Migration Marvels of the Appalachians

Like a firecracker in the sky, the Baltimore oriole dazzles with its orange, black and white plumage. These treetop dwellers begin their southbound migration as early as July, using the Appalachian Mountains as a natural highway for north-south navigation, stopovers and energy-saving updrafts. Along the way, they refuel on insects, fruit and water in lush valleys. Their journey spans more than 3,000 miles to Central and South America, reaching as far south as Central Colombia and Venezuela. This journey includes a nonstop 600-mile flight across the Gulf that normally lasts 11–12 hours. When they finally reach tropical forests, they’re exhausted and in urgent need of food and shelter, making the protection of these tropical habitats just as critical as conserving their Appalachian home.

This small bird of prey can be tricky to spot in the spring and summer months, but keep your eyes open in the fall as huge, swirling flocks of broad-winged hawks make their annual migration from eastern North America to South America. These flocks are also known as “kettles,” referring to the illusion of someone using a spoon to stir a large pot of hawks in the sky. The broad-winged hawk uses the Appalachians as a crucial migratory corridor, taking advantage of mountain updrafts and rising hot air along ridge lines to conserve energy as they make their more than 4,300-mile journey as far south as central and southern Brazil and northern Argentina. Your best chance of catching a glimpse of broad-winged hawks is during the fall migration at places like Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania.

The small but beautifully colored cerulean warbler has been a catalyst for conservation action both in the Appalachians and South America. It’s estimated that the warbler’s population has decreased as much as 70% since the 1960s, mostly due to habitat loss and degradation, highlighting the need for healthy forests and habitat conservation to safeguard biodiversity. Cerulean warblers hunt for insects and breed in tall forests in the U.S. before flying south to winter on the slopes of the Andes.

The chimney swift was more common in old-growth Appalachian forests prior to extensive human development and would nest in dead tree cavities, hollows or caves. Nowadays, these aerial acrobats are more easily spotted coming in and out of chimneys, bridges or old buildings. There, they spend their evenings in small nests attached to hard surfaces by their sticky saliva.  Once fall comes, however, the chimney swift embarks on a long-distance migration to find similar accommodations in the upper Amazon basin of South America.

While golden eagles are an iconic sight in the West, there are a few hundred pairs estimated in the East. Eastern golden eagles are rare and highly localized, breeding mainly in northern Quebec and Labrador in the spring. The population is small, migratory and conservation-sensitive, relying heavily on Appalachian ridges for migration and winter habitat. Appalachian ridges act like a thermal highway, giving the eagles the updrafts they need for energy-efficient travel. One of the best places to witness this migration is the Allegheny Front, a critical ecosystem that serves as a key stopover and observation point for these raptors. By November, many eagles settle in the central and southern Appalachians, including West Virginia and Virginia, to spend the winter months.

Despite being a member of the woodpecker family, the northern flicker actually prefers to find food on the ground, where they use their long-barbed tongue to lick up ants and other insects. Many of these birds are year-round residents in the Appalachians, but some may only visit us in the winter or summer after migrating from Canada or the Southern U.S., depending on whether they’re trying to beat the heat or escape the cold.

Have you ever seen an owl that looks stunningly similar to your cat? Well, it might not knock over your unattended glass of water, but the northern saw-whet owl certainly has the same devious look on its face. Though these owls tend to stay in their home range, each fall, many slip south under the cover of darkness, following forested corridors like the Appalachian Mountains. Some travel hundreds of miles, reaching as far south as Alabama, Louisiana and even Florida for the winter. Their migration is unpredictable, and big “irruption” years send waves of owls farther than usual. Irruption means an irregular, large-scale movement outside their normal range, often triggered by food shortages. The Appalachians remain a vital pathway, offering shelter and stopover sites for these travelers.

The migration of the ruby-throated hummingbird in proportion to its tiny size is a marvel of the natural world. Many of these birds make a nonstop, 500-mile trip across the Gulf from their winter grounds in Central America to the Eastern United States where they will breed and raise young. Once here, the nectar-loving birds look for bright flowers in meadows and forest edges to give them their sugar fix, but they also need to hunt small insects to provide protein and fat to help them make their yearly trip back down south.

The brilliant red feathers of the male scarlet tanager are an exciting thing to spot in an Appalachian forest during the spring or summer. These bright colors help them attract mates during the breeding season, but they molt into more subdued tones when it’s time to migrate south to tropical rainforests in the foothills of the Andes where they spend the winter months.  While they’re here in the U.S., tanagers can often be heard and occasionally seen in Eastern forests containing oaks and other deciduous trees.

The unmistakable flute-like song of the wood thrush can be heard in deciduous forests all over the eastern U.S. in the summer. Each fall, the wood thrush leaves Appalachian forests and begins a 2,000-mile journey to Central America, venturing as far south as Costa Rica. The Appalachians play a vital role in this migration, offering mature forests where thrushes can rest and refuel on insects and berries. These same forests are critical breeding habitat in spring, making the Appalachians a lifeline for a species that has declined by more than 50% in recent decades. Listed on the IUCN Red List as Near Threatened, the wood thrush faces threats from habitat loss both in North America and its tropical wintering grounds.