BIRDING SITES
01. Willamette Heights
02. Dorris Ranch
03. Jasper Pond
04. Clearwater Park
05. Volunteer Park
06. Wyatt Meadows
07. Jasper Meadows
08. Walterville Pond
09. Bob Artz Park
10. Wallace Ruff Park
11. Lively Park
12. EWEB Bike Path
13. Harvest Landing
14. Corporate Way
15. Guy Lee Park
16. By-Gully Path
17. Kelly Butte
18. Eastgate
19. West D Greenway
20. Island Park
21. Millrace Park

 

 

Photo Credits

Unless otherwise noted, all bird photographs courtesy of Greg Gillson thebirdguide.com.

 

 

Springfield Community Birding Trail

 

At right: Great Blue Heron

Our birding trail consists of 21 locations in Springfield where you can find and observe birds. Most of these sites are found in Willamalane parks.

 

In some locations, birds can be observed from a parking area. In others, you will want to go on a short walk to observe the local birds. Several locations have more extensive path systems or open spaces that you can explore. In many of these areas, you might see other wildlife. These are typically quiet places to simply walk and relax, also.

 

 

WAYS TO NAVIGATE THE BIRDING TRAIL PAGES

Download a bigger version of the map.

Go to the first site in the trail, Willamette Heights Park.

Click a link at the left to go to a particular trail page.

Click an area of the map above to go directly to a trail page.

Prefer to download all the site descriptions in one document to take with you? Click here.

 

Habitat You Will Find In Each Park

Most birds have fairly specific habitat preferences including where they will raise their young and what kind of food they will eat. Explore this Web site to learn a little more about existing habitat at these 21 sites.

Download information telling where to find a variety of habitat types.

 

Birding Ethics

While observing birds or other wildlife, it is important to refrain from any harm to the wildlife, the environment or to good relationships with surrounding neighbors.

Please download, read and follow the American Birding Association Code of Birding Ethics.

 

Spring Birding Big Day

A birding big day is the attempt to see as many birds as one can within a 24-hour period.

At right: Spotted Towhee

Birders often do a big day within a particular state, driving many hours to carefully chosen sites and recording all the birds they can identify by sight or sound in that 24-hour period of time. The birding big day concept could also be modified to be less intense. One could bird throughout the spring season, visiting a few parks each weekend. The “Big Day” list would then be a list of birds seen over the period of a month or more.

Download this sample of a birding big day list.

 

Six Tips for Birding

Walking in the park, listening to birds singing and watching them flit from branch to branch can be very enjoyable. The Birding Trail locations listed on this Web site provide some ideas of where you can do that.

 

If you are interested in trying to identify the birds you are seeing, here are a few tips.

 

1. A pair of binoculars makes it much easier to see the birds you want to identify.

At right: Red-breasted Nuthatch

With binoculars, you get what you pay for. The less expensive binoculars have lower quality optics. More expensive binoculars are usually going to provide a much clearer view of the bird and make identification easier. Once you have your binoculars, be patient with yourself as you learn to use them. As with any skill, practice will make it easier to find and follow the movements of a bird in the binoculars.

 

2. You will need a field guide to identify birds.

At right: Bewick's Wren

In addition to drawings or photos and descriptions of each species, field guides will include information about the habitat the bird typically uses. A field guide will provide the information that helps identify each species as well as suggesting where to look for each species. There are currently a number of good field guides. Look at several and see which one feels most comfortable to use.

 

For your first field guide, you may find that "Birds of Oregon" by Burrows & Gilligan is relatively simple. For a larger regional perspective, "Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America" by Sibley may meet your needs. For more detailed information about identification, "Sibley Guide to Birds" by Sibley provides great detail about different plumages of male, female, juvenile, summer, and winter birds.

 

3. Birds of any species vary in how they look.

At right: Downy Woodpecker

Not only are there minor genetic variations from one bird to the next, the males often look different from females. In winter, many birds look different than they do in summer. Juveniles can look very different from adults of the same species.

 

Field guides usually won’t provide illustrations of every possible plumage variation. Color can also be deceptive at different times of the day and with different positions of the sun in relation to the bird and the observer. Be prepared to simply enjoy some of the birds that you can’t identify.

