Georgia’s migratory songbirds change names, addresses for winter

Fall songbird migration is peaking now as countless numbers of songbirds head south for the winter after nesting in Georgia and other northern climes during the spring and summer.

Their destinations sound like cruise ship itineraries — Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Yucatan, Panama, Costa Rica, Peru, Venezuela.

Not only do their addresses change, but the birds also go by different names in their tropical homes during winter.

That’s because the people who live in those places have their own names for the songbirds that spend the winter — actually, our winter — with them. (When it’s winter in North America it’s summer in South America.)

Here’s a look at where some of our common Neotropical songbirds go for the winter and what they’re called when they arrive:

• Scarlet tanager, one of Georgia's most colorful summer-nesting birds with its neon red body and black wings (in males), winters in tropical forests in Panama and as far south as Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela in South America. There, the species is known as "cardenal migratorio alinegro."
• Purple martin, usually the first migrant to leave during fall migration and the first to return in spring, winters in South America from Colombia, Venezuela and the Guianas to Bolivia and southeastern Brazil. A type of swallow, the martin is known as "golondrina de iglesias" in the Spanish-speaking countries.
• Wood thrush, one of Georgia's sweetest-singing birds during spring and summer, winters in the moist tropical forests of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and south to Panama. In Mexico, the species is known as "zorzalito maculado." In Costa Rica, it is "zorzal del bosque."
• Ruby-throated hummingbird, Georgia's only summer-nesting hummingbird, winters mainly in Mexico and neighboring Central American countries. In Mexico, our tiniest bird is known as "colibri de paso." In Guatemala, it is the "chupaflor rubi."

For many of our migratory songbirds, however, all is not well on their winter grounds. Many of them are trapped for the illegal bird trade. Tropical forest destruction also is taking a heavy toll. In the Yucatan’s Tuxtla Mountains, for instance, wood thrush populations have declined by some 70 percent because of deforestation. The loss means fewer wood thrushes returning in the spring to Georgia, where they may face still other problems, including loss of forest habitat.