FLICKER FLASHES
2025 ALABAMA AUDUBON
A subtle avian transition is sweeping across Alabama ahead of spring migration and the bird breeding season. In North Alabama, flocks of juncos and kinglets are flying north to make way for warblers and vireos. Sparrows of the Black Belt are catching southerly tailwinds in the dark of night, leaving the prairies for buntings, grosbeaks, and our 2026 Bird of the Year – the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. At the coast, loons and grebes beeline for higher latitudes while Snowy Plovers scout nest locations among the shells and driftwood.
We at Alabama Audubon are also preparing for spring migration. But before I offer a sneak peek into what will be a momentous spring for Alabama Audubon, I want to thank everyone who contributed to our Annual Fund Drive or donated during our Bird of the Year Reveal Fundraiser, including individuals and event sponsors. Both efforts were tremendously successful, and we offer heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributed.
Looking ahead, we are ecstatic about our first production of the John L. Borom Alabama Coastal BirdFest April 23-26. With forty-five events –including a keynote address by birding celebrity and singer-songwritr Bonner Black – plus a roster of some of the Southeast’s best bird guides, we will showcase Alabama’s spectacular spring migration. Already over 120 people have registered and 20% of events have sold out! There is still room to join us, but don’t wait.
Spring migration happens fast, and Alabama Audubon is here to help you make the most of it. So, polish your binoculars, cameras, and spotting scopes and join us to welcome and see the millions of birds that will soon be here!
R. Scot Duncan, Executive Director
Domestic Travel Winter Trip: Reelfoot
TN & the Mississippi River with Andrew Lydeard
This past February, Scot and I traveled with twelve enthusiastic birders to the Mississippi River in Tennessee and southeastern Missouri to witness the start of waterfowl migration along the mighty Mississippi River—one of North America’s four major migratory flyways and a critical bird highway to the Midwest and central Canada. Each spring and fall, millions of birds travel this route, including more than one-third of all North American waterfowl.
Guided by Tennessee naturalist Daniel Redwine, we explored the unique ecosystems of the Mississippi Alluvial Plains—from the towering Bald Cypress at Reelfoot Lake to grasslands, wetlands, and the agricultural flats of Missouri’s Bootheel.
Highlights included 70,000+ Snow Geese, hundreds of Ross’s Geese, thousands of ducks, American Tree Sparrows, incredible looks at LeConte’s Sparrows, and an impressive 54 Bald Eagles. Despite 40 mph wind gusts, our group recorded 101 species in just three days!
Cheers, Andrew Lydeard
Over 70,000 Snow Geese spotted on our trip.
Missouri's Boutheel
BIRD OF THE YEAR 2026
Thank you board members 2025! Elise Smith, Avian Ally Award recipient.
The Bird of the Year 2026 Reveal Fundraiser was hosted at Back Forty Brewing Company on February first. This year's reveal was our most attended and record-breaking fundraiser to date! We are incredibly grateful to all of our supporters who joined us for this special evening. With 124 guests in attendance, we raised an incredible $13,000 in a single night—setting a new fundraising record for this event. It was such a joy to see everyone enthusiastically participating in the live auction of original artwork and celebrating together in support of conservation.
We were also proud to present the Avian Ally Award to Elise Smith in recognition of her dedication and meaningful contributions to bird conservation. Honoring champions like Elise reminds us that this work is powered by passionate people committed to protecting Alabama’s natural heritage.
It was truly inspiring to witness the passion Alabama has for protecting birds. Our third year was a grand success, and we are especially thankful to our presenting sponsor, Wild Birds Unlimited, possible.
BIRD OF THE YEAR 2026
The highlight of the evening was the reveal of the 2026 Bird of the Year, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, a striking Black Belt species whose nesting habitat has been critically reduced, underscoring the urgent need for conservation efforts.
Known for its dramatic forked tail (which can be longer than its body), salmon-pink sides, and graceful aerial acrobatics, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is often seen perched along fence lines and open fields, sailing out to catch insects midair. Though iconic in the Southern plains, its suitable nesting areas in Alabama's Black Belt have diminished due to habitat loss.
This year’s featured artwork was created by Val Webb, who beautifully incorporated a vintage Alabama map as the backdrop—showcasing the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher soaring across the counties of our state. The piece perfectly captured both the movement of the bird and the statewide spirit of conservation the evening represents.
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher by Greg Harber Bird of the Year 2026 by Val Webb
Black
Belt
News: $17.5
Million
dollar initiative to restore Black Belt prairies
This past November, the Alabama Soil and Water Conservation Committee alongside the Alabama Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Conservation Service —launched the Alabama Black Belt Prairie Initiative, offering grants to restore prairie habitat across the region. The program’s goal is to bring back roughly 8,000 acres of native prairie.
The Joe Farm is a great example of landowners in the region who promote best land practices for bird conservation. The Joe Farm has become a major destination for birdwatchers and a signature stop on the Black Belt Birding Festival.
With this new program and our continued partnership, Christopher Joe, a conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and part owner of the Joe Farm, says he is excited to continue his family’s efforts in order to bring back both birds and visitors reviving the land’s natural habit.
Read more about this exciting new effort to restore Alabama’s Black Belt prairies here .
Mark your calendars for July 31-August 2 for the upcoming Black Belt Birding Festival 2026, where you can see Swallow-tailed Kites in action at the Joe Farm!
BLACK BELT: WINTER BANDING
This winter was our second season of banding birds in the Black Belt. While one of our sites in Greensboro was undergoing restoration work this winter, we added a new site in Greensboro - the M. Barnett Lawley Forever Wild Field Trial Area, and continued banding at Wild Horse Prairie in Geiger. This year we banded eighty-eight birds including Swamp Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Savannah Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, and our first (and only) Henslow’s Sparrow!
