By rssfeeds-admin 
Kansas may be considered a flyover state for some people and birds that pass over as they complete their travels across the nation. However, for the many thousands of birds that winter in Kansas, the Sunflower State is more or less a home away from home.
27 News got in touch with experts with the University of Kansas (KU) Biodiversity Institute and the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) to help explain just how many birds will be flying over the Sunflower State this fall. The annual flight paths of millions of birds journeying along the major flyways has a big impact, even if many people might take no notice of the feathered travelers overhead.
Lucas DeCicco with the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute said Kansas gets a lot of avian traffic each year during the fall season as the state sits inside two major “superhighways” birds travel along when they migrate. These are the Central Flyway, which covers the majority of the state, and the Mississippi Flyway that impacts the eastern part of Kansas.
“Eastern Kansas is actually really good for migration,” DeCicco said. “Lots of warblers, sparrows, woodpeckers, flycatchers earlier on… and earlier on really pretty good numbers of shorebirds.”
DeCicco said one of the most impressive fall migrations people can catch sight of happens at Clinton Lake near Lawrence. He said hundreds of thousands of Franklin’s gulls will roost at the lake at night and visit nearby fields, offering local birdwatchers a rare viewing opportunity.
“That’s probably one of the most spectacular fall migration spectacles in eastern Kansas,” DeCicco said. “Last week of September through October.”
Mike Rader with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) said the full list of birds that migrate through the state is quite extensive, consisting of both common visitors and more rarely seen species. While some migrants, like red-winged blackbirds, hummingbirds and sandhill cranes, number in the millions, other travelers are considered rarer as they are classified as threatened or endangered.
“Some of the rarer migrants through the state include whooping cranes, which use the marshes of the central part of the state to stop and fuel up for a continuation to their wintering grounds in Texas,” Rader said. “We get some rare shorebirds such as snowy and piping plovers, red knot and some vagrant species that show up.”
DeCicco said that hotspots for migrating birds include some of Kansas’ famous wetlands areas like Cheyenne Bottoms, Baker Wetlands and Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. He said people can keep up with the latest migration information and find out what birds are visiting different parts of the state through resources like eBird.
“Checking eBird is probably the best way to see what’s been seen where,” DeCicco said. “You can search by species you’re interested in or hotspots.”
Online resources like eBird come courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology which also maintains similar sites like the Merlin Bird ID app and BirdCast. Rader said websites like BirdCast make forecasts of how many birds are expected to visit certain areas and states during migration seasons.
“According to BirdCast, with Cornell University, the number of migrants through Kansas is into the tens of millions, with some estimates approaching 700-800 million for the season,” Rader said.
Rader recommends using the above resources to keep tabs on the birds involved in the fall migration and locate hotspots nearby. He also said birdwatchers should try to spend as much time as they can outdoors to catch sight of the birds and invest in a quality pair of binoculars.
“Many species of birds can show up in neighborhood parks, wildlife refuges and other public areas, at the numerous reservoirs in the state, the large marshes in the central parts of Kansas and even in your own backyard,” Rader said. “Bird at a pace that is comfortable for you, especially if you are still trying to learn. Birds in fall are usually the most difficult to identify as adult birds lose much of the brighter, breeding plumage and birds hatched this year will not be as easily recognizable until they reach adulthood in subsequent years. Be patient and careful when you are trying to identify different or unfamiliar species.”
Rader said the fall season brings more birds to the state than any other time of the year. These visitors take advantage of the natural resources present in the Sunflower State, feeding on insects, seeds and leftover grain.
“Quality habitat is also a must for them to be able to survive, so a healthy environment is essential for birds to be able to carry on migration and be successful in the return trip in spring,” Rader said.
BirdCast reports that peak fall migration season in Kansas will arrive in mid-September and last into October. The full list of peak migration dates in different cities across Kansas can be found below:
- Sept. 18 to Oct. 14.
- Manhattan
- Topeka
- Salina
- Sept. 18 to Oct. 18.
- Wichita
- Hutchinson
- Sept. 25 to Oct. 27.
- Overland Park
- Kansas City, Kansas
- Shawnee
“Birding is a rewarding and fun hobby, as birds are some of the most accessible things a wildlife watcher can observe,” Rader said. “They are abundant, although populations of many species are on the decline due to habitat loss in all aspects of their lives, changes in climate and other issues such as vehicle, powerline and building collisions, predation by cats and natural predators and numerous human factors. Whether you are a beginner or an avid birder, the migration of birds through our state is one of the wonders of nature, so go out and enjoy it.”
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