 

4. Know when to go birding.

At right: American Goldfinch

Time of year as well as time of day make a great difference in what you will see when you go out to observe birds. Unfortunately, birds are early risers. One of the best times to see a lot of birds is from dawn to about 10 a.m. You may be out at other times of day and see many birds but in the afternoon, you should expect to see substantially less than are seen in the early morning.

 

Many birds migrate and are found here only in the summer or only in the winter months. A field guide or local birding checklist can help sort out when certain birds will be found here. A number of birds live here all year. Checklists or field guides will refer to these as residents.

 

Nesting and raising families takes place in the spring and summer. Juvenile birds will be visible during the summer months. Birdsong is usually associated with breeding activities. If you wish to enjoy birds singing, the spring and early summer months are best. Singing tends to be done by many birds in that magic window between dawn and 10 a.m. In fact, many birds sing their most beautiful and bountiful songs in the moments just as the day dawns.

 

5. Understand how birds use their habitat.

At right: Black-capped Chickadee

Each species of bird is going to tend to have particular ways in which they use their habitat. Birds may associate with particular species of trees such as oaks or pines. Birds may tend to nest in particular vegetation and at particular heights above the ground.

 

A Song Sparrow is likely to nest very low to the ground in dense shrubs or on the ground beneath a tuft of grass. A House Wren is usually going to nest in a tree cavity. A Winter Wren is going to typically live in conifer forests with dense, low shrubs. A Marsh Wren is usually going to be found in marshes with dense reeds or cattails and build a nest that looks like a ball attached to the reeds. A Brown Creeper is going to feed on insects it finds in the crevices of bark. It is going to fly to the bottom of a tree and move up the trunk looking for insects. It will then fly down to the bottom of another tree and start all over again.

 

Understanding a bit about the specific habitat a bird is going to use for feeding and nesting will help you locate birds and will increase the pleasure of knowing what you are observing.

 

6. Refer to a local birding checklist.

At right: Swainson's Thrush

Once you have tentatively identified a bird, see if that bird is listed on local checklists of birds that are seen here. If you don’t find the bird listed, double-check your identification. Although it is certainly possible to find a bird that isn’t usually seen in this area, you will usually find that when you double-check the characteristics used for identification, the tentative identification was incorrect.

 

Four of the birding checklists listed below are from locations in the Eugene/Springfield area that have habitat similar to that found at many Willamalane Birding Trail sites. The Official Checklist of Oregon Birds lists birds that can be found throughout Oregon.

 

DOWNLOAD A CHECKLIST

Birds of Mount Pisgah Arboretum | Mt. Pisgah includes a wide variety of habitats including riparian, oak, conifer, upland prairie, and wetlands. This checklist provides information about both seasonal presence and habitat association. Provided courtesy of Mt. Pisgah Arboretum.

 

Fern Ridge Bird Checklist | The area covered by this checklist includes a wide variety of habitats. One of the best things about this checklist is the seasonal abundance listing for each species. Provided courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Daniel Farrar and Noah Strycker, editors. Based on 1985 Fern Ridge Bird Checklist by Matt Hunter and Steve Heinl.

 

Skinner Butte Checklist | The area covered by this checklist is most similar to the habitat found at Willamette Heights. It provides information about seasonal presence. Provided courtesy of Davy Wendt.

 

West Eugene Bird Checklist | This is another checklist that applies to habitat in many areas in the local region. It also provides seasonal presence information. Provided courtesy of City of Eugene Parks and Open Space Division.

 

Official Checklist of Oregon Birds | This checklist is useful anywhere in Oregon, but doesn’t provide any habitat or seasonal presence information. Provided courtesy of oregonbirds.org

 

Other Online Resources

Oregon Birders On Line | Subscribers post email messages about birds observed throughout the state.

 

Oregon Field Ornithologists | A statewide organization of birders. This site provides many links including links to the "Oregon Breeding Bird Atlas" and links for youth birders.

 

The Bird Guide | This site contains many links to Oregon, Washington, and California information. There is a nice photo album, a number of site guides and information on pelagic birding tours.

 

Funding for Web page development was provided through a Lane County Tourism Special Projects Grant.

 

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