This Issue is for the Birds! (And Cats)

(Photo of the Day: Roland Penttila)

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A Field Guide to the Common Birds of Nob Hill

With insights from Gail Garber, the executive director of local conservation nonprofit, Hawks Aloft

By Maggie Grimason

As I water my roses, a male black-chinned hummingbird flits through my periphery, hovering long enough for me to identify him by his namesake—a black head, with showy, iridescent feathers on his throat. Just half an hour before, as I walked my dog, a greater roadrunner with an injured leg scurried across Solano Drive on its way to breakfast; I noticed a house on the west side of the street that leaves out mealworms for it. Many other bird species accompany us on any given day spent in Nob Hill. The neighborhood’s urban trees and well-kept gardens support a year-round population of urban birds, as well as some seasonal visitors.

“I appreciate all birds,” says Gail Garber, executive director of local avian research, education, and rehabilitation nonprofit, Hawks Aloft. “Even the house sparrows. I respect the pigeons who feed in my backyard. … I enjoy watching all the birds—they’re all so very different.”

Garber helped to found Hawks Aloft back in 1994 after falling in love with a permanently injured red-tailed hawk. Over the last 30 years, the organization has expanded, conducting surveys on endangered species in New Mexico, such as the southwestern willow flycatcher and the Mexican spotted owl, as well as our unthreatened populations. The organization delivers education programs across the state and rehabilitates injured raptors, roadrunners and corvids, running the 24/7 Raptor Rescue Hotline.

Garber is an expert on birds of all stripes and feathers. For newcomers to birding, she suggests getting familiar with the more common birds in their neighborhood and using apps like Merlin Bird ID from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to facilitate the process. Also, she suggests that you “put out water in your yard and change it often,” to attract more birds to watch into your own habitat. As we get deeper into the hot summer months, “that’s the thing birds need most,” she says, noting that as we spoke, a male house sparrow was visiting her birdbath for a drink.

Year-Round Residents

American Robin

A common sight across all of North America, robins are one of the most easily recognizable birds in Nob Hill. The phrase, “the early bird gets the worm,” corresponds directly to these iconic members of the thrush family, since you can often spot them in grassy areas like UNM’s Johnson Field pulling up worms in the early hours of the day. Robins are highly adaptable and are just as at home at higher elevations in the Sandias as they are in Albuquerque’s most urban areas.

American Robin (Image via Wikimedia Commons)