Birders and other nature enthusiasts have a chance to visit the Southeast’s largest prairie ecosystem, and it is right here in Central Alabama. Alabama Audubon is hosting its third annual Black Belt Birding Festival in Greensboro on Aug. 4 and 5.
The festival will kick off that Friday, Aug. 4, with a free partner expo at Project Horseshoe Farm from 5 to 8 p.m. Project Horseshoe Farm is an area nonprofit that specializes in building community, citizenship and engagement in Greensboro and Marion. At the expo, visitors can expect live music, a food truck and tabling by some of Alabama Audubon’s partner organizations. Organizations will showcase the conservation and outreach work being done to uplift the wildlife and community of the Black Belt region.
On Saturday, Aug. 5, birdwatchers will attend morning, midday and afternoon wildlife excursions, visiting the region’s various habitats from grasslands and wetlands to forests, farmland, rivers and swamps. Dr. Scot Duncan is the executive director of Alabama Audubon. Duncan said this festival has something in store for everyone.
“This is our biggest event we do here in the Black Belt,” he said. “We invite people from all over to come and spend a day exploring with us. We’ve got all sorts of really cool, tiny expeditions. We have leaders that know these areas, know these places, know the birds and the nature. They carefully guide people through an exploration of the region. It's a fantastic event. We want people to come out and see it, whether they live 10 miles away or they live 1000 miles away.”
Some of these wildlife excursions include:
- Forever Wild Trail Area at State Cattle Ranch
Visitors will see a variety of habitats such as wetlands, grasslands and forests. Alabama Audubon considers the Forever Wild Trail area to be the best location for spotting unexpected bird species like early migrant shorebirds, ducks and terns. - Perry Lakes Park
Alabama Audubon calls Perry Lakes Park one of the most popular sites in the Black Belt. The park is a combination of bottomland forest, oxbow lakes and swampland. The site also features a restored fire tower for birder to see birds eye-to-eye. - The Joe Farm
Birders will visit the Joe family, who own and operate a multigenerational Black Angus cattle farm. The family will harvest hay, which may attract many swallow-tailed and Mississippi kites. When the hay harvest kicks up, the birds will dive after insects. - Spotting red-cockaded woodpeckers at Talladega National Forest
Birdwatchers have the change to spot the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker, which is only found in a few pockets of the area’s Longleaf Pine forests. Birders will wait near the nesting trees of the forest for woodpeckers to return to roost for the night.
Duncan said these excursions give Alabamians and other national visitors the chance to uncover the unique nature living within Hale County. In fact, he said the Black Belt is unlike any other region in the country.
“Some of the ecosystems and birds that you see in the Black Belt region are not like any other combination of plants and animals in the eastern United States or the United States period,” he said. “There are lots of bird species that are found more commonly out west, like in the Prairie States [like Kansas and Oklahoma]. You also have these wide open expanses that are very atypical of what you would normally see throughout most of Alabama... You can be at one location in the Black Belt, look to the west [and see] a pond ringed by dozens of stately herons and egrets. You can turn around and behind you [there’s] ranch land. If you look up, you might see kites and hawks."
Duncan said it is not just the combination of birds in the Black Belt that are distinctive; it is the birds themselves.
“You have grassland species such as the painted bunting, which is small finch-like bird that looks like it was colored by a kindergartener with a bucket of paint,” he said. “You've also got scissor-tailed flycatchers, which look like a mockingbird on steroids with long tails that stretch out twice as long as the body length of the bird. There are orioles and buntings and grosbeaks and all sorts of other grassland birds out here, but we also have wetland species because of catfish farms. These attract wood storks, which are a species of bird that breed on the Carolina coast and down in the Everglades.”
For visitors interested in learning and more hands-on experiences, Alabama Audubon also offers a variety of educational presentations on Aug. 5, including:
- Birds of Prey presented by the Alabama Wildlife Center
Birders will get to meet Alabama Wildlife Center staff, along with the organization’s bird ambassadors. Bird ambassadors include live owls, hawks, falcons and kites. Alabama Wildlife Center is the state’s oldest and biggest wildlife rehabilitation facility. - Keynote Address by Dr. James Lamb at the Historic Greensboro Opera House
Dr. Lamb is the Black Belt Museum’s curator of paleontology. Lamb will discuss the ancient oceans and dinosaurs that once made up the Black Belt’s prairies. Visitors will get the chance to discover how the region produced more dinosaur skeletons than any area east of the Mississippi River. - Endangered Species Tour at Barton’s Beach
Attendees will tour a world-class facility where biologists raise endangered mollusks for release into the wild. They will later visit a large sand bar and swimming hole along the Cahaba River. It is there they will meet with experts from the Cahaba River Society and learn more about river critters and conservation efforts.
Whether birders come for the nature or the knowledge, Duncan said anyone interested in learning more about the region should attend.
“They're going to learn,” he said. “They will come away with a greater appreciation of how amazing Alabama is for its biodiversity. People [also] really enjoy meeting others that are interested in nature and excited about nature and learning about nature as they are. There's a lot of friendships made at these kinds of events. You meet people that share your values and share your curiosities about the natural world.”
However, Duncan said the festival is not only about celebrating Alabama’s biodiversity; it’s about uplifting the Black Belt, which features some of the poorest communities in America.
“You’ve got people there that love their land, they love their communities [and] they don’t want to leave, but there’s not a lot of economic opportunity,” he said. “Our Black Belt Birding Initiative is trying to bring one of the solutions needed to help the Black Belt and that is to promote tourism in the region. Our goal is to help lift up the economy by celebrating the birds and the landscapes that are there. As tourists come to see these birds and these landscapes, they spend money on local hotels, restaurants [and] galleries because even bird tourists like to go and do other things than birding. That helps lift those communities immediately.”
While this festival is still one week away, registration for the partner expo and individual excursions and tours is open now. Readers interested in attending can start the registration process by visiting Alabama Audubon’s website. Registration for excursions and tours will close as they reach capacity. Registration formally closes next Monday, July 31.