The Henslow's Sparrow is officially a Yellow Alert Tipping Point species in the 2025 State of the Birds report — meaning it has lost more than half of its population in the past 50 years. These sparrows have very specific grassland habitat needs so our efforts in the Black Belt are more important than ever.
Swamp Sparrows: 64
Song Sparrows: 3
Savannah Sparrows: 17
White-throated Sparrow: 1
Henslow's Sparrow: 1
Sedge Wren: 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler: 1
We are very thankful for the partnerships and support of Hazel and Mitchell Bell, Elise Smith, and M. Barnett Lawley Forever Wild Field Trial Area.
MoSI: WINTER BANDING
Our coastal team has also been working on a songbird banding project this winter. We officially started our first winter of MoSI banding (Monitoreo de Sobrevivencia Invernal or Monitoring Overwintering Survival). MoSI is an international, collaborative effort to monitor populations of ne otropical migrants.
The banding occurs across three consecutive days during each month of November through March. We still have one month left, but to date our team has banded 450 birds.
The most common species is Yellow-rumped Warbler, but we also banded Blue-headed Vireos, White-eyed Vireos, Palm Warblers, Pine Warblers, Chipping Sparrows, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Hermit Thrush, and Gray Catbirds, among others.
Thank you to the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and Gulf State Park for collaborating with our MoSI banding. conducted under a federally authorized bird banding permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey's Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL).
Captured birds wait in fabric bags to be weighed, measured, and banded.
Blue-headed Vireo
Coastal News: Alabama Coastal BirdFest
April 23-26, 2026
The John L. Borom Alabama Coastal BirdFest is shaping up to be an incredible celebration of birds and the Alabama coast! With more than forty-four events on the schedule—and several already selling out— this year’s festival is one you won’t want to miss.
From expert-guided field trips and workshops to boat tours across the coast, there’s something for every level of birder.
On April 23, we’ll kick things off with a Welcome Dinner and Keynote Address by Bonner Black—a talented singer-songwriter and established birder whose music and love of the outdoors beautifully complement the spirit of festival.
Events are filling quickly, so be sure to register soon and join us for an unforgettable weekend on the coast!
Click here to start planning your adventure.
OkPloverfest 2025!
More than fifty adults and kids stopped by to take the Plover Pledge— learning how to help protect nesting birds and discovering more about Alabama’s incredible shorebirds.
Guests also had the chance to hand-print T-shirts featuring the different plover species that call Alabama’s coastline home, making for a fun and creative way to celebrate coastal conservation.
A big thank you to Braided River Brewing Company for being such an amazing host and supporting bird conservation along our coast!
Alabama State Record Broken by Mason Currier and Andrew Lydeard
This year, Alabama Audubon’s Program Coordinator Andrew Lydeard embarked on an ambitious “Big Year” to showcase the state’s incredible bird diversity. Teaming up with birder Mason Currier, the two spent the year crisscrossing Alabama—often with help from the state’s passionate birding community—to track down rare and unexpected species.
Andrew and Mason shattered the previous Alabama record of 334 species (set in 2012), recording remarkable birds like the state’s first-ever Thick-billed Longspur and tracking down rarities from Harris’s Sparrow to American Goshawk. By August 2025, they had officially broken the record on the same day, fittingly during a pelagic (open sea) trip to the Continental Shelf.
MISSION
Active since 1927, and formally established in 1946, ALABAMA AUDUBON'S mission has always been to promote conservation and a greater knowledge of birds, their habitats, and the natural world
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Through nearly eighty years of conservation work in one of our nation’s most biologically rich states, ALABAMA AUDUBON has seen firsthand how biodiversity strengthens natural communities. This same principle applies to human communities, which is why our organization is committed to providing opportunities for all Alabamians to learn about and enjoy wild birds, their habitats, and the natural world. To that end, we invite everyone to participate in our work, as we strive to make our programs, classes, and events open and welcoming to all. Working together we can save the birds we love and the nature we need.
EACH TAG ISSUED, WE RECEIVE $41.25 Every time you drive down the road, you will be supporting our mission to promote bird conservation and nature education across Alabama. alaudubon.org/ alabama-audubon-car-tag
Black-crowned Night Heron // Andrew Lydeard
Alabama Audubon publishes Flicker Flashes seasonally.
STAFF
R. Scot Duncan, PhD Executive Director
Lianne Koczur, PhD Science & Conservation Director
Ellen Killough Development Director
Keith A. Wolfe-Hughes Financial & Administrative Director
Andrew Lydeard Program Coordinator
Allison Ciamarra Communication Coordinator
Tim Higgins Black Belt Coordinator
Cortney Weatherby Coastal Outreach Manager
Olivia Morpeth
Sam Fishman Coastal Biologist Coastal Biologist
OFFICERS
Lois Woodward
Board Chair
Matt Hunter Vice-chair
Lori Oswald Treasurer
Winston Lancaster Conservation & Science Chair
Marj Young Field Trip Committee Chair
Heather McCalley Secretary and Development & Membership Chair
DIRECTORS-AT-LARGE
Maggie Amsler
Derek Conrad Brown
Jonah Cohen
Barry Fleming
Greg Harber
Annette Kinderman
Cliff Martin
Jacqueline Gray Miller
Linda Neighbors
Joe Watts
Michelle Wooten
ALABAMA AUDUBON P.O. Box 130819 Birmingham, AL 35213
Contributors: R. Scot Duncan, Tim Higgins, Lianne Koczur, Andrew Lydeard, Cortney Weatherby, Keith A. Wolfe-Hughes
Design: Allison Ciamarra, Communication Coordinator