh weather, wildlife are always going to benefit best from those yards that look a little less manicured. Rough weed edges and randomly placed piles of branches may be unattractive to a greenskeeper or neighborhood association watchdog, but they’re heaven on Earth to local wildlife. If your homeowner’s association is agreeable, give a little thought to making a brushpile or two.

If feasible, make several brushpiles, and you’ll have rapid rewards in the form of songbirds and other wildlife making use of the debris in your backyard or in a corner of your rural property.

With a bit of creativity, the brushpile can be a yard or garden feature, fronted or ringed, perhaps, with a planting of flowers. It can also be tucked away in a corner of the yard, drawing attention only from wildlife. Place the brushpile near a fencerow or border to the nearby woods. This offers an extra benefit to give to other food and cover.

The instructions for a great wildlife brushpile are pretty simple. Pile up some brush. It doesn’t have to be any particular shape or size, although a few piles the size of a wheelbarrow are much more beneficial to various animals than one huge pile. But even a simple pile of sticks will offer some cover from the cold and predators. Anchor the brushpile around a stump or log. If these aren’t available, lay two or three bigger pieces on the ground then work the limbs, sticks and twigs around and on top of these. This way, there will be some space down low for small creatures to move around and hide.

If you haven’t yet delivered your Christmas tree to one of the AGFC’s Habitat for the Holidays dropoff locations, maybe you can drag it to the corner of your yard to be a temporary brushpile during the upcoming storm, then deliver it to one of the dropoff locations for fish habitat by the end of January. 

Once spring arrives, you can even make your brushpile a feature of a flowerbed or yard. Plant some favorites around the pile. The main thing to keep in mind is to keep any plantings around your brushpile native. Not only do native plants require less maintenance, most produce seeds and fruit that native wildlife depend upon. The following link can offer some help in choosing native species:  www.agfc.com/education/native-gardening. 

GOLDFINCHES
American goldfinches taking advantage of sunflower seeds scattered around brush. AGFC photo by Mike Wintroath. 

If you don’t have many native plants around right now, a few supplemental food sources can help, especially with songbirds. 

“Black oil sunflower seeds are the best all around seed to put out for songbirds,” Allison Fowler, Assistant Chief of Wildlife Management for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said. “If you have house finches or goldfinches around, nyjer seed is also a good food for them. Suet feeders are very popular with a lot of birds, especially woodpeckers.”

Fowler says a heavy snow last year was particularly tough on bluebirds who were not able to find their preferred foods (insects and berries) for almost a week.

“A lot of commercial suet blocks contain berries, cracked seeds and mealworms that the bluebirds and other insect-focused species can use,” Fowler said. “They lack stout seed-cracking beaks so they can make good use of these alternative food sources.”

Another option is to make your own suet for the birds. Here’s an article that walks you through one of the best family snow-day activities to enjoy between snowball fights and sledding: www.agfc.com/news/simple-recipe-to-share-with-your-feathered-friends. 

2024 Avian Influenza Summit to address virus’ impacts on global health beyond poultry

By Ryan McGeeney
U of A System Division of Agriculture 

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — While surges in colds, flu and even COVID may come and go, agricultural producers are always on the lookout for avian influenza — and not just in poultry flocks. In 2024, highly pathogenic avian influenza has been detected not only in birds, but cattle, swine and humans as well.

MORE THAN FOWL — The 2024 International Avian Influenza and One Health Emerging Issues Summit will feature 55 speakers over four days, addressing the virus' effect not only in birds, but other species as well. (Division of Agriculture image.)

To address the current state of HPAI, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s Center of Excellence for Poultry Science will host the International Avian Influenza and One Health Emerging Issues Summit on Sept. 30 – Oct. 3 at the Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

While the general public may be most familiar with the H5N1 strain of HPAI, multiple viruses have infected tens of millions of birds and more than 20 species of mammals worldwide since 2022. In response, event organizers have expanded the scope of this year’s annual summit to address emerging issues affecting cattle, swine, bees, humans and more as part of the “One Health” concept.

This year’s summit will feature 55 speakers over four days, more than doubling the number of speakers at the 2023 two-day conference. More than 1,800 individuals from 81 countries registered for the 2023 summit.

In-person attendance is limited to 200 people and online attendance is limited to 1,000 participants this year. There is no cost to attend either way, but registration is required. To register, visit https://internationalavianinfluenzasummit.uada.edu/registration/. To see a complete agenda listing speakers and topics, visit https://internationalavianinfluenzasummit.uada.edu/agenda/.

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu/. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.

Saline County 4-H club designs 3D-printed bird eggs for county fair exhibit

BIRDING — Members of the Saline County 4-H club, the Salem Superstars, use their binoculars to spot birds at the Little Rock Audubon Center. (Division of Agriculture photo by Lori Canada.)

By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture 

Lori Canada, extension 4-H STEM program coordinator for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and the parent of a Salem Superstars club member, said the project is an important intersection of wildlife and technology programming. STEM is an acronym that stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

“As a STEM specialist, I see this as a great way to show kids that technology is in everything and anything,” Canada said. “It’s a good combination of learning about birds – the eggs they lay and the differences between those eggs – but also utilizing that knowledge through creating these 3D replicas.”

The Salem Superstars began the project by learning about bird species present in Arkansas, using binoculars to watch them in their habitats and studying images of their eggs. This included a field trip to the Arkansas Audubon Center in Little Rock. Canada then taught the students about 3D printing technology, demonstrating the printing method and showing students how to design their own eggs using a computer program.

Becky McPeake, the club’s leader and extension wildlife specialist for the Division of Agriculture, said the 4-H members have responded enthusiastically to the curriculum.

“They’ve been really excited about this project,” McPeake said. “We gave them a list of birds, and we asked them to select which birds they would like to study and learn about their eggs. As you might imagine, some of them really like the larger, predatory birds, and some of them were really enthused about birds they knew very little about and wanted to learn more.”

Kahlan Higgins, 12, current president of the Salem Superstars, said the project has made her more interested in learning about birds and other wildlife.

“My favorite part about learning about different bird species and their eggs is getting to learn what different eggs look like and how they are different from each other,” Higgins said. “Using the 3D printers has also been really fun. I have really enjoyed getting to see them printing different objects.”

After choosing their bird egg, the students designed them using the 3D modeling program Tinkercad. Canada described 3D printing as a “computerized hot glue gun.” The printers use a thermoplastic that melts when heated and is then extruded through a nozzle, layer by layer, to create a three-dimensional object. Canada helped the group members, who range in age from 5 to 12 years old, in designing their eggs.

She then downloaded their designs to another computer program, Cura, which breaks the designs down into individual layers and configures each design’s settings for the printer, including the heat temperature and the design of the infill of the egg. This determines whether the inside of the object is hollow or made of smaller hexagonal or triangular shapes, which keeps the object lighter and uses less filament per design.

“For the printer to know how to do the hot glue gun motion, it needs to basically slice the object into layers,” Canada said. “It’s like you’re slicing a cake, but vertically.”

Club members then use sanding tools to smooth their eggs down and then paint them to match those of their respective birds. Finally, the 4-H members will create an exhibit about their eggs and the 3D printing technology for the Saline County Fair in September.

Each student will get to make at least two eggs, and McPeake will include one of them in each of the wildlife kits she is compiling to distribute across the state. These kits are part of Canada’s plan to distribute science and technology equipment to county agents.

“We’re designing five kits that will be stationed in five locations that county agents can access and do outreach to 4-Hers and local schools,” McPeake said. “We hope that soon, anyone in the state who has an interest in wildlife curriculum could contact their county agent and coordinate educational outreach with those kits, or they could use them to train their 4-H leaders, who could then use the kits to teach kids about wildlife.”

McPeake said she hopes the kits will help get more kids involved with the 4-H wildlife program and excited about spending time outdoors.

“Kids today are so smart when it comes to technology, and they’re so engaged in technology,” she said. “We have found that kids are going outdoors less, and yet a lot of the research suggests that being outdoors brings so much value to their lives and to their mental health. This combination of technology and the outdoors is really a great one for this time and age.”

4-H is a youth development program operated by the Cooperative Extension Service. The Cooperative Extension Service is part of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. The program teaches participants life skills through the “learn by doing” model. Program participants gain knowledge through non-formal, science-based, experiential education activities.

For more information about 4-H, contact your local county extension agent or visit https://4h.uada.edu/.

Fast Facts:

• 4-H members use 3D printing technology to design eggs of Arkansas birds

• Bird eggs will be used in wildlife curriculum kits for county agents throughout state

• Project will be exhibited at Saline County FairSALINE COUNTY, Ark. — The 4-H model of “learn by doing” encourages youth to acquire new skills through hands-on activities. The Salem Superstars 4-H club in Saline County is practicing this by combining technology and wildlife curriculum to create 3D-printed bird eggs, teaching participants about the innovative printing method and the Natural State’s bird population